07

Hours later, after three gravity-drive jumps to make sure that the Executioner wasn't following them, the convoy and its star-fighter escorts arrived in the fringes of the Sullus system. Spread before them was the largest massed Kriegsmarine fleet in the history of the Reich. Whistles and sounds of admiration could be heard on the comm.

"I knew that a call was put out, but I didn't know how extensive it was," murmured Aiden. A dozen z34 cruisers formed the core of the fleet. The largest of these was the Albert Speer. 3,800 meters long and able to carry 6 squadrons of starfighters, it was the pride of the Kriegsmarine fleet. There were a few dreadnoughts, also known as assault frigates, along with a couple of Z21 cruisers. Z13 frigates and S21 corvettes formed the rest of the vanguard. A single Atlantis-class anti-star-fighter frigate hung in formation with the other frigates and corvettes. A smattering of armed freighters also mixed with the cruisers. As the Knights looked on, a Deutschland-class cruiser moved forward enough to reveal, in pride of place, three Drac Destroyers. A Orion-class, an ancient First War-era Thor-class, and the Khawarij Destroyer Abdul Nasir that the Knights had helped liberate from the Khawarij less than a year ago.

"Something's up," said Duke Max from his black Valkyrie, "There is no way that the High Command would risk gathering this many ships together, this deep in Khawarij space. Something's way wrong with this picture."

"I'm sure Command will tell us what's going on when we board the command ship," said Aiden as they closed in on the Hannover, the flagship of the fleet.

***

As soon as he climbed down from his Valkyrie Aiden grinned as he spotted someone he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Jacen! Jacen Kruger!" he cried. Jacen turned and jogged over to where Aiden was standing at the base of his fighter and the two embraced briefly, after all they were men.

"Whooo! Looks like our Captain's found love at last!" came the voice of Duke Max from his Valkyrie.

"Keep it up Lieutenant and I'll have you spaced to fight the Khawarij with your pilot suit and your big mouth!" snarled Aiden.

"So you found yourself a Jacob Becker as well? Shit, let's hope that they never meet or we'll all suffer for it," moaned Jacen.

"Yes. So how're the Condors? Is it true Command had you guys break up?"

"Yes, but there'll be time for that later," said Jacen as Ru and Simms ducked under the wing of Aiden's Valkyrie's, "Now's the time for settling in and getting reacquainted." As Jacen greeted Ru and Simms, Aiden cupped his hands and yelled his pilots who were beginning to disperse across the busy and crowded hangar bay.

"Knights, get your gear stowed and get some rest! I get the feeling that we're all gonna need it.

***

The quarters assigned to Knight Squadron on Hannover were communal so the pilots were forced to unpack together, a situation that lent itself to stubbed toes and hands and not enough free space to go around. Sovich roared as Inx accidentally kicked him on his way past.

"Inx says watch where you're going and that he hates this bed," said Duke who had somehow, somewhere learned to understand Sovich's native tongue. Indeed the poor Saurian's feet stuck about six inches over the end of his assigned bunk.

"A ship this big, they should be able give us paired quarters at least," said Xanthrine, a slight hiss in her voice.

"Yeah! Remember that Vindicator?" said Kell Wess, speaking of the Khawarij Destroyer they had helped liberate from the Khawarij and then had bunked on for a couple of months as it had run missions behind enemy lines.

"Now that was living in luxury! A lot better than the hovel I had back on Ark Royale," commented Duke.

"What I want to know is what the Reich Defense Ministry is doing with this many ships here? What are they planning?" asked Lara, shaking loose her midnight-black hair from the ponytail she wore it in when she was flying. Lara had defected to the Reich during the course of the Knights' adventures on-board the Vindicator.

"I'm tellin' ya, we're going after Korsica!" said Duke.

"And I think that you haven't had enough sleep lately," said Trini from his bunk directly across from the braided pilot, "You obviously aren't thinking straight."

"No seriously! It's the only logical answer as to why Command has built up such a large force."

"Duke using logic? May God have mercy on us all," snorted Chang derisively.

"Okay then, listen to this. The Khawarij are spread across the galaxy looking for us right? So Command decides that this is a perfect time to assault a high profile target? And what target is more high profile and important to the freedom of the galaxy than Korsica itself?"

"Your theory is good, but it lacks several important pieces of information," said Hali, the first time he'd spoken since they began their convoy escort mission.

"Oh? Then why don't you enlighten us," grinned Duke.

"First off, the sector fleet for Korsica consists of 57 Khawarij battleships, reportedly led by a Reaper-class. That's more firepower than this fleet could hope to bring, even if every ship in this fleet was a Republic-class cruiser. You also forgot the orbital defense platforms with their torpedo launchers and the planetary shields, which, by the way, are strong enough to deflect ANY bombardment. In short, this fleet would be overwhelmed long before the Korsica defense fleet arrived."

"Okay okay, we get your point. But if we're not going after Korsica, what else is there?" asked Duke.

"My guess is that the Khawarij's built another 'stellar converter' platform and we're going to destroy it," Hali said simply. Thick silence descended on the entire group. Even talkative and flirtatious Xanthrine was staring at Hali in shock.

"Whoa, don't even joke about that," Duke half-whispered.

"For all our sakes I really hope I'm wrong about it," said Hali.

***

The next morning found Aiden catching up to Jacob just outside of the briefing room.

"Did you get the message as well?' he asked by way of greeting.

"Yeah," said Jacob simply.

"I can't believe it! How could the Khawarij build another 'stellar converter' so soon? And why didn't Intelligence find out about this sooner?"

"Well we didn't find out about the original 'stellar converter' platform until it was almost too late," said Jacob, "I suppose you can thank for that," Aiden felt a lurch in his stomach at the mention of the feared Khawarij Governor. A moment later it was driven out of his mind as he and Jacob entered the briefing room. Dozens of Reich officers and leaders milled about, mostly Kriegsmarine brass and squadron leaders.

"Commander? Commander Farrell is that you?" The man he was talking to turned and gave Aiden a once over then cracked a tight-lipped grin.

"Rookie One, I didn't expect to see you here, though I'm not surprised after what you pulled. Liberating Khawarij destroyers lends itself well to your reputation," said Commander Farrell in a rough voice. Farrell was a middle-aged man with graying, black hair and an air of stern resolve about him. He had served in the final battles of the First War and had served the Khawarij Empire loyally until certain distasteful missions forced him to defect. Turning back to Jacob, Aiden said, "Commander Farrell was one of my instructors just before I was assigned to Scorpion Squadron."

"Actually it's Colonel Farrell now," remarked Farrell.

As they sat down with the Colonel to await the start of the briefing on the stellar converter situation, snatches of other conversations drifted over to them.

At that moment a chime sounded indicating the start of the briefing.

"Let's see what they have to say about this whole stellar converter thing," murmured Aiden as Admiral Raeder stepped forward.

"The Khawarij's have made a critical error and the time for our attack has come. The data brought to us by Reich Intelligence pinpoint the exact location of his new stellar converter," he said as a holoprojector in the center of the briefing table activated, a hologram of the semi-desert planet of Gobi and the orbiting stellar converter platform appearing directly in the center, "We also know that the weapon systems of this ship are not yet fully operational. With the Khawarij fleet spread throughout the galaxy in a vain effort to engage us, it is relatively unprotected. But most important of all... we've learned that Governor Sylvania himself is personally overseeing the final stages of construction of the stellar converter. Many Reich Intelligence agents died to bring us the information," he said with grave solemnity, the look in his eyes seeming to dare anyone to make light of the agents' sacrifice.

Stepping back from the table she gestured to one of the Kriegsmarine officers that had been standing off to the side.

"Admiral Raeder please."

Raeder was dressed in a white uniform that looked to be tailored specifically for the officers of the Republic-class warships.

"You can see here the stellar converter orbiting the semi-desert moon of Kanda. Although the weapon systems of this platform are not operational, the stellar converter does have a strong defense mechanism. It is protected by an energy shield which is generated from the nearby moon." As he said this, the hologram showed a yellow stream of energy project up from the moon's surface and envelop the battle station.

"The shield must be deactivated if any attack is to be attempted," he said as the holo zoomed to focus on the platform itself, "Once the shield is down our cruisers will create a perimeter while the fighters fly through the interior of the structure and attempt to knock out the main reactors." As he finished, a blue dot flew through the station and into its central core. To add extra emphasis the Admiral shut off the holo just as the dot reached the center. Aiden leaned over to Jacen.

"As if a Lucifer isn't bad enough! Now they want us to fly inside that damn thing? Have they taken complete leave of their senses?" he whispered fiercely.

"Shh," hushed Jacen.

"General Callius has volunteered to lead the fighter attack," said Raeder gesturing towards Callius.

"General Mandel," said Raeder gesturing towards the General who stepped forward smartly.

"We have stolen a small Khawarij shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship and using a secret Khawarij code, an Waffen-SS strike team will land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator." As the General said this murmurs began to break out among the crowd.

"I'd say that things are about to get very interesting," said Jacen with a grin. When the ruckus quieted down, General Mandel continued.

"Our starfighters will be divided into five fighter wings. Strike Wing Eagle and Scorpion, Knight Squadron, a squadron of Warthogs and a group from Condor Legion led by General Callius. Additional star-fighters will stay behind to safeguard the fleet. Any questions? No? Then report to your duty stations. May God be with us all."

***

Aiden marched down the corridor on Hannover where his squadron'squarters were located to tell them the news. He wondered how they'd react, although he was pretty sure he knew. But it wasn't every day that you were going to tell your squad-mates that they were going to have to fight a Devastator. Strangely enough, three members of Knight Squadron had been at Dravin and assaulted the first Devastator. Himself, Commander Becker and Commander Simms. At the time Aiden had been a member of Scorpion Squadron, flying under the call sign Scorpion Three. Scorpion Squadron only had six fighters to fly in that engagement; Scorpion Six had been lost to pulse cannon fire and Scorpion Five got downed by Defenders. He remembered that Becker had also had to pull out due to battle damage from a pulse cannon blast. After that, Ru, Flight Officer Harris (Scorpion Four) and himself had flown into the trench alongside Krill Decker, Jacen Kruger and Stig Harker. Harris had been killed by a pursuing Defender first. Ru and Jacen had been forced to pull out. A Defender then gunned down Stigs leaving only Aiden and Krill in the trench. Thinking of that still gave Aiden chills. If Lilana Laohadn't arrived in her Warthog when she did he and Krill probably would be space debris.

Walking through the arched doorway into the Knights' quarters Aiden saw that they had all gathered together to hear what he had to say about the briefing. He told them everything, about the Devastator and the almost suicidal plan to destroy the Tungari's second orbital 'steller convertor' platform. After he finished there was long, tense silence. And then it was broken by, as Aiden had thought it would be, Duke Max.

"Satan's black bones! Hali damn you, you were right! I owe you twenty!"

That brought a relieved smattering of laughter from the pilots and then Ru spoke up. "Let me get this straight. They want us to actually fly the surface of the Devastator, navigate around the superstructure, avoid the automated defensive pulse cannons and then torpedo the main fusion core and get out before it explodes?"

"That about sums it up Commander," said Aiden.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm in. A merry chase around the Devastator sounds great," chimed in Duke.

The other pilots cast Duke disparaging looks and a couple threw some paper cups at him. Aiden held out his hands to order silence.

"Quiet! Look, I'm not gonna give you some pretty, patriotic speech because frankly I'm not very good at them and I respect you all too much as pilots and friends to make you suffer that indignity. What I will say is that if it is my doom to have to make a suicide run into a Devastator..." he paused looking around at the eleven other Knights solemnly, "then I could think of no finer group of pilots to be flying with. I'm very proud of you all. Over the last year we've helped to steal a Vindicator from the Tungari we helped put a stop to their Piranha fighter program. You know, when I first put this squadron together back on Dravin Base, I sorta had this idea in my head that I could make a better fighter squadron than Wolf Squadron. Well, I've come to realize that... we are so much better than the Wolves!" This earned him shouts of approval.

"We're Knight Squadron and we've built our own legacy."

Over the clapping and cheering he said, "Okay speech over. Now the squad of Waffen-SS will be leaving in a few hours for their part of the mission. After that we'll only have a few days before we have to go as well, so I suggest you all get your affairs in order and get some sim time in. Do whatever you need to make yourselves as ready as possible because I think that it would be very good for our legacy if Knight Squadron could add a Devastator silhouette to our hulls, don't you think?" he said with a rakish grin.