Dark Fate, Chapter 82 (Patreon)

Chapter 82 – Orientation

Through the tournaments, we quickly established which teams were best suited to the roles of pilots and gunners in the Renegades, and which were best suited for starfighter pilots. From that point on, the Renegade crews trained on Renegades ninety percent of the time they were in the simulators, with the other ten being on the X-wings, shuttles, or the other seat on the Renegade. Likewise, those pilots chosen to be fighter pilots would then train ninety percent of the time on their fighters, and the other ten on Renegades and shuttles.

While that might not be optimal for role specialization, my view was that it was more important that everyone was cross-trained to at least some degree. If someone’s Renegade was down, then they could still pilot an X-wing, or engage in defensive maneuvers while flying the shuttle. If a Renegade’s pilot was down, then a gunner or fighter pilot could slide into that position. They wouldn’t do as well as the person who had been training solely at that, but they’d still be able to do the job.

Another reason for the decision, which all the gamers picked up on quickly, was that learning the basics of different roles, at least, gave you a better idea of their capabilities. A tank who never tried healing or DPSing would often not care about anything but what was most efficient for them, and to hell with the others. DPS that didn’t tank or heal would often draw aggro, or stand in the fire and demand healing. Healers who didn’t take on other roles tended to get upset at people for taking what they viewed as unnecessary damage and making their jobs harder, without understanding the constraints someone was under.

Once I had the two groups sorted out, Reaper then had another tournament set up, to determine the leaders of each squadron. The torpedo boats were given separated into three flights of four, and each flight was broken into a pair. The top three Renegade pilots were given command of the flights. Of course, that meant I had to create a rank structure.

Not wanting to waste time on things like that, I just copied the Air Force’s rank structure, though changing names to be better for a space-based force. The Renegade pilots and gunners were Spacers. Flight leaders and their gunners were Senior Spacers. Squadron leader and his gunner were Second Lieutenants. Those ranks were low, if one looked at the Air Force, where squadron command was usually a Major or Lieutenant Colonel, but showing them that there were ranks and promotions still available would encourage the gamers to perform.

I did the same thing with the fighters, though I actually decided to split the fighters into two squadrons. Again, each squadron had three flights of four, and each flight had two pairs. This time, only the flight leaders and squadron leader had ranks above Spacer, but I knew they’d jockey for position as time went on.

That got my pilots and gunners all sorted out. And, from the reports I was getting, the hangar bays and crew quarters on Ceres Base were going to be ready shortly. That left the last thing on my list being flight crews.

Ground crew on a carrier was typically 6-10 people, including safety types, per plane. With my thirty-six craft, that meant 216 to 360 extra people I needed to acquire, if we went by navy standards. There was no way that I could do all of that, and not get some very pointed questions.

Of course, given the fact that I was building things in the asteroid belt, I was going to get questions eventually. There were already amateur astronomers pointing out the new satellites. All because I’d forgotten to buy cloaking systems for them.

So, avoiding questions wasn’t actually going to happen. Only reason I hadn’t made a public announcement. But as soon as someone put two and two together, and figured out that the person with the new space stations is probably the same person that turned over a working spaceship to defense contractors, my time being anonymous to the government would be up. Then, they’d probably find out about my involvement with the Atlanta PD, which would bring them to my door.

Questions were going to be asked, but who was asking the questions, and the tenor of the questioning, weren’t set in stone. If I started poaching active Navy crews, especially in those numbers, the questions were going to be too pointed for me to easily deflect. And I didn’t have any infrastructure for discrete checks, or to try and weed out spies.

Unfortunately, those numbers were just too big. Unless I went back to the slave market, I was going to need to figure out a way to get more with less people. Even reduced, I’d probably be needing to get more minions, just to make sure people did as I wanted. Fortunately, the design team had ideas for me.

Simply put, the System allowed you to do more with fewer people. Advanced automation reduced the number of people needed to run lines and the like, so refueling and reloading a ship could be done by two people. Magic from the Artificer or Magitech Engineer classes meant that standard maintenance and field repairs could be done by one person, with training.

So, that reduced the needed ground crew to just over a hundred people. That was still a lot of people, but not as much as before. That was something I could get off the Minion Market, actually. The only issue was whether it would be good to have slaves in close contact with the pilots.

There could have been some real problems there. Most of the gamers I’d taken on for the squadrons were Americans, and there were all sorts of issues with slavery in the US. Of course, I didn’t care about the laws, myself, but it could cause some morale problems, if I didn’t handle it delicately. And with the weapons they had access to, I did not want morale problems to start becoming something more troubling.

Fortunately, Reaper had some advice that put things in perspective. All the pilots were gamers. They came from various genres, but they were all gamers. If you actually looked at the lore of a lot of games, there was a bunch of nasty shit going on. Hell, fighting games in particular had some of the most fucked up backstories. And that was before you even got into the ‘fanart’ on the internet.

So, I went with is advice, and called in the squadron leaders, once they were decided. Lilith sat beside me in one of the lounge areas of the ‘bait house’ while Reaper called the three guests in. I took a breath to steady myself. This had to go smooth, or things would get complicated, fast.

Ellie Pace

Human   Female

Level 10   Freelancer / Gamer

Titles:   Hotshot

Highest   Attribute: DEX

Market   Value: 5000 gp

More commonly known by her callsign, QT, or her internet handle, QT3.14159, Pace was the new Second Lieutenant in charge of Rogue Squadron (the gamers had been insistent that the fighter squadron got that name), and had performed the best of all the pilots in the sims. The fact that she was a cutie, just as her name implied, was bonus points. I was more concerned with her 9-to-1 kill-to-death ratio. That was damn impressive.

Freelancer was an interesting class for her to have. Like the name implied, it was a class that wasn’t limited to one style. They could pick up abilities from a wide range of classes, giving them a lot of utility, but they were often weaker, since they lacked the focus and synergy of a proper class. I wondered how she got that one.

Amos Hooper

Human Male

Level 11   Fighter / Pilot

Highest   Attribute: DEX

Market   Value: 6000 gp

River Kelly

Human Male

Level 10   Rogue / Gunner

Highest   Attribute: DEX

Market   Value: 5000 gp

Hooper and Kelly, callsigns ‘Turner’ and ‘Hooch’, were actually middle of the pack, when it came to flying skills. However, the childhood friends were longtime teammates, who routinely did 2v2 matches in a variety of genres. Hooper was also the raid leader for their guild in a popular MMO. They were the best team out of all the people picked for Havoc Squadron, which was what the Renegade squadron was called.

I looked at the three of them, and said, “First off, congratulations on winning command of your squadrons. I can honestly say that you all earned it. I’ve received word that our permanent base of operations is almost ready, which means soon we’ll be able to move and get you training on the real thing, instead of just simulators.

“However, this brings up a few things you need to know about this new universe we live in. Things that may prove distasteful or unpleasant to you, but are simply realities of life under the System. On Reaper’s advice, I’m bringing you three in, so that you can spread the word to the rest of your people.”

They frowned at that, and Hooch raised a hand. “Sir, is this about the slaves?” When I raised an eyebrow, he said, “Well, I’m a Rogue, and I have the [Appraisal] skill. I’m not the only one, either. We found out early on that the guards around these buildings, as well as the three sensor techs who were using checking for incoming ships, had the Slave title. Some of them were even bought through the System Shop, they said.”

I let out a breath. “Well, that makes things easier. Yes, Slavery is a thing under the System. If you want, I can give you a detailed description of how the magic works later, but for now, what you need to know, and your people need to know, is that, when we move up to Ceres, the ground crew and staff that will be servicing your craft are going to be slaves. It is the only way to reliably get people who can do the job, without having to answer some very uncomfortable questions from the three-letter agency crowd.”

I paused, took a breath, and then said, “Now, I could go to those agencies and answer a bunch of questions, but if I did that, then the first pirate ship would have already been here and gone before anything could be done, and we’d be having raiders all over the place. That would be a Bad Thing.”

QT nodded slowly. “So, you want us to prepare everyone for the fact that you’re going to be bringing in a bunch more slaves. So, why did you hire us, if you can just grab some slaves?”

“Slaves are reliable for a certain level of work. You can trust them not to actively stab you in the back, when slave magics are in play, but for some roles, like fighter pilots and people who are playing with weaponized antimatter? I’d rather not have to try and deal with malicious compliance.”

Turner frowned. “Malicious compliance?”

“The fine art of acting on the letter of the rules, rather than the spirit of them. Basically, the same thing as people who find ways to clip through maps and get into a game’s developer room, giving them access to all the game’s goodies. Or people who use cheese mechanics to skate past difficult bosses or areas. Is it cheating? They aren’t hacking the game, changing the code, or anything like that. Everything they do is in the game’s code, available to everyone, but you can’t look at someone with a straight face and say that they are playing the game as intended.”

Turner nodded slowly. “Got ya. But, since we’re on the topic of slaves, we’ve all noticed that you have this harem thing going on, and the only one that isn’t a slave has your name. So, some of the others were wondering if, with what we’re getting paid, it would be possible to get some girls like that of our own?” He shrugged, looking a bit sheepish over at QT. “Sorry.”

QT shook her head. “You forget about half of us are girls. You boys aren’t the only horndogs wandering about getting some regular tail.”

I grinned. “Well, I will arrange for catalogues to be distributed, so people can make choices.”