"The boy is insane and, frankly, a bit thick." Valette chirped as we made our way to the sims.
I chuckled, turning a corner with Britney to my right, "hey, the heart wants what the heart wants" I said, shrugging. The youthful gossiping of the younger cadets was lost on me for the most part.
"The heart wants to stop, then." Britney replied with her characteristically dry humour.
"Brit!" Valette yelped. "Maybe all Lt. Kohli needs is a guy like Drip to love." She added, now she was smiling, too.
It had been three weeks since that first flight sim. Time passed in crazy flashes, partly because of the head wounds sustained in the pit, partly because of the drinking but mostly, because I was actually having fun. I know, I know, Ollie Van Graff is enjoying his subjugation. It's all very ironic. The truth is that I'd spent too long out of a pilot's seat and I'd nurtured a hunger for the big dark that couldn't be satiated. I spent my life in the sims, honing my skills and when I was forced to leave it at closing, I'd head straight to the pit for a drink with our team. Of the seven Cadets that made up our bridge crew, I'd somehow managed to befriend over half of them and tolerate the rest.
Barring Valette, who took to me like a duck to water, Britney and Brettman were closest to me. Britney looked as preppy as could be, she spoke like a valley girl but had the dry wit of a satirist. She was fantastic and complemented Valette's cheerfulness like fine wine to cheese. Brettmann was the other one who'd become something of a god-send. His calm and serene manner was much needed on the crew, and I flicked my fingers to him from down the hallway as he spied us approaching. I took a deep breath. Today was the day, the first of the three tests to determine our placement flight.
"Ready, brother?" Brettmann asked, pulling me into a crunchingly hard bear hug.
"Absolutely." I said, grinning, "I'll bring us home."
The game was simple. Search out the other two crews and destroy them, the last one standing wins. Each Captain could pick their ship from the main roster of ships, which meant anything from a Punic-class carrier to a Charon-Class light frigate could be selected. We'd been taking bets on what Kohli would pick. Drip figured it'd be a carrier because the boy was a black hole of intelligence and only twice as dense. Mei and Valette figured it was going to be a destroyer for fire power and Brettmann thought it would be a Halcyon-Class Cruiser for their survivability.
"Confident on the bet then?" He smiled.
I'd picked a Frigate, hadn't specified which but I doubted it'd be a Paris-Class. Kohli was smart, she wasn't going to pick anything that made them a target. She was, it turned out, a lot like me. Cunning and deadly, she'd put our team in the good graces of Akron and the other training chief's, which I was thankful for; we still seemed to get passed up for commendations, however. I wondered if that had something to do with the chip on Kohli's shoulder, as I placed a hand on Brettmann's shoulder and smiled.
"Not in the slightest, friend."
"Get a room, boys." Valette said, stepping first into their simulation bridge and waiting below the glass observation deck. Kohli was waiting for us, smiling.
Not good.
"We have an esteemed guest joining us today." She said, gesturing to the group of examiners standing beside a man I recognised straight away.
"A-admiral Harper? What's he doing here?" Drip asked.
Mei's eyes widened, "Oh man, Admiral Harper? He's amazing, best Admiral we have, if you ask me."
"Parangosky is my favourite." I lied, watching Kohli wince in revulsion.
"He's probably here to check up on Kohli." Brettman said, shrugging, "permission to be seated, Ma'am?" Kohli nodded, her gaze shifting along the line of Cadets.
Britney snorted, "maybe he's just here to watch Ollie get thrown out an airlock"
"Naw, the Admiral and I are good friends" I laughed, casually saluting the man as he stared down at me. The iron bastard didn't even frown as he glared, which made sense, the man was an Admiral after all.
Kohli coughed for our attention and sat forward beside me in the command chair. "For this exercise I have selected a Charon-Class Light Frigate. This will enable us to use the fighters, the speed and manoeuvrability will hopefully let us land the shot we need to see this through."
Ten credits beeped into my account a moment later from Valette, who bit her lip in annoyance. Though that was probably because she wanted to play with a bigger gun than the Charon-Class offered.
"Okay, crew, keep to your stations and stay alert, engaging sim in 5...4...3...2...1…"
The headset clunked and whirled, I saw the white space of the nondescript Bridge fall away to reveal the bridge of the UNSC Fourth Winter. In my ear, a training instructor gave way to Admiral Harper's gravelly voice.
"Okay, Cadets. Classic search and destroy. Team one, led by Ensign Curran has selected an Epoch Class Carrier. Ensign Fujikawa has selected a Halcyon-Class Cruiser and Lieutenant Commander Kohli has selected a Charon-Class Light Frigate. Good luck cadets, and may the best team win."
My throat tightened as the arena, a life-size 1:1 recreation of Sol appeared in the simulated observation window. The Fourth Winter began near Saturn, the other ships were nowhere to be seen.
"Simulation begins in 3...2...1…" and a klaxon sounded.
"Van Graff, set a course for the asteroid Belt, low burn, let's take our time."
"Aye ma'am." I said, pushing off at a slow pace, letting physics do most of the heavy lifting.
"Permission to speak, Ma'am?" Drip asked, tentatively.
"Granted."
"Why this ship?"
I turned to Kohli, we all did, in fact, save for Mei who listened carefully as her eyes scanned the system for movement. Kohli sat back in her chair and motioned to the crew. "This ship optimises each of your roles. It has a complement of craft for Brettmann to make creative use of, but not so many that we become reliant on him for success like the crew of that Carrier. Similarly, there aren't so few that he's a wasted body as would have been the case aboard a Destroyer. As an auxiliary ship, the Charon-Class frigates have a comms laser that will fry any ship with compromised armour shielding. The ship is Light and fast and small, which can get us into position undetected for a final killing blow on either ship."
We all took that as a fair explanation, Kohli was far better at this than I gave her credit for. Hate me or not, she was a damn fine officer. For an hour we made slow progress towards the belt, praying that someone could pick something up. Eventually, Mei frowned.
"Drip, can you check sector thirty-two-dash-sigma?"
"Okay… uh… getting something! Low level chatter, likely fighters!"
I checked my map, that sector was near Mars, Deimos specifically.
"Broadswords can't scout an entire system" Brettmann noted, "reckon that's a trap, Ma'am."
Kohli agreed, with a nod. "Maintain course, keep an eye out for anything suspicious, I don't want to be blindsided by that Cruiser."
"That carrier is way too big for a Cruiser and a Frigate to take alone." Drip moaned.
"That Carrier is a big fat target. The moment it pops up, it can't be hidden. Mei, scan for weapons discharge and watch the large bodies for anything funny. That Cruiser will have to use something big as cover." Kohli said, shooting the kid down.
Mei nodded obediently and glanced at Valette, who was trying to focus. I felt the ship purr beneath my fingers, although it was a simulation my brain seemed to be picking up a lot of the slack in the sensation department because I was remembering what a Charon-Class Frigate felt like very vividly.
"E.T.A to the belt is an hour Ma'am." I said, curtly.
Kohli nodded and was deep in thought. Her face remained stony for almost the whole hour, she'd ask for updates on comms and navigational data. Mei grinned at her screen around thirty minutes into the journey and began a calculation. Then, just as we arrived at the belt and I let us drift, she tapped a button triumphantly and the UNSC Atlas appeared on the battle map, sitting in orbit above Deimos.
"That solves one problem" Valette said, stretching. "If this was the MAC on the Xanthium, I could snipe that little bugger right out the sky."
Brettmann chuckled. "Don't doubt that for a second, but you'd give away our position."
Valette shrugged, "That's why I shoot the gun, rather than order it fired, right Cap?"
Kohli looked vaguely irritated as she snapped out of a stupor that had lasted a further thirty minutes. "Van Graff" She barked, ignoring Valette, "take us to these two rocks. We will retreat from there and use Eros as cover, deploying our Pelicans remotely, loaded with the Nukes to cover our escape. Once we're there we'll need to take out their engines with some clever manoeuvres or a strategically placed nuke. That'll buy us the opening we need to put a MAC round through their bridge."
"Aye, Ma'am, I can do that," I said, it'd be the craziest manoeuvre of my life but I didn't feel as though I'd been set up to fail. Kohli had a steely look about her that suggested she was entirely focused on winning, currently.
"Good. Mei, find me that damned Cruiser."
"Uh, no need, Ma'am." Valette offered, "a MAC round has been detected."
I watched the screen as a bolt of light streaked from the direction of earth. The battle map, with Mei's help, showed the calculated locations of the UNSC Atlas and the now identified ship Pillar of Autumn.
"Fujikawa is a good Captain, but he'll struggle to put that beast down without help." I said, looking to Kohli. She agreed without question as the streak of light grew closer.
"Atlas is reacting. It was caught napping!" Mei said, smiling.
"Chatter is going panicky" Drip offered, "scrubbing it for you now."
"Belay that, Ensign!" Kohli grinned, "tight beam the Autumn, feed them all of our data on the Atlas."
"B-but that will give away our position, and theirs!"
"Exactly." Brettmann said, "they get damaged, they take out the Carrier and are drawn into the trap."
I smiled. It was a long shot but it was typical of Kohli. Again, I almost found myself admiring her but stopped myself when she shot me a venomous look from across the deck.
"Sending data." Drip said, his throat clearly as dry as the recycled air would have been if this were real. He paused, "relieved and confirmed. They say thank you and… see you soon."
"The broad swords are moving to engage! Wait, MAC impact!" Mei said, alarmed, "they've cleaved through the aft section… decks four plus are leaking atmosphere… Atlas is dead in the water."
We all watched in stunned silence as the Atlas vented emergency thrusters, trying to spin the ship around for a shot at the Autumn. On the screen, it's PDTs, coil guns and Archer missiles were loosed expertly at the cruiser. Credit to Curran he might have made a stupid gamble on the Carrier play but the man had a hell of a team behind him, on that he managed well as the Carrier flipped and fired its only shot at the Cruiser. Our crew held its breath as it flew off the rail and out into space. It collided silently with the Autumn and passed straight through.
"God damn!" Valette whistled.
"I'd hate to have been on that!" Drip screeched, whooping loudly.
Britney, who had been silent most of the trip, sent me a message. I wish he was, does he ever shut up?
Drip flushed red, "Uh, Brit, you know you sent that to everyone, right?"
"Britney frowned, "Oh, how clumsy of me." She said, then after catching my eye, winked.
"Stay on task, people." Kohli said, that she hadn't reprimanded Britney was a sign that she likely shared the sentiment.
The Atlas spun wildly, it's hail Mary had failed and the ship now took salvo after salvo of MAC rounds as it tried to use its missiles to cripple the Autumn. I was impressed but the gunnery skills and control that Curran displayed, his crew were still fighting, still doing damage as the cruiser gutted the ship methodically, as though field stripping a weapon.
Broadswords clashed in orbit above Deimos, the display showed wild orbital dogfights, simulated, but still as realistic as I remembered them looking. They darted about, erupting occasionally into balls of light that made them looked like faraway supernovas. The cruiser shrugged off the attack, its PDTs and complement of fighters swept through the Atlas' fighter contingent and ignored them, what damage they took vented only small pockets of atmosphere as the Autumn charged down the Atlas and fired its MAC gun through the ships bridge.
I sucked air through my teeth as the Autumn tuned, lumbering towards us at all available speed.
"Pelicans in position, Ma'am." Brettmann announced, turning slightly as the burn from the Autumn's sub light engines increased the glare from the screens.
"Van Graff, are we in position?"
"We are. Ma'am."
"Good-"
An asteroid erupted where the ship had been when we had relayed the data to the Autumn.
"What was that!?" Kohli barked, "and why wasn't it picked up"
"That was the shot that destroyed the Atlas, Fujikawa must have tried to take us both out in one hit." Mei said, frowning, our scanners stopped tracking it when it made impact."
Fujikawa was one of the more ingenious cadets and a brilliant tactical mind. Kohli might have had years of experience behind her, but Fujikawa had youthful vigour and instinct. Bits of asteroid flung about wildly, all of a sudden turning our cover into hand grenades as more bolts streaked through the sky towards us.
"We need to run!" Drip cries, "that debris-"
"Is thousands of kilometres away still. These asteroids are our only cover." Kohli replied, coolly.
"What happens when they're in Archer range? They have enough pods to flatten this entire sector." Mei asked, her question was searching, she knew Kohli would have an answer for it.
"At that point they'll be in range of our MAC cannon and they know it, they're trying to flush us out and make it easy." Valette offered this as calmly as Kohli had answered earlier.
We settled in for a tense few hours as the Autumn tried to flush us out, each shot eked closer to us as we hid behind Eros and eventually, they were in range. The asteroid lurched and Valette winced.
"That had to be a MAC round, they're targeting Eros. If it cracks in half or shatters, it will make us look like Swiss cheese" I said. Kohli looked to Valette, who nodded gravely. I was only a little offended that Kohli hadn't decided to trust me but it was really starting to grind me down. She ordered me ready and I bit my teeth together as Brettmann moved the first Pelican off towards the Autumn. We watched withheld breath as it spread out towards the ship, which seemed to pause. Now, it had been firing at a steady rate for a good while, so when the next shot didn't come, we knew our little hauler had been found.
"Broadswords have been launched. Ma'am, we could use the comms laser to screw with the Autumn's point defence turrets, if the Pelican can get through that nuke can take it out." Mei said, her voice wavered only slightly.
"Hurry," Brettmann said, his brow a knot of concentration, "they're almost ready to intercept."
Kohli leaned forward, "Savatier, status?"
"Green Ma'am"
"Van Graff, punch it, I want a firing solution on that Cruiser."
"Aye, Ma'am!" I grinned, gunning the throttle. The engines groaned and we roared forwards, leaving the cracked asteroid behind us as the Autumn came into visual range.
"Drip, tight beam that comms array, hit it with everything you have!"
"Aye, Captain!" He said, frantically hammering commands into his station.
I motioned the stick and the Fourth Winter swung around for an attack, I saw Valette grinning as the MAC spooled and the Archers bleeped when she attained target lock on the Autumn.
"Not getting this Pelican through, but I can take out that air wing!" Brettmann barked, his calm tone dropping as he wrestled with the remote-controlled drop ship.
"Do it. Prime the second one to cover our manoeuvre, as well."
"Van Graff, get Savatier a shot at that ships engines!"
A giant flash lit our faces and Mei leaned forward, trying to count the casualties from the nuclear blast. I grinned as I was bathed in light, a rush coming over me as I burned forwards and into a wide arc. The flash and explosion was gone only for a moment when the second Pelican erupted and I altered my course, hoping that the scanners had been compromised by the explosion.
"Valette, on my mark!" I said, the simulation failed to accurately reflect the G-force of the manoeuvre and I wondered if this would even have been possible if it were a real scenario. I watched the display and tracked the position of the bow as we flung starward, it seemed to crawl into position as the fireball waned and the Autumn came into view.
"Ready…"
There was a pause.
"Steady…."
Valette was tense, her finger was ready above the button.
"Fire!"
The simulated brightened and a MAC round burst forth almost as quick as light itself. I watched it soar briefly before darting to my personal console, watching as the shot sailed through its engines.
"Autumn is dead in the water!" Mei said. I was too busy putting the hammer down, shoving the spaceship forward and off towards the now flailing Autumn as it attempted to correct its spin towards the asteroid.
Klaxon's flared and the Fourth Winter wailed as the Pillar of Autumn locked onto us and began to fire its ranks of Archer Missiles. "Evasive action!" Kohli yelled.
"No need to tell me twice" I said, sardonically, bursting away from the Autumn as the turrets erupted into gnawing buzz saws, carving through the ranks of missiles trying to clip our wings. A couple got through and we felt the simulation shudder.
"Brace!" Kohli yelled, "Fetch! Status report!"
"Minor damage to all systems. Fires on decks 5 through 9. Anyone on the aft portion of deck three has been vented along with half of the ship's atmosphere."
"Savatier, blanket them with Archers, weaken the plating around the bridge, if you can."
"Aye ma'am!" Came the hurried reply.
I levelled and stabilised the ship, turning sunward to give the PDTs the best shot at the incoming missiles. They didn't disappoint, Valette had them firing on all cylinders as they careered around the stranded ship.
"Commander, they have staying power, we need to finish them off fast" I said, through gritted teeth.
Kohli grinned with a triumphant pleasure. She leaned forward and pointed to the bridge. "Get the comms laser on that bridge, highest charge possible, blind and overload their bridge. Savatier, bring us in under the cover of every single Archer missile we have and then put a MAC round through the bridge."
"Aye ma'am!" The cadets replied, obediently. The Commander looked to me and nodded. I grinned and gunned a hard burn, pushing towards the Autumn in a tight arc. The Autumn tried to push through the barrage but we hand just enough missiles to keep the ship hidden.
"Incoming!" Brettmann yelled. "It's a Broadsword!"
"Stay on course!" Kohli growled.
The Broadsword came close, its vector too harsh and speed too great to pull away in time. It was too fast for the PDTs as well, it slammed into the MAC gun with a mighty boom and everyone winced.
"Status?!" Kohli demanded.
"Well, the MAC is offline." Britney stated, unceremoniously. "And we can't back out. Basically, we're f-"
"I can do it!" I said, adjusting the trajectory.
"Do what?" Kohli asked, her brow tight.
"I can take it out for us. Trust me." I increased the burn; the Archers began to get closer as our pods ran dry and soon, they were raining down on the ship. Luckily, the comms laser had thrown the targeting from the Autumn.
"I asked you a question, Cadet!"
I didn't want to hear it. Kohli needed action, the team deserved to win. "Prepare for flip and tickle"
"Tickle?" Valette asked.
When we were in range, and the Archers growing too close for comfort, I cut the power and began to flip the ship. It would have been screaming itself apart in real life but the sim only showed the rumble and dull groan of a simulated flip and sizzle. A flip and sizzle were a funny name for 180° turn. A flip and tickle? That was me being funny. With the MAC offline, the front prongs were two giant gibs. As we somersaulted in space, I watched that gib slice through the bow of the Autumn. It crashed through their bridge, shattering it into a thousand pieces before stabilising. The simulation ended, with a round of cheers from the rest of the crew.