308 Boredom
Of the topics and fields Donovan had received an education in, those tangential to logistics were far and away the most useful for the plethora of tasks and problems he needed to handle. The art of acquisition, production, and distribution in accordance with strict timetables and the needs of the consumer - in his case the people who would be transported on the Pegasus.
"The palettes are temporary." Donovan looked at the stacks of foodstuffs hidden behind coir netting, lamenting the lack of appropriate infrastructure. A wooden crane, shoddy but operable, lifted these palettes from a galley in the cargo dock they had been trenching for some time and onto a nearby trailer. The trailer itself was a shoddy construction, cobbled together from scrap components of incomplete shipments of industrial equipment and the spare tires for their vehicles, but it was suitable for the task at hand. The Pegasus's landing pad was further away than anyone wanted to walk, not to mention on top of a hill, so transporting the mass quantities of material to stock her on foot was out of the question.
"Uh, I don't see why they would be." Pongratz, assigned to guide Donovan around the docks in Seppard's absence, had been a helpful insight into the goings on of these sailing ships. "They make loading and unloading a breeze, and they can be broken down for wood and nails once we are done with them. Easy to stock internally for seized goods as well."
"That wasn't a question. The palettes will be replaced by steel containers as soon as a proper crane and transport vehicles are brought down." The Holifanians already had a design for these containers courtesy of Arc, who was delighted to find the majority of their fleet consisted of a standard pattern with consistent dimensions and a well-tested takeoff and landing weight. Two of the cubic structures would fit on a single ship, sitting in the cargo compartments fore and aft of the central mast. Doing so would leave smaller compartment ahead of the forward mast as well as most of the deck space free for other cargo , but a full load of iron in those containers would barely allow them to take off. "I can stack crates in a cargo hold. I can't say the same for palettes."
"Oh, yeah. I guess you don't have to worry about stuff falling out under the net either."
"Definitely makes moving things around easier, and I imagine we can make impromptu shelters out of them in a pinch." The fact these containers could be melted down by Arc when delivered wasn't worth mentioning. "Of course I don't want that to be what we rely on, but its an option."
- - - - -
"-and so you should be focusing on stability. Perform rotations and accelerations separately while keeping the attitude of the craft aligned with your flight course." Titanyana tilted her head back, looking at the men who would be the flight crew for the first Trawler. They were uneasy, to be expected for otherwise unqualified individuals engaged in conversation with a Strapper even if she wanted them to relax. "I'm sure you noticed, but the ships you will be flying are very large, and not the most responsive. In some ways that's a blessing, it means you won't have to worry about overcorrection as much, however you need to be mindful of situations you might not be able to get out of. Donovan's advice was to be slow and sure rather than rapid and risky. If you are not comfortable doing things at a certain speed, do them slower."
She pulled herself out of the pit, scanning them for a few seconds before selecting the most confident looking one. Donovan wasn't here to make the judgement call on who was most likely to succeed, so having the person who appeared least likely to make mistakes was all she could do.
"I'll have you go first. It's alright to fail, but give it your best shot." Titanyana pointed at him, then gestured towards the pit. "You'll have plenty of time to train. I didn't get the hang of things for a while either."
"A-as you wish!"
- - - - -
"Seppard."
"Kayes."
"You look like shit."
"You smell like it."
The two men sat across from each other in a dimly lit room, a concession towards Seppard's concussion while he continued his work. He also had his shirt off, exposing the bruising and swelling the overpressure incident was responsible for. Kayes, excepting a few tears in his pants around the calves, looked to be mostly put together. He was dirty and had bags forming under his eyes, and he smelled like 'nature', but he was otherwise fine.
"Did you find anything on the resources list?"
"Only traces of iron and maybe a signifier or two of copper. The surveyor doesn't think we'll find coal in the vicinity, and he found it highly unlikely that silver or gold would be nearby."
"What of the, uh, special interest list?"
"The consensus is that they should have access to a good number of them so long as they know what to look for." Kayes scratched his chin. "Given the base state of the planet and their industrial capabilities, I doubt they will struggle with limited quantities."
"Hmm. Well, I doubt we will have too much to worry about regarding the lack of coal. They clearly possess the ability to melt and process ores without a source of coal on scale. My concern is which metals they can process that way." Seppard really wanted a drink at the moment. He had been hoping for some good news on this covert mineral survey, hoping they would find something lucrative to provide a few poker chips for the Terrans. Reasonably small quantities of precious metals like gold, silver, or even Seahrdrin could be exchanged for various benefits from others.
Gold and silver tended to be used in currencies or as trade reserves, so governments in a budget bind would be more than happy to offer certain types of budget-cheap support in exchange for bullion, while Seahrdrin and similar metals in relatively small quantities could be incredibly useful for a nation's elite fighting forces. Stowed away safely in the Pegasus' cargo bay, even a few crates of raw ore could be pivotal chips for the two of them to use without having to petition either the Holifanians or Sanctum. They made good use of their wits, however they needed something to bust a proverbial door down with, something to use when in a rush or - heaven forbid - outsmarted.
"You look like you want to say something."
"What happened while I was gone?" Seppard sighed, knowing an explanation was necessary. "I mean, they weren't exactly throwing a party before, but everybody is acting like there's no hope. Did the situation on Nekh deteriorate that much?"
- - - - -
Boredom dominated her daily routine. It always had. Live long enough and you eventually see everything worth seeing, leaving only boredom to fill the voids. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Those similar to her in nature eventually found something to occupy them, lest they fade away. These were generally more eccentric forms of entertainment, be they grand projects that took millennia or brief impulses of inspiration, so she couldn't say she saw the value or attraction of most of them, so all that left her with was boredom.
She could talk with people, and of course she often did - often being relative - to learn the goings on of the world and see if there might be something new or interesting to pique her interest. Unfortunately these momentary trysts left her feeling even more bored afterward, at least until recently - recently also being relative.
"A-are you sure this is wise, my lady?"
"The wisdom behind the action depends entirely on its intent."
Recent happenings had invoked her with a feeling of excitement, excitement that left along with them. They would be back, hopefully, but in the mean time she had to ration the precious little battery life made available to her. Soap operas were akin to street drugs at this point, horrendous in quality and severely detrimental to any work she might be trying to get done, but damn near impossible to stop without an intervention. All she could think about was the two hour-long episodes of telly-time she held herself to every afternoon to preserve battery life.
". . . I wonder if this is how they feel."
"Pardon?"
"I was talking to myself. Pay it no mind."
"As you wish, my lady."
She had actually been thinking about delving into the world of NovelFires, a less power-intensive but equally dopamine inducing phenomena of the Terran internet that had kept readers of such waiting for their daily dose for decades, but her current commitments did not allow such a thing. It was incredibly difficult for her to come to terms with - she had been suffering from an excess of free time for so long that not having enough was driving her mad. She wished she could trade those endless centuries of mind-numbing boredom for just a few extra minutes today.
"How do you think everyone will react to the changes?"
"Pardon?"
"The rule and environment changes, Marshall. Will we need to ease into them?"
"I think the changes to large scale battles will be well received by most involved. Having a battle end after fifty percent of a fighting force is killed can leave both the audience and combatants feeling a bit frustrated. Often times they end just as the big names engage in combat with each other, or when it doesn't feel like one side has a particular edge. It can also feel a bit boring at times when two commanders are not confident in their force's abilities, choosing not to engage. That said, are you certain you don't wish to combine the victory conditions?"
She had proposed a change to the rules of large scale battles, which were not so much archaic as they were generalized. Killing off a tenth of a fighting force would usually spell defeat, let alone half, however the combatants here were aware they weren't actually going to die. Half was enough of a kill rate to justify the defeat of one party to the strategically oriented individuals while also providing the combat junkies enough leeway to show off. It left both parties satisfied, but wanting.
"How do you mean?"
"I can understand the idea behind having all commanders defeated be a victory condition, it should incentivize them to keep a balance between strength and aptitude for those positions. I can also understand the idea behind capturing a flag, judging their ability to balance attack and defense of multiple objectives. What I don't understand is why those need to be separate."
"Because not every battle is a siege, and not every force requires a commanding officer to act. I ask you, dear Marshall, to consider the abilities and nature of our fine noblemen in the academy, and what they seek to achieve here. Are they primarily strategists? Do they prefer proving themselves in combat? Are they here for glory? Fame? Experience, perhaps?"
"I would say most are here to prove themselves in combat and build their prestige . . . though a few appear to have a mind for tactics."
"Now that we have established their nature and objectives, what does each type of engagement offer them?"
She would not tell him the inspiration for these wargame rulesets - field games for Terran children - however she might be inclined to reference the vague 'Terran culture' as a wellspring from which the idea was drawn. They were intended to give Donovan an edge on the reputation building front to begin with, providing a stage with positions in the limelight he seemed to have a natural inclination towards and a play he already knew the lines to. He had probably experienced such classics as 'dodgeball', 'capture the flag', and 'hide and seek' in his past, likely capable of creating effective strategies around these adaptations even if he hadn't. Already she envisioned him orchestrating feints, decapitation strikes, and guerilla tactics on a battlefield.
"I suppose the flag oriented mode would provide prestige for those who capture or prevent the capture of flags, probably prioritizing those who are faster . . . or those who blast a hole through the lines to capture that flag. The other mode would be more a test of risk management and command, probably highlighting duelists and those capable of tracking down and eliminating commanders."
"Mhm. Rules are a nice way to push the contestants into a certain style of action, however too many of them will quash their agency. Testing someone's ability in a duel could leave their abilities in other areas unrecognized. I highly doubt you would appreciate being judged as a commander by your ability to design fortifications."
"Hmmm . . . in that case, should we consider a grand scale conflict as well?"
"How do you mean?" The Grand Elders rarely offered their opinions unprompted. She valued these opinions greatly as a result.
"Well, we have a mode appearing to cater towards duelists and traditional battlefield tactics, and one that appears to cater towards swift action and fortification assault tactics. This leaves a gap for stuff like endurance and campaign management, gauging how an individual responds to repeated engagements under march fatigue and the commander to campaign management."
"How would we implement such a system? And how would we determine a victor? There is limited time in a year, and these armies are used to fighting by themselves. They are not built for a single engagement, not a campaign."
"I propose two choices. The first is to place four of these armies or so on a team and judge them by their individual contributions to the overall battle. The second is to have them engage in consecutive battles with other armies in a short time span. For the former, I propose some form of occupation system, whereby the armies march around a large area and take control of fortifications or settlements. For the latter, individual battles could be decided by the number and rank of enemies defeated."
"An interesting idea, if a bit unpolished. I would like you to organize test runs of these new modes with your men. Treat it like a training exercise, and consider the input of both the officers and footmen when making your analysis. I will authorize rewards for excellence to incentivize a similar mindset to the students."
"As you wish, my lady."
"Invite a few representatives from the great powers as well as a few of the more influential minor powers. You may inform them of our plan to make these modes the new standard for large scale battles, and gauge their reactions to such. I can't imagine they would sour to the idea, but we need to ensure the audience is properly entertained."