With just a single attack! Atosryua clicked her tongue.
Warships freshly emerging from a portal had a distinct weakness — despite rushing through at all speed, their velocity in relation to the portal started off at zero upon reaching the other side. For a small while after transitioning to 3-space, the ships were virtually stopped in place — lambs for the slaughter.
Maybe this is because I haven’t shaken my assault ship habits, reflected Atosryua. A shot from a single assault ship anti-proton cannon wasn’t that damaging, but a raid ship’s EM cannon was lethal. It might’ve been a better idea to pass through the portal in single-ship bubbles. If we’d done so, that would have spread out the damage.
But she’d save the analysis for later. She had a situation to claw her way out of.
The two ships they’d lost had begun attacking even before she issued the command. The brunt of five ships’ worth of EM cannons concentrated on the enemy.
“Enemy ship reported down.”
Their next prey was the ship in the process of correcting course. The powerful, roaring propulsion engines kept pushing Atosryua’s ships to greater speeds. Three ships charged at the flank of the new target.
The enemy ship at the rear was also speeding up, but it wouldn’t be able to close into firing range before they could finish its friend off. Pelted by mock shells, the ship “exploded.”
This time around, the damage to the Blue Team was nil. At first, the enemy had gotten the drop on them, but after they’d regained their footing, it was now all about defeating each ship one by one.
“All ships, reverse course,” said Atosryua, pointing with her command baton. Their next target was the last of the initial three ships, which was still hot on their trail from behind.
But it wasn’t just one ship remaining. There had to be two more somewhere. Sure enough, one of those two appeared, hurtling their way. Now it was three-on-two.
The fact that the enemy was scattered apart gave Atosryua’s team the advantage. Despite the newcomer’s arrival, she planned on chasing after the other enemy ship to the last. The three Blue Team vessels turned their bows and revved their engines to max thrust. Since this was in the direction opposite their inertia, they slowed down.
Their target also stopped accelerating.
Planning to buy time until the newcomer reaches firing range, I see, mused Atosryua, the gears in her head spinning on overdrive. At this rate, forget about getting picked off one-by-one — we’ll have a pincer attack on our hands. And the other remaining ship being around is ominous.
“Where’s the other one!?” Atosryua asked the Roïcasariac (Deputy Staff Officer). “Widen your frocragh range and search.”
“Roger that.”
Oh well. We can’t pick them off one-by-one, but there’s always next time. She swung her command baton once again. “Turn towards that direction, keeping thrusters at max.”
The Blue Team shifted direction away from the Hyde Portal. The Red Team gave chase, while the four ships that had been deemed “destroyed” were left to drift near the Portal.
Atosryua noticed something smaller than a raid ship was in a place far removed from the zone of the mock battle. The conveyance ship of the Flicaubh, most likely.
By the time Atosryua ordered another about-face, the opposing ships had already marshaled and dressed ranks. Now neither side had an advantage. The propulsion engines of the three Blue Team ships were still at full throttle, yet the battlefield pulled away from the Hyde Portal at a snail’s pace.
Then, a raid ship began to emerge from the Portal, leaving her taken aback. “Whose is it!?” she asked.
The answer didn’t come instantaneously, since they were already more than a light-second away from the Portal.
“It’s the Flicaubh,” reported the Deputy Staff Officer.
“Quick, the information link,” she said, before realizing it was impossible at this distance. “Scratch that. Open the comms. Give me Ship Commander Sobash.”
Before long, Sobash’s hologram was standing on the bridge. He didn’t wait to be asked questions before speaking, in consideration of the time lag. “Our damage is minor. One of the laser cannons is down, but our navigation and EM cannons are totally unimpaired.”
“I’m glad,” nodded Atosryua. “Now, you know what to do. Go kick Roiryua in the back.”
Two seconds later, and Sobash saluted. “Roger that. Please shoot without worrying about us.”
“We will.”
Sobash waited for the hologram to cut out before saying: “All ships, reverse course. Keep engines at full throttle. We’re going for the pincer.”
Now what will Roiryua do? Sobash folded his arms. And where is he hiding that last raid ship? Surely at this stage of the game he can’t go without it?
“There it is,” reported the Deputy Officer. “327.55, distance: 7.11 light-seconds.”
Why so far away? Atosryua was dumbfounded. “Where is it going?”
“It seems to be in inertial navigation. It must have been ‘destroyed,’ ma’am.”
“When did it get attacked? You know what, never mind.” If it was that far away, it might as well have been in the next galaxy over for all the impact it would have on this mock battle.
The enemy ships altered trajectory. By the looks of it, the Red Team had decided to aim for the weaker opponents first — and so they reversed course.
“The enemy has reversed course. They’re headed our way,” said Yatesh.
That makes this two-on-one, thought Lafier. Sobash’s skill as a ship commander had exceeded her expectations. Upon entering battle, he entrusted the piloting of the ship entirely to the Gunner, which was something anybody could do, but not just anybody could give detailed instructions and make an easier environment for gunners to do battle. If I were captaining, Lafier couldn’t help but reflect, I wouldn’t have been able to entrust all of the fighting to the Gunner, which would have left me too distracted to get to other things.
But now she knew better. She was absorbing a lot from Sobash’s battle. If she were to be the one sitting in the Ship Commander’s Seat now, she was confident she’d do far better than she would have a day prior.
Soon they’d enter the EM cannons’ firing range. They were already primed and ready for combat.
“We break past the enemy and rejoin the rest. Gunner, our allies will be firing in this direction without restraint, so I trust you’ll do me the favor of making sure we don’t go down by friendly fire. That would be unsightly.”
“Roger that. But that’ll be... difficult, sir,” replied Idlia.
“Just think of the battle as the real thing, and that will take the stress off,” said Grinshia, intending to console.
“What do you mean? I get more nervous during the real thing.”
“Really? But if you lose during an exercise, you get evaluated. If you lose during the real thing, you don’t have to worry about evaluations. You just die,” she explained.
“I’m afraid I fear death more than an evaluation.”
Listening to this exchange, Sobash was smiling (though he didn’t know why exactly), but he did have to interrupt: “A fascinating conversation, but get back to work, would you?”
“Roger.”
“Speed relative to the opposing units now at zero. Distance: 0.11 light-seconds.”
Still too far to be shooting the EM cannons. Yet Sobash ordered the attack to commence. The strategy was seemingly a curtain of fire. At any rate, the distance between them was closing rapidly.
Now the enemy began firing. Lafier pulled out her circlet’s access-cables and switched her frocragh to beyond-ship mode. However, since she was merely an observer, the seat she’d been given didn’t have a terminal for beyond-ship frocragh. She felt very stupid.
“Distance: 0.05 light-seconds.”
At this distance, she knew the attack should be intensifying. Yet to her irritation, without beyond-ship frocragh she couldn’t tell for sure. She gauged Sobash’s expression — he didn’t seem particularly nervous. Until, suddenly, he winced.
“Hold your fire and evade!” he cried.
But it was too late. “This ship has exploded. This ship has exploded...” announced the ruthless mechanical voice, informing the Flicaubh’s crew of their “deaths.”
“I’m sorry, Ship Commander,” said Deca-Commander Idlia.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. You did admirably. And I expect you to do much the same in the combat to come,” he said, consoling the Gunner. “Now then, we need to bring back our prodigal child. Open the comms for the conveyance ship.”
The line opened immediately.
“Vanguard Ecryua, we have joined you in the ranks of the dead. Come back for docking.”
“Roger,” said Ecryua.
“Can I say something?” came Jint’s voice.
“Go ahead,” she replied, and as soon as she did, Jint’s face came on screen.
“Please contact Commandant Atosryua as soon as possible,” he asked Sobash.
“I can’t do that, Lonh-Dreur,” said Sobash, expression gloomy. “This ship may not be participating anymore, but the exercise itself continues.”
“When will it be over?”
“I don’t know. Though of course, given the current situation, I don’t think it’ll last too long now.”
“I understand,” said Jint, readily backing down. “Please inform me as soon as the situation changes.”
“Sure. I promise I will. But why do you want me to do so?”
“Well...” Jint was about to explain, but... “actually, I’ll tell you later. I want some time to gather my thoughts.”
“No problem.”
The line dropped.
Lafier could bear it no longer. “Ship Commander Sobash.”
Sobash sent a quizzical look.
“I’d like to know what’s happening outside. If the exercise is over for this ship, then do you mind if I sit in the Navigator’s Seat?”
Sobash smiled. “By all means, Your Highness.”
Lafier took Ecryua’s seat. Still stewing from her earlier blunder, she inserted the functionality crystals at the tips of her access-cables into the terminals on the armrests. The sensation of becoming one with the ship came over her with a wave of nostalgic contentment.
Five ships were currently engaged. A pair of ships moving forward, with three in the back (which were likely Atosryua’s team, the Blue Team).
The exercise really will be ending shortly, she thought. Then she searched for Jint and Ecryua’s conveyance ship.
She was finding these ordinary, everyday operations too fun for words. It had been too long.