"The fighters are dealt with, I doubt they'll be able to follow us. If any more come, you keep going. I should be able to pull off the same trick again."

Edwards was just about to relax and reply when he registered a distant boom. Suddenly his whole world was shaken by an ear shattering BOOM!! Alarms started sounding all over, he looked at his ship’s integrity stats, they were not encouraging.

“What the? Ground Fire!” Edwards screamed as he activated his CMV’s tools and attempted to repair himself and his engine.


Hades:
Soon all three CMV’s screamed into the hangar to be greeted by no less than two squadrons of fighters and these were faster and a lot more agile than the last. Hades tried to doge but got hit twice.
“That’s it, Ladies lets get low and lets get fast.” He said as he flipped a row of switches in the c0ckpit.
However instead of shooting down he shot up and managed to set off the sprinklers and anti-fire foam dispensers before gunning the engine to the max and diving to skim the ground, attempting to shoot through the ranks of fighters and reach the objective.

(OOC:Were, you've been spelling Kant's name wrong. It's Kant, not Kent)

Just as Kant was beginning to think this was getting too easy, an explosion nearby caught his attention. It appeared Edwards had been hit by groundfire,so Kant decided to go deal with it. He swung downwards, but as he went down an artillery batttery that he hadn't noticed opened fire on him. "DAMN!! I'm hit, and hit bad." He pulled up, and he noted how sluggisht the CMV suddenly felt. "Keep going, you should be faster than me, so I should be able to draw some fire. I'll follow you best I ca-" Another boom resounded close by. That was far too close. He spun downwards, hoping that the artillery would assume they'd shot him out the sky. They did, and as the ground reared up at him, he noted less shots coming his way. Judging the distance almost perfectly, he pulled up the CMV, and sped just above the ground. He manipulated the arms to pick up one of the large gun batteries, and dropped it onto another as he passed. He came screaming out of the explosion, using it as cover to get a decent amont of altitude before being fired upon again.

(*Smacks head.* So sorry. There’s a feed store I use to work at named Kents.)

Steve smirked. This was just too eas---

*BOOM!*

--Yeek. Well that was un expected. Gripping the controls he turned to avoid the new set of attacks, sending his, and Edward’s, CMVs barrel rolling to the right, before pulling to the left. His eyes darting left and right to see where the attack was coming from. The ground?

“What the? Ground Fire!”

Alright that explained it. “You still with me Edwards?” Steve asked through the intercom. There were alarms going off, looked like part of Steves CMV had gotten hit. He made the new adjustments to the way he piloted it, and quickly gained full control again.

"DAMN!! I'm hit, and hit bad. Keep going, you should be faster than me, so I should be able to draw some fire. I'll follow you best I ca-"

Steve mentally measured the different possibilities. All CMVs had taken virtual damage. His was the best working on at the moment. He didn’t like leaving someone behind but that wasn’t the name of the game. The name of the game was go in and retrieve. At the moment he was the retriever. Steve was the delivery boy. “As you wish but you better still fly after that. I might need another target for the those guys again that isn’t me and Edwards.”

“That’s it, Ladies lets get low and lets get fast.”

Nearly there, Kimberly could almost smell the lunch when the new set of faster fighters came. She faked up, tilting her CMV and turning before plummeting down under the new fire. A foamy cover rose, bringing a small smile to Kim’s face. She flipped on a new switch for better fission and accelerated, ramming the arms into two new attackers.

“Two down,” She said through the intercom. “did anyone get a full count?”

*ugh, I'm sorry please skip my turn for now. I can't think of anything to write, permission to godmodd.*

(OCC ok guys don’t know about you guys, but I am getting a bit tired of this, so lets just move it along, wrap it up in your next post or so and wel will get back to the XPS’s and even that part I will try my best to keep it moving at a reasonable pace)

Edwards breathed a sigh of relief as Steven’s excellent piloting skills seemed to bring them out of fire, well just by a hair’s width. The flight back was bumpy but it was a real relief to see the door to the hangar again. “Hey Steve, Kant, thanks for saving my ass back there.”


“Nope sorry, let’s get what we came for and go.” Hades said as he swung his CMV down beside and container while extending the clamps. As soon as the HUD display registered the container was secure, Hades took off amid a flurry of fire.

(OOC: Gah! *smacks forhead* sorry, forgot about this thread completely *smacks head again in an attempt to install a memory. and some common sense whilst I'm at it*)

Kant breathed a sigh of relief as they cleared the SAM sites, and they were still moving fast enough that whatever planes were sent after them couldn't find them. Or they gave up trying to bring them down. Either way, they were in the clear, and soon reached back at base. Kant shrugged off the colonel's thanks, "Just doing what I was told. When do we get to use the space planes? I thought that was the whole point of us being here."

(OOC: By the way, totally for keeping things moving. maybe you could try one of emerald's patented time-jumps lol)

(I’ll just follow you guys’s lead. Time jumps work.)

Now safe at the end of the practice run, Steeve exited his CMV. “Yeah, yeah.” That training was way more funner then his computer simulations back in grade school. He strolled after Edwards. “Think of it as an IOU?”

Kimberly had swung around, collecting her cargo. Mmmmm Lunch!. Then just as smoothly she turned. Concentrating on making a smoother ride as she dodged between attacks. Following the way they had just come, back.

Molly followed Kimberely in her CMV and exited once they got back with the lunch. "So, Commander Hades. What's next?"

They were all back at the hangar, standing beside their CMV’s, then on a wall nearby, the evaluation of their tasks appeared.
“What I did not tell you was that this was a sort of test to see how much you had learned about the CMV. From your results I am satisfied that you have learnt well.”

Hades then turned to them “You are now cleared to fly the CMV. It is now Saturday afternoon, fly your CMV back to the main hangar and find your allocated parking space, it will always be parked there in that dock. Take Sunday off and we will meet back in the briefing room on Monday morning 0900 hours sharp. Oh, and er, well done.”

With that he turned and left. With a groan the door blocking the tunnel back to the main hangar slid open. With a whine commander Hades powered up his CMV and flew it to it’s docking space. He was rather happy with the progress of the pilots. At least now he was a lot more confident that they could handle the XSP series.

His own personal parking space? Must be a job perk. He was surprised that Hades told them all well done, but he ignored it. Without talking to the others, he flew his CMV into the space easily, parking it perfectly. He then decided to spend his day off going through the instruction manual for the space plane, so that he knew it through and through. He didn't want to hit the wrong button again, so he paid extra attention to the controls in the c0ckpit. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

Steve and Kimberly ad finished their tasks sucksessfuly? And gotten a good job. Well of course Kimberly had expected nothing less then a good job and stood straight nodding her head. James, on the other hand, stood with his chin slightly up. A grin on his face.

Having been dismissed, Steve and Kimberly got back in their CMVs. Taking care to park them well, then off to enjoy their break mixed with studying here and there.

Molly was grinning big on the inside, outside however, she stood at attention as Commander Hades flew off. She shook her head with a grin as she reentered her CMV, pulled back the toggle and flew out the hanger and landed neatly in her designated parking space. She got out, stretched and made her way back to the rooms to read, write a letter to her dad, study and nap.

After a relaxing weekend, Commander Hades was more than ready for the cadets as he waited for them in the briefing room. His eyes gleamed with anticipation, this was going to be fun, but it must be taken slowly, it should not be rushed, they would start from the basics.

While waiting for the pilots to arrive, he told all the tech teams to be on standby and to prepare all the simulators.

Kant strode into the room on the dot at the time he had been told. He was not impressedthat none of the others were here; as far as he was concerned, they were late. He nodded to Commander Hades. "Commander. I trust this time we may get some more tuition than my first attempt?"

Kimberly strolled in after Kant. She would have been here five minutes ago but she'd been having trouble deciding between having a bun in her hair of a braid. She'd settled for a bun this time around. Steve followed a in a few seconds later.