Chapter 244: (The Black Box) (2/2)
”To continue my analogy and answer your question,” Victor said, still not looking up. ”I know it is a rebar, I know the rebar was used in construction, but I do not know how it was used, why it was used, or in what manner it was used, much less the other parts of the building.”
He sat silently for a long moment then sighed.
”You are aware that you are supposed to be all consulting with one another and working as a team, correct?” Victor asked.
There were nods, murmurs of assent, and a few vocalized ”yes” out of the group.
”Then we need a team building exercise,” Victor said. He snapped his fingers and everyone found themselves in a blank eVR space. ”Here's the deal. Each of you will be assigned your express goal. Let's check you for teamwork.”
”But what...” Herod got out before everything dissolved again.
He found himself standing in the fleet command bridge aboard a ship that held the aura of being new and being thrown together in a hurry so it could be pushed into the string of battles it had barely managed to fight its way through. Immediately he had the eVR cold tickle feel of a data-download, which told him his objectives, his assets, who and what he was, and what part he had in the overall scheme.
Herod sighed. He hated military sims. Even being a Vice Admiral, he almost despised Real Time Strategy Games.
His fellow DS were all assigned Fleet Admiral status too, he saw that when he saw the ”Active Players” list and checked it against the other leaders.
Well, at least his objectives were simple. Create a beachhead stable enough to deploy beacons, enable the Marines and Army to make planetfall, set up logistics bases. Keep the enemy fleet vessels from destroying his fleet.
At least the target was simply a planet and two moons.
He sighed again and went to work.
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”That was sub-optimal,” Victor said softly. He shook his head. ”Can any of you describe what went wrong?”
All of the DS's looked at one another. They had all achieved their objectives.
”Nothing,” Flowerpatch said.
”How many of you recognized that simulation?” Victor asked.
Everyone's hands went up.
”That's why I pressed the attack so hard,” Torturer said.
Victor shook his head. ”If we had played it out, you would have lost the war. You took seventy-percent casualties, half of you lost your ships after podding your Marines.”
”It's an impossible scenario! Even the Confederate Navy recognizes that!” Vanishing said.
”Like you could do better,” Torturer said.
”Here,” Victor touched his fingers to his temple and winced as he drew out a mass of code. He balanced it on his finger then made a tossing motion. ”Feel free to relive that.”
He stood up as the room began to slowly dissolve. ”It's in real-time. I'll see you all in a week.”
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”Do you all understand why I showed you that?” Victor asked.
The room was quiet, subdued.
Of course, bearing witness to the death of 3.2 million humans, a million Rigellians, ten million Treana'ad, and 48,000 Pubvians (resulting in their race's extinction), as well as nearly 2 billion mantid, would subdue even the most jovial soul.
”No,” Torturer said quietly. ”You oversaw the landing. To rub in our faces that you did better in reality than anyone here did.”
”That's your ego talking. Think. You're some of the most intelligent beings in the galaxy. Why would I have you do a simulation of the battle than show you my actions as Fleet Admiral?” Victor asked. ”Note I wasn't in tactical command, I wasn't in command of the landing forces once they hit the ground beyond relaying objectives I could spot, note that I wasn't in ship command.”
”Could you really stretch yourself that far?” Flowerpatch asked.
Victor shrugged. ”I'm not sure of my limits.”
It was Torturer, famed for being somewhat solitary. ”You gave us the reason you were doing it,” he said. ”A team building exercise. It was to show us the difference between how we perform acting exactly as you knew we would, as individuals, compared to your overall individual within the team-work approach as well as looking for different ways of achieving your multiple objectives,” Torturer looked at everyone. ”He had the Clone Worlds ships break action, fall back, and reload their fast-growth tanks. It slowed the invasion, but enabled you to use the clones instead of dropping additional Terran infantry.”
”Why didn't you stop the Pubvian Legions?” Flower asked. ”You sent them into where the fighting would be the thickest, where the enemy would be in the most strength and would mobilize the most troops fighting.”
Victor leaned back, putting his feet up on the desk. ”Because it was either that or they were going to use their ships to ram the planet. Everyone overlooks one simple thing: they were already extinct. Already crazed. The ones that weren't killed or committed suicide had been driven completely insane by the Mantid attack into SolNet and the SUDS network. They were literally Screaming Ones. The ones who didn't die in the assault of Anthill became Idiots.”
”Oh,” Flower said, shivering.
”I just checked. All of our specialties slightly overlap other member of the research team's specialties, but we're all working by ourselves, we aren't working together,” Torturer said.
”Now you're getting it,” Victor said, standing up and smiling.
For some reason the biobod's smile made Herod think of burning planets.
Victor made a motion and several pieces of complex molycirc appeared. ”These are the SUDS user interfaces, from before the Great Glassing until now. This is what goes into people's skulls to constantly update the master SUDS. This is a SUDS template applicator. That is a SUDS repeater. That is a SUDS local storage. These are all the pieces of the SUDS network we know how to manufacture and know what to do, although you'll notice the repeaters are largely a mystery on why they work.”
Flowerpatch had gotten up, looking at the hologram. ”Will we have access to physical copies, both used and unused?”
Victor nodded, still smiling.
”Get it together. You have one week, then I'll be expecting you all to be interlocked,” Victor said.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
That was weird.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What was weird, sis?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I could have swore...
...naw. I must be imagining things.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK GESTALT
Hey, Tnvaru, you here?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GESTALT
Yes?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK
Some of your people want to stay on our world. The transport fleet stopped by to give everyone a couple of days in a gravity well. About ten thousand of your people stayed behind.
They're welcome to. It's kind of nice.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GESTALT
Thank you. It was hard leaving our home planet, but there is nothing there for us any more.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
We'll stick with you while you figure out your place in the universe.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
they grow up so fast...