Nina Flores slowly watched the mushroom cloud spread out of the viewport. She stood with her arms crossed, frowning. Command isn't going to like this, she thought to herself. She stood aboard the EMC Terrapin, a Naval Intelligence vessel currently orbiting Harmattan. Far below, on the surface of Harmattan, the mushroom cloud expanded slowly, its billowing cloud of dust and radiation filled with a hellish fire. She chewed her lip, thinking. The nuke was only supposed to be set off in an emergency scenario. The fact that it had been detonated clearly indicated everything aboard the Methuselah had gone tits-up.

Which meant Delta had messed up.

Flores turned on her heel and began walking down the hallway towards her office. She knew she'd need to be present there, so that the brass could come and chew her out. And perhaps she deserved it. Or maybe she was just unlucky. The Enoch had already goofed in a way she hadn't expected: it had decided to go and check out the wreck of the Methuselah, and she hadn't been notified. She wasn't sure where the information chain had been broken, but if she knew that the Enoch was going to investigate, she would have belayed their plans, and commanded the Enoch to fire on the wreckage of the Methuselah, scuttling her.

She couldn't allow the information inside to become known.

Not instructing the Enoch specifically had been her fault, for sure. She knew the older tank was patrolling nearby, but she had heard it needed an impeller replacement. She wrongly assumed the tank would return to Mother Base, most likely 01, for repair and re-arm. She hadn't expected the Enoch to try and cannibalize the Methuselah for parts. And when she heard about it, it was too late to change the Enoch's plans. It would look too suspicious. And that was one of the biggest aspects of her job: making things look as normal as possible. If suspicions were raised, she had failed by default, even if nothing was discovered.

The hallways on the Terrapin gently sloped upwards in a ring, allowing for gravity. For this, she was thankful, because it allowed her to live in orbit without lasting health issues. Living for extended periods of time in 0G did things to the human body, and she wasn't interested in that. However, she also wasn't interested in living in the irradiated sandy hellscape that was Harmattan's surface. It was nothing but sand and rads, and she hated both equally. Sand was irritating and found its way everywhere, and the radiation was self-explanatory. Even living in orbit, where cosmic rays bombarded the ship on a regular basis, she received less of a radiation dose than if she lived on the surface, either in a base or in a tank.

And that's living in a base or tank. If you tried to scrape a living out of the surface on your own, you were dead, full-stop. If the wildlife didn't get you, which it most likely would, the rads most definitely would. Maybe someone would be alright for five years, or maybe even a decade, but after that all bets are off. Tumors galore, twisted DNA, skin lesions, the works. The only way to survive on Harmattan was in a shelter of some sort.

She walked past a propaganda poster decrying their enemies: the Seditionists. It was an art piece of one of their older, more famous tank models dueling to the death with numerous enemy tanks. The Earth-Mars Coalition flag flew proudly in the background. Nina walked past it without thinking about it. She worked in Intelligence, propaganda meant nothing to her. She wasn't even sure what the poster was doing here: everyone aboard the Terrapin worked in Intelligence. They all knew what the real war looked like. Sabotage, lies, murder. War crimes. The works. She had done it all, in the name of her government. In the name of her job.

The Seditionists, or the Union of Freed Planets, as they called themselves, was a collection of planets in the Euri Giorno system. Originally colonies from Earth and Mars, the UFP had claimed independence after a long history of squabbling between the two entities. One of the breaking points between the two had been differing opinions on the use of AI as slave labor. The UFP claimed that true AI, being sapient, were entitled to every right given to human beings, specifically the right to freedom. The EMC disagreed, and after a lengthy battle, the EMC stripped all AI rights that it had gradually given them over almost two centuries of discussion. It was one of the largest reasons the UFP split from the EMC in the beginning.

There were other reasons for the split, such as unfair treatment by UFP colonies by the EMC, and the EMC allowing certain corporations to act however they pleased in the Euri Giorno system as long as they paid their taxes back on Earth and Mars, which obviously didn't sit well with the locals. As for the battle on Harmattan, the planet was rich with silicon and hydrogen, as well as other valuable materials. Hydrogen, used in fusion reactions, was particularly valuable. Earth had already used up too much of the ocean's hydrogen, forcing many species to go extinct in the process, and they even drained much of the moon's hydrogen before lunar mining was made illegal.

Both governments needed Harmattan, so almost a century before, the two sides set on the planet. In the beginning, the fighting was most brutal. Both sides grappled for control over the planets' valuable resources, and neither side played fair. Ground troop combat was more common back then, compared to the exclusive tank warefare used today. The two sides fought brutal wars of attrition, until the bombs started falling. That wiped out most ground troops, and the surface, which was already deadly because of the wildlife and sandstorms, became uninhabitable because of the radiation. So the warefare changed to become almost exclusively vehicular. The tanks evolved and changed, becoming larger to allow larger crews, which allowed the tanks to stay out on patrol longer. Such was war. Constant evolution, all to kill the other.

She walked into her office's foyer, a closed antechamber. She closed the door behind her, and looked in the mirror that was in the small foyer. She was in her mid forties, and if she had ever had the time or desire to date, she imagined she would be a catch. If they never found out about her job, anyway. Dating someone in Intelligence was a strict no-no; which was fine to her, because everyone in Intelligence was a prick, including her. She had dark curly hair that she kept around her shoulders, and dark eyes. The Terrapin was an office environment, so she wore typical office fashion. She straightened her coat and walked into her office lobby. Her secretary, Ben Watkins, sat at his desk. He immediately jumped up at her arrival, but she waved him down.

"I know, I know. Let me guess, Colonel Braxton and company?" she said to him as she walked in. Watkins sat back down and gulped.

"Yes ma'am. And they're upset." he responded. Nina nodded. As they should be, she thought. She opened the door to her office to see two men in naval attire standing in front of her desk, apparently awaiting her appearance. One was Braxton, but she wasn't sure who the other one was. She steeled herself, and addressed them.

"Gentlemen," she said with a nod. She walked around them, getting behind her desk and sitting down. The office itself was small, but well-furnished. The walls were barren, but the bookcase behind her was full of books in a locked case, in case of an emergency. She was graced to have a window office, and she even kept a live plant by the window, a rarity in orbit. She motioned for them to take a seat, which they did. Braxton tried to speak, but Nina beat him to it.

"You want to talk about the nuke, I know. Let's just get down to brass tacks, then. I haven't had contact with my agent since the weapon went off, so I don't know what the situation was. I don't know why the agent set off the nuke. But I'll let you know as soon as I hear." she said quickly. Braxton turned his head to one side, eyes still locked on her.

"Flores..." he warned, but she interrupted him with a wave of her hand.

"You haven't introduced me to your companion yet. Nina Flores," she said extending her hand. The other man was around Nina's age, and had a bullish face. His eyes were deep-set into his head, with an oppressive brow and a chin that could break concrete. He wasn't attractive by any means, but his body rippled with power. He extended his hand to shake hers, and she could see that under his suit, the man was massive. He obviously didn't skip the gym. He wore the same naval suit as Braxton, but it was devoid of

"Buck Sullivan," he said, shaking her hand, "Secretary of Defense for the EMC." Fuck, thought Nina.

"Oh, Mr. Secretary, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you. How silly of me." She tried to flash her best smile. Neither Braxton nor Sullivan seemed phased by the smile. Braxton leaned forwards.

"Flores, just to be clear, you've fucked up big this time. I imagine what you're working on is important, but setting off a goddamned nuke on Harmattan is beyond the pale. I mean really." He threw his hands in the air. "It's been eighty years since the last nuke fell, and we signed the Nuclear Armistice. It's just been tanks since then. And you set one off anyway." He sat back and crossed his arms.

"Mr. Secretary here has already had calls from both Earth and Mars about this, as well as the Seditionist ambassador screeching his ear off about the whole ordeal. So, please, in five words or less, explain what was so goddamned crucial that you needed to set a nuke off." Braxton sat waiting, Sullivan watching her with his crude-looking eyes. She knew those eyes hid something, and she was certain she didn't want to fuck with whatever that "something" was. Flores leaned forward, putting her elbows on her desk. She met both their eyes without hesitation or fear.

"It was the Dolos," she said. Braxton's mouth fell open, and Sullivan just blinked at her.

"What do you mean it was the Dolos? The Dolos killed the Methuselah?" Braxton asked, his eyes wide. Flores simply nodded. The room was silent for a moment, before Sullivan cleared his throat.

"I need a full briefing on this." was all he said, but his meaning was clear.

"My team detected what appeared to be the Dolos operating in Sector 37 G two weeks ago. We don't know how she slipped behind our lines, but she did. The Methuselah was in the area, so I sent her in to investigate. I even had her armed with special weaponry and equipment in case of a duel. We all know how that ended up. I have an agent aboard the Enoch, who informed me the Enoch had discovered the wreckage before I could get an Intelligence team out there to scrub it clean. The agent in question, known as 'Delta,' was instructed to set off a nuke I had stored aboard the Methuselah before any information could be leaked. However, they were instructed to try to delete the data first, circumvent any suspicions, etc. before they were to set off the nuke." Nina sat back in her chair and shrugged.

"The fact that the nuke went off indicates the mission went bad somehow. I haven't heard from my agent since before the nuke went off, and I have no idea if Delta is even alive to report at this point. All I can do is wait." she said. Braxton and Sullivan sat in stunned silence for awhile, thinking. Braxton spoke up first.

"The Dolos... after all these years," he said aloud. Sullivan slowly nodded.

"I'll patch things up with the ambassador, and quiet the minds back on Earth and Mars, Flores," Sullivan said, "but you make fucking sure that none of this business with the Dolos gets out. Understand?" He pointed a meaty finger at Flores. She nodded her head.

"Yes Mr. Secretary, I understand," she said. Sullivan sat back with a sigh.

"To be perfectly frank, I think what you did is justified. If I were in your shoes, I might have set off multiple nukes in this situation." Sullivan shook his head again. "But no nuclear weapon has detonated in eighty years, save that dud that went off fifty years ago. It'll be tough sweeping this one under the rug." He wiped his massive forehead with one of his gargantuan hands. "Just make sure it's all worth it," he said to her.

"Yes sir, I understand very well. I'll keep this under wraps as much as possible." she responded. He nodded once more, blinking.

"What will you do now?" he asked. Flores sat in thought for awhile.

"That depends on how much the Enoch knows," she said. Sullivan nodded. He understood what that meant. "In the meantime, all I can do is wait and see what happens. If Delta survived, they'll contact me with a description of what happened. If Delta perished somehow, either from the nuke or wildlife or whatever, I'll see what the Enoch does. I'll monitor her radio transmissions, see what needs to be done." She met each of their eyes in turn. They knew.

Braxton, after a time, broke the silence first.

"Well, Flores, we'll try to cover your back. See that this gets done properly, and you'll be justly rewarded. Fuck it up, and I'm not sure I can help you." Braxton said to her. She nodded. Braxton and Sullivan stood up, and she mirrored them. They both shook her hand, and then left. She sat in her chair, nerves frazzled. If she fucked this up, she was out. She may not even be able to retire, they would just make her disappear. Gods fucking dammit, she cursed to herself. She cursed any and all choices in her life that had lead her to this specific spot.

A knock on her door, and Ben poked his head in. He was tall, and extremely thin. He was often adventurous with his fashion, pushing the boundaries on what they, as military personnel, could wear in the office. She never reported him or admonished him for his chic choice in fashion. They all had their hobbies, after all, and in their line of work, it was important to have hobbies. He was almost half her age, and he seemed outwardly mousey, but she had seen him kill people before with his bare hands, so she knew what he was capable of. He was a good kid, and she hoped his career wouldn't end as many did in their line of work, with a bullet to the brain.

"Would you like your afternoon tea now, ma'am?" he asked quietly. She nodded, and without a word he left, closing the door behind him. She looked out the window. The sun of this solar system, Euri Giorno, barely peeked out beyond the edge of Harmattan. The planet itself was a dull brown, with streaks of grey where mountain peaks poked through the sandstorms. Sometimes, the planet even had clouds of some sort, not that they were composed of water. She wasn't sure what the clouds were made of, but she was sure they were some sort of hazardous, radiated material. She looked at the plant on the window sill, which she had kept since university so many years ago. She was so proud of it then, keeping it watered and kept in the sunlight. Now, it seemed to have withered somewhat, and had lost some of its deep green veracity. It was a fern of some sort, though she never figured out exactly what it was called. Funny, she thought to herself, how important things in one's life simply stop being so important.

Ben returned shortly with her customary afternoon tea, with milk and sugar, her usual. He bowed his head and left the room as she thanked him, but before she put the tea to her lips, she raised her hand and called out to him.

"Ben, before you go, I need you to contact Sigma and Epsilon. Brief them on what happened with Delta, and that you'll contact them again with further orders when the situation develops." She stood, tea in hand, and walked over to the window, to look out over the planet. So tumultuous, she thought. "If the Enoch knows too much, we'll have to handle the situation. Make sure our equipment is ready, and the weaponry is cleaned and functional. Make sure my shuttle is up to snuff, and collect anything we would need for a planetary excursion, should it become necessary. If everything goes to plan, this will all just quiet down." Ben nodded at this.

"And if it doesn't go to plan, ma'am?" he asked. Nina Flores put the teacup to her lips and drank. It was good tea.

"If it doesn't go according to plan, who knows how many people we'll have to kill," she said, smiling sadly. Ben nodded and left the room.

She continued to drink her tea.