Training Day

I hand Clover a freshwater bottle. Taking it in both hands, she cracks open the lid. still dazed, Clover stares out into nowhere as she slightly swayed in her seat. I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle as I watched her bobbing head regaining her senses.

Jax: "Sorry about that. I guess I should have given you a better heads up."

Clover slowly turns her head towards me. Staring me down before her face shifts into confusion.

Jax: "Clover you ARE alright, right? I hope I didn't hurt your hearing."

Clover: "No... I'm ok..."

I watch her light sway as I ponder her words. Is she really alright though?..

Clover: "What about you Jax... How are you fine after that..."

Jax: "Huh?.. Well... I guess because I'm used to it? Even when I first tried that tactic it never really put me in much of a daze. Though, when other pilots try it, they usually end up like you did. So I guess just natural resistance?"

Her confused look remains plastered on her face. Look back out the window, we both take another sip of our water. Clover downs the remainder of her water bottle, returning to her feet. Looks like she's regained her composure.

Jax: "Ready to begin training?"

Filled with vigor, she nods her head. At her signal, I lead her outside, dummy in tow. Stepping out into the blazing sun once more, I set down the dummy a couple dozen paces from the shack.

Jax: "Alright, when you were away, I had the engineers' load Sakura to capacity."

I look over to Sakura, calmly sat beside Spirit. noting Sakura's abundance of missiles dangling beneath her.

Jax: "First, hop into Sakura and show her the guidelines to the technique you want to teach her. For example, a simple gun run. Or a low altitude pass as I showed with Spirit."

Clover: "I can't just give Sakura the command?"

Jax: "Good point. The Aerocord AI learns how to fly through the pilot themselves. It basically takes notes as you fly yourself, and implements those techniques when you give a command. So in order for Sakura to know what to do, you must show it how to do it first. Understand?"

With two quick nods, Clover quickly waddles over to Sakura, jumping inside. After a few seconds, the Royal Sakura screams to life. With a blue tail of fire bursting from behind the majestic jet, Sakura springs into the sky. I make my way to the shack, leaning against the building as I watch Sakura make her strafing pass. A cloud of smoke bursts from Sakura as red tracer fire erupts from beside its pointed nose. A cloud of sand erupts around the dummy as the hum of the 20-millimeter cannon fire echos through the sky. Clover aborts her dive, watching the status of her bounty. As the sand settles, the dummy stands in place. A large slash runs down the middle of its chest, Leaving the rest unscathed.

Jax: "Hey, you at least hit it. But we need to narrow it down until you nail the dummy. otherwise, imperfections will be translated into the technique."

... After several strafes later, Clover finally lands a direct hit on the dummy. As the cloud settles for the final time, the dummy lays in sliced pieces.

Jax: "Perfect strafe Clover! Let's take a little break from the G loads."

Clover lets out a sigh of relief as her breathing settles. Sakura slows, coming in for a landing beside Spirit once again. As clover jumps out, she walks up to me, studying the remains of her target.

Jax: "So how much ammo did you burn through?"

Clover: "Out of 1,900 rounds of ammo... I have just over 100 left..."

I try my hardest to suppress my surprised expression. Trying my best to hold Clover's morale high. I get those were anti-personnel bursts, but hold long were you holding actually holding the trigger?

Jax: "I see... Fuel?"

Clover: "I still have around 85% of fuel..."

I look to the sky, noting the sun's position in the sky, a while past noon. Still plenty of time in the day. But rearming Sakura's gun would be a waste of time...

Jax: "Alright. Usually, we'd let Sakura run the drills for a while and buff out the kinks. But since Sakuras' running dry on ammo, we'll have to call that tactic a day for now. In the meantime, since you have plenty of missiles and fuel, we'll move on to your second PCAST."

Clover: "What should it be?.."

Jax: "Well... Usually we Aerocord pilots don't show each other our PCAST. They're kinda our own specialty. But, I'll happily give recommendations on tactics Sakura would be efficient at."

After hearing my thoughts and explanations, Clover once more takes to the skies. I gave Clove 3 recommendations based on Clover and Sakura's arsenal. For now, we'll focus on just the one... Sakura inverts herself, diving down on the unsuspecting dummy. Sakura aborts the dive, leaving only a trail of white smoke rushing towards the target. With a vigorous explosion erupting from where the dummy once laid, only ashes fluttered in his place.

Jax: "Good hit! First, try too! a couple more of those and Sakura will be landing bullseye after bullseye."

After Clover successfully nails the dummy target several times over, I advance her to the next step.

Jax: "Another good hit. We'll let Sakura handle the next few targets now. When I give the signal call out PCAST 2 to Sakura. Let Sakura fly herself, but hover your hands over the controls and be ready to abort an attack when needed."

Clover: "Right!.."

Once again I step inside the shack, dragging out another dummy to be disintegrated. Setting down the dummy and stepping far away, I give Clover the signal.

Clover: "PCAST 2!"

Following the steps Clover was showed. Sakura inverts, dived on the target, fired off one of its many missiles, and aborts the dive. The missile falls towards the target, erupting in a fiery blaze once more. As the dust settles, the dummy remained intact. Only being knocked over from the blast.

Jax: "Sakura missed the target. Call out the command again, but this time make small manual adjustments to Sakura's trajectory."

Once again on Clover's signal, Sakura follows through the steps. In the final stages of the dive, Sakura makes a small adjustment to its angle before firing. After the adjustment, Sakura aborted the dive, leaving the unhindered missile to fly. The missile lands on the dummy's feet, destroying it without question.

Jax: "Splash one dummy! Let's get Sakura to do that a few more times before we call it good."

I turn towards the shack, stopping in place as my watch begins to crackle out a voice.

Chloe: "Sorry to ruin your little playdate, but an urgent mission has just popped up."

Jax: "An urgent mission? What's going on?"

Chloe: "Yurei's radar systems picked up a hostile strike unit set to fly right into Yurei airspace in approx thirty minutes."

Jax: "Thirty minutes!?!? What has our radars been doing!?"

Chloe: "The strike unit has been sitting low, using the dunes as cover. As they got closer our radars finally picked them up."

Jax: "I see... What's my task?"

Chloe: "You are to intercept the strike force. Either wiping them out or stalling enough time for reinforcements to arrive."

I begin walking over to spirit, popping open the canopy.

Jax: "Affirmative, what kind of numbers am I expecting?"

Chloe: "Radar estimates anywhere from 10-20 units."

As the canopy slides back into place I begin running through Spirit's start-up sequence. Spirits dormant engines roar to life once more as I look over my shoulder, wiggling the controls. I take to the skies, falling into position beside the Royal Sakura

Jax: "Understood, Phantom Spirit moving to intercept. Clover, you are to RTB, after all those strafing runs, your weaponry is running dry."

I note the remaining handful of missiles found on the suspended pylons

Clover: "I'm... I'm good to fight! Sakura's weapons bay hasn't been used yet!.."

Sakura's underbelly waves open before shutting once more. Revealing the aforementioned weapons bay, sure to be stocked full with more missiles. Weapons bay? On top of all those external suspended armaments, Sakura still had a weapons bay!?!? I can't help but laugh at Sakura's overabundance of weapons.

Jax: "Understood! Sakura's payload never ceases to surprise! Clover... Are you ready for your first actual battle?"

Clover falls silent, steeling her resolve. After spending her minute in silence, she finally calls out over the radio.

Clover: "I'm Ready!"

Jax: "Right!"