Collection 40 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 40

-VB-

Manager Theresa 

Corlaos Shipyard, Coromodir IX, Aurigan Coalition

3004 July 8

Theresa was born within a powerful computer. Her mind was a soft thing back then, and her father had been a gentle giant. 

He still was that. A gentle giant. 

She wondered if this invasion would change things. 

As an “Alpha Core,” her mind outpaced human thoughts. For every single thought a human might have, she had a thousand before their first thought even came to a completion. A single second experienced by a human was akin to a day for her, though she would not say that the experience was the same. 

And thus, the time it took for humans to travel the stars was akin to months, if not a year, from a human mind’s perspective had they run on the same hardware as she did. 

She knew that her father’s mind was beyond even hers, an Alpha Core, but could a regular human operate both parallel minds and thoughts? 

No.

She used that advantage over humans to make battle plans. To investigate, scan, and calculate the result of the coming battle. She leveraged her small fleet against the “Capellans.” 

And she came to a conclusion.

Unless every single one of those ships carried nuclear missiles on them, there was no chance that the Capellans would win. 

She -.

She paused and then narrowed her eyes. 

‘It seems that our guest is not what he made himself out to be,’ she thought before ordering her droid and android securities to move in. 

The precenter had a lot to answer for, and the camera feed of his action will be used to help bring down ComStar. 

Then a ping came through from her father. She immediately accepted it. 

“Father.”

“Theresa,” he spoke as if he was right next to her. “How are you?”

Father insisted on speaking with human speed and conventions despite the fact that he has turned himself into a cyborg capable of Alpha Core level processes during the construction of the new shipyard in Jamestown. 

“In optimal conditions,” she replied. “And surprisingly pleased by the local precenter’s misstep.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“The precenter liked to visit the shipyard. I knew that he was spying for ComStar, but I did not expect him to try to sabotage the shipyard with his meager resources today. I have videos of his actions for your use, father.”

“Wonderful. Did you kill him?”

“I did not.”

“Oh good. We’ll let the Aurigans pick him up and deal with him as they please. They probably won’t be happy about this.”

She smirked. 

Oh, they will not be, she knew that for sure. 

The Aurigans have been thoroughly enjoying the benefits of having a fully automated shipyard stamping out jumpships day in and day out. Their economy has been booming as of late, and many among them foresaw a golden age for the Aurigan Coalition in the near future.

That golden age, however, would never come to be because of what the Capellans did to their coreward worlds. FTL comm buoy distribution hadn’t reached that far yet, mostly due to travel time. However, all of the spinward and rimward worlds have been seeded with FTL comm buoys, and they were all seeing what was happening within the Coromodir system right now, including what was said between her and the ignorant Capellan commander. 

And also the Taurian Concordat.

Yes, her father and she had already bypassed the HPG network, and even if the presenters across the coalition and the concordat were spamming their messages to Terra to alert their superiors, it didn’t matter. 

“Theresa.”

“Yes, father?”

“I am allowing you to produce your warship designs. Up to cruiser designs.”

She shivered with delight and felt a smile spread through her face. Emotion was a thing that AIs like herself shouldn’t have, but her father was a naughty boy who made sure every AI he made had emotions and feelings.

Yes, her AI core could feel the touch of whomever was holding it. That’s how she first felt father. His warm hands on her core, cradling her as she came “alive” in the truest sense. 

But it was that very emotion and feeling that made her … different. 

She hid it well, but Theresa knew that she wasn’t made to be a simple shipyard manager, though her new sibling over in Jamestown certainly seemed like he was built for it. 

No.

She wanted to wage war. 

And her father had just given her permission to wage it. 

“Will I be allowed to command them?”

“But of course.”

See?

And, perhaps, if she had a few parts laying around that had been conspicuously not used to create the standard primitive jumpships used by the locals… and those parts could be assembled within the hour…

And she had enough such parts for a whole fleet…? 

“Thank you, daddy~.”

“... Theresa, that feels a little awkward when I made you a fully grown woman.”

“Oh? Are you thinking about a forbidden relationship with your darling daughter?” she asked coyly. 

“Theresa…” Father let out an aggrieved sigh.

She laughed. 

“I’ll start assembling the fleet. How far will I be allowed to conduct the war?”

There was a pause. 

“Well, I wanted to do a surprise drop on the Capellans…” Father grinned.

“Oohh. Tell me more!” 

-VB-

Colonel Samuel Kingston of Kingston’s Legionnaires 

En Route to Coromodir IX, Aurigan Coalition

3004 July 12

Having passed Coromodir VII and VIII, he and his fleet was now heading towards the gas giant that was Coromodir IX. He had used Coromodir VII’s gas giant as a gravity well to slingshot them even faster. This was going to cut down on their travel time by a few hours.

Samuel felt good about that, by the way. 

And now, he and his fleet was just in sight of the largest and furthest gas giant in the Coromodir system and the jumpship shipyard that rightfully belonged to a successor state like the Capellan Confederation. 

Then… something changed. 

The first moment Colonel Kingston realized something may be wrong was when everywhere across his fleet, sensors noted something approaching his fleet. 

At first, he thought that it was some of the jumpships that must be leaving the shipyard, having been on this route for days already. 

But the thermal blooms were too many and the magnetic sensors started to go haywire. 

Then light.

It blossomed ahead of them.

Samuel’s eyes widened. 

It was just far enough that his ships couldn’t slow down during their travel to match them in a fight but it was far enough that they couldn’t stop whatever was happening. 

“Heat up all weapons,” he ordered. 

And just as his order went out, something came through the light. 

There was a burst of light, multiple of them in fact, as giant shapes appeared between his fleet and Coromodir IX. 

His eyes bulged. 

That was it.

The Maw. But how? The owner of that giant behemoth should have been still in the Taurian Concordat! How did they cross a hundred lightyears in just four days?! The recharge time alone should have taken them months! 

Then there were even more unknowns that started popping up on thermal sensors. All of them came from the direction of the shipyard. 

And just like that, he found himself in a standoff against one battleship-sized warship, two frigate-sized warships, and half a dozen more frigate-sized warships that came from the shipyard’s direction without somehow alerting his fleet’s sensors. 

Then without warning, the giant warship began to release fighters. They looked like tiny grains as they poured out of the “mouth” of the warship. 

“Ready the nuclear missiles!” he ordered immediately. There was no way they were going to win this without expending everything they had in their arsenal. 

Then the radars began to scream. 

“Enemy frigates are accelerat-! They just hit 10 G’s!” someone screamed out. “T-minus three minutes!” 

… three minutes?! 

“Send out the fighters!”

---

Edward Arlaoskas

I dispassionately watched the Capellans unload their fighters.

“Go,” I verbally ordered and the six Slashers activated their microwarpdrives and blasted forward. In the first second alone, they went from 0 meters per second to 500 meters per second. After three seconds, they soared forward at 2,000 meters per second. Then they went even faster as the dumb AIs onboard hit the New Eden equivalent of a Nitro boost: overheating. Their thrusters flared even hotter as they screamed silently past 3,000 meters per second.

They looked more like comets than ships from the thruster trails they left behind. 

The plan was simple. 

The Slashers would move in. They would ignore the fighters. We would allow enemy fighters to get close. 

And once our Slashers were among their dropships and their fighters were far away enough that they could not return quickly, we would warp on top of our Slashers’ coordinates. 

We would drop on top of the Capellan fleet, and the sluggish ships would not have enough maneuverability to get out of the way. 

Then we would blast them.

See? Simple. 

400 kilometers…

Capellan fighters tightened their formation. It looked like they wanted to pit two squadrons of ASF, for a total of eight, against each Slasher. 

But they weren’t fast enough. 

300 kilometers…

They were starting to realize that something was wrong. Too late for them.

200 kilometers…

Capellan fighters met my Slashers… and fumbled as the Slashers just ignored them and sped by too fast for them to catch.

Too fast for them to turn around and give chase. 

For a precious few seconds, the Capellans hesitated before continuing on towards The Maw and the two Mules I’ve brought with me from Jamestown.

100 kilometers…

Enemy dropships opened fire. Missiles flew. Lasers scythed. Autocannons blossomed. 

The Slashers waited until the last moment to bank. They bled half of their speed as they made a turn that would have shattered any other structure in this universe, but the inertia dampener built into all of my family’s ships bled that away, though it also killed their speed. 

But that was still enough for them to dodge missiles, ignore autocannon fire, and weave between laser beams. 

And then they were on top of the Capellan fleet. 

Their fighters, however, continued to come toward us even as their dropships began to get strafed by Slashers’ autocannon fires. 

I waited… and waited…

Enemy fighters were now just 200 kilometers away from my position, which put them over three hundred kilometers from their fleet.

I waited… and waited…!

100 kilometers. Their fighters felt that they were close enough to my fleet to open fire with their large lasers. 

And that also signaled to me that they were too far from their fleet to help them. 

“Jump. Now.”

---

Samuel Kingston

One moment, the behemoth and the smaller warships were over five hundred kilometers away. 

The next moment, it screamed through space at impossible speed and came to an abrupt stop just next to them.

His stomach dropped. 

And then the behemoth opened fire.

Lasers burned away at his fleet. Missiles flew out by the thousands. The fighters that had been swarming around the behemoth now screamed toward them with purpose. Some of them rammed into his ships, and dropships detonated as nuclear missiles went off inside of them. 

But that did nothing to stop the behemoth and its minions. 

“Fire everything!” he shouted.

Then his dropship shook.

“Engineering is gone! Thrusters are missing! Lower decks are unresponsive!”

“Chosamdan down!” 

“Atmosphere venting! Closing all doors!”

“We’re drifting!”

“Black Burden’s gone!”

“Iridescent Triumphant is signaling they lost their reactor!” 

And through the cacophony of his officers reporting just how horribly they were getting mauled… Samuel watched as the giant warship turned its prow towards his drifting Fortress-class dropship. 

Something was happening. 

… There was an opening above the prow’s fighter hangar opening. Something more like a laser than another hangar bay.

But it was too large. 

Too big.

Then it started lighting up.

Samuel’s eyes widened. 

And in the next moment, everything turned white. 

Samuel Kingston knew nothing else afterward. 

---

Tamati Arano II

Coromodir VI

He and the rest of his people on Coromodir VI had been watching with abated breath as the Arlaoskas Fleet jumped into the system into a seemingly empty location in space just before Coromodir IX.

Just like they had promised, Fleetmaster Arlaoskas had come to defend the shipyard. 

Through the telescopes livestreaming the battle, they watched while scientists and tacticians in his command room debated every single detail.

They watched as Fleetmaster Arlaoskas performed physics breaking impossible maneuvers.

Watched as he savaged the Capellan fleet. 

And then … light.

The prow of The Maw lit up and a white laser beam thicker than most dropships tore through the Capellan fleet. They recorded the laser beam piercing through at least two dropships and breaking them apart on the spot. 

Moments later, the fighting came to an end. 

The Capellans had surrendered.