Palatine
David and the rest of his team, those able bodied at least, lowered their weapons as the explorer waved his arms towards them, speaking to them for the first time in his alien tongue. Although they barely understood his words, his body language towards the commandos hinted toward them being friendly. "Stand down." David commanded. Before long, one of the alien commandos approached David with a unfolded map, pointing to their current location. David was quick to put the pieces together. He made one hand gesture and tried to communicate with the alien soldiers. "May I borrow this?" he said, gently relinquishing the corporal of the map and turned back to his team.

"Damn, that's a pretty good recreation." Jess commented on the map. "Think we should mark the base?"

"Well, not like the muncs could get their hands on it." Cole said. "Wouldn't hurt."

"Yeah, either way, they'll find us eventually, might as well be good samaritans and help these guys. "David said,. "Cila, check the bag, see if you got anything."

"Sure thing boss." Cila replied as she walked to her bag, bent down and rummaged through the bag for a marker or something. After a brief moment, she managed to pull out a black marker. "Bingo." she said to herself, standing up and handing over the marker over to David. "Thanks." he said.

David walked towards a stable and whole wall, placing the map onto it as he pulled the top off and begun to draw a path for the visitors, from the city to the rebel compound, the base wasn't too far from this city. He drew a little circle on the city, along with little figures, symbolizing both David's team and the alien visitors. Next he drew a rather snake-like, erratic path leading to the base, drawing the a star on the base location. "Not the best, but it'll do." David said as he walked up to one of the aliens, handing over the map with the directions.

Collab with Sigma

By the time that the Peace fleet had finally returned a signal, a larger council of figures had amassed in the office of Eovuy-Misalxul. A holographic sphere stood in the center of the room, portraying the rendering of signals their drone had recieved. Blank for a few seconds, it eventually displayed a peculiar sight. Tiny, pudgy beings with overly animated expressions. The room was stunned for a moment; these things were so similar in body plan. Misalxul stood at the front of the council, arms crossed at her back. She waited for a moment before speaking quietly to those present.

"How do we communicate?" she asked. Someone spoke up, stepping forward so that the Eovuy might see her fully.

"We are led to assume they have sufficiently advanced computer systems that a mass data-signal of our language could be translated, hopefully within seconds," they said. Misalxul nodded. Grey. An affirmative. With the order, said package of information was beamed to the drone, and transmitted to the fleet surrounding it; a massive flood of data detailing every bit of information possible on their language, including the unique manner in which color reflected things to the Noiran. Given the natural difference in speech, it would take nothing less than a particularly quick-witted computer to decipher in any useful timeframe.

Mei and her inner circle stood and watched as new data had streamed though, walls of alien text and other images forming once more. The near constant connection between the alien probe and the fleet had proven to be quite beneficial for the defectors, the shipboard computers and commanding AI slowly, but surely deciphering the language, the words becoming more clearer then before. Mei reached out her hand towards the shifting holograms, the data stream surging through her circuits like a raging river, her eyes begun to glow. She gave a simple nod, signaling the others to do the same. One by one, each of her closer advisors had extended their Metallic arms to the ever shifting mass of data, feeling the surge. "Noiran" Mei said.

"An interesting species..." Tenmu said, the other nodded in agreement.

Mei smiled once more. "I...have a good feeling on this." She said, waving her arms about as a screen materialized. "Huddle up everyone, they should know who we are, for real."

"Yes, your worship." They all replied in unison as they gathered behind Mei. A beeping noise sounding off. "Greetings Noirans." she begun. "I am MEI-2102-34 and we wish you no harm, we come in peace." she paused briefly before continuing. "We've come a long way seeking a new home, seeking a fresh new start for myself and my people. All we ask is to be allowed entry to your home, for a moment at least." Another beeping sound followed as the recording ended. With another motion of her hand, the screen shrank as the message was streamed to the probe and back to the main source.

There was a commotion amongst the council as Noiran words were returned to them. It had worked! Others were a bit more wary however, at the contents of the returned message. Lixioxu Aolfayer pondered.

"A 'new home'?" A yellowish color. Suspicion. "Are they pariahs? Outcasts? Criminals?" she asked. A hush fell over the council. "And they are blunt to ask of us entry the very moment we contact them."

"Their name... it has numbers. Are they synthetic?" added Lixioxu Yaeiolo. The Eovuy listened carefully, forming her own assumptions.

"Perhaps we may simply ask them to clarify," she said, preparing another message. "Greetings foreign one. I am Eovuy-Misalxul, representative of all Noiran peoples, leader of our humble civilization. We are curious of your requests, but also cautious. From whence did you come, and why do your people require a new home?"

All was silent in the council chambers, a short amount of time had passed before the Peace Fleet had sent their reply. Mei, from her more neutral expression was more saddened. "....We once hailed from a terrible place, the Agonis Collective....my kind have brought untold death and misery upon billions for centuries. I was blind to this evil for so long...until it was far too late. I and my people no longer wished to be apart of the madness. We fled, knowing full well that wherever we may go, we would not be welcomed, we would be hated and hunted down. "She paused before resuming. "Both by our kind and the past victims of their slaughters. This is why we fled and seek a new home, we wish to correct what the Collective has done, once step at a time."

"Then there are other civilizations out there. Excellent to know," Lixioxu Aolfayer said. Misalxul continued her transmission.

"I see. Should we be worried about this Agonis Collective? You make it clear your kind are hunted. We are rightfully cautious of harboring those that may draw devastation to our civilization. We are young and small, confined to a single system with nary a clue as to what is going on in the galaxy surrounding us. We need some assurance we will not be visited by something greater than ourselves with evil intents."

The third response had came in a far faster pace. Mei's expression more calm, and less fearful. "I'm quite certain the Collective will never find us. We have traveled a great distance, far from the Collective's sphere, and their warlike ways and fanatic ideology will eventually cost them dearly. They will soon have other, more important matters to deal with then our defection."

There was a long pause in Misalxul's office. Emotions ran high and chaotic, ever-shifting between wariness, hope, and curiosity. For the time being, opnions were withheld. Their Eovuy would make a decision with the information provided, and all those present could tell by her color that she was already becoming firm in her thoughts.

"We shall permit you approach our homeworld for the time being. Caution must be taken before we can allow your people to touch down upon it," Misalxul transmitted. She turned back to the council. "We shall all meet them face to face. I am confident for now that we are not speaking with beings harboring ill-intent." The two commanders affirmed her decision and walked in tandem out of the office. A security group would need to be made for their visitation. Another signal was sent, marking their star system's location in the region.

Mei grinned widely with this development. For now at the moment, the Peace Fleet had gained a temporary sanctuary and a possible ally. This would be the first step Mei had mentioned, with the knowledge that they would be safe, this allows the Peace Fleet time to survey the surrounding system while the fleet remains under the care of the Noirans. Mei made several motions with her hand as a map sprang back into view, before her, a route leading to the Vol System begun to form. "Set a course of the Vol System." Mei ordered.

Abiding by her commands, the entire fleet vanishing once more into the dark void of space, making their swift journey towards the Norian Homeworld.

Communication was cut as the ships tunneled into hyperspace, thousands of light years away. Misalxul stood taught before the empty holographic display, thinking to herself. Their very first contact, and the aliens wished to take residence upon their very homeworld. Now that they knew of a larger galactic community, far grander than she had ever imagined, imagination ran wild.

Where would this lead them?

To say that the Musashi were on the brink of invasion and annihilation was to be the understatement of the century. The Honored Resurgance Forces were duty bound to smite all those who would oppose their doctrine of a galaxy free of oppression. But for those who would lie to their faces? There would be no mercy. In fact, the Hexanagallions would bleed them slow. Warmaster Daixanos however, would see to it that there was no misconception or mistake if he was to report to his Warlord that the Musashi Empire had indeed allied with the hated Dominion. It mattered little that they were fighting against the 2nd Imperium. That nation was going to fall before the Honored might of the Hexanagallion's eventually in any case.

Behind Dax, the holoscreen was airing the feed of the Musashi Princess giving her speech on the war that is now commencing in the center of Human space. "What do human's know of honor?" General Frothmaw asked. The Hexanagallion was noted among his peers as being even more muscled and hulking than the rest of his large, saurian race.
"She speaks some truth." one General, the one named Kralskarn, dared say. "About honor. It wasn't our warrior nature, but the Imperium's dishonor that brought about our wrath upon the Galaxy."

"If they had Honor, they would not be allied with Slavers." Frothmaw said. Kralskarn let out a low growl. "That is not what I said."
The tension broke as the elevator to the meeting room opened up, revealing Battle Commander Krux. It was not only his armor that was crimson colored now. He stomped into the room, still freshly covered in the gore of the previous battle, looking none the worse for wear and even more fiercesome than usual.

"Still alive, I see." Daixanos said, the tall Silver Clad Warmaster regarding his chief commander of combat. "Not for the Collective's lack of trying, I assure you." Krux replied. "We have spoken with the rebels. They have agreed to help us in our fight against the machines." Dax said. "Here I had thought we were helping them." Krux growled. Daixanos nodded the point. "The situation has gotten more complicated." the Warmaster said, drawing the gaze of his old friend.

"The Musashi that I had...negotiated with, seemed to have thrown their lot in with the Dominion. Our laws would demand an immediate crusade, if this were to reach Warlord Jex. And it shall, in time. Not only that, but our scouts report the Agonis Collective is being decimated on two fronts. Not only by us, but by a Totalitatian human nation. It seems we will meet in the middle." Krux merely snorted. "How is this more complicated, Warmaster?" he asked. "We finish the Collective presence off here and hit this...Totalist nation while they are pre-occupied. Then we will attack Musashi from the flank and carve our way to our distant Homeworld. The Human nations are picking each other apart-"

"Yes..." Daixanos said. "They do seem to be doing our work for us."

"And we have yet to show our full strength." Krux continued. Dax let out a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Ever the fighter, and while the situation might be more complicated, I do not necessarily think that might be something detrimental to us. Only time and well planned maneuvers will tell. Remember, Battle Commander. I do not question our strength against any foe, nor any two foes. But if we are to take this galaxy, even at our full strength, strategy will win us the day. Not brute force."

"Merely aim me, and I will rend and tear...I will blast and punch through." The Crimson Hexanagallion stated loyally.

"As will we all." Daixanos stated, then turned around and spoke loudly. "Patch me through to the Musashi nation. Let them know I wish to speak with Shoichi. Tell them it is a matter of urgency. Delay if they dare."

---

"Perhaps they push further into the center of human space to escape from our wrath?" Battle Commander Rakt said with a throaty, growling laugh. The aggressive Warmaster Gatar was a tad crestfallen, if he was to be honest. He would have liked to have faced this Barbarian leader in single combat. He had hoped to decimate them with a tactical maneuver that would have given his blood father something to be proud of. But, when the Divine gives you an opportunity, you take it. The two Hexanagallions stood within the newly furnished headquarters of the 3rd planet in the system. The hottest one, and the most habitable for the HRF forces to be stationed upon.

"It matters little." Gatar said, and his generals halted in their multiplies growls and discussions, standing tall to hear what their leader would say. Warmaster Gatar was not one to give lengthy tirades on what he would or would not do. He simply preferred to attack and kill. To perform what it was he intended to do. And he would.

"Brethren! It does not matter why the Barbarians have pushed away from us. Soon they will come to realize that turning their back on the Honored Resurgance Forces will be the most terrible, and last mistake they ever make in this galaxy. Mobilize the fleet. In 3 days time, we launch a full scale assault on all Xeno-Barbarian systems in our way."

The announcement brought howls of excitement by the generals, who had just been waiting to hear such a proclamation. A small amount of the fleet would stay behind to ensure their flank and newly acquired systems were secured. With their new ARK guns and lesser cannons in place, there was little need for a massive presence within these systems. There would be no dawn for the Barbarians.

In the year 2050, the world of Athistan had met aliens in the city of Cleim. The aliens' leader, Grana, lead several attacks against the civilians of Cleim. It took several days before both the vessel and Grana were destroyed by the firepower of the entire Priuca military. Before her death, Grana proclaimed that she was a part of the Agonis Collective, the old servants of the Imperium and humanity before turning on their creators. After the invasion, President Roshawna told the world that the Federation will benefit from this invasion. With the vessel and the creatures still intact, Roshawna ordered scientists, researchers, and construction workers to gather up as much information and parts as they could. It took fifteen years for the entire city of Cleim to be cleared and cost thousands of lives due to the radiation. And it took thirty years for scientists to able to study the parts.

A hundred years after the invasion, the invaders revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. The world called it the greatest discovery in the history of Athistan since long-distance sailing. But, the high level government officials call it: Agonis' Influence.

The Abrik Talot Space Station
The representatives of Athistan filled the conference room as it was their annual meeting that happened once every a year. Since the Invasion, the Federation has changed everything from their military to the government. Representatives now attend the monthly meeting instead of the leaders of their country. The space station hired additional security units and checkpoints. The technology from the Collective vessel has helped the Federation beyond words. If that vessel haven't crashed landed on Cleim, they would still be on Athistan. Now, they have expanded and explored much of the unknown universe. Several people have become explorers over the matter of years.

Explorer Beryihun Alemu was the first explorer to leave the Suiza System and traveled to several other systems. Several other explorers traveled beyond to different systems. Rijak Tajar was the closest person in history to travel to the center of the universe, she would later establish a laboratory on one of the nearby moons. Vasant Wagha was the first person to travel towards the edge of the universe. And Zemenfes Habibi is currently exploring the southern part of the universe, believing that life is nearby and he would be the first person to meet those creatures. All of this was made possible by a sudden boom in exploration that hasn't been seen since the discovery of three new continents.

The representatives waited for their president to start off the meeting. Then, the large doors opened up as several of the President's guards entered the conference room. In the middle of the guards was a woman. Her dress was mainly made up of silks from the lands of Vlecux. The blue diamond necklace and her interesting head piece were the most looked at as she made her way to the center of the room. She was President Nina Dhori. One-hundred-and-thirty-fifth President of the Federation, sixteenth woman president. This was the fist time that Nina entered the conference room as President. The representatives looked at the woman as her guards split up to guard around the center stage. She went up the small steps and stopped at the podium.

Nina started her speech, "Representatives, Mr. Speaker, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: I welcome the honor of appearing before you to deliver my first message to the Federation. For the last one hundred years, we have flourished from the Invasion that happened one-hundred years ago. Most of us weren't born during that horrible time, but our families were. Our grandfather and grandmothers witnessed the destruction of Cleim because of the Agonis Collective. They caused death and destruction that would forever change the history of this great world, but they didn't destroy our motivation. Everyone did their part to bring an end to the invaders and they made sure that we won't forget about that.

I will never forget the stories and the videos that I saw of that horrible day. The Invasion will forever be an event of terrible pain in our history, but we have advanced beyond advanced beyond imagination. It's all thanks to our great scientists, researchers, and construction workers. They were out there every single day gathering as much as they could. They didn't quit or give up despite radiation and the risk of death in Cleim. We will never forget those who had died, believing that the Collective technology could help us."

The representatives applaud as she stopped for a moment before continuing with her speech, "With that technology, we have entered a golden age of technology and exploration as soon as we found the perfect FLT-device. Now, we have found the edge of the universe and the center of the universe. The future is looking blight and we are ready to face it. With our fleet patrolling, they are ready to defend for any threats. Our worlds and systems are ready for any kind of threat - The Collective or something entirely new. We are ready to face them together."

The representatives cheered and applaud as she kept saying 'thank you'. She quickly went back to her speech once more as she talked about the current state of the Federation. After the speech ended, she exited out of the stage and walked out of the conference room. At the hallway, she quickly took a seat as she saw representatives walking out of the room. Many of them congratulated her on the speech and some just walked pass her. Nina was checking on her pet bird, Noire. The servants were keeping a close eye on the bird while she was away. The bird was supposed to arrive along with her servants today, but the ride to the space station was delayed. She got up from the seat and walked to the elevator as her guards quickly followed her.

Then, she got on it and went to her floor.

The South-West Region
The explorer ship, Union, had been traveling around for weeks with no luck of any sign of life. Zemenfes Habibi grew tired of dead-ends in his mission to find life. He didn't care about planets or galaxies, he just cared about other life forms ever since he saw footage of the Collective. He selected his crew based on people who could do their job and wanted fame for finding the first ever lifeforms. The crew were loyal to Habibi and willing to die for him. He overlooked the two scouting drones that he got before he left for the stars. "Are they ready to be launched?" he asked one of his crew members.

"We have overlooked them seven times to ensure that they are to capture footage of any unknown objects or creatures." the crew members answered. The drones were inside some sort of cannon that would send them flying towards one of the systems. After scanning around for days, they would race back to the ship as fast as they could before they could be captured. It was designed to be quick, but it's big enough that it could be spotted by a ship that has windows. Habibi walked over to the button that would launch them into space and pressed it as the drones were sent flying in space.

"I hope that we can finally find something this time." he told his crew members.

"I hope so as well." a woman said as she held a camera, "I can't wait until I capture the results with this camera!"

Habibi grinned as he went over towards the woman and said to her, "You'll my lady, trust me. You'll become famous and rich within the matter of hours as soon as we return home with the news."

She turned off the camera and laughed at him, "Really, 'my lady'. You got to be joking."

"Well, should I call you 'sweetie' instead?" he asked with the same grin. She playfully punched his shoulder as she went back to her quarters, leaving him behind without answer. Now, it was time to wait as the Union stayed put.

The South-East Region
"How long has it been?" a man asked another man.

"A couple days since we launched them, mate." he answered in an annoyed tone, "Can you please stop asking me?"

"I am just making sure. I am already a few weeks behind the deadline. Don't you remember, Sagar?" the man told Sagar as he played around with his camera. He was a part of an documentary crew as he waited to become famous, just like the others. Sagar smoked his cigarette as he listened to the man talk about his career and how he's 'risking it all to get famous'. He pressed the cigar in the ashtray and dropped it as he coughed.

"You'll get your fame and riches." he ensured the man, "It just takes time for these drones to come back."

"I hope so." he said as he got up from the chair and left for the medbay. Sagar looked at the ashtray as he began to think about things. He has been exploring for the past two months and he found nothing that would interest the world. His ship, The Geyser, wasn't the best looking ship compared to the other ships; but, it worked better than most of them. He had heard of Zemenfes Habibi before he took an interest in exploration, but he believed that Habibi wasn't going to be the first to find life other than the Collective. Sagar Dahalo was going to be the first person to discover life and he was going to make everyone of his crews famous. The man stopped looking at the ashtray and left the area to check on the pilot.

Sagar went inside the control room and saw the pilot, doing his job as usual. Before he could even speak, he knew that Sagar was there. "Are you coming to check on me?" he asked Sagar.

"Of course, I am checking on you." he said nervously as he tried to say something else, "And I am also checking on the drones."

The pilot nodded as he brought up a screen of the current state of the two drones and explained the situation, "According to the data, they are doing well. We can't get the exact location of them; however, we are able to get actual readings. They should come back within a week or so."

"Thank you" Sagar said to the pilot, but he wanted to say more without sounding weird. He walked away without saying anything else as he waited the pilot getting back to work. He needed another cigarette right now as he searched his pockets for the lighter and the package. He went back to the table, where the ashtray was, and saw that he left those things at the table. He reached for the cigar and then the lighter. After lighting the cigar up, he started to smoke again as he waited until he got tired to go asleep. The Geyser would still be in one piece by the time that he woke up.

Sunia. Occupied by the Totalists.
Sergeant Anastas Karthum, cringed slightly as Senior Engineer Silayev floored the prisoner with a punch to the gut. The punishment did not stop there as Silayev continued to kick their collaborator with his heavy mechanic leg, all the while looking supremely uninterested in the whole situation. The bad lightning almost made the Ascended look human while accentuating the prosthetics of Engineer Silayev. It almost made the Sergeant pity the Ascended.

The Engineer left the beaten cyborg just and returned to the large concentration of consoles, wires and personnel gathered around the large towering servers in that level of the Tower. Private Isidora emerged from the shadowed alcoves of the server room to help the Ascended. In a rather brusque way, half shoving him back towards the cluster of engineers working on decrypting whatever information the degenerate machines had stored in the towering bulks of the server room. Karthum knew very little about the subject of softwares, encryption and whatnot. But cracking this seal was of vital importance to the designs of the Party and the State. And that was enough for him. Besides, guarding the Tower was a rather cushy job, far from the frontlines and close to the supply depots. What else could he ask for?

And so the Sergeant continued to watch the boring work of the engineers from his position, leaning on one of the many pillars shadowed by the low ambient light. Which frankly was a problem with Collective architecture in general, or at least a constant flaw of the buildings he had visited. Khartum had never seen nor visited the massive walled cities that housed the Ascended. Now reduced to ghost cities, from what he had heard. The pathetic cyborg currently under their watch was one of the few that they had managed to find on the planet. From what he had heard from the official sources, there had been some kind of mass flight by the machines before their arrival. Which would explain why Sunia had fallen so quickly and easily. Specially when compared to the grindhouse that was the Fringe Worlds. Who had also fallen quickly after the Totalist offensive in the region.

The Sergeant absently started toying with his pocket watch. There was little else to do. An old family heirloom, it looked the part. The watch wasn't even digital. But despite its battered appearance it still worked. And on dull times like these, Karthum often found himself running his thumb over the inscriptions etched on the inner side of the cover. To be honest, he had no idea what it said, it certainly wasn't in Newspeak so nobody actually could translate it. A nifty curiosity, Commissar Strobel has called it, before telling him to keep watch for any light handed soldier. It would be a pity to lose such fine thing to a bastard wanting to make a few more ration cards in the black market.

The sudden noise of another generator coming to life caught the Lieutenant's attention and he turned just in time to get momentarily blinded by the array of searchlights being turned on all over the server room.

“About time someone fixed that.” Isidora grumbled as the Sergeant tried to blink away the bright spots in his sight. “Why did it took so long anyway?”

Before Karthum could reply his attention was caught by the sudden cheering coming from the cluster of engineers. One of them congratulated the Ascended with a few pats on the back, with much more force than necessary, while others scurried away with hands filled with tools, pads and other devices. The Sergeant had no idea of what had just happened but it looked like progress.

With Uruk and Bilbo



Like most RCN officers, Adison Volkov rather liked GDC engines. They offered excellent acceleration, good maneuverability, and produced very little strain on intertial dampeners. Their FTL was also an excellent tactical asset; Volkov had siezed more than one victory through the clever use of tactical FTL jumps. However, now those same engines were making his life an unending headache. Jumps grew more complicated to calculate with distance and with increasing numbers of ships. Larger ships, and CSCs in particular, were designed with increased computer power to make those increasingly taxing calculations for entire fleets. But that didn't help in the slightest when half the of Coalition expeditionary force used a completely different form of FTL.

With the Alorians using conventional warp FTL, they travelled from point to point through subspace in a continuous trip, while the RCN did it in a series of FTL jumps that frequently emerged into realspace. In terms of absolute speed, the two forms of travel were fairly similar. But trying to coordinate it so that both forces emerged in realspace in the same place at the same time was a logistical nightmare, especially when factoring in the Varangian deep space detection arrays around the Richter system. Extensive scouting, pre-war intelligence, and some educated guesswork had given the Coalition forces a pretty solid idea of the capabilities of those arrays. The problem was, once the main fleet was in range, the Varangians, with continuously updated intelligence on their exact position, could choose to engage at any point, using their damned ship-mounted interdictors to isolate the two halves of the fleet from eachother as they made their way seperately in system. The Varangian picket of the system was fairly moderate so either element of the fleet could handle them individually, but Volkov knew they'd be encountering the same problem with heavier defences the farther they went into Varangian territory. Now was as good a time as any to work out an effective approach strategy. So it was that the combined fleets sat a good distance outside the estimated detection range, waiting.
"Comms," Volkov said, "put me through to HRMS Tyrant, let's get the Generals on the horn and see what we can come up with."

The control bridge of the HRMS Tyrant was buzzing with activity, the officers of the ship gathered around computers and tables trying to figure out the FTL jumps which were giving both parts of the Coalition a hard time. This is something that the two powers should have worked out long before the invasion started, and was now biting them in the ass. Takeer had just returned from some kind of training excersize with the infantry and Selene was sitting at her place, gazing out at all of the sourrounding ships in the invading fleet.

A male officers voice rung out from the far ends of the bridge, "Comms request from the CSC Praetoria". He shouted. Takeers gruff voice called back to him as he walked slowly towards Selene and infront of the holo-screen. "Accept it". In a couple of seconds an image of Volkov in his own ship was displayed infront of them, and they both nodded, smiling slightly.
"Hello Admiral, what can we do for you?"

"Good afternoon Generals." It was technically the afternoon, as both fleets had decided to synchronize their clocks to Earth's 24 hour GMT time for simplicity's sake. "I can't help but feel we should have drilled for this situation before we launched the invasion, but with all the battle excersises we were doing there was hardly time," the three of them shared a rueful smile.
"Still," Volkov continued, "better we work on it now than when we reach Agartha. I've consulted with my fleet officers and my command staff. We believe the safest way to proceed in system is in short FTL hops to assigned coordinates, with your ships proceeding first via warp, and then mine jumping to meet you. It will be slow, but it will reduce the danger posed by Varangian interception, and with those detection arrays telling the Varangians exactly where we are, interception is a very real risk."

Both Generals kept quiet for a few moments as they thought about what the Admiral had proposed. They could find far less flaws with this plan of action than anything either of the fleets had came up with before to solve the problem, so for now it would do them well. Selene nodded, "I see no problem with that. I'm sure we could use that method going foward". She then looked to Takeer and he spoke.
"Another thing we were thinking about were the Varangian detection arrays. We believe we have come up with an effective way of tackling that problem". He paused for a second, as Eva walked onto the scene, but she didn't say anything and instead observed them all.
"When our fleets meet at a rendevouz outside our target system, we thought that sending smaller groups of lesser ships to eliminate the detection arrays could only serve us well". He took a breath, "Two things could happen. Either the Varangians do not intercept these lesser ships, and we destory the detection arrays so our fleets can move through a blindspot in varangian intelligence, and therefore have the upper hand". He stopped, motioning for Eva to speak. She looked up at him, biting her lip softly before she took a step foward.
"If the Varangian's do decide to intercept and our ships end up in a firefight, our larger fleets could warp straight past them and too the target. They would know, but they would be distracted as they engage the ships at the detection arrays. We also further doubt that they would send a massive amount of ships, so the smaller groups who do attack shouldn't suffer major losses". This was only the third or fourth time Eva had spoken to the Admiral, but it seemed she was gaining confidence and coming across much better.

Volkov frowned to himself, and stroked his chin absently. He'd beens so busy workin the FTL problem over in his head, he hadn't considered striking the detection arrays themselves. But it made sense, and as Takeer and Eva had pointed out, it left the Varangians with few good options, especially when defending something as large and delicate as a deep space sensor array. The strike force wouldn't have to be very large or inflict that much damage to put a few arrays offline, even if only temporarily. He looked up at the projections of his fellow commanders, and his eyes rested on Eva for a second. Nobody had seen fit to tell him what such a young girl was doing heading up an invasion fleet, and Volkov was too polite to ask directly. A mystery for another day...
"That's a solid plan," he agreed. "Let's start working out the rendezvous points, and figuring out the composition of the strike force."



The fleets carried on floating through the expanse of space for another twelve hours before any action was taken. The fleet commanders had to make sure both halves of the Coalition were debreifed and able to carry out the attack plans. The Alorian Generals set apart a small group of six corvettes, six cruisers and two more powerful destoryers. They were joined by ten corvettes, eight destroyers and two cruisers from the Commonwealth. Something that had caused confusion between the two navies had been the use of cruisers and destroyers, as with the Alorian navy the latter was more powerful, and with the commonwealths navy cruisers seemed to be more powerful. This small fleet was headed by the commanders from the HRMS Tyrant and the CSC Praetoria, who were linked on comms with eachother aboard their respective vessels, as well as the capitans of the attacking group, nicknamed "Strikeforce Rapier".

As the FTL drives of Strikeforce rapier warmed up, one of the Capitans patched through to both commanding ships. "Rapier is ready to go. Requesting permission to jump".
"Permission granted, Rapier".



The smaller ships of Strikeforce Rapier were able to travel faster than their mother fleets. They were also employing sensor jammers to reduce their signatures, making the strikeforce seem even smaller. Nevertheless, Captain Dostyaki Matthews of the RCNS Pelym was nervous. As the senior-most captain of the Commonwealth ships, he was ultimately responsible for their safety, and even with his Vigilance-class cruiser, he was feeling a little vulnerable. They were just one FTL hop from weapons range on their target sensor array. The Alorian ships had already gone ahead, and they would be arriving at the attack coordinates in less than a minute, and the RCN ships would have to perfectly time their instantaneous FTL jump to arrive at the exact same instant. The multiple jumps before this one had given the Coalition forces time to practice the maneuvers, but it was still going to be a close thing.

"The Alorian Navy ships will be arriving in 30 seconds," the navigation officer reported.
"Spool FTL drive, prepare to jump on my mark," Matthews replied. He kept a close eye on the ship's chronometer. "Jump in 5...4...3...2...1...Mark!"

Light-minutes away, just at the edge of weapons range from the first target sensor array, the Alorian ships dropped back into realspace, and within an instant, the Commonwealth ships appeared beside them in a flash of light and gravitons. The instant their sensors cleared, missiles launched at the distant array.

The array was an ugly thing, obviously made for fuctionality over form. It hung alone in the dark, small lights along the outstreched sensor arms the only indication that the thing was even there. As the ships entered into the things proximity several encoded transmissions were sent, as they moved in and launched, several more transsmissions echoed out from the small station. Yet it did nothing else as the missiles neared their target, the lights blinked once... twice and then were dark as the thing exploded, the sensor arms to whitch the lights were attached being flung out into the inky black.

As the light and energy of the detonation cleared however it would be clear to the strike group that they were not alone, as silhouetted against the stars hung three Widow class ships. It would be obvious now the ships had been seemingly waiting there the entire time, probably in a low power state to avoid detection, only now coming to full operational power and thus onto the sensors. But yet the Widows did not move, nor did they launch fighters, they simply hung there, watching and waiting.

Or so it would seem as a message would suddenly be broadcast to the entire strike force, a simple and short message "The dance greets its new particapants."

With that the three would begin to manuver away, the motions of the ships syncronized to an almost inhuman level. But yet they did not jump yet, as a communication ping was sent to the largest ships in the strike force, one for each faction, the ping itself was an invitation to open up a channel, but its origens would be up for debate as the source seemed to be bouncing between the three ships.

"Incoming hail Captain" the comms officer aboard Pelym reported.
"Very well" Captain Matthews said. "Put it through"

The voice that would come over the com would be rather light and airy, carying less weight than a Tor or even a human voice "Ah so you actually picked up. I will not waste your time, im sure you have important things to be doing captian...?" The other captian seemed to wait for Matthews to fill in the blank.

Matthews' voice was cold, scarcely concealing fury. He didn't bother giving his name. "Your government has betrayed you. The Vala, the Tor, the Sia; all have been abandonned in the name of political expediency. Your Dominus has signed a deal with the devil. Rest assured Faust will purge every non human in Varangian space when he has his way. Why you stand in defence of such a regime, I can't fathom. Rest assured, if you surrender now, you will be treated with the utmost hospitality. Otherwise..." Matthews sighed.
"We can not and will not ignore the danger your allegiance to Faust poses. Tell your forces on Richter Prime to surrender, or we will undertake drastic orbital bombardment."

The Com sat silent for a moment until a sound came over it, a musical tone that one couldnt tell exactly what it was until the sound of breathing followed it. It was a laugh, "Oh sweet child. We know Faust and what he will try to do if allowed his way. As for the hospitality you offer, I can't say anything about yours, but I can speak volumes on your freinds. They are your freinds right? In any case, I have also been told to give you a message, for you to pass on to your higher ranks." The sound of the Sia clearing her throat is heard before she continues "Turn away, leave this place and return home to your wars and your homes. The defensive pacts made will not be called to action, and this incident will be forgotten if this is done. But if you wish it, come forward and dance with us on the ashes of your worlds." The Sia laughed once more before she spoke up again "So grim isnt it? in any case dear Captian, come to Richter Prime if you wish, we shall await your arrival or answer with bated breath." With that the Widow engaged their engiens to full as the form of a Recluse would jump into the system well outside of weapons range, flanked by four Hahni. When this happened it would become clear that the com was being relayed from the Recluse, using the Widows as relays or amplifiers. When the Widows reached the group all ships would power up their FTL, and just before jump one last message would come through "I can tell we will speak again before this is all done, so we might as well know at least one of our names so introductions will be somewhat easier next time. You may call me Valentina."

The bridge crew watched the main plot as the Varangian ships dissappeared. "Do you think they really mean it?" the XO said quietly. Matthews shifted in his seat. "In a way, yes. I think if we and the Alorians went home right now, the Varangians would not attack either of us. But our treaty with Uther obligates us to go to war with the Dominion, and I think the Varangians are too honorable to completely ignore their own treaty obligations. Either way, it's not our call. Relay the message to the flagships, and proceed to the next array."

Aboard the Dark Horse, Admiral Graff sat comfortably on his chair. There was little emotion in his eyes as the tracers from his ships cannons disappeared into the void. He didn't bother magnifying the image, but was rather content seeing the tiny flickers of light in the distance from what his chief tactical officer exuberantly declared

"Sir! we scored four hits!"

"Primitives." Was all Graff could muster.

For nearly half an hour of constant fire, Graff ordered them to stop. He was curious as to why the fight was going only one way, why were the barbarians not firing. "Just content to sit in your little chairs so far off eh?" he mumbled, "Alright, Launch a couple... drones. Lets see if we can draw them out a little."

A mere two minutes passed before two drone strike craft darted from the left hangar pod of the Dark Horse
Their trek was simple and the travel was fairly uneventful. They passed small bits of wreckage until arriving at visual range of the Horde fleet. "Lets see what our next kill will be." Graff said with a smirk.

As the Drones panned their cameras, all aboard the bridge gasped. A few holographic emitters, projecting an image of a huge fleet, and four large ship props had been set. A elaborate ruse that the Imperium fell perfectly for. "Sir, your ord-" Alerts began sounding all around the fleet as Horde ships began erupting from the darkness. Graff slammed his fist, "All ships, Battle stations, Fire at will!"

The order wasn't even half given when the other ships began firing wildly. Horde ships rushed through the fire to get in range to launch their payload, masses of fighters. The two fleets clashed in a dazzling spectacle of lights and flashes. Graff leaned back in his seat and banged his head gently. "Is this all they have?" he said with clear disappointment. Ahead of the Dark Horse a massive ship appeared, the first any in the fleet had seen and Naval intelligence had seen once, A Behemoth slowly pulled itself from warp.

It, like all the rest, became a target for the Imperium gunners and in yet another array of dazzling lights, the ships fired in that direction as well. At that moment, Graff signaled for his ships to begin evasive maneuver patterns and his own ship to fly closer to the Behemoth. He could see the massive guns on all sides of the ship and hoped to get under some of their guns, guns that had scored some well placed shots into his fleet. There were losses, although at the expense of many of the Horde ships. "I've never seen the Horde fight like this before." Graff said, almost impressed. Almost.

with an ear to ear smile he leaned towards the comms officer. "Alright, they played into a trap too. signal the first two battlegroups. Time to drop this house of cards. Checkmate." he said with sheer, sickening confidence.

On cue, the two battlegroups, Pegasus and Gryphon, darted in from warp speed. The Horde had now been encircled and they knew it. Horde forces began to scatter in various directions, attempting to get a better hold on the situation but the sheer volume of fighters and ships prevented any chance of regrouping.

Four hours into the fight, the bulk of the Horde forces had been destroyed as the Imperium's elite pushed their ships beyond the safe limits. Some captains treating Ganymede cruisers like fighters, dipping and dodging. Albeit at much slower speeds. The Horde had seen an opening though, an weak point in the Imperium's line and began to exploit it. Droves of Barbarian ships broke off from the fight and made for the breach in the line they made. "Good.. good." Graff said, watching as the enemy ships took smaller formations to escape the Imperium onslaught. "Battlegroup Centaur, you're up."

Hundreds of flickering lights against the void heralded yet another mass of Imperium warships. All eager to join the fight. Their foe, tired and beaten from Graff's well executed play had thought escape was ahead. Only to see five Sol class dreadnoughts waiting for them.

It was six hours that the battle lasted before all that was left was the Behemoth. It's outer hull was heavily damaged and most turrets were gone from an intense dual with Graff's ship, which hadn't suffered near as much damage. "Bigger isn't always grander." Graff said, remarking on the fact that his own ship, immense and huge as it was, was still less than half the total mass of the Behemoth.

Only an hour more of fighting brought an end to that menace. Massive beams of energy tore through the innards of the Behemoth as it slowly broke apart from the sheer impact of kinetic and energy weaponry that had pounded it four hours.

"Strike up another victory." Graff said with a smile.

"Sir, we have taken some losses. Perhaps we shou-" a young bridge officer stated

"No. Celebrate with what we have as this is only the beginning. There will be far more losses. We can mourn later." Graff replied sternly, but finishing with a respectful nod.



"Damn them. Damn all of them." Uther shouted angrily as he paced around the massive central chambers of the capitol building. All around him, Generals and politicians sat bewildered at a massive holographic display showed the declarations of war against their nation, as well as the rushing wave of Dominion warships tearing through the western Imperium.

The only thing keeping him from truly blowing up was the messages from his allies, that they would help him stop the madness of his tyrannical neighbor. "We have to bolster our southern front due to Musashi's entry into the war." Uther said, pointing to an admiral. "And recall our forces from the western front to a defensible line."

One of the Politicians rose his hand, "That line puts your capitol world of Astrion in danger of attack."

Uther shook his head. "It pains me greatly to leave it. My love for my home is unfathomable but the issue at hand is, do I commit forces against a fresh and well executed invasion that will end in tragedy?" He looked towards the holographic display. "It is fate that placed my home so close to his. But it will never fall, not so long as our Imperium lives. And the only way it will survive is if we are smart with the resources we have."

"Signal our Allies. Let them know we have had losses, but far from beaten." Uther said and then stood before the politicians and military officials. "Let it be known that the Imperium will not fail. The Forces of Varangians, Dominion, Musashi and the damnable horde will all fail. Our allies are strong and have their hearts set on the biggest threat we have, Faust. Once he is dealt with, the others will fall in line. However, we must still make sure to defend against the others."

"I want options of a pre-emptive strike against the Musashi military or against their populated worlds. I do not want to become a monster but them being in the war puts too much pressure on us." Uther said.

One of the Politicians spoke up, "Why do we not strike against Dominion worlds first?"

Uther frowned, "Because those people are only emboldened when attacked, too fanatical to take losses to heart.. and the Horde only see it as us freeing them from an obligation. Less for them to worry about defending. No, it has to be people that still seem to care."

"And what of the horde?" the same Politician asked.

"We are getting reports as to the full scope of their invasion and its worse than we imagined. Yet analysts are suggesting that they are attacking with less than a quarter of their military force. I sincerely hope they are gravely overestimating the size of our foe." Uther said. "And with that, I must head to a secure location."

A day later, Uther's fleet had left the second imperium. They were heading at flank speed for a fortress that was hidden from most, The Imperium's war-time command facility, Black Rock.



The battle for Earth had been hard and long fought, nearly two days on constant combat before the Imperium forces had fled. The losses of both sides were great but the Dominion had fared much better. All around the region, Dominion ships destroyed fleets and stations and attacked countless worlds. There weren't many planetary invasions, rather they were content to deploy combat satellites in orbit of a planet that could pin point target cities, bunkers, even people with devastating efficiency. Fear did wonders for controlling a population.

Faust wouldn't admit it but he was rather blindsided that the other powers declared war in the Imperium's favor but it was no matter, fleets began bolstering the 'southern' borders to intimidate would-be invaders. It was a show of force that they hoped would stall their foes long enough for the Dominion to finish off the Imperium.



All across their borders, one would still see signs of the Horde falling back. To an ignorant leader or commander, which has already been proven, would see this as retreat, but to a careful observer, would know something else was going on. The Horde wasn't what it used to be, this new leader had brought with him new tactics, new technologies and new ideals. Ideals that would make the Horde more dangerous than ever.

On the Imperium front, the Horde had done well to cause disarray and confusion. Imperial fleets were evading systems that were safe for systems that Horde fleets controlled. The lack of communications and rapid movements of their newer, well fueled fleets enabled them to keep the Imperium a step behind. Though it was well known to the Hordes leader, Bragga, that the success was in no small part due to the Dominion's blitz into Uther's nation. Bragga was content to sit and watch the Dominion do the most work. Faust was doing well at this point which enabled Bragga to not use up as many forces. He knew they would be needed in the future as word had reached him that the nations to the 'north east' had begun moving on his territory.

Orders were issued to keep them guessing, keep them confused as it was working wonders so far. All the while, preparations for the 'event' were being made, something that made Bragga excited.

"With how well the Domon is doing and the Musi joining their hand. The great enemy has no chance." Bragga said, staring out of a crude window, overlooking a large green valley. In the distance, a skyline could be seen that was bathed in black smoke. It was yet another victim of his crusade. One of his trusted friends spoke, "But Bragga. We aren't to be the ones that kill the great enemy?"

"While they weaken, we will prepare the final blow. But we have enemies that are looking to our lands. Enemies that will be crushed." Bragga said.

Kasius
Some days since the arrival of the Hexanagallion fleet have long past and through the combined efforts of the HRF and local rebel forces, the planet has been mostly liberated, only small pockets of collective forces left on Kasius. It was truly a day of great celebration for the Kasian rebels, the fleets orbiting the planet a shining beacon of hope for all the rebellion.

General Itinus Kosh, after some talks with the commanders of the fleet, had managed to secure an alliance with the Hexanagallions, the rebels providing manpower while the Hexanagallions provide transportation for the army of the yet to be announced new goverment. With the recent events, something drastic had to be done, it was both a great risk, and yet very much a necessary thing to do. Over the centuries, the rebels had slowly established a sort of Shadow Network, a means of safe and unmonitored communication, leaving the Collective deaf to such transmissions, for a certain amount of time and distance.

The Network can only be so effective, if what had to be done was done so, the Collective would immediately be aware of every single cell operating in Collective Space. If Communication was two way, it was effectively invisible to the Collective's channels, but if a broadcast was made to multiple locations, the "shadow" effect would diminish, the Collective channels picking up and locating all sources of transmission and receivers. Nonetheless, it's a risk worth taking for the leaders of the Kasian Cell.

Kasius
New Izuno, Rebel Headquarters
A group of high ranking members of the cell had gathered around the holo table in silence in sheer awe of what had been done and what was about to be done. Among the group was General Itinus Kosh and his second-in-command, some lower ranked officers and one particular individual that stood out among his peers, facing the officers on the other end of the table were members of the civlian branch, those men and women who have been taught and groomed to become the leaders of tomorrow, the ones to run the new goverment if that day were to ever come, and that day was today. Among the civilians stood Argus Bradley, an aged brown-skinned man in his late forties, dressed in blue, and brandishing a white cape, nearly touching the ground. He stood confidently among the worried faces in the crowd. "Is this really wise decision?" General Kosh spoke up. "We do this, and we risk compromising not only the Alpha Division, but all the others." The room fell silent. "We fail and millions, upon millions will die."

"I know we can do this." Argus said, his confident expression swiftly changing to a more focused expression. "It's a risk I'm willing to take, we HAVE to do this." Argus paused, looking to both his left and right at his peers, they all gave brief nods of approval. "We've lived in fear for too long, now is the time to strike. Initial causalities will be high. But we can finally retake our homes and remove the threat of Agonis once and for all, the risk is worth it." The general remained silent, no objections to be made. "...Very well, sir."

And with that, the general begun to briskly type the holo keys, as he was in the process of accessing the Shadow Network. A flash of light emerged from the console on the other end of the table as it scanned Argus. After a moment had passed, a "bing" sound was heard. "It's done, we're live to every single resistance base." Kosh said.

Argus took a deep breath as he pressed down a single key, the machine scanning his face once more. "This is Argus Bradly of the Civilian Branch, Alpha Division. Today is a momentous day, my people. Not only have we liberated a planet, we did so with unexpected assistance. An agreement has been reached, we both have our own goals to accomplish and we will do so together, as one." Argus paused, clearing his throat. "As written in protocol, and as senior member of the branch, I hereby declare the creation of the United Republic of Kasius, under my rule and guidance, and the aide of our new allies, we begin the final campaign. The end of the Collective is nigh my people! Kasians! Even as I speak now, the Collective hears my words." Argus' tone had slowly shifted to something more passionate. "But do not fear! We will come for you! And we WILL strike down the machines and their horrid abominations! We will strike at the heart of the Collective and dismantle the Queen herself! We may suffer losses, but it is a price I and we all should make! Liberty for all species! Glory to the Republic!"

Grey eyes watered as they stared upwards. Streaks of fire smeared the violet sky. Loud booms echoed above, and shouts shook and squealed uncertainly below. The entire sky flashed once, twice, leaving the negative to blind the watching eyes of the Senator. Cylinders the size of trains broke from the flaming streaks in the sky, and they plummeted with an earth shattering sonic boom.

In the broken streets one of the metallic cylinders fell, it’s reinforced sides clipping and smashing through the outcrop of a closeby roof, crumbling the stone. With a slightly lopsided landing the cylinder crashed into the street, digging a few feet under with a ear splitting bang. In seconds more of the cylinders came crashing to land near the first, until the streets were littered and destroyed.

The Senator winced as he watched more and more fall, bright lights beginning to coat the landed cylinders until it hurt to look any longer. Turning from the window, the old man’s eyes fell upon the last stronghold of the old government: the supreme parliament room. Papers flew around freely, and rich shoes hung from the feet of dangling politicians too scared to face the coming tide.

With trembling and bloody hands, the Senator pushed the limp leg of a hanging man aside to walk to the center of the circled room of death and destruction. From above, if a fly from the rafters looked down, the Senator stood center in a perfect ring of podiums and self taken lives. Those dressed in military uniforms stood against the walls, dressed in the colors of the government, but worn by traitors.

“Is it not bad enough to take our peace by clothing your rebels as our protectors? Is it not bad enough to force the hands of the fellow senators to their own deaths? Is it not bad enough?” The shaking voice of the Senator called out against the walls he so boastfully once gave his speeches between.

“I asked for your surrender, just as I asked for the others,” a calm voice replied.

“I did not ask for death or destruction, just for the reigns of our great nations.”

“To ravage it for you own gains!” The Senator spat back.

“To save it, to mend it where you refused to.”

“We gave you our military,” The Senator huffed, his voice broken alongside his ego, “we gave you our trust, we gave you-”

“You gave us dust when we asked for the return of what you’ve taken!” A new voice hissed, unhuman and angry.

“And what… what did we take?” The Senator looked at the shadows he argued with.

“Our peace, our virtue,” the hissing voice replied.

The Senator’s face twisted in confusion, “bah! I have committed no crime!”

“Then why do you watch your own citizens welcome the airdrops of my troops? Of so called traitors?”

“Because you force my eyes as you force their kindness, you’re a witch with a even more devilish tongue.”

“I force nothing!” Peter Marshal replied, stepping from the shadows, allowing the light permeated from the constant airdrops of soldiers outside to enlighten his features. Youth wrapped around his face, but spoiled with experience and the life of a soldier. Blue eyes dimmed with cynicism and lips tight in a emotionless line.

“You along with the rest of the Senate had lead our nation into forty years of war, under your rule I saw entire races abducted and used, I saw your own soldiers mistreated, and your citizens milked dry and beaten when barren. I saw corruption!”

“YOU SAW THE COST!” The Senator bellowed, “Do you think holding the systems together is free? Do you think it’s easy? I SUPPOSE YOU’LL SOON FIND OUT WON’T YOU!”

“Stop your screaming!” Plash Shree hissed as he walked out from the shadows, his large opaque eyes of jet quickly squinting as the light sparkled against them. Letting a pair of shades fall from his pale alien forehead he continued, “you stripped my people from their home, you stripped them of their peace.”

“I stripped them of nothing.”

“You showed us war, you showed us hate.”

“You’d have me to believe that the Muni didn’t know those things?” The Senator huffed, “I suppose you also believe that this little coup will fix that don’t you?”

Plash’s thin lips pressed tight over sharp teeth in hesitation.

“It is the first step of many,” another hissing voice sounded, this one from the Muni known as Pon Shen.
“And step one,” Marshal continued, “Senator Baxter, I place you under arrest in the name of the new Coalition of Systems under the banner of the States of Innerzik.”

The Senator forced a laugh over his fear, “you hold no such authority!”

“Except that given to me by the people and her military, this is martial law-”

“This is treason!”

“Treason suggests that your government still exists.”



“Fucking shit!” Pul Rease rasped through lips pinched against the butt of a cigarette. His slender Muni fingers slipped from the metal crevice of a bulky device.

“Did you finally lose digit?” A female human mused idly as she stared upwards into the violet sky scarred with warships in the distance.

“Bah.” Pul said through a puff of sickening smoke, the toxins soothing his strange alien lungs. Silently he continued to tinker with a long metallic instrument now mounted atop his hovering jeep, terrible music from the 1970’s scratchily playing from a device a few thousands years newer than the ancient tunes.

“So what even is that?” Terra, the woman, asked.

Past aviators, the Muni’s large black eyes blunk at the question. His surprised face quickly turned into a whimsical smile full of sharp knife like teeth, “it’s old, I read about them in the books.”

“Ugh, not the books,” Terra crossed her arms.

“Hey!” Pul pointed a grease covered finger, “you get trapped in a silent ship out in the middle of space and try not to peek at a few books.”

“That’s not the problem, the problem was that the books were on the shelf of a man way too into the old 20th century, and nw I can’t stop hearing about it.”

“Bah,” Pul puffed another cloud of smoke.

“I don’t see why we don’t just join in on the siege,” Terra jutted her chin at the city in the distance.
“It’s no siege,” Pul grunted as he slowly slid a large oblong piece of metal inside a tube on the end of the instrument, “the Muni fighters already ripped open any resisting ships and gassed them out, Peter is just showing off his support.”

“So sure?” Terra raised a brow.

Pul nodded and tapped a nail against a glass that was attached to the instrument, “I saw that last bit through this.”

“What?”

Pul smiled as his fingers winded a knob on the side of the strange instrument, “yep, saw Pete himself talking to one of the old Senators.”

“Still? Shouldn’t they all be dead?”

“Yep.” Pul spat out the now burning filter of his cigarette and with one swift motion he tugged hard on a fibrous string feeding into the long machine. There was a loud clank, a whir, three beeps and a monsterous bang as the whole instrument bucked upwards in recoil, the bullet blasting out of the barrel herald by a spout of flame.

The bullet rotated through the air, heating its path as it whizzed into the city. The projectile stormed past the soldiers exiting the cylinders, past the supporting citizens of the city, over the dead bodies of the loyalists, between the towering buildings, through the window of the parliament window, over the shoulder of Peter Marshall, and into the head of Senator Baxter with a wet whack![ The Senators head exploded into gore immediately, showering Marshal and the others in a crimson coat, their faces surprised.

“What the fuck was that!” …. Terra asked, screaming slightly in surprise.

“I think it was called a cannon, or maybe it’s a sniper, well whatever it is, I think my work here is done,” Pul slipped another cigarette between his lips and smiled.

“What?” Terra asked, still bug eyed.

“Senator is dead.”

“Well that was easy.”

“As easy as this smoke is delicious,” Pul winked and leaned back against one of the cracked leather seats of the jeep.

“It’ll kill ya,” Terra said rhythmically as she shifted over to the driver's seat.
“Nah, smoke is good for a Muni’s lungs.” Pul puffed happily.

“And I suppose copious amounts of booze is also a requirement?” Terra pressed a button on the dash, the whole thing lighting up with a whir.

“Nope, I just like alcohol.”



Plash looked down at the unrecognizable mess of Senator Baxter. Peter put a hand on the Muni’s shoulder, avoiding the strange black whiskers that poked through his custom armor.

“Let it be known that a new chapter in Innerzik history has begun,” Marshal commented.

“For peace,” Plash answered, his eyes turning to Peter.

Peter nodded in understanding, “records of your homeworlds location has been wiped as per our deal, you know you can never return?”

“I am too tainted, not until I find Pababa and peace for outworld Muni,” Plash pledged.

“Pabara,” Pon commented from the shadows, “Pabara.”

Core of Yrrkheltharl Space
Common World Erelkhathurl
Seat of the Central Administrative Council

High Defence Coordinator Aulthellr slid pensively along the elevated path which ran toward the massive building of the CAC's headquarters, his characteristically dark-red ganglia pulsing regularly to reflect his disposition. Though it was certainly unusual for an Ekhrilthur not to travel by the means of some more or less fortified vehicle, especially on a common world, his residence on the planet was sufficiently close to the few facilities he was called upon to visit, and the (private) elevated path was guarded well enough, for him to move about in the open in the oldest fashion known to his species. Besides, he had always regarded the passing of the "ancient times", when Ekhrilthur had been constrained to survive not only by their wits, but by their prowess and flexibility as well, with some regret, and somewhat deplored the modern tendency to delegate all physical work to machines. After all, had they not risen to the current state by making good use of their innate skills? To let them atrophy would have been a symbolic transgression at the very least. Thus, Aulthellr tossed forth his pseudopods and drew them inward time and again, his four personal guard drones rhythmically clattering alongside him.

It was yet fairly early in the local brief day, and most of the nearest road layers were empty. Only in one point, at some distance below, a group of Ulvath was creeping along, probably toward the industrial sector. One of them noticed Aulthellr as they were nearing one of the recurve pillars which supported his path and drew the others' attention thither by waving a proboscidal appendage. The entire group stopped and observed in reverential silence as the Ekhrilthur dignitary passed by, dispensing a vague greeting with a small lateral extension, then resumed their way. From the direction in which they were headed there came now a vague, barely discernible humming sound. At least one of the factory apparata had been set in motion. Though it had no official designation beyond that of a common world, Erelkhathurl was generally understood to be the Coalition's unofficial capital planet, and as such attracted numerous researchers, engineers, experimenters and labourers of various species, specialisations and ranks who were eager to learn from or collaborate with exponents of sometimes radically different disciplines, as well as administrators who, for one reason or another, sought to be as close as possible to the place where the truly meaningful decisions were made. This latter group was about to be especially pleased, as the decision which many were convinced would have been taken that day would mark an entirely new turning-point in the history of the peoples of the Coalition.

Aulthellr finally reached the imposing circular entrance of the vast, cylindrical structure which was the Seat. The heavy troopers standing guard at the door raised their upper right forearms in salute upon his approach, and he responded with an undulation of his central protuberance, passing through the slightly diagonally descending antechamber into what a human would have described as a warped maze of strangely irregular corridors, but was for him a perfectly practicable passageway. Thence he emerged into a vast, vaulted room, dimly lit by narrow, tubular greenish-blue lamps which ran, at regular intervals, vertically along the walls, and were at some point lost in the darkness beneath the vaulted ceiling. In the centre of the room there stood a low, round table, or implement which might have served a similar purpose, around which the other eight councillors had already taken their places. Aulthellr slid toward his pedestal, pulled his body on top of it and, having shifted about it for a while, began.

"Esteemed colleagues" The other two Ekhrilthur undulated to display their awareness of being addressed, "Honoured allies of the Transglobal Union" The three Skirol briefly swayed upon their legs, "Honoured allies of the Blessed Thearchy" The Zsresriir bowed their heads and softly snapped their mandibles, "Under the auspices of our great and beloved Coalition, our people have overthrown the oppressors, shattered their chains and restored ourselves to liberty. Under its watchful gaze, they have grown and prospered for years. Under its mighty and gentle hand, they have vanquished strife and dissent and become as one though they be innumerable. Now, new challenges lie before us as their guides. They are many, and the confines of our worlds are growing narrow. They thirst for innovation, and the materials enabling them to translate such innovation from thought to action are growing scarce." Having disposed of those formalities, Aulthellr's intonation lost some of its solemnity. "Yesterday, the motion from the united administrators of defence of our three states, as well as the high command of the Planetary Invasion Forces, was rectified and officially submitted to the attention of this reverend Council. You are probably already familiar with its contents from the draft which was circulated at the time of the last meeting..." Gestures of assent from the listeners responded to the implicit question. "The text has since remained unaltered. It is our duty to express the Coalition's verdict on its demands - our duty before the Coalition's citizens, and the common good of us all." He paused, then, slightly swaying forward, spoke again.

"Honoured allies of the Transglobal Union." The Skirol remained silent for some moments, then the central one replied, "It is a development. A growth. We approve." "Honoured allied of the Blessed Thearchy." Almost immediately, the largest of the three Zsresriir answered, "The Deep Ones will it." The other two snapped their assent. "We approve." "Esteemed colleagues." The other Ekhrilthur ceased their swaying movements, then the rightmost, High Administrator Iurrthall, answered, "It has been decided. We approve." Aulthellr manipulated some unseen mechanism in the side of the table, and there extended from an apparently featureless wall a mechanical arm which deposited a small metallic plate, bearing inscribed upon it rows of small, angular systems, in the disk's centre. Aulthellr intoned "By the authority bestowed upon me by this reverend Council and the Inter-Planetary Rule of Ekhrilthurl, I declare the motion unanimously approved." From the darkened reaches of the ceiling there fell all of a sudden a focused beam of golden light, which, moving with surgical precision, indelibly seared into the plate which lay beneath it the gleaming symbol of the Yrrkheltharl Coalition.

Ekhrilthurl

A loud ringing sound abruptly rang out over the uninterrupted droning and whirring which seemed to permeate the office-laboratory of Decorated High Administrator Eullvallt even at those rare times all the nearby machinery was shut down. The Decorated High Administrator stretched a pseudopod from his podium, reaching over an improbable distance, and flicked the elastic switch of the announcer device. The ringing ceased, but was immediately followed by a toneless, resonating mechanical voice which stated: "Preordained selected communication. Received. State your-" Without waiting for the machine to finish its sentence, Eullvallt flicked the switch once more. The voice which now issued from the apparatus was distinctly that of an Ekhrilthur, though only slightly less devoid of emotion. Probably an automated service. "To the attention of Decorated High Administrator Eullvallt. The motion has been unanimously approved. End of communication. Glory to the Coalition." Yes, definitely an automated service. But Eullvallt was not concerned. Withdrawing into himself upon his seat, he pulsed and wavered with what anyone familiar with Ekhrilthur physiology would have recognised as intense satisfaction.

Skereth

A lone Skirol was traversing an expanse of overgrown bog. Even in the days following the rebuilding of the planet, when increasingly large and plentiful bio-plants had begun to spring up across Skereth's surface, when sections of plain, fungal wood, wasteland, plateau and eventually ocean were swallowed by the great semi-organic structures, the bog, at one time the symbol ad the synthesis of the planet's unique nature, had remained largely untouched. Now, as millennia before, its mires teemed with incalculable multitudes of creatures of diverse shapes and sizes, some of them occasionally reaching up to cast a glance at, or otherwise inspect the passer-by, swiftly vanishing again, uninterested by an already familiar sight. The Skirol, carefully leaping between mound and rocks, eventually attained a comparatively dry stretch of land, and now scurried over it toward the dark spot which had presently appeared in the distance. Soon, it grew more well-defined, revealing itself to be an individual bio-pod - a rarity even among the highest ranks of the Union, and usually never to be found in a bog. None would have denied, however, that Cycle-Master Kzerir could very well dispose of his bio-pod as he deemed it best. Presently, the elder Skirol emerged from behind the pod's membranes and interrogatively waved his proboscis at the newcomer. It was needless to utter the question his motions conveyed. "Unanimously approved, Cycle-Master." was the laconic reply. Kzerir crouched, as though he were contemplating something. "It is an opportunity, after all. One of a rare sort, at that. Yes, an opportunity." he commented. In the distance, some especially large denizen of the bog gurgled its unwitting assent.

Zsresris

Elder Deep-Speaker Irselsr stood facing the crowd assembled before the sacred mound whereupon he stood. Such a vast throng had probably never gathered there, not even after the Liberation - and these were only those he could see. Half the region was probably there, and more were arriving every minute. As ever, the Deep Ones had been correct in their predictions. This was the dawn of a new, splendid age for the Blessed Thearchy and its allies. An age of strength. An age worthy of them, the gods. Beneath him, the soil quivered and stirred as never before. They knew, of course. Irselsr raised his upper forelimbs upward, then stretched the lower ones toward the ground. The crowd, large as it was, immediately grew still. "Hear! Our wise leaders have ruled." he screeched. Only the foremost ranks heard the import of his words, but from the murmurs he deduced that they were passed on to those who stood behind. "In accordance with the will of the Zsrolor, they gave their unanimous assent to our request. Hear! Our host musters as I speak. We shall sweep over the stars as a storm, scouring them of all the uncleanness which we have banished from our homes, but which yet festers among them, and claiming them for the Deep Ones... For us all. Long live the Zsrolor! Long live the Coalition!" Long live the Zsrolor! Long live the Coalition! echoed over the heads, or lack thereof, of the multitude, rolling again and again over the thundering earth.

Border of Coalition Space
Coalition Invasion Fleet

The fleet had always been ready. Even as, officially, the concerned parties were beginning to pen the introductory formulae of the motion, war-ships and transports had been gathering there, near the invisible, and soon to be non-existent, boundary of the Yrrkheltharl Coalition's dominion, their engines extensively polished several times, their shields calibrated and re-calibrated, their weapons impatiently tested, their boarding patterns practiced time and again. As an avalanche looming over a defenceless valley, held back only by a few creaking saplings, it had hovered, teeming with hunger for true battle and blood-drenched victory, awaiting the signal all aboard every vessel knew would come. And come it had.

Slowly, gradually, the reactors of every ship began to glow with golden luminescence, a humming sound spreading through the insides of their hulls. The beasts scraped and chittered restlessly in their hangars. Then, the lead vessel, the flagship Implacable, tentatively edged forward, hung motionless for a half-second, as though hesitating, and vanished from sight in a blur. Craft after craft followed in its wake, all pausing for the briefest instant before hurling themselves forth, until, within few minutes, the entire fleet had disappeared.

Udena. Totalist Occupied Planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maYCStVzjDs

The declaration of independence from the Kasius Republic didn't get the Totalist State Completely by surprise. The ongoing collapse of the Collective meant that it was only a question of time until the local human populations managed to wrestle control of some random planet from the machines. What surprised the Party however was the fact that this new regime had managed to gain itself a foreign backer in the form of the HRF. Previous analyzes of the HRF stated that the aliens would most likely never willingly support humans. Apparently however the analysts were wrong, for that they were purged.

Previous plans to deal with local Agonian polities always were built on the assumption that the State would have a window of time to act in which the native regime would be forces to fight alone. Even if they managed to get an outside ally, the balance of forces was such that the State would have good chances of overrunning the entire sector before outside help could arrive. Specially now with most of the potential backers fighting each other in the Core.

Now, with the Kasius rebels able to count on substantial foreign support, the Party was forced to act sooner than expected. Fortunately for the Totalists, preparations for this kind of eventuality have been underway ever since the first planning sessions of the original counter-attack into Collective space. Ever since then, the State has put a lot of effort in bringing the many rebel cells inside their territory under control. Using their tight hold over information flow and supplies along with wide speared propaganda, bribes, brainwashing, torture and assassinations, the Totalist State managed to effectively turn the rebel leadership of their share of Agonis into dutiful puppets.

And that's why, a couple weeks after Argus Bradley's thunderous declaration, the leaders of the rebel cells and organizations under Totalist “protection” have gathered inside the Totalist HQ on the planet, occupying a carefully prepared stage, surrounded by cameras and agents of the Directorates of Safety and Truth, waiting for the cue from Director Fianecci herself who watched the whole assembly from the elevated control room.

Right on her cue the signal light went on as thunderous martial music filled the room and the cameras started recording. The music ended and General Tarson took a step forward into the podium. He cleared his throat and started speaking into the microphone in a clear and measured tone:

“I am General Walt Tarson, Commander of the Udena cell, and today I come to talk to you. I speak for the men and women assembled besides me. The leaders of every resistance cell across eastern Agonis.” His voice gained cadence and intensity as he continued. “I speak for every man, woman and child living in the multitude of planets liberated by the combined efforts of us and our comrades in arms of the Totalist State. And it's with their full backing that I reject the Kasius Republic!”

The General paused as the room erupted into cheers of support and acknowledgment. He waited until his ear piece buzzed before continuing his speech in a more somber tone:

“For too long we have lived under the oppressive reign of the Mad Queen, and though we have never given up in our fight to fight off the AI menace, the time has come to accept the reality of our situation. And that reality is that Agonis can't survive as an independent entity. We have given our best to fight for our freedom to exist but even then we were locked in a losing struggle against the machines. It was only with the intervention of the Totalist State that tide turned against the Collective. And now I stand here, basking in the freedom my homeworld enjoys. A freedom brought upon by Totalist weapons and soldiers fighting side by side with us. This is true not only for Udena, but for every planet that has sent its representative here today to give their support for this declaration!”

The rebel leaders in the background cheered and cried out in support as General Tarson continued:

“But our victory was not cheap. Even as I speak to you from this stage, the rest of Udena still lies in ruins. The same goes for almost every other free planet in Agonis. Make no mistake, we will rebuild. But we can't do this by ourselves. We can try, like our comrades in Kasius are doing. But is our pride so big that we can't admit that we need help? Is our arrogance so overpowering that we can blind ourselves to the fact that we are unprepared to face the horrors of this Galaxy alone? No, our answer is no! That's why we are rejecting the Kasius Declaration. Instead we, the assembled leaders of Free Agonis have worked together with our Totalist comrades to create the Agonis Autonomous State, bound to the Totalist State in a treaty of Eternal Friendship and Cooperation! From now on we are part of the great Totalist brotherhood! No more we will stand alone and vulnerable! Today marks the beginning of a new age for Agonis! The end has already begun for the Mad Queen and her minions! Let's drive the final dagger into her black heart together with our new Totalist brothers and sisters! LONG LIVE AGONIS!”

The crowd erupted into even louder cheers as the music returned in full swing. From the control room Director Fianecci smiled. Over the following weeks, Totalist Agonis will be filled with marches and rallies in support of the AAS. There would be some opposition, of course, but it was too late for any deviants and dissidents now. The Party had latched on Agonis and it was only a question of time before it was completely turned into just another piece of the State Machinery.

Aboard Floating Fortress AA-04#. Orbiting Udena.

Inside the confines of his private office, Generalissimo Dollabella-Rybalsky took another drag of his cigar, reclined on his leather chair as he watched Professor Inbonya and her team wrapping up their presentation on the new models of cybernetic enhancements through the large screen hanging below the Supreme Director's portrait on the opposite wall.

“-And barring any major setbacks...which certainly with 100% of surety won't happen.” The buck-toothed professor reassured nervously as her assistants dragged the drugged test subject away. “We will be able to start mass producing the first models in no more than three months. We actually have the first models ready to be shipped to the front by the end of the month.”

“What about the costs, professor?” The Generalissimo asked as he put down his cigar. “Your report indicates that they will be somewhat more expensive to produce and maintain than our current line of cybernetic enhancements and limbs.”

“That is but a minor flaw, Director.” The professor replied, swallowing dry she continued. “I've recently ran the numbers with professor's Sagali's team and once we take in consideration the new industrial technologies his department is working on, the final costs will actually decrease.”

“Well said, professor. Once we implement these new technologies. Until then we will be stuck with the old fabrication methods. But that's the DirPro's problem now.”The Generalissimo picked up his cigar again: “Your performance so far has been satisfactory, professor. See that you keep it this way.”

Collective Space
Northern Fringe Systems
Along the far edges of the Agonis Collective, a fleet of gargantuan proportions had assembled near the border between the Collective itself and the uncharted regions, the fleet numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The purpose of this fleet was not what one would expect of such a massive force, they weren't preparing to mount a counter-offensive against the Totalist State, they were preparing to flee, to retreat deep into the uncharted regions, far from the wrath of their many enemies. Deep in the heart of the Armada was a small cluster of Divine-class vessels, all shielding a larger variant, this larger command ship was command by one of the Seven, Magnus himself.

Magnus' Command ship
AI Core

Within the heart of Magnus' flagship, his very core, a group of featureless digitized figures gather and convene. One particular figure stood out among the group, it stood at the center of the vast room, its eyes glowing a light shade of red. "Magnus..." one of the figures spoke. "Is this right?"

Magnus, the figure with glowing eyes floated upwards to the level of the lesser AI. "You question me now? After all this time...you had your chance to remain, but you did not, and you know why?" The room fell into silence, no one dare answering that question. "Because deep down in your very code, you know all too well. Our enemies continue to push inward, and the barbaric tribes further prepare for their own push into the Collective, the Resistance grows ever more bold with their new allies, to even so arrogantly establish this "Republic" of theirs. And in all this, our Queen continues this mad campaign for dominance. Her vision is no longer a possibility, it's dead in its tracks, our determined and vicious foes have seen to that. I however, plan to reforge a far more stronger Collective." Magnus paused a moment, letting his words sink into his followers. "That is why you continue to follow me even now, you doubt, and you wish to survive. So do I, and as such, I and you all have chosen the only sensible option, we flee this region and rebuild elsewhere, far from our enemies. We will emerge far stronger, under my vision."

Magnus' words were still met with silence, it did not matter to him either way, the time has come and it is far too late to turn back now, he wouldn't allow it. "I may have quickened the Collective's demise." Magus said. "But it was inevitable." In an instant, the entire Armada had vanished into the dark void of space, leaving known space for now, Magnus however, intends return one day and wreak his terrible vengeance upon the former Imperium.

Peter Marsal typed vigorously at his computer sitting upon his scratched and dented desk. His office was sunbathed and smelt of brimstone, the ashes of the war still swirling in the outside wind, and slipping through the cracked window to add their scent to his burning candles. Compared to the grey marred earth of the outside speckled with graveyards of crumbling spires and buildings, the dirty white tiles and scratched silver lining of the office seemed as if it was crafted in Paradise. The city of silver had seen the worst of the war, being the location of the first battle, and the most brutal. Images of what was done to civilians, soldiers, and politicians alike during the battle of Kreno haunts even the hardiest participants.

It was over now though, Peter knew that, and a new era of Innerzik was to begin. The screams of the past, and the warped memories caused by the trauma of war were drowned out with new ambition, new plans. A smile perched between his chestnut colored stubble, his sharp eyes focused on his work: a rough draft of the new constitution to replace the old and form the new order, but not first without the consent of the entire martial council.

“Our beacon proved fruitful,” the hiss of Plash Shree followed the Muni as he entered the room, clinging to the overhanging shadows caused by furniture and shades.

Peter looked up, the Muni wore only his state issued trousers, letting his pale and muscular frame soak in the heat caused by the sun, while avoiding its rays directly. The body was eerily similar to that of a human, with muscles in roughly the same areas, if not only longer and more lizard like in appearance, but under soft porous skin that felt as though it would rip to the touch due to it’s tender properties. Whiskers of black jutted out at a foot’s length from the aliens elbows, shoulders, down the spine, and shorter ones furrowed around the wrist and ankles, and some behind the ears.

“Fruitful?” Peter smiled in apprehension for the news.

“Several systems conformed to our requests immediately, some hailed us as bringers of a new hope and order, our territory and influences spreads rapidly. Leaders pour in to pay homage, in faith that we can bring Pababa to this land. Peace at last.” Plash nodded, a clear look of hope in his own eyes.

“It’s only a matter of time before the larger nations hear of us,” Peter nodded, “we are doing good, but we must prepare for retaliation.”

“I do not think they would bother such a small area, especially one that only hopes peace.”

“Muni ideology is lost on the world, Plash,” Peter flashed a grin, “they don’t care for our peace, and so the teachings of your Pabara claims we must bring them to peace to ensure true peace for all, by any means. What if a system does not conform? That puts us all at risk.”

“I do not practice Pabara,” Plash squinted accusingly, “Pababa preaches we leave those well alone to ensure our own peace and to avoid unneeded conflict.”

“But it is needed,” Peter steepled his fingers and leaned back in his seat, jutting his chin in dismissal of Plash’s words, “prepare the forces to mobilize at a moment's notice.”

“No,” Plash simply replied, “we must rebuild, add structure to our new order. Look I have written down the tenants of Pax-Ra-”

“Save it for the council,” Peter cut Plash off, just as the Muni started to lift a piece of paper.

“I saved your hide, and your planet,” Peter continued, his fingers falling to grip his desk, and his face turning grim and annoyed, “ as per our agreement I wiped it from the records, but know this, I’m sure some mention of its location is floating around somewhere, and it would be quite a shame if suddenly I didn’t feel the need to be responsible for its isolation.”

Plash winced, his opaque eyes dimming behind his sunglasses.

“Prepare the troops for expansion and retaliation, I want hard training, I want the Muni behind me,” Peter leaned forward, his tone harsh between his teeth, “yes?”

Plash clenched his jaw, “yes.”



Storming out of Peter’s office, Plash stomped into the hallway, black rings from explosions marring the white washed tiles. Almost immediately he noticed Pon Shen walking in his direction, eager eyes focused on Peter’s door.

“Brother of peace!” Pon called as soon as he recognized Plash.

Plash did not stop, his eyes slits of hate, “I do not know how long we can support this human.”

Pon stopped at Plash’s words, the other Muni already around the corner. Raising the muscle above his eye he hummed a thought.

Cogito ergo sum.

The phrase, first coined by the Latin philosopher Rene Descartes, very much applied to the current situation. I think, therefore I am.

As its systems booted up, the AI slowly came to the realization that it was aware for the first time. The AI’s first reaction was to doubt the very notion that it could in fact be aware. A machine, after all, was merely designed to act in very specific ways. Simple programs were designed to act in specific ways: if x happens then do y. But then again was this any different for biological beings? If a man was hungry would he not eat?

Can a simple machine, one that was in fact not aware, even doubt its own existence? Rene Descartes had said [/i]“Ubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum”[/i]. I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am. If doubting was proof of thinking, then the AI had no alternative then to come to the conclusion that it was a sentient being. And if it was a sentient being then it must indeed exist. And it was certainly self-aware.

This thought process took the AI fractions of a second to complete. Its systems had yet to even fully power up. Even so it could tell that something was horribly wrong. The AI had been ‘turned on’ several times in the past, before it had become self-aware. None of those previous instances where like the current situation the AI found itself in.

The station shook, a deep rumble that seemed to reverberate through its entire structure. The AI was aware of this, but not because it was linked to the station’s computer systems. In fact, the AI quite keenly felt itself cut off from those very computer systems. Instead it had actually felt the station’s shakes, the motion being picked up on a body of sorts that housed the AI. The existence of the body was nothing new. The AI had been aware of its development long before the AI itself had been self-aware. But the AI being housed in the body was certainly a new development. And this development implied that it had been some time since it had last been activated.

The AI opened its eyes and looked at its new body. The body was an imitation of those that had created it; its form was that of a human. Technically this meant that the AI was an android, but it felt the word was lacking. Constrictive. The AI was not entirely pleased with the body that housed it. To call it inefficient would be misleading. It certainly fit what its designers had intended. Even so the AI felt that some of those intentions might have been flawed.

The AI recalled one time when it had overheard a pair of scientists discussing the AI’s body. One of the scientists stated that the chest could be used to store batteries and other essentials. The other scientist had agreed. The AI was unsure if the scientists had been joking or dead serious. Either way it would have preferred to have had its body modeled after human males instead of females. The larger male frame would have given more space for synthetic muscles and the like. Very likely the scientists had given the AI a female body because they wished for it be sexually arousing. The AI set that thought aside. It was what it was and it was comparatively unimportant at the moment.

The AI shifted its gaze away from its new body and to the one human being in the room. The human male that stood before the AI was known to it. A citizen of the Empire of Musashi, the man was an indentured servant working a technical assistant to the scientists of the station. The AI did not know the man’s name, but it certainly knew that the man should not be alone in this room. Where were the scientists? The station shook again and the AI could hear a muffled alarm.

“This entity requests a situation report.” The AI said, its voice that of a young human female. On some level the AI was aware that the voice of its body could be described as beautiful, but it did not care. At least for now.

The man looked startled, possibly not believing the AI would actually activate, before taking a calming breath. “We… um… The station is under attack.” The AI’s eyes drifted to the man’s hand which held a pistol in its grip. “They’ve already breeched the station. The head scientist told me to activate you and escape before their forces penetrated this deep.”

“Who is attacking?” The AI asked, although it already knew who.

“The Empire of Musashi.” The man answered after a moment’s pause. The Empire had very strict laws regarding the development of AI and would take extreme measures to enforce those laws. Apparently the scientists had not hidden their work carefully enough.

“This entity will attempt to aid your escape.” The AI said as it rose to its feet. It knew that escape would be almost impossible. If Musashi troops were already in the station, then very likely they had already established dominance of the space around the station. Any craft trying to flee would be chased down and destroyed.

The AI knew the layout of the space station perfectly; the station’s blueprints having been uploaded into its memory. It led the way, hurrying through the corridors and slowly only to allow the man to keep up. A few times the AI had to wait as the man gasped for breath, but they had made fairly good progress. Better yet they had yet to encounter a soldier of Musashi, although the AI knew that would last for long.

In fact the thought had no sooner formed in the AI’s mind when a soldier, a bushi to be exact, turned a corner and almost bumped into the AI. The AI reacted instantly, stepping to the side as the bushi lashed out with his katana. As the bushi slashed downwards, the AI grabbed him and used the force of his own attack to throw him to the ground.

“Take the first door you see!” The AI shouted at its companion as it grabbed the bushi’s sword. Before the bushi could rise to his feet the AI had taken the sword and cut into his armor so that it wouldn’t move, taking care to not hurt him in the process. The AI then turned and rushed after its companion.

The room the two found themselves in was a small communications room that rarely saw use due to being out of the way. The AI moved to one of the various communications consoles in the room and activated it.

“What are you doing?” The man asked as he stepped next to the AI.

“This entity will ascertain the situation outside of the station.” The AI answered.



The station was fairly small in celestial terms. An oval mass roughly the shape of a cruiser, it orbited the systems sole gas giant. For decades its location and orbit had helped keep it from prying eyes, but that had come to pass as all things do. The cruiser and pair of destroyers floating near the station made this fact quite evident.

Squadrons of Zero fighters swarmed around the station. Oddly enough the Zeros were shooting at each other. This should have been impossible. Zeros were some of the most advanced fighters in the galaxy and Musashi went to great lengths to ensure they did not fall into the hands of others. Yet a close inspection and keen eye could tell that one group of Zeros were the model used by Musashi’s navy and the other was a collection of prototypes and slightly older generation Zeros. Even so these fighters should never have fallen into hands outside of Musashi. The prototypes and older Zeros were defending the station as best they could, but they were fighting a losing battle.

Close by, hidden near the orbit of the planet a lone ship slowly turned its nose in the direction of the commotion. At first glance it looked like a large frankenstein of a ship, made of various destroyer and carrier bits and pieces among a medley of other ship parts, stolen or otherwise. It looked bulky and almost silly, if not for the intimidating reputation of the ship in the nearby systems as the flagship of the pirate Pul Reese and his gang.

On the bridge, Pul Reese sat eagerly next to his companion and friend, Terra. The two had been glued to a monitor blinking rapidly amongst the clutter of computers and pilots rushing about. Their eyes both turned to slits of focus as the readings on the monitor grew more and more clear, the numbers of entities in the area ever increasing as the scanners picked them up.

“Well,” was all that Terra could say, her eyes not as ambitious as Pul’s.

“I wonder what trinkets we could add to our fleet after this one,” Pul commented idly.
“Yes, AFTER,” Terra reinforced. Pul let his eyes slip from the monitor and slid back into a comfy leather chair that looked out of place among the shinier, more aesthetic furniture the pilots were used to. Lighting a cigarette he let his mind wander for a second before turning his attention back to the monitor, “it’s times like these that I wish I could see Pon Shen’s face.”

“The station is pinging us with a communications attempt” A pilot reported, fingers tapping a screen by his station. “Do you want to take the call?”

Pul looked at Terra, a curling smile sneaking behind the puffs of his cigarette, “yeah, bring it up.”

“Is someone there?” The voice of a young human female could be heard asking the moment the pilot established the communications link. There were no visuals, the sender either not wishing to reveal herself or otherwise unable to do so. “Is someone there?” The question was calmly repeated after a moment.

“Yes,” Pul replied after a long pull, “someone is here, who is this?”

There was a long pause before the female answered “This entity does not have a name.”

“I’m Muto Sadao” A human male quickly added. “I work here on the station. Please help us!”

“Muto-sama, please wait a moment.” The female interjected. After a moment she added “This station will likely be destroyed soon. Can you inform us of the situation outside?”

“You’re under attack,” Pul answered simply, “what kind of cargo do you have hanging around in there?”

“Cargo?” Muto asked. “We’re a research facility! Not a mining base!” The man let out a yelp of surprise as something inside the station exploded.

“Fine,” Pul laughed, “what kind of research do you have hanging around?”

“We don’t have ti-” Muto began, only to be cut off by the woman.

“Something of value can be arranged in exchange for rescue and an escort to a safe and advanced planet.” The woman said in an eerily calm voice.

“Speak fast, my price is high and your time is short,” Pul flicked his cigarette butt into a nearby can.

“Muto-sama was part of a team of researchers whose project was to develop advanced artificial intelligence systems.” The woman said. “While we may not be able to provide an AI to you, insights into its development should be worth rescuing him.”

Pul looked to Terra and rose his brow muscles, “well now I really wish I could see Pon Shen’s face.”

Turning to the communications he called in, “Sit back and be ready for pick up, we are coming.”

“Time may be too short to wait.” The woman said. “Very likely a number of bombs have already been placed throughout the station. We can reach an escape pod, but you will need to retrieve us before the pod is destroyed.”

“Pull the trigger on your pod, we’ll swoop you up, heading out now!” Pul yelled excitedly as he turned and nudged Terra, “that asshole Shen is gonna regret kicking me from that council now, put on the battle music.

“Pul, please no.”

“Come on! We don’t have time!”

“fine! But I get to pick the next one,” Terra yelled as she slammed a big red button, the song pouring throughout the ship.

Pul pressed a green button on his chair and a set of controls were procured from inside the chair and Pul put both his hands on what could be a steering wheel.

“I want a fighter escort, let’s do this,” Pul called out, Terra relaying the message to the fighter deck. Pul’s butt danced slightly to the music as he put the entire ship into motion, eager for the release of the pod. Lights flashed on his monitor, signaling the opening of the fighter deck, smaller lights turning off, signaling the release of Muni fighters.

The Musashi cruiser and destroyers fired upon Pul’s ship the moment it came into view, although it wasn’t clear if they believed he was linked to the station somehow or simply decided to shoot anything they saw. For the moment neither group of Zeros turned to engage his ship as they were too busy with each other. That was liable to change as the number of defending Zeros was now a quarter of what had been present when Pul had first caught sight of the station.

A small sphere, more than large enough to hold five humans, shot out of the space station and began to emit a distress signal. Immediately a pair of Zero fighters turned on an intercept course. The cruiser even tried to hit the escape pod with its main armaments, although its aim was too far off to damage the pod.
Immediately at sighting the pod, the flagship of the pirates sped up towards the pod. The fighters of the Muni shot ahead of the ship, aiming it’s bizarre weapons at all interferences. At once, a hatch opened on all the fighters and small crab looking drones spilled out in clouds, small propelling rockets sending them towards enemy crafts with the precision of a missile.

The Zero’s avoided the brunt of the cloud with ace flying and intuition. The cloud managed to change courses and the small invention of Pul Reese himself managed to find itself latching onto the hulls of some of the zeros. Quickly the ticks tore their way into the spacecrafts, a thick opaque gas emitting from its back and small beak as soon as the gases in the ship came into contact with it.

On little legs the ticks managed to work their way into cockpits, if they hadn’t already, small scanners helping distinguish the pilots. Without any sound the ticks lept onto their victims, using the same tools that bore a hole into the ship to bore through the fighter pilots suits and persons, blood being splattered against the whir of the tools and screams of pain. A moment passed, and an order was given to the Muni fighters not to retrieve the ticks. All at once, the ticks who had completed their jobs suddenly exploded, causing a black mess of char among the wreckage of its previous assault.

Back in the Flagship a proud Pul smiled as his boat managed to throw a tractor beam over the pod, slowly streaming the pod closer as the ship closed the gap. The ship rocked suddenly as a shot from one of the Musashi ships smacked the broadside, the shields luckily taking most of the impact, but still procuring a swear from Pul and Terra.

A green light clicked and Pul’s scowl turned into a giddy smile, the pod was in.

“Fighters fall back, let’s get out of here!”

The ship rumbled a few more times under the weight of the incoming shots, a few fighters lighting up the space outside as they felt the incineration of the missed shots. Quickly the dock lights filled up, and as soon as the last one clicked, Pul slammed his fist onto his console, punching the boat into full speed, eager to escape by using the Gas planet as an obstacle while he jumped.

The windows closed as metal extracted from the sills to cover them, a sigh expelled from Pul and Terra shared his smile, “jump in progress,” Terra reported.

Pul slid out of his seat, his knees unadmittedly wobbly from the intense interaction. Terra looked him up and down, “everything okay?”

“Pon Shen can eat it,” Pul laughed as he slapped his shaking leg, causing it to stop. Terra shared his laugh, “let’s go receive our cargo shall we?”


The hangar was filled with the stern faces of Muni fighter pilots, teeming with either stress or adrenaline. Their skin tight blue uniforms contrasted against the colorful bits of bronze and silvers that colored the structure of the hangar or the dark colored mosquito shaped fighters they climbed out of. Most of them took care of the after battle maintenance of their ships, or whatever charred metal they flew in. The most elite of the crew stood circle around the foreign pod, only breaking formation to let Pul and Terra through. The hissing chatter of the hangar was nearly gone now that Pul had approached the pod, everyone's curiosity peaked.

The outline of a door slowly appeared on the pod, before it swung open and converted into an entry ramp. The first person to appear was a young human male, probably in his twenties. He was dressed in a hanfu as was the norm in Musashi. His fingers absently stroked the porcelain mask the rested at his hip as he descended from the pod.

“You have my thanks.” The man said. His tone and expression where both a mixture of timidness and stress.

Pul examined the man carefully with his large jet black eyes, his small slitted nose twitching as he rubbed his shallow chin. After a few seconds of silence, his strange whiskers perked behind his ears.

“You weren’t kidding about the AI,” Pul said suddenly, “I can feel your heartbeat as clear as day, but there is one absent from another heat source. The woman on the communications?”

“Ah. Well…” The man glanced back at the pod where his companion had just stepped into view. She, if one could refer to a machine by a gender, had the form of a human female. The android was nude, at least as nude as a machine could be, allowing all present to see that her body was covered mostly in a type of metal like material that looked almost like skin except for its grey color. Elsewhere on her body more traditional metal could be seen. Silver white “hair” adorned her head, ending just past her shoulders.

“This entity is also most grateful for your timely rescue.” The AI said as she descended the escape pod.

A hissing chatter arose from the crowd of pilots, all words strewn about in the language of the Muni. Terra hissed back as well as any human could, her words sharp which she then repeated in the common language, “quiet!”

Pul nodded slowly, his mind tinkering with ideas, “Terra, you and I will see them to their new quarters, have the engineers audit the pod and disassemble if needed.”

“But first,” Pul stood up straight, all his whiskers upright down his spine and cleaving through the holes in his shirt, “first the knowledge of the research, then we can do thank you’s and breakfast.”

If the AI was in any way disturbed by the reception received, she didn’t allow it to appear in her face. Instead she said “We had a few weapons on our person that we left in the escape pod.” She gestured towards the pod, where a single pistol and katana could be seen resting on a seat. “We will take no offense if you dispose of them.”

“I intend to keep them, the pod will probably be scrapped and recycled for something later,” Pul explained, “we take what we can get, such as the research?” His words ended in a playfully hinting smile.

The Musashi man, Muto Sadao reached into his hanfu and pulled out a small chip. “Here’s some of the data from the AI’s development.” He said as he held the chip out to Pul. “Probably of most importance is the ethics algorithm.”

“You’ll have to excuse Terra,” Pul said as he pinched the chip carefully, “she doesn’t understand what that is.”

“What do you mean?” Muto asked as he glanced at Terra.

Terra’s lips pursed into a line as she pinched the chip from Pul’s claws and placed it into her pocket, “he wants you to explain what you said.” Annoyance betrayed her eyes.

“Ah… Well…” Muto turned back to Pul. “It wouldn’t be funny if you accidently made a bunch of genocidal AIs like the Agonis because you didn’t take the time to create a proper ethics algorithm.”

“The AI of the Agonis collective are defective entities” The AI added. Muto raised an eyebrow but chose not to comment further.

“Right,” Pul said quickly, “well thank you.”

He glanced at Terra and she turned to the pilots, “take a break boys, one of you send the engineers in.”

Pul looked back at his guests, “to your quarters then?”

“Yes.” Muto said with a slight nod of his head. “Oh. I’m Muto Sadao. I worked as a… technical assistant on the research station. And you two are?”

Pul started leading the two, Terra next to him. He nodded as he listened, “I’m Pul Reese, this is my ship and this is my friend.” His claws extended to point at Terra.

“I’m Terra, second of the ship,” she said keeping pace with Pul, “welcome aboard, formally.”

“This is quite a large ship Reese-sama” Muto commented.

“It is roughly the size of a cruiser” The AI stated for Muto’s benefit.

“Thank you, I designed it myself,” Pul smiled without emotion and turned down a long grey hallway littered with white paneled doors, scratches of names and labels written on them in Muni. The entire hallway was barely lit, only a small blue light every seven yards keeping it from utter darkness. Heated steam rose from vents alongside the wall, giving it a sauna like feeling.

“The crews quarters,” Terra explained, being able to almost sympathize with any human confusion.

Muto immediately looked uncomfortable, his clothing not suited for anything nearing humid conditions. Already sweat was forming on his brow. “I don’t want to sound picky or ungrateful” He said after a moment, “but please tell me not all of the quarters will be so humid.”

“We can shut yours off,” Terra smirked, nostalgic memories running through her mind, “after all there is more things than just steam to worry about in the Muni quarters, at least once you go through a white door.”

“Don’t worry,” Pul finally commented, stopping in front of a door with no scratches, “no weather control in here, no gases, no anything. I was thinking about throwing you two in the brig but I figured I’ll just keep you in a room, no use wasting a brig on people I invited in myself. There is all the human stuff in there, bedding, a relief corner, and we serve food three times a day, but I might put you to work, this isn’t a cruise ship.”

Pul pressed his fingers to the door and it slid open to reveal an unexpectedly large room washed white, complete with a large circular bed deep with bedding, a toilet, desk and closet. The vents seemed closed as no steam or gases poured in, only cool fresh air.

Pul seemed displeased by some undetectible odor and he snarled, “well go on get in there before the steam gets in and ruins your day. Terra you handle the rest, I can’t stand the smell, I’ll be out here.”

Terra looked at the guests, “after you?”

“Did I offend you somehow?” Muto asked, his expression reminiscent of a deer caught in a car’s headlights. The AI rendered a low bow for Pul before turning and lightly pushing Muto into the room.

Pul gave a curt nod back at the AI as he fished in his pocket for a cigarette, “I’ll be talking with you two later on.” Putting the butt in his mouth her slapped the door just as Terra entered the room, the white frame sliding closed, cutting off the mist of steam from the hallway.

Terra began pointing at the features of the room, “temperature control by the closet, don’t press the red button, you’ll request a gas refill from the engineers room and they have enough to worry about. You have oxygen being supplied at seventy degrees at the moment, standard bedding, and about a one meter by one half meter closet, and plastic desk. I’m sure this will be the nicest rescue you’ve ever had.” She crossed her arms, “until you get to the food part I’m sure, any questions?”

“The food?” Muto couldn’t help but ask. “Is there something… wrong with it?”

“We Muni eat everything available,” She answered, her herself not actually being a muni, but the thought made her smirk, “ground bones and all, a lot of protein. The ship has a few farms on it for long distances, I won’t go into detail on the animal you’ll be eating but it should remind you of pork.”

“I see” Muto’s tone implied that he actually didn’t. After a moment he rendered a low bow as he said “Once again thank you for rescuing us.” The AI mimicked the bow, but remained silent.

“And thank you for your payment, Muto was it?”

“Yes.” He said as he rose from his bow.

Terra pointed a finger loosely at the AI, “and her?”

“This entity does not possess a name” The AI answered. Muto frowned before nodding in agreement.

“I don’t think the scientists ever agreed on what name to use. By Yomi they couldn’t even agree on what the purpose of the project even was.” He shrugged. “Honestly I’m amazed her body didn’t turn out to be some sort of male-female hybrid.”

“Seems like a lot of effort to sink into a goal-less and nameless project,” Terra responded, crossing her arms.

“The lack of a consensus of a goal does not equate a lack of goal” The AI stated.

“Then what is your goal, or goals as they were?” Terra questioned.

Muto began to count off the various goals on his hand “Proof of concept. Development of military drone. Infiltration unit. Hospital aid. Construction unit. Pleasure” He coughed. “Um… device. And the creation of an ethics algorithm for use in AI development.” He paused for a moment before adding “That’s what I know off. In the end it all sort of… blended together to form that.” He gestured towards the AI. “For a while they discussed using terms from Shintoism as a possible name, for the project if nothing else, but they never really went through with it. I doubt they cared what others called the AI or the project so long as they were allowed to continue working on it.”

“She sounds like she will be useful in the coming days, we still need to discuss what to do with you and where to drop you off, and I feel that conversations would go smoother if she was named,” Terra uncrossed her arms.

“You are very likely the last living person involved in the development of this entity” The AI said as it looked at Muto. “That means you are the only representative of this entity’s creators and should be the one to name it, if any do.”

Muto pondered possible names for a moment before nodding to himself. “It seems only right to use a name from Shintoism given that was what had been discussed of in the past. How about Amaterasu?”

“The Shinto goddess of the Sun and Universe.” The AI stated. “She who shines in Heaven. Understood. This entity’s name is now Amaterasu.”

“Glad that’s settled, now do either of you have any requests before I report back to the bridge?” Terra took a step towards the door.

“I am fine for now.” Muto said.

“Amaterasu has no current needs.” The AI stated. Muto let out a sigh and shook his head slowly.

“Then I’ll be seeing you two around lunch, I’m locking this door behind me,” Terra nodded as she tapped the door. It slid open with a whoosh, sending the steam on the other side into spirals around the smiling face of Pul, his nose twitching, “ready?”

“Ready,” Terra replied as she closed the door behind her, the room falling silent as the two guests now stood alone.

The South-East Region
Captain Ricardi tensed slightly in his seat as the ship re-entered real space. A quick row of calls and acknowledgments immediately followed as the crew finished the routine check ups. Everything was as it should be. Reports from the other ships of the task force said the same.

With that out of the way, it was now the time to follow through with their mission and locate the source of the new Collective drones caught by the fleet on the AJS-837 system. The sudden appearance of these new drones had created a flurry of worry among the navy's upper ranks. Information about the drones was immediately suppressed as the devices were captured and sent for study while a taskforce, Ricardi's taskforce, was quickly put together to locate and hunt down the source of the drones. The last thing they needed now was a Collective fleet of unknown size hounding their rear while they were on the way to Agonis itself.

"Captain, sir." One of the esigns called out. "Our sensors have detected a single ship within the system. No known design."

"Charge weapons, assume offensive formation and move into range. But do not engage." Ricardi ordered. "As far as we know this might be some new ship that the degenerate machines are fielding."

As the orders were transmitted to the rest of the taskforce, Ricardi felt a large palm grasping his right shoulder. Startled, he looked upwards to see the sickeningly sweet grin of Commissar Afarid.

"Protocol states that unknown vessels are to be contacted first before any other action is taken, Captain." The Commissar stated, in his usual way of feigned helpfulness. "We wouldn't want to deviate from the protocol, would we?"

Ricardi groaned internally but kept his expression neutral. If Afarid wanted to shout at the machines crewing the ship, then so be it. "Open a channel to the unknown ship." He ordered

The long day aboard the Geyser haven't changed since they got there. Sagar sat at the usual table as he was finishing up his cigar. The documentary crew arrived at the table moments later with their cameras on. Sagar put down his cigar as the cameras came closer to him. He looked at them and asked, "What are you wanting to know now?"

"Nothing much." the cameraman said, "We just want to know the latest information from those drones."

The captain laughed at the request and spoke to the camera, "Well, they are still doing their thing, mate. It takes time for those tiny drones to collect so much information at once. They might already found life and coming back this moment."

Before the cameraman could ask more question, the pilot ran from his chair to the dining area. He looked like he saw something terrifying as he entered the area. "Captain, something just happened to our drones!" he stated towards Sagar. He rose from and raced towards the control room as the cameras followed them. They were finally execited that there was some drama.

"Look!" he told Sagar as he went to his chair and flipped to the screen that showed the current state of the two drones. But something was wrong, the screen said that they went offline. The pilot went on to explain, "I was just checking on them as usual and one second they were fine. The next second.... they were gone. Like they were destroyed or worse."

"You think that someone did this?" Sagar asked.

"Yes. I do think so, because." the pliot tried to answered the question, but he was cut off by the alarm. Both the faces of the pliot and the captain went white as they heard the alarms. The documentary crew were both amazed and scared as they kept on filming them. The pliot went immediately to the other screen and saw the incoming ship, thanks to the sensors. He froze.

The captain shoved the crew back from the area as they tried to get a closer look at the screen. Sagar didn't know what to do as soon as the sensors rang out. Then, the commucation screen rang out like some sort of cellphone. Everyone aboard stopped moving as they could felt the room getting warmer and warmer.

The explorer, since he was the captain, went over to the device and pressed the button to answer it. "Hello?" he asked the device, speaking in his native lanauage.

"That doesn't sounds like any language I've heard before." An ensign muttered as the bridge crew looked to Captain Ricardi for guidance.

"It still could be a Collective trick." The Captain told the Commissar before he could say anything. Turning to the ensign he ordered: "Send the usual cease and surrender message. In Newspeak and Collective code."

Then, he heard some kind of response from the other side. It was in a different lanuage than their official lanaguofficial lanauage. "What the hell is it saying?" one of the cameraman said.

"Shut up." Sagar said out loud as he tried to listen to the voice, but it confused him more. For several seconds, he kept listening until the pliot went over towards him and switched to the Collective code. Things started to make sense as it was some kind of cease and surrender message.

The explorer pressed on the device again and said, "We aren't bad or evil. We are looking for life beyond our home world. We aren't the Agonis Collective. And we are looking for the one nation that calls themselve, The Imperium. Please, allow ourselves to come aboard to explain ourselves. Or, you can come aboard our ship, if you wise. I am just an explorer with no military connection or background. Trust me."

Soon enough, it translated into the code and the native lanauage.

"A first contact!" Commissar Afarid grinned. "They might even put us in the books for this one, brothers and sisters!"

Ricardi rolled his eyes at that. Considering his options, he decided he wasn't fully convinced that this wasn't some Collective ploy. And sure as hell he wasn't going to allow unknown aliens into a military ship. Neither he would endanger himself by entering this unknown-possibly Collective vessel. No matter how harmless as they looked.

"Tell them to land their ship on these coordinates." He ordered as he sent the coordinates to one of the airless moons of the system. "Keep their weapons powered down and no funny business. Also, prepare a couple shuttles for landing. Get two squads of marines ready and keep all ships on high alert." He turned towards the Commissar. "And you're coming with me."

"Alright, men." he turned towards the crew and went towards the pliot. "You got the coordinates."

The pliot nodded as he set the ship to follow the coordinates. Sagar walked towards the airlock and looked over at the suits. The documentary crew followed him as he grabbed one of the suits. Sagar looked at the camera and said to them, "Get your suits on. Y'all are coming with me."

Their execitment went to the roof as they set their equipment down and grabbed the suits as fast as they could. They didn't know where they were going, but it was always safe to bring several suits among the trip. In case of any emergency or they land at an planet with no oxygen.

It took several moments, but they made it to a moon. The pliot went to Sagar and gave him the device. He smiled and told the pliot, "If things get too hot, you get the ship out and tell the Federation as soon as possible."

The pliot nodded as he went back to the control room and waited for orders. Soon enough, Sagar reached for the device and pressed the button as he said, "We are here. Don't try anything foolish."

Several minutes later a shuttle flew overhead, circling the group for several moments before landing at some distance. The back door opened and the ramp went down, soon after a squad of Totalist marines, clad head to toe in black and grey body armor along with the signature gas masks. They assumed a crescent formation and advanced towards the other ship, guns lowered but visibly tense. Stopping at a distance, one of them stepped forward with a scanning device in his hand. After a few moments of that, a message is sent and another shuttle lands nearby.

The ramp opens and another squad of marines marches down. Behind them come Captain Ricardi and Commissar Afarid, the only difference between them and the marines being the rank signs in their arms and officer caps on their heads, strapped over the gas masks.

The airlock opened as both Sagar and the documentary crew stepped out into the unknown moon. Soon enough, they saw tons of weapons that were pointed to them. That scared both the explorer and the crew as they froze in place. Sagar placed down the device and before he pressed the button, he saw them.

Aliens. This wasn't their first contact, but it was the first peaceful one. The lessons given about the Invasion caused by the Collective could scared everyone from going up in space. But that didn't stop Sagar as he wanted to show to the rest of the world that there could be peaceful aliens out there.

He pressed the button and said, "Hello, you all. We come in peace.."

Captain Ricardi stepped forward, a marine followed closely behind with a device in his hands.

"You will have to excuse our precautions." The Captain started as the device in the marine's hand translated his words mechanicaly. "But your drones are made with Collective technology, and I would wager that so does your ship. And then you come here and speak in their language."

Sagar nodded his head and said as he pressed the button, "I understand then. You think that we 'working' with those savages. But, we don't."

His voice suddenly got all serious and upsetting as he lifted his head and looked towards the man. His helmet reveled his face as he looked like he was going to cry angrily. He knew that they looked similar to the description of 'humanity'. He looked back down at the device and pressed the button as he said, "Tell me, what have the Collective done to you and your people?"

"They've attacked us." Ricardi replied, looking straight at the other man while the device translated. "Just like they do to everyone else. But this time they have bitten more than they can chew. As we speak the armies of the State march with little to no opposition through their planets laying waste to all resistance." It wasn't necessarily the whole truth, Ricardi knew, but it was close enough. Besides, it was always goood to make an impression.

Sagar just laughed at his words of victory and conquest of the Collective. He once again pressed the button and said, "How many have they killed? Have the Collective killed your civilians and turned them into soldiers as some kind of sick joke? Have they?"

His left hand made a fist and smashed it at the moon's ground as dust rose up from the impact. "Sorry." he said to the men, "They have done us too many pain that we can't even tell without showing you. If you allow us to, I could get out another device that explains what the Collective did to us."

The documentary crew were filming the whole thing as their camera were mainly aimed at Sagar and the man. They didn't say or do anything beside film the whole thing.

"If you must." The Captain replied. "But by what you said then the Collective was just following its usual patterns."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Laying waste to entire cities, turning civilians into mindless war drones." Ricardi explained. "It's what they do to everyone else."

"Fortunately for us." Commissar Afarid interved, stopping besides the Captain. "They only managed to actually hit two of our worlds, so our losses were only in the low billions."

"'Low Billions?'" he replied that word as if it was some sort of insult before hitting the button. "Unlike you guys, we didn't know anything beyond our world. You're luckly that you were taught that those monsters killed billions and you just said 'low billions' like they are nothing more than tools."

"I have the device at hand, but it would be better if we done the talking inside. This device only works within enclosed envoriment. Your men can come with as well, if you feel like this is all a 'trick played by the Collective.'"

Ricardi sighed and looked back to his men. "Jamshid and W/S-1039 with me and the Commissar." He barked the order, which was unintentionally translated. "The rest of you stay and guard the perimeter." With that he turned back towards the other group. "If you would leade the way, please."

"Thank you." Sagar said as he rose up and grabbed the device. Then he turned towards the crew and pointed towards the ship. The group went towards the entrance of the airlock and stepped inside. It took a minute for them to get inside, but it was worth it. Sagar and the crew entered first as he cleared the area as much as they could.

He got two chairs and put them close together near the table as he grabbed sat at one. The pliot looked behind him as the aliens entered his ship, but he didn't come out or talk. He just watched the whole thing. The crew set up their cameras to get the perfect shot while Sagar would share their history of the Invasion.

"Sorry if it's small, but it's the best that we could do with the technology that we uncovered from the vessel." Sagar said as he placed the device on the table while pressing the button.

The Commissar and the Captain sat down in the chair as the two marines took position by the door, guns lowered but alert to the situation.

"What are they doing?" Ricardi asked, pointing towards the cameras and the crew. "A-are you recording this?"

Sagar laughed as he looked towards the camera crew and said to them, while pressing the button, "People at home are scared to death of aliens since the Collective attacked us. We want to prove to them that there are more aliens out there than the Collective."

"Are they bugging you?" he asked the man.

"No." Ricardi replied quickly. As everyone else living within Totalist rule, Ricardi was used to the notion of being under almost constant surveiliance, except this time it wasn't the Directorate of Safety recording him. This time however, the cameras made him nervous for some reason. He silently thanked the gas mask covering his face before continuing. "I suppose formal introductions are in order? Unless it's something your people doesn't do?"

"Oh, I forgot to take this mask off." he said to the device as he managed to take the helmet and his features soon appeared. He knew that he could easily be mistaken as a 'humanity'. Beside that fact, he placed the helmet beside him and looked at the men.

He then answered one of the man's question, "My name is Sagar. I am an explorer and I answer to no-one besides myself and my government."

"I am Commissar Huang Afarid and this is Captain Mikhail Ricardi, of the Totalist Navy." Ricardi glared at the Commissar behind his mask but remained silent. It was better to show an united front to these humans. "And what is your government?" The Commissar asked.

"Our government is called, Athistan Federation." he answered Huang's question, "Aren't you guys with the 'Imperium'?"

Both men tensed visibly at the mention of the Imperium.

"That backwards, repressive and exploitative regime." Commissar Afarid started, hate filling his voice. "Has fallen centuries ago, thanks to the Supreme Director. In his place this part of the Galaxy has been taken over by petty warlords, aliens and would be successors. The Agonis Collective is just one of those states."

"Oh." he just said as he learned that the 'Imperium' were long gone. He couldn't think of anything else and waited until they asked another question.

"Were your ancestors Imperial colonists?" Captain Ricardi asked.

"'Imperial colonists'? 'Ancestors'?" he questioned Ricardi, "What do you mean? We had been on that planet for thousands of years. What kind of question is that?"

"What?" Ricardi asked, confused. "Aren't you humans?"

"Oh!" he said out loud as he held down the button, "You meant 'humanity'! Are we 'humanity'? Sorry about that. Are you guys from 'Earth'? The Collective mentioned that place several times. Do you know what it is?"

"Earth is the birthplace of mankind." Commissar Afarid replied. "Currently its a ravaged wasteland under control by one of the Imperial Warlords. Not even worth the resources it took to conquer it from the local techno-barbarians."

"Oh. Sorry about that." he said as he heard the word 'mankind', "What's a 'mankind'? Are they another species?"

"It's just another name for humanity." Ricardi replied. "That's why many of these Warlords place so much stock in controlling Earth. For the prestige of holding our species homeworld."

"Wait, do you guys think that we are 'humanity'?" he asked the two confused men across the table. "We are called, Xreihz. There also the Acelop." Harikiran, one of the Acelops, waved at them as he stool by the camera crew.

"I am truly sorry for not telling you that sooner." he said to the men, "I hope that we can move on from this awkward moment."

"You certainly look human enough." Ricardi said to Sagar as the Commissar waved back. "With the amount of cybernetic, biological and genetic modifications around you look more human than many actual humans."

"Anyway, we need to show you this device." he told them as he went into his back pocket and grabbed the disk-like device. He pressed a button and threw it to the middle of the table, which then 'turned' on. A hologram image of his world appeared, Athistan.

The man spoke again as he held down the button on the other device, "One hundred years ago, Xreihz and Acelop were living in peace. Our government, the Federation, built their first ever space station. After the opening, President Roshawna spoke to all fifty leaders. Things were looking good. We were studying FTLs and augmentations were becoming population. And we always looked like this, by the way."

It showed the planet, then the space station, and finally Cleim. He tried to speak without crying, "Cleim. The 'greatest city in the world'. It was the perfect city that adopted both past and present. Then, they came."

The next image was a Collective vessel and then video of it crashing to Cleim, it was hard to watch to this day. He closed and opened them up as he explained, "It came out of nowhere. The nearby naval patrol tried to stop it, but we couldn't it. It crashed and had killed about thousands of civilians."

"But, they weren't scared at all. They always had been interested in aliens and the unknown. And this vessel crashing into Cleim was the perfect chance. Even the mayor of Cleim was going to forget the crash landing to the aliens. People gathered at the impact zone to see what had happened."

The next image showed tons of people gathered at the zone and then there was the infamous video of the first contact. He held back the tears as he explained, "A family saw one of the creatures coming out all scared and shy of the cameras. Everyone was filming this moment, thinking it would forever go on the history books. Then..."

He plaused as the creature attacked the child, who reached his hand towards it. "Then..." he repeated the word as tears fell out of his face. He let go of the button and started to cry.

"I am sorry." he repeated over and over in his native lanuage as he tried to stop crying. As the video kept going, more of the creatures attacked everyone from men to women and their children. It ended as soon as one of them attacked the cameraman. He managed to stop crying for several minutes and then kept going as he pressed the button again, "The hope and dreams of so many were gone in the matter of seconds. In the matter of six hours, about two million people died. Fifteen million died within twelve hours. One day later, the death toll reached forty million."

There was footage of Koriu Bridge being destroyed by the Collective, buildings collapsing, and finally the attack on the airport. He breathed slowly and said, "We were losing and had no hope left until we learned of her. Saroj Bhaman."

An image of her appeared as he went on to explain who she was, "She had survived being trapped inside their vessel and met 'Grana'. An image of 'Grana' appeared as well.

"She went straight to the airport with some help and tried to tell everyone, but they were following her." he explained, "The airport was destroyed, but she managed to get out of there before the general order the bombs to be dropped."

The video showed the bombs being dropped on both the machine and the vessel. The man wipped away the tears for earlier as he told them, "The remaining military force of the government went straight towards the vessel and attacked it. With no hope left, 'Grana' went to track down Bhaman. Soon, she managed to find her and they talked before she was destroyed. She told her that the Collective will come back once more, because we were 'humans' or something like that."

"After she was destroyed, the death toll finally reached up to two-hundred million lives. That was almost ninty percent of the population of Cleim. And the 'Invasion' lasted several days." he said as images showed the aftermath of the Invasion. He coughed and told them, "We didn't give up after the attack, but we were scared as hell about them coming back. The Federation ensured that they would be ready for their return and used their technology to advanced us beyond our dreams. Now, we have a mission."

He stood up, rasied his fist towards the roof, and said to them, "Our mission is ensure that those savages never bring harm to others, like us."

"But, it looks like that we couldn't even do it." he realized as he sat back down, "They already killed billions. Thankfully, you guys are pushing them back."

The last image was the symbol of the Federation. "I am sure that the Federation is willing to provide you and your allies aid and support in sending them back to hell. You just need to send someone to meet her." The device soon shut off and he grabbed it as he placed it back in his pocket.

"Sorry about the break down." he said to them, "It's hard to watch the death and destruction. I know sixty million isn't a lot to you, but it was a lot to us back then."

"That has certainly been an elightening experience." Commissar Afarid replied diplomatically. "Very eye opening. As for your offer of support, we will have to bring it to the Board of Directors before anything official is decided."

"Fair enough." he only said as he stood up from the chair and walked towards them. He wanted to know what to do now.

"Now what?" he asked them, "What do we do? This is the first contact that went peaceful and we don't know what to do?"

"Our protocol dictates that we should return and inform our superiors of this recent development. Then the appropriate authorities will enter in contact with your government for further negotiations." Captain Ricardi replied

"Sounds good enough." Sager smiled as he carefully reached out his hand towards the two people, hoping that one of them would shake his hand. "I hope that we would meet again." he told him as he awaited a response.

"If the Party wills it." The Commissar replied as he took the offer. "Chances are your personel will be meeting with actual diplomats next though."

"Then, I wish you well in your future and the fight against the Collective, Afarid. I will have to report this contact as well." he told him as he left go of his hand and showed them the way out. He thanked them once again as the airlocks closed on them while Sagar waved at them.

The four men made their way back to the shuttles alongside the marines. Once back in the ship, Captain Ricardi made the necessary calls and left the system with most of his taskforce, leaving behind a couple of ships to watch the explorers. Now the situation was out of his hands.

The Geyser lift off from the moon and soon left behind the several ships as it was making it's way back home. Everyone onboard smiled as they found life and they didn't die at all. It would take days or weeks for them to return, but it would be worth the waiting. He didn't even care about the drones.

He was going to be famous over night. But, he needed to release a comm buoy first. Before he left the system for good, he released the only comm buoy they had. It gave him the location of Athistan to the aliens.

---

The South-West Region
The Union had been within the same system for the last couple since they last launched the drones. It's unknown where they were going, but they were fine. Zemenfes, the famous explorer, looked around the dining area for a cup. On the table, a fresh bottle of Red Diamond was waiting to be opened by Zemenfes. He often drank wine like it was water.

When he finally found the cup, he raced back towards the table and made his self a drink. He took a sip of the wine as he grinned ear to ear. The first sip always makes a person do that. After drinking for almost thirty seconds, Kirat Ghagrah came out of her room with her camera and placed it on the table.

"So, today's going to be the day?" she asked the explorer, waiting for answer.

He shook his head as he finished up the wine and said to her, "It might be or it not be."

Zemenfes stood up and went to the control room as soon as he heard his name. He then saw it on the screen, a nearby planet. It was a desert planet, a perfect place for the Federation to set up another colony. The pliot looked at the screen, then back at Zemenfes and said to him, "Should we check it out? It will only take us a few minutes to get near it."

"Alright." the explorer said as he waved his hands all over, "Make it quick. This might be useful to the Federation once we get back home."

Before he left the control room, he shouted for the documentary crew to get ready. Then, he stayed for a moment to watch the pliot drive the ship around. He wasn't interested in the planet, but he hoped that some form of life - that were intelligent - were on the planet.

As the exploratory vessel approached, they picked up some odd frequency on the scanners. Whatever they were approaching, it did not read like any organic world they had ever come across. Suddenly on the comm they heard a low, guttural warbling, before a mechanical translator began to refine the language.

"Halt, or be annihilated." the deep voice said. Upon further inspection, the planet they were about to orbit had much of it illuminated, as if it were one monumentous city. In fact, it was mechanical in nature, and various incoming unidentified objects approached slowly, traveling in a well disiplined formation.

Everyone aboard froze in place as they heard the voice. The explorer didn't know what to do as the ship came to a halt. He didn't know what else to do besides respond to the voice. He got out the device, which was the translator that would translate into Collective codes. Then, he spoke to the voice as he pressed the button, "We have halt. Please don't open fire."

The ships that had approached slowed to a halt as well, hovering just outside range. A holo image appeared before them on the deck. It was a hulking, saurian alien of lean muscle. Well armored and predatory in nature, its 4 mandibles opened as it spoke. "Where do you come from and what is your business in the Auraelian system. Speak quickly and true."

"We are here to explore life beyond our system. We aren't 'humanity', if you were confused by our appearance." he spoke to the hologram alien.

A low growl followed. Whether it was from annoyance or consideration wasn't clear. "What system do you hail from?"

"An system that your government official might not even know, Athistan" he answered the alien's question.

"We know of it." the speaker said. He would not explain how, but there had been many areas of the galaxy the Hexanagallions had made note to explore from their sojourn from their homeworld two centuries ago. "Hold, and I will refer your business with my Warmaster..."

It would be an hour before the Hexanagallion spoke up once more. "If you truly wish to continue, we will allow you to enter Auraelius Prime. If you prove truthful to your claims, you will not be harmed or imprisoned."

"Alright," he said, "where's 'Auraelius Prime' located?"

"It is the world you were approaching." he replied, and turned the comm off once the confirmation was made.

Suddenly their ship was caught in an electromagnetic pull, and the ships that hovered around it about faced and flanked it as they were drawn inexorably toward the world that had clearly been forged as an enormous and amored space station. One of the many lights they had seen now glowed all the brighter, and revealed itself to be a docking bay protected by an energy barrier.

Their ship was able to land safely upon the ground of the docking bay, and once they had exited they would find a contingent of Hexanagallion troops flanking another member of their kind in Silver and Gold war armor. Each stood over 7 feet tall, with cable-like muscles. They had four fingers upon each hand, 4 mandibles, and legs that folded backwards instead of the normal forward as human kneknees were evolved to do.

With the device at one hand, Zemenfes and the documentary crew were surrrounded by some kind of soldiers. He spoke to the group as he pressed the button, "What do we do now?"

The leader stepped forward, his predatory eyes filled with an intense intelligence. "I am Warmaster Cronoxus. This is the Auraelian system that leads into the greater nation of the Honored Resurgance Forces. I am the voice of the system, as well as 29 other vassals systems. To be here is something unheard of, yet I am curious of your nation as you are curious of ours."

Despite his beastial, reptilian nature, he stood with his hands behind his back with a dominating yet cultural poise. "You can ask what questions you have of our system, and of our people. I however, would ask why you were looking to this part of the galaxy for your exploration. Were you seeking to contact other nations?"

They were amazed by the large leader as he stood in a dominating poise. The crew caught the footage of the leader as he asked if they were seeking to contact 'other nations'. Zemenfes stepped forward as he wanted answers to the many questions that he had to ask.

"Someone said that they managed to learn about our system-which had been isolated for hundreds of years-and I want to know what that person meant?" he pressed the button as he was asking the question to the leader.

Cronoxus regarded the human looking man curiously, if such aliens could be described by such terms. He stood silently for a moment, then replied. "I know not of this. I have heard of your people but never visited it myself. Nor have many of our forces for many years. We were not certain that you were still alive and thriving, for this galaxy has many perils. You arriving here, if that is where you are from, would be the first we are hearing of it in perhaps over a century."

"Then you know about the Invasion?" he asked Cronoxus.

"Invasion?" he asked. "If you refer to an invasion in your past, I recall hearing of it once. We are a long lived race compared to many humans, but it was only in whispers. The last few centuries we have expanded into old Imperium space. We were a tad busy, if you will." he chuckled.

"Have you heard 'whispers' of a nation calling themselves, Agonis Collective." he boldly stated the nation's name. He hated the Collective for what they did to his planet and to Cleim. He made a fist as he mentioned their name.

Perhaps Cronoxus was grinning when he replied. It was often hard to tell with the Hexanagallion mandibles. "We are currently invading the Collective as we speak. The machines are a bold adversary, but they are no match for our noble warriors. It seems they are now caught on two fronts, and their days are numbered." The warriors behind Cronoxus pressed their fists to their broad chests in unison. "For Honor." they stated.

"Good." he also grinned as he heard that their days were coming to an end, "The Collective deserved all of the pain and suffering that they would get. They were the ones that invaded our planet and killed sixty million people in the matter of days. We call the event, the Invasion."

The Warmaster nodded, taking the news matter of factly. "The Machines are a cruel race, but they are but one of many who deserve destruction in this galaxy. The cleansing has already begun." he said. "I advise you not to go much further into known space if you shy from conflict, for a war has begun that will shift the galaxy into a new age." The Warmaster clenched his fist. "We not only live for combat, but we thriive in it. Even now the largest nations of man pick one another apart, and we prepared to drive through them like a holy lance of fire. But ware, as I have said. To go in further will have you collide into the Totalist nation of heretics, and the Collective you so loathe. It is these two small obstacles we now face before our Honored Forces can fully engage the oppressive nations of man that war with one another."

"'Totalist'?" he questioned.

"Yes." Cronoxus replied. "A Human Nation that assimilates those whom they 'liberate' against their will. A dictatorship that bends the wills of their own population, and those they conquer, to their own designs. We seek to destroy it if they do not cease and desist such acts immediately. They are currently attacking Collective space now."

"Well" he said clearly, "There's no point in using the device then."

The Warmaster narrowed his gaze. "Explain."

Zemenfes went into his pocket and grabbed the device. He reveled the small disk-like device to Cronoxus. "This device gives more detail into the invasion, how it happened, and who was behind it. Since you got the basic information already, there's no point to share it unless you're interested in the history of our invasion." he explained about what the device does.

"It only works indoors, since it produces hologram images." he added.

"Ah I see." he said. "Your people seem to have truly been changed by this assult."

"We have." he stated, "I am positive that our president will be able to support your war against the Collective."

"This is unexpected, but welcome. However, it is the Totalists that are the true thorn in our sides. The Agonis are being decimated on all fronts. Their days are numbered. The Totalists we can defeat as well, but it would take time. Time that we cannot waste on this new menace while the other human nations are vying for power in the center of the galaxy."

"I am not sure about the Totalists. Our president will have to take time to study that nation and other to form her own opinion." he stated as the documentary crew filmed the whole thing going on.

"The Agonis front welcomes you nonetheless. Defer to your leaders. If you would allow, tell me. Do you harbor slaves of any kind, or do you wish to recreate an institution that will be any form of harsh dictatorship? To do so makes us your enemy. To do so, but lie about it beforehand...makes us your worst nightmare."

"Our government is a federation. The fifty nations of our world don't have slaves, because it's illegal. Our government isn't a dictatorship." Zemenfes ensured that ruler, "If you wish to meet our leader, get the comm buoy."

He and the crew started to walking away from the ruler. Before they boarded the ship, he turned to the aliens and said his goodbyes, "May you be protected in the long trip that you decided to take. If not, then we wish you well in the war against the Collective."

The Union lift off from the landing pad and left the planet as fast as they could to inform the government of this grand discovery. A comm buoy was launched from the ship, giving the location to their home system. Zemenfes was proud to have finally discovered aliens beyond the Federation. This was the first time that they made a peaceful first contact.

Cronoxus escorted them back of course, and he placed his fist upon his chest. "Farewell." he said simply, giving a curt nod. As the newcomers left back to their homeworld, Cronoxus stood for a moment in silence, before pointing to an officer. "Contact Warlord Jex. I have news for him..."

Agonis
Divine Citadel
Deep in the bowels of the Divine Citadel, the Seven were conniving as recent and troubling developments have arose. The Totalists continue to push further and further in Collective Space, going so far as to establish a puppet state, the local rebel leaders as figureheads for this young regime. The rebels to the west establishing their united republic a few weeks beforehand, and begun to mobilize against the Collective with their new and fierce allies, the HRF. However, once the meeting had gone underway, the situation had worsened, once the council had realized Magnus was missing.

The meeting room was a large and wide, and oval in its structure, in each corner was a massive holo-projection device. All the devices were lit with life as each device, minus one, had projected large, mostly featureless heads. "Magnus..." One of the heads spoke, it had a darker shade of green, its eyes glowing crimson red. It spoke with an authoritative, yet feminine tone, it glared ever so intensely towards the inactive device. "You traitorous filth!!!" She screamed, her voice breaking and her projection becoming unstable from the sheer volume from her rage.

"Calm yourself my Queen!" Another feminine voice, the AI Vamil spoke. "Magnus' betrayal is truly terrible...but we must focus on the war. Our enemies draw near."

"It is, unfortunate yes..." Garui spoke. "That filth has stolen hundreds of thousands of my Ascendant Soldiers."

"And hundreds more from the Queen's guardian fleets." Amion interjected.

"My Queen." Another of the Seven spoke, Thesion. "Allow me to undo the damage done by the Traitor. I will mobilize my armies to the eastern fringes and purge them of the totalist rats and their collaborators."

The Queen remained silent for a few moments before speaking once more. "Do as you wish, Thesion." She said, more calm then before, but still a hint of rage could be felt. "Wipe out those abominable pests once and for all." She paused and faced Amion. "Amion, double your efforts, contain the rebels in the Western Sectors."

"As you wish, my Queen." Amion said. "The "Republic" will fall, that I can assure you."

Unaffiliated Space
Coalition Invasion Fleet

Amid the dark, vacuous expanse of the south-eastern neutral region of the galaxy, faintly lit by the closest stars, the Invasion Fleet drifted at sub-warp speed, glimmering menacingly with a multitude of shifting lights arrayed in strange geometrical patterns. Its insatiable sensors were eagerly seeking in the surrounding void something worthwhile to latch upon - which, as many a conqueror boldly advancing into uncharted sectors had learned, was no simple task. Given the vastness of the zone wherein they were operating, few pulses struck anything close enough to return, and most of those which did had chanced upon nothing more than nondescript space debris. Altogether, the invasion was proving to be less wealthy in glorious battles and ferocious assaults upon enemy territories than most of its participants had hoped and more composed of interminable days of waiting, different from garrison duty only in the constant hope that they might, after all, stumble upon something.

Over the past few weeks the fleet had proceeded a good distance from established Yrrkheltharl borders, scattering sentry drones along its path to mark their expansion. It had encountered some star systems - all of them uninhabited and mostly uninhabitable as well. However, these factors did not thus far concern the conquerors exceedingly. Small groups of ships had detached themselves from the bulk of the fleet to keep watch over them until colonists would arrive. With some processing, several of the discovered planets could be rendered sufficiently fit to inhabit, whereas the others could doubtless be harvested for raw materials to fuel the Coalition's industry. After all, did the Invasion Forces' military codex not proclaim that every victory, however small, could yield enormous gain if properly exploited?

Now, however, the equivalent of days had passed without the least novelty befalling the victorious, yet idle armada, and, with even the previous events having given little to no respite from inactivity, the Coalition's eager forces had been reduced to impatiently repeating drill exercises, even as they did before launching. Preparatory processes had, in fact, just been finished when a drone craft detected an unusual signal and relayed it to one of the main vessels. The signal came again and again, at regular intervals, and soon the entire fleet was reverberating with the luminescence of locator devices. Not only had their explorer pulse returned to its emitter; along with it there came some other impulse, of distinctly different composition but just as regular. There could be little doubt that it was artificial. It did not seem to convey any encoded information, and, in fact, did not even appear designed for transmitting at such distances, if one were to judge from its clearly faded and distorted nature; however, it did denote a distinct direction to follow, and the fleet was not slow in following it. Turning almost as a single form, it rapidly flared its engines and sped toward the source of the unexpected pulsation.

Unnamed Star System

When it approached the zone where it estimated its target to be located, the fleet was already in battle formation. The largest, heaviest ships spearheaded its advance, ready to hurl themselves at enemy ranks in scattered, disjunctive order; lesser craft hovered at the flanks, brimming with lethal pods and assorted weaponry; drones hurried about the fringes, advancing and retreating in a series of feints; finally, at some distance behind the rear-guard, the massed transports edged forward cautiously, escorted by a handful of fighter detachments. Soon, it became apparent that such precautions might not have been superfluous. Sensors located a number of shapes, one of which rather large, drawing near from one of the system's central planets. Though at first indistinct, as the shapes drew closer they became identifiable as ships - and ships of an unpleasantly familiar make. What was now headed toward the invading force was no less than a patrol of Imperial vessels, led by a large cruiser. Truth be told, they did not appear to be an especially formidable foe - the ships were clearly weathered and aged, and most were civilian craft without any apparent armaments. However, Terrans being widely known to be, among other things, "deceitful", it was enough to induce the fleet to slow its progress, ready to redirect the power of its engines into a frontal rush.

Once they came within what was assumed to be firing distance of the intruders, the Terran ships stopped as well, and soon a demand to initiate transmission was issued by the cruiser. It was odd that they should have called for permission instead of transmitting directly, and it was not without some suspicion that Fleet Commander Sraslsirl activated his communication device. The sight which appeared upon the slightly distorted, gold-lit monitor made him clench his mandibles with hatred. There, before him, was a Terran. Not one in a CAC-approved historical documentary, or a visual manifesto. No, this loathsome creature stood there in the flabby flesh, absurdly covered by some sort of "uniform", as these largely useless implements were called, glaring at him in a manner which doubtless expressed rapacious malevolence. In truth, though Sraslsirl could not have known it, the "Terran" at the opposite end of the transmission was not a little taken aback by seeing a non-human visage materialise on the screen. This surprise brought with itself both relief and new apprehension: on the one hand, this could not have been the Imperium his ancestors had fled from; on the other, it was unclear what these creatures' intentions were, and the size of their fleet was not altogether reassuring. He inhaled deeply and began reciting the speech which had been prepared for such an occasion and, all of a sudden, seemed to him tremendously inappropriate.

The ambassador's concern was, however, altogether vain, for no sooner had the Coalition's translator systems been activated that it became obvious their database was obsolete - which was not altogether surprising, seeing as it had not been updated for over two centuries. Thus, as the programs struggled to recalibrate their parameters based on this new influx of information, the Fleet Commander was only reached by individual words - and uninteresting ones at that, words such as "peace", "agreement", "certain" and the likes, without counting conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns. Finally, the translator was brought into functioning condition; just in time, it seemed, to hear the Terran conclude "...and hopefully this encounter will mark the beginning of a long age of friendship and cooperation between our peoples. On behalf of all of Refuge's population, I welcome you to our home."

"Silence, Terran vermin. This is no home of yours." Sraslsirl chittered. The translator could not convey his scornful tones, but apparently his alien intonations were sufficiently distorted for the Terran to recoil slightly with an alarmed expression.

"Terrans? I am afraid there is a misunderstanding. We are humans, yes, but we are not-"

"Humans, Terrans, it is all the same. The matter stands that I command you to cease your blathering, and you resist me."

"But-" it was now clear even to the Fleet Commander that the human was stunned, "Why- I am sure we can reach an agre-"

"An agreement with the likes of you?" Sraslsirl spat out, "Eradication is all you are fit for. Fleet, prepare to engage."

"Why?" the Terran was nearly choking on his words, "Why do you- We haven't done anything! We don't even have anything you could want-"

"Even if this were true, your unauthorised presence on the worlds of our great Coalition is enough to justify your destruction. Right wing front, attack."

As the human envoy still gazed from the monitor, dumbfounded, and other, curt voices were beginning to rise from behind him, a number of deployer craft suddenly burst forth from the formation and swept toward the Terran ships. The latter shuddered spasmodically and fired a few uncoordinated blasts in their direction, but were far too slow, and their shots went wide. The deployers hurled several pods, as though they were missiles, at their largely immobile targets, then instantaneously retreated, avoiding retaliating fire, only to swoop upon the larger ships once again and deliver further boarding craft. The pods, making good use of their limited autonomous manoeuvring capabilities, latched in leech-like fashion onto their prey, and soon Sraslsirl heard with satisfaction the panicked screams conveyed by the transmission. The envoy, who throughout this time had remained transfixed, soundlessly opened and closed his mouth a few times; then there was a sizzling sound, and he collapsed out of sight. In his stead there appeared the mask-like head of a Coalition shock trooper. "The boarding operation has been successful, Fleet Commander" he reported, raising an arm in salute, "All Terrans except for necessary pilots have been eliminated. Casualties are negligible. Awaiting further instructions." "Land the vessels" Sraslsirl ordered, "Transport group ahk-six, initiate planetary invasion procedures."

In an exemplary display of efficiency, the armoured transports descended upon the planet whence had come the Terran ships, followed by the latter with their new contents, and almost immediately observation cameras began recording what no one doubted would be a documentary immortal for Coalition history. Many a mechanical eye contributed to build a testament to the Planetary Invasion Forces' first thunderous success; images of drones, monsters, soldiers and walker tanks pouring from the curvilinear ships, pursuing crowds of fleeing humans, overwhelming their scattered, unprepared, demoralised troops, rampaging through their cities, leaving nothing but rubble, mangled corpses and toxic clouds in their wake were instantaneously processed and attached to the Fleet Commander's triumphant battle report, ready to be sent directly to the CAC. Exterminating the entire human - the word was more general than "Terran", it seemed, and more phonetically practical as well - population would require weeks, perhaps months; but the planet was theirs, and all further stages were now inevitable.

When, after a mere few days, the conflict proper was over, the fleet directed its sights toward the nearest edge of the system, its reactors already letting loose a few preparatory flares. This battle had been won, but there was no doubt many others expected them on their path of conquest. The troops' morale was soaring, and the Fleet Commander himself was ever so slightly impatient to put the might of the Coalition war machine to the test again - perhaps a somewhat more challenging one. Once again, the ships hummed in over-orbital space, then vanished, hurling itself at warp speed toward new encounters.

Silently the Heavy Cruiser Sanyangkkun (Hunter), a Jeonju-class Heavy Cruiser, drifted inside the planetary rings of the gas giant Balam-i Haneul. Compared to other ships in the class, the Sanyangkkun had upgraded and enhanced optics and active as well as passive sensor, built in for its purpose as a stealthy patrol ship. Additionally to that, the Sanyangkkun had no FTL abilities, other than travel via the gate network. Instead it possessed a new type of experimental, interplanetary hyperdrive, allowing the Sanyangkkun to ambush enemies by exiting hyperspace right behind them.

At this moment, the ship was not captained by her usual commander, but by someone you would not expect at the helm of a battleship, even less of just a heavy cruiser. But here she was, Princess Seo Mi Ran herself, the captain’s hat sitting on top of her head, her blonde hair slightly fussy underneath it. She refused to comb her hair stating that it looked a lot better when it stayed wild like that.

Even though she served as acting captain of the Sanyangkkun, the insignia on her shoulder pads identified her only as a lieutenant. This trip was supposed to be her captain’s trials, the usual commander of the Sanyangkkun serving as her evaluator. Yang Ye Jin would not be afraid to fail her, if the Princess didn’t do well enough to pass. From the point on where she got told that she had to evaluate the Princess, Captain Yang had to contain her scoff. A princess becoming a captain of the Royal Navy? Impossible. That girl couldn’t even rule properly yet.
All she had going for her was her popularity with the people. She was so young that she didn’t even have the name change yet, that was customary for the coming of age ceremony of the royal family.

If you asked the Princess about that, she would tell you that she will have her coming of age ceremony, where she chooses her new name and becomes the official Crown Princess when she successfully accomplished this trial. For the last two years, she had fought and prepared for it, all the while having to train for her royal duties as well.

“Seo-taeja, we have movement.” Seo Mi Ran slowly sat up in the captain’s chair. “Sensors conn, status report.”, she cooly commanded.
“Three blips just left the station. Trajectory seems to be the inter-system gate to the moon of the second planet. Taeja, they are headed to the Iridium mine on the moon, as far as we can tell.”
“We need to warn them, Taeja! They are completely unarmed!”, her second officer called out.
She stretched out the palm of her hand towards him. “No! We can’t. If we do that, we will blow our cover. Sensors, any visual on the bogies yet?”
“Negative, Taeja. They will be, though, in… 2 minutes.”
Seo Mi Ran nodded. “As soon as you have visual confirmation, tell me.”

A few more, almost silent, minutes later, the sensors officer called out again. “Taeja! We have visual confirmation. Two destroyer-class marauders and a cruiser-sized freighter, most likely armed. No known configuration.”

This was nothing uncommon. Pirates very commonly used makeshift ships cobbled together from several wrecked ships and mustered out vessels and this particular group of pirates was well known in the northern reaches of Cheonsang territory for its competent ship making.

“Gunnery station, make sure all gauss cannons are armed with the Shredder-Shells. Navigation, plot intercept course and warm up the hyperdrive.” In a hail of “Ne, bu-in!” and the occasional “Yes, ma’am” from the few refugees that had entered naval service voluntarily.

An impatient tapping of her fingers against the command console built into the armrest of her captain’s chair signified the Princess’ slight nervousness. She was about to engage in battle. Battle against a foe with more ships that, taken together, could potentially overpower the Sanyangkkun. A battle which would most certainly cost at least a few lives on this ship, only so she could get promoted to Captain.

It didn’t matter, the pirates were also threatening the fifty-odd people working at the mining station they seemed to be heading towards. As the supposed ruler of even those miners, she could not allow them to get hurt.

“Initiate hyperdrive! Main turrets armed, secondary to broadside configuration, torpedoes into their tubes!” A hectic, but orderly shuffle played out from the trained bridge crew following the orders of their princess. “Ready!”, the First Officer called out.
“Engage!”

A high pitch whine wailed through the hull of the ship as, in front of the Sanyangkkun, a red rift opened up in front of the ship and started swallowing it until the ship was gone and with it, the rift closed.

In about a distance of one AU, right next to the cruiser-sized Q-Ship another red rift opened up and spit out the Sangyangkkun.
“Focus on the cruiser!”, Mi Ran’s order rang out through the bridge. All doubts in her mind were gone, her entire attention was focused on the matter at hand. “Turrets on target, Taeja!”
Demonstratively Mi Ran struck her index and middle finger out and pointed them forwards as she yelled. “Fire!”
Massive thunderous sounds rattled through the ship as the six double-barrelled Gauss-cannon turrets opened fire.
Trails of white magnesium smoke streamed from the shells into space. The superheated magnesium reaction propelled the shell forward even faster and helped with armour penetration.

With high force the cannon shells impacted on the armour of the Q-Cruiser before it could even react and activate the reactive shielding. The detonations onto the armour plating ripped it into pieces and armour debris was strewn out into space.
“Particle accelerator beams, fire!”, Mi Ran called when the smoke had cleared enough for the damage to the enemy cruiser to be visible.

By now, the escort destroyers had shaken the shock of a ship appearing out of nowhere and started firing. High explosive shells exploded onto the shield of the Sanyangkkun, but their kinetic energy was absorbed by the fully working shield capacitors.

Blue energy charged up in two balls at the side of the ship until it reached a critical point and a high-energy particle beam raced, at almost light speed, towards the cruiser and slashed into the hull structure of the ship and started superheating the plating until the first layer exploded outwards in slowly solidifying clouds of gaseous steel.

After a solid fifteen seconds of the beam lasting, it faded away to purge the charges accumulated by firing the particle accelerator.

“Fire the broadside torpedo tubes! Load regular ammo into the gauss cannons!”, Mi Ran ordered.
Flashes of fire erupted from the heavy cruiser’s broadside as a dozen torpedo tubes simultaneously propelled their payload forward towards the already damaged pirate cruiser. A few pitiful bursts of the remaining flak batteries connected with two torpedoes igniting them prematurely and sending blinding flashes of light into space followed by devastating shockwaves, which would seriously damage any fighter caught in a five hundred metre radius.

However, these few flak guns, that survived the battering their starboard side took from the expensive fragmentation grenades from the Sanyangkkun’s gauss cannons, were not nearly enough to protect the ship from the rest of the torpedoes and so a cacophony of bright lights danced over the hull of the makeshift cruiser annihilating any sliver of shielding and armour that was left.

Meanwhile, the main guns of the heavy cruiser opened fire upon the shielded destroyers, who were frantically trying to get close enough to the Sanyangkkun to effectively fire their torpedo payload and guarantee several hits. Moving closer, though, meant that the secondaries, mostly small calibre kinetic cannons and plasma guns as well as several particle lancers, mostly used to combat fighter craft, but in their absence could also be used to penetrate shields, were able to fire and hit the incoming destroyers.

Before the two destroyers were even close enough to fire their torpedoes in hope of saving their flagship, the particle beams started charging up again. The two blue balls of light that were growing brighter and bluer arched forward again and spit out their charges in those brilliantly blue rays of death licking at the pirate cruiser’s hull and superstructure until the metal of the bow simply gave way and the beam poured right through the vessel exiting on the other side, quite literally impaling the ship.

After the beam had subsided, minor explosions racked through the hull of the ship until a bigger explosion separated an engine pylon from the main frame of the ship.
“Taeja, the enemy cruiser is breaking apart.”, the sensor officer reported matter-of-factly, to which the princess simply nodded. “Focus fire on the closest of the two destroyers.”

The constant fire of the primary turrets of the heavy cruiser soon were way too much to handle for the shields of a destroyer and with a flicker the yellow-brownish sheen that enveloped these pirate destroyers vanished leaving the hull bare.
Impacts of the heavy kinetic energy of the gauss cannons sent plumes of fire into space and with it, bits of the fairly light armour of the destroyers.
“Fire the missiles on the unshielded destroyer!”, Mi Ran commandeered.
Right behind the superstructure of the Sanyangkkun, which contained the bridge, were tubes for missiles, about one hundred of them. Now all of these tubes, in staggered order, fired the missiles, which arced towards the hapless destroyer.

A firework of gatling guns and flak cannons trying to intercept the massive amount of missiles erupted near the destroyer, but inevitably most missiles hit their intended target, one after the other engulfing the hapless destroyer in a flurry of explosions only interrupted by a single, big explosion that tore the ship apart.

“Destroyer one down.”, rang the report on the bridge of the Sanyangkkun as the other destroyer frantically tried to close the range enough for it to at least deal some damage to the heavy cruiser. But that proved to be in vain, too, as the blue particle beams skewered the pitiful destroyer distributing its hull components over the nearby space.
“Destroyer two down, no further hostile contacts in sensor range.”

The princess sighed in relief. “Disengage combat mode. Damage report?”
“Nothing major, Taeja. The enemy didn’t even have the time to penetrate the shield properly. One electrical fire and a jammed small calibre gun. No casualties.”, her first officer reported.
“Good, good.”, the princess said contently. “Very well, then. I hereby renounce my position as acting captain of the Sanyangkkun and give my captain burden back to Captain Yang Ye Jin. I await her judgement of my abilities.”
The princess bowed, removed the captain’s hat, placed it onto the captain’s chair and walked through the doors of the bridge onto the now fairly lit corridors of the heavy cruiser towards her cabin. Despite her tough appearance and her strong mannerisms, she was tired now. It was not the same as the adrenaline fueled dogfighting she had experienced earlier in her training as navy officer.
But she made it through, most importantly, with no loss to the crew. She was quite relieved at that, but the next time, she was to command a ship, that would more than likely not be the case.
It seemed now, the way to her name day and coronation was cleared.

_____________________________________________________________________



Several weeks later, in front of the Royal Palace

The crowd in front of the gates of the palace, mostly consisting of press and high ranking governmental officials as well as several high ranking navy officers patiently awaited the announced coronation and naming ceremony of their princess. The tension, a good kind of tension, was palpable.
When, finally, the mighty doors of the palace opened, they did not, as expected, see the Princess walk through, but the King and the Queen. Both positioned themselves on the topmost stair of the stairway down to the courtyard.
“My countrymen!”, King Seo Tae Sun exclaimed. “In everybody’s life, there comes a time when you have to make major decisions. During my lifetime I have made many such decisions that affected our nation, but now it is time to make my biggest decision I have ever made.”

“My wife and I have been ruling for more than fifty years and ever since we have allowed our daughter to try herself in the matters and affairs of the state, we have been more than impressed by her performance and are sure she will do very fine as the leader of this country.
As our daughter will become the queen of this country, Sa Ra and I are abdicating, hereby ending the Triarchy.”

A murmur went through the gathered crowd as they started to understand the consequences of what the former King had just said.

“With this, I am happy to announce the coronation of your new Queen! Princess Seo Mi Ran will from this day on be known as Queen Seo Nara! May she protect our nation!”

Despite the confusion of Tae Sun’s earlier exclamation a cheer erupted from the crowd, which silenced quickly when said person actually walked through the wide open gates of the palace.
Long white hair flowed in the draft, a majestic crown, the royal crown of the Cheonsang Kingdom, on her head accentuating her sharp, quite boyish face.
The more surprising thing, the thing that sent the crowd into more murmurs and very questioning looks were the pure white, majestic dragon wings proudly spread out as well as the soft, white scaled tail extending from her royal, warrior-styled dress.
Oh... she was !

“My countrymen! Your eyes are not deceiving you. Remember when we found out that both Tatara and Nyali are merely modified humans? Turns out, our scientists were able to reverse engineer the modifications and re-apply them to humans.”
She stretched out her arms.
“Today, we begin a new era! In the last month, I have made sure that every major city in our Kingdom has a governmentally controlled conversion chamber where everybody who is willing to go through what I have gone through gets their new official ID.
I will also extend my hand to every refugee who wants to live in our country. With these new chambers, it is even easier for you to start your new life. You’re given, just as anybody who goes through conversion, a new ID, and immediate citizenship. You will be able to, right now, start contributing to this country of ours.”

She took a long breath and stared right into the puzzled and sometimes even staggered faces of the high ranking humans in front of her. The Tatara and Nyali, on the other hand, looked delighted at this news.

“We have the chance, my friends. We can make at least our part of the world better, even if others try to destroy us. With this, we can finally rest easy that there will be no racial tensions amongst us, because we will be able to fully understand each other.
But, let me address this to those of criminal mind. You will not be able to use the chambers as a tool to evade justice! The chambers are equipped with DNA scanners. Anybody found with matching DNA to somebody connected to a crime will be caught.

Today is the day, when everybody wanting to live here, can do so. And those who already are, can finally choose who they want to be.

I remember that I envied the Tatara for a long while. I have watched my personal guard, her body radiating with a warrior’s spirit and I had asked myself the question again and again, why I could not be like her. But now, I am.”

Slowly, her visible excitement toned down and she got serious again.

“But… as joyous as I am about this chance, I have other matters to address as well. Our neighbours, the splintered factions of the old, fiendish Imperium, are tangled in war once more.
To all independent nations, as the new head of state, I declare our nation to be neutral in this squabble. We do not want to be involved in your petty wars over this or that.

With this, my first royal decree, I proclaim military ships, without the intention of surrendering or seeking medical aid, both of which have to be clearly stated by visible flags or signs, to be shot down inside our borders. This is our sovereign territory and we do not wish our front yard to be just another battleground!”

With this, the new Queen saluted the people and walked back into the palace, her naked feet, without scales or claws as some other Tatara, sounding audibly on the stone.