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A young man heads towards his desk. He doesn’t seem so concerned about the buzz of activity that surrounds him, the sound that usually comes along with an important position, the sound of telephones, the people going from one room to another, the clicks of computer acceptance of a new instruction or for the display of information, the uniformed people that keep a quiet watch over him and his estate and most of all, he seems not to observe the weapons they are carrying, weapons that would make any other feel a bit uncomfortable, but he is only concerned about the numbers and the information in front of him and the man has a name, Ryo Kase.

The Minister of Research and Development of the Republic of Crayter is looking into rebuilding the Tau 44 system, a system that was until recently in the hands of the Royalist Forces from Kingdome of Gallia. Playing around with the maps and the projects he is concerned about the materials and the effort investment.

“If only we would not be at war … “ he mutters and goes back on reading about the distribution of materials and to cross reference the needs of the Republic. Mindfully, he is playing with his stylus and reaching a decision he press a small red button near him “Miss Mina, can you please contact Aeryn and tell him to get to me ASAP. Thank you, oh and please be a darling and bring me a tea please.” Smiling, he returns to study some maps of Baja.

A few hours later, a tall brunette guy is rushing through the corridors, passing through checkpoints like a storm. He reaches his door and he stops for a few seconds to catch his breath and he press the small buzzer and a click lets him know that he can enter.

With determined look he greets Ryo “ Sir, good evening. A bit strange of you to call me at this time. As you know, I was getting ready to depart for the Tellurian Region on Pecos. We are looking to expand the complex there…”
Ryo looks at him and with a cynical smile “ I know that, I read the papers. Especially since I actually sign them. But have a sit, we need to discuss.” He watches Aeryn taking a sit and he continues “ I received the Trimester report from Supplies. Finally, I do not know who you put in charge but they are doing their job now. Let’s start. So , for Yuma, the ISE hauled enough supplies to keep the civilian population happy for quite a while, and also Yuma Ocean Farming and Co-Operative reports that the products are enough to feed the current population and also to export a part. I ordered them to create some stasis storage rooms to supplement the current deposits. Also, ordered them to create some better field rations for our troops. Good” he waits a little for Aeryn to catch up. “ Felix Manufacturing is at the moment running at high capacity to provide for our development needs. They are creating everything we need for our operations, civilian and military.”

A little pause is observed as Ryo looks for a different data pad.” Now project Scattered Ore. Very interesting. I can see that the IMG delivered the goods we required however I just went over the Quartermaster list and it hit me. You see, we developed a plan based on static bases in either high or low orbit above the moons. The 53rd came up with this and it is right from their point of view, however I must put in balance our current war and that would made our stations defenseless.”

Aeryn looks up from his pad “ But sir, why should we go against the 53rd advise? They are after all among the brightest minds we have.”

“Yes, but this doesn’t mean they are the only one. Look, is simple, we make those bases we need to protect them. Our Fleet is currently deployed to fight this war and to protect our current assets. Pure and simple, we cannot afford to dispatch a battlegroup to protect some miners. Speaking about this and following their recommendations, I had an idea while I was checking the ships that are to be dismantled. We currently have 8 Celestra class vessels designed to be dismantled and another 27 needing extensive repairs.*chuckles* Those are used by Ares Logistics, the Gauls did a number on them. “

Aeryn looks concerned “ Yes the battles are taking their tolls and the Ares guys are the ones going in and supply our boys on the frontlines.” Ryo approves “Indeed, but the 53rd guys doesn’t see those numbers. Anyway, focus, we were talking about those Celestra’s. I am thinking to retrofit those 8 Celestra to act as Command and Control Centre for the Drones, working on shift basis. As for the 27 ships to be redefined as nothing more then walking silos where the drones deposit their cargo and go back for mining. I think we can take 5 or 6 more ships from ISE and design them to hold Drones for transport to site. “

“Indeed sir, that seems like a good idea. However the costs to retrofit those ships… “
“ Would be lesser then the cost to replace the static bases and the drones.”
“ Makes sense in the long run”
“ Plus what do we need? We just need for the Command Centres to have the cargo holds retrofitted with computers and all the equipment that an operation like this needs. Install decks to replace the cargo holds. We need only metal and equipment as the mainframe is there. For the Silo-Celestra, we do the opposite, we just going to make the cargo holds bigger and make an external opening for the drone to be able to enter from space. In essence a pressurized zone and a depressurized one. As for the Storage ones we just need some racks to store them. I am thinking of a large cargo hold with mechanical arms where the drones are stored. “

Aeryn looks a little surprised by the simplicity of the plan “ But sir, that is genius. It means that we are mobile in essence. Only assets to be lost are the drones,but they are expendable. We can have picket …” Ryo takes over the idea “ Yes, picket ships in the area, we can ask CIS to divert some of their scanning to our Command Centre and we can have our ships out of there in no time. “

Aeryn seems a bit lost as already in his head he sees the way things will be “ Yes sir, it can be done. It sure can be done. As for crews, we can use some CMI personnel and the newly graduates of ARA. “

“ Now you get it”
“ Yes sir. That is simple and efficient. Reminds me of the time of Pirates in the Crayter Sector. Take what we can, as fast as we can.”
“Right. So for this , we need to contact Hephaestus, Felix, CMI , ARA, 53rd and the CDI. Not forget ISE and Ares.”
“Will go right on to it sir. “

“Good, now Yuma and Tellus . Right. *cough* Yuma. We need to try and build coastal colonies. We need to tame the continents but not to destroy them. I still think that our coffers can benefit from the Jungle. So, I am approving Project Venus for that part and also Project Diana for the construction of more artificial islands. For Venus, I think is more suitable to build cliff side and try to create cavern cities and installations. ‘Diana’ must build a total of 15 new islands, using the nano technology we develop. Ok, now that we done, we must go for Tellus. Pilos and Baresa needs to finish the transformation into military production lines ASAP. We need to have by the end of the year the capacity to export arms, not only for us. The Iron Cave must be also enlarged. At the moment it hosts approximately 50 thousand civilians. I want it to hold most of the civilian population of Pecos in case we need more room in our Complexes.”

“ Yes Sir. I will contact Hephaestus to enlarge the caves and Felix to finish the production lines. At the moment the conversion is at 58%. We are almost finishing moving the production lines to Yuma for most of our Civilian Production. The Republic will have those production lines working by the end of the Year, by the Gods.”

“Now Tau 44. I have been there and the situation is grim. The Colonies of Borneo were left unattended by the Gauls. 80% of the settlements are in ruin. I initiated the Project Gemini to give us back 2 Colonies and the goods has been delivered. The costs are huge until now, around 550 million credits. Huge amount. If the planetary situation is bad, the orbital one is even worse. Minato has been damaged, Sarawak is dead, our Asteroid Miners are destroyed, the only good piece of news is that Sulawesi is mostly un-damaged. “

“ Yes sir. I can concur that the materials are there, spent some time there after the conquest. I checked the material list a few hours before I came here and it seems the materials are all there. Ares has moved the engineers and the droids we needs. We can continue. “

“Very good. Did you enjoyed Tau 44?”
“Is beautiful but you need to remember that I was not born there but on the Gran Canaria Enclave. Mostly similar but …”

“ But you will love it, as from this moment I am naming you Governor of Tau 44. “

“Ahh, sorry sir ?” Aeryn seems baffled. “ Me, a Governor? “

“Yes, you are a Secretary. If you can deal with politicians and you live to tell the story, you can govern and manage the reconstruction of Tau 44. “

“Thank you sir. I will not let you down.”

“ I know you will not. But here is the list of what I want you to do: Reclaim Borneo. Repair Minato. Bring us back Sarawak and finally, we need to put our CMI back at work. Also inspect the Singapore Cloud. We need to begin operations there for our fuel. Bring back old archives if not, try to secure a deal with GMG. “

“Yes sir. But when do I start?”

“Your transport from Ares leaves in 6 hours. Going there with 1000 engineers. Good luck.”

“Thank you sir.”

Aeryn turns slowly, still baffled and he walks towards the door, his mind full with all kind of thoughts and ideas and he slowly turns towards Ryo “Are you sure sir that you want me to command there? “

“Yes!” Ryo smile “ Now go and let me worry about Coronado. I have big plans.”

“Yes sir! “ replies the young man and he departs. Ryo looks after him and mutters “We have a lot of work to do, laddie , a lot of work. And I need to not worry about Tau 44. And I have my big issue here to manage also” he says and he continues to check the map about Baja and terraforming reports.

A few days has passed from the meeting on Yuma and Aeryn was contemplating his future “I am now a Governor! I keep in my hands the future of the Republic. What a chance” he was thinking and the small transport he was in quickly traversed through Tau 23 fields. “It works faster when the pilots used to fly in this field everyday”

“Enemy patrol spotted! Bearings, 112 by 99 by 09.“ came the shouted warning through the comm “Passengers, hold tight. We will do some maneuvers that will make even the race pilots on Dublin envy us” the captain said as he increased his ship. Aeryn was forced to buckle in and wait for it.

He kept looking through his small window port and he could see only asteroids but he knew they can always hide a danger, and didn’t even managed to finish his thought and he saw the ship quickly changing direction and the rocks passing him faster “We had accelerated” he thought.

Minutes passed and he could sense some gravitational problems “We are near the Tau 44 jump hole. The eddies are pretty strong. We do not have time to decrease our speed.” Captain said and he could be heard continuing over the comm “Recalculate the Vectors and adjust. Make sure to take into consideration the speed and also the ship integrity. Prepare to drop out on inertia mode and launch a probe through the Hole. Ship to follow 7 seconds later. Not earlier or we will be blasted by Sulawesi.”

Sulawesi Citadel, the station that escaped the war mostly untouched and the one that kept watch over Tau 23 jump hole. Whoever would have enter the system would meet the weapons of the station plus of the CAP that now has been enforced by a large detachment of CIS units and the Battlegroup Atlantis, Aeryn though, my assets now.
The ship entered the hole and soon he could see the wormhole corridor and he remembered that nature is a force to be reckoned and his thoughts went to the Stories of Crayter “What if.. ?”

He couldn’t finish his thought as he was already in Tau 44 and he saw Nyx taking position near the ship “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Tau 44. Please be aware that this is still a contested territory and Gallic incursions still happen. The system is now under military rule until the new governor is arriving.” Aeryn chuckled a little and he smiled, “The Governor is here” he thought.

He watch the ship passing near Sulawesi and continuing through the asteroid field and then a new sight was in front of them. Borneo. His place is there.


“Ladies and gentlemen, passengers on the Ares Logistic ship Phoebe, welcome to Minato Station. We will proceed the docking procedures immediately. Please be aware that parts of the stations are still open to space. “

“Well , here we go“ Aeryn thought as he took his travel bag from the checkpoint and continue to embark one of the shuttles which will descend on to Borneo.

Few hours later, a shuttle descended from the skies and headed to one of the few tropical islands that the planet’s tropical islands “We are now approaching Gemini Colony. Temperature is 33 degrees and the time is 14:20 BST. Please make sure you are staying in within the Colony as our Forces will try to establish security lines back to the way it where. Thank you for using the shuttle service of ILL”

Aeryn looked over the window and he saw the architecture that was strongly influenced by Crayter and also he noted the strong ancient greek designed of the buildings and he remembered that Gemini Island was designed to be the Capital of Borneo. “Amazing. Just amazing. Where in Sirius would you find this?”

The ship took a long turn and the harbour of the Colony could be seen, guarded by two huge statues depicting two Ancient Greek Soldiers, standing an attention , a sign that the City is guarded.


The ship plotted a course toward the Local Spaceport, an improvisation now as the main station had been neglected by the Gauls and flown in between the statues “For those we left behind” Aeryn said softly, wishing that he would be having the planet fully colonized already. The shuttle slowly touched down and they prepared to disembark.

A Cheetah was near the landing pad and a driver which looked familiar was searching the group.

“Marino, is that you? How you got here?“ Aeryn said recognising his old friend from the times of the Exodus “Well, I was assigned with the Hephaestos and then moved to the new Governor and then I read your name. Would be good to work with you!”

“You are my PA?”

“Yes, what you expected , a cute Kusarian?"

“Heh, one can hope, isn’t it?”

Exchanging friendly words they approached the vehicle and continue to drive toward the Manitoa Settlement and Aeryn could see that there was some work to be done, not a lot but still, years of neglect took it’s toll.

“Well, and then I just went to the bar and I had a pint and guess what?“ Marino asked “She came and gave me her interlink ID. How lucky can I be?”

“So you seeing her?“

“Yeah, maybe you will be invited as the Godfather” Marino continued as he parked his car near a building which imitate the Pantheon “Welcome home. The House Guard is already in place. Your dormitory is in the left wing and your private work room there also. In the centre you are having the ceremonial room and in the right wing you have most of the administrative apparatus and the chief engineers for the projects. Since now time had passed, I guess is only you and the Guards. “

“Ok, see you tomorrow Marino, and remember, be smart … don’t get yourself knocked out”

“I will, don’t worry” Marino laughed and he depart the building.

Aeryn saluted the Guards as he was passing them and he was making his way towards his rooms.”Tomorrow is better to start” he said to himself.

After a frugal dinner and a sonic shower, his mind refused to rest and he headed towards the work room and opened the computers and the pads. He just reminded that he still is having his side arm and carefully, placed it near him. “We are still a warzone” he reminded himself and he started to read through the reports late in the night


The morning found Aeryn in his bedroom and he again needed a few minutes to realise where he is “Gemini Colony, Borneo, Tau 44.” The holographic clock showed 01:40 BST “Damn I overslept” and he rushed to have a bath and get ready.


As he was headed towards his desk in the right wing he took the small comm and contacted Marino “Can I please have the Engineers in charge of Minato and Borneo report to me?“

“Yes sir and good morning! The coffee is waiting for you in the office and you have the morning news and reports on your desk. Please remember that at 17:00 we have a schedule inspection over the Orion.”

“Understood! And thank you Marino for not waking me up. Had problem falling asleep.”

“I understand sir. Is just the adjustment period from Yuma to Borneo”

“Yes. Adjustment” Aeryn mumbled and he entered his office and took a sit behind the desk. Sipping from his cup of coffee he started to read the reports “Good coffee. Almost makes it as a reward for wearing this side gun” he though and he waited the arrival of the Minato Chief Engineer.

Aeryn lifted his eyes from the data pad and salutes. "Do we go to war, that you need to have 2 sidearms?" he smiled "Nevermind"

"I am Aeryn Condor and until recently I was the State Secretary of our Republic. I must say that is a honor to be here, in the system that we call home. But our system was desecrated and now we must work for it."

He picked up a data pad and started to read "You are from Minato project, isn't it? I have a list of repairs that needs to be done." he gives a pad to Adrian
"As you can see the list is pretty long but I am assured that Hephaestus crews and you are up to the task. An assessment was done also for the materials and now they are stocked on Hortium Settlement, here on Gemini."

"The investment in this project is already stunning and around 300 million credits has been used to get them. The DSM was not that cheap. Now, the taxpayers wants to see that they are used. Do you have the revised timetable and extra costs? Oh.. Ares is going to ship to here around 4000 more Construction Drones. You think that will suffice?"

Aeryn was listening to him and started to do some calculations with his budget

"As much as I like to afford all the extra spending we need, is tough. For this Quarter we are already been allocated this amount and the goods had been delivered. Now, about the materials ... So you would require another 50 Med Statis Bands? Seems you want to build quite an infirmary on Minato. That is not in the plan. The Hospital is going to be build here. People from Med Force Enterprise will come and we will set a Hospital, here on Gemini. That request is Declined." He cut Narez as he tried to negotiate "Is not going to happen. ILL is going to purchase 5 more shuttles to be used as Medical Shuttles here. Now for the solar panels, we can use them here on Gemini, no problem. You are saying that you need , what ? 24.000 Basic Alloy and 40.000 more Hull Panels ? That is expensive. 7.200.000 is the basic cost plus the incentive for the contract, another 7 millions, that is 14.200.000 credits. And for the Hull Panels ? The purchase price is 19.920.000. Incentive for contract another 15 million. Put the Costs of fuel, repair costs, maintenance, docking fees,crew salary, extra hours that is 69.120.000 credits.Lasers.... I can put an order of 2000 units more and that will be 4.512.500, with everything added the cost will be 7.854.990. If we put the contract hours given to your company, Hephaestus, at the end this will get us to around 127.188.906 credits, making a grand total of 439.874.155 with the last purchase and the work up to now."

He coughed as he played with the stylus "OK, I can send the request for the extra money and we need the approval from the Minister. Meanwhile, can you start the construction with what you have?"

He looked at Narez and gave a big sigh "The Minister will have my head. OK. I will arrange for a contract to be given to ISE and DSM. I do hope that ISE will take it but ... " he sighs "Proceed, Chief. Before you go, is there anything you have to tell me? Do you have any concerns? Anything to report?"

Aeryn typed some of the numbers on his pad and his pressed his thumb, to authorize the order

"Chief, I had authorize your request. Please begin the repairs at Minato and you will have the rest of the materials in less then 2 months. Anything else, my office is always open. Now, if you excuse, I am waiting for some guests." he said while he bowed his head "And Chief, good luck."