Chapter #5Reader's Choice by: Aurthor   Lindsay struggled to keep the car under control as it bounced through the rutted snow pack streets. The aging Tesla had come with pre-installed All Weather tires that had been more than adequate to drive it off the lot at Farmer Johne’s New and Used, but were outmatched when pitted against the packed ice ruts the afternoons’ traffic had turned the snow clogged streets into. According to Channel 5 this was ‘A Snow Storm of Epic Proportions’, weather that demanded a good set of snow tires to be even marginally drivable in. That, and a defroster that worked half decent. Seriously, how hard was it to design an electric that could handle a standard Canadian winter?
Not that Lindsay was going to do much driving this week-end. Home was a tantalizing four blocks (but probably still a good 15 minutes) away, and once through the front door the next 72 hours would be spent in VR on a server two continents and five time zones away.
Lindsay had gotten into Flight-Sim games in a big way since his first encounter with them while You Tube surfing 2 years ago. The thought of being able to use virtual reality to soar through the clouds had resonated in the imagination of the young, single, and boringly plain minimum wage drone who had always had a fascination with aircraft. Already having the basic VR node now prevalent in every modern household installed in the common room, Lindsay lost no time acquiring the proper plug ins and harness accessories needed, and then promptly lost every minute of spare time for the next three months.
With the basics of flight mastered, Lindsey moved to testing those skills with other VR pilots, both AI and real. Shuttling freight with the various VR airlines quickly grew boring, so it was only natural Lindsay started looking at combat air war simulators.
Two months more time lost, and then Lindsay had come across that message while viewing a favorite You Tube channel.
‘Calling All Fighter Pilots’ the message had said. ‘Scramble! Scramble! Every available man and machine is urgently needed to defend our lines and attack the enemy convoys and cities. Your job is to destroy enemy supplies, capture airfields, and move our lines forward to victory.’
November 1942. The German 6th army’s advance has the Soviet defenders with their backs against the Volga River. The Soviet counter attack, overrunning the 6th army’s flanks surrounding them and cutting off their supplies. Now both sides fight a desperate struggle for to gain control and survive.
Tactical Air Combat Server 12 (Home of the Fighting 75th) is once again hosting its semi annual ‘Battle for Volgograd’ tournament. Based on the historic Battle of Stalingrad, the tournament is a chance to test your skills both as a pilot and a tactician against other like minded pilots in one of the most realistic air battle simulations to date.
Teams of up to 8 pilots will fly up to 150 missions over a 3 day period. These are not ‘Dog-fight for Points’ battles. Each mission’s success or failure directly affects the mission following. Let a convoy slip through and the enemy is re-equipped. Leave a tank convoy intact and it will capture a city. You must destroy or capture all targets and enemy resistance in an area to capture that map. The game is not won until all maps are captured or time runs out.
As a single player the only option for Lindsay to play in the tournament lay with making an application to the various wing leaders who had posted vacancies. Lindsay had sent an application to quite a lot of them, with no results. Until today, with only eight hours before the tournament began and 2 hours into the work shift, Lindsay’s phone had beeped with a message that an application had been accepted, and a pilots slot was waiting at Jagdgeschwader 127th
Finally, after ages of white knuckle driving and more than one ‘not safe for work’ comment about the actions of the other idiots on the road, Lindsay was finally home. Grabbing a liquid meal replacement out of the fridge took less than a minute. A quick trip to the powder room to ‘freshen up’ and don the VR harness took 5 more. Since the next 60 or so hours would be spent under VR, Lindsay made sure the maintenance program was activated, ensuring the physical body would get a rudimentary exercise and feeding. Lindsay would need a good shower afterwards, but wouldn’t starve or suffer bed sores from chafing. A push of the accept button and 2.7milliseconds of mildly disorienting swirling sensations later Lindsay was standing in the virtual entrance hall of Tactical Air Combat Server 12.
The hall, modeled in the fashion of a large hanger, was set up complete with a desk, flag, and large campaign map pinned to the wall. The hall was also worryingly un-occupied. As Lindsay looked around, trying to figure out how to find the entrance to JG 127, a voice came from directly behind. Lindsay turned, and a short man wearing the uniform of an army corporal saluted, saying simply “If you will follow me.”, before turning and walking out one of the doors set into the big hanger door at the front of the building.
Lindsay followed the corporal outside to the sights and sounds of a busy, and air base. Trucks and jeeps roared past, hurrying men and materials to mysterious destinations. Planes flew past overhead. Marching feet and commands echoed in the distance. All the sounds any skilled Foley artist would keep in a folder marked ‘Air Force Base Noises’ for just such an occasion.
A jeep waited just outside the door, and it was a brief drive across to another hanger where Lindsay was deposited in front of the office bearing the sign ‘Jagdgeschwader 127th (Die Wutenden Kuhe)’
Just below that someone had penciled in ‘Snappy uniforms. Good Beer. Cute Accents.’
Passing through the doorway produced the familiar swirling sensation that indicated Lindsay was being transported to yet another section of the server, this one specific to hosting the parts of the program the 127th would be participating in. This time however, when the swirling ended Lindsay was left feeling more disoriented than usual.
Everything seemed larger, brighter, and the colours seemed more defined than normal. Putting a hand against the wall for balance, Lindsay started to take a deep, steadying breath, which turned into a gasp of surprise at the woman standing directly across the room in front of her. The woman, wearing a blue-grey German duty uniform, seemed startled as well, mirroring Lindsay’s movements and putting a hand to her mouth. In that moment Lindsay memorized this vision of beauty. She was a petite little slip of a girl, maybe 160 to 170 cm tall at the most,. Shapely legs showed below the hem of her calf length skirt. Her long blond hair flowed from under the blue-grey Luftwaffe peak cap in two braids that fell one over each shoulder, reaching half way down the chest. A chest that was putting a severe strain on the buttons of the duty blouse visible under the open jacket.
The sound of a chair being pushed back drew Lindsay’s attention. Behind the desk was another woman also dressed in Luftwaffe uniform, this one with insignia that Lindsey guessed indicated she was the flight commander. When the woman came around the desk Lindsay realized who she looked like. The woman’s avatar bore an uncanny resemblance to Heidi Klum.
“First Lieutenant Lindsay Anderson, I presume” The woman said crisply extending a hand.
Lindsay’s “Yes” came out as an oddly pitched squeak, possibly attributable to the weird affects from the portal. Fortunately the woman continued as if she hadn’t notice.
“Colonel Leslie Von Helgameire, commanding officer. Welcome to the 127th”.
Struck by her looks, and well aware of the status of women in Nazi Germany, Lindsay stumbled over the response, blurting out “I certainly wasn’t expecting…” and trailed off, not sure how to put the statement without sounding sexist. True,woman pilots were rare on the German side, let alone as commanding officers. But this was a virtual reality game, so things like the gender bias of the Third Reich didn’t really apply.
“Yes, I know. I don’t think the guy who programmed these avatars has had a date in his life” Colonel Helgameire smiled, completely misinterpreted the cause of Lindsay’s confusion and taking the conversation in a different direction. “I’m pretty sure his inspiration comes from commercials for German beer and keying ‘Fraulein’ into wikapedia”.
Lindsay turned back towards the other woman and got a shock. Standing across from the door was not another woman but instead was a full length mirror.
As if in a trance, Lindsay realized it was HER reflection that was visible. Open mouthed, Lindsay stared, thinking only that there had to be some mistake. Without any conscious thought her hands crept up and cupped her breasts, bouncing them a couple of times, getting a feel for just how large they were.
“Holy crap”, she said, not meaning to say it out loud.
She looked up and saw the Colonel looking back at her, a bemused expression on her face.
"I take it you’re not used to such, shall we say, ample assets"?
“You got that right” Lindsay replied, unable to take her eyes off her reflection. “For Gods sake, I was a man before this”!
“I know what you mean”, the colonel said with a wry smile, “I’ll admit. I wasn’t much to look at myself. Like I said. The kid’s probably never had a date in his life. Don’t worry too much about it. Once you're in your flight suit the girls will be no problem at all”
That’s not what I’m talking about” Lindsay meant to say, but before she could get a word out the colonel started towards a door at the back of the office.
“Come on” she called back over her shoulder as she left the room, “I’ll introduce you to the rest of the flight”.
  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author