The Eden War - Book 3 of Re-Forge

Luna Rising

Two weeks slipped by after Lunar completed its reconstruction of the initial three sections of the colony. They were now in levels with the control deck and Accommodation levels at the top. Then Farming and Wildlife ecosystem levels in the middle, and then below that, was the vast automated engineering levels needed to maintain and renew life. Lunar had become the identical to Eden, but at least three times her size.

Lunar turned its focus onto fuel manufacture, and mineral storage. Using heavy metals mined from the moon's core, Lunar created antimatter through a transmutation process copied from Eden. As a result, Lunar was able to make Neutromatter for the colony's backup power supply, as well as Neutromatter missiles and torpedoes. Lunar knew that if he wanted to survive into the future, then he would need to be completely defence and attack capable, before leaving the safety of its cocoon.

The construction process required millions of tonnes of refined minerals and various elements. The incessant mining of the lunar core ensured that his storage containment zones were filled to bursting.

As with all Graviton Ships, Lunar needed to dip into the sun after launching to compress thousands of tonnes of 'sun matter energy' into its storage tanks as its primary fuel source, before heading to join Eden in defence of the system.

The moon surrendered a large portion of its resources to Lunar's mining Nanites, permitting Lunar to create thousands of avatars, ranging from special purpose to large and powerful attack avatars. Hangers located around the girth of Lunar housed AI controlled support ships for mining, passenger, and cargo transport.

With its bulk storage tanks full of every available mineral and element it could safely contain, Lunar announced to his Administrators that it was ready for flight and was also... Battle ready.

Lunar, being a meticulous entity, delayed informing the Administrators of its readiness to depart as it wanted to analyse its systems one last time before announcing itself, launch-ready. Lunar directed its Nanites to build a large antenna on the surface of the moon, after which, it generated three powerful blasts of microwave energy that was the agreed signal to announced Lunar's birth to the system. The time had arrived for the Lunar Administrators to address the council.

David and Kim stood side by side, facing the lunar council of advisors. Lunar was busy with last-minute preparations and eagerly waited for the reply signal to arrive from Eden.

David waited for the Chairperson to announce them, and when she banged the gavel, the hall became quiet. The Chairperson said: "Councillors, welcome to this eagerly awaited session, I will now hand the floor to the Administrators." She bowed and reclaimed her seat.

David opened an internal coms channel with Kim and Lunar and then using sub-vocal speech, asked: "Kim, would you like to speak?"

Kim replied: "Thank you, yes." Then aloud to the Council, she said: "Councillors and the population of Lunar. Thank you for having us here today. Lunar apologises that it can't be here as it is busy with last-minute pre-flight checks, but I am so pleased to announce officially that this colony is now one hundred per cent flight and combat ready. Today is a great day for us all. Utopia has been realised in the confines of this massive colony ship. Ship facts are available to everyone online.

"No doubt you have realised that we can do absolutely nothing with our time and still exist in pure luxury until we die or, we can live in pure luxury and live life to its fullest... By living life to the fullest, I mean facing challenge after challenge for the rest of our lives. History has taught us the valuable lesson that if we want to grow and survive as individuals, then we must face trials and overcome them. The experience makes us stronger and better people."