“Everything is clear. You are free to enter the sector. As a reminder, the curfew will soon be implented. To prevent any complications during these sensitive tis, those landing in any ports without special permission will be required to remain on the planet until the situation with the Empire is dealt with or our preparations are completed. Will you still resu your journey to the sector?”
A hologram of a soldier in a military uniform, emblazoned with the emblem of the Yrall Coalition, recited the script he had been given to inform all incoming ships.
“Does that apply even to those with short-term visas? Or will the penalties still apply when we cannot leave?” the man asked carefully, wanting to understand everything before making a final decision.
“You don’t have to worry about that. The stay order is of a higher level, so when it is in effect, any legal requirent that would have forced you to leave is suspended until it is lifted,” the soldier answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. He had answered the sa question more than a thousand tis today alone.
“Then yes, I will go ahead with the entry,” the man confird, before asking the next important question. “Do the limitations extend to movent between space stations? Are we restricted to the sector we are assigned?”
“You are free to move, but you will need individual permission to enter other sectors. Depending on their situation, they may or may not grant you entry,” the soldier said imdiately, his patience wearing thin as he glanced at the queue he still needed to process. “Please go ahead, there is a long line behind you.”
They were currently on a war footing. Everyone knew the Empire could co at any ti, causing citizens to panic. Most started moving towards the central star systems of their civilizations, knowing that any governnt would sacrifice less important systems to protect the core. No one wanted to test how low on the hierarchy their ho system was; after all, it was their only life, and not one to be wagered.
“Have a nice day,” the man responded respectfully before moving the ship forward toward a massive scanner gate, the fifth one he had passed through since entering the star system. Each one represented an increasing level of seriousness.
To ensure nothing the Empire could use slipped through, and to stop any foolish attempts at infiltration, the Coalition had already stopped admitting ships to its top ten-ranked star systems. All escaping individuals from the lower star systems were redirected to the ones that were still open, but even those had strict quotas. Soon, they too would be closed for access. Once locked down, any unauthorized vessel attempting to enter would be t with an imdiate and absolute destruction order.
The ship navigated to the scanner gate and paused. The scanner ticulously analyzed everything: the ship’s composition, its materials, its cargo, and even the bodies of the people inside. Finally, they were cleared to enter Sector 17 of the massive space station orbiting the fifth-ranked star system of the Yrall Coalition.
Although the man and his family had managed to enter the prestigious star system, their visa was nowhere near the level required to land on the planets below. Those worlds were inhabited by the super-wealthy. Nearly all who escaped here were funneled to the many moon-sized space stations, which functioned as hubs where outsiders could et with system residents without "polluting" the inhabited, terraford planets with their presence.
“Do you think even they will fall?” a beautiful woman, by Yrall Coalition standards, asked as she walked into the ship’s cockpit and took the co-captain’s seat. She looked at the map displaying the locations of all ships in their vicinity, a feed shared through the station’s network. This was a ans of control; ships were not allowed to activate any of their own long or short-distance observation systems. The station controlled what they saw, and any violator in the current tense situation would be arrested, investigated, and banished from the system.
The man turned to the woman, his expression tense. He pressed a button on his console and said quietly, “Be careful. Your antics might be the death of us if you keep that up.” He knew the entire system was in a state of hyper-vigilance, and there was a chance soone might be monitoring them.
“Don’t worry, no one is listening to us. Or at least, not to our real conversation,” the woman said with a confident smile, showing no hint of worry. “We already have fake data running in our system. Anyone looking for sothing will be focused on that, and it will be pretty boring for them.”
“I don’t know what Nyx is feeding you to give you such confidence in her systems. Didn’t she teach you that no plan goes according to plan, and to always be vigilant?” the man asked, still not used to his “wife’s” calm nature in this situation.
“Why worry about sothing that I know won’t happen? Besides, our main job is already done. Anything else is just a bonus, isn’t it?” she said with a confident smile. She was correct. Simply entering the star system was nearly the entirety of their mission. Even if it ended now, it would be considered a complete success. As they moved, their ship continued to gather absolute coordinates, sending them back to the Empire every second. The vessel had been modified with a mixture of technologies that had finally co to fruition, allowing it to collect absolute coordinates faster than even the Conclave could.
“But aren’t you curious how many more rit Points we can earn and what we can get in exchange for them?” the man asked, a smile replacing his previous seriousness.
“Well, I am, but not to the point where I have to live so uptight for the whole duration when the mission itself is basically over,” she said, just as the ship arrived at its assigned docking bay, a private dock, courtesy of the large sum of money they had spent to acquire it.
“Okay, ti to earn more MP. We have an appointnt waiting for us,” the man said as he finished the docking procedure and put the ship on autopilot. His personality shifted back to the pleasant traveler as he opened the door for the inspection robots to perform their final check before they could disembark.
The woman’s deanor also changed completely. All her playfulness vanished, replaced by her assigned character: soone who believed fully in her husband and followed silently behind him.
Although the physical war hadn’t started yet, as they awaited the Emperor to awaken, the espionage war was already in full swing.
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