Chapter 19

  “Tower, this is NCC110FM requesting landing clearance, vertical from 500,” the Betty’s comms unit chirped back to me a moment later. “NCC110FM, tower you’re approved for slot B37.” I clicked the Comm again, “Roger, slot B37 NCC110FM out.” I double-checked that the flight controls were set to hover mode and pulled the stick right, having the ship slide until I was over the B37 space and the landing system package kicked on.

  A red crosshair appeared on my screen with arrows pointing right and down, and an altitude readout showing 493. I tapped the stick backward just slightly, and the nose thrusters fired; the horizontal turned green based on the arrow line length. I held the right stick for a few moments and brought it back to the center. The craft continued to coast for a moment, and the vertical bar turned green as Betty came to a hover over the landing pad. Finally, I grabbed the throttle, lowered it slightly from the neutral position, and watched the elevation marker drop to 20 yards. I reduced the fall rate until I was only 10 yards up. By then, I could see the flight line marshaller; he instructed me on how to finish my landing. Finally, I touched down, and he had me cut my engine.

  As Betty shut down, more of the ground crew rolled a ladder up. I opened the hatch and climbed out. I thanked the flight crew as a lieutenant in Palades Armed Forces battle dress walked up. I threw him a salute, which he returned. “Lt. O’Neil with the ordnance department. My team needs to go over your fighter if you plan to use it for the exercise tomorrow,” he informed me and motioned to three enlisted men. “Absolutely, sir, go ahead.” He waved his team forward, then turned back to me. “Head over to building three just to the left of the tower.”

  He pointed at the tower a ways down the flight line. I sighed internally at how far the trek was but thanked him and headed off. I was just off the flight line when a light utility vehicle pulled up next to me with a corporal driving. “You one of the militia pilots?” I nodded. “Hop in. I’m headed to the tower; I can give you a lift.” I thanked him, then climbed into the passenger seat. The drive only took five minutes, and with a wave, I hopped out and walked into the building as he took off.

  I followed the signs and finally got to a classroom. There were thirteen other guys there. I checked the time, and we had only twenty minutes left before we had to be here. The others were milling around chatting, so I found a seat in the back near two other guys about my age. “Welcome, you got here just in time. I’m Tyler; this is Mitch. We graduated from the summer cycle.” We shook hands. “Ben Miles, I did my training two summer cycles ago but was in high school, so I had a delayed start.”

  We chatted for the remaining time. Tyler had graduated and was looking for a job with one of the mining companies. Mitch was currently working as a cabin crew and emergency backup pilot for an orbit-to-surface passenger shuttle service. It was ten minutes to start when a uniformed officer arrived. I saw him first. “Room ten, hut!” Everyone stood at attention. The officer called "at ease" as soon as we were all up. “Thank you, folks; we’ve got five minutes until we start. We are still missing one; hopefully, he arrives soon.” The five minutes ticked down, and then ten more passed; the officer looked angry.

  “Well, we’ve got 14 of the 15 total people; let’s do roll call. Cordel, Frank.” The list went on until “Sinclare, Tyler.” Tyler called “here.” “Hobart, Mitchel.” “Here, sir!” “Gordon, Pierce.” There was a long pause. “Gordon Pierce?” Still nothing. “Last call, Gordon Pierce.” Still nothing. “Nothing heard; Gordon Pierce marked as AWOL pending further review.” That was not good; the militia had a very laid-back and flexible policy and worked with your schedule to attend training, but failing to attend without notice was one of the few things that they frowned upon. Consequences could be as severe as having to repay your training with interest.

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  “Miles, Benjamin?” I raised my hand. “Here, sir!” He nodded. “Excellent. Alright, this is all of your first combat fighter class. Has anyone here flown a fighter before?” Most everyone in the class raised their hand; most of the militia-approved flight training courses had at least one private fighter an instructor would bring in. “Alright, anyone ever flown one for more than in class?” About five of us were left

  “Okay, I know it’s unlikely, and that’s fine, but I am supposed to ask: has anyone ever flown one in combat conditions?” All the other hands but mine went down. The officer looked at me in surprise. “Mr. Miles, was it? When did you fly a fighter? I don’t see any prior service in your records?”

  I nodded and decided it was better to play it down, especially since the operation was clandestine. So, I kept my answer truthful but vague: “I was with my fighter on an armed transport when a small group of pirates attacked it. I launched against the pirates. " Quickly thinking about the kill count the crew had painted on, I added, “It has happened a few times.”

  The officer looked suspicious as if he had heard people being truthful but not honest before, but he decided to let it go. “Alright, Mr. Miles, this might be a review for you, but for everyone else…” He threw up a slide showing the classic formation for fighters in the war. “The League and Paledes fighter tactics were originally developed during the war.”

  The classes went on most of the day, covering the old tactics. During it, I finally tracked down where in history I had seen the tactic before: Caracole tactics used by cavalrymen during the early days of gunpowder warfare. A quick check led to the result I thought it would. The Caracole showed initial success against enemies that couldn’t react. However, the moment the enemies gained access to equivalent weapons, the Caracole quickly became ineffective, as the cavalry could no longer get close enough to deliver effective volleys without getting torn apart.

  I decided to have fun, and due to the few breaks we had had during the day, I thought Mitch and Tyler would understand the significance, so I created a quick two-page report. One page showed the Caracole next to the League/Palades regular missile volley tactics; the next page quickly covered the tactics' decline and highlighted a few news articles I could find that hinted at the Theocracy developing new long-range missiles that, while still not as effective as the League equipment, were getting closer to parity.

  I sent it over to the other two and waited as they looked it over. I got a message back from Tyler: “Yeah, my grandfather fought in the War. He even said that towards the end, the Theocracy had tactics for facing our missile volleys. They would just eat the losses and keep flying until they were able to launch on the carriers. There were even a few battles at the end where it worked but at horrendous losses.”

  Mitch messaged back, “Yeah, we need Fighter Weapons School.” I frowned and sent back, “What’s a Fighter Weapons School? I have never heard of it before?” Mitch replied, his fingers typing fiercely, “My dad was a fan of holo-history, even the flatvid stuff. Some of the old vids came out of Old Earth on the original and follow-on colony ships. He had one he really liked about atmospheric fighters. I looked it up after watching it. The United States, the same one from the Second World War and on which our constitution is based, was apparently involved in more wars after that.”

  I knew this, but let Mitch continue. “One of these was Vietnam. They were losing more planes than they thought they should have, so they figured out their pilots had forgotten how to dogfight. So, they set up a school to teach it. I have a copy of that flat screen if you want to see it later.” Tyler and I agreed and then sat back to finish the classes.

  After the official day ended, we headed to the temporary quarters we were offered if we wanted to stay on base that night. Tyler set up the projector, and Mitch and I sat down with a few others. We turned off the lights, and a black screen with text and a great music score started. The scene showed a navy ship with atmospheric fighters taking off.