Chapter 25: - Assessment of Vanil
When he woke, Gus was surprised to learn that some of the information on his communication device had been updated. Where it had previously been blank, he now found that the credits amount displayed a total of 1,500. After a little bit of investigation, he found that the balance had been granted for two reasons.
Firstly, students at the academy were granted a sum of 1,000 credits on a monthly basis. Not a terrible amount of money, but considering a load of bread typically cost 3 credits alone, it would not last an entire month for most people.
This is where the 500 credits came into play. From the information given to him, it seemed that these credits were granted as a result of the game they had played last night. While their monthly allowance might not be enough, this meant that they would have ample opportunity to earn more money through competition, and perhaps through other means as well.
Galactic credits had been introduced centuries ago, as humanity began its advancement outside of the solar system. They were implemented for two reasons. People reasoned that a combined currency through space would be easier than a market full of different currencies across worlds and systems. Secondly, was that the natural inflation rate of the older currencies had grown too far out of hand, and so it was decided that the entire economical system needed a reboot.
Glancing over to the clock in his room, Gus saw that it was half past six. Within ten minutes, he was dressed in casual clothes and on his way to the shops on the other side of the academy.
'It's kind of stupid that they didn't give us the money yesterday,' he thought as his stomach rumbled.
He rushed through a general store, buying a variety of different foods before hurrying back home and preparing for the class at eight.
Entering the tactics class, Gus and the others saw that Dorrian wore a grim look on his face. He was leaning against the front of his desk, with his arms folded and his eyes focused on the back of the room.
"We'll be going off plan a little bit today," he said. "I'm sure you know by now what has occurred in the past hours, regarding the Vanil system. In order to deepen your understanding of the conflict that may arise as a result of this incident in the system, today will be focused on the capability of the forces in Vanil to fight back."
At the table nearest to Gus, the students looked lost. Tentatively, one of them raised a hand. "Sorry," he said, "we're lost. What's happened?"
"Alright. Allow me to start with an explanation. Last night, reports emerged of a small group of Covenant of the Bloody Dawn ships entering the fringes of Vanil space. From what I know, the group isn't all that serious, only a cruiser and a couple of escorts. I believe the escorts are large, almost frigate class.
Just so you're all aware of the terms I'm using, I'll explain them. Terms have evolved throughout time, so be careful not to get caught up when looking at history books. We have three main classes of large ships in our arsenal. Destroyers, are our average sized ones, packed to the brim with cannons, lasers, torpedoes, and boarding craft. Battleships are our tanks. Sacrificing weaponry and speed for armour, they are designed to take the brunt of an assault so that our destroyers can cripple the enemy. Cruisers are at a middle ground. Sacrificing both armour and weapons for speed, they're designed to be first responders to an incident, take space on a battlefield, and act as a 'big brother' for the escort ships, if you will.
Moving onto the escort ships, we also have three of them. These are quite simple, though. Fighters escort the main ships and protect them from bombers. Epsilon class ships are scouts, darting ahead to act as eyes for the main fleet. Frigate class ships are the biggest, and it's their job to bully all enemy escorts on the battlefield, to give our bombers and Epsilon ships room to work. Don't worry about most of this, you'll cover it at some point in your equipment stuff with Jet.
As you can tell, not a big deal. But the danger with something like this is always the implication. The implication that our efforts on the frontier are slowly becoming insufficient."
Dorrian stood up off of his desk and began pacing at the front of the room. "Now, as the news said last night, Vanil is home to three of the largest factories we as a species have. They pump out ships and mechs for us like it's nothing. They have top of the line equipment, equipment that they give to their ships like it's going out of style. It's likely that they'll just swarm over the Bloody Dawn and crush them, but they might want to stick to protocol.
Their escorts outclass the Bloody Dawn's. That is a fact. After a small battle in space, the fleet will be broken. Then, they will begin their 'Ironfall' protocol. Where most ships have boarding parties, the Vanilites use boarding mechs, which are deployed to great effect to cripple the enemy ships from the inside. It's typically a lot safer, too, with something like a eighty-three percent casualty rate decrease in ships that use Ironfall compared to standard boarding action.
I'm sure you all heard mention of the DDS last night, too. The Doorway Defense System is a web of space stations, each equipped with devastating weapons like the Rakurai nuclear payload or the Implosion Matrix, both of which you can ask Jet about at another time. Nothing will get through it."
"If it's all that simple, then why did we need to have a lesson dedicated to it?" Joel whispered to the others.
"Because, Mister Dane, people are stupid. We have been at war for a long time, and people outside of the frontier tend to forget that fact. This event may cause mass panic, despite the fact far worse things than a few measly ships have been going on at the very edge of human space. It is simple, but it needed to be said. Sometimes it is more worthwhile keeping people's minds at ease than being efficient and sticking to a plan, which is what I hope to have done here with you."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone