A figure stepped into a shadowy room. In the dim lighting little could be distinguished about them or the other shadowy figures already arguing in the room. The shape of the new figure was generally female meaning it was likely a woman. She settled into a high chair, and shouted, “Enough!” to get the attention of the bickering shadows.

She was quickly rewarded with silence, and the figures of this council turned to regard her. In a calm voice, she inquired about their interests in Neku space. One of the figures stood, and faced her, “Someone has been leaking Neku military movements to the Erali. This has seriously set back our plans for the sector. We have so far been unable to plug the leak. Switching to couriers failed to solve the problem. Infiltration could explain this, but with the controls we put in place that shouldn’t be possible.”

The figure sat down, and another rose to speak, “My people have looked into that, and think a cloaked ship must be tapped into the military communications network.”

A third figure rose to speak, and the second sat down, “I doubt that. Given the level of the leakage, it would require rather sophisticated spying tech, and likely smaller cloaked drones to spy on meetings. That would explain why switching to couriers failed to plug the leak, but the Erali don’t have the tech for that. Not to mention that we have tabs on all ships with that kind of tech. If one of them was sent to spy on the Neku we would know about it.”

After he sat down, no others moved to speak. She surveyed the table. She knew full well that the Neku are a mind-controlled people, and she too doubted that someone could infiltrate them, and her response reflected this, “Let's assume for now that it is a cloaked ship. How do we go about exposing it?”

The first figure rose again, and said, “Well if it is cloaked, I suggest we send a few light cruisers to the system to search them out. I doubt a spy cruiser would be well-armed, so a single light cruiser should be more than a match. The extras are there merely to ensure it doesn’t escape.”

After the first figure sat down, the others all agreed. She was a little surprised as normally two or more plans would be proposed, and then they would spend the entire meeting debating. Seeing it was settled she decided to move on to the next item on the menu, “In that case, let's move on to the next thing on the agenda. Our fleet was able to eliminate a guardian and gain orbital control of a precursor shield world.”

A figure stood, and said, “That was the easy part. The shield will be the tricky part. The fleet has started bombardment, but it is so far having little effect on the shield.”

Another figure stood in response and asked, “Admiral could you define that further?”

The admiral nodded, and replied, “Certainly. The shield is incredibly powerful. The fleet is using planet crackers to little effect on the shield.”

She didn’t need to be told how impressive that was. A planetary shield that could easily stop weapons strong enough to destroy planets was something none of the elder races had achieved. If they could figure out how it was accomplished they would gain an enormous military advantage over the others. She spoke with clear authority, “Send a science ship to study that shield. Even if they can’t find a weakness, anything they learn would be of significant strategic import...” Then a new figure obviously frantic burst into the chamber. Without following protocols they shouted, “The fleet near Shield World Xirlos is gone! The Volnir reported a massive explosion, and then the fleet was just gone. Only a couple other ships survived. The Volnir reported that the detonation had the same energy profile as the guardian did when its core went critical, only the resulting shockwave was over a thousand times bigger,” in a calmer voice they continued, “Also two of our agents on Neku prime have vanished. No trace has been found yet.”

A couple hours earlier on the streets of the city Relika. Kiru stretched a bit as she lazily followed a pair of Irini. They were currently heading towards the warehouses, where the others were waiting to ambush them. She had been following this pair for a while, and it was hard to do nothing. She had watched them inspecting the hotel they had just left. A process that for some reason involved stripping the inhabitants and physically inspecting their naked bodies. She didn’t like having to standby and watch as they violated the privacy of people in such a way.

She was cloaked, which allowed her to shadow them without notice. It was kind of weird to not be able to see her own body though. She could look right through her own arm, and only a vague outline on her hud indicated its presence. That same outline also revealed the locations of her cloaked teammates if they entered her line of sight. She took a step to avoid someone barreling towards her from behind. The man was clearly in quite the hurry as he barreled past.

He almost barreled into the pair of Irini ahead of her. The smaller one on the left reacted, and in a swift move, she spin kicked the man in the groin. Apparently with enough force to send him flying into the wall of a building on the right. A couple of her tentacles reached for the man, and she lifted him up into her view. Kiru noted that the man was holding his groin and clearly in quite a bit of pain. Not that is stopped him from struggling. The Irini female looked him right in the eye, her large black eyes glowed briefly. Instantly the man stopped struggling, and his arms dropped away from his crotch. Kiru had a bad feeling about where this was going, but the streets were already crowded. She could stop it, but that would just draw unwanted attention. None of the passerby, however, seemed to notice.

The Irini used a tentacle to lower his pants and seemed to inspect the damage of her attack. Suddenly she wrapped a tentacle around his crotch and squeezed. Blood dripped on to the ground, and she let him go laughing. As the two walked away, she passed the man crumpled in severe pain. A small part of her wanted to help, but she knew now wasn’t the time. Fortunately, it seemed someone else was moving to help him, but before she could get far, Megumi’s voice stopped her.

“Go back and touch that man,” ordered Megumi. While complying with the order she asked her why mentally.

“I have accessed the nanites that maintain your implants and had them build a tag like yours. It and a small delivery system are now in your right hand. I can repair his damaged organ if he is brought to the ship, but in the short term, I can use it to dampen the pain.”

She touched the man with her right hand, and asked, “You can heal that wound?”

“Easily, and you can catch up now. I’ll have someone else collect him later for repairs,” replied Megumi. The Irini hadn’t gotten far, so it wouldn’t take long to catch up. Fortunately, they were staying on route.

“Why do you keep saying repairs? He’s a Neku being, not a machine!” she replied mentally.

“Repair, heal. All the same to me,” replied Megumi before cutting the link. She wanted to retort, but couldn’t thanks to the cut link.

She caught up with the pair of Irini a couple minutes later just as they were rounding a corner. The streets were getting less busy as they headed for the warehouse. Not to mention that there were less people rushing along the street. It was not long before they reached the ambush point, but there were more people than expected there. Kiru saw four people all young girls lined up in front of the warehouse, that she had seen this pair inspect earlier.

Before she could think much of it, a small round object suddenly landed near the girls. Then an energy pulse radiated outward before the object disintegrated. Then her fellows decloaked. The two Irini had been caught in the pulse, and like the girls were crumpled on the ground. They had chosen this spot, as they knew they would disappear into the warehouse when they were done with their inspection. She approached the group and decloaked herself.

There was no point staying cloaked here, especially given the lack of security in the area. The warehouse was a bit suspicious, but she knew another cell had already checked it out. It had a secret passage that led out of the city, but it went the wrong way.

“What are we doing with these extras?” asked Kiru as she stared at the four scantily clad Neku girls.

Mayu stepped up and picked the smallest one up while saying, “Bring them with us. The ship can undo their programming, and we can’t leave witnesses even if they didn’t actually see anything. We did knock them out, and we can’t just leave them here for someone to find.”

Kiru thought that she raised a good point. Taila apparently did too, but disagreed a bit, “We can just leave them in the warehouse. They will wake up in a few hours, and be a bit confused but then they can resume their normal lives.”

“I’m not so sure, all four of these girls were inspected by these two earlier, besides now isn’t the time to argue,” replied Kiru. The others nodded, and everyone picked up a girl or Irini and slung them over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Given their own enhanced physiques, none of them were particularly heavy to them. Without a word, they made their way to a nearby sewer entrance. It was the easiest way into the underground, and it was easier to get their bulky luggage out that way. Sure the cloak could help them get through the crowded city, but it only hid their presence. Any physical contact could reveal their presence to others. Using the sewer reduced these considerations.

Entering the sewer Kiru was immediately hit with the stench, and wrinkled her nose. Talia noticed, and said, “Bear with it for a bit, we made a hidden entrance to the underground proper just a few meters down that way. Once we pass the holographic forcefield, the stench will disappear.”

Then she walked off in the direction she indicated. Kiru followed after her, and silently complained about the smell, while looking through her hud menus. She was hoping for something that could disable or at least dampen her sense of smell.

Meanwhile, in the ship's recreation lounge, Melia was greeted with a big blue box.

Game Over!

Score: 1370

Time Elapsed: 5:32 m

Result: Flagship destroyed, total defeat

She had gone to the recreation lounge for some entertainment, and had decided to play one of the Solean games, but she had not expected to be totally destroyed on the easiest difficulty. She had barely lasted five minutes in that VR game. “Megumi? Who designed a game to be so ridiculously unfair?”

“I did tell you that game was considered hard. You see that one recreates historical battles, and you chose one that the Solean Empire historically lost,” replied Megumi as her hologram appeared. Her physical avatar was busy elsewhere.

“So the empire lost the Battle of Rem’Sara Kem? Who exactly was the empire fighting anyway?” she asked as she remembered the ships looked almost Solean in style, but distinctly different.

“Rem’Sara Kem was the first major battle between the Empire and the Fallen. In your version, the battle was reduced in scale, but ship stats were left the same. Originally the battle involved millions of ships on both sides, not the two hundred you had facing two hundred and thirty-four Fallen warships. It really is a good test of a commanders skill, if you can pull out a victory given that you are outnumbered and outgunned,” replied Megumi. Melia looked down, and thought about it, then said, “Could you recommend something a little easier?”

With a smile, Megumi replied, “Sure I will find you a battle that you can win with your skill level, but after each battle, I suggest you review it. Identify what worked, and what didn’t. It will help you grow as a commander.”

She had to agree with that logic, and as she laid back in the core again she asked, “Why do Fallen ships resemble Solean design?”

With disdain, Megumi replied, “They are twisted abominations with no imagination. They stole the design pattern from us, and the same thing with their technology. Everything they have was stolen from someone else.”

With curiosity, she said, “You keep dodging it, but what exactly are the Fallen?”

With a sigh, she replied, “I don’t really know. Most of what is known about them are merely legends.”

Feeling she wasn’t going to get answers on this foe that intrigued her, she said she would talk later, and activated the pod again. Her reality instantly being replaced with a different one.