Star Force: Liberation (SF56) Read Online Free Page B

and other artificial constructions
that didn’t collect and hold the native snow well.
    During the winter the cityscape would be covered
regularly, but for now the once white continent was just a chilly cityscape
basking in partially cloudy skies.
    The continent held a considerable population, in
excess of 12 billion, with the rest of Earth being similarly choked with
people, though Davis had seen to it through restructuring that the heavy
population was no longer suffocating. The planet might be crowded, but there
was still ease of movement given sufficient and proper infrastructure…not to
mention huge buildings like those seen below that could pack in more population
per square mile when they themselves were more than a mile high.
    Extensive subsurface infrastructure actually made the
buildings even taller from an interior standpoint, and Star Force was
continuing to expand on those, digging down deeper and deeper into the crust to
build more habitats and facilities. They were also continuing to expand the
colonization of the oceans, which held both surface and subsurface cities, but
eventually those would fill up too and Davis would be faced with either having
to start shuffling off the native population in far greater numbers than he was
already doing or begin rebuilding again with even larger infrastructure.
    He hated tearing down functional structures in order
to replace them with larger ones, but sometimes it was necessary. Earth’s
current population of 153 billion was continuing to grow rapidly, even with the
mass exodus traveling out to the stars. Some didn’t go far, for the Solar
System had already passed the half trillion mark and made up approximately one
quarter of the Human population in Star Force, making it by far the most
valuable system in the ADZ.
    Davis had kept it exclusively Human ,
with very few travel permits allowed for outsiders. Occasionally you would see
a few ships passing through for trade purposes, but otherwise it was a closed
system to the rest of the ADZ while the other Star Force systems were open and
would always remain so. Davis preferred it that way, and while he liked having
a Human-only zone part of the time it wasn’t by choice. Sol was as much of a
liability as it was an asset, and he’d never been able to structure it as he’d
liked. Chasing the population curve always kept him making adjustments, but
never with a fresh start like he had in other systems.
    Antarctica had been a fresh start because no one had
been living here when Star Force took possession of the continent, but it was
still facilitating the rest of the planet by being the evacuation point for all
those looking to move out to the colonies. Davis was never going to restrict
reproduction, such would be a major privacy invasion, which left him always
feeling a little bit behind the curve with Earth, but like the Archons he rose
to meet challenges.
    And yet, while Earth was in continual population
increase it wasn’t enough to fuel the expansion he wanted throughout the ADZ.
Humanity was still only a tiny fraction of the overall population that now
exceeded 900 trillion. Other races were growing faster than the Humans, based
on their biology, and if it weren’t for the Kiritak Star Force would have been
relegated to a shrinking minority unable to produce the natural resources
necessary to wield the power that it now did in the ADZ.
    The Kiritak/Kiritas now numbered over 70 trillion and
were continuing to grow as fast as resources would allow, with those greater
numbers then being deployed to various worlds to
harvest more resources. They were the key to Star Force’s growth, but Davis
needed more Humans to form the core of the organization.
    The greater the population pool the better the chance
of individuals testing out to become Archons. As it was Star Force was
averaging 10-15 classes per year, which meant 1000 to 1500 new Archons with
every calendar change. Out of a population of 900 trillion that was