Chapter 2

Training Log: First-Year Cadet Alexa A. Saunders
September 3 2528, 1900 Hours

We had our first training exercise this morning, not including yesterday’s get-to-know-each-other session, and it was ruined for everyone.

David and Fraser spent an hour with us yesterday going over the instruction manual for the flight simulator we’re using for the first few months. For these first few months the idea for each one just staying in the air and on course. The simulations are basic terrains – mountains, plains, tundras, deserts – but they’re incredibly convincing. Starting January, we’ll be learning combat, including simulations of the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Pearl Harbour, the Battle of Panama City, etc.

This morning, our first exercise was to take off, fly 10 kilometres without an odometer and touch down. The trick, of course, is to keep the speed as stable as possible and just keep track of the time. For example, fly at 240 kph for slightly less than 2.5 minutes, you reach the 10 km mark exactly. Everyone managed this fine, so Fraser raised the target: first 20 kilometres, then 100, then 500 kilometres without an odometer. The closest would get to lead the group when we practice flying in formation after lunch.

The winner, only missing the mark by about half a metre, was this Russian-American guy, Val Porter, who’s a video-game geek straight out of high school. A few of us stayed behind during lunch to help David and Fraser link the simulators together and choose the landscape. When Val got back, Fraser gave him the lead position. Unfortunately, the only instruction he was given was to take off, direct us into a V-shape and hold it for over 1000 kilometres, below the clouds and while accelerating gradually. Other than turbulence, the only real obstacle was some strong simulated wind, which would throw us off course and out of formation if we couldn't adapt to it.

Everything was fine to begin with. The simulation was the Mojave Desert, Southern California, in broad daylight. We took off, and Val managed to get us into a V-shape within about a minute. He put us on course, then directed us to accelerate, in synch, to 500 KPH. If all had gone well, it would have taken half an hour. But Val missed the increasing wind speed and he didn't direct us to counteract it. About 10 minutes in, he was hit by a gust of wind from port side, which caused him to slam into his closest wingman on the right, which was Holly. Then, I'm guessing, he pulled left to counteract the wind, but went too far, and slammed into me. Holly slammed into Isla, I collided with Jason. This started a chain-reaction on both sides, and within about 15 seconds we'd all exploded in mid-air. The simultaneous crash somehow managed to corrupt the program in every single simulator, knocking them all out of commission until Fraser can get someone to repair them.

Judging by the atmosphere in the restaurant, everyone, myself included, is extremely pissed of at Val, not just for failing the exercise but ruining it for the rest of us. But Jack's reaction is kind of worrying. I had dinner with him and Chloe tonight, and he was practically seething, he couldn’t talk about anything else. If Val had had the guts to eat in the same corner of the restaurant as the rest of the class, we’d have had to hold Jack back to stop him from punching his lights out.

The thing is, I don’t think Jack’s solely angry at Val. Ever since he failed his final exam last semester and was told that he’d have to repeat the course, something’s changed. He’s been reckless, short-fused, emotionally withdrawn, and just when I thought being back on campus had brought him back to normal, he’s threatening to take his anger out on an inept trainee on his second day. I just don’t see how this Val situation is supposed to have escalated things. Unless...

Shit, I’m gonna need to talk to Chloe.