Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

When they finished shopping in the Hammerlight Jewelry Store, it seemed that the need to buy new useless things went significantly down for both Jenaiel and Zehal as they headed to one of the hotels in the city's center.

Ziria's city center wasn't bustling, and there were actually fewer people than one would expect. The three of them decided to head to the hotel, where they would stay the night, gather intelligence, and wait for the contact from the Directorate.

Afterward, they would head into the wilderness and complete their mission. Reconnaissance of the Arachnid Nest wasn't obviously something that he was keen on doing under these circumstances, but at least the situation was somehow salvageable.

If the Arachnids were not hiding their strength too much, then the Grade of the Bugs wouldn't be that high. He knew that if they were strong enough, they would have long ago overrun this world and made it another bug paradise.

So that left there the possibility that the bugs were not ready to launch a final offensive against the colony world and conquer it as their own. This meant that they were still rather vulnerable to outside attacks and were still gathering their strength.

Arcuturs knew that the bugs with intelligence were very cautious about their moves and what they would do. Arachnids were a calculating race that would never do anything on a whim, and they calculated every single movement that they would do.

One could even tell that the precision of their calculation was already approaching that of the Foreknowledge of the future. So, there was still some hope left.

When they went to the hotel, which was one of the more luxurious ones in the colony, or probably the only one that was up to the standards of both Jeniael and Zehal, they bought accommodations for one day and one night.

The price was rather low, even though this place was certainly around the definition of high standards in the Empire, but at the same time, it was very empty. Because this was the frontier colony world of the Empire, there were not many visitors.

And the number of visitors that could afford this place was even lower.

Though he didn't really think that twenty Universal Credits per night was a lot... or perhaps it was?

Arcturus really didn't know because when he had transmigrated to this world, he was rather lucky in the money-making opportunities, and because he had obtained more and more money after every mission and task he completed, he bought only the best that he could afford.

In his first life, he lived very modestly, even despite the fact that he had money to live above his current standards, but he didn't really see the reason why. He was brought up in a rather average family, and he wasn't one for spending money.

During his entire life, the only things that he was spending money on were food and living expenses, his cats, and MMORPGs. Altogether, it wasn't really a lot that he was spending as his income was several times higher compared to what he spent.

Only during this time did he start spending more money on frivolities and luxuries that he would never spend in his first life.

During the journey back, unaware of the Arcturu's accurate observations, Zehal and Jeniael were both staring at each other with hostile gaze. Neither of them seemed to back down as they were sending each other gazes like they wanted to kill each other.

Arcturus noticed this only when they were in the logue of the hotel's restaurant, and even though it was a far cry from the top establishments on the Celestara, it was rather similar to the feeling of that one restaurant where he had dinner with Bator-Commandant Irene at the Starfort Lycurgos.

As they were sitting across each other, he noticed that there was some kind of tension between the two women, but he knew that it was not his matter. Arcturus thought that they were once again falling into the old habits, so that wasn't something that he wanted to meddle with.

For someone, who never really had any kind of more intimate romantic relationship with a woman aside from having sexual relationships with the escorts or young university students when they were working for him as assistants, he was most oblivious to what was happening.

He continued to dine in peace while Zehal and Jeniael were obviously killing each other with their glares for the entire time. The food was rather good in this place, so he just ate his fill now that Zehal apparently paid for the dinner, so nothing was better than free food.

Meanwhile they were arguing, from the corner of the logue, an elderly man with grey hair and azure blue eyes observed the trio. From the single look at the elderly man, it was very hard not to see the aristocratic features of the elder and, most obviously, by the pure dark clothes that he wore.

The man was from the Directorate and was one of their operatives that was stationed in this colony world. The Directorate had its agents spread across all of their Imperial Planets to monitor the local population and search for threats from the inside.

Just a few hours ago, he got orders from the higher-ups to make contact with the trio of students from the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy and work with them on the investigation of the Arachnid threat on the planet.

He himself didn't know how this could have happened, but it seemed that the bugs had infiltrated someone pretty high-ranking straight away. The elderly man had been doing the job of agent for the Directorate for many decades and worked primarily on the frontier of the Empire.

'All of them have too much prestigious background to be causally issued Imperial Conscription Order, so the situation is pretty fucked up...'

The man thought as he knew that even though there were certain principles on what the Eternal Empire of the Asurya worked and knew that people who were considered to be future pillars of the Empire wouldn't be given Imperial Conscription Order if there was no other choice and if the Empire wasn't confident in their abilities.

Yet the thought that the bugs managed to infiltrate someone high-ranked enough to tamper with the information network and Orbital Defense Network around the Ziras IV, meant that the bugs were adjusting their strategies and getting smarter around it.

He had to admit that infecting high-ranking personnel was an extremely risky start and was most likely to fail, but if successful, then it was very hard to trace back and realize. Most of the time, when the Directorate uncovered various Cults dedicated to the worship of bugs or infected people, it usually started with the typical scenario.

Some unassuming people on the outskirts of the city or colony got infected by the bugs, and then it spread, slowly, one by one at a time. With that, the Directorate was typically able to precisely trace the start of the bug infection and how the bugs were taking over the will of the people in a certain place.

But this time, they went for an entirely different strategy, one that was much harder to notice and uncover. This was a problematic but hardly unsolvable thing; they would just need to realize their process of how they achieved it, and then, they could act.

The elderly man sighed because he was to work with three brats on a mission that could endanger the entire Star System at best and a bunch of Star Systems, most probably, and or the entire Star Domain at worst.

Nevertheless, that was the best he had on his hands right now, and it seemed that there were some complications with the 71st Fleet that was supposed to arrive at the Ziras Star System in a few days because it seemed that there was an outbreak of the imprisoned bugs on one of the Prison Planets.

This was rather suspicious because the timing was very close, but alas, it seemed that the 71st Fleet needed to change the course and take a detour to support another two Imperial Fleets in culling down the bugs that created havoc on the Prison Planet as they managed to free some of the other prisoners and take over the entire Prison Planet.

It was really unfortunate that the Prison Planet was housing a few Limit-Grade individuals, which was greatly complicating the entire situation. This delay of the Imperial Navy at the Ziras IV posed a great threat because if the bugs were scheming something, and they for sure were, because... well, they were bugs.

Then, the entire existence of the colony world was in grave danger.

Meanwhile, as the elderly man from the Directorate was looking at the trio of students of the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy, Arcturus noticed that someone was observing them and noticed an elderly man wearing something that looked suspiciously close to the military uniform as he was observing them.

Arcturus knew that if someone was following them, then this was either a total amateur or someone who did it on purpose. Looking at the elderly man, he knew that it was on purpose because he was sure that the man must have been from the Directorate.

As soon as Arcturus looked at the elderly man, the man in question walked to their table and slowly sat opposite them while catching the attention of Jenaiel and Zehal, who were too engrossed in exchanging insults until they noticed that somebody was sitting behind the temple.

"I presume that you are the contact agent from the Directorate?"

Arcturus asked as he looked at the elderly man, who nodded his head at the equation while everyone behind the table now paid him their full attention. Even Zehal and Jenaiel knew when to stop their animosity because this was a very serious topic.

Anything related to the Directorate business was an important thing.

"Yes..."

The man said as he took out the badge that was showing symbol of the Directorate which was a sword on the shield, surrounded by seven starts around the sword on the shield.

There was also a series of numbers beneath the symbol of the Directorate, which was the unique ID that was assigned to every single agent whose sole purpose was identification.

These badges of the Directorate were forged from a special metal by the Votanni Forge Masters and were also infused by the Psionic Energy of the Agens so that the badge couldn't be falsified.

It was impossible to create a false one.

"So what does the Directorate require from us, sir?"

Arcturus, as the informally elected leader of the group, asked on behalf of the two female companions of his as he looked at the agent of the Directorate, whose name was still unknown.

"If the Sir thing was to ask for my name, then my name is not really important. You will be going to scout the surroundings of the Arachnid Nest on the planet and carry out the reconnaissance. At the same time, your primary mission is to discover the strength of the bugs and to see if there are any Brain Bugs; if there are, then it would be best if you could capture them alive so we can extract their memories. Also, we need to discover if this Arachnid Nest is the only one on the Ziras IV or not, and we need to act fast."

The unknown agent from the Directorate stated that all three of them grew more and more nervous as they continued their discussion because it was clear that everything was going the worst way possible.

"Wouldn't the 71st Imperial Fleet arrive in a few days?"

Arcturus immediately asked the question that was running through not only his mind but also through the minds of girls too...

"... Not, there was an outbreak on the Prison Planet of undisclosed location for reasons that I cannot disclose, and the 71st Imperial Fleet was ordered to redirect to the there due to some reasons that are secret. The delay is estimated to be around two or three weeks."

Well, this directly confirmed his suspicions that they would remain on the planet for much longer than initially predicted while, at the same time, worsening the situation by several degrees, and now he was really thinking that he should have sent Jeniael somewhere when she proposed this crazy idea.

"And the payment? This is no longer just an ordinary mission from the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy but a suicide mission that you gave prisoners sentenced to death."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Arcturus stated that he was going to negotiate the benefits because, as he said... this wasn't just a normal mission from the Academy but something more, far more dangerous than just that.

"What do you want?"

The agent from the Directorate asked because he was authorized to give them anything within the limits of reason, of course.

The Directorate was paying very well for the services, and even though all three of them had been issued Imperial Conscription Order, two of the three were directly tied to the Beyonders, while the last was the Heiress Apparent of the richest Clan in the Empire.

If the three of them joined their forces, they could certainly use their influence to convince the Empire to recall the Imperial Conscription Order and let them get away scot-free.

"100,000 Academy Points for each of us, Universal Credits... three million each for Jenaiel and me, and technological blueprints for Zehal."

The agent of the Directorate raised his eyebrows, but not really thinking much of the demands.

While they were indeed asking a lot, especially since the technological blueprints for the Zehal Alvix would be a relatively steep price, it wasn't something that would be considered an outlandish request.

In the end, the price was rather abysmal if one counted the fact that they were talking about the fate of the entire Star System, and this was something that Arcturus knew very well.

That was also the reason why he had asked for more than he initially planned. For Zehal he knew that asked for Unviersal Credits for her would be useless, who could be richer in the Empire than the Alvix?

So he asked only for the triple of the Academy Points, a lot of Universal Credits for himself and Jeniael as they were the ones that needed money the most, and for Zehal, technological blueprints directly from the Directorate.

He was sure that the secret agency had some really unique exotic technologies in their repertoire...