The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 (17 page)

“Can do.”

***

Limping Away

Fleet Admiral Kingsley’s Engineers did ‘accidentally’ get lost, and they
found themselves in the ship repair area, for AH Navy vessels. Admiral
Nemo got his two behemoth battleships, and 10 other Verm Navy vessels.

AH Navy losses, in the battle were: 2,423 dead; 1 ship destroyed; 2 ships
severely damaged; 9 seriously damaged vessels; and all other ships have
moderate to light damage.

In addition, The AH Navy recruits over 4,000 extrusion crewmembers from
the planet Parin. The extrucian AH Navy crewmembers went to the planet to
visit their colonies, and brought the new recruits back with them. The
king of Parin sends word that Admiral Nemo can have anything that he wants.

The AH Navy Fleet limps into FTL space, before the Darinx Navy
reinforcements arrive. Their destination is the supply depot, where they
were recently reconnoitering. Admiral Nemo suspects that it may be
lightly protected, now that the large fleet has left. The AH Navy Fleet
may be able to just waltz into the system and take over. It is worth a
look-see.

***

The Supply Depot

Sure enough, the supply depot looks almost deserted. The AH Navy
fleet enters the system and heads for the depot. There is no
battle. The Verm security ships flee, and the space station contacts the
AH Navy and surrenders - there is no sense in dying for a lost cause.

Two large freighters are loading, at the supply depot. The AH Navy
claims those two vessels, and issues orders to the supply depot workers.
They are to finish loading the two freighters, and to work around-the-clock, to
load munitions and supplies onto the AH Navy vessels. If that is
accomplished, the AH Navy will leave with no trouble – all they want are
munitions, supplies, and spare parts.

And all goes well. The supply depot is emptied of munitions, and
the rest of the AH Navy vessels are loaded up, with supplies and spare
parts. Then, as promised, the AH Navy departs without firing a shot.

They make one
quick FTL jump, out of the area, and then let their FTL drives cool off, before
making a 20 light-year jump into the frontier region of space.

***

Checking the Star Charts

The entire fleet is packed full of munitions and spare parts. That
reminds the Admiral, that the Fleet really needs a home, or at least a place to
stash their stuff. A planet with caves would be nice – even an asteroid
will suffice, if it has natural hiding places.

Wandering from place to place in the Orion Nebula, while looking for a
home, is a really inefficient use of time and resources. So, the Admiral
assembles a group, and tasks them with reviewing the star charts and the AH
Navy records, for possible base/home locations.

The ‘must have’ requirements are:

o
Natural hiding
places

o
Away from
civilizations

o
Safe from natural disasters
– such as earthquakes, volcanoes,
etc.

The ‘nice to have’ list includes ‘creature comforts’ such as:

o
Breathable
atmosphere

o
Sandy beaches

***

The base/home task force issues a report, within days. There are no
unoccupied habitable planets, which would be suitable as both a base and a
home. There are lots of moons and asteroids, which could function as
storage sites. And there is one planet, which might be suitable as a
home.

The Admiral decides to look at the planet, first. If they decide
that the planet is suitable as a home, then they will want the storage sites to
be close by.

The planet is in a sparsely populated section of the Orion Nebula outer
bands. The Fleet emerges near the edge of the star system, and goes
through their routine for evaluating security risks. There is no evidence
of civilization – not even at the industrial level. The Fleet moves in
closer for a look at the prospective home.

The atmosphere is acceptable for all of the species aboard the
Fleet. The star system and the planet are mature – meaning that most of
the earthquake and volcano events are in the past. There are fairly wide
temperature swings in a yearly cycle – but the weather is still in the
acceptable range.

All of the Fleet’s crewmembers are looking down at the planet from space,
and are watching as the blue/green marble turns. The planet seems to be
inviting them, to come and play. Admiral Nemo realizes that it was a
mistake to bring the whole Fleet. The AH Navy has been in space so long
that the planet below is calling out to their primordial instincts.

The planet is inhabited by wildlife, and lower forms of mammal-like
animals, but there is no dominate sentient species. Making a home on this
planet will not endanger any other sentient species, as it did on Tubor.

The planet has potential, so the Admiral directs a scouting party to
explore a large island. An island will be easy to cleanse of dangerous
predators and hazardous conditions.

***

The island is cleared of some large cat-like predators and some
lizard-like reptiles. The water is evaluated and is determined to be
‘probably potable’, but the medical team recommends that the water and food
sources be passed through the regenerators, before consumption. After
some more testing and experimentation, those restrictions may be relaxed.

The AH Fleet decides to send down a ‘first contact’ group, which will
include members from all of the Fleet’s species. They land in a shuttle,
and spend a week on the island.

As could be expected, there is a growing claustrophobia epidemic aboard
the Fleet vessels. The crew is clamoring for some time on ‘real dirt’.

The Admiral relents, and schedules rotating weeklong visits to the
island. Lotteries are used to determine who goes first. And they
are
off
. In no time at all, structures begin to appear on the
island, as the liberated crew vents its enthusiasm on making a home.

The island is big enough for the Fleet’s whole crew to inhabit,
comfortably. After Admiral Nemo and Captain Guilles get their turn on the
island, the planet is officially declared to be ‘home’, for the AH Navy.

Now, there will be two major efforts going on, simultaneously. One
is the building of huts on the island, and the other is the securing of the
planet. Both are major tasks.

***

In Space – Securing the Planet

When the crew is not planet-side building their island homes, they are in
space building their defensive systems. The AH Navy is placing detector satellites
in-system and in the surrounding deep space, in order to provide an early
warning of approaching vessels.

After the ‘early detection’ system is in place, the next task is
building or finding, places to stash their munitions and spare parts.

It has been decided that it will be best to store the resources in
different locations. They have 5 freighters, but the smaller one is
dedicated to serving as in-system transport. Two of the remaining
freighters will be stocked with munitions and spare parts, and will accompany
the Fleet when it travels. The other two large verm freighters, filled
with munitions, will be hidden on asteroids, outside of the system.

The Admiral has a plan, which involves separating the Fleet into legal
and non-legal portions.

He envisions a planet of diverse sentient beings, living together
harmoniously, and having a prosperous economy, which is based on interplanetary
trade. There will be no visible evidence of augmented humans or of Verm
Navy vessels, which would attract attacks from Verm Navy or Darinx Navy forces.

The base for the augmented humans and the captured verm vessels will be
in deep space. The augmented humans will have homes on the planet, but
those neighborhoods will be hidden, away from prying eyes. And the
augmented humans will routinely be rotated, between the Fleet and the
planet. When the Fleet departs on a mission, all augmented humans will
go.

In this way, the planet will be safe from the destruction that has been
promised, by the two great regional empires.

***

On Planet Hope

Admiral Nemo decides early in the ‘moving in’ process that he doesn’t
want the planet to be a ‘company’ planet. He doesn’t want it to be
controlled and regulated by the AH Navy. It should be directed by elected
officials, and the citizens should all have the same rights and
privileges. He makes those decisions knowing that it will cause him
trouble later, when the interests of the planet diverge from the interests of
the Fleet. He makes those decisions, because they are the right decisions
for the civilization, which they are all building, together.

The whole energy level of the AH Navy, has been boosted by the
establishment of a home. Life now has more purpose than just ‘being in
the navy’. Being part of a family is now important, and as a result, the
children just continue becoming more plentiful.

The Admiral has purposefully put off naming the star or the planet.
After everyone has spent some time planet-side, he asks for suggestions for
planet and star names - there are lots of suggestions.

The Admiral decides that it is a good time to start that ‘democracy’
process, which he has read so much about. Everyone will vote for their
favorite names. Everyone is to look at the list of suggestions, and pick
their 2 favorites. The computer will cut the list in half, by eliminating
the names with the least votes. They will repeat this process, until the
favorite names emerge.

***

The star’s name is ‘Sirus’, and the planet’s name is ‘Hope’. The
other planets and the continents on Hope will be named later. The moons
will also need names.

The building of houses on the island is purposely being left, as an
unplanned and unstructured individual exercise. There are no rules except
‘be nice’. There are plenty of other places on the planet, to build more
structured habitats. Right now, there is a deep-felt need for the
individual to have some freedom and independence. ‘Chicken coop’ is the
ancient term for being penned up too long, with the same group of people.
The crew is no longer ‘cooped up’, and they are reveling in their freedom.

Admiral Nemo observes the activity, and understands that it will be some
months before the AH Navy has recovered from the years of being cooped up, but
eventually most will be ready to return to space.

Right now, he and his wife are busy building a home for themselves and
their children. Nothing else seems quite as important, at the
moment. They are busy nesting.

When everyone has their island hut built, to the point where they have
the basic comforts, they turn their eyes to the future. They begin making
plans for spreading out, and decide that the ‘spreading out’ should be done in
a more planned manner. That doesn’t mean that some individual must
get approval to build a house in the forest. It means that when it comes
time to build infrastructure and towns, it will be planned and done with the
approval of the general population.

The Admiral can
now see that he is going to need to recruit more sailors. Some of these
planet-side people are not going to be returning to space warfare.

***

Spreading Out

After almost 6 months of ‘time off’, it is time to get back to
work. In the future, the planet Hope will have other ways of making money,
but right now their only business is to provide protection services. With
a planet to protect, Admiral Nemo is dividing his Fleet, into ‘home-front’ and
‘stellar’ sections.

The ‘home-front’ section will have 19 warships and one freighter – none
of the home-front warships is of Verm Navy origin. The remaining 20
warships and 2 freighters – all of verm origin - will travel the stars, looking
for employment or opportunity. The other 2 verm freighters are hidden
away, on a couple of asteroids.

There is nothing on Hope or in the system, which suggests any
relationship to the AH Navy. With any luck, that will save Hope from the
kind of destruction that happened on Tubor.

***

The long term plan, for the economy of planet Hope, is for a diversified
economy centered on interplanetary trade. Those aspirations are for the
future. For the ‘now’ there are two possible ways for the planet to make
money.

One source of revenue that is already feasible is mining for precious
minerals. The Fleet has been keeping records, which documented the
locations of asteroids and planets, which are rich in natural resources.
A task force is appointed, to determine the ‘ways and means’ to get the planet
started in the business, of the mining and sale of precious minerals.

The other way for Hope to make money is through providing protection
services, for planets or businesses. This protection service will be
completely separate from the AH Navy protection services. It will be
based out of planet Hope, where the warships will be routinely used to escort
trading convoys. The Hope ‘protection services’ will be portrayed as an
extension of that ‘security escort’ service.

The Admiral is directing the start-up of Hope’s protection service, but
he will not be seen. He has decided to send solitary scout ships to all
of the surrounding systems, in order to reconnoiter the neighborhood. The
scout ships will visit a system, and will then report results via a FTL probe,
to Hope. If there is no compelling reason to return home, the scout ships
will move outward and reconnoiter another system.

The Admiral sends out 7 scout ships, and none of them finds prospects for
their protection business on the first jump. There is plenty of other
valuable information, though. Planet Hope’s neighborhood is rich in
natural resources.

After the scouts move outward, they find 2 civilizations with space
ships, but none with Faster Than Light (FTL) drives. Both civilizations
are friendly and can, potentially, make good trading partners.

On the 3
^rd
outward leg of the scout ships’ journeys, one of
them finds a potential client. The planet Opedcal is under great duress
from a militant neighbor. That neighbor has conquered three other
planets, and has threatened Opedcal. The Opedcal government invites the
Hope ‘protection services’ company, to meet with them and discuss options.

Upon arrival, it is obvious that the Opedcal economy is not rich enough
to afford the services of the Hope Protection Services Company (HPSC).
But the representative of the HPSC suggests that Opedcal might be able to form
a coalition with neighboring planets. That coalition could afford to pay
for protection services, by taxing each planet for a portion of the cost.
The HPSC services would remove the need, for each planet to build a separate
space navy.

There is immediate approval for the concept on Opedcal, but their 3
nearest neighbors have already been conquered by the Klung Navy.

The Klung Navy’s standard operating procedure is to send the Klung Fleet
into a neighboring system, and to demand total surrender. If the planet
refuses, the Klung Navy nukes a city each day, until the planet surrenders.

The representative for the Hope Protection Services Company leaves an FTL
probe, directed for Hope, and tells the Opedcal government to launch the probe,
if the Klung Navy enters their system.

Within 2 weeks, the probe arrives at Hope. Admiral Nemo has already
decided that the Klung Navy needs to be destroyed, in order to make Hope
safe. This is an opportunity to destroy the enemy’s fleet, and to get the
Hope Protection Services Company started, at the same time.

He promotes Captain Wentr, the extrucian Captain of the Yearling, to the
position of Admiral of the Hope Fleet. Fleet Admiral Nemo
(notice
the promotion)
then orders Admiral Wentr to take the Hope Fleet to Opedcal,
and to destroy the Klung Navy. Fleet Admiral Nemo says to ‘call’ if
the Hope Navy needs help.

The Hope Navy leaves the same day that it receives the call for
help. It arrives three days later, and enters the Opedcal system.
The Klung Fleet is composed of 25 warships – none as capable as the Hope
vessels – and is arrayed over Opedcal. They have already nuked the
planet’s largest city.

Since it is a war crime to nuke an occupied city, there is no need to
offer an opportunity to surrender or to negotiate. Without uttering a
word, the Hope Fleet charges forward and attacks the Klung Fleet. The
battle takes 2 days to complete, and most of the Klung vessels are destroyed,
but 3 of them manage to get into FTL space and escape.

Admiral Wentr contacts the Opedcal government, and asks if they are still
interested in joining that coalition of neighboring planets? They reply:
“Yes, definitely.”

Admiral Wentr takes the Hope Fleet to the 3 conquered neighboring
planets, and destroys the Klung vessels at those locations. When asked if
the planets would like to join a coalition that would pay the HPSC for
protection services, they all reply: “Yes.”

The Hope Fleet returns home with some damaged ships and 73 dead
sailors. Dying is an accepted part of the risk in being a warrior.
The dead are honored and then buried on their home planet – Hope.

Within weeks the coalition has been formed, and a protection services
agreement has been signed with the HPSC.

After the agreement has been signed, Admiral Wentr takes the Hope Fleet
to the Klung system, and destroys the rest of their warships. The Admiral
leaves a warning for the Klung government, that if there is any more aggression
against the neighbors, the Hope Fleet will come back to destroy their entire
military infrastructure.

6 more warships are captured in the Klung battles. The quality is
not very good, but they will function as in-system patrol vessels.

The Hope enterprises are up and running, with a protection services agreement
bringing in steady money, and the mining industry
off
, on its first
expedition.

***

The AH Navy Stellar Division

As a precaution, all ship’s records of the planet Hope and the star
system Sirus have been erased from memory, on the stellar warships. Each
ship has a hidden memory chip, with the Hope coordinates - to be used when the
Fleet needs to return home, but that is the only thread which connects the
stellar forces to the home planet.

As viewed from the outside, the separation between Hope, and the AH Navy
is complete. There is no record of there ever having been an
association. The Verm ships and even the verm spare munitions/parts have
been moved to locations outside of the Sirus system.

The augmented humans will still have homes on Hope, but they will be
hidden. The sailors will rotate between duty in space and duty
planet-side. The augmented humans will be transported to-and-from Hope,
aboard the planet Hope’s freighter and the captured Klung warships.

***

Admiral
Nemo
Fleet Admiral Nemo – he is still getting used to the new
title – needs more sailors for the AH Navy Stellar Fleet. Three of the
former verm vessels require crews of 1,000, or more.

And they
should be augmented humans, but where can he get those.

The Admiral
doesn’t feel comfortable asking soldiers to desert the Darinx military –
besides, it would bring the wrath of the Darinx Navy down on top of the AH
Navy. Right now, the Darinx Empire is passively hunting for them.
If the AH Navy starts asking Darinx military members to desert, the Empire will
be actively hunting for them.

What to do?

***