Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: The Void
Luthien, July 1st, 3031
"This is Blaze, signify ready status and get into formation, we've got a lot of enemy bogies inbound." Commanded his wing as he moved his Clantech Stuka into the lead position. "Everyone follow your designated COs lead, and stay with your wingmen, we're up against the very best that the Combine has to offer."
"Copy that Lead!" Came the responses.
"You got the command console set up?" Blaze asked his Copilot who was in charge of helping coordinate the battle in the void while Blaze was taking enemy pilots down. "Because this is going to be the biggest Aerospace battle in centuries."
"I'm all green here, just keep us in the fight." Blaze's Copilot answered.
"Remember that if you've taken too much damage to fall back into the cover of the Stings," Blaze reminded the group of over a hundred aerospace Fighters. "That's part of what they're here for, and if you need to rearm, fall back to the Vanguard."
"Here they come!" A voice called on the comms channel. "We got lots of enemy fighters and at least three to four AchillesDropships as well as what looks like some Sting knockoffs."
"Stay on your wingman's wing and remember to follow your squadron leaders." Blaze said as he accelerated his Stuka in order to engage the enemy faster. "We've got to keep the Warships clear until we make it to Luthien."
It took a solid fifteen minutes before any of the enemy aerospace assets reached weapons range, but once they did, the superior range of the Kentares Guard weapons showed its worth by shredding lighter aerospace fighters before they even got within the range of their own weapons.
Squeezing his triggers at extreme range, Blaze watched as a Sholagardisintegrated underneath the twin ERPPCs he hit it with before switching to the Slayer that was coming in fast behind it, firing his remaining two ERPPCs, he also triggered his LB-20X at a range that his old AC/20 would not have hit, causing the Slayer pilot to spin out of control and impact their wingman.
Then the battlefield in the void erupted into a chaotic furball, with Blaze flipping his Stuka around in order to stay on the tail of an enemy fighter while the Copilot began to give commands to the forces that were under their command.
"This is Hitman lead, we're making a run on the lead Achilles." Came through the comms. "Be aware, we noticed that some of the fighters had anti Warship missiles underneath their fuselage." He warned.
"Copy that," Blaze responded as he destroyed another Sholagar. "All units, priority tasking on fighters carrying anti Warship missiles."
Kentares IV, July 1st, 3031
"This is strange." Dr. Hale said as she looked at the results before her. "Franklin, come take a look at this." She held out her slate to the doctor that was going to be replacing her when she retired.
"He's still alive with brain damage like this?" Franklin asked incredulously.
"You're not looking at the big picture." Dr. Janet Hale said as she navigated to the specific area she wanted to show him. "First off, First Prince Ian Davion has internal scars from the surgery we did a couple of decades ago to make his spine funcional again, this one does not." She put the slate into a machine that used her tri-vid to project what she was navigating to. "And, we still have the blood samples we took when we operated on the First Prince as well."
"Whoever is in there doesn't have any of the recorded scarring." Franklin said as he looked at the results. "And, that blood doesn't match what we have on file."
"Also," Dr. Hale brought up another section of the medical file. "There's been an extreme amount of reconstructive surgery done on this patient's face and body in order to force a perfect match with Ian Davion."
"But if this isn't Ian Davion," Dr. Franklin asked. "Then where is he?"
"This isn't Ian Davion, but there are still Davion DNA markers here." Hale said as she showed him. "Possibly a first cousin of some kind. But whatever the case may be, we have definitive proof that this isn't First Prince Ian Davion."
"We'll need to send this with Dunham over to Hanse Davion." Franklin said as soon as he wrapped his head around what exactly Dr. Hale was saying. "And we need to send the body with him as well."
"We may need to have Jones do it sooner than that." Dr. Hale said. "Some news channels are already accusing Hull of having the First Prince assassinated for not launching an attack on the Draconis Combine."
"But the Duke had been gone for months before this happened." Franklin said. "Why would they think that?"
"Because to many people, it doesn't matter if it's actually the truth or not." Dr. Hale said as she began packing things up. "Everyone on Kentares IV will believe the truth because they know Hull, Hanse Davion and other nobles that have personally interacted with Hull will believe the truth. No one else is going to believe the truth no matter how much we proclaim it unless we can provide absolute proof that Hull didn't order the assassination."
"Proof that we have!" Franklin said.
"Not for long if we don't get it to New Avalon." Dr. Hale responded. "If I were someone who was trying to bring down the Federated Suns, I would engineer a civil war by doing something similar to this. So we have a limited window here, and if we are not extremely careful, everyone we know and love could die."
"Where are you going Dr. Hale?" Franklin asked.
"I'd tell you Franklin, but I don't know if you can be trusted." Hale said as she knocked him unconscious with a swift blow to the head. "I avoided any areas that might cause brain damage, but you won't enjoy the headache that comes later."
She packed up the remainder of her supplies and essentials before contacting Dunham's 2IC. "Jones, we need to pack up the First Prince and get moving to New Avalon, we may have a lot of issues coming our way if we don't do this immediately."
"Give me five minutes to scramble a Pueblo." Jones said. "And then we'll be on our way to the Argo."
"Copy." Hale responded as she wheeled the body of the duplicate First Prince into the small craft bay. "I'll be in a shuttle hidden in the shadow of the moon."
"Roger," Jones said. "We're en route now."
"Good." Hale closed her slate before prepping the shuttle for launch. "This is Dr. Hale to traffic control, "I'm taking my personal shuttle for a bit of a joyride, that last surgery was killer."
"Roger that Doctor." The Traffic controller responded. "I'm depressurizing the bay now, have a nice flight."