While Monolith conducts peacekeeping operations in Ross 128, a pair of next-generation superiority fighters is delivered to the ship. Donated to Apex's best pilots, Major David Halverson and Captain Thomas Freeeman, for morale and publicity tours of the system, they seem to be one-man tickets to on-flight shore leave. However, during a fly-by of a major trade lane through the system, the two pilots receive classififed orders to destroy an aggressive ship harassing civilian shipping. Confidant of the new fighters' abilities and pleased at the show of Confederation power the display will surely make, the two begin the attack without hesitation. Soon Tom begins to doubt the validity of the claim, as the so-called agressor doesn't seem to be firing on civilian ships at all but rather armed vessels outside of the main trade lane. Under heavy pressure from Admiral Trotter, Silencer and Spyder destroy the ship using long range missile strikes and are immediately ordered back to the ship where the fighters are pulled form the flight line and shortly depart. Back on active duty with his Thunderbolt, Tom begins to replay the event sleading up to the attack in his mind, eventually meeting with Halverson to discuss his fears they were manipulated into making an illegal attack. With the situation in Ross 128 rapidly degenerating towards war, Tom is consumed with finding information regarding the engineers and officers who shuttled the fighters to Monoltihin the first place. Following a digital trail on his spare time on board, Tom runs into powerful firewalls and blocks and is even cautioned by the ship's quartermaster to give up the search. Now convinced that something is amiss, Tom takes shore leave on Ross 128's main starport to hire a code slicer named James McCanny who digs up information on the officer who brought the fighters to the supercarrier. Just as McCanny and Freeman discover the identity of the officer as that of a Confed Intel Agent, they are arrested by another CIA named Curtis Shaw. Shaw tells theneverything concerning a high-level military conspiracy orchestrated by the CIB to prolong the conflict in Ross 128. The ship Tom and Spider destroyed was a French diplomatic shuttle carrying a negotiator from a meeting with a local terrorist group, the attack was staged to show the French how much Confed knew but wouldn't allow the Ross French government to openly acknowledge that identity of the shuttle. Shaw doesnt' know why the CIB wants the situation in Ross 128 to escalate, but he and his wetwork operative had been given incresingly illegal missions to probe both French and Italian governmental processes from high in the CIB structure. With Tom's leave time ending, Shaw gives him an injection with a subdermal recording device and a communications scrambler, allowing the pilot to reach him and download anything the implant recorded weekly. Shaw also recruits McCanny for his slicing ability.

- Keeping Shaw's involvement secret form his handler
- Keeping Tom's surveillance and communication secret from everyone on board
- Cool shit with the wetwork operative (References to Fisher, Snake)
- possibly have Fisher/Snake infiltrate the Monolith
- Have more black-ops missions set up by CIB, not involving Tom but he thinks he knows what's really going on; high paranoia
- Eventual source of Brotherhood War be attempted Intel coup disguised as no-confidence vote in Senate over Confed's handling of the Ross 128 war