Free Star Force: Empire (SF58) by Aer-ki Jyr Page B

several Clans and a few others, with any building being
done requiring the upgrade of existing facilities or the demolition thereof to
make room for larger, newer models.
    The Saiyans had been upgrading their capitol in such a
way for centuries, choosing to stack as much of their powerbase here and a few
other locations rather than going for the shotgun approach and spreading
throughout the Core Region and even the ADZ as other Clans had. That was both a
matter of defense and pride, for the Saiyans wanted one central location that
they could call home and one that would serve as a stronghold upon which the
rest of their Clan could center.
    Arvil had been working long and hard to help his Clan
build up their production rates, even though he was only involved in a tiny bit
of it…but that was true of everyone, for while the Clan was nowhere near the
size of, say, the Calavari, it was a large, interstellar civilization of its
own with considerable resources, not to mention military assets.
    Those were displayed on another panel, with Clan
Saiyan being ranked 84th in naval power, but with a skill score of 56th. The
skill score came from the Trials, in which both Archons and other military
personnel participated. They were challenges and war games meant to test and
hone one’s skill absent actual combat, and the Clans took them very seriously,
even more so than the sports leagues that had the Clan competing against each
other through civilian tournaments. The Trials were watched by virtually
everyone in the Clan, with Arvil rooting on the Saiyans whenever he could.
    The Clan was like one giant team, no matter what you
did, and they all had each other’s back automatically. That was the culture in
the Clan, and as such everyone wanted to know how their ‘team’ was doing, hence
the status boards, which were constantly changing. Some trends held true, such
as the Sabers always being in the top 5 in the naval categories. They had the
most skilled fleet on a regular basis, but they would burn off a lot of drones
in real combat, diminishing their fleet strength scores and dropping them in
rank.
    That didn’t affect skill scores from the Trials, but
how much a Clan had in terms of resources was also tied to how much it lost,
and the Sabers were more involved in defending the front lines than most Clans.
That was due, no doubt, to Archon Paul being the mastermind behind the current
war plan, but his Clan was getting hit with losses sufficient to knock them
down to the 3rd spot presently. Arvil knew the Sabers had a huge industrial
base that would replace the ships that were lost quite quickly, but with other
Clans not getting so hard hit with the brutal combat their fleet numbers were
increasing, and hence their rank was eclipsing the otherwise dominant Sabers.
    There were thousands of ranks displayed on the board,
some in broad categories, but more in the breakdowns of those categories,
letting each individual be able to track his or her own contributions and see
how others were doing, both in their own Clan and others. Some of the board
panels were mutable, with a touchscreen that would allow more detailed
information on other Clans to be brought up, but at the moment Arvil wasn’t
interested in those stats…his eyes were drawn to the news panel, which was detailing
various current activities that his Clan was involved in.
    A breaking news beacon was flashing, indicating that
the status update was less than 60 seconds old. Arvil and the others nearby,
including those just walking and not paying any attention to the numbers, all
stopped and looked at the flashing lights that also were accompanied by a small
chime that quickly disappeared. Someone near that panel touched it and amped up
the volume, with a reporter standing inside a holographic map detailing the location
of a system within the ADZ near the border.
    “We’ve just received word that a Clan Saiyan fleet
stationed at Oxion has responded to a lizard
incursion of the