Entering the gym, now dressed appropriately for it, I wave my wing over. They were stretching and otherwise going through pre-workout measures to get ready for me to put them through their paces, and it made me proud to see them working together like that.

“Alright people, simple workout today. Just a short run, some core and upper body, then a long run.” I listed out the workout regimine for them.

I led them to the track, a nice hundred meter stretch with two lanes, doubling back and forth. “We’re going to do four laps as a group, then another two as individuals.”

I formed them up and we took off, cruising along the ship with each stride. One might wonder why so much space was dedicated to a track on a ship. The answer was that while running on a treadmill let you do certain kinds of running very well, you couldn’t get the same kinds of flat out sprinting and long stride running. This was an important part of having a complete workout and when you get so cooped up in a lancer, you really needed to get that full range of motion running done.

After our four laps, each of us split off to run at the pace we felt comfortable. It was good practice for each of us to get a feel for what the others would do when given their own pace as an option. Daren sped ahead in a sprint, while Gwayne fell behind slightly, working on his breathing and tempo. Amy just stuck by my side, matching pace with me every step of the way, not letting her shorter stature get in the way of a solid showing.

Wrapping up the run, we did a short walk to cool off before I instructed the wing to get down and do planks. I walked around correcting each of their form slightly before getting down myself.

“We’re going to hold this for several minutes, to strengthen our backs and abdominal muscles. These help keep us safe and able to move around in our lancers. You’re not much good if a lateral burn knocks your head against the wall.”

Despite no one enjoying planks, absolutely no one complained about the straining exercise we put ourselves through. I smiled to myself and panted as after four minutes, we all collapsed to the floor, our torsos spasming. It was time to do push ups after that, and I was beginning to regret putting myself through this, but could tell the suffering was shared by all.

“Alright, now for a hundred pushups.” I spoke to collective groans, but ignored them. “It’s necessary to have all of this done before the simulators today.”

We all got back into position and began doing pushups. No one held back, giving their all to have the best form and economy of motion they knew how to give. I guess that class really motivated everyone because this was some of the best working out I’ve seen from the wing ever.

As we completed the pushups, I motioned for everyone to get some water before we moved to our next stage. “Hydrate. You’ll all need it.” I panted out.

“Yes commander.” Came the panted acknowledgement.

I stood up and got some water myself before doing some brief stretches. This was going to be treadmill run, but it was going to be substantially longer than the track run. Cardio was one of the most important parts of a lancer’s workout, because you needed your heart to continue to operate even under the strains of multi-g acceleration.

“Alright, everyone ready? Well even if you aren’t, we’re going to run a 10k on the treadmill. I expect you to maintain a 4:30 minutes a kilometer pace at least, but feel free to go as fast as you want.” I mounted up on my treadmill and the others joined me.

We set off and I set mine to a 4:15 pace to start. I put some headphones in and loaded up some new EDM to run to. I could see on the treadmill what the status of the others were and they were all impressing me with their dedication. Daren was, once again, sprinting ahead with a 4:00 pace, with Gwayne at 4:20, and Amy starting at the 4:30 but quickly dropping it down again and again every minute by a second or two.

A little under an hour later, we were all panting and sipping water as we paced back and forth cooling off from the work out. I waved them over having them circle up around me.

“Go hit the showers and grab some food. We’ll meet in the simulators in about ninety minutes.” I then waved them off and headed back to my room.

Peeling my workout gear off, I tossed it into the laundry receptacle before stepping into the shower, pressure washing the sweat and oil out of my skin. My muscles were a tad sore, but it had been a good workout. It was great to see everyone working together as a team and competing with each other.

I cracked my neck and stretched against the shower wall, feeling my back crunch and pop in satisfying ways. I’m gonna need to get checked out one of these days, but that’s not important today. We still had more training to accomplish and those virtual ships weren’t going to blow themselves up.

I scrubbed myself down, cleaning every part of myself in a ritualistic way. Hair, face, arms, torso, legs, moving from top to bottom, changing soaps as needed. The System was highly realistic and it felt as good, or maybe even better, than any other shower I’ve ever had. Once I was done, I shut the water off and stepped out, grabbing a towel to dry my hair, then another for the rest of me.

I dried off and got dressed in my flight suit, fitting it properly and strapping it down so that it properly regulated blood flow throughout my body. It was an important process that would keep a pilot from losing consciousness at much higher g forces, something we were constantly experiencing. I shut the lights off and left my room, heading down to the mess hall.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I whistled a tune as I stepped to, hustling down the halls and prancing into the mess hall. I got into line and grabbed a light meal of chicken in what probably was supposed to be a marsala sauce and some mashed potatoes. I joined my wing at a table, noticing they had all beaten me through the showers. Guess I might need to step up my time in the shower, they shouldn’t all have beaten me here.

“Hey guys, mind if I join?” I set my platter down on the table at an open seat.

“Not at all commander.” Amy gestured with a wink and slight kissy face. It felt like the heart emoji after some people’s sentences and made me slightly uncomfortable, but I joined them anyway.

“Great workout today everyone.” I began cutting up my chicken as I read their faces. Amy was looking over at me and fluttering her eyes in a suggestive manner that sent me all the wrong ideas. Daren was staring at his pad, pressing buttons and seemingly deep in study. Gwayne had nearly finished his food and seemed like he was about to go, but was sticking around because I joined them.

“I’m studying near gravity well maneuvers. There are a number of interesting application I can see and I’m seeing if I can’t figure out a plan to test my ideas.” Daren explained absentmindedly. “I’m trying to find a way to do a rapid slingshot one eighty. It would be really handy for return trips.”

“That’s a fascinating problem. You probably can control your entry and exit enough to make a 180, but you may not save much delta V doing so, because you’ll have to adjust you velocity mid turn to avoid getting slung out on the wrong vector.”

“You might not save much, but you’ll save enough to make it time and cost effective. Also, you’re saving a lot of strain on pilots, which is always a major plus.” Gwayne chimed in. “Not everyone is ok with riding the razor edge of consciousness in order to pull a fight off.”

“Yeah, yeah, but it lets me be flexible and manage a lot of battles that would result in others being atomic dust.” I retorted, giving Gwayne some side eye.

“Oh sure, it’s effective. But if you falter for just a moment too long, you end up passing out and end up waking up a day later, delta V spent, and needing to self destruct to get back to a ship. A proper slingshot will grant the same effect with far fewer gs being put upon the pilot.”

“That all fair. But it would be best if people trained so they had every tactic available to them. Limiting your tactics makes you predictable. A predictable pilot is a dead pilot. Our System given enhancements can’t save us from a situation that has no exit.” I swallowed a bite of mashed potatoes, “only by avoiding such a situation can our enhancements give us a true edge.”

“I think the commander is right. We need to all do our best to learn how to fly in any situation and practice enduring the maximum strain so that we can successfully navigate any battle.” Amy chimed in surprising me. I guess she really had taken my words to heart.

“All of this is almost besides the point. Good initiative, Daren, on looking into that and what it takes to manage such an orbital maneuver. Maybe we’ll practice near gravity well combat today and get a handle on what it actually is like, instead of just staring at it on paper.”

“Sounds like a great idea!” the wing chorused, everyone finished with their platters.

“Give me about twenty minutes to customize our scenario for today and we’ll give these techniques a shot?”

“We’ll see you there commander.”

I smiled and separated from them to go make a new scenario just for today. It was going to be a series of scenarios, I just knew it, getting more complicated with each passing one. First we’d start with a standard terra class gravity well, with one g of gravity so we could get the feel for a slingshot. Then I’d give us two bodies, a gas giant and a small moon, to practice a more complicated maneuver with. Finally I’d give us a web of improbably close gravity wells of varying strength so we could truly test our skills with mapping a path through as quickly as possible. Maybe put some rings for scoring the path taken. This was going to be good.

I went to a classroom and pulled up the simulation editor, loading up a simple gravity well engagement with a single planet. I placed our wing entering at a parallel vector with a low enough velocity to be captured by the gravity well. Moving the enemy, I placed an enemy carrier on the far side of the planet as a bonus objective. The goal for the scenario would be to scout the far side, but if we can plan a slingshot so that we can take out the carrier at the same time, it would add to our score. The exit point was along our approach vector, just offset by a planet width.

I saved that one and loaded up a gas giant scenario. Usually one avoids fighting near a gas giant, and this scenario initially just had it as a set piece, but I made it the centerpiece. I placed a rapidly orbiting moon near it with a gravity well at about half a g and then had the system calculate what the gravity of the gas giant would have to be to support the situation I had defined. I placed a small detachment of two Destroyers at the lagrange point between the moon and the gas giant and had the approach vector placed so that we’d have to sling around two thirds of the planet to engage the enemy on our path away from the planet before using the moon to temper our exit and sling us back out the way we had come. I looked forward to what slingshots each pilot came up with for that.

Finally I cleared the field and placed a Black hole down. I then began to populate the scenario with planets, several terra sized ones, a few smaller bodies like the previous gas giant’s moon, and a brown dwarf. The probability of this ever being a battlefield was literally zero, but it would be fun to see what people did with it. I then began to place gates at lagrange points in between various bodies, including one above the plane between the brown dwarf and black hole. This one would be the final gate before giving pilots their choice of paths to escape from the mess and get back to the entry point. Because of the fact that one had to pass so close to a black hole, I gave everyone immense starting velocity which would make controlling their craft difficult, but it would be worth it if they could manage it.

To be far to everyone, I wasn’t certain I could manage that last scenario, but it would be worthwhile to see if any of us could successfully navigate that mess. Maybe I’d put it into the pool of scenarios as a test for people to try out their orbital mechanics on. I’ll bet some exciting paths could be found if every pilot took a crack at it. Satisfied with my creations, I saved them all and sent the sequence to the simulator pods to get loaded in as I walked over.

I greeted my wing as I found them all standing outside the row of pods. Daren and Gwayne were discussing some point on orbital mechanics, while Amy leaned against the wall, pushing off it slightly with her foot and twirling her hair as she read off her pad. “Hey guys, ready to break in some new simulations? These aren’t like anything currently in the database, so we’re going to see if they’re even viable for testing and training.”

“Sounds good to me, commander.” Gwayne acknowledged, putting his pad away and heading to his pod.

“Agreed. Looking forward to it.” Daren also walked to his pod.

“Took you long enough.” Amy slapped me on the back as she walked to join them in strapping in.

I shrugged and smiled as I joined the other three in the pods, strapping in as it closed around me.