Game Changer: Day 3

Word Count: 18,024

Summary of Events:

Hawk was informed by the General Secretary that he wasn't going to be leading the second reconnaissance mission, as the experienced reconnaissance pilots had asked him not to be involved, which Hawk was okay with — except for the fact that the General Secretary effectively ordered him to use the time now available to him to impregnate the General Secretary's daughter. Having woken up before his alarm one morning, Hawk lingered in bed and watched out the window as a growing party of unmarked but Ozem-style fighters orbited around Ebed, preparing, he suspected, to embark on their own reconnaissance mission toward Maarath and the supposed Sons of Nahash . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Glancing back up toward Ebed Hawk saw the party of Sallu fighters heading away from Ebed in rather a loose formation; in fact, it was a deliberately disorganised sort of formation that had no real shape to it which was often used in convoys and reconnaissance missions to force those who meant to attack to have to re-aim their guns significantly between shots.

As they progressed away from Ebed their trajectory was already clear to Hawk: they were headed for Maarath, to investigate the Sons of Chesil.

It wasn’t long, maybe a few minutes after they left the orbit of Ebed, that the Sallu fighters started to disappear, but not in explosions, they just vanished, meaning that they had activated their cloaking devices.

If Hawk were to get the computer-integrated window in the unit — which was located in the main living area — to zoom and enhance where they had disappeared Hawk was sure he would be able to see the fighters still somewhat faintly, as their cloaking wasn’t as effective as the Emim cloaking, and that because of the fact that the lights they used to achieve it weren’t as small, thus the stars and such that moved across them moved haltingly, while the smaller lights the Emim used allowed for a smoother appearance.

Before Hawk could slip out from underneath Cvita to go to the computer-integrated window and see what he could see of the Sallu fighters, however, there was a distant flickering — about as far away as the Sallu fighters had been — and flashes of one of the fighters started to appear before finally the fighter was more visible than invisible, the lights of the cloaking only occasionally flickering parts of the fighter into hiding.

It was several minutes — in fact, Hawk observed by way of the clock in the room that it was over fifteen minutes — that the fighter flickered before finally it stopped and remained uncloaked.

As a result, it appeared to Hawk that the fighter’s cloaking device had failed, or possibly been damaged.

Hawk didn’t know how the Sallu cloaking devices functioned or where the activation terminals were — as the control button, switch, or lever was in the cockpit, but what it triggered didn’t necessarily have to be housed in the control panel, or even underneath the protection of the craft’s cladding.

As a rule — at least for the Emim — activation terminals and other things that were important to be kept in good working order were put under the protection of the cladding so that debris — such as was abundant in open space around Maarath since the destruction of all the ships and small colonies that had surrounded Maarath when the Sons of Chesil had arrived — and space rocks couldn’t damage it.

Pronunciation:

Cvita: sveetah