Free Hypercage: Instant Reality Prequel One by Craig Lea Gordon

R ed warning lights flared in the darkness of the cockpit as a robotic female voice barked through the silence, “Lock On. Lock On.”
    Hundreds of different icons filled the scanner as the battle raged around him. Laser fire and missiles criss-crossed in the distance as the two capital ships started to close ranks. The hulking red shard of death that was the enemy Dreadnought closed off their exit, and the asteroid field hemmed in the Ticonderoga, leaving it with nowhere left to run. A swarm of starfighters spewed forth from the bellies of the ships, joining the horde of gunships and corvettes fighting to protect their capital ship. He closely monitored the scanners for distance, the enemies’ particle lance was almost within weapons range. They didn’t have much time. He had to get his payload delivered. It was their only chance.
    The flashing red icons on his scanner showed that two ships were right behind him, locking on to his heat signature. Pterax, so focused on his bombing run, hadn’t seen them drop in behind him as he skimmed underneath the asteroid belt, trying to get to his target by avoiding the chaos of space above. He’d hoped his approach would have gone unnoticed, a lone ship lost amidst the pandemonium. They must have dived through the bottom of the asteroid belt to give chase, as he, sensing their weakness, passed underneath the enemy carrier.
    Pterax blink-clicked at both targets on the scanner, and 3D schematics of the chasing ships appeared on his HUD.
    Dammit. Mozzies. No way could he outrun them in his torpedo boat. He had to take them out.
    The chasing craft launched a full salvo of tomcat missiles. His scanner showed the white dots racing away from the enemy ships as they homed in on his heat signature. He didn’t have any decoy flares left to counter the incoming hardware. It had taken everything he had just to weave his way through the carnage above and get this far. Pterax yanked hard on the stick and diverted all the shield and laser energy to the engines. Flames erupted from the five-engine array, shoving him into the back of the chair, propelling him towards the bottom layer of the asteroid cluster as he tried desperately to evade the incoming ordnance.
    He scanned the approaching hunks of rock, and picking out the most suitable one, aimed straight for it. Matching his thoughts, a rear camera view snapped into view on his HUD, showing the missiles spread out in a cluster behind him. They were getting so close he could make out the tips of the warheads. He cut the power from one of the engines and, with a twist of the flight stick, set the torpedo boat into a roll. The off-centre heat signature caused the cluster of warheads to tighten. He reignited engine four and fired the afterburners. The asteroid filled his entire view as he rapidly closed in on it. He primed a sun crusher and waited until the last second. With a squeeze of the trigger, the torpedo slammed forward. A camera feed slid into his HUD, and he guided the sun crusher torpedo into the deep fissure running across the centre of the asteroid. As soon as it disappeared into the crack, he detonated the weapon. The explosion ripped the asteroid open, the blast wave shooting the debris in every direction. He dove through the dissipating explosion where the centre of the asteroid used to be. The tightened cluster of missiles were assaulted by the rushing slabs of rock, either knocked off course to detonate other lumps of asteroid or exploding immediately on contact. Once he’d steered the ship through the epicentre of the blast, Pterax slammed on the anchors, the nozzles at the front of the craft firing immediately to reduce its velocity to zero. He pitched the missile boat around, spinning in a neat 180 degrees to face towards the oncoming enemy ships.
    Slamming all power to the engines once more and firing the afterburners, the missile boat roared through the explosions from the neutralised missiles. He initiated the targeting