2nd Lieutenant Slasher looks around as he steps off the lift, adjusting the weight of the flight helmet under his arm as he makes his way to the training center on board the IMF II Fearless.

It has obviously been to long since I last spent some time on the simulators, the last time I sat in on one of those training sessions against the squadron pilots one of them almost got me. I cannot allow myself to lead a group of men if I can not at least keep up with them in combat.

Slasher hates the feeling that his skills are atrophying, and has always taken care to make sure that all of his skills remain sharpened to a razor edge. Recently he has found that he has less time for keeping his skills sharp, and is spending more and more of his time working on the day to day busywork of command, and so he has made the decision that no matter what he will spend more time training, and will make sure that the rest of his crew does the same, as there may come a day that they will need their skills once again, and he does not want to be caught off-guard when the time comes.

"Bridge to Captain Gorma."

Slasher slows his pace and stops by a communications panel and hits a button to answer the bridge's hail.

"Bridge this is Slasher, go ahead?"

"Captain," comes the voice of 2nd Lieutenant Stanse, the current Officer of the Deck on the Bridge, "We've just received a communication from command, the replacements for the casualties from the 42nd Regiment are on route, they should be here in about 3 hours, as well as some supplies for us. They are requesting that we hold here and await their arrival, requesting permission to make preparations for a rendezvous here?"

"Permission granted Lieutenant, I am going to be out of communication for the next two hours, doing some simulator work, if you need the input of a senior officer, the First Officer is going to be in command of the vessel during that period."

"Aye, Captain "

Slasher closes out the connection and continues on his way toward the flight simulator located about 50 feet further down the corridor. He returns the salutes of the few enlisted men down here who recognize him, and is glad for the anonymity as many of them don't recognize him, and he is free to concentrate more on the task at hand, and the simulated combat which he is about to enter.

Reaching the door to the simulator room, Slasher enters and proceeds to one of the simulators, slipping in his code cylinder when prompted by the computer, and upon recognition of his security clearance it gave him full access both the the simulator, and to the library of programs that it could run. Quickly seeing the one he wanted, and selecting the difficulty setting, he turns to go enter the simulator, and waves off the approaching Petty Officer, "As you were Petty Officer," and enters the simulator cockpit.

Ah, the privileges of rank, gotta love it.

Settling into the acceleration couch in the simulator cockpit, Slasher pulls on his helmet and hooks up his life support system, while not required while on board the Fearless it has always helped Slasher to stay focused when in a simulator, the taste and feel of the air recirculated through his helmet by the life support system serves to remind him of how close he is to death, and helps him to treat the simulation as if it were real.

"Simulator Control, this is Simulator 5-4," he calls out once he is ready to start, "Please initiate selected simulator program."

"Copy 5-4, your program will begin shortly, normal difficulty setting."

Slasher stretches his hands once more, and then settles his hands on the control yoke, preparing himself physically and mentally for the combat simulation. As the simulation begins with a series of beeps Slasher looks over his sensors and other instruments, getting a quick idea of the situation and the locations of the enemy fighters he is facing.

Ok, two forward, one aft, let's get this show on the road.

Slasher quickly checks the range to the enemy fighters in front, and the one on his tail, and makes a quick decision of tactic to engage the enemy. Slasher accelerates until he hits 100 MGLT, enough to keep the X-wing behind him at bay, but not enough to completely outrun the fighter, which he wants to keep on his tail.

Almost there, just a few more seconds, checking the range to both the fighters in front, and the one behind, he waits until the first bolts begin to lance out from the cannons of the X-wings ahead, and then he makes his move. Slasher pulls back on his control yoke putting the interceptor into a steep climb, beginning to pull an Immelman Maneuver. As the attitude of his fighter changes, he checks his sensors to see the reactions of the other pilots, he sees the two fighters which had been ahead of him had passed behind him and were beginning to climb to follow, but they were to far away to be able to do anything to engage him, behind him, but falling farther away as he accelerated, was the other X-wing, he waited until it had fully committed, and then completely reversed his thrust, spinning around his fighter in a perfect vertical reverse he comes back down, pulling the trigger on his lasers he rains fire on the X-wing, overloading the shields of the surprised pilot, and causing the fighter to burst into flame as it falls away, the pilot dead in his harness.

One down, two to go,

Slasher quickly turns his fighter, and accelerates to full speed, turning to make a head on pass at the two fighters, the X-wings also accelerate to full speed, so they are now closing at 211 MGLT, and Slasher lines up on one of the fighters, targeting the enemy, and beginning a game of chicken, beginning to exchange fire with the enemy fighters, and then loosing a missile at the one he is lined up with, the missile flies toward the fighter, and the fighter breaks to the side to avoid the missile, and the lasers which Slasher was raining on his other side, all of a sudden the screen goes blank, and the computer announces. "Simulation completed, victory achieved."

Slasher looks around in shock, "What?" he climbs out of the simulator cockpit, still unsure what happened, and grabs a passing Petty Officer, "Senior Chief, where can I review the simulation?"

"Right over there pilot,"

"Thanks," Slasher walks over and pulls up his run to figure out what happened, and as he watches the last few seconds of the simulation his laughter begins to ring out across the simulator room as he sees the fighter turn into the path of the other fighter in an attempt to dodge the missile and laser fire, and is completely destroyed as the proton torpedoes the other fighter was launching smash into the fighter, their safety circuits preventing them from exploding with the impact, but causing a secondary explosion as the explosion of the fighter cooks off the warheads of the torpedoes, and the secondary explosion consumes the fighter that launched them.

OOC:

1232 words, Fighter Tactics post