by Kevin Groh
Ethan became attentive: »You have upgrades? You’re only twenty, aren’t you? Pretty early for something like that.«
»Well, it wasn’t an optional decision. It was decided following the massacre of Zulath. Many recruits were modified, though hardly anyone as comprehensive as I was.«
»Zulath was a disaster, but I don’t think it justifies the enforced upgrades. You can understand the idea, but whether - forgive me for saying so - inexperienced recruits with upgrades are the solution? I don’t think so. Even with muscle strengthening, a Lorgan could still tear you apart easily.«
»Dad! Don’t say that!«, Kelly pointed out, but Carter took it calmly.
»It’s okay Kelly, he’s right. We were really well trained, but we lack years of experience and upgrades can’t replace that. It just makes our death more expensive.«
She wanted to make a response when her mother came around the corner. She only wore a thin coat over her skinny bikini and Carter had to admit that she was amazingly attractive for her advanced age. Kelly had much of her, but her gaze was indifferent as if her presence was like a courtesy call.
»Kelly. And that must be Carter. Hello.«
She sat down and poured herself an apple juice, crossed her legs and looked away. Although she wasn’t unfriendly, he felt more than unwelcome and accordingly uncomfortable. Kelly seemed to be boiling inside. Ethan recognized the situation and looked apologetically at Carter, then found an excuse to leave with them. He brought them to his car showroom, where Kelly immediately began to grumble about her mother’s impossible behavior.
Ethan said: »You know how she is. She’s apathetic and completely disinterested in the world most of the time. I know she loves you because she often asks me about you, but she can’t show it. Something inside her is broken, something that cannot be cured anymore, I am afraid.«
Carter did not know how to behave, so he preferred not to say anything. Ethan wanted to distract from the subject and showed him around a little.
»This is a real Porsche from 2010. There are a lot of other German cars next to it and behind them are the American models. Do you see that red, sleek gem back there? That’s a Viper. The last model they built. Kelly always liked to hide there. You always liked the curves and the front, didn’t you, sweetheart?«
»It’s been so incredibly long ago ... I miss seeing you tap around here at the age of six, the enthusiasm in your eyes. I know you are an adult and I couldn’t be more proud of you, but I miss having you here.«
Kelly became emotional and hugged her father tightly. Carter stood next to her and smiled. The whole day was strange in a way, but he was glad to have met Kelly’s family. That he didn’t say anything negative about it created an even deeper bond between the two and she loved him more than ever.
War of the Recruits
Two weeks after visiting Kelly’s parents, things got serious for the recruits. On this Wednesday, their final examination would take place in the form of a space battle. It was a risky action, as a few days earlier, open attacks of the Lorgans on ships and human bases had begun at several locations in the galaxy. However, no one expected them to attack Utopia directly because even if there was little military on the ground, the planet had a reputation for being extremely well defended. That was not true at the time, but nobody knew. For this reason, the space test would take place as planned, and they arrived at the hangar in the morning, where Banes, Dunn, and Willis were waiting for them. While Carter was looking forward to another flight, Leena was all green in the face. Despite the many hours of training in the fighter, she was a terrible pilot and hated the mere thought of it, let alone a rapid and chaotic battle simulation.
They boarded the usual green ship with the strange shape and flew up to the homebase. The giant warship hovered in the orbit above Utopia as usual and was the only real defense of the planet, as all large spaceships were stationed in other systems to show presence. They landed in one of the front hangars and changed. Carter still found the flight uniforms uncomfortable and outdated, but as a recruit, you got the discarded things of earlier days. They gathered at the fighters.
Willis stood with his little belly next to the brawny and muscle-packed Banes and the no less fit Dunn and puffed in peace on an e-cigarette, whereby he began to talk.
»Now, friends, this test is basically no different than the simulations you’ve been doing with Jenny the whole time. The only difference is that this time you’re all doing the same simulation together. That means you have to watch out not only for asteroids, debris and enemy fire but also for your comrades. You’ll have to cover each other, help each other and if possible ram no one. Because unlike the simulated fire and the holographic boulders, another fighter can actually harm you.«
They whispered a little, but a growl from Banes ended it. He still wasn’t over the fact that his time had been beaten, and Dunn’s smirk didn’t help much either.
»Don’t panic if you don’t have an overview, that’s perfectly normal in space battles. As long as you don’t get shot down, the performance is fine. If you also hit a few enemy ships, you’ll get a gold star on top.«
With that, he sent them into the fighters. Carter wished the others good luck and realized that he had to take care of Leena and Kelly because both had little flying talent. The first one was really more suitable for thinking and planning and the second one would be a good technician, but not an active combatant. He was pleased to drop into the pilot’s seat, fastened the seat belt and closed the cockpit. When the buzzing of the fastening hood could be heard, all tension dropped from him, for in this fighter he felt free.
»Jenny, are you awake yet?«, he asked.
The board VI activated with a glow on a small monitor and the voice answered friendly:
»Good morning, Carter. For you, I like to get up early. Today is your big day, let’s fly out there and show everyone what you can do!«
He didn’t let her tell him that twice. He retracted the landing skids and slid to the hangar gate. The pressure equalization system was activated and the fighters floated out into the black void. Rod came close and waved at him through the window.
»Can I talk to the others today?«
»The relay communication was just opened, you can now talk to your teammates on the open channel or on individual channels.«, it came back.
»Do you hear me?«, he simply asked out loud.
»Yup, I can hear you, buddy.«, Rod replied.
The others also reported in. Then Jenny spoke again, but this time apparently to everyone at the same time.
»Today’s battle simulation should show how you can adjust, coordinate effectively and work together. The scenario is a combat ship of an unknown species, which attacks your own warship. You’re near an asteroid belt whose rocks float between the two fronts, making navigation more difficult. The enemy has fighters and a frigate as well as several bombers. Your mission is either to destroy the enemy or to successfully defend your allies until the timer expires. Good luck! Launching Simulation.«
This activated the projection on their windows and a strange battleship appeared together with a fighter squadron, a frigate, and five bombers. In between, boulders floated everywhere.
»Holy shit!«, Leena cursed, while Gina and Henry rocketed off immediately.
Carter thought out loud: »Someone has to take command. Rod, you do that! I make sure they don’t get pulverized.«
While Rod told the others how to fly, Carter steered confidently between some rocks, always keeping an eye on Gina and Henry. They seemed to think the whole thing was a game and flew completely daring actions that would have killed them in real action. He could take advantage of the enemy’s focus on the two to take out a bomber and two fighters before a pursuer targeted him.
His HUD warned him that he was in the crosshairs of an opponent.
»Oh no, not like that!«, he shouted and at the last moment performed a barrel roll, so the projectile missed him and hit an enemy fighter. Unfortunately,
that didn’t help him shake off the pursuer. Henry made a U-turn and just shot past Carter to destroy the ship.
»Thank you!«
»We pay attention to each other!«, Henry replied.
»Nambur is in trouble!«, Tim shouted, who himself was flanked by two attackers and drifted towards the frigate. Carter examined the situation and said: »Jane, Kelly, help Nambur! Urma and Leena, you take Tim away from there!«
»I thought I should call the shots!«, Rod grumbled.
»Then be careful!«, Carter admonished him.
The exercise went well so far, although he had no idea how to defeat the battleship only with fighters. However, he had an idea for the frigate and after an arrangement with Leena, they had a plan.
»Okay, I need Rod, Urma, Tom, and Nambur here with me. The rest of you keep the predators busy.«
The people came flying to him and floated nearby. Carter had seen one of the two other bombers and he ordered Nambur to lure him in. He reacted as expected and immediately flew after him. The others waited behind some rocks and as soon as the decoy passed them, they all targeted the bomber, but only its engines. They fired and destroyed the engines, making it float around useless.
»Jenny, please hack the bomber’s systems for me, will you?«
»But I’d love to, Carter.«, came the answer. After about twenty seconds she reported: »I have full access to all of the bomber’s systems. Should I activate the self-destruct?«
»Not at all. I want you to fire any remaining explosives at that asteroid over there.«
He marked the corresponding rock on the radar.
Jenny did what she was told and the bomber fired six rockets that set the boulder in motion due to the explosion and catapulted it directly into the frigate. This destroyed the ship and they had one less problem. The cheers of the others were great.
»Don’t thank me. Leena had the idea with the hack.«, Carter said.
At that moment the simulation stopped and they wondered if they had won, lost or done something wrong. Jenny said: »You have orders to return to the homebase immediately.«
It didn’t make much sense to the recruits, but she couldn’t give them an explanation. As they changed course, Carter discovered what was going on. At the outer border of his field of vision, a ship had appeared that he had never seen before. It looked like a pointed cone whose wide end was equipped with engines. The surface was not smooth, as on other spaceships, but covered with a kind of rock. It looked as if it had been carved out of an asteroid and never finished properly. An enlarged view of it was enough for his HUD to identify the vehicle as a Lorgan combat ship.
»Shit! Those are Lorgans! They’re actually attacking Utopia!«, it came from Leena, who was horrified.
A real flood of bombers and fire from the guns of the enemy ship paralyzed the engines of the homebase.
»But it’s only one ship, so that can’t be an invasion.«, Nambur observed.
Leena had pulled herself together again and thought out loud: »They’re attacking us everywhere at the moment. Maybe they already suspect that our defense here is weak and sent a scout ship to check it out.«
»And sacrifice the ship if they are wrong? That would be very daring.«, Jane noted.
»The problem is that they are not wrong.«, Carter said.
The silence that followed made it clear how serious the situation was. The homebase was the only defense for Utopia. If it was destroyed, the Lorgans could overrun the planet.
»Guys, we have to do something!«, Carter shouted.
»We are supposed to return to the ship, Jenny said. We are recruits, what can we do? We are only in the way of the real pilots.«, Tom replied.
As if this had been a command, several fighter squadrons came out of the homebase and took up the fight.
Carter struggled in his brain because he knew that a few fighters and a disabled warship would not stop this attack.
Banes‹ voice sounded through the communication channel:
»What the hell are you still doing out there? Get your asses in here, but fast! You’ll get shot to pieces!«
The others had mixed opinions when Carter expressed his concerns. Rod and Leena didn’t think it was so stupid to help. Their fighters had real weapons and they could fly to some extent. Leena wasn’t a good pilot, but she was sounding out the situation and spotting weaknesses in the enemy’s formation.
»This is insanity!«, Kelly shouted.
»Your fighter’s weapon systems are shut down, Carter. Return to the hangar, otherwise, I’ll have to take control.«, Jenny warned him.
He instantly reacted, opened the wiring of the control systems and disconnected them from the propulsion systems.
»What are you doing Carter?«, Kelly asked when his fighter slowed down.
»I do what I think is right.«, he commented.
»You should return to the ship, that was a direct order.«, the VI said.
»Jenny, what is the probability that an intervention by us will have a positive impact?«, he asked her.
»Calculating ... the chances of a positive outcome are one in thirteen thousand two hundred thirty-four.«
»Better than zero, so let’s do it!«, Carter insisted. »Your job is to keep soldiers alive, right Jenny?«
»That’s correct.«
»Since you can’t prevent me from flying out of there now, you could increase our chances by helping us.«
She was silent for a moment, then came: »Your logic cannot be denied. I will help.«
Rod laughed: »Did you just persuade a VI to act against her instructions? Kova will never believe us!«
Henry, Gina, the twins, and Jane refused to help him with this insubordination and headed for the homebase hangar. Carter saw boarding ships moving toward the warship and thought they weren’t much safer there. The rest gathered around him and they were all determined to act against direct orders and help fend off the attack.
Again Banes came into the line: »Are you deaf?! Why does only half of you come back? Get in here!«
»We will help the pilots. They need every soldier there and we have learned more than enough to help them. There are too few troops here, we have to support them.«, Carter returned defiantly.
»You’ll only get shot! We haven’t invested so much time and money in you to make you kamikaze pilots! Jenny, bring them back immediately!«
»I’m sorry Major, my programming requires protecting the lives of the soldiers and ensuring success. A deployment of recruits brings an improvement of the chances of success that is greater than zero. So it is my job to help them.«
»Are you serious? Don’t confuse the thirst for action with heroism. If you fly out there, you’re dead.«, Banes yelled.
»You trained us. If you did it right, you should trust us to survive it. Otherwise, your time was wasted.«, Rod said with certainty.
Banes was foaming with anger, but he knew he couldn’t stop them.
»I hope for your sake that you die out there because if you don’t, you will experience some serious ass-kicking when I get to you!«
Carter re-established Jenny’s connection to the engine and headed for the action.
Jimbo asked: »What exactly is your plan now, Carter? I think it’s a pretty ineffective method to just fly into the turmoil.«
»First we fly around the ship at a proper distance and scan for weak points or tactical clues.«
Due to the distance, they were detectable by the combat ship with sensors, but too far away to attack. Therefore they were not classified as a threat and no enemy ship took the route to reach them. So they could circle the enemy once completely. The combination of their own HUD with the one of the fighter allowed Leena and Carter to perform a very accurate analysis.
»Do you have an idea?«, he asked her.
She replied: »Not yet, but if there was an obvious weakness, others would have discovered it.«
»Jenny, do you see anything?«
The VI responded: »The armoring, which lo
oks like stone, seems to be some kind of bone material. Its texture is similar to the combat armor of the Lorgans. Ordinary projectiles cannot damage this material. The main guns of the homebase could hit successfully, but without the engines, they can’t target the enemy. There is no way to destroy this ship.«
»If a computer can’t calculate a way to success, then we’re probably screwed.«, Urma said.
»We should get back to the ship.«, Kelly said.
»And then what? Are we waiting for them to destroy it?«, Rod asked angrily.
Carter thought out loud: »Maybe there is another way. Jenny can’t see a way to destroy the ship by external fire, but what if we destroy it from the inside out?«
Nambur said horrified: »Are you crazy? Even if there was a way onto the ship, we would be shot immediately! To destroy such a monster from the inside, you would have to hack or damage different systems. You have to pass through several heavily guarded areas. That’s impossible.«
Leena contributed: »I think it’s possible if we proceed like on Nirvana. Quiet and precise. It could be doable.«
Urma asked: »Let’s say we would support this crazy plan, how do you want to get on board? They have a pretty strong shield.«
»Jenny, analyze the energy shield!«
»It’s a standard neysanic shield. It’s for defending hattokinetic projectiles.«
»Great. We already knew that.«, Rod grumbled.
Leena said: »If I have understood the principle of neysanics correctly, it serves the transformation of hattokinetic energy. Normal kinetic energy is only repelled at high speed. So if you approach slowly, you could just fly through the shield. That’s the only way their fighters can leave the hangar while it’s active.«
»So you want us to fly comfortably into their hangar? We can’t even get close.«, Jimbo said.
»The ship’s structure and armoring don’t allow the Lorgans to place guns on the surface of their ships. That means only their fighters can defend the ship. So if we don’t fly into the firing line of their main guns and the fighters are busy elsewhere, we could get in without any problems.«, Leena explained.
