Our plan almost went perfectly.

We exited hyperspace at the adjusted coordinates and did a full launch of missiles, then another. The double launch staggered them just enough to hide the second missile, and that proved invaluable. As we travelled at full speed towards our target planet to try and get there before anyone in the system could defend from the attack, we found that all three attack ships were on this side of the planet, which would make removing them easier... if they weren't right there with the dreadnought. There were also twelve in-system gunships converging on the planet.

“Do we abort?” Hailey asked. “Hela, are you still confident we can win with these odds stacked against us?”

“I will be hurt badly; but, yes. We will still prevail.”

“Then take us in.” I said to Hailey. “Hela, you know short of blowing up, we will have your body repaired.”

“Mother told me of your ejection protocols and I approve.” Hela said. “I would rather live as a core than be destroyed.”

“It shouldn't come to that.” I said confidently and reached over and put a hand on Hailey's shoulder. “We've got the best pilot in the universe right here. If anyone's going to get us through this, it's her.”

“Then hold on.” Hailey said and swung the ship far towards the left to avoid several straight-fire missiles from a few automated satellites, which I then shot down. In the next moment, all of our primary targets exploded from the first stealth missile salvo.

“Hela! Prioritize the followup missiles to target the local ships!” Hailey said and reduced speed for a second to avoid the direct laser fire from several more weapons satellites.

“Already done, Grandma.” Hela said as the firing solutions on my weapons display updated. I targeted the laser satellites next and our assault laser cannons easily took them out. We couldn't detect the damn things until they fired and gave us a target, which was something we hadn't planned for. Reacting to being shot was going to get old, fast.

“Recalculating next missile salvo for the new target designations.” I said and changed the next load of missiles to lock on the three assault ships and the dreadnought equally.

“We have become a target for their local security net.” Hela said just as targeting warnings flashed over my screen and a low siren started.

“Cut the siren.” I said and launched the next missile salvo. “Hela, how many local ships left?”

“None. I doubled up on them as you suggested.” Hela said and then the ship lurched as thirty lasers impacted the front shield and it almost collapsed.

“Dammit!” I said and concentrated on shooting the laser platforms. When I saw half of our missiles disappear before they reached the targets, I cursed. “They're splitting their fire.”

“Changing approach vector.” Hailey said and dropped the ship low. “Straight-fire the missiles and let Hela control them for the last few seconds.”

“Got it.” I said and did as she asked. I didn't bother giving targets to the next set of missiles and fired. “Hela, any luck finding the control module?”

“We destroyed both the primary and secondary defense controls that we knew of.” Hela said and showed me on the display the asteroid where they used to be. “There must be a mobile version somewhere that can still direct the satellites to fire on us.”

No sooner had she said that when the top of the ship was hit by thirty laser blasts. The ship lurched again and I got a warning that we lost three of our deflector screens.

“I can't see the damn things!” Hailey said and rotated the ship and flew us straight up to try and avoid more missiles and laser fire.

“I think they're using our strategy.” I said and looked at the response pattern. “Every time we fire, we must look like a beacon to their targeting computers.”

Hailey flipped us upside down and poured power into Hela's engines, then rotated us to face towards the planet again. “We should go dark.”

“It's too late for that.” I said as the ship rocked from multiple laser hits and then I quickly did up the calculations. “They know we're coming and they are going to concentrate their fire on...”

One of the three assault ships blew up in a spectacular explosion.

“Good god.” Hailey said as it disintegrated and the ship next to it tilted slightly away from the blast and then its forward section lit up as the main reactor exploded.

“Wait a minute!” I exclaimed and quickly played back the footage. “Hela! Abort missiles aimed for the dreadnought!”

Six missiles diverted away and then detonated harmlessly.

“Hunter!” Hailey took her eyes off of her display to look at me in disbelief. “What the hell are you doing?”

“They destroyed the second ship.” I said and she did a double take at me, then went back to flying and dodging missiles. “Yeah, I know.” I said and quickly changed the firing solutions to exclude the dreadnought. “Apparently, they are fighting our side.”

“Or we are on theirs.” Hailey corrected.

The dreadnought took a massive salvo of laser hits on its side and we could actually see the deflector screen fail and part of the hull blew out with decompression.

“Can we get by them?” I asked.

“No.” Hailey and Hela said together.

“Then we have to become their support.” I said. “With a dreadnought's weapons suite available...”

Hailey nodded. “Okay, then. Reducing speed and going for full evasion. We'll cover that weak spot for them and take out anything that fires at us.”

“Right. Defensive mode.” I said and changed the firing profile of the assault laser cannons to short beams and brought the projectile guns online and loaded the burst rounds. I changed the missiles to shoot chaff, then shot them out at half speed. They barely left our missile tubes when they exploded and created a huge mass of metal shards that spread out over a large area as they moved forward.

It was the perfect defense against laser fire that needed direct hits, because it obscured the target. Scores of them disappeared in flashes of light as the laser platforms tried to shoot through them at us.

“It's too bad this only works at slower speeds.” I said and Hailey nodded as we flipped upside down again and avoided another missile salvo. “Dammit, where is that launcher?”

“Backtracking calculations unavailable.” Hela said. “No observable data.”

“They are dead-firing them.” Hailey said and flipped us back upright and I used the laser cannons to shoot any satellites we passed by. “They don't turn them on until they are right on top of us.”

“I knew they were copying us.” I said and rotated our guns to the side. “We're coming up on the dreadnought.”

“They are refusing communications.” Hela said. “They are not targeting us yet.”

“Hopefully they'll see what we're doing.” Hailey said and turned the ship so that our vulnerable top was facing the dreadnought and we slowed down again. “Fire everything we have!”

I ran my finger across the buttons for the various weapons we had, then pulled the trigger on the projectile guns that were aimed at the last assault ship. We watched as fifteen assault laser cannons shot multiple times to overload the front deflector screen on the ship, then the projectiles went through the opening and each one exploded on impact to make huge craters on the hull... then three missiles went through the gap.

The first one didn't explode on impact and lodged into the ship. The second one blew up early and tore at the surrounding deflector screens and hull. The last one fit right into the damage in the hull the other weapons had made and then exploded, taking the other missile with it. The ship peeled back from the impact like a banana and then it disintegrated.

“Changing firing targets.” I said and switched to the stealth satellites and weapons platforms that Hela had marked as a lower priority when we passed by. The dreadnought did the same, surprisingly, and our two ships swept through the now undefended system and destroyed everything that dared to fire on us. When everything was a smoking ruin or just wrecks in space, all that was left was the target planet and its protective satellite network.

“Grandpa, the dreadnought is requesting communications.” Hela said.

I turned from the weapons console and hit the button for the communications console.

“Whoever you are, thank you for your assistance.” Kara said from the screen. “If you hadn't shown up when you did, I don't think we would have lasted much... AARON?!?”

“Hello, Master Moor.” I said and saw her eyes twitch.

“Stop teasing her.” Hailey said.

I gave my wife a crooked smile. “Sorry.” I said and looked back at the screen. “So, what brings you here to this out of the way system?”

“I've been trying to negotiate with the local government for the last month and a half to let us extradite Kralish.” Kara said. “We even brought in a third party to show that we were negotiating in good faith.”

“Let me guess, they delayed and made excuses, then killed the delegation when you told them to force the issue.” I said.

Kara opened her mouth to respond and deny it, then sighed. “Yes.”

Can you feel her emotions and hear her thoughts? I asked Hailey mentally.

Yes. It's not supposed to work over a communications link, is it?

Not normally, no. I thought. “Well, Kara. What do you plan to do now?”

“With all their defenses gone except for the planetary defense satellites, I plan to assault the planet.” Kara said. “I have three assault squads and we know his location.”

“You're assuming he's still there.” I said.

“We know he is.” Kara held up a datapad with the scaly alien's tracing devices on it.

“He's not that stupid.” I said.

“We have visual confirmation as well.” Kara said. “He's there and he's waiting for me.”

“You mean us.” I corrected.

“I can't allow...”

“I wasn't asking.” I said. “Send me his location.”

“No. You'll launch preemptively before my people are ready to go.”

“Do you want me to follow your assault squad shuttles with my own and overtake them then?” I asked.

“You wouldn't.” Kara said and squinted her eyes at me.

“Not if you give me the location now and tell me how you're bypassing the scramble codes on the satellites.” I said. “That's a fair trade for me to play nice, isn't it?”

Kara thought about refusing, then she imagined me dropping in ahead of her and capturing the scaly alien before she did. “If you give your word that you will join our assault and won't try to do it alone.”

I raised my right hand. “I give you my word that I will seamlessly join in the assault and won't do anything alone.”

Kara sighed. “All right.” She said and bent over slightly and I received a data transmission. “This is the latest intelligence we have. He doesn't know we have the scramble codes for the planetary defense grid or that we can disable it to get through.”

I checked it and it seemed legitimate. “When are you launching?”

“As soon as we get the side of the ship closed off from depressurization. It's right in the side of the hull where the shuttles are stored.”

“Consider it done.” I said. “Hailey, give me a hand.”

Hailey took my hand and we concentrated on the side of the ship that was only a few hundred feet away. We used Presence to bend and twist the metal of the hull back into the proper shape and then formed a wall of solid Presence over the thirty foot wide damaged area, with a few feet extra for support.

“Master Moor! The breach is closed!” Someone behind her exclaimed.

“Continue the repairs while we get down there to retrieve the shuttles.” Kara said and then looked at me. “How did you do that?”

“No time to explain.” I said. “I'll meet your assault shuttles outside your bay doors.”

“You better be in a shuttle!” Kara said, almost angrily.

I chuckled. “I don't plan on showing off like that, so relax.”

Kara nodded. “See you in ten minutes.” She said and ended the call.

“Hela, keep recording all the emissions from the dreadnought. When they send that signal to disable the satellite defense network, copy and store it.”

“Yes, Grandpa.” Hela said. “Repair drones Three and Seven are cutting away the three burned out deflector screen emitters. Repair drone Six is accessing stores for new hull armor plating and replacement emitters.”

“Is it bad?” I asked and she showed me on the display. “I'm glad I paid for the extra armor.”

“As am I.” Hela said. “I have weapon burnout on two of the laser cannons as well.”

I chuckled. “We have tons of them, so don't worry about getting them replaced immediately.”

“Yes, Grandpa. Lowering priority.”

“We'll be back soon.” I said and pat the console. “Lock the door and wait for us to come back.”

Hailey and I left the cockpit and made our way to the small shuttle bay.

“That was scary!” Monna said as we climbed aboard her. “Even with Hailey as a pilot, that was hard to sit through!”

“You are just jealous because you wanted to fly through it yourself.” Hela said over the intercom.

“Well, yeah. It looked like fun!” Mona responded

“I thought you just said it was scary?” Hailey asked, a little confused as she sat and prepped the shuttle.

“I did!” Monna said happily.

I laughed and sat down in the co-pilot seat. “She loves things a little rough, remember?”

“She's going to get a lot of that in a few minutes.” Hailey said and Hela opened the bay doors. “Here we go.”

We flew out of Hela's shuttle bay and swung down and around the huge dreadnought and stopped near the large shuttle bay doors. Two minutes before we were supposed to meet, the bay doors on the dreadnought opened and three shuttles launched out at full speed.

I shook my head. “I should have made Kara promise to not try to leave us behind.” I said and looked at Hailey. “She broke her word first, so go for it.”

Hailey nodded and fed a bunch of power to Monna's engines.

“WHEEEEEEE!” Monna yelled as we shot forward at a ridiculous speed. My console beeped and Hela sent me the frequency for the satellite defense network. It was just in time, because the hole Kara's shuttles made was already closing.

“Broadcasting.” I said and made a hole big enough for us to go through. As an afterthought, I used the small lasers and smashed a pile of the satellites on the way by, since they couldn't be shot from outside. Hailey chuckled and I grinned at her, because she knew that I wanted to fly around and take them all out. The only reason we didn't was because we didn't have the time.

Then we both laughed as Monna stifled her moan while we made another hot insertion into a planetary atmosphere.