Captain Zyra Jax:
The Captain's voice come across cold as ice. "Denied Flight Officer Hyquin. You will remain in the simulator until its conclusion. Whatsmore you are an officer of the Rebel Alliance. Act like it. Childish outbursts acheive nothing."
"However I will enlighten you all to something. Keep this between your squadmates because if the Commander finds out I told you this I'll be peeling tubers for a month."
"On the contrary," Cyril answered silently.
"It may not work on you, Captain, but that doesn't mean it achieves nothing."
Cyril's smile widened. It may have been unintentional, but the Captain's reply told Cyril exactly how to deal with her. Judging solely on her words and the way she delivered them, there was a big possibility that she had no idea what 'Flight Officer Hyquin' really did for the Alliance. To her, he was just another officer, and an immature one at that.
Good, let her think that way. He had already gone over the chain of command to get his transfer approved, and by the Commander no less, so the less people who knew where his real talent lay, the better.
"To fool your enemy, you must first fool your friends and family." It was a principle he learned at a very, very young age, and Cyril had gotten used to not thinking of what that principle had cost him.
quote:
"Your missile/torpedo attack should have worked. The two-pronged attack was pure Rebellion tactical doctrine. It would have destroyed or severely crippled the Blood Angel. So why did it fail? Because the Commander wanted it to fail. He dumbed down your missiles and improved the Frigate's point defense laser for thirty seconds."
"Why did he do this? It's simple. It's not because he wants you to lose. He is not testing you on your ability to shoot down TIE's and frigates. He's testing your ability to adapt to seemingly hopeless situations. When the Black Talons are out there we're going to be doing the seemingly impossible. We need innovators, not mere pilots. We need plans to get us out alive."
Cyril was beginning to like it here more and more - at least the Commander had the right idea. Keeping personnel alive should always be the Alliance's priority at all times. The fact that this squadron was probably getting assigned to all kinds of trouble he had already been used to was a mere bonus.
quote:
"On that note here's some advice. Hyquin has pointed out you probably can't destroy the Blood Angel and that's true. But you don't need a kill here. You need time. The only way to save the Sarah aside from destroying the frigate is to make her turn. Now how can we do that? Look at her stats. Think laterally. Work together here."
Ah, how Cyril loved puzzles and strategy. Perhaps it was the training, perhaps it was instinct, but no one back at HQ could deny that Cyril was never in the here and now. It was quite normal for him to be thinking more than a few minutes ahead, and could adapt to virtually every possible situation - he had to, for his life depended on that skill. Being a rather lucky individual helped, of course, but Cyril was one of those that considered luck to be a skill as much as superstition, and anything that was a skill, he understood, could be developed.
Cyril had already seen the frigate's weakness - like most capital ships, she had no turbolasers at the rear and probably relied more on her engine wash than her laser turrets for rear defense. Now, however, with the entire squad lacking any missles to try and attack at that arc from a safe distance, he had to find another exploitable weakness.
"Turn," he repeated.
"Make her turn," he said again. His eyes narrowed as he took a long hard look at the frigate's stats and it's image, and an enlightened look flashed across his face. His eyes darted left and right, in tune with the calculations he was mentally computing. Risk assessment carried the most weight in these situations.
"Harass the hanger flank. The Nebulon-B frigate, no matter how many starfighters it may carry in it's hanger bay, only has one launch port. Grey Squadron should concentrate on taking out that flank's 3 point-defense turrets, so Green Squadron and their more powerful lasers can close distance and take potshots close to the ship or, if they get a clear shot through the hanger, even inside her. The point isn't to destroy the Blood Angel, but to force her to turn in order to keep the increasingly more vulnerable flank away from the starfighters.
To ensure that she doesn't just roll around on her axis and keep going forward, the remaining fighters should split up into two flights and attack 30 degrees apart from each other around the axis. That way, even is she rolls, a flight of Greys will always be threatening her hanger flank, and that threat should be enough of a deterrent to force her captain to change her heading, even by single degrees, in order to throw Grey Squadron off her axis. Eventually, she'll be off course enough that the Deepstar will have enough time to evacuate. With some fancy flying, they may even buy enough time for the Sarah to also make her repairs."