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."You're going to have to use a lot of explosives.""Explosives are cheap," Tyler said."Bit cold in here, care to take a walk?""Since we got the second missile fabber installed we've been able to refill from what we used in the last battle," Tyler shouted.The room was noisy with clattering missiles jostling each other for space.That was mostly taking place at the top of the stacks, two hundred meters up.The lower portions were solidly packed.But since they were looking down from the upper observation deck, that was barely a hundred meters away."And more.""How many?" Gorku asked."Hundred and eighty thousand," Tyler said."We're shooting for the full two twenty-five by the end of the month.Probably won't make it, we're having to use the fabbers for fiddly bits for the other construction."An Assault Vector carries nine thousand," Gorku said, amazed."The Muikot battlestation carried thirty-six thousand.Two hundred thousand?""And twenty-five," Tyler said."When it's full up.All stabilized so they can't chain react.You'd have to put a nuke in here to get them all.We haven't done any of the installations for Sector Two yet.So we only have firing ability over about one tenth of the surface.""Where.is this exactly?" Gorku asked."Ah, well, sorry," Tyler said."Classified.It's not the exact place as on the plans I'll tell you that.Same with the laser room.And the command center.And cause of the grav walks, it's pretty hard to figure out.""Still don't trust us?" Gorku said."I trust you utterly, Niazgol," Tyler said."But classified is classified.Sorry.""You have been busy," the Glatun said."Rather," Tyler replied, opening the hatch so they could leave."That's better," he said, taking out his earplugs."It's been an interesting ride.Couldn't have done it without your help.""Understood," Gorku said."But also not what.Not what anyone would have done!""Humans weren't at a low tech level when we were contacted," Tyler said."Most galactic tech was transferred from one group to another.Very few groups were at the tech point of humans when encountered.Our problem was getting out of the well not things like, oh, computer tech and basic space engineering.Had all that.And since we didn't have grav tech, we had to find work-arounds.Some of which work even better with grav tech.We'd been putting a lot of thought into space for a very long time.None of this is new thought.Just things we couldn't do without grav tech.Low tech, really.Simple stuff.""And the Thermopylae?" Gorku asked."Still another month or two to get it operational," Tyler said."We had to divert a lot of SAPL power and personnel to completing some stuff on the Troy.Right now it's not even at the same level as Troy was in the first Horvath attack it stood off.Be glad when its done.Mass has a quality of its own.""Speaking of mass." Gorku said, pensively."Your.Alliance countries have started conscription.How many people do you intend to put under arms?""Alliance population is currently about half of the remaining five billion population," Tyler said."World War II, the maximum sustainable percentage was considered to be twelve percent.We've upped our productivity and a lot of things are done automatically in industry for example.Also, overall health is better so lower rate of four-F.We think we can go as high as fifteen percent.""Three hundred seventy-five million," Gorku said."That is a bare third of Rangora forces.""Defending a system is easier than taking it," Tyler pointed out."And a Troy class battlestation takes less people to run it than an Assault Vector.Also a lot less to build.A Troy class that is fully functional, all five sectors complete, can take on about ten AVs.At least, if we fully finish it.That's going to take some time.""Define fully finished," Gorku said."One hundred meters of ablative armor," Tyler said, leading the way back to the personnel area."Ten meters of surface steel hardening.Planetary class shield generators.Five full battle sectors, including fuel pods, independent power generators, one hundred petawatts of laser output, full missile load, two hundred laser ports per sector, one hundred missile ports and a large vessel port system.Oh, and a ship fabber, five missile fabbers and a central power plant in the main bay.""Good Kol!" Gorku said."That is.""Insane?" Tyler asked."Consider local galactic history, Gorku.The Glatun did most of the early advances on species in the region.Which meant peaceful contact.Humans, because the Glatun had gotten.had decided to study war no more, were almost immediately conquered by the Horvath.Since then, almost continuously, we have been fighting one enemy or another.It's killed a quarter of our population, changed our society and culture and more or less given us a mad on at the rest of the galaxy not to mention a really amazing degree of paranoia and we're a very paranoid bunch to start with.You think it's insane?"Tyler stopped and looked the Benefactor in his red eyes."Gorku, it would be mad to do anything else."THIRTY-ONE"General Magamaj will have the honor of leading the assault in the Star Vengeance," High Marshall Gi'Bucosof said."Under the command of Star Marshall Lhi'Kasishaj, of course."Let him, Lhi'Kasishaj thought.This is going to be a disaster [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]