The Supremum Factor: Book 1: Birth of the Empire

Chapter 11 First Contact

With all the phase one crafts, with the only phase two on their first mission, back at the lunar base Caroline and Barry were about to begin their first live broadcast, after going over the base the previous day discussing what they should do, finally deciding to begin in the hanger bay.
"This Caroline Holt reporting for State News from the lunar base. I'm here live reporting on the scene in the base's hanger bay, which now lies mostly empty. Earlier today, the entire squadrons of defense crafts along with the only heavily armed fighter transport, left on a mission, requested by the Counsel of Nations, to investigate a large meteor that seems to be heading for the Earth. From the latest we know, they should be intercepting it at any time now. We will keep you posted on those events, but first, for many of your viewers that have been curious, we are going to do a walk around of the base, speaking to the various people here, along with showing you much of what they are doing. Stay tuned for the next four hours as we reveal to you the most advanced scientific complex with all it's inhabitants," said Caroline.
Proceeding, they went off throughout speaking to many whom they prearranged interviews with, going from lab to lab. to the manufacturing facilities, the ore processing plants, then afterwards a tour of the dining lounge was shown followed by the residential area's, finishing up by showing her own temporary accommodations.
"So there you have it folks. The entire lunar base in a nutshell. Now it's time for me to get some rest. This is Caroline Holt, saying goodnight," as she laid down on her bed.
"And we're off," said Barry turning the camera off ending the live feed. "I'm kinda glad we briefly sampled some of the food showing the viewers. I'm still really hungry.This camera weighs a lot after this many hours."
"I myself can use a lot of refreshments. I can feel my throat getting really dry right now. But food would be good too," said Caroline.
"This is the longest you have ever been on the air at a single time," said Barry.
"Tell me about it," said Caroline getting back up off her bed. " But can you imagine how many viewers likely tuned in for this broadcast?"
"I expect most to have been watching, leaving the other channel networks without viewership. Everyone would have wanted to see this broadcast," said Barry.
"Yes it's the first anyone has seen of the lunar base," said Caroline.
"And you just made history by not only showing it, but being the only reporter on it," said Barry.
"I can smell another Pulitzer," said Caroline.
"Don't forget to include me in it," said Barry.
"I won't, I promise. Now lets get back down to the dining lounge and eat," said Caroline exiting her quarters.
Meanwhile far from Earth's orbit and well into Saturn's orbit, the phase two ship, approached the large meteor on direct course to the Earth. It was vast and odd shaped like any regular meteor, with no signs of being other than that.
"Frank," began Sam Lounder in his Australian accent, looking at the main viewer, "do you see that?" He pointed to an area on the screen.
"Ya, it looks like a shiny piece of metal," replied Frank.
"Zoom in on it," urged Zoi, while performing scans of the meteor.
As Frank zoomed in, they could see what looked like an old satellite lodged in the side. The debris was scattered around the area.
"You don't suppose it's one of our old satellites that went dark in the past, do you?" questioned Sam.
Zoi answered, "might be the satellite we lost contact with a few years ago."
"Likely could be," began Frank. "What's the scanning data have to say about it, Zoi?"
"Inconclusive," she replied. "It's just coming up with mineralized rock, nothing special about it. There are no other readings to be seen, especially any sort of power generation."
"It's certainly a large meteor," commented Sam.
"Sam, bring us to a standstill. Zoi, radio in to the others to spread out and hold position behind us," ordered Frank, as he watched the object more intently.
Just then a small glow could be seen approaching them, then suddenly beams of light passed them by.
"We have incoming, Frank," Zoi yelled suddenly.
"Sam, evasive maneuvers. Zoi, notify all assault crafts to engage, then get Bro on the line, to report our situation," ordered Frank, as he powered up all the weaponry and began to target all hostiles.
Minutes later back at the lunar base, John Jakupsson, haven taken over Bro's shift in the communications center, sounded off the base's alarms. Over the com system, he called out, "this is not a drill. All personnel to active duty. All officers please report to the conference room." He repeated himself twice over, and then waited for command personnel to arrive.
The first one in was Orion, still getting dressed as he entered,  asking, "status report."
"Sir," began John, "our ships are under attack. We have verification that it is hostile. They have engaged us unprovoked."
Orion looked over to Thor Borner and ordered, "get me Francis on the com immediately."
"Yes sir, I'll try," replied Thor.
"John, what is their current situation?" asked Orion.
"No clue sir. We lost communications with them," replied John.
Just then Bro arrived. Orion looked over at him momentarily, then back to John and said, "let's hope that they are doing ok. Bro, take over here, and when we get any more info, notify me. When we get a link with Francis notify him on the current situation. I have other pressing matters to prepare."
"Yes sir, will do," said Bro.
Meanwhile, back at the meteor...
"We've lost all communications," said Zoi. "The main dish must have been hit."
"Can we still talk to the assault crafts?" asked Frank.
"Just barely," replied Zoi. "We can still send a signal, but it can't go far before it fades. Only close crafts will be able to receive. But our receiver is still fully active."
Just then another hit stuck, damaging part of the engines. The ship began flying out of control, away from the area.
"I've lost full control," said Sam, almost in panic.
"Zoi, are the scanners still operational?" asked Frank.
"Diagnosis shows all other systems still operational," she replied.
"Transmit to all crafts to retreat back to base," said Frank. "We can't help them and they are more susceptible without us."
The nearest craft to them was Tom Wailler. He received the call, then relayed the message. "All crafts, we have been ordered to retreat back to base. Withdraw and take out any close hostiles. Wailler out."
Over the next hour repairs to the HAAT (heavily armed and armored transport) progressed steadily. The engines heavily damaged as they were, were brought back to low operational status.
"That should do it for now," remarked Zoi, returning from the aft section. "power them up, but don't exceed more than 1 quarter capability. The patch-up job won't last more than that."
"None too soon," commented Sam. "We are about to enter the asteroid field. At least we were headed somewhat in the right direction."
"Sam, take us around slowly. We are better to arrive late than not at all," said Frank.
"Yes sir," replied Sam.
"Zoi, how long would you estimate it will take to return to the lunar base," asked Frank.
She looked at the readings, replying, "likely 3 days and still well ahead of the hostile ship."
"Then let us both continue the repairs. We'll need this ship operational later on," said Frank.
When the assault crafts arrived back, settling into the hanger bay, many were relieved to see them, but a count revealed a few were missing. All the pilots went off to eat afterwards taking a good night's sleep to rest for the next upcoming battle.
Back in the conference room, Orion met with his staff, after talking to a number of the pilots. "The whereabouts of the HAAT is not known at the moment. It was last seen damaged and adrift. We can only hope they have made repairs and are returning. But in the meantime, we have 5 days before the ship reaches here. We need to set up battery posts all around the base. In addition, we will need to get everyone armed with hand weapons and outside in defensive positions."
Bro stepped up and asked, "Sir, what if they don't come here and go to the Earth?"
"They will come here first, before going there," insisted Orion.
"What about Earth's planetary defenses?" asked John.
"I've spoken to Francis, and they are mobilizing all arsenals they can, including all surface to space missiles," replied Orion. "They will help as much as they can, but we must be diligent."
"Sir," Moy began, pausing. "Do you think the energy absorption panels will beeffective against their energy weapons?"
Orion looked at him, and said, "It should absorb a lot of it, transferring it to the main grid power. But we will find out soon enough."
"So in essence, the base has a bit of a shield," added Jenny. "But, it won't last too long, depending on the intensity of their weapons."
"So for a short time the base will be protected from energy fire," concluded Orion. "Now get all your teams together and proceed on plan."
Almost a day and a half later, the HAAT finally came into communications range, slowly approaching, constantly transmitting in an attempt to make contact. Orion was called to the comm room immediately upon first contact.
"Report," asked Orion, entering the room.
"The HAAT has just contacted us, sir," replied Thor. "They have some heavy engine damage, and require assistance landing in the hanger bay."
"Open up the channel to them," ordered Orion, waiting till Zoi became visible on the view screen."
"Sir, good to see you again," greeted Zoi.
"Indeed it is," replied Orion. "What's the seriousness of the damage?"
"Engines are at 1 quarter power. We don't dare push them more than that," replied Zoi.
"Then this is what you will do. Bring the HAAT close to the hanger bay, point her upwards, and use the lift thrusters to end forward movement, using the main engines to decelerate the fall. We'll have equipment waiting to catch you on the ground, to bring you in."
"That's going to take some split timing maneuvering, sir," commented Zoi. "We will do our best to accomplish it."
As communication ended, Zoi, Frank, and Sam began doing calculations. As they approached, they kept the HAAT's nose up, thrusters continuously decelerating the ship. Outside the hanger bay, many mechanized lifts working in unison, waited outside to catch the ship. With precise timing from both parties, the ship was nicely caught then carried into the hanger bay. As soon as atmospheric pressure returned to normal, they all exited, Orion, with a large team, entering, approaching the ship.
"Get the engine compartment open and investigate all the damage," ordered Orion. "I want this ship fully operational in 36 hours." Turning to look towards the 3 exiting the ship he went on, "Get yourselves fed and rested. Return here when done. We will take care of everything for now."
Speaking for the 3, Frank said, "thank you sir, we appreciate it. It's been a long trip."
From there, Orion went to a secluded, cordoned off section of the hanger bay that was covered. He didn't emerge for almost 15 hours, by which time he went to eat then slept for 10 hours. Once up again, he checked on repairs to the HAAT, then returned to his special project. He had been working on it almost since the HAAT's construction first began, many people wondering what he was working on, as he requested special parts and equipment to be made all the time.
By T minus ninety minutes till engagement, everyone at the base was well equipped and armed for the upcoming battle. Hoists of all kinds sported heavy energy cannons, hyper missile launchers and a few rail guns attached to them, with large conduits of power coming from the base. All the assault crafts took their positions in orbit above the base with the HAAT, now fully repaired and better prepared for battle. On the ground, every other able person stood around the base and on top of it, equipped with large handheld cannons.
In the central command center, Orion watched on the main screen, the telemetry of the approaching ship. It's destination one third of the way to the moon, from the Earth. As it neared, it's entire complement of fighters launched out at the base, slowly coming into firing range.
Over the main comm channel, Orion gave out his orders. "All ships, ready guns to fire at the core of the enemy fighter fleet. All ground units, defend your positions until further notice. All crafts to begin firing in t minus ten, nine,... three, two, FIRE."
As they opened up, their stationary positions allowed them to take out many in the first round, but the enemy had vast numbers, reaching into the thousands of single pilot crafts, smaller than their own assault crafts. In the few volleys of fire, almost a hundred and fifty enemy crafts were destroyed or crippled. The rest continued on, firing, their main target being the base itself. A few assault crafts were heavily damaged, their energy absorbing armor reducing damage to them sufficiently.
Looking at the telemetry and the direction of the enemy ships, Orion continued with his orders. "All ships, hostiles are intent on striking the base, move in behind them and take them out. All ground forces, stand ready to open fire."
As the enemy went past, the assault crafts pursued, taking out hundreds more before the rest entered into the base's firing range. Enemy weapons fire was mainly concentrated on the main dome, which took heavy impact breaking a large section of the energy absorption panels
"Sir," called out Todd from a monitoring station. "The dome energy output is down 20%"
"They're trying to destroy the dome," commented Orion. "I don't think they are aware that it is just our hanger bay."
"Perhaps, but it is going to put a strain on our power reserves," said Todd.
"If it gets critical, we will shut down all power to the complex, transferring it for weapon use," said Orion.
Looking puzzled, Todd said, "Sir, do you think that will be enough?"
Maintaining a watchful eye on the main screen, showing the positioning of all units, friendly and hostile, Orion replied to him, "part of the project I have been working on, has a fairly powerful reactor, capable of providing almost eighty five percent or more of the base's power needs."
Astonished, Todd said, "that's a large reactor. I don't even think the HAAT's reactor could provide forty percent of the base's needs."
"You're right," confirmed Orion. "This new reactor is for phase two point five. If fully successful, it will later contribute to phase three design."
"I wasn't aware there was a phase two point five," said Moy, astonished that he had never heard of it.
"Phase two point five is my personal project," began explaining Orion, when suddenly a heavy impact could be heard hitting the main building a short distance from them.
"That was close," remarked Jenny, as she continued to monitor the status of all their own crafts.
As Orion watched the screen more intently, noticing a large group of enemies building up, moving towards them, he said, "all ground units, focus fire towards grid seven. We have a large number of incoming. All crafts, regroup in grid five then proceed to engage."
As friendly ground fire massed, many hostiles came crashing to the ground, while one  impacted and fell through the dome. A massive blast resulted from the sudden release of air and the fiery debris of enemy crafts and fuel.
After that, hoping that they had succeeded in crippling the base, all enemy crafts turned towards all the assault crafts and the HAAT  in a sweeping wave, took out as many as they could before retreating to the main ship.
Meanwhile, in the main comm room, power flickered heavily as the power junction panel coped with he surge of power from the explosion of enemy craft in the hanger bay. In a short few moments, power returned to normal. The comm room systems, hooked into a reserve power system, installed shortly after the power outage month's ago, maintained functioning.
"Sir," began Jenny, "was that the main dome we heard?"
"Afraid it might have been," replied Orion. "HAAT, can you confirm damage to the base?"
"Command, we confirm it," replied Zoi over the communications. "In-depth scan reveals almost thirty percent damage to the dome. As well, enemy forces are in retreat."
"Thank you for the confirmation. Pursue all enemy crafts with what crafts we have left, but stay clear of the mother ship," ordered Orion.
"Aye sir," replied Zoi.
"All ground troops, return to the dome, to begin full repairs. We need the dome resealed as soon as possible," ordered Orion.
Cutting communications to his own people, Orion switched comm channels and opened a channel with Francis. In moments he was on the Screen, with joint chiefs from all over the globe.
"Orion, what is your current progress?" asked Francis. "Have the enemy forces been neutralized?"
"Negative," replied Orion. "They breached our main dome causing a lot of damage. I am assuming that after the explosion, they thought they neutralized us. They have withdrawn and are headed your way. I would suggest mobilizing everything and beginning a counter offensive."
"Affirmative," replied General Hanson. "We are as we speak. All fighters are in the air, in the nearest region to the enemy ship."
"I have already sent all the crafts we have left to intercept their fighters, but they still outnumber us greatly. Would suggest full caution when engaging them," said Orion.
"Affirmative," agreed Hanson. "We have many thousands on interception. Hopefully our greater numbers can help."
"Notify all your pilots to stay out of range of the mother ship. Also, save all the ground to air missiles. We may need them later," said Orion
Just then the mother ship began firing at his crafts. Several were hit and critically damaged. The rest of the enemy ships proceeding on ignoring their pursuers.
"This is the HAAT to base, respond please," Zoi's voice broke over the rest in the com center."
"This is Orion, go ahead Zoi."
"Sir, the enemy mother ship is taking us out like flies, sir. Request further orders," she said.
"I see that," replied Orion. "Take the HAAT and directly attack the mother ship. All assault crafts are to maintain pursuit of enemy fighters."
"But sir," began Zoi. "We don't stand a chance to take out the mother ship."
"I had a second layer of armor installed on all forward parts of the HAAT while it was being repaired. You can withstand direct hits more than before," said Orion.
"Very well sir."
"Good luck," wished Orion.
"Thank you sir, from all three of us," ended Zoi.
"Sounds like your people have their hands really full," stated Francis, having listened in with the rest of the joint chiefs.
"You don't know the half of it," replied Orion, as the signal began to diminish. He looked at the monitors and on them detected a jamming signal attempting to break communications. "We may not be able to communicate much further as they...." was all Orion could say before communication was fully lost with Earth.
"Orion, Orion, you there?" pleaded Francis, but got nothing in return.
"They're disrupting the signal. We will have to wait till it is all over to try again," said Hanson to Francis.
In the first few minutes the HAAT suffered several heavy hits from turrets as it approached the mother ship. Once it got within a few hundred meters, however, it managed to avoid the rest. With some fancy maneuvering and sideways flying, numerous turret cannons of the mother ship, were destroyed. Before they could get more, many fighters came to assist attempting to destroy the HAAT. In their attempt, they struck their own mother ship many times, as the HAAT continued its mission to disable it.
In Orbit the rest of the enemy fleet began their descent, engaging all terrestrial crafts. They out maneuvered many, nearly half of them destroyed, but the assault crafts and fighters wiped most of them out. Following that, the last of the assault crafts returned to help the HAAT, destroying the last of the hostile crafts.
With very few fighters left, the mother ship recalled all remaining ones, closed all gun ports, set a new course back out of the system, engaging their engines to full capacity their aft cannons attempting to take out what they could on their escape.
When the jamming signal was finally cut out, Orion recalled all assault ships. The HAAT, however, was redirected to locate all crippled hostile crafts and remaining pieces that lay in orbit.
Meanwhile during the entire battle, Caroline wearing a spacesuit along with Barry, had been broadcasting the whole time until the signal was jammed.
"This is Caroline Holt reporting from the moon. We are currently on a lunar space walk a short distance from the lunar base. If you look in the distance behind me, you can see what appears to be a large asteroid. Confirmation has been made that it is an alien ship. A few days ago the crafts that were launched were attacked by it. Now it is..." said Caroline.
Just then Barry's voice broke through and said, "Caroline, we have incoming."
As Caroline turned to look she then went on to say, "folks, you are watching live as our own forces, which were built here on the moon for this, engage in battle. The light show from where we are is just amazing. I can't say yet if we are winning or not, but if you look over towards the lunar base you can see many positioned all in front, with all kinds of advanced weaponry, ready to fire on the the incoming aliens."
Continuing to watch and taking video they both stood there showing the people what was going on, until Barry noticed a craft coming down their way. "Caroline, run. Its going to hit our location," quickly moving to the side fast, keeping it on camera the whole.
In another few moments, the alien craft crashed but twenty meters away from them.
"Oh my god that almost hit us," said Caroline, still on the air, the viewers listening in.
"I don't think it's going to be the last one either," said Barry.
"I thought we would be safe at this distance from the base. I was wrong," said Caroline.
"I thought we would as well. But seems anything can get hit and change directions crashing. There's a crater just over yonder. Maybe we can duck into it for safety," said Barry.
"I think that's a good idea," said Caroline, as more crafts came crashing down further away. "I hope none of those were ours."
"They didn't seem to look like ours," replied Barry, seeing another coming down towards the base. "Caroline, look, does that look like it's about to hit the dome?"
"Oh my god, it does," said Caroline, watching it come down, Barry recording.
Just then it hit the dome, causing a massive explosion.
"I hope no one was in there when that hit," said Barry.
"I was told that all personnel would be in the underground portion of the base, that weren't on the lunar surface," said Caroline.
"Caroline, look, they seem to be turning and heading away now," said Barry.
"Do you think, that they think, they wrecked the place and don't need to attack here any further?" asked Caroline.
"I have no clue, but it looks like they are now headed towards the Earth," said Barry.
"The Atlantic is in perfect view from here. They may attack the Americas, the Europa or Afrique continents," said Caroline.
"Which ever it is, I think it may be safe to return to the base now," said Barry.
"I think you're right. I'd like to see how much damage there is," said Caroline.
"Yes, same," said Barry as they proceeded back.
Once back, they entered through the main doors, looking in at the wreckage. It wasn't as bad as they expected, but it was still bad.
"I guess with no atmosphere you can't have too much of an explosion," said Caroline, now looking up pointing. "That may be a while getting fixed."
"Do you think they have parts on hand to fix it?" asked Barry.
"According to what the general told me, the manufacturing facility can make anything they need. So if they don't they'll make it," replied Caroline.
"Everyone seems to be pulling back into the dome," remarked Barry.
"Yes. I guess the initial battle is now over," said Caroline.
"Now's it's whatever happens in Earth's orbit," said Barry.
"Well folks, you have now seen our first battle with extraterrestrials. We will keep you up to date on the situation as we learn more. This is Caroline Holt signing off for now."
"And we're off," said Barry.
"I'd like to go see the general, to find out what's happening now," said Caroline.
"Yes, so would I," said Barry following.
A short time later, the two arrived in the command center, everyone at ease they could see.
"What's happening?" asked Caroline.
"We have repelled them for now," replied Orion. "But I'm afraid the last portion of your broadcast was not seen. Communications were being jammed by the mother ship shortly after the alien craft breached the dome crashing down."
"We were however, watching your whole broadcast from here, when we could," said Jenny.
"Then you know we almost got hit by one of the crashing crafts?" said Caroline.
"You had one come down on you?" asked Orion.
"Had we not moved, it would have," replied Barry.
"Did you get it on camera?" asked Orion.
"I did, or what I could. I was scrambling for my life at that time," replied Barry.
"I'd like to see the recorded footage, of that," said Orion.
"What's the plans now, general?" asked Caroline.
"The first thing we need to do is cleanup the hanger bay and repair it. The second, is to collect all the debris on the lunar surface, salvage what we can, recycle the rest," replied Orion.
"You're going to salvage the wrecked alien crafts as well?" questioned Barry.
"They may have some technologies we don't. Discovering any would be a plus for us. As well, we can't just leave all that wreckage on the lunar surface," said Orion.
"Well there is going to be a lot of it out there," said Caroline.
"We know. It will add to our raw material stockpile once processed," said Orion.
Just then a communique was picked up. "This is lunar base operations, Moy Malcom here."
"Uh, yes, this is State News studio five calling. I'm Maurice, the head technician. Is everything alright up there? We lost transmission a while ago."
Taking over Orion said, "this is general Zeenner. Our communications were being jammed by the enemy. We couldn't broadcast any further. But they have been driven off now."
"Is it possible to get the last footage they recorded, sir?" asked Maurice.
"Maurice, give us up to ten minutes and we'll have Caroline back on the air, to resume her broadcast as well as play back what you are missing," said Orion.
"That would be even better," replied Maurice.
"Great, have your news reporters in the studio stand by for a new broadcast, but keep this channel open," said Orion.
"Very good sir," replied Maurice.
Silencing their end, Orion asked, "can you take out the recorded video footage?"
"Yes sir," replied Barry pulling the data card out, inserting a new one. "This is it."
"Great. We will just download it into our system here, then broadcast it when needed," said Orion turning. "Now Caroline, you want to do an interview here with us?"
"Here in your operations center?" questioned Caroline.
"Why not," replied Orion.
"Well ok," said Caroline, then turned to Barry. "Are you ready to do more?"
"Let's do it," replied Barry.
"Lets wait till we have the video footage ready to transmit from where you left off. We will even do a link up with the studio so you can talk to them," said Orion, turning audio back on. "Maurice, you ready to do a direct link up with your studio news crew?"
"Uh no, but give me a moment and we can," said Maurice. Moments later, "we are ready."
At the studio desk, on air live reporting was Lena Johnstone, who was saying, "we have just been patched in with Caroline. Caroline you there?"
Within seconds Caroline's feed began to broadcast, her starting with, "I'm here Lena in the lunar base's operations center."
"What happened out there? We lost all broadcast feed, the whole channel going to static. Our technicians said they couldn't get it back till just a few minutes ago," said Lena.
"Well Lena, according to what I was told, all communications between Earth and the moon were jammed by the alien ship. We didn't know this until we got up here to the operations center to find out more of what was happening that we couldn't see." replied Caroline.
"So you're saying you are now standing in the base's operation center?" asked Lena.
"We are," replied Caroline.
"So what happened after you began your trek back to the base after almost getting hit by that crashing craft?" asked Lena.
"We have the recorded footage ready to broadcast to you now," said Caroline.
"Great, lets show our viewers what we missed," said Lena.
In moments the footage was transmitted, Barry's camera turned off. Once the playback was complete, Barry's camera resumed for Caroline to speak.
"There you have it, the missing footage." said Caroline.
"That's a lot of damage to repair. How are they going to repair it?" asked Lena.
"Perhaps I should let you speak to general Zeenner and let him tell us all," said Caroline, handing the mic over to him.
"Miss Johnstone, was it?" said Orion.
"Yes general. Would you care to give us an update and tell us what happens next?"asked Lena.
"First off, there is significant damage to our hanger bay, but it is not that important at the current time, other than it will take longer to move supplies in and out as transports arrive. But I have my people on it now and hopefully by tomorrow, we will be able to pressurize it once more," said Orion.
"You have spare parts on hand to fix it?" asked Lena.
"No, we don't keep spare parts, but we do have a manufacturing plant here that can make anything we need," replied Orion.
"Oh? I wasn't aware of that. But where do you get your raw materials from?" asked Lena.
"We mine a lot of it from the moon itself. The rock has a high silica, alumina and lime content. There is also six to fourteen percent content or iron two oxide in it," replied Orion.
"So you are almost self sufficient then?" asked Lena.
"Mostly. We still need to ship food here, even though we have our own hydroponics system that grows some food. We also don't manufacture the electronic boards or chips we use. That is shipped in as well, when the manufacturer, makes what we need according to our specifications. We also have a number of other minor items shipped up as well," replied Orion.
"Well hopefully your shipments stay regular," said Lena.
"In the most part they are. But when the battle was impending, I suspended all transports from traveling. We can't risk losing those at all at this time," said Orion.
"I can understand that. But tell us, where are these aliens now?" asked Lena.
"When they moved to attack the Earth, our advanced craft pursued them. But all available aircraft Earth side, were scrambled to engage them as well. We defeated them, but lost a lot of our own crafts. We are attempting to salvage those we can, but mostly we have to rebuild them all. As for the large alien ship, it is retreating outwards now. We are carefully monitoring them, but I know we haven't seen the last of them. Their ship has suffered a lot of damage.But as a moving target, it's much harder to disable them, than when they are standing still as they were," said Orion.
"How long will it be till you have new crafts ready to fight them once more?" asked Lena.
"Our production facilities are still making more here. I estimate that in six month's, between salvaging and new ones, we should have the same numbers or more by then," replied Orion.
"Then you plan on salvaging what you can find?" asked Lena.
We have actually already commenced cleanup. Our heavily army transport, is equipped with a special net and is sweeping the orbit, catching all the debris and remains of crafts, or even near intact ones and changing their direction towards the moon now. Once they get close enough, we will have the nets catch them and gently bring them to the lunar surface where teams will gather and bring all back here," explained Orion.
"That sounds like a very long process," said Lena.
"It is. But we need to clean the orbit, in order to make it safe once more for travel to and from, otherwise we risk having our crafts or transports damaged in the future. As well,it's for the safety of the orbiting satellites, so they don't get damaged," said Orion.
"That's sounds like a task that could take forever to do," said Lena.
"Yes, the transport will be busy at it for a very long time," said Orion.
"Won't you need it to ferry supplies?"asked Lena.
"No. This transport is more of a troop transport. It's not meant for atmospheric travel at all. It is also equipped with ion thrusters allowing it to accelerate using very little fuel," said Orion.
"Space age technology then. Do you plan to build a version to land on planets?" asked Lena.
"At the current time, we lack that technology. But we hope that out of all the alien crafts we salvage, there will be technology we can salvage that may enable that in the future," said Orion.
"Then the salvage operation has multiple purposes then," said Lena.
"It has," confirmed Orion.
"One last question, what is the current loss of life of our people?" asked Lena.
"That I cannot say at this time. All our crafts have triple platting around the pilots. Most survive their crafts being wrecked. As for the planetary aircrafts, only the counsel will know that in time, if and any died at all. Those crafts have ejection systems as you know," said Orion.
"Well general Zeenner, it was a pleasure to speak with you," said Lena, as Orion handed the mic back to Caroline.
"Lena, I hope this answers many of the questions our viewers have. I'll be remaining here longer to report daily on the post battle cleanup and repairs. Until tomorrow, this is Caroline Holt for State News."