AMP Private War by Stephen Arseneault Page A

track down George I believe he has some news for you too."
    I placed my helmet in the locker and stepped down out of the Swift’s hold. My first destination was to my home quarters where I took in a long and very much needed shower. I then made my way over to see George. "So, I hear you have some news?"
    George looked up from his desk and smiled. "I do. I managed to find four more Blevins out there. Three are headed this way while the fourth is in the hands of an owner who would not sell."
    "I’m still working him on it, but at the moment they have a sentimental attachment that I haven’t been able to overcome. This also completes a sweep of the surrounding 600 sector grids. I believe we have as many of the Blevins as we can acquire. There are just not many of them left. As far as our ore sales have been going, well, I can safely say that they have all been getting snatched up just as quickly as we put them out there. Your boy Zimmerman must have quite the operation going on. That is a lot of ore!"
    After my talk with George I returned to the hangar to consult with Rita. I had an idea to run by her that had been rolling around in the back of my head during our ride home. "Rita, I have a question. Would it be possible to cover the hull with the same material we use on the Tantric shield?"
    "You know, the material we use to project an image forward of whatever is behind? If we can reduce that visual signature we will be able to mover in much closer without being detected. Is that something that is even possible?"
    Rita squinted her eyes and turned her mouth up on one side as she pursed her lips. "Hmm. I don’t know Boss. Not sure we could keep it on the hull given the speeds we travel at. Every little bit of space debris is going to pick away at it. The Tantric can handle that, this stuff cannot."
    I rubbed my chin for a moment. "But it can be added. And if so, we will at least maintain a smaller signature when needed. Kick the idea around with Gy. See what you can come up with. Anything we can do to reduce our visual gets us one bit closer to whatever it is we want to see. If the Milgari are using visual targeting algorithms it might give us an edge there also."
    Rita nodded her head as she turned back towards Gy. "I’ll see what we can do Chief. If it’s something that keeps you from taking as many hits then I am all for that as it cuts down on our clean up when you guys return."
    The Prassi war had been on a scale that was almost unimaginable. More than 15,000 ships had collided in a test of wills; millions of citizens for each side had perished. And we had come home with only a few bruises. Our pilots and ships had performed at a level that one could only hope for. The Milgari had been stopped, if only temporarily, and Zimmerman had shown which side he was fighting for.
    I was headed to the bar to unwind. My head had been spinning of late given the totality of the task that we had taken on; a handful of patriots and fighters, given an opportunity to do their best, had been giving that and more in defense of our home. The Grid was again safe, if only for a while.

Chapter 5

    Gy and Rita came up with a design for the Defenders that would allow a trans-missive coating to be applied to the hull exteriors. The coating would project an image forward of whatever it was that was behind the ship. From the right side it would display the scene as viewed to the left and from the left that of the right. As tested on the ground in the hangar a Defender would take on a translucent appearance when viewed from almost any angle. The probe on the nose of the ship was the only piece of a Defender that remained uncoated.
    The Hammer and the Fist were sent up to test the coating’s usefulness under standard conditions. Each ship remained undetectable to the other at a distance of 1,800 kilometers, a distance that was almost infinitely closer than the previous minimum of one eighth of a light-year. From 5,000 kilometers we could not make