Chapter 3

"Take that you three-legged mother-fucker!"

Anonymous beta tester for 'Swarm Attack - Air Power'

Reggie Carson walked slowly home from the CAP testing center, a look of utter disappointment on his face. It wasn't that he had done poorly. In fact Reggie had scored a 6.8 and was eligible for Confederacy service. No, the problem was that Reggie just couldn't imagine how he would ever be picked up. Reggie's dad had died in a car wreck when Reggie was ten and now his mom had to work two jobs just to make ends meet. That left Reggie to help take care of his little sister when he wasn't in school. Besides, he didn't have any money to spend in any of the places where Confederacy pickups occurred, even if he could get away from home for a while.

"At least if I had scored below 6.5 I would know I wasn't getting off this rock" he thought, "but now I know I can volunteer but I doubt that I'll get the chance to."

Reggie's route took him past Wal-Mart where he stopped in to check to see if there were any new video games out. Reggie's mom had left him twenty dollars for the bus ride to the CAP testing center and lunch but Reggie had walked and packed a snack so he could save the money. Reggie rarely got the chance to get any spending money and he took every opportunity to buy a new video game if he could.

When his dad had died he left behind his computer. Reggie's mom didn't care anything for them so she let Reggie have it. Given their financial situation it was his only form of recreation. He scrounged together used parts from friends and spent what little money he could get on games and upgrades. Reggie's mom couldn't even afford cable TV so Reggie was getting his internet from a neighbor with an unprotected wireless network. It was safe to say that computer gaming was Reggie life.

Reggie had just entered the electronics section when he caught sight of the display on the end cap.

SWARM ATTACK - AIR POWER

Defend humanity from the spread of the Sa'arm!
Fly the fastest, toughest, most powerful fighter ever built.
Multi-player web-based game platform.
Compete in on-line tournaments and earn points.
The top 20 teams get an all-expense-paid-trip to
the Grand Tournament in beautiful Orlando, Florida
Top team members get $50,000 in cash and prizes!

"Cool," thought Reggie, "I could really use that kind of dough." Reggie picked up a box. "Wow, it's only $15 bucks." Reggie tucked the box under his arm and headed for the checkout.

Tiffany Carter sat at her desk in 6th period calculus class waiting for the bell to ring. She had been fidgeting for the last five minutes and was watching the clock like a hawk. Finally the bell rang signaling the end of the day. She grabbed her books and was out the door as fast her legs could carry her. On her way out she bumped into Cassie Ferguson, head cheerleader and queen bitch of Harding High.

"Watch where you're going, nerd!" Cassie yelled as Tiffany sped past.

"Where do you thinks she's going in such a hurry?" one of the other cheerleaders said.
"Not on a date, that's for sure." Cassie quipped as the other girls laughed. "Then again, you never know. There must be a nerd out there somewhere, who would give her a mercy fuck. I mean, nerds must reproduce somehow! How else do you get more nerds?"

For once Tiffany didn't hear the snide and hurtful remarks. She was already outside and headed toward home. As she rapidly walked home she paid little attention to things around her. Likewise, people paid her very little attention. Tiffany was not noticeable in any situation. She always dressed down in loose clothing, usually in some shade of brown or tan. Her blonde hair was kept up in a pony tail and she never wore makeup of any kind. At sixteen years old, Tiffany was fully developed sexually, but she had only developed A-cup breasts and had a slim, almost boyish figure. Not that it mattered to her; she didn't need to go around half-naked trying to get picked up. If she got lucky enough to get caught in a confederacy pickup her CAP score of 7.1 would get her into space.

Tiffany bounded into her house and grabbed a soda and a bag of chips on the way to her room. She couldn't wait to get logged on and get in some flight practice on Swarm Attack - Air Power, or SAAP as the gamers refer to it on their blogs. Tiffany lived for flight simulators and had tried out every one she could get her hands on. After calibrating her joystick she spent an hour practicing ground landings and touch-and-go's before spending a half hour on space docking. Finally she got an IM from her friend Bingo that it was time to get logged in to the battle website for their evening mission.

Tiffany typed in her user name (Bat Girl) and password and was immediately transported to her virtual ready room. Bingo and Taz, her gunners, were already there. Tiffany adjusted her headset and said, "What's up boys?"

"Not much." Taz and Bingo said at the same time.

"Any idea what they're going to throw at us tonight?" Tiffany asked.

"No idea BG. The pipeline's been quiet tonight." Taz replied. "I did hear from my friend Argo that he heard we were ranked #5 after last night's mission."

"Sweeeeet!" Bingo said, "I can almost taste the shrimp I'm gonna eat while we are in Orlando."

"Don't get cocky boys." Tiffany replied, "There are a lot of missions between now and the tournament and we could still blow it."

"I bet you'd like my cocky, Bat Girl," Bingo purred, "Wanna blow it?"

"Shit man, you probably got a tiny little dick." Taz laughed. "BG needs a real dick like mine."

"I wouldn't fuck either of you perverts." Tiffany said with a grin, "I prefer men over little boys."

Taz and Bingo started to protest but their screens changed from the ready room to the briefing area.

"Listen up boys," Tiffany said, "we've got work to do."

Reggie's stomach lurched even though he was sitting in his desk chair as Hawk sent the Swift into a roll to avoid laser fire. Hawk had warned his gunners a split second before the maneuver so Reggie was able to keep his targets in sight and get off two more hits before his line of sight was blocked as he turned upside down. Hawk completed the roll and then turned hard right, bringing Kitten, the right side gunner into firing position. Reggie momentarily had a view of nothing but sky so he took a moment to assess his weapon status. Battery levels indicated that he had 5 shots left in the port side BLiPP.
"Hawk. Viper here. Down to 5 in the port BLiPP." Reggie said into his headset.

"I'm out." Kitten said.

"Affirmative. We'll pull a mid-level left so Viper can get a few more rounds off then we'll bug out for a recharge." Hawk replied. Hawk pulled up to 500 meters and started a left turn over the battleground below.

"AI, ID enemy groups of four or more." Reggie said. Immediately about a dozen clusters of combatants were highlighted on his targeting screen. Reggie chose five groups that were close to each other and fired one BLiPP into each.

"I'm out." Reggie said.

"Bugging out." Hawk replied as he pointed the nose of the ship upward and hit the thrusters.

Reggie sat back in his chair and flexed his fingers. He now had about 5 minutes of down time while Hawk took the Swift up into the ionosphere to recharge. Reggie pulled up the menu and selected the status screen to check their current score. They were second so far on this mission behind Bat Girl and her gunners.

"I'm off the air for a couple," Kitten said, "gotta hit the bathroom."

"Don't fall in!" Hawk replied.

"Not with my big ol' butt!" Kitten replied.

"What's up next Hawk?" asked Reggie.

"Command has us sealing off a canyon with Bat Girl and Fish. Satellites picked up an ass-load of dickheads moving through a canyon toward a populated area. We are to mine the canyon front and back then pick them off or drive them into the mines." Hawk told him.

"Sweet, that ought to wrack us up some points."

"What did I miss boys?" Kitten asked.

"A little mining and shooting coming up," Reggie said. "Let's set up the first pass and coordinate with the others."

Tiffany entered the canyon about 20 meters off the deck and kept the Swift centered in the slot. A restriction in the width of the canyon was coming up and that was where they were going to sow their air deployable mines.

"Drop on my mark," Tiffany said, "Three, two, one, drop."

Taz and Bingo let go 50 small mines each, completely carpeting the narrow canyon floor.

"Them buggers are going have a hard time getting through there." Bingo said.

"Heads up, our buddies will be in range in 10 seconds. We're in for 5 seconds then we pop outta this canyon and regroup while Hawk makes his run." Tiffany warned.

"We're ready." Taz replied.

Tiffany turned a corner and suddenly the Sa'arm troops were in sight. As soon as Bingo and Taz had targets they opened up with their BLiPPs. Blue spheres of energy reached out to the enemy annihilating the Sa'arm that they hit and electrocuting any others within 10 meters of the impact. Tiffany counted to five then pulled up hard on the stick, rocketing them up and away before the Sa'arm could get a fix on them.

Tiffany flipped a switch on her comm unit. "We're clear Hawk." she said.

"Roger that," Hawk said, "beginning our run."

Tiffany, Taz and Bingo watched on the tactical as Hawk made his run. Hawk's gunners, Viper and Kitten, dropped their mines at the other end of the canyon then tore into the rear of the Sa'arm formation before Hawk climbed out.
"I'm out," Tiffany heard Hawk say over her comm, "you're clear to run Fish."

"Roger that, Hawk." Fish said. "Starting my run now, hope you left me some."

Tiffany was preoccupied with lining up for her next run and she almost missed what happened. Fish's startled voice brought her back to attention.

"Taking heavy fire. Shit! It's coming from above us. Roscoe it's up on the wall." Fish yelled.
Another voice, presumably Roscoe's said, "It's too high. I can't bring the gun to bear. Pull up or..."

The comm went silent.

"We've lost Fish." Hawk said.

"What happened?" Tiffany asked.

"I think some of those dickheads climbed up the wall of the canyon and got above him."

"God damn it." Taz spat. "I hate it when those bastards start thinking."

"I've got an idea," Hawk said, "let's go in at the same time. I'll come in at 10 meters for a strafing run and to draw the fire from those dickheads on the walls. You come in behind me at the top of the canyon and get those bastards taking the potshots."

"Sounds good. I'm forming up behind you now." Tiffany said.

Tiffany tucked in 300 meters behind Hawk's Swift. When they reached the head of the canyon Hawk dropped in low while Tiffany stayed slightly above the canyon rim.

"Keep a close eye on the canyon walls, boys," Tiffany said, "let's make 'em pay for Fish."

"Five seconds to contact." Hawk said. "Shit, they are on the walls. Taking fire!"

Before Tiffany could answer, Bingo and Taz opened up. Chunks of rock and Sa'arm bodies could be seen falling from ledges on the canyon walls. Hawk's gunners left a swath of dead dickheads on the canyon floor before Hawk pulled up and out of the canyon.

"Nice shooting Bat Girl!" Hawk yelled as they cleared the canyon.

"Thanks Hawk, but all I did was fly. Taz and Bingo did the shooting."

"I stand corrected. Fancy another run? I'll cover you this time."

"Not tonight, we just got the recall signal, the mission is over. Y'all flying tomorrow?" Tiffany asked.

"Yep, we'll be here." Hawk replied.

"See you tomorrow then." Tiffany said as her screen changed back to their virtual ready room.

Ray Walker and the rest of the development team turned back to the conference room table after watching the video of the web battle.

"Holy Shit!" Bob Kolinski said. "They were great. I can't believe what I saw tonight. You're sure that none of those people have any combat or flight experience?"

"No experience other than video games and they are doing that well, or better, every night." Ray said. "We have identified over 2000 pilots and 5000 gunners since we launched the game that would meet our minimum requirements."

"How do these 'gamers' compare to our trained pilots and gunners?" asked Karen Green.

"We have put our pilots and gunners through the same scenarios as the gamers. The gamers average kill ratio is 65% higher and the gamers lose 75% fewer aircraft." Ray said. "Furthermore, the gamers tend to have much better mission planning and tactical skills. It took our pilots an average of three sessions on the canyon scenario we just watched to come up with a solution to the Sa'arm fire from above."

"What's next?" Ross McGee asked. "Kelly and I are at a stopping point until we can get augmented pilots and gunners and start new trials."
"It's time to send out the invitations to the top 100 teams worldwide to come to the tournaments. Karen, are the arrangements all set?" Ray asked.

"Yes, we have booked convention halls in Orlando, Berlin, Rio, Tokyo and Sydney. Fed-Ex packages to the top teams are going out tomorrow. We have people on the ground to make follow-up visits to those who don't RSVP within two weeks of the tournament." Karen replied.

"How do we know that all of the top one hundred teams are eligible for Confederacy service?" Ross asked.

"Because we manipulated the system." Bob said. "The AI helped us maneuver pilots and gunners who have CAP scores of 6.5 or higher together. All three hundred members of the top one hundred teams are eligible to volunteer and hundreds of others who will come to the tournament to compete will be eligible also. Those extra volunteers are a bonus and can form the basis for the next training class of pilots and gunners."

"Very slick." Ross admitted.

"Karen, what about our other arrangements?" Ray asked.

"Everything is good to go. We had a small bit of trouble with one event but an unfortunate water main break that damaged a hotel forced them to move the event to the Orlando convention center after the hotel agreed to cover the rental cost difference." Karen winked as she spoke, letting everyone know that the water main break was no accident. "All convention floor areas will have extra security, including metal detectors and x-ray screening. We can expect very little trouble from Earth First or other extremist groups during the extractions." Karen said.

"Excellent. Have you coordinated with the Earth Militia?"

"Yes, I have. Those pilots and gunners with exceptional abilities that don't meet CAP requirements will be transported to a secure location near the convention center. The Earth Militia will then have a chance to sign them up for the defense of Earth. Initial training for them is to be at Eglin Air Force base in Florida."

"All right people, it's all coming together. Two months from now our first class of new pilots, gunners and technicians will be here for training." Ray said. "Let's get ready for them!"