Road Of Advancement

"A division, as you must know, fields roughly ten to fifteen thousand personnel. Some a little less or some a little more. At least two-thirds of the personnel are assigned to support and logistics. Capable crew and engineers, mech designers, planners, analysts, logistics personnel, cooks and tons of other non-combatants make sure that the men and women who serve in the front line can work knowing that all other tasks are properly arranged."

"Therefore a regiment staffed with ten thousand people personnel can only actively field roughly three thousand combatants. These combatants can be further divided into space-borne and landbound specialists. This does not strictly mean they cannot be fielded in each other's domain, however, their ability will be limited when they jump into another's specialism."

"One can only train this much, so many choose to specialise or 'main' in one or the other and only train the minimum for other disciplines. The 'rules' for combat in space and landbound differ substantially. Space-combat simply makes for an entirely different dynamic than landbound combat."

"You'll find that each mech-pilot will fill a specific role or niche on the battlefield. Some specialise in close combat, some in ranged and some in support type mechs. Mechs hold a special position in the military because they are easily the most contributing weapons in most wars. Don't misunderstand me, a destroyer-class spaceship is much more destructive, but in combat - they play a less active role."

"Armies train for combat against other trained military regiments. Most battles are often pushed onto land during invasions as the objective for war is usually to gain control of more landmass."

"You don't want to destroy a planet - you want to take control of it. Mechs are great instruments because they can be deployed on a hostile planet to take control of it, without destroying too much of the vital infrastructure."

"Lastly, many of the spacesh.i.p.s can withstand an incredible amount of punishment. If the fight between destroyer classes takes to long, the defending army would always fight with an advantage as their supply and reinforcements are always closer. A fight for territory is therefore always a battle in strategy. The attacker will try to outmanoeuvre the defender to claim a strategic piece of space so their landbound forces can descend on a planet."

"Starsh.i.p.s are such valuable assets that they are usually not tasked with defending to the end when fighting for less significant planets. Therefore, most fights are usually determined rather fast. If the attacking fleet can manage to get in a favourable position and defend their descending landbound troops they are already close to winning. A planet usually does not hold that many defences compared to a full landbound division. During the descent, enemy space-mechs will try and take out as many of the landbound shuttles. This is why having plenty of space-mechs is vital in every operation. Defending the descending troops is the utmost priority!"

"The story is completely different when the fight determines who'll claim a vital planet. The fight will naturally be a bitter one to the end. Many a starship will be destroyed in the process. Inevitably, war becomes an incredible costly engagement. Therefore, an attacker will only strike these vital planets when they have great confidence in their victory."

"Regus one and two are the main planets of the solar systems that we defend, however, there are many small planets and moons that we protect because they are part of our territory and we benefit from their contributions to the overall economy. During the war, the borders shift every now and then when these small planets are taken over. In the most recent war, the borders have shifted in our favour because of several successful invasions."

"Today we will be seeing three matchups. Two are landbound battles and one is a space-bound battle. In the landbound battle, a strategic location of the map will be contested between the two parties, they will therefore inevitably clash. Even though this is a simulation I've asked them to give it their all as I will be evaluating their performance. Each matchup will have two rounds, with each detachment fighting once as the attacker and once as the defender.

"Lastly there is the space-bound battle. The objective for the attacker is to have their landbound shuttles successfully descend on a hostile planet. Since it's only two detachments that face-off, they are given virtual command of a small-sized fleet with a single destroyer class spaceship. Their commanders will play the game of manoeuvring, whereas their men will be fighting around the descending shuttle."

"I have chosen to have you spectate two landbound fights as they are easier to understand. Secondly, they showcase the individual skill-level of mech-pilots more. "

"Because we can't have a thousand people descend into virtual reality at the same time at this location, I've tasked their respective commanders to select a hundred man each to deploy during this scrimmage. Your grandfather generously complied with my request to supply the base with two-hundred state of the are VR-Capsules."

"There are five of your family's regiments who are currently stationed here as well as your elite unit. Each of them will participate in this scrimmage. They are evenly split between two divisions.; The Virill Legion and the Abelardo Legion. They will compete against each other during this scrimmage. This will fuel their sense of honour as they represent their sides as chosen champions. This will make their struggle during the battle more intense."

"Lastly there is the elite unit, aptly Baira Legion, which roughly translates to Brave, courageous and fearless. They will participate in the second landbound scrimmage."

"The first matchup will be a landbound matchup between a regiment of Viril and Abelardo. The second match will be between the winner of the first matchup and Baira. The last matchup will be the space-battle between Viril and Abelardo."

By the time Redford had finished explaining the entire setup. the trailblazer had deftly made its way to a small compound marked as 'command-centre'. As it stopped in front of their door, six uniformed men of varying ages stood in line, saluting the vehicle as Theo and Redford alighted. Each of the men radiated confidence and their posture echoed their military upbringing.

"At ease. Introduce yourselves to young master Theodore." Redford

"Young master, I am commandant Jerry Springer of the third Viril regiment."

"Young master, I am commandant Orlando Trustful of the fifth Abelardo regiment."

"Young master, I am commandant Reginald Trudeau of the second Viril Regiment."

"Young master, I am commandant Quincy Ingres of the First Abelardo Regiment."

"Young master, I am commandant Arin Levi of the second first regiment."

The first four stepped out of line in a practised manner. They had lined up in a coordinated way, showing their concern in for meeting the apparent heir of the Thompson family.

Lastly, the sixth commandant extricated himself of the line, immediately attracting the attention of the former five commandants. Their eyes showed various emotions; indignance, jealousy, spite, admiration and a fiery passion to surpass this man before them.

"I am commandant Hedwig Duran." He simply stated. This man oozed manliness. His tattoos, his scars, his grey fade, the experience on the battlefield had made him fierce and determined. The moment he spoke, others would naturally shut up. He had the air of a natural leader and the disposition of a man that did not take no for an answer.

A silence followed the simple introduction.

Everyone was still indulging the seamless pressure emanating from the presence of commandant Duran, the silence was broken by Redford.

"Manners, Duran. Also, don't use these petty tricks in my presence or I'll personally teach you some manners."

This short line of words effectively shot down Duran as his presence immediately broke down after Redford's remark.

For a split-second, Theodore could feel a massive pull, like a magnetic next to him attract his attention. His stomach almost turned in his stomach as the pressure started to build-up. This feeling vanished as quickly as it came.

Theodore quickly inspected the other people around him, trying to find out if anyone else had felt the same presence.

Five commanders were still neatly lined up like nothing ever happened. However, commandant Duran could now be visibly seen sweating.

A light smile formed on Redford's face as he inspected the men in front of him.

"Theodore let us enter the command centre. A room has been prepared for us to view the performance of these gentlemen and their regiments."

He then casually dismissed the commanders and told them to put up a good fight as he guided Theodore inside the command centre.

They passed the front desk and several corridors before they arrived in a room set up with many screens. The monitors were evidently set up to make it possible to actively view the battle from various angles. In the middle of the room, a big table with many bright lights and buttons was installed.

Redford opened up the main console and input some codes and the room initialised.

A bright warm female voice then welcomed them to the room.

"Welcome to the viewing booth. You are the first visitors to this active VR-monitoring station. Would you like an introduction to all the functions?"

"No, thank you. Please initiate the first scenario based on scenario #44356."

"Initiating scenario #44356. Please say "Assistant' whenever you wish to give me new instructions or require help. I wish you a pleasant session."

As the scenario initiated, the screens flickered to life and a large three-dimensional map was projected on the table. It showed a rugged mountainous terrain with a military base camp in the centre. It had some dense forests on one end and a lake in the other. There were no civil structures on the map.

"Great, a fitting scenario to test the waters. Let the games begin" Redford commented as he pressed a button.

Two new projections were added to the table and the screens then showed various selection menus.

The projections were commandant Jerry Springer of the third Viril regiment and Orlando Trustful of the fifth Abelardo regiment. They would be the first to face off.

The menus showed the terrain and all the available mechs they could field from the family roster. Both men quickly selected their d.e.s.i.r.ed mech-types and started to complete their 100-men roster.

As both men had apparently successfully outfitted their detachment a 'ready' icon lit up on the table.

"Let the games begin." Redford grinned as he pushed the button and initiated the start of the first match-up.

Then a hundred blue projections filled the base camp and a hundred red projections spawned on the south side of the map, several kilometres outside of the base camp.