Endless

Hangar bay, USS Essex CVN-88, Japan
July 30th
2:00 AM

In the hangars of the huge ship a marathon was taking place, all the mechanics and pilots were preparing their planes before the deadline. The sound of tools clanging and engines roaring fills the air as the mechanics move quickly from one aircraft to the next. Some are attaching wing pylons and loading missiles and bombs onto the planes, while others perform last-minute maintenance checks and calibrate the aircraft's systems and systems tuning. It was pretty much like when you're with your schoolmates setting up the homework that's due first thing in the morning.

And then there was us, a small team of 6 preparing the plane I would use tomorrow. Which after coming back from lunch I looked at what Momo had gotten me and listened to my opinion on the configuration she wanted me to take. What an impression I got when I looked at the aircraft I had won in the lottery.

A Boeing F/A-18F  Super Hornet had my name freshly painted on the side of the engine. An old plane from the 90s with a double cockpit. While not a bad plane, it was pretty outdated for modern battlefields. This one was a far cry from what I used to drive.

"Ta-da!"
"What do you think?"
"Not bad, do you think?"

She pointed the angel with her wrench at the plane behind her, her nun's outfit was now quite dirty from working as fast as she could.

"An F/A-18F? really?"
"Maybe it hasn't been lit in years!"
"Just look around, there are several unmanned f-35s"
"Why the old plane?"

"It is said thank you, ungrateful"
"Maybe this is not the newest plane but the best I can offer you in this situation"
"It's the only one your mother could borrow"
"The F/A-18F is not as stealthy as the F-35 but this one has two engines and can carry a lot more weapons mounted on it"
"Tomorrow's mission will be a saturation attack against an airborne fortress"
"Nobody cares about stealth, is better to carry more bombs"

"What about the F-42 or the ADF-12?"

"On European soil?"
"The Alliance is coming out of a war and the most modern aircraft are quite expensive"
"These are the reserve aircraft given to Carrier Strike Group 5 to replace those lost"
"This is all that is on this ship"

"Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into"

"It's not such a bad plane, really"
"It's a multirole fighter"
"Maximum speed of Mach 1.6, or 1,030 Knots" 
"Altitudes of up to 12,190 meters"
"6,241 kg fuel tank"
"2 General Electric F414-GE-400 turbofans"
"58 kN each, 98 kN with afterburner"

"It's a double seat, we don't have enough pilots"
"I'll have to fly it alone"

"I had already thought of that"
"I present to you Endless"
"Your Weapon Systems Officer"
"Say hello to your father, Endless"

From the second handle of the plane a machine suddenly came up. A strange sphere filled with slowly rotating cameras. The machine upon hearing the angel turned in our direction and a red ring lit up.

"Hello Dad"
"I'm excited to work with you tomorrow"  said the ring.

Despite her completely inhuman appearance, a familiar voice came from her, one that I knew quite well, or rather I confused quite often.

"Kasumi? Charlotte?"
"Which one are you?"

"I am IDOL-Endless unit"

"??????"
"Momo, explanation"

"None of that"
"Endless is a terminal that I created by borrowing a couple of things from the warehouse"
"She will take care of the communications system, targeting, datalinks, and aircraft defense systems"
"Basically she will take care of everything so you can focus on flying and shooting"
"She will be in the next seat"

"Okay, I understand the concept"
"I understand why."
"What I don't understand is why is calling me dad"

"Well that's because she is the third sister"
"In a way of putting it nicely"
"...."
"You do remember that your daughters are just one Artificial Intelligence in reality right?"
"Well, this AI, let's call it IDOL to give it a name, is running at all times two terminals that act as its home system, one in the DOLL-EW-2X Kasumi terminal body and the other in the DOLL-EW-2X Charlotte terminal body, a Hivemind"
"Well IDOL is running a third terminal on this machine called Endless"
"Technically being this way the third sister"
"Kasumi and Charlotte are helping me with the electronics"
"The Endless system needs an operating system to work and they decided instead to just do it themselves"

"And why is it called that?"
"Isn't it a bit of an inhuman name?"
"It sounds a bit disposable"

"Don't worry, Dad"
"I am aware of the high probability of being damaged during combat"
"Mother Momo also wants to destroy this terminal at the end of the mission anyway"
"I didn't need a very human name if the purpose of this unit is to be disposable"
"I wanted to call myself HAL-9000"
"But Mother Momo  opposed the identification proposal for some reason so I opted for Endless, like the one in that videogame you always take to school"
"Don't worry about this unit, my memories are being stored in real-time with Kasumi and Charlotte units"
"Nothing will be lost with my destruction"

"Damn, that sounds complicated"
"...."
"I should start reading Isaac Asimov"
"...."
"I didn't understand anything"
"...."
"You are the third sister, but when the mission is over you will simply be assimilated with the other two.
Is it something like that?"

"Correct"
"Partially"
"I always was only one since the beginning so I would not be assimilated."
"Don't see it as a loss even if I am destroyed in combat."
"I can always come back, no problem there"
"...."
"If you ever manage to steal a DOLL I could come back again and give me a name if that's what you're worried about"

You are reading story Valkyria Squadron at novel35.com

"Okay, I'll buy that one."
"I don't have time for headaches, existential crises, what makes a human or cyberpunk dilemmas"
"...."
"Let's move on"
"What do you have for me in terms of weaponry?"

"Good question"
"Here I have several toys"
"A 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon for close-range, 412 rounds"
"10 medium range air-air missile AIM-140 Hawkeye, the ones your mother helped to create"
"These are what I put in to do the work, high damage, high capacity"

"Defenses?"  I said as I quickly read the aircraft manual.

"An AN/AWW-13 Advanced Data Link for proper operation of Endless, will help her to coordinate positions and awareness around the aircraft."
"SUU-42A/A decoy flare dispenser and a chaff pod"
"I also added an ALQ-184(V)9 ECM pod that I modernized a bit  better for electronic warfare"

"But the aircraft already has the ALQ-165 protection jammer system integrated according to the manual"
"It's wasting space, it could take one more bomb"

"Yes, but since you have Endless as your copilot, you'd better enhance her defensive and electronic warfare capabilities"
"Remember that it will be a full air-to-air battle"
"We must prioritize defense over offense"
"I want my husband to come back home"

"What about maneuverability?"
"It is not too heavy? it will make it slow to turn"

"That's where my angelic touch as the mechanic comes in"
"That's exactly what I'm working on right now"
"We are disassembling the engines to tune them better for this battle"
"I can increase the power output of the engines, although the high stress it will put on the main components will reduce their life span"
"But I don't think it will matter if you are only going to use it once"
"Also, by improving the maximum angle of the flaps and stretching their surface a little more to increase their turning radius"
"Normally it will reduce the top speed but that's why I'm increasing the power accordingly"
"The twins are modifying the ECU according to the new specs and overwriting the safety limiter"
"By the time I finish this aircraft, it will almost be a new variant, something like the F/A-18X Hyper Hornet"

"This is the first time I've fought an airborne fortress"
"That thing is huge"
"And if there's one thing dragons have taught me, it's that the bigger it is, the more hits it can take"
"...."
"I don't think the plane's armament is enough"
"It still needs more firepower"

"Well, I'm a mechanic, not a magician"
"I can't move my hands like that and make the plane shoot fire"
"Even if I'm an angel, there's a limit to what I can do with what I have on hand"
"The plane doesn't have any more hardpoints"
"And even if I were to install them, there is also a limit to how much the internal structure can handle"
"If I go too far the wings will fall off by themselves when you take off."

"And the carrier will be busier with so many aircraft refueling that it will look like a freeway in Los Angeles"
"Logistics will be a nightmare"
"Maybe with balls of steel the brave ones could risk landing at Kadena Air Base and resupplying there"
"If the pilot doesn't mind a huge aerial battle going on over his head and infantry fighting around the fence"

"Identification of the detected logistical problem"
"Processing possible solutions"
"Running simulation of favorable scenarios"
"Simulation completed"
"Proposed response to logistical failure required by Dad"
"...."
"DOLL Kasumi and Charlotte units can fly at high speeds"
"Fast enough for the F/A-18X Hyper Hornet to fly slowly and stably"
"Thus Kasumi and Charlotte units could carry and mount more AIM-140 Hawkeye missiles on empty Hardpoints in mid-flight"
"Eliminating the need to land for resupply"
"Leaving only refueling with a tanker unit as a problem"

"Well, yeah, it's risky"
"But not impossible"
"I can modify the Hardpoints if necessary so that missiles can be mounted in flight"
"Also, the AIM-140 Hawkeye will not arm after a certain distance"
"A couple of hits won't blow them up until they are launched with the aircraft's computer"
"If you have already refueled a plane in mid-flight then you can do it"
"It's even easier, you just have to trust them"

"Of course, I trust them"
"Everyone on this ship is trusting them"
"Hell, even on the island they  are trusting them"
"What I don't want is for a tragedy to happen"
"I'm not proud to put my family in danger"

"Actually, it's the other way around"
"It doesn't fill me with pride that you always have to fight for us"
"In reality, it's almost always the others that make these things happen"
"And it's always you who takes the blame and who ends up getting the brunt of it"
"I really feel useless that the only thing I can do for you is to fix this plane"
"So please, let us help you at least with this"

"Agh, okay"
"We'll see what happens"
"If it's too hairy we'll abort"
"He'd rather land in Kadena"

"Thank you very much for trusting us dear!"
"!!!!"
"Ah! that reminds me"
"Look under Endless, it's a little surprise!"

"Look at what?"
"....."
"!!!!!"
"Is that an Ark core?"

"That's right!"
"They keep them under lock and key along with the armor"
"Earlier today I asked Lisa to "borrow" one"
"They won't fight tomorrow anyway, so they don't need them"
"I disassembled the energy shield unit and reconfigured it"
"It should be able to protect the cockpit from almost any damage"
"So even if your plane explodes you should still be able to eject"
"It's a last measure of defense"
"Please come back with the whole plane"

"Yes of course, I will try"
"According to what I have heard that is the correct way to return"
"It also appears in the manual"

"The correct way to return is alive"
"The rest are just extra income"

"!!!!!"
"Talking about manuals"
"I have 3 hours to learn how to control this plane!"
"I don't know the cockpit of this old plane"
"You green guy, find someone free and tell him to teach me how to use this thing"
"I barely recognize what's on the dashboard"
"This one has like 500 more physical buttons than the F-42."

I spent the rest of the time trying to learn how to control the plane as fast as I could, it was really shocking to almost go through the whole driving school in such a short time, but that was all there was to it. Momo kept working on the engines at full speed with the help of two other hangar mechanics, while the twins were helping with the onboard computers and fine-tuning the Endless function. And everything we were doing was just a small part of what was going on in the hangar bay because the rest of the planes were doing much the same thing. Everybody preparing their aircraft before the deadline, a battle to get ready for the real battle. And this was only a part of what was going on all over the ship, for the runway just above us was in full operation launching and receiving planes, the engine room moving the ship, on the bridge was the second in command supervising the operations. There was not a single second of rest in any part of the ship.

After breakfast I went to the room where all my family was and I found most of them sleeping peacefully, I didn't want to wake them up ,  sure it was hard for them to get to this point, so I just picked up my things and left, although I noticed on my way out Lisa, who seemed to be in the middle of a nightmare, her body was sweating and her face was grunting as if trying to gesture something she couldn't say.

You can find story with these keywords: Valkyria Squadron, Read Valkyria Squadron, Valkyria Squadron novel, Valkyria Squadron book, Valkyria Squadron story, Valkyria Squadron full, Valkyria Squadron Latest Chapter