468: The Integrated Department appeared

New Eden, New Continent Galaxy, deep within a remote asteroid belt that originally belonged to a small warlord but was secretly acquired by the Sisterhood.

A few months ago, this was still a barren land with only scattered mining outposts.

But now, a massive complex of silver-gray space buildings, full of simple geometric beauty, floated among the asteroids as if appearing out of thin air.

It wasn't as majestic as the temples of the Amarr Empire, nor as precise and complex as the space stations of the Caldari.

It discarded all unnecessary decoration; it was a creation serving only function.

The Consolidated Cooperation and Relations Command headquarters, abbreviated as "CONCORD."

With the blessing of advanced technology bestowed by the ancestors, the engineering forces of the Sisterhood and its secret allies completed the construction of the core framework in a very short time.

New alloys provided strength and lightweight characteristics far exceeding traditional Materials, allowing such a massive structure to be stably anchored. The passive sensor buoy network ensured that the entire construction process was not subject to any unexpected interference.

As for things like artificial gravity fields, although they could build them according to the blueprints, they completely failed to understand why they worked.

Even slightly modifying the shape of a module would cause it to lose its effect.

After hundreds of attempts, they gave up.

As long as it works, don't worry about why for now.

When the emblem of the CONCORD headquarters, composed of several interlacing energy rings, lit up on all public communication channels in New Eden and announced its establishment, the entire New Continent Galaxy, especially New Eden, seemed to have been pressed with a mute button.

The announcement was brief, without any flowery language.

"CONCORD is an independent, neutral, transnational coordination and management entity, with its headquarters located in the New Continent Galaxy."

"CONCORD is committed to ensuring the basic security and rights of its members and signatories, maintaining basic Order in the core star sectors, arbitrating conflicts, and combating large-scale and organized illegal activities."

"Including but not limited to piracy, slave trade, and the proliferation of forbidden weapons and other serious malicious incidents."

"Members join voluntarily and must abide by the 'Basic Code of Conduct.' The use of extinction weapons against civilian targets is prohibited, the initiation of unannounced wars of extermination is prohibited, and basic intelligence is shared when dealing with common threats. CONCORD does not interfere in the internal affairs of its members and does not claim territorial sovereignty."

At the end of the announcement, a list of the first batch of forces and groups that publicly expressed support or joined was attached.

The list was not long, but its weight was not light.

It included the Sisterhood, three former Amarr Empire border star sectors that declared a "Special Defense State," two large mining conglomerates that maintained a distant relationship with the Caldari central government, a Minmatar moderate Alliance, and several research institutions and commercial guilds from the Gallente, Human Union, and Earth Federation.

Behind these names represented a considerable population, resources, and things more precious in a chaotic era.

Such as a relatively complete industrial and livelihood foundation.

At the same time the announcement was released, a fleet flying the CONCORD emblem appeared near several key traffic nodes in the New Continent Galaxy for "adaptive cruising."

This fleet, known as the "CONCORD Direct Fleet," was not large, but the ship types were uniform and the livery was simple. More importantly, some sharp-eyed observers and former naval personnel from various nations were shocked to find that the shield reaction signatures of these ships were extremely strange.

The energy fluctuations were unusually stable, and the adaptability to different attack patterns seemed ridiculously fast.

A few daring pirate skiffs tried to approach, but their conventional scanning equipment suffered strong interference or even failed after reaching a certain distance.

The even bolder ones directly locked on and opened fire, but the shields of those CONCORD warships decayed at an outrageously slow rate when subjected to exploratory fire.

Finally, after being focused on by five pirate destroyers for an hour, the CONCORD cruiser seemed to have finally woken up.

A chain of lightning directly turned those five pirate ships into fireworks.

Then, intelligence mixed with terror and analysis began to spread through the intelligence networks of major powers at extreme speed.

"CONCORD's technology is definitely not something ordinary forces can possess! And that attack! Although much smaller in scale, it's... too similar!"

"It's too similar to the Doomsday weapon used by that Kyushu titan!"

Panic quickly spread among the high-level officials of New Eden.

Could it be that Kyushu became dissatisfied after the Battle of Osha and secretly supported a proxy? Was this suddenly emerged "CONCORD" a tentacle of Kyushu reaching into the New Continent Galaxy?

Countless gazes, both overt and covert, were cast toward the Kyushu control zone.

Some local warlords and small commercial Alliances that had had sporadic contact with Kyushu or considered themselves on good terms, and even individual diplomats from major powers, all tried to send tentative inquiries to Kyushu through their respective channels.

The questions were mostly the same, with only one core.

"Is this 'CONCORD' related to your side?"

...Mu Wan presented a summarized intelligence brief on the main screen, listing recent inquiries from various parties about "CONCORD," as well as video and analysis data of the CONCORD fleet's combat, especially the recording of that chain lightning attack that destroyed the five pirate destroyers.

"Since CONCORD's public announcement and first military demonstration, a total of twenty-four informal inquiries have been received from different forces or individual representatives, all attempting to ascertain our connection with CONCORD."

"Inquirers include four local armed forces in the New Continent and surrounding Star Domains, two commercial guilds, a special envoy of a governor from a peripheral star system of the Gallente Federation, and the head of a scientific group from the Earth Federation." Mu Wan's voice was calm and steady, "According to the preset diplomatic stance, we have responded uniformly."

"Kyushu has no connection of any form with the emerging organization named 'CONCORD,' offers no comment on its establishment, purpose, or actions, and assumes no related responsibility."

Zhao Youcheng crossed his arms, looking at the slow-motion video of the chain lightning attack on the screen, and clicked his tongue: "Don't say, it's not entirely unreasonable for these people to guess blindly. The attack pattern of this chain lightning weapon, as well as the design philosophy of the ships, indeed has a somewhat familiar feel."

Lin Yizhou sat in the commander's seat, his gaze moving from the inquiry records to the images of the CONCORD fleet, especially the streamlined design of those ships and that chain lightning that was similar in form but different in essence.

Although somewhat similar in form, it was definitely not the technology of the Eastern Federation.

He was very sure of this.

However, this style, he seemed to have seen it somewhere else.

It looked really familiar... like he had seen it in a history textbook, in the illustrations of the chapter on the Mega-Corp Rebellion, there was something similar—

Wait! The Company!

Hiss—

Lin Yizhou suddenly realized where this sense of familiarity came from; it was from The Company.

This makes sense now.

To be precise, the current technological path of the Eastern Federation can indeed be said to be following in the footsteps of The Company, so it's inevitable that there would be similarities in some elements.

If the force behind this CONCORD is from The Company's side, then it's only natural for it to look familiar.

"Prepare a communication link with the higher-ups." Lin Yizhou didn't look back, his voice steady, "I have something I need to report directly."