Blue Star Enterprises-Chapter 206 - 4-22

Alexander stared silently at the pair of people across the desk from him. One was Admiral Krieger, who stood quietly by, looking annoyed. That annoyance was aimed at the second individual who stood at attention next to him.

"Sergeant Galloway, please explain to me why you started an altercation with the STO Marines?" Alexander decided to address the man by his former rank, even though BSE didn't have a military rank or structure for soldiers. Yet. "And it better be a good reason."

Considering how unrepentant Galloway seemed by the whole ordeal, despite his black eye and split lip, which Alexander had told the medical facility not to treat unless Galloway wished to pay for the services out of his own pocket, he wasn't sure any excuse would justify the man's actions.

"Sir, yes, sir," Galloway said stiffly.

Alexander groaned at the overly formal address and halted the man with a raised hand before he could begin. "I am not a commanding officer, Galloway. You can drop the formalities."

"You are a captain, though, sir, and thus outrank me," Galloway added.

Instead of arguing the point further, Alexander just motioned for the man to continue.

Galloway gave a stiff nod before proceeding. "When I heard that Marines would be coming down, I wished to have some drinks with former comrades in arms. Everything started out fine. We drank, shared stories, and shot the shit. Mostly it was me sharing stories since the Marines aboard the Blueridge are rather fresh. Still, they are fellow Marines. Eventually, others started filtering into the bar. A few of the Marines even caught the eyes of some local women."

Alexander paused the man again. "I don't need to know about the Marines' luck with women, Galloway. Tell me why you started the fight."

"It is germane to the story, sir. As I said previously, the night started out fine, and everyone was having a good time. Then the Asgardians showed up. Nothing came of their appearance at first. It wasn't until one of the Marines started flirting with an Asgardian woman that things started to get out of control. She spurned his advances and denigrated his place of birth and the STO in general. That's when the man realized she was not a native of the STO. The word pirate got thrown around, and the bar went silent."

Alexander looked confused by that. "I was told you were the one who started the fight, not some Asgardian who took offense to an insult."

"Oh, I definitely started the fight. The woman only laughed at the Marine, calling him a foolish puppet of the corporations. By then, the whole bar could hear their argument, and the other Marines started commenting on Eden's End being a pirate haven. I tried to shut it down, but they kept slandering the Asgardians until I got sick of listening to the nonsense. So I launched myself across the table and sucker-punched the biggest loudmouth of the group. From there, it devolved into a brawl between the STO folks and the people from Eden's End, which included the Asgardians."

"I can imagine it was rather one-sided at that point?" Alexander asked. Marines were trained soldiers, but they trained with guns and armor. The Asgardians did all that and then some. He had personally witnessed how formidable both could be in hand-to-hand combat, and his money would be on the Asgardians nine times out of ten.

The former Marine appeared to be uneasy at the question, but he nodded. "The Asgardians put everyone in their place before security even showed up."

"If that was the case, how did you end up with the black eye and split lip?"

The man broke his parade rest and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "The woman, whose honor I defended, wasn't happy that she didn't get to throw the first punch. She blamed me for that and demanded the last. I didn't get a say in the matter as she knocked me on my ass right before the security arrived."

"You do understand that this is a huge mess, right?" Alexander asked pointedly. "We have STO Marines in lockup until their shuttle comes down to collect them."

"I wouldn't be too worried, sir," Galloway added. "After the thrashing they took, I doubt the Marines will be too enthusiastic to give an accurate account of what transpired."

"For your sake, let's hope so. You are dismissed. Report to the Chief of Security for your punishment."

"Thank you, sir," Galloway saluted before turning and exiting the office.

Once the man was gone, Alexander turned to Krieger. "Do you think the Sergeant is right?"

Krieger had lost some of his anger during Galloway's retelling. Alexander didn't want to say the man looked smug, but it was close.

"Marines are a close-knit group. They are also very proud, so it is unlikely that they would report this to their commanding officers. Even if they do, I doubt the captain of the Blueridge will do anything about it. Nobody got injured too badly, and it looks bad for both sides if word gets out."

"What about Willard?" If anyone was going to get pissy over the altercation, it would be that man.

"The Vice Admiral," Krieger said with scorn, "will likely never hear about this incident. The captain of the ship is responsible for any ground forces aboard their vessels."

"I see," Alexander stated. "And that is why you came along with Galloway, even though he is technically not a soldier?"

"He is still part of my crew," Krieger confirmed. "I also owe the man for sticking by my side when most didn't. Will you be releasing Galloway from BSE for this infraction?"

Alexander didn't answer the Admiral's question right away. "Galloway's actions and your defense put you in an awkward position, and I don't envy you for that. That being said, I will not be terminating his contract for a single offense such as this. I will not be praising him for his actions either, even if they might have been justified."

Alexander paused to consider his next statement. "I understand Marines are men of action. Do you believe Galloway acted out due to boredom and frustration?"

"I don't feel confident in speculating on someone else's motivations," Krieger replied.

Alexander snorted at that. "Very diplomatic of you. For the sake of this argument, let's say he is."

"Hypothetically," Krieger added.

"Yes, hypothetically," Alexander added with a roll of his avatar's eyes. "With the Hawks leaving to rebuild their forces, we do need something to fill in the gap they left behind until they can return. What would you say to starting our own recruitment efforts here?"

"And put Galloway in charge of those efforts?" Krieger asked.

"In this hypothetical situation, yes," Alexander replied.

"While our pickings would be slim, I believe that would be a wonderful task for someone with too much time on their hands."

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"Good. You are now in charge of putting that together."

Krieger nodded.

"Oh, and figure out a rank structure. I want a clear chain of command for Navy and ground assets. If you want to stick with STO standards, that's fine. Just let me know."

"I will work with Galloway on that. It might be a hybrid since I expect the majority of our forces to come from Asgardians, but we will make it work."

"Good. Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss other matters. I was going to wait until our weekly briefing to go over this, but since you're here, you might as well take a look at the updated design specs of the new frigate."

Krieger smiled for the first time since entering the room. "I can hardly say no to that."

The man slid into the seat across from Alexander as he pulled up the design schematic.

"Orca class?" Krieger asked. "Weren't those also called killer whales?"

"They were."

"While I appreciate the class name, wouldn't that be better suited for a destroyer?"

Alexander would agree, which was why the Orca wasn't simply another frigate. "I plan on having the Orca replace both the role of frigate and destroyer in our fleet."

"A light destroyer?" Krieger asked as he looked over the design.

He could excuse the man for thinking that, but that wasn't the case here. Alexander had decided to create a new class of ship. "Not quite. I have decided to designate it as a heavy assault frigate. It won't be as bulky as a destroyer, even a light one, but it will pack the same punch."

"So less armor. Why not just make a destroyer then?"

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"Manpower; both what we have available and how many crew it would take to operate a much larger ship. I did some calculations on what it would take to automate a destroyer with BSE's current ability, and I didn't much like the results. It would take quite a few of the pseudo-computronics to make it work, and even then, it wouldn't be as efficient as the frigates. A destroyer, even a light one, would take around twenty crew per shift with the upgrades. So forty at a bare minimum to operate everything and ensure all the systems are maintained. That's a major improvement over a standard destroyer without the computer core, but we would be able to field maybe three of those ships before we run out of available crew."

"Probably more like sixty," Krieger added. "With bare minimum crews, there is no crew downtime, and that leads to burnout and reduced performance."

"Exactly, so maybe two ships instead of three. Our Eden frigates can run on twelve crew with six per shift. If we double that number to twenty-four for redundancy's sake, we are still well shy of the requirements for a destroyer to operate effectively. If my improvements with the processors pan out, we can rethink my design choices in the future, but the heavy assault frigate is the largest ship I could produce while keeping the crew requirements below forty. That's four rotating crews of ten. Cut that down to thirty, and in a pinch, we can crew five or six ships with the same firepower as a destroyer."

Krieger whistled at that. "I believe you when you say it has the same firepower as a destroyer, but how is that possible?"

Alexander manipulated the image to show one of the ship's four laser turrets.

"These are BSE's newest iteration of lasers. I was able to condense quite a few of the components thanks to what I learned from the corporate gunship as well as our gift," Alexander stated, referencing the code word given to the alien ship that Fletcher had dropped in their lap. "What we are left with is a frigate-scale laser capable of outputting nearly the same amount of power as the lasers on Vanguard. I wanted to fit these monsters on our frigates as well, but there wasn't enough space to add the additional power storage systems, which is why I went with a hybrid ship."

"I didn't realize you had made any headway on the gift," the man stated in surprise. "When did you have time to study it?"

"I mostly read through the reports that the other scientists left behind, but I did take a few samples myself. From those notes and samples, I was able to piece together a few interesting tricks to moving energy around a hell of a lot more efficiently. While I haven't built or tested these weapons yet, the battery and capacitors should be more efficient and hold more power than the ones currently aboard the ships."

"Will these upgrades be going into Vanguard and Tempest?"

"If I can work out any bugs in time, certainly. I would prefer if they got thoroughly tested in our existing ships before putting them into a new hull. If not, a simple retrofit after the fact won't take long. I plan on making the ships way easier to work on than before, so no more fumbling about trying to pull power cabling through tight maintenance corridors."

Krieger snorted at that. "I'm sure the engineers and techs will appreciate that. How big is the new class of ship?"

"About three hundred feet long when everything is said and done. As you can see, it has four turrets and six missile tubes. I know some larger frigates manage that same feat, but I doubt any of them will be able to boast the firepower of ours or the armor. This ship will be much tougher than a normal frigate, but it isn't designed for extended slugging matches with destroyers. With the design and weapons, it will be best utilized as a long-range strike ship or an alpha strike vessel to open a battle. At least that's my opinion. I'm sure you can think of other uses for it."

Krieger nodded. "I see two layers of armor, but I don't see the stealth armor. Have you not made any headway on that?"

"I have. I just don't plan on employing it on every ship." Alexander manipulated the projector, and a second ship appeared as a blurred silhouette with the words 'Top Secret' pasted across the image in large red letters. "All people present must scan their ID cards before the image can be viewed."

"New security measures?" Krieger asked as he passed his card through the identifier.

"Yes. With the STO around, I had Lucas add these to ensure nobody accidentally stumbled upon a meeting with potentially important images floating freely for everyone to see. If someone opened the door, the holo sensors would immediately blur the image again."

Krieger smiled. "I wholeheartedly approve."

The image came into focus showing a similar ship, but one that looked far more sinister.

"I would hate to run into that thing in a system," Krieger stated matter-of-factly.

Alexander doubted he would overcome the issues with the stealth armor in any reasonable amount of time, but he had been able to design some improvements into his own process. That being said, flat panels were still going to be a requirement until he figured out how to grow a ship. So instead of trying to make them fit the ship, he designed the ship to fit them better.

The change left the stealth variant of the Orca class looking more like the first iteration of the Stingray. It had a completely flat top and bottom, with slightly sloped sides that met in the middle, making it look a bit like a slightly squished box. The front of the ship had four flat faces that came to a point, making the vessel look like it was designed to ram other ships.

It was not designed to ram other vessels. That would be silly to do with any ship, and the stealth Orca was no exception. Given the design constraints and other features Alexander had implemented, it was simply the easiest design choice.

The back of the ship was a completely flat and featureless plane, with five rotating closure mechanisms that hid the thrusters. Even when they were open, the ends of the thrusters were tucked inside the hull to prevent sensors from picking up the cones. You would have to get a rearward angle on the vessel to even have a chance of picking up the ship on sensors if it were running dark.

All of the weapons were also stored internally, leaving practically nothing to return a sensor scan until the ship went into combat mode.

With the inclusion of the stealth missiles, the stealth version of the Orca would be far harder to detect than the Dawn ever was. And that wasn't just because of those design changes.

Alexander already knew the STO's biggest weakness when it came to the stealth ships, which was optical detection.

"You recall how we spotted Dawn, right?"

Krieger grimaced but nodded. "You detected the jump signature, and then you were able to find where it occluded stars or planets. I still can't believe decades of hard work were wasted by something so stupid."

"I wouldn't say they were wasted. The ship is still nearly impossible to lock onto. Anyway, watch the video, I think you will find it enlightening."

He played the presentation he had designed for their meeting.

The pair watched in silence as the holographic ship flew in front of a gas giant on the sunward side. The light-absorbing ship easily stood out for anyone to see. Then, it started to fade from view, and all that was left was a hazy outline in front of the gas giant.

"Cloaking technology?!" Krieger asked in astonishment.

"Not quite," Alexander chuckled lightly. "I believe the aliens used the fiber-optic passages in the armor for more than just optical sensors. I think they were able to pass light straight through the ship, making it appear to vanish. The video is an approximation of what this might look like. Ours won't be quite this effective considering the armor isn't a monolithic assembly like the alien ship, but I think I can eliminate at least seventy percent of the light occlusion."

"You might as well make it invisible at that point. God, I thought the Dawn was the pinnacle of stealth technology, but it won't even hold a candle to your ship. Talk about a monster from the dark. I assume this feature is only possible thanks to the supercomputers? And wait, does this mean you can turn invisible?"

"It should be," he stated, commenting on the computer question. "I haven't quite figured out the process of adding the diamond fiber optic passages to the armor or how to route them so it works properly from most angles. Those are all things I will need to work out before we build one. As for turning myself invisible, it should be possible, but I have no idea how to enable such a feature. My body didn't exactly come with an owner's manual or anything like that. I can't even engage my defensive field at will yet and I know I have that."