The yellow Overseer looked up from the file in his hands and into the eyes of Forsoo. Forsoo looked back, face set in a soft smile.
“It says here you were the one who triggered Waise’s insurance policy,” The Overseer said.
Forsoo nodded. “They were giving her a way out. Admirable, but sadly against our wishes. She needed to be taken care of or she would have betrayed us to them.”
“I happen to agree with you. But…” The Overseer looked torn. “…I did think you had higher standards than the rest. I always figured it would have been Arlowe who activated it.”
“Perhaps I do have higher standards,” Forsoo said, shrugging. “I saw a situation where relations needed to be solidified quickly, or everything would be at risk. I acted.”
“Hrm… Well you are finally getting an accommodation and promotion for this. Congratulations are in order, you are the new Primary Agent of this facility.”
“Thank you sir, it is my honor to serve the Seers.” Primary Agent? That was just three steps of power beneath the Director! Forsoo was now only below Overseers and Site Directors! This was great! Those ponies were the best thing to ever happen to him!
“Now, your responsibilities have changed. You get to decide what missions you go on, and you get to assign others to missions. Consider yourself lucky that the previous Primary Agent was on an assassination assignment that went south.”
“What happened to her?”
“Was successful but was killed in the act. The target was also an assassin, took her out with him.”
Forsoo winced. “Ouch.”
“Indeed. The office is through there. Some of her personal items are still in there, haven’t had a chance to clean it out.”
Forsoo nodded. “It will be no problem.” He left the Overseer’s office and entered his new place of work. Like everything in facility G.A.L., it was predominantly a dark grey color. Two bookshelves liked the side walls; two television screens flanked the doorway. He slid behind the sleek desk and placed himself in front of the state-of-the-art computer to discover that the rumors were right, the chair really was more comfortable, despite looking exactly like every other chair in the building. There was a purple cactus growing to the side, and an image of a purple gari woman on the desk. He carefully set these things aside - someone would be by to pick them up later. He was considering keeping the cactus though.
He began to read through the feed that the Overseers created – fashioning missions and goals for every agent worldwide. He didn’t plan on assigning anything right now, only wanting to familiarize himself with the system. He looked at the many kinds of missions available at the moment.
…replace the Tertiary Magistrate of Kobalt…
…get more individuals into the Status Intervention Senate to clean up the mess…
…assassinate Emin Montreal…
…trigger a rebellion in Dialo without killing the Magistrate…
…keep United Space from passing…
…promote jiggle-jelly.
Forsoo groaned upon reading the last one. Economic missions were the worst. They were very vague and it was generally impossible to tell if there was a success or not…
Arlowe stuck her head in the door. “Forsoo-“
“Ah, yes, Arlowe, come on in. What are you doing these days?” He smiled warmly.
Arlowe squirmed. “I uh… Besides translation software, I’m the secretary. Blagha wants you to know she’ll be off site for the day, so unless the Overseer steps in you’re in charge. Nothing should happen, just expect more people to call you. All security clearances have been transferred.”
Forsoo nodded. “Thank you Arlowe. Your contribution is greater than most.” Arlowe left without a word – evidentially still not wanting to talk to him. She had been rather close to Waise, even if she knew Waise was a complete sack of trash.
Site Director… Essentially, Forsoo thought to himself. Life is good.
The phone line rang. He answered. “Acting Site Director Forsoo, what can I do for you?”
“It’s Cred! Calling to let you know there are power fluctuations… Do not be alarmed, we’re fixing them.”
As if in response, the lights began to flicker. “Thank you for the update Cred. It’s appreciated. Call back anytime.” He hung up, turning back to the computer. He looked through the classified documents now, finding all sorts of juicy stuff he had never known about before. He had access to almost everything at the moment, with only a few files restricted to specific Site Directors. There was a more in-depth report on the inner workings of the Star Weapon. Apparently the Director had ordered its construction before the technology to build it even existed. Curious.
Then he ran across a heavily restricted file titled “ICON – Overseer Level+ Access Required.”
The Overseer only file. It was legend amongst agents. Most had never seen it, and many thought it was just a legend. But here it was, right in front of him. He supposed Site Directors were allowed to know it existed, perhaps to remind them that they didn’t know everything.
ICON… Did it have to do with the Director? He supposed that made sense, the Director was such a mysterious individual, but the files for the Director weren’t anywhere else…. Perhaps that was the ‘icon,’ the Director.
Well, that couldn’t be it, the file was almost as old as the Seers themselves, written before the database was even created if the ‘date filed’ was to be believed. Perhaps it was a list of all gari who had filled the role of Director over the centuries?
It was interesting to think about, to say the least. Maybe one day he would know.
The line rang again. “Acting Site Director Forsoo, how may I help you?”
“Wow. That’s a chipper voice,” a woman said.
“Who is this?”
“Javelin, but that’s not important. What’s important is that apparently our firewalls have been breached by an unknown force again. You weren’t here for the attack a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t matter right now. Just know that something tapped into the database and got some information. We don’t know what it got. And it’s back.”
“…What measures of defense are being taken?”
“The coders are working on enhancing encryption and the theorists are cooking. Current suspect is that alien robot the Equi found and lost, but we have no proof.”
Forsoo grunted. “And it’s not like we can just ask them how they dealt with it without being suspicious. Has the current attack been stopped?”
“No, it’s still going on, but it hasn’t accessed the database yet. We’re rerouting power and trying our best to keep it out, but it’s still causing power fluctuations. We’re pooling all the resources we can into this.”
“Good. Keep me posted, and keep up the good work.”
“Ugh. Too happy.” She hung up.
Forsoo looked at the phone in distaste before trying to focus on the files once more. He was concerned that the alien machine might be here, but he knew he couldn't really do anything about it. He wasn't one of the techies, so he let himself become absorbed in the computer. It was a few minutes later when the intruder alert alarms started blaring. What?
He quickly called Arlowe. “What is going on?”
“Corridor 5B. Equi.”
Forsoo grabbed a remote, quickly adjusting his wall screens to the correct frequencies. There was a small troop of ponies, accompanied by Discord, walking down a hall, saying something to the camera… “We look for the Mite.”
He groaned. So they had tracked the Mite here. What a mess. “Arlowe, identify the individuals… I want to make sure.”
“Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Discord, and… not sure. Closest match I have is a character from their fiction, Daring Do.”
“I’d love to know the story behind her…” He said. “Patch me through to them.”
“Done.”
“Princess, this is a restricted facility. Why and how are you here?”
“We found stuff of another alien Mite. One MIte had found files that led us here. Alien Key in facility.”
Her gari wasn’t perfect, but Forsoo understood what she was saying. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Forsoo said truthfully. “If you will allow the agents to take you to the lounge we can talk this over…” And perhaps discover if amnesiacs work on your kind.
Daring Do whispered something in Twilight’s ear. She nodded, and the group teleported elsewhere. She saw the trap.
“Hall 7C!” Arlowe announced. Forsoo quickly switched the channels – seeing them only the briefest of moments before the teleported again, narrowly avoiding agent gunfire.
They were being stupid…
Forsoo gritted his teeth. Section 4D… Lavoratory 5E… Corridor 2F… They just moved too fast! ...But there was a direction – downwards.
“Set up a tranq team at Hall 1M. They’ll be there if they continue on their path!”
“Yes sir!”
Forsoo liked the ponies, he really did, but he couldn’t just have them ruin his job like this. They needed to be stopped before they got too far in. He wondered if he’d have to kill them… he hoped not.
The Equi went past floor after floor – G, H, I, J, K, and L… Before arriving exactly where expected, right in the middle of an ambush. The darts flew true, heading right for the ponies. Daring Do was the only one they missed completely. Twilight and Sunset fell to the ground while Discord was completely unaffected. Forsoo found himself cursing Discord for cheating, until he realized that Discord wasn’t fighting back at all. Daring Do was, knocking the agents out with flare.
Forsoo tensed when Discord magically woke the two sleeping mares up with a gong. Forsoo couldn’t let this go on. ”Agents! You now have permission to use live rounds!”
The live rounds had little effect – a simple magic shield blocked them. Perhaps if they had used live rounds first, the ponies wouldn’t have been expecting attacks, but they were ready to fight back now. They teleported away once again, defying the agents.
Forsoo seethed. They were still going down. N… O… They were headed right for the offices. Forsoo's face became panicked. He ran out of his desk and rushed into the Overseer’s office. “Overseer! They’re-“
“I know,” he said, a deadly calmness around him. “Their magic overrules all our security measures save one.” He frowned. “I cannot give them what they want.”
“…What do they want?”
“A secret that not even you can know,” he said. “But seeing I’ve armed the self-destruct… No. Nevermind. I cannot say. Even now.”
“Why not?” Forsoo asked, curious and terrified at the same time.
“Who can say? They might save you and get it out of you later.” He stared intensely into Forsoo’s eyes. “We cannot let them know. They cannot be allowed out either.”
Forsoo gulped, but nodded. This is what he had been trained for. They were going to go down with the base. The two of them stepped out of the office into the hall – hall 7Q.
The Equi appeared seconds later.
“What the heck is going on?” Sunset demanded.
“You are not supposed to be here. We defend our secrets.” The Overseer spoke in almost perfect Equi.
Twilight frowned. “Why hide this from us? We could help understand it!”
“I will not say,” The Overser paused. “I will say I am disappointed in your conduct.”
“Same,” Sunset declared.
Discord snarled. “On our way here our little Mite friend informed us of some other rather indicative files about your little group you have. Nice Star Weapon.”
Twilight looked sad. “Why? Why do you do these things?”
Forsoo answered. “World needs us. Keep balance. Prevent toppling.”
“We never had to do any of this back home…”
“You lost your sun,” The Overseer observed. “Along with most of your population. You cannot judge us for what we have done to keep ours.”
The Equi were taken aback. Discord looked ready to smite them. Forsoo prepared for the worst.
“Disable self-destruct,” a heavily distorted voice rang out. The Overseer and Forsoo turned to see the Director behind them.
“You’re back?” The Overseer blurted, startled. “You weren’t supposed to be back-“
“I came back early. Had an epiphany.” The Director turned to the Equi. “I will see you four in the Overseer’s office. I will answer you and your Mite’s questions. The time is at hand.”
The Overseer trembled at the Director’s words. “But Director…”
“That is my decision. Come, Twilight Sparkle and company.” The Director wordlessly walked into the office and sat down.
Twilight, Sunset, Yearling, and Discord went inside. The doors sealed shut behind them.
Forsoo turned to the Overseer. “…Care to tell me now?”
The Overseer was stunned. “I… I… no… But… …We wait and see Forsoo. Until then, we have to calm the Site. Tell them it was resolved.”
Forsoo gulped. That wasn’t going to be easy…