2024-01-11 14:01:30
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Offer
Nova, who had been silently observing Aron as he went through documents related to the empire for approval, couldn’t help but notice the persistent smile on his face. It had been there for quite some time and showed no signs of fading.“What is it?” Aron asked when he looked up and saw her standing there, just staring at him.{I was trying to deduce what made you smile,} she responded, her gaze unbroken, clearly indicating that another instance of her was continuing the deduction in parallel.“So, did you find it?” he asked as he signed the final document, finishing his empire-related workload for the day.{I’m down to the final few possibilities, but I’m leaning toward either the joint project with the Conclave going well or a developmental update from one of our little protagonists, Dreznor, specifically,} Nova replied, her tone confident as she added, {So, which one is it?}“You’re half right about the joint project,” Aron said, sliding the final folder aside. “But the reason isn’t
Graduation
“At ease, gentlemen,” Dreznor said, his gaze sweeping over the group of former pirates, now standing in disciplined attention like seasoned soldiers with years of experience.In just one month of intense training, they had transformed. The first real-world week had been entirely theoretical, an immersive and assimilative crash course to fill the gaping holes in their knowledge. As former pirates, most of them had only received the bare minimum education necessary to survive in society. This time, they learned more than just literacy or basic navigation. They learned systems, ethics, tactics, the value of structure, and more.Only after their minds were tempered did the physical training begin. It escalated quickly, growing in intensity until they were finally thrust into the Trial by Fire: a series of immersive mock scenarios crafted using real-time geographic and cultural data harvested through the VR systems. These simulations reflected the environments, military doctrines, and soci
Topic-Specific Imperial Council Meeting
“Within the last month, we have managed to reach 172 billion Conclave users, with over fifty billion being concurrent,” Sarah reported, addressing the Emperor, the heads of the three ministries, and the directors of the imperial agencies during a topic-specific Imperial Council meeting. This session had been called to review the progress made in the first month of the expansion campaign.The room remained quiet, but their expressions betrayed the storm of thoughts behind their composed façades. Although they had expected the Conclave to hold staggering numbers, no one had anticipated a figure of this magnitude, and worse, it wasn’t even ten percent of the entire Conclave population. They had only deployed VR towers and wormholes across roughly eight percent of the total territory during the first phase. And that figure didn’t even account for the people in already-covered zones who still hadn’t received their VR devices, either because the allotted free units had already been claimed
Reunion
It had only been three days since they came to capture the pirates, but for Dreznor, those three days had been enough. Enough to spend a full year trapped with them in VR. Enough to end all of his grievances, or at least, that’s what he thought, until he started reviewing the pirates' extracted brain data.Among the information collected were the locations of hidden loot, stashed money, and, more importantly, data about the pirates' employers, the ones who hired them for specific, targeted attacks. And it was among that data that Dreznor found the answer to the question that had gnawed at him the most: Was the attack on them just bad luck?The answer was a resounding no.The attack hadn’t been random. It hadn’t been a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The pirates had been hired to kill them by the very family of their former master.Specifically, by the new leader who had taken over.They hadn't just been given the assignment, they had even been provided with their s
The Spear Head
"I never signed up for this," thought the man, standing stiffly among a packed crowd inside a sterile, well-lit room.He had joined the pirate crew barely three months ago, hoping for a fresh start after giving up on finding peace on his home planet. Now, he found himself waiting in line, waiting for a torture session dedicated to victims he had never even met.He hadn’t done anything yet. When he joined, the pirates were in a quiet period between raids, gathering intelligence, waiting for vigilance to die down after their last attack. He had never participated in any crimes. Never killed. Never even boarded a ship.Yet none of that mattered now.As an enhanced interrogation specialist once said, the most painful part of torture wasn’t the torture itself, it was the waiting. The anxiety. The knowledge that pain was coming, but not knowing exactly when.He could feel it: the terror that made his muscles cramp, made his breath catch. His body tried to find a release, and he shook violen
ARGHHHHHHHHH
“Oh my god,” Dreznor breathed, his eyes fixed on the five colossal wormholes unfolding before him in the distant sky.He had always known that wormhole technology existed within the Astral Conclave—at least in theory. It was the kind of thing whispered about in myths and legends, the stuff of old spacer tales passed down through generations. Most would live and die without ever seeing one.Now, he was seeing five at once, opening like rips in reality itself.At first, when he was told about the wormholes, he was afraid. He feared that he would be discovered. But those fears had been quickly put to rest. The little protagonist assured him that those options were already taken into consideration and planned accordingly. What it didn’t share, however, was that the empire had deliberately timed this delivery to coincide with the launch of Phase I of their wormhole and VR initiative. The chaos and sensor interference from that grand rollout would provide the perfect cover, ensuring that t
Phase I
Six months later.A full half-year of intensive planning, negotiations, amendments, and rework inside the Conclave's VR, translating to over a decade’s worth of accelerated time, finally bore fruit. The final plan, after countless revisions and compromises, had been unanimously accepted by all participating civilizations. Every representative, regardless of their status or influence, walked away satisfied with the outcome, marking a rare moment of total consensus in Conclave history.Yet, during this time, the empire had not remained idle or overly focused on diplomacy alone. It had worked in parallel, quietly and efficiently, laying the groundwork for the implementation phase. By the time the final plan was ready, the empire had already amassed a massive stockpile of mana stones, enough to power the creation of the first round of wormholes across the Conclave. Alongside that, thousands of tower stations had been preassembled and were ready to deploy.More significantly, the empire ha
About the Nexus
Since the top fifty representatives were already in agreement, the passing of the bill in the Conclave General Council was practically guaranteed, as long as none of the top ten civilizations used their veto power. Given the way voting was structured, those fifty civilizations alone could form a majority, despite the Conclave comprising over a hundred members.Even if a few among the top fifty had voted against it, the remaining civilizations had every reason to support the resolution. Just being part of this agreement granted them access to the empire, more specifically, to mana stones directly from the source. That meant no longer being forced to purchase them at inflated prices from the top fifty civilizations who had secured favorable trade terms.They would have voted in favor even if the promised technology had been underwhelming. But based on the test results and technical briefings, it was clear the benefits were real and significant. In the end, the resolution passed unanimou
Construction
Once the runic intent was fully imbued, Aron activated the rune. It had already been charged with enough mana to allow it to expand and cover the entire asteroid field.Executing such an operation while the representatives were still present in the Trade Hub would normally have been considered a significant risk. However, that risk had already been accounted for. During the asteroid collection phase, the field had been strategically placed in a position where the sun lay directly between it and the Trade Hub. The sun’s brightness, in both the visual and mana spectrums, combined with the sheer difference in scale between the star and the asteroid field, rendered the operation invisible to the Conclave’s passive sensors. Switching to active scans or extending sensor coverage into the solar system would have been a breach of agreement—an act that could be interpreted as preparation for a hostile move and provoke a swift, forceful response.It didn’t take long for the shield to finish dep
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