Nobody is a threat to the Forge
Scion is
the threat, I mean, it's his fucking job to defend the cycle against Outside Context Problems. Assuming he care enough to put up a fight.
The Endbringers... probably can't meaningfully damage members of the Forge, but I'm not sure the Forge can deal with them without wiping humanity, so let's call it even.
The very big players like Contessa, the Triumvirate, and Sleeper might be speedbump.
In comparison, the Dragonslayers would be splattered as soon as Joe look funnily at them.
That would still cause a large amount of panic because it suggest that Apeiron can be paid to act as a hit squad which would not be calming to a lot of people. the fact that the CF could deploy at any second because someone managed to get a contract with them is fucking scary. you have to understand from the POV from people in the world the only thing that keeps people from stressing about CF is that they don't do anything until you fuck with them.
the biggest problem is the statement of "someone paid me" is going to be under scrutiny and analyses of every thinker under the sun and if they detect that he is lying then the brittle illusion that CF is a passive reactive force is shattered. Joe doesn't what to risk lying to every thinker in the planet because it only takes a few for there to be panic. thats not even considering how it would raises the questions of who paid him and how did they pay for it?
Apeiron is a mercenary. Mercenaries accept contracts. Nothing new under the sun. In fact that liberty to justify anything with the magic word "contract" is why Joe pretend to be a mercenary in the first place.
Obviously this would stress a lot of people, but it's not
new stress.
Through Joe would need to update his antiprecog, yes, the same way his antiprecog says he would go after March if he ever heard she's alive.
This will raise several questions.
Apeiron never give any informations about his contracts. He was even very explicit about this when he talked to the PRT. It might raise questions, but everyone know they won't get answers.
Just to be clear : I don't believe Joe will go the contract route. There's nothing inherently impossible about pretending it came from a contract, but... there's no significant benefit to killing the S9 today instead of tomorrow, so why show your hand ? It's not like the S9 can get away.
