Chapter 348 - Councilors' Gathering.

"They dared?!"

"They dared to attack?!"

"Order please!"

"They actually dared to attack?!"

"Order!"

"I say we go to a full-blown war against the filthy snakes!"

"Let's show them what we're capable of!"

"We need to pummel some sense into these war mongers' brains!"

"SILENCE!!!"

The blasting voice of the authoritative clownfish who sat on the seat that was at the very center of the arrangement succeeded in bringing order this time.

This was a high-grade gathering that was taking place at the very center of the anemone domain, the central business district.

This was the Councilors' Gathering.

At this moment, 13 floating chairs in the water were arranged around a huge circular equally floating table. Sitting on these floating chairs were the most powerful clownfish in the whole domain, the 13 councilors.

When the anemone domain was created, they were not like their rivals who already had a stable background with the leaders being the hibernating elders.

For the anemone domain, they arrived at a time filled with travesty and danger where numerous clownfish had to group up to fight for their survival.

From a fight for survival, it graduated into a fight for domination. During all these conquests, there was no unifying leader among the clownfish, 13 individual clownfish were the ones who directed the show.

After the establishment of the anemone domain as a high-grade rural settlement, these 13 clownfish became councilors of the powerful settlement.

There were 12 councilors actually and 1 chief councilor.

To date, these 13 were the main clownfish who directed everything that happened in the massive city from their high towers.

Around the huge floating circular table, 6 councilors sat on floating chairs at the right of the table while 6 others sat on floating chairs on the left, leaving the chief councilor to sit on the only chair in the middle.

A few hours ago, a piece of news arrived that pulled all these old clownfish from whatever they were doing to attend this gathering.

Any major information that involved the Snake Kingdom was priority information, and it succeeded in drawing all their attention again.

Once the chief councilor managed to restore order to the gathering, she directed an irritated glare at all the councilors before finally speaking.

"A.I Teoni, present the situational analysis".

"Yes, chief councilor".

A pure robotic voice responded to the chief councilor's order as the large gathering hall turned pitch-black with a massive virtual projection appearing in the skies just a few seconds after that.

"This is footage of the battle situation".

"…"

"After a lot of analysis, the clownfish Generals were able to deduce that somehow, the route of our patrol team was intercepted by the snakes which should have been impossible considering our technological advantage".

"The even more impossible analysis is that this information was intercepted by the snakes long enough before the patrol team went on their mission".

"Only our main computer server has the randomized pattern of team deployments, the pattern is revealed to the patrol teams just before they leave and this server is only accessible by clownfish higher-ups".

"The implication of this is that our higher ranks are compromised".

"Also, the deployment of a snake fleet with such destructive potential so close to our territory would have never evaded our detection measures".

"The implications of this are a lot with the most direct being that our military information sector is also compromised".

"The fact that the snakes did not rise to overwhelm and devour the patrol team immediately, but rather waited till our reinforcement force arrived reveals their intention to never keep this action a secret".

"This is a show of force and it sends a message".

"Even with the reinforcement force, the snakes were more than capable of steamrolling through our deployments. The coincidence that resulted in a Mega Whale entering the scene feels too staged to be believed".

"We have to assume the worst that the Mega Whale was attracted by the snakes, the reason for it is what we don't know".

"With the Mega Whale's attack, we lost all our military-grade shuttles including all their inhabitants and mechs. Only the warship survived the assault with extremely severe damage".

"The Mega Whale's attack also affected the snakes, killing a lot of them though they reacted early on seeing it". 

"This scene suggests that the snakes had no idea of the Mega Whale before it arrived but the snakes have built a reputation of being extremely cunning and notorious over the years, so nothing is set in stone".

"This is the military analysis by all the Clownfish Generals".

"By making use of the probability judge mechanism of the Hivemind Mega Processor to process the analysis, a result of 11G-2F29-FE1;GA was obtained".

"There is a 60% chance that this is a declaration of war by the snakes!"

"…"

A long silence reigned in the gathering hall after the last declaration from the A.I. The other councilors didn't jump in this time, so with the chief councilor not speaking, the silence reigned until she finally opened her mouth.

"You heard the A.I, the red flag of war has been drawn".

"For decades, we have developed in peace, accumulating strength but the snakes were also doing the same, mostly refining their methods from decades ago".

"I don't know what is going through the elder snakes' head but if they want to go to war against us so badly, I'm not against it, we'll have to show them the hard way what clownfish are capable of doing".

"This is my order; the military will go on a semi-red alert state!"

"Let the Generals prepare for war!"

"Also, let the traitors be rooted out!"

"Yes, Chief Councilor!"

All the councilors swam from their chairs to leave but to their surprise, the chief councilor did not swim up yet. This authoritative female clownfish looked at all the councilors one last time.

"The snakes are our eternal enemies, but we're our own greatest enemies".

"Before you make any of your decisions, remember that the survival of the anemone comes first above all, nothing eclipses that".

"You can pursue benefits, but not at the expense of the anemone's safety".

"A word is enough for the wise clownfish".