Gavit released his controls and held his hands up, a show of faith in his WSO. “All yours, Matt.”
“All Units, Six, initiating slipstream drives,” Matt called out after they’d entered into the optimum vector to slipstream to Optimus Teg. “Slipstreams locked on,” he continued as each fighter’s slipstream drive attracted the local dark matter and spun it into a cocoon of dark energy around them. “Slipping in five, four, three, two, one, mark!!!” Matt called, with power outputs increasing. The relative mass of each fighter dropped to less than 2 kilobar and engines flared full force, launching them towards their destination.
Gavit inhaled sharply from the front seat, not from the acceleration, which he hardly felt, but because everything around him disappeared, red-shifting out of the visible wavelengths. Gavit swallowed hard when the S.I.S winked out and his instrumentation dimmed, the slipstream drive and acceleration compensators drawing almost all available power. The universe outside his canopy became a haze, the fighters around him appearing motionless. It gave him a familiar yet uneasy feeling. I wonder how the WSOs see this? Not that I ever want to put on that helmet and find out.
The imposing visage of Optimus Teg soon appeared and loomed ever closer as they approached. It grew from a tiny yellowish dot to a blurred oval and soon, the massive world engulfed Gavit’s forward view as they decelerated. It was hard to believe, but thanks to their slipstream drives, the squadron had crossed the 1.6 billion kilometra gulf between Optimus Teg and the academy in a little over a hect.
Optimus Teg, Monstero Nach 06
“All units, standby for slipstream reversion, in five, four, three, two, one, mark!!” Matt announced before the whole of the smudged universe seemed to stop in place just as fast as it had started.
The glittering ice rings of Optimus Teg threatened to blind Gavit as they reverted. Their position brought them in at just the right angle for the ice to reflect the sun and light up the rings. As his vision cleared, Gavit looked down through the reactivated S.I.S. What he saw made him catch his breath. Like a field of diamonds the rings were spread out before them, dancing and twinkling in the light of the local star, with orange highlights from Optimus Teg dancing glinting their surface.
“Cutting it a little close, aren’t we?” Gavit asked and followed the formation towards the ice rings.
“Nice thing about slipstream is you can emerge almost anywhere, not just at the prescribed entry and exit points. I figured we would want to get into the ice rings as soon as possible, so I computed for such. I don’t think anyone will complain. Nobody but you, that is.”
Gavit smiled as they approached the rings, their majestic appearance from afar disappearing with every beat of his hearts as ice chunks revealed the rings’ true nature. “I doubt it myself.”
“Okay, people,” Commander Pio-Tolis began over the link. “I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories about first flight in a Five Thousand from previous cadets. That you’re allowed to just run loose with these birds, pushing them and yourselves to the limits, in order to get a feel for them and get all that hot shot garbage out of your system. Well, now hear this. That is absolutely … dead … right.”
Gavit’s hearts pounded with the news. He hadn’t wanted to believe it before, but to hear it from Pio-Tolis was almost too much.
“Now, there are a series of waypoints designated throughout the ice rings of Optimus Teg. You are to fly to all of them, by whatever route you choose. Just remember that Tadeh Qudas and some other higher up went through a lot of trouble to get you people these new fighters. Don’t smash them up on their first time out.” Commander Pio-Tolis emphasized that last point, having brought her own fighter from the fleet.
“On my mark, break formation and make for the waypoints. Let’s see if any of you can beat me. Ready, steady, mark!!!”
The formation exploded as pilots broke free and gunned their engines for the first waypoint. Gavit pushed down on his throttle, dropped beneath the rest of the squadron, and punched the throttle to the stops, tickling the afterburner with his thumb. “Matt, divert power from the weapon systems to the engines and set the shields to minimum navigational power levels. We shouldn’t need combat shields.”
“Hey, who’s the WSO here? I’m already on it,” Matt announced. “Waypoint markers should be displayed on your HUD. I am scanning for the best possible route.”
“I’ve got your course now,” Gavit replied, forcing his thumb down onto the afterburner. The fighter raced forward leaving the rest of the squadron behind as Gavit drove on towards the first waypoint. His hearts pounded in his ears, memories of his old racing cycles flooding back. “Keep me apprised of everyone else’s locations relative to us.”
In response, a holographic list of the other craft in the squadron appeared on Gavit’s right side.
Gavit stared at the spinning ball of ice that was the race’s start point. “Thanks. That waypoint is damn close to an ice chunk, Matt.”
“Looks to be on it,” Matt replied a moment later, the waypoint hidden in the mass shadow of the icy lump from everyone in the squadron. “We have to get within thirty metra to trip the sensor, which definitely cuts it close. Porc is moving up on us fast!”
“I see that,” Gavit replied, gritting his teeth while adjusting his course, giving the list a quick scan. “No problem with him, though. Hold on back there, this should get interesting.”
All guts, no brains, Gavit thought as he looked at their rear camera pointing at Porc. His afterburners still silhouetted his craft. He’ll never bleed off that momentum in time. His own thumb off the ‘burner button now, he angled his craft towards the ice asteroid. What I wouldn’t give to race Deniv like this again. But that Three Kay he was assigned to would be no match. Proximity alarms began to blare through the cockpit as Gavit neared the massive chunk of ice and rock.
“Follow this, Porc,” Gavit commented to himself as he cut his throttle and pushed down on it, shoving his inertia line below the ice chunk.
Hauling back on his stick, Gavit pointed his nose along a vector towards the next waypoint, his momentum carrying him over the surface of the asteroid. He smiled when the slow spin of the rock brought him close enough to the waypoint to trip it before he slid past. With the way ahead clear, Gavit punched the throttle wide open. It took his fighter a moment, but the engines and belly thrusters countered the impetus of their previous course, and they rocketed towards the next waypoint.
Gavit plunged into the ice field towards the second waypoint, focused on the course. “Porc?”
“Swung way wide, but he’s coming about. The rest are right behind him. Damn, where did she come from?” Matt called out an instant before Chris and Bichard’s fighter streaked past them, Pio-Tolis in their wake. “They must have been riding our blind spot! Damn, I should have seen them. The WSO weave is down, so I have blind spots all over. Sorry, I’m not used to that.”
Gavit chuckled as he slid his fighter in behind Pio-Tolis. “Don’t worry about it. They probably hugged that ice cube better and did a slingshot. If Porc hadn’t been so close, I might have tried it. We’re entering a thick part of the ice field now, though, so we’ll wait right here.”
“Draft them?”
“Of course, why waste shield power having to counter for ice impacts?”
Matt laughed as Gavit held their position behind Chris and Pio-Tolis’ two fighters plowing their way through the ice field. Gavit bided his time as they approached the second waypoint, but the wake-riding maneuver allowed the rest of the squadron to make up ground on the three leaders.
“Matt, give me the best course to the next waypoint.”
“Already plotted. Standby, we have a nice massive chunk of dense rock and metallics above the elliptic. If you give it a good, close, high-speed pass and stay in the corridor I plot, we should be able to use its limited gravity to slingshot around. That will put us on a solid course through the third waypoint onto number four. It’s going to take some major precision, though.”
/> Gavit examined the course Matt had plotted for him. He wet his lips looking at it. Is it my birth cycle already?
“You want to risk it? If we are off by even a few degrees we will have a lot of distance to make up, and we’ll lose our lead.”
“No one ever made history by playing it safe. Plot the course.” What I wouldn’t give to have had Matt as a navigator back when I was racing.
A few tens of centipulses later, the approach corridor coalesced on Gavit’s HUD and navigation display. Gavit studied it for a moment. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the numbers then nodded, and set his mind to follow it, determined not to deviate in the slightest.
“Okay, power to the forward shields. We’ll have to plow a bit before we’re in the clear.”
As the three leaders cleared the second waypoint, Gavit broke from the other two along Matt’s plotted course towards the small planetoid floating above the rings. The course change took Gavit out of Pio-Tolis’ wake and allowed tiny bits of ice to assault his gravitational deflector fields. Each impact lit up the forward navigational deflector field like a tiny firecracker. The course change did not go without comment.
“Race getting too much for you Markus?” Porc taunted over the link.
“No, Five, just employing a bit of strategy,” Gavit replied and punched his throttle full open towards the asteroid.
“Good thinking there, Six,” Pio-Tolis commented a moment later. “But are you sure you have the skill for it?”
A cocky smirk on his face, Gavit shot free of the ice field. “Without a doubt, ma’am.”
Punching his afterburners to scatter the ice behind him, he made it that much harder for anyone to follow. “I hope you’re right about this, Matt,” Gavit said between gritted teeth as he adjusted his throttle according to his WSO’s course plot. Damn, I’ll need to apologize for that. I don’t doubt you, buddy. Engines blazing, Gavit closed his distance to the planetoid while the rest of the squadron continued through the ice field, drafting Chris and Pio-Tolis.
A text message from Matt appeared above Gavit’s sightline. Don’t stress it, I know you trust me.
Gavit smiled at that and flexed his shoulders.
“Looks like the ice is finally slowing Chris a bit,” Matt commented as the pockmarked surface of the dense planetoid came into sharp focus. “I’m reading more power to her shields.”
“It’s been known to happen. I’ll bet Pio-Tolis is going to try and force Chris to keep the lead, so that she can keep drafting her, at least while they’re in the thick of it. I would.”
“She’s too smart for that. Okay, Gavit, it’s all you now, don’t deviate even a little.”
Gavit pressed his throttle forward on the commanded course and dove into the wireframe corridor laid out on the HUD before him. Gavit grunted under the acceleration, sinking into his seat, as his fighter whipped around the planetoid, acceleration compensators unable to keep up. As the rings came back into view, they shot out towards the third waypoint at tremendous velocity, the whine of the acceleration compensators ringing through the cockpit. Music to my ears, baby!
“Sorry, I reduced the power to the acceleration compensators just a little bit and put it into the engines as we made the swing around. Don’t worry; we didn’t overstress,” Matt said.
Gavit looked ahead at the rest of the squadron as Pio-Tolis passed by Chris’ fighter. “No problem, looks like Chris is dropping back.”
“Okay, Gavit, be careful when we approach this one. We’ll be coming in at an odd angle compared to the others and we should reach it about the same time as Zithe and Rudjick, unless one of us deviates.”
Gavit examined the line of fighters. At the head of the pack, Pio-Tolis’ shields flashed like a strobe under the ice onslaught. Right behind her, Chris’ shields shimmered as the ion screens reformed around them. Fighters behind them fared better, shields sparking with only an occasional ice chunk collision. Soon he saw Zithe’s fighter. There was a sizable gap between him and the fighters ahead of and behind him, but Zithe and Gavit would come very close. “How far out will the others have to swing to correct course for the fourth waypoint?”
“Trust me. We’ll have one very strong lead on the way to four.”
“Good,” Gavit smiled as they proceeded back towards the ice rings and the waypoint.
Pio-Tolis raced straight through the waypoint before altering her course. Fighting her previous momentum, she swung around to put herself on course for the next, with several others following her.
“This is going to be close,” Gavit said between clenched teeth as his and Zithe’s fighters rushed towards the waypoint ahead. “One Zero, slide to starboard a little for me. Unless you want us both to go bouncing across the system.”
“Copy that, Six. Slide up a little for us too,” Rudjick replied, their fighter sliding aside.
Gavit smiled. Zithe has nothing to prove in this race. He pulled up on his throttle a hair and slid their fighter up a few metra, but not enough to risk missing the waypoint. The two fighters passed by each other, their EMT fields crackling as they came within a few metra of one another.
“Little bit close there, Six,” Zithe growled.
“Sorry, it’s the showman in me,” Gavit replied cents before he shot through the bottom of the ice field towards the fourth waypoint, a spinning ring of rock hanging below the elliptic. Taking note of its position, Gavit cut their engines and let momentum carry them. “We’re going to have to slow down before we get there.”
“Timing and energy management is everything on this one. Too fast and we have too far to go to recover, too slow, and we have to fight to get the lead back. Come in at the wrong time, and we’ll have to swing around to get through. If you hold this course and speed and fire a breaking thruster right before we get there, we should get through, no problem,” Matt announced, soothing his pilot’s worries.
“Just plot me a course,” Gavit replied, watching the flipping ring of rock. Pulling back on the stick just a bit, he was able to look up at the others when the first of them emerged from the ice field. The former racer let out a silent cheer at his commanding lead.
“Two more degrees up, five to port, and roll three starboard,” Matt ordered.
“What?” Gavit asked.
“Adjust the course now and we’ll use the ventral thrusters to slow our approach and put us on vector towards the next waypoint.”
“Okay, correcting,” Gavit replied, making the prescribed adjustments to their relative heading. “If not for the S.I.S, I wouldn’t be able to see where we’re going,” Gavit commented, looking down through the floor of the cockpit towards the waypoint. “It’s even better than Uncle Toran described.”
“Yeah, but your view is still obstructed; mine isn’t,” Matt announced with a smile on his near comatose face. “When you can see through the ring towards the next waypoint, gun the throttle full open. I’ll handle the ventral thrusters.”
The fighter continued to drift towards the next objective. The lack of anything to do drove Gavit to distraction. Looking up at the rest of the squadron didn’t help. His lead shrank with every moment as the other fighters, backlit by the glow of their engine exhausts, closed on his. Looking down, he stared at the growing ring and fingered the controls, eager to increase his lead before the rest of the squadron caught up.
“Patience, Gavit,” Matt soothed, and a hologram opened up, displaying Gavit’s heart rates and respiration. “If you jump the gun, we’ll lose the race. Trust me on this one. I’ve got it all well in hand.”
Gavit removed his hands from the controls and set them in his lap. Please don’t let me regret trusting you like this.
“Okay, we’re closing on the ring,” Matt announced moments later. “Preparing to fire braking thruster.”
Gavit latched onto the controls, his eyes hungry.
“Firing thrusters in, five, four, three, two, one.”
The fighter bucked as the thrusters flared, slowing them. As they cut out, Gavit spo
tted the top of the ring spinning towards them.
“Damn, I miscalculated,” Matt snapped. “Gavit, nose down. Punch the thrusters and pitch up when we’re clear.”
“On it,” Gavit responded, forcing the nose down before punching the throttle full open. He dove through the ring, then pitched back up, smashing the afterburner switch with his thumb. Fighting off the last of their momentum, the fighter came to a momentary stop inside the ring, then shot out towards the fifth waypoint.
The ring rotated up just in time to catch the tail end of their shields and jostle the fighter as it raced away, engine exhaust burning a pair of gouges in the surface of the rock.
“That was a little close there, Matt.”
“What can I say, it’s the showman in me,” Matt replied with a false smile as they left the ring behind. “We’ve got a strong lead. The others will be hard pressed to catch up to us now.”
“Let’s make sure of that,” Gavit declared, forcing the throttle all the way to the stops as he raced along the navigational route to the next waypoint.
“Six, Three, you’re making us look bad, guys, what’s the deal?” Arion asked with a chuckle.
“Hey, I was a pro racer. I have a reputation to maintain, no way can I let you slouches beat me!”
“Shut it, Six. The race isn’t over yet. You have one more waypoint after the one you’re headed for and it’s on the other side of the planet, in atmosphere. It’s anybody’s race now,” Pio-Tolis snapped.
Gavit smiled at the obvious annoyance in her voice. I’ll bet she hasn’t had a cadet outpace her like this in annura. “Yes, ma’am.” He shifted in his seat to look back at Matt. “What do you think?”
“This next waypoint is forcing us into the complete opposite direction that we need to in order to get to the final objective. We can’t slingshot. There’s nothing with enough mass anywhere close by and the atmosphere will slow us down too. The best I can think is to put us in a high speed parabolic orbit then atmosphere dive onto the point.”
Gavit studied the display, trying to find some better course. “That’ll take the better part of a Hectapulse.” He twisted the hologram about and tapped one of the nearest moons. “What if we slipstream to the other side of the planet? Or slide around the gravity well?”
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