Remember the Starfighter Read Online Free PDF

Too familiar. The rays of light, seemingly simple, but deadly enough to slice open unprotected ship.
    It was how the enemy had destroyed Worthy Station, along with anything else in its path. The particle beams raining down upon them.
    Julian went to dodge the enemy fire, and pulled the Crusader away from the area. As he did so, the energy beams stabbed into one of the battleships, drilling at the vessel’s shields. Layer after layer came off, the protective barriers beginning to collapse. Then there was nothing, leaving only naked armor to face the wrath.
    The battleship slowly turned, trying to escape the beams. But it was futile — the vessel was simply built to endure the damage, not to outmaneuver it. The black metal fortifying the ship began to glow white, the energy beams striking against its hull. They carved into the structure, digging into its interior decks. Soon the vessel was set ablaze.
    Julian could already imagine the human screams. The death toll rising.
    He glanced at the other battleships, and found nothing different. The particle beams closing in, the destruction repeating itself.
    More people killed off. More debris left to scatter.
    Julian glanced down at his ship’s command console, and saw the words “weapon systems activated” lighting up on the controls. It did not matter. Reason and logic made it totally clear: this was not a battle he could win.
    He moved to retreat, and send the Crusader away from the collapsing line of battle ships. They needed to regroup, and rejoin the remaining fleet at Haven, as fast as possible.
    But even as Julian wanted to escape, it was too late.
    Another lone energy beam, constant in its focus, crashed into the side of the Crusader. Julian could feel the whole vessel stagger, as it was nearly knocked off course. “Shields down to 65 percent,” Nalia yelled. 
    The weapon came lunging again, the next blast even harder. Once it hit, the beam sunk its teeth into the shields.
    Julian felt the weapon gnaw away. Ordering the evasive maneuvers, he frantically looked to find a way out of the incoming fire. But again the weapon came. The third time, even worse. The unrelenting beam found its target. It came finally cracking the shields of the ship.
    Emergency sirens flared across the bridge. Shields were down. The ship’s hull was now the only thing left protecting the vessel. Julian was speechless as he sat at his controls. He could feel his death approach.
    Julian knew he had to fly, but he had no idea how he would dodge the next volley. Even in the blackness of space, the enemy was finding it, striking away at the vessel with weapons that came without mercy.
    “Endervar vessel incoming, Omni class!” Nalia shouted.
    The fear was taking over, his breaths growing strained. He didn’t want to look. But Julian knew he had to. It arrived to him on the view screen, an old nightmare come to life again.
    The giant disk emerged. The single enemy vessel seeking the Crusader out.
    To Julian, it was a barrier wall steamrolling from behind, so large that not even humanity’s largest ships could contend with its sheer mass.
    This was no mere spacecraft, but a force of nature, one that moved effortlessly across the area. In a bright white light the enemy vessel shined, the aura summoning more weaponry to the fore. With such power, the ship could send charged particles warping into beams of destruction. And now it was doing so again.
    Move, Julian ordered his ship. Move!
    The Crusader descended, striving to make the dive. But even as the distance widened, the enemy craft had locked on.
    The maelstrom of power fired off, sending a new wave of ammunition bursting from the enemy’s saucer-like body. No matter where the Crusader might go, the particle beams would follow and saturate the desired path out.
    If Julian were piloting a small fighter craft, then maybe they would have a chance. However, the Crusader was too large, too slow, and impotent to outmaneuver the barrage of enemy