The Optimum Project

Chapter 49

Lagging the game, and the unknowing war

I waited until the coast was relatively clear before flying out from the destroyer remains and flying through the chaos. Fighters still swarmed everywhere but it was clear that the alliance numbers where waning, the tide was turning for the worst, someone needed to turn it back.

I had tom ping the radar and tracked down one of the relay fighters immediately, it seemed bigger than the others, and better shielded. I opened fire with a salvo of missiles while tom scanned it, sending its design specs to Pix to relay to other alliance fighters. The fighter itself seemed more reactive as well, it dodged my missile fire and returned the favor, shooting lasers at me and a cluster of it's own rockets. I rolled my ship, cleanly dodging the missiles and opening fire back at the ship, finally destroying it as it tried to dodge some wreckage drifting by.

The effect on the other ships was immediate, for a split second all of the nearby fighters engines cut out, the stutter causing our fighters to suddenly destroy a multitude simultaneously. I grinned as tom pinged the radar again, and so it went, fighter after fighter went down, and soon the battlefield was empty, nothing but alliance fighters searching for stragglers in a field of wreckage.

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I landed in one of the main fighter bays and hopped out onto the floor, stumbling slightly before I felt a pair of hands right me, I looked over to thank the person when those same hands slapped me across the face. I blinked and turned to find myself nose to nose (for the second time) with Sarah.

She stepped back and huffed, "you don't call, you don't write. I honestly thought I was on the coolest ship ever without you, and then I hear your out in the field, actually flying the coolest ship without ME."

I rubbed my cheek, " I missed you too, Sarah."

"That's it? 'I missed you too?' How rude are you? I thought you were dead! And you let me believe it for the past six months, while I've been on the exact same ship as you!" She ranted.

I smirked, "then how about this?" I grabbed her and gave her a kiss on the lips, holding it for a few moments before letting her go.

She blinked for a moment before murmuring, " I'm still mad at you."

I nodded, "I know, listen, I've got to go to the command deck to meet up with Pix about a few things. My room is on the third level, room 319. You can swing buy when ever you want, ok?"

She nodded and I gave her a quick peck on the cheek before dashing down the hall and into the elevator riding all the way up to the command deck.

I was greeted with cheers and applause as I walked in. Everyone was standing and congratulating me on my part in the battle. I calmed them down and thanked them, "thanks so much guys but I obviously couldn't have done it alone, so everyone keep up the great work!"

Everyone applauded again and dispersed, while I went over to Pix and we entered a small conference room off to the side. The room itself wasn't much, practically a broom closet, but along with the captain four major officers were inside, as well as a holographically projected general Quade.

I sat down as the General began detailing the enemy forces and their attack patterns.

After a few hours we finally got to the interesting stuff, General Quade looked at me, "considering you dealt with them out in the field, how do you suggest we go about retaliation?"

I sat for a second before considering my response, "Certain aspects of their ships suggest they have more advanced technology than us, at least in some respects. And considering they are using drones they clearly have more ships, there is no loss of life, and as long as they have the resources they can continuously throw more ships at us."

I paused again before continuing, "I would suggest an emphasis on EMP weapons and jamming so their most powerful weapons can become their biggest weaknesses, considering we don't know anything else about the enemy we can also analyze the ship remains for any useful tech and hints about their culture and so forth."

Quade, the Captain, and the others were nodding. Quade finally wrapped things up rather nicely, "welcome to war gentlemen, lets get cracking."

I closed my eyes, war, war against the unknown.
Yes, get cracking indeed.

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The end!

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Thank you guys so much for the love and support, it's really kept me going through out this book.

I'm sure a big question for you guys is "when will a sequel show up?"
I've already got one! Like the title of this segment it's called "The Unknowing War" so go ahead and check it out.
Thanks for following me on this awesome trip,
Gmoney