The ruins of Mosul glowed orange under the fractured moonlight.
Once a cradle of civilization, now a fractured warzone of shifting allegiances and foreign operatives. American special forces were sweeping the area for remnants of Saddam's former command, but every bunker they cracked open was already looted. Every intel drive already cloned. Every informant compromised.
Vekom's reach had long since bled through the concrete.
He stood aboard a command vessel in low orbit, hands behind his back as the feed from the Middle East unraveled before him. Below, chaos churned, and opportunity bloomed.
The system chimed.
System Alert: Asset Recon Identified - Vault Omega (Tikrit) - Verified Contents: $3.6B USD (Gold + Uncut Stones)Status: Acquired. Clone Agent A23 assumed control.
Another vault. Another fortune.
With Saddam fallen, his legacy burned away, and his secrets laid bare by the very system that had manipulated every one of his closest allies, Vekom's network had now officially claimed nearly $27 billion in liquid assets across former Ba'athist strongholds.
Pablo had been the prototype. Saddam the escalation.
And the world?
Still unaware of the game being played in its shadows.
In Washington D.C., the President stood before the nation, condemning the chaos spreading across the globe. The intelligence community couldn't explain how weapons were appearing faster than supply chains could handle. How entire militias were operating with tech five years ahead of its time.
Behind the curtain, panic brewed.
They still had no clue who was feeding their enemies.
Or why their countermeasures kept failing.
They didn't know Vekom had already breached the Pentagon's digital infrastructure three weeks ago. That their drone plans, encryption keys, and strategic contingencies were all quietly rerouted through an invisible black box in the system.
They didn't know their next war would already be lost before it began.
Meanwhile, across the desert, a ripple of new power emerged.
The fall of Saddam left a vacuum. Dozens of warlords and militias clawed at each other to fill it. Vekom didn't need to choose sides—he funded all of them.
But he did need a new figurehead.
Someone hungry.
Saddam had taught him that ego was a weapon, but also a weakness.
So instead, Vekom installed a puppet. A forgotten cousin of a once-prominent general, shaped, trained, and enhanced by clones. He'd speak to the people with fire and rage. He'd offer unity in blood. A symbol.
In reality, he was little more than a voice actor reading lines Vekom had written.
Then came the Middle East request.
Anonymous. Secure. Encrypted through fourteen dark web channels.
It wasn't from any of the warlords.
Not Hezbollah. Not Hamas. Not the Saudis or Iranians.
It was from someone else.
Request: Surface-to-air weapon grid capable of protecting 3,000 square kilometers. Additional request: autonomous recon drones with infrared scanning.
Attached was a transfer of $200 million USD.
Vekom's eyes narrowed.
He traced the origin through half-burned ghost servers and twisted protocols.
The source was unmistakable: Israel.
They were buying from him now.
Which meant everyone was.
Even the enemies of his clients.
Perfect.
In Pyongyang, the rogue general's death had thrown the region into disarray.
But Vekom wasn't done with Korea.
He deployed a new cell of American-sounding clones to infiltrate a peace summit in Seoul. Their mission was simple: sabotage unity.
Divide the North and South further. Feed tension. Sell to both.
It worked.
Within a week, South Korean defense contracts appeared in Vekom's marketplace.
"Urgent AI drone defense systems. Authorization: National Emergency."
Another $3 billion.
Banked.
The next system unlock arrived as expected.
Unlocked: Planetary Black Logistics NodeFunction: Autonomous orbital distribution to 195 countries.Cost: 100 Points.Authorization: Approved.
The space station shuddered as new modules detached from the Stratos Forge. Miniature orbital silos silently ignited, scattering across orbit in a perfect dance.
The Earth now had hundreds of black-market delivery points hovering above it—armed, cloaked, ready to drop at a moment's notice.
There was now nowhere on the planet Vekom couldn't reach within thirty minutes.
And yet, funds were beginning to strain.
The empire needed more. Not just weapons. Not just gold. But influence.
So Vekom took the next step.
He ordered the creation of infiltrator clones designed for one mission: politics.
They'd be placed in elections across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Backed by stolen crypto, local manipulation, and military intimidation.
Each clone was encoded with persuasive speech algorithms, facial subtleties optimized for trust, and emotional resonance profiling.
One by one, small nations would fall.
Not by war.
But by votes.
Votes rigged by the system.
In the meantime, a new flashpoint emerged.
Tehran.
The Supreme Guard intercepted a clone convoy delivering tech to a Kurdish rebel group. The footage, accidentally leaked by a low-ranking operative, made its way to the dark web.
It caused panic.
The Ayatollah issued a speech declaring war on traitors. Iran sealed its borders.
And Vekom?
He leaked footage of secret Iranian weapons facilities.
The U.S. responded by mobilizing carriers to the Strait of Hormuz.
The war machine turned again.
And Vekom sat atop it, gears in hand.
Then came a new alert.
Critical World Event Detected: Collapse of African Central Regime. Suggestion: Insert AI governance prototype. Profit Potential: $18B USD + Long-Term Control.
Vekom grinned.
"Proceed."
From orbit, he watched Earth unravel in beautiful, profitable chaos.
But this was only Phase Two.
The real plan hadn't begun yet.
Not until the system unlocked the final protocol:
Coming Soon: Phase Three – Synthetic Ascendancy.
To be continued...