ShipCore - Book 4: Chapter 164: Engagements and Clutches

USD: One day after returning to MIL-1A

Location: Meltisar, Mil-1A, Naval Academy, Simulator Classroom 36C

The cadets returned to the classroom; their excitement palpable as they chattered about the simulated battle. It was the class’s first time using the simulator, and the experience had left them buzzing with energy.

Lieutenant Bridges called for their attention. “Alright, settle down. Rachel, why don’t you start by telling us what you think you did right during the engagement?”

Rachel hesitated for a moment before responding, “Well, sir, I believe allowing my squadron leaders enough room to control their own forces allowed us to win in the end.”

“And how about you?” Lieutenant Bridges asked the other cadet commander.

The other cadet spoke up. “I think keeping the entire fleet together allowed us a slight advantage in the opening engagement.”

Alex watched intently as her fellow cadets offered their thoughts on the battle.

“Now,” Lieutenant Bridges continued, “Let’s discuss what went wrong. Rachel?”

She sighed, admitting, “I should have anticipated that our enemies would adapt to our formation and change their tactics accordingly.”

The other cadet commander added, “In hindsight, I think I focused too much on taking out the enemy flagship. It allowed some other elements to escape damage during the engagement.”

“You both accomplished your mission to eliminate the enemy fleet. While blue team came out ahead, it only had three corvettes left still operational.” Lieutenant Bridges said.

Alex could see the smile appear on Rachel and the other commander’s faces. It didn’t last long.

“But if this were a real battle, you’d also be dead; along with over six thousand other Meltisar crewmen and a large portion of the fleet. You both ran in like bulls and smashed each other without a second thought.”

Rachel and the other cadet’s enthusiasm faded, replaced by introspection as they considered the weight of their choices. The memory of the battle over Dedia struck Alex like a hammer, the desperate defense that had left the enemy fleet ruined, but her ship burning in the atmosphere and her drone friends destroyed.

She’d led them into that battle without considering just how much could be lost. Everyone on the planet had been at risk, but she could have taken Elis and their group to safety. What had she owed the Dedians, anyway? They were intangible compared to her connections to her… family.

Tension filled her as she maintained her composure. It was a real-life similarity to Rachel’s battle simulation, and Alex swallowed the innate pain from the memory. They’d won, saved the planet—maybe—but she’d nearly lost everything and everyone she cared about.

Lieutenant Bridges moved to the center of the class and addressed them solemnly. “As command officers, it is up to you to lead your crews to successful mission outcomes. While a conclusive battle that leaves the enemy defeated at the cost of your own lives and those of your crew may one day be necessary,” he paused for effect, “you must also think heavily about such a choice.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. “It is your duty and responsibility to search for a way that defeats the enemy while minimizing casualties on your brothers and sisters in service. You owe that to everyone under your command, from your junior officers to your freshest crewman first class.”

The lieutenant then explained that there was an old Earth quote that had stood the test of time and still held relevance today. “It goes something like this,” he said, his voice steady and clear. “‘It isn’t about dying for your country but making the other sorry bastard die for his.’”

The room fell silent as his words resonated in the room. After allowing them a moment to absorb the message, Lieutenant Bridges glanced at his watch and announced that the next simulation was ready.

They dove back into the simulation. This time, Nameless swiftly transitioned Alex through the process. Her time spent in the strange limbo virtual realm only amounted to a few disorienting seconds.

Over the course of the day, they went through dozens of other scenarios. Alex observed and learned from everyone’s different strategies and tactics, while Lieutenant Bridges painstakingly deconstructed their successes and failures.

As the day neared its end, Alex found herself on the MNS Aegis’ flag bridge—her rank set to Rear Admiral, giving her command of the entire fleet.

She took a deep breath and surveyed her surroundings, acutely aware of the weight of responsibility now resting on her shoulders. The anticipation in the room was palpable as the main screen showed the faces of her team looking to her for guidance and leadership.

As Alex glanced at each member of her team, their expectant faces looking to her for guidance and leadership, a question gnawed at her heart: If she were required to make the decision to spend all their lives, would she be able to even consider it? Amidst her past successes and failures, doubts lingered.

Alex took a deep breath. “This is what we are going to do…”

Alex devised a plan to use her battleship group, including her flagship, as bait. She kept a safe distance from the enemy fleet, but he stubbornly refused to send his faster elements ahead to chase her down, preferring to keep his forces together.

Frustration bubbled within Alex as she failed to separate any of his ships. Checking her fleet status, she realized that if they continued this dance, her fleet’s reaction mass reserves would deplete.

With Nameless’ assistance, Alex slowly gathered her forces at a single rendezvous point. It took an entire day without revealing their intentions, and yet the opposing commander remained steadfast.

Rachel appeared on Alex’s screen and informed her that she was ready. Nodding in acknowledgment, Alex once more offered her battleship group as bait.

The enemy fleet chased them en masse while Alex matched the pace of the enemy’s larger elements, staying just beyond missile range. Although their position technically placed them within Alex’s missile range due to the pursuit, she restrained herself from firing.

Both fleets raced past a moon with a pockmarked landscape and hurtled toward the gas giant. As they entered its outer atmosphere, gas streams ignited across their D-fields while they sped through space.

Finally reaching her intended destination, Alex commanded her heavy battleship group to decelerate slightly, allowing the enemy fleet to inch closer.

The enemy fleet launched its entire missile salvo at Alex’s smaller battle group. Frantic calls from her captains filled the flag bridge, each of them seeking guidance on how to proceed. Alex assessed the salvo size and density against their defenses, knowing they were going to take a beating.

As the enemy fleet reached an imaginary checkpoint in her mind, Alex opened her comm channel to Rachel’s battlecruiser and ordered the trap sprung.

Hidden beneath the gas giant’s blue clouds, the rest of Blue Team’s ships emerged. They sent massive billows of gas streaming off the clouds’ surfaces and into space as they moved into position. Alex reversed her battleship group’s course, effectively pincering the enemy between them.

Her battle group would now be engaged in close combat for much longer than a passing joust—if they survived the incoming missiles. Undeterred, Alex ordered a combined missile salvo from both fleet elements timed to arrive simultaneously.

Her detachment’s missile defenses sprang to life: electronic warfare countermeasures released thousands of decoys; long-range anti-ship lasers targeted and fired upon them; PDC-L light lasers illuminated even more; high-caliber PDC-Ks spewed flak rounds, creating walls of nail-like debris in front of each target. As the swarm drew closer, final defense fire PDC-Ks traced lines of fire through space.

Remarkably, nearly all incoming missiles were destroyed—only a lucky few evaded the defensive net. But their impact was devastating as antimatter-laced warheads detonated with incredible fury like miniature supernovae.

Alex gritted her teeth as several of her battleships vanished in titanic explosions. She forced herself not to dwell on the losses, instead turning her gaze to the enemy fleet. Her team’s missiles arrived simultaneously, and their destructive power was unleashed.

The multi-directional attack allowed the enemy to deploy more point defenses, but it also split their electronic warfare net. The lighter fleet elements at the rear took disproportionate damage compared to the heavy battleships in the vanguard. Half the enemy fleet disappeared in a chaotic frenzy of fire, but only one enemy battleship had been destroyed.

The distance between them dwindled rapidly, and long-range lasers began exchanging fire between her detachment and the enemy. Alex buzzed Rachel and gave her the order to engage independently while she focused on coordinating her own battle group’s actions. With Nameless’ help, she directed fire from all her ships onto different targets in real time, exploiting faltering D-fields or lucky hits to pour on lethal fire.

However, they took damage in return; even if it wasn’t targeted so specifically. The enemy fleet outnumbered them, and Alex realized that the enemy commander had directed his entire fleet’s attention onto her battle group. Rachel’s lighter detachment of battlecruisers and cruisers began tearing apart the enemy’s rear—but if Alex’s detachment faltered and they turned on Rachel with their remaining forces still intact…

As the warring ships closed the distance, firepower lessened with each eliminated unit on both sides. Yet, the battle intensified as fewer targets remained, with more fire raining upon each surviving ship. The red and blue Aegis flagships focused on each other when they entered railgun range, launching projectiles from their V-shaped array of super-firing main railguns.

Alex checked the status feed displaying her remaining ships’ health, and those detected in the remaining enemy lines. Her heart skipped a beat at her battle group’s condition—only five out of twelve battleships, including the Aegis, remained fighting. Observing similar losses among enemy forces, she felt relieved seeing Rachel’s smaller element readout.

The pincer attack had wreaked havoc on the enemy’s lighter elements. Rachel’s task force was relatively unscathed while nipping at the heels of enemy battleships, giving them an edge in numbers.

Alex let Nameless fire their railguns first; bright flashes marked massive railgun salvos tearing through enemy lines. A single smoking battleship remained; its main drive sputtering as frantic lasers targeted numerous enemies incoming enemies.

Then came the enemy’s response—Alex’s world lit up in a blinding flash of light.

Nameless coolly informed Alex that she was dead. [Informative: Avatar’s existence in simulation has ended.]

Alex exhaled and leaned back in the floating blackness, cracking her back and stretching after what felt like days sitting at her command seat. Subjectively, it had been days, and she was exhausted. Even with her NAI capabilities, she needed some sleep—though not as much as a normal human.

The after-battle room that the simulation provided to defeated captains appeared, and Alex moved to examine the tactical monitors. Rachel’s task group continued forward, mopping up the last crippled enemy battleship and running down any scouts who had avoided engagement. Once the scenario concluded, the entire class was ushered out of the simulation and back to their desks.

Looking around, Alex realized everyone was exhausted. The class had gone past its ending time by over five hours, which was evident from the room’s evening lighting tint. Not to mention they’d spent days subjectively in the sim. Even without Lieutenant Bridge’s encouragement, everyone stood up and stretched.

“Alright, let’s finish up quick so we can all get out of here; that took a bit longer than expected, eh?” Lieutenant Bridge said before turning to Alex almost immediately.

“Cadet Myers, what did you do right?”

“Umm… I think we managed to defeat an equal enemy force while preserving as many of our own ships as possible.”

He nodded. “And your biggest mistake?”

This question was harder for Alex, and she had to think for a moment. “I think when my battle group was closing with the enemy, we should have avoided railgun range and continued the long-range energy exchange. Rachel’s force had mostly taken out their light elements, and I think we could have won the attrition duel without losing all our heavy units.”

Bridges nodded. Then he turned toward Cadet Fields. Alex felt her eyes widen as she realized that he had been the enemy commander.

“Cadet Fields, what did you do right?”

“Sir, I believe I managed to keep my group from falling into any of the enemy fleet’s traps and managed to maintain our movement in force without breaking it up.”

Bridges nodded to him. “And your mistake?”

Fields sighed and looked at Alex without malice. “She led me straight into her clutches.”

Bridges raised an eyebrow. Fields quickly added an explanation.

“I didn’t think you could hide a fleet inside the atmosphere like that, and I thought we had finally peeled her main force off from her escorts.”

The lieutenant nodded. “Alright, since we went over time so much, we won’t be having a full review. But I’ll be sending an assignment for all of you to complete before we meet…” He paused and checked his calendar, “…next week. You’re all dismissed.”

As the class left, Alex followed them out, with Rachel by her side. Rachel informed her that it was already 10 pm. “Look what you did; our day is ruined,” she said mockingly. “We were going shopping for clothes; didn’t you say you were looking for some accessories?”

Alex mumbled an agreement, feeling down as she realized the day was over and shopping would be closed by now.

“Then we were going to eat dinner in the concourse. I recall you absolutely begging me to try that kebab place.”

Alex’s expression drooped even more. “I did want you to try them…”

“All because you wanted to show me up one, right?” Rachel teased.

Surprised, Alex searched her friend’s face for any sense of hurt, but found only teasing. “I just took what we learned from the earlier matches and tried my best.”

Rachel slipped her arm into the crook of Alex’s elbow. “That worked well, although I was pretty sure we were going to mess up evading them for too long when he wouldn’t take the bait.”

Alex felt her cheeks heat at the other girl’s proximity. It had been a while since they’d been together, and now they found themselves outside Rachel’s dorm room. Alex frowned, almost feeling like she’d messed up their plans by trying too hard in the simulation… but she quickly pushed that thought away.

“I’m sorry for causing the simulation to run so long and mess up our plans,” she said in the most monotone voice she could muster.

Rachel paused in the doorway and turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “I was kidding.”

Alex broke out into a grin. “Me too.”

Rachel’s brown eyes sparkled before grabbing Alex’s collar and pulling her inside. “Time to set up some more life-ending explosions.”

Alex giggled, “I promise not to avoid engagement this time.”

Rachel kissed her and pressed into her as the door slid shut. “What if I want some teasing?”

“It better not take another five hours,” Alex mumbled. Both of them giggled before someone turned off a light.