An Interlude and shorter post this time because experimenting with writing style and Aurora features.
Eikh Histories: Volume I - Chapter II
April 4021 through August 4022
The Twilight class was put into shipyard construction; the recently formed Colonial Administration developed a colony ship hull based on the Shivva Supply Barge hull. The Ambrex class Colony Ship could be the bridging hull design for both the Shivva and the Ambrex.
The Antoxi Mining Guild in the year 4021 has monopolized all mining and extraction in the Eikh Empire (with some subsidiary help from the Imperial government) with the buyout of many smaller mining guilds and sites. While there were many state owned mines, the Imperial government would have to rely more and more on Guild owned mining. Senator Arae feared the growing powers of the Guilds and independent mercantile or private interests on Earth. For Arae, new limits and oversight were to be placed on these private ventures to prevent a total economic dependency on corporations. More and more responsibilities and functions are handed over to the corporations and guilds to produce various weapons, hardware, equipment, devices, and ships. Senator Arae himself owned various businesses and industries; many senators doubted his intentions behind the government interventions.
November is the first launch of the Twilight class. The maiden voyage deploys four survey drones on Mercury, Luna, Mars, and Jupiter. Reviews of the Twilight class are apparent from the crews manning the ship: it's a hassle to deploy the drones for geological survey. After a few months, the Survey Drones found no remarkable deposits on the four bodies-- the Navy Stellar Cartographic Command began work on a new class (the Moonlight) to have onboard Geological survey sensors rather than unmanned drones. The interesting development of the Twilight class’s limited use is the fascination of drones as potential early warning platforms. The Imperial Navy commissions the Pherae, Nyx, Tsathorita Assembly Forges to research Passive Sensor drones for future early warning starships and scouts.
In August the Lunar colony was established by the imperial government. Arae in the senate chamber demanded that the Lunar colony be a heavily regulated trade zone. Senator Spinami-Go cut a clandestine deal with Arae and his lobby: the future Mars colony would be exempt from Guild or Mercantile presence physically if Arae agrees to support the Guild lobbyists in maintaining investments and enterprises on Luna. The deal seems to be in the favor of Arae so he accepts. The coming weeks the public and the Senate see a diametrically different Arae who supported Guild presence on Luna. The interest groups in the Senate of Labor and Capital are forming in the Eikh Imperial Government.
The precursor empire left behind a derelict lonely pod and flag planted on the surface of Luna. Eikh explorers scoured the primitive pod and even found a footprint. A Human footprint. Explorer Tros of Decelea gazed at his own footprint compared to the ancient Human. Why did the Zikh take so long to destroy the Humans? Why did the Zikh leave behind their relics and technology? Was it so that the Eikh could thrive? Or was it because the Zikh wanted to destroy the Humans? Were the Eikh to be destroyed and would a new cycle begin? Tros stared down at the ground horrified…
