Tales from New Terra

Chapter 2: First Contact

Earth:
July 7, 2309

Republic of New Terra, Tarsonis-III:
January 32, 51 After Arrival, 11:55

"Mr. President, you're up in five minutes."

Tyler Bennet, soon the seventh president of the Republic of New Terra, flipped through his speech one last time. "Here goes nothing," he thought, stepping through the double doors onto the bridge of the old Nagglfar, now the seat of the New Terran government, where his inaugural address would be broadcast to the citizens of his country.

"Greetings, fellow citizens of New Terra. I thank you for placing your trust in me to guide our country through the uncertainty of the future."

He couldn't hear it, but the crowd assembled at Landing Square just outside the four ships applauded.

"And before I say anything else, I would like to thank my predecessor, President Aurelia Mengsk, for her service to our nation, and her graciousness during the transition."

More applause.

"Just over fifty years ago, our people arrived on this world. Cast off of Earth by the United Powers League, we arrived on this planet with nothing. We were faced with an impossible choice. Become slaves of the League, allow them to gorge on the fruits of our labor and the untapped wealth of our world, or lay down and die. We rejected that choice. We chose to forge our own destiny in this new corner of the galaxy, and today we prosper for it."

"The efforts of my predecessors, and all our great citizens, have transformed this fledgling Republic from a small handful of survivors huddling in the safety of the four supercarriers to the flourishing democracy we all know and love today."

"Today marks a new page in our history, however. In the last five decades, we've explored every inch of our continent, leaving no stone unturned, both literally and figuratively. Today, as promised, I will lead us unto a new frontier. Today, we will cross the oceans. Today, we will explore the lands beyond. Today, this world will know a new name: The Republic of New Terra!"

On cue, his predecessor, President Aurelia Mengsk, entered the bridge to deliver the Oath of Office. "Tyler Bennet. Do you swear to defend the Constitution and the people of New Terra against all enemies, foreign or domestic, to bear allegiance to the same, and to execute this duty without reservation or evasion?"

Bennet responded, "I do. I swear to defend the Constitution and the people of New Terra against all enemies, foreign or domestic, to bear allegiance to the same, and to execute my duty without reservation or evasion."

"Then by the authority vested in me, I proclaim you President of the Republic of New Terra, and captain of the Nagglfar."

Tyler Bennet bowed before the cameras, to absolutely thunderous applause.

-----

President Bennet's aides streamed into the bridge not five minutes after the inauguration. His Secretary of Defense pending Senate approval, William Tygore, an old pilot in the American Revolutionary Army and one of the original 40,000 passengers, handed him a massive stack of papers somehow bound by one single paper clip reaching the limits of its tensile strength. "Your national security brief, sir."

Bennet could not believe his eyes. Less than five minutes into his presidency, and he was already presented with a mound of paperwork. Taking the stack, he replied, "I'm not reading that. Jesus, I just got here. Can I catch a break?" As a former geologist attached to the government's continental survey expeditions, he was used to long hours, but this was pushing it.

"You signed up for this, sir," was the response.

"Please, call me Tyler. Can you summarize it?"

"Of course, sir." Former Lieutenant Colonel Tygore would not address his president as anything below "sir" as a matter of principle. "You ran a real impressive campaign, but the truth is, the task of exploring the world already started under President Mengsk. We've sent high-flying recon drones over to the southwest, and found three separate nations there. The photos are all attached here. We've also begun developing surface ships and fast ground-effect vehicles for scouting, to take us to the rest of the world, as well as the ports, drydocks, and other facilities to properly maintain them."

"Why not planes?" asked Bennet.

"We ran it by ATLAS, sir, and it simply isn't practical. The distances are absolutely massive - the nearest major landmass to our east is over 30,000 kilometers from our coast. That's twice the size of the Pacific back on Earth. Any aircraft we build simply can't carry enough hydrogen fuel, and fusion reactors are out of the question. Of course, there are plenty of islands we can turn into airbases to refuel at, but we'd need to build the airbase. We've solved most of the problems with wing-in-ground vehicles though, and those are much more efficient than flying."

"Okay, got it. What else?"

"Internally, things are going smoothly. The country's peaceful, the economy's fine, and people are happy. In fact, between fusion reactors, solar farms, wind turbines, and tidal generators, we're producing more energy than we need, and the Brubaker Plateau is some of the most fertile farmland ever recorded in history. The buildup of the New Terran Armed Forces is going according to plan. Your predecessors saw fit to model the Army after the former United States back on Earth, and that was a fine choice."

"Why's that?" asked Bennet. Being born on Tarsonis, he had no memory of Earth. He'd studied Earth's history as one of the first students at the University of New Terra, but that wasn't the same as actually living there.

"The United States lost the war against the League, but up until then they had the most powerful army in history. They were the leading world power for three centuries, and it took the unification of the largest continent on Earth to change that. The US Air Force was, and probably still is, the strongest force on the planet."

"No need to pat yourself on the back, Billy."

"Anyway, the Archivists dug up America's Force Design 2260 paper, and we took a lot of ideas from that. We can't quite do five-domain networked warfare yet - that means land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace all integrated together, but it's a good reference point. It calls for a joint force of ground troops, which include fast mechanized scout vehicles, power armor-equipped elite infantry, and mobile artillery tanks, air assets - stealth fighters and bombers networked with wingman drones - and naval vessels, supported by satellite operations and cyberattacks. Pretty cool stuff. You can find a copy of the document in your briefing, but the summary is, if it turns out we're fighting the Empire out there, we'd roll over them with ease."

"Empire?"

"It's an Earth thing. From a popular sci-fi series about three hundred years ago."

"Ah," mused Bennet, making a mental note. "What about manufacturing?"

"The Secretary of the Treasury could probably tell you more about the intricacies of that, but to sum it all up, our industrial machinery can be rapidly retooled to produce just about anything. Something about digital design and 3D printing-"

A New Terran Marine burst into the bridge, stopping briefly to catch their breath before snapping into a salute and delivering their message. "Mr. President, urgent dispatch from the Archivists, for your eyes only!" Just like on Earth, the Marines were tasked with guarding the President. Unlike Earth, however, the New Terran Republic's chief intelligence agency was known as the National Archives.

President Bennet glanced at the paper offered to him by the Marine, and his eyes went wide. "Get me Director Kelerchian on the phone." Director Malcolm Kelerchian ran the National Archives.

"Yes, sir!" Another Marine on the bridge stood at attention, and punched the requisite numbers into the bridge's video-messaging system. Half a second later, Director Kelerchian's cybernetically-enhanced face popped up on screen.

"President Bennet. I would like to formally congratulate you, but we have bigger issues at hand. One of our recon flights just picked up a repeating transmission from around the Wall of Storms. Playing it for you now."

"-s'un ehlna! Ki nala Kh'ua-Tuyn akul Aghani-"

"As you can probably tell, that doesn't sound like English," noted Kelerchian. "President Bennet, would you like to do the honors?"

"ATLAS, can you translate that signal?" asked Bennet.

"Certainly, Captain. Translating now..."

"Translation complete. Playing translation:"

"This is the Longbow of the Qua-Toyne Royal Navy, escorting a convoy of refugees. To any allied ship in the area, we are under attack and request immediate assistance! I repeat, we are under attack and request immediate assistance!"

"Well gentlemen," said Bennet, putting his hands together. "Why don't we go meet the natives?"