<Eridani Landing: 9 years 2 months 16 days>
Dodging to the side Diana avoided the attack, readjusting her weight she moved to counter. Keeping the metallic gauntlets on her arms in the correct position she expertly lashed out at the man in front of her. Sparks flew as he blocked the attack his arms protected by old model Terran armor.
Diana quickly moved her arm away and swung out at him again this time aiming for his chest hoping to knock him back and regain control of the fight. Her left foot slipped out of position and unable to recover she fell as her legs were swept out from under her. The servo enhanced punch that landed on her chest a millisecond later throwing her backwards through the air to the edge of the training mat didn’t help much with her plan to try and regain control.
Groaning Diana slowly stood back up her hands raised surrendering to the instructor.
“You’re getting better,” said Lt. James as he relaxed, the old suit letting out several small squeaks as he moved.
“Take off that armor and let’s really go at it,” said Diana as she stripped off the hot metal braces protecting her skin and tried to get her breath back.
Lt. James smiled, “Well then you would have the advantage.”
“I’d like to win at some point,” growled Diana.
The second instructor, who was eccentric enough to insist that the trainees address him by his old Martian call sign chuckled, “It’s not like any fight is ever fair in a war.”
Diana glared at him and slowly raising her hand flipped the man off. Ares only laughed and turned back to the student charging at him bellowing like a wild animal.
“Had enough for today?” asked Lt. James.
Diana stretched and felt several joints pop, “Yeah I’ve got maneuvers soon anyway,” she said.
Lt. James nodded and beckoned for the next student to step forward onto the mat. His suit hissed as it switched back into combat mode.
“Good luck,” said Diana as she passed Bruno when he stepped forward. The large trainee grinned and cracked his knuckles together. His enhancements were lent towards brute strength, even clad in the old combat armor Lt. James wouldn’t be able to rely on brute strength to win. Although the old guy wasn’t lacking in technique so Bruno was going to end up like Diana on the floor sore and not exactly sure what had happened.
Leaving the training hall Diana grabbed the ladder and pulled herself up, the gravity around her dramatically lessened and died as she rose until at the top she didn’t even need to hold onto the ladder. The training grounds were kept at a crushing 1.2 standard g’s just to make everyone work harder. It was murder on the joints though.
Floating down the hall Diana passed the other instructors and students of varying ages and through the displays in the sides of the walls emulating windows Diana paused for a moment to look at the gas giant Epsilon Eridani b, not that anyone ever called it that. To the inhabitants of the Fort and Bellona it was Big Blue.
Looking forward at the next structural node of the Fort Diana smiled, the HSB Canada had docked. She was the first battleship of the new fleet, having been launched a little over three years ago. Her parent’s had both worked on the construction and it was a crowning achievement for humanity. Just six years after evacuating the Sol system they had managed to build her.
The Canada was a flying brick in space, but her armor was thick and dense enough to take a direct hit from a Singer class beam weapon and survive.
Still smiling Diana quickly made her way to the airlock, “You smell like shit!” shouted a voice.
Diana twisted around behind her to see the young engineer of the Canada pulling a large crate of supplies behind him.
“We’re doing maneuvers, I don’t need to smell nice inside of a suit!” said Diana.
Looking around the man she inspected the contents of the crate, “You finally replacing those power regulators?” she asked identifying the components.
Derick nodded, “Yep, manufacturing finally got around to making a new batch no more botched wiring or overheating coils, hopefully.”
Diana drifted around so she was behind the crate.
“Well that’s good,” she said as the two maneuvered the box into the airlock.
Diana’s ears popped as the airlock cycled and with practiced ease she and Derick quickly navigated to the engineering section of the Canada. Diana had helped build the ship, and Derick had been running her for her entire service life they were comfortable in it.
“Diana?!” shouted an officer floating down the hall, Commander Young.
Diana turned around to look at the commander, “Yes?”
“You’re the one doing the maneuver runs today?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“I think I need to ask the Captain for a reassignment then,” said Cmdr. Young.
“You didn’t have fun last time?” asked Diana.
“No, you need a challenge, you’ve blown through the last few maneuvers to easily. I’m sure I could convince the Captain of the Australia to let me commandeer her for the exercise,” said Cmdr. Young.
Diana smiled, “That would be fun, but are you sure you could take the humiliation of losing to a trainee?”
Derick groaned, “Please don’t egg her on! I had to replace half the ships relays after the last drill.”
~~~
~~~
Startled from the sudden impact to the back of his head Ben quickly looked up.
“Your turn!” said Megan the tablet she had hit him with still held in her hand.
Bleary eyed Ben turned to look at the assembled student’s. Rolling to his feet Ben glanced at where Megan was in the lecture.
Megan quickly took the seat he had been in, and within moments replicated his earlier posture quickly dropping off to sleep.
“Who wants to tell me why the magnetic fluctuations inside of the contained plasma is an important aspect of the energy redirection?” asked Ben seamlessly picking up where she had left off, the students were used to this particular trick by now but it still amazed them how the two engineers were in sync enough to do it.
The class was predictably silent, none of the students willing to venture and answer on the subject.
“Anyone?” asked Ben.
A student in the front row raised his hand, “The magnetic properties of the plasma is a significant weakness in any technology which uses it, if the magnetic containment is ruined the results can be catastrophic.”
“Good, thank you Jeremy,” Said Ben, and he raised his hand touching his thumb and forefinger together sending a small blast of electromagnetic energy at the student, who winced and clutched at the side of his head.
“Next time try not to quote directly from my reports,” Ben raised his voice to address the rest of the class, “Do not become dependent on your cybernetics, they are an aid! If I can knock them out here in the classroom what do you think might happen in the battlefield?”
The student looking suitably chastised sunk down into his seat slightly, but was spared from any further embarrassment by the chime on everyone’s link signifying the end of the class period.
Ben glanced down at his link and then back at Megan.
Moving forward he placed his foot on the chair intending to move it away from the desk and dump her on the floor but he was instead treated only to a crushed set of toes as Megan lifted the chair slightly and brought it down on his foot without opening her eyes.
Ben winched but didn’t say anything about them, “Seriously? You wake me up just to do the last two minutes of the class?”
Megan turned to look up at him, “It’s two more minutes of sleep for me,” she groaned, “The things taking it all out of me!”
Ben and Megan’s links both chimed, “Professors, your latest analysis has completed,” said Arik.
“Thank you Arik, we’ll be at the lab soon,” said Megan.
“Yeah, thanks. Could you actually get around to fixing my casing?” asked Arik.
“I said I would get to it,” grumbled Ben.
“You said that over a week ago, I’d prefer not to rust out,” said Arik.
“You won’t rust,” said Ben, “Your case is built out of the same stuff as ship armor.”
“You know what I mean!” said Arik irritated, “It looks bad!”
The engineer and the irritable intelligence continued to argue. Megan patently ignored the two of them as they got up and exited the classroom walking deeper into the base in the middle of the Bellona colony. Guards quickly disengaged safeties and electronic countermeasures as they approached.
Walking into the lab that the two of them had shared for the past seven years Ben went over to the case containing Arik’s brain and upper spinal column, all that was left of the girl after her accident.
Her body had been eaten away by the first batch of nano-machines that had been manufactured on Bellona. She had gone in to get a routine injection at the age of four, and had ended up losing most of her body. Only the incredibly redundant coding in the nano-machines had prevented them from consuming her nervous system like they had the rest of her body.
With the combination of the most advanced cybernetics and other treatments she was now one of the key military assets of Humanity. She was not an AI but neither was she human, her cybernetics taking up just over half of her brain. In all practicality though she was just another individual on the base, an incredibly industrious one only ever heard through a communicator or seen on a monitor but still just another person.
“Stop that!” said Arik. The robotic arm at the workstation nearest her case swung around towards Ben but he deftly dodged out of the way.
Ben stepped away from the irate teenager and turned back to the main section of the lab where the basic frame of the Singer class fighter lay. They had slowly disassembled it over a six month period once the lab had been set up, and over the past six years they had been trying to understand how the hell the thing worked.
Other engineers and specialists studied components taken from the frame in other labs. The main skeleton of the ship however resided in their lab. As best as they could tell the frame included the drive system as well as the all-important shields.
They had for the past five years been studying the devices in hopes of retro engineering a facsimile, or at least figure out how they worked. They had limited success in duplicating the shields, and nothing that would match the aliens.
“The results?” asked Ben as he sat down at his cluttered workstation.
“The latest countermeasure has had no effect on the degradation, the percentage remains steady at 22.135%”
Ben swore.
Megan tried to keep her calm for a moment before lashing out and hitting the table in front of her sending several delicate components flying across the room.
“God damn it! Five months down the drain!” she shouted.
Reaching up she tore off her shirt and turned to Ben, “get this damn thing off me!” she growled.
Ben slowly got up from his chair, Megan turned around and Ben slowly began to undo the metallic lattice that was covering her torso. The thing was a complex array of microscopic needles and wires that had for the past month been embedded in Megan’s skin. The device was working to combat the degrading effects of the Subspace jaunts they had taken on the Yamato by projecting an electrostatic field throughout her body in another of a long line of attempts to stop the degrading effects.
The matter that made up their bodies was slowly breaking down at the quantum level. The other colonists of Bellona had only been exposed to a single Subspace jaunt and a more controlled one at that, with an FTL drive that had been designed to limit the harmful effects they had lost only perhaps a month off of their lives.
Ben and Megan both had only another few years, five at most. When the general life expectancy was near 150 living to only their 40’s would rob them of more than two thirds of their lives, and leave most of their work unfinished.
Megan winced as Ben peeled the thing off, small pinpricks of blood welled up as he finished removing the section on her shoulder blades. Placing it aside he started on the lower back.
“I can make another request to the council for more resources,” said Arik.
Megan shook her head, “It’s not like it will do anything, physicians can’t treat something at the quantum level and the physicists we have are nowhere near as talented at Dr. Lincoln, they’ll just deny funding and resources again,” Said Megan.
Megan turned around and Ben’s eyes were momentarily drawn away from the metal bands on her skin.
“Ben…” Megan trailed off her voice threatening.
“What? I can’t look?” he asked.
“You may look after you take this infernal contraption off!” said Megan as she glared at him.
Ben chuckled and quickly began to pull the bands off of Megan. More pinpricks of blood welled up from her skin and getting a cloth Ben carefully wiped them away from her skin.
He and Megan had been together since the landing on Bellona, not that they really had the opportunity to do much of anything. Normal couple activities for them entailed building colonies, tearing apart alien technology and building interstellar battleships, going out for coffee hadn’t exactly been top priority.
No one had really had time for dating or marriage in the traditional sense. Everyone was too busy trying to survive and make sure that humanity continued to live on, that’s not to say couples didn’t form. The stress on the entirety of humanity was more than enough of an incentive for many to fall back on the more ancient methods of stress relief. With the last census showing that there were only 40,000 humans on Bellona and her satellites the behavior was hardly discouraged.
Taking the final piece of the useless contraption off of Megan Ben set it aside and stripping off his own shirt turned around, Megan quickly began stripping the bands off of him. Within moments he was able to breathe again for the first time in a month. They had put themselves through all of that pain for nothing.
The two of them were then both free of the constrictive metallic restraints they had been experimenting with for over a month, and topless.
Arik blacked out her visual feed to the room and moved to perform other operations as the two engineers moved towards one another, a rather inappropriate glint in their eyes.
~~~
~~~
Diana winced as the tactical display began to flash, “Helm evasive maneuvers take us in closer to Big Blue.”
The shot from the enemy skimmed past the armor of the Canada, the computer reported minimal damage, and Diana ground her teeth in frustration. Logistics had already extrapolated the shot backwards trying to find the enemy ship but it was absent from its expected location and more shots were beginning to rain down on her.
Diana was sitting at the Captain’s post of the Canada directing her crew, the simulation was to test her ability to command in a tactical situation, not on the ability of the crew to carry out such commands. The computers of both ships were only firing off virtual salvos in their attempts to ‘destroy’ one another.
The shots continued to rain down on the Canada though even as they retreated towards the gas giant in an attempt to limit the firing arc of the enemy craft the idea being that the enemy couldn’t fire anything but classical missiles inside of an atmosphere. Anything from an accelerator rail would burn up or be detected soon enough to dodge it inside an atmosphere.
“Tactical, where are the shots coming from?” asked Diana.
“They appear to be coming directly from deep space, but they have lost a majority of their kinetic energy!”
Diana frowned, there was no reason for the enemy to be pulling shots, especially in a simulation where the worst a ship would suffer was a scratched paint job when they docked with the Fort.
An alarm went off and Diana turned back to the tactical display cursing, now the underbelly of the ship was being hit, and with enough force that the computer was reporting that the entire engineering section of the Canada had opened up to space and main power was offline.
Within moments another dozen accelerated rounds hit the ship and the computer reported mission failure. The lights reset and Diana groaned realizing to late what had happened.
The display in front of her flashed on and the Commander Young’s face appeared.
“You lose,” he said.
Diana stared at him for a moment but then nodded, “You still had the Canada’s transponder codes and you were tracking us even off sensors and firing up from below in a high parabolic arc, counting on Big Blue’s acceleration to drag the rounds back down into us.”
Cmdr. Young nodded, “Yep, effective too it would seem. You had the right idea retreating into an atmosphere to limit where the enemy could fire from and remain anonymous, but it’s not very effective when the enemy’s already below you.”
Dianna sighed, “Advanced Intelligence will almost always trump brute force or clever tactics,” she said.
“How did you convince Captain Hale to let you take his ship into a gas giant?” asked Captain Stagg drifting forwards to question her first officer, “I would have certainly not allowed such a dangerous tactic just for a test.”
Cmdr. Young grimaced, “I’m running the new trainee program for him next week.”
Captain Stagg rolled her eyes, “All of this just to make sure that Diana lost?” she asked.
The Commander shrugged smiling, “Figure she could stand having her ego deflated considering she’s flounced almost everyone else in the simulations.”
“When they weren’t cheating by using their knowledge of this enemy ships transponder frequencies,” growled Diana as she pushed herself up and out of the captain’s chair letting Stagg take her proper place on the bridge.
“Hey, you almost figured it out in time! A few seconds faster and you would have had us, knock out our engines inside the atmosphere like we were and down we go!” said Cmdr. Young, “We old guys have to be creative given that all the trainees these days have those genetic and cybernetic mods!” he said.
Diana glared at the man pouting much like the child she had been nearly ten years ago. She did not like to lose.
~~~
~~~
Standing stock still Vann let the handmaidens and other attendants rush about him, expertly affixing the armor and other ornaments to him.
“I’m not sure why insist on doing this sir, we’re not completely sure if the ground is secured,” said Marcus.
Vann grinned and looked over at his Consul, “That’s why I have armor, I doubt anything is going to be able to punch through this without a fair bit of warning,” said Vann tapping the armor triggering a small rippled in the electric shields that were being utilized in the frame.
The young emperor turned to his Consul shaking off the last few attendants who were simply fussing, “I’m not going to sit idly inside the dreadnaught, these people fought valiantly but lost. They should be honored for that accomplishment, they will make a powerful addition to the Empire,” said Vann remembering the words his grandfather had used when he conquered a planet.
Marcus bowed his head, “That they will, the rarities the world has to offer are numerous, including several new plant variants.”
“They are within the limits?” asked Vann.
Marcus nodded, “With barely a .1% deviance,”
“Interesting.”
Stepping away from the mirror Vann made his way out of his quarters, Marcus and the rest of his entourage in tow behind him.
The crew dutifully saluted as he passed them by in the corridor, the Garin was the flagship of the first Imperial fleet, and served as his personal transportation among the stars. Equipped with the most advanced tactical systems, luxuries, and experienced crew she was a force to be reckoned with.
Stepping into the cargo bay Vann pulled his communicator out of his armor.
“Captain, if you would lower the gangplank.”
“Yes sir!” said the Captain.
The hatch in front of Vann and his cohort squealed for a moment as the pressures equalized and then slowly began to move down.
Vann got his first look at the planet he had been reading reports on for months, it was an impressive sight even considering the damage that the pointless war had wrought on it. The buildings were still impressive, the sky still a vibrant blue, only the ash and debris on the ground showed that there had been any form of conflict.
As Vann stepped out the two regiments already flanking the sides of the massive Garin snapped to attention. Vann looked the men over, it was not his usual honor guard but instead the soldiers whom had secured the world for the Empire who were standing at attention, despite the injuries that many of them had seemed to suffer.
Walking slowly down the ramp Vann kept his head pointed forward presenting himself as regally as possible. His eyes were flicking in every direction taking in the sites, he had never visited a planet like this one before. The structures were all off wrong in some way.
The battalions fell into step beside him and the whole procession began to slowly move down the street towards the opposing force on the opposite side. The air was silent for the most part, and looking up into the buildings on either side Vann could see the citizens of the planet looking out at him from their abodes.
He smiled up at them, but few inhabitants smiled back. Not surprising, they were a Class B species after all, they still needed to be corrected.
Shaking his head slightly Vann looked at the opposing command structure, or rather what was left of it. A ragtag collection of military men and politicians. Vann was slightly off put by the oddness of their skin, a darker red than what was normal almost black in color. Still they were a Class B species so that was expected. Under the Empires guidance the variance in their skin would be corrected, and eventually sometime in the future they would be renamed a Class A species and would be welcomed into the Empire proper.
As the two groups met on what Vann assumed was the steps of their government building he was disconcerted as the other officials did not salute.
Vann covered his surprise well though, they had yet to learn what was proper for now such digressions were understandable.
“You will pay your respects to the Emperor!” growled Marcus from behind him.
An old man in the front of the opposite group looked at Marcus and then back a Vann, “This is your leader? He is naught but a child and he has no experience in his eyes. You expect me to pay my respects to him? Someone who did not step onto the battlefield to fight?”
The old man stepped forward his hand reaching out for Vann, immediately the guards to either side of him took action, letting loose two small beams of energy cutting through the old man dropping him to the ground with only a dull thud.
Vann took a small step backwards somewhat stunned by the quickness of the events.
“Does anyone else wish to reconsider and pay their proper respects?” asked Marcus stepping forward in front of the young Emperor.
The assembled politicians and military personnel slowly raised their hands and placed them over their eyes bowing their heads slightly to the young man.
It took Vann a moment to recover and remember what the proper phrase was, the same phrase that every one of his ancestors had uttered when brining a new species into the Empire’s ranks. Moving forward he took his place again trying to ignore the corpse at his feet, “I welcome you to the Empire.”
~~~
~~~
Leaning forward Yuka ripped the small weed from the flower bed and set it in the basket next to her, adding to the already substantial pile. She had been working outside almost all day pulling up the weeds, but the air was cool and the sun above the Dorvakian home world was pleasant. It had been a boring task but rewarding to see the garden which had been so wild brought under control.
“Yuka we’re done for today,” said Charles as he straightened up next to her throwing another weed onto the pile.
The Class B woman stood and dusted off her clothes.
“If that’s all then, I’ll be going,” she said.
Charles shook his head, “Let me at least get you something to drink first.”
Yuka didn’t bother to argue with the old man, he was different in many regards than any of the other class A citizens she interacted with. He treated her as if she were class A, and he easily ignored the extra digit she had on her hands.
Yuka wasn’t quite sure what to make of the man, at points he would act as if he hadn’t a care in the world, and other times she would have to drag the bottle away from him as he tried to drown his sorrows whatever they were away.
From what little she had been able to piece together the man had no family, and although he had at some point been a part of the Imperial Military he had been discharged, now he simply lived off of his retirement.
Stepping into the home Yuka let her eyes wonder, he hadn’t yet made a mess of the place but in a week or so she would have to reorganize everything. Charles was kind but he made a mess of things easily.
“Apen juice or water?” asked Charles as he reached into his cooling unit drawing out a container of each.
“Just water,” said Yuka.
The man poured the drink and placed the glass in front of her. Yuka gratefully took it and controlling herself only took a small sip to begin with. The water was better than anything she was able to get in the compound, and she was trying to savor it.
Charles poured himself a cup of the juice and sat down.
For a moment the two of them silently drank, relaxing after the day of work in the yard.
“The Fighting on with B854 has stopped, they’re being brought into the Empire,” said Yuka unsure of what else to talk about she simply picked a random news topic.
Charles stiffened and looked over at her, “Well that’s wonderful for the Empire then,” he growled.
Yuka blinked, unsure what to make of the older man’s tone, he seemed to have forgotten she was in the room though his hand moving to trace the scar on his hand. It was an ugly twisted thing that as far as she could tell went all the way up to his shoulder in a knotted line.
“You aren’t happy?” asked Yuka.
Charles turned around to look at her and snorted, “What good citizen of the Empire wouldn’t be happy? We’ve brought another deviant race under our command, and under our tutelage they will become perfect just like us!”
Charles put his arms out the juice in his glass spilling from the movement, “Who the hell wouldn’t want to be perfect!?” he almost shouted. Yuka backed away from him slightly and the old man’s eyes seemed to refocus.
He let out a sigh and slowly put the glass back down on the table.
“I want you to come over tomorrow at midday, we’re going to be cleaning something.”
Yuka nodded and taking a few more hurried gulps from her glass put it down on the counter and quickly made her exit, not precisely afraid of anything the man might do but rather what he might say.