In a dimly lit room, filled thick with cigarette smoke and a mild aroma of mint vape, five man sat around the table. One of them, dressing and old-fashioned suit, lit another cigarette, of which he lost count long ago, and spoke, softly, trying to hide the tension in his voice.
"Gentlemen, I don't think I have to explain to you what just went down less than twenty hours ago, but for the sake of having a common ground, I'll lay down the basics. Less than twenty hours ago, a massive, coordinated strike was carried out on no less than seven of our research and military facilities by an unknown force. They have appeared seemingly out of nowhere, using a portable jump beacons, made a clean, full" and he made a strong accent on word "full" "sweep of all the facilities, leaving not a soul behind, and then retreated into unknown jump destination using the same beacon. The only survivors left were several ships stationed in the orbit who were lucky enough to retreat to the nearest accelerator, plus a small fleet station at Horizon-6, who gave a fight back, although with very heavy casualties. So far no group have come out to claim responsibility, plus a private statement from High Flagship herself, claiming the Fog too has no connections to this attack. None of our specialists were able to identify the signatures. Their ships are unmarked, classes, types - unknown. Every unit that we managed to destroy at Horizon were completely destroyed by an unknown singularity device. Facilities targeted varied in their nature and purpose. It is unknown exactly what are the enemy's goals, nor who is exactly the enemy here."
Silence again fell across the room. The men present here comprised the so called "Special Defence Committee", or SDC for short. A special committee of high ranking intelligence directors, aimed at ensuring the security of Admiralty space and dealing with external threats not pertaining to the Fog. The Fog was in jurisdiction of the Admiralty's highest ranks, and was obsolete for twelve years, when the treaty was signed. Usually, their cases were small terrorist attacks. Separatist groups from both humans and rouge Fog cells still not happy with the apparent peace. Incidents, and subsequent operations that were easy to hide, easy to solve. This time, it was different. These men were faced with circumstances nobody could understand. An attack that can't be hidden from the media. An attacker that can't be identified. And a circumstances that clearly shown that more is to be expected. Questions arise, but the most prominent one was even not "why?" and not "who?". The question everybody had on their minds was "when?".
One of the people at the table lifted his hand. He was wearing a Director's shoulder badge on his uniform. Naval Intelligence officer, Director Philip O'Neel.
"I'm sure we're full of questions right now, most important is when and where can we expect the next attack."
Nobody said a word. He continued.
"But the question that is even more pressing, and the one we have to find and answer for, and fast, is how in the hell are we going to answer all others."
The man in the suit, only referred to by others as "The Commissioner", waved his hand at another man, in his late twenties, wearing a Lieutenant badge.
"Duncan, call her in."
Lieutenant nodded, stood up, and went to the door. He opened it, and called made a welcoming gesture to somebody waiting in the corridor.
"Shibuya, the board wants to see you."
Kongo walked into the room. She was wearing a blue synthetic jacket, sporting a clean white shirt underneath, and old, but clean brown military cargos. Her hair arranged into one neat ponytail. She already stood in this very room, no longer than a month ago, trying to warn the SDC about an oncoming attack. They didn't listen. They mocked her for having a Fog origin. They called her a spy. They laughed. Except for the Commissioner, Duncan and O'Neel. But Duncan was only an assistant, and four others wanted her out. Now, they wanted her back and with answers. Answers she now couldn't give to them because it was too late. The case she was pushing had since gone cold. The contacts, the suspects - disappeared without a trace into the thin air.
"Agent, I believe you know what you were called in for." The Commissioner spoke.
"Yes." The answer was short, but sharp.
"You may begin"
Kongou placed a data device on the table. A screen on the wall turned bright blue. Several faces, photos of cargo, maps appeared on it.
"Two months ago, following a bioweapon incident in Cydonia, Mars, an existence of a large, organised group was uncovered, along with evidence of this group's activity across the Admiralty territory and beyond. Two months ago, I stood in this room, requesting permission to conduct further investigations regarding this group, for I had evidence of a large scale search and run operation to be conducted on our territory. Because of my origin and limitations placed on me, I could not access the information which is normally available to my rank and occupation, so I could not commit this investigation on my own, without SDC approval. Two of you gave a yes. Two of you vetted me."
Kongou made a swiping gesture on the screen. What was on it was replaced with images of destroyed facilities, casualty lists, damage reports.
"This, I believe, is the result. With all my respect to your rank and position, I'm afraid you fucked up."
Again, nobody said a word. The remaining members of the committee who vetted her before could only avert their eyes, trying to look anywhere but at her, the screen or each other.
"I can take a guess, you want me to answer the hard questions following this attack. I'm afraid, I can't give you the answers." She made another swipe. Faces appeared. "I had intel suggesting there was no less than fifty moles inside the Admiralty forces, of varying rank and occupation. Look hard at their faces." After a minute of silence, Kongou picked and enlarged three mugshots. "Remember their faces? Names sound any familiar?"
Committee had no answer. Those three were their colleagues, who also vetted Kongou in her request.
"Those three, and forty seven more disappeared without a trace within five minutes following the attack. This is not just a fuck up. This is massive fuck up, gentlemen. The intelligence fucked up. Inner security fucked up. Naval Initiative fucked up. Pretty much all of the admiralty fucked up. This could have been prevented. But alas, we fucked up. Me. You. Everyone. What we have now is nothing. Evidence destroyed. Everything save from the copy of MY report from Cydonia that I had left. People gone. Nobody to answer, nobody to take accountable. Nobody put people who vetted me back then. The moles would have said "no" still. But you two, could have said "yes". With Commissioner and Director O'Neel, that would have been four against two. Yet you didn't. You allowed your prejudice and position could your judgement in the face of the facts. Now you have only my report and knowledge, a devastating attack and no answers. Now I ask you, what do you expect me to do?"
Silence, again.
"I have a good news, to brighten up the mood. Not all trails had gone cold. But I have to restate my request once again. I need full access to every bit of classified data I request. I need a team and I need time. And you will have your answers, gentlemen. All of them. I cannot say how soon, but I will damn make sure it will be soon enough to prevent another disaster."
Silence. A recurring pattern with this meeting. After a few moments, Commissioner and O'Neel looked at the remaining two members. They looked at each other. One spoke.
"Sit down, Agent Shibuya."
"And?"
"We'll start with a team."
Kongou took a free seat across the table. Carefully took some paper copies out of her bag, perhaps a dozen, and tossed them in men's direction.
"How big are we talking about?" The same man who ordered her to sit talked.
"I'm talking two, but at the same time I'm talking more."
"Explain?"
"For start, I want my old partner from Cydonia incident back. This time, I want him strictly as a pilot, his official occupation. He will pilot "Hopscotch". I also need someone who can be trusted and who has extensive expertise in special operations. We're talking black ops. The dossiers I have presented contain possible candidates, profiled personally by me, but I trust you also know a few yourself. Each of them must have a team of their own under command and extensive expertise at most types of combat possible. Covert Ops. Combat intelligence. EVA Ops. Interplanetary ops. I need the best unit you can pick from these, as I have no experience with any of these people. The dossiers all contain people who match all my expectations except relative experience, as I have never worked with any of them. I trust you to pick the best one out and send them and their team to me as soon as you can. I don't care what they are doing, I don't care where they are doing it right now, I need them no farther than two days from now. This is what I meant by "Two but more". I care about commander, but I trust that commander will have a unit to match. I also need a ship large enough to house my "Hopscotch" and a Captain up to the task. I need the fastest, most discreet ship you can think of, and it has to be independent. I give you two days for everything. Those are my conditions. Don't like them? No answers for you."
"Agent, you are falling out of line.."
"Yes. And I feel like I have a moral obligation to. After our last meeting, I will be the one making demands here. You want answers, I want means for obtaining them. And to kickstart everything, I need every bit of info on operation "Match Fuze" conducted fifty years ago. Every bit of info. Everything. Questions?"
Commissioner lit another cig.
"You will have everything. The info by the time you will be in car on your way to the Terminal. The team by tomorrow's noon."
"And the ship?"
"I've picked a captain beforehand, he is on standby in the orbit, docked with "Providence" station. Captain Chihaya".
"The junior or the senior?"
"The junior. Aboard the "Iona". With Hopscotch already inside. You are free to leave Providence as soon as your team is aboard, stocked and ready. You will have full authority over almost anyone for the duration of your investigation, for the rest, you contact me and we'll grant you temporary permissions. Before then, you are not allowed to leave."
Commissioner then stood up and addressed everyone in the room.
"I believe this concludes this meeting. We will be awaiting further reports, Agent."
In the corridors of the Admiralty building, Director O'Neel had caught up with Kongou.
"Pretty impressive show you put up there, Kongou. It was a bluff, wasn't it? We have nothing."
"We have enough to get us started"
"The Match Fuze angle? I sure hope so."
"It's not much, but I believe it can help us find out what they were searching for."
"Yeah, all we can do is just sit there with our thumbs up our asses and cross our unoccupied fingers for you."
"I'll better not keep you waiting then!"
"Uhuh. Oh, by the way, have you met Gunzou before?"
"I did. But not this one. I wonder if they look similar."
"Oh. How was he, six hundred years ago?"
"Righteous, relentless, focused. But also kind. He wanted the best of everybody. Including the Fog."
"Did you like him?"
"I was interested in him, yes. For a while anyway, until I disappeared. Maybe even liked him. Maybe even in that way. But that was long ago. Not long for me, but still. Past is past. I'm amused that history repeated itself in that way, but he's not the Gunzou I knew. I looked the profile. I find this funny."
"Well, you'll like the lad. Matches the qualities you described, plus packs quite some charisma, that devil. To the point where he openly dates his own damn ship"
Kongou chuckled.
"My one wasn't that bold, I guess. And listen, one more thing."
"Horizon?"
"Yes. Any news on Grass Hopper?"
"Last time I was able to raise them, they were hiding somewhere in the veil, trying to refuel and repair, with Yokosuka's finest students as it's crew. And some Archeon merks, actually the last in existence, but they don't know about it, yet. And our friend there… She's a captain now."
"Really? Her? Well, raise them again. Break the news. Oyodo is technically in possession of Admiralty vessel. We let her escape on it, it's time for her to start returning the favor."
"What do I tell her?"
"Feed her the coordinates of that Medusa vessel I tracked from Cydonia. Let her investigate it. Pass some intel from my report, specifically on that bioweapon it was carrying, and tell her to be careful. And keep it under wraps. She's the only ace we have in our deck, we can't let anybody find out she survived Horizon 6."
O'Neel nodded, and they split their ways on yet another intersection. Kongou stepped out of the Admiralty building. It was early winter, and it was snowing. First time this year. A car was waiting by the stairs, ready to take her to the Terminal. She got in and closed the door. It made a loud noise.
