Life With Ares

The Monoliths

It was hard to grasp the sheer size of a UPIN Titan Class ship. There were only four in existence: UPIN August Storm, UPIN Spear of Destiny, UPIN Ormax's Pride, and finally UPIN Law. They looked like small, vaguely rectangular, moons. They could carry entire fleets of fighter ships, an entire forty thousand strong army, and had living quarters for five hundred thousand civilians, and nonperishable food for up to ten years. They were equpped with thousands of turrets and guns, and even a cannon so powerful it could leave a crater on the surface of the planet and black out the sky. They've never been fired before though.

Another thing, no one knew quite how much they costed. I'm sure that UPIAF Council knew, but it wasn't released to the public for reasons unknown. Rumors said it cost somewhere in the quintillions for each one, but rumors are rumors. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. These ships were a big middle finger to the Dagoran Expanse and an ultimate display of power. It told them we wouldn't go quietly.

"That's amazing." I said, staring out the view port in the commons. Even Shiara was staring at it.

"Yeah, Law is a good ship. Still takes my breath away sometimes." Yamato said, "Machina, set course to dock with the UPIN Law."

"Affirmative, Yamato- 12." The AI responded. The ship shifted towards the behemoth hanging in space and my heart teemed with excitement. I spent the rest of the time in hyperspace searching frantically for a marker. I was gonna ask Admiral Luro Keers to sign my card.

In about fifteen minutes we were in the shadow of the Law. It was intimidating up close, lights flickering on it and smaller ships buzzing around it like cleaner fish on a whale or a shark. It was amazing and terrifying. Some part of me dreamed if this moment. The Machina drifted gracefully into the port on autopilot and landed softly. As the landing ramp opened up, Shiara, Yamato, and I were greeted by two armored UPIAF soldiers. On the right pectoral of their chest pieces was the four pointed white star of UPIAF, but the top quadrant was shaded blue. Each quadrant of the four pointed start had a color that you'd sometimes see, mostly to identify soldiers and their branches. The top quadrant was blue for UPIN, United Planet's Interstellar Navy, the left quadrant was green for UPISO, United Planet's Interstellar Special Operations. The right was yellow for United Planet's Interstellar Intelligence, and the bottom was red for United Palents Interstellar Army.

"Yamato- 12, and crew. Welcome aboard the UPIN Law. We'll be escorting you to the Admiral's conference room. Please come with us." The lead one said. I took a wide stare around the hangar. It was huge. It had to have been about the size of an Earth airport, and there were three more hangars apart from this one. I did a lot more staring in awe as they escorted us. Shiara was too, but she was just more discreet about it. They led us through the recreation deck, or "Rec Deck". It was full of things like full sized sports fields, restaurants, bars, theatres, gyms. It was like a tiny downtown city on one deck of a ship. Soldiers of every intergalatic race moved around the Rec Deck, laughing, playing ball, drinking. Near the top of each wall was a huge digital screen displaying the time and date, Earth time and date, commonly referred to now as UPIAF Standard Time. It was currently 5PM 4/26/2865. The rest of the tour was pretty boring, we took a large elevator at the end of the Rec Deck that took us up to the bridge which was covered in computers and targeting systems and soldiers sitting at each one. The armored UPIAF soldiers lead us all the way up to the door of Admiral Keer's conference room. I suddenly felt tense with nerves and I shook a little before swallowing it down. The door slid open to a room full of people sitting around a table. There was of course, Admiral Luro Keers, sitting at the head of the table. Two UPIAF soldiers with green stars on their uniforms, both human, one skinny and one built, a Jaraxan in elaborate armor that resembled a technologically advanced medieval knight, color schemed in red and white, and another Trangian, a girl, in UPIAF attire with a yellow star on her. The Jaraxan was about eight feet tall and twice the width of the built UPIAF soldiers, his grey skin and pointed teeth often led to a stereotype of the race, but the Jaraxan were a very sophisticated military republic. Their army was so powerful that they didn't even join UPIAF and held their own against the Dagoran Expanse. Why the Jaraxan was here was beyond me.