Connor's Gambit Read online

  A loud banging noise jolted Brad from his daydreaming. Not seeing a cause, he asked, “Travis, what was that sound?”

  “You have a visitor. Your order to lock the trainer and silence outside interference is still in place.”

  “Uh, sorry, return the trainer’s door to its normal settings,” Brad ordered, as he continued to search for an opening on Deznoic’s calendar. Brad looked up at a reflection of Deznoic’s stern face glaring at him on the trainer’s windshield.

  Surprised by Deznoic’s sudden appearance, Brad jumped up only to be pulled down by the harness holding him in place. Brad tried not to react to his stupid error, but his face flushed from his embarrassment. “Sir, can I help you?”

  “Johnson, you will do your advance seater training with me now,” ordered Deznoic as his seat conformed to him and the harness tightened around him, securing him in place.

  A soft feminine voice filled the cabin. “Welcome, Commander Deznoic, to Training Module Zuonopy, seven-nine-seven. Is there a training program you would like me to run today?”

  “Trainer, run the squadron’s advanced Defender training scenario one-four,” responded Deznoic.

  Brad clenched a fist at his side where Deznoic would not see. Deznoic wasn’t just testing his piloting skills; Deznoic was showing that he didn’t trust Brad by testing him with an advanced program. This won’t last, he thought, as he consoled himself. The poor guy just had the Fleet Admiral shove a lost soul at him. “Commander, are there any special instructions I need to be aware of before we start?”

  “I will be piloting the Aneplé vehicles,” Deznoic informed him.

  “Message received.” Brad affirmed as he proceeded to go through the vehicle check and ensured that his vehicle had a full set of armaments. He set the shielding for sixty percent weapons grade. The reduced shielding would allow him to reach maximum speed quicker, provide more maneuverability and still provide sufficient shielding for combat operations. He watched Commander Deznoic put on a headset to give him the view from the Aneplé vehicles and immediately executed the program.

  Three Vipers and a Defender headed straight toward Brad. Brad responded by dropping two two-staged missiles, the most advanced and effective missile on the Zuonopy. He programmed the missiles to fly figure eight patterns with delayed fuses as he sped toward the Aneplé in an erratic scissor pattern. The missiles’ first stage would attack and disarm the shielding on the enemy vehicles. The second stage was the actual armed missile. There were a limited number of advanced missiles available throughout the Fleet, and currently the Aneplé did not have any of the missiles in their supply chain. If Brad had not had access to the advanced missiles in this exercise, his tactics would have been completely undermined since penetrating the shields of the opposing vehicles would have required far more missiles consecutively striking a weakened area on the shield for a successful attack.

  Deznoic split his four vehicles into two teams to attack from two different directions.

  Brad flew toward the center area between the four vehicles shooting missiles toward him. He began a steep wifferdale inner loop maneuver that brought him behind two vehicles on his right with several missiles following behind him. He flew as close as possible to the Aneplé vehicle and did a deep dive, killing his engine to mask any signals coming from his vehicle.

  The sensors showed Brad pulling behind Deznoic with the missiles following and then disappearing. Looking at the screen, Brad’s vehicle was below Deznoic’s, however neither the sensors and nor the views from the four screens registered his vehicle. It was as if it had vanished. The missiles appeared behind Deznoic, causing him to pull his viper away but not quite fast enough. The computer showed Deznoic had switched controls to the second pair right before the missiles impacted the vehicle he just left.

  One down, three to go, Brad thought as he fired his engines back up and flew toward the missiles he dropped. He sent a signal for his missiles to fly toward him.

  Brad flew back to his point of origination and swung around, heading toward Deznoic. At the same time, Deznoic flew toward his Defender with the two other vehicles. Deznoic would not wait long to take advantage of the firepower the three vehicles carried.

  Brad swung around and programmed the missiles to follow directly behind him to mask his signature. The three enemy vehicles headed straight for him. He didn’t need to look at Deznoic’s gestures to know what the commander would do next. It was obvious to him. The question for Brad was how much time he would have between Deznoic’s release of the missiles and impact to allow him to maneuver away. Just as he thought that, the three vehicles released their weapons. The lead vehicle kept flying toward him with the two other vehicles peeling away, one hundred and eighty degrees from each other. Brad followed the vehicle that pulled downward.

  As soon as Brad fired his weapons, he transferred his vehicle signature to the missiles trailing him. The lead vehicle and weapons were keyed to that signature. It was going to be quite an explosion. Brad closed in on the vehicle he was chasing and released his remaining weapons.

  Brad did a half “S” and reversed his course, heading toward the last vehicle. He was sure both of them had spent all of their weapons, but he had one more trick up his sleeve. Brad wasn’t sure how Deznoic would take his next maneuver. Brad had worked out the details with Connor on the transport vehicle. They had also discussed theoretically how it could result in changing the tactics used by the squadrons. Brad had planned to introduce it once he earned his pin but looking at Deznoic’s schedule, he couldn’t see it happening during his short tour. His presentation became a now or never scenario.

  Deznoic was about to call an end to the training and let Johnson start flying off the Zuonopy tomorrow with someone in the second seat and solo. His flying skills along with his training scores showed that Johnson was ready. He watched as Johnson turned toward him with something else in mind. He wondered what the Trainee was planning, since all the weapons had been fired. If Johnson was doing a suicide run Deznoic would refer him to medical and that would be the end for the trainee. His own role as an Aneplé pilot would require him to either return to his home ship or meet the CIG Pilot head on. While this was a simulation, if he was going to recommend Johnson to be evaluated by medical, Deznoic wanted a record that clearly indicated he was not a participant. Deznoic turned his vehicle around and headed for the Aneplé battle cruiser in the simulation. He kept his eyes on the screen and sensors. Johnson was definitely moving his vehicle in pursuit. He watched the countdown to impact. At least he was in a simulator watching the screen, five, four, three, two, one. The training simulator ejected Deznoic’s icon from his vehicle. Watching his screen, he fully expected to see Johnson’s icon floating with his in space with the vehicles flying unmanned. Instead, Johnson maintained control of his vehicle as he turned it around, flying back toward Deznoic’s icon.

  “Commander, do you need a lift back?”

  Funny guy, thought Deznoic. “Simulation over.” Pulling the headset off he looked at Johnson’s scores. He couldn’t deny Johnson not only had the skills, but had also come up with a new tactic. “Explain to me what just happened,” he demanded.

  “I forced your safety system to eject the Aneplé pilot, allowing CIG to recover a vehicle and a prisoner,” explained Brad.

  “I saw that. What I didn’t see was your system ejecting you also,” Deznoic replied in annoyance. “What did you do?”

  “I reprogrammed the safety boundary on my vehicle to be smaller than the standard safety border for impact. I was able to trigger yours without affecting mine. I noticed when I began training on the Swarm Defender that the safety clearance triggering ejection was far larger than the vehicle’s recommended clearance. I researched the difference and learned it was an overreaction to an accident that occurred over a century ago. Which I believe led to the imbalance of accepting extreme safety measures over capabilities. While the shields protected vehicles against one stage missiles, ejections seemed to be standard pr
ogrammed behavior for avoiding collisions, allowing the Aneplé to use collisions as a tactic once all of their missiles have been expended.”

  “I see,” Deznoic said, wondering who originated this idea.

  Brad brought up the directive on the windshield to show him. “It is recommended that the highest level of vehicle shield safety margin is maintained to avoid collisions at all times.” Deznoic continued to scan the directive. “It appears that as soon as this directive was issued, all of the vehicles were reprogrammed and no one ever questioned if it was excessive. It doesn’t appear as if the Aneplé questioned it either, but instead took advantage of it and used it as a strategy to force CIG retreats, since we care about losses of pilots and vehicles from ejections. They don’t seem to care about their own. They basically turned CIG’s ethical values against itself.”

  Deznoic had often thought the same thing, but it never occurred to him that in the interest of safety, headquarters created overzealous directives impacting the Swarm Defenders’ performance. “Out of curiosity, who came up with this idea?”

  “Truthfully, this was my idea. I thought it might be worth considering as a tactic when weapons were spent, as a counter-measure to the Aneplé’s tactics. As a matter of fact, I practiced the same maneuver on someone else.”

  Deznoic made a choking sound hearing that. He would have loved to have seen Connor’s face when Connor was ejected. He had to give the young man points for having the guts to force an ejection on Connor, even in a simulator. “Send me the record of that training session,” he asked. He wanted to see if Connor signed off on it. “Why are you presenting it to me, instead of having it dictated to us from the senior officers that are familiar with you?”

  “It was suggested that you would have a better idea if it could be incorporated into tactics or if it didn’t make sense. Also, it would be accepted more readily coming from the ranks rather than being pushed down.”

  Deznoic confirmed Brad’s assessment with a nod.

  “I looked at your schedule and didn’t see any other opportunity to bring it to your attention other than to present it now.”

  “You have my attention. What was the recommendation, if I thought it had merit?”

  “A live demo that shows flying closely with the reduced shields during combat operations can be done safely. I have a simulation to show you,” Brad said as he started the demo video on the windshield.

  After Deznoic viewed the demo, he sat quietly for a moment. “I’m not saying no. I still have a number of questions, starting with your flying technique. Currently, you are the only one who knows these maneuvers and this will require another pilot.” With unshakable nerves, Deznoic thought. Maybe it was time for them to change, if they were going to make progress in the conflict, but it would be a challenge and require a shift in pilot culture. “Tomorrow, report to Pilot Palscom to earn your vehicle pin and work simulations for the pilot flying the opposing vehicle. I will schedule the demo. If you fail in your tasks, the demo will be canceled, and your fancy maneuvers will be banned from my squadron.”

  No pressure. Brad stiffened. “Message received.”

  Chapter 17

  Shinny stood before her squad of four individuals. Each of the individuals had volunteered to report to her during her assignment to the battalion. She looked at their records to understand why they had volunteered. Two were transferring off Zuonopy, a third was a reservist, the fourth, Leevaal Stapernoin, had an extraordinary record and probably was his own man when it came to the Special Combat Troops. In other words, no one could touch his or her records at this time. She looked at the two remaining troops she hadn’t met yet. “Sergeant Stapernoin, you once reported to a classmate of mine. I see Major Veeslen held you in high regard. I look forward to working with you.”

  “Major Veeslen spoke highly of you, also. I consider that to be an equally reliable reference. I look forward to working with you, Major,” responded Leevaal with a respectful nod.

  Smiling, Shinny moved on to the next person. “Sergeant Themess, congratulations on your recent promotion and assignment to headquarters.”

  “Uh, Major,” the young woman whispered quietly.

  Shinny looked at the soldier’s face. It looked like she was in distress. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Major, get ready to roll,” Stapernoin interrupted.

  Shinny glanced upward at Stapernoin and understood the warning as his stern face focused on something behind her. Although she barely had time to prepare herself, she was ready as she felt someone grab her from behind, lift her, and throw her across the room. Shinny rolled up, turned, and faced Major Ukpres. Ukpres laughed and exclaimed how easy it had been to disarm the legendary, out of shape, unprepared N’Klaftin.

  If they wanted to run training like the battlefield, so be it. Shinny ran toward her, preparing to flip and return a kick to Ukpres’ shoulder with every intention of handing it back to her and more.

  “Major, stand in place,” Colonel T’Lentic ordered. “Major, in my battalion, everyone needs to be prepared at all times. Training is no excuse for failure to be prepared or to respond. Your lack of preparedness will lead toward you being removed from my battalion. Do you understand?”

  Shinny worked at keeping her anger from flaring. “Message received, sir.” Something was definitely wrong with this battalion, but there wasn’t much she could do at this time other than to put up with it and protect her squad. Shinny waited for the colonel and the major to exit the training room before she continued. Taking a deep breath to regain her balance, she faced her squad. “Grab your gear. We are running with full packs on the bicycle tracks. I expect everyone to keep up with me.” Going for a run would help her work off her anger and frustration. It would also give her an idea of whether she had benefited from Earth’s heavier gravity. Noticing the expression on Themess’ face, Shinny asked, “Sergeant, did you want to say something?”

  Themess hesitated but the urge to say something evidently overwhelmed her sense of propriety. “The colonel wasn’t always like this. He changed—the battalion changed—when she transferred into it.”

  Shinny could do nothing with this information at the moment, nor did it truly explain the abnormal behaviors she observed in the battalion, but at least it wasn’t just she who saw it. “Thank you,” she responded, before she turned to grab her gear propped against the wall.

  Plinoa Ukpres left with Colonel T’Lentic, frustrated she had failed again to entrap N’Klaftin. She wouldn’t fail a third time. She needed to be patient and look at other options, including her friends in medical if need be. Fortunately, she had the colonel’s full support when it came to N’Klaftin. As far as the Colonel was concerned, one N’Klaftin in his battalion was one too many, giving her leeway in doing what she needed to do to have her removed.

  Chapter 18

  Shinny followed silently behind Brad’s steps echoing on the metal grid. She knew immediately when she saw Brad at her quarters they would quickly work out their communication problems. However, he had expressed a sense of urgency when he asked her to follow him. While she was ready to finally call an end to the separation, she found it curious Brad wanted her to follow him instead of joining her in her room. She had agreed, confident this short jaunt would lead toward an end to their separation.

  She was proud of her husband’s accomplishments when she noted Brad wearing not only the gold Swarm Defender vehicle insignia on his uniform, designating that he was a fully qualified Swarm Defender pilot, in addition he had three vehicle proficiency bars below his insignia. He was keeping his promise to Connor to do everything possible to represent Earth in a favorable light in the short time he had on the battle cruiser, even though CIG barred Brad from sharing with others his planet of origination.

  Shinny had been disappointed he had not come to see her sooner. She had thought he would want to talk to her shortly after the Evasion Exercise. It had been apparent they were close to reconciliation during the exercise, but she had been
determined to let Brad take the initiative to end the separation, since he was the one who needed to come to terms with her background. The separation had made the past few weeks harder on her than she expected. She was stunned when she realized she missed both Brad and Dane more than she thought she would ever miss anyone. It was startling considering she had known Brad for a relatively short period of her life. Nor did she expect to be hit as hard emotionally with her son in hibernation. Her life had unexpectedly become different as a wife and mother.

  She had wondered if he knew he had to make the first move toward reconciliation. She had been at a loss on how to encourage him to make the first move. It didn’t help that Connor had refused to intercede because he made it a practice to not involve himself in Shinny’s personal affairs. At times, her frustration with her father was overwhelming. Yet, once again, looking at her husband, it appears as if Connor was right to stay out of it.

  Shinny watched the back of Brad’s head make slight movements toward the transportation platforms and back as he continued at a brisk pace on the mid-tier catwalk circling the Transportation Room. It made her wonder if he was lost. If he were lost, he wouldn’t be the first person; at least Brad had the excuse of being new on the ship. She resisted the temptation to laugh aloud. While it was humorous watching him, he probably wouldn’t take it well, yet.

  He was probably as uncomfortable with her ability to move silently on the grid as he had been on Earth. She almost decided not to implement her quiet mode in deference to Brad, knowing he had found it unnerving the way she would move without making a sound in any environment, including a forest with dried leaves. At least now he should understand her stealthy abilities were a combination of her training and her boots. It had never been her intention to lie or hurt Brad, nor did she want to continue to make him feel uncomfortable. But among her peers, she needed to do everything possible to maintain her combat readiness. Also there was a nagging thought in the back of her brain that for the first time in her many deployments, she wanted to return home safely. In the past, she had been driven by her determination to get the job done. She felt like she had a permanent home on Earth. Shinny wondered what was stranger, thinking of Earth as her home or not questioning her own sanity as she thought of Earth, a primitive planet, as her home. She smiled to herself as she thought about her family.