Chapter Seventy-Nine - Catching Clouds

Developing the Jovian system was something of a no-brainer. Of all the planets the Accord tended to check, Jupiter was both one of those they spent the fewest time around and one which was relatively close to the asteroid belt and their main base of operations, at least when the planet was on the same side of the solar system as Ceres.

Day and Dawn had, between them, the materials to set up a couple of mines. Night, of course, had an entire shipyard and factory set up to produce more, and soon she was sending drones up into Io’s orbit with additional materials, supplies, and fabrication drones for them to pick up.

“We’ll start with the moons,” Dawn said. “It’s the obvious choice.”

It was. Jupiter had 95 moons to pick from. Most of those were little more than large rocks tumbling around in an elliptical orbit, likely captured bodies from the asteroid belt, but a few, including its four Galilean moons, were more notable.

As Dawn boosted out and away from Io, the destination was Europa, which was relatively close by and an interesting place to mine.

They wouldn’t get much by means of raw construction ressources there, but Europa did have an abundance of ice and liquid water.

Several stations had existed on Europa before the Accord came passing through. They’d housed water extraction factories and systems that pulled water from the planet, turned it into usable hydrogen fuel, fresh oxygen, and purified water, then pushed these up into Europa’s orbit for pickup.

Of the twelve stations on the planet, only two remained more or less visible, and that was because unlike the other ten, they hadn’t sunk into the planet’s surface when struck by Accord nuclear weapons.

Dawn had poured over NOVA and Night’s sensor data for a long time before deciding on a place to position her mine. The issue with Europa was a lack of easy places to hide a larger facility, but Dawn had plans for an underwater mining operation that wouldn’t be quite so visible from the surface.

Day had decided to do something a little easier.

Jupiter had a small moon called Metis in its ring. Not that Jupiter’s ring was all that terribly impressive, but it was still a hazard when flying closer to the planet. Metis created an area within the ring that was mostly free of debris. It was also the closest of Jupiter’s moon to the planet itself.

And by dint of that, Metis’ surface was coated in particulates that had escaped Jupiter.

“So, what’s the plan?” Candle asked. She was along for the ride, of course.

“Metis won’t be a good place for a mine that provides a steady supply of anything specific. It’s too chaotic for that. But... well, this is speculation on my part, but I think we might be able to capture some exotic materials near Jupiter’s outer atmosphere, and Metis might just be close enough to catch some of those.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh, I think I see,” Candle said. “So you’re not building a mine but instead some sort of capture net?”

“Something like that, yes,” Day said. “I had the idea from the magnetic system we use with our French drives. They pull in particulates towards the drive, so why can’t we use something similar to gather materials?”

“That’ll be noisy,” Candle said.

“Not so much, I don’t think. It’s close to Jupiter, so a large portion of the noise will be hitting the planet first. And Jupiter’s own magnetic fields will probably disguise the rest. Someone looking for it might notice, but then someone looking for any of our mines might notice them. I think it’s a risk worth taking for additional resources.”

“Yeah. It’s about time we start expanding faster. Being all sneaky and quiet is fine and all, but the ERF needs to grow.”

Day couldn’t disagree with that. They’d soon have enough ships to meet a smaller patrol fleet in a one-on-one engagement with even odds. Their technology was superior in many ways, and they had a home field advantage.

Day’s simulations suggested that in an all-out fight, they’d win 90% of the time. Only 30% of the time without any casualties on the ERF side, however.

They were getting better, literally. Better weapons, better hulls, better knowledge and technology. What they lacked was... well, a few things. They could either continue to progress to the point where each ERF ship was worth a dozen Accord ships, or they could turn around and start producing massive numbers of new ships to make up for the difference.

Day had her own opinions on the matter.

The early ERF, back when humanity was only on the brink of extinction instead of gone entirely, had tried fighting the Accord with numbers, and it had failed miserably.

She had the deep-seated impression that quality would matter a lot more than quantity in any future conflicts.

Day made it to Metis and scanned the moon from up close. She was surprised when her scans pinged off of a few metallic items on the moon’s uneven surface. A closer look revealed that there were several probes littering the surface of the moon, most on one side of the moon’s surface which seemed like it got struck by stray debris less often.

Sending drones down and connecting them to the few probes that worked revealed an entire array of scientific sensors and weather recording devices all left to monitor the planet. A wealth of information that had likely been forgotten a long time ago.

Day wasn’t sure what to do with it. A few terabytes of data on Jupiter’s shifting clouds didn’t seem immediately useful... then again.

Turning her sensors towards the gas giant, Day tried to pierce the thick clouds and found that she couldn’t.

It was wildly inhospitable. And yet it was also, in a way, the perfect hiding place.

But that would have to wait. For now, Day got to work installing another mine, another little node giving them a bit more to work with.

***