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28.46% Out of Space / Chapter 191: Here We Go Again ~

Chapter 191: Here We Go Again ~

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, Ground Team led by Master Sergeant Pike has established communications with the Dragon," One of the operators reported from his station.

"Great," Blake nodded from his seat, "See if he can entice the Dragon into our ranks. Failing that, make sure the Dragon does not approach within 150 kilometers of any of our outposts and the city."

Commander Ford raised an eyebrow and asked, "You wanna recruit that dragon?"

"Why not?" Blake smiled, "We have ample food now, what we are lacking is bodies."

"Another dragon?" Ford folded his arms as he leaned against the tactical plot table. "Seriously?"

'Yes, it's still a sentient being," Blake replied, "It might not be able to work in some industries but it can still be useful in the aviation sector. Not to mention their shit actually provides quite a bit of useful chemical compounds."

"Ha! If Blue Thunder and the rest of the dragons heard that you just hire them for their shit," Ford laughed, "I wonder what will they think about that!"

Blake grinned, "Well, we did mine the shit of their ancestors for saltpeter. Not to mention if this dragon can just produce thermal heat naturally, there is a lot of applications we can use it for."

"Sir?" A voice called out from the Command Bridge hatch and Blake saw Lieutenant Tavor from Intelligence making his way over. "I might have some bad news here."

"Damn," Blake gestured him over to the tactical plot table, "what is it?"

Tavor keyed his tablet to sync with the tactical table before he displayed several images. "As you know, we run a four-tier defense surveillance and detection network. The outer most layer is set at 200 kilometers. This layer is covered by our remaining UAVs."

"The second layer is covered by the Cobras on Combat Air Patrols roughly patrol around a 150 kilometer radius around our borders," Tavor continued, "The third layer is covered by the dragons, within a 50 to 100 kilometer band."

"And finally, our final line is covered by motion sensors seeded at key locations and Marine ground patrols," Tavor finished uploaded all the files into the system. "As with the incident with the Goblin invasion fleet a few month's back, I had tasked a UAV to do a recon pass every day."

Tavor selected an image and enlarged it on the screen, "This was taken 4 days ago, this 3 days ago and this was 2 days and this was yesterday." The images show goblins ships appearing on the wet docks of Goblin Island.

"This looks like a military built up!" Ford exclaimed. "Where did all these ships come from?"

"We suspect that they have some dry docks or construction slips hidden inside the sea caves dotting the interior of the cove, that is why we did not spot them earlier." Tavor explained, "This clearly shows that the goblins are preparing for something, and we counted roughly 30 'Dagger' class galleys and 10 'Sword' class sloops."

"It is way lesser than what they have thrown at us previously," Tavor said, "My department take on this is that this is a raiding party or pirates setting out for plunder."

"Any signs of our new friends from the Isles?" Blake asked, "Could the sea goblins be targeting them?"

"Most likely yes, but they might not be specifically aiming for our trade ships," Tavor said. "After all, we do spot one or two convoys of Isles merchant ships passing by us."

"The trade deal with the Isles still has a week or so before they are supposed to deliver their promise," Ford reminded everyone. "As for their payment of weapons and armor. We have them all ready and stored in climate controlled warehouses at Far Harbour. Even the glass they ordered is completed and is awaiting transportation to the warehouses."

"Put up more eyes to look out for the Isles' ships," Blake ordered. "Also continued keeping tabs on Goblin Island. When that Goblin Fleet sails, I want to know about it. Clear?"

"Yes Sir!"

-----

Northern Forest

In the past two days, several tents had sprung up among the ruined forest, where two disgruntled dragons laid watching each other cautiously. The temperature had returned to normal but the humidity was still high, making Flight Sergeant Stamford easily irritated.

"Come on, Blue!" Stamford stood before Blue Thunder with the top half of his flight suit tied around his waist, exposing a white tee while his arms were on his hips. "Keep talking to her! You know the translator will only work if you two keep talking!"

"But... she's scary!" Blue Thunder bowed his head low, "I meant, look at those eyes of hers! Actually its quite pretty but she wants to kill me!"

"For god's sake!" Stamford rubbed his sweaty face, "You are a goddamn dragon! You are a male and you are larger than her! How can you be so scared still!"

"But... females are hard to understand!" Blue Thunder whimpered, "I watched enough dramas to know that!"

"Alright, I'm cutting your hours on the Entertainment Rooms will be cut!" Stamford added, "Those damn soap operas are filling your bird brains with nonsense!"

"Nooo! I'm still watching 'Days of our lives'!" Blue Thunder moaned, "Please! I do it! I talk to her now ok?"

Stamford looked stunned for a while, "What the fuck? Why are you watching that shit of a soap opera?"

"It's interesting!" Blue Thunder grinned, "There's almost everything inside from love to family to death, even curses and vampires! Hehehehe! Great insight on hooman life!"

"Blue, I am gonna have a serious talk to you about what shows you can watch later," Stamford shook his head helplessly, "I wonder which idiot uploaded that series into the database..."

"Go talk to her now! Talk more!" Stamford yelled as Blue Thunder tried to creep away.

He whined, "Do I have to?"

"You want me to get Top over here to have a heart to heart talk?" Stamford decided to use Pike's reputation.

"Oh, it's okay, he's busy!" Blue Thunder moaned quickly, "I go right now!" And he hopped over towards the Red Dragon that was lying serenely on her side, watching the ongoing around her with mild interest.

"Hi, there!" Blue Thunder gave a forced cheerful greeting, as he approached the Red Dragon called Rastraz, who glared at him with her golden eyes. "Erm, how are you doing?"

Rastraz growled at the male youngling who came up to her without any proper etiquette and sighed inwardly. The young ones are always the ones that cause troubles. She had taken the past couple of days to assess her situation.

The strange meat bags appeared to be similar but there are actually two different races, the long eared people, and the short eared ones. She remembered encountering the long eared people many many moons back, and they worshipped her like a god.

It would appear that the descendants of her followers had probably forgotten her over time while she was asleep in the volcano if not those of her followers had passed on to the next life and these are of another nation.

These walking meats were so short lived, thought Rastraz as she glanced at the antics of these people around her. She turned her attention back to the youngling and wondered how did their proud race now willingly serve under those that once prey and worshipped them as gods.

Blue Thunder sighed and turned his head around and hissed to Stamford who was eyeing him like a hawk.

"She's not talking!"

-----

Highway to Far Harbor

Blake sat shotgun on the jeep as his driver gunned the engine down the super highway towards Far Harbor. The newly constructed work was like a miracle to the locals as they finished work on the road in just a month's time.

The freshly paved highway provided a much faster transportation route for the construction materials to travel up and down the Colony to Far Harbor while a split way links the highway towards the mines.

Several trucks rumbled passed the jeep carrying ores and other processed materials towards the industrial parks for the hungry factories to produce everything that they needed.

Blake smiled contently and felt that despite all, he had done pretty well for his people here. Just several months ago, when they first crashed landed here, there was nothing and now a thriving city and industries were built and the food was no longer worries on his mind.

In just another two more months, it will mark the 1st year anniversary of their crash landing on this planet, thought Blake. Damn, time flies.

The jeep soon arrived at its destination and Blake hopped off, leaving instructions for his driver before he headed towards a nondescriptive structure built alongside the harbor, with part of its structure out in the sea.

A couple of security officers saluted him as he approached and the sturdy looking metal door swung open to admit him in. Cooling air greeted him as he stepped into the building and out of the sun.

"Captain!" A youngish looking sailor leading a small party of other personnel stood at attention and saluted. "Senior Spaceman Mason, Sir!"

"At ease, gentlemen," Blake said after returning the salutes. "What have you got for me?"

"Come this way, Sir!" Mason gestured to Blake to follow him. "We have successfully tested two half sized prototypes and will be beginning to develop our third prototype following the feedback and test results from the first two."

"How much time is still needed before we can have a combat ready model?" Blake asked as they entered into a dry construction slip where two wooden speedboats sat on support moorings.

"We need about two months or so, at least," Mason replied as he did some mental calculation. "There are still some technical issues we need to iron out before we can start mass production of the boats."

"That's taking too long," Blake frowned, "Any chance of having the prototypes or a base model for use within a week?"

"A week?" Mason's jaws dropped slightly, "Sir, that is impossible. We barely just learn how to build a speed boat hull!"

"Nevermind, disregard what I asked, just continue with your work," Blake replied, "How about the wreck we salvaged off the coast?"

"Well, if you want that ship to commence operations," Mason brought Blake to another entrance which led them to the ship. "It's sea worthy now, thanks to Amar's skills. You know that ship carpenter we saved?"

"Yes, I remembered him," Blake nodded, "But he didn't return to his homeland with the Isles ships?"

"Nope, seems like he got nothing much there," Mason replied, "And the stuff we are doing here is more exciting for him too."

The wreck that Blake saw from the video and images taken were like two different ships. The rebuilt and reworked wreck now had a fresh coat of paint and a layer of steel plating covering its outer hull and the masts for the sails were all removed.

The top decks were remodeled and a superstructure now sits behind the forecastle and the quarter deck has a single black funnel jutting out. The wooden spars of the bowsprit and even the figurehead were removed.

The fresh coat of sea grey paint made the ship look totally unrecognizable as a former sailing ship of the Isles.

"This became Chief Matt and his department's pet project," Mason explained as he showed off the ship to Blake. "They are working on its internals now, giving it a powerplant and putting in that new techno-magic thingy that the Chief had worked out with the students from the magic school."

"Once it is done, it will be powered by a single 2,750 hp triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines with a single shaft propulsion system," Mason said, "It should give it roughly 16 knots (29.6 km/h) of top speed with a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)."

"Weapons?" Blake asked as he walked up the gangplank to the ship.

"Chief is looking at putting two of your new 3" 23s, one at the forecastle and one at the stern," Mason replied, "there will be cupolas mounts for dual 20 mikes on both sides of the ship and .50 caliber mountings for anti-air and anti-boarding actions."

"Where's the Chief?" Blake asked as he stood on the deck looking up at the two story tall superstructure.

"He should be down below the decks working on something," Mason said, "Need me to get him?"

"Of course, I want to get this ship up and running ASAP!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon (Book 1 completed)

https://www.*******.com/neobear

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Enjoy~

Chapter 192: Chief of Naval Operations

UNS Singapore, Conference Room

"Alright, everyone please settle down!" Commander Ford clapped his hands together bring the meeting into order. "Quick summary for those not in the loop, we got possible goblin pirates that will commerce raids within our sphere of influence."

"Now this might not be much of an issue before," Blake spoke up, "But now we are looking to be trading partners with the Isles, therefore we need to combat piracy now to prevent it becoming an issue in the future."

"Now the thing is that we only have a single salvaged ship that's being converted into an armored cruiser or ironclad," Blake continued, "A single warship with mostly new and experimental tech with no support vessels and backup."

"Our fast attack craft concept will not be able to be implemented in time to defend against pirates and raiders," Blake added, "So the core of the fighting will be placed on the single ironclad we have now till we can produce more ships."

"Sir, how about we built some maritime patrol bombers?" Airforce Commander Tommy raised a question. "It can do coastal patrols and reconnaissance too. And if in the future if needed, it can also perform in anti submarine warfare."

"Sounds interesting," Blake replied, "Draw up a proposal for it. Good to have more cards in our hands even if we couldn't produce any of this equipment now."

"What else is happening now?" Blake asked around the table.

"Autumn planting will begin next week, mostly tubers and mushrooms types of crops which can survive over winter and be ready to harvest when spring comes," Princess Sherene gave her report. "The strawberries provided by you hoomans are also doing surprisingly well in the markets and also easy to grow over autumn and winter."

"This year it will be different than usual," Sherene smiled charmingly, "It will be a busy winter!"

"Why is that?" Blake asked.

"Well, previously, the farms could not provide any food during the cold months and most people stay indoors to conserve heat," Sherene explained, "Most people shut themselves in during winter, but with central heating, warm clothes, plenty of food and jobs in the factories and stores, people will be more inclined to work during winter!"

"I see, that is a good sign," Blake replied, "I guess."

"Well, a city that doesn't sleep is a thriving city," Ford said. "Now, since we have food production sorted out, I will the military side to report their progress."

Major Frank nodded and said, "Sir, currently we are preparing for the 3rd batch of Marine recruits to be processed and training will begin soon. But I think this will be the last batch of recruits we can recruit without putting a drain into our manpower resources."

"As of now, our current manning is at 842 combat operation Marines, with another 357 non combat support staff," Frank read out the numbers, "This upcoming batch of recruits will be roughly around 450 men, bringing the total military personnel at around 1,650."

"Our total population is holding at around 10k with the addition of 117 goblins and 268 slaves that joined us," Frank continued, "The Marines take up 1.6k of the total population and that is not counting, the Police, Air Force and the formation of the Navy."

"If we add the rest of the armed forces in, at least 40 % of our total population is allocated to the armed forces," Frank said, "Leaving us what? Less than 6,000 civilians, to support our industry and most of them are females?"

"We have less than 400 children of ages below 16," Dr. Sharon spoke up, "And our current birth rate is low, bloody low in fact."

"We need to introduce measures to increase our population for the next 15 years," Dr. Sharon said, "Or we will be reduced to an aging population in the future will no young adults to support our growing infrastructure in the future."

"Even if we mass recruit other races like orcs and goblins into our ranks, we still require people to make babies if we want to sustain the nation in the future," Dr. Sharon warned. "I will advise we implement measures to encourage people to start making babies soon."

"Got it," Blake nodded, "Major Frank, this will be the last batch of recruits, for the time being, only recruit later on to recover combat loses."

"And as for the population growth and babies," Blake looked at Sherene and Dr. Sharon, "Can both of you work out with Public Health services and City Hall to come out with incentives to entice people to start having families early?"

"Offer them government subsidies, housing, grants, education aid, medical, and what others you can think of without impacting our current industrial needs and workforce," Blake threw out some ideas to the both of them. "Set up a committee to oversee all these?"

"Ok," Sherene replied and nodded to Dr. Sharon.

"Now, baring all that," Blake continued on, "I want Chief Matt to led the project on fully restoring the ship to combat ready status."

"We do not know when the goblins pirates will act nor where will they hit," Blake said, "Commander Ford?"

"Ahem," Ford turned on the display screen which showed a coastal map of the region with icons of varies colors dotting the surface. "This is roughly the range we calculated a typical goblin raiding ship has." He highlights an orange circle around a skull, which had a text, "Goblin City".

"Now, these yellow dots are surface contacts, our radar has picked up over the past couple of days," Ford indicated another group of yellow dots scattered all over the area. "We believe that these are merchant convoys or ships. But it might also be pirates or other things that we do not know of."

"According to our investigations, the goblin sea has only two seasons that are suitable to sail and that is mid-spring to mid-summer and early autumn to end autumn," Ford explained, "Any other times, the sea is rough and covered with ship-killing storms."

"Now, the majority of these yellow contacts do not hug along the coast while the nearest ships still keep roughly a 100 kilometers distance from land," Ford continued, "Therefore we rarely spot any of them unless our recon flights spot them or the radar reports them."

"We estimate that our friends will be conveying the trade agreements to us within the next two weeks," Ford traced a line south along the coast to an icon that said "Far Habour".

"Therefore, to prevent any loss of deliveries, we need to ensure our ship is up and running within two weeks," Ford finished.

Chief Matt frowned, "Within two weeks to ensure everything is running and also completing ship trials? It will take a miracle to do that, Sir!"

"Chief," Ford nodded, "Yes, provided if you handle it only with your department."

"Yea, but who else has the expertise to work on ships here?" Chief Matt raised an eyebrow.

"We have some... people with skills with regards to that," Blake spoke up, "Goblins."

"What? You want to put goblins to work on the ship?" Chief Matt half rose from his chair, "This is obscene!"

"Chief," Commander Tommy injected, "They do quite well so far in my Air Force!"

"Still, we don't know what murderous schemes they might have in their minds!" Chief Matt growled, "We can't fully trust those things!"

"Chief, will I agree with your points," Ford stepped up and said, "But we do believe that with their help, they can vastly cut down the time needed to retrofit the ship since most of them have some sort of technical skills and are into machines."

"And if they proved themselves well," Blake added, "We can integrate them into ship construction work, which will help boost the industry."

"But Sir!" Chief Matt frowned, "I understand that we are lacking skilled work labor, but to use them to construct a warship which under the Military Code is classified as Top Secret and not to mention the same warship will be used against their own kind. Why would they be willing to help?"

"With the chances of sabotage so high, it will take double the time for us to conduct sea and combat trials as we have to double check and ensure everything that the goblins touched is clean!" Chief Matt continued to argue his points.

"I see," Blake frowned, "How about if we limit them to work in modular components?"

"Modular components?" Chief Matt repeated, "You want to install components in modularly?"

"Wouldn't it be faster to repair damages and losses?" Blake asked. "Plus if everything is modular, the ship is easier to upgrade in the future."

"But most of the ship has being nailed or welded down," Chief Matt replied, "Only parts that can be modular will be the superstructures, engines, and weapon systems."

"Than we do that for now," Blake said, "Let the goblins work on non combat systems and have a quality control team to inspect their work."

"Aye," Chief Matt nodded, "I guess we can do that."

"As for the Chief of Naval Operations," Blake grinned, "I am putting Commander Ford in charge."

"Huh?" Ford looked surprised, "You want me to be Chief of Naval Ops?"

"Yup," Blake continued smiling, "You do just fine, all the naval projects are now under your scrutiny."

"I..." Ford looked around the room, where everyone smiled and clapped. "Thank you, Sir! I will not fail you!"

"Good, then Project Ironclad is in your hands, CNO!" Blake smiled.

-----

Northern Forest

Blue Thunder's tummy rumbled as he laid with his nose sniffing before the cook wagon. "I'm hungry," He whined at the cook.

"Please wait!" The poor cook was terrified by the sword sized teeth filled mouth whining next to him. "It will be done soon!"

Blue Thunder sighed and settled down for a long wait, smelling the aroma of roasting potatoes waffling out from the huge specialized tumbler oven that looked like a twentieth century cement mixer.

"What- doing- you?" Rastraz spoke in poor English as she landed next to Blue Thunder who shot up in surprise.

"Ah?" Blue Thunder blinded his eyes rapidly in panic while keeping a safe distance from her, "I... am hungry..."

"Hun-gee?" Rastraz looked at Blue Thunder who shyly rubbed his tummy to mimic hunger. "Oh..."

She turned her head to look at the strange rotating drum where the even more terrified cook sweated under the waved of heat emitting off from her body. "What's that?" She pointed.

"Erm... nothing!" Blue Thunder turned his head away, "Nothing!"

Rastraz frowned and leaned closer to Blue Thunder who tried to edge away from her, "Noth-ing?" She noticed his teeth looked pretty clean and he doesn't have the overwhelming stench of rot coming from his mouth. "Hmmmm..."

"Erm... the potatoes are done!" The cook cried out and stopped the magic heat runes and used a long pryer and unscrewed out the bottom hatch, where a large wide barrel was placed.

Steaming potatoes rolled out from the tumbler and into the barrel, filling it up. Blue Thunder eyes went gooey as he stared at those creamy looking potatoes, a strand of saliva starting to dip from his opened jaws.

The cook and his assistant soon divided the hot potatoes into another barrel and started to mix in sour cream, yellow butter, and bits of fried lard. "Alright, it's done!"

"YAY!" Blue Thunder carefully picked up the hot barrel of potatoes and blew at it, cool it down before he started to feast on the baked potatoes, "Ooooo... will be nicer if it was fried and with cheese sauce!"

Rastraz blinked her golden eyes at Blue Thunder who happily chomped down the strange offerings the meat bags gave him, wondering what is it that made him so happy about. She gracefully stretched her neck over to the barrel offered by the meat bags who quickly made way for her and gave it a sniff.

It doesn't smell too bad. She looked at the presentation of the food which she assumed is something to eat and frowned, finding it lacking in colors and looks. Lumpy bits of cream colored things and bits of fats and oil are mixed in together.

She looked at Blue Thunder who was clutching the barrel with his arms and licking the insides happily and wondered if it really tastes that good. Blue Thunder noticed her hesitating and asked, "You don't want to eat it?" His eyes glowed with expectations.

Rastraz frowned again and carefully picked up the barrel, and closed her eyes before taking a bite of the unappealing food.

"OOO!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon (Book 1 completed)

https://www.*******.com/neobear

-----

Join the discussion in Discord

https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V

-----

Donate/Support me via Paypal now!

https://paypal.me/neobear

-----

Enjoy~

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