Untitled

Chapter 1

The small cockpit of the F-1A Viper simulator popped open and Robert Rockk jumped out like a coiled spring. He took a breath of cool air as he pried off the helmet that he had been using and placed it on the simulator for the next pilot to use. He was thankful to have gotten out of the sim still functioning. That had been one of the hardest tests he ever had to take.
As soon as he walked out of the sim room, he looked around the testing center for his fellow pilots and friends, Jenny Kantes (his girlfriend), and Richard Glokss. It’ll be hard to find them in this crowd, Thought Robert. The high-domed room was full of pilots, both trainees and veterans, who were milling around, talking, and forming queues in front of each test room. He decided to look for them in one of the various cafés that were sprinkled around the large room. He spotted Richard’s light blond head bobbing over the crowd, probably looking for him. Robert pushed his way through the crowd, and found Jenny sitting at a table near Richard. As he sat down, she gave a start and said:
“Oh, there you are. Rich has been looking for you, but obviously that was a lost cause. I can’t see how you could find anybody in this zoo.” Robert nodded. He looked into her eyes, and was surprised, as always at how vividly green they were. He sometimes wished that he had an interesting feature like that, but like most humans he had brown hair and brown eyes. In fact, Robert and Jenny were very different appearance wise. The only trait they shared was hair color, which was almost exactly the same shade of light brown. She was about three inches taller than him, though his shoulders were a bit wider.
“There you are!” said Richard, who had just sat down. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back!”
“How was it?” asked Jenny, her emerald eyes inquisitive.
“I thought that the volcano moon mission was the hardest,” he replied.
Both Jenny and Richard looked confused. Richard said, “I don’t remember any volcano mission. I was in deep space for most of the runs. The only time I saw a planet was on a mission where I defended the base here.”
Jenny looked even more confused. “I didn’t have any of those missions. I was launched from a carrier, and that was my only mission. It was really long, though,” she replied.
“Wow!” said Robert; “I guess that they randomly selected missions for all of us. That must be a lot of work!”
“Does anybody know when the results are coming back?” asked Jenny.
“Tomorrow, Jen,” said Rich. “I’m anxious too. I really want to go on this mission. It sounds fun!”
“You’re idea of fun is a bit skewed from a normal perspective, if you catch my drift, Rich. I want to go though. I want to help the U.C.H.P.,” Jenny said.
The U.C.H.P., or the United Coalition of Human Planets, was the legal government that controlled most of the human worlds in the galaxy, except for small bands of traders, freelance mechanics, bounty hunters, and other unsavory types who lived in the southeast portion of the Galaxy. The Coalition was constantly at war with the Bodrillians, an insectoid race from the opposite side of the Galaxy. They seemed bent on destroying humankind, though Humans had done nothing to deserve this treatment. The Bodrillians were controlled by a queen, who had a link through a hive mind to the lesser nobility, who in turn controlled the leaders of the army or communities, and so on and so forth down to the smallest larva that just emerged out of the egg sac. Overall, the Bodrillians were ruthless, for while they had minds of their own, they did not have the fear of death that Humans do because even after they died, the hive would continue to survive.
The next day arrived much too fast for Robert. His nervousness was constantly on his mind. What if he was selected to be on the mission and Jenny was not? Or even worse, what if she was selected and he wasn’t? After all, she was the better pilot. Trying to turn his mind off this matter, he called Jenny, who lived a block or so away, and asked if she wanted to be picked up. She agreed, and he flew over to her squadron’s headquarters where she lived (at the moment). When she met him outside, it was obvious that she was just as nervous as he was. They flew in almost complete silence, with only the sounds of the city and of the engine of Robert’s small two seater hover car. When they arrived at the air force headquarters, he set down the car and got out quietly. They both took a big breath before entering the large dome shaped building. There was a smattering of pilots around the auditorium and café. Many more pilots arrived in the next few minutes, including Richard, who was nearly exploding with energy and anticipation.
“Today’s the day!” he kept saying quietly to himself. When he saw Robert and Jenny, his already huge smile brightened, however impossible it seemed.
“Well, ready for the big announcement?” he asked hastily. Jenny’s nervousness seemed to double as she started fidgeting. Robert gave a shaky nod to confirm that his neck still worked after having been stiff with anxiety all night long.
“Yes Rich, I think we’re ready,” he said in a faint voice.
Richard obviously noticed and asked, “What’s the problem, guys? Are you nervous? Well don’t be, you two are some of the best out there, and I heard that there’ll be six carriers on this mission and even more capitol ships. They carry fighters too.”
“Six?” Jenny asked. “That’s almost twelve squadrons! That’s goanna be a huge fleet! Do you know anything else about it?”
“Well,” replied Richard, “I’ve heard that it’s almost a race against the Bodrillians to get to some planet that has something on it. Like an unlimited energy source or something. All I’ve heard is supposition. They’re keeping it under tight wraps, I don’t think anybody except the highest officers know.”
“Odd,” Robert thought aloud, “What could be that important?” Before Richard had a chance to answer, though, an admiral stepped onto the platform at the end of the auditorium. The silence suddenly became so thick, you could feel it.
The admiral cleared his throat. “Loyal pilots of the Coalition, I shall read off the names of the selected candidates in alphabetical order. Directly after this meeting, the selected candidates must report to Briefing Room One for an assignment to squadrons and ships. Those of you who should be unlucky, or should I say lucky, enough not to be selected shall report here tomorrow morning at 0700 hours sharp. The first selected candidate is…” As he listed all of the names from A to J, Jenny grew visibly more nervous, though so did most everyone else. Jenny’s last name was Kantes and she was squirming in her seat, all of the blood drained out of her face.
The admiral continued reading. “Kantes, Jenny” was the first name in the K section. Jenny let out a breath that she didn’t realize that she had been holding. She looked so relieved that Robert found it hard not to relax a little. The next names were not anybody that he knew, and they passed as slowly as if the admiral had been trying to stretch them out. Various pilots around the hall started looking relieved when their names were called, or disappointed when the place where their names would be was passed.
After what seemed like an eternity to Robert, but was likely no more than five minutes, the admiral finally reached the R’s. “Rasende, Feinoa…. Rioun, Ekeher….” Here he paused for a drink of water from the glass at his side. Robert’s heart was pounding so hard that he was surprised no one else heard it. The admiral continued reading, “Rockk, Robert….” Robert felt as if his heart would leap out of his chest. He turned to Jenny and gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. They were together now! They had made it! He was so happy that he didn’t realize when they skipped Richard’s name. When he looked over at Richard, he felt so sorry for him that it considerably dampened his mood.
When they were finished in the auditorium, Robert and Jenny tried to sympathize with a dejected Richard. He finally went out to his hover car and sped off. “I feel terrible that we made it and he didn’t…I only wish…oh never mind.” Jenny said.
“You only wish what, Jen?” asked Robert.
“That we could all be together. I mean, we were all in the same classes at Flight school, and he’s been your best friend since, well, before you met me, I suppose!” Jenny said wistfully.
“Yeah, since primary school. We’ve had good times together…I remember the first time we met you, in that class. What was it?”
“Astrophysics, remember? You and Richard sat down in front, and there were no seats left when I came in so I had to sit next to you. Just imagine if you had sat one seat over! We’d be different people!”
“Yeah, and I wouldn’t have passed the astrophysics exam! I still can’t thank you enough for helping me through that studying. Whoa we’d better get to that briefing room soon, Jen”
“Yes, yes! Let’s go!” said Jenny distractedly. They walked across the courtyard to the briefing room, which only had standing room left. Robert put his arm around Jenny as an executive officer walked in. She wasted no time and pressed a button on the desk in the front of the room. Everyone’s data pad beeped, signaling that it had a new high priority message. Robert pulled his out. He read the document over and found that he would be Eclipse 2, based on the ship Supernova. He looked over at Jenny and asked “Where’d they put you?”
“I got command of Eclipse squadron…where are you?” she braced herself for the worst.
“I…I’ll be right on your wing, Jen!” Robert exclaimed. He gave her a quick kiss and they headed out of the room, happy that at least they were together.
“We’d better get to that new base. How far away is it?” Jenny asked.
“Pretty far, about a hundred kilometers west.”
“In the wasteland? I thought it was abandoned!”
“Maybe they’re trying to keep it secret? We’d better get started.”
They passed most of the trip in silence, until they got to the base. “Look at this place!” Jenny exclaimed, “This huge facility out in the middle of nowhere! If they wanted secrecy, they could’ve done a better job of it. We don’t even know what this mission is about, though…I hope they tell us soon, the suspense could kill me!”
Robert silently agreed as they got out of the hover car. Parked out front there were already some hover cars and a truck which seemed to be carrying the pilots’ personal effects. “I suppose you’ll want to go and get your car, Jen. You can use mine.” Robert went in, and left Jenny the keys to his hovercar so that she could retrieve her’s and then use the slave-circuit to get them both back to the remote site.
He went in and saw an executive officer sitting on one of the two couches in the room. She looked up and smiled at him. “Lieutenant Rockk, your room is over here,” she indicated a doorway. “If you need anything, I’m always at your disposal. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Samantha. Just call me Sam.” Robert nodded and headed off to his new room. “Oh, and I forgot to mention,” she said, “your belongings have been brought to your room already. Arrange them, but don’t get too comfy, we’re shipping out on the Supernova in two weeks. This is just time for you and the other pilots to get accustomed to flying with each other.” Robert nodded again and strode into his room.
There was a small bed in the corner, and all of his stuff was piled in two small boxes in the other corner next to a wooden desk with a lamp. He went over to the only window (which was quite large and, when the blinds were all up, nearly took up the entire north wall) and looked out on the desolate landscape. Most of the view was of sky, which he supposed was nice for nighttime viewing. He made a note to himself to go out one night and look at the stars through his telescope. Stars had always interested him when he was a kid, and the view would be much better away from the air and light pollution of the city. He sat down on the edge of his bed and kicked off his boots. He lay back and discovered that the bed was quite comfortable, unlike most of the military beds that he had slept in. This fact made it easier for him to get to sleep, and when he did it was dreamless and restful.

Chapter 2
Robert was awoken by his alarm at 0500 hours sharp. He blearily walked to the shower and turned it on. He stepped in and let the hot water run down his back. Today he would meet the rest of the squadron and see how they could fly. He finished and turned off the water. As he got dressed he began to get hungry, he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday.
As soon as he was dressed, he rushed out of the barracks building, across the courtyard and into the cafeteria. Two pilots were already there along with a few mechanics and Samantha, the executive officer. He served himself a breakfast of starfruit juice, some pancakes and a fried anopte egg. As he sat down, Jenny walked into the room and his mood brightened. It always did whenever he saw her. She scanned the room, found him and smiled. She got a breakfast similar to his and seated herself across the table from him.
She looked as well rested as he felt. “So, how’d ya sleep Rob?” she asked.
“Very well, thanks to that bed, and you?”
“Same. We’ve got a big day ahead of us, so that’s good. I wonder what these other pilots are like? The cafeteria had begun to fill up as they talked. Neither Jenny nor Robert recognized any of the other pilots. They continued to talk about nothing until their breakfast was finished. Both got up and bussed their trays. As soon as possible, they walked over to the hanger to admire the sleek craft. Each starfighter had been outfitted with targeting lasers, which would register a hit for a computer, but not actually damage a craft. Each different weapon had a different laser signature so the computer could tell how much damage was done and where. The bombs would cause more damage than the missiles, but they were only used for assaulting a capitol ship or ground target, so they wouldn’t apply to the simulated dogfight. Then, the missiles would cause more damage than the rockets, the rockets more than the torpedoes, and the torpedoes more than the lasers. The F-1C Viper was armed to the teeth, but also fast and maneuverable.
Jenny and Robert saw some of the other pilots heading back to the briefing room, so they decided to follow them. When they reached the room, they saw only four other pilots seated in the chairs, and talking among themselves. Also seated in the room was Samantha, the executive officer. She stood up and saluted as they came in and didn’t sit down until they returned it. She made her way over to Jenny and began to talk. “Commander, as you know, you, holding the highest rank in this squadron, would normally hold this briefing yourself, though for today and as long as we’re dirtside, I have been ordered to organize the mission briefing. Just so you and the other pilots can get used to each other.”
“Well, that’s fine with me,” Jenny said. “I am going to organize the training runs every day, no matter what your superiors say.” Samantha nodded.
“That’s fine with me. What do you plan on doing today?”
“First of all, we need to learn everyone’s name and number before we get into the ships. I’d appreciate it if you could handle that. Just list us in order of number. When we get into the air, I would like to start with basic maneuvers and work on some formation flying. Lastly, of course, we should do a simulated dogfight, just so we don’t get rusty. For that, we’ll need you. Every time a pilot is hit hard enough, you need to tell them to sit out for about five minutes, and tell them to come back in after that. The simulation should last for half an hour.” Samantha saluted and returned to her desk. Jenny and Robert took seats in the front of the small room.
As soon as all of the pilots arrived from breakfast or admiring the ships like Robert and Jenny had earlier, Samantha started the briefing by standing up and signaling for silence. “Before I turn you over to Commander Kantes, I will first read off the names and specialties of each pilot. First of course is Commander Jenny Kantes. Seeing as she is commanding us all, we decided not to give her any extra responsibilities.” Jenny stood up and waved once to the rest of the room. “Next, Lieutenant Robert Rockk. Lieutenant Rockk is very proficient in hand weapons, both ranged and melee. Should we need to infiltrate an enemy base, he will train you to defend yourselves.” Robert, surprised that anyone had remembered his aptitude for hand weapons, stood up and gave a mock salute to the rest of the room. This got a few chuckles out of the rest of the pilots. “Let me see,” Samantha muttered. “Ah yes! Next is Lieutenant Tresán Arrides, who will be your hand-to-hand combat teacher. He will get to throw you around like rag dolls, so I would be nice to him.” Tresán was a gigantic man with large muscles. Robert felt a twinge of pain that he supposed was from his future self, getting pounded. Tresán was darker in color than the rest of the squadron, and certainly much more massive. “Lieutenant Abriga ummmmm…how do you pronounce that?”
A short, lithe figure stood up and said, “You’re not the first to ask me that…it’s pronounced Fermendantaye, though not spelled like that.”
“Yes, quite so. Lieutenant Phrmndantæ,” she stumbled over the last name, “will be our communications expert. Next is Jonas Hill, our mechanics expert. If you need him, you’ve been stranded in disabled ships in the middle of nowhere.” He stood up and took a bow. He seemed to be the type that played practical jokes and blamed it on others. Robert had plenty of experience dealing with those types. “Next is Flight Officer Tabatha Ardele, the intrusion expert.” A tall woman stood up in the middle of the room, though quickly sat down again. “All right, now we have Arielle Oberon, the explosives expert.” She stood up and Robert immediately noticed that she had bright blue hair. She waved once and flashed a smile around the room before sitting down. “Our computer expert is Joe Riazzio. He specializes in slicing and programming for those of you who wanted to know.” Joe stood up and Robert nearly jumped. He looked as if he belonged in one of the inner city mafias. He was very pale, with sunken, almost haunted eyes. Robert felt relieved when Samantha moved on. “Oh!” she said, “Someone with my name, well, close enough. Flight Officer Sam Tiburon is the medical expert here. He can cut you open and sew you back together with the best of them” Sam stood up, and like Jonas, took a bow, but he added a ridiculous flourish at the end. Oh no! Robert thought, another one! One prankster he could handle, but two? He reminded himself to be extra careful. “Next is Flight Officer George Berns, the linguistics expert.”
George, a slim, short man stood up and said “Eounock maheldrie foedinfionk,” everyone looked confused. “I said hello everyone, how are you?” a chorus of understanding “Ohs” ripped across the room like a viper flying overhead.
“Hmmmm well, I suppose we’re all right, Mr. Berns. Next is Roderick Jones, our sniper. I don’t need to warn you about him.” Rod stood up and mimed shooting a rifle at Sam. Sam fell over as if he had been shot. Oh, crap, Robert thought, I’m done for. “Last, but certainly not least is Ekeher Rioun, our astronavigation expert. Oddly enough, in a pinch he can double as a sniper. He stood up, though he looked very nervous. As soon as possible he sat down again. “Now that we’re done here, I’m turning you over to commander Kantes. They’re all yours, Commander.”
“Good!” Jenny replied with a smirk. “All right, everyone! To your ships!” A collective cheer went up from the assembled pilots. Now we get to see how we fly with each other, Jenny thought.

Chapter 3
The pilots headed to their ships and Jenny wondered how well she would fare today against all of her other pilots. She saw Robert climb into his ship and smiled at him. She wondered how she would do against him. They hadn’t flown together for at least three years and then it had been in simulators at the Academy. She jumped into her own cockpit, started to strap herself in and looked around once more. Oh well, she thought, it’s just a practice run. Nothing to get worried about. She activated the thrusters, and lifted off.
Once she got airborne, she radioed to the rest of the squadron, “All right, everybody, form up in wing pairs, then in flights.” She waited until she got acknowledgement, first from Robert, and then Tresán, that they had formed up. “Okay, let’s go through some basic maneuvers. Hard to port.” As Jenny turned, she watched the little dots on her nav-board follow her. Good. She thought, they can fly. This makes my job easier. “Now, hard to starboard.” She brought them back in line with the original course that they had been following. “Loop up!” she said. She pulled up hard on the flight stick and felt her insides twist as she watched the world flip upside-down. As she completed the loop she checked the nav-board. Most of her pilots had stayed with her, but Eclipse 11 and 12 had strayed a little and were lagging behind. “Ummmmm…” Jenny said to herself as she struggled to remember their names. “Eleven, Twelve, what happened there?”
“Sorry ma’am, we didn’t expect that loop to be so tight.”
“Well, next time, expect it, guys,” she said. Most of the rest of the morning was taken by just practicing basic maneuvers, with an increasing degree of difficulty. When they landed for a sort break, Jenny felt pretty good about how things went. The squadron wasn’t comprised of mediocre pilots, as most of her last squadron had been. She sighed as she remembered them. They had been good people, and she supposed that if she had been the commander back then, she would’ve had a more optimistic view of it. She sat down to lunch with Robert.
“Well Jen, I thought we did a good job out there. I can’t wait for the combat sim, though. That oughta be fun! What’ve you got planned?”
“Now now, Rob,” she said “that would ruin all the fun, wouldn’t it? Now, I haven’t been able to find free time with you for at least a month. We have a lot to catch up on, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, not really, Jen. Life’s been pretty boring while I’ve been here. Still, I don’t miss the border wars. I needed some rest and I hadn’t seen you for at least a year. Which reverses the question. What’ve you been doing with yourself?”
“Well…,” she said slowly, “almost the same as you. While I’ve been home for the past two months or so, I’ve been bored, but clogged up in desk work. Reporting to the Grand Admiral and all. I was happy to see you again last month. That restaurant we went to was great!”
“When you’ve been living on military rations, nearly any real food is good.” Jenny laughed at this and nodded her head. “I’m surprised that we get such good food as we’ve been having. Maybe it’s just because we’re home,” said Robert.
“Most likely, Rob. I wonder though, why are we leaving in two weeks? Why are we leaving at all? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe I should ask Samantha, she might know…”
“Well, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Maybe at the launch?”
“Yeah! That makes sense! I just don’t know what could be so secret that they couldn’t tell us. Should we believe Rich? Do you think it’s a power source?”
“Well Jen, I don’t know. I’m sure Rich has sources and I’m not too willing to trust them. But…a power source…an unlimited one, he said, right?”
“Yep. Hey Rob, do you know anything about that?”
“Well, I once heard a legend when I was a kid about another branch of the human race, less advanced, that were sent off to colonize another galaxy, and were in possession of an unlimited power source, but they didn’t realize it…aww but that’s just a myth, right?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Well, it’s no use speculating about things we don’t know about, right?”
“Yeah, right. Now we should get back to the ships. People are leaving already, Rob.”
“Well, let’s go.” As they walked outside, Jenny’s mind was whirling with possibilities for the mission, but she finally had to shake her head to clear her mind. She had a job to do. “Okay people, over here,” she called to the pilots. “What we’re going to do now is have a mock battle. For the first half an hour I want to be paired into wingpairs, so you can get used to your wingmate, unless of course, you already know them. Then it’s just extra practice. After we finish there I will give a signal and everyone should split up on different vectors and fly out for about two kilometers. Then we’ll have a free-for-all battle ‘till about oh, say 0330 hours. Any questions?” Abriga raised a hand. “Yes, Lieutenant?”
“What do we do if we’ve been “shot down,” commander?”
“Oh yes, I almost forgot. Well, I think the best bet is just for you to sit out for five minutes or so. I asked Samantha to program that into the computers last night…” Samantha nodded from the back of the group where she had been observing the pilots.
“With the help of Joe here, I did it in half the time as would normally would be expected.” Said Samantha. Robert looked at Joe, who looked as frightening as ever. He shuddered. Well, he thought, at least I know a lot about hand-to-hand combat. He can’t hurt me on the ground.
“Anyone else?” Jenny asked. There was no reply, so Jenny gestured toward the hanger bay. Some nearly sprinted to get there, but Jenny and Robert walked at a leisurely pace, though Robert was nearly bouncing off the walls. They climbed into their cockpits and took off. Once everyone was airborne, Jenny said, “Let the battle commence,” a bit louder than she had wanted. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she heard a warning siren-someone had a missile lock on her! She spiraled down and looped back up behind Tresán who had been on her tail. “Watch for Abriga, Rob. She should be around here somewhere,” Abriga was Tresán’s wingmate, and she should’ve been guarding Tresán from an attack like Jenny’s. She switched over from lasers to missiles and fired. Her computer screen registered one kill. As Tresán rolled over and dived out of the fight, he radioed her. “Nice one commander, but don’t get too comfy…”
Jenny saw on the nav-board that Abriga was coming in from behind her. She tried to warn Robert, but he was already out of the fight. “Missile got me,” he said as Jenny tried to roll out of the way of the oncoming missile aimed at her. She shut down the atmospheric thrusters and her engine and plummeted for a heart stopping second. The imaginary missile would have been past her by now and detonated, so she restarted the engines and switched over to lasers. Not only the missile had passed her, but also Abriga. Jenny popped up right behind her, and showered the aft portion of the fighter with targeting lasers. Her scoreboard registered one more kill for her. She smiled to herself as she rocketed into the rest of the battle. She had learned that trick from Richard …the hard way… at the Academy.
Then she noticed that there was someone else on her tail. Great, she thought, they’re all gunning for me because I’m the commander. Let’s see if I can’t dissuade them. She pulled up on the stick and rotated the craft to avoid stray lasers. She then made a backwards loop and came out inverted. She flew straight for a short bit, rotated back around so that the sky was above her, and found that she still hadn’t lost the pursuer, whoever he was. She looped again, headed straight down, made another loop, came through the loop that she had just made, made a tight turn to the left that almost overrode the artificial gravity system in her craft, twisted around again, and while looking to see if she had lost her pursuer, made a long lazy loop upside down. She still hadn’t lost him! She pulled up on the stick and climbed. Since the orbital thrusters hadn’t been installed, she wouldn’t be able to reach orbit, but she had something else in mind. The ship stalled and she began to fall back to the planet rapidly. She then re-ignited the engines and dived to within twenty meters of the ground. She looked in the rear scopes. He was still there, but loosing some ground. Just when she was about to execute some even more insane maneuvers, Robert flew over and her scoreboard registered one more kill to him.
“Rob, I can’t thank you enough!”
“Just think of it as my way of apologizing for getting knocked out earlier.”
Jenny switched over to the squadron frequency and asked, “Okay, who was that?”
“That would be me! Sorry for the inconvenience, Commander,” said Sam.
“Well, don’t let it happen again Sam…I might have to vaporize you”
“No, ma’am, it won’t happen again!”
Jenny smiled and realized that all of her frantic maneuvers had brought her away from the main action, which was pretty condensed into a small area. Jenny suddenly got an idea. She switched over to the private comm frequency that she and Robert shared. “Rob, arm the bombs and set them to detonate at one hundred meters from launch.”
“I get it,” was all Robert said. They climbed to what Jenny approximated to be a hundred meters above the rest of the squadron. She and Robert then flew directly over it and dropped the bombs. The imaginary bombs were projected onto the heads-up display. Jenny watched them fall, and the projected explosion destroyed every ship in the tight cluster. Jenny switched over to the all squadron frequency and laughed at all of the surprised and angry comments that filled up the channel.
“That was me, everybody…and Robert” she waited until the volume decreased enough for her to be heard. “I think it’s time to start the free-for-all.” The wingpairs separated and everyone flew out on their own vector, and at two kilometers the fun began. Jenny found that the pilots under her command were quite good. She even found herself having to sit out a few times, once under Robert’s guns. She made sure she got back at him, though. At 0330 hours, Jenny was exhausted, and when she landed, she just wanted to go to sleep. She dismissed the pilots, who looked about as tired as she felt. Robert walked over to her, and as she brushed her hair out of her emerald eyes, he noticed that she was sweating. He put his arm around her shoulders and guided her back to her room, where she fell asleep.
Robert walked back to the common room. He didn’t envy Jenny her new job. He preferred to just fly, not to command. He sat down on one of the couches, when Sam, Jonas, and a couple of the other pilots walked in. Sam looked delighted to see Robert, and sat down on the couch opposite him. Robert looked at him expectantly.
“Lieutenant, we have two questions to ask you.” Jonas looked at him oddly, “Well we have one question, and I have another. First, our question is: would you like to join us for a game of Denjesix later tonight?”
“Always, my friends,” Robert replied, “but I don’t play all that much. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a pushover.”
Sam burst out into laughter and said, “Oh really? Man, you must be the worst liar I’ve ever seen.” Robert shrugged, “Anyway, my question was if you know anything about where we’re going on this mission I know you have an…audience…with the commander and I was…”
“She doesn’t know any more than we do. I asked already.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. What was the time of that game?”
“Be here in the lounge by, oh say, about 1200 hours,” he looked at Jonas who nodded.
“See you there, then,” said Robert. As Sam and Jonas walked off, evidently looking for more fun to be had, Robert saw most of the other pilots going off into their rooms. Robert shuffled off and set his alarm for 1130 hours. Man, I wonder what else Jen has for us to do tomorrow? he thought before he fell asleep.

Chapter 4
Pilot 522134 skittered into his piloting alcove on his ship and strapped in. He wasn’t thinking about anything but the battle ahead. He did not feel fear or apprehension, these were unknown to him. Instead he felt the deep-seated hatred of Humans that his species had felt for generations, many years longer than he had existed.
He pulled the hatch down over himself and secured it. Hanging from it was the hood that connected his mind to the ship itself, therefore allowing him to simply think commands instead of using his hands. Pilot 522134 felt the ship detach as he sent the command from the hood. He checked on the other pilots in the fleet, numbers 424539 to 523111. Pilot 523100 and pilot 453234 had just crashed into each other upon detaching. 522134 didn’t even think about it.
He flew with his gathered brothers and sisters to the designated jump coordinates. Hyper-dimensional jumps were complicated things. Your ship would open a rift into another dimension which was kind of layered on top of other dimensions. The only thing that could pass through the barriers (the scientific consensus was that there were electromagnetic barriers of some sort…they actually didn’t know anything since research was a near impossibility) without using a hyper-dimensional gate was gravity. It was found that in higher dimensions, gravity warped space to be smaller. Another thing that was found to be true was the fact that during these jumps, people do not gain another dimension of space, and in no way can anyone interact with anything from the higher dimension. If you look out the viewport of a ship while in a higher dimension, you can only see a multicolored blur. This was convenient for traveling around the galaxy, though it made intergalaxian travel a near impossibility. Most of science had been focused on finding ways into higher dimensions for greater speed (the trend was that the higher the dimension, the greater the warping of space). The Bodrillians had no need for military security because they were all part of the hive, and therefore, every ship was upgraded with the frequency that was most efficient for getting around.
Humans, however had three different levels, one for military (the most efficient), one for civilian business (second most efficient), and the one for general usage (the least efficient one in use) when a new faster one was discovered, the three groups were all moved up one notch, at least in theory. Some ships didn’t undergo the modifications, so in actuality, about five or six dimensions were in use. Some of the less efficient dimensions that were not supposed to be in use were used by pirates and other people who preferred the privacy. Police cruisers were equipped with universal dimensional rift creators, as to allow them the freedom to move around.
Pilot 522134 was the first to arrive at the jump coordinates, so he opened the rift and went through first. Ship after ship poured through the opening after him. It took 2.56 hours to get all of the ships through the opening and by that time 522134 was far away from the opening. He shut it remotely, and reviewed the orders with his comrades. Any that survive shall rendezvous with the fleet at the predetermined coordinates. Their attack was a delaying tactic to help them get ahead of the Humans and closer to the goal. Pilot 522134 didn’t know what the goal was, the generals hadn’t sent the information down the chain of command yet. 522134 didn’t care about any of this. He just did his job.
His ship opened the gateway into the Terran system, the center of Human civilization one and a half weeks after the departure of the fleet. As 522134 popped out of the warped dimension, he surveyed the scene. Twenty enemy capitol ships on this side of the planet, along with ten orbital defense platforms. No fighters. 522134 didn’t react, but this actually made the odds better that more Bodrillians would survive. <The enemy fighters will be here soon> he communicated to his companions through their mental link (Bodrillians have no spoken language, and only a very rudimentary written language). He then dived down to the surface of the planet, on the night side. Somehow he managed to dodge the laser blasts and left the bigger ships to his comrades. As he dived, about thirty or forty ships followed him. They located a small base in the middle of nowhere and commenced attacking it. Bodrillian ships were not equipped with shields or missiles of any type. They usually attacked in such large numbers that they overwhelmed their opponents. 522134 fired and hit a large building. Nothing exploded and that made 522134 displeased. He fired again. Suddenly a ship flew out of the largest building in the complex. It angled up at him and fired a missile. 522134 tried to get out of its path, but it was moving too fast. He felt an intense heat and then nothing. His molecules scattered over the landscape of the Human home world, and some of the larger chunks of his ship that survived crashed flaming into the landscape far below, starting a few brushfires, but not otherwise affecting the outcome of the battle. Meanwhile, his comrades fought on impervious to his death.

Chapter 5
Robert was awoken by his alarm at 1130 hours precisely. He groggily reached over and shut it off. As he sat up in bed, he remembered what he was doing up at this time of night. He had a card game to play! Well, he thought, let’s get this show on the road! He was still dressed in his uniform, so he went outside to wake up fully. Not surprisingly, he was the first one up, but he heard noises coming from some of the other rooms. It looks like everyone but Jen is in on this card game! he thought. She was so wiped out earlier…I hope she’s okay.
He walked over to the pilots lounge, in an adjoining building. The night air was cold, as it was wintertime. Still, to Robert, it felt as if something odd was going on. He shrugged off the weird feeling and started settling down for the game to come. When he entered the lounge he was greeted by Jonas and Sam, who were setting up a large round table.
“Need any help, guys?” said Robert.
“No, that’s okay Lieutenant, we’ve got it under control here, right Jonas?” Jonas nodded as they finished setting up the card table. “Why don’t you help yourself to the refreshments we’ve set up, Lieutenant…” he trailed off.
“Uh, thanks…”
“We’ll be back in a few minutes, we need to get the cards.”
As they walked off back to the squadron dormitory, Robert took a seat at the card table. He didn’t trust their food, even though he was a bit hungry. Who knows what Sam and Jonas had done to it. As he waited, more people arrived, most of the rest of the squadron, some mechanics and other personnel, and even Samantha, the executive officer. When she walked in everyone was surprised. No telling what people will do in the off hours! Robert thought. As people kept coming, Robert was amazed at the abilities of Sam and Jonas to recruit people. Even for a simple card game.
Finally Sam and Jonas came back with the cards. Robert suspected that they had let everyone gather so that they could make an entrance. As they walked through the door, they took a bow and threw the deck at the table. No sooner had the cards hit the table, then an alarm sounded, signaling that they were under attack. There was confusion for a few seconds until a voice came over the intercom:
“Mechanics, re-arm the ships, we are under attack!”
It took about ten minutes to completely re-arm a Viper, and Robert calculated that without putting in the bombs, it would take about eight. That was still a long time. Robert didn’t see any enemy ships on the horizon, though. He wondered if this was a drill. All of the pilots and support crew ran for the hangar. When they arrived, the mechanics started crawling all over the ships. The missile racks were rolled out, and the ships were fueled. Fortunately the pilots had all been in uniform, and the helmets had been left in the cockpits, as was standard procedure. Samantha and the radar crew were in the control room.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything out there, Sam,” said one of the technicians. That didn’t seem right, the main base had sent the message, and they said it wasn’t a drill…she thought.
“I don’t want to be caught by surprise here, though,” Samantha said. “Try to raise the Commander on her comm.” Just at that moment, Jenny came dashing into the control room.
“What’s going on?” she said in a rush of air.
“Can’t tell now, Commander. You’d better get to your ship, I’ll keep you informed.”
Jenny nodded and rushed out as fast as she had come in. Robert saw her speed through the door of the hanger and to her ship. “Everyone into the ships, start the preflight NOW!”
“Commander, what’s going on?” asked Tresán, the closest person to her at the time.
“I don’t know, I don’t want you to take off until I do, everybody. Got that?” a chorus of
yeses hurled back at her. As Robert climbed the ladder up to the cockpit of his ship, he noticed the mechanics were almost done loading up the missiles on his top wing. He gave them a thumbs up and closed the cockpit. The first thing he turned on in the preflight checklist was the radar. He saw a lot of little red blips approaching the base. Not just a drill, he thought.
“Guys, look!” He shouted into his comm headset. The lead ship started firing and hit the main building. The door to the hangar was opening, but not fast enough.
Samantha in the control room was aghast at the number of ships that the radar was telling her were in the system. Thirty-nine had headed for their little base alone. She pressed the hangar open button. A few seconds later, Jenny flew through the opening, with the rest of the squadron behind her. Samantha looked down and suddenly, a flash of bright light came in through the ceiling and exploded on the ground, throwing everyone off their feet. As soon as she could stand again, Samantha got up and yelled “Is anyone hurt?” Nobody said yes and there seemed to be the correct number of voices coming from the smoke clogged darkness. Boy, that was lucky! Samantha thought.
Robert fired up his engines as soon as Jenny was out of the hangar and jetted after her. When he turned skyward, he saw what he estimated were forty ships all coming at the base. He swallowed hard, took a deep breath. I have a bad feeling about this…he thought. One ship was already in flames from one of Jenny’s missiles. He armed a missile as well and targeted the closest ship. He fired and watched it explode. Then he formed up on Jenny’s wing and switched over to lasers. She was firing at the enemy ships and trying to break up the formation. Robert joined her, blew up one and sent one spiraling down into the ground, spouting smoke and flames from the engine. It was obvious that the viper was a superior ship, but the Bodrillians still had the advantage in numbers. Time to change that! Robert thought. As the rest of the squadron launched and started destroying more enemy ships, Robert started seeing flashes of light elsewhere in the desert and over the distant city, there seemed to be a constant fireworks show. The whole planet is under attack! he thought. Robert’s nav-board showed even more enemy ships fighting with the big ships and defense platforms up in orbit. They can’t possibly hope to defeat us with just fighters, can they? Robert looked at his communications board. There was a count of total enemy fighters that had been spotted attacking the surface. The count was reaching five thousand and it was climbing every second. “Jenny, dear, we have a problem.”
“I know. Just focus on clearing our area first, then we’ll go to the city and help out over there.”
“Whatever you say, Jen.” Robert kept looking around at the enemy fighters, which were becoming a bit scarcer as the squadron thinned their ranks. It took twenty minutes, but the enemy was finally cleared from the skies above Eclipse Squadron’s base. Amazingly, the Squadron was intact.
“Anyone missing?” Jenny asked. Nobody replied. “Well people, good job! Now let’s get over to Oret City. It looks like the fighting is fierce there. First, get some altitude, so we can dive on ‘em.” As the squadron climbed and leveled off, Robert couldn’t help but notice that the other squadrons from the other bases were doing exactly the same thing they were doing. The six squadrons that were in the area formed up into one big wing. Some of the squadrons hadn’t fared as well as Eclipse had. In fact, Nova squadron was down to five ships. When they reached the city, they all dived into the middle of the fighting, firing missiles as they went. Soon enough, and Robert thought it was too soon, he ran out of missiles and rockets. He switched over to lasers and marveled at how many enemy ships were still left. He himself had gotten thirteen just over the city and he was sure Jenny had gotten more. The battle didn’t last much longer, though, because a few squadrons of B-6 Dragons had arrived and they carried heavy hitting weapons. When the bombers arrived, though, the Bodrillian ships turned and ran as fast as they could for the hyper-gate that had been opened.
“I have a newfound respect for that lumbering hulk of metal that they call a ‘bomber’,” said Sam.
“You should, young one,” came back a gruff voice. “Commander Kantes, this is Admiral Dodis. Take your squadron back to base. We’ll recover your downed personnel and return them to you later.” Tabatha and Ekeher had both ejected from their ships, but the squadron had suffered no more losses than their two ships.
“Good day, huh Jen?” said Robert.
“Any day that we don’t loose people is a good day, so yes Rob, it’s been a good day…or night…or whatever it is now.” When they got back to they’re base, Samantha greeted Jenny.
“I can’t thank you enough. I almost got fried as it is, though.” She said. Jenny laughed, and patted her on the back.
“Get used to it. Have we gotten Tabatha and Ekeher back yet?”
“The Admiral’s coming soon. We’re not the only squadron out here, you know.”
“Yes, we figured that out. How does this change our plans? Do we leave earlier?”
“Most likely. I’d better get back to the comm center. We got the power back up after the laser hit and the messages have been pouring in. If anything important comes up, I’ll notify you. You should go and get breakfast now, I suppose. It is 0600 hours.”
Jenny looked at her and squinted. “Is it really that early?” she asked shaking her head.
Samantha nodded. “See you later commander!”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Hey Jen, getting a bite to eat doesn’t sound too bad, does it?” Robert asked.
“Ya know, now that I think about it, it doesn’t!”
“So do you still plan on putting us through that training course you worked up?”
“I think we got all the training we need, Rob.”
“Oh.” As they walked over to the cafeteria, they joined the rest of the group, who were relating the battle to each other with hand movements. They were all friends now, after just two short days together. Yes, Jenny thought, I think we’re done training.