"Everyone in position?" Armand's voice carried through the comms, gruff and expectant.
He was feeling unwell.
Not physically, rather, emotionally.
The fact that he has to coordinate with his new subordinates was no different from a heartbreak to him. He felt like he was being forced to act like he was on good terms with his ex.
"In position!" Sera chimed in, her tone was almost too eager. Her voice was as bright as her grin while she smoothed her blue dress and blonde hair in a reflective window. Disguised as a waitress for the VIPs on the fourth floor, she winked at her own reflection, utterly pleased with herself.
That was when another voice came through the comms.
"Yes," Nyla answered flatly. Unlike Sera, she wasn't pleased with the role she had been given. Stuffed into a brown maintenance uniform with her chestnut hair packed underneath a cap, she looked more like a janitor than an operative. She was buried in the basement amidst broken machineries, and her tone made it clear she hated every second of it.
A low, wordless hum came from Agnar.
"Firm as a rock, Captain." Tomas said. The smirk in his voice obvious. He was stationed at the edge of a huge platform, standing amongst the many guards there with a black suit and red tie. He ran his hands through his fiery red hair as his eyes followed a fine lady that walked past him.
Then silence followed.
"Viper?" Armand called out, but received no response. "Viper!?" He managed through gritted teeth.
Static noise graced his ears first then—Narvel's reply. "You can see me on the surveillance feed. Why waste your breath asking if I'm in position?"
Narvel's cover was quite inconspicuous. A black cap, white T-shirt and flowery blue trousers. He came in as one of the lucky few who managed to purchase the extremely expensive ticket for the convention. He was on the ground floor, not so far away from where Tomas was.
Armand grounded his teeth. "This fucking brat. This is why I hate working with rookies."
"The feeling is mutual, Captain." Tomas drawled. "Funny though, hate's the only thing we've agreed on so far. Our team bonding is off the charts."
A few days ago, Armand had tried—against his better judgment—to play nice. He called them together, hoping to put faces to names and ease the friction. If bounty hunting was now his life, he at least wanted to do it with some level competence.
Just until he has gathered enough merit points to request a transfer.
However, everything didn't go as planned.
Almost half an hour had gone by and the Colossal building larger than ten stadiums combined, was filled to the brim.
People of different walks and cultures had arrived, some draped in robes of living fabrics, others with bionic modifications etched across their bodies like luminous tattoos.
From the floors above, one could see the entire sprawl of the ground floor below, a shifting ocean of beings and light.
The building had the kind of hush that comes right before an applause or panic. Above them, a cathedral of sounds and glass spilled stadium lights into the crowd. On the front rows on the ground floor, some dignitaries and potential investors that refused VIP treatment filled the area. Some of them weren't even humans—Alien species from different Sectors of the galaxy.
On the stage, a slim, charming man stood before a podium.
"Ladies, gentlespecies, and exalted visitors, my name is Jinan and I am your host for the night." The host began. His words were immediately translated, tinting his words into dozens of tongues, many of which didn't originate from Earth. "Welcome to the grand unveiling week. Tonight you all will see why this century rewrites survival and evolution of human nature."
Most of the audience were filled with excitement and tension.
In conventions like this, one wouldn't make such bold claims unless they were true. And not in the micro level, rather in larger, grand scale of things.
"But before we get to the main events of the night, we have an honorable mention to make. A technology that we stumbled upon, however, our progress has been stumped for a while now. The Government is hoping to cross this obstacle by making the data of this advancement open to the general public, humans or not."
Upon hearing this, almost everyone present was caught by surprise. Technological has long become a treasure to horde till death, and here they were. In this age, it was a very weird and usual thing to do.
It's not that there aren't such good Samaritans around, however, they were few and in-between with rarely any great inventions.
With a hand signal, a conduit the scale of cradle was brought up on the stage from beneath. Following its appearance a large a hologram that stretched all the way to the roof of the building. It would be hard for anyone to complain about not seeing what was being presented.
"This piece here, is still a prototype, with no concrete name yet for it." the host began as he walked closer to the cradle. He tapped on the metallic surface of the machine for a few seconds before it finally opened up.
Within the conduit was an interface, a lattice of motes, lights gathering at a point continuously. It looked like a habitat seam knitting itself whole. The movements if these lights was clinical and somewhat natural.
For those who were Egomaniacs, they could almost tell what it was that they were seeing as something within them resonated with this light.
"This, my esteemed guests, is Idra! Live and direct. A physical and pure manifestation of the mysterious energy that transforms one into an Egomaniac. For the first time since its incipience, a form of this energy is finally being presented to the world." The Jinan introduced.
At first the hall was silent before it burst into a clamor. Everyone was immediately interested in this conduit.
"If this is only an honorable mention, then what's the main thing going to be?" People from the crowd reasoned.
It was easy to understand what it meant to for them to be able to produce a physical, pure form of Idra. The possibility and probability of artificially creating Egomaniacs had just burst through its previous ceiling.
This was an advancement that could as well push the entire human race across galaxies into a new chapter, and yet the authorities were making this an open source. People couldn't wrap their heads around it.
Were they that desperate to make progress in this?
As for those who could think even deeper, they came to two different conclusions. It could be many things, but these two were the most probable. Progress has already been made and they've come to dead end were their findings have shown that any progress down this path will be detrimental rather than otherwise.
So they were leaving it to the public to figure out another path.
As for the second probability, it could be that they didn't really care about this advancement. it was highly possible that they had made other advancements that puts this prototype to shame.
Either way, there was certainly a catch to it.
Though many were interested, those who were capable hesitated to take the jump. They decided to wait until the end of the convention before making their decisions.
…
"Things might get out of hand. Shit! Now I know why they even have bounty hunters hidden amongst the crowd." Armand muttered. His teammates heard everything. "Hey, misfits, be on your toes. Have your eyes out for suspicious movements from now. Use your monocles to scan the crowd for wanted criminals. Even if the resemblance is 50%, note down their positions." He ordered.
At least he's not much of an airhead as I thought. Narvel thought. He was also able to guess the outcome this convention. It was highly likely that a lot of criminals had already infiltrated.
For the fact that the government has the technology to scan every individual coming into stratosphere, a technology more advanced than what their monocles was capable of, and yet, they let these people in… something wasn't right about that.
From Narvel's perspective, they were setting a honey pot, a trap to catch a lot of ants and bears. The Federation is likely behind this too.
Jinan let the crowd simmer in its frenzy before raising a hand, silencing them once more.
"Now then," he said smoothly, "to the main event. Tonight, we unveil six technologies that will redefine not only Earth's place in the galaxy, but the very boundaries of civilization."
The hologram suddenly shifted to the shape of a titanic weapon mounted on a spaceship's hull. The barrel of the weapon shimmered with coiled energy, dwarfing the engineers standing beside it.
"This is the Ark Cannon. A weapon that draws energy from Yttrium Cores, a rare resource as you all know."
The hologram then began to show a live demonstration: a barren moon, light years away from Earth's solar system came into view. This moon was about fifteen times larger than Earth.
Then grey motes of lights sped towards the mouth of the weapon's mouth, at first it started slowly, then progress to a speed where the eyes could barely follow. With a silently launch, the gathered energy blurred through the void as it crossed a vast distance in a few seconds and landed on the barren moon.
A cut from the weapon's blast melted the surface into a molten scar before penetrating through. A shockwaves exploded upon impact, causing more damage to the barren moon.
The audience gasped in terror.
"With sufficient charge, its destructive potential grows exponentially. The conspiracy about Earth working on creating a 'planet-breaker' was never an unfounded theory. We'll leave other speculations to your imaginations."
Jinan's sent chills down many spines, especially those who weren't humans.
An insectoid dignitary with mandibles, raised her claw. "This violates at least three federation accords on planetary-scale armament. Do you present this as weapon… or deterrent?"
Jinan smiled faintly. "Both, perhaps. As always, intention rests in the hands of those who wield it."
His answer only deepened the tension.
Other dignitaries began muttering amongst themselves. The Ark Cannon was enough to overturn a lot of things.
Without waiting for the crowd fully absorb what he had just revealed, Jinan went ahead to introduce the next on the list. He introduced a new and more powerful version of the Kestrel Exoshell, the fourth Model of the suit's version. After revelaing what the suit was capable of, the crowd was once again stunned.
After that he revealed the Sentinel Nanites. Once again, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
…
Armand exhaled slowly as nervous sweat dampened his collar despite the cool air. He muttered into his comms. "This isn't a convention. It's bait."
"Correction," Narvel's voice came through. "It's a declaration of war. They're flaunting all of this that could have been kept hidden to the entire galaxy, daring them to come take it."
Declaring war at this point, is this boy crazy? Armand thought. He wasn't the only one with that notion, even the rest of his teammates felt he was exaggerating.
This convention wasn't unique to Earth, other races hold conventions like this from time to time, revealing their breakthroughs to the galaxy. It was like a show of power to deter enemies from having nefarious intentions towards them.
"How so?" Still, he didn't dismiss Narvel's thoughts.
"Unlike other Sectors of our galaxy, Earth has always been looked down on, even by those humans born on other planets. We've been bullied for a long time with little to no way to fight back. We barely get a portion of resources found within our galaxy because of the suppression of other powers. Even the Federation could barely do much to help Earth… do you guys believe this Ark Cannon is a research made explicitly by Earth's engineers?"
His words immediately sent sparks in the minds of his teammates.
"Wait, I don't get what you're getting at." Tomas whispered.
"Sure you don't, big boy." Narvel mocked.
"He's trying to say that the Federation is using Earth to wage a silent war. If any criminal from a different specie or any sector that's been openly hostile towards earthlings makes any wrong move, they would be bringing a lot of trouble to their home planet." Armand explained.
Even he too didn't want to believe what he had just uttered. Rather than being on protective duty, they were being used as baits too.
The thought of this didn't sit well with any of them.