CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

The weapons station commander nodded. “Aye, sir. It wouldn‟t be as accurate as our
own systems just because of integration, but we‟d be in a ballpark.”
“Margin of error?”
“Too hard to say. Close enough to rattle them.”
Ainsley smiled. “Good enough. Captain Roderick, tell Roberts to keep her distance –
let her throttle back and bring it in slowly. Keep her out of Reverence‟s engagement zone for
two minutes.”
Roderick nodded. “Yessir.”
Ainsley looked at the board. “Weapons – load Mark 98‟s in batteries one and two and
rout targeting information from SEWACS. No charge on the warheads, electromagnetic
detonation only.”
“Aye. EM-Charge only. Target?”
“Alliance fighter groups. Nothing specific.”
Banick frowned, and leaned over to whisper in Ainsley‟s ear. “Admiral... what are you
doing?”
“Little trick you reminded me of, Captain. Tactical?”
“Batteries loaded, sir.”
Ainsley nodded. “Batteries one and two, all tubes: Fire.”
Commonwealth‟s bow momentarily erupted in fire as a dozen torpedoes rippled in to
the sea, the howling banshee-screams echoing as they accelerated away from the cruiser,
and then disappeared in to the black.
“Admiral, SEWACS reports fighter intercept in one minute and forty seconds,”
Roderick reported.
“Torpedo impact?” Ainsley countered.
Weapons turned. “One minute, twenty six.”
“That‟s cutting it fine,” Richards muttered to himself.
Roderick smiled. “He knows what he‟s doing.”
“Inbound: friendly torpedoes from bearing zero-two-nine, range ten miles at six-zerozero
knots,” Roulette reported.
Roberts checked her displays and felt her heart rate jump, a dozen markers, moving
so fast that there was nothing the Raptors could do to avoid them... if they had been the
targets, of course. Roberts couldn‟t see the missiles through the black as they shot by, but
she heard their passage – the shriek of their rocket engines a telling hallmark. Her sonar
pinged away rapidly with each torpedo return. Once the torpedoes had passed her
formation, she pressed her throttles up again.
“All fighters, this is Piper. Form up by flights and take out their stealth fighters as
soon as you‟ve reached the engagement zone.”
Roberts frowned. It was Richards‟ voice. “Negative, Piper. No contact with stealth
fighters at this time.”
“Just do it, Sword-Leader.”
She gritted her teeth as the fighter banked around, and she caught the first flashes of
the subfighter battle ahead of her. Below, a dark, receding shadow silently slipped away in to
the deep. It was the Reverence.
Roulette‟s voice followed a few moments later. “Torpedo impact in five... four...
three... two... one...”
To Roberts, it appeared as though nothing had happened as the Commonwealth‟s
torpedoes rapidly disappeared from her sensors one at a time. A second later, and two
dozen other contacts appeared – all of them hostile. The IFF return identified them as SA-
35s... Shadowfire stealth fighters.
“Impact,” reported the SEWACS calmly. “Killzone is clear. Sword and Halo flights,
you are cleared to engage.”
Roberts grinned broadly beneath her mask as she realised what Commonwealth had
just done. She started to laugh. “Understood, Sword – follow my lead. Halo – follow Bouncer
and try and get those Broadswords off the Reverence. Bring the rain!”
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