A well-honed movement of the hand to automatism and the robot flew to the other end of the training hall. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and look around the hall, on the floor of which the remains of twelve training robots are scattered and occasionally sparkle.
Alexander was taught biotics by the best teachers that could only be found in the Citadel space. The teaching staff was small, but more than compensated with quality. During puberty, a "Tsarevich" implant was developed specifically for the heir, which is very expensive and even at the moment is at a stage that already famous mass producers will not get to soon. The only limitation here was only Alexander's maximum rank in biotics, which did not exceed V—VI. There are ten of these ranks in total, and they classify biotics according to the strength of their abilities. From the first, to which workers in the factories of the zero element are counted, and to the tenth, to which all the matriarchs of the Azari are attributed. For a biotic in the first generation, this is a very good result, so the heir, albeit not without slight annoyance, put up with it, and continued to hone the available biotic techniques.
But then I came.
And already my abilities began to grow rapidly. I began to burst from the inside with the energy that was accumulating in me and required, at least, a grandiose release. I found a way out in long regular workouts. I must say that at the first of them I frolicked like a child who got superpowers... well, that's partly how it was. In any case, this training routine allowed me to gain proper control over my growing biotic abilities. But these are all dry words. And there are no others to pick up, because words cannot convey what you feel when power awakens in every cell of the body capable of shredding, crushing, burning, tearing and playing with the usual laws of physics. It's an intoxicating feeling. So much so that I can hardly suppress it with training and work. And it helped! The attacks of the eighth-grader syndrome happen to me less and less .
As for the biotic techniques that the heir owned, then, to my luck, they were worked out to automatism. The throw, barrier and deformation are at a high level, the rest is slightly worse. The heir was a strong VI rank. Now I can safely be given an average VII rank, I managed to reproduce all the biotic techniques known from the game at an acceptable level. And I hope the limit hasn't been reached yet.
My political activity is not so bright yet. The coronation took place three weeks ago, and all this time I received delegations of ambassadors and diplomats who, without any authority, stubbornly, but without crossing the line tried to push me for various concessions and handouts. At the same time, similar "conversations" were held with domestic political groups who wanted to make sure that they were not in danger, otherwise you never know what the monarch would come up with. I had to forget about relaxation and relaxation in the pocket Hermitage for a while because of the huge crowd of guests from all over the galaxy.
After taking a shower, I dressed in a standard MSF uniform, where instead of stars on the shoulder straps there was my personal monogram, the letter "A" and the Roman numeral five, with various curlicues. A hearty lunch was already waiting for me in my office — after using biotics, there is always a terrible hunger.
After finishing lunch, I decided to do the reports, anyway, there is still an hour and a half before the meeting with the Secretary General of the Alliance. If we compare the internal political life of the Russian Empire and the Citadel, the United States and even China, then Russia is a quiet village against the background of frenzied megacities. In the same States and China, there is a fierce political struggle between various political groups for supreme power. Meanwhile, in Russia, there is a calm, which is partly based on the fact that the political system of Russians has ceased to be the sphere of entertainment of the rich, ordinary citizens actively participate in the management of municipalities and control over regional authorities, and parliamentarians in the imperial parliament. The fact is that political parties, as rigidly hierarchical organizations, have died out in Russia. Deputies are elected, for four years, personally in their single-mandate constituencies, going through tough competition and screening, and regularly report to voters, while any voter of this district can authorize a vote of no confidence in the deputy. There are about a thousand such districts in the Russian Empire, and they are scattered throughout the empire, this has led to the fact that there are about a thousand deputies in the State Duma and they are all aimed not at the supreme power, but at local problems. Of course, they form blocs and alliances, but they are spontaneous and unstable. The civil government being created depends on both the parliament and the emperor. If everything is clear with the tsar, you can go against his will, but you will not go far, then everything is more interesting with the parliament. There are several dozen specialized committees in the State Duma, and all deputies are members of them, if the committee dealing with law enforcement agencies collects and analyzes problems in these areas, and then passes them with proposals to the relevant ministries and personally to the emperor, then the civil committees, plus, nominate candidates for ministers, and say, if you if you are a member of the health committee, then you will not become the Minister of Sports under any circumstances. Here, there is also feedback, if subjects do not like how a particular civil minister behaves or works, then through deputies they can initiate a procedure of no confidence in the minister, and the committee, if the voters of the majority of deputies of this committee are dissatisfied with the minister, withdraws him and nominates a new candidate. If this happens more than three times, the committee is deemed ineffective and is dissolved, and deputies are deprived of their mandates, and new elections are held in their constituencies. Such a complex system does not allow the parliament to encroach on the imperial power, which was not uncommon in Russia of the twenty-first century, at the same time deputies are more attentive to internal problems. Plus, there are huge demands on deputies, one of the most significant: service in the army for at least five years.
Large corporations and their leaders in the United States are fighting hard, buying politicians, lobbyists, trying to influence the domestic and foreign policy of the state. In Russia, corporations earn, invest, develop and try to stay as far away from politics as possible. And the role of a corporation in Russia is less, if in the USA or the EU, it is a state within a state, then in Russia these are relatively transparent organizations that are under the vigilant supervision of trade unions, the state and, of course, competitors. This situation is not surprising when there are examples of many corporations who imagined God knows what about themselves, who began to get into politics and tried to dictate terms to the emperor and ... somehow quickly went bankrupt and crumbled into small and quickly bought up pieces. On the other hand, this does not mean that big capital does not try to influence politics, but does it more subtly and accurately. In general, it's boring: engineers build, soldiers serve, merchants trade, municipalities work, and the sovereign emperor looks after all this. Although, even a rigidly structured and disciplined Russian society is not devoid of vices. Petty crime is very rare, well, you won't climb on a person, knowing one hundred percent that he has a weapon and he knows how to use it. True, the alleged criminals also have access to weapons, but if you use legal weapons for criminal purposes, then you risk ending your life in a penal labor battalion on the outskirts of the studied galaxy. And if you have committed murder with a legal weapon, not for self—defense - hello, my dear gallows or neural resocialization and penal battalion. It is not surprising that petty crime is reduced to almost zero, which cannot be said about large criminal syndicates. They are mainly engaged in smuggling Russian-made weapons, machinery and equipment to other countries. They bypass drugs, illegal gambling, prostitution and slavery with the farthest side available, and in return the authorities slightly close their eyes to their activities and, sometimes, ask them to fulfill a couple of requests or report something. There are, of course, criminal groups with truly suicidal courage who wanted to spit on the authorities and seek to make money on everything at once, including slavery, drugs and illegal casinos. But such scumbags hand over their own, knowing full well that the government won't figure it out, as well as the conscious subjects of the emperor. Corruption in the empire has also not ceased to exist, but is much less widespread due to the virtualization of the bureaucratic apparatus.
Admiral Steven Hackett of the US Navy, the third Secretary General of the Alliance. He was born in Buenos Aires in 2134. One of the youngest admirals and general secretaries. Hackett's career is a combination of stubbornness, hard work, rigidity, cunning and a pinch of cash. The first Secretary General is an American. I have been carefully preparing for this conversation.
Alliance is a project of my grandfather, Vladimir I. The original purpose of this organization was to prepare for war with the Citadel, but much has changed and now the Alliance acts as a collective representative of all mankind. The first secretary General was Russian, which allowed Russia to protect its interests and increase its influence at the expense of the Alliance. The second secretary General was a European, but his leadership was inglorious. The Americans took the chance and made their man the secretary general, and now they were promoting their interests. Until recently.
Americans, stung by the fact that the first secretary general was a Russian, tried to make their man the first spectrum. Hackett, the ideologist of this whole idea, took over the development and execution of this plan. He attracted his good friend David Anderson. And you know, everything was going surprisingly well. It seemed that a little bit more and the first human SPECTRE would be a US citizen. But a major failure on one of the missions crossed out the entire long-term work of Anderson and Hackett. If Anderson hadn't been a First Contact War hero, he would have flown out of the Navy. And Hackett managed to hold on to his post only because of the Americans' fear that the new secretary general will again be a Russian or, God forbid, a Chinese. It seemed that I was not reading reports and articles, but a history textbook. However, this all happened eight months ago. And now Stephen Hackett is sitting in front of me, brimming with determination.
— Mr. Secretary General, I am glad to welcome you. I'm sorry, but I didn't have the opportunity to receive you earlier — I have a lot of new responsibilities.
— Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty. I want to assure you that waiting didn't bother me at all. — "Yeah, you haven't learned to lie, Admiral."
— I am tormented by curiosity about what made you come here. After all, we could meet at the next meeting of the supreme council in a month, right?
Hackett paused, apparently considering his next words. At some point, with the determination of a man who has nothing to lose, he replied.
— Your Imperial Majesty, as you probably already know, for many members of the Supreme Council, I am a political corpse. All my initiatives are rejected, and my actions are severely criticized. Even those that could clearly benefit all of humanity are going under the knife. Without exception. I initiated negotiations with the Turian Hierarchy on expanding military-technical cooperation and joint construction of a new generation ship with a number of, frankly, unique characteristics. I am sure that all these initiatives will be rejected by the other members of the Supreme Council. Therefore, I would like to enlist your support in this matter. After all, you are... known as a person with much broader views on aliens. For the sake of the future of humanity, we are obliged to conduct a dialogue with all the races of the galaxy in all directions. This agreement will raise the authority of humanity in the Citadel space, and also strengthen our positions. I took the liberty to coordinate all the points with the Turians, it remains only to get the consent of the supreme council and finance this project. Only your initiative will allow us to ratify this treaty. Don't look that it's just a contract and "some kind of ship". We must go to such cooperation, otherwise humanity will continue to play secondary roles in the galaxy.
— Do you have the draft contract with you? — The answer was laconic and calm, but I already noticed a spark of hope in the Admiral's eyes.
— Yes, please. — Hackett handed me a tablet with information. I looked with great curiosity at the files handed to me, where the Normandy project was described in detail, and the contract itself. Having finished with the document, I took out a cigarette and, leaning back in my chair, lit up.
I began to look closely at the Secretary General, who had not even moved since the transfer of the files. Does he want to use me? Definitely. In fact, I am being offered to participate in a charity event. What is the essence of the agreement: The Turian Hierarchy and the Alliance are developing and building a space frigate with unique characteristics, including a stealth system and a super-powerful, for frigates, mass core. The total amount is one hundred and ninety billion credits, where the core itself will cost one hundred and twenty billion. For comparison, the Russian Empire is laying a series of seven cruisers for a total of thirty billion. But most importantly: according to the Charter of the Alliance, the initiator country must pay fifty percent of the costs. In other, even simpler words, Russia orders a buffet, and everyone else will celebrate joyfully. The question is, does Hackett think I'm an idiot? After all, I am sure that after the ratification of the contract, the tender for the construction of the ship will be received by the American shipyard, and therefore, all the money will flow to the USA. Perhaps, in this way, Hackett buys forgiveness for the failure with the SPECTRE, plus he will receive his percentage and the newest ship. After all, from the moment when he became a big boss in the Alliance, the Alliance's military orders began to regularly go to the American side, and the share of American weapons in the Alliance's troops is steadily growing, and Hackett is earns with percentages. There is nothing unusual here — history repeats itself from Secretary General to Secretary General, but there is an interesting detail here. Hackett is very good friends with the tycoon Harper, who gets the most delicious pieces from the Alliance's military orders. And if we also take into account the reports of foreign intelligence about the rapid emergence of a new secret xenophobic organization that absorbed smaller similar structures and spread its influence to the United States, Britain, the EU and several small states, codenamed "Cerberus", then an extremely interesting picture emerges. Of course, for now, just for me. On the other hand, if I refuse, then "Normandy" probably won't appear, and without it, the canon as I remember it... with all the changes in history, to my great surprise, the chronology of key events has been preserved. Of course, Shepard will become a Spectre, I'll take care of that, but without a ship like the Normandy, it will be extremely difficult for him. Well, I have a few ideas.
— I think I can support this agreement, but I am only one of five, and I doubt that my support will bring you the desired result. But I can offer you an alternative solution to your problem.
— Let me ask, what is it?
— Why do we need Advice? I am convinced that the Russian Empire and the Alliance themselves are able to cope with this task. Therefore, I think there is no need to strain our partners.
— But how to explain it to the Council? After all, many leaders will be furious ... — Especially your American friends, — after all, such a project bypasses the Supreme Council?
— There is nothing complicated here, we will present it as a purely Russian initiative. And we, as initiators, will pay all expenses for this project. The Alliance will act as a diplomatic mediator. At the same time, you will get the newest ship at your disposal.
There was a rather long pause. It took the Admiral a while to digest all the information, probabilities and consequences. And also one question that he decided to voice after all.
— I can't understand what is your benefit? The Admiral asked gloomily.
— And what was our advantage in your offer? — I baffled Hackett and, apparently, confused the veteran a little, — Well, firstly, all the money invested in this ship will remain in the economy of my country, and secondly, we will get access to the technologies of the Turian Hierarchy. You, in turn, in addition to the ship, will gain authority as a good diplomat and a wise manager. And even get a theoretical, but still the opportunity to go for a second term in the chair of the Secretary General. The latter, of course, will depend only on you.
Even though I've loaded the guy up a lot, he's been staring blankly at my office for about five minutes, thinking about my offer. In the seventh minute, I made the decision that it would be necessary to push him in the right direction.
— Tell me, Mr. Hackett, why are you still the General Secretary? — The man quickly came to his senses and fixed a sharp and frowning look at me, — I will answer for you: You are a compromise figure. While. Your American friends have already asked me to evaluate your activities and to philosophize a little about possible candidates for your successors in this post. They also warned me that this issue may be on the agenda at a future meeting of the Supreme Council.
Seeing the Admiral's tension, I decided to slow down a little.
— But you don't have to worry, I described your work perfectly. You know, it surprised your "friends" quite a lot.
Getting up from the table, and with a gesture did not let the admiral get up after him, he went to the mini-bar.
— What do you prefer? Whiskey, brandy, vodka?
— Whiskey, if I may, — the admiral, who was no longer so cheerful, smiled tightly.
I poured two glasses of whiskey and returned to the table. He took out cigars and silently handed them to the admiral, who took them automatically. All this time he was thinking about his situation, and there is something to think about here. They started to leak it, and he definitely suspected it for a long time, but his friends in the American government and Congress tried to dispel these doubts. Why did they decide to rid it now, and not immediately after the failure with the spectre? The answer is simple — my father. The Americans were sure that if they trampled Hackett, the father would certainly try to push his man through. And when he died and I became emperor, they bet on my inexperience and now they will try to push their protege back to the post of general secretary. But this is only the tip of the iceberg — by and large, no one cares about the failure with the SPECTRE, and much more the American elite (or rather, a significant part of it) is affected by the distribution of military orders. After all, almost all military orders of the Alliance received through tenders by the Americans go through the sticky hands of Hackett's friend, the notorious Jack Harper, who, in turn, distributes everything between corporations loyal to him. This is terribly infuriating to the rest of the American establishment. And Hackett has a lot to thank Harper for not getting kicked out yet. But, apparently, the pressure turned out to be so powerful that Harper decided to "leave him to his fate" his friend, in return for a share of future contracts. Less than he has now, but otherwise he would have lost everything, including his three-headed offspring. Hackett is waiting for retirement and an honorary pension on the outskirts of the United States. And all this is going through Stephen Hackett's head.
I even felt a little sorry for him. He did a lot for humanity, and quite often even to the detriment of the interests of the United States and its elite, which also went to the disadvantage of Hackett in their eyes. During his administration, the Alliance has significantly strengthened and gained a good reputation on the Citadel. He has opened and financed many educational institutions and orphanages. And all this at their own expense, which gave a chance for the future to many children on the margins of humanity and not only. There are many social programs that prevented famine, epidemics and banal organizational ruin on many planets, which the "fresh" colonies were famous for. The Alliance troops became associated with peacemakers and defenders who ended piracy and the slave trade on the periphery, which ensured the future of many colonies. We can confidently say that Hackett is the best Secretary General of the Alliance in its entire short history, who really cares about humanity as a whole, and not about the national interests of the patron state.
It was then, judging by the changed expression on his face, that the admiral understood the meaning of my hints. After all, in fact, I propose to defect to my side. As a member of the Supreme Council, I have the right of veto and I simply will not miss the draft on the early resignation of the Secretary General. And he gets a chance to finalize his term before the end, which means three more fruitful years. But on the other hand, he will already depend on me. And me? What about me? I am clearly more influential than Harper and his gang, and I should have the appropriate requests. Well, as a bonus, you can forget about a quiet retirement in the USA. Is the post of Secretary General worth such sacrifices? For such an ambitious and purposeful person as Steven Hackett — definitely worth it.
— What do you want from me? — Finally, the admiral decided everything for himself.
— Nothing special. As I have already said, your activity completely satisfies me. Also, I'm not going to require you to break existing contracts with American companies. Why make your American friends angry? But..." I made a spectacular pause. — Future tenders should become more diversified, in favor of other member countries of the Supreme Council of the Alliance.
— Of course, I will take all measures to eliminate such injustice. — I answered as if it was a mere trifle.
— Great, by the way, I forgot to congratulate you on the successful conclusion of the negotiations on the Fariksen Treaty.
The Farixen Treaty of 2165 is an agreement between the members of the Citadel on quotas for the construction of dreadnoughts, according to which the Turians have thirty—seven, the Asari have twenty-one, and the Salarians have sixteen dreadnoughts. Humanity has received a collective quota of fifteen Dreadnoughts. This quota was divided among the countries of the Supreme Council, where each great power received the right to build three dreadnoughts. Russia has not built a single dreadnought, although it had them previously in service, but they were written off, as they do not fit into its military space doctrine and are banally outdated. The Alliance did not have a separate right to build dreadnoughts until recently. After years of negotiations, the Alliance became an equal and independent member of this treaty, and it was granted the right to seven Dreadnoughts. Apparently, in this way, the Citadel Council wanted to sow a split between the Alliance, as a political structure, and the Supreme Council, thus making the Alliance independent (or having claims to it) from the Big Five. They partially succeeded.
— I think it would be nice if the Alliance ordered the construction of at least three dreadnoughts at our shipyards. I can assure you that the Russians have not forgotten how to build large ships with pretentious names.
— Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty. I think it's doable. The Russian Empire makes a huge contribution to the development and support of the Alliance and its mission. I believe that the Alliance has unfairly bypassed Russian military corporations, and it is my duty to correct this.
Well, the Admiral has made his choice.
— I must admit, coming here, I have already come to terms with the fact that I have become a fulfilled figure. That maybe only here I can save at least something from my projects. Probably, in your eyes I have the status of a corrupt politician. Let it be so. — He looked me straight in the eyes, in which I saw the same determination as at the beginning of the conversation. — But I clung to the Secretary General's chair not for the sake of money, fame and political power. I have always done everything for the sake of humanity and its prosperous future, and I understand perfectly well that if I leave, my place will be taken by a man who is no better than those pirates and slavers with whom we fought.
— Relax, I support you not because I want to cash in on you, but because I appreciate and approve of what you are doing. Do what you need to do, and come what may, and I'll cover for you. Have a nice day, Mr. Hackett, it's a pleasure doing business with you.
After the admiral's fiery speech and his departure, I had doubts about the true creator of Cerberus, I need to check it carefully.
After Hackett left, I plunged into thinking about the future. Or rather about the Reapers. According to my inner feeling, I played mass effect about thirty years ago, and many facts are simply forgotten by me. Except for one thing — the invasion of the Reapers is imminent. All this time I tried to drive these thoughts away, but when confronted directly with the canon, the dam in my mind was destroyed, and I was completely overcome by fear. The realization that in six years everything could be destroyed, and reasonable organics processed into building material for new Reapers did not give optimism. Fortunately, I have a mini-bar.
After one bottle of whiskey and a few expensive locally made cigars, I felt better. Coming out on the balcony from my office, I enjoyed the night air. The balcony offers a beautiful view of the palace complex and the sea in the distance. The landscape reminded me of how my parents and I went to visit my great-grandfather in Partenit, a city on the southern coast of Crimea. I don't know how long I stood there and fumbled in my memories, but I managed to sober up considerably and, taking another cigar out of my cigarette case, mentally returned to the giant synthetic squid.
How many Reapers invaded the galaxy in total was unknown, but I don't think there are too many of them. For one simple reason: they never hit head-on. The pre-Protean harvest algorithm was the same. The reaper-observer sends a signal to the Citadel, which turns into a huge repeater and moves the entire crowd of reapers from the cosmic void to the Citadel. Those safely capture it and turn off the repeater network, which negates long-distance flights. Then they methodically clean up system after system, one half of the inhabitants turns into husks, the other goes as building material for new Reapers on the principle of "one intelligent species - one Reaper". Thus, if my memory serves me correctly, the Protean Empire was cleaned up for several centuries. This algorithm worked perfectly in the last harvest. But still managed to make a change in this scheme. The Proteans left a little surprise. A mere trifle, which was the reprogramming of the Citadel, which led to the inability to use it as a repeater, and this forced the Reapers to get to the populated part of the galaxy by foot. From the third Mass Effect, I remember a codex that claimed that several dozen two-kilometer Reapers like the Overlord had invaded the Earth. Unfortunately, it was not said how many smaller ones there were.
Therefore, the advantage of the Reapers is not in numbers, but in the military-technological sphere: extremely high maneuverability and speed, independence from communications, powerful kinetic shields that break through only with concentrated fire from three dreadnoughts, strong armor made of unknown material (although, at the end of the first mass effect Normandy managed to pierce through the Ruler). A weapon at the junction of energy and kinetic technologies, which is a flow of molten metal mixture controlled by mass effect technology, with a firing range exceeding that of a dreadnought.
It can be concluded that the Reapers will be very difficult to defeat. The maximum aiming range of the traditional electromagnetic mass driver, which is installed on cruisers, is about five to seven thousand kilometers. Dreadnoughts can hit a stationary or weakly maneuverable (another dreadnought) target up to ten to fifteen thousand kilometers, but with a dynamic target everything will be more difficult. In any case, battles usually take place at distances of less than ten thousand kilometers, because you still not manage to hit a maneuvering target at a distance of more than ten thousand kilometers. The distances in the battles of frigates and destroyers are generally counted in the thousands and hundreds of kilometers, and I'm not talking about the LCAs. The situation with missile weapons is different. Depending on the class, the missile can be launched from fifteen, and in very rare cases from twenty thousand kilometers, successfully hitting the target thanks to an autonomous guidance system. But its speed is several times lower than the projectile, and the missile can be intercepted. Also, the cost of one tungsten blank for the dreadnought's main gun is a few credits, and the cost of the most primitive missile starts with tens of thousands of credits. At the same time, the most powerful anti-ship missile will be weaker than any projectile fired by a dreadnought. Therefore, rocket ships are great for local and short-term wars, deep raids and ambushes, but not for an all-out war for survival. Unfortunately, the Russian Empire has just such a fleet, which not has a chance of survival in a direct collision with the Reapers, fleet to fleet, only if it cooperates with someone else's artillery ships, as high-precision fire support.
Throwing away the cigarette butt with irritation, I returned to the office, turned on the computer and continued to systematize and analyze the information.
There are almost three thousand ships in the Russian Empire's navy, evenly distributed in five fleets and three separate flotillas. Each fleet has its own area of responsibility and basing. As for individual flotillas… this is a special case. There are three of them in total: the first is reconnaissance, the second is engineering, and the third is logistics. The first flotilla is engaged in exploration throughout the galaxy, and the ships of this flotilla meet each other only at home spaceports. The second flotilla, the most numerous, is engaged in the construction of industrial and military infrastructure, building military bases, factories, military stations, and all this in the shortest possible time (as far as it can be allowed without loss in quality). The flotilla includes transport ships, mining — mining and processing ships, ships on which production lines are located, at the docking of which entire industrial plants are formed. The second flotilla is able to turn any system into an impregnable fortress in a couple of weeks. And the last, third flotilla is engaged in patrolling internal transport routes, monitors the state of defensive stations, supplies military space bases, fleets, and other necessary routine. Also, in Russia there is such an organization as Dobroflot, which includes civilian ships whose captains, retired officers of the MSF RE. Dobroflot consists of obsolete ships purchased from the MSF by private individuals. But in case of war, they become subordinate to the General Staff. In total, Dobroflot lists three thousand ships. At first, the figure seems encouraging, but after considering the facts surrounding it, it becomes clear that Dobroflot is not a rival to the Reapers.
Compared to the ten thousandth fleet of Turians, the Russian fleet looks modest. But the Russian Empire is not feared for the dangerous, albeit small, fleet. It is feared because of the industry, which is able to build and commission up to a hundred large ships in one year, at least ten of which could potentially be dreadnoughts. Modern industry are extremely effective, the construction of an average cruiser according to the already well-known scheme takes no more than a month, a dreadnought up to three or four months. If you start building a ship according to a new scheme, it may take more time. At the same time, there are enough space stocks in Russia for the simultaneous construction of twenty ships the size of a dreadnought. The shipyard is a huge 3D printer, in the heart of which there is a huge zero-element core. By manipulating gravitational fields, it is possible to create the most complex mechanisms and materials, and workers simply assemble the ship as if it were a Lego constructor. In orbit of eleven of the thirteen planets of the Russian Empire, there are from two to four such shipyards, seventy percent of the capacity of which is mothballed due to redundancy. All this was built in case of a global war. Russia also has a huge number of production lines on the surfaces of planets where light and medium ships can be built. But if we launch the military industry at full capacity, then with the current level of production, Russia may face a serious shortage of raw materials in six months. The emperors of the past provided for this, therefore, a map was compiled of hundreds of systems nearby the empire in the same cluster as the Empire itself. Rich in resources, but untouched by man. An inviolable reserve, I think, just for such cases.
Thus, we get a high-class, but useless fleet in this situation, but it is not an option to start churning out traditional and no less useless ships with electromagnetic mass drivers, and the military industry, which, in order to heat up one hundred percent, needs a huge amount of resources, the development of which takes time.
In the morning, having replenished his stocks of coffee and cigarettes, he ordered no one to come to him. Shutting himself in his office, he began to give birth in agony to a plan for a future and inevitable war.
From general to particular. It is necessary to start preparing for war right now, but in order to win, the whole galaxy needs to prepare for this. I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince anyone of the existence of Reapers before the beginning of the canon, or rather, impossible. There is another way to provoke an arms race, however, this may lead to a premature war between the races of the Citadel. I see the way out of this situation as follows: at the first stage, Russia will begin to increase its military power, hiding behind the fact that Russia is threatened, for example, by the Batarian Hegemony and the pirates or Geth. Even, can start a small victorious war, but it will be more difficult to finish it. If Russia begins to increase its military power, then other human powers, primarily the United States, will follow its example. This game can be played before the start of the canon, after which can no longer hide the reason for the frenzied armament, and other countries will take Shepard's warnings more closely. This, of course, will raise a lot of questions, but I frankly don't care about them.
We need to attract other races to your side. In priority... krogan and rahni. With the krogans, everything is clear, strong and tenacious dinosaurs, with whom, alas, it will be possible to talk only when Urdnot Rex establishes its authority on Tuchanka, but the ground can be prepared now. The Rachni are generally considered an extinct and extremely dangerous race, but I know from the canon that they were under the control of either a Leviathan or a Reaper, which is why they were so aggressive. And as for extinction... if Saren managed to find and raise the queen of rachni, then I think I will succeed. As for other races, the Quarian admirals are extremely arrogant and care about their independence, and even more so they do not tolerate when someone puts pressure on them or demands something. Negotiations with them are always difficult, and I don't have any ideas about them yet. The other races of the Citadel can only be attracted to their side during the invasion of the Reapers. It won't work sooner, although it's worth trying.
The next aspect I am considering is astrography. All thirteen developed planets (often referred to simply as "metropolis") The Russian Empire is located in a cluster of Wild Ducks. As well as systems with an inviolable margin. Sigma repeater leads to this cluster, however, to get from the system with a repeater to the nearest Russian planet, the fastest ship will need three days of flight. The system with a repeater is called Brest. I think the analogy is clear here — it is possible to get to the central worlds of Russia only through this system, since the Wild Duck cluster is remote from its neighbors and other repeaters. And it can take years to get to the Wild Duck on the most powerful superluminal engine (SSD). The first fleet is based in Brest and many military stations and supply bases have been built. Russian Russian Empire is located extremely conveniently for defense, there can be no question of any unexpected invasion, but the door is closed from both sides, the Russians can not let anyone into the metropolis, and the Russians can not let out of it. Also, the weak point of the location of Russian planets is logistics. The journey between the planets can take weeks, this has led to the fact that the Russian commercial fleet is not numerous in comparison with other powers, but it is large-tonnaged, it is cheaper to drive one huge truck than ten small ones. Another problem is the profitability of mining, for example, the Wild Duck cluster is full of planets rich in raw materials, but with the current needs of the economy, mining on these planets is not profitable. It is cheaper and easier to organize mining in other regions of the galaxy, namely in the Attic Traverse, less rich, but more accessible, from the point of view of transport. So it turned out that the Russian Empire has twenty industrial settlements throughout the Attic Traverse, but none in the Wild Duck cluster, active resource extraction is present only in the central systems. However, the system has been built for a long time, and Russia does not feel a shortage, and even actively exports resources. The metropolis itself covers its needs for raw materials, since the planets were colonized not by climatic attractiveness, but by industrial, and the extracted resources from external colonies are almost fully exported, except for the zero element. It turns out that Russia is located on a huge locked chest of gold, but it is worth making an effort and it will open, there was simply no need for it, and now it has appeared. One thing is for sure, the Reapers do not threaten the Russian rear, and we will not have to disperse our forces, if only we can hold Brest, and the outer colonies can be evacuated.
Having finished with geopolitics and macroeconomics, I decided to go directly to what the Russian army and navy will have to fight the enemy with and on. Due to the fact that I am, as it were, the head of state, and even with a cool device, I have access to the secret places of both the research institutes dealing with weapons and the servers of the Main Artillery Directorate (hereinafter MAD). MAD, as part of the Ministry of War, develops and oversees the development of new weapons and technologies, and their introduction into the armed forces and industry.
I have no idea what to look for, but after several hours of searching through the servers, I found what I was looking for, namely several wunderwafels and promising technologies that, one way or another, did not go into production.
I started with the connection, which the Reapers successfully jammed in the canon, and you can't win much without a connection. Firstly, I was interested in the quantum communicator, the technology is crude and still being finalized, but it works. The second technology dates back to the times of the Indian crisis. Scientist Ryabushkin, seeing how Americans suffer when their communication is jammed, thought, how can the Russian navy avoid such problems? He created a project of an autonomous communication station "Meteor" disguised as, unexpectedly, a meteorite, and even a surface scan of the miners confirmed this. In the theory of the scientist, it was necessary to build a bunch of such things (fortunately they are inexpensive) and scatter them all over the district, creating a powerful telecommunications network that is almost impossible to suppress, unless every second station is destroyed, which is problematic. Several similar stations were built and successfully tested, but the military considered that the construction of special electronic warfare ships would be more effective, and the project went under the carpet. As a result, the electronic warfare ships did not meet expectations, but the scientist Ryabushkin died, and there was no one to remind and lobby for the Meteor project.
The list of naval weapons was full of various samples, but I didn't see anything radically new, the military thought of the Russian Empire is fixated on missile weapons, which has already become a little annoying, artillery ship projects are being cut down at the root. Fortunately, this state of affairs did not become an obstacle for two scientists and military engineers — Nikolai Savushkin and Vasily Frolov, who developed and built a sample of a unique gun on their own fifteen years ago. They called the gun an "Independent Thermonuclear Rail Gun", or simply a thermo-railtron/thermo-gun. The fact is that there cannot be more than one zero-element core in the ship's power system, therefore, all ship systems are powered from it, and the appearance of another core can lead to a conflict of cores and an explosion. This led to the fact that the dreadnought has a gun along the entire hull, this design allows you to seriously save on energy when fired and the projectile accelerates to the desired speeds with a minimum of energy using rails. Savushkin and Frolov, went the other way, they together with the Research Institute "ENERGOMASH" built an experimental rail gun and connected it to a compact thermonuclear reactor directly. The design turned out to be colossal, forty-five meters in height, and in length is twenty meters, the developers also said that it was just a sample, and the real gun should be larger. This gun worked on the following principles: the projectile is placed on a rail, on which, in turn, all the power of a small, but thermonuclear reactor is fed, and the projectile raced to the target at relativistic speeds, not much inferior in speed to traditional dreadnought guns, and even surpassing them in accuracy and range. At the same time, several similar guns could be installed on the ship, which would create a colossal density of fire, but... did not create because of the identified problems. The first problem is the rate of fire, although due to the use of the reactor, the load on the core was reduced and the ship no longer needs to reset the residual core voltage in the atmosphere, the use of the reactor heats the gun itself, since a huge amount of energy is supplied to the rail, and the mass of the projectile is not facilitated by the core, which causes heating. ITRG rate of fire: two or three rounds per minute, when classic dreadnoughts have thirty to forty rounds per minute. The next problem follows from the previous one: in order for the projectile to withstand the power that comes from the reactor, it is made of heavy-duty alloys. If an ordinary projectile of a classic dreadnought made of an alloy with a certain proportion of tungsten, when colliding with an enemy ship, will shatter into fragments and cause enormous damage, then a purely tungsten, for example, an ITRG projectile will pierce through the ship, making a neat hole. And if you try to charge the ITRG with a classic projectile, then with a high probability it will break apart on the rail. Of course, the cost of pure tungsten projectiles is much higher than classical ones. The latter is that the power of the ITRG is less than that of the classic dreadnought gun, but this is solvable, the ITRG is much more compact and, therefore, the combined power of several guns will cover this disadvantage. But despite the prospects, these shortcomings negated all the advantages of this gun, and the project bent, and the sample is in the MAD warehouse. Something tells me that if anything can penetrate the Reaper's armor, it's the ITRG, and the price with a low rate of fire does not scare me.
The last thing I managed to find was a torpedo. A very old torpedo, but I suspect its creators of worshipping the Machine God. Armored Anti-Asteroid Torpedo, fifty meters in length, armor allows you to go deep into an asteroid, and the detonation of a nuclear reactor and a zero-element core, this asteroid evaporates. The torpedo is slow, expensive and huge, a special ship was built specifically for it, after testing the power of the torpedo was considered excessive, and operation was too complicated, and the project was closed.
Pressing the 'send' button, I leaned back in my chair and exhaled with relief. I have seventy-two hours to rest before generals, admirals and scientists from all over the Empire come to the Imperial Palace with reports on projects that interest me, where the future of the Russian Empire will be decided.
Note: I am not the author of this story, it is Mr. Eugene. This is a translation