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052. Noosphere consequences

June 2992, New Oslo

Chisaki jabbed an elbow into Glory's waist.

Glory glared at the Loki agent.

"Have you actually told him about you being Military Intelligence yet?" She asked, a teasing note in her voice.

Glory sighed. Then nodded.

"And it went over easy yes? No rage, not shouting, no throwing things around and swearing vengeance?" Eggers Media's head continued.

"Yes. You were right. Happy now?" Glory muttered, hand to her side, restlessly checking the flap of the pistol.

"So? How did it go? How did he react?"

"He asked if I was still Military Intelligence and if I was loyal..."

"And?"

"And I said I was no longer Military Intelligence for the LCAF, and that I was loyal."

"See? Why were you so worried about it? It's not like you were Loki like me, right? There's no indoctrination to worry about!"

Glory rolled her eyes. For all Chisaki joked about it, she was deadly serious about the indoctrination.

"Yes, you were right. Happy now?"

"Yes, very happy. Veeery happy."

Ignoring her, the head of Administration continued to stare at the... sheer enormity of data on display. The 'Noosphere', itself ran by Administration, was something that linked the entire Rasalhague Kingdom. Made possible by the anaemic systems that had existed under Draconian rule. After all, it had allowed them to build an entire communications network nearly from scratch. A single network that connected all of the Rasalhague Kingdom. Connecting all the worlds within the Kingdom, as well as the planets themselves, through nigh-hourly jumpship hops. Data was never more than an hour out of date, in other words. All were under the singular control of Administration. It gave them truly enormous insight into the flow of traffic. And, more importantly, how that information was used.

Really, their King's interest in naming it, and pushing for its development, was something that likely had an impact on its success... in more ways than they had originally planned. Perhaps his 'Factor-ness' had something to do with it.

In any case, the two were sat here because this was the largest operation on New Oslo since they started using the Noosphere in this way. The command bunker for this specific Cradle, where everything could be collated into a singular interface for the command team to examine. This, not being the Noosphere inspection node, but rather the command and control centre.

The images on screen depicting Duchess Eggers and the EDF waiting outside, the largest concentration of... dissidents that they had found so far. 45 of them in a single cell, only discovered by their use of the Noosphere to communicate. In cipher yes, but really, if you were using ciphers, you were probably someone to keep an eye on. If only because of how amateurish you were and how you might be more of a threat to yourself than others.

But after an investigation, they had found something... not benign. This series of Blocks, filled with weaponry and stolen Armsman suits. A quick deployment, a message to Duchess Eggers as head of the EDF, and they were ready to now... do something about it.

They watched from the personal cameras the laser array was adjusted. The support lasers, equivalent to a medium laser, were packed into a single collection of lasery-death. Long pipes of coolant trailed along the back to a few vehicle grade heatsinks that had been sourced for this makeshift weapon, the power coming from the Hex itself. All to support the laser death spitting array.

With emphasis on the laser death.

"Begin the breach." Duchess Eggers said in her role as EDF commander. Voice cold, lacking in anything one might call human warmth.

With no need for verbal confirmation, the laser array activated... and a constant stream of laser slammed into the blast door that kept the Block isolated. 3 metres thick, it was much more resilient than any Battlemech.

In the end, however, the fact that it was a door, and not an artillery battery, prevented it from counter-attacking. The support lasers melting a path through the door and into the Block within. The silence aside from the dripping, melting metal was deafening.

"Breach." Was the simple announcement, as the camera that represented Duchess Eggers stood stock still at the back of the formation.

"Huh, she's holding herself back. Never thought I would see the day." Glory said simply.

Chisaki rocking her head side to side.

"Of course she is. She's the Commander of the EDF now. She can't lead every situation, you know~" Her voice ended on a teasing lilt, Glory jabbing her with an elbow.

"Of course I know, delegate, delegate. Just, never thought it would be Duchess Eggers ever doing it."

Chisaki shrugged, she too had never thought it was possible, but here they were.

"Maybe it's the babies? She's feeling her mortality and wants to stay alive for them?" The Eggers Media head continued, finger to chin, pondering.

"Or she is training successors, since she can't be on every planet." Glory replied, much less philosophically, much more practically.

On the screens, Duchess Eggers finally entered the breach, eighth in line. Stepping through the still molten metal, her own form striding forth upright. Head swaying side to side, catching the sight of the several wounded EDF soldiers, their icons lit up as yellow on the display. There were two reds, indicating deaths, or suit failures.

A stray laser struck her arm, the Duchess rolling with the impact before continuing forward, as if she didn't need to be concerned about human things. Like death, and cover.

Luckily for her, or perhaps, 'as expected' that was the last stray shot, the fighting progressing deeper into the Block, itself...jury rigged to connect to the ones above it. Whoever had done this, had drilled holes to connect multiple blocks, without setting off the automated alarms... and maintenance/patrol teams.

For all their ineptitude in combat... their espionage capabilities were dangerous indeed. For two EDF dead in exchange, it did appear that they had managed to kill all the... insurgents(?), spies(?), infiltrators(?).

The battle ran for half an hour, the unrelenting aggression of the EDF overpowering the defenders, who probably expected their choke points and defences to hold up for longer. The stacks of explosives indicating a willingness to go out... with a bang.

"Tch, prisoners." Duchess Eggers muttered as they gathered up in the original, still warm, entrance, looking at the figures, hands held high. Surrendering, their bodies locked into Armsman rated restraints. "What do we do with them Control?" The Duchess asked, turning authority of the situation up to the two in the command room. As the ones coordinating this operation, they were the ones nominally in control. The EDF were just providing the muscle.

"Just kill them, why bother trying to make things complicated?" Glory said straightforwardly. It wasn't like they would know anything.

"No no no, don't kill them. Jesus, Glory. I'm the one who was trained to commit actual terrorism on the enemies of the Commonwealth, and I'm the one who's advocating restraint? You LCAF are all the same aren't you? See obstacle, shoot obstacle. Need soldier, send Atlas, need scout, send Atlas, need breakthrough, send Atlas." Chisaki interjected before the Duchess could give the order.

"Of course, the LCAF taught us to solve a problem with an adequate amount of force in the most direct manner possible. What is the point of keeping them? They won't talk, they won't betray whoever sent them, just kill them now and be done with it. Not waste time with things like torture or interrogation."

Chisaki let out a low moan of irritation.

"No, we won't just kill them. There are so many more things we can do with prisoners, you know, even the ones that don't talk. Just... take them to the Administration for now. We really need an actual intelligence agency, but for now, just take them to Administration. I'll teach you a few tricks okay? Just... don't kill them! Friggin LCAF"." The last part being muttered under her breath.

"Lieutenant, get them processed into Administration. I'll meet you back at the base for a debrief." Katherine said, assuming the conversation between Glory and Chisaki finished, before herself, leaving the bunker, 8 prisoners out of 45 individuals.

"Friggin? Isn't that Terran slang for female masturbation? Why are you even saying that like a swear?" Glory asked, pointedly ignoring the LCAF part of the remark.

"The Lord uses it when he's frustrated. It kind of fits you know? Like a situation is so messed up that your only recourse left is to frig." Chisaki's voice sounded like she was trying to convince Glory.

Who in turn just raised an eyebrow at her (formerly now that she was no longer MI) LIC counterpart.

"Anyway, back onto the topic! You can't just kill people because they're not immediately useful to you. I know Military Intelligence usually doesn't handle this kind of thing. But we're not Military Intelligence anymore, or LIC solely anymore. We're handling Rasalhague's entire intelligence apparatus right now. Which means we need to handle things like prisoners, interrogation, counter-terrorism, terrorism, military intelligence, and everything else." Chisaki lectured.

"Yes... I do see your point. Military Intelligence does not really concern itself with domestic operations. There is a great deal I will have to learn going forward regarding civilian ops." Muttered Glory.

"Yeah! Don't worry about it, I'll give you the patented Loki course. How to run an operation in the Commonwealth without killing too many innocent civilians! Some collateral damage may be included, but we always get our objectives in the end! Or those prisoners. Just arrange them around the site of an incident... and we have... perfect scapegoats! It's perfect, it's why you keep prisoners. They're like chocolate bars or Vanilla coke, you never know when they'll be useful!" Chisaki was practically bubbly with excitement.

"Too many innocent civilians? How many civilians do you consider to be acceptable?" Glory really shouldn't be surprised at this point. The infamy that Loki had wasn't baseless after all, it had to have a reason behind it... and... well, that reason was standing right next to her.

"Eh, it depends based on an index you know. How many people are there, how many incidents have there been in the past, economic development level, average age, and so on. Then you calculate what kind of people will be included in the collateral, like orphanages get higher levels of public response than an aged care home for example. Usually, it's around 1 to 10 depending on what kind of incident you're causing." Chisaki counted off on her fingertips, voice casual.

Glory, for her part, was reminded again that despite her cheerful demeanour... Chisaki had been raised as a literal terrorist for the Commonwealth. Indoctrinated to never feel remorse for her actions, so long as it was to the benefit of the Commonwealth.

Never forget what she is willing to do for her beloved Commonwealth, in other words. Killing loved ones without a second of hesitation? Absolutely.

Bomb an orphanage? Absolutely.

Organise a massacre of peace protestors? Absolutely.

Betray the Commonwealth? Never.

"And this applies to Rasalhague? That was never part of the Commonwealth?" Glory clarified.

"Of course, really it's so much easier considering how many heads the ISF put on pikes. We can probably get away with bombing whole neighbourhoods if we dress it up right. And it will still be less extreme than what the ISF got up to."

Glory thought about the lessons Chisaki was going to be teaching... and decided it would be a good idea to have someone not of Loki running their domestic intelligence. As straightforward and allegedly brutal as she was (a decimation of the EDF's compromised leadership components was not brutal!), she was much better than Chisaki would be. Maybe someone of the less... violent parts of the LIC... someone they could trust.

They also really needed a name for it.

She was partial to Rasalhague Intelligence Directorate.