The Flowers of Nothing
The stars were cold and distant amidst the heavens. Even the closest one still only blazed in distant glory, with nothing but a pale light falling upon the chilly grey steel of the industrial complex. Lights danced and flickered from bays where half-built ships lay in their cradles, welding and construction work, while the sleepier and softer glow of living lights peeked out of the darkness on the habitation quarters next to it. In space the vacuum made everything clear, crystal like, but the structure was cast in shadow and only dimly visible.
Special Construction Project X54 was a project of the Hujaka clan. The Hujakahad been given a colonization sector heading North-East, and had developed the colonial system of Sirap. The most interesting of their discoveries however, was something which had only revealed its importance quite long after the fact: a rogue world which they had named X54, as the 54th planet that they discovered. Light years away from any star, and with limited gravity, and a good mixture of heavy resources, it seemed to be a strange cocktail: both tempting and utterly uninteresting. The Hujakas had kept it secret, but had seen no need to rush to colonize it.
Hujaka ureaucrats back on Nires had stashed away X54 in their files, with the normal secrecy that they always used. It seemed for years that X54 would be utterly ignored, until Sirap crisis had broken out.
Space is a vast place, but systems unfortunately are all too easily spied upon. The Sipirian Imperial Clan stuck it tendrils everywhere - there was always a "fraternal visit of confederation unity" from one of their warships, probing and making a nuisance of itself. Other clans too, were always spying and lurking around, filthy snitches that would try to find anything, any effort of another clan to assert itself, then cry foul and either try to arrogate the privilege for themselves, or have it removed.
It was no wonder that the shaky emperor and confederation government remained in power. Thus on Sirap, when the Hujakas had decided to attempt to construct a secret shipyard - relatively small scale - for the purposes of building military vessels, away from the prying eyes of the Emperor, the discovery had been inevitable. Quite a few heads or rolled - or more accurately, been jettisoned into the void to explode and perish in the vacuum of space - back in Nires, but mostly from the mid ranking echelons of the bureaucracy.
This has a tendency to concentrate minds wonderfully, and when the survivors had been questioned about how to restart this strategy - for if the Hujakas hoped to one day build a fleet which could regain their independence or better yet, see them replace the emperor, then they needed to have secret shipyards - about restarting the project, with a stale idea about building a shipyard on a further planet, the bureaucrats had frantically rejected this idea which would see them left out to dry again when the situation went south. Instead, a clever chap had suggested X54.
X54 was the perfect world for this. Far away from prying eyes, off the records, impossible to find, plenty of resources to build ships it would make an excellent place for a secret shipyard. The only problem was a lack of light, but the Clan could deal with that - with hydrogen collectors to produce the necessary fuel from the vacuum of space needed for the fusion generators, and occasional covert shipments of resources from automated supply ships.
The Hujaka fleet was still nascent, and much of the effort of the shipyard was going to entirely legitimate purposes - building the ships needed for colonization, exploration, expansion, since they couldn't dare be left behind in that race. But the first of the new missile frigates had already been launched, and fast minelayers had provided for dense banks of nuclear-tipped and nuclear x-ray pumped laser bombs all around X54. Research laboratories had been set up, and the shipyards were being increasingly hardened for self-defense, with point defense weapons installed and powerful active and passive sensor arrays. It had been nearly a decade since the project started, but already it was starting to bear fruit....
And when the time came to use it, the blow from the dark would make the heavens tremble.
Special Construction Project X54 was a project of the Hujaka clan. The Hujakahad been given a colonization sector heading North-East, and had developed the colonial system of Sirap. The most interesting of their discoveries however, was something which had only revealed its importance quite long after the fact: a rogue world which they had named X54, as the 54th planet that they discovered. Light years away from any star, and with limited gravity, and a good mixture of heavy resources, it seemed to be a strange cocktail: both tempting and utterly uninteresting. The Hujakas had kept it secret, but had seen no need to rush to colonize it.
Hujaka ureaucrats back on Nires had stashed away X54 in their files, with the normal secrecy that they always used. It seemed for years that X54 would be utterly ignored, until Sirap crisis had broken out.
Space is a vast place, but systems unfortunately are all too easily spied upon. The Sipirian Imperial Clan stuck it tendrils everywhere - there was always a "fraternal visit of confederation unity" from one of their warships, probing and making a nuisance of itself. Other clans too, were always spying and lurking around, filthy snitches that would try to find anything, any effort of another clan to assert itself, then cry foul and either try to arrogate the privilege for themselves, or have it removed.
It was no wonder that the shaky emperor and confederation government remained in power. Thus on Sirap, when the Hujakas had decided to attempt to construct a secret shipyard - relatively small scale - for the purposes of building military vessels, away from the prying eyes of the Emperor, the discovery had been inevitable. Quite a few heads or rolled - or more accurately, been jettisoned into the void to explode and perish in the vacuum of space - back in Nires, but mostly from the mid ranking echelons of the bureaucracy.
This has a tendency to concentrate minds wonderfully, and when the survivors had been questioned about how to restart this strategy - for if the Hujakas hoped to one day build a fleet which could regain their independence or better yet, see them replace the emperor, then they needed to have secret shipyards - about restarting the project, with a stale idea about building a shipyard on a further planet, the bureaucrats had frantically rejected this idea which would see them left out to dry again when the situation went south. Instead, a clever chap had suggested X54.
X54 was the perfect world for this. Far away from prying eyes, off the records, impossible to find, plenty of resources to build ships it would make an excellent place for a secret shipyard. The only problem was a lack of light, but the Clan could deal with that - with hydrogen collectors to produce the necessary fuel from the vacuum of space needed for the fusion generators, and occasional covert shipments of resources from automated supply ships.
The Hujaka fleet was still nascent, and much of the effort of the shipyard was going to entirely legitimate purposes - building the ships needed for colonization, exploration, expansion, since they couldn't dare be left behind in that race. But the first of the new missile frigates had already been launched, and fast minelayers had provided for dense banks of nuclear-tipped and nuclear x-ray pumped laser bombs all around X54. Research laboratories had been set up, and the shipyards were being increasingly hardened for self-defense, with point defense weapons installed and powerful active and passive sensor arrays. It had been nearly a decade since the project started, but already it was starting to bear fruit....
And when the time came to use it, the blow from the dark would make the heavens tremble.
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