This will be your room for the duration of your stay with us, Rose, Arons mother, said as she opened a door in one of the long corridors in the cube. The room that Herschel and Virginia Rothschild would be staying in was a very luxurious penthouse suite with four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a kitchen, sauna, living room, and an indoor gym. Each bedroom also contained a pair of extended-stay medical VR pods, and the gym had another two in it.

Wow.... Virginia couldnt help but be surprised by the level of low-key luxury on display in the room she and her husband would be staying in until the troubles died down outside. Its minimalistic, but luxurious and pleasing to the eye, she praised.

Yeah, I was surprised when I saw the living quarters, too. Especially after seeing how plain the exterior of the building is, Rose agreed with a smile. If you have any questions, just ask your AI assistant. Heres a pair of glasses, she handed the other lady a pair of chic reading glasses with a distinctly retro style, make sure you dont lose them. If you dont have them on you, you wont be able to pass through some of the less obvious security we have in place here.

Are these the AR glasses that are being sold to the public? Virginia asked. She wondered if they were the same as the ones being sold on the market; if they were, she already owned a pair of her own and there was no need for a second.

No. These were tailor-made specifically for you and have extra permissions specific to the cube. Think of them as a combination door key and hall pass, you cant really get anywhere in here without them, Rose answered, extending the glasses to Virginia once again.

Since thats the case, thank you. Virginia took the glasses and immediately put them on. She was surprised at the whole new world she saw, one that opened up to her and enhanced and beautified, rather than detracted from or crowded out, the area around her even further.

[Recruiting is ongoing, and the move should begin soon,] Athena said.

We need fifty million more soldiers. A hundred million is the bare minimum to defend the inner solar system without stretching them too far, John replied. He was meeting with Athena to discuss the upcoming move to ARES new home, Mars.

Mars was a very useful planet and could easily be turned into a fortress world. It was a dead rock in space, but had liquid water and an overwhelming abundance of iron and other metals used in construction and the production of stainless steel and other alloys. Its atmosphere, while thin, was also composed of 95% carbon dioxide, which they could split in the process of generating breathable atmospheres in biodomes and underground facilities on the red planet.

The only thing preventing the empire from terraforming it into complete habitability was its lack of a magnetosphere. Without that, the solar wind would strip away the majority of the atmosphere as fast as they could generate it. Thus, it simply wasnt feasible to turn it into a living world. But that wasnt really what ARES needed, anyway. What they needed was a fortress that would act as the final defense of the inner solar system, and for that, Mars was the best choice.

[Indeed. Simulations show that theres a point of diminishing returns after that when considering how many soldiers well need for inner system defense. Outer system defense, though, is going to need more troops. A whole lot more.]

Regardless, we need to start building at least the initial habitats as soon as possible if we dont want to delay the timeline, John said. They were coming down to the wire and needed to act fast.

[That was supposed to be approved today, but something came up. Godfather is unavailable for the moment, so we cant do anything but postpone the fortress plan until hes back with us.]

I suppose.... By the way, hows the hunt for terrorists going?

[Weve captured quite a few shrimp soldiers and a couple of crab generals, but were nowhere near touching the inner circle of whatever organization is opposing us,] Athena sighed. [The people weve caught are obviously nothing but cannon fodder, and Nyx thinks they might have been dangled in front of us as bait to test our capabilities. Thats a small possibility, at least, so were split on how to handle it. But its a tomorrow problem, anyway, so we can just kick the can down the road. Not like the people were identifying from brain scans of the captured terrorists will be able to escape anyway.]

We arent making any progress despite our technological superiority? John was finding it difficult to believe that, despite being centuries ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology, the empire was having a difficult time catching a simple terrorist. It was the equivalent of the Battle of Isandlwanda in 1857, where the British invaded Zululand armed with muskets, cannon, and steel armor, but were resoundingly defeated by Zulu warriors wearing loincloths and armed with leather shields and stabbing spears.

He continued that train of thought and found the parallel to be eerie. In both cases, the weaker force had achieved tactical surprise in the first encounter of the war. For the Anglo-Zulu War, it was Zulus vs the British, and today it was a terrorist cult facing the Terran Empire. In 1857, the first battle of the war had resulted in a victory for the weaker side, and in 2018, the first battle of the new war had resulted in... perhaps not a victoryJohns pride wouldnt allow him to call it thatbut a devastating blow nonetheless.

[It isnt that we cant find him, just that its going to take some time. At the moment, were working on... turning... those weve captured that are higher up in the ranks, then well send them to infiltrate the cult as spies in order to catch them all at once. Were also unraveling the finances behind the attack, so the scope of the investigation is enormously broad. Besides, its been barely six hours since the attacks beganthese things take time, you know.] Athena wouldnt hide anything from John. As the second-highest-ranking member of the armed forces, right behind Aron himself, the former US veteran had a security clearance that matched his lofty rank.

Ah. Like you did with Vladimir? When John heard the plan, he was reminded of what they had accomplished with the spy who had shot Aron, then was later turned and eventually even awarded military honors by Aron and John themselves for his accomplishments leading up to, and during The Last War.

[Yep. So now all we have to do is wait for the big fish to take the bait and well come down on them like a hammer.] Athena gave John a creepy, sinister smile.