Prologue

[-]

"He's coming around."

Ranma opened his eyes to glaring lights in a white room. He noticed hums and beeps, and moving his head slightly confirmed that he was hooked up to a variety of medical equipment. A second later he realized that there was an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth.

"Lieutenant Commander Saotome, if you can understand me I want you to lift your left hand." A voice asked.

Ranma lifted his left hand despite the fatigue and stiffness.

"Thank you Lieutenant Commander Saotome. Your microbot levels are running very low, so this is going to take a little longer then it usually does, but everything is looking good. You can rest now."

Ranma drew a breath with a lot more effort then it should have taken. He remembered when this took less then a day.

[-]

"How long was I out?"

"Three days." The intelligence officer was clipped and professional. His dark hair was cut short, and his white uniform was pristine. His presence meant they hadn't defrosted him for a battle. "You're still doing better then the current average. It normally takes a week to bring someone fully out of cyrostasis these days."

"How long was I in cryo?" Ranma clarified.

"Around a year. According to the doctors you're physically somewhere in your early twenties at this point. The nature of cyrostasis means it's not that easy to nail down an exact age equivalent. Chronologically you're..."

Ranma cut him off. "I don't need to know how long it has been since I was produced. What's the mission? Is this going to be an infiltration op?"

"I'm afraid not. The Ikazuchi will launch in a month, and High Command decided to pick you to train the Vanguard squadron."

"Don't you mean squadrons?" Ranma asked stressing the plural. He knew enough about the Ikazuchi to know it wasn't a light carrier.

"I'm afraid not. Production of the new Tsukumo types has been lagging as materials have been redirected to making the final push to get the Ikazuchi ready. It's all we can do to provide you 18 Tsukumo types while trying to maintain the front lines and get the Ikazuchi ready."

"Why is the Ikazuchi so important?"

"It should allow us to regain space superiority over Tarak." The intelligence officer responded calmly.

Ranma stared at him for a long moment. He remembered that they'd been moving things underground due to not being able to insure space superiority. Had that changed when he was out? When had he heard about that? He decided to shelve it, he had a job to do and there wasn't anytime to worry about the effects of cryofragmentation. "How many candidates?"

"Fifty."

[-]

Ranma looked over the roster, and at the platoon that standing in a column five wide and ten deep in front of him. They were all academy graduates, and there wasn't a single pet among them. He'd met a few pets who could hold their own, but he was satisfied with this. These men had been produced to serve the military, and the fact they were here meant they'd shown some aptitude to be able to handle a Vanguard.

He flipped over to the training schedule looking it over again. He didn't see why they were having him do this.

[-]

Cadet Ikari covertly glanced over at Lieutenant Command Saotome. They'd been directed into a small movie theater that had thankfully had air conditioning. The Lieutenant Commander was just calmly standing at parade rest near the door with a look of disinterest, even though all of them had been allowed to be seated in the relatively comfortable seats.

The projector started up and started playing a film introducing them to the new Tsukumo type Vanguard. It looked awesome, and yet it almost looked like the Lieutenant Commander was glaring.

[-]

"You're looking down." Meia looked up from her tablet, and noted that Gascogne was standing near her.

"We've lost a lot of good pilots." Meia noted.

Gascogne shrugged and sat down across from her. "The good times are over, Meia. Mejere has revoked everyone's letters of marque, and has began cracking down on us. Even if the paydays weren't drying up, we'd be losing people that don't want to be branded outlaws. At this point most of those who are staying are people who have nowhere else to go."

"I understand, but that leaves us in a bad position. We've got a lot of rookies."

"Like Dita?" Gascogne prompted, referencing the now infamous UFO girl that had almost crashed her Dread.

"She's not the only one having problems, and even with them the Shimakaze will only be able to use 15 Dreads. Despite that, Magno's insisting that we leave the Paraiso behind."

"Someone has to protect the base in case the Mejere military comes sniffing around. The Paraiso is better suited to defense, and the Shimakaze should be adequate."

Meia looked back at the flight roster. Somehow she'd just have to make do.

[-]

"Today we are going to learn about the fine art of requisitioning supplies." Lieutenant Commander Saotome stated as he took up position in front of their column. "The nearby defense base has graciously decided to allow us to acquire their Tsukumo type simulators to further your training."

Something about the way the Lieutenant Commander said that made Cadet Tenkawa feel that what they were about to do wasn't technically legal.

[-]

Asuma sat in the guard hut feeling completely and utterly bored. No one ever came here on his shift. He couldn't wait for his shift to be over so he could go and do something else. Asuma blinked and stared as he saw a dust cloud approaching created by a pair of large covered troop transport trucks.

The lead truck parked itself next to his guard hut as he got out and approached it. He recognized the driver from the news, he was supposed to be some kind of ace who was training Vanguard pilots for the Ikazuchi.

"Hey there, I'm Lieutenant Commander Saotome and I'm here to show my cadets your Tsukumo types, given ours haven't been delivered yet." The driver stated over his ID and paperwork. Something about the way the man with the dark ponytail was grinning put him on edge but everything checked out.

He decided to just go ahead and wave them through instead of having the base commander chew him out for wasting his time.

[-]

"Lieutenant Commander, should we be doing this?" Cadet Amada asked, as they began unbolting the simulators from the floor.

"Don't worry Cadet, they'll be getting them back. We just need them more now." Came the response.

"When you put it that way Lieutenant Commander, why shouldn't we?" Cadet Nagare noted with enthusiasm.

"Afterall they'll get it back, eventually." Cadet Maki added suggestively while covering his mouth.

[-]

Asuma caught a cold can of beer that had been thrown his way. He stated his thanks as the trucks left. It was a hot day today, and the guard hut didn't have air conditioning.

[-]

Lieutenant Commander Saotome oversaw the installation of the simulators into an abandoned hangar on their base. Cadet Nagare had caught on, and was currently working with a team to change out the air conditioning units that had broken down with functional ones from another hanger. In total they'd "requisitioned" four simulator units which were each designed to accommodate four pilots, and could be networked together. Cadet Akagi was feeling giddy he'd get a chance to pilot a Vanguard, even if it was in a simulator.

[-]

Cadet Subaru called out from his side of the simulator. "I shot you down again, Tenkawa."

"And I just shot you down." Cadet Maki commented from his simulator pod.

A heavy truck flatbed pulled up through the open hangar door. Lieutenant Commander Saotome and Cadet Shin jumped out as the truck came to a stop.

"Sir, is that a Vanguard?" Cadet Akagi asked.

Lieutenant Commander Saotome smiled tightly. "Its mine. Cadets Shin and Akagi why don't you remove this tarp for me?"

Several of the other cadets that were waiting their turn on the simulators rushed over, and helped untie the ropes holding the tarp down. A concerted tug later and a blood red shoulder was revealed that contrasted with the dark matte green paints that covered the rest of the unit. Another concerted tug pulled the tarp completely off the unit, and revealed it had a spherical head.

"That's a Scope Dog." Someone said in wonder.

"Lieutenant Commander Saotome, you're the Red Shoulder?" Cadet Akagi asked in disbelief.

"The last one at least." Lieutenant Commander Saotome responded coolly. A murmuring started.

[-]

"We've got the Red Shoulder on our side, there's no way we can lose." Cadet Nagare declared as he laid down in his bunk for the night. Cadet Reinard nodded in response.

"He's just one man." Cadet Amada objected from a nearby rack.

"His kill count says otherwise." Cadet Subaru noted looking between them before climbing into his bunk.

"They say that he's worth more than entire squadron on Vanguards." Cadet Ikari added.

"I heard that he bathes the shoulder of his Scope Dog in the blood of his victims, and he's a demon of battle that can't be killed." Cadet Maki added.

[-]

Meia looked over as Melno and Dita formed up on her wing. Jura had already come back from taking Deluna and Riquer out, and Barnette would head out with Aoi and Yuka once they got back. These new pilots were getting better, they at least looked like they were following them now instead of just flying in the same general area. It was a simple but necessary step in getting them comfortable with actually piloting a Dread, and paying attention to what was going on around them.

A holographic communications window appeared in her cockpit and Meia was greeted by the sight of the bubbly redhead the had almost rear ended her fighter yesterday. At least Dita was wearing her pilot suit like she'd ordered. The last thing she needed was to lose a pilot to a cockpit seal failure. "Hey Leader, do you think there are any aliens around here?" Dita asked hopefully.

"Dita, you need to focus on flying right now. We don't need a re-enactment of yesterday." Meia cautioned.

"But Leader, what if there's a UFO and I miss it?" Dita whined.

Meia opened up another communications channel. "Melno, if Dita starts drifting off course again I'm authorizing you to shoot her down."

"Understood." Her much calmer green haired trainee responded. "Am I authorized to use missiles?"

"No, that'd be a waste of ammo. Use guns."

"Understood." Melno acknowledged.

"Shoot me down?! Leader, you're not serious about that are you?" Meia closed the communications channel. That should keep Dita on her toes.

[-]

Meia opened her cockpit to find Dita standing on her wing. She was starting to regret sending the girl in first, to avoid the possibility of a repeat of what had happened yesterday.

"Leader, you're mean." Dita accused. "How could you joke about something like that?"

Meia unsealed her helmet and regarded Dita coolly. "It looked like you paid attention to following me today." She noted calmly.

Dita put her hands under her chin and tried to look cute. Meia suspected the girl had gotten far with that. "But Leader..."

"I want you to spend some time in the simulator while Barnette's group heads out." Meia ordered.

[-]

"Is Dita giving you problems?" Paraila asked, grinning in that crazy way of hers. Her currently former red headed wingmate asked.

"I had Melno shoot her down." Meia responded, with a sly smile.

Paraila started chuckling. "That's a good one. How'd Dita take it?"

"Let's just say Melno and her are having some quality with the simulators."

[-]

"Lieutenant Commander, I have a question." Cadet Akagi requested after they completed morning roll call.

"Shoot cadet." The Lieutenant Commander responded with calm disinterest.

"What's the most important part of being a pilot, sir?" It was obvious that Cadet Akagi had slipped up in his enthusiasm, and just remembered to add the obligatory sir at the last minute.

The Lieutenant Commander stared at Cadet Akagi for a long moment, and the cadet started to squirm. "The most important thing for you right now cadet is to learn how to operate a Tsukumo type." Turning to the formation the Lieutenant Commander looked them over.

"Cadets you've all had a chance to familiarize yourselves with the Tsukumo type's controls, and run through the basic dogfight programs. As a result today we're going to have a competition. You will fight simulated Dreads in lots, and the ten of you with the worst scores will be leaving today. Assignments will be on the screen as usual." The Lieutenant Commander paused for a moment but there was only silence in response. "You are dismissed."

[-]

The remaining cadets walked back to the barracks after a long day of working the rankings in the simulator. It had been a long but satisfying day of competition, and while those leaving hadn't made the cut the general attitude was that they'd succeed somewhere else. Cadet Nagare was currently the top ranked.

"How many do you think are going to be left in the end?" Cadet Tenkawa asked rhetorically.

"Only those with the fire in their hearts to protect Tarak will survive." Cadet Nagare responded.

"We'll just have to bury the rest." Cadet Maki added.

"If you can't make the cut, then maybe you should just save us all the trouble and drop out Tenkawa." Cadet Subaru shot in Tenkawa's direction.

"Hey I shot you down." Cadet Tenkawa objected.

"Once, because I was busy trying to fight with Nagare." Cadet Subaru shot back. That guy was insane.

[-]

Ranma calmly looked over the data. The results were adequate. The simulation speed was greatly reduced versus that in actual combat. He'd been tempted to just go ahead and let go of twenty today, so he could give more simulator time to the rest and really start weeding out those who couldn't actually make the cut. Then he'd reminded himself that they were still establishing basic skills like deflection shooting that they'd need to not be useless.

The way the current simulation they were using was setup all they needed to do was hit a Dread a couple of times and it'd go down. There was a time when the weapons available would do that, but now it was important to get precise deflection shots where the Dread shielding was weakest. Even without the greatly reduced speed it just wasn't an accurate simulation of actual battle conditions yet, and one of these current low performers might be one of the few to have things click on how to do good deflection shots.

The missiles he'd been able to get slated for his squadron would help, but if a Dread hadn't already taken some engine damage they would be able to evade the missiles currently in production.

[-]

Meia sat down at a table with Barnette and Jura. The two of them were doing their lovey dovey stuff with Barnette feeding Jura. Meia suspected that was the result of a request on Jura's part. She was way too pampered.

"How are things going with you two?" Meia asked as she sat down.

"Absolutely marvelous." Jura responded

"I meant with the cadets." Meia clarified.

"They're coming along. What about yours?" Barnette responded, while dabbing away a little excess sauce that had gotten onto Jura's cheek with a napkin.

"They're not bad." She responded simply.

[-]

The Lieutenant Commander looked over the now smaller formation after morning roll call. "Cadets, I feel it's important to clarify something. Your simulators yesterday were still in the second tier training mode. Today, I will increase the simulation parameters to the actual combat values. You will need to learn to work as a team to survive."

[-]

"Damn it!" Cadet Nagare screamed as once more the monitors darkened, and large red block letters informed him that he had died. He heard a similar expletive from one of the other pods as they were wiped out, again. As his pod opened he pointed and accusing finger at the single pod that had been added to the simulator farm. "You're cheating."

The Lieutenant Commander regarded them coldly as he stood up from the Dread simulation pod that controlled the single Dread they'd all been pitted against. "And what makes you say that, cadet?"

"I hit you and it didn't do anything!"

The Lieutenant Commander pressed a few buttons and the side monitor lit up with a three dimensional diagram of a Mejere Dread that had a few areas covered in red, and cones drawn with lines extending from them. The model began to slowly rotate giving a clear view of just how limited the cones actually were.

"Study this carefully cadets, the areas in red are the areas you can damage on a Dread with your current weapons and the cones show the approach necessary to get through their shields at a reasonable combat range. Cadet Nagare, if you continue with your insubordination you will be dismissed. Next group to simulators." He ordered coldly.

[-]

Evening came without a single kill or meaningful damage having been done to Lieutenant Commander's Dread.

"We didn't shoot his down once." Cadet Ikari noted.

"It didn't look like most of us even saw him before we got shot down. Is this really fair? The Lieutenant Commander's an ace." Cadet Tenkawa added.

"I think he was actually going easy on us." Cadet Amada stated. "I saw a few times when he could have easily avoided fire, but let himself get hit."

The cadets went quiet.

[-]

The end of the month finally came where once there had been fifty Men of Tarak, there was now only twenty. They'd only managed to shoot down a simulated Dread with actual combat values a couple of times, and never when it was piloted by the Lieutenant Commander. He drilled into them that they needed to work as a team, and taught them to work in a mutually supporting formation of four Vanguards that was designed to be able to break into two pairs of wingmen.

The Lieutenant Commander looked at them coolly after the morning roll call was finished. They all knew they'd be boarding the Ikazuchi later today, and get their actual machines. If anything the Lieutenant Commander had seemed to be colder towards them as this day had approached.

"I could lie to you about your chances, but you've seen the reality in the simulator. I've done what I can to help you, but most of you will not survive if we meet the enemy today. You need to consider yourselves already dead. In order for any of you have any hope of surviving, you need to stop worrying about the fact some of you will die, and not feel sorry for yourselves. If you think you're something special and lose focus on your job, it won't just be yourself that you'll be killing as a result. Dismissed."

[-]

Meia looked over her Dread teams she wasn't happy with the results, but at least they now had a semblance of what was needed. She was dreading that they were going to lose somebody on this op. Magno had gotten intelligence that Tarak was going to launch their colony ship, the Ikazuchi.

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