Valor's Cost by Kal Spriggs

Author:Kal Spriggs [Spriggs, Kal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children, Young adult, Space, Sci Fi, Dystopian, Action
Amazon: B07HQYVXSF
Published: 2018-09-25T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: I Put Everything Into Perspective

Life and classes went on. We moved from the simulators in our flight certifications and into live training. I showed up to the first scheduled session at Bunker Three, where me and eleven others from my section waited. Lieutenant Commander Darling was there and he followed us as we went through our preflight checklists.

There were other officers there, too. A dozen flight instructors on loan from their units for these classes in particular. Each of them paired up with us, I got a tall, lanky officer who, as he stepped forward to shake my hand, I blinked at him in surprise.

“Hello, Cadet Second Class Armstrong,” Lieutenant Mackenzie grinned at me. “I’ll be your flight instructor for this training flight.”

“Yes, sir!” I replied, barely able to get the words out. After the difficulties I’d faced over the past few months, the realization that I’d have a decent person for my instructor left me feeling almost light-headed. Mackenzie had been my Senior Cadet Drill Instructor during my Academy Prep Course and and my Company Commander during my Plebe year. He’d graduated first in his class and after he’d left, I’d realized that Sand Dragon wasn’t quite the same without him.

“Looks like you got the thumbs up on your preflight, go ahead and mount up,” Mackenzie nodded at me. I followed his instructions, climbing into front seat of the Mark Four-T Firebolt. Mark Four-T’s were the same as a normal Firebolt in almost every way, except the cockpits were far more cramped because they had to fit two seats instead of one. I found the front seat almost claustrophobic. I didn’t know how Lieutenant Mackenzie managed to squeeze in the back seat, which was even smaller. I did hear a lot of groaning and muttering in the process.

I went through the onboard preflight checks and then booted up the Firebolt’s systems. We were in the launch cradle, so about half the systems were in standby mode until we actually launched. “Systems good to go,” I said.

“Call it in,” Lieutenant Mackenzie drawled. “Our callsign is Training Flight Three.”

“Control,” I queued up the comm system, “This is Training Flight Three, all systems green, ready to launch.”

“Roger, Biohazard, a cheerful voice replied, “stand by, we’re troubleshooting another bird.”

Mackenzie snorted in the seat behind me. If I remembered right, he’d made sure the whole school knew the story behind that nickname... all unofficially of course.

I waited, trapped in the cockpit, grateful that I’d used the bathroom. Seconds ticked away. I wanted to fidget, to bring up a feed on my implant and see what I could find out about the delay. But I could sense Mackenzie sitting behind me, watching me. I didn’t want to look nervous, so I sat there, tense, waiting.

“The wait eats at you, huh?” Mackenzie asked, his words calm.

“Sir?” I asked. I didn’t know if he meant me in particular, if I’d shown some outward sign of nervousness.

“It’s like that moment before a grav-shell race, counting it down.

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