- Joined
- Oct 31, 2006
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- Yinjing
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- Kyiv
Liberius Scaevola, Imperator Scaevola Quintus Rex, felt his frown deepening as he listened to his secretaries dictate report upon report. His work that begun not long after dawn had stretched well into the night, but was still far from complete. New reports had been coming in even as he had worked through the ones already on his desk. There had been an intelligence failure of unprecedented scale. An intelligence catastrophe would be more accurate. Over the past three weeks, Caelia's intelligence network in CETO had come completely unravelled with a speed and totality he had never before seen.
The first rumblings had been a sudden sweeping change of ciphers. Communications intelligence nearly halted. Then, the Caelian splices in the trans-Yunagi fibre optic cables were disabled over a 24-hour period. And it got worse. The Aureus network, a clique of disaffected Sarmatian officers in the Anti-State who had been among the crown jewels of Caelia's HUMINT, dropped out of contact completely and had not been heard from since. In a dive bar in Stato da Mar a Caelian-Ebrian businessman who had long worked as an intelligence front was stabbed to death in what local authorities described as a bar fight; to his ex-wife had been returned every one of his effects, except the special secure phone. In the Federation, three major defence contractors Caelian cyber intelligence had painstakingly wormed their way into rolled out new updates and security overhauls that closed every single exploit they had uncovered. At the same time.
It was a total route. And there were still reports coming in.
Small minds, Scaevola had always believed, saw evil intention behind every misfortune. But Scaevola suspected treachery. He could hardly not, the scale of the disaster was so enormous. His advisers were split between those who suspected Caelia had been targeted with a highly effective technical attack, though if that attack was a compromise of codes, a cyber infiltration or something more exotic, there was no consensus. Others insisted one or more CETO assets had successfully penetrated Caelia at the highest level. Desperate defensive countermeasures were already underway. For the past three days, some of the most powerful men in Caelia had been under de-facto house arrest on Scaevola's order. The broad scope and precise nature of the targets pointed to a source who was highly placed indeed, and if they were not the willing source their communications had been read like a book.
He had contemplated even more drastic actions. Shutting down international communications. Closing the borders. But this he believed would be a mistake. The Taurasan crisis was escalating rapidly. Caelia needed to project an image of strength, at home and abroad, to weather that storm. He knew his enemies would be gloating but took solace in the fact they could not do so openly, lest they reveal their most powerful trump card against him.
As the secretary droned on he turned his gaze to the impressive busts of his predecessors which surrounded him in the study. His father, his grandfather and those before him. In the dance of the firelight, the marble faces seemed so much more lifelike. When he was young he had felt intimidated by them. Their legacies weighed heavy on his conscious. But he found as he aged their stern gazes became invigorating. What had been his burden became his fortitude. They were dead and gone, but everything they had worked for now lived in him.
"...bear witness" his voice barely escaped into the room.
The secretary skipped a beat in his dictation, but perceiving that Scaevola was not interested in speaking further, resumed smoothly.
One day, Scaevola mused to himself, he would join them there.
The first rumblings had been a sudden sweeping change of ciphers. Communications intelligence nearly halted. Then, the Caelian splices in the trans-Yunagi fibre optic cables were disabled over a 24-hour period. And it got worse. The Aureus network, a clique of disaffected Sarmatian officers in the Anti-State who had been among the crown jewels of Caelia's HUMINT, dropped out of contact completely and had not been heard from since. In a dive bar in Stato da Mar a Caelian-Ebrian businessman who had long worked as an intelligence front was stabbed to death in what local authorities described as a bar fight; to his ex-wife had been returned every one of his effects, except the special secure phone. In the Federation, three major defence contractors Caelian cyber intelligence had painstakingly wormed their way into rolled out new updates and security overhauls that closed every single exploit they had uncovered. At the same time.
It was a total route. And there were still reports coming in.
Small minds, Scaevola had always believed, saw evil intention behind every misfortune. But Scaevola suspected treachery. He could hardly not, the scale of the disaster was so enormous. His advisers were split between those who suspected Caelia had been targeted with a highly effective technical attack, though if that attack was a compromise of codes, a cyber infiltration or something more exotic, there was no consensus. Others insisted one or more CETO assets had successfully penetrated Caelia at the highest level. Desperate defensive countermeasures were already underway. For the past three days, some of the most powerful men in Caelia had been under de-facto house arrest on Scaevola's order. The broad scope and precise nature of the targets pointed to a source who was highly placed indeed, and if they were not the willing source their communications had been read like a book.
He had contemplated even more drastic actions. Shutting down international communications. Closing the borders. But this he believed would be a mistake. The Taurasan crisis was escalating rapidly. Caelia needed to project an image of strength, at home and abroad, to weather that storm. He knew his enemies would be gloating but took solace in the fact they could not do so openly, lest they reveal their most powerful trump card against him.
As the secretary droned on he turned his gaze to the impressive busts of his predecessors which surrounded him in the study. His father, his grandfather and those before him. In the dance of the firelight, the marble faces seemed so much more lifelike. When he was young he had felt intimidated by them. Their legacies weighed heavy on his conscious. But he found as he aged their stern gazes became invigorating. What had been his burden became his fortitude. They were dead and gone, but everything they had worked for now lived in him.
"...bear witness" his voice barely escaped into the room.
The secretary skipped a beat in his dictation, but perceiving that Scaevola was not interested in speaking further, resumed smoothly.
One day, Scaevola mused to himself, he would join them there.