by Kal Spriggs
Before I could respond, he rose, taking his tray, and walked off without another word.
***
The six foreign students ended up seated around a simulation tank the next day. Star Commandant Athena was present, her expression reserved as she stared at us. Part of me wondered if she was also in the electronic warfare simulation... and if she were also in other places.
“Welcome, students,” she said, her voice friendly in a distant sort of way. It made me lean more towards the idea that she was an automated program of some kind. “Today we're going to begin the first of several tactical comparison classes. The intent here is to evaluate our relative strengths and differences given different parameters.” She stepped forward, standing in position over the round simulation tank. “I will be filling the role of Erewhon for this set of simulations, while our midshipmen are otherwise occupied.”
“Ma'am,” Hawkins interrupted, “what's the purpose of this, really? I mean, we can say or show that we emphasize the Krendel or the Niall schools of tactics, or any other number of tactical and strategic doctrines, but matching us up against one another sure don't seem like a good way to learn much besides what tactics individuals favor.”
Hawkins didn't back down from challenging authority, I'd certainly give him that.
To my surprise, Star Commandant Athena didn't look offended. She gave him a slight nod, as if acknowledging a hit in some kind of martial combat. Or as if she'd expected that comment based on listening into our conversation at dinner...
“All of you, without a doubt, will favor individual tactics based upon your personalities and experiences, but you'll also favor broader doctrine and tactics based upon your military culture. This is an opportunity for you all to gain insight into how those of other nations train and fight.” Her gaze went to Prince Ladon and Prince Kiyu.
It was a clear point. This was an opportunity to see how Drakkus fought, to see what a fight against them might involve. It was a rare occasion where we could experiment bloodlessly against a foe who seemed determined to conquer us all.
Somewhat to my surprise, neither the Prince or Princess of Drakkus seemed off-put by that. Of course, it's a two-way street. We learn how they fight, they learn how we fight. I would have to be careful what I showed, I wouldn't want them to learn everything we were capable of. At the same time, I wasn't about to let them roll over us.
“Our first exercise, each of you will have thirty minutes to prepare a force and establish tactical parameters. The forces will be drawn from your existing capabilities and arranged on a point-based scale. Century, for instance, will have access to multitudes of older style vessels, while Drakkus will have access to smaller numbers of their newer vessels. The intent is to let you build a force which you will be familiar with and to control their general behavior in predetermined conditions. Then we will engage these forces in set parameters, to evaluate relative strengths and weaknesses.”
“I don't understand why we'd get fewer ships,” Prince Ladon scowled. “We have as many cruisers and destroyers as Century has corvettes!”
Star Commandant Athena gave him a level look, “Are those cruisers and destroyers able to forgo all their other assignments and duties, to come from across your multi-system empire and concentrate into one force? Or are they assigned to multiple areas for piracy mitigation, defense operations, and any number of other tasks?”
Prince Ladon's scowl didn't ease, but he did give a slight nod.
“Century, on the other hand, is concentrated on the defense of their system, they may take time to mobilize their many vessels, but they're all available for their tasks when they do so.” Star Commandant Athena went on. “Just as the MCA's light carriers and fighter-bombers are available in high numbers because of their mobility.”
I found myself asking the question that had been bothering me, “And Erewhon's Mobile Defense Forces are available for maneuver outside their system?”
I caught just the slightest hesitation in Star Commandant Athena. It was the kind of thing that a human might do when surprised by a question, or what a computer program might do when querying information outside of its normal script. Star Commandant Athena flashed me a crisp smile, “Indeed.” She looked around at the group, “Prepare a fighting force and arrange its tactical engagement parameters and we'll run through some simple one-to-one engagements.”
I had the feeling who we'd be going one on one against. I looked over at Karmazin, who gave me a slight nod. We'd already been told what parameters and tactics we were allowed to share, so we weren't about to reveal any secrets.
I pulled up the interface, looking around as I did so. Each of us had a private display. From the front, my display looked like a normal interface, but from the sides or back, it just looked like a cloud of light. More of the Erewhon holographics at work. It seemed an odd thing to do, since it would be easier to do what Century did, painting the imagery in the user's eyes, retaining the privacy of what they were doing without having to even use actual holo-displays, but it seemed the Erewhon Defense Forces liked their holographics.
The interface was simple enough, though it took me a moment to flip through ships and then to find different engagement parameters. That included simple guidance that I could give different ships, so that when controlling multiple ships in a large engagement, I wouldn't be overwhelmed trying to control every vessel. Each parameter let me demo it, so I had a good feel for it. It was a sophisticated bit of programming, in itself impressive, seeing as most of the sims that I'd used had fixed parameters, mostly defaulting to how the Century Planetary Militia fought.
The freedom to experiment with this kind of thing was heady and I had to fight the urge to tweak everything just a bit, playing with this or that detail. The details weren't important, just now, it was the overall big picture. I quickly assembled the sort of basic fighting force that we'd trained on: five squadrons of Firebolt Mark V fighters, two squadrons of Terrier-class corvettes, and a single half-squadron of Lancer destroyers, which was pretty much right on in points, with just enough to add a couple extra warp-drive missiles for my destroyers, more than they normally carried but still within their capacity. Few ships carried their full complement of warp drive missiles, they were just too expensive to produce and maintain and being stored in external launch racks wore most of them out very quickly, which was why on Century we kept parts and components in storage to assemble them in wartime.
I locked in my force composition and then looked up. Alexander Karmazin was done, his expression serene as he watched the rest of us. Hawkins and Jean Paul, the two MCA cadets were finishing up and they both looked up after a few more minutes. The Prince and Princess were the longest. Then again, I'm sure they're spoiled for choice.
Finally, though, they finished up and Star Commandant Athena spoke, “All of you have locked in your selections. We'll start with a standard scenario, system defense. Because Century's forces are prioritized for that role, we'll allow them to play the defender on these first scenarios.” She gave me and Alexander an impersonal smile, just the right amount of sympathy in her face to show she apologized a bit.
Oh, great. That meant we'd be the target for everyone else.
“I have uploaded a generic planet, with installations that need to be either captured or defended. For our first engagements, we'll go with single defender forces, alternating between our two Century cadets, starting with their senior cadet, Cadet First Class Armstrong.” Just like that I was regretting leading Karmazin by a couple percentage points coming out of last year. “You will have five minutes to place your units and then I will randomly select an attacking force.”
I wouldn't have any idea who I was fighting and I was up first. This was going to be great.
My display shifted, showing a layout of a larger star system and then zooming in to show a region around a planet. It was a pretty generic planet, roughly the same size as most worlds humans inhabited, with three facilities highlighted on it, two of them were civi
lian mining installations and the third was marked as a military facility. It had two small moons, which gave me places to hide my vessels. The system as a whole had an automated sensor network, so I'd be able to see ships on approach. Under the conditions of the scenario, my parasite craft had no carrier ships or station, so I had to start four of my fighter and both corvette squadrons at the facilities on the planet, ready to launch. It did let me stage them in the civilian installations, so I split two squadrons of Firebolts at each. I assigned my two corvette squadrons to the military bases and then my half-squadron of destroyers in a sheltered position in orbit of one of the moons, positioned so that the planet and the moons provided them concealment from most likely directions of approach. My last squadron of Firebolts I put on a patrol on the far side of the planet from the destroyers so I'd be able to guard that approach.
I wasn't too worried about some kind of concealed attack. The sensor network should give me time to launch my parasite vessels. It was actually a defense rather similar to what the Militia adopted, with an active duty force and a reserve I could mobilize, albeit on a much smaller scale than how we defended our homeworld.
No sooner had I signaled my readiness than the scenario began. I monitored the sensor network, even as I prepped my ships on the planet for launch. The fighters and corvettes had limited duration of operation without some kind of support ship or station, which was why they were often called parasite craft. While I doubted I'd exceed that duration in this scenario, it was a bit more realistic to keep them at standby rather than launched.
I didn't have long to wait. Eight vessels began sweeping into the system. They came up on my display as a squadron of destroyers and a pair of cruisers. The full squadron of destroyers was dangerous enough: they outgunned my half squadron twice over, even if they weren't more modern, which I had to assume they were.
The identifications and ship type suggested this was either Erewhon or Drakkus. Who it was didn't matter immediately, though I hoped it was Drakkus so I could get a chance to bloody their noses. The eight ships were coming in fast, probably at the max speed of the destroyers at point four of light-speed. I'd have about fifteen minutes before they were able to make orbit.
My first impulse was to launch everything, but I didn't want to give them the advantage in knowing where all my forces were. Instead, I kept my three destroyers concealed behind their moon and I checked launch times, lining up launches from the different facilities so that I could time their arrival and appearances with their engagement parameters.
Just as I'd cued that up, though, the two cruisers leapt ahead of the other six ships. I realized what they were doing a moment later. The cruisers had more speed and much greater durability. As soon as my opponent had realized I wasn't launching immediately, he or she had sent the cruisers ahead in a bid to catch me before I could launch, or better yet to kill my parasite craft as they launched from the planet.
It was a clever move. Unlike destroyers, most cruisers had enough power to keep their drives up as a defense while still powering their weapons systems for sustained fire. So while my destroyers would need to drop their drives if they wanted to maintain an engagement, those two cruisers could sit in orbit of my planet and unleash a lot of firepower.
Of course, it also left a lot of the cruiser's screening forces in the form of the destroyers behind. I swept my ready squadron of fighters around the planet, barreling them in on the two cruisers. Against the fighter defenses of the destroyer squadrons and the cruisers, that would have been a dangerous move, but against just two cruisers...
The fighters whipped in, six oriented on each of the two cruisers. The enemy fire tore into them, but cruisers were designed more to engage other proper ships, and the two cruisers didn't mount the more substantial point defenses that proper capital ships would, they traded that out for general versatility.
My bombs went in, four from each Firebolt, and one of the cruisers vanished, the other staggered out of the detonations with it's warp field flickering, a sure sign of being nearly overwhelmed. It reversed course in a bid to get back to the shelter of its other ships, but I'd already punched my destroyers out from concealment, even as the rest of my forces launched from the planet. My destroyers wouldn't have been able to catch a cruiser under normal circumstances. Cruisers mounted deeper drive fields and could attain higher relative velocities with those warp drives. But the high energy detonations of matter and antimatter so close to its drive field had crippled it. The surviving cruiser needed time to bleed off energy, to stabilize its drive field, and I didn't give it that time.
My three destroyers drove in, barely catching it as it tried to reverse course, and I kept their drive fields up as they whipped past at knife-fighting range at only a thousand kilometers. This wasn't a proper fight, it was a drive-by, and I slashed them through evasive maneuvers even as they fired their main weapons and began their withdrawal.
As I'd hoped, those hits proved too much for the surviving cruiser, and its drive field collapsed. I didn't keep my ships there to finish the crippled ship off, though, I brought them back to the planet and into the combined force of my four armed squadrons of fighters and the two squadrons of corvettes.
I could hear someone in the room curse, but I was too focused on the scenario to care who it was. As my opponent saw the destroyers retreat, he volleyed off a salvo of warp-drive missiles. Each of his destroyers had launched four of them, so twenty-four missiles swept in at me, giving me only seconds to begin evasive maneuvers. I shifted my corvette squadrons forward to screen my half-squadron of destroyers and whipped my four remaining squadrons of fighters out in front. Just seconds before the warp missiles came in, I volleyed my external racks from my corvettes and destroyers, firing twice as many warp missiles back at the enemy in a staged launch that would overlap with my fighters as they swept in.
Things started happening really fast at that point and a part of me was tempted to split out my attention, using my implant, but I held back. I prioritized targets for the fighters and missiles, both of them streaking in at the enemy destroyers at point seven and point eight of light speed respectively.
The enemy missiles came in at the same time. My fighters opened up with their particle beams as they passed the inbound enemy warp missiles. At the combined closing speed, they only managed one hit before they screamed past one another. The enemy missiles swept in on my corvettes, first, and as much as I hated to put them out front, they were far less important than my destroyers at this point. They only had a single particle beam, each, and didn't have sufficient power or speed to be a significant threat to the inbound destroyers. Their main strength had been their warp drive missiles, and they'd already used those.
The enemy missiles swept in through my point defense fire, my ships sweeping into spiral motions designed to out-maneuver the turning radius of the missiles. The combined overlapping weapons fire and evasive maneuvers meant that only six of the warp drive missiles managed hits. Five of them detonated against four of my corvettes, destroying them instantly, while the last one detonated a glancing hit against one of my destroyers' warp drive fields, destabilizing the ship's field.
Five warp drive missiles swept past, adopting looping turns to try and sweep around to engage, but I aligned my corvettes towards their approach.
My fighters and missiles swept in on the six enemy destroyers a second later.
With the sensor delay and the speed, I barely had time to register the enemy formation shift, adopting a tight, defensive shell that meant my broader spread of missiles was partially wasted, about a third of my missiles whipping past too far out to turn inwards in time. The destroyers also volley fired their point defenses in overlapping fields of fire, tearing into my missiles as they came in, smashing a dozen of them.
Focusing fire as they did on my missiles, though, my fighters had a narrow window, attacking into the enemy formation with more response time than the missiles and greater maneuverability. Four squadrons of Firebolts dropped f
orty-eight bombs right into the teeth of the enemy destroyer formation.
Chains of antimatter detonations whited out my sensors, spread across the entirety of the enemy formation. One destroyer emerged from that, its warp field flaring as it tried to bleed off energy.
Engagement Terminated.
The glowing text replaced my display and I looked up, feeling sweat trickle down my back and beading on my scalp. Hock, that was a rush. Most of our engagements at the Academy were far more focused on training objectives or small unit engagements. This had been far more complex, more interesting, than any of those.
“Victory to the defender,” Star Commandant Athena noted with a neutral voice. “Hawkins did not succeed in the attack.”
I looked up, startled, and the MCA cadet wiped at his forehead theatrically. “Tough fight, Armstrong. Wicked move there with the fighters.” He smiled at me, clearly not holding his loss against me.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling back.
Star Commandant Athena brought up the central display. I flushed a bit as I realized that the others had been watching the battle unfold. Star Commandant Athena rewound the battle, pausing here and there to highlight portions of the engagement. She went through the entire battle in reverse, pointing out the timing of my fighter and corvette launches, along with Hawkins' attempt to get his cruisers in position to stop that launch.
“Most of the engagement hinged with the cruisers moving forward,” Star Commandant Athena noted. “Cadet Hawkins, would you like to discuss how that went?”
“I hadn't picked up her squadron behind the planet,” Hawkins shrugged, “so I was hoping she either didn't have any fighters on patrol or that they were out of position.”
“Armstrong?” Star Commandant Athena asked.
“I'd like to say I kept them in position just in case someone tried a rush, but I was mostly just had them as a general reserve that I hadn't wanted to reveal unless I needed to,” I admitted. “If they hadn't been able to hit the cruisers, then I would have had to commit my destroyers to engage the cruisers and I don't think it would have gone quite this way.”