1900, September 13th, 2542 (UNSC Military Calender)
Captain's quarters, UNSC Stealth Cruiser Point of No Return, Oort Cloud.
Parangosky glared out into the darkness of space.
The Point of No Return was the most secretive ship in human history, a stealth ship constructed in utter secrecy, crewed by sailors that would spend their whole lives aboard the ship and quite possibly all die aboard it. It was where rebel leaders went to scream their secrets to the stars, and where the darkest decisions could be made without moral quandaries. It was where the most powerfull organisation in human history ruled from.
ONI had been snubbed, and there was little she could do about it. ONI was the most powerful organization in human history, with control over the lives of almost every human being in existence. And they were in the process of garnering control over those that had escaped so far. ONI had dismantled every single national security organization or group that had existed on Earth before the creation of the United Earth Government.
CIA, FBI, KGB, BND, AIVD, MSS, NSA, and a hundred other organizations had all been ripped apart by ONI, dismantled from the inside out, and had their memberships either purged or incorporated into the growing entity that was ONI. These names had been wiped from most histories, and few historians spoke of them, out of fear of attracting the attention of ONI. Humanity had been broken in and was ruled by fear. And most of them didn't even know it. That was ONI. The shadowy ruler of mankind. The invisible iron glove that could choose presidents, depose monarchs, kill popes, and control the collective fate of humanity. And it was all at her fingertips. She was undoubtedly the most powerful human to have ever lived and only grew stronger as ONI's wartime powers grew.
But now ONI wasn't the supreme ruler of the civilized universe anymore. They were just another intelligence service in a massive galaxy-spanning game of spies, saboteurs, and assassination that had played out for centuries before ONI had even existed. The STG had mapped out nearly every attempt to infiltrate Citadel Space and made it clear they had done so multiple times. But the STG was almost like an honorable rival, or even a fraternal organization. ONI and the STG had proven capable partners so far, with combined ships roaming deep behind Covenant lines deeper than ever before, while combined task forces performed operations that broke Covenant armies and provided invaluable salvaged technology. The STG may have jealously guarded its control of the intelligence services of Citadel Space, but they were able to be reasoned with.
The Shadow Broker was something new. A private entity that had existed for centuries and controlled the fates of trillions through the careful application of force and playing other factions against each other. She had read the casualty lists, the people discovered to be working for the Broker, and the raw displays of power he had shown.
An agent of the Broker had walked into an ONI office and told to their faces that the Broker was capable of intercepting ONI transmissions.
Even if the messages had not been decrypted yet, it was still a powerful statement. And had afterwards been brazen enough to offer his services to ONI.
And the worst part was that the Broker was right. ONI was small and insignificant on a galactic scale. It had no proxies or pawns in Citadel Space, no networks of informants, no connections at all levels of society. It had nothing to leverage to increase its standing. For ONI to grow and become to the Citadel what it was to humanity, they would have to be careful and to play the same game that their rivals played.
She thought of killing the Broker, but considered how nobody had done so before. What would happen if the Broker threw all his forces against ONI if Parangosky ordered an attempted subversion of his operations? No, she would have to be very cautious. She'd play the Broker's game. She'd trade what she could afford to, grow ONI's power in Citadel Space, and slowly work her way up to being an equal player with the Broker. If it took decades, then so be it. She'd groom a successor to continue her task.
She turned towards her console and began writing a new set of directives for Rickard. She poured a glass of red wine as she wrote, slowly appreciating the rich flavor of the drink. The next message would be delivered in person by an agent so it could not be intercepted.
PLNB Transmission XX087R-XX
Encryption Code: GAMMA-SHIFT-X-RAY
Public Key: N/A
From: CINCONI
To: MITHRAS
Subject: CITADEL SPACE EXPANSION EFFORTS.
Classification: EYES ONLY, CODE WORD [REDACTED] TOP SECRET
Security Override: BLACK LEVEL-III
Ghost server file-transfer protocol (EXACTION): TRUE
AI-touch protocol (VERACITY): FALSE
Agent Mithras, you are to be commended for your accomplishments. You are being promoted to Commander and given operational command of all ONI operations beyond the relay. You will report directly to me.
We have examined the files you have provided us with and determined that they were taken mid-transmission as they were transmitted over one of the Comm Buoys connected to the Citadel. Decryption has revealed these files to be progress reports by agents operating aboard the Citadel. This means that this "Shadow Broker" has access to the Comm Buoy network of Citadel Space and that our ability to use this network is significantly compromised. Although he can not read our files, for now, we should be concerned about the prospects of the Broker gaining the ability to crack our decryption methods.
As we can not be sure if the Turian customs inspectors on the border are infiltrated by the Shadow Broker, smuggling information out of Citadel Space could be challenging, to say the least. We will have to accept the fact that any networked systems in Citadel Space could be compromised by the Broker, and act accordingly. We are entering a new era for ONI, and need to be prepared. We will be working with the Broker where we need to, and getting every last byte of information we can wring from him, for the lowest possible cost. But we will also ruthlessly stop any attempt to infiltrate UEG territory. But if the Shadow Broker truly has this much reach in Citadel Space, then we will need to grow our efforts to create a system of assets we can use to pre-emptively prevent foreign incursions into UEG territory by foreign intelligence organizations.
Our attempts to provide you with a Smart AI for the purposes of data collection and analysis have not come to fruition due to the strict border controls in place by the Turians and Salarians. To avoid a diplomatic incident, no Smart AI will be provided to any ONI cells in Citadel Space, until Smart AI technology has been legalized. Efforts to contact Synthetic Rights interest groups in Citadel Space by the UEG diplomatic service have proven receptive so far, and we believe that this could be accomplished within the year. Unfortunately for us, the Salarians have been working on developing their own Smart AI and had some measure of success in doing so. They have also been blocking any attempt to export Smart AI into Citadel Space until they have closed this technological gap. Salarian Smart AI currently only exist inside of lab environments and are unstable due to the difficulty of mapping Salarian neural networks.
You have new objectives. You are to ascertain the viability of the following projects, and if possible, execute them.
There exists a state of complete diplomatic disconnect between the Citadel Council and the Quarians for the latter unleashing of a race of rogue artificial intelligences. But that does not matter to us. We have reason to believe the Citadel will not interfere with any attempt to deal with them. You will negotiate with them on behalf of the UNSC and attempt to entice as many Quarians as possible to do indentured construction and salvage work for a reasonable payment in Eezo. Housing, food, and healthcare will all be provided to any workers that sign a three-year contract. This is so we can move skilled human labor towards military construction.
The UNSC Marine Corps have reported increased sightings of Brutes on the battlefield, and we sorely lack in training opportunities to take on these opponents. You are to acquire a thousand Krogan mercenaries to serve as trainers for the Marines in close quarters combat. Also, keep an eye out for skilled professional mercenary groups that you would trust with low-level garrison work. Freeing up soldiers is a top priority.
You are also to negotiate with the Batarians discretely about sending a labor corps of a million Batarians to do construction work on the compromised work on the frontiers. Naturally, none who enter UNSC space can be allowed to leave until the war is over. But we believe the Batarian caste system should enable them to easily scrape up a large group of servile Batarian laborers. If need be, we can sell this to the public as trying to extend a fig leaf, and offering an opportunity for a "joint settlement initiative to facilitate a peaceful understanding with the Batarian Hegemony."
While I understand apprehensions about inviting large groups of alien labor, the ability to retrain the human laborers these Batarians would replace into high technology, and military vocations is quite tempting. And the ability to once more tap into resources lost to the Covenant could be invaluable. Naturally, we will not allow any form of permanent migration by aliens into the Inner Colonies, which is why these efforts will focus on near-uninhabitable Outer Colony worlds. We do not possess the human labor needed to recolonize all these worlds, so an alternative source of labor shall have to suffice. They can safely be discarded and returned to Batarian Space when we no longer require their services.
Your recommendation in regards to AI dispensations has been denied. But your discovery of this potential threat is a credit to your insight. Additional fail-saves will be added to AI vital to the war effort, and ONI internal affairs and a task force is being established to monitor our AI for any potential dissent or foreign intrusions.
In regards to these "Collectors". The Section Zero Ethics Committee has agreed on handing over bodies to the Collectors but refusing to give them live subjects. We have earmarked a large selection of political dissidents for termination and cold storage if a deal with the collectors can be made. These would have spent a lifetime in ONI custody or been executed anyways, and will therefore not be missed. We also stored a selection of stillborn fetuses with rare genetic defects in the events the Collectors will trade for them. We do not do this lightly, but the possibility of acquiring particle beam weaponry is just too valuable to pass on. We want at least five different types of Collector technology in exchange for any deal. This will be a one time deal and no more.
Semper Vigilans
/file encryption complete/
/transferring file to data drive/
-
There was a knock at the door, and Colonel James Ackerson walked in, saluting Parangosky. He had been working for Parangosky for a while now, serving as her personal lackey in ways she did not trust others. He was loyal, obedient, and utterly focused when pointed in the right direction.
"Apologies for the interruption, but we might have a situation. President Roselynn of the UEG has raised concerns in private about ONI consolidating control over diplomatic efforts in the Terminus systems. Our Analysis AI think that she has become emboldened by contact with the Citadel, and the recent military successes to try and push back against ONI influence in UEG society."
"She dies in her sleep next Friday," Parangosky stated without a hint of mercy. Roselynn would die in her sleep, be buried with full honors, and be seen as the last of a line of chaotic democratic rulers. It would also be on a day that Parangosky was on a tour of the new Prowler yards on Reach and unfortunately couldn't attend.
Parangosky disliked Roselynn. An utterly pointless and weak leader whose sole purpose was to keep the remaining civilian bureaucracy functional. The last president of the UEG before martial law had been declared and kept around purely to serve an administration that was slowly being subsumed into ONI and the UNSC as time went along. Taking control of foreign policy with the Terminus Systems was merely another way ONI could guide humanity forwards without the chaos and disruption of democratic rule getting in the way. Parangosky preferred for ONI to not be seen or heard, but still able to exert influence. Parangosky had made it her personal goal to drag humanity into the future after the discovery of the alien ruins on Onyx, and would let nothing get in the way.
She took another sip of red wine. She brought up her next task of the day.
She looked at a long list of names. Student activists with the potential to create a large following, former UEG senators that agitated for a return to democracy, scientists who broke restrictions on research, members of ONI that had violated the edicts of Section Zero's Ethics committee and were to be neutralized, and conspiracy theorists that had come too close to the truth. All of the people that could bring chaos to the organized state that she had spent her life constructing, a return to the chaos of the insurrection and the political strife that had spawned them.
No. Democracy was a failure, and would only serve to make the masses think that ONI still helped them. ONI would control the fate of humanity and lead them through the war with the Covenant. Afterward, she could have Carté Blanche to reconstruct human society in a way that promoted long term stability.
She signed the kill order. They would be brought in for interrogations and be terminated without a trace before the day was over.
Ackerson remained in the doorway. "Ma'am. I wished to ask you about my request regarding the Spartan Three project."
Parangosky nodded. "I have discussed your proposal with Rear Admiral Rich and Captain Gibson. Your suggestion to look into the development of a new generation of "budget Mjolnir" for the Spartan Three program has been approved. You are correct in your assertion that we don't need disposable Spartans anymore, but a powerful spearhead for the UNSC military. If your Spartans can perform effectively, the Spartan-II program will be disbanded and formally integrated into the Spartan III program as leaders and trainers. Your request to be given command of this formation is still under debate."
Ackerson smiled and gave a firm salute to Parangosky, then left the room. Parangosky liked working with Ackerson. He was both competent and incredibly easy to manipulate if you knew how to use him properly. Without Halsey in control of her Spartans, she'd get rid of one of the few voices of dissent in ONI.
Parangosky had alway disliked Halsey and had been working hard to find a way to push her aside, and the new resources at the UNSC's disposal had finally created the opportunity she'd sought. If the Spartan Threes became a long-lasting military form, she finally had the leverage needed to disband the Spartan Twos and merge them with the threes. Then she could ultimately sideline Halsey. She'd put Ackerson in charge alongside hand-picked personnel, and have another portion of the UNSC military under ONI's thumb.
She thought back to what had first set her upon this past. The ruins on Onyx and the revelation that alien life existed. She had worked tirelessly to have humanity be prepared for what was to come and even been a supporter of the Spartan-II program initially. She admired the Turian meritocratic system and could imagine ONI as a beautiful Coccoon that could allow humanity to transition from chaotic democracy to a technocratic meritocracy. Naturally, with ONI at the top of it all.