Chapter 3 Boot Training
Vixo woke up from his long, alcohol-induced sleep, having a painful headache and a sick stomach. With a big yawn, he got out of his bed and looked into a mirror hanging on the wall.
"DAMNIT SEZ!" he yelled as he saw the blue markings on his face. Sez must have put it on when he passed out. He ran into the bathroom and started scrubbing the blue out of his fur. Sezidan was taking a shower while laughing under his breath.
Moments later, after Sez took his shower and Vixo was done with his face, a letter came for them both. "Hmm, our assignments," Sezidan said, reading his own. "Well man, it was fun while it lasted. But kid, you might want to clean this up before you leave." He left before Vixo could get a word our. With a growl, Vixo started cleaning up the appartment while dressing and reading his assignments at the same time.
A few hours later, Vixo came to the pilot side of bootcamp, seeing some mechanics working and some drill sergeants ordering their "maggots" around. Guess we need some basic ground training first before goin in the air, he thought. He got to his barracks, found his bed, and lied down to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day...
Day 1 Familiarization
"Listen up maggots! Now is the time where we start turning you crying, wimpy babies into hell-raising adults! My name is Sergeant Marcoks, but you will address me as sir. Is that clear!" the drill sergeant shouted, a vicious looking male black leopard.
"Sir, yes sir!" said 16 pilots in unison.
"If I hear any smartass comments about my name or myself at all, I swear the next thing you'll see is my foot so far up your ass, you'll be eating rubber for a week! Do I make myself clear!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
The sergeant looked down the line until he spotted Vixo. "Well look who we have here," he said, walking up to the red fox. "You must be Vixo McCloud, the one Odius was talking about. Heard you were doin some 'expert' flying. Is this true?"
"Sir, yes sir," standing up straighter and raising his chin abit higher.
The sergeant smirked. "Don't get too cocky son...it'll get ya killed."
Day 2 Weapons for Pilots
"Well boys...er, and girl," the sergeant corrected, looking at the only female brown fox in the line. "Today we will be introducing and testing pilot weapons." He took out what seemed to look like an AIR-7, the type of gun the army and Special Forces use, but this gun had extremely different modifications. "This is the SPIR-5, meaning Super-Pulse Ion Rifle Mark 5. Based off of the AIR-7, this baby has obvious changes to it to best suit the pilot, but is about as powerful or maybe even better." He turned the safety off and shot at a dummy from a distance with a blast of light, burning a hole straight through the chest.
"The SPIR-5 has five settings on it. Numero Uno: EMP, or for the dumbasses, Electromagnetic Pulse. Sends out a blue shot of electricity, disabling any electronic device it comes in contact with.
"Number Two: Stun. Sends out a shockwave through the enemy's nerve system, knocking them unconscious.
"Number Three: Kill. The name speaks for itself.
"Number Four: Wide Range. Disperses a narrow, horizontal, 90 degree radius shot. It can kill multiple enemies, just don't forget to make sure your own men are out of the way or ducking.
"And last but not least, Number 5: The Seeker. This is for the running or manueverable enemy. It follows the target until contact is made. Now...let's do a little testing." Marcoks tossed the rifle to Vixo. "McCloud, you do the honors. Five stations are already set up," he said, pointing to 5 stations in the field.
Vixo nodded and set the rifle to EMP by the dial on the side. He took aim at a scrap robot waving at the line. He fired and the blue shot made contact, sending ripples of electricity around the body of the robot. It was no long moving.
Next, he set the dial to stun, but this time the target was an innocent animal. Vixo looked at the sergeant surprised.
"Don't worry son. The shot will only knock it out for awhile, not kill it. We already tested the kill shot with that dummy. Now go ahead and fire," pursuaded the sergeant.
Vixo turned back to the target and fired. A yellow shot made the animal fall over unconscious. He then switched to the Wide Range setting, turning toward the biggest station with multiple targets. Vixo fired, sending out a green shot that was horizontal and narrow. It cut all the targets in half.
Then Vixo changed it to the last setting, the Seeker. The station had a drone hovering just above the ground. "Go!" he yelled. The drone took off into the air, twisting and turning everywhere. Vixo got a lock-on with the targeting system on the rifle and fired a white blast. The shot followed the drone until it made contact and exploded.
"Good work, McCloud. Now this rifle will be placed under the computer console of your ship, a few inches above your knees. This way it's easy access." Marcoks pulled out a smaller gun. "This will be your sidearm weapon. The Blaster. Two settings: stun and kill, that simple. It will be placed in a holster hung on your hip. That is the end for weapons today. You are dismissed." The sergeant saluted as so did the pilots.
As Vixo headed for his barracks, he watched the girl walk down the sidewalk, thinking: A girl pilot...this should be interesting...
Day 3 Body Armor
"Today's gonna be a short one maggots. Now we look at body armor and head gear." He pulled out a helmet and a thin looking shirt. "In the event of a hostile situation, you will wear this helmet. It will be hooked behind your seat. Also, this is no ordinary shirt. This shirt is made of a special material able to absorb 70 percent of a blaster shot set to kill. So you'll only feel a punch if a shot did hit you along with a slight sting." Marcoks tossed the shirt to Vixo. "Put it on boy. Don't be scared."
Without hesitation, Vixo took off his original shirt and put on the special one. The sergeant aimed at Vixo's stomach with a SPIR-5 set to kill and fired. When it hit, Vixo felt like someone just punched him hard in the gut, making him fall to his knees in pain.
"You OK boy?" the sergeant asked with a laugh.
"Yes sir..." Vixo coughed, examing the bruise on his stomach.
Day 4 Mortal Kombat .
Everyone met in what seemed to be a dojo. "Alright people. Today we test your flexibility and martial art skills. Pick up a pole on the wall there and let's get started." They did as they were told and Marcoks read off names for the people to fight, two at a time. Three matches went on until...
"Private Vixo McCloud!" Marcoks ordered. Vixo stepped up onto the mat with his pole. "You will be fighting...Private Mefina Helaroy." The girl stepped up onto the mat. Vixo looked at the sargeant confused. "What McCloud? Too afraid that she'll kick your ass?"
"No sir," Vixo replied, getting into his fighting stance.
"Well then, fight!"
Vixo swung his pole at the girl, but she blocked before it made contact with her side. She retaliated with a kick to Vixo's side, but Vixo blocked. The two went at it for a half hour kicking, punching, swinging at each other, sometimes making contact if one was vulnerable. It took only one final move until one of them went down.
Melfina swung her leg on the floor, kicking out Vixo's legs from under him. The next thing Vixo knew, he was on his back looking at the end of her pole. "Don't ever underestimate a lady," she said, ending the fight. Vixo just stared at her in awe.
Day 5-11
"Today people, you will be playing an old fashioned game of chess, just like every other branch of military is doing for the next week. If some of you maggots don't know how to play, you got a manuel on your table. Winner gets dinner tonight, losers don't. Now get playing."
Two were at each table. Vixo was paired up with Melfina again. Hours passed and most of the pilots were done already. However, Melfina and Vixo were still going, Vixo with 4 pieces and Melfina with 6.
"Check," Melfina said. Vixo moved his king out of the way. Melfina made one more move but made a big mistake in doing it. Vixo saw it and moved his bishop, trapping her king.
"Checkmate," he said, looking at Mel.
She looked over the board, sighed, and laid her king down. "Good game," offering her hand.
Vixo shook it. "Yea, good game. You may be skilled more with the body, but I'm better with the mind." He smiled and went off to dinner.
Day 12-62 Ship familiarization and Air Combat
"You all should have looked over your ship's manuel, so I don't have to go over controls with you. You havev all been randomly chosen into 4 different groups with four people each." Marcocks started reading off names to different colored teams.
Vixo was called to the blue team with three other people. One was a muscular, red bird. Another was a grey wolf. Both looked more experienced and older. The last was once again Melfina. Damnit, this choosing has to be rigged, Vixo thought.
"Alright, your ships are in that hanger over there." Marcoks pointed to the building. The pilots started heading over to it. "McCloud!" he yelled, making Vixo turn around. "Odius said he had one already for you. It's in the far right corner and marked with your name on it."
"Yes sir," Vixo replied, heading back to the hanger. He went into the back until he saw the ASF-2 marked "McCloud" on the side. I already had a blue streak on it as well. He climbed in, turned the ship on, and lifted off and out of the hanger, the others following behind.
The sergeant's voice came into his headset. "OK maggots, weapon settings have been set to EMP. You get shot and your computer disables, but you'll be able to manually glide in the air until your computer reboots. You will then land cuz you're out. Now, head off in different directions and meet at the objective point on your radar in 5 minutes."
The four groups headed off. Vixo's group was in a diamond formation. A voice came through the headset, the screen in front of him showing who was talking. It was the bird, who was leading. "Alright guys, I'm Revano Zandry," he introduced himself with such a deep voice, it could make Marcoks' fur crawl. "Stay outta my way and we'll be on good terms."
Another voice came in, this one sounding a little raspy. "Marcus Rolavine here. Just remember Rev, we're working as a team here."
Before Revano could respond, a womanly voice came through. "Melfina Helaroy, and don't be thinking I'm weak. I think McCloud could tell you otherwise."
Vixo laughed and turned on his mic. "Vixo McCloud, and stop braggin Mel, it'll get ya killed."
They laughed and headed to the objective point. The point was in a mountain region with deep valleys and twisting canyons. The started to see blue shots being fired. Red dots and targeting triangle appeared on their screens. Revano's voice chimed in.
"Alright people, switch to combat mode. I'll be Blue Lead. Marcus, you're Blue 2. Mel, Blue 3, and Vixo Blue 4." Their numbers appeared on their screen as they switched the ship wings to combat mode. "Divide and conquer. Go!" He hit his thruster and sped off into battle. The others followed and then headed off in different directions.
Vixo had already picked a target moving around in a valley. He stayed as low to the ground as possible, hiding from his target before he sprang from the cliff and dove at his prey. He started firing as his target was turning around to fire back. As blue pulses passed by him, Vixo pressed some pedals at his feet to do deflecting barrel rolls to make the shots bounce off his wings if they were close enough to hit. He made one more barrel roll and drifted off to the side, aiming at the front of the target. He fired and hit the other ship right in the side. "Gotcha!" he yelled, talking to himself. Just then, a warning came on his screen, telling him he was being targeted from behind. Vixo hit the thruster and sped off. The other ship followed. He saw an open cave in front of him. "Computer, analize land structure and tell me if there is a way through."
The computer responded with a high beep and examined the rock structure. It gave positive confirmation and started giving directions with a 3D model.
"Damn this old technology! Where's Sylvia when you need her?" He enter the cave and followed the 3D map through twists and turns, missing spikes in the cave by a very small margin. He dipped up and down through the cave like he was in the belly of a huge snake. The other ship was no longer behind, probably too scared to follow. Suddenly the warning came on the screen again, but still no one was following. He started hearing a rumble outside of this ship. "Oh shit...why now? I'm only three-fourths of the way through!"
He sped up a little more, twisting and turning around the spikes. Rocks started falling from the ceiling of the cave. A light appeared at the end. More rocks came down, little pebbles and rocks rattled on his wing. The light grew bigger as he neared and dodged the falling rocks. He could hear static starting to come from his headset with some voice trying to come through. "Blu...you...ixo..." The light started to get small again. Vixo knew the rocks were about to close him in. Determined to get out, he hit the Turbo and zoomed through the cave and just got out of the opening before it closed up. The voice came out clear now.
"Damnit Vixo! Where the hell are you!" It was Revano, who sounded very pissed but worried at the moment.
"I see him! Did you actually do what I think you did, Vixo!" Melfina asked in amazement.
"Yea, and this fuckin computer didn't help matters any! That damn cave about swallowed me whole!" Vixo yelled, looking at the status of his ship to make sure it was OK. The wings and body took minimal damage, and got some marks on it that looked like blaster marks from a distance. "But man wat that a rush!"
"Don't act so careless next time! You could've gotten yourself killed! And your still in boot camp for God's sake!" Marcus sounded extremely pissed too.
Vixo looked at Marcus' ship flying toward him. "If anyone is careless at the moment, it's you. You got two bogeys on your tail."
The warning finally came on Marcus' screen. "Damnit!" He got shot in the back of his shiip and the computer went out. He switched to manuel and glided out of the battlefield.
Vixo shot down the two ships with ease. They were the last two. The battle was over. Marcoks voice came in through their headsets. "Nice work blue team. Come back home."
Day 63 Graduation
The day had finally come. The pilots were all dressed in sky blue uniforms, saluting the Cornerian flag. Vixo and the others were standing beside each other.
"Today I wish to congraduate these fine soldiers on the work which they have accomplished to get this far. These soldiers will be a fine part of the Cornerian Army."
Vixo could see his parents in the crowd, clapping for him. He smiled.
Day 64 Assignment
A letter came in the mail for him.
"Dear Private McCloud,
"Congradulations on your graduation. However, due to your careless actions involving that collapsing cave, you will remain as an Ensign until further promotion is recieved. You will be stationed on the CS Freedom. There you will recieve your training in the Advanced Flight training course."
Vixo growled and looked through his bag, pulling out a small box. "Here we are..."