Back to the Council

Zarok tried to say something, but his attempt was completely ignored. Finally, he stood off in the distance, gazing at the horizon while whispering, "I just want to eat pork chops..."

Meanwhile, Eldran, observing the scene, couldn't contain his curiosity: "Excuse me, but who are you?"

He wouldn't respond without first knowing the identity of the other party.

"Forgive my lack of formality, but the situation calls for haste. I am Mykarion, the intelligence inspector of the Lumineos Council. By my side is my sister, Morynthia, who, though not a council member, collaborates closely with them."

Morynthia greeted with a simple wink, letting the tedious matters fall into the hands of her brother.

"Lumineos Council!?" exclaimed Eldran, surprised. The presence of distinguished guests from the organization responsible for establishing law and order in millions of planetary systems was incredible to witness.

Even as a lieutenant, he rarely had the opportunity to encounter council members so directly.

Evoking Mykarion's earlier request, Eldran quickly began to speak, "I am Eldran, former lieutenant of the planet Horvey. If you want to know all the events on this island, the ship's AI can provide you with a summary backed by evidence. As for what it couldn't witness, I will personally take care of it."

He didn't mention his current rank as captain; he felt it was humiliating.

"What do you mean by that? The AI should have recorded the entire battle, right?" Mykarion asked confused.

Eldran gestured for him to wait a moment and called Nosura, who appeared as a hologram projected from the main ship. It was in its golden sphere form and, with respect, mentioned after hearing the other party's identity: [Dear council guests, despite recording the battle from start to finish, the enemy has an anti-detection system that makes them practically invisible to the current technology of this battalion.]

It found the differentiated treatment that the army gave to different battalions ridiculous, especially when equipping them with such outdated technology. It was convinced that with more modern technology, the other party wouldn't have evaded detection in a million years!

"A native with technology capable of evading this ship's detection systems?" Morynthia interrupted the conversation with disbelief.

Pointing to the imposing pyramid-shaped main ship, she continued, "If I'm not mistaken, this is an Astrion-V90, designed by the Type Three civilization, Quádrialis. A model practically discontinued by them for four thousand years, right?"

[Indeed, but what's the point of that?] spoke Nosura, confused.

"What's the point? This ship is equipped with detection systems capable of seeing even ruins of ancient Type Two civilizations. That shouldn't be possible to evade for a native of a primitive Type Zero civilization. It's very possible that we're dealing with someone from another planetary system, maybe even an enemy of the Astryilite race with technology on par with the best they have," she finished speaking, taking a breath with excitement!

Making these kinds of deductions was something her brother generally did, but by doing it herself, she experienced a sense of satisfaction.

The three observed her as she crossed her arms with self-sufficiency.

Reaching the same conclusion as her was something they had suspected for a long time, so they simply continued discussing the battle records, completely ignoring her. This caused her to look at them with annoyance.

Rylokian, on the other hand, furrowed his thoughtful brow. Was it really not a native?

"...For now, show us the battle videos, don't make us waste any more time," Eldran ordered the AI coldly.

In an instant, a huge projection covered almost the entire island; in high speed, it showed one of the Crimson Guardians materializing from the ship and shooting into the ocean: "What did it shoot at?" asked Mykarion, knowing that everything started with that shot.

[It's not known. At that moment, the Guardians were in automatic firing mode at anything not registered in the database.]

"So, if we had approached, it would have shot as well?" he asked with doubts.

[No, the Synthara race is on the list of friendly races, so a message would have been sent before taking any hostile action.]

Mykarion nodded satisfactorily; if it really shot indiscriminately, even against their ships, he would have had to turn to the council for the Astryliites to change their defensive tactics.

After all, among civilizations of the same level, any sign of hostility constituted an act of war.

The projection continued to advance, showing two Astrylite soldiers using plasma rifles to open a hole in the ground.

Advancing quickly in the recording, it showed those soldiers emerging from the hole, accompanied by an army of rusted and damaged androids, which were suppressed by the surrounding soldiers.

"It's a bit unnecessary to ask this now, but why is there primitive technology still functioning on this island? Shouldn't they have eliminated any possible threat by choosing this island as their base?" Mykarion asked, not understanding Eldran's actions.

This question not only made Eldran hesitate in how to respond, but also generated discomfort among the surrounding soldiers.

How could they tell this council member that it was all due to laziness?

But, as if his brain had been enlightened, he said, "It was all because of this fucking AI; it was supposed to have scanned the entire island for threats and said everything was fine. A stupid mistake, but it was to be expected from these damn things, right?"

Nosura was about to refute, but seeing Eldran's look, it understood that contradicting him could have really grim consequences for its fate.

Mykarion understood the reality of the situation but chose to remain silent.

He was aware that the relationship between the Astrylite race and AIs was extremely delicate.

In a short time, he observed everything that happened on the island, but most of it consisted of watching the soldiers fighting against something that was completely pixelated. However, what he could distinguish was when small spherical drones appeared next to the ships, causing the four Crimson Guardians to shoot at their own allied ships, even destroying four of them!

Mykarion watched them again, but the reaction was the same: Eldran blaming the AI.

"Wait, rewind a bit," Morynthia said, noticing something strange to the south.

They focused their attention on that area, and the three were left speechless witnessing how a soldier took off the helmet of his Xenotech armor; in a matter of seconds, his head rolled on the ground. Someone had decapitated him!

Unfortunately, the perpetrator of this massacre was completely pixelated. They tried to identify more details, but the rest was impossible to discern.

"It is indeed difficult to tell who caused it with almost everything censored. Still, I can recognize that the enemy is very cunning; every step was carefully calculated. It's going to be very difficult to deal with an adversary who knows how to use their head," expressed Mykarion while looking at Rylokian, who had remained silent until now, as he had no information to contribute at the moment: "Did you recognize anything similar to what you saw that day?"

Rylokian thought for a moment and simply said, "The only thing I noticed is that bastard likes to blow everything up."

They nodded in silence as they saw shortly after a large explosion.

Eldran, on the other hand, frowned at seeing an Astrylite soldier so close to those siblings. Although he was curious to ask who he was, he understood that asking that question would be unnecessary and wouldn't contribute at all to the current situation.

"Near what happened, is a soldier watching everything with a sniper, is he still alive?" Mykarion asked, pointing to Zyrgon in the projection.

Eldran quickly contacted someone using his HoloSync, and in no time, Zyrgon came out of the ship. Until now, he had been resting, a privilege he had earned by providing so much valuable information.

It didn't take long for the siblings to be informed of everything.

"A ship, countless androids, and a three-meter being with biomass armor. It's impossible for it to be a native. This may escalate more than we think. If it's some civilization hostile to the Astryilite race, another war might be about to break out," said Mykarion with a serious tone.

Rylokian looked at this soldier named Zyrgon and noticed the great hatred in his three eyes. Remembering when he spoke about this Draylith soldier, he supposed that his heart burned with a thirst for revenge.

Perhaps he had found someone he could get along with...

There was a brief silence until Mykarion broke it: "I've come to a conclusion. Finding this being with such advanced anti-detection technology is an extremely complicated task, perhaps even impossible. Sister, I'll return to the council to obtain some tools that might make all of this easier."

"What!? You can't leave; you're going to leave me alone here until you come back?" Morynthia tried to object instantly to this decision, but her brother was completely determined.

In the end, she could only watch as he disappeared into the sky with his ship.

She calculated the maximum speed of the ship and the distance to the Lumineos Council. She would be alone for a week.

Even using the various spatial curvature hubs that reduced light-year distances to a few minutes, the council's base was too far away. She insisted on accompanying Mykarion, but she was brushed aside with the excuse that her presence was necessary in case something terrible happened...