Empires were built and great works accomplished only to have the citizens slowly grow fat and lazy. A culture of entitlement was fast brewing on Earth and it was endangering the goals we had set forth for our defense. The media had begun to turn from promoting the HE and our expansion to what was immediately best for each individual.
It was the same scenario that had plagued each great spurt of growth by the Human population. My planners began to suggest an agency be formed to start putting out propaganda pieces that would tilt the media skew back towards the goals we had planned. I was troubled by the suggestion as I had always detested falsehood. But falsehoods had won me my freedom from the Kurtz so many years before when I had been held captive. Those same falsehoods had turned around Earth's entire existence.
The Agency of Change (AoC) was given a large budget and a secret mission. Those who we knew to be loyal to the cause would be trained on how to recruit loyalist followers and to disseminate the stories to the media that we thought might change the direction of the growing discord.
The operation was kept tight and quiet until such time as a solid foundation was in place. Then the stories began to trickle out. The first among them were stories about some of the broadcasters and their private habits. There was nothing to turn an audience like a little dirty gossip.
In the first year of the AoC existence, four of the 26 broadcasters identified as being the most detrimental to the cause, were shamed into resigning their lofty positions. Five more were soon on the ropes, teetering on the edge of oblivion for their careers. I found the whole operation distasteful, but necessary. We were in need of everyone's support and cooperation, the stakes were too high.
Our shipbuilding capacity had been increased five-fold with new capacity coming online daily. The autonomous robots of the Kurtz numbered more than the Human populous. Their work was rapid and precise. A new battleship could be framed, built-out and launched in less than two months, and we had three bays doing such that ran around the clock.
We had begun to run short of the necessary resources for ship construction until mining discoveries on Mars filled in the gaps. Within a year the Martian surface had been dotted with buildings and spaceports that were crowded with ore haulers. Whole regions of the planet were dedicated to processing the ore before finished product transports began their trips back to Earth.
Plans had been put in place for the future to push Mars into a synchronous orbit with Earth, only on the opposite side of the Sun. From there, terraforming could be done to add another habitable planet to the HE base. I was at times in awe thinking about our ability to move whole worlds. That awe would soon turn to angst as I would inevitably think about Eldred and the destructive power living beings also had at their disposal. The new age of Man was wondrous and yet horrifying at the same time.
The pace of construction of anything we wanted to build was largely only limited by the number of automated robots we could produce. But other issues began to arise. The great stockpiles of Sodium on Earth were beginning to show their depletion. It was one more resource we would have to monitor and search for elsewhere.
Word soon came in that the first of the 800 kilometer behemoths being built by the farther Frekkin worlds appeared to be nearing completion. Other than their size we had no clue as to what they contained or what they were capable of as they had been constructed from the outside in.
Once the initial framework was complete, massive sections making up an outer skin were then put in place. From that point on we had no way of knowing what their large hauler ships were transporting to it. One of my senior planners remarked that as far as we knew they could just be filled with bananas. The attempt at humor did not draw a laugh.
As I paced on the bridge one day, I was handed a report of our fleet status. We had 16 fleets in some form of operation with 14 of them fully manned. With the ease of pace of life on Earth the populous was no longer motivated to join the military. Our propaganda machines were pushing their limits, but our recruiting goals were not being met. My staff contemplated creating a false alert in an attempt to whip the masses into a patriotic frenzy.
It was soon apparent that we would not need one. The Borten fleet was assembling and their numbers were staggering, 5,000 battleship class ships to our 48, 7,000 cruisers to our measly 386 and more than 30,000 destroyers to our 1,100. But the biggest threat was the unknown. What weapons did they possess, how well could they maneuver and what could their shields withstand?
Within a week of the report we got another urgent message from our destroyer at the far Frekkin world. The giant globe-like structures were on the move... and they were moving towards the Borten system. I gave the order for our destroyer to tail them from a secure distance. Word soon came back that they had accelerated through light speed.
I gave the order for our ship to run at full speed for half the distance to the Borten worlds and then to stop and watch for the passing ships. I hoped to learn at what speed they were able to travel as it would give us an idea of when they could be expected to arrive at Toleda. We reasoned Toleda would be their first target as that was the last known world to them.
Our analysts soon hatched a plan to try to use Toleda as a decoy planet. If we had the time a terraformer and construction fleet would be sent with orders to clean the place up... to make it look inhabited. They would work non-stop constructing false buildings, transportation and farming. The goal would be to turn the ruined planet into a giant movie set where a war could be waged without endangering our own world.
The destroyer on recon soon found its position and waited patiently while using its long wave sensors to catch the passing globe ships. After a three week stay the globes moved past on their way to the Borten worlds. They were traveling at more than 2,000 SOL. Our ships were faster, but we had no way of knowing whether or not the globes were moving at full speed.
At the current rate we had as little as six months to prepare. Our ship building was at its peak, but during that time we would only be able to add three new manned and qualified fleets. We were vastly outnumbered and I found myself loathing the thought of once again having to go into battle.
I ordered martial law on Earth and began to put a system in place for conscription in case our recruiting goals were not met. It was once again a battle for all of Earth and every man, woman and child had a stake in its outcome. The 15th and 16th fleets were soon fully manned and running constant war simulations with the other fleets.
I also ordered the engineers who had come up with the plan to build an active Sodium skin surrounding Earth, to meet me on the bridge of my command ship. I wanted them to build a shield, a shield for all Man, even if it cost us every last ounce of Sodium. The small team departed in a hurry with the signed orders to acquire whatever they needed, excluding the resources in use for building our ships.
Two weeks passed before the two globes dropped out of light speed on their approach to the Borten system. As our recon destroyers watched on, the mass of ships sat idle. Another two weeks of idleness passed as we wondered why they waited. We soon got the answer when another eight globe ships dropped out of light speed and took up position with the other two. The odds against an HE victory were growing.
I decided to crank up our propaganda machine beginning with a speech about some of the worst case war simulation estimates. The public needed to know the seriousness of what we were facing. When the speech was complete I had all forms of broadcasting turn their control over to the agents of the AoC. New commercials went on the air extolling the virtues of being a BGS Marine or a Machinist's Tech or a maintenance worker.
I also called on our Kurtz partners to provide extra manpower for the new fleets that would be coming online. They were a proud people and the volunteers to be BGS Marines numbered in the millions. We soon had ships and trainers at their disposal. They would be manning two fleets of 250,000 Marines each and the remaining Earth fleets would get additional Kurtz Marines to the tune of 100,000 per fleet.
It was a Wednesday when the Borten Mass Fleet departed from their home-world. We used the same tracking technique that we had used on the globe ships to get an estimated arrival date. The Borten ships were slower and the mass fleet was given a date of October 14th for arrival at Toleda. Eleven months to the day from when they departed.
I was soon giving another speech to all the citizens of the HE. It was about how it was our ultimate challenge. The sheer number of ships we would be facing made for a near impossible task. We needed to dig deep... deeper than all of our past wars... deeper than when the full Kurtz mining fleet had first arrived, deeper than the self-defeating food wars that had ravaged our population.
It was to be a battle for the existence of freedom... the existence of Man. If we dug down deep, and if we gave it everything we had, every ounce of courage, every ounce of determination, if we absorbed and suppressed every ounce of pain... we had a chance.
I then spoke of what might come with a victory. If we were to prevail, the Human race would be the most feared, the most respected and the freest thinking beings that the galaxy had ever known.
Our ways would dominate. Our culture would be revered as the highest of cultures. Our descendants would rule the stars for millennia to come. We would be the generation that saved the Earth and brought the HE to the waiting masses of alien beings living as slaves on distant worlds. It would not be the war to end all wars, but it was a war that we had to win. As I closed my speech I raised my arm and pointed out into space. I concluded with the following "Out there... is where our destiny lies".
Chapter 9
Just after the Borten fleet left their system, heading towards Toleda, four more of the massive globe ships had joined their ranks. They had decelerated through light speed from a different direction than the first ships. Calculations soon placed their departure point at 186 light years away. The new globe ships soon departed the Borten system and would no doubt catch up to the Borten fleet before its arrival at Toleda.
I ordered a recon destroyer immediately towards the new suspect direction in an effort to gain further intelligence on what planet or planets were producing so many mammoth ships, it departed within half an hour. I paced the bridge constantly asking my planners for new ideas; we needed an edge if we were to take on such massive numbers.
I was given a briefing of a new prototype weapon that was yet to be tested. It was called the Starburst. It would be launched in a container the size of our early Defenders. When it reached 100,000 kilometers distance it would MIRV into hundreds of overcompensated BHDs. The BHDs would spread out slowly in a starburst pattern while steering towards a designated target.
They would form a cone shaped virtual shield of black holes that we hoped to be able to exploit by flying ships in immediately behind. If it worked, it was speculated that we could get up to 100 mini-fighters or five BGS Marine transports into whatever the target vessel was. The massive gravity weapons that had been used to defeat our drillers and our shields... could possibly be overcome.
I gave the order for a dozen prototypes to be tested, but there was a problem. They required Lawrencium. Lawrencium was a synthetic transuranium derivative that was difficult to produce. It had a half-life of about 4.2 seconds. The process started with Plutonium which yielded Curium, which when further processed yielded Californium and then finally Lawrencium.
The Lawrencium was consumed in the powering of the overcompensated BHDs. From starburst we would have 4.2 seconds to reach a target. The 12 Starburst prototypes would take two months to construct.
After the briefing I checked in on the status of our Toleda masquerade and was told things were progressing well. The capital city of Gurthead was a shining facade of a major planet's capital. Empty transports were whizzing back and forth on maglev rails and automated air taxis dotted the skies. The biggest difficulties were attempts at reconstructing the massive farmlands that surrounded the cities.
The topsoil in vast areas had been vacuumed away by the gravity lens leaving massive areas of nothing but rocky terrain. It was soon decided that green paint was the best solution for our short time-frame. The planners had gone as far as matching the colors to those that would be expected to be seen on an October Toleda. The concept of October had no meaning on Toleda, but the time was relative to their summer growing season.
With strategic plans in place and moving towards completion I decided on another visit home to the farm. I knew it would not be the same, but I wanted to see my parents before the hostilities once again began. I arrived unannounced and took note of the strange man sitting on what would possibly be called the front porch of the new pod style farmhouse.
He was an older gentleman and had a young girl, possibly eight years of age, sitting on his lap. I raised my hand and smiled as I approached before greeting him. When I stepped up onto the porch and looked him in the eye I was in for a heart-stopping shock. It was Zack...
My knees nearly buckled as my mind raced from thoughts of joy to anger and then back to joy. I stood for several seconds with my mouth open, unable to speak. Then Zack said hello.
After he sent his daughter inside we talked for hours about the circumstances surrounding our lives. He had not been in Dallas when the Chinese nukes went off. He was on a recon mission behind their borders and was captured just before Dallas was destroyed. His base, all of his battalion, his commanders and all records of the mission had been destroyed.
The Chinese had at first been ruthless captors who used unscrupulous methods in their interrogations. Zack was one of the few who did not break and his captors had hated him for it, and yet they had great respect for him at the same time. When I returned and the food wars ended his captors had not been forthcoming about his detention. They had received no requests for his release and with an initial air of mistrust over my command he had been held well beyond any required release periods.
He had also been told that his family in East Alabama was dead. Given that I had been captured and taken away when the Kurtz ship left, heading back towards Alvin, he thought I was long dead also. When his captors finally released him he was placed in a small rural farming village where he did not speak the language. They had hoped to one day claim that he had been there all along.
By the time his captors told him he was a free man he had befriended several of the locals. After his years of war and captivity, and given the fact that he thought everyone he knew was dead, he had decided to stay in the village and to just live out his life in peace. Not long after he took a wife.
He had two strong sons who had just joined the BGS Marines and a nine year old daughter that had been sitting on his lap. His wife and his boys were inside the house visiting with the grandfather they had never known.
I began to tell Zack of my captivity and escape and he raised his hand as if to say stop. My father had already told him everything. I then asked why he had not tried to contact me when he had learned that it was I who had come back and taken control. He said that he wanted to... he wanted to run to me as fast as he could... but he had a wife and children whom he loved.
At first he was not sure of how I would take it and later he was embarrassed that he had not acted sooner. He began to find it easier to put off until the time was right... a time which had never come. He was only here because of his sons enlisting in the BGS Marines. When home from boot camp they had questioned him about his relatives overseas and he told them they had all perished when Alabama had been nuked.
His boys then told him that East Alabama had not been attacked during the war. The death of his parents had been a lie. And that was what had brought him back to the farm, a chance to once again see his father. The story was tragic, as tragic as mine. But we had both moved beyond those deep wounds and were soon smiling and laughing about where our lives had gone. He a family man and me... I was the Supreme Commander of the HE.
As we talked I looked deep into his eyes. The young smiling and energetic Zack that I had known so long ago was no longer there
. His eyes were hard and yet reserved, his face and arms were heavily scarred from the years of war and his right leg was a modern prosthetic. His hair was a salty gray and his hands were the hands of a farmer... rough and calloused.
He then smiled and said that I looked well... being Supreme Commander had obviously been good for me. But I knew he was only being kind. My body, from years of wearing a BGS, which I had self-tuned to overcompensate, was muscle-bound and out of proportion. My long blonde hair had been dyed and cut to be a short black bob that I thought gave me a more commanding look.
My skin was still near perfect, no doubt because of the tightened DNA strands I had received so many years before, but my facial expression was no longer a constant smile. My face was muscular and usually had a scowl on it from the issues I had to deal with on a daily basis. He was no longer the handsome gent and I was no longer the beautiful and happy young woman.
When I left the farm my spirits had been renewed. A heavy wound in my life had been healed and while I would not be getting back together with the one love of my life... I could once again look upon the short time that we had without becoming sad. He would always have that special place in my heart, but I was no longer in love, that Zack, had passed long ago.
As I made my way back out onto the bridge of my command ship I began barking orders and demanding status. I had a feeling that even though the odds were stacked against us... we were going to win the war. I wasted no time passing those feelings on to my staff with orders for them to pass them on down the line. We were going to take on the task at hand and we were going find a way to win... it was in our nature.
As we waited for the Borten fleet and the globe ships I got word of the first tests of a Starburst system. A 100 by 100 kilometer thin panel had been setup as a simulated alien vessel. The Starburst team had mounted every sensor type we had available, as well as a number of weapons and mini-fighters, to the frame of the simulated craft. It would not be a true test of the alien defenses as we were unaware of what they might have, but it was a true test of ours.
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