As soon as Finnegan finished his message, he pressed the little red button again. The red lights went steady. Whatever that thing in the sky was, it wouldn't steal his damned gold. He'd come to this node decades ago with barely a kettleful of gold, and now there was more than that hidden underneath the bar top. Completely loyal servants (those that were sane enough or cowardly enough to not fight the Titan in the sky) followed their evacuation procedures, accessing dozens of hidden vaults, secret rooms, and the occasional blatant safes to haul the treasure into beastly plastic-aluminum electric trucks. Statues, paintings, gold coins, irreproducible antiques, and eclectic miscellanea steadily made their way into the trucks. Finnegan was grabbing the black tea kettle full of gold beneath the bar. Retrieving the heirloom, Finnegan raced down the hall. A fairy brandishing an elaborate glass polearm of all things was awkwardly making her way down the space, getting stuck on the corners. His red, translucent wings twitched in irritation. "Get out of the way, you bleeding idiot!" Finnegan shouted. Something suspiciously like a gamma ray beam vaporized the Fay. Finnegan dumbly peaked around the hole, seeing burning wall after burning wall leading back to an alien in power armor. A creature with a face uglier than imagination previously allowed for peeked around the corner down the hall. It was... eating an ottoman, stuffing littered on the floor. The thing snorted, seeing Finnegan, and dropped the last bit of fabric before launching itself toward him. Finnegan leapt into the hole, the lingering radiation making his glamour flicker horribly. The thing crashed through the wall. In desperation, Finnegan hurled his kettle full of gold out the window and leaped after it. Outside, the situation had gone from bad to worse. Things were everywhere, species he'd only read about were firing weapons that he didn't know what did to no effect, but a stream of Fay were still faithfully carting his gold to the trucks. Finnegan scooped up his kettle and leapt into the air, finally in something of his element. The sky was equally chaotic though. Every few meters, some ordnance, creature, alien, or misguided Fairy was rushing to its objective. Getting to the trucks was difficult, but Finnegan thought he could make it. Then the creature lept into the air after him. The blasted thing could fly. "Oh, come on. There's thirteen stories of beautiful ottomans right over there. Can't you munch them, instead?" Miraculously, the thing exploded in a puff of black flak. Where had somebody gotten a flak cannon? It didn't matter. In seconds, he would be on a truck, and on his way out of here via the Path. "Go, go!" he shouted, gesturing for the Fairy at the head of the convoy to leave. The trucks started abruptly, rapidly accelerating down the Path. Those that had tank treads, anyway. The rest were still bravely chugging on despite their flat tires from the now-sharp rocks on the Path. Even those were moving faster than he could fly, though. The last of the trucks was about to turn the corner leading off-node. But he was doing fine, all he had to do was fly for half a second. That's when a stray bullet slammed into his shoulder. Finnegan tumbled through the air with a death grip on his kettle. Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulders, heaving him further away from the trucks, which were now gone. "Damn... you..." Finnegan mumbled. His consciousness was fading, but whoever had him also had a prodigous amount of iron nearby. It was an alien with metal wings, and they burned. The alien was rocketing toward its ship, and the last thing Finnegan remembered before going unconscious was absolutely refusing to let go of his pot of gold. ~o~0~o~ Myo blinked his way back to consciousness. He just wanted more sleep, but something important was nagging at him. An explosion rained concrete dust on his back. The anti-Aether! He got up to his knees, and had to stay there, blood rushing from his head. Something was wrong, he felt so naked. He was completely out of Aetherfluid. He'd never run completely out before. He didn't even know it was possible; the Aether was always right there, and grabbing some Aetherfluid was practically instinct. It was always so easy before, but now he didn't know if he could even make a glamour. But he could still sense the wrongness above him, and he had to leave, even though he had to know it at the same time, had to get closer and learn its secrets, exploit it. Myo shook his head. It cleared. He had to leave. Now. Conveniently, there was a convoy of trucks racing down the Path to his left. Many very small things passed through the Path. In its pseudo-consciousness, the Path acknowledged this as good. Most of the very small things were forgettable, except for two. One was its creator, and the Path would give Her a friendly nuzzle, like a loyal dog, if it could. The second was the Very Nice Lady. The Lady was different than the others. Her extradimensional strings were shaped just so. And she convinced it to try new things, like having sections that never moved, little nodes. Occasionally the Lady would stand near edge of its heart and talk, and talk. The Path couldn't hear her, of course, but it could feel her presence. And if it concentrated really hard, it could feel the muscles in her throat vibrate and her teeth gnash when the Lady was angry at something. Over time, it had learned to listen. It had learned to understand. The Lady would go on about this Fairy or that Fairy living in its heart, and how they'd danced for hours that night, and how she almost hated to deceive them. Other times she would have a gleeful excitement, laughing madly at her latest scheme. The Path listened. It had to, the Lady was in its heart. Technically, quite a few very little things were in its heart, but the Lady was always the most interesting. One of the nodes, though, one of the nodes that the Lady had talked her into making - it writhed, twisted, tore. One of the very small things had poked a hole in it. Angrily, the Path shifted the node to a different bit of hyperspace, trying to patch the hole with a locallized supercluster of hypertense cosmic strings. But even though it had moved, something pinned it to realspace. Something was wrenching the hole bigger. Something was - painfully - eating it-! The Path didn't know what to do. It had never had to defend itself. It had never been under threat; it didn't understand the notion. So it sat there, and tried to repair itself. But the hole refused to go away. The Path felt a presence there, or a lack of it. Without warning, the node exploded. In agony, the Path screamed. Long trails of it appeared momentarily in real space, lighting up the void with faint translucent rainbows, like a soap bubble. For an instant, it curled up into itself, withdrawing endpoints, retreating toward its heart, wrapping its tendrils around its heart like a mother protecting her child. And then the Lady was there, and she was speaking, and things were normal, except for the long, skinny arm of Path floating out in space, alone, cut off; but the Lady mentioned that it might be able to re-attach it, work around where the node was. She was right. The Lady was always right. The node that once contained Finnegan's unraveled, shattering into a trillion pieces of glowing real-space, great long threads of pure magical Aether whipping about. What was left of it - a chunk of cratered land, a lot of debris, a floating emergency bunker, some charred ships and aliens, and other detritus, appeared in realspace near Fleet Solution, arms of pure Aether crackling about before retreating back into hyperspace.

"Do or die huh? Sounds like basic all over again. This should be an interesting stay. You know, this place looks a lot like the Saronian Hold don't you think boys?" "No, if it was like the Saronian Hold we'd have been fired upon before ever getting this close. Those metal bitches really loved to fire their guns." "They shot at their own ships. Wasn't their thinking that if you were crazy enough to keep flying into their range you were clearly one of them?" "Didn't help them at all once we stole one of their ships and got inside. Place went up quick once the assassins reached their queen. Too bad they nuked the place from orbit afterwards, it would've made a great base of operations for the rest of the war." "Can we just get to the fortress? You can tell your war stories there." Jos'arro grunted but started to follow the others towards the fortress in the mountain. "The teleporters were developed as a way to stabilize an old form of item delivery. Unfortunately that old form included disintegrating an object to then easily teleport it before it was reformed at the desired location. Trust me, it was insanely painful and not a process you'd want to go through. Luckily we refined it so as to remove the crippling pain, though it now only goes to another teleport pad. Still useful for transport to and from orbit though. Emperor Callisto, the Nightmare Emperor will meet us in the teleportation chamber. Shall we go?" Receiving a nod of approval from the Roman Emperor, they each stepped onto a teleporterrs which sent them down to the Moonlight Castle. Once they arrived, they were greeted by the Nightmare Emperor of the Roa'marii, wearing his full armor minus a helmet which was replaced with a black crown. "Welcome Emperor Apollo Callisto of the Roman Empire. I am the Nightmare Emperor of the Roa'marii Empire, you may call me Nox." The two ships exited into orbit around a large planet, the surface covered in large craters. A massive wall could be seen from orbit, surrounding a great portion of land that itself was divided into one mega city surrounded on one side by an enormous body of water and on the other by green lands used for agriculture. All of this was encompassed by the wall which towered above mountains. When the ships appeared, a blue dome quickly formed over this land before a broadcast was sent up to them. "State your business here, the Dullahan Confederacy is a sovereign state of the United Empire and will shoot you down if necessary." "This is general Sta'falia Silvad of the New Roa'marii Empire, core of the United New Roa'marii Empire. We are carrying a number of wounded and require repairs. We request acceptance under the Queen's Cross and General Zer'icia Velkorn who is on your planet now." There was a brief pause before the shields to the planet were brought down and another message was sent. "You are accepted. Welcome to Dullahan. Please make your way to the Dullahan Keep as soon as you make planet fall. There you will find the Queens Cross station and General Zer'icia." With that, the two ships moved into high anchor above the planet before a number of transports filled with those rescued from Finnegan's trade house were sent down to the Dullahan Keep. Aboard these transports was Finnegan himself, still clutching his pot of gold in hands that had not been pried open for fear of further injury to the fairy. Many of the fairies aboard the ships had quickly come down with an illness of sorts that seemed to have been caused by the presence of iron as well as radiation. Down on the planet they would receive the best medical treatment the Queens Cross could give.

“I am glad that we will be able to continue this peacefully,” Idliss said. “The trade routes will be established, if you require more details then you only need to contact one of our trade outposts and they will provide you with the information that you need. I hope both our nations will prosper from this meeting.” Illixian Fleet “Rear Admiral Caroc,” the communication officer said. “I believe that the meeting will be ended soon.” “Very well,” Caroc said. “Captain Jok’tal, I would like for you to report back to the queen and inform her of what has happened. In the meantime, I would like for a portion of the fleet to start investigating other reports.” “At once Admiral”

The few warships in orbit were decimated by the onslaught, and the civilian transports turned and fled towards the planet, with landing being the only way out with the Hasichi blocked. A few bravely moved to cover the retreat of the others, acting as shields. The planetary defense platforms sent out all of their fighters, but Kibō-hosh was trading world, not meant to defend itself. The new Roman mechs cut through the defenses like butter, but not a single surrender offer was sent. If they surrendered, the Abh knew they would be cast out from their houses, left to live as dishonored warriors. Within a few hours, the battle was over, with the entire Abh force having been destroyed, inflicting minimal damage on the Romans. However, there was another ship left. Not in space, but on the ground. The Burakkusutā, a mercenary destroyer being refueled. It was owned by the so-called "House Fumeiyo", named for their reputation for completely disregarding the Abh honor code. They weren't an official house, and the members weren't even related by blood, but they still liked to call themselves by the name given to them by their clients. Over time, mercenaries gained a certain reputation, and no mercenary group was more famous than House Fumeiyo. They were led by the best pilot in the empire: a woman named Ciaca. Their destroyer had been modified to include negative mass tanks, which acted much like ballast tanks on submarines, allowing it to fly in-atmosphere. Ciaca was know throughout the empire for her skill at manipulating the negative energy flow to use it as a propulsion and maneuvering device, utilizing a similar technique to the one proposed when the negative mass was being looked into for FTL travel. To accompany this atmospheric flight capability, a larger reactor had been fitted to allow for the antiproton pulse to be directed with a magnetic field, keeping it from hitting the atmosphere itself. As such, the Burakkusutāhad become somewhat of a legend among the airborne forces of the Abh. While they would do almost anything for money, they had been known to defuse conflicts between houses for no apparent reason. Looking up at the Roman fleet through the blue-green sky of Kibō-hosh, Ciaca frowned. She knew what would happen if the Romans took Kibō-hosh, Abh trade routes would fall apart, and the homeworld would be cut off from the rest of the empire. As had been demonstrated countless times in Abh history, a capital cannot stand without an empire to support it. And then, there was no telling if the Romans would keep their promise. She counted around two hundred ships that she could distinguish, but assumed that there were more than that. Realizing what could be done, her frown turned into a smile, her eyes narrowing as she turned to face another mercenary. "See if you can get any ship weapons. We'll be running a blockade." "How do you expect me to buy weapons with the cash we have on hand?" She took her pistol out of its holster, throwing it to the other mercenary, who caught it with a surprised look on his face. "If they refuse to give it to us after you explain the situation, then you can exploit their selfishness by pointing that at their head." Dishonorable cowards! They run from battle! If this is our enemy, then the gods surely favor us! Empress Na'brel sat upon her command chair on the bridge of her personal starship, the Teikkupuraim. Its class was named after it, in honor of the crucial role it played in the first victory of the war at the liberation of Shōrino'ba. "Honor of the Empire" was its meaning, a fitting name for such an impressive warship. Its spinal antiproton cannon fired again, instantly vaporizing the battleship that survived the destroyer swarm. "Pathetic! Their ships head for the planet!" She yelled, standing up from her chair. "We could destroy all of their settlements in moments, the entire planet if we wished, but I'm feeling merciful today." She unsheathed her ceremonial katana, pointing it at the planet that was shown on the holographic map of the battlefield before her. "All vessels, blockade their ports! Don't even let a shuttle get through the atmosphere! We will secure the system and await the arrival of the construction vessels, then ensure that this system will never be wrested from our control! Until we have invasion capability, that planet is worthless to us!" The fleet obeyed her orders perfectly, the blips on the holographic map moving to blockade the enemy planet. Suddenly, an unexpected shockwave shook the ship. Though it was tossed around furiously, the only damage was caused to the shields by a hailstorm of debris. Luckily, they held hard, the shells of almost solid blue energy absorbing every impact. "Status report!" Yelled the Empress, picking herself back up after a fall. Her mouth was bleeding, and she got the distinct feeling that her left wrist disagreed with its current angle of rotation. Reaching over to it with her right hand, she snapped it back into place with a horrifically painful crack. Blocking it out, she tried to focus on the situation at hand. Now was not the time to get medical treatment. "We've lost fifty ships!" Cried her tactical officer in shock "Two detonations, some kind of graviton weapon! The things could have destroyed the planet!" "That's a sixth of the fleet! Where were they fired from?!" "The retreating fleet, ma'am!" "Good, that means we won't need to deal with any more. Thank the gods we went for a blockade, if we stayed clumped together the entire fleet would have gone down. Make sure to get that sensor data sent to intelligence, we might be able to do something with it. For now, continue my orders." She returned her attention to the holographic map, which flickered from the damage dealt by the graviton weapons. Her ship continued to float towards the planet, ready to activate its antigravity systems to stop it from falling into the atmosphere. However, she noticed a House Kyūsei bombardment ship coming up behind her, at ramming speed. House Kyūsei was one of the twenty-six royal houses from the formation of the empire, and killing the Empress and her heirs would give them the throne. However, House Kyūsei had also always been a close ally of the Na'brel House, and had worked together on many of the major colonization missions. Before she could send a message to the ship, their own message was intercepted by the Teikkupuraim. "Adam Agata will defeat the Abh! All hail the New Roman Empire!" The Empress stood there, staring at the map in horror. Abh, loyal Abh had defected to her enemy. Abh who had seen railgun rounds pierce the habitation orbitals at Shōrino'ba, Abh who had seen the wreckage at Midway. At that moment, she realized what the enemy had done. They had done the unthinkable, the one thing even Draka refused to do. The ultimate violation, the ultimate evil. Through the power that only the gods hold, they had coerced the very minds of her people. Even in the middle of such a terrible atrocity, even in the moments before her inevitable death, there was one thing she gained from it. Now, she could finally curse her enemy with truth, for she knew their name. "Adam Agata, it will be a Na'brel that ends your life!" The moment she finished her sentence, an explosion rocked the ship. She knew that it was the antimatter fuel tanks in the aft section exploding with the engines, killing half of her crew so quickly that they couldn't even scream. An unexpected kachunk came with an equally unexpected lurch, and the sound of a drive core charging filled her ears. Immediately, she knew what it was: an emergency bridge eject. It was only there in the event of an asteroid collision, to protect her life until her daughter reached a suitable age to claim the throne. That had come and passed, but only a few weeks ago. Removing the system would need a refit of the entire bow section, and she had planned to remove it in this very system. No, not this, not now! "NO! OVERRIDE! OVERRIDE!" The computer ignored her pleas, refusing to allow her an honorable death. Instead, the explosion pushed the bridge further from the ship, causing her to lose her balance and hit the wall behind her due to the acceleration. The bridge tumbled in space, and as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness, she could hear the computer reporting that it was jumping to Shōrino'ba, but even in her current state she knew that was untrue. After being pushed by the explosion, there was no telling where it would end up. The rest of the fleet couldn't see the bridge jumping away, all they saw was the giant explosion that anhilliated the entire flagship, leaving only a few scattered shards of metal floating in the void, heading to harmlessly fall into the planet's atmosphere. A message was sent out to the entire fleet from the other Teikkupuraim-Class Warship in the fleet, the House Kyūsei command ship. "The Empress will be avenged. She was correct in saying that the planet is worthless to us, therefore, we will destroy it! All vessels, open fire on the planet at once! Destroy its crust!" The fleet obeyed his orders, immediately opening fire on every part of the planet. They wiped out ancient mountains in moments, cutting new canyons with sweeps of their antiproton beams. What had taken nature millions of years to complete, the fleet accomplished in seconds, ravaging the world below in what most species would call an atrocity. The Abh called it a military tactic. As Penelope summoned an image of another fairy, Lasis stared in amazement. It looked almost exactly like a hologram, but there was certainly no projector. It was as if she had somehow summoned the image herself, such a power was something only heard of in myths and the ancient records. There was evidence of a species that used some kind of non-technological energy in every aspect of their lives, but the records of them were like mere footnotes, as if they had been left behind in the sands of time. "Incredible..." She whispered quietly, admiring the accuracy of the image. Refocusing, she spoke aloud. "No, I've never met anyone but Abh. This is the first time one of us has even heard the voice of an alien. Err, no offense meant if that word has any negative connotations to you. As for your other questions, this is a military ship because, well, every Abh House owns some. This one is my house's flagship, the Tomerarenai-fū. It was built to combat the aliens that we're at war with right now, it is a shameful fact that we do not know their name. Right now we're in orbit of Shōrino'ba, our homeworld, waiting for a response to a request I made for extra resources. It also appears that you haven't heard of our honor code. It contains dozens of requirements for all Abh, and many more specifically for nobles. One of those requirements for a noble is taking care of a traveler who has come to you, no matter the harm it may place on you. Many of our legends speak of nobles who starved in order to feed travelers that sought shelter with them, earning them eternal life in the honorable service of the goddess Urania. An example of one of the requirements for all Abh is the requirements that you bow when meeting someone, like I did when I met you." It took a moment for Lasis to realize what Penelope's comment on iron meant. If her species had some kind of aversion to iron, then it brings up extreme issues with her staying on the ship. While not everything was made of it, there was something made of iron in every room, and most doors were made of iron alloys. Then there was the food. "Wait, 'I don't know how anyone can stand having that much iron in their body'? Iron has been used since the dawn of our civilization, the doors of this very ship are mad of an iron alloy! In fact, iron is one of the essential elements that our body needs for survival! We should be able to make adjustments for you, but this is amazing! Our scientists thought that iron was necessary for any form of life, but here you are, a being with the same basic form as us, with similar pointed ears, saying you can't handle it for some reason! This means that life can exist anywhere! You seem to know far more than we do, tell me, how many sentient species do you know of? How many others traverse the stars with you?" In all of her excitement, Lasis suddenly became aware of the discomfort that Penelope seemed to be in. She was sweating, odd due to the relative cool of the room. It indicated that her homeworld might be extremely cold, cold enough to be frozen over. That is, if it had any water. Cooling the ship would require extra power and quicker usage of coolant, and would of course cause discomfort for the Abh, but honor demanded that it be done if Lasis was correct. "Are you okay? You're sweating, is it too hot in here?" The aliens stepped through the airlock to find a high gravity environment, about three times Earth's gravity. Three people stood before them; a young man, a young woman, and a significantly older man. All of them whore white and gold uniforms, with various different symbols on circular patches attached to their right shoulders. The young woman had dark blue hair, trimmed into a bob cut. She had pointed ears that extended away from her head horizontally (just like all the others), though they seemed to be exceptionally long. The young man had slightly shorter hair, and it was a much lighter shade of blue (which was apparently the only color their hair came in). His shoulder patch contained more symbols than anyone else's, which probably indicated a higher rank. His ears were the smallest of the three, extending about three inches from his head. The old man had extremely light blue hair, almost so light that the blue had faded from it. Unlike the other two, which had oddly smooth faces, his face was covered in wrinkles. His ears were angled back, almost flush with his head, a trait which none of the other two had. He was also holding a small computer, probably for recording the event. All three bowed respectfully to the alien diplomats, and with no apparent expectation of a returned gesture, the young woman spoke first (despite the fact that she seemed to be of a lower rank than the young man). "I am Imperial Princess Laidach Na'brel of the Eight World's Empire, my military rank is Deca-Commander and you are welcome to address me by it if you wish. The young man on my left is Baron Lamsar Socal, his military rank is Captain. The man to my right is Ensign Collus Danroc, he'll be recording this event for posterity. Now, if you do not object, I wish to discuss your reason for being here as well as your reasoning for not opening fire on us. We expected any contact we made to be hostile, and yet here you are, speaking to us."

Briggs Fortress As the Roa'marii approached they got a greater glimsp of brigs. The Fortress it self seemed to be built into the sides of two different mountains, in fact it was built into a mountain pass. Soldiers dotted the blackened metal walls as they watched the Roa'marii approach, giant guns hung around, pointed up into space. Approaching them was a rather tall imposing figure, who when they got closer was clearly a woman. The men who had come to get the Roa'marii immediately stopped and saluted. Her hair was blonde and her eyes blue, her uniform was a thick longcoat like many of the Brigg's men wore, with the pin and name on it indicating her as the General. "Greetings Roa'marii, I am General Oliva Armstrong of Briggs Fortress. This pass here is a important for strategic and logistical reasons, so Briggs was built here to hold it incase of Ground Invasion. We also play host to one of the Space Marine Legions, and they are much more tough then the Bellator. I expect if you are into friendly sparring matches, you will enjoy them." said Oliva, in a rather deep voice for a woman. Arcadia Emperor Apollo Callisto took a short bow to Nox, before speaking. "It is excellent to meet you Nox, you may simply refer to me as Apollo. Our Empires seem to share a lot in common, and it seems you would be interested in a alliance. I would also like to discuss the matter of our recently discovered magica..." said the Emperor before a Roman came charging in from the teleporters. He took a short bow before speaking. "Sorry to interrupt Emperor, but it is urgent." spoke the newly arrived Roman, handing Apollo a piece of paper. As Apollo read his face instantly went red in anger. He approached Nox, speaking in a angered tone. "We do not know what you think of it, but the Abh, as we have come to learn their names are just mercilessly slaughtered a entire planet of 100 million Roman Civilians. They did nothing. To us to kill civilians in warfare is the most vile, dishonorable, and horrible thing one can do. I shall see the heads of their government roll for this!" stated Apollo, clearly thinking of what to do next. Kibō-hosh The Admiral leading the combined fleet took a moment and sat back in his chair, observing the holographic map. A few frigates had been lost in the assualt, but otherwise the Roman Fleet had held strong. Taking a moment and zooming in on the map, he found the Knightmares. Their kill counts were quite high as they headed back to the fleet, boarding a troop carrier that would soon be landing to begin the first stages of the invasion. As the Admiral setup the blockade another battlegroup arrived, however the Battleship had been painted with the symbol of the Emperor. The Admiral transmitted a message to the battlegroup. "Who are you? And why is the symbol of the Emperor emblazoned on your ship?" "I am Princess Aurora vi Italia, I have a file with the Emperor's official encryption confirming this." transmitted Aurora, sending the file to the Admiral. "I see... Why are you here then?" "I have come to manage this invasion, as well estiblish the government on this planet." "It is under your control then Princess." With that Aurora ordered the second stage of her invasion plan for the Abh World. The Romans began a bombing campaign from orbit, however they only targeted military bases and other defenses, and even then only those that were nowhere near civilian settlements. With the conclusion of the bombing campaign the Romans landed several troop carriers outside the largest city on the planet, with the Knightmares moving in first, floating so they could take out air and ground alike. Their antiproton beams shredded through Abh Forces, as hordes of the Imperial Guard, the Legions, and a few divisions of Space Marines charged and began fighting. The older mechs of the Imperial Guard and Armed Forces assisted, as gunships moved in and dealt with air forces as well as ground units. Hulking Emperor tanks charged to handle the Abh's heavy vehicles, as the massive clash between Abh and Roman forces begun.