Admiral Mar-Veil could not help but admire the Kashans, watching on as their formation bore down upon his own.
The CIC of aboard the Provincial, namesake of her line and a sizable super-carrier in her own right, was a furious buzz of activity though the tone was decidedly subdued. From his position in the center of the Combat Information Center he could observe the oncoming fleet in multiple formats; rendered as three dimensional objects moving through a specific grid of space in holographic display cubes and painted on the main viewer in impossibly high resolution.
Unlike the standard CIC found on Colonial and Commonwealth class vessels, the Provincial line featured expanded control functions which enable the carriers to act as command positions in Gestalt task-force deployments. Fully equipped and operated, optimally, by a full staff of seventy five people the well accommodated compartment is large enough that everyone can perform without significant crowding interfering with the conduct of their tasks.
Admiral Mar-Veil had a singular view of it all.
Astride the Provincial sat the Commonwealth, namesake for the line of battlecruisers, and the new Colonial (Mk II) class destroyer, Wells Grey. Both ships were actively submitting their readiness reports and each was sufficient to begin combat actions. Amongst the tide of incoming and outgoing information was a communication from David Colony, deferring its orbital defense facilities to CDF control alongside reports that the Colony had scrambled its fighters.
The three ships in question were all part of First Fleet which in itself was the direct command commission of Admiral Mar-Veil. Their position in orbit of Gestalt II and the fact that among them was the Admirals Colonial Flagship officially meant that these ships were technically part of David Patrol. In truth David Patrol was composed of a CDF deployment comprised of ships taken from the First Fleet and as such the differences were merely technical and since the Admiral himself superseded the authority everyone in question, there was… no question. The vessels that had previously comprised David Patrol, a handful of LDC craft and outmoded Colonial (Mk I) destroyers and Commonwealth (Type 1) Frigates, were presently assigned to the Rim; the section of the Gestalt star system between the seventh and outer planetary orbits.
Home Fleet, which was by far the largest single Gestalt grouping, operated largely around Gestalt I and The Ring. The command of Home Fleet deferred to Vice Commodore Shipwright in times of hostility.
Third Fleet was largely mobile and had kept station throughout the Colonies during its existence. Portions of Third Fleet were located at Modular Defense Station D-05 which was currently within the vicinity of Gestalt II.
“Engines to Full ahead,” ordered Admiral Mar-Veil.
The three ships surged forward and away from the planet. They gained speed quickly with the clear intention of intercepting the Kashan formation before the enemy could close with the planet and thus threaten the Colony. Relative to the oncoming line the Gestalt ships formed up in a slanted, horizontal line which put the Commonwealth central and forward of the other two. The Colonial kept position on the high port quarter of the battlecruiser, on its flank leaving the Provincial to follow behind both below their ventral surfaces and behind their angular bodies the idea of which would be to protect the carrier from direct fire even as it began to belch a full wing of starfighters alongside those fighters being deployed by the battlecruiser and destroyer alike.
Sixty starfighters formed up ahead of the Gestalt formation, thirty six contributed by the Provincial and one squadron a piece launched from the others. More were standing by, ready to launch at a moments notice. The five squadrons consisted largely of GF-111 and 105 starfighters but at least a dozen HF-10 HyperFighters roamed amongst them. More over, the Provincial had deployed half of her gunship squadron to supplement the combat effectiveness of the starfighters and provide supplemental offensive capabilities. These were CG-10 Centaurs.
The range began to spiral down. Admiral Mar-Veil looked to his left and signaled his tactical crew.
From the Colonial leapt a battering array of missiles. Fifteen of the long, deadly projectiles shot out of horizontal slots along the dorsal bow of the ship propelled on solid flames of brilliant blue ion efflux. They quickly, almost instantly, gathered speed and rocketed away from the CDF line. Capable of immense g-gains, they would close the range with considerable speed but the fact remained that, at best, these were being fired from extreme range and would thus present less of an obstacle.
The missiles themselves were not armed, were not even equipped with explosive warheads, but rather a complex combat computer which was in turn tied into the War Games computer; a massive mainframe, the joint effort of Kashan and Gestalt military complexes.
Even with simulated damage, remarked the Admiral in the confines of his own thoughts, one can still have a good old time running up the re-painting bills.
