Masking settlements in space is not as trivial a task as on Earth.
You can't hide in the jungle - they can be replaced by thick ice on Europe and Enceladus or acid clouds on Venus, but they won't be perfect. Asteroid settlements, on the other hand, do not have such a cover. You can't disguise your thermal emissions and traces of activity ideally as on Earth - by removing the chimneys hundreds of meters from the camp through the trunks of trees.
All they can do is close the thermal circuits inside as best as possible, bringing out a strictly selected level of heat corresponding to a bright asteroid.
And the connection? How do you connect these settlements scattered across systems?
Non-directional communication? So this is a huge capacity needed, and anyone can overhear.
Directed? So here it is enough to look where the antennas or lenses are directed.
Communication only by couriers? So, in general, it is simple - to trace a material object at all its disguise much easier.
But in principle, combining that and it, applying some tricks and simply observing silence, it is possible to hide. Not ideal, but for a fairly long time, which will be required to find them.
Although, of course, masking was facilitated by the fact that it is still possible to hide some very secret settlements among not very secret ones. It was also made easier by the fact that no one was looking for secret settlements outside the Solstice System. And they were there.
The colony on Terra-Nova and the settlement on Eden - the planet at Exodus 14 - were bright and visible. And for the most part already alien - on those planets, there were many more inhabitants from the Citadel space than there were people. Even their subordination to the Earth was only nominal - the power of the word of the viceroy from Azari or Turian was much higher there.
The colony on Benning... did not exist. "The Ark 3 disappeared somewhere in the void, never reaching the target and not even being able to report itself.
And here are some stations, hiding at different stars in the stream of Arcturus and the cluster of Exodus - "non-fatal outcome", as joked by note-takers - on planets and satellites, which were not suitable for life, existed and were invisible.
In general, there were about one million inhabitants in all extraterrestrial settlements of the Earth. Not so much. But only they could still consider themselves earthlings.
Neriya's capsule flew up to Mars. Also a masterpiece of stealth technology. Disguised as a cobblestone, using engines without jet lag, a small ship on one extreme with a pilot in hibernation flew between the orbits of Ceres, Mars, Earth, and Venus for several months. When using a booster laser from a solar power plant, it was possible to fly to Titan, Enceladus, or even Haron during this period. By the way, the new generation power plants were also made invisible - not huge fields of photocells, but thin, long rods stretched to the Sun, working with magnetic lenses for the solar wind.
Already entering the atmosphere of Mars, the capsule burnt with activated magnetoplasma shield, which covered it from the plasma of the thin, but quite material Martian atmosphere and allowed to slow down and sit down.
What is the most unpleasant thing - all these tricks could be in vain. The earthlings still did not have a reliable knowledge of the possibilities of alien detection systems - even trophies could not give a reliable answer, because there was not the best and very different quality.
But still. It is better this way than not - or worse, to let strangers see the secret technology by pure chance.
At a height of half a kilometer, Neria's exoframe separated from the scattered capsule and planned for a dusty rusty Martian soil.
They were already waiting for her. Own. Shortly beacon each other, a column of three exoframes went to housing.
They did not need words.
Having disconnected all the connectors connecting her to the exoframe one by one, Neria sighed and opened the hatch. The Martians, like other new types of people, adapted to life in space, easily endured overloads and low gravity, low blood pressure, high radiation levels. And loneliness too. And even communicating with the likes of oneself - too. It is good that she was not asked about anything. Understanding people.
But despite all their merits, the cosmic had no miraculous abilities, no matter what the earthlings thought to themselves. Neither implants to control gravity nor the supernatural charm of the blue Citadel had any cosmic powers.
