The Eight-Eight Fleet

[Xandyr Carrick]

"We've picked up some reinforcements. We've just turned away a squadron of TIE bombers.

"Another one attempting to penetrate the screen."

"Intensifying defensive batteries along that arc."

Vilin watched the convulsing mass of fighter activity on his holographic display. Like shoals of fish facing off against each other. A bright light lances across the screen and was followed by the sound of a torpedo striking home. The intercom was playing sound effects to try and mimic a battle situation.

"We're in weapons range!"

"Forward shields taking heavy fire."

"They're preparing ordnance."

"Hold," Vilin called. One, two... "Fire all ion and ICE batteries now. Then all turbolasers fire at will. As soon as their shields buckle give them a full volley of torpedoes."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Admiral, we're being hailed"

"Patch it through"

"Cathul, this tub is outta ammo! Requesting position to dock" Desmond copied on comms.

Now that Desmond was returning to ship to rearm the heavy shells of the prototype EC-115 he flew, he was going to dock in one of those auxiliary hangars that were newly built. It was funny how the remaining enemy escorts all concentrated their fire at the most heavily damaged cruiser, meaning that the cruiser ANS Vandelhelm was destroyed under the concentrated fire of the final Victory in their field, alongside what was left of the Nebulons. Oh, sure, the shields on the Excubitor are nearly down, but not completely, after multiple attempts at redirecting shields to absorb the concentrated fire of two Star Destroyers, expecting that they fired on the top, bow and broadsides, thus draining the bottom and aft shields. Meanwhile, in wargames like that one, what was called a loss was, well, not much of a loss. Just means that it is taken off the tactical displays in use during the simulation, and they usually come at a full stop until either the simulation freezes or meets another end. Also, the attack craft sent to reinforce Vilin on the Alliance right have made contact with the enemy.

"Admiral, we lost over half our escort screen"

"We have to give [member="Vilin"] more time! The enemy Star Destroyers are heavily damaged: concentrate all fire on the enemy Star Destroyers"

"Roger"

"The auxiliary hangar is completed, admiral: this ship now has the ability of 10 squadrons of attack craft"

"What good is the addition of two additional squadrons of attack craft if the simulation froze should we attempt to use them? Besides, we have sent in four squadrons to relieve Vilin"

Therapy Command:

Spoiler

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X-class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m
ANS Hero of Coruscant (Mateus-class fleet carrier): 2000m
ANS Yag'dhul (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Vandelhelm (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Moenia (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Otoh Sancture (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Spinnaker (Nebulon B7): 300m

Attack craft:
113 T-70 X-Wings
43 BB-2 bombers
1 FC-115 (piloted by [member="Desmond C'artyom"])

[member="Desmond C'artyom"]

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond flew into the tub that was Cathul's ship and docked in the hangar. R-6 raced about making quick repairs, while engineers boarded the craft wheeling with them great halls of ammunition. As the ship was being loaded Desmond hopped out of the cockpit and grabbed a plasma torch. He began hammering on the manifold until the up right bits of metal laid down enough to be welded shut. It wouldn't repair the circuits from within but it would protect them from further damage. A great tanker approached the ship and a large hose was attached between the pair. It pumped fuel into Desmond's ship. Then he got the green light. He was good to go. He rushed into his cockpit and gunned it out of the hangar again.

[member="Cathul Thuku"], [member="Vilin"]

 

[Xandyr Carrick]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

"Give them everything but torpedoes," Vilin's harsh, raspy voice cut clear across the bridge. The light show, even with low powered beams for show, was quite something. The batteries were arranged down the prow blade in straight lines and it was like an array of knives reaching out to the simulated Impstar.

"Shields holding. I'm getting some fluctuations on their grid."

"Full volley of torpedoes."

The bridge shook with the sound of dud missiles being fired at speed. Vilin watched the readout at the volley didn't just finish the job, but cracked the superstructure of the Impstar in two.

"Cruisers bearing down on our flank."

"Load long range torpedoes, bring us about."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

By now the simulated enemies lost all their Imperators to the concentrated fire from the Alliance's heavy units. Also both heavy units in Therapy Command are patiently waiting for their shields to recharge, having completely wiped out the 2/3 on Cathul's side, knowing that the remaining 1/3 are bearing down on @Vilin. Meanwhile, [member="Desmond C'artyom"] had to make do in full haste in order to attack the remaining two Victories alongside an unspecified number of Nebulons that were escorting what was left of the simulated Imperial fleet. Meanwhile, the enemy fighter and bomber squadrons find themselves engaging the Alliance attack craft on two fronts: the 56 fighters escorting 39 BB-2s, while keeping four squadrons in the screen, as well as the EC-115 piloted by Desmond, and the attack craft Vilin brought with him. They realized that, with equal meterage, the Alliance simulation proved to be somewhat troublesome but not quite like what they expect out of the First Order, based on the footage the SIS gave her on Malastare.

"We're outside range from the enemy cruisers for anything other than hypervelocity cannon fire, admiral. We should not waste such heavy missiles"

"Plus we cannot afford to completely lose the fighter screen. All hypervelocity cannons, fire on the closest enemy cruiser"

"However, we can't leave our allies on our right to their own devices"

"All units, move in to our right to assist Vilin"

Therapy Command:

Spoiler

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X-class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m
ANS Hero of Coruscant (Mateus-class fleet carrier): 2000m
ANS Yag'dhul (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Vandelhelm (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Moenia (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Otoh Sancture (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Spinnaker (Nebulon B7): 300m

Attack craft:
104 T-70 X-Wings
39 BB-2 bombers
1 FC-115 (piloted by [member="Desmond C'artyom"])

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Desmond C'artyom's fighter raced towards the eastern front. Vilin's assault ships were fairing a little bit better with Cathul's support, but not much so. Des gunned the engines to full power and raced forward. He was out of a fighter escort and the enemy swarmed in thick waves. He had to do some tricky flying, a few barrel roles, an s turn or two, but he managed to at least make it to the enemy victory. Admittedly he was pursed by a dozen other craft, but he could at least get a couple shots off. He raced towards the shield generators and fired a coupled of salvos at the enemy shields. The dome exploded, but that still left one more. His shields flickered as more lasers raked his hull. He knifed left and managed to get a couple of TIEs to smack into the enemy bridge

[member="Cathul Thuku"], [member="Vilin"]

 

[Xandyr Carrick]

[member="Desmond C'artyom"] [member="Cathul Thuku"]

"Did we just get hit?" Vilin asked sharply.

"Yes sir, two heavy torpedoes!" An officer called.

"No, I mean really[/] hit!?"

"Oh right. I was wondering why you weren't reading the damage chart. No, the engineering team managed to hook up the AG to the sim to make it feel like we got hit."

Vilin arched an eyebrow. "Remind me to thank them for that one. Hold our turn and focus on target Besh Two. Get some fighters to try and divert that Nebulon before it gets in behind us."

 

[Cathul Thuku]

While [member="Desmond C'artyom"] was indeed pursued by an entire squadron of TIE fighters, it was all part of the plan: Vorzyd Squadron made somewhat short work of that particular squadron, while sustaining one loss from that squadron, while other attack craft moved in to bomb one of the Nebulons, specifically the one attempting flanking maneuvers on [member="Vilin"]'s flagship, causing heavy damage to it. But now the Moenia was breaking formation, attempting to get in position behind the Trimaran so as to protect its vulnerable back. Clearly, while Cathul preferred to have some coverage across multiple arcs, and, for a ship based on what is known as the Imperial Wedge, better aft weapons coverage (even though it was to be mostly missile-based in nature), the Trimaran was built with the early stages of battle in mind. But as Therapy Command advanced towards the remnants of the simulated imperial fleet, the enemy Victory still standing concentrated all of its firepower on the battlecruiser's conning pyramid before getting itself hit by more turbolasers:

"We've been hit: turbolasers" the pilot told Cathul.

"Relax: these aren't live rounds"

"Sometimes I wonder what kind of programming is in use to make the occupants feel like the ship has been hit without being actually hit" the chief security officer asked.

"The program plays around with the inertial compensator" the chief engineer told the bridge officers.

Therapy Command:

Spoiler

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X-class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m
ANS Hero of Coruscant (Mateus-class fleet carrier): 2000m
ANS Yag'dhul (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Vandelhelm (Dreadnought Mk3): 700m
ANS Moenia (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Otoh Sancture (Nebulon B7): 300m
ANS Spinnaker (Nebulon B7): 300m

Attack craft:
99 T-70 X-Wings
36 BB-2 bombers
1 FC-115 (piloted by [member="Desmond C'artyom"])

 

[Desmond C'artyom]

Phew... With those fighters off my back I can do some real damage.

Desmond swooped in low the victories shields were out and boy did he have a surprise for them. He flew level with their bridge and when he was mere meters away from their bridge he fired right into the control deck. The slug accelerated forward and smashed into their ship flame and bodies spewed out of the newly gaping hole.

Intense simulator...

Desmond knifed upwards and flew along the Victory. He watched as a chain reaction of explosions racked her hull. He deserved a medal for that one.

"Thanks Vorzyd! Couldn't have done it without you guys!"

[member="Cathul Thuku"], [member="Vilin"]

 

[Xandyr Carrick]

With the second Nebulon engaged, the first started to break of its attack run. Clearly they had been hoping to sandwich the Trimiran between them and push the deflector grid from both sides. Their change of course was a mistake, Vilin decided. If they had pressed on they may have survived the pass. Maybe the AI needed a tweak.

“Full forward batteries!” he called.

Another round of laser fire lanced out across space. Impacts bloomed across the starboard edge of the vessel, the shields rapidly collapsing and burning holes appearing in the hull.

“Hold fire!” Vilin called. The batteries fell silent. “Prepare rescue craft and signal for their surrender.”