Blue afterburner streaked overhead. Uleg pulled the nose round and hosed off a salvo of opportunistic multi-laser shots. They streaked heavenwards and were lost in the darkness. He didn’t appear to have hit.

He checked the augur; the Lightning had peeled off to the left and was coming round for a third time.

‘Are we in range yet?’

‘Another mile.’

Uleg cursed. The Lightning would have one more chance to blow them out of the sky. And he couldn’t pull that trick again.

Suddenly the flier disappeared from the auspex. ‘Did it hit the water?’ he shouted, looking about for sign of an impact.

‘I can’t see!’ Jimal responded.

Uleg twisted uncomfortably in his seat. Where had the bast­ard gone? His auspex showed nothing. Then it came to him in a sudden moment of dreadful fear. The auspex had a blind spot directly above.

He looked up, saw nothing in the darkness, but he knew that the enemy flyer had to be there.

But as he searched the skies above, the Valkyrie rattled as hard rounds slammed into it. He threw the Valkyrie nose down and flung her to the side as the Lightning swept past her right wing, the turbulence forcing them further sideways.

Alarms sounded. The dashboard was full of flashing lights. Uleg silenced them and took a moment. The fuel tanks were hit and leaking fast. He could smell smoke within the cockpit. It could be a fire or just wires burning out. He felt a wave of panic rising as Jimal cried out, ‘He’s coming in again!’

Uleg’s auspex was empty. ‘Where from?’

‘Right behind!’

‘Hold him off!’ he shouted. He felt the heavy bolters start to fire.

There wasn’t enough fuel to outfly the enemy. They were a sitting target unless they did something. Uleg began to scissor sideways. But even as he did so the alarms for the left engine died. It was all he could do now to keep them running flat and straight.

Sparker couldn’t rest. He pushed himself up and strode outside.

He skipped down the steps of his office block to the flakboard-lined path below. The mud squelched as he turned towards the signals room. Two troopers coming off sentry duty straightened up and stepped aside to salute him.

He nodded to them. It was a five-minute walk to the signals offi­ce. He tried to distract himself.

In the signals hut he was surprised to see Prassan.

‘Have they got bored of you at HQ?’ Sparker said.

‘Not yet, sir.’ Prassan put up his hand. ‘They’ve picked them up.’

‘Who?’

Prassan signalled that he didn’t know. He was listening to the vox-chatter, but they were on Navy channels and it was hard to get any sense out of them. There was a long pause, before confirmation came. Sparker watched Prassan’s face. ‘Both Vultures are down,’ Prassan said.

Even Sparker could hear the affirmative.