After careful consideration Kane decided to name the dreadnought Sovereign and the two destroyers that were nearing completion Spearhead and Commander Titan with the next on to be built called Fury. Spearhead and Commander Titan would be sister ships and commissioned at the same time.
The mining operations were proceeding well and some of the ships were already heading back ahead of schedule. The loads they were carrying would enable the ships to be completed and work to commence on some more. Kane had six battler cruisers and a carrier drawn up and slated for construction. He already had a name for the carrier and that was Hornet's Nest. Due to not having any pilots everything would be run by artificial intelligence's for the next few years but it could deploy vast amounts of fighters and bombers which would cover a tactical weakness that bigger, heavier and more importantly slower ships couldn't.
Two of the systems that had been surveyed and the data sent back to Kane made him very happy. One was a binary system and the gravitational pull of both of the stars made some harsh conditions on the orbiting planets which made lots of rare and exotic metals form. Kane had already begun mining there and better yet the outer most planet had relatively normal gravity for humans to tolerate. Sure the planet was a barren rock currently but with the terraforming process in a few decades that would be a vibrant lush planet. Kane decided to name that system Unyielding as the gravity was a constant was unforgiving and the people who settled there would had to be strong unyielding types.
The other system had twelve planets and a staggering sixty moons scattered between them. Better yet three of the planets had favourable conditions and one of them even had two of its moons that were also habitable. It was also a huge plus that there were lots of asteroids in the system and with the resources from them and the planets Kane could build several armadas even with a behemoth thrown in a well. There might have been a problem or situation that he was unaware of however as with such prime real estate why wasn't it already colonized? Unless of course nobody had discovered it yet. Either way Kane had already claimed both systems.
Of the three habitable planets and moons one of planets was five times the size of Earth but was eighty percent water and Kane named that Caladan. Another was Earth like but three times the size of Earth and he named that Honour with the two habitable orbiting moons Duty and Loyalty. Both moons were very big and should strictly speaking be classified as dwarf planets. The other planet had a very peculiar weather system and because of the ionization in the air it was always covered in a permanent storm capable of having lightning bolts flash out and strike the surface without warning. The storm clouds also let little sunlight through so it was a gloomy, wet and dismal planet with not much plant life and very vicious native creatures all competing over the limited food.
Because of the harsh conditions this would make a fine training base so Kane named the planet Courage as even the natural conditions would temper a person not to mention the harsh training they would undergo. Generally speaking when a human was wet and cold it also affected their mental well being and this would also be a form of conditioning as well. Kane figured that whatever the future brings and however large his empire grew these were the founding systems so the planets should have names or virtues that would mean something. Kane would never tell anyone but he also got a perverse little kick when he thought of his future soldiers yelling for Honour, for Duty or for Loyalty as a war cry instead of for Earth or a country such as America. There was another planet in system with a molten surface and Kane named that planet Forge. Kane would also use this planet in tandem with Courage to train his soldiers, to forge them if you will and it also had plenty of exotic metals because of the conditions so it would also help in building his armies.
Kane sent out orders to the ship that surveyed both systems to drop nanites at key points to set up a defensive network much like he had in the Sol system, this was to defend against any unwanted incursions until his people were ready to settle them. In the name of efficiency he should have had them dropped on planets as well to start construction of bases, defensive structures and cities as well as begin mining of resources but he chose not to do so. He would rather wait until his people settled there and started building everything together. This could bring a sense of solidarity and camaraderie as they were brave new pioneers building their home and future together and it would send out a powerful message to them. Also in case of attack they would be more motivated to defend their homes that they built with their own two hands, rather then some buildings that they just moved into and were not very attached to.
This was the dawn of a new empire and beginning of a new civilization when they shed the old one off and began anew in these systems so everything had to start right. This meant grand gestures and powerful symbols would be aplenty to create a legacy from its inception, to be the foundation to carry on through the ages. At least that was the plan and Kane's greatest hope.
With the technology at Kane's disposal, it wouldn't matter if a planet was habitable or not as he could make it so it would just require time. After setting up on those planets he started to terraform the others and some of the bigger moons and asteroids. Even if they didn't have gravity it could still have a base or storage depot on it and artificial gravity generators could be installed as the need arose.
Gradually time passed and it was nearing time for the second world war to start. Hitler had already been very active with his brown shirts or the Sturmabteilung as they were officially known. Literally translates to Storm Detachment.
Often it had been posed in literature what would happen if there was no Hitler or if he had been killed would there have even been a war? The short answer was we will never know but most likely yes.
Japan held imperial ambitions and dreams for a great eternal empire and Italy also dreamed of glory. though sad to say but Churchill also wanted his war. Several times high ranking German officials asked to cut a deal to remove Hitler so they could assume power but they were refused.
A snap of his fingers and Kane could kill Hitler and supposedly stop the war. However there would be someone to take his place and until humanity is united there will always be conflicts. Even if it wasn't Germany it would be another country and it could have wildly different results which was a can of worms that Kane didn't want to open up.
Before the war all of Hitler's spies in Britain had been either detained or turned and convinced to work against him, ensuring his air strikes mostly missed vital facilities while telling him that he was hitting them and reducing everything to rubble and the British moral was wavering soon to collapse. Several of his top generals wanted to switch targets but he was adamant of what he was attacking which bought a reprieve for the RAF and Allies.
Ironically though the German's main weakness and greatest undoing was its chain of command. All the forces were against each other and didn't get on. While competition can be healthy in small doses while it is controlled as it can spur soldiers on to try harder to out do their allies they seemed to have a deadly enmity with each other.
When Allied countries needed help from an artillery bombardment or air strike they would radio up their chain of command and it would either be authorized or it wouldn't but for the Germans it was different. Units had to radio their chain of command and they had to go to theirs and so on up to Hitler himself to give the command to mobilize then that command had to be relayed again down the line. This chain of command was grossly inefficient and no other army fought like it. This represented the growing megalomania of Hitler who was the supreme commander of the armed forces as he wanted everything under his control so he could personally oversee everything and by extension the rigidity of the Nazi state. With such bogged down communications, which could also be susceptible to a breaks in the chain of command it afforded the Allies an advantage.
This was another reason that Kane didn't want to kill Hitler just yet as well as the others that Kane had thought of before as he still had his part to play.