Chapter Seventeen
The next morning I met Master Miller in one of the lunar base's hangers and there were only two crafts in the whole hanger. Either they were worried that I'd wreck the whole place or they just didn't use this particular hanger, which wouldn't have been surprising given how far out of the way the hanger was.
The two crafts were nothing alike other than the fact that they were both single occupant fighters. One, that I could only assume was Master Miller's, was covered with weapons. It had twin forward mounted chain guns that were a lot like the one on his armor only twice as big. There were huge missile pods in front, behind and even underneath the cockpit. It seemed odd that a havenist as skilled as Master Miller would need to use anything other than his shockhaven to take out incoming missiles, so I assumed that they were all for offense. To top it all off he had two rail guns, one above and one beneath the cockpit, that could pivot to any angle to give the craft a full 360 coverage.
The other craft was a smaller 't' style body that got its name from that fact that from above it looked like a lower case t. The body was only about four feet wide without the wings and it tapered to a point at the front, but it was nearly twenty feet long. The wings, that came out at a 90 degrees, were about seven feet long each. As far as armaments went it had a rail gun that ran the length of the craft on top and twin energy cannons underneath. The cockpit opened from underneath the craft which was odd for a fighter craft but not unheard of. It seemed a little under armed in comparison to the other craft, but it looked a lot faster. The more I looked at the craft it self the more I saw what looked like the booster ports on the bottom of my reploid armor boots. There were two on either wing tip, and one on each side of the steep four sided pyramid that made up their nose of the craft.
"Master Jason said you would like it." Master Miller began. He stepped out of the shadows and with his reactive camouflage he was nearly invisible in the low lighting. Still I was a little angry with myself for not using my training and being caught off guard, when all I had to do was open my haven awareness and scan the room. Instead I had acted like a kid seeing his new toy and not even thinking. However, I kept all of these thoughts to myself since I didn't want Master Miller to see.
"I don't really know what all I'm looking at to be completely honest." I said. Other than the weaponry I didn't know much about space crafts in general.
"Well, it's fast and nimble. it's probably got more maneuverability than any other fighter ever made." he replied. "Fighters like yours and mine are a special type of craft that are powered in the same way that your reploid armor is. Everything from weapons to propulsion is powered by your shockhaven." Master Miller said, as he walked up to the craft that was suppose to be mine. "It's a little under armed for my taste, but the firepower that it does have is more than enough to cripple a cruiser in one shot."
That sounded like what Master Jason would recommend. Move fast and attack with well placed power. The more I looked at the machine the more I started to like it. "How does it work?" I asked.
Master Miller pulled a handle on the underbelly of the craft. The air lock hissed as the pressure was released, and the pilots seat folded down from the craft. It was more like a sports bike chassis than a chair. To fly it you would have to straddle the chassis and lay down on it to reach both, the foot peddles at the back, and the handle bars in the front.
"It's simple enough." Master Miller began. "Down there on the right you've got your throttle for your forward thrust." he said pointing to the right foot peddle. "The left is your counter thrust. It also deploys your drag fins, but unless your in atmosphere they're almost pointless." His explanation wasn't really wasn't the answer I was looking for, but it was still knowledge that I needed if I was going to fly this. So I didn't interrupt and took it all in. "These." he said, pointing to the handles in front. "These control you maneuver thruster. You've got thruster ports in the front, middle, and back sections on both the top and bottom of the craft. The handles rest on the middle middle thrusters push them forward for the front thrusters and pull them back for the rear thrusters. If you twist the handles back engage the bottom thrusters, and twisting them forward engages your top thrusters. You don't need to use the thrusters for turning or simple steering the chassis is set up on a free floating system that lets you simply lean in the direction that you want to go." he said.
"What about the weapon systems?" I asked. At this point Master Miller had me more interested in the what than the how.
"Well, you've got two buttons on the inside of the handles by your thumb notches. The top buttons are for the beam cannons, and you have to hit both of the bottom buttons to fire the rail gun." He paused. "Any questions?"
I paused for a moment. I wanted Master Miller to think that I'd just come up with the question, not that I was just standing here half listening. "Dose the whole craft run solely on shockhaven energy? What about all of the digital information, like the targeting systems and radio coms equipment?" I asked.
"It works just like you armor does. To run all of the electronics your armor has a small conversion unit built into the base of your neck that converts shockhaven energy into electricity. The craft has a much larger, much more complex, haven conversion chamber. The craft will pull the shockhaven energy from you to do whatever you tell it to do. Then that energy goes into the conversion chamber that will then turn it into a usable form of energy for that task. For normal flight it's less of a drain on your shockhaven to fly with thermal powered thrusters. So your shockhaven energy would be converted into flame and focused for basic rocket propulsion. The problem with that is that now you have a heat signature. There's a switch up in front of the chassis that says stealth. Flip it on and you'll run cold. As for how the conversion chamber actually works, how it turns shockhaven into electricity and fire, is far more complicated. The base for the conversion chamber are what they call elemental stones and they convert shockhaven energy to whatever element the stone converts it to." he said. "Anything else?" he asked.
I thought for a moment and figured that he didn't know much about the stones and how they were made. "Nothing that I can't figure out through trial and error." I said, somewhat excited to get in and give flying a chance.
"Good. Then get in and let's get started." he said, as he walked off towards his own craft.
I had thought it would be difficult getting into position on the chassis in my reploid armor, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I slid one leg over the pilots seat and flipped the switch to close the cockpit. The seat rose back into the belly of the craft and took me with with it practically forming to my armor. The opening closed with a hiss and I was alone in the darkness with no idea of what to do. I was still close enough that I could open a coms channel to Master Miller with just my reploid armor alone.
"Master Miller, this might be obvious but the craft has no windows or interior lighting. Am I suppose to use haven awareness or am I missing something?" I called over the coms channel.
I was checking the coms channel and was about to call again, but then I heard a hiss and felt the chassis start to open back up. "You're missing something." he said, holding a fully enclosed reploid helmet that matched my armor. "The ship has cameras that run directly into an interface through your display. Also the helmet has a seal of it's own and can recycle your air supply for days in the event of pressure leak, a seal rupture or a crash." he said handing me the solid white helmet.
With a quick bit of summoning I was wearing the enclosed helmet and the other one was in my quarters. As the helmet powered on I was relieved to see something besides the darkness that was the inside of the helmet. The helmet made me feel slightly claustrophobic but if it was necessary to be able to pilot then I knew I had to get past it, so I put it as far out of my mind as I could.
"Let's try this again. Follow my lead out of the hanger and we'll go from there." Master Miller said and walked over to his own craft.
I flipped the switch to close the cockpit
and when the air lock latched my helmet view changed. It was as though I was laying on top of the ship it self. If I looked to the left or right my view would change as though I was actually looking left or right from on top of the ship it self with my own eyes.
"Coms test." Master Miller caller over the newly established coms channel. "You reading me over there?"
I turned my head and saw Master Millers ship hovering to my left slowly easing his way to the door of the hanger. "Yes Sir, loud and clear sir." I said. I wasn't quite sure how the coms would work ship to ship, or if they'd be any different then the coms in my armor. An open coms channel was really just a glorified phone call. As long as it was open he could hear anything I said and vise-versa.
"Good give yourself enough under belly thrust to get off the floor and then give it a little gas and follow me out of the hanger." Master Miller called over the coms channel.
"Yes sir." I called back. Gently I turned the handles back and started to lift off the ground. As I started to inch off the ground I gave the throttle a little push and started to move forward as well.
"Alright now just remember to lean to turn." Master Miller said, coaching me alone.
"Yes sir." I said, leaning to the left. The chassis was a lot easier moving than I thought it would be and I almost over shot the hanger doors, but I corrected with a quick shift to the right that was so subtle that I doubted Master Miller noticed.
"Take-offs and landings are the hardest parts of flying." Master Miller called over the open coms channel. His ship was hovering just outside the hanger. I let off of the forward thrust and started to hover beside him. "Well, don't just sit there. Go get use to your ships controls and how it handles. Just mess around until you get the hang of it." he said, as he saw me slowing down.
"Yes sir!" I said with enthusiasm. I gave a quick look around to make sure that I was clear of the hanger and any obstructions. With the coast clear I cranked both handles back, leaned back in the chassis and pushed the accelerator as far as it would go. I shot up and forward faster than I'd ever moved in my relatively short life. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time. When I made it a good bit away from the base I eased off the throttle and decided to try out some tricks. With the handles in their neutral position I twisted them in opposite directions. It sent me into a pretty intense spin. I twisted the handles back, just past their resting position, and the spin stopped dead.
"Sharp." Master Miller called over the coms channel, that was still open and working fine from a good distance. "But any decent pilot can do a barrel roll. Don't be afraid of pushing the craft too far. It's built to handle maneuvers that would tear any other ship in half." he said.
"Good to know sir." I replied as I came around for another pass. I pushed both handles forward and gave them a twist back. I did a back flip, nose over tail, and I shot back in the direction that I'd come from, upside down. With the same way that I did the barrel roll I rolled right side up.
"Keep at it. When you're ready we're both loaded with paint rounds so we can get you some dog fighting practice in." Master Miller called.
I did a couple more flips and rolls to let Master Miller know that I was ready to move on to combat training and I honestly thought that I was. the way that the display integrated to my helmet I was beginning to think of the ship, my ship, as an extension of my own body. With one last flip I came to a quick stop and started to hover. "I'm ready to go whenever you are sir." I called over the coms.
"That's funny, I thought it was my job to decide if and when you're ready or not." Master Miller called back. "But if you're in a that much of a hurry to make a fool of yourself I'll gladly give you some assistance."
I realized that I'd over stepped my bounds as a student and now Master Miller was going to go all out and put me back in my place. "My apologies Sir. I meant no disrespect." I may have been more than his equal in hand to hand combat, but this wasn't hand to hand and I was under no illusions. This was literally my first time flying and he was a Master.
"Neither did I. Sometimes it's just fun to mess with you." he said to my relief "But you do learn better from combat. So, let's give it a go. We'll start off with something simple." he said and his ship turned towards me. "Tag!" he called as he shot off a quick burst from one of his chain guns. "You're it."
The paint rounds exploded in a mass of caution yellow blobs on the haven shielding that I didn't even know that the ship was drawing on my shockhaven to producing. So this is a game now is it, I thought to myself. He was already off, flying in a series of zigzags I could already see that this was going to be difficult. I flicked the safety covers off of the triggers and a stationary cross-hair showed up on my heads up display along with a charge gauge for the rail gun. All three of my weapons were fixed in place, which meant that my whole ship had to be angled just right if I wanted to hit anything, as oppose to all of Master Miller's.
With all of this in mind I shot off after Master Miller. Even with his head start it was apparent that my ship was much faster than Master Miller's and I caught up to him in no time. Lining up the shot however, was even harder than I expected. Even though he was going relatively straight, he still made it a point to move just enough to force me to continually adjust my aim. That alone showed his skill as a pilot. I had to give him enough lead not to under shoot, but to much and I'd over shoot.
I could see a puff from one of his side booster ports. I fired with my aim just off to the right it hoping would give me enough of a lead for the round to find it's target. The recoil was nonexistent, but the crack form the paint round breaking the sound barrier was a very distinct sound that breached the soundproofing of my craft. Unfortunately the paint round couldn't hold up against the tremendous speed and was torn apart. Some of the paint, but not nearly half, did hit Master Miller's ship.
I pulled off left and within second Master Miller had flipped 180 and sprayed a burst from each of his chain guns right at me. I cranked my top boosters as hard as I could and almost hit the ceiling as I shot down hard and fought to keep myself seated. I gunned the throttle and eased off of the boosters, trying to apply hit and run tactics and get out of the range of his weapons. Master Miller was out of my sight, but was still firing from somewhere behind me, off to my right. I extended my haven awareness in that direction and found exactly where he was, and instead of flying dangerously trying to dodge rounds I put up a barrier between us. It wasn't a particularly strong barrier, but it didn't need to be to stop paint rounds. Also, now that I had extended my haven awareness I was finding that flying with it was much easier than flying with my cameras and the interface alone. Within moments blocking and dodging became almost subconscious.
"Good." Master Miller called over the coms channel after the fifth burst was stopped half way between us. "I guess I'll have to step it up a little bit." he added. I was almost about to ask what exactly he meant by step it up when the missile pods on the back of his pods opened up. I almost laughed and wanted to ask if he wanted me to wait to blow up his missiles until they were far enough away to avoid making a mess of his ship. Then I realized that they weren't missiles at all and that this was going to make things far more difficult as the pods scattered about forty of the damned sentry bots that he loved to modify so much. Once they were all out they all started to open fire.
"Hit." Master Miller called as one shot from an angle that I didn't have covered. "You're it!" he added. As he sped off the bots went still.
"Cute." I said back, out of frustration and mild amusement. I knew that energy weapons couldn't actually be made to shoot paint, however they could be modified to be less than lethal. "Are my energy cannons online or do I just have the rail gun?" I asked, trying to get some clarification, the whole while closing in on Master Miller.
"They're at half power." he said. It was then that I realized that the bots hadn't gone completely still but had just stopped firing while they spread out trying to get a better angle and surround me.
"Do your little addition co
unt as a hit." I asked. If they did then they were almost as much of a liability as they were an asset.
"No, why would they?" he said. "They're nothing more than modified ordinance, but I'm still your target. However, feel free to engage them while they're engaging you."
"That must be convenient. Could I add a few of those to my ship.?" I asked.
"They come in handy to hold down an area, but do you honestly think that you'll be flying defensive missions?" he asked. "You're the nail not the hammer. The GPF has enough of a fleet for those types of missions."
Great, I thought to myself as I put the idea of my own sentry bots out of my head, and focused on the task at hand. Now I had to worry about how to dodge forty some guns and shoot them down at he same time. However, on the plus side I could use the beam cannons, which were automatic. I had managed to get close enough behind to Master Miller, that when I shot off a volley one of the sixteen rounds clipped his right wing. I gunned the throttle as Master Miller tried a front flip so that he and his bots were surrounding me. I leaned back on the chassis and shot over him just as he was finishing the flip and was out of the cordon tat he was trying to make. With one of the booster handles to the front and the other to the back boosters, I twisted the handles in opposite directions. The result was a twisting flip that left me facing the direction that I'd come from. facing right side up. I found the angles for a few of the sentry bots in my haven awareness, picked the closest one and shot another volley and it went down.
I sped back into the middle of the sentries and made short passes back and forth, dodging and deflecting their rounds and I sent burst after burst into the areas where the sentries were still grouped close together. I did well at thinning their numbers and before long there were only twenty or so left. Master Miller was doing his best to try and hit me, but the paint rounds couldn't break through the barrier that I'd wrapped myself in, and with the splatter effect of the paint rounds from the rail guns, He'd probably wind up hitting more of his bots than me and essentially blinding them. So the he opened up with a few missiles and I was glad to see that not all of his missile pods held the troublesome sentries. I thought that the missiles would just hit my haven barriers and be done so I didn't pay much attention to them. That was a mistake. They punched through my barrier and broke apart into hundreds of much smaller projectiles.
"Tag." he called again, as several of the small projectiles hit my ships shielding.
I found Master Miller in my haven awareness. With both, my shockhaven control, and the ship's booster controls, I brought my ship in line with his and fired another burst from each of my beam cannons. "You're it." I called, as one of the shots hit his deflector shields and streaked off through the darkness.
"Good work, let's call it a draw for now. We'll get back out and go over some more things soon enough." Master Miller said, and he and his sentry bots headed towards the hanger. "I'd coach you through a landing, but I think you can handle it on your own." he added.
"Yes sir, it won't be a problem." I said following him into the hanger. Learning how to pilot my own ship would be one of the last major things I would have to learn before I would start going on actual missions. I would like to say that the idea of taking a life scared me, but it didn't. It was what my whole life's training had been building up to. In fact I was looking forward to using the skills I was taught to do what I thought was right.