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【Vision of an Alternate Future】

Arc 1: Ascendance

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【VAF】Chapter║: 3 ─ Aftermath

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43 days after the Attack on Earth Crystalorb's 6 Indigo Class Ships finally arrived back in Earth orbit. The Indigo, the Crimson, the Scarlet, the Violet, the Esara and the Nalen were ordered to move in formation in case some of the Sai Fighters survived the previous battle. Naole led the formation from onboard the Indigo, and the Indigo was now the oldest Crystalorb ship. The Council of Elders ordered the Indigo to join the Intrepid in collecting the debris of destroyed ships. The other Indigo Class Ships were ordered to help with power supply.

The Crimson landed on the outskirts of New York and plugged into the National grid supplying 90 Petajoules/sec to the Grid reserving 15 Petajoules/sec for its own systems. The Scarlet plugged into New Deli, the Violet plugged into Paris, the Esara plugged into Rio de Janeiro and the Nalen plugged into Shanghai. For the first time the people of Earth could see with their own eyes the largest ships ever built by humans. Crystalorb concluded that it was no longer necessary to stay hidden.

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60 days after the attack 3 Spatial Singularity formed and from their Event Horizons emerged a 5 Ship Tetrahedron StarShip Formation with the StarShip in the middle being some 50% larger than the other four ships which were similar to the Tetrahedron StarShip that had been orbiting earth for 60 days. All the people of Earth turned to their screens as the broadcast networks received a broadcast message from the approaching BattleGroup.

The media Division of Crystal Valley Industries 〘CVI News or CVIN〙 was the first to broadcast images of the approaching StarShip BattleGroup, CVIN carried live the message from the approaching BattleGroup, and the message seemed to be some kind of computer or machine translation

CVIN : " This is the Azleck Republic Warship Razari! I'm High Commander 〘Equivalent to Admiral or General〙 Kizani of the 6th fleet! You have recently experienced a fraction of the power wielded by the greatest Evil in the Galaxy! Across the Galaxy they have committed unspeakable atrocities! Decimating world Upon World! And now they threaten Earth. We've come to offer our assistance in the coming Battles. We've been sent to Earth by the Parliament of Azleck Republic to make Contact with Earthans and establish diplomatic relations. I know many of you are afraid, and with good reason. However this is not the time to give into despair. We were once afraid and in panic we surrendered to despair. That cost us our home planet. We hope that you can avoid that Fate. You are already fortunate by being so far away from the heart of the Galactic war. As far as we've been able to determine about 2 million Earth Solar Cycles ago the Galaxy was visited by the only Intergalactic Civilization any of the current races can remember. When the Phaylon visited the galaxy they found 6 sufficiently evolved pre-civilization races; The Andronians, the Carmak, the Hildrano, the Folong, the Jiquam, the Migon. The Phaylon gave them what the Andronians call Phaylon Radiation. The Phaylon gave each of the 6 races a 470 centimetre diameter Crystal sphere that produced Radiation that could heal any ailment or disease. The Phaylon knew something the other races did not know at the time, and that's that because of the Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Helium, and Hydrogen Fusion processes in the Solar Stars most life forms are based on these elements. These elements are the most abundant in the galaxy and perhaps the universe. From the information we've been able to gather the Crystal sphere had an internal atomic clock that was set to release information about Subspace Communications a million Earth Solar Cycles later, and as you will soon find out; the key to Interstellar travel is Subspace Communications. Incidentally a million Earth Solar Cycles is the average life of species, before it evolves to the next level of its evolutionary path. After a million Earth Solar Cycles the Crystal Sphere was Shattered into pieces by an internal mechanism and inside the sphere was information about how to build Subspace Communications systems. The archives of the older races show that about a hundred years after the Crystal spheres opened the Migon Homeworld Nipaklos experienced what you would call a Supervolcano/ Super-eruption. This plunged the planet into a deep Ice age. The Migon thought that their race would be extinct so they began to transmit their account of what happened to them using Subspace Communications in the hope that there might be some advanced race in space that could come to their Aid. The Migon are reptilian and the freezing of their world reduced the Migon population from about 3 Billion to just a few thousands in a matter of Earth years. For a million Earth years the Migon had lived a relatively simple existence; docile and peaceful. Despite being highly evolved the Migon had chosen a lifestyle that advocated a balance with nature, and over a million years evolution produced an extremely sophisticated reptilian life-form and one of the most advanced Nature Based Civilizations. The Migon were unprepared for what happened to their Homeworld and even though they had advanced Technical Knowledge they didn’t have the infrastructure to prevent the catastrophe, and so they began to live under ground where the geothermal heat could sustain their Reptilian needs, but this was not enough; their reptilian biology required meat, and they could not just simply change their diet, and without large amounts of grass their agricultural meat production would not allow planetary repopulation. Their desperation drove them to do the unthinkable; they soon realized that there was an abundant frozen meat reserve all over their world. All the Migons who had frozen to death would now become a food source until the planet warmed up enough for large scale agricultural cultivation to resume. At First they processed the meet so that it did not resemble any of themselves, but once they crossed that line there was no going back. They began to cross other moral lines, and began to temper with their genetics to make themselves stronger and more resistant to the cold, they grew extra limbs and webbed wings so that they could search their entire world for food. Runaway genetic tempering resulted in a highly intelligent, aggressive and ravenous beast we know as the Migon. A hungry Migon is like a drug addict, and over the generations they've developed an addiction to hunting, killing and eating raw meat. With interstellar travel they began to expand their reach, consuming entire worlds. They had long lost respect for Sentient-Sapient life, and simply saw other races as food. They worship no Gods and answer to no one but their biological imperative to survive. Every world they conquer becomes another cog in their machine, a war machine they have perfected over a million Earth Solar Cycles. As a race gets older and its genealogy become extremely evolved, and they live longer and longer, Reproduction becomes a complicated Affair. The Migon soon realised that their pregnancies got longer and longer, and because they lived such long lives the next generation reached reproductive maturity only after hundreds of Earth Solar Cycles. This reproductive phenomenon affected all the older races. Where another race would slow down their expansion and reflect inwards the Migon decided to accelerate their expansion across the galaxy. Their intent seems to be to keep the younger races from developing beyond a certain point. Eliminate them from becoming a threat before they become sufficiently advanced. This process was putting strain on their fleet, and their slaves on a thousand worlds could not construct battle ships fast enough to meet the demand. 110000 Earth Solar Cycles ago the Migon recombined their DNA with that of another Reptilian species and produced the Hakum. The Hakum are the foot soldiers of the Migon, they roam the galaxy doing the Migon's biding. The Hakum were created to do two things; 1〙 Secure rare and valuable minerals for the Migon 2〙 Keep the younger species from becoming advanced Civilizations. The Hakum are the ones that attacked your planet. 1256 Earth Solar Cycles ago 〘853 Earth Standard Date; SED〙 the Hakum attacked Azleck, but we beat them back, and the only reason we were able to repel their attack is because we had been visited by a Civilization as old as the Migon; the Andronians from the planet Andros. When we defeated the Hakum their masters came to the Aid. After the Migon conquered our world they enslaved our people, and the Hakum began to attack nearby worlds. In one of their campaigns the Hakum stumbled onto an Andronian colony, this led to the Andronian involvement in the galactic wars. The Hakum also disturbed the Carmaks, the Hildrano, the Folong and the Jiquam. These 5 older races were relatively close to each other. It did not take long for Hakum raids to lead to all out war between the 5 older Civilizations and the Migon. An alliance of the Andronian, the Carmak, the Hildrano, the Folong and the Jiquam was able to halt the Migon advance. A thousand Earth Solar Cycles ago the Migon suffered their first major defeat at The Battle of Ten Thousand Ships. Following their defeat they were driven out of the sector, but every planet they left was found to be lifeless. When those of us who were on Azleck colonies went to investigate our Homeworld we found a lifeless desolate radioactive planet. What they could not have, they destroyed. So we moved to the other side of the Galaxy, far away from the madness of that sector. Our new home is called Arun and its just 800 LightYears from Earth. We chose it because it was similar in size to Azleck, and had sufficient water content for our Amphibious lifestyle. That is the reason we came to your defence when the Hakum attacked! Our security is linked to yours. We will supply you with advanced weapons technology that will allow you to better defend yourselves against the Hakum, and we will leave one of our Lishlam Class Warships; Equivalent to what you would call Destroyer Class. It will remain here to help with the defence of Earth. As you can Imagine these warships are extremely expensive and require a lot of resources to construct, and at Arun there is only two hundred million of us, we only have a few of these Galaxy class Warships. Fortunately the Hakum also understand the cost of this class of Warship, so they are unlikely to risk more of their ships attacking Earth. This Solar system and those surrounding it are not old enough to contain the heavy metals the Hakum and the Migon need to reinforce the hulls of their ships. However; The fact that a race so relatively limited in technological development was able to destroy a Hakum Sky Dagger 〘Destroyer〙 is a credit to your kind. Very few Developing Planetary Civilisations have ever survived the Hakum, and it usually took a ship slightly smaller than the one that you destroyed! Many advanced races will come to Earth and try and find out what made the difference? Why did you succeed where so many had failed? How did a pre-Interstellar travel civilization destroy a highly advanced Galaxy Class Hakum Sky Dagger? Even the Galactic Alliance will take notice of you, and with time you might be invited to join the fight against the Migon Federation."

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After the global broadcast the Azleck Republic's High Commander travelled to the United Nations headquarters in New York to meet with Earth leaders and discuss diplomatic relations. When Kizani's Shuttle landed, a crowd of hundreds of thousands had gathered to catch a glimpse of the extraterrestrial who had come to Earth on a mission of peace. In a short space of time Earth had made contact with 2 extraterrestrials, one deadly or malevolent and the other friendly.

What emerged out of the Azleck Shuttle was the quintessential LGM or Little Greenish Man. He was 1.5 meters tall, and was escorted by six other Azlecks who stood 2.5 meters tall in their Bio-Mechanical Armour. The Azleck Bio-Mechanical Armour came complete with Azleck weaponry and shields. Webbed hands and legs, large eyes on a proportionally large head, a small nose and teethed mouth made the Azlecks instantly recognizable as the quintessential LGM who had visited Earth before.

In the series of meetings that followed the Kizani transferred plasma weapons design specifications to handheld computers carried by country representatives 〘UN Ambassadors〙. Kizani also gave them more design specifications for a Jump Drive that could form large Wormholes to Nth Space. Kizani revealed that the Sai's were Hakum Sky Daggers 〘Equivalent to a Destroyer〙 and the larger four pronged Sai was a Hakum Sky Sword 〘Equivalent to a Cruiser or BattleCruiser〙.

Kizani also indicated that enhanced/advanced Particle Beams weapons required heavy metals that can only be found in Solar Systems that were more than 6 Billion years old, the result of Neutron capture, but since the Particle Beams were critical to plasma Cannon development the Azleck would supply Earth with the enrichment technology that would allow the production of heavy metals.

Before Kizani could leave, the President of the United States gave him the spherical Crystal Artefact as a gift. Kizani immediately knew what it was, and he was very happy to receive it. The Americans had recently realized that the artefact was Azleck in origin, they realized this when they determined that the Hull of the Azleck ships was made of the same Alloy that had contained the spherical Crystal Artefact.

The Azleck Republic's High Commander also realized that the spherical Crystal Artefact was the source of Earth's Subspace communications technology. Kizani knew that Azleck leaders would consider the spherical Crystal Artefact a treasure because it is one of the few surviving objects that were produced on Azleck using the original Crystal producing plant. This was specific Azleck organic technology they had lost because of the death of all life on Azleck. The Crystal technology they were currently using was from a hybrid of the original Crystal producing plant.

The Azleck Republic's High Commander and his battle group left Earth space taking with them the damaged Lishlam Class Warship but leaving another Lishlam Class Warship to help with the defence of Earth. After Kizani's departure the United Nations held a series of meeting to discuss planetary security, and the United Nations Security Council adopted several resolutions towards common security.

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Soon after that the Scotland based Atlantic Treaty Organisation reached a decision to transform itself and form the United Atlantic Federation 〘UAF〙 along the line of the European Union. This formula gave each state relative freedom to decide on domestic policies and laws along the UAF constitutional treaty. Along with this each State/Country harmonised their constitution to be in line with the constitution of United Atlantic Federation, and used the UAF currency the Atlantic Dollar.

The Atlantic Dollar was introduced at a value of $1 〘Atlantic Dollar〙 = $100000 〘US Dollar〙. The currency was introduced in response to the large numbers the United Atlantic Federation would have to deal with if they continued to use existing currencies, and it was hoped that the new currency would make it easier for financial markets to express the value of Assets, Liabilities. Profits, Costs, etc.

The United Atlantic Federation was organized in such a way that it was a Federation of Countries rather than a singular Federal state like the African Federation of City States. This meant that Countries could join the UAF without loosing their National Identity or control of their borders. Each country contributed 5% of their GDP to the Budget of the UAF, and 80% of this went to the Atlantic Defence Force, with the rest going to other Operational needs.

The member Countries of the United Atlantic Federation were allowed to continue operating their own military, and larger countries continued to operate substantial military forces. The United Atlantic Federation has a Judiciary, a legislative body called the Common Atlantic Senate and an Executive Council of 5 members that is elected by the Common Atlantic Senate for 18 month terms.

Each country had 5 Senators, each elected to a 5 year term, but not in the same year. The Senators of the United Atlantic Federation were elected directly one after the other annually until there were 5 and each Senator has a vote Value equal to 20% of their home countries population. By 2115 the total Voting value of the Common Atlantic Senate was 3723685429 indicating a population of approximately 3.7237 Billion people.

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In just a matter of months after the formation of the United Atlantic Federation the organized reconstruction work led to the speedy recovery of the economies of the United Atlantic Federation countries. This convinced the Pacific Defence Group and the Northern Alliance to formally integrate into the structures of the United Atlantic Federation, and it didn't matter to them that their Countries were not in the Atlantic Ocean region.

The Countries that used to be with the Pacific Defence Group and the Northern Alliance wanted to benefit from the rapid reconstruction project that was being organized by the Engineering division of the Atlantic Defence Force. Because of similar democratic governance structures the integration of these countries was relatively simple and the end result began to resemble a single global Government.

In response to the growth of the United Atlantic Federation and its dominance in Global politics other alliances began to reorganize themselves. This led the Islamic Alliance, the Asian Defence Consortium, and Indian Ocean Alliance to form; the Islamic Alliance 〘IA〙, the Asian Consortium 〘AC〙, and United Indian Federation 〘UIF〙 respectively. Earth now had 5 Central governments, and all were governed by an Executive Council. This led to the United Nations Security Council to be reduced to 5 Seats.

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Just as the Azlecks had predicted the Earth Civilisation had become a cosmic curiosity, and many advanced races began to run tours to visit the primitive Earthans who defeated a Hakum Galaxy Class Warship. This increased Earths interaction with advanced species, many of whom were members of the Galactic Alliance like the Azlecks. In the Galaxy the age of species were measured by two factors; the Evolutionary age and the age of the Civilisation.

As a species the Evolutionary age of the Humans was 300000 Earth years and the age of the Humans Civilisation was 5100 Earth years. The advanced races had a Civilisation age of approximately 15000 Earth years and older. The more advance or Older Interstellar Civilisations like the Andronian, Carmak, Hildrano, Folong, Jiquam and the Migon were estimate to have a Civilisation age that is over a million Earth years. The Phaylon were estimate to have a Civilisation age that is over a hundred million Earth years.

The development of Interstellar travel and the level of technological development seemed to be a key criterion for a Civilisation to be classified as Advanced Civilisation. One of the technological Characteristics of the Advanced Civilisations is their Nanotech which allowed them to build sophisticated devices that used micro circuitry that can only be built by molecular machines.

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For a period of five years after the Hakum attack Earth continued to rebuild while simultaneously developing advanced weapons technology to defend themselves against future attacks. There was a new era of global cooperation and the possibility of a global Government was increasingly becoming a realistic prospect. For the first time Governments were working together towards common security.

The exposure to many Extraterrestrial races brought other opportunities, and even thought the Azlecks had given humans relatively simple designs for Jump Drives they were finding the development difficult. The Azlecks were forbidden by their own laws from handing over prototypes of what they considered military technology, and this prevented the Azlecks from giving the humans a working Jump Drive for the Humans to study.

Many of the Advanced Civilisation had laws that protected their technology from other Alien races, but the Azlecks found a race that was willing to sell Earth a Jump Drive capable ship. On 21-01-2115 human negotiators met representatives from the Zlarfh Empire and after long discussions the humans agreed to buy 3 operational ships for the equivalent of 200000 metric tons of Gold paid for in several minerals the Zlarfh found useful.

The Zlarfh would only agree to the sale of what they considered obsolete designs if the humans bought 3 vessels. 1〙 The United Atlantic Federation would pay for one ship, 2〙 The African Federation of City States and the United Indian Federation would jointly pay for the second ship and 3〙 The Asian Consortium and the Islamic Alliance would jointly pay for the third ship. As part of the deal the Zlarfh Empire would provide instructors to train the Humans in operating the Lack Class Warships.

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On 17-09-2115 the Three 460 year old Lack Class Warships arrived in Earth space escorted by a modern Zlarfh Praw Class Warships and a Zlarfh Cargo Freighter. Once the Cargo ship received the payment the Three refurbished Lack Class Warships were handed over to the humans. As per the sale agreement some of the Zlarfh remained on the ships to train the humans on the use of the Lack Class Warships. The Zlarfh Empire had only been an Interstellar Civilisation for a little over a thousand years, and as such were not as Advanced as the Azlecks.

The United Atlantic Federation designated their Lack Class Warship UAS Atlantis Type X2115, and the Asian Consortium and the Islamic Alliance designated their Lack Class Warship AC-IA Type 2, while the African Federation of City States and the United Indian Federation designated their Lack Class Warship AF-UIF Blue Sky. The Lack Class Warships were 370 meters long and 190 meters wide with a 4 meter thick steel hull.

The Lack Class Warships were the second generation Zlarfh Imperial Interstellar Warships, and they were the first to give the Zlarfh Empire effective Interstellar travel. The three ships had been fitted with third generation plasma weapons and fusion powered plasma propulsion in order to extend their service life, but the development of the fourth generation Galaxy Class Praw Class Warships had rendered them obsolete.

After months of preparation and training the Human crews were ready to attempt their first wormhole jump to Nth space/Hyperspace. The Zlarfh instructors were aware of the limitations of the Lack Class Warships and to avoid possible problem they wanted all three ships to operate as a unit, and that meant that all three ships would jump into hyperspace together. The first jump would be from Earth to Mars and then back to Earth orbit.

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On 17-07-2116 at 13H00 GMT the UAS Atlantis X2115 activated its Jump drive opening a wormhole into Hyperspace/Nth space, the AC-IA Type 2 and the AF-UIF Blue Sky also opened two other wormholes into Hyperspace/Nth space. Once the wormholes were stable the three ships went into Hyperspace. The UAS Atlantis X2115 was the first to enter into Hyperspace, making its crew the first humans to travel into Hyperspace.

Once in Hyperspace the ships used the Gravitational Spatial Warping to calculate the position of Mars and locked in Coordinates. The ships then opened another set of wormholes from Hyperspace that opened into Mars space, and by entering the wormholes the three ships emerged near Mars Orbit. The world's media was there to witness what was undoubtedly the beginning of Earths Interstellar travel.

On the trip back the three ships were welcomed back by a group of ships that were carrying Hundreds of journalists and the celebrations began. In the next weeks the ships conducted hundreds of Jumps to all the planets in the solar system setting a new milestone for Human space travel.

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After about a month of testing the United Atlantic Federation commissioned the Engineering Division of the UAF to begin the construction of the UAS Atlantis A2118

The designs for the UAS Atlantis A2118 had already been developed before the UAS Atlantis X2115 was acquired and all that remained was to begin construction. The UAS Atlantis A2118 would be the first to be built using the interlocking block construction method developed by Crystal Valley Industries 〘CVI〙, and therefore CVI supplied the tools necessary to use the interlocking block construction Method. CVI also supplied the components for Nuclear Fusion Reactors.

The commissioned UAS Atlantis A2118 would be:

1〙 2600 meters long,

2〙 1600 meters wide at the back and 300 meters wide at the front,

3〙 1500 meters High at the back and 250 meters High at the front,

4〙 Have 15 meter thick Hull,

5〙 Equipped with 12 Plasma Cannons and 25 Multidirectional Particle Beam Cannons,

6〙 8 Nuclear Fusion Reactors,

7〙 Carry 4 Gunships of 150 meter length,

8〙 A Fusion powered plasma propulsion System,

9〙 Repulsive Electromagnetic Radiation energy Propulsion System that uses Spatial Compression Technology for braking and Multidirectional manoeuvring.

The designers of the UAS Atlantis A2118 had abandoned the Repulsive Electromagnetic Radiation energy Propulsion System because of the high energy requirements of Spatial Compression Technology, and they chose the plasma propulsion System because it require 20% the energy of Repulsive Electromagnetic Radiation energy Propulsion System, the other reason the technology was abandoned was that Spatial Compression Technology does not work in Hyperspace. Scientist also pointed out that Spatial Compression Technology posed a significant risk to smaller ships when moving in formation.

Most Developing worlds progress slowly from 350 meter length Interstellar ships and over generations begin to build larger vessels as their Civilisation becomes more Advanced, but the humans were more ambitious than most Developing Civilisation, and their first Interstellar ships would be larger.

The other Earth Federations/Unions also had plans for large scale Warships with:

The Asian Consortium planning a 2.4km long Destroyer

The Islamic Alliance planning a 2.1km long Destroyer

The United Indian Federation planning a 2.2km long Destroyer

The African Federation had plans for a 2.5km long Destroyer

The African Federation had to shelf their Warship plans because of their deep 4 year recession. The Hakum attack had reduced global demand for African products, and the Federal African Government decision to institute a rapid rebuild program had resulted in massive capital expenditure that the Federal African Government financed through domestic borrowing. Weak global demand for African products led to lower mineral prices resulting in the Federal African Government being effectively bankrupt.

With no prospect of a quick recovery in the Global economy the Federal African Government turned to Crystalorb for massive loans in the form of Industrial Minerals Coins. The loan from Crystalorb was used to prevent the Federal African Government defaulting on its payments since a default in payments to domestic creditors would have led to an Economic Crush. Consequently the African Federation simply did not have the financial resources to build any new ships for the foreseeable future.

The economies of the other 4 nations weren't so heavily dependent on the value of Minerals, and so unlike the Industrial Minerals Coins their currencies remained relatively stable throughout the recovery. To add to the problems of the Federal African Government, Crystalorb weapons technology had become suspect, the Crystalans themselves were calling into question their ship building methods.

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During the Hakum attack the Intrepid Class Crystalorb Ships provided cover for the Earth fleet, and they were the most effective against the Hakum destroyer, but the Hakum Sky Dagger exposed the weaknesses of Crystalorb's Crystal Armour and Crystalorb's energy shields. Hakum Particle Beams easily penetrated Crystalorb's energy shields and cut through the 0.8 meter thick Ship's Hull.

The Crystalorb Research Division needed to redesign the Hull structure of their ships, but since the Intrepid Class Crystalorb Ships were living organisms this was not a simple matter of making the Ship's Hull thicker. Crystal Armour was by design relatively light in weight, and this made them more energy efficient than any other Earth ship, but making the Ship's Hull thicker would increase the weight of the ships meaning that they would require even more energy to operate the ships.

The Crystalorb Research Division would have to stimulate an organic evolutionary response from the living ships, and then they would need to stimulate absorption of the design enhancements they introduce which meant that the ship would need to add new material to its DNA. This was a complicated exercise that took time, and this was time the Federal African Government did not have.

The Federal African Government needed to show its people that it had the technology to defend its people against future Hakum attacks, but with the Crystalans struggling to develop a Warship that could match that being developed by the United Atlantic Federation everything was in flux. Construction of the UAS Atlantis A2118 was due to be completed by the end of 2018, and the Engineering Division of the UAF had been tooling the Moon based construction facility for years in preparation for large scale production.

The Crystalorb Research Division had all sorts of problems in duplicating the Jump Drive Technology because they needed to adapt Azleck designs to Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology, and for the first time in over 200 years others were making faster progress in technological development than Crystalans. Sceptics began to emerge, and their common message was that Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology had reached its limits.

The Crystalorb Research Division turned to Deputy Research Guardian Dr Naole Olen for answers, they tasked Naole with showing that Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology had not hit a wall, and that Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology could evolve and adapt to meet the security needs of not just Crystalorb, but that of the entire world. Naole needed to show that Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology was still relevant.

To silence their critics the Crystalorb Leadership ordered the Crystalorb Research Division to put together 2 Research Teams of equal size and equal resources. The teams would be in direct competition with each other, and Naole's team would build a Bio-genetic Organic Crystal technology living Hull and Pelam's team would build a non living Hull from any material they chose including non living or dead Crystals.

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After 12 months the two Hulls would be tested, and the Hull that absorbs the most energy will decide the course of Crystalorb's Ship development. The target date was 01-09-2117, and on that day the winning hull design would become the preferred Crystalorb Hull construction method. This did not mean that if Naole lost the competition Crystalorb would abandoned Bio-genetic Organic Crystal Technology, but that they would change the hulls of the ships once they reached Adulthood.

The purely Bio-genetic Organic Crystal ships would then be relegated to cargo Ships and research ships. The odds were clearly stacked against Naole, and Pelam could draw from the advance alloy technology being developed by Crystal Valley Industries for ArmsCorp's third Generation BattleCruiser. The ArmsCorp BattleCruiser program was initiated 5 days after the Hakum attack, but economic concerns had led to the program being scaled down until financial resources were available.

Crystal Valley Industries however continued developing the technology that would be required to build the ArmsCorp BattleCruiser in the future. The Interlocking block Hull construction method was a development by Crystal Valley Industries in anticipation of the production of the ArmsCorp BattleCruiser, and since CVI no longer held a stake in ArmsCorp CVI was free to supply the technology to other interested buyers.

Crystal Valley Industries had developed other technologies like: Advanced Fusion Powered Plasma Propulsion Systems and Hull Shielded Multidirectional Particle Beam Cannons. CVI had started the Advanced Fighter Development Program, and they were developing a 50 meter long fighter that would serve as a defensive weapon against enemy fighters. The Fighter would be equipped with 4 Multidirectional Particle Beam Cannons and two plasma Cannons.

Most of the Advanced Civilisations in the Galaxy used Advanced Fusion Powered Plasma Propulsion Systems, but the older and more Advanced Civilisation like the Migon, the Andronian and the other 4 used Nuclear Propulsion. They had developed the technology to conduct controlled Small Nuclear explosions which they then harnessed to produce High acceleration reaching speeds in access of 8000000 m/s. The Plasma Propulsion Systems and Spatial Compression Technology were only used for manoeuvring.

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As the global economy recovered the Federal Executive Council of the Federal African Government travelled to Crystalorb and met with the Crystalorb Leadership. In the meeting the Federal Executive Council appealed for the Crystalorb Leadership to share their technology for the security of the African Federation of City States, but the Crystalorb Leadership were unconvinced, and continued to insist that the Federal African Government could not be trusted with Advanced Crystalorb Technology.

The Federal African Government did not have the money to pay for CVI equipment, and they had borrowed heavily from the Crystal Valley Investment Bank, but they needed to rebuild their Fleet. ArmsCorp did not have enough financial resources to complete the development of their advanced BattleCruiser, and so the Federal African Government tried to convince the Crystalans to simply hand over advanced technology as a matter of national interest.

The Federal African Government hoped that the Crystalans would agree to this because the Crystalans were now operating openly for all the world to see although most people did not know the full extent of Crystalan activities or what Crystalorb is? To most people Crystalorb was just an organization of people who owned Crystal Valley Industries 〘CVI〙, and that it was CVI that built large ships.

For 87 years Crystalorb had refused to transfer advanced technology to the Engineering department of the Federal African Government, and Hodian influence at all government levels was all too apparent. Hodian influence was even more transparent in the Federal Parliament, where elected officials openly declared their relationships with high ranking Hodians. The battle between Crystalorb and the HOD had taken a new form.

Many Parliamentary officials had forgotten how the Crystalorb had helped defend the Country in its time of need, they had forgotten how the Crystalorb helped build the economy of the African Federation, and they had forgotten that it was Crystalorb technology that rebuilt the City States when the African Federation was formed. All that was forgotten, relegated to the past, and they saw Crystalorb as a resource they could exploit for political expediency.

Some in the Federal Parliament began to view Crystalorb as a possible problem, and Crystalorb's continued refusal to cooperate with the Federal African Government served to advance their rhetoric against Crystalorb. This feeling extended to the African Federal Security Forces, and the Admirals believed that the Crystalorb military assets should be brought under the command of the African Federal Security Forces.

Crystalorb was aware of the growing animosity against Crystalorb's very existence, and consequently began to plan for possible confrontation with the African Federal Security Forces, but some Crystalans were unconvinced by the planning. A few Guardians led by Casara felt that Crystalorb needed to have an Exit strategy.

On 01-03-2117 the 125 year old Casara proposed to the Crystalorb General Council that Crystalorb develop an Exit Protocol, a strategy for Crystalans to temporarily abandon Crystalorb.

The Crystalorb General Council did not see anything wrong with preparing for the worst, and understood Casara's reasoning that Crystalans may not want to be part of a war that could kill hundreds of millions of Africans.

The Council of Elders approved the creation of Protocol 911E which was the official Crystalorb Exit Protocol. To activate Protocol 911E the Crystalorb General Council would pass a resolution authorising the Council of Elders to activate Protocol 911E, and once the Council of Elders orders the activation of Protocol 911E a full scale evacuation of Crystalorb would begin.

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In the years since the Earth Nations received the three Lack Class Warships from the Zlarfh Empire humans had learnt about the complexities of Interstellar Travel. On the first visit to Alpha Centuari and Proxima Centuari it was realized that opening a wormhole from hyperspace to longer distances required much more energy than shorter distances. The surprising thing was the exponential rise in the energy required to open longer and longer distances.

The exponential rise in energy requirement was governed by the factor J which was related by the equation J = {〘V*M〙/〘R*W〙} and the energy require would be E = B*〘J*D〙^〘L/Q〙 where: B is the energy required to open a 1 Nanometre wormhole, D is the wormhole diameter in Nanometres, L is the distance in LightYears, Q is a wormhole spatial constant, V is the Volume of the StarShip in normal space, R is the Volume of the StarShip in Hyperspace, M is the mass of the StarShip in normal space and W is the mass of the StarShip in Hyperspace. The value of J must be such that : 1

The value of the wormhole spatial constant Q is different for 1〙 Wormholes from Normal Space to Nth Hyper-Space and 2〙 Wormholes from Nth Hyper-Space to Normal Space, with the value of Q for 1〙 > Q for 2〙.

To Forge a 1 nanometre diameter Tunnel through the fabric of space to Nth Space requires 1000 Petajoules of energy, and to sustain the 1 nanometre diameter Tunnel through the fabric of space to Nth Space requires 10000 joules/sec. Therefore because of the large amounts of energy involved a ship would have to be equipped with enormous energy reserve capability, this simple fact exposed the weaknesses of the Lack Class Warships.

The Lack Class Warships had a reserve energy capacity that could give it a maximum wormhole length of 11 LightYears from Nth Hyper-Space to Normal Space, and 2 LightYears from Normal Space to Nth Hyper-Space. However a Zero length wormhole from Normal Space to Nth Hyper-Space used the same energy as Zero length wormhole from Nth Hyper-Space to Normal Space. To increase the length of the wormhole more energy storage capacity was required. StarShip's Jump Drive

This was the primary reason Advanced Civilisations built very large StarShips. The Advanced Civilisation built large energy storage capacities to enable them to jump very large distances, but the complications with larger diameter ships was that they required more energy to open large wormholes. It was not just the width of the Ships; the Volume and Mass of the ships were critical components. The other major concern was that navigation or movement in Nth Hyper-Space require ten times more energy than in Normal Space.

The Developed Civilisations had an average range of 45 LightYears per jump, and any ship that could reach 30 LightYears per jump was classified as a Galaxy Class StarShips. The Older Civilisations could build StarShips with an average range of 100 LightYears per jump. The Azlecks operated StarShips capable of an average range of 48 LightYears per jump; this put them at a slight advantage, but less than the 50 LightYears per jump of Hakum StarShips.

To travel very long distances StarShips would have to make multiple jumps of variable length. This made accurate Star Charts a critical component of Interstellar Travel, and establishing Interstellar Routes became very important to any Interstellar Civilisations. The Jump Drive of a StarShip had to be durable and capable of making multiple Interstellar Jumps without taking strain.

Exploration of Hyperspace 〘also referred to as Nth Dimensional Hyper-Space〙 revealed that it was Folded Compressions in the higher dimensions of P-Branes caused by the Big Bang, what some Scientist called a failed miniature parallel Universe that was still attached to our Universe. Astrophysicists theorized that there were many of these miniature Universes attached to our Universe, and they believed that these miniature universes didn't contain enough exotic matter to expand away from our Universe.

The shapes of the miniature parallel Universes was postulated to be a function of Gravitational Spatial Warping caused by planets, Stars, Black Holes, Galaxies, etc. Determining the size of these Universes was complicated by the fact there was very little matter in these Universes, therefore no stars could form, resulting in very little observable light. A Beam of light would go through multiple Spatial curvatures due to Gravitational Spatial Warping.

The Gravitational Spatial Warping of Moons, Planets and Stars could be detected from Nth Hyper-Space, and if one knew the Mass of such objects one could determine their relative location from Nth Hyper-Space, then a wormhole could be opened joining Nth Hyper-Space and the selected objects, thus allowing instantaneous travel between the selected area and the corresponding or wormhole linked area in Nth Hyper-Space.

An Interstellar StarShip would need to have advanced computational capabilities in order to plot the correct paths and avoid opening wormhole into the centres of planets or Stars. Humans were only beginning to understand the complexities of Nth Hyper-Space. Wormholes can be formed on from surface of planets to Nth Hyper-Space provided one could negate the effects of Gravitational Spatial Warping and a vacuum could be generated like in the case of communication systems.

Wormholes from Nth Hyper-Space to a planet's atmosphere is a completely different matter altogether, and the un-tethered or opposite end of the Wormhole would react to atmosphere which led to the instantaneous closure of the Wormhole. Even if the Wormhole could be sustained there were other problems to overcome, one of them being the fact that Hyperspace is empty and would suck the atmosphere into it creating subspace distortions.

Interstellar Communications was a relatively simple affair since two very small and very long wormholes could target a very small area in Nth Hyper-Space. This allowed for fast Interstellar Communications because the distances covered were relatively small.

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