Annihilation Series-Searching for a Hero (8 page)

“Call the Waaaaambulance.”

“That’s what the Fleet Coordinator basically told them.”

“What exactly did he say?”

“He told them to go pick up a pacifier from the commissary and keep it in their mouths for four days.” Ping tried not to laugh but couldn’t prevent it. Mios smiled and shook his head, “Hey, they’re being made to walk around campus with those things in their mouths. They are not very happy campers at the moment.”

“Do you think they might retaliate?”

“We’re not plebes anymore so they can’t go after us that way; however, I don’t think this is over.”

“Why are they so upset? It’s not like I’m the only one to ever beat them in a war game.” Ping saw Mios tilt his head and shake it. “What?”

“They have been undefeated as a team since their first exercise. You are the only one to put a blemish on their record.”

Ping shook his head and sighed, “Will you bring me dinner tonight?”

“Why?”

“I’m going to lay low until this blows over.”

“I think that’s a good idea.”

• • • • •

Three days later, Ping received a message on his terminal. He read it and shook his head. Mios came running in the room and said Ping said, “I’ve just received the message.”

“This is outside the normal training regimen.”

Ping’s wrist unit buzzed and he saw the Fleet Controller on it. “Yes Sir?”

“I assume you’ve received my message.”

“I have, Sir.”

“It appears the faculty advisor of our four bloated egos has gotten the Commandant to approve a war game because of lack of training for the big babies. It will be their four ships against your team.”

“I don’t have a team, Sir! I’ve never had the same cadets fly with me two times.”

“Well, you can select the ones you want to fly with you for this exercise.”

Ping sighed, “Should I have just let them win?”

“No, and, if you lay down on this one, I’ll be all over you like white on rice.”

Ping looked at Mios and knew that if he brought him and Jodie in on the exercise, they would be the object of frustration for the four seniors. “Sir, I’ll take them on alone.”

“That is not acceptable.”

“That’s how I want to do it, Sir.”

“Why?”

“It’s the only way to shut them up.”

“Do you think you can win?”

“It will be easier to fly alone than have to work together with others that I know little or nothing about.”

The Fleet Controller pursed his lips and slowly started nodding, “If you take one of them out, it will be a victory for you.”

“That will put the pressure on them to have to cover each other and slow down their pursuit.”

“You’re going to make them chase you?”

“That’s the plan.”

“I’ll see you in the morning at the space port.”

Mios was angry, “Ping, you shouldn’t have left me out of this!”

“I won’t in the future; we’ll be flying together from now on. If they can do it, we can as well.”

“You don’t stand much of a chance against four ships that have worked together for three years.”

Ping shrugged, “Probably, but this is making me angry. They need an ego adjustment.”

Mios shrugged, “Are you going to use any of your talents?”

“Only those that can’t be seen.”

Mios smiled, “I need to place a wager.”

Pardon me?”

“Oh yes, the odds are three to one in favor of the four. This should raise them considerably.”

“Mios, I don’t really have a good chance of winning this.”

“The odds will make the bet worthwhile. As I understand it, the exercise is going to be sent to the main display in the student center. It’s breaking down to the senior class against ours. This should be fun.” Ping shrugged and closed his eyes.

• • • • •

“Alright, you gentlemen have the boundaries of the exercise locked into your navigation systems. If any of you leave the proscribed area, you will be considered hit and out of the exercise.”

Avery Smith was looking around, “Where are the others?”

The Fleet Controller said, “There are no others. You will be taking on Mr. Kendal.”

“That’s ridiculous. There’s no reason for this exercise if we only have to defeat him.”

Ping said, “I agree; I’ll see you in class.”

Ping started walking away and Avery yelled, “Wait just a minute; I didn’t say we wouldn’t do it.”

Ping stopped and looked at the four seniors. They put their heads together and discussed the issue quietly and Avery said, “What’s the matter, no one will fly with you?”

“Nope.”

Jon Collin snorted, “That’s a lie; your roommate would do it.”

“No, he’s placing bets against the four of you at the moment and is too busy.”

The four showed their rage at the remark and Avery turned to the Fleet Controller, “This will be over before it starts.”

The Fleet Controller smiled, “Whatever, you four babies report to your ships and jump out to your starting coordinates. Mr. Kendal, you need to jump to yours as well.”

Ping saluted the Controller and walked to his ship. He had thirty minutes before the exercise began and he needed the time to activate his ship’s systems and strap in.

• • • • •

Jodie looked at the feed from the space port. The Fleet Controller had set up recorders so that everything being said was played over the PA in the student center. The arrogance being shown by the four seniors embarrassed the members of their class and inflamed the anger of the second year cadets. “This is not good, Mios.”

Mios shrugged, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

“What?”

“I heard that somewhere.”

“Where?”

“I think it was in a cartoon or something.”

Jodie smiled and turned back to the giant display on the wall.

• • • • •

Ping activated his systems and brought up the scanners. He saw the icons for the four ships across the exercise zone and watched them move into the classic diamond formation. He sighed; that was a tough nut to crack with just one ship. He stared at his display and couldn’t see who was at the point of the diamond. He tried to bring the view in closer but couldn’t make the determination. He looked up from his display and closed his eyes. He immediately saw that Jon Collins was at the point and Avery was at the rear. He was shocked at what he was seeing. He could see them perfectly and he also saw the coordinates of each ship in his mind. His enhanced vision had changed. He could see everything in his ship but he could also see the four as if there was nothing between him and them. He smiled and decided he was not going to depend on the scanners to direct his movements. He would watch them with his eyes. He looked at his teleport system and thought about entering the coordinates of the four ships; suddenly, all four coordinates appeared on his console. The four ships were moving and Ping saw the numbers changing on his panel. Wherever they went, their location would be locked into his guidance. Something had happened to him. He saw the countdown was approaching thirty seconds and he took the ship’s controls and closed his eyes. He still saw them perfectly. The countdown hit zero and Ping smiled.

• • • • •

Jodie and Mios were sitting in the student center watching the giant monitor on the front wall. There were four smaller monitors surrounding the huge screen showing the tactical positions and individual scans of the participants in the war game. The seniors were jeering the underclassmen and the noise was incredible. “Do you mind if I join you?”

They looked up and saw Nicole standing beside their table, “No, by all means.”

Nicole said, “I assumed it would be safe; he’s out there and not here.”

“Oh stop being a martyr. We like you and you’re avoiding Ping; not us.”

Nicole smiled and shook her head at Jodie, “How do you think he’ll do?”

Mios said, “I think he’ll win.”

Nicole sighed and shook her head, “Those four horsemen have been working together for three years and I’ve watched recordings of their exercises. They have defeated the best the Academy has thrown at them. I suspect they’ll win this exercise as well.”

Mios stared at her and frowned, “I wish you had told me this earlier.”

“Why?”

“I bet all my money on Ping.”

“Is it too late to change the bet?”

A loud buzzer sounded and Mios looked miserable, “It is now.”

• • • • •

The countdown hit zero and the four seniors immediately teleported across the war games space in a wide diamond formation. They emerged into normal space just in time to see Ping appear at their former location. The next minute was spent with them swapping places. The four would teleport and arrive to find their quarry had teleported to their former location.

Avery shouted, “This is stupid. Move out into the middle of the zone using our ship drives. Keep him in your scanners.”

They accelerated out into the middle of the game zone, watching Ping to see where he would flee. Ping stayed in his position and watched them arrive at the center of the zone. Jon watched Ping hold his position and said, “What now, Avery?”

“Expand the diamond formation and lock your scanners on the area he’s currently occupying. Have your ships set to automatically teleport to the coordinates picked up by your scanners. We’ll come at him as soon as we enter normal space.” The four started moving in on Ping using their thrusters and just before they moved into range of their weapons, Ping disappeared and suddenly, he reappeared to the left side of their formation just out of weapon’s range. In an instant, he teleported to the opposite side of their formation and then back to the other side. The four seniors had set their systems to automatically teleport to the coordinates they scanned and they found themselves bouncing back and forth between the two coordinates.

• • • • •

Jodie watched as the four ships were bounced from side to side and smiled, “It looks like Ping is showing them they can’t use their automatic systems.”

Every cadet in the student center swiveled their heads to the left then right then back to the left. Soon the laughter started.

• • • • •

“Teleport back to our start point, NOW!” Avery teleported away and felt a cramp in his neck from the volleying back and forth in open space. “That creep played us for fools.”

“Have you ever seen that tactic, Jon? Well, I haven’t either.”

Mark said, “I guess that rules out using our auto-systems. What do we do?”

“I think we have no choice but to split up and take him on by pursuing him into a place where one of us can take the shot.”

“What pattern do we use, Avery?”

“Wide weave. If he attacks one of us the other three will teleport in and take a shot.”

“Lead the way.”

Avery moved out from the other three as they moved out parallel to his path and began weaving up and down, side to side. Avery knew the gaming zone was kept just small enough to prevent a ship from simply teleporting away to avoid combat. If multiple ships were spread out, there wasn’t much room for a ship to teleport to safety.

Jon watched the small ship being herded toward the edge of the gaming zone and knew time was running out for their quarry. Suddenly the ship disappeared and entered normal space directly behind Avery’s ship. The other three came roaring in to lock their computers on the target but he teleported away before they could acquire lock. Avery had no way to fire at the small ship directly behind him. He looked up and saw his three partners roaring in on him at an unbelievable velocity.

The only thing that saved the seniors from a catastrophic collision was that they had worked so closely together…but it was close. Avery managed to hit his teleport button a moment before Mark blew through his location.

The four managed to gather their wits and form a diamond formation again and Charles said, “This is no longer funny. That was close.”

Jon keyed his com, “Do you think he did that on purpose?”

Avery was still shaking from the close call, “What do you think? I think we’ve gotten ourselves into a quandary here lads.”

“What do you mean?”

“All he’s done so far is avoid us; do you think he could attack us if he chose?”

“What are you saying, Avery?”

“I’m saying we stay in our diamond formation and pursue him and hope time runs out on this exercise.”

“Avery, we can take him.”

“By all means tell me how?” Silence greeted the question, “I thought so. Let’s go after him.”

Ping avoided the four easily and watched as they turned for another run. “Are you just going to run and let time run out?”

Ping looked at the Controller on his side panel and said, “It’s never good to attack a diamond, Sir.”

“What if an enemy comes at you in that formation above Earth? Are you going to go O’le, like a matador, and let them fly by to nuke the planet?” Ping stared at the Controller for a moment and then took a deep breath. He nodded and the Controller smiled and disappeared from his panel.

The four chased Ping toward the far boundary and waited for him to teleport away. Suddenly, Ping’s ship teleported directly behind the senior’s ship on the left wing and fired the weak war game beam at it. In less than half a second, Ping teleported behind the rear of the other two ships on the other wing and fired on them before they could react and jump away. The only senior still flying in the exercise was Avery.

• • • • •

The student center was rocking with most of the seniors yelling that the underclassman was a coward. The sudden hits on three of the four senior ships silenced the room. Even Ping’s classmates were stunned by the sudden reversal. Mios looked at Nicole and saw how wide her eyes were.

• • • • •

Avery went to full escape mode teleporting randomly around the game zone attempting to shake Ping off his tail. Nothing was working. Every time he entered normal space, Ping’s ship was close behind him. He felt his wrist unit vibrate and he punched the activate button as he teleported. “I didn’t want to do this but you really left me no choice.”

Avery knew it was Ping on his wrist unit but couldn’t take his eyes from his panel to verify it. “It looks like you have the upper hand here.”

“I don’t want to do this and shame your group. I’m willing to allow you to get a shot at me.”