The lawyer, having been paid for a service rather than by the hour, was curt and formal. It took bare minutes for the pair of efficient clerks to confirm Elias' identity; check he was the sole beneficiary of the estate and to transfer all legal holdings of Jediah Thompson to Elias. A series of legal documents and notifications via his neural link confirmed his appointment of the sole director of Nidus. The man then signed over access to the company bank and they were done. Elias had expected or rather hoped for a more elaborate process to give him time to ask questions and get used to the idea. Instead they were in and out of the office and sat back at the booth in the bar eating breakfast before it had really sunk in.

"So, what's next?" Elias asked before washing his eggs down with some coffee. "I'm in charge of the company, but I honestly have no idea what to do from here."

"Well we did have a plan." Said Mouse. "But it kinda depended on Jed and the money he was bringing back from his last mission."

Slim slid over her console to Elias again having brought up a planning document. She talked through it as he read.

"Jed was the visionary, it was his plan. My role was in personnel and planning. Mouse was logistics." She gestured about half way down the summary page Elias was reading. "Without the funds we could never directly commission a dropship to deploy our settlement straight from Porta, so we mapped out locations we could reach from a current settlement to develop. Here were the most promising options."

She tapped on the interactive display and pulled up a map. The initial overview showed a large clear area covered in Crust over the equator of Carus. Surrounding this area were the deep craters and valleys that filled with greenery and water to give the planet its distintive appearance from above. Slim zoomed in to the bottom of this central zone and scrolled the map over to the Southeast. Here he noticed Prevail's settlement, labelled Southwatch on the map. Just to the South of the settlement there were several of the gouges in the landscape that marked out four valleys extending in a Southeasterly direction. A blinking marker at the South of one of the valleys plotted a potential settlement site. Elias zoomed out of the map and realised that there were four settlements surrounding the central area, one to each cardinal point of the compass. Extending down to the South there were ziggurats of increasing size, some of which were walled off by more valleys that cur through the landscape.

"Why here?" Asked Elias, seeing some of the benefit of moving away from the established settlements but unsure why in that direction.

Mouse shrugged. "It was mainly because Jed came here first with Prevail; gave a direction to explore in first from the settlement. But then we noticed something more. Look here at the supply lines on the ground at the moment." Mouse waved at the interface and added a layer to the information showing on the map and brown lines connecting the settlements appeared.

There was a rough diamond connecting each of the four settlements to its neighbours and then a central crossing that ended up swinging towards the Southeast of the centre due to a mountain range that marked the centre of the area. Ranges of numbers gave the time needed to travel between the markers. It varied from a week to ten days. Dotted lines showed how the potential new settlement position would link up with Southwatch and the Eastern settlement supply routes with minimal extra journey time. Since they were intentionally spaced several days travel apart going via the new settlement could create a safe haven for travel through the area. Addtionally Elias noticed a dotted line travelling South, out of the area. Panning the map to this area he found another two settlements that had been established outside of the zone they had previously been looking at. The new settlement position could link the two areas on the ground, being three to four days travel from each rather than the current extended trip. Making ground travel safer and cheaper than dropship was a key way of improving a settlement.

"That's impressive." Said Elias. "So, what's the catch? Why has no-one built a settlement there already?"

"Crystals." Said Slim. "They are hard to find, which is why they are worth so much. Plus each new settlement changes the map and where the best place for the next one would be. On top of that is the politics; the upper area on the map is being developed by Prevail and Bionce while the bottom area is Ventry and their partner on Carus, Drax." She pointed to the Eastern valley below Southwatch on the map. "This is the valley where Jed disappeared. Two days from Southwatch. Prevail were hoping that they could develop a safe passage through the area and cut the journey time South by a day or so. Turns out it isn't that safe or simple to travel that way."

Cogs turned in Elias's head as he processed the information. They had a location for the new settlement and they had the means to create a safe zone with the Crystal. Flicking back to the plan, the next stage had been securing the resources needed to clear the Crust to set the Crystal in place and then physically develop the buildings of the settlement. He looked at the list of requirements and the cost, whistling aloud as he reached the grand total of nearly four hundred thousand credits.

Item

Number

Cost per unit

Total cost

Recruits

50

2000

100000

Veterans

10

5000

50000

Armour

50

400

20000

Energy Weapons

50

200

10000

Batteries

240

100

24000

Troop Carrier

2

10000

20000

Buildings

12

10000

120000

Commander

1

15000

15000

Communication array

1

20000

20000

Dropship tickets

70

100

7000

Food/water

3150

1

3150

Tents/shelter

70

100

7000

Total

396150

In brief the plan required a full squad of fifty recruits with support from a smaller number of ten experienced soldiers. They would create the initial settlement with a construction team of ten. This would give enough numbers to defend against any Swarm threat while the Crust was cleared. Meanwhile a contract would be secured with a dropship to bring down supplies and the first wave of people that would want to take advantage of investing in a new settlement.

"Ok, how much money do we have currently?" Elias asked, looking across to Slim and then Mouse, not sure which was in charge of this aspect.

"Ummm, you're the one with the bank account boss." Said Mouse.

"Boss?" Asked Elias. "Pretty sure you both know more about this than me."

"Have a look at the company info that you can see via your neural link now." Sighed Slim. "We'll both grab another coffee."

They left him to focus on the neural display and see what information was there. Elias could hear a vague chattering as their conversation continued but was quickly drawn in to what he could see.

Nidus

The initial company screen gave way to a subset of menus as he focused in.

Capital Assets Personnel

He looked through each in turn.

Capital Assets Personnel 156,290 credits Unattuned Crystal (Carus) Jenny Hui Energy weapon (B-grade) Alistair Sinclaid Small battery x2

"Jenny and Alistair?" Elias looked through his screen at his companions.

Mouse blushed and Slim shrugged. "Yup" she said. "That's us."

"Why are your names greyed out?" Elias asked.

"Probably because we need to renew our contracts now." Said Slim. "Just focus on the name and a prompt should appear."

Elias did as she suggested and received a prompt to renew her contract.

Jenny Hui - renew contract? y/n

He selected yes to receive a second prompt.

Would you like to review or change the contract before passing to Jenny Hui? y/n

Elias felt a little out of his depth. He had been party to contract renewals before, but the terms were pretty standard and within his comfort zone. To actually change and negotiate a contract was way beyond him. Slim obviously picked up on his hesitation.

"Just trust your uncle Elias. If you don't change the contract, neither will I." Mouse nudged her with his elbow. "Neither will we." She corrected. Mouse nodded.

He had trusted them so far, so followed the prompts to receive information that they had both accepted.

"Thanks Elias, I can bill this as a company meal now." Joked Mouse, looking back at the menu with a glint in his eye.

Slim stayed serious and took on a glazed look herself now she had access to the company information. He made a note to check who had actually been paying for the food and accommodation and refund the credits when he could.

"Shit." Said Slim as she reviewed the funds available. "We even had half of this before Jed left, he took the troop unit with him on his expedition. Their armour, weapons and batteries were half the cost. We were only looking to increase the chance of success, make sure we had the money for the next phase." The buoyant atmosphere of the morning after seeing the lawyer suddenly seemed to drop.

Elias looked at his planning document, the next phase was to consolidate the base by clearing a nearby level one ziggurat for resources. It would reduce the Swarm numbers in the area as well as provide Shards and supplies to sell for additional credits. As Slim was debating with Mouse what to do next Elias checked the figures. He didn't want to give up. True, he had only been part of this group for a day but the plan and ambition of Jed had soaked into him through the letters over the years. He knew there was a way, but it meant revising the plan. He crossed through some numbers and thought back to his time in sim as a new plan started to form.

"Just checking." Elias said, not wanting to give away the details before he understood what was truly required. "We need to reach this area." He pointed at the map, drawing everyone's attention in towards the console once more.

"Yes. It's a four day trip from Southwatch. We would need to travel parallel to the valley, here." Mouse drew a line along the map to join the two points.

"Then we need to find an area and hold it while we clear the Crust and place the Crystal to establish the base?" Elias said.

"Yes, that's the plan." Said Slim. "Look I appreciate the idea that we can just brainstorm this out, but the plan is worthless without the resources. It was Jed's dream, maybe we just have to accept that?" The look she gave Elias made him want to reach over and hug her. Mouse being nearer, and knowing her better, threw an arm around her instead.

"Don't worry Slim, we can just build it back up again. Might take time, but we can still do it." Said Mouse to comfort her.

"Actually, if we take some risk, I still think we can do it." Said Elias. He watched as a wary look appeared on Slim's face.

"I appreciate the thought kid, but would rather you didn't make promises you can't keep." Said Slim, now looking a little annoyed at Elias.

He thought back once more to the repeated simulations on his journey to Carus. Twenty-five recruits taking a level one ziggurat repeatedly with few or no casualties. Then he replayed the defense scenarios with the same number of recruits. He could do this, it just meant swapping the plan around a little. Take the ziggurat first. He looked up with a determined glint in his eye.

"It's not an empty promise." He said. "I can do this."

The look stopped Slim from saying anything more. Elias suddenly resembled Jed in more than his appearance, he had taken on his resolute demeanor as well. She knew that look. Had experienced what Jed could do once he had that look in his eye. Time to put the trust in Elias that his uncle had done.

"Ok, tell us the plan." She said.