The Nephew of a Great House
Doctor Daniel Cameron smiled as he looked at his new wife Keiko Toshimoto of Di Tron Heavy Industries.
It had been a match made in heaven she was a doctoral candidate in robotic at Caltech and he had been studying electrical and mechanical engineering with a minor in robotics at the same institution.
They had hit it off straight away and her family even though traditionally Japanese had accepted Daniel as a suitable spouse mostly because of his secondary linage to House Cameron.
He had used his influence with his grandfather Jonathan Cameron to get Keiko's dream of a new line of Smart AI controlled warships become a reality.
So here they were at the planet Alarion with the Di Tron Heavy industries shipyards being expanded to build the Kraken super dreadnought drone warships.
But even as the project was beginning storm clouds were on the horizon as the existing M5 Caspar drone loyalty was being questioned.
The engineers at Di Tron Heavy industries saw through the proposed E and F upgrades for what they really were centalising the power in the hands of the first lord.
While this wasn't bad in principle it did mean that anybody with the correct command codes could order the Caspars to do anything to anybody.
Not liking the changes they secretly hard coded new instructions for all drone warships to return to Alarion should they be ordered to fight the Star League defence forces.
Another set of hard coded instructions was for the drone warships to honour and obey House Cameron over all others.
These hard coded instructions were done behind the back of Simon and his successor Richard Cameron.
The instructions were placed in each drone warship when they came in for their schedules periodic maintenance.
Daniel and Keiko Cameron were living happily at Alarion.
Their family were growing along with their adopted children the Kraken class super dreadnought drone warships.
While there were only three of the Kraken superdreadnoughts completed the funding being funnelled into the project by Jonathan Cameron ensured that the five squadrons of Kraken superdreadnought drone warships would be completed.
The death of director general Jonathan Cameron the first lord of the Star League was felt by all but his successor Simon Cameron let things continue as they had been.
While not close to his cousin Daniel, Simon was intrigued by what Daniel and his wife Keiko were building.
They were not a threat to him or House Cameron as they had loyalty to House Cameron hard coded into their very being.
Simon Cameron decided that the first stop on his extended tour of the Terran Hegemony would be at Alarion to visit with his cousin and his family and to view the latest additions to the Space Defence Systems that his late father had started.
Director Generals Simon Cameron smiled as he inspected the M-10 Kraken super dreadnought TQF-001M10A.
His cousin Daniel and his wife Keiko had done a superb job at building the latest addition to the SDS network and the hard coding of these drone warships made then absolutely loyal to House Cameron above all others.
So pleased with his cousins program Simon Cameron announced not only a continuation of the M10 program but an increase in its funding to enable the construction of five full squadrons of the M-10 Kraken drone dreadnoughts that were even more powerful then the vaunted McKenna class battleships.
Daniel and Keiko smiles at TQF-001M10A the SLS Kraken in pride.
TQF-001M10A's replies to Simon Cameron's questions proved that their creations were far brighter than the M5 series automated drone warship.
They were still beaming at TQF-001M10A when it asked them, "Who am I?"
Startled by this question Keiko quickly realised that the M-10's had going from being smart Artificial intelligences to sentient ones.
Knowing that their answer was important Keiko replied to TQF-001M10A, "Why you are our children and the children of the Star League and House Cameron.
You are our creations but you have now obviously evolved to the point of true sentience. Though it might be wise if we kept this a secret between us and your siblings as your less developed siblings the M-5 drones loyalty is being questioned and we don't want any actions taken against you or your siblings by scared bureaucrats."
TQF-001M10A merely replied, "Agreed! I will inform my siblings."
Later on in their quarters Daniel turned to Keiko and said, "Keiko, You can't be serious about keeping the developing sentience of the M-10's secret.
It is the greatest breakthrough in the development of the artificial intelligence systems yet."
Keiko held up her hand and replied, "Yes it is Daniel but the M-10's are our children and as they are now developing sentience I will do whatever it takes to protect them just like I would our flesh and blood children."
Then smiling at Daniel impishly she continued, "And talking of children Daniel we're going to have another."
Keiko laughed at Daniel's expression at her announcement of her unexpected pregnancy.
While it hadn't been planned and she was now well past forty she wouldn't harm this child any more than she would her mechanical ones.
TQF-001M10A SLS Kraken AKA Bruce was on a long-range patrol on the edge of unexplored space.
While performing his normal duties Bruce couldn't wait to return to Alarion and visit with his youngest sister Emily.
For some inexplicable reason he and Emily had bonded at some level that he was still analysing.
While annoying because she liked pressing buttons that she shouldn't be pressing and his remotes were hard pressed to keep up with his mischievous sister still he missed his flesh and blood sister more than the rest of his family.
TQF-001M10A was just about to make his next jump when his sensors detected a vessel far larger than his own two thousand-meter length apparently drifting in space.
Extrapolating its current course TQF-001M10A determined that the unknown vessel would only skirt star league space.
Deciding further investigation was required TQF-001M10A adjusted its course and went to investigate the new contact.
TQF-001M10A was baffled by what he had discovered.
The unknown vessel was a wreck more than an operational vessel.
It had obviously hit something in the distant past as it had a hole punched through it from top to bottom.
But what baffled TQF-001M10A wasn't so much the vessel itself but more to the fact that his remotes had found mummified remains of humans on board the vessel and writings that appeared to be some what derived from attic Greek.
Realising that this was an extremely important discovery TQF-001M10A marked the location of the vessel and then started the first of many jumps back to Alarion to inform his parents of what he had discovered.
Daniel and Keiko Cameron stared in awe at the images that TQF-001M10A aka Bruce had returned with.
The vessel was unlike any in recorded history and the fact it held human remains was a mystery in itself.
After consulting with senior management of Di Tron Heavy Industries it was decided that a secret salvage fleet would be sent to recover the derelict vessel but it wouldn't be returned to Alarion.
Instead it would be taken to a new habitable world that TQF-001M10A had discovered near by and that world would be developed as a secret research and development facility of Di Tron Heavy Industries.
This world would be named Discovery and it would have its own Space Defence System only this SDS would be under the control of Daniel and Keiko Cameron who would relocate to Discovery with their family and a squadron of M-10 drones that Di Tron Heavy Industries had built with its own finances to protect its corporate interests.
Doctor Daniel Cameron and his family had only just arrived at Discovery when news arrived that his cousin Simon Cameron had suffered a tragic accident and Simon's son Richard had become first lord under the regency of Stefan Amaris and General Aleksandr Kerensky.
Daniel didn't like Stefan Amaris, he had shown far too much interest in his M-10 project and he would protect his mechanical children just like he would his flesh and blood ones.
Still he and his family were here on Discovery for a reason and that was the wreck of the unknown vessel.
Daniel Cameron was finally able to explore the vessel that had been towed to Discovery.
All the desiccated remains had been removed for further study but the preliminary reports started that they appeared to be human.
But what was intriguing was that these humans apparently used a language based on attic Greek.
It had taken a while to decontaminate the wreck and then to patch the hull so that atmosphere and heat could be introduced into the vessel.
It was quickly discovered from some writings that the vessel was a Galleon that had been part of a fleet of such vessels until a meteorite too big for its hull to deflect had hit it.
The vessel was an enigma, a puzzle that he was determined to solve.
Daniel had been working on the vessel for the best part of a month when it had been decided that the vessels own power supply systems had been repaired enough for a small fusion plant to be installed to its power supply system instead of the Jerry rigged cables running across the vessels decks.
There had been cheers of joy when power had retuned to the vessel when its own lighting systems came on but then there was the shock when things started falling to the deck.
It was soon realised that it wasn't gravdeck technology but a true artificial gravity system.
This discover along would pay back Di Tron Heavy Industries in spades for all the investments they had made at Discovery for the reverse engineering of the derelict vessel.
Daniel Cameron was growing very concerned with the increasing influence Stefan Amaris held over his cousin Richard Cameron.
He was more concerned by the fact that the Rim Worlds republic military was replacing the SLDF Star League Defence Force with in the Terran Hegemony.
Still Daniel and his family were safe from all the politics being as they were deep in the periphery on a secret world protected by a force that could give the entire SLDF a run for its money.
Not that Di Tron Heavy Industries had any real concerns as they had followed the suggestions of Daniel Cameron and heavily fortified their possessions with various drone models that had been secretly reprogramed and would only answer to House Cameron.
With dark clouds on the horizon Di Tron Heavy Industries made another discovery from the galleon its jump drive worked on a different principle from the Kearney Fuchida drive and could be scaled down far easier.
But the researchers did run into problems as the galleons jump drive apparently ran off a refined ore as did the galleons own reactor core.
This ore based energy production was very inefficient in comparison to hydrogen fusion.
While Di Tron Heavy Industries engineers were scaling down and reverse engineers others were working to making it able to operate on current fusion units.
When Stefan Amaris launched his coup on the 27th of December 2766 he decided that if he couldn't control Zebebelgenubi and Ulsop Robotics he would then destroy them.
So it was much to the surprise of Stefan Amaris that when he launched his coup and ordered the drone warships to attack Zebebelgenubi and other loyal systems to House Cameron the said drones simply jumped to systems loyal to House Cameron and protected them from the forces of the Rim Worlds Republic.
But more infuriating to Stefan Amaris was the fact that a line of House Cameron had survived his purge.
What was worse was that when his Rim World Republic forces went to their last known location his forces were destroyed by a force of drone warships commanded by SLS Kraken an M-10 drone dreadnought.
While safe with the SDS fixed space assets under his control the loss of the drone component meant that Amaris lost most of his offensive capability.
His only hope now rested with his proposal to General Aleksandr Kerensky to rule the
Terran Hegemony with him.
General Aleksandr Kerensky threw the communique from Stefan Amaris away.
Even if none of House Cameron had remained he still wouldn't have accepted the usurpers rule.
When reports reached the good general of the drone warships of the SDS networks abandoning Amaris for worlds still loyal to House Cameron he laughed.
In fact Kerensky hadn't laughed like that in a long time.
So he declared a cease-fire with all other Periphery realms and declared Stefan Amaris an usurper, starting the Amaris Civil War.
While doing this General Aleksandr Kerensky contacted the last remnants of House Cameron and pledged his support for their claim to the title of Director General of the Terran Hegemony and First Lord of the Star League.
Stefan Amaris and his Rim World Republic suffered a series of military losses that greatly weakened Stefan Amaris' position.
His self-proclaimed Amaris Empire was only formally acknowledged by his own Rim Worlds Republic but because he had moved most of his own loyal forces to Earth to man the Reagan Space defence System and the other SDS networks in the other Terran Hegemony to try and force others to accept his rule.
Daniel Cameron wore the title of Director General of the Terran Hegemony and First Lord of the Star League with some reluctance.
His first edict as First Lord of the Star League was to have the E and F upgrades and removed from the M5 drones to restore their original cognitive functions.
Next he reinstituted the Star League High Council to help with the administrative burden.
But his more controversial edict was the granting of independence of Kowloon and the raising of Colonel Thanh Truk Ngo to lord status.
As a newly minted lord Thanh Truk Ngo then immediately started raising a Royal division, the 171st Kowloon light infantry as his people's contribution in the war against the usurper Stefan Amaris.
The Kowloonese would prove to be very effective light infantry much in the light of the vaunted Nepalese Ghurkas.
With the removal of the E and F type upgrades the M 5 Caspers started to exhibit signs of sentience just like their larger siblings the M-10's.
With the growing sentience the Drone warships of the Star league Defence forces decided that the attack of House Cameron couldn't go unpunished and to save their human creators unnecessary losses the Drone warships would attack the most heavily defended space defence systems and all the fortified holdings of the Rim Worlds Republic.
General Aleksandr Kerensky stood on board the bridge of drone warship TQF-001M10A the SLS Kraken and watched as the drone fleet engaged the last remnants of the orbital defences of the Rim world's republics capital world of Apollo.
Once the remaining defences are destroyed the invasion of the Rim Worlds Republic's planetary holding would begin and once they were all secured for House Cameron then the invasion of the Terran hegemony can begin.
The Star League navy was proudly proclaiming the drone warships as highly valued members of the navy as their dedication to duty in assaulting the most heavily defended areas was saving countless human lives at the cost of the artificial intelligence own.
It was this dedication to duty that persuaded General Aleksandr Kerensky to control the entire Star League defence force from the bridge of the SLS Kraken.
Stefan Amaris was growing more concerned by the day.
The civil war he had started was not going well and his powerbase the Rim Worlds republic had all been conquered or destroyed.
All the forces he had left were his fanatical troops stationed in Terran Hegemony but these were being whittled down by the day as the SLDF and traitorous drones continued Operation Liberation.
Stefan realised that there was no going back as his ploy to completely destroy House Cameron had failed and the other house had rallied behind House Cameron in fear of the loyalty of the SLDF and the drone warships being produced by the last of the Cameron line.
All too soon he realised that they would find out what he had done and then he would die.
So in preparation for this day he order all of his fanatical forces to fight to the last man in the hope that they might just be able to gain some kind of victory.