Game Changer: Day 4

Word Count: 24,018

Summary of Events:

Hawk continued to monitor the progress of the fleet of Ozem fighters heading toward Maarath, observing that the fighter whose cloaking failed didn't turn back; Cvita, however, wasn't interested in watching the fighters travel and so managed to get the computer to continue doing the tracking without zooming in and Hawk couldn't actually figure out how to change it back, so he was forced to give all his attention to Cvita until just after midnight two days after he'd noticed the fighters leave Ebed's orbit, when he heard what sounded like gunfire and was informed by the computer that it could no longer locate the uncloaked fighter it'd been tracking . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Where was it’s last recorded position?” Hawk asked.

“Two hundred and ten thousand kilometres from the surface of Maarath,” the automated voice replied. “Gunfire has been detected in the same vicinity starting at zero hours, twenty two minutes.”

“What time is it now?” Hawk asked.

“Zero hours, thirty one minutes,” the automated voice replied.

Hawk activated his holo-screen, connecting it to the computerised window. “Computer, download tracking footage from zero hours to present.”

“Downloading,” the automated voice replied.

While he waited, Hawk glanced toward where Maarath was approximately located; although it was likely to only be a small red speck from here, considering how it was three days of non-stop flight to reach the planet.

“Download complete,” the automated voice announced.

“How many shots were fired?” Hawk asked.

“Twelve,” the automated voice replied. “The first shot was fired at zero hours, twenty two minutes, the final shot was fired at zero hours, twenty nine minutes.”

Hawk disconnected his holo-screen from the window and went to the footage that had been downloaded.

Although he had requested thirty one minutes of footage, Hawk skipped through the first twenty minutes and then paused it at the twenty minute mark.

The uncloaked fighter was visible, as were the Sons of Chesil’s ships orbiting around Maarath; additionally, the cloaked fighters were actually visible as black shapes against the large, silver-and-green ships of the Sons of Chesil, which Hawk guessed was because of the angle the camera was at not being something that was considered by the cloaking devices.

Hawk couldn’t really tell the distance between the Sallu fighters and the Sons of Chesil ships, even though he knew the size of the former well; this he also attributed to the angle of the footage.

“Computer, how far from the surface of Maarath are the . . . ships in orbit there orbiting?” Hawk asked, not sure if the computer would know what he meant were he to say Sons of Chesil.

“The . . . ships in orbit around Maarath are orbiting two hundred thousand kilometres from the planet surface,” the automated voice replied.

Hawk nodded and started the video. He watched as the fighters moved closer to the ships, after a long time — although it was just more than a minute — there appeared to be changes on the side of the Sons of Chesil ship that could be seen the best; Hawk quickly realised this was gun hatches being opened.

In spite of the fact that it was recorded footage Hawk actually startled when the first shot was fired and exploded the uncloaked fighter.

“If the ships in orbit around Maarath are two hundred thousand kilometres from the planet surface, then that shot had a range of . . .” Hawk trailed off, recalling the number the computer had told him.

Two hundred and ten thousand kilometres. The longest-range gun Hawk had ever heard of before had a three hundred kilometre range. The Sons of Chesil’s guns had over three times that range.