Information was power—and Mikhail intended to wield it.
The Phantom Cadre's investigation into the Korean blackout revealed more than sabotage. They uncovered encrypted ledgers, private communication hubs, and an underground server room funded by anonymous Swiss accounts.
[System Insight: Multinational Shadow Finance Network Detected]
Behind the uprisings, behind the Continental Concord—was something older than nations:
The Consortium.
A clandestine cabal of transnational financiers, aristocrats, and industrialists who saw national movements as temporary tools. They had funded revolutions, toppled monarchies, and manipulated currencies for over two centuries.
[Threat Level: Critical | Influence: Global | Objectives: Decentralization, Profiteering, Status Quo Maintenance]
Mikhail stared at a decrypted document listing transactions:
French coal shipments redirected to insurgents.
British insurance firms underwriting sabotage losses.
Ottoman ports smuggling encrypted Concord shipments under neutral flags.
But most chilling was the internal memo:
"The Tsar is a disruptor. Disruption is bad for markets. Collapse him, or buy him."
Mikhail did neither.
He called an emergency meeting with Ivan Volkov, his Finance Minister and former cyber-crime prodigy.
"We will not play their game. We will change the board."
Thus was born the Iron Ruble Initiative.
A blockchain-backed currency controlled by the Empire's cognitive core, immune to speculation, capable of autonomous stabilization, and issued via secured biometric IDs.
[System Integration: Iron Ruble Protocol – Live] [Global Impact: Currency Turmoil in Concord-Aligned Markets | Inflation Spike: +3.7% EU | Panic in Tokyo Exchange]
The Iron Ruble spread through Persia and East Asia within weeks. New Doctrine-aligned banks replaced old central reserves, and the Empire launched its own Pan-Imperial Exchange, where commodities were traded using real-time AI audits.
But the Consortium responded swiftly:
False flag attacks in Istanbul blamed on Russian operatives.
Disinformation campaigns in European newspapers alleging genocide under the Doctrine.
Economic sabotage, including crashing silver markets and artificially inflating oil futures.
Mikhail countered with elegance and escalation.
He created the Ministry of Narrative Warfare, a think tank and propaganda machine blending historical myth, high art, and memetic engineering. Their first strike? A serialized international novella: "The Hand Behind the Curtain"—a fictional exposé dramatizing Consortium control.
It became a sensation.
Smuggled copies reached every major city.
People began asking questions. Protesting banks. Demanding transparency.
[Consortium Influence: -12% | Public Suspicion: +18% | Narrative Control: Transferring...]
At the Winter Palace, Mikhail met with his core team:
"They want to own the world in silence. We will burn that silence with truth and thunder."
As the Consortium faltered and allies grew bolder, one message spread like wildfire:
The Empire was not just rising. It was rewriting the rules.