A Brother's Shadow: Murder, Friendship and Deception by Christopher Tillott

Author:Christopher Tillott [Tillott, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

25.

Lieutenant Sharpe was perched upon empty ammo crates, smiling at what he had created. His flight of five had been running through a situational drill for hours, which involved storming a compound in pitch black. Their task was to eliminate all hostiles who were visible only due to the flight’s implants, without hurting any civilians. The hostiles were capable of both shooting back and fighting hand to hand. To increase realism, the flight also wore body suits which sent electrical impulses so they could feel hits. This meant they felt pain up to a level which Sharpe deemed appropriate. Being pilots in the Vytech Navy would invariably involve as much fighting on the ground as in their fighters. This flexibility of the fighting force enabled Vytech, who had a lower population than the other powerful civilisations, to perform well in all circumstances.

The flight had just completed a round in the quickest time of the day and had not taken any injuries. They were coated with sweat as they glugged from their water bottles.

Sharpe put his hands on his hips. ‘I’ve seen worse. Kroatons have started hitting some of our outer colonies so we will be called upon soon. You guys may even give them a bit of a fight.’ He was sweaty too but had only joined the others for the final drill, avoiding the fitness and other parts of training.

Himinez looked at Flower. ‘Could do with some better pilots though.’

Flower wiped the top of his scalp with one of his paws. ‘Your nose is straighter than your shots in there.’

‘Phh, says the guy clearly training to be a hairdresser,’ Ferreira said between swigs of water. ‘Gave that poor kid a trim with your last shot.’

‘If only I could kill the enemy with bad looks like you do,’ Flower replied.

Ferreira sprayed out a mouthful of water. ‘What you say?’ she gasped, swinging a playful kick into Flower’s back. Flower fell to the floor and rolled about, repeatedly shouting, ‘Medic!’

Green had already walked off, but the rest of the flight remained laughing at the giant worm writhing on the floor. After milking the laughter, Flower rose to his feet, bright red from the exertion.

Sharpe nodded farewell to Himinez and Ferreira as they walked away and then turned his attention to the remaining two – Reed and Flower. They were in deep conversation and after concluding their talk, they headed to Sharpe.

Sharpe sighed. ‘Yes?’

Flower answered. ‘So, sir, as a flight we’ve not openly spoken much about Marco but me and Reed believe him, and have been trying to find answers.’ Once Flower had begun, words continued to fall out. ‘The thing is, because we are only pilots, not many people listen to our opinions, let alone allow us access to any classified material like reports and stuff.’

Sharpe took Flower’s pause for breath as a chance to interrupt. ‘So, you think I should use my position as a lieutenant to change people’s opinion? And that I should get you classified material? I’m not going to do that.

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