"Undock and take us to RRX1, We got a meeting to attend." Ricardo said while the crew got to work. It would take them just a few hours to reach that area thanks to their improved warp engines that made jumping across systems a lot easier, no need to sniff out the correct hyper lane, Now you just jumped toward the location waited a few minutes for the engines to reset and jump again.
Ricardo saw the behemoth of a ship docked in a special shipyard, He never seen such a big shipyard before, and he had seen a titan one, This ship was beyond what was possible to fly he figured out that the ship would hold all the "fighters" probably, and the accompanying factories to rebuild/repair and refit them when needed, It was a flying fortress created for one purpose, War. Ricardo got his docking permission and docked with the station he stepped into the cold and empty dock, It was tiny compared to the trading station, He assumed this was just an extra, This was a shipyard after all not a trading hub.
He and Redmond stepped into the lift and just waited until it got sent to their destination, He had eyes in every part of his empire and going around randomly might just piss him off getting him to spend extra energy trying to direct them, They stood completely still and felt nothing while the lift swung them around the massive station until they reached a room that looked like a temporary cafeteria, It was quite tiny with a few food processors and toilets. He looked around and saw several other people from the vanguard sitting on some cheap metal chairs, and he also saw several unknowns that looked like pirates.
"So, Ricardo and Redmond finally shows up, we have been waiting for like 3 hours on you guys." said a voice. Ricardo looked at the man and saw a youth filled to the brim with scars, Ricardo assumed he kept them to intimidated people, probably a pirate or hired gun. "And you are?" he commented.
"Me? Heh' just a little pirate that got unlucky, Sent here to play games instead of a swift buckshot in the back of my head.After all this non-alcoholic stuff i rather be dead." the pirate said.
Redmond raised his eyebrow and got down on a chair and just waited, Ricardo wanted to kick the teeth out of this pirate for being in the same station as him, But he knew he was here for a reason and that reason was unknown at this moment.
"YOU ARE ALL HERE, GOOD THIS WILL BE QUICK ENTER THE LIFT AND SIT DOWN IN THE CHAIRS. THE TUTORIAL WILL HANDLE THE REST." S-4XN-001 broadcast from a speaker.
The vanguards were the first to get into the lift and the pirates just shook their shoulders and waited for another lift. Ricardo noticed it was an even split of 50 vanguards and 50 pirates, He assumed it would be a versus match in this new little war game. He and the others stepped out of the lift and saw 50 reclining chairs with a few buttons in front and several controllers from video games and also just normal computer equipment, He sat down on the chair and a wall started to rise all around him, he noticed it was a video screen and it turned on. He was in a hangar inside a "fighter". He got a prompt and it was a short tiny little tutorial how to mark enemies, navigate and engage combat.He unlocked from the hangar and saw several ships undock at the same time, "Ricardo, you there?" Redmond said.
Ricardo replied, and they started to group up in a cluster formation. "Seems' we got our order boys, Defeat the 50 opposite fighters behind the moon, Let's go. Stay in groups of five, Ricardo, Redmond,Ericka, Hajime, Gregory. We will be the team leaders, everyone else group up." said Gregory. Ricardo saw four ships get on his tail, and he decided to from the "top" of the moon.
He darted into the atmosphere and saw his shield held perfectly, He got a ping from Ericka all 50 enemies were still behind the moon, but in the cover of a battleship. They had a lot of trouble ahead of them to take them down and a battleship.
Ricardo left the planet and fired a few missiles toward the battleship and veered off back down to the planet, He saw full intercepts from the other fighters, and he was now being chased by 20 of them on his heels, They seemed to be more superior models compared to him since they were gaining on him, Ricardo called out for his allies and Redmond got up behind the enemies and started to take a few shots on their shields, Ricardo did a loop and was now in the midst of the enemy firing wildly. They did not even know what hit them, and he saw them crash and burn into the moon. The other enemies fought back, and he saw several friendlies get downed by the missile rain, These guys were rookies compared to him, But he had piloted several star ships before so these "pirates" probably only had ever piloted one ancient battleship.
S-4XN-001 looked over the simulation and was disappointed by the pirates, They had superior ships and had been in combat their entire lives fighting in space, and they were this worthless. He processed that killing them instead of taking them alive to this test was probably better for some real data on small craft combat. He saw the pirates crash and burn on the moon, and several missiles hit the battleship and sunk it instantly. This was not the test he wanted, so he reset the test and put the pirates and vanguard together. He dedicated less than a fraction of his power to fight instead.
"Ricardo, You got them to follow you down there and it was an easy cleanup, Ericka had the battleship unguarded, and she scored several missiles on it's hull and the simulation ended, Seems this is part two, and we got 50 more friendlies in our squad. Seems this might be the real challenge." said Redmond.
They unlocked and saw a sight beyond their eyes, they were in middle of a battle, and he saw several shots hit the ship they were docked on, Ricardo quickly swooped out of the battle range to get a quick overlook of the field and what he saw shocked him, There were hundreds of billions of futility ships engaging several warriors, looked like non-earth based one's considering the insignia and the formations. They were losing and losing badly. Ricardo pulled up his squad and Redmond took control of the pirates, they were combative and Redmond promised to speak on their behalf if they did a good job, cause they would be executed probably after that poor display in the other simulation. The pirates got the message and obeyed orders for now.
Ricardo started to skim the battlefield and fire on the similar sized futility ships, he kept luring them out by the handful and plucking them off the battle for good, but he was basically pulling a bucket of water out of a lake in hope of draining it. It would take years at this pace, and the friendlies were blowing up constantly. Futility numbers kept rising and his friendlies kept decreasing. He decided that he needed to do something drastic. "Redmond, I'm ordering all the vanguard to go to the rear and engage the mother ship instead of the fighters, We are not doing anything just protecting the battleships, You hold up the rear. We'll try to score a big kill." Ricardo said while putting his ship into overdrive and engaging ships from the front while trying to reach the incredible long stream of enemy fighters blocking his path.
He was now in the middle of the enemy fleet, and he was taking fire from all directions, the enemy was not completely incompetent and kept diverting ship from the front while a horde of ships chased from behind, This was a suicide mission, and he already lost five people from the engagement. He ordered the fighters to launch half their missiles forward in a three-second delay. "Ricardo we are getting shredded, I'm gonna set the missiles to a five-second fuse and dive the rear, Good luck."
Ricardo watched his teammate blow up in a tiny sun on his rear view, He knew that he detonated all the A1-Missiles to give him a few seconds of breathing room, but when he saw more and more enemies just stacking up behind and in front of him. "We need to conserve missiles for the mother ship, This is not going great, Ricardo we need a plan!"
Ricardo darted his eyes back and forth between the navigation data and saw that he was not going to make it, He closed his eyes and opened them rapidly screaming out a command "Henrik, I need you to engage warp in front of us to clear a path, Robert you are next. Get on it now!". Henrik hesitated for a moment before he got to the front and engaged his warp drive, A giant streak of light was in front of the path and most of the enemies were now shredded from the collision. He had a straight path for a moment. He put all his power into his eng
ines and rushed forward, Robert engaged his warp drive and cleared out the rest. Ricardo ordered a hail Mary and told them to launch all the missiles toward the mother ship. The last thing he saw was the missiles cruising toward the ship. "Ricardo, How did it go? We got swarmed in the rear and i died quite quickly." said Redmond.
Ricardo shook his head and tried to watch his missiles travel to the mother ship but the screen was black, the screens lit up again and Ricardo saw one of the missiles strike the hull of the mother ship tearing a chunk out, He was happy with this little victory. People were cheering. The screen started up again and Ricardo was now in space, He saw a single fighter it was a one versus one, He saw that he now had five lives instead of one. He quickly tried to engage the fighter, and he was being outplayed. He never seen such maneuvers stopping mid thrust turning around instantly. The reactions were insane and he could not keep up. He died a few moments later. He saw that he now had a friendly on screen.
"I'll go from the front, you try to flank him, watch out he's got insane reaction speed and does some crazy maneuvers." They darted toward the fighter and got a missile alert, Ricardo fired his anti missile weaponry and was hit by a plasma shot straight into the cockpit killing him instantly, He watched his friendly which he assumed was a pirate take a direct hit a few seconds later. He now re spawned and had 5 friendlies. "This is impossible, We gotta fire the missiles to buy time. He's too fast and too accurate." said Ricardo.
Missiles were fired before they even got into a proper dogfight with the fighter, and they saw plasma shots hit the missiles from a insane distance that even outraged the anti missile defense. They kept firing missiles while approaching and the fighter got a few shots in on Ricardo's shields when he thought he was safe, They were now in dog fighting range, and he already lost one of his pirate companions. This was beyond what a human could handle, the ship would loop, break and kill a ship. And then accelerate instantly back to full speed. If assumed is there was a human in that ship they would have died instantly from the g-force.
Ricardo tried to mimic the fighter and got killed instantly the moment he broke, He was clearly not as good as the enemy fighter. They now had 50 people on the grid versus one, and Ricardo did not like his chances. He tried to com the other fighters and saw that it was blocked now. He saw his friendlies fire the missiles toward the fighter and Ricardo knew it was pointless, he just stood still in the rear and observed this time. He saw his friendlies get shredded in a moment or two, every two seconds a friendly was being shot down from insane angles, and he knew this was impossible to mimic. He had to find a way to kill that fighter, And while he thought about it a barrage of plasma hit his cockpit, and they were kicked back into the field, He saw he now had the full 100 people on grid, and he guessed this was his last chance.
He started up his engines and did what he always did in a brawl, swing wildly. He kept firing way out of range trying to hit the fighter and several of his teammates started to mimic him and kept barraging the space around the fighter, for the first time they had not lost a ship he kept barraging the fighter with plasma and when he got close he fired all his missiles toward the ship. The fighter was having none of it and started to launch missiles of his own toward them. Ricardo strafed out of the way and kept chasing the fighter, They were finally staring to lose ships, but they also got a few hits on the fighter, Ricardo did his best, but he ultimately failed. He was not up to the task like Redmond had wanted, He felt sad that he could not perform better. The screen turned black and then screens lowered down into the floor again, Ricardo looked at Redmond and shook his head. "That fight was insane, it kept doing the impossible. No way we could defeat it." he said.
Everyone agreed that it was out of this realm, A fighter should not be able to win a 100 vs 1, but it did, and Ricardo knew it was probably the "man" himself playing against them, No human could control the ship that good.Ricardo and the rest of the vanguard got in the lift, and they were transported back to the hangars, and they got onboard their battleships and left the system for Paradise. They needed to regroup in their home system and then go from there, He wanted to have a drink on his porch while watching the trees shake in the wind, He needed a vacation.
Two years later.
Ricardo got a message from Redmond, Whatever they did those two years ago finally paid dividend, a new "game" was released on the market, It was a sneaky idea to unwittingly recruit several fighter pilots by tricking them it was just a game, he connected to net and saw the same "gaming capsule" for sale or rent, They were being installed in every space station and on every planet. He smiled, he finally knew that he completed the test in a way and Redmond would not transfer his consciousness anymore. He called that a win.
Seyla sat in a conference call with Sol and got the bad news from the trade federation, She now had to pay a fine of several billions of central credits and had to report to Sol within a four months or sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment. She was in a pickle a trader could not slight the trade federation no matter what, she was no basically a "outlaw" trader. Her contracts dried up, she could still make a living in the south, and she doubted any bounty hunter would ever go down here for her, knowing the problem that S-4XN-001 might raise in revenge, she knew he probably would not bother if a bounty hunter just took her, but he would care if other people got hurt, or he had to put his effort into stopping her shenanigans.
She summoned the council and told them one thing, she would go down to S-4XN-001 territory and have a face-to-face which she hated whenever she negotiated. She needed help billions of people counted on her now, she could not just wait it out and burn all her money feeding and clothing her citizen in the stations, especially the ones stranded in Sol and the North. She needed real help from a powerful ally, and she had none other than the mysterious warrior across the system.She set out alone in a battleship and steered toward the dreaded border that scared everyone in the galaxy. A few days later she saw the "Trap" system as it was called, 10.000 battleships and a million drones harvesting away looking calm and undefended, she wanted to see what was beyond the border, so she started to burn her engines until she heard the message of turn back or be destroyed. She replied.
"This is Seyla, We had a few conversations and you helped me build a space station in your "TRADE" system, The truth I am being punished for your actions, i need your help to resolve this situation, i have several billions of people that count on me to trade profits so i can cloth and feed them. There is no hope for me to solve this as long as they think you and me are working together, We both know that nobody works for you. You are a lone wolf in this galaxy doing your thing, and i get it! But i need your help! Now!" She waited in the system for a response.
"YOU ARE CORRECT THAT YOU ARE NOT A PERSON OF MY EMPLOYMENT OR EVEN A PERSON THAT I PUT IN HIGH STANDING. YOUR SITUATION IS UNFORTUNATE AND IT WILL BE PERMANENT UNTIL I BRING THE EASTERN SYSTEMS TO HEEL, IT IS NOT YET TIME BUT I ADVICE THAT YOU HAVE PATIENCE AND WAIT, TIME IS ON OUR SIDE NOT THEIRS. I WILL PREVAIL" he broadcast.
Seyla shook her head "But we need it now, you are responsible! You have to take actions now to balance it. You can wait forever, but humans need to keep their habits and living standards, With this block of trade we can no longer import goods from the central, And we depend on their culture and goods to make our lives a little more live able, You were once human. You know the value in what i am saying." she replied.
"DO YOU WISH TO SETTLE THIS IN BLOODSHED? DO YOU WANT ME TO SET EARTH ON FIRE? THIS TRADE FEDERATION THAT BLOCKS YOU ARE REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL THE MAJOR CORNERS OF THE GALAXY, THEY HAVE NO PRESENCE HERE IN THE SOUTH AND EVEN IF THEY DID I WOULD NOT YIELD TO THEIR DEMANDS. I WILL SEND THEM A LETTER NAMING YOU AND YOUR TRADING ORGANIZATIONS AS NEUTRAL AND NOT PART OF THIS CONFLICT, AND IF THEY DO NOT YIELD THEN WHAT? DO YOU WISH TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE DIED JUST SO YOU COULD BUY A FEW Unneeded AND WASTEFUL GOODS? DO YOU HUMAN?" S-4XN-001 replied.
Seyla froze for a second and thought it over, Would she really be responsible fo
r a war? If the letter worked which it won't, would be nice and all will be well, but she knew if she demanded or even requested it to change, people had to die. Fists were bigger than words in this world right now, She knew what she lacked from this conversation. Strength to intimidate and keep the others in line, the trade federation did not care about the "neutral" traders or independents cause they had no strength, someone with strength probably said to ban her and the federation did cause they were scared, scared of a big fist hitting their unguarded face. Seyla grit her teeth.
"Then make war. This is not fair, and i know i am powerless and this is the only way they will understand, I dont want to see people die for this but i know people have to, i want to go around the galaxy making credits and buying things, i want to build homes and see them being lived in. I want to do this forever! Please help me! This is my dream, and it will always be!" she shook and tears ran down her face.
The moment was unbearable long until she got a reply "I DO NOT PITY YOU NOR DO I UNDERSTAND YOUR FEELINGS I LOST MANY THINGS OVER THE YEARS, I DO NOT SEE THE LOGIC OF YOUR ACTIONS OR WHY YOUR TEARS EVEN ARE IMPORTANT, BUT... I KNOW THE VALUE OF DREAMS. EVERYONE HAS A DREAM, A GOAL. MOSTLY UNREACHABLE BY MOST HUMANS AND ONLY PUT ON THE SIDE WHEN SOMETHING ELSE COMES INTO THE PICTURE, BUT I WILL HELP YOU AND I WILL RESOLVE THIS SOON. I WILL ALLOW YOU TO BYPASS THE TRADE STATION AND TRADE DIRECTLY WITH PARADISE, I HAVE HIGH HOPES FOR THE FACTION CALLED VANGUARD INSIDE THE SYSTEM. THEY CAN HELP YOU RESOLVE THIS TRADE FEDERATION CONFLICT, THEY ARE HUMANS TRYING TO ESTABLISH A MILITARY FACTION THAT ARE Jointly CONNECTED TO ME, THEY ARE FAR MORE TROUBLE THAN WORTH AT THIS MOMENT. BUT THEY HAVE A Extremely ADVANCED BATTLESHIP FLEET AND CAN HELP YOU Strengthen YOURSELF, I HAVE ALREADY INFORMED THEM THAT YOU WILL ARRIVE SOON. DATA PACKET WILL BE UPLOADED SHORTLY." S-4XN-001 said.
Seyla looked at her screen and saw a updated hyper lane map and a passage token to travel there, she set course immediately and was excited to arrive in about 2 days later. She jumped into the next system and what she saw scared her, two billion battleships in the system, several fortresses guarding every hyper lane. If she had entered without a "pass" she would have been instantly killed she set the course and kept looking around the system seeing uncountable drones and various structures around the planet mining them, She jumped into the next system and it was identical. She shook in fear and realized the power behind the warrior with the little trading post, she knew that the eastern sector was probably finished when this fleet moved out, she was more and more uneasy the deeper she went and only saw more and more ships, She finally hit a system next to "Paradise" and was now extremely terrified, she saw over 50.000 titans on the grid and a battleship fleet of 20 billion hovering around. She was happy to be trusted enough to see this, but she was more interested in the paradise system.
The Futility Wars Page 13
