After War

The Behemoth

One of the great logistical questions that came up when they built the battlecruiser Behemoth when it came to living quarters was this: How can you pack three hundred thousand men and women in an enclosed box in space and still maintain a solid and tight structural integrity? The answer came in the form of a beehive. The bees made a hexagonal shape that definitely used the least amount of resources and maintained the greatest structural strength, and we were seeing the result of it. The hive, a large hexagonal structure in itself, was wedged dead center in the Behemoth’s body, to protect those who were sleeping and or recovering inside it. Each room doubles as a hospital bed, should its occupant get sick or injured, with its own self recovery system in place which would allow the healing and curing of simple injuries and minor wounds/diseases. This was an invention made possible courtesy from the captured aliens.

Despite the Behemoth being made to be just a test drive for humanity’s conquest, all of its crew were given the best treatment the world could offer with its current technologies.

Jackie and Magz headed off to visit the Agricultural section, where humanity’s waste would be turned into fertilizer/mush as food for the plants, or as biofuel to power the ship. The Behemoth’s propulsion system was a complicated mess of different nuclear and anti-matter theories bunched up together to create the hyper drive, an engine that operates at 86-92% efficiency, which is more than twice the energy output when compared to an ordinary diesel engine, which normally runs at 24-36% efficiency.

Truly the Behemoth was a wonder to Humanity.

I logged in my room. As a married couple, Cheska and I were allowed to share the same room, so did everyone else. Hervey and his team were assigned to the machine rooms. The hive was divided into four sections, or four large drums, with each section rotating opposite to the other, this is so that the centrifugal force acted upon the walls of the hive would generate a downward pull similar to earth’s gravity. Additionally each separate spin would make it so that the Behemoth would not rotate in place, thus making the ship’s captain lose orientation. The Behemoth was large, but not large enough to have its own gravity.

And so we gave ourselves a small tour after we reached the ship. We weren’t due to leave for at least a month so that we could get used to the reduced gravity and the tighter cramped space. The Behemoth was as large as a small island, spanning nearly a hundred kilometers in length and forty kilometers in diameter, and roughly around twenty kilometers deep in its thinnest bulk to up to thirty-five kilometers deep in its midsection. The engines themselves were large abysmal caverns, all designed to power and push nearly seventy trillion tons of titanium armor, structural steel, fuel and living beings throughout the dismal expanse of space. The ship was plated with four meters-thick titanium armor, courtesy from the moons of Jupiter and Mars, which had abundant resources of it. The electrical circuits and its wirings were all made of gold, now a commodity all thanks from the efforts of mining in one of Neptune’s moons.

We only managed to see a small section of the ship, such was its size but we had a curious observation: Most of the crews, mates, and workers in the ships were brown skinned Asians. There were officers, sure, but it seemed that the majority of the workforce were all Filipino.

“Maybe it’s because we’re just in this part of the ship?” Cheska told me when I told her my observation.

“They might’ve done it to make sure we feel at home.” A voice from the back said. It was Hervey, and he was covered in what seemed like grease. “Hey guys! Wanna see the tank we’ll be driving? Come on in” and he went inside a large gate. We followed suit.

Inside the room was a large expanse of space, a ceiling thirty feet high, and several rows of tanks in one section of the room, in another section were smaller military vehicles, which I was familiar with during my time in scout training.

“I’ll be driving tank number 61.” Herv proudly announced. He pointed to a tank that was much larger than most. “Specialized in establishing beachheads and doubling as troop transports, while still retaining the capabilities of your standard war machine.” He tapped on the vehicle. “I call her ‘Brenda.’ And your squad should be assigned to me when we enter our first open world battle.”

“Cool.” One thing the Canadian Government granted me and my friends was that our request to be never separated from each other. It was tough enough going to war systems apart, even worse so when you’re alone.

“Now that’s a tank” Jeff said. He and Migz had just rounded the corner. “Where’s Clyde and John?”

“Oh they’re both at their bunks right now” Hervey answered. “We just finished doing maintenance on this thing.

“Herv.” I said. “Have you gotten in touch with Micah?” Micah was Hervey’s girlfriend back when he was in college. When she graduated, her parents had her move back to Canada with them, as they needed her help to run the family business. When the aliens attacked, they lost contact, and it seemed that they haven’t talked to each other in three years.

Hervey smirked. “You’d be surprised.” And suddenly my eyes were covered by thin cold hands, and I turned around and saw Micah, smiling and all proud.

“Heyyo!” She greeted, “guess who’s in charge of this ragtag group of rowdies?”

“Is it you?” I asked.

Micah laughed. “No, not really. I don’t know who’ll be commanding you guys but it aint me. I’ll be at sick bay of you need me. I’m a medical officer.”

“Well, glad to see you and Hervey together again.” I smiled at them, happy for this little reunion.

After a quick discussion, we all agreed to meet again on the mess hall of the lower part  of the ship and we went back to our separate duties.

Miguel, Jeff and I, being on the scout Infantry teams, were assigned to check on the ship armory and maintain our gear. Among our gear were two standard issue military rifles, one exoskeleton armor, which basically acts as our uniform as it covers the entirety of our bodies, from the shoulder down to the foot. Last among these was the survival packs.

Human scout teams are important to this particular battle because while the new technology made it possible to create robotic infantry controlled by a single person back on ship, the weight of their bulks made these large robots slow and clunky. Other than that, the aliens were equipped with technology that could camouflage themselves against the optics that we currently had, so the only answer to those problems were to give each member of a scout team (which comprises of 3-5 members) a squad of these remote-controlled soldiers. The scouts are expected to tag an enemy with homing lasers or darts and allow the other soldiers to see through the electronic disguise in case they decide to hide.

As we were cleaning the equipment, an announcement rang out:

“Scout teams please form up on your designated combat rooms to meet your Squad assignments”

Miguel, Jeff and I looked at each other. I guess it’s time to meet our charges.

“Oi, aint these brownies the ones incharge of us on this here battlefield, innit?” a voice shouted to us as we rounded into the room. We were in the external part of the hive now, where the space fighters could deploy out to the ship in case of an attack. The ship’s external hull had very few weapon turrets, as space battles could be held as far as a thousand kilometers from each other. It made more sense to equip the ship with anti-missile turrets that could shoot down enemy rockets before they hit.

“Shut up mate, they’re called fay-lee-pi-noes” another nudged him. We surveyed the three squads assigned to us. They were all white.

“I’m guessing there are no Filipinos in this squad?” Jeff asked.

“No sir-ee,” a third man answered, this time he had a southern Missouri accent. “I reckon the other squads might’ve gotten sum, but nobodys ive seen yet here handled one of them robot suits we was piloting on.”

We took a look around. Each and every single one of the pilots of the remote soldiers were all either American, British, or Canadian. The rest of the groups commanding them were either Mexican, or Filipino.

“Sorta racist, don’t you think?” Miguel muttered under his breath. He surveyed his squad and proceeded to bark orders to get them to follow. The men were obedient enough, which was good. If they decided to act on their own during battle, we’d probably end up dying.

“I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure you have questions about the whole robot-pilot design” A voice in the back said, “Hi, my name’s Yuu, I’m one of the scientists involved in designing these state-of-the-art robot soldiers these men will be piloting on.”

“Hi, Yuu. Yeah, I was wondering why there were only Caucasians and Blacks in all of the units assigned to us.” I asked.

“Design specifics. The easiest compatible soldiers for the robots currently are the Americans and their African American friends, as they are stronger in build. We were also able to produce Chinese-based robot soldiers, which are compatible to you and the rest of our Asian friends but there some problems in hardwiring, and the best we could send out right now are these units.”

“So where are the Chinese?”

“They are currently maintaining the engines and other facilities of this ship. You should also see some them in the tank crews that we’ve brought.”

I surveyed the room. There were indeed a lot of Chinese workers around the ship, working on engines, hooking up scales, doing the most meager job a man can do.

“Where are your soldiers?” I asked Yuu.

“Quite the suspicious one, aren’t you?” Yuu smiled. “The Chinese teams assigned to this part of the ship are not due to arrive until tomorrow. But if you’d like, the Chinese on the west side of the ship has arrived, so you could take a trip there to see for yourself, although that would take you the better part of today to get there.”

“No, thank you. I’ll take your word for it.”

“If that’s all the questions you have sir, then I’d like to take my leave. I may have to check on the other squads, if you please.” Yuu said.

I liked Yuu. He was polite, patient, and nice.

“Sure thing.” I replied. “Hope to see you again. Tai tien.”

“Tai tien” Yuu replied. And with a quick but short bow, he left.

After quick introductions, we left the men and went back to our rooms. It became apparent that we were going to be placed in a support role.

I unpacked my bags and surveyed my room. The ceiling was around 8 feet high, tall enough for me to be comfortable, but probably small enough for the other nationalities, assuming that the hive was built the same all around. After a quick shower, I looked at the watch. 4:45 pm. There were still a few minutes before our scheduled meet up with the group, so I decided to kill some time with my computer. We were allowed certain luxuries in our rooms, considering the fact that it was going to be a long voyage in space.