Chapter 47
This was it. My first live training exercise with other soldiers.
My first time as a pilot among pilots. I was in the cockpit of my very own Shinka Unit, fully synchronized, sitting in the transport pod on the way to the training grounds with nine-hundred-ninety-nine other recruits, from skilled second years to the entire class of third years.
I was the only first year in the bunch, and I was quite proud of that.
Both active military and our trainees used the sphere for testing, so all combined, with one thousand units operating out of Astaroth Academy alone, and probably close to nine-thousand more across the entire military who used the sphere for their own drills, the sheer size of the machines needed more real estate than was manageable on the always expanding two-hundred-year old colony on Saturn’s surface.
The rings, conversely, offered near infinite real estate for both vertical and ground maneuvers and served as a safe area to test experimental weaponry and explosives, on top of better emulating the environment of open space.
Most of the battles in the last war were executed in the expanse of blackness, even if the most memorable battles were directly in our homes, and it was imperative to be able to move in every dimension and direction.
All of the missions I’d executed in evaluations had been ground based thus far, but during the week we’d had some virtual movement training in space-based servers, and I hoped it would be easy enough to translate to the real thing.
We arrived at the sphere and unloaded from the transport pod into a varied environment of both artificial ground and wide open darkness.
In one direction, a debris field created a natural obstacle course.
In another, there were absolutely no visual indicators available to determine which direction was up, down, left, or right.
In another, there were floating platforms, built to resemble various terrain for ground battle simulations, some enclosed in domes with their own gravity.
I waited patiently for the rest of the recruits to unload, trying to stave off any anxiety toward the unknowns of the coming mission.
They’d not told us what we’d be doing yet, but outside of my solo training with Conrad, there wouldn’t be any concessions for me just because I was new.
I’d be doing the same thing as everyone else.
“First real maneuvers in a Shinka. Look at you.” Right on cue, Conrad’s voice was on the COMM, much to my chagrin. “Normally I’d ask if you’re excited to finally pop your cherry, but that joke hits different when you’re an actual virgin with an actual cherry.”
Sweet black hole Jesus. So much chagrin. How was I going to concentrate on my mission with this guy in my ear?
“So instead, you’ll just ask nothing and spare me your personality, right?
” Was I pleading? Yes. By the stars, yes.
Apparently, as my officially assigned Spotter, he was going to be my primary contact during training at least for my first year of learning to pilot a Shinka, and once again, I questioned why I’d ever wanted to do this.
It looked so glamorous when I wasn’t living it.
“How about: I hope you’re excited to lick your first ice cream cone, kid.” His condescending mock excitement was enough to flatten out any adrenaline I ever had. If his tactic was to replace my nervousness and anxiety with cringing and disdain, he was an impressive instructor.
“How do I turn off my COMM?” I groaned.
“How do you turn off your link to the command center while you’re in complete control of one of the Territory’s most valuable weapons?
Oh my sweet station child.” Conrad was entirely too pleased with himself.
“I’m just trying to get you to loosen up, since you’re obviously strung so high you’re in another galaxy.
Once the mission begins, you’ll appreciate me more. ”
I somehow doubt that, but I didn’t say that out loud, lest he give me more reason to doubt that.
Conrad was kind enough to continue. “Great, so let me explain how this works. Very shortly, you’ll be issued a mission briefing, but I’ll remain your primary contact for the duration of your training.
All units can COMM in to mission control as needed, but until you’ve gotten your inane beginner questions out of the way, you get me.
It saves a lot of headaches. For other people, I mean.
Not us. We’re both going to give each other lots of headaches, I promise.
” Yes, I noticed. “That said, I have a full map of the battlefield that displays every heat signature within the sphere at my disposal, and I’ll be watching the movements of all units at all times—paying special attention to you of course.
” If this was his way of flirting, then I could not believe he’d ever been married.
“How are you going to pay attention to that many units at once? This operation is huge.”
He snorted into his communicator, and as usual, I regretted asking at all.
“Baby girl, humans used to have to hunt rodents in dense rain forests with nothing but moonlight and a sharp stick in order to survive. I think I can handle following a thousand glowing dots in a hologram with infinite points of dynamic data at my disposal.”
My face blanched. “First of all, weird analogy. Second of all, can you never call me that again?”
“No one else can listen in on our channel. You can use Private, Wide, or set up Group channels, and I already set it so it’s just you and me in this one. Don’t worry.”
“That’s not the problem.” I deadpanned, as he laughed.
“Come on, it’s fun. It’s not every day I get to train a girl.
Don’t take this from me.” When I didn’t dignify that with a response, he unfortunately continued, dismissing my complaints completely.
“Regardless, if the mission parameters change suddenly or additional threats appear, I’ll be able to give you a warning, and if you, as a new pilot, start to lose your sync or hit a level of strain that could kill you, I’ll also be here to deactivate your neural link.
Enemy units will be unmanned drones that have been programmed with artificial intelligence trained on recordings of our best test pilots, so they’ll be quite formidable.
But that said, don’t worry about holding back, because just like when you’re on the sparring mat, your energy-based weaponry has all been detuned.
Your hits can connect, and the algorithms will treat your input as though the hit was full strength, but you won’t have to worry about destroying much needed government property.
Mostly, they do this so they don’t have to waste Diacynn on training dummies.
These drones are built of the least expensive material possible, so if your weapons weren’t nerfed, you’d be way over powered and training would be pointless. Simple enough?”
“Simple enough,” I confirmed. “But wait, back up to the part about deactivating the neural link.” This though, was unexpected and interesting. “You can do that remotely? Just force me out of sync?”
“Sure can.” He was so proud of that. “It’s a failsafe that’s saved quite a few lives over the years. But it can be incredibly disorienting, so I’ll abuse that power sparingly.”
“Reassuring.”
Conrad chuckled. “Relax. Seriously. You’ll be fine as long as you can just keep your head about you.
But the more nervous you are, the worse your sync will be.
You might be able to synchronize well in a VR simulation, because your mind knows there’s no risk of real death, but even the prodigies struggle in the real thing.
Though I have to say, right now, thanks to my poking and prodding, look at how nice your sync is.
” He said that, as I glanced down at my sync meter.
I was now sitting steady at 100%, because I literally was so annoyed with him that I had forgotten my nerves.
No, I did not want to acknowledge that his strategy was working, and no I would never, in any universe, admit that he was clever. If I survived the war because my Spotter was making hymen jokes and calling me Baby Girl, I would volunteer for a suicide mission out of spite for my own existence.
“Anyway, your briefing should start shortly. Good luck,” he added, just in time for the real mission control to take over the COMMs in my cockpit.
“Today’s training simulation will be replicating a battle from the Star Crossed Conflict.
” The voice was that of General Banerjee, another retired soldier turned professor who oversaw live drills.
He was straight to the point, wasting no time on greetings.
“Any among you who are Station-Born likely recall the Battle of Fifteen, as it pertained to the fifteen colonies we now call our Protectorates and allies. If you’re unfamiliar with the conflict, after unsuccessfully claiming the stations via internal invasion, the Gehenna army flooded the expanse of space with every single cannon, tank, and cross wing they had left in an effort to overwhelm our forces. ”
I winced just recalling the event, all those years ago.
That was the one, single maneuver during the last war that I’d learned entirely too much about.
Though I only lived the in-station portion of the conflict, the battles that took place in open space were projected on every screen in Zircon, and replayed too many times.
For a first exercise, I felt well equipped to succeed.