Out of Space 216 Burger Shock

Blake sat down before his work desk and triggered the conference call which he had pushed back to later. Almost immediately, the display screens lit up with multiple images of various officers and in charge.

"Alright, let's start the meeting." Blake waved away the salutes and greetings. "Sorry for the last minute cancellation of the staff meeting."

Snickers and grinned flashed back at him from the images as almost everyone had heard about the love triangle drama going on. Blake smiled back and said, "Before any of you ask, yes it well pretty well and no, the Princess is not marrying anyone else."

"Damn! We hoped there will be more drama going on!" Someone said from the conference and everyone laughed.

"Alright, funs over, time for serious work!" Blake shook his head at the childish antics of his men.

Chief Matt reported first, "We are experiencing a massive shortage of rare earth minerals and also some industrial metals. Stuff like neodymium, europium and ytterbium etc etc. Despite their name, rare-earth elements are, with the exception of the radioactive promethium, relatively plentiful in the crust."

"We need to survey and open more mines to exploit these resources as they are needed from refining stainless steel to lasers and even LED lights." Matt proposed. "As for the industrial metals, we are lacking mostly with Molybdenum which is needed for steel alloys and super alloys and aluminum for almost everything from household products to vehicles and even construction."

Blake nodded and said, "There should be a shipment of bauxite ore from the Isles at Far Harbor and do what you have to source for our minerals and metals needs. Anything else?"

"Yes, sir," Matt replied, "We have completed the train line connecting all the major facilities to the Colony just in time for the Year One Founding Day's celebrations. So far we only have two train engines completed and it will also be unrevealed at Founding Day itself."

"Good, next?"

"Our operation to bomb the Goblin City is partially successful," Commander Tommy said. "We destroyed or damaged 65% of our targets." He inserted a UAV image of the aftermath of the bombing raid which bomb craters could be seen clearly against the backdrop of snow.

"Here, here and here," Tommy pointed out several details on the image. "These are the primary ship production facilities Naval Intel had identified, but only two of these high-value targets were hit by the bombs."

"The new FB - 1 Mariner has proven to be quite capable as of now, and with external fuel tanks installed, we can extend there range more to directly strike against Goblin City," Tommy said. "My pilots are ready to hit the city again to finish the job."

"No," Blake rubbed his chin. "Let the goblins rebuilt. Besides in this weather, it's too risky to fly and the pilots also can't see shit and the refueling squadron is on its way back to Far Harbor already."

"Captain, we can hit them again as long we install fuel tanks!" Tommy insisted. "We can destroy the goblins once and for all!"

"No, I want to keep them there," Blake cut off Tommy's words. "Let them rebuilt and once they do, we send in another raid to bomb them. This way we can allow the pilots to gain experience and confidence."

Dr. Sharon laughed out loud, "Hahaha, Captain, you wanna use the goblins to farm experience for our men?"

Blake nodded, "Yes, Goblin City will be our live fire exercise's targets."

Tommy grinned, "Damn, I didn't think of that!"

"You need to play more games!" Dr. Sharon advised. "Anyway, we have a nice 0.23% increase in our population. 200 over babies were given born safety in the hospital this couple of months and the number hopefully will rise."

"Do we have adequate beds and medical staff?" Blake asked worriedly.

Dr. Sharon nodded, "I got 27 apprentice doctors and 142 nurses that all had various experience in healing or were healers before. But I have problems with dealing with offsite injuries and illness."

"We only have a very simple ambulance coverage within the city that the locals are just starting to learn to make use of," Dr. Sharon highlighted out her problems. "Any offsite injuries take us too long to respond and I am hoping to set up clinics with their own ambulance support or if possible an aerial ambulance for rapid rescue work."

"Fire out a memo to the supply department and get them to issue you with what you need," Blake gave his consent. "Anything else?"

"No, alright, the last part of winter is almost here, after Founding Day, the weather should start to go bad, very bad," Blake said. "But this year, we have no enemies at our doorsteps and we have ample food. Everything is kicking off nicely and we are doing more than surviving! I want to thank everyone for their efforts in holding on strongly! Thank you!"

The officers all cheered happily despite knowing that they had no way home.

"But the Captain got enemies! Enemies of the heart! HHAHAHAA"

-----

Fleet Master Megan stepped into the suite that the attendant laid her into and was impressed with the exotic decor of the room. She stepped into a living space where sofas sat around a glass coffee table facing a strange flat black reflective dull mirror like object. A liquor bar sat at the corner of the room where there was a floor to ceiling height glass doors framed by white curtains that opened out to a balcony that showed off the city in all its splendor.

A door led to a bedroom with a large fluffy bed that had Megan bouncing on it happily like a little girl. Her chests of personal belongings were neatly packed inside the room without any signs of tampering. The view of the room also showed a nice view of the city and with a final door that led to the washrooms.

She walked out to the balcony and stood leaning against the railings and admired the city view until the sun slowly sets. The city slowly lit up to her amazement like some sort of fairy tale. Bright globes of orange and white light came alive, lighting the city beautifully.

"How did they build this city?" Megan wondered out loud. "How magical!"

The doorbell suddenly rang and shook Megan out of her thoughts. As she opened the door she saw Akron and Dijon together with the beast girl and another short haired girl both of them in a similar uniform standing outside.

"Let's go for dinner!" Dijon said grumblingly while gesturing to the two girls. "They came to bring us around the city for food and sightseeing." His mood still appeared to be quite bad even after some hours.

Megan smiled and reached out and hugged Kaga who tried her best to avoid her arms but failed. "Please.... don't touch my ears!! NYAaAa!"

In the end, the whole group clustered into one of the elevators and headed down the residential tower and appeared on the street where a minivan was waiting for them. They all piled into the vehicle and the driver drove them off to a restaurant for dinner.

Along the way, the Islanders glued their faces to the transparent windows and marveled at the lights of the city. It felt totally different in the day when they had a tour, the lights cast a warm glow around the city making everything soft and warm in the falling snow.

"How did all this came about?" Megan asked Kaga next to her. "What is needed to build all these wonders?"

Kaga gave a shrug and said, "When my city fell, I was taken as a slave. It was these people who saved me in the end."

"When I first came here, I too was in wonder and amazement at what these hoomans can do!" Kaga said. "When I first met one of the hoomans, I thought he was a demon came to steal my soul. But over time, it turns out that they are not unlike us at all, just more knowledgable and... weird..."

"So this city was built by the hoomans?" Megan asked. "It feels like only the gods are able to build a city of wonders like this!"

Billy spoke up from the other side of the car, "Yesh, it is amazing how they manage to do this! When I first came here, I too was awed by the scale and how tall the buildings are!"

The minivan soon stopped and the driver parked the vehicle and the whole group followed the two girls to a place that had walls and doors made out of glass! The islanders gawked at the lavish way the restaurant was built and followed the two giggling girls in.

As the Islanders clothing stood out among the locals, they attracted a lot of curious looks. After finding a table booth that could seat all of them, the trio looked around for a menu or a wrench to take their orders but found none. "Why isn't anyone coming to serve us?"

Kaga and Billy giggled and said, "We make our orders at that counter there!"

They turned and looked and saw a small line of people queuing up that looked similar to the Adventurer's Guild quest counter. "Aren't we here for food? Why do we have to queue?" Dijon looked confused.

"Haha, don't worry we will order for you all," Billy smiled. "Just wait here and don't go running off!"

With that Billy and Kaga joined the queue, while the Islanders observed their surroundings curiously, finding the people that queued from the counter seemed to carry trays with strange wrapped items and large mugs away.

Not long, Billy and Kaga returned each with a tray filled with all sorts of items. Both girls proudly placed the tray down and handed out what appeared to be large cups with some drink inside.

"This is a fizzy drink! That is strawberry favored, that is honey nectar and this is berry apple!" Kaga pointed out the different drinks.

Billy pointed to the tray where a stack of wrapped items sat. "This is wyvern meat burger, that is Peco peco meat and this is muffalo meat."

Next on the tray was a large steaming plate of pale looking strips of some kind of vegetable with some red, white and yellow sauce drizzled over. "This is cheese fries! The dragons love these!"

The trio looked at each other in bewilderment and mimicked how Kaga and Billy handled the "bur-girls". They unwrapped the wrapper and saw a thick cut of meat sandwiched between two buns with some grease and sauce slowly dipping out.

Watching the two girls munching away happily, they followed and took a small bite before their eyebrows shot up in surprise at the taste. "Heavens!" Megan took another bite and the taste of grilled meat mixed with the sweet and sour sauces and the cheese mixed perfectly, simulating her taste buds greatly. "Delicious!"

Dijon gave a grunt of acknowledging and wolfed down another two more of the burgers before trying out the cheese fries. After a few mouthfuls, he declared, "This food is truly worthy of the dragons!"

Akron sat quietly eating away while the others praised the food constantly. He carefully took a sip of the strange fizzy drink and nearly choked. The fizzy bubbles tickled his throat and the refreshing burst of flavor and sweetness was something he had never tasted before.

Kaga giggled at Akron's expression which laid to Megan and Dijon trying out the drinks and they too spurted at the fizzy drink. But once they got used to the drink they sipped away happily, enjoying the refreshing taste and sweetness.

"This food must cost a fortune!" Dijon declared as he helped himself to another burger.

"Hahaha!" Billy and Kaga laughed. "This food isn't expensive! We and many others come to eat here at Burger Shack almost every day!"

Akron looked in shock at the food laid out among them and silently thought to himself, that this nation was seriously too shocking!

Chapter end