Aerith AI: 2018

[Errant.Venture]

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Story Arc: Unexplored Space: Spring – 821 A.S. - Location: Unknown

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Shit Show…

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The Errant Venture and the rest of Battle Group Wrath emerged from another series of FTL jumps and at this point Tereus had personally lost track of the number. It wasn’t due to memory loss, rather a complete and utter personal disposition that he just literally didn’t care anymore.

The Battle Group Wrath had left the Sirius star system in early fall of 820 A.S. and literally the past sixteen weeks had been nothing but coordinated FTL Jumps mixed in with routine maintenance and pre-determined deployment sites for deep space FTL communication relays so that they could keep in contact with the Kingdom of Gallia. While logically it made sense to keep an open and dedicated communication line with the Home system of Gallia, specifically Sirius Grey Men command, tactically it was a waste of time. The nearest reinforcement point was fifteen weeks out and really couldn’t be considered a reinforcement point as it was a secluded research and intelligence station with two gunboats and a single squadron of bombers; furthermore it was manned by defective Charlies.

Tereus cringed mentally at the thought of having to be reinforced, or rather, having to rely in any way shape or form on those psycho babble Charlies. Putting it out of his mind he focused on the task at hand, mainly regrouping and resupplying the exhausted Battle Group Wrath. The battle group had been encountering a slew of small disasters for the past eight weeks. Ship and equipment malfunctions, three near reactor meltdowns, and a dwindling supply of rations were just a few examples on the forty page list presented to Tereus at that mornings command briefing.

The biggest concern at the moment was food, followed closely by fuel. Tereus shouldn’t have been surprised that The Maiden of Hope, which was hastily converted from a medical transport to an everything transport had been delivered fresh uniforms in a shipment marked “Food Rations”. He also shouldn’t have been surprised that a large shipment listed as “H-Fuel” was actually just a bunch of spare power relays. He did insult a member of the monarchy, and in some sick twisted way, this was his punishment.

Tereus looked down at his datapad and started running statistical numbers in his mind, by his mental calculation they had another three weeks of FTL jumps to go, and they had supplies for one. They needed to find food, and fuel, and fast. The ironic thing regarding both is they had fully functional hydroponic plants on each ship, which required a sizeable amount of power to operate. In house space frequent resupply of Hydrogen Fuel was never an issue, even in the most seemingly remote sectors of Sirius space. Where was The Cartel when you needed them?

Tereus let himself be distracted, reminiscing on the many adventures that He, Murdock, and Marshall had with The Cartel; from having them run supplies to them in remote sectors, to acting as a diversionary force to allow The Cartel to escape from House space.

Tereus let out an audible chuckle. “The greatest of times”, he thought to himself.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Tereus pulled up the results of the initial system scan, lots of basic elements could be detected within a close proximity to the battle group…carbon, metals, and a whole bunch of others that would do absolutely nothing for food or fuel.

Tereus let out a deep and exaggerated sigh. This whole situation was infuriating and exhausting and really all he wanted to do at the moment was sleep. He continued on his way down to his quarters staring with blood shot eyes at the technical read outs, passing by the entrance to the bridge, then past the officer refreshers. As he rounded the last turn towards his quarters, he was blockaded by Zurie and Daughtery.

“Colonel, we need to chat!” Major Adelaide Zurie exclaimed. Major Zurie was never one for small talk, always calculating, and scarily efficient. She had initially been transferred to his command in the early stages of the Tau Wars, and while Tereus had been skeptical at first, she had proven to him that she was more than competent and her previous OMPF was full of slanderous garbage by inept officers.

“I always have time for you and Daughtery Zurie…seriously though…at ease.” Tereus keyed in the code to his quarters, and extended an arm allowing his officers entrance into his steely abode.

“I’m sure this is good, because it looks like Daughtery can’t hold it in anymore. Since you’re clearly the spokesperson for this crazy plan that is going to save our asses, I’m all ears.” Tereus tossed his datapad on his desk, then all but dove into his bunk, propping his legs up on the side rails, arms behind his head, as he propped his head up in the corner. “Seriously though, sit the fuck down, you’re impulsive rage pacing is killing me”, Tereus quipped.

Tereus had an odd command style. He was a Delta, and Delta’s tended to be more laid back, extremely blunt, and had a more “personal” communication style. Still, He was unique, and He lead by example, and preferred a casual open door policy with his command staff. He felt it lead to better communication and better efficiency overall, as no one on his command staff would feel pressured, or rather, intimidated when attempting to speak their mind.

Daughtery couldn’t stand it any longer, and the sheer excitement in his voice as he started to blurt out the plan meant not only was this going to be good, it was going to be a real adventure. “Boss, we were going over the initial telemetry of the next series of jumps, and…we found something promising. We’re having deep space telemetry run more targeted scans of the area…but…”

“But we think halfway through our next jump we’ll be crossing a ice field.” Zurie butted in, clearly excited, and irritated, that Daughtery almost stole her fiery glory.

Tereus propped himself up on his elbows, the sophisticated power armor he always wore locked him into place, allowing him to relax inside his hermetically sealed suit. “Let me see the initial scans.” Tereus stated as he stared inquisitively at his two junior officers.

Zurie handed him the datapad, and Tereus started reviewing the telemetry. It was indeed promising, he couldn’t deny that, the caveat was that it happened to be an ice field...that was being actively sucked into a black hole. Undoubtedly a collapsed star system…or rather the remnants of one. While the technology and equipment afforded to them, or rather, the technological feats that had been accomplished in the centuries since their ancestors exodus from the Sol system should make this a relatively easy tax, the massive amounts of radiation in the system would give them approximately ninety minutes to harvest all the raw resources they needed.

Tereus listened to Zurie and Daughtery excitedly going over their plan as they intricately detailed the brainchild that would quite literally save them all. Tereus was really only concerned with their survival at this point, but something was eating away in the back at his mind. This something was tossing up red flags like a amateur tossed up errors pretending to be Lane Hacker. He just couldn’t isolate what bothered him about this plan. Dismissing his baser instincts, he cut Zurie and Daughtery short.

“Ok, you have a green light. However I want you to set up a staged FTL jump. The only ships I want jumping within harvesting range of that ice field are The Errant Venture and The Repentance. All other ships should stand off at a range no less than one hundred kilometers and maintain LIDAR communications as a failsafe incase the heavy gravitational distortion around our entry and mining point interfere with standard neural net comms.” Tereus responded.

That red flag was blaring like a reactor breach klaxon in his mind now…what was it that was bothering him. “One more thing, I want this extraction done in a timely matter. We won’t have much time, and I don’t want to waste time. Instead of using our standard snub craft, I want you to work on modifying the tractor beams and boarding cables in the port, starboard, and aft hangar bays. We will grapple them in and then harvest what we need after we proceed to a safe distance. Is that understood?” Tereus almost had a splitting headache at this point. Something was definitely bothering him about this plan but he still couldn’t put his finger on it.

Daughtery and Zurie had already started ignoring him, bantering back and forth about how to make this plan work and reap the most efficient payloads for harvest. It was really all techno babble at this point and while Tereus understood it, he didn’t have the patience anymore for it.

“One more thing,” Tereus blurted out over Daughtery and Zurie. They both paused for a moment presenting him with their full attention. “Get the fuck out of my quarters. I need a nap.”

Daughtery let out a hearty laugh, and Zurie looked embarrassed. “Right away sir, Daughtery you idiot, let’s go.” Zurie grabbed Daughtery’s arm and led him, still laughing, out of Tereus’ quarters. As the door hissed shut behind them, creating an air tight seal, Tereus closed his eyes, and hoped that this blaring klaxon in his mind would go away, even through the mental noise, he was asleep before he could even think about it.

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The reports of my trying to imitate the revered Michal Golanski are greatly exaggerated...my avatar should prove this.

[4:17:08 PM] Michał Golański: I knew you have some prehistoric backing to kick them in the nuts.