Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Vol. 02

Even though the Elly was quite alien, I was certain he was angry as well." Elly ships are neither rusty nor primitive."

Two-Three held up his hands. "Calm down friends. Eric certainly isn't like that. I have heard of the Purists but they are a fringe group and quite illegal to be in the fleet."

Fectiv growled back at Pure. "The Non-Corp is right. We had even a class on that and he is the first one ever to act that way."

I sighed. "I am not sure what to do about it! I don't like to rat someone out, but the day before yesterday we all swore the Academy oath and I take oaths and such things very serious!"

Potsema asked. "I have no idea what is going on, but I am on Eric's side."

Ninio said." No one questions Eric, Potsi, he's fnartkty."

A man in black uniform we had not seen before called our attention and said."I am Chief Petty Officer Luke Ashby and since you are in a military limbo regarding your ranks you can call me Luke or Chief. I am here to take you on a little tour of the Shetland. She is has the honor to be the flag ship, despite the fact that everyone thinks it is the Devastator."

He hereded us through an armored sliding door while he kept talking. "The USS Shetland is the first of the Vision Class Dreadnought but officially designated as Arsenal Ship, Meaning this lady is packed with the almst every weapon system our combined cultures came up with and the first class using Attikan Engines." He pointed with his flat hand towards Pure and Fectiv. "I see there are Attikan Cadets. Any chance one of you is an Engineer or plans to be one?"

Pure stepped forward. "I am of the Jilkari Planes Pack and we are all engineers. I am expected by my pack to become an engineer in the Fleet."

"Excellent! I am sure you will be able to exchange a few words with our Chief Engineer then who is an Attikan too."

He asked us to follow him and for the next five hours we went through the enormous ship and saw engineering and sick bay, Fighter decks, and Auxiliary Craft Hangars and Science labs. After a lunch break we saw more of the ship.

While each department was of great interest to me and I regarded the tour as perhaps the best day of my life so far, I still hoped we would see the bridge, but we did not and the Chief told us that the Captain did not want half civilians on her bridge as she put it.

The Translocator turrets were impressive and we came just right to see a deployment drill. Robotic arms and conveyor systems fed the pre-fire chambers of the TL cannons with bomb casings. Gunnery crews both robots and living beings wiped the bombs with white rags, they pulled out of dispensers in a breakneck speed. While the smaller TL Cannons were fully automated the big ones were loaded manually and the chief gunner wrote a name of the shell. On this triple cannon turret it was a Pertharian. He only wore a white undershirt and black pants, like all the men in his crew.

He explained to us after the drill. "The Translocator cannons are both the oldest and the most advanced weapon system in our arsenals. It is the product of an ancient but highly advanced tech level eleven society. Yet we use them now for over fivehundred years, and Union engineers have taken this alien concept and made many improvements to ammunition, loading technique and energy distribution."

He padded a light blue metallic cylinder of about two by one meter. "Whenever there is a high ranking admiral aboard, our captain likes to run a fire drill. This is a Giga Load Anti Matter Fusion Bomb. The Casing is blue to indicate a test or dummy bomb. You don't want to handle Anti Matter even in as save as possible conditions if you don't have to."

Two of his men, a human and a tall Andorian came and wiped the casing with rags while it rotated on its axis. "It looks antiquated but is absolutely necessary. These special rags are antistatic and remove any possible loose metal particles from the casing. This task is usually done by robots and machines, especially at small load Translocator Gatlings, but with these big babies it is done as a second control by hand. Now I tell you why!"

The scenery changed! Alert sirens blared and a voice thundered:" Battle stations all hands battle stations!"

Men started running through auto dressers emerging in full combat armor. Others went to the bomb elevators and cannon controls. Through all this, the gunnery chief and our guide remained relaxed and calm, and said to us. "Just remain where you are!"

A speaker voice thundered." Giga Loads authorized! Prepare Salvo!"

A red case came up the conveyor and the two gunners did not wipe it and it was shoved into the cannon breech, the thing closed and an explosion in slow motion proved that it all was just a Holo recording. "One in a million chances that a static charge or a metallic interaction interrupts the magnetic containment of the antimatter, a slight unbalance and the stuff touches positive matter and..." He pantomimed an explosion which was quite impressive given that he had four arms to do that. " Force fields can contain a small explosion to some degree and special force field generators are on standby at each cannon big or small but having one of these ignite before beamed off, is not a good idea. Since the introduction of the translocator technology onehundred fourty one ships were lost to this. We haven't lost a single one in the last fifty years and we like to keep it that way. The last control is done by living beings. Takes an extra moment, yes but when they start fighting with these big boys, they usually don't need more than one per enemy ship."

INTERLUDE 20: ELAY'S LAST STAND

Nine Nogoll trans light boats made it disguised as Yokuta ships back to Arlicherb. Even thought there were Union ships in the area, they did not know how to differentiate between the primitive Yokuta ship signatures and the Nogoll boats simulating them. You did not rule over a planet and its civilization for three centuries without learning a few things about the local culture. Ealy had almost a hundred battle trained and revenge hungry Nogoll Billie warriors with him, armed to the teeth with Kermac Line blasters, explosives and enough anti matter charges to cause serious damage to landed Union ships.

The Nogoll gathered in an old abandoned Mountain base, that actually had been a military base of the Yokuta from the time before the Nogoll invasion when the Yokuta had fought had fought among themselves. Under Nogoll rule, they did not need any military of their own, as the Nogoll prohibited the Yokuta to be armed or train in any sort of combat. Ealy remembered the mountain base as he had followed sixty Yokuta rebels, only a few years back and had them all executed of course for being rebels."

The base was master fully disguised between rocks and boulders and inside the mountain itself. Undetectable by visual means and thanks to rich magnetized ores and minerals impossible to detect with scanners.

He was not sure how good Union Scanners were, but even if they were much better, who would look for Nogoll on this world now?

He had supplies for about ten month if they rationed it carefully. Eating emergency rations for ten month was not something anyone looked forward too, but then no one had big illusions to live even that long.

This mountain base was supplied with electric power by a water turbine and there was little danger to run it, the whole world was using similar primitive power sources and one more would not make any difference.

Now was the time to decide what to do. The longer they stayed the greater the chance they would be discovered and none of them wanted to experience a Union marine assault on the mountain base. He was almost certain the Yokuta would file for Union Membership anyway. The lean brothers of the Elly were not stupid and frankly the Union would offer them tremendous benefits without asking much in return.

Cust, his second in command was in his herd for over twenty years and a dear friend. Cust, also had settled on Arlicherb, had several Nannies, kids and a nice estate with hundred Yokuta servants keeping his estate in good repair while he was in space, pulled on his coarse chin beard as he always did when he was thinking. "We need intelligence as to find out what is planned and where the Union ships are."

"I am listening to local radio broadcasting. We don't have any of the Yokuta 2D screens for their visual media." An Engineering Billie said sitting before an antique Yokuta receiver." They are expecting the Union Flagship and some very high Union Guests veryb shortly. There are festivities planned and the execution of twenty captured Nogoll and fourty five Yokuta collaborators."

Someone cursed." Whatever we plan, there is no way we are going to fool Stahl! The Devastator is indestructible, at least with what we got along and with her comes the entire first fleet, and many thousands of marines."

The Engineer laughed. "It's not Stahl. It is the Admiral of the Fleet and the newest Union Battle ship."

Cust smashed his hairy three fingered fist on the table before him. "They are not going to overdo it with security, so not to scare the Yokuta. I bet they asked the Admiral to bring along a bunch of kids. This is our best and only chance for revenge! We kill the Admiral, his delegation and every Yokuta Elder."

"No we must capture the Admiral and use him as a hostage to get access to that new ship. I am sure it is loaded with Translocator Cannons! The Kermac will welcome us with open arms!" A Weapons Officer said.

"The Kermac have sold us out!" Ealy cursed." If we ever got to Kermac then with blazing cannons! We lost home and families because of it. We are homeless Nogoll following the last commando of our First Billie to certain doom! Die we must that is certain, let our deaths be meaningful and with as much impact as we can inflict."

All the way in the back of the conference center were two Nogoll billies, not officers but chosen because of their strength and fighting abilities. The rest of the crew had remained in the two capital ships now hiding on a moon in an unpopulated neighbor system.

Uley and Harel would rather have stayed with the rest and once the commander and his fatalistic officers met their fate, surrender to Union forces and be home on 'The Nog' in a few weeks. Of course neither one of them wanted to openly say so. Ealy would have no qualms executing them for treason or cowardice. Ever since the war had started the commander led them from one catastrophe to the other and now he was on a suicide mission. The way they talked there was not even a chance of survival. They wanted to die! Yes it was all bad and horrible what the Union did to them, but neither Uley nor Harel had big estates or large Nannie herds, but Uley did have family on The Nog. He whispered to Harel: "It's easy for him to order us on a suicide mission, I wager my right horn he is going to remain behind to plan further actions and perhaps even return to the ship, before the attack is made!"

"You don't have to wager your horns. I am sure he will announce to go back to the ship anytime soon, while he leaves some of us behind."

"What do you think is better? Dying for sure as a hero no one will remember or dying trying to get home?"

"Just be careful. He has the Nunthu glow in his eyes, he's not on the side of the sane anymore, but the other officers and some of others are fanatics and they will do what he asks and kill anyone who is a coward."

The Nogoll prepared the costumes and bio flex masks, to make them look like locals and four of them were send ahead to reconnoiter. Harel was picked as a volunteer and he chose Uley as his partner

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Chapter 19b: Arlicherb, planet

The rest of the journey was quite uneventful; we slept in actual crew quarters, two cadets to a cabin. I shard mine with Two Three. I had almost forgotten about Bennett Waite and my dilemma. Should I report him? Every morning we repeated that oath and pledge not to tolerate intolerance to other sentient beings. On the other hand I never liked tattle tails. The ship so we were told already approached the Arlicherb system and we were assembled in a conference room and the Instructors kept telling us what an honor it was to be addressed by the Admiral of the Fleet and even be on the same ship.

It didn't take long and McElligott arrived and gave us our final briefing. Basically the orders were to stay together, act friendly to the natives and answer questions put to us about the Union in a preferably positive way.

Waite muttered something about the stinking natives that should be bombed and forced to do whatever humans demanded them to do.

To him I said in the sharpest tone i could muster. "I warn you fair and square, the next time you open your mouth or utter any deprecatory remarks against anyone, I will report you. I made up my mind! My oath is more important!"

"You would not rat out a fellow human! Not even you could be that low!"

"Don't test me! I will do what I said!"

"You could always die in an accident!" He hissed.

"I am not afraid of you and the first time we have some time off duty I am going to show you exactly what I think about assholes and bigots."

From the briefing room we had a view port view of our approach and the landing procedures. Arlicherb was a beautiful world with lots of blues and greens and the sprinkling of clouds. It had oceans and large continents.

According to the information we had received, almost six billion Yokuta populated the world and had several big metropoles. Even though it was considered primitive since the Yokuta only reached TL3 it was still a highly industrialized world and far busier than Nilfeheim. The Nogoll had kept the locals under strict control and promoted industrial and agricultural growth, while much of the planets resources and products were drained by the Goats, the locals had a strong economy. Even though they had some sort of Elder based government, unlike on Nilfeheim, here the young were heard and had a voice.

The Shetland touched down at the planets main Space port. Yokuta ships and Nogoll freighters looked like toys compared to the Union Battle ship.

The Admiral himself inspected out uniforms and state of dress and then we followed a delegation of business men, a delegation of Assembly representatives and a detachment of marines.

The first thing I noticed was a strange smell in the air. Pure coughed and said." The first thing we need to teach them is how to run a cleaner industry."

At the bottom of the wide ramp was a Yokuta band playing the Union anthem and several officials in colorful uniforms greeting the Admiral first.

Pure curled his chops. "I never thought my first official mission will be so soon and then a diplomatic one of all things! I hoped for something more exciting!"

I grinned back. "Could be worse. We could be in a big pool swimming with the others!"

Ninio behind me trumpeted in my ear. "I am no expert on Academy procedures but I bet the others didn't have a leisurely day at the pool and they found a way to make them wish they were with us. We had a good night's rest and we will get a lot of good Yokuta food!

Fectiv groaned." If you find it good, I am afraid already!"

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Interlude 21: Planet Odin

GalNet Entry: Saturnian

>>> Genetic altered humans. Previously Corporate owned Clone slaves. Now recognized sub species and own race.

After Earth ascended with the help of the Saran and before Earth became Terra and a founding member of the Unites Stars of the Galaxy (Union), there was a time of fast and virtually unchecked scientific and technological advances. Even before the Ascent, Earth scientists made vast progress in Bionetic sciences and Mega Corporations put great sums of money and enormous efforts into Bionetic and genetic research. Virtually every possible life-form both native to Earth and alien with compatible DNA were crossed, linked, tweaked and genetically altered to create new life forms for all kinds of purposes.

It started with the Canadians introducing an Organ Donor Swine. Hogs and later great apes were altered to grow human compatible organs that could be transplanted.

Almost every settler and colonist group that left Earth to migrate to other world received some form of Genetic tailoring to make them better suitable to their new environments. The Mega Corporations also tried to develop the most perfect soldier, worker and slave.

During the years between 2099-2110 new artificial creates life-forms, ranging from special bacteria, over new fruits and vegetables to new breeds of draft animals and meat producing animals were patented almost daily and literally millions of Patents were issued to corporations for life forms and new gene combinations. While moral and ethical restrictions hampered them before there was no law or moral boundary that restricted research during that time. It produced many successes but also horrible failures and catastrophes.

It lead to the Corporate Bio Wars of 2111 to 2114 that escalated into the Bio-Robotnik™ Miner revolt of Rasmussen Planet in 2115 and escalated into the all out Super Clone Wars of 2116 that lasted until 2121 with the Gene Clone Attack on Antarctica and the bombing of the Terran Assembly.

The Clone Wars ended in 2122 with the declaration that all Genetic altering and experimentation with sentient life forms had to undergo the strictest government controls.

Anyone including corporation caught in disregarding these laws and continuing any sort of strict supervised genetic tailoring was to be be destroyed, with everyone of the management to be responsible facing ceetain death sentences.

The same laws and concessions of the United Earth government gave all Gene Clones the right to freedom and self control and to be fully accepted part of the human race with all rights every sentient being was entitled too.

Schwartz Bio Engineering officially did not participate in the Clone or Corporate Wars, but had to release all their Gene Clone products. Among the most extreme were the Alpha-War Workers™, designed to withstand the most extreme environmental conditions and be able to fight and work under crushing gravitation. In one Commercial the AWW's were praised as a worker that could even work on Saturn if it had a solid surface and an atmosphere to breathe. The AWW's got the nickname Saturnians. The average Saturnian stood 320 cm and was almost 150 cm wide, with a tough carbon nano tube laced double skeleton, thick carbon nano mesh skin and super dense muscle structure. The average Saturnian could lift up to 2500 kilos under one standard gee, stay submerged under water for up to 4 hours and work in depths that would crush a normal human. This enormous strength and size had a price and they lost much of their fine motoric abilities and no Saturnian can manipulate objects smaller than 3 cm, without cybernetic or mechanical assistance. Saturnians completely lack body hair and, must have artificially implant eye lashes to prevent small particles enter their eyes.

Saturnians settled on the large planet Odin with a high natural gravitation of nine gee. They joined the Union in 2210. While Saturnians are able to reproduce, extensive pre- and postnatal cyber technical assistance such as the bone structure weaving has to be done artificially, Such services are provided at anu Union clinic.

Today there are approximately thirty four Billion Saturnians and most can be found either in the United Stars Marine Corps or in the security field. Saturnian Body guards are among the highest paid, especially if they are graduates of the Saturnian Fight and Security Academy. The entire Culture is focused on security and guard duties and is strongly Germanic and duty oriented. Saturnians enjoy extreme sports such as Ultra Wrestling and Beyond Limits Strongman competitions. The Annual Saturnian Strongmen Festivities are among the most watched sporting events in the Union.<<<