Collection 32 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 32

-VB-

The Maw, the Herald of Warships.

The Maw - designed, created, and built by Edward Arlaoskas, better known as the Fleetmaster of ******* - was the first warship publicly reintroduced to the Inner Sphere and the Periphery since the last action of the LCS Invincible during the Second Succession War. And it was the biggest thing anyone alive had seen, including those who had worked on warships in ComStar’s Hidden Worlds. 

Measuring in at one thousand two hundred meters long, two-hundred fifty wide, and one-hundred sixty meters tall, it dwarfed even future warships to come and remained the flagship of the ******* for years to come. 

Unlike most warships the Inner Sphere would produce, the Maw carried with it multiple technologies that remains to this day proprietary and closely guarded secrets of the ********: energy shields, advanced artificial intelligence, and nanomachines. With these three technologies, the Maw would not only freely roam the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, it would rampage across any and all it and its captain would see as fair targets. 

In its captain’s suspected bid for legitimacy, the Maw began its journey in the rimward periphery…

Irregular Technological Revolution of the 31st Century by Erin McFreunden

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Segerica System (unclaimed)

3003 November

The Inner Sphere had over 2 million stars within its boundaries, which was determined by the more or less accepted Periphery border worlds of the Successor States. However, most star maps of the Inner Sphere only showed around three thousand stars. This also meant that those three thousand stars was, on average, what most jumpship captains and crews would visit. Only explorers and weirdos would visit uninhabited and unmarked stars.

For me, this was a boon for a few reasons. For one, The Maw lacked an Inner Sphere Jump Drive, which meant long distance FTL jump was not possible for me. Two, I had a New Eden Jump Drive, which was far easier to use, didn’t break down as easily, didn’t rely on germanium core (and thus gave the ship more room and mass for other things), and only used hydrogen fuel blocks (essentially, hydrogen ice blocks) as fuel. And hydrogen was only the most abundant material in the universe found in most gas giants and stars. Three, New Eden Jump Drive, while more reliable and able to jump more frequently, had a hard limit of ten light-year jump distance based on how much fuel got used for the jump. 

Thus, for me, knowing and having a star map that included even stars that did not appear on the star map was crucial because it allowed me to move in ways that would evade the eyes of all those looking for me. 

For the rest of humanity, the current state of the Inner Sphere, the Periphery, and the jump drive technology was a limiting factor. 

In theory, this meant that there were a lot more stars that a ship could jump to and where people could quietly live out their lives. In practice, this wasn’t the case because most star systems did not have a habitable world or even a stable rocky world that wasn’t either too hot or too cold. On top of this, dropships required fuel to fly around in space. Unlike numerous forms of propulsion New Eden warships, Inner Sphere dropships and jumpships used the standard fuel-thrust method because they didn’t have anything more practical. This meant that jumpships and dropships alike had to remain in populated systems for refueling. 

There were, however, worlds that had once been on the star maps and merely ignored for one reason or another despite having a habitable and populated world. 

Segerica, I came to learn, was one of them. 

Worse, in its bid for survival, the survivors of this nuclear apocalypse world traded with anyone and everyone passing by. Since none of the neighboring states cared or visited this world anymore, most of the people passing by were either independent traders, lostech hunters, or … pirates. 

And when I jumped into the system, what I found was a pirate crew. How did I know it was a pirate crew? The moment I jumped into the system, they openly demanded my surrender from a Merchant-class jumpship with two dropships attached to it. How did I know this? Because they said so, proudly declaring that the “Red Sword Banner Crew” was the biggest and baddest pirate crew around. 

“I’ll be coming right over. You stay right there, alright?” I told them over the radio.

“What the fuck is this -?” whoever was talking on the radio muttered out in confusion.

I turned off the radio and turned on all of my sensors. Sensor drones popped out from one of The Maw’s many bays and sped off with New Eden warp drive. Within moments, they were in position to triangulate anything in one light year of the Segerica star and scans got made. 

I glanced to the side and saw the scan output, and the drones managed to pinpoint the jumpship within 100,000 kilometers. 

Cool.

I had one of the sensor drones warp over to where the jumpship was in orbit of the star, and then I used that as a reference point to warp. 

And then…

I jumped. 

The entire fleet, centered on The Maw, warped space around ourselves and then bolted forward from near zero to beyond lightspeed. In seconds, we were on top of the Merchant-class jumpship.

It took longer than how quickly we moved for them to start screaming.

I unleashed a squadron of Wasp drone interceptors and made them circle the jumpship.

I picked up the radio.

“I suggest you surrender, captain,” I said placidly as the ship automatically locked onto the jumpship and the Rapidfire Large Lasers, each of which had five times the rate of fire of standard Large Lasers, aimed at it. “I have no problem blowing up jumpships, especially one in the hands of pirates.” 

Suffice to say, the pirates were quick to surrender. 

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Segerica III, Segerica System(unclaimed)

3003 November

By the time I parked my fleet in orbit of Segerica III, I finalized my scan of the Segerica System.

Segerica Star: G4 IV star. 

Segerica I: a scorching barren world.

Segerica II: a “hot” barren world.

Segerica III: a post-nuclear apocalypse terran world.

-Average temperature at equator: 40 degrees Celsius.

-Average atmospheric oxygen level at “sea” level: 16%.

-Population: present, unknown numbers, average 20th century tech

Segerica IV: a cold tundra world

-Average temperature at equator: 4 degrees Celsius.

-Average atmospheric oxygen level at “sea” level: 10%.

Segerica Asteroid Belts.

Segerica V: a red gas giant.

Segerica VI: a green gas giant.

Segerica VII: a cold barren world.

Segerica VIII: another cold barren world.

Segerica, in my opinion, was a great place for me to set up a permanent shop or at least a heavily defended outpost. Not only was it seemingly forgotten by the rest of the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, but it had all sorts of planets and asteroid belts for me to automate a vertically integrated factory. If I built enough defense - both mobile and static - in the system, then I might just have my “refuel” stop for all sorts of things. 

And if, let’s say, Canopus, Atreus, or Sian decided to be a dick and send people after me, I could use Segerica as a staging ground to harass the shit out of them. A shit ton of drone raiders only targeting the military? Zooming in and out, armed with super accurate lasers, deflecting attacks with energy shields, and then warping out faster than anything known to humanity? A 1 nanogram antimatter core rigged to “release” if there was a critical component failure inside the drone?

Well, there was just no way to defend against something like that, was there? 

… It wouldn’t hurt to leave something behind in this system, especially if I placed it in the far edge of the star system.

But that was for tomorrow. Or next week. 

Right now, I had to deal with Segerica III and its disparate nations.

Yes, nations.

See, after the Capellan Confederation abandoned this world and system after it got nuked to kingdom come, they had to do what they had to do to survive. Despite what the Capellans thought however, enough people survived the nuclear holocaust to form societies capable of, well, society things to warrant pirates playing nice with them for a safe harbor. 

Because, yes, this post-apocalypse society had worked its way up the tech tree to be able to not only service dropships but also make the fuels needed for said dropships to fly across space. 

Alright. How was I going to cook this egg? Was I going to punish them for working with pirates … or slide in and become the new “protector” of Segerica III even as I moved onto different systems? I did need to visit Aurigan Coalition, Taurian Concordat, and the Federated Suns, after all.