First chapter!

Alright people, this is the first chapter of my book: Deep Predator. I highly recomend that you copy and paste this into a seperate window, reading it all via blog would suck. Also, one reader has offered to make some cover art, hope that comes through, and I will post it here.





What does it feel like to die? This is the question that only those we have lost can answer. And those we have lost can't answer it because they're lost aren't they? But I know what it's like to almost die, allot of us do, predator pilots. Let me bring you up to speed. My name is Leo Admen but my call sign is Jet, so that's who I refer to my self as. I'm a pilot for a Predator class fighter, which you could have deduced from my big dramatic opening. For those not familiar with GF (Galactic Federation) Affairs, the Predator is a series of small space fighters, I pilot the "C" class, which is the most balanced between speed and power. There are also T, S, F,B, O, and P class, all with different specs and advantages. C's look like a pair of pistols with an orb connecting them in the middle (The cockpit) and I shall explain the rest of the fighter's as they come up. Predator fighters are stored and launched from combat cruisers. The fleet has many types and classes, I crew as a pilot on an ACP class cruiser (ACP= all combat purposes) called the "Atlantis", she has a noble history, state of the art technology blah, blah, blah, go to a museum if you want her back story. She's about the size of a sky scraper building, only a little more aerodynamically shaped if you know what I mean. Her home port is a small planet similar to earth called Matelion (Mat-ell-ee-un). It has cities, towns, and most importantly, military basses, the only one orbiting it is where the Atlantis spends allot of it's time, since in this war, this sector is mostly left alone. That's right, I said WAR! The GF is currently at war with a group of terrorists called "The Conjunction", they all come from various worlds, and all joined for different reasons, the point is, they want the whole GF dead (This means yours truly). They make a decent threat, and we have to swat them out. I'm in this war as part of the space force, but I do sometimes end up on the ground (Which sucks) getting shot at. I have enough skill to make it out in one piece either way, but I prefer the space front. I think I have given you enough background to understand what's going on now right? You're also probably getting bored of my talking, so enough with the prologue, time to start kicking.
I woke up staring at a steel ceiling like every other day. Crewing aboard the Atlantis is a boring job most of the time. Just running drills and only getting into combat here and there. Today however, we were being forced to make a big deal of a new crop of pilots being rotated aboard. There was a big welcoming ceremony, and some of us were going to be given new wingmen. I was still crossing my fingers, hoping that I could stick with Dark Side, he might be a little weird, but at least he knows how to fly a Predator. Every “C” class pilot is pared up with a “T” class pilot to work as a team. T ships have large domes on the front that flip open as cockpits, and what look like trombone slides with tiny wings sticking out from the bottom attached to the sides. They’re built more for power than for speed. I stretched and flipped the covers off, I could tell that it was going to be a long day.
The cafeteria was crowded and noisy like every other day, I couldn’t remember if this jarring pain was coming from a hangover, or I just had a really bad headache. I ordered the usual stuff, a bowl of vitamin crap and a glass of guava juice. The vitamin crap is breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you get to pick from a wide variety of beverages though. The headache/hangover had come most likely as a result of stress, one way or another; I had been worried about my ground duty. A pilot has to serve as a marine first, and there’s been talk of transferring some pilots back to the ground division to make room for the new pilots. I can’t go back, not again. I can’t go back to the confusion, the gunfire, the death. I belong on the space front. So this possibility scared me out of my flight suit. I pulled up a seat at the nearest table, Dark Side, Spin-Out, and a couple of other pilots were sitting there. Spin-Out is both my best friend and my rival; we went through flight school, ground duty, and now Predator duty together. We called him Spin-Out because that’s what he does when there’s a bogey on his tail. Does a 180 and shoots it between the eyes. Spin-Out nodded in my direction, Dark Side just stared at the wall as usual. That’s what it’s like with Dark Side; he doesn’t talk much, just stares and looks like he’s concentrating real hard.
“Still not talking huh D?” I asked him. He shook his head and continued to stare. He only talked when he was in combat, and he still only talked to give directions or warn me of something when he was out on the space front. He’s just weird that way. Spin-Out on the other hand; we can’t get him to stop talking. Whether it’s cracking a stupid joke, or just blabbing about current events, it’s all Spin all the time. I’m the only one who just talks normally, so I suppose I balance the group.
“Think you’ll get a new wingman Jet?” Spin-Out asked.
“Dunno, if I do think you’ll be sad to see me go D?” I responded. Dark Side said nothing.
“Personally, I can’t wait to dump the newbie I’ve been dragging around!” Spin-Out continued
“Who, Face Plant?” I asked.
“Haven’t you ever wondered where he got that call-sign?” Spin-Out continued “The guy can’t even climb into the cockpit without falling over, and he flies like his foot’s been glued to the brake!” He complained.
“Oh well. You here that they’re gonna start transferring people to ground duty, think we’ll end up down there?” I asked.
“No way man, not if they have to drag me kicking and screaming! Don’t they know pilots don’t belong on the ground?” He responded. “Especially after what happened to y… Oh” I downed my breakfast and stood up.
“The ceremony starts in an hour, we should get going,” I said. I left the cafeteria, Spin-Out called after me “Sorry, about that…” I ignored him. I trooped back to my quarters. As I crossed the room, I looked around. It was a small room with metal walls, a poster for the strike ball league back on Aldren, A cabinet for clothes, and a small bed. I opened the cabinet and pulled out my “Good” uniform, it was going to be a long day for sure.
What happened? I was forced onto ground duty once. It was utter chaos and mayhem. My squad had to retreat, they were all killed. Since that day, I have sworn never to work ground ever again.
“All stand ready!” Shouted the colonel. I jerked myself awake, I had dozed through the first part of the ceremony. The new pilots trooped past us to get their assignments and orination. The usual generic fanfare was playing from the overhead speakers as they walked through the main door. I was standing in the presentation area, residing in the rear end of the ship. It’s nothing fancy to look at, just an auditorium like any other. “Alright maggots! Time to start your new life! The following will be transferred to ground duty: Artemis, Loud-Mouth, Gas-Clot,” The colonial announced. A few pilots stepped forward, no one I knew. “Combustor, Sting, And Wimp-Out.” He finished. I let out a sigh of relief, and I heard a few others do the same. I knew none of the pilots by name, but I had heard their call-signs tossed around on the hanger deck, nothing special, just names without faces. If there's one noise that scares the crap out of any rookie pilot, it's the condition red alarm, and this is what we heard now. We all jumped and turned to face the speaker on the wall.
"Attention all units man your combat ready stations, we are now in condition red! All pilots please report to launch bays! Conjunction attack force of uncertain size approaching! This is not a drill repeat..." Shouted the communications officer. There was panic in his voice; this was not a good situation. All of us raced for the exit. I dashed down corridor after corridor passing officers running in all directions. I stopped thinking and let my body carry itself to the fighter deck. Past the gun command, hang a right, proceed to deck 5. I finally reached my "C" class and grabbed my pressure suit off the wall. 2 deck hands were detaching the fuel line and a 3rd was loading my guns.
"What's going on? Conjunction never come this far into our territory!" He shouted to me.
"I don't know, but they're about to remember why they never come this far into our territory." I said pulling on my helmet. I locked the helmet with a resounding "Click" And started the oxygen flow. The deck hand passed me my flight package and shouted
"Saddle up and give 'em hell!" The flight package is essentially your flight controls. They're kept separate so you can't fly unless authorized. Some have a wheel, whereas "C" class has the standard flight stick. I plugged in the package and after a few moments of locking and clicking, she was plugged in and ready to fly. I switched on all of my systems. Thrusters, communications, weapons, all on.
"Jet here, ready for launch." I shouted to the deck master.
"Rodger, you are with launch group 2, stand by to be transported to launch tube." he responded. I hit a button and switched over to my wingman's channel.
"You ready to go D?" I asked. Dark-Side grunted over his line to say yes. A loader locked onto the front of my Predator and started towing me toward my launch tube. I switched to the combat channel so I could hear the rest of the fighters. Combat channel is what you use during the battle. A message came from the deck chief
"Group 1 is ready for launch, we have now confirmed that there is only 1 enemy attack craft". That was some good news, it made my job a whole lot easier. "Launch in 3, 2, 1, clear!" there was the usual loud blast of combined thruster fire and pneumatic punch used to break a fighter free from the ships gravitational pull and launch them into battle. The loader towed me over to the tube and locked me into the puncher. The loader detached and drove out of the tunnel, the airlock closing behind it. Ahead of me was a tunnel of blackness with a heavy steel door keeping the pressure in. Another message came over the comlink from the deck master.
“Group 2 is in the tubes, stand by!” I felt the familiar tug in my gut, the excitement of battle, my skills waking up, I was ready to kick some conjunction @$$. The door was open, And the Deck master called “Group 2 launch in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Clear!” I slammed my foot into the accelerator. There was a blast, and I was forced back against my seat. I felt the force stop, and I was on the battlefield. A message came from Tail Burn: the group leader.
“All ships, stay with your wingman and head for those fighters, leave the Cruiser to Atlantis!” I broke off and headed for the largest group of fighters. Conjunction fighters look like The heads of tridents, but with guns instead of points.
“D, stay on my wing, slice through that squadron!” I shouted.
“Rodger” He responded. I was surprised for a moment until I remembered that he talked when he was on the space front. The fighters didn’t even see us coming, I locked onto the nearest one and pulled the trigger. There was the loud thumping of discharging bullets, followed by a small explosion. I was in my element, I pulled a hard left and shot down another, and another, and another. I stopped thinking, and let my body do the work. I finally pulled up when there were only 2 fighters left in the squadron. They both fled realizing that they were outmatched. The weird thing was that Dark-Side hadn’t fired a single shot.
“D, wake up! Start shooting!” I shouted to him. He didn’t respond. I accelerated and headed for the 2 stragglers from the last squad. I got on ones tail and he tried to shake me. I corrected and took him down easily. I started heading back for the rest of the fight. Spin-Out had just toasted another fighter with his trademarked 180, but Tailburn had one on his tail and couldn’t shake him! I reeled over towards him and punched the accelerator. He saw me coming and shouted
“Buzz off Jet! Mind your own business!”
“And leave you to get killed!? Tempting, but I think not.” I adjusted my self so that I was running straight for the fighter, and a beeping sound caught my ear, that little pain had locked onto him! I had three seconds tops, so I pulled the trigger. No wait, I was too early! I managed to scorch the end of Tailburn’s wing, but I hit the enemy fighter too.
“Watch it!” He shouted to me.
“You’re welcome!” I responded I veered off and headed back towards Dark-Side who had been standing idly by waiting for me. Wait! There was one on my tail and it was about to shoot! There was a burst of fire, and it vanished. Another fighter veered off and I heard someone shout
“You’re welcome too hot shot!” It wasn’t Tail burn, it was a woman and it was one of the rookies! I guess they weren’t so bad after all. I veered back towards Dark Side. This was weird, he hadn’t even fired a shot so far. He came through on the comlink
“Jet, I can’t fire! Something’s wrong!” He had started heading for the enemy cruiser. “I don’t have control over my thrusters! I’m heading straight for that battery fire!” And he was. A few seconds and he would be caught in the cross fire between the 2 ships. “I can’t control it!” He shouted in panic.
“Eject, Eject!” I screamed at him. But it was too late. There was an explosion, and my wingman was gone.