Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 32

Maaku

Captain Kôté had said the Agonoid shields were the biggest problems, and admittedly their own shields were the biggest defensive and offensive advantage they had, well that and their cloaking. Cricket said there was no evidence to suggest that the Agonoids had cloaking capability.

Mark asked, "So knowing what we know about our shields, how do you defeat ships with shields?"

Cricket said, "There is a few ways around our shields, one is to bombard them with enough weaponry that the shield generators can't keep up with the damage and eventually fail. Second is with patience and slowly drift through the shields, often something slow moving can float through a shield, think of your personal shield it'll stop anything travelling above a certain speed from reaching you. Lastly, the engines aren't covered by the shields when the ship is moving, the sides probably are, but the actual thrusters shouldn't be protected, it would drain too much power from the shield generators while moving, as you would literally be burning your shields."

Mark said, "Well that's something to think about then. What ships are closest to the Empire home world?"

"The ships at Athos would be the closest as they could reach the planet in about 2 days with the new FTL drives. Marnot would be the next closest and it would take them just 8 hours longer than the ones at Athos."

"Do we have another Sentinel ready for deployment?"

"Yes, there is one Sentinel ready and another will be ready in two days."

Just then Mark clued in to what Cricket had said, "Wait! Marnot? Is that Sentinel even staffed?"

"It's staffed by the 25 personnel from the original Destroyer there. There is no one in the training facility."

"OK, contact the Sentinel at Marnot, tell them to transfer the Destroyers, fighters, shuttles and their quarters to the Orbital Hub, then send that Sentinel to the new planet and send the waiting Sentinel to Marnot. I'm not sure why I didn't think about this earlier, but we should have made the Orbital Hubs the training facility and give them a thousand drones or so and we really should give them sub-light engines, it would make them way more effective in any combat scenario!"

"That is easy enough to do, we can use the asteroid harvesters to transfer the matter and if we're just growing the ship, we don't have to vacate it to do the upgrade. It'll be referred to as the planet spaceport, but with engines it will be classed as a ship, so what would you like to call the new ship class?"

"Let's call it a Guardian, since it will have the training facility in addition to the prison and it will be always be standing on guard around a planet. We might as well keep the Sentinel as an autonomous ship, that way we have major firepower and ship building facilities that we can deploy in a heartbeat, without disrupting thousands of potential trainees."

"The new ship won't quite be as big as a Sentinel, at a little over 3 kilometres long, but it will have sub-light engines, so it'll have more maneuverability, it just won't be capable of faster than light travel."

Cricket then popped up a design for the new Guardian. It was pretty much just a single large landing bay, big enough for a couple of destroyers and a couple dozen manned fighters, and numerous small external landing bays for the emergency shuttles. This was all beneath the quarters, cafeteria and training facility and added to the one end of the Orbital Hub, the engines were being added to the other end of the facility and the thousand drones just attached to the underside of the exterior.

"I like it, let's do that at all the planets, then once the upgrades are complete, have everyone transfer the Destroyers, fighters and shuttles from the Sentinel to the Guardian and then modify the Sentinel and strip away all but maybe 50 living quarters and the small cafeteria in the section under the Battlestar dock, but leave the walkway around the factory since it connects to the landing bays, although we really only need a couple of those."

"I'll start transforming all the Orbital Hubs into Guardians immediately. It'll take a couple of days, but they won't need to be vacated to make the changes."

"I should probably contact Kaleb."

"Actually it's in the middle of the night for him."

"OK lets send him a message informing him of what I'm doing, he'll get it when he wakes up. He can then notify all the Sentinels and explain the changes. Also message Captain Kôté and tell him the shield weaknesses, maybe he can exploit those and give him an advantage until the Sentinel can reach them in about 2 days. Have him call me immediately if the Agonoids show up again!"

Mark contemplated calling Adam, then asked Cricket, "Which Battlestar is closer, the Poseidon or the Cleito?"

"The Cleito could be there in about 4 days, it would take the Poseidon about 7 days."

Mark thought about it for only a minute, then called Commander Northrop on the Cleito. Within a few seconds the Commander answered, "It is nice to hear from you again, My King. How can I be of assistance?"

"Commander Northrop, we have located the Empire home world, unfortunately they are under attack by a new enemy called the Agonoids. Captain Kôté is there already and has revealed himself and is actually helping the Empire defend their planet, I've already dispatched the Sentinel from Marnot so it'll arrive in 2 days, if you could head that way, I'm hoping the war will be over by then and you can be our diplomat to talk to the Empire!"

As the call was ending the Commander saluted, "We will leave immediately, my King!"

Annabelle walked into his office wearing a bright yellow sundress, just as the call was ending.

She expressed her shock, "Seriously? You're actually going to let other people do some of the work? Who are you? Where is my husband?"

Mark laughed, "I decided to try something new, besides I'm too far away to get there in a timely manner."

Annabelle came around, gave him a kiss and sat down on the edge of his desk in front of him.

"Besides, I need to be here to take care of this pretty pink pussy," Mark said with a smile as he ran his hands up the outside of her thighs, then lifted her sundress up. Annabelle spread her legs apart, which allowed her pussy to blossom open, exposing her tight slit, moist with her arousal. He gladly left a trail of kisses up the inside of her thigh until he reached her sweet peach, then used his tongue like a proboscis to extract her sweet nectar like a honeybee from a flower.

After licking Annabelle through one orgasm, Mark's cock was already hard as he stood up, undid his pants, pulled out his cock and slipped deep inside his wife.

After a few slow deep strokes, Annabelle smiled and asked for more. Mark's cock tingled as his cock grew and extended until it pressed against her cervix.

Annabelle groaned as she got accustomed to his size, she smiled again, "Let's make a baby!"

Mark had always wanted kids, but it wasn't something Alice even wanted to consider. So much so, that she had a hysterectomy so she couldn't have kids. Plus it reduced the risks considering her infidelity.

Mark stopped thrusting as he looked into her sparkling blue eyes, "Are you sure? You were talking about going back to school."

Annabelle said, "I've thought about it, and don't even know what I'd go to school to learn, plus being the Queen, it's not like I can get a job. I see my job as public relations, just being there for the people and supporting you. Anything else I need to learn, we can just get a home study course or tutor. I'm actually OK to just wait and go through school vicariously through our children, starting at the ground level. You do want kids don't you?"

Mark said, "Of course, I've always wanted kids. Alice didn't!"

Annabelle said, "I still don't see understand what you saw in her, or why you stuck with her as long as you did?"

Mark said, "Before we got successful careers she was a different person. She changed a lot once her real estate business started taking off. It was like the money corrupted her. Yes, I should have left her years ago, but you weren't old enough to fuck yet!"

Annabelle laughed, "Well I'm old enough now and I'm ready to make some heirs!"

Mark laughed as he continued to slowly slide his cock in and out, "How many heirs are you thinking? And are you sure you want to start now? I mean we are going to live for a couple hundred years, any heirs we have now are only going to be a few years younger than us by the time they get to rule!"

Annabelle said, "Good! Then we can retire earlier! Put a baby in me, my King!"

Mark smiled as he picked up the pace, "As you wish, my Queen!"

As Annabelle started to climax, her pussy tightened around Mark's cock and within a couple more thrusts, he was soon injecting his white hot cum directly into her womb. With Cricket's monitoring of both of their thoughts, the medibots did not neutralize the sperm that Mark was ejaculating, nor were Annabelle's neutralizing the sperm entering her womb, it was now up to Mother Nature.

Just then Rayven walked into the office and saw them still behind Mark's desk. As she came around to join them, she saw Mark was still fully sheathed inside Annabelle, she pulled them apart and quickly licked Mark's cock clean, then turned her attention to the cum that was about to drip out of Annabelle's pussy.

Just then Mark was notified of an incoming call.

The girls quickly vacated the desk and they resumed their cunnilingus with Annabelle seated on her throne. That was a recent addition after the wedding, she now had her own throne beside his, they were identical in design, Annabelle's throne was on the right side, just like at the wedding.

As soon as the girls were out of the view, Mark quickly glanced at the Atlanterra clock on the wall as he answered the call from General Marsbe.

"Good morning Kaleb, you're up awfully early," Mark said.

"My King, you're certainly keeping things interesting! I go to sleep and am dreaming of peaceful things and I wake up, we're at war with a new enemy, we're now helping our previous enemy and Orbital Hubs are now Guardians! You just can't sit still can you?"

Mark laughed, "Like I said, I'd hate for you to die of boredom!"

Kaleb also laughed, "There's no chance of that with you around, that's for sure! So, is there anything you need from me at this point in time?"

Mark said, "Nope, I don't think so. Have you had a chance to look at the changes I am making to the Guardians and the Sentinels?"

"I didn't look at the Sentinel changes that much, they look almost the same as it was before. I did look at the Guardians though, I like them. What was your original thinking of why you didn't build them that way before?"

"In all honesty, I was thinking that it would be nice to have an entire training class whisked off and thrown into the fray of a conflict. You can't beat the experience gained from a real situation, not something that's staged. Then today I realized, yes we train them basic fighting and combat tactics, but it's just a part time job for them, now that we're trying to keep the security forces local to their planets. If they want to get the elite training, maybe we should have some super elite training program to take the best of the best to the next level?

Then, since the Sentinels are so formidable on their own without any human intervention, I figured we should just leave them autonomous and we can move them around however we need without impacting anyone's training or rotation schedules, but by having personnel, drones, fighters and Destroyers on a Guardian. The planet is always protected and, most of the time, there will still be a Sentinel nearby."

The General nodded his head, "Actually I can see why you originally went that way, like you, I do think this makes better use of the Sentinel's capabilities, plus if there's any issues with passengers or prisoners at the spaceport, there's lot of security nearby. We can work real security into their training regiment, we'll just have them supervised."

Then Kaleb asked, "Is there any other ships you are thinking of making soon that we'll need to staff?"

Mark then had a thought, but said, "Nope, no other ships that I can think of, well I was thinking of one, but I just decided against it, I have a better idea."

Kaleb laughed, "It's fun to watch you think up shit on the fly like this. Want to tell me what it is?"

Mark laughed, "Sure! Solara created this little camping kit that Annabelle and I took for a test drive and it absolutely revolutionizes camping!"

Kaleb said, "So how does this camping kit work?"

Mark explained, "Her camping kit is just a tool case full of different coloured disk-shaped construx, each disk is a different type of building and then you just point the arrow on the disk toward the centre of camp and push the button, it then creates a building for you and builds a path in the direction of the arrow towards a central building. The nice thing, is when you want to pack up camp, you go to the central case and issue the command to pack up the camp, then just walk around and pick up the disks and put them in the case. They're re-usable construx and you get to camp with real beds in solid buildings, with kitchens, washrooms and a fire pit!"

Kaleb raised his eyes, "That is revolutionary! I like to get out camping every now and then, I'd like to try it sometime. So how does this camping kit work into your idea?"

"I'm thinking of creating emergency camps, we'd have disks for meal pavilions, residences, medical facilities, and maybe a central command building and who knows what else might be required. Obviously much bigger than what's in the camping kit, but still portable. So that way if a disaster breaks out anywhere, a rescuvac or maybe some sort of supply ship can show up with the kit and quickly resurrect a small town to help with the disaster relief. Then once it's not needed anymore, the ship issues the command and all the buildings return to disks and get packed away."

"That sounds like another winner! You're very innovative, I like having you as the King! I need to get going though, I saw your message and just wanted to let you know that I got it."

"Thanks Kaleb, talk to you soon!" Mark said as he ended the call.

Rayven and Annabelle had collected themselves and had been listening to the call from the couches.

Annabelle said, "I like the emergency camp idea, I take it we're going to go talk to Solara about it now?"

Mark said, "Yeah I should probably let her know what I'm thinking, she'll make changes of course, but whatever she comes up with likely be better than what I think up anyway."

They left Mark's office and went downstairs to the common room, then went over to knock on Solara's door, but just as they were about to ring the door (that's what happens when you put your hand on the dot and it's not your room), when the door opened and Solara said, "Come in!"

Solara was sitting at her desk, with her back to them, "Emergency Camps, huh?"

Annabelle said aloud, "Way to spoil the surprise Cricket, you suck at keeping secrets."

Cricket popped into a hologram projector similar to the oracle systems in the museum, "What can I say? These are a great idea and I just had to tell her! Us techies gotta stick together!"

As everyone laughed, Mark just smiled at the thought that the two smartest people he knew were still working together to develop new technologies.

Mark said, "Since miss blabbermouth here told you everything, do you have any ideas or questions?"

Solara said, "Yes, depending on the number of people involved in the relief effort, it may require a significant amount of extra matter to create food and clothing for everyone. Matter will be collected as they defecate and items go into the recycling system, but a larger ship could also carry a stockpile of extra matter to get the camp up and running faster.

Water is never an issue as it can be extracted out of the atmosphere rather than using stock matter, but the more stuff we can build directly into a ship, the less matter we need to use to construct the camp. It saves a lot of time and matter if we don't need to build medibeds, kitchens, food synths, clothing synths, etc."

Mark said, "So, maybe the ship should be the camp centre and it's more or less just shelters that are constructed? But if things like the medibeds are built into the ship, we will have a limited number of them. I guess we could always supplement by calling in medivacs or another camp ship?"

Annabelle then said, "Maybe the ship just has 6 or 10 medibeds, staff quarters, the command centre, the kitchen, a supply depot and maybe a washroom or shower facility?"

Solara suggested, "Maybe just showers. The washrooms are pretty basic and easy to build right into the residences. As for the supply depot... what types of stuff should we be supplying?"

Mark said, "I think just clothing, I don't want clothing synths in the residences. I'd like the matter use more controlled."

Solara then said, "A cargo sized ship similar to the Pegasus could function like central command. The cargo hold becomes the medical centre, the quarters remain in the central corridor, we could just add more of them as we wouldn't need the kitchen area. Then the sides of the ship could swing up and provide a roof for the kitchen, the shower facility, and the command centre and we could just build the walls, prep and serving counters, etc. All the technology aspects would be part of the ship, which saves a lot of matter and a lot of construction time."

Mark said, "I like it! Another option, since quarters are easy to construct, is we could add more medibeds and remove the quarters and just build staff quarters directly off the ship."

Solara said, "Actually that would save a lot of space, plus it'd be more comfortable."

Cricket then said, "How about this?"

She popped up a hologram of a ship that was about 30 metres long, 9 metres wide and 5 metres tall. It looked pretty slick with the smooth blue exterior and the slightly angled sides that made the ship wider at the bottom. The ship had low profile landing struts to level the ship on uneven ground and it put the floor of the ship about a half metre off the ground.

The interior looked like it had twenty medibeds like the one's at Cleito's Temple, each in it's own room that was about 3 metres deep and 2 metres wide, with the medical desk towards the front, blocking off access to the cockpit, with doors on each side of the desk that exited the ship.

She then animated the hologram, showing the two sides of the ship swinging up from the base, creating an angled roof that actually angled towards the ship rather than away so any rainwater could be captured, cleaned and recycled rather than extracting it from the atmosphere and it also formed a landing zone that would fit two shuttles with a big white number on it.

The left side of the ship had an exposed kitchen as the floor, walls, and then prep counters with sinks formed, complete with concession windows on the side and back. The right side of the ship had a wall with rear one-third forming a shower facility, then the forward two-thirds forming the command centre, with tables and chairs in the corners and a large round table, similar to the display table in the control tower of the port terminal in the very centre. The entrance to the command centre and the medical centre would be close to each other.

Then off to the other side of the front of the ship, and enclosing the cockpit, was a row of residences for the staff, which also conveniently formed a border for the camp and protection from the wind for the kitchen and eating area. Behind the medical desk was the control panel for the camp and also a variety of disks for the residences, some fire disks and several stabilizer disks for transporting the wounded.