Humanity Endures

Part 1 - The Expeditionary Fleet | Chapter 4

Though it was old, had sustained countless refits, and though it looked much like a few rectangular prisms joined and rounded by stylish ridges of curved armor, the Nemesis remained a means of destruction, refined and condensed into a work of art. Its metallic, dark-grey hull, whose silver decoration and armored gun barrels caught the light in equal measure, could capture the imagination of anyone — were it physically possible, Velan would have happily mounted the ship on his wall; as it happened, the best that he could manage was to place a framed picture of the ship in his cabin, located within the ship itself. For movement, the vessel possessed a densely-packed collection of engines on the rear of the ship, their expansive, supremely efficient fuel tanks were concealed nearby below a fair amount of armor. Similar but smaller setups existed in strategic places across the Nemesis's hull, on every side of the ship, so that the craft could move in any direction imaginable for purposes of evasion or maneuver.

Velan's ship could move effectively, and, with powerful weaponry affixed to every side of the vessel, it was able to fight effectively as well. Its supremely potent frontal weaponry coincided with the rest of the ship's design, much of which was capable of firing forwards, as this is what the Empire's doctrine stipulated. Most ships in the Imperatorial Navy — the galaxy's federal fleet, controlled by the Imperator, Military Council, and the bureaucracies associated with them — if not always the less standardized navies of individual planets, were engineered to simply bring all of their weaponry to bear against a foe, and to endure return fire through superior armor while this foe was reduced to atoms. This design allowed them to effectively fight at any distance, and in almost any situation; imperatorial ships could charge and close the distance for close-quarters duels, or employ their superior firepower and robust armor to trade shots from a range, and they could do all of this without sustaining lethal damage. This versatility was well-suited to a navy that could be forced to fight in any situation, anywhere in the galaxy, at any time, should the vast Empire's peace be disturbed; with the Imperatorial Navy being maintained and contributed to by almost every planet and space station in the Empire, it was the largest and most potent fighting force that humanity had ever known.

Like all things human, and especially like those things on Earth, however, the Nemesis was decorated — extensively. With most of its edges gilded, and the rest painted with an alluring, sophisticated, silver-infused grey sheen, the vessel may not have even been comparable to the Capital Complex, or even most other ships stationed on Earth — not even a single gemstone could be seen on its hull — but it certainly was not an eyesore. Indeed, the lack of excessive decoration made the warship more tasteful, and it seemed to be more practical as well. On the bow of the ship, a stylized, two-dimensional illustration of the Milky Way was emblazoned — this was the flag of the Empire, and one could see it on most non-Kalithiharian warships and government buildings. Written in gleaming silver on the port-side of the ship, between a nuclear missile turret and an escape pod launch tube, was the Nemesis's fine name.

The escape pod launchers nearby this name, surprisingly, looked as sleek as any of the craft's weapons — in reality, they were more modern than those very weapons. The escape-pod system, built with near-complete disregard for the long-term survivability of any crew members it saved, was instead being focused on saving as many in near-term as possible, and it reflected much of the Empire's naval logic perfectly. The only foes the Empire's navies would fight, barring infrequent civil wars, were pirates, mutineers, and the occasional rebel — when battling small numbers of such inferior craft, the Empire expected to win every naval battle that it fought. As such, escape pods were designed to keep as much of the crew alive as possible through the destruction of their ship, so that they could be rescued after the combat had been won, rather than concentrating on being able to sustain those who escaped death for weeks. Why would such a thing need to be prioritized, if every battle was going to be won regardless?

Velan suspected that this age-old assumption was about to be challenged by Light's End, and he couldn't be more eager to test this suspicion. There were already hundreds of crew members milling about the area, excitedly chatting about how the ship had been unshackled, as they waited for their captain's return. As Velan's hypersphere burst open and he bounded out into the comparatively utilitarian dry-dock — which was unadorned because gold paint was unlikely to last long when starships were landing atop it — he was met with cheers, celebration, and even toasts from those who were lucky enough to have drinks with them. Even his communications officer, Kalcxikan, famous for his ability to refuse alcohol, and his inordinately large family of nine, took to celebratory drink. Light's End beckoned, Velan's heart and his crew grew restless, and Velan then realized that he hadn't said something inspiring in a long while. As the jubilant, eager crowd lavished him with praise and celebrated their liberation, Velan, climbing atop a nearby crate of explosive ordinance, spoke to his crew, "This universe of ours has exceptional dramatic timing: no sooner are we freed from this docking bay than the galaxy is thrown into a panic! The damnable celestial body of Light's End acts in defiance of the Empire's peace, and it is costing billions of people sleep across the galaxy. To think that all of this havoc is being wrought by a mere misbehaving black hole; I hope I don't need to remind you that, as members of humanity's finest navy, it is our duty to make it behave! That system might hold anything, but I know that whatever it contains is infinitely weaker than what I have before me now: a modern warship, whose lethality is exceeded only by that of its magnificent crew! I ask you, soldiers: who's ready to leave Earth, risk death, and get famous in the process?!"