The HUD came to life with the first simulation. Ahead of us an earthlike planet looked and our trajectories looked dangerously close. I opened a comm channel to the wing as I gripped my controls.
“Alright Alpha wing, we’re going to do a bit of recon. Intel tells us that there’s a carrier in low orbit on the far side of this planet and we’re to engage if we can do so with minimal risk. Regardless, we’re to complete a slingshot around the planet returning the way we came.”
“Roger that Alpha one”
“Everyone take a stab at the calculations. The one which gives us the best opportunity at the carrier is the one we will go with.”
I left them to the work, turning to do my own computations. I wanted everyone to give it a shot because eventually they might have to be the ones making those computations in the field. I tapped into my Science skill, taking advantage of System given intuition to produce accurate and useful options for engaging the carrier. We only had an approximate location, but it should be within one burn of engagement, regardless of location. I plotted my course options and tentatively selected one before opening the comm channel again.
“How are those navigation plots coming?”
“I’ve got something together, but it’s pretty clumsy” Alpha two checked in and sent over his plan.
“I have something. I’m not sure how solid it is, but I think it gives a good chance of engaging the enemy.”
“Looking good Alpha three. Alpha four?”
“Sending it now. I couldn’t figure out a way to intercept the carrier so I just optimized for efficient.”
“Sounds great. Give me a minute to look these over and I’ll select which one we’re going with.”
I pulled up the three systems that were sent over, comparing them for strengths and weaknesses, using my own as a benchmark. Alpha two was right about how his managed it but was wasteful, unnecessary maneuvers filled his plan. Alpha three had something similar to my plan for engaging, although he wanted to accelerate into the enemy and then slow down as we passed, an acceptable if generally unnecessary maneuver in this context. Alpha four was entirely correct in her assessment: she had plotted an extremely efficient flyby that would not allow for engagement but would be more efficient than any of the options.
“Alright, Alpha three, we’re using your flight plan. Alpha two and four, good efforts. You’ll both be happy with our coming challenges.”
“Roger, Alpha one.” I pushed the packet out to the team and loaded it into my own navigation computer.
As we neared the planet, we pressed up our throttles, accelerating around the horizon of the planet, skimming into orbits and pulling in and around the planet. It was fairly intense, although slow, to be doing this slingshot. The velocities one moves at are high enough to turn dust into pounds of TNT, but the distances more than compensate for that. As we began pulling along the planet, an exact location of the carrier was confirmed.
“This is it everyone. First orbital burn to course correct in three… two… one…”
We all flipped our craft about and did a lateral burn as one, adjusting our path so as to do a flyby attack on the carrier. I could already see the carrier adjusting so as to open fire upon us, but it would be slow to do so. Minutes later, the carrier was launching flak, but it was too late. The minor course corrections needed to avoid the flak wasn’t substantial and we were upon it.
“Let’s riddle this bastard with holes.”
We opened fire, each lancer taking about a quarter of the vessel to pelt with nuclear fire. Jets of flame plumed from the craft as we passed by, decelerating according to Alpha three’s plan. I smiled as we watched the carrier descend into the gravity well, heating up more and more as it fell. We coasted around to the inverse point where we could correct back to the exit trajectory we wanted.
“Ready for the second burn? Three… two… one…”
We killed our lateral velocity and turned to burn our way away from the planet when the time came. From here on out it was going to be boring and routine maneuvers until we completed the scenario. I closed my eyes for a minute, relaxing before the next burn to take us out of orbit and back towards the exit point.
That had gone really smoothly, almost routinely. A few more ops like that and I think we’d be a combat ready force again. Alpha four wasn’t being a rebel, at least not yet, and we had accomplished the mission here with surgical precision.
I closed my eyes for a minute and waited for us to be dropped into the next simulation. The screens went dark and then came back with our new heading and information. The gas giant planet loomed before us and information began loading into displays communicating the direction and velocity of travel, g forces being applied to my ship, and all information on the bodies around me. I opened the comm channel to the group and tossed over the plan of attack.
"Some enemy destroyers are in orbit between the moon and the gas giant. We need to sling around the planet, pass between the moon and gas giant to take them out, then sling back out and around the moon to get back to the exit point. Pass along your calculations as you complete them."
"Roger," came the collective reply. I sat back and began working out my own figures, putting in potential burn points for the system to factor in as I plotted our desired course. It might not be perfect but that's what the computer was there to fill in. As I finished my plans, my wing's solutions came in. I smiled as I reviewed each plan annotating my own plans with their ideas to attempt to maximize our plans. We needed to conserve Delta V on the path around the planet, so the simplistic approach of Alpha four would probably be ideal, she only had one burn and it looked to be a straightforward method of getting us right on target with the destroyers. From there Alpha two and three had various options for how to attack the destroyers and pass along the appropriate vectors to sling out to the exit. I decided that I’d keep their options in reserve and determine the best path as we came around the gas giant and got a better idea where the destroyers would be during our engagement.
Finalizing the mission plan, I pushed it out to the wing. “Alright people, we’re going to keep our options open until we come around the planet. Alpha four, we’re going to use your single burn technique to keep our course with the planet as we sling around. Keep your eyes open and feel free to present me more tactical options as we fly around.”
“Sure thing, Alpha one” was all I heard before they all cut their mics and left me to think on things as we entered the gravity slingshot maneuver.
Gravity slingshots are, in most cases, rather boring. You don’t hit atmosphere, you don’t feel massive g forces, you don’t really experience much. The force of gravity is so small that it takes specialized sensors to even detect it and the only reason you are aware of it is because your vector changes. That said, they work splendidly and conserve delta V, both crucial to effective space fights. The destroyers sitting at a lagrange point is another method of conserving Delta V, although it’s really only useful for defense and limited at that.
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I spun up some tunes as I leaned back in my seat, plotting courses around the lagrange point that would maximize tactical options. Turning up the volume a notch, I smiled and began to resolve a tactical image. Given the experience and skills of my pilots, I’d do my best to split them into pairs of engagement. While it wasn’t known to my computer yet, the fact that there are only two destroyers meant we could take each with two passes of my wing. The front lancer would open fire on defenses, crippling the vessel as the second took advantage of the hole and target critical systems: fuel, engines, power, command and control. The separate volleys would make tergetting easier and make it so that we could ensure both were destroyed at almost the same time.
Watching the surface of the planet as we sped by, I smiled. While I knew, somewhere deep in the back of my head, that this was all a simulation, they had truly spared no expense. The planets had renderings that were lifelike and beautiful. The sights provided by the system were truly breathtaking and I was in wonder staring at it. It wouldn’t be long now until we crested the horizon and I gave the attack orders.
Checking my straps, I opened a comm channel as we crested the horizon and our targets were finally rendering on sensors. the data was seconds old, but that was good enough for what I needed.
“Alpha two and four, pair up. Alpha four, you’re going to take point and hit tango one in every weapon system it brings to bear. Hold nothing back. Alpha two, you’re going to target all vital systems and take that vessel down. Alpha three, you’re going to follow me and do as Alpha two for tango two. I’ll be taking lead and targeting weapons.”
“Roger, Alpha one.”
“We’re going to use Delta option on the plans I’m forwarding over. Stick to the plan and this should be easy as pie.”
I sent over the related documents and saw everyone moving to their relative positions as depicted by the plan. A slight deceleration by two birds is better than a drastic acceleration by two, as it would make future course corrections more straightforward. I smiled and began picking apart my target, taking stock of the weapons it had and laying out my lances with their missions.
Minutes later, we were upon them. I wove back and forth, dodging flak from my target, painting the path for Alpha three on my flank. We whizzed, spiralled, twisted and turned as we guided our space needles towards the enemy. I could see my systems taking some heat, things slowly approaching redline levels as tiny bits of shrapnel tore into my radiators and reduced their effectiveness.
“Things are going to be close, don’t melt down before you blow your load, Alpha three.”
“Not a problem, Alpha one,” came a grunted reply. I chuckled and we dove into the maw of the dragon, fire scorching the world around us.
I flipped up the trigger, entering firing mode and began to depressed the button as I spun my craft on axis, getting into the appropriate vector as I cruised around the destroyer, getting every shot off into the blind spots of the weapons systems. I continued my turn all the way around as I passed and punched the throttle, pulling away and towards the moon. Alpha three came up behind me, twisting slower than I had, letting his lances go cruising into the critical systems. Bright flashes filled my screen as nuclear energy streamed down into the destroyer, punching dozens of holes into the ship.
Glancing at my secondary sensor display, I saw that Alpha two and four were just finishing up and moving to join us on our path out of the situation. As we cruised through the exit “portal” the screens went dark again.
As the screens came back on, I scanned across the display and smiled. It was a sight to behold. Completely impossible, but amazing all the same. The black hole, star, planets and moons, were all in almost perfect equilibrium for the moment in an impossible but wondrous display of cosmic bodies.
“Alright friends. Here we have an Alpha one special hell. It’s an obstacle course of gravity slingshots. You need to pilot through the objectives marked on your displays. The only way you’ll complete it is if you use gravity slingshots to get through, as you don’t have nearly enough Delta V to muscle your way through. I’m not going to lie, I’m not certain that I’m good enough to manage this, but it’ll be a credit to the person who does. No shame to being unable to finish, points are scored based upon number of objectives managed, then delta V remaining and finally on time. Good flying.”
I cut the channel, leaving them to ponder my words as I began my approach, punching in calculations as I flew. The first gate was between two terran bodies, but I was going to leverage a nearby gas giant to pick up velocity. Pulling in, I let off the thrust as I let the gravity tug me along. I hit the tunes and began plotting my next moves, keeping a careful eye on my delta V budget. I needed to conserve that as much as possible because it was going to be difficult slinging around the blackhole.
The next gate was on the far side of a moon, meaning I’d have to use the moon as a gravity sling or, wait, I could use this nearby planet to sling me across the moon without really dealing with the moon. I grinned as I left the gas giant and slid into the trajectory through the two planets. I sped through the lagrange point of the two planets, tugging through a third planet’s gravity to be on course for the planet I wanted to use as a gravity sling. This was about as intense as piloting a ship got, constantly doing calculations and adjusting slightly for new courses as you ran the calculations for the next maneuver, trying to keep just ahead of where you were going.
I did my short burn near the planet, ejecting from the planet and hurtling towards the moon. I was already plotting how I would pass through the system around a gas giant to proceed to the next point. The number of fields in that area would make a precise calculation nearly impossible, but I settled for a cone of probably trajectories in an acceptable range towards my next target. It wasn’t pretty, but I thought it would get the job done.
I pressed on, watching my course arc and twist from the complicated gravity wells I passed. I kept an eye on my delta V budget, but I thought it was pretty good. I cruised on past the gas giant and slung around a terran world through the third point. I was already trying to run the numbers on the fourth point, but I was going really fast now and didn’t want to slow down. This one was on the black hole side of a gas giant and I could see the atmosphere being slowly ripped away from the planet towards the black hole. That was going to make this a lot more bumpy than the previous maneuvers.
I began plotting a set of slings that would have me cruising around planets to get up through that point. It was going to be even more chaotic than the last one, but I thought it might still work out. I began to work on the fifth point as my craft picked up more and more speed with each pass near a world, getting its course slightly corrected around each and every planet. I sped through the fourth point and watched the loose gas pass around me with a sense of awe and wonder.
It was a really marvelous sight, but I had not a moment to dwell, point five was coming up quickly. A terran planet I needed to pass around and sling towards the black hole and brown dwarf. I burned around it and watched in shock and a slight amount of horror as it buckled as I neared it. The gravity from the black hole must have begun to rip it apart! I panicked a bit and hit the throttle as I watched bits of the planet whip out from it in all directions, pent up energy from the gravity of the planet shattering the world. I twisted dodging a chunk that looked like it once had a city. I blinked, a city? That was a weird thing to put on uninhabited simulated worlds in a training simulation. I didn’t have time to shrug as I spun around bits and debris flying out and corrected for the rapidly changing gravity.
Cruising through the fifth point I had to manually burn to get on track to pass the point near the brown dwarf. I took another glance at my delta V remaining and realized there was no way I’d be finishing this course, that flying through the exploding planet had ruined all chances of it. I’d still do my best and get as far as I could.
The brown dwarf was coming near, wisps of flaming hydrogen passing from it to the black hole in streams of plasma. I chose a careful path that would avoid passing through the streams, but such things were unpredictable. I did a controlled burn, putting myself on a firm heading and kept my eye on the system. It was scary. Impressive and beautiful, but scary. The amount of energy contained in one of those streams could power a city for years. I smiled as I passed along and through the sixth point, preparing for my next course adjustment when my screen suddenly went white then black.
‘Congratulations, you made it through six of eleven gates! Unfortunately you were destroyed by a rogue stream of plasma. Good job Icarus, you have repeated the mistake of history and flew too close to the sun!’ A system message displayed across my screen. I sighed, it had been a good run. What a crazy flight. I needed a shower and a meal… make that two meals.