by David Nash
The Revolution
Can Man Beat Machine
David Nash
Copyright © 2019 by David Nash
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Preface
I. The Aftermath of Battle
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
II. Sneak Attack
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
III. Para Bellum
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
IV. Cry Havoc!
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
V. Addendum
Rank Structure of the Legion
Legion Table of Organization & Equipment
Battle Star Group: Command Structure
Notable Planets
Please Review
The Return
Also by David Nash
About the Author
Preface
I hope you like this work, you can mind more of it at my Author website
Shepherd Publishing
https://www.shepherdpublish.com
What so many of us who abhor violence often forget is that we have peace and civilized lives because there were men and women who went before us who were willing to fight for our freedom to live in peace.
Louis L’Amour, Education of a Wandering Man
Part I
The Aftermath of Battle
1
New Aubagne
The work of the Commander of the Legion is never done. I don’t see a peace dividend from the winning the last war because I know in my heart a new war is coming.
The Kernel is not pleased that we beat back their enforcers and gained our Freedom. They are even more upset that we have started to gain allies from the other sapient races and created our Own system of government.
All is quiet, yet I know war is coming.
I am not alone in that understanding as my oldest friend, an old grey Roswell alien entered my office.
“Commander Aegeus reporting as ordered, Sir” His spindly grey arm was bent in a perfect salute.
I look around the obviously empty room and reply. “Aegeus, how many times have I told you that when it is just the two of us we don’t have to waste time on the formalities?” I do return the salute.
“General Davis, it is that lackadaisical attitude toward the law that almost cost Earth its existence.”
“The operative word is almost, I think it turned out for the best in the end. So I assume you are here report on your discoveries concerning the Centaurus?”
“We made contact with the herd, as you have been briefed; they manage to survive in a few large habitats near the edge of our habituated galaxy. They survive by harvesting mass from an asteroid belt 153 light years from New Aubagne. The Herd Leader welcomes contact with the Republic, and desires to meet with the Warlord that vanquished the Barkun.”
“Aegeus, you know how I feel about the term Warlord. We are an established military force, not a bunch of leather wearing barbarians. However, I do need to meet with the Centaur leadership, what is your evaluation on a partnership with them? What do they bring to the table if we ally ourselves with them?”
“Sir, right now the Centaurus species is impoverished. When the Barkun vanquished them and replaced them as the Confederation Enforcers they were forced into space. They have not been allowed to create enough habitats for their herds out of spite as well as the fear that the Centaurs would regain their former strength. They are proud warriors with a culture that respects strength. With our support and the promise of a home planet they would be a great addition to our forces. However, it would take time and lots of mass. They have no military and the Kernel forbids them to build one. The Confederation enforces a similar status to them as America did with Japan after Earth’s Second World War”
“Yes, but, if my Sangren education is correct, unlike the results of WWII, the Centaurus species was innocent in this case, the Barkun used subterfuge and guile to defeat them. They are the good guys correct?”
“Yes, and as such, I believe you will invite them to join the legion once you see their conditions.”
“Probably, if they can’t build their own army to protect themselves, then they can join the Republic and have the Legion protect them. Do you think they would be interested in joining the Republic? We can always invite President Eastman to send an ambassador.”
“General, I believe that asking them to join the Planetary Republic would be seen as an insult, they are a proud people and until they earn themselves a home planet it would be short-sided to discuss that topic.”
“Great, we offer a solution, but pride prevents them from accepting. Schedule a visit, since we are going we might as well go big. Let’s take a strike force. Let them see what we bring to the table. I believe Strike force 7 is nearing completion and needs a shakedown cruise.”
“Yes sir, will that be all?”
“No, Admiral, I have another project to discuss.” I look toward the door to the side of my office and speak out “Commander Marvin, could you join Admiral Aegeus and me in my office?”
The door opens and a 9 foot tall, deep black combat suit enters the room. Unlike the suits the Legionaries wear into combat, this suit is solid and packed with additional technology and power generation capability. It has the room because it does not carry a human. Instead it is inhabited by my second oldest friend, a sapient machine life form that is bonded to serve me though his deepest programming and Confederation law. I named him Marvin.
“Yes Sir?”
“Commander, Can you brief the Admiral on the Burrougots mission?”
“Absolutely General, The Burrougots are an advanced species and have a civilization older than all other sentient species in the galaxy. Most believe they are as old as the race that created the Kernel of Sentience. When the Barkun came to be the Enforcers for the Confederation law, the Burrougots used the mass of their home planet to create a massive colony ship and left the known galaxy. The left without any communication and for four thousand years no being has had any contact with them.”
I nod and motion for Marvin to continue.
“Under orders from Commandant Davis, I have been organizing a fleet with a dual purpose. It is to follow the trail of the Burrougots and attempt to find them and persuade th
em to return. We assume they understood the threat the Kernel posed to biologic life and that is why they left. It is believed they have advanced technology that will help us in the coming fight. Secondly, the fleet is to explore the galaxy and seed planets with colonists to ensure the survival of Humans.”
“Yes, Marvin, but not just humans, any species that is a member of the Planetary Republic can send colonists. They may need to, the Confederation has destroyed species and entire planets before, and I don’t think they would mind doing it again.”
“Besides an extremely limited number of Sangren, no other life form has volunteered. We began the fleet with a standard Strike Force. It contains a mother ship with 60 saucer docked fighters, 4 ram boarding ships, 3 Assault ships with 10-drop ships each, and 10 Destroyers. This allows us to carry a battalion of Legion infantry, and a company of Special Operations boarding teams. To that we added 2 additional assault ships holding colonists and 4 more destroyers crewed by colonial militia. It is our intent to colonize two new planets and leave one destroyer in orbit and turn the assault ship into an orbital shipyard.”
Marvin walks to the wall and opens a display
“Because of our replicator technology, shipbuilding was not a problem, it only took time and some mass from the Oort asteroid belt. The Personnel was also not an issue, we have more volunteers from Earth than we can process. The limiting factor was getting Kernels to navigate the Ships. As you know, once a Kernel renounces citizenship in the Kernel of Sentience and joins the Planetary Republic as a citizen, Confederation Law disallows it the ability to replicate. We can only get new Kernels by right of conquest or by ordering the few Kernels we have that are not citizens to replicate.”
“So Commander, how did you solve the problem?”
“Sir, we allowed Barkun to join the fleet as crew, and then had them order their Kernels to make more seeds.” Marvin ran his plan by me before he did it, but I am still hesitant to allow the bullies of the galaxy back into space.
“I hope that all the crews are not Barkun, how do we prevent Barkun Captains from using our boarding trick of sealing the bridge and opening all the doors to flush out the rest of the crew?”
“General, I have learned from our time together, we allowed the Barkun to join the fleet, but not to Captain ships directly, They are stationed in the drop pods on the Assault ships, as such they are well surrounded by Legionnaires. We allow the Kernels to calculate the hyperspace jumps from the pods, but not actively command the ships.”
“This is a work around; surely we don’t have enough Kernels to control the entire fleet. How do you make do?”
“We use the system pioneered by the Late Admiral Johns. We use nanites to grapple the ships together to make larger ships that jump together.”
“And what about the new Seeds from the Barkun crew?” Admiral Aegeus asked
“Sir, those Seeds are sent to Kernel Prime for Purity checks and are then placed into suits and sent to recruit training with the New Legionaries. We are having excellent success with those Seeds eventually petitioning for citizenship during their service in the Fleet.”
“Great Captain, when will the Colony Fleet be ready to depart?”
“Sir, that question may be better answered by its Commanding Officer. Captain Jones is making final preparations for departure. I don’t wish to speak for him, but after viewing the manifests and work orders, I would calculate it should take no longer than 2 months standard earth time to finish.”
“Well, sounds like everything is in good hands. Admiral, I’d like to leave for the Centaurus station as soon as practicable. Commander, please invite the Captain and his family to dinner at my residence tonight. Robert Jr would love to love a playdate with Abidemi. If that is all gentlemen, I need to get back to paper this legion floats upon.”
2
There are few people in this world that I love more than Joseph Jones and Isoken Oni-Jones. I look at Joseph as a little brother. As for Isoken, she is very outspoken in her belief that I overstep my relationship with her husband. She went so far as to name her first child Abidemi, which means, born during her father’s absence. I can handle the side eye from her over that fact. It is not my fault she chose to marry one of my brightest and most capable young officers. Besides, she is also one of the Legion’s most valuable players.
Before joining the original team, she was a computer hacker of some note. Her independence and willingness to push the boundaries has caused her to advance our technology more than almost any other human. Once she started utilizing the Sangren teaching tech and had knowledge placed into her head while under the influence of Sangren Technology, she became more than just a computer genius. Her ability to understand machine code and her new science knowledge combine to allow her to make intuitive leaps and put things together in ways the more advanced machine intelligence cannot.
I thought long and very deeply before assigning Captain Jones to the Colony mission. They are chasing a species that left Confederation space thousands of years ago. Our only shot at finding them comes from the fact that they took no Kernels, and did not have the means to calculate hyperspace jumps. With our Hyperspace ability, the Colony fleet will make jumps leapfrogging in minutes what took the sub-light traveling species a hundred years to travel. Even so, space is vast and we have little to go on but a starting direction. No-one, not even Jones expects to be back for decades. This one reason I granted his request to travel as a team. Isoken will serve as the Fleet Science Officer, and Abidemi as a future colonist. I hate to see children travel in a war fleet, especially since my son came to me when his parents, my best friend Commander Robert Hall, and his wife Dr. Barbara Hall were killed during the Second Battle for Earth. However, I cannot split up that family again, and knowing war is coming to the Republic, I want our best minds out of the conflict zone to ensure humanity will survive if the Legion fails.
My somber thoughts are interrupted as I hear a knock on the door. I open it to see Renata holding a bottle of wine. We share a smile and I open my arms for a hug. She embraces me tightly and then pulls back for a gentle kiss. I want more, but she pushes me away and says, “Are you going to invite a girl in or what?” I step back clearing the door, and bow grandly as I gesture inside, “Would you please come in and grace my humble abode?”
Bobby drops the blocks he is playing with and toddles over to Renata “NaTa!” He exclaims as he runs with his arms outstretched, begging to be picked up.
I look on the scene feeling a fulfillment that I never knew was possible when another knock announced visitors.
I opened the door and saw Joseph holding a small beautify toddler in his arms. Isoken held a case of beer. She lifted it and nodded her head at her husband and said, “I told him a dinner party required something more formal that beer, but he insisted.”
I took the case from her hands and motioned inside. “Your husband was right, wine for the dinner, beer for the party. Please come inside. Junior was asking for Abidemi.” As soon as I said their daughter’s name, Bobby squirmed in Renata’s arm and yelled “Bidme, Bidme!” As soon as his feet touched the ground he ran as fast as his toddler legs could run so he could look at his younger friends.
“Sir, dinner will be ready in a few minutes, shall I open the wine?” Marvin has become quite a chef, he enjoys cooking from scratch, and I indulge, even though anything he makes can be made quicker and easier in the replicator. It is not the cooking I enjoy; it’s the look of a 7 foot combat suit wearing an apron and a chef hat that makes it worth the trouble.
“Thank you Marvin that would be wonderful” Says Renata.
Dinner was excellent, Marvin has developed a level of skill in the kitchen; however, it is all technical and based upon what he has learned from cooking shows and culinary textbooks. He can’t taste food, so he doesn’t truly know how to cook. Besides, in my heart I am still just a country boy from the hills outside Nashville. I’d prefer some hot chicken or a slow smoked pork shoulder. Regardless, it is dinners like t
his that recharge me and allow me to continue the fight.
After dinner was over, we retired to the living room. The children played with blocks and big plastic replicas of ships until they passed out from the excitement, where the adults relaxed with cold beers and the conversation turned away from pleasantries into the business of preparing for a coming war.
“Tell, I have been thinking of the two battles for Earth, trying to think about how the next battles will be fought” says Isoken. I nod to signal she has my full attention. “I don’t agree with the decision of the late admirals, that we don’t need as many kinds of ships. Now that we are not on a timeline and have to build a huge fleet, I suggest we build huge ships instead. Larger ships would be better able to withstand the firepower of ships like the Kernel Guardians, plus, they could dock with our conventional fleet and save the need for Kernels.”
“You are right,” I say, making eye contact with her,” Larger ships would have greater survivability, and if we. Could transit as a docked team, it would decrease the need for Kernels, however, how do you quickly transition from a docked position to bringing all the ships into a battle formation quickly. We would, in fact, be jumping directly into a war zone without the ability to fight immediately. Imagine coming into a fortified system like what we did with Earths.”
