NEOch1

The NEO (formerly known as the ITAC) as of now.
Ch. 1: The Battle Simulator.

Months had gone by without any opposition. NOBODY had tried to overthrow the HGE, NOBODY had tried to free their planet from the HGE's iron grips. It was pure boredom. And there hadn't been any news from the ITAC either.
"Sire! We've just lost communication with Sector 5435.23!"

"Huh?" Emperor JLC queried.

"We've lost total communication with that sector, sir. Should I send a small fleet to investigate?"

"Sure, yeah, whatever. Go ahead," The Emperor replied.

"Okay, thank you for your guidance, sire," The man humbly backed away, and then turned to a control console. He began punching buttons, then smacked a small, red button. Immediately, a fleet of about twenty battle cruisers left the nearest HGE docking station to the sector that was lost, a huge section of empty space near the borders of ITAC space.

ten minutes later...

"Sire, we have found the reason why! Emperor Mew2omega is on the comm channel, waiting to speak with you."

"Mew, what is the meaning of all this?"

"Hello, JLC. Nice to see you again. Oh, and congrats on the promotion. Now to explain. You know how we've been having these boring times without any confrontations? I have a solution."

"Oh really? And how does stealing space from me solve the problem?"

"Well, you see, it would have taken at least three hours to get to you then get your permission, and the space to work with. I have cut that much time off of construction. You see, I have created a gigantic "videogame". It uses holographic technology mixed with teleporters. All the players enter my gigantic sphere, then the program is turned on. For battles in space, when you come to the borderline of the sphere, you are instantly teleported to the other side of the sphere, so it seems like it goes on forever. I imagine you have played the ancient game Star Fox 64, correct? The sphere is similar to the battle arenas used in the multiplayer games in that."

"Interesting. Was it necessary to take a section of space THAT'S HALF A LIGHT-YEAR IN DIAMETER?!?"

"If we want the most realistic simulated battles, then yes. You know how fast our cruisers move any more. A single light-year isn't that much distance any more. We HAVE achieved the ability to travel at twelve times the speed of light, you know."

"True, true. How far along is this right now?"

"We only need to program in the last batch of scenarios and we'll be done. Docking stations, viewports, defense systems, all are already finished."

"I see. How many ships can fit in this docking station?"

"Enough for your entire first AND second Galaxy Fleets."

"First AND second? That's more than..."

"Two thousand ships, I know."

"Wow. And the viewports?"

"Two different types. They have windows for viewing the battles up-close, without the people IN the battles seeing it. Then, there are VR scopes designed to allow someone to view what one of the players are seeing. The two different viewports types are for regular spectators, the first type, and defeated players, the second type."

"Interesting. How is a player defeated?"

"Well, we have designed the game to inflict VERY slight pain, to add a little reality. If, say, a small, 5 mm piece of shrapnel would have pierced the skin, it would feel about half that of a bee sting. Very minor. And if any injuries would inhibit movement in real life, it is programmed to inhibit your movement as well, even though you have no real injuries. If you "suffer" enough injuries to kill you in real life, then you lose. You can also forfeit, which is also considered losing."

"VERY interesting. And now, how many scenarios are left to be programmed?"

"This is the last of two-hundred batches of sixty scenarios, each batch is centered on a similar theme."

"What? You're saying there are 12,000 scenarios in that?"

"Precisely."

"That's AMAZING."

"It's not all. Each one is different, and we will be installing more and more as time goes on. The hard drive in the sphere can hold up to 10,000,000 different, completely original scenarios. If we just took one scenario and made different alterations on it, the hard drive could hold over a billion of them."

"Amazing. How much more time do we have left for the programming to be finished?"

"Since I mentioned the scenarios, we have finished. The sphere is ready for use."

"Fantastic! I will grant you control of this piece of space from here on out, to work with this excellent program."

"Jean-luc, that's not at all the last of it. We also have small holodecks that allow for someone to battle in a scenario separate from the main game. So, if you decide you don't want to battle this scenario, you don't have to. We currently have over 30,000 different holodeck rooms available, and our processors can handle a different scenario in each one. Plus, we have special member cards that allow one to customize a scenario, or leave in the middle of one, then save it on the card."

"Splendid! We will begin use of it immediately!"