Burden of Sisyphus (14 page)

           
“Carry on.”
 
He walked out.

           
Once the door closed firmly behind the captain, Eza swung his head around to look at Vance.
 
“So, basically, we don’t know a damn thing, and they’d really appreciate it if we could tell them all about the planet once we get there.”

           
“When is that any different from any other mission we’ve been on?”
 
Yen, pushing past Eza, walked toward the door.

           
“He actually told us that Seques might be encountered on the planet,” Ainj said, exasperated.
 
“Seques are on
every
planet.”

           
“You all complain more than anyone else I ever met,” Ixibas hissed, walking toward the door.

           
The infantry soldiers intermingled with the team, as they filed from the room.
 
Vance stayed behind to gather the last of his possessions.
 
When the room was empty, he turned on the screen again and let the images of the city flicker across the display.

           
“What do you think?” he asked the apparently empty room.

           
“It doesn’t seem any more dangerous than any other mission you’ve been on,” Halo replied from the corner speakers.
 
“No solid intelligence on the planet and no reason for lost communications, though, always makes me nervous.”

           
“Did you know anything about the High Council messages the captain referred to?”

           
Halo paused for a quick scan of transmission files.
 
“There’s nothing logged from the High Council, but that doesn’t mean anything.
 
As secretive as they are, they probably have a way to send a message straight to the captain while bypassing my security systems.”

           
Vance remained silent, as more images scrolled by.
 
“My gut tells me there’s more to this mission than meets the eye.”

           
“I agree, and you have a visitor.”

           
Vance turned to find Warrant Decker standing near the front row of seats.

           
“Sorry to interrupt you, Sir,” Decker said.
 
“I can return later, if you need more privacy.”

           
“Nonsense.”
 
He motioned Decker to join him near the screen.

           
As they stood side-by-side, they studied each image, as it passed.
 

           
“I take it you aren’t satisfied with the intelligence brief, either?” Vance asked.

           
“I wouldn't say that.
 
I just can’t help feeling there’s more to the mission.”

           
“I know the feeling, Kid.”

           
They watched in silence, their sharp eyes drinking in the black-and-white photos of the cityscape.
 
Many satellite pictures went by, as they sat without speaking.

           
After nearly two dozen went by, Decker pointed.
 
“There.
 
Stop the image.”
 
His index finger traced minute details of the city’s main avenue.
 
“Halo, can you zoom in on the area I’m indicating?”

           
“Of course.”

           
The image magnified.
 
Blockish buildings took shape.
 
The glass-and-girder constructions grew into clearer definition.
 
Decker’s eyes remained on the street.

           
“Get us down to street level if you can,” Vance said, noticing what Decker saw.

           
Eventually, the street image dominated the screen.
 
Both Pilgrims stepped back to take in the full picture.
 
Frowns etched on both faces, as they became worried.
 

           
Along both sides of the street, a pixilated image showed a line of cars, all of which were damaged.
 
Their roofs caved inward.
 
Hoods buckled under a smashing force.
 
Along the twisted hoods of many, dark-black smears spread from the car onto the ground in front of the hood.

           
On the sidewalks, shattered glass twinkled in the picture, having been blown outward from the storefronts lining the street.
 
Panning forward, they followed the line of parked cars, all of which were destroyed, and many of which held dark smears of what appeared to be blood.

           
“Why would the High Council have missed such a telltale sign of danger?” Decker asked.

           
“They wouldn’t.”
 
Vance continued frowning.
 
“Somehow, I think there’s more to this mission than what we’ve been briefed.”

CHAPTER NINE

           
The display on the desk before Keryn shifted, enlarging and expanding until a two-foot-wide sphere hovered above the table’s flat display.
 
Lines of latitude and longitude encased the hollow sphere, crisscrossing like a fine gossamer web.
 
Within the sphere, small pyramids appeared one in front of the other, hovering in eager anticipation of commands from the class’ instructor, as if frozen in never-ending pursuit.

           
Victoria stood in the front of the room, a long, pen-shaped apparatus held in her hand.
 
When she pressed a button on its side, a fine laser emerged, penetrating the identical sphere projected above the teacher’s desk.
 
As the laser entered the sphere, it struck the front-most pyramid.
 
With that under her control, she moved it slowly away from the focus of the sphere, drifting it toward the orb’s outer edge.
 
In response, the rear pyramid gave chase, keeping an equal distance behind.

           
She said loudly, working with the pyramids, “Most of you have difficulty grasping combat outside a two-dimensional plane.
 
All combat exists on a single flat sheet.
 
Two opponents maneuver and drift around one another in a tactical, artful dance, until one finds an opening and strikes.
 
Even when you take into account the use of high ground, you’re still altering only the level of the two-dimensional plane to a twenty-, thirty-, or forty-five-degree angle to account for the elevation.
 
Still, however, your combat exists only within that stifling plane.

           
“For those of you to whom that description applied, you’ll find the shift to three-dimensional combat difficult.
 
You’ve mastered the art of preparing for an enemy in front of you, to the side, or behind, but taking into account an enemy simultaneously below and above you, too, you’ll be forced to expand your thinking.”

           
Victoria returned to the sphere.
 
Keryn watched her own display, seeing the pyramids move without the distraction of Victoria and her laser moving objects like a marionette.

           
“Some of the skills you’ve learned in ground training, such as leading a target when firing at a moving object, still apply to space combat.
 
However, even those are modified.
 
Distances in space are distorting to the eye.
 
On a planet, the atmosphere masks great distances.
 
The same can be said for the shape of the planet itself.
 
Objects disappear into a distant horizon when they get far enough away.
 
Therefore, your mind can interpret distance easier due to the planet’s slope.
 

           
“In space, however, there’s no horizon to use as a marker, and the size of the ships themselves is misleading.
 
The smallest
Duun
fighter is still massive compared to normal targets on the ground.
 
Spotting a distant ship during a space battle might mean that it’s literally thousands of feet away, far beyond effective engagement distance.
 
Until you learn the fact that, in space, there are no reference points for distance, you’ll struggle with this crucial part of the learning process.
 
In this classroom, I’ll teach you the basics, but your experience in the cockpit will truly teach you to be a pilot.”

           
Victoria turned back to the sphere, finally making reference to the pyramids she’d been moving in a dizzying dance.
 
“Most of three-dimensional combat is an incorporation of both mathematical concepts and basic physics.
 
The most basic of these concepts is the simple triangle.
 
Take, for example, the banking ship.”

           
Using her laser, she turned the front pyramid into a steep climb.
 
Behind it, a fine blue line appeared in the sphere, tracing the path it took on its upward flight.
 
As the front ship pulled away from its pursuer, Victoria paused the demonstration.

           
“What you’re seeing is the first establishment of a triangle.”

           
On the screen, the ship’s gradual climb elongated until the single sloping blue line became two lines intersecting at a ninety-degree angle.
 
“Though this wasn’t the exact course the lead pilot took, we can see that the front ship has established two legs of the triangle during its evasion of its pursuer.
 
However, it leaves itself open for attack.
 
How?”

           
Sasha raised her hand confidently from the back of the room.
 
“Because everyone knows that the hypotenuse of a right triangle is a shorter distance than the sum of the other two legs.
 
Therefore, the pursuing pilot simply has to increase the elevation of his own climb to cut off his fleeing adversary.”

           
In response to her words, a thin red line was drawn from the two exposed ends of the legs, completing the triangle.
 
Victoria continued the lecture with a faint nod to the proud Avalon student.
 
“The gravitational inhibitors on every Alliance ship mean that you can pull off maneuvers like the one I just demonstrated without fear of crushing gravitational forces during an intense climb.
 
Cast aside your preconceived notions about combat.
 
In space, within an Alliance ship, nearly anything you can imagine is possible.”

           
Keryn sat entranced, as Victoria lectured for hours on different techniques for assault and evasion during space combat.
 
Pyramids danced throughout the sphere in wild firefights that she struggled to follow.
 
Slowly, Victoria added more and more pyramids to the demonstration, until nearly the whole sphere was filled with a combination of mock ships and weapon fire.

           
By the end of the instruction, Keryn’s eyes watered from strain, and her head ached.
 
She tried to retain all Victoria taught, but she felt the fabric of her understanding unraveling.
 
The concepts were foreign and complex, leaving her concerned about how to apply ideas she barely understood to real-life aerial combat.

           
Frowning, she replayed the most-recent demonstration, squinting hard to track the individual movements of dozens of small fighters, as they wove through one another’s machine gun and rocket fire to maneuver close enough for a kill.
 
She already knew how the battle ended and marked the winning ship.
 
Still, she couldn't see what it did that was so remarkable that it defeated so many opponents.

           
During her training as a warrior, Keryn always kept aces up her sleeve in every confrontation.
 
She watched her opponent’s subtle body language and facial expression, learning his strengths and weaknesses.
 
Choosing from a vast repertoire of battle techniques, she always found one that exploited her opponent’s weaknesses and left her victorious.