His little son Brian had become a warrior and had built several battleships to protect the family. He was really touched by his devotion, but he had lost a son, just like he lost a brother. He knew Matthias no. S-4XN-001 was no longer his brother or anyone related to him anymore, The last conversation he had with him had gone as well as a talking to a service bot in a strip house. He hated that his brother had given him his massive and constant wealth he had more money than sense but when he really thought about it he would have settled for a brother. He already burned all the bridges with his father and mother with his laviously lifestyle, He had sent several of his "wives" and children down to the south to accompany them and live like kings down there. Richard knew there was a Paradise waiting for him down there, but he never could go there. He would feel guilty and would probably kill himself out of shame, No he would stay in the north and when he noticed a family member need a lifetime "vacation" from him or the troubles in the north, he would send them down with the hidden portal in the north, Only he knew about it. He had to keep it a secret from everyone obviously, since the north might be pretty mad that south could invade at any time with no warning.
Richard sat down on his breakfast nook and saw several nannies and maids deliver breakfast to his countless children and grandchildren, if any of his child did not knock up someone up at 16 they would be the odd one out. He had lived for a long time, and he stopped counting at the age of 100. He had so many family members it was an impossibility to remember their names or their mothers names, He had a new wife every year, and he had sent about 70 of them down to the south when they both knew the truth that Richard was the problem in the relationship, he would basically "lightly" divorce them by sending them down to the south, he did not care if they had a boyfriend or a girlfriend down there as long as he was oblivious. He got a few divorce letters which he signed instantly, all had the same requirement he wanted to see his kids when he got around too it and that was it, They were "filthy" rich but to him that was just chump change. Give a woman he spent some time with a few million central credits and get a clean break, That was good enough for him. He did not know why he married so many people or why he wanted to breed with everything that walked, he guessed it was his "youth" in constantly cycle that kept his libido high and hormones out of control but today he had to keep his hands to himself.
He kissed all his children on their forehead and were now 15 minutes late for his journey, He walked into the hangar to get on his spaceship fully loaded with crew and goods for the meeting in the premier trading outpost in the north.A few hours later he arrived in the system and the captain turned to him and said "Sir, Will you require a escort today?" Richard shook his head "Hmm, I'll go alone today. Nobody gonna make trouble here, it's a safe system" The captain nodded and sent the crew to resupply and do some R&R while Richard did his business.
He walked out of the ship on his little custom ramp, He thought himself bit childish to incorporate a giant red carpet on his docking ramp, but damn it was comfortable. He walked out the dock into the lift and pushed the button for the restaurant floor, He frowned when he smelled the artificial air. It was not as pure as his own little space station where his family and employees lived, He was bit spoiled at this point even his ships oxygen circulation system was superior. He asked around for the most expensive restaurant and the people had a face of disgust at his questioning, but he finally found his quarry "The Endless Sky" restaurant, He walked inside, and he was not impressed the decor or the plates of food being served to the people.
"Can i help you, sir?" a cute waitress said while obviously flirting to get a few extra tips later in the evening. "I have booked the VIP room for today, and I'm meeting a friend here has he arrived?" Richard said. The waitress checked his ID and then lead him to the VIP room, and it was much better than the dreaded outside. In here he had at least a private oxygen recycle that pumped some "Fresher" air, He saw his contact sitting on the seat with a bottle of cheap wine. He stood up "Mr Hill, It's a pleasure. My name is Zhang" he said. Richard told the waitress to serve the most expensive dish on the menu for himself and the guest and two of the best wine. The waitress went away with his order, and they started to talk for real.
"So, Richard. We can help you with your little problem, and we are extremely competent in our field. Our price is not cheap but we always deliver." Zhang said with a wide smile on his face. "Please, I have heard about your peoples exploits from the ears of some really important people, It's just i need you to know this will be a one employer contract i dont want your agents to work for anyone else while you are under my employ, And you must complete the mission at any price." Richard said with confidence and kept staring at Mr Zhang to see any twitch or comfortableness that would indicate he was not willing.
"Richard we are ready to be under your employ for the foreseeable future, Your money is quite tempting. But we have heard about your little station that are light-years ahead of anything else, Where comfort is the utmost and it's not crowded like this part of the galaxy. We are an order of ancient warriors that have done this trade before we invented space travel. We will keep our word as long as you keep yours." Zhang replied with his eyes not moving or flinching.The waitress walked in and served the food and opened the wine and filled their glasses, Richard motioned the waitress to leave, and he said "Good, You can send your people and employees to the station, I need you to find out who killed my grandchild and kidnapped his father, They were obviously sending a message to me, or it was botched job since he looks identical to me. I need to find out who, when and what. And then i need them killed all of them. And if it's someone that you cannot take on. I can get some real help." Richard said.
Mr Zhang bowed his head and complied and left early, Richard pulled out a photograph of himself holding a child in his arms in a hospital room. "I will avenge you." he wiped the tears from his face.
S-4XN-001 looked over his massive fleet was ready for the war that he was going to win easily, and he was quite happy with the situation, He was in his element and the enemy was blind to his defenses and fleet sizes. He gathered up his real fleet of 100 billion Battleships and one million Titans. Seems they forgot his massive profits from the war around earth with the scrap of over 100 billion ships, He melted it down infused the A1-element and made three times as many ships from the scrap than the other warriors, He had the technological and now the fleet advantage and this war would cement it forever. The scrap from 120 billion ships coming down to his system including all the drones and infrastructures in his counter-attack would feed him for a decade. He was already calculating his future expansion plans, he had stopped at his now 2000 systems, but he would go beyond in a massive push after the war ended. This was his focus for now, and everything else was on ice. He had even recruited the best fighter pilots in his territory for a "little" boost, This was the perfect opportunity to distract the enemy with a new ship type that looked weak and unimportant, but they were designed for one thing. Killing titans armed with heavy A1 missiles and a plasma cannon that could shred the basic alien ships in a well-placed shot, He had a reinforcement of 1 million "Vanguard" soldiers, The truth was most of them was just players of the simulated game across the galaxy temporary recruited to help in the war, If they did good then they would be welcomed to a "prize" and that was enough to engage in warfare in the galaxy especially against "Warriors".
They were not real people anyway so who did not want to frag a few ships for fun and profit.Ricardo stepped onto the behemoth of a carrier, he wanted to be in the thick of the fight and the other commanders agreed that someone had to be there physically to order the fighters around, He was the best of best in battle planning and strategy, so he was chosen. Redmond was also there to take over if anything happend, or he needed to rest, since he knew the war would last for quite some time. A crew of 500 people followed aboard to keep it battles ready, although it was self-contained and could pilot without people, But Ricardo knew they needed to insert themselves now a
nd Seyla had agreed that they needed to show value and why not show something extra by risking their lives and helping command the fleet? S-4XN-001 had agreed that the humans should lead and operate the fighters and control the humans, if Ricardo felt he was in danger or that the fighters were not up to task he would recall them into his carriers.
He had several carriers with him, but only this one was occupied by humans. He had about 500 million fighters total in this campaign, and he could build several new ones every hour until he ran out of resources, He was flying a factory with massive hull and shielding, He could scare away a few battleships with his weaponry, but he was not there to slug it out, he was there to trip the enemy from targeting the high value targets and instead focus on the cheap fighters that he could print like paper.He checked the logistics and unlocked the behemoth, he got into position in the fleet and was behind the titans. Ricardo got into the command station and sat down on the chair, several screens lit up and the crew got in position they had practice this like it was the most important moment in their lives, and it probably was. He pulled up all the constant Intel and watched the data, It was a lot and it was close to unreadable, but he the help of the communications officers to sift trough it and feed him the bites he needed.
"Looks like the eastern fleet finally going to fight us, They were darting around the area attacking the weaken Southern warriors, many of them have escaped to his territory, But they need to face him now, or they are going to overextend i just hope they dont go for the trading station first. Seems they are going to hit our borders first." said the intelligence officer.
Ricardo nodded and checked up on the spy satellites that cover the entire sector, Several warriors had abandoned their factories and taken their drones avoiding the eastern fleet when they got informed and shared satellite images and data, S-4XN-001 had saved countless lives and the eastern sector was denied a battle the moment they got inside, they were avoiding S-4XN-001 territory for good reason. They had sent a few scouts, but they never got any data back from the few ships entering the hyper lanes. Ricardo knew they could not avoid the fight forever, or they run out of fuel or had to engage the human trading station which was a PR nightmare and a quick way to anger the northern sector which meant they might get ambushed while they were away.
They all sat in their seats intensely looking over the data, "Sir, we got it. They are gonna hit the E1 system, and they will either enter the hyper lane to E12 or E16, We got full control to choose which system we want to be in, either E12 or E16. It's a coin toss but it's gonna slow us down 40 minutes to travel to the correct system which means we might have to wait a hour to engage." the intelligence officer said.
Ricardo closed his eyes. "What does your intuition say?" Redmond said. Richard slowed his breathing and opened his eyes "It's a trick, They are going down to the trading station. E1 system are six hours away from the trading station, they got some Intel of the hyper lanes, they know that E1 are connected to the closest hyper lane. They hope we will jump into the system to engage them, so they dont have to fight our defenses." He said.
Redmond nodded and the crew was awestruck and the intelligence officer checked the data, With their scanners they might not be able to pick-up the "Hidden" hyper lanes in every system which they knew, They sent their coordinates that they will head to the trading system and the fleet was already set there, seems they were correct in their judgement.Ricardo sent his orders and ordered the crew to go to sleep and get well rested before the battle which will happen in about 12 hours, He walked down to the cafeteria to grab a snack, and then he would calculate how to kill 90.000 titans in a sea of over 200 billion ships.
S-4XN-001 entered the trading system and sent a message that any ship or station in the system had to evacuate to his trading station in risk of being destroyed by a vengeful army that was incoming in about 10 hours. There were a flurry of activity, and he helped with several transfers, 90% of the systems humans was in his trading station anyway, He had already planned for this scenario his trading station was a mobile fortress unlike the others in the system. He would simply use the improved portal system to warp it into safety while the battle was going on, Several people refused to leave their homes, and he did not argue. He would wait until the enemy ships entered the system until he teleport ed the station out. He had always kept his "humans" under complete security while inside his territory. He would always remember the core mission to keep them safe against the Futility, He would never budge on that no matter how wasteful and pointless they were, He would stick to his duty and that was now part of his dream of controlling a vast territory and exploring the wonders of this galaxy and beyond, He was occupied in the small things like technology and material research. But someday he would reach a peak and go further beyond to learn and grow stronger, he would defeat the futility and then begin a counter-attack that would last for eons across the galaxy he truly wondered if they really were "endless" and that was a trip to itself. He pitied the humans and the other warriors for their limited view in stealing, attacking and coveting their counterparts things. Time was endless for them, they could enjoy the fun of exploring it themselves, But now was not the time for philosophy or stupid thoughts, He would now wage the biggest war in the galaxy, and he was going to win and win until his enemies were tired of trying.
Ricardo sat in his command chair when he saw the first of the enemy scouts jump in, they were being engaged by battleships instantly, and he was content in watching them becoming scrap, the enemy tried for a few moments and then the real stuff happened two billion battleships jumped in and started to engage and more and more ships were coming online in the splattering of plasma fire.Ricardo knew this was the most vulnerable part of the battle for fighters, they would just be floating mines if they tried to engage before the entire fleet arrived.Ricardo saw the mayhem continue for a hour before S-4XN-001 was finally unable to slow the reinforcements push, There were explosions going around constantly and several billion of ships were unable to fire due to the congestion he sent a scan and saw that over 300 billion ship was now on grid, and the enemy titans was now in the thick of it.
This was the time to strike he ordered everyone to launch and a million fighters disengaged, He had 499 million more fighters ready, so he launched them on auto pilot to circle the outside of the battle to harass and then let the humans that that lost a ship take over one and do it again, He was gonna be a distraction, and he was gonna be the first human commander to kill a titan. Redmond stood behind not barking out orders without Ricardo officially announcing the start. "Men, women. From allover the galaxy, you are now part of the Vanguard and you will be rewarded no matter how this battle turns out, but remember this honor. The honor of being the first human to KILL A TITAN! And being part of the strongest army in existence. We will perserve, and we will do our part, the more damage we can do the more rewards and renown. I will personally shake each and every one hand when you get your transfer request down to the Paradise system. Now let's kill to our heart content KILL KILL!"
Ricardo pushed a button on his chair and the battle was officially on, Ricardo told the crew they could operate a drone if they choose to, and several crew men saluted and went down to the "simulation room". Richard, Redmond and the intelligence officer were the only ones left, and Ricardo stood and looked. "This is probably the most important battle for humans in the galaxy, it's our chance to prove our worth forever probably, This is the thing we fight for to be relevant and not only people breeding and fleeing the futility to sacrifice humans to become warriors to stall a endless horde. We can also be on the field." Redmond said.
S-4XN-001 was calculating and processing, he saw the path of the least resistance, and he was now in control of the battlefield behind the star. The enemy was unable to use their fleet numbers advantage, and he was now equally pushing shot for shot, and he was winning, he lost over 10 billion ship and the enemy lost around 63 billion. The enemy was losing and his titans were wiping out around 50.000 battleshi
ps every burst, and they were not taking any real return fire since the enemy titans had no room to fire, He was losing battleships to instant shots by the enemy titans. He was checking the fighters constantly, and they got their fingers in the battle and were distracting the enemy, but they were taking pointless losses and doing poorly in his sense, but they did manage to kill a handful of titans and now the enemy was focusing on those tiny scraps of metal. He had lost over 100 million of the fighters but one titan was equal to at least 50 million fighters.The battle was uneventful in a sense he was just checking boxes killing ships and the enemy knew they could not run, there were nowhere to go.
They were slower and trapped in enemy territory this was a mop up. His titans charged the plasma and got several hits between the ships striking the enemy titans debris was scattering. Everything was according to plan, and he already ordered his drones to enter the system to mop up the salvage. S-4XN-001 was pleased at his gains losses as long as nobody smuggled out his scavenge he was going to profit, sure he lost a few bits and scrap from instant vaporization and other shenanigans, but he made big profit, and he would counter-attack immediately after, the war would end, and he would be extremely wealthy in materials.
The Futility Wars Page 15
