Chapter 5 - The First Battle

With Jako in command of the Flagship, the Blue team had meticulously planned their battle strategy. As the countdown on the screen ticked down to zero, signaling the start of the simulated engagement, the team was ready to put their plan into action.

The Blue team had strategically positioned their ships in a straight line, resembling an arrow nocked on a bow, with the Flagship acting as the arrow's tip and the rest of the ships in tow behind it.

"Enemies fleet has their corvettes formed up on the wings," the sensor officer reported. "Captain, it's the arrow formation with a heavily armored flagship."

Jako had anticipated this move. "As expected, with the corvettes on both wings, they will try to do a double envelopment using those corvettes. It's an obvious flanking maneuver." With confidence, he gave the order to proceed with plan A. "Ahead slow; bring us into maximum weapon range."

The two fleets approached each other quickly, as the Blue team had positioned themselves in close proximity to the enemy. As soon as the Blue fleet reached their firing range, Jako issued his next command.

"Everyone, re-position to provide sniping fire. I want a full volley of laser and rail on the enemy's corvette on the left wing. All ships, sync up with my ship's targeting system and fire on my mark."

As the six support ships moved out of cover from the right side of the Flagship, the sudden move allowed the Blue team to temporarily outnumber the enemy's wing 6 to 3.

"Mark!"

Blue team's ship are deck out with long range weaponry. The barrage of long range railguns and lasers fire from all seven ships hitting their target has overwhelm the its defenses. "We got one, enemy ship down," Marcus shouted over the team channel. "Switching to the second target."

Jako was taken aback as the enemy corvette broke apart into chunks of debris and dust, instead of the big ball of fire he had expected.

"Jako, red team ships are speeding up and closing the gap, it will get harder now with the additional speed for evasion." Marcus reported over the team channel. "The enemy ships on the right wing are also folding inwards to assist."

Suddenly, one of his teammates chimed in, "Enemy Flagship has also reached standard railgun range. He is targeting our Flagship." It had barely been two minutes since the first laser volley.

Despite the news that his ship was being targeted, Jako remained calm. "While this is faster than we planned, there is no change to the overall strategy. We are moving to phase two."

"Nav, full reverse thrusters," Jako instructed the navigation officer.

As the Blue flagship slowed to a stop and began to move in reverse, the rest of the team had managed to cripple a second corvette.

The Red team noticed the rapidly slowing and retreating flagship of their enemy and couldn't help but shout into the open channel, "Coward, stay and fight." Immediately after, the Red team flagship pushed their thrusters to the max.

Jako understood that those who believed the Flagship should engage in direct combat with other Flagships lacked an understanding of modern warfare. The days of generals leading from the front while troops watched from afar were long gone.

As the battle raged on, situation reports flooded the comms. "Captain, impact to our front armor. Shield down to 23%," one reported. Shortly after, another volley impacted the hull. "Fire in sector 3-1. Damage control team has been deployed. We have two crew members trapped in sector 4-3 after the emergency barrier shut on a false negative."

"Chief, I don't have time to deal with this. Rescue them if possible. You have command for the damage control and emergency teams," Jako instructed, as he was in the most critical phase of his plan and needed to stay focused.

The second corvette went down as easily as the first, but the Red team had now reached the range where they could use heavy missiles to barrage the Blue team. Although the Blue team had a numerical advantage, the Red team had the superior weapons.

As the missiles approached the Blue fleet, Jako had another surprise in store for them. 'Shotgun shell' shot out by all ships forming a large screening point defense. Most of the missiles were taken out and the remaining ones barely stop by the shields.

"We can't take another hit like that," Jako shouts to the A.I nav officer. "Let's speed up and pull some distance. Remind the rest to remain outside the optimal range of the enemy's flagship."

He watches as the enemy's right wing joins the fray as reinforcements. The first friendly corvette goes down, but Jako's team is making good progress in crippling the shield on the third enemy corvette.

The Red team's flagship overtakes the dogfighting situation around the corvettes. Based on the size and speed of an object in space, any maneuver and adjustment takes a lot of energy and time. The Red team's flagship has recently accelerated, leaving it with no choice but to continue forward, chasing after Jako's ship.

"It's time for the last phase," Jako announces. "Three corvettes will stay and fight against the remaining ships. The ship four and five, will swing around to the back of the enemy flagship and take out the engines."

The enemy's formation is broken down, and they are receiving constant fire from the corvettes. The Red team's flagship focuses on evading, but with the combination of short-range and precision laser fire, it's too late. A lucky shot disables its engines, and without them, the ship can no longer adjust its course.

On the other side of the battlefield, the situation didn't look good for the Red team. Even though the dogfight between the corvettes was back to a fair 3 vs 3 fight, their flagship could no longer provide any support. Jako, however, continued to direct his ship to snipe and suppress the Red team.

It didn't take long for the dogfight to reach its conclusion. Despite the hopeless situation, the leader of the Red team refused to surrender, banking on the weapons used by the Blue team being ineffective against its armor. Similarly, Jako secretly hoped the battle would end at this stage, as he knew lasers weren't designed to take out larger vessels.

Jako directed his team to turn their sights on the remaining disabled flagship of the Red team. With a long drawn-out slugging of rails and lasers, they managed to achieve victory. While it wasn't the best outcome, Jako secured victory with reasonable losses.

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Individual Command Score – Host score%

Gunnery - 89%

Damage Control - 37%

Crew Response - 44%

Engineer (Sub-system) - 32%

Engineer (Maneuver) - 77%

...

...

...

Overall 68.4% (slightly below average)

68 Institute Points (IP) awarded for winning the match and individual performance.

Jako couldn't understand why his score is below average. He had just led his team to victory in the simulation. As he looked at his scores, IRIS starts her explaination.

"While your tactics were admirable, they are not one of the judging criteria," IRIS explained. "You performed only slightly worse than the average first year student... excluding a few categories."

Jako furrowed his brows as IRIS continues, "Your over-reliance on the Chief of Deck, the second-in-command to resolve ship issues during the battle is a major factor in your score. As a captain, you should not be micromanaging every detail, but passing full responsibility to your chief during a battle is not the behavior of a good commander."

IRIS concluded, "If I am the judge, you will have received even fewer points."

Jako remembers giving command to his chief to make his own decisions and stop bugging him for instructions. What is the use of a second in command if not to handle the nitty gritty... If only he had been told in advance how he would be scored, he might have acted differently.

Marcus found Jako looking down as he exit his simulation pod and walk over trying to console him "Don't look so sad, bigger ship usually score worst against term average. Why don't they match the average against ship size? The best guess is that it is a form of discouragement. Every captain wants a bigger cooler ship and to stop those students from only having the minimum required skills, the scoring will force them to skill up better as they trade up their ships."

'…'

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~After the battle~

When both teams exit their simulator pods, Red team's David walks over to Blue team.

Jako reach out his hand and said, "Good game and well played."

"Good game... i will remember you dirty bastard." David face turn red as he stop in his track while Jako retracts his hand, "All is fair in love and war, i wish you better luck next time."

"... I will be seeing you in the real rankings, i don't think luck works too well there." David force out a retort and storms off.

IRIS angelic voice appear after it's long absents, 'The First Fleet Academy Ranking system, is the end of the term competition between qualified ship captains. The crew will not be A.I. manned like you did in this mock battle.

Both team will also be on equal term thus no A.I. ships is added. The ranking system is extremely important to the cadets in the Academy. It will determine your right to command a crew as well as the eligibility to join the home fleet.

As both teams exit their simulator pods, Red team's captain David approaches Jako, the leader of the Blue team. Jako reaches out his hand and says, "Good game and well played."

David's face turns red as he stops in his tracks, "Good game... I will remember you, dirty bastard." Jako retracts his hand and responds, "All is fair in love and war, I wish you better luck next time."

David retorts, "I'll see you in the real rankings. Don't think your luck will work there too. " and storms off.

IRIS, the AI system, chimes in, 'Cadets, a reminder that the First Fleet Academy Ranking system is the end-of-term competition between qualified ship captains. The crew will not be AI-manned like in this mock battle. Both teams will be on equal terms, and no AI ships will be added. The ranking system is extremely important for cadets in the Academy as it determines their right to command a crew and their eligibility to join the home fleet.

However to participate in the ranking you will need to get all the basic certificates to a corvette class ship along of the minimum crews required. More information will be provided by the Academy when the term starts.'

'Giving me information without my prompt, that nice of you IRIS.' Jako is amused by the cooperative response of IRIS, 'Oh of course, I have to share any information whenever it become possible that you would look dumb or break your cover... by the way, I'm only giving the information because you have the institute points for me to deducted.'

'What the... New orders, you are not to answer my question in the future unless I explicitly ask for it.'

IRIS whistles...