Deep in the bowels of the Hive

[Googlie]

Operative Pang looked up excitedly at his colleague:

"Well, well, look what we have here....."

He passed over a transcript to her.

"Intercepted a secure Spartan transmission to all officers - as you know, the program downloads any reference to the hive, so this came through."

She scanned the printout.

"Well, did we?" she asked

"Dunno," he replied. "I'm not cleared for that. But I wouldn't put it past Chu and her cronies to come up with a coup like that."

He turned back to his console as his assistant placed the printout on the notice board for the Hive surveillance team to look at.

Intercept of a Spartan "Officers' Eyes Only" bulletin

Elite Crypteia units began assembling at Tegea Harbour to board the SNC Mercury, preparing to set sail for Morgan's eastern seaboard.

They will be checking unconfirmed rumours that Hive agents have assassinated the entire Morgan Corporation Board of Directors, those rumours gaining credence as the stony silence from across the Buster Ocean stretches into almost a decade

Junta officers, puzzled at the deafening silence that has greeted their recent attempts to normalize relations, considered landing a fast-response amphibious force, similar to the task force assemble for the PTS raid, but felt that this might be too provocative, and settled on calling on Colonel Googlie's experienced Crypteia operatives instead.

Stay tuned for progress reports as they investigate whether this is indeed an alarming new development in Hive-Chironian relations, or just an almost-impossible-to-imagine breakdown in Morgan communications equipment

[AndiD]

I can assure you that the Board of Directors is well, if not busy trying to catch up in the global race towards wealth and prosperity, after we signed a stable Truce between our factions. Our budget was all tied up in long term investments, therefore we didn't start any trade initiatives.

It may have appeared that we ignored you, but it is just that we were mainly focused inwards - and of course we paid attention to the yearly global benchmarking reports telling us about the healthy growth of both our factions in the recent time of peace.

And you might not have noticed - there was some communication between our factions, although not through formal diplomatic channels but through letters to the editor to your 2177 news release.

[vishniac]

"Sir, a special report for you coming from the ComInt Section. Spartan action in the making, it seems."

The superior briefly skipped through the report then looked back at Mai, his clever assistant. She was still a novice but he didn't miss any opportunity to educate her into the arcanes of intelligence.

"That's clearly related to these rumors of power struggles inside the Junta that we've heard those past months. It seems the Ministry of Infrastructure openly tried to curve the Spartan foreign policy to its own objectives, thus alienating many of the top-brass in the Defence Ministry, much more powerful."

For a young woman bred inside the collective Hiverian education system, all that didn't make sense: "Power struggles between ministries!!! Is it, by chance, some kind of civil war starting?"

"Not for the moment, even if it wouldn't surprise me in a faction stupid enough to run Democracy! The ministries are just pushing their own agenda for Spartan imperialism: remember the Junta lacks a real leader like our beloved Chairman.
From what we learned, the Defence Ministry is the proponent of offensive (sic!) and preventive action. The recent so-called 'peace-keeping operation' in Peacekeeper territory (re-sic!) came directly from their think-tanks.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Infrastructure seeks peaceful developpement to enhance Sparta's industrial power and diplomatic weight. They are firmly opposed to any military adventure, and that's why I think they could have gained ground lately: sending stealth operatives instead of a complete amphibious force is not the usual Spartan way.
Now , do you see the implications for the Hive?"

Mai raised her eyebrows as she always did when considering a problem and began to walk back and forth a couple of seconds before answering.
"It seems pretty evident! Peace between our enemies must be prevented as it would allow them to outpower us later. Moreover, since we are ourselves at war with the Morganites, any vendetta diverting their forces would be welcome. Thus we must thwart the efforts of the builders and lure the hawks in Sparta Command into attacking a tempting prey. If they find Terrapeso in disarray, they'll strike."

She didn't disappoint him.
"Exactly! Write a message for the Director of Central Intelligence along the lines of In case we didn't already assassinate the Morgan Board of Directors, (*damn, those clearances preventing the right hand to know what did the left one!*) the Evaluation Bureau strongly supports a swift operation to do so. More info at our weekly briefing saturday morning. I want it on my desk for 4:00 PM, there's no time to lose!"

[GeoModder]

And deep into the pattern-hunting algorithms of the main Covert Ops a program activates itself...