Collection 22 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 22

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Claybrooke, Free Worlds League

3002 November

With the promise given to Amy about explaining everything after her first baby was born (because I had no doubt that it wouldn’t be their only one), I needed to be able to deliver any promise that I make to them.

To that end, I got the fleet to go back to Claybrooke where I had mining rights and set us up to start mining, refining, and manufacturing. 

Manufacturing what? 

Droneships.

Over the course of a month, I managed to build up on the mining drone and Wasp interceptor drone’s basic softwares to something more flexible and reactive as well as capable of multi-tasking and robust. Modeled after the droneships found in Persean Sector (Starsector), I also made the blueprint for the Glimmer-class droneship and installed it into the microforge. It wouldn’t have any special systems that most Starsector ships had, and it wouldn’t come with Persean Sector weapons. It would, however, be smaller than the Achilles-class Assault Dropship but have more armors and weapons than the Achilles on top of being faster, more maneuverable, and equipped with energy shields. It would be a nasty surprise for anyone who might think that a warship would be good enough to deal with my fleet. 

They would be mere stopgap measures. It was one thing for me to command a fleet of ships. It would be another to command full-size warships, which was what I intended to do eventually. 

I needed to start investing my Inspired Inventor points into software development, not just the hardwares that I have been so heavily focusing on. 

So. The Glimmer. It would have only laser weapons as to remove some strain on its simple targeting software. Less moving parts also meant less maintenance. 

“Ed, I think the chassis on this one is done!” Armas called out from a screen above my head.

I looked up from the screen where I have been watching the mining drones (they had a minor hiccup) and toward the screen above my head. That screen showed the vacuum construction site built on top of the new cargo hold on Solo Killing. 

The disc-like gray chassis of the droneship that was just a bit bigger than Humpty Dumpty indeed looked ready for the next step of the construction. 

“Alright. I’m moving the construction drones in.”

I began the construction of that droneship just two weeks ago, but it was nearing completion already since I had all of the internal parts made as its chassis was being made. With the chassis complete, all I had to do with fit all of the parts in. The great thing about drones and droneship was that I didn’t need to factor in human compatibility, which removed a lot of parts. Again, less parts, less maintenance. 

I mean, for emergency, I intended to put in a barely tight cockpit and living quarters that was no more than one hundred square feet (including the toilet, rations, and a bedroll, not a bed). The cockpit wouldn’t work unless proper authentication procedure went through, because the droneship was supposed to take all orders from Solo Killing primarily, and Humpty Dumpty if something awful happened to SK. 

Anyways, this was the planned stat of the Glimmers. 

Glimmer-Class Droneship

Class: Corvette

Tech Base: Inner Sphere - Persean Sector

Cost: ~1,000,000,000 C-Bills

Mass: 75,000 tons

LWH: 160, 140, 35 meters

Safe Thrust: 10 G

Max Thrust: 20 G

Safe Turn: 1 rad per second

Max Turn: 1.77 rads per second

Armor: 150 tons of Titanium Diborite

Armament: 6x Naval Laser 35, 10x Rapidfire Large Laser, 20x Rapidfire Medium Laser

Crew: 0

Escape Pod: 1

Heat Sinks: 200 singles

Engine: 1x EMFE-1K, 1x EMFE-1KX

FTL: Yes, New Eden Warp Drive

The EMFE’s were fusion engines of my design, which I took cues from Inner Sphere tech, Persean tech, and New Eden tech. For the same size and weight as Inner Sphere fusion engines, my engines performed at around 229% of IS fusion engine. The EMFE-1K was capable of running Solo Killing all by itself and do more, but I added it to the Glimmer as an auxiliary engine rather than the primary. The primary was the EMFE-1KX, or Ed.Marris Fusion Engine - 1000 X. It was just 50% larger fusion engine with corresponding energy output. 

Most of those components - from fusion engine and thrusters to armaments and armor plates - were ready to be installed. 

And once my first Glimmer-class droneship was completed, I intended to get right onto making another one. 

I wondered how ComStar would react to my pocket warships? 

Right at the moment, Inspired Inventor pinged me with another point to spend. I dumped that right into AI Software Development. 

-VB-

Catherine Humphreys

Andurien, Duchy of Andurien, Free Worlds League

3002 December

Catherine placidly stared at the video that was slowly circulating among the military types in the Free Worlds League. It was a brief holovid. 

And yet, it was slowly creating a shockwave as people began to realize what they were seeing. 

A military power armor. 

More than that, it was a streamlined version that wasn’t bulky, moved quickly, and had enough protection to ignore a barrage of lasers from a crew defending their dropship. The reason wy this wasn’t being raised faster up the chain of command was because most people who realized what they saw passed it off as a fiction being passed off as real. 

Except, from what she was hearing alongside the holovid, this was very very much a real deal. 

“And you are sure of this?” she asked her.

The MRB agent nodded. “Yes, duchess. This is the video that was submitted, and MRB’s own inspection of the dropship prior to its handover to the mercenary commander confirm it.”

“Then you are saying that someone out there made a viable power armor…”

“I am, duchess. The regional MRB is suppressing the news in the hopes that it will delay a breakout of high intensity warfare. We may be neutral, but we also do not see any sort of high intensity war going well for us, especially if there is a repeat of the Second Succession War’s technology denial tactics come into play.”

And the old agent was right about that. Why, the Capellans alone would nuke her worlds if they thought there was even a chance of one of her worlds harboring a factory for power armor. Power armor might not change the entire course of a war but it surely will affect that course. 

And it was something she might be able to use for herself. 

“And this mercenary command has been missing for the past two months?”

“Yes, duchess. They flew out of your duchy toward Claybrooke and have not been seen since.”

Catherine wondered if the mercenary commander was trying to let the heat die down. It would be the smart move… but a mercenary commander with ships like his, supposedly handcrafted by the commander himself, wouldn’t feel the need to lay low, not unless he believed that he had invited the attention of people best kept away. 

Like the Capellans. 

Or ComStar.

Nobody among the Free Worlds League’s top military, political, and social circles trusted ComStar, and if that was the reason why the commander was laying low, then good for him.

Not so good for her because she would have to wait like everyone else despite having been the closest to the commander and with enough power at her side to possibly bring him under her banner.

She sighed. She’ll have to wait like everyone else until he showed up.

“Very well. Thank you, Daniel.”

“No need to thank me… Catherine,” he grinned. “What are childhood friends for?”

She rolled her eyes. “I still can’t believe you decided to be a paper pusher after retiring. What do your children think about this?”

He shrugged. “As far as they are concerned, I’m living the high life.”

She barks out a laugh.” Ah, yes. The high life of dealing with mercenaries on … a mostly unimportant world.”

“Hey, Cursa is great! As long as you don’t visit the Trash Continent.”

“Daniel. The people there have trouble growing food.”

“We got better at it.”

“I’m sure.”

-VB-

Ivan Detkov, Precentor Kendall

Kendall, Free Worlds League

3003 January

Dainava.

It was a good drink. A good Lithuanian drink for a world with many Lithuanians, himself included. 

And there was a reason why a precentor was drinking a shot of dainava, a drink of slightly sour, slightly bittersweet, and an overall a complex flavor, during his work hours. 

See, ComStar knew things and people who knew things tended to tell other people who knew things. For ComStar, this mostly included those who were in the know or in a specific faction.

Because, of course, even ComStar had internal political factions. There was no getting away from factions. In his early years, he had tried to be neutral, but, well, neither side took kindly to such a stance. 

And so, despite being good enough to be a precentor on his merit, he found himself kicked to the near periphery in the form of becoming Precentor Kendall, a breadbasket world that sometimes saw pirate raids that came way too close for comfort toward the HPG station on more than one occasion. 

Why was this a problem for Ivan?

Because, of course, he was getting shat on from above. 

Why didn’t he report the scarily competent citizen of Kendall who took out an entire dropship of pirates? 

Why didn’t he raise the alarm for the obviously non-standard technology that the now mercenary showed? 

On and on and on.

Of course, most of the people asking these pointed questions were the religious fanatics. The ones who actually said “Blessed Blake” and meant it. 

Because, of course, a good Lithuanian man had gone out to space and earned himself glory. Edward Arlaoskas had, apparently, over the course of three years, traveled the outer edge of the Free Worlds League and the Magistracy of Canopus, fighting off pirates like a good man.

And, well, the good man had gone and gotten ComStar and - most unfortunately - ROM’s attention. His obvious and mysterious upgrades to his dropship, autonomous void fighters, and recently unveiled power armor made that attention stick. 

He, being Precentor Kendall, the precentor of the mercenary’s homeworld, had been notified to keep a lookout for the potential return of the mercenary since his disappearance three months ago. 

And, well, of course the mercenary came back.

Unfortunately for him, the mercenary came back home with more ships. A whole wing of them, in fact. 

Ivan took another shot of dainava before looking at the computer screen showing what the astronomers could see from Kendall. It was a formation of eight ships with only one of them large enough to be categorized as a jumpship… or a pocket warship. This ship, he knew, was christened Solo Killing. The second largest, probably the ship modified and christened Humpty Dumpty, was not even half the size of the pocket warship but had way too many bays for its size and could tango with the likes of Vengeance or Achilles dropships.

What made him drink, though, were the other six ships. They were all disc-like, though slightly heavier towards the rear than being a circular disc. And from what the astronomers could identify, each of those ships carried way too many weapons, including some that many had thought lost. 

Because Naval Lasers weren’t supposed to be in the hands of anyone but ComStar.

He let out a sigh of frustration as he poured himself another shot. 

His instruction had been clear: to get in contact with the mercenary commander and try to convince him to consider ComStar as an employer. And if that failed, then to report to ROM of his failure and wait for instruction. 

It was obvious to him what the First Circuit wanted to do.

‘Just another child of Kendall sacrificed on the alter of someone else’s ideology,’ he thought bitterly.

And took another shot.