Shankh detested spywork. For her this was something that even old men could do - sit around in the ground vehicle, waiting for something to happen. It was passive and it seemed almost surreal for her to be in this position. But the thought of the mission they were on kept her going. Should they succeed, it would raise them to the status of national heroes faster than any open battle ever could.

She felt her lips twist in a tight, smug smile. She was on the damned twin-continents for half a stellar rotation already and if before she felt a slight distaste for this pseudo-culture, which seemed to defy all traditional values of Alaiah, now, when she had lived amongst these women, seen how they’ve lost all sense of honor and decency, hatred for them was burning her up inside like the undying flame of her countrywomen in the North. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that they should not be allowed to continue their pitiful existence. To her, even the genetic plague which was tormenting them for a while now and surely was caused by the wrath of the Goddess herself, was a small price to pay for their transgressions.

Thinking this way made it all more bearable - the fake name, the fake job and the even faker smile which was almost permanently plastered on her face since she arrived. All of it was for a reason, what’s more - it was absolutely necessary and much as she didn’t want to admit it - she now understood perfectly why it had to be like this.

They had arrived little more than six full rotations of the Air moon ago. There were only five of them, but of course, a larger party would surely be harder to keep hidden. And hidden was after all the key word here. Their orders were to blend in, to observe, without being observed in turn and to report their findings regularly. However, knowing her superiors, Shankh was certain that their intent was not nearly as peaceful as a mere intelligence gathering exercise. Especially with regard to the fact that very soon, the Fire Empress was due to officially announce the engagement of her only son to Her Majesty princess Fekh.

The Earth nation had prayed for a long time that the Goddess grant them such an opportunity. For the path to the throne of Magmalia would be but the first step. The first step toward restoring Alaiah to her full glory and brilliance. The Air-Water Alliance had proven long ago a failed socio-political experiment. Women here had lost their honour, doubtless seduced by the demonic charms of their men who were walking around with shamelessly loose hair and more often than not less than appropriately dressed, free to saw confusion and distraction into the souls of the stronger sex.

Alaiah’s commandments were clear - women were created to be the protectors and supporters of the weaker males, ladies of the family, true matriarchs, gifted by the Goddess with the power and abilities, necessary to maintain discipline and order both at home and in society as a whole. And of course, any community which denied these natural, basic truths, was headed for its inevitable doom. And the main goal of their little party of five was to act as a catalyst for the utter annihilation of the absurd awian fantasy for “gender equality”.

They were proud of their mission and prayed each afternoon for the Goddess to give them an opportunity to set their plans in motion sooner. According to Shankh, if the Fire Empress had half a brain, she should have ordered her troops to demolish this grotesque attempt at a country long ago, and she should have started with the center of their psychosis - this stain on the face of their beautiful planet, called Syfis. But of course, Tyrannis Pyre was not one of the faithful. Although she had managed to keep to a great extent the traditions of classical alaianism (or at least what passed for alaianism amongst the other three peoples on the planet), she wasn’t exactly immune to blasphemy. For instance, she too held the absurd belief in this supposed “thunder child” or “lightning kid” which was supposed to come forth in times of crisis and would wield power over the only force of nature which the Goddess had denied to gift even the Earth nation with. And doubtless, earth deserved it the most.

In their sacred book there was no Lightning child. There was however a very precise description of what would happen to any woman, who would choose to disregard the Holy law - “And said Alaiah unto Makh and her voice did make the mountains and forests and plains and valleys to tremble: for whichever of my daughters should stray from My Path, and should dishonour My Will, may My Gift be enxtinguished from her blood and her fate be to wander this earth weak and powerless, as the man who first incurred My wrath.”

“Shankh, do you see that?”, Zeb’s voice suddenly shook her out of her reverie.

She narrowed her eyes at the mobile terminal her colleague had turned toward her. It took her less than a minute to realize what the other woman had meant. Syfis might be a wretched place in all sense of the word, but at least technologically, they were rather advanced. Practically every corner was being recorded by at least a few security cameras, which kept track of everything their mechanicals eyes could capture. And they said that Magmalia, and more specifically the Autonomous Province of Earth was too tyrannical and disrespectful of the private lives of its citizens.

This current recording had been made on one of the three glider landing pads in the capitol of AWA. Most of them had mysteriously shut down a few hours ago, but thanks to the valiant efforts of Zeb, who had managed to somehow sneak past the security override of one of them, they could currently use it to see what was going on on one of the main departure pads. Shankh and the others liked to mock Zeb for spending too much time in front of a monitor and to tease her that if she spent the same amount of time with boys, she would have at least three husbands already. Right now, however, only the years of military discipline stopped the older woman from pulling her colleague into a tight embrace for having such a talent with machines.

Shankh reached over and stopped the recording. On the screen, three women could be seen, frozen still in the frame - two taller ones and one smaller, younger girl, all three dressed in simple work outfits. The camera had caught them climbing the mobile stairwell leading up to the belly of one of the smaller gliders on the pad. A weird and unpleasant sensation nested itself in her stomach.

“Could you remove some of the noise and zoom in on their faces a bit?”, Shankh asked, returning the terminal to her colleague.

Zeb simply nodded and for a moment nothing but the clicking of her fingers on the keyboard could be heard. When she turned the monitor to her commander again, the older woman leaned forward and the nasty feeling she had before got confirmed. The lieutenant had even run the women’s faces through the recognition software and her search had come up blank only for the youngest one. The other two however...

“By Alaiah’s name!”, Shankh exclaimed.

No, there was no doubt about it - the software had recognised them alright. So apparently the question wasn’t whether she was wrong or not. The question was rather what exactly was the Ruling over sea doing with one of the most wanted criminal of the past ten years. And even more curious - where by the demons of Kriya were they going?

She needed to find out as soon as possible.

“Call the others”, Shankh barked the order perhaps a bit too aggressively, because Zeb jumped slightly in her seat. “And send forth a cryptogram to HQ with the ID of this glider.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”, the lieutenant stammers slightly and her fingers started dancing on the keyboard again.

The Ruling over sea… and the woman, whose little terrorist band of hackers had nearly managed to destroy the world order… Whatever had brought these two together, couldn’t bode well for the Earth nation.

But she would find out. At least now they wouldn’t have to simply sit around and wait for something to happen. For that something already had.