Nova Wars

[Nova Wars] Chapter 178

- From: , Pre-Glassing, TerraSol PressGeneral (Four Star) Talkiknak ducked slightly as he moved through the door. His size was slightly too large, his coloration was solid green gradients with no accents or highlights, his skull looked strong, and he had barbs here and there to protect his limbs. His pheromones had a sharp, aggressive tang to them even when he merely gave others greetings. He was large, imposing, and seen as aggressive in posture and scent.

Other Treana'ad often mumbled behind his back that he was a throwback. His genetic expression from an otherwise excellent line was obviously from thousands of years ago.

But since Smokey Cone's War Matrons had assigned him to TerraSol two months ago he had found that he was among his people. The other Treana'ad were built like him, had the same pheromone tangs that were considered impolite in modern Treana'ad society, and had the same markers and body language as he did.

General Talkiknak had visited the P'Thok Mobile Infantry Center, had gone to see a few other places.

It was awe inspiring to walk the same sands of Fort Earnurwin that P'Thok once had.

Now he was moving into a room that was largely quiet. The conversations were often muted by local subsonic baffling.

The first thing he noticed was that there was no privacy screens, the holotanks were all set to allow everyone to see the contents rather than set to privacy and they had the 'real' look of high consistency holograms that probably felt like firm jelly.

From low level enlisted clustered around a holotank showing long rows of data to high ranking Admirals, Marshalls, and Generals looking at star charts.

The second thing his eyes caught on was Talkiknak noted the dress top folded and draped over a chair. The members of the Solarian military had the choice of wearing only six awards that they believed were the most important, a full salad, or four rows.

The General had six, all of them Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Marine Corps, which was startling to anyone who viewed the Marines solely as heavily muscles supermen who could chew up nails and shit barbed wire.

General Talkiknak's implant helpfully ID'd all six.

They were all campaign ribbons.

Hammerhead Nebula Campaign. Telkan Liberation Campaign. Mithril Nebula Campaign. First Mar-gite War Campaign. Unified Council/Precursor Autonomous War Machine Campaign (First Wave).

Clownface Nebula.

General Talkiknak could appreciate those ribbons, even though they were forty thousand years ago to him. To have fought in such legendary campaigns made General Talkiknak faintly feel as if the human in possession of such a top should be in possession of a lantern jaw, the kind of physique that made maidens and matrons alike swoon, and bring about awe and appreciation from even moomoos.

Wandering around the room was a slightly portly general in his dress pants and shined dress shoes. His tunic and formal undershirt were removed, leaving only the undershirt present to cover the slight belly. He had weak looking faintly watery blue eyes and close cropped black hair. In one hand he had a large twisted and solid pretzel and in the other an actual ceramic mug of thick ale.

General Talkiknak thought to himself as the General set down the mug, dipped the pretzel in the mustard, and waved General Talkiknak over next to him before running the forearm of the empty hand down the forearm of the hand holding the pretzel.

General Talkiknak was slightly surprised to see a human emulate the movement for "I am available for your full attention" so smoothly.

When General Talkiknak moved up next to the Terran the portly general looked up.

"The rest of the Confederacy lacks a simple item to help them fight this war when they most desperately need it," the other General, one Imak Takilikakik AKA General Tik-Tak, said in a friendly voice. "I believe, with just the resources we pre-staged for The Bag opening, that the Solarion Iron Dominion can change the metrics of the war quickly and substantially."

General Talkiknak nodded.

"Now, the problem is obvious with just a fast cursory reading of the cover sheets of the precis that the various Confederate military analysis boards are starting to put together, which also reveals your other problem," the portly general turned to face General Talkiknak. "And why you will lose if your peers keep trying to fight a war they lost over a century ago."

That made General Talkiknak lift his antenna in surprise. He had heard, from the official study board's preliminary evidence finding precis, that the Confederacy should be able to hold back the Mar-gite long enough for a planned secondary wave to then stop them completely. That second wave would provide enough time to mobilize a third wave that would then eliminate the Mar-gite.

The initial findings were that the war would last only two or three centuries.

Talkiknak used his implant to summon a chair and waited until it scooted between his legs and under his abdomen until he relaxed onto it.

"How did we lose this a century ago?" Talkiknak asked.

The other General, Takilikakik (Which roughly translated to 'soft laughing whirlwind' in Old Treana'ad), snapped his fingers and pointed, causing a hologram tank to appear.

"Two thousand years after the cessation of the Second Precursor War the still existing members of the Confederacy reclassified ship hulls, eliminating the goliath, jotun, and colossus classes of ship hulls," the portly general stated. He twitched his hand, adding more data to the hologram.

"Ship types became less heavily armed as weapon technology advanced, lighter on the armor as armor methods advanced, and less crew members as automation technologies increased," General Tiktak said. "Now, during this time the Confederacy started going with fast and light ships, lightly armed and armored, but far outclassing everyone else. The C+ cannon was determined to be good enough and the Singularity Field appeared to be the ultimate in fire deflection and attenuation systems."

"Yes. Even another race's near lightspeed weapons, including missiles, and even some energy weapons, were easily destroyed or deflected by modern weapon systems," Talkiknak stated.

"Our Office of Game & Theory countered every single Confederate defensive system in less than twelve hours," Takilikakik countered, his voice cold. "You sat on those advances for over thirty thousand years. You are beyond belief that you didn't hit someone beyond the Ornislarp Noocracy."

Talkiknak wanted to protest and even open his mouth to defend decisions made by the Confederate military.

"Then weapon effectiveness was lowered by many nations in the name of cutting costs. Telkan held out the longest, although the Akltak and the Hamaroosan and Tnvaru have, in different ways each, kept up the building types and weapons as best as they could," Takilikakik said.

The porty general dipped his pretzel and took a bite as Talkiknak looked at the hologram.

He'd never seen the data presented in just raw numbers without analysis to 'make sense' of the data.

This text was taken from NovelFire. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Here it had just been put in columns that were then labeled.

Minimalist.

Brutal.

General Takilikakik just took a swig of his brew to wash down the bite of the pretzel and tapped the hologram, making the whole thing wobble.

"Missile production slowed, as well as other weapon production," the portly general said, dipping his pretzel again. "Hyperdrive engines for C+ and C++ cannon shot was deemed too expensive and attempts were made to replace the hyperdrive with jump drives. Eventually it was accomplished, but at increasing the weight and size of the round by 30% and 75% respectively."

He took another bite, bringing up more data.

Talkiknak was starting to feel dread staring at the weapon data.

Again, the portly general just swallowed, took another drink, then shifted, snapping his fingers and pointing out the borders of another holographic field.

"The last of the major heavy ship hull construction by the Confederacy stopped approximately three thousand years ago when the Confederate Office of Shipbuilding reorganized the tonnage classifications, removing the top three ship hulls," General Takilikakik stated. "In less than one hundreds years all facilities, with the exception of the Lanaktallan facilities, were first mothballed and then dismantled for parts. The Lanaktallan facilities were put in storage mode with a skeleton crew. The fact that the Lanaktallan militaries offered exclusive sash badges and personal icon accents ensured that while the post was considered a hardship duty they still had volunteers."

The data fields in the holotank were brutal.

The portly general ate another bite of pretzel and washed it down before sizing another holographic field and putting data up.

"Additionally, advanced in robotics and social pogroms led to a sharp decline in birth rates. Some nations used cloning creches to offset that, but even that stopped," Tik-Tak did the bite-chew-swallow-drink circle again as Talkiknak looked over the data.

"Which means, as of a hundred years ago, the Treana'ad Great Hive of the War of Human Aggression could completely conquer the complete Confederacy in less than five years, just based on their weapons, armor, size and strength of their War Hordes," Tik-Tak finished.

He polished off the pretzel and headed for another holotank.

Talkiknak stared at the data.

The Great Hive had a hundred thousand warriors for every soldier in the Confederacy's military. Had a hundred Hive Ships for every ship above frigate the Confederacy fielded. Just the Akltak Free Flight Space Navy had more tonnage just after the Second Precursor War than the entire modern Confederacy.

There were hundreds, thousands of ship names and military units that were in red or yellow. A quick glance showed that yellow was for mothballed or stored ships and reserve units.

The red was for units that existed in computer files only.

A quick check showed it was nearly 80% of the units and ships.

Talkiknak looked over at where General Takilikakik was standing next to a massive starfield. He was munching on another pretzel, using a knife to cut pieces off, spearing the piece, then dipping the piece in sauce before eating it off the tip of the knife.

The whole movement and attitude was very unsettling to Talkiknak. It was the body language that stated that the person was deep in thought but welcomes outside input and is waiting for questions or statements regarding what they were working on.

Talkiknak moved over to General Takilikakik, who was slowly running the blade of the knife down his forearm sleeve in a repeated motion. "Where did you learn all of that?"

"I was raised by Treana'ad," the portly general said. "They comforted me and healed my spirit after I saw my planet burn as the ship I was on barely cleared the gravity distortions."

Talkiknak was at a loss for what to say.

"So, is there any way we can reinforce the Three Wave Strategy that the Confederate Armed Services intends on using?" Talkiknak asked.

General Takilikakik shook his head. "No. The report ignores and hand waves away the presence of any Mar-gite structure larger than a Megastructure, stating that the sensor readings, the eyewitnesses, all evidence is either forged to increase funding, forged to create panic in the electorate, or is the product of mistakes by the sensors, sensor techs, or witnesses. Petra, Tetra, and Giga structure are dismissed. The fact that the Mar-gite constructs are large enough to engulf entire planets is ignore."

"I doubt you, and the Solarian Iron Dominion as a whole, would have brought me in just to tell me the war is lost," Talkiknak stated. "I know that your workgroup's efforts were presented to the various nation states of the Sol System yesterday in closed and classified briefings."

He chuckled.

"Of course, seeing on the morning Tri-Vee news that the Confederate government and the Solarion governments don't have a plan, the war isn't winnable, that we're all going to die according to sources was very informing," Talkiknak said.

Takilikakik nodded. "That is the process. A high security classified information briefing takes place and politicians and/or activists within the government are sending information to reporters before the sentence ends. We're used to it."

"Most nations kills people who do that," Talkiknak said. "Well, not the Lanaktallan."

Tik-Tak chuckled. "We have uses for it. We pay no heed to baying of jackals," he speared another piece and went through motions. "Watch."

Takilikakik motioned and Talkiknak watched as the holofield played out the Three Wave Plan twice. The first time, the data that Talkiknak had seen where the Mar-gite were eliminated to the small crossing areas. Pushed back to the other galactic arms.

Then the next set of data showed Petra, Tetra, and Giga structures. New ones classified as Exa-Structures and Zetta-Structures that were able to envelope entire gas giants.

Six years. Six years for the entire galactic arm spur to be completely engulfed and nothing left but the Mar-gite, which was then theorized to use the Exa and Zetta structures to launch toward the nearby galaxies.

Talkiknak watched it twice.

"Now, let me show you what Games and Theory came up with and handed to my office to implement," the Solarion General paused for a moment. "It is at this time I am required to tell you: This is the pre-combat operation as laid down by the Solarion Iron Dominion Armed Services at this time."

Talkiknak nodded. "You think you can do something against that?"

Tik-Tak nodded. "Ultimately, it is an issue of scale. The current Confederacy cannot fight at that scale. They could when I was part of the Confederate military, but they cannot now. Something a focus and intelligence group spent a week exploring. It was a simple reason that explained all of it."

"And that is?"

"Do you know what this is?" Tik-Tak asked, pointing at a hologram floating of a large orb with a flat section. An iris was open on the flat section, revealing a red glowing interior.

"No."

"That's the problem. As a general, you should. It's a standard Creation Engine. The backbone of the Confederate Logistics Corps. However, you no longer have them, meaning you need mining, extraction, refining, manufacturing of components at every step of the way," Tik-Tak said.

He took a bite of the pretzel, dipped it, then chewed on it, poking at the hologram with the point of the knife, bringing up context menus.

"I've never seen one outside a museum, much less one that works," Talkiknak said softly as he read the data in the drop down context menu. "We've got ammo forges, mainly in the Telkan Marines. Some nutriforges but not many that still work. Most nutriforges were recalibrated into ammo forges eons ago."

The data scrolled by as Talkiknak used the tip of his bladearm to scroll.

The Creation Engine was capable of taking just energy, with no mass, and literally creating mass from energy with less than 1% loss. From simple electricity even warsteel mark IV could be fabricated. From solid parts to complex machinery, the Creation Engine of proper size could create a starship in the Solarion "heavy battleship' hull class in little more than an hour.

Of course, creation engines that size had an entire colossus hull built around them, with crews to do a complete inspection on the vessel within hours.

Talkiknak felt slightly sick as Tik-Tak poked the hologram field and the data sprang up that even a drink or nutriforge could produce weapons and armor equal or surpassing anything that the Confederate military could provide that was less than power armor, and a standard Class I nutriforge, with the proper templates, could provide minor repair parts for power armor.

"Did you know," Talkiknak said conversationally, "That the reports from the Second Precursor War and the Council Confederacy Conflict are considered to be inaccurate and possibly forged history. Scientists and historians have all examined the records and supposedly discovered that the war in impossible."

"They discounted the effect upon logistics that the simple creation engine and material forge has upon logistics," Tik-Tak said. The portly general shrugged. "We, however, still possess working versions," he held up a hand before Talkiknak could say anything. "We can also built more from raw materials in factories, in case for some reason the refabrication function stops working."

Tik-Tak wiped the data then used the point of the knife to tap a few icons.

"These are the routes that the Fabrication Corps will be forging to let the war against the Mar-gite and the Ornislarp Noocracy be pursued," Tik-Tak said.

Talkiknak blinked slowly.

"This is what is currently being called 'The Crimson Threads" AKA Operation Banana Goblin," Tik-Tak said. "It will be used to fabricate the spare parts and munitions that the Confederacy's member species and nations currently cannot fabricate themselves, as well as producing more war material to enable the Confederacy to accurately and completely prosecute this war."

Red colored threads spread from Sol and through the entire Confederacy. Thick streams through the former 'Tomb Worlds' and then it spread out in a webbing to touch every single Confederate system with at least a single-pixel thin thread.

Creation Engines being mated to gas giants. Nanoforges spread out to create munition and equipment fabrication locations. Parts for tanks, starships, strikers, and other war machines to be fabricated and moved to the various nations and military forces as quickly as possible.

The creation engines and nanoforges being used to create robotic factories with Lanaktallan Logistics Corps service members to provide oversight.

It stopped and Talkiknak opened his mouth to ask if there was time to implement it.

In the upper left the time lapse showed.

It took everything Talkiknak had not to pass out. Only the fact it wasn't already done kept him from succumbing to the sudden shock.

TIME FROM INITIALIZATION TO COMPLETION: T -30 DAYS