by Aer-ki Jyr
This also meant that Taryn could establish and field an actual aerial division for her Clan, whereas all trials in that discipline were simulations. Other than Earth, there was little use for that skill set save for Venus, which the Clans were forbidden from expanding upon. Given this fact, Clan Croft had developed some of the best aerial pilots within Star Force and used those skills to grab up some key trial wins, which they then traded off for the prizes they truly wanted.
Taryn had wanted to establish a foothold on Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, but had been unsuccessful in winning or trading for territory there. Instead they’d settled on Titania, the co-largest of Uranus’s moons but significantly smaller than either Ganymede or Titan. It had a diameter of 1,500 km, almost identical to Iapetus which rounded out to the same, though Titania was more dense, having a gravity of 3.8% while Iapetus only stood at 2.2%.
Both were too low for unassisted colonization…meaning gravity discs or cylinders had to be constructed on the surface. Ganymede and Titan each had gravities of 14% and sizes slightly larger than Luna, making them applicable for large scale colonization. These two moons held the bulk of Clan Croft’s population, while Iapetus and Titania were tagged as heavy mining sites, around which orbited the bulk of her Clan’s heavy industry.
The other two Clan Croft holdings were in the newly accessed outer zone. One foothold was on Thor, a mining heavy world with gravity at 5.4%, too small for colonization but Taryn had ordered orbital habitats built up around the planet to give the Clan a piece of the new pie being divvied up out there.
The 6th foothold Clan Croft possessed was the newest one. Through some careful negotiation and trade they’d acquired full rights to the tiny planet of Cam, also in the O’Neill cluster along with Thor. The planet only had a diameter of 1,100 km, but oddly enough it sported an atmosphere of Neon thicker than that of Mars and capable of reliable aerial flight, given the low gravity that was remarkably high at 6.2%...meaning that the planet had a significantly higher density than the others, making it a good proposition for a mining base.
Clan Croft had been set up on the odd little planet for the past 4 years, beginning to dig down and harvest its unusual collection of metals and ores. While the other Clans pressed on to more and more planets being opened up to their annexation, Taryn focused her Clan’s efforts on expanding their current holdings with additional infrastructure and population, especially on Cam. She liked that her Clan now had a world all to itself and had recently acquired the plans to a medium-sized Canderian station which she intended to replicate in orbit, which would allow her to establish a large civilian population despite the surface gravity being untenable for normal colonization.
She’d resisted the urge to press on and grab up whatever new territories they could, knowing that her Clan could trade for some of them in the future if need be, but the real reason was staring her in the face each and every day.
Taryn lifted herself up into a handstand and held the pose for several minutes before flipping over onto her feet and stretching out her arms one last time before walking over to the edge of the spire-top platform. The sky to her left was now bright orange and the stars above her had vanished as the snowy landscape of the southern continent began to reveal itself in the distance, but everything beneath her as she looked down over the edge was cityscape stretching off several miles from her high point of view.
Impressive as that sight was, it wasn’t the impetus for her Clan’s self-appointed purpose. Further off on the horizon…beyond the land that belonged to Clan Croft…there were block-like buildings of ridiculous size sprouting up like huge ice cubes on Antarctica’s surface. Hundreds of miles away and still visible to the naked eye, the Star Force Project Exodus habitats served as monoliths marking the passage of Humanity offworld.
More than a billion and a half people had already been relocated by Star Force, all of them having transitioned through these processing centers where they were trained in the various skills necessary for life off Earth, a common language among them, then distributed out to a number of options, one of which was her Clan. She was proud to have attracted so many adventurous individuals over the hundreds of other choices available to them…which had been her intent all along. Clan Croft’s master plan was to hold the largest population of all the Clans, and then to press on to challenge the other colonies and nations on that front.
Taryn wanted more people under her care. She wanted to help them escape the crushing burdens of overpopulation here on Earth and to live a better life up there…all the while Star Force slowly sought to make changes down here. One of the options the colonists had to relocate was to stay in Antarctica in a new nation that Star Force had created and was growing. Through it Star Force was demonstrating to the Earthbound nations techniques and infrastructure capable of alleviating the problems that they faced by better organizing the overcrowded lands they currently held.
The aptly named city of Metropolis was now the largest on Earth…though that distinction was disputed, given that most of Earth’s other cities had spread out and encroached on one another to the point where massive stretches of the continents were one solid band of urban sprawl. That aside, Metropolis was a pearl of industrial and urban planning, jamming 330 million people into a region the size of the state of New Jersey, showing a planet sprawling with 16 billion people that the chaos could be combated with proper planning and infrastructure.
Clan Croft’s role was to drain off as much of that population as they could and incorporate them comfortably into their Clan, which was why each building in the city beneath her, as well as each building, facility, and ship in her Clan’s possession had been painstakingly designed to accommodate the highest numbers possible short of overcrowding. Taryn didn’t want her new colonists to trade one population crush for another, and made certain that her colonies had proper ‘breathing room,’ which was something she emphasized in their recruiting campaigns.
Whether that was the draw or something else entirely Taryn didn’t know, but they were coming to Clan Croft in droves, with each available lot filling up within days of its posting. She didn’t like the idea of having people waiting in line in those massive city-buildings on the horizon for slots to open up, so she’d resolved her Clan to a continuous construction campaign to open up as much room as they could to accommodate the would be colonists.
It wasn’t enough, she knew, because even as fast as Davis was expanding Project Exodus there were still people waiting to get in. The Director was growing the program aggressively, and she wanted her Clan to do its part in providing as big a siphon as possible to those successfully transitioning through the program.
Off to her right she could see another city-building halfway through construction, silently cursing the nations of Earth for their stupidity. Star Force was doing all it could but those who had caused the problem were slow to reciprocate. As usual the politicians were only concerned with their own aggrandizement and not the wellbeing of the planet, or even their individual nations, and as population growth rates continued to expand the time for graft-driven democracy was coming to an end, one way or another.
As Taryn stared out across the Antarctic landscape the sun finally broke over the horizon, followed a few seconds later by an animated Archon leaping up the tiny stairwell on the far side of the platform.
“Yes?” Taryn said, turning around to face Jenson-1174.
“Mining survey from Cam,” he said, handing her a datapad. “We’ve found some more unexpected compounds, including a metal the survey team couldn’t identify. They ran it through a more detailed analysis but still came up short…until they sent the data back to Atlantis for assistance.”
Jenson glanced at the datapad without saying anything more and Taryn followed his lead, reading down through the analysis provided by Davis’s top scientists.
“Corovon?!” she said, her breath catching in her throat for a second. “Is this confirmed?”
“Triple checked,” Jenson affirme
d.
“What quantities?”
“A lot, and with the density of the planet…”
Taryn whistled as adrenaline shot through her veins. Corovon was an element not yet discovered on Earth, save for in some of the V’kit’no’sat technology. Unlike traditional elements, Corovon was not an atom, nor any combination of protons and neutrons. It was a completely different subatomic particle, smaller in size than a proton but more than twice its weight, that had the ability to bond to itself in infinite number, creating a type of metal made up, not of atoms, but of subatomic particles interlocked with one another.
This made for an extremely dense, heavy metal greenish in appearance and completely non-conductive. The hardest armor type known to the V’kit’no’sat was a corovon alloy, but even that type was rare, given that the substance was not readily available in the galaxy. A pure corovon armor would have been insanely strong, but prohibitively expensive, given that the subatomic particles were also capable of bonding with protons, adding a whole other section to the periodic table referred to as C-type elements.
These ‘cloned’ elements had Corovons bonding the protons together in the place of neutrons. For example, Lithia was the clone of Lithium, having 3 protons bound together with 1 corovon instead of 4 neutrons. Corovon had a much higher bonding rate than other subatomic particles, allowing it to form insanely large atoms in addition to the cloned elements, each of which had differing chemical qualities.
“If this is true,” Taryn said carefully, “then we’ve just turned a technological corner.”
“To put it lightly,” Jenson said with a laugh. “It also makes our Clan rich if all we are able to mine is a few backpack loads…which we’ve already collected, and then some. Not to mention that gravity drives require C-type elements.”
“Along with a lot of other V’kit’no’sat technology,” she pointed out. “Are we sure we’re sure about this?”
Jenson stared her in the eye dramatically. “We’re sure, Taryn.”
The Archon finally let a smile creep onto her face. “If this is true, then we’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s get at it,” she said, abandoning the spire-top platform as the new day began, not only for Antarctica, but for Star Force at large, kicking off a new technological age that would eventually propel them out into the stars.
7
December 21, 2190
Jason yanked Eli down behind a barricade by the neck of his uniform a moment before three stingers flashed overhead and splattered a couple meters to their right.
“Higher elevation,” he reminded his Clansman.
“Thanks,” the second gen Archon said, crawling along the embankment extra low to not repeat his mistake. He held a shield strapped over his shoulder and a stinger rifle in his left hand as he worked his way forward along the low wall behind Jason as the rest of their 15 Clan members fought it out at range with Clan Humungousaur on a ‘capture the flag’ trial tournament on a course referred to as the ‘Ravine.’
Each team had a flag towards the top of one side of the ravine, which tapered down into a small flat section running across the middle as if it were a creek, but what it really was was a kill zone. 25 levels rose up on each side, none with any connecting stairwells or ramps and only a series of staggered barricades providing any cover. Jason and Eli had started up top on level 22 with the rest of their Clan at their flag position and had moved down to level 2 while the others sniped at the Humungousaurs, trying to pick a few off before they had to move in closer and battle it out hand to hand on the other Clan’s side.
The ravine wasn’t straight either. It meandered like a snake, cutting off the view of one end to the other. Jason and Eli had very slowly made their way toward one end of the course, then moved back to the other, dropping down at random spots and so far avoiding getting hit, but the stinger splatters to their right indicated that the Humungousaurs hadn’t lost track of them.
Jason crawled to the edge of one of the barricades, seeing a two meter gap to the next and a drop-off to the next level on his left through the gap. A solid white wall of firm padding ran along their right, forming the base of the level above them and offering only a few meters of maneuvering room on the level, making each a very long, snaking street.
Shifting his shield up onto his left shoulder Jason set himself then jumped forward, feeling an immediate impact on the barrier as he flashed across the gap and crashed down on the other side, starring up at the high ceiling of the sanctum chamber that orbited Mars. He flipped over and pulled his shield back to him, seeing several new paint splatters added to it. Last time he had dropped down to the next level one gap down while Eli had drawn fire…now it was time to mix things up again.
He nodded, setting himself as he looked back in Eli’s direction. Capping his head with his shield, Eli brought his rifle up and poked it through the gap above the barricade as stingers hit his position immediately.
As Eli fired back a few wild rounds Jason jumped back into the gap he’d just crossed, sliding feet forward but missing Eli’s position and instead sliding through the gap with his shield carried on his chest.
He fell hard, only partially catching his balance as his legs dropped off the edge but he fell down behind the barricade on the next level without getting hit, putting him one short drop away from the median ‘creek’ that ran between the towering sides of the ravine. Getting to his feet he hunkered down behind the barricade, pressing his right shoulder up against it as he placed his flat shield up vertically in line with the barrier in front of him. Crawling forward on his knees, he placed his shoulder against the bottom of it and slid up, giving his head some cover while bringing his rifle up in his left hand and swinging it around the nook he’d just created.
He got a decent look at the position of two of the Humungousaurs and fired a few shots their way, making them duck for cover. Neither of them were Rex, his trailblazer equivalent in Clan Humungousaur and one of Greg’s 7s. That was good, because he’d told his Sangheili to keep Rex busy and away from his position as he tried to make his way across the gap.
In past challenges on this course, of which he’d only been a part of two, he’d played sniper while sending others into the gap or had waited while the other Clan tried an assault. This time he didn’t want to wait it out, knowing that this course could make for some very long challenges. None of the trailblazers liked this layout because it didn’t offer a lot of choices, and they resented the idea of just standing up and shooting at each other.
As such, they were always forcing themselves to try new ways of defeating the gladiatorial nature of the course and this was Jason’s latest idea. He was going in first, either succeeding in breaking through or causing the other Clan members to expose themselves to his own snipers as they took him down.
A loud thump from behind told him that Eli had made it down to level 1, one way or another.
“You alive?” Jason asked without looking back.
“Winged but functional,” he said, pressing in close behind Jason but below the edge of the barricade where the Humungousaurs several levels up couldn’t see them, though it was hard to hide from those up near the top because of the angle they had looking down. “Took a partial in the knee.”
“Take my shield,” Jason said, holding it in place until Eli could get a hand on it, then slithering back around to take his place on the opposite edge of the barricade some five meters back behind them.
“Ready when you are,” Eli whispered.
“Go,” Jason said, waiting a handful of seconds while Eli fired around the edge of Jason’s shield, keeping his head back far enough that it would be difficult for the Humungousaurs to realize they’d switched off. He held his position for a 10-count then stood up into the gap between barricades and ran down into the median, stepping off the edge and dropping half a meter to the smooth, glossy white floor, sprinting for the opposite side.
He angled his run to the right, because there was a barricade on the far side directly opposite t
he gap he’d come out. With his rifle held in a two-handed grip cross his torso, Jason ran and dove head first up onto level 1 on the Humungousaur side, sliding into the bottom of the wall and flipping over instantly. He was on his feet in a crouch in the blink of an eye and now well under the preferred firing angles above him.
“That went well,” he whispered, glancing right and left. There was a slight bulge to this side of the ravine, making either end of the mini-road he was on disappear in the distance, with him unable to see if he was the only one on this level…but it also meant that anyone else couldn’t fire back at him just yet.
A moment later Eli’s arm appeared on the far side, slinging his shield up and over across the median to a position on Jason’s right, with it successfully making it over the level 1 barricades. Jason scurried down to it and retrieved his heavy cover, then began moving quickly to keep the other Humungousaurs confused as to where exactly he was.
If the ruse has worked they still thought he was Eli, but that was merely icing on the cake. Now that he was across the rest of the Sangheili began moving down to lower levels, forcing the opposing Clan to either shoot at them or reposition to hit Jason, which a few of his well placed snipers would take advantage of. According to his plan he needed to keep things moving fast, as these challenges usually were long, ground out affairs. By altering the pace he’d throw the Humungousaurs a curve ball they didn’t expect.
Rex would adapt, he knew, so he had to move fast. Coming up to the next gap in the barricades above him he popped his head up to the next level, using his free hand for a bit of grip on the two meter high wall. Seeing the immediate area to his left was clear he repeated the hop to check the right…and nearly got hit in the head as a hunkered down Archon noticed him.
As Jason’s feet returned to the floor his rifle came up and with his third hop he poked it up and around the edge of the barricade above him and fired off two rounds at his opponent that had nowhere to hide.
