Chapter 552 Of Fleets and the Vessels That Make Them

Chapter 552 Of Fleets and the Vessels That Make Them

After the five minute wait, Administrator Huang opened his eyes and swept his gaze across the crowd receiving their briefing. “I see none of you left,” he said. “Good.

“The empire has recently developed a new warhead as well. Dubbed the ‘black hole bomb’, it’s exactly what it says on the tin: an oversized capacitor and artificial gravity generator strapped to a rocket engine. When detonated, it creates a short-lived, yet highly destructive, black hole in a small area. ‘Small’, by the way, is a relative term.

“And the only reason you’re being informed of its existence now is that we don’t want you asking about it later when you’re in potentially hostile, unsecured environments....” He continued on the topic of weapons for a while, explaining each of them in detail, then finished that portion of his briefing by asking, “Any questions?”

Nobody in the lecture hall had any. At least not about the weapons of the EF and TSF, anyway, but they had already been taught not to ask questions that weren’t relevant to the topic they were being briefed on.

“None? Excellent,” Huang Wei confirmed, then switched to another topic: the ships that would be escorting and backing up the exploration fleet vessels in this momentous step in humanity’s journey among the stars.

Ships in the TSF, and their semi-militarized siblings, the exploration fleet, were still separated by category and role, much like the Poseidon Navy. From the enormous city-ship down to the humble corvette, each ship class played a necessary role in the Terran Space Fleet.

City-ships were designed to carry entire seed colonies with them, including tens of thousands of civilian passengers, thousands of ARES troopers, and all of the equipment necessary for starting up a colony on any habitable worlds the exploration fleet discovered. In their cavernous holds, they could also carry entire TSF fleets, and in order to save on reaction mass and wear and tear on the TSF ships in routine operations, they acted as the core command and control ships during combat actions and transport vessels to and from battles.

Administrator Huang wrapped up the technical briefing by saying, “Fleet formations in the TSF are ad hoc and dynamic. With the uninterrupted, instantaneous communications made possible through quantum communicators and the assistance of ships’ AIs, every vessel in the TSF is capable of fulfilling the role it was designed for in any fleet at any given moment.

“The only difference, ladies and gentlemen, is the color of the paint in the passageways of the city-ships coordinating a fleet.”

Administrator Huang moved to the final portion of his briefing, informing the attendees of their specific escort fleets, the standard operating procedure they would be functioning under, their detailed chains of command for the exploration, and so forth....

An hour later, the briefing came to a close. “You are all hereby ordered to go dark. No communication with Earth or outside your own ships will be permitted until after you’ve left the heliopause and are on your way. I won’t lie to you—there’s a possibility that this first step into the greater galaxy at large will also be your last.

“Should you choose to do so, you may visit the legal affairs office at whichever outpost you’re currently docked where a special liaison officer will help you write your last will and testament, as well as record a message that will be delivered to people of your choosing once you’ve passed through the Oort Cloud.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, you have a week of shore leave. Your vessels must be completely vacated of any personnel and personal belongings in the next three hours, Earth time, as they are to undergo a specialized refit over your shore leave.

“Once your leave is complete, you’re hereby ordered to report to ARES Central Command on Mars to link up with your assigned escorts and begin your mission. Good luck and godspeed, explorers.”

Administrator Huang finished the briefing with a formal salute to the crowd, then vanished.