Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Intermission 8

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't mind this. It's so that free readers can't see half the chapter when the chapter eventually becomes patron only.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

Discord Invite

Table of Contents

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click the following link for intermission 8:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hOqXKYMYFRLz-nESM52QkdHP-15-hGY5MINaMJ7I9as/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within the Planetary Hall of Equeter

“Please! Have mercy!” Archivald Dread shouts as he’s being dragged away by the military forces from Seravina’s Aqua Division. But Seravina doesn’t care as she taps her booted foot on the floor while sitting with her legs crossed on the former governor of Equeter’s own office chair.

“You’re under arrest for misappropriation of funds, betrayal of the Bloodliner families, and mismanagement of the planet,” Seravina coldly declares with her eyes narrowed. “The punishment will be public execution at dawn.”

“NOOOOOO!” Archivald shouts before continuing to shout one excuse after another as he’s being dragged away. But Seravina doesn’t listen to a single word he says. She just turns her attention to the mountain of documents on the former governor’s desk.

The planet known as Equeter was claimed by the Aqua Division – the military and economic force ruled by Seravina and Orvyn – during the time they were locked in the Abyss. But since they were in the Abyss, a trusted governor for the planet was never selected. And the position went to the most influential person on Equeter when it was claimed by default as a representative.

Meanwhile the governing board for the Aqua Division didn’t have the time to deal with the problem of a minor planet’s governing while they were already swamped dealing with other planets under their control along with the search for their leaders.

Of course, Seravina has already punished the governing board for their negligence. Docking their pay for the next five years by eighty percent while sending that money to donate to the planets that were affected by said negligence.

The punishment was nowhere near as severe as it could’ve been since they were genuinely busy, but their negligence still caused the lives of many to be torn apart.

And Seravina doesn’t tolerate negligence.

Seravina continues tapping her boot on the ground as she reads through the various documents on the desk. Then she begins sending out various orders to help improve life on this planet.

That’s one of the reasons she established the Aqua Division. To improve the day to day life of the regular uninitialized civilians.

And the other reason is to establish her own independence from the Alliance’s main military and her father.

Seravina has the funds that were meant for the planet redirected to where they belong along with the rest of the former governor’s assets. All to help the people of the planet.

Although she’s been beaten to the punch when it comes to helping the people out of their poverty. Since her daughter Aqua has already done that. Donating a large amount of money to the welfare of the people on Equeter.

Which makes Seravina feel a hint of pride, along with pure joy at the thought that her daughter has grown up into a wonderful person even when growing up on her own.

She smiles while thinking of her daughter for a moment before opening her daughter’s livestream and focusing on the work she needs to deal with right now as she watches.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within the Flagship of the Aqua Division Fleet

Orvyn raises his hand from the bridge of his enormous flagship before activating several skills, making numerous large rifts appear outside of the ship. Each with water flooding out of them in the form of kraken tentacles. The tentacles then rush out to grab the enemy ships before specifically targeting their engines to disable the ships one after another.

After disabling the ships, he lowers his hand and puts it into his jacket pocket while tilting his head back towards the fleet commander and ordering, “Capture them alive and ready the documents for transfer. After that, deal with them how you see fit.”

“Yes, sir!” the commander exclaims while saluting. Following which the various officers in the bridge begin to move.

But Orvyn just opens his daughter’s livestream in silence and faintly smiles at the sight of his daughter hunting an enormous leech deep underwater.

While his wife has been handling the inner division problems such as abuse of power and mismanagement of planets, Orvyn has been handling the exterior troubles. Such as wars and conflicts with other factions and planets.

And slowly but surely, they’re both cleaning up the Aqua Division.

Before they were trapped in the Abyss, the Aqua Division’s domain was one of the safest in the entire Alliance. But over time, after their disappearance, it’s grown to a horrendous state. With all of the newer planets becoming terrible places to live filled with corruption.

Even with the older planets still retaining their previous safety.

When Orvyn heard about this, he was livid. So livid that he couldn’t hold himself back during his first mission to subjugate a force of pirates that had subtly taken control over one of their planets’ leadership.

He wiped them out without taking any prisoners. Sent them all into the Kraken’s Maw including their ships.

Now he’s managed to calm down enough to take the enemies captive instead.

Killing them isn’t a problem. The problem is killing them before taking stock of the situation. Finding out if there are any others involved with them, determining what resources they have, and transferring control over the enemy planets they take over in a smoother manner.

After all of that is handled, executing the perpetrators is only to be expected.

Orvyn lets out a sigh at his loss of patience before smiling a little at the sight of his daughter killing the leech monster.

He would prefer to bond with her as quickly as possible to make up for the lost years, but he knows he can’t just do that immediately. It would be moving too fast.

So he needs to take things at a comfortable pace for her.

Slow and steady…

Still.

He does wish that he could see her more.

And that these pests bothering the Aqua Division would just disappear.