Free The Honour of the Knights (First Edition) by Stephen Sweeney Page B

enhancements which he thought the pilots would find
most appealing: a HUD that featured a predictive targeting matrix,
allowing the pilot to aim for where their opponent would be, rather than where
they were; an arsenal that was made up of
significantly more powerful armaments than its predecessor; a much
higher acceleration rate and top speed; and a shield generation
unit that was many times more efficient.
    The
detail of the each enhancement was accompanied by video footage,
some of it set planet side, the rest in space. Whatever the
backdrop, most involved something exploding in rather dramatic
fashion.
     
    * * *
     
    With his presentation concluded, Ainsworth thanked his
audience and moved away from the podium. No-one had attempted to
ask any questions, but Dodds noticed that
all around him people were gaping; all that was, with the exception
of Chaz. The big man had sat through most of the presentation with
a deadpan expression on his face, slouched down a little in his
seat and his arms folded across his chest. He didn’t look all that
interested or even impressed at what he was being shown. Dodds
wondered why. At the very least, he would have expected to see a
flicker of curiosity. Maybe he held the same point of view as
Dodds: something about this didn’t look right.
    “ Dude, I’m finding this a little hard to
swallow,” Dodds whispered in Enrique’s ear.
    “ Which part?”
    “ Which part? Well, where do I start? The
bit about the accelerator or that that flimsy-looking crate is
better shielded than most of our carriers.”
    “ It’s just the next evolutionary step up,”
Enrique said. “They make these sorts of advancements all the time.
You can bet they’re already working on the successor to that one in
a lab somewhere else, too.”
    Dodds
frowned.
    “ You’ve gotta admit, those things look
pretty sweet,” Enrique added, with a nod towards the
screen.
    “ You know, my Dad has a saying - Never believe everything you hear, and
only half of what you see .”
    “ I don’t think this is one of those cases,
mate.”
    “ Okay, well, imagine this…” Dodds
started. With all that they had
heard that afternoon, this starfighter, when compared to any other,
was in essence the equivalent of taking an ordinary ground soldier
and strapping a tank cannon to their back. Said soldier would then
be given a belt holding two dozen grenades, before being presented
with two shotguns, two pistols and two machine guns. Not only would
all the added weight be of no consequence to their ability to walk
or otherwise move, nor in any way hinder their performance on the
battlefield, but they would be able to run at the speed of a top
class athlete and survive being shot many, many times before they
were at last brought down.
    Dodds
hoped the image of such a man leaping, somersaulting and sprinting
through a torn, urban landscape would look so ludicrous, as to sway
Enrique’s opinion. It didn’t.
    “ Questions?” Mansun, having taken to the podium, asked. A
flurry of hands went up, none of which belonged to
Dodds.
    “ Yes, you. The young lady in the middle there.” A rather
striking, tall woman with curly blonde hair stood up.
    “ First Lieutenant Andrea
Kennedy, Red
Devils , sir,” she introduced herself. “I’m
aware that I’m probably about to ask the same question as everyone
else -” she looked around briefly “- but I have to know: how it is
possible that you have managed to outfit a single man starfighter
with a plasma accelerator? I mean, we’re talking about a weapon
that is usually only found on cap ships and orbital defence
platforms; something capable of cleaving a passenger vessel in two,
with ease. The power requirements must be astronomical!”
    Yes, how did you do that? Dodds wondered. That’s not technically possible. A part of him was intrigued, but another part of
him was feeling a little uneasy. A three-dimensional image of the
ATAF was continuing its idle rotation on the screen behind