Together

Chapter 30 ★ Amy

"Cal, three fighters on your nine," Allie says.

"I see em," the boy in the back row replies.

"I've got em!" exclaims the boy in the front row. He pulls up behind Cal and takes aim at the fighters.

"Gin, two fighters to starboard, take them out," I state.

"Yes ma'am," he chirps, before beginning a game of prey and predator with them. I watch curiously as he maneuvers around, them following and shooting at him, before he heads straight for a piece of debris. At the last second he pulls up, causing the enemy jets to explode magnificently.

"Good job Gin! Can you hop in and close the formation's starboard side?" Allie says.

"Roger that, Miss Leader Lady," he says before efficiently moving back into formation. I turn my attention to Cal. The boy in the front row is firing at the other fighters, and successfully took out two of the three, and he appears to have locked into the third and is preparing to fire.

Just before he can fire, the boy from the back left corner rams him out of the way, exclaiming "you're taking too long." The enemy fighter fires, taking down Cal's jet, and opening up our left flank. Enemies come from underneath and behind us, taking full advantage of our gaping formation. The simulation ends in fire and explosions.

I sigh and carefully take off my comms unit and log out of the sim.

"What the hell was that?" Cal yells. "Dot was doing just fine!"

"He was taking too long," the boy in the left corner states smugly. Cal practically has steam coming out of his ears, so David walks over and calmly gets him to sit down.

"Wipe that grin off your face. We were doing so well," Allie says accusingly.

"Allie," I whisper quietly, "I know he messed it up, but you can't lose your head. We're leaders now. It's our job to remain level headed and sort out situations, and we can't do that while flinging accusations around." She looks at me as I speak, her face morphing from anger, to sadness, and then finally embarrassment.

"Yeah, you're right," she says solemnly. "But you can't just do that Alex. You had a place in our formation, protecting it, and when you abandoned it, it threw everything off balance."

"Allie is right. I know that at Battle School, you might have been the star of the show, but it's not like that anymore. We have to be unbreakable teams in order to form an effective force. Which means no playing hero. There'll be time for that after the war's over." He crosses his arms and looks away, pouting. I hear laughter coming from the hallway and two more squadrons meander in.

"Oh. I didn't realize this one was full," squad leader sneers. "Let's leave these girls to flounce around and go do some actual training." Hoorahs erupt from the group.

"You can't talk to them like that!" yells Gin as they're about to leave. The boys who must be squad leaders turn around slowly.

"Oh yeah, wuss? Why's that?"

"Because it's disrespectful." Cricket says. "They do exactly what you do, and from the looks of it, they lead us just as well, if not better than you." Wow. I don't know we've ever heard Cricket talk that much. The boys bristle obviously, and are about to say something else when a voice comes from behind them.

"If you're not here to train then take the pissing contest outside," Lou barks. The boys visibly shrink. Her squadron stand in formation, arms crossed, looking Very Upset. Sam's crew walks up beside them, much calmer, but no less intimidating.

"Last I remember, you failed every battle sim, spectacularly, might I add," says a boy just behind Sam, her second in command probably.

"Well it seems that everyone needs more team training," I say. Heads snap to look at me. "Why don't we run a few smaller sims in individual squadrons, then try a group sim?"

"Why should we listen to you, miss lady loser?" one of the offenders yells.

"Because she's Amy Thompson," Sam matter-of-factly states. The boys' mouths drop open.

"Yeah, um, yeah, sounds good then," one of the squadron leaders all but squeaks. "You heard the woman, get yourselves set up. Don't sit too close to each other." The squadrons scatter.

★★★

The squadrons run individual sims while I watch. It seems that almost every group has some lack of communication. After thirty minutes and countless failures, the squadron leaders look back at me.

"Are we running a group sim anytime soon?"

"It seem to me like all of your squadrons have communication issues in some way, shape, or form. We can't effectively run a group sim until everyone communicates properly." He scoffs.

"If you're so good, why don't your squadron show us how it's done." He smiles and high fives his buddies thinking he's won. I glance at Aiden and shrug. He shrugs back.

"Ok. Aiden face south, David west, Sandy north, and Cricket face east." They all hop over to their respective directions happily.

"What about you?" Someone yells. I strap myself into a more central chair and flip my self upside down as a response.

"Ok, now comms set up. I can talk to Sandy, Sandy talks to David, David talks to Aiden, Aiden talks to Cricket, and Cricket talks to me. All one way links. Got it?" Everyone taps furiously, adding blocks and restriction to the proper people.

"Yes ma'am," is the unison response. Everyone's mouth gapes open just a bit.

"They'll never be able.." some whisper. I set my mouth in a hard line and open a level thirty sim.