Our imaging systems were still too weak to discern the size of the fleet. We just knew that it looked to contain ships that were bigger than the eight kilometer diameter behemoth that had attacked us during the S.A. Our scientist’s best estimate was that we had at least two years before the bulk of the fleet arrived.
All the activity going on in the chamber was geared towards manning and equipping a fleet of our own. It would be tiny in comparison to what was coming but we hoped our technological gains of the last 70 years would give us an advantage.
We next moved to another area where a number of pilots were busily training in fighter simulators. Simulation training and then manning one of the new ships, was to be my job for the next two years as we planned our defense before the alien fleet was to arrive.
David looked me in the eye and then shook my hand before drowning me in another rather embarrassing hug. He said his goodbye and then hurried away back towards his office. I was then left at the mercy of my new training handler... Ensign Paige Braswell.
Chapter 2
Ensign Braswell wasted no time in stepping forward to let me know who the boss was. I outranked her but she had been given full authority over my training and as such I was under orders to follow her every command... to the letter.
She stepped directly in front of me and then moved her face to within inches of mine. It was definitely a stare-down. As I began to smile she stepped back and then let me have it. She barked off the command for 50 pushups.
I hesitated for a moment in disbelief and then noticed that she was not smiling. And the several other workers who had turned towards us were looking on with stern expressions as well. Even though my Great Uncle was still within sight, I dare not invoke the family name. Not there... not then.
Given my heavy frame the pushups were slow and torturous. When I had completed my ordered duties, I was then directed to follow the Ensign to the mess hall for some breakfast. As we walked towards a far door I could see she had a slight smirk on her otherwise stoic face. The smirk told me that she must at least have a sense of humor. I thought perhaps there was hope for Ensign Braswell after all.
We proceeded through a buffet line that had just about every imaginable breakfast item. I was in Heaven. We then sat at a long table and were joined soon after by three other new pilot trainees and their handlers, Captain Albert Biggings, Major Robert Hardee and Major Beatrice Parks. We were quickly told that anyone calling her Beatrice would likely die quietly in their sleep. I laughed along with Al and Rob as Betty smiled along with us.
As we ate our breakfast our handlers began telling us of what was in store for the next few weeks. It would be all classwork followed up by more classwork. It would likely be several months before we would get time in the fancy holo-screen simulators we had been shown in the chamber.
I could see the excitement melt away from Al and Rob's faces as the handlers talked about the coming coursework. Betty on the other hand was enthused. It seemed that no matter where you went there was always someone who enjoyed the bookwork. After her enthusiastic display I knew that Betty was surely one of those people.
After breakfast, we were taken back by the holo-simulators for one last look. The handlers raised their voices as loud as they could as we stood just on the edge of the nearest holo-sim area. Each of the areas in the chamber had been outfitted with noise cancellation gear that kept sounds from the other areas out. We were told it was the only thing keeping the underground hollow from becoming one gigantic and distracting echo chamber.
The handlers then hurried us across the chamber and into a classroom along with 28 other new recruits. There was a near even split between men and women.
The war-fighter game had changed tremendously as technology had advanced. As I looked around the room I took note of the makeup of our rookie crew. Tall, thin, short, heavy... almost every size and shape imaginable. Modern air warfare had seen to it that all you needed was a quick wit, rapid reflexes and the ability to sit in a chair for hours on end.
Al was a big muscular fellow who we gave the call sign "Mr. Bigg" which was soon shortened to "Bigg". With his height he would have had trouble fitting in an earlier version of a manned cockpit. He had a deep booming voice that commanded attention.
Bigg was a veteran of the USAF. He had been in the UAV corps piloting a drone when the aliens had last attacked. Al had been one of the UAV pilots responsible for tracking the alien craft during their brief yet destructive encounter.
In a strange twist of events Bigg's son Chris had been brought in as a technician. Bigg had been told that with the several thousand personnel in the chamber and the tight schedules he would be keeping that he would likely not have much chance of seeing his son. It was a very busy place.
Next was Rob who was an older gentleman. We called him "Pop-Top" as he had told us of his taste for vintage beers. It was soon shortened to "Pop". Pop was average height and weight and sported a big caterpillar of a mustache. We weren't sure why but Pop was always grinning.
Then there was Betty. We called her "The Whip" which soon became "Whip". She was a short, razor thin firecracker of Asian descent. Several things that became instantly clear about Whip were that she was sharp and quick witted with her vocabulary. She also had no problem using that against you if she felt it necessary.
And then there was me. A 5'9" tall 290 pound giant bag of cheese puffs. After watching me eat my breakfast the others had quickly decided on call sign "Hoover". It wasn't flattering, but it wasn't inaccurate either. I liked my food.
We had been sitting in a classroom talking for ten minutes when the instructor came through the door. She was a tall brunette with linebacker shoulders and a prosthetic arm. As she turned to face the room full of chatty fliers she had a scowl on her face. The room quickly became silent.
Her artificial limb had a panel strapped to it that contained several buttons and a touch pad device. Other than the rubbery looking skin the rest of the arm looked and functioned in an almost natural manner.
Colonel Darlene Rogers then pressed one of the buttons on her arm pad and a holo-screen with a close-up of an enemy fighter came to life floating in the air just above her and to the left. The fighter slowly rotated as the Colonel began her talk.
We were told there were four alien fighters identical to the one shown above her wreaking havoc on the world's communications satellites as we spoke. We had managed to damage one of them when it had attacked one of our satellites, a satellite which was armed with a coil gun. The other three had since been doing nothing but recon work. We were told they seemed to be watching for our reactions... probing our defenses.
The Colonel then told us that this was not the first return of the aliens to Earth. Thirteen years before two of a similar fighter had been taken out by our ground based coil-gun defenses. But, it was not before they had knocked out 54 of our best equipped fighters. Our top fighters at the time were all fully manned, each with a two person team. We had lost 108 good airmen that day.
Bigg was one of the few who knew of the attack before being stationed in the chamber. He had been a UAV pilot and a liaison to a company whose gear had powered our fighters. After that attack the chamber facility had been decided upon and funded through "Black" programs. Very few outside the chamber knew of its existence.
The two fighters had taken out three strategic satellites and then attacked a military airfield in northern Alaska. We had scrambled all our fighters there to meet the incoming threat. It was a massacre.
The alien fighters had only been taken out after being lured over a defended airfield. There we had two still experimental high powered coil guns sitting in wait. Nine aircraft with 18 crewmen on board had been sacrificed just to lure the alien fighters to their end. It was costly as those men and women had given their lives as bait.
Without the world being aware of the skirmish, the brave 126 souls who had given their lives had only been silently mourned by the few in the know. Families were told stories of separ
ate incidents and asked to remain silent because of matters of the highest of national importance.
Back in the classroom the history lesson went on for hours. With the new revelations, there was not a tired or dreary eye in the room. It was serious business and the crewmen assembled there were now fully aware of just how serious.
The first of our new fighters was to be launched in three days. The four man crew of the "Defender" series ship had been training in the simulators almost non-stop for a full year. Scenario after scenario had been placed before them in the holo-sims out in the chamber. Many of those training scenarios were of impossible missions where the crew was not coming back alive.
Each of the team had it drilled into them that the most important thing about each mission was for them to do the maximum amount of damage to the enemy. If they completed the sim run in one piece, any celebration was short lived as it was right back in for another mission.
After 11 hours in the classroom we were given one hour for rest and relaxation before a mandatory six hour sleep period. This was to be our schedule for the next four months. We were on 18 hour days. It seemed odd at first but with the proper lighting and ultra-quiet sleep chambers we were told the body would get into sync with it within the first ten days.
There was no scheduled sunrise or sunset to confuse our body clocks. We were deep underground where the Sun no longer mattered. Our crew of four became very tight very fast. I was selected as our pilot. My focus would be on flying the craft.
I was told that by the end of our training I should be able to fly the ship at Mach five down a railroad track and then roll over and under that track as it crossed a bridge over a small highway. At the time I wondered how it would be possible to make the 90 degree turns necessary for that maneuver. I was assured that I would soon learn how.
Bigg was our Defensive Specialist. The ship would be equipped with a number of new defenses and Bigg would become skilled at using them. His primary job would be to keep us alive.
Whip was our Offensive Specialist. She would be directing our four enhanced coil guns and our compliment of 38 missiles, four of which were nuclear tipped. Whip's job would be to do maximum damage to any and all targets identified.
Pop was our last specialist. He had been selected as our Engineer. He would keep all the ships systems ready and active. A good engineer had always been worth their weight in gold.
The training routine soon became second nature. Each of the squads of four were schooled on the ship, strategies, tactics and the utter importance of teamwork. One weak or lazy crewman could easily mean death for all.
After a long day in the classroom we settled into the lounge for our one hour R&R. Pop was grinning from ear to ear which was usual for him on his two days a week that he was allowed a single beer.
The evening hour was for unwinding but usually ended up with discussions about the days lessons. That day was special as we eagerly awaited the launch of the first manned Defender flight in the morning.
The Defender ships were to be marveled at. The magnetic drive system from the alien fighter had been adapted for anti-gravity and inertial dampening purposes. But, David Brenner and the other scientists had not yet figured out how the aliens had actually made their ships move.
They could hover. They could turn instantly without affecting those inside, but the actual propulsion itself had remained a mystery. So, David and his team had come up with a new system. The Black Hole Drive had been born. The BHD consisted of five high powered magnetic rings that functioned as neutron colliders.
Work done 70 years before on the Large Hadron Collider had led to the ability to create temporary microscopic black holes. The five rings were used to cycle neutrons up to speeds where the collision that occurred created a black hole that lasted fractions of a nanosecond.
In the Defender ships the discovery had been used to repeatedly form five temporary black holes just in front of the ship. The result being a powerful pull being exerted that would move the ship forward. The acceleration achieved was significantly faster than the current electric turbine technology. In the void of space it was theorized that it would work even better.
The strange thing about the black holes that were created was that the alien gravity wave was not immune to it. This meant that our ship, with its active skin, could be propelled forward by it regardless of the enemy gravity weapon.
The shell of the Defender was covered in a thin layer of Sodium Oxide. When a sufficient magnetic field was applied the skin of the craft took on the anti-grav qualities that were needed for it to fly. A benefit of the active skin was that those inside the ship were nearly immune to inertial forces. We would each be seated in a comfortable chair where we would watch and control everything from holo-displays.
Other than the holographic panels of controls that illuminated the interior of the craft, the remainder of the ship appeared jet black from the inside when the skin was activated. It was strange to be sitting in a chair that looked as though it was floating in the air. It would also be strange to have the other crewmen seemingly floating next to you.
On the defensive panel, Bigg would be able to control a gravity field similar to what the alien fighter had. A gravity wave could be projected outward from the ship into a point. David's team had again been unable to fully understand the physics behind the gravity wave and because of that we were only able to project it outward from the ship for a few meters.
On the alien fighter this had been used for their shield as well as for the deadly concussion weapon that had devastated Central Florida during the S.A. If positioned properly the gravity wave would act as a shield. Bigg's job would be to make sure it was always in the right place at the right time.
An interesting thing would happen when the skin of the ship was active. From the outside it would appear to vanish. No light or any radio wave of any sort would be reflected. Anything with a normal particle spin to it would be absorbed by the skin, passed around to the other side and then emitted.
A bullet fired at the ship would seem to pass through it and continue on from the other side as if nothing had been there. It was a fascinating anomaly that our scientists could still not fully understand.
There were limits to the amount of matter that could be absorbed and re-emitted. With a large enough mass the ship could be brought to a halt and with an even larger mass the active skin could be overwhelmed. We were told as an example that if we flew directly into a large enough mass that the ship would enter the mass and then slow to a halt. The skin would be overwhelmed and it would then go inactive. The result being that we would be trapped inside the mass.
On the weapons front Whip was excited about the prospect of firing a live coil gun. For her to have four of them would only make it four times more exciting. Our conversation then wandered onto the topic of the nuclear tipped missiles. They would pack quite a punch if they could be delivered to their target. Currently, the alien's gravity wave technology could easily keep the missiles at bay. Command hoped to find other uses for them.
Pop would be schooled in keeping every system operational while I would have the simple duties of starting, stopping and turning. If I could get us where we were going and back safely my duties as pilot would be fulfilled. Each of us also received training in the duties of the others. You could not have too much redundancy while at war and in space.
With a crew of four it would give us each six hours of sleep while rotating shifts if we were on duty. When the hour bell sounded we all made our way to our sleeping quarters. We would have our daily sonic shower and then slide on top of our anti-grav mattress beds.
The bedding was definitely a perk of being in the USAC. You would float on top of it giving you the most restful sleep you had ever had. That was especially true for a heavy guy like myself.
Even in our excited states, the prospect of the first flying Defender class ship the following morning was not enough to keep us awake after our third day in the classroom. The needed sleep was
an uneven match as we each powered up our anti-grav beds. With the ultra-dark and ultra-quiet of our personal chambers sleep came quickly.
Chapter 3
I was the first to arrive in the mess hall the following morning. The place was abuzz with anticipation of the launch. This would be the first of the Defender series ships to take to the sky. Whoever the first of our crew was to arrive in the morning would normally wait for the others before proceeding through the chow line. In my excited state I could not wait any longer.
I expected to be chastised by the others, but my eagerness had only brought about their laughter. I had been lucky with the crew I was with. There had not been any tension between us, no hostile outbursts and no jealous or selfish behavior, other than my minor infraction of the morning.
Our squadron of 28 crewmen would pilot seven Defenders. We had 11 other squadrons training in the chamber for a total of 84 crews. If construction and training went well, we were told those numbers would be quadrupled in the coming year.
While well over 300 craft should be enough to easily handle the current four alien fighters that plagued us, it seemed we might be grossly outnumbered when the full fleet arrived. It was scary stuff given the fact that the first Defender was just preparing for its first flight ever.
When we had finished eating we were herded out into the chamber and into an area that had been setup to address everyone. As we stood talking amongst ourselves, we waited patiently for a holo-screen to appear by the giant rock wall in front of us.
When the first image came to life the crowd quickly quieted, it was David Brenner. Everyone there was well aware of whom he was, so there was no need for an introduction. He gave a short greeting and then got right into the business of the day. Crew team A1 was standing behind him along with the first Defender, A000001.
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