ShipCore

USD: Three months, two weeks after A3123Y’s departure.

Location: Nu Crateris, Hades Low Orbit, SRS Heaven’s Fire II, Rexxor CIC.

The rhythmic hum of the Heaven’s Fire II felt like the backdrop of a brewing storm as Heeler surveyed the latest influx of battlefield reports. Each display projected a meticulous choreography of conflict analytics he took in with his multiple eyeball tentacles. The movement of Rexxor and Hadenic forced were traced in lines and blips in a 3D wireframe that represented the interior of Hades.

With a flick of a tentacle, Heeler zoomed in on a particular sector, his focus sharpening on the tactical overlay. The Hadenic forces had pushed more and more forces into the zone to halt the Rexxor's advance. It was a poor choice to waste their forces in such a manner, unless there was some other factor in place.

He had seen them dig in and defend guard nodes before, but nothing on the scale he was witnessing now.

Over the months he had slowly pieced together the Hadenics biology and synthetic origins. They were not a natural species, but a defense system left behind by Hade’s builders. Maybe even a sanitation system run amok. It was galling to consider that they were being so troubled by organisms that were originally created for cleaning the waste of the battlemoon.

A chirp alerted him to a waiting report; it was one he had designated to come back up for review once a week. An update register from a SR tagged vessel had arrived from 92 Pegasi. Heeler played it. Psi Abbey’s face appeared with a cheerful expression. He drowned out her human jabbering and phrased her MainComputer’s status reports.

The assimilation of the new Chi Aurea and the capture of the Corporate Systems fleet had developed rapidly. The industrial prowess displayed with a relatively smaller infrastructure and much fewer units...

It left him feeling anxious—progress with Hades had been slow. The fact that his sibling and the rest of Starlight Revolution had made such forward leaps while he remained overseeing a war restrained to the battlemoon chafed.

His species was resilient, their evolution and adaptation from their arrival on Dedia IV to their new spread on the rapidly constructed invasion barges. Yet they had not achieved the critical mass that humanity had, spread to hundreds of stars and thousands of planets.

To ensure the survival of his species, they needed to do the same; and yet the limitations of the human’s faster than light capabilities, the agonizingly slow exploration and exploitation of new systems…

Would make it impossible for them to compete or survive. They needed Hades, and the technology and capabilities the battlemoon would grant them.

He needed to ensure that the critical mass of Rexxor was achieved. Mother would approve, wouldn’t she? He felt he knew she wouldn’t want the Rexxor to be destroyed; she had given him purpose to see that it did not happen.

Even if she was human. Not all humans were bad. Heeler’s attention slid to the reports from Daniel Ashburn once more. The human mining efforts had begun to feed a new shipyard, created from a small station, and fed by their gifted colony ship.

He needed to end the delays and finish the war so the second phase of his plans could be put into action. A decisive engagement was necessary. Heeler’s resolve solidified into action.

With a series of swift commands, he initiated the protocols to rouse his NAI fleet assets in orbit. The CIC’s monitors buzzed with heightened activity as he directed new orders to the various hives of the Queens. They were already pressed to full capacity, but urging them to produce with more urgency would likely achieve a minor positive effect.

He had already identified the first target; the zone where the Hadenics were fiercely defending. Secondary objectives would be the located hive minds. The ultimate goal would be to slice the remaining tumor of the enemy that held onto the remaining hemisphere of the moon in half.

Then he would direct their remaining NAI units to assault one of the quadrants until it was reclaimed. In this way, they could take out the remaining Hadenics piece by piece until none remained.

Then they would flood the moon with new nestlings and offspring, building new life support systems until the entire battlemoon was a proper nest for all Rexxor. The newly adapted nestlings would be resistant to Hadenic capabilities, and if any remained lurking in the vast depths of the moon, they would eventually be rooted out.

Turning the system resource organization and processing over to one of his low level NAI aides on a refinery barge, Heeler directed the Heaven’s Fire II to descend from orbit towards Szizsielia’s nest on the surface in preparation for the major campaign.

Each battle barge had taken over local control, punching navigable tunnels through the dangerous, moon sized d-field.

On his tactical screen, dozens of cruisers and smaller warships began to form up. On the optical feed they were small glints of light in the dark, slowly growing until their sleek hulls were fully visible.

The amassed fleet was still small compared to what his sister had achieved, but the lumbering battleships she had built would be hard pressed to traverse the interior of the moon.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Heeler growled. He would lead the charge. The Rexxor would emerge victorious in the war with the Hadenics, or not at all. This would be their final push, and he would be the harbinger of his species’ dawn or its dusk.

***

USD: Three months, two weeks after A3123Y’s departure.

Location: 92 Pegasi, Theta Corvi Jump Point, A3123Y, CIC

Abbey floated amidst the digital wreckage, her virtual space mirroring reality with a perspective that was much easier for her to understand. She plucked a broken cruiser out of the black and tossed it in her backpack. Outside of the station, a distant salvage unit adjusted course to intercept and acquire.

The amount of destroyed and broken units left drifting in the battle's aftermath was huge, only dwarfed by the vastness of space itself.

If it hadn’t been for the highly efficient Linear drives available to her salvage drones, collecting them would have been less efficient than simply mining and reprocessing raw resources into new combat units.

With the cruiser stuffed in her backpack, there was a ding and it reported that it was full. That was disappointing, because the longer it took to collect things, the further away they were. She’d been at it for quite a while, and her capacity was never enough.

Still… there was no way to force more in, so she was done. The world flashed around her, dropping her softly into the soft seat of her Comfy Command chair—which was just the same CIC throne A3123Y used except covered with pillows.

[Assimilation Report: Corporate Fleet]

[The following units have been fully integrated into combat service.]

| Battleships Integrated: 6 | | Cruisers Integrated: 24 | | Destroyers Integrated: 47 | | Corvettes Integrated: 89 |

[Fleet Report: Restoration]

[The following unit levels have been achieved.]

| A3123Y – Restoration Complete – 100% | | Medium Units – Restoration Nearing Completion – 80% | | Drone Units – Restoration Nearing Completion – 77% | | Ammunition and Rearmament – Restoration Nearing Completion – 77% |

[Combat levels have exceeded previous requirement levels.]

Abbey let out a hum that seemed to fill the entire virtual space with noise. She didn’t need to press any buttons, instead the screen of information she wanted flickered into existence as a hologram and floated closer.

[Drone Replenishment Status]

| Combat Drones: 72% Replenished | | Support Drones: 89% Replenished | | Construction Drones: Operational |

Those numbers were excellent. Abbey flipped a screen to a video feed of a internal scrap processing plant. Thousands of construction drones were busy dissecting the floating husk of a battleship that had been beyond repair. The hollowed remnants of what had once bristled with power and purpose were opened to the vacuum of her industrial plant.

[Salvaged Data Analysis]

| Unit Statistics and Equipment: Cataloged | | Engagement Capabilities: Analyzed | | Structural Weaknesses: Identified |

Still viable weapons had been sectioned off to receive a new life of service on other vessels—whether they were original design spec, or her own specified conversion upgrade.

The drones worked tirelessly, reclaiming alloys, circuitry, and anything else that could be repurposed. It was an exciting harvest, and anything that was no longer usable went into the nano forge to be broken down into base elements for fresh production of needed components.

Abbey’s attention shifted as she parsed through the reports on the newly incoming salvage, cross-referencing them with her replenishment status. The numbers were cold and impersonal, but they represented a significant bolstering of her capabilities. She absorbed the information on each incoming ship, their weapon systems, armor integrity, and remaining munitions.

Then she considered how to put them back together in a way that would operate efficiently.

It was very fun, maybe even the most fun. Slapping different things together and finding ways for them to fit and not just work—but to work well and even better than the original—was cathartic in the extreme.

And there was a lot to be cathartic about because people were upset with her.

They weren’t actually the people she was supposed to worry about being upset with her.

But she had full access to the ships that had been turned into prisons for the Corporate Systems fleet. Not just access—she had to review and observe to ensure that no one was attempting sabotage or to escape. There had already been attempts that had ended in fatalities.

A lot of people had died in the battle. There were a lot of sad and angry people.

She was the focus of a lot of it.

The pillows adjusted themselves to be softer, and she sank into them, the softness a small shield from the emotions. It was impossible to turn her connection to the feeds off completely, but it was possible to allow her Main Computer to deal with them based on heuristics in the event there was anything actionable.

A chime sounded overhead, and Abbey blinked, looking up at a new holographic screen that was blinking for her attention. A smile replaced the worry on her face.

It was Amy! She was in range for a real time virtual connection!

Communications, dealing with the humans, taking care of Aurea, and… well, everything that wasn’t industrial, salvaging, or controlling ships and flying them around the system had been left to her friend.

Including dealing with the small amount of civilian traffic from Theta Corvi.

Abbey checked the construction of the food relief freighters that had slowly been filled to the brim from the new orbital food processing plants built on Ackman Station.

Maybe it was time that they would finally move forward?