In Titan

Somewhere under the methane lakes of Titan lied a secret base of UN Data Center, filled with super computers and next-gen AIs doing computations perpetually for 382/7. Manned by the scientists of the UN and protected the Union Legions, it is one of the most protected bases of the UN across the solar system. It is also the most secretive base because the moon they are located in, Titan, revolves around Saturn which is currently embroiled in a tug of war between four super states, The Caliphate, PRC or People's Republic of China, JPA or The Japanese-Pacific Alliance and the Southern Federation. The situation in Saturn is like quicksand and the UN would never want to fall in.

Unfortunately, fate seems to think otherwise.

…

General Hawthorne sat in his couch and smoked his pipe as he looked at the man sitting across him in slight fury. The man sitting across him was an agent from Southern Federation, codenamed Agent Corves. The man looked to be in his late-forties but in reality, he was more than eighty-years old. From a single look, one would say that he has a big stature. He wasn't quite tall, only 5 feet tall but his thick arms and most importantly, big round tummy would definitely earn him the title of 'Enormous Fatty.'

But nobody, not even a general of the UN Union Legion would dare to call him that. Why? Because of the soldiers behind him.

Behind Agent Corves stood two soldiers in at-ease position in pitch-black exoskeletons. Both of them were clad in a specially made High-grade Exotic anti-ballistic anti-laser Exoskeleton with Kevlar interior protection and a plethora of electronic and digital gadgets inside. Both of them looked to be 6½ feet tall, not very tall especially when compared to other soldiers of the Union Legion but even then, General Hawthorne was feeling especially sweaty and dissatisfied right now.

Why?

Because, instead of wearing a normal advanced exoskeleton helmet, like most soldiers, these soldiers were wearing a mask on their faces. And normally one would gawk or probably make fun of the Southern Federation's military discipline but General Hawthorne knew exactly from which battalion these soldiers came from and how dangerous they were.

Masked Battalion, Black Devil Legion of the Devil Legion Corps.

Agent Corves smiled widely at General Hawthorne and said in a cheeky tone, "My, oh my, Sir Hawthorne, the UN surely have made such a grand palace in such a beautiful place. Compared to this, our bases in Saturn is nothing but rust buckets!"

"Spit it out already, Corves, what do you want?" Hawthorne said impatiently as he puffed smoke from his pipe.

"Impatient." Muttered Corves, "Well, then let's get to business." He smiled as he took out a few papers and passed it to Hawthorne via one of the Black Devil Soldiers. Hawthorne looked at the papers and immediately his eyes widened in surprise.

"How did you—"

"We didn't." Corves answers, "The Russians did it for us, truth be told." Corves folded his arms and talked as if he was talking with an old friend, "A few months ago, we got a hold of this new Russian UV signal transmitter and decoder back in Venus. As always, like the good friends we are, we bought a batch of it from the Russian Union and thought of using it for some covert mission in Caliphate territory. When we test the equipments here though, we seem to have caught a string of UV signals coming from… somewhere here. Decoded them and voila! Here we are." He said, spreading his arm.

Hawthorne pursed his lips. The papers infront of him clearly states the signals, its frequency and even the hidden message inside it. 'Resource Deployment at 0x54672651.' It was a code which read that resources will be deployed at such-and-such coordinates but Hawthorne was pretty sure that Corves and his intelligence team have already found the coordinates down to the minute details.

"What do you want?" Hawthorne asks as by orders from HQ he couldn't let the news of this base leak out. It would be a violation of the International Space Treaty and even in the most optimistic situation, the PRC and the Caliphate would come to take a bite out of this space base.

Corves knew it and smiled widely, "Nothing, just deliver us something." He said as he again passed a piece of paper. Hawthorne looked at the paper and his eyes widened again but this time, with a trace of fear, "Gamma lasers cannons! What are you—"

He looked up only to see a wickedly smiling Corves. "The War Prince has his plans. I can guarantee you that the news of this base won't leak out. In the future, we will do our very best to shield your UV signals and mask it with our own, so that such petty mistakes doesn't happen. Wouldn't want the other four to bombard us with Gamma Cannons, now would we? So, do we have a deal?"

…

General Hawthorne stood in the Control Room as he gazed at the big screen infront of him where he saw a single, stealthy corvette exit the atmosphere of Titan with uncanny agility before vanishing into the night sky. A few dozens of engineers and scientists were continuously racking their fingers on the keyboard and were constantly refreshing their readings.

Why?

Because a huge word was blaring at the screen infront which made Hawthorne extremely frustrated and that was, 'Blockade'. And the one who blockaded them was none other than a few corvettes of the Southern Federation space fleet. As he was waiting for Corves to fulfil his word, a sudden message pinged up on the large screen and when his people scanned the message and refreshed the readings again, a green light lit up which read, 'Blockade Cleared.'

A visible sigh escaped from the engineers and scientists in the central room. Hawthorne was also relieved but partially. His consciousness was currently in jeopardy as he now had to fulfil a unwritten promise to one of his 'old friends' and that is to deliver the Southern Federation in Saturn a batch of Gamma-laser Cannons from the Southern Federation stronghold of Luna which is an artificial moon revolving around Venus just like how Moon revolves around our Earth.

This is a very tricky business because not only Gamma-laser Cannons are restricted weaponry banned by the UN itself along with every other superpowers but also because Venus is the military base of the Russian Union Federation, which even though is a close ally of the Southern Federation, is not at all close to UN or any of the allied states of USA. Fortunately, Corves has promised him that the Russians won't shoot down any transport ship of the UN until the delivery is over but smuggling banned weapons through US space sector is something near impossible.

Moreover, this was supposed to be a off-the-books thing. Fortunately, this was an only-once kind of thing. If Corves had asked him to smuggle Gamma Cannons every time a resource ship came in, he would have had to hang himself in his quarters.

As he was contemplating his course of action to smuggle a banned weapon of mass-destruction, a woman in her early-twenties entered the central room and stood a few feet away from Hawthorne and saluted him, "General."

"Ah! Zabina Pirelli, what a rare sight!" he said teasingly, hiding his frustration immediately. Zabina smiled and handed him a digital pad. Hawthorne frowned and asked, "What's this?"

"Congratulations General for your retirement." She said with a beaming smile.

"Oh! Those old coots finally confirmed my retirement. Thank goodness, I thought I was really going to miss the 18th birthday of my granddaughter. Thank you very much, Zabina." He smiled at her as he turned away but Zabina wasn't finished. After handing out her first set of objectives, Zabina still stuck there.

Hawthorne noticed her and said in a teasing tone, "What Zabina? Do you want a candy or what, haha!" due to Zabina's young age, everyone in the base considers her as their little sister and even the general thought of her as his little granddaughter than a Master Data Analyst and virtual world creator.

Zabina pouts cutely at him but then shakes her head. "It's a little… different … this time." She said as she handed him another digital pad. Hawthorne looked at the pad and he too instantly frowned at the report.

"How did a civilian get a hold of the Premium Gold Account?" he asked with a deep frown.

Zabina shrugs her shoulders and replies, "The HQ couldn't do anything other than release them. The news of the Premium Gold Account wasn't hidden, first of all and those rich people of the superpowers were hell-bent on getting a specialized pod from Unicorn. In fact, the HQ had to implement measures to restrict those people from hoarding these Premium Gold Accounts. I concur that this guy must've gotten this account from the ones available to the public."

"Even then, Real Death Experience shouldn't be that enticing or easy-to-find if he's not one of those die-hard hardcore fans of virtual realism."

Zabina shakes her head and replies, "We have no info on that. What do you think? Should we silently turn this feature off?" she asked but Hawthorne didn't reply.

'What's up with these federation people? Did they all go insane from eating too much?' he thought but then shook his head.

"No need for that. It was this guy's decision, so he will take all responsibility of it. I reckon after dying once, he will know what real 'death' means and turn this option off on his own. I don't want to be pound to death by those public server admins."

Zabina frowned since she knew that at 50% intensity, there was a good chance of the man dying in real life but the only other way would be to hack the public server and that can't be done whenever one wants. Even by the UN itself.

She sighed inwardly and thought, "Guess, I can only help him in some different ways."

…