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Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): Nexus Earth - Chapter 11.5: The Measure of a Marksman


Columbian

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Francis knew the drones were expendable, so he set the remaining two to split up and feed back what formation and other tactical information he could. "Captain, I've got an update. There's three capital ship size Invaders, they're deploying hundreds of smaller nasties now. I'll see what remaining intel I can get from the drones."

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There was no reply as he was left to use the drones as he saw fit. The Invaders were grotesque looking monsters, creatures from another galaxy entirely, an ancient alien race. The Recon mechs were nimble and fast, Francis was able to keep them alive for some time, but eventually both of them went white, leaving him only the shuttle, and a decision whether to sacrfice it or not.

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Francis studied the consoles, and the display on the far right indicated that Satoshi's ETA to contact would be imminent. So he kept the shuttle out of action, and back to give him a few of the show. A space fight, though not something he could participate in, was probably the most interesting thing on the job so far. *Nagareboshi, do you think is going to happen to us when there is war no more? At least for the foreseeable future.*

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"We will live with the final challenge of a warrior when there is no war, Francis, living as something else." There was a pause. "I do not feel that it will last, this peace, nor do Inazuma, or even Senbonzakura."

It was at that moment that the Satoshi ship arrived. Outnumbered 3 to one, the odds still heavily favored the Macross quarter. The mile long starship dove in amongst its prey, it's mecha treating the Invaders as though they were mere pigeons before rocket-driven hawks. Finally, in a display of technology that went beyond anything he'd seen, the massive starship transformed, it's right arm boom becoming a massive quantum cannon. It blasted each of the Invader carriers, and within a few minutes the all clear signal was broadcast.

The entire show had last only about twenty minutes, with thousands of enemies slain, with the loss of 38 drone mecha and no piloted ones. Even more telling, No Officers sortied, this was how Satoshis' rank and file fought...

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Francis watched impressed at the main body of Satoshi forces and how they rolled through the Invaders. But the path to victory in this war of Dalaaran had been strewn with traps and two steps behind Takashi and Hizashi. It had really only been through luck and victory over the leaders of the rebellion that had led to Satoshi's triumph. Not counting the major Houses all but joining up for a coup d'etat a week or more ago.

So Francis wasn't ready to count this a win.

He studied all the footage he'd received from first contact with the drones, correlated with past records. And his conclusions weren't pretty. *Well, we can worry about shifting life later Nagareboshi. The war has only been just turned on.*

He opened another channel to Ruri. "Captain, congratulations to the pilots and soldiers... but my study of that fight indicates that was just a small scouting party. Unprepared... this time around. I think Kai's words about being us being sick of fighting when we dealt with the nobles is premature. And we just about finished re-building too."

Too Easy...
Military Sciences roll: Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 3+5+9: 17
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All boring things must come to an end, and once again, Francis' shift ended. There was a message waiting from Ruri when he checked out. It's time you apologized to Lt. Rathbone. Francis nodded, even though he wasn't looking forward to whatever expression she would be wearing on her face. Francis tapped out a message requesting Rebecca to meet him in the combat simulator room in 30 minutes so that he could apologize.

He teleported back into the simulator, and he now had 30 minutes to work off his steam and get prepared before talking.

The small Invaders, human-sized beasties were easy kills. After the first several going down, Francis decided to up the ante and bring out a larger Invader.

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Rebecca sneaks in, bespoke in her new flight suit as she watches Francis on the simulator. As she sees him switch to tougher enemies she wonders why he fights against theoretical creatures from some strange science fiction film. She logs in with an administrator code so she's ghosted and starts equipping the virtual SeaTalon for a quick insertion.

"Hmm... this should be fun..." She whispers as she gets the final details set in and jumps into a simulator cockpit. She takes her helmet and closes it all up so she sees the HUD superimposed like it should.

"Login: Osprey, Command Heirarchy: Administrator, SCRT4-ECRS, Firewalls: Ultra Violet."

A prompt comes on and she types in her final command.

Access:> load SeaTalonAI1.0.11.exe

"SeaTalon... hold off unless Francis starts falling back or is needing assistance." She says over her secure line.

"Understood. Targets Spotted. Which protocol?"

"Load combat tactic: White Glint II, Anatolia's Raven."

"Understood. Analysing tactical situation... Waiting for your signal."

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Francis had seen Rebecca come in, with his tweaked senses thanks to the minor gene therapy back in the future- but he was starting and hoping that she would let him go through with this exercise. Of course the big Invader was too ungainly to strike him, but over the course of the engagement, it was nearly impervious to Nagareboshi and the crushing swipes were getting closer.

Rebecca was about to call in SeaTalon when Francis teleported up to the back of the Invader's neck, and pumped several rounds into the weak spot there. That did the trick, and the Invader toppled over, before vanishing into digital information. Francis wiped a hand across his brow and felt cathartic enough to talk to Rebecca. "What do you think of the show, Lieutenant?"

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"They're Invaders... apparently." By Francis' words he admitted to not having much experience with the aliens either.... "But before I elaborate-" He hung his head a little. "I was terrible as a teacher. Using an inappropriate training regimen from my time, and compounding it with overuse. Not an easy thing to do. I'm sorry for the injuries I caused you and for whatever else it's done."

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"Actually the fault was mine for letting it go as far as I did. I got competetive and got careless." She says, with the virtual SeaTalon taking a relaxed stance. "Although the gauntlet I had ot go through was many times tougher than what you put me through." As she says this, she pulls up the interface goggles sitting over the protective goggles over her eyes. "I lost an eye, alot of blood, and some peace of mind after all of that."

She sighs. "And to think I considered you harsh."

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"War is brutal." Francis told Rebecca straightly. Then his face grew worse and more bothered as he continued. "Thing is, Satoshi encountered the Invaders before... not that I was there at the time. And worse, we're about to fight them again. Already have actually. Since Ruri had me take comm duty for the last few days, I got a front row seat for the skirmish today."

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"What? Don't tell me we're going in the deep end again..." She says with a sigh.

"Well... we do have some of the finest fighters in the galaxy it seems. Of all types... You know, Francis, you fancy seeing things from my view of the cockpit? I'm willing to train you in the basics. Never know when you'll have to take control of one of these."

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"I'm pretty sure all that was today was a scouting party, based on the records and my own observations..." Francis considered her offer scrupulously before making his decision. "You're right. The only other thing I could do in a space fight would be the teleport boarder. I'll take you up on that. May you be a better teacher than I was... not that it says much."

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Rebecca straightens up. "Very well. We will practice in my mecha then. Meet me at launch bay 1 in... 45 minutes. Grab a flight suit from the launch bay quartermaster and I'll brief you on safety procedures before we take off."

"Also... since you are non-comissioned, but a member of Satoshi's forces none the less, you will refer to my by my callsign during operations. Which is Osprey. You should think of a callsign before we meet up."

The virtual form of SeaTalon dissapears as Rebecca logs out and starts heading for the hangars. "And Francis... Something I learned that you should... don't be too hard of yourself. Accept your mistakes, be aware of your weaknesses, and strive to be just a little better than you were yesterday!"

"I expect this from all my traineees!" Rebecca shouts with confidence, looking to bolster Francis. "If you cannot spread your wings... How do you expect to fly?!?"

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"I wasn't suffering from a case of self-esteem loss, Osprey." Francis fired back at the grandstanding. "Not to mention no one has hired a test pilot to do inspirational posters. A reason you know." His tone suggested wise-cracking rather than annoyance or anger though. "See you in 45." He walked out of the simulator room, since instead of teleporting he would have the time to think of a callsign... was that even necessary?

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