Juxtaposition Junction: The Cren Connection
Ruben Mar-Veil eyed the super-freighter critically.
Standing on the observation bridge of the Provincial, the Gestalt Colonial Flagship and CDF super-carrier, he was surprised to find the pride of his fleet dwarfed by the merchant vessel which itself was not so much so longer then the Admirals command as it was wide. The tanker had not started life as such.
Dauntless Merchant had been constructed as a passenger transport, a galactic cruise liner to ferry the richest and most opulent from start to star. It had not been long for that life either and with the war had been repurposed by the rebels as an armed battleship which; a role it was oddly well suited to. For a time, from one owner to another, it would ply the space lanes as a terrorist stronghold, a pirate raider and even a privateer’s defender before being captured by a joint Kashan-Gestalt detachment in engaged combat.
At first no one had known quite what to do with it. Suggestions were fielded by both sides but in the end it was decided that the cruiser would be stripped and repurposed as a large-scale cargo transport to accommodate the increasing trade between Gestalt I and Kashan. Much of that construction had been carried out at Kashan yards but as their facilities were suborbital, at the time, only so much work could be done before hefting the behemoth back into space; too much weight would have prevented this and damaged the ship itself. The final stages of development were then carried out at Shipwright Colonial Shipyards in complete contradiction to the plans for the new Coalition flagship.
“Like ants,” the Admiral observed of the constant stream of supply freighters moving from Gestalt I to the merchant convoy. “That is one big queen to satisfy.”
Colonial Minister Ramos agreed with a nod.
The two of them had been observing the final stages, watching and commenting on the various goings on. Off the bow of the Provincial, in delta formation, three other capital scale vessels of descending size were taking on their own final provisions. Much of the operation had been arranged with breakneck speed yet it was being conducted with anything but sloppiness.
“What an effort,” added Admiral Mar-Veil.
An aged military man, a professional space-navy commander, he appreciated the clockwork like approach. At fifty eight years old he had spent the majority of his life in service, first with the old Galactic Republic and then as an Imperial linesman, when the war finally threatened his family and he was forced to admit the true nature of the Empire he defected to the Rebel Alliance. That hadn’t lasted either.
Tracing the lines of the new super freighter Ruben felt a certain sense of sympathy for the old ship.
“When are we expecting the Kashans?” Paula Ramos asked between looking at her chronometer and the distant terminus of the Gestalt-Kashan Hyper Lane. She could not see it, her naval career had been as an astrogator which had instilled in her a very good sense of spatial orientation. “I did not have time to check my updated schedule.”
She had been pushing for this mission now for weeks and had only been able to push it through with the help of Pro-Consul Thorn on the side of the Kashan government and was thus eager to see to their arrival.
A mere hundred thousand kilometers from their present position was the terminus for the newly completed series of hyperlanes that connected the planet Kashan with the Gestalt Colonies. It was heavily fortified with floating gunnery platforms and further defended by the ubiquitous minefield that tracked the length of the route, jump point to jump point.
This was part of the motivation behind the hastily assembled mission. As the planet Gestalt I continued its rotation around the distant primary it moved ever further away from the terminus. Normally this would not have been a problem but for the fact that solar flare activity was expected to be on the increase over the next weeks and this would hamper their departure.
“They should be arriving shortly. We received their security codes on the hypernet just a few minutes ago.”
Colonial Minister Ramos just nodded again.
She had very high hopes for the venture.
Ruben Mar-Veil eyed the super-freighter critically.
Standing on the observation bridge of the Provincial, the Gestalt Colonial Flagship and CDF super-carrier, he was surprised to find the pride of his fleet dwarfed by the merchant vessel which itself was not so much so longer then the Admirals command as it was wide. The tanker had not started life as such.
Dauntless Merchant had been constructed as a passenger transport, a galactic cruise liner to ferry the richest and most opulent from start to star. It had not been long for that life either and with the war had been repurposed by the rebels as an armed battleship which; a role it was oddly well suited to. For a time, from one owner to another, it would ply the space lanes as a terrorist stronghold, a pirate raider and even a privateer’s defender before being captured by a joint Kashan-Gestalt detachment in engaged combat.
At first no one had known quite what to do with it. Suggestions were fielded by both sides but in the end it was decided that the cruiser would be stripped and repurposed as a large-scale cargo transport to accommodate the increasing trade between Gestalt I and Kashan. Much of that construction had been carried out at Kashan yards but as their facilities were suborbital, at the time, only so much work could be done before hefting the behemoth back into space; too much weight would have prevented this and damaged the ship itself. The final stages of development were then carried out at Shipwright Colonial Shipyards in complete contradiction to the plans for the new Coalition flagship.
“Like ants,” the Admiral observed of the constant stream of supply freighters moving from Gestalt I to the merchant convoy. “That is one big queen to satisfy.”
Colonial Minister Ramos agreed with a nod.
The two of them had been observing the final stages, watching and commenting on the various goings on. Off the bow of the Provincial, in delta formation, three other capital scale vessels of descending size were taking on their own final provisions. Much of the operation had been arranged with breakneck speed yet it was being conducted with anything but sloppiness.
“What an effort,” added Admiral Mar-Veil.
An aged military man, a professional space-navy commander, he appreciated the clockwork like approach. At fifty eight years old he had spent the majority of his life in service, first with the old Galactic Republic and then as an Imperial linesman, when the war finally threatened his family and he was forced to admit the true nature of the Empire he defected to the Rebel Alliance. That hadn’t lasted either.
Tracing the lines of the new super freighter Ruben felt a certain sense of sympathy for the old ship.
“When are we expecting the Kashans?” Paula Ramos asked between looking at her chronometer and the distant terminus of the Gestalt-Kashan Hyper Lane. She could not see it, her naval career had been as an astrogator which had instilled in her a very good sense of spatial orientation. “I did not have time to check my updated schedule.”
She had been pushing for this mission now for weeks and had only been able to push it through with the help of Pro-Consul Thorn on the side of the Kashan government and was thus eager to see to their arrival.
A mere hundred thousand kilometers from their present position was the terminus for the newly completed series of hyperlanes that connected the planet Kashan with the Gestalt Colonies. It was heavily fortified with floating gunnery platforms and further defended by the ubiquitous minefield that tracked the length of the route, jump point to jump point.
This was part of the motivation behind the hastily assembled mission. As the planet Gestalt I continued its rotation around the distant primary it moved ever further away from the terminus. Normally this would not have been a problem but for the fact that solar flare activity was expected to be on the increase over the next weeks and this would hamper their departure.
“They should be arriving shortly. We received their security codes on the hypernet just a few minutes ago.”
Colonial Minister Ramos just nodded again.
She had very high hopes for the venture.
