...Doran sat in the security center, a cup of tea besides him, a serious look on his face.
The Holograms of the public open spaces glowed silently in the dim room, there had been a few minor incidents when the advanced nullfields of the system went up and blacked out the stars, mostly due to the traveling regulations that came with it, but nothing that couldn´t be solved with a few calming words. Compared to other races, theirs was of incredibly calm nature and their exceedingly long lifespan made the people think more about the consequences of the actions compared to most of the inhabitants of this universe, infights and dissents were almost non-existent. Though all of this was perfectly normal for them, so when on duty he barely had anything to do usually.
He leaned back and took a sip of his tea, External Politics had almost completely shut down with the impeding end of phase one, and his other job was currently only coordination also from the mainstation... it has been quite a while since he had any field deployments.
Almost boring.
Too bad Hera was so busy these days with her research...
Hera sat over the data of the technology derived from the Ever Legions Stasis, Umbrella and reality enforcer fields, about half a month ago they had completely adapted the data for their use, after dragging some of the stasis field generators to the abyss, revealing that the stasis field itself was actually part of the mechanism. She had learned about the basic principles of similar tech during her study and tuition phase, but at that time the technology was already considered lost due the disconnection of some of the archives a few dozen millenia prior and other rebuilding and reserach projects had priority in the home universe, even though technology like this was rather fascinating...
...and this was not the only project she was currently working on, since the woman from the homeuniverse showed up she recieved a constant stream of new research materials and requests, while some them seemed to be from the by the native races uncharted space, others were from new universes they had recently started observations on.
The work was interesting and fascinating and she learned new things every day...
The only thing she was missing now was free time for her husband, which was unpleasent, but the outpost wouldn´t be this busy forever, so the problem should solve itself, eventually...
...Lyra lied silently in the hammock, between the branches of a Lardran Grandbark, atop one of the seven Tulrean High Peaks under a starlit sky, a collosal, almost perfectly white glowing, moon shining down. She dozed a bit while looking at moon, her ears twitched as the wind went through the whispering leaves of the tree.
artificial reality rooms really were a fancy thing.
Almost as entertaining as flying or commanding a spaceship, or testing a new prototype, which there lately have been none of.
Almost as entertaining.
Hera was busy with her her research and Vulra has been stacked with work ever since she returned from her vacation. At least Odwin had been been mostly free as of lately and played some games with her sometimes.
She yawned and stared back at the moon, nothing important to do...
Maybe she should just sleep a while longer...
...the ice had just about the perfect temperature, not melting yet, but also not too cold, the Blaran treeberries and chocolate sauce tasted wonderful together and the three different sorts of ice harmonized together.
On other side of the table sat her sister Saria, having a rather simple looking sundae, something with a waffle and chocolate chips as well as some nut and caramel ice and some vanilla sauce. she looked somewhat absent, Reia sighed, Saria now had quite some free time due to the current isolation, but letting go of work seemed to be rather difficult for her, the ice started dripping from her spoon back into the bowl while she stared through the holodisplays which replaced the bars windows with an absent look on her face, Reia frowned and waved her hand infront of Sarias face face...
R:"Saria? Saria!"
...she turned back to Reia with a somewhat bewildered look on her face then looked at her spoon...
S:"Oh."
The ice disappeared in her mouth and she swallowed a few moments later.
S:"Sorry, I just..."
R:"You phased out again, thinking about what tasks might be so important that Vulra had to take them on instead of you and then you dripped ice on your dress."
She looked down on her dress immedietly , blushing somewhat, a weird sight...
R: "I´m joking, don´t worry, but you should really start relaxing a bit more or you are going to be more stressed out after your vacation than before."
She giggled, then they both started laughing...
S: "Ha, I guess you´re right and to think that in the beginning I was the older sister that always had to help you out... you really improved yourself Reia!"
Several days after the ship appeared and then disappeared again Atma was sitting in his office, staring into the blackness that replaced the stars outside the headquarter system... Several things have went well as of lately, the resources for Anastreay had been delivered without issues and since then they haven´t heard much about her apart of occasional requests to the research department, Hera was quite busy these days. The Isolation protocols had affected them less than expected, phase one of the operation was almost finished and they were still within shedule, despite the initial hostilities of the Ever Legion.
Then there was the transport convoy which had reached the headquarters about a week ago, from there it went off to the borders of this universe, the decoy had also reached the Headquarters after collecting combat data outside STC territory, the Illateri reacted astoundingly calm to the reappearance of the Panthera and the first Chimera would soon be finished...
...and then there were the more...unpleasent things.
After the failure of the local stabilizers of the Exalted Empire and the following disappearence of their corresponding chunk of reality almost 37.000 years ago during the war, this was only the third time they had shown themselves, although they were never hostile towards them and they proved as worthy allies both these times, their arrival had also followed calamities each time. Wether it was following them or they were seeking them out was debatable.
...and then secondly the incident that required an action on their part, luckily Archadia predicted the situation and acted accordingly, as of now the problem had been dealt with but this was likely not the last time they heard of it...
He turned back towards his desk, the buerocracy had considerably decreased as of lately, at least for him, due to the halt to most of the external transactions and most of the current work had to do with their relations to the homeworld, the TMD and Anastreay...
He closed his eyes and sighed, then he smiled.
He might even be able to take a day off at this rate and visit some of the other departments during their work...
Odewain Lazarus Level 573 Warmage, high tier equipment, perfected runes, 48 almost maxed skilltrees, the 15 other sub-systems were relatively well built, the wings might still need some work but...hey.
He really had too much time on his hands. Odwin stared at the ceiling. He wasn´t able to do any expeditions as of lately due to the traveling restrictions and if he would just disappear in this period that´d just cause commotion, which was just about the last thing he wanted.
The blessed catgirl sometimes came by to play a few games with him, which was something at least, in the meanwhile watching Doran at his work had become boring as he had nothing else to do but security as of lately, at least he didn´t have to deal with the yabbering of his successor Hera in the research department since she was constantly busy with all the work she got from the Godslayer girl, poor Doran though, Alarian had nothing to do as of lately either but he prefered constant training over diversion, somewhat logical as he was a Kin.
He walked out of his "office", it had turned more of into something akin of a hobbyroom, as he never had much to do to begin with and with the iolsation now even less.
He never expected to actually miss work. Well, some sort of work.
He stared through the corridors and slowly shuffled wherever his feet dragged him, he frowned at the ground.
Phase one, almost finshed, isolation in action, the bridgehead from which they could continue the operation was almost finished, relocation will be in progress soon, one of the Princes had been sighted. The Herald and some of the Prophets had made their appearance, one of the lost races had re-emerged from the depths of time and a Gate has been discovered, almost all positions were filled, almost all pieces were in position for the next step. He grinned to himself.
Things are bound to get interesting somewhen in future, even though it could be still a few months to that point.