[February 1, 2078]

I could have simply signed a proclamation to do it, but as I said I would, I talked to Congress, and they immediately authorized opening up the coffers to fund any and everything the military and scientists could think of to help us fight this war. After all, what is the point of having a Congress of the people if I bypass them all the time? Had they been obstinate about it, I would have, but I’d rather not if I don’t have to.

They set up a panel of a few of the more tech-minded representatives from Congress, several members of the military, and many from our tech industries. Their mission is to review whether what is presented is actually viable, to immediately fund the viable projects, and assign an overseer from the Ministry of Oversight to make sure the money is used appropriately as well as to make sure they keep on track. I’m quite sure they’ll be kept as busy, if not busier, than me.

Just because we’re willing to spend unlimited funds to fight this war, doesn’t mean that we’ll allow it to be squandered on things that won’t help us win it. Doing things this way is going to put the Crown massively in debt for some time to come. Frankly, I have no idea how long it will take us to dig our way out of it. Look, I’ve read history. Massive debt is the reason for a lot of countries’ ills in the past, and I damn sure don’t want to see that happen with the Commonwealth. However, we first have to win this war, and then we can worry about it afterward.

Production of the Kites has been sped up and expanded, along with the interfaces for ships, planes, armor, etc… This will improve the response time of our pilots and troops. Plus make it easier to interact with our technology for everyone and cut down the amount of time needed to train people for their jobs. Just imagine magically having the knowledge you need, when you need it to do anything. Of course, Dakota, Indy, and Becca have found that you can’t simply do that with everything. Dumping 14 to 20 years worth of knowledge into someone all at once causes issues, especially if their brain is still developing. So, after much testing, they recommend implanting a quarter’s worth of schooling every few days to allow them to assimilate the information.

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Thankfully, all of the fleet has returned to the Sol system, and we’ve begun a massive build-up to replace the ships that were destroyed. The nanite baths deployed in orbit around Mercury have been expanded, and the ships that have been so badly damaged that it isn’t feasible to repair them are being guided into the nanite baths to recycle them.

A design group is working on what they are calling a megacarrier that will be twice the size of a supercarrier while another upgraded the strike fighters as well since their losses have been fairly high. They also included my recommendation of stealth capabilities, and they will be the first to be fully Kite-controlled, although they will still have manual controls as well.

Ares Class Heavy Strike Fighters

F-60b

75 m x 40m.

Max acceleration: 2000 g

Armaments:

• 1 15cm 3-barrel nose-mounted 15-gigawatt laser cannon.
• 1 25mm 6-barrel nose-mounted antimatter Gatling gun.
• 2 50mm 6-barrel wing-mounted antimatter Gatling gun.
• 2 CIWS 25mm turret-mounted Gatling gun/6-barrel 10-gigawatt pulse laser mounted dorsally and ventrally.
• 120 multi-role antimatter missiles.
• Defensive:
• Active and passive stealth systems.
• Primary: 60 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
• Secondary: 60 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
• Tertiary: 60 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.

The strike fighters have been a Godsend to us, and while they are jump capable, traveling interstellar distances in one isn’t really viable in a tactical sense. Can you imagine traveling many lightyears in a cramped cockpit and then being expected to be in good enough shape to fight when you arrive? Yeah, I’m not going to ask my people to do that. Being a pilot is dangerous enough without the added burden.

Therefore, I directed a design group to come up with a dedicated strike fighter carrier for them with a minimum of 100 wings per carrier, and enough medical bays to treat wounded, along with heavy firepower and defenses.

The design group more than met my expectations of them.

Avenger Class Strike Fighter Carriers

CSF-xxx

800 m x 1000m x 660m.

Max acceleration: 1500 g

Crew complement:

• 120 Officers.
• 700 crewmen.
• 12 platoons of Marines.
• 2000 aircrew.

Armaments:

• 5 150cm 3-gun turret 150-gigawatt laser cannons. 3 fore and 2 aft.
• 6 100mm 6-barrel 3-gun turret-mounted antimatter Gatling guns. 3 fore and 3 aft.
• 16 50cm 2-gun turret 50-gigawatt laser cannons.
• 20 50cm 6-barrel antimatter Gatling guns.
• 50 CIWS Dual 6-barrel 50mm Antimatter Gatling gun/6-barrel 25-gigawatt pulse laser combination.
• 80 Anti-personnel CIWS 6-barrel 15mm Gatling gun.
• 4 80-cell quick reload multi-role missile system.
• Defensive:
  • Active and passive stealth systems.
  • Primary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Secondary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Tertiary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.

Airwing complement:

• 100 wings (2000) F-60b Ares strike fighters.

They one-upped me as well since they designed an escort ship to be deployed along with them that also carries a few wings of strike fighters.

Warden Class Escort Dreadnoughts

DNE-xxx

800m x 500m x 300m

Max acceleration: 1500 g

Crew complement:

• 70 Officers
• 550 crewmen
• 10 platoons of Marines.
• 200 aircrew.

Armaments:

• 12 200cm 3-gun turret 200-gigawatt laser cannons. 3 fore and 3 aft, dorsally and ventrally mounted.
• 12 100mm 6-barrel 3-gun turret-mounted antimatter Gatling gun. 3 fore and 3 aft, dorsally and ventrally mounted.
• 20 100cm 2-gun turret 100-gigawatt laser cannons.
• 40 50cm 6-barrel antimatter Gatling guns.
• 50 CIWS Dual 6-barrel 50mm Antimatter Gatling gun/6-barrel 25-gigawatt pulse laser combination.
• 80 Anti-personnel CIWS 6-barrel 15mm Gatling gun.
• 12 80-cell quick reload multi-role antimatter missile system.
• Defensive:
  • Active and passive stealth systems.
  • Primary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Secondary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Tertiary: 150 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
• Airwing complement:
  • 10 wings (200) F-60b Ares strike fighters.

As you can see, both the fighter’s and ship’s engines have been upgraded, and so have their power plants, so they can now use the Gamma band in jump space. Nothing the Alkarin have can touch them in that respect.

After a talk with Jason, we decided to employ them in groups of five. Two strike fighter carriers and three escort dreadnoughts. They are fast and hit extremely hard for the size of the group. They are designed to take on odds of 10 to 1 and come away with only minor damage. Their armor is much heavier, and their firepower is something that would give any dreadnought group commander pause in considering whether to engage them or not.

The Strike fighter carrier groups will not be attached to any other groups and will be acting independently in most circumstances.

The remainder of the fleet is getting upgraded as well, both in terms of firepower and defense as well as stealth capabilities. The thinking is if you can’t target them, other than visually, then the enemy will have a much tougher time attacking them. But, we’ll talk more about that when the overall upgrade plans are finalized. For now, Jason has the shipyards focusing on building the upgraded strike fighters, strike fighter carriers, and escort dreadnoughts.

We’re also upgrading the armor for our troops. Their weapons are fine for the moment, so we’re going to leave them as they are for now. We have a lot to do already without adding extraneous items to the list.

The next item is upgrading the civilian bunkers. Stronger shielding, thicker armor, and adding air defenses to stop what happened last time. We’ve lost quite enough people already, thank you very much.

Thankfully, the population is responding well to the conscription act, even if there is some resistance to it in some circles, but those are few and far between. Most of them finally realize that we are in a fight for humanity’s survival.

Another recommendation is to build more space elevators, this time at 30° south latitude. The panel approved it, and they’ll be building three more of them in South Africa, Australia, and Brazil. After they’re complete, they’ll begin building another arc, and add defenses once the arc is complete. The original arc is being heavily upgraded as well. Heavier shielding, more armor, and many more defense installations. With the lessons learned from the invasion, they’ll be adding huge amounts of anti-fighter/lander defenses.

With all of that in mind, nanites are mining Mercury, and our civilian ships are busily gathering the resources for everything we need to do. Thankfully, we have the nanite production facilities to speed along construction efforts across the board.

We sent Goliath to Mars, and rather than waste our troops’ lives on the effort, we antimatter bombed the Aklarin encampments that were there. Then we landed troops to clean up any that were missed in the initial attack. Suffice it to say, it’s going to take a lot of effort to rebuild the city. The Alkarin basically destroyed much of it in taking Mars. It also shows how hard our troops stationed there fought. Thankfully, they left the space elevator alone, although they did have troops stationed in it, which ours had to take from them.

That done, we deployed many of the newly formed construction battalions there to begin the processes of rebuilding and repairing everything.

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[February 5, 2078]

[CMCC, 1042 hrs.]

[Jason Chambers POV]

I’m sitting in my office going over the design of the new megacarrier that’s recently been finalized, and I have to say I’m impressed. If it comes anywhere close to what they have listed as its capabilities, it’ll far outclass the current carriers.

Apostle Class Megacarrier

CVC-xxx

Armaments:

• 8 150cm 3-gun turret 150-gigawatt laser cannons.
• 8 100mm 6-barrel 3-gun turret-mounted antimatter Gatling guns.
• 80 50 cm 2-gun turret 50-gigawatt laser cannons.
• 80 50cm 6-barrel antimatter Gatling guns.
• 100 25cm 6-barrel antimatter Gatling guns.
• 80 CIWS Dual 6-barrel 50mm Antimatter Gatling gun/6-barrel 25-gigawatt pulse laser combination.
• 120 Anti-personnel CIWS 6-barrel 15mm Gatling gun.
• 8 80-cell quick reload multi-role missile system.
• Defensive:
  • Active and passive stealth systems.
  • Primary: 200 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Backup: 200 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.
  • Tertiary: 200 Mark V multi-layer phase-synchronized shield emitters.

Airwing complement:

• 100 wings (2000) F-50g Archer fighters.
• 50 wings (1000) FA-32c Mako fighter/bombers

I’m happily agreeing with them adding the Anti-personnel CIWS considering the Alkarin penchant for boarding ships when the intercom chimes to catch my attention. Tapping the accept icon, the OOD immediately says, “General, there’s a call for you. It’s heavily encrypted, and we don’t recognize the encryption algorithm. We can only read who the intended recipient is.”

The colony fleet is due to arrive sometime today, and he’s the only one that would have an encryption algorithm that isn’t recognized, so I assume this is Cal reporting that they’ve arrived in orbit. “Thank you. Put it through.”

“I’m here, Cal.”

“Good. Is anyone else with you?”

“No, Cal. You should know that I’d never allow a subordinate in on this particular call. Sora would have me buried if I did.”

He chuckles. “True enough. Well, we arrived in orbit around Eridan 10 hours ago. Regardless, I have to say it’s a beautiful planet. It looks so much like Earth. George and Anne already have already met with the Geoformers to talk about the colony site. Most of it’s already been set up, so we can begin transporting people down after we land sufficient supplies for them.”

“Great. How is it?”

“Perfect conditions. No animal life, just basic bacteria, and plant life as far as the surveyors and Geoformers have found. We’re deploying the weather control satellites as we speak. Why the Geoformers didn’t deploy them is beyond me.”

“Keep us updated on your progress, I know Sora will want to see it.”

“Of course. I’ll have it encrypted and begin sending it after we end this call.

“Thanks. How was the trip?”

“Long and boring, thankfully.”

“Any signs of anyone else ever having visited the system?”

Cal shrugs. “None that anyone has seen, but then again, a few months isn’t a very long time to survey a planet, especially not one this big.”

“Keep looking… Oh, before I forget, the HMS O’Neill and her escort fleet will leave for Aurelia in approximately 2 weeks, and the HMS Artemis should be following them within 6 to 8 weeks.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure the Geoformers are updated. I’m not sure if they’ve started on the colony site for Aurelia or not.”

The rest of our conversation is routine, and not really worth relating, other than that I informed him of the Alkarin invasion.