In the gardens of An Hui, the Elders have gathered in council to learn and teach.

On Monday they take up the week's reports and matters of priority.

On Tuesday they meet with the delegations and the Admirals. The war has ended the days of scattered Elders meeting whenever they please, in no formal order.

On Wednesday some of them fly away to teach or do good works. Some of them meet with the medical team, who maintain the bodies of the most ancient Elders with the same painstaking engineering it takes to build a stealth fighter. Some of them retire. Life cannot be lived without rest, and life should be led by the living.

On Thursday they speak to the people. They are not the leaders of the Federation's government, but they are the Federation's most trusted voice.

On Friday some of them withdraw into a secret place shielded by meters of warship armor. At this time, birds sometimes fall dead from the sky.

On Saturday they issue thoughts to the delegations and the Admirals, the product of a week's work.

On Sunday they sit in council together, all of them together or broken up as they see fit. They share their knowledge by whatever means suits them: debate, writing, conversation, art. They take up the vital matters of the time and look at them from every angle, with every set of eyes. They find the shape and weight of things.

At the end of the day they do not all agree.

#

LUNA CITY, LUNA: CHANG-O DISTRICT
FEDAYEEN TACTICAL OPERATIONS CENTER

>>>Elements, Overwatch. I have municipal access. Target is local and traceable.

>>>>>>Elements, Entry. We have your trace. We have authorization to bag the target. Executing --

>>>Hold! Overwatch has one-five individuals breaking out of social traffic and converging on the target's suite. They're armed with Tev hand weapons and armor.

"Shit."

>>>Hostiles are in the municipal net. Attempting to isolate and -

"They're SOC. Grab the target and get out. I'm scrambling local law enforcement and spaceborne assets. Execute now!"

>>>>>>Copy that. All elements, there's another shark in the water, we are executing immediate. Go go go.

"Shit."