The walk to command wasn't always a far one, but today it surely did feel like it.
In all likelihood, he would be retired as captain of the Ulysses and honorably discharged. That's how it usually went when you would be "called back" by a counselor. Maybe the russians spun a lie, maybe he had enemies in the alliance council, he wasn't really sure.
The hiss of steam from exposed pipes brought him out of his stupor.
The door to the command floor opened up in its usual manner, splaying open like a flower as the airlock mechanisms released, but today, today felt oh so different.
A cold blast of air greeted him, as well as the massive presence of mars's horizon outside of the viewing ports on the command tower. His chair sat towards the back, while the multiple command arrays and their attendees were laid out in front of him.
"Good morning captain. I take it your meeting with the councilor went well" came from a holographic display. The man shown looked to be in his mid 50s, his uniform being that of an old earth naval commander. His hair was a stark white, dishevelled and sticking out like bedhead.
"Good morning to you Ed," he sighed. "the meeting went...smoothly." he responded to the hologram with a smile.
Ed, short for E.D.I (Enhanced Defense Intelligence), already knew how the meeting went, seeing as he was present throughout the entire ship.
After the transhumans left, a mass ban on complex A.I was placed, but that didn't stop anyone from developing ones for military starships.
"Glad to hear, sir. The morning startup is halfway to completion, and after the tugs lead us from port, we should be under our own steam."
"Thank you Ed, i'll be awaiting the morning report afterwards." he smiled softly, watching as the hologram crumbled away into digitized swaths of blue.
A soft rumble signified the startup flare of the signature deuterium reactors that powered most of the ships in the solar system. A noticeable temperature raise from the air conditioning also signified the spooling of the plasma stores, where the energy from the reactor would supercharge and ionize gasses to create the thrust necessary to move such a beast of human engineering.
The rest of the command crew were sitting at their stations, waiting for inertial dampeners to kick in as the tug boats, silva class akula mining vessels outfitted with kinetic armor and magnet latches, to hook on.
Docking and undocking from port was always risky for jupiter arms ships. Oberon ships could hover in port and only need a crew gantry and a few lines to dump waste and import food and fuel. Akula had litteral ship shaped holes in their custom ports to create as airtight of a seal as possible, as well as reduce space.
And jupiter.
well, jupiter lacked the up to date hovertech to support itself inside the influence of the stations artificial gravity. Technology was much better spent on weapons and life support over small leisures like an easy docking.
He walked to the edge of the command room, several inches of transhuman designed, carbon nanotube, bullet proof, heat resistant polymers protecting him from the vacuum of space.
Everything was so empty.
Mars met his gaze once more, the glow of cities appearing as the shadow of its dark side slowly moved giving him a warm sense of reassurance.
Mars was always a hellish place, even after the transhumans terraformed it.
Akula industrial factories didn't help either, but the greenhouse gasses they constantly released helped to keep the atmosphere present as it slowly bled off due to the small size of mars.
He lurched suddenly, quickly looking to starboard as the 2 masses of green armor and overcharged akula thrusters latched onto his ship roughly.
Just the russians getting in port bullying.
It wasn't always bad, but the occasional report would disappear, or a torpedo would be left with its timer exposed. A new dent in his ship wouldn't bother him too much, with this likely being his last captaining.
The room temporarily went red and a short klaxon sounded as a slow rumble resonated throughout the ship. The portside thrusters began dumping cooled plasma towards the station, assisting the tugs as they reversed their own thrusters and pulled away from dock. Millions of horsepower in energy ran over the hull of his ship, the armor glowing a blinding white as red engines flared up to maximum power and efficiency.
Such brutish vessels, but that's how the russians liked them, and they were effective regardless of how you viewed them.
He, again, broke from a stupor and weaved through the active crew stations towards his command station, the rumble quietly subsiding as they moved further and further from the station.
He sat quickly, the soft cushioning a welcome feeling compared to the metal chairs placed around the ship for rest.
"Engines at 60% captain. Umbilical reaching maximum length." sounded in his ear from engineering.
The umbilical was a line connected from the station to provide the energy needed to start the reactors and resupply on inert gasses for ionization into plasma.
No umbilical, no startup.
Suddenly, the lights and air conditioning shut down.
For a few, eternal seconds, the ship was dead in space...no grav generators, no dampeners, and no air stream, and then it all came back at once, brighter and more in tune to the thrum of average life. He turned to the displays surrounding him, watching as the umbilical scrunched up and retracted into space, a small stream of yellow gas leaving the exchange chamber before it disappeared into the depths of the stations inner workings.
"Reactor at 100% and climbing in efficiency sir." sounded in his ear again.
"Very good. begin movement cycling on all weapons….let's remind anyone trigger happy at port that we are active and on military patrol"
Another small shudder, and he watched as the utterly massive kinetic weapons swiveled in position, each turret with four independent, gimbal mounted cannons.
He could almost see the sweat rolling off of the pilots of the tug ships.
"Combat stations are reporting nominal weapon movement, captain. Loading gantries are fully functional, and shell stock is at maximum capacity" navigation spoke calmly in his ear
"Very good..how long until we can move under our own power?" he pressed several confirmation messages from the station about the undocking procedure.
"Roughly an hour sir...cargo rush is coming in."
"Shit" he muttered quietly, hopeful that his communicator hadn't picked it up
This was going to take much longer than he thought
