Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (28 page)

37

Naero checked in on Saemar to see how she was holding up
.

After the incident, Saemar only took a couple of day’s leave to work through her remaining grief and other feelings
.

She insisted that was all that she needed
.

Then
she went to Zhen and got cleared to resume her duties.

Naero watched from the mobile flight command station module, a circular pod with clear viewscreens all around, and even below, overlooking the entire launch hanger for 2
nd
Squadron.

The fighters could be launched from there, the bridge, or from a back up launching station in the hangar itself
.

The 129
th
was currently attached to
The
Condor
,
under Strike Fleet Second, Captain Michael Marshall, one of two active, tactical fighter waves on that carrier.

Since
returning to her unit, Saemar threw herself into training her new replacements.

Why did the newbs always look so young? Like a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds?

Yet a few of them were older that Naero herself, who still wasn’t even twenty yet.

From experience, that all made it even more heartbreaking when
they lost one of them.

Bright, eager, headstrong, hot to prove themselves
.

Haisha
…Naero still felt like that herself most of the time.

Naero smiled, watching spunky, vivacious Captain Saemar
back to her old self. That was very good to see.

Saemar
bounced around in her tight flight suit like she usually did, curly auburn hair, as much cleavage as she could get away with.

All frisky again
.

Like some lander women on their worlds, Saemar would probably walk around topless if she could get past the fleet regs somehow. She had a young voluptuous body with lots of curves to show off
.

T
hey got her all the notice she wanted.

And
Saemar wanted a lot of notice, and more besides.

Word got around
.

A lot of guys tried to get into her unit for that very reason. Yet most, especially the female pilots, knew
very well about Saemar’s excellent flight history and service record, her many citations and awards.

She also had a rep for being one of the finest starfighter pilot trainers in the entire fleet. She did spend a lot of time with hands-on training with her people.
Whatever one might think about her personal life, she pushed every one of her pilots to be the best, and expected them to work hard and learn, right alongside of her.

If she woke up next to a few of them at times, that was her private business. But Saemar never let her off-duty fun get in the way of her duty, and vice versa. She kept them separate, and demanded that others do the same
.

With help from Wing Commanders Chaela and Saemar,
Naero and their strike fleet had even developed a new tandem, tactical starfighter with boosted power and improved dual controls–the Ghost Dragon F59T.

Simulation could only teach so much
.

For the first few bat
tles, green pilots were no longer being thrown into the mix to live or die on their own.

They would go in to
their first several battles partnered with an experienced pilot and trainer that could help save them if they got into trouble, and vice-versa.

The instructor could override at any moment to help the rookie out
, and judge best, firsthand, when a pilot was ready to fight solo.

Under the new training program, within days, f
ighter pilot losses plummeted from thirty-four percent, down to twelve percent–the lowest in the fleet–especially among replacements.

For all units, replacements getting killed needlessly only compounded the problems at work–and led only to the need for more replacements
.

Once more, good ideas spread throughout the fleet as rapidly as possible. Fixers even produced several
other, popular tandem versions of current, successful starfighter designs.

A good number of the Alliance units and even a few Spacer squadrons actually preferred to use the two-seaters
full time, and very effectively. A team of two that worked and fought well together could be a formidable force, sometimes better than one pilot alone.

S
urvivability rates also increased. If one member of the flight team was injured or unconscious, the other could get them out. This went along with auto-protocols to jettison crew lifepods if a pilot blacked out or was seriously hurt.

Later advanced ship
lifepods could even put an injured pilot in stasis if they were badly injured, semi-freezing their condition until they could be retrieved and properly healed and restored.

Naero
continued to monitor Saemar from the mobile flight command deck overlooking 2
nd
Squadron.

Saemar had her
hands full with twenty-seven new replacement pilots. She and her remaining veterans struggled to check out each pilot on the new F59-T Ghost Dragons, fresh out of the wrappers.

Naero went over the specs.
These tandem fighters had excellent dual controls and a seat for the Trainer, up behind the pilot, where the instructor could study everything the pilot did.

Saemar and her vets had finished the sim programs, and prepared to take the replacements out
a few at a time, while the others waited their turns and studied the training sessions on the cockpit readouts and battle holos.

Naero listened in on Saemar’s open audio feed
.

“If you are going to make mistakes. Make them here and now. Make all the mistakes you want and learn from them. Get past them now. Out in the mix, in a real battle–mistakes can mean death. And sweeties, death is to be avoided. So listen and learn. When we tell you to do something, we do so for a reason. Do it. Even if you don’t understand why, right away. We’ll explain it when it needs to be explained. We will always make time for Q & A.”

One of Saemar’s vets, Second Leftenant Maesara Taylor chimed in.

“Sometimes we just want you to experience something first. Focus on, study, and get the entire feel for each lesson. Save your questions for later
.”

She and Saemar nodded to each other, obviously great respect between them. Saemar had that with all of her people
.

“All right. Suit up and let’s go out into the black
.”

Just as they were climbing in, and the flight crews prepared for launch, Captain Chaela strode in,
nineteen of her aces formed up in a wedge right behind her.

The two friends saluted, then embraced
.

Chaela grinned
.

“Well, captain. My people and I were off duty and had nothing to occupy our time. We thought we’d come over here and give you some help with your new recruits. Then we can all go out there and fly around together
.”

Saemar counted them. “Uh
…that’s great Chae. But we’re still one short.”

Chae shook her head. “No…we’re not
.”

She pointed up at the mobile flight command deck
.

“Come down and join us,
N. Mike’s people told me you were up there. Get down here and give us a hand.”

Naero rubbed her hands together and called down to them.

“Sounds good. On my way.”

When she reached the pilots, the recruits snapped to attention smartly and saluted her, some of them just staring at her, mouths open
.

Haisha
, had
she
ever been that green?

Naero’s friends, and the other veteran pilots who knew her, saluted casually
.

One of the newbs actually stammered, “Fleet Captain M-M-Maeris…
Haisha!
It’s…it’s such an honor to have you train with us. Thank you, sir!”

Naero chuckled a bit at that. “At ease, ensigns
.”

Of course all of the newbs were ensigns. Crisp, shiny new flight togs and gear
.

She turned to the speaker, a short tiny gal with pink and black short hair. “What’s your name, Ensign…?”

The young woman turned scarlet and saluted again.

“Chang, sir. Tiali Wallace Chang
.”

Naero raised one eyebrow and smiled. “Got some Clan Wallace in you, huh
?”

Tiali nodded. “And proud of it, sir!”

“I just happen to be Clan Wallace on my father’s side. I guess that makes us distant cousins.”

“Everyone knows that, sir. Both reasons why I’m proud of it, sir.” Without any prompting, Tiali led the fifteen recruits in a cheer that the others joined in with.
Their raised fists pounded the air.

“Omaria! Omaria! Omaria!
”

“Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
”

Naero stepped back, drew her blazing blue energy cutlass and saluted them quickly, sheathing her blade just as
fast.

Tiali and several others cheered and actually had tears in their eyes
.

Naero bowed her head to them
.

“Thank you. You honor me and my blood
.”

The recruits spoke in unison
.

“The honor is ours
.”

Naero put her hands behind her narrow waist and spread her stance
.

“Very well. Pilots, suit up. Let’s get out in the black in these tandems and learn a few things today
.”

Everyone secured their helmets and checked their gear
.

“Ensign Tia…”

She looked back, her mouth open slightly.

“You’re with me. Take a breath. Relax
.”

“Thank you, sir. I am quite relaxed, sir
.”

Over her shoulder, Naero caught Tia turning to her friends and silently spazzing out, with her hands gesturing wildly, her face waggling, and her feet stamping in place
with glee.

Some of them made faces and stuck their tongues out at her in clear envy
.

They all climbed in, set their controls, fired up all systems, and prepared to launch
.

Out in the black, Captain Chaela ran the practice exercise, and put them all through their paces using captured Triaxian stealth drones, seeker mines, and robotic gunships in training mode
.

Training mode meant that all the ships scaled back the output of their weapon arrays so that they still scored hits that could be tracked and evaluated, in order to determine simulated damage and kills, but of course they did no real harm
.

And if a ship endured simulated damage, the ship systems would react or power down in kind, to allow the pilot to react to those situations as well
.

If a clean kill was made, the warning systems would flash and blare in panic mode for several seconds and then go dead. The fighter would list in space for several more seconds before the
systems powered back up, or the instructor overrode the training protocols.

The new batch of recruits, including Tia, were rough around the edges, but they showed off many hot, agile
, inventive skills.

Fighter pilots often trained from a very young age to become what they were–from the time they could float
.

Naero understood that completely
.

She had to admit, flying in tandem provided many opportunities for on the spot training and advice. These pilots had the basics down cold
.

But they still had not raised their skill sets to the level of an art yet. And that’s basically what it took–a blend of experience and ability that combined honed instincts, finesse, and cunning in order to do many things automatically, without thought or hesitation
.

Then they had to be able to read the battle and the con
tinual stream of data that flooded at them. Constantly shifting targeting profiles and combat orders. There remained much that could not be learned in mere simulation, but only in the crucible of actual combat.

With harsh realities and death all around
.

The instructors gave them tips all along the way, showing them first hand
what to do, and how to both survive and fight effectively.