A Battle and A Mystery

If anyone without a collar were looking at Katla they'd think she was gazing blankly into the open space of the bridge. Fortunately for the rumors of her sanity however everyone around her was similarly attired and looking at the same tactical map that was projected into their vision. They'd split from Washi's section of the fleet and at best speed had reached open combat range for the exercise. A final perfunctory check confirming that all weapons were set to non-lethal.

"Communication from Flotilla Commander Washi." The comms officer reported. Katla briefly looked over and checked her name. She'd not quite gotten to know the bridge crew as well as she should have.

"Put her through Melia." Katla requested.

"If you're ready Commodore shall we commence this exercise in five minutes?" Washi asked.

After double-checking that all ships were green, Katla nodded.

"Five minutes. Sending the synch now." She said, the hand wave she made to accompany it was completely unnecessary but it made her feel cool as the time packet that would ensure they were operating on the same countdown went out.

"Synch received, the countdown has begun," Washi replied. Katla noted with some amusement the way her fellow commander pantomimed catching it. "Good luck Commodore. I look forward to conducting an after-action review in my stateroom."

"Same to you, make sure to wear something nice," Katla replied before cutting the connection and opening up a new one to the fleet. "All ships, we have just under five minutes to action. Prepare missiles and LACs for launch. Remember the plan, we're hitting hard and fast. I want all guns ready and firing the second they're in range. Cover each other and focus fire on designated targets. For the Queen. Katla out." Jaclyn had stressed those last few lines were essential for any pre-battle speech. Now all that was left was to wait.

Foxley was manning her own station, orders flowing quickly in a mix of verbal and collared communication as she kept an eye on the timer.

"Captain point defense battery two just reported a power surge taking it offline." The combat control officer reported. "Engineering is reporting 10 minutes to get it back online."

"Capacitator or direct line surge?" Foxley demanded, "They have two minutes."

"Direct line. The capacitors are still green. The automatic shutoff kept them from being impacted."

"Put in a note for engineering I want that entire line replaced after this action. This can not be allowed to happen at Mwaro." Foxley commanded, Katla felt some sympathy, capacitator surges were usually the result of poor maintenance or someone not following the pre-battle checklists properly. Direct line surges were random, a minor fluke in the reactor causing trouble down the line and not getting caught by one of the lines' power gates. If this were a real battle with live fire there were several workarounds but all of those were impermissible for a standard battle due to the inherent danger of working with electrical systems under pressure. In a non-life-or-**** situation it wasn't worth the hazard.

"Aye. Retargeting point defense one and requesting adjustment of PD 2 of Nightsong for gap coverage." The tactical display was showing the 'bubbles' of the overlapping fields of fire for the fleet's point defense system. As Nightsong approved the request its bubble shifted slightly to compensate for the gap left by the downed PD system.

Katla wasn't overly worried, it would be back online in time for the second missile volley. The first was pretty much a formality to test that the enemy had brought point defense, the long-range giving plenty of time for the systems to do their work. There was a slight pause before the next report came in.

"Nightsong is reporting PD 2 is down. Gallant Fury is redirecting PD3 to cover." The combat officer reported, sounding confused. "Wait one. Gallant Fury reporting PD3 is down. Wolfhound PD2 shifting to cover."

OK, that was odd. Once, was incidence, twice coincidence, thrice was enemy action. The only issue was there shouldn't be any enemy action occurring right now. The timer continued to tick down and Katla made a call, a privacy bubble covering her. Washi was quick to answer.

"Is there something wrong?" Washi asked, her own bubble shimmering lightly in the air behind her to prove she was covered as well.

"We're getting signs of possible E-Warfare. Did something go active early by mistake?" Katla asked, she honestly doubted Washi would deliberately cheat but that didn't mean some tech-monkey hadn't jumped the gun or someone wasn't sharing their commander's sense of fair play.

"No, we have nothing active." Her fellow commander reported after a moment. Obviously checking with each of her ships quickly through her flotilla commander link. "Do we need to postpone the start of the battle?"

"Negative. If you're not doing anything it's part of the exercise. The Directorate won't give second chances. Thank you for confirming. Katla out." She was still a bit concerned but it still shouldn't be too big of a deal at this range. The timer continued to tick down.

3

2

1

The second the battle started the carriers on both sides launched their attack craft while everyone else immediately began lobbing missiles at maximum range. The two sides both started to close in a bit closer, letting the point defense begin its work. Katla could see the enemy's counter-fire knock down each missile as it approached and expected her own to do the same except...

"Wolfhound PD2 is down. Flag PD2 is back online." The constant shifting of coverage had created a small gap. With the last of its maneuvering fuel, an enemy missile was able to take advantage, slipping through and avoiding the last-minute intercept attempts by full laser batteries to detonate in proximity to LAC 1 marking it as knocked out.

"Main batteries opening up. Multiple missiles incoming." On both sides, the laser batteries and second volley of missiles thrummed across empty space, for the moment just washing over shields. "Flag PD1 down." The report was made emotionlessly. Katla watched as multiple Authority LAC signatures blinked out but it wasn't enough. A combination of the missiles and laser fire 'slammed' into the Divine Right, sending damage alarms blaring before cutting off suddenly as the ship was fully registered as killed.

"Engineering," Foxley said, her stern, they were restricted to only internal comms on the ship now that they were out of the battle. "I want a full investigation of every aspect of our point defense batteries. Pull them to pieces if you have to but this was completely unacceptable."

Katla was tempted to point out that the Divine Right wasn't the only ship impacted but the carefully contained rage beneath the surface of her flag captain's words made her stay quiet. Especially considering she was right. This was unacceptable. It was also vexing. Katla drafted a memo to the analysis team and set it to send once the battle was done for them to look into it as well. She'd gone over the maintenance reports for the entire fleet personally and there was nothing that even hinted that there would be this level of failure. Especially with multiple ships involved.

Without the Divine Right to back them up the aggressive charge lost its major punching power. The fleet did manage to knock out Washi's corvettes and most of the LACs as well as doing significant damage to her flagship but in the end, the numbers and firepower showed and Hosten made the call to surrender when the Wolfhound was the last ship standing. A reasonable decision given the circumstances.

It was a loss, there was no doubt about it, but there were a lot of lessons to be learned from it. That would come later though. First...

"Jaclyn." Katla waved her aide closer, activating the privacy field once she stepped in. "It'll be at least an hour before we meet up with the Authority. Why don't you head down to compartment A4 and have a bit of a rest."

"Compartment- Uh. Yes, Commodore." She said, slightly blushing as she left the bubble to head to where her girlfriend was currently at. If she was going to be sucking cock for the first time it should be with someone she liked and who could provide some tips. The call from Washi came in soon after.

"Was the possible E-Warfare related to your point defense systems?" Washi asked, from most others you would have taken that as a taunt but she sounded genuinely curious.

"Yes, any time they tried to cover the Divine Right they went down. My people are looking it." Katla replied.

"I see." Washi said, she paused for a few moments. "Commodore, have you looked at the capture log?" Katla hadn't. It hadn't really been relevant for the exercise but now that Washi had mentioned it...

"Well isn't that a bitch." There was such a thing as bad luck, Katla knew that better than anyone. Raiders had to accept that sometimes they'd be in the wrong place at the wrong time due to factors outside of their control. Several nieces and cousins in foreign countries were a particular testament within her own family. However, there was no way her name should have appeared twice on the capture list. The only way that could happen is if there had been tampering. Tampering which probably would have gone unnoticed if she hadn't genuinely been pulled as well. "Well then. I'll get a fresh install of combat modules done once we reach Mwaro." Hopefully finding digital fingerprints of some kind while she did it but knowing it was unlikely. Someone good enough to crack the combat system's encryption was unlikely to leave any indication that they'd done it.

"Will you need any assistance in that matter?" Washi asked, "Perhaps some of my personnel to... assist?"

"No, I'll be handling it personally. Don't worry. This... glitch. Will be resolved before we do it for real. In any case, it's your win. Any requests?" Not that she had to follow them but no harm in asking.

"If your officers could come in their dress uniforms it would be appreciated. They're quite fetching." With that the conversation was over for the moment and Katla was left with the mystery of who'd tried to **** her flagship to get to her.