Agent047
patreon
918 - Briefing
🕑 Added 2025-05-29 16:27:18 +0000 UTCEarth, CUBE.
{Sir, twenty of our wormholes on the Wormhole Highway Project have been attacked,} Nova reported directly to Aron through the chip embedded in his body.
Aron was currently sitting in one of the CUBE’s gardens, sharing a quiet picnic with his wife and brother, when he received the alert.
“Excuse me,” he said calmly.
In the next instant, a translucent shield enveloped Rina and Henry, moments before Aron vanished in a blur, leaving behind a shockwave that rustled the trees and pressed the grass flat in one direction. The shield disappeared just as quickly, having taken the brunt of the blast with it.
“I can never get used to that…” Henry muttered, staring at the way the grass now leaned as if bowing in one direction. He looked up in the direction where Aron had vanished. “What kind of emergency would make him move like that without even saying a word?”
Nova hadn’t said anything aloud, and they knew that it was Nova and she had most likely reported straight to Aron’s internal systems. Whatever it was, it was serious.
“It’s not something he does often,” Rina replied casually, flipping a page in her book and biting into a crisp apple.
Her calmness baffled Henry. “Aren’t you even worried? What if one day he forgets to throw up a shield and we end up deaf or worse?”
Rina smiled faintly without looking up. “As long as we’re alive, anything damaged, body or mind, can be repaired. What’s there to worry about?” She gestured to his jacket. “And your clothes are equipped to absorb much worse than a mild shockwave.”
Henry gave a slow nod, not entirely reassured. “Still feels a little... dramatic.”
“Welcome to life around Aron,” she said, turning another page.
……………..
The moment Aron arrived at his office, he headed straight for his VR pod. Protocol demanded it, especially since there was no telling how long he’d be engaged or what threats might arise while he was inside. Even with the slim chance of a surprise attack, multiple safety measures were in place to protect his real body while he operated in the simulation.
Nova logged him in immediately and transferred him to a secured instance of the Universal Simulation. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a virtual meeting room. John, Nyx, and the head of the Ministry of the Interior, the exterior, and the head of the Imperial Transportation Agency were already present.
As soon as Nova confirmed everyone required was in attendance, the environment shifted. The room dissolved into darkness and was replaced by a playback of one of the attacks.
A seemingly ordinary ship moved into its designated lane toward a wormhole gate. Without warning, it exploded. A massive fireball surged outward, but the reinforced shield walls surrounding the wormhole’s entry zone activated instantly. A bright blue containment field snapped into place, sealing the explosion within and opening a vented channel to redirect the blast.
This redirection prevented the buildup of pressure, heat, toxic gases, or destructive shockwave feedback, all of which could’ve threatened nearby infrastructure or personnel if the shield had remained airtight too long.
The footage continued. More explosions were shown, each from a different wormhole. Some occurred just before ships entered the inspection grid, damaging nearby vessels. Others happened right after passing through or even during entry into the wormhole, threatening surrounding traffic.
Fortunately, none of the wormholes themselves were damaged. The extensive safeguards built into their construction, especially the clamps reinforced with immense mana stone reserves, had accounted for sabotage and accidental detonation scenarios.
But the explosions weren’t the end.
As panic spread through nearby fleets, several seemingly uninvolved ships suddenly turned hostile. Hidden among the chaos, these vessels began firing indiscriminately at others in the area. Then, with terrifying coordination, they surged toward the wormholes in an apparent attempt to destroy or breach them.
Immediately, the affected wormholes went into full lockdown.
Massive defensive shields activated, sealing off the gates entirely. These emergency barriers were powered with enough mana to remain operational for an entire year, if necessary. As a final fail-safe, the protocol also allowed the Empire to authorize military deployment.
Should any shield appear at risk of collapse, the Empire had the legal authority to mobilize a fleet and eliminate all potential threats within a one million kilometer radius of the wormhole, without waiting for diplomatic permission.
{The civilizations in question have already mobilized their closest military forces to the wormhole zones and are expected to arrive in ten hours,} Nova explained, continuing the live transmission. The incident was still unfolding, and barely two minutes had passed since the first explosion.
“Can’t they use the wormholes to cut travel time? If mana is the issue, we can provide them and deduct the cost from their share of wormhole revenue,” Youssef, the Minister of the Exterior, suggested.
{The affected civilizations don’t possess wormhole technology.}
“But didn’t we agree that they must station significant military forces close enough to respond in case of an attack? A ten-hour delay at maximum speed doesn’t exactly qualify as ‘close,’ does it?” Youssef pressed.
{They withdrew their forces about a month ago, citing routine patrol rotations.} Nova brought up the official notification.
“All of them? And that didn’t raise any red flags?”
{It did. However, the explanation was considered valid at the time. The withdrawals coincided with the public opening of several wormholes, and the justification was increased pirate activity in nearby sectors due to projected traffic surges. Since similar repositioning had been done by other civilizations in comparable contexts, no further action was taken.}
Aron, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke, his eyes still fixed on the data feeds.
“How did those ships manage to pass through our inspection grids in nearly twenty different wormholes without raising a single alert?”
{The current working theory is that the explosions were caused by a combination of maximum fuel loads and the volatile materials they were authorized to carry. As for how they passed inspections—}
Nova paused, then projected a detailed 3D animation simulating the likely cause of the explosions. A ship carrying volatile cargo was shown experiencing a localized chain reaction, resulting in a rapid but highly destructive detonation.
{All the ships had the required permits for transporting volatile materials. Full fueling is not, by itself, a red flag, especially for long-distance hauls.}
Nova overlaid the simulation with actual recordings from the ships involved, followed by the scanned copies of transport permits. The documents were official and in order. Next came the full list of crew and people on board, each one with clean records and official clearances for missions involving sensitive or hazardous cargo.
{Every approval was legitimate, and the personnel background checks cleared them without issue.}
The room fell into a tense silence as the scope of the deception became clear. These were not crude pirate raids, this had been a meticulously orchestrated attack, exploiting every layer of bureaucratic trust.
Comments
Sol_Invictus(Hail the Terran Empire)
Congratulations to the leader of that civilization for hastening not only the collapse of the Conclave, but also the downfall of their own civilization as an independent entity.
Sol_Invictus(Hail the Terran Empire)
TYFTC
