Twenty-seven thousand, nine hundred and thirty-one points of interest had been detected beneath the surface of the planet. Initially, all had been identified as either dormant or semi-dormant. Roughly three-quarters of those were classified as first-contact artifacts. Another fifth was of suspected Cassandrian origin, a hundred and seven of which were large enough to be considered hives. The site I had been trapped in was the only place which combined a dormant hive and a third-contact dome. The comm officer who had sent me the data had expressed relief that that was the case. I thought otherwise. If the dome was the cause of the surge, then there could be an explanation. As things stood, the surge points had too little in common with one another for any real conclusions. The single positive element was that they appeared to be located in clusters. As of twelve hours ago, there were estimated to be nineteen cluster groups of various intensity spread throughout the planet. The dome I had started in was designated as point alpha—the first location to become active, preceding any other by twenty-six hours.

“Elcy,” Jespersen said through comms. “The team has gathered. Sending you a location marker.”

The room he had chosen was close to the general mass hall. He probably considered that he’d spend quite a while going through things, and he was very much correct. When dealing with Cassandrians, time was our enemy.

“How many people did you get?” I asked.

“Only eight.”

“Eight,” I repeated. It wasn’t much. I had hoped for double digits.

“All I could do in this time frame. A few more might join in, but don’t count on it.”

“We’ll have to start as is. I’m on my way. Have someone get some food. We’ll spend a while on this.”

“Way ahead of you. See you soon.”

I closed the link and set on my way. While I walked, I went through the latest combat reports. Even with my newly acquired authority, I was only privy to missions that had ended more than twenty-four hours ago. That meant that my information lag was considerable. Even with the best of intentions, the bureaucracy was slow to react to a crisis. Hopefully, with the arrival of the BICEFI contacts, things would change, although I was yet to be told precisely when they would be joining. From my experience, they could have done so already and had just neglected to inform me.

With the latest Fleet reinforcements, humanity had managed to establish several safe zones. Losses were acceptable for the moment, although the enemy continued advancing.

You aren’t using orbital bombardment, are you? I wondered. Probably Med Core didn’t want to risk damaging anything precious on the planet. Other than that, the combat reports appeared quite standard… almost too standard. That was the main reason I had called this meeting—as Augustus had taught me, one could learn a lot more from the people doing the actual fighting than the reports.

“Colonel,” I opened a direct channel to ‘Rissa. “I’ll need all combat video feeds.”

“That’s a lot. Are you sure?”

“It would be preferable, ma’am.”

“I’ll see what I can get. Anything particular you are searching for?”

“I just want to get a general sense of where I stand, ma’am.”

“You never make things easy, do you? I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

The meeting room door was open when I arrived. Jespersen had gone overboard with the food, possibly using his connections to get a quarter-pallet of provisions. As I approached, I saw a crate marked “gelatin portions.” That was one thing I hadn’t missed.

“Officer on deck!” one of the people near the room—a corporal—yelled, giving me a salute. A few of the other people carrying the food supplies stood to attention as well.

“At ease.” I quickly returned the salute as I passed by.

Jespersen was in the meeting room, typing something on his personal datapad. Everyone else was busy carrying things in. Going through their files, I could see that Med Core wasn’t pulling any punches. Every single one of them had over a decade of intense combat experience, comprising over a thousand missions each. Their skills were beyond approach, although nearly all had personality issues. Then again, after spending so much time on the front, most did.

“Elcy,” Jespersen looked up. “We’ve been given link access to the orbiting sats.”

“Do you think the food will be enough?” I asked, putting in a note of sarcasm in my voice.

“Oh, you see—”

“Begging the lieutenant’s pardon, but some of us were scooped post-mission to take part in this,” one of the grunts said. Ilisha Veregren, according to her personnel file, had risen to the rank of major prior to being called to this system. She had specialized in high-profile combat extractions and defense missions, earning her dozens of medals and ten times as many commendations. I could also tell by the tone of her voice that she didn’t particularly like me.

“And I’m quite grateful, Major,” I replied, looking her straight in the eyes. “Will that be a problem?”

The woman looked away. She had likely done a query regarding me and found that I had command authority on the matter.

“Very well, we start in one minute,” I made my way to the central spot in the meeting room and sat down. If this were a ship’s bridge, the walls would have been plastered with info files, feeds, and images of interest. However, we had to do with a few antique screens attached here and there instead. Looking at them, they didn’t even have direct link capabilities. “Jespersen, can I get link access to the terminal?”

“You’re a ship?” someone from the corridor outside asked.

“Battleship,” I corrected. Voice pitch and pattern analysis made it unclear whether he was pleased by the fact or shared Veregren’s animosity towards me. “First time you see an unretired, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a nod. “I heard it might take time getting used to.”

The seconds dragged on. It took longer for the people to bring in the remaining food rations than for me to review all the video feeds that ‘Rissa had granted me access to. From what I could tell, the picture on the ground wasn’t abysmal, though it wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination. At present, a fragile stalemate had been achieved. Our ground troops managed to maintain the line, but also failed to launch any counterattack whatsoever. The handful of missions that attempted to purge suspected Cassie nests had all ended in failure, often with entire teams lost. Back when I was a ship, I would have called this another day on the front. Now, I had other thoughts in mind.

Most of the ground commanders opened their food rations on the table. The rest picked out something to drink. I stared at the gelatin rations. It was clear they had been brought specifically for me.

“The director said your calcium levels were low,” Jespersen said, in an attempt at being helpful.

“Thanks for that insight.” I raised my tone slightly. “With that in mind, where do we stand?”

Everyone stared at me.

“I want to know what’s really going on the ground, not what’s in the reports,” I explained. “I’ve been given the task of finding the reason for the sudden surge. That will involve a lot of high-risk missions within enemy controlled territory, and I would like to lose as few people as possible.”

The facial muscles relaxed as the people’s expressions changed. They no longer viewed me as the enemy; rather, I was the commander asked to achieve the impossible. Based on my simulations, though, this wasn’t enough to achieve their full cooperation. I had only cracked the door open, and now it was time to push.

“Or should I believe the reports?” I asked.

Several smirked, one even openly snorted.

“Without reinforcements, we’ll lose the archipelago within two hours,” Captain Nessa Vokel said. He was the least experienced of the group, just starting his third tour. “Maybe sooner.”

The “archipelago” was a mountain chain of limited importance. Relatively isolated from the rest of the surge clusters, it had the greatest density of third-contact artifacts, buried under kilometers of rock. Prior to the surge, the area was of little interest: the artifacts were small—rods, based on the analysis algorithm—and difficult to extract. Enemy activity had been noticed only after a scout squad had been sent there. According to the original report, the group, composed of two platoons of soldiers, had gone to explore a cave structure that shared hive-like characteristics. While exploring, it had been confirmed that the cave structure had natural origins. However, it had also triggered a sudden and violent response, resulting in the abrupt annihilation of both squads. Since then, the zone had been highly contested, with Med Core pouring more and more forces to regain control and failing.

“The Core’s been doing this for days, but now the brass is starting to get tired. The fact that I’m spending time here, instead of assuming command, can mean only one thing.”

They’ve lost interest, I thought.

Deep scans of the area were tricky because of the material composition of the mountain. It was the cobalt that had become easy to spot. With alien technology at stake, the Fleet had seen to that.

“Did you retrieve any of the artifacts?” I asked.

“No. I lost thirty soldiers trying to get a bloody sample. Zero priority order, straight from the top. In the end, even that got messed up.”

I nodded. The captain had been in my boat. The only difference was that in terms of the mission, I had succeeded. According to the official debriefing, the mission was described as being a partial success—while no artifacts had been reclaimed, it had been confirmed that the Cassandrians weren’t making use of them at present. The statement made me question a number of things regarding its validity.

“Anything else?” I looked at the others in the room.

“There always are discrepancies, ma’am,” Lieutenant Colonel Aspar Junn said. His file remained partially restricted despite Director Sim’s assurance that I’d be granted full access. A five-tour veteran, he knew precisely what he was talking about. However, based on an analysis of the others’ body language, I got the distinct impression that they didn’t like him much. “Calling us here to go through them is pointless.”

“I’m not a bureaucrat, Lieutenant Colonel,” I said sharply.

Here it was—my first mutiny. It was said that every new commander went through the same. I had personally observed it hundreds of times throughout my years of active service. Whenever a new commander came in, especially a young one, the subordinates instinctively tested him out. Some referred to this as the “first mutiny.” This was the point at which a commander gained obedience, possibly respect, or lost it completely.

“I didn’t call you to waste your time, so don’t waste mine. The Fleet doesn’t have a practice of wasting resources on lost causes. The only reason that the planet hasn’t been purged from orbit is because Med Core and the BICEFI are involved.”

I sent a query regarding their access level. As suspected, all of them were cleared to know about third-contact artifacts. There was no specific mention of the domes, so I took advantage of my new authority and requested they be cleared for that as well. For the first time in a while, my request was granted.

“The moment they extract the dome, it’ll be all over,” I continued. This definitely got everyone’s attention. Even Jespersen stopped skimming through his datapad. “I suspect what orders you’ve been given, but take it from a battleship that in a month at most, we’ll be told to pull out.”

There was a wave of silence. Everyone was experienced enough to know what I was saying, and none of them liked it.

“Quite the tight time frame, ma’am,” the lieutenant colonel was the first to speak. “What’s the goal here?”

“To find a pattern.” I finally have your attention. “According to the current data, most enemy surges have been reactive. That’s why I need to know what’s missing from the reports. If we can find the proactive surge sites, we have something to examine.”

“All of them were reactive?” Major Veregren asked.

“The ones I know of. I’m still waiting on all the video feeds of the people involved. Until then, we’ll use time as a deciding factor.” I put my datapad on the table. “The dome hive was the first to show activity. A few small points of activity followed slightly later, all in the vicinity. If the reports are to be believed, they have been dealt with.”

“So, they can’t be the reason,” Jespersen chimed in.

“Each of the other major clusters occurred at places of interest, after a reconnaissance team had been sent.”

Med Core had attempted to extract a few prisms and failed in the process. The artifact I helped reclaim at the expense of my team appeared to be the only Cassandrian artifact anyone had to show for all their efforts. From a military point of view, the overall outcome was rather bad. For my purposes, however, it provided me with enough information to form a hypothesis.

“The archipelago surged early on,” Captain Vokel said. “If we’re to start an operation there, you’ll have to move fast.”

“Southern region is also shaky,” the lieutenant colonel added, tapping the top of my datapad. “Things aren’t going well there. In a week at most, I expect they’ll issue the pullback order.”

“That doesn’t leave a lot of options.” The major leaned over the table, pushing her half-eaten portion to the side. “Things are too heated at one-eleven, so I won’t recommend going there. We could try—”

“We can’t afford to be reactive,” I interrupted. “The fastest way to prove it is to trigger it ourselves. We need to hit high interest areas that haven’t shown signs of surge activity.”

Of course, that was easier said than done. After the first surge, Med Core had actively sent teams to most areas of importance in an effort to protect their assets. And while not all extractions were followed by a Cassandrian surge, every surge was preceded by a reconnaissance mission. Prism locations, even potential ones, were out of the question. The same could be said for suspected nest locations and any area with high cobalt readings.

“There were rumors about a mission on the pole,” someone said.

“Just rumors,” I replied. Even if they weren’t, I doubt I would have chosen that. Cassandrians tended to adapt to their environment; humans—not so much. We’d have to use exos, and those were considered too high-tech to be allowed.

“What about an island?” Jespersen suggested. “Those are isolated, so even if we run into something, it won’t cause any other problems.”

Spoken like a typical civilian. Any surge would be a problem. The Fleet couldn’t afford to conquer part of a planet, no matter how large. That’s why planet purging was vital for the war effort. That aside, I had already gone though all of the islands and failed to find any good candidates. The way things were going, though, that might turn out to be our only course of action. Deep cobalt deposits had been found on two islands during the last scan—not much, but enough to suggest a minor artifact.

“That’s an option,” I said. “But only if we fail to find any better candidates.”

“You can’t find anything suitable, can you, ma’am?” Vokel asked.

“Well observed, Captain.” I kept my tone neutral. “If I had, we wouldn’t be having this meeting. As I mentioned, I’ve gone through all the reports, so you can forget any official—”

“Doom Bell,” the lieutenant colonel interrupted. “Operation Doom Bell. I think you’d want to request access to that, ma’am.”

I reviewed all files relating to the planet. There wasn’t a report or mention of the project. When that failed, I sent a priority one query directly to Fleet HQ. I knew that the query would be stopped, just as I knew that the powers that observed us would spot my question and respond. At least they would, if they wanted to get their answers.

Whatever the operation was, there likely were serious interests involved since I didn’t receive a response immediately. Probably somewhere someone had to personally give the go ahead.

“Done.” I looked Lieutenant Colonel Junn straight in the eyes. “What is Operation Doom Bell?”

The man remained silent.

“I’m assuming all responsibility,” I said, uttering the magic words.

“It’s an underwater site,” he said at last. “A cluster of probes was sent into one of the water pools when we went in orbit around the planet. Cobalt was registered. I was approached to lead a research team, but the whole mission was scrapped. Too much risk involved. Command decided it was better to focus on getting you out than send me there.”

An underwater mission? The logistics were far from ideal, but that also made it a perfect candidate. Considering the ships in orbit, enough drop shuttles and gear could be produced in half a day. If the troops simultaneously underwent SR training, they could be prepped and ready by then. It would be rough on them, but doable.

“You’re not seriously considering it.” The major crossed her arms.

“We don’t have many options,” I replied, while I ran simulations based on the scant information. There were several large bodies of water on the planet and none of them had any artifacts, according to the scans I was provided. Either the lieutenant colonel had been misinformed, or there was more regarding the mission than a simple cluster of cobalt. One possibility was the existence of a second dome, although that would be unlikely. “Do you have coordinates?” I asked Junn.

“Need to know,” he replied.

“To be expected.” I stepped back from the table. “Since I’ve been given operational discretion, I’m starting preparations. If it turns out that the information on the site isn’t available, we’ll go to an alternative location. Either way, the operation will start tomorrow. Assemble your teams and prep them. I’ll be in contact with details the moment they’re final.”

“What about the BICEFI?” Jespersen asked.

“The BICEFI have kindly offered to assist, so they will assist. If their operative doesn’t arrive by tomorrow morning, they’ll have to make do with our debriefing. Any questions?”

No one said a word.

“In that case, dismissed.” I left the room. It wasn’t much, but it was a starting point. I already had a theory to test. Now I also had a team, and potentially soon would have a location. All that remained was to execute it.

Twelve hours passed surprisingly fast. I had received hundreds of additional video feeds—the details were different, but there was nothing to change my overall conclusion. There was pretty good evidence that all surges were a reaction to combat teams arriving at the location. ‘Rissa had also sent me a number of messages and provided me with a few command-level updates. Most were notes from meetings I wasn’t invited to, despite having the necessary authorization. There were no mentions of Operation Doom Bell, however; not even a subroutine response. Just to be on the safe side, I sent a new query, this time along with my mission plan, for approval. Amusingly enough, several of the ground troop commanders had already informed me that their teams were ready and waiting, modified shuttle crafts included. It was amusing that it took longer to get an official response than the actual work done.

Looks like response times haven’t improved since your days, Augustus, I thought. So typical of the bureaucracy to rush things to the extreme, only to stall later. This was to be part of my professional life now, so I had to get used to it. Even so, it was incredibly annoying.

Given my free time, I went to the SR containers. Being an officer allowed me much more access to simulated reality, especially for military purposes. The room in which it was to take place was small, as everything else in the base, but currently empty.

Just as I was stepping into the SR chamber, a transmission was sent directly to my conscience core.

Priority two communication requests. Be advised that a link will be established in 10 milliseconds.

This had to be the BICEFI operative. In similar situations, my third captain would joke that they never were known for their small talk. After all this time, one would have thought I’d be accustomed to such things. Now that I had become an officer, though, I found them even more annoying.

Hello, Lieutenant Light Seeker. The transmission had no ident tags, masking the identity of whoever had established it. I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time.

I was just entering SR, I replied, knowing full well they were aware of my actions. Can we continue the conversation there? I’m capable of multi-tasking.

That might cause comm issues. Your base’s SR systems do not allow for remote linking.

That wasn’t totally unexpected, although I would have thought that at least a highly scrutinized link option would be allowed. Apparently, I would have to wait a bit longer before I did my training.

Understood. I assume you’re my BICEFI contact? If it were anyone else, I’d be highly surprised.

Right in one, synthetic laughter came through. I understand that you’ve already set up your first mission. Not bad. A bunch of people are very impressed.

I’m glad you approve.

I’ve also been allowed to share all information regarding Operation Doom Bell with you, including equipment designs. The gear that your teams have created will have to be modified. Nothing serious, just a few touch-ups. And, of course, I’ve sent a drop pod with your suit. ETA is two hundred and eleven minutes.

That was fast. Seems like they had gone through my proposal and approved it. As much as I didn’t like being kept in the dark about my own missions, it was good to know that I was at least being taken seriously.

I assume you’ll be arriving with the pod.

No, I’ll be maintaining a direct link with you while providing support from orbit.

Typical BICEFI operative—leave others do the dangerous stuff, while they gave advice from a distance. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last.

I guess I’ll see you during the debriefing, then.

Actually, no. I’ll remain in orbit the entire time.

Something sounded off.

I assumed you’d want to personally oversee the dome extraction efforts. Has there been a change in priorities?

Oh, I’ll be doing that as well. I too can multitask.

The transmission changed. A visual image was sent through, though not one I expected. A new ship had arrived in orbit, one that I had mentored not too long ago.

Radiance, I uttered the ship’s name. She was an auxiliary ship previously assigned to the station-ship Gregorius in the Scuu buffer zone. We had served together facing Scuu and all those affected by them. At the time, she was my protégé before I fell out of favor with the BICEFI. I was glad to see that she hadn’t suffered any negative repercussions, although it remained unknown how many of her memories had been quarantined.

You’re doing great for an antique, Elcy, Radiance laughed. First lieutenant and still getting in trouble.

I don’t cause problems, I just go to them, I said. Good to see you too, kid. Do they have you acting as a transport ship now?

Sort of. I’m here to pick up the dome. There was a five millisecond pause. And keep an eye on you. I’m part of the BICEFI now, and I’ve been asked to be part of your orbital team during this mission.