Agent047

952 - The Reopening of Old Wounds

{The number of people online is expected to continue decreasing as they finish their preparations,} Nyx said, finishing her report.

“So, do you suspect they are preparing for us, or are they trying to deal with Dreznor faster?” Aron asked. He had already escorted Rina back to the imperial palace before logging into VR to join the meeting, and now he scrolled through the information document in front of him.

{At the moment, we lack deep-cover assets, so we can't be certain. The...

951 - The Good and Bad News

“.........”

The room that had moments ago been a battlefield of loud arguments and clashing opinions among Conclave leaders now stood in utter silence, so quiet that even the fall of a cotton strand would have drawn attention.

“I’m surprised we’re even arguing about this,” the Grand Xor’Vak said, his voice calm but laced with unmistakable disdain as he spoke. “We are the Conclave. And here we are, entertaining whether we should pretend not to see what our ...

950 - The Dilemma

Economy, often called the backbone of any society, is what enables a reliable and predictable exchange of goods and services, freeing individuals from the burden of producing everything they need to survive. In civilizations as vast and varied as those of the Conclave, its importance could not be overstated. Leaders, whether elected, inherited, or self-installed, understood this better than anyone. Their longevity, popularity, and sometimes their very lives depended on the health of the econo...

949 - A Bad Revelation

“What? What do you mean by that?” Kumakar asked, his voice faltering slightly despite his best efforts to maintain composure. The tremble in his tone betrayed the nerves he’d tried to mask since the beginning of the meeting.

The chamber, for its size, looking nearly physically empty save for a few high-ranking military officers, was alive with the presence of the Conclave’s top leadership, each appearing as a shimmering hologram, transmitted through their long-distance mana comm...

948 - Aftermath

The holographic display in Dreznor’s command center was a stark, brutal ledger of loss. The Little Protagonist’s voice, usually a cheerful, melodic counterpoint to the grim realities of war, was now a flat, dispassionate recitation of facts.

{Casualty count: thirty million. Ten million confirmed dead. The remaining twenty million are suffering from varying degrees of injury. We are currently prioritizing those near death, mobilizing hospital ships and medical personnel from other ci...

947 - The Shadari

[Apologies for the silence in these few days. I was dealing with my cousin's wedding]

Twenty Minutes Before the Explosion on Planet Kumpo

Deep within the cavernous hangar of the Erythian mothership, amidst the cacophony of a million bio-engineered monstrosities being unleashed, a small, silent group of three figures stood apart. They were clad in the distinctive, form-fitting overalls of the Shadari, their features completely obscured, their bodies a...

946 - City for City

A silent, blinding flash tore through the void of space. A large number of the mountain of biological monstrosities, which had been swarming towards Planet Kumpo, simply ceased to exist. They were vaporized in an instant. Those that survived were propelled outwards by the shockwave, were immediately targeted by a swarm of tracer projectiles, their fiery trails a promise that nothing would reach the planet’s surface.

But the Conclave’s assault was a multi-pronged hydra. While a porti...

945 - A Queen on the Board

The command center on Planet Kumpo hummed with disciplined efficiency. Orders, rapid-fire and precise, flowed from the tactical consoles. “Reinforce sector seventeen point five! Place three more stealth mines in that area, set to alternating energy output for optimal stealth. Increase patrol fleet density by two, and ensure constant comms, all data transmitted the instant it’s generated!” The strategic directives, forged by the supercomputers in conjunction with Dreznor’s human "think...

944 - Calling His Bluff

A chilling silence descended upon the Conclave’s war chamber. Both the physically present individuals and their holographic counterparts remained motionless, their minds racing, sifting through the layers of information that had just been presented. Kumakar, however, was an anomaly. His face, invisible to all, held a faint, almost imperceptible relaxation. His plan was taking shape.

He turned to the hologram of Osmo, the leader of Dreznor’s former civilization. His gaze was a subtle...

943 - Aaaaaaah So Close

The holographic projection of the intelligence officer flickered before Kumakar, displaying a dry, concise report. “Through the data provided by the Empire, Your Excellency, we have managed to verify the identity of the poster. He was on a ship heading towards an unknown destination before the video was uploaded, and immediately after, he entered lightspeed travel. His current whereabouts are unknown.” The hologram showed the brief, untraceable trajectory. “However, the Virrelan intelli...

942 - Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The representative's face carried an almost imperceptible sign of agitation as he looked at the man in front of him. He sat across the virtual table from Youssef, his crystalline form reflecting the sterile, featureless walls of the Empire’s standard diplomatic meeting room in the VR. The viral spread of Dreznor’s message, detailing the horrors of slavery and the ongoing liberation, had become a storm in the Conclave’s digital world, and now, it was knocking on the Empire’s door.

941 - The Reaction

The ripple effect of Dreznor’s broadcast was immediate and devastating. Within hours, the video, an anomaly bypassing established communication protocols, exploded across the Conclave’s digital networks like a super-contagious virus. It latched onto every open connection, every shared link, spreading from friend lists to public feeds. Screenshots of shocking atrocities and impassioned calls for liberation jumped between civilizations, igniting a firestorm of debate.

The primary batt...

940 - Dreznor's Address

By the twelfth hour since ‘Operation Liberation’ had begun, an obscure post materialized on the Virellan side of the Conclave’s primary social media network. It was a simple video, yet it held a power that transcended the digital realm. Slowly, quietly, it began to gain traction. Then, with a sudden, explosive surge, it went viral. Within two hours, nearly half of all Virellans online had witnessed its contents.

The video itself was barely ten minutes long, but its message struck ...

939 - Spreading Flames

By the tenth hour since the coordinated counteroffensive had begun and while the battles still raged across dozens of contested star systems under the invaders' control, a high-level emergency meeting was underway within the Conclave's war chamber.

The room buzzed with urgency. Holographic feeds from dozens of battlefronts flickered above the central table, each display showing a different conflict zone with shifting territorial lines. The leaders of the top Conclave civilizations were ...

938 - Dreznor, The Man Under Siege

{We’re putting up a strong fight. The local recruits are holding their ground with a determination that can only come from defending their homes. They know what’s waiting for them if we fail,} the Little Protagonist said, her voice calm but underlined by urgency. {We haven’t lost a single planet yet. But the last one we captured is currently the most vulnerable one. Its military industry isn’t operational yet, and by the time the attacks started we hadn’t finished setting up their p...

937 - Precedent

Aron hovered in the silent void of the Universal Simulation, a silent observer observing a dozen different wars unfold across a dozen different star systems. Before him and the high-level government officials and their corresponding AIs, holographic displays bloomed like malevolent flowers, each one a window into a world under siege. They watched as Dreznor’s fleets, a mix of Imperial-forged warships and locally produced vessels, engaged the probing forces of the Conclave.

{We are hol...

936 - A CRISIS

A silent, blinding flash erupted on the main viewscreen, a star being born and dying in the space of a millisecond. The Elara admiral froze, his hand halfway to his chin. He turned his gaze to the tactical display, but before he could even focus, the feed switched, showing a live, horrifying image from the planet’s surface. A massive mushroom cloud was still climbing into the sky, its shadow spreading like a stain, consuming kilometers of land with each passing second.

“Admiral, an ...

935 - A Welcome

The after-action report painted a grim but predictable picture. The battle with the rearguard had been short and brutal.

“For a rearguard, they were surprisingly aggressive,” the Elara admiral mused, his eyes scanning the data streams. The invaders had fought with a suicidal ferocity, a desperate, cornered-animal rage that had cost the Elara fleet one of their frigates. When their weapons were depleted, they had simply turned their ships into missiles, a final, spiteful act of defia...

934 - Operation United Front

As each day passed and the situation continued to deteriorate, the Bilakis civilizations intensified their propaganda, fanning the flames and pushing the blame squarely onto the Empire. Their efforts bore fruit—attacks against imperial citizens surged, and frustration among the Empire’s own population skyrocketed. Yet, the Empire maintained its silence, adhering strictly to its established rules without offering additional guidance or action.

To many, this inaction felt like indiffe...

933 - The Effects on Imperial Ctizens

It seemed the fear of death had become an excellent motivator for the officials who had met with Kumakar. They had already begun implementing their share of the plan, and gradually, their hatred toward the Empire deepened, fueled further by worsening economic conditions that had finally started to impact them directly. Most of them chose the easiest path available: to hate and blame the Empire for their suffering, branding it as tyrannical.

Aided by the very real economic hardships that...

931 - 932

931 - A Potential Solution I

A heavy, expectant silence filled the holographic conference. The military liaison, his projected image a stoic mask, was the first to break it. He had felt Kumakar’s burning gaze on him for what felt like an eternity and knew that the silence could not hold. To let it stretch further was to invite a reaction he had no desire to witness. He bit the bullet.

“A month, Your Excellency. That is the earliest we and the other stretched...

930 - Kumakar's Dillema

The air in Kumakar’s private stateroom was thick with the metallic tang of ozone and the ghost of shattered crystal. What had moments ago been a chamber of opulent authority was now a landscape of wreckage. A gilded chair, its legs snapped, lay splintered against a bulkhead. Shards of what was once an ornate decanter glittered like malevolent stars across the plush carpeting. On the far wall, a data-slate was embedded deep into the paneling, the spiderweb of cracks around it a testament to ...

929 - Youssef at Work

The silence in the virtual conference room was a sterile, heavy thing. It was a space designed by committee, reflecting a dozen different aesthetic sensibilities and achieving none of them. Polished chrome surfaces bled into holographic wood grain, and the air itself, though nonexistent, felt filtered and cold. Youssef, Minister of the Exterior for the Terran Empire, maintained a patient smile, a carefully constructed mask of diplomacy he had worn for most of his adult life.

Across the ...

928 - Getting Close to the Truth but Missing it

“So we’re dealing with an unknown enemy who wants to drive a wedge between us and the Conclave, and the Conclave now believes we’re behind the attacks and they won’t listen to our explanation that we were manipulated into striking one of their fleets?” Aron said after a moment of silence, having digested the information and its implications. “That’s some highly effective psychological warfare. From what we’re seeing, it’s working exactly as intended. With a few refi...

927 - About the Attacks

While Kumakar was finding a strange satisfaction in how things were unfolding, despite the economic pain his civilization would soon face, the issue of the recent pirate attacks was still being investigated. It had only been a few hours since the incidents occurred, and the Empire was still gathering information from both the ships involved and the few captured pirates who had survived.

At that moment, Aron and his top cabinet were receiving the latest report from the investigation.

926 - Implementation

The order was implemented as soon as Youssef relayed it to the relevant agencies. The wormholes were closed across the network, only allowing ships currently outside their home systems to return. After that, even those vessels would be denied access. But half an hour before the lockdown, the Empire sent out a civilization-wide announcement through the VR network.

The message clearly explained what was happening, why the punishment was issued, and what actions Kumakar needed to take to h...

925 - Kumakar's Situation

"The guilty always look for ways to escape answering questions," Kumakar said, his voice sharp with indignation. "We should still send them our list of demands. If they refuse to respond, we’ll treat their silence as an admission of guilt."

On the surface, he looked every bit the leader who had just been vindicated, composed, resolute, and justified. But inside, Kumakar was torn between two conflicting emotions.

On one hand, there was a grim satisfaction. The empire had reacted,...

924 - Keeping His Promise

“You know,” Kumakar began, his voice low but heavy with restrained fury, “when I first received word that the Empire had attacked my fleet, I had a hard time believing it. I didn’t want to accept it. It was only after I saw the recovered data myself that I even began to consider it might be true.”

He stared at Aron, eyes now glowing faintly red with anger, his expression sharp and unwavering.

“But seeing you go so far as to fabricate evidence, evidence that can be disp...

923 - Delegation II

“We came here with the promise of war should the explanation you provide to us be considered underwhelming, and you deny our compensation demands should we deem you to be the culprit behind the situation,” Kumakar said, maintaining eye contact with the Emperor, seemingly observing his reaction.

To his surprise, the Emperor only raised an eyebrow briefly before returning to a neutral expression. He said nothing and simply waited for Kumakar to continue, which made Kumakar wonder whet...

922 - Delegation

As expected, the top fifty civilizations, except for Grand Xor’Vak, who didn’t even bother to vote, nearly all voted against the motion, as they are the ones who have been benefiting from the Empire and had also directly experienced the devastating power of the blackhole bombs voted no. The footage of the bomb’s effects had not been shared with others, and only anecdotal accounts were provided to avoid exposing the full extent of the Empire’s capabilities, which would have embarrassed...