Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:49 am by The sneezing Blood Dragon
Tradition
By Richard Paul
Chapter 1: For tommorow we die
Cadet Valerie Adriano lay on her bed, unable to sleep, staring at the remarkably featureless ceiling of her cabin. West point military academy was, in her opinion, a truly remarkable and inspiring place, but it was about as impressive to look at as the cargo hold of an ALG Waste disposal freighter.
What was inspiring, were the tales and recordings of previous battles and acts of courage and bravery which she was determined to emulate, no matter how corny it sounded when she said it to herself.
Her thoughts then returned to the reason why she was unable to sleep; graduation was coming, but before it came, ‘The Trial’ as it was affectionately called by many a sadistic instructor had to be completed.
This ritual involved every cadet in their final year being given a Patriot class light fighter and set loose into the Badlands to kill a Liberty Rogue or two, thus, theoretically, preparing them for anything which the future held. Unfortunately, there was always the possibility that a Liberty Rogue would kill a cadet or two, despite the fact that the cadets from West Point had received the best training from the best instructors in Sirius, and the Liberty Rogues were infamous for their pitiful flying abilities.
“Screw this,” she said to herself, “if I can’t sleep I’ll wander, maybe I’ll wear myself out or something.”
Valerie’s thoughts were silenced by the blinding effects of her cabin’s lights on her eyes as she flicked her light switch. Shielding her eyes with one hand, she searched the floor for her clothes with the other.
Her eyes adapted to the light quickly enough and the search became much simpler, once she was dressed, she switched off her lights and went forth into the corridors of the academy.
The corridor was, as usual, deserted, due to the late hour, as was the lift which went to the bar. Valerie found that this made a refreshing change from the ten or so cadets who were usually crammed into the elevator with her.
There were a large number of nervous, sleepless cadets in the bar. This was hardly a surprise. Her and her classmates had been worrying about the Trial for weeks, and since it was scheduled for tomorrow, it was no surprise that no one could sleep.
“Hey Valerie, over here!” Boomed a voice from the far side of the room. Valerie turned her head to see the weary, smiling faces of her friends Eliza Peters and Mathias Cavallo.
Valerie quickly stepped across the room and took a seat at the secluded table which her friends had chosen, morbidly, they had chosen a table which gave them a faint, yet unmistakable view of the Badlands, in which their prey, as opposed to their killers hopefully waited.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” came the rhetorical, conversation starting question from Eliza.
“Can anyone?” Valerie replied whilst indicating to the other cadets in the room.
“Sure,” Mathias began with a hint of loathing in his voice, “surely you’ve heard the boastings of the overconfident, ‘Greater then thou’ types. I’m sure they’re all fast asleep, having wet dreams of effortless victory.”
“The sad thing is,” Eliza said with the same loathing that Mathias had used, “they’ve proclaimed their own greatness so much it’s gone to their heads.”
“Well, I guess the best thing we can do is put up with it until a few dents in their hull prove to them that they’re mere humans after all.” Valerie added
“Or we can go one better and hope for a malfunction in their life support systems” said Mathias with a slight grin. Grim laughter met this statement, as did more yawning. Eventually, the trio’s fear gave way to their fatigue and they soon returned to their cabins.
Morning came and Valerie’s eyes shot open as she heard the ever annoying shrill of her alarm clock. Not wanting to be late for her hunting trip, she quickly donned her uniform and went forth into the corridor which was full of excited and nervous cadets. Everyone tried to look calmer then they actually felt and most failed miserably.
In groups of twos, threes and fours the cadets entered the main briefing room, which was usually used for simulated missions, and took a seat.
Valerie was soon joined by Eliza who, whilst struggling to keep a lid on her fear, was also vehemently guarding the seat next to her in anticipation of Mathias’ arrival. Neither she nor Valerie said anything to each other; they simply smiled and wrestled their own fear. It was the same with Mathias when he arrived.
Fear was easy to spot on the faces of most cadets, even the ‘Greater then thou’ types were revealing signs of worry under their cocky facial expressions.
Eliza switched randomly from one random thought to another in an attempt to distract herself from her ‘training mission,’ as it was officially known. One thing or another however always sent her mind back to the trial.
Valerie’s brain was frantically trying to remember bits and pieces of advice and information from previous combat training lessons and simulations. It was the same technique that she had used to prepare for High school tests in the minutes before they began. This was bound to be harder then a Liberty history test however.
The room fell silent at the arrival of Admiral Walter Evans, the current academy commandant; he was a tall man with greyish hair and a stare that could send shivers up and down your spine for a week. That same stare was responsible for silencing the last few tenacious talkers.
“Good morning cadets,” he began, “graduation is in sight, but as you know there is one final obstacle you must overcome before you earn your rightful places in the Liberty Navy. I’m sure that many of you are nervous, I did too when it was my turn, just remember, you have received the best and most thorough training you can hope to receive in Sirius, just keep your wits about you, and you’ll be fine…”
As the Admiral continued his motivational speaking, Valerie tried to reassure herself by remembering some of her simulated battles against Liberty Rogues and Outcasts that had been shuttled to West Point from Huntsville and Sugar land. The purpose of this was to provide a realistic combat experience.
Valerie had beaten the **** out of every criminal she had fought in the simulator. However, they were all out of practice, and the fact that you can’t die in a simulator has a habit of removing the fear of death from a combat situation, which robs it of some of its realism.
“…Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say. Captain Findley will now brief you on the mission specifics.” Her attention returned to Evans as he took a seat at the left hand corner of the room. Part of her felt slightly guilty for ignoring the Admiral’s speech, but this was quickly expelled as Captain Jason Findley activated the briefing room’s display screen. As the images on the screen appeared, so did Valerie’s fear about the upcoming trial.
“Good morning cadets,” Findley began, “after we launch we’ll be taking the old trade lane to Ithaca research station.”
The mention of the word ‘Ithaca’ caused the screen to zoom in on an image of the dead, twisted mass of metal that was once Ithaca research station.
“Each wing shall consist of three cadets and one of the combat veterans which we’ve gathered. Specific flight group assignments will be displayed on the screen after the briefing is over…”
Sighs of relief met this sentence. The idea of having an experienced combat veteran with them in the inevitable battle was much more preferable to the idea of a handful of rookies trying their luck with the beasts of the badlands.
“…There shall be 40 flight groups in total. Groups one to twenty shall launch at oh eight hundred hours, groups 21 to 40 shall launch at fifteen hundred hours. Each group will be given a specific, circular, six point patrol route. Until every cadet in your group has torched at least one criminal, you may not return to West Point.”
There were some cadets in the ranks who had hoped to avoid the grisly task of killing anyone and just get through their patrol in one piece; every one of them grimaced at this news.
“Listen to your flight leader,” Finley continued, “and do exactly as they tell you if you want to survive. Your performance in this exercise will strongly affect what posts you receive upon graduation,” A grin found its way onto the captain’s face, “so don’t screw up. Questions?”
“Yes sir,” squeaked Michelle Simmons, a short, almost underweight cadet with a voice that was virtually ultrasound. More then one cadet had been known to laugh when they heard it on the radio.
“Yes cadet.”
“I’m aware that this is unlikely sir, but if we come across the rumoured Liberty Rogue base in the badlands, what should we do?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Findley remained silent for a few seconds, as if he was willing Simmons to answer his rhetorical question, “if you do find the Liberty Rogue base cadet, you are to follow your flight leader to a safe distance and wait for the re-enforcements that he or she will call in. Once they arrive, you are to help keep the fighters at bay whilst torpedo bombers torch the station to a grim memory of a migraine.”
“Yes sir.”
Simmons sat back down and Findley invited more questions, silence was his response.
“Very well then, on behalf of myself, Admiral Evans, and the entire command staff, I wish you all good luck and good hunting. Dismissed.
The display screen flickered suddenly and began to display a list of names, all of which were attached to a group of four. Every cadet in the room charged at the screen, regardless of the fact that a huge crowd would just make everything ten times more difficult then it needed to be.
Valerie and Mathias had the good fortune to be placed in the same group. Eliza however was placed in a group with two people she hardly knew. Her group was commanded by Admiral Evans himself however, this was immensely re-assuring. Admiral Walter Evans was one of the most decorated officers of the Liberty navy, as well as a level 25 pilot.
Valerie’s group was commanded by Lieutenant Janet Carter, a disturbingly optimistic level 15 pilot. She wasn’t the most awe inspiring of West Point’s veteran collection, but she was no where near the worst either.
The third cadet in their group was Nathan Remington. He was a quiet person who spent most off his time in his cabin. Originally, it was thought that this would make him a target for bullies, when he broke the nose of the only person to ever insult him however, opinions quickly changed.
With the tension building within them, Valerie and Mathias walked with the other cadets in the first twenty groups to the equipment room.
Fifteen minutes prior to launch, many cadets were on the flight deck conversing with friends or receiving last minute instructions from their Wing leaders. Valerie was searching the crowd for Mathias, whom she had lost in the sea of cadets.
“Excuse me!” Shouted a voice directly behind her, she turned to find an unfamiliar looking male staring at her.
“Are you Valerie Andriano?” The voice shouted over the noise of the crowd.
“Yes,” replied Valerie slowly, wondering who this stranger was, how he knew her name, and why he was talking to her.
“Nathan Remington,” he said with an obvious Bretonian accent whilst extending a hand, “I wanted to wish you and, uh, Mathew Crain I think, good luck before we launch.
“Oh,” Valerie replied whilst shaking the pre-offered hand, “Thank you and good luck yourself, by the way, it’s Mathias Cavallo, not Mathew Crain.”
“I knew I got that wrong, I don’t suppose you know where he is do you?”
“Haven’t a clue, I’m looking for him myself actually.”
“Oh well, good hunting, if you see him; wish him well from me would you?”
With this, Nathan Remington disappeared into the crowd.
“So that was Nathan Remington was it?” Mathias half shouted over Valerie’s left shoulder, making her jump.
“How long have you been there?” She asked irritably.
“Not long,” came the devious response.
“Before he vanished,” said Valerie who was searching the crowd for Nathan, but to no avail, “he wanted me to wish you luck. He’s not at all what I expected.”
“Let me guess,” Mathias said, “you expected a hissing, snarling beast you lashes out with his mighty claws when spoken to.”
“I doubt I’d say it with such eloquence, but yeah, that’s more or less it.”
“So does everyone.”
The sudden noise from behind made Valerie jump again. Turning round, she saw that Nathan had re-appeared, and seemed to be holding back the urge to laugh. As Mathias and Valerie started to mumble some rushed apologies, he raised a hand.
“Don’t worry about it; the persona of a snarling beast is the price I pay for clouting that arsehole in the kite, not that it wasn’t worth it mind you.” There was a slight pause, “am I right in assuming that you are Mathias Cavallos then?”
“It’s Cavallo, and nice to meet you.”
“Likewise, speaking of, we’d better get to our ships.”
The three began to walk towards their assigned fighters, Mathias and Valerie received a momentary break from the fear by trying to figure out how walking to a fighter could be connected with it being nice to meet someone.
To Valerie’s surprise, Eliza was waiting for her on the flight deck. Valerie had expected her to have sealed herself in her cabin and bite her fingernails in anticipation of her own trial later today.
But there she was, staring at one of the ‘Patriots’ as if inspecting it for dust. She appeared to be close to tears, but his it well when she saw her and Mathias however.
“So,” she began,
“Hmm” came Valerie’s equally insightful response.
“Yep,” Mathias added. After a few uncomfortable seconds, all three burst out laughing, which was closely followed by Eliza throwing her arms around Valerie, thus restricting her breathing.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” She whispered tearfully.
“We’ll be fine Eliza,” Valerie replied, “stop worrying about us and start worrying about your own trial.”
“Thanks, now I feel a lot better.” Eliza said, trying to force as much emphasis into her sarcasm as she could muster. She actually managed to laugh, despite her own feelings of fear and concern. Mathias paced a hand on her shoulder after a few seconds of silence and tried his hand at being reassuring.
“Besides,” he said, “these are Liberty Rogues we’re talking about; we’ve got a better chance of being killed by a toothbrush.”
Eliza spat out a small amount of laughter and released Valerie from her vice like grip.
“We’ve got to get going,” said Valerie with traces of concern finding their way into her voice, “you’ll be alright won’t you?”
“Yeah,” Eliza replied, feeling amused, concerned and slightly embarrassed, “I should be going too, good luck guys.”
“Same to you.”
Lieutenant Janet Carter was a short woman, and almost everything about her from her piercing stare to her overly bony fingers portrayed the image of someone who’d happily ram those fingers in your eyes.
“Am I right in assuming that you three are Nathan Remington, Valerie Andriano and Mathias Cavallo?” She said.
“Yes ma’am.” Came the simultaneous response.
“Good, now you’ve already been given the appropriate information by captain Findley, and our specific patrol route has been uploaded into our neural nets. Just don’t loose your heads and follow my orders with slave-like devotion, and we’ll come home just fine, and several criminals won’t.
Grim smiles were shared with all four members of “Group 14”; it was unspeakably difficult to feel sympathy for the criminals that infested the badlands, especially after hearing about some of the atrocities that they had committed, which was an all too common feature on the ‘Colony News network’.
“Any final questions before we set out?” Carter asked, Nathan, Mathias and Valerie all remained silent.
“Good, well then, let’s go shall we?”
Valerie inhaled slowly and walked towards the disturbingly large, light fighter that had been assigned to her.
Here goes nothing” were her thoughts as the canopy closed.