"Rating? Son, this is a combat simulation, the same one used for first year officers. All safeties will be off, full gravitational model and limitations. Overload the engines...and boom. Pull too many gees, and you're out."
Billy was like a dog with a bone, though, and would not let it go.
"But we are simulating drones, aren't we?"
The man shook his head and laughed.
"If you succeed, then yes. For now I need to know you know the limitations and strengths of a manned fighter. You'll show me you can fly manually before I even think of letting you try the Avengers."
He then pointed to the allocated pod, and Billy moved away, clearly chastened by the experience. Nate would have laughed had the situation not been as dour and serious as it actually was. He looked back at his displays and then pulled the helmet from its mount to his right.
This is incredible!
In front of him was perhaps the most complex set of equipment he'd ever been given access to. Directly ahead lay a bank of black curved displays that gave a slightly distorted, wide-angled cockpit feel to the booth. Below these were a series of small panels that should have displayed everything from mapping data, fuel status, and damage monitoring, as well as weapons handling and status. Nate looked back to the Lieutenant.
"Uh, Sir, nothing is..."
The man chuckled.
"Your helmet, son."
He had completely forgotten to pull it on, even though the unit was still resting in his hands. He pulled the device down over his face, and it instantly connected to the simulation unit, syncing with the controls and data feeds. Overlays popped up, giving him access to even more information, while the device actually placed imagery onto the panels using a beautifully encoded augmented reality system. To Nate, it now looked as though he was inside a fighter. He reached out to the colour controllers and found that inside his helmet they had come to life.
"Wow!"
He was truly stunned. With the screen and the overlays, he had access to more flight data than he'd ever seen before. Gauges and columns of data popped up everywhere, and he was immediately buried in far more data than he could ever hope to manage. The public version of Star Crusader was vastly simplified compared to this, and even the system used with the Byotai had been half as complex.
"Now, as you can see, the simulation system is configured to be compatible with both the internal layout of the Lightning Fighter, as well as a remote unit for the Avengers. One moment, and I will configure the system," said Lieutenant Higgins.
He moved along the line, checking each system was on-line.
"Good. Now we will switch to Lightning simulation mode. Get ready."
Nate kept his eyes open even though they started to become uncomfortably dry. Then half of the screens disappeared, and the cockpit transformed to match the layout of the classic Lightning fighter. Masses of data vanished in a second, and suddenly everything felt that much more manageable. Outside of the cockpit were large metal panels that completely blocked the view.
"Very good. Any questions before we begin?"
Nate shook his head, but this time kept his attention firmly forward. The beeping inside his helmet served as a constant reminder that the fighter was sealed and ready for launch. It was there so that he remained alert and waiting for the launch. He twisted to the left, but when he looked back inside the training suite, he could see nothing but the bulkhead walls of the hangar deck.
Just like the real thing.
"Yeah, I have a question."
The Alliance officer walked along and stopped next to Jack.
"Yes?"
He twisted around as far as he could go, but was stopped by the straps and harness unit.
"How do we win?"
Lieutenant Higgins laughed at the young cadet, a great disingenuous roar that filled the room with noise. Nate already felt uncomfortable as he adjusted his harness, and this did little to help. When Lieutenant Higgins finally stopped, Jack had turned back to look at his forward view. Lieutenant Higgins moved to the overview console hovering above the pit.
"This ain’t no game, and there are no winners. You will be flying a combat operation, and you will defend my carrier. You have a job to do, and that is your only objective. Understood?"
"Yes...Sir!" came back the chorus of responses.
"Good. Now, get ready for launch. It's time for your milk run."
Nate closed his eyes and took a single, deep breath. Words repeated in his ears, and he listened carefully.
"Relentless has a damaged core and is undergoing repairs. We are unable to leave this sector until it is repaired. Our engineers estimate twenty minutes if they are left to work. Only four turrets are functional, so it is up to you to provide a defensive curtain around the ship and buy them the time we need. With six fighters, and the point-defence weapons of the ship, you'll have what you need."
He paused, waiting for them to make whatever notes they needed.
"Remember, the objective is to buy time and let the carrier withdraw to safety. Loss of the carrier is a failed mission."
Each pilot acknowledged his short brief, and as he spoke their radar scanner and tactical overlays updated. ANS Relentless was in the middle of a sparsely filled asteroid field, and there were at least a dozen large dust clouds that proved almost impervious to their scanners.
"Buoys have been launched and positioned to provide a one hundred kilometre dome around us. Wait..."
It might only have been a simulation, but it was already beginning to feel very real to Nate. This was not being played for points, or even a position in the team. This was an actual mission to decide whether they could help in the coming fight, and if they passed, he and his friends really might be all that stood between Relentless and certain death. It was a lot to think about, so he did what he always did in such a situation, he ran through the checks once more.
"It's confirmed. We have four bogies, on approach at fifteen hundred klicks, course one-thirty and moving fast. The computer identifies them as Khreenk mercenary fighters. The fighter chassis carry the signatures of a group responsible for the destruction of a Helion bulk transport. One is carry a payload of two thermonuclear warheads, and it has been armed."
Nate had only met a handful of the Khreenk, and all of them had been traders. The Khreenk Federation was one of the many known races in the galaxy, and they were the ones that confused him the most. Though perhaps the most advanced of the known races, they were a scattered and disparate people, made up of multiple independent star systems that traded as often as they fought with each other. The Federation might have formed a loose arrangement with the Alliance to trade weapons technology for economic assistance, but as far at Nate was concerned, they were not to be completely trusted. Rumour had it that they were actually a territory based upon the rejects and exiles of the others, an odd mixture of bipedal beings that had become obsessed with improving their physical bodies to increase their strength and prowess in battle.
"You are free to launch."
He opened his eyes, and there before him was space. The exterior blast doors were open, and his fighter was ready and waiting on its launch rail. He looked left, and then right, checking everything was as it should be. There was the checklist, and he mentally ticked them off.
"I'm taking the lead on this one. Follow me!" said Rex, "Go, go, go!"
Nate didn't like the idea of Rex taking command, but with time limited and so much at stake, he decided to play along.
Better to have leadership than dissent.
It was something he'd heard back home, and although he was not entirely convinced, he could also see that starting an argument right now would be a guarantee of a complete and utter failure. For all of Rex's faults, he was still an outstanding pilot, and in their last simulations he'd been consistently ranked the highest scorer of them all.
Here we go.
All it took was a single button press, and Nate was away. The frame running along the inside of the blast
doors vanished, and he was still accelerating. For the tiniest of a fraction, he actually thought he was flying a Lightning fighter, but he quickly remembered that ANS Relentless was not in a battle, but in fact hurtling through space to their destination. If they had just launched from the ship, they would never be able to join up with Relentless, let alone the rest of the fleet.
"I'm with you. Billy, form up on my wing."
It took less than twenty seconds for the six Lightning Mark IIA fighters to form up into a V formation, with Rex leading. At his right-hand side was Jack, just as they always were in the simulation. Nate and Billy took the left flank, and Cassandra and Matilda took the right. One of the first lessons they had learnt back when first starting with the public version of the simulation was to pair up. It was deadly to be caught out alone in a fighter, and two pairs of eyes were always better than relying on just one.
"Okay, looking good Crusader Squadron," said Lieutenant Higgins.
As the man spoke, an image of his face appeared to the side of the helmet-mounted display. The feed was direct from Relentless, and the only real reminder that this was a simulation, and not an actual flight. The lighting behind the Lieutenant was red, and if he hadn't known better, he could easily have been persuaded that this truly was a real scenario.
"You've made it out, and you can manoeuvre your fighters. That is a good start but not enough to protect our passengers. There is more to fighter combat than just flying the ship."
Dots appeared on the floating radar tracking system, and Nate began making a mental note of how many hostile targets were present. At the same time, the onboard computer began to plot their course, velocity, and specifications.
"You have multiple inbounds. Defeat the fighters and protect the carrier."
Rex took the lead and altered his forward course.
"Okay, Crusader Squadron, you heard the man. We'll play this by the numbers. Check your weapons and change your course to...one-six-nine."
Nate scanned the status indicator of his weapons, making sure the guns were warmed up and ready. The cold of deep space was forever a problem, and it was imperative the kinetic weapons were kept warmed and ready for use. One of the two guns had a minor fault, and he quickly activated the warmers to resolve the issue. He then turned his attention from the guns to the wing hardpoints. There were two on top of each wing to carry short-range Sea Lance missiles, and another large hard point underneath to carry one of the deadly 60mm railguns normally only fitted to the Bulldog Mobile Gun vehicles. These weapons were powered by the fighter's internal powerplant and loaded with a hundred-round cartridge per gun. The resulting package was a small but deadly attack fighter that could take on other fighters, as well as small capital ships.
"Crusader Three ready," said Nate.
His voice was dry and croaky, so much so he had to swallow and then repeat himself. One by one the others joined in with him until all six confirmed their weapons were ready and so were they.
"Activate burners. It's time to end this."
Nate keyed his intercom.
"What about the carrier? Another fifteen seconds, and we'll be unable to protect her other sectors. We should split up. One group flying circuits of the carrier, the rest on an intercept vector."
Rex must have been busy doing something else because he didn't answer, so Nate repeated himself, and this time put forward a proposed route for them to take. Nate felt quite pleased with himself until he received a curt reply from Rex.
"I heard you the first time, Crusader Three. Stay on course, and focus on the mission. Our orders are simple; defeat the fighters and protect our carrier. And that, my friends, is exactly what we are going to do."
The next few words were blocked out by something, and as they returned, a few odd sounds muffled the audio. Nate selected the electronic warfare suite and activated the scrubber mode. It took a couple of seconds for the system to do its job.
"They're jamming our comms. Make sure you activate your scrubbers and switch to the alternating encoders."
This time Rex must have been at least partially happy with what he was saying because he said nothing until Nate completely finished. They activated the units and then he spoke.
"Good. We'll use missiles first. Lock on designated targets and prepare to fire. It is critical that we down the bomber first. The rest is secondary. I want three missiles per fighter."
Nate found his target, the fighter off to the left and now already starting to alter its approach vector. Using nothing more than his retina, he selected the craft. Older weapon systems would normally require locking onto the target signature using heat or radar tracking, and often a mixture of both. The new system on the Mark IIA was far more sophisticated, and at this range, entirely optical. The trackers would only revert to a different targeting mode if the target object changed substantially in mass, or ejected countermeasures.
"Coming into range, get ready."
"Alert. Atomic warhead detected," said the computer.
As always the computer's voice was calm and collected, completely unaffected by the seriousness of the situation. Nate checked the data from the fighters and spotted the flagged fighter. He tagged it and keyed his intercom.
"One is carrying heavy ordnance. I've tagged it."
"I see it," said Billy.
Rex then tagged the others as low priority targets.
"I want the bomber brought down, then hit the rest with our remaining missiles."
"But what if..." started Nate.
Once more Rex interrupted him, and this time his tone was much harsher.
"Cut the chatter, Crusader Three. Target the fighters and wait for my command."
Nate was now entirely focussed on his prey. The computer brought up a detailed model of what he faced, and he quickly recognised it as one of the Khreenk fighters commonly used in the last war. Though of a similar size to his craft, it was slower but also much more agile, due to its rotating engine mounts.
"We need to hit them first; those things are deadly up close."
"That's enough chatter," Rex snapped back at him, "Focus on your targets. Open fire!"
Nate depressed the launch trigger, and away went one of the state-of-the-art Sea Lance missiles. At such a high closing speed, it didn't take long for the range to drop below a hundred kilometres. He held his breath as the missile moved close and then exploded as it reached just a few metres from the target.
"Scratch one!" he yelled excitedly.
More flashes marked the impacts, and the fighters rushed ahead to examine their defeated foes.
"New contacts," said Lieutenant Higgins, "A heavy stealth frigate has been detected at close-range. She's arming particle beam weapons."
Nate looked at the radar-tracking screen but could see nothing ahead. The scanner could pick up all manner of units, leaving only the possibility of computerised reflective panels, cooling units for the engines, and no crew. It was something discussed back in school, but so far none of these proposed vessels had been seen before, at least as far as he knew.
Stealth ships. They could get close enough to fire their weapons without being detected.
He looked down at the oval unit and spotted red markers right behind them. The shapes were small, but the longer they were present, the more detail the computer could show.
"I knew it."
He had intended to speak to himself, but in his excitement he broadcast his feelings to the rest of the squadron.
"That's great, Nate. Stay in formation and follow me."
Rex performed a high-speed course change, but it took time, due to their increasing velocity on the original heading. As they moved around in a wide, lazy circle, more information appeared on the target ship.
"Sensors show she is a renegade Helion frigate, and she's launching fighters. She's equipped with retroflective panels, stealth gear, and second-gen particle weapons. We need help, fast!"
Nate shook his head in irritation. Now it was all a simple matter of mathemat
ics. The fighters could only accelerate so quickly, and by the time they were in range of the ship, it would already have fired its primary weapons. The frigate was manned by the humanoid race known as the Helions, a people with a very similar biology to humans. Their race was shattered in the Biomech War, and now they were little more than a shadow to be protected by the ever-growing Alliance. Of all the ships they might have encountered in a simulation, this one was right at the bottom of the list.
"Burners to war power. Use everything you have!" Rex ordered.
Nate flicked the safety toggle that removed the barriers to the engine unit. The core reactor now increased in power, past its normal levels and into the danger zone. Every second at this setting increased the chances of a fatal failure.
"How long until we're in range?" Nate asked.
"Target will be in range in ninety-four seconds," said the computer.
At that very point, a flash marked the impact of one of the deadly particle beam weapons. These devices were brand new technology a generation ago and now used on all kinds of heavy warships. In theory, the range was limitless, and they fired an invisible beam of energy that hit with explosive force. When the weapon struck a ship, it would literally explode the target with an impact far in excess of anything possible from a kinetic railgun weapon.
Come on!
The fighter shuddered as the powerplant was forced to vent excess heat. Warning alerts popped up, but Nate and the others knew what was at stake. This might only be a simulated mission, but it could just as easily have been the real thing. All that mattered was the carrier. Without it, all of them were already dead. The calm, yet clearly annoyed voice of Lieutenant Higgins returned again.
"We're on our own. Point-defence turrets are active, but we have no defence against particle weapons. Gods save us."
Nate swallowed the mention of a deity. Freedom of religion was practised throughout the Alliance, yet it had little place in public life these days. Faith was a private affair, and that philosophy was encouraged throughout the colonies to discourage arguments, as well as to keep the state out of the affairs of its citizens. The very mention of them served as a reminder to the danger of the position they were now in.
Star Crusader: Hero of the Alliance Page 12