(Main Conference Room, Black Star Company Headquarters – Star’s Reach Division, Starborn, Star’s Reach)
The main conference room was designed to hold a thousand people. For anything larger, you were looking at renting out a stadium somewhere, or working through a digital teleconference, to keep things at a manageable level. Currently, only about a quarter of the seats were empty. Most were filled with bodies of flesh and blood, but a few, ones who couldn’t be here in person due to duties elsewhere, were holoprojections. All to give people a sense of the scale of this meeting.
It was important that people understood the size and scale of the meeting. It would help them bring things into focus. After all, this was a meeting of all the Nomads in the Black Star Company, whether free or slave. Up until this point, I doubt any of these people truly came to grasp with the fact that they were part of the largest player-run faction the game. According to the subscriber numbers, there were something like twelve million players for DAtS world-wide. We were such a tiny fraction of the player base, but we were the single largest group of players in the game, and the most powerful group, by far. After all, how many Nomads were part of a group that sported a Navy that could stand tall with the major powers?
I walked out to the front of the conference room, where there was a low stage, with a table and chairs set up behind it, with Cali and Jaynie flanking me. They took up positions to either side of the stage, basically acting as security or bodyguards for the moment. I passed in front of the table, and looked out to the assembled crowd.
“All right, everyone, settle down. Now, you might be looking around, and seeing some familiar faces, and some not-so-familiar ones. You might also be noticing that this is not a small, intimate gathering. Frankly, I’d prefer a nice, small group kind of setup, but looking at you all, that would take a few weeks’ worth of meetings to cycle through all of you, and I don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty busy these days!”
There was some polite laughter, and I continued on. “Now, for those of you who either didn’t know, or have pushed it out of your mind, I am Mirikon Mollen. Got a bunch of fancy titles, including things like Admiral and CEO/Owner, but they all boil down to the fact that, at the end of the day, I’m the end of the line when it comes to Black Star. There is no one higher than me except the game devs, in their wisdom. It also means that I am, at the end of the day, the boss of each and every one of you.”
“Now, I don’t mean that as any kind of threat or intimidation. It is simply to point something out. All of you are Nomads. More importantly, you are all Black Stars, and there are exactly seven hundred and ninety-six of you. For those of you not paying attention, that makes us officially the largest player guild in Dreams Amongst the Stars, a confirmation of which I’ve gotten personally from NERV itself, through the game devs. We’ve had a fairly wild couple of in-game years, and I thought now would be a great time for a full meeting of the guild, so we can talk about the past, the present, and the future. More importantly, we can talk about how all of you can contribute in the way that adds the most enjoyment to your play time.”
THAT got a stir out of the crowd! As I had guessed, no one truly understood what a monstrous group we had put together until this point. Most of that was simply because we didn’t act like most guilds in games. Aside from those involved in some of the highest levels of the Black Star Navy and Marines, most of the Nomads were in groups of ones or twos, mixed in with many more Local people who had become the backbone of the Black Star Company across Known Space. And the idea that we were going to come up with ways for them to contribute more, in a way that fit their game style? Well, that was music to their ears, it seemed.
“All right, all right. Now, starting with the past. You all came to this company in different ways. Some of you were slaves, and some were hired on. Some of you joined up when you found out there was mayhem to be had. Yes, I’m looking at you, jarheads!”
“Oorah!”
I just smiled as one of the Marines called out, and continued with my speech. “Doesn’t matter how you came here, you’re all Black Stars, and all of you have signed on for the foreseeable future. Oh, sure, there’s some Nomads who are under judicial enslavement temporarily because they tried to pull a fast one on us after we opened Star’s Reach, and they aren’t here with us today. You guys, no matter how you got here, are the ones that are helping to drive Black Star forward.”
“The in-game media likes to make a big deal about me, and all the crap I get up to. The forums practically explode every time I open my mouth. Both of them paint me as the one to blame, and the one to take credit, for all of Black Star’s shaking up the status quo. Now, I’m not going to lie and say I had nothing to do with it, but I know, and we all know, that there is no way I could have done it alone. Black Star isn’t one man, gallivanting around with his harem and his private military force. Black Star is a team, with each of us covering and boosting the others. Sure, those of you in the Navy and Marines know that those areas have been getting all the attention from the public, but I don’t want those in other fields to feel like they aren’t appreciated. After all, without the R&D people, we wouldn’t have half the tech we have now. Without the traders, pilots, and merchants, we wouldn’t have the money to finance this operation. Wars are fought with weapons, but they are won with logistics.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Now, that’ll be a great place to start. Those of you who have the ability, and are willing to put in the work, will be happy to know that we are increasing our freighter fleets, to provide more internal logistic capability, but also to increase our income streams. The Raven-class light freighters are going to be increased in number to forty-five, aside from the Raven herself. We’re also doubling our fleet of Oregon Trail-class heavy freighters not attached to the Navy as logistics ships to fourteen as we make inroads to the Consortium and Ihm Imperium. So, if you want to be a freighter captain, or perhaps a mechanic on a freighter, or an agent securing cargo, then this is the time.”
“If you’re more interested in exploration, then you’ll be happy to know that the initial reports from NERV’s medical testing teams are trending positive, so we’re being authorized for more test cases, allowing us to increase the size of our Starhunter scout fleet to ten. So if you want to go out and see things that, literally, no Nomad or Local have ever seen before, then you need to be talking to people in game. Just so you know, crew selection for the Starhunters is done very strictly, both because of the medical testing going on, and because Starhunters will be armed with Starbolt torpedoes. There are all kinds of treaties involved around how you can use superluminal weapons, and the consequences for breaking those rules basically boil down to ‘the whole damn galaxy wipes out every last trace of those responsible, and anyone even tangentially related to them’. So, you better believe that there will be no ‘going rogue’ with those weapons!”
“Now, I know some of you are academics, scientists, and crafters at heart. Don’t try to hide it! We all know that in every game there are people who try to learn all they can about the lore, or who try to find new ways to twist game physics into a pretzel, and where would we be without artists and artisans creating new artwork and custom gear for us? Well, we aren’t forgetting about you, either. Between our facilities on Dimiya, Nuevo Edo, and Star’s Reach, we have plenty of access to some heavy lore on the game, not to mention a bunch of research projects going. And Nomad-made goods are a hot property currently, for you crafters. You have something you want to do? Talk to our guild officers. Chances are, we have something in that field already, to help you out. If we don’t? Well, give us a pitch, and we’ll see whether or not we might want to get something going in that field. Some of our best tech comes from oddball experiments, after all!”
“And finally, for those of you interested in the military side of things, the Fleet is going to be expanding, gaining both Defense and Offense divisions, to ensure our people are protected, even if we have to deploy on mission. That means a lot more room for naval officers, fighter pilots, and support staff. Plenty of room for up and comers to get started and get noticed!”
“OK, before anyone accuses me of bias, the Marines are getting an expansion, as well! I’ve talked with our new General Khan, and he agrees that the First Group, which had been fully comprised of Nomads up to this point, will be broken up, as will the Second group. Portions of these groups will be part of the reformed First, Second, and Third groups, providing a cadre of experienced leaders for the new recruits we’re getting. Others will either be assigned to shipboard Marine complements, or put in training slots, to ensure that any new recruits are at least at your level before we throw them into the grinder. In other words, there’s going to be a lot of promotions going around, and new responsibilities to go with it.”
I paused, and it looked like everyone was generally pretty pleased with what was being said. Time to wrap the speech part of the meeting up, before people start thinking I like to hear myself talk. “Now, I’m going to take questions from the guild. No shouting! PM questions, and the ones I want to answer will be displayed on the screen. Any that I don’t get to before time is up, I’ll be sure to have answers sent out in a mailer to the whole guild.”
There was a mad scramble of people quickly typing PMs, and a few people who tried to shout questions, but they stopped when I just ignored them, for not being able to follow instructions. Soon, I had a nice, solid list of questions, collated by Raven to help me pick the ones people were most interested in. Sure, it was cheating a bit, but it was harmless, and made me look good to the guild.
What did you do to the Kul’tirans, and why did you do it?
Ohhhkaaay. Was NOT expecting that question. Definitely was not expecting over four hundred guildies to have that as the first question they asked. I guess in hindsight I should have expected that someone would ask me about it, given that Kul’tiras and Black Star had a bit of a troubled history, but honestly, this was too much!
With a deep sigh, I looked out at the group, and said, “All right, I guess the first question is pretty much decided, since more than half of you had it at the top of the list. Yes, four hundred and eight people decided that the best question to ask as their first offering was some version of,” I paused to look at my datapad, and then continued, “as Bennie Owen puts it, ‘What the fragging hell did you do to that Kul’tiran girl that made her go nuclear?’ There was some variation, but that’s the general gist of the whole thing.”
I took a breath, and said, “Frankly, this one really isn’t my fault. I didn’t put any long-term triggers or time bombs or anything like that in her head while she was under my control. Didn’t have the time to do it properly, and that isn’t really the kind of thing I consider fun. I think you can all agree that I’m more the kind to destroy someone outright, or at least in short order, rather than leaving them as a suicide bomber to blow up sometime far in the future. Sure, she probably had some trauma from getting locked into a Stepford collar and being turned into a smiling bimbo maid for a few days, but as for any kind of triggers or plans, the answer is no.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I said, “So, as far as what happened there, I have no idea, same as all of you. Maybe she just snapped, and hard. Maybe someone pushed her to it. Who knows? It isn’t like the Kul’tirans don’t have people who would be glad to see them brought down a peg or twelve. Any number of groups could have had a hand in it.”
“Now, on to the next question. ‘When are you going to throw the Ihm Imperium into chaos, like you’ve done the rest of the factions?’ Well, I kind of resent the implication that I’ve been deliberately throwing factions into chaos. If you’ll just look at the record with an unbiased view, you’ll see that—"