The Sovereign Veil Chapter 3: Chapter 3: The Apex Authority

Read chapter 3 of The Sovereign Veil by GodEmperor on NovelPedia.

In the dark, freezing expanse above the Terra-Nova Sector, a celestial body shattered into a billion glittering shards. It was a cold, magnificent firework display of planetary destruction, a sight that would permanently sear itself into the collective memory of every soul looking up at the night sky. The most shocked among them, however, was Lucian. A few minutes ago, standing in a hyper-advanced multiversal hub, he had casually issued a mandate to "annihilate Terra-Nova's secondary moon." He had treated it as a glitchy simulation. But as the blinding light from the orbital annihilation faded, the horrific reality settled in his bones. If this wasn't a coincidence and the universe rarely played jokes on this scale then the Sovereign Veil possessed a terrifying, incomprehensible level of geopolitical and cosmic influence. Suddenly, a hurricane-force shockwave hit the planet's atmosphere. The ground beneath Onyx City violently shuddered. "Look out! Atmospheric breach!" Quinn yelled, her face draining of color. She lunged forward, her newly refined Aether-core flaring as she grabbed Lucian, dragging him into the reinforced shadow of the hotel's concrete overhang. Lucian looked up. While the bulk of the shattered moon was drifting into orbit, a cluster of colossal fragments had been caught in the planet's gravity well. Blazing with friction, meteorites ranging from fifty to a thousand meters in diameter were raining down like judgment. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Before the fragments could make impact, blinding columns of localized Aether-artillery fired from the planetary defense grids. The combined military might of the Neo-European Alliance and the Pan-Asian Coalition lit up the sky, intercepting the falling debris with ruthless precision. The sky exploded into ash and burning dust, preventing a catastrophic extinction event. Lucian let out a long, shuddering breath. He had just inadvertently survived the apocalypse he'd ordered. Meanwhile, halfway across the globe in Zenith Capitol, the absolute highest authorities of the Terra-Nova Sector were drenched in cold sweat. Inside the heavily fortified bunker of the Planetary Defense Council, a dozen regional governors collapsed into their tactical chairs. "Gods above... Terra-Nova holds," a Pan-Asian Coalition general exhaled. "We owe our survival to Deputy Overseer Locke," the Supreme Governor stated, his voice trembling as he looked at a blonde, sharp-featured man in a tailored military uniform. "He bypassed standard protocol and activated the global Aether-shields minutes before the fragmentation. Valerius, how did you foresee the orbital strike?" Valerius Locke, the second-in-command of the entire planet and a scion of a high-born Neo-European lineage, offered a perfectly practiced, apologetic smile. "I received intelligence through a private channel, Governor. I apologize, but the source is strictly classified." The council nodded respectfully, assuming it was highly restricted data from his elite family network. They were entirely wrong. Locke's source wasn't his family. It was the absolute terror he had experienced in the Sovereign Veil's central hub just minutes prior. Valerius Locke was the 'Initiate Star Official' the very same operative Lucian had dismissed as an NPC. It's an ironclad rule of the Veil, Locke thought, his heart still hammering against his ribs. If I even whisper the organization's name to the uninitiated, I will be conceptually erased from existence. He was only a candidate member, desperately trying to survive the whims of an entity so old it didn't even possess a codename. Back in Onyx City, the immediate panic had subsided. "The planetary shields are up," Quinn said, her breathing finally evening out as she released her grip on Lucian. She stepped back, her gaze turning complicated. "With Interstellar Law in place, not even a Tier-3 faction can hit us twice without cause. We're safe." She smoothed her jacket and looked at him. "So... what does this mean f