"You will not laugh. You will not cry. You will not whine. You will learn by the numbers and I will teach you! There is no room for failure! You will learn to be killers! You will learn to be the lords of the air! You will learn to bring death from the skies to those poor misbegotten bastards on the ground! Here, you are all equally worthless until you prove you can be more than some dirt eating idiot marching in circles and waving a rifle around." - Senior Drill Instructor Chief Warrant Officer Grade Two Mukstet, Festwik Striker Piloting School, Dutra Air Base, Telkan-2.

The HT113b 30mm magnetic propelled variable munition autocannon. With a pedigree that goes back to Pre-Glassing Terra, this weapon killed more people during the Hamburger Wars and the EuroGoon Sidhe Wars than the population of your home cities.

Capable of anti-armor, anti-emplacement, and anti-infantry work, the HT113b is the work horse of the Confederate Armed Services. From door guns to nose cannons to mech mounted weapons, the HT113b's basic design is unchanged for over six thousand years.

Consisting of a six rail acceleration system with eight terminal adjustment coils, the HT113b is capable of firing rounds at fourteen thousand meters per second with pinpoint accuracy of less than ten millimeter groupings at targets as far away as nine kilometers.

In a properly skilled pilot or gunnery crewchief or doorgunner's hands the HT113b can mission kill Atrekna and Precursor armored vehicles less than five hundred tons with three to five rounds.

With the variable munition system employed by the Confederate Armed Services, the HT113b will allow a striker to kill anything it spots. With the standard Confederate Armed Services dedicated munitions nanoforge you will run out of blood before it runs out of ammunition.

Line up by serial number on the red lines and get ready for simulator training.

Try not drool on the controls.

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The VNM77E2 Variable Munition Rocket. Capable of being mounted singly or in pods as well as being produced by the standard Confederate Armed Services munitions nanoforge for use in retractable gunpods. Capable of fly by wire, wireless control, or virtual intelligence guidance, the VNM77E2 rocket performs a variety of roles from anti-building to anti-armor to anti-personnel.

With a maximum range of thirty kilometers with a flight speed of nine thousand three hundred fifteen meters per second, your enemy is dead four seconds after the missile is fired.

In peer to peer conflicts the VNM77E2 rocket is capable of being flown by wire to ensure enemy disruption does not effect the weapon's accuracy in areas of high jamming.

The standard Confederate Armed Services munitions nanoforge with optimum heat and slush levels is capable of producing one of these every point eight two seconds, allowing a steady resupply at such levels as a single launcher can wipe out a surprised convoy in less than a minute.

With virtual intelligence 'smart systems' the missile is capable of flying around corners, adjusting altitude, as well as adjusting speed and terminal trajectory, allowing it to function in 'pop-up' mode as well as maneuvering to attack armored vehicles at the rear deck.

A trained striker pilot can bring this weapon into play with enough effectiveness to flush the gunnery pods and pull evasive maneuverings before the first missile hits.

Line up at the simulators and try not to get anything lodged in your various waste orifices.

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The M903E5 air to air missile. Sleek. Deadly. Possessing a graviton reactionless thrust system, the M903E5, known as the Ripper, has a maximum speed of MACH 22 and a maximum engagement range of eighty-five kilometers. Coming in two standard configuration, direct contact and explosively launched munitions, the Ripper is capable of taking out light torchships, graviton strikers, and Dwellerspawn air units up to the Dragon class.

Capable of fly by wire, wireless control, and virtual intelligence 'smart' targeting, the Ripper uses semi-active laser and graviton detection homing as well as nanometer wave RADAR systems. It is highly resistant to chaff, flares, or prism cloud defenses and in the hands of a skill operator can kill a target before the target is aware the striker has spotted them.

Mounted in groups of four on the munitions wings or in groups of three on internal bay systems, the Ripper is your way of reaching out and touching someone seeking to touch you.

Line up at the simulators and try not to vomit.

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The Mi-527e5c High Speed Multi-Role Close Assault Troop Transport Gunship, also known as "The Tohil.".

Twenty tons of high tech alloys and composites, including the new Mark-V Warsteel, held aloft by three graviton counter-grav engines and propelled by those same three graviton engines as well as three jet turbines. Crewed by a pilot, a co-pilot slash gunnery officer, an electronic warfare officer, a communications officer, and three to six green mantid technicians, the Tohil Striker can carry up to sixteen dismount troops and two door gunners as well as a rear deck gunner. Alternatively, the troop area can carry palletized cargo that can be dropped from the rear deck hatch in high speed low opening speed drops.

The Tohil has seen combat across the galactic arm for centuries, including the Digital/Biological Artificial Sentience War, the Sixth Heresy of Two, and the Mar-gite Wars. Excelling at its roles, the newest version, which you unworthies will be blessed with flying, has been largely left alone except for the replacement of the warsteel armor and light armoring around the central mass tank and the removal of the air scoop to replace it with a multi-feed system.

The Tohil is fast, maneuverable, and is capable of surviving in the fireball of a multi-megaton atomic blast.

She is the best in-atmosphere multi-role combat aircraft devised by the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

She has earned your respect.

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The M52A5 Fast Attack Gunship, known as "Mongoose" or just plain "Goose."

Eight tons of armor, guns, and graviton engines, the Goose is capable of speeds up to MACH 12, nearly outrunning its nose cannon. With a crew of a pilot and co-pilot backed by three green mantid technicians, the Goose is capable of raining death on the battlefield through a wide variety of mission oriented modular weapon systems.

The Goose has seen combat on Hesstla, Telkan, and many other worlds. More than a few of you owe your survival to this gunship.

Line up at the simulators and this time, try not to crash into each other.

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Welcome to hands on flight training.

During this three week training module you will learn to fly the various strikers of the Confederate Armed Services. From the Goose to the Tohil to the Cheyenne, it is here we will discover which of you have the capacity to fly the most deadly aircraft in the Galactic Arm Spur, designed and perfected by the Mad Lemurs of Terra, which craft you have the touch for, and which ones of you will go back to slogging through the mud carrying a rifle.

There is no VI here to save you, no virtual reality tricks or nudges.

If you crash here, you have cost the Confederate taxpayer up to sixty million credits in mass and energy and probably killed the man next to you.

We start with basic flight training.

Those of you who pass will move on to advance flight training.

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Welcome to the Confederate Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion Training Course.

Passing this course is mandatory for all striker pilots and crew members. There are no waivers, there is no way to avoid this course.

You will learn to survive in the jungle, the desert, on airless rocks, and in hazardous environments.

The environment will be trying to kill you just as gleefully as enemy search parties.

Out of the seventy of you standing here, less than two thirds will graduate this course. While the politicians and the scientists may think this is wasteful, that one third of pilot candidates wash out and have wasted Confederate Taxpayer mass and energy, there can be no weak links.

Lives depend upon your survival.

Private K'Rak survived three years, carrying the fight to the enemy and performing reconnaissance by himself, thanks to the training he received in survival, escape, resistance, and evasion.

If a four year old Warrior Caste Treana'ad can survive for three years, with only the skills imparted on him by basic training and the advanced infantry training course, then I expect you to survive until the heat death of the universe after graduating this school.

If, at any time, you feel you cannot continue, you may drop upon request by either raising your hand and informing a drill instructor or by ringing that bell right there.

Welcome to Hell, ladies, gentlemen, both and neither.

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Welcome to Striker Island! The civilians and the brass may have some fancy smancy name for it like the Confederate Aviation Warfighting Training Center, but here, it is Striker Island! Only the best train here and we damn well know it.

Every one of you was recommended by their commanders and flight leaders. Every one of you has an extensive combat record. You all have recognized raw skill and ability that will be trained and hammered into the most highly skilled striker pilots the galaxy has ever seen.

This school is sixteen weeks.

During that time, out of the thirty-six of you, over half will wash out.

Hopefully they won't kill their crew when they go back to their units.

On top of that hill at the end of the beach is a bell.

Grab your gear!

Any of you who do not ring that bell within the next hour has washed out! Any of your baggage you have dropped will be confiscated and not returned until the end of this course.

GET TO IT!

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The Orbital Insertion Course is one of the most difficult training courses you will ever attend. You will be maneuvering a graviton striker, designed for in atmosphere use, from the Naval vessel that has brought it into orbit, to the surface.

While the majority of the time orbital insertions are done via drop cradles or on carefully aligned magnetic 'rail' systems, there may come a time when you have no choice but to make a planetary insertion from orbit relying only on your striker, your crew, and whatever you are carrying.

The first three weeks will be simulator practice.

Your final week, which will be pass or fail only, you will partake in at least two successful orbital insertions from the wreckage of a troop carrier and to the Telkan surface.

As you can imagine, those crews that fail rarely return to their originating units.

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Pelfar was a Hakanian who had been faced with many challenges to get where he finally was.

He had not grown up on his species native Kteshaka'an, but rather in Harstenvernia, in a creche, and initially had been educated as a gardener. The PAWM had attacked and before he was four the system was liberated by the fearsome Mad Lemurs of Terra. Pelfar was too young to remember those days and had grown up on a small automated farm.

The Unified Council had counter-attacked when Pelfar had just turned eight and the war for the planet had lasted nearly three years. During that time he had ended up a child soldier, carrying a rifle and flying drones to resist the Lanaktallan war machine.

A year after that the Atrekna had attacked the system, the sun turning red.

For the next twelve years he had fought as an irregular, piloting drones to attack the bioweapons of the Atrekna. He had been part of the initial resistance and often felt like his drone swarms and virtually piloted combat craft were one of the reasons the people of Harstenvernia had survived long enough to recruit, train, arm, and field the armies that eventually made the difference and, with the assistance of less than a division of Confederate troops, had pushed the Atrekna off the planet.

When the system had been liberated, only six months had passed while he had spent twelve years resisting creatures from beyond space and time.

Rather than stay on the small automated farm with the rest of his life after the war, like so many of his fellow Hakanian who had survived, Pelfar had tried to join the Confederacy's military.

According to Confederate records, Pelfar was merely eleven years old when in actuality he was twenty-three, nearly ten years into maturity.

During initial inprocessing it was decided that doctors would examine his bone growth, the condition of his growth plates, his internal organs, and several glands, as well as other biometrics.

The doctors decided that he was twenty-three and he was allowed to enter the Confederate military.

His people weren't known for their bravery, weren't known for their aggressiveness, weren't known for their martial might. They were known to be a gentle people, preferring their small automated farms and tight family and clan units.

Pelfar felt estranged from the majority of his people.

His nickname was "Yrler", the Hakanian word for the right eye.

His right eye was ringed by a thick scar which was ringed by white fur.

He had been nine when he had fired the rifle and the scope had laid open the skin around his eye all the way to the bone.

Pelfar's fellow recruits were all civilians, the closest they had come to warfare was either huddling in the shelters or watching it on the Tri-Vee or playing a Magician's Hat video game.

Pelfar still sometimes woke up with his fur slicked with sweat and his hands trying to desperately reload an empty rifle that existed only in his memories.

The Hakanian were average height for the Uncivilized Neo-Sapient species, but hardship had left Pelfar standing only 1.1 meters, barely tall enough to qualify for the Confederate military.

Still, he had learned determination and endurance during the long years of the two wars he had been part of. Even if it was just carrying a relay system on his back to the top of a hill to extend the range of his drones and virtually piloted air attack vehicles. Even if it was just carrying gear or children through the ruins of a city.

He had learned not to quit, and he endured as the number of recruits dwindled around him, the harsh Confederate Armed Services Basic Military Training unforgiving in its ruthless objective to weed out any who 'could not hack it' in the military.

While Pelfar had fought with drones, rifle, cutting bar, and virtually controlled combat vehicles, he had not chosen the life of an infantryman or a drone operator.

Instead, he had put in for grav-striker pilot.

His fellow recruits had all laughed at the idea of a Hikanian being a grav striker pilot. The reflex speed, the steady nerves, and the ice cold blood needed to pilot those engines of destruction seemed beyond a Hakanian's ability.

Pelfar did not care about his fellow recruit's estimations of his chances.

He had fought for twelve years against the bioweapons of the Atrekna.

He had once beaten an Atrekna to death with a rock to protect three Telkan broodcarriers when he was only twelve.

He had survived on spoiled nutripaste for a month.

He had licked with a dry tongue a cracked macroplas window for water droplets.

He had graduated Basic Military Training and stood next to his fellow recruits.

But Basic Military Training was not the end of the suffering.

Oh no.

After that was flight school, grav striker school, SERE, orbital insertion training.

Each school designed not only to impart the skills necessary but to wipe out any weak links and those without the ability to endure, adapt, innovate, and secure victory.

Two hundred and seventy two recruits arrived at basic flight school.

Pelfar graduated sixth out of twenty-three.

From there he was assigned to the Telkan Expeditionary Forces and sent to Telkan-2.

The military campaign called "The Spoked Offensive" by the press and everyone Pelfar knew was heavily underway when he arrived and was assigned to First Telkan Armored Division as part of First Air Cavalry Regiment.

He had spent three months getting to know his fellow pilots and striker crews, gotten to know the six green mantids that would be responsible for keeping his grav-striker in the air.

Two days after the System Director's Building had been attacked he had been ordered, with the rest of his Regiment, to prepare for interstellar movement.

The Spoked Offensive was still underway in nearly a thousand systems, with heavy combat in several hundred.

First Telkan Armored Division would be joining XXXIVth Corps.

Not content with stopping the Atrekna Spoked Offensive, the Confederate Armed Services was launching a counter-attack of its own.

The beings of First Telkan Armored Division boarded the ships of the Confederate Space Force Navy.

Operation Atomite Djinn was on.

And Pelfar, callsign "Yrler", was going to be on the point of the warsteel spear of First Telkan Armored Division.