Place: Unknown
Time: Unknown
A ship drifts through space. Once, ships of this type were seen all over the galaxy. Now, no more. But this ship, and their inhabitants, neither knew nor cared about their retirement from the galactic scene. All that mattered now was that their mission had been completed.
Without a trace, the ship disappears.
Place: Sol System (Mars)
Time: March 21st, 2087
"...and so, on the tenth anniversary of First Contact, a new event for history will take place--the day when the first shipyard of Phobos and Deimos are opened!" President Daniel Stratton announced. With that, the view changed to a space view, where the two moons, Phobos and Deimos, orbited the planet. As it did so, the Red Bolts, the premier Thunderbolt squadron and the showpiece of the New Earth Alliance, flew past the orbital camera.
A loud clapping and cheering rippled towards the stage where Daniel Stratton was standing. He waved to the 100,000-strong crowd that represented, even on Mars, only a fraction of the total population, then he moved off stage.
"So, whats the progress on the Proxima Colony?" Stratton asked.
"The colonists are getting stuck into it, sir. Terraforming has already begun, and is well on its way. And, as per Admiral Confed's orders, the 3rd Fleet has moved into position in case anyone does contact us. The arrival of the ISA battlegroup may have already altered the timeline drastically"
"Possibly, but I doubt it" Stratton said. When his aide looked at him incredulously, Stratton continued "Consider it. Mort Confed, as part of the explanation to us that he was really from the future, made predictions about the next four years--up until when the Pakistan-India war should have occured. All of those events were true. I don't think much of a change has happened. But when we make contact with the Markab, or the Centauri, then the timeline might change. However, just because Admiral Confed's predictions came true doesn't mean his version of the future will occur. He knows that and I know that, which was why we won't allow any colony to be un-protected" he paused "on that note, how is Sirius, Cooke and Wolf coming along?"
"Sirius is right on-schedule, sir. But Wolf is having a little difficulty. The Abbai say that there isn't that much water, so they're going to have to rely on domes until they can get the necessary comets to impact the colony. The Hyach are okay with Regula, apparently" here the aide smiled "They say they've found some Q-40"
"Excellent!" Stratton smiled. As they continued to walk along the corridor, he thought I wonder what Mort Confed is doing now...
"How is the production of the Olympic-class light cruiser coming along?" Admiral Confed asked Rear-Admiral Wearing
"While our main aim is to get Hyperion heavy cruisers and Omega battlecruisers out into full-scale production within a couple of years, the Olympic is in full production as we speak. Along with the Avenger-class command carrier, we can protect our colonies until the heavy units come into service"
Admiral Confed nodded. While the Earth Alliance had the technology to build Warlock-Gammas, the shipyards were still being rushed into production, and a fact of life was that smaller shipyards were easier to construct than larger shipyards. And, of course, he added to himself, lighter units would actually be more useful.
The designs in front of him were excellent, he noted. Abbai and Earth designers had come up with the interceptor-mark III, which incorporated some basic gravitic principles as well as advanced targetting arrays to increase the interception and damage potential. And the Hyach-designed, Earth-provided medium laser cannon was a marvel in itself. It was much more accurate and longer ranged, though suffering slightly in damage potential. And the spinal laser had been miniaturised even more to allow the Olympic-class to carry them. One spinal laser ran the length of the ship. Four improved medium laser cannons, in wide arcs covering the forward 240 degrees, gave an impressive weapon set. And, to back it up, four heavy long-range missile racks gave tactical flexibility. Defensively, four gravitic shields and the same number of interceptors gave the Olympic a defensive ability matched by some nations heavy cruisers. But two things were lacking--integral fighter capacity and a jump drive, which was where the Avengers came in. Avengers bore no relation to their EarthForce carrier ancestors. Overlapping gravitic shields--eight in all--as well as twelve interceptors provided a defensive ability that would laugh off even a Minbari Sharlin, and nearly one hundred Thunderbolts allowed space supremacy in any system an Avenger jumped into. With a tactical manual calling for one Avenger for four Olympics, the Olympics could each call twelve fighters for escort, while still allowing for forty-eight fighters for attacks or defending the Avenger.
"Good enough" he said "How are the Colony star fortresses coming along?"
"The Earth one is coming on in leaps and bounds, but the Mars one is lagging behind"
"How surprising" Confed remarked drily, and the rest of the officers chuckled. A Colony was a supreme defensive structure, combining Abbai and Hyach designs and adding Earth Alliance weaponry to it. Nothing short of a bloody-minded foe with mass drivers could hope to take it out, but the same thing which made it all but indestructible was also the same thing that meant a Colony took over a year to build. No wonder the Mars construction crew wanted a breather...
"Well, send the construction teams a message saying I'll be there, personally, to see how things are progressing" he said, and the officers chuckled again. Admiral Confed, it was rumoured, had a secret hideout somewhere where he hid all the bodies of people unwise enough to drag their feet in front of him.
"Well, now thats over, is there anything else I need to know about?" A chorus on the lines of 'no sir' rippled back to him, and he nodded
"Dismissed"