(Ed note: sorry for the spotty chapter uploads lately. Dealing with some health stuff on my end; I’ll try to not let it get too bad, though.)Mason County Courthouse, Shelton, Washington.An old, beat-up pickup truck rumbled around to the back of the historic Mason County Courthouse and huffed to a stop. The engine knocked a few times, then, with a puff of black smoke from the tailpipe, rattled to a stop as well. The truck’s passenger door opened and a long-legged beauty with strawberry blonde hair tied up in a neat bun at the back of her head stepped out on three-inch stiletto heels.“Dammit, Tim, when are you finally going to get this old piece of shit running right?” she said as she slammed the door of the truck, rattling the window that was stuck half open.“I—” Tim began, his knuckles turning white around the steering wheel.“No more excuses, Tim! Fix it or get rid of it.” Siobhan turned around in a huff and began stomping toward the employee entrance of the courthouse.“Vonnie!

As Tim and Siobhan were facing the first day of their mission, the imperial agency council meeting finally drew to a close. The meeting had lasted a very long time, as more than a hundred agencies had given their progress reports, each of which lasted anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. All told, the meeting itself was a 25-hour marathon session from the end of Aron’s speech to the end of the session itself.The vast amount of revelations prompted a flood of news articles, each of which focused on a single piece of information. They provided a sort of cliff’s notes version of the IAC meeting for those who couldn’t remain glued to their screens for the entire duration. As it turned out, the vast majority of humanity was still uninterested in the minutiae of the day-to-day operations of their governments, so even though the full recording of each progress report was available in the Akashic Record, they chose to read the articles instead.(Ed note: I can’t believe it, but Cliffs Notes

Aron closed his eyes and began the process of imprinting his intent into the enormous runic construct he had created over the past hour. It was no easy task, as the necessary intent that would allow the construct to function at full capacity was just as complex as the construct itself, and he had to futureproof it by leaving room for upgrades as his knowledge of the runic language increased. In order to make that possible, he needed to imbue it with an even more complex second layer of intent that would create “hooks”, so to speak, that would be used in the future to tie in potential upgrades, a task that would be made much more difficult should he ignore it now and leave it for later.The runic system, he had discovered, was much like a computer. The carved runes in their physical form were like a computer’s hardware, and the intent that allowed them to function was software. The mana itself was the power that allowed the entire system to function. And just like a regular computer p

John was in the shower, getting ready for a night with his ladies, when he received a priority notification. Since only Aron, Gaia, and Athena could ping him when his availability was registered as “do not disturb”, it was important enough for him to immediately check it. Thus, he stepped out of the shower, and without even drying off, he simply wrapped a towel around his waist and found the nearest chair he could drop his ass into and sat down.He logged in to the simulation and called for his AI butler, Jotunn. “Catch me up on the situation,” he ordered.{His Imperial Majesty erected a global shield. The information hasn’t been made widely public yet and it’s still classified pending testing. His order is for you to hold wargames and test the shield to failure in the simulation. As our VR game hasn’t been made public yet, we have no staff for our space navy, so the wargames will be between you and Athena with simulated crew....} Jotunn continued briefing John as he threw him a data

Deep below the Cube on Avalon Island, kilometers below the surface and near the border of the crust and mantle of the planet, was ARES Central Command. In contrast with the usual understated elegance or futuristic decor of the Terran Empire, the command structure was very, very barebones. So barebones, in fact, that it was a simple cavern that’d been dug out of the ground and had workstations placed in it for the military high command to issue orders, make plans, and track the progress of ongoing operations.Not that it really mattered, to be honest, as augmented reality could make even a cesspit look like a palatial garden.Currently within the rooms carved out of the rock, a planning session was taking place between John and the rest of the human leadership of ARES.“It’s strength against strength this round. Our defense fleets are limited, and we won’t have reinforcements. We also have to work with simulated crews, so our orders will be followed exactly to the letter, but only to t