UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System

Planet IV- High Orbit

Commanders Office

John looked out at the stars and watched shuttles, freighters, and a pair of destroyers made their way to or from Atlantis. It had been eight weeks since the first of the new recruits had arrived. Since then, over five hundred new recruits had been processed and split up among the various training regimens. Two hundred Marines, surprisingly two hundred new Fleet Personel of various fields, fifteen new scientists for R&D, thirty Pilots, five Medical Doctors, twenty Starship Engineers, and thirty potential Fleet Officers.

Over the last weeks, all the support vehicles had been inspected and those that had required repairs had been. Sixty support vessels had been scrapped though. Replacement vessels were under construction and would be completed within three months. They had already completed inspecting three hundred of the Badger destroyers, forty had to be scrapped and one hundred were either being repaired or waiting to be repaired.

Within the next couple hours, the first group of Marines and Pilots would be assigned to their War Games teams. They had enough to split the team evenly, fifteen Marines and five Pilots per team with no MECH units support. It would be an all-out assault on a fixed position with defenses in place. After the invaders failed or succeded everyone would break review what they did right or wrong and then switch sides and try again. John had heard the scientists were taking bets with the Ships Engineers to see who would win.

Within the next six months when Fleet Personel had been trained they would introduce planetary assault situations, but those scenarios were months away. Both those involved and watching today were treating this as a game and it was, but it was also a motivator for the newer recruits who would be watching. The oldest recruits would be setting an example for them, something to live up too and aspire too.

Now if only he could finish all this paperwork so he could watch it also. Rebecca had taken a break from running the new Officers course to help him with paperwork and making sure everything was getting done. Such as re-opening the automated mining facilities within the asteroid belts, the authorization of constructing thirty new Ore haulers. Signed orders for confirming Acting Captain Grimes of the Tortuga, position, and authority. He had completed two runs to Blackhole Station on his own and they were going to add a second pick up point at Arkonia Prime It would mean that they would be gone nearly two weeks at a time.

Grimes had orders to avoid combat and that they could not be captured by Imperial forces at any cost. A proposed trade agreement that would be forwarded to the Xaranx if John approved it. If they agreed, it would provide a much-needed lifeline for getting medical supplies and other day-to-day supplies that they could not produce yet. If they would not agree to the trade deal, they would have to re-task people from recruiting to purchasing supplies for the personnel here. After another thirty minutes, John called it and told Rebecca that he was going to check in with R&D and the Pilots school before the War Games began.

Miles was excited to see the Captain and to show off the completed prototypes of the Mark II Heavy and Medium Chassis MECH units. If everything went well, they would go into full production within three weeks. Mark II Light MECH units were in full production and would produce five hundred units every week. John had put a cap on ten thousand units to be produced at this time.

They were making inroads into the research for both Anti-Matter and the Phoenix Missiles. They had scientists that specialized in nuclear physics and theoretical physics which had jump-started the research. The Nanite solution was viable, but the nanites took time to make more of themselves so it wouldn't viable for widespread distribution for another three months.

The Pilots School was spread out, to say the least, the newest group was undergoing PT, the middle group was either training in Sims or down in the launch bay going over pre-flight checklists for all the spacecraft they could use. In the Sims, the pilots practiced with having MECH units with them. Pride hade figured out that for them they would need to have a one to one ratio for automated units. Combat for them was just too hectic to be able to run more than one automated unit at a time. It would slow down how many squadrons they could field but in the long run, it would save more lives.

On the SIMs, a mixed unit of Corsairs and Dragons were going up against a unit of Arrows. The target was a supply convoy, one side had to destroy the convoy while the other had to protect it. In the end, the defenders lost as soon as the first freighter exploded, at which point the instructor ended the scenario to discuss feedback on what went wrong. After a few minutes, none of the recruits gave a satisfactory response to the instructor so she called on John to offer his opinion of why the defenders lost.

John responded without hesitation "They forgot their target priorities. The defenders Prime Targets were the Dragon bombers and not the Corsair fighters. They should not have been dragged into a dog fight with the opposing fighters at the expense of their objective. The point of that Sim was to emphasize that you must obtain your objective, for the defenders it was destroying the bombers. For the attackers, it was destroying the freighters. Remember that please." with that John nodded to the Instructor and left him to continue to teach. It was almost time for the War Games to start and all the trainees would be winding down so they could watch.

The Tortuga was out picking up the latest batch of recruits and they were supposed to be bringing in fifty Marines, eighty various Fleet volunteers, forty Pilots, three R&D Scientists, and eight new Engineers. Having that many pilots come in at once might overwhelm the Pilot training program but they needed the bodies if they wanted to start fielding squads on time with everything else.

Zeta Psi was the simulated world, a remote world with a scattered population with a minor Imperial presence and very little orbital support. In the real world, it would be a prime target for the budding rebellion in a couple of years. Right now it was the simulation. The outpost that was at the center of the War Games was damaged, its shields down. Impact markers in and around the outpost from kinetic missile strikes.

A handful of Marines, Fighter Pilots, and static defenses were all that stood between it and destruction. The attackers had Orbital support and surprise on their side. The rapid combat drops that the Marines would make could shatter the crumbling defenses, or they might stand. The next twenty minutes would tell. That was the time limit the attackers had before Imperial reinforcements were supposed to enter the system and the rebels had to leave.

Now, those involved in the Sim would be able to choose what equipment they had. Nothing was off-limits except for WMDs. So an attacker could not carry a Nuke in the attack, but he could carry state of the art stealth tech. It allowed the user to walk around invisible to the naked eye, but not to thermal scans and it had no shielding while camouflage was active. The pilots could choose what they wanted to fly also. They all had a time clock of fifteen minutes to prepare before the Sim started. The defenders had the same choices as the attackers but they also had static defenses that would be coming online as time went by. The Observers would not know what they had chosen until after the Sim started. John was excited to see what his people could do after they completed their training. It would be interesting to watch, to say the least.

They had a few rules also, one in the real world Anti-Aircraft guns could destroy incoming Drop Pods for training purposes they could not in this Sim, Second if an Aircraft Pilot was shot down, if they could eject in time they could join in with their Marines to assault/defense of their side. No WMDs, the attackers had to capture the defenders' flag to win the scenario. It signified the attackers destroying the defender's command bunker. If the attackers killed all the defenders but did not take the Flag before the time ran out, they still lost. People who suffered wounds, depending on how severe the injury would be disabled for the duration of the simulation.

At five minutes out all the screens on the observation deck started a countdown, John, Rebecca, Kara, Douglas, Smitt, Jones, and a few other senior staff were watching. The two senior Marines were supposed to be relaxing but depending on how well or bad either side did, they still might yell at the newest Marines or Pilots. When the last-minute started the clock faded and the Outpost was displayed, it was shown in a split-screen the Outpost on one side the attacking rebels in the other.

Missile barrages were fired and slammed into the Outpost as Assualt Shuttles and fighters were launched from ships in orbit and fighters scrambled to get in the air before being destroyed on the ground. A minute later the bombardment stopped and they watched as drop pods were dispersed on the field of battle as defenders and attackers prepared to start. The attackers had two Arrows, two Corsairs, and a Dragon in support while defenders had five Arrows. That could cost them the Air Supiriority if the Dragon damaged or destroyed the static defenses and/or killed the defenders. This War Game had the potential to end quickly unless the defenders had some Anti-Air missiles or guns. Either way, this was about to get interesting.

10 Minutes later, both sides had suffered casualties and it was at a stalemate at the moment. The first assault had been blunted although the defenders lost seven Marines to do it. The Dragon had been damaged and driven off with two Corsairs covering for it. The two Arrows of the attacker's side were dead and the defenders had lost three Arrows. The attacking Marines lost five in the initial assault with four wounded, three critical.

The attackers had planned something because the Dragon was coming around to make another pass if it succeded it could punch a hole in the defender's line in which the attackers could push through and grab the flag. Five bloody minutes later it was all over, although the attackers had won it had come at a very big butchers bill.

The Dragon had just started the attack run when AAA had gotten a bead on the Dragon and had damaged it so bad the pilot had rammed it into the outposts wall blowing himself and three defending Marines up. The remaining Marines had been pinned down by the follow-up attack and they managed to quickly capture the defender's flag at the cost of two more Marines due to mines left near the flag.

Personally, John would have recalled the raiders after the initial attack had been blunted. Attacking and destroying a remote outpost did not call for Marines to make such a huge sacrifice. They would have times where they would be called on to make such sacrifices, but that did not apply to today's objective. The combatants would be given an hour's rest and recovery time to eat and go over after-action reviews before they switched sides and went in again. No matter what happened John was sure that War Games would be even more popular as time went by and the scenarios grew and became more complex.