Chapter 75 - Annihilation event (2) (1/2)
”I want you to know that I generally despise your entire existence.”
”Oh come on that wasn't so bad.”
”...”
”What?”
”...”
”Are you just gonna pout like a 6 year old for the rest of the day like that?”
Having landed at their destination after about 60 minutes of the so called 'extreme maneuver conditioning course' Terra had lost most of her dinner along with her mood.
”What the hell was the point of that?”
”The extreme maneuver conditioning course is meant to show how bad a landing under enemy fire can be, and to show how important g resistance training is to new recruits.”
”Well I haven't received that training yet..”
”You're about to.”
”How? we're in Homestead, right?”
”Nope.”
”What do you mean? You have your council meetings, right?”
”I have, I'm already there.”
With a slight smile Dax's cybernetic eye lit up behind his eyepatch as the Stinger's ramp lowered and revealed a grassland outside.
”Dax? Where are we?”
”In the middle of nowhere, on the fringe of Kingdom territory. Today you're going to spend all getting to know this craft's in's and out's.”
With a smile on his face Dax prompted Terra to follow him outside.
”First lesson, point out the relevant part of the craft when I name it, incorrect answers will incur penalties~”
”Okay, I can do that.”
”Then let's start, first item: Landing gear.”
”Those right there.”
Pointing at the metal landing gear that stabilized the craft against the ground, Terra made the first correct guess.
”Primary lift surface.”
”The wings?”
”Incorrect. The primary lifting surface is the entire craft itself, wings are nice, but not needed. 20 pushups.”
”What, the entire craft? Are you for real?”
”First rule of aerodynamics for marines: Even a brick can generate enough lift to fly, provided it moves with sufficient speed. As such having wings like a bird is not sufficient for flight provided you have engines that are powerful enough. 20 pushups.”
”O-okay then.”
Accepting her punishment Terra dropped to the ground and started doing push ups as Dax continued his lecture.
”As a marine of the Galactic Empire you will come to love this craft as your mother, your husband and wife, and your god at the same time. If your Stinger is not properly maintained you will die, for example if the ammunition feed system is not maintained it can and will fail, resulting in a feed failure that at best will jamm the offencive weapons, making you craft unable to fire back and protect you, and at worst blow up you and all of your friends.
If the landing gear fails you're going to die when it takes flight from a high powered electro catapult, hell if the anti grav generator has a hiccup/and or a bad day it will generate tidal forces strong enough to tear you and everybody apart at a molecular level, and you'll-”
”Die, yeah I got it, I get the general picture. That was 20.”
”Die without realizing it yeah. Moving on, control interface.”
Restating the game Terra looked at the craft as it pulled its wings and engines in to its body.
”Its behind there right?”
pointing to the front of the craft a particularly sturdy armor Terra made her second correct answer.
”Good, next is primary life support.”
”Can I go inside the craft?”
”Sure.”
On his prompt the loading ramp opened once more, allowing Terra to walk inside again. Looking around at the empty insides of the Stinger Terra closed her eyes and listened.
”Hmm~ Next to the crawlway that leads to the c.o.c.kpit I hear the sound of… A small electrical pump…. And what sounds like electrolysis in a contained chamber, so over there?”
”Good answer, you really have excellent ears, let's go outside for the last one.”
Going into full lecturing mode Dax continued his monologue as he stopped and turned around to look at the Stinger.
”Now the primary power core is a micro fusion power plant that's located in?”
”-The bottom of the fuselage right below the seatings.”
”Correct, now for the most important one, please point at the primary propulsion.”
”That one's easy, the engines mounted at the tip of both-”
”Incorrect, give me 50.”
”Wait what? Bullshit.”
Not buying that the massive engines on the Stinger were its primary source propulsion Terra refused to take her punishment.
”Just like wings the engines are nice, but ultimately not needed for flight. ICI make the Stinger takeoff without using secondary population please.”
[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED, PRIMING ANTI GRAV DRIVE, STANDBY… DEVICE PRIMED, READY FOR TAKEOFF.]
With ICI cold and artificial voice as a que, the area around the Stinger started feeling strange to Terra.
”What is happening?”
”Ah this is the first time you've felt it directly, this is a anti grav drive.”
”Anti grav?”
”Specifically its a multi faced 6th generation graviton annihilation field generator.”
”you're not making any sense…”
Looking at Terra in disbelief as he had already thought her this Dax breathed a deep sigh.
”Every particle in this plane of existence has a?”
”- Ah, a positive and a negative spin counterpart.”
”And a graviton is?”
”The elementary particle/field/force that binds space and gravity to our plane of existence? So by generating a 'anti-graviton' it annihilates the graviton and creates a zone in spacetime with weaker gravity?”
”Close. By annihilating gravitons in an area it lessens the effect of gravity and does not affect time, but all generators are rigged to not allow a zero graviton or negative graviton zone.”
”But why would you stop before zero?”
Believing that if one eliminated gravity completely one could move way faster, Terra made the same mistake as so many had done before her.
”What is gravity as a force?”