PR ch 1 snippet 3

Still in Chapter 1:

Admiral Von Berk stared, hands behind his back as the exercise commenced. He'd always been a stickler for doing things right, and today was no exception. He was the referee. The cruisers and destroyers were divided up more or less evenly.

His people hadn't taken their roles seriously, at least not at first. Those from the Gather Fleet had been contemptuous of the civilians. Those transfers from Home Fleet had more fleet training, but it had been in feel-good exercises that you tended to know the outcome in advance. Scripted deals to handle the politics of the fleet.

Oh, sometimes there had been upsets. Sometimes someone got a little too full of themselves and had broken ranks and won an engagement they had been projected to lose. The winner had received a brief spat of public recognition but privately those who had lost had sharpened their knives or put a black mark in their ledger. Even those not involved had marked them down as unacceptable.

That was changing however. The discovery of El Dorado had kick-started the next phase of the great plan. The discovery of a Federation Naval presence in their own backyard had also come as something of an unwelcome shock. When news of the losses their side had suffered reached the fleet, it had created a shake-up.

Now they were training more. Treating it less as a game, less as a chest pounding match, or an opportunity to put an upstart in his place. For those like him, he treated it seriously, as seriously as the life and death struggle it was supposed to be. His people had quickly learned that before they'd gotten past Garth that he meant business.

Their recent captures had carried news with them, news of more losses for the Horathian empire. The admiral and his staff had carefully gone over every report to tease out as much detail as they could. There had been a recent ship passing through with detailed news reports that had made the task easier.

It had been a bitter pill to swallow to see both Admiral Cartwright and Admiral Rico taken down. They'd seemed like amateurs, taken down so easily. Taken down by forces numerically inferior to their own. Forces that were outgunned but apparently far from outmatched. It had lent a certain appeal to renew the exercises with a fresh coat of realism, hence the current exercise in progress.

Maya was a sneaky devil. He'd signed off on her addition to his exercise plan just to see how his ships would react. It should be good he thought.

Apache was doing well, but loosing Jean Lafitte had cost her in points. Eliza's insistence on initially ignoring Adventure Galley and Calico Jack to focus on the tin cans had allowed her to take them out. Jean had also wounded Calico before she'd been taken down.

For this engagement, and to make things even, he'd signed off on Adventure Galley being rated as an HC so the two flagships were evenly matched. But Eliza's attritioning of the other side's tin cans might prove telling as the engagement commenced.

He smiled thinly as Adventure Galley and Calico Jack broke off, attempting to get clear to gain time for Calico Jack to lick her virtual wounds. Unfortunately for them they weren't keeping together as tightly as they could. As the minutes passed, the wounded light cruiser fell further and further behind.

Was it a bait? Or sacrifice? He wasn't sure. He watched as Eliza's two destroyers latched onto her from the rear. It was a stern chase, but with the prey already wounded, it wasn't a simple run as Cory had thought, he realized.

Captain Cory realized his error and his ship heaved to, slacking her speed in order to let her sister ship catch up. But the tin cans exchanged fire from long-range, crippling her further. He turned and made a note.

More virtual weapon fire began to rain back from Adventure Galley as she tried to drive the Nelson and Antelope off her division mate.

But then Apache was there, suddenly putting on a burst of speed to swoop in. She instantly drew the fire from the other two ships. But she was a heavy cruiser, designed to take such punishments. And while she did she thundered back, tearing into Calico Jack, rolling to put the ship between her and Adventure Galley's simulated fire.

Meanwhile the two tin cans had continued their attack on the already wounded light cruiser completely unmolested or contested. Something gave and the light cruiser's drive cut out. His eyes glittered. Her turrets went down after a moment. His eyes cut to the status board, and he nodded at what he saw. Calico Jack was a dead stick; she'd lost her fight for life.

Eliza smoothly covered for her two tin cans as they moved outside of Adventure Galley's engagement envelope. She now had three ships to his one. His was unwounded while her trio had various states of injuries. As he watched the simulated repairs began to take place, bringing the ships back up to … he tapped out an order and drew a line. There, he thought, eyes flicking to Eliza's image on the bridge. He'd cut her off at 80 percent. She'd have to make do with that. She also had fuel and ammunition problems he noted.

He wondered briefly if she realized them. Too many times people in sims forgot fuel and munitions during the engagement. Many times they totally ignored them. Unfortunately, some of the more politically connected officers had written backdoor programs to allow that to happen. It was unrealistic, and a trend he wanted to end.

As he wool gathered, Apache and her consorts regrouped and then swung back in to finish the job. The two tin cans were on either flank, with the Nelson Arrogant between Adventure Galley and the other ships. He frowned thoughtfully. Nelsons were geared as fleet defense ships, but Arrogant hadn't served as such. He wasn't sure if she could handle the task. Finally, he grunted. It didn't matter. She was a missile sponge; she'd soak up Adventure Galley's incoming fire while the others pounded their opponent into wreckage.

“Anytime now,” he muttered, checking the clock and then the plot. He wondered if Maya had gotten herself out of position. He also wondered which side she'd throw herself against.

His thoughts were cut off as the final engagement began. Was Maya holding off … he frowned, checking the plot. When he didn't see her on the plot, he scowled then caught himself. She had deliberately kept her two squadrons dark, shutting down the IFF so CIC wouldn't alert Eliza. Slowly he nodded. It sucked for him but …

He grinned as Adventure Galley staggered. But as she staggered, so too did Arrogant. The Nelson went adrift, out of the game. Two against one, everyone wounded, but …

He blinked in shock just like everyone else as the fighters came in. One moment it was the void; the next the two squadrons were coming in from opposite directions. They scissored across all three opponents, tearing into them with virtual missiles and energy weapons. With their shields already battered and most of their energy focused on keeping the shields up between themselves and the enemy they knew, the opposite shields were overloaded and went down in a series of sparks. He winced and hoped it was more simulated damage, explaining any real damage was going to be tough enough he thought.

But such thoughts occupied only a corner of his mind as the two squadrons did their job. Like piranha they tore into their much larger prey, and their bites added up. The Antelope went down immediately, then Adventure Galley, and finally Apache.

“I'm never going to hear the end of this I suppose,” the admiral said, smiling. The pilots were going to be crowing for weeks he thought. He shook his head. They had performed well, but they shouldn't get too much of a swelled head over the win. They'd taken down three wounded opponents engaged with each other. Try that with prey in good condition.

“Admiral, um, sir, the skipper would like a word,” a tech said.

“I'd say she does,” he said dryly.

“Sir, the captains of …”

He held up a restraining hand. “Fleet conference in a half hour. I expected better of the warships; they were sloppy. They'd better improve on their next outing or heads will definitely roll,” he growled. “Order all hands to clean up. Rick, kill the sim,” he ordered. His chief of staff nodded and followed his orders.

He'd have to find a way to put Maya's people in their place. Eventually, he thought. For now, he had a lot of griping to listen to and some critiques to hand out.

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