Chapter 599 The First Diaspora

Chapter 599 The First Diaspora

Once the shield was online, Aron and Rina took a shuttle back to the surface of Mars. Both of them were exhausted after such a marathon mana manipulation session and, after a brief rest, they planned to officially begin touring the facilities on, and in, the planet. There were already a few million soldiers stationed there on their three-month duty rotations, but those rotations would gradually lengthen until the Mars base was staffed with permanent residents. The only reason it hadn’t already been a permanent duty station was because not all of the R&R facilities were complete yet.

And while there was perhaps nothing more dangerous than a bored soldier, stressed soldiers were at least a close second.

The tour would thus only briefly visit the areas of the base that would, once they were fully online, be designated as official rest and relaxation areas. Most of the week-long tour would be spent inspecting the vast automated factories that were nothing more than kilometers-long and kilometers-wide atomic printers capable of both conventional printing and runic engraving. Those were the most important, and most secret, areas in the Mars base and would drive the entire industrial chain that ARES and the TSF required to function as forces. There were others in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but the production base on the red planet had a capacity that put all others to shame.

Mars was also just the first stop on a months-long program of tours and inspections, coupled with the implementation of runic shielding on other defensive positions. Most of Jupiter and Saturns’ moons were scheduled to receive shielding, as well as the planets Mercury and Venus, the moons of the outer system gas giants—Neptune and Uranus—and all of the dwarf planets and other objects of sufficient size in the Kuiper belt.

All of those would eventually be part of the Sol system’s defensive arrangements, though the outright construction was currently focusing on the Mars base, which would house the Sol system central command station. The rest would primarily be picket bases and fleet logistics depots, as well as home to eventual civilian industries such as refineries, smelters, and so on.

......

Today was the day that the loading would finally be complete. Shuttle after shuttle had been in continuous operation over the last week, delivering loads of stasis pods to the cavernous holds designed to maintain them in the colony ships. The “farewell simulation” was shut down and everyone within forcefully logged out of it the moment the clock struck the designated hour. And it wasn’t only the farewell simulation that was deserted, either; the regular public VR was also a ghost town as everyone who could log out did so.

The first diaspora, as the talking heads and spox had finally settled on calling it, was due to depart in a few minutes, and everyone on Earth had, seemingly by unwritten and unspoken consensus, decided to see the colony ships off in person whether they personally knew anyone on them or not.

They all looked skyward as the shuttles made their final trips, the nonstop flood of craft slowing and thinning until it became a river, then a stream, then a creek... and finally, nothing remained in the sky save the massive colony ships.

The entire world fell silent and seemed to be holding its breath as those ships began ponderously floating upward in defiance of gravity, gaining speed as their altitude rose. They shrank, first to the size of cars, then to serving platters, frisbees, drink coasters... finally, they were nothing but dots against the backdrop of the blue sky.

Then, they disappeared from view.

Those watching the ships leave Earth had many thoughts among them. Some certainly thought it was the first black stain on the young Terran Empire’s record, others thought about the necessity of unity among the species, and still others didn’t care about unity or how history would see this day. They only mourned the leaving of their friends and family members, some, or most, of whom wouldn’t have gone if they had been given the option to stay.

But regardless of what the observers were thinking, humanity’s first diaspora had officially begun.