Chapter Perspective: Plum

“Now that was much, much, better,” Commander Allen said, walking into our conference room with a datapad firmly in hand. “While there is still some to critique, your performance out there today was nothing short of what I expected of you all,” he added, stopping at the front of our table and clicking a button causing the screen behind him to flick to life.

Ship

Command

Planning

Communication

Accomplishment

Final Rank

NEUTRINO

50

45

45

75

S-

DRAKE

50

40

40

50

A+

MEGALODON

45

35

35

25

B+

“How the heck did we lose points in Communication?” Ty complained, a small bag of chips opened ahead of her as she swiveled from side to side in her seat, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t talk a whole lot but that’s because up till the end I really didn’t need to, everybody else was lighting the intercom up pretty much the entire time we were in there.”

“Ay, I think that’s on me,” Doc spoke up before the Commander could begin to explain, though he hadn’t even moved to do so and I could make out a pleased smirk hiding behind his goatee that seemed to be getting bushier by the day. “I was on a line with Nova the whole time, but a lot of the info I shared ended up getting passed along by either him or Kill. If I had to guess, that’s where we lost points,” he explained.

“That and your use of the intercom as your primary communication, it’s one at a time limitation means that if one of you are trying to talk, the others are blocked out. Of course, having a permanent open line is also detrimental in some ways,” Commander Allen said.

“But then how do we raise out Communications score any further than it is? I can understand a few points being taken off for Doc’s relay communication, but he was still passing along information…” I said looking through the notes I had taken on my datapad. “On our last trial, the DRAKE had a 49 in communications, how did they only lose one point when we lost five for something?”

“Good catch Second,” Commander nodded, briefly looking down to his datapad before a DING emanated from my own as he dropped a file onto it. “The Scoring Metrics in free for all simulation trials acts on a much, much more minute level. During the first trial, the DRAKE began the trial by putting out constant beacons in an attempt to communicate with your ship and the MEGALODON, this contributed to their Communications score. Every decision you make, whether successful or not, can contribute to these scores.”

“Okay, yeah I get that,” I said, holding my ground as I pulled open the metric to try and get a better idea of what he was getting at, “But that also doesn’t explain why the previous trial had such different numbers whereas this one was all in multiples of fives.”

“Scroll further down,” Curtis said and I realized he was looking at his own pad, presumably at a the same file I was looking at.

“Solo ship trials like this are important, they provide you with a much more solid footing on how you approach a task. That said, solo trials are considerably easier to accomplish, and as such the trial scoring is done in five point increments for these trials,” Commander Allen explained as I followed along. “It is a minor nuisance I assure you, as the total grade your ship receives at the end of the trial is in fact what you should be focused on, with the numbers in each column acting as encouragement on where to focus your efforts.”

“Which with an S-, means we did something right, right Commander?” Curtis asked as he set his datapad down and crossed his arms over his broad chest.

“As I said, you all did much better,” Commander Allen nodded, “Curtis, your plan was well thought out, you had contingencies in place in the event of any one of your steps going wrong, that said, you were focused on speed instead of optimal timing. Had you waited fifteen minutes, you would have actually found a larger blind spot that you could have slipped into. As it stands your closer pass got you in, but a slight buzz of their radar in the final moment of the pass allowed the planetary defenses to kick in, but you risked just as much by waiting for the larger blind spot, something the MEGALODON learned the hard way.”

“So did the DRAKE do the same thing that we did?” I asked, furiously scribbling notes onto my pad. Maybe I didn’t need to take as diligent of notes as I did in this debriefs, after all, we did all get individual after action reports, but I couldn’t help it because I knew that anything I put in here might just be beneficial down the line.

“They took a slightly different approach, though discussing the other ships tactics is better left for the first group classroom setting,” the Commander replied, “Now, where was I, oh, Novarod and Doc, you both showcased excellent flying. No surprise from you Novarod, the higher ups have already taken note of your simulation time, but Doc you would be wise to continue your time in Drone control, it is an excellent secondary skill for you to nurture.”

“Are we not gonna talk about that drone catch that Nova did? I mean, holy crap, even with the shots I got off on the main satellite, I saw the radars, we didn’t have a second to waste before they were going to be on us and yet he managed to literally catch Doc’s drone without missing a damn beat,” Ty said her excitement nearly palpable. “I barely saw it as I was getting out of the Rail-Rifle mount and I couldn’t believe it.”

“Orale, my stomach is still rolling from that,” Doc groaned, seeming to pass by the Commander’s praise of his own display. “Seriously Nova, better warning next time would be much appreciated.”

“Yeah, that’s my bad,” Novarod admitted, “But I have always wanted to do that so, yay me?”

“A well deserved yay Nova,” Curtis said with less sarcasm than the line might have indicated. “Honestly, a well deserved yay all around, right Commander?”

“And one that you should all feel happy to celebrate,” Commander Allen replied without taking his eyes from his datapad. “Lastly, Sullivan and Waverly. The combination between you two proved instrumental in accomplishing your Captain’s task. Sullivan, your frequency replicator did in fact create enough of confusion with the enemies radars that you all were able to extract yourselves from mid-orbit without having to fully engage with the enemy but it was Waverly’s keen eye on the frequencies that allowed her to hone in and replicate your drone in such a way that you were able to sneak by as cleanly as you did.”

At this Sera’s face went beet red, “I, uh, well, um…”

“Wait didn’t you say mimicking the drone’s signal was an easy task?” I asked, a brow raised at our Engineer as she squirmed even further. Sure I might have been upset that I hadn’t been singled out for anything specific as the others had, but that was the job of the Second sometimes, and the success of the team was accomplishment enough for me.

“I mean… I thought it was an easy task…” she said sheepishly.

“Tell that to the DRAKE’s Engineer and you might get a different response, he failed at maintaining the hold and it was Captain Steven’s quick thinking that kept them afloat,” Commander Allen admitted before he clipped his datapad back onto his belt and straightened up, the screen with our score behind him dimming to black almost immediately. “But again, the other ship’s tactics will be a discussion better saved for when you are all together next week. As it stands, you all have exceeded my expectations for this trial. Weekend Physical Training is canceled, I want you all to take a few days to relax, recuperate, and celebrate. You all deserve it. Flight dismissed.”