Chapter 26 Discussing plans.
A month later the preparations were over and it was time to begin the construction.
Thousands of drones and droids were working around the clock gathering the materials and disassembling ships to feed the fabricators and soon the first parts of docks were being constructed.
The shuttle returned once a week to deliver more fuel that was stored in the tanks for future use.
All three docks would be ready within a week at this pace because their only function was to support the frames of the ships while they were being built.
No other facilities were needed since the drones would transport every part of the ship and assemble them according to the blueprint.
The two humans and a lizardman also gathered materials,some for sale and the rest to speed up the construction as much as possible.
They also had a small side project of building a simulator of the ship so they could learn how to operate it under different conditions.
Starting from the take off procedures all the way to combat scenarios they had to master every aspect of space travel and space combat if they wanted to survive the escape.
To their amusement some of the dumpster ships dropped materials close to them unwittingly providing more resources that could be gathered quickly and that shortened the construction time even more.
On the other hand one of Simon's experiments proved that the food available from the shop could last for a month if left at room temperature but when frozen it didn't show any signs of deterioration.
That was important to their plans because the water they could find in space, the food on the other hand they had to bring with them.
They had a long journey ahead of them because they had to go around the federation territory and the route that they chose would take around a month of FTL travel plus some stops to replenish the fuel and maybe get some water if they needed it.
-Why don't we just go through the federation territory?
Steuner asked one time when they were discussing their route.
-I know that it's a lot faster and would cut our travel time in half but there is a good chance that they will try to stop us once they discover our escape.
That's why we need to get out of their borders as soon as possible and go around it to make it difficult for them to find us.
-Then won't they just wait for us in the Sol system?
Mikael asked.
-I doubt that ,since they don't want to expose themselves and old tech or not we will have three cruisers with us so they would need to send a fleet after us and it's not so easy to hide a fleet.
Simon explained.
-Our best bet is to leave their territory by the shortest possible route.
Simon continued pulling out a map they received from Alesia.
-Fortunately for us we are on the fringes of their territory and if the distance is accurate then all we need is around ten hours of FTL to get out of the federation space and with any luck we will be long gone before they even figure out that we escaped.
Also we will need to destroy everything here so that they won't know what kind of ships they are looking for and what our ships are capable of.
Simon explained his plans.
-And how do you want to destroy this place?
We don't have any explosives and bombing it from orbit would probably trigger some kind of alarm.
Mikael shared his opinion.
-Well I want to rigg the generator to go critical and explode a day after we leave.
That will destroy everything in a 25 kilometer radius. Hopefully whoever will investigate this will assume that we died in the explosion and wont search for us.
Simon explained.
-That's a good plan but what if they discover that we escaped?
Steuner asked.
-Then we will have more than a day of advantage over any pursuit and they probably won't know where to look for us.
Our main problem is that we don't know what they are capable of so all we can do is guess.
In fact we don't even know if the technology that is present on this planet is outdated or just broken and will be replaced by the same things.
Simon presented his point of view.
That was indeed their biggest problem now and they didn't want to find out in a space battle if they were on the same level so it was better to just disappear.
They discussed their plans almost every day and adjusted them if it was necessary.
The time flew by and soon the docks were completed,they were big enough to build their ships in them and it was decided that all three ships would be built at the same time instead of one at a time.
They watched as the first parts of the ships were being assembled at the docks and it was an exhilarating view for them.
Now all they had to do was to master the skills required to pilot the cruisers and make sure that the materials were abundant to swiftly produce the parts.
They also found blueprints for power armors and it took them some time to adjust them for their physiology.
The armor would be constructed after the ships, the same was true for the side arms and rifles which they had blueprints for but did not produce for now.
All three of them were busy,collecting materials,studies,martial arts training,planning,and more.
Sometimes they were too tired to continue and had to catch up the following days.
According to the drone network it would take four months to create the vessels if the materials were available and another week to produce armor ,weapons,and ammunition for everything.
The materials were not a problem since they were available all over the place but it took time to gather them especially when they needed thousands of tons for each ship.
The good news was that the drones could work around the clock minus the time it took for them to recharge and the shuttle was regularly delivering the fuel so they would have more than enough when it was time to get into space.
-If my math is correct then we will have enough fuel to launch and go into FTL for long enough to leave the federation space but we will have to refuel in the next system after we leave the border or we will run out of fuel.
Simon said when they were once again discussing their plans.
-How long will it take us to get full tanks?
Mikael asked.
-I don't know,it if we find an accumulated helium 3 like it is in the orbit of this planet then i think it would take us a few days to top up our fuel tanks and if there is just a dispersed amount then we should collect enough to jump to another system and leave as soon as possible because the longer we stay the higher the chance of being discovered assuming that they will figure out that we didn't die in the explosion.
Simon explained.
-Is this system inhabited?
Steuner asked.
-According to the star maps it's an unclaimed system so there should be no problem for us to gather fuel.
Also I found blueprints for a probe that can send a signal to us using subspace so we will be able to see if someone is searching for us.
Simon said, answering his friend's question.
-We will have to get rid of our trackers and implants before we get out of here.
Mikael pointed at his forearm.
-There are medical droids that can do that for us.
Simon said.
It was an important thing to do since they wanted to convince everyone who might be interested in them that they are dead.