During the time skip: Serene Alliance

Elara Callen, Serenity Space Center, 50 km from Sharias, capital of Velshar Republic.

29/01/4837 IC

12/6/2033 AD

Do I look presentable enough? 

Looking in the mirror, I see a young woman in a suit of black and white. Her hair is tied into braids, her cheeks are a perfect pink, her smile completes her looks of an innocent, adorable girl.

That young woman is, of course, me. Dad is part of the group sent to receive the imperial delegation. Most of their dealings and negotiations are beyond my status. However, as a show of friendship between the two economic blocs and also taking advantage of the New Year holidays, they decide to gather the families of both sides to watch a rocket launch.

Naturally, the imperial side can't fly that many people here in such a short notice, so the alliance's side only allows for one family member for each person in the group. Since mom still has to work as the adults have less holidays than students and big sis has an air of maturity surrounding her, dad chooses me to bring along.

I have gone on trips with dad before and with some simple changes in gestures, facial expressions and habits, I can make the look of a weak, helpless and innocent girl. Even though that is very untrue considering how many martial art lessons he has signed me up for and dragged me to. 

Anyway, it doesn't seem like I can do anything more to improve this persona, so it is time to go. I step outside of my bedroom, a big and comfy place of enjoyment. Full-size bed in a corner, bookshelf full of whatever I felt like buying at the time in the opposite corner and a desk and a chair in between.

If there is one thing good that the empire has definitely done that is providing safety for their controlled nations. Their military scares most other nations from even attempting to strip even a little bit of the empire's authority. Thanks to that, the military of the Alliance is rather small, leaving funds for the political and diplomatic activities of the government. Hence, why dad is well paid enough that he can buy this large house.

Walking through the hallway, I can hear the scribbling sound of pen on paper to the room next to me, my sister's bedroom. She is in her last year of university, so she has to study hard for her finals. That is also the fate I have to suffer in 2 more years, so dad is bringing me around to see the world as much as possible before I become too busy for that. 

Opening the front door and stepping outside of the house, I take a deep breath of fresh air coming from the near identical trees lining the side of the street. The sunlight shines gently on my skin, its warmth balances out with the cool breeze to a comfortable temperature. 

The legend speaks of a monk who founded a town here for the land's tranquility and peace. Over the years, the city to its side grew, but it never lost its peacefulness and thus became a residential area. Although due to the rising population, it has slowly been becoming more and more like a luxury housing area.

Unfortunately, the tranquility ends right there as the sound of a car engine being pushed to its limit appears. A car soon appears, moving fast enough to clean the road by kicking up clouds of dust. It swings to the right and drifts to a stop just in front of my home, its wheels smoking from the intense friction that has left tracks on the road. 

The window on the driver side slowly goes down, showing my father behind the wheel. He waves his hand. "Have you done yet, sweetie?"

"Yes dad, I'm coming!"

I walk over and settle myself in the back seat of the car, my dad moves to sit next to me. Meanwhile his driver, previously in the passenger seat, moves to the driver seat and takes the wheel. I turn to dad. "Weren't you here just about 10 minutes ago?"

"Oh yeah, I did, but I got bored so I grabbed the car for a ride."

The driver groans. "How he hasn't received any speeding ticket or how the car hasn't broken down yet is beyond me."

I sighs. "For the first question, that is thanks to his status. For the second question, the car has broken down, been repaired and reinforced twice already."

Dad simply smiles and leans back.

Thanks to the person currently driving not being dad, the car goes smoothly. As this area is already in the suburbs, it is a short distance to the Serene Space Center, the place where the Serene Space Program has chosen as its main base of operation. The SSP is nominally under the IASC, in reality, I am pretty sure that this is the first time that the two sides have even met.

Looking at the metropolis area of the city, I see very few skyscrapers, but countless large buildings with the style of upturned corners. The people of Velshar dislike the style of the empire, too blocky for their liking. Though the newer building materials of reinforced concrete and bricks are much better than wood and stone, better enough that most buildings are covered in wood and stone bricks rather than made out of them.

Looking upward, I see the power poles and the wires that run between them. Almost instinctively, I imagine a person in black running on top of the wires, leaping across the lines when the car turns. I know that this is childish, but it feels so nostalgic and enjoyable. Turning to dad, I plan to talk with him to pass the time, but I see him looking out of the window, also at the wires. Well, since he is also doing it, I return to imagining the super soldier running on top of the wires.

Soon enough, the car gently slows down and stops before the entrance of the SSC. Dad leaves the car, slowly and elegantly, just like how a man with his status and duties is supposed to. I quickly follow after him, carefully hiding behind him to look shy and reserved.

Standing near the entrance is a scientist wearing a lab coat on top of a suit, which is how I guess that is a scientist. He looks… well, suitably enthusiastic, but the coffee machine nearby probably means that he has drunk a lot. When dad approaches, he smiles and raises his hand for a handshake.

"Greetings to you, sir diplomat. I will lead you to the viewing area. I assume this is your daughter."

Dad accepts the handshake. "Thank you, good sir. Why yes, this is my daughter."

I peek out from behind him, speaking in the smallest and lightest voice that I can while still loud enough that he can hear. "Uh, hello mister scientist."

He nods, his smile turns more genuine. He leads us through the facility speaking at acceptable length about the goals and dreams of the SSP. All of them can be summarized as detailing the information about the celestial objects and colonize Ivakur.

"Oh, how much we can do, how little time to do it. You know, if we get some more funding"

"Yeah, sadly, we have other areas that need money more."

The scientist shakes his head, but no disappointment can be seen, this is probably the expected result.

When we reach the viewing area, he speaks his goodbye and goes back to the entrance. The viewing area itself looks like seats in the theater, with a window similar to a screen as well. Of course, there are differences, such as the window being thick enough to see the edges or the room being very well-lit.

The seating area is not divided, but it is clear that the imperials sit on one side and ours on the other. The imperials look at dad and me. The air doesn't change, neither colder or hotter and they soon return to their talks. Dad takes his seat and I take the one next to him.

I look at the launch pad. At this far of a distance, I can't make out any details, but I can see the large rocket, or rather the launch vehicle and its payload. Based on the information that I have been given, this thing is 60 meters tall, 7 meters in diameter and can carry 20 tons into low Tashan orbit, which is its current mission: delivering 5 satellites to LTO.

Suddenly, I hear a sharp intake of breath. Dad!

I turn to him and then to where he is looking at. At the entrance to the room, there stands Veyran Volt, the man who has kickstarted the entire imperial space program. According to him and the empire's records, after a drunken bet with his friends about whether heaven is 20 km high or not as no Avarin has ever reached that height, he built a rocket to fly up there and checked it himself.

Thanks to his near suicidal action, public interest in space flight flared up about what are up there in the realm beyond the ground. Oh and after he woke up from the high-G, oxygen loss, depressurization, repressurization, frostbite and his crash landing in a nearby sea, he confirmed that no, heaven is not 20 km above sea level.

The man himself is just as the empire's media describes him, permanently tired and dressed just good enough for the occasion. However, his fame and engineering skills are not what matter, after all, that just means he is more useful working in the empire than going on diplomatic trips. What is the matter is that even though the empire knows that, they still have him go here.

He practically drags himself to his seat and plops down. His eyes vacantly watching the launch pad. People from both sides shoot him an odd look, but he seems oblivious to it.

As for me, I am not in a position to care about that. Looking around, the room is being filled with more and more people, most of them I don't know, but I notice a few familiar faces. I will talk to them later.

Then the intercom flares to life, electrical sparkling and all.

"As all of the guests have arrived, we will now begin the launch."

A countdown appears on an electronic clock above the window.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"4"

A large, white cloud appears around the bottom of the launch vehicle.

"3"

The engine ignites.

"2"

The engine's flume gets progressively brighter and brighter, a bright red standing out from the white cloud.

"1"

The clamps open, releasing the launch vehicle.

"0"

The launch vehicle flies up to the air, slowly but stably.

"We have liftoff. We have liftoff!"

Everyone breaks into applause. The launch vehicle goes higher and higher, faster and faster into the sky until it leaves out sight.

A white cloth is rolled down and the lights are turned off. A projector lights the screen, showing the progress of the launch vehicle.

It is climbing higher and higher. Its first stage shuts down and the second stage ignites. Soon, it passes through the 100 km line, considered the line where an object enters space. Its engine burns for some more, raising its altitude to 200 km and establishing an orbit around Tashan.

The launch vehicle's fairing opens up from a small explosive, quickly separating the 4 parts that the fairing was made from. The satellites are released. All 5 of them have their own engine and fuel to reach their intended orbit.

Sounds of clothes ruffling appear as everyone stands up to leave. The intercom cracks to life.

"Please stay for just another while, what is going to happen next may be very interesting."

Everyone confusedly sits back down.

The screen zooms in on one satellite. That satellite has significantly more fuel and more engines, 4 to be exact, each of which has a smaller nozzle. Wait, aren't those engines the same ones that the brochure describes as designed and made for pure thrust in the atmosphere for testing purposes. The ones on the other satellites are the vacuum version, only this group is made of the atmospheric version.

Due to the slower exhaust velocity and much greater fuel flow, the cone is wide and bright, accelerating the satellite to incredible speed. Then the screen zooms out slightly, showing the satellite's trajectory and the world map. It is going to pass over Kovask.

After all of that, everyone can guess what is going on. That is a spy satellite, its objective is to spy on the Kovask.

The empire has made attempts to spy on the Kovask as soon as they figured out how to fit a lightweight camera on a satellite. All of it has ended the same way. Somehow, despite possessing no satellite in space, even at the early days of the space age, the Kovask had anti-satellite missiles. The spy satellites had all been shot down without exception, without ever seeing even the shore.

However, the last time a spy satellite was destroyed, it managed to dodge a missile and required another one to take it out fully. This satellite was probably made learning from that.

As the satellite approaches the Kovask's island, a missile launch is detected in Kovask's territory, leading the satellite. As the satellite is moving and moving fast relative to the missile at that, the missile is going to miss badly if it heads straight toward the satellite.

The missile rises quickly through the atmosphere, but due to Tashan's gravity, most of its fuel is wasted. By the time it passes 80 km in altitude, it has barely any fuel left to maneuver and correct its trajectory. 

Even though corrections and maneuvering can be made below 50 km, the atmosphere there is dense enough to create significant drag. Combined with the thin shell of the missile for the sake of saving mass, the missile would be destroyed.

As for the spy satellite, it is already in orbit so it doesn't have to fight either gravity or drag, so it has more than enough fuel to spare. Soon, the missile runs out of fuel, its path now entirely dependent on its momentum and the gravity dragging it down.

Then the warhead explodes. The explosion is rather weak as it is not intended to deal damage to the enemy that way. Instead, the explosion shatters the missile into pieces and scatters countless steel pellets.

The ground computer is pushed into overdrive to such a level that I can hear the cooling fan even in here. The trajectories of every group of debris and pellets are calculated and shown on the screen.

The satellite maneuvers to dodge the few pieces that manage to intercept it. Afterward, it corrects its trajectory which was changed due to the combat maneuvers.

I hear a clap and turn around. Veyran Volt is, surprisingly, no longer look tired and disinterested, but spirited and cheerful. His claps turn into applause as everyone follows along and congratulates the success. With fuel over 70% left, we are confident that, after so long, the mystery of the Kovask will be known.

That little hope is quickly dashed as 15 missile launches are detected. The room quietens down like a popped balloon.

Utilizing the spread of the previous missile, the computer and engineers calculate the area of damage from the current 15 missiles and conclude that, even with the satellite's thrust, it will be hit.

Therefore, the satellite is ordered to burn straight to the island. As the satellite is closer and closer to the island, so do the missiles getting closer to the satellite. Granted, it is a distance of over 100 km, but with their speeds, it is only about a minute before they impact.

The 15 missiles soon run out of fuel, their warhead ignites, spreading the debris which is the steel pellets and the shattered corpse of the missile. 

The satellite spins around, aligning with the debris so that the engines and fuel tanks serve as protection for the main equipment. It also has a side benefit of being able to accelerate the satellite to lower the relative velocity between the debris and the satellite, albeit inefficiently.

The noses of the missiles, accelerated by being in front of the warhead when it exploded, impact the satellite first. The satellite's engines, bearing the full force of the impact, are crushed. 

The pumps inside still pump fuel and oxidizer into the engines' chambers which still ignites the fuel with the heat of itself from the previous ignitions. With the nozzle crushed inward, the chambers become overpressured and explode, giving the satellite its last bit of acceleration now that the engines are gone for good.

The steel pellets in front of the warheads, literally designed to be accelerated and spread uniformly, impact next. The pellets rip through the aluminum tanks, tearing apart pipes and wires, then stop just short of the electronics. A few manage to impact the box housing the electronics, but their impact is absorbed by the armored shell.

And with that few seconds of extra lifetime, the satellite successfully takes and sends back a image of the Kovask's island. Then the pieces of the rest of the missiles and the pellets behind the warheads impact the satellite, utterly destroying it now that the armored box has been weakened by the previous impact.

The screen switches to the processed image that the satellite has sent back.

It is a defense complex, or rather a part of it. Lines upon lines of trenches stretching from the shore to somewhere far inland. Concrete pillboxes dotted the landscape, as do mighty fortresses with cannons of at least 155 mm, based on the width of the trenches. At the corner of the image, the most inland area, there are cannons of 380 mm and missile silos, one of which is still open, ready to fire more missiles if the satellite still lives.

Those are static targets, easily dealt with by either guided missiles or bombers. Then the image changes as the computer and engineers finish processing. The resolution increases, showing the smaller weapons, 20 mm rotary cannons, SAM launchers previously mistaken as cannons for their size.

…Well, little hope of blowing up those defenses from the air then.

So many weapons, all modernized at that. Not even our military or the imperial's can afford to fully modernize to that level. The satellite fails to capture any image of anything beyond their shore, so how they can reach this level remains a mystery. At least they don't seem to have the intention to use these beyond their borders… before this spy satellite anyway, who knows what is going to happen next.

The projector is turned off and the white cloth is rolled back up, letting sunlight into the room. I look around and see confusion everywhere. The showing of the spy satellite into Kovask's territory seems to be unexpected to both sides. A man stands up, who I recognize as Hivar Klen, proposer and planner of this event.

"Please remain calm, this is fully planned and I apologize for not providing information about this."

Veyran Volz stands up and nearly falls over as if his tiredness returns the moment he has to work.

"As the newly appointed head of the imperial delegation, I must ask as it is my duty. What is the meaning of this?"

"Please have no worry. This is only to show our aligned goals with the Imperial Space Program. After all, we both desire for more knowledge and what knowledge is more unknown than the Kovask."

Yes, both programs desire knowledge, so they send forth science satellites, probes and spy satellites. All for collecting and categorizing knowledge for the good of us all, I'm sure.

Veyran Volz visibly suppresses a yawn. "So if an Imperial Prince is here, then I assume that he will be fine."

Hivar Klen blinks in confusion. "Why, of course. It is our duty as allies of the empire to protect the princes no matter the situation."

"And is there any major launch soon?"

"Um, yes, near the end of next year, we are planning to launch a flyby probe to learn about the dark side of Ivakur."

"Lovely, the Third Imperial Prince will come over to watch that mission. Please make preparations for it."

"Yes sir. Wait, what, wh"

Let's just say, for a tired man, no, for a scientist, nay, even for a normal Avarin, Veyran Volz runs very quickly. His entourage is only slowed down by their children who are picked up by them and carried along.

Dad, ever a quick man, shouts: "Welp, good luck mister Klen."

Then he picks me up and runs away. The other diplomats, also not desiring more work, rush out. A good three fourth manages to run outside before mister Klen blocks the door, loudly demanding…. Uhh, oh right, everyone gets paid days off until the end of the holidays after this, unless they were called in for an emergency of course. 

According to the rule, planning for an allied Prince's visit isn't an emergency that allows diplomats to be called off their break when they have already left. As a result, everyone is trying to get away before they can be given new orders. Dad turns to me.

"You hear anything?"

"Nope, absolutely nothing at all."

"Good."

He runs quickly, his determination to be free from working increases his strength so much that he passes by some of the slower imperial diplomats.

Soon, he crashes into his car, throws me on the backseats, drags the driver to the backseats and drives away as fast and stable as a racer. He only relaxes when we get home, giving my shaking self and the driver a high-five and goes inside. I follow him along, remembering what the imperials said and wondering why the Prince would want to watch a space mission in another nation.