Corise nodded, viewing the bulky cruisers of the Kashan Defence Fleet from the observation bridge. A pair of Deathsabers roared over the Seraph, his flagship, making their last scans before the mock battle. While the Seraph was the first cruiser built by Kashan, it too had been upgraded, making it indistinguishable from the other cruisers of the Fleet. But once onboard the vessel, it was easy to see that it was the flagship from the more ornate décor and the presence of only crack units onboard the ship.
“All units switch to the training simulation mode,” ordered the Kashan commodore.
“Blue Fleet reports they’re ready.”
“We’re ready as well sir.”
“Commence the simulation.”
As part of the mobilization for war, the Kashan Fleet had been split into two equal training fleets, Blue and Red. Over the days, they had undergone computer simulations against ships of the other factions. However, they had not performed with their actual ships. Thus, as a finale of the training, they would be pitted against each other.
In this scenario, Blue Fleet, led by Commander Fyre, was the aggressor with the objective to neutralize Red Fleet and land Blue troops on Kashan. Red Fleet was charged with preventing the troops from being landed and driving back the opposing fleet.
Commander Thomas Fyre was the son of Sola Fyre, founder of the Kashan colony. His father had taught him well and Tom had graduated at the top of his class from the Defence College. He was well-known for coming up with unorthodox maneuvers and strategies, making him a difficult opponent to predict, and thus, to defeat. Still, he was several years junior to Corise, his direct superior. It wasn’t the first time they had been pitted against each other, and the fights were usually quite close, with either one just barely winning. While Corise believed his XO to be his equal as a tactician, the commander had much to learn about the other aspects of naval life, such as morale or supplies. He shook his head from the thoughts as a voice rose over the din from the crewpit.
“We are detecting multiple hyperspace signals.”
“That would probably be Blue Fleet,” commented Commodore Lucerne, pacing back to his command chair.
“Sir, they’re too small to be any known capital ships.”
Corise frowned. He had automatically assumed that Blue Fleet would automatically jump in and a conventional naval battle would follow. Obviously, Blue Fleet had other plans and he couldn’t make that mistake again. He leaned back in his command chair, somewhat puzzled before cold realization had set in.
“They’re either launching Starflares at us, sending out Deathsabers to soften us up, or maybe both. And we won’t be able to tell.”
“I want sustained flak bursts where we detect any cronau-radiation from all weapons. Form the interceptor screen as well. Do we have the location of Blue Fleet?”
“No sir.”
“Dispatch some of our fighters to find it immediately.”
“Yes sir.”
The area surrounding Kashan was lit up with vibrant bursts of ruby and sapphire like a fireworks show. Occasionally, the sensors would show that a missile had been successfully detonated. But some missiles made it through the heavy flak wall of Red Fleet, detonating on the shields of the durable Kashan ships. The bridge lights of the Seraph waned as energy was diverted to keep the shields up.
“Switch to auxiliary shields. Get a repair crew to fix the old generators.”
“Sir, Deathwatch 7 has spotted Blue Fleet.”
“Patch our Starflare missiles targeting computers to take the data from Deathwatch 7. Send in a couple more scouts around Blue Fleet to provide more targeting data. Those fighters are under strict orders to evade the enemy at all costs.”
“Aye sir.”
“Helm, take us twenty kilometers to our starboard; lets see if we can foul up their own missile strikes.”
“Yes sir.”
The slow cruisers of Red Fleet began to make their slothful maneuver, all while continuing the endless flak waves against their opponents and launching a flurry of Starflares at their opponents. Corise sighed. Because the Kashan ships were only slightly faster than the decades old ISD, he would have to recommend a faster capital ship to supplement the medium cruisers.
The tide was turning against Blue Fleet, which had previously been striking at their opposition without fear of reprisal. Now, the scouts of Red Fleet were providing superior targeting data to the point where many of the missiles were dropping out of hyperspace only several hundred meters from their target. This counterstrike of missiles in turn lashed back into the opposing ranks. In order to make his own missile strikes more effective, Corise had chosen to coordinate the weapons to attack in pairs. The first missile, with an ion warhead, took out the shields while the second, usually a proton warhead, hit the actual hull. Luckily for all ships involved, the missiles were only simulated as the real ones would not only damage the Seraphs, but would be rather costly as well.
“Blue Fleet is making the jump. I don’t think they can take much more damage.”
Blue Fleet reverted in realspace to where Red Fleet should have been. However, that area had become one of the newer areas targeted by the defending fleet for flak barrages to destroy enemy missiles. As such, Blue Fleet found themselves immediately being fired on before they could raise their shields. But since the cruisers used Ultrachrome, they were only exposed to the kinetic force of the blasts, which the tough hull plating and its reinforced frame could easily take.
“Sir, Blue Fleet is attempting to make a run for the planet. It appears that they’ve diverted all power to their engines.”
“Tractor them immediately.”
The tractor beam projectors of the Kashan ships caught onto their counterparts, slowing them down as Corise unleashed his Deathsabers for bombing runs against their compatriots. Type B Starflares were also being launched from both sides, with the end result of many ships attempting to switch from their main shields to their auxiliary shields and vice-versa. Those caught in the middle of performing the operation were damaged to the point where they were registered as destroyed on the sensor screen.
“We’ve lost the Redoubtable. The Surprise and Revenant have been destroyed.”
“Right.”
“Sir, we’re receiving a message from the capitol with an order to cease all military operations immediately.”
“Forward the message to all ships. What is it?”
Corise scanned over the written version of the document and pondered it. If that was true, military simulations would have to wait.
“Order all ships to be ready to jump out-of-system within the next day.”
“Yes sir.”
