Chapter 2

Chapter 2

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Even after months of training, I still couldn't believe my eyes in the briefing room, among all the new squadron members. Out of ten, four people in the original squadron died, and one resigned. Now, we had a full squadron (twelve men, women and otherwise), which meant there were seven new people. The only other two survivors of our first campaign were the robots 1R-D, and 1R-F. Originally, they didn't even have the programming for initiative, but they soon blossomed into the first top-gun robots in the Hiigaran Navy.

As for the seven others, it was really a mixed bag:

First, there was Hal Soban. The fierceness that his Kiith name suggested contrasted largely from his character; he often didn't show up on time to training, he sort of fumbled around with everything, and seemed uninterested in his duty. If his marks weren't above the recommended standard, I never would have considered him.

Myla Sjet was quite the strategist of the group. Spending hours upon hours in the simulators, she would try to find the best and quickest way to disable any known star craft, disabling individual systems like weapons, hyperdrive, and communications depending on the mission profile. I bet that if she were in a Scout against a Heavy Cruiser, she would know how and where to attack it in minimal time.

It is no surprise that Myla was interested in another newcomer: Tengo Gaalsien. He was also a military strategist (both had excelled in Military Psychology at the Academy), but unlike her, who was a micro-strategist, he studied the tactical deployment of large fleets. He knew how a race would deploy a fleet, and devise tactical doctrines for fending them off, and had also done well in sims because of it.

May Paktu, a former Intel officer like Jacyn, was placed on the squadron both to be a symbol of the alliance the two organizations had (or, at least the illusion of one,) and to help us with her knowledge of little-known military facts about our enemies. Not the best in a cockpit, but she could manage.

Kara and Mara Liir Hra, identical twins, had been transferred from testing the new Acolyte Composite Vehicle ships. No surprise that they were perfectly attuned to the new ships, as the link between the two Acolytes complimented the bond they shared between them. They were never seen without one another, and usually stayed together in the simulators. Many a time I have had to force them to fight on opposing forces on said simulations, ad even then they rarely tried to shoot one another. I presumed they were able to communicate with each other via telepathy.

Then, there were two aliens in our squadron: Krrrra'k, a Bentusi, and Iliom Se, a member of a race known as the Kempa, who were green-skinned tripeds with an innate knowledge of astrophysics. Krrrra'k was barely able to enter his cockpit, due to his body that hunched up on two powerful legs. Two fangs that protruded from his lower lip were threatening, but everyone knew that he was typically Bentusi in his docility.

A mixed bag indeed. Even now I still couldn't believe that, even in their differences they managed to find a form of synergy that rivaled the one we once had. But I'm sure that Captain Naabal had said the same thing when he recruited us.

I cleared my throat. "Morning, everyone." They sat silently. "I just got in the report of our call to duty." More silence. "We've been assigned to the Gemstone Nebula." Chaos broke free. There was a lot of hand-slapping ad "woohoos!" passed around. I just grinned as I silently agreed. The Gemstone Nebula was a vast region of space about a hundred light-years in length. When inside, the particles of helium and neon reacted together to create a beautiful lightshow: the colors of the nebula always fluctuated, from bright, flaming oranges, to soothing purples and greens. Just watching the colors flow into each other was enough to impress you. That would be dangerous in combat, but otherwise it was very relaxing.

I switched on my holo plate, and Tengo Gaalsien obligingly dimmed the lights. An image of the colorful space, and of a huge asteroid cluster, shimmered into view. "Naabal scout ships picked up this region of space a few months ago. This asteroid field is the remains of what used to be two planets. From querying other databases about it, we found out that there used to be two planets just lying out in that huge space."

"Free-floating planets are very rare, Lieutenant."

I nodded cynically in May's direction. "But not impossible, Cadet Paktu. In any case, these planets both gave rise to humanoid organisms that evolved to live in the extreme cold that the planets offered them. While little is known about them, we know that the two races-"

"The Geen and the Fenn."

"Thank you, Miss Paktu. We know that they eventually went to war against each other. We also know that they were experimenting with gravity-based weaponry. At one point or another, a radical group on one of the planets built a cannon that it would push the neighbor planet into space forever."

Tengo raised his hand. "Then why did the planets crash into each other?"

I replied, feeling the natural twinge that was cosmic irony, "They calibrated the weapon backwards. In any case, now the remains are spread across a radius of 1.5 light-years. Concentrations of the asteroids are so dense, that Fleet command believes this is ample justification for setting up a new Construction Yard there."

Someone emitted a low whistle. I only nodded. In order to meet the demand of more Super-Capital vessels for the ever-growing fleet, especially Carriers and Heavy Cruisers, Command decided that a new craft, second in sheer size only to the Mothership herself, would be built. Construction Yards were so big that only the Mothership can feasibly build them, and only in two separate sections that would be connected in the end. Essentially, they were large rectangular stations that had an enormous inner space where a single Super-Capital class starship could be built at once. They had five docking pads for Resource Collectors to fill up its ore banks. Only three were in existence at the time, all of them built within the last two years, and were stationed at places where resources were very abundant, and where opposition was minimal. They had a hangar capacity of eighty assorted Strike Craft, but couldn't build its own Fighters or Frigates; that job was given to the two or three Carriers that accompanied it. Very, very expensive, but supposedly worth the cost.

"Yeah. The Angel Base is set to head off with Maelstrom fleet in seventy-two hours, along with the half-completed Yard. Both the Carriers in the fleet, the Persistence and the Resourcefulness, will be in the process of building the other quarters. We will also have nine Collectors that will hyper with us from Kappa Fleet."

Myla Sjet raised her hand. "Will they be the new Somtaaw Workers?" I shook my head, kind of regretting that we would miss out on the supposedly all-in-one ships from the mining Kiith. 'No, we will be issued the old Providence-class Collectors." She made a show of being disappointed. "We will be using Soban-modified Collectors. They will be more heavily armored, and have limited weaponry, but that will compromise their ore space."

Jacyn, sitting behind me along with all the other vets, stood up. "I know what you all are thinking. If we are expecting to run into trouble over there, that information is classified. I'm sure your squadron mate Ms. Paktu will tell you the same thing. In any case, you have three days to get ready to leave. Plan for a two-month long call of duty. Dismissed."

They all got up noisily and went out of the room. I turned to the old-timers. "So, we all know about the mission in its official terms. But they wouldn't send a top-notch military unit to baby-sit a quiet operation, would they?" 1R-D's eyes lit up (literally,) "Will there be enemy forces at the Gemstone Nebula?" I shrugged. "There's been talk of the Corporation moving into that territory. If they do, we better stay alert at every moment."

They all agreed. The Corporation was not a people to be enemies with.