Chronicles of Sol: The Fall Chapter 169 - Interlude Last Stand Protocols

While losing a ship is perhaps not the most pleasant thing to consider, losses are inevitable in war. Losing a ship with all hands is an especially bitter pill to swallow. On a different note, going down fighting is often seen in a heroic light and its often easier to accept the loss of a ship if she took soone down with her.

With all of this in mind, the Earth fleet long ago considered a set of protocols for when the loss of a ship seems inevitable. A set of computer and personnel protocols intended to minimize losses when the ship can no longer be saved, when a last stand becos the only option.

In the event of a last stand, the computer is to assu control of the ship or in the event of computer failure a select number of officers are to stay behind to cover the retreat of the rest of the crew. Furthermore, the ship is to be set to self-destruct to prevent the capture of any vital materials or intelligence the ship may be carrying.

Modern vessels now have these protocols hardwired into the main computers and take advantage of evolving artificial intelligence. When a modern vessel detects critical damage to ship systems and slash or structure and determines retreat to be statistically improbable, these protocols will be automatically activated.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

When the Last Stand Protocol activates on a military vessel the auto-destruct system will automatically kick in, which will result in an engine overload within the next ten minutes. Ti may vary depending on when the computer set it, but usually enough ti to allow the crew to evacuate and clear the blast radius.

In addition, nurous standard operation protocols will be disregarded. Including weapon limiters that are designed to keep the guns from slagging themselves during operation. Once disabled, the guns will be able to fire faster and harder than normal but are also far more likely to fail during operation. Regardless if a ship isn't coming back, that isn't much of an issue and usually allows them to do far more damage inside of the limited ti fra allotted before the engines overload.

Activation of these protocols are typically rare, but when used they have proven to be effective at not only allowing for the valuable crew to safely escape a dying vessel, but also taking one or more enemy vessels with them. Multiple cases were recorded during the Cathamari war, where they were used to great effect, even during important battles like the Battle of Mars.