Kurt doubted it.  Unless the alien starfighters were much tougher than they seemed, the merest kiss from a starfighter-mounted railgun would be enough to shatter them beyond repair.  Maybe the alien pilot had had a technical fault that had forced him to pull out and return to his carrier.  Kurt quickly checked the scanner, hoping to track the alien craft, but found nothing.  The alien had managed to evade before any of the humans could get a lock on him.

He yanked the fighter around and followed the aliens as they fell on the older starships like wolves on sheep, although these sheep were hardly defenceless.  A number of alien starfighters were picked off before they opened fire, but their weapons proved devastatingly effective.  They’d learned, Kurt noted absently, as he closed the range and opened fire; they were going after weapons and sensor blisters, rather than trying to simply punch through the hull.

“Clever bastards,” Rose observed.  She’d clearly made the same observation.  “Two more wings of alien starfighters have just come into view.”

Kurt swore.  Were there two enemy carriers out there?  Or had the aliens hidden a base somewhere within the system?  He took a moment to link into the live feed from the drones, but saw nothing.  Logically, if the aliens could stealth their starfighters, why not a carrier?

“Keep the bastards away from the ships,” he ordered.  Two ancient frigates were already effectively useless, their lost weapons making them easy prey for successive wings of alien starfighters.  “Alpha and Beta, fall in with me; Delta and Gamma, cover the ships.”

And hope it isn't a trap, he thought, as he turned and accelerated back towards the incoming alien starfighters.  They’d have a few moments to tear a hole in their formation before the aliens blew past them ... unless, of course, they decided to stop and dogfight instead.  They might well realise that wearing down Ark Royal’s fighters would be a highly effective tactic ...

“They should have sent another carrier with us,” one of the pilots commented.

“As you were,” Kurt said, sharply.  He agreed, but there was no time for a discussion.  “Take them at a run.”

***

Ted watched, grimly, as the alien starfighters blew through the defending starfighters and lanced towards their targets.  They didn't seem to be going after Ark Royal in particular, which was odd ... and a reversal of military doctrine, at least as the aliens seemed to understand it.  He considered the problem as the flotilla closed up, the smaller ships linking their point defence systems together to give the aliens a nasty surprise, then decided that the aliens probably wanted to weaken his defences before going after the carrier.  It was the only answer that seemed to make sense.