She still remembered the horror stories of the Manties’ missile storms, then the super-LACs and, worst, the dreaded MDMs. The multi-drive missiles. The supposedly impossible missile that had killed too many of her brothers and sisters in uniform. The supposedly impossible technological challenge. The project she was probably the proudest of (Okay, the podlayers came very close, especially as she still had nightmares about Manticorian Q-Ships from time to time.).

 

As the second wave detonates, striking many of the Mantie LACs off the plot, she thinks of the evening when, as a staff officer, she heard about the super-LACs she’d seen briefly in Silesia again. Admiral Tourville had told her about the report from Captain Oliver Diamato, who’d barely made it out, and the last words of his former CO. She’d empathized with him, after seeing the grasers flash out and the super-LACs appear again and again in her nightmares.

 

As the third wave detonates, she doesn’t notice the last of the simulated Mantie LACs being destroyed. She instead, remembers the day in 1916 when she took command of the station, and how she’d been able to develop so much in 4 years, under the ceasefire. She’d taken the RHN from a force that had no hope of standing up to the RMN, to one that, especially with High Ridge’s cutbacks, stood a serious chance (that is, until the next set of Mantie superweapons started showing up).

 

As the simulated missile storm ends, she turns to her chief of staff and says plainly, “We’ve come a long way from where we began.”

 

He pauses for a second, realizing how many meanings that phrase had, especially for her, and nods, before replying, “Indeed we have, ma’am.”