Chapter 11: C10 – Logistical Nightmares (2)

Astur was not having a very good day.

He woke up to the brilliant news that two more squadrons had been slaughtered in the night. The information leaks continued, despite his best efforts and multiple executions. It nearly felt like he was being watched, but there were certainly no cameras nor spies anywhere visible.

The most infuriating part of it all was a neatly printed letter that lay on his desk as of right now. Ashur swept aside all the angry mails from clients, complaining about their guards leaving their stations, and observed the letter. It was stamped with a sphere between two wings; those absurd demons from Sariel thought it funny to send him a letter, it seemed. 

The first line nearly had him rip apart the rest of it. A bark chased everyone out from his office as his eyes drank in the short sentences.

‘The marble you are supplying will allow the Rabbits to form a larger portal to this world. 

They number in the hundreds of millions. You can not win. 

Avoid this pointless conflict and destroy the portal. 

Sariel Detective Agency’ 

As his eyes focused on the letter ‘y’ at the end, he ripped apart the letter into pieces before throwing them in his shredder. Ashur sank deeper into his chair, spinning around to observe the skyline from the perfect view in the skyscraper. The cars moved around like ants, filling up the streets in the beautiful morning everyone found themselves in.

He knew, in his heart, that it was probably true. But there was not really much he could do. He was the leader in name only; He could not deny the wishes of the Empress. She had been overdosing on the boosters, and as such lay untouchable. Her commands were absolute, but she had only made a single one; comply with the masked men, or die. 

Another groan escaped his lips. He just had to do as he was told. It was very simple. He just had to do as he was told. As he was told. As he was… told. 

Never mind that. Forget about it. It was all a ploy by Sariel. They were simply intimidating him with their superior information gathering ability, but that was all. The spy needed to be rooted out from the transportation workers, is all. He just needed to focus on his orders. That was all. 

Surely it would work out fine. 

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His focus drifted to some other reports. The supply of bullets in the entire city had been dried up. Again, the work of those infernal devils. They had managed to steal a shipment a week ago, but the bullets lay on the floor. Both gunpowder and metal were nearly unobtainable. Blades against blades worked out fine, but Sariel held the bullets; it was going to be rough. Reports say that only three people worked in Sariel, but that was simply impossible. There must be at least fifty members hiding in the shadows, at least. Their rate of execution was impossible for just three people. 

The richer clients grew impatient with his work. The documents that lay at the side shouted for progress. At this rate, even the Empress may get involved. She was busy overseas; drawing her attention back to Stellaris would spell nothing but disaster.

Astur’s eyes wandered over to the shredder once more. Maybe there was a way to get out of this situation, he speculated. A way to follow all his given orders and stop assisting those rabbit bastards. 

--

‘Prepare for your imminent death. Your chokehold over the metal and gunpowder economies will be unable to last forever. For example, our marble shipments coming over at noon tomorrow, labelled clearly with green stripes, will advance our economical output tremendously. Give up. You have no chance. 

Ashur.’ 

‘Seems like this Ashur fellow is as intelligent as you thought, May,’ Bailey muttered before shredding the letter in her own room. ‘I suspect he has already identified the threat of the Rabbits, but is compelled to continue his combat against us.’ 

‘Whatever be the case, Bai, we have to crush the Stars in this next offensive. Should be easy enough, I’d imagine, now that we can move the portal out of the room. Plan C should be a go.’ May responded. She had gotten used to Ashur’s office, finding her favourite place to be lying on his desk, so she could inspect his intense glare whilst reading about all the chaos she had indirectly caused. ‘Praise Stella for me. Her rate of execution seems to have spiked recently.’ 

‘Will do,’ Bailey chirped, flying down the stairs. She spotted Strix, still sleeping through the afternoon, lying in a pile of letters. Stella was out and about, causing mayhem. Excel had been working on implementing Plan C as soon as the portal was lifted. 

Speaking of the portal, Bai took a strange liking to playing with it between her fingers. Flick, flick, flick, like a coin trick. It was incredible seeing it condense into such a small disc, and though the tech may be priceless, nothing was ever spared from Bai’s over energetic nature. 

But that nature was put to rest, because there was simply nothing else left to do. No new commissions from the Agency, nor any fighting to be done till a few days later. She browsed through the documents Strix was going through and decided to fix them up as well. After all, she originally wanted to be an accountant when she grew up. The world really places you in unpredictable situations. 

In this case, the wonderful situation of planning the hijack of shipments of marble.

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