A Visitor to the Future - 34 - The Consortium in Combat
"From what you said earlier, it seemed like you were both around when the Consortium became a thing. What were those early years like?" I asked.
"Sheer bloody chaos for the most part," said Blaise, "One to ask the boss about for sure, she had a much better handle on things. But things quickly got better - the entire system was worn out - the Consortium was a breath of fresh air."
"Yes," said Sasha, "Constant fighting - not good. Then the Consortium made my unit a joke, like beehive attacking ship. Half a year, gone! Very stressful."
"You fought against the Consortium?" said Tungsten, a little incredulous.
"Sasha's a rarity," said Blaise, "She was a part of the Mosmos Corporation offensive. One of the few who ever tried to engage the Consortium in combat."
Sasha nodded, "I still have ship sensor recording - and simulation - you want to see? Is good watch - no cyberwarfare."
Tungsten enthusiastically nodded as Sasha walked over to a screen, making gestures until a title screen displayed. I was glad to see that Sasha had chosen the English translation option.
_
The darkness of space was populated by two clusters of tiny dots of colour - green and blue. The camera zoomed in to the green dots to reveal twenty to thirty space vessels, each of significant size, and clearly branded with a green spring of mistletoe and the words "Mosmos Corporation". They were long, angular and industrial in size and nature, strange shapes against the darkness of space with bolts and supporting struts that held together large unwieldy frames. Extremely heavily armoured bows of the ships made them look a bit like large mallets flying through space. The rear thrusters burned with bright cones of light - then suddenly went out. Apparently they were finished accelerating.
A distorted male voice rung out over the recording. "All Corporation ships, operation commences. Coasting to firing position.
The camera zoomed out again, and zoomed into the blue dots. The view faded in to reveal a massive scaffolding-like framework that stretched across the entire screen. It must have been miles across. Some of the scaffolding pieces were filled by panels - solar panels. Another set of ships came into view with a familiar Consortium theme - if a little more rudimentary. One of the vessels was much larger than the others - it was a massive carrier vessel from which supplies were being unloaded by the drones. As the camera rotated around, I could see the the sun, larger than I'd ever seen it before. The camera moved back to the tactical view of the dots, labelling the green dots "Mosmos" and the blue dots "Consortium". A timer was visible in the bottom right hand corner - weeks, days, and hours were displayed on the screen. The numbers began to speed by quickly - it seemed that we would be watching this at an accelerated pace.
The green Mosmos ships crept forward towards the array, the blue Consortium ships spreading out into a line in front of the carrier vessel, but otherwise remaining stationary. A large yellow dot appeared on the display, marked with an "A" - it was directly between both sets of ships - and the Mosmos ships reached it quickly. The pace of the recording began to slow to real-time as the green dots overlapped the yellow one.
The voice spoke again. "Point A reached. Fire."
The camera showed one of the Mosmos ships again - railguns appeared from stowed hatches, and missile bays opened to reveal pointed shapes.
A flurry of silent activity began as the Mosmos ships discharged their munitions towards the Consortium ships in vast numbers. The railgun rounds were practically invisible, but the flare of the missile thrusters were plain to see.
"Barrage away. In safe deceleration range. Hostiles have not yet fired. Continue bulwark facing, wait for contact before deceleration."
The timescale began to speed up once more - it seemed it would take several days for the barrage to cross the gap between the two sets of vessels. The camera opened several picture-in-picture windows of the missiles and one railgun round - which was little more than a black, opaque slug of carbon.
Then the timescale slowed again, to show the Consortium ships. A hatch opened at the side of each vessel, and a large robotic arm extended from each, holding what looked like a large ball of thrusters with a protruding railgun barrel from one side. Next, the arms deployed various pieces of equipment that looked a great deal like huge telescopes. As soon as they were in position they began to thrust in various directions, as if scrutinizing the battlefield closely.
"Hostiles firing," said the voice again, "Deceleration window ninety-six hours. Barrage contacts with hostiles in twenty-four hours."
The Consortium's mysterious sphere-railguns began to silently fire, round after round, stabilised by the ball of thrusters that moved them back into position after each shot. Occasionally a drone would emerge from the parent ship to resupply ammunition, but otherwise the railguns never ceased firing.
"Hostiles are not utilising missiles. Railguns are dark. Deceleration window is seventy-two hours - all ships await barrage contact before deceleration."
But the Mosmos ships had seemingly misjudged the intent of their opponents. The zoomed-out display now revealed the trajectories of each side's barrage. The Consortium's was not fired at the approaching ships. The lines intersected the barrage of the Mosmos corporation itself.
The simulation slowed and the same picture-in-picture windows appeared again. The Consortium's railgun rounds directly struck the missiles and railgun projectiles - and a slow motion magnified view showed how the Consortium's rounds completely cancelled out the momentum of the incoming artillery, time after time. Bullets deflecting bullets. What had been a deadly hail of railgun rounds and missiles was now a debris field, floating in-between the two factions.
The voice came in again, a little shaken, "Command, hostiles appear to have intercepted our entire barrage. Hostiles still have not fired. Awaiting orders."
There was a brief pause as about two days sped by on the simulation's clock.
"Kinetic ram confirmed. Crew evacuation to commence immediately."
The camera moved to two of the Mosmos ships - a small vessel departed from each, and quickly docked with another Mosmos vessel. It was barely onboard when the Mosmos ships began to turn 180 degrees, and fire their thrusters to decelerate.
Apart from the two now-empty ships. They did not turn, and instead began to fire their thrusters in the opposite direction - speeding up in their approach towards the Consortium ships. The projected trajectory of ones ship intersected both the Consortium's large carrier. The other intersected the new solar array.
The reaction from the Consortium ships was immediate. The large carrier began to churn out drone after drone in the direction of the two oncoming ships - like a swarm of bees. Time accelerated again as they began to cross the divide, soon reaching their destination. The drones began to latch onto one side of the incoming ships, and re-angle themselves, their own thrusters now facing outward from the side of the ship. In unison they began to push the vessel, redirecting the trajectory of the incoming ship-sized missiles until the projected trajectories now missed the Consortium's carrier and array entirely.
But the drones were not done. They swarmed the fuel tanks of the now-diverted ships, attaching and seemingly siphoning the contents as the once-incoming thrusters spluttered and died. Then they took off again in the direction of the retreating Mosmos vessels. The simulation paused there.
_
"To make long story short," said Sasha, "Drones stole our fuel too. We surrendered after. Dead in space."
"Wait," I said, addressing Tungsten and trying to absorb what I had just seen, "So the Consortium actually fought people?"
"You will probably want to speak with one of the strategic Orgs at some point," said Tungsten, "It might be somewhat confusing right now, but the answer is yes, and no. The Consortium program helped to run the military vessels, controlled point defence systems, built the ships, that sort of thing, but the ones actually doing the decision making were humans and CIs. Strategic control remains with capable Consortium citizens in times of war. Life or death decisions are not something we leave to the Consortium program."
"Like Regolith," said Sasha, manipulating the footage, and pointing at one of the larger Consortium ships, "This was his ship."
"You fought on different sides?"
"Yes. There are no hard feelings. Mosmos was just work - only corporation, and I no longer have death wish," said Sasha, "Means nothing now. If you want to know more about corporations and Multisphere wars, ask Alex."