The Second Book of the Alienbutt Saga. The Rise of Mr Fluffy. Part 14.

WAITING FOR LIGHTSPEED

Chapter 4.

INTERSTELLAR NEWS CHANNEL 9. NEWS FLASH.

In business news it has been reported that the Loc Ness theme park, Olde Scotland on the planet Earth has gone into liquidation. Reports from an official spokesman blame a lack of off-world tourists because of travel restrictions as being responsible for its downturn in fortune. The family of Trescoplaphones imported from the ocean planet of Sebrine to play the part of Nessie after the original beasts were killed are now at the centre of a bidding war with the J.O. School Dinners for Olde Britannia plc., favourite to buy them. A spokesman said they had come up with a recipe to create a new range of Nessie battered twizzlers. A spokesman for the theme park would only say that they are looking into all possible options for the Trescolaphones but the Nessie twizzlers did sound a real tasty snack.
Loc Ness Olde Scotland theme park had been a great success since the land was purchased. It had been the last independent state on Earth before being bought out by Galactic Theme Parks plc. as the ancient nation went into liquidation. The new owners then began wide-scale eviction of its people and enforced strict copyright laws on its historic products such as whisky, leading to the use of the historic Irish spelling being used for all spirits not produced inside the theme park. With the ongoing war the theme park has become the largest victim of the economic squeeze.

Kaela was the youngest Major in the Outer System's Marine Corps, He had started his career as a weapons technician just before the war broke out. Too young for active service, he had learnt all about building and servicing small arms until he was old enough to join the infantry. Over the following two years he had seen action on a dozen worlds, protecting the giant ore facilities in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. His reputation for getting the job done had gained him a transfer to the Marine Corps last year as a sergeant-at-arms.
His skill, combined with the short life expectancy of the new position, had seen him gain rapid promotion. The job was simple; they had to protect the internal cargo bay shield generators from boarding parties of Federation battle droids on the giant transport vessels ferrying precious ore for the construction of new ships. Since taking over command his team was the only one to never lose any cargo to the Federation snatch squads. If the cargo bay shield generator was knocked out, Federation ships would use transporter beams to remove entire cargo units to their ships, before falling back with their valuable trophy. With the war dragging on, the ore facilities and the precious goods had become vital to the war efforts of both sides.
The giant transporters left the mining facilities in large convoys and headed out into space. The transport ships were too large to be manoeuvrable and had to clear the asteroid belt of Ashia Minor before they could jump to light speed and head for the Ick shipyards, full of their precious cargo. The convoys had to slowly negotiate their way through a no-man’s land, where the waiting Federation fleets would pounce. Intense battles would take place with every convoy that left, as the Federation tried to first steal and then destroy the cargo. Once able to jump to light speed their escort ships would be left behind to return to defending the mining facilities while the transporters would be safe from further attack and soon reach the safety of Ick Space.

To be continued.
All mages are mine.