The hours before the battle were always the hardest. Most of the crew had been through this before, and were trying to get a solid few hours of rest before they would be risking their lives. Therefore, the Andalusa was unusually quiet. Those who were not asleep were watching a recent movie about The Barbarossa, laughing at the film's depiction of their captain as a murderous, bloodthirsty space pirate, ruthlessly slaughtering civilians and the like.
Pharris was sitting in a large hangar bay on Stormbreaker, along with all the other Nijayais Captains, listening to Darkk lay out the battle plan, rallying his men for the fight. Finally, he called up the Unit commanders, first the Destroyers and frigates, who would spring the trap on Carm as his ships first began to clear the minefields. It was the perfect time for a missile attack, as the ships still be going slowly to avoid hitting the mines. Then it would be Pharris' turn. He walked up the the podium, and cleared his throut.
"Hello, I am Captain Mark Pharris. I will be in command of the Riaxx Gunship wings. As you probably know, I've been running a sort of terror campain through Carm's forces, as well as many other venues that I know of. Through the use of a modified Gunship and a series of disguises on the standard models, the enemy now believes that the Riaxx ships are capable of incredible destructive power.
We intend to use this to our advantage. Those pirate who do not run will attempt to swarm our fleet, or attempt to engage us with overwhelming force and firepower. However, Carm snd his men are not used to working together. These pirates rarely work in groups bigger than four, and they are not used to trusting their numbers. When we first come out of our hiding places behind Iona and Titan(two of jupiter's moons) and begin attacking, I expect that many of the smaller ships will turn tail, at least initially. We will take advantage of the disorganised small ships, by concentrating our fire on the carriers and HVD's. As soon as the Cruisers begin to regroup, we will pull back from the large ships, and lure as many gunships and cruisers out into the open, away from the cover of the carriers. At this point, the Frigates and Destroyers will join in our fight, but they will move in and target specifically the undefended carriers. After this, we retreat once again, this time under the cover of the UNS Missiles.
The key to sucess is speed and sudden, violent aggression. This will serve to keep the enemy off balance. Remember that you are not fighting trained officers. Fear WILL affect their decisions and they will become disorganised if we hit them hard out of nowhere, then fade and strike again. We will take advantage of their lack of discipline and experience, we'll use every tactic and weapon in our arsenal to its full potential, and we will suceed. Remember, Captains under me should report to conference room 2B at 0945 for a more detailed discussion of this plan. Thank you."
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