"Asuna…"
Over these years they were trapped here, 4,000 of the 15,000 Academy students who were in this simulation died; not just in the sim, but in real life as well.
In this battle alone, 5000 more were killed.
Now, Asuna had joined them.
Kirito could only stare in horror and shock. Kirito failed his promise, and his wife was dead.
He wanted to raise hell, scream, destroy Kayaba, order weapons to be fired at the Kayaba's ship, but he couldn't.
Was Kayaba laughing? Pitying him? He didn't know. It didn't matter anymore.
Two Quantum torpedoes fired from Kayaba's red plated Sovereign-class battleship.
Kirito made no effort to dodge.
…
…
…
-2 years ago-
ENTER LOGIN INFORMATION:
USERNAME: *********
PASSWORD: *******
LOGIN ACCEPTED.
WELCOME, KIRITO.
INFORMATION WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU AS THE SIMULATION PROGRESSES.
The simulation started. Kazuto awoke, and found himself inside a Federation star base, crew quarters. He quickly recalled the reason he came here, to ensure he remembered.
Two weeks ago, a ship – the U.S.S. Premonition, arrived. After a heated warming given to the leaders of the United Federation of Planets of a massive invasion of the Alpha quadrant. What the threat was, we could not say.
If any other captain had come to say this, it would be discarded as fear mongering. However, history had shown that the any warning from the U.S.S. Premonition was always one that was true. The three times the premonition and her crew appeared, their predictions were absolutely correct, and saved the Federation all three times.
Thus, Starfleet was not going to ignore this. Since the Romulans, Cadarssians and Dominion may view the mass training of personnel as preparation for war against them, it was decided that they would be trained in Holodeck. However, they would need all these individuals to work together, so they would all be placed in the same situation. Since no easily hidden Holodeck would be possible to accommodate 17,000 students, they would use Nervegear, which, once attached to their heads, would allow their consciousness to enter the simulation, powered by the massive supercomputer Aincrad.
Kazuto opened his PADD, looking at the simulation.
/*****/
SIMULATION: "Federation's Sword Online" - CONQUEST TYPE A2-1
This massive simulation was to prepare for the invasion. In this scenario, the players would be working with the Klingons and Romulans against a massive Species 8472 invasion. The map of the Alpha Quadrant looked mostly the same, however the size of the Romulans Star Empire, Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets were all crammed into one section of the Galaxy, while the rest was marked as Species 8472 Territory. The 17,000 players would control everything; Diplomatic affairs, Colonization, Ship construction, and of course, the actual battles.
For the first 12 hours, no ship movements are made by any side. This gives players time to adjust.
The simulation ends when either the Species 8472 or Federation are completed eliminated from the Alpha Quadrant. Once this happens, everyone is removed from the simulation. A set of computers with complicated algorithms would evaluate their performance based on various factors.
Players can enter and leave the simulation any time they want, but of course, Higher grades for those who are in the simulation longer. Furthermore, while players can respawn, it reflects poorly on their grade.
The Starting Federation Fleet is rather large at 36 Ships. This consists of;
- 7 Akira-class Cruisers
- 5 Sovereign-class battleships
- 4 Galaxy-class command cruisers
- 4 Nebula-class strike cruisers
- 4 Saber-class destroyers
- 3 Defiant-class heavy assault destroyers
- 3 Cheyenne-class heavy escorts
- 3 Steamrunner-class light cruisers
- 3 Miranda-class light cruisers
/*****/
Kazuto, or rather his avatar, Kirito, stood up and made his way outside the door of his quarters. After a short elevator ride down, he could see that the simulation had recreated Spacedock perfectly; the size, color, and even plants were near-perfect.
However, Kirito didn't like how loud it was. In fact, most of the other 17,000 must have logged in at this point as well. As more of a Solo, he preferred to work with a team of computer holograms, and he did just fine at the Academy. He headed right to the spacedock. If the Players were forming crews for the ships, he could get his own before they arrived.
He started to make a dash for the Hangar, passing by many individuals amidst conversations, and several NPC vendors. He went down a narrow corridor, but stopped when someone shouted "Hey, wait up!"
Somewhat irritably, Kirito turned around and saw a red haired boy, struggling to catch up with him. He let the stranger catch his breath, and his suit color was red.
"What's up?"
"You look like you know your way around here! I mean, you've just started and you already have a captain rank!"
Kirito passively made a movement to hide his rank from his status bar. Yes, he did practice in the preliminary sessions, and he studied extensively, and did testing with the simulator - so the system had judged him worthy of being a captain in this.
"Yeah… this is my first day. Could you give me some tips?"
He could…
But on the other hand, the ship he wanted – A defiant-class destroyer – was popular type of vessel, and given their few number, wouldn't have too many of them.
"Yeah, I don't know if-"
He slapped his hands together in a clap in front of him, and then lowered his head in a bow.
"Please, I'm beggin' you! Look, my name's Klein, good to meet ya."
"Alright, I'm Kirito."
Several hours passed. Kirito showed Klein all the basics of starships; the systems, warp drive, and some of the basic overviews of being a tactical officer/crewmember. Kirito actually started to enjoy it, and Klein seemed to be quite eager to learn as well. Even though this was all a simulation, it felt so real – as if he were there himself.
"So, want to learn more about the individual starships?"
"You know it!" Klein responded eagerly. However, he looked down for a moment, to hear his stomach rumble. "But the thing is… I'm really hungry. I have to log out."
Kirito couldn't help but chuckle.
"Too bad the food here on satisfies your hunger virtually."
"I guess it's off to the Replicator for me! Besides, the battles don't start until tomorrow, so it can wait!"
"I guess…"
"Hey. I was going to meet up with some friends in the simulation as well. I don't know what you're up to after this so, if you want, you can add them to your contact list..."
To this, Kirito sighed. It wasn't as if he disliked people; but he was at heart, a solo player. Although he enjoyed his time with Klein, he didn't want to blow it out of proportion. However, his silence spoke volumes; Klein responded with;
"No, it's cool, no pressure. I can just introduce you to them some other time!"
"Yeah, sorry… Thanks anyway."
"Hey, it should be me doing all the thanking. I promise I'll pay you back one day for all your help – virtually, that is. Thanks for everything. Really."
Kirito couldn't help but feel a smile fall on his face.
"If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to message me."
"I'll do that."
With that, Klein made a cheeky grin and turned around to sign out. Before Kirito could get far however, Klein said something rather strange...
"Huh? The logout button is gone…"
