"Understood." Nathan said respectfully to
Roth Tillian
But not warmly.
Never warmly.
Nathan headed back to his fighter and quickly activated it's systems. He was growing more used to the crazy ass future tech.
He waited until the other squadrons launched. He saw the rookies he was assigned to. Didn't look like much. Nathan found the best pilots had a tradition of it in the family.
He went over, and they instantly all went quiet, whether they had only been joking and talking before.
"Prepare for take off. You, straighten out that air hose on your flight suit, you'll snag it on something in the cockpit." he said, pointing to a Nautolan man, who quickly complied, Nathan's icy, no nonsense tone letting them know on instinct he would tolerate precisely
none of their crap. They would perform to the standards required or they would be washed out. Period.
"Alright Pilots..." Nathan said in a formal but ice cold tone through comms. "We are Nexu Squadron. Like the beast we are named after, we will be ferocious and agile. This is Nexu 1. You will follow my instructions at all times. Is that understood, trainees?"
"We get you sir!" came the unified reply.
"Increase forward by ten percent. Go to maximum speed once we are four thousand feet from the hangar. Dagger formation. Minimum of one thousand feet between craft. Exercise begins at seven thousand feet."
"Roger, Nexu 1!" came the inevitable reply from all the pilots.
They all gunned the engines once they cleared the hangar.
"Prepare to execute basic maneuvers."
Nathan, yanked the throttle back, felt the suit fight the G's and his fighter made a sharp U-turn, the below now above his head, before twisting his craft to reorient, before diving violently towards the canyon before yanking right unpredictably. All Nexu's except Nexu 4 successfully completed these demanding turns and twists, Nexu 4 struggling to follow the others and getting too close to Nexu 7.
"Nexu 4, that was
sloppy." Nathan critiqued. "Minimum flight distance is one thousand feet. Rejoin your wingman and will try something else."
Nathan was being harsh on them because he suspected a massive operation would take place soon. They would be flying against battle hardened pilots who would show
zero mercy. If they couldn't do basic maneuvers at combat speeds right out the gate they would be slaughtered, more than likely. Crazy ass future tech meant nothing if you lacked the skill, and more importantly, the
will to win. He would dig out their killer instinct here and now or he would be failing them and their families.
"I will do more maneuvers, trainees, except you will all attempt to not only chase and follow my lead, but to gain a target lock and
hold it for more than a few seconds."
Nathan dived and went into a number of violent twists and turns through the sky that all the others struggled to match. Indeed, Nexu 4 and 6 rapidly lost track of him, and the rest only barely did better, before he out turned them also.
"Maintain formation." he ordered. "If your discipline breaks down in combat you endanger your fellow pilots. You must think as one, but fight as many. Nexu 7, you did
somewhat better. 4, you aren't turning fast enough, and your barrel rolls are wobbly. Most of you never got a lock. When you did, it wasn't for more than a second."
Nathan paused. "Again." he ordered.
This time, he swung his fighter upward at maximum speed for a large set of clouds, doing all manner of violent spins and corkscrews with his fighter. This time Nexu 4 was more aggressive, gunning the Surrel for all it was worth, Nexu 7 a close second, matching his corkscrews and crazy turns through pillars of cloud.
The magnificent cloud formations, the speed, it would have stirred exhilaration in most. Not Nathan. He felt nothing at the magnificent sight. There was only the pull of the G-force to him.
Nexu 4 and 7 achieved a target lock that lasted for 3 seconds, the others achieved only 2 second locks before he lost them.
"Better. Still sloppy, and you're
still getting a bit closer to each other. But better. Nexu 5, tighten up your sidewinder moves during a chase. Nexu 9,
excellent Immelman."
"Thank you, Sir!"
"I would not be thanking me yet. The test isn't over." Nathan replied coldly. "Maintaining combat speeds is essential but sudden decelerations can be equally deadly..."
Nathan dropped his speed very suddenly, feeling his stomach lurch slightly as the other fighters over shot him before performing violent corkscrew maneuvers to try and catch him, this time each one sticking much more tightly to their wingmates but then he engaged the SLAM and the craft rocketed forward beyond it's normal speed and he passed them by before performing another twisted corkscrew dive into the clouds, Nexu 5 and 6 , along with 9 and 10, flew in circles above the clouds waiting for him to emerge while the rest dived and gave chase through the clouds, relying on their sensors to try and find him. He shot upward, flying through their careful circling before unexpectedly decelerating and diving back for the clouds, forcing his squadron to chase him below, using sudden bursts of speed from his slam and unexpected slowdowns to push his Trainees to the limit of their skill to match, though they were starting to follow him more and more. Nexu 11 struggled the most during this bit. He had been pretty average before, but it was obvious by his flying he was becoming more unsettled. Only time could tell.
"Good. Stalk your opponent. Knowing the best moments to attack are as important as actually having the ability
to attack. Work together. Entrap the opponent from multiple angles. Now, let's see if you can shake each other. See if you can maintain a target lock on your wing mate for more than a few seconds."
Nathan spun around and and went on an attack run for Nexu 4 and 5, who split up, one diving for him above, the other below. He found himself pleasantly surprised when 5 managed to use his deceleration feint to escape, combining it with a corkscrew move that put him behind Nathan's craft, which Nathan countered with a sudden U-turn and dive below, only to find 4 about to achieve target lock flying up on him from portside. He decelerated, then barrel rolled upward, 45 and 5 engaging their slam drives as he did, the others in his squadron chasing one another, using the high speed moves and feints Nathan had been demonstrating, in most cases in a much more sloppy and crude manner but showing marked improvement from where they had started. A cleverly timed Immelman allowed Nathan to get behind 4 and maintain a 2 second lock before he was forced to break off as 5 dived for him, getting a one second lock before Nathan shook him off, cutting almost all his speed and letting 5 overshoot him, while Nathan managed to achieve a 5 second lock via chasing him, then went after 4, though it took him slightly longer to get 4 in a lock that lasted more than three seconds.
"Stop thinking about the maneuvers. Be them." he advised both. Only 7 and 9 had achieved locks for more than five seconds. This was not a business for the dizzy.
Nathan made a very tight turn and then ordered his pilots to slow to bare minimum speed while diving for the canyon. Once flying inside it, he received the message from
Ishana Pavanos
to switch to the private com frequency. He listens to the instructions.
"Confirmed." was all he said in reply. Then he switched back to standard.
"Trainees, this the moment of truth for you. If anything you did just now didn't stick, you're done. Drone swarm in coming. Simulated dog fight. You'll here a buzz if you tagged it. You'll here something similar if it tags you. Two rounds. First round, you get three chances to tag a drone, second round, you need to avoid or escape being tagged. Fail either and you wash out. Nexu 4. You lasted longest. You're flight lead."
Just then, the ship bearing the drones appeared, and he all led them right into the attack, not content to remain away, stayed very close to the ensuing fight. He watched the drones, wondering if his aggressive instruction had done the trick.
He watched as his trainees managed to tag
every drone they targeted, though Nexu 11 barely did it.
"Well done, Trainees...now for round two..."
Kurayami Bloodborn
Lossa Darcuhl
Rhiza Dural
Liam Sedaire
