Chapter 15: Investigation

'On other news, the Rockies have been a major topic of galactic spotlight recently, as the released documents of evidence of GBI's intervention with Brakagi's downfall in the Rocky government sparked an outrage in the Rocky systems which sparked a supposed bloodless revolution that resulted in the ungraceful exit of the current Rocky president away from the post and Brakagi's return. Intersystemic relations expert suspect that a shift in galactic senate political dynamic is about to arrive, much to Brakagi's wishes.

'However, the newly appointed Rocky president promised that he will change his previous ways and go for a more gradual and diplomatic approach for increased Rocky influence, to quote "Do it just like humans". Whether that will hold true is yet to come, but if anything, one thing is for certain. The galaxy is in one hell of a ride before the election season coming up in four months.'

'Fear-mongering media...' Cellica slammed her fist down to shut up the hologram, which paused at an image of Brakagi and his outreached hands towards his royal followers that now believed him as the savior of the Rocky people. The specific tones and wording of the media anchor that is intended to stir up maximum amount of uncertainty and stress is one thing, but the truth of the matter is that Brakagi is planning something, and Cellica just isn't sure that will be the extent of his plans.

He IS an artifact user, so why would he stop there?

Getting up and walking sluggishly towards her kitchen, Cellica looked at her lean morning physique in the mirror before throwing on a single bit t-shirt and started making some breakfast.

The coffee machine beeped once to indicate that the coffee beans are out, and Cellica will need to pay for more. She slammed her finger on the 'purchase' button before straining it a touch and cocking her hands back. This isn't exactly a good start to her day.

Thanks, media.

The morning and evening are a mere construct within the GBI headquarters. The sun she is seeing overhead is a gigantic projection powered by the energy collected from swarms of mirrors around Hades, the sun of their current system. She breathed some artificially refreshed air on her balcony as a much more positive beeping sound indicating her coffee being made came from the kitchen.

She looked at her personal interface, and Ol has already replied back since her check in.

'We are on standby if you need our assistance. Stay safe.'

'You can always count on Ol.' Cellica said to herself as she grinned at the kind hearted message. Then she finally realized something before her fingers worked their magic and typed up a response.

;Can you use the scroll to check if Brakagi is behind...' She halted the movements of her fingers as her thought rampaged into a frenzy. No...that makes no sense. There is no way that an artifact user can affect events on a solar level. Sir Deva is physically the strongest artifact user the group has encountered, and he is not even working on the planet level in terms of power output.

But what the hell, Ol can use his power every day. There is plenty of time.

'Can you use the scroll to check if Brakagi altered the trajectory of Olympus B in anyway?' Cellica wrote, 'if that's true, then Brakagi is not only an enemy of the GBI from now on, but an enemy of the entire Olympus system, which houses the galactic senate, the highest governing body in the galaxy.

Cellica has so many questions...can any single being even do such a thing? And what is Brakagi's plan?

'A mission back to Olympus Prime?' Cellica wondered if it's time to shift her office away for a little while. Plus, she can take care of Vel, Valerie's little sister currently studying in one of the orbital habitats should anything happen. The mission itself will certainly do quite a bit of good when it comes to gathering more information on what exactly the sun is doing, and it should be simple enough of a request to go for as that is also where the group of Absolute Being is last seen.

Hell, she could probably move her entire unit to Olympus Prime.

'You wanted to be relocated to Olympus Prime?' Officer Sundera repeated after Cellica's request at mid-day as she twirled her now yellow hair around her fingers, 'Then it will be wise for you to also investigate on the rumors of the falling sun while you are at it, since you are now basically my supernatural unit.'

'Thank you, Officer Sundera.' Cellica said, getting up from her seat in her officer before entering the greater working area where her unit is currently working on. So far, they are still digging through mountains of files and using sorting algorithms to find all relevant information on the Absolute Being, including tracking ship trajectories, cargo and human movements, monetary transactions and others.

Off the record, Cellica also told them to track for anything Infinity is doing, but the data on Infinity is nearly impossible to obtain, so a large part of the unit is also working on that specific task.

'Get up and pack up!' Cellica declared, clapping her hands together to garner the attention of her group, 'we are going on an adventure! To Olympus Prime!'

Meanwhile, Cellica's personal interface has picked up a reply from Ol.

'Are you sure?' Rydel asked as Ol sat back down from his consultation with the Scroll of Truth, 'That was what it said?'

'It was certain,' Ol said, 'I may not trust myself, but I trust the powers of the Scroll.'

'Shit.' Rydel scratches his head as he sat down and tried to process what exactly has happened. He always pondered about the possibilities and the scales of the maximum power outputs possible coming out of an artifact, but so far, the craziest kinds of feats are still around the size of massive buildings, when he warped a giant ship with his glove in the second book, or when Sir Deva pulled a fast travelling ship out of the intersystem highway in the first book.

What Brakagi has done immediately shove the entire power scale off a cliff. Now, the bearers are left with two possible explanations. That Brakagi is capable of outputting such raw power, or the entire things isn't as impressive as it initially sounds, and Brakagi is at least enhanced to the same level as they are, and have the help of others similar to how Zero forcibly amplifies the powers of Elmyra's artifacts to a galactic scale.

Regardless, if someone can pull off such a move, that means it doesn't really matter how many of the bearers are there with Rydel if none of them can even come close to the feat that Brakagi has just done.

It's time to train and juice up their abilities. Rydel thought as he looked down at the normal looking right arm, which is now finally behaving like a normal human arm rather than a useless chunk of meat and bones. Though he does wonder whether the little tricks he is doing will matter at all if the others are capable of literally moving suns.

'One other important thing to know would be this.' Ol explained with a heavy tone, 'regardless of how Brakagi moved the Olympus B off its stable orbit, it is gone, and it will cause a lot of problems throughout the Olympus Prime System. Those people might need our help.'

'Is there anything we can realistically do?' Rydel asked, 'the projected model showed that the planets will be tossed around as a result, and the only safe way forward will be through mass evacuation.'

'Let's hope your government here is as decisive as the Grey Wolf.' Valerie said, entering the conversation, 'to save himself, he would literally move planets at a whim. But....'

'It doesn't look like the galactic government is willing to take this chance.' Ol said, looking over to the galactic news hologram which is now showing herds of reporters chasing after the representative of the Galactic Government.

'This is nothing but a deviation that can very easily be explained by a sudden expansion in the radius of Olympus Prime B which altered the calculation of the center of mass in a computation model.' The representative said confidently as the human looked on at the crowds of reporters and their floating cameras, 'this kind of thing the model has suggested has never ever happened in the history of the human race, and our system has been in stable orbit for as long as we have seen it.'

'If the theory is true, what would your actions be?' An eager reporter asked.

'We shall act when we need to act.' He said before turning around and returning to the governmental building and hiding behind closed doors again.

'General Kuviar.' At the top of the governmental building, a meeting across time and space is being held which gathered the galaxy's highest powers. The senate's current head senator, Dr Dorry May, a old human female sat at the middle of the virtual round table. Next to her are the senators and governers that are also from the Olympus system, each of them governs an entire planet or clusters of orbital colonies. And then there is the leaders of the Space Force and the GBI both in attendance, 'I expect you to track down the origin of this rumor, and I would like you to perform the necessary procedures on it.'

'I have set up an unit to look into this, Head Senator.' General Kuviar spoke coldly, and not an single ounce of respect is shown in his voice, 'however, please set up possible contingency plans in case what ever happens is true.'

'In my days of studying astrophysics and interplanetary relations, such a thing is simply theoretically impossible.' Dr Dorry May shook her head and waved off the suggestion, 'now is a crucial time in galactic politics, and we all must be wary of the galactic elections that will come in three and a half months. I expect all of you to put forward a strong case for reelection.'

'With all of us working together, we can bring the human influence to even greater heights. Dismissed.'

All of the holograms went off, and Dr Dorry May's personal AI assistant remained. She went ahead and filled her cup to the brim with the highest quality tea from the warm planet of He Bo 5, and she retracted to into the corner of the room without making a single sound.

'Arrange a meeting with the representatives of the big ten as soon as you can.' Dr Dorry May instructed, as her assistance's robotic eyes lit up in response to her voice, 'and arrange a press conference starting next week. Generate a speech used to debunk rumors and quiet down the public.'

Turning out attention away from Olympus Prime temporarily and going back to the GBI headquarters in the Hades system, Cellica's unit is the only group of people that are heading towards Olympus prime from the headquarters at this time, so they are able to take over the entire shuttle and set up the resting quarters all to themselves before returning to the main room in the shuttle for her mission briefing.

As she sat everything down in her bedroom, the message sent back from Ol echoed in her head like a haunting voice in a cave. Like Rydel, she simply cannot comprehend the thought of someone capable of moving suns. And what's even worse is that the galactic government isn't even going to acknowledge the existence of such technology, regardless of how much actual evidence there is.

And even if they are willing to believe it, there is simply no way they can mobilize everything quickly enough to act. Hell, Cellica wouldn't be surprised if Caliditas is working with Brakagi, and she has already given them an exact time of when everything will go to shit.

Slamming the fist down onto the soft surface of her bed, Cellica cursed.

Now everything is making sense. Now, Cellica finally know what Brakagi is planning to do. So far, he has only done two things. The first was that he and Jozzor attacked the GBI headquarters and retrieved sensitive information that allowed him to be returned to power back in the Rocky government, and that will make whatever diplomatic actions he performs next one of legitimacy and legality. Then, he did whatever he had to do to shove Olympus B into an unstable orbit, while CLEARLY giving the galactic government a two months timeline.

His action is on the level of genocides, and yet, all of those deaths that will come would have been totally avoidable, should the galactic senate act on it. If they act right now, the only loss they will suffer would be that of monetary and economic losses....Shit. Cellica scratched her head furiously and tried to think of a way that can solve this issue, but there are simply too many moving pieces in this puzzle. By moving pieces, she meant the pieces of shit sitting in governmental building on top of corporate bribery that will do whatever they can to ensure their own interests and that alone is protected.

'Sir? Officer Cellica?' Toso, a young Aquarian boy appeared behind the door and asked for Cellica. He is the only Aquarian in Cellica's investigation unit, 'we are ready for the meeting.'

'Ok.' Cellica nodded instinctively, though the look on her face suggested that her mind is somewhere else.

'Is something of matter?' Toso asked, 'Charlie and Claudia are butting heads again in the main room, perhaps we need to get the meeting done before they make a mess out of everything.'

'Butting heads....yes.' Cellica blinked a few times and her jaded colored eyes came back to life once more. Ah, the trouble makers of her unit. Yes, regardless of whatever things that will be on her mind, she is an unit leader, and she will need to take care of the four in her unit.

'You stupid...greasy mechanic! Get you fat fingers away from the hologram!' A white human girl her light blonde hairs tied in two buns at the sides of her head yelled as she tried to yank the hologram projector from the grasp of another human girl with dark skin and puffy hair.

'Shut it, ya good fo' nothing...you will ruin it!' The dark-skinned girl refused to give in and her surprisingly strong fingers now began to dig into the outer shell of the hologram projector.

'Ladies.....please calm down...Sir, Officer Cellica is here now.' A shy human male oriental in origin tried to interject, but the two ladies both turned towards him and burnt him alive with their gaze before they got back into their own faces.

'What is it this time again?' Cellica lets out a desperate breath of air and leaned forward onto the table. The two girls stopped the obvious fighting and bickering, but none is willing to give up the hologram projector.

'Claudia tried to install a brand new software into 'e projector!' The dark-skinned girl first spoke up with her unique accent and thick smooth voice, her hair bouncing up and down with her every move, 'nah even considering the spec limit of this cheap piece ol' shit!'

'You idiot Charlie! That was the whole point of the upgrade!' Claudia protested, but Cellica's raised eyebrows shut her up.

'And what was wrong with the hologram as it is?' Cellica asked, tapping a finger on it, and a blurry projection of the galactic news showed up, '....right. But somehow I have a feeling that it was just fine before you two started fighting over it.'

The two girls released their death grip on the device and crossed their arms angrily while looking away from the two of them. Cellica lets out a little chuckle before taking her own personal interface and placing it on the table.

'Alright, people.' She said, 'The briefing will start now, and I will tell you everything that I know, and that we need to do. Things will only get worse from now on.'

'However, I know I can count on you all. Now, let's get started.'