Rosdivan
05-01-2007, 23:02
The night was pitch black, as nights were wont to be. It was a clear night, with a new moon and no clouds, just the stars shining in their brightness. For those accustomed to urban or suburban areas, they were unusually and impressively bright. The island of Cotulnay was a rather desolate island, one of the few Rosdivani islands that was not inhabited or used for industrial activities such as mining. As a result, there was none of the light pollution which drowned out the shine of the stars and blotted out so many of the constellations. With tonight's lack of moonlight, their glory shined forth to all who were watching.
But then there was a bright orange glow, coming forth from the eastern tip of the island. For, while there was not large communities of people or industry, there was a rocket pad on the island. The location of the island in the south of Rosdivan and its uninhabited nature recommended it well to the military for satellite launches, since they had no worry about a failed launch falling down on populated areas nor peeping toms intruding on the security of a classified launch. That there was a launch was no doubt, but what was launched was a highly guarded secret and there was less chance someone could find out what it was if there were less people around for the launch.
The glow continued to brighten and expand before it detached itself from the Earth, lengthening into a cone of fire as the rocket lifted off, carrying its cargo to the heavens. Hundreds of pairs of eyes watched it on its brief journey. Within a quarter of an hour, the satellite will be snug in orbit and most of the rocket will have burned up reentering the atmosphere, a few of the larger pieces surviving the searing heat only to slam into the ocean. A couple stayed on in space, in unstable orbits. They would return to Earth within no more than a few months. Of those hundreds of pairs of eyes, all of them belonged to the Commonwealth Air Force. All but one that is.
********
The phone rang, greatly annoying Matthew Woollard. He had been intending to replace that phone for some time, as the designer of its ring tone was obviously in league with the devil, but he had never gotten around to it. Phones came rather low on the list of things to do and it wasn't like he was called all that often. Pushing back from his computer, he glided across his home office towards the phone and picked it up. "'ello, this is Matthew."
The voice on the other end was well-known to Matthew, it was the bass yet scratchy voice of his friend Keith Glover. "Hey Matthew, it's Keith. They launched another big one last night." The voice came over a bit staticy and a bit faint, as though it came from a long ways away. This was partially because Keith's phone was not all that good and had poor reception, but was mainly due to the fact that it was in fact a long ways away.
"Another big what Keith?" asked Matthew. Though Keith meant well, he was one of those people who typically started the conversation while already halfway through it. Occasionally amusing, the habit could often be highly frustrating if one was not able to guess the context of the statement.
"Another one of those big rockets. I'm out in the ocean right now, on my boat. I was anchored out last night to watch the stars when they launched one out from Cotulnay." Matthew laughed as Keith spoke. Sure, just happened to be out there he thought. Glancing back at his computer, he saw the forums for TheTruth.ros displayed on the screen. Both he and Keith were rather frequent posters there. They weren't complete wingnut conspiracy theorists like some there, but they weren't exactly defenders and staunch supporters of the government either.
"Ok, so what about it? The Air Force does launch satellites on occasion you know," Matthew replied, pushing back towards his computer. Cordless phones could be very useful, even if they did have annoying ringtones. Refreshing the screen, he started looking around for anything about the launch.
"Yeah, on occasion. But they've launched thirty-eight of these in the past three months, and word is that there are even more to launch. They aren't even built by us, the rockets come in from The Silver Sky," Keith continued, starting to run his words together some. That was another habit of his, his diction went to pieces when he started getting excited about something.
"The Silver Sky? Hey, yeah, there's a thread here from earlier in the year about that. Something about a classified shipment from the government and then a regular set of freighters coming in with rockets. The, um, GSB-111-4D 'Skybolt' Heavy Lift Rocket," Matthew said, somewhat absent-mindedly as he read on the forum, sounding out each of the letters in the designation. "Doesn't sound too odd, Wikipedia says its got a launch capacity far in excess of anything we produce domestically."
"Matthew, since when does the government launch fifty thousand pound satellites? Even large recon birds are a fraction of that weight. No, I'll tell you what it is. It's an orbital bombardment system. With that payload they could put probably a fifty megaton bomb and a large rocket to deorbit it in space," Keith said, coming very close to unintelligibility with his slurring.
"Oh come on, that's ridiculous. The people wouldn't stand for that and the government knows it. We'd never build such large bombs, or put them in a position to be used and you know that," responded Matthew, outraged at the notion.
"You so sure about that? This started up right after the Allanean-Reichs War. How much do you wanna bet that the government looked at that, looked at our inability to engage, and decided to do something about that? Better yet, this way they can end the war in a single afternoon. Slaughter the civilian population, war's done. They might even be able to do it with plausible deniability, meaning that the other nations won't be sure that it was us that did it. Not sure enough to launch nukes back at us at least." Miracle of miracles, Keith was still understandable. That was not likely to continue, and he had a good point with the Allanean conflict. There were rumors that the Lord Protector had gotten into some hot water with the rest of the Empire over the Rosdivani stance, and the military had taken the opportunity to openly discuss increasing the small numbers of nuclear armed anti-aircraft missiles that were still in service. So far nothing had come of that. Not publically at least.
"Hey, you've got a good point. Let me go type that up for the board, we'll see what they have to say about it. Meanwhile, you get yourself home safe."
********
Unconcerned by the discussions of its purpose, the satellite finished boosting into its proper orbit. A quick discussion with the controllers on the ground confirmed that it was indeed where it was supposed to be. For a rather long time, seven seconds, it ran a self-diagnostic check. Everything checked out and it sent a radio message back to ground control that it was in perfect working condition. Did they wish to activate it? The answer came back: No. The satellite's activation would wait until it and its sister satellites could be activated all at once.
But then there was a bright orange glow, coming forth from the eastern tip of the island. For, while there was not large communities of people or industry, there was a rocket pad on the island. The location of the island in the south of Rosdivan and its uninhabited nature recommended it well to the military for satellite launches, since they had no worry about a failed launch falling down on populated areas nor peeping toms intruding on the security of a classified launch. That there was a launch was no doubt, but what was launched was a highly guarded secret and there was less chance someone could find out what it was if there were less people around for the launch.
The glow continued to brighten and expand before it detached itself from the Earth, lengthening into a cone of fire as the rocket lifted off, carrying its cargo to the heavens. Hundreds of pairs of eyes watched it on its brief journey. Within a quarter of an hour, the satellite will be snug in orbit and most of the rocket will have burned up reentering the atmosphere, a few of the larger pieces surviving the searing heat only to slam into the ocean. A couple stayed on in space, in unstable orbits. They would return to Earth within no more than a few months. Of those hundreds of pairs of eyes, all of them belonged to the Commonwealth Air Force. All but one that is.
********
The phone rang, greatly annoying Matthew Woollard. He had been intending to replace that phone for some time, as the designer of its ring tone was obviously in league with the devil, but he had never gotten around to it. Phones came rather low on the list of things to do and it wasn't like he was called all that often. Pushing back from his computer, he glided across his home office towards the phone and picked it up. "'ello, this is Matthew."
The voice on the other end was well-known to Matthew, it was the bass yet scratchy voice of his friend Keith Glover. "Hey Matthew, it's Keith. They launched another big one last night." The voice came over a bit staticy and a bit faint, as though it came from a long ways away. This was partially because Keith's phone was not all that good and had poor reception, but was mainly due to the fact that it was in fact a long ways away.
"Another big what Keith?" asked Matthew. Though Keith meant well, he was one of those people who typically started the conversation while already halfway through it. Occasionally amusing, the habit could often be highly frustrating if one was not able to guess the context of the statement.
"Another one of those big rockets. I'm out in the ocean right now, on my boat. I was anchored out last night to watch the stars when they launched one out from Cotulnay." Matthew laughed as Keith spoke. Sure, just happened to be out there he thought. Glancing back at his computer, he saw the forums for TheTruth.ros displayed on the screen. Both he and Keith were rather frequent posters there. They weren't complete wingnut conspiracy theorists like some there, but they weren't exactly defenders and staunch supporters of the government either.
"Ok, so what about it? The Air Force does launch satellites on occasion you know," Matthew replied, pushing back towards his computer. Cordless phones could be very useful, even if they did have annoying ringtones. Refreshing the screen, he started looking around for anything about the launch.
"Yeah, on occasion. But they've launched thirty-eight of these in the past three months, and word is that there are even more to launch. They aren't even built by us, the rockets come in from The Silver Sky," Keith continued, starting to run his words together some. That was another habit of his, his diction went to pieces when he started getting excited about something.
"The Silver Sky? Hey, yeah, there's a thread here from earlier in the year about that. Something about a classified shipment from the government and then a regular set of freighters coming in with rockets. The, um, GSB-111-4D 'Skybolt' Heavy Lift Rocket," Matthew said, somewhat absent-mindedly as he read on the forum, sounding out each of the letters in the designation. "Doesn't sound too odd, Wikipedia says its got a launch capacity far in excess of anything we produce domestically."
"Matthew, since when does the government launch fifty thousand pound satellites? Even large recon birds are a fraction of that weight. No, I'll tell you what it is. It's an orbital bombardment system. With that payload they could put probably a fifty megaton bomb and a large rocket to deorbit it in space," Keith said, coming very close to unintelligibility with his slurring.
"Oh come on, that's ridiculous. The people wouldn't stand for that and the government knows it. We'd never build such large bombs, or put them in a position to be used and you know that," responded Matthew, outraged at the notion.
"You so sure about that? This started up right after the Allanean-Reichs War. How much do you wanna bet that the government looked at that, looked at our inability to engage, and decided to do something about that? Better yet, this way they can end the war in a single afternoon. Slaughter the civilian population, war's done. They might even be able to do it with plausible deniability, meaning that the other nations won't be sure that it was us that did it. Not sure enough to launch nukes back at us at least." Miracle of miracles, Keith was still understandable. That was not likely to continue, and he had a good point with the Allanean conflict. There were rumors that the Lord Protector had gotten into some hot water with the rest of the Empire over the Rosdivani stance, and the military had taken the opportunity to openly discuss increasing the small numbers of nuclear armed anti-aircraft missiles that were still in service. So far nothing had come of that. Not publically at least.
"Hey, you've got a good point. Let me go type that up for the board, we'll see what they have to say about it. Meanwhile, you get yourself home safe."
********
Unconcerned by the discussions of its purpose, the satellite finished boosting into its proper orbit. A quick discussion with the controllers on the ground confirmed that it was indeed where it was supposed to be. For a rather long time, seven seconds, it ran a self-diagnostic check. Everything checked out and it sent a radio message back to ground control that it was in perfect working condition. Did they wish to activate it? The answer came back: No. The satellite's activation would wait until it and its sister satellites could be activated all at once.