421: Induced beacon appearance

The capital of the Caldari State, New Caldari.

Inside the Supreme Council Tower, a war without smoke had just reached a fever pitch.

Inside the circular council chamber, decorated with cold-toned metal and filled with holographic data screens, the atmosphere was heavy.

Representatives of the two core factions dominating Caldari politics—the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by commercial conglomerates, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade, representing the military-industrial complex—were engaged in a fierce confrontation.

"Enough!" The speaker was the leader of the diplomatic faction, Minister of Foreign Affairs Soren Ramos.

A middle-aged man who always kept his hair meticulously groomed and wore a well-tailored suit, he lost his composure, a rare occurrence, and slammed a thick report onto the council table.

"How much longer are you going to quibble?! These! All of these! The special mining rights of 'Star Ocean Mining' in the Human Union border sector, the permanent tax-exempt status of 'Federal Logistics' on Earth Federation core routes, and the tax-exempt permits for 'Polaris Industry' in three important industrial Systems of the Minmatar!"

"How do you explain these?!"

His angry gaze swept across the few heavyweights of the foreign trade faction sitting opposite him, his voice trembling slightly with rage: "Under the circumstances where we have signed a neutrality agreement with the Amarr Empire and explicitly promised to restrict the outflow of strategic materials, how dare you! How dare you send rare metals and precision parts sufficient to arm three full-strength legions into the hands of those we are restricted by agreement from supplying?!"

"You are pushing the Caldari State into a pit of fire! You are destroying the Foundation of our commercial-based nation! You are challenging the patience of the Amarr Empire!"

Facing Ramos's stern questioning, the representative of the foreign trade faction, Chairman of the National Defense Industry Committee and Chief Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Krog—a burly old man—appeared exceptionally calm, with a faint, mocking smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

He slowly picked up the coffee in front of him, took a sip, and then spoke slowly: "Minister Ramos, please watch your language. 'Strategic materials'? According to the Caldari State's export control list, what we export are all compliant 'civilian' goods. As for how the end-users utilize them, that is the customer's commercial behavior; what does that have to do with us, suppliers who abide by market rules?"

He spread his thick palms, making an innocent gesture: "As for the 'privileges' and 'permits' you speak of, that is merely the market's recognition of our product competitiveness; it is part of fair trade. We have strictly followed the agreement framework signed with the Amarr Empire and have not exported a single complete weapon System on the embargo list. Which law does this violate?"

"You!" Ramos was so angry his face turned pale, "Sophistry! Do you take the Amarr Empire's intelligence network for a decoration?! Once they investigate thoroughly, the reputation we have worked so hard to maintain will be completely wiped out!"

"Reputation?" Krog sneered, "Minister Ramos, you need to understand one thing. The agreement we signed with the Amarr Empire is essentially a balance of interests. What the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed was a guarantee that the Caldari State would maintain a neutral stance and not directly intervene militarily. Have we not done that? Has a single Caldari warship appeared in Nimanbar?"

"As for commercial dealings..." He looked around at the other council members present, his voice rising a few notches, "Gentlemen, how much tangible benefit have the industries represented by us here brought to the Caldari State during this conflict through legitimate trade? How much high-quality resources and market share have we locked in for the next few decades?"

"Are these not the results of the 'pragmatic diplomacy' you have always advocated?"

He stared at Ramos, saying word by word: "Now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to use a piece of paper to pluck the fruits that we, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, obtained through our own ability? On what grounds? Just because of those conservative clauses that almost made us miss a historic opportunity?"

Ramos's face was livid; he knew Krog had hit the nail on the head.

The foreign trade faction had indeed gained huge practical benefits in this conflict, and the strength and influence of the military-industrial complex behind it had expanded rapidly.

If they were to forcefully suppress them on the grounds of "violating the spirit of the agreement," it would likely trigger unpredictable political and economic turmoil.

However, when the first combat-ready eon-class was deployed to the northeast of the New Continent Galaxy, the situation reversed completely.

A huge sum of "strategic cooperation funds" flowed out from the accounts of several of the largest military and foreign trade groups in the Caldari State and into the designated accounts of the Amarr Empire.

And the Amarr Empire tacitly and "gladly" accepted this "additional investment," announcing to the outside world that the Caldari State, through friendly commercial negotiations, had officially obtained full authorization for jump interception technology.

This additional expenditure was naturally the direct result of the fierce struggle between the internal factions of the Caldari State. The military-industrial complex faction that had been profiting privately from the war was defeated by the diplomatic faction, backed by the pressure of the eon-class super-capital, and had to painfully cut their losses.

Although the rift and competition between the commercial-diplomatic faction and the military-trade faction within the Caldari State had widened as a result, overall, the Battle of Nimanbar was still a godsend for the Caldari State.

They played both sides, selling large quantities of arms and strategic materials to the warring parties—mainly the Earth Federation-Minmatar Alliance and the Human Union—and ended up making a huge fortune from the war.

At the same time, they used the technology obtained from the Amarr Empire, combined with their own powerful R&D capabilities, to make rapid technological progress.

After years of recuperation and crazy development, the Caldari State's national strength became unprecedentedly strong, and its armaments were greatly expanded.

In particular, an epoch-making technology was successfully developed: Induction Beacon technology.

Caldari scientists discovered that by using a special energy field generator, they could create a short-lived but extremely stable "spatial anchor" in conventional space.

The resonant signal emitted by this anchor could be captured and locked onto by specially built flagship-grade jump drives.

After the prototype was produced, testing began.

In a desolate, uninhabited System within the Caldari State, the airspace was cleared.

A specially modified medium industrial ship slowly sailed to the predetermined coordinates, keeping as far away as possible from all large-mass celestial bodies. What it was carrying was the Induction Beacon prototype.

"All units pay attention, beacon deployment countdown begins. Ten, nine, eight..." In the communication channel, the calm counting voice of the ground command center echoed.

"...Three, two, one, deploy!"

The industrial ship's belly hatch opened, and a shuttle-shaped device, about the size of a small shuttle, was slowly pushed out.

After drifting for a distance due to inertia, the outer shell unfolded, revealing the complex crystal matrix and energy coils inside.

After a moment of silence, the matrix core suddenly lit up with a red-gold light, and a powerful energy fluctuation spread out from it as the center; even in the visible light spectrum, one could see subtle ripple-like distortions in space.

"Induction Beacon activation successful! Spatial anchor stable! Resonant signal strength has reached the threshold!" The monitoring station reported, their voices filled with irrepressible excitement.

Almost at the same time, in another predetermined assembly System three light-years away, the Caldari Navy's newest Phoenix-class Dreadnought was ready.

The massive jump drive was warming up, emitting a low hum. While consuming horrifying amounts of energy, high-concentration hydrogen isotopes were injected into the reaction chamber.

(Too lazy to categorize, just use hydrogen for everything!)

"Jump drive locked onto beacon coordinates! Energy injection at seventy percent... eighty... ninety... one hundred percent!"

"All Systems checked! Spatial stability is within permissible limits!"

The pilot in the pod felt the resonant signal identified by the jump drive.

"Command Center, I request to begin executing the 'Ultra-Long-Range Delivery' protocol and initiate the jump sequence."

"Jump authorized."

The moment the order was given, the massive hull of the Dreadnought was completely enveloped in blinding red and white light.

The next second, it was as if grabbed by an invisible giant hand, and violently "dragged" into some indescribable spatial fold. Monitoring instruments showed it was moving at a speed far exceeding conventional jumps, an almost instantaneous cross-spatial movement.

The cosmic scale of three light-years was crossed in just a few seconds.

In the uninhabited System, right near the Induction Beacon, space distorted violently again, rippling like water waves.

Immediately after, accompanied by a flash that tore through the Void Realm and a massive release of energy, the massive hull of the Phoenix-class Dreadnought suddenly emerged from the center of the twisted space like a phantom.

Its emergence position had an error of less than fifty kilometers from the Induction Beacon's preset coordinates.

For interstellar scales, this was perfect.

"Success! Confirmed arrival in the designated airspace! Hull structure stable, all Systems operating normally!" Cheers erupted in the communication channel.

This successful test meant that the Caldari Navy had acquired unprecedented strategic mobility. They no longer needed to rely on fixed Star Gate networks for large-scale troop deployment.

Now, as long as an Induction Beacon could be delivered to the target area in advance or even in real-time, the Caldari flagship fleet could overcome massive spatial obstacles in a very short time, achieving precise strategic strikes or troop transfers.

The expansion of power ignited the flames of Caldari nationalism and also awakened old grievances and hatred toward the Gallente Federation from history.

They believed the time to wash away their past shame had arrived.