The Vanguard Protocol
Copyright© 2024 by Sci-FiTy1972
Chapter 12A: Building the Bastion
Act III — A Home Made of Stone and Silence
The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter looked like chaos from a distance.
Up close, it looked like opportunity.
The Erebus slipped into the debris field with a predator’s patience, cloaking field bending light, thrusters whispering micro-corrections to avoid drifting rock and spinning ice. The panoramic viewport turned the bridge into a cathedral of moving stone—thousands of bodies tumbling in slow, indifferent dance.
Thomas Morgan stood with his hands behind his back, eyes tracking the largest fragments. A scavenger’s instinct still lived in him, even after everything. He didn’t just see rocks.
He saw shelter.
He saw concealment.
He saw a place the Kael’dar couldn’t easily burn.
“This is it,” he said finally, voice quiet but certain. “This is where we build.”
Gear made a low sound that might’ve been agreement or irritation. “You do realize we’re talking about turning a floating boulder into a city, right?”
Zara leaned on the console rail, gaze sharp. “If we’re smart, we don’t build a city. We build a knife.”
Elena, ever the architect of reality, didn’t look up from her datapad. “We build both. Defense requires infrastructure. Infrastructure requires people. People require ... everything we don’t have yet.”
Solace’s voice threaded through the bridge, calm and clinical.
“Multiple asteroids contain iron, nickel, and trace volatiles. One body in particular meets criteria for structural integrity, composition, and concealment.”
A highlighted asteroid rotated into view—irregular, pitted, three kilometers wide. It looked like a wound in space.
Gear squinted. “That one? It’s ugly.”
Zara smirked. “Perfect.”
Thomas didn’t smile. “We’re not building it to impress anyone.”
He stared at the rotating rock, feeling the weight of what he was about to do.
The Erebus had given him a ship.
This would be the first time he gave humanity something back.
“A base,” he said. “A sanctuary. A staging ground. A promise.”
Elena glanced up, reading him. “And a target.”
Thomas nodded once. “Yes.”
Hollowing the Heart
The Erebus anchored itself in a shadowed pocket of the belt, then released mining drones into the dark. They moved like insects—small, relentless, precise—plasma drills carving into rock with bright, silent fury.
Gear ran the operation like he was born for it: harsh, direct, endlessly competent. He spoke to machines like they were stubborn recruits.
“Central hub first,” he said in the war room, flicking a hologram into existence. “Everything branches from there—quarters, medical, command, hangars, storage. You don’t build a fortress by stacking rooms. You build it by controlling flow.”
Zara pointed at the outer shell. “And defenses?”
Gear didn’t even look at her. “Reinforced plating. Automated turrets. Shield lattice.”
He paused, then added with the faintest hint of satisfaction, “And I’m working on a cloaking field—station-wide.”
Elena’s brow lifted. “That’s ... ambitious.”
Gear’s mechanical hand tapped the table. “Ambitious is what keeps us alive.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.