“Do you think that we are strong enough to occupy the planet now?” Kaeleth asked.
“I believe that the time has come upon us to re-claim the halo worlds, yes.”
That reply sent a shudder of excitement through Kaeleth.
7. A call from afar
Captain Michael Alexander was busily overseeing the final testing phase of the new graviton shielding system only recently fitted to the Liberty, while the process was ongoing the former Krenaran stealth ship had been temporarily taken out of active service.
In truth, the graviton shielding system was an experiment, a collaboration between Solarian scientists and the E.D. F research division. It worked via a series of powerful gravitic generators placed at key points around the ships hull. When these generators were all activated simultaneously, they produced a powerful gravitational field around the ship, thereby deflecting most types of weapons fire. Well that was how it was explained to him anyway, though to Michael it had looked like the Liberty had grown a few ‘pimples’.
His crew were due back in the morning, they had all been given extended leave while the upgrade work was being completed. Michael had come back a few days earlier as usual, to inspect his pride and joy.
Sat in a small restaurant, and overlooking the tiny dockyard where several ships were berthed. Today, he could only make out three E.D. F ships and two Solarian battlecruisers, the Solarians often used the dockyard as a re-supply point while patrolling the borders of their territory as the facility was close to Solarian space. He envied their clean, graceful, flowing design instead of the sharp rectangular shaped hulls of so many E.D. F ships. In comparison the Solarian ships looked positively majestic, their shining silvery crescent shaped hulls, and raised, sharp, beak-like command structure betrayed a love of technology far beyond the rugged utilitarian nature of E.D. F shipping, but also an aesthetic quality together with the wildly advanced technology that he doubted the E.D. F would ever possess.
Despite being a predominantly peaceful people, the Solarians possessed some of the most advanced and powerful fighting ships he had ever seen. The irony of that was not lost on him.
“Admiring the view?” Commodore Solomon Valente asked as he motioned to sit with the Liberty captain, a motion that was readily accepted with a smile and a nod. Valente was the commander of this facility named Charlie Gamma base, a tiny experimental research post and sub-orbital dockyard orbiting the Malthus colony on Malthus IV. It had been re-built after the Krenarans devastated the colony during the war, and only completed barely three years ago.
“I was just thinking about those Solarian ships,” Michael said as he turned from looking at the commodore, to glancing over the vessels one last time.
“I know, magnificent aren’t they? Wondrous machines, and damned fast too.”
Michael smiled and nodded, he probably had more experience of their capabilities than the commodore had. Especially since the Liberty had fought alongside them practically throughout the Krenaran war.
“Do you know about the Valley forge project?” Valente asked enthusiastically.
“I know it’s a design for a new type of experimental ship,” Michael replied, his brow furrowed slightly in thought. He hadn’t really heard a great deal on the subject, it was supposed to be top secret, senior admiralty only. It made him wonder how the commodore knew, but in all things, word eventually gets around in the navy.
“It’s more than that, the Valley forge is going to be the future replacement for the Danitza class battleships.”
Michael remembered back to his time aboard the Ulysses, a Danitza class battleship itself. It was immense, glorious, packed with firepower and the latest advances in technology. Unfortunately, none of that did it any good, as the Krenarans blew it to smithereens at the outset of the war. “The Danitza’s are powerful ships, some of them are amongst the most devastating ships in the fleet, why replace them?”
“The Danitza is an ageing design now; it was conceived and built as a deterrent, back in twenty sixty when all we had to deal with was random pirate attacks. Now we have Krenarans, Solarians, and Christ knows what else out there. We need a new advanced ship of the line that can deal with these new threats the galaxy throws at us.”
“The Solarians are not a threat to us, they are our allies.”
“I know that, the Krenaran war proved just how vulnerable the Danitza is to the types of energy weapons used against it. Its massive size makes it slow and unwieldy. Besides anyway, the Danitza’s are costly to run.”
Michael smiled and suppressed a harrumph at this last point, it always came down to money in the end, how much were colonists lives worth nowadays anyway? Since when did the E.D. F go from protecting the people, to savings and cut-backs. He remained silent, not wishing to get into an argument with a superior officer about this.
“From what I gather, the Valley forge is going to utilise technology reverse engineered from the Liberty. If the new graviton shields work, they are going to be used on the Valley forge.”
This did surprise Michael, he had not been made aware of any technology from the Liberty being used on any other ship in the fleet, mostly due to compatibility issues. He supposed it was just a matter of time until they got around it, although it would have been nice for command to let him know, especially since he was the ship’s captain and all.
“It’s the E.D. F’s attempt to merge the fighter carrying capacity of a carrier, with the firepower of a battleship. From what I hear, its primary weapons systems will be not one, but two high power fusion cannons. Each one considerably larger, and with a much larger bore size than the one the Liberty carries. Designs have already been approved by E.D. F command, building has already started.”
Michael had not even seen this new ship yet, and was already tiring of the commodore’s incessant repartee about it. He knew from experience that the fusion cannon was one heck of a power hungry weapon. The Liberties own fusion cannon was a Solarian designed one and is the most powerful anti-ship weapon currently available. If the Valley forge was to use two even larger ones, how the hell were they going to power them?
“How long until she is ready?” he asked, at least trying to make it look like he was still interested.
“It’s going to take three years to build the prototype, then you have shakedown and fleet trials. It’ll be a good five years or so until she is with us proper.”
Jesus, Michael thought. It looks as though the age of the advanced battleship has come upon us, nothing would tempt him away from his beloved Liberty though.
A young fresh faced lieutenant rather hurriedly approached the two men interrupting their conversation, he was panting from his rush to get to them.
“Sir, I am sorry to interrupt but I have important news,” the man puffed, a small bead of sweat trickled down his face.
“Do you know how rude it is to interrupt a senior officer’s conversation!” Valente snapped at the impetuous lieutenant. “Straighten you uniform man! Stand up straight!”
Michael said nothing, yet chuckled inwardly at the inexperience of the junior officer being given a severe dressing down.
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant quickly flattened down his deep navy blue uniform, and stood briskly to attention, attracting a few chuckles from nearby personnel who happened to be passing by.
“Now that you have most rudely interrupted our conversation, what news do you have?” Valente glared at him, if this turned out to be something trivial, he would have the lieutenant on cleaning detail for a week.