Chapter 53 The Ark Project.

The Thanatos left its dock a month later and went to the testing area which was a system without any planets but there was a gigantic asteroid belt.

The weapons testing was spectacular, especially the firing of all four mega MAC's.

When the twenty five meter long and three meters thick projectiles hit a two hundred kilometer long asteroid it resulted in the rock being shattered and the projectile piercing a few more asteroids before it was stopped.

All the other weapons were also tested and their effectiveness left no doubt.

The shields were also tested and thanks to some physics students from Japan they were more durable than any other shields in the entire fleet.

Those students figured out a way to recharge the shields during battle without turning them off.

The other systems tests took almost a week but Thanatos passed every test without a problem.

-We are now ready to enter service.

Simon said with a smile to his bridge crew and Athena.

The A.I was over the moon when she saw just how much power she had.

Thanks to all the upgrades she now had eight times the firepower then before and five times stronger shields not to mention a thick armored hull and two times the speed on sublight engines.

-This is an amazing moment for me.

Finally I can do something instead of just sitting in the dock.

Athena said,eager to use her new weapons on someone.

-We are just four months from the deadline i set up so i think that we will be stationed in Sol or somewhere nearby.

The council will probably use the opportunity to aww our guests and what better way to do that then to show themThe Thanatos as a flagship of the Terran fleet.

Simon said with a smile.

It turned out that he was right,their first assignment was to visit the colonies with twenty ship escorts to boost morale and show the might of the Terran Council to anyone watching.

During this tour Simon trained the crew and Athena helped as much as she could.

Everyone was doing the combat drills and hand to hand combat training,starting from Simon who decided to lead by example all the way down to the last sailor that worked in the kitchen.

They also had simulated battles onboard that taught them how to do counter boarding and boarding actions.

Athena used her holoemiters and some training weapons to simulate the hits on both sides and it helped a lot with the training.

The soldiers and sailors who didn't trust her in the beginning changed their attitude and now she was almost worshiped by her crew thanks to her efforts.

The A.I loved the attention she got and also adored her crew which didn't stop her from scolding them when someone deserved it and she wasn't picky with her words.

When they returned to Sol over half of the A.I ships were in service already and most of them went on patrol duty while some remained in system to help with defense and transport duties.

For now it was quiet in Terran space but everyone knew that this was just quiet before the storm.

There were bound to be some aliens that didn't like the new power emerging from the Sol system and the federation was almost certain to have something to say about it.

However the earth and its colonies were developing rapidly and the scientists came up with better and better technology.

Steuner and his people helped with the development of the rejuvenation technology and it was only a matter of time before humanity would discover its secrets.

The lizard man was currently on his homeworld recruiting the old and wounded warriors and orphans to join his clan and come to earth for treatment and education.

The warriors he brought back last time were now fully healed and back in their prime.

After a few months of training and education they decided to become his personal guards and worshiped him almost like a god.

He found over three hundred of his people that wanted to join him as they had nowhere else to go and he accepted them all into his tribe.

On earth there was a special commission created to search for the species that committed xenocide and if they were found guilty then there was no chance for them to ever become humanity allies.

Fortunately there were not many such species and most of them were the federation members.

In the Sol system the construction of the Space station was finally finished and Simon along with Mikael were present at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

It was coincidentally finished right before the Iriani envoy arrived with his escorts.

 They were the first ones to come and they were ahead of time but humans greeted them all the same.

After some negotiations there was a nonaggression pact and a trade treaty signed.

Also they were the first to establish an embassy in the Terran space.

-This is just the first one and I'm getting worried that the station will be too small.

The chairman said over the chessboard.

He was playing chess with Simon since they discovered that they both liked this game.

-Then we will have to build another station if necessary.

Simon said while thinking about his next move.

-You do know that there is a possibility that the federation will want to establish their own embassy and we can't refuse them without a good reason?

The chairman asked.

-I know and I also talked it over with Athena and the rest of the A.I.

They don't like it but they understand that we can't defeat the federation right now so they agreed to tolerate the federation ships and personnel.

Simon said.

-Then it's one less problem for me to deal with.

The chairman was glad that he didn't have to talk to the A.I about it.

-This is a bit of a delicate subject to them so I decided to broach it with them as we can't afford a war with the federation for now.

-Let's just hope that the federation can be reasoned with otherwise we might be in trouble and that's why the council initiated the Ark project.

-I heard of it and it's a great idea. If the worst case scenario comes to pass then we will at least have a way for humanity to survive.

The Ark project was a last hope of humanity if they were to be defeated.

Five fleets of colonization ships and some military escorts would run in the different directions to heighten the chances of success.

Their task was to get as far away as possible and rebuild the human civilization thousands of light years away while the rest of humanity would try to buy them as much time as possible.

The whole reason for the project was the information about Onerik being whipped out.

The Council decided that having a plan to preserve humanity was necessary especially when the Federation was getting closer and closer to Terran space.