"Wow, it's so huge," Henry exclaimed as his eyes remained fixed on the massive square warehouse-like buildings in front of him. Aron quietly followed behind him, allowing his brother to do whatever he wanted to while they were in the observation room.
From the room, they had a clear view of nearly a quarter of the massive port in front of them.
"Brother, what is inside those?" Henry, who was very enthusiastic, thanks to having rightfully earned the opportunity to attend the event after acing in his test, asked excitedly.
"Those are dry docks that are used to construct ships before they are launched into the waters and put into service," Aron answered without moving his gaze from the view in front of him. Although he had already seen what was going to be unveiled today with the help of the VR, he couldn't help but still feel excited to see it getting realized in the real world.
"So, there are ships inside them?" Henry asked.
"Yes, and today, you will see ships coming out of them and entering the water," Aron said, now ruffling his brother's hair as he walked closer to him when the little guy asked his first question.
"Wow!" Henry exclaimed, his eyes shining, indicating his excitement as he moved closer to the observation mirror, eager not to miss even a single detail of activity that was going on in the port.
And before Henry could even say anything else or ask any other question among the countless ones that were popping in his mind right now,
KRRRRR KRRRRRR KRRRRRR KRRRRRR KRRRRRR
A screeching alarm that was sure to get the attention of anyone in the vicinity blared out through the main Navy base of ARES in Eden, followed by the announcement, "All personnel, clear the slideway in front of dry dock one."
This announcement could be considered to be nothing but a formality since everyone knew what day was today and had already gathered in the observation centre to witness the launching of the ships.
The announcement echoed in the massive dry dock facility, which looked like a warehouse due to being covered on every side, which would make anyone who looked at it with suspicion for some secrecy, begin to open.
The massive doors on the sea-facing side of the rectangle's longest face started opening, albeit slowly; the speed was suitable given its massive size.
It took nearly ten minutes for the gates to completely open, which was fast considering its size, revealing a majestic and intimidating ship that resembled none of the currently active ships in the world.
(Image here)
But for those who had some knowledge of the history, especially the previous world wars, they would discover that this ship bore a resemblance to the gunships of that era. However, the one in front of them looked much cooler, more intimidating and had a futuristic, sleek gloom covering the entirety of its exterior form.
MHHHHH MHHHHHH MHHHHH.
Another round of alarm, this one calmer, sounded as the sliders holding the ship within the dry dock that was connected to the rails that were made pointing towards the sea began to move.
These sliders initially started sliding slowly while in unison as the ship they were carrying started to move along with them.
Though it started moving slowly along the slope of the rail, in a short moment gravity took over and in combination, they moved the ship towards the ocean with its speed getting faster and faster until...
PWAAAAA.
The ship's hull hit the water's surface with a resounding splash and started to rock from one side to the other as the once calm ocean water got ratted as the ship tried to remain still.
After a few more seconds of wobbling left and right, the rattling finally came to a halt, thus marking the official successful launching of the Rottweiler-class railgun ship.
Soon after, a few small ships approached the newly launched vessel and the soldiers in them wearing the white uniform known as ARES's Navy, immediately started boarding the railgun ship,and going to take their positions as if they had already rehearsed the process thousands of times.
The moment every single one of them reached their designated position, they immediately powered on the ship's fusion reactor, which had been in idle mode as a precaution since the ship had been using backup power, just in case something went wrong during the launch.
Following the power-up sequence, they immediately initiated connections to the military satellite constellation, which resulted in the ship's computer finally coming completely online, thus enabling all the operations.
Following that, the ship didn't linger any longer and immediately left the port to conduct a few major tests in the open sea. The port, however, didn't return to tranquillity, as the alarms rang once again, indicating that another ship was going to be launched as well.
This process repeated again and again until ten ships of the same class had been launched and had all departed the port for their assigned test locations.
"I still can't get used to this," Arons admitted to himself. Among the many ships that they were going to introduce into ARES's Navy division, this one was the most appealing to him since it looked way too cool.
As for Henry, he remained remarkably quiet, and his gaze locked completely on the mirror in the observation room during the entire launch without even looking away from it for even a moment.
With the completion of the launches, the port workers, who were soldiers, returned to their usual duties as if it was something they were used to as no one seemed to be surprised by it at all. However, the same couldn't be said to be true for the intelligence agencies that were monitoring this situation on their screens through footage and pictures that were captured by their spy satellites that were observing the entire situation all this long as they had been very curious of what was going on in those covered dry docks and who had expected something to take place in a few days time when the movements on the base had increased leading to the increase the monitoring of it.
Now that they finally knew what was going on in it, none of them were happy with it since they knew they were going to have a very challenging week as they would have to gather and collect data on the ship to ascertain the full extent of their capabilities.
...
Time moved on along with the unfolding of various events across different locations in the world, acting as a distraction for people to forget the passing of time.
Aron could be seen with Rina inside one of the luxurious rooms within the CUBE as they snuggled on the large couch while watching the TV that was displaying maps behind the reporter who was delivering real-time updates about the information regarding an ongoing incident.
"Let's see if your hard work has paid off," Aron said to Rina, who didn't seem nervous at all and was, in fact, remarkably composed as she replied, "I supported him discreetly enough to make his win something inevitable, so if he doesn't win the election, then that means he was destined to lose," as she got into a more comfortable position.
"Oh, the votes have started being counted," Aron commented as the graphics behind the reporter started shifting, indicating that the votes counting had started.
He wasn't worried at all. Although he had done his best to make sure Trump wins, he wasn't really afraid of the result where he would lose.
"I have been wanting to ask you this: why did you support Trump when you know very well that the Morgans might likely ask him to attack you and Eden?" Rina immediately inquired, having finally remembered to ask him this question while they were together.
"To use this as an opportunity to get ahead," Aron explained shortly.
"What do you mean by that?" Rina asked, not getting a complete picture of what Aron wanted to mean.
"Him entering the office and based on his mentality, it will undoubtedly result in chaos, and with the ensuing turmoil, it will be my time to flourish. As they say, 'Chaos is the father of opportunity.'
Although I have unprecedented power in Eden, we still can't project our power in other country other than Eden and Esparia. However, the resulting chaos will allow me to shape some narration and push certain agendas that will be beneficial for us," Aron elaborated, showing that he planned to leverage the hypothetical Trump's victory to benefit both himself and Eden. As the more powerful Eden becomes, the more power he will have in this world.
As they continued their conversation, more and more votes continued to be counted and the graphics on the screen continued changing until the final result appeared on the TV, displaying the complete results of the election:
Winner: Donald H. Trump
Electoral College Result: Donald Trump received 306 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton received 227 electoral votes.
Popular Vote: Hillary Clinton received approximately 65.9 million votes (48.2% of the total), while Donald Trump received approximately 63 million votes (46.1% of the total).
"Looks like we got our winner," Aron said.
Rina didn't respond to his words but immediately turned to face Aron and started kissing him to celebrate her win.
