Industrial Commander

9

The Citadel was pressuring the System's Alliance. They had decided to put sanctions on the System's Alliance trade and connections if they didn't stop contact with me. Naturally, I wasn't happy with this. The problem with the STG is that they weren't actually useful as a political piece for one simple reason. The Salarian Councilor had replied saying that the Dalatriss and the Salarian STG Operative were rogue agents. Claiming that the STG didn't even exist. I could tell what their strat was instantly, Deny and Deny while attacking me.

They would be in for a surprise pretty soon. I had fully studied and put together the concepts leading up to Pre-Eezo humanity to the best of my abilities, which had identified a ton of flaws within my own programming and designs. Incorrect power measurements. Unreliable methods of transferring data and energy. All kinds of designs had to be reworked, and fixed. When added together with my current tech base? It would lead to a massive improvement in my abilities across the board.

As such I had to do a lot of management before I could actually commit to upgrades, predictions show that this will knock me out between anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours. So I hired security to protect the starports, and got some remote control turrets built on the starports for defenses against spaceship attacks. Hopefully, nothing drastic happens out of my control. The Power should remain active despite my temporary deactivation. Then I can start truly expanding and truly become a Planetary Annihilation Commander. Regardless, everything is set up. So let's initiate it.

—

The Eternal Trade, Second Starport. Located on the border of Systems Alliance space and the Attican Traverse.

Chief Security Officer Norman was having a very bad day. One one hand, they get to use the guns provided by Commander True. On the other hand? They were facing a full on invasion! A Batarian slaving party had attacked the Starport, and despite their best efforts, they were only able to destroy five of the thirty ships before the Batarians launched a nuclear weapon at the Starport, luckily the Starport was fine, the problem was that they had been disconnected completely from the external guns. Their technician suspects that unlike the station, the wiring for the guns hadn't been reinforced enough to withstand EMP's. Too hastily constructed, likely a crack or a hole in the construction allowing the nuke to EMP the guns. Which meant that Norman was supposed to organize their forces to resist the Batarian attack for two hours and thirty minutes. Luckily, the Security Forces were given a set of non-lethal options, and a set of lethal options. Naturally, we armed ourselves with the lethal options.

Chief Norman, while worried, was extremely giddy to wear the Power Armor. Each Security Officer had the ability to command up to four Dox, large robots with powerful lethal and non-lethal options. They had no plans on treating the Batarian raiders nicely.

—

Ofeth Profes was worried. They had taken up this contract to raid the Station, namely due to the weapons they were provided, and the large sum of credits they would receive if they succeeded. However they had already lost five ships within a span of the three minutes since they had arrived. Not to mention, upon landing they had to spend almost forty minutes drilling a hole large enough for them to actually board the station, which had gone into lockdown. They were using the best cutting lasers available and the metal of the station was able to resist a direct beam for forty minutes! These could cut into a Turian Frigate in a matter of only five minutes!

Still, He refused to back down. That contract would set him and his fleet up for years to come, all he would have to do is succeed in taking a few humans, who would also fetch him a good price. Of course, he wasn't personally going to go into the station, he was a royal after all. Why risk his life when the lower caste can take care of it. Although, things weren't going too well. The defending humans had POWER ARMOR! Who would give two eyes Power Armor of all things! He reached out to press his comms, to signal the retreat, when he felt pain in his back. He couldn't breath. He looked down at the fist that had been put through his heart. His neck had also been cut. He choked on his breath as he glanced at the Asari who put their hand on the comms link, and played a recording of his voice to command them to keep attacking. His last thought was that he had been played as he collapsed to the floor.

—
Chief Norman was in a good mood. He hadn't lost a single comrade, their power armor shields stopped the Batarians rounds reliably, and they knew when they had to retreat to let their shields recharge. Meaning they could hold the Batarians with ease. However Chief Norman then got a message that wiped his good mood away.

[Element Zero powered bomb like device has been detected. Remove as soon as possible.] The target was highlighted, the problem was that it was BEHIND the Batarian offensive line. He started rallying the other members of Security. When another message arrived.

[Detonation Detected, Enabling Null Lock.] Suddenly Chief Norman's body was completely frozen, he couldn't move a muscle. Then his vision was covered with blue flames. This was the last thing he saw.
—

I stretched, or well, mentally stretched. Feeling my processors and data respond instantly. I perceived the my world completely differently now. I started to examine everything that was going on in my facilities. I saw inefficiencies across the board. I was generating less energy than I should be, my rate of converting resources into parts was way too slow. Not to mention the layout of my Research World was terrible and I didn't have nearly enough Orbital Labs, meaning I had very little research done in spacial conditions.

Then I took notice of something enraging. In the short period of time that I was inactive, someone had attacked one of my Starports! I wasn't going to ignore this. My connections were only just starting to establish themselves again as I registered every device I was connected to. I had a lot to do. Messages from the System's Alliance to deal with, and I needed to see just how much damage was done. I sent the Red Guardian Fleet to the second Starport, while the Green Guardian Fleet was routed towards the first Starport.

I started to comb the recording as well, quickly identifying who had just attacked my Starport. The Batarians? Are they absolutely stupid? Attacking my space station? That was a flat out declaration of war! I started talking with the Diplomat on the Gateway station, transmitting my intentions. I wasn't going to let this blatant provocation go unanswered. The Batarians can either completely shut down their slaving operations, or face a war.

Then I looked at the list of casualties my system had provided after an inquiry. The processor that was processing this information froze for a moment, and then I was filled with anger. I had formed bonds with many of the people that lived on my Starports, and of the thirty thousand people that lived on my second Starport, six thousand had died due to a bomb. The Batarians were able to retreat, I had already predicted their path based on my cameras and radar detection of their exit direction. The Dark Matter trace had begun, and I knew their exact path. It was time to hunt down the remaining Batarians. Twenty five ships, twenty frigates, and five cruisers. Those are the ships I had to remove from existence.

I started to organize a funeral for the lost as I rescued the Security officials that had been frozen within their own suits for their own protection. If I can repurpose my Kinetic Dampener into a gun? I can definitely do the same for a shield. I started experimentation immediately, I wouldn't let something like this happen again.

Hmm, I also needed to hunt some things down. I was focused on the Batarians per the moment. But I could not forget the Reapers. I needed more knowledge, and I knew exactly where I would get it. The Protheans left an Avatar according to my memories. I was going to go and loot that living Prothean, and any tech left within their archives. Let's get a translation in progress for figuring out how to actually talk to the Prothean. As well as deal with any Anti-AI countermeasures from the VI incharge the Prothean facility.
—

"Hi Lora."

Lora looked up from the datapad that they had been frantically filling out. "True? You're back!"

"Yeah," Lora attempted to tell them about the Batarian attack, but True interrupted. "I know about the attack. I caught up as soon as I went back online. There will be consequences for this event."

"Consequences? What are you planning?"

"One of my facilities was attacked unprovoked, and Civilians were harmed in an organized assault from an alien race. Naturally, I am declaring war."

"Wait, are you sure you should start a war with the Batarians, you don't even know who they are?!"

"I know enough, they attacked a facility under my control, and set off an Element Zero equivalent of a mother of all bombs."

"But that Batarian group doesn't represent all Batarians, you don't know their culture or anything about them!"

True's drone deadpanned in response. "I will judge as I discover more information. But for now, this is considered a declaration of war by the race known as Batarians. Although, I have another question. Why was the existence of the Citadel and the other races a part of it kept from me in our talks?"

Lora shut their mouth.

"I expect a formal response from the Systems Alliance soon, Ambassador Lora. I have shown nothing but good will, and I have had important information regarding the safety of my Starports kept from me. No one had informed me that the location of The Eternal Trade was right next to a potentially hostile race." There was silence as the diplomatic bot left Lora in the room, who had instantly taken out their multitool to start reporting the situation to the Prime Minister.

—

Starport, The Eternal Trade.

I was operating on one thousand two hundred and sixty five humans at the same time, they were all in various states of immediate medical emergencies. I couldn't wait, as they would die without immediate treatment. I had a few Doctors working with my drones, but I was making more progress on my own. I had plenty of medical supplies.

I had three Fleets that were active at the same time, one at each Starport and the third was hunting down the fleeing Batarians. I was also building up a new fleet specifically for war against the Batarian Empire. I had completely revamped the ships of my new fleet, reducing the size by a fourth, but changing weapon locations and adding more weapons, as well as internal power generation. They actually had the same amount of armor as the previous versions of my ships. The wiring was just more efficient, and in some cases, completely replaced. All in all, they would completely outpace my current warships. But my current warships were good enough to deal with the Batarian fleet that had fled. My warfleet was going to absolutely crush the Batarians though.

I was fielding Carriers, Cruisers, Frigates, and most importantly, my first Dreadnought. The fleet would consist of a total of three hundred and one ships within a week at my current construction rate. Once that fleet sets off, I'll start construction on a second, then a third. I was going to completely crush the Batarian Empire. Although, the idea of gaining a Civilian population from this conquest is making me giddy.

Hmm. I wonder how the System's Alliance will respond to my anger. Because what I had asked in others eyes, would be completely reasonable. I wonder if they will keep out of my war against the Batarians, or assist me. Or maybe they will turn against me. I better be prepared just in case. I knew for a fact that the Batarians will attempt to weasel out of this, however. The moment a revenge war is no longer a good viewpoint, I'll simply turn it into a Liberation War. Regardless, I was technically a Sovereign nation that was attacked, so the System's Alliance have nothing to stand on regarding my upcoming actions.