Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

“Ah well…” Kyrlov began, but Adrian cut him off.

“None of you would, and you know it. I know that my counterpart in the Second Fleet doesn’t need to deal with this. The only reason I have to, is because of my connection to Laura Reiss. And barring that, all of you know that I deserve this position. My simulator scores are highest in the Fleet, and I have experience.” Adrian said. The two remained silent.

“I don’t want to fight my subordinates while I need to fight my ship and fleet. I need you to tell the others that I will not tolerate anyone interfering with my authority. Is that clear.”

“Yes, Fleet Commander.” Both said in unison.

“That is all.” Adrian said, dismissing them. They both got up and left the room.

“Well, that almost made it seem like you want to command the fleet.” Iris said.

“I can’t have them thinking differently.” Adrian said.

“That went well.” Paul said. He remained quiet during the meeting.

Adrian grimaced. “Truth? I thought it would be worse.” Adrian said.

“They are all professionals, you have nothing to worry about.” Paul said.

“We’ll see.”

Adrian was sitting in the Leviathans command center. The room was the same shape as the command center on Athena, that of a half sphere. The stations were also in the same positions, arranged in a semi-circle around the command chair and the holographic table in the middle of the room. The only major differences were in software, others were only esthetics, with the stations, chairs and holo-table now being sleek and metallic silver in color. The top of the dome ceiling emanated soft light, while the rest was colored white. The walls were made out of smart material, and could also serve as reproduction devices. Any video streams could be shown on any part of the wall, as well as a full 360° view from the outside of the ship. The view looked as if the command center was on top of the citadel, with only space around them. It served no tactical purpose, but it was an amazing experience. Athena, Adrian’s previous command had the same capability. The holo-table in the middle now showed the representation of Adrian’s fleet on one side and that of Second Fleet on the other. The display on the right side of Adrian’s command chair held detailed information, gathered from the ship’s sensors, including distances between ships in his own fleet, the distance to Second Fleet, the status of every ship in his fleet and more. The holo-table showed similar information only less detailed. This information was shown below the “map”, the part of the hologram that showed ships, the area around them and their movements, scaled down of course. Adrian’s chair also had a new system, called the command board. In front of Adrian was a holographic map, similar to the one on the holo-table just smaller, and it was presented in a half a circle around the command chair when turned on. Directly in front of the command chair was the map, where he could interact with the representations of his ships, on the left side was a list of comms, where Adrian could open a comm link just with a swipe of his hand, on his right was information about the fleet. It was developed as a way of commanding fleets, the old system with every command being verbally transmitted via comms was inefficient. Adrian could with a mix of hand and implant commands give orders to the fleet, similar to the strategy games he played when he was younger. He could select any ship, plot a course he wanted it to take, order it to attack, choose which weapons it should use and more. The orders were then sent to the ship or ships. The command board had its own FTL comm device, that worked independently from the one used for regular communications. Dreadnought class ships were the only ones that had the command board, so the other ships had one extra FTL comm installed with the purpose of receiving orders from the flagship, and for sending reports about the ships, damage. This process was automated, though commanders could add anything that they thought was relevant to the report. They could offer suggestions to the Fleet Commander, which would be shown in the form of a message in a queue on the Fleet Commanders c-board (command board). The entire system was designed with an Ai in mind, one that would look through all the information and give the Fleet Commander information that was most important, while also managing and accelerating the whole system. For Adrian that would be Iris, in a normal situation, now she was too busy guiding the simulated battle to offer any help to Adrian. It was decided early on that the commanders of individual ships were the ultimate authority on their ships, and as such could chose to disregard the orders to a certain degree. But if they did, they needed to have a very good reason, or face penalty. And while Adrian could send commands over the command board it was up to the ship commanders to decide how to execute those commands. Above the map on the holo-table, was a timer, it was counting down from 20 minutes, and was now entering its last five minutes. When the counter hits zero, the war games would officially begin, and both fleets would be free to maneuver. Prior to them starting, both Fleet Commanders put their fleets in formation. The game was simple, after the counter hit zero, both fleets would move with intent to destroy the other. The ships will not fire live rounds, everything but the ship movements will be simulated. Ai’s on ships simulated damage by shutting down those areas of the ship that were “hit”. Adrian studied his opponent’s formation, both fleets were positioned on the sun’s plane. Fleet Commander Johanna Stern chose to put her fleet in a formation that was obviously meant to safeguard her ship. And that was her first mistake. Her light cruisers were at the front of the formation all 4 of them in a line, behind them were the 3 heavy cruisers, two above the plane and behind the line and one below the plane, and behind them was her flagship dreadnought Monarch flanked on each side by a battleship. The cruisers served as a shield for the more powerful ships. Adrian had closely examined all the information provided on the dreadnought class. Leviathan was Adrian’s greatest weapon. Dreadnought class ships, are heavily armored, armed with amazing weaponry, the only drawback was their maneuverability. Leviathan was more maneuverable than Athena, but less than a battleship, and much less than a light cruiser. The speed wasn’t a problem, Leviathan couldn’t outrun a light cruiser, but it could keep up with a battleship. The dreadnought power source was greater, and its drives more powerful, and that compensated for the much greater mass. But it turned slowly. So in Adrian’s mind the formation that protected the most powerful ship in a fleet was pure folly. Fleet Commander Stern was a navy commander in Concordis Navy before she joined Olympus, and in Adrian’s experience those that made that transfer from water based military into space one, didn’t really adjust well. Oh, they had great knowledge of strategy, and Adrian didn’t doubt that Fleet Commander Stern would be able to adapt her tactics to anything Adrian threw at her. But the manner in which she placed her ships told Adrian that she hadn’t yet fully grasped the capabilities of her fleet, and that was something Adrian could use against her.

Adrian’s formation was almost a complete opposite. Leviathan was at the front of the formation flanked by the two battleships, behind them were his heavy cruisers, two above Leviathan, and one below, and then behind them his four light cruisers. Adrian had already prepared the orders for his commanders, there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn’t, and the orders would be executed as soon as the counter hits zero.