Of Hearts And Stars (Classic Editon) (The Cadet Starship Chronicles) (11 page)

To Swift this meant that there was a high probability of Wilson trying to burst into weapons range. Perhaps he was trying to catch him off guard by cruising so slow for so long? No matter. They had already arrived where they needed to be.

This is it, Wilson thought. He engaged his thrusters and accelerated forward without a second thought. Which was pretty dumb, because if he had waited just a little longer, then maybe he'd have been able to react to what happened next.

Swift executed a complete vertical drop, giving no prior indication that he was going to do so. This maneuver, made famous by Swift's father, is called a zero point drop. Wilson now found himself charging head first into a meteorite that had been previously obscured by LaCroix. He panicked and jammed on the reverse thrusters while struggling to turn. A skilled pilot might have mimicked their opponent, an average pilot might have gone up and over, and a brave novice might have tried to blast through it. But this was Wilson Johnson, so he ended up slamming the side of ship Fifty Three into the meteorite, wiping out his shields and destroying his port side thrusters. He could no longer move and LaCroix was no where in sight. Wilson already knew what was coming up next.

“
LC, rotate thrusters one and two ninety degrees counterclockwise, then engage and activate them simultaneously with the aft take off thrusters. Fire a three shot burst from the Mark IV cannons at one hundred eighty degrees.”

LC did as Swift commanded, when she finished she said “Wow Swifty that was cool, complex sounding stuff you just said there. Basically you wanted me to flip the ship and shoot when facing up?”

“
Oh yeah!” Swift replied as he drummed his fingers to the music.

The concussive force from LaCroix's cannons knocked Wilson from his seat and onto the deck. Ship Fifty Three's AI began to recite a long list of casualties from every system on the ship. He scrambled to his feet as CGI smoke billowed into the room and simulated sparks flew through the air. A brilliant white light enveloped him and he kicked his seat in frustration.

Mr. Method announced loudly over the speakers “First strike medal awarded to LaCroix! First blood medal awarded to LaCroix! Triple strike medal awarded to LaCroix! Ship Fifty Three will re-spawn in five seconds.”

“
That was cheap.” Wilson said to Swift over the all chat.

“
What's cheap? Map awareness? Were you even looking at your minimap?” Swift replied.

“
Shut up!” Wilson glared at Swift.

“
Okay, my bad. Obviously you were.” Swift said sarcastically.

“
I said shut up!” Wilson screamed.

This was getting on Wilson's nerves, but he remained calm; he wasn't mad. The victory medal counted as two medals, and match summary medals were still available that he could achieve. He could still win this, but he couldn't let Swift trick him with anymore lucky plays.

Swift steered LaCroix out of the meteor belt and idled in the area outside of the enemy spawn. He intended on ending the match with the next exchange, but also wanted to test an experimental new weapon he had named Pol's Voice. When he saw that ship Fifty Three respawned he set his plan into motion.

“
LC, load 'Magnum' by xKore at two minutes and thirty seconds and start charging the plasma projector for a steady stream of twenty seven seconds.”

“
Volume?” LC asked.

Swift pumped his fist into the air and said “Up to eleven.”

Wilson checked his minimap this time, and to his surprise he saw LaCroix just idling. Was this clown taunting him? Swift's arrogance would screw him over this time, Wilson thought. He'd done research on LaCroix just in case it came in handy one day. It turned out that Swift's infamous cruiser has a few flaws. The first being that despite having excellent top speed, it's acceleration is average at best. The second flaw is that it's shields are weak. They're set with a fast recharge rate designed for mitigation versus energy based attacks. In short they could not take a pulse missile barrage. Wilson giggled with perverse glee as he trotted over to the weapons console “I so got this!” he said to himself.

Meanwhile, back on LaCroix, Swift was monitoring Pol's Voice as it charged when LC called for his attention.

“
Swifty, the enemy ship just burst into weapon's range and is preparing to launch phase missiles. Initiate evasive maneuvers?”

Swift shook his head and replied “No, but rotate Pol's cannon forward and bring us around.”

LC did as ordered and said “Rotation complete, and we are now facing ship Fifty Three. The enemy has launched phase missiles.”

“
How many?” Swift asked.

LC hopped down from the handrail and ran to the observation window to see.

“
All of them I think.”

Swift looked back down at the information window for Pol's Voice and smiled. It was fully charged and ready to fire.

“
What's the estimated time of impact for those missiles?”

“
Missile impact in five...four...three-”

Swift yelled “Bass!” and fired Pol's Voice. The effect was immediate. Due to the intense vibrations caused by low frequency sound waves, the missiles exploded before reaching LaCroix. However, what Swift anticipated the most was the effects of Pol's Voice on ship Fifty Three.

Wilson pounded a fist on his console and cried out “What the.. What happened!?”

He had executed the burst flawlessly, not giving Swift a chance to escape, and watched as his missiles raced towards LaCroix. Then they simply blew up for no reason! Then it hit. An inexplicable shaking of his ship accompanied by a ferocious rumbling. It was almost like Swift had somehow thrown an earthquake at him. As it went on, Wilson began to make out what the sound was.

“
No way...” he uttered in disbelief.

When the attack finally ceased he wiped his face with his hand. Every precision instrument- no it was even worse than that. Every component on his ship that even required the slightest calibration would need to be reset. Sure enough, as if to confirm this, ship Fifty Three's AI began to recite a long list of shipboard casualties. He couldn't even move the ship at this point, let alone launch any more attacks.

Mr. Method raised a hand and announced “This match is over! LaCroix wins with a total of six medals to zero. Summary medals will not be awarded.”

The cheers from the applicant crew rose above the disgruntled groans from crew Fifty Three. Swift came running out of the simulation bay with his hands in the air like he had just won a marathon and was met with applause.

“
Don't let him fool you! It was beginner's luck!” Felix jeered from within the crowd.

Swift pointed Felix out and yelled “Silence you jealous, short little man!”

Felix stepped forward and they bumped fists “Good stuff. Now these guys can do their tryouts. You're like some sort of ego driven super hero.” he said.

Swift put his hands on his hips and said “Some people call me Batman.”

Allie and Revy had joined them, and upon hearing this Allie ruffled Swift's already messy brown hair “No they don't.” she corrected him.

“
Revy calls me Batman.” he persisted.

Revy socked him in the arm and said “No I don't.”

“
Dang.” Swift said, soundly defeated.

Wilson emerged to boos from the applicant crew, joined by the scolding of his own crew.

“
Shut up, shut up,
shut up
! I was cheated!” he tried to explain.

Miley heard this and laughed “Did he use a map-hack on you?” she asked.

“
What? No I-”

Felix broke into the conversation and said “Lag. He had all of the lag ever.”

Now Swift had wandered over and said while scratching his chin “I felt some lag there too...”

Mr. Method stepped in and attempted to break the tension by saying “Now now cadets. It was a fair match and a good show of skill from both captains.”

Wilson wasn't having this nonsense. He shouldered past Miley and confronted Mr. Method “If that was fair, and Swift didn't cheat, then the simulation is glitched.” he said.

Swift, with his hand still on his chin nodded and said “I think it might have been the season three patch...”

Wilson snapped.

“
Just shut up! You know exactly what I am talking about!” he shouted and asked “How did you disable my ship with
music
in
outer space
?”

Swift shrugged and offered an answer “Dubstep is just that awful.” he said.

“
No you idiot!” Wilson said pointing his finger at Swift “Sound can't travel through the vacuum of space, am I right?”

“
That it cannot.” Swift agreed.

“
Right. So the simulation glitched out and I-”

“
No.” Swift said.

“
No?” Wilson asked.

“
No glitch.” Swift replied.

“
Then how?”

“
Ingenuity. In order for sound to travel it needs molecules to pass it along. In the vacuum of space there are too few molecules for this to be possible. Therefore Felix configured a plasma projector capable of emitting a steady stream over a considerably large distance. The plasma allows the sound waves to propagate, or pass along, and wreck yo set with SFX. Boyyy.”

Wilson took all of this in and then rolled his eyes before saying “You guys have way too much free time.”

“
Dub wub wub wub.” Swift replied.

“
That's not even funny.” Wilson said indignantly.

“
It's funny 'cause I said I'd step on you.” Swift took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on “Looks like I dub-stepped on you. OHHHHHHHH YEAH!”

Everyone laughed except for Wilson, who was pretty mad. Crew Fifty Three and the applicant crew made their way to the simulation bay afterward. While they were waiting for the simulation to load, Wilson spoke to his crew.

“
Okay guys, if we do it right we can force them to fail. Who's with me?” he asked with a sick look of excitement in his eyes.

When no one else spoke up, Miley said “Let's not do that. Win or lose, they stand a good chance of passing. We should give them a fair try.”

Wilson sucked his teeth and said “God you're so lame Miley.”

“
Obvious troll is obvious.” she retorted.

“
I don't know why you're always such a bi-”

Wilson was the first to emerge from the simulation bay with a bright and shiny black eye.

“
Oh snap!” Zhao said and elbowed Finnegan “Cookie” Cooke, LaCroix engineer.

Cookie looked at Wilson's eye and hissed before saying “Dang, that's raw.”

Wilson ignored them both and walked out in shameful silence. Shortly afterward both crews emerged as well, and were enthusiastically discussing their match.

“
Good game and well played guys.” Morris said to the applicant crew.

“
Thanks! You guys were pretty cool out there!” a red headed member of the applicant crew said.

Corrigin smiled and said “Yeah, good game and well played. I'm glad we got to do our field test with your crew.”

Miley sighed and patted him on the back “While I really wish that we didn't have to lose rank, I'm glad that all of you were able to pass today.” she said.

Corrigin looked down and said “Still, I'm a bit worried.”

“
Why?” Miley asked.

“
Wilson said something to me before he left. It was like...” Corrigin put his hand over his eye and cried “You think you're so clever! I'll make sure no team picks you up!”

Miley snorted and said “Screw him! I'll make a team and recruit you myself!”

“
Not so fast Harrison.” Swift suddenly said from behind her.

“
Oh yeah?” she asked.

“
Yeah. Wanna fight over him?”

“
No thanks.” Miley said with a laugh and a grin “I'm not a big fan of dub step.”

Swift approached Corrigin and said “Then it's settled. From this day forward you are an official member of LaCroix. I shall call you Gin.”

Corrigin “Gin” O'Hare had accomplished what he set out to do: join a student crew and thus become a person with more presence. However, he had no idea that he would end up joining an elite student crew, and never in his dreams did he imagine the adventures that were soon to follow.