“And the genetic upgrades?”
“We need to be Knights. Not me, because I’d lose too much with the growth enhancements, but when our younglings reach the age of decision, I want to offer them the choice between the path of defense and the path of offense. The path of offense will be the same as if they were becoming a member of a Knight race, and with the same responsibility, only with the sole focus on becoming a killer of Hadarak, not a response force to go fight whoever wherever. Give us the size, give us the psionics, and give us Essence weaponry if you can’t give us the ability to use Essence itself. Give us everything, and make us as effective one man armies as we can be…because that’s how we defeat the swarm. We live, we persist, and we keep killing more as they die off and produce newbs to replace them. Time is our ally in that situation.”
“Unless you get in over your head and killed,” Serren cautioned.
“Let us handle that,” Bren interjected. “You handle the spacelanes.”
Davis looked at Tennisonne. “How hard is it to put an Essence shield around a seda?”
“The volume of the equipment isn’t much different than regular shields. It’s the density of power issue. The Uriti production rate is increasing, but slowly. I don’t think we could supply enough for a galaxy full of sedas and all our other projects.”
“The Essence weaponry would be kept in reserve until needed, correct?” Davis asked.
“The big stuff, yes. And the small stuff on the ground would be reserved for the toughest battles, special situations, a really badass sniper rifle…that sort of thing. Not for the daily grind. We’d use conventional weapons for that and hold the Essence for when the fleet let a Warden slip through…or worse.”
“How long can they store it?”
“We’re getting better at retention, but it’s still not Founder level,” Tennisonne said as he ran some mental calculations. “It would leak, but no more than a Lantern ship.”
“And you wouldn’t have to worry about securing those when the Varkemma can use the sedas to recharge,” Lord Daegan added.
Davis nodded. “I like this, but we need to throw everything at it and see if it can hold up to battle analysis. I think the numbers are going to be too small, even if Canderous sends half its population, but feel free to prove me wrong. Whoever does gets their own planet.”
“I already have 4 million,” Daegan said with a dismissive shrug.
“Moons don’t count,” Esna said, continuing the deadpan joke a third interval.
“Plausible,” Kirritimin finally said with an air of cautious excitement. “If we are playing the long game. But it is dependent on the Grand Border holding.”
“Yes it is,” Esna agreed. “And you guys handling the bigger stuff. Let us have the Zerglings and Overlords.”
Bren stifled a laugh, knowing that Esna probably didn’t realize Starcraft was one of the games that Davis had often played with his personal guard during interstellar flights when they weren’t needed.
Did you tell her? Davis asked him telepathically.
No. Ironic, isn’t it?
Davis sighed. “Ok, you sold me there. You get the Zerglings and Overlords while we get the Lurkers and everything else. Now prove to me it’s logistically worth it, and why I should give you guys all the goodies the other factions wish they had.”
“Kiri, I’m going to need your help,” Esna said, looking over at the bug.
“You always have it, Esna.”
“Get started, people. Bren, come with me,” Davis said, heading for the exit.
The Golden Knight followed him out, then down the hall some 100 meters before Davis stopped and looked up at him. “How much of this was your idea?”
“None. I just gave her the inspiration she needed. I didn’t know most of that before she told you.”
“But what did you do?”
“We had a chat and found out that we were both ticked at not being able to fight hand to hand. Too much has been put on the Naval division, and people like us don’t want to just be giving orders on a bridge. We want to personally fight. When she saw I was of like mind, something flipped in her and she came up with this brilliant idea. Please make it work. I’d like a real challenge ahead of me rather than pickup work here and there.”
“I know what you mean, but Naval beats everything for a reason.”
“Perhaps because we’ve been blinded by fear of what Naval can do, we forgot what the rest of the military is capable of. If Naval can keep the skies clear, we’re back to old school fighting where we don’t need to cling to a planetary shield generator. I very much want to get back to those days.”
“You weren’t around for those days,” Davis corrected him.
“True, but I’ve read the stories. Naval was support back then, and perhaps it should be now again.”
“If we spread out the fleet that far, we won’t be able to defend any world. We won’t have enough ships to leave behind in each of them. They’ll all be open to orbital bombardment.”
“The Hadarak don’t do it that well other than ramming,” Bren pointed out. “But if they get some ships through, it won’t be a massive warfleet. It’ll be a few ships doing a little bombardment.”
“Which is back to the old days,” Davis agreed. “I like the nostalgic irony…if it sticks. It may not, but she’s right about
