From a Report by Agent 957 of the Human Ascendancy’s Genetic Management Office…

Location: K’Tepolu System

Date: Day 139 in year 9043 of the Human Ascendency

To: [Name Redacted], Director of Breeder Reclamation

It’s my hope that the War Council will no longer be involved in our operations, but rather that their involvement will be limited to providing assistance that only they can provide and making any requests they might have clear. As they’re not in my chain of command, they should not be making any sort of attempt to give me orders or use our resources for their own projects.

Our management of the breeding stock has provided them with thousands of years of effective soldiers, spacers, and technicians with no loss of quality or deviation from the designs of the Architects. It could even be argued that we’ve been responsible for some slight improvements and efficiencies in the process of their creation.

I inform you of this because their current involvement in my mission very nearly caused me to lose track of the escaped breeders.

One month ago I was requested to watch a group of breeders whose purity officers suspected that they were preparing to escape. This was a mixed bloodline group associated with Cterrek, one of the larger cities in the K’tek system. The group is believed to have been contacted by the Institute for Human Freedom, a charity funded by many Alliance worlds. Our intelligence personnel have reason to believe that the Hrrnna funded its creation and continue to give money to the group.

After the breeders disappeared, it was found that the breeders had been saving money at higher rates than the norm.

There’s no law against breeders saving money. In fact, it’s been found that the more control breeders have over their own lives, the better they accept our occasional interference.

Contact with foreign powers, however, is illegal. That, I’m disappointed that we didn’t detect. When I was last in contact with them, our people were still searching for the methods they used to avoid our detection.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

However they did it, they disappeared from their residences, their jobs, and all their relationships in one moment. The next time we became aware of them, it was because one of their own number contacted us through their world’s network. The next we knew, we’d assigned personnel to track them, not least of which included me.

I went immediately to the nearest starport, requisitioned a starship and began following them as I am now.

Within a few jumps, they made it outside Interdicted Space. Our forces could have caught them if I’d had the ability to compel their obedience instead of the other way around. When we jumped to the edge of Interdicted Space, my ship was surrounded by heavy fighters given the responsibility to keep citizens within the Human Ascendency.

I was then ordered to cease pursuit and to report to one of several systems to assist them in border patrol operations. Though they weren’t in my chain of command, they’d convinced local officers that my ship was necessary to their efforts. With some work, I was able to contact our headquarters to countermand the order and given leave to pursue my original mission.

By that time, I had hopelessly lost the breeders’ ship. Only an ansible message from a mole among the breeders put me on track. I was able then to follow them to K’Tepolu.

I’ve hidden my ship among the asteroid belt near K’Tepolu and have continued to be updated regarding current events by the mole.

I have learned the following:

1. The breeders are receiving some level of cooperation with the Alliance government. As suspected, the Alliance has designated a world for breeders to settle. The mole does not know the coordinates, but does know that it’s within a few jump gates of K’Tepolu. When they do leave K’Tepolu, we’ll have the opportunity to destroy them or to follow and learn the colony’s location. My recommendation is that we hold off and discover the colony’s location as well.

2. My recommendation that we hold off is connected to another piece of information I’ve learned. The Xiniti will be escorting the craft to the colony. My ship has no chance against the Xiniti standard ship or a Xiniti crew. If it were to turn out that the Xiniti are not directly protecting the ship, my recommendation might change to capturing and interrogating the escort for the location of the colony. That would depend on the nature of the escort.

3. If recapturing or killing the breeders is regarded as more important than discovering the colony, we currently have an opportunity to strike. The Xiniti have not yet arrived. The only major risk is that the authorities at K’Tepolu might learn who attacked the breeders and prevent future Human Ascendency ships from using the port. The economic damage from that could be considerable.

Awaiting your response,

Agent 957