LOCATIO
SYSTEM: UNDISCLOSED
DATE: 2400
Benning walked down the pin and austere hallway o one of Omni’s leadership team. He hadn’t bothered to ask the man his name and he didn’t much care. The top executives always liked to think they were in charge, but they weren’t. He just let them keep thinking they were. They were simply puppets he had put into pce because dealing with the politics was beh him. He could ruire pany with just his AIs but humans made a good distra and an easy way to shift bme.
He was certain some of the executive team realized they weren’t in trol, but if they did, they were smart enough to keep it to themselves and tio collect their fat saries.
Soon the pair came to a thick set of steel doors with a group of fuards. “Please empty your pockets and prepare for a thh s. ronics of any kind will be allowed in the meeting chamber.”
The man with him scoffed. “Obviously, who do you think came up with these rules in the first pce?”
Benning held his tongue. He doubted his associate had ever done anything other than schmooze with other hoity-toity-rich folks. The maainly hadn’t implemeri security features. Those all came from his department, much like anything of substance from within Omni.
The pair assed through a series of sers before being ushered through the heavy doors. Even if someone mao get some eleics past the sers, the disruptiohat settled over them as they passed the doors would have rehe devices useless. It did make you feel a bit strange sihe field could disrupt the occasional synaptic activity, but it was a small price to pay to ensure plete eleic security.
They entered inte open room with a massive circur table that could fit a hundred people. That table sat under a simirly circur light fixture that was desigo light the table, but leave everything else in shadow. It was just another measure to ensure all the guests had some privacy.
Benning sat o his boss in a pair of empty seats. With no head of the table and no assigned seating, it ensured equality among the members of this gathering.
Over the few mihe rest of the attendees filtered into the gloomy room through the multitude of other entrances.
A red strip on the inside of the table lit up to alert everyohat the meeting was set to begin. One of the ses turned blue and the shadowed face began to speak.
Benning khe speaker even if he couldn’t see the woman’s face. She was the CEO of Dynamiergy Systems or DES. They were Omni’s business partner and provided the fusion power pnts for their pressed psma eje drives for that side of the business.
“I would like to formally annouhe start of this meeting. Does anyone have an agenda to start us out?”
“I do,” a reedy-voiced man spoke up. “When this assembly was first established twenty years ago, we were promised that it would lead to ever-increasing profit margins with each passing year. Yet this war has cut into my pany's bottom line.”
The man’s words were enough to jog Benning's memories. This was a man who ran massive agricultural produ operations on multiple worlds. If he remembered correctly, the man did not diversify his holding and most of his operations were on former Coalitios because the bor was much cheaper out there. He suspected the man had been notified well in advance of the war and chose not to heed their advice because he wao eke out a few extra credits before the worlds were set to fall.
The man who came with Benning spoke up in reply, firming what Benning remembered. “You were notified over a decade ago that our pns included those worlds. You hardly e pining to us now because you failed to heed our advice.”
“Your advice would have e tens of trillions of credits,” the man shot back.
“A small price that would have seen your profits grow tenfold,” Benning’s associate responded.
“At our st meeting, you assured me that I had another six months to pull out of those worlds. Now your little puppet has captured all of my agricultural assets and stripped them for his war efforts.”
A round of grumbling ran around the room at that accusation. Harlow had indeed proven far more capable than their initial estimates.
“Quiet,” the CEO of Dynamiergy Systems spoke matter of factly. “If you wish to speak, you must signal with the light.”
Another man clicked on his light to talk and spoke up. “I think I speak for most here. Why has this war moved quicker than projes?”
Seeing as those projes had e from his AI, Benning answered the question. “The current STO Chairman is even more ihan we first ated for. His mishandling of the war has given Harlow a much easier time pushing through systems.”
“Are you sure the man is even still under trol?” another person asked.
“As you are all well aware from our previous meetings, the memory alteration teology is finicky at best. It will only work on weak-minded people. That is why it took us so long to find the proper didate for this project. We needed one gullible enough to believe the impnted memories of the enter with the Shi, while also possessing some tactical a otherwise the STO never would have takehreat seriously. We burned out the minds of over two hundred individuals before we found one who finally accepted the memory impnt and that was only after the sario was ged multiple times until his mind decided it usible.” Benning wao mention that the sario that stuck with the man was so absurd that nobody else would have believed it, but it didn’t matter what anyone else believed, it only mattered what their patsy believed. “Harlow wasn’t the best option, he was the only option. That being said, he is following the p forth for him, he is just moving faster than our predis indicated. That is once again due in part to the STO Chairman’s iude and ck of respoo the first attacks.”
Another issue with their chosen sario was the issue with providing the alieo their agent. Getting ahold of one of the captured Shi vessels aing it away from the STO had cost a signifit amount of moime, and favors, but they succeeded. It only required years of effraft, and mishandled dotation, to liberate the ship from the STO. To this day, the STO probably still thought the ship was mispced in some ste yard somewhere. Not that it mattered, the STO had other Shi ships to reverse engineer.
This move was also why the Chairman position was no longer in the hands of Tau Ceti’s pary governor. It was one of the favors they had to spend to make the exge happen. The temporary loss of power was a small price to pay for the future they were w toward though. It also vely redirected all the bme on Borrus’ governor as the war dragged on.
The Shi vessels weren’t all that special, but they were perfect to give to pirates to boost their teology to something a bit more modern. For their pn to pay off, the pirates o be seen as a true threat to the STO’s worlds, but not aential o wasn’t the assembly’s goal to unite humanity against a greater threat, only to spark increased profits for the partits while increasing the level of teology throughout the STO.
“What of this neon?” another member asked.
The CEO of DES was the oo respond. “It is less a on and more a bastardization of fusion teology,” she replied with s. “We could easily reproduce the same effect, but the cost would be absurd. As for the miniaturization, we already do that, it is just not publically avaible because the market doesn’t justify its release.”
He could hear soft murmurs of approval at that. If it’s ohing this group uood, it was the bottom line.
“Fine, let's say we believe that,” another member spoke up. “When this pn was first brought to us, a five-year war was the selling point. That was enough to allow plenty of time for the STO to fire up a full war footing and sign lucrative new tracts with all of our panies for the foreseeable future. At the rate Harlow is taking ps, the STO will be forced to act or crumble in a year or two. her of which will lead to new long-term profits for our panies. How do you pn on resolving that issue?”
Benning’s panion spoke up again. “We are w oing the STO to react more forcefully, but as I said before, the Borrus representative is a useless dilettante. Since he is yet to act, we have already started on a pn for redireg Harlow’s focus for a few months so the STO regroup and hit back or slow dowacks.”
“How do you propose to do that?” the previous speaker questioned.
“Our spies in his inner circle say he is after someohat is hiding out in Char space. We already know Harlow is single-minded. We could simply redirect his focus out there.”
“What about his access to nuclear ons?” the man who lost his agricultural assets asked.
Benning’s boss ground his teeth at that. “We were unaware that his parents had an enrit facility. We have retasked out spies on Haven to foment rebellion on the pirate home world in order to destroy that facility and deny any more nuclear ons to Harlow and his people. The rebellion will also help slow down his assault, thus dragging on the flid enrig the rest of our wallets.”
“All in favor of this course of a?” the CEO of DES asked.
Two-thirds of the lights turned green, indig acceptance.
“Any endas to discuss?” she asked after the vote.
“I’ve been hearing rumors that a new engine manufacturer is setting up shop,” a new voice spoke up as soon as their light went green.
Benning didn’t reize this person, but he bristled at the accusation in the man’s tone. “We have not received as to indicate those rumors are true. If they are, we will deal with them like we have dealt with the rest.”
“Oh?” the same maioned. “And if this y is outside of the STO, and has diplomatic immunity? How will you deal with them then?”
The room erupted into versation. It seemed that this was o everyone, not just Omni.
“Expin,” the DES anded after getting the room to settle down.
“I have a close family member who works iO’s clerk's office. They are all abuzz that three of them were called to officiate the creation of a new nation, one legally reized by the STO.”
“How is that possible?” someone else asked.
“Some legal loophole allowed it. I mao get the information from my cousin. The system being cimed is called Unokahe entity that is g it is a small pany by the name of Blue Star Enterprises, owned and operated by a man named Alexander Kane. I do find it vehat this Kane had a run-in with Omni though. Our esteemed colleagues at Omni wouldn’t be trying to double-cross us here, would they?”
“How dare you!” Benning’s associate shot to his feet, taking the man’s bait like an idiot. “I assure you, that we are dedicated to the vision that we helped set in motion. This upstart, BSE will be dealt with. I don’t care if they are an empire as rge as the STO, we will crush them.”
Benning would have groaned if they were in private. Instead, he kept his mouth shut. With that outburst, his boss essentially made it so Omni would have to ehe eradication of this upstart or lose fad standing within the assembly. He would o look into the issue and find out where this nation was set up.
He also made a mental o repce this Omni executive with someone more petent. A tragic act would be a good send-off.
The meeting moved to the subject.
“What of the Shi?” a new person asked.
Benning was happy to ahis question. “As far as our scouts determihe Shi border is over a hundred lightyears away from the occupied STO world. We haven’t been able to infiltrate their space but the AI models predict the aliens likely pulled back because they are at war with some other species. We do o keep an eye ohough. The few reports we did receive from our scouts show a distinct differeween the Shi that the STO warred with, and the Shi guarding their border.”
“What does that mean?” a woman asked.
“It means that the Shi that fought the STO was not part of their military. They were either outcasts or undesirables, it's not quite clear.”
“And this other race they are fighting?”
“We have no information on them yet. For now, ickets set up a few systems away from the Shi border to keep tabs on the aliens and hopefully catch a glimpse of this other unknown alien species. I would also like to remind everyohat this is one of the reasons ith the pirates was the best choice. War always leads to teological adva, and if our neighbor is actively engaged in a war for more than forty years, we o ensure our teology remains at or above their level,” Benning stated.
He had seen the reports from the scouts. If anything, the STO gged quite a bit behind the Shi’s military. He wasn’t about to air that here though. He also had a pretty good idea of who the Shi were at war with. There really were only two options. It was either the race that built the hypergates or the ohat the mystery ship the STO had locked away beloo.
Benning had heard about that ship years ago, but even with his vast es, he hadn’t been able to get it out from uhe STO or eve access to the repeed from it. He khe STO was reverse engineering it, but he didn’t know how far along they were.
His ck of access was all thanks to that damnable Vice Admiral. The man was a slippery bastard and as tight-lipped as they came, but he khe man was on a short leash after the massive intelligence mishap with Harlow. Maybe with Vice Admiral Fletcher out of the picture, he could finally learn what they were building. This might be the perfect time to call in a few favors to finally get rid of Fletcher ond for all.
MJMarkgraf