Sunday, January 1, 2012

A Perfect Match


A Perfect Match
                Two powerful factions in the known universe have engaged in a brutal war. Ships from their respective planets came together at the battle of Skrin, Nexus and Hollis. The Greens lost the conflict at Skrin, but came back with a surprising victory at Nexus (the halfway point between the Green’s planet of Maxen and the Yellow’s planet of Valis). Green fighter jets accelerated out of their carrier and overtook the slower Yellow wasp ships. The tactic of burst attacks against a slower, but stronger, enemy is still being taught at the Green academy some fifty years later.
                The most impressive story came from a small battle, a dogfight, between two small, light ships. Their pilots, each with more than ten years of flying experience under their belts.
                “This guys toast.” The man said as he brought the ship into his cross hairs. Then, suddenly the target ship bolted to the right. “Bastard, he’s good.” The pilot said as he tried to realign the ship into his target.  Suddenly the pilot had an intense flashback to his childhood, opening a present on his birthday, looking up to his parents who each had a big smile on their faces. “Why am I thinking about this now? I should be focused on my objective.”
                The enemy ship circled around and soon had the man’s ship in his cross hairs. He fired two photon shots, one nicked the man’s wing. “How do you like that?” Said the enemy.
                “How did I let him hit me? I’m getting careless.”  Suddenly the man did a barrel roll and tried to fly to the rear of the enemy ship, but he couldn’t. He had another flashback to when he was playing with a little boy, who remarkably looked a lot like himself. They were playing laser tag. At the end of a round they compared hits, five and five, perfectly even, perfectly matched.
                The enemy stayed on his six but each shot was a miss. The man successfully circled around and fired two shots, one missed the other nicked the enemy’s wing. They were then in a fight to see who could tail the other, but each maneuvered brilliantly. The enemy had a flashback. He remembered playing laser tag with a friend, or maybe a brother, he couldn’t remember, they were very young. Then he remembered something. His parents separated when he was five years old. His father left with his brother. “That’s right, my twin brother! I remember something about him growing up on Valis, while I stayed home on Maxen. Maybe, no, surely this is him. He makes all the same maneuvers as I. Who else could fly a ship like that? I’m sure there are others, but I have a strange sense. Something is telling me that this is him.”
                The man flew around and was yet again at the enemy’s rear. But he didn’t fire any shots. “Brother..It’s you. I finally found you.” He came to the same realization as his supposed enemy. They both sat idling, each one refusing to harm the other.
                If only this was the way most battles ended, one man looking at another with brotherly love, refusing to harm him because he sees himself in the other’s eyes. People will always fight, but for one instance in time, there were two men who realized something amazing and refused to follow through with their objectives. These decisions saved a man’s life that day.

No comments:

Post a Comment