2 Weeks Later. October 15th, 2267. 13:20 Kenno Noir Building—2nd Floor Offices

Elias was sitting at his desk reading a classified transitional government document. Of course, the report wasn’t for his eyes, but it was important for him and his team to compile as much information as they could for when this world’s new overlords would arrive. It was frankly mundane and very boring to read, but there wasn’t much else for him to do.

He was annoyed that this building didn’t have space for a private office for himself. That was because the two new team members set up their gear in their rooms. When the others saw that they followed suit, effectively using all of the rooms. The final room that hadn’t been taken was claimed by Ellie on the ground floor as storage for their onsite clinic.

“Wow,” Castor said from his desk, “William has finalized his cabinet. It’s not yet public, that won’t happen for a while, but Dale didn’t get Secretary of Commerce as expected.”

Elias spun his chair around and looked at Castor, “Was he nominated for a position?”

“Yeah, Secretary for Small Business Affairs. That’s it, nothing else and no plans for him to do anything besides oversee the blighted district reconstruction.”

“Damn, but that’s not entirely unexpected. I had hoped if he didn’t get the commerce position he could have gotten the Department of Labor or Trade Secretary,” Elias said sighing, “But he is still there nevertheless.”

“It does impact us to a degree,” Alberic said sounding worried, “He has significantly less pull and to be blunt, he has no connection to void-based engineering works.”

Elias cocked his head a bit, “What do you mean?”

“Well, his position is focused on small business matters. That is effectively limited to the space stations and the colony here on this plane,” Alberic sighed, “It’s unlikely he’ll be invited, or be able to invite himself, to any meetings with a focus on that.”

“Wonderful,” Elias said sarcastically, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

“Well on that note,” Viviana said, “There is some good news. Construction on the slip gate is sixty-five percent done. Fiber bundling and plasma conduits are what they are working on now. The stations where the external power systems will be connected are being installed as well, at least where the conduit is in place.”

“When are they expecting it to be completed?” Castor asked.

“Late December, give or take a few days.”

Elias looked up, “I was under the impression that the completion date was in November?”

Viviana shook her head, “We later found that date was an internal assumption and ultimately was a best-case scenario. We’re on the lower end of expected dates now. Some internal projections have it being finished in January.”

“What must we do to bring more focus to it?”

Castor and Viviana looked at one another. They both were thinking the same thing but didn’t have an immediate answer. Alberic on the other hand leaned forward and did have an answer. It was something that he had been thinking about for some time.

“Transfer no more than three void-works teams to this project. Any more and you’ll draw too much attention to it,” Alberic transferred the updated work orders to Elias, “Those teams are being underutilized on the outer station project. They don’t need them, and by the time this project is finished they can go out there and…”

“Well by that point that project won’t be worked on,” Castor chuckled, “Good plan.”

Elias skimmed through the orders and then uploaded them to the colony’s system. Their industrial plan casually shifted the teams to the slip gate project. It’d be a week before they arrived but with these new teams, the construction date would be finished by the time their reinforcements arrived in the system.

“One bit of bad news, but that is overshadowed by the good news,” Elias said, “Alright, what else is on the docket?”

“I’m still reviewing security camera footage,” Castor said, “I’m borrowing one of these Vee-Eyes that are all over the place here.”

“It’s simply pronounced Victor-India, virtual intelligence,” Bacchus said, “It’s not a full-blown artificial intelligence, but it’s well past the point of what we banned a century ago. I hate to be that guy, but the way they chain and constrain the computational and intelligence is rather brilliant.”

“Not to mention how efficient they are, they can scan hours of footage in minutes,” Silvia said, “I’ll help you with how to run them.”

“Use their systems, however heretical they may be, while they are in place,” Elias said, “Any update?”

“Kind of, my focus has been on the evening that Kaius was murdered. I’ve confirmed the biker followed Kaius to a park in the suburbs. Guess who was also there?”

Elias turned around again and leaned back in his chair, “The mole.”

“I watched the camera inside his car. He was using our tracking systems and didn’t believe he was being followed. But…”

Viviana tilted her head a bit and bore a worried look on her face, “Those systems scan the surroundings and alert us of any unusual activity or trailing vehicle.”

“That is exactly how it was supposed to work. I pulled the unit and checked it because of what Castor was seeing,” Linus said as he walked into the office, “It never detected that motorcycle. It couldn’t.”

“Explain, why couldn’t it?” the shock in Elias’ voice was evident.

Linus looked uncomfortable but then tried to answer, “I am not a technician, but I know enough to be dangerous. Something was transmitted wirelessly to the car’s systems, which are integrated with this box. The logs seem to suggest that it was instructed to ignore the bike. This happened long before our system could alert Kaius that something was afoot.”

“The Confederates have technology that can overwrite our own?” Ellie said, “That’s both surprising and horrifying in equal measure.”

“How in the hell is that even possible? These people aren’t nearly as sophisticated as we are!” Silvia exclaimed.

“It seems their intelligence services, and possibly their military, are better than we presume,” Elias said.

“On that note, they are very secretive about current and future mil-tech,” Bacchus said, “Less so about old and obsolete information. The declassified data suggests their ablative armor is better than our initial projections suggest, though only modestly. But the key issue is that this armor was made fifty years ago.”

“Which we know has been changed at least three times, if not more, since then. They are using a different matrix to create it, different materials, and some other things that we haven’t been able to track down yet outside of rumors,” Silvia said, “The real question is how good their officer corps is.”

Elias nodded, “Now on that subject, I’m well-read. Their fleets have undergone modernization processes recently. Because of their recent conflicts, their military efficacy has improved significantly.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Bacchus nodded, “Had we invaded a decade ago… If only we knew what we did then. Our plan would have been substantially easier then. Now, I think we’re deluding ourselves if this will be a cakewalk.”

Silvia sighed and looked at Elias, “Do our leaders know that the Confederacy has eight fleets? Eight distinctive fleets filled with one to three thousand ships each?”

Elias was a bit hesitant to answer this but did so honestly, “The actual numbers are closer to two thousand on the low end and five on the upper end. Though their Seventh and Eighth Fleets are made up of an abnormally large number of corvette and escort craft which makes the numbers feel worse than they are.”

“Sir, with all due respect here, their unclassified, old, and currently unused railguns on their frigates are more than capable of damaging ships of similar size, or even punching above their weight,” Bacchus said, “Fortifying this system will be easy, but if they threw their full might at us…”

Elias raised a hand to silence Bacchus and to effectively end this level of debate, “I understand your concerns. There’s a fair amount of agreement I find in your argument too. Our leadership believes our fleet is more than capable of dispatching theirs. The numbers seem overwhelming until you realize that they are not going to be able to throw all of their fleets at us in one go. It will leave them too far exposed.”

Castor smiled, “Then our advance fleets duck into those lightly defended systems and punish them.”

“That is effectively the plan. Lure their fleets into disadvantageous locations while our occupation forces can occupy and land troops in their stations and colonies. That’s also ignoring all of the cells we have operating throughout their territory.”

Bacchus shook his head, “It’s a shit plan. I’m telling you this right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if their intelligence department isn’t clued in on many of our cells. The moment we attack they are going to start disappearing our people.”

“They don’t…” Elias’ statement was quickly interrupted by Silvia.

“Sir, Naval Intelligence is feared and loathed by both the military and civilians. They have near unlimited control to do whatever it takes. Rights everyone presumes they have but are non-existent when they are working. When we say disappear, we mean it. They are either captured and then processed, or outright killed.”

“Who do you think is working against you in this world? It’s one of their secret agents,” Silvia said.

“Fucking hell,” Castor said, “What are the odds that the two of you were made?”

“No clue, but again they have near unlimited access to financial records and communications. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were at a minimum flagged.”

Elias nodded. That’s all he could do, was nod. He was deep in thought. Was what they were experiencing throughout this mission what others could expect?

No, that wasn’t possible. True, there were those on his team that were murdered. But the bad luck that befell them was unnatural and not normal. There was no way that other teams could expect that to happen.

But how good were the enemy agents? They eliminated three agents themselves, but they didn’t know if they were this other type of agent, a secret agent. Given the relative ease of finding and eliminating them, Elias had to presume that they weren’t.

The conversation in the background continued amongst his team. Elias was staring at a cup of coffee on the table across from him when he had to put an end to this conversation. Besides, it wasn’t his, or anyone in this room’s, place to determine policy for their people.

“Alright, alright,” Elias said standing up, “At the end of the day we are not responsible for the high-level decisions that have already been made. Concerns have been brought up but our spymaster and one of our consuls have green-lit this operation. All we can do now is focus on what is controllable within each of our spheres of influence.”

Everyone in the room nodded or shrugged. They would have to agree to disagree on this topic. Continuing on this topic was not going to do anyone in this room any good.

“Now then, let’s get back to work and finish up our reports,” Elias said.

Everyone went back to their desks or workplaces in the building. Bacchus and Silvia left the room, both concerned and disgusted. The truth of the matter was that Elias couldn’t help but agree with a good portion of their argument. Last year, even just six months ago, he was solidly in the pro-war camp. But after living in this world, Elias legitimately couldn’t say he was fully behind this war.

December 17th, 2267. 12:32 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead

“Truth be told, your choice was one flawed candidate or another. William was the only truly principled candidate,” John said as he stood up, “I’m opening the blinds to let some more light in. Don’t worry, you’ll be hidden sitting way back there.”

Elias tracked John every inch he moved. But to his surprise, John did exactly as he had said. If he was as skilled as presumed, why hadn’t he made any attempts to escape? If this man was as good as the rest of his team thought, why is he just relaxing and drinking? This part didn’t make sense.

For the first time since Elias got to this house, doubt began formulating in his mind. What in the hell was going on here? Why was he just now asking whether or not to continue this conversation? Then the answer presented itself. Elias needed this man alive to find out if he was the average agent or something more.

If he was something more, then the threat he posed was minimal. Because he’d be dead before the fighting even started. But what if he was just an average agent? The damage that others of his ilk could do to their war effort was staggering. The Confederacy could cease to be, but enemy agents could bleed the war effort dry and make the cost of controlling this territory astronomically pricey.

“That was our problem. William did reject our efforts to back him. He said the strings we came with weren’t worth it,” Elias chuckled, “So true he was.”

“Turns out in the end that you didn’t need anyone in the first place,” John said, “When did that big thing finish being constructed?”

“Well, technically it still needs the four power cores attached to it. But the void teams finished construction on the twenty-sixth.”

John nodded, “Well ahead of schedule. How long have you had one built in your space?”

“Two years and then some.”

“Do both gates need to be active at the same time for this thing to work?” John asked before sitting back down, “Much better. I do enjoy the midday light here. Feels good for the rays to come into the home.”

“Yes, I am not a scientist, and I don’t know the details surrounding it, but both gates create a super calm path in slip space.”

“That’s fascinating. I know some of my friends would die to get their hands on the schematics. Shit like that gets them going in the morning.”

Elias exhaled loudly as he stared down at John. The self-doubt came back, what was he planning? This was a stalling effort. It had to be.

“When are your reinforcements getting here?”

John snorted, “Too fucking late. They sent me a message yesterday. The Naval Intelligence stealth frigate won’t be here until early Thursday morning.”

“And your Navy proper?”

“Today. I’ll keep when they will show up and what ships are made up of that flotilla a secret.”

Elias pointed the gun at the unaware John. His finger was on the trigger, but where had his strength gone? Despite everything that had happened, Elias couldn’t pull the trigger on this abominable man just yet.

“Did you know about the other two members that joined my team?” Elias asked as he lowered the gun.

“Not around the election. When I eventually tracked down your location I was pleasantly surprised about the new faces,” John said, “Hey, why did you agree to kill your fiancé? I thought you didn’t want to do that?”

“Because Alberic was right. Me ordering them to end her would have been a scenario where they would be covering for my mistakes. That isn’t right.”

“More importantly it is a bad look within your spy agency,” John said icily, “Come now Elias, you’re worried about your position. Allowing a team member and fiancé to boot, to willingly choose exile is a bad look on your leadership.”

“You are talking to me about leadership?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m qualified to speak on that topic,” John smirked as he took a drink, “I’m a starship captain after all. Well, that’s my day job. My old employer would want me to moonlight as an agent again. Trust me, that is a bitter fucking pill to swallow.”

“You expect me to accept advice from you?”

“No, but I do know a thing or two about leadership. I know you won’t accept it because your pride demands that you don’t. Even your logical side doesn’t want to accept my advice. But if you were as smart as you claim to be, you would want to.”

“You are a presumptuous asshole.”

John nodded in agreement, “Doesn’t change the fact that I still know a thing or two.”

“Nothing you have; besides the intel I’m getting from you, is worthy of being shared or celebrated.”

“When did you decide to take action on Daphne?”

“Don’t you mean when you decided to take action on her?”

“Oh, I decided to go after her, as you are keenly aware, but I’m not the only one who decided to pull the trigger as it were.”

“I had told my directs that I’d take care of it myself…” Elias trailed off and lost track of his thoughts.

“You said the words but weren’t prepared to do the action just yet.”

“Unlike you, I find it difficult to justify murder. Doubly so to someone I know and cared about. Could you murder your wife?”

John snorted, “I’m honestly more worried about her committing homicide on my dumb ass if I do get home from this little party. Then again, you have me at a disadvantage so the longer this discussion goes the less likely it is that I’ll see another morning.”

“It is indeed very unlikely that will happen. But…” Elias paused and winced as he was forced to confirm his foe’s assumption, “I had indeed said that I’d take care of it, but I wasn’t prepared to kill her until near the end of the month. I waited too long, didn’t I?”

“I’m inclined to agree, but I don’t know enough to confirm that at this time. Don’t suppose you want to spill the beans on what y’all were doing then?” John smirked as he asked the question.

Elias groaned inwardly. It still wasn’t time to kill this foe. Soon though. He was here for a purpose, and while he was opening up to this devious man, he in turn was getting a fascinating discourse. The intelligence he was getting was worth it. It had to be, otherwise, those who lost their lives did so in vain. He was determined that that eventuality would not come to pass.