Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 14
"Really?" Kage was incredulous. He wasn't necessarily averse to collateral damage during a mission, but he knew Jason had a strict policy about harming civilians.
"They're narco-smugglers." Jason shrugged. "The Phoenix flagged the markings on the hulls as we were coming in on final. Hit 'em with the chin turret as we overfly. Who knows, maybe Mok will pay us a bounty for chipping away at the competition."
"Targets locked, chin turret deployed and armed," Kage said.
"Doc, you have everything secured back there?" Jason asked.
"Patient is secured, we're ready back here."
"Well…let's see how this goes," Jason said, feeding power to the repulsors with the thumb switch on the master throttle. The gunship groaned a bit as she rose into the air, followed by the familiar pops and bangs of the landing gear retracting.
Jason tapped the right peddle, spinning the ship a bit so her nose was on the intended targets, and pushed the hat-switch on the stick forward. The maneuvering thrusters screeched as they tried to push over a thousand tons of spaceship forward. They weren't meant to be used while still on a planet's surface so it was painfully slow going as the Phoenix drifted over the other parked ships towards their unsuspecting targets.
"Firing!" Kage called, opening up with the multi-barrel plasma cannon mounted in the articulated chin turret. As soon as the shots impacted the first ship, Jason flipped the switches for the mains to 'RUN' and was rewarded with a hearty boom as all four lit off at once. The Phoenix leapt forward, and he pulled to port just as Kage finished sweeping the gun down the second ship, both now burning spectacularly while small secondary explosions could be seen blowing pieces of the outer hull out.
Jason pushed the throttle up to about a quarter and pulled the nose up just slightly to get some distance between them and the conflagration before the fuel tanks ruptured and—
Boom!
The liquid hydrogen fuel load lit off with a tremendous explosion on the first ship once containment had been breached. From how energetic it was, Jason guessed the ship had also been carrying something in the cargo hold that had been explosive. He slammed the throttle down and was hurled back into the seat as the Phoenix leapt away, her four main engines roaring as they shot out over the city and followed the contour of the land down into the mining regions.
As he guided his ship over the rolling hills, Jason was clenched up, waiting for a plasma shot from above that would destroy the small ship and kill them all instantly. At least he hoped it would be instantly. He hadn't had a lot of time to formulate a plan before the ConFed started shooting the place up, but he had a rough idea about how he might be able to use the terrain to his advantage from his observations on the flight in.
"Doesn't look like we're being pursued," Kage said. "Two more ships were caught up in the explosion of the second ship, and now everyone has spotted the ConFed dropships. It's more or less complete chaos right now." Jason eyed his airspeed and pulled the throttle back to fifteen percent, letting the gunship loaf across the countryside and greatly reducing the chances of a ship in orbit spotting their thermal signature.
"Unfortunately, that was the easy part," Jason said. "We'll now need to run the blockade…and we'll have to do it without having detailed intel on where the ships above us are deployed."
"Why can't we just find one of these mining operations and hide out until the heat is off?" Kage asked.
"You saw what they were willing to do already to try and get this asset." Jason shook his head. "They'll tear this planet apart if they think she's still here. This world means nothing to them, and after what they did to the Eshquarians, there isn't anybody who’s going to stick their neck out for one unaffiliated tier-three world. No, we'll need to get the hell out of here and fast."
"This ship was built to run blockades," Kage said, patting the center console. "We could just fire up the grav-drive and fly right into their teeth."
"If it was just one capital ship above us, sure," Jason said, "but they've blanketed the planet too well. We rush up and try to take one by surprise, and we'll be within range of three more."
"Then how about you come up with something instead of just rejecting every idea I throw out there."
"What's the com chatter sound like?" Jason asked, pulling back on the stick so the Phoenix could clear a gentle swell ahead. They were now flying subsonic, barely faster than a commercial aircraft, and—hopefully—blending into the scenery if anyone above happened to catch a glimpse through the dense cloud cover. Thankfully, those clouds were laden with metallic particulate and ionized to the point that conventional sensors would have a tough time picking them out of the ground clutter.
"Oh, wow! The ConFed is deploying dropships and starfighters to three other spaceports," Kage said. "The blockade is still deployed for total coverage, but their fast-attack corvettes have run down two ships leaving the system and disabled them. Who the hell do we have back in the infirmary?"
"Apparently, someone a little more important than your average spy, and someone good enough to get the drop on you," Jason said. "Do we know how the XTX-2's will behave if launched within an atmosphere?"
"Why would— No! You can't seriously be thinking about doing that!"
"Why not? We already gunned down a bunch of their troopers, might as well round out the day by knocking out a couple ships. I doubt they'd be able to stop them in time if they came up from underneath," Jason said, banking to port again so