Chapter 229

Chapter 229

Rusty looked over his star system and just watched the planets, suns, and moons traverse through space in their natural celestial dance.

It was beautiful.

One of his favorite distractions, but a distraction nonetheless.

When the now Tier 17 Brigadier General Darrow entered his office, Rusty turned around and indicated the chair to the saluting man.

At ease, General. We have a lot to discuss. Firstly, how have you been as of late?

The dark-skinned man smiled and nodded as he took the proffered seat.

Good, sir.

Rusty coughed at the address. He was no longer in the chain of command, and technically no longer rated to be called sir. At least, not how the man clearly meant it.

Noticing the rebuff, Darrow shrugged. You earned your rank both on the battlefield and off it, sir. Being promoted out of the military doesn't change that. In public, I will, of course, adhere to all proper edicts, but in private

Rusty suspected part of the comment was meant to tickle his ego, but he didnt care. He missed the days when he was an active combatant in the military.

Remember that. Moving on, how is the new rank and increase in Tier?

Darrow nodded. Quite nice, sir. Its pleasing to be growing once again. I have some of my phrases and anchors confirmed as compatible pairs, and I believe I have an inclination for the form my image may take. Once I am strong enough, I will attempt to form it. I have also absorbed the full suite of cryptography skills required for my station. Regarding my new rank, things are quite well, sir. The other Generals have been welcoming and have even aided me with some tips for my Intent.

Rusty translated that last bit as he wasnt being frozen out of the top level command conversations, which was good. While not officially endorsed, not everyone the Royal Court decided to promote to the star ranks was welcomed by the other officers, and those who were rejected for whatever reason were frozen out of the meetings and information channels they needed to do their jobs.

With such a distinguished reputation, he hadnt expected Darrow to meet such a fate, but he was in the relative minority of generals in that he did not possess a leadership Talent.

Despite that, the man lived and breathed the military, which was ultimately more important than being Talented.

Rusty pulled out a small booklet from his ring and passed it over the desk to Darrow. Good to hear. Now, more to the point, this dossier is your official read-in to Project Breach. Team Zero will be your primary focus, of course, and correspondingly, the first five pages document Light and Shadows unmasked capabilities and preferred tactics. The next thirteen detail the other current members of Team Zero, in addition to candidates for the remaining positions.

We have our recommendations, of course, but the final composition of Team Zero will be done according to your judgment. However, anyone not selected for Team Zero itself will still be made available to you through the broader Project Breach infrastructure. Now, this booklet is keyed to you alone, but still will not leave this room. Look through it, and begin to familiarize yourself with the individuals you will be working with.

Rusty watched, as the man grew progressively more incredulous at the briefings. The best reaction, though, came when he reached Wellsprings entry. At that, a glowing purple and blue eye shot open on his forehead, then blinked several times before closing once again.

Sir, this can't be accurate. Its

Rusty grinned. It wasnt an exaggeration when I said that the Empires very best would be a part of this program. The other Great Powers wish to see what we can accomplish, and we will certainly oblige them, and it is your job to push them to excel beyond imagination.

I would like to request time to work with each of them, to assess them in person.

Rusty nodded. Good man. Not all of them will be available yet, but well ensure you are able to meet them as they have time. Now, the EMV Skybreaker is loading up in the main hangar. Report there, and assemble your initial drafts for team composition. Any questions?

No, your Majesty.

Rusty grinned as he stood and proffered a hand.

Have fun.

Darrow's smile stretched across his face. I most certainly will.

Rusty watched the Empire's newest General walk through the halls as he idly did paperwork, with half a mind about how he missed the days when he was fighting on the front lines.

Thinking about Matt and how he would most certainly spark a real war, Rusty grinned. That was almost better.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

He couldnt wait to punch a Tier 50 in the face.

There were even a few Tier 50 mages amongst the rulers, and mages always made the best expressions when he punched them in the face.

Until then, he needed to do his job and ensure that they won this upcoming war, and that would not be an easy task.

Activating his [AI], he sent a message to his assistant. Sharleen, do we have the latest report from the Armory? Im only seeing last year's report in my ring.

It hasn't arrived yet, your Majesty. Ive already sent a message asking for a status update, but they are delaying.

Rubbing his eyes, Rusty wished he could punch his own people.

I assume you sent the message with my seal?

Of course, your Majesty.

Rusty sighed. If they don't get the report in by night standard time, let me know, so I can knock heads together. I don't fucking care if they are behind on production. I care that they arent telling me sooner.

I will, your Majesty.

At least he would get a break when he went to Matt and Lizs wedding. He wondered if he could sneak a spar in with the duo. Melinda would be there, so no risk of injury, and weddings always gave people jitters that they needed to work off.

A good spar always cleared the head.

***

Harper looked through the crowd of seemingly average people and inspected each of them one by one, seeing what ticks and tells each of them gave off.

The new batch of spies, infiltrators, and assassins.

Each of them had a different style, but some stood out more than others.

The young man that flinched anytime someone got too close to him was interesting, but his phobia was obviously faked from how he flinched the same way every time. It was a good start, however, someone so obviously nervous often was more capable of bypassing scrutiny than even an airtight backstory.

A woman with biological heterochromia used her stunning eyes as a way to hit everyone who looked at her with a subtle illusion and charm spell combo that her records said was self created.

Harper found it impressive, but not nearly subtle enough.

A blurry man with a shaved head and massive beard that screamed dangerous was probably Harper's favorite of the current cohort.

The man was a mass of contradictions. He was formerly a therapist who had tired of the simple life and joined an assassin guild, before leaving the guild to start doing corporate infiltration and espionage.

When the man had been caught by one of Harper's agents, they had asked why he went down the path, and his answer was perfect.

He liked the challenge, and felt free fitting into other roles.

Simple and definitive.

The perfect person who wouldn't mind pretending to be someone else for years, if not decades, before activating and doing whatever it was that was needed of him. He had proven he was capable of wet work and the more subtle espionage, which gave him a plethora of skills that Harpers people could hone into a razor's edge.

Then, there were the others.

His hopes were immediately dashed as Oliver shook his head.

No, your Majesty. Ive seen that formation before. Thats just a relic of one of their intra-system teleporters. Over here, this section acts as input modulation, and theyre placed in a way that indicates its specifying a location, rather than simple settings. In fact, you can see here where your piece slots into this reconstruction of a complete teleportation formation. Weve tested this design, before you ask, and its inferior to modern designs in every way. So while interesting, it's of little value.

Frederic nodded, that sounded exactly like the sort of thing his mother would have collected.

Very well. Back to the concentration relic. Is there anything you need to further your study? A salvage team to try and recover the rest of the formation? Archivists to look for other pieces in the records?

Oliver shook his head.

No, your Majesty, Im afraid not. There were only eight such platforms ever built, and five of them were jettisoned into the depths of chaotic space alongside the penal planets they were built on, never to be seen again, and two others were lost to history. This fragment was from the final one, and has been passing between private collections for close to three million years now. I managed to obtain it about ten thousand years ago and wrote a paper on it, setting it into my personal collection and mostly forgetting about it until I was contacted by your team.

Rebecca stepped in, preempting Frederics next question. We already have Belle on it, but because of just how old the relic is and in how bad of a condition its in, plus the that fact were pretty sure it was at least based on Talent tech to begin with, progress is fairly slow. Not too slow, however, so were looking at somewhere between two to twenty thousand years before we see a working prototype, if just trying to recreate the machine. Were also working on trying to understand it, but simple recreation is likely to be much faster. Also, though, the testing will break a dozen Empire laws every time, which

Frederic waved her to stop there. This is a project being developed jointly by ourselves and the Emperor. We will have no lack of funding or restrictions to hinder us. If nothing else, initial testing can be done on rift monsters.

Letting his perception slip to its Tier 46 state he ran through the possibilities, probabilities, and opportunities.

Ultimately, he decided this was enough to go to Emmanuel with.

It was still something of a long shot, but the sheer scope of Talents the Emperor had could possibly enable some unique breakthrough that could shrink research from millennium to centuries, or even decades. Furthermore, he wanted to make the report before one of Emmanuels personal teams came to the same finding.

If that happened, hed lose the bargaining chip he worked so hard for and spent so many resources looking for.

If his faction was to get through Emmanuel's rule with Matt funding his projects intact, they needed to prove their value before that value was negated.

After exiting the moon's base, he returned to his home and sent a message requesting a call with the highest priority he had access to.

In less than a second, a series of tiny teleporters flickered, sending a single data packet from planet to planet through a dozen channels until it reached the capital.

Two seconds after his message was sent, the Emperor's reply came through, and an illusion of the man materialized in front of him. Frederick didnt know what Talent or set of Talents the man was using to project himself this far across the Empire, but that was irrelevant for now.

They didnt truly speak, because sound was far too slow for even a Tier 47, let alone a Tier 50, but their conversation progressed swiftly. Frederic took a small amount of pleasure from Emmaunels reaction to his findings, and while he agreed it was something of a long shot, there was enough evidence for him to provide some aid. Even a small amount would be enough to let him know if he even could be useful, and if the Emperor himself was able to lend aid to their research project, they could potentially come to a workable device before the end of their next war.

This was, of course, just the latest attempt out of many, but eventually, they would find something capable of aiding Matt. Even if the machine was horribly inefficient, to the point where it would be completely and utterly crippling to anyone who tried to use it, that wouldnt matter to the young man they were pinning so many of their hopes on.

And who cared about anyone else.

Emmanuels return message was all that Frederic cared about. Well done. Start working on the prototypes and send teams to look for any other remnants of that formation. Im not sure how it will interact with their Talent but it's better than nothing.

As the communications relay broke off, he leaned back and smiled while he sent an order for the team to go on lock down and start working on the research.

Step one was done, and with a team with even some experience, he was sure he could leverage them as the main workforce going forward on the project.

In its current form, it was less than ideal even for Matthew to use, but their technological base was better than the Glorious Everlasting Kingdom of Prosperitys was, even at the peak of their power. The Empire and all the other Great Powers were built off their remains, after all, and it wasnt like everything was lost.

While he didnt expect they would get the technology viable for anyone without a Talent based mana pool, he was sure they could reduce the spiritual strain at least to some degree. That, combined with even a small increase to the efficiency, would equal a nigh perfect solution to one of Emmanuel's most pressing issues.

All solved by his faction.

Instead of returning to his work, he started drafting other messages.

This leverage needed to be properly placed if they wanted to maximize its effect, and that meant coordination and planning.

At least he had good news for Matthew as a wedding present.

***

Tur'stal looked at the farm system below her and couldnt believe that she wasnt here to tend to the planets growth once again. She had done so once a decade since she took up her position, but this time, she administered the last of the resources these planets would ever see.

Instead of the usual tons of mana stones or specific natural treasures that would let the planet grow faster, she was directing the planet's rapid growth to something more sustainable.

Today, she was here for a single purpose, and hopefully, the last one for a long time, if not forever.

Her target was one with comparatively little biodiversity, a desert planet with two suns. The creatures she retrieved en masse, and while finding every last Tier 30 desert mouse wasnt feasible, she did her best to ensure that every species had its representation, from the meanest gnat to the great sandworms lurking within the planets endless dune seas. She would relocate them to another world once she found one, where they would hopefully be able to thrive.

They didnt deserve to die because they needed to cannibalize their homes.

The monsters that had broken free from their rifts were not given such gentle treatment and were directly eliminated instead.

Once that was done, she flew into the molten outer core of her chosen planet until she found its inner core.

Physically a ball of molten iron, she drove through its depths, and at the exact center where the gravity well pulled everything in, she found the physical accumulation of the planet's true core.

It was beautiful.

It was powerful.

It was valuable.

Removing it meant the death of the planet, but that was her job.

She was a gardener, and that included the harvest.

Just because she didnt enjoy it didnt mean it wasnt necessary. This fruit would be part of the payment and materials a certain Talented alchemist required for upcoming services. She certainly hoped that Matts Intent would solve his concentration problems, because this simply wasnt sustainable.

That small measure of distraction reminded her, and her eyes flicked back to the handwritten invitation she had received not long ago. Her niece was getting married, and marriage was always a reason to celebrate. She just hoped Mara and Leon could keep themselves from losing their minds and stealing the planet.

That was one of her planets, and they had agreed they were only allowed to take the island the kids got married on, which had already needed an argument. They wanted to take the entire continental plate the island was connected to, but she flatly refused. That was a resort planet that half of her kingdoms nobles got married on.

A continent could not go missing just because the duo were hoarders.

Thinking about the shenanigans her fellow royals could get up to if unattended when it came to their children's nuptials, she decided she needed to arrive sooner than later.

***

Aiden looked at the small paper and looked around in confusion, finally catching the eyes of his wife. Liz is getting married? How? Shes like twenty?

Madea rolled her eyes but avoided his gaze. If someone wasnt forgetting their duties back home, they would know she's almost sixty, and about to reach Tier 15.

Duke Waters grinned as he pulled his wife into a kiss. I said I was sorry, but I had to take my opportunity to fight. I was going crazy sitting around for so long, but I feel like I wasnt gone for forty years. Like five at best.

Oh? So you were bored spending time with me?

Realizing he had been caught in a verbal trap, Aiden grinned as he waded in deeper. Im sure I can make it up to you?

A tentacle wrapped around his leg dragging him down into the depths of his home. "Oh, you will."