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Hackett considered pulling back and sniping at the enemy. In a real combat scenario this would have been a sound strategy, approved by any orthodox naval officer. But this wasn’t real combat and Hackett wasn’t a disciplined military captain, and so…
“Helm, next time they duck behind cover I want you to go full burn past the buoy then flip the ship. Gunnery, be ready to open up on them, I want them (figuratively)wrecked before they realise we’re not gonna play peek-a-boo.”
“Aye sir!”
The rest of the crew was starting to get into it, this was the most fun they’d had in years; most of the time they were stuck doing engine tests.
The Heron lurched forward and Hackett felt himself starting black out. Then the drive cut as they rocketed past the terrain buoy and the manoeuvring thrusters flipped them over. There it was: the Lu’gee preparing to jet to the next piece of cover, caught completely unaware.
“Open Fire!” The command was unnecessary, gunnery already knew what to do but Hackett was caught up in the moment.
The enemy ship was lit up with red pulses as a torrent of simulated rounds rained down upon them. At this range the advanced fire control could easily pinpoint the targets sub-systems and triple tap them in sequence. The battle was as good as over… except it wasn’t. The referee sub-routines in the sim network hadn’t declared the Lu’gee dead yet.
“Hit 'em again!”
Another torrent of fire, another cluster of confirmed hits, still no kill.
“Again!” The Heron continued to pour it on to no effect. Meanwhile the Lu’gee spun around like its engine pods hadn’t been skewered multiple times by the railgun and opened up with its kinetic turret.
Warning notifications flashed across the bridge display as the sim-network started registering hits.
[Hit to prow, power lines damaged, railgun inactive.]
[Hit to port hull, kinetic turret destroyed.]
[Multiple hits penetrated main hull, primary power and life support systems offline.]
[Hit to Bridge, command crew killed, ship combat ineffective]
Hackett blinked in disbelief as his ship was “destroyed” by a target he previously had dead to rights.
A comms message came in from proving ground control.
“All ships stand down, referees have declared the Heron disabled, Lu’gee has won the exercise.”
It was a good thing you hadn’t hit respond yet because the entire crew erupted in a chorus of expletives and accusations. This was complete bullshit. Sure the Lu’gee’s hull was a bit more durable than the Herons, but there was no way it could have withstood that amount of punishment then turned around and shot you in the face without so much as a hint of damage. Myconetics had cheated somehow and Hackett was sure of it.
>Contest the outcome of the exercise, get the lawyers involved.
>Switch to live ammunition and disable their engines, lets see them deny that result.
>Take the L.
>Write-In
