Courage, Fire and Hell

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In the Observation Room, Bates scanned the work the students where entering into the system. He pulled a few and began to watch them. First, he pulled up Charlie Shang, a promising Cadet trying to earn his citizenship by enlisting.

Shang's simulation started with the fighters escorting the bombers into an attack formation. Textbook assault plan, catch the Gallic battleship off balance with a fighter assault and use the Battle cruiser to hit the Valor from behind. Good in theory, Bates thought. Executing the simulation, the computer began. The Simulated Valor almost instantly deployed its fighters into a defensive formation, with the majority of the fighters covering the rear. Once the Valor moved past the engagement line, the assault force jumped the Royal Navy. The Guardians split off, and the bomber wing simultaneously fired a Nova Barrage. Overwelmed by the incoming torpedos, the anti-fighter flak systems only interdicted two or three of the torpedos. The rest of them impacted the midships of the Valor, collapsing the shields and taking a good chuck out of the thick armor. The automated nanobot systems on the Valor automatically began to repair the cracked armor.

As the Valor's fighter force began to shift forward, the Battlecruiser emerged from its hiding spot, firing off a volley of Light mortars and missiles. The Valor, now alerted to the battlecruiser presence, began to fire its heavy guns at the Battlecruiser. The GRN fighter screen also began to shift the fire towards the warship, causing the ships gunnery crew to start defensive fire against the fighter cover. During the ensuing confusion, the Valor begun to turn, shifting its posture from a defensive one to an offensive mode. Now on the offense, the Valor began to focus fire on the battle cruiser, unleashing its superior firepower. Now damaged, and confronted with the full wrath of the Valor, the Battlecruiser begun to move away from the warship, in an attempt to present a smaller target.

However, with the Royal Navy forces focusing on the battlecruiser, the fighter assault force, now unimpeded, began to unleash as much fire into the weakened midsection of the Valor. Using the smaller profile of the Battle Cruiser, the warship skirted at the maximum engagement range of its weapons. However, the sheer volume of the Valor's fire began to eat at the hull. After about a minute as the battle continued, the Navy fighter wing overwhelmed the Valors defenses and caused a catastrophic hull breach. Hitting an Auxiliary ammo store for the snubcraft, the explosion triggered a massive chain of explosions. The Navy's simulation system was about as accurate to real life as possible, due to specifications provided by a turncoat Gallian and the RNS-Normandie. The Explosion's progression got to the forward cannon firing array, and the capacitor discharged. The Cannon fired a single shot. That shot, flying straight and true, hit the Battlecruiser with a glancing blow to the engine room. With the destruction of the Valor, the remaining Gallic fighters withdrew.

When the Naval forces regrouped, the force commanded by Shang was mostly destroyed. The Fighter wings had lost three Guardians, and the bomber strike wing lost one bomber. While the fighter strike force was relatively undamaged, the Battlecruiser was crippled. While the Crew of the warship had not suffered heavy losses, the ship itself was a wreck. The final blow from the Valor had damaged the main power conduits, severely impeding the flow of power to the main weapon systems. The Superstructure had taken a heavy beating, fractured in multiple points. The simulation system did a quick calculation, and quickly determined that the Battlecruiser would have to be abandoned and scuttled. Thus, the simulation failed.

Andrew shook his head, disappointed. You never go head to head with a superior force, especially the Royal Navy. he thought. They are well trained, hardened through years of war games and training for their assault into Sirius. Perhaps Shang would make for a better fighter commander than a task force commander. Rapidtyping a report to the Magellan secondary fleet fighter commander, he sent a copy of the simulation along with a recommendation. He switched the simulation to the next cadet, Ensign StarNight.

(To be continued when I am not falling asleep)

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Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.