Greater Empire

Chapter 6

5/5/10,011
Orion NWOB

"Admiral sir, we're ready to commence the launch of our satellites. Recovery ships are in position to receive and catch the rockets once they return to the surface. And our surveillance center is operational and ready to start receiving data from satellites."

"Very good," Vice Admiral Alebrand answered as he blew off another puff of smoke from the cigar between his fingers. "Commence with the launch and get us a god's eye view of this world. Report back to me any information that may be relevant or important to our mission."

"Aye sir." Commander Colbert left the admiral's office to relay the order to launch. All silos in the ballistic missile platform of the offshore base were loaded with 13 rockets carrying spy satellites found in orbit of Europa, Sahara, and Amazonia for intelligence gathering for the GES military.

"Commence final countdown! All personnel vacate from the platform immediately!"

Staff who were running final visual checks across the platform pulled back and vacated as the silo hatches opened, revealing the heads of the rockets underneath.

"All systems are go for launch! Begin primary engine start up sequence! Launch in t-minus 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!"

The booster rockets at the bottom fired and vented a high amount of hot gasses that propelled the first rocket up, followed shortly after by the second rocket, then the third, and the rest one after another. The platform started shaking as the gasses were vented out through a series of large vents located underneath the platform. Meanwhile the rockets continued to rise high into the atmosphere and beyond, leaving a bright flash from it's boosters and a trail of smoke from the burning of fuel.

"Launch is good, going through 30,000 and climbing. Trajectory still nominal."

The rockets raced through the clouds and breached through the stratosphere at over 4,000 km/h and climbing, becoming a set of unknown bright beacons in the sky for those who were clueless as to the purpose of these vehicles.

"Approaching 80,000. Atmosphere drag acceptable. Standby for trajectory redirect."

The rockets raced through the mesosphere and began adjusting their trajectory, ready to initiate a temporary orbit around the planet that would allow them to deploy their payload, complete an entire circle, than land back near the base for retrieval. Once the rockets were within the thermosphere, their booster engines went silent having burned all their fuel.

"Stage 1 burn complete. Standby for stage 2 burn."

The booster couplings detached and jettisoned the spent engines, allowing the stage 2 engines to fire and carry the rockets the rest of the way through the thermosphere and align the rockets for satellite deployment. Once at 100,000 meters above the sea level, the second sets of boosters stopped momentarily, allowing the rockets to align and achieve a stable orbit.

"Stable orbit achieve. Begin unpacking the payload for deployment."

The rockets' mid sections depressurized and opened up, revealing the satellites inside attached to a set of manipulator arms to deploy them into orbit. With a stable orbit, the satellites were brought out from their storage compartments and exposed to the empty, infinite void of space. Once in position, the arms detached and released the satellites into orbit with the rockets. However they weren't done yet as the satellites burned their own engines and began maneuvering to create distance from one another across the planet. With their task done, the rockets initiated one final burn that would bring them in a trajectory around the planet and back to the base where they launched from.