[Bombing training area, Abrea]

Einarr had just finished the modifications to his flight helmet as he received the order to board his Interceptor, Cassius his AI having just finished the base algorithm calculations for the gravity, mass, and relativistic factors of the planet Abrea which could factor quite heavily in the function of his missile and torpedo's flight characteristics. Gravitational constant * mass / radius squared gives a rough surface gravity of 1.314 m/s2 (.134 g).  His previous run had scored a decent time but he was aggravated with himself since he knew he could do better. Raising his helmet he slid it on, the barbed data jacks sliding and locking into the ports in the back of his head on the right side, Einarr grunted at the uncomfortable sensation as the port sockets opened and the data flow between Cassius and his helmet systems went active. He turned and rushed from the ready room, his boots pounding on the deck as he entered the hangar built into the cliff face, the sound changing and resounding as he crossed from permacrete to the metal latticework of the catwalk. Einarr moved swiftly to his fighter, the rungs of the boarding ladder cold against his hands as he descended, then dropped into the hatch. He quickly buckled himself into the seat harness, the tight confines of the cockpit restricting his motions with the grafted armor. He made a note to see a doctor about having the aged clone era armor removed as he pulled the cord from its spool in his helmet and plugged it into the computer. As Cassius took over the data side, Einarr began powering up the fighter, the reactors unlocking and firing up as fuel poured through the lines to merge with the ionized energy in the engine chambers ready for release. He checked the interlocks for his lasers and missiles, the capacitors sending back a ready signal as they received their charge. The missiles showed loaded and ready as the loader cycled the magazine and loaded the explosive projectiles into their tubes, the locks springing out to encase the missiles and prepare them for programming. All was ready as Einarr triggered his repulsorlift engine, the gravitic knots releasing their charge in a field as the docking clamps released. The TIE/IN Interceptor leapt free of the hangar in a burst of speed, riding the repulsorlift until it had cleared the hangars danger zone. The radiation dampeners slid into place around the exhaust ports of his engine as the P-s5.6 twin ion engines released their energy in bursts, Einarr pushed the yoke forward slightly as he entered the trench run.


The Interceptor danced between the cavern walls the screaming wind in its course above the cliff face leaving the air inside the trench still. Einarr kept the throttle forward as he neared the first target, the holotarget came into view as Einarr pushed the yoke forward and reduced speed. He would use a nape of the earth maneuver to bring his Interceptor in fast and low below the simulated sensors of the infantry squad in their simulated positions before popping up and dipping back into a long strafing run to stitch his lasers across the targets before gravity and inertia forced his craft into the ground. Cassius sent a mental ring to Einarr as the timing hit optimal, He pulled the yoke back towards him, then back down sharply. The reticule lined up on the targets and Einarr squeezed the trigger, bolts of red ionized the air losing energy relative to distance traveled as their charged particles burned through the atmosphere of Abrea reducing their overall range and a portion of their destructive potential over longer ranges. They leapt from the barrels of his guns, the prepared positions of the infantry below were sundered by the force of the coherent light burning into their stacked sandbags, the troops hiding behind fell clear in burning screaming piles silent to Einarr in his enclosed cockpit. Einarr pulled the yoke back to gain altitude  relative to the ground and against the steady .134 standard gravity of the frozen world as he continued his strafing run, but the target was already neutralized negating the need to circle around for a second pass, a somber pair of red bolts flew free as he straightened out his fighter, their energy spent against the far wall of the canyon leaving a burnt crater in the icy face of the cliff. He smiled at the thought of the ground pounder sims who crisped so much more easily than the hull plating of a capital ship with its shield, though in space he would only have to concern himself with mass, inertia, and angle without the gravity component which can jam up some new pilots who are used to the pure strikes of space fights. Though the added difficulty of maneuvering in a limited 2d environment of a planets surface combined with gravity increased the risk of catching an unwary pilot plowing the turf with their fighter.

Einarr pressed the rudder pedal down as he brought the yoke over, guiding the nimble fighter in a tight turn around the first outcropping and into the second leg of the course. A turbolaser tower stood in the trench, its massive barrels slowly rotating towards Einarrs craft. Cassius sought a lock on as Einarr guided the fighter in a series of evasive maneuvers, the craft rotating on its wings, diving and grabbing altitude randomly. A pair of simulated blasts passed close enough to Einarrs fighter for the computer to shake the Interceptor, but Einarr kept the craft lined up long enough for the lock tone to sound off. A touch of the secondary trigger released a pair of proton torpedoes, their glowing plasma shrouded form leaping from the stubby barrels between the solar arrays on the wings, they seemed to pause for a split second in consideration before their drives kicked in and they leapt like hounds of war for their target. Einarr turned and rolled the fighter to pass clear of the tower and on the path to the second target as the torpedoes engines cut out and they continued in to meet their targets guided by momentum and the planets gravity pulled them towards the solid ice which supported the tower impacting just above the solid foundation as they  met their target, the star burst of released energy melting the stacked plates of the tower the hologram was built upon. The tower screeched as metal gave way under a combination of heat and weight, it fell across Einarr's wake as he lined up on the next target. A repulsor truck mounting a quad-laser, the barrels rippled in patterns as it launched volley after volley skyward. Einarr dove and weaved as he sought to align his reticule on the moving target, a stream of simulated bursts causing his forward shields to shimmer and deplete slightly as a grazing shot found its range. The Mon Cal pilot returned the favor, his thumb found the interlock switch as his finger found the trigger, paired bursts of laser fire streaked towards the target, puffs of flash heated steam, stone, and gravel launching skyward on the trail of the truck before a pair of shots went home into the carriage of the quad laser, power cells cooked off in secondary explosions as Einarr overflew the target the drone carriage of his previous target snapping and hissing happily as the flames devoured it.

The next turn brought a surprise, a long narrow tunnel burned through the ice, Einarr got low, firing paired bursts into the tunnel ahead of him as his tiny craft plunged into the darkness fighting the modest pull of the planets gravity. Einarr switched his sensors to thermal, every few seconds firing a burst of laser fire forward as he guided the fighter through the tunnel semi blind, the heat of the lasers reflecting the cold of obstacles, or the turns in the path with barely enough time for Einarr to compensate and steer clear. As he rounded one corner he found the burnt husk of an infantry ambush position, the bulk of a pair of crew served guns melting in the lucky shot of his lasers. The light of the tunnel exit nearly blinded Einarr as his TIE/IN passed out of the exit, the sensors pinging out a warning as multiple threats exposed themselves. 3 prepared infantry positions embedded in the wall ahead, with the bulk of a New republic hover tank standing defiant in the open. Einarr hugged the port side of the trench as his thumb toggled the missile selector switch. The loader mechanism in the wings whirred as the concussion missiles were loaded into the lower tubes, Einarr sent a burst of energy to the repulsorlifts coils to pull his fighter forward as he turned the craft diagonal to the starboard side. His reticule lined up above the top most infantry position and he let loose a concussion missile. The dart like projectile streaked forth to shatter the massed ice in a mini avalanche. Secondary cracks sent the roof of two of the positions crumbling as a rapidly growing cascade of snow, ice, and frozen rock buried the tank and final position.

Einarr smiled “Hey Cass, think they will give us points for creativity?”

“Negative sir, but those should still count towards the kill board. Most biological creatures would be killed by such an event.” The AI's voice sounded tiny in his helmets speakers, he made a mental note to file that away for later modifications to his helmet as his fighter carried forward. Einarr released the repulsorlifts grab as it rounded the corner over the buried tank causing the fighter to shoot forward with a burst of speed. He toggled to the upper tubes once more to load and prime a set of the fighter load proton torpedoes, he knew the final target was always a fortified bunker, but the targets in between were randomized. A volley of dummy misses streaked past his cockpit in a wave without warning arcing out of the sky above the trench to crash to the frozen turf in burst of powder and snow, Einarr reacted by kicking the rudder pedal on the starboard side, before rolling the fighter to the right for a rotation, and finally releasing a series of flares to distract any further missiles tracking systems. The shape of a LRM carrier stood in the distance hiding under a ridge. The droids manning the reloading process had just packed in the next volley as Einarr entered extreme range with his lasers. He waited 3 more seconds before releasing a paired burst, then rolling the craft on its port wing edge, the bursts struck low, reducing the ice several meters in front of the launcher into a cloud of superheated steam. Einarr cursed as a half volley passed through the space he had just vacated, then he pulled the yoke to him climbing the craft to ¾ of the way to the top of the cliffs edge before leveling out and diving once more. The second half volley passed just to starboard and high, the impact of their dummy heads striking the cliff wall hard enough to shake loose several tons of ice and debris, his rear shields sparking as the edges of the cascading ice atomized against the charged energy field. Einarr pushed the throttle forward as he fired the lasers, the range being decent for a accurate shot. The first paired shots hit the glaciated front plate of the vehicle, the energy cascading over the armored hull to reflect and shatter a pair of droids carrying dummy rounds. The rounds dropped to the frozen ground and detonated from the hard, unrelenting contact, decimating the remaining loaders in a cloud of dust. The second burst found the racks, the energy slicing into the unarmored bulk to knock the empty launcher out of commission.

“Damn I wanted a kill there.”

“You killed its crew and its ability to fight. Does it really matter if you make the vehicle go boom sir?”

Einarr was surprised by the joking nature of the reply he got form the AI, the intelligent software had never shown any sign of humor before, a smile crossed his features as he considered the personality in his hardware had begun to develop a personality of its own. The realization of some of the more negative consequences momentary shock was almost enough to tragically end his trench run as he pulled the fighter out of a dangerous trajectory which would have ended in it meeting an arch of ice across his path. Cassius took control and dove under the arch, pulling the craft back to NOE altitude as Einarr recovered his bearings. The sky around his cockpit lit with azure brightness as 4 separate turbolaser barrels opened up, their shots passing high  leaving a wake of vaporized snow as the bolts swept the gently fallen flakes from the sky which forced Einarr to reduce altitude further his Interceptor came in low under the turbolasers ability to depress their guns and track him. The bunker had revealed itself at last, Einarr lined up on the front section of the bunker as concealed AA turrets opened up above his head creating a roof of low powered energy to create a rapidly cooled fog of water vapor. A twitch of the yoke and a squeeze of the trigger stitched a line across the low ridge line in front of the bunker, the bolts finding homes in 3 of the 8 AA turrets. Einarr launched the port side torpedo first with a half pull of the secondary trigger, the shrouded missile leaping out to shatter itself against the thick armor of the bunker. A hole was bored into the face of the bunker, but the armor was still intact. Einarr cursed again as he jerked the yoke back in a tight arc, his arm jerking it to port and starboard as his feet found the pedals in a desperate evasion program. He came out above and behind the bunker with his starboard shields at 25%, his stern shields at 50%, and his port and bow shields at 76%. A burst of the repulsorlift and a sweep of the yoke brought him in an immelman turn  as he began a dive from on high at the bunker, the AA turrets could not rotate far enough around to engage due to targeting lock outs preventing them from engaging targets that would bring their line of fire to close to the bunker itself, and the turbolasers emplacement in the bunker were forward mounted. Einarr released both proton torpedo's, gravity combining with momentum as the projectiles streaked into the relatively lighter armor of the roof of the bunker on the rear section. The first torpedo struck a few seconds before the second boring a tunnel through the armor, the second finished the tunnel to release its payload in a burst of star stuff. Einarr pulled his craft free of gravity's influence before releasing the repulsorlift lock, scattered bolts from the few surviving AA emplacements scattering in his wake as he plotted a course for the hangar, the bunker belched fire and smoke behind him.

OOC:

Word Count: 2550

AAR: Einarr challenged the bomber course, attempting to beat his previous best time while showing his skills using weapons inside a planets atmosphere, taking into account gravitic, atmospheric, and relativistic factors.

OOC note: Sorry for the delay in updating, had it up to 8731 words before I decided that was a bit to long so I took out the majority of the calculations and trimmed it back down once more.

edited the original, ready for a second grading.

Darn it, Deep! I was just in the middle of writing a nice critique ... XD

In short, I concur. Congratulations. Loved the use of the technical language, and calculations. Sometimes a little too indepth for my liking, but that's just personal preference and says nothing about you writing.

All in all, a good read.