THE MSN YILAN’S TACTICAL OPERATIONS ROOM

Friederika and I face each other at opposite ends of the room. A table fills up the space between us, leaving just enough room to allow for the flow of traffic on either side. At first glance, it looks like a normal, black table—but when I reach out and give it a touch, it flashes a pale blue, projecting a holographic overlay into the air. Oh, how wonderful science is!

“Ensign Happ, here is your tablet. And yours as well, sub-lieutenant Trachenberg,” the officer accompanying us states. Coming back to my senses, I take the gray tablet from the man and power it on.

Initializing… Loading all modules… Computing scripts… Syncing with the mainframe system…

When it is finishes doing its thing, the familiar blue light glows on my face. I am presented with several options.MOCK BATTLES

MOCK BATTLES IMPORT LIVE FEED OPTIONS

I select the first option, MOCK BATTLES, then the screen refreshes with a new set of options.

QUICK MOCK BATTLE ADVANCED MOCK BATTLE DYNAMIC SANDBOX CAMPAIGN

During the period where we were tasked with academic war games, we found ourselves familiarizing ourselves with this system. There’s a lot of junior officers aboard the Yilan, so we took turns for one-on-one sessions while the rest watched. Our instructors encouraged us to take notes and observe how others did certain things. But I just liked the cool polygonal ships shooting at each other.

Come to think of it, this is more or less the same system that they used back at Canberra academy. Though I’d say the only difference between the two is the presentation. The system here allows you to be more mobile and look at formations from different angles. Whereas the academy has a life-size model ship bridge that you command your fleet from with the use of a control panel installed into its podiums. The only downside to that was you couldn’t move around too much while in it, which I suppose is much like being on a real bridge in the heat of battle.

QUICK MOCK BATTLE has a limited scope of options tailored for quicker simulations. ADVANCED MOCK BATTLES I think it allowed for a wider array of options that you could customize to your heart’s content but was still only limited to one engagement. The DYNAMIC SANDBOX CAMPAIGN was more of the same. What set it apart, however, was you could have persistent battles so it was more or less designed to imitate a real military operation. For some of the more elaborate war game scenarios, we went with the sandbox campaign one.

“Victoria, which one are we doing again?” Friederika asks from across the room “I take it we’re doing the Dynamic Sandbox option?”

“No, actually,” I remark “I want to do a few advanced mock battles for now.” We both select ADVANCED MOCK BATTLE and are presented with a cluttered menu of overwhelming presets, among other options. For all of humanity’s progressiveness, streamlining certain features was apparently not on our agenda.

“So how are we doing this?” Friederika asks again “you want to be the Federation forces, or…?” For factions, there aren’t any to speak of. You can choose between the all-mightily Federation of Sol or the all-encompassing OPFOR.

“I’ll be taking the role of OPFOR—rather, the Toscana Mafia,” I answer. I then look over the settings and select OPFOR. The rest of the settings, as numerous as they were, were related namely to fleet composition and numbers. “Oh, uh, lieutenant…?” My voice trails off. Frankly, I forgot his name. I’ve never been good at getting acquainted with anyone but Friederika.

The lieutenant is with Friederika assisting her with the tablet. He looks up at me with a look of annoyance.

“Plotte,” the lieutenant says, calmly.

“Right. Pluto,” I say, “once the two of you are done flirting, I would like it if you could set Kiki’s flotilla composition to something that reflects commodore Chal’s naval strength. With that said, I would like the intelligence we have on hand regarding the Mafia’s force at Valspon.” Despite a grunt, lieutenant Plotte excuses himself from the room to retrieve the files, leaving us alone. Friederika comes over to give me a friendly hip bump.

“Someone has gotten a little jealous I’m mingling with someone else, hmm?” Friederika muses, grinning.

“Someone has to keep you in check. You’re almost a lieutenant, it embarrasses me when I’m around you and you’re hitting on guys,” I remark matter-of-factly.

“Loosen up a little,” Friederika sneers back “you’re never going to score a boyfriend if you’re so stiff like that.” Before I can say anything in protest, Plotte returns with a folder of files. Kiki lets out a sigh and winks at me as she returns to her side of the table. I thank the Lieutenant and open the file to examine the documents. After giving it an initial flip-through I am thankful it’s not too thick because otherwise ,I would be here forever. Since the operation is tomorrow we don’t exactly have the leisure of time.

HEADQUARTERS at SIDE BRENA, PREBUAN SYSTEM G-1 REPORT on SPECULATIVE STRENGTH of VALSPON PIRATES

I skim through the first couple pages and find a lot of statistics and scribbled notes by the liaison officers on top of statements written in a local Frankish language. From the gist of it, both seemed to believe the total strength numbered a little under two hundred vessels. “So… I’m not working with much, huh?” I say, dryly. I look up upon hearing a notification that Friederika has finished setting up her force, and my gaze shifts to her naval strength.

'FEDERATION' FORCE 412 WARSHIPS 20 AUXILIARY VESSELS

From the difference in numbers, it’s easy to tell why commodore Chal would want to make a move into Valspon. It’s more or less set in stone how predictable the simulations—and the upcoming operation—will go. However, that is why I am here, and why I dragged Friederika into this last-minute war game. I hope that we can catch the attention of the senior officers—and prove to them about the shortcomings of Lucky Alphonse. From there, I can only hope it will trickle up the chain of command and convince Chal to withdraw out of Toscana with minimal casualties.

I can hear Kiki tapping her foot from across the room. Right, I need to get back to the subject at hand. I swiftly input approximate naval numbers into the system and tap on the READY button once I finish. After a single jingle, I look up to reaffirm my choices.

‘OPFOR’ FORCE 180 WARSHIPS 40 AUXILIARY VESSELS

Under any other circumstances, these ratios are a little unfair. But in a real-life scenario, it’s favorable for us. “Alright, Kiki,” I say “are you ready?” With an affirmative reply, the two of us tap BEGIN. We wait for the system to materialize the numerous polygons that represent individual ships. After it finishes, we begin conducting our little wargame. Given my strength, it would be impossible to provide a solid defense of any kind.

In a real-life situation, it would be ideal to harass the enemy as you execute a withdrawal to a friendly system, preferably with allied troops in it, and either counterattack with those reinforcements or assault a less defended system. At least, that’s always how I’ve done things in mock bottles.

This is only a singular battle mode, however, so it would only be doable in the sandbox campaign. As such, you have to more or less fight to the death—though, in any game mode there’s an annoying mechanic where units have morale. If your ships see too many losses in their sector then they tend to retreat unless you try to balance it out by inflicting losses on the enemy. I should have discretely turned it off in the options, but I didn’t think to do it until now.

There’s also the optional objective of eliminating all of the enemy’s auxiliary ships. Without supplies, a fleet can’t operate at full capacity in enemy territory, and thus will automatically fail based on the idea that the fleet will starve and run out of ammunition. There’s probably an argument to be made about the inability to loot enemy ships or settlements for supplies but I’m not the one who designed the mechanics of the system.

“…Vicky… earth to Vick…”

“Wha…? Huh?” I utter, blinking. I’m so lost in my train of thought that I am only partly following the flow of the war game. Kiki’s Federation forces have engaged the bulk of my force and my poor pirates were in the process of being half enveloped by her other squadron.

While keeping my cool, I order the ships not yet engaged to retreat to the nearest polygonal cylinder representing Side colonies and hope to wear down her Federation force there. I would use the Side batteries as a clutch and tip this around—

”Hmm? Trying to run away? I don’t think so!” Friederika says rather confidently. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Nearly all the auxiliary ships scrambling to the safety of the Side colony dissipate into pixel dust. With so many inflicted casualties, this triggers a chain reaction of my beloved little pirates disengaging and then retreating to the edges of the holographic map. The holographic blue aura changed to a red hue, signaling that the simulation is over and that I have lost.

I shrug, accepting it has happened. They should retreat to fight another virtual day rather than face the prospect of utter virtual destruction. “You’re about a thousand years too early to beat me, Vic!” Frierderika pumps out her chest in triumph in typical Friederika bragging fashion.

“It’s only been one battle,” I say cooly, “you’re celebrating too early. Save it for when you win a few dozen or so.”

“Ohh?” Friederika sneers “do you want to challenge me some more? Fine, feed into my ego!” We go for a few more rounds. In between each one, I did small adjustments to my navy strength but each time my efforts are rebuked.

There is, however, one scenario where I did win. In that one, I committed only a single destroyer squadron and a handful of auxiliary ships in tow to engage the fleet of the overly confident Friederika. To my surprise, she zealously takes the bait by committing half her fleet to chase it to the ends of the holographic map. This left her auxiliary ships guarded by only two squadrons worth of warships, around one hundred and sixty in total.

The rest of my fleet is near the Side present on the map. “Bwaha!” I say scornfully “you fell for such a cheap trick!”

“Eh??” Friederika utters in confusion. Capitalizing on her shock, I move in with my fleet and reduce hers to meager polygon space debris. The resulting hue changes to red. From across the room, Friederika lets out a hearty laugh. “Wow! You got me. I got too ahead of myself there, good job.” her grin turns to a frown and she crosses her arms under her breasts, “so what’s the plan now? It seems we’re attracting quite a crowd.”

I’m so engrossed in the mock battles that I finally glance around. Sure enough, there is a small but growing crowd of officers and enlisted personnel watching two amateurs duke it out over fictional Valspon. In the back, I can see our XO—lieutenant commander Mazzareli—with his arms crossed and piercing eyes.

This was my chance to get my point across for Lucky Alphonse. “Ahem!” I pat my chest “I think we should do a sandbox campaign now,” I turned to lieutenant Plotte, “ah, Lieutenant...ah… Pluto, do we have any records of the combat capacity of the 217 Mafia from back when they were still in the Merica region?” Although irritated I slipped on his name, Plotte has to think a bit, but nods and disappears into the crowd. While he is gone, we back out of the ADVANCED MOCK BATTLE lobby and select DYNAMIC SANDBOX CAMPAIGN. Friederika goes ahead and inputs the same information as before for her Federation faction.

The purpose of getting the Merican records is to get enough data to model a Valspon relief force scrambling from central Toscana—Lübeck, most likely. Although the records will be a few years old, it would still give me a good grasp of what to work with. “Ensign Happ-Schwarzenberger, your requested files,” lietueant Plotte states, presenting me the files.

“Thank you, lieutenant Pluto, I greatly appreciate it,” I take the folder and give the contents a quick run-through.

…Interesting, piecing together all the separate skirmishes the Merican authorities encountered, the total strength would total out to around… five hundred? No, that can’t be right. With a force that size, the 217 Mafia presence in Merica would have persisted. Heck, their sphere of influence in the Merica region could have lasted longer against an allied coalition of Ruthenian-Merican forces… or even incursions by Metropolitan Sol.

This is all hypothetical of course. On the other hand, I think it would make sense for the Don to withdraw and consolidate his power in Toscana. Argh, I’m getting too off track! If we factor in the relative strength of the Valspon flotilla, I think it’d be realistic to say there are around four hundred warships. Furthermore, if I assume that the Don is keeping tabs on vice admiral DeRyck while he’s maneuvering through southern Ruthenia, he’d want to maintain an active defensive stance along the Rouen corridor too.

I imagine the Don is in a precarious situation right now. His best bet would likely be having a strategic reserve that could respond quickly to the first signs of trouble. I believe that the strength of it could be between two hundred to three hundred ships. Unless…

It’s also possible there is no strategic reserve, right? It would be rather risky for the Don to divide his already small manpower and leave only token forces at the front lines. In the chance scenario that DeRyck and Chal attacked simultaneously, the Don would have to sacrifice one front for the other and ultimately crumble under the Federation’s wrath.

The sound of Friederika’s voice once again reeled me back to reality. “Oi, Victoria, how big should we make the campaign?”

“Oh, right yeah.” The length of a campaign is determined by how many systems you wish to include. It can range from as few as two systems to most of the Orion Arm. In the latter’s case, the primary motives behind these are to occupy the enemy’s political capital and force them to capitulate in a reasonable timetable. I think I only ever saw one instance of a mega campaign back at the academy between senior students.

“Let’s keep it short and simple,” I remark “we’ll only do Lübeck, Valspon, and possibly Ides.”

“Why Ides?” Friederika asks, cocking her head. I give her a coy wink.

“What was it that you said before, a woman never reveals her secrets?” The crowd chuckles. I don’t think I ever saw Friederika so flustered before. It’s a pretty rare sight indeed. If I had a camera on me I would’ve treasured it forever.

“That aside… shouldn’t we also include the Velksland system?” Friederika asks, but I only shake my head.

“I believe we should leave it out of the equation,” I say “it would be rather difficult to stimulate two fronts at once—this is just assuming that DeRyck is even staked out in the Rouen corridor at all. Even if he is,” I pause, uncertain, rubbing my chin, “I don’t think either of us can manage a fight over there as well when we don’t know DeRyck’s total strength.”

From the corner of my eye, I could see my XO and CO conversing about something.—

Wait, my XO and CO? I continuously blinked to reprocess that process. Commander Buttermilch is here? Oh, it’s my turn to be put on the spot. The blood rushes to my cheeks as I suddenly realize just how embarrassing it is to have so many eyes on us at once. I kept waiting for this moment but now that it’s here I feel like a helpless lamb.

“That sounds fair to me,” Friederika says “it would be pretty time-consuming, wouldn’t it? If only we could flip the hourglass!” Good god. Friederika could not make a more lame jab even if her life depended on it. But at least she eased the mood for a bit, I knew I could always count on her. With trembling hands, I input all the required information into my tablet regarding the Mafia’s naval strength.

VALSPON SYSTEM STRENGTH 195 WARSHIPS 40 AUXILIARY SHIPS

I finish with a single tap and the information reflects on the holographic table. And as for my strategic reserves…

LÜBECK SYSTEM STRENGTH 330 WARSHIPS 120 AUXILIARY SHIPS

The screen above, however, would show the fields as interrogation marks. This is meant to indicate that Friederika’s Federation force does not have the intelligence to know what my reserve strength is and is thus fog of war so to speak. “Alrighty then,” Friederika declares, rather triumphantly “are you ready, ensign Happ-Schwarzenberger?” I give a firm smirk.

“Ready to put you in your place, sub-lieutenant Trachenberg.” With my hands still trembling, I press the READY button as firmly as I can. No matter what it takes, I’ll convince you all operation Lucky Alphonse is doomed to fail!