As soon as everyone was in the simulation pods, the bridge was also connected to the simulation, and the first simulated battle began. Nicol, Tolle, Alex, Eric, and Steve chose their personal MS. The simulation was on the space colony defense, so naturally, the colony was simulated. The enemies generated were an entire fleet that consisted of many Nelson class ships and Drake class ships, along with Agamemnon class carriers. Once they were close to the space colony, many Moebius MA's and ZAFT GINN's because Alex thinks the EA won't show their Strike Daggers to hit the ZAFT heavily when they least expect them.
Once the battle started, Alex first left the formation to perform his favorite high speed raid tactic. He quickly got into the swarm of the MA's and MS to make them unable to use their full power as they had to worry about their companions. Even while he was charging, Alex shot down some with his rapid barrage of beam attacks from both guns, and once he was in the group of enemies, he quickly transformed into MS form and started to use both rapid fire beam rifles to attack all the enemies while using the high maneuverability of the Stratos Gundams to quickly weave through the enemies, when ever any enemy came too close to effectively use his rapid fire beam rifles, he would quickly store them on the magnetized waist locks for the weapons and use the beams with both hands to quickly tear the enemies and switch back to the rifles.
Nicol, on the other hand, was really having it easy as he just turned on the mono phase light wave barrier and charged into the group of MS and started attacking them with the beam rifles. With the defense of the light wave barrier, it was really a good thing the Astray Gold was equipped with the beam rifles. But with the way he is using the mono phase light wave barrier, Alex estimates Nicol to run out of power faster than anyone, even though he is also using the same type of batteries as the Stratos Gundam, while also equipped with extra battery packs.
On Tolle side he tried to imitate Alex and charged into the MA's while firing his twin beam Gatling gun which caused very wide area of damage but once he was in the groups of MA's although he could still cause heavy damage to the front and sides because of the twin beam Gatling gun he was still suppressed by the other MA's from behind luckily he had a sturdy new shield in the left hand which he used to cover himself after a turn and fired back to destroy the enemies but still he noticed it was getting harder and realized that his MS was not good for rapid assaults and changed back to the MA form to retreat back and then used the 350 mm rail gun once he was far away to see it's power, which was very effective against the heavily armored ships. Then he switched back to a high twin beam Gatling gun to sweep the surroundings, and switched again to attack the ships alternatively.
When it comes to multi attack fire power, nothing beats the dragoons, but in this case, Steve's wire guided beam turrets, with his spatial cognition and good control, he was mowing down the MS and MA of the enemy at a speed that even surpassed Tolle's twin beam Gatling guns, which can cause high area damage. His shield also provided him with the necessary defense to calibrate the wire guided beam turrets, and his beam rifle was used to keep any enemy who tried to approach him at bay. When they come even closer while his beam rifle is being used, the missile pods on his shoulders can be used to keep them from reaching him.
Finally, Eric was having a time of his life by staying near the Crimson Moon and using his beam cannons, as they are long range weapons specifically for anti ship combat. He had even destroyed over 3 ships during this time, and whenever any MA or MS came close, he would use the beam pistols to take them to reduce the energy drain on the MS.
Meanwhile, Arthur, using familiarity with the Archangel class battleship, was giving commands fast and efficiently, taking two ships using the positron cannon and one more using the dual beam cannons mounted on both sides above the MS hangar. Lucas was also getting used to the omnidirectional combat situation of the space battleship while also giving Arthur suggestions from his experience, like how to bait the enemy, when to charge in, and how to avoid getting into traps the enemy creates to attack the ship.
After taking care of the MA's Alex quickly turned into the MA form to reach the MS battle zone, which is being completely controlled by Steve and Tolle. As Steve was using his wire guided beam turrets to take on multiple MS without losing, and even taking them down one at a time. And Tolle also found that his 350 mm rail gun was very effective against anti beam shields, and heavy armored units knew where to place themselves in the battle situation.
Once Alex came to the MS battle zone, he used the multiple thrusters to efficiently evade the attacks by the MS teams, and used both the guns to reduce their movement space, and finally shot them down by attacking their cockpits.
After the battle continued for an hour Nicol was the first to retreat as his MS was running out of power and then it was Eric who was using 2 beam cannons each more powerful than the Agni cannon of the Strike Gundam, Next was Steve who had taken on the MS teams for the longest time and had the most shot downs for the enemy MS units. Finally, Tolle was able to last as long as Alex, and both of them only returned after destroying the last remnants in the space. As for the battleships, all of them were taken down by the combined effort of Eric's Stratos Gundam and the Crimson Moon.
Of course this is only simulated battle for Alex, Eric, Steve, Nicol, Tolle and Arthur to get used to their MS/Battleship and if the EA really attacks as pirates or even if there are real pirates attacking the Ashford colony they won't just face these guys but also 30 Buster unit which can use a continuous long range beam attack with the help of energy supply by the power conduits of the space colony, the two Strike Gundam's of Brian and John, Also the Indomitable crewed by William who had been in many space battle during his time in the Iron Maiden carrying out the various trades for the Ashford group in the many space journeys.
After the simulated battle, everyone came to the bridge to understand the battle process as a whole while also thinking of what they should do to win the battle more efficiently, and also which actions take the greatest advantage of their respective MS so that their battle time can be extended or their take down efficiency can be improved. As they discussed the details for an hour, covering everyone's advantages, while also correcting the unnecessary attack pattern or target selection to plan the perfectly efficient strategy of using all their resources to the maximum they decided to return to the dock in the space port and take rest for the day as once the space colony is operational tomorrow there will be a real battle and there is even no guarantee that it will stop with one attack.
Once the Crimson Moon docked in the Space colony, Alex went to the quarter where his mother, Emma, was staying along with Lily and Stella, to talk to his mother and spend some time with her, as he had been away from her for some time. while also playing with Lily and Stella for some time. Then Alex went to take a rest in a separate area of the space colony, which is built as a pilot's lounge for the defense patrol MS pilots to take rests in between shifts.
Alex pulled up the space colony's exterior and checked all the connection ports left for the weapons systems to make the space colony's defense self sufficient, but it has not been fitted with weapons to avoid bringing in too much trouble from the plants and EA during this war and the next one.
Author's notes: another chapter will be released in few hours.