I am many things, right now. Overly emotional, raw, sensitive, and chilled to the very depths of my soul. I went to the shipyard console and placed my supreme package cube.
[Additional]
[Exceptional - Ship Package - detected]
[Do you wish to break this down for materials] or [Create your Symbiont Escape Ship]
I had forgotten that I am technically a Cadet Bronze Star Ten. While I don't have the exp, I do the augments. At ten bronze stars, we get a chance to upgrade our symbiont shell and create an escape craft. Most Symbionts Commanders use it as the captain's craft. Its only purpose was to give a Seeker a chance to escape death once.
Of course, I go for the escape pod. The fact that High Wrex had one settled it for me. I only passed his mission because of it. But what chilled me before was the interface that struck me dumb and gave the shipyard a chance to ask me another question.
[Supreme Ship and Equipment Package - detected]
In the world of Symbiont ships at least as far as I know there is one supreme variant. The Omni, this ship starts off at a massive maximum of five kilometres cubed and has the best of all ship types with none of the weaknesses. It has twice as many main cannons, compared to an escort. Omni's are what the founders of the Hegemony had. They would be myth and legend if we didn't have the ships still operating in the Emporer's fleets.
I knew what I was going to pick the moment I saw the Omni type available. The reasoning is simple at the highest ranks of power certain energy types like the ones presented before me. Will alter a symbiont composition totally. I have never actually seen the technology or heard of the energy types but in general, they are called catalysts. A catalyzed Escort becomes a Juggernaut but they can also become Titans or even Mammoths. Escorts account for over half of all known Symbionts so it is the only ship with known catalyzation types. Of the many types, four stood out to me as I think I know what they could be, and only one of those I could hypothesize from about based on a ship in the zeitgeist of humanity.
Willow looked at me Like I was crazy or something but we have all heard of ships that are more myth than fact. The World Eater, Silent Night, and Locust Legion these three ships fit perfectly into the Void energy group. I can understand why Willow looked at me like that my first conjecture is so far removed from reality that even the straws I grasped are short. These are the tallest of those short straws. It just through years of Symbiont ship study gives people, especially Seekers, a way to understand more than the common person.
What makes an Omni special is that it can hold all these energies. The only Omni I know of from Tales of Three Stars. I'm not sure of the supremes' name or specialization as it was a very long time but it is taught on Hegla prime more than symbiont doctrine is. Even now, in my head, I can hear the third empress describe it in the children's book I used to have. Her voice was like that of a wise commander after a defeat. She spoke somberly and with a hint of something that to this day I quite put my finger on.
"It came from the deepest reaches of space, a symbiont ship as old as it was powerful. With a maw so large it could swallow worlds whole. The Second Imperial Fleet under commander High Signet Chestwin of the House Myrtik was on patrol in the Nimbus Expanse. When It struck, it struck without warning. No quarter was given that day half a million symbiont ships fell to the Deep. I was one of three people to survive and this is the analysis I took."
[Omni Symbint Ship]
Name: Nu'ijiTrenirii [Translated - Tears of Omgawa]
Rank: Unknown
Hull: Unknown
Armour: Unknown
Speed: Unknown
I know The Hegemony has terrible children's stories but the horror of war was something we all grow up with, especially those on the border worlds. Most children there are conscripted at age thirteen. At least the three survived and became pillars of the Hegemony spurred on by the terror they experienced that day.
[Please select a superior symbiont ship type]
I really only had one option; the other three were all blocked. I can only assume they are variants of Omni's which is terrifying to even consider. Of course, I tried anyway to click any of the blacked-out options just in case but nothing happened so I moved on grinning like a little boy watching his first fleet combat.
[Omni]
Rank: Superior
Information: The Onmi-type symbiont is the pinnacle of universal craftsmanship. Embracing the Seeker's ability to adapt to any environment and purpose.
The shipyard pulled the design of the ship out of me. It caressed my painful back healing me as it reached deep and entreated me with billions of images reading I suppose my response to certain weapons, shapes, and colors. The whole experience was serine and utterly too short. Like that time I kissed Lady Dami, that was legendary and stupid but well worth it.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The absolute unit of a ship that appeared sent giant gut-wrenching butterflies into my stomach. It is five kilometers long, one thousand eight hundred meters wide, and one thousand and eighty meters tall. Size isn't everything but damn does it matter to me. I bumped Sam on the shoulder and furrowed my brows. This Levithan is amazing, and best of all it's mine. In any design about a quarter is set aside for mandatory systems, walkways, powerlines, plumbing, and landing equipment. It won't be that massive because of material constraints and things like armor but I knew exactly where to shave to get the look I wanted. Yes, looks aren't everything but man is it good to be in a pretty ship and I'm going to make her pretty.
To make my ship look mean. The forward operating bridge has this quasi-string ray look with a flared lower operation center, a greeting hall, and some barracks. It is a way to invite people onto one's ship without letting them see the entirety of your ship. I did take some liberties by increasing the armor width from ten meters thick to twenty-five meters. From one wing tip to the other the forward operating bridge is only five hundred meters wide. This is so that the main cannons I am putting in the wings don't hit the bridge.
Any heavier armor and the ship even with the new Aesop-particle drive would not be able to do planetary landings. I removed four hundred meters of the spine on each side of the ship that grows out of the operations center stretching four kilometers back. It makes it look more natural and I need the material to make the armored uniform all over my ship.
The spines are the core of the ship and I left, the four kilometers-long, one-kilometer-wide spine and seven hundred meters tall as I don't really have the modules to fill it yet. I did section off one kilometer by two hundred meters at the four-kilometer mark going forward. This is the living quarters, yes I know but it is important to me to have the best I can have in space. I have always dreamed of the atrium with a view.
The design I fell in love with is this very particle design. When I browsed the networks I found Fluidic Atriums. These massive, beautifull transparent titanium ceilings, with a soft brutalist interior covered from ceiling to the floor in trees, shrubs, and any kind of plant I can afford in the future. I really wanted this more than anything else.
In front of the atrium going all the to the operations are the hangers. Each large hanger is one hundred meters cubed and placed three wide by ten long. This will give my future atrium an overview of the hangers. The cool thing is the doors that open the hanger allowing all my ships to land and take off at the same time.
This sacrifice in raw materials didn't go to waste as it went to the last kilometer. Where I flared out the spine a bit more adding fifty meters on top and bottom before creating the wings engine struts that hold the two-five hundred meters long Aesop rods. The rods use purely chemical reactions to produce electro-mechanical thrust.
The Nydolyn modules were also put above the engines. I did something incredibly risky in the design compartment. I put the powerplant and engine in the same place. It is the most protected part of my ship but if somebody ever gets through it would be devastating. However, if I wanted the small shipyard to be internal I had to move the power plant. The shipyard took up two kilometers long and five hundred meters tall and wide. It's under the atrium and the hanger. This large opening at the bottom of the ship reduced a lot of weight. This gives me a lot more wiggle room. I extended the shipyard to three kilometers as that would have left me about 50 modular slots going for even an even number though at my rank I can only support forty.
The reason I also had to do it is the core. The core is a solid cube through which my trains, water, air, maintenance ducts, telecoms, and main power lines run. It cannot be moved, broken, or bent. It is the single longest piece running from the very back to the very front. It is the literal backbone of my ship.
The weapons I selected came from the equipment package. What I didn't realize at first is that I have all my weapons and with my controller, I can use them all from the get-go. I will still need staff for my ship, the shipyard, the gunships, and all other pertinent miscellaneous items need to be handled.
The process pulled me gently out and I felt like a new man with an old man's back but at least I wasn't in constant pain. I wanted to spend more time looking over my designs but I still had to finish my specialization selection. Plus I have an obligation to meet.
[Message from Cadet X. Anasazi to Commander J.E. Wilson]
As per the contract in the event, I pulled I non-standardized symbiont ship. I hereby inform you that the clause in subsection 147-.A and 147-.B will go into immediate effect.
Master, I did it! I pulled an Omni!
I didn't expect a reply so quickly but the master had made sure that every year. I resigned my contract and it had a few clauses that I am now obligated to uphold. This is how my master can take in a thousand kids from across the Hegemony and train them to be Commanders. Though I am his third success. I also sent him a full system record of all my progress so far. It is important for him to know what exactly has happened so far. So that he can help other kids pull Onmi's. He could move to a lesser division in the Hegemony and just rack in the cash.
[Message from Supreme Commander S. B. Nyx-Sirchildes to Cadet Commander X. Anasazi]
Congratulations Xaka, First tell nobody else you are a True Seeker, that is more trouble than your Omni. This will change everything for us quickly. I am on my way and do not sign anything else. The contract now is only so that you are not snatched up by a rival.
Please sign the following enlistment papers and welcome to the 53rd Expeditionary Fleet [A wholly owned subsidiary force of Emerald Fleet]
P.S. The formal contract is attached and read it three times.
When things happen fast they happen really fast. This normally happens the day after when companies arrive to recruit New Seekers. Those who don't wish to undertake the challenges can become independent and grow at their own rate. I am not one of those, I will explore new zones, take down Fractures, and claim true power. They even gave me a timer of when they would arrive ten minutes after the Forge world shuts down for the next thirteen years. Which will happen in two hours.
[Please Name your ship to complete the process]
[Your ship is third in the queue. Please head to the centralised lobby to select your Seeker specialisation.]
I didn't go to the lobby. I wanted to celebrate my luck, fly my ship, and thank my master in person. I pulled a fucking legendary ship and the only person here I wanted to tell wants me dead.
"Willow, am I being too much? I mean I know what she did but Mercy was a..." I don't actually know what she was. She wasn't my friend anymore, not quite my enemy. I was definitely her enemy. As a student of Master Wilson, I have to annihilate my enemies...
[Name accepted.]
End of Prologue