Chapter 21: A New Lead

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1 Month Later

– Grudia, Winth 30, 8034 –

“What’s up?”

“The ceiling.”

Christeané stopped where he stood and gave Davídrius a disapproving glance. “Is that what you always say?”

“I answered your question,” the Tresédian quipped, “it’s your own damn fault if you don’t like the answer.”

Christeané smirked and finally sat down across from Davídrius, dropping his lunch tray on the tabletop as he did so.

“Early lunch?” Davídrius drawled, glancing up at his fellow Introtechnic.

“You’re here early, too.”

“I was here for a snack, not so I could artificially extend my lunch break by an hour.”

“And how long have you been here for?”

“…Half an hour.”

“Mm hmm,” Christeané chuckled as he began eating, “So you’ve pretty much done the same thing.”

“Tch,” Davídrius scowled, “As if I’m actually needed. Leave the desk jobs to those who actually know what they’re doing.”

“It’s part of being an officer,” the Master Lieutenant replied between bites, “And guess what you are now?”

Davídrius’s scowl deepened as Christeané glanced at the new nameplate sewn into the Tresédian’s uniform, just above the left jacket pocket. It read “Lieutenant Wrikax”.

“I didn’t ask for this bullshit.”

“Hey, you jumped straight to Lieutenant! You’re lucky.”

“Lucky my ass. The Commander’s just trying to nationalize me – apparently she ‘pulled some strings’ and now I’m a Nimaliakian citizen.”

“…Isn’t that a good thing?” Christeané frowned.

“Considering it was all done without my explicit consent?” Davídrius replied flatly.

“I thought you didn’t like Treséd.”

“I also don’t like being told what to do.”

“Oh believe me, we all know that…”

“Shut it.”

Christeané smirked in response to the Tresédian’s retort. “It can’t be that bad. At least now we don’t have to go through any bullshit every time we go off-world now… like with Chiníka.”

“I’ll bet Chiníka was what inspired Nikéyin to do all this,” Davídrius snorted, “Nice planet, but I haven’t even met any homeworld Nimalians with such a stick up their ass about Tresédians.”

“You know, it’d help if you weren’t so impatient.”

“Look, that bastard was asking for a rapier down his throat. I would’ve been doing Chiníka a favor if you guys hadn’t stopped me.”

“We stopped you because you would’ve gotten your ass handed to you,” Christeané rolled his eyes, “How the fuck did you expect to beat a Superspeed Introtechnic ten years your senior?”

“Hn,” Davídrius grunted, “…Strictly speaking, I’m faster.”

“And he’s had way more experience with Sword Boxes. Which I guess is why you convinced Rebehka to start teaching you how to actually use a sword.” Christeané pulled a face, as if he were disappointed. “Why didn’t you ask me for help?”

“Tch. You know just as well as I do,” Davídrius snorted, “We’re both Introtechnics, sure, but the weapons we use are completely different. You use a goddamn hammer in battle – do you really think you could teach me swordplay?”

“I could try.”

“Could you do as well as a fencing hobbyist?”

“I used to fence.”

“Key words: used to.”

“…Besides, fencing isn’t applicable to real battles at all!”

“It’s gotta be better than nothing though, right?”

“…Mm, maybe,” Christeané admitted, before taking another big bite of his meal. Davídrius sat in stubborn silence as the Master Lieutenant finished chewing and swallowed. “Now, if only there were more battles to actually fight in.”

“I’m with ya there,” Davídrius sighed, “Three separate trips in the past month, two of them off-world, and still we don’t have any real leads.”

“Maybe if we’re lucky, one of the others will have found a lead by the time we get back to the office.”

The two Introtechnics glanced at each other and then shook their heads simultaneously.

“Not happenin’.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Well, a guy can hope…”

*             *             *

“Hey, Si– …wait, where’d everybody go?”

“Hmm? Oh, Kevérin,” Rebehka glanced up from her work, “Uh, Kaoné and Kevken left to go check something at the Downtown office. I don’t know where Davídrius and Christeané are, though…”

“They’re probably off taking an ‘early lunch’,” Siyuakén rolled her eyes as she turned around in her chair and stood up, stepping closer to Rebehka and Kevérin, who were both near the entrance to the office space set aside for Hero Machina. It was a sizable room – large enough to house seven desks, with three on one side, three on the other, and one in the back. Rebehka’s desk was the front left, the closest to the normal-use door, while Siyuakén’s was across the room.

“Argh, again?” Kevérin sighed, “Do they ever work?”

“Says the guy who plays Dessert Destruction all day,” Rebehka quipped.

“Hey, I’m the one who came up with the Bowiisen lead. …Even though it didn’t go anywhere…” the Transfer Captain shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Anyways, that’s not what I’m here for. I just realized that it’s been a whole month since we started looking for leads on the Nimalian metallic infection, but you guys haven’t even explained everything you know.”

“There’s not really much else for you to know, aside from the more technical aspects…” Rebehka responded.

“Then that’s what I want to know,” Kevérin crossed his arms, “We’ve already had to fight creatures infected by the metallic infection, so if there’s anything that can help in that regard…”

“In that regard, you know just as much as we do,” Siyuakén shrugged, “I mean, I guess you wouldn’t know that electricity or magnetics aren’t as effective against the infection as you’d think, since its metal, but otherwise there’s not a lot to take advantage of in a fight.”

“Well, what about infection breakouts on other planets? Where’d they happen, when’d they happen, how were they handled…?”

Rebehka and Siyuakén glanced at each other wearily. “There’ve been a lot of incidents, both officially and unofficially recorded,” Rebehka stated, “There’s too many to list now, and there’s no real reason to. Most were handled either by totally eradicating the infected animals, or by capturing and studying them, like what we did back in Relédiaka. Only the Siions tend to kill everything, though; everyone else makes at least a token effort to figure out what’s going on. But, until Sunova, I’ve never heard of the infection leading to a massive breakout and forcing a full planetary evacuation...”

“Do you think it’s possible that a breakout did happen, but you didn’t hear about it?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Siyuakén responded, “until now, I don’t know of anyone who’s looked into the infection with any kind of urgency, and until now, there’s been no need to look into it with any kind of urgency… so the CSA probably wouldn’t be willing to disclose any breakouts.”

“They’re afraid that we’re Drakkar agents, you see,” Rebehka rolled her eyes, and then added seriously, “I’m actually surprised that they were so willing to let us onto a Transpace World.”

“What, Bowiisen?” Kevérin snorted, “It’s right on the Transpace to Nimalian territory. Nimalians visit it all the time, of course they’d let us go. I’d be more surprised if they allowed us as deep in their territory as the Origin Transpace. On military business, that is.”

“Not with a Tresédian in our group, they won’t,” Rebehka frowned, “I know the Commander got him Nimaliakian citizenship so we won’t run into those kind of problems, but–“

“But Davídrius himself is enough reason to not let us go anywhere?”

“He’s… gotten better,” Siyuakén admitted, “As much as it hurts to say.”

“Has he, though?” Kevérin questioned, “I guess having Christeané around helps a little, but he’s still hard on Kaoné, what with her pacifism.”

“I meant to ask about that at some point,” Rebehka commented, “Did something happen between them?”

“Not really,” Siyuakén replied, “He’s just… I don’t know if it’s possible for Davídrius and Kaoné to see eye to eye. He’s experienced too much shit, as far as I can tell, but Kaoné seems pretty sheltered and inexperienced…”

“What? That’s not true,” Kevérin refuted, “She’s had plenty of experience. How else did she reach Lieutenant?”

“…What…?” Siyuakén stared at the Pyrotechnic confusedly, “She… wasn’t conscripted as a Lieutenant?”

“Well, no. I mean, some Materiatechnics are conscripted as Lieutenants, but she’s not a native Nimaliakian so she had to start as just a Chaotic.”

“Oh…”

“I don’t know why that’s surprising?...” Kevérin cocked his head in confusion, “…I guess, now that I think about it… she’s a Materiatechnic, but she’s not a native. There’s no way one of the other nations would’ve let go of a Materiatechnic unless she was part of an exchange program, but she would’ve had to have exchanged with someone in her year, which means one of us, but to trade away a Materiatechnic must mean the nation had two Chaotics, I'd think, and the only nation that fits that description is… Relédiaka…” He stared at Siyuakén for a moment. “Wait, you–?”

“…Yes, me,” the Electrotechnic replied flatly.

“Then… wouldn’t you two have, I don’t know, kept tabs on each other or something–?”

“Wow, we’ve really strayed from the original topic, haven’t we,” Rebehka observed, “What was the last thing – right, about the CSA not letting us go anywhere.”

“Uh… right,” Kevérin responded slowly, oblivious to the quick glance the two girls exchanged, “…Well, it could present an issue if we come across information leading us deeper into CSA space.”

“If it’s a world accessible only by ship, at least,” Rebehka pointed out, “I think they should be more lenient about Interstellar Gate travel. But, even then, getting through their security will be annoying, since they’re in a perpetual war state.”

“With the Drakkars, right…” Kevérin nodded, “The Drakkars and the CSA have been at war for ages, and neither of them have gained any real ground… I doubt their war state will change anytime soon. But – I just had a thought, have you heard anything about the metallic infection from non-CSA space? Drakkars? The Taizen races? The unsettled arm between Dra’kis and Taizen space, maybe?”

“We barely have any information from the CSA, and you think we’d have more from one of those areas?” Siyuakén retorted, “The Drakkars are super-advanced, the only reason they haven’t beaten the CSA is because they keep fighting amongst themselves. Of course no information would leave their space. And unsettled territory is exactly that: unsettled. We can’t learn anything from people who aren’t there. And the Taizens? They’re too busy with their own thousand-year war to bother telling us about something as seemingly trivial as the metallic infection.”

“You don’t have to snap…” Kevérin muttered, “…but I guess you’re right. The Riaxens destroyed all of their ‘Gates anyways, and nothing gets past their Transpaces, so I don’t think the infection could have spread or come from their space. And the Syraus aren’t much different…”

“Their space might become even more dangerous soon, too,” Rebehka pointed out.

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“According to Syraus intelligence, the current Riaxen leader has fallen ill… or something like that. Which means they’ll probably have a new leader soon, which means they’ll suddenly be far more aggressive.”

“Here’s hoping we don’t get sucked into that,” Siyuakén commented.

Kevérin sighed. “There’s war everywhere… why does the rest of the galaxy have to be so hostile?”

“The Earthians aren’t,” Rebehka offered.

“Yeah, they aren’t hostile, they’re just really quick to shy away from any kind of attention,” Kevérin snorted.

“It’s not a completely terrible idea,” Siyuakén refuted, “They’re not as advanced as the rest of the galaxy, and they have no Transpaces, so as long as they lay low they shouldn’t have any trouble. Nimalian territory, on the other hand, is one civilization collapse from oblivion, in both directions…”

“Hey, at least we got the Master Ayas from them, right?” Rebehka commented in a much lighter tone.

“Which makes me wonder where the other eight Ayas are,” Kevérin replied, “The Master Ayas, found first? No way.”

“Well what do you want us to do, look for the Ayas, too?” Rebehka questioned, “How would we even do that? We have Chaos Energy sensors, sure, but none that work on a galactic scale, or would even be able to pinpoint something as small as the Chaos Ayas.”

“We might come across some of them during our investigation into the metallic infection,” Kevérin stated, “…which brings us back to the original topic.”

“…We’ve talked about pretty much everything that’s not the infection, huh,” Rebehka smirked self-amusedly.

“So you two really don’t know anything else?” Kevérin scratched his head confusedly.

“We don’t, sorry,” Siyuakén replied, “Nothing that will be too useful at least. We know rough timestamps, like ten years ago, fifteen years ago, twenty… but without anything more specific…”

“Yeah, it’s not much help…” Kevérin sighed, and then glanced at the time. “Oh, well what d’ya know. It’s almost time for lunch!”

“Oh, good,” Siyuakén responded as Rebehka stood up next to her and the three Chaotics made for the exit, “I could really use a break…”

*             *             *

“Kevken…”

“Just gimme a few more minutes,” the Chaostechnic replied nonchalantly, “I think I’m onto something here.”

“That’s what you said half an hour ago,” Kaoné pouted, “But it’s time for lunch now!”

“Just– just hold on,” he responded without looking up from the console he was working at, “Er, go on without me, actually.”

The Materiatechnic sighed impatiently before walking around the console and staring at the screen. “What are you looking at?”

“I managed to get some RPF espionage data on the SFC, and some of it points to information we might be interested in…”

“Uh… what? SFC?”

“The Stealth and Force Corps,” Kievkenalis replied, “They’re the second largest private military in Riverana, behind the RPF – the Riverana Protection Force. They’re a little sketchier though, so the RPF likes to keep tabs on them by spying… er,” he glanced at Kaoné worriedly, “…you’re not supposed to know that.”

“Right…” Kaoné nodded patronizingly, “I’m surprised that you even have the authority to access that kind of information.”

“Oh, well that’s easy. I’m a Chaostechnic – a tier three Chaostechnic, at that. They let me do almost whatever I want.” He glanced up when Kaoné didn’t respond, only to catch her staring at him incredulously. “…You don’t get to do whatever you want?”

“I’m a Materiatechnic,” Kaoné deadpanned.

“That’s one of the big three, though, right?” Kievkenalis questioned, “Chaostechnism, Materiatechnism, Navitastechnism?”

Kaoné shook her head wearily. “Never mind. What have you found?”

“Oh, right,” he turned back toward the console, “Well, the SFC usually sends and receives shipments by sending ships up over the Continental Glacier and then taking off into space from there, where Nimalia’s magnetic field makes it a little harder to scan down ships. This puts most of the shipping over or near the Hazard Islands, you know? So I decided to look into that.”

“What’d you find?”

“A shipment from the Black Suns,” Kievkenalis replied, turning to face Kaoné again, “And not just a general shipment – it was under the name of the former Sector 2 Master General, Temlar Sakthye.”

“That… does sound a little suspicious, I guess,” Kaoné mused, “but Nimalian militaries commission things from the Black Suns all the time.”

“Well, yeah, but never directly from a Master General,” Kievkenalis refuted, “And that’s not the only suspicious thing – according to the logs, the transport ship ran into an RPF blockade over the Articé Ocean and covertly dropped some of its cargo to pass the mass check. That was about 200 kilometers east of the Hazard Islands.”

“Yeah, that does sound pretty fishy,” Kaoné agreed, “But for it to actually be what we want, it has to be over ten years ago, right? Since the first metallic infection reports on Nimalia were from around ten years ago.”

“And that’s the thing – this shipment went through almost exactly ten years ago, in the spring of 8024 – just in time for the decennial ocean event that sweeps debris from the nearby Articé and Bluesé Oceans toward the Hazard Islands!”

“…Wow,” Kaoné remarked, “That sounds exactly like what we’re looking for! Where did the shipment come from?”

“Hmm… well, I think this might be where the problem is,” Kievkenalis frowned, “The shipment origin is in CSA space – an abandoned Tier 5 Citan World, Teghica.”

*               *               *               *               *

==================== End of Chapter 21 ====================

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Data Entry: Transpaces

Transpaces are large constructs anchored in space, most often orbiting roughly one AU from the most distant planet from the sun in a solar system. They are capable of transporting large amounts of mass (e.g. ships) large distances to another Transpace, though exactly how they do this is a mystery. However, unlike the Interstellar Gates, Transpaces can only connect to two or three nearby Transpaces, making traveling around a galactic arm a bit of a pain. Transpaces are also unable to connect to Transpaces in other arms of the galaxy because of Dead Space, which are regions of the galaxy completely void of Chaos Energy.

Transpaces can remain connected to another Transpace for an indefinite period of time and do not suffer from the connection deterioration that Interstellar Gates do, but in order to connect them to another Transpace they must be brought offline, calibrated for the new coordinates, and then brought back online, a process which can take several hours. During this period, the Transpace it was previously connected to can still send mass, making cross-Transpace retreats difficult. To go through a Transpace, one must be within a hundred kilometers of it. Additionally, Transpaces dump incoming ships up to a thousand kilometers away, in any direction. There is no known way to compensate for this, making fleet jumps consume large amounts of time as everyone gets back into formation after the temporary disarray.

                Transpaces are durable structures, capable of weathering several hours of full-frontal assault thanks to advanced shielding and armor. However most civilizations in the galaxy wish to keep their Transpaces intact, as they are the only reliably fast way to travel around the galaxy (ship-fitted FTL drives are nowhere near comparably fast). The one exception to this are the Drakkars, who have either destroyed or shut down all of the Transpaces in their territory, effectively preventing any offensive assault from any of the other civilizations in the galaxy.

                Almost every Transpace connects to only two other Transpaces, with two known exceptions – the Origin Transpace, and the Nimalian home-region Transpace. The Nimalian home-region Transpace connects to Syraus space, the only unsettled arm in the galaxy (known to Earthians as the Perseus arm), and to the Transpace at the other end of the Nimalian Territories, which in turn connects to Siion space. The Origin Transpace is the Transpace that every galactic arm eventually spirals into, and is located within Dra’kis space. It is unknown why these two Transpaces are capable of connecting to three Transpaces instead of merely two, in part because no one really knows what determines what other Transpaces a Transpace can connect to.