41 Station defense practice

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- Leader Five, this is Blue Leader - slow down, you're getting too close to us.

- Blue Leader, this is Leader Five - Roger that. But I'll point out that we're too far away as it is.

- Talking, Leader-Five. You yourself agreed to the plan, so now don't cry.

- Who cries here!

- You're talking too much on the air, Leader-five.

- Silence, silence," my fighter's loudspeaker whispered.

Actually, of course, there was no fighter, just a simulation capsule, aka the simulator.

- Blue Leader, this is Leader Four - should we slow down too?

Oh, dear. What's in it for me?

- Your job, Leader Four, is to cover our bombers. So, yeah, too.

- Roger that, Blue Leader.

At this point I was in command of four fighter links and one bomber link, heading for the conditional target to be torpedoed. The target was the Golan-1 orbital battle station, which had been in use in the Galaxy for decades. And it was covered by none other than Sam, commanding only two links. On the one hand, attacking Golan with the forces I have is insane, especially when it's guarded by Sam'arakan GoraTina tei, but we don't need to destroy it, just fire as many torpedoes as possible. And hit it, of course. If less than thirty percent of the torpedoes I had at the beginning of the round hit the target, Sam and his men win. There was exactly one problem: Sam. That little asshole could take out a third of my forces on his own, and then there were two fighter squads. Not to mention the defense of the base itself. It's also worth adding that both my forces and Sam's fighters were piloted by Jedi Delta 7s. Even the conditional bombers were just a modification of the Delta that didn't exist in reality. Like a computer game, they had been given increased protection, decreased speed, and called a bomber.

Oh, there's our target.

- It's the Blue Leader," I said on the general frequency. All stand by on my command. Leader-four to guard fifth, Leader-five to move into position ONLY on my command.

- Copy that," all the leaders responded.

The only chance we had was to lure Sam and his ships away from the Golan, where we wouldn't be hit by his small artillery. And deal with him there. After that the bombers will quietly fire on the station. The main thing here is to keep them away from Sam, so that he doesn't get off the hook and rush to exterminate them. I mean, it's even better if he does it right away, then we'll have time to destroy them while they're getting to the bombers, and then some more time while Sam is chasing them. With twice the force advantage, he just won't have time to do anything. That's if he targets the fifth rank. And if they're away from us. And if they're not, if he's distracted from them, even better. Yeah, he'll take out a third of my fighters, so what? The purpose of the mission is different - to protect the station. Although a third is alone, so they'll take out half of them. Ah, if it wasn't for Sam.

All right, let's get started.

- Leader one,two,and three,this is blue leader -- five-second acceleration --.... Let's go. - And a minute later, we had to go out again. - Leader three, keep your distance. You're too close.

- Copy that.

I decided to lure Sam out as a bait. But since he's not only good at piloting, I had to do it through my ass. At this point, the first three tandems rushed to the station one after another at an equal distance, just enough time for the front to make contact with Sam's forces and chase each other for a while. Then to dash back sharply, where they would be met by the next link. Which, in turn, will do the same, pulling them back a little more. To the third link. And after that, as you understood, Sam and his fighters will be waiting for the first one. So that's the wheel, or mill, if you like, we'll be dragging them behind us. Simple as two fingers on the pavement. I mean, it's a simple idea, but it took me a week of training to get it right. Considering that my squadron has younglings of various age groups, all the way up to twelve years old, it wasn't an easy training session. And if it doesn't work out, I'll never be a commander again. If I stayed in the Order... wait for the Clone Wars.... But this is bullshit.

Well, looks like we got some defenders. Well, here goes the soul in paradise.

- Leader One, this is Blue Leader - speed up," I said as we approached seven astronomical units closer to the enemy.

At five AEs, one of the enemy fighters fired the first shot. It almost hit Blue-Three, clearly showing who its pilot was.

- Blue One, this is Blue Leader - have you figured out who your target is?

- I got it, and I took it, Blue Leader," I answered.

Blue One, aka Mako Rumi, is a Rhodian girl of twelve. The best pilot on my team. She's inferior to Sam, but I can't handle her. By the time I reach my thirteenth birthday I'll probably catch up with her and overtake her, but at the moment I have to admit that she's better. Now do you have any idea what kind of monster this Sam Arakan is?

On three AE's we began to take casualties - the Blue-Three, after all, could not withstand the fire and was shot down. Actually, I'll tell you a secret, I don't like this Delta-7. Great speed, even better maneuverability... and that's it. No defense, no proper armament, no hyperdrive, for that matter. If it weren't for the Jedi meat in its cockpit, it would be a lame fighter because normal pilots can't use its speed and maneuverability to their advantage. And since we younglings are not much different from these pilots, it's no surprise that our losses in games like this are enormous.

We never managed to hit a single enemy fighter before going into the clincher. Not even a Mako.

- That's a Blue Four. I've got two on my tail, going into the Paka loop.

- I see you, Blue Four. On your way out, blow right into the nadir. I'll see what I can do.

- Hell's bells! Yeah, help... - Blue Two's hit. That's too bad.

- Ha! Got him! I got him!

- Blue leader, this is blue one. I can't handle Arakan.... Hattova z-z-z-.... There are already three of them, Blue Leader. We have to go.

Yeah, I guess we can already.

- This is Blue Leader," I began on a general wave, "retreat. I repeat, retreat.

And already leaving on a wide loop back to the second link, shot at the place where I thought there should be an enemy fighter. I think I hit something, but there was no explosion. No sign on the radar either. Oh, no. It decreased. I shot down the enemy.

It would be easier for the second squadron - Sam had a little less fighters and the station was a little farther away.

That's when I realized what the plan was on paper, and what the reality was. Relative, of course, after all, we are in a simulation. The thing is that no one explained to our opponent that they have to switch to a new link when changing links. That's why Sam and his guys were left on our tail after the departure maneuver and passed on the opposite course to the second link.

- Dakari, God damn it! - my walkie-talkie started talking.

- Silence," I growled. - Blue leader to first squad - keep going as planned. On my command we take the fight again.

- Dakari...

- Silence, I said! Do it. - And switching to another wave, he continued: - Leader-three, this is Blue Leader- slow down a little more. We'll lead them to you.

- Roger that, Blue Leader," they answered me.

- Leader-five - speed up twice as fast. Don't pay attention to anything, just keep moving toward your goal. When you pass us, speed up to full speed.

- Copy that, Blue Leader.

All right, now the main thing is not to die and have time to give the command to the third link. We've got a bit of a power parity right now, two tiers to two. But that punk Sam is messing things up.

- Leader Four, this is Blue Leader - you're going with the fifth link. When you pass us, attack the enemy.

- Copy that, Blue Leader.

For the next ten minutes, everything hung in the balance. Even though we were out of range of the station, we were still too close to it. And the problem wasn't the fighters, it was our bombers. The closer they got to us, the scarier it got. We could only hope that Sam's forces were bogged down in ours and wouldn't be able to respond to the fifth link in time. And when Leader-Five came up alongside us, though that's not quite the right expression for three-dimensional space, I suddenly realized I'd gotten myself too wound up - there were only five cars left of Sam's two links by that time. Out of sixteen. And even if they had paid attention to the bombers, there was nothing they could do. And at the moment of the attack on the station there were no defenders.

Came out of the capsule simulator, went straight to the mentor, around which had already gathered a small crowd of downed earlier.

- How is it? - I asked him.

- Sixty three percent.

How much!?

- Ahem," I cleared my throat. - That's not much.

Again, the bombers came into the station when it had no defenders. I don't know what could be more perfect. And then they tell me we only got sixty-three percent of the torpedo hits!

- If bombers were so dangerous," the mentor replied, "the galaxy would be ruled by carrier ships, not heavy cruisers. On the approach to the station, one-third of the ships were destroyed by anti-aircraft artillery. Well, and the missile defense shot down some of the torpedoes already fired.

"His words make sense, of course," I thought, looking thoughtfully at the straight rows of simulation capsules, "but it's still a shame.

- Sixty-three percent... - I muttered. - So we had even less chance of winning this mission.

But in spite of the little hubbub around me, my mentor heard me.

- It wasn't a mission, youngling. It was a drill. Station defense practice, in case you haven't forgotten. You didn't stand much of a chance at all.

After he said that, the hubbub and whispers intensified even more.

Two months left until my eighth birthday, and another month or so until I got my own room. But most importantly, an addition to my free time. Maybe we should spend it practicing piloting.