SODIUM:3 Fusion (5 page)

Alien robots, we called them tripods, and flying drones were available for targeting. We were given five specific targets and a time limit to kill the five and return. Everything else was considered extra credit.

We began the scenario with our pre-flight checks. Every scenario was given a random chance of some pre-flight problem occurring. If you skipped or did a sloppy pre-flight and an event occurred it would be counted as one death for your team. More deaths meant more basic training and less chance of graduation to a real Defender. I had already made our lives more difficult with a death on our first day.

We soon lifted, turned and exited the hangar. It was a quick flight over to the nearest building where a unit of three tripods were harassing a simulated tank. A precision coil gun shot from Whip ended the harassment.

Next it was over to a hilltop where two alien drones were defending a landed alien fighter. The drones were much more spry than the tripods and this time we received fire back. Bigg directed the shields as I circled to give Whip a better shot. Two quick bursts later and the drones were dispatched. As we turned towards the next target Whip selected and fired off one of her nukes.

The parked alien fighter whopped it from the sky with its gravity wave weapon. As we sped away the crumpled missile fell harmlessly to the ground. Whip was annoyed by the ineffectiveness of the missile and decided to just drop one on the ground behind our ship as we flew.

As we moved towards the next target I could hear Whip mumbling to herself. My thought at the time was that she had just wasted another nuke. With less than a minute to go before our next target a small mushroom cloud appeared on the screen behind the ship.

The alien fighter had lifted in pursuit of us and had flown directly over the second nuke that Whip had strategically dropped. Whip screamed in delight as the fighter was too close to effectively block the explosion from the nuke. She had single-handedly taken out our first alien fighter.

The next target had five drones protecting numerous tripods. I circled left and Whip took out the first drone as Bigg shielded us from their weapons. I then turned straight up, luring another drone into a chase. At two kilometers of altitude I did a quick 180 and flew straight into the drone before it had a chance to maneuver away. The BHD had cut the drone in half.

Whip then fired on the next drone knocking it from the sky. Using a circular attack pattern, as I had with the first drones, allowed Whip the opportunity to take them both out. The tripods were then easy prey.

The fourth target was 16 drones that flew in a tight formation. We again got them into a pursuit only this time when I had spun the DSim backwards Whip fired all four coil guns at once. The combined shields of the 16 were enough to block our weapons but not enough to block the effects of us blasting the rock formation they were flying close over. Two of the coil guns were directed at the fighters and two at the rocks.

They could effectively shield one direction but not both. It was a well known weakness of the alien defenses. Whip had taken full advantage of this fact and the result had been the destruction of 12 of the drones with two of the remaining four heavily damaged. We moped up the survivors within a minute.

As we approached target five I took note that we had no intel on what we were after. There was only a report of enemy activity at that location. When we topped the final ridge we were greeted immediately by another pod of 16 drones. They had locked onto us and within seconds had the active skin capacity up to 40%. At 100% we would be considered dead.

I turned straight up and pushed the throttle to full, but I could not shake the drones. In ground scenarios we were limited to 3% maximum power. I thought it an unfair advantage to the aliens that we were not allowed to go faster, but rules were rules and we did not control the battlefield.

I again tried my flip maneuver only to have the pod scatter before I reached them. They quickly reassembled and once again pursued us. As I headed back towards the ground Bigg chimed in with an alert. There were two alien fighters fast approaching. If we could not outmaneuver a drone pod we certainly could not outmaneuver a fighter. Having to deal with two of them was just ridiculous.

The only effective plan I had come up with was to keep the drones between us and the fighters. It took all my flying skills to keep us alive, but it was soon evident that our death was imminent.

I tried to do another flip but this time the drones stayed scattered and the alien fighters raced in. As they closed the skin capacity rose to 50%, then 70% and then 90%. When the skin failed we would easily be crushed by the gravity waves. I attempted a final flip and the ship's systems all shut down. After an automated 20 second reboot our reactor came back to life and the ship's screens with it.

The scenario monitor showed that we had indeed died. Then Pop let out a howl and directed our attention to the scenario stats. Somehow the two alien fighters had been destroyed. Pop was grinning from ear to ear as he told us that he had simulated a massive dump of Sodium into the reactor core. The resulting huge explosion had taken us out along with the two fighters. We had lucked out on our position over an unpopulated area as there was now a crater on the ground a half kilometer wide.

We had two deaths on our first day of scenarios, but we had managed to take out numerous tripods, drones... and three alien fighters. From what we had been taught in class it would be considered a huge victory. Moments after our celebration had begun Red's face popped up on our screens and the DSim powered down. We had been called to the flight commander's office.

Our handlers came in and detached us from our chairs. We were then escorted over to the flight commander's office. With two deaths on the first day I wondered if we were being flunked out of USAC training. The team had somber looks on their faces. It was the first time I remember seeing Pop without his continuous goofy grin.

A Sergeant led us into the office of USAC General Daniel Buck. We were told to sit. The General then looked us over as he slowly walked around behind us.

He then began to talk about the mistake I had made, killing us on our initial DSim flight. That soon turned to a berating about many smaller mistakes during the ground scenario. A small part of me wished for my Great Uncle to come in to our rescue. The General then focused on the ending of our scenario.

His tone abruptly changed. There had only been one other team who had taken out an enemy fighter in a single crew scenario. That victory had come only near the end of their training. It had earned the crew the command of A000001. We had just taken out three fighters on our first day!

I looked around at the others as the General continued to talk and could see a sense of pride welling up in them. Our team had just kicked ass on our rookie set of missions. The General then went on to tell us he was erasing our two deaths from our DSim logs. We were also to be given one day a week during our remaining training where we would be allowed to watch others, ask questions of our scientists and engineers or do free DSim hours.

The General had one last reward for us that he had been saving. In two days the first squad of seven Defenders would be lifting off to do battle with the alien fighters. We were to have sideline seating in the Battle Room where we would be allowed to monitor every aspect of the fight. It was an honor that only a few would ever know.

The remaining crews, their trainers, the techs and everyone else in the chamber would not be aware of the coming event. Command, the first squad, their handlers and the Battle Tacticians would be the only ones who knew what was happening. When we were dismissed from the General's office he shook each of our hands. He then gave a stern warning about the seriousness of the whole affair before giving us a final "Good job."

As we headed back to the DSim, Red came over our audio implants and directed us towards the lounge. We got word that beers would be on the house and Pop's goofy grin was instantly fully restored. As we sat in the lounge taking in our reward, we rehashed every little element of the day’s events. The talk soon came around to Pop's reactor overload. He had reasoned that if we were doomed anyway, why not do as they had instructed... inflict maximum damage.

When the thought first occurred to him he was hesitant as our DSim had a real reactor in it. The DSim parameters would not allow it be overloaded in the real world but in sim world we could direct it as we chose. Pop had been unsure that the simulation would respond as he desired. We were happy that it had.

As a consequence, the Defenders that would be seeing battle in two days were having their safety protocols changed to allow manual overloads. It became a point of pride for our team.

The following day was spent conquering level-one scenarios. It was somewhat boring, but every once in a while you would get thrown a curve. It kept us on our toes.

When our free hours arrived we continued with level-one missions. In our overall DSim training we had 12 levels to conquer. The 12 levels had more than 400 scenarios with each one having some level of randomness to it. Rerunning the same scenario would yield a different experience every time.

On the morning of the first Defender battle we were marched into a chamber area that had high walls. Inside the Battle Room there were numerous holo-displays floating in front of a multitude of Tacticians.

The crews would interact with their Crew Commander who would be receiving orders from the Battle Planners. The Tacticians would be directing their insights through a prioritization computer that would in turn display before the Battle Planners.

The whole affair was a complex system designed to give the maximum amount of information to the crews. The Crew Pilot would have the final decision if none was forthcoming from the Crew Commander.

We were seated in chairs identical to the ones in our DSim. Our handlers then hooked us up. The staff didn’t know if the battle would last two minutes or two days. Once the mission began there would be no breaks for anyone in the room. As I looked around I noticed that everyone who was seated and expected to participate in the mission was also wearing a reclamation suit.

If the battle ran many hours the handlers could adjust levels of stimulants and nutrients in an attempt to keep everyone fully alert. I imagined that Man could not have ever been more prepared to do battle than we were on that day.

The Battle Commander came on screen and gave his short but to the point speech. This was it... this was real... this was war. In our observer chairs we had access to every fighter, every station and even the Battle Planners’ operations. With the swipe of a hand we could bring up any perspective that the Battle Room had to offer. I chose the pilot's display for Defender A1.

The pilot's call sign was Dixie. She was a Southern girl with red hair, bulgy eyes and a freckled face. She may have been a little hard to look at, but within the first few minutes it was easy to see why she was A1. She was decisive and hard core.

The Battle Commander gave the order and the newest war for Earth was begun. The seven Defenders of squad one taxied out onto the tarmac in unison. The Defenders next all tilted upward and then silently shot off into the air at a 78 degree angle. The seven blurs quickly shrank and disappeared from the ground view.

The hope of the Battle Planners was that the squad would race up undetected and blast the fighters before they knew what hit them. The only detectable signature they had was the void caused by the BHD.

Every inch of space had some signal emanating from it... except for the void of a black hole. Since the active skin passed signals through and around the Defender the enemy would have no way of knowing the rest of the ship was there. We hoped that the aliens were not tuned into our BHDs.

As the Defenders raced towards the first fighter at more than 100,000 kph we were all on edge. Coil guns were loaded and powered on and the command had been given to fire once within optimal distance. As it turned out, the coil gun projectile was best fired from within ten kilometers. It would give the enemy the least amount of time to react and reaction time was critical to the alien fighters.

When the 10 kilometer mark was reached all seven Defenders fired at once. The 28 high inertia projectiles made their way to the first fighter in under a half second.

The alien fighter seemed to react instantly and was able to slightly deflect the projectiles while at the same time maneuvering out of the way. As squad one came to within three kilometers the alien ship then fired its own weapon.

The result was seven ships knocked slightly off their trajectories. Five of the Defenders reacted by moving away from the others, but the closest two were not so lucky. Defender A7 hit A4 from the side with the result being that A4 was chopped in half by A7's BHDs. The exploding reactor of A4 then overwhelmed the active skin of A7. Both craft disintegrated in a matter of nanoseconds.

Our first shot at the aliens had been a complete failure. The Battle Commander directed the team to regroup behind the Moon. The "Run and Gun" strategy was a disaster.

The alien fighter did not pursue the Defenders. We were unsure if it was unsure of its own offensive capability, or if it was part of its programming. To date, the alien craft had all been autonomous. We still had no idea of who the alien species were or what they looked like. The fact that their ships were smart only worked to instill fear in us.

Within minutes after the regrouping, the Battle Commander had a new plan. This time the squad would split and approach from five different angles. They would not come close enough to one another to once again be forced into a collision.

The squad would wait until the ten kilometer mark before firing and turning hard away. The four guns would also be fired at slightly differing times and in a slight spread pattern. With luck the fighter would move into one of the projectiles.

At the ten kilometer mark the projectiles were let go. This time the fighter came straight towards one of the Defenders. It took aim with its gravity wave weapon and the result was A3 had four of its five sensor arrays and three rings of the BHD knocked offline.

One projectile then came close enough to the fighter to knock it spinning. The fighter quickly recovered and turned to pursue the closest Defender. A1 speed away at full throttle and the alien craft soon gave up its chase. The crippled A3 was quickly escorted away by A5. The crew was unharmed but the ship had sustained substantial damage. Round two had still been to the favor of the alien fighter.

Once A3 was safely away, the remaining four Defenders then again rallied behind the security of the Moon. The Tacticians were busy with their scheming. After 15 minutes of conversations between the crews, commanders and planners a new battle plan was put forth. This time A1 would be going in alone.

We watched intently, wondering what this new suicide strategy was with only one Defender on the attack. I hoped it would not be a reactor detonation as that would not bode well for the rest of us. No one wanted to be a Kamikaze. If that was to be our new strategy then they should at least limit the crew to a single person. Wasting four lives at a time was not very practical.

As A1 raced in towards the fighter at near full throttle, I cringed at the thought of what might be coming. At the last second the Defender fired a couple rounds and then veered off and slowed as it sped away. The alien craft quickly pursued.

As the fighter slowly gained on A1, I wondered why it was not going to full throttle. I soon got my answer. After our day one scenario, one of the technicians evaluating the data had gotten the idea of putting an active skin onto one of the nukes. A1 had dropped the unseen missile on its path away from the alien fighter. It had taken precise timing for the detonation, but the outcome was a complete destruction of the alien fighter. Cheers arose immediately, but then quickly quieted.

A1 had laid a trap and lured the fighter to its demise. The techs had added a pico-reactor to the missile to power its active skin. Once the skin was active there was no communication with the missile so a timer had been preset telling it when to blow. The Tacticians had timed it perfectly.

Upon destruction of the single alien fighter the four remaining Defenders then headed for home. It was just as well as two of the other alien craft had changed positions and were fast approaching the area.

Squad one came in hot, slowed at the last second and came to a stop facing straight up. The four craft then tilted to horizontal and moved in perfect formation back into the hangar.

Even with Ensign Braswell pumping calming agents into my IV the stress of the battle had been enormous. And I was just an observer. The mission had been accomplished, but not until after the loss of eight good crewmen and two valuable Defenders.

The Battle Planners and Tacticians would be working late into the day trying to discern what had gone right and what had gone devastatingly wrong. The coil guns had been largely ineffective. These new alien fighters had evidently been upgraded since the previous battle 13 years before. I guessed it was only inevitable.

Whip's dropped nuke strategy had been our only bright spot. We would need better weapons and better tactics if we hoped to have a fighting chance when the full fleet arrived. Two years was not a long time to prepare and the clock was ticking.

After listening to Command and their staffs arguing for hours we decided it was time for us to get back to our DSim. We weren't learning anything of value watching everyone scratching their heads, pointing fingers and yelling. As we walked out of the Battle Command area I couldn't help but look around at everyone outside. They were all going about their daily chores as if it was just another day.

I was not quite so happy that I had been invited to watch. I reasoned that sometimes it's better to not know everything. I would have difficulty focusing on anything except how easily we had been beaten in our first encounter. I hoped a few extra scenarios would break me away from the unpleasant thoughts.

We chose to continue with level-one missions and even though we triumphed over each of them, the previous high spirit of the team had been crushed. Within the week we finished our level-one training and proceeded to level-two. Red was relentless in making sure we knew explicitly the details of every little mistake we made.

His ears were a constant red, but this time it was from anger not embarrassment. He did not want his crew to make mistakes. For the first time in my life I was taking my new education seriously. I had at least three other people counting on me directly if not the fate of the entire world. The seriousness of it all was humbling.