Published: December 6th 2024, 6:30:54 pm
Cerion observed Earth from a safe distance abroad the command bridge of the Dauntless. The planet looked beautiful, like a bright blue sapphire orb in a room full of darkness.
It was not his idea to be far from C24 at this time, but he had to because he had an important meeting. C24 lacked the warm temperatures and the quantity of greenhouse gases to sustain a growing population of humans and Kyrlorians. If Krypton had faced the trouble of overexploiting natural resources, C24’s problem would have been that it was not sufficiently exploited.
Studying the atmospheric composition of C24 had shown him the need to burn a whole lot of fossil fuels. Because the planet’s temperature was so low, it was not sustainable to produce enough food year-round for a growing population. The Kree overcame this by simply culling the Kyrlorian population, which left them with fewer mouths to feed without compromising the mining operations on the planet.
However, that wasn’t a policy he intended to continue as he had no intention of treating C24 as a mining planet. The whole situation showed the impracticality of some of the claims being made by certain activist groups. Even he was influenced by some misinformation on fossil fuels until he came face to face with the situation in C24.
‘When I get my hands on those climate activists, I’ll bury them in the desert.’ Cerion thought, glaring at the continent of Europe and a portion of the Americas.
Those idiots were more likely to kill the agricultural yield of the planet than save it from some random climatic shifts due to rising temperatures. Rising temperatures would become a problem for Earth, but he suspected the sun had more involvement in it than most people thought.
But all of that was not going to be his problem anymore. Now that he had a stable base in C24, he could rest easy.
“We’ve got all the satellite systems under surveillance. We’re ready, sir.” Michelle said as she stood by him to watch Earth from the glass panel.
He turned away from making silly plans to off some random activists and focused on the matter.
“All right, then. You have your task, and I have mine.” Cerion nodded at Michelle and made his way towards the landing bay.
“Are you sure you want to do this? You know what they did?” Michelle asked one last time.
“We need to diversify our supplies without ticking off other major players. They suit our needs perfectly.”
“Do you think they’ll agree after what happened?” Michelle asked, sounding not so confident with the plan.
“Oh, I know they will. We have the upper hand in the negotiations anyway. Leave the rest to me while you focus on your mission.” Cerion said confidently.
“Very well. Best of luck, sir.” Michelle nodded.
Cerion reached the landing bay, where he was ejected into outer space. The pressure variation dragged him outside the Dauntless as he floated in the vacuum weightlessly. The only downside was that he was getting the collective sensory overload of trillions of sounds into his ears, even from this distance. But he pushed that sensory overload aside with practised ease as a mask formed, covering his face with its glass flaring up with a display function.
“The path forward is charted, sir. This route should avoid all observatories from Earth and the satellites.” Optima’s voice chimed in his ears.
“Perfect.” Cerion muttered before he pushed himself off straight into Earth’s atmosphere, following the path charted for him.
He blasted through the space at full speed, and it wasn’t long before he started feeling resistance from Earth’s atmosphere. He powered up his flight speed and quickly reached his destination. He hovered over the continent of Africa and saw his guests arrive on time. Without further ado, he blasted straight towards the meeting spot.
‘Heroic landing achieved.’ Cerion childishly said in his mind as his feet slammed into the ground, kicking up dust and turning over the soil around him under the force of his landing.
His eyes fell on the King of Wakanda and his royal guards standing behind a forcefield. He couldn’t find the Black Panther anywhere near.
‘Hmm… either T’Chaka didn’t inform his son or ordered his son to stay in the city.’ Cerion mused.
“King T’Chaka. I extend you my greetings.” Cerion said, nodding curtly at the monarch.
“Cerion of House Vex.” T’Chaka nodded warily, “Why have you come today?”
“For trade.” Cerion said, simply shrugging his shoulders.
“Our trade pact was met with the transfer of Vibranium in the amounts you demanded.” T’Chaka said, looking far less happy to be talking about his precious metal once again.
“Yes, and you held up your end of the bargain. I’m not talking about Vibranium but the trade of other goods and services.”
“I don’t understand.” T’Chaka frowned at him.
“After our less than cordial meeting, I came to realise that remaining on Earth might lead to more such points of friction. So, in the interest of peace, I have decided to relocate to another planet.”
“In the interest of peace, you say?” T’Chaka asked suspiciously.
“Don’t get me wrong, I do love your odd little planet and the games you all play in the shadows and occasionally in plain sight. But our recent encounter has made me realise the need to put some distance from the local issues.” Cerion said delicately.
“So, you’ll stop arming the westerners?” T’Chaka asked with a healthy dose of scepticism.
“That is the plan, yes.” Cerion said with a straight face.
The truth was that he hadn’t decided yet. While he wasn’t explicitly selling weapons, he still had a deal with Hammer Industries, and through them, he had been helping fine-tune their already existing weapon designs. He was also involved in modifying SHIELD’s airpower as a first step in expanding the presence of a space fighting force.
While those contracts would come under the aegis of defence contracts, he was not willing to put a stop to it all on short notice. Those contracts gave him access to certain supply chains that had served rather well in creating his own satellite communication channels, microchips and, most importantly, access to information he otherwise wouldn’t have.
At the same time, he was determined to scale down step by step and reduce his involvement over the coming years because his area of focus was now different. He would still keep some contact because Earth was ground zero for some events, and he was already getting reports of SHIELD and HYDRA duking it out in the shadows. Two nearly equally powerful spy organisations were fighting, and it was a great opportunity in his eyes. He could gain much from this fight, and Cerion was not one to waste such an opportunity.
Fury was playing it safe, but he suspected this uneasy peace wouldn’t last long. While the fight hadn’t spilt out into the open, it was dangerously close to happening. HYDRA, after all, was no simple enemy to be taken down despite the intelligence he handed over to Fury. His intel was most likely incomplete as HYDRA was more than capable of keeping things off the books, so he suspected Fury would have the work cut out for him.
“So, trade? Why are you not asking for trade with your Western allies?” T’Chaka asked suspiciously.
“As I said, I’m hoping to limit my involvement with our Western friends. Wakanda has the resources, and you’re conveniently hidden from the world market, keeping our trade safely away from prying eyes.”
For a long moment, T’Chaka silently stared at him, and Cerion faced the Wakandan king with a carefree smile. He was the least bit bothered because, in the end, he knew Wakanda would agree to open their country to trade. He still had valuable intelligence regarding Wakanda. The Wakandan military might’ve called back their operatives and replaced them with others, but they can’t easily dispose of their land and monetary assets so quickly without raising red flags.
“What sort of trade are you interested in, Mr Vex?” T’Chaka asked finally.
Cerion grinned as he kicked off the negotiations.
*****
Michelle stared at the last of the containers of food being inspected by her subordinates for its contents with a scanner. She and her subordinates were at it for hours as they needed to ensure the grain and other food products were not spoiled before transporting them.
She heard the shuffling of feet from behind, and she was soon joined by Asher Blum.
“You sure you don’t want a transport arranged?” Asher asked as he stood by her side, watching the containers arranged neatly in columns outside the warehouse.
“No.” Michelle answered with her hands folded behind her back, neatly keeping the tab screen showing the progress of her subordinates out of Asher’s view.
“The last I heard, you were stuck in your home suffering from a vertebral fracture, living off a pension from the Agency. It seems the rumours were wrong, and the Agency has you onboard in some hair-brained scheme.” Asher commented.
Michelle didn’t respond and instead stared ahead.
“So, what is it this time? Do you want to supply some warlord in Somalia in return for a hit on rival businesses in the region? I heard the Chinese were poking their heads in Africa.” Asher said in a sing-song way.
“I told you I’m no longer working for the Agency.” Michelle said with a sigh.
“I find that hard to believe. You went into the trouble of making a solid alibi for black ops. I mean, you had me fooled.” said Asher with an impressed look.
“Whatever.” Michelle snorted and maintained her silence.
“You’re not lying.” Asher hummed after staring at her for a long moment. “If not the Agency, who else are you working for?”
“Is it the State Department, or have you gone private?” Asher asked before his eyes widened comically, and he looked at her in faux horror, “Don’t tell me you started working for some bleeding-heart billionaire and want to solve hunger in Africa.”
Michelle threw a filthy look at the annoying man.
“Just shut up.” she said with an annoyed look.
“Fine.” Asher raised his hands in surrender, “But how’re you going to transport these containers? I'd like to know if there is a C17 fleet out there somewhere.”
“Let me worry about the transport Asher.” Michelle said curtly.
“Fine.” Asher muttered. “I have yet to see a peep of the money you promised.”
“You’ll get your money once I confirm your goods are up to the standards.” Michelle said for the umpteenth time.
Thankfully, her subordinates had finished the inspection by then. She took out the tab and tallied all the scanned readings, syncing the data to the officers aboard the Dauntless.
“Fancy tech, you’ve got there.” Asher chimed in from behind her with his eyes pinned to the screen.
Michelle ignored him while concentrating on her work. She looked up from the screen only when her work was done.
“You should call your banker. The funds have been transferred.” said Michelle before neatly folding the tab and securing it on her thigh.
“Let me check.”
Michelle waited patiently as Asher confirmed the payment status. While this was going on, she conferred with her subordinates as they returned to her side with the scanning equipment. She made sure all their equipment was accounted for and once again looked over the readings.
“All right. The payment came through.” Asher happily crowed, “So, what is it with this desalination water plant in the Bahamas? The payment came through from their side…”
“You don’t need to know.” Michelle said curtly.
“Fine, keep your secrets. Now, I’m interested to see how you transport the containers from here to wherever it is you’re…”
Asher trailed off as a buzzing sound reached his ears.
“Do you hear that?” Asher asked, concern flickering in his eyes.
“I suggest we take a couple of steps back.” Michelle commented as she took a few steps from the containers neatly arranged outside the warehouse.
The buzzing sound became much more pronounced, forcing Asher and his men to follow suit as they looked searchingly at the sky from which the sound was coming. Strong gales of wind suddenly appeared, kicking up dust on the ground.
Asher’s eyes widened as a massive aircraft flickered into view right above his head as if a veil had fallen away.
“What the fuck!” Asher cried, stumbling back and fell on his back. “Is that an invisible plane?”
Several blue streams of light fell on the containers, and they vanished into thin air before everyone’s eyes. It was over in two minutes, and only dust was left in place of containers filled with food supplies.
“We appreciate your timely delivery of all the listed items. It was good doing business with you, Asher.” Michelle reached out with her hand, offering the downed man a handshake, “I’ll keep in touch.”
She took a strange sort of glee when she saw the stupefied expression on Asher’s face as she was enveloped in a streak of blue light and disappeared from the ground. Michelle took in her changed surroundings within a brightly lit glass chamber. The glass parted, allowing Michelle and her subordinates to enter the Dauntless’ lobby. A drone was waiting outside to receive them.
“Are the containers secured in the holding bay?” she asked as she made a beeline for the command bridge.
“Yes, Captain.” Optima chimed.
“Any word from Lord Vex?”
“He had a productive meeting with King T’Chaka. He is ready to meet us at the rendezvous point.” Optima chimed.
“That’s good. Inform him we’re on the way to the rendezvous point.” Michelle said before she entered the command bridge and took her seat. “Take us out of Earth’s atmosphere.”
******
“When one crisis is averted, another begins.” Cerion said with a sigh as he sifted through the readings of the dark energy spectrometers he had placed around the planet to track any FTL entries into their star system.
“It must be the Kree.” Bruce commented with a troubled look.
“Most likely. They must’ve sent probes to ascertain why they lost communication with one of their mining planets at the far edge of the empire.” Michelle concluded.
Cerion stared at the readings shown on the screen where three FTL readings were projected.
“If they’ve sent scouts, then we know what is coming next.” said Bruce before staring curiously at him, “What do you want to do?”
“It was inevitable. We prepared for this.” said Cerion, frowning at the screen one last time before activating the orbital defence systems on the planet.
Blue dots started appearing on the map of the three continents as the ion cannons and other air defence systems came online.
“Trace area coverage with a 50-mile radius.” Cerion ordered.
“We need to increase the coverage of the ion cannons.” Cerion observed as Optima showed a scaled display of the area coverage of the cannons.
“I agree, but first, we need transportation facilities. We need more roads and mobile ground units if we are hoping to put up a realistic defence against a resourceful hostile enemy.” Michelle said her piece.
“You’re right.” Cerion agreed but pointed out the hurdle facing them, “We don’t have the workforce capable of accomplishing such a task.”
“We could use the sentinels and the drones.” Bruce suggested.
“No.” Cerion immediately shot that down. “I need them to set up our shipyards and upscale mining and other manufacturing operations. Just like we need roads, we need weapons and ships to protect the planet.”
“Then I suggest we use the Kyrlorians as the workforce.” Michelle suggested.
Cerion and Bruce stared at Michelle with an uncomfortable look.
“What? They’re living here and consuming the food we give them. They have to chip in for the planet's defence in some way.” Michelle stood her ground.
“I suppose we could ask them if they’re willing to contribute.” Cerion said slowly, a little bit queasy about asking their aid after the purge they suffered.
It turns out he shouldn't have been bothered by the cooperation from the Kyrlorians. When he arrived at the camp and requested their help and cooperation, they were eager to chip in any way they could despite the recent traumatic events.
So, the first thing he did was create a layout of roads throughout the two continents, which connected the Ion Cannons he placed around the planet. The Kree were far too negligent in the planet's defence, and Cerion did not intend to make the same mistake. After that, he gave the work to different Kyrlorian groups to clear up the path for roads to be made. Concurrent to that, he renamed the planet Aetheria and created a whole new currency from scratch called Aetherium for easy exchange of goods and services.
The currency was entirely digital, leaving no burden on his fledging infrastructure to manage a physical currency.
While he provided the Kyrlorian adult population with a standard nutritious diet and temporary shelter, he let them buy additional goods and services using the new currency. He was also making arrangements to create a central banking system to handle loans and such. Thankfully, he already had the data to build a banking system from scratch, thanks to his earlier stint providing software support for banks on Earth. All he had to do was pull the data from Vex Corp’s servers back in Sacramento.
While the Kyrlorians worked on clearing up the area for roads, Cerion dipped into his contacts on Earth to speed up his construction projects in Aetheria. To that end, he used his various shell companies to buy up prefabricated roads and other machinery. He also had to source barrels of refined oil as Earth’s machinery only ran on fossil fuels, and he neither had the time nor resources to modify them in a short time frame. This also meant stocking up special tools and spare parts for the machinery and skilled personnel for repair services. Fortunately, he had recruited a good number of engineer corps from Earth to meet some of the demands.
For the next three weeks, the rapid progression of roads took place thanks to the enthusiastic participation of the Kyrlorian workforce. While the Kyrlorians were not as physically strong as the Kree, they were a hell of a lot better than the humans. The addition of machinery and sophisticated tools made labour much easier for the Kyrlorians. They worked tirelessly, sometimes exceeding the working hours he set up, as they were motivated to finish as much work as possible. They knew what was at stake when the Kree attacked with overwhelming force.
While the pace of construction was to his satisfaction, Cerion wished he could’ve gone ahead with his original plan of constructing tunnelled roads. It’d have provided ample secure transportation in the event of an attack from the Kree ships. However, roads above the ground would also provide a similar transportation route, although they would be less secure. It was less time-consuming to build roads above instead of tunnels, considering the lack of manpower and resources. Even with the security risks, the roads were far better than relying heavily on air travel alone to access the orbital defences installed on the planet in case a Kree fleet arrived to recapture the planet.
“Sir, I just received a transmission from the gate. Miss Foster has arrived from Koron.” Optima informed him through the drone floating by his side.
Cerion immediately rushed through the deep underground tunnel to reach the base where the gate was now kept. Ever since their sensors picked up Kree scouts, he had moved the gate into a secure and defensible site out of the reach of any long-range weapons the Kree possessed.
“I told you it’s dangerous to come here.” Cerion scowled at Jane, who was casually leaning against a crate full of supplies that his people in Koron were transporting through the gate.
“I heard about your extraterrestrial problem and wanted to see it with my own eyes.” Jane said while casually flicking her hair.
“Getting involved in this fight’s not a good idea, Jane. You may have unlocked certain powers, but the Kree Empire is an interstellar entity. There is no telling what kind of forces they’ll send our way.” Cerion growled with some frustration.
“In that case, you’ll appreciate that I did not come alone. I brought some help.” Jane said with a grin, jabbing her thumb at the gate.
“What?” Cerion asked, seeing nothing happening at the gate.
“They just missed the timing, that’s all.” Jane muttered, her cheeks turning pink.
A second later, Thena and Gilgamesh stepped through the gate.
“We heard you could use some help.” Thena said, her chin raised and her blonde hair cascading down her shoulders like a shimmering golden veil.
“It has been a while since we stretched our limbs. This’ll be a good exercise.” Gilgamesh rubbed his hands with an eager look.
Cerion recovered from the shock of seeing the two Eternals.
“The more the merrier, I suppose.”