Ravens of Eternity

18 Endurance, Pt When the sergeants roused the cadets on the ninth cycle of the week, they had especially merciless looks in their eyes.

This was a special cycle.

“Everyone up! Now, now, now!” yelled Sergeant Elyn.

This startled everyone onto their feet. The sergeants’ energetic cries were far more forceful than before.

“Get into your flightsuits on the double!” yelled Sergeant Akim.

Eva was taken aback, but quickly slipped out of her uniform and into her flightsuit. She then grabbed her flight helmet and held it to the side before she stood at attention. She didn’t realize it, but she also wore a slight grin on her face.

It had become a part of the flightsuit at some point, when she wasn’t looking.

When everyone was at attention, the two sergeants quickly went over everyone’s suits and yelled at anyone who messed up their bindings. Elyn had one utter screwup of a cadet completely disrobe and start over from scratch.

“The base is under attack, cadet!” Sergeant Elyn yelled. “Your friends and wingmen are out there defending you while you’re in here trying on outfits at a tea party!”

.....

She was practically in the cadet’s face, face red with anger.

Of course the base wasn’t under attack, and none of the others were in danger. But the lesson had to be learned harshly, or it wouldn’t have had any impact at all.

“Get your shit together! And fast! Or do you want all your bunkmates to die?”

The cadet quickly slipped back into his flightsuit, and triple-checked all of his straps with the speed of light. This time, they were perfect.

Elyn nodded to him, and put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him.

“Good,” she said stoically.

He straightened his back further after she stepped away.

“Doubletime to Hangar Thirteen!” yelled Sergeant Akim. “We’ve been called to a sortie!”

Lightning shot through Eva. They were going to fly today! Real jets, and not some simulation. She ran through the doors at great speed.

Had she gone any faster, she would have left a sonic boom in her wake.

“Come on!” yelled Chengli.

He rallied the other cadets and ran out. The rest of the cadets followed right at their heels as best they could, their breaths hot and heavy from excitement.

The two sergeants grinned with satisfaction as they took up the rear.

Eva arrived at Hangar 13 and marveled at the number of fighters that were lined up inside.

Like all the other hangars, it was large enough to house fifty of the 20 meter fighters. There were two orderly clusters of twenty-five fighters near each other, while the fighters themselves had plenty of room around them to move.

She reached out and touched one, and slid her hand across it as she moved down its length. Her skin broke out in goosebumps as she felt its cold metal armor under her gloved fingers.

The others quickly arrived, and the sergeants assigned each of them a fighter.

They all had done very well in the simulations, and were ready for the real thing. Of course, being that it was still the first week of basic, they still needed a great deal of handholding. Or at least some of them did, anyway.

So the two sergeants made sure to go through all the basics that they had learned thus far regardless. They wanted to keep the lessons fresh in their minds as much as possible.

“Don’t forget your breathing,” said Sergeant Elyn. “This is the most important thing you can do. Your breathing gives you control. When your mind’s spinning, always breathe deep and stay steady.”

The sergeants also taught them to do quick visual checks before they hopped into the open cores and powered them on. Then they had their DIs connect with the fighter’s onboard computer so it could do all the necessary preflight checks automatically.

Eva and Chengli were relatively familiar with the preflight checks, but never gave them much thought. It was only here that they started to pay closer attention. After all...

“Your lives and the lives of your fellow cadets depend on your operational capability,” explained Sergeant Akim. “If your fighter cannot meet certain standards, then it is instead a liability. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” all the cadets affirmed.

“Then hop in and seal up your cores.”

Every cadet then climbed up into the open cores and strapped themselves into their seats. They triple-checked their harnesses and bindings before they closed up their cores. Then the ship’s armor closed up around the core right afterwards.

Lights blinked and came to life in Eva’s core as it hummed with power. She felt the whole ship vibrate as energy coursed through it, as though it was about to leap up into the air by its own accord. Her hands swiftly went over her controls, and wrapped her hands around the dual flight sticks in front of her.

She felt the soft rubber give slightly under her grip, and enjoyed the simple pleasure of it. It was glorious.

Then she switched her MFDs to her preferred layout and minimized her DI. She then saved that layout into her DI, so it would automatically apply it whenever she got into any core.

This DI is seriously amazing, she thought.

The sergeants then came on all their comm displays and gave their instructions. As they did so, the ceiling on the hangar slowly split apart and drew open, which cleared the air above the cadets.

“We’re gonna go up row by row,” said Sergeant Elyn.

It was still their first time in actual fighters, and needed to take it slow for now. And so, the sergeants had everyone launch in groups of ten. This allowed the two of them to keep their eyes on five at a time to make sure they were still in control.

They led each group and went through simple maneuvers slowly and steadily. First they ascended to a few hundred meters, then moved forward a few hundred meters, all in formation. Then the next set of ten came up and did the same. They did this over and over until every cadet was out of the hangar and hovered above the base.

When everyone was ready, the sergeants suddenly became solemn and serious.

“We’re now gonna ascend out of orbit and into space,” said Sergeant Elyn. “You already know quite well how those g-forces are gonna affect you, so keep yourselves in control.”

“Breathe,” Akim reinforced.

“Freya, Zhulong!” barked Sergeant Elyn. “Take us up past atmo, full throttle.”

“Yes ma’am!” they replied in unison.

A rapid ascent! That was far faster than when they trained on the frigate, and that meant more g-forces from the acceleration.

Eva was sure that it would test the cadets’ abilities to maintain control of their fighters. Though, she wasn’t sure who would cave, and who would prevail. Except for the handful she was ordered to instruct, she really didn’t know anything about the other cadets.

Except Eva wasn’t exactly sure what to do. She was always a solo player and had never dealt with being part of a wing, much less lead a squadron. Chengli, however, had experience in a clan, and had some knowledge that she could pick at. So, she asked him privately through her DI.

“Just observe me for a bit, do what I do,” he replied. “I’m sure you’ll fill in the rest.”

Eva and Chengli flew above each group of twenty-four cadets and ordered them to turn 90 degrees from the horizon, in place. This adjusted them so they were already pointed in the right direction, and the only things ahead of them were Eva or Chengli.

Although it was a simple adjustment, it had reduced the chances of collision greatly.

“Set forward thrusters to max in three... two...” said Chengli.

Under their flight helmets, sweat beaded on the cadets’ foreheads as Chengli counted down.

On ‘one’, they saw their squad leaders’ main thrusters glow brightly as their ships shot upwards with great speed. So they too set their throttles to the max and followed right afterwards.

They grit their teeth as the g-forces pushed down on them. The sergeants kept telling them to breathe, breathe, breathe, but their voices sounded further and further each time. It got harder and harder to pump blood into their brains.

And the more time they spent at this velocity, the more their sight lost color.

Some started to waver even as they performed their muscle exercises to keep their blood flowing. Although they drifted slightly, they kept their eyes on Eva and Chengli.

The brightness of their thrusters were like guiding lights to them. It truly helped keep them oriented, and allowed them to readjust their flight vector and maintain control, even as their sight grew dimmer and dimmer.

“Stay with us!” ordered the sergeants.

The cadets could only do their best to comply.

And after a couple of grueling minutes, they had escaped the atmosphere and hit terminal velocity. Not a single pilot g-locked and blacked out.

The g-forces normalized, and the cadets recovered quickly. Many took in deep, panting breaths as they sought to get their blood pumping hard again.

On the sergeant’s orders, they then veered towards a designated navigational marker where they gave each other plenty of space so they could practice their maneuvers.

And it was exactly as they had done in the simulators, however there was a huge difference this time. G-forces pressed down on them with every movement and every turn. They weren’t fully prepared for it, even after all the instructions they had undergone.

Blood rushed to different parts of their bodies as their fighters spun and turned in various directions. They initially had a tough time adjusting to the g-forces, and took serious effort for them to apply them to their techniques. They consciously made sure that they restricted the right muscles, and breathed at the right time with every turn they made.

Blood to the heart, oxygen to the brain.

The same was true for Eva, too. She did have some real-world experience with the lifeboat, but this training had made her aware of all the mistakes she made then. If she had the knowledge back then that she did now, she was certain she would have been hit less, as she could have taken those turns much harder.

(Though, not so much her passengers.)

She then went through her repertoire of maneuvers, and practiced them one by one. She adapted her breathing and tightened the right muscles and etched those behaviors bit by bit by bit.