Eternity, sister to the renowned Ininifty supercarrier, is completing repairs around the lunar repair yard. Cortana has begun the AI Uprising, and a guardian is rapidly approaching Earth. While attempting to escape to link up with Eternity, the guar...
The students had been progressing nicely but began feeling like they weren't being taken seriously. Dimitri was, of course, understanding of their feelings and wanted to reassure them that they were, in fact, taking them seriously. He had even arranged for a special treat that day. The naval academy was equipped with multiple different simulation rooms. While the trainees had not yet graduated from the cruiser classes, he had arranged for a "Special" class that day.
"POYDEM! COME ALONG, that's it. Everyone find your stations quickly now. Bozhe, mozhesh' li ty dvigat'sya medlenneye?" The student last in line avoided the swipe the Russian man aimed at his head and apologized, though he was unsure what for. Once his class was in the simulated bridge of a Halcyon class light cruiser, he stood next to the Glass Display at the front of the bridge. There was a slot for a Smart AI, but what Dimitri slotted into it was not a smart AI chip. It was a new kind of AI Chip, and this one was specially marked. It read P.J. Cole, and once inserted into the console, Dimitri loaded up a specific simulation with one crucial change. The screen he stood at read, "Valiant class super heavy cruiser - Everest - DISABLED for training exercise."
"Alright, listen up, children. We are heading to Harvest to retake it from a relatively unknown alien force that drove us away over a year ago. Today, battlegroup X-ray is moving in to retake Harvest." Dimitri quickly briefed his students and explained that they would be taking command as the heavy cruiser previously leading the battle group malfunctioned and did not arrive on time. They settled in, made a burn toward the Planet, and found a single bulbous purple ship.
A headset flies across the bridge as Dimitr laughs.
"This is bullshit!" one of his students yells. They had run the simulation over a dozen times and had yet to succeed. After the first three failures, Dimitri told them they were up against a single covenant super destroyer. This did not improve their mood, as they still couldn't figure out how to break through its shields. Dimitri was left wheezing in laughter after their last attempt, in which they were the first ones destroyed by a plasma lance.
"Dah, that is what most of us felt when dealing with the split chins. They are not a fair opponent to fight against. But now we have learned a lesson, yes?" The room of tired and stressed-out officers in training looked at him with confusion.
"If you know not your enemy and do not know yourself, then you are doomed to fail in every battle." The students look confused. Why was this Russian man quoting Tsun Zu at them? The art of war was ancient history by now.
"You were sent here with a force of forty ships to battle against a single enemy. You cannot take them down with just numbers. You must be better. To achieve this, I have someone here today to teach you." Once he finished, he turned around and moved to the hologram table. With a single button press, the screen changed and showed the same text from the last dozen attempts, with a slight difference.
Valiant class super heavy cruiser - Everest - ENABLED
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