I agreed to release Jericho and his crew to take back their corvette if they pledged their loyalty to the new government. I agreed to a mutual defense pact for the system. She agreed to open immigration between planets and dual citizenship. We got a little hung up on the trade portion of the negotiation. She had a 15% tax in mind for imports. I didn't want any of it. We had given away almost two million in food to starving civilians during the war. We managed to compromise on 7% before things got hostile. The issue of the mining ship, The Right Side, came up. Since it was privately owned by the Byant family the Council of Three would allow Chevalier to retain it but wanted a corvette to replace it. Well I was planning on keeping the first 10 corvettes built by my station and I wasn't about to give away a 5 million credit asset. We circled the issue and I found Marie to be a tenacious opponent. In the end we once again compromised the 6th and 12th corvettes I built would be purchased by Barstow at the cost 6 million credits each. Enough of the station slips and factories had been completed that the first trader and corvette hulls would start in a few weeks. The final big item on her list was battle suits. She wanted 500! I said no about a thousand times as she tried to approach it from many different angles before she finally dropped it. I was not about to give what I saw as a volatile government enough powerful infantry to overrun my space station. We hugged and had a quick kiss before she left. The paperwork for my signing would be sent to me after the Council of Three approved everything.
Captain Jericho was all too happy to be free. Over half his crew opted for citizenship on Chevalier and to attend the Black Fleet Academy if they could accepted. Jericho flew his corvette back to Barstow and promptly retired. Only seven of Jericho’s crew were able to gain acceptance to the academy but I hired those who could not qualify as non-commissioned personal.
I only had a week remaining for the parts that needed to be completed in the Prometheus’ replicator furnace were finished and needed to plan a course of action soon. I was reluctant to take my best asset out of the system before I felt my fixed assets were completely secure. Rose was working on the fighter I had asked for but said she had to start completely from scratch and it would take a while. I thought about building a 1,000 meter battle station to orbit Chevalier. It would cost around 250 million credits, could support the fleet I had in mind and hold 240 of the heavy fighters Rose was designing. It seemed like the proper path but construction time would be almost two years and it would strain resources. Unless I had more mining ships…currently my mining ships were able to supply my construction crews with all the raw materials they needed. I spent the next week running simulations.
If I started my massive station today and built Rose’s smaller mining ships with the Prometheus then I could build and send one mining ship out every two weeks. If I did this for 4 months to build eight mining ships then I could effectively reduce the time to build the 1,000 meter station to about 15 months since the resource flow would be saturated. This would be a planetary project, damned if I was going to pay for it out of my pocket! By supplying most of the resources and building the advanced components on Prometheus I could build the station for about 100 million of the 240 million price tag. It still meant my planet would be shouldering massive debt. The military station maintenance was also nearly 2 million a year for operations and personnel. I sent the project over to Rose to build the schematics for the station. She was pissed off and enthused at the same time. She was upset in that she figured to have about 4 weeks to finish the plans for the heavy fighter and it would take her months to design a 1,000 meter station! I didn't count on that. Plans for sale on the market were about 5 million credits. I figured we could manage without the expense so I told Rose the following guidelines; a cruiser construction slip, a secondary slip that could be used for either construction or repairs or cruisers and smaller, a smaller fighter construction yard, 4 fighter flight bays for 60 fighters each, embedded defenses enough to hold off a small fleet and defend the planet, a training facility to be utilized by Black Fleet Academy and whatever else she thought was necessary. I figured my requirements would take about 75% of the available space on the station and she would come up with some good additions on her own.
Things were quickly building up when the next convoy of immigrants and fortune seekers arrived. Six large passenger ships had arrived bearing 25,400 requests for citizenship on Chevalier. I quick check showed one of the passengers was Katrine Severt. I knew she had gotten close through her daily messages but I did not know if I was ready for this encounter. Also on board were four space marines for the Prometheus. Lina had posted the request galaxy wide and had seventeen applications. She had chosen eight and these were the first to arrive. All eight she had selected were war veterans and in their 40s. This first group would be Rhino squad and second group would be Panther squad when they arrived in a few weeks. I let Lina handle their orientation but planned to meet them at dinner later on the Prometheus. Katrine would also be there.
I was nervous the whole day leading up to dinner. In my quarters was a new military uniform. I knew Madeline and Lina had designed them. They were stylish and functional but a bit heavy, about 4 kilograms. They were mostly black with minimal white trim and a white beret. The uniform was not tight fitting but from the design notes it was a type of memory cloth that remained wrinkle free and had some ballistic resistance. A hidden hood in the collar could be pulled over the head and sealed for 30 minutes of air. The gloves and boots were both black synthetic leather and could also create a seal on the uniform. The uniform could provide heat for 30 minutes in the event of a sudden temperature drop. When I was dressed I looked sharp. I had to look up the insignia on the uniform. It was for the grand admiral rank and not the captain.
I went into the dining hall standing tall. Ellie greeted me in a uniform and directed me to my seats. It seems the crew was becoming formal. The hall was set up for one table and only enough chairs were available for the expected guests. No other furniture was available; the crew must have put in storage. The head of the table was open and the far end of the table sat Katrine. She looked just like I remembered her. It had been almost a year and half since I had last seen her. She was beautiful and had a reluctant smile on her face. She wore a gorgeous blue silk gown. I must have stopped dead and paused because I was eventually nudged forward by Ellie. I stumbled a little at the push and noticed everyone staring at me. Madeline, Rose and Lina sat on one side and on the other side sat three middle aged men and one women I did not recognize. All seven were wearing the black uniforms. I eyes locked back to Katrine as a sat down. I could not believe how beautiful she looked to me as I sat down.
“Jed, it is good to see you again. I hope you don't mind me dropping in. Lina and Ellie have been gracious hosts and told me stories of all your successes.” Katrine finished and was waiting expectantly for me. I was still in shock, she was the first real person I had met in game. It struck me as odd to see her. I knew I had to say something. Our correspondence did not have any intimate overtones.
I decided to gamble anyway, “Katrine you look great! I missed seeing you every day. I am so glad you were able to reach me. Anything I have is at your disposal. Do you want to join my corporation? I could set you up for comfortable living in game if you wish. Better yet why don't you join my crew. We…” Lina had put her hand on my arm and whispered to me to slow down. I could see Katrine beaming at the end of the table, clearly I had said the right things and my excitement to see her was well received. The four veteran soldiers to my right had mischievous grins on, apparently Lina had told them what was going on. I switched gears, “Well yes I am sure Ellie has prepared an excellent dinner for this special occasion and some gold stock wine has already been poured.”
The diner had mostly light conversation as I got to know my new elite soldiers. All of them served in the Caspian Navy. It was a system about 120 light years away. The eldest was 47 years old and had been a captain and his name was Jonathan LePeltier. The three others had served in his platoon, Grace Wryder, Benjamin Nils, and Francis Mantis. All three soldiers were 42 and had entered the force together at 18. The entire group was very tight and they had only used light battle armor and had been in many campaigns together under John. There platoon had contained 30 men and women but on the last campaign 5 years ago everyone else had been killed in an ill-fated mission. They were reluctant to give too many details but basically it was a suicide mission to capture an orbital station that was guarded by 200 soldiers. The infiltration had gone well and they were actually going to succeed when the commander of the station self destructed it. A year later John found out someone in the Caspian government had sold the information of the attack. All four resigned and moved to Creighton, a planet about 60 light years away. They had been serving in a private security force before responding to the ad Lina had posted. The subject of their betrayal was a sore subject so I didn't ask for too many details beyond what they offered. They were excited about the advanced heavy battle armor in the armory. I had not seen the suits yet but Lina had been learning to use them. I had gained a skill level of 2 in their use and I challenged them to some combat drills when I had the chance. Rhino squad excused themselves saying they had an early exercises with Lina. Lina said she had to check on things for tomorrow. Rose pulled out her data slate and excused herself, she had been restrained at dinner never looking at it once. Maddie said she needed to check on the bridge before heading to sleep. Ellie had cleared the dishes and disappeared into the kitchen. And I was alone with Katrine.
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“Your parents are doing well.” Katrine said. “Your mother asks for updates on you all the time. The firehouse was downsized again for more automation.” She continued shyly. “I have missed talking with you in person. I was surprised how real everything is in this game. I upgraded my VR kit twice since I started playing so I could get the full experience.” Picking up on her mannerisms I assumed she was referring to sex. Did Katrine really spend a year and half trying to find me in this reality to start a relationship? I was hoping but didn't want to be too direct so I stalled.
“I hope you will join my corporation.” I quickly taped out an invite. “You can make use of all the facilities here and help with the construction projects.” She accepted almost immediately. But the expression in her face said that was not what she wanted me to say. “Uh, have you seen the ship? The quarters are huge and I think I did a good job decorating the captain’s quarters. Would you like to see?” Her blank face gave a little smile and she said, “I would love a tour of your quarters my captain.”
Once we got to the quarters Katrine was not shy about her intentions. She held my hand as I showed her about and when I was done talking she pulled me to the bed and pushed me onto my back and straddled me, “You know Jed if you hadn’t been so naïve when we were at the firehouse this would of happened a long time ago.” The only response I had as she pulled her shirt over her head as she started stripping was, “Damn.” Whether it was in relation to me having missed this opportunity in the real world of the well muscled body holding me down on the bed I couldn't say for sure. All I knew was I was very glad to have gained the tantric skill at level two for this occasion.
Four hours later Katrine got up and said she had to go to work. Her avatar would be set to auto and listen to my commands. But she said with a smirk, “I set it to not have sex with you though. If this body is going to experience the pleasure of yours my mind will be in it.” She missed me goodbye and logged out. Katrine was naked next me but the light in her eyes had gone out. She stood and started dressing, “Jed is there anything you need from me today? I was going to practice working on the engines.” For all purposes she was now an NPC being directed by the parameters she had set. I told her she was free to do whatever she pleased and rolled onto my back and sighed. In about 12 hours Katrine would log back in and I hoped we could continue.
The next two weeks became routine. I would spend a few hours working, spend eight hours with Katrine and then sleep for a few hours. Katrine had to limit her log in time to 8 hours a day in order to function in the real world. Katrine wouldn't be able to under go the procedure by MD since all her log in time was spent with me.
Two of the new smaller mining ships were headed for the asteroid field B. We were running low on rare materials and the new miners had upgraded scanners to locate deep deposits in the fresh asteroid field. The new ships were named the Black Rock and Lucky Strike. Athena had set up an automated robot in the belt to collect the processed goods at a depot for easy pick up by cargo shuttles. We had a solid industrial base going now and every week or so a new wave of immigrants and traders arrived. I had set environmental protection to the highest levels and was starting to receive complaints from civilians about the limitations. I ignored them and reduced tax rates on industries that had a low environmental impact and added a budget for recycling. Earth in the real world was suffering from global warming. Massive sea walls surrounded New York City. I didn't want to pollute my first planet in this realm even at the cost of increased profits. Chevalier was approaching 1.3 million people. We were beginning to have to fight some criminal activity. Luckily, I had a spy network in place. I had set my military intelligence to 400 operatives and since this was the only system they currently operated in they were able to head off any major criminal events before they happened.
The great news is the hulls of the first small trader and corvette were being laid and in a few weeks we would have some patrols in system. Athena had been very thoughtful in growing the five major cities and laying out good expansion plans. Any city founder would have been jealous at he aptitude. My companions received another new skill from the ships library. I had to purchase Trade: Starship Design 5 for Rose to get the skill she wanted. Rhino squad was doing well acclimating to their duties. They loved the heavy battlesuits but could not use the plasma projectors. They were only traied in laser weapons. They were assigned to be my bodyguards and whenever I was off ship I had two of them in tow. I once tried to leave the ship without them and got a tongue lashing from Lina after John had ratted me out.
Rose had leveled shortly after getting her free skill point and now had level 6 in starships design. This allowed her to finish her ambitious design for the heavy star fighter. It was a masterpiece. The engines were based on the Prometheus’ engines and were scaled down and class XI for its size. This was better than anything on the market. It gave the fighter awesome speed and maneuverability. The main weapon was a nose mounted heavy grazer. Although it didn't have great range it was really powerful and the emplacement ran the length in the fighter’s hull. The shields were class IX, again better than anything in this game to date for a ship this size. The missile launchers were in the wings and had a payload of four each side. They were fairly strong. In simulations two of these fighters could take down an average corvette without either one being destroyed. The two minuses were this ship was fairly heavy and even with the powerful engines it did not operate well in atmosphere. It could still function and fight but would be at a disadvantage against fighters designed exclusively for atmosphere. The second was the ship relied on two pilots, one to fly and the second for the weapons and shields. The price tag was 1.3 million credits each. Raw material cost was 25,000 credits, mostly for the raw elements in the engines. I decided I wanted to have ten of these fighters on the Prometheus, which would take up half of our flight bay. I would get the top fighter pilots from Black Fleet Academy as they graduated. One thing that I noticed that was very interesting was the cargo compartment. It was located under the seats of the pilot and co-pilot and was not easily accessible. It contained two hostile enviro suits, mechanics toolbox, food for 30 days, 2 laser pistols, 4 person shelter, 6 oxygen canisters, oxygen extractor to refresh canisters, emergency beacon, water purifiers, and 2 micro generators. Rose had definitely thought of everything. If a fighter was shot down in a hostile system and was able to land the pilots could survive until rescued. We were still a long way away from producing these fighters on a large scale anyway. I named the fighter design the Blackrose and this got my relationship with Rose to improve from neutral to friendly. Rose dove into the massive space station design now. She said she would decide on a configuration in a week and we could start laying the skeleton then. It would take her two months to flesh out the beast. I think she was she anxious because she wanted to see her fighters in production.
Black Phoenix Station was about 4 months to completion right now. It was a buzz of activity with crews working on modules and the construction crews already starting the new ships being laid. The commerce side of the station would have to wait another 3 months before beginning functioning. The Prometheus had 6 more mining ships to produce before it could be utilized for other things. Unfortunately the game prevented players from making more replicators, it would create a huge imbalance. Even having this one replicator of this size was probably a huge imbalance in the game, especially considering it could create items of such a high tech level. I was working on squeezing in a few battle suits into the replicator queue when I got an emergency alert. An enemy fleet had just entered the system. I rushed to bridge and Maddie was there with the display up. “Captain, I have a war fleet entering our system from Gamma vector. I can confirm two battleships, four cruisers and six frigates. One of the cruisers appears to be an old American Carrier configuration. I estimate 36 fighters. The ships are an assortment of designs, a Chinese battleship, a British battleship and three of the six frigates are Russian. I would guess this is either a pirate fleet or a corporation’s mercenary fleet.” She finished professionally without any stress in her voice. Well shit. If I had had another 6 months we could of at least fielded a few corvettes. The shield and weapon emplacements were on the station but the weapon emplacements had not yet been connected to the main generators. We stood absolutely no chance in this encounter. “The British battleship is the Lone Ranger, sir. The registry is to the Malkavian Corporation. They are listed as freelance mercenaries and are known to pillage unaligned systems. The station said they could get the weapons powered in about 24 hours but the fleet will be here in 12.” Well shit, no good news today. I thought about my laziness in not pushing for the completion of more military assets, or at least upgrading the Prometheus’ weaponry. I had only broached that subject a few times with MD and I thought he was starting to waiver.
My first thoughts were to flee. Grab as many assets as I could and leave the system. Instead I decided to be an idiot and at least challenge the fleet. I ordered the Prometheus locked up and to plot an intercept for the incoming fleet. As we left orbit we got a comm request from the Lone Ranger. Admiral Cracker Jack wanted to speak with me. This was definitely a PC and checking the scans there were 278 PCs on the ships. This was definitely an invasion strike force. As the view can up a man in a smart fitting red leather uniform can on screen, “This is Admiral Jack of the battle fleet Malkavian One. We wish to enter orbit of the planet Chevalier to resupply and give my men shore leave.” My heart relaxed a little. Maddie warned me this might be a ploy to get his fleet close to defenses.
I prepared a response, “This is planetary governor Jedediah Knight. Welcome to the Capsulite system under the protection of Black Phoenix Corporation. You have quite an imposing fleet admiral. I am afraid I would be hesitant to let such a strong force near my planet. We will resupply your fleet one ship at a time while the remainder holds at the position my comm officer is sending you.” During this time Maddie let me know the Barstow corvette was retreating from a patrol route back to Barstow. Chickens.