Kite sat at his desk casually working away with a holographic screen to his side with a view of the training field. Suddenly he heard his com beep and he quickly clicked it on.

“What is it?” Kite asked, a slight tone of annoyance.

“Vice Admiral Patel is here to see you,” a voice came over the com, prompting a rather lengthy sigh from Kite.

“Send him in…” Kite said after a slightly longer moment of silence than was appropriate.

No sooner than the com clicked off did Vice Admiral Patel stride into the room.

“Vice Admiral Kite, the tournament is going to start soon, did you not plan on watching these promising cadets?” a lanky man in a white uniform asked as he stepped through the doors, a wide grin plastered on his face.

“Oh, I am, I just don’t have the time to go in person,” Kite admitted.

“What could possibly be of that much import that you can’t take part in GDF’s biggest tradition?” Patel chuckled, causing Kite to sigh again.

“Well, that explains your leisurely attitude, Vice Admiral, it seems you’re unaware of what transpired last night,” Kite said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“What do you mean?” Patel asked, his grin undaunted.

“Someone managed to hack into our systems and steal information regarding the new HQ,” Kite said, his voice grim.

“Oh…that’s…not good,” Patel admitted, his voice equally as grim. “Do we have any leads on the perpetrator?” Patel asked.

“Nothing, although they seemed to only have focused on the resources being allocated to it rather than its capabilities,” Kite said, a hint of suspicion in his voice. “Though I don’t think they’d have learned much about the latter even if they tried, most of that is sealed up somewhere else,” he noted.

“I see…this is a rather perplexing situation, why was I not informed?” Patel asked, some concern in his voice.

“That would be something to discuss with your administration team. I was made aware of it as of 0300,” Kite said simply, causing Patel to grunt in response.

“You never were one to sleep,” Patel noted. “In any case, this is still a problem, the question is if it’s an internal or external one…” he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

“Perhaps-” Patel started but was interrupted by sudden loud cheering from the screen Kite had up which displayed the examination on the training field. “Looks like they’re getting ready to start,” he noted.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Seems that way,” Kite confirmed with a brief glance at the screen.

“You’re sure you’re not interested in seeing it in person? Not like you can undo the damage that’s been done, leave it up to the PR team to soften the blow. That is why they’re there,” Patel said pointedly, his eyes still on the screen. “Unless of course…you suspect this is an internal problem,” he said as he observed Kite’s unchanging face from a side glance.

“Perhaps…” Kite admitted begrudgingly.

“I may very well be the only one here that can read that face of yours, it’s a shame you won’t play a game of cards with me,” Patel said, a joking hint of sadness to his tone.

“I’ll tell you what, you help me narrow this list down and I’ll play a game with you,” Kite offered, his tone only half serious.

“Oh? I suppose I could lend a helping hand,” Patel said, looking over at Kite expectantly.

“Excellent, I’ll send over the data now,” Kite replied, tapping a few icons on his screen.

“Still, I wonder what the end goal is in taking only the financial data, that’s not quite enough to do anything with,” Patel said, contemplatively.

“I wonder that myself, although truthfully I believe that the intent is to sow seeds of distrust in Xiphias’ use of their resources. As you well know we’ve been struggling to effectively defend the expansion zones. If they were to use the financial data and lack of resources allocated to defense of these areas it would certainly put a damper on the construction of the new HQ. This information mind you, has only been shared at top level,” Kite offered.

“That almost entirely rules out an external force doesn’t it…” Patel said, nodding his head in understanding.

He went quiet for a moment as he scrolled through the breached data as well as how it was accessed to begin with.

“Oh, that’s quite clever…but not quite clever enough,” Patel said before pressing a button on his portable com device. “Alex, put a lock down on sector C17, no one in or out,” Patel commanded.

“But sir, the Sundals delegation will not take kindly to being restricted. They’re assigned to leave in a couple hours, they’ve already received clearance and are finishing their system checks now…” Alex argued.

“Lieutenant-Commander, I’ve given an order. Lock down C17 now!” Patel ordered before turning the com off.

“That was abrupt, did you narrow it down that quickly?” Kite asked, honestly impressed by the man.

“Hardly, I just happened to have had a conversation with the delegation that had coincidentally focused on their information gathering methods. I just happened to notice the same pattern here that they had shown me a couple days ago when they first arrived. On another note, I would lock down sector B09 before those whom I suspect to be the real culprits get away,” Patel stated, as he scrolled through a list of names.

“My sector? Why would…I see…the Graff delegation… Perhaps I should have sought you out sooner,” Kite noted before opening his own com and issuing some orders of his own.

“Truthfully I’m sure neither of us are shocked that they’re both involved. My guess is that the Graff utilized the Sundals methods to gather the information, and will release it through Sundals channels to undermine them as well as Xiphias. Just another silly power struggle,” Patel chuckled.

“And if you’re wrong?” Kite asked curiously.

“Then that’s when things truly get interesting,” Patel mused. “Speaking of interesting, it looks like that’s something you should probably intervene in,” he noted, pointing towards the screen.

Kite glanced over at the screen and his eyebrows shot up in shock as he watched a massive flaming sword pierce the ground.

“So, you do get genuinely surprised,” Patel chuckled some more. “I won’t keep you, I’ll keep looking into this on my end, you go look after the cadets,” he said, and in that moment, Kite had vanished.