A New Dawn
#6 of Into the Void
A New Dawn
As the two shipmates walked through the corridors of the Academy, they continued to discuss the recent events. The recruits in the corridors stopped to watch the two mercenaries pass, whispering to each other as the two men continued to walk through the halls towards the canteen. Jet didn't notice this until the final turn into the Canteen. "How come the cadets are staring at us?" Jet asked. Davis looked over his shoulder towards a group of three cadets who jumped in surprise and hurried away. Davis laughed as he turned back to a puzzled Jet; "The rivalry between the BattleHawks and Nemesis goes back generations, over a century. The Inter-system freighter crews often bring back stories of the battles between us, their heads have been filled with images of soldiers and pilots who can defeat entire armies and fleets , men and women worth two of any pilot or soldier, even worth two of any of the Starfox team." "And they think the world of Starfox" Jet replied, amazed. "Yes they do, and they've heard about you; that you've killed two Nemesis officers, that you rescued half the Starfox team from Oikonny's elite guard, that you've cheated death at the hands of The Nemesis commander and a Nemesis death squad..."
Davis broke off as Jet hung his head in embarrassment, He headed towards the nearest empty table, and Jet followed and sat down opposite him. "So they think I'm some kind of hero?" Jet asked. Davis gave a knowing smile before telling Jet that it didn't matter what cadets believed, as long as the people that mattered to him knew the truth. He turned from the relieved collie to the holographic menu and began to order his meal. Jet watched as Davis ordered a steak and ale pie before, ordering a rump steak.
Davis rose to collect some drinks, Jet asked for a bitter. As he left, Jet leaned back and looked around the Canteen, taking in the wide variety of different species in the cavernous room, now that the room had started filling up. As Jet looked around, two new cadets entered the Hall: The first was a young Shire horse stallion; he was shorter and possessed a more slender build than most shire horses (more like a swimmer than a body builder). The second was a slightly older male Badger, a few inches shorter than the stallion and of larger build than most Badgers.
The two looked around the now crowded canteen and saw that the nearest relatively clear table was occupied by one of the BattleHawks. The two exchanged a glance before making their way over to the collie's table.
"Are these seats taken?" Jet looked up to see two cadets, the stallion motioning to the unoccupied seats. "Take a pew, just leave a chair for Davis, ok?" He replied. The two cadets sat down opposite the collie, leaving the remaining seat for the returning wolf. "My names Malcolm Reed, this is Jethro Gibbs" Said the Stallion, "Jet Orsai, pleased to meet you" replied Jet, extending his arm to shake hands with both cadets. "What's it like here?" asked Jet, curious about the Academy.
"Similar to the Naval Academy's on Earth, apart from the zero-g training" replied Gibbs. Jet mulled this over for a moment just as Davis returned with their drinks. "Ah, I see you've met your new crewmates." Jet snapped back to Davis, his head tilted slightly, like a confused puppy. "What?"
Davis and the two cadets laughed at Jet's expression. "I said your training would continue during your stay here, which means that you're going to have learn beside the cadets, AS a cadet" Davis informed the perplexed collie. "Therefore you have been assigned to an ARC-150 series fighter as its pilot, Malcolm is the weapons operator and Gibbs is your Gunner" he continued. Both cadets smiled as Davis informed Jet of his new assignment. Jet relaxed and turned to his new friends, "I can hold my own in a gunfight, but I've never been in a Starfighter." "Don't worry; you'll get plenty of time in the simulators. We all do" replied Gibbs. Jet smiled, relieved at this news, he then turned to the black stallion: "So your my G.I.B.s, any idea what I should expect?" Malcolm glanced between his two crewmates: "No that's Gibbs, what are you..." "G.I.B.S, one b" replied Jet, cutting the confused stallion off, "Guy In Back Seat" Davis explained. "Oh!" Malcolm said, understanding. He turned to Jethro: "So what's your extra B for?" "Bastard" the badger replied smiling. The four men burst out laughing, before settling down to finish their meals, trading small talk. When Jet downed the last of his bitter, Malcolm mentioned that the ARC simulators were free for the next four hours and that it would be a good idea to head over and start learning to fly. Jet and Gibbs agreed, and the three rose, bidding Davis farewell and headed towards the main doors. As they reached the entrance, the doors opened and three female cadets came in: The first was a grey furred Wolfess, the same height as Jet and very curvy, the second was a pearl-coated filly, just shorter than Malcolm, with a very slender body, and the third was a female badger of average build but very pretty.
The three males stopped to one side to let the newcomers pass. The three females passed with an air of confidence, looking back over their shoulders. The filly giggled at her love struck counterpart, while the badger kept Jethro transfixed with her come hither eyes. The wolfess looked towards Jet, obviously expecting a similar reaction only to be met by the collie's neutral expression. She stopped for a moment, staring, confused by the lack of reaction, but quickly understood the measured look in his eye. This was one male who didn't judge a book by its cover. Smiling softly, she turned around and went to join her friends.
Jethro recovered first; "Angel flight, they're the other 150 crew." He explained, "The badger is Veronica Marks, the filly is Lauren Wilson and the wolfess is Sarah Cole. They're assigned to the other operational 150." "What are they like?" Jet asked, his eyes drawn to the wolfess' swaying hips and shapely butt. "Don't know" Jethro replied truthfully, "The first few weeks of training in the simulators are spent in separate pods, it's not until after you have been tested that the crews are usually chosen." He threw a last glance at Veronica before turning to the others, "We'd better start heading to the..." Jet snapped out of his trance to look at Jethro, who was looking at Malcolm, Jet's eyes rose to the stallion's face. Malcolm was staring after Lauren, obviously in love; His eyes were glazed over, his mouth slightly open and was oblivious to the world around him.
Jet turned back to the badger, his eyebrow raised. Jethro simply rolled his eyes. Both looked back to the love struck colt, drew their arms back and slapped him on the back of the head. Malcolm jerked slightly as he came back to reality. He rubbed the back of his head, before glancing between his friends, numbly realizing both had hit him. "Hey! What was that for?" he asked. "You were staring again" answered Jethro, watching his indignant friends expression change, "Sorry, but I can't help it. I really like her." "Then just ask her on a date" Jet said, he'd been in Malcolm's position before. Malcolm looked at Jet, "I tried, but I'm too shy to do it." He sadly replied. Jethro turned to jet to, "They're also the most popular girls in our class, it's not easy to just walk up and say hello."
"Maybe not, but you have to eventually. Come on, let's get to the simulators." Jet replied before turning to leave. Malcolm and Jethro joined him and led the way to the simulator hall.
As the three made their way to the Simulators, Davis was joined by a middle aged Golden Retriever. "How do you think they'll do Jack?" Davis asked his old friend. "Reports indicate he's a good rifleman, just like his father. Only time will tell if he's a good pilot. I'll look in on them in the simulators in an hour." Davis nodded in agreement before bidding his friend goodbye. General Jack Pepper watched as his friend rose to leave, making Jet train with the cadets was a gamble but necessary. However, he couldn't stop worrying; the atmosphere of the Academy had changed dramatically with the collie's arrival, he was also the son of one of the most famous mercenaries of Pepper's generation, though he didn't know it yet and the rumours about his exploits didn't help. Pepper sighed as Davis passed from sight, he didn't know what was going to happen, but he did know that there would be no respite for a long time. He stopped dwelling on these thoughts and stood up, he had to return to his office. As he left the canteen he gave one last thought to Jet, he shook his head and turned in the opposite direction and returned to his office.
T he three cadets entered the Simulator hall and were met by SGT Jerry Wells. "Hi Malcolm, Jethro. Who's the new guy?" greeted the black Labrador. "A visiting Battlehawk" replied Jet. "Wow! I thought that was a joke, welcome to the Cornerian Flight Academy, Sir" Jerry shot to attention saluting Jet. "At ease, I'm enlisted too, ok" said Jet returning the salute. "Sure, are you here to start VR training" asked Jerry, motioning to the VR pods in the hall. "I was drafted at lunch" replied Jet. The four men laughed at the joke. "I'm their pilot, and I need to catch up to their level quick." "I'll do the best I can" Jerry said, before leading Jet over to the ARC simulator.
While SGT Wells activated the pod, helped Jet in and gave the collie a rundown of the controls and instrument panel, Malcolm and Jethro made their way to the observation gallery. Jerry finished giving his instructions, before sealing the pod and returning to the control center in the observation gallery. "OK, can you hear me?" said Jerry over his headset. "Yeah, but there's a lot of static" replied Jet. "Don't worry, I'll clear it up. I'll run some basic flight simulations then switch to some advanced ones before running some combat simulations, ok" Jerry began cycling the VR controls. "Understood" Jet answered as the simulation booted up and his controls came online. The simulation chosen was a start up programme set at an old airstrip outside Corneria City, used for familiarisation flights. Jet began the engine start up sequence, before running though the flight controls and gauges. The three Cornerians watched as Jet ran his checks before preparing to lift off. "That was quick, he's not bad" commented Jerry, impressed. "Yeah, he's a natural in a 150" replied Jethro. The three of them settled down to observe for the next three hours.
General Pepper glanced up from the situation report he was reading to find that four hours had passed since he had left the canteen. He had meant to check in on Jet's flight training, three hours ago, he decided to head down and catch the end of the session.
An Invader III caught fire and exploded as the four 150s streaked down from above and behind the Venomian fighters, guns blazing, the remaining fighters split into two groups and fled. Blue leader and Blue 2 broke right, while Blue's 3 and 4 broke left, barrel rolling over a drifting Harlock-class that was burning from stem to stern. "Stay with me Blue 4, they won't escape." "Roger Blue 3, I'm right behind you" replied Jet, keeping 300m behind and to the right of Blue 3. He had found that adding 100m to the distance leader and wingman compensated for the heavy fighter's larger turning circle. The old MK IIIs were still a real threat to the large ARC fighters and the three cadets had been working hard to keep up with the smaller enemy craft. Sweat was pooling under Jet's jaw as he tried to manoeuvre his fighter into a firing position, the smaller fighters darting between the larger Cornerian and Venomian warships, dodging weapons fire and debris as their foes desperately tried to lose him in the melee. Suddenly, one of the two fleeing MK IIIs broke off. Jet had seen this before, and stayed behind Blue 3. Blue 3 boosted his engines, quickly gaining on his target, as he crested a Cornerian cruiser he fired. The target was hit hard; the MK III broke up and spiralled out of control, into the hull of a Challenger class. The second MK III returned and angled to fire on Blue 3.
Jerry watched his screen, an expression of intense concentration as he monitored all aspects of the simulation. "I've picked one up" called Blue 3, General Pepper walked in to find the Sector Y simulation running, the technical SGT rose to salute, but Pepper waved him back to work. "I see him, bring him back round to me" Replied Blue 4, turning to fall behind the MK III. "How are they?" asked Pepper. "Very good, they work well together. They're advancing rapidly, another two days and they'll be ready for a real flight" replied Jerry. The two men watched as Jet skilfully moved behind the Venomian and destroyed the smaller crafts engine, sending it straight into a large piece of floating debris. "Thank you Blue 4..." "Blue leader to Blue wing, form up and return to base, Starfox will take over from here" "Acknowledged" replied Blue wing, Jet turned the fighter around and formed up behind Blue 3 as the flight headed for home.
Outside, Pepper stood beside Wells as the latter went over the mission telemetry. "Impressive, Maybe he is as good as the scuttlebutt says" Pepper said softly. "Should I upload the telemetry sir?" asked Jerry. "Not yet, I'll do it personally tomorrow, save it for now" answered Pepper. "Yes sir" Jerry complied with Pepper's request just as Davis walked in; "How is he" he asked, "Very good, he learned the controls quickly" answered Jerry, he turned to Pepper as the simulation ended and the pods powered down, "will that be all, sir?" "Yes SGT, that will be all" replied Pepper as he walked over to his friend and left with him. Jerry watched as the three cadets left the VR hall before shutting down the system and turning off the lights. He ran one last check before leaving himself. The collie had impressed him, something which hadn't been done in a long time.