NaNoWriMo (Universo Responsoriis) teaser — Space Command Pilot Graduation Speech

I wasn't planning on posting any of the work I've been doing for NaNoWriMo, mostly because I was following the advice of one of my Mentors +Jamie Davis the @podmedic to just let it suck, and I'm pretty sure it does. Even if it does suck, though, I'm kinda fond of it, and thought I'd share it for feedback and just general information.

***

General Dodson stood at the front of the assembled formation, standing at attention awaiting his command. Thirty-six applicants, all highly distinguished fighter pilots from the US Air Force, US Navy & Marine Corps, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Israeli Air Force, Russian Air Force, and People’s Liberation Army Air Force, had completed the selection process—more than three hundred started it—and they were being acknowledged for their accomplishment today. They were also going to get bad news: there are only four fighters scheduled for completion in the next month, so the rest of them will have to just train in simulators for at least a half year while industrial capacity catches up to demand and testing requirements.
“At Ease, ladies and gentlemen. First, allow me to be the first to officially congratulate you all on completing the initial Earth Defense Space Command fighter training class. Each of you has proven to be an amazing warrior, ready to take the fight to our mostly unknown, highly advanced adversary. You have endured months of zero-gravity flight training, suit malfunctions, planet or orbiting body reentry procedures, and you have done it with the grace, determination, and sheer power of will the human species requires of the officers who will defend it.
“Your training, of course, is not completed here. This stage is the end of the beginning; starting Monday, you will be reporting to your new squadron commands for your next steps as the tip of the spear for Space Command, leading the fight against our mysterious enemy.
“There is much we know about them: they are highly advanced, and utilize technologies that have and will continue to awe us. For all their advanced technology, and the deference we afford them for it, they have weaknesses. Some we have already uncovered, more will be evident as this war progresses. We have incorporated some of our understanding of their weaknesses into future battle planning already, and as we gain experience from conflict with them, we will exploit more; you, will exploit more. You, the men and women of class 2033-01, will be the most important part of that battle plan. We can give you all the weapons we can muster, all the technology in the universe, and it all means nothing without deliberate, planned, focused application. Your efforts will have more say in the future of humanity than will any of our engineers, software developers, architects, or generals. They are important pieces, don’t get me wrong, but without the highly trained decision makers we graduate here today taking their technology and this training—and that to come—all the technology in the world is wasted.
“Standing here in front of you, I know that our efforts will not be wasted, will not be subjected to the demands of an as-yet faceless and nameless enemy. I see the best pilots in human history, and I know that our human approach to the delivery of war to them will be the deciding factor. Humanity will survive this crisis, as it has a multitude of crises in the past, by the one thing that makes us human: our compassion, our love, our drive to succeed and to do so by lifting each other up to higher ground.
“I am proud that the initial defense of humanity is led by you. You are the latest stage of millennia of human evolution, more highly trained and focused than any that have come before you. The hopes of humans everywhere, all people on Earth today and in all the tens of thousands of years gone by and yet to come, is in your capable hands, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
General Dodson then stood to attention, and called out “Class, attenTION!” The class responded immediately, all of them snapping to in unison. “Earth Defense Space Command Class Twenty Thirty-Three dash Zero One, I hereby declare you to be graduated, and to take on the missions that lie before all of humanity. You must succeed. You will succeed. CLASS DISMISSED, FALL OUT!”

***