The Reluctant Pilot

[Machelvanius]

The Reluctant Pilot

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Part 1

Space can be lonely in a single seat fighter. Flying with your comrades is just about the only thing that warms it up, except for the life-support systems and the flight suit. Oscar Peña had grown up on Planet Malta. He learned quickly how important it was to protect Malta. When he was nineteen he finally got his chance to become a pilot. He had always dreamed of it.

He joined with some smuggling operations that were bound for the Bretonian Systems. Of course, the cargo was Cardamine. Growing up on Malta, Oscar was naturally addicted and transformed by the natural orange grass that grew everywhere. He had a full supply in his fighter. It was concentrated through a re-breather full of Cardamine gas and air mix to carry around at all times. He was assigned to a Gladius light fighter to accompany his leader who was flying in a Rapier.

They made it to Bretonia without much of a problem. The delivery to Trafalgar base in New London was mostly uneventful. They had managed to get there just before an Armed Forces patrol slipped by. They never even knew. Later on, his Commanding Officer would lead them out on another excursion to the Cape Wrath Base in the Newcastle system where they would meet up with some important members of the Guardia Nazionale that had been stationed there to keep an eye on the Gallic Forces invading Bretonia. Oscar didn't know much about them, just that they were high ranking. He had been told more than once on Trafalgar to wait for his Commanding Officer in his quarters. That always meant secret meetings over secure channels.

Rodrigo Lopez was known for his Military cunning. He was given a very high priority task under the guise of Cardamine smuggling. There was a special message to take to the Gallic front. This message was so secret and so important, that it couldn't be sent via normal electronic communications even with the most secure encryption. The one thing that he was most concerned about was this novicio, Oscar Peña. He liked to call him Picua, which meant Barracuda, since he was always smiling and wanted to kill something.
"Mira! Picua! Ven aquí! You know what I have told you every time. You fly like that and you'll be muertos rapidos! When I say stay on my wing, hazlo tu!"

"Lo siento, Jefe! I'll do better . . . I . . . I promise!"
"Keep your promises to yourself, Picua! You follow orders, or we could all die!"
Rodrigo used mostly common Bretonian to chastise Oscar. He wanted him to feel a little embarrassed in front of these strangers. Oscar only became more determined to do his job more precisely.
"Ahora, go and make sure these Junkers are finished with our ships. I don't trust them. We need to vamanos!"

As they left Trafalgar station, they were headed to the only way to Newcastle besides the dangerous Leeds jump hole into Gallic territory. This meant using a jump gate. Oscar hadn't used a jump gate ever. He knew how, but the simple slow mechanics of them made them terribly dangerous. There were enemies on every side. Bretonian Corporations and their fighter wings, Armed Forces, Police, and Corsairs. The list of enemies was far bigger than the list of allies. It was a relatively slow flight through the Southampton Debris Field and then a wide pass out to miss the Southampton Shipyards. Off the radar was the best way.

They were approaching the Newcastle jump gate from behind, a position rarely guarded by the Armed Forces or the Police. It provided a respite from the main weapons on the jump gate as well.
"Mira! Picua! Do you see that jump gate? We're going to fly right through the center to the front and use it there. That way we don't get hit by those primary cannons. You got that, Picua?"

" Sí Señor! I will do it!" responded Oscar over the comms.
"Okay, cut your cruise engines! We're gonna move in nice and quiet." Rodrigo said.
"Señor, I think I have a problem! These cruise engines won't shut down. I think the control pulled out!" shouted Oscar over the comm.

"Shut down all your power, that should cut those cruise engines."
Suddenly the power went out on Oscars ship, but there was another problem. He was headed right into the field of fire for the jump gate primary cannons. Oscar turned the power back on, and slowly it came back up. But it was too late. Several barrages of fire went past his cockpit. He was still nearly in cruise speed. His navigation and neural net came back online, then his stabilizers.
He saw the Armed Forces Patrol. His engines cut back on and he was able to use his thrusters just in time. But the slow build up of the cruise engines would be too much and leave him like a sitting duck. Then he saw the single ship. It was a Serenity Freighter. Suddenly, the HUD system lit up. He had 12 targets all in range. Of course, this meant he was in range of them as well.

"Come on, Picua! You know the tactics. Get your ship out of there!" shouted Rodrigo.
Suddenly, the Serenity freighter blasted all of its guns at once into the side of Oscar's ship. The shields went down and the nose and left wing of the ship were gone, his right wing was on fire. The voice on the neural net started babbling about all the missing pieces of his ship. He silenced it and tried to thrust away from the Serenity, there was another barrage, this time he had one choice: eject his life pod and hope for the best . . .

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THE IMBALANCE OF POWER is a construct of THE MIND systemic to the reactions between the subjects of the system. POWER is given by those who acknowledge such power. REFUSAL to acknowledge power removes that power for THE REBEL; however, it produces anomalies in interactions throughout the system. These ANOMOLIES cause the UNPREDICTABLE nature of the system that all users CRAVE.