Chapter 9

If we should have to fight, we should be prepared to do so from the neck up instead of from the neck down.

— General James H. Doolittle

Hawk jerked the stick to the left and then quickly back to the right, trying to shake his pursuer and throw off their targeting. The pursuing Swift stuck to him like glue and began to close the gap, bringing her deadly guns into range.

"Get ready down there," Hawk said into the comm, "I'm going to try the chute maneuver we modeled."

"Roger, we'll be ready." Kitten replied.

"AI, chute routine on my mark." Hawk said.

"Roger." The AI replied.

Hawk began another left turn but slipped it into a roll, an obvious mistake that the trailing Swift was quick to take advantage of. Two balls of blue lightning shot forth, striking the shield of Hawk's aircraft.

"Shield down." Viper said. "Twenty seconds to reboot."

"Mark!" shouted Hawk as he killed all forward thrust. The AI immediately implemented a maneuvering routine too advanced for a single pilot to accomplish. The nose of the Swift came up while the wings and tail of the plane flared and curved down to cup the air. In effect the Swift became almost a parachute, decelerating at an enormous rate. Hawk, Viper and Kitten were thrown forward against their restraints at a force of 14 G's. The Swift on their tail was caught completely by surprise, and before it could react, shot past them.

"Release." Hawk told the AI as he slammed the throttle back to full. The AI gave full flight control back to Hawk who moved to pursue the other Swift. "Get 'em!" He said into the comm at the same time that Viper and Kitten fired. The enemy Swift exploded, not having had time to switch its shield from front to rear.

"Woo hoo!" Viper shouted. "What a move!"

"Just a little sumthin' sumthin' I cooked up." Hawk replied. "We're bugging out. Twenty minutes to rendezvous and docking, get a little shut eye."

Within minutes Hawk could hear the even breathing of his sleeping gunners. Eventually the carrier came into view and Hawk got in line for docking. When it was his turn, the tractor beam took control of his Swift and guided it gently into its berth on the ship. Viper and Kitten woke up upon feeling the gentle bump of the Swift coming to rest.

"Wake up sleepy heads," Hawk chided, "We're home."

The cockpit doors on the simulator opened and the three of them stepped out into the simulator room. A few crews were in sight, heading toward the flight center. Most of the simulators were displaying green safe lights, but a few were still red indicating that they were under gravity manipulation. If you got too close to a simulator under gravity you could be pulled into it or thrown outward by the changing gravity fields. Sore muscles and joints caused by riding inside the flight simulators were testament to the power and effectiveness of the gravity manipulators.

Hawk, Viper and Kitten stayed within the safety zones and soon arrived at the flight center for debriefing. Within ten minutes the rest of the crews from the mission arrived and Major Jones began the debriefing. Their morning mission had been one-on-one dog fights, something that they had studied intensely in sleep learning although they had only been implementing it in the simulators for a couple of days. The crews took extensive notes on the various maneuvers and tactics used that morning and broke each flight down and analyzed it. Some were better than others and all were critiqued to make them better.

"And finally," Major Jones said, "we come to the 'maneuver of the day.' This is a new one developed by Lt. Sperry and his crew. Let's watch."

The crews all watched the dog fight on a large screen at the front of the room. The screen gave them four views of the fight: one from each pilot, from the side and from above and behind. When Hawk's Swift performed the chute maneuver, the rest of the crews gawked in astonishment, and then applauded. Except, that is, for Dragon and his crew who had been Hawk's unfortunate opponent. Major Jones invited Hawk, Viper and Kitten up to the podium to explain how they developed the maneuver.

Major Jones moved a step stool up to the podium for Kitten to stand on. Kitten stepped up and explained how they had modeled the maneuver using the AI and a terminal in their pod. With the help of the AI, they had perfected the movements necessary to get the aircraft to perform the maneuver and how the AI was given temporary control of the aircraft in order to make it happen.

"Excuse me!" A Japanese gunner yelled from the back of the room. "We were told that the AI could not fight. How can it do this?"

"My programming will not allow me to directly cause the destruction of life in any form." The AI responded to the room in general. "It says nothing about navigation, weapons development, or aiding in combat. As long as I do not actively fire a weapon I may be helpful."

"That is correct." Major Jones replied. "The AI will become very helpful to you in combat. Some of the functions that it will take on during flight or combat are autopilot, navigator, target identification, damage assessment and shield operation. You have not been given this information until now so that you would learn to be self-sufficient. Lieutenants Sperry, Santini, and Carson discovered this because they were inquisitive and sneaky. They were looking for an advantage. This kind of behavior is exactly what we want out of all of you. Colonel Walker has designed this program around the best people he can find. We want new and innovative ideas. No idea is too small or too stupid to be ignored. We need new tactics, weapons and strategies. If you have an idea, bring it to your commander or tell the AI. If it has merit it will be forwarded to command, or to the technicians, for study and implementation."

Major Jones continued, "As you all know, the prize for the 'maneuver of the day' is to pick tonight's sporting event. What will it be?" he asked Hawk, Reggie and Kitten.

It was discovered that soon after the volunteers had finished augmentation they were growing bored with routine training methods. With their newly developed bodies and high metabolisms, the pilots and gunners needed some other outlet for their extra energy. One of the Brazilians had replicated a soccer ball and started an ad hoc soccer game in the hallways. This nearly started a riot as some of the people wanted to join in and others were mad at the noise and confusion. Colonel Walker, always looking to find a positive, recognized the potential of the situation.

The transport ship had two large hangers used for holding Swifts. During the transit between Earth and the colony, one hanger was used as the simulator room and the other was used to train the technicians on Swift repair and maintenance. Colonel Walker ordered that the Swifts in the repair hanger be parked at one end with their wings folded back. This left enough room for a good size playing field in the remainder of the hanger. With a couple of hour's notice, the AI could create a reasonable facsimile of Astroturf for soccer, football or other field games. Nightly sporting events had quickly become a tradition aboard ship, with a majority of the off-duty personnel coming to watch, or play, in the games. Swift pilots and gunners played evening games during the week, the full-sized (or extra-full sized) Marines and the ship's crew played on Saturday and the concubines and children had games on Sunday.

"American Football!" Hawk exclaimed, to cheers from the Americans in the room and groans from the most of the others.

"Give me a break!" Major Jones said to the crowd with a grin. "You know as well as I do that there are always more non-Americans that show up to play football than Americans, so can it. Besides, we've had soccer three days in a row and cricket on Monday, for Christ's sake."

The mention of cricket brought a cheer from a half-dozen Brits in the corner.

"Football tonight at 19:00 hours. 18:30 if you want to play. Class dismissed." The Major barked.

Aaron, Reggie and Sophia started toward the door and were quickly joined by Tiffany, Tim and Corey.

"Sweet maneuver, guys." Tiffany said.

"Thanks." Aaron replied. "Are you going to play football tonight?"

"Not me." Tiffany replied. "Volleyball and soccer are more my style."

"We are." Tim said. "I owe Hans one for that cheap shot he gave me last time."

"Let's hit the showers boys," Tiffany said. "We've still got to make up the basic maintenance class you bozos caused us to miss before dinner."

"Yes ma'am." The gunners replied, looking abashed. With a wave goodbye, Tiffany and her crew headed for the maintenance hangar.

"She sure has gotten them in line lately." Aaron remarked. "That's a switch."

"Haven't you heard what happened?" Sophia said.

"No. What?"

"How could you have missed it?" Reggie replied. "Everyone was talking about it."

"I guess I didn't pay attention. What happened?" Aaron asked again.

"It seems that Tim and Corey had the replicator produce some tequila and they started playing drinking games with their concubines. Somehow it ended up as a contest with the girls vying for bigger and better augmentations." Sophia told him. "Apparently it deteriorated into a 6-way cat fight. The pod was trashed and two concubines ended up in medical. It took 3 marines to break it up and the whole time Tim and Corey were lying around egging them on."

Reggie continued, "The next day Tim, Corey and Tiffany were hauled into Walker's office for an ass chewing. That's why they missed basic maintenance class. Tiffany was pissed"

Sophia picked the story back up. "According to the concubine grapevine, Tiffany proceeded to chew their asses up and down as soon as she got them back to their pod. I'm not sure exactly what she said, but I do know that she established Ben and Lisa, her married concubines, as the household leaders. She also forced Tim and Corey to listen to each of their concubines concerning their augmentations. Apparently all six of them have been back to medical for breast reductions."

"Good for her." Aaron replied. "I like those boys, but they needed to grow up. Looks like they have."

"Are either of you going to play football tonight?" Aaron asked.

"I am." Reggie said.

"Not me. I'm going to a take a voluntary class with Sensei Yamato." Sophia replied.

"What about?" Reggie asked

"He is trying to determine what hand weapons and attacks will be most effective against the Sa'arm. Several of us are helping him out." She replied.

"What good is that going to do? There are too many of those things to fight hand-to-hand." Reggie replied.

"This training is designed for survival situations. What if you have to eject and the only weapon you have is a stick or a knife? How would you even fight off one dickhead? Could you fight off a group of unarmed locals if they attacked you? This isn't meant for offence, it's meant to be a last-ditch defense." She said.

"I see your point." Reggie conceded.

"Excuse me." The AI interrupted their conversation.

"Yes." Aaron replied.

"I thought that you would like to know that concubine Ann is pregnant with a boy. She was impregnated by concubine Marty three days ago."

"Awesome!" Sophia said. "They're going to be so happy."

"Have you informed Ann yet?" Aaron asked the AI.

"No. Do you want me too?"

"No. We'll tell them. Would you please invite Tiffany to dine with us at 5:00 o'clock?" Aaron requested.

A few seconds later the AI replied, "Lieutenant Carter has accepted your invitation."

Tiffany arrived for dinner promptly at 5 o'clock and the whole group was eating by 5:15. Ann and Tammy had worked closely with the AI in designing the pod so that they could quickly convert the den into a dining room with a huge table and seats for 30. Everyone had finished their meal and were drinking coffee or eating dessert when Aaron, Sophia, and Reggie stood up on their chairs. Aaron tapped his fork on a glass to get everyone's attention.