The border station had seen nothing of worth that day, the usual traffic coming from the Rishiri gate, and the few pings in the far expanse here and there, peeking out of the nebulous regions. With the relocation of the Battleship Matsumoto, KNF transports and patrol presence had a moderate reduction, but the constant operations in Nagano and the reinforced KSP garrison ensured that the Otaru Border station remained connected and relatively secure.
A new contact emerged from the jump gate, and the IFF systems spent almost no time in recognizing the KNF credentials of the shuttle. As the shuttle began moving towards the tradelane, the neural net transmitters of Otaru began relaying a communication request to the shuttle. The crew relayed it to the person it was destined to.
"Kaisho-ho, a MilComm request for you. High priority, from the Admiralty." - informed the navigator from the bridge.
Katsuo Shimoe looked at the screen that spoke to him, in the passenger cabin he was in. The last month had been all about shuttling from here to there and all around Kusari military operations, so that he was almost done setting up the transport shuttle as his second office.
He acknowledge the comm and the screen changed into the vision of Admiral Tatsuya, chief commander of the Kusari Naval Forces. Shimoe had an eerie feeling that if the top brass was pinging for him, it was either to bring bad news, or more work...
"Admiral, such an unexpected surprise. When did you became aware I was coming back to New Tokyo?"
"I need to keep track of my close subordinates, it's only natural. I hope the situation in the North hasn't given you much of a head ache so far?" - inquired the admiral. Although Mochizuki Tatsuya retained direct control of the northern Fleet, he was following the Admiralty wise council of directing operations from the more secure locations of Hiroshima and New Tokyo.
"The lack of results in the counter offensive is concerning, but at least it is giving us more time to test the Hoshou project. Other than that.... well, you know me. I'm not a frontliner."
"Sou desu ne, your forte has been in logistics and administration. An unusual way to achieve rank in our forces, but the necessity of such skills confirm their worth.
Once again I need you to show those strengths. Secure the transmission."
Upon request Shimoe switched audio to a set of headphones, and changed settings of the terminal to rely only on military links. As he finished, he motioned to the admiral to continue.
"Once you're in New Tokyo, set course for Kansai Research station. This is a priority assignment."
"With all due respect sir, but my agenda is quite filled up with priority assignments and emergency interventions. The Admiralty should get some more Kaisa to pick up the less important tasks and lighten my load a bit." - complained Shimoe, the weeks of wandering around as a strategical handyman showing his fatigue.
"That may be, but this one is for you alone. It involves Nansei and Yokosuka." - informed the Admiral, his emphasis on Nansei underlining the seriousness of what needed to be done.
Shimoe on one hand felt a bit of relief at the fact it was not bad news, like the collapse of a planetary defense network, or the destruction of a whole fleet. Still, the prospect of another arduous project being dumped in his hands cut him just short of sighing in relief.
"Understood. We will refuel at Yokohama, and change course there. Expect a 4 hour flight until Kansai from that point."
"Very well, I'll have the materials for your assignment delivered to you on Kansai by then. Mochizuki out."
Shimoe rubbed his temples for a moment, before deciding to pick up the report he was examining. His idea of requesting a few weeks leave once the last assignment was done started to fade from his mind, quite sure he would be pinned down by whatever awaited him in Kansai for a good period of time.
The center of the Hiyo cloud was an odd anomaly in terms of traffic. A hub of activity of research ships, supply transports, and military transports all concentrated into a small corridor along the tradelane, limited and secured by one of the densest mine fields and area denial weapon platform networks in existence among the Houses known space.
A holopad laid on top of a office desk, with an overview to the nebula outside, and the Yokosuka Experimental Model located below the research station. A series of documents were open on the screen, detailing plans for the expansion of the module, and a considerable tight schedule to achieve it's expansion.
It almost seemed that the Admiralty had waited on the political musical chair game to come to it's current form to proceed with the project. Admiral Tatsuya told him that support for a budget increase, which would allow for among other things the Yokosuka expansion, was guaranteed now.
However, most of this stuff was hard to procure from Kusari sources only, and few could compare with the standard some of the prime companies in Sirius could dish out. Asking Kishiro or Samura subsidiaries to waste time developing those modules would be mainly that, a waste of time. And Shimoe didn't had all the time he could wish for.
Still, while they could not directly provide all the things, the keiretsu were a reliable shipping force, and their contacts would provide them with the avenues to acquire the needed materials.
Shimoe started drafting the communications necessary for the plan to proceed...
With the backing of the Admiralty, convincing the Ministry of the Defense to open the public contracts was easy. It appears that some in the ministry are even more eager than the military. Possibly the influence of the incoming reshuffle was causing it.
Shimoe had requested to Vice admiral Nishiyama to handle the public dealings, due to his availability out of the front line efforts and past experience in dealing with the military-industrial complex.
The demand was moderate and the profit not extraordinary for a open market contract, but perhaps some surprises would come from the offers side. Shimoe had to wait for conclusion of phase two to know more.
After some delays from the contractors, Nishiyama managed to acquire all the materials for the expansion. About time too, as the Admiralty approved yet another outpost project that will require a great deal of the logistic fleet assets.
Looking outside of Kansai research station, I can see the progress of the expansion of Yokosuka taking shape, as construction ships assemble the structure that will house the new sections of the facility. In the quiet tranquility of the nebula, the work would proceed uninterrupted for the next weeks.
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