by James Rosone
“I’ll approve Rorch’s contract,” he told Sara. “Send them a private note and ask them what they’re looking to build. It’s not a requirement of me signing off on their deal, I’m just curious what’s going to be built in our yard.”
“Done,” Sara replied. She was all smiles now that her business had been taken care of. She did, after all, run the shipyards, so keeping that side of the business growing was critical to their continued economic growth. The yards provided upwards of forty percent of all jobs on their station.
Standing up, Liam stretched his back. “Walk with me,” he said, holding out his hand. “Let’s head down to the promenade.”
The two of them walked out of the room that functioned as their governor’s office and headed down the walkway that led to the shops, restaurants, and bars that made up the downtown of this little bit of paradise they’d created.
As they walked, some birds chirped while a handful of them flew from rooftop to rooftop or to some of the trees and other shrubs they’d taken the time to cultivate inside the carved-out asteroid. Making sure they had enough greenspace inside the facility was important. The clusters of areca palm, snake plants that were also known as “mother-in-law’s tongue,” gerbera daisy plants, Douglas fir and spruce trees all helped to create the necessary green spaces to maintain their delicate ecosystem, made to support life.
Along the walls of the massive city and in a couple of strategically placed parks were clusters of bamboo stalks. Over the years, many of them had grown to be thirty centimeters wide and now reached some twenty-eight feet into the air. They could actually reach as high as ninety-eight feet in some places on Earth. The bamboo plants were important to the station’s carbon sequestration or carbon dioxide removal process. The station did have the necessary backup machines to perform this function should they need it, but they wanted to place their primary focus on natural oxygen generation.
The two of them walked to a restaurant that claimed to serve the best Indian food in space. Considering they were the only Indian restaurant this far away from Earth, that statement was probably accurate.
“So, what’s on your mind, Liam?” Sara asked as she placed her order.
Liam sighed before he spoke. “I’ve been looking at the project to build the new habitats and expand the base. I just wonder sometimes if we might be better off trying to secure a habitable planet of our own. We know there are thousands of them out there. I’m sure there must be one out there we could lay claim to. Then we could expand without having to worry about the vacuum of space.”
Sara smiled, not saying anything right away. She let him talk. She’d been with Liam now for nearly thirty years. He wasn’t a big talker, but when he did want to talk, she let him.
“What is concerning you most about the expansion?” she asked.
“If we build the biospheres on the outer shell of our asteroid, I’m concerned they won’t be protected enough in case a meteor comes through the area or something hits the dome hard enough. If that thing cracks, we’re talking about thousands, tens of thousands of people that could be killed.”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Why would it crack, or better yet, why would something hit the dome? Between the defensive turrets we’ve anchored around the place, the early-warning radars, and the type of material we’re building it out of, shouldn’t it be safe?”
Liam took in a breath before he explained. “Yes and no. OK, so on the outer shell of our asteroid we’ve carved our little kingdom out of, we’re going to have these large flat plateaus we’ll be building the new biodomes on. Each plateau is between eight and twelve square kilometers. We’re building some metal flooring to shore up some areas and expand the plateau base in others to give us a larger area to build on. Here’s my concern—all of these areas are also going to be piped into our artificial gravity system. Our asteroid is actually going to have a slight gravitational pull to it because of what we’re doing. Now, this might not have been a problem when the bulk of our habitat was inside the asteroid, but when we start construction biospheres on the outer shell, it’s going to naturally attract objects—objects that will impact against the outer shell of the biosphere.”
Sara nodded. “I see what you mean. Wasn’t this problem identified before we began construction of these outer plateaus a year ago?”
Liam’s expression turned sour. “It was. I just learned a week ago about a biosphere just like the one we’re building suffering a breach on one of Jupiter’s colonies. Our plan was essentially built around theirs. The artificial gravity caused some nearby rocks and debris to rain down on the dome. Fortunately, they were still in the construction phase, so no one was living in it at the time. A couple of construction workers were killed, though, when they were sucked out into space.”
Sara gasped as her right hand moved to her mouth. Accidents in space happened. Still, they made you realize how fragile humans were out here. The slightest mistake or misstep could result in immediate death.
“Tell me they have a solution to solve this?” she pleaded.
Liam nodded. “They think they do. Right now, the dome is approximately three feet thick. It’s exceedingly durable. It’ll even stop a single 20mm magrail slug. What the company that’s building that Jupiter colony is proposing is to double the width of the material. They also want to weave in a second titanium-wired mesh into its construction. Instead of the wired mesh only being on the inside to provide its shape and support, they’re going to add a layer to the outer portion.”
“It sounds like it’ll be pretty solid, but that will be damn costly and time-consuming,” Sara commented.
Liam snorted at the assessment. “It doubles the costs of the domes and triples the time needed to build it. This is why I was saying it’d be nice if we could just lay claim to our own moon or planet and not have to deal with this. I mean, we’re going to be stuck building places like this for generations if we opt to really grow our new society out here in the Belt. I almost wish we could just use this place to fund our colonization of a new world instead.”
Sara reached across the table and grabbed his hand as she looked him in the eyes. “Maybe you are right, Liam. In the end, your idea might make more sense. Let’s file this in your ‘good idea bin’ and keep exploring it as the opportunities arise. You and I both know the only way we’re going to get to claim a new planet all to ourselves is if we go out there and find one.
“I think if you want to pursue this idea, then we should create our own exploration ships and go find one. With the war going on between the Republic and the Zodarks, they’re going to be focused on that for a very long time. While that’s happening, let’s keep building our own little society out here and position ourselves to lay claim to our own planet. This new shipyard is going to bring in an enormous amount of new revenue to our fledgling government. The new biospheres you’re building will enable our population to reach a million people.”
She sat back and chuckled. “Now, if you don’t mind, I want to eat my food before it gets cold,” she finished with a grin.
Chapter Nineteen
Rangers Lead the Way
New Eden
Fort Roughneck
“What do you think of the new armor, Pauli?” Sergeant Yogi Sanders asked as the two of them went through the process of setting their rigs up the way they wanted.
Pauli smiled. “I like it. It’s going to take some getting used to, but I like the idea of being able to get back up after a blaster shot to the chest.”
“I think the armor is going to be a lot easier to use than these new augmented bodies they’ve given us,” Yogi commented. “I think I could still use another month of physical therapy before I’ll feel comfortable. Learning how to use this neurolink is proving to be a royal pain. I sent a rather embarrassing message to the guys in my squad the other day.”
Pauli laughed—he’d done the same thing to his guys and he’d received more than a few awkward messages from them as well. One of the fe
male soldiers in his squad didn’t realize that the fantasy she was running through in her mind of a couple of the male soldiers was being transmitted to the rest of the squad. Fortunately, that was as far as it had gone.
“I hear you there, Yogi. Just give it another couple of weeks. We’ll have this stuff figured out. I talked with one of our Delta instructors the other day. He told me it took many of them a few months to fully figure things out. I’m sure the more we use it, the more comfortable we’ll get with it.” He stretched to stand taller. “But, hey, let’s get moving. We don’t want to be late to formation. It’s our platoon’s turn to get a peek at that new infantry assault vehicle the Army’s being given.”
The two of them headed out the door and off to the motor pool. After nearly a decade of war, the Army was finally fielding them with an honest-to-goodness infantry fighting vehicle.
Joining the rest of their platoon mates, Yogi and Pauli waited around until they were told they could go in and see the new vehicle. A few minutes later, an Army major and a couple of civilians walked through the door of the large building and made their way over to join them. The major took a couple of steps towards them and called them all to attention.
The squads formed up, and their platoon leader took his position at the head of their formation.
“Good morning, everyone. My name is Major Jiao Kaihe. These other two gentlemen are from DynCorp and Norinco. They have teamed up to provide us with this incredible new infantry fighting vehicle. Some of you may not have known this, but the vehicle saw limited combat action on both Intus and Rass. That allowed us to work out the bugs in the system and further refine some last-minute features.
“In a moment, we’re going to take you guys inside to check it out, let you guys have a chance to crawl around it and get a feel for it. Once you’ve had a chance to look it over, we’ll head over to the classroom, where we’re going to go over the specifics of the vehicle and how to operate it. Starting tomorrow, you guys will be put through a driving course on how to drive it and use its weapon systems. The vehicle itself is going to function as either a platoon or company headquarters vehicle or command-and-control operations center.”
The major from the former Asian Alliance paused to let some of what he said sink in before continuing. “As you all know, we’re now officially the 1st Orbital Ranger Division or ORD. That means we need to be able to operate as an independent assault force outside of the regular Army. The Deltas are the scalpel; we’re the short sword. We need to punch above our weight at every unit level in the coming engagements. This vehicle is going to allow us to do just that, so it’s important that you all know how to operate this vehicle and effectively use it. With that said, let’s go ahead and show you guys the newest weapon of war.”
Pauli smiled at the pep talk, and so did most of the soldiers in his squad. After months of training on how to use their new bodies, they were finally getting the chance to see some of the new toys the Army had been quietly creating.
As the doors to the large building opened up, they all caught a glimpse of this new tool. “This, soldiers, is the DN-12 Cougar,” Major Jiao explained as the soldiers began to approach the vehicle. “It’s a ten-wheeled amphibious-capable modular armored vehicle developed in a joint collaboration between DynCorp and Norinco. Because it’s a modular vehicle, it can be outfitted as a direct infantry fighting vehicle, which is the variant you’re looking at, or outfitted with a Howitzer to provide mobile indirect fire support. It also has an antitank variant, equipped with additional smart missiles or a 130mm direct-fire autocannon. There is also a battlefield logistics version, which allows it to transport large quantities of supplies across rough terrain and under hostile fire to provide medical support with its makeshift hospital variant.”
Everyone was acting like a bunch of excited children at Christmas as they looked over the new vehicle. Many of the soldiers ran their hands across its armored shell while they walked around it, talking excitedly amongst each other.
“How many soldiers can this thing carry?” shouted Yogi, a question many of them had.
“In the infantry variant, it has a crew of three and a troop bay of sixteen fully loaded-down soldiers. It has two drop seats, so technically, you could transport two additional passengers if you had to. This vehicle was specifically built to transport an entire squad into combat or move you guys around a planet or moon.”
Pauli walked around to the major. “Is this the kind of armament the infantry variant will be equipped with?” he asked.
Major Jiao smiled and nodded. “It is. The variant you are looking at has a turret that carries sixteen smart missiles. As you can see, just above the driver compartment is a remote-controlled single-barreled M91 heavy blaster, just like the ones your machine gunners carry. Just above the rear hatch is a second M91 to provide coverage for the rear side of the vehicle. Both guns can be operated by the vehicle commander, who sits behind the driver compartment—or they can be operated by the driver or assistant driver. This configuration allows the vehicle to provide close-in air defense, antitank/vehicle protection and direct-action offensive capabilities to support your squad in combat.”
One of the other soldiers yelled out another question. “What kind of speed and range does this thing have when it’s fully loaded down?”
“That’s a good question, soldier. We’ll go over more of that in the classroom. But suffice it to say, the cruising speed of the vehicle for optimal battery use is one hundred kilometers per hour. It has a maximum speed of one hundred and ninety kilometers per hour, but at those speeds, you’ll chew through the battery pack pretty quick. As to range—at cruising speed, it has a range of five hundred and ten kilometers. If the vehicle is in heavy combat and you’re doing a lot of starting and stopping, then we think the range will likely be closer to three hundred and twenty kilometers.
“The great thing about the vehicle is it comes with its own solar panels. This allows a squad, platoon, or company to operate on their own for long periods as they can independently recharge their own vehicles. This is what makes the vehicle so valuable as an IFV. A company of these can operate outside the FOB or the main operating army for weeks or months without needing any additional support. You’re more likely to run out of smart missiles than you are energy for your batteries. The vehicle also has multiple recharging ports to allow you guys to recharge the batteries for your blasters.”
Many of the soldiers let out a soft whistle as the major continued to give them the specs and capabilities of their new toy. It was a remarkable all-around vehicle—exactly what they had been needing since the start of this war with the Zodarks. Pauli was pretty confident if they had had this vehicle during the outset of the war, they probably would have lost a lot fewer people than they had.
“OK, everyone. Let’s make our way into the classroom. We have a lot to teach you all about your new tool and weapon. This is going to be a game changer for the Army,” the major declared as he guided them to the classroom. The two contractors from DynCorp and Norinco would then do their part of introducing them to the vehicle and how to operate it.
*******
Later that evening at dinner, Lieutenant Atkins placed his tray of food in front of an empty seat opposite Yogi and Pauli. “There you clowns are. I’ve been trying to find you guys.”
“Whatever it is, LT, it wasn’t me,” said Pauli jokingly. “Yogi did it.”
Yogi jabbed Pauli in the ribs, countering, “Hey, Pauli tricked me. I had no idea she was your girlfriend.”
“Hey, cut the crap,” Atkins shot back, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the two jokers. “Be serious for a minute. I need to talk with you guys about something.”
Yogi and Pauli sat a little straighter in their chairs. “Sorry about that, sir. We’re listening,” Pauli said for the both of them.
Seeing he had their undivided attention, Atkins began to explain why he’d tracked the two of them down. “Our company has now finished phase two of our training. As
you both know, phase three is a bit looser. We have to start identifying the more specialized training we want the different squads and platoons in the company to receive. When we enter phase four, that’s when we have to put all those different training pieces back together for our final training exercise.”
This was the part of the training all the soldiers had been looking forward to—the chance to really start specializing inside of Special Forces.
“OK, so here’s the deal. Everyone has to go through the orbital high-altitude, high-open jump program. From what I’ve been told, soldiers either love it or they hate it. In either case, it’s a requirement for graduation, so tell your squads they’ll have to suck it up. Once everyone’s graduated that program, one squad’s worth of soldiers has to become proficient in how to use that new DN-12 Cougar. They’ll learn how to use every variant of the vehicle and its various weapon systems. They’ll also learn how to pack its chutes, so the vehicle can follow us in an orbital HAHO jump if required. No idea how they made that possible, but they did, and it’s why each platoon has to send a squad’s worth of soldiers through its advance training program.
“While they’re going through that course, a squad’s worth of soldiers needs to go through the advanced demolition and weapons training,” Atkins continued. “This group will learn how to use and maintain Zodark and now Orbot weapons since we captured a bunch of them during the Rass campaign. The remaining two squads will be sent through some additional combative and weapons training courses—basically, a lot more training on how to use a variety of knives, pistols, and other weapons. Then they’ll have to go through a few dozen training simulations using those newfound skills.”
