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Part 2 of 4

After leaving the simulators, Hades had returned to the Jexxel barracks for a short time to catch up on some reading. He might well have been a strong proponent of martial arts and all those manly things, but he was also a rather intellectual individual. He was rather cold outwardly, but he was far from brutish. The barracks were considerably neater when he returned - when he had arrived it had been a pig sty by all means - though Hades still did not approve entirely. Why should he? He had had enough of unruly squadrons. He had commanded two already, he didn't want to be a flight leader in a third. He gave a withering stare toward the Commander's office but strangely enough, avoided going toward it and instead moved over to where his stuff was neatly folded and stowed. He pulled out one of his uniforms and turned, meaning to go to the refreshers and change. He would have gone, if not for a person standing in his way. "Graff," he recalled, nodding at the man calmly. His subordinate saluted, but didn't budge. "Something you need, crewman?"

"Sir," Graff began, "there's a new simulator program that's just been opened for a few qualified personnel."

"Good to know," Hades said after a brief moment of wondering why the man would think he cared.

"That's not all, sir... it's a mission on Honoghr. In a TIE Defender."

Hades' brow quirked, "you had my attention, Crewman," he said, "but now you have my interest. Why did you bring this to me?"

"Because, sir," he glanced around, "right now you're the only one in Jexxel that fits into the 'qualified personnel' category. I was wondering if you might undertake the simulator so myself and Cresh flight could watch." Hades was silent another long moment, eyeing his subordinate evenly. Graff was his wingmate and the fact Hades didn't trust him rang alarm bells. If you couldn't trust your wingmate, you were proverbially screwed. Hades trusted him to fly, though...

"I see," he murmured, then clearing his throat as he continued in a louder tone of voice, "are you bored, Crewman?"

"Well sir, to tell the truth," he began, about to say a lot of words that made no sense. Hades watched him dully, "yes."

"Ah," the Lieutenant Commander nodded, smiled coldly, then brushed past Graff. It took the man a moment to process that his Flight Leader was actually walking away.

"Sir!" Graff called, hurrying after him, "sir, I know it would be good for us to see a true ace flying the most advanced piece of Starfighter technology most of us will ever get our hands on. If not for entertainment, for flight morale," as Hades continued, Graff exhaled in frustration, "surely you're not so cold as to be indifferent to the fate of your flight when we next soar into battle!"

At that Hades paused, turned, and fixed Graff with a piercing gaze. He slowly paced back toward his wingmate until he was just inches from him, glaring into his eyes as if daring him to speak another word. Graff stuttered something, but didn't form an actual word. Hades let out a vague sound of amusement and without another word, brushed past him again to replace the uniform to where it was, grab his helmet, and walk back out the way he had came. Crim was stunned for a good few moments before he hurried after Hades. "Vangelos, Mundi!" He whispered urgently into his comm unit as he followed the officer, "Hades is going to do it! Meet me at the sim-room."

His tone was excited, though had a vocal expert listened in, they might have detected a hint of satisfaction, satisfaction at the behest of some ulterior motive... Hades was still walking, not taking note of the wingman that was struggling to keep up with his speedy pace.  "It really means that much to you?" Hades called over his shoulder. Graff broke into a jog to bring himself level with Hades, then slowing down to match his superior's pace, "to watch me utilise a simulator which, through hard work and dedication, the three of you could access yourselves?"

"Yes sir!" Graff replied eagerly, "the Defender is a technological marvel, it's a masterpiece of the finest caliber. It's the titan of the starfighting world, the stormtrooper of the navy-"

Hades paused suddenly and held up a hand. "Stormtrooper of the navy?" He queried skeptically, turning to regard Graff as he too tried to halt his forward movement.

"I was running out of similes, sir." He said breathlessly. The Lieutenant Commander eyed him for a few seconds suspiciously before continuing on his way. There were certain triggers that garnered Hades' suspicion; figures of speech, mannerisms, service records. He recalled that he had been somewhat suspicious of Graff before his capture, making an inward note to bring up his service record when he was done with the simulator. His steps echoed through the halls of the Paragon as he moved with a single-minded goal: the simulator room. He paid attention only to superior officers when they passed - few and far between - otherwise unflinching and moving like a wookie on the warpath. Finally he reached the simulator room, rewarded with the appearance of his two other flight members. Hades nodded at Vangelos, who nodded back - that man, despite having his misgivings about their SCO earlier, had always respected Hades - and a similar nod to Mundi, though no words were exchanged as the three of them broke off to move into an observer room, while the leader of Cresh moved toward the technician.

"Chief," he greeted, noting the man's rank, "Demetrius Aita, Jexxel Squadron. I'm led to believe there's a new simulator program installed?"

"Yes sir," the Chief Petty Officer nodded after saluting, "it's a prototype designed to familiarise pilots with the Defender, giving them a wide range of sensory stimulation to see how they react to multiple variables both in and out of the cockpit."

"I see," the Commander murmured, mirroring the other man's nod, "on Honoghr?"

The technician blinked, caught off guard by the fact Hades knew that. Something prodded at the edge of his mind, but for now he ignored it as the CPO mustered his response, "Not exactly, sir. It's based on long range scans a freighter picked up before it was driven off by Remnant forces, the blanks are filled by the economical degradation happening on the core world of Vulpter, albeit advanced by fifty years. Essentially, you'll be flying through the atmosphere of a dead world."

"Right," the arrogant VENI agent answered, running his tongue across the back of his teeth slowly. It was an interesting scenario to say the least; Hades had never done something like it in all his tenure with VENA. He had seen death and destruction aplenty, so that didn't faze him. He did wonder what it would be like in the simulator, though, and exactly what variables might be included. The technician was watching him warily, he noted, almost like a mother with a stranger around her child. It was fair enough, a lot of technicians grew attached to things they worked on.

"This way, if you will." The technician gestured toward a simulator two dozen feet or so away, moving only when Hades made it clear he would follow. "Since you haven't flown twenty combat missions, passing this simulator does not mean you get to fly one of these on a daily basis. It does, however, qualify you for when you do reach that benchmark."

Twenty combat missions? Hades thought, brows raising, damn. "As you say," he replied mock-disinterestedly.

"You are familiar with the Defender's armament?" He asked.

"Yes," Hades replied, "but refresh my memory."

"Quadruple laser cannons, dual ion cannons and the same number of general-purpose warhead-launchers. For this simulation, they'll contain four standard concussion missiles and you will have the optional tractor beam equipped," The technician took a breath, "the targeting sensors that are between each pair of laser cannons mean you're getting a constant stream of targeting information. This fighter can go faster, harder and longer than anything you've ever flown before."

"I know," Hades said as they came to a halt outside the simulator that he'd be sitting in. His gaze trailed around the room idly as his free hand came up to stroke his clean shaven chin, "when can I start?"

"Just get into the simulator and wait for it to initialise, then you'll be good to go sir." The technician nodded at the simulator pod, "good luck."

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Wordcount: 1,444

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Part 4 of 4

The journey he had initiated was only a one or two-parsec jump and as such, took a few minutes under the class two hyperdrive, causing the TIE Defender to revert to real-space and remind him of what a drab environment the standard mission took place in. Stars and emptiness became boring after so many hours in the cockpit, this Hades knew. He sighed softly and began putting his next jump into the computer, hyperdrive already 'warmed up' from the rapid first jump. Fortunately, it hadn't sustained any damage from the rapid ignition and jump, which meant Hades could jump as he liked- or not. He swore again as sensors blared and an object reverted to realspace behind him, firing. It was the same Immobilizer, which had obviously powered down its own and the independent gravity well generators, examined his direction of travel via sublight, then followed him.

He thought fast and keyed in two more jumps; one jump to a fourty-five-degree angle of where his current course directed him to go and from there, a fourty-five-degree angle jump to his final objective. He saw the screen beginning to power up again as the Interdictor decided it wanted to trap Hades again, quad lasers blasting as he threw the Defender into a spin, leveling out as the navi-computer accepted the coordinates. With a flash, the lasers lancing past his small ball-cockpit disappeared along with the stars, once more putting him into the colourful tunnel of hyperspace. He exhaled again, waiting the few moments that the jump had been programmed to be before reverting to realspace, then jumping again, the coordinates having already been run through the navigation module. Most people didn't know how to track 'hyperdust' as it was called, so Hades felt pretty safe on final approach to the system that was Honoghr, but wasn't. It was at this moment - with a few minutes to spare - that Hades chose to marvel at the craft for the first time. It had handled everything so far with an amazing ease, an ease which even the advanced Avenger, let alone his Interceptor MK-II, would have difficulty emulating. The gadgets it contained were simple yet sophisticated, relatively easy to adjust to for someone as used to the TIE-cockpit as Hades and above all, efficient. If nothing else, the young Lieutenant Commander was most interested by efficiency - be it in women or space-craft, efficiency was a key decider in his choosing thereof.

The navi-computer beeped softly, letting him know that he had less than a minute until reversion. Breathing in and out steadily to level out his heart-rate, he began a diagnostics check... unfortunately, the three jumps in rapid succession had brought the hyperdrive to a dangerous level and it'd take a while to cool itself down. It meant he couldn't perform another jump for a good half-an-hour or so. He chewed on his lip and ran through reversion procedures, finally returning to the boring glumness of real-space. This time there was a planet close enough to Hades to pique his interest, this must be the not-Honoghr, he realised inwardly. The technician had said it would be a dead world and it looked... well, dead. "Commander," the voice of the technician cut in on the outside channel, causing the pilot to grimace, "you'll now be asked to test the atmospheric capabilities of the TIE Defender, including the manoeuvring jets. Said jets can also be used in extra-atmospheric combat. Following that, the mission will come to a close."

Hades didn't acknowledge with anything more than a grunt, again severing the unwelcome communication with the outside world as he plotted a course for the world ahead of him. He set a middling speed, letting his fighter practically idle as he surveyed the console for the manoeuvring jets. They weren't marked, but the differentiation between the Defender and the Avenger put only a few things out of place - one being the manoeuvring jets, which were controlled by a small pad next to the readout that usually displayed thrust and engine power. Seeing the huge amounts of power he had diverted, he reminded himself to redistribute the power evenly as per usual, powering up shields and weapons once more. The world rapidly filled his viewscreen, as even a middling speed for the Defender was damned fast and before he knew it, his sensors informed him in no uncertain terms that he'd entered the atmosphere. Hades followed a plotted course, bringing himself closer and closer to the surface of the dead world... he knew it was just a simulator, but it was realistic and because of that, horrifying in a sense. He did not wish to be a inhabitant of either Vulpter or Honoghr, knowing that the sim was based off these two worlds. The ground was barren, twisted remains of what used to be trees and miscellaneous forms of flora jutting up out of the hard-looking ground. The ground in itself was cracked and looked to be devoid of almost anything, dust included.

Visibility was fairly clear, but he picked up a mite of interference from the pollution that made the sky more grey than anything else... It was like a thunder-storm threatened the planet continuously, only it wasn't a cloud. Where some worlds had blues and greens, reds as sky colour, this world had only a greyish-green. Hades thought he could spot charred remains and eroded skeletons on the surface, but that might well have been his imagination... he swallowed audibly and decided to focus on testing the TIE Defender, performing a barrel roll dangerously close to the ground and putting it through a number of complicated manoeuvres that atmosphere made harder. Finally, he keyed the manoeuvring thrusters. Left first, then right, jolting his Defender about ten meters to either side with an uncomfortable pull on Hades' head. Now to find an obstacle, he thought mildly. An opportunity presented itself in the form of a towering husk of a tree that stretched skyward like a skeletal finger pointing at the dull star the planet orbited, all the while Hades' defender rocketed toward it. When he was given an imminent collision warning, he keyed the manoeuvring jets and watched the tree flash by on his right with a small smile.

A red diamond appeared on his HUD - a target? It was just that. A transport flickered into existence on his sensors with a four-fighter-escort. Each of the fighters was an Interceptor, it appeared, stock-standard in flanking positions... strangely enough, the transport was still in the atmosphere, why didn't I pick it up earlier? He knew he could probably take the fighters on his own with some difficulty in his MK-II, while in a Defender? He was confident to say the least.

The distance shot beneath him in the form of the scarred surface of the planet and his twin emerald eyes narrowed on the dots that grew on the horizon. They were making for the outer-atmosphere away from the approaching Defender, which was to his advantage. The transport itself, judging from the variation, would likely be unable to detect him until he was almost right on top of it. The Interceptors would detect him a while before that, but with his superior speed and manoeuvrability, their slight advantage in acceleration would be for nothing. That was without even regarding his armament... His gloved hands gripped the control yoke, selecting concussion missiles as his favored armament for the time being - he only had four, but that was enough. The red diamond grew on his screen and he manually selected the transport as his first target. While still out of range, Hades could already prioritise targets and missile vectors, but it was that green flash, the subsequent beep which he wanted to hear. The green flash happened to indicate his coming within range, the subsequent beep sounded and Hades fired, a single missile aimed at the transport's engines. The Interceptors immediately broke, coming around to engage as the Commander increased speed and channeled power from the rear shields into the frontal ones.

Energy splashed over his viewscreen as the enemy fighters opened fire, Hades even had to juke to the left to avoid a concussion missile sent his way without targeting systems. In turn, he opened with his quadruple cannons, rewarded with an explosion as one of the Interceptors took the brunt of his assault. Surprisingly, they broke before he reached them - it seemed they were more willing to risk their own destruction than that of the transport, which they now began to swarm to. Hades took a modicum of glee from this - like shooting fish in a barrel. He keyed his missiles, locking onto one of the Interceptors and firing, switching to his ion cannons and strafing its unshielded engines. Electricity sizzled around it as the cannons took effect, allowing the concussion missile to slam into its effectively dead rear end. The remaining two Interceptors came around the front of the transport, both of them firing a missile and engaging linked fire to try and wave him off. None of it dissuaded Hades, even as he employed his manoeuvring jets to avoid the first missile, barrel rolling to avoid the second as his shields were steadily whittled away by the fire coming from four cannons.  In response he fired his own remaining missiles, one for each fighter, while slowing steadily up to the point that each fighter flashed past on either side. Sufficiently slowed, the Commander easily executed a 180 degree turn, flipping his fighter so that now he was on their tail. Both of them had been unprepared for this, so his lasers tore through the solar panels of one fighter, while the other madly juked and twisted in an attempt to avoid the deadly emerald energy.

It was to no avail as it tried to use the transport for cover; the Defender was simply too fast and manoeuvrable, the ultimate superiority fighter. After what wasn't more than a few seconds of the chase, the Cresh lead was rewarded with another explosion. He grinned and came around to finish off the transport, which was now going for all it was worth toward the edge of the atmosphere. The engines had been damaged, though, by his earlier missile strike - something he noted with a grim satisfaction. Like an unwavering bird of prey he swooped in, ion cannons blazing blue energy on the first pass. Trying to remind himself that the defenseless transport was just that - defenseless and effectively dead in the water, he came around, this time in a swooping circle to easily fall in behind the sluggishly-moving transport now. His ion cannons flashed until his readouts detected that the shields were vaporised, at which point he switched to the four laser cannons the craft possessed. He had matched the transport's speed now, idling along behind it, far enough back not to get engine wash but close enough to beleaguer it with a barrage of superheated green energy which began to do its deadly work with designed ease. The engines soon reacted, overloading and exploding, the resulting fire reaching the fuel cells and eliminating them too. The explosion ripped the transport in half, each bisected end tilting toward the world below and slowly but surely falling back to the surface thereof.

"Mission complete, Lieutenant Commander Aita," the voice of the technician faded back in as Hades guided his craft out of the atmosphere. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations?" Hades queried, surprised, "congratulate me when I accomplish something."

As he said that, the simulator faded to black and he hit the release button, unsealing his cockpit. As he climbed out, Vangelos, Graff and Mundi were all waiting for him. Graff and Mundi held expressions akin to excited children, while again Vangelos looked grudgingly respectful. "That was so cool!" Mundi said, smiling.

"The simulator was so realistic," Graff agreed, while Vangelos said nothing. "It's a pity the Honoghr data is incomplete. I'd have loved to see Honoghr properly."

"Aye," Hades said simply, "are we done being 'entertained'?"

"Yes sir. Thank you, it means a lot to us," Vangelos said for the other two. The Commander eyed them all thoughtfully for a moment before nodding slowly.

"Alright," he answered, watching Graff closely, "dismissed. Get some rest or something to eat; I'll want you ready tomorrow morning for a simulator session."

"Sir, yes sir." The trio answered in unison, filing out. Hades lingered  long enough for the technician to come out and respectfully ask why he stayed, though Hades didn't look from the door that his flight members had exited.

"How many people know about the simulator?" He asked softly.

"It's only been brought in today, sir. The Chief of Naval Training, Naval High Command I believe, possibly the Executive Officer of Naval Training and two other trainers aboard the Paragon." The technician answered carefully, "why?"

"Is it possible that they would have shared this information?" He shot back, ignoring the question.

"Possible? Yes... but I don't think anyone would have known about the Honoghr part. I was surprised that you knew," The Chief answered again, confirming Hades' suspicion.

"Me too," the Flight Leader replied, "thank you for your time, Chief." With a short nod, he departed after his comrades... He had some digging to do, it seemed.

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Wordcount: 2,231. Total wordcount: 6,476.

AAR:
Post 1: Hades engages and destroys and enemy X-Wing squadron in an Interceptor MK-II simulator.
Post 2: The lead up to Hades getting into the TIE Defender simulator. His wingman has heard about this new simulation and wants Hades to do it for the morale of his flight.
Post 3: Hades is forced to utilise Astrogation to escape the gravity wells of an enemy Immobilizer-418, not once but twice. The Defender's advanced systems make it far easier than he thought.
Post 4: Hades arrives at the target planet, taking a closer look and testing some more of the Defender's systems. He then engages a flight of Interceptors which are no match for the advanced TIE Defender, nor is the unarmed transport with them.

Alright. Starfighter Tactics marked.

Unfortunately, I cannot pass you. The major reason for this, is that it just seemed too ... well, too easy. Your squadron waltzed over the X-wings, and they appeared to make no attempt to stop you. Remember that we are not looking for you to win, so much as show realism. For example: why didn't the X-wings use any ordinance other than their lasers? What formation were the X-wings in, and what distance were they from your own squadron, that would give them no chance to alter course?

A couple of minor issues that I had:

1) Simulators don't tend to learn. They are preloaded, preprogramed, pieces of software and hardware. If your character used a private piece of software, then specify.
2) Breaking records. It can be easy to assume that your character is the ultimate fighter around, but don't get too cocky. There is an entire squadron of elite pilots on the same wing that probably hold the records at a very high standard.

Make the changes suggested, and I should be able to pass you.

/me gulps. Now to mark the rest of this monster ...

Alright, making some corrections now - however:

-The X-Wing were in a matching formation to the TIEs, except they had all three flights at the same level in a wedge-formation. Because they were coming head on and Hades fired his missiles just microseconds before the X-wings passed him, they had no time to react.
-While yes, there is an elite squadron, the elite squadron don't happen to fly TIE Interceptor MK-IIs, unlike Jexxel (which are the only ones to fly said craft, as far as I know.) Hence the record. Hades is the most experienced pilot in their squadron, too.

As for the simulator learning, I'm going to correct that to stipulate that it only 'learns' because the technicians program it after each run, giving it a 'memory' of sorts and preventing the same tactics from being used twice.

As for it being too easy, keep in mind these are Interceptor MK-IIs - in other words, faster, more agile versions of the standard Interceptors. Initially, X-Wings and Interceptors are balanced out because of the standard TIE/In's lack of shields. This is rectified by the VE. That makes the combat unbalanced in any way you look at it, thus making it 'easier' for Hades. That said, I will include some more difficulty in the post.

EDIT: I've made amendments:
1- Cresh lead is taken out by the X-Wings, and Cresh two is heavily damaged before Cresh three manages to assist.
2-I explained in the post what formation they maintained so as to limit their manoeuvrability.
3- Stipulated that it was the technicians who 'learned'.

Finally, the X-Wings didn't use ordnance because Hades forgot to tell the technicians to give them both a full armament - the standard is lasers only.

I do. The post has been amended and I've reasoned it to you

Thanks Fishhead Gurlanin, you good with this?

Thank you very much, Mr. Notimo