A Viper's Nest Ch. 11

The hologram changed to show a recording of the turret during a battle. As the pilot flew through space, the Lupine controlling the fighter's turret spun it around, firing a pair of heavier weapons. The recording switched between a pair of Heavy Lasers and a dual weapons setup of two Missile Launchers and the standard Lasers used by the pilot.

"With its three engines, heavy armour, and offensive weaponry, the Lupine Fighter is a formidable opponent," Zsosu said as she walked over to where John was sitting, "fortunately, our Mambas are more than capable of dealing with them. Pilot Lawrence," she said while looking down at him. John looked up into her glowing emerald eyes, "what would you say gives our fighters the edge in any battle?" she asked.

"Their manoeuvrability, speed, and...."John paused as he thought of something else.

"Our Nanos," one of the Viper pilots chimed in.

"That's correct," said Wing Commander Zsosu, "thanks to the Nanos, with a simple press of a button, our Mamba fighters can adapt to any situation they may face," she then used her pad again.

*****

The doors to Matriarch Ossih's viewing room opened with a gentle his, and Admiral Sshuizshallius stepped in. Her scales buffed to a perfect sheen, and Sshuizshallius's eyes glowed brightly.

"I see you are well rested, Admiral," Matriarch Ossih said and gestured to the chair facing her.

"I am Matriarch," she replied as she sat down. "What was it that you wished to speak to me about?" the Admiral asked, her steward standing nearby.

"The Terran," Ossih replied. Then, standing to her left, the Matriarch's steward picked up a tray of drinks and walked over to the Admiral. He offered her one, but Sshuizshallius declined with a wave of her right hand.

"You asked my opinion of him yesterday," Sshuizshallius said.

"I did. However, you seemed in need of your relief," Ossih replied with a giggle. She picked up one of the glasses on the tray when her steward stood beside her. Ossih's tail slowly wrapped around the steward's left leg as she drank.

"Not this again," the Admiral complained. Her annoyance was evident. Sshuizshallius went to continue but stopped when Matriarch Ossih raised a hand.

"I didn't ask you here to play with you, Sshuizshallius," she said, "I merely wanted to continue our conversation from yesterday. So, what is your opinion of the Terran?" Ossih asked.

"I must admit, I have not paid much attention to him," the Admiral admitted, "unlike the rest of my crew, who seem to be obsessed with the little mammal," Sshuizshallius sighed as she finished talking.

"From what I've seen, there's nothing little about him," Ossih said with a smile, "if I didn't have Tolsha, I'm sure I would have already had the Terran myself by now," the Matriarch admitted. Hearing the Matriarch's praise caused Tolsha to stand straight and puff out his chest.

"I had wondered why you had changed into that pointless dress," Sshuizshallius said, and the Matriarch laughed.

"John has a strong will. Considering how strong his pheromones were, I thought he might have me in the dropship," Ossih admitted.

"And if he did, the Terran would now be in my brig," Admiral Sshuizshallius pointed out.

"Have you watched the feed from his training pod?" Matriarch Ossih asked.

"I have," the Admiral replied, "I must admit that I was impressed. For a mammal, he quickly adapted to the stresses of the training pod," she said.

*****

The rotating Lupine fighter changed to a larger spaceship. As the hologram rotated, John could see that the new ship had four round engines at the back, with a similar design to those found on his ship, the Poseidon. The engines were protected by armour plating on all four sides, with a metre or two of each engine sticking out. A larger, visible cockpit was at the front, and John noticed a second turret at the ship's rear.

"Here we have the Lupine Corvette," Zsosu said as she manipulated the hologram with her pad, "it is two hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide at the rear," the Wing Commander said. "The smallest part of the Lupine Corvette is the cockpit, at thirty feet," she pointed at the front of the hologram as it rotated round. Zsosu tapped away at her pad, and the hologram shifted.

John watched as the wire mesh outline of the Lupine Corvette turned to face the pilots and then rotated down ninety degrees. When it stopped, it slowly spun clockwise, showing everyone the top of the hull. Once it had rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees, the hologram stopped, turned one hundred and eighty degrees to show the underside, and then continued to spin clockwise.

"What can you tell me about the Lupine Corvette?" Zsosu asked, looking at the Viper pilot sitting next to John.

Glancing at her, he saw that the pilot's primary scale colour was cobalt blue and dotted all over her head, and on her hood were patches of her secondary scale colour of cream. Before she replied to the Wing Commander, the Viper looked at John and smiled. The light from the hologram reflected off of her glowing blue eyes.

"The ship has a crew of ten," the pilot replied while looking up at Zsosu, "a pilot and co-pilot, two gunners for the turrets, three loaders for the Corvette's various weapon systems and lastly, two Lupine Engineers," she glanced back at John as she finished.

"Well done, Yitsish," the Wing Commander said, "that was a textbook reply. What else do we know about the Lupine Corvette?" she asked while looking around the room.

"When firing missiles at it, we need to make sure we've selected the armour piercing variant," a voice from the back of the room said.

"That's also correct," Zsosu said, "Pilot Lawrence, do you know why?" she asked.

John felt like he was back in school as everyone in the Briefing Room looked at him. Then, activating his pad, he looked through the known specifications of the Lupine Corvette. After a minute or two, John looked up at the Wing Commander, and she smiled at him when he made eye contact with her.

"The Corvette's armour is thicker, and while our missiles can easily penetrate Lupine shields, we need to add an armour piercing package to the missile," John replied.

"That's correct. Let's move onto the Lupine Frigate," the Wing Commander said as she turned around and walked back to her desk.

*****

Captain Ema walked onto the bridge of the Pride of the Matriarchy and made her way over to the Tactical Display Table. Her bridge officers, Lieutenant Ena, Comms Officer Akhi, and Tactical Officer Suhli, were ready and waiting for her. Ena smiled at the Captain when she stopped next to her. The TDT's light reflected off her officer's scales, making them all look green.

"What's the progress on the blindspot patrol?" Ema asked.

"They're ten hours into the patrol," Lieutenant Ena replied, "and our projections show that it should take them another twelve to fifteen hours to complete it," Ena used a projected keypad to adjust the TDT as she spoke.

A few seconds later, a map of the Arroganza System appeared, then zoomed in towards Border Station Five and showed the Matriarchy fleet. Then, after further button press, the patrol's route appeared.

"They should be here," Suhli said as she pointed at the projection, her golden eyes reflecting the green light.

"Who's in command?" Captain Ema asked.

"Captain Thazha," the Lieutenant replied, "her military record suggests that she's a more than capable commander," Ena rested her hands on the TDT as she finished her reply.

"I liked her," said a voice from behind. Everyone standing at the TDT turned to look and watched as Matriarch Theka walked over to them. The lights above shined off of Theka's freshly buffed crimson scales.

"Morning," Ema said with a smile as her friend stood next to her, "enjoy your rest?" she asked.

"Yes, I did," she replied, "are we reviewing the progress of that patrol you requested?" Theka inquired, and the Captain nodded.

"We were just going over the latest sensor scans," Ema replied.

"Sounds like fun. Fill me in," the Matriarch ordered sarcastically.

*****

After a few taps of her pad, the hologram changed shape. This time it was showing a much larger vessel. Unlike the previous two, the Lupine Frigate had a cylindrical hull going from the front to the rear of the ship. Six large engines could be seen at the back, forming a pentagon with the sixth engine in the middle. At the front, John could see that there were several antenna-like arrays. As the hologram rotated, he spotted the Frigate's bridge behind the ship's centre.

"The standard Lupine Empire Frigate is five hundred feet long, with an average width of seventy feet," Zsosu said as she pointed to the hologram, "unlike their Fighters or Corvettes, the bridge is a separate component," the Wing Commander pressed a claw against her pad, and the hologram stopped rotating. "What else do we know about it?" she asked.

"It's their smallest ship capable of firing capital-grade torpedoes," said a familiar voice. John looked behind and saw that Nuki was smiling at him.

"Continue," said Zsosu.

"The ship's main armament are three heavy laser turrets, two on the top of the hull and one on the underside," Nuki continued, "they are capable of punching through the shields on our Cruisers," she paused with a glance at John, "however, they don't have the range that our lasers do," the Flight Commander finished with a wink at him.

"True," Zsosu said, "so," the Wing Commander said as she paced around the room, looking at each of the pilots, "how would we go about attacking a Lupine Frigate?" she asked.

*****

Matriarch Ossih relaxed into her nest as her steward slept next to her. The private viewing room's lights reflected off her black and yellow scales. Ossih looked at the mess on her naked body and used a nearby cloth to wipe it off. While eager to please her, Ossih's steward had an annoying habit of cumming all over her body. Granted, she liked a male's cum just like any other female but having to clean yourself of it every time was starting to become a problem. Thankfully, his sterility meant she would never get pregnant.

The end of Ossih's tail wrapped around her pad and passed it to her waiting hand. After a few taps, the Matriarch accessed a saved file. Playing the footage, Ossih turned the volume down as her steward stirred. Smiling to herself, the Matriarch watched as John cummed inside Officer Thissa. Then, adjusting the angle, she watched as the footage showed the moment his long cock came out of Thissa's arse, and his cum flooded out.

"I wonder," Ossih said out loud, "would you fuck me like that?" she asked.

Looking at her steward, the Matriarch thought about the upcoming meeting and possible ways she might convince the Terran male to become his replacement. Then, sighing to herself, Ossih replayed the footage from the beginning, her thighs rubbing together with excitement.

*****

"Finally, we come to the Lupine Destroyer," Wing Commander Zsosu announced.

John watched as the hologram slowly changed from a representation of the Lupine Frigate into the Destroyer. He noted that while the length of the hologram stayed the same, its width and height doubled. As it rotated, John saw that the front of the vessel angled into a point at the front, he counted eight engines at the rear of the ship, and along the bottom, there were many antenna arrays.

"As you can see," she continued, "the Lupine Destroyer is larger than their Frigate," the Wing Commander pointed to the hologram as she spoke, "with its bridge positioned forward of the rear third of the vessel, the crew has a good view of the space around the ship," Zsosu then looked around the room and pointed at one of the pilots at the back. "What can you tell me about the ship?" she asked. John heard the Viper clear her throat with a cough before she spoke.

"The Lupine Destroyer is the smallest capital class ship that the Empire produces," she said.

"Very good," Zsosu said with a smile, "you, tell us more," she pointed to another pilot.

"It has four triple-barreled heavy laser turrets positioned on the top of the hull, three in front of the bridge and one behind," the Viper replied, "at the front of the ship, just below the pointed nose, is where it fires its capital-grade torpedoes," she said.

"It's why that part of the Destroyer is flat," another pilot chimed in, "instead of firing the torpedoes vertically, they designed the ship to fire them horizontally, out of that flat section of the hull," she then smiled at the Wing Commander.

"Again, well done. John," Zsosu called out his name as she spun around and looked down at him, "how would you disable the Lupine Destroyer?" she asked.

*****

"Urgh, that briefing was dull," said a pilot to John's right as the group headed towards the room with the training pods. Her primary scale colour was bright yellow, which contrasted nicely with the deep purple secondary colour.

"While I agree, it was nice to get a refresher on what we're facing and how best to counter them," the pilot walking alongside her replied. John liked how the lights reflected off her ivory white scales and emerald eyes.

"Try not to complain too much," said a third pilot, "you'll give the Terran a bad impression of us," she said and then winked at John.

"Feel free to complain as much as you want," he replied, "I felt like I was back at Pilot School," John said.

"Ooh, what did you fly?" said one of the pilots walking behind him. He turned around and walked backwards. The pilot's primary scale colour was obsidian black; dotted around her head and hood were lines of crimson red.

"Nothing as advanced as your Mambas," John replied, "when I left on my mission, we were still using jet propulsion. However, our best scientists had finally solved the scramjet issue, and so a few prototypes could enter low Earth orbit," he said.

"Jet propulsion?" the Viper said with a tilt of her head, "I don't even remember when we stopped using that method of flight," she looked at the pilot on her left.

"Don't look at me," she said, "I was never good at history," the blue Viper replied.

"That's enough," Flight Lieutenant Nuki said, "John, turn around," she ordered, "we all need to focus on the upcoming training session," Nuki pointed out.

*****

"John, you'll be launching from inside a Carrier," Wing Commander Zsosu said, "follow the onscreen instructions, and you shouldn't have any issues," as she finished speaking, the pod came to life, and John noticed there was a new icon.

Blinking at the new icon, the Mamba's heads-up display adjusted to show John an easy-to-follow list of instructions for launching onboard a carrier. After reading through them, he brought the fighter's engines online, switched flight mode to carrier launch, and activated the grappling arm. The Mamba rocked left to right as the arm took hold of the fighter and loaded it into the launch tube. Once in place, the HUD changed again and displayed a percentage meter.

"ETA on your launch, Pilot Lawrence?" Flight Lieutenant Nuki inquired.

"Sixty seconds," John replied, "magnetic rails are now charging," he said.

"Good," she replied, "when you've flown through the Carrier's shields, I want you forming up with me," Nuki ordered.

"Understood," John replied.

Sixty seconds later, John was pushed into the back of his seat as the Mamba launched out of the tube. He grunted due to the Nano Flight suit tightening around his limbs as the training pod did its best to emulate the real effects of a fighter launching from a Carrier. John thought that he had gotten used to the pod's ability to simulate gravity; however, considering how heavy he now felt and how hard it was to breathe, there was more to learn and experience.

Shortly after launching, the Mamba shook as it flew through the Carrier's shields and then banked to the right as John piloted it towards the objective shown on the HUD. Then, firing the thrusters on the front of the fighter, he slowed it down as the Mamba came up alongside the Flight Lieutenant.

"How was the launch?" she asked.

"Rough," John replied, "how close is it to the real thing?" he inquired.

"Around seventy-five per cent," Nuki replied, "while the tech behind the pods is advanced, nothing can fully simulate the real thing," she said.

"Sounds like I still have a lot to learn and experience," John replied.

"Don't worry, John, I'm sure you'll be fine," Nuki said assuringly.

"Command to all fighters," Wing Commander Zsosu's voice came through loud and clear, "we've got several wings of Lupine Fighters approaching your position," she said. "I want them destroyed in ten minutes, work together and get the job done efficiently," the Wing Commander ordered.

*****

Nine Minutes and Thirty Seconds Later:-

John spun his Mamba to the right, the thrusters at key positions along its hull flared to life as he dodged incoming fire from the last Lupine Fighter. Cycling through the fighter's available weapons, John noted that he was nearly out of Nanos.

"Looks like you're stuck using dumbfire missiles or your lasers, Pilot Lawrence," Wing Commander Zsosu pointed out.

"I noticed," was all John could manage as he pulled a high-g turn. He had allowed himself to be distracted long enough for the Lupine Fighter to get behind him. Once it was complete, John looked at the Mamba's radar and cursed.

"Hold on, John," a female voice called out, "I should be within missile lock shortly," she said.

"No time," he replied, "they're trying to lock on. I'm going to try something," John said.

Disabling the Mamba's Flight Assist, John spun it one hundred and eighty degrees so that he faced the oncoming Lupine Fighter, selected the dumbfire missiles, and then proceeded to fire them. Using his experience leading the target back home, John gently pulled the trigger on his joystick and fired off the missiles. The first few missed the mark, but as he adjusted his aim, a series of explosions rocked the Lupine Fighter.

Once his HUD informed him that he had fired all of the dumbfire missiles, John switched back to his lasers; however, before firing them, the enemy fighter exploded. A chorus of cheers was heard inside his training pod as the other pilots congratulated him.

"All Mambas return to the Carrier for repairs and rearming," Wing Commander Zsosu ordered, "the next phase of the lesson will begin shortly," she said.

"Well done, John," Flight Lieutenant Nuki said. He looked to his left and saw that she was approaching his position, "I suspect the Wing Commander will send several larger ships towards us," she warned, "along with several more wings of fighters. So you must ensure you manage your Nanos effectively this time," Nuki warned.

"I agree," John replied, "I think I got too carried away," he admitted.

"You can afford to get carried away when inside a training pod," the Flight Lieutenant pointed out, "just make sure you concentrate when you're piloting a Mamba for real," she warned.

*****

"How's the latest training exercise going?" Matriarch Ossih inquired.

"I believe they're onto the third wave of ships," Admiral Sshuizshallius replied.

The Admiral and Matriarch were sitting on their command chairs inside the Ruination of Minerva's bridge. Ossih sipped from a long glass as she watched the bridge crew do their work. Then, placing it back on her steward's tray, she stood up and walked to the nearby TDT.

"Can we see what they're doing?" Matriarch Ossih asked as she looked back to where the Admiral was sitting.

"We can," Sshuizshallius replied as she stood up, "the TDT can also display each pilot's point of view, the plan Wing Commander Zsosu made, and entry points for the enemy forces," the Admiral finished as she stopped next to the Tactical Display Table. The light from the holo emitters made her cream-coloured secondary scales appear bright green.