14 Days Later. June 14th, 2267. 06:15 Xenuian Headquarters
It had been a tense two weeks at the headquarters. The only people who didn’t feel any discomfort from Elias’ changes were Elias himself and Constantine’s team. They had the luxury, and need, to be out in the field. Unlike the others, they were well acquainted with the customs of others and hadn’t been influenced like Daphne and the others.
Though to be fair to Daphne, Elias thought, she was quite liberal in her views. That she was thinking these things already was highly likely. She was so open about discussing things here because they were so far from home, and away from the conservative police and intelligence services.
Elias knew a handful of people each year were imprisoned for extreme views. He was now openly worried about Daphne’s future. She was treading dangerously close to the lines of being sent to a reeducation camp. It was rare for anyone to return from them not utterly changed.
He walked into the kitchen and was looking in the cupboard for some coffee when he heard a voice from behind him.
“We ran out of coffee yesterday,” Viviana said, “Ellie and Linus are going shopping at 07:00.”
“Wonderful,” Elias said sarcastically as he turned to walk out of the kitchen.
“Are you going to lessen the restrictions on us?”
Elias paused and turned and faced his logistics commander, “To everyone? No. To those that I trust to put the mission first. Perhaps.”
“It’s not fair, we need to…”
“No, what you need to do is focus on the damned mission. That is why we are here. It is the only reason why we are here. Their way of life is inconsequential to ours, ours is the right path. The only path.”
“Is it? The people here have so many more freedoms. Families are downright small in comparison.”
“That is because our nation was founded on two hundred fifty thousand brave souls. We needed, and still need, to take drastic actions to increase the number of citizens we have. That is doubly true when a war breaks out.”
“I’m not sure a war with the Confederacy is a smart thing,” Vivana said as she leaned against the countertop, “Ten years ago a war with them likely would be resolved in our favor. Something’s happened in the past decade to snap their leadership out of the malaise that they found themselves in. That is of course presuming the data and articles we’ve read are accurate.”
Elias was about to say something in response but paused for a moment before speaking, “Please, expand this thought of yours.”
“The Confederate military was rotten from the inside. Half of its fleets were made up of low-performing officers in their position because of an incestuous relationship between corporations, wealthy families, and military command. The other half of the fleets seemed relatively competent but were resigned to guarding the far reaches of their space. They also got hand-me-downs as replacements for their ships.”
Vivana took a deep breath, “Something happened, of which I’m not entirely certain, but they executed their First Fleet admiral. The amount of graft and underhanded dealings he was involved in was quite impressive from a certain point of view. That act, the cause of which I can’t seem to find, changed the core fleets. The underperforming officers were reassigned or let go. They got better.”
“How so?”
“Their Naval Academy has been graduating stellar class after stellar class. There were reports that cadets, you heard correctly, stopped a rogue Alliance attempt at creating a foothold in Sol. Their, well actually our species’, home world. Think about that for a moment Tribune, a group of cadets were able to repulse long-time veterans in the Alliance. Those very same cadets are now medium-ranked officers spread across the fleet. Many of which are commanding ships right this moment.”
“They’ve cleaned the house. Interesting, but it doesn’t make up for their technologically inferior ships,” Elias said confidently.
“I’m not convinced that our shielding technology is that more advanced than the Confederate’s is. Their ablative armor, at least from what is publicly available, appears to be more durable and capable to withstand more punishment than ours can. More worryingly is the matter of our weapon systems.”
Elias’ defiant tone shifted somewhat, “Explain.”
“Their railgun systems, from fifty years ago are effectively equal to what we use today. Our laser systems are much more advanced, but our range is somewhat limited compared to theirs. Plasma-based weapons appear to be relatively equal. What worries me is the CIC systems. There is virtually no data about them anywhere on the extra-net.”
“That seems to be a curious system to be utterly silent on.”
“It’s not just them. Missiles and torpedoes are also radio silent along with specifications for their military fusion cores that are used. We have to go back seventy-five years to see the last declassified core. And comparing them, class by class, to our ships from similar timeframes they aren’t that different.”
“And then there’s the big monkey in the room, we’re at a numerical disadvantage,” Elias’ tone had shifted considerably.
“One of our ships, class for class, very likely will be able to take out two, maybe three Confederate ships, but they can absorb heavy losses like that, whereas we cannot. Additionally, their captains have real wartime experience, conflicts happen frequently here.”
Elias nodded, “It’s one thing to drill it, it’s entirely different to live through it. Send me your full analysis, I will include it in the next message home. I believe the Legatus needs to hear this.”
Elias then left the room and headed for his office. He hoped that there was some coffee left there. He desperately needed the caffeine that morning. Aside from Viviana, no one else appeared to be awake. The headquarters was eerily quiet this morning.
Seeing as how he had nothing better to do with his time, it was high time to begin working on his next report home. He was interested in seeing Viviana’s analysis. Despite her role as logistics commander, she was an analyst at heart, Elias knew she was more than capable of completing an impartial analysis.
13:15 Elias’ Office
Kaius walked in and hopped onto the set of countertops along the wall across from Elias’ desk. The entrance surprised Elias. What also surprised him was the lack of talking from his subordinates. Elias sat there and watched as Kaius activated the holographic display and scrolled through several different screens.
“Sorry, here it is.”
“Cool. What am I looking at?”
“Immigration records, by the way, I submitted our papers for an extended stay. While we were approved to stay for six or twelve months, we did need to send some additional information in. I found that out by accident,” Kaius paused as he took a deep breath, “Anyways, look at this. Three weeks ago, the colony’s immigration system went goofy on them.”
“And?”
“There were an estimated thirteen thousand people that arrived in this world that day. We don’t have records of who is where.”
Elias raised an eyebrow, “Are you thinking the Confederates are aware of our little scheme and sent another team in?”
“It’s certainly within the realm of possibilities. It’s also equally possible that antiquated hardware choked and caused this mess with their data.”
“Let’s make the presumption that they are aware something happened,” Elias said as he closed his eyes, “What would they do?”
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“Well, I’d want to send a ship to inspect the colony.”
“That leads to certain problems though,” Elias said, “If a warship shows up, we just go dark for a while. Systems go back up. It was just a glitch in the matrix. We of course leave a hook in the system and let them fix the issue. Then, they leave, and it comes back in a week or two.”
“Yeah, I would be reluctant to send a warship. But a small team. That is much harder to detect,” Kaius sighed, “I’ll have Constantine have an asset focus on surveilling our neighborhood.”
“Have your team double its efforts in scanning the communications. We haven’t shut the door on all extra-net communications, though we are choking it something fierce. It’s not going to come from any official channels. A basic presumption we must make is that they have some means of communicating back home.”
“We’re working backward in checking communications traffic. We haven’t seen anything on any official channels going back the last few days,” Kaius put his hands in front of him, “I know, it’s going to take time to review the official channels.”
“Well, we were tossed our first proper curveball. The big question is how many people did they send?”
“They could land a whole battalion if they avoided the civilian station,” Kaius’ voice sounded concerned.
Elias looked at the readouts and shook his head, “There was no unannounced traffic. Even military traffic would be picked up here. The lack of communication could just be written off as the colony being lazy.”
There was a quiet pause before Elias spoke, “It’s entirely possible that this is just a random glitch. Which is likely the actual outcome. Just to be sure though, please continue reviewing the records. If there is a team present, I want to be prepared for it.”
“I’ll alert Constantine now on the encrypted channels. At the bare minimum, it seems our house arrest is going to continue.”
“Agreed. Not sure how this will go down, but we’ll be running with that. I’ll gather everyone in the compound for an impromptu meeting about this potential threat.”
Kaius nodded and then left Elias’ office. Elias continued to pour through the data. He was right, there was no large-scale military operation. There were only twenty-five incoming slip space apertures detected in the last three weeks. Every single one of them was a civilian void liner, and each docked with the lone space station in orbit of the planet they worked on.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up. He wanted to discount it, but something about the situation felt off to him. It was up to his second command and him to find the needle in the haystack. Their great work would move forward, but they’d have to be overly cautious in the short term. At least until they could confirm there wasn’t a threat.
16:45 Headquarters’ First Floor Living Room
Elias had intended to have this meeting sooner, but one thing led to another, and three hours had passed. Kaius had trimmed the list down to about twenty-five hundred immigrant files to review. But that would take some time to go through. Elias had found precisely nothing to support his gut feeling.
He walked down the stairs and saw everyone, with the exception of Constantine and his team, waiting in the living room. Patiently wasn’t the way he’d describe how they were sitting. Their body language indicated a combination of stress and annoyance.
“My apologies for being late,” Elias said as he took a breath after speeding down the stairs, “I’m going to cut straight to the chase. I am going to extend the confinement order for another week at least. There is a possibility that a team of Confederate agents is on the surface.”
“Why do we need to stay confined to this god-awful building?” Daphne asked in a downright disrespectful tone.
“Because you and the rest of the people in this room stand out like sore thumbs to the public. The less we show of ourselves the better.”
Kaius then added, “There’s a lot of immigration records to go through. We need to review everything to make sure there isn’t a team on the planet.”
“How long is this going to take?” Ellie asked.
“Six to seven more days. The sooner we go through all the files the better,” Kaius said.
Castor raised his hand, “My forte isn’t in intelligence or counterintelligence, but from a logistics standpoint there isn’t much to do at the moment.”
“Thank you, Castor, on that note the logistic specialists are going to be temporarily moved over to Kaius’ team to assist in the personnel review,” Elias said.
“That should speed up by two or three days, no?” Draco said.
Kaius nodded.
“Well let’s get to it,” Katherina said.
“What about this confinement?” Daphne’s tone remained defiant.
“Presuming there isn’t an enemy team to hunt us, then I will take that on a case-by-case basis,” Elias said, “Half-assing or not putting forth an honest effort in assisting our peers is not going to do you or anyone else well. In the interim, I’ll be managing the contacts with our prospective colonial governor and helping out with the immigration review when able.”
“Alright everyone, let’s meet in my office and I’ll walk you newbies through our review process,” Kaius said as he was walking towards the stairs.
Everyone stood up and began heading towards the stairs. Daphne walked by Elias, but he gently grabbed her arm. She tried to resist the request. When she tried to ignore it and walk by him, the hand forcefully pulled her back, now gripping noticeably tighter.
“What do you want?” Daphne hissed quietly.
“Check the attitude,” Elias said calmly.
“You aren’t my father.”
“No, I am not,” Elias then squeezed her arm tight, “I am the commanding officer of this mission. Whatever your opinions of it or me are irrelevant. You will stow this attitude and redouble your efforts workwise. Otherwise, this is all you’ll experience in this world.”
Elias let go of her arm while extending his arms out and rotated a bit. Daphne knew instantly what he meant. She didn’t want to be stuck in this building anymore. She longed for her freedom and new experiences. After a long moment and a couple of deep breaths, she looked up at Elias.
“Don’t think that I won’t forget this,” she said quietly.
“Don’t make me regret offering you this opportunity,” Elias spat back, “As it stands right this instant it was a mistake to bring you and your attitude to this world. Make no mistake, whether you are my fiancé or not, I will not allow you to endanger this mission. If I need to confine you to your quarters and restrict all access to the outside world I will.”
“If you so much as dare do that to me the marriage will be off.”
“Enjoy the re-education camps then,” Elias’ tone had taken on an acidic tone.
Daphne stepped back with an amazed look on her face. She had never heard Elias speak thusly. He was not an aggressive man by nature, threats from him weren’t real threats. This, this was a threat.
“Oh, you didn’t know did you?” Elias grinned.
“Know what?”
“I saved you from your family sending you to a re-education camp. My family’s request for your hand in marriage is what stayed the provincial government’s hand in ordering you to a re-education camp. Your time has run up,” Elias walked over and towered over his fiancé, “You hold no power in this relationship, and you never will. I am not going to be walked on by you. You will play ball from today onward. Failure to do so will mean the end of our engagement. You are too old to not be wed.”
“You wouldn’t dare do that to me.”
“Then stop acting like a spoiled child and do your fucking job,” Elias hissed as he turned away from her, “Now head to Kaius’ office, you need to get working on this project.”
Daphne nodded and quickly ran up the stairs. Elias’s nature was to avoid conflict. He hated conflict, but his relationship with Daphne seemed filled with conflict. There was always something with her, and he was tired of it. But for her attitude to affect the mission, that was crossing a red line he couldn’t tolerate any longer.
He didn’t know if telling her she was that close to being re-educated would hurt him down the road, but it was necessary to put her in her place that day. No longer could he treat her with a limp hand. But Elias didn’t trust himself to treat her with a firm hand, or if that would even work. He would have to keep a close eye on her, and he may even ask Constantine to spare a set of eyes to monitor her outside the headquarters if she and the others are free to roam about the colony once again.
3 Days Later. June 17th, 2267. 11:17 Elias’ Office
The Xenuian invaders continued to remain at home, in a sort of home arrest. On the orders of their Tribune. Elias was no one’s favorite person, even his senior officers were beginning to chafe at the restrictions. But his recent comments about lifting those restrictions gave everyone something to look forward to.
Elias had just finished sending an email to their candidate, Dale, outlining questions and who was going to be at the town hall debate later that week. Detailed dossiers of thirty guests, all of whom were expected to ask questions, were included in that email. This was a crucial debate for Dale, technically all were, but this one was with groups that liked him the least. It was critical that he make a good impression on this segment of the population.
Kaius then ran into Elias’ office, “Shut up and turn the local news on.”
“Excuse me?” Elias looked up in surprise.
“Sorry, news, now!” Kaius said in a worried tone.
Elias shrugged as he activated one of the displays on the wall. At his console, he shifted pages and transferred the local television stream to the display. A moment later the news was on the screen. The local newscaster was speaking.
“A murder occurred between twenty-third and twenty-fourth streets off Billings Avenue. The decedent, a recent immigrant from the religious territories of the Alliance appeared to have been mugged, stolen of all his belongings, and then hastily hid near a trash bin. He had no next of kin to notify.”
The picture of the poor soul that was mugged to death appeared onscreen. Elias cupped his mouth in shock. The unmistakable face of Paulus Russel was displayed. The screen then flashed back to the crime scene. A pool of dried blood was visible behind the reporter.
“Police have just begun their investigation, but the murder occurred at close range with a short-bladed knife. One detective called it an intimate killing, with the murderer catching the victim unawares. Based on the available evidence, mostly blood splatter and stab wounds, the victim was attacked from behind and was likely killed before being robbed. This senseless act of violence is thought to have occurred sometime early this morning.”
The screen then changed to a live aerial shot of the neighborhood. It was two miles or so away and in an old and run-down residential neighborhood, with conditions not dissimilar to their headquarters thought Elias. Many buildings were empty, many others were squatted in. Residents that lived there kept to themselves, and eyewitness was unlikely.
“Police are telling me that this is the eighth murder here in the last two months. No eyewitnesses have come forward. Police also indicated that some of the security cameras were not functioning. This is a long-time complaint of residents who feel this neighborhood is neglected by the colonial government. Dan, back to you for the weather and more daily news. This is Samantha Waller signing off.”