Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (23 page)

"Well,
he's not dumber than dirt," commented Jack, "but he's
close."

PRINCESS
HEDONIST: LANTERRA SYSTEM

In
an effort to kill time, Jack and Brian started a game of catch,
with
something resembling an orange from the dinner table.
Catch
quickly turned into
Monkey
In The Middle
,
as Fritz raced back and forth, trying to intercept the flying fruit.
That game suddenly turned into
Chase,
when Fritz succeeded in a spectacular grab and ran away. All play
ended abruptly though, when he
ate
the ball before he could be caught by his pursuers. Paul looked at
his watch, "It's late enough. Let's go."

There
were still some lights on in the control tower, but the flight
deck
was void of its earlier traffic. Feeling a bit like adolescents
sneaking into a movie theater, they hustled silently past the tower
and the darkened bays, making their way to number eleven. Leaving
the overhead lights off, Pappy slid into the seat behind the
console. "Looks a bit different than the shuttle's control
board, but not much. Who's first?"

"You
gonna' be able to run it Ok?" asked Jack.

"Sure,
no problem, Brian and Mike can help out." They nodded in
unison.
Pappy powered up the unit, the monitors came on and the board lit up
like a Christmas tree.

"Ok,
guess I'll go first." Jack strolled over to the sim unit as the
canopy
opened
with the whine of hydraulic motors. He climbed into the cockpit,
lowered the canopy and slipped on the communications headset. The
others crowded around the monitors to watch Jack's progress. As Jack
talked with Pappy over the comm system, they figured out the
simulator and its various functions and abilities. It allowed the
pilot to fly any one of four specific fighters, each with different
characteristics and armament configurations. Jack relied on his eye
for lines and chose a ship called a
Vulcan
.

"Looks
like a good choice, Jack, according to the stats, she carries
two
Laser Pulse Cannons, two Mercury Gatling Guns and a nice array of
missiles. Let's see if we can give you something to shoot at."
Pappy fed the mission guidelines into the program, explained the
mission to Jack and pushed
execute
.

Sitting
in the cockpit of his Vulcan, Jack suddenly found himself
awaiting
countdown in a launch tube the scenes projected in three dimension
on the inside of the train-sim's canopy. He was amazed with the
incredible realism of the projections. With the touch of a button,
he called up his weapons stores and defense status screens. The
defense screen showed the condition of the regenerative power
shields, as well as the physical armor of the ship.

"Launch!"
The launch tube slid past in a blur, disappearing in the
blink
of an eye and Jack found himself in the darkness of deep space. A
glance over his shoulder and he could see the gargantuan warship he
had emerged from. Musical beeping from the targeting computer called
his attention to the radar screen. Two red blips were inbound at
rapid speed.

Acknowledging
the alarm on the threat console, the navigation
screen
winked out and a line diagram of the target winked on to replace it.
One of the blips blinked to inform which target it was identifying.
Other targets could be identified by simply touching the threat or
targeting keypad. A steady white dot on the radar showed the
location of Jack's mother ship. The incoming bandits were medium
fighters, fast and heavily armed, their intention; destroy the
mother ship. "Two bandits, Vulcan One..." said Pappy,
acting as flight control.

"Roger,
flight control. I'm on 'em." Jack decided he needed to divide
and
conquer. The bandits were on a wide arc to approach and attack the
mother ship from the rear, "Hmmm, end run, eh? Well, we'll
have none of that..." He kicked the nose over and headed
straight for the bogies, slamming the throttle handle forward. He
thumbed off the safety on the Laser Cannons, they had a longer
range.

The
fighters came into range and Jack squeezed the trigger. The
high-pitched pulse matched the streaks of red racing away from his
wings, the sight was mesmerizing. He watched the flashes on their
shields and saw the targeting computer register the effect. When the
red flashes passed by his own cockpit canopy, Jack stopped being
mesmerized and rolled the flight-stick. The Vulcan rolled and he
passed the bandits canopy to canopy.

"Shoot
them down, Steele, don't ram them!"

"Shut
up control, I'm busy!" Successful in getting the bandits to
split,
Jack cut his power and swung the ship around. Slamming the throttle
forward, he squeezed the boost button on the throttle handle, it had
the same effect as an afterburner, sending the Vulcan screaming
through the simulated void, quickly closing the gap on the second
bandit. The first had peeled off out of sight and for now, out of
mind. Jack flipped off the safety for the Gatling Guns as he
followed the enemy fighter, heading straight for the mother ship. He
had to protect it at all costs... in real life it, would be his
ticket home. In range now, he could fire but he wanted maximum
impact, so he waited... it seemed an eternity.

The
bandit opened fire on the mother ship and Jack could wait no
longer.
He squeezed the trigger. The high pitched pulse of the Vulcan's
Laser Cannons, accompanied by the rapid thumping of the Gatling
Guns, vibrated through the cockpit. The bandit ship shuddered and
bucked as it's defense screens flared red, quickly disappearing. It
began to trail pieces of debris as it's armor plating gave way. Jack
realized he had depleted the energy banks for the Vulcan's guns,
only after they stopped firing. "Damn!" He chose a missile
from stores, not wanting to wait for the weapons generator to
restore power to the guns. The bandit boosted away, trailing fuel
and oxygen vapor, trying to effect an escape. Powering on only one
engine, it had no hope of eluding Jack's Vulcan.

Jack
was concentrating so hard, he didn't hear Pappy shouting on
the
comm about the other Bandit on his tail. The threat light winked on
and the lock alarm whistled loudly in the cockpit. Jack could see
the missile on his radar scope, closing in. Reflexing, he thumbed
the boost and headed for the wounded bandit. Laser fire flashed past
his wingtips, Jack held his breath, passing the damaged bandit by
only a few yards. He cut his engines completely off and flung the
stick to the side. The Vulcan spun flatly around, and Jack saw the
bandit disappear in a stunning, yellow flash. "YES!" He
exclaimed, slapping his knee. Jack had passed the bandit so closely
that when he cut the Vulcan's engines off, the missile acquired the
other craft as its target. "Ok," he said, taking a deep
breath, "one down, one to go..." He suddenly realized he
was sweating and wiped his forehead.

Carried
by its momentum, the Vulcan drifted backwards, facing the
approaching
enemy fighter. Bursting through the cloud of debris like an angry
hornet, the bandit savagely attacked Jack's ship, head on. Laser
fire, shot past the Vulcan's wings and splashed against its defense
shields. Jack calmly thumbed the firing button and released the
missile he had readied, without locking it on. Experiencing a
substantial decrease in shield protection, Jack decided a hasty exit
was more than just a good idea. Simultaneously pulling the flight
stick back and slamming the throttle wide open with the boost button
depressed the Vulcan vaulted out of the line of fire. He could feel
the vibration of the hits against the remaining forward shields
which collapsed, leaving the Vulcan's plating exposed.

The
bandit never moved to avoid the oncoming missile, he simply
never
saw it coming and collided with it head on. The detonation took his
shields down and spun his ship off course, eliminating his chance
for pursuit.

Steele
couldn't see the connection between missile and target but saw
the
detonation flare out the side of his cockpit canopy. He called up
another missile from the stores list and rolled the Vulcan to come
around. He could see the bandit's profile off to the right and the
targeting screen showed a target void of forward shields. He
squeezed the boost button and closed in, firing the long-range Laser
Cannons. The bandit ship shuddered as the fire from the Vulcan
hammered at its exposed plating.

Jack
opted for a missile lock but the bandit boosted away just as
the
targeting computer closed in. For the next two minutes, the two
craft spun and rolled in crazy circles, firing and dodging. Jack's
shielding had regenerated quickly, the bandit's had not. Obviously
some of Jack's shots pierced through the exposed plating and damaged
the shield generators. He again switched the Vulcan to full guns,
hoping to bring down the bandit's stern shields, since that's all
that he could get a good shot at. Since the shield generators were
not at full efficiency, this proved easier than he'd expected. The
Vulcan's Laser Cannons and Gatling Guns hammered the stern shields
into non-existence before the bandit could evade. With all shields
down, the bandit made a drastic attempt to run, a fatal error.

Jack's
targeting computer finally gave him the lock he was looking
for.
The missile, released from the Vulcan's wing mount, pursued its
target with unerring diligence. The remaining bandit disappeared in
a hot yellow flash, chunks and pieces flung out in all directions. A
chorus of hoots and hollers filled the earphone of his comm unit.

Jack
Steele inhaled deeply, then followed commands from simulated
flight
control and landed back on the mother ship. As the cockpit canopy
opened, he was greeted by the real world, the swirl of air entering
the cockpit made him shudder with chill.

"Man,
that
was
intense
!"
he stood on the seat in the cockpit and
ran
a hand through his hair, "it was so real!"

"Not
bad," said Pappy, "not bad at all..."

"Whaddya'
mean,
not
bad
?!"
Jack countered, as he climbed down
out
of the cockpit, "that was
awesome
!"

"Well,
I meant, for your first combat flight, you did pretty good...
you
smoked two without getting yourself in any real trouble and..."

Jumping
to the ground from the last wrung on the boarding ladder,
his
ego bruised, Steele queried sharply, "So you think you could do
better?" He knew it was a stupid question the moment he asked
it.

"Sure,"
said Pappy "and so could you. With a little practice. You
have
great natural dog fighting instincts. A little work and you could be
really exceptional." Jack raised one eyebrow.

"This
is Lieutenant Commander Paul Smiley," said Mike, jumping in
with a
grin,
slinging one arm over his flight leader's shoulder. "One of the
Navy's
finest
Hornet pilots... a
Top
Gun
graduate! He was even offered an instructor's position."

Somehow
Jack's ego felt less abused, knowing Paul was just being
objective,
not critical, then a sudden idea hit him, "Say, if you've got
the ability to train... why not train us?!"

"Sure!"
exclaimed Brian, "that would be a great idea!"

"Let's
face it," said Jack, "this shuttle thing is ok for now,
but I
don't
want to do it indefinitely... it's boring..."

"Besides,"
said Brian, "this would be a blast!"

"I
for one, would like to see some of the famous Top Gun tactics,"
said
Derrik. "See how they compare to what I learned in the RAF...
it could prove to be rather interesting."

Paul
suddenly realized everyone was looking at him, waiting for an
answer...
excited, smiling faces. It was a bunch of grown adults caught up
with a new toy. Irresistible. He shrugged, "Oh, what the hell,
sure, why not? It'll give us something interesting to do."