Chapter 161: Arks In Turmoil
That declaration threw the other Ark leaders into chaos.
No wonder the Admiral wanted to get their input on this matter. If he made the decision to essentially disband the fleet on his own, there would be riots among the people. He was going to need the Officers of the fleet to sell this deal to the people.
Convince them that it was more worth it to remain here on the ground, with the people of Marimgar, who could grow food in the natural sunlight, expand beyond their borders and breathe fresh air.
Even now, the air in the Arks smelled recirculated.
It was a sterile scent, the smell of nothing, with a bit of hot metal scent from the sanitizers. But with the ships sealed, it only took a few days before that was the case.
Sure, the arks had no problem maintaining air quality, and it was definitely better than it had been outside even a few days ago. But living with it forever, when there was clean fresh air outside? That just seemed ridiculous.
They could open the vent on the ship and take in fresh air if they needed, but it still didn’t seem to get rid of that recirculated smell.
Finally, the Ship Leaders began to speak their minds.
"I will stay with you. Establishing a base is the goal of the trial, and we all want to see the day when we can start to expand out from the ship again. The number of people that we have might not refill the old city of Marimgar, but it’s definitely enough that we can make a proper city out of things once the trials are over," one of the Captains agreed.
"And if we set up right here, we’ve got the Marimgar Coordinator on hand. She’s directly related to turning in the quests, and she has a steady source of basic supplies, beyond what the city can produce.
Those things alone are worth staying close and allied with the city, even if we choose to set up in the next clearing and start our own territory."
So, that was a vote from their Strategist for at least remaining in the area.
But the voices for leaving were not going to be silenced so easily.
"Every day that we stay here, we’re facing more danger, taking more damage, burning more fuel. If we take another attack like the last one, we’re going to start losing Arks.
Then what?
It’ll be too late to regret, and we will only be another struggling faction at the end of the world. Kalka is lost, all the people are in the fleets. What are we even staying here to fight for?
Let us start over on one of the moons, make a base, build a new Kalka away from the monsters."
The argument made sense, but not everyone was willing to leave and go somewhere that wouldn’t support them without the rewards that they had gotten from the System. They could mine the moon with the Ark, build facilities with their rewards, but the moons would never be able to support a population on their own.
They hadn’t come with terraforming equipment.
The Fleet Admiral waited for them to finish, and then double checked the leaders who were in support of each option.
The three largest Arks all had leadership in support of staying on the surface. The groups that were most in favour of heading to the moon were from smaller vessels that had struggled the most with the last attacks.
That really shouldn’t have been a surprise, he decided.
They had taken the worst of the damage from the sea monsters, they had the smallest ships with the fewest options to support their people. But they weren’t the primary vessels of the fleet, and made up under a hundred thousand of the eight hundred thousand survivors in the fleet.
So, if they were going to split resources and let the group separate, it would put the smaller ships in a tight spot.
But if they gave them extra, it would cause issues with everyone else.
"I will be remaining, with my ships. However, given the circumstances, I won’t stop the other Captains from breaking away from the fleet. Kalka has fallen, and if Charlie Fleet doesn’t fit your needs anymore, I understand.
The trials are only likely to get more intense, so nobody would blame you for watching from space instead of participating.
It will be a shame to lose part of our fleet, but I do have one request. If you wish to leave, I want the heroes with your vessel to consider staying to fulfill the role that they were given by the System.
There aren’t many humans left, and they are the most powerful among them, the chosen few.
If anyone has a motivation to stay, it should be them."
That gave a few of the Captains concerns. They had thought that the heroes would make for the perfect protectors of their new colony, with magical powers and superhuman strength. Having them for the moon base would make everyone feel more secure.
But the Admiral was right, they were needed for what was left of humanity on the planet. That was where the danger was, and where they had the chance to grow even more powerful.
There were a few tense moments where the ships expressing the intent to break from the fleet silenced their audio feeds, giving the Admiral a view of the back of their leadership as they argued about their decision.
But one by one, they came back to the cameras, with matching resolute expressions on their faces.
"You are right Admiral.
This is the last stand for humanity, our last chance of holding onto a home world. So, we will stand with you. Burt when the time comes that we can’t fight any more, we only ask that you send away the civilians, so that they can start over on one of the moons.
Give them the final chance, if we can’t hold after this trial."
The fleet admiral nodded. "If it comes to that, I will give the order to evacuate once again, and to send the Arks to the moon. You have my word. The civilians are humanity’s future, and I won’t ask them to wait and die with us once hope is lost."