A War for the Stars

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2400.1:

I made it our first priority to secure all insystem resources. Our future sector capital was chosen with care; Virgillia V boasts excellent conditions, but there are three partially and one fully colonizable planets as well. I have authorized construction of a series of insystem colony ships using native technology, which we have named the Nova class. Nova I will be ready early next tenth*, but she is already obsolete. By the time she launches we will have begun work on a second colonizer with improved atomic engines.

But there are other challenges. Power generation technology is still far behind Imperial standards. Our first shipboard atomic reactor prototype will be coming Online in five tenths and not a day sooner, unless we can get some additional workshops built at our colonies.

And it's not just the reactors. There are a hundred other things that need to be developed before we can begin to fulfill our orders to explore and expand. It's enough to make me forget how isolated we are out here, with no ships, no HoloNet, no travellers bringing news from home.

I suppose I should be glad.

* - 0.1 year.

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2400.2:

Fate sometimes plays us strange cards. I was never meant to be fully in charge here. To the Imperial Fleet, I was always a necessity, someone whose job needed to be done before they could take off in their shiny ships to do the real work.

They call officers like me planet builders. But they have other names they use when we're not around. Dirtsiders. Rockhuggers. Dock jocks. They might promote me, but they would never let me work unsupervised.

But it happened. Yesterday we launched the Nova I, with 14 million colonists aboard her. They should reach Virgillia I within the tenth. She was the crudest, ugliest ship I ever launched.

When she took off, she was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.

Nova I will do her job. In my heart, I know it.

But will I ?

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2400.3:

The colony on Virgillia I is well established. We will set up several industrial and tech facilities there to speed up our technological upgrade program. The planet has dense vegetable cover and we wil establish some organic farms there eventually, but these are not a priority right now.

Our reactor program has been put on hold. The population here is starting to lose its motivation. They are not restless yet, but my Intel officer tells me it is only a matter of time.

Imperial citizens need the Empire. They are used to seeing fleets, troops, Imperial pronouncements. Without these things they become disoriented. We can only give them the troops.

We will need recruitment stations, training camps, HQs, bases. We will need a year or more to build all this; we must devote every resource to this program, except for what is being spent on colonization. Shipbuilding will continue, but colonizing other planets will be useless if we cannot hold onto them.

[Atrocities]

Oh this is good. I love a good Star Wars story and this one is off to a great start.

[Taz-in-Space]

Star Wars? I thought it was Lost in Space!
Oh Well, it's still a good story!

[sachmo]

Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
Star Wars? I thought it was Lost in Space!
Oh Well, it's still a good story!

Lost Star Wars in Space?

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2400.7:

Things have been too busy for me to write here lately. Nova II and III have been built and launched. We have a mining colony on Virgillia IV and a farming/mining colony on Virgillia II. Nova IV launches in a few days for Virgillia VI, the Last colonizable planet in this system under current technology; we must now set out for the nearest stars.

It will be years before we have our first native-built hyperdrive, but there may be a way around this. There are four stellar anomalies at the edges of the system; according to native scientists, these could be wormholes. If they are wormholes, and navigable, we might be able to colonize another system or two and perhaps re-establish communications with the Empire.

Wormholes are extremely rare in the known Galaxy and most of them occur deep in interstellar space. It is highly unlikely that this system should have not one, but four of them.

But the potential for gain is too great to be ignored. I have ordered a new class of ship built to explore these objects. The Seeker I will have a corvette-sized hull, four atomic engines and enough cryogenic cells to get her there and back.

On another note, the people seem to be happy again. Perhaps we can go back to reactor production.