Blind into the Breach (The Hunter Imperium Book 4), page 18
"He won't be taking just your word for anything. If I know him, he was in a simulator doing the exact same thing you were doing this morning. So your comments will only strengthen his own. Don't be so down on yourself."
"So I'll be flying a destroyer tomorrow?"
"Could be, yes. Or it might take weeks, depending on if they can solve the problems you both found."
"Shielding mainly. The destroyer will be target one for all the fighter cruiser guns, and the tree fleet's missiles."
"Yeah. That was my thinking as well. But we're making big advances in that area. Jon will most likely be throwing ideas at the techs, and waiting for them to solve them. I mean, it took them two years to get the suits to a point where there are no injuries from them anymore."
"Injuries?"
"Jon died one time when he was hit by four meson streamers all at the same time. He couldn’t walk for a week after. That was before I met him though. But if you ask the twins, they'll tell you how it was."
"Sorry, died?"
"He was dead for fifteen minutes. Although according to him he was in his ready room the whole time."
"Huh?"
"Higher beings involved. May as well accept it. If you become team one's pilot, you'll spend a lot of time near Jon, and where he goes, higher beings go as well."
I decided not to ask. In any case, Kat arrived and put lunch trays in front of us.
"Do you have a butler?"
"No. I take it this is yours?"
"Yes. Aunt Susan apparently bought two for me. I had no idea until I got here. Useful though."
"Thank you sir," said Kat.
Grace laughed.
We ate in silence for a time.
"What about an AI?"
"Nope."
"Who runs Fearless?"
"Jane. Always has. Same with General Custer, BigMother, and Sceptre."
"Sceptre?"
"Sceptre of Kali. Titan. Has the same topside as Orion, but on both sides."
"How many are there?"
"Four Sceptre class, and two Orion class. The rest of the fleet are either behemoths, dreadnaughts, or carriers."
"Behemoths?"
"The three Explorer ships were recently refitted. Since they're bigger than the dreadnaughts, they got called the next size up. But there are only three. Other than corvettes and destroyers, there are less than twenty ships in our whole fleet. Which is why we're so spread thin, and Jon is trying to find ways of spreading us thinner safely."
I had a quick look at the Explorer specs. No way of docking a destroyer, but they could take three or four Excalibur squadrons. Maybe more. Same issue with the Scimitars though. The tubes were too small.
"None of that is common knowledge, is it?"
"Not so much. It's not a secret, now, but I doubt too many people know the full capability of our ships. We just don’t have enough of them. That's also the reason why Jon is fast tracking anyone who seems likely to be able to cope with larger ships. I have no doubt I'll get one of the next generation dreadnaughts, or one of the existing ones when their captains move to the new ones. For now though, I'm still doing classes the same as your Rockmonster is."
"She's not my Rockmonster."
"What is she then?"
"Squadron mate. Potentially a friend, but it's too early to tell."
"Are you sure?"
"What does that mean?"
"I've seen the way she looks at you."
"What?"
"Definite crush forming there."
"She's in my chain of command."
"Love never pays any attention to such things."
I face palmed, and she laughed. I gave it a full minute, before looking at her again.
"Is that what we have?"
"A crush? Shit no. You were an available bonk when I needed one."
"Is that all?"
She looked at me sharply.
"Sorry, did I say that out loud?"
"You did. And no. I don't generally go for pilot types. I had a really bad experience with Jon, and haven't been attracted to anyone like him since. At least until you came along."
"Bad experience?"
"He pulled me out of a disintegrating building, held me up in the air as debris was falling past us, and walked away after. The twins helped me thank him, we dated a bit, and then I was kidnapped along with his cat. He ordered me to jump out of an airlock, picked us up, and destroyed the kidnapper. I ran. He kept rescuing me. In the end I became a pilot, and have been doing mad things ever since. Except dating other pilots."
"Oh. So what is going on here?"
"I don’t know. But I'm willing to find out if you do."
I kissed her.
Forty Two
"So, that’s all I know."
All the CO's were gathered around my open simulator, in an otherwise unused simulator room. We'd spent the last hour with me and Jane popping up cam screens to show them what was available for both the Brawler and the Excalibur.
The interesting thing for me was their varying ability to be able to cope with multiples of them. We'd kept adding them, until each had said they'd not been able to use all of them. Eagle could cope with all of them for the Excalibur, but several had trouble with just the Brawler ones. All of them though were able to use at least six.
I spent the next hour rotating around their simulators, helping them tailor their HUD's. It turned out some of the views were easier than others for the brain to cope with, and we managed to increase the number everyone could handle, especially upgrading the Brawler pilots to an Excalibur level.
All of them had long years of experience, but their abilities were widely different. So we concentrated on selection of views for each person, so they could go back to their squadrons and do the same thing with them.
With HUD adjustments done, they went through a series of battles as a squadron, and they all improved in terms of kills, and reducing hits received. The added awareness was making a difference.
They all headed off to their squadrons, leaving me with Eagle and Buzzard.
"I can see why you're always so tired after fights," said Eagle.
"A whole new meaning to being in the zone," added Buzzard.
I spent another half hour with them in their actual ships. Buzzard was unable to get beyond Excalibur cams, but Eagle was able to slot several more in. In time, I was sure he'd be able to handle more.
When they exited the simulators, I asked them about the Excaliburs, and if they should be redesigned as a short range carrier fighter. Both were enthusiastic about it, but the main problem was lack of carriers. The Scimitars would have to go back into the shipyard for bigger launch tubes, and this wasn’t likely to happen with the way we were short on combat ships.
Although if they simply fast tracked making new modified Scimitars, they could be swapped over. Another note went to Jane. Footnote added about the Explorer behemoth carriers.
After a break for a drink and a snack, the arrow led me back into Marine space. There, I spent the remainder of the afternoon in a combat suit, learning how to use a sword.
The swords were new, and all the teams were doing the same practice with them. Close combat in buildings or stations had apparently been a problem. The stunners didn’t work properly on the plants, and the new rapid fire guns did too much damage. While the plants did have a form of bark armour, it didn’t protect them fully, and not at all from a good sharp length of metal.
Except it wasn’t really metal. The Lufaflufs had developed a wall material which could stand off even pulses from space. Imperium techs had worked with them on the swords. So we ended up with prototypes for use with combat suits. As such, they needed longer than usual handles, and almost no guard. The end result was something like a Katana, only much longer.
We practiced against combat droids using suits to emulate plant soldiers.
Dinner was a relief. I was totally exhausted again, but I wasn’t the only one. Most of the squadron looked just as tired as I was. Even the team had looked tired before I left them.
Rockmonster sat down next to me. The usual cheerful face was absent.
"I feel like you look," she said.
"Gee thanks. Do I look that bad?"
"Yes."
Considering half my face was hidden behind a mask, that was saying something.
"At least you didn’t spend the later afternoon learning how to sword fight."
She looked at me as if I was crazy.
"Marine stuff. Don’t sign up for dropship training. You end up a marine instead of a pilot."
"Noted. Not that I was even tempted."
"How's simulator work going?"
"Better than officer training. I start bored shitless, and then get in a cockpit and continually get killed."
"What's the problem?"
"Too many things to think about."
"This is in an Excalibur?"
"Yes. Word is we're being upgraded."
"What's there to think about?"
"Guns, missiles, torpedoes. I can just cope with the torpedoes, but as soon as I think about missiles, someone creams me."
"You're probably thinking too much."
"How can I not?"
"Well it comes down to three basic scenarios."
"Only three? You're kidding. Aren't you?"
"No. Think about it. You either have an enemy ship in your sights, or you don’t. If you do, you either have guns ready to fire, or you don’t. If you do, you fire them, and juke out of the way. If you don’t, you fire torpedoes, and juke out of the way. If you don’t have a ship in your sights, but there is a target you can lock up quickly, you lock it up and give it some missiles. Then you select the next target, and line up the guns again. None of this should actually involve thought."
"When you put it that way, I guess you’re right. But I can't tap out enough torpedoes or missiles before I lose the lock. So I waste time trying to keep it."
"And someone gets you locked up and toasts you because you're not juking enough."
"Yeah."
"Want a tip?"
"Sure."
"You can tell your AI to fire more than one torpedo or missile for a single tap of the fire button. I'm using sixes at the moment."
"You what?"
"The Brawler doesn’t really support this, because you don’t carry many missiles or torps. But the Excalibur does. When you press the button, the AI will spit them out as fast as possible. For torps, you can get out five or six in less than two seconds, which allows you to hit hard, without staying in one place for too long. For missiles, you hit the button, and then start lining the ship up on the next gun target, letting the AI pump them out. If you use IR's, they all go to the same place. FF's just get pumped out and will hit the nearest random target."
"So when do you use which?"
"FF's are great for starting a battle, but IR's allow you to target. FF spamming can do a lot of damage, and even kills, so you can just use them if you want, or use them if you get into trouble. But the IR's you keep control of. I guess your problem is that control takes too long, so get your AI to pump them out as salvos. Press the button, give torps a moment to fire, then juke and select a new target."
"How do you know all this?"
"Worked it out the hard way. But I also talk to my AI. Fighting a ship with an AI is like having two pilots. The better you work together, the more effective your fighter is."
"Oh. I'll try that. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Everyone can try that," said Vulture, from down the table.
There was a hint of something in his voice, as if he was pissed off he hadn't thought to describe things the same way I just had. But then, he was new to being a squadron leader, and as far as I knew, this kind of squadron training hadn't been done before. We were all new to it.
I didn't really notice what I ate, and was half way to the door when the ping came in.
"Report to the bridge."
I continued on to the travel car station, and found Vulture at my back as I went in. We both got off at the station just behind the main bridge.
The first thing I noticed was a nav projection on a screen, showing us in a completely new system, with dots out at varying places. A popup let me know the dots were Lightnings, delivering comnavsats across the system, including several jump points we seemed to be ignoring. By the look of it, come morning we'd be in another system again.
Apparently the Imperator had directed us to the original Trixone Ralnor frontier. But it was some three systems from where our last battle had been.
Eagle was standing there by the CO, and waved us over.
"Gentlemen," said Admiral Hallington. "I've just been advised we're having replacement ships delivered in the early hours of tomorrow morning. 266 will be getting new prototype Excaliburs to test. Apparently some idiot suggested they be redesigned as a short range fighter."
I could feel my cheeks going red. But there was a hint of a smile there, so maybe he was joking.
"What have they done to them?" asked Vulture.
"Most of the living area has been removed, the front airlock and cargo bay is also gone, and they're supposed to now have some capital ship missiles, an extra power source, and double the number of spare magazines."
"You're doing?" asked Eagle, looking at me.
"I did make some suggestions. The biggest problem we have with both fighters is shielding against cruiser guns. I pointed out what I thought was wasted space, and made the observation."
"Apparently the Imperator agreed with you," said the CO. "Did you also mention carrier problems?"
I went redder.
"I'll take that as a yes. I gather they tore most of the wings off, and the hardest part of the upgrade was rebalancing the maneuvering thrusters. The Imperator liked his wings. But I gather he likes keeping pilots alive more. Mind you, he can fly whichever version he likes, not that he does much anymore."
"Should be interesting," said Vulture. "Without the wings, I assume they can fit in the Scimitar launch tubes?"
"That’s the objective anyway, but I suspect launching will be an AI only thing, as they'll be like firing a bullet rather than launching a fighter. Half a wobble, and the ships will scrape the sides." I shuddered, and he quickly went on. "But before one gets onto a Scimitar, you'll have to make sure the changes actually work."
"You have the dawn patrol tomorrow," added Eagle.
"Yes sir," said Vulture. "We always do anyway."
I nodded, but kept my mouth firmly shut.
On my way back to my quarters, I was relieved there'd been no mention of a destroyer.
A naked Grace was stretched out on my sofa.
She grinned at me.
Forty Three
It wasn’t a Cobra I stepped onto the next morning.
It was that bloody destroyer. My Cobra was docked next door.
For the first time I was being included in the dawn patrol, so there'd been no training for me this morning. Just shower and run for the travel car. It deposited me where I thought the Cobra was, and the arrow seemed to be pointing to it.
But the airlock opened into a sitting room, with a passage leading forward to a much bigger bridge than the Cobra had. There were two people waiting for me.
Jane was sitting in her usual place. But the second person made me double take.
She was completely white. And I mean paint white, including her skin, hair, and nails. She seemed happy being where she was, which was sitting in the opposite seat from Jane, on the end of the main console, to the right of the captain's chair.
"Captain," said Jane, "may I introduce your ship's mage, Shenaid."
"Nice to meet you," I said, offering my hand.
She looked at it suspiciously for a moment, looked over at Jane who was grinning, and took it. I gave it a gentle shake, and let go. I turned immediately to Jane.
"Is this the same as I was flying in the simulator yesterday?"
"Crusader, yes. You have a minute or two to check the specs, before we drop to join 266."
She was pretty much what I'd seen the day before. But with a few differences. There was accommodation now for three, including a captain's suite, two suites like my Flight Lieutenant's suite, the sitting room, kitchen, small dining room, and a gym. The gym was bigger than the sitting room. All of them had full entertainment systems. The rest of the ship had no life support, and there was no cargo bay of any kind, just an airlock leading into a magazine handling system.
Elsewhere, the power crystal appeared to be both bigger than before, and joined to a second one. Other than fabricators for making missiles and torpedoes, all the rest of the space which wasn’t engines and shields, was dedicated to weapons support.
I did wonder why they'd left a bridge capable of seating dozens, when this was now a three person ship. But I guessed messing with it was going to be too complicated for the very fast upgrade the ship had received.
I settled into the captain's chair, which was identical to the one on the Cobra. My HUD settings were already in place. I buckled up while checking everything.
"Crusader ready to drop," I finally said.
We dropped immediately.
266 had already launched, and we formed up into the same formation we'd used in the simulator yesterday. Orion was at cruising speed, so we had to use a lot of full speed to be able to maneuver around her and still keep up.
It was fortunate Jane did the flying after the drop, as the sheer data overload I experienced as Crusader dropped into space and put distance from Orion, almost made me pass out.
Seemed to be, each time I went up in the size of ship I was in, so too did the distance I could see as a sphere around me. The entire squadron was now included in the sphere of vision I was getting. Plus a lot more area.
I closed my eyes to try and block it out for a moment while I got a grip, and of course found nothing changed.
"You okay Chris?" asked Jane.
"Sensory overload. Give me a bit."
Shenaid looked concerned.
"Chris is feeling the same thing a mage gets when they try to do something on the edge of their ability," Jane explained.
"I wondered as much. We get young mages who try to do things they don’t have the strength for, and they wind up either curled up in a ball, or dead."
