Screw Pile Developments

Hundeerde Space Defence and Communications Network Academy: Theden University

Winter snow cloaked the mountains and trees surrounding Theden and the Academy. Early Monday morning the thirty cadets of Blue Flight were formed up one last time on the flight apron, in three ranks of ten, cargo bags beside them, ready to board the HSF Pathfinder. The next phase of their training was about to begin, orbital training. Timo had been practically fizzing with excitement all weekend.

SWACK!

Flight Sergeant Krieger looked over his cadets one last time. They were ready. He snapped his heels together, and brought himself up to his full height, arms by his side, fully at attention. He breathed in once.

The entire Blue Flight snapped to attention as one.

With that last order from Krieger, Blue Flight turned, picked up their bags and headed to the waiting steps of the Pathfinder.

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Pathfinder — Departure

In an orderly file, the cadets placed their bags on a waiting dolly, stacking them up, before they climbed the steps and boarded the waiting Pathfinder. Two crew members were waiting for them and directed them to their seats.

Once all the passengers were boarded and settled, bags loaded, steps retracted, and final crew checks made, the Pathfinder was ready to leave. The liftoff from the apron was almost imperceptible, a slight increase in the ambient hum from the engines and suddenly the view from the windows changed, with Theden retreating slowly below them. As the Pathfinder climbed higher the darker blue of the sky gave way, slowly changing to indigo, where some of the first stars could already be seen.

For Timo, Hans, and Toby, this was their first time to experience the wonder of leaving the surface of a planet and entering space itself.

Then it came, a noticeable increase in thrust and engine noise, as the ship poured on the power, enabling it to escape the gravitational pull of the planet and punch its way on up through the upper atmosphere and into true orbit. A few minutes later the indigo sky gave way to the inky blackness of space, the full array of stars now visible.

For Seb, Raven, Lewis, and Scott, this was not the first time they’d watched a sky fade from blue to black — five years ago it had been Earth falling away beneath them, marking the start of their journey to a completely new and unknown world. This time the unknown wasn’t a planet. It was what still lay ahead of them, not only with their training, but with what ultimately lay beyond. For now though, they kept their thoughts and feelings private as the indigo sky faded to black.

After the Pathfinder fired its thrusters and accelerated to escape velocity, it settled into its first fast orbit of the planet. Its residual momentum allowed it to coast and climb higher, outward and upward, passing Skerry, Hundeerde’s smallest rocky moon, which orbited just inside the planet’s rings. Once the Pathfinder reached the first inner layer of rings, it fired its thrusters again to climb through the concentric ring layers to settle into a higher slower orbit. Once fully clear of the outermost rings, the Pathfinder gradually matched the orbit of the Wayfarer sitting high above the planet.

Through the windows they caught the first sight of the Wayfarer, a 150-metre ship, its cyan-blue portal curtain open, ready to swallow the Pathfinder whole as it came in to dock in the Wayfarer’s cavernous internal flight deck.

Flight Deck — Arrival

Once the hatch was open and the steps were down, the cadets were able to step out into the flight deck hangar of the Wayfarer for the first time. Their first impressions were of a truly cavernous space, large enough to comfortably take the Pathfinder and several rows of additional Houndswifts. Deck crew scurried about, each with their own job and purpose; the flight deck was no place to be if there wasn’t a requirement to be there.

As the bags were being unloaded onto a dolly an alert German Shepherd crossed the deck with an easy, unhurried stride. He wore the rank of Lieutenant Commander and the first group of cadets he came to, snapped to attention and saluted him smartly. He returned the salute and spoke evenly and clearly.

It took a few minutes to sort out the pile of thirty bags, but soon each cadet had their own in their hand or paw.

Wayfarer — Orientation

The cadets followed Lieutenant Commander Adler through a maze of corridors, up several flights of stairs, and then along even more corridors. It was clear it would take some time to learn their way around the ship and to be able to find the way to anywhere.

On the way, Klaus explained that the ship held three full flights of cadets at any one time, junior, intermediate and senior. Ninety cadets in total. Each training phase would rotate every seven months. The ship had an additional crew of around two hundred, making the total crew on board approximately three hundred.

It was clear to the cadets that the Wayfarer was not the newest ship of the fleet. While immaculately clean, signs of wear could be seen, with plenty of worn surfaces. The ship very much had an industrial feel, with function prioritised over aesthetics.

The group arrived at the cadet accommodation deck. Each dormitory held eight bunks, with two sets of four either side. Beneath the bottom bunk were two deep metal drawers, one for each cadet. At one end of the room there were two stacked rows of four vertical lockers, eight in total for additional storage. The industrial feel continued with a metallic deck and exposed piping running along the walls and across the overhead.

What they did notice however, in a clear contrast to their bare mattress arrival at the academy, was that the bunks were already made up for them, with the usual Network issue: teal-green blankets, sheets and pillows.

Simulation

For the first time since starting their Academy training, the pilot cadets were truly starting to feel like Network pilots even if they had not actually left the flight deck yet. Each now had several hours of simulator sessions logged, enabling them to master the basic flight operations of the Houndswift.

Each pilot sat in their own simulator pod, which, as long as they didn’t look behind themselves, felt incredibly realistic. The simulators were equipped with the exact same flight deck controls and instrument panel that they would find in a real Houndswift. At the master control console in the middle of the simulator bay, Lieutenant Commander Klaus Adler sat overseeing today’s training session.

The remaining simulator pods, Red-Six, Red-Seven, and Red-Eight, were occupied by other cadets from Blue Flight and also reported in as ready.

In addition to the eight pilots, the two communications cadets were waiting ready to join the training exercise in the simulator control room.

Simulated or not, Timo had been looking forward to this moment for months, this being the first real flight mission that wasn’t just a set training circuit around the planet. Today, they were going to Vandra, the largest and furthest out of Hundeerde’s three moons. He wiggled his butt firmly back in his seat and flipped the necessary switches. A full display of indicator lights appeared across his instrument panel, and he felt and heard the faint hum of the plasma lattice engines come to life. His whiskers quivered in anticipation.

A round of acknowledgements came from each pilot as they gently rose from the flight deck and cleared, sliding through the port-side curtain, out into orbit. Once the first four craft were clear, it was then Scott’s turn to depart the remaining four pilots in their simulated Houndswifts.

Just as Toby passed through the portal curtain, Scott called the departures of the remaining three Red-Wing pilots. Soon, all eight pilots were now well clear of the Wayfarer and were waiting at the prearranged holding point, near Tind, the small but second-largest moon of Hundeerde’s three, named after its peaks of high jagged mountains.

When the eight pilots of Red-Wing opened their throttles, their engines answered eagerly with a low thrum behind them. Seb and the others set course for a wide return loop around Vandra.

Back in the control room Lewis swivelled in his seat and turned to Scott.

Klaus, at his control station, listened to the backroom chatter on the master loop. He let the simulation run.

The formation of Houndswifts was now rapidly approaching the leading outer edge of Vandra, ready to use its gravitational assist to sling-shot them around the far side and send them on their return journey.

Seb in the leading Houndswift, tightened his bearing once more to 2-6-1.5, only half a degree off the absolute hard limit mission parameter. The sling-shot assist was fast turning into a very tight hand-brake turn.

Seb’s leading Houndswift entered the sling-shot orbit of Vandra, and started to curve around to the turn point where the gravity of the moon would throw it around the far side and send it back on its return journey.

The other Houndswifts maintained formation and banked around the moon following Seb’s lead on the same trajectory. With such a tight turn, right up at the upper limit, the added G-forces became physically extreme.

The tight turn enabled a much faster exit from the departure point, and the return leg to rendezvous point 39-Alpha took significantly less time than their journey out.

Scott turned in his chair to Lewis.

When all eight Houndswifts were safely back at rendezvous point 39-Alpha, Klaus broke in on the comms loop.

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Later that evening

Seb stood alone, lost in his own thoughts at a viewport looking out at the curve of Hundeerde below, the rings, and far in the distance, Vandra. While he had not technically broken any of the simulated mission parameters, the post simulation debrief had been lively to put it mildly. Klaus had actually said very little during the debrief, preferring to let the other pilots state clearly and plainly exactly how they felt about the high-speed, tight sling-shot manoeuvre they had all just experienced, and what they would have done differently if they had been in the lead.

Seb sensed the sideways approach of someone else coming to join him, sliding in like a Rook.

There were a few moments of silence before Seb answered again.