Chapter 9: The Village Was Saved

Two days after the debacle (as his guild called it) and Everloathing’s Failure (the forums) ... Keilworth was perusing a spreadsheet. It was neutral colored, but somehow he imagined it to be dripping red blood everywhere.

Planetary Invasion Completion: 0%

Damage to Coalition Forces:193,450,299 credits (approximate)

Damage to Defense Forces: 41,950,000 credits (Approximate)

Approximate Repair Costs Remaining: 63,250,000 credits

Percentage of Units combat-effective before exfiltration on Planet: 40% (Approximate)

Nearly a five to one ratio in favor of the defense. Almost 63 million credits of repair bills that the guild members were expecting the guild to cover, since they couldn’t. Only 40% of his units could be considered anywhere near combat-effective before they exfiltrated ... which, as far as he was concerned, was a five-dollar word that meant exactly the same thing as “ran.”. And this was Everloathing getting off easy! Once it became clear that Everloathing was running, pursuit slacked off. Folks who lagged behind were slagged down to their base components, of course, good salvage to be found there, but at that point the enemy was just happy to celebrate a completely unexpected victory, rather than extract the last credit of damage from people who were leaving the planet.

Everything hurt. But the first line sat in his heart like a jagged shard of ice.

He knew what that meant.

Complete and total failure.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if guilds that had previously avoided provoking Everloathing because of its overwhelming strength were now quietly recalibrating their expectations. The Guilds on the planet they had so readily dismissed before the invasion had grown fat with salvage, pilots wanting to sign up with the folks who “sent Everloathing running”. Stuff like that was the hidden currency of Universe at War mode. It wasn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. It was attitude. It was swagger. Something that was very much missing by the folks who were listlessly swapping stories in Everloathing’s guild chat.

He had a power projection issue. He had a budget issue. Most importantly, he had a morale issue.

The days after the battle had been quiet. Even those who hadn’t taken part were subdued in chat. Every sentence seemed carefully crafted to tap-dance around the verbal minefield that was the defeat they had suffered over the weekend.

At some point, the shock would end, and the recrimination would begin. If not handled well, it could turn a debacle into a catastrophe.

He felt almost as lost as he did in those last moments of the battle, when the scope of defeat became clear. How do you rebuild something that had been so fundamentally broken? Morale, the machines, the people.

His chat window lit up. Not the guild chat, the officers chat. The one never used unless serious business needed to be discussed. Officers chat never leaked out into the guild chat. Ever. No one used it for idle conversation. If people were talking in the officer chat, something had gone badly wrong.

So, it’s time to face the music.

Is it an orchestra? Or Taps?

<321Contract> I’ve heard from the team. They’re not happy.

<Tarislan> Funny, I thought they’d be doing cartwheels

<321Contract> Not. The. Time. This is serious business, Tar ... PRO team business ... you know the team who we send our best stuff and pilots so they can keep their place in the League?