In the book In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust said; don't meet your idols. Cerion now became intimately aware of just how profoundly evocative that statement was.
He was sitting in a room facing the ageing parents of John Blum and the grieving widow who was six months pregnant. Because of T'Challa, the family before him was grieving, and no matter how powerful he was, he could not bring a son or a husband back to life. Nor did he think he could console the family in any meaningful manner.
In the end, John Blum's death would only seriously affect the man's family. The man's parents lost their only son, a young woman lost her husband, and a child would grow up without knowing their father.
'All because some fucking tyrant decided to attack me.' Cerion thought with anger.
He could understand if he was the sole target. He wouldn't have liked to get the Wakandan army and their prince hunting him, but he could take them. But what did his poor assistant ever do to the prissy pricks of Wakanda? What did this family do to those idiots? What did the two pilots and that poor air hostess do to the mighty kingdom of Wakanda?
He wondered whether this was part of his bad karma for facilitating a bloody war among the humans. Then again, his sins were his own to carry, not the people around him who worked hard to make ends meet. Even now, having captured the perpetrators, he felt he hadn't done enough. He wanted to fly into Wakanda unannounced and show those prissily little tots what a Kryptonian can do.
But he was not a military man and had no experience in organised warfare. The better part of his life was spent in a lab, leaving him woefully inadequate to take retaliatory action against Wakanda.
In fact, after much thought, he doubted anything good would come from a war with Wakanda. A war would entail needless civilian casualties, and he didn't want more blood to be spilt on any soil for whatever reason. But he would not allow them to go with a slap on the wrist either.
So, it was with a heavy heart that he consoled the grieving family and promised them all the aid he could give. The funeral was even more of a morose affair with a closed casket ceremony. There was nothing much to show as the body was in bits and pieces.
Immediately after the funeral, he returned to work. For now, he was keeping his distance from the planned expansion into Asian markets and leaving it to the legal team and industry experts. There was a rumour circling around that the plane accident was an assassination attempt by rival businesses. The PR wing in his company had suggested that they milk the situation to their benefit and never actively deny such allegations before the media. The publicity that this offered was simply too much to ignore. Naturally, the suspicions would fall on oil companies and the giant of the auto industry.
The PR wing hoped their convenient silence on the issue and evasive answers like;
'We are cooperating with the law enforcement agencies to find the truth.'
'The law will take its own course. We have full trust in the investigation agencies to find the truth of this unfortunate incident.'
Such doctored lines would jolt the interests of journalists who'd start to dig deep. They'd probably hit a wall with SHIELD taking over, and that'd just let the tongues wag. He was sure a lot of conspiracy theorists would crop up. It was free publicity as far as his people were concerned. A few discreet investments in media outlets should also keep them happy. Some sponsorship of popular shows was also on the drawing board. The media hype would help in popularising hydrogen as an alternate fuel.
Already, their ads promoted green tech and emphasised the need to cut carbon output. Their biggest advantage, however, was the low fuel cost of liquid hydrogen compared to petrol or diesel. But that could change once the war ended and oil flowed abundantly from the Middle East.
In preparation for that, Cerion had some people working on better refining processes to make cheap liquid hydrogen. Right now, it was one dollar a gallon, which he hoped to push down to 0.9 or 0.8 if they were lucky.
With most of the business taken care of, he could focus on how to deal with Wakanda. The obvious move was to contact a Wakandan embassy and set his terms for a negotiated settlement to defuse the hostilities. But Cerion was getting tired of playing the good guy all the time. He had allowed many of SHIELD's shenanigans since he hung his coat on the planet in the hope of better relations and cooperation in the future. He had tried to understand and accommodate many of their duplicities because he needed time and resources to build back and expand upon his capabilities.
Now that he had the Dauntless and a small fleet of fighter crafts under his command, he was not as dependent on the goodwill of his human allies. Therefore, he saw no reason to extend the same courtesy to Wakanda when they attacked him unprovoked and murdered his innocent employees. Besides, this time, he had a few experts in warfare and counterintelligence to aid him.
Activating the space bridge beneath his home in California, he stepped into Koron. The portal behind him shut down with a snap.
"Lord Vex, they're waiting for you in the situation room." Optima spoke through one of the drones guarding the city's space bridge hanger.
"Have they pieced together the intelligence we gathered?" he asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Did they share their plan with you?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you have to say about their plan?"
"Based on all the data I've gathered, I project a 68% chance of success." said Optima.
"Hmm." Cerion grunted noncommittally as he walked out of the hangar.
****
"We should strike at the head of the snake. I suggest straight-out assassination. It's a standard procedure used by the CIA to destabilise enemy governments. We assassinate the current govt and manufacture a civil war." Michelle suggested without any shred of reservation as if she was talking about the weather.
When Cerion suggested that they devise plans to respond to Wakanda's attack, he wasn't expecting a straight-up assassination and destabilisation of the entire nation.
"No!" Cerion vehemently disagreed, "We'll not be sowing a civil war in Wakanda. There is enough war on the planet as it is."
"What is this? The meeting of King Arthur's court?" Michelle shot him an unimpressed look, "What else are we supposed to do to an enemy that's willing to kill and assassinate as a first response with no thought to civilian casualties?"
Try as he might, Cerion couldn't argue against Michelle's logic. But brazenly attacking Wakanda would spell doom for their people who had no part in the ruling council of the kingdom.
"I agree with Lord Vex. We should remember that ordinary Wakandans have little to no say in how their country is being run. Even if those people approve of the attack, we should not let this spill out into all-out war." Brynn spoke softly, but his words had the necessary impact on those sitting around the round table.
Michelle shrugged her shoulders and scowled as she leaned back in her seat while the others around the table nodded.
"So what? Are you planning to talk nicely with these Wakandans and expect them to listen to a word? They are a fucking kingdom with a dictatorship ruling the country for thousands of years. They understand only the language of might." Michelle said.
"She does have a point," Derek, the former USAF officer, reluctantly said before looking at Cerion. "They attacked you once. Slapping an enemy on the wrist invites more attacks. They need to know that we can strike back and won't hesitate to do so."
"Deterrence to open conflict must be backed with strength. We must let the Wakandans know of our strength to ensure the cessation of further hostilities." said Thomas.
"Bruce?" Cerion looked imploringly at the scientist-turned-sorcerer in their little group.
"I don't know Cerion. On the one hand, I sort of get where these Wakandans are coming from. They want to keep their country safe and not want the world to come after their resources."
"But?" Cerion prodded, making Bruce sigh.
"As Michelle said, Wakanda is ruled by its king and a council of tribal leaders. We can make any plans, but they must be convinced to leave us alone. Without that, there'll be no peace with Wakanda," Bruce said, looking uncomfortable.
"The council must be struck. Their king needs to see that his security is an illusion and that his actions have consequences." Michelle said, happy that her view was supported even though it was a watered-down version.
"Still… attacking the king of Wakanda… Wouldn't that cause war to be declared?" Cerion was troubled at the prospect of a war with Wakanda.
If things went wrong, he could leave Earth and live elsewhere. But he liked spending time on Earth despite the many problems it entails. Wakanda could also choose to target his people to get to him even if he left once he attacked their king and ruling council.
"We use Prince T'challa to seal the deal. His value as our prisoner depends on Wakanda's willingness to accept their surrender and agree to a negotiated settlement." Brynn suggested.
"But we should not hand over the prisoners. Let the Wakandans buy their prince and their soldiers with their precious Vibranium." Michelle added with a smirk.
Cerion looked around at the table, and the majority agreed with the sentiment.
"All right then. We'll need a plan and a detailed treaty in hand. Let's make sure the specifics are carefully framed before we take any action." Cerion said as he opened a new folder on the digital display on the table.
It took them two days to hash out a plan for proceeding with the response. Sitting in on those meetings was an experience for Cerion, as it was his first experience with strategy formation regarding an invasion of an enemy state. Mostly, he was merely observant, letting the experts take the lead. He was there to study and learn military tactics and how their minds worked. It was not as if he could learn all this stuff from books.
First-hand experience was necessary to learn the ins and outs of warfare.
Thanks to his recent plunge into the defence sector, he was somewhat familiar with logistics. But other than that, he wasn't good at military strategy. He was reading up on the subject, but written material and hacked reports from the Pentagon were substandard compared to real-life experience.
It was Michelle who suggested that they go after the War Dogs, the spy wing of the Wakandan military. She theorised that Wakanda might be marshalling their spies to seek intelligence about their missing prince.
So, their first area of strike was inside the US itself.
Cerion kept his distance from the whole operation and left tactical authority for the spy sweeping in Michelle's safe hands. It was a three-day operation launched by the former CIA operative. The epicentre of the spy sweeping started from Vex Corp HQ. The intelligence they extracted from the Wakandan ships and prisoners ensured their operatives could identify the enemy seamlessly.
Cerion deployed Vibranium suits and weapons to all operatives to ensure that his people never suffered any casualties. He also deployed the shielders he had developed for the black ops division of the US military for his people. The suits he gave to his operatives also gathered valuable combat data, which he fed directly into his new Sentinel project.
The Sentinel project was based on the data he gathered from the Eternals and an offshoot of bots currently working on the modifications of Koron. They were supposed to replace the current Kryptonian drones that function as the crew in the Dauntless. But with his intent to take over a Kree mining planet, he expanded the scope of the Sentinel project to include warrior parameters in the bots. So, all combat data was now directly fed into training the Sentinels before they were allowed to take the field. They were also disconnected from Optima's system core.
All of Optima's functions were focused on maintenance, research and being a virtual intelligence. He hadn't designed her for combat. Therefore, he separated the Sentinels from Optima's command structure.
"All missions have succeeded. We've got the packages." Michelle's voice cackled from the drone floating beside him.
"Good." Cerion said absently as he sifted through the neural scheme of one of the Sentinels in the hanger, "Take what you need and send the rest to the city. The cryo chambers are primed to hold them. Bruce will be there to assist you upon arrival."
"Over and out."
The connection cut off, and Cerion continued to compile several lines of code on the datapad.
"All right. Let's try this out." Cerion pulled the cord out of the Sentinel bot and pushed in the crystalised circuitry that hosted the codes of a limited intelligence into the control unit.
The bot lit up as it became active. Its eyes glowed bright gold, showing off the plasma pellets inside and getting energised. It dies down immediately once its burning irises settle on Cerion.
"Sentinel #01 reporting for duty, sir." the bot saluted, standing in attention.
"Sentinel, weapons check." Cerion ordered.
The bot's arms shifted as metal plates folded back, and two plasma cannons appeared atop its forearms. The fingertips folded back to show mini laser guns. The shoulder blades moved back, showing off a mini automatic rifle and a grenade launcher. The irises glowed an eerie bright yellow, along with two specks of light on the bot's face and forehead with plasma.
"Weapons system operational." the Sentinel said in a robotic voice.
"Sentinel, flight check."
The bot floated almost silently as its antigrav thrusters worked seamlessly. It flew around Cerion in a controlled flight and returned to its initial position.
"Nice. At ease, Sentinel."
The bot deactivated all its systems and landed on the floor with a minimal energy signature.
Cerion connected his datapad to the Sentinel's core and downloaded all the diagnostic data.
"I'm uploading hand-to-hand combat protocols and training files into your system. Engage in practice sessions on the beachhead. I'll need to assess your real-life performance."
"Yes, sir." Sentinel saluted before flying out of the hangar.
"Study Sentinel's movements. I need to know whether to make any alterations to the neural scheme." he ordered the drone, keeping him company.
"Yes, sir." Optima said before flying out of the hangar following the Sentinel bot.
With that out of the way, he kept an eye out for the Serenity, the sole Kryptonian scout ship under his command. It was only thanks to the stealth tech he had built into the ship that Michelle and others could use it to pick the War Dogs from across the US with no one the wiser. It didn't take long for most prisoners to arrive via the space bridge while he tracked the Serenity leave continental America for Africa.
The entire Wakandan spy ring in the US was swept away overnight with their actions. But that was not the most important detail. After the War Dogs were taken prisoner, he immediately extracted all relevant information from them before the Serenity reached the borders of Wakanda. With the data he mined from their minds, he easily broke through the codes they used to communicate with their handlers in Wakanda proper.
Now, he could expose their whole structure to every nation if he so wished. And that was the most potent bargaining chip, even more than their precious Blackpanther. After all, he now possessed intelligence data that could cripple Wakanda for decades and expose them to the entire world with solid proof.
****
Michelle looked down from the Scouter as Thomas and Derek escorted the bound War Dogs towards Wakanda's border. The Scouter remained under stealth, but she suspected Wakanda was now aware of their ship, especially with movement so close to their border.
"We're being scanned by long-range scanners." Optima chirped from her side.
'Just as I thought.' Michelle thought.
But she didn't panic. She merely raised the shields of the scouter and primed the plasma cannons in case the Wakandans decided to shoot first and ask questions later. She fired off two bolts of plasma shots straight inside their border, which destroyed the holographic projector that cast the illusion net near the area that hid Wakanda. The result was immediate as the projected image flickered and died promptly, exposing Wakanda's borders to her naked eyes. She also targeted several automated defences close to the border, pricked up by the orbital scan data provided by the Dauntless. A series of explosions lit up the Wakandan border as she rained fire upon the Wakandan border until the last of the marked targets were destroyed.
She maintained her hand on the lever that controlled the plasma cannon. She didn't expect to get attacked. After all, they held all the leverage against this hidden kingdom. No matter the technological edge Wakanda boasted, that was peanuts compared to what she had under her fingertips.
The tension on her shoulders eased as the War Dogs crossed the border of Wakanda without any issue. Now, the waiting game began, and they had to wait for the border patrol to send the message they had given to the War Dogs. If it was anyone other than Cerion, she was sure Wakanda would've paid their price in blood. But Cerion was far too forgiving, but she was pragmatic enough to see that he was making the most of the situation and hitting the Wakandans where it hurt the most. The peace treaty they offered was bound to shake up the royal family of Wakanda and their stupid council.
Wakanda would have no choice but to submit to their demands if they wanted their precious prince and spies intact.
Michelle now had the capability and intelligence to expose Wakanda's entire spy ring, which was spread across the world. With her tactical team, she painstakingly routed Wakanda's operatives in the US. With the data that she extracted from the handlers of those spies, she also collected the spies from other nations. One wrong move would expose Wakanda to the whole world.
Michelle kept an eye on the reports being filed by her direct subordinates on a parallel screen. It was not that hard to recruit military intelligence officers from across the globe. Cerion's angel persona helped in their silent recruiting, and right now, the chaos of war was more than enough cover for the whole thing to go unnoticed. Their boss had planned to come clean with the rest of the recruits, but she, along with the others, managed to dissuade him from making such a mistake. Their entire recruitment pitch was focused on vulnerable military or intelligence personnel and their families. Most of them had lost hope or were too injured, broke, lonely and without hope.
The instant assurance of a supreme entity was psychologically comforting, as was in her case. She had lost her legs from a mine explosion. Her fellow officer was blown to bits, and it was by sheer luck that she evaded capture. Cerion had not only restored her but given her a new life even though he had lied about being an angel.
But sometimes Michelle couldn't help but think Cerion was testing them all. He possessed almost all the powers of an angel except for the 'audience with God' part. For Christ's sake, he had wings made of the brightest light coming out of his shoulder blades!
So, even if Cerion had come clean to a few of them, Michelle was adamant on keeping that tidbit of information locked away from the lower cadres of their budding organisation.
It was hardly the time to be truthful, anyway. They were preparing to conquer a whole planet! Michelle could hardly believe she was even a part of such a historic enterprise.
She didn't know Cerion's priorities or reasons. She doubted he was interested in preserving the human race, as he claimed. If she was being honest, she suspected her alien boss was just lonely and wanted some humans to make a little community of their own. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense than the stupid ass reason of 'preserving humanity'.
Michelle was immensely attracted by the prospect of starting anew on another planet. It was a chance to start over. On this new planet, the national boundaries would become irrelevant. Human civilisation would stand united instead as a thousand tribes. And most importantly, she could ensure the chaos that was democracy would never take root in this new world.
She had seen and suffered the cost of democracy. If they were building a new civilisation, she wanted that to be a militaristic one where the words honour and justice were not just a punchline by those fat asses with champagne bottles or blood-sucking lawyers said to get their skinny asses out of trouble.
The sensors on the panel before her beeped, making Michelle sit up straight.
"You're about to get company." she said to Derek and Thomas through the comms.
"Yeah, we see em." Thomas replied.
"Your call, Thomas." she said back, keeping her eyes peeled for enemy movements.
Her grip on the plasma cannon lever tightened as the scanner picked more enemy build up along the Wakanda border.
"Only two people are stepping out of the camouflage. Stand down. I repeat, stand down." Thomas' voice cackled through the comms.
Michelle relaxed slightly in her seat, but her grip remained on the lever. She saw an armoured man walk out of the border with a spear-wielding woman.
"The king of Wakanda." Michelle muttered.
"I'm T'Chaka, the King of Wakanda. Wakanda is ready to discuss terms for the release of our prince and our operatives."
Michelle was surprised by the easy capitulation. She had expected more resistance from Wakanda. In preparation for that, the Serenity was high in orbit under cloak with an ion cannon primed to strike at the Wakandans.
"I have already informed Lord Vex. He'll be here soon." Optima chimed before she could ask the AI to relay the information.
She hardly had to wait a minute before her ears picked up a booming sound in the sky. In the next moment, she saw Cerion float down from the sky in his gleaming silver armour. The Wakandans took a few steps back on her boss' sudden appearance.
'Now, we can have peace.' Michelle grinned.
AN:
To read ahead of the update schedule; pat(r) eon. C (O) M/Dragonspectre.
For artwork related to the fic:
https://discord.gg/Nw2JH25fJf