chapter 187

I now understand the basics. Working with Lola to understand this technology at a level I was comfortable with had been more fun than I expected. The start of it didn’t really mesh well with the knowledge and expertise I have gathered over the years, but when we started to change the seeds into bio-cybernetics, everything seemed to click.

We had been working on our latest design, and one thing became quite clear to me. “Lola, this seed is too small.” She looked at me, confused, as we were currently working on what looked to be like an acorn, but a bit bigger than normal.

“What could we add? I do not see why we would need to make it bigger.”

“Well, I’m thinking a power source, more material for it to start growing. It also needs to be better protected, so for the outer shell, we need to use stronger materials. It will also need a tremendous amount of knowledge.”

“Knowledge?” she asked, now fully focusing on me.

“Yes, knowledge. If it has it from the beginning, it would be intertwined into its being. It would have better understanding and access to it, unlike if we afterwards started to give it blueprints with the hope it could make seeds that could make those blueprints.”

“Yes, now I see what you mean. It would be able to make better choices on what types of plant life and what kinds of processes the tree would need to succeed in making something. But if you make it too complex, wouldn’t it mean that it would get a spirit too soon?”

That was a good point, but in nature, a seed was dormant; wouldn’t the spirit be as well? “That might be a problem, or it might not be. We won’t know before we start.”

Before we could continue, a notification alarm sounded throughout the entire ship. Both of us looked at each other and started to put away all of our tools, and even started to bring some of the plants that were all around Lola’s workshop into my own workshop, as that was inside deep storage and would not be affected by sudden acceleration.

The entire inside of the ship was in motion, as everything that was loose was being secured. In a combat situation, you really didn’t want stuff lying around, especially if you needed to make high-G burns, and who knows what we would find when we dropped back into real space.

Last we checked, the battle was about to begin in about four days, but all of it would actually depend on the Varani inside the portal and not anyone outside of it. Previous portals showed that they normally charged out as soon as possible and started attacking anyone close by. It was kind of unfortunate that this portal opened up inside a solar system.

There was also another problem of many adventurers who needed to answer the call simply disappearing or having problems that would make it impossible for them to reach this solar system in time.

We dropped out at the designated reinforcement zone. The twin suns of the solar system greeted us in a spectacular fashion, as they were quite big and bright. There were only a few stations in the system that were inhabited, with the population of this system not reaching over 100,000.

It was by definition a backwater, but now it was filled with war. The quickest thing our sensors could pick up was light. It was one of the biggest advantages attackers have, as you could see a snapshot of the solar system and everything inside it, while defenders had to wait for light to bounce back to their current location from our ship for them to realise that we were here.

Of course, magic changed that formula, and right now, we were not hiding our mana battery signature, as there was no reason for us to hide that we had arrived. The sensor AIs were busy gathering everything they could to bring us up to date on what was happening inside the system.

We were contacted by an automated system quite quickly. The reinforcement zone was quite big. Every ship inside of it was inside the command network, and there were a few ships close enough that we were almost immediately able to connect to this network and start receiving information from it.

The battle had been raging for two days and seven hours, almost exactly what we were expecting. It was rare to see a battle last so long, but if you multiply it by the number of ships, and if the fleet compositions are correct with nearly equal forces on both sides, those battles can stretch for quite a while.

The tactical screen finally lit up, showing reds and blues, with our ship in green. The reinforcements only had 48 ships, with another 12 as permanent greeters of a sort for anyone who showed up.

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The number of ships in the system was updated constantly, but finally started to slow down after about 5 minutes of us being here. The portal surroundings were so filled with wrecks that it was hard to get an accurate count. The battle had started with our side blockading the entrance and trying to hold it as long as possible, constantly firing at anything that tried to get through.

That apparently had fallen apart quite quickly. Varani had multiple battleship-sized tank ships. Our side managed to destroy one, but four others followed, pushing the allied fleet back. The situation only deteriorated from there, but we had not given up that space easily.

There were thousands of ships destroyed on both sides, most of them frigate-sized support vessels or smaller. The thing about the Varani was that most of their navy followed a civilization doctrine and not the adventurer’s doctrine.

The two styles were quite different in their execution and purpose. One was meant to conquer and occupy space, the other was meant for battle against space monsters and other ships.

Our side was at a numerical disadvantage; this would usually mean that we would lose, but the numbers had been equalising over time. Which meant if we could hold off long enough, we would win. Space adventurer ships could do that as they were, on average, tougher than other ships.

Finally, orders came in acknowledging our arrival. Because we were a frigate, we were told to either wait to be put in a battle group with a proper tank or, to my surprise, we were free to reinforce a supplied list of currently engaged battle groups.

The thing about reinforcing was that it would take a while for us to slow down enough to properly join a formation, and that wasn’t even counting on getting there in the first place.

If we pushed ourselves to the limit using our skills, it would take us nearly 11 hours to slow down from the current speed we were going into something that could join a current battle group formation, but that was just do slow down; it didn’t take into account being in the right place.

“Maximum deceleration,” I ordered, and everyone prepared. Klaxons sounded, adjustment thrusters activating, turning us around. A moment later, our main engines burst to life, ramping up to their maximum sustained burn. FH pulled from us the required affinities to boost our speed even further.

After about 5 minutes we were now at a sustained 65 G. My body felt so heavy. We were all hooked up to the ship’s support system to help our bodies deal with so much gravity. I still had human parts, and they struggled the most, but my rank and skills helped make the difference. Thanks to the support of the ship, I knew that I could survive this.

There were currently 3 main clusters of heavy fighting. Two of them had Dukes with their battleships, and the fighting was heaviest there. There was a third cluster that was bigger than the previous two combined, but it was composed of smaller vessels, frigate or cruiser-sized, with only a couple that came close to battleship size.

FH and her AI’s analysis also showed that this was currently the most critical fight. If the Varani managed to get a victory there, those forces would be free to reinforce one of the other fights, which would swing the numbers too much on the Varani side.

“We have our destination,” I communicated through the ship’s network, as speaking was a bit too troublesome at the moment.

Because of this, we changed our angle a bit. The current calculations show that we would reach our destination in approximately 2 days. Hopefully, we won’t be too late, and thankfully, we won’t be under such heavy acceleration for the entire duration.

Time passed surprisingly slowly, but I was blaming that on the constant pain from the heavy gravity. The information gathering hadn’t stopped for a second, using everything we had. The fleet command was a bit surprised at our decision to join so quickly, as most seemed to be dragging their feet as much as possible.

We now have the exact number of ships here. Our side was missing even before the fighting started, 32% of the ships that should have been here. It made me mad, especially because if they had shown up, this fight would have probably been over by now, or at least in a much better situation than teetering on the edge of defeat.

It seemed that Lola had picked up on this. “Captain, you seem especially mad. You should really try to calm down, as right now you really don’t want to strain your body more than it’s already under.”

She was right. We were speaking through the network, and talking about it would help. I spoke in a channel that everyone could hear if they wanted to, as that might even help more.

“I’m mad because so few showed up, but that’s not entirely why. I understand that there are some people who could never understand sacrificing themselves for the greater community, because their self-preservation instincts are simply too strong. But some just use that as an excuse.”

“Back on Earth, when I worked on helping people deal with their cybernetics, often it became a therapy session. Do you know what the biggest problem for most men was?” No one answered, but I didn’t expect that.

“It was that their children, girlfriends, or wives seemed dissatisfied with their relationship. They tried to work harder to bring in more money, to be worth more to them, but that seemed to make things even worse.”

“I remember an older father talking to me about how every few weeks, he would take his son, who then lived with his mother, to go eat or go to an amusement park, but they seemed to be growing apart more and more, no matter how fun he made those few hours they could be together.” I paused for a couple of minutes after that, as I remembered our sessions more vividly.

“It took a few sessions, but I managed to make him understand how important it was to simply be around. You see, children, while they enjoy going out and having fun, what they actually need more is you being with them, no matter where it is.”

“He took more time off from work to spend with his son, and things turned around quite fast. Soon after that, he no longer needed sessions to cope with his cyberware. The point of the story is that you have to show up. Be it your son or a call to war, showing up, it’s more than half the battle.”

“Estimation simulation result. If 57% of the ones who hadn’t shown up would have come, the battle would have been over by now,” FH supplied, as I had been quiet for quite a while now.

“But wouldn’t it be worse if people showed up who actually don’t want to be there? Wouldn’t they make mistakes or try to escape as soon as possible?” Sam asked, genuinely curious, as he had never had such a problem, being designed to never be afraid to die in battle.

“Everyone’s morale can break, but in the end, while you individually might not be important or even necessary, the power of the many should never be underestimated. So yes, showing up is incredibly important, no matter how desperate the situation seems. There are plenty of examples of last stands working during the course of fights, battles, and even wars.”

“A few individuals willing to put everything on the line can bring great change. Thousands of individuals willing to put everything on the line can change the course of history.”

That is why we were here, why I’m always willing to make the sacrifice if the need is great enough and the danger dire enough. From everything I’ve seen, a black threat classification is something worth that sacrifice.

I also know that if I wanted to, I could reason myself out of this easily enough by simply abandoning any connection I have to my home planet, my species, and this galaxy as a whole. If I made that decision, it would be easy to watch as everything burned while we made our way to the next galaxy.

My musings were interrupted by FH highlighting three ships. They were battle barges, and one of them, in their crew manifest, had a specific name that was highlighted.

It was Verrona; she was here.