Consultance

Julius stood in front of a row of screens upon screens upon screens in a dark wooden room. These screens complete a smiling face, the AI that dwelled underneath the Reichsstadt. Completely safe from any and all attacks, arguably Julius’ most powerful asset.

“Guippy, what else do you have on Dorsia?” He asked, one of the screens showed Dorsia inside the white room, he sat there, silently. But inside he knew he was slowly losing his mind. That for him, these two hours lasted for years already, absolute silence, absolutely nothing. That was the point of the white room.

“Nothing you shouldn’t know. Best we could do is wait for his confession.” Beeped Guippy, it couldn’t talk, “Unless you don’t know about the reformation of the Caspian lines that’s going on.”

“It should be obvious that that’s happening, yes. Tell me more.”

“Well,” Guippy started to beep as if to think, and think it did, “Aha. Leaked documents revealed-- as well as documents yet to be leaked-- say that the Caspian empire will be sending four hundred million soldiers all around the galaxy for one final offensive to claim Concursus.”

“Four hundred million?” Four hundred million was a lot, even by Caspian standards, it seemed like they sought to overwhelm all the other empires before they could further muster their defenses. The problem Julius faces with this is that, “Four hundred million is too huge for us to influence.”

Four hundred million soldiers would be about 10 army groups, 20 field armies, 40 corps. It would be best if he could infiltrate the army groups, but the best he could do is infiltrate the lower groups, sabotage their advance, and give information.

“Guippy, begin screening and recruitment again and broadcast it throughout the entire intergalactic spectrum. We need to get people into the Caspian army before their offensive.”

“Affirmative, my Lord.” The AI beeped continuously as Julius himself exits the room. Marcus awaited outside along with another friend of theirs, a man named Decimus.

“Ah, Decimus!” Julius came in to hug the friend of his, Decimus had been absent for quite a while as well, he was tasked by Julius to court the Antediluvian senate all the while handling the Green Division.

“My friend, you do not need to worry about the Antediluvian senate too much now.”

“Wonderful! And about the lower ground senators? Did you get them to our side?”

“Yes, yes. Of course, I told them about your promise, about how you’d give them land in Concursus once the war is over. And of course, the next election in about…” Decimus pulled out his phone and checked the date, “A year and two months, we can shift it towards our favor.”

“Wonderful, so our entire plan hinges on the victory over the Amazonias… should be easy enough, hang on.” He stepped back into the AI room, “Guippy.”

“Yes, my lord?” The AI beeped.

“What’s your earliest prediction for the Caspian offensive?”

The AI sounded its calculations as waves upon waves of numbers, letters, and the jumbling jubilation of everything happening upon the galaxy coalesced into a single point in time upon it. It sounded its woes as it calculated everything everywhere all at once, this wasn’t the most effective way of going about things. But Julius would have no choice upon the matter, after a minute or so, the AI was done. “Six months at the earliest, two years at the latest.”

“Thank you, carry on.” Julius headed back out to his friends, “We have at most, six months. Marcus, I want you to lead the Condottieri, make sure that Elizabeth herself signs us in, could I rely on you for that?”

“Aye aye captain, I have some people in Caspian just waiting for your executive orders.” Marcus saluted.

“As for you, Decimus. I need your help in sabotaging the Sakilo-Jawani army holed up in the Amazonias. The first light of battle would begin in…” He checked his watch, “About 3 days, make sure that most of them are inoperational by then.”

“Gotcha. How about you, Julius? What’s your plan?” The three of them stared at one another.

“I’ll be handling the screening of my personal army of course, I already set up Agrippa to take care of the boy and the Amazonias. If you do it right we will be done in less than a week, you got that?”

“I got you.”

“Wonderful.”

*

Agrippa, Caius, and Angelica sat together in the dark part of the cafeteria, away from prying eyes and wandering ears. Caius thought about the lonely ace that sat in front of him, she chowed down on food cooked by Agrippa as if she hadn't ate since Julius discovered her.

They sat there, in front of her, in abject discomfort. Yet neither of them budged, there really wasn’t much they could do to tell this girl to calm down. Hell, they only ordered her meal half a minute ago, and already she’s done.

“You seem a lot less… stoic? From when we first met.”

“I’m just hungry.” She replied back, and she was, obviously enough. Not a single piece of food left in sight of the plate. Frightening.

“I can see that, anyways, it appears my uncle raised you.” He was direct, and straight to the point, like a dart straight into her brain, and yet she belted back instantly.

“He did, yes. And he raised me well, seeing as I could go toe to toe against you..” She said, Though whether she meant that as a boast or just a two-sided compliment neither of them would know.

“Ah. I see then… Might I ask? Do you have someone to help you with your flight exercises?” Angelica felt her world shatter, she had no friends and she knew it. Not even a single person would fly along with her for fear of her disappointment. For her entire years of flying, only Caius managed to keep up with her.

“No one.” There was no point in making excuses about her lack of friends.

“Is that so, then what do you say about exercises later tonight? I do want to know more about you after all?”

“I don’t date.”

“You are literally my wingman.”

“Ah.” Ah. That was all she could say as she was compelled to agree with his proposition. Quietly, she ordered another batch of food and ate more.

“Say, Agrippa. When you were in Romulus, were you aware of any stories?”

“Hm? Why ask?”

“Guess I’m curious.”

“When Romulus disappeared, there was one prevailing theory that went around the villages and towns around the world. That it went back to the core of Concursus.”

“Core? That would mean that they managed to teleport the entire megacity straight into the core, no?”

“No, rather the word got around that Romulus was never supposed to be above ground. You have to remember, Caius, part of the reason why the empires invaded was to utilize Concursian technology.

“Well, what are you implying then?”

“It’s not that I’m implying it myself, it’s just a word that got around. But basically, Concursus was hollowed out by the first Concursians, built Romulus as its core stabilizer, and only went above ground to engage in trade with the other empires.”

Caius slouched back to his seat and stretched. He carefully processed the words that came out of his friend’s mouth, after a while, he stared back at his friend and said, “Ridiculum per absurdum.”

“Indeed it is.”