The American Dream - Chapter 1: After the Fall...

[Texashawk (OP)]

CHAPTER I: AFTER THE FALL, THE LIGHT OF ASCENSION

1/6/2022 – Washington, DC, United States of Earth

   The stoic First Minister of Earth, Melissa Stohl, leaned back on her metal and plastic comm chair and surveyed the multiple vidscreens in front of her. The global census survey teams that had scoured the globe after the devastating fallout of the A-PU’s failed attempt to conquer the world were sending their reports, and they were crushing in their mechanical statistics, flashing across the screen like the Grim Reaper’s stock ticker:

   AFRICAN SECTOR – 11% INHABITIBLE; 11.6 MILLION SURVIVORS
   AUSTRALIA SECTOR – 6% INHABITABLE; 2.3 MILLION SURVIVORS
   CHINA-ASIA SECTOR – 19% INHABITABLE; 55.8 MILLION SURVIVORS
   JAPAN-ASIA SECTOR – 2% INHABITABLE, 2.2 MILLION SURVIVORS
   EUROPE SECTOR – 9% INHABITABLE, 9.2 MILLION SURVIVORS
   …
   And so it went, red on black screen, as the near-destruction of the Earth was revealed in both text and geodata detail. Stohl sighed at the colossal waste of human and material. The Louvre, obliterated from orbit. Big Ben, vaporized into quarks. The Forbidden Garden, lost forever to overpressure and a flash that heated the air into millions of degrees Kelvin.

   Such a waste of good material, indeed. And culture, alas.

   Stohl pressed a control on one of the touchscreens on her desk. Her Science Prime, Ruben Hamsher, appeared on the screen. “Yes, Your Excellence?” he replied with a smile.

   Stohl’s eyebrows quirked at his cheerfulness this early in the morning, but dropped at her indifference. “I have the results from the GCS teams. Predictable. Regrettable, but predictable.”

   “Well, your Excellence, in time you will realize that you made the correct decisions. Really, the only logical one to preserve the human species.” His smile grew thin. “At least… in some civilized form. Hopefully.”

   “Perhaps. But still, truly a tragedy.”

   “Agreed, but your vision will be a monument to their sacrifices.”

   The First Minister’s eyes nearly crossed from internal pressure. Lord, but Hamsher could be a symbolic gasbag at times. It was fortunate that he was also one of the most brilliant minds left to the human civilization. “Well. I wanted a report on Ascension. I have not heard much from the Houston science complex. What’s going on down there?”

   Hamsher paused. “I am not sure. I, too, have not received as timely as progress updates as I would have hoped at this point. The campus has been converted for stellar material testing for months now, and the trans-Newtonian supercomputer test beds have been powered up and checksumed with acceptable error tolerance.”

   “English, Ruben!”

   “Errr… the lab should be ready to go, your Excellence. But it is not. I am unsure what the delay could be.”

   Stohl drummed her blunt fingernails on the onyx glass surface of her command desk. What was once NASA’s Johnson Space Center should be farther along by now as the new Ascension Stellar Complex. The delay was becoming unworkable to her timetable. “Well. Then I am formally transferring you to the ASC to personally oversee the T-N conversion. Our energy stockpiles are draining rapidly, and we need the resources.” That was an understatement; her Logistical Prime had warned her just yesterday that Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York were all on the cusp of rationing precious heat supplies; the cold ash blanket that had enveloped the globe and choked off the life-giving sun had accelerated their use. “You may requisition any and all resources from the Houston District to ensure that the final Starlight techs are ready for use by the end of 2022. That is your literal deadline. Do you understand?” Her brown eyes narrowed at his display.

   “Um… er… yes, your Excellence. End of this year. Understood. Better get going, then, eh, er…. Bye!” The uncomfortable visage of her Science Prime winked out. Stohl stared into the snow-covered distance outside the Prime Office window as though looking through the end of history.

   One year left to find new energy sources. Then the rest of humanity would begin its final requiem, for want of something as basic as heat and light.

[Texashawk (OP)]

8/4/2022 -  HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES OF EARTH (USE)

   “This is not good,”  USE Science Alpha Joey Ballengee remarked to his boss, Science Prime Ruben Hamsher. Ballengee was commenting on the depressing results from the latest geoatmospheric survey conducted and collated just yesterday.

   Hamsher leaned over, dark bushy eyebrows pointing downward. “Hmmm…” he pointed out. “Is the radiation level decreasing yet?”

   “No, Prime. It is still 198 rad ppm. And the atmospheric dust level has increased to 1296 ppm. Little wonder the average planetary temperature has dropped another 2.2 degrees Celsius in the last 2 months.” Ballengee shivered. The slight man was used to sweltering August summers in the subtropical Houston coastal area, but in the new world that all were struggling to adapt to one could see frost on the windows even as late as 10 AM. For Ballengee, it was a ludicrous sight, on par with icicles in the palm trees surrounding the ASC.

   At least the palms were dead now, preventing further nature’s mocking.

   “Look here, though.” the Science Prime observed, “the oxygen level is decreasing even as the pressure is increasing. We’re now at .14 atm, and getting dangerously close to minimum oxygen levels. Already, our colleagues in Denver and Salt Lake Districts are requiring breath masks to go outdoors. It looks like we are in danger of global hypoxia sooner rather than later. I must work faster. We are running out of time.”

   “Mmm…” Ballengee muttered. “I’d worry more about the anti-greenhouse gas concentrations that seem to be allowing more and more solar radiation to escape the planet.”

   “Well, if we can’t reverse the outrages on the ecosystem, none of it will matter; we’ll all be just as dead whether from hypothermia, oxygen deprivation, or nuclear poisoning. Cheers!”

   Ballengee grimaced. “You are morbid sometimes, Prime.”

   Hamsher smiled without showing teeth. “Sometimes it is the morbid that makes everything else compared to it better by proxy.”

   “Perhaps.” Ballengee fell silent, not wishing to jog the Prime further. It had been a tough struggle these last few months, keeping Hamsher on track to unlock the secrets of the Starlight probe, with his wild mood swings and reluctance to even sleep or eat so much as a granola bar. How much could one man take, staring at 5 different vidscreens, writing sometimes 10 pages of notes at a time, and plugging endless variables into equations that seemed to stretch into the event horizon?

   Hamsher’s dogged, singular pursuit into solving the science behind the final techs that had been hinted at in the probe’s propulsion system and onboard ‘flight recorder’ as such, reminded Ballengee of the iconic Asimov Foundation series’ Ebling Mis, driven by artificial means towards a solution no other mind could concieve.

   Ebling Mis did not survive the process. Ballenee wondered if the Prime would suffer the same fate.

[waresky]

am curious to show next write.

Ur history r intriguing.

And a very disaster (Doomsday) situation.Hope Mankind can rise again..:D

[Texashawk (OP)]

9/14/2022 – FORT BRAGG, SOUTH CAROLINA, USE

   “Move your ass, maggot!!” the burly space sergeant screamed into Star Ensign Williams Schaumburg’s ear as he climbed over the so-called ‘wall of crap’, so named apocryphally by the rookies because, to hear it, if you fell from the wall you had to shovel crap from the field lavs for a week. Apocryphal or not. even the most skeptical were not eager to test the theory.

   Schaumburg climbed the wall with a modest effort and landed on the other side with a solid thump. An impressive two-hundred and thirty-two pound block of will and grit, Schaumburg had never met a race, obstacle course, or obstacle in general he couldn’t go around, over, or through to achieve victory.

   As he glided towards the ‘ballerina holes’, he wondered again what he must have been thinking when he volunteered at age nineteen for a new, fifth branch of the former AU military known simply as the Star Corps. The recruiters were universally vague, though as Schaumburg completed his second year of training he had just about decided the vagueness was less a put-on and more an admission that they, too, had little hard info about this strange new arm of the military.

   Stepping easily through the tires, one-two-one-two, his thoughts turned to the variety of exercises with seemingly no rhyme or reason: scaling a thirty-foot wall underwater while wearing a dive helmet; intensive training on nuclear physics and safety (how ironic the classes had ended up being! he thought with a derisive snort), training in sign language and a phonetics training that was supposed to allow the graduate to function as sort of a universal, rudimentary translator by deriving phonetics from a known base of sounds and structure.

   He had excelled, well, topped his classes. Well, not quantum theory. It had baffled him as well as most of the rest of his class; save for one or two who seemed to grasp the four-dimensional universe of microparticles, but those ensigns quickly left the class, never to be seen by Schaumburg or others he knew again.

   He crossed the finish line, a line drawn in the strip of frozen mud that wove throughout the course, in a new personal best. He gasped for air. Even here near sea level, the hellish ash and dust was killing plants that pumped life-giving oxygen into the air, and even the most fit individuals increasingly required bursts of oxygen after intense physical activity.

   Practicality won out over macho desire. He grabbed a portable oxyflo mask that were waiting on a cart by the finish line. After a minute or two, he felt better. He shivered through his woolen sweats. Here it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit at 6 AM, and the day would get no warmer than barely above 45 degrees.

   Staring up at the leaden, cloudy sky, he sighed. His Staff Psychology class was in thirty minutes, and he needed a shower.

[waresky]

AHAHAHAH great!!!!
Awesome read!

Am remember "Space Mobile Infantry" novel..ty mate.
And another: Falkenberg's Legion (Pournelle-Niven,greatest books..dozens years before MOTIES encounter:D But same Space Empire Universe)

[Texashawk (OP)]

2/1/2023 – ASCENSION STELLAR COMPLEX, HOUSTON, TEXAS, USE

   SCIENCE PRIME LOG: 2.1.23 – 04:12 – Well. Turns out that ol’ Isaac wasn’t a fraud, after all. He just didn’t think far enough into quantum theory. Well, the old boy’s physics are about to take a new dimension, because as of approximately 2 hours ago I have successfully replicated the jump mechanism found on the ‘Starlight’ alien probe by using a mathematical test bed that replicates the physical and quantum state of the universe. And it works!!!

   Sure, we can’t test it in actual practice yet – we need to find points where space and time layers touch and intersect – but we can now start to build sensors that will find these points. And more importantly, with the underlying physics now understood to my satisfaction, I can now send ol’ Mendezabal over at Logistics some schematics and material needs to convert our war industry over to something more applicable to the materials needed to build these glorious ‘starships’ that our oh-so-glorious First Minister so ardently desires.

   Personally, I feel that instead of wasting precious specialized resources on these newfangled gigantic ‘atmospheric terraformers’ that would be required to scrub the atmosphere of the toxic ash and nuclear waste within a reasonable amount of time, we should instead focus all of our resources on these starships and explore what is beyond the solar system. With the science for ‘jump points’, so to speak, in hand, we can construct a survey ship that can find these quantum holes and perhaps even exploit them. The basics are in place now; specialized and focused work on prototypes now must be done before we can use it in any real practical capacity.

   But, hot damn, it works. Isaac, you old dog, wouldn’t you be surprised to see what that apple can do now!


   2.3.2023
   USE CLASSIFIED DELTA LEVEL
   TO: SCIENCE PRIME HAMSHER, RUBEN J.
   FROM: FIRST MINISTER  MELISSA STOHL
   RE: SCIENCE DIRECTION

   ///...
   PRIME HAMSHER,

   I AM WELL AWARE OF YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT THE TERRAFORMING PROJECT GENESIS; HOWEVER WE MUST HAVE A BACKUP PLAN IF PROJECT NOAH FAILS. THEREFORE, I AM PLACING YOU IN DIRECT COMMAND OF NOAH. YOU MAY PLACE JOEY BALLENGEE IN CHARGE OF GENESIS; EVEN THOUGH HIS SKILLS DO NOT NECESSARILY MATCH  WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR THE SCIENCE WE ARE SHORT ON EXCEPTIONAL SCIENTISTS SO WE MUST MAKE DO.

   I TRUST THERE WILL BE NO ISSUES WITH THIS ARRANGEMENT.

   STOHL

   END COMM…///


   2.6.2023
   PERSONAL LOG: LOGISTICS PRIME OMER MENDIZABAL
        BEGIN ENTRY

   Well, we’re screwed.

   I’ve been up half the damn night going over these mineral requirements from those quacks over at ASC and there is no way this is happening!! I mean, we barely have enough of the basics like oil and coal remaining, at least what we can get to, but duranium? Neutronium? It’s under solid magma, most of it!! Or irradiated wasteland!! And don’t get me started with boronide.

   But as we well know, what Dr. Stohl wants, Dr. Stohl gets, right? All I know is I can’t crap tritanium out of my ass, much as I’d like to. The conversion to the factories and mines needed to scoop more of this crap out of the ground is going well, but it takes money to make money, and we ain’t got that much money anymore.

   There is one hope.  I have assembled some of the finest geologic minds remaining in the world and created an elite survey team, ‘Alpha’. Over the next year or so, they will scour the world planting geologic probes and dropsondes in the oceans, looking for these blasted materials. If there is truly no other deposits remaining, than I fear humanity will have to choose: a blind leap of faith into the stars looking for a new home for us, or try and fix the blasted shell of a world that we’ve got now.

   Boy, I’m glad I’m not Dr. Stohl if that’s the case.

        END ENTRY

[Texashawk (OP)]

3.23.2023
GEO SURVEY 'ALPHA' TERMINAL REPORT
USE CLASSIFIED CHARLIE LEVEL
COMMANDING OFFICER: REAMS, ASA P.

PRIMES, FIRST MINISTER STOHL,

WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR SURVEY OF THE PLANET EARTH. WE HAVE MANAGED TO GEOMAP AND TAG ALMOST 97 PERCENT OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE AND THE OCEAN FLOOR, AND HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN LOCATING AN ADDITIONAL DEPOSIT OF SORIUM. IT IS EASILY EXTRACTABLE AND THIS WOULD ALMOST DOUBLE OUR GLOBAL STOCKPILE TO 160,653 TONS.

WE HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOCATING ANY ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF TN MINERALS AND DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ADDITIONAL DEPOSITS EXIST ON EARTH. NOTE THAT MANY SURVEY AREAS (31.4%) WERE HIGHLY IRRADIATED AND THUS SOME RESULTS MAY NOT BE RELIABLE.

RECOMMENDATION: RESURVEY IRRADIATED AREAS IN TEN YEARS; SEND AUTOMATED MINES TO THE SORIUM DEPOSIT GEOTAGGED (NOTE: 9% OF GEOTAGS ARE IN IRRADIATED AREAS. USE EXTREME CAUTION.)

I AM SORRY WE DID NOT FIND MORE. MY TEAM DID THEIR BEST.

STAR CAPTAIN ASA REAMS, COMMANDING, EARTH GEOLOGIC SURVEY TEAM 'ALPHA'

END REPORT///....


4/2/2023 - WASHINGTON, DC, USE

Melissa Stohl sat at her desk like someone who had real power over their fate. Certainly, she had all the trappings of power: a world army, instant point-to-point communications, ministers at her beck and call, a populace who had come to depend on her and her decisions for their fate.

If only they knew how little power she really had.

After reading yet another report on dwindling mineral supplies, primarily used to convert the conventional factories into the new fabrication centers and mines needed to create TN tech components, she wanted to scream. What she did was to fling the plastic printout into the oil painting of George Washington. What good was power without a reasonable way to project it?

And more to the point, what was power if there was nobody left to lead?

She reflected on the grim words of her Sciences Prime and Alpha. Project NOAH was behind schedule; that idiot Hamsher was screaming for more labs to increase progress in... what was it again?... yes, the 'pressurized water reactor'. Hamsher claimed it was essential to create conventional starship engines that would be at least reasonably fuel-efficient. She asked about how the jump theory was progressing, but as usual Hamsher was single-minded to a fault; he claimed that the jump drive technology could wait until engine theory was more mature.

Project GENESIS was faring marginally better. While Alpha Ballengee was making progress, he had sent a cloyingly worded report... whine would be more appropriate... that Hamsher was giving him the use of one lone lab for his work. He demanded to have the use of an additional lab, or he would walk on the project. Stohl despised being blackmailed; she despised more wasting a perfectly good Star Delta squad to, erm, bring Alpha Ballengee back on schedule. She trusted a mini-railgun pointed in his general direction at all times would prevent further spasms of treason.

But the situation was untenable, and the problem, Stohl had to admit, was that both scientists were right. They needed more resources, and they needed them yesterday. And then there was the insufferable Mendizabal pissing and moaning in his reports about 'no minerals' and 'unrealistic demands' and 'smegting tritanium bricks'. What weak, pathetic excuses for her Primes. Now her Internal Security Prime, Brigadier General Lance Beams, that was a man of action. He had a hell of a job keeping the restless remaining population of Earth under control, and so far he had managed to hold the dam together.

But the others; who was there to replace them?

Grimly cracking her knuckles, she began to review the dossier of every remaining field expert or political leader left in the world.

Time was running out, and there was no time for the weak to write the coda of the human species.


7.12.2023
INTSEC PRIME REPORT
USE CLASSIFIED DELTA LEVEL
BRIG GEN BEAMS, LANCE

FIRST MINSTER STOHL,

FIRST, THANK YOU FOR THE ADDITIONAL BATTALIONS REQUESTED MONTHS AGO. THE BATTALION COMMAND BASED IN MEXICO CITY HAS HELPED TREMENDOUSLY. HOWEVER, INSOFAR AS TOTAL GLOBAL STABILITY IS CONCERNED I AM REPORTING THAT THE SECURITY SITUATION IS BECOMING DANGEROUSLY UNSTABLE.

INTSEC ESTIMATES BASED ON OPERATIVES BASED IN KEY POPULATION CENTERS THROUGHOUT THE USE THAT UNREST IS APPROACHING 13%. A COMBINATION OF RADIATION SICKNESS THAT IS AFFECTING THE UNSHELTERED POPULATION AND THE CONTINUED ASH BLANKET THAT IS CAUSING A SHORTAGE OF FOOD AND OXYGEN IS DRIVING THE PROBLEM. OUR GARRISON DIVISIONS AND MP BRIGADES ARE HELPING, BUT THEY ARE JUST A BAND-AID ON A RAILGUN WOUND.

THE WORLDWIDE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS ARE PROCEEDING, BUT I FEAR THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HOUSE THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF EARTH BEFORE A WORLDWIDE SPASM OF REBELLION AND ANARCHY TAKE HOLD. THEREFORE, BARRING SUBSTANTIAL DEVELOPMENTS WITH 'GENESIS', INTSEC ESTIMATES WE WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL DIVISIONS IN THE FOLLOWING SECTORS:

EUROPE SECTOR - GERMANY REGION, FRANCE REGION, BRITANNIA REGION - 1 DIVISION EACH
CHINA-ASIA SECTOR - CHINA REGION, EASTERN RUSSIA REGION - 2 DIVISIONS EACH
AFRICA SECTOR - SOUTH AFRICA REGION - 1 DIVISION TOTAL

IF NO FURTHER ACTION IS TAKEN, INTSEC ESTIMATES PROBABILITY OF UNCONTROLLABLE ANARCHY AT 44.2% WITHIN 2 YEARS. MY GUYS AND GALS ARE BUSTIN' THEIR ASSES OUT THERE, BUT THEY NEED HELP, FIRST MINISTER.

I AWAIT YOUR REPLY.

YOURS TO COMMAND,
GENERAL LANCE BEAMS, USE INTSEC

END REPORT///...

[Texashawk (OP)]

Just a little note...

I have restarted this campaign using 5.14 -  I had to manually change quite a few things and add a few things to fit with the new version, but Stohl and the boys are back on schedule!!!

Stay tuned.

[Texashawk (OP)]

4/1/2023 - ANNAPOLIS, UNITED STATES, USE

"Ladies and gentlemen, cadets and officers, it is my most humble privilege to introduce one of the most decorated cadet officers in Annapolis's history - our valedictorian, Cadet. Jame Saville!!!"

With those words from the commandant, the tall,lanky Saville came to the podium amongst thunderous applause. There was hardly a cadet who did not know of the name, and the deeds, of Jame Saville. With extraordinary leadership skill, best demonstrated during a zero-g exercise where the training 'shuttle' was hurtling towards Earth with its gyrostabilizer disabled where instead of taking hopeless time to try to fix the problem, he simply programmed the auto-eject system to fire once the tilt was at a 160 azimuth from the Earth. He was the only cadet to save everyone aboard.

That out-of-the-box thinking, along with his mastery at teaching and training his teams throughout his classes and provings, quickly shot him to sure-fire Star Captain status in the near future, and there were even whisperings that he would be the first XO of the first ship of the fleet, several years hence.

As Williams Schaumburg watched, as a junior who was known more for potential than ever actually shining out, his eyes narrowed. Not with jealousy - Schaumburg believed too much time was wasted coveting things that were out of reach - but with desire to show that he could be just as good as Saville. In the brief times their paths had crossed on the campus, Schaumburg had never been impressed, though he had to admit that Saville was a near-genius when it came to the conceptual ideas of alien languages. He would be a fine Star Captain indeed one day, Schaumburg thought.

But not better than me.

[Texashawk (OP)]

4.1.2024
LOGISTICS AND CONSTRUCTION REPORT
USE CLASSIFIED DELTA LEVEL
LOGISTICS PRIME OMER MENDIZEBAL

FIRST MINISTER STOHL,

IT IS WITH GREAT EXCITEMENT THAT I RELAY TO YOU OUR PROGRESS IN THE VARIOUS GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS THAT WE HAVE EMBARKED ON.

FOR THE USE FISCAL YEAR 2024, WE HAVE COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING:

     WE HAVE NEARLY DOUBLED OUR GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION CAPACITY, FROM 525 MILLION TONS OF CONSTRUCTION PER MONTH TO JUST OVER 1013 MILLION TONS PER MONTH. THE BUILDING OF OUR NEW HIGH-CAPACITY CONSTRUCION COMPLEXES AND THE TN TECHNOLOGY THEY CONTAIN IS PRODUCING A LOGARITHMIC EFFECT ON OUR BUILD CAPACITIES.

     WE HAVE ALSO BUILT ALMOST 7 MINES USING THE NEW MINERAL PARAMETERS. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE RAMP UP PRODUCTION OF THESE MINES, AS OUR CONSTRUCTION IS SOMEWHAT LIMITED BY OUR MINERAL SUPPLY.

     WORK ON THE PROTOTYPE TERRAFORMER IS 15% COMPLETE. PRIME HAMSHER IS DISPLEASED AT THE RATE OF CONSTRUCTION BUT WITHOUT MORE FACILITIES WORK CAN NOT BE SPEEDED AND I AM NOT READY TO ALLOCATE ADDITIONAL FACILITIES AT THIS TIME. THIS IS OF COURSE AT YOUR DISCRETION FIRST MINISTER BUT IT IS MY OPINION THAT WE SHOULD CONTNUE TO FOCUS ON THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF BUILDING, INCLUDING CONSTRUCTION AND MINES.

     THE NEW NAVAL SHIPYARD IS PROCEEDING VERY SLOWLY. CURRENTLY WE ARE ONLY 4% COMPLETE. PERHAPS THE DECISION TO BUILD AN ENTIRELY NEW SHIPYARD INSTEAD OF RETROFITTING A WATER NAVAL SHIPYARD AS WE DID WITH THE ARMSTRONG-WHITWORTH YARD WAS IN ERROR. NONETHELESS, THE FOUNDATION HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND THERE ARE FEW OPTIONS OTHER THAN TO PROCEED WITH THE NEW CONSTRUCTION.

     THE ADDITION TO ANNAPOLIS IS PROCEEDING AS SCHEDULED; 2% COMPLETE - WE KNEW THIS WOULD NOT BE A PRIORITY UNTIL WE HAD ESTABLISHED A LARGE SPACE NAVY. WITH THE ACCELERATING RISE OF CONSTRUCTION, THE ADDITION SHOULD TAKE LESS THAN 6 YEARS.

     DESPITE MY OBJECTIONS, THE NEW RESEARCH COMPLEX IN THE CALIFORNIA SECTOR IS PROCEEDING AT 2% COMPLETION. PLEASE INFORM PRIME HANSHER THAT I WILL NOT REALLOCATE ANY FURTHER RESOURCES TOWARD ITS DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT YOUR ORDER. THANK YOU.

    NOW FOR THE MINERAL REPORT:
    Duranium 48,430  Acc: 1
    Neutronium 8,430  Acc: 1    
    Corbomite 117,336  Acc: 0.2
    Tritanium 29,601  Acc: 0.7
    Boronide 20,672  Acc: 0.4
    Mercassium 118,686  Acc: 0.2
    Vendarite 139,287  Acc: 0.9
    Sorium 23,430  Acc: 1
    Uridium 8,587  Acc: 0.9
    Corundium 9,686  Acc: 0.2
    Gallicite 18,922  Acc: 0.4

    I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED THE MINERALS THAT NEED OUR ATTENTION IN RED, AND THE OVERSUPPLY IN GREEN. DUE TO THE REAMS TEAM FIND OF VENDARITE, WE SHOULD NOT NEED TO FIND ADDITIONAL SUPPLY FOR A VERY LONG TIME. I AM VERY WORRIED ABOUT MERCASSIUM, NOT BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE MUCH OF IT IN THE EARTH BUT THE DIFFICULTY IN GETTING IT OUT. WORK ON THE SCIENCE LABS IN PARTICULAR WILL NOT PROCEED WITHOUT A FASTER WAY OF MINING THIS SUBSTANCE.

    AS ALWAYS, IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS ABOUT THIS REPORT, I AM AT YOUR DISPOSAL.

    YOURS TO COMMAND,
    OMER MENDIZABAL
    LOGISTICS PRIME

END REPORT///...

[Texashawk (OP)]

Personal log of Dr. Markus Pride
April 3rd, 2024

Well, it took some real wrangling by that ass Hamsher, but I finally convinced him that I was the right man for the job of developing the prototype pressurized water reactor. After all, I didn't get an MIT education in propulsion theory and work at Boeing because I looked good. But no, that pompous ass wanted to take all the credit and glory for designing the first true next-gen engine. Hell, we don't even have an engine design prototyped yet, since we don't know how effective these water reactors will be!!

Anyway, I think I've got a handle on the theory, and where that blowhard said it would take into next year to even get the basics, I'll have this puppy done before the end of this year. And then once Joey gets done with the sensor technology he's been working on - too bad we don't have any sensors experts on team, but I think I can give him an hand on that as well - we'll be able to design a basic scout to get beyond the moon!!!

Exciting stuff - if I don't go to prison for killing the Science Prime first.

Marcus

[Texashawk (OP)]

SEPTEMBER 1, 2024 - ANNAPOLIS, US REGION, USE

"Jame! Wait up!"

Jame Saville smiled, hearing the voice approaching like a Doppler wave behind him. Turning around at the last moment, he spied the lovely visage of Erin Hokama coming to a stop, her blinding smile giving him pause.

"Hey Erin! What's up?" he replied.

"You know what's up, you rat!" she said, slapping him on the arm. "You got your Star Lieutenant bars, and you didn't tell me!"

Saville grinned. "First of all, it's Lieutenant, Junior Grade, and second, I just got them this morning. They didn't even have a ceremony, really, just a little thing my CO did for me during breakfast in the mess. So how did you find out?"

"Are you kidding? Everybody knows, Jane! Don't you know you're a celebrity here at little ol' Annapolis?"

Saville did feel the weight of expectations, of course, but he preferred not to think about them too much. It kept him sane at night when it was just him and the darkness. "Oh, come on. I haven't really done anything yet! Wait until we get some ships up in space, and then we'll talk."

"Oh, I'm waiting. I plan to be on the first ship up - just like you!"

"Well, then, don't you think you better get back to your comm class? I hear they're going to need someone top-notch at the Comm station, and you know thats's Hilzer's speciality..."

"Screw Hilzer. I'm got him beat by a mile in my command skills. You know that."

Indeed Saville did. Hokama had the highest fleet command potential rating in the history of Annapolis, at an mind-blowing 357. Hell, maybe she'd be the first captain of a warship. Fortunately for Saville's career, Hokama was regarded by her instructors as brilliant, but overaly methodical, and potentially incapable of making split-second decisions. She'd probably make a hell of a tac officer, though, forget comms.

"All right. I've got to run," Saville said, "but I'll see you for dinner? We can celebrate... hell, let's go all out! Let's go for steak!"

Hokama's eyes widened. "Steak? Are you sure?"

Steak in a post-war Earth was extremely rare and pricey, as most of the animals who provided it died due to the cold and dust. There were a few massive indoor ranches, protected from the bitter cold, and some new ranches near Central America - but beef was still considered a rare commodity.

"Steak'." Saville stated. "Now off you go." She departed, reluctantly, as Saville contemplated how good real meat would taste for the first time in over 2 years.

[Texashawk (OP)]

USE NEWS REPORT... DATELINE 3.3.2026
HOUSTON, TEXAS REGION

Yesterday, Scientist Barton Bednarcyzk, 27, was severely injured in a reactor accident at the Ascension Stellar Complex in Houston. It is known that work is going on to initiate space travel, and it is thought that Bednarcyzk developed severe radiation poisioning while assisting on the project. His team leader Markus Pride said in a statement, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Barton and his family. While he was not a lead on this particular project, his inspiration and energy drove the whole team to success. We pray for a full recovery and we will be dedicating the engine design in his name."

As usual, First Minister Stohl had no comment on the incident.

END DATELINE
42

[Texashawk (OP)]

DECEMBER 15, 2026
ASCENSION STELLAR COMPLEX, HOUSTON, TEXAS REGION, USE

Science Prime Ruben Hamsher was in a foul mood, as usual these days. The monthly reports for progress from the First Minster had progressed to weekly ones. While he understood that she was desperately trying to keep together a dying world, he couldn't exactly pull out a whip and beat the scientists and leads to work harder. They understood the deal, and you couldn't rush science. What WOULD be a huge benefit would be an additional lab to work, but unfortunately that asshat Omar was piddling around with minimal resources for the Cal lab. 3 years, and only 10 percent complete? My God, we'll all freeze to death before that thing gets finished!! "Long term future", he says. "Look towards the building power we'll have once we get our construction facilities up and running," he says. Pah!

So lost in his depression was he, he failed to notice that the world was spinning. When he looked up, he found himself on the ground, people rushing all around him, telling him to lie still. "I can't lie still, you fools! There's work to be done... work to be done..." He thought he felt a prick on his left arm. "Ow! What are you doing!" he said to the man in the white coat anxiously hovering above him. "What are you.... what's this.... you bas...."

Darkness.


DECEMBER 30, 2026
ASCENSION STELLAR COMPLEX, HOUSTON, TEXAS REGION, USE

The debate was hot and heavy around the recent heart attack of Science Prime Hamsher. He was in poor health, and though he was not actively in charge of any one project, his leadership set the tone for the entire science program. With the retirement of Barton, that left 3 functional lead scientists, including Alpha Ballengee.

There was a strong belief that Ballengee should be promoted in interim to Prime, but since that decision could only be made by the First Minister, they could do nothing but send the request and wait. In the meantime, the strong leadership skills of Markus Pride took up the slack - while heading up the ambitious Nuclear Thermal Engine project that would mark the conclusion of the basic stellar technology needed to watch the stars, he also began to work with Ballengee on the sensor designs that would be needed to chart the stars.

And while all this was going on, the Prime lay in a dark hospital bed, semiconscious, alone and scared for the future of the human race. After all, if he was not at the research helm, how could humanity possibly survive?

[Texashawk (OP)]

JUNE 2, 2027
OVAL OFFICE, WASHINGTON, DC, US REGION

First Minister Stohl was chewing absently on a lightpen, staring out through the window into the snow when her comm screen flashed urgent red. PRIORITY ALPHA message, it insisted. With a sigh - really, what was a priority anymore? - she jabbed at the comm button with her chewed-up lightpen tip. The excited visage of Markus Pride, acting Science Prime, appeared on the screen.

"First Minister, I have excellent news!! The space engine is complete, and all tests are normal. We're almost ready to build a starship for spaceflight! Project NOAH is a success!!"

Five years I have waited to hear this news...

"Excellent news, Prime. But.., almost? So you are saying we can almost begin construction of starships to look for another Earth?"

Pride hesitated, frowned, then. "Well, we have to design the starships first. Not knowing what the working engine parameters would be, it would be difficult to prototype something that big. Of course, we have been actively working on life support, grav fields, command centers, hab modules, all the other needed requirements, but propulsion was the big one. If you want to travel to distant stars or planets, you need a much bigger kick than a chemical propulsion engine. You need a fusion engine, like the one we've just developed. And we're still wrapping up sensor tech - a huge priority for us is to find not only habitabable places to live, but find more of these minerals. We can not grow without these minerals, so developing the technology to scan asteroids is a priority as well."

"I see," Stohl said. "So... we're NOT ready for space travel yet?" Her eyes narrowed.

"No..." Pride hastily replied, "that's not it. We can now send a ship into space. The question now is what exactly would it be able to do? Without sensors, it's flying blind. We need information about what's out there, not just to say we've been there. Of course, on your order I can assign the design teams at Boeing and the USE Bureau of Starship Design to begin the design process of a ship that goes anywhere and does nothing once it gets there, but... that would not be my recommendation. Wait for at least the geo sensors to be created. Another year and a half, tops. My word."

Stohl grimaced. "We've patiently waited half a freakin' decade for you boys down in Ascension to perfect space travel, and now you call me all excited to say... wait another year and a half?? Are you MAD?"

Pride shrank at the tone of her voice. "F-F-First Minister, I was simply..."

"No, Prime." Stohl replied, ice dripping from her words. "I will not wait 'another year and a half, tops.' I can not wait any longer. Each day that humanity waits for progress is another day that despair begins to set in. IntSec is going crazy already trying to keep the peace worldwide, and despite the heroic effort of General Beams it is a fight that we are about to lose. If worldwide morale drops to such a level that our government is overwhelmed, then... your 'year and a half' will not matter when our labs are being burned to the ground by desperate mobs who need light and heat, eh?

"No. You will begin the design of a ship. It will be a symbolic ship, to be sure, but it will be a ship that travels to Pluto and back. Humanity MUST see that we have the capability to go there. They will not care so much about what it can or can not do, as long as it can fly. In the meantime, once your sensor technology is complete, we can begin to design ships of purpose. But do you understand?"

Pride bowed. "Yes, First Minister. I understand the logic. Please understand, I am very excited to be telling you this. I just wanted you to understand the ramifications of the technology."

Stohl smiled, not unkindly. "As did I, Prime. As did I. Notify Boeing and the BSD. We're going to the stars."