A galaxy not so far away [FT][IC][Chapter 1]

[Vanquaria]

The Vanquarian space fleet, numbering over a hundred strong, built by the hands of billions of alien slaves advanced south into the galaxy. They brought terror and fear with them. The technology granted by the alien pod had benefited their already advanced technology, giving them access to new weapons. They were drunk in power, wanting more every day. Who could stop their conquest of the galaxy?


Hundreds of thousands of dropships flew into the atmosphere of the alien planet. Hundreds of thousands of dropships were destroyed. But more and more kept coming. Inside each dropship was a humanoid alien in the Empire's auxiliary armies, some fighting for a chance to gain the same level of rights as pure blood Vanquarians and searching to make their fortune. The majority fought in fear, the Empire threatening to destroy their home planets and enslave their families. They were poorly equipped but they made that up in their sheer manpower, rushing madly at enemy plasma guns.

After the auxiliary forces came thousands of combat drones, large machines that rained down a spray plasma. They were accompanied by battalions of Vanquarian shocktroopers, the standard infantry of the Empire and hundreds of battle tanks. It was a blitzkreig on a planetary scale, with the majority of forces focusing on the capital cities. Commandos were sent to sabotage vital supply points. Destroyer warships entred the atmosphere and began raining down missiles, aiming intentionally at civilians. There was no such thing as war crimes in interstellar wars in the present era.

Admiral Orlock watched as his armies descended upon the planet. He then sat down on his large chair inside the flagship. One of his captains then walked up and said,'' Sir, our scout drones have identified many sentient civilisations on the southeast sector of the known galaxy.''
The Admiral smiled and replied,'' Deploy a initial wave of 30 warships. Make sure they contain auxiliary troops and drones only. The main fleet shall follow. Dimissed.''


The initial attack fleet, containing about 10 million soldiers entered the space of the Multitudes of Communist Union.

[The Rebel Alliances]

OOC Note: I RP in first person, so for each character I have a heading and it is organized in this way. "Character Name-Position/Occupation-Location" Thank you.

Kritara Sa'kal-Spera Phalsteen-Skaia, Talith

The sunlight poured through the open canopies and wide gaps, which serve as open air windows from the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in Skaia, and the building which serves as our home of Government. Ambient noises could be heard as I sat upon the very wide and open room, which bore the name of the Consul Chamber, as I awaited the arrival of a guest to which we would discuss various matters. This one in particular is a elected representative, a very rare sight on our world, a process only found within our own tribe. The process of electing consuls for different castes is only four years old. It was my decision, drawn from the wisdom bestowed upon us by then Sky Mother, to implement such a change, and to observe it's affects on our society. As I peered out ahead of me, as the large and empty archway, which would provide the path for the consular of the Caste of Seas, a Caste which members deal exclusively among dimplomatic matters. Their number is among the smallest of the Castes, second only to the Caste of the Sun. Which is the Caste of Governance. Flanking both sides of the archway, were two flowing emerald drapes. The open Archways, and windows, serve as a reminder of the architecture of our people.

The Avreen do not use doorways, or closed windows, and often our homes are filled with wider and open spaces. Always open to the nature outside. We have learned to build our homes and cities in unity with nature, rather than against it. Our cities and settlements tower above the tree lines of our world, or are built upon the cliff tops of the widest mountains. The only exception being tribes that reside in plains or the few rocky deserts. Where material for constructing sky reaching towers are not available. I passed my own gaze, across a small pool of water where my own reflection was shone to me.

My feather coloration was a light green, where my wings, like all of our species, have long lost their use for flight. Only allowing us to glide across high distances. With two fingers, and a single opposing clawed thumb. Each finger had a retractable talon, which we use for climbing, cracking open food or other chores. But never for combat anymore, to strike even a hated enemy with a talon, is a grave insult against the spirits. My clothing, was loose fitting, and stayed just above the ground, as any clothing that drags, would only hamper our ability to move freely.

There were various insignia and intricate patterns which denoted my station as the Phalsteen of the Spera Tribe. At about that time, the consul of the Caste of the Seas had finally arrived. A middle aged female Avrian, with a vibrant orange and yellow feathered appearance, and about two inches shorter then myself. Her own robes were obviously very different than my own, far more multi colred, they seemed to blend together in swirls as her clothing decorated her already colorful body.

As she approached, we each initiated the customary greeting, where a Avrian bows slightly, but cocks their head slightly to the left side, a protocol dating back centuries. As the consular stepped in, we both began to speak to each other with a series of body language combined with chirps and other sounds, the native language of the Avrian. However, speaking verbally is possible, as our kind can pronounce sounds in the human range, it is simply not developed for communication with our own kind. So, as the meeting began, we spoke of the inevitable future, of our contact with alien races.

Skaia, Capital City of the Avreen and the Spera Clan

Raythka Vriks-Razor Fleet Admiral-Talith Orbit

The damage to my eyes from the sun's rays were negated by the affects of the glass from the view port, from where I sat in my captain's chair aboard the small frigate class vessel as I looked out at our large bluish white sun. It was then that another of our frigates had crossed into my own sights, the ship was a very angled one in design, with wide forward sweeping arms like that of a bird, and upon it's top and lower half, are large and wide bronze solar sails. Such sails are not used for FTL travel, but rather for in system flight, the green metallic shine of the hulls was also traditional of Avreen design. And overall, the space ship strongly resembles one of our vessels designed to sail the seas of our world. Such likeness is of course natural, as the design of space ships is new to us, it was likely they would resemble their terrestrial cousins.

I tore my eyes away from the sight and picked myself up, as I walked to inspect the Phircas, or what we call our spatial marines. I thought of the condition of our naval forces, and the title was just barely fitting. The entire Avreen navy consists only of nineteen frigates or similar class ships designed for warfare, the rest are scout vessels or some other support role. This may be sufficient to ward off the Corsairs, spatial pirates continuing our tradition of hunting among the stars, armed with weapons that carry battle cries amongst the cold depths of space. Such occupations among our kind is combated, but not discouraged. As predators, a hunt takes many forms, and all forms are seen as legitimate. Even when the hunt targets government vessels and transports.

The ship is small, and the confines of the halls were narrow, and so it did not take long to reach the inspection area, where a full compliment of one hundred and twenty Prircas stood like a honor guard presenting themselves and their weapons and armor. Each soldier wore minimal body armor, meant to provide reasonable protection and allow maximum movement. But among their weapons, they were each armed with plasma blades and pikes. As well as mobile energy shields, which were small but designed to be easy to maneuver and position in the narrow confines of a enemy warship or one of our own in a boarding action.

This is another example of our traditions in naval warfare coloring our mentality in spatial warfare. Combat on our seas are bloody, and consists of vessels trying cripple a enemy ship and then engage in boarding action. The weapons are all designed for melee combat, as ranged combat has always been in limited use among my kind.

As I outwordly expressed content with this mentality, I have clashed with command several times to modernize and innovate our ideas on warfare. Finishing the inspection, my XO approached from behind me. Informing me that the mission to escort our very first colonization ship out of our home system was a go.

I then returned myself to my own command, as I had a feeling that our kind is in for a sever revelation once we finally do come into contact with a new race, and one that may not be friendly to our interests.

[Valdiu]

Eurion - Horizon Station
Scorpii System

The recorded message continued playing through the commander's attempts at communication, the national anthemcontinuing in the background. A small holo-projector projected images to correspond with his points.

"This message has been pre-recorded in the eventuality that this probe - designated VDSP-E-FTL-1, reaches the threshold and is brought to the attention of another intelligent race.

The Stellar Valdian Empire is a sprawling country, located on Reach, located here on this galactic map."

A projection of the galaxy sprung up, a blinking red dot reminiscent of a pushpin on a paper map marking the planet's location.

"Though we are largely terrestrial as of now, a probe from an empire known as the Aegens has unlocked to us the secrets of interstellar travel via space-time deformation of the Minkowski space, by which this research probe upon which this message was carried was propelled.

Our Empire was formed upon the bones of many squabbling nations. Though originally weak and miniscule, our Empire slowly and earnestly worked its way up the ranks to control the majority of the planet formerly known as Atlas, now known as Reach. Now a technological and economical powerhouse, the Empire is looking into production of the many fruits of the seed that is our pod.

Though, for the sake of brevity, I cannot continue this message further, consider this probe an invitation: return coordinates have been provided on a plaque inside this probe. If you are willing able to transit to Reach, we welcome you with open arms. If you are willing but unable, return the probe home and we will visit at your earliest convenience. If you are unwilling, then you may destroy this probe and we will not contact you further.

Included are some of the gifts of our pod that we may better your civilization in the way that it has bettered ours, should you need them.

Thank you, and farewell.

The captain blinked. The message blinked off. Of course, should he wish, the captain had the option of replaying the message in any of the thousands of languages of Reach at the touch of a finger, though there was no need for it.

Reach - Mission Control
The room was silent. Why should it be anything else? What else could it do? What else could they do? Their probe, the fruits of their labor, was in the hands of a foreign race, who could use the coordinates and information on the disc with impunity. And so they waited.

They waited.

They waited.

They waited.

It had been a few hours now. Nobody had spoken. Nobody needed to speak. Nobody wanted to speak. But someone had to. "Pack it up. There's nothing more we can do here. Leave a skeleton crew with a direct line to my pager. The rest of you, grab a beer and go home."

There's a funny feeling you get once something like this happens. It's a mix of emptiness and ecstasy; ennui and elation. It was a sort of visceral pins-and-needles, that something had happened, but you can't fathom what.

That was, of course, what Chris Haddaway was feeling.

Like a shaken soda can, he had a sort of ennuic pressure building inside him. He had been going about his work as normal. Nothing seemed different to him. To him, at least. A joviality had descended upon the labs deep in the heart of the mountains of Valdiu, a joviality as if a great monster had been slain; a great fetter had been cut loose - but the oppressed were too humble to brag about it. It was nothing; it was everything - it was the spring in a step, the light in an eye.

It remained that way until the next morning, when a newspaper hit his desk. "What's this?" Haddaway looked up from his tinkerings. "A paper. We've done it, Doctor." Of course, everyone in the lab had known of the probe's success, and it was met with happiness - an institutional sort of happiness, really; a pizza and root beer party, then back to work. This paper, was, of course, nothing new - standard news, latest health, trend, who's dating what, but emblazoned proudly across the front page were the words: "ALIENS FOUND."

"ALIENS FOUND." This simple, two-word, eleven-letter phrase that was incorrect in many ways. Haddaway found himself staring at it.

Like a shaken soda can, he had a sort of ennuic pressure building inside him. And, like the unfortunate sucker who opened the shaken soda can, he was hit in the face with a cold, delicious slap. "We've done it." He nodded. "We- we've done it." "Yes, Doctor, you have. Congratulations." With that, the olive green-adorned man stepped out of the room, and with a summary doff of his military cap, went off to his other duties.

Haddaway wiped away a single tear before getting out of his seat.

He spent the rest of the afternoon giving handshakes and warm compliments to his - in his eyes, newly - brilliant staff.

[Imperial Esplanade]

Alliancia, New Castillo
IEMCC: Imperial Esplanadian Military Command Center



Within the massive military command center, just outside of Fort New Atlantis, the largest military fortress in Imperial Esplanadian territory, General Alan Grayson, alongside Secretary of Defense John McNamara, stare at a large screen in the middle of the situation room immersed deep inside the complex as they conference call with President Reynolds and watching the events unravel before them on a live broadcast. "Mr. President, I highly advise that we send a team to secure that object now!" General Grayson fervently declares. "General, I understand your concerns, however I must balance the Freedoms of the Press and Assembly with this particular situation. There's already too many journalists and too many people around to shut things down now. The broadcast is not only dispatched across the nation, but across the galaxy. "General, we have no clue what that object even is..." then, one of the scientists toying around with what appears to be a pod in the middle of abandoned farmland. Suddenly, a holographic figures appears and delivers the following message:

"Greetings life form, my name is Or'dihil and I am archlord of the Aegen empire. You may not know this but we are an empire that spans all of the galaxy. But my empire won't last for much longer. A dark force we call the outsiders are attacking, and they are winning. We have no hope in defeating them, but we do have hope that we will be avenged. This pod contains information about this enemy and also the technology we have now so you can start building your empire so you will be able to defeat this foe. I don't have much longer, I hope you will do what is necessary."

Journalists covering the event caught the entire thing, broadcasting live, and the room within the Command Center fell silent. After a few moments, General Grayson leaned in and began to speak. "Mr. President, this might just be a prank..." "I think we'll know soon enough whether it is or not." President Reynolds responded "As far as this is concerned, this might just be a warning of an impending invasion. I want to know all about this Aegan Empire and if anyone else had received this message... and when we start getting inundated with questions, just tell them we have no reason to believe that this is a credible threat or even actionable intelligence. I want people to remain calm and continue on with their daily lives. Understand?" Following a barrage of "yes sir"s, the President then disables the hologram and sits back in his chair. "What the hell just happened..." President Reynolds said to himself.

[Galactic Federation of the FDR]

FNS Samnite

The Star Destroyer glided into the system with a small flash of light. Several thousand meters away was the FNS Mirmillo, along with a large freighter carrying a small station divided into several modules. Onboard in her quarters was a female diplomat from the Federationist Diplomatic Corps.

Quarters of Tatiana Satine

She was woken up by the harsh shrilling of the alarm on her holopad. Groaning and rolling over, she smacked the thing off the nightstand onto the durasteel floor. Attempting to go back to sleep, she finally gave in and tossed the blankets off of her body. Crawling out of the bed and immediately smashing her knee on a nightstand, she let out a string of huttese curses before picking up the pad and disabling the alarm. Several messages were in the inbox.

Addressed to Tatiana Satine

Greetings young diplomat. We have assigned you on your first field mission to negotiate an agreement with a newly discovered race of aliens, preferably to allow us free access through their system. As you have recently completed your training, we will be monitoring any exchanges via a device in your datapad. Best of luck diplomat.

Groaning once more, she walked over to the small wardrobe she had at her disposal. There was only three sets of clothes in the thing, and she grabbed what looked like formal white robes. After a quick run in the refresher, she tied her hair up into a bun before donning the robes. Grabbing the pad, she walked out of the room and locked it, before heading up to the transmission room to attempt negotiations.

As the turbolift shot up through the bowels of the ship, she allowed her mind to wonder over all the possibilities. Here she was, a young diplomat fresh out of training on a mission to negotiate with an alien species. She could scarcely contain her excitement before the turbolift came to a stop and she forced the same steely look back onto her face. The room was illuminated by the control panels and screens of several technicians, along with two troopers there to serve the purpose of intimidation. Standing in front of the holotable, she ordered one of the technicians to attempt to connect to the station in orbit above the populated planet.

FNS Inflexible
Shuttle Bay

The shuttle slowly came through the protective forcefield, powering down the drives and extending landing gear before thumping down onto the deck. Several troopers led by an officer strode out to the ramp as it hissed open, revealing a frantic pilot and a tired gunner. With a gesture of the hand, the officer ordered the troopers to detain the men. The look of confusion on the pilot's face as the blasters were raised in his direction was replaced by one of dread when a trooper snapped a pair of plasticuffs onto his wrists. "For nearly causing a hostile conflict with an unknown species, you two are hereby charged with subversion against the Federation. There is no chance of bail or parole." Another gesture and the two were being led to the detention level while the shuttle was fastened with demolition charges and towed out of the hanger by a gunship. Once at a safe distance, the charges were detonated, instantly destroying the small craft and sending small chunks of armor off in every direction.

FNS Inflexible
Bridge

The captain had been on the bridge for almost twelve hours now, and it was catching up with him. He was refilling his cup of caf when the two Gladiators entered the system. Dropping his cup into a disposal device, he strode over to the holomap and began to slide the icons of the two ships into position. After several minutes, the three Star Destroyers took up a diamond formation with the freighter cemented in the middle. He had read the orders concerning the diplomat, and although these strange people disgusted him (OOC: Possible traitor?), he had been ordered by FLEETCOM to subvert control of negotiations to her.

[Neo ORB]

Anything in Italic in an internal thought, not being spoken.

Keifer 16; Time: 1:01 pm
Reposia: (Orbiting Agenisi)
Jess Terra

I watched, watched with annoyance as the strange craft came down from the skys, Its design was meant for flying. was this the design of those without wing's? I wondered momentarily how it would function until I was blasted by a wave of woodchips as the craft came down, after the splash I was left with picking chips the best I could out of my hair and out of my clothing as I shook them.
"Stupid Kalthras's... why would you have them create such a padding, was the grass's and dirt not enough?"
However as I watched the being move out of his craft, I could see indentation from his weight. Was it because the wood was new and soft, or was he really that heavy?.
Slowly however I left a silent sigh escape my lips as I listened to his voice. The tones and chirps were monotone at best and it felt like I was listening to a musical accompaniment played on a single note, but I grinned and bore it for the sake of the first meeting.

"I am armed despite your wants because it is imbedded into my arm." as he pointed to his left arm. he then moved his hand open faced forward in some odd gesture towards me. I looked at it confused and then simply turned on my heels lightly and pointed in the direction of the city.

"You will be demitted for refusal of our only demand. Follow me, My Mistress is waiting."
I quickly unfurled my wings feeling the soft feathers momentarily touch my hands and then faced towards the city with my back towards the being, with the shield of my wings and back I quickly touched my chest and made a small command on my suit in the design of a seven and G mixed together as the purple swirling icon appeared on the wrist of the bandage uniform I held underneath my suit. Antigravity, the Aegens had given us the one thing our species longed for, the sky.

Quickly I leaped up into the sky or in reality a few feet into it and turned on a dime feeling the power within my four wings, and yet not even the slightest of wind resistance. It was true, this feeling of unrivaled flight was the best, as I silently danced alone twirling and stepping while lightly flapping my wings.
oh course I was watching the man the entire time as I hummed to myself going higher and higher until I sat lightly onto a tree branch several dozen meters up and allowed my legs to lightly bounce off the bark while lightly kicking. Then with a bored expression. I yelled lightly in a good mood.
"Your slow... hurry up... My Mistress is waiting."
As I pushed myself off of the branch I allowed myself to fall until I reached only a few inches off the ground and then kicked lightly in a twist and headed towards the city showing a trail for the man to follow. We was slow... unbearably so especially when we got into the city after thirty minutes of watching him walk through Hyperion while he looked at the trees. At the animal life that watched him cautiously, although the Ulati a sort of flying squirrel mixed with a bird and a partial balloon in-between the gliding skinfolds seemed to be interested more in the man as they dived him from the air or simply skittered up his clothing to perch on his shoulders or head... It was kind of cute, although since they were already considered a sort of pet. There were already a lot of domesticated and wild ones in homes.

When we got to the city, I could see the man watching the Infrastructure intently as he walked, the looked at the sunlight which broke through the foliage. Most was natural, but some had been tied back or pruned in order to allow light to hit the city. The bridges and carved stairs, the couples and workers as they went along with their lives, the homes on the ground level and those that climbed into the sky. The children seemed to enjoy the new presence as several small ones rushed the newcomer as there small voices chirped in loud high-pitched squeaks, it would still be a while for them until the tones that made up the majority of the Nare's vocabulary would be taught. But for now they sounded like small birds in the form of wingless human children.
It was also why we called the ground level "The Nursery." since it was where new family's started there lives and in order to keep any accidental deaths from falling to a minimum.

As we progressed through the city the atmosphere only grew more quiet as the populace silently watched new comer, some parents quickly took their older children inside into the depths of there homes built above in the trees several meters above ground level. Others watched with curiosity, no it was obvious why they were curious. such an event had never been seen before and so the populace was careful, always watching in silence or in hushed whispers amongst themselves while they lightly pointed in his direction.

It was as they got to Mother Hyperion that the man seemed to stop as if frozen, such a reason was obvious however for a newcomer since Mother Hyperion was no average tree. After all it was a whopping mile in width and reached several miles into the sky. The homes if you could call such mansions homes and businesses that wrapped around the base of the tree alone were grandeur and ancient as moss grew lightly around the green dyed stone that had held for thousands of years. But the "Castle" at the top was different, that alone held something almost divine as it wrapped gently round the entire tree as it got thinner towards its top, the thousand's of supportive branches that held it up.
The strange blue crystal walls mixed with stone and carved wood. The painstakingly carved sculptures of angels and beasts that watched over the city below. As I floated down next to the man I gently raise my arm to the castle and then spoke.
"Welcome to the Mother of Hyperion, This is were we hit a small, problem... we're going to have to carry you up there... so please do your best not to move otherwise we might just drop you."
I gave a small smile, but I lightly hinted and indicated that if he really moved we would actually drop him just for the fun of it. Quickly I moved away from the man as two young men quickly formed up on the man and then took him by the arms lightly and made two small gestures on their chest as the swirls appeared on there wrists. Instantly the three of them became as light as a feather and then men with their package quickly flew up into the heights. As they reached the first levels balcony the men lightly placed the man onto the thick marble tiling and then flew off into a higher level back to work after giving me a quick gesture.

"Welcome to the center of the Nare. Please follow quickly, you have about fifty stories yet to climb."
Quickly I lead the man through the first four levels which held the government, I caught him trying to enter a few rooms which I quickly pulled the man away from and forcefully dragged him through the levels. As we reached the library's he seemed to enjoy the large collection of books, although as we reached the upper levels, those were slowly being digitized into accessible computer crystals and holograms not that we'd ever get rid of the precious book keeping anyway.
It was as we reached the seventh level where the Mistress was in which I saw the man wasn't tired in the slightest. I found it odd... for a average Airdren if they suffered the loss of their wings and couldn't fly while they regrew, it had actually been recorded and tested that such a marathon of walking, running and climbing of several dozen flights of stairs per level almost brought them to the point of near death due to pure exhaustion. Yet this being, this man was a cool as a sleeping Ulati still full of energy. I narrowed my eyes lightly and then sighed as I opened the double door's to the council room.
Instantly I wanted to retch as the smell flooded me.
"Oh god... its Lord Kalthras... bare it Jess, you can bare this... stench... The mistress has been in here for hours... I--if she can do It, as her aide you must too..."

As I opened the double doors fully, what greeted the man as I lightly pushed him forward lightly was a large circular room divided into five section's lit by various blue crystals. In fact the room looked very much like the amphitheatres of old and in it's center near an oak table waited Mistress Lorthous in a seductive black dress with dark feathered ends and black gloves, while her folded black wings and free flowing waist long black hair only complimented her image as a sort of fallen angel. If any man had seen her current appearance. They would have been caught instantly by the beauty she excluded outwards like an insect to a pitcher plant. Slowly she stepped forward from the head of the table and then gave a small sort of ceremonial bow with a light smile.

In another section near the table however smoothing writhed, A large mass of black and red flesh with tentacles to numerous to count was thrashing against the crystal ground on which it slithered. Surrounding it were dozens of small children no older then ten or twelve with piercing blue eyes and uncharacteristic snow white skin as they laid against the writhing tentacles which were placed on the ground as a sort of fleshy bedding. At the same time, the tail's from the children lightly slapped crystal near the ends of the beasts tentacles.
In fact the beast gave the feel of a eunuch surrounded by their courtship of beautiful women, as the other free writhing tentacles gently patted the waiting children who gave happy expressions. However one small little girl got up from the bed and quickly gave the beast a kiss while entering the mass of tentacles that seemed to consume the child monetarily as it covered her from every angle. Before reappearing unharmed and then quickly moved towards the Mistress and spoke in the same sort tones and chirps if one didn't count the fact it sounded like the child was speaking in a garbled tone right out of hell with the intensity of a thousand voice's all at once.
"Mistress, the Lord wish's to know if that is who you were waiting on?."
"Indeed it is." spoke Lorthous as she lightly nodded in the child's direction.

Quickly however the child then started to scream as its muscles bloated and writhed underneath. Its skin ripped apart as black blood sprayed in every direction. As the child fell onto the ground writhing helplessly, her bones cracked and snapped until the child finally stopped dead and then grew into a bloated balloon which popped with a small sound. As the blood once more seemingly sprayed everywhere in a large splash of liquid, bones and organs, it suddenly floated unmoving like a geyser just after the moment of eruption where the surge of water erupted, but hadn't pierced the sky.
and then swivelled back onto the body in the form of a wolf with the fur made of small tentacles, It's tail had not split into three smaller ones.
Quickly the wolf which had appeared form the child looked at the new comer and then slowly moved towards it as it extended several tentacles slowly out.

as I watched this I silently squirmed thinking about how painful it must be to transform in such a way as I watched the tentacles slowly approach the man. As they got to several feet away from him, they suddenly stopped and then race'd back to the wolf as it crouched dangerously taking a defensive position in front of the Mistress and then started to growl as its claws gripped into the crystal, as the mass of tentacles that made its body's fur stood up on end.
"Sorry Mistress, as the child there has perceived, he is still armed, its within his body so it seems he can't remove it."

Quickly Lorthous sighed as several of the other small children got up and stared at the man with steely expressions as there tails violently began the trash until the "Beast" suddenly spoke,. how could such a thing speak was honestly a nightmare inducing mystery, but its intent which reverberated with a scream was unfathomable as the children and wolf suddenly looked at their Lord.
"CALM YOURSELVES... MY CHILDREN... IF THE VISITOR CANNOT REMOVE IT, THEN OPEN HOSTILITY IS NOT THE WAY, THE MOTHER HAS INVITED THIS GUEST TO OUR HOME... YOU WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY..."
"But this thing is dangerous Master, Kalthras... I can smell it, he is not of flesh and bone!"
"He must be destroyed..."
"HE MUST!"
quickly the children started chanting the same tones over and over as they looked with hostility towards the Admiral, their trashing tails quickly lined into a single unison like crack against the crystal. They could feel the admiral was a threat instinctively. However Lorthous lightly then picked up the wolf in front of her but its scruff and then lightly threw it towards Kalthras as it yipped in sudden surprise.
"ENOUGH....." Yelled Lorthous in a quick but decisive tone.
"This is no way to treat a guest, Kalthras... control your hive or i'll do it for you."
Quickly after a moments hesitation, the beast's tentacles quickly grabbed all the children and brought them into the mass of tentacles as it covered them in a protective fashion within layers and layers of flash.
As I quickly sighed, I could hear my Mistress talk lightly towards the Admiral as she defused the internal tension.
"I am sorry about my Kalthras's hive, they take any threat rather... Seriously..."
As the she lightly then moved to a eloquent chair place at the head of the table, Lorthous lightly sat down and then directed to another chair at the other end and motioned for the admiral to sit in it.
"You've come for the request of the trade to our shielding systems... then what do you have to trade for them.? After all, our defense's is a rather serious request... I hope you have something of equal worth to make us consider such a deal."

---

With the arrival of the aircraft now in there air space, and the first visitor on Agenisi, Kaguya was on high alert.
So high in fact that as the guest had reached Mother Hyperion. Kaguya silently raised the finished shield system over the fortress as sixteen ten meter high steel pillar's encircling the mountain started to build up the tiniest of volts of electrical impulses. As they built there dancing electrical charges which glassed and burned near by ground and defensive plating towards each other tower. The faintest of shields could be seen raising up at first as nothing more then a trick of the eye. And then in a massive blinding pulse lasting no more then a nanosecond.
The silver turbulent sea of the Impulse and golden shield of the Arc rose from the ground and eclipsed on the entire mountain sealing it off.

[Vanquaria]

The Vanquarian war fleet that was heading into Communist space suddenly encountered a serious problem; meteor shower. The meteors were half a hour away from coming into contact with the fleet. The vice admiral in charge commanded his subordinates,
''We must pull back. We can come back to this area of space in a few decades. Notify the admiral we are withdrawing.''
The warships launched their FTL drives.

Tython, Interstellar Empire of Vanquaria
The alien slave collapsed onto his knees. The work was too much. Too much. He had to rest. But then he felt the sharp, excruciating pain of an electric baton. AAHHH! he screamed. When the pain began to leave he was whacked hard on his humanoid face. He went rolling to the side. Slowly, he forced himself up again to look at the crimson eyes of a Vanquarian.

The overseer snarled his canine teeth at the alien and said in English,''Get back to work or next time I shall kill you.''
The alien gasped. His English was not perfect but he heard the words kill and work. He blinked fast to stop tears from coming out and continued to lift the small but heavy steel block to the Destroyer warship still in construction, walking along with millions of other alien slaves.

Every alien civilisation the Vanquarian Empire conquered they also enslaved, using about 30% of the males of each race. This proved useful as thousands of warships had been constructed and many more war machines. But it also fuelled the flame of freedom. Each alien dreamed of a world free from these demons. But rebellions were crushed swiftly and mercilessly. Hundreds of thousands of unarmed, innocent aliens were also killed as punishment for starting a rebellion. The Empire ruled by fear and an iron fist.

The alien, who was just a teenager in human terms, silently wished for someone or something to come out from the black heavens to save him. But for now, it was constant work and constant pain.

Vanquaria, Capital Solar System

Construction had began on defences for the home solar system of the Empire. Massive, floating space stations of war lay around everywhere. Millions of combat drones were deactivated and put in holds inside the space stations for when they were needed. Hundreds of warships were gathered at the space stations and hundreds left on another conquest. Inside each ship marched the armies of the Empire, brutal, ruthless and highly trained. War had always been part of Vanquarian culture. Or violence.

At the home planets of the Empire were countless numbers of young Vanquarian boys being indoctrinated subliminally to serve with extreme patriotism to the Empire as well as learning the art of war. The standard Vanquarian soldier was still a formidable foe having been trained since a young age. They were taught to be as cruel as they could to the enemy because war crimes did not exist in interstellar warfare. Only the most ruthless could win.

[Spindle]

Na'Hraa'Voro glided through the docking appendage onto the Ka'ayn with Ni'Hraa'Khn, his civilian counterpart, gliding alongside him. Both were flushing deep green at the urgency of their orders, as well as the setting that the orders would be executed in.

The Ka'ayn was the bureaucratic hart of P'yet'ak, one of the three fully self-contained cities the Ma'ard had ever made and was the location of the government headquarters.Completely untethered to any asteroids, it floated freely in space and its rotation and orbit had been used for defining each period of time, such was its importance to the Ma'ard. As the full property of the Dez'a'mats, access to the Ka'ayn was invitation only so even as Commander of the Ma'ard Military Science Division, 'Voro had only been on it a handful of times. That their orders had required them to move permanently onto the city spoke volumes about the importance of their task.

The vagueness of the orders spoke just as much about the necessary secrecy. They hadn't even been told which field of research was being conducted, or why it necessitated both the Commander of the Ma'ard Military Science Division and the Servant of Ma'ard Civilian Science.
A guide courteously directed the pair along one of the smaller arterial passages, stopping for full-body searches periodically. 'Voro noticed the valves closing behind him were thicker than normal, almost as thick as a blast containment valve, and sheathed in combat chitin, and the same went for the walls around them. His complexion began to shift from green to turquoise as he realised that whatever was happening here was big. No one said anything, simply waiting for the moment of revelation they knew was coming.

The last valve opened to reveal a gargantuan room, with towering ribs of bone and cartilage supporting the rhythmically contracting muscle and flesh of the walls and ceiling, constantly distorting the dimensions of the cavern. Over to one side an enormous, taut screen of skin constantly shifted colour, the technicians gathered around a strange object in the centre of the room occasionally gesturing at the data pouring off of the screen. The object itself seemed to be some kind of atmospheric entry pod, except made of the shiny-rock that the Ayl had been so fond of. Simply looking at it forced 'Voro to suppress his revulsion. If that...thing was what he had to work on, it had better be worth it. He'd seen enough films with aliens coming in shiny-rock spaceships, or even being made of shiny-rock to ever want to see the material again, let alone work with it.
But just as all of that managed to sink in, 'Voro saw the three Ma'ard in front of him, and his complexion shifted to a pale, reverent violet.

Na'Khar'Sovr, the Minister for Bioforms and 'Khn's superior hovered regally, his skin a commanding turquoise.
Next to him was Ni'Khar'Krriv, Second Master of the Military and 'Voro's superior. Her deep orange complexion spoke of her graveness.
And next to her was Dez'a'mats Hayr, the current ruler of the P'yet'ak and the most powerful Ma'ard in existence. 'Voro felt his gripper tentacles spread slightly in a gesture of supplication. Giving deep, respectful flashes to each of the Ma'ard before them, and receiving far lighter flashes in return, 'Voro and 'Khn waited for their first piece of actual information. Out of the corner of his eyes, 'Voro noticed the six Ma'ard hovering surreptitiously with slug-throwers on each of their gripper tentacles, just one of the advances they had adapted from the Ayl. Was this pod another piece of Ayl technology?

"Three rotations ago, at two hundred and four-point-eight cycles, we picked up this object over two hundred thousand kiloyun within the LIDAR sphere of sensor platform seventeen. It had not been there two beats earlier, yet it was travelling at just over four Yun per beat." 'Krriv began without preamble.
It was typical of her, 'Voro reflected, to go for a shock and awe approach even among allies. But still, for something to have moved that fast then decelerated to such a slow speed would require a horrendous amount of energy...not to mention that none of the shiny-rock the Ayl had produced would ever be able to withstand the stress.
"Three cycles before this, sensor platform seventeen had picked up an unusual gravitic waveform. It looked like this."
A portion of skin next to to the group dissolved into a complicated series of three-dimensional, concentric lines, bunching towards the front and dispersing towards the back.
"You recognise the basic structure, of course." 'Sovr broke in.
All 'Voro and 'Khn could do was to flash a single affirmative. The basic structure was a Narv'hal gravitic diagram, but where Ma'ard Narv'hals could only produce a single, curved plane and direction of distortion, this showed an impossible mix of planes and directions of distortions including, in several cases, flat planes, something which was outright impossible. Yet the screen did not care what 'Voro thought was and was not possible and persisted in presenting its preposterous data.
"We've been analysing this, and it all came from one Narv'hal. That's how it's avoiding interference." 'Sovr continued, heaping more impossibilities upon 'Voro, "The crew member of sensor platform seventeen didn't know that, of course, but she grasped the implications and we got a Kag'ham'ar there to pick it up. Good thing, too. It was headed right for the remains of Ayl'ash and we'd never have found it in that mess. Unfortunately, that appears to have been the easy part."
The screen changed to a close up of the object, which definitely was a pod of some kind, surrounded by technicians. One of them was making no apparent progress through its skin with a plasma cutter, and 'Voro suppressed his repulsion yet again.
The screen continued to zoom in, showing a pad of some kind with an Ayl handprint on it. No, not Ayl, 'Voro noticed, looking closer. The number of manipulators, the size and the shape of the hand were all wrong. Still, it was a far cry from the Ma'ard tentacle.
"This part of the object seems to be the lock." 'Krriv said, "Unfortunately, it doesn't accept Ma'ard and it doesn't like the Ayl bodies we've been keeping in storage. So, we're going to need to rearrange its workings in order to see what it's about. This is your primary objective."
"If that fails, we want you to be ready to reverse-engineer anything you can-especially its engine." 'Sovr added.
"You understand what's at stake, yes?" Hayr spoke for the first time, "An advanced civilisation sent something to the Ayl. We need to be ready for when they realise it won't ever be reaching them."
With that he jetted off, past the somewhat shell-shocked pair and off into the Ka'ayn.
"We're projecting us getting this thing open in about two weeks-assuming none of the technicians drop it on Ayl'ash and let the Breakers open it." 'Sovr said, darkening his complexion slightly to indicate the humour, "You've got that long to get a team ready-and they have to be trustworthy. No-one who you do not trust completely."
"Why the secrecy?" 'Khn asked, "Surely everyone should know about this!"
"That would be nice," 'Sovr agreed, "But-"
"The Church." 'Krriv interrupted, her tentacles flexing in anger, "They've got too much invested in the status quo to like any of this, and too much power for us to go against them...at the moment, anyway."
"We're currently conducting negotiations with several of the Church Splinters to see if we can get them to form a coherent opposition, and we know enough to be able to take out the entire Church leadership if need be. What we need is a way of preventing civil war when we do." 'Sovr explained, "If we can get the opposition as a viable option, we can either undermine the Church's power, or force its hand. Either one would be good for us."
"But you've got a place in this as well." 'Krriv interjected, "We want you to be challenging the Church every time they claim something you come up with is 'heretical' or 'blasphemous'."

'Voro understood. They were to be the smokescreen, shielding other activities from the eyes of the Church. It was perfect, for 'Krriv and 'Sovr anyway, since they had plausible deniability: they could simply write it off as an over-sensitive R&D Department fighting for relevance, slap 'Voro and 'Khn on the wrist and carry on.
And, of course, every argument they won against the Church would undermine it a little bit more.

"Do you want to take this on?" 'Krriv asked.
"Of course." 'Vorro and 'Khn answered.
"Then start preparing your teams. You have two weeks to be prepared." 'Sovr said, "You'd better get to work."

[Vogega]

Zar
The creatures started to move in, clicking their teeth and claws, as sound that was very similar to a cat being dragged down a chalkboard. Timmy tried to scramble away from the approaching creatures. He screamed aloud in pain. So loud was the scream, that any birds that had come back after the fiery crash of the transport immediately lifted off and fled the area. He gingerly felt the area from where pain radiated outwards. He felt a piece of shrapnel imbedded into his leg. He cringed as he grabbed it ready to pull it out, but wait. The Tyr creatures were moving in coming closer and closer.
"Scram!" Timmy shouted as he reached for a metal rod laying nearby. As he snatched up what was previously the fuel intake that had miraculously survived the transports crash one of the Hormagaunts jumped at him. Timmy swung the fuel intake and smacked it in the head. It fell to the ground and lay there, unconscious. The others jumped on him and stabbed him through the chest. He had hit one more, but it had bounced of the right claw of one of the creatures. As he lay there dying in his own blood, he saw a creature straight from nightmare. It was massive. Standing almost 30 meters tall and 30 meters across, it was a massive ball of flesh and corded muscle. As he watched, larger Tyr creatures came from various gaps in the creature.
A ripper swarm came over to Timmy. They ate his friends in front of his eyes, and he screamed as they ate him. Nothing was left of Timmy. Blood, bones, flesh, and organs alike had all been swallowed by the swarm. They floated back to the hatchery and vomited out the remains of the transport's crew and passengers.
The factory went to work. it used the biomass from the passengers to make two eggs filled with a green fluid that would provide nutrition for the new Tyr creatures.
The eggs rolled out into sunlight. There were 10 total. In each, the remains joined together and bones knit, broke, then knit again. Had the people being turned into these creatures have been alive, the shock from this procedure would have killed them. The eggs burst out and the fragments sucked back in as the green goo flowed into the new creatures. Standing 1 meter in height, these creatures were the Tiv. Having just found the key for them to see in the dark, the Tyr queen had decided to hatch them under direct command of the Emperor. They were pale, almost albino with glowing green eyes. They worked in pairs with each one giving data and command to the other. If one died, the other would explode in a cloud of acid that also functioned as the creatures blood. Timmy was now two creatures. They stared at the other 4 pairs and immediately went to work building up their new muscles.

V.E.S. Haer
The first officer of the V.E.S. Haer had just turned off the lights in his room as his comlink rang incessantly. He picked it up.
"We have orders from the Emperor himself," said the communication officer.
"I will get it tomorrow."
"It is marked urgent and is heavily encrypted."
"Be right there," the first officer said while forcing his boots onto his feet using his lowest set of arms. He didn't quite sprint, but ran through the halls of the ship to reach the bridge.
"Play the message," he ordered and said flustered at the same time.
[u]I have dispatched a ship to your position. When it arrives, I want an accident that sends it crashing to a hospitable location for them. They do not know of this and they will never know that this is all planned. The captain of the vessel will have the life support fail and engines fail. It will crash land and establish a colony until we can go get them. You will not mention that our freighters could get everyone off that planet because they are filled with supplies and the only way to rescue the people would be to dump the supplies. Something that would spell doom for those stranded on the surface of the planet. The FOB on the satellite must remain unnoticed, so the ship must crash on a different solar object.
"You heard him. Get ready for the colony ship."
However, unknown to the captain and crew, this message was forged by the Emperor's closet advisors who felt that the Emperor was taking it easy on the Nare. They knew that if they were discovered, they would be executed in front of everyone by the blood rending machine which had never become portable.

Mother Hyperion
Mistress Lorthous's office
The Admiral had been recording what had seen. While a handshake was a greeting custom in most cultures, it was not popular with the Nare. He had looked around. He didn't record in infrared or look around that much because the three drones on his back were doing that already. He instead, used a series of high pitched sounds, so high that 99% of species couldn't hear it. This gave him a vague idea of where people an buildings were that he could not see. The birds seemed to hear this sound and constantly dived down on him and ran up his fancy diplomatic uniform especially on the bright red color of the admiral insignia. He smiled at the children and refrained from look at them to closely as to avoid scaring them as many people already seemed to be scared of him. He wondered why as many of their people were armed 100 percent of the time and he was but one person.
Then, he saw a massive tree. So tall was it, that only the jump pack troops and maybe some Tyr creatures could reach it. He paused to get an accurate recording of the tree. Or that is what he told himself. Is was experiencing a felling of awe to a degree that a machine albiet, a complicated machine could have.
"Welcome to the Mother of Hyperion, This is were we hit a small, problem... we're going to have to carry you up there... so please do your best not to move otherwise we might just drop you."
At this the admiral had to smile. A fall from that height would damage him, but it was unlikely that he would be unable to function afterwards. None the less, he allowed himself to be lifted by the two Nare men with help from antigravity. It would take many of them to lift him without help from antigravity. He was dropped onto some tile and saw the men flick a gesture to the ambassador. He couldn't be sure what it was though.
"Welcome to the center of the Nare. Please follow quickly, you have about fifty stories yet to climb."
The admiral followed her up the stairs and repeatedly attempted to look into some rooms. He was doing this for the benefit of intel later, but hoped to come across as curious to these peculiar people.
He was led into a room that as divided into five equal parts. Light blue crystals lit the room. He saw the woman waring a black dress and as she stood up, she bowed. The admiral bowed back to her, hoping this would earn him back the diplomatic points he had lost because he would have had to take off his arm.
The strange writhing mass of black and red reminded him of a Try factory, a fact that they existed had only recently been made available to him.
Mistress, the Lord wish's to know if that is who you were waiting on? said the pale-skinned child.
Indeed it is." Mistress Lorthous said as she nodded towards the child.
The admiral watched impassively as the child exploded two separate times to create a small, wolf-like creature. As the creature extended its tentacles, it took all of the admiral's self control not to blow it apart.
Sorry Mistress, as the child there has perceived, he is still armed, its within his body so it seems he can't remove it." Why someone would call this... thing a child was beyond the admiral.
The admiral listened as Lorthous attempted to calm the beast, but failed as the beast screamed that the admiral was dangerous. He was of course dangerous, but considering what the Empire wanted to happen, he could be very peaceful.
"I am sorry about my Kalthras's hive, they take any threat rather... Seriously..."
The admiral shrugged.
"You've come for the request of the trade to our shielding systems... then what do you have to trade for them.? After all, our defense's is a rather serious request... I hope you have something of equal worth to make us consider such a deal."
The admiral slowly reached to his back as to avoid scaring Lord Kalthras and Lorthous further. He grabbed hold of the fourth disk on his back, the carrier disk. As he set it on the table, a blue image jumped out of the top.
"This device shows all of the technology we are able to share with you."
The images cycled through showing a missile which had five tail fins instead of the standard three, A metal plate with the word TRITANIUM hovering beneath it, a generic picture of a map, and finally, a chitinous plate that looked as if it was alive.
"If you want," said the admiral pushing the device towards the Mistress, "you can click on one and it will give you more information as much as it can without giving anything away of course."

[Vanquaria]

Endarion, Slave Planet

The Vanquarian officer walked into the large room. Inside were hundreds of alien scientists being forced to work to produce new weapons for the Empire. Beside the officer strode a squad of 5 shocktroopers. The officer stepped in front of a humanoid alien that seemed to be writing something on a holographic display. The officer snarled to his men,''Seize that creature.''
The alien scientist seemed to recoil in fear as the masked men approached. Suddenly the world went black for the alien as the butt of a gun came hurtling at great speed towards him.

The alien who was male woke up to find himself levitating between two hover pads, his limbs chained by an electrical, red force. Then he noticed the multiple, evil red eyes that were focused on him and a voice that said,''You, alien, have been handing over military blueprints for plasma cannons to rebel forces. I, as arbiter of the Empire, sentence you to eternal torture.''
The alien's eyes went wide with shock. Had he heard correctly? As he was about to open his bird-like beak to speak he felt excruciating pain run up his furry body.
A shock trooper stepped in front of him, carrying a large electric baton and snarled,''No speaking, you inferior creature.''
The alien hung his head low, this was bound to happen. Plotting against this savage, war-like race was to face great risks. Well, at least his family would be alive. And hopefully they would experience a world without the Empire. He smiled inwardly at this thought until...

The arbiter then spoke again, this time in a crueller voice while smiling evilly,''The first act of torture in your sentence is that your family and all distant relatives shall be culled. In fact, I have heard that your mate and offspring were already shot randomly by a few off-duty officers for fun. Lucky you.''
As the alien heard this he began to feel like his world was ending. He started to scream but then felt something metallic enter his mouth then excruciating pain arriving. The shock trooper with the electric baton had stuck the baton inside his mouth! As the alien fell into unconsciousness his last thought was, one day, this hell will end.

Auraxis, Interstellar Empire of Vanquaria

The Autarch watched from his golden palace as another fleet of warships left the capital's space station. He was in deep contemplation. His mind kept thinking about the Outsiders. They sounded like a very dangerous threat to his people. He had to investigate the matter further. Even though the information given from the Aegen pod proved useful the alien in the hologram could have been lying. Perhaps the Outsiders were a made up story. Maybe this was all a conspiracy from another alien race bent on conquering the Empire. The Autarch was not sure. So far, exploration drones had not come across another alien empire bigger than theirs. If the Aegen were an empire that spanned the galaxy than the Outsiders should be an empire that spanned a couple or more galaxies. Why had his people not come across the Outsiders yet? Maybe it showed how truly vast the known galaxy was?

He rubbed his forehead. Whatever the Outsiders were, his armies should be more than a match for them, he thought as he leaned back onto his throne. When they come I shall focus on them. For now, the current state of affairs is much more important.

[Spindle]

‘Voro had to struggle to prevent himself from throwing the abominable pod onto Ayl’ash and leave it to the Breakers. This was the third rotation he and his team had spent analysing the workings of the cursed thing-those that the engineers had managed to expose, anyway-yet they were no closer to figuring out how to bypass the lock. The rest of the pod remained unopenable until the industrial LASER was fixed, and that would probably be several rotations more, if the deformations along its length were anything to go by. So he and ‘Khn were gathered around the meager components bared to them, while their group of twenty-two helpers struggled in vain to break through with their plasma cutters.
“The problem is that we don't actually know which of these,” ‘Khn indicated the thin, silvery wires that were strung between the small, shiny boxes in a branching, tangled web, “convey what data. If we had the confidence to experiment I would, but right now we don't even know if these are shiny-rock wires or fibre optics! If we even knew what one component was, it would help so much!”
“The problem is that we lack the understan-”
‘Voro was interrupted by a sheet of green light that spilled around the sides of the pod from behind it. Peering around, ‘Voro and ‘Khn beheld the strangest contraption either of them had ever seen.
Nine of the plasma cutters had been attached to a framework of combat chitin, which was itself attached to a flex-joint arm that had firmly rooted itself into the wall. From each of the plasma cutters and the arm ran a nerve, all linking together in a small control pad in the tentacles of 'Kro, ‘Khn’s deputy.
As the pair watched, 'Kro’s manipulator tentacles swept across the small ball on the control pad, guiding the frame into a new position before pushing down, activating the plasma cutters and filling the room with green light.
“That’s a good second you've got there,” ‘Voro commented, jetting back around the pod, “I'll have to borrow him at some point.”
“No, you won’t.” ‘Khn replied lightly, “'Tlis is plenty good enough for you.”
“Fine.” ‘Voro shifted his complexion to a serious deep blue, “Let’s get back to this. I want to see if we can at least open up the parts.”
Several more cycles were spent simply staring at the alien components, as if they could glance into their workings if they just stared hard enough. The only break was the occasional flashing sheets of pale green, as if to warn of the danger. The strange, shiny boxes with their web of wires surrounding them seemed so alien, yet so innocuous. If they could only…
‘Voro lifted one of the boxes up towards his closest eye-cluster, examining it in detail, looking for any way in, any flaw, anything that might help him open it up and understand it. His eyes found nothing, but the manipulator tentacle holding the box, on the other hand, felt a tiny seam running along one of the edges. It was enough for ‘Voro.
“Feel this!” He exclaimed, passing the box over to ‘Khn, who looked thoroughly bemused, “A seam!”
“That’s nice, but how do you expect to exploit it?” ‘Khn asked, “It’s too small to pull apart, and you're never going to get permission to-”
‘Khn broke off when she realised that she was talking to an empty room. ‘Voro had careened off, and even their helpers had disappeared off, she had no clue where.
“Well, it's just me now.” ‘Khn said, before turning back to the pod.
It was almost a dozen cycles before ‘Voro jetted back into the room, towing two objects. The first was a rootable arm, with a pneumatic spike designed to crack open small rocks. The second object was a small Narv’hal, and ‘Khn did not want to know where he'd got it from.
“Explain.” She demanded.
“It’s the best way to open it.” ‘Voro said, “We root the arm and the Narv’hal, then I can interface with the Narv’hal to keep the keep the box stable and with the seam facing the spike. We can do this!”
‘Khn turned the idea over in her head. Her instincts screamed against it, but the more she thought about it, the better an idea it sounded. The internal components shouldn’t be jostled too much and it really was their best shot at opening the box, unless they wanted to wait for the industrial LASER to be back up.
“Okay.” She decided eventually, “We'll do this.”
‘Voro rooted the Narv’hal and began to set up the interface, while ‘Khn rooted and angled the arm. When the equipment was set up and ‘Voro was interfaced with the Narv’hal, ‘Khn dragged the pod over, and placed the box in line with the Narv’hal and the arm.
It was a thrilling experience for ‘Voro, being interfaced with a Narv’hal. He could perceive the forces of gravity pulling throughout the room, and he felt...transcendent. Yes, transcendent. He saw ‘Khn say something, saw the box floating above the Nar’hal and he activated it. Gravity shifted and the box came to an abrupt halt from its stately glide, remaining stock-still as the arm began to move.
The first blow missed the seam. The second blow missed the box. By the fourth blow, however, ‘Khn scored a hit on the seam and kept the arm still after that, each blow striking about a third of the way ‘up’ the seam. On the fifteenth blow, the box cracked along the seam, a thin line tracing around the top. ‘Khn stopped the arm and indicated for ‘Voro to deactivate the Narv’hal. He grudgingly complied, then stopped and looked at the Narv’hal. His eyes widened as he saw the pulped remains, and it dawned on him that not all of the kinetic energy from the spike would have gone into breaking the box. Some of it would have been transmitted down...into the Narv’hal. Which explained why the shielding projects he’d heard of as a kid never bore fruit, he supposed.
But the sacrifice of a single Narv’hal was well worth it to get into that box, he decided. Floating over to it, he gently prised it open and glanced inside. The mechanics were still alien to him, as were the glyphs that were printed on each small box but there was one familiar symbol in there: a triple helix. The code of life, that defined each species and separated them from the next, printed on one of the small boxes.
“So that’s where the scanner runs to, then?” ‘Khn asked.
“Seems so.” ‘Voro asked, “We were lucky, I guess. Now we just have to re-route the wires to bypass it.”
“Let’s be about it, then.”
The next fifty-four cycles was a blur. First, they had to determine if the wires were electrical or fibre optics. Very little current was detected when the pair tested for voltage, and cutting one open confirmed that it was a fibre optic. The next step, then, was to work out which wires would need to be re-routed by cutting each wire open, inserting a photosensitive membrane and affixing the wire back together, before attempting to unlock the pod. By recording which wires were active when, ‘Voro and ‘Khn could build up a picture of what they would need to re-route. The last part was the trial and error process of cutting and fixing wires to try and bypass the marked box.

“Think this one will work?” ‘Voro asked.
“It has to.” ‘Khn said, “Unless it has another data transfer system that we're not seeing.”
“Well, I'm just surprised they're using fibre optics.” ‘Voro noted, “Something’s up with that. It’s like they're inviting us to crack it.”
“You really think they've planned this?” ‘Khn asked.
“I don’t know. But I definitely don't like it.”
He placed a manipulator tentacle on the pad, and instantly, a holographic orb appeared. ‘Voro tried to interact with it, but his manipulator tentacle simply passed through it.
“Ummm...now what?” ‘Khn asked.
They sat there for several minutes more, just waiting for something, anything to happen. They stared at the holographic orb. The holographic orb rotated. The continued to stare. The orb continued to rotate.
When something finally did happen, it was not what either of them had been expecting. In fact, it was not even one thing. It was four things that happened very quickly.
Firstly, a flash of green light illuminated the room.
Second, the room was filled with steam.
The steam then froze and the room was suddenly filled with tiny orbs of ice.
And finally, the pod shuddered as if someone had rammed it.
All of which happened within a heartbeat.
As ‘Voro jetted around to see what had caused this, he saw something that caused him to stop and stare. A piece of the pod-the pod that required an industrial LASER to cut-was floating past him, knocking aside ice orbs. He watched it go past for a few beats more before jetting past to find 'Kor, looking fairly pleased with himself, amidst the wreckage of one of the pod’s walls and several floating globules of yellow blood.
“What...what exactly did you do here?” ‘Voro asked hesitantly.
“Well, Sir, we realised that we weren't going to be getting through this any time soon, so we tried to crack it. Specifically, Sir, we tried to thermally expand it.” 'Kor began, “That didn’t work on one little bit at a time, so we rigged up a system that would heat most of this side at once.”
“I saw that.” ‘Voro commented, “Although I just thought you were messing around.”
“Thank you, Sir.” 'Kor replied cheerfully, “Unfortunately that didn’t work, so we thought: ‘What if just got some ice and use that to cool it down faster’, Sir.”
“Who does the blood belong to?” ‘Khn interjected.
“'Verk, Ma’am.” 'Kor said, flushing to a pale red, “We didn’t realise that it would...explode...quite as much as it did and he had shrapnel in one of his gripper tentacles. We've got 'Alet and 'Nran dragging him to the infirmary.”
“Alright, then.” ‘Voro said, “You can fill out all the forms. Me and ‘Khn will take a peek.”
“Yes, Sir.” 'Kor said, somewhat dejectedly, before jetting off.
The first thing that hit ‘Voro when he entered the pod was that he could tell what the Narv’hal organ was. As the only organic part of the ship, it was hard to miss, and it had the distinctive Narv’hal shape, if only a yun long instead of the fifty yun Narv’hals used in any Kag’ham’ar.
The second thing was that it was half gone. It looked almost as if something had ripped part of it off and smeared it over the walls.
“Go get a bio-storage team for the Narv’hal!” He snapped to the group of helpers that had congregated around him, “Now!”
Three careened off and ‘Voro turned back to the pod. Ignoring the Narv’hal, his eyes settled upon another pad-except this time with the outline of a Ma’ard manipulator tentacle. Uneasy, ‘Voro slowly glided over towards it.
“What do you think?” He asked ‘Khn.
“I'll be right behind you.” She replied, “But definitely not in front.”
“Thanks for that.”
‘Voro placed a manipulator tentacle on the pad, detesting the cool, smooth texture as a thin beam of light ran up and down it. Seemingly accepting him, the pad retracted and another holographic orb appeared, identical to the one outside. Well, almost identical. This one was flashing different colours...in fact, ‘Voro realised, this one was speaking! In very old, archaic vocabulary, but it was speaking nevertheless!
"Greetings life form, my name is Or'dihil and I am archlord of the Aegen empire. You may not know this but we are an empire that spans all of the galaxy. But my empire won't last for much longer. A dark force we call the outsiders are attacking, and they are winning. We have no hope in defeating them, but we do have hope that we will be avenged. This pod contains information about this enemy and also the technology we have now so you can start building your empire so you will be able to defeat this foe. I don't have much longer, I hope you will do what is necessary."
The message went some way to offsetting his euphoria of finally cracking the machine, but before that fully sank in, a slot opened and within it was something that made ‘Voro’s heart leap.
An interface.
Hastily setting it up, ‘Voro paused for a moment. It was entirely possible that this was a trick, and that the interface would kill him. But he quickly rejected that thought. After all, who would go to all this trouble just to kill one Ma’ard?
He attached the last plug and the world around him faded out of existence, replaced with data swamping into his mind. Schematics and science and more whirled inside his head, and it was only with a concerted effort that ‘Voro brought the maelstrom of data under control and forced it into categories. One category in particular caught his eye: Species.
Scanning through the files, ‘Voro was first exhilarated. There was life beyond their star! But slowly, the exhilaration faded. Each of these were Ayl. They were planet-based. Was there no other life free from gravity’s constraints? Were they alone in an alien universe?
It was with a much heavier heart that ‘Voro pulled out of the interface.
“Get a T’yet’ian node down here.” He ordered wearily, “We're going to need to copy this.”

[Spindle]

‘Voro steeled himself before he began to speak. While the new technologies had been welcomingly accepted into the military, some of the applications being put forward by him and his team were meeting fierce resistance. Some, such as the new Battleship classes, ‘Voro could understand-the Ma’ard had never been ones for straight-up fights-but this one was ridiculous.
“That is an excellent point ‘Apush, but the fact of the matter is that the database found in the pod contains over three thousand alien races all but five of them are Ayl. Each of them occupies planets or moons, not free space. Without a viable, well-organised and well-equipped planetary army, we will be incapable of forcing defeat and surrender upon an enemy Ayl with technology comparable to ours.” Voro began, wishing he didn’t have to spell it out like this, “The ability of a planetary defender to maintain defence weapons effectively invisible to ships in orbit-and with substantially more punch and staying power than those on said ships-would cause a fleet no end of trouble, even if the fleet was simply trying to destroy main population centers without massive ecological collateral. If the fleet was attempting to force a surrender, claim a resource or even extract a VIP, it would be an impossible task. Both of these points have been ably demonstrated by the Ayl War-we had every possible advantage, yet they held out for centuries! I can understand that many would not wish for an attrition rate as painfully high as we endured then in terms of bioforms per Ayl, and so are against the development of a planetary army, but please consider the new technologies my Division has developed. We are now capable of creating bioforms that can be inserted onto a planet at high speed, armed with weapons that are effective inside an atmosphere and capable of taking advantage of the opacity of terrain to its fullest. In fact, of the three environs on a planet-earth air and liquid-we already have a significant ability to develop doctrine for, due to the similarities between them and free space. This only leaves the first-earth-to be developed from scratch. The rest will be relatively simple matters of identifying the correct bioform traits, a process which we stand ready to do. This is not a budget grab. We will not be requiring any substantial budget increase to carry this out. What we will be requiring is closer cooperation with the Division of Tactics, Doctrine and Integration on the subject and the formation of a full comittee to design and implement the development of a planetary army.”
“As a point of interest,” ‘Yerit, who ‘Voro was sure was in the pocket of the Church, began, “Could you clarify to the Hall what you meant by your statement of relative planet and ship weapon capability and capacity?”
“Of course.” ‘Voro replied, by some miracle managing to keep his complexion neutral, “While a ship has superior range over a planet, as the planet cannot change its course, a ship must enter the orbit of a planet in order to engage with a high degree of success-after all, we all know what a pulse LASER can do to a missile salvo if it’s been coasting for too long-but by doing so, a ship opens itself up to a number of hazards. Orbital space is, for example, relatively easy to seed with kinetic mines, which require either maneuver or the use of a LASER to negate. Both of these are ideal for a defender, who can use coilguns to continuously seed the main orbital lanes. Further, planetary dence LASERs have access to a far greater cooling capacity and a far larger power source than ship-based ones and so can operate at higher wattage for longer periods. High enough, in fact, to be several orders of magnitude more powerful than anything we can put on a ship at the moment, even after leaving the atmosphere. Finally, the missiles available to a planet are far less restricted by tonnage and space limitations than those on a ship. In fact, the same advantages given to an asteroidal fortress apply with a planet, only scaled up. This is not to say that a planet is inherently immune to shipborne weaponry, rather that the defensive installations on a planet will have far greater hitting power and survivability compared to those on a ship and thus that a duel between a planet and a fleet will be weighted in the planet’s favor. Hence, the planetary army. By deploying troops from outside of orbit in rapidly moving deployment sacs, they stand an excellent chance of penetrating any planetary defence network, and then forming into combat units, calling down orbital firepower where and when necessary in order to support the objective at hand. This creates a far more flexible and adaptable force than a simple bombardment.”
“Which is wonderful,” ‘Yerit interrupted, “But the numbers needed for such an invasion would be enormous-we need almost two million Ma’ard simply to secure the P'yet'ak. To conquer a planet would need more, surely. Are we really prepared to expend the lives of millions of Ma’ard for every planet we come across?”
‘Voro was beginning to wonder if Young had read any of the reports that ‘Voro had been periodically sending out. He knew he’d explained this all in those. Why be so obstructive here?
“Potentially-but we have several methods to minimise this.” He began, wearily, “Firstly, the enemy will be guarding his key areas-not the area where we will be dropping our troops. Against whatever anti-orbital and anti-air weapons the enemy has in position, deployment sacs will not be a viable option. Instead, we’ll be looking to deploy into areas where the supporting ships can offer both supplies and firepower as and when it becomes necessary. From a secure and well-supplied beachhead we can look at further offensive operations.
Secondly, all stations below that of NCO will be filled by bioforms. Ma’ard will therefore be involved in the combat but will be directing the bioforms under their command through pheromones, low-frequency vibrations and traditional luminal signals. As such, while there may be large numbers of casualties, Ma’ard casualties will be smaller by proportion.
Thirdly, by use of operational and strategic maneuver we intend to force the enemy to cover all of his key areas, impairing their ability to achieve mass at the decisive point. The use of strike units dropped from orbit may be useful to this, allowing for rapid insertion behind the direct line of battle.
Fourthly and finally, the integration of units in the company level will be designed to produce a tactically flexible unit, with air support and supremacy, armour, artillery and infantry. This should allow for decisive engagements with minimal cost at the tactical and operational levels, with command and control functions translating this into success at the strategic, and ultimately grand strategic, levels.”
“So it’s safe to assume that this planetary army would operate on a doctrine of using rapid strikes to destabilise an enemy?” ‘Yerit inquired. ‘Voro was getting even more annoyed. This was just gratuitous! What did he want…
“At the moment that would be a fair assumption to make. However, we have not yet faced planetside realities, which will force us to adjust or outright scrap the plans we have at the moment.” ‘Voro began cautiously, “We currently have neither the experience nor the theoretical grounding in planetary warfare to tell if the plans we are making will be the correct ones for the Ma’ard. All we can do is attempt to mitigate our mistakes before they show up in-theatre.”
‘Yerit indicated that he had no more questions, and the debate moved over to the next topic. ‘Voro allowed himself to relax a little. He still had over one hundred cycles until the battleship debate.

“Let the Hall be silent.” The Speaker intoned, and the officers lining the walls of the enormous, spherical room complied.
“The final debate of this rotation,” The Speaker droned, “Is on the construction and development of the ‘Battleship’ and ‘Armoured Cruiser’ classes of warship. Na'Hraa'Voro, please present the case in favour.”
“Thank you, Speaker.” ‘Voro began, flashing a respectful, pale blue, before turning to the assembled officers, “We live in changing times. Barely one hundred rotations ago, we did not know if there was life beyond our star. Now we know not only that there is, but that it is armed and dangerous. It is because of this knowledge that I am calling for a new classes of warship. Not ones that disregards the stealth that we have used for millennia, but ones that trades a portion of that stealth for a degree of specialisation that has been hitherto unfeasible. These warships would fill two main classes:
The Armoured Cruiser would be our go-to for commerce raiding and other enemy-space operations that would require the ability to overcome heavy escorts. It would still use stealth, specifically to close with enemy convoys and such, but would also use its battle chitin-the modified combat chitin my Division has been working on-to mask its GRASER power build-up as well as to take the blows from enemy warships that regular combat chitin could not. The loss in long-period stealth and ECM is made up for by the ability of the Armoured Cruiser to reach energy weapon range undetected even with fully charged GRASERs, as well as its impressive ability to absorb and regenerate damage. Due to the closer environs of the fight, Casaba-Howitzer nuclear missiles will be the mainstay of their missile armament, over the Excalibur and Flashbulb types with the overall result being a combat craft capable of releasing a devastating short-ranged first strike before absorbing the return fire.
The Battleship would be a somewhat different beast. Instead of creating an energy-range brawler, we intend to create a platform for our longer-ranged weapons-specifically our Excalibur missiles. The intent is to create a ship capable of both acting as a full command and control craft and as a missile platform. This would be beneficial in two ways: firstly, by having a dedicated command and control craft we would be capable of increased tactical and operational flexibility. Secondly, by having a long-ranged missile platform available to us, our ability to successfully engage the enemy with a credible threat of a ship-kill at three light-beats would increase dramatically. These would give us the ability to form a credible wall of battle, enabling us to not only destroy enemy ships but also to actively control the space in a system.
Between the two of these, we have a great opportunity to maintain tempo, mass and initiative over the enemy. The use of Armoured Cruisers as raiders and in support of a wall of battle, as well as the use of a battleship in forming the wall of battle and focussing enemy situational awareness onto it, allow for a great increase in our offensive capability as well as our ability to truly control territory.
However, there will be people who are not fully convinced by my words alone. At each of your readers, there should be the data we gathered on the two proof-of-concept units we created. Both were hastily converted Cruisers, but if you would observe their performance in their expected roles as demonstrated during the Ker’ren wargames, you would see their potential tactical utility. The Battleship, in particular, showed an extraordinary degree of promise-three Frigate ship-kills, two Cruiser ship-kills and two Frigates heavily damaged while the Battleship itself took only superficial damage, thanks in main to its battle chitin plating. The Armoured Cruiser also performed admirably-in fact, ‘Aluri managed to get five Cruiser ship-kills and four Frigates badly damaged out of its sacrifice. If nothing else proves to be convincing, I will simply let the figures speak for themselves.”
As he finished, ‘Voro saw ‘Yerit begin to say something and stifled the urge to scream. It was going to be a long, long debate…

“I’d say that went quite well.” ‘Tlis commented as they left the Speaking Hall, “I was particularly impressed by the part where you didn’t start feasting on ‘Yerit’s entrails.”
“Don't start giving me ideas.” ‘Voro fumed.
“Well it did go very well.” ‘Tlis continued, trying to lighten the mood, “I pretty sure we've got ‘Erti and ‘Bevri in on the idea of a planetary army and ‘Jiuti seems to be coming around to the Battleship, if nothing else.”
“Really?” ‘Voro asked, “He seemed plenty skeptical to me.”
“He'll be onboard. His flush was shifting from red to blue all the time, and his tentacles stiffened when ‘Yerit began to speak.” ‘Tlis answered.
“Well, that’s something then.” ‘Voro smiled, brightening up slightly.
“‘Voro.” 'Krriv appeared from out of nowhere, “Come with me. Now.”
“You know what to do.” ‘Voro told ‘Tlis before he left.
‘Voro and ‘Krriv jetted along one of the smaller arterial passages, before arriving in a room dominated by the enormous screen one one wall.
“What’s this about?” ‘Voro asked.
“Thirteen cycles ago, we saw this detaching from the Cathedral of the Fallen.” ‘Krriv said, and the screen faded into a blurry picture of what was, unmistakably, a Kag'ha'tet. Except, using the Spire of Starlight as a scale, it appeared to be over a kiloyun long.
“Is that…” The question tailed off into silence.
“It is.” ‘Krriv confirmed, “The Church have been giving us far less opposition to the implementation of our new technologies than we ever expected. And this is why. ‘Voro, I want you to take Third Fleet and be ready to engage this...whatever it is.”
“Me, Ma’am?” ‘Voro asked, startled, “Why me?”
“So far, you seem to have been doing the work of the Division of Tactics, Doctrine and Integration for them.” ‘Krriv noted, “You were influential in ‘Alruri’s philosophy that won her the Ker’ren wargames and your proposed fleet concept is, if nothing else, well thought-out and probably viable.”
“My thanks, Ma'am, but these are all strategic components.” ‘Voro protested, “This will be a single engagement. You need a tactical commander, not me.”
“Not quite. It disappeared eleven cycles after we found it, moving under Whisper Drive.” ‘Krriv informed him, “So we'll need you to find it for us.”
‘Voro was silent for a few moments. If the Church had access to Whisper Drive, a technology that had only been discovered from analysis of the pod’s Narv’ahl...he reached his decision.
“That’s an order then, Ma'am?” He inquired.
“Of course.” ‘Krriv answered.
“In that case, Ma'am, I'm going to need a few favours in order to do this…”

[Neo ORB]

Keifer 16; Time: 1:01 pm
Agenisi (Seia)
Jess Terra

As I watched over the proceeding between the Admiral and the Mistress I couldn't help looking at the pictures, or more specifically the map. it was bland, but beautiful, although at least to me none of it was worth the price of our shields. However as I looked on I could see the Mistress and even Lord Kalthrass stir slightly. it was interesting as I watched her complexion change as she thought until finally she touched the disk and looked at the greater information behind the pictures. I thought that the chitinous plate might be worth the trading of one of our shielding systems. but as I saw the mistress beckon me over with a small fluff of her wings, I unfurled my own and quickly took a few flaps within the room until I gently settled down beside her. Quickly she pulled me in and whispered into my ear on the most quiet of vibrations.

"I don't know. I was expecting them to at least give up there own shielding systems."
"It could be Mistress, that their own Enuma-Elish did not have such items in its archive."
"Well that could be true, what would you want in my position."
"hmm. I personally think that the fifth one might be useful if we applied it to our uniforms, if we engineer it just right.
it might be able to allow us to traverse space for short periods of time as well as add to survivability."
"so..."
"lets give them the Impulse for it, we wont give them the frequency's of our own usage, but we can give them the shield itself.
it would take them a few revolutions to figure the frequency out, but by then the R&D team would have at least created a scrambler to change the sequence at set intervals."
"Alright."

As I was release from the Mistress's grip and allowed myself to regain my composter, I watched the Mistress speak lightly her expression had softened somewhat which was a good thing in any case. As she lightly touched her bracelet a small hologram appeared in the center of the table in a light revolution. The object itself was a sphere, but as a scanner sort of ray washed over the hologram in occasional vertical and horizontal motions, one could see the intricate internals of wiring and components. Underneath the floating sphere was a solid base ring which the sphere would nestle into when not active or charging.

"Admiral, I've decided to agree to the first part of the exchange. We will trade our "IMPassible Uniform Liquid Sea Emitter" also known as the Impulse, for the fifth item on this list."

As Lorthous lightly smiled and crossed her arms resting them onto her legs she waited for the Admirals reply. I couldn't help that a fuss might be made for the Arc. But even I silently agreed, that none of the items on this list were appropriate to the significant workings of the Arc's protection.
As I lightly slid back to the admiral, I then entered into my own bracelet and connected to the Reposia in orbit. As a small audio holoscreen faded in I could hear the quiet murmurings of Tali on the bridge. With a light smile I them spoke.
"Lieutenant, please transfer the information of the Impulse shielding to the Vogegans."
"What? Already?"

She seemed surprised, well I couldn't blame her since it had only been a few minutes into deliberations and a verdict was already reached. although I guess the guest had only been planet side for less then an hour. Still such a reaction was lightly comical. As I silently chuckled.
However quickly the Lieutenant responded although her voice was rather defeatist.
"Right, The Impulse shielding information has been received"

As I looked back onto the Mistress, I could see her looking at me expectantly, I lightly gave a nod of affirmation on the transfer of information and got to watch her lightly sigh in relief. For me as her aide, it was rather adorable. As I looked at our guest, he had remained silent, such good manners he had or was it due to him being metal?. I silently wondered that thought as the Mistress spoke.

"Well then, for the moment that concludes this part of the negotiation. Is there anything you would like to see on Aganisi? If you wish to read up on some of our species history or some recent events although not much happens admittedly on our world. The library's always open."

"MOTHER..."
"Yes, Kalthras?"
"THE CHILREN WISH TO COME OUT..."
"Well let them, the Messengers are children after all, Let them go play. Their services are not required today it seems."
"I UNDESTAND, I'LL SEND THE CHILD OVER TO KAGUYA."

Suddenly the tentacles Kalthras had used that had held the children tightly within were lessened, and quickly a small head seemed to appear from out of the flesh. There eyes still rather hostile to the Admiral had lessened lightly as they worked their way out of the flesh. When all them were gathered save for one, they streamed out of the room for some destination unknown with smiles on their faces.

[Vogega]

Zar
Timmy 1 and 2 boarded the mystic spore, Modified for deep space travel, this spore would travel faster than the speed of light after his was shot by the accelerator cannon ship in orbit. The spore entered the cannon ship's ribs and the boney structure surrounded them as they were launched at high speed for Kiefer 8.

Lorthous's Office
The Admiral was surprised that they had agreed to a trade so quickly. The chitinous plate was a good choice for them he thought. It had to be grown by Tyr factories, but that would be helpful until they could figure out how to grow it.
"I am surprised to hear that you have more than one shielding system," he told Lorthous and the assistant. "We may be able to trade later on as well. I will have a transport bring down some of the plates from our ships in orbit,."
As the admiral stood to leave, he received two transmission, one from the captain of his vessel telling him of the plot, and another from the Emperor telling him to expect some Tyr troops.
"Soon," he said turning back to face the leaders of the Nare, "You will detect some gravatic distortion. DO not be alarmed. They are friends of ours and may be able to help you as well." This was in regards to the mystic spore being launched from Zar.
"If you have rooms for me, I would like to go there now. Also, do you have some nature-colored paints I can use. I would like to make myself less shocking to your kind."
During this, the admiral had sent the captain of his vessel the order not to allow this plot. He ordered him to hold the ship away at the edge of the system in order to protect relationships with the Nare. The Emperor was straight forward and would never do this to anyone unless he thought it was necessary.

Kiefer System
"IMPULSE shielding received," announced the comms officer. The captain was mulling over the admiral's orders when this came in.
"Send it to freighter 4 where the lab is."
"Right away sir."

In the lab, scientists immediately got to work on the data received from the Nare.

At the edge of the system, the colony ship arrived. Immediately, the two missile ships moved in to intercept it as it powered of its engines.
"Do not move and power down all non-critical systems." the captains of the missile ships ordered."
"What is the meaning of this?" the captain of the colony ship asked.
"The admiral has told us to hold you hear."
The captain of the colony ship cursed under his breath, but did as he was told. He would get a lot of trouble from this he thought.

Even while the drama was unfolding, a Hawk Transport carrying five A-1 battle droids armed with ion rifles down to the surface. Several crates in the back rocked back in forth as the plates inside slid around as the transport flew through space then the atmosphere. It landed next to the Admiral's ship and The droids stepped out their guns slung over their shoulders.

[Die Neues Galaktische Imperium]

Fezzan-Final Prologue to FT

At 22:15 PM on Fezzan. Admiral Mittermeyer returned to to the provisional Imperial residence with his wife and son. He got stuck on the way because of flooding in the road. He then entered the residence of Kaiser Reinhard von Lohengramm and were saluted by 2 Imperial guards. As they entered the room, he saw the nobles and high admirals ligning up and as he watched he saw the Kaiser in his deathbead. Near him he saw the Kaiser's wife Hildegard von Lohengramm, The Kaiser's sister Annerose von Grunewald and the Kaiser's son and future successor Alexander Siegfried von Lohengramm. Reinhard noticed the two and he struggled to lift his body but his sister helped him got up and let him lean on his bed. Reinhard with a frail voiced began speaking

"I'm happy that you came Frau Mittermeyer..."

The Admiral's wife then began bowing and took a seat when the Emperor lifted his hand and had his 5 fingers and his palm facing the ceiling directly pointing to an elegant chair. The Emperor then again spoke a fainter voice.

"Aside from something like the reign of the Empire, I, as a father wanted to leave my son, Alexander Siegfried, with a fried on an equal footing. It's a selfish wish, but I wonder if you accept it."

They were shocked for a moment, but Admiral Mittermeyer slowly bent his body forward towards their adoptive son Felix and whispered with a voice that only his wife Eva and his adoptive son Felix can hear.

"Felix, pledge your loyalty to Prince Alec, no His Majesty Kaiser Alec"

The nobility and the Admirals were shocked seeing the toddler shaking his hand with the toddler Emperor, on the children's side, they both giggled and Reinhard had a gentle smile as he witnessed this event. Admiral Mittermeyer, who saw this as an impolite act tries to stop Felix and said

"How Impolite of you Felix!"

He gently grabbed the child's hand, but the sensitive Felix then cried with Mittermeyer saying

"Thi..This is.." but Reinhard looked at Mittermeyer who was breaking in cold sweat for the man thought that his son may be harming Prince Alec and said "That's all right Mittermeyer..

Mittermeyer looked at the Emperor and for a seconds he realized that the child has stopped crying and began shaking hands with Alec, Reinhard looked at his son's newfound friend said to the boy with a frailer and weaker voice than he already had last time.

"You're a good boy, Felix. Please be a good friend to Alec from now on."

The child smiled at him as he then tried to lie down due to dizziness and he had his sister support his body. His sister placed a pillow on where lay down. Frau Mittermeyer standed up and bowed to the Emperor together with her husband. The Emperor who was looking for Paul von Oberstein, the Chief Minister of Military affairs and the man who was assassinated by the Terraist cult 30 minutes ago without the knowledge of the Emperor said to the group

"It seems that the Chief Minister of Military Affairs isn't here, so where is he?"

Everybody looked out to each other as guiltily as possible, as Reinhard was the only man who has not know of Paul von Oberstein's death. His wife the Kaiserin wiped the sweat on her husband's face and spoke the first and the last lie he'd tell to Reinhard.

"The Chief Minister of Military Affairs is absent due to compelling reasons." Reinhard who fell for it since he was too sick to make a careful judgement replied to his wife as his eyes were looking weak. "I see..That's right-That man always had compelling reasons." He held his wife's wrist and said as weaker as his past statement.

"Kaiserin, I'm sure that you'll govern space as wisely than I could. If you want to move into a Constitutional Policy, that's fine since either way..As long as the one who holds power is the wisest and the most powerful in the universe all will be well. If Alexander Siegfried does not have the capacity, there's no reason to sustain the Lohengramm Dynasty.If you do everything you wish, I have nothing more to hope for." "

Reinhard closes his eyes as he was breathing heavily. He appears to be saying something but has no power to say it as loudly nor raise his hand to let the Kaiserin lend her ears. But the Kaiserin came to lean forward and placed her ear near Reinhard's final words and he heard the Emperor's self actualization.

"Once we seize all space, we'll conquer Valhalla....."

It happened on 23:29 on July 26th of Space Calendar 801 and New Imperial Calendar 3.Reinhard von Lohengramm was 25 years old. His reign lasted just over 2 years. After the death of his father Alexander Siegfried began crying. But his mother calmed him down. The Kaiserin then stood up after calming the child and said to everyone in the room.

"The Kaiser didn't die in an illness, he passed away having used up his lifetime, He din't fall from illness. Everyone please don't forget that.

After a few weeks of Reinhard's death. He was mourned by the 25 Billion Citizens of the Empire. A statue was then constructed on his honour despite an Admiral saying that Reinhard would frown in Valhalla. Months after the death of Reinhard von Lohengramm,a Constitutional Monarchy was established making Kaiserin Hildegard von Lohengramm as Kaiserin. She had her son Alexander Siegfried as her successor but it would be a war of blood before Alexander Siegfried can ascend to the throne.Meanwhile, The Balat Starzone in accordance to the treaty with Julian Mintz was returned in exchange of the Iserlohn Corridor and the Iserlohn Fortress. In The Empire's border there came the nation called Balat.

[Neo ORB]

Keifer 16; Time: 2:39 pm
Agenisi (Seia)
Jess Terra

Did I just hear that right, I wondered as I looked at the guest with a sort of discrepancy, us afraid of them?. Ridiculous, I mean sure, we were cautious since this event had never happened before, but to call us fearful was rather precocious. However the Mistress noticed this and simply looked at my direction with a gentle look. and then also proceeded to get up with the Admiral.
"Yes, we created two alternate types from what Enuma-Elish had given us, both each advanced in a single direction, but failing completely in the other. I have no doubt that trade for the Arc will come eventually, but not at the moment."

As the Admiral spoke of the gravitational disturbance, the mistress nodded lightly while I informed the Reposia not to intervene or be alarmed I a quick lingual message as to not disturb the flow of the Admiral. However it seemed he wanted to do the actual tour of the parliament. However
as he spoke about paint in order to not look so unnatural to our kind, we both suddenly started to laugh, not at the Admiral but at the fact he cared enough to wish to make his outer appearance more pleasant. As I watched the Mistress calm down while I held my guts which had started to hurt.

"My esteemed guest, please, let me explain, When Enuma came crashing to our world, the majority of the populace on Agenisi was in Seia for a festivity's. The reason their cautious is because there processing the difference between us, I'm sure once your on your way back to your vessel thing's will be very different, our people are gentle, but we can be... a little excessive."

Lorthous gave a strange smile then, a knowing smile with the absurdity of knowing some sort of massive event to come as she then lightly started to guide the Admiral through the castle past its seventh level. Level nine which was almost directly overhead of the senate was a single large circular room with a winding staircase going around its outer perimeter. As Lorthous opened the door for the Admiral to enter he would see the marble walls, lined with holographic screens, and the map that they had provided floating above a collection of stations while the CIC crew worked quietly around the centermost table which held the projector which displayed the map. The two men who had carried the Admiral up from before noticed his presence and then lightly waved in his direction as they focused on their work in analyzing the current data and then further enhancing it.

Lorthous then pulled the Admiral to the final level which was her office and her home on the second floor. The office was what one would expect and held a very presidential feeling to it with the desk and plush chair underneath the outcropping 2nd floor. As Lorthous made the Admiral sit in her chair she quickly left his supervision to me while she went into her home and rummaged around.
I started lightly laughing as I heard the chair creak lightly in protest until the Mistress came back down holding a small box.
I went silent as I watched the Mistress walk to the Admirals side and then submissively knelt down lightly. As she opened the box she took out a small finely crafted chain and its necklace crafted in the shape of a four point star and embodied with a sapphire in its center and lightly placed it onto the Admirals neck. As she got up she lightly smiled and then spoke.

"A gift for your arrival on our world, its not much, but thank you for treating us with respect."

---

Keifer 16; Time: 2:48 pm
Reposia: (Orbiting Agenisi)
Tali Ralf'lia

It was almost full crew by the time the meeting within Seia was over as Tali received the messages Jess transferred over in periodic reports.
The idea of further vessel's within their system wasn't enticing to Tali in the slightest as the equipment started to detect the radiation anomalies.
As the bridge lit up as alarms were automatically raised and lights lowered, Tali lightly gripped the chair as she yawned.
"Ma'am, registering at nine point nine three, A large vessel just entered system. "
"I see... Ignore it, its non-hostile." sighed Tali, this day was just annoying. Davis was resting, she had been alone compiling data for hour's, and Yuli was stuck in the infirmary for yet two more hours. It was enough to drive her up the wall as she watched the pancake like vessels set themselves on an intercept course with the newest addition to the system.
When was something interesting finally going to happen? she wondered. Forgetting that the vogegans were rather interesting if she gave them more then a two point assumption on current information.

[Vanquaria]

Voncox, Interstellar Empire of Vanquaria

The Warmaster sat down on his large seat, gathered with dozens of his generals and admirals. Their fleets had gathered at Voncox, a new planet that had been recently added to the Empire's collection of conquered planets. It was also near the edge of Vanquarian borders, to uncharted space. The Warmaster then spoke,"Alright, gentlemen. Let us discuss what direction our righteous crusade shall take."

Almost immediately a well-known general at the Warmaster's right side said,"We should make plans for drone exploration to the east of the uncharted space. This is because there have been numerous reports of pirate fleets to the south and the meteor showers to the west. Also, we are already gathered near the east borders already. It would save time."
Many of the other commanders nodded. Then one admirals spoke,"So how much exploration drones are we willing to devote to the task? And the resources required to support the making of the drones."

A wave of mutters broke out then the Warmaster gained everyone's attention by putting up his gloved hand and saying in a firm voice,
"About a few hundred thousand drones should suffice. As for the matter of resources, we can just raise the taxes on a few alien planets and put a few dozen of their cities for scrap. Their inhabitants can be put to hard labor. That should easily pay for the drones and possibly even more! We do not even need to spend from the central government's treasury, just strip the planets of those filthy creatures that we have conquered, seeing as we are their superiors."
A chorus of chuckles followed. The meeting was temporarily over. The commanders left for their warships to await the next meeting.

Gorgotha, Near Western Border of Empire

A large protest was happening outside the governor's mansion in the alien city. The reptilian like aliens were launching a peaceful protest on the sudden increase of taxes. One of the alien protestors, who was a teacher abd could speak fluent English got out a sonic speaker and shouted,
"Why are the taxes rising?! It is already 60% of our incomes! We can not support ourselves and our families anymore! Are we not faithful citizens of the Empire?!"
The shouts from the over hundred thousand grew louder and louder.

Then, about a dozen minutes later after the protest had just began, a massive line of armoured police vehicles appeared. People in the protest began to panic and tried to leave but they found the streets cut off by the vehicles that appeared to be light tanks. Behind the tanks were thousands of riot troopers, carrying light machineguns loaded up on plasma clips. Then the door on the balcony of the governor's mansion opened and out came the governor himself, a old but still handsome Vanquarian man, dressed in the clothes of a military officer. He looked down at disgust at the protestors gathered below him and spoke on his speaker,
"You, inferior creatures should be grateful that we allow you to be at least free of slavery and the chance to continue your normal lives without fear of being attacked because the Empire now protects you. But no, you creatures just had want more and more, eh? You greedy lizards! Kill them all, my men."
The governor then drew out a revolver and fired at the aliens below him.

The hundreds of light tanks and thousands of riot troopers carrying the light machineguns opened plasma fire at the over hundred thousand strong crowd of unarmed peaceful protestors. It was indeed a bloody massacre. Screams were heard for about a full hour! Green alien blood covered the ground with mutilated alien body parts. After the screams stopped the lines of tanks began crushing the corpses while the riot troopers shot randomly at dead aliens.
A couple hours later the corpses were being lifted into large, hovercraft headed for the cremation centres. Relatives and friends of the victims were not allowed to even see their loved one for a final time. Instead they were given a sheet signed by the planetary governor and printed out in mass copies that said that their loved one turned out to be illegal rubbish on the streets and had to be permanently cleaned from the streets to prevent a possible infection.

Everyday peaceful protests occurred in the Empire. Everyday rubbish was cleaned from the streets.

[The 9 layers of hell]

Irritium Planeta
Ar bent down and scooped up another hand full of molten rock and pressed it to his mouth, the molten rock on this side of Nigrum Inferno was always more delicious it seemed to have a higher iron concentration then that of the other sides. Looking up Ar cocked his head at an unusual angle to look at a strange burning object came towards the Rock-berg. Wiping the magma that was dripping from his mouth Ahhhh a sky rock what a delicacy only the largest and densest meteorites managed to penetrate the thick choking atmosphere of Irritum Planeta, still even then the intense heat and pressure usually reduced most to a clump of rock not much bigger than a small boulder. It changed course, why is it still so large? It should have burn't up by now confusion crossed Ar's face as the sky rock came closer seeming to slow down. Ar was one of the Arch-Daemoniorum the elite of Daiboli society so it was appropriate that the pod containing the secrets of the galaxy was to fall in front of him of course. An extra-terrestrial craft HAHAHAHA its about time one of these things made it through the atmosphere however Ar's amusement was short lived as a hologram appeared from the semi-dissolving craft appeared.

"Greetings life form, my name is Or'dihil and I am archlord of the Aegen empire. You may not know this but we are an empire that spans all of the galaxy. But my empire won't last for much longer. A dark force we call the outsiders are attacking, and they are winning. We have no hope in defeating them, but we do have hope that we will be avenged. This pod contains information about this enemy and also the technology we have now so you can start building your empire so you will be able to defeat this foe. I don't have much longer, I hope you will do what is necessary."

Excellent... extending his nervous stalk to connect to the pods computing system Lets see if they designed this pod to actually survive these conditions... hmmm it seems they thought a head and protected the inner components containing the information very well reaching down Ar wrapped his arms around the pod and lifted it up, the exterior had lightened significantly and thus it was quite easy to carry turning around he proceeding down into the deeps of Nigrum Inferno to meet with the other members

Camber of the Arch
"This is intriguing thank you Ar it would seem like we are being called to action" transmitted Zev

"What a monumental day this is shaping up to be first an alien pod containing advanced technologies lands and then all Arch-Daemoniorum are in agreeance for the first time in recorded history" chuckled Ar well the best chuckling noise a Daiboli can make

"Indeed it is quite an occasion isn't it but shall we get to work deciphering it's secrets" asked Kaclagav

"We really must this appears to be a matter of grave importance" agreed Zev

And just like that the Arch-Daemoinorum got to work deciphering the pods secrets, within hours designs for laser weaponry, faster than light travel, anti-gravitational lifts and energy shields had been unlocked.

1 week later
The red beam shot out with ferocious force towards to target demolishing it upon impact, it was a terrifying but yet fascinating display of the technology that amused Ar If this pod hadn't brought the warning with it we would all be ripping each other to shreds right now over this technology, granted it's probably still going to happen eventually however it is such an amusing turn of events Ar had a sick sense of humour every Daemoniorum knew that thanks to the gladiatorial style fights he had held in the chamber to celebrate his 100th birthday. This humour had caused him to steal a certain peice of information from the pod when it crash landed, just a little physics theory that was stalled inside, it wasn't much but if anyone could turn it into a terrifying weapon Ar certainly could and he planned on doing just that.

"Thank you for the demonstration captain now please excuse me i have to go make arrangements" Ar transmitted before turning away from the firing range

"And remember captain to send those scientists to my room i have some special business for them, also we never had this conversation or you might fall victim to one of my famous jokes" the sick mocking tone employed by the speaking computer attached to Ar's arm made him sound all the more sinister if that was even possible

Soon so very soon i will rise to title of prince and these fools won't know what hit them...

[Spindle]

Perfectly interfaced into the brain of the Foreboding, ‘Voro perceived the functions of the ship from a somewhat detached viewpoint, seeing the image produced from LIDAR gathered by the fleet of smaller craft coalesce into a full image of the system. That the experimental Battleship and the Armoured Cruiser Augury would be allowed to integrate into Third Fleet had been one of the favours ‘Voro had asked of ‘Krriv, and ‘Voro was thankful for its extensive command and control functions.
He knew that he needed to be ready to force the thing, Golgotha as he'd named it, into battle at any given time. Of course, that would be easier had it not disappeared under its Whisper Drive. Without any noticeable gravitic distortion and with the normal stealth features of a Ma’ard ship it would be nearly undetectable, definitely so from across the system. Which meant that ‘Voro had to think out what the Golgotha would be doing.
‘Voro’s instincts screamed it would be headed for one of the jump zones, which didn’t narrow the volume of space the Golgotha could be headed for by much. But he knew it was a Church ship, which meant that it would, in all likelihood, be headed for one of the eleven Virtues. Even under Whisper Drive, the Golgotha would have reached Forethought, Tact, Will, Ingenuity and Autonomy by now, and the gravitic distortion of a jump would have been easily detectable from anywhere in the system. Piety and Sacrifice were too sacred for either ‘Voro or the Church to jump to, which left four options: Belligerence, Courage, Perseverance and Honor.
He would have narrowed it down further, but he realised that none of this felt right. The Golgotha was a true Kag'ha'tet, with no considerations for non-military purposes and the Church must know of the threat that the government was becoming, if they had penetrated security to the point of being able to sieze information from the pod. The idea that it would be running for a jump point felt wrong to him and the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that it would be going for a far more aggressive strategy. So where could it be striking, then? Calling up and image of the system, a lopsided red sphere indicating the areas the Golgotha could have reached, ‘Voro began mentally ticking off the possibilities. It was unlikely to be the major cities, they were too well defended to be overwhelmed before fleet elements arrived, and a running engagement would inevitably end in the Golgotha’s destruction or surrender. The same went for major military targets, and there was no point giving away position by attacking something non-major. What did that leave?
Nothing.
Would they attempt to flee? Was that really a possibility?
But what if it had battle chitin, he realised. It would explain why the Golgotha hadn't been at least partially stealthed when it had detached from the Cathedral of the Fallen. Then, the Golgotha could gut the a city’s defences in a single blow and deal with the rest piecemeal. It would be a perfect strike.
But if that was the case, where would-or even would-the Church strike? The Ka’ayn seemed like an obvious choice-it contained the collective leadership of the military and the government. But would the Golgotha strike? More importantly, could he ignore the threat of it?
‘Voro checked the astrograph, bringing up predicted times until arrival. One hundred and fifty-one cycles until the Golgotha reached the traditional detection range, and only one hundred and forty-six cycles for Third fleet to congregate at the Ka'ayn jump zone, before the three cycle jump to the Ka'ayn, so he had two cycles spare. He spent those composing and sending a message to ‘Krriv, warning her about the incoming threat and the potential for Third Fleet to be horrendously misplaced if he was wrong.
The next one hundred and forty-six cycles were nerve-wracking. The niggling seed of doubt sat in ‘Voro’s mind, and he endlessly planned for if the Golgotha had gone to the jump zones left over, if it had a supporting fleet with more traditional stealth capabilities, if it had a greater missile strength than he had anticipated and one thousand other potentialities. Even when the time came for the jump, he barely noticed the slight distortion of reality, so engrossed was he in his simulations and predictions.

When the Third Fleet crashed back into uncompressed spacetime, the Destroyer scouts spread out around the Ka'ayn, sensors probing for the Golgotha amidst the detritus of the Ka'ayn.
And, five light-beats distant from the Foreboding, the Destroyers found the Golgotha.
Immediately recoiling away from the enormous Kag'ha'tet, the Destroyers unleashed a barrage of missiles, drawing attention away from themselves until they had retired from weapons range, most dashing back to the main fleet to join with the missile screening groups, but four hovered at four and a half light-beats to trail the Golgotha if it broke and fled. ‘Voro had no intention of giving it the chance.
It seemed daunting. At one point five kiloyun, it was almost twice the length of the Cruisers which formed the core of the fleet, and even the Foreboding was only one point two kiloyun, still well short in comparison. 'Voro felt a shiver of trepidation course through him as the fleet converged on the Golgotha.
His Ghostships were spreading, however, racing outside of the area he intended to fill with fire and light, invisible in their Whisper Drive. The Cruisers and Escorts shifted into Combat Drive, their Narv’hals bending the spacetime around them slightly to help deflect projectiles and LASERs. It wasn't a real substitute for the stealth provided by Whisper Drive, but it also doubled the acceleration available from Whisper Drive and didn’t destroy the Narv’hal every time it deflected a shot, making it vastly better than the other shields available.
Third Fleet pulled itself into the traditional missile-range formation of groups with a leading Cruiser and three Destroyers behind it, meshing their point defense capabilities to protect the Cruiser. The six groups formed a hexagon around the command group, containing the Foreboding in addition to the regular Cruiser. Meanwhile, the Ghostships stalked towards the Golgotha, preparing their fire.
The fleet spread out, both sides accelerating towards the other and preparing to fire. It was an old conundrum, ‘Voro reflected, when to fire. Too early and your salvo is wasted and the enemy has an endurance advantage over you. Too late and the enemy has the first strike over you.
The Golgotha began firing its missiles at the three point five light-beat mark, a first salvo of over a hundred missiles streaking towards one of ‘Voro’s groups holding formation from ‘above’ the ecliptic, a massive amount of overkill. Of course it would be, ‘Voro realised, berating himself for his stupidity. Whoever was commanding the Golgotha had learned tactics from observation and study, not practice. They were going to make stupid mistakes, but this 'mistake' was going to prove fatal for the unprepared target group, who wouldn't have time to fully link into the defensive mesh.
The missile salvo was brutally torn apart by the point defences in the half a light-beat available to them for interception, precise nuclear missiles destroying concentrations of missiles and pulse LASERs destroying more spread out targets, but seven slipped through and detonated, twenty-eight high-powered LASERs streaking across the final light-beat, tearing apart two of the Destroyers in their path and severely damaging the Cruiser. The two remaining Destroyers were unharmed except for superficial damage and ‘Voro reassigned them to the next group along. ‘Voro clenched his gripper tentacles when he saw a second missile salvo, this one going for the group barely fifty thousand kiloyun counter-spin of the newly destroyed group. This one was destroyed by the overlapping point defences of the fleet without any slipping through. ‘Voro unclenched his gripper tentacles, just slightly.
At three point one five light-beats, ‘Voro judged the fleet was moving fast enough for his purposes and ordered the transition to Whisper Drive. As the fleet almost faded from Foreboding’s sensors, contact only being maintained by traditional tightbeam, the return missile salvoes began to streak off, all coordinated from the Foreboding to arrive at the Golgotha at the same time. The volume of space between the two forces became filled with radiation of all types within cycles and targeting grew increasingly difficult for the Golgotha. ‘Voro’s fleet, however, had the benefit of the Destroyer group, maintaining contact with the Foreboding, to keep their aim steady. Maintaining their distance relative to the Golgotha, they watched with impunity.
Still, the firepower of the Golgotha was devastating and, although the tight formation of ‘Voro’s fleet was mitigating the effects, the slips were costing ships and components while the Golgotha, by contrast, didn’t seem to be taking any major damage. ‘Voro began to wonder if it had over a yun of battle chitin. It certainly looked as if it did.
Fortunately, his ace in the hole had just entered range. The Augury fired its GRASERs and ‘Voro saw the first drop in incoming firepower of the battle, as nine beams punched through the Golgotha as if it was so much paper. Still, the behemoth carried on firing, while switching to its own energy weapons to engage the Armoured Cruiser. Even as they began to charge however, the Ghostships loitering in Whisper Drive fired their spreads, missiles streaking outward before the nuclear charges detonated, the resultant plasma lances spearing into the GRASER mounts, shattering them. The LASERs raked the Augury, but the battle chitin absorbed the fire and the Ghostships only took a few hits, disappearing into their stealth.
Even as the Augury’s GRASERs ripped through the Golgotha a second time, ‘Voro unleashed another salvo of missiles, the Golgotha's weakened point defences failing to catch them in time. Golgotha shuddered as the LASERs punched through its battle chitin, blowing out more and more systems.
‘Voro waited for the message of surrender as one of the Golgotha’s missile stores detonated. He waited as it broke in half. When he was certain that no Ma’ard had survived, he ordered the mauling to stop, and composed a message to ‘Krriv.
Church vessel fired upon the Third Fleet and destroyed multiple vessels. Recommending immediate punitive action.

[Vogega]

Kiefer System
"This comes straight from the admiral," said the captain of the missile ship who had thus far talked to the captain of the colony ship.
"I have orders from the minister of colonization and several other top officials."
"Well,' the captain said condescendingly, "the admiral has orders straight from the Emperor who has absolute authority if I remember correctly."
"He does, but I have my orders," he said before gesturing to someone off screen as the screen faded to black. The colony ship fired up its engines and tried to break past the two missile ships blocking its path. The colony ship had few weapons, and only weak shields, and had almost no armor to its name. If the missile ships chose to, it would stand no chance.
"The colony ship is pushing ahead with its mission!" the captains said panicking over comms to the admiral just as he was given the necklace by Mistress Lorthous.
"Destroy it. The Nare will know why, I will make sure of it, but it is easier then faking an accident.
"Acknowledged."
The ships powered up their weapons which may cause the Nare to be scared for a moment as they were at extreme missile range. Clouds of missiles exited both ships in a single volley. Ion cannons blazed and the particle beams ate away at the colony ship's armor and shields. One volley was all it took. 15,000 lives snuffed out in an instant as the ship succumbed to the exploding ion shots and raw power of the particle beams. the missiles exploded along the hull causing massive pieces of the ship to be ripped off and dead, frozen bodies drifted among the wreckage seconds later. The first casualty of the ship's demise was the captain himself, a missile crashing through the glass and exploding, killing him instantly. Debris drifted through space, stuck in an orbit that would bring it crashing into the star eventually. The two ships went back to the fleet and resumed their previous positions.

Mistress Lorthous's office
Kiefer 8
"Yes, we created two alternate types from what Enuma-Elish had given us, both each advanced in a single direction, but failing completely in the other. I have no doubt that trade for the Arc will come eventually, but not at the moment."
As soon as the Admiral had told her of the arrival of the Tyr, she nodded in a graceful gesture either having used it many times, or had practiced specifically for him. He smiled at that thought.
The two Nare burst out laughing as the admiral talked about painting himself. That was not the real reason he had wanted to paint. He had planned to paint to drones on his back, so that they blended in to the surroundings. The Nare had a lack of metal unless he wanted to try to get one into the mountain installation.
"My esteemed guest, please, let me explain, When Enuma came crashing to our world, the majority of the populace on Agenisi was in Seia for a festivity's. The reason their cautious is because there processing the difference between us, I'm sure once your on your way back to your vessel thing's will be very different, our people are gentle, but we can be... a little excessive."
The admiral was, once the Nare had stopped laughing, taken through a door into a room of marble and a holographic screens. The admiral was led into an office that had an adjoining room, he was forced to sit in the Mistress's chair and it squeaked in protest as he settled down.
The mistress came out of the room carrying a small box.
The admiral was immediately suspicious of the plain box. Lorthous bowed down and took a small necklace out. She reached up and placed it around his neck. It was a four pointed star with a glittering sapphire in the center.
"A gift for your arrival on our world, its not much, but thank you for treating us with respect."
The admiral would have to have the ships computer scan it for a listening device, but he said aloud, "Thank you." Now, could you please take me to my quarters. We have a ship near my fighter with the plates from our trade agreement."

Landing site
Kiefer 8
The droids with their fake, they still needed to be tested, guns awaited the arrival of the Nare with their 35 plates of armor.

[Vanquaria]

WARNING- EXTREME VIOLENCE AND GORE

Erulus, Interstellar Empire of Vanquaria

The aliens that inhabited Erulus were hairy, ape-like creatures that resembled gorillas. The only exception was that their fur was red and their heads had snake-like scales for skin. Their planet was taken over by the Empire decades ago when the aliens had only just achieved a PMT-like state. But many still resented living under the harsh rule of the Empire, with some beginning to plot rebellion under the name of freedom.

The father of a young boy baby and husband of a beautiful wife, in their terms of beautiful, started cooking dinner. His wife was breastfeeding their healthy, chubby baby who giggled almost constantly. It was a quiet night, with the appearance of nearby planets adding to the attractive scene. Suddenly...

CRASH! The flexi-glass door to their humble, small home was broken down. Immediately after that a squad of 5 Vanquarian shocktroopers and 1 officer entered. The baby of the alien couple began wailing loudly while the father stood in front of his family, determined to protect them and demanded to know what was happening in fluent English, the result of their native language being replaced by English in their education system,
''What the heck is going on! We have done nothing! We are innocent! Check our records!''

The Vanquarian officer motioned for his squad to surround the 3 aliens at their small, circular dining table. He then replied in a rough voice with a sneer,'' We know you have done nothing wrong. But...unfortunately through a random selection process through our data banks we have selected you and your lucky family to be used as an example to all those who wish rebellion towards our Empire. Now, rip em boys!''
The alien father was pushed onto the floor by 3 soldiers. He tried to resist but the physically superior Vanquarians maintained a strong hold on him. He was lying on the cold, hard floor of his own home facing his wife and baby and his eyes widened in absolute fear as the other two shocktroopers and the officer walked towards them. ''Leave them alone! Kill me instead!'' he shouted.
The officer, clad in black clothing with the sinister, glowing red mask looked slowly at him and chuckled,'' Do not worry, we do not wish to kill them...yet. We only want to have some fun with them, especially the baby.''

A shocktrooper pulled the screaming mother away from her son as the other soldier grabbed the baby. The baby was shoved face-first onto the wooden dining table and blood began to slowly pour from his nose and mouth as he cried even more. This made the mother scream and try to lunge towards the shocktrooper with murderous intent but the shocktrooper holding her pulled out a sharp knife from his belt that was attached to his armoured suit and plunged it into the mother's mouth. This made the father roar and become more aggressive, desperate to protect his family but the three shocktroopers holding him pulled out their pistols, unlocked the safety and fire into his 4 limbs simultaneously. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
The soldiers, after a long series of shots, stopped firing and surveyed the damage done with cruel satisfaction. The alien male's hands and feet resembled ripped meat that looked like a pack of feral dogs had attacked it instead of bullets. Blood began spurting out from punctured veins and arteries, filling the floor in crimson red.

''AAAAAH!'' the father screamed. He then closed his eyes, not wanting to see anymore and hoping to die right there but his eye lids were held apart by the gloved fingers of a shcoktrooper that wanted the father to enjoy the scene. The mother, who had a combat knife plunged into her throat then spit out a long, saliva-filled tongue. The shocktrooper who had plunged the knife in had stabbed the knife deep onto her tongue and with the amazing strength that came naturally to Vanquarians ripped the tongue off. The alien mother began gushing out blood like a how a beautiful waterfall gushed out water, her eyes rollled back and her entire body started to spasm. ''Disgusting creature.'' snarled the shocktrooper holding her. The soldier slammed the alien female against a wall in the dining room and suddenly launched a series of lightning-fast stabs at her eyes. The alien mother gurgled loudly, trying to scream but could not without her tongue. More red blood came out from her eyes, like a heavy rain of tears. She was then thrown to the floor by the shocktrooper who was laughing along with is comrades at the sight while her husband screamed and her baby boy wailed. She could not see, could not scream. Her life force steadily ebbed away as she lost blood.

As this happened, the soldier's evil intents turned towards the baby. ''No, please, he is just a baby boy...,''cried his father.
The Vanquarian officer, standing in the middle of the room , spoke while keeping his eyes focused on the baby, ''Wrong, disgusting creature. This ''baby'' is merely vermin offspring. One day, he may grow into a large vermin that could be troublesome to the Empire. So, unfortunately, he must be exterminated for the greater good.''
The officer than nodded toward the shocktrooper holding the baby who smiled, showing his bright white canine teeth. The shocktrooper slowly drew out his own combat knife, delighted at the chance to impress his superior and cause agony to the alien male. He slowly placed the knife on the tender, red skin of the yet to grow fur baby. The father was sobbing heavily now, begging the soldier to stop but the shocktrooper simply ignored the disgusting filth and with a clean movement. sliced the chubby leg of the baby.

Blood also gushed out like a waterfall with the baby becoming silent as his life force slid away from his tiny body. The shcoktrooper grinned and to the laughter of his comrades whispered loudly to the baby,''Rockabye, baby, on the tree tops...''
Then came another three slices and the rest of the baby's limbs were cleanly cut. By then, the baby had stopped breathing and was dead.
The father muttered, ''Why, why,why,why,why....''
As the shocktrooper let go of his eyes, he was already close to death from shock and had lost the will to live, his body laying on the blood-covered floor. The Vanquarian officer sneezed then ordered his men,''Put them in our hover carrier outside. I will plant a bomb to blow up this filthy place.''


2 weeks later...

The corpses of the family killed were paraded through the streets of the cities in Erulus by combat drones. Following them was another drone that displayed a large, holgraphic message that said,
THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO TRAITORS OF THE EMPIRE!
A few months later, threats of rebellion began to drop and the people of Erulus lost their will to fight for freedom, their will replaced by fear of the Empire.

[Alahana]

Science hangar, Horizon space station, orbiting Eurion, Scorpii system
The alien pod started to give all kinds of information. The captain couldn't not believe it, the aliens of this pod really invited them to visit them. This was great news.
The pod also gave some gifts, here is where the captain started to feel extremely euphoric. He was currently touching alien artifacts. But as soon as he touched them he thought back to what happened during the colonization period. All kinds of deadly diseases that spread to the new lands and caused death everywhere.
For all he knew there could be some diseases on the artifacts that are harmless to the aliens, but deadly to him.

But would it be worth it to visit them? With all that's going on right now with the other aliens it might be a bad idea. And he had no ship to visit them. The archangel is being prepared for war, the other ships are on general standby to defend Eurion might the other aliens attack. Then he remembered that these aliens were able to visit us if not able to visit them. But still.. he wanted to see these aliens for himself

He decided to run this past the commander. He was as surprised as the captain. The commander had to think for a while. They had enough trouble right now with the aliens acting very hostile and adding another civilization might increase these problems. He couldn't risk it and decided to send the original archangel and its crew to the alien civilization. There were enough warships orbiting the planet to suppress hostile units on Eurion should war brake out soon.

Quite frankly that would be more effective because the Archangel was the first ship and thus a prototype, while the other ships are way more advanced and able to bring more destruction on hostiles that the Archangel ever could. But the ship is a symbol, a symbol that represents the civilization of Eurion, or at least the largest part. Maybe the oncoming war with the greatpowers on Eurion might result in the unification of the planet as a whole.

The crew of the Archangel was called to their ship. No one was informed for what they would do and were afraid they were heading to war, as this was their original plan. But when they assembled on the bridge they saw captain Ryonel entering the bridge with a big smile they knew they were going to do something entirely different. Captain Ryonel walked up to the elevated area of the bridge.
He cleared his throat and said "Welcome back all. I have some exciting news. I have assembled you all for an exciting mission. We are not going to follow our previous orders, we are not going to war. But we are gonna visit another alien civilization."
The crew looked worried to the captain but the captain continued to ease their minds
"An alien pod arrived a few days ago from another alien race. This pod has nothing to do with the Aegen nor the hostile aliens in our system. We are gonna visit a friendly race and will try to establish friendly relations. This will be another major breakthrough that we will be able to write down in the history books. Are you all ready!"
The crew answered with a big synchronized shout "Yes sir!" as they went to their stations to prepare to leave Eurion once more.
The ships engines came to life as the ship was going through the check to be sure everything is okay to lift of. "Engine is on full performance captain, we are ready to go."
one of the privates said to the captain. At the same time the connectors that dock the ship disconnected so the ship would be able to leave. "Get us out of the docks and far enough from the station so we can leave." the captain said while preparing the hyperdrive.
"3...2...1 hyperdrive ready" The VI announced. When the hyperdrive was ready the captain entered the coordinates given to him by the alien civilization and engaged the hyperdrive. Now they had to wait for a long time since they had to travel to the other side of the galaxy. Hopefully their ship could hod it out that long.

*Several days later*
Reach, unknown system
"Reach almost reached" the VI announced
"You couldn't control yourself now did you?" the captain told the VI
"What? It was a good one if you ask me. But anyway exiting hyperspace in 3..2.." the VI said when the light around the ship started to reform and a planet started to form in front of them as they slowly exited speeds faster than light. To avoid any kind of provocation they waited far away from the planet and let them respond first. The might react badly if we would approach them first.

Sorry that it took so long to post this. For some reason it didn't post the last time and I didn't find enough motivation to write it all again :S So here is some sort of low quality version of that text

[Neo ORB]

Keifer 16; Time: 3:00 pm
Agenisi (Seia)
Jess Terra

I held a small smile as I heard him say thank you, but his request for a quarters was rather strange, its not like we didn't have one or even a few hastily prepared... but It wasn't in this building, heck it wasn't even within the city. It was within the first level of Kaguya's first barracks. But surely she wouldn't, that the Mistress would possibly alow all secrets to be laid bare? and yet as I saw the mistress's inquisitive face with a smile hidden within her eyes, I knew...
She had silently planned something, no maybe she had known something from the very start.
But how far was the guests reach within Kaguya? Surely it wouldn't be more then level one?.

However as the Mistress then lightly started walking to the door as if to show the Admiral the way, then lightly stopped and turned on her heels and looked at the admiral.
Her voidless back eyes then flashing quickly like a scanner, changing as two golden iris's with crimson pupils faded in and then lightly illuminated, but at the same time it seemed like the iris and pupil had been cut like a stone in a brilliant fashion. It was a small change that held a terrifying background as the Mistress flashed a glare of certainty at the Admiral.
This was no longer the face of a benevolent being, it was only the face of a malevolent demon glaring at its prey knowing full well that the prey was powerless to stop it from ripping out its throat...

"Admiral, we do have a quarters prepared within Kaguya. For you to rest in, you will have near compete access to our servers and I'll even have Enuma-Elish brought to you to take back to your Emperor... but please for your sake, keep your actions in our fortress... to a minimum."

Then as if the sudden storm passed, Lorthous's eyes returned to the voidless black as she stared and then lightly smiled.
"Now as for the trade agreement, you can leave the crates at the landing zone where your fighter is, we'll pick them up later once your settled, I'll have Kaguya lower there shield so you can pass through.
Really I can't stress enough how important it is to please not go exploring...
after all, even we have our secret's that we would like not to be disturbed... Jess will show you the way. Although I don't see how a lone mountain several dozen several miles away would be hard to miss."

And then with that, Lorthous lightly bowed and then left the room.

---

Keifer 16; Time: 2:48 pm
Reposia: (Orbiting Agenisi)
Tali Ralf'lia

It was as the two pancake vessels intercepted the new vessel Tali then could guess the situation, see the political red tape that was being placed and in an effort, moved around by the two sides of the same coin. However before seeing the situation heat up further, the bridge doors opening caused a crash in her train of thought as she looked to see Captain Yuli float in with two worried personnel of the medical staff who were holding an IV drip stand filled with blood bags.
"But captain, your not well; You've still lost a lost of blood..."
"Please think of our positions, you may be our captain, but we have say over the medical incidence's... your under our current jurisdiction until your fit for duty."
"And i'm telling you that these alarms which woke me up, are contact alarms which means that no matter the condition I have a job to do... and a loss of blood is not going to stop me and neither are YOU!."
"Captain?..."
At Tali's sudden voice as she looked at Yuli with bewilderment, it was a face that held with certainty some sort of long forgotten commodity. It was that look that connected to Yuli's eyes that made her lightly sigh before going and quickly but gently removing the lieutenant from her chair and sat down. As she quickly pulled up reports and skimmed through the information her eyes then were distracted by a sudden and further wane of alarms.

"Contact... weapon fire detected; oh my god... the Vogegan's just fired on their own vessel..."
The image in a holoscreen popped up just as the vessel was engulfed in fire, the hologram holding a haunting preview of events that one day may come. As the crew looked on in horror as the alarms blared around, Yuli could see the two pancake vessels move back into formation. However Yuli held a different view as she quickly took action as she brought up the internal ship communications.
"All hands prepare for EVA... I repeat, all hand's prepare for EVA, this is a rescue mission..."
In an instant the crew looked at the Captain with a look of bewilderment. No this was natural, the time it would take to reach the vessel was seventeen hours to the edge of the system by their current drive. And while their short range FTL would get them their instantly, it could be distressing none the least if the Reposia suddenly appeared at the destruction site of the Vogegan's unknown vessel.

However Yuli looked to her crew with a glare and then repeated her orders once again.
"I said all hands prepare, i'll handle the Reposia now get ready to disembark when I give the signal!"
In that instant all the crew nodded and then moved through the non existent gravity in the bridge as Yuli shut it all down, they needed speed as she hastily powered up the Rosen-bridge.
As the wormhole appeared once more in front of them with its swirling blue rifts and electoral bolts which danced before the vessel was encompassed and then passed forward and reappeared out of the whirlpool at the debris of the colony ship.

Instantly as the whirlpool faded, the shields glew with a dull silver ripple as the metal of the ship and its hull bounced off harmlessly. However the golden shield had compressed to the same skinlike covering as the nearby radiation from the destroyed reactor played Hell. But as an alarm momentarily ripped throughout the ship, the hanger underneath once more opened up.

And then dozens of the crews personnel covered in their uniforms dropped out of the ship and into the void. Brilliant but thin gold and silver shields covered there bodies like skin trying to protect them from the harsh environment of the void. There face's half covered by a sudden increase of bandages. The crew instantly had frost lightly form against their eyelash's and cling against there hair which froze it in place while there feathers gave a light sheen as frost slowly crept up them. But while these effected were instant it was the only thing that seemed to happen as long as one only counted the short term.
If they were left in the absolute zero of the void for long enough, the frost would eventually have killed them even with the uniforms protective functions. And then like everything in the void, their bodies would expand as the blood rapidly boiled away, as the organs would rupture from being suddenly stretched and then they would be frozen solid until something came and shattered their corpse's like glass.

Of course there was no suffering as this action would be instant once the suit failed, but it was once believed that the Nare might have had the ability to traverse the void alone without the aid of a vessel, but such ideas had fallen into obscurity and myth long ago. However for the crew who then diligently searched the wreak age, Yuli was forced then to listen and to watch the negative reports as video from every unit flooded the bridge.
Everyone of them, all of the citizens aboard held a body made of metal. Even with the regenerative powers that the Nare genetics held, even if rebirth could have saved these poor souls if they had been of flesh and blood even form the clutches of death if only a little time had passed... these... things were not of true flesh.
What were these beings that were known as the Vogegans. However the course for the Nare aboard the Reposia was as clear as a fateful September morning as the crew quickly returned from the void without a single rescue. However the vessel's few materials could later be repurposed if they choose to collect it on a later date instead of letting it eventually drift into Yan'tei in a few thousand millennia. As the Hanger resealed itself the majority of the crew that had gone out collapsed as they all silently mourned such an event of wasted life.

On the bridge, Yuli sat alone looking at the debris, her mind was rattled as the feeds silently had burned itself into her very soul. The lifeless bodies a haunting reminder of the new world they found themselves in. And as she looked at the wreckage her hand gripped tightly in reflex, her nails cutting into deeply into her own flesh as bright crimson blood dripped down her hand on lightly on to the bridge floor near her chair.
How could such an event have been allowed to happen, anything.... Anything was a better course then this. And yet as Yuli watched alone she slowly rose and then with a voice full of sadness, spoke a silent song for the soul's lost.

Oh, anima effimera
La sofferenza è svanita lontano
Una morbida nebbia d'argento
Una morbida nebbia d'argento
avvolge teneramente ogni cosa.

Riposa, Riposa in pace.
Puoi volare in libertà.

Ecco il mio ultimo incantesimo,
affinché la tua luce non conosca ombra.

As Yuli sat back down she sighed lightly and then with a few commands activated the Reposia's rozen-bridge and once again appeared back in original position in orbit above Agenisi after the whirlpool swallowed them and spit them out.
However after witnessing such an event, the only thing Yuli wanted to do was let the crew rest at home as she turned the frigate around and then headed back towards the surface for Kaguya. As the friction met with the metal, they fell angled for Kaguya, the rumbling and feeling of gravity no doubt had cause the crew moving back to hit the floor and try to brace themselves against whatever object's they could. It was fun, she swore she could hear the arbitrary curses while in good taste being directed at her now. However as the friction cleared and the re-entry defenses clear away, She could see the heavy and deployed defenses of Kaguya.

It's enhanced area based IMPULSE and ARC shields protecting the fortress posing a general problem, if they hit would they be crunched?.
However as the frigate hit the top layer above the crater entrance of the mountain by a mile away in height, they could see for a moment the flares of both shields until, like water the Reposia started sinking into and through the Kaguya based shield. As the bridge view was filled for a minute by silvery clear water. Until suddenly the silver sky around her suddenly had a gentle float feeling surrounding it as the decent of the fall was almost completely nullified.
As the Reposia entered into the crater gently falling until a ring from below grabbed hold and then sent them hurdling downwards two miles below into hanger 3-C. As the captain gently set the Reposia down onto is specified docking area as clamps locked it into place. however what she didn't expect was the four other Jericho frigate's while crewless to have already been competed. As she lightly scratched her head, she was once again bewildered by the might of a fully forward pushing military complex.

However as her terminal streamed new data and dozens of updates, she found that she had access to the crew logs of the new five ships...
At that she stopped and then further looked into the data and looking at the other docked Jericho's.
She knew of the four that were located around her lightly, but the fifth was nowhere in sight. As she delved deeper she found a schematic simply labeled "Project Starfire: The Libra."

As she looked at the blueprinted vessel her eyes widened. It was a strange design; the main body was like the duel edged blade like the tip and partial shaft of a sword with the maximum height of the body being forty meters at its center while its sloped edges had a height of only five meters. Giving it a sort of sharper oval shape similar to a replica sword with its fattened edges. In width the "Blade" was flattened to a total eighty meters. In main length the body was a crisp one hundred and fifty six meters in total length. But at around eighty five meters down the body a massive pyramid like structure seemed to be incorporated into the design on both the top and underside of the vessel and combined neatly into a single cube like unit. Unlike the rest of the vessel the pyramid met the edges of the blade perfectly aligned into the only sharpened point on the vessel. The pyramid however unlike the blade like body had a height of one hundred and twelve meters from tip to tip; a width of eighty five meters and a length of ninety which ended in a strange block like existence at the end of the vessel where its engines were located.

Instantly the first thought that hit her was why? However as she delved into the schematics and pulled the blueprint before her she could see the main passageways alone were large enough to spread her wings... wait... spread her wings... quickly she looked into further plans for the vessel and found herself to be only more and more surprised. This this...thing wasn't just a vessel.
It was a Biosphere carefully crafted not only to the Nare's ideology of living with nature as well as their love of flying, but could act as a vessel for almost any planet based life form while giving the comfort of being on the surface.

Instantly Yuli tore out of her seat, ran out of the bridge and shredded through the halls until she opened one of the crew entrance's, and walked out onto the deck neatly aligned with where her vessels hull met with only a centimeter of space between the two. As her wings unfurled she instantly took to the air and then head downwards after entering the catapults chamber. She didn't know how long she fell for flying at top speed until she finally hit level ten, twenty miles down. It was a trip that took only four minutes until she hit the bottom and came face to face with the sealed hanger. As this was generally a restricted area to most, save for the personnel of Kaguya. It was here that being Captain of the Reposia held a sudden benefit as she entered through the decontamination, got sprayed clean and then walked past the only system checkpoint, in fact the only way in was that decontamination chamber while a hanger was sealed.
As she hit the inside of the Hanger, she would see it from the ground in all its proto-glory.

The reactor had already been finished, various cooling systems added and various decks while still very hollow had been connected as large rooms were built. And this was only at the back end of the schematics. As she watched the progression one of the chief engineers floated down and gave a small greeting.
The leading engineer was a rough Caucasian man by the name of Tor'thill Vandercla, aged in the range of forty with a stubbly beard, he wore overalls and a white shirt, his short hair capped with a simple scarf and wore shaded goggles. However the man was wingless after suffering from an accident years ago and had been waiting for them to grow back. The first growth when wings sprouted in puberty was already mind breaking event, the second time if they broke was an absolute nightmare.

"Captain, we weren't expecting you so soon, we'll have your upgraded flagship ready in a few days time, we just got the Overmind integrated an hour ago... i'll admit it was a messy process, but she seems to have calmed down, now that its pain after being fitted into the vessels systems have healed."

"Wait, there's an Overmind within the vessel?"
"What you didn't know? didn't you read the report?"
"No I only saw the schematics and headed down..."
"So you didn't know..."
"Never even had a clue until a few moments ago..."
"Well then, Surprise..."

As the lead engineer placed his hand on his head and shook, he then soon laughed hardily and then patted Yuli on her shoulders and then leaned in close to her ear and whispered.
"I don't know what this new class's purpose is, but I have taken a look at its reactor, the thing has two no... maybe even three times the energy production of the Jericho."
"Any idea why?"
"I could only guess, but I'm thinking she's trying to get both shields working at full capacity while still keeping it combat effective."
"On a frigate?"
"Well maybe, either way, I know your going let us know once its complete."

As the engineer then went back to work. Leaving Yuli to her lonesome she could see various sections of the vessel were all being worked on at the same time, but the odd thing was there was no welding equipment. No screws or bolts; just silence and the placing of the strange blue plates, how did they expect the vessel to hold together? and why were the plates blue in the first place?.

[Spindle]

“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Absolutely nothing?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“No chance that it got damaged and just isn’t showing?”
“No chance.”
‘Voro drooped slightly.
“Get the Division back to work.” He said eventually.
“Pardon?” ‘Tlis asked.
“Get them back to work on filling in the gaps in our knowledge, not just codifying the pod. Leave Sections seven and eight on codifying, but get one, two and three on independent research, four and five on different potential applications for everything we get-and have got so far-from the pod. And get six double-checking the blueprints we’ve already got. Check them for design flaws and for malicious code in the data itself.”
“Sir? Isn’t that a little extreme?”
“A pod belonging to an unknown species appears in-system, it's Narv’hal conveniently damaged so we can’t fully copy it, that needs an Ayl to unlock but has a pad for us on the inside, which brings us news of an enormous threat, but then doesn’t give us any other information on said threat. What part of this doesn’t sound right?”
“When you put it like that…” ‘Tlis admitted.
“Get the Construction Division to start reviewing their ship designs.” ‘Voro ploughed on, “I don’t care how, just don’t let them take anything for granted. I’ll go openly to the Strategy Board to see if I can increase the shipbuilding numbers, get a posting expansion and a viable multi-system defence strategy up before anything happens.”
“Sir?”
“Think, ‘Tlis. Assume that these Aegen have seeded the entire region with these pods, that boost their tech level and simultaneously warn them of an impending threat that wiped out an entire galactic empire. What’s their response going to be? They’ll be building up their forces, on edge, before they run out into the galaxy and the moment they meet another race...even odds it’s gonna be a shooting war. So we’ve got to deal with at least three thousand other species running around this galaxy and firing at shadows, plus the Outsiders, if they even exist and the Aegen if they don’t. And I’ll bet that they won’t tell us who or which or even whether they are. Best case scenario, they scare everyone into working together. Worst case scenario, they’re smart enough to tear any coalition apart from within, and then nothing we do will make a difference, so we need to extend our reach-and soon. We need to get into contact with as many other races as possible, build up a picture of what’s going on in the galaxy and prepare for the war that’s coming. And it is coming, I guarantee it. So we have to do that while our own internal politics trying to gut us at the same time. That means we need to get our first move over too fast for any potential opposition to notice or react to the change from a single-system defence force to a multi-system power-projection force. We need to put the initiative forwards, on the Captains who make contact with the new races, but we also need to have a system for dealing with them. Fallen beholding, we’ll need a system just to start communication with any Ayl we meet! So, we’ve got a big task ahead of us. Ready to be about it?”

[Spindle]

“Thank you, ‘Apush, but you’re criticizing me without having heard out my full strategy. I have no intention of declaring war on every Ayl we meet. The opposite, in fact. We all know that the Ayl are not the main threat we’ll be facing. The Outsiders are the threat, and one we are not capable of defeating alone. We need allies-as many possible, so here’s my strategy:
We’re going to start getting colonies out into the wider galaxy-and the defences to hold them against Ayl, at least. This is going to include an expansion of the Fleet, so if we’re going to do this, we need to present a united front to get the extra funding this is going to entail.
Once we’ve got our backups ready-and that’s what the colonies are, don’t get me wrong-we introduce ourselves to the galaxy at large. That would fall under the purview of Fourth and, to a lesser extent, Third Fleet, as normal, but it will be massive. We’re talking over a dozen task forces here, and they won’t be a couple of Destroyers apiece. Fifth Fleet is going to be taxed enormously to keep them fully supplied, but we’ll need to move-”
“This expansion is ill-conceived and not appropriate for either the Ma’ard race or the Ma’ard military.” ‘Apush interjected, “Furthermore, such an aggressive expansion will cause any neighbors we have to respond in kind. We cannot afford to aggravate any potential sleeping giants in our region.”
“And we won’t know if there even are any sleeping giants unless we search for them, and if any of these sleeping giants have woken up and we’re clinging to the single-system defence force we currently use then we’ve doomed every Ma’ard in existence by our own short-sightedness. No war fought by pure defence is already lost and we cannot afford to lose a single war. Not when defeat could mean the extinction of the Ma’ard. And that includes the war we will have to fight against the Outsiders, and make no mistake, we will have to fight them. Some fights we just can’t hide or run from. But we can prepare for them, and in this case we should bend every action towards that preparation. Our fate depends on it.”
“Not necessarily. The Outsiders ignored the single-system polities to focus on the Aegen. If we keep ourselves to this system, we can build up our forces, ride out the Outsiders and then go off and conquer the remaining Ayl.” ‘Apush’s complexion had flushed to a triumphant, pale yellow.
“You mean you think they did.” ‘Voro countered, “We know nowhere near enough about that war to make predictions about our one, other than that it will happen. That’s why we need to be prepared for every contingency. That’s why we need to make contact with the Ayl and that’s why we need to expand our sphere of influence. We have no idea how much time we have left-we may have already wasted too much time to make a difference to our fate. But we need to try to make that difference, because even if the Ma’ard race goes down in flames, we’ll bring enough Outsiders with us that perhaps-just perhaps-the other races will remember who let them win the war in the end. And isn’t that immortality? So I hope that, when we join the Fallen, we’ll have cause to be proud of our deaths, not ashamed that we should have done more.”
“Go down in flames?” ‘Apush queried derisively, “I think you overestimate them.”
“No. If anything, I underestimate them. They wiped out a galactic empire on their own, have the technology to move between galaxies and you think that, if they make a concerted effort to destroy us we’ll stand a chance against them? We’re being rammed up to the Aegen’s level of technology, but it will take time-possibly too much time-to fully integrate that into our tech base. You’ve seen it already. The new ships we’re constructing are as much machine as they are meat. The latest schematic we’ve codified gives us a method of integrating and maintaining mechanical parts more easily, but until we can get the ships fully refitted we’ve got to learn how to service those parts in order to keep our fleet combat-ready. That takes up man-hours like you wouldn’t believe. The shortage of Destroyers? It’s because half of the construction slots are being upgraded to handle gestation of the improved nervous systems. Our technology’s good, yes, but we’ve not reached the Aegen yet, and we won’t for several thousand rotations more, at the very least. And shall we consider the potential for the Outsiders to have improved their own technology in the time since they destroyed the Aegen? Because it would be the height of folly to assume that they’ve been still in that time. So before anyone make an assessment on this situation, please, let them consider the implications of what we already know.”