Fielding sighed.

Today was not exactly an easy one. A week ago, Brazilia had moved troops to defend one of its Titanium mines from a horde of raptor bugs. That wouldn't really have been a cause for concern, except that the Slavic Federation had assumed that Brazilia was mobilizing for war, as the pack had been destroyed nearby one of the Federation's colonies. While Fielding had no personal stake in the conflict, there was one ARC city in-between the two nations, and there was a risk that, should the Slavs and the Brazilian's go to war, her people would get caught in the crossfire.

Adding to that was growing tensions between the PAC and PAU. The Cooperative had worked with the Union in the past, and was eager to resume business with them now that they had arrived on another world. Barre, however, had never forgotten how these deals had been heavily in favor of the PAC, and how much his people had suffered from this uneven deals. While he was still respectful around Daoming, for he had no personal reason to hate her, relations between the two remained icy.

Franco-Iberia and INTGR were also experiencing tensions, but that hardly surprised Fielding: they were led by people who had radically different political, economic and technological views. Considering Elodie and Lena were cousins, there was also probably a feeling of familial rivalry between the leaders, who felt the need to one up each-other and prove they were the superior cousin. Fieldling could hardly bring herself to admonish them here, for she had possessed a similar rivalry with her sisters back on Earth.

Fielding felt a pang of regret at that thought, for now, her sisters had probably been dead for some time. While they may have been competitive, they still loved each other, and Fielding really missed them right now. At the moment, though, she had to bury her feelings: she had other things to think about.

Back to INTGR and Franco-Iberia: while Fielding couldn't really bring herself to chastise Elodie and Lena for having a rivalry, she was still worried about how such a rivalry would affect their colonies, especially given how much their ideologies conflicted with each-other.

Overall, the current state of civilization on Chiron, while not bleak, wasn't as optimistic as it had once been.

And then, out of nowhere, a machine the size of a fairly large building had shown up out of nowhere and started building...well, she wasn't completely sure there. Orbital satellites had marked out factories, mining equipment, power generators, and various defense systems, but Fielding doubted that this was all that it could produce. Strangely, though, it had taken care to avoid damaging the native ecosystem, even planting new forests around its base. Why was something Fielding could not figure out.

The machine had claimed that it was built by another colony and had a pilot, though Fielding doubted this. Still, she didn't have any concrete evidence to work with, so playing along with the machine's claims for now was her best option. She didn't doubt that it could take on the ARC and win. In fact, given that it was able to build factories that could build what appeared to be tanks in a mater of seconds, she doubted that they machine would have trouble conquering the entire planet.

This led Fielding to one conclusion: for whatever reason, the machine didn't want to conquer the planet. Given its actions, it might have wanted to convert the planet into some kind of nature preserve, at the behest of either other colonists or (possibly) aliens. She'd heard stories about aliens with glowing green plasma weapons had invaded Earth, only to be repulsed by secretive soldiers with an X symbol on their armor, but she wasn't sure whether that was truth or a myth: there was enough evidence going either way. Chungsu, for once, had actually tried to help her find more details on this story, but the facts remained elusive.

Fielding wasn't the only one who'd been worried about the Machine's arrival. Every colony had its fair share of people who were afraid of the machine, though no one was willing to attack it yet. So far, everyone had agreed that now was not the time for violence: negotiation was preferable, at least until ore could be determined about the machine. Personally, Fielding hoped that war could be avoided: the machine had allowed them to decide when it should meet with the leaders of Chiron, on their terms, which was a great indication that it indeed sought peace. Bloodshed was something best avoided when possible, and profiting from war was something even she had reservations about. Additionally, peace could open the path to trade, and, if the machine was built by aliens, that meant a market completely untapped and ripe for exploitation.

The thought of that much wealth, as well as the prestige that would come with, made Fielding all the more eager to seek peace with the Machine. To her relief, she was not alone here: all of the leaders of the myriad colonies on Chiron had agreed to hold a summit to attempt diplomatic relations with the machine. It had already been decided that the Africa Union would host the summit, for it represented humanity not at its best, but at its most welcoming, which was important for first impressions.

Now all they had to agree on was the date...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Slowly getting caught up now!

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!