The next few days were spent relaxing with the pilots. Some of them were even talking to Jason about the events that had happened over the past couple of days. Some of them even became friends with Jason. However, most of the EIC clan were elsewhere, doing what they usually do during battles or missions.
After about half an hour, one of the senior officers came over to where Jason was sitting and informed him that the Lt. Com. Stantham wanted him immediately. One of Jason’s new acquaintances shot a glance towards him, wondering what he had done for the Lt. Commander to call him into his office.
Nervously, Jason followed the senior officer to the Lt Commander’s office. After a ten minute walk from the mess hall to the office, Jason was invited into the office. Lt. Stantham sat forward with Jason’s performance record. He thoroughly looked it over and sat back into his seat.
“Now then Mr Constansa, it seems that your record in the Academy’s flight combat simulator was exceptional. And from what I have heard, you have handled yourself well out on the battlefield well. It says here on the combat report that you shot down 25 Streuners and 3 landing craft during two sorties. Not even our skilled pilots could manage that, especially shooting down three heavily armoured landing craft. What craft did you have when this happened?”
“Well sir, I had a lightly armed Yamato. I suffered a laser malfunction on the crafts’ LF-1 laser cannons. Eventually, I managed to take the landing craft down with nothing more than my LF-2 laser cannons, Eco-10 rockets and PLD- 08 rockets which disabled their automatic targeting system. Two Goliath K2 battle cruisers flashed past me and dealt with the first two waves. After a while, they returned, but they were flying back. I then saw all of the landing craft and went straight for them. After spending about 20 minutes dodging shots from their auto turrets, I managed to get a lock on the lead craft. 10 rockets later, the first one went down in a ball of green fire. The second one then appeared and shot that down as well. The third craft was difficult to shoot down, but after hit and run tactics, the third one went down as well”.
Lt. Stantham was impressed by Jason’s performance on the battlefield. For his bravery and courage to stand face to face with three heavily defended landing craft in a Leonov starjet, Jason was promoted to the next rank, and even the Goliath pilots thanked him for his support. Everyday, Jason got to know more and more of the pilots and also earned their respect. This made him feel welcome and glad that he did join the Space Academy after all. Day after day, he would fly out to join his fellow comrades, and everyday, he would return more confident and mentally stronger. One day, he went down to the hanger bay and saw something amazing. His comrades had decided to buy him a new ship. It was one of the sleekest starfighters that the EIC owned. Heavily armed with 8 lasers and 650 rockets, this starfighter could penetrate even the strongest armour.
Jason thanked the guys for his gift with a round at the bar. They had bought him the Piranha. Heavily armed and heavily defended with armour that was strong enough to survive any laser attack and even the alien weapons. It was even equipped with an MTD (Multiple target detection) unit which could detect 20 threats at once and shoot down 8 of the potentially dangerous threats.
Jason now had 2 ships, although the Leonov was now a cargo vessel, rather than a starjet. This was because the Leonov had a greater cargo hold than the Piranha had.
Flying out on a new mission was the sort of thing that Jason had been looking forward to. This meant that he could now test his Piranha in battle situations. Flying to the jump gate, Jason noticed a pilot whose Nostromo starfighter was badly damaged and drifting in the endless void of space. Jason flew over to retrieve the pilot with his Yamato in tow, who later thanked him for picking him up.
The stranded pilot flew Jason’s Yamato back and left his Nostromo for a rescue team to come and retrieve it. Meanwhile, Jason corrected his course for the jump gate. By the time he had reached the next gate, there were skirmishes breaking out between the EIC and the Streuners. Jason also noticed that a new alien species, the Lordakians had craft of their own 0heading to join in the fight. Jason decided to leave his comrades to deal with the Streuners while he took on the Lordakians. There were 2 waves of Lordakians followed by a single Streuner. One of the Lordakian ships broke formation to meet Jason. Jason shot down the ship with out the alien craft being able to fire a shot. The rest of the Lordakian craft then followed to where Jason was located. Within minutes, the first wave and half of the second wave had been eliminated from battle.
The Lordakians opened fire on Jason, but with no effect. Jason then said to himself, “right, my turn” and opened fire on the last of the Lordakians. After the firefight, all that was left was debris and one Streuner was lost in a hail of gunfire. He then rejoined his comrades to take on the threat from the Saimon.
The Saimon are an aggressive race, always warring between clans and even between families. Their craft on the other hand, do not match their mentality. Their craft are very basic with a unique design, like the craft of the Lordakians. However, the Saimon craft are very streamlined, thus being able to outrun most other spacecraft, including the fastest ships that mankind has to offer. However, this information did not frighten Jason, he knew of the Saimon ships weakness, its armour. It was so lightly armed, but the armour wasn’t as strong as it was on the Piranha.
This meant that Jason could go for hit and run manoeuvres on the Saimon, while remaining cloaked. Despite this, the Saimon could always detect where their enemy was and take them down.
Nonetheless, Jason could easily out gun the Saimon as his Piranha was equipped with the new LF-3 laser cannons. With the equipment from his Yamato now on the Piranha, Jason engaged the Saimon. At first, there was only one Saimon, and then there were swarms of them, Lordakians and Streuners surrounding him. The Saimon and Lordakians opened fire on Jason while the Streuners remained where they were, not firing at Jason. For the fun of it, Jason fled. This was a clever tactic, as it then allowed him to get behind the Saimon and take them down in a hail of cannon fire. The Lordakians followed him. Jason then decided to go on a strafing run. During this manoeuvre, he shot down ¾ of the Lordakian ships before encountering a Mordon vessel.
The Mordon vessels are extremely unique, as they are basically a series of contra rotating, bladed disks. However, despite the design, these vessels were technologically advanced. They were equipped with the latest weapons and shielding capabilities. Their only weakness was the exposed plasma reactor in the centre. If Jason could fire a couple of Eco-10/ PLT- 2026 long range rockets into it, then the ship would be disabled, but it could also knock out the weapons array of any vessel close to it.
One of the Mordon vessels closed in on Jason. Before anybody could come to his assistance, the Mordon vessel was floating in space, lifeless. The escape pod had detached from the hull of the ship and was hurtling towards him at a rapid rate. Jason knew what the Piranha could do, so he engaged forward shields and waited until the pod came. A few minutes later and the Piranha shook due to the impact of the pod colliding with the shields. The HUD in the ship came online and showed the damage that the shield has sustained in the impact. There was hardly any damage to the shields. The alien life form in the pod ceased to exist as it had been obliterated in the explosion of the pod when it came into contact the Piranhas’ shielding.
Leaving the current area, Jason flew around the rest of the environment looking for any other alien craft to fight. But there simply were no other ships at all. This being the case, Jason flew back to the jump gate and back through the rift back to the home environment. He then flew back to the station for debriefing. A few of his comrades formed up in a wing. Either side of the Piranha were 3 Goliath K2 battle cruisers with Bigboy battle cruiser escorts and a Solace Goliath K2 at either end of the formation. When they reached the base, they split into their different areas where the pilots would later meet in the mess hall and talk about their combat engagements in the day. After having refreshments, all of the pilots hit their beds without Jason, who went to see the armourer. Jason explained what had happened to the armoury clerk. He explained the problem with the rockets needed for the Piranha. The reason that the Piranha had used most of its PLT- 2026 Long Range Rockets against the Mordon vessel was because the further that the rocket travelled, the less damage it would do because of the way that the warhead reacted with the vacuum of space. Instead, the manager advised him to use the long range rockets at close range, as they would do more damage to the enemy.
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