The Worth Of A Captain

After several hectic days of preparation, the day had finally come for the 1st Combat Test Squadron's evaluative test. In Yunfeer's words, today would be the day that Joyeuse Squadron would either sink or swim.

Poor performance would likely result in the prototype warships they had been testing being shelved for considering later down the road if they weren't all sent for disassembly. It'd also leave a lingering stain on the squadron's military records, making it harder for them to acquire future promotions. They'd be put onto a slower promotion ladder than their peers, in all likelihood...

In any case, it didn't matter that much to Aetna, personally speaking. Whether he was put on the fast track for future promotions or not meant little to him since he knew that High Command would never outright block Joyeuse Squadron from eventually entering the higher echelons of military command.

He turned to look at the bulky, armored fellow sitting beside him and thought, "Nah, they'd never stop us from getting promoted, not with this lil' princess commanding our squadron. Impeding a Savugh? Not even High Command has the balls to do that..."

"Still, I didn't expect the actual seats to be so comfy," said Aetna, remarking on the quality of the command bridge's seats. "I was expecting synthetic polymer or even plastileather, at best. This is genuine leather! Ahh, I could get used to this..."

It was a refreshing experience inside the actual physical warship, rather than a detailed simulation of it. Though simulated reality was hyper-realistic and thoroughly convincing, it still didn't match the feeling of being in control of a real warship. The silly games were over; they were now in control of a genuine instrument of destruction that could cause a lot of serious damage...

Suffice to say, that morbid thought put a smile on Aetna's face.

Yurai scowled at Aetna and said, "If you want to keep that seat, you'd better hope we do well in this skirmish, Vice-Commander."

"You worry too much. We've done our best to prepare, haven't we? There's no point in fretting about 'what-ifs' at this point, Captain. Or do you not believe in the abilities of our squadron?" said Aetna.

Lynnette, Savar, and Gafon all sighed, but they kept their mouths shut and focused on their jobs.

As per usual, the Mad Count was a complete boor. The bastard wouldn't know how to read the mood if his life depended on it. And though he had calmed down somewhat over the past week, he still behaved like an asshole. Nevertheless, they had been forced to admit that he was a truly brilliant fellow.

"A-hem, I'm sure you all have questions about why we've gathered you here, so I'll make this brief — we are being threatened," said Yurai before she continued with, "There is a high probability that in our upcoming training skirmish, we will be confronted by an enemy that will possess the intent to kill us. This information has been relayed to me in secret by Instructor Yunfeer."

This, of course, was a total lie.

Yunfeer had not done anything of the sort; Instead of trying to convince the squadron of the hidden message Yunfeer had conveyed to them in the speech he had given earlier, Yurai bypassed the need to convince her peers by using Yunfeer's authority.

Everyone in Joyeuse Squadron turned pale when they heard Yurai's ominous declaration and a deathly silence filled the room for a minute before one of the cadets slowly asked, "Why weren't we informed about this... threat as a group? Why were you the only one that Instructor Yunfeer told?"

"Two reasons," said Aetna as he spoke up, "The first; Yunfeer could not relay this information without alerting hidden spies in this ship about the fact we know their plan. We gathered you here in this bug-free room to tell you the truth. And the second reason; Narivan is Joyeuse Squadron's Lead Commander. It is only natural that Yunfeer trusted Narivan with this critical information and not anyone else."

"B-but... why are we being told this? Isn't this a matter for the higher-ups to take care of? And we are being targeted? I don't understand why we'd be targeted compared to, say, some important person or base," asked another cadet in confusion.

Aetna stared at the cadet as if he were an idiot and said, "Hello? Have you not noticed that we're being trained to pilot a squadron of cutting-edge prototype ships? Or that we have the Imperial Forces' finest, three Elite Cadets, in our squadron now? We're a high-value target whether you like it or not... And there are a lot of nasty organizations that love to hurting the Empire."

Yurai followed up on Aetna's response and said, "As for your question about the higher brass taking care of this planned attack, the answer is simple — this is a test within a test. The training skirmish isn't the real test; fending off the enemies that will come to kill us is the actual test. This is a test of not only our skills but also of our capability to handle unforeseen threats and react accordingly."

The reality is that if the Empire wanted to get rid of the insurgents and spies currently within the Imperial Forces, they would have purged them a long time ago. The Imperial Forces had no interest in removing the symptoms of the disease; what they wanted was to eradicate the disease at the root once and for all, which is they allowed their existence, for now...

This hidden test was also devised because of the special circumstances Joyeyse Squadron had been created for. They were to be a black squadron tasked with top-secret missions. False military records would be prepared for Joyeuse Squadron as they operated in deep space and even enemy territory if their missions demanded it.

As a squadron that would be almost entirely autonomous in the future, Joyeuse Squadron needed to be resourceful as if they would be on their own and capable of perceiving unseen threats because they would not be receiving any backup on their missions.

Whatever materials or supplies they needed would have to be bought, stolen, or scavenged. Any additional assistance they required would also have to be procured on their own. Whether that meant forming alliances with enemy operatives, mercenaries, or even space pirates to complete their missions would be up to their discretion.

"To put it bluntly, this is a trial by fire — should we fail, expect there to be heavy casualties. I doubt we'll all be left to die if we fail, but we should only expect Imperial reinforcements if we lose most of the squadron. With only a meager couple of days left before this test, it is imperative we begin strategizing and preparing. We don't have any time left to waste, so let's start preparing it," said Yurai.

And so, without further ado, Joyeuse Squadron got to work.

They began to madly train, spending an obscene amount of hours in the simulation room, to the point that they set a brand-new fleet record for time spent in simulated training. They tested and went through more than a hundred different high-difficulty simulations, all the while planning alternative tactics and battle plans for the inevitable ambush.

Hours and hours of theorizing resulted in the consensus that they had three possibilities to prepare for, thus requiring the need for three separate plans.

Would the ambush come from outside... or from within? This was, by far, the most concerning threat to everyone. If there were insurgents were hidden within Joyeuse Squadron, and they weren't found, there was a high chance they'd all be dead before the training exercise even began...

In all likelihood, they would have to be a part of the squadron's non-commissioned crew. They could be part of the maintenance, gunnery, reactor, medical, or logistics teams that made up a ship's entire crew. There were five ships in Joyeuse Squadron, and each ship was manned by a crew of eighty-five.

With five ships in total, that meant that 425 people had the potential to be one of the saboteurs out for the heads of every senior officer in the squadron.

Thus a highly illegal and thorough search — courtesy of Kejt Nauntia, Aetna's close friend — into the personal backgrounds of all crew associated with Joyeuse Squadron was conducted. Thankfully, the search revealed no indication that any would-be assassins were in their midst, at least according to their knowledge.

They, therefore, concluded that the coming threat would have to come from an external source beyond their ship. Of this, there were only two possibilities.

The first and most obvious possibility was that the enemy ships Joyeuse Squadron were scheduled to face harbored the insurgents they were looking for. If that was the case, it was believed that these insurgents would take over their foe's ships use them to attack at some point in the training exercise.

The second possibility was that the enemy would attack with ships they owned instead. Rather than meticulously planning and hijacking Imperial warships, which would be an ordeal to pull off successfully, they'd strike Joyeuse Squadron with their own ships.

In this scenario, all the enemy needed was the location of the training exercise and information on the ships they'd be destroying. After that, all they'd have to was hide in the star system that the skirmish would take place and wait for the arrival of their prey...

"So... Which scenario do you we'll end up dealing with?" said Aetna as he leisurely picked his teeth with a plastic spoon he had recently used to empty a particularly delicious packet of maple sugar-flavored oatmeal.

"Hopefully, none of them. Pray that we were completely wrong and absolutely nothing happens during the training exercise," replied Yurai sternly.

Truthfully speaking, she wasn't interested in proving herself like this, not by potentially endangering fellow Imperial soldiers. Something told her that the other squadron had no idea of what would happen, which bothered her greatly.

A test within a test. Yurai was sure that they were being tested on whether they'd abandon their comrades to their fates. If they did, they'd be able to use them as shields and distractions in the scenario that an external squadron or fleet attacked them.

And if the enemy hijacked their allies' ships, it would be far easier to destroy those ships outright rather than disabling them and mounting a dangerous rescue attempt to retake the ships.

What was the correct path? One path was far easier than the other, but it'd likely result in the deaths of people that could have been saved. Did she dare to irresponsibly risk her squadron's lives in a potentially unwinnable fight to save as many people as possible?

They had prepared the best they could, but they formed those plans with the foundation of ensuring their survival above all else. After all, this would be their first battle against a real enemy out to kill them.

This wasn't just a test of their tactical skill but also of their moral character, too.

It wasn't every day that people were handed the keys to warships equipped with nuclear missiles, powerful railguns, and dozens of autoturrets capable of firing hundreds of thousands of bullets in a minute. Even more so to a squadron of freshly promoted cadets that would have near-complete agency to act as they wished so long as they completed the missions assigned to them.

This harsh test, in particular, was forced upon Joyeuse Squadron by Imperial High Command because some of the top brass did not approve of the idea of giving newly graduated cadets the prototype warships. These top-ranking admirals wanted a far more experienced squadron of veterans to pilot the ships, but they ended up getting outvoted in the end...

Whether she liked it or not, the time had come for Joyeuse Squadron to set out for the training skirmish.

"Lieutenant Savar, give all ships in the squadron launch-off permission and tell them to begin departing from the hangar bay once they finish their final start-up checks. Set a group course for Taldo-4's moon for now," said Yurai.

There would be no turning back from this point forward, come whatever may...