Dogfighter Gospel
created by Damien Phoenix and Phoebe
this chapter by K. Jeffery Petersen

Log Five: Running Discord

"This smells like a new car." Jacob wrinkled his nose and shifted around, 
trying to get comfortable in the starchy stiffness of the new command couch. 
He fiddled with the controls of the cockpit, all in slightly different 
positions than he was used to.

"How're you liking it in your new home, Jacob?" A voice crackled over his 
comm unit.

"It's an XV-31c, 'Yako. I've never flown one and the controls are wonky."

She laughed. "It's supposed to be better set up for more comfort."

"Comfort is what I'm used to. This is not it."

"For you comfort got blown out of the sky by those delta-darts."

"You okay enough in there, Jacob?" Kenji's voice cut into the channel. "We 
going to take this bad boy?"

Jacob snorted. "Ha! After sitting in the driver's seat for five minutes? 
First lesson in buying anything. If you can test-drive it, do so." And with 
that, he pressed the throttle forward and rocketed away from Holliday 
Station. "Think you can keep up with me, 'Yako?"

"Not since our early academy days," she replied, but her fighter still shot 
out after him.

Jacob grinned for a moment, then let his mind settle into familiarizing 
himself with the new control setup. The angle of the control stick was 
slightly off what he was used to. He kept shifting his hand around, trying 
to find a comfortable position, but failing to do so. The control angle felt 
slightly skewed, too; pressing straight forward didn't send the Mantis into 
a straight dive. He realized that the angle had been adjusted for a right-
handed person, so he needed to push forward and slightly to the left to get 
a straight dive. He frowned because that didn't seem logical.

He tried out a few maneuvers, diving and climbing to a relative plane, then 
jinking the fighter left and right. "Ergonomics," he muttered.

"What was that?" Ayako asked. Jacob looked up and saw her fighter coasting 
off to his right, easily keeping pace.

"They set up the controls for a right-handed pilot. It's supposed to be 
'ergonomic' and more natural to fly... But it's screwy to think about."

"Can you fly it?" Kenji asked. His voice dropped to an almost whisper, even 
though their channel was private. "We're getting this at the generosity of 
our 'employer,' so it's not like we have a lot of other options."

"I can fly anything. It's just going to take getting used to. Besides..." 
Jacob trailed off and flipped a switch. A metallic THUNK sounded from the 
rear of the fighter and his engines flared to life. He released the control 
stick as the rudder pedals rose slightly from the floor and became more 
springy beneath his feet. He tested, shifting his toes and heels back and 
forth a few times, relishing the feeling as the Mantis was sent through 
smooth curves.

"What the?" Ayako sounded shocked. "What're you doing?"

Jacob let out a laugh and pushed both his feet to the right. The fighter 
kicked into a far tighter turn than was possible for Ayako's or his original 
Mantis. "Vectored thrust. Wastes fuel like nothing else, but it's the best 
you can get for manuverability." He flipped the switch back and the pedals 
sank back to their normal position. "Still, that's mostly for emergencies." 

He cranked the stick around and headed back for Holliday station. Ayako's 
fighter swooped in and hung on his tail as he guided the Mantis back into 
the launch bay. 

"It looks fine, overall," he noted as the fighter came to a stop. "We'll 
take it."

***

Kassidy St. Clair's hands twitched over her control stick as she watched 
Holliday Station from the relative cover of an asteroid a few kilometers 
off.

"You're going to blow your cover," Jiang Tong's voice chided over the comm.

"What?" Kass looked up and over to the next asteroid, a few hundred meters 
away.

"If you keep shaking your hands like that, you're going to hit your controls 
and either ram the asteroid or blow your cover for everyone on Holliday to 
see," Jiang replied.

Kass squinted a bit to see Jiang's helmeted head looking at her across the 
vaccuum. The platinum-tressed pilot shook her head. How did that girl see 
her? "I'm just itching for some action," she said eventually. "We've been 
out here for honest-to-God AGES! When's something gonna blow?"

"We've been out here for about seven hours," Jiang cut in. "I can wait 
patiently."

"Yeah, well." Kassidy crossed her arms and sat quietly, watching Holliday 
turn slowly in front of her. She could wait just as patiently as Jiang. A 
determined expression crossed her face. Just watch and see.

"Kassy. The Gospel is moving."

Kassidy lurched and opened her eyes. Her helmet was pushed at an odd angle 
across her head from leaning against the canopy, and her cheek was numb and 
covered in drool. "Whu?" she mumbled and shook her head awake and a little 
puddle caught in her helmet sloshed against her jaw and started to trickle 
down her neck.

"They're moving, now. Just lifted off from the station." Jiang's Whitehawk 
released from the asteroid and drifted for a moment. 

Kassidy fumbled with her controls for a moment, then also released and 
floated away. "Let's get 'em!" she hissed gleefully, and reached for her 
throttle.

"We're to wait for the Fleet capture team, remember?"

"Aww... dangit." Kassy snapped her fingers in frustration. "Put in a call to 
HQ, then. I don't wanna lose them!"

There was a pause before Jiang spoke again. "Cadence Point, this is 
Lieutenant Jiang Tong with an update on the Gospel. Over."

"We are recieving, Lieutenant Jiang. Proceed with report. Over."

"The Gospel has begun moving. We are reporting as dictated in our orders. 
Please advise. Over.

"They're gonna get away!" Kassidy cut in. "We can go and cripple them but 
good, if we hurry."

Jiang let out a strangled gasp, but otherwise the line was silent for a 
moment.

"Lieutenants Jiang and St. Claire, you are to follow the Gospel at a safe 
observing distance. The capture team is en route. You are not to engage. 
Repeat. You are not to engage the Gospel."

"What if they start to get away?" Kass asked.

"Kassidy!" Jiang hissed.

"You have your orders, Lieutenants. The capture team will be there. HQ out."

Kassidy spent a few moments seething at the orders. They shouldn't be held 
back.

"They're moving, Kass. We should start following."

"Righto!" Kassidy popped her fist into her other palm and upped the 
throttle. Jiang's Whitehawk followed closely as she rocketed after the 
Gospel.

Five hours later, Kassidy dozed off for the seventh time. It had begun 
happening so often, that she had just slaved her fighter in Jiang's. It 
wasn't like she needed to be awake.

Until something happened, at least. Jiang's gentle voice woke her after a 
time, and she opened her eyes with much less of a start than before. "Jus' 
five mo' miniss, momma," Kassidy droned.

"Kass," Jiang repeated. "They're getting close, I think."

Her eyes popped open. "What? Where?" She scanned the surrounding area, and 
got sight of the Gospel as it began to slow its headlong trip through the 
asteroid belt. "Where are we?" Kassidy added.

"I'm not sure," Jiang said. "I think they're heading for that station at ten 
o'clock."

Kassidy ran a location check. The color drained out of her face. "You ever 
been to Discord, Jiang?"

"No. Why?"

"It's... Aww crap. We've got to stop them! It's an enemy base."

"Kass, what about the capture crew?"

Kassidy flexed her fingers around her throttle and shifted deeper into her 
couch. "They'll never make it in time. We've got to stop that ship before 
those traitors can do anything else."

***

"There she is," Jacob announced as he brought the Gospel in line with the 
asteroid's docking bay. "Discord. We'll be safe and sound there in five 
minutes."

Ayako stared at the main viewscreen for a moment. "Kinda a small place, 
don't you think. What have they got there?"

Kenji shrugged. "Probably just some mining colony."

"Oh." Ayako nodded. "We're dropping off supplies for them, then?"

"I doubt it," Jacob said. "If they want anything like that, they'd go 
through normal channels."

"So what do are we taking for them?"

"Who knows?" Kenji said. "It could be games. Minor contraband. Not our 
concern."

Ayako sucked in a breath. "Illegal?"

"Nothing to worry about if it is. We're just here to drop and go." Kenji 
grinned. "The official word is that we didn't know anything about it."

"Sir, I've just picked up two fighters approaching from six o'clock," Nadia 
announced. "They're sending a transmission."

"Put it on."

"--is Lieutenants St. Claire and Jiang. Cease and decist or we're going to 
blow you outta the sky!"

"Them again?" A flat expression crossed Jacob's face. "Well, I guess we'll 
have to delay them while you guys drop off the goods." He hopped up and 
grabbed Ayako's arm. "C'mon. It's time to give my new fighter a first class 
test run."

Kenji shot a sharp glance at Jacob, but blinked it away. "Good. Go to it. 
Nadia, take the conn."

As Ayako ran after Jacob to the fighter bay, she swallowed when she noticed 
the smile on his face; his teeth clenched just slightly with the corners of 
his lips pulled back. It was almost feral. He looked at her just before they 
entered the bay.

"What?" She realized he had said something.

"You ready?"

She forced a smile out. "Sure. We can take them, right?"

They climbed into their respective cockpits. Ayako let out a small sigh as 
she waited for the air to cycle out of the bay. "Be careful, Jacob."

The catapults ejected the two Mantis fighters from the Gospel and Ayako 
pulled back on her stick. Her fighter followed Jacob's as they looped around 
over the carrier and back towards the approaching Whitehawks.

She gritted her teeth as they four fighters passed each other in a flurry of 
fire. The firepower of the Whitehawks made the normally sufficiant armament 
of the Mantises seem miniscule. A lump caught in her throat as she turned 
around. Jacob's was a lot tighter, and he had a considerable lead on her. 
His fighter had more power, too, and that lead slowly grew.

On the other side, one of the Whitehawks surged ahead. It met Jacob's Mantis 
and the two swerved and "climbed" away. They zigged and zagged with each 
other until Ayako almost couldn't tell them apart. She wanted to watch and 
see how Jacob was doing, but the other Whitehawk was bearing down on her.

She dropped her crosshairs over the other fighter and pulled the trigger. 
The twin autoguns aside her nose blazed away, ripping into the other 
fighter...

Except that it popped out of the way just before the shots hit. The 
Whitehawk twisted around and tried to fall into her six, but she pressed her 
Mantis into a dive. Dizziness threatened to envelope her, but she managed to 
shake the Whitehawk off and almost had it in her sights again.

She realized that the 'oversights' in the Whitehawk design weren't a problem 
in the hands of a competent pilot. The overpowered engines more than made up 
for the lack of shielding if the fighter wasn't ever hit. And try as she 
might as she twisted her fighter around, she could never get a good bead on 
it.

On the other hand, the return fire was whittling away at her. She started to 
get rattled and made mistakes. A zig when she should have zagged, a dive 
when she should have climbed. It was all relative in space, but she got the 
feeling that the pilot was almost playing with her.

"Hang on, 'Yako! I'm coming in!" Jacob's call was a breath of relief.

But she couldn't. The next shot from the Whitehawk punched into her engine, 
and in an instant, everything died. She was floating, helpless, with only a 
few centimeters of damaged metal armor between her and nearly instantaneous 
death.

Ayako swallowed and waited for it, but it never came. The Whitehawk and 
Jacob's Mantis were dancing right around her, and it was absolutely 
breathtaking.

***

Kenji started to whistle tunelessly as the Gospel docked with the asteroid 
Discord. "Hope those two are doing okay back there," he said as he and Nadia 
made their way to the cargo hold.

"They should be fine, sir." Nadia answered. She paused for a moment then 
added, "The fact our cargo was possibly contraband will go into our report."

He winced inwardly at that announcement, but decided not to argue. Not until 
later, he reminded himself. The lock cycled open and he stepped through the 
short tube into the docking area of the asteroid. "Nice place." He looked 
around. "I wonder where everyone is."

"Sir..." Nadia started. He felt her hand come down on his shoulder and tense 
up, then start to pull him back into the ship.

"This where the stuff is?" Kenji jumped at the new voice and spun around. A 
smiling bald man with a goatee stood just inside the Gospel, looking into 
the cargo hold.

"Jesus! Where did you come from?" Kenji shouted.

"This the stuff?" The man asked again, pointing at the pallets in the hold.

"It is. You mind getting off my ship until I grant you permission to board?" 
Kenji's fists tightened and he stepped towards the man. He'd show this 
fogey--

Nadia's hand abruptly tightened, halting him. He shot a sharp glance at her, 
but loosened when he saw her expression. Kenji turned back and looked in the 
asteroid bay and saw many many people had appeared behind them. He swallowed 
and forced a smile on his face. They'd just drop the stuff and run, he 
affirmed. They could leave these space miners behind and just worry about 
safely staying out of the Fleet's way for a while.

"You guys Fleet?" the goatee'd man asked, clapping a hand on his back and 
causing Kenji to jump again.

"Of sorts," he answered, then mentally kicked himself.

The man laughed. "Good, good. Got some discipline, then, not like this 
ragtag bunch." He snapped his fingers and beckoned the other people towards 
the Gospel. "C'mon, guys. Get our stuff off." He started away, but stopped 
and faced the pair. "This'll take them a bit. You can relax in the next 
room. Get a drink."

"I really don't think that will be necessarry," Nadia said before Kenji 
could answer.

The man laughed again, harder than before. "Just like Fleet, always so 
protective of your ships. Those guys won't touch a thing." He grinned. 
"C'mon."

Kenji decided that joining the man for a drink would be a very good idea, 
despite the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. He forced his 
breathing to slow and let a conversational smile come across his face, then 
grabbed Nadia's hand and pulled her towards the room. "We'd love to. Show us 
the way."

"That's the spirit!" the man gave Kenji a sidelong punch on the shoulder. "I 
knew I'd like you guys. Not like the last shitheads who came our way. You 
coulda tempered steel by shoving it up their asses, the whole lotta them." 

The room he led them to was small, but comfortable and had a rather well 
stocked wet bar. Kenji slipped into one of the chairs and motioned that 
Nadia do the same while the man mixed a trio of drinks. With a pained 
expression, the gunship pilot complied, but Kenji could see the tightened 
muscles beneath her uniform.

He had to drag his eyes away as the man sat down. "You guys do this often?"

"Here and there," Kenji said. "But not often."

"That's good. I like to have people on the inside of Fleet, but it's best if 
they don't make runs too often."

"So what do you do here?" Nadia suddenly asked.

***

The fight was both beautiful and terrifying. Ayako had her suspicions 
confirmed - the Whitehawk pilot had been toying with her. As the fighter 
faced off against Jacob, it moved so smoothly and so quickly that she knew 
she would never have been able to keep up.

They flittered back and forth so fast and furiously, dropping only sparse 
fire against each other. It was a two piece game of three dimensional chess, 
each jockeying for a better position before going for a kill. Each time a 
possibility for that kill opened up, the other fighter pulled away and it 
began anew.

Jacob juked around, trying to pull under the Whitehawk. He kept listing 
slightly to his right, no matter what the position, and Ayako realized that 
the different control stick was throwing him off. Even so, when the 
Whitehawk come in close he managed to nmanaged to avoid a potentially-
crippling hit. With a sudden transfer to vectored thrust, he pulled a tight 
flip and let off a small salvo.

But the Whitehawk had moved far out of his range, and then fired a few short 
bursts to almost herd him in. When the Whitehawk went for the kill Jacob was 
already spinning away and coming back to take another shot.

Back and forth they moved, neither taking a strong advantage, neither making 
any headway. Ayako began to wonder if either one would ever win. As the 
deadly ballet continued to move around her fighter, she wondered if a stray 
shot would finish her off before it did end.

***

"We haven't done much, recently," the man said. "We're just preparing for 
some major moves."

"Moves?" Kenji sipped at the whisky sour.

"You guys actually dropped off one of the last things we needed for 
something really--" he snapped his fingers. "--special."

"Wow." Kenji took another sip. He realized he was already halfway done and 
Nadia hadn't even touched hers. "Impressive."

"Oh, wait until you see it. It's going to plaster the news like nothing 
you've ever seen before. What happened to the Agamemnon isn't going to hold 
a candle to what we're going to do to Eros."

It took Kenji a moment to process that and his blood went cold. If this was 
related to the Agamemnon, then they'd just delivered a shipment to the 
enemy. Or someone close to it.

He stood up, and realized it might be too abruptly. "You think your men are 
done, yet? We'd love to chat more, but we can't, ah, stay out of sight for 
too long."

"We've got women, too. We're an equal-opportunity organization." The man 
stood up and opened the door to the docking bay.

"Ah...?" Kenji blinked. "Oh, right. Military speech and all, you know?"

"Yeah. Looks clear. Nice meeting you..." The man frowned for a moment. "I 
didn't catch your names."

"Kevin," Kenji said without missing a beat. "Kevin Aishite. My first officer 
Natasha Kosovina."

"Pleasure. You should bring more friends, next time." He led them back to 
the docking tube and gestured them in. "Au revoir!"

Kenji closed the cargo lock and let out a sigh. "We have got to get out of 
here."

"We should notify Fleet as soon as possible," Nadia advised.

"Perhaps, Commander. But first we need to get out of here."

***

It had ended unspectacularly. One moment, Jacob and the Whitehawk were at 
it, then next the 'hawk was heading off. Ayako breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was very strange," Jacob mused while they waited for the Gospel to 
return. He dropped a tow cable onto her Mantis' nose. "Wonder why they 
left?"

"They didn't prevent the Gospel from getting to Discord."

"Mmm... True." 

As the fighter carrier passed, Jacob towed her into the fighter bay. As she 
got out, she saw Jacob's face was flushed, but has a soft smile, almost like 
he was elated.

"What is it?"

"That pilot. She was GOOD!" He let out a nervous sounding laugh. 

She saw his hands shaking, and pushed him against a bulkhead. "Steady," she 
warned. "Calm down."

But he was already babbling, shrugging away from her and heading towards the 
bridge. "The first one wouldn't shut up, and she didn't have any class, just 
wasting ammo left and right. But that one. WOW, I've never faced anything 
like it."

"You want to face him again." Ayako's spirits dropped at that prospect.

"Her. I saw inside her cockpit, and that was definitely a female." He 
frowned. "The first one was Kassidy St. Claire, right. She made sure I knew 
that. Know who she flys with?"

Ayako shook her head. "Never heard of her."

Then they were on the bridge and she felt the room get colder.

"What is it?" Jacob asked.

Kenji worked his mouth a few times, but it was Nadia who answered. "We have 
delivered a shipment to an enemy location that will be used in some manner 
against Eros."

"Come again?" Jacob asked.

"Eros?" Ayako gasped. "But that's just got civilians! Family of fleet 
personnel. What would they want to do there?"

"Those two Fleet pilots got away, didn't they?" Kenji asked, ignoring her 
question.

"Er.. yeah," Jacob answered. "One moment we were in the thick of it, then 
they just rabbitted."

"So..." Nadia tapped her chin. "Fleet probably knows that we made that 
delivery."

Ayako tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry.

-End Log Five-

Notes: Various people pre-read (at different stages) and helped with ideas: 
Kristen, Phoebe, Ardweden, and Marcus Fong. Thanks to them. All errors are 
mine. 

Eros is an asteroid in the asteroid belt. (I'm pointing this out as a factual 
clarification.)

-KJP