053. Colony 01 and the Sheridan
July 2993, New Oslo
Hunter Bek, haircut aficionado, looked down at the plans that Huu Eggers had ordered to be completed and wondered just how far they were going to take this?
From orbital construction... to orbital colonies.
The reasoning had been simple back then, when he first had been given the orders. Build orbitals for people to live in.
It then changed after the Great Betrayal, as it was now known in the Book of Grudges. Orbital infrastructure was allowed a defensive force. If the EDF was based and concentrated in orbit, it couldn't be commandeered, as it was performing a strategically vital task. Building more orbital infrastructure, meant that more of them could be stationed in orbit, taking them out of reach of the LCAF.
Patting his hair, now up in a 'Regent' style, a pompadour with the front extended to look like a bullet. Something about the design... just appealed to him. Hunter pondered the design that he had been given.
To his right, Guðlaug Jónasdóttir, or Gaudlig Jonasdottir according to exhaustive practice, had, in the interest of making sure that everything would be of assistance to Eggers Shipping. Had, with great interest, made her preferences' known.
Specifically, that the designs needed to be able to refit and repair the vessels of the fleet. Eggers shipping had expanded, with constant shipyard expansions to several thousand vessels. Itself, not that large a number, considering that the Primitive Bounty Concern supplied one in ten vessels to Eggers Shipping. Meaning, that the rest of the Commonwealth had ten times more vessels than they did. Spread across multiple different corporations of course, but still, that was a lot of ships.
Unlike the rest of the Commonwealth, their jumpships were focused into a tiny concentration of worlds. Which, really, made it so that Eggers Shipping, for all the innocuous nature behind the name... was in fact, the largest concentration of void-craft combat potential in the Inner Sphere.
Most of which was concentrated in Rasalhague to provide near continuous connections between worlds, between people. A constant stream of goods and services as well, guaranteeing a connection and a shared identity that usually took several decades to build, as per the states of the Inner Sphere. And even then, many of them were more loyal to local powers, rather than the state as a whole.
Not the case here in Rasalhague, that much was for sure. Not when planetary economies were all connected, with different planets shipping out their different specialities and products. An interconnection of labour and goods, one that created a shared national bond, not a singular planetary identity.
Still, all of that relied on Eggers Shipping, and all of that relied on Gaudlig Jonasdottir and her leadership.
Oh, and Erwin Jaxon was here, because his design had... practical use here in the void?
A tank?
A space tank?
The three of them and Erwin's plus one, one Marie Rosie from Trellshire Heavy Industries, floated through the void.
Before coming to a complete stop, as the colony itself... was operational. Providing centrifugal force as an equivalent to gravity. They were exploring the experimental 'civilian colony'. As in, the original plan for an orbital colony as it was... as desired by Huu Eggers on Blackjack before he had even been a noble... was finally to be realised over New Oslo.
"It's taken us a year, but we've finally managed to get an actual colony above New Oslo. The prototype over Blackjack is being dismantled right now. This. Egger's Cradle, is the first O'Neill Cylinder to have been produced in nearly three hundred years. From, at least, the time of the Star League. We... we have once again stepped into the stars and built our homes. No longer do we skip through it like an ocean of which we are terrified. We have made it home, once again, the stars are our home." Hunter whispered.
His voice coming through their headsets. The zero-gravity rated Armsman using a fuel-cell instead of a combustion engine. An intimate caress of their eardrums.
"Really? We can actually live on this now?" Asked Erwin.
"Not right now, but the structurally vital construction has finished. We are, as of this moment, standing inside the first orbital colony that has been constructed since the time of the Star League. We are. As of this moment, retaking our place amongst the stars. No longer treating space like it is something... we travel through. Now, space is something that we will make our own, as we have the worlds of the Commonwealth!" Hunter's voice echoed over their headsets, pumped directly into their ears. The slightly different speech raising many eyebrows. All six of them not connected to Hunter in fact.
"Practice that for the opening ceremony, have you?" Asked Erwin. The sound of his raised eyebrows evident from just his voice.
"How was it?"
"Good, a little more elaboration on exactly why we're meant to care about being able to live in space would be good. But, I think everyone will be so interested in the idea of living in space in the first place, they won't complain."
"Gaudlig?" Hunter asked.
"I enjoyed it, it wasn't bad. Not sure why we care so much about living in a colony, when jumpship crews live in space anyway." She replied, sounding distracted.
"Yes, but they're not living in space, are they? They are living on jumpships, in the tiny, cramped areas that are available to them. This colony, once it is filled with a breathable atmosphere, will have a surface area of 37.69 kilometres squared on the interior. An interior, mind you, that will be entirely available for those that wish to walk and explore it. Leisure areas, parks, pools, racetracks, and more. Nothing like a paltry jumpship crew quarters!" Hunted replied heatedly, swinging his arms about.
"Good, make sure that's in the speech then." Gaudlig replied, eyes scanning over the truly enormous expanse of grey concrete. "It kind of looks like a bullet vibrator now that I think about it." She finished, unashamed of her words.
Hunter and Erwin cringed as Marie made an interested sound.
"Please, there are thrusters at the back, and it has the attached mirror panels. It looks nothing like a vibrator!" Hunter defended his creation.
"And what about those?" Erwin asked, trying to head off this conversation he had no interest in participating in. Pointing his hand at the three 'windows'.
Said windows ensured the entire colony was illuminated. Three enormous slits down the side, set an equal distance apart. Each covered in a truly enormous set of transparent panes. Like that of Cockpit glass, able to ablate damage as it arrived, instead of cracking all at once.
"Those are the windows that the mirror panels shine sunlight through. You can walk on those as well. In, fact, if you angle yourself properly, you can use the mirrors to see New Oslo!" Hunter continued on, blithely. Not acknowledging that his miracle structure... may not be entirely perfect.
"I thought this was designed for my ships to maintain themselves within. I am not seeing it." Gaudlig said, voice dry.
Herself pointing, this time, at the caps on either end of the colony.
"That's where the central support strut comes into play. If you look up, you can see the central shaft, dropships and jumpships can enter, and be repaired inside, while protecting the colony from debris... while also keeping the ships in zero gravity. Isn't it great? My engineers pointed that issue out, and we've solved it perfectly, in my opinion!"
"Admiral, we have an issue. Eight jumpships have jumped into system, and they refuse our hails to haul to and allow boarding teams for inspection." The voice echoed over their communications systems. Hunter poked at his own Armsman to try and figure out where things had gotten crossed over so much as to allow this to happen.
Erwin tapped him on the arm, bringing attention to the Armsman with a Cracked egg set over two gun barrels on its right breast. The only way to identify Erwin... assuming one wasn't looking at the green name over his head, of course.
'My Bad' The suit signed off on tight-beam. The text displaying on Hunter's visual display. 'Linked Our Suits Together Just In Case.' The text continued to scroll down. Hunter nodding, that made sense.
Just in case there was an accident, they were all linked. But if that were the case... then there must be some kind of override, or mechanical or coded, that allowed this voice to go straight to Gaudlig instead of Erwin first.
Hunter froze at the realisation. Something was very wrong.
That should be impossible, if Erwin tied them together, then Erwin was the priority.
All messages went through Erwin, anything that talked to Gaudlig individually was something that should be impossible!
Hunter, having only basic training in the suit, turned and held out a hand to stop Marie, to not get closer to Gaudlig just in case. His basic training as a conscript all those years ago, telling him.
'Leave it to the experts.'
On the other side, Erwin strode forward (the colony already had gravity at 1 earth standard of 9.81 metres per second per second.
Tapping Gaudlig on her hand, instead of grabbing her. Making rather sure she didn't accidentally kill him by accident, Erwin sent a tight beam transmission across.
'Transmission Impossible. Unknown Vector. Compromised. Maintain Line.'
Gaudlig herself gave a nod, even as her voice continued to lift and fall with a regular pattern.
"Send the orders again. This is something you should be aware of, send the order to heave to and wait. This is space, we don't need to rush. Call me again in 30 minutes if there is still an issue." Ending the call, apparently, Gaudlig turned around.
Erwin tapped her to stand still as he opened the diagnostic panel on the small of the suit's back. Poking at it, his featureless helmeted face reflected the numbers, values, and charts, glowing softly as it did so.
A few more presses and a cable was gently disconnected from the side. Erwin making a low-pitched humming noise the entire time.
Apparently finished, he tapped Gaudlig to face the others, and the four turned to meet in a small circle.
Something, quite clearly was wrong. Even the densest of individuals would be able to tell with how Erwin had been acting.
Hands reaching up, Erwin gestured for them to touch his palms. Feeling like they were back in the gymnasia as children, the four touched each other, palm to palm.
A harsh sound, filled with static, breached their ears.
"Sorry. I've disabled Gaudlig's external communications using a hard bypass, something was overriding her suit's communications network. I've linked us through direct audio transmission. Nobody can overhear us like this. Just speak normally, and we can all hear it." Erwin's voice cut through, his background as a Mechwarrior carrying through clearly. No panic at the unusual situation, one might say.
"What's happening?" Marie's voice trembled. The other three couldn't exactly look at each other, their heads behind featureless helmets... but for some unfathomable reason, could feel their gazes on one another. Her breath was coming in loud, harsh... and increasingly fast.
Fingers pushed, tapping out a rather succinct message that had been passed since time immemorial.
You.
You know what to say.
Okay, I'll do it.
Gaudlig spoke.
"We are likely being used by an enemy intelligence asset. Likely hoping that I will, in my capacity as Admiral of Eggers Shipping, to send a message ordering the boarding or destruction of this unknown fleet. It will, no doubt, start a conflict designed to negatively impact on the Rasalhague Kingdom. I apologise that you have been drawn into this, but you need to relax and follow our lead. I will keep you safe, this I promise on my name as Guðlaug Jónasdóttir."
Marie tentatively nodded her head, breath calming down.
"So plans? Because I have one, but it's quite insane, and we need to figure out the best way to deal with this issue before it gets us, or the King, killed." Erwin asked.
"We haven't installed anything on the interior yet. So, there is no communication equipment set up on the colony interior. If we want to send a message, we could try using the mirrors we've built to bring light into the colony?" Hunter's answer was short, the message just as sharp.
"That's... actually better than my plan. Right. New plan. I had a prototype Sheridan tank brought in, so I and Marie, here, could demonstrate it. Using that, we can get a message out while still inside this... tube. Feeling like toothpaste here, and I don't want to wait for us to be squeezed, let me tell you." Erwin said, voice filled with disapproval.
"I've been meaning to ask this, but why do you have a tank inside my demonstration tour? I'm here to inspect this colony... and you're bringing a tank into it? What for?" The Eggers Construction head, naturally, hadn't had much to do with the head of Eggers Armaments, aside from where to stick weapons emplacements and the dimensions of said emplacements.
A cough interrupted Erwin before he could say anything. Marie's voice as it came out was filled with the confidence of a product designer talking about their products.
"The Sheridan, acknowledging the future of strategic concerns as being in orbit due to the increasingly space borne nature of assets and jumpship proliferation. It has been developed to handle combat within space-infrastructure. This occurs through the Sheridan's fusion drive on the tank's undercarriage, which generates enough thrust to break artificial rotational gravity. With a series of directional jumpjets, based on the experimental Armsman jump-dash systems, the Sheridan can flip over to make a landing as if it were a small dropship. This allows it to perform its infantry support role with admirable efficiency. Boasting an energy and ballistic loadout, the Sheridan has one small laser alongside its multi-role, low velicocity, 155mm rifle. The small laser can-" Marie was cut off as Erwin gently tapped her on the helmet, breaking the link between the four of them for a brief moment.
"Right. The big thing here, is that the Sheridan, as we loaded it... is fully functional. In flight, it acts more like a dropship. It's designed to bounce around a colony's interior, so it can act like mobile infantry support. Can also drop from orbit, but that's less useful. But it should get us to where we need to go."
"To take the fight to the enemy and annihilate them! We have a vehicle now, let us see just how they can threaten us now!" Gaudlig's voice was harsh. "Using me to strike at the King, if that is their plan? Denied. They will be annihilated to the last if it is the last thing that I do!"
Erwin coughed.
"No, actually, the plan was for us to fly to one of the mirrors, melt a hole in the glass, and then use the mirrors to shoot a message to New Oslo or one of the ships around the colony. If we tune the small laser properly, we should be able to handle it without melting the mirror. It's a 20 ton tank, the number of compromises we needed to make on it is ridiculous, let me tell you."
"..." They could practically feel Gaudlig's disappointment.
"Is there a way to do this without melting a hole in my colony? It hasn't even had any colonists arrive, the landscapers haven't even started work, this is a virgin colony you are desecrating here." Hunter complained, his voice forlorn. And indeed, looking around, one could see the dull grey concrete that made up the entire colony, there being nothing that indicated it was anything but an enormous art installation at this point. Well, the large tube through the centre was likely useful for travel, but that was it.
"Gaudlig gave them 30 minutes, we've probably used 15 already. We don't have time to think of another plan."
A grand sigh was Erwin's answer.
"Let us move before matters escalate into a threat against the Kingdom. We cannot allow the King to be harmed by our failure. From this point forward, we communicate using tight beam text only. Watch for enemies that might try to eliminate us. Marie stay close to me." Gaudlig said, giving a brief tutorial on how to activate the system before they bounded forward. The message had to be sent out before matters escalated beyond their control. What if a few of the Providences had been subverted and were used to destroy this fleet. It would be blamed on them, or worse, the King.
With the 15 kilometre, an hour running speed, the four (Marie lagging slightly) sprinted to the waypoint Erwin had set on their heads up displays.
In the end, the Sheridan was found (hidden under a tarp... because bright white tarp on an endless background of grey was hard to find... not). Gaudlig and Marie acting as the crew. The designer, and the one with naval authority. While Hunter and Erwin held on to the clearly marked Armsman attachment points. You wouldn't want to get vaporised by the jumpjets as they rotated, after all.
The entire tank lifting up as one might expect of a dropship, before ungainly waddling towards the nearest 'window' and sending through its message. The directional thrusters spinning rapidly to send them forward on a generally 'forward' track. Barely stable enough to send the laser message through. One picked up, through luck, by a picket ship. One that sent a tight beam to the patrol ships, and even further beyond to the combat flotillas.
'Something fuckey is going on' being the broad gist of the message. 'Maintain alert status, only acknowledge messages directly, do not trust digital systems without visual identification.' Being the slightly longer addition.
Of course, that was when the worst case scenario for the four individuals came true. Hijacked Armsman exosuits were deployed into the field from previously unseen entranceways. Clad in the colours of the EDF, the firing wildly at the Sheridan as it floated far beyond them. The two Mechwarriors hanging on for dear life. The space-tank wildly attempting to fire at the targets below and missing ever single shot with either the main gun or the small laser.
"Why are they so bad at this!" Screamed Hunter, hunching onto the tank with his magnetically charged hands and knees.
"There's no stabiliser on the prototype yet! We weren't expecting to actually need to use the guns!" Erwin roared back.
The two muttering and grunting loudly, before luck struck again. The same Sojourner patrol ship identified weapons fire and came to assist. Dropping an entire platoon, 30 Smialies, through the window shattered by its main guns. The thirty Automachines landing amongst the infiltrators and tearing them apart.
There were no survivors.
The Sheridan landed to great fanfare and laughter from the rapid deployment units.
The day was saved, a diplomatic envoy by the Magistracy of Canopus, who, in turn, was feeling increasingly stressed, by the waiting and armed Dropships/Small Craft hovering beyond her flotilla of Canopus manufactured Providences, all ignoring her communications. Saved from what some might call a diplomatic faux-pas. As, the boarding and annihilation of her crew would be called in polite circles.
The fact that three Sojourners had to be destroyed when they refused hails and instead burned at maximum acceleration at the diplomats... well, that was quietly swept under the rug.
The saboteurs couldn't be identified... but such masterful control over the digital environment? It wasn't like there were many options as to the culprits.
Marie for her part vowed to never demonstrate products in person ever again.
Gaudlig, Hunter, and Erwin were waiting for their King to react to this latest event. And he would... with great ferocity. They had, after all, seen what he had done following the Great Betrayal of 2992.
In fact, there were already bets being made about his reaction.