284 284 Loading
The process of loading everything that the Tarith family was bringing on board was a long one, as expected of a shipment large enough to fill multiple standard freighters. At a Kilometer long, the Kepler Bulk Freighters were considered large by any nation’s standards, except for a few in the far north of the Galaxy for whom intergalactic expansion was their primary objective.
To those select few, even the Colony ship Terminus was considered too small to be adequately sized for their purposes.
They had moved most of the items listed as valuables, personal effects, and furniture aboard, and had started on the civilian populations, moving them into the upper decks of the central part of the Terminus, where they could be safely monitored by the crew, and out of the way of the loading efforts in the middle decks.
Now, they were starting to load the so-called industrial equipment, better described as the family’s agricultural machinery and mecha stockpiles.
Nico was watching it all come in from an upper observation deck, where she was seated beside her mother, who was carefully tracking every item that entered the ship and checking it off her tablet of family inventory.
“With all this, and a Colony Ship, why don’t you head somewhere new? There are still a large number of planets that haven’t been settled and are outside of any nation’s zone. In fact, the Tarith Reavers even already have a dubious claim to the Planet Rae 5.
After the battle against the Klem, we dug an underground base and left it behind in case a Kepler Loyalist force needed shelter, or a Rebel force came by for verification that there was indeed a Reaver presence on the planet, in case they began to suspect that they had been hoodwinked.
Going to an inhabited planet, with lots of resources and a Mecha force of your own would let the family begin to rebuild their own new Kepler 142. A planet under the Family’s rule, where they could control things well enough to prevent the corruption that has rotted away the Kepler Bureaucracy.” Nico suggested.
“That is an outstanding idea, but going there directly might just bring our enemies to us.” Mary Tarith pointed out.
“Enemies of the Kepler Empire, leaving Kepler Territory and disappearing after a raid on a Reaver outpost? They would be a laughingstock of every nation in the vicinity if it didn’t work out flawlessly for them, and it would give the Reavers a new safe planet to work from. I know a number of them have been lost to political alliances turning neutral ports.”
“How is the terraforming? Is the planet habitable?” Mary asked.
“It is. Perhaps I should get the Generals and the Admiral here before we go any further. I know they’re expecting a trip to Kepler 142, but I’m also fairly sure they wouldn’t mind taking a small detour if it involved a plan to lure the Rebels out of hiding.” Nico suggested.
“Fine, bring them here, but not until we finish loading. I am going to try to get a few final items up from the planet since our plans might be changing. I will let you know in a few minutes if everything is alright.” Mary informed her daughter with a pat on the head.
Nico wasn’t officially privy to family secrets or the exact contents of the shipment, but that was no hindrance to her with her Innate Talent, so she had a very clear view of what the Tarith Family had brought with them, and what they could try to bring up from the planet.
Or at least, she thought she did, until her mother started requisitioning items from the Kepler Terminus Settlement museum. The remaining relics of colonization were there, including terraforming equipment, large-scale building printers, and many more items that would only ever be needed on a lightly inhabited planet, where city-scale construction projects were ongoing.
The Museum Curator seemed happy that someone was interested in preserving their relics since they had been fearing the worst, in the form of the planet’s destruction, so he was happy to commission the flight himself, with no links to the Tarith Family other than the destination aboard this space station.
It would take almost an hour to get a ship and get it into orbit, due to the traffic volumes at the moment, but they would still be loading at that point in time.
The large volume of shipments was beginning to get noticed by the station’s crew though, so things might not be smooth forever. The Planetary Government ran the station, and most of them had joined the rebellion against the Empire, meaning that when they started asking questions it would be time to leave, even if they didn’t have quite everything that they had hoped for.
It was better to leave without a few luxuries than to be trapped at a station with an incoming hostile military fleet out for your destruction, especially when your ship wasn’t the fastest thing in the fleet.
If they could make a clean getaway, they could take the Colony ship through a nebula or other high-interference area, throwing off all attempts to track them. But that would take at least a day or two without being positively located and followed, more time than they were likely to have.
The other option was to move to the border and try to get a signal to the Imperial Inquisition, outing the Rebel fleet, and turning the area into a huge shooting gallery, with the surviving forces being left entirely up to luck.
Obviously, that was not the preferred option.
“Alright, the shipment from the Museum is on its way up, and the Station staff have been bribed to look the other way until after we are gone. Now, bring in the Generals, and we can start working on a plan to get to an uninhabited system and possibly have a fleet meet us there.” Mary Tarith announced with a smile much more bright than the situation seemed to call for.