Proximan War Games Preview

Progress Towards Next New Book Sent to Schools

$3/$50

---

Books Sent to Schools:

---

The exercise was as straightforward as a war game scenario could get. Three Proximan destroyer-class warships against three Core frigates. The human crews and commanders were deliberately placed at a disadvantage for one obvious and one not-so-obvious reason. The lords of the Hecatian clan had opposed any outside contact and any subsequent alliances almost since contact with human worlds had first been established. Their influence with the crown was substantial, given the manufacturing infrastructure their regions of Proximan worlds controlled. One of the ships participating in this early exercise had been, in fact, designed and constructed in a Hecatian factory. Its captain viewed the entire ordeal as pointless, since mankind had already been determined to be a small, weak and militarily unproven species. It was true that Jason Hunter claimed to be a decorated officer, but medals awarded to small animals who defeated other small animals were not all that impressive to a warship commander and vanguard officer of the crown’s finest dacort.

The technology installed on all six ships allowed a central tracking and datalink operations system to catalog SRS, LRS, point defense, simulated missile weapons, maneuvering, battle screens, engine operations and so forth. All the telemetry recorded during the fight was sorted and analyzed to provide both the participating officers and the higher-ranking observers and analysts to not only examine the data, but to reconstruct the battle using tactical simulators afterwards. The engagement itself would be conducted with real ships setting real courses in the space near one of Proxima Three’s moons. The opening positions of the ships were decided by the flag of each side, with a minimum range of zero point five megaclicks between the two closest combatants.

One fortunate surprise both Proximans and humans discovered when they began to discuss working together to meet threats posed by alien aggressors was the sophisticated analysis doctrine they shared. Both races were keenly interested in examining their own performance to find inefficiencies and mistakes so they could be corrected and re-integrated into their training programs. This was a profound enough similiarity that at least one high-ranking Core fleet officer and an even higher-ranking official in the human government’s defense department agreed it might be advantageous if Skywatch shared its sight-sound simulation technology with the Proximan officer corps. It was an intriguing idea from several standpoints, especially given the fact most Proximan senses were in some ways far sharper than those of humans.

Now they were going to have a chance to evaluate one of the Core Worlds’ finest officers leading an inferior force against a Proximan squadron led by one of the kingdom’s finest strategists. The predictions were the same across the entire feline leadership. In fact the whole affair was really designed to establish the already agreed-upon and obvious fact. There was nothing to be gained by inviting humans to fight alongside the vastly superior Proximan fleet and the unmatched might of the kingdom’s bladekeepers.

Vanguard Captain Teronae-Hecatia-Creesaww watched his tactical display with a combination of resigned boredom and growing contempt. The human squadron was in close formation on a slow oblique approach course roughly 0.35 megaclicks off Proxima Three’s second-largest moon. There were no other contacts in space. A moderately effective ECM field was in place, but it would be easily overcome if the captain ordered his formation to go active. All the weapons on both ships were real-world inactive, but in the simulation they were fully powered and waiting for a target.

Commander Jason Hunter reclined on the bridge of the Ontario-class frigate DSS Comstock. His escort vessels were almost exact duplicates of his own, which was to say they were underpowered, undergunned and outrageously heavy variants of a vessel that might have been a medicore idea ten years before humans and Proximans scheduled these war games. His ships were bog-standard combat hulls only one step up from a passenger shuttle. They had one credible advantage in combat, and that was their ability to coordinate energy fire. If all three ships opened up on a target at optimum range and everything lined up just right, they might score one mission kill on an equally boring opponent one out of every three engagements. What was far more likely was the formation would scatter to thwart long-range missile attacks, lose its point defense screen and close fire support and get run down one by one and destroyed.

“So what you’re telling me is we have one combat-grade weapons bank aboard that can engage enemy ships at a range both sides know in advance?” Hunter asked over the intraship.

“That is correct, commander,” came the weary reply. The Proximan engineer assigned to Hunter’s squadron was using “correct” phrasing so as not to confuse the automatic translators.

“And my brave opponent has both energy weapons and missiles,” Hunter added.

“They are commanding Bacawl-class escort destroyers, sir,” the engineer replied. “Their missile racks each only have four birds, but they can engage us at much longer ranges.”

“So we have a choice, then,” Hunter muttered. “Charge and get overwhelmed by missiles and guns. Or sit here and shoot down missiles hoping one of them doesn’t get through and make us weaker than we already are.”

This time the engineer didn’t answer. The captain looked at the tactical display and made a snap decision. He fastened his 12-point. “Helm, plot an intercept course for hostile contact kilowatt X-ray one! All ahead emergency flank speed! Continuous acceleration.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me. Direct intercept course. Maximum acceleration until further orders.”

All three Proximan captains saw Hunter’s ship suddenly break formation and advance towards their position. All three were equally confused. They knew the specs on the Ontario frigate. If all three of the human ships decided to suddenly close range that would be one of the more obvious tactical options. Get to energy range before the destroyers could break the approach envelope for their missiles. But one frigate suddenly rocketing out of formation, breaking data range with its escorts? None of them could imagine what the human had in mind. The reality of the situation didn’t dawn on anyone until the Proximan flagship’s threat board lit up.

Captain Creesaww’s tactical officer hissed. “Enemy vessel on collision course! Estimating forty seconds to impact!”

Computer controlled weapons impacts were one thing. But there was nothing in the simulation rules that made provision for a combatant warship deliberately crashing into its opponent. Weapons could be turned off. Ten thousand tons of ducimite, titanium and fusion mass traveling at thousands of miles a second couldn’t. As Hunter had often said, “the final victor in every deep space engagement is physics.”

Progress Towards Next New Book Sent to Schools

$3/$50

---

Books Sent to Schools:

---