Interstellar Age
Chapter 13 A One Sided Vendetta

Nobody could have predicted how far the simulation footage of Erich's unparalleled accomplishment would spread across the Empire. Perhaps it was the act of the Lieutenant who ran the simulation, but almost immediately after achieving a victory in an unwinnable scenario, the footage was leaked to the grid.

All across the Empire people were commenting on the feat that nobody had managed to accomplish in the entire history of the Empire, at least not until this moment. The comments ranged from discussions about Erich's status as a mutant, to accusations of cheating the system, and even some praise for his heroic actions.

For those who had also taken part in the realistic difficulty of the scenario, they were quite shocked at the sheer force of will that Erich had displayed with his actions. Most men would quit after one attempt at realism mode, yet Erich had continued to take part in the simulation for months on end, until he had achieved victory. Naturally, these men sung their praise as loud, and often as they could manage.

It did not take long before Erich was identified as the son of a Sector Governor, one on the frontier of the Empire's borders. The name Erich Jaeger had spread across the grid like wildfire, but his former peers from high school, who referred to him by his old nickname of "Silber," soon drowned it out. However, none of them spoke about how they had bullied Erich in the past, instead they all acted as if they were on good terms with the young man who had accomplished the unthinkable.

And while Germanic society was fighting amongst itself to determine whether Erich was a cheater or a potential hero in the making, the Admiralty had gathered in a conference call to speak about the young Cadet and his astonishing feat.

"The scenario was designed to be unwinnable, and yet, this one Cadet found a way to beat it! We are potentially looking at a future war hero."

The Admiral who said this was none other than the one tasked with leading the Naval Academy on Germania. Naturally, as the headmaster of the facility, he was a bit biased towards his cadets, and thus he had spoken up on Erich's behalf. But his words were not convincing to the entirety of the conference, as another Admiral quickly spoke up in opposition.

"He clearly cheated the system! By using his cyberkinesis to alter the parameters of the mission, he had made it so he could acquire a weapon that was not supposed to be available to the operator. Retrofitting a planet killer torpedo onto a heavy bomber? It has never been done before!"

And while many of the Admirals who had gathered to speak about this topic nodded their heads in solidarity with the naysayer, there were those who joined the headmaster in Erich's defense.

"If he had violated any rules then the AI would have shut down the simulation and alerted the Admiralty. If even the Artificial Intelligence, whose entire purpose is to manage the holodeck, did not prevent this cadet's actions, then tell me how this is breaking the rules!

Not to mention, we have redundancies in place to prevent cheating of any kind. Do I need to remind you that in addition to the AI there is always an officer present to manage the simulation? You should be aware that the Lieutenant in charge of the scenario signed off his approval on the cadet's actions, so who are you to disagree?"

The Admirals began to squabble in disagreement. Half of them were in favor of Erich's actions, while the other half were against them. Ultimately, it took the voice of the Grand Admiral to silence the room. His voice carried almost as much weight as the Supreme Leader himself, and thus the moment he began to speak, everyone else immediately ceased their fierce debate and listened to what he had to say.

"I don't see anything particularly wrong with what this cadet has done. Despite the fact that he used a special ability to alter the simulation's parameters, he did not use them in a way that directly changed the outcome of the scenario.

The fact of the matter is, it is entirely possible to outfit a planet killer torpedo onto several different types of Heavy Bombers which the Imperial Navy employs, including the one that the aforementioned cadet used in the simulation.

Through trial and error, he was able to identify which ship hosted the Hive Queen, something even we are unfamiliar with, which he then proceeded to use his natural charisma to not only convince the simulated admiral to agree to his unconventional idea, but he also manage to persuade the other pilots in his wing to sacrifice themselves so that he had a chance at victory.

Realistically speaking, everything he did is entirely possible to achieve in an actual combat scenario, no matter how improbable. The only thing he did which could be considered an act of cheating was modify the parameters of the simulation so it would reflect this reality, something we all failed to consider in advance.

The fact that this Cadet was even capable of pulling off such a damn near impossible feat in this simulation is a proof that it can be done in the real world. And, in many ways, reflects our own failures to conceive such a strategy. He should be commended for his ingenuity, rather than condemned as a cheater, and I won't hear another word about it. Let the people say whatever they want about his actions, but as far as the Navy is concerned Cadet Lieutenant Erich Jaeger has done nothing wrong."

As if they had never dared to voice anything but the opinion that the Grand Admiral had just spoken, those who were once Erich's detractors among the admiralty immediately switched sides and agreed with their boss.

"He should be promoted to the rank of Cadet Captain for this feat. We should also teach the tactics he used to emerge victorious in this unwinnable scenario to future generations. Perhaps we should refer to it as the Jaeger Maneuver? In addition to this, we should also modify the scenario to allow for the use of planet killers, if the operator can obtain the authority to do so through their own means."

The conference was in unanimous agreement with this suggestion, that just so happened to come from the lips of a previously opposing Admiral. As for the Grand Admiral, he went back to remaining silent, observing the entire situation as he thought about how the weaponisation of world killers on heavy bombers could be used to deal with threats that were considerably more powerful than the Imperial Navy.

---

In another corner of the Empire, there was one young woman who was not the slightest bit pleased with the recent discussions that were taking place all across the interstellar network. Erika was biting on her thumb, as she read the comments on her own profile, which were mocking her for insulting Erich.

She could not believe that part of the public had so swiftly turned against her, all because some little mutant had beaten a mere simulation. So what if he had done so? It was not like he had actually destroyed a Naraku Hive Fleet. All he had done was achieve a victory in what was essentially a glorified video game.

And as a result, she was quick to fire back in the comments about how Erich had, in reality, achieved nothing significant. This only further added fuel to the fire of those who were currently flaming her. Her entire fanbase was made up of men, and only men could understand how impressive Erich's achievement was, especially those who had actually partaken in the simulation themselves.

After all, women were not permitted to join the military, so how could a pampered idol understand the pain which Erich was forced to endure for every defeat he suffered in the scenario? The very fact that he had chosen to endure the pain of death for months on end, in pursuit of an impossible goal, filled the men of the Empire with respect for this young cadet who just so happened to be a mutant. This was something a woman who pranced about on stage for a living could never truly understand.

As a result, the young idol had turned off the grid in order to escape the billions of comments which flooded her social media profiles, calling her a naïve, and foolish little girl. She had to admit; she had never hated anyone more in her life then she did Erich at this very moment.

If not for him, those men who were supposed to be her fans would not belittle her in such outrageous ways. It was absolutely infuriating! A fucking mutant had the gall to upstage her. She simply could not tolerate it.

Despite the intense animosity she felt towards Erich in this moment, or perhaps because of it, the teenage idol began to dig through his social media to see if she could replace anything to use against him. At first, all she saw were pictures of him, in his cadet uniform, which was a dark grey uniform, with a jet black trim, standing alongside his mutant friends while they all messed around at the academy.

However, after searching through six months' worth of photos, videos, and comments about Erich's life at the Naval Academy, Erika finally found some dirt she could use to besmirch his name. It was a photo taken by the man the night he had first arrived in Germania where he was standing next to a particularly beautiful Oni woman.

In this photo, Erich had one arm wrapped around Yumi's shoulder, as his hand rested on her modest bust. At the same time, he was not wearing a shirt, while chugging a beer that was dangerously close to reaching the one liter limit which was imposed upon the Germanic people by the party.

The look in Yumi's dark eyes was suggestive, to say the least, as was the sultry expression on her pretty face. And while Erika could not prove that Erich had committed a capital offense in the form of miscegenation, she could make this picture go viral, and leave it up to the Germanic people on how they wished to interpret the image.

Thus, she saved the photo before reposting it to her own social media, where she attached every tag she could think of to make it go viral. She also left a particularly spiteful comment, implying that Erich had openly committed multiple felonies in the photo, and should be put to death because of them.

Immediately the teenage idol got the response she wanted, as billions people across the Empire saw the photo the moment she reposted it, where they began to question whether the young man who they once believed had the potential to become a hero of the Empire was in reality a criminal and a race traitor. With a wide grin on her face, Erika voiced her thoughts aloud.

"This is what you get for turning my fans against me, you fucking freak!"

After realizing that she had voiced some rather spiteful words, Erika looked around the room she currently sat in to make sure that nobody had heard her, before sighing in relief when she realized that she was all alone.

---

For the briefest of moments, Erich knew what it was like to receive the respect of his fellow man, something he had fought his entire life to achieve. However, this did not last long, for shortly thereafter, the entire universe was back to telling him that he should kill himself.

Except now there were even quite a few people threatening to kill him for committing the horrific act of "racial disgrace" something which the Empire took very seriously. Though there was no way to prove that he had done this, the public had already condemned him simply for a single photo, that on the surface was little more than showing how friendly he was with a foreign diplomat.

Thus, at the moment, Erich was sitting in a diner, with the friends he had made at the university, all of which were actually curious whether he had actually fucked the Oni beauty in the photo. Chief among them was Karl, who appeared quite excited about the prospect.

"Come on man, please tell me you got it on with that alien babe! You will absolutely be my hero for life if you did!"

Erich, however, looked at the man as if he were perhaps retarded, and responded with a non-answer.

"Even if I did shack up with Yumi, why exactly would I admit to it? That is quite literally an admission of guilt to a crime that carries the death penalty! Do you really think I would be stupid enough to brag about that openly if I had committed such a serious offense?"

Karl immediately feigned offense over the fact that his friend did not trust him with such a dangerous secret, while Dolf broke out into a wide smile before asking Erich an obvious question.

"Oh, so her name is Yumi? You two must have gotten to know each other pretty well if she permitted you to use her given name. After all, I heard the Oni usually refer to one another by their surnames, unless they are particularly close. You might as well admit it bro, you lost your V-card to a beautiful older Oni woman, you lucky bastard! If I weren't your friend, I'd want to strangle you right now!"

Erich chose not to respond to this, and instead grabbed one of his chicken nuggets and dunked it into his fry sauce before eating the thing whole. The sudden silence which he had chosen to engage in only further cemented the idea in his friend's minds that he had indeed slept with Yumi. Not that any of them cared. If anything they were actually quite jealous because as mutants, they were destined to die as virgins. Yet Erich had seemingly escaped this cruel fate.

Despite the envy that his friends portrayed, Erich he was more concerned with this bitch of an idol who seemed to have an issue with him for a reason he could not identify. If it was only a matter of discriminating against mutants, then she would not have gone this far to do so. Clearly, the fact that he was a mutant and doing well for himself was deeply personal to Erika. He just could not understand why this was the case no matter how much he thought about it.

There were plenty of mutants who lived acceptable lives across the Empire, so why was this little bitch so fixated on making his life miserable? Honestly, Erich could live for a million years and never come close to understanding the mind of a woman. It was simply an enigma that had eluded men since the dawn of their species.

But there was nothing he could do about the targeted harassment that he was receiving from one of the Empire's most popular rising talents, and thus, he could only do what he had always done since the day he was born. Lament his lot in life and endure the abuse that came his way. The best thing he could do now was to keep moving forward, and make something of himself to spite everyone who had ever spit on him for the color of his hair and eyes. And that was how he chose to live his life.