Chapter Two Fifty-Two Of Wargames and Lessons (Patreon)

July 18th, 065 SDE:

Dykes, with Jane Kirk a step behind her, walked into Supreme Protector Countryman’s office. For the last month they’d been conducting wargames and tests of the SFS Firebird. During that time several additional hulls had been completed, bringing the number of ships in the class up from one to eight. The hulls had undergone basic shakedown testing in that time and were now all listed as active in the fleet register.

The first ship off the line after hers, had been SFS Thunderbird Sol Fleet Registry number 54, commissioned June 18th. Followed by SFS Wildcat SFR-55, commissioned June 21st. SFS Vermilion SFR-56, commissioned the following day; June 22nd. SFS Suzaku SFR-57 came online on the 25th of June. Then SFS Phoenix registry number 58 completed and commissioned July 1st. SFS Bennu SFR-59 completed July 7th and finally SFS Spitfire SFR-60 commissioned July 14th. It was just the start to the growing Firebird fleet, Dykes had heard that the Firebirds had been given production priority while the main capital ships remained under construction. Given the high demands of large vessels, it was much easier to fit the Firebirds into the queue than say a Sabre or Battlehawk, but the other ships were scheduled to begin construction sooner rather than later.

Countryman looked up from his desk, “Right on time, Captain, Commander.”

She greeted him according to protocol and then informed him, “The Firebird is mission ready.”

“I’ve heard, but the other crews still need time to familiarize themselves with their ships. It does seem the basic issues have been ironed out. I do have your recommendations for improvements to the class. Richards is using them to iron out production and calibration issues. Most notably with the cloak, and I must say both Ruri and Vera were particularly happy with your detailed reports on the cloaking device.”

“Understood, and am I to understand some improvements are in the works?”

“They’ve already been completed, using the same modifications you’ve done on the Firebird. Based on the extended cloaking tests you conducted, there wasn’t much left to refine without a very in depth review.” Countryman remarked as he produced something. “Now onto the main business. I know earlier discussion involved scouting nearby systems. But before we do that, I want you to get our growing Firebird fleet combat ready. To that end I’m putting you in charge of a task force, you will continue the wargames to work out tactics to better make use of the Firebirds' capabilities.”

“More wargames sir?”

Countryman nodded, “That’s the idea. As your own report highlighted, the cloaking device is a powerful positional tool and stealth system. Yet so far we’ve only looked into using it on one ship. Now we have eight, all outfitted with cloaking devices. I want you to devise fleet tactics to take full advantage of the system, meanwhile another team is developing countermeasures and tactics to counter cloaked vessels which will be tested by the drone ships.”

“I’ll do my best, sir!” she replied sharply. Already her mind was chewing over what she would do. They’d run through several combat scenarios already as part of their war games. All of them live fire exercises so far. It had given her some ideas on how to make use of additional ships.

He handed her a pad, “Your written orders, Commodore, make us proud.”

She saluted and turned to leave, but Countryman turned to young Kirk. “I’ve heard you’ve been settling in nicely on the Firebird.”

“Yes sir, it’s been a productive month.”

“Glad to hear it, but what I would like more is your thoughts on the ship.”

She replied immediately, “The main cannons are excellent. In several cases they practically split targeted ships in two. The XDPC-347-C cannons however, feel a little lacking in comparison, and the fact that our only disabling weapons are forward or aft facing limits their use. I think the Firebird would benefit from the inclusion of turreted pulsar launchers, even if it means sacrificing a few of the XDPC-347-C particle cannons. As for her handling and acceleration. She’s top-notch, once we sorted out the early teething issues. Hull armor is decent; we were able to take a few hits without issue, and with the cloak in every scenario, we were able to withdraw and reenter the battle with superior tactical positioning easily. Overall a good ship, albeit one clearly built mainly for her cloaking abilities and her large guns.”

“Thank you, dismissed,” replied Countryman. Now dismissed, the two of them left to carry out their new orders. There was much to do and she had a task force to organize. Glancing through her orders she also noted the first war game had been detailed, this one a military supply convoy ambush. Where she wasn’t just trying to sink shipping, she’d need to conduct a boarding action on one of the haulers and capture secured military hardware. The rules for it were simple: there would be four special buoys simulating FTL inhibitors; if the transports left their radius or the buoys were destroyed, they would ‘escape’ and the drones would win the scenario. She’d have to disable the transports and neutralize the escorts without letting them escape the field of battle. On the plus side she was given some force composition notes to base her plans off, but she knew not to trust them. Actual numbers may be different.

July 23rd, 065 SDE:

Xau sat there for a moment as she digested the film, she’d just viewed with the team. It had been recorded at a different observatory and was one of several such videos they’d received over the last few days. With a slight delay, the military was analyzing them first before her team was allowed to view the films.

Berxi who was next to her commented, “So, we aren’t the only ones at war it seems.”

Talmon frowned, “Maybe not, but um, who is winning?”

Xermon, who was standing by the door shrugged, “Rather hard to say, we only happened to spot a few of the battles, which led to us giving the asteroid belt a harder look.” He walked over to the film projector then rewound it. A smaller predatory-looking ship with angled wings appeared on the screen as she swept down upon a much larger warship with a robust rugged-looking hull with sharply angled armored plates and large heavy turrets along its spine. An asteroid she recognized showed in the background, letting her appreciate the size of the ship. Xau thought she was about the size of a battleship or a carrier. Perhaps a bit larger

Yet all that armor and mass proved for naught, as a ship half its size opened fire. Bright blue bolts slammed into it amidships, some kind of glowing barrier of light bloomed into existence then shattered. The bolts were tearing past it, punching through armor and bulkheads. Something exploded and the large ship was broken, split asunder with her broken halves spinning in opposite directions.

Xermon pointed at the destruction, “Look at that firepower, if we had that the Confeds would surrender in days.”

Xau gave him a look, “I thought the war was going well? Didn’t we successfully land half a million troops on...”

“We did, but progress is slow. They are fighting like fanatics to keep us from their capital. With firepower like that, we’d be able to obliterate their bunkers and fortified positions.”

Berxi frowned, “Um aren’t we already working on something? I heard rumors about some kind of test that...”

The door burst in, someone excited, “Project Gexau just had a successful test! The military thinks it will end the war and wants us to help design a rocket to deliver it right into the heart of the confederacy.”

Xau blinked, “Project what now!?”

Countryman studied the emblem before him. The emblem was being proposed for the Vanguard Flotilla and it featured fiery wings wrapped protectively around a sword and shield placed in front of a ruined Earth wreathed in fire. In bold gold lettering was a new motto that read, In Ruin, we persevere, we are the shield unbroken, from the ashes, we will rise again. There was something more aggressive about it, but it wasn’t a bad motto. Of course every ship serving in the Vanguard was going to be their shield. Of course, the Rearguard had already heard of the motto and wanted to adopt it as well.

He sighed. This was going to be interesting with two-thirds of the fleet wanting... He blinked at the thought. If two-thirds wanted it, why not make it the emblem of the First Fleet? Hmm thinking further they didn’t have a flag for the Refuge itself either, but did something like this really make sense for the flag?”

Countryman shook his head at the thought. No it really didn’t, but the first thought of making it the emblem of the First Fleet seemed good. He had plans to one day establish a second fleet. It just didn’t make any sense to commission said second fleet today. They were still in the process of building the first, and while their population was growing. They would have some time before they needed more ships. There were any number of practical reasons for a second fleet. Which is why the moment they had the population and resources for one, he planned to commission it. In the meantime, they would make do with the one fleet.

He glanced at the Emblem again, and muttered to himself, unit patches and flags weren’t unheard of. Back on old Earth, different fleets might have their own emblem, and the current proposal for a flotilla emblem wasn’t entirely out of line with that. Letting the flotillas fight over the same one wasn’t that conducive to fleet unity however. Maybe if they had all proposed different ones it might be easier. Countryman set it aside then turned to the monitor. 

He started typing away, prepping up a rejection of individual flotilla emblems in favor of a unified fleet emblem for the First Fleet, which wouldn’t compete with the other emblem or motto they had adopted since it would be the motto of the Navy.

Suddenly, there was a knock on his door, interrupting his train of thought. “Yes?” he called through the door while pressing a switch that caused it to slide open.

Greyman walked in, “Sir, our friends have made a significant advancement.”

He blinked, “Oh?”

The other man approached and inserted a chip into the terminal reader. A recording from moments ago began to play. Taken from a probe placed in high orbit of the planet, Sarel’chu, homeworld of the Sarelfi. The image focused and expanded on a location just north of the southern continent, where a chain of small islands was located. At first, nothing unusual seemed to be going on, but that all changed in an instant, as the tranquil calm of the island was suddenly and brutally shattered.