While the battle for Az'reel raged down on the planet's surface, the battle for space superiority was just heating up. On the bridge of the Nebula class USS Sutherland, alert klaxons were filling the air, officers were switching their consoles over to red-alert mode, and emergency crewpeople were scrambling out of the turbolifts, running to get to get to their emergency stations. Above the din, adrenaline-fueled voices snapped status reports at each other, readying the great ship for combat. In the center of this whirlwind of activity, yet remaining above it and in control, sat the captain in his command seat.
He sat listening to his crew work, to the sensor reports from Tactical, and when he'd gathered enough data to come to a decision he ordered, "Mr. Henderson, give me a schematic display on the main viewer."
"Aye, sir." Immediately, the large forward screen dissolved into a two-dimensional map of the local area superimposed on a square grid. A large circle in the center represented the planet Az'reel, and the small yellow dot circling it was the orbiting Sutherland. From the left edge of the screen, three large blinking red dots appeared now, and from the right side, a swarm of smaller ones. It was immediately clear that all were heading straight for the Sutherland. From his station behind the captain, Henderson confirmed that. "Three Mulluran warships bearing 352; several dozen small craft bearing 147, sir; all in the equatorial plane," he reported.
"We need maneuvering room," muttered the captain. He stood up from his chair and tugged on his shirt front to straighten it. His course of action was clear to him. In a crisp tone he ordered, "Lieutenant Henderson, launch the Banshees. Helm, break orbit. Full impulse."
Inside the huge hangar pod above the primary hull of the Sutherland, technicians scrambled to get out of the way as five sleek, winged forms rose on repulsors and floated toward the opening bay doors. One by one they were flung free of their massive metal cocoon, and when the last was out, the Sutherland sped away leaving them all alone in the dark.
The comm circuit crackled to life and Lee Carter's voice spoke into the headsets of her team. "All right, listen up. While the Sutherland intercepts and deals with the Mulluran warships, our job is to keep all small craft away from the planet and keep the skies clear for our ground forces. Jo, upload the coordinates for the approaching enemy fighters to the rest of us -- great. All right. Let's go!"
The five planes grouped up, their fusion stacks lit, and they shot off at 15 gees toward their quarry.
Mere minutes later, the enemy showed up on their scopes. Max read off the data being flashed across her HUD and reported across the comm. "I count forty small fighters, ten each flying cover for four larger ships. They look like troop transports or munitions delivery ships."
"Forty?" exclaimed Jo. "Only forty?!? What say the rest of us go home and let Max have a little fun."
That got a little laugh from Kim, but Carter's irritated voice cut her off. She had no tolerance at the moment for Jo's frivolity. "Cut the chatter," she snapped. "Kim, you're with me. Jo's with Sam. Max, you're on your own as usual. We take out the fighter cover for the nearest two transports. Then we go after the next two groups of fighters. Once that's done, then we take out the transports if we have to. If we're lucky, they'll bug out once their cover vaporizes."
With those orders in mind, Carter and Kim sped off towards the nearest group of fighters, Jo and Sam angled towards the next, while Max flashed off on a wide looping vector that would bring her in behind the enemy. The Mulluran fighters stayed close to the transports, not letting the approaching Banshees lure them away from the ships they were assigned to protect. It wasn't until the Banshees were almost within weapons range that the Mullurans broke formation and took up a defensive stance.
Green streamers of energy lit the space between the Mulluran fighters and the Banshees, some of them splashing off the Banshees' metaphasic shields. The Banshees began weaving erratically around the green streamers, then replied with staccato bursts of orange fire of their own. Many of the phaser pulses connected with the enemy fighters. The intense, rapid-fire energy overwhelmed their shields and reached the hulls. After just the first pass, a total of seven Mulluran fighters were already nothing more than rapidly expanding clouds of plasma and wreckage.
A full dozen detached now from the transports and went after the Banshee fighters. Green energy once again bridged the distance between them and their prey, but again simply washed harmlessly off the shields. Meanwhile, Max had come up undetected behind the pursuing Mullurans, and she opened up with her own phasers now. In rapid sequence, five more Mullurans joined their already-destroyed companions in oblivion. The other seven tried to turn and head away from the unseen bringer-of-death behind them, but to no avail.
Max's lone Banshee flashed back and forth across the sky in a wild zigzag pattern almost too quickly for the eye to follow, and wherever she went, death blossomed moments later engulfing another Mulluran fighter. By that time though, she was long gone, already lining up the next target in her sights.
"Told you so," said Jo.
Leaving Max to her fun, the other four Banshees turned back toward the transports and the remaining fighters. They were getting uncomfortably close to the planet by now, so speed was of the essence. Lee's voice came back on the comm. "Switch to quantum cannons. Take out those transports before they enter the atmosphere or else our job is gonna get a lot harder. We can mop up the fighters later."
The four Banshees spread apart, each heading for a different transport. Their wingtips glowed, and at optimal firing distance, four pairs of crackling quantum orbs lobbed toward their targets. The banshees arced away so as not to get caught in the backblast. The quantum pulses flew straight and true; the transports could be seem beginning to turn sluggishly in a vain effort to evade the attack, but they didn't have a chance.
Suddenly though, Mulluran fighters swooped in and intercepted the quantum pulses one by one by physically colliding with them! Every one of the fighters was instantly vaporized by the released energy, but the transports were saved, and continued their descent towards the atmosphere.
Carter was stunned almost speechless. "I... I... don't believe it!" she managed to stammer. "They deliberately flew into our fire!" It took her a moment to gather her wits about her, then she ordered, "Switch back to phasers. We'll do this the old-fashioned way. Max, keep those fighters off us."
"No prob," came back Max's terse, steely reply. Immediately, space was lit up around them by Max's phaser blasts, exploding Mulluran fighters, and a paltry few green answering shots. Carter, Sam, Jo and Kim were free to concentrate on the transports.
Phasers leaped from the Banshees toward the transports, but were stopped a short distance from each.
"They've got extra shielding!" exclaimed Kim.
"Keep firing," ordered Carter. "Get in as close as you can. These are just transports, they won't be shooting back."
The Banshees closed the distance. The four transports continued their ineffectual turning maneuvers, but they were no match for the small fighter craft. The Banshees swept in for another strike. By this time, Max had finished with her fun and had rejoined the others. She hadn't bled off all the excess speed she'd built up dogfighting yet, so she wound up flying out ahead of the others.
She had the nearest transport lined up in her sights and was just about to press the firing stud on her joystick when the transport stopped its slow, wallowing turn. Instead, it pivoted smartly, presenting its broadsides to Max, and a large port slid open. Her esper sense was screaming danger, and a split second after she slammed her joystick to the side making her fighter spin wildly away, a blinding white beam of energy bisected the space she had just vacated.
She began hollering into the comm to her comrades, "Evade! Evade! Those things are armed to the teeth!" but it was already too late. The first shot from the mega-cannon had missed her, but it had passed on and struck Sam's fighter a glancing blow. Passing through the shields like they weren't even there, the beam touched the tip of the fighter's left wing. Even that grazing shot from the cannon was more than enough to send Sam's fighter spinning out of control and down towards the atmosphere.
Sam's voice crackled over the comm. Atmospheric interference was beginning to break up the transmission. "...trying to get control... ship. ...think I... land..."
"Sam!" shouted Jo. She banked her own fighter to go after Sam's falling ship. If she could get a tractor lock on it, she might be able to pull it back up into a stable orbit, or at least keep it from crashing too hard on the surface. Heedless of the danger, she gunned the engine and raced off in pursuit.
"Schmidt! Get back here!" shouted Carter. "Sam can handle it!" But it was no use. Only static answered her commands. Both Sam and Jo would be out of communication until they finished their reentry. "Damn her!" swore Carter darkly. Quickly though, she returned her attention to the transports. They had to take them out now! If the Mullurans succeeded in getting those mega-cannons to their troops on the ground, the Federation and G'kar troops in the city were doomed.
On the surface of Az'reel, two winged forms lay at the end of a long furrow in the soft earth. One was tipped halfway onto it's left side, where a gash in the wing sparked and sputtered fitfully in a tangle of burnt machinery and twisted conduits. A thin column of smoke issued from its engine exhausts, but was quickly dispersed on the wind. The second winged form was leaning forward, its nose partially burrowed into the dirt.
Dark of night and a heavy overcast had obscured all but the very end of their descent to the planet, so it was unsure whether or not the enemy knew they were here. Which could spell the difference between life and death -- assuming anyone was still alive -- because the two winged forms had crashed behind enemy lines.