Chapter 18: A lost treasure

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

"Happy New Year!"

Cerion joined in on the celebration by popping a bottle of champagne and spraying it all over the people in his office.

With the launch of YouStream scheduled for New Year's Eve, it was decided that celebrations would be held in their office.

The last few days were filled with work like never before. He was busy working out some background modifications to the YouStream and advertising the whole thing. YouStream's first video, which was about to be uploaded, was about the New Year celebrations of Vex Corp.

While the video quality was going to be 280p, work was already underway to include 480p by February last week. Not to mention, his marketing team was working closely with Hollywood to get some viral videos online. Nothing gets people's interest like embarrassing videos of celebrities and pets.

Of course, there was going to be a screening process before any video was going to be uploaded. We wouldn't want inappropriate content on the net and thus become liable for lawsuits this early, after all. Digital content regulation laws were sparse and downright vague. So, he had no intention of getting tangled up in controversies this early in the game. He already had sent some feelers with some of the law firms and interest groups for starting a lobbying group within the Congress.

"How're we doing?" he asked Deborah, who was pouring over their systems and running diagnostics of YouStream.

"Our servers are functioning smoothly. No problems with any codes so far, and we are starting the first upload." said Deborah, her eyes pinned on the screen.

The screen showed the video being uploaded. A few minutes later, the video was on the platform, running smoothly and easily.

"Congratulations! You are the first YouStreamer." he patted Deborah on the shoulder before moving on to Elliot Hall's section that dealt with traffic on the YouStream platform.

"Elliot, keep an eye on the traffic. If we reach a million subscribers, you'll know what to do." said Cerion.

Of course, he knew it would not happen immediately. However, they had a plan to insert attractive content in hand to generate interest. Their PR team was also on standby to work their magic after New Year celebrations.

"All compression programs are ready and loaded. I've got my eye on it."

"Good man." he clapped him on the shoulder. "Rotate your people. I want someone always on the lookout."

"You got it, boss."

It went on and on. Finally, when he returned home, it was just a few hours before sunrise. Jane had already returned to Culver, so there was nobody around at his home. A few hours of shut-eye later, he was back at work.

While launching an online video streaming platform sounded easy, the work done in the background was enormous. The whole website required constant monitoring, as well as supplementary codes and revisions to make it more user-friendly as analysts found certain errors within the running programs.

The whole week and much of the month was spent on HTML video embedding, establishing a rating system, encrypting comments and reaction systems, sharing links via email, and working around the clock to ensure that the platform accommodates as many users as possible.

The sheer amount of work involved in full-screen viewing and increasing the video time limit was enormous. His ideas and add-ons were mostly constrained by a lack of technology and a pool of skilled labour, specifically young labour.

So, Vex Corp was back to hunting talent, which caused us to contact different universities and even consider absorbing small firms working in the software field without tripping the corporate watchdogs and agencies looking for monopolistic actions.

On the other hand, Cerion's idea to safely bring the Kree ship to his island base was now possible. He accomplished this by modifying the Space Bridge technology.

Originally, the Space Bridge was supposed to facilitate his travel from his home at Mountain View to his island base. But then he found the Kree City, and an idea took root in his mind.

Why not shift the Kree City to his island base in the Caribbean?

It was indeed a brilliant idea, but the technology used in the space bridge was volatile. A single mishap could create an unstable space-time anomaly. Hence, he spent the better part of his time making the technology as safe as possible.

One of the instrumental things that helped him achieve this feat was the Kree teleportation technology and Jumpdrive. The Kree ship he commandeered housed a Jump Drive and a teleportation device that could transport a limited amount of matter even within the gravitational scope of a planet. The teleportation device, while having a similar function to his Space Bridge, was far more advanced. Its advantage was that it did not need a device similar to his Space Bridge to receive transmission. That made it malleable, as pinpointing the location was the sole factor that determined the device's reach and accuracy.

Combining the two technologies was not so easy but he used the technology of the Kree teleportation device and the Space Bridge he developed to form a modified Space Bridge.

The new Space Bridge he built consisted of small metallic discs. The discs would envelop the Kree ship, shrouding it in a layer of the space-time continuum. One disc would be responsible for tracing the location of teleportation. With the aid of that disc, which he named the Control Disc, he could teleport the ship to any place on Earth with the help of some advanced scanners.

And now, the time has finally come for the concept to become a reality. So far, the trials he conducted with the modified Space Bridge have been successful.

After much deliberation, he chose the Kree city's shipyard as the intended destination. With this in mind, he programmed the Control Disc of the Space Bridge and took a Scouter to the Moon. The Scouter would provide the appropriate cover as it housed advanced cloaking technology, which made it invisible to SHIELD's or any nation's observatories and satellites. The Scouter also functioned as a signal booster for the Control Disc to scan the location inside the Kree city.

"Control Disc, assemble the Space Bridge."

His order was immediately followed as the Control Disc guided the other secondary discs to fly over to the Kree ship. One by one, the discs began to attach themselves to the ship's surface. The Control Disc was the last one to stick to the ship's periphery.

Cerion ran last-minute diagnostics on the Space Bridge to ensure the teleportation functions smoothly.

"All systems and failsafe are operational." said Optima who was monitoring and controlling the Control Disc.

"Good. Open Space Bridge" he gave out the order.

Immediately, the Control Disc went from red to blue, signalling the start of the space-time continuum. The secondary discs began to emit pale white energy, blanketing the Kree ship in a cocoon of energy.

"Control Disc activated. Destination?" asked Optima.

"Hanger K1, Kree city." said Cerion as he observed the energy readings spike briefly when the space bridge was engaged.

He made a reminder to rename the city and island at some point before concentrating on the Kree ship.

His enhanced vision picked up a last flare of light before the Kree ship vanished from his view, kicking up dust on the moon's surface.

"The Kree City has responded. Hanger K1 received the Kree ship. Congratulations on a successful Space Bridge operation, sir." said Optima.

"Well, our work is just getting started. Commence remodelling the Kree ship to Kryptonian Dreadnought." he ordered.

"Right away, sir." said Optima before going quiet.

Cerion stayed on the moon until the Control Disc and other secondary discs returned to the Scouter. After that, he turned the Scouter to Earth, specifically towards the Kree City.

As the Scouter made its way to the city at a cruising speed, he went through the scanning reports of Optima once more. More detailed scanning of Earth revealed major Vibranium deposits on the North Pole. So far, he had not made any move on Antarctica as the whole region was too delicate to mine. He didn't want to be responsible for destabilizing the region using conventional means, especially when climate change was on the brink of becoming a disaster.

That doesn't mean he did not have plans to collect the Vibranium samples from the North Pole. The success of the modified Space Bridge opened up many possibilities. He could use the Discs to fly in through precision cavities shaped through laser cutting and extract the Vibranium safely with the least amount of disturbance to the area. It was going to be a delicate process, and that's why he was delaying the extraction, as a lot of parameters were involved.

Another piece of interesting discovery in the scanning for Vibranium was the location of the Nazi warship Valkyrie. Cerion had not even thought of tracking down the ship. The location popped up when the Vibranium shield used by Steve Rogers pinged the location of the ship when his Scouter was scanning the globe. The Valkyrie was off a few miles on the coast of Greenland, and he didn't know what to do.

On one hand, handing over Captain America's location should've earned him some trust points with Fury, but he was not so interested in earning the man's trust in the first place. There was also the concern that introducing the Captain to the world might bring some serious changes within SHIELD.

Then again, he cared not for the 'timeline' per se, so there was that.

The third most important concern was the chaos that he would surely unleash when the Captain was introduced to the world. There was no possible way of knowing how HYDRA would react. They were already spooked by his presence, and introducing the Captain might just make them desperate. Desperate people who had access to mass-murdering weapons and resources were dangerous. There was no telling how HYDRA would decide to move forward.

Cerion watched the red dot signalling the location of Captain America's Vibranium shield on his drone's interface and came to a speedy conclusion.

"Optima, change our course. We are going to Greenland." he finally ordered.

A few hours later, Cerion watched on as Steve Rogers's iced body entered a cryostorage pod in Kree City. There was no way he was going to revive the Captain immediately after retrieving the guy from the ice.

"Monitor his health. Nurse his body to working condition and..." Cerion frowned thoughtfully at the Super Soldier before sighing, "...collect samples."

"As you wish sir." said Optima before going into work.

The pod drilled through the ice and injected a stabilising agent into the sleeping Super Soldier's neck. Then, the ice was slowly drained away from the Captain, leaving the world's first perfect Super Soldier in his uniform.

"Sleep well, Captain Rogers." he murmured against the glass before he turned his attention to other matters.

******

"This is the second time you have failed me, Ronan. Failed our Empire!"

Ronan sneered at the visage of his father the Supreme Intelligence took up in their meeting. If the decrepit, non-biotic collection of codes was thought to intimidate him, then it was sorely mistaken. He was not some weakling to buckle under by a false visage of his progenitor.

He was Ronan the Accuser. He had watched civilisations burn, all for the glory of his ancestors and the Kree Empire. Even now, he alone fought and won many battles against the fools of Xandar. His plans and strategy ensured the Shi'ar were pushed out of Kree space in the Great Spacelane War.

But despite all that, the Supreme Intelligence was right. He did indeed fail the Empire on C53, or Earth as the locals call it.

Just the name of the planet made him sneer. What kind of barbaric people would call their home planet dirt? This was why humans disgusted him, but knowing what he now knew, he could learn to overcome that distaste.

"I accept my failure, Supreme Intelligence. But you should know I am someone who has delivered victory to the Kree Empire from the jaws of defeat." he proclaimed with his head held high.

His declaration gave the Supreme Intelligent pause.

"Speak plainly, Commander of the Accuser Corps."

"I may have suffered defeat from this new enemy, but I do have some valuable information and some prisoners to show for it."

"What valuable information? What prisoners?" the Supreme Intelligence asked curiously.

"This is information about a traitorous group of the Kree Empire that conducted illegal experimentation in the hopes of creating enhanced slaves to fight our wars. The traitors call themselves the Reapers. My second visit to the Sol System revealed their presence, and I had thought I was engaging them when I responded to the beacon from C53." Ronan said with a sneer.

"I see. Where are these traitors? What other information have you gleaned from them, Ronan?" asked the Supreme Intelligence, taking an interest.

"The experimentation was a success. The human species of Earth adapted to the Terrigenesis protocol implemented by the Reapers. The traitors will be delivered for memory mining to extract more details of the nature of their experiment."

"It is not unknown to either of us that the human species is dangerous when they are enhanced." said the Supreme Intelligence, making Ronan nod in agreement.

He was intimately aware that they were losing the war against Xandar as their fleets were being decimated by Captain Marvel on the other side of the galaxy. It had forced the Accuser Corps to stop hunting for Skrulls for the time being. The new enemy he encountered was also a dangerous foe, one that he intended to eliminate in the future before the entity became too powerful.

"I request that you allow me a fleet to take down this new enemy before it grows too powerful." Ronan demanded.

"Denied." said the Supreme Intelligence.

"Why?" Ronan stepped forward in anger.

"You lack vision, Ronan. Asgard watches from their realm, and there is a chance they may interfere if we push the boundaries of our pact too far. For now, we prepare and observe. We are already fighting a war on one front. Fighting the Asgardians over a backwater planet is not logical. What we need is a powerful ally."

"An ally?" Ronan frowned.

the Kree don't have allies. It'd be admitting their weakness to everyone in the galaxy. The Kree was a proud, pure and powerful race.

"An ally of convenience." the Supreme Intelligence corrected, "In time I shall share my plans. For now, bring forth the traitors. Their knowledge will serve the Kree Empire well."

Ronan didn't like this plan. But this was precisely why the Supreme Intelligence was given control of all their military affairs. Their leadership had lacked vision in pursuing the war with Xandar, squandering victories for the sake of honour in battles.

"What about the enemy I encountered?" Ronan asked, swallowing his distaste for deviating from the Old Ways.

"Leave that be. Focus on winning the war rather than winning all battles. Long live the Kree Empire."

"Long live the Kree Empire." Ronan muttered, glaring at the Supreme Intelligence.

Ronan stepped out of the meeting with Supreme Intelligence, but he was not satisfied.

"Master, shall I prepare the ship to C53?" Koran asked eagerly.

"No." Ronan shook his head as he gritted his teeth, "We join the war against Xandar. In time, we shall return to C53. Prepare the prisoners to be transported for interrogation."

"Yes, master." said Koran before taking his leave.

Ronan turned his back on his servant and looked at Hala. The capital of the Kree Empire shone brightly, and it would be his honour to bring further glory to the Empire. He would do so, one way or another.

But first, he had to defeat those Xandarians and make them submit to Kree rule.