Chapter Two Eighteen Reports and a Quiet March (Patreon)

September 13th, 008 SDE:

Countryman walked down the hall, so far their long march home had been fairly quiet. Patrols and scans had yet to find any evidence of a pursuit, but he figured it was only a matter of time. Due to the damage some of their ships had sustained they weren’t able to travel at full speed, the Enterprise was instead limited to the speed of the slowest ship in the formation. Therefore instead of 21 days total to reach Anchorage they were going to take just over a month. Navigation expected them to arrive in the Anchorage “system” on the 17th of October. That delay would mean it would be even longer before their guests would be ready for battle again.

In the meantime they were already hearing reports of further defeats. The Cooperative had engaged the Maiden again in an attempt to retake the Outpost; the resulting battle had ended in failure. Meanwhile another force, largely Dregari in origin, had taken the Port of Laso from the Cooperative.

Countryman didn’t know much about the Port of Laso but apparently, it was an important naval base for the Cooperative and located rather close to Dregari space. Its loss had left the Cooperative core open for attack from their direction, and the Cooperative was preparing to make a stand at Lagari Point. It sounded like a particularly major battle was brewing out that way.

Meanwhile down here with the loss of the Lodge, the main Drifter fleet was now preparing a new line of defense at Amber Harbor. The Amber Harbor system is located about two weeks travel from the Lodge and is home to a large Drifter shipyard complex and fleet berth, the nature of the local planetoid had made it ideal for harboring large capital ships.

Based on everything he had heard, it sounded unlikely that the Raiders would bypass Amber Harbor; the system was of too much strategic import to ignore. In that light the attack at the Lodge was most likely a prelude to a larger assault on Amber Harbor, which would explain the lack of pursuit. The enemy was likely fortifying their position and turning the Lodge into a staging point for the attack on Amber Harbor. Countryman figured they had about a week before the enemy made that attack and it was likely ships were already enroute. If they weren’t they were awaiting reinforcement.

In either case, it would be some time before they heard any news. That gave Countryman some time to consider his actions, and how he would prepare. One of the most obvious was to expand the fighter corps and increase the production of fighters. They were going to need more SF-1204, and SFB-1208 fighters, more X-1205s, and maybe even more Vulcan Patrol Corvettes. They had too few for either a proper defense or to maintain proper patrols. They had gaps in their coverage. Thankfully, Anchorage would provide them a base from which to launch, coordinate and maintain these patrols. The only question was, how many fighters would they need?

Countryman figured it would be hundreds, but that was all the more reason to get the industrial complex running. They had the materials, and his drifter representatives were already talking with their comrades back home. The start of a trade deal was already underway, one in which they would sell ships to the Drifters in exchange for industrial material, material that would in turn pay for his own ships and an expanding industrial complex. He was also selling them mines which would in turn help provide him with more war material. Countryman had gotten a good trade deal with that one, and from what he had heard the first shipments had been sent out under escort already, given the further travel distance they would not reach Anchorage until October. Countryman had been told to expect the first one on the 21st with following shipments arriving each week after that.

If things went to plan, they would be completing the first Destroyers for the Drifters in November. The Drifters would take them about a week after, where they would be escorted to a drifter yard for final fitting and deployment. The Drifters wanted to put their own weapon systems onboard so not all of their weapons would be fitted when he was done building them.

Countryman and the Council largely considered this a good deal. It would bring large amounts of valuable ores and materials to them, at profitable rates. More importantly, it would give them much-needed experience with ship construction which would in turn fuel their plans to build a fleet of their own.

Even with all the development projects they had been doing and the theoretical ability to do it, Countryman was well aware that they lacked actual experience in the area of large-scale ship construction. Oh sure they understood the principles and had the databases of old Earth, even had a few starship designers such as himself but a great deal of the people who actually did the work had died when Earth fell. Many of his engineers were inexperienced in the art of ship construction and design and this showed with the silly plans they had brought back. He still recalled the terrible design for the Battlehawk cruiser project they’d given him. Like Seriously!? Who would think putting THREE BATTLESHIP GRADE armor belts on a heavy cruiser was a good idea? The weight issues alone were self-evident in the simulation. He’d shot that one down real fast.

Now that they were building ships for the Drifters he planned to use the chance to educate his workforce in the finer aspects and more importantly obtain engineers who actually knew a thing or two so that they could suggest better design elements. If things went well, he’d be able to reactivate key design projects like Project Hammer and even maybe start considering activating Project Saber, he wasn’t sure about Battlehawk. A heavy cruiser would be valuable but the material issues in the storm would make it difficult to field many heavy cruisers. He knew the other factions preferred to recruit large ships to their side rather than build their own. Obviously building large hulls was difficult in the storm. It might be easier to hold off until they escaped for large-scale ship development. Countryman was honestly inclined to not even bother trying to build large ships at all and instead reserve the savings towards maintaining a fleet of smaller ships and working towards an escape plan.

More immediately however he had a war to fight, but that didn’t mean projects didn’t stop. Turning a corner, he walked past a few people, mostly scientists, busily moving from one project to another. Reaching the door he was heading for, he double-checked the panel noting that it read Computer Lab 43. Countryman smiled and thumbed the switch knowing this was exactly where he had wanted to go.

Stepping within, he looked around noting the rows of tables, some of them littered with random computer parts. Nearby was a bank of consoles with holographic displays and there was even a nano-fabricator stuffed in the corner. This lab was more or less setup for computer development and testing. Several young men and women were in the room working at the tables, while Ruri was settled on a stool near the main console bank.

She turned when he came in, “Jac! Glad you could make it.”

“So what did you want to discuss?”

She gestured to one of the women directing the scientists and then began, “Jade came to me with a proposal for a new generation of computers. I’ve seen her preliminary work, it looks promising. I’ve given her a few pointers and fixed a few errors. I’d like permission to work with her and get something going.”

Ruri paused and pulled something up, “I’ve already worked out a budget, and I think this would be big. Our sensors are taxing our computer resources quite a bit and we’ve been straining for more for a while.”

“A new generation computer? Hmm that could be useful alright, more powerful computers would pair well with the new sensors. Any idea how much power they would consume?”

Ruri smiled and then launched into a presentation on these new computers. Countryman listened intently as she covered all the key points and showed him the results of their early tests.

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  Walking down the corridor to his office, Countryman was ambushed by Samantha. “Captain! Just the man I was looking for.”

“Something I can help you with, Mrs Greyman?” Inquired Countryman as he turned to face her.

She drew a step closer and replied, “I’ve been thinking about my history classes. I wanted to revise the course for early twenty-first-century history. I figured I’d get your insights in the politics of the age and how they shaped the period.”

Countryman grimaced.

She blinked, “Was it something I said?”

“There is a reason they call that period the Age of Fools, and the politics? Shortsighted madness, corruption was rampant and everyone was pushing pet projects that existed only to look good but did nothing to solve problems. They destroyed the confidence of the people in their own governments leading to global civil war and a polarized world. In many respects, those idiots are basically responsible for World War Three.”

“I guess I can see your point on that, and speaking of the last world war. I did want your insights on it.”

“Can’t say too much about the war itself, I spent the war in a hospital on Luna.”

She moved against the wall and looked up, “I recall, something about an accident with antimatter.”

He nodded, “Yeah that was Kentoth and his damn issue with safety protocols, I was quite bitter about it at the time. I mean he nearly killed me, and I only survived because of the cybernetic surgeries I was given on Luna.”

“Right, well your misfortunes aside, what about after the war?”

“Well Earth was a very different place, over nine billion dead, no major cities, entire countries, entire cultures erased. I remember coming back to Earth after the war to find my hometown nothing more than a crater and many of my friends and family were dead. I’d survived the war but I wasn’t even fully human anymore.” he let out a breath, “and now I’m even less human than I was then, but I think that experience helped prepare me for the loss of Earth eight years ago.”

“You do?”

“I was a major player in 2085, well known and respected in many scientific and engineering circles. Yet you don’t see me in those circles again until 2108, did you ever wonder why I was so absent? I spent over two decades mourning and I wasn’t alone in that regard. Although at some point I did start helping rebuild.”

She blinked, “I don’t often hear people use that calendar.”

“If you wanted me to use the colonial calendar, you shouldn’t have opened with the 21st century.”

“Point noted,” she replied before taking a step, “Why don’t we find somewhere more comfortable? We can talk some more, I’m finding this useful so far.”

“Countryman chuckled, “Sure my office should be good and we can go over the education program as a whole. I figure we will need to be prepared with so many new births coming in. Ruri’s giving me projections that tell me our schools will be crowded in just a few years.”

“I’ve heard the same, which is why getting everything worked out is so important. I’ll be too busy later.”

Together the pair headed down to the office to discuss education