by James Edward
“Sir, coms,” the communication operator said. “We have a flag signal from Fleet, your eyes only.”
“Put it on screen, Marty. We are all in the same boat,” Olaf said.
The screen flickered to life, and in front of them was Admiral Fuggoret. He florid, round face had a somber look, but anyone looking at the eye knew that this somberness didn’t go to the soul. “Fleet Captain Trogsen, the main body of the fleet is currently engaged in war games on the far side of the empire. Sadly, they also have the repair ships with them. The nearest ships are also engaged with pirates and freebooters and cannot come to your aid. So I will have to say that until we release the ships in the war games, we will not be able to send anyone to your aid. I suggest that you do your best to effect repairs as best as possible, and further, proceed at your best possible speed to the nearest space lane. Tell whomever you run into that Fleet will cover all expenses occurred and fuel used to get you and your crew to safety. Fuggoret out.”
“Reply,” Olaf said as the coms set up a reply channel. Olaf stared grimly at the screen. “Admiral Fuggoret, as you know, the best possible speed will take over six hundred years to get to a space lane. We only have food and supplies for approximately half a year. Fleet and you have effectively left us out here to die. Once again, we ask for help. We know that there are ships within two weeks’ travel that could render their assistance.
“Send it,” Olaf commanded to the startled coms operator. “You didn’t expect anything else but that reply from Fleet, did you, Marty? You know that Fugs knows we are loyal to the AGW, and with a loyal crew and heavy cruiser out of the way, he is that much safer.”
Again it took a month for Olaf’s re-request and Fugs reply to come back. “Captain Trogsen, we are doing everything possible to get you relief. It is impossible at this time to send a relief ship or a repair ship. Again, I suggest that you try to find a nearby space lane and get some help from a freighter or whatever other ship you run into. Fuggoret out.”
“Fuggoret, you have effectively sentenced us to death. This is an unacceptable. If the Fleet has abandoned us, then we will no longer support the Fleet. As of now, we do not recognize the authority of the Fleet and especially you. Olaf Trogsen out.
“Send it,” Olaf said.
Back at Cappa Tauri, Fuggoret watched the vid again and snorted. So that buffoon had rejected the fleet. Well he was six hundred years from worrying him, so he didn’t really care what he did. It was a perfect that that bomb had done such a good job and that his heavy had taken so much damage—one less loyal fleet ship to deal with. As for ex-Captain Trogsen, he would list them as outlaws now. If any Fleet ship found them or the remnants of them in the future, they would be arrested and then spaced. Fugs sighed and then belched. Another problem solved. Now there was the increasing problem of that Conrad system. The PRC had handed the problem to Great Ursa to try again to get into the system to scout what was there. If that failed, Fugs knew that he would be tapped to get a Fleet in there.
It had been four months, and Ray was beginning to think that the rest of the world had disappeared, except for the reports that filtered in from the freighting crews. Immigration was on an upswing, and Darcy was working hard to open up accommodations for them all. Recruiting had fallen off with either those that wanted to be there already recruited or those that wanted to leave and come there being held up. They were being processed slowly by the PRC-dominated government agents or denied as essential to the system.
The solar forge was working beyond their expectations, and the metals and materials coming out of the forge were accelerating the production of various components and structures. The second shipyard was now in full production with the nanobots able to design and develop an almost automated construction system.
The Anaconda carrier was almost complete. They were able to have twenty-five Taipan fighters completed and stored in the Anaconda. Problem there was training again. First they had to train themselves before they could train recruits. Hammer had suggested that the marines take over the training and flying of the fighters. Ray had agreed to a joint force, but even so, they were short-handed.
The long and tedious task of designing and engineering a battleship had finally come to fruition. The design was amazing. Ray fell in love with it as soon as he saw it. The ship was everything a ship captain would want and more. Amazingly, because of automation, they had managed to cut the crew size by half. Nanobots and automated robotics would take the bulk of the environment and damage-control duties as well as most general maintenance. Engineering was reduced, as there was a major upgrade in engines and in automation in the engineering department. Weapons were automated and slaved to the tactical center on the bridge. Of course you needed sensor operators, helm, navigation, astrophysics, weapons, and communications. The bridge was a modern marvel with comfort built in.
The modifications of the Fleet ships had been completed, and every ship was at the top of its condition. They had completed weapons platform four but had stopped the rest to start building the Taipans and Anaconda. They would restart it as soon as they had a shipyard free or when they built another shipyard. There were plans to build another shipyard to orbit Pandora, but that was later when they had dealt with the coming problems.
“R&D was working on a faster hyper drive and one where they didn’t need a jump gate. Engineering was dealing with the development of better weapons. They had developed the stealth missile, which would be able to deflect most countermeasures and make it very hard for a tactical operator to see it. They were now working on a high-yield explosive missile head that would cause major damage to the shields. With the shields down, most ships were very vulnerable. Conrad’s ships, because of the thick but light armor, could probably take a couple of missile hits and could handle laser and particle beam hits easily.
On the domestic front, they had been able to develop a type of quickcrete. It was perfect for the coating of the walls inside of the hollowed-out planetoids and moons. You could build a building in three days with the quickcrete. Just be sure to have the wiring and plumbing in place before pouring because this stuff set up hard to strength in just hours. They were using it to build the three- and four-story buildings. As well they could use it to build structures on the surface of the planetoids. This would allow for the placement of automated defensive bunkers on the surface. Even if they were automated or remotely manned, they would have some protection if ships came close enough to try a surface bombardment. As well there were some efforts put forward to close the entrances of the planetoid by way of the quickcrete. That way if they were under attack, they could close the big entrance. The concerns were that if a missile penetrated the entrance, it would be catastrophic due to massive decompression. Most wanted huge doors that would swing shut to seal in the inhabitants.
With the further expansions, they had been able to supply all of the agriculture needs of the system. They had many thousands of acres in cultivation, and there was the expanded area that housed livestock. Ray had made strong efforts to buy products from the free worlds, as he didn’t want to depend on the AGW. Sixteen freighters ran the regular run from the free worlds to Conrad with products, and when empty, they had an inflatable bladder that they used to haul back fuel. These freighters were strictly controlled regarding where to unload and where to load. The in-system freighters, called punters, were used to bring the products into the system. The freighters unloaded at the giant customs yard near the gate and loaded at the tank farm. They then jumped out, never going any deeper into the system than the gate area and strictly monitored for illicit scanning. If they were discovered scanning then they were seized and their computers wipe. They were then banished from the system.
Ray yawned. “I wonder what the kitchen is making today.” His implant buzzed in his jaw and announced an unauthorized visitor coming through the gate. Ray instructed them to hold their position and wait for him. It took all of ten minutes for R
ay to be in the Nerve Center coms room. Early told him that it was the planned Great Ursa ship, this one being call Marpole, and that they demanded access to the system. Ray told the weapons platform to relay the video to the Nerve Center. He told them to stay weapons ready and have all ships on station be ready.
“Greetings, Marpole. Unfortunately you are in violation of entry, and we cannot allow access. If you would like access to our trading area, we suggest that you make an application with our representative at Cappa Tauri,” Ray said.
“This is Marpole. We are free trading and demand the right to enter into this system. How would we know what is to trade or what to supply if we don’t know what your system needs?” came the reply.
“Our agent at Cappa Tauri has a list all the tradable items that we are looking for. We only sell fuel here. Ours is solely a barter system. Product for fuel. At Cappa Tauri, you will be able to apply for a trading license once you have paid all the insurances and deposits for entry. Until that time, I am afraid that you are denied access to our trading area,” Ray stated.
“Unacceptable. We have by charter of the AGW complete access to all planetary systems within their scope of empire, regardless of free planet or not. We will not be denied access to this or any system,” Marpole responded.
“Marpole, this is a free and unaffiliated system. We are not in any way affiliated with the AGW nor will we be honoring charters that we are not signees to. This time you are ordered to turn around and leave the system. Any further action on your part will be construed as an aggressive action,” Ray said.
Captain Roland Hildebrandt cursed to himself. It wasn’t going quite like it was supposed to. They had used intimidation so many times before that they expected it to work all the time. Try a different tack, he thought.
“Start scanning the system,” he ordered the operator. “Conrad system, perhaps we have gotten off to a wrong start. As you are aware, Great Ursa is the largest trading corporation in the empire. We have monopolies in various items in many systems. We can bring these items to you for an exclusive trading agreement for all the fuel that you can manufacture. This would be very profitable for you.”
“Rollie,” the scanner operator said. “They are jamming us; we can’t penetrate any further than the station there. I don’t see any mines though. I thought that the pirates said there were supposed to be mines.”
“Increase the strength of the scanners,” Roland shouted at the operator. “I want to go back home with some information.”
“Marpole, this is Station Platform. Drop the scanning of the system or I will burn your scanning dishes off your hull,” Regent Stiles said with an authoritative voice. “Any further scanning of the system will be considered a hostile act, and you will be fired on.”
“Damn and blast!” Rollie shouted. “How the hell did they know we were deep-system scanning?”
“Rollie, we are up to maximum, and the dishes are getting massive feedback. If we don’t shut down, they are gonna burn out,” the sensor operator exclaimed. As he said that, a tight laser beam shot out of the station and impacted the front sensor array, burning through the metal and cutting the array to pieces.
“You were warned, Marpole. Failure to comply with all of our requests in this system will result in punitive force,” Regent Stiles said.
“Marpole, you have failed to show good intentions. You are now ordered to turn around and leave our system. Tell Great Ursa that their blatant inability to take simple directions has constituted in a general order not to engage with them commercially. In other words, there will be no license or trading agreements with Ursa,” Ray stated quite forcefully.
On the bridge of the Marpole, Rollie pounded the arms of the captain’s chair and cursed at the sensor operator, who was sitting with his back to him and working the screens. “The array is coming out of your pay, not mine, you piece of ship’s bilge. Helm, plot a course for the gate and get us moving. When we get back to base, we are going to have to answer to the earl for this failure.”
“We could fire a couple of passive sensor tubes and let them drift. They could end up drifting in-system and gathering information. We could get one of the fuel ships to download the information and get it to us,” the first mate said.
“Yeah, good idea,” Rollie said as he turned to the sensor operator and snarled. “Bernie, see if you can do that right. If you don’t, you will be going out the port after them.”
Guard One got a notification about the passive sensor launch from the cloaked picket ship. They set two lasers to track the tubes and watched the Marpole increase speed to the gate and make their jump. As soon as the Marpole disappeared, the lasers shot out and destroyed the passive sensors.
“Well,” Ray said as he turned to Early, “the next move is the annexing of the tank farms. Then the Fleet will be here. We must prepare for both events. I will see you later. I must talk to Hammer.”
Ray and Lydia took a shuttle to Hardship. The marine base was spartan. It was almost self-sufficient, having its own gardens and housing. Shuttles flew back and forth from Darcy, Pandora, Sloman, and the customs warehousing area, ferrying supplies back to the main service center at the base. At the office, Ray met up with Hammer.
“Ray, Lydia, good to see you both!” Hammer rumbled. “This is your first visit in quite a while. I would be happy to show you what we have done.”
“Hammer, great to see you as well,” Ray said as they all shook hands. “I would love to a look around. Tell me, how many recruits do you have now, and how many trained troops could you muster?”
“Well let’s see,” Hammer mused. “We have five hundred active troops and two hundred under training. As well we have 150 of our five hundred in training for the Taipans. Thanks to R&D, we have full armor, which will take a blaster shot. We have enough of them to supply two hundred troopers, so we are still trying to get them to make more. Sadly we are in competition with just about everybody for nanobots and fabrication bots. Weapons are almost the same as Fleet issue, but R&D has managed to boost the power packs up by 50 percent and has lightened them up as well. What is interesting is the boarding weapons. We have a breach that will allow us to go through a hull with minimal damage to the skin. Our EVA suits will give us better flexibility when we are crossing over to board a ship and when we are in the ship.
“The Taipan units so far have twenty-five solid graduates. These have become the trainers. Unfortunately we have had a fair amount of fatalities in the training phase. But it is imperative that we get the attack methods right, and with live fire, even low impact, there are going to be accidents. So far we have lost three Taipans and have had six fatal hits. As I said before, you have to break eggs, but we have a core group of fighter jocks that will engage the fleet jocks next week in a real war game. I understand that fleet feels that they are up to or better than mere marines.” Hammer gave Ray and Lydia a sidelong glance. “I might have a surprise or two for them. We do appreciate the fifty-fifty order that you put on the manufacturing of the Taipans. The more the marines feel part of the protection of the system, the harder they will fight for it.”
“Marines are and always will be an intricate part of the fleet force. They are as equal as we can make it. But I do understand that there will always be a rivalry.” Ray laughed. “It helps with the training and the completion. Just make sure that someone doesn’t get hurt because they have a score to settle. I will make sure that fleet and marines get the very same equipment and supplies, or at least Lydia will.”
“Love to hear that, Ray,” Hammer said. “Okay, on top of that, we have a new corps setting up as manpower allows. This is the first-strike corps and will be trained as a covert strike force. They’re called Ghost Corps, and we will be using them to penetrate an enemy base, system, or facility, and do extractions and sabotage as required. I have a core group of fifteen at the moment. These guys sharpen their skills by taking on the new recruits. W
hy not the older, more seasoned or trained, you ask? That is because we want to demonstrate that when properly trained, the recruits will be as good, and as they are green, they are very unpredictable, so it lends a level of training to the Ghosts.
“We don’t have a ground force developed, but I take it we are not in the market for planetary invasions, so the concentration has been ship recovery and ship defense. Eventually we can get into that, but I would require a much more expanded base and way better armor and mobile armor. We do have a colonel that is a dedicated ground pounder and is willing to train.”
“Sounds like we are set then,” Ray said. “As an update, we just had a visit by Great Ursa and chased them off. We believe the timeline indicates that they will move to expropriate the tank farms on Omicron 2 and Sempter, followed by a Fleet visit. Expectations are that they will be told that we are supplying a base for pirates or freebooting raiders and that they want to either see or take over the system for our protection.
“We have about two months before the shit hits the fan. I expect that the government will collapse about the same time, and PRC will start filling the vacuum. I also expect that we will have more ships and crews coming in the next two months or so. Some of them will have marines on them that will need to be integrated into Hardship base. Are you ready for that?”
“We have been waiting for the new arrivals. They will be slotted into the existing base facilities, and the new recruits will be housed further out. That way they won’t feel segregated or separate,” Hammer replied. “We have a few loyal guys on those ships as well that will help in the training here. It will be a win-win.”
On Cappa Tauri, in the office of the political wing of the PRC, John Nerthmore sat at his desk and read over the reports that were piled up on the surface. He was reading over the reports from the freighter Marpole. He mused to himself that the upstart system that just a year and a half ago broke away from the AGW was causing economical damage to their economic front Great Ursa. A demonstration of force and strength would be necessary to educate these upstarts about how the empire worked. He picked up his communicator and contacted the secretary for economic development, another PRC supporter.