by Aer-ki Jyr
“Call it a hunch then.”
“How long do you expect us to be down there?”
“As long as it takes. Use your own judgement.”
“If something develops with The Word I want to know immediately.”
“I’ll keep you informed and let you decide whether to assign yourself or other members of Green Team, but put a priority on hammering out these new abilities. Long term they’re going to be more important than anything The Word can throw at us.”
“Translation…the V’kit’no’sat will stomp them the same as us if we don’t get strong enough to oppose them.”
“That too,” Davis added.
Five weeks later Taryn made a microjump from Earth to Venus via a Puddle Jumper-class transport, riding the next generation of small transport craft that had begun with the mantis and expanded up into dropships. The puddle jumpers were Star Force’s first experiment with combining a dropship’s and starship’s rolls over interplanetary distances, forgoing the need to transfer ships onboard a starport. The puddle jumper the Archon rode in was as large as a Falcon-class dropship, but only had 1/10th the cargo capacity.
That put it still in the prototype phase, but the Archons had decided to put it into production anyway for priority personnel transfers around the Solar System. Several hundred had been built and spread out amongst the Clans while Star Force engineers continued to try to downsize the most basic of gravity drives to more manageable sizes. Taryn had 3 in Clan Croft, and kept one reserved at all times for her personal use.
This trip, however, was going to be one way, with the puddle jumper returning to Earth for other Clan Croft usage in the near future. Hopefully by the time she got back they’d have a newer version in production stage, for the ability to hop into a ship on the ground and ride it all the way up into space, across the interplanetary gap, and land on another planet or moon was too tactically and logistically significant to pass up.
When her puddle jumper reached Venus it stretched its gravity drive out and flash decelerated against the planet’s gravity well, bringing it out of the ‘jump’ outside the tracks of orbital infrastructure literally ringing the planet. Several bands were visible, holding industrial processing equipment on a level that rivaled Earth orbit, though the majority of Venus’s infrastructure was devoted solely to Star Force’s space navy.
With the micro-jump timed so as not to approach any of the rings as well as brining the puddle jumper out into middle orbit on a coast track to the lower zone, Taryn had a short tour of Venus orbit as the ship made its way to the cluster of Mark III warships in extreme low orbit that was her destination. Before they got there, though, they passed by thousands of factories with hundreds of starships bringing in the raw materials to feed them from elsewhere in the system, though a great majority of it came from Mercury, whose mass had already decreased by 1.28% due to the heavy mining Star Force and a few others were conducting on the planet, literally eating it apart at an astounding rate.
Other shipments were being brought in from the Asteroid Belt and beyond, with a significant amount coming from Venus itself. Though it was too far away to see, the puddle jumper’s sensors detected a continuous flow of needle-shaped dropships coming up and down through the planet’s thick clouds carrying raw materials up to distribution centers, essentially huge warehouses that held and sorted out the millions of compounds and components that were being shipped around planetary orbit and elsewhere by an army of small orbital ferries.
Taryn’s ship linked with orbital control and established a flight path that would avoid the rest of the traffic and keep from risking a collision with the not only with the small craft, but with the huge infrastructure of the rings and satellite facilities dotting the orbital map.
They passed by one of those satellite facilities at a range of a few hundred kilometers, close enough to see a cluster of stations interlinked by thick structural bands that contained transport passages for both cargo and personnel so they could avoid excessive space travel. In the cluster, Taryn knew, were the factories to process raw materials brought in, refine them down into various compounds, and recombine them into hundreds of new compounds. They referred to the stations as ‘Synthesis Clusters,’ and most of the planets in the system had at least a few so they could reduce the amount of unwanted material in various ores before shipping it from planet to planet.
Venus had 73 such clusters, serving it as well as Mercury, which was so close by that almost all raw materials harvested on the smaller planet were brought across the small interplanetary gap en mass by cargo ships so large as to appear like miniature jumpships, even bigger than the Gargantuan-class transports. One of the Juggernauts was visible, nestled up against one of the structural pylons of the synthesis cluster they were passing, unloading its cargo holds internally and dumping so much material into the cluster that it would fill nearly 40% of its cargo space.
That was because the Juggernauts were 95% cargo hold, 5% starship. Other than a tiny crew compartment and living quarters, strapped onto a thin frame with undersized engines, the ships were empty boxes for the mining division to fill up and specifically built for the Mercury/Venus circuit.
There were also smaller, yet still drastically large cargo ships docked with the cluster. They were there, for the most part, to carry processed materials over to the factories in the orbital rings where precious materials would be molded into all sorts of technology that would be put to use building starships.
One ring around the planet, which was only 3/4ths complete, was comprised entirely of shipyards, ranging from small to large to insanely huge Thanatos-class monsters…all of which were tasked to produce jumpships, drone warships, cargo ships, dropships, mantises, skeets, mechs, and anything else that Star Force’s naval fleet equipped. If you were going to plan a planetary assault, you’d find everything you needed could and would be built in Venus orbit. Just add personnel and you’d be ready to go.
Which was the purpose of Taryn’s visit. She was the last of the crew to assemble in the fresh-off-the-line armada built for the specific purpose of fighting in the Nestafar/Calavari conflict. All of the ships were the latest models, and based off of the few of Morgan’s reports that had cycled back through the Hycre they’d made some adjustments to weapon loads and the disposition of the ground forces they’d be carrying, foremost of which was additional rail gun stores and an increased number of small scale warships capable of atmospheric combat.
Taryn was pleasantly surprised by how fast everything had been built, with the oldest ship having been started in construction only 4 years ago…and even now there was a partial second armada in orbit, with additional ships being added by the month that would eventually be dispatched to Paul’s front against the lizards.
After that there would come more, and more, and more…while Earth’s shipyards split their production between feeding the armadas going out to combat the enemy and domestic production, building a mass of cargo ships that continued to expand Star Force territory out to new star systems, as well as producing the naval fleets to defend them. Lesser on the priority charts were starships sales to the public, with dedicated shipyards feeding those, but a staggering 68% of all natural resources harvested by Star Force were being funneled into infrastructure construction.
Starships were tiny compared to the stations and cities that Davis had sprouting up around the system and elsewhere, though most of the resources harvested in Sol stayed in Sol, given the exponential shipping costs of sending them across the stars…still, the Director knew that quick startup in new systems required an influx of supplies to get their own resource collection and industrial infrastructure up and running, so there was continuous, daily jumpship travel leaving the system carrying cargo off to other worlds.
This was nothing new to Taryn, having become accustomed to Star Force’s industrial might long ago…what blew her mind was the idea that all of this was but a drop in the bucket compared to the production of the other Alliance races, and t
hat Star Force had to up its game considerably in order to stand a chance of survival if the united front was defeated and the heavy fighting shifted to their own front door.
Because of that Taryn understood her mission well. Even as Morgan’s armada was on its last leg, having to return home soon for resupply and refurbishing, Taryn was going to take her place hitting the Nestafar and aiding the Calavari wherever they could. Plans were to have 2 active armadas in play within the next 5 years and to expand on that as Davis continued to scale up their starship production rate.
She knew the more trouble she gave them out there, the more time it would buy Star Force back here to grow to a size comparable to the other races. Like it or not, even with some advancements in technology thanks to the V’kit’no’sat that the other races didn’t possess, Star Force was still the low man on the totem pole, both in terms of their fleet size and territory.
Morgan’s initial reports had indicated that their battle acumen was still effective against the Nestafar, if applied properly. Play the game the enemy’s way and they’d rip you apart, but seek out their weaknesses and not overcommit and Star Force could rack up an impressive kill list, as Morgan had already started to do.
Taryn planned on continuing that trend, and adding to the newly created battle manual on how to fight the Nestafar.
When the puddle jumper finally reached the 184 jumpships in her armada, of which 104 were Warship-class, it flew into a shielded hangar bay and deposited Taryn and her single duffle of gear on the deck before promptly turning around and leaving the gigantic ship. Taryn’s personal armor sets had already been delivered, with everything else she’d need for combat already packed inside the Archon armory onboard the ship. The few items she carried with her now did not come standard, most of which she’d collected over the years as she’d had custom items created for her, such as a modular hair-dying kit that she could run her originally brown locks through in less than 10 minutes to adjust the color.
On occasion she’d experiment with new colors, but in recent years she’d stuck primarily with a fiery red so bright it almost appeared neon, which she wore now braided into a Tomb Raider-esk ponytail that trailed halfway down the back of her white with green stripe ranger uniform and could be tucked up inside her armor’s helmet with ease.
Taryn’s ship Captain met her on the edge of the deck, offering a brief salute that she immediately waved off.
“If you know of an Archon that likes getting saluted, please give me their name and number so I can make a personal attitude adjustment.”
“Ha,” Oppenheimer laughed, caught off guard by her frankness. “As you wish. You’re the first trailblazer I’ve met, and I wasn’t sure if you’d be more formal than the others.”
“Less, actually,” Taryn said, walking with him into the ship. “How are we set?”
“Ready to break orbit on your command…assuming you’ve got a name in mind for 2312?” he asked, referring to the warship’s production number.
“Winston,” she said without hesitation. “Go ahead and get the fleet moving. I’ll meet you on the bridge once I unpack.”
10
December 18, 2405
Eritath System
3rd planet
Jack-020 watched from the bridge of the Fury as the system tracking data updated as his pair of warships decelerated against the planet’s gravity well. Hundreds of Star Force markers popped up in low orbit, spread widely around the planet. Previous reports that had come back to Corneria, as well as the updates Paul had given him while passing by Namek, had indicated that the system had a major lizard presence on the third planet and that the assault group had chosen to keep it bottled up from orbit as they pounded the surface…and it appeared that tactic was still in play.
No lizard contacts appeared in orbit on the battlemap as the Fury pulled information from the other Star Force ships, but the planet’s surface was covered in them. At a quick glance Jack could see several bombardment regions tagged on the planetary holo, but there were many more that appeared untouched. Too many to mount an effective ground campaign against.
That was alright though, because parked in several ship slots on the pair of warships he’d brought out from Corneria were cargo containers stacked full of rail gun rounds, both for his use and to reload the fleets already on station.
Jack opened a comm frequency using the controls on his command chair. “Anyone awake out there? Got some boxes of goodies to pass out.”
There was a few seconds delay, then Rafa’s holographic image appeared on the right of Jack’s chair. “Crispy Kremes, I hope?”
“No, something with a bit more bite in them. Heard you were running low on rail gun rounds?”
“We’re out, as of now. We’ve been throwing everything we have at the surface squashing lizards.”
“Any action up here?”
“Not since arrival. A few jumpships showed up and turned tail, so we’re kind of waiting for a big ass fleet to show up and evict us.”
“Glad I didn’t miss that.”
Rafa frowned. “Two warships?”
“All we could spare at the moment. Taryn’s sucked up the reserves to tag team Morgan. I’m here to do the same with Jason, except his ships will be staying here, I understand. How’s he doing?”
“Better, but he’s still pretty banged up. Anyone else getting bad?”
“Not by the time I left, but there are several more second geners that are showing blips of ability. Kind of insulting, if you ask me.”
“I know,” Rafa agreed, “but I don’t envy the process Jason’s going through. Any theories back home?”
“A few, but nothing concrete yet. Davis is sure there’s something in the database, but without knowing the right keywords to search for good luck finding it.”
“I assume they tried ‘superpowers’ and ‘force?’”
“Haha, I’m sure Paul tried ‘force’ the first day we were there. Part of the problem is we don’t have the full vocabulary worked out.”
“Too bad the dragon didn’t leave us a dictionary.”
Another hologram popped up beside Rafa’s. “Hey, Jack! Didn’t know you were coming to the party?” Emily said, beaming.
“I’m relieving Jason. Professor Xavier wants him back at school.”
“He needs it. Anyone else turning mutant?”
“Some of kiddos are, nothing too extreme though. Whatever Jason did must have been…oh hell, we know what he did. Same thing we would. He saw an opening and pushed.”
Rafa’s hologram turned to face Emily’s. “Jack also brought treats.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Please tell me they came with metal toothpicks?”
“Boxes full,” Jack said with an endearing smile.
“Good. These jackoffs are refusing to surrender and I want to hit them hard enough from orbit that we can risk sending down a cleanup crew.”
Rafa frowned. “That’ll take a lot of hitting.”
“How much did you bring?”
“Enough to resupply every ship you guys have twice over…and then some.”
“That still won’t be enough,” Rafa pointed out.
“Enough to clear a region…and then we can work on some low altitude naval support.”
“You can fill me in later,” Jack offered, “but right now I need to tag Jason.”
“He’s probably in the sanctum,” Emily said. “He spends most of his time there.”
“We all do,” Jack countered.
“I mean, like, not coming out for days. I spend a day a week with him, and most of the time he can’t keep up, his head hurts so much.”
“I’ve spent a few days training with him,” Rafa said, “and she’s right. He isn’t the same. It’s like he’s been sabotaged. He’s working his way through it, but I think he’d rather have had a grenade go off in his head,” the Archon finished as another hologram popped up.
“More like a grenade going off twice an hour, every hour of every day,” Jason said
, waving at the newcomer. “Hi, Jack.”
“Have you tried stunning yourself in the head?” Jack asked bluntly.
“Yes I have,” he admitted, “but it’s worse when I wake up. I have to keep my head balanced to contain the damage or it spirals out of control…and I can only do that if I’m conscious. Which is why I’m not getting much sleep.”
“You taking the next freighter out? Please say yes, because I’d like to keep as many of your toys as possible.”
Jason nodded. “Got one waiting. I’ll get over there and out of your hair within the day. Don’t break anything, will ya?”
“If I do, you know I’ll just blame it on her,” Jack said, barely containing a laugh as Emily’s eyes went wide in remembered rage.
“Don’t even joke about that,” she said icily. Back in their basic training Jack had broken one of Paul’s favorite shields during a challenge when he wasn’t supposed to have been using it. Emily had been stunned during the fighting so he’d switched shields with her and let Paul find her with it. When she woke up from the stun Paul pointed at the broken piece of shield just long enough so she’d know he knew, then he shot her pointblank in the head with a stinger.
Afterwards she hadn’t been too happy with Paul and they’d gotten into a bit of a fist-swinging spat until they pieced together what happened…after which they tracked down Jack and settled the score.
Jack snickered, then looked at Jason’s hologram. “You think you can stick around a few hours to catch up?”
Jason smiled, though the pain he was tolerating was evident in his eyes. “Once you make low orbit transfer over to the Legolas and we’ll hit a few challenges. Em, you’re welcome to come too.”
“I’ll be there,” she promised. “Jack, get those rounds transferred ASAP.”
“Will do. See you in a few.”
Jason and Emily’s holos disappeared, but Rafa’s remained. “You know him better than me. Keep an eye on him and tell me what you think later.”
