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  Craeek! Craeek! the pilots heard, ever so close.

  “Yeah, feeding on life forms like us,” said Reena.

  Josh scanned for any sign of what could’ve made the noises, then tried to lift the group’s spirits. “We’ve all got blasters. As long as we don’t get taken by surprise, we should be able to beat anything out here.”

  Hoss nodded and stood stout.

  “I would guess that if we don’t make it back to the M.N. Rampage, Rolly will send a search crew out looking for us. Maybe they’ll even fly low over the labyrinth,” said Maya.

  “That’s what we should’ve done in the first place,” said Josh, with a wry smile.

  Reena threw her palms up as if to say, “Why the hell didn’t we think of that?”

  Josh saw a lone skermit appear from a side corridor. It stopped upon seeing the pilots, and then proceeded to trot cautiously toward them. When it got near the group, it hugged the far wall and trotted past them.

  A light bulb went off in Josh’s head. Some of these creatures have to know the way out of here. It sure did seem like the skermits were passing through, with no intentions of remaining in the maze. “Follow that skermit!” he whispered. “Don’t startle it!”

  “What?” said Hoss, scrunching his face and drawing back with puzzled eyes.

  “Why?” asked Reena.

  “Yeah, why, Josh?” said Maya.

  Josh crept after the skermit. The others exchanged glances and did the same. “We just need to keep our distance and not startle it. I think it can lead us out of here.”

  The skermit trotted down another long corridor. Josh and his crewmates waited until it neared the end to come out from behind a corner. The skermit took a few rights followed by an occasional left for about three times over. Then it stopped and sniffed at the ground.

  Josh couldn’t believe it—they were back at the intersection where Reena had squeezed the last of her cream.

  “Here we go again,” said Hoss.

  “Shh, ssh,” said Josh, holding up his index finger.

  The skermit sniffed for a bit longer before raising its head and trotting onward into another path. At the end of that one it stopped and smelled the ground again. The skermit continued this pattern, until at last the pilots were led out from the labyrinth and stood at the base of the slope.

  “Hot dog. I can’t believe it,” said Hoss.

  “Finally, we’re out of that forsaken place!” said Reena, smiling.

  Maya’s cheeks rose merrily. “That was good thinking, Josh. Real good.”

  Hoss and Reena looked at him while nodding.

  “So, I’m not just a brilliant pilot then?” said Josh, smirking cockily.

  Hoss shoved him back with one hand. “Don’t let it go to your head,” he said, grinning.

  The skermit stopped halfway up the slope to stare back at them. After that it scampered away.

  Josh and the crew hiked to their strikers and flew off for the M.N. Rampage.

  Chapter 3

  When Josh, Maya, Hoss, and Reena entered the 3rd squadron unit, Nate, Kyle and Ace were sitting in the lounge.

  “You guys are back a lot later than expected. Did something go wrong? Did you find Smokey, or any traces of where he could’ve gone?” asked Ace.

  Josh shook his head, but Hoss was the first to answer. “We didn’t find him. Neither did the other search team,” said the big man.

  Reena spoke before Hoss could get in another word. “We searched a huge labyrinth and ran into a Bigfoot that had Smokey’s pouch. We followed the damn thing to its cave where it tried to kill us, but we killed it.”

  “We searched for any signs of Smokey in the creature’s lair, but all we found was a room full of bones,” said Josh.

  Nate’s eyes wandered then brightened. “You don’t think any of those remains are Smokey’s, do you?”

  “No,” said Maya. “They all looked old. Plus there were no clothing in the cave.”

  Ace had a hand to his chin. Kyle looked to be thinking too.

  “Those Mercens must’ve gotten him, I know it,” said Nate.

  “Probably saw he was dead, and took his body to be eaten,” said Kyle.

  “Those defiling serpents!” spat Ace.

  Josh felt as gloomy as the faces of his fellow pilots he was looking around at.

  Later that evening, just before bed, Officer Rolly stopped by the third unit to inform the pilots Smokey had been declared dead, and there would be no further search teams sent to Jaken moon.

  ***

  The following afternoon, Josh walked into a large hall where a ceremony was being held for the fallen pilots from each squadron. He took a seat between Kyle and Ace, and peered at the big pictures of Stewart, Shawn, and Smokey, amongst other deceased. He glanced over at Maya to see how she was handling the moment. Her eyes were watery, but she seemed to be holding strong.

  Lights were out except for at the front of the room, where Commander Clint and a few officers stood. Clint made his way to the podium with a steeled expression. “Look at what they have done!” he said. “Once more the Mercens have robbed us of the ones we loved! Taken the lives of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, from the love of their families back home on Creston. And they promised to steal away many more! It is with a heavy heart that we must pretend to act like all is normal on our future patrols—and resist the urge to blow those merciless snakes out of space—just to maintain a semblance of peace. But I can assure you, if you have any faith at all in your longtime commander—those vile beasts will pay for the human blood that has been shed this past week.”

  There was nodding and angry faces from the crowd, but nothing like the rowdiness of the emergency briefing Clint gave prior to the Mercens attack on the Creston cruiser and attempt to take out the M.N Rampage.

  “Many of you didn’t know this, but I knew Smokey for nearly forty years. We haven’t always seen eye to eye throughout that time, but I was as close to him as you were with many of the other faces up on this wall. So believe me when I say, I am as hurt as all of you, and the Mercens will pay—they will pay!”

  Josh heard a growling reflection in the commander’s voice.

  Clint continued with: “I pleaded with headquarters to build up Creston forces for an all-out-war, but they denied my request knowing full and well what I also knew at the time: there would be thousands more faces hanging on a wall if that scale of war were to occur. But had my request been approved, I would have gotten into my striker and flown with the all of you into battle—as I would gladly lay my life on the line, if it could save millions more on Creston. And I think that’s why we are all here. Right?”

  A chorus of, “Yes, sirs!” sounded from the vexed pilots.

  Commander Clint peered eye to eye with many of them, and said: “The big fight is closer than you think. I’ve already warned headquarters of this. Our intel has confirmed the Mercens are working on all sorts of new tech; weapons that would be extremely hard to counter, and could bring about a swift annihilation of our home planet. Many sharp tests await us in the near future, and we must be prepared to neutralize every one of them.” He paused for a moment. “Officer Stinnet will be saying a prayer. After that, anyone who would like to come up here and say a few words about a fallen comrade is welcomed to do so. Following that, as is tradition, we will be serving black beer and black bread. There will be no patrols handled by the M.N. Rampage for the rest of the week. During this time all damaged strikers will be repaired to 100%. Make sure we’re getting plenty of sims and gym work. You all fought very well out there and I am proud to lead a group of such fine pilots.”

  With that, Commander Clint stepped away from the podium to applause from the crowd.

  He truly is a strong leader, thought Josh.

  ***

  A more or less uneventful week went by, where Creston and Mercen pilots made sure to abide by the agreed ceasefire. There wasn’t a single reported incident, even in the Cosmolis.
r />   Josh and the rest of the 3rd squadron had just gotten back from breakfast, when Officer Rolly entered the unit. “Attention!” he barked.

  The pilots remained where they were, but gave Rolly their undivided focus.

  “I’m here to inform you the battle carriers F.M. Comet and P.T. Stargazer will be departing from the Void Zone. Normal patrols will resume starting tomorrow. All strikers are fully operational.”

  The majority of the pilots smiled. Josh was one of them. He’d grown restless at remaining on the Rampage and missed going out into space. Thank goodness, he thought, listening as Rolly kept talking.

  “Our intelligence teams will keep a sharp eye out for any secret build-ups on the Mercen side.” He stopped for a moment and looked the group over. “I’ve also got a real treat for you guys. The new recruits will be arriving this afternoon. I will bring them down to the unit right after I’ve given them a tour of the ship.”

  “All right!” said Hoss.

  “What do you think about that, Josh and Maya? You won’t be the newest newbies anymore,” said a smiling Kyle.

  I’m not your normal newbie anyway, thought Josh.

  “Will there be any women in this batch?” asked Reena.

  “Good question,” said Maya.

  Officer Rolly tilted his head forward. “There will be one.”

  Maya and Reena grinned at each other.

  “Will we be flying the Cosmolis?” asked Ace.

  “Absolutely,” Rolly replied. “Strikers from the other carriers have been flying in that region all week in numbers of no less than ten.”

  “And not a single incident?” asked Nate.

  Rolly shook his head. “Not one.”

  “I got one for you,” said Josh, raising his hand, even though doing so wasn’t required. “Are any of them any good?”

  Kyle turned from Josh toward Officer Rolly. “Yeah, are there any naturals?”

  “None were as highly recommended as Josh from the last class, but yes, I’ve heard a couple of them are pretty good.”

  “So, no naturals,” said Kyle.

  “I’m not sure why Josh was so highly recommended, since I did manage to beat him the last time we did a sim together,” said Maya.

  Hoss cracked a wide smile Josh’s way.

  And she still refuses to give me a rematch, thought Josh, giving Maya a stink eye.

  Rolly managed a faint grin and said, “That will be all.” He turned and left.

  “Sure do miss seeing Smokey sitting on the couch in front of the big screen,” said Reena.

  “Yeah, me too,” said Josh. “I thought he was crazy the first time I met him, but I learned a lot from speaking with him.”

  “We all thought he was crazy at first,” said Ace, smiling. The other vets were nodding. “Let’s try not to lose any practice duels to the rookies this time around,” he said, grinning at Hoss. “It sets a bad example, and leads to gross overconfidence, like we’ve seen with Josh.”

  Josh smirked and jabbed a fist lightly into Hoss’ arms. “Yeah, Hoss. This time you can’t blame it on luck, since the rookies have no naturals in their group.”

  Hoss jabbed him back harder.

  “We should get an early gym session in, so we don’t have to go through the drudge of doing it with the recruits,” said Nate.

  Ace nodded and said, “Everyone okay with gym in an hour?”

  Josh nodded with the rest of the crew, knowing full well the recruits were going to suck at their first gym session. The thought of it reminded him of Shawn and Stewart gassing out with him and Reena on their first go around.

  When everyone split up, Josh sauntered to his room and napped for an hour until Maya came and got him. “Time to go, Josh. We need to get this done before Rolly gets back.”

  Josh popped to his feet and joined Maya, then the others en route to the gymnasium. Ace had already informed Rolly of the squadron’s decision to work out early.

  When they returned to the third unit lounge, everyone one got roughly twenty minutes to get cleaned up before Officer Rolly marched in through the door. “About face!” he shouted.

  Josh, Maya, and Hoss hopped up from the couch, with Nate and Reena moving over from the table. Kyle and Ace hustled over from down the hall. All formed a single-file line and eyed the three fresh faces that had entered the room.

  Josh’s eyes lit up with a smile. So did Maya’s. Tor! thought Josh, inspecting his former training mate, who was smiling back at them. Son of a gun. How in the world did he end up getting transferred to the Rampage? They’d considered Tor the Latin lover back at the academy, ever since his hookup with one of the female training officers, though, surprisingly enough despite his heritage, Tor didn’t speak a lick of Spanish.

  “I’d like you all to meet the newest members of the 3rd squadron,” said Rolly. He extended a hand toward the recruits. “Tor, Ven, and Jill,” he said, going down the line in order. “Recruits, these are your veteran squad mates, Reena, Nate, Kyle, Hoss, and squad leader, Ace. Josh and Maya have been with us for going on a month now. Make sure to pay close attention to any advice given from this strong group of pilots—as it may end up saving your life.”

  “Yes, sir!” the rookies sounded.

  “I thought I smelled some fresh meat!” Hoss blurted. “I sure hope there’s no hot shots thinking they can outperform anyone standing on this veteran line—’cause that ain’t happening.”

  “I’ll beat any one of them ten out ten times in practice, sir,” said Kyle.

  Josh cracked a wide grin, along with everyone else on the veteran line. Feels good not to be on the receiving end this time around. He thought Tor seemed to have let the vets’ comments roll off, since his old friend was grinning. That Ven guy seems to be pretty loose too. But the crooked smile on his face looks borderline malevolent. Josh looked at Jill’s drawn back expression and couldn’t help thinking she was unsettled by the remarks. None of them have any idea what to make of Kyle, he thought, barely able to keep from laughing, and watching them inspect the young vet.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” said Rolly, struggling to hold back his amusement. “You all can make friends once I’m gone. I want you to show these rookies to their rooms and answer any questions they have about life out here in deep space. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” said the vets.

  Officer Rolly departed.

  Josh moved over to Tor and gave him a manly embrace. “Guess they’re just letting any old pilot on this ship now,” he said. Maya was right at his side and gave Tor a hug too.

  “Did you volunteer, or did they just pull you from homeland defense?” she asked.

  “They pulled me, citing the department I was stationed at was overly populated. But one of the captains there told me it was actually due to my high-performance rating at Space League.”

  “That can’t be right,” said Josh, smirking.

  “So, how the hell are you two? Are you guys liking it out here? Josh, you still number one?” asked Tor with a smile.

  Josh took a quick glance to see if any of the vets were watching and then nodded. He saw Reena and Nate extending their hands to Ven and Jill.

  “That’s very debatable,” said Maya.

  “I’m one down to Ace, which was a slip. Other than that I’m undefeated,” said Josh.

  Tor’s smile widened. It was a look Josh missed seeing from Shawn, Stewart, and many others who thought of him as the best pilot they’d ever seen in training, and found it hard to imagine someone beating him.

  “Yeah, one loss doesn’t mean anything,” said Tor. “You guys seen any action out here?”

  “Lots. I’ve downed at least five shadow fighters since arriving on the Rampage,” said Josh.

  “Wow, that many already?”

  “He’s pretty much single-handedly started a war since being out here,” said Maya.

  Tor huffed, shaking his head. “Jesus, Josh.” His face quirked. “Where’s Shawn and Stew?”

  Josh dropped his eyes
for a moment, Maya doing the same.

  “I’m going to go meet the other recruits,” said Maya, before walking away.

  Josh nodded and then looked toward Tor’s curious face. “They got taken out, about a month ago in a tough fight by a high-ranking Mercen fighter.”

  Tor’s expression seemed to collapse.

  “There was a ceremony held for them last week with all the other fallen pilots. They will always be in our memories, but Maya and I are trying to move on from their loss.”

  Tor looked up at Josh and nodded without saying a word.

  “It’s no joke out here. Things can pop off at any time around the Void Zone. Tensions are always high.”

  “Damn…” Tor muttered.

  “All I can offer you is the same advice these vets gave me when we first arrived—don’t freeze up. Fight your hardest every time out. You got a shot, take it. These Mercens are vile and evil beasts, more so than you’ve ever read about.”

  “I get it,” said Tor.

  “Take care against their ships’ slick shade. The fighters can be tough to see when maneuvering.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me. You know I’m a strong pilot,” said Tor.

  “That you are. But if you see any enemy craft with a stripe on its wing, let one of the vets handle it until you’ve spent enough time out here. It was a marked fighter that took down our friends—but I got that son of bitch!” Josh paused for a moment, watching a trace of a grin show on Tor’s lips. “Did Rolly show you guys where the sim room was?”

  “Yes, he did,” said Tor.

  “Want to meet me there in about an hour for practice? I need to run to the currency room and make a couple other stops.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Josh smiled. “You should meet the rest of the crew. They’re all good people.”

  Tor looked toward the rest of the 3rd squadron and nodded. “All right. I’ll see you in a bit.” He walked toward the others.

  Josh watched his old friend for a moment and then left the unit.

  ***

  When Josh had finished running his errands, he walked into the simulation room and scanned for Tor. His former training mate was nowhere to be seen. He’ll probably be here soon, thought Josh. He strode over to the nearest sim and took a seat. A few seconds after sitting down, a message popped up on the machine’s screen saying: “Accept challenge?”