Free Queen of the Pirates by Blaze Ward Page A

missiles would come along soon enough.
    Jouster took charge as the rest of the Flight Wing launched. A Strike Carrier like Auberon was supposed to have three wings of fighters. On every other vessel in her class, that was nine identical fighters, usually M–5’s or M–6’s. Auberon was special.
    Instead of three full wings, she only had two, so six Harpoons . Instead of the third wing, she had two big S–11 Orca –class fighter–bombers and da Vinci in her little scout. They had less dog–fighting capability than an Imperial squadron, which was normally twelve fighters, but far greater overall firepower when the Orcas opened up.
    To top all that off, someone, somewhere along the way, had removed the three administrative shuttles that the ship was originally issued and replaced them with a GunShip and a DropShip. Nose–on, the Flight had enough firepower to take on a heavy cruiser.
    Today, they lined up in what Jouster called a Scorpion formation. His wing on the left, three fighters stacked up and back like stairs, with his second in command, Southbound, and her two wingmates on the right. In the middle, the GunShip Necromancer , flanked by the two Orcas , with da Vinci over the top keeping watch.
    It was finally time to fly. No more briefings. No more simulators. It had been seven months since the last time he had flown into combat, against the Imperial Battleship Amsel at Qui–Ping . He was ready. His team was ready. Even the newbie, fresh out of flight school, was ready.
    They had been very lucky during the last campaign. The only casualty had been Gustav Papp, Ironside . Considering what they had done, and the odds, a lesser wing wouldn’t have held up so well. And the new kid, Hànchén , aka Flight Coronet Murali Ma, seemed to be fitting in with Southbound and Bitter Kitten .. Still wet behind the ears, but a serious student of military history. Today, he was very likely to discover military history first hand.
    Time to act like a commander.
    “ Da Vinci , this is Jouster ,” he said as the fighters all settled into place, “what’s the enemy status?”
    “Zero encryption, Jouster ,” Ainsley Barrett, da Vinci , replied quickly, “but some seriously strange code words going back and forth. And not nearly enough panic in their voices to suit me.”
    “Roger that,” he said.
    Pirates were always expecting the law to show up. When it did, they would fight like cornered rats. It was his job to be the weasel. Behind and above him, the hunters.
    “Flag, this is Jouster ,” he said, keying the message to Commander Keller and her staff. “Flight wing is ready to make our run.”
    “Confirmed, Jouster ,” he heard Keller reply immediately. “Assume we did not surprise them as much as we hope and that they will start shooting as soon as you come over the horizon. Stand by to redline your engines for the final approach. Missile impact is set to time–on–target in thirty seconds.”
    Milos smiled. Standard Republic tactics called for them to come in low on the horizon, fast, but slow enough to maneuver. Bad guys over there would be ready to fire as soon they came into sight, guided by passive scanners using directed beam communication to relay telemetry data.
    Right now, two stealth missiles were sneaking in ahead of the wing. One was aimed right at a big cluster of towers on Gamma ’s moon. Another had been fired blind at the back–side of Alpha , set to home in on anything broadcasting. Since there were no friendlies and no civilians around here, any loud signal was probably another sensor base, trying to hide.
    “Flight wing, this is Jouster ,” he said as the countdown clock reached fifteen seconds. “Redline everything now. Go go go!”
    He put words to deeds and slammed the throttle forward to the last stop. The surge of power drove him backwards into the seat in an embrace he found almost carnal. Over there, everything should be blue–shifting something fierce as they picked up his jump in