The slight gravitational pull of the bridge pulled Ricardo's ship towards its disturbing jaws, on its crystalline surface, orange and blue flashes could be distinguished, deformed like seen through a lens.
-Attentive, activate deflectors to the maximum and those who can fix targets from now on - an authoritative voice was heard to say, through the communicator -. Report Theta squadron, -said the same voice, seconds before entering the bridge.
-Theta four ready, deflectors at maximum, two targets set, - replied Ricardo, as he looked at the target indicators on the visor of his helmet.
The ship dived into the bridge, almost immediately, as soon as its hull began to appear on the other side, a mechanical impact projectile hit it, fragmenting itself into hundreds of pieces, violently shaking the fighter and taking Ricardo by surprise, who without losing concentration fired two charges of plasma that hit two ships located several tens of kilometers from the bridge.
They had just arrived at Cefeo's orbit, several thousand kilometers away was Castor one of the two space stations that had served as a refuge for millions of inhabitants who left the planet, before the persecution of the rebels, one of their rings was destroyed, apparently suffered the impact of a large object, probably one of several asteroids that the rebels had directed towards both stations, how many would have died from the impact, asked Ricardo.
-Attention Theta squadron, proceed as scheduled, advance to the planet's low orbit and destroy any enemy that gets in your way, -said the rude voice of the squadron leader in the statement.
As strange and violent flowers of amber color, the explosions of the destroyed ships, flashed everywhere, Ricardo managed to fix other three targets, of which he managed to impact two. How many of the destroyed fighters would have human pilots, the bodies of how many humans would float now, mutilated or dead by the void of space? How many still alive would die before being rescued? Expelled out of the battle area where they would never be found, he wondered as he maneuvered, trying to avoid, more by reflection, than by security, the shots of the enemy's short-range weapons.
In the midst of hundreds of debris from destroyed ships, probes and satellites, they entered the atmosphere of Cepheus, they had to enter the north of the continent and destroy the transmission station, whose location had been recently discovered, with it, they would break the communication of the rebel commanders, located in underground barracks, dispersed by several zones of the planet, with the combatants in orbit.
From the moment they entered the atmosphere they began to receive the impacts of the mechanical projectiles and the flashes of the plasma charges that, from the ground, fired the antiaircraft batteries of the rebels, one after the other the fighters of the Theta, Epsilon, Iota and Lambda squadrons were impacted and dismembered in the descent.
-Target the laser emitters and fire at will, ... -said the leader of the Theta squadron, just before being hit by a load of plasma, which overpassed its deflectors and destroyed the ship.
Ricardo swooped in the direction of the complex formed by one hundred laser emitters, which, to the untrained eye, would look like cannons or some other type of weapon, set targets, according to the lieutenant's last indication, and fired all the mechanical impact projectiles of his ship, along with a barrage of twenty plasma discharges.
Along with his own, a whole rain of fireballs descended in the direction of the emitters, fired by the other members of the squadrons. While from land, the anti-aircraft batteries continued attacking the ships and the multitude of projectiles that went towards them.
-Spread out now! -said Sergeant Ichikawa, next in command of the squadron.
After saying this, the few members of the Theta squadron who were still standing, broke the formation and dispersed in different directions.
After the jolt caused by the sudden change of speed and direction, Ricardo began to ascend again to meet his squadron, when a plasma discharge hit his reactor, a plasma flare went all over the ship, including the cabin, embracing it, and then causing it to explode into hundreds of fragments, which would fall into the sea, in front of the place where the rebels' transmission station used to be, now reduced by a little more than a hundred explosions to a pile of unrecognizable rubble.
Seventy percent of the squadron pilots sent from the Apollo contingent to destroy the Cepheus rebel transmission station perished during the operation, however, despite the large number of casualties, the objective was achieved and the destruction of the rebel facility led to its defeat in the Castor space station battle, which would be the last great battle of the Cepheus war, after it, several intelligence operations managed to stop or eliminate the rebel leaders, so this was definitely dismantled.
Good story, as always, science fiction is a subject you handle very well.