Post by drakadorchaos on Dec 26, 2021 1:24:27 GMT
[Exalted Network]
Aszeven ran through calculations, over and over, having observed the markets for days without pause now.
…the Ancerium prices were rising, they had been for days now and will likely still do so in several weeks or even months, depending on when the situation at the Corridor would be resolved.
If it would ever be resolved, given the current political situation.
However, evaluating that wasn’t Aszevens task currently, he had to look into the evolution of the market and how to handle their Ancerium stockpiles.
Whilst the rising prices would theoretically be convenient to them, given they had stockpiled Ancerium when it was cheap, how the prices came to be and the fact they would stay that way made it all the more complicated. The high prices would stay that way and will likely get even worse over time and given they did not have the time to build a sufficient number of harvesters beforehand, they were now lagging behind and would have to feed off their reserves whilst building harvesters and scouring the harvesting areas which were still available, whilst constantly being harassed by pirates and alike.
That was not all of it though, unsurprisingly, the economic impact of this event would likely be felt for years to come in the wider galaxy.
Given that, even if the corridor would be free today, countless harvester fleets had been destroyed in just a singular day, making the damage even larger and long lasting than it looked to an outsider, going to extremes where some nations even started considering alternatives to ancerium or building facilities to create their own artificial ancerium.
Infrastructures were failing and trade networks were on the verge of collapse from one day to the other.
Fortunately, it was not all bad.
Given the prototype stage of the Networks current harvesters and their tendency to stay out of the public eyes sight, they had a, comparatively, easy time getting away from the ‘Aedleshaven Massacre’, confirming their choice of making them as mobile as they were.
Also, given the prices currently they would also be able to use some of the Ancerium as leverage in trades or other contracts.
However, that did not solve their current issues. They would not be able to sell a large part of the Ancerium until their own supply was secured, lest they wanted to end up stranded in the Void.
Aszeven sighed internally. The fleet would have to stay put for a while.
Qarvaton Mainframe; Network Cyberspace
Qarvaton cursed, a rare occasion for him, more so as an AI, less so as a sentient being.
The information he received from Aszeven only confirmed what he had already suspected and he did not like it in the least.
As a consequence of their Ancerium shortages he would have to freeze about half of the fleet movements and the main fleet would have to move less often, whilst that in of itself was not that much of an issue, given space was big and the chance of being discovered was miniscule, the further consequences of it were what was giving him proverbial headaches.
With less fleet movements their reactivity dropped which meant they were less likely to be able to assist distress signals and critical information in time, leading to overall more chaos to deal with in their vicinity as well as less favours to leverage in case situations required it.
However, even something like that paled in comparison to the other issues or rather, the core of the issue.
Yog Narr.
He had, initially, been one of the issues that was not quite on their radar, considering the history and situation with other problems, so his entrance came too early, too unexpected.
They neither had enough forces nor enough firepower or connections to deal with him and with the Ancerium shortages the research into kolleronic substances and superweapons would be slowed down significantly.
…and even if they had the required assistance, it would still be a considerable challenge in their current state, bordering nigh on impossible. He hated to admit there were things the Network could not deal with, but it was necessary, he was the military advisor after all.
That being said, there were also other problems, the behaviour of Aedleshaven did not exactly help with the situation and Orillia, splintering the galaxy as it did, only added to the pile of problems. Given their current behaviour, it was likely they had more in the backhand than they were showing currently, which meant, if the Network wanted to deal with the panopticon, it would have to stay out of the firing line for now and avoid conflicts with more sides than absolutely necessary.
He went over the reports again and began compiling the information for the Custodian, they would have to focus on precise strikes instead of large operations for now, the resources would be drained too fast otherwise, both in economic and military aspects.
One last time Qarvaton looked at the models and plans. He certainly had his work cut out for himself now.
Deralith Mainframe; Network Cyberspace
Given their current resources, they would have to narrow their focus on certain things, whilst trying to preserve the reserves as much as possible until they had more time to build infrastructure and other assets. One of these things was the Panopticon, given they still did not know what their actual plan was. He had searched the Ancnet and some other networks for some potential sources of information and allies, but with the upcoming war many of them may become more of a nuisance than a help. However, given the Panopticon seemed to be leaning heavily into psionics, they would have to see what they could do about that and he had already picked a number of potential targets who could help with that.
Furthermore, they would likely have to deal with Yog Narr eventually, given the current state of affairs but in their current state that was still quite a while off. It would be a potential use for a superweapon but with the program frozen in favour of other things they would have to wait and even then it was a gamble.
They would have to tread carefully if they didn’t want to get discovered in the coming days.
Then there was the issue with the upcoming war itself, whilst the prince would have likely picked a side in it but not him, not now. He, as Custodian, had currently more important tasks and targets, the Network would have to build up if they wanted to be ready for the Prince's arrival and be able to influence things by any significant margin. In the end, from what he had gathered, the aggression from the natives was not uncalled for in it concept however they way in which they decided to exert made them no better than the Colonials they campaigned against.
However…
The war did offer the unique opportunity to gather or leverage favours with a number of nations if they played their cards right, something they would have to be on the lookout for.
Lastly there was the aftermath of Yog Narr in Aedleshaven, the Prince would be angered if he heard of the incompetence or blatant disregard of the local authorities towards the situation, although…
The Network itself was, admittedly, not in much of a position to assist the stranded ships, lest risking to attract more attention than they could afford.
But… maybe, there was another way?
Deralith scanned through the provided data and came to a conclusion. They would have to be careful, but it could work.