Drafted-Training
Drafted - Training
Training
“You need to get your head around this” Aura, your ship’s AI says to you. “Your brain already knows this stuff, how come you have difficulties with it?”
“Well, perhaps you guys installed the wrong software and I’m only capable of flying titans” you reply.
“Software version check………OK. Hardware check……OK. Memory imprints check……OK. No,” Aura replies, “it is definitely you that is causing your problems. Just sit back and relax a bit, no need to be so tensed. Ease into the controls.”
“You piece of inconsiderate scrapmetal, what do you think I’m trying to do?” you reply. Then the Sergeant’s voice bursts into your pod.
“Shut your yap, just do what she says. She’s programmed to train rats like you, now start flying in a straight line, or so help me, I’ll personally destroy your ship and you with it.”
Oh brother, just what you need. A bit of ‘friendly’ advice, just when you are trying to take control of this piece of junk. Of course, what are you thinking? That bit of extra pressure of your impending oblivion is really helping you to master these controls. Wait, wait, wait. Remember your dad, you think to yourself. He told you about this, this is the bit of extra pressure to try to make you fail. Remember that. Just don’t fail! With a thought the ship suddenly starts to fly a decent straight line. The station is lost from your view as you hurtle away from it at over 400 meters per second. You feel like when cogs of an old machine are clicking into place. This way to go left……”YES” and now back again……”I did it!” you cry out.
“So it seems”, Aura replies in a smooth silken tone. “Now let’s try to use your camera and look at what you are flying.” You think of the camera, you know it’s there because you are looking at yourself from behind your eyes, so to speak. Looking at the ship, willing the view to change so that you can see your ship hurtling towards you. Slowly the view begins to change, and as the front of your ship is gliding into view you see the station in the background. Against the light reflected from a nearby planet, you see your comrades’ attempts at gaining a similar control of their ship. Several are still swaying around like they had too much to drink. In the far distance you notice the other echelons as they go through their training. Most of them are moving just like your echelon does, but there is one group that is executing manoeuvres. Seemingly effortless they practice their formation flying, a diamond shape, all in a row, one ahead, you start naming the shapes they are flying in. As you pan your camera view from those ‘show-offs’ you try to focus on the station itself. You see a tiny speck just in front of the hangar.
You ask Aura if you can zoom in, she replies “Of course, just try”. You try with all your thoughts to look at the speck in more detail. Suddenly you feel like rushing towards the station as the camera’s zoom function finally works. The speck is a ship, an Atron just like yours. Grey hull, strange markings on the side, still hovering at the entrance of the hangar. As you look at the ship you hear the Sergeant’s shout in local, the local communication feed in which you and your Green Echelon comrades are connected.
“Farenne, get moving you bastard. Don’t sit there like a sitting duck, MOVE!” Suddenly the ship starts to shudder into movement. It accelerates to 400 meters per second, as fast as the Atron will go. Then it banks to the right, in a narrow turn it heads back to the station. Local bursts into live.
“No, not that way you idiot!” the Sergeant shouts. But it’s too late as it looks like the ship will splat against the hull of the station. Its heavy armour will surely bounce back the little frigate and render it into a wreck. Militia station one, brand new capsuleers of the Green Echelon zero. Just as you try to close your eyes to shield them from the explosion, the ship veers to the left, narrowly missing the station, as you see the ship move toward you and your comrades.
“What just happened?” you ask aloud.
Aura replies “his ships’ AI interfered. This will count as strike one for him.”
“Why?”
“He was deliberately steering towards the station. Logic states that he was trying to commit suicide. This is not tolerated, at least not like this.”
“What do you mean?” you ask cautiously.
“Just like I said, if you want to commit suicide, you have to die in a mission without any clones available.” Aura continues, “when you have repaid your debt to the empire, you will be able to live forever as capsuleers, perhaps even getting your own ships and modules, the beginning of a new legit enterprise.”
“Wait a second, how do you know what we have to repay. I thought we were merely sentenced to do this job until we die, just like going to prison. What are you talking about?”
“It is very logical. You have committed crimes against people, companies and the empire. The total cost of those actions have been calculated, the loss of income, the deaths or crippled people and the costs of the empire trying to rectify the damage you caused. At the moment you owe the Gallente Empire 34.399.100.110,47 ISK, including your current ship, training, skillbooks and implants.”
“34 billion ISK, you gotta be kidding. I never got that from anyone, it should maybe be a couple of million ISK, not billions.” you respond questioningly.
“The calculations are correct. Example. You swindled the life savings of a shopkeeper from Aimoguier. He needed to work longer and also make a request for state benefits. Example. The pyramid scheme of Alenchene cost 135 families their live savings, generating a lot of benefit requests and a few deaths due to poor nutrition and lack of health care as the money they could have spent was in your pockets. Example. Your last exploit, just before being apprehended. You ruined the life of the merchant on Corufeu. You swindled him out of 300.000 ISK. Money he needed to pay his daughters’ hospitable bill. He went bankrupt as he lend money against his business. It wasn’t nearly enough, they tried the treatment he could afford but that was unsuccessful. The daughter died, he went bankrupt. Both him and his wife were then killed during a robbery in the streets they were turned out on. That offence alone is worth 117 million ISK.”
“Are you saying then that I’m responsible for the death of thousands of people?” you ask with a bone grinding fear.
“No, not thousands.” Aura replies. But before the relief of that answer settles in, she continues with “you are responsible for the combined death of 927,1 persons in the Gallente Federation.”
“And how am I supposed to repay that?” you shout at the AI, “I can’t bring them back to life, I don’t have that kind of money and I will probably not survive the stuff the militia wants me to do!”
“That is a logical reply. Perhaps you will never be able to fully repay this debt, but you will have to try.” Aura states. “It’s either that or you will be terminated, as you have been told. However, you will reap rewards of successful missions. If you do your new job well, the FDU might even pay for some of your debt.”
As you hear those words and let the meaning of them sink in, the joyful feeling of flying you had, the feeling of being in control of the ship and getting it to do what you want, subsides and leaves a bitter aftertaste in your mouth. As you go through the motions of accelerating and decelerating, of banking left and right, controlling the ship’s camera, your mind’s eye is wandering. You recall that merchant of Corufeu. That was a successful swindle if there was any. Three hundred thousand ISK that was what you took from him. When you think about it, you see him in front of you. The desperation in his eyes, the small tells ales that he was taking risks and convinced himself those risks were worth to be taken. The tells of a successful mark, to be conned by an ‘artist’ just like you. He really needed that profit on his investment, he didn’t say why, but now you know. Now you can see what you have done to him. To all three of them.
“What was her name” you ask Aura with a shiver in your voice. “What was his wife's and daughter's name?”
Aura hesitates for a moment, checking your vitals against her parameters, as if not sure she should be relaying this information to, she finally replies. “He was called Claude St. Devier, the mother was called Josephine and the daughters’ name was Frederique.” Aura shows you some of their images, the one of Frederique holding a doll, at the entrance of the hospital, burns itself on your retina.
“Frederique.”
Then through the local communication you receive a command. “Get back to the station, first training is over.” the Sergeant says.
Dazed you turn your Atron and head back to the station. As you enter the hangar there are numerous station crews awaiting your return. After you emerge from the pod and heading for the shower, you look at the faces of your comrades. Apparently they have their own Frederique as well. They must have heard what they have cost others. Perhaps that’s even why Farenne tried to kill himself. Looking at the food in the mess hall, you realise that you don’t have an appetite and neither do your comrades. You head out to your bunks and try to sleep. Tomorrow will be full of training the Sergeant said. Best get some shuteye, ‘cause you’ll need it. As you lay in your bed you try to get some sleep, but the haunting image of Frederique is still there, not letting you go, silently accusing you of all of her doom.
The weeks flew by while you were training. Going over it, after that first day were all those flight manoeuvres. First the solo flight, then those drills the Sergeant seems to love. Over and over again, 16 hours a day, stuffed in that pod. First solo flying until it became so repetitive, that you don’t even think about the controls consciously. Another part of the day was spent in following the leader, one on one. One of your ‘comrades’ would be in the lead and try to get 20 clicks away from you. Your goal was to keep him within 5 clicks and after fifteen minutes the roles were reversed. Oh yeah you muse to yourself, and no using the computer to do the chasing either.
'“That’s for wimps” the Sergeant answered when the question was asked. “Those capsuleers are sitting ducks if their AI gets shot, now show me how it’s done”.
Chasing the Sergeant was nearly impossible. The guy was so fast it only took him 10 sharp turns to lose you. Every time you tried to get closer he would just perform one of the dazzling manoeuvres and he would be gone from your view and heading away at top speed. He would always escape. Another part of the day was spent doing ‘obstacle courses’. About 100 kilometres of twisting curves, loopings, split S’s, swooping curves, short straights every direction possible. Never the same route twice. No cutting corners either, you need to fly your ship between the pylons or face the consequences.
“You be flying this course as ordered, or I’ll zap your ass” the Sergeant said. That zapping is a jolt of electricity to remind you that he doesn’t kid around. Not finishing the obstacle course in time constitutes in another zapping. Hitting the obstacles, some of which are moving, making you need to hit the brakes, is another zapping. The last exercise of the day is formation flying. Every conceivable formation is forced on you and your comrades. Diamond, arrowhead, satellite, sphere, box square, really every formation. With all of your comrades of the Green Echelon. Sometimes with just a few of them. The formation flying is combined with the race circuit to make it more interesting.
Then there are the theory sessions. The first time you got the message there was a glimmer of hope, no more of those loop-di-loops. No more semi-drowning in pod-fluid. However the topics are not easy. Railguns and blasters, all the different types you may encounter in the future they said, varying from simple tech 1 all the way through tech 2 and factional variations. After those sessions you needed to learn about the ammunition, and if you thought there were many guns, that was nothing compared to the ammunition that can be loaded into those guns. A head spinning session, multiple sessions to be honest, was the one where an officer tried to explain how transversals worked. He was good though, he even managed to get the most thick headed trainees of the Green Echelon to at least understand the basics of it. More sessions were spend on rockets and missiles, explosion velocity and drones. Followed by shield and armour tanking and being able to recognise all the different ships of every faction, Gallente, Amarr, Minmatar and the hated Caldari, and even the special ships of the pirate factions. On the question why you needed to learn all the other ships besides the Caldari, the answer was quite simple.
“Because capsuleers can fly anything they want, so that includes the Caldari pilots”, and with that you continued on studying. And now, another day has dawned. Another day full of drills. Another 16 hours of flying, whether you want it or not. The Sergeant makes his entrance, clearly enjoying himself getting you all out of bed. Flicking on the light switch while raising his megaphone.
“Get up you weak willed pansies” he shouted. Slowly the Green Echelon gets up, you swing your legs of the side of your bed and stumble towards the showers. After a short but invigorating shower you head out for the mess hall. As every day this week it’s bustling with recruits that hunker down on their breakfasts before heading out for their own training. After breakfast you head out to the hangar and prepare yourself to get into the awaiting Atron. Even after all these hours flying you still are in awe of the of the sleek black grey hulls. When Aura greets you, you are ready to take on the course, again.
“Good morning trainee” Aura’s voice booms in your ears.
“Decrease the decibel of your voice, and any other incoming calls” you reply. “And good morning to you to. Now what figure 8 training course do I need to fly now?”.
“This morning’s missions will not consist only of flying” Aura states, fortunately on a lower audio level of noise. “You will have to destroy a number of drone targets. They will be returning fire, so better watch out and keep your hull, and me, in one piece.” Live targets, now that will be something.
“How many?”
“There will be 2 drone ships this first run. Nothing to get too anxious about, just yet.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you consist of only electrons, I will die if my hull is breached.” With a sinking feeling you see that the mechanics are adding the 75 mm Gatling railguns to your hull. You also see the Lead Charge S ammunition being loaded into your cargo hold. Another team of mechanics fit a small armour repairer and damage control to your hull. Your propulsion unit is taking out as well, as they add a 1MN afterburner. This training isn’t going to be just about flying. You head out of the hangar towards the designated training area and start preparing your HUD settings in order to be ready for what is coming. Aura goes over the things you need to do, providing you with information on how to best tackle these two drone ships. After reaching the training area you start to lock the two drone ships. Readying your guns you try to close the distance between yourself and your targets. Incoming fire makes you dive into a corkscrew looping. Firing your 75mm Gatling railguns, you swiftly take out the shields of the first target. Feeling quite good about yourself with this, you continue to fire at the armour of the drone ship. Within a minute it is destroyed, and the second drone ship is targeted. You realise however, that even though you have destroyed the first drone ship, the second has been pounding on your armour for a while now. Aura adds to this by sounding an alarm that your armour has been damaged and there is only 25 per cent left. In a hurry you start up your armour repairer, hoping it’s not too late before the drone ship will tear holes in your hull. Moments before the other drone ship, though taking heavy damage itself, starts poking holes, your first cycle of your armour repairer is finished. Thankfully you see the glow of the nanites repairing your armour piece by piece. With a few lucky shots you finally destroy the remaining drone ship. Shouting out a cheer of joy flying through the remains you get a call from the Sergeant.
“A poor performance, you didn’t mind your armour and nearly got blown into pieces. Now after your armour is repaired you will try again.” Looking at the stats of your ship you also think you got lucky and start making further repairs to your armour. If these training sessions will become tougher then you are going to have a problem. A problem resulting in you being merely spacedust, not something you really look forward to. As soon as the armour repairer has finished its work another set of drone ships emerge from the drone hangar. Looking at HUD you try to keep the transversals low while dodging the incoming fire. Returning the fire you do marginally better in dispensing these two drones a couple of minutes later.
“Phew” you utter, as your armour repairer’s nanites try to fix up your ship again. “Is it going to be like this all the time?” you ask Aura.
“That depends if you are going to learn from your mistakes and be better at destroying your targets. In the meantime you will need to report to the station, as it seems that your ammunition is running low. Besides another theory session will start in forty minutes.” With a sigh of frustration you head back to the station, counting yourself lucky to have survived this, but also thinking about what to do in the future if you want to survive the next rounds. What would happen if they released three drones instead of just two of them? Enough to think about for now.
The training sessions go by at an alarming fast rate, you have improved yourself enough to be able to take on multiple targets. However, training is never finished, and now you are out there on the exercise field again, taking on more drone ships. While performing the basic training manoeuvres with your ship as a number of drone ships firing on you rather aggressively, you get a call from the Sergeant.
“You need to report immediately here at the station!”
“Why” you ask while dodging the focused fire of the remaining three drone ships of the initial six.
“No questions, that’s an order, not a suggestion” the Sergeant’s boomed despite the adjusted volume settings. Suddenly the drone ships stop firing at you and head back to the drone hangars.
“Those drones will be there tomorrow, waiting for you, but I got some real work to do for you and Simmons in this constellation.” In a tight arc you head back to the station, in the meanwhile powering down your weapons. You ask Aura what’s going on and if she knows anything, she replies she hasn’t got a clue. Well, not like that, but that was the gist of it.
“Is there anything interesting going on in any of the news feeds?” you ask Aura.
“Define interesting?” she replies in a mocking tone.
“Well, any news within the last days for this constellation?”
“Not that I am aware of. There has been a severe accident on a planet nearby involving a breakdown in the transportation tubes resulting in a collapse of the entire grid towards the storage facility, resulting in the death of 15 miners and the loss of all the equipment.”
“And?” you reply.
“That is about it for this constellation in the last week.” Aura states.
Mmmm so there is nothing going on in this neighbourhood that is reported at least. Well, we will find out when I get the briefing. As soon as you enter the hangar a number of mechanics start up their cranes and dismantle your ship with you still in it. An image flickers and suddenly you see the Sergeant right in front of you.
“So you finally found your way back to the station, now have you. Well, let’s hope you will do better in this mission than your training exercises. The situation is as follows. Both our senior pilots and Concord pilots are busy at the moment and we need you to fly out and take care of a couple of pirates that are roaming the constellation. We cannot allow them to do that and perhaps even sell whatever information they learn from us to our Caldari opponents. You will not go there alone, you will have Simmons with you to help you out. I have sent you both the details on this mission, now go out there and take care of that pirate.” Aura confirms the mission details received from the Sergeant and plots a . It’s two jumps out, and apparently there is only one pirate there. In the meanwhile the mechanics have finished changing your weapons and propulsion, added some antimatter ammo as well. Looking over the fitting of your ship you’re quite surprised to find some named items fitted. They are quite a bit better than the standard equipment they gave you for the training exercises. There are some downsides to the ammo though, you need to get in close as the range is decreased by 50%. You then contact Simmons to find out how far he is.
“I’m ready if you are” he replies. Making a final check you slowly head out of the hangar, not knowing what will come, but determined to get out of it alive. You and Simmons line up for the stargate to make your first jump. A shake of the ship indicates you are entering warp and a few seconds later you arrive at the stargate. You and Simmons activate it and moments later you are in another solar system. Another jump and you reached your destination, now to find the pirate. Aura starts the scanner, but it finds nothing, not that it’s renowned for being accurate, you hoped to find the pirate fast and be safely back at the station. No other choice then to check all the nooks and crannies of this system, and there are a lot of asteroid belts, planets and moons where the pirate can hide.
“Well, let’s get started” you tell Simmons over the open communication line you have.
“Agreed, my AI has created the most effective route to clear all the hiding places for this pirate.”
“You lead the way, I will follow.” You feel the adrenaline rise as you enter the first belt in anticipation of what will come. As soon as you enter the belt and glance a look at your HUD, you find nothing there but some Veldspar, Crokite and Bistot asteroids, nothing really special to be honest. Simmons came to the same conclusion and readies his ship for the next jump to the second asteroid belt. After five such jumps the adrenaline has worn off. The chance of this pirate still being here is looking rather dim, probably he has already left the system and you are on a wild goose chase. As you enter another asteroid belt, you suddenly see something out of the ordinary. At twenty kilometres there is a wreck floating near some Jaspet asteroids. Before you even can tell Simmons you want to fly up there he is already throttling up his engines and firing his afterburner. Without a moment’s thought you follow him. As you approach the wreck you start up your scanner to find out from whom the wreck is, and any other information you can find out. In the meanwhile shards of tritanium whizz away in the wake of your approach, cascading of your shields. The moment your scanner is finished scanning the wreck, Simmons raises you on the communication line.
“I got a survivor here” he states. “I will try to get him out of there alive and into my cargo hold.”
“Okay” you reply, “I will call it in, in the meantime.” You raise the Sergeant on another communications line and explain the situation, reading out the results of your scanner and what Simmons is doing at the moment. The Sergeant thinks about this and asks you a couple more questions on the ship, an Iteron mark two, and the pilot who had been flying it.
“Ok this was called in just a few moments ago” he replies as he goes over the information you provided.
“The pilot made it back safe to a station in his pod, but apparently not everyone on the ship had been killed in the attack. Can you make out who took out this ship? Is it our Serpentis pirate?” he asks.
“As far as my scanner can make out it was a Serpentis pirate that wrecked the Iteron, but it seems awkward that just one pirate can do this much damage in such a short time.”
“Indeed, there may be more than one pirate in that system. Follow the trail and continue the search, and let Simmons head back to the station with the survivor for medical treatment.” You relay the message of the Sergeant to Simmons.
“Okay, I got him in, barely alive so I need to be fast in getting him to the station. As soon as I have done that I’ll be back” and with that he starts up his engines and aligns his ship with the first stargate on the route back. Gathering up your courage you continue the search pattern you got from Simmons before he flew away. Ready for anything you enter the next asteroid belt on the list, fortunately there is nothing there. Onwards you think by yourself as you align your ship with the next asteroid belt. As soon as you enter that one you see two Serpentis agents entering warp. Quickly you ask Aura to scan them as much as she can and try to extrapolate the course they are taking. Instead of flying to the next asteroid belt, they seem to be heading towards a nearby moon.
“I can’t make out any details other than that they are both Serpentis Agents” Aura adds. Without a second thought you go after them and after a short warp you reach the moon. Looking at your HUD you see both of the Serpentis Agents and start to target them. Releasing your drone you start firing on the closest one. Unlike the drone ships during your training, these respond quite differently. Acting together as a team they start to attack you, forcing you to start up the Damage Control and ready your armour repairer as well. As you take out the armour of the first Serpentis Agent, seeing chunks of searing hot metal fly away, your shields have dropped and they damage your own armour. Killing the first pirate, you start up the repairer, but the second pirate has already got a drop on you, quickly stripping your armour away as soon as the repair nanites can fix it. Dodging and rolling you fire your guns and get your drone to attack the last pirate. Aura then chooses that particular moment to remind you of the theory on transversals and optimal range of your guns. Shushing Aura, you try to focus on the second ship, after a couple of direct hits you destroy it. Powering down your engines you take in your surroundings, and the state of your ship. Just a sliver of armour is remaining so you let your armour repairer running just now, just a couple of more cycles to get it in full nick again. Looking at the wreckage you decide to find out what’s left of them, you notice the remaining weapons that survived the explosions. “How in the world did they do so much damage with these poor load outs?”
“Skill and exercise” Aura replies. A flash of your HUD indicates that you’re not alone anymore. Hoping it is Simmons, you find out it’s the reinforcements of the Serpentis Agents you just disposed of. Two Serpentis Spy ships according to Aura. These are bigger than the Agents, as they start to lock you, you send out a distress call that you are being ambushed by them. Your drone on the other hand doesn’t wait for confirmation and starts to attack the closest Serpentis. Throttling up your engine, you start to fire on the same target. The incoming fire of their ships is creating havoc on your armour. Even though your armour repairer is running at full capacity and your damage control is doing its job as well, you see the structure of your Atron approaching rapidly. At least you will be able to destroy one Serpentis Spy, but the other will surely kill you. Facing your end, you keep on firing, hoping against hope that you may survive. Another flash of light quenches that hope immediately, as you enter into structure. Fires are breaking out all over the ship and you are venting plasma. Finally the Serpentis Spy blows up in a cloud of fire and debris. As you look at the second target, expecting to be blown up any second, you are surprised to see it explode as well. “What the hell?” you exclaim.
“Well that’s a nice way of saying thank you” the Sergeant says. “When Simmons returned I thought you might need some additional help. So here we are.” You take a look at your HUD, and are relieved to see not only the Sergeant but also Simmons and Ferrier there. Adrenaline is still pumping through your veins as the Sergeant breaks the silence again. “Now when you are finished, you can loot the wrecks and head back to our station.” And with that the Sergeant throttles up his engines and warps to the stargate, on his way back to the station. As he leaves you start to check out the wrecks, taking out every last bit of scrap items you can find. After you looted the wrecks, Ferrier starts up a strange looking machine that emits a bluish light and attacks the wreck, leaving only dust behind.
“Now what is that?” you ask.
“It’s a salvager, to get the more delicate components of the wreck” he replies. “It got me a couple of friend interface circuits, which will fetch a nice price on the markets.” You think about this, as you look at your ship through the camera drone, your armour has been repaired, but there still is a fire, caused by a leak in your hull still venting plasma. All the wrecks have been looted by you and Simmons and salvaged by Ferrier. Aligning with the stargate you fire up your engines. Better get on home and the three of you start warping towards the gate.
After returning to the station, emerging from your pod, you are greeted by a number of people, amongst them the Sergeant, Simmons and Ferrier as well as a captain. “Well done Sergeant, you finished off those Serpentis pirates quite effectively. The Greens may perform better than we expected. Keep up the good work!” and with that he leaves you standing there. This can't have been another exercise now can it, you think by yourself. Then the Sergeant orders you to return to the Green Echelon quarters. Entering the quarters you are greeted by your comrades, and forced to recount the mission in minute details. At dinner you see the Sergeant sitting at a table. You gather up your courage and step up to him and ask him whether or not the mission was a training exercise as well.
“Well, yes and no” the Sergeant replies, “there really was a problem and normal Concord and Gallente security forces were busy. You and Simmons are the best of the Green’s so far, so I thought it was a good idea to get you and Simmons some real action. Training will only get you so far, you know” he says, looking quite bored. “Now as to the bounty you received, if you at least read those messages, that will help you in repaying the initial costs of your ship and the trainingimplant you got nailed in your skull.”
“And what about the loot of those ships I destroyed, what happens to that?”
“We’ll have it reprocessed or sold on your behalf, the money goes to new skillbooks and ships, and perhaps even on paying of your considerable debt.” The Sergeant replies. “Now, during the exercise tomorrow you will have to decide on a new skillbook, Aura will help you with that.”
“Exercise?” you reply “I thought we were done with those.”
“How come you think that. You barely survived this encounter, and if we didn’t came to your aid, you would have been space dust. Besides you need a while to adjust with the new skillbooks and the new equipment. Then we will have to go over your skillplan.”
“Why not before I choose that new skill?”
“Because after today I have no doubt you will make the right decision” and with that he leaves you sitting at the table.