The councilwoman smiled, “It seems we are agreed then. I look forward to working with you.”

The Minara woman smiled, “I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”

With a smile on her face the Minara woman left the office. A fresh copy of a new contract now securely sitting in her bag. These negotiations were most fruitful and now all the cards for her clan’s ascendency were nearly in place. The Councilwoman she had just negotiated with, may not have the power she used to her, but her clan had been on the rise until recently. The wealth they gained through contracts with the Cathamari had given them great power and they still had a great deal of wealth in their coffers.

If not for the events at Cantra, the Minara clan wouldn’t be on the rise now. Of course those events couldn’t have gone better for them if they tried. Naturally something like what happened at Cantra seemed to be exceptionally lucky for the clan. It wasn’t, not entirely. They had expected more out of the Krall, but everything else did fall into their plan. They knew the Rayki clan was trying to stabilize the Cathamari and strengthen their clan. Yet these actions opened the door for them to muscle in. It was child's play to leak their plans to the right warlord and it wasn’t too hard to get the Krall aware of it either. Just a few words in the right ear.

Of course, they had ended up underestimating that dreadnought. That was why they were building a new line of dreadnoughts. Smaller, more agile, and far easier to field in numbers. More importantly, those new weapons they were developing would ensure other ships like that wouldn’t be a threat to them. Cantra had also brought the Refuge to her clan’s attention.

Getting a name took time, and where her brethren would dismiss them for one reason or another. She saw an opportunity, but first, they would need to find them. These Refuge people had no known worlds, but there was a task force. Last seen at Cantra. They had been seen leaving towards the Lantaro sector. Finding them might prove difficult, especially given their apparent ability to vanish from scans. Not unlike Voskar ships in that respect, but different. She wasn’t sure how yet, but she was going to find out. She was going to find them. After that she would see about acquiring their secrets and if Cantra was any indication those secrets would ensure the rise of the Minara clan for centuries. She would have them, even if she had to use force to acquire them.

Turell’s boring wait and do nothing changed suddenly. Half the crew was participating in the tournament they had arranged. Something people were quite enjoying now that it had started. She wondered who would be the victor. Turell was looking forward to it and it would certainly break the boredom. At the moment there wasn’t anything of note going on with the infil team. They had sent back scans and blueprint files. Yet they weren’t quite ready to try smuggling out the prototypes.

Suddenly someone looked up from their console, and reported, “Sir a Valorian battleship has entered the system. Champion Class.”

She blinked, those weren’t a common sight. They were often considered to be the larger cousin of the Valorian Protector class cruisers. Protector class cruisers were well armed and shielded. Often used as flagships and formed the backbone of the Valorian fleet. Champions however were their best combat vessels but they were also somewhat dated.

Each one was outfitted with multiple banks of heavy pulse cannons. They were a variant of the usual pulse cannons designed for heavy firepower. HPCs weren’t as powerful as Cathamari designs but had far more range. They were the premier anti-capital ship weapon for the Valorian fleet. In addition to those it was outfitted with numerous smaller pulse batteries and heavy plasma torpedo emplacements. Most notable were the strong shields the class was known for. None of the weapons on her cruiser could hope to pierce them. That might be a problem later, assuming their first shot didn’t destroy it.

Then her plans changed again, “New contacts eight Protector class Heavy cruisers have entered the system.”

Internally she cursed. That was going to be a problem. The brief only expected light defenses. A handful of light carriers and a few patrol ships at the most. Something was going on.

Letting out a breath, she ordered, “Alert the inflil team about this and have them discreetly look into it.”

“Understood.”

With that out of the way she looked at the newly arrived heavy capital ships. Hopefully they weren’t sticking around. As they would make the whole exit plan messy. The plan had been for her to cause chaos out here, while the infiltration team made off with the prototypes. Her ship would pick them up later. After they escaped the system, her ship would break off its distraction and rendezvous with them at the designated extraction point.

She sighed. Missions were never easy were they? Now she had to figure out how to create proper chaos out here without getting killed. Avoiding detection would be easy enough, but her railgun was only useful against targets whose shields were down. Of course if she could knock them all out at once that would be great. Even if it would take some doing.

Moments later she received the first report, “I have done some checking and it seems the Minara clan is increasing security on the project. Not sure why, but they are expecting more ships.”

She blinked, “It seemed the window was closing.”

“Understood, let me know when you are ready for extraction and I will see what I can do.”

“Yes time does seem to be of the essence. We might have to abandon the kidnapping and sabotage plans. As those new ships aren’t leaving anytime soon. I heard they are expecting six more battleships over the next couple of days.”

Why couldn’t this one be boring? That would have been so much better.

Williams waited patiently by the viewport as she watched the stars drift by. It was a nice enough view if rather boring by now. It was just so mundane. Still she wasn’t the only one here. This lounge was right off one of the mess halls, so people often came here to watch the stars as they eat. In addition, screens were set up and a movie night happened every Friday here. It was a nice lounge. At the moment, however, someone had seen fit to play some music. It wasn’t the first time, as there was often music being played in the room. Last time she was here, they had picked a classical piece. Williams wasn’t sure of the title, but it certainly sounded like one of those aging classical compositions. Today it was something more modern. Again she wasn’t sure of the title nor did she know a single word. The lyrics were Japanese, it was something peppy and energetic. Williams had to admit it was good, but she wished the lyrics were English. She liked being able to understand what she was listening to.

Idly she noted someone settling down in the seat next to her. In their hands a plate of food. Two of them actually, they hand her one. A classic dish of fish and chips. A fine lunch, which was appropriate for the hour. “Thank you for the food. Did you find anything out?”

They took a breath and began, “It wasn’t easy, but I was able to learn a few things. Ruri’s latest projects are all high security. Although strangely a few of the aliens have been allowed access.”

She sighed, “That machine gave them access? Why?”

“Well for the first project, the alien Vera actually makes sense. She and Ruri are working on something involving forcefields. Something Vera is apparently an expert in.”

“Oh? Any idea what?”

“Some kind of atmospheric shield for the hangers.”

“That one doesn’t sound that juicy. Leave that one be. What’s the next one?”

“Again Ruri has involved the alien Vera, but this time she seems to have less access to the project. In fact outside of her personal files almost no one has access to it. At least in any degree. It took some digging to find anything.”

“That sounds juicy, what is she working on?”

“Something called Pulsar torpedoes. Apparently, they are meant for use on smaller ships, such as the X-1204. Beyond that, I know little.”

“What do you mean?”

“Security on the project is tight and things are being kept largely hush. Although I was able to get some clues based on her factory orders. Ruri seems to be outsourcing component manufacturing to the factories. As a result I did find out that she is using components common to the alien Sega generator technology and our own electro-cannon tech.”

Williams frowned, “You think she is working on some kind of electro-plasma warhead?”

“Given the name and the components? Yes that seems to be the case.”

“Try to get more info on this one. It sounds like something interesting to keep an eye on.”

“Well I also heard we are planning a new weapons test. In addition, I have heard we found a mineral-rich system with promising planets. Supposedly we are going to be testing some improvements on our aerial mining rigs.”

Williams recalled that Ruri and several other teams had been working on improved tractor beams and mining lasers. Resonant particle beams seemed to be the focus of several projects. Yet she had not heard of this. “What kind of test?”

“I’m not sure. There isn’t much on it.”

That seemed to be a theme, but she had asked to keep an eye on Ruri. That machine seemed to give her a lot of resources. As a result she had a lot of projects in the works. Some of them rather interesting. Now she just had to figure out how to use these to her own advantage.

Suddenly her informant interjected, “On a different note, I was able to learn about some other project. Have you heard about the Mark IV powered assault armor project?”

“I heard something about it months ago. Something about those new high-density power cells provides new advantages. I thought they rolled it out already?”

“They did, but it seems they immediately went to work on developing an updated version. The type A suits they rolled out aren’t even in full production yet and I have heard they are getting ready to present the version B update.”

“Already? Interesting, might want to keep a closer eye on that project then. Especially since that machine’s security troops will likely end up wearing it.”

Her buddy nodded, “Agreed,” they glanced to the side, “In any case, I should get going. I’ll keep you apprised if I learn anything more.”

She quickly thanked him and watched him leave. Before turning her attention out the window. Williams certainly liked this spot. The music had changed while they were talking. She took a moment to enjoy at as she watched the stars and ate her fish. The chef did a decent job. Eventually, she left. Her mind still on the machine, waiting for the cards to fall into place. Sooner or later she would get that machine out of the way. Once she did, she would steer mankind back onto a proper course and put them on the map again. Of course there was the whole numbers problem and the fact they were now years away from Earth. Obviously they would have to reclaim the homeworld and she would need more than just three capital ships. Too bad that machine threw away so many old ships for this silly expedition. Now she would have to get more out here. Luckily the machine had thought about that as well, she could use his work to rebuild their ship numbers. Manning it would be a problem, but she figured a few cloning projects would solve their numbers issue.