Checking his six, Schrader fed more juice to his thrusters in an effort to outrun his pursuit. He knew he was pushing his luck at this speed, but had exhausted all other options.
It was of some consolation to see that two of the fighters were unable to keep pace and were falling behind, but the ship more similar to those of Space Fleet's was still coming, maybe even gaining.
A high pitched whining alerted him that the other ship's weapons systems had just locked on the XP2000. Schrader jigged left slightly and watched laser fire streak past on both sides. Sensing another
volley coming, he juked back to the other way in time to avoid two more blasts.
"This could be trouble.", the lieutenant acknowledged, continuing his evasive maneuvers.
Something exploded several hundred yard behind him, and Schrader saw one of the enemy ships that had fallen behind disappear from his threat display.
"Ghostrider to Hound-Dog, we have your back."
"Roger Ghostrider", Schrader replied, some of his tension melting away as a plan began to form in his head, "much appreciated."
He threw all of his power into the thrusters and rocketed forward, creating a widening rift between himself and the Wyzenhymer fighter. Seeing his quarry getting away, the Wyzenhymer gunned his engines, though
he was forced to keep looking down at his displays, for fear of being intercepted by the two ships that were dispatching his escorts. That distraction and the break neck speeds which he was now traveling
at proved to be a deadly combination.
Schrader saw the steel ravine end abruptly in a wall several hundred yards ahead, and waited until the last possible second to pull up and into open space. The other pilot had been peering over his shoulder,
and turned around just in time to witness his own demise. The explosion was spectacular and seemed to set off a series of similar explosions down the length of the huge ship.
"Clear out guys", Schrader called to the Jennings brothers, "she's gonna blow!"
He jammed the stick forward and shot through the dark sea of stars, praying he'd be able to put enough room between himself and the Wyzenhymer vessel before it came apart.
A brilliant flash of light let Schrader know that the ships power plant had blown. He felt the temperature rise sharply as the shock wave caught up to his tiny vessel, and uttered a brief but earnest prayer
as his ship was engulfed in a gout of flame.
The Jennings brothers pushed their fighters for everything they were worth. They could see the expanding ring of fire's rapid advance and knew the only thing that could save them now was distance.
"Move it, bro!", Ghostrider yelled into his comm., seeing his sibling's ship falling slightly behind.
"I can't, man", Triple J bellowed back, a tinge of panic in his voice, "I'm low on fuel!"
"You're even lower on time!", Ghostrider exclaimed as he turned his head to the left and saw Lt. Schrader's ship swallowed up by the oncoming shock wave.
Evidently Triple J had just witnessed the same thing, because he blew past his brother's Snog, making the best of what little fuel he had. Ghostrider increased his speed to come up next to the T-38.
He ventured another look back and saw that the flames were beginning to dissipate.
"You can slow down, bro", he said easing back on his thrusters, "we made it."
"Cool", Triple J replied, "but what about Hound-Dog?"
The silence that followed was all the answer he needed.
