Jupiter Rim
“Carve up not the world.
Else nothing will be left to console our Hearts….”
Home World Treaty
Jupiter
Rim - 2636
Off Titan the hulking disc smoothly traversed its weary way. Jupiter obscured the inky night, flashes of lightning flickered under the dense clouds. A small glint of artificial light gave away the Titan station. The cluster of miner ships hovered above the moon like a swarm of thorny gnats.
It was no chance that the Colony ship had come by this route. They were showing off using the strong Magnostratic string from Sol to Jupiter to haul its way across the Solar system. It was sure moving fast too - but it had no real need to come close to the station out here.
'Still there’s nothing worse than Home Worlders gloating,' thought Garnet.
The mighty
ship of
Confused
messages had been received from the Martian shipyards earlier. The Martian
Vessel Inspection Agency had not cleared
'So what was it doing out here as far as Titan station?' puzzled the station manager. No mind - bureaucrats be damned - this was a momentous day in human history and she wasn't going to miss it.
Garnet tuned to the messages from The Ion Mark. Not the classiest of vessels to be sure – it was the largest and quickest she had though and she wanted some live-data from in the field now.
The Colony Ship commander had refused initial docking to The Ion Mark, which was quite perplexing. After succumbing to a bit of persuasion, costing far too much methane gas, the sight-seers were onboard. However, the crew only got as far as the lower decks.
“We’re stuck in the quarantine quarters on – what’d they call it – Level Four!” One of the crew exclaimed.
“Can’t see anything from here – there seems to be some type of military operation afoot - they're all on edge and tell us nothing. It’s real strange Garn' – and I'm not the first to say its as suspicious as Synth.” he mumbled.
“Hmm," replied Garnet. "Alright, don't overload yourselves, it's all just a mix up I'm sure.”
Movement on the sunward side of the deck caught Garnet’s eye. Emerging from the inner Solar system at high speed was a fleet of ships. Scattered balls of steel of various sizes in a rag tag formation and heading this way.
Garnet did a search on the main computer. Their identities were verified by long range probes and enhanced visuals, Martian Mining Corp. ships. What in the world are they doing out here? thought Garnet. And Mining ships at high speed too, very irregular and extremely dangerous - especially if they are carrying ore.
A Lasercom message was coming through to the Titan station.
"Hail, Garnet and Company," a scratchy message squalled in her ear. Jupiter was giving communications a hard time today.
"Greetings - please identify yourselves and your purpose," Garnet replied.
"We are the assembled forces of the Martian Mining Confederacy. We
are demanding the return of
Before Garnet could make a gasped reply, both the station and MMC
Commander watched in despair as the Colony ship rounded Jupiter picking up speed
from the giant planets gravitational pull. A brief moment later the Jovian
horizon was lit up like day as
"That must be the biggest
"No matter. We will follow them in our Quo ship Rattan."
The MMC Commander blurted in her ear, jogging her from her reverie. "We
have nothing to go back to. The Martian shipyards are in turmoil - if not
destroyed, the Miners and Home Worlders are at war. The Home World Treaty has
been broken, Earth is being carved up and obviously it is in a worse state than
we were lead to believe.
Garnet was
left stunned. Everything had happened so fast. She was still dazed when she
remembered the worst of it. The Ion Mark
was docked on the Colony ship - in the rush to escape the MMC,