To All Blessed, Mindspeed
Vice Admiral Amane Yoshino took a moment to breathe in and out, idly checking her neural interface’s connection.
With the Initiative shifting to a far more quiet, clandestine breed of operations, actual combat was projected to be quite a rarity. That being said, practice through time-accelerated virtual simulations was quietly encouraged by the Admiralty.
Just before her mind fell into the familiar limbo of virtual reality, Yoshino let out one last breath. “Here we go.”
When the world returned to her senses, Yoshino was no longer in her office on Starbase Zephyr, but gazing at the strategic view of an Initiative fleet.
Fleet Command Mode, as they officially called it. Only those of Rear Admiral and above had even the most basic access to it, and even then only Admirals and Vice Admirals used it regularly.
While Yoshino fortunately hadn’t had to command a fleet in an actual battle in her time of service, her simulation scoring had been quite respectable.
She focused. Training sim this may be, but it was still practice that deserved her attention. As her mind expanded, she felt Akemi’s gentle touch assist her and link up with the simulated fleet.
“Another practice run, Amane? You know your record’s pretty good already.”
Yoshino mentally smiled at how familiar she and Akemi had become with each other. “Nothing says I can’t practice as much as I want in my free time.”
“Fair enough. Battlegroups Mombasa, Saratoga, Vector, Celestial, Luna, Renown, Dominion, Helena, Arjuna and Equinox report ready. Forming under unified designation; Third Sector Security Fleet.”
Yoshino ran that over in her head. Ten Battlegroups at a maximum of 20 ships each meant a fleet 200 strong. A mere pittance compared to the 1000 or so of a more regular battle fleet.
The fleet’s simulated AIs reported in, forming the standard battle network that all GDI fleets used. 200 minds like hers, all working together to plan and react at speeds no organic fleet commander could even hope to match on their own.
For a moment before she truly began the exercise, Yoshino savored the experience of looking through her fleet’s aggregated sensors. Of seeing in the electromagnetic spectrum, ‘hearing’ the shift in gravitics and particle readings.
Few understood what it was like until they experienced it for themselves. No wonder some of her own colleagues loved Fleet Command Mode.
A simulated enemy fleet appeared on the opposite end of the star system. Equal in size and capability to her own. In other words, the usual challenge.
<Begin>
A simple thought, yet one that resonated throughout the fleet. As one, 200 starships accelerated to FTL.
At the FTL speeds Initiative drives could achieve, meeting the enemy fleet in battlespace would take only seconds. As they decelerated close to the lightspeed threshold, Yoshino felt her mind race.
Upon dropping from FTL, every ship launched its drones or fighters at once. With how many each ship could carry alone, what soon emerged from the fleet was a dense cloud of over 4 thousand combat and point-defense drones, mixed with half that in fighters.
The two clouds of small craft met in a chaotic clash. If one looked within the battlespace, they would have only seen a mad hellspace full of missiles, railgun projectiles and antiproton beams.
Yoshino ordered her ships about as the lighter ships began accelerating to relativistic speeds, knowing the battlenet could coordinate them flawlessly. But she also knew that the simulated enemies could match these maneuvers just as she could.
At relativistic speed, ships were immune to conventional weapons fire, with the only easy targets being anything equal or above a cruiser in weight class. Matching velocities exactly was the only way most opposing ships could trade fire.
The heavier vessels of Yoshino’s fleet began precise point-to-point FTL jumps, as did the opposing fleet’s. Cruisers and dreadnoughts blinked in and out of view in simulated realspace, firing for a split second before jumping again to another firing line.
Steadily, digital reports began streaming into Yoshino’s consciousness.
…Engaging, 3028-1.76-2.01. Hostile frigate 42, destroyed. Engaging, 5035-0.29-3.19. Hostile carrier 5, destroyed. Engaging, 2048-0.39-2.17. Hostile dreadnought 12, destroyed…
…GDS Souryuu, shields at 89%. Repositioning. GDS Amagi, light damage. Retreating to inner sphere. GDS Better Name Pending, shields at 65%. Repositioning…
…Drone losses: 39%. Fighter losses: 23%. Total fleet losses: 18%…
It was a roiling ocean of data for Yoshino and Akemi to sift through and oversee. But even so, despite all the chaos in realspace Yoshino’s fleet was slowly winning.
Fewer losses than expected, considering the enemy fleet was equal to her own in capability. The enemy fleet had already lost a majority of its dreadnoughts and carriers, with its lighter ships being torn to shreds. Over half of the hostile drones had been destroyed.
Yoshino’s dreadnoughts jumped in coordinated sequences a few more times, each realspace interval taking out another enemy capital ship, and another…and another.
Only minutes later, it was over. The severely depleted enemy fleet had retreated, leaving Yoshino as the victor.
Akemi’s mental tone was filled with satisfaction. “Congratulations, Vice Admiral. Enemy defeated, you are victorious.”
With another brief moment of limbo, the simulation ended. Yoshino sighed and stretched slightly as her office returned to her. “Thanks, Akemi. Back to work, I guess.”
The AI flashed into being, giving a brief shake of her head. “On the contrary, Amane. There is currently little work needed for you. Please, rest. Allow me to handle it.”
Yoshino looked at her friend quizzically. “If you’re sure…”
Akemi nodded, a faint ripple along her arm indicating the use of hard light, and laid a hand on Yoshino’s shoulder. “You know me, Amane. I’ll manage.”
With a relenting nod, the Vice Admiral left her office, leaving Akemi to trail a hand along Yoshino’s desk before her avatar winked out.
Initiative Archival Network 