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Chapter 117 - Fighter Training

  Allison paced back and forth. She was in her Atlantean armor. She had a physical tablet in her hand and was reading over her speech to start the class off. Each and every pilot she was about to address had more flight hours than her and were adults in their late twenties. She had more combat experience than a quarter of them. The others had been at Ratoa and faced the Sal’nash, some had even flown under her command. Even knowing she was in charge they had volunteered for this. She assumed they wanted payback, and it had nothing to do with her, who wants to take orders from a seventeen-year-old girl twice in their lifetime? Even more nerve wracking was she'd be addressing a mixed crowd as the League had picked their best to take part. She rubbed her face and closed her eyes.

  “You’re the daughter of a president and an actual deity, you can do this Allison! Do it for babu.”

  She took another deep breath and walked into the briefing room. Commander Holiday and Master Wing Blade T’raat had already arrived and were standing beside the lectern. There were thirty-two pilots gathered in the briefing room. It was the main briefing room for Eden Prime’s base. Sixteen humans, eight Silwrath, four wolf-people, one Vortique, two Yorleer women, and one single alien Allison could not identify. She took her place at the lectern and smiled at the pilots.

  “If you aren’t aware of who I am, I am Battlelord Allison Wanjala, call sign, Shadow. Master Wing Blade T’raat, call sign, Nether, Commander Holiday, call sign, Lithium and I will be instructing you on the piloting of the Synthlin fighters recovered recently. They’ve been designated Sabertooth class fighters. You should have received a briefing package on the control interface, specifications and AI’s. Our purpose here is to test your limits, then push you past them. These fighters are superior to the ones you’re familiar with in every way. In some ways, they are not. For the System’s Alliance pilots present you will notice the lack of weaponized antimatter. You’ll have to rely on standard LSR ordinance. You will be using LSR armored flight suits and weapons. You will learn from simulators, and the real thing. You will face off against the instructors in simulated dogfights both in holo-sim and in real starfighters. This is about more than skill; This is about how well you can work with the AI’s. They are your co-pilots, your rears, and your partners. If you fight them, they will fight you and you will be removed from this program. We are all here because we want to end the Sal’nash threat. Keep that in mind as we move forward. This is not a competition, and you need to work as a team.”

  Allison started to go through the specs of the Synthlin Sabertooth fighters. Much like her own they had modular weapon systems. Currently half of their extra weapon packs were loaded with energy torpedoes. Plasma to be precise. The other half were loaded with launchers for LSR high explosive missiles. When she got to the AI’s she tried to be specific.

  “Each of these starfighters is equipped with an artificial intelligence. These are not virtual intelligences. Each is a sentient being. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you do not treat them like people, they will not like you. I’ve been flying with one for just under a year. I cannot imagine my life without her in it. She has saved me on numerous occasions. Provided advice when I needed it most. These are not just fighters; They are fully defined sentient people with weapons.”

  One of the human pilots stuck up his hand. Allison could already tell by his cocky demeanor and his callsign, which was Legend, he was going to be trouble.

  “Well, if they’re so good, why aren’t they just flying the missions then?”

  The human pilots who had never flown with Allison laughed, none of the LSR pilots seemed amused. In fact, a Silwrath glared at Legend and spoke.

  “You don’t seem to understand who is speaking to you, human, when a Battlelord speaks, you should listen.”

  This led to a murmur of agreement from the LSR pilots. Allison raised her voice.

  “That’s enough. Legend, the AI’s are meant to be co-pilots, while they can control every aspect of the starfighter, they function best with a living pilot because we are a chaotic vector. What that means is, our organic brains do random things the AI’s while they can, have challenges in that area. You put two AI’s against each other, it is a stalemate and it comes down to technology. Add a sentient living being to the mix, the sentient living being working with an AI partner has the edge. It is the same with a sentient living being who is battling an AI starfighter with a sentient living pilot. The AI team is going to win, nine times out of ten. If you can’t wrap your head around that, you should leave now, we don’t need you here.”

  Legend didn’t look too pleased with Allison’s answer but didn’t comment any further, the eight foot tall Silwrath who was glaring at him might have had something to do with that. Allison let it go and continued with the lesson on the Synthlin fighter basics. The afternoon was going to be taken up with their first flights in the new fighters. The hopefuls were divided into three squadrons, randomly assigned. Allison was doing last-minute flight planning while the pilots were getting changed and organized. Her dhampiric hearing was apparently going to be a curse today as she overheard pilots talking about her. Legend was mouthing off.

  “Damn kid, who does she think she is? What is she twelve?”

  Badger, one of the pilots who’d been with Allison on course, and during the battle of Mary’s Station and Ratoa spoke up. He knew her well enough they were on a first name basis.

  “You best watch that attitude Legend. At least six of us have flown with her before. Shadow’s a hero. How many dog fights you been in huh?”

  Legend snorted.

  “I’ve two hundred hours in the sim.”

  Badger laughed at him.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. She’s been in four real life or death dog fights; she’s splashed a super-hive herself. Shadow’s the callsign she got assigned by command when she went Special Forces, the callsign we gave her in training was Reaper, because she was undefeated. If you were on her target list, you were dead. Some of that shit you learned in ATFS last month, yeah, they were her tactics. She’s a hero, you best show some respect.”

  Legend made a non-committal grunt.

  “She comes up against me, she’ll see a real pilot.”

  Angel, one of the pilots that had been on the ill-fated mission to the medical station in LSR space spoke up next.

  “Ignore him, he got his callsign because everyone say’s he’s a legend in his own mind.”

  Legend growled.

  “Yeah, well at least I didn’t get my callsign because I crashed my first ten times in a sim.”

  Allison sighed. She was afraid her age would be an issue. Didn’t matter that she was one of the best pilots in the System’s Alliance. They just saw a teenage girl. She was seventeen, but she was annoyed none-the-less. She shook her head and moved on. She took her place beside the two wing commanders. The trio watched the pilots take their turns in the Synthlin fighters. Most did fine, there were a few that did not mesh well with the fighter AIs. Legend especially. He got an AI that identified as female. His cocky, know it all attitude did not start them out on the right foot. It would take time before they would know for certain. The worst part of it was an argument between Legend and the AI about how dangerously he was flying.

  Allison sighed. She’d done worse in Bit with no comments from her AI. She wasn’t sure if the fighter’s AI was just being overly cautious or just being obstinate because Legend was for all intents and purposes a jerk. Allison opened up a comm signal to Legend.

  “You two, stop it. Legend, quit being an Ass, Qutitalia he needs to see what the fighter can do, and his maneuvers are well within the boundaries of this scheduled flight. I will get Bit to have a conversation with you and neither of us wants that.”

  Qutitalia shut up really quickly after that. Legend looked insulted. Allison didn’t care, she was feeling like she was babysitting a hundred thousand year old AI and a twenty eight year old man. Commander Holiday looked at Allison with a raised eyebrow.

  “The threat of your fighter’s AI seems to have had a real impact on Qutitalia. She must be something.”

  Allison glanced at the commander.

  “When she’s lecturing you, she has the guilt-trip ability of a grandmother, mixed with the disappointed look of a father, and the frown of a teacher you just broke the last straw with. She keeps me honest.”

  Commander Holiday laughed then motioned to the dot that indicated Legend and Qutitalia.

  “You’re going to kick him out, aren’t you?”

  Allison nodded.

  “We’re not here to babysit adult men. His attitude is terrible.”

  Commander Holiday frowned and nodded.

  “He really is good. His ego gets in his way, a lot. It is easy to be cocky when you are one of the best. He’d be Lieutenant Commander by now if he hadn’t gotten in trouble so many times. Maybe… if someone were to teach him humility, by say, trouncing him in a simulation repeatedly…”

  Allison glanced at the commander again.

  “That could just make him angrier. He already resents that I’m in command.”

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  The commander folded her hands behind her back.

  “Pilots like Legend need to know how good you are before they’ll respect you. You’re either going to have to eject him from the program or you’re going to have to put him in his place. I also think that AI he is flying with could use some humbling too. It might be good for the other pilots to see who you really are. I know what you can do. I’ve seen it. We were losing at Ratoa. It was over they just had to finish us off, then you showed up with the remnants of two squadrons almost out of ordinance and you won that battle. It was like the Dark Mother showed up herself, snapped her fingers and suddenly it was over and the Sal’nash ships and fighters were debris fields.”

  Allison shook her head.

  “I just gave the fleet an opportunity to recover, that’s all, the victory was the fleet’s.”

  Commander Holiday laughed.

  “You had already taken out the super-hive and damaged the other two with your squadron so severely they couldn’t even fire back. I was floating there dead in space and I watched you. The whole dynamic of the battle changed. You were literally avoiding fire from all of their fighters at once they all turned towards you. It was like they knew you would end them if you got through. Any other pilot would be dead right now. Show Legend and the other pilots here that. Your piloting that day is going to be used to teach classes in flight school and at ATFS. I made a simulation of it and told my pilots I’d arrange a week of leave for anyone who lasted more than five minutes. A minute thirty was the longest any who tried managed. Put this group through it, starting with Legend.”

  Allison shrugged.

  “If you think it is a valuable lesson, set it up, plug in their fighter AI’s. Make sure Legend and Qutitalia are together, they were made for each other. I’ve never taught pilots how to pilot before.”

  Commander Holiday nodded and walked off to set it up. Allison shifted the Saturday afternoon schedule to accommodate the sim time. It had been scheduled on two v one simulated space dogfights against the instructors.

  The afternoon came, Allison let Commander Holiday take charge, the commander was the one who had suggested it in the first place. The commander stood in front of the pilots in the briefing room. Allison was sitting with them. The commander started to lay out the goals of the simulation.

  “Change of plans this afternoon, we were going to do two v one dogfights against the instructors, instead we want to see what you can do against our real enemies. You will fight a simulated battle with a VI squadron against the Sal’nash. You are taking the part of a reinforcement squadron of starfighters and bombers. Your fighter loadout will be as follows, you will have one torpedo that can take out the primary target, a full load of LSR missiles, particle beams, plasma gatlings. The primary target must be taken out before your squadron, the fleet, and its squadrons can assist you. Until that time, you are on your own to simulate the effects of the Sal’nash jamming signal. Your goal is to take out the primary target, as many fighters and do as much damage to the Sal’nash ships as possible, and of course survive. You will be teamed up with your AI from this morning. If you can last ten minutes of active combat, you will pass, any less, or if you fail to take out the primary target or sufficiently damage the secondary targets, you will fail. Good luck everyone.”

  A few of the pilots that were from the Ark Royal groaned. The commander just smiled. The three instructors watched as pilot after pilot was obliterated by the simulation. Allison was taking far less pleasure in it than the other two. She had lived through this and then relived it when she had to defend her actions against the review board. Then once again when Fleet Command reviewed the engagement for improvements that could be passed on in training. Allison had worked a miracle over Ratoa and yet they still found fault in her piloting. The first suggestion was she should have left the battle as soon as the fighters focused on her, failing that they identified some of her maneuvers that were not optimum given the circumstances. They hadn’t been criticizing her, just identifying places she could improve, but it sure seemed like condemnation to a teenage girl.

  Legend and Qutitalia were the only ones who managed to take out the Super Hive, they were quickly destroyed because they took too long to acquire targeting on the Super Hive. Legend let loose a string of very unprofessional curse words. Blamed Qutitalia for not helping enough. He had the worst reaction. Most of the human pilots were frustrated. If the LSR pilots were upset, it was hard to tell. Most took it in stride. When they gathered in the briefing room to review their performance Commander Holiday passed on the three instructors’ constructive criticism. Legend was not silent about his dislike of this whole test.

  “With all due respect ma’am, the test was bullshit. If you wanted us to learn we can’t win every fight, there are better ways to do it. No one can survive that nonsense! No way any enemy focuses on one pilot the simulation is flawed.”

  Commander Holiday glanced at Allison then back to the pilots.

  “That simulation is an exact recreation of a mission Shadow flew. She not only managed to take out the Super Hive, but she also took out the two support hive’s weapons and left the Sal’nash vulnerable to the fleet’s counterattack. Not only did she succeed, she landed her fighter afterwards so she could be rearmed and get replacement armor to continue fighting.”

  Legend laughed.

  “Bullshit! No way she survived every single fighter coming after her.”

  Commander Holiday smiled and reached up and interacted with her AR HUD, she motioned with her hand to send a video to the main holo-display for the briefing room. Apparently, she knew this was coming.

  “Watch and learn.”

  The sim ran how it actually happened in full three dimensional hologram. Every pilot in the room stared in awe, except Legend. When it was over Legend shook his head.

  “She didn’t even try to use her missiles.”

  Allison decided she had enough and spoke up.

  “When we arrived, our stores were depleted, our fighters and bombers were damaged from an engagement with a Hive and its entire compliment. You had a fully functional fighter, with a full loadout of ordinance. Maybe if you’d seen actual combat you would have a little more respect for those of us who showed up to reinforce our fleet even though we knew it was likely a suicide mission. You all failed because each of you tried to be a hero. We succeeded because we worked together as a team. You were given command of a bomber squadron and a fighter squadron, why didn’t you use them? You had drone wings. The LSR pilots can be forgiven for not using them, but for the SA pilots you were trained with them! You just ignored perfectly good force multipliers. Those of you who did use them micromanaged your AI’s to the point they couldn’t effectively use them. If you don’t trust the AI’s to do their job then you’re wasting their potential and yours.”

  She turned the Commander Holiday.

  “Load up the sim again give me whatever AI you want.”

  Five minutes later Allison was sitting in the cockpit of one of the simulated Synthlin fighters with Qutitalia as her AI. She spoke to the AI directly.

  “Qutitalia, I’m just going to call you Tali. The second we arrive I want a targeting solution on the super hive. Target one of the main launch bays with the anti-hive torpedo. Gold Squadron hang back, once I deal with the jamming field focus fire on the two smaller Hives. Skull Squadron use your particle beams to fire into the field, see if you can pick off some fighters at extreme range. Skull One and Two, you’re on my wing once the jamming signal is down. The rest of Skull escort Gold Squadron, two per bomber. Let your VI’s manage your drone wings sacrifice them if you need to save the bombers. Tali, ask Andromeda-1 to initiate wormhole jump at the coordinates they were provided, please.”

  Allison led the squadrons through the wormhole. She was greeted by the sight of the Alliance fleet in shambles as it had been. She ignored the flagship and focused on the hive. Since she was flying the Synthlin fighter that was immune to the signal she flew straight at the super hive. Tali had the targeting solution she’d requested very quickly but Allison wasn’t going to fire at range. She dodged and zig-zagged her way to the Super Hive’s landing bay. Tali was growing concerned.

  “Shadow, what are you doing? You’re on a collision course.”

  Allison smirked.

  “We’re going to fly right through. I want you to launch a full volley of missiles aft of us once we’re inside. I’ll get the package delivered. Focus shields aft, now!”

  Allison flew into the open hangar bay while she triggered the torpedo launch she called out.

  “Tali, launch twenty missiles aft, now!”

  The Sal’nash attack craft were swarming after Allison’s fighter just as they had in the original battle, only this time she had missiles. The bulk of the swarm were clustered together to enter the massive hangar bay door when she launched the missiles. They disintegrated. The rest got caught up in the explosive release of the weaponized nanites. She focus-fired all of her weapons on the already half disintegrated wall in front of her and after destroying several plant filled carbon dioxide exchange rooms she blasted her way through the hangar bay on the other side. With that maneuver she’d decreased the Sal’nash starfighters chasing her by ninety percent. She swept up and over. She figured some of the Sal’nash would have gone over the hive and she had been right. Skull One, Skull two and their drone wings caught the Sal’nash in a withering crossfire.

  “Everyone, weapons free. Do as much damage as you can to the remaining Hives. Focus on weapons and the aft section of the ship. We don’t want them to escape. Keep them busy until the fleet can acquire a firing solution.”

  She led Skull One and Two on an attack run on the Hive closest to Ratoa. She addressed Tali again.

  “Tali, coordinate all drone wing fire on my targets.”

  Allison flew along the side of the Hive taking out all eight plasma launchers with her wingmen. Before the five minutes were up her squadron’s had disabled both hives. The simulation finished as the fleet opened fire on the two hives. Allison returned to the briefing room. She let Commander Holiday go over her performance with the pilots. She felt like she got slapped when the commander referred to her punching through the Super-Hive as reckless. She knew it would be easy with a nanotech bomb devouring the hull for her. She couldn’t exactly admit that was what she used. The commander went back to her in the hanger. Allison prepared herself for more constructive criticism, but none came.

  “While Shadow was lucky, she could punch through the hive’s inner walls, what she did here.”

  The holo-replay paused as Allison launched her volley of missiles towards the swarm of Sal’nash fighters that had recklessly followed her into a confined space.

  “She used the available terrain to funnel her attackers into a confined space and then utilized her high explosive missiles to saturate that space. While she damaged her own shields, her attack overwhelmed the enemy. Cutting their fighter support by roughly seventy-five percent. She turned her disadvantage, that she was vastly outnumbered, into an advantage by using a confined space and limiting her exposure to their fire by executing her attack as soon as it was viable. She could have waited but the risk would have increased exponentially.”

  Allison’s ruffled feathers settled down when she realized Commander Holiday wasn’t picking her apart.

  “Pay attention to this holo-recording. She used every advantage she could with the starfighters you want to pilot. She also worked with the AI, offloading tasks so she could focus on staying alive and completing the mission. Targeting on a large slow moving object with guided ordinance is fairly easy and doesn’t require fancy maneuvers, shield controls. I understand the LSR pilots among you not being adept at that, but this is something you SA pilots should be more than familiar with, your VI can do it even now. The AI’s are even more intelligent and have a sense of self-preservation. Use them.”

  She rewound the holo-recording to when Allison was providing instructions to her squadrons.

  “This is classic flight leader behavior. She gave clear and concise orders to her squadrons. She did not micromanage. You will be the vanguard in our encounters with the Sal’nash. You and your AI. You need to clear a path for your squadrons to engage the Sal’nash, you need to clear a path for any SA ships that hope to engage in a battle with the Sal’nash. That is precisely what Shadow did here. She also flew like she wasn’t coming back from it. She took risks, which I assume were calculated. She is in command of our battlegroup for a reason. This is the reason. So, I do not want to hear any more belly aching from any of you. She earned her spot here, you haven’t yet. Dismissed.”

  Allison said her good nights for the day and went to the holo-sim again. She’d been trying unsuccessfully to navigate a Christmas present from her Aunt Maria in her spare time. Technically when she was not active military she shouldn’t have been using it but the technicians let her slip in when it wasn’t in use. It had been pretty frustrating up to this point. Now she could just schedule its use for training because she was active in the military and also outranked everyone on the base. She motioned for the technician to start up the holo-sim.

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