Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (8 page)

             
“
Flight control, this is Lieutenant Brennan requesting clearance for takeoff.”

             
“
This is flight control, you are cleared for takeoff,” came back a male voice.

             
Pulling full back on the throttle, Liam was slammed into his seat as his fighter accelerated down the flight deck. Moments later, Liam’s fighter exploded out of the bow of the simulated battlecruiser into space. Pushing the throttle to cruising speed, Liam pulled the control stick to the left, and his whole cockpit spun as if the fighter was doing barrel rolls. Leveling out the fighter, Liam then pulled the fighter into a tight turn, using the control stick and the pedals at his feet. The turn brought the view of the battlecruiser into sight; Liam was awed at the sheer size of it.

             
He knew the battlecruiser was huge, measuring at length of 3,998 feet--just under three-quarters of a mile in length. But until you were flying next to one, you just couldn’t imagine such a sight. Flying in closer, he saw that from bow to stern, the ship was covered with heavy and light energy cannons for a full 360-degree range of fire. Torpedo tubes were located at the bow, stern, port, and starboard of the cruiser. Liam could also see several anti-torpedo defense platforms spread throughout the length of the ship. A thought occurred to Liam as he cruised looking at the ship. Keying his headset, he spoke into his mic.

             
“
Flight control, is the battlecruiser I see in the simulator the same battlecruiser we will be stationed on?”

             
“
That’s an affirmative, Lieutenant,” said the speaker.

             
Liam thought then that the name “battlecruiser” was a fitting title for such an impressive ship. As he started to make his second pass, he spotted another fighter exiting the ship. It turned to come alongside Liam. His ship-to-ship channel keyed, and Liam heard Evan’s voice over his speakers.
“
Well, this is freaking awesome!” Evan said excitedly.

             
Laughing, Liam gave Evan a thumbs-up to indicate he agreed. Suddenly, Evan rolled his fighter, inverting it so his canopy was two meters from Liam’s. Evan waved and then completed the roll to come to rest on the opposite side from which he started.

             
“
Show-off,” Liam said into his headset.

             
“
Lieutenant Maxis, this is flight control. I realize you know you are in a simulator, but please refrain from killing yourself your first day out,” came a voice over the speakers.

             
Looking over at Evan’s cockpit, Liam could see him making a hand-jerking motion that clearly showed what he thought of flight control’s rebuke on his little flying stunt. Laughing, Liam gave him another thumbs-up to show he agreed with that also. Soon, Crystal joined them, flying alongside Evan. Her voice came over the ship-to-ship channel.

             
“
Hello, boys. Nice takeoff, you two. It was almost as perfect as mine.” Liam might not have been able to see her smile, but he could hear it in her voice as she spoke.

             
Soon, all members of the squadron were in flight, flying in two V-shaped formations. The voice of flight control came over the internal speakers.

             
“
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let’s practice maneuvering and firing your energy cannons. First team to go will be Lieutenant Brennan with Lieutenant Wellmo flying wing.”

             
Hearing this, Liam couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that Tim was his wingmate and not Evan, whom he felt would be the better, more dependable pilot. There was no time to think about it now, though, as flight control was giving targeting information.

             
“
On your radar, you will see drones. You will pursue and engage.”

             
“
That’s an affirmative, flight control.” Then keying ship-to-ship: “Let’s go kill something.”

             
Liam engaged his afterburners, and his fighter pulled away from the rest. Only Tim’s fighter kept pace with Liam’s. Four blips showed on his radar the location of the drones. Liam maneuvered his fighter to set a flight path to quickly intercept the drones. The voice of flight control came over his speakers.
“
Alpha-1, Alpha-2, you are clear to go weapons hot.”

             
Liam flipped the safety switch on his control stick, and the “Weapons Armed” indicator on his flight board lit up. Soon the drones came within range, and Liam lined up the targeting reticule and squeezed the trigger. Liam’s aim was true as the energy cannons blazed and the drone exploded. A burst of energy passed over and from behind Liam’s fighter, and a second drone exploded.

             
“
Nice shot, Tim!” Liam said over his headset.

             
“
You also, Liam,” came Tim’s voice.

             
“
Okay, now let’s see how well you do against targets trying to evade you,” came the voice of flight control.

             
The drones suddenly pulled away, zigzagging back and forth across a starry backdrop. Liam once again engaged his afterburners and closed in on the remaining drones. The drone maneuvered as best as it could, but with ease Liam anticipated the evasion tactics of the drone and sent a burst from his energy cannons into the path. The drone disintegrated in a ball of fire. Tim’s shot was not so accurate, and he missed his first and second attempt but not the third. True, it wasn’t a solid hit, but he did destroy the drone’s right wing, which was good enough.

             
“
Very good, Alpha-1 and 2. Please return to formation and then Lieutenant Maxis and Lieutenant McKenna will make their run, designations Alpha-3 and Alpha-4.”

             
Evan destroyed his drones faster than Liam thought possible; he made no mistakes that Liam could see. Crystal did fairly well also, better than Tim but not anywhere near Evan’s or even Liam’s times. Slowly, in pairs, the pilots took their runs against the drones. While no one came even close to the perfection of Evan’s run, they all did fairly well.

             
“
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let’s try more aggressive targets. Your next targets are Shenkar light fighters, maneuverable yet still heavily armored. Unlike your fighters, Shenkar fighters lack energy shields. Furthermore, this will be a squadron exercise, so you’ll still have your wingmates but you’ll also need to watch your other squad mates. This exercise will begin in ten seconds.”

             
Liam made some last-minute checks to make sure everything was in order and then searched his radar for enemy contacts. Ten red blips showed on the edge of his radar and were closing fast. Keying his ship-to-ship comm channel, he spoke without thinking that he wasn’t squadron leader.

             
“
We have ten enemies inbound to port, estimated time to contact twenty seconds. Everyone, weapons hot, pick your target, and close to engage.”

             
No one questioned Liam’s order to engage; instead, ten Scorpion fighters turned to port as one afterburner engaged. Soon the Shenkar fighters came within range, and Liam lined up his targeting reticule and fired. Evan’s target disintegrated first under his volley of energy, followed soon by Liam’s and Crystal’s. Before the two opposing squadrons could pass each other, all the Shenkar fighters were destroyed.

             
“
Nice shooting, pilots,” came the voice of flight control. “Let’s add a little more Shenkar to the fight.”

             
Two-to-one odds now came at Liam and the rest of his squadron. When they closed with minimum range, they unleashed a blaze of energy as one. Ten Shenkar fighters were still coming apart in fiery explosions as a second and third volley of energy went forth to engulf the remaining ten Shenkar.

             
“
Well, then . . .” A sound of surprise was in flight control’s voice. “Let’s try four-to-one odds.”

             
The exercise didn’t go as easily as the previous two, but it was still apparent that Liam, Evan, and the rest of the squadron far outweighed the simulation’s idea of Shenkar pilots. The squadron once again destroyed eighteen fighters before the squadrons intercepted each other, and Liam, Evan, Crystal, and Dimitri also managed to destroy four more. Then they passed each other and started to make their tight turns to engage each other once again. The Shenkar fighters were almost completely turned to engage again when Liam and the rest fell upon them, destroying them. Liam looked over his status board to see if the few shots his fighter had sustained had done any damage and was pleased to see that his shields had held.

             
“
Can we set this game to hard? I am getting bored,” came Evan’s voice over the ship-to-ship comm.

             
“
Control, is this seriously the skill levels of the Shenkar?” came Crystal’s voice.

             
“
That would be correct, Lieutenant McKenna, but if you take a look at your flight recorder, you will see they were not as easy as they seemed. A normal pilot wouldn’t have been able to go more than one-on-one, but with your enhancements, everything will seem to move in slow motion due to your enhanced reaction times.”

             
Sure enough, when Liam looked over his flight recorder statistics, he saw that the sheer speed and accuracy of the attacks by himself and his fellow pilots was incredible. Soon the voice of flight control brought him back to the present.

             
“
Okay, people, that’s enough for today. Alphas 1 and 2, you have clearance to land. Bring it home.”

Lining up his fighter with the landing bay, Liam eased back on the throttle as he brought
it in for a landing. Inside the bay, Liam cut back the throttle fully and used ion thrusters to maneuver his fighter into its allotted port. Once settled, Liam cycled through his instrument panel, in reverse this time, powering down his fighter.

             
Looking up, he spotted Tim settling back in his cockpit as Evan and Crystal maneuvered their fighters in for a landing. Ten minutes later, all pilots had successfully landed, and the pilots climbed from their simulators. Looking around, Liam didn’t see Reeta anywhere. Spotting two scientists standing at the simulator control booth, Liam walked toward them.

             
“
Well, I think that went rather well,” a scientist was saying to his fellow coworker as Liam walked up. Upon seeing Liam standing there, they broke off the conversation.
“
Yes? How can we help you, Lieutenant?”

             
“
I was just wondering where Reeta was . . . I had a few questions.”

             
“
Reeta has retired for the evening. The Meshtrell need to ingest a chemical compound regularly or the common viruses from our planet will kill them. You will be able to speak with Reeta later, but for now, I’ve been ordered to tell you and your fellow pilots that you are to proceed to Building 234 for your class on Shenkar biology and society.”

             
Gathering up his laptop, Liam left Building 216. He wasn’t surprised to see Evan and Crystal waiting just outside to walk with him, but with them also were Tim and Dimitri. Soon, they were all walking and speaking of their first experience in the simulators.

             
“
Evan, I don’t know how you do it. You flew like you were one with the machine. Compared to you, I was flying a garbage truck,” said Tim.

             
“
Oh, you did fine, I think I used to play a lot of video games . . . it seemed like I had done something like it before,” said a smiling Evan.

             
“
Hey, did anyone notice anything when we did the group exercise?” asked Crystal hesitantly.

             
Liam had noticed something, but it was Dimitri who spoke up first.

             
“
I could almost feel all of you, like a sense of if you were in trouble or if you needed assistance,” said Dimitri.

             
“
Yes, that would be how I would describe it exactly,” added Crystal.

             
“
It seems that our enhancements go beyond just physical and learning abilities,” observed Tim as he unconsciously rubbed his left earlobe. “I have been wondering something. Dimitri, I overheard you say that you grew up in a little town in Russia. Where did you learn to speak such perfect English?”

             
Looking confused, Dimitri looked at each of them in turn, then smiled as if he thought he was part of a big joke.
“
I don’t speak English at all. It is you who speak perfect Russian,” he said.