The Past Returns

Razorback

Del watched as the Apoc in front of her cut a sharp left toward the blips on the radar.

"Do we have makes yet?" Maria called over the comm.

"Coming now," Xeno called back, "Four goads, four Sheps, and two Execs."

"Xeno, Razor, take the leftmost exec and two Sheps, Del and I have right exec and pickings."

"Copy," came Razorback as he swung his Goad around to follow the Eman, keeping exactly twelve meters to the left and eight meters behind.

"He handles that thing like a flyer," Del muttered to herself.

"Which is irrelevant now," Maria stated. Del hurriedly moved to follow Maria's Apoc, chiding herself for thinking out loud with the comm on.

The Ghosts sat crouched behind a small rise, in two groups about two hundred meters apart and waited. Not long after, the ten Cybrids crested the ridge between them, in what Razorback referred to as a "shotgun" formation. The four goads formed a front arc to scout, followed by the two execs, side by side about twenty-five m apart, with the Sheps scattered out as they saw fit. The formation was effective for "heavy scouting" a search and destroy type of mission that also catalogued new territory.

Maria stood and fired a shrike volley, eliminating a goad. Del brought her Bug up and began to pound on one of the Sheps. As the Cybrids reacted and began to shift positions, Xeno and Razorback charged them. They quickly eliminated their assigned Sheps and, contrary to orders, each picked a goad and began to pound them. One of them got their goad and the remaining two goads charged Del. She found herself circle-fighting both at once, a position she did not like. She managed to wing one, and as it faltered she began pouring fire into it consistently. By the time it had exploded, Maria had dealt with the other.

The two execs set up back-to-back for cover and the last Shep spun to face Xeno. The two became locked in a dogfight, which pulled both of them away from the main fight. Del and Maria concentrated fire on the nearest exec, but Maria was now out of Shrikes and it apparently had shield augmentation. This left Razorback to face the last exec alone, and he cut to the side, trying to pull it away from its companion. The exec merely pivoted and compensated its aim. Weapons fire danced across the goads shields, throwing sparks-- and the goad froze. Glancing at her cockpit monitor Del switched to Razorback's in-cockpit cam. His face had a thousand-mile stare on and he didn't move at all. Del couldn't hit the exec pounding his goad because her target was in the way and was turning toward her. Maria had a clear shot, but EMPs wouldn't help much.

She glanced at the monitor again and saw a feral grin spread across Razorback's face as his goad charged. The move was unexpected, but charging a fully functional exec in a goad with less-than-optimal shields was the fastest way to commit suicide Del could think of. Another glance at the monitor told her that Razorback didn't care, staring at his face she realized he might even welcome death.

She was forced to turn her attention back to the matter at hand as her exec rocked under fire, but she still paid attention to the other battle with half her mind. Razorback wasn't making a blind charge now, he was firing, but he was heavily outgunned and he made no attempt to dodge. Past her opponent she could see blue sparks flying off the execs shields, and...and orange sparks, the execs shields were down.

The goad kept charging and she saw he intended to ram his target. She fired another volley at the exec menacing her, but it still did no good. Then the goad hit the exec. Sparks flew as metal ground metal and the goad disappeared. The back of the exec glowed white hot, and perhaps a tenth of a second after disappearing, the goad flew out the back of the exec. The exec fell in two mangled halves as the goad slammed into the back of the Exec challenging Del and fired. The second Exec paused, leaned forward a bit, and as it fell the reactor blew. Shield Modulator.