Cadet Patrick Epps Efficiency Evaluation

[Guardian Six]

Patrick walked onto the bridge and conducted a roll call of his staff, everyone was accounted for and ready to begin the simulation. Patrick went over to the operations panel and hit the start button to officially start his Efficiency Evaluation in order to be commissioned into the Navy of the Galactic Alliance. The mission was simple and Patrick had prepared for this day for weeks, all he had to do was destroy a star destroyer and try to prevent an invasion. One of his lower classmen agreed to play as the oppossing forces, a star destroyer with a carrier and two frigates for support.

"Cadet Epps reporting," he said as he held the button, "start the simulation."

He left the operations panel and walked in front of the blast proof window that showed the simulated space, he saw the opposing forces come out of hyperspace and began thinking less like a Naval Cadet, and more like a Naval Warfare Officer.

"Commander," Epps addressed his Executive Officer, "alert all fighter squadrons and have them prepare to launch. Have all batteries on standby, two vollies of ion blasts and switch to normal fire. Have all Battlecruisers focus on the carrier and defense of our carrier and the Coruscant. Have medical prepare for incoming casualties. Have cruisers approach the star destroyer on the starboard side."

Epps thought about what to do next but stopped himself, everything he had to do was muscle memory; he let his memory take over and became a Naval Officer instead of thinking like one.

"Comms," he said as he saw his Executive Officer communicating with his other ships, "hail the star destroyer and let me speak with their captain."

 

[Count Sam]

It was time for battle and commander Jake was ready to prove himself to his lord as he stood aboard the bridge of his personal sta destroyer. It seemed that his fleet was taking a sort of a y shape as the frigates were placed in the front and on the rear sides of the carrier to protect it along with the capital ships from damage. Also the cowardic commander made sure to have his capital ship pretty safe behind the carrier.

"prepare our fighters and also lock all your weapons on the enemy's flag ship...I want it down fast and raise our shields and tell the captains commanding the frigates to charge their shields to a high degree because they will be taking a lot of fire." The commander gave orders which were done fast and of course he decided to ignore tha hailing from the other ship. He was not interested in dealing with the enemy.

"now fire!!! I also want all the fighters to start their raid on the enemy ships." With that a mix of ion blast vollies and missiles flew toward the enemies flag ship. After all, these weapons were always the best to use and always hit no matter how bad the range was. Also the fighters were charging as they flew and took cover around the frigates which were charging slowly toward the enemy.

 

[Guardian Six]

Might be a little bit confusing because of the text but let me know if you can't read it.

"Captain they are not answering our hailing frequencies," the communications officer stated as beams of light sped toward their position.

"XO!" Epps called to his second-in-command, "fire all batteries ion blasts, launch the fighter squadrons and then the bombers. Prepare to take," a blast shook the ship as a missile hit the shield, "Ops give me our shields percentage!"

"Shields at 87% and holding," the Operations Officer yelled over the blaring alarms, "no direct hits."

"Ops lower shields to thirty percent and raise weapons power to 153%. Fire all batteries with ion blasts followed closely by missiles and raise our shield back to operation levels, give me a status report from our cruisers!"

"Sir the battlecruisers are engaging the frigates, it seems they are shielding the star destroyer!"

"Have them lower shields to twenty-nine percent and fire all batteries with ion blasts then launch one quarter of their armament onto the closest frigate and raise shields back to operating levels. Comms open hailing frequencies!"

 

[Count Sam]

Well sacrifing defense for attack was a bold move and sometimes foolish. It was also not that smart considering that the Empire had their firepower concentrated on the flagship and by decreasing the shields energy it seemed that the enemy's flagships was most likely going to get damaged more during the few minutes it weakned its shield and of course the commander kept his orders on letting his ships continue to fire on the flagship.

"Give orders to the frigates to drop their shields energy down once the enemy get done with finishing that huge armament on us and then I want them to increase the degree of the firepower. Also give orders to our fighters to starfe the enemies battlecruisers." The commander gave orders as the bombers charged toward the battlecruisers and were covered by the frigates and other fighters. Each two bombers flew close to each other so that they would be identified by the enemy's battlecrusiers as one bomber and then as they got close to the battle cruisers the would split and one of the bombers took advantage of the time the computer took to realize that two fighters were attack to inflict damage on the enemy ship. it was an old tactic but it always worked very well, and also the frigates were getting closer to break their way between the battlecruisers so they perpared for close combat.

 

[Guardian Six]

"Sir," the Operations Officer called out, "the Rose is reporting enemy bombers on their position. More enemy fighters are heading towards our position. We've been taking continuous hits since this battle started, what are you orders?"

"On my mark I want all of our ships to lower their shields by half but right now I need you to jam all enemy transmissions. Have our fighters take out the bombers and have our bombing squadrons drop directly onto the star destroyer's fuel silos. Have all of our ships stop firing and stock up energy for their weapons. Notify me once this is accomplished."

Another explosion rocked the bridge as the battle systems said, "Please be advised, shields at 67%."

"All weapons are at full, should I give the signal?"

"Have all ships fire their weapons at the star destroyer and disable it's shield. Aim at the fuel silos and see if we can't get a break. XO what are the shield levels for our ships?"

"Our battlecruisers are ranging from 45% to 57%, our carrier is still at full and we are currently at 65% and dropping steadily."

"XO have the carrier drop shields to 10% and divert all power to weapon batteries and focus only on the star destroyer!

 

[Count Sam]

"Sir they are attempting to jam our communications!!" An officer on the bridge shouted.

"Well give orders to our technicans to do what is necessary to prevent this from happening...after all the Empire pays pretty well for its ships so that silly things like that would not happen. I also want our communication hackers to use the frequncy we recived from them when they hailed us to hack into their communications."The commander said as his orders were done fast.

"Now give order to our fighters to quickly and merclessly attack the enemy fighters...I also want a squad from our fighters to get back and defend the capital ship. The along with our turrets should be enough to munch the enemies fighters. Also raise our ship's shield power" And once again the commander's orders were sent as some fighters retreated back quickly to defend their capital ship from the enemy's fire and also the pointer guns were firing at the small fighters.

The commander was not doing so bad so far but his ships were taking serious damage and special the frigates who were engaged now with the enemy in close combats.

"are our boarding troops ready commander?" the commander asked as his XO nodded.

"good now fire our boarding harpoon at the enemies battle cruisers...it is time to hijack their frontline ships."The commander gave his order fast as boarding harpoons were launched toward the enemies battle crusiers from every craft as it got ready to pierce through the enemies crusiers and release the soldiers who were wearing gas masks to get protection from the gas it was going to release.

 

[Guardian Six]

"Captain Epps we are being hailed from the Rose please standby," Comms pulled up the viewport.

"Captain Epps," the fellow Captain began, "our ship is at 37% shields and it seems they are attempting to board us, do I have your permission to isolate their landing area and kill them?"

"Do what you must," Epps looked outside the window as the Rose fired it's entire armament onto the star destroyer, "but keep them off the bridge."

"Affirmative Captain, the isolated area is oxygen deprived. We just launched the rest of our missiles and launched all of our torpedoes, their shields won't last any longer. I will begin withdrawing from the attack line and on my way back to you, out."

The communications screen went blank as Patrick saw the battle from the bridge, lasers were covered the arena, tracers from the torpedoes lit up the dark space; this is what inspired him to become a Naval Warfare Officer, and this is exactly how he will finish it.

"Comms hail the carrier," the simulated Captain said as remembered one thing, "we'll use the communications to trick them." Finally the Carrier's commander appeared on the screen with a fuzzy picture, "I need your fighters to attack with Rebel pattern four on their engines."

"Affirmative. I'll patch it through using the emergency functions."

This was a great plan, even if the Imperials were listening to his commands. Only Alliance members knew RP4 had nothing to do with a ship's engines, but they did know that is was a code for all fighters and bombers to attack the bridge of the enemy ship. He zoomed in onto the battle and watched as the Rose was being boarded while noticing his fighters successfully using RP4.

 

[Count Sam]

It seemed that the boarding teams were able to make it to the enemies ships. Gladly, they were well equipped with gas masks and 0 gravity suits which made them ready for taking over the enemy front line ships and win the battle. Of course the boarding teams had hackers with them that were ready to break through any door. Also considering that the Imperial commander sent all his boarding force to those frontline cruisers he knew well that they were most likely going to outnumber the crew of the ship.

It was true that the frigate's shields were almost down but now it was only a matter of time. After all, if the boarding teams were able to make it to the bridge fast then they were most likely going to hijack those cruisers and then turn the tide of battles and protect the two frigates.

"10 degrees to port!!" The commander shouted as his flag ship moved quickly behind the carrier to take cover...now any front hits were going to get received by the carrier which was now acting as a shield for the commander's ship.

"Sir the enemy commander has given orders to attack our engine!!" the XO said.

"Well then what are you waiting for give orders to all our fighters and bombers to retreat and protect this ships at once." and with his orders given all of the bombers and fighters that were fighting retreated at once and engaged the Alliance offensive fighters in a dog fight. To the commander it seemed that his pilots had the advantage since they were getting backed up from the pointer cannons on the flagship that were specially designed to munch on small fighters.

"Now tell all our ships to fire on their flaship....also give orders to the frigate to fire their main front cannons on the flagship and their side weapons on the spots of the cruisers that do not have any of our soldiers on them...They should be able to coordinate everything with the boarding teams captains." The commander gave his orders before he decided to stay silent and wait to see his opponent's next move.

 

[Guardian Six]

"Commander we are nearing 45% on our shields," the Executive Officer stated, "what are your orders?"

Patrick looked around the bridge for any solutions that he could use, he saw a blinking light near the Weapons Officer, that was the key. He stepped towards the WO and began talking.

"Weapons," the Cadet began, "give me a firing solution that would destroy their shields and their ship."

"Right away sir," the Weapons Officer replied.

"Comms hail the cruisers," Patrick moved to the Communications Officer, "Tell them the seal off the bridge from all personnel. Have them ram the the Frigates and then the Star Destroyer. We'll-"

"Captain!" The Weapons Officer ran over to Patrick, "firing solution is a go, we'll have to spend all half of our armament from all ships into the star destroyer in order for the shields to go down and the other half in order to destroy just the destroyer. We do have the Ion Cannon on the planet, maybe we can use that."

"Good idea Weps, Comms have the Ion station fire both cannons into the Destroyer, Weps fire half of the armament once the Ion blasts hit the destroyer. Comms have the Battlecruisers expend their entire armament into the frigates, have them board the Frigates. Have the Carrier move in front of our position to block any damages. Give the order for our fighter squadrons to land in their hangars and sabotage from the inside."

Patrick walked from the Weapons panel back to the viewport where he saw two massive blue fireballs that were speeding towards the Star Destroyer, he gave the order to fire all missiles, torpedoes and cannons in order to destroyer the enemy ship. Even if the Frigates managed to block their firepower, they would be destroyed from the sheer power of the load and be ripped apart by the battlecruisers. Even then, he would give the order to fire the rest of their payload into the Star Destroyer, which would ensure the destruction if the ion blasts didn't cause the ship to fail indefinitely.

 

[Count Sam]

It seemed that the battlecrusier's crew were trying to seal the bridge, but it was already too late. If they did it earlier they could have saved a few seconds but the Alliance has given enough time to the boarding teams to already make to the various bridges of the cruisers and start wrecking havoc on the bridge and murdering people mercilessly.

"Sir our boarding troops has made it to the enemy cruisers bridges!!" The XO said out loud.

"good, tell them to lock off all the hangers and crusiers...I also want them to lock all the escape pods...after all I don't want any one in or out of the frigate. Also tell them to take down the gunnery officer to save our frigates" The commander said, it seemed that he was almost going to save the frigates which were almost destroyed. After all, one of the frigates had its shields down and was taking severe damage and the other's shield was almost down as well.

"Sir they are trying to land on our hanger!!" one of the officers shouted.

"Well lock down the energy field.....their fighters would be already taking serious damage from the fighters on their tails and the canons protecting the hanger" He said still being happy. After all, that foolish fighter move that the enemy was doing was going to cost them the life of a lot of fighters.

"Sir incoming ion beams!!" an officer on the bridge shouted.

"Well charge our shields to the max!!the carrier should be able to block a lot of hits and protect us. Also give orders to all our ships to continue firing on their on their flagship and send the a enemy a message...tell them to ceasefire or we will kill everyone on the battlecruisers." The commander order, it seemed that the boarding plan was working well...it was first able to protect the frigates and also give the commander a chance to negotiate.

 

[Guardian Six]

Patrick knew this time would come, except he didn't think he would be the one to surrender. He had his communications officer hail the star destroyer after thinking about his actions and decided that he would do what was best for his crew. Even though the crew didn't want to "die" in the simulation, it would hurt them even more to see a friendly planet be taken down by the imperials. After all, their job was to prevent this from happening. He told the star destroyer captain that they would come closer to the star destroyer and fly onto the star destroyer using their shuttles; after closing the link he told his crew to order Surrender Pattern Delta Five, all of the ships would collide with the star destroyer, or the frigates that were blocking it. This way, the Imperials would win the battle in space, but their numbers would be greatly depreciated. Epps looked at the computer screen as it showed the capital ship crashing into the ships. The simulation was over. Even though he failed, costing the Alliance five ships and full crews, he prevented the planet from an invasion.