214

V.13

When Karou implemented the second stage of his plan. 

The first one to be greatly affected by it is GFA, as an organization built using both material resources and human resources, the organization itself is always tethering in the verge of collapse, only the elders' good relationship with each other, as well as profits that they are expected to get, are holding it in place. After all, no one wants to have their cash cows butchered. 

GFA are like cheese it may look solid on the outside but they are full of holes in the inside.

Conflict is a constant thing in the GFA internal system. After all, a single department may consists of personnel coming from different organizations, and they all have their own agenda and prejudices, each and everyone wants to give their side an advantage. 

To the elders it's a normal thing, because of the foundation of their organization being related to many other top superpowers, it would be weird if everyone just accepted the ordinance and shakes hands and become brothers and sisters. 

That's not all, as many of the said organizations used to be in conflict with each other, and only with Ganesh's appearance being a common enemy, they manage to set aside their differences. 

To the leader of the organization, that is not really a hard thing to do as their every action is based on profits and not personal feelings. Still, it is not so much on the ground level as many of them grow up hating the others from different organization, specially those who lost their friends and loved ones to other organizations during the conflict. It's very hard for them to set aside their hatred and prejudices. 

And so in every department a hidden war is constantly being waged, whether undermining the others or sometimes it goes as bad as sabotaging the others. 

Of course, the higher-ups turn a blind eye to most of it unless they broke the line, the higher-ups don't really meddle with the lower level affairs. After all, they too are at war in their own level, battling all rivals to get to a better position. 

And because of that, there's bound to be casualties of that said war. And those are the targets of Karou's agents either turning them into a spy or, if possible, turning them into a saboteur. In fact, many accepted the proposal, especially with the huge amount of benefits being offered. 

And this kind of thing is happening to all major organizations, as even GT employees are poached. Only in GT, very few would accept those conditions no matter how great it is, since GT treats all its employees well. Of course, there are those who would succumb to temptation only to regret it later. 

The moment they make their move, Ash and Gaia can quickly identify them.

Of course, it's not full-proof there are still those who are good at hiding their real intentions. 

But Dianna is not really worried about it. After all, important positions are filled with system personnel. All secrets of GT are only privy to system personnel except to a select few non-system personnel. But even so, the real secrets would still be hidden from them like the existence of a system factory or anything related to it. 

Suddenly rumors started circulating at GFA headquarters. It started just like any rumor but quickly got spread out when the information regarding the sudden Ganesh attacks became leaked. After all, the elders of GFA ordered a complete gag order regarding the most recent and probably the most devastating attacks from Ganesh. 

The rumors go like this: some of the Elders and top management officers betrayed humanity and leaked the vulnerability of the many squadrons leading to Ganesh's attacks that resulted in massive deaths. 

And since many of the soldiers and workers of GFA have acquaintances or relatives working as soldiers or officers on the many squadrons that were attacked. They became very concerned and started to ask around if the rumors are true. 

But with the gag order, nobody will tell them anything, and this only increased their worry. At first, they didn't believe it at all, as humanity was winning the war against the Ganesh. 

And the Ganesh are in full defensive mode. So no one would believe that they lost not just one but several squadrons in a short span of a single day. It had to be said that a single squadron has more than 100,00 personnel working on it. Losing several squadrons means the loss of lives are too much to imagine, as one girl said. 

But as days passed and with no word from top management, the rumors became more weird and exaggerated, and it was apparent that the rumors are real as many gave a version of their own, making it get worse and worse. One rumor even stated that GFA is not really losing soldiers to war but instead selling the soldiers to other alien races as slaves to be transported to many labor camps, and the war is only a cover for this business. 

Some even stated that some elders are actually hostile aliens in disguise, and the rumors go on and on. 

And with the elders busy cleaning up the mess of the recent attacks. Quelling stupid rumors is the last on their agenda. And with a gag order, even public relations are at their wit's end, after all, they can't answer any questions regarding the said attacks, which only fuelled the rumors more. 

By the time the top management detected the change in the atmosphere, it was already too late. Those rumors are only brought and circulated in lower to medium level of GFA, and only in secret, as no one has the guts to discuss those rumors in the open no matter how brave they are. 

When some of the elders finally made aware of it, the rumors already shook many GFA personnel's loyalty. They can see it in the eyes of almost everyone they encountered within GFA, the eyes of distrust and hate. 

The eyes who used to look at them with reverence and respect were replaced with hatred, suspicion and fear, especially those who have friends and family in the squadron that has been lost. 

In a secluded place, several people are discussing something that affects the entire bright galaxy. "I assure you! you made the right choice, said the woman smiling widely." 

The old man who looks to be in his 60, smiled wryly and shook his head. "I am betraying not just just myself and my beliefs but all of humanity." 

"But you know this is the only way our race can move on," said the lady, still smiling widely. 

The old man didn't reply, he just shook his head, turned around and left. He has a job to do. Since he already made a decision, there's no use regretting it. Only time would tell if he can become a hero who saves his race or a traitor who betrays humanities, and causing countless lives to be lost. 

When the old man left, the woman didn't stop him nor did she say more. After all, her job is done, and she claims the highest price of all Karou's agents. 

 A few moments later, after confirming the old man had already left, she made a phone call. 

"It is done, we finally have someone from the elder's level." Said the woman. 

"Good job," said the man on the other side of the line. 

"Haha, that old man is really hard to convince even when I used my ability, he didn't become an elder for nothing i guess. I expect a good bonus for this alright." 

"Of course..  you will be greatly rewarded, I will inform top management of your great contribution. So don't worry you can move on the next step." 

"I know. This is going to be fun." Said the woman laughing. 

"Don't get careless now. You know how important this mission is. Queen…" after saying that, the man hangs up. 

EDITOR: King of Mortals