UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System
Planet IV- High Orbit
Atlantis Station
John looked out at the amphitheater at everyone that they had managed to get here. Between the Senior Officers and NCOs from the Raven, Riptide, and Travelers they had managed to get just under forty people assembled. Another dozen Travelers were staying behind to spy on the Imperium. To monitor the news, keep an eye on the Intelligence Division, and to watch their industry to see when they went on the war footing. They already had their orders for the foreseeable future. Watch, wait, and see if they could hear in other whispers of descent.
Kara and Douglas waited on him to say his piece before they started briefing everyone on Atlantis and all the assets available to them. They eye-of-storm in more ways than one. Both felt the Captain's gaze upon them but neither responded, they knew their part in the coming days. "This is an informal briefing but I do need some order people," John called out. Immediately the locals settled down but the Travelers took a bit longer. Once everyone had settled down, John took a moment to inform everyone that what they were about to hear was classified and not meant for anyone outside the room. Leaking the information to anyone would result in the diarist actions taken against them possible. With that, the twins took over the briefing.
"So now you all know what we have. What I am thinking is that we will use the tactics that the Thrax used to bring down the original Imperium. Hit and run tactics with no conventional Warfare until we are sure we can win. Strike at isolated outposts and ships only, but right now we need to recruit. With what we have here we can't even do that. We need personnel to man ships, fighter pilots, freighter pilots, anything and everything. We need to recruit both Travelers and Locals from places like Blackhole Station. Aran'Sul has already started reaching out to the other powers within this sector, so we can rally the other governments to give us even more legitimacy.' John told them as he met their eyes trying to impress the importance of everything they were talking about.
"Travelers, we can't talk about this place out there, but we can talk about the crimes the Admirals Board has committed. Every time we leave them questioning what those pricks are doing buys us time. It also might start turning them against the Admirals Board. Remember the Imperium is not our enemy, the Admirals Board is and as long as the Imperium keeps them in power, the longer we will fight. Make sure everyone you talk to is aware of that. Now as far as how we are going to work with the automated units. Squadrons will be run at a three to one ratio. Three automated units for every pilot. Marine units will have five automated units per Marine. This is to cut down on casualties while maximizing the use of the MECHs. Any questions or suggestions, people?" John finished up his little impromptu speech.
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Over the last few hours that hammered out a rough plan. Most of the people would be heading out within the next couple of days to start recruiting among the Non-Imperium worlds. Construction drones had already been sent to the surface of planet 4 to start building facilities they would need. Currently, they would try and recruit in small groups and slowly expand. Those that had run with merc units were going to try and convince them to come to our side pro-bono.
Chief Letts and Johnson were out at the asteroid field with everyone who could pilot starships to test the ships that had been left in mothballs for so long. Those ships that for one reason or another, could not be brought online would be scrapped for parts and resources. Right now, they were just testing out the support vessels (which numbered nearly three hundred), between all the engineering teams and pilots, they thought they would be able to test them all out within two to three weeks.
The R&D labs were being brought online, but the Heirs only had a few scientists. In a little over a week, Captain Stein was going to make a run to Blackhole Station to see what recruits had shown up. They hoped for one hundred, but John would be presently surprised if they got twenty. On her way, Rebecca had a secondary mission to drop a signal booster at the half-way point, so they would have no problem directly contacting Aran'Sul if need be.
Commander Smitt was on the station overseeing some modifications about on-site security for any new people. Commander Jones was dirtside with a couple of Marine squads learning to work with MECHs and training protocols for new Marines. While overseeing the construction of training grounds. Kara and Douglas were working directly with everyone as much as possible, but everywhere he went, one of them was always with him.
Daniel Pride was in the process of fixing up one of the dorms and turning it into a training ground for new pilots. He had refused to let anyone in other than the AIs and said he would reveal his work when it was ready. John told him he had three more days to finish whatever he was working on. So many projects were going on, and they had only just started. If it hadn't been for Jeeves to remind him of meetings, or places he needed to go look at, he would be lost.
At the end of the week, he was going to have to do a walkthrough of what R&D was working on, he had to fly down to the surface to check on construction was on schedule and to look at the training courses that Jones had set up. Eventually, he wanted to set up training environments in all the climates on the planet. Planet four was perfect for it, it had snow-capped mountains, plains, swamps, the needed to build both the urban areas and city landscapes, and even mock boarding actions. They would also be trained to do combat drops, John shuddered at that. He had seen the training vid Jones and Smitt had made for raw recruits. Jumping out of perfectly good aircraft at those speeds and surviving...just seemed impossible.
'Jeeves, where is the gun range on this place. I need a break, find me something to shoot.' Ten minutes later, John his two Marine escorts, and Kara were running through a simulator in an urban area. The simulation put them in an ambush and taking fire from all side, the Sergeant had command and was leading the squad. All of them wore Power Armor and had pulse rifles and sidearms that had been modified for the simulator.
It took them thirty minutes of constant fighting to break out and kill the opposing side, by the time the simulator was done, John was tired hungry and ready for bed. After the Marines escorted him to the officer's mess, and he convinced them that he was indeed going to bed after eating did they relent and leave him alone to go seek their own food and beds.
Kara remained though and even tried some of the food. "We cannot process it as any biologic beings can, but we can taste the food and enjoy it."
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John also asked her why either Douglas or Kara was always with him nowadays. "Well Captain, after five hundred years of solitude, you found us and gave us a purpose. We will always remember that and be thankful for it. We also agreed that you must always be protected and one of us will always be there in case you need us. For some reason, the males are distracted and have the tendency to make mistakes when I am around while when Douglas is around most of those mistakes and distractions are negated. It is interesting how your species let the opposite sex distract them when they are working on their duties. I find that most of the time this same truth does not apply to you. You, humans, are so odd." Kara responded to John's question.
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For the next couple days, John's days were filled with meetings with A.I.s about ships that were working, those that needed to be tugged back to the station for dismantling, and ships that had received damage while in the asteroid field and was on the way back for repairs. That last list kept growing daily with fifty support vessels as listed in need of various repairs due to blunt impact. Forty of them were already in repair bays with MECHs and Engineers were working hand-in-hand getting them repaired.
Rebecca had left and was on her way to Back Hole Station. Every night before heading to bed he took out his frustrations on the simulators. Marines rotating into his protection detail started to keep score on who could lead the old man, John, through the best scenarios without getting him killed. They had succeeded for the most part, and it was food for thought for Douglas and Kara in their study of humans.
On Friday, his day started like any other until he was pulled within the R&D lab. Within was a madhouse of both Tech and Biological experiments. They had been organizing everything and prepping the labs for expanded teams, not seeing how well they could destroy the labs. When he found the mad scientists they were all around some HALO displays working on what appeared to be a MECH unit. It was different though in subtle ways from the MECH units he saw everywhere.
"Oh Captain, we expected you at 0900. We would have met you at the entrance." a surprised Miles Burmingham said when he noticed John standing there.
"Doc, it's 0910. You all are late and I can see why. What doesn't explain why the whole lab is trashed. You all are supposed to be getting these labs ready for expanding your teams, not trying to make them worse than the state they were in. Now you guys are going to explain what you have been working on then you are going to get with Douglas and some MECHs and clean up all of this and organize it all. Please begin your briefing." John finished his rant. He knew Miles was a scientist in real life as well, but having him trash a lab this bad was unacceptable.
"I am sorry Captain you are right. You will not see the R&D labs like this again. Now you know that the scientists of the Imperium modified both Atlantis station and the mobile units so that they could work with automated platforms 'MECHs'. Now since they threw the plan together at the last second, so to speak, they really didn't design the best MECH. Working with Douglas and his sister we looked at some of the ideas those old teams had but didn't have time to implement, and we came up with this design. It uses the basic chassis design but its made from a bio-organic material that is both more flexible and stronger than the alloy they choose to use that actually absorbs a certain amount of energy from incoming weapons fire and shunt the energy into the shielding system.' Miles explained. 'Now the armor we have modified so it's not built into the chassis but is removable plating for repair reasons. That gives the armor more gaps for enemies to exploit but makes it easier to repair the units because they do not have to be disassembled in the field to repair. Now, these units will be thirty percent faster, fifty percent tougher, and take about forty percent less time to build. We plan on building a prototype next week and if everything works out we will have them in full production within a month. This is for the basic combat MECH, we are still working on both the medium and heavy chassis designs." Miles and his companions eagerly awaited John's response.
"Good job all of you, I can defiantly see the benefits of all the changes you made to the MECHs. Now what kind of timeline are we looking at finishing the designs for the Mark II for the medium and heavy chassis? Have you guys been working on anything else?" John asked while he was impressed with the work they had already done.
If the prototype worked out, they would need to roll this out ASAP. 'Jeeves talk with Kara and Douglas about production lines they had for building MECHs and see how long it would take to change them to build the new designs and how many could we build at a time.' John quietly thought to his AI.
"The other thing that Shannon and I have been working on is reverse-engineering the Phoenix Missiles. The Imperium was very protective of the designs and sciences behind their weapons of mass destruction and neither Kara or Douglas know how to build them. We are going through the Archives, but we do not have much hope there. So until we can build more, whatever you have on those ships or the armories, is all you have. We are also working on reverse-engineering the Anti-Matter missiles as well. James has been working on a Nannite solution for rapid healing on the battlefield. That is in the early stage as well. John, no offense but you cannot expect miracles this soon. We have only been open a week, and we only have 3 people working full time and two A.I.s working with us part-time. We need time, resources, and people." Miles reminded John.
"I know Miles, and we are working on all of that, but like you said we need time. Now, what can you tell me about your labs in general and what you need equipment-wise." John responded as he listened to the scientist.
'Jeeves, remind me to never open myself up like that again.' the chirp, in his ear, was the A.I.s response as he made his way down to the nearest launch bay.
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UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System
Planet IV- High Orbit
Atlantis Station- Launch Bay
Two hours had passed since he had opened the can of worms where Miles had complained and whined about every little piece of equipment he did not have and wanted and what he wanted to change about the labs....it was tiring, and he was now running late to check out the Marine training course that had been under construction and was ready for inspection. Both John and Smitt were going to fly down to the planet and check it out. Jones had sent him a quick message yesterday stating they were ready for inspection, so hopefully everything was alright. Smitt was waiting with O'Hansen, the shuttle had been prepped and was humming while waiting for the Captain. "So Sir, I assume you let those egg heads talk your ear off. Glad to see you get out of there and not turned into one of their experiments Sir. Here is your Vac Suite, once it's on we will head planet side I am sure Jones eagerly awaits our arrival." Smitt chuckled as he saw John approach.
John eyeballed O'Hansen wondering why he was here and not out helping check the mothballed fleet. "Not my fault sir, I was asked to fly you dirt side by both Jeeves and Commander Smitt. I cannot turn down an order sir. You know Captain Stein, if I didn't take care of the VIP flights, she would have my head when she gets back." the pilot deflected as he walked onto the shuttle. Five minutes later John and his escort lifted off from the station and headed toward the planet, estimated transit time eight minutes until he touched down at the training camp.
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UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System
Planet IV- Camp Trident
The training camp is what he expected, a mix of barracks, gyms, chow halls, armories, and firing ranges. From what John saw coming in, it was one of four locations, the other 3 still under construction. "Captain, welcome to Camp Trident. Glad you could make it.' Jones called out as John stepped off the shuttle. O'Hansen continues to power down the shuttle as they made their way into the training base. 'Now as you saw flying in, that this is the only part of the base that is complete. We can support the training of 60 marines at this location. At this location, Marines will learn the basics from hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and small unit tactics over a three-week period. Once they have completed training here, they will be moved to Camp Typhoon where they are given a three-week course on their MECHs and where they will practice combat. After that they will be in the field for two weeks and thrown into mock combat in every environment we can find and/or think of. Of course for those that are coming from merc units will have a condensed training that if they fail will have to go through the whole course." Jones briefed John.
"So you will not have MECHs at this camp? For the Pilots, are you going to incorporate any SEAR training?" John asked the Marine.
"No, we will not have any MECHs here except for camp security. Once the construction drones have completed the training facilities they will start constructing the fortifications for the camp. As far as SEAR school, we had not thought of that. I will contact Traveler Daniel Pride when we are done walking you through everything here and with the demo later."
Over the next four hours, Smitt and Jones had him inspect every nook and cranny of what they had built. They also did several mock combat situations using mixed units of MECHs and Marines. It was enlightening and allowed them to request to change the squad make up from one organic and five MECHs to two organics and four MECHs. It increased the survivability of both types of units to have multiple operators within a single unit. Having only one slowed MECH response times and caused increased casualties for both the MECH units and organics that they could not keep up long term. At the end of the tour, John informed the Marine Commanders that they could be receiving a newer basic MECH model within a month's time in small numbers, if all the testing went well. With that John was finished with the tour and headed back to Atlantis station to see if Rebecca had made it to Blackhole Station and to see what recruits they had gotten if any.