Unity

Chapter 11

We received the schedule for the remaining tournament missions on our way to PT. Everyone was fighting today, and the winners from today move to the semi-finals tomorrow. Saturday was the championship and those who weren't involved were given permission to watch the final round. I quickly memorized the details of today's fight and gathered with the rest of our group for our warmup run. I figured we were getting in good enough shape that we could start discussions during the beginning of our two-mile warm up run.

"It sounds like they want us to experience soul crushing defeat," said Thad after I explained the rules of the next mission.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," said Tina, winking suggestively at Thad.

"I have to agree with Thad," said Drew, ignoring Tina's antics. "Look how closely these are scheduled. Twenty minutes apart. It takes ten minutes to clear the simulators and fully reset them."

"So, it's us against a far superior force," I said. "They want to see how long we can last, and how much damage we can do to the enemy fleet. We're up against an AI, so they can deploy as many ships as the system can handle."

Andrew, one of the battleship commanders, had been listening and said, "I can only see two ways for them to deploy the enemy fleet. It will either be all at once, in which case we won't last a minute, or incrementally. I'm putting my money on the latter."

"I agree," I replied. "We'll engage the initial force and get crushed by reinforcements. We have the standard fleet build that they have been giving us, any suggestions?"

Tina spoke up, "We need to stay moving, but keep our movements unpredictable. It's harder to hit an enemy you can't predict."

"It's also going to take a balance of offence and defense," added Mitch. I hadn't noticed him approach.

"I agree," I replied. We were starting to get winded, so I decided to wrap things up. "Tina, you come up with some 'random' maneuvers that the whole fleet can do together. We'll use the standard defensive formation, fighters up front, followed by battleships and then cruisers. We'll have to keep things flexible. I'll find time to meet with Andy, Rachel, and Bruce. Maybe they will have some ideas as well. We'll finish planning during the briefing."

The mission briefing was held an hour after lunch. "Here are your maneuvers boss," Tina said, handing me her tablet.

"This looks good. Distribute them to the rest of the group," I said, handing the tablet back to her.

"Here are the final details of your mission," Lieutenant Briggs interrupted. Your goal is to hold off a superior enemy force to allow as many civilians to evacuate as possible. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you, this will be a suicide mission. The objective is to survive for as long as possible, while destroying as many of the enemy ships as possible in defense of this station." A picture of a station, not unlike the academy appeared. "I've seen their scoring criteria. Do as you have been doing and you will be fine. The remainder of the time is yours to use as you see fit."

Lieutenant Briggs' advice did little to comfort us. As we prepped our simulators, the tension was palpable.

We walked out of the simulators a few minutes after it started sweating and shaking. Several of the fighter pilots ran to the nearby restrooms, trying not to vomit all over the floor. I hung my head in shame and slowly made my way to the debriefing room.

As we filed in, Lieutenant Briggs waved us in excitedly. He was acting like a child with a shiny new toy to show off, but I couldn't help but wonder if he was excited that we were easily crushed. We were all moody as we watched the replay of us getting annihilated. Everything had started out just fine. The initial force was larger than we expected, but we managed the first minute of the sim without losing a ship, and dealt significant damage to the enemy, thanks to Tina's maneuvers. Then the reinforcements came. By the time three minutes had passed everything spiraled out of control. We were facing thousands of ships, our defenses quickly succumbed, and we were effectively obliterated.