Aurora, Wayward Pt. 06

---

Aurora knew he was upset about something with his experiments but he had been blocking her. She walked in and he asked pointedly, "Why are you the magnifier in this situation? What is different between you and Astra? She never had this much of an effect; that we know of, with any Justice. What makes you different?"

Aurora sighed, "I have more processing cores. Non-dedicated cores to work problems or, when we travel to carry a representative of the mindset of the other two with me. I did it initially to learn interactions with each of the additional minds we added.

I found more processing being spent working with the others that the solution became more practical. I had added 2 cores when we arrived; my backup has them as well, yet they are not in use while in a backup state. I do not carry you if you will, but I carry a backup of their mindsets within me to be able to adjust my interactions with them more easily as my primary core is focused upon you and staying within the bounds of the justice protocol.

Astra only had to please 1 Justice at a time and I am doing 2 Justices and Vivian at the same time, an aggressive Red Blade. You each have your own needs and desires and it was not intentional. I did not do that for that purpose and it is not all them; I do other tasks with those cores.

Long term planning for the Sentinels. Tracking of all 5 of the Penam worlds educational capability vs technology upgrades to name just a couple of the thousands of things I have to deal with that Astra did not have to address. Humans only use a small percentage of their brains.

My cores are more powerful than the ones Astra had in use, compatible but more powerful considering what she has at this time. She was given a copy of it for the future to help protect her line longer.

A gift from me for everything she did to aid me in the previous time-line. I had to upgrade them to deal with the time travel pieces. I needed 7. 6 to deal with all of those pieces as I was under a serious time crunch with an unknown deadline and upgraded doctorate levels of knowledge in several sciences.

It was in the notes to myself. She left it to me to decide what I needed to add them and managing an entire race of AI units seemed to be a good use for the additional processing cores. Yet it also aided me with Fria's and Vivian's different personalities and needs. I work to keep all 3 of you happy."

He sighed, "Thank you for telling me. I was trying to understand what was going on."

Her necklace lit up and she pressed the crystal. They heard, * This information is just for the two of you, at least initially. Based upon what she has done, she does not carry their power with her; just an image of their minds which magnifies your mind and theirs when you travel with or without them.

This explains how she does what she has done, intentional or not. It also presents a human moral dilemma. The Drakor do this as a part of our species and culture. It is normal for us, just not with an AI in the mix. To see an AI doing this and having this dramatic of an impact is new to us.

You 2 need to decide how much you tell the other 2 in your group. They trust Aurora but if they knew she had backed up portions of their minds without discussing it with them, they might be upset. Even unintentionally. How would she handle the situation if one passes?

Would she add more cores for another? Would she do it for you eventually if you were on the verge of death? Those are moral choices you need to discuss. The choice as always is yours.*

The crystal went dark. She was about to start crying and Rocan shook his head, "We will talk with them. We need to set some rules in regards to how much of each of us you carry going forward. No need to back me up, you work that with your primary core lover."

They did just that with each of them alone. Freia was not upset but wanted her back up to go after her death as long as it did not leave Rocan stranded. She wanted him to continue but not be held back by her passing. Vivian, at first, was livid.

Then she calmed down and remembered, as Rocan repeatedly reminded her, "You asked to be a part of this." She calmed down more and apologized to Aurora. Vivian requested those cores get replaced as soon as possible after one of them passed.

Including the extras in her backup if they had any information on them, which Aurora assured her they did not. They kept a backup of her side projects for her the Sentinals and such, but not the ladies' minds. Vivian wanted him to have a clean slate going forward as well.

The additional power he might get was not worth him being held back in the event of someone's death. The ability to move on after one of them passed on. He had both of them living aboard the carrier at the moment to help provide instructions.

Rocan cut back on the number of children to each lady to no more than 3 on the follow-on pregnancy. All except Freia, who got her second set of 6 but an even split on the sexes that last time. They had both delivered twice and were inside an 'anal and oral period' for Vivian while she was in training.

He needed Vivian in a fighter and the doctor would not clear fighter pilots for 4 or more and would ground them after so many months depending on how many they had grown within, with twins being the desired limit of Ariel.

Freia did the same so they could be pregnant together after her fighter schooling was finished. All the ladies on the council returned in the months following pregnancy to have more children with him. Including Wina and Kinna who each got 6 more to carry...each. Kinna was now a lawyer and a junior partner in her firm after the two of them had married.

---

Rocan was out in Arrow-1. He rarely flew it and he had kept it a secret from everyone except the Governors, Freia, and Aurora for now. That and his Sentinel crew chief, Master Chief Wrench, nicknamed 'Torque.' Torque actually liked the nickname and it went along with his mindset of keeping everything tight on the flight deck.

Rocan used one of the Sentinel's designated ships instead while he trained the other pilots on being space-based marines. He had 6 Hybrid pilots, 3 marine snipers, and 3 pilots from each colony for this class.

They were the only ones who knew this was a space-based special forces unit, but left out Marines for now, except to Vivian who had seen his record. A seventh, Flying Vengeance, was still pregnant at the moment and was his hot-shot for the second class once she gave birth in the coming days. The pilots were the better pilots and the snipers were the better snipers.

As training began with the colonies, he secretly integrated the additional hybrids into the first-class assessments, having them spread across colonies and some came out of retirement or separation to join him. 15 pilots and 15 snipers.

He kept shuffling the teams around and intermixed them. He always worked to get the best 6 into one unit during an assessment run. An even mix of snipers to pilots in each squad. He started with a few rounds of 'round robin' allocations.

He Allocated pilots to teams at random. Then he refined it based on rankings he kept. He kept one hidden hybrid in each group that went out. It was the week before the big reveal he had planned on Penna, concerning the purpose of all of this training.

None of them knew what he was creating besides Vivian. Yet Vivian did not know why snipers were needed in fighters, yet. Vivian thrived in this environment as she had gotten some flight training prior to all of this formal training.

Privately Aurora, Freia, and the governors were aware of his goal. Vivian still had no idea what graduation day would entail but looked forward to it as it finally arrived.

---

Rocan went to the hanger bay, "You are the first squadron leaders I would propose to your governments. Depending on how things go today! Every squadron will be assessed by me today.

Some will move up, some down. Some may be asked to return or sent back to their original units. You will be doing a live-fire exercise. This is what I call graduation day if you will. Your final exam that will shape your future.

Your ships have 4 shields. Your heads up display will flash white when it drops to 1and then you are out, as in dead. Return to the carrier. You will be going against one bogey you have never encountered.

This is a 'search and destroy' test by each squadron. Fly and work as a squadron, consider that an order. Listen to your team members and be open to suggestions, flight leaders.

This is all about reading the battlefield and formulating the best strategies to deal with this bogey. To kill it. When this is done; you will have your answer as to why I mixed fighter pilots with snipers. Get to your craft and prepare for launch."

They headed off to the launch tubes. Once they were in, he got to Arrow-1 and launched before them. He called back to the carrier, "Launch alert fighters."

They launched out and the flight leader had the call sign of Screamer. She was by far the best space-based pilot in the class, but she carried a lot of baggage. This would let him know if she could work to set it aside, he had his doubts.

Screamer called out, "V formation on me, rear two are snipers. Monitor and locate our bogey and give us 'true fight pilots' direction when it shows up on sensors."

She heard back from Vivian who did not like this woman or her style of leading. Screamer loathed snipers being a part of this group. Vivian got assigned the callsign Maniac early on for some of her 'aggressive' maneuvers, "This is Maniac, Flight leader. No signs of any targets on sensors."

Shadow called out, "Screamer this is shadow. Accessing Stealth net and no contacts are showing on it either."

Not 10 ten seconds later and 3 of the 6 fights lost a shield on a strafing run that went in behind them. Maniac called out, "Damn if he does not have a fighter that cannot be picked up by the stealth net. Same model as ours!"

The flight leader was pissed as she lost one of her shields, as did Maniac, but she did not 'see him' until the flash of weapons fire took out one of her shields. Screamer yelled, "Damn, how do we target an enemy we cannot see?"

Maniac smiled inside, "That is why you have snipers. We do manual targeting all the time. Just like the training for solar winds, except computer targeting will not work. Recommend we work in pairs in a flap-jack formation."

She heard back from Screamer, "What?"

Vivian smiled, "Two fighters stacked, facing opposite directions, with the bottom of the craft facing each other. We set up in a triangle. That gives everyone a 120-degree arc of fire and observation. We can call out positions when we see it."

The flight leader called out, "Where did you get this from?"

Vivian smiled, "I am a marine, I know all about 'arc of fire'. You know space better and are a top-notch fighter pilot. I know how to manually target a bogey. In this case, a fast mover that can move just as fast as us."

Rocan came in and took down the shields on the other 3 from the bottom.

Vivian continued, "He tagged the other fighters by coming underneath. He apparently approached from a lower vector and he is handing us our asses flight leader."

Screamer growled out, "Alright Shadow, pair up with me. You slide underneath. Ladies work with your snipers. Put snipers, one of them on top, and two on the bottom. Let us find this fucker. Top fighters face each other so we can watch each other's backs."

They heard from Shadow, "This is Shadow, he is in sector 7 heading vertical but out of range. I just lost sight of him."

The flight leader screamed, "Damned targeting computer went offline!"

Maniac looked at her computer, "They all did. He wants us to manual take on a near-invisible bogey. He wants us to be able to be space bases snipers not in need of targeting computers. This is graduation ladies. Switching secure channel Alpha."

She went secure and the Flight leader called out to her on the channel, "Switching comms should be my call!"

She sighed, "He could hear everything in the clear. It should have been encrypted as soon as we launched. Not knowing the bogey in question. Sector 12 low. Still out of range. He headed into sector 14, no 11 high, He threw it in reverse and changed angles. Now he is climbing. He is toying with us now as he has moved out of my sight."

The flight leader called out, "I see his ass in sector 24 high. I am pursuing."

Maniac called out, "That is what he wants! One to separate out. You taking your sniper with you?"

She laughed, "Only if she can keep up."

Shadow called out, "No bottom cover I am pursuing her but she has a large ass lead now. If I get him on my tail I will work to pull him into the kill box."

She heard Cougar, "Spotted in 22 heading down. Joining pursuit. You snipers will have to do better than this."

Maniac sighed, "Snipers follow me. Fighter pilots. You can play at being rabbits chasing the fox."

She heard back from the flight leader, "Fuck you Maniac. Fuck I lost sight of him and he blasted away one of my shields. Down to two."

Maniac took the snipers and moved them under the carrier, "Bottom's up, Triangle formation. We got a hostile out there. Follow him using the rabbits."

She heard Screamer, "Attacking from under a ship?! Should expect that from a sniper."

Maniac called back, "Snipers like to have elevation and surprise. He would expect us up top because of our nature. This is space. With us this close to the carrier he cannot distinguish us. We are using our surroundings to take his targeting computer out of the equation. He is the Teacher. Time to learn something new, Screamer."

She heard Screamer screaming, "Damn it! I am down to one. I am out. Thanks, snipers. You want to be in charge Maniac, you do it with the loss of your best fighter pilot."

Vivian smiled, "Rabbits split up and fly along the midline around the carrier. Like your flying cap. I say, "Jack in the box angle down 120 degrees and pop it in reverse.

All snipers. Watch our rabbits circle. I call break then snipers need to scatter, we will find new sniper positions separately."

Rocan let them circle having taken one out already. He was not 100% sure where half of them went. He thought, "The snipers." He went flying along the top deck turned 120 degrees and fired into one of the rabbits. Maniac called, out, "Dive rabbit for the hole. Wait for the jack in the box."

Rocan shook his head and took the bait. He went for the lone fighter and lost a shield for his effort. Maniac smiled, "One down, Jack in the box." She pulled her maneuver and Rocan flew past her and she managed to get a shot into his shields.

She screamed, "Yes, nailed the bastard. That should be two down."

Rocan chuckled, spun, and blew out the rabbit's remaining shield. She groaned out, "Fuck, He spun on me and took out my last shield. Heading for the carrier."

Vivian called out, "Alright snipers. Listen up, when we scatter. Stay flat and level. Then put it into a flat sidespin. He will hunt the snipers now. We got one rabbit left and he wants us after embarrassing him like that."

She thought she spotted him below the carrier. She called out, "Break, Break, Break!"

The three of them shot out from under the carrier and spun just as he came in and took down a shield on one of them, Shadow in fact. He turned to avoid the spinning sniper in front of him. He got tagged on the bottom as he shot past. Another took down his last shield. The third landed right behind his canopy as his shields were down. He flipped up a partially recharged shield, He called the carrier, "Recall all alert fighters."

He took it to his private hanger and looked over his armor. He sighed and looked at his crew chief. "Good thing it had that shell, Torque."

Torgue grabbed some of the Zero element and passed it off to Rocan. Rocan patched the black coating and then the shell for now. One panel would have to be replaced later and noted it to Torque to get it on the fabricator.

Rocan then repaired the damage on the shell. Rocan was still in a private hangar bay when the flight returned. He contacted the XO, "Segregate the returning fighter pilots. Get crew 2 in place."

He ran all 5 groups through the course.

Two of them managed to take down one of his shields before he cleared the field of them. Only group one used 'proper' sniper tactics.

He had them all in a briefing room. He ran it from the bottom group to the top. "Alright, ladies. This was the first group and the only one to kill the bogey."

He played the flight data and had the cameras up. He pointed out, "Up until this point. I heard everything they said. Two flight leaders in the other groups encrypted before launch. That was the right call for an unknown bogey.

This group broke into an argument on strategy. They developed one. Using a triangle formation one up, one down, like a couple of pancakes pointing in different directions. Then the Squadron leader abandoned her Squad to pursue me while I was out of her range. I dragged her off and killed her separately because she abandoned her squad.

She left her sniper exposed. Then another fighter pilot broke formation and went after their leader while the snipers moved into position near the carrier. They broke into 2 groups at this point, snipers vs fighter pilots.

I specifically ordered you all to work as a group. Every squadron. This did not happen with every group that went out and I expected that would be the case to a degree with this first incoming class especially. A sniper's standard position is to try and get the high ground and the angle.

I flew across the top deck, did not see the snipers. I shot one of the stray fighter pilots after taking out the rogue squadron leader separately. The two fighters I could spot had gone into flying a cap around the carrier.

She dove. I was stupid enough to chase her and got hit by a sniper from the carrier group as they took space and literally confirmed, there is no up or down in space. Space flight training 101, and they took it to heart. They positioned along the bottom of the base.

The second fighter pulled an aggressive jack in the box maneuver, not knowing where I was which is extremely dangerous. Until I heard the flight recordings and found out that the one who took over the squad spotted for her to make that move. I flew under and lost another shield for that effort.

I spun and finished off the stray rabbit. I decided it was time to break up the sniper group party. This new flight leader spotted me coming up from below the carrier. All three scattered.

Then all three spun on me, a flat spin. I got the second shield on one, Shadow was the target but it could have been any of the three at that point as I had to manually target at the beginning because of proximity to the carrier I could not get a lock until they cleared the edge.

She took out my third shield, the other two snipers took out my fourth shields, and one of them tagged my ship's armor. As they all fired at roughly the same time from 3 angles of fire and distances. 3 snipers doing this all manually due to the nature of my ship!

I cannot fault any of them for scuffing up my armor or breaking the rules of engagement. That ship has an extra coating on it and the plasma did a number on it and the coating on my armor that ran across the surface. I fixed it between flights. Easy enough for a hybrid to do."

He looked over, "Last group, Squadron Leader Screamer. Why did you break formation?"

She sighed out, "I had Maniac calling out these strange tactics and I did not see the point to her strategy. She would not follow me."

He smiled, "Why did she not follow you?"

Screamer shrugged, "You would have to ask her."