Interstellar Age
Chapter 37 Instructing The New Recruits

With the Dvrakian War having come to an end, the Germanic Star-Empire immediately shifted its focus to a mass military buildup, as well as transforming their newly conquered worlds into fortresses, which were designed to slow down the Naraku advance when they finally arrived in Germanic space.

After the war ended in a Germanic victory, the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy set forth on overhauling the Dvrakian civilization so that it was suited for the harsh reality of the universe. Their borderline pacifistic ways had come to an abrupt and bitter end. Instead, the Dvrakian society had been overhauled from the ground up to mimic the Germanic Star-Empire.

Considering that the Germanic Star-Empire had a specific distaste for alien life, their requirement for vassalization was fairly unique when compared to other civilizations. They did not desire a yearly tribute of resources and wealth, but rather the so-called human resources that the Dvrakian race had left over after the war.

Despite the overwhelming destruction that the Dvrakian species endured over the past year, as a result of the Germanic invasion, they stilled had a population that was vastly larger than the Germanic Star-Empire, after all, the Germans had only managed to settle one hundred worlds, while the Dvrakians had settled over three times that amount.

Thus, as part of their preparations for the upcoming Naraku invasion, Grand Admiral Emrys issued an edict to his newly conquered subjects. Every citizen capable of bearing arms in the newly formed Dvrakian Social Republic, whether male or female, was to be conscripted into military service effective immediately.

Naturally, to accommodate this massive influx of military personnel, the Admiralty had agreed to temporarily integrate the newly formed Dvrakian Republican Guard into the already existing Germanic Military. Thus, as of this moment, there were billions of Dvrakians who had begun serving on Imperial vessels, and alongside Germanic Star Marines, something which much of the Germanic Armed Forces did not appreciate.

As for Erich, he found himself stationed on the frontiers of the Empire's new borders, on a world the Dvrakians called Kel'Vornax. It was a continental world with a wide range of climates. In many ways, this world was similar to Earth, albeit significantly smaller, as the planet was roughly the size of Mars.

Currently, Erich and the other members of the Black Sun Squadron were tasked with training these new Dvrakian pilots on how to effectively use their light fighters in combat. With Erich being given the painful job of instructing a young Dvrakian woman by the name of S'aleth, who had failed the test to become certified as a Starfighter pilot multiple times now.

Why the Admiralty had believed that individual training with one of their best ace pilots was the only way to help this young woman pass her exams, Erich did not know. But, regardless of his feelings about the task he had been given, the man was forced to endure this trial, and thus he watched in silence as his new student had yet again crashed into a planet's surface within the simulation.

S'aleth was a beautiful young Dvrakian woman, with blood red skin, matching eyes, and short silver hair. Her horns were rather short and were curled in a way that was akin to the fictitious succubus. She had a pair of bat-like wings, and a short devil's tail which jutted out of her backside.

The woman's unusually curvy body was concealed with an olive green flight suit, and currently she was emerging from the holodeck onboard the carrier, with a rather excited smile on her pretty face. She rapidly approached Erich, before expressing her hopeful thoughts aloud.

"So how did I do? Did I pass?"

Erich looked at the girl as if she were an imbecile. He could not believe that she could somehow think that she had passed after that performance and was quick to scold her because of it.

"Did you pass? Of course not! You literally crashed your starfighter into the fucking planet and killed yourself! Why on earth would I pass you!?!"

The red-skinned beauty immediately pouted as she began to argue with Erich about her performance, and whether or not she deserved a passing grade.

"What do you mean? I shot down that bug! Clearly, that means I did a good job!"

Erich was beginning to believe that this woman was indeed a moron and simply scoffed as he heard the drivel which came from this alien woman's mouth. As much as she might think she had done well in the simulation, reality was a far different story, and thus he was quick to reprimand S'aleth for her particularly sharp tongue.

"You think you did well? You chased after a drone with no regard for what was in front of or behind you. Yes, you managed to shoot down the fucking bug as he was attempting to climb back into the atmosphere, but you immediately rammed into the planet's surface directly afterward.

Never before in my life have I seen someone so inept at piloting a Starfighter, how on earth you were selected to serve in this position, I will never understand, but one thing is certain, I will be putting in my recommendation that you should be transferred to another position! Even after a whole week of private instruction, you are still a danger to yourself and everyone around you when you are given access to a cockpit!"

If it was even remotely possible for S'aleth's face to become anymore red, then she was most certainly blushing in embarrassment at this moment, while pouting at the same time. Her cheeks were slightly puffed up, as if she had many things she wanted to say, but knew the man who was scolding her was correct in his assessment.

Finally, she began to plead with Erich to reconsider his decision, as she latched onto the man's hand with her own, while firmly gripping it in place with her short claws. Erich winced in discomfort as he felt the woman's claws lock his hand in place, and though they were not breaking the skin, they were still unbearably uncomfortable.

"Please! Give me one last chance! I promise I will do better in the next simulation! Please, I'm begging you!"

The way the woman was avoiding her eyes from making contact with his own, while struggling to beg like a common dog, was somewhat endearing to Erich. And for the briefest of moments, he thought this living embodiment of a devil was actually quite cute.

Rather than deal with the conflicted emotions that he currently felt, Erich looked away from the attractive demoness and sighed heavily before agreeing to give her one last chance.

"Alright, fine, I will give you one last chance to pass your flight certification. If you still fail to do so, then I will have no choice but to transfer you to a more fitting position in the Navy."

A wide smile lit up on the woman's pretty face, as her incredibly sharp teeth were fully displayed. She quickly shook Erich's hand rather overenthusiastically while thanking him for his benevolence.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I promise I won't disappoint you!"

With this said Erich sighed once more, before reiterating that this was indeed the woman's last chance to pass.

"Don't thank me yet. This is your last chance. So…. In order to give you the best chances of success, we are going to spend the next month reteaching you the basics of flight and combat maneuvers. I can not emphasize enough how much trouble I am going through to make sure you become a pilot, so do not waste my time!"

The fledgling Dvrakian Pilot immediately snapped to attention and saluted Erich with a cheerful smile on her pretty face.

"Yes, Sir!"

Like Erich had said, the two of them began spending a lot of time together, with Erich's entire schedule for the month being taken up with private lessons for this hopeless pilot. He honestly did not know why the Navy was wasting time and resources helping this girl become a pilot, but he was certain that she was closely related to somebody who held significant power and influence in the newly formed National Socialist Dvrakian Worker's Party, which was the new ruling entity of the puppet state.

—

A full month had passed, and currently Erich was watching a holographic projection of what was going on in the holodeck, as S'aleth began piloting her dagger for what might very well be the last time. The test was designed to mimic a real battlefield scenario, and the only way to achieve victory was through surviving until the very end and scoring a certain number of kills.

The start of the scenario was quite easy, as all S'aleth needed to do in the beginning was successfully take off from the carrier inside the simulation and head towards the battlefield with a wing of simulated comrades. The buxom demoness was breathing quite heavily as she struggled to cope with the anxiety that she currently felt.

This anxiety only increased as she approached the battlefield which was currently taking place over a simulated planet between the Germanic Navy and a Naraku Hive Fleet, which was based upon Terminus. The Dvrakian pilot took a deep breath as she gripped her joystick with excessive strength. She then pushed the throttle forward as she immediately activated her targeting array so that it would lock onto the nearest drone.

It did not take long for S'aleth to catch up to the enemies, where she immediately opened fire with both her laser repeaters and plasma cannon to ensure that the maximum damage was dealt in the shortest amount of time.

Within seconds the drone exploded, allowing S'aleth to quickly pass through the remains which the insectoid lifeform had left behind. She then used her thrusters to strafe around her next target, which she immediately opened fire upon.

As S'aleth continued to fight through the scenario, Erich watched as her instructor, along with several other officers of the Germanic Starfighter Corps who were surprised to see that the alien woman who was a repeated flunkee just a month ago had somehow so quickly gained a grasp for flying. One of the officers even made a comment about it. While Erich stared anxiously at the holographic projection, fearing that some of his student's bad habits might resurface during the test.

"Amazing… It was just a month ago that I was certain this girl would flunk out of flight school, but now she has already managed to get through half the simulation without sustaining any significant damage. How the hell did you manage to get her up to speed so quickly, Silber?"

Erich did not respond to this question, and instead he watched the projection closely, noticing that a Naraku reaper, which was a specialized close quarters fighter variant of the drone, was rapidly approaching her six. To which he instinctively reached out to his student with his telepathy, and in doing so, secretly violated the parameters of the test.

"Watch your six!"

S'aleth assumed this was just her mind reminding her of what her instructor had drilled into her head over the last month, and thus she immediately looked behind her, to get a better glimpse of her rear, where she noticed the Naraku Reaper was about to latch onto her starfighter, and shred it to bits. Realizing that she had just narrowly failed the test, S'aleth's heart nearly exploded from the anxiety she was currently feeling, but her body reacted quicker than her mind, as she quickly dived towards the surface in an attempt to lose the enemy, while strafing around her pursuer so that she could get a sight picture.

Right when she saw the jaws of the insectoid latch out towards her starfighter, she used the plasma cannon which was mounted on a gimbal beneath the nose of her fighter, to unleash a storm of fire onto the bug, which caused it to explode right before it could rip open her cockpit with its mighty jaws, and pincers.

The explosion of the enemy target caused her ship to sustain some damage, but it was not enough to cause her to fail the test. Which after gaining control of her spiraling ship, S'aleth shot back into orbit where she succeeded in taking out more drones and reapers, until the GSE Fleet was ordered to retreat. Where she immediately headed back to the carrier and landed on its deck.

The simulation came to an abrupt stop after her successful landing, and revealed her score, which was just above the passing grade. To which she jumped out of the holodeck in excitement and ran towards her instructor. Even she did not know why she kissed Erich, but the overt display of affection between the instructor and his student immediately caught the gaze of the other Officers, who felt the need to report Erich for fraternizing with another species.

After several moments of kissing a stunned Erich, S'aleth released herself from his embrace, without even realizing what she had done, or why she had done it. Before thanking the man for his assistance in helping her reach her goals.

"I can't believe it! I actually did it! And it is all thanks to you!"

Erich was stunned into silence, and even felt quite violated by the long snake-like tongue that had forced its way into his mouth. He looked in shock at his peers, who were giving him a disapproving glance, as if to say that they would definitely be reporting him for this incident to their superiors.

It was only now, after seeing the awkward glances between the Germanic officers, that S'aleth realized she had done something incredibly inappropriate, and recoiled in shock as she bowed her head in an attempt to gain forgiveness for her rash and intimate actions.

She was blushing so profusely that even Erich would be able to detect the change in skin color around her cheeks, but luckily for her, nobody could see this, as her pretty face was directly facing the floor.

"I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I got so excited and did something entirely inappropriate. Please forgive me! I promise it won't happen again!"

Erich had no idea how to respond to this incident. In truth, he saw S'aleth as nothing more than an irksome thorn in his side that the Admiralty had forced upon him. Although now he had to admit she was an extremely attractive specimen of her species, far more so than the women he had seen in Dvrakian porn.

Unfortunately for him, there was no way he could possibly pursue a relationship with an alien like S'aleth, and without a doubt, he was going to get reprimanded for this one kiss that he had no control over. Thus, he forcefully calmed his rapidly beating heart before scolding the young woman for her actions.

"What you just did was a serious violation of the Empire's Naval Code of Conduct! I could even bring you up on disciplinary charges for this violation! However, with context I think I can reduce your sentence to a matter of cleaning the latrines. You may have passed your flight certification just now, but that is no excuse for your behavior. Report to the janitorial staff, where you will be serving a three-month stint before you are permitted to join the rest of the pilots in your unit!"

S'aleth had gotten to know Erich quite well over this last month of being together, and she had never seen him this angry before. It was almost enough to make her cry, in a hasty moment she had given this man her first kiss, and now he was disciplining her. She was just about to argue with Erich when she noticed the looks the other officers were giving him.

In that moment she suddenly remembered the strict penalties that the Geramanic Star-Empire held for interspecies relations, and thus, she now realized how much of a taboo she had just violated. She may only be getting three months of janitorial duty, but Erich, who was a member of the Germanic race, he was definitely in for a whole mess of trouble thanks to her.

And thus, knowing that he had been lenient with her, despite the harsh punishment he was about to receive, S'aleth struggled to choke back her tears as she saluted Erich, and just barely managed to respond in affirmation to her new orders.

"Yes, Sir!"

After saying this, S'aleth ran off, no longer willing to face the man she had caused so much trouble for, especially after all the hoops he had jumped through to get her up to par with Imperial flight standards. As for Erich, he shook his head and sighed before looking sternly at his other officers. His words were not so much an admission of guilt, but one of understanding just how boned he was for this mishap.

"Alright, she is gone. You can both go run off now to your superiors and report me for something I had no control over. Fucking cunts…."

Surprisingly, the two officers looked at one another before breaking out into laughter. The higher ranking of the two men looked at Erich with what appeared to be envy before voicing his thoughts aloud.

"Bro, what was it like?"

This question shocked Erich, who raised his brow in disbelief before asking for clarification.

"What do you mean? What was what like?"

Contrary to what Erich expected, the clarification of the question did not come from the first officer, but the second one instead.

"Her tongue, obviously! I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I've been wondering what they feel like since we first started our war with these sexy devils. To think you would actually get one to kiss you! Man, I mean officially I have to reprimand you for such a thing, but honestly? I'm so jealous! Hey I remember now, you are that guy from the controversy a few years back, you know that pop star reposted an image of you with that sexy Oni babe. Did you seriously smash her as well?"

Erich looked at the two officers who appeared supremely interested in the subject, before scoffing in disbelief.

"No comment…"

After saying this, Erich walked away, where he could have sworn he heard the two men groan in defeat, with one of them even calling him a tease. It was only at this moment that Erich realized that there were more men in the Empire than himself who were sexually attracted to women from some of the more beautiful alien species.