Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (7 page)

             
“If it were possible to hide a squadron or two of fighters until the fleet passed, then a combined attack on their shields with antimatter torpedoes would bring the shields down. The only problem is that you would need to time it so all the torpedoes impacted at the same time, and you would need five of them. So needless to say, before you could destroy the battlecruiser, you would lose your own battlecruiser. That would leave you stuck in that area of space, as your fighters are only equipped with pulse drives and not the fold drives of the capital ship.”

Next to him, Crystal raised her hand to ask a question
. When motioned by Driika to proceed, she then spoke.

             
“
I don’t understand: what is a pulse drive and what are fold drives?”

             
By the looks on many faces, Crystal hadn’t been the only one wondering that very same thing.

             
“
A pulse drive is what you will find on your light and heavy fighters. It is somewhat close to a fold drive, so let me first explain a fold drive. This takes a point in space and essentially folds the fabric of space to another point in space, and then pulls your ship through to that point. A pulse drive works much like a fold drive but over very short distances. It takes the fighter and creates very minor folds, essentially moving it in and out of normal space. It makes several very short jumps, giving the appearance of great speed. It is, however, very dangerous to engage your drive while in combat. The engine makes it impossible to use your shields. In addition, if you suffer any impacts from an energy cannon, the resulting energy will cause a chain reaction that will overload your engine, causing it to explode and taking your fighter with it.”

             
A short, timid, mousy-looking man to Liam’s right raised his hand, waiting until Driika indicated for him to speak.

             
“
What is to stop the Shenkar from simply folding their entire fleet together where they first find evidence of us and then folding their entire fleet right to Earth?”

             
“
Fold technology is very sensitive in its uses. You can only fold a capital ship to an area that it has passed through before or at the minimum that its nav computer to has been before. Luckily, the battlecruiser you will be stationed on has already passed through the area where you will encounter the advanced elements of the Shenkar fleet, so while they have to slowly bring in their fleet, you will fold into the sector ahead of them and lay your ambushes.”

             
Looking around for any more questions, Driika looked down at a handheld computer, touched the screen, and shook its head. Then appearing to have realized that it wasn’t alone, it looked back up and spoke.

             
“
Today is the first day of training. You will be trained in space combat and eventually hand-to-hand combat.”

             
Several hands went up, but Driika seemed to know what was on their minds. “The reason for the hand-to-hand combat is that in the event the Shenkar assault your battlecruiser, they will disable it and want to take captives. They have never run into you humans, so they will want to study you. Shenkar believe that to kill an enemy in personal combat is the utmost show of honor. In fact, a Shenkar shock trooper will stop whatever he or she is doing to answer an honor challenge--or to the Shenkar, it’s called Sheeata. Do not fear, for once you have completed training, the Shenkar will not match your abilities in one-on-one combat. However, one word of warning: specify who you are challenging. If you aren’t specific as to whom you are challenging, then any within hearing of Sheeata will attack. Consequently, in the midst of a battle, you could be facing dozens to hundreds of opponents.”

             
Driika once again paused to look around for any more questions, then turned and walked off the stage without another word. Apparently, the stuffy little man wasn’t expecting this and jumped out of his chair and hurried to the podium.

             
“
Okay, everyone, please check the schedules in your left breast pocket to see where you are supposed to be, then proceed to that location after you stop at the table to pick up your laptop, which you will need for your studies.”

             
Liam fished the paper of out his pocket. Looking over it, he found that he was to proceed to Building 216 for space combat training. The room emptied quickly; men and women moved forward to gather up a laptop and then headed off to their assignments. Liam soon became aware of two people standing near him. Turning, he saw that Evan and Crystal had remained behind.

             
“
Where is your first class?” asked Crystal as she tried to peer at his paper.

             
“
Building 216: space combat training,” replied Liam.

             
“
Nice, we can all go together--we also have the same class,” said Evan.

             
With that, they took possession of their laptops, then left the auditorium and made their way to Building 216. Upon entering the building, Liam looked around. The room was set up like any normal classroom, except maybe for the fact that it was such a very large classroom and in the rear of the classroom were ten large black machines. The machines had a rectangular base with a long chamber that rested atop the base, and the chamber had a hatchway on it that appeared to open upward to allow someone to sit inside. From what Liam could see from one of the open chambers, there was a seat inside, but he couldn’t see much else from his angle.

             
“
Flight simulators,” said a timid voice from behind him.

             
All three turned to see a short, nearly bald man standing there. Although he was dressed in the same jumpsuit that Liam, Evan, and Crystal also wore, the short little man wasn’t what one would expect when referring to a “super soldier.” The anxious-looking man stood there with hunched shoulders, twisting his hands around what looked to be a handkerchief that was monogrammed with the letters SW. To Liam, he looked like a frightened little mouse. Noticing the three were looking from him to the handkerchief, the man shoved it into his pocket.

             
“
Uhhh . . . hello, my name is Tim Wellmo. I don’t know why the handkerchief means so much to me, but it just does. There’s something about it . . .” Tim trailed off, realizing he was babbling on.

             
“
Hey, no need to explain to us, Tim,” said Evan quickly. “My name is Evan Maxis, and this little lady next to me is Crystal McKenna.” He indicated Crystal with his hand, then pointed to Liam. “And this is Liam Brennan.”

             
At that, Liam smiled and stuck out his hand. Tim hesitated at first, then took Liam’s hand and shook it. He then in turn shook Evan’s and Crystal’s hands. Looking around the room, Tim nodded toward six other people: five men and a woman.

             
“
So should we join them?” said Tim.

             
Together, the four made their way over to the only other six people in the room and introduced themselves. The other five men were named Darren Driji, David Lapra, Steve Barrows, Michael Stert, and Dimitri Glasniv; the woman was named April Groth. They all spoke to one another, learning that they all had suffered the same side effect of total memory loss. However, they also learned that they all had familiar thoughts of people and items that surfaced--as if their memory was still there but just buried.

             
As they tried to puzzle out what it all meant, a Meshtrell entered the room and made its way to front of the classroom. Evan watched it closely, as it seemed to be having an argument with itself as it looked at a handheld computer. Slowly, conversations trailed off as everyone started to notice the Meshtrell’s silent argument. After a few moments, the Meshtrell noticed the audience and quickly lowered the computer. Its metallic voice sounded across the classroom, and Liam swore he knew this one.

             
“
My name is Reeta. Welcome to space flight and combat training. In the next few weeks, you will learn to fly what your planet has come to call the F-77 Scorpion light attack fighter and F-88 Chimera heavy assault fighter. Your Scorpion fighters are more lightly armored yet are equipped with energy shields that can withstand a fair amount of punishment. The Chimera fighters are equipped with heavy armor and heavier shields. With the Scorpions, because of the lighter armor, you will be more maneuverable than the Shenkar fighters. Moreover, the speed of your light fighters can easily outrun any Shenkar fighters if it so becomes necessary.

             
“The Chimeras, however, cannot outmaneuver the Shenkar light fighters but can withstand an incredible amount of punishment, which makes them excellent against the heavier warships, but they would require lighter fighter escorts. Typical armament on the Scorpion light fighter is two energy cannons with an extreme range of three hundred meters and eight ballistic missiles--and although they are not standard on light fighters, an antimatter torpedo can be equipped as well, but it will severally hinder maneuverability. Typical armament on the Chimera assault fighter is four forward energy cannons with a turret on the rear that is manned by the copilot. In addition, you’ll have twenty ballistic missiles and three antimatter torpedoes. The Chimera . . .” Reeta trailed off suddenly.

             
Looking to see what was the cause, Liam saw that Tim had a hand raised.

             
“
I was wondering something. I have noticed that we all have a red patch on the lapels of our jumpsuits. But before, in the auditorium, I noticed that it wasn’t standard to all jumpsuits. In fact, there are only six different colors: a color for every ten men and women. What is the significance to this?”

             
Reeta cocked its head to the side slightly as it studied Tim. In the meantime, Liam looked to his own lapel, as did others, and he saw that in fact there was a small red patch on his left lapel.

             
“
Very astute of you, Lieutenant Wellmo. I hadn’t thought anyone noticed that small detail, yet it seems you have proven me wrong. Yes, there is a significance to this. You ten share a special bond; you were all part of the same enhancement group. From the day you all stepped into the enhancement chambers, you have tied yourselves to one another. You will come to depend on each other like brothers and sisters, or maybe perhaps something more.”

             
With that, he looked at Evan, then to Crystal. Both looked at each other uncertainly, then turned their attention back to Reeta who had once more begun to speak.

             
“
You will eat, sleep, and fight together as a single entity. I have heard that your people like to give yourselves names for your flight personality--this I would most like to hear when you all pick them.”

Liam wondered for a moment what it had meant by “names
for flight personalities” when he suddenly realized that Reeta had meant call signs.

             
“
If there aren’t any more questions, may we continue?” Reeta asked. And with that, the learning began.

             
Over the next few hours, Reeta spoke and they listened, absorbing everything. By the time they were done, Liam was shocked--no matter how briefly they went over something, he remembered it with perfect clarity.

             
“
That will be enough comprehensive learning for today. Now we move on to the flight training. As you might have noticed, to the rear of the room are ten machines. Those machines are flight simulators. Please make your way to the simulators.”

             
Liam, Evan, and the rest all stood and walked to the rear of the room. Each donned a flight suit and got into a simulator. The simulator door lowered, sealing Liam and the rest into complete darkness. Moments after they were all sealed into their separate simulators, lights flared to life and screens in front, above, and to the left and right of Liam also lit up, simulating a cockpit. If Liam didn’t know any better, he would have sworn he was actually in the cockpit of a fighter on the flight deck of a huge spaceship. Looking to his left, he saw Evan sitting in a sleek-looking black fighter; from what Liam remembered from earlier, they were all sitting in light Scorpion attack craft. Beyond Evan were four more fighters with pilots. Looking to his right were the other four members of his group, all sitting in their own fighters. Over the speakers, he heard a voice.

             
“
Okay, first, let’s start with standard takeoffs and landings. Lieutenant Brennan, you will be first. Please cycle through what you learned earlier.”

             
Without thinking, Liam’s hand moved about the cockpit, flipping switches and pressing various buttons across his instrument panel until he heard the sound of his engine coming to life and his whole cockpit vibrated as if he was actually in a real fighter. Pulling back on the throttle slightly, the whine of his engine increased and the fighter slowly moved into position for takeoff. Keying his headset, he spoke into his mic.