So anyways, turns out I was wrong. And right.

Sort of.

Good ol’ Navy didn’t go ahead and block my account – I got to keep the money off of that Varati thing I told you about. Good deal right? Nope, what they DID do is decide that I ‘lack moral fibre’. Say what now??

Since when did I need ‘moral fibre’? What IS ‘moral fibre’ anyways?

Now it’s not like I’m complaining – the whole enlistment deal was a snafu from start to finish – but NOW I’m kinda narked.

Seems I had a choice: Either I go do this CQC training on account the Navy being interested in my kill-count (although according to the chair-warmer at the ‘board’, my ‘effort-to-gain-ratio’ – whatever the hell that is – is, get this: sub-par!) Sub-par? Where do they dream up this stuff, is what I’d like to know.

Anyways, the point is I either had to go and do this CQC thing or else I’d be kind of out. Cashiered. Except of course they don’t let go that easy. Oh no – I’d still get the pleasure of being at the Navy’s beck and call on their ‘reserve list’. Yeah, that’s what I said. I didn’t know the Navy even HAD a reserve list.

Well, what with this and that I didn’t really have much of a choice right here and now so…

Welcome to the wonderful world of CQC training. Oh boy, did you ever try it? I don’t know what I expected if I’m honest, but I sure didn’t expect this. I had in mind, I don’t know, some kinda laser-tag deal with dummy guns and ships plastered in receiver/sensors instead of those crummy suits you get to wear in those places.

Not a chance. It’s all done in simulation – but WHAT a simulation man! I swear I can feel the gees on some of those flip turns you got to do. My neck feels like it’s been trodden on by the entire fleet!

So how am I doing you’re wondering, and boy do I wish you weren’t. In the first place you get two kinds of pilot. The ones who know as much as me – which when you get right down to it isn’t much – and the ‘ringers’. Well I figure they HAVE to be ringers. Or p’raps they’re instructors, or MAYBE the sim’s just plain rigged – it’s impossible to tell. The way it goes down is, you line up on some noobie-do (or some noobie-do is lining up on you) and then KERBLAM! Some hotshot you hadn’t even noticed yet has either blown your nice fat target away, or else it’s you doing the ‘wait to respawn’ thing. And everybody else’s ship is faster than mine, turns better than mine, has bigger guns, better shields than mine – well that’s how it feels at first anyways….phoooey!

Don’t get me wrong though, screaming out the other side of some poor guy’s debris field after you blew him to smithereens is strangely even more fun when you know that you didn’t just send some mother’s son to the Great Other. Okay, I didn’t mean that, it’s never ‘fun’ in combat out there in real-life, but the adrenalin sure gets a-pumping just the same in this CQC deal that’s for sure. Trust me. Also, not having to ‘phone your crummy insurance agent has it’s place too, know what I mean?

Huh? Oh yeah, the second place. Well in the second place, it doesn’t seem like I’m all that cut-out to be a fighter jock. I’m not going to tell you my actual combat rating right now, but let’s just say that it kind of translates as ‘probably knows which end of the ship is the front and that’s about all’. And I thought I was doing quite well. Learning all kinds of stuff you know?

This stuff is diamond-hard is what I’m saying. And some of the ‘ringers’ or instructors, or well – I guess it IS just possible that some of the other guys are just THAT good. Sheesh. Thank the Maker the Navy doesn’t allow just anybody do this stuff that’s all. I mean if I ever meet a pirate with these skills I’m taking up farming. In a different galaxy!

‘course, NOW I’m kinda worried the ol’ Navy’s gonna decide that I’m not worth the training and send me back to the reserves anyways. Not going to happen man. Not just yet anyway – this stuff really could be a life saver down the line. Plus I just don’t see myself looking at the south end of no dairy animals, know what I mean?

Ooops, that’s me. Better not keep ‘the man’ waiting. Catch you soon….

L.