Chapter 46 - The assignment

A few minutes later, Damian and his peers were strapped in behind Nadine, who sat behind the controls. The interior of the plane was futuristic even to Damian, causing him to look at the sleek technology with shining eyes. "The military gets all the best toys…" he muttered jealously to himself. 

"You can always join up," Nadine quipped, knowing very well there was no chance. 

Taking his eyes off their surroundings, he looked at Nadine's back in front of him and grinned playfully. "Oh? I'm usually not a fan of the army's rigid command structure, but… I am very curious about being under you, captain." 

Immediately, several groans, head shaking, and eye-rolling filled the small plane's cabin, yet… most of the men secretly wished they had the guts to talk to her like that. 

Fortunately, Damian had already determined previously that Nadine could take some banter, so he wasn't surprised when she simply smirked and shook her head dismissively. "You just don't stop, do you?" 

"Well, can you blame me when the captain's this stunning?" Damian chuckled, a charming smile on his lips as his eyes bore into her back. Yet, no one noticed his gaze was actually full of calculating cunning. 'Nor when they're as useful as you…' he continued in his mind. 

Rolling her eyes, Nadine ignored him and engaged the plane. Instantly, the top of the hangar opened, and tiny jet engines under the plane engaged, lifting their relatively flat plane up to just below the ice cave's ceiling. 

Then, with barely any turbulence, the plane shot forward towards the cave's opening. Just before reaching it, Nadine pressed another few buttons, and the plane's hull started to shimmer slightly until it suddenly became fully transparent. Stealth was engaged. 

At that exact moment, a small cube appeared between Damian's fingers. Without delay, he crushed it with a small amount of force. With everyone focused on the outside, no one noticed when a few tens of grain-sized black dots fell out from the crushed cube and immediately spread throughout the cabin. 

With his eyes remaining straight ahead, not giving anything away, he used his Nova to direct the nanites. With rapid speed and prodigious stealth, these tiny machines reached their destinations within the blink of an eye. Soon, every one of his peers gained a tiny passenger, with a handful of the nanites simply disappearing into the plane's systems and guts. 

After it was done and no alarms were sounded, Damian couldn't help but breathe a subdued sigh of relief. What he did was dangerous, as well as extremely time-sensitive. The only time the plane's internal security was distracted enough not to detect his nanites was when it activated stealth mode. 

These nanites were top-of-the-line and extremely expensive, but they'd help significantly in keeping his secret going forward. With their deployment successful, Damian relaxed and decided to actually focus on their surroundings. 

After leaving the cave, the now-invisible plane started speeding across an endless expanse of ice. After engaging the auto-pilot, Nadine turned her seat around to look sternly at her charges. 

"Alright, listen up, because I'm not going to repeat this twice!" she snapped, her commanding voice immediately grabbing everyone's attention. 

With a snap of her fingers, she produced a holographic viewing screen right next to her. A large, blue planet was displayed on its screen, and Nadine pointed at it. "As you should all be aware, this is a planet the natives have called 'Earth', basically meaning dirt in their language." 

Some derisive snickering arose among her audience, but Nadine continued without a pause. "Earth was discovered a few years ago by one of our discovery crafts, which immediately assumed the presence of a buried Astralgate. As is protocol, they went searching for it, found it buried on the planet's Southpole, and activated it." 

Everyone nodded along with her explanation. This was the standard method by which any of the three major races expanded their empires: send out stream-capable ships to find planets with dormant Astralgates and activate them. 

Normally, the next step would then involve sending an occupation force to inform the natives they had new overlords, whether they liked it or not. Occasionally, however, they needed a stealthier approach. 

"Unfortunately, the natives are technologically advanced and stubborn enough that any direct invasion is sure to not only cost a lot of lives, but also destroy much of the planet we're trying to claim," Nadine continued calmly, as if she wasn't talking about upending an entire planet. 

"And that's where we come in!" the Nightkin among them exclaimed with a grin of greed and excitement. 

"Unfortunately, yes," Nadine sighed, clearly annoyed with both the interruption and the reminder that the military couldn't just send their own operatives in. 

The first time they encountered a planet like this, the Cooperative planned to simply send some trained infiltrators to soften the population, sabotage their strongest weapons, and perhaps even create betrayer factions. 

But… then some powerful families got wind of it and decided they had a better idea. Instead of simply sending some operatives, why not make it a competition among their younger generation? 

So, ever since then, when a planet like Earth was discovered, the Cooperative would designate a world within its borders, and the most powerful families there would send their best to see who could do the most to prepare the planet for Cooperative rule. The winners would earn prestige and a lot of influence on this new planet. 

Of course, the assignment was dangerous. The most powerful families never risked their true elites—losing someone valuable wasn't worth the rewards. Instead, they sent promising but less crucial members, like Lex, and over time, the competition became a tradition. 

Now, it was time for Eryndor to play a part in this. 

"I assume it's clear to everyone what your task is on this world," Nadine said sternly. "Although the exact details on how to fulfil it is up to all of you." 

Suddenly, she pulled out over a dozen communicators and expertly tossed one at each. "For security reasons, you can only contact me and each other via these devices, which are in direct contact with stealth satellites we've set up in orbit." 

After handing them out, she crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. "You should have all had lessons on this planet's history and language, but those communicators are also loaded up with all the same information for convenience. Now, are there any questions?" 

One of them immediately spoke up. "Yeah, how much help can we expect from you and the military?" 

Nadine ignored their somewhat rude tone and answered calmly, "Nothing that directly pertains to your task. You can call us to come get you only if your life is in danger, but you will not be allowed to try again afterwards. You'll be replaced by a military operative." 

Some of them looked a little unhappy with that, but they knew this was the deal struck between the powerful families and the military. 

"Any other questions?" she asked, having raised an eyebrow. 

None came up, and she turned around her chair around again. "Good. We're coming up on our first stop, so prepare yourself!"