First Solar War (IC, TG for Invite)

[Zipangese Star Empire]

ZSE Ministry of Defense, Special Projects Sub-Level, Zipang Prime

"Practicality I agree with. And our main threat is the Final Reich. Everything else is irrelevant now, though this current situation is a possible snag." said Asgill. "We need to establish a plan. I have no doubt that even for their advanced technology and supremacist beliefs, they will still have high security for their wunderwaffe."

Yuuko and Asgill began discussing hypothetical snags during the mission with possible solutions and counter-measures. Meanwhile, in a more desolate place of the Sub-Level, two figures emerged from a hole created by removing a modular section of a heavy wall. "What is this place?" asked Glassman. "Our next stop on our journey, Glassman."

Hawthorne and Glassman entered the dark place. "This way." said Hawthorne as the device lighted up the area around them. "Truly, a miracle device." said Glassman. The pair walked down a featureless corridor, which led out into a larger room. "Storage?" asked Glassman. "No. It's not where it is. But the device says it will happen here." said Hawthorne. "We must wait. Wait for something to happen. Let's head back into the sewer. We can go to that service tunnel and rest. The device will tell us when we should be there again." said Hawthorne.

And so, the pair departed the Sub-Level, and exited in a way to show no one was there.

SMS Tyranny

Julia observed the sight before her with some mixture of fascination and insult. Fascination that there was a very odd aura emanating from this being and it-or her-had a very odd scent not unlike the distinct authoritative yet regal scent of a Werwolf Original, thus this was clearly a being of some prowess. And insult that after having witnessed her cut down hundreds of enemy soldiers both machine and organic, the enemy thought a single combatant would be enough to overcome her. This was the height of insult as far as she was concerned.

’I’m an immortal being and they presume one opponent will defeat me?! How dare they?! The impudence!’

She stood up tall and stared down her oncoming opponent who continued to make that strange noise over and over again. What did this creature believe they were in one of those old North American horror films? “I have cut down hundreds of your troops both machine and organic and you presume that a single opponent will overcome me? I am an immortal being, unable to die and a master in my art, that art being war.” She cocked her head to the side. “You seem to carry a trace of our scent but you could not possibly be one of the Werwolf, for the method of our creation died with our creator over a century ago and only twenty of us existed while the Japanese were still on Earth. Whatever attempt your scientists made at replicating our immortality, know that you are still an inferior second-hand copy of a true Werwolf and you are about to die.” Julia reared her head back and began to growl as her appearance slowly started to change into something more beastly. Her face extended out into the snout and jaws of a true wolf while her skin was soon covered in black fur, her nails grew into six inch claws and a tail grew from her rear. Within moments she looked like a dead ringer for her mythical namesake and certainly seemed just as terrifying. Then she roared.

The force of the roar actually shook the corridor and reverberated through the entire Dreadnought, chilling every living being on the warship to their core and telling them that a harbinger of death had come forth. Even the Imperial Marines were frozen in their place, in fear that their commander would devour them without a second thought just as she would the enemy, who knew what she would do in such a beastly form. Julia took no more than thirty seconds to lock eyes with the large ‘woman’ before she darted forward with speed that dared the eye to try and follow, heading straight for her opponent with the force of two bull elephants behind her...

ZSE Ministry of Defense, Special Projects Sub-Level on the way to the portal room, Zipang Prime

"Of course they would. I'd not expect it to be so easy for anyone to talk in, which is why we shall be relying to a degree on the Resistance. However of course they hadn't considered another force to be ready to destroy their beloved super weapon. With our actions today, we may not yet prevent them from continuing their evil but it may yet be hindered." Yuuko said as he continued to walk down the hallway with Asgill.

"Though I must say, your volunteering to go on the otherside of that portal is... Well just come back otherwise I get to explain to the Shogun all the reasons of why you died. And I'll be busy explaining that for the next day or so. ...Time for now is our ally, which is why we cannot spend it dawdling." Yuuko entered the portal room with Asgill, to see Inia, Cryska, Voss, Storch, and the other scientists with the Imperial Commandos. "Well, well. We have everything ready. I suppose it's time to send these Nazi bastards to hell then." Yuuko said, looking rather confidant.

"Cryska, Inia, ensure everything is ready for us to take the refugees and whomever from the Resistance wishes to come through the portal." Yuuko sat down at a chair beside a table with experimental weapons brought through by the Resistance. "Good luck all of you. Don't worry about the commandos. They have their objectives and mission protocols, nothing of ours will fall into the Nazis' hands without it being burnt up or blown up."

SMS Tyranny

The moment Julia started to charge Yukariko, her nails grew to a considerable size, she waited just until Julia was within optimal range then she dropped to her back and with one quick motion lifted her right leg up, the bottom of the wooden sandal connected with Julia's stomach Yukariko used the momentum to vault Julia over herself an into the wall down the hall behind her. Yukariko then stood back up and let out an ear piercing screech before the doors to the bridge closed, trapping the bridge crew and marines inside. From that point on screaming could be heard before.... Silence. A delighted, but still disturbing laugh could be heard from Yukariko. "If you haven't realised.... You are doomed and your time is over fortune has abandoned you just as your god has abandoned you to me, I will enjoy our time together. By the will of the Shogun, you will make an excellent prize for Director Kouzuki to experiment on." Yukariko said as she walked down the hall, her nails scraping against the floor reminiscent of something similar to nails on a chalk board.

[The Union of British North America]

ZSE Ministry of Defense, Special Projects Sub-Level on the way to the portal room, Zipang Prime

"Thank you, Yuuko." said Asgill.

The infiltration team, Asgill and a team of Imperial Commandos, suited up at the front of the device that allows objects to pass to and from the other dimension. Asgill felt a strange, dark power from the device, like it has been tainted and scarred from being the conduit to that dimension where the great evil lies.

The device began whirring and groaning, generating the portal. The main lights flickered off, forcing the switch to low emergency ones. The entire experimental room was extremely dark, only the light generated by the portal illuminated a fair enough part for the Director and the expeditionary team. Several people were in shock to what they saw. This wasn't a usual portal. They must have made it special for this mission, perhaps the G-bombs would interfere with it normally so that is why they modified. Asgill thought to himself. The portal caused a sense of vertigo, and a sense of dread--a sense of primal fear.

In the temporary small confused distraction and semi-darkness, two additional figures managed to slip into the trans-dimensional entourage. Before anyone noticed, and well before anyone could have done anything about it, the entire expedition was on the other side of the multiverse.

---

Dimension-2 Mars, Dimension-2, Multiverse

Asgill found himself in a dark cave. It was very dark, though he felt a strange hum in his bones. "Where is everyone? We should have been near each other when we crossed. Perhaps, if more than a few people are going through, they get separated in the dimension? I hope they're on the same planet". he asked himself, worried that the mission is going to hit a major snag.

"Everyone made it, but like you said, it was too much for the portal, and so we have split up accidentally. You can feel the others, even those Imperial Commandos dead inside with no soul, no mind, just a will bent by the Shogun." said a strange voice. "Whe--, who are you?" yelled Asgill as he turned to the direction of the voice. He brandished his experimental laser pistol, far more advanced than any ZSE or CON or Europan weapon.

Two figures materialized in front of him, out of the darkness. "They call me Hawthorne. I know of what you seek, Anthony Asgill." said Hawthorne. "This is Glassman, my assistant." Glassman took offence to that. "I'm just of a scient--" he began, but he was cut off by the sound of screaming.

The three rushed out towards the entrance of the cave, and saw great horrors down below. A large mechanical leviathan was brutal crushing and vaporizing several thousand people in the valley below. Dante's Inferno paled in comparison to what the three saw.

"Welcome to Hell." stated Hawthorne. "But we must keep moving, finding the Final Reich's doomsday weapon for our dimension, this way."

The trio started their way towards a large complex where the several thousand enslaved peoples were being led out.

Battle of Jupiter, Battle for Sol

"Everyone heads up, the Red Death is here!" yelled Marinaris. "All right, let's dance. Egret, you and Marinaris cover our backs, let's trap them. Nagase, we're baiting them. Know how to use the Zero Shift?" ordered Yuuya. "Yes, sir." replied Nagase.

The two used the special ability, a near-teleportation mechanism code-named Zero Shift to reach rear of the Red Death and his Demons. They took out two each with their master reflexes and their Javelins, and used Zero Shift again to take out one more each. Then Nagase and Bridges fled towards the maze area close to the command center.

"That'll get him fired up." said Yuuya. To hell with Europa. To hell with everything. Yuuya wanted to end all this. He was seized again by the image of Yui. Where...where is she?

"Bridges, be advised, sending additional TSF support your way, two flights to divert attention from the Red Death. I can't commit any capital ships as we would be in range of Euro heavy guns or the defense grid of the ring." said Magbaredge, noticing the strange behavior of Yuuya in the short video conference.

"Copy. Much obliged." replied Yuuya, out of his trance.

[New Decius]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

Before the group had gone even thirty yards they were surrounded on all sides, weapons of a wide variety trained on them at all bearings by an even more wide variety of people, or rather species. No less than thirty maybe more individuals had them stopped in their tracks up in the hills overlooking the Götterdämmerung construction site, or at least part of it given that the warship was about the size of the Terran nation of Nepal by its circumference, the ground was constantly shaking with miniature tremors from the massive gears extracting the raw resources from Mars core into the under construction Bavarium reactors. All the people who had them covered were humanoid in some way or other and the majority did indeed appear to be humans while the remainder were a species of green skinned or rather scaled humanoids with short tails, not unlike the hundreds of millions enslaved at the construction site. One among the group, an elderly human male with gray beard and hair and wielding what appeared to be a gun similar to a Smith and Wesson .357 Revolver only it had clearly seem better days judging by the wear and tear, but anyone in the group could tell this man was a soldier, and not just a soldier but a leader. He approached slowly with his gun never leaving its train on Asgill’s head while several of the Imperial Commando’s had frozen midway to their weapons, recognizing that though could certainly kill at least half the opposing group, they would all die within two minutes tops.

“Now we were expecting folks to come through, tipped off by a friend on the other side you might say. But recent events and those not so recent, have given us plenty fair cause to be nervous about strangers no matter the origin. So I’m gonna give you a pass-code that our friend who sent you through shoulda told you about and your gonna give me the right countersign or else I’ll blow your man’s head off. Do we understand each other?” Everyone slowly nodded and the leader went on. “Why was Arthur able to pull the sword from the stone?”

Storch, whom had not come through with the group since he needed to stay behind to make sure they could properly open the portal to bring them back and open one large enough for the refugee’s at the secondary location the lab was being setup at, had indeed briefed everyone or at least the Imperial Commando’s on the mission details about contacting the Resistance and how careful they had to be. If they failed to give the proper countersign, the Resistance would kill them without hesitation. Living in a galaxy being overrun by Nazi’s tended to make people a bit jumpy. One of the Commando’s spoke slowly but clearly in English to the old man. “Arthur did not pull the sword from the stone, the sword decided to finally let go of the stone.” And thirty weapons lowered as one and then began to patrol the area, on lookout for any Final Reich patrols nearby or any incoming Nazi forces. Not that it was much use in the long run since the Final Reich had battleships in orbit that could blast a position to pieces from space.

The old man stepped forward and extended his hand to the lead Commando with a smile on his face. “Good job there, can’t believe we’re still around using fool codes like that, but with how cynical and uncreative the Nazi’s are, they wouldn’t be able to predict an answer like that. I’m Major, no names, when you’ve been fighting the kind of fight I’ve been fighting for as long as I have, you learn it does you good to keep familiarity to a limit.” He holstered his revolver and then surveyed the group and the heavy packages they were carrying, the G-Bombs, with them. “So Colonel 1908 is still alive after over three centuries since Operation Cascade went tits up and we stopped the first crossing attempt but he got sent through. We’ve been watching him since he started making contact with us again about forty or fifty years ago. Heck nobody’s still alive who was there when he crossed, all dead or captured and executed, but we remembered and we waited. And look at that, our patience was to our benefit.”

Then he got down to business, the real reason they were all here. “Alright so according to the Colonel, you want to relocate a hundred thousand Martian’s through to your side? Save as many as we can from the retaliation the Nazi’s will dish out when we destroy the Götterdämmerung? And I presume that these G-Bombs we were told about will do as you promised and not affect organic beings so the billion plus enslaved Martians at the construction zone will be unharmed?”

The entire team had been briefed that the Resistance would never sanction genocide, especially not in the scale of billions, so deception would be required to make the plan work. As far as the Resistance knew, the G-Bombs would not affect organic matter and when they went off, they would obliterate the Götterdämmerung and leave about fifty million stunned Nazi’s at the mercy of a billion enraged now free Martian’s. They did not know the truth; when the bombs went off at the reactor locations, it would wipe out everyone and everything for hundreds of thousands of kilometers coupled with the detonation of the Bavarium Reactors linked to Mars core, the planet would be torn apart by the eruption of veins of raw material underneath Mars surface. Should that detail get out, the Resistance would never cooperate.

SMS Tyranny

Julia got up quick and shook her head, growling low as she locked eyes with this...creature with murderous intent clear and blunt. She cracked her neck and rose to her feet, getting into a versatile combat stance sizing up her opponent. No more kidding around. “Empty words. You have never known war as I have, your were grown in a pod while I have been fighting for my life since the day I was born over two hundred years ago. I fought in France, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, China, Korea, and on Mars, I am one of the most experienced and skilled soldiers in existence. And as I said, I cannot die, I will not die, my very cells will not allow me to die whereas I get the idea you are quite able of dying.”

Without another word she darted forward and made for a straight charge once more but at the last moment she jerked to the right and grabbed the leg Eight Foot had shot out to repeat her earlier intercept. A sharp blow to the knee and a sickening crack told her that Eight Foot now had a dislocated knee and a followup blow to the side told of several cracked ribs. Julia latched her arms around her opponents neck, digging her claws into her flesh in the process, and slammed Eight Foot’s head down against her knee. Releasing her, Julia landed a solid punch to her upper sternum and moved to land another blow to her side but leapt away to avoid a slash from Eight Foot’s claws.

“You are clearly quite resilient, I can detect that your internal injuries are already in the process of healing. Clearly the Japanese did acquire some Werwolf DNA samples before they fled, enough at least to create you but not enough to replicate our immortality. No matter, His Majesty will be pleased with the gift I will bring him...your head.”

Battle for Jupiter

Count de Haverlande laughed as he evaded a shot from one of the Orbital Frames with ease, as did the other nine human pilots in his squadron though the six drones were all down already. Time to split up the enemy. He was just about to order his pilots to take the enemy one on one to split them up when alarms started blaring inside his Frame. LOKI clarified that it was a proximity alarm, a sign that a ship was exiting a jump within range. ’But all the forces that were supposed to be routed to Jupiter are already here, aren’t they?’ he thought even as the AI piloted the Red Death out of the zone of emergence just in time when a South African destroyer exited its jump where the squadrons had been fighting mere moments earlier. That wasn’t the only ship to suddenly appear, all across the battlespace new ships, both Commonwealth and Europan, were entering the battle by the dozens as what was a fleet engagement for the Jupiter shipyards turned into a colossal clash of armada’s. A transmission was sent out from the SMS Visionary to all Europan starcraft in the Jupiter area which was a rapidly increasing number. The hologram displayed was of Grand Admiral Raeder himself with such a look of conviction as had never been seen before. ”All starships of the Empire, the battle for Jupiter is now the Battle for Sol itself. By all accounts, besides atmospheric engagements at Earth, all Commonwealth warships of every CON Member have withdrawn from Earth and Luna and come to engage us here. The Imperial Navy forces from Earth and Luna have followed suite and we now fight not only to defend our shipyards but to destroy our enemy outright. Besides a minor fleet engagement at Mars and some small skirmishes in the Outer System, this is the one battle of concern, the final fight where fate shall be decided and where we will secure our dominance over not just Sol but the universe itself. Europa will take its rightful place as master of existence. If we destroy the enemy here, they will have no significant force to prevent us conquering their remaining territories on Earth and Mars and the Commonwealth will be forced to surrender to Europa. Long Live Europa for His Imperial August Majesty!”

---

Having finished his message to the fleet, Grand Admiral Wolfgang Raeder turned to the matter at hand, reorganizing what accounted to the bulk of the Imperial Navy’s entire starfleet into a single fighting force. This was a largely impossible task and he reckoned the Commonwealth commander in a similar situation, not least because both sides had just had upwards of five hundred warships join them and shattered any fleet formation that had existed prior as ships from either side emerged all over the battlefield. Reports were coming in to the Visionary’s bridge like machine gun fire as the officers on the command staff struggled to keep up with the flow of information. Raeder was observing the battle on the tactical interface trying to discern some formation he could remake the Imperial Navy into before his opponent could reorganize the Commonwealth’s own forces. He also now had to listen to about three dozen fleet admirals shouting their own strategic input while trying to untangle his thoughts.

Outside the viewport it was chaos as cruisers and destroyers and battleships duked it out with thousands of starfighters and War Frames and TSF’s joining the fray. The Battle for Jupiter had effectively turned into a campaign of its own and Raeder knew, regardless of his speech, that this battle would go on for a long time indeed.

[Zipangese Star Empire]

It took me five or so minutes to realise I posted from the wrong nation.

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

Before the group had gone even thirty yards they were surrounded on all sides, weapons of a wide variety trained on them at all bearings by an even more wide variety of people, or rather species. No less than thirty maybe more individuals had them stopped in their tracks up in the hills overlooking the Götterdämmerung construction site, or at least part of it given that the warship was about the size of the Terran nation of Nepal by its circumference, the ground was constantly shaking with miniature tremors from the massive gears extracting the raw resources from Mars core into the under construction Bavarium reactors. All the people who had them covered were humanoid in some way or other and the majority did indeed appear to be humans while the remainder were a species of green skinned or rather scaled humanoids with short tails, not unlike the hundreds of millions enslaved at the construction site. One among the group, an elderly human male with gray beard and hair and wielding what appeared to be a gun similar to a Smith and Wesson .357 Revolver only it had clearly seem better days judging by the wear and tear, but anyone in the group could tell this man was a soldier, and not just a soldier but a leader. He approached slowly with his gun never leaving its train on Asgill’s head while several of the Imperial Commando’s had frozen midway to their weapons, recognizing that though could certainly kill at least half the opposing group, they would all die within two minutes tops.

“Now we were expecting folks to come through, tipped off by a friend on the other side you might say. But recent events and those not so recent, have given us plenty fair cause to be nervous about strangers no matter the origin. So I’m gonna give you a pass-code that our friend who sent you through shoulda told you about and your gonna give me the right countersign or else I’ll blow your man’s head off. Do we understand each other?” Everyone slowly nodded and the leader went on. “Why was Arthur able to pull the sword from the stone?”

Storch, whom had not come through with the group since he needed to stay behind to make sure they could properly open the portal to bring them back and open one large enough for the refugee’s at the secondary location the lab was being setup at, had indeed briefed everyone or at least the Imperial Commando’s on the mission details about contacting the Resistance and how careful they had to be. If they failed to give the proper countersign, the Resistance would kill them without hesitation. Living in a galaxy being overrun by Nazi’s tended to make people a bit jumpy. One of the Commando’s spoke slowly but clearly in English to the old man. “Arthur did not pull the sword from the stone, the sword decided to finally let go of the stone.” And thirty weapons lowered as one and then began to patrol the area, on lookout for any Final Reich patrols nearby or any incoming Nazi forces. Not that it was much use in the long run since the Final Reich had battleships in orbit that could blast a position to pieces from space.

The old man stepped forward and extended his hand to the lead Commando with a smile on his face. “Good job there, can’t believe we’re still around using fool codes like that, but with how cynical and uncreative the Nazi’s are, they wouldn’t be able to predict an answer like that. I’m Major, no names, when you’ve been fighting the kind of fight I’ve been fighting for as long as I have, you learn it does you good to keep familiarity to a limit.” He holstered his revolver and then surveyed the group and the heavy packages they were carrying, the G-Bombs, with them. “So Colonel 1908 is still alive after over three centuries since Operation Cascade went tits up and we stopped the first crossing attempt but he got sent through. We’ve been watching him since he started making contact with us again about forty or fifty years ago. Heck nobody’s still alive who was there when he crossed, all dead or captured and executed, but we remembered and we waited. And look at that, our patience was to our benefit.”

Then he got down to business, the real reason they were all here. “Alright so according to the Colonel, you want to relocate a hundred thousand Martian’s through to your side? Save as many as we can from the retaliation the Nazi’s will dish out when we destroy the Götterdämmerung? And I presume that these G-Bombs we were told about will do as you promised and not affect organic beings so the billion plus enslaved Martians at the construction zone will be unharmed?”

The entire team had been briefed that the Resistance would never sanction genocide, especially not in the scale of billions, so deception would be required to make the plan work. As far as the Resistance knew, the G-Bombs would not affect organic matter and when they went off, they would obliterate the Götterdämmerung and leave about fifty million stunned Nazi’s at the mercy of a billion enraged now free Martian’s. They did not know the truth; when the bombs went off at the reactor locations, it would wipe out everyone and everything for hundreds of thousands of kilometers coupled with the detonation of the Bavarium Reactors linked to Mars core, the planet would be torn apart by the eruption of veins of raw material underneath Mars surface. Should that detail get out, the Resistance would never cooperate.

SMS Tyranny

Julia got up quick and shook her head, growling low as she locked eyes with this...creature with murderous intent clear and blunt. She cracked her neck and rose to her feet, getting into a versatile combat stance sizing up her opponent. No more kidding around. “Empty words. You have never known war as I have, your were grown in a pod while I have been fighting for my life since the day I was born over two hundred years ago. I fought in France, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, China, Korea, and on Mars, I am one of the most experienced and skilled soldiers in existence. And as I said, I cannot die, I will not die, my very cells will not allow me to die whereas I get the idea you are quite able of dying.”

Without another word she darted forward and made for a straight charge once more but at the last moment she jerked to the right and grabbed the leg Eight Foot had shot out to repeat her earlier intercept. A sharp blow to the knee and a sickening crack told her that Eight Foot now had a dislocated knee and a followup blow to the side told of several cracked ribs. Julia latched her arms around her opponents neck, digging her claws into her flesh in the process, and slammed Eight Foot’s head down against her knee. Releasing her, Julia landed a solid punch to her upper sternum and moved to land another blow to her side but leapt away to avoid a slash from Eight Foot’s claws.

“You are clearly quite resilient, I can detect that your internal injuries are already in the process of healing. Clearly the Japanese did acquire some Werwolf DNA samples before they fled, enough at least to create you but not enough to replicate our immortality. No matter, His Majesty will be pleased with the gift I will bring him...your head.”

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

"Lieutenant I-17289. Zipangese Imperial Commandos, the other men in the same armour, also ZIC. The round eye is Asgill. He figured he'd be of assistance for this mission, and Shogun Mitsurugi gave the go ahead. Sorry there's not more support, with recent events on our side, we believe the German Empire's Kaiser to have been manipulated by a nazi from this dimension but we're dealing with the issue. Afterwards we'll be able to relocate the refugees from the capital world to the Mars in our dimension, we have men on the otherside of the portal waiting for us to send refugees through so don't worry about them ending up without any help. We're still working out the kinks in our portal so I'm afraid you'll all have to still hold out after we leave, though I give the Germans and the CON on our side of the portal at least until the four months left are up then we'll kick their sorry asses. Then we'll be able to support further actions against the Nazis with greater support." The Lieutenant said as he looked around and shook the Major's hand. "The G-bombs are ready to blow the nazis to hell. We have five of em for the machine so should be more that enough to deal with it. We'll know they worked when nothing is left of that machine but a nice purple light and some wind."

The Lieutenant then switched his comms back to order his troopers which sounded like garbled broken up speech. "Keep watch, you see anyone who isn't us or Resistance, then take them out quietly." Troopers of which weren't carrying G-bombs saluted the Lieutenant and flew up onto the cliffs with their jet packs, taking up over watch positions, before the Lieutenant turned back to Major. "Don't have to worry about them, we have an experimental cloaking system added to our armour. They'll keep out of sight. Anyway, let's get moving. Lead the way." The Lieutenant switched his comms back to the broken up, garbled speech. "We're moving out." He said to his men before switching back to plain English, following Major.

SMS Tyranny

"We didn't acquire any of your mudblood. Dog. Just genetic engineering from The Ascended. ...And Director Kouzuki." Ai swiped at Julia's face, the tips of her nails scratching her face leaving three claw marks briefly. Using her nails and augmented agility she pushed off the floor and turned around latching to the ceiling then she pulled up on the ceiling, retracting her claws as she flew down the hallway, turning around again she landed on her hands and knees further down the hallway. "We are superior. We don't need to copy German mistakes."

Ai stood up and her nails extended all the way down to the floor. "Mistakes... Terrans.... Filth.... Scum... You will fall." Behind Julia the doors to the bridge opened to show General Ayaka wearing a deep space exploration suit with two IZRG members of whom were just finishing off the last of the bridge crew. Ayaka brought the blade of her sword down on a lieutenant and turned her head in the direction of Julia. "You're still alive? I thought you would've been put down by now, mutt." Ayaka pulled her sword from the lieutenant's body and the blood splattered against a nearby wall.

Ayaka looked past Julia and saw Eight Feet Tall, a hall door shut behind her and Ayaka turned her head back to the bridge to see four Zetan war droids outfitted with jet packs and laser cutters, cutting the bridge's windows. "Well, it looks like your fun's over. I'll see you in hell." Ayaka lifted her arm and pushed one of the buttons on the suit's wrist pad, the IZRG guards with her did the same and disappeared in a brilliant blue light. The last words of Ayaka before she fully disappeared was. "Have fun. Hachishaku-sama." In Japanese of course.

Ai's smile grew as she saw the Zetan droids breaking the windows of the bridge. "Looks like things are going to get interesting.... And much colder in here."

[The Union of British North America]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

Asgill took slight offense by the ZIC mission commander's nickname for him, but he brushed it off. He was just slightly more upset by that than having a gun drawn to his head. If it weren't for the other Resistance members he could have disarmed the gunman and turned the tables. He kept up with his RNAMP self-defense training along with mixing in some of the new IZA martial arts he was allowed to learn as an intelligence officer.

Hawthorne and Glassman saluted the ZIC lieutenant, and went with a group of other ZICs taking one of the G-bombs to one of the selected deployment points. Asgill followed them, as he knew that point would have some sort of entrance into the massive sprawling complex. His goal was to gather intel while the bombs were planted. The Three Powers would surely be happy to have some intel on this new foe.

About 10 minutes later, the deployment team reached their objective. The commandos began the planting and arming of the bomb. Asgill was allowed to take a couple of commandos with him to infiltrate the immediate complex and gather intel as much as possible. He took Hawthorne and Glassman, who both had perfect Zipangese accents despite just meeting them for the first time. Somehow, Asgill knew they could be trusted and he could pick them out. Even the ZIC lieutenant was oblivious to the two extra men for the mission.

The three made their way to what appeared to be a ventilation shaft. It was heavy and it would take more men and some special equipment to remove the grate. Hawthorne produced a special metallic device, and effortlessly removed grate. "We have 15 seconds before we're detected, so move it." ordered Hawthorne in his North American-accented English. "You're North American too? And you have this...device that uses telekinesis?" questioned Asgill. "Yes, Major General Obvious. I know more about you than yourself, and this facility too. This place was built over a cache of technology that my people placed here long ago, but it has been stolen by this enemy. We need to find it and track it down. By the way, this device allows me to subconsciously control the minds of others, tweak them so they don't see me or Glassman as out of the ordinary. Let's go this way, the device is pointing in that direction." said Hawthorne.

The trio continued their way down to an out-of-the-way service elevator, one that would take them deeper into the Marx facility. Asgill sensed a great power the further they went. When the elevator doors opened, it revealed a cavernous chamber. "It'll take a while until we find what we would call "the switch". Start looking over there. We'll find it, but it moves around a lot." said Hawthorne.

[New Decius]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

While Hawthorne began leading the group through the cavern in search of this mysterious ‘switch’, the entire chamber was struck by one of the many tremors being caused by the massive engines building the Götterdämmerung, nearly collapsing the area in the process. The Major looked around nervously to make sure no Nazi patrols were also roaming about in the tunnels beneath the construction zone, a zone which covered hundreds of thousands of kilometers. “I don’t know what your hoping to find down here besides the past. What we are standing in right now is the long-since buried remains of the Martian capital Huayxu, the Nazi’s practically buried it after their initial invasion in the late 1800’s and when they started building the Götterdämmerung they made sure that Huayxu was beneath part of the construction site. A symbolic reminder to the enslaved Martian’s of how their civilization had been laid low by the Final Reich.” If Asgill looked around, he would notice that the Martian Resistance members in the group all kept their heads slightly bowed as soon as they entered the chamber. “In fact, we are right where the Royal Palace of Mars used to be, in the Great Hall I imagine judging by its size and the structures in the walls. Rather than evacuate with the rest of their people, the Martian Royal Family and their guards made a final last stand against the Nazi’s to buy time for as many Martian’s to escape as they could. Not only Martian’s, but tens of millions of Terran exiles who fled the conquest of Terra by the Nazi’s.”

The Major would have gone on asking what they were trying to find when he froze and dropped to a crouch, the rest of the Resistance members going down with him, he signaled for the ZIC and Asgill to do the same. Putting a finger to his lips, he pointed towards one of the larger tunnels to their West, from which a low rumbling noise was making itself known and clearly getting closer. Using hand signals, the group of Resistance members formed up around the tunnel entrance, making sure to keep their distance and keeping their weapons trained on the entrance where whatever was coming continued to draw ever nearer. They all waited with baited breath until the noise began to recede, whatever it was had clearly gone down another passage, to everyone’s relief. Turning back to give explanation, the Major was clearly not relaxed in the slightest. “That was an XK-23B security assault drone, the Nazi’s use them for underground patrols, heck they have millions of them in tunnels underneath this warship. Just a single one is armed with enough autocannons to kill everyone here and we have no munitions with us that can crack its energy shield. Our best hope would have been to buy time to escape further into the tunnels.” He was not playing nice and skipped straight to the point now. “So let’s stop this ridiculous search and do what we came here to do, I have our agents implanted among the enslaved Martian’s doing as asked, sneaking as many as they can out and to the coordinates you provided us with. So can we get on with destroying this world killing machine please?”

Without even waiting for Asgill and Hawthorne to put in their opinion, the Major once again started the trek towards the first coordinates for one of the G-Bomb sites, intent on getting the mission completed. Obviously the Bavarium Reactor sites were themselves far too heavily guarded to even contemplate attempting an attack on one to plant the bomb there, so the plan was to deploy the G-Bomb’s beneath the reactor sites where the Nazi’s would be unable to find them until it was too late. The timing of this operation was quite fortuitous, only three of the projected fifteen Bavarium reactors had yet been built and so the targets were more compact in distance, which meant the strike team would be able to reduce total operations time and risk significantly. Though any great disturbance would bring thousands of hostile troops both organic and machine running and the mission would be DOA.

Olympus Mons, Europan Colonial Capital, Aries Mandate
256 Meters Underground, Facility Vers Alpha

Though the surface fighting on Earth itself was quite heavy, it was nowhere near as heavy as the fighting on Mars, perhaps because Mars had none of the oceans to divide the planet and that meant that each side had easy access to attack the other. Millions upon millions of troops did battle on the surface above but Prince-General Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa took no notice of the events occurring hundreds of meters over his head, he was merely reading the latest set of reports from his spy inside the Inner Council and his agent inside the CON-SDI High Command, and none of it was good. With him on his walk through the facility towards his office were Count Troyarde and Count Zebrin, none bothering to even glance at the noses of the Orbital Castles as they passed them by. “According to this, the foe’s agitators continue to stir the pot on both sides and the counterbalance forces no longer can oppose them, and why not. Our enemy has had over two centuries to implant agents and exert their influence over the Terran powers, Europa in specific, doing their best to prepare for the arrival of the enemy when it finally comes. Had the agitators in Europa not twisted my Great-Great Grandfather’s mind so much that he declared war, I am sure they would have done so with the President and leading officials of the CON.” This was by no means good, if the foe was allowed to prosecute this war to its completion then Europa would emerge as a vassal ready for integration into the evil empire soon to come, or the CON would take its role in that same destiny. It must be stopped. By any means necessary and whatever the cost.

Without looking to either of his companion’s for assurance, Dietrich began his theory. “Our Aldnoah technology is easily the most advanced technology that currently exists, hence why we have been able to monitor the Zipangese for so long while Europa and the CON were oblivious, so in theory we could use a probe to send a message to the Zipangese warning them that the threat is growing ever stronger with each passing day and that their attack must come now.” Now he turned to Count Troyarde for an answer.

The Count was hesitant but otherwise gave his full answer. The Zipangese were still technically the enemy but in this case there was cause to alert them. “It would be possible Excellency. Shall I arrange it?”

Dietrich nodded as they continued on the way to his office. All around them the pace of activity was ever increasing as they drew closer to the launch date. “Yes, wave a carrot in their face by telling them we can destroy the particle cannon defense grid. That will arguably be an even greater threat to the Zipangese invasion force than the remains of the Europan and Commonwealth fleets. Just one of those EPSILON cannons can take out three warships, imagine what several hundred could do to the Zipangese fleet especially when they can fire on them before the Zipangese are even in optical range.” And so they went about their work.

Zipang Prime, Zipangese Imperial Palace

Inexplicably, a transmission was coming through direct to the Zipangese Imperial Palace, origin unknown and an encryption unable to be cracked.

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

While Hawthorne began leading the group through the cavern in search of this mysterious ‘switch’, the entire chamber was struck by one of the many tremors being caused by the massive engines building the Götterdämmerung, nearly collapsing the area in the process. The Major looked around nervously to make sure no Nazi patrols were also roaming about in the tunnels beneath the construction zone, a zone which covered hundreds of thousands of kilometers. “I don’t know what your hoping to find down here besides the past. What we are standing in right now is the long-since buried remains of the Martian capital Huayxu, the Nazi’s practically buried it after their initial invasion in the late 1800’s and when they started building the Götterdämmerung they made sure that Huayxu was beneath part of the construction site. A symbolic reminder to the enslaved Martian’s of how their civilization had been laid low by the Final Reich.” If Asgill looked around, he would notice that the Martian Resistance members in the group all kept their heads slightly bowed as soon as they entered the chamber. “In fact, we are right where the Royal Palace of Mars used to be, in the Great Hall I imagine judging by its size and the structures in the walls. Rather than evacuate with the rest of their people, the Martian Royal Family and their guards made a final last stand against the Nazi’s to buy time for as many Martian’s to escape as they could. Not only Martian’s, but tens of millions of Terran exiles who fled the conquest of Terra by the Nazi’s.”

The Major would have gone on asking what they were trying to find when he froze and dropped to a crouch, the rest of the Resistance members going down with him, he signaled for the ZIC and Asgill to do the same. Putting a finger to his lips, he pointed towards one of the larger tunnels to their West, from which a low rumbling noise was making itself known and clearly getting closer. Using hand signals, the group of Resistance members formed up around the tunnel entrance, making sure to keep their distance and keeping their weapons trained on the entrance where whatever was coming continued to draw ever nearer. They all waited with baited breath until the noise began to recede, whatever it was had clearly gone down another passage, to everyone’s relief. Turning back to give explanation, the Major was clearly not relaxed in the slightest. “That was an XK-23B security assault drone, the Nazi’s use them for underground patrols, heck they have millions of them in tunnels underneath this warship. Just a single one is armed with enough autocannons to kill everyone here and we have no munitions with us that can crack its energy shield. Our best hope would have been to buy time to escape further into the tunnels.” He was not playing nice and skipped straight to the point now. “So let’s stop this ridiculous search and do what we came here to do, I have our agents implanted among the enslaved Martian’s doing as asked, sneaking as many as they can out and to the coordinates you provided us with. So can we get on with destroying this world killing machine please?”

Without even waiting for Asgill and Hawthorne to put in their opinion, the Major once again started the trek towards the first coordinates for one of the G-Bomb sites, intent on getting the mission completed. Obviously the Bavarium Reactor sites were themselves far too heavily guarded to even contemplate attempting an attack on one to plant the bomb there, so the plan was to deploy the G-Bomb’s beneath the reactor sites where the Nazi’s would be unable to find them until it was too late. The timing of this operation was quite fortuitous, only three of the projected fifteen Bavarium reactors had yet been built and so the targets were more compact in distance, which meant the strike team would be able to reduce total operations time and risk significantly. Though any great disturbance would bring thousands of hostile troops both organic and machine running and the mission would be DOA.

Olympus Mons, Europan Colonial Capital, Aries Mandate
256 Meters Underground, Facility Vers Alpha

Though the surface fighting on Earth itself was quite heavy, it was nowhere near as heavy as the fighting on Mars, perhaps because Mars had none of the oceans to divide the planet and that meant that each side had easy access to attack the other. Millions upon millions of troops did battle on the surface above but Prince-General Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa took no notice of the events occurring hundreds of meters over his head, he was merely reading the latest set of reports from his spy inside the Inner Council and his agent inside the CON-SDI High Command, and none of it was good. With him on his walk through the facility towards his office were Count Troyarde and Count Zebrin, none bothering to even glance at the noses of the Orbital Castles as they passed them by. “According to this, the foe’s agitators continue to stir the pot on both sides and the counterbalance forces no longer can oppose them, and why not. Our enemy has had over two centuries to implant agents and exert their influence over the Terran powers, Europa in specific, doing their best to prepare for the arrival of the enemy when it finally comes. Had the agitators in Europa not twisted my Great-Great Grandfather’s mind so much that he declared war, I am sure they would have done so with the President and leading officials of the CON.” This was by no means good, if the foe was allowed to prosecute this war to its completion then Europa would emerge as a vassal ready for integration into the evil empire soon to come, or the CON would take its role in that same destiny. It must be stopped. By any means necessary and whatever the cost.

Without looking to either of his companion’s for assurance, Dietrich began his theory. “Our Aldnoah technology is easily the most advanced technology that currently exists, hence why we have been able to monitor the Zipangese for so long while Europa and the CON were oblivious, so in theory we could use a probe to send a message to the Zipangese warning them that the threat is growing ever stronger with each passing day and that their attack must come now.” Now he turned to Count Troyarde for an answer.

The Count was hesitant but otherwise gave his full answer. The Zipangese were still technically the enemy but in this case there was cause to alert them. “It would be possible Excellency. Shall I arrange it?”

Dietrich nodded as they continued on the way to his office. All around them the pace of activity was ever increasing as they drew closer to the launch date. “Yes, wave a carrot in their face by telling them we can destroy the particle cannon defense grid. That will arguably be an even greater threat to the Zipangese invasion force than the remains of the Europan and Commonwealth fleets. Just one of those EPSILON cannons can take out three warships, imagine what several hundred could do to the Zipangese fleet especially when they can fire on them before the Zipangese are even in optical range.” And so they went about their work.

Zipang Prime, Zipangese Imperial Palace

Inexplicably, a transmission was coming through direct to the Zipangese Imperial Palace, origin unknown and an encryption unable to be cracked.

Zipangese Intelligence Service, Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

00 Units sat collectively in one large dimly lit room staring at computer screens, taking in information streamed to them, information to be then indexed and given to fleet commanders across the empire's navy, 00 units served as the Zipangese alternative to super computers, they were themselves supercomputers, the first 00 unit, a Chōrō-tachi of whom was responsible for Japan's own military advancement before it's exodus from Earth to become the Zipangese Star Empire..

The Original 00 Unit stood at a second floor railing at the rear of the room watching over the other 00 Units... Then it noticed, one rose it's hand and the Original came down a circular set of stairs, going past row after row to the 00 unit, the Original took it's right hand off and inserted a connection device in the back of the 00 unit's head downloading the information acquired before it removed the connection device and reconnected it's own hand. It took a moment to scan and calculate the authenticity of the message intercepted unable to crack it, the Original, left the room for the Shogun's office, walking through the long corridors and endless hallways of the Palace, the machine finally made it's way to the Shogun's office, being let inside by Vassal Retainer Michiru, the 00 Unit bowed it's head to Meiya of whom could be seen speaking to a pink haired being with some strange small red horns... The Unit scanned the being near the Shogun and though it looked incredibly human, it wasn't so, the creature comprised primarily of silicon.

Meiya took notice of the 00 Unit and waved the silicon creature off. "We'll have to speak at another time. I have a guest.... One I've not seen for a while." Meiya said and the pink haired, silicon creature nodded her head and immediately "melted" into a grey puddle, dissipating through the floor. A sigh of which would've deeply concerned just about anyone had it not been the Original 00 Unit. "Is there something you require?" Meiya asked the 00 Unit of whom nodded it's head. "There is a message originating from a point in Sol, on Sol-3's moon, I cannot crack the encryption but I believe we must push forward the timeline to invade the Solar System, if they are able to broadcast directly to the Imperial Palace, then is is possible they, like the Zetans have teleportation technology. They could teleport a team here and kill you, your highness. I urge you push forward the timeline...." The 00 Unit said, almost certain of it's calculations on the matter.

Meiya sat silently for a moment, thinking on the matter, this creature hadn't steered her wrong before, and had served the Empire well enough before it was the Zipangese Star Empire... "Very well. We shall accelerate our preparations, the IZRG will also have to be involved to make up for a lack of troops, and we will have to rely heavily on the Zetan's war droids for ground operations... Our main armies while mobilised are still on their way to the area... And I have it on good authority that Ayaka is currently in the process of capturing the beast, the Germans have created." Meiya said before being almost interrupted by the 00 Unit. "Then our time is now, your majesty. We must move forward and crush the German empire before they have a chance to commit fully to their acts of evil against us." The 00 Unit said and Meiya stood up, a smile donning on her face. "You haven't steered me wrong before, my old friend. ...We shall accellerate our plans as you suggested. Already 90% of our forces are in the system, at Zipang 04, we will send a small, recon force then the main invasion force along with the IZRG's own forces will show up in full force."

Meiya said and the 00 Unit bowed it's head. "Thank you, your majesty." The 00 Unit said and raised it's head before it backed back to the door and turned leaving the room. While it was doing this, Meiya had been alerted that the speech of the German's fleet commander had been recorded and the propaganda wing of the IZA was ready for the Shogun's own addition to the speech of which would be sent to Grand Admiral Thetch to be played upon the Zipangese entry into the Solar System, the recording took only but a few moments but it was sent to Grand Admiral Thetch after it's completion.

SMS Tyranny

Ai looked down to her feet then to her hands, being enveloped in the same bright blue light that had taken Lord General Ayaka away from the Bridge, and a smile donned on her face while she stared at Julia. "It seems our playtime is over, Terran.... I'll see you later." Ai finished her sentence with a giggle before she fully disappeared and not a second later, the glass of the Bridge's windows all broke from the plasma cutters of the Modified Zetan War Droids and they flew away from the windows getting clear while they sucked bodies out of the bridge and the hallway.

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

Lieutenant I-17289 followed up with the Major, holding his laser carbine at the ready, meanwhile over heavily encrypted sub channels, the ZSE commandos had reported on their ends their mission objectives were achieved and they were on the way back to the portal using their stealth modules. The Lieutenant would've been lying if someone asked him how he was holding up, the sights he had seen disgusted him, he was glad to do the Shogun's bidding and wipe the nazis out on the planet... Though sadly in the process of which was kept secret by everyone there on behalf of Meiya, the planet's populace would suffer greatly from it. Well the ones of whom hadn't gotten through the portal anyway. And so the Lieutenant simply kept quiet following his mission objectives to the letter while taking great care to not cause alarm for the Nazis... Atleast until it would be too late.

Zipangese Imperial Ministry of Defense, Top Secret Sub Level, Zipang Prime, Dimension 01

Yuuko watched while group by small and medium group made their way through the portal and were directed by Japanese Imperial Royal Guards, mainly consisting of Senshi Usagi and Zipangese Humans took each group to their temporary barracks and provided food and water to them, most who did show up were crying, whether it was from joy of being brought out of the hell of the second dimension or the uncertainty they faced in the first dimension was unclear, when the targeted goal number of refugees were brought through after a few hours, Yuuko walked down the hallway to the former projects hall, now turned temporary barracks and figured she would lighten the mood of those who had come through.

The projects hall was a four level room in which on two sides were rooms of which formerly served as projects studies with a bridge here and there between floors to bridge the gap. Yuuko stood at the entrance to the room and leaned on the rails infront of her before she was handed a microphone by her "shadow", Kasumi, and Yuuko for the first time in over 330 years spoke in english. "Check, one two.... Alright, I guess this works. Hello, I am Director Kouzuki Yuuko of the Zipangese Imperial Military Scientific Projects division, on behalf of the Shogunate please allow me to be the first to welcome you to our dimension. Rest assured we are not like the Reich, we do not seek to take over the universe or enslave anyone. Instead since we have heard of them, we work to be a greater galactic power, more humane than they could ever be. ...Our Shogun may be along here soon to tell you exactly what I have, however I will not lie to you. We are still not fully beyond the influence of the Reich, currently we're at war with a German Empire of which has had it's leaders minds corrupted by agents of the Final Reich, and we ourselves were driven from Earth by them and their deceptions, however for over 330 years we have become more advanced than they could ever dream, I assure you when this war is over we will be able to relocate everyone here to our own version in this dimension of Mars. Though for the time being I ask you to please be patient, you are now brothers and sisters of the Zipangese Star Empire, you are not prisoners, should you decide to leave this place then I have no authority nor wish to stop you. But I ask, if there are anyone here among you who would wish to assist us in our efforts and are familiar with the technology of the reich, please come to my office and I will personally see you have a place here among the best and brightest of the Zipangese Star Empire. Thank you."

Yuuko handed the microphone back to Kasumi and left the room with her letting out a sigh before she switched back to Japanese/Zipangese. "I should leave the speeches to the Shogun.... I'm far from sounding certain with anything aren't I?" Yuuko said to herself outloud and Kasumi simply replied. "Yes... You should leave it to the Sho-" Kasumi was quickly cut off by Yuuko pulling her by the ear down the hall. "Nobody asked you, you little trouble maker!"

[The Union of British North America]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

After the Major gave his duly noted complaint to Hawthorne's so-called ridiculous search, Hawthorne declared in a loud whisper to the Major: "Go on ahead, if you must, in fact I don't need extra hands as I'm close to finding 'the switch'." He turned away abruptly as the Major sighed and hand-waved away Hawthorne, mumbling something about how strange Hawthorne's character of being a Imperial Zipangese Commando was not like the rest of them, though the others didn't care about Hawthorne that much, strange as it is. Only Asgill, Glassman, and the Major seemed to be aware that this was Hawthorne and not an ordinary ZIC.

Just as the rest of the team went on to find the last G-bomb deployment point, Hawthorne finally found 'the switch', playing hide-and-go-seek for the last few minutes. "There we go...ah ha...sneaky little bastard." What he was holding on to with his strange metallic device was a mechanic insect-looking automaton. "Ah yes, the Martians of what we would call Dimension Two were somewhat special, being considered blessed by nature and the universe by my people to be the stewards of this technology. Unfortunately, we did not see the rise of this great evil that has raped, pillaged, and enslaved this solar system--the Final Reich. But thank the cosmos we found something not tainted or reversed engineered by these demons." The metallic device's telekinesis properties held the struggling insect-like robot, and the flashlight from Asgill's laser pistol shown on it revealed a crystal on its back. "Asgill," began Hawthorne, "please, place your free hand on that crystal that you see. I can't touch it as I am not in my...usual form. But you, you can. I've no time to explain, we need to leave soon; the longer we stay, the likelier the enemy will detect us. Hurry. We don't have much time."

Asgill, confused, placed his hand upon that crystal, causing the chamber to shake again. Several ancient boulders and columns fell in front of the entrance to the royal chamber, sealing in the North American trio and the lone Martian member of the Resistance, who went by the name of Straha, acted as their lookout. He dived inside in the chamber to avoid a boulder crushing. "Fucking humans, even from a different dimension, you fuck up everything!" he yelled. "I'm not even human, so take your complaints to these two." replied Hawthorne. He turned around to see that the vault door has opened, and a warm glowing gold light shined from inside. "The devil-machine and vault opening mechanism sealed us in from that entrance, but we can get out, it's coming back to me. We've helped these Martians long ago to built an exit, like we did with some humans in the world's cradles of civilization, when we built their own vaults to store my people's secrets."

"You're not making any sense, whoever you are. You're saying your not human and you've helped Dimension One humanity when the first civilizations arose? You're completely mental." said Asgill. "You're right, I should be suffering from something after all of these eons of not having a body and no one to talk to, but I'm not crazy and hallucinating. You're here, and so am I. And you'll get your answers if you follow me. We've no other way to get out of here, and I'm our best chance of getting out of here alive. Come on." Asgill couldn't argue against that, and neither did Straha, who cursed Hawthorne in Martian. "I'm Hawthorne, by the way, since you were able to see past my disguise and mental projections compared to the rest of the group. That's Glassman over there, the strong, silent type over there. He suffers from cybernetic autism given he's 95% computer, and he doesn't talk much, only during serious action." Glassman stepped out of the shadow he was hiding in since the rocks fell, and greeted Asgill plainly and shortly. Asgill nodded salutations back at him.

The four entered the vault, uncertain of what they would encounter in the inner chamber.

Battle of Jupiter, Battle for Sol

So far, the skirmish between Yuuya's squad and the Red Death's squad was an even match. Both sides were pinned down in the solar arrays and fuel storage areas that formed an impromptu maze on the planetary ring's main approach to the command center and reactor areas. "We're going to be stuck here forever and be killed if we don't disengage and move on. At this rate, the pot shots we're exchanging with General Strudel down yonder is going to deplete our rail guns's ammo, and we need to keep moving to keep our metatron energy at maximum; it's almost ripe time for a flanking maneuver by the enemy." said Egret.

Yuuya agreed. He was used to high paced action in his RNAAF days, when he was part of the CON's experimental TSF project during the Circum-Pacific War. Now, he was stuck in a battle of wills and attrition with no apparent way out of it. He was rusty in his tactical thinking, and now his team was suffering being stuck in the mud and having the enemy getting ready for a break out to destroy them.

"You know, that opening attack that took out several units at once. They must have been drones, since now we're dealing with fanatical stuck-up aristos." said Nagase. "Let's get a plan going then. Marinaris, fire your wisp missiles to hit those solar arrays in front of us, that should create a screen to mess up their sensors, like a chaff grenade going off. Nagase, hit those fuel tanks, that should destabilize the integrity of the lower structure so the gravitational pull of the planet will twist this section of the ring to give us cover and slow them down. But that enough won't be enough to destroy the ring and the reactors. Once we set up our obstacle course, we'll make a mad dash over through this maze straight into the outer areas of the command center. The ring twisting will make force the Europans to rethink their tactics and plan to stop us as this section of the ring tearing apart might affect the interior structure in other parts of it. We'll have our time to get out of here and make progress, and then we'll have to blast our way into the command center and into the reactor level." said Yuuya.

"Roger." said Egret. "Affirmative." said both Marinaris and Nagase. Yuuya smiled to his squad as they all looked worried about this. Yuuya felt that this was a risky manuver, especially with destabilizing this part of the ring, but he needed something to dislodge both Jerry and his team from this stalemate and continue the mission. Yuuya felt the need to achieve this, to set back the Europans for their treachery of world peace. He thought of his half-sister, wondering if she is still alive or dead, as word has reached to some in the CON-SDI that some of the former Japanese empire might have escaped long ago and re-established in another star system.

Yes, Yuuya needed this victory to make both Germany and Japan pay.

[New Decius]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

The Major watched his chronos device (OOC: Dimension 02 version of a watch but holographic) with baited breath as the time ticked by. The longer the operation took, the greater the risk of discovery by the Nazi’s who had regular patrols through the tunnels. The only safe factor was that the patrols avoided the areas beneath the Bavarium reactors because the still under construction reactors emitted toxic Bavarium gases due to the refining process used to convert the raw materials extracted from Mars core. That also meant that the teams had limited time to plant the bombs and get away safely without any long term damage to their health. But in the end it would be worth it to see the Nazi’s suffer so devastating a defeat as to lose their prized superweapon, their world-breaker that they had been dreaming of for hundreds of years destroyed. It might even lead the other galactic powers to declare war on the Final Reich and the countless star systems under Nazi oppression would at long last be set free from slavery and extermination.

Their time was almost up so the Major called out to the Commando’s setting the bombs who were themselves just finishing up. “Oi we’ve got two minutes to get out of the area before the gas starts to have an effect on us! Lets go! Move it along!” The group hurried to put the finishing touches on their work before withdrawing back towards the tunnels from where the Major and the other Resistance members began to lead the way back towards their rendezvous point. However, on their way back through the tunnels, the entire structure around them began to shake violently and parts of the tunnel started to cave in behind them. “Oh fuck! The Nazi’s must be landing one of their cruisers at the construction zone! If we don’t move quick we’ll all be caught in a cave in!” The group began to pick up pace as the rumbling only increased, a clear indicator that the warship above was getting even closer to its landing zone. “Come on we’re almost there!”

SMS Tyranny

As the viewports shattered and the vacuum of space began to suck out anything it could from the bridge, Julia grabbed viciously at whatever she could to sink her claws into something, anything. But it was useless, the ship had long since lost its main and reserve reactors so the emergency system would not slam a metal cover shut over the exposed viewports, and the amount of oxygen available was running out.

’No! I am an immortal! I cannot be defeated! I am Werwolf! her claws began to drag across the deck as the lack of oxygen began to take its toll on her, weakening her grip. Her mind was racing with calculations and theories to escape this threat but her body was slowly weakening and slipping away towards death. Dr. Geitzler, when he had been alive and spearheading the Werwolf Project, had experimented with the Original’s in vacuum chambers and found that the results were rather morbid; as any living creature does without oxygen, the body effectively died, but the mind of the subject continued to function and the Werwolf was kept in a state of limbo between life and death. Unable to die yet incapable of living. It was perhaps the one fear any of the Original’s had, to be trapped within their own bodies, and Julia could feel it coming on as she saw her claws release from the deck and felt herself being pulled out into space through the viewport. She felt the cold rush into her veins and then...nothing.

The Werwolf was inanimate floating in space, frozen for all purposes with her eyes and mouth wide open, yet behind those blank eyes the brain remained active and churning. ’NO! I CANNOT ACCEPT THIS! I AM TRAPPED WITHIN MY OWN BODY! I AM AN IMMORTAL THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!’ Julia began sending the sheer fury of her emotions through a mental link that all hundred of the Original’s shared and as she felt the pain and confinement within her own mind, so too did the rest get a taste of it.

Lightyears away, on Earth, Hans Günsche the ‘Alpha’ looked up and into the clouds...

Office of the Shogun of the Zipangese Star Empire
Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

Without warning, before Unit 00 could even leave the office even, a figure materialized in the middle of the office out of thin air. Particles assembled themselves and formed up in the image of a man, in so much detail and definition that it was as though he were actually present in the room with them and the Shogun’s guards even moved to intercept this stranger only for the hand of one to pass right through his face when attempting to grab hold. The man was tall, easily six and a half feet, with a broad military build though his clothes suggested some mixture of military and nobility based on the rank badges, medals, and ornate shoulder cape; his hair was a striking golden color that seemed to reflect light and which was of some considerable length but constrained in a ponytail. His blue eyes were calculating and diplomatic in their expression and this made it clear the man was not here to threaten. “Greetings your Most honorable Imperial Highness, Shogun Mitsurugi Meiya, duly proclaimed leader of the Zipangese Star Empire.” This man, clearly of European ancestry, then bowed to the shocked amazement of the room’s occupants whom had not been expecting such respect from the unknown intruder. “I am His Imperial Highness, Prince Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa, though I also hold the rank of Lieutenant General in the Imperial Army, and I come as a friend. I and my colleagues have been watching your nation bloom and spread from afar for many years now though Europa and the Commonwealth have remained oblivious, just as they remained oblivious to the threat we both know to be festering inside.” Now they all understood that Dietrich spoke of the Final Reich.

“As you no doubt have already guessed, the upper echelon leadership of both Europa and the Commonwealth have been long poisoned by agitators from the great evil that has been seeding this dimension with its influence. It was they who made Emperor Erwin and his Inner Council as well as the SDI’s Parliament more favorable to this great war for total dominance, to decide which power is more worthy of ruling over Sol until they can arrive in full to integrate their vassal. I plan to leave Sol and Europa behind, alongside many others, and establishing a new nation in the Perseus Arm.” He stood up once again and cleared his throat. “I will be taking with me a substantial military and colonial force and I realize you may not be entirely onboard with the idea of letting so many potential enemies slip away into the far reaches of the galaxy. So I have come to bargain.”

He brought up a hologram on his wrist projector of one of the EPSILON defense satellites that guard Sol. “No doubt your military planners have been working tirelessly to find a way around the particle cannon grid that protects Sol from outside attack, seeing as just the outer grid could wipe out your entire invasion force. It is impossible to avoid detection by the cannons since their range extends for quite some distance, and destroying every single gun individually will take far too much time and be far too costly. But what if I could give you the keys to disable this system altogether?”

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

The Major watched his chronos device (OOC: Dimension 02 version of a watch but holographic) with baited breath as the time ticked by. The longer the operation took, the greater the risk of discovery by the Nazi’s who had regular patrols through the tunnels. The only safe factor was that the patrols avoided the areas beneath the Bavarium reactors because the still under construction reactors emitted toxic Bavarium gases due to the refining process used to convert the raw materials extracted from Mars core. That also meant that the teams had limited time to plant the bombs and get away safely without any long term damage to their health. But in the end it would be worth it to see the Nazi’s suffer so devastating a defeat as to lose their prized superweapon, their world-breaker that they had been dreaming of for hundreds of years destroyed. It might even lead the other galactic powers to declare war on the Final Reich and the countless star systems under Nazi oppression would at long last be set free from slavery and extermination.

Their time was almost up so the Major called out to the Commando’s setting the bombs who were themselves just finishing up. “Oi we’ve got two minutes to get out of the area before the gas starts to have an effect on us! Lets go! Move it along!” The group hurried to put the finishing touches on their work before withdrawing back towards the tunnels from where the Major and the other Resistance members began to lead the way back towards their rendezvous point. However, on their way back through the tunnels, the entire structure around them began to shake violently and parts of the tunnel started to cave in behind them. “Oh fuck! The Nazi’s must be landing one of their cruisers at the construction zone! If we don’t move quick we’ll all be caught in a cave in!” The group began to pick up pace as the rumbling only increased, a clear indicator that the warship above was getting even closer to its landing zone. “Come on we’re almost there!”

SMS Tyranny

As the viewports shattered and the vacuum of space began to suck out anything it could from the bridge, Julia grabbed viciously at whatever she could to sink her claws into something, anything. But it was useless, the ship had long since lost its main and reserve reactors so the emergency system would not slam a metal cover shut over the exposed viewports, and the amount of oxygen available was running out.

’No! I am an immortal! I cannot be defeated! I am Werwolf! her claws began to drag across the deck as the lack of oxygen began to take its toll on her, weakening her grip. Her mind was racing with calculations and theories to escape this threat but her body was slowly weakening and slipping away towards death. Dr. Geitzler, when he had been alive and spearheading the Werwolf Project, had experimented with the Original’s in vacuum chambers and found that the results were rather morbid; as any living creature does without oxygen, the body effectively died, but the mind of the subject continued to function and the Werwolf was kept in a state of limbo between life and death. Unable to die yet incapable of living. It was perhaps the one fear any of the Original’s had, to be trapped within their own bodies, and Julia could feel it coming on as she saw her claws release from the deck and felt herself being pulled out into space through the viewport. She felt the cold rush into her veins and then...nothing.

The Werwolf was inanimate floating in space, frozen for all purposes with her eyes and mouth wide open, yet behind those blank eyes the brain remained active and churning. ’NO! I CANNOT ACCEPT THIS! I AM TRAPPED WITHIN MY OWN BODY! I AM AN IMMORTAL THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!’ Julia began sending the sheer fury of her emotions through a mental link that all hundred of the Original’s shared and as she felt the pain and confinement within her own mind, so too did the rest get a taste of it.

Lightyears away, on Earth, Hans Günsche the ‘Alpha’ looked up and into the clouds...

Office of the Shogun of the Zipangese Star Empire
Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

Without warning, before Unit 00 could even leave the office even, a figure materialized in the middle of the office out of thin air. Particles assembled themselves and formed up in the image of a man, in so much detail and definition that it was as though he were actually present in the room with them and the Shogun’s guards even moved to intercept this stranger only for the hand of one to pass right through his face when attempting to grab hold. The man was tall, easily six and a half feet, with a broad military build though his clothes suggested some mixture of military and nobility based on the rank badges, medals, and ornate shoulder cape; his hair was a striking golden color that seemed to reflect light and which was of some considerable length but constrained in a ponytail. His blue eyes were calculating and diplomatic in their expression and this made it clear the man was not here to threaten. “Greetings your Most honorable Imperial Highness, Shogun Mitsurugi Meiya, duly proclaimed leader of the Zipangese Star Empire.” This man, clearly of European ancestry, then bowed to the shocked amazement of the room’s occupants whom had not been expecting such respect from the unknown intruder. “I am His Imperial Highness, Prince Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa, though I also hold the rank of Lieutenant General in the Imperial Army, and I come as a friend. I and my colleagues have been watching your nation bloom and spread from afar for many years now though Europa and the Commonwealth have remained oblivious, just as they remained oblivious to the threat we both know to be festering inside.” Now they all understood that Dietrich spoke of the Final Reich.

“As you no doubt have already guessed, the upper echelon leadership of both Europa and the Commonwealth have been long poisoned by agitators from the great evil that has been seeding this dimension with its influence. It was they who made Emperor Erwin and his Inner Council as well as the SDI’s Parliament more favorable to this great war for total dominance, to decide which power is more worthy of ruling over Sol until they can arrive in full to integrate their vassal. I plan to leave Sol and Europa behind, alongside many others, and establishing a new nation in the Perseus Arm.” He stood up once again and cleared his throat. “I will be taking with me a substantial military and colonial force and I realize you may not be entirely onboard with the idea of letting so many potential enemies slip away into the far reaches of the galaxy. So I have come to bargain.”

He brought up a hologram on his wrist projector of one of the EPSILON defense satellites that guard Sol. “No doubt your military planners have been working tirelessly to find a way around the particle cannon grid that protects Sol from outside attack, seeing as just the outer grid could wipe out your entire invasion force. It is impossible to avoid detection by the cannons since their range extends for quite some distance, and destroying every single gun individually will take far too much time and be far too costly. But what if I could give you the keys to disable this system altogether?”

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

"Roger. ...What I would do to see a whole invasion force of the Zetan's war droids against these scum. ...Or even the Imperial Royal Guard." One commando remarked while he finished setting the last G-bomb. "All set and ready to touch off, when we get back to the portal we'll detonate them. The Nazis shouldn't notice them with the cloaking devices attached to the bombs. ....Unless one of them trips over it, then we'll have a problem." The same commando said as he rejoined the group. "Roger that. Alright, back to the portal, I'm sure Director Kouzuki and Shogun Mitsurugi are eager to review the footage gathered of this dimension." Lieutenant I said as he ran with the Major, the ZIC Commandos picked up whomever was lacking behind, carrying them under their arms while they ran, with their genetic and cybernetic modifications it was just like going on a ruck run in a swamp, no sweat off the brow of any of the commandos.

"I'd recommend everyone of your men and yourself get through the portal when we set those bombs off, the wind will be enough to knock everyone here into whatever nearby walls there might be!" Lieutenant I said to the Major while they ran to avoid the cave in.

Outside of SMS Tyranny

"When she isn't ripping our other units apart she actually looks harmless." A Modified Zetan War Droid remarked while it held a tactical pad and worked through it, joined by four small droids of whom arranged themselves around Julia before emitting a sort of hard light around her wrists and ankles. "Unit B-12879, check and see if the bindings are secure." The modified war droid clearly painted with the usual markings signifying a command status said to another droid of whom could be assume dot be Unit B-12879. "Uhm.... Are we sure she can't do anything?" The droid responded. "Just do it." The droid clearly in command replied. "...Roger." The droid hesitantly moved closer to Julia and touched the hardlight bindings around her wrists then her ankles, the hardlight bindings were indeed working as they were intended to, to restrain the captive. "Bindings seem to be working, commander. We should probably get her to the Fuso." The droid tasked with checking the bindings reported.

"Roger. Let's get her there. She can't possibly get out of those, I heard that's what they use to restrain Gyor dragons on Zipang 19." The commander droid said as it started towards the Fuso with the now captive Julia and the hardlight emitter droids and the other three Zetan war droids modified for the task they had to carry out in space, the ventral hanger of the Fuso opened up and the droids flew inside while the doors shut behind them and they landed while the hardlight emitter droids kept Julia suspended in air. Within a matter of minutes after the doors shut, the area around them was pumped with oxygen and pressurised. Grand Admiral Thetch, Lord General Kitagou Ayaka, Princess Yoshiko, and Admiral Rei Nishimura entered the area with a large group of mixed IZRG guards and IZN navy troopers.

"So this is the troublesome Admiral of the Europan Navy we've had to contend with. ...And your prize, Lord General." Thetch said while he and the group stood a good distance away from Julia. "Thank you, Grand Admiral. I will make a note of your cooperation and.... Assistance in my report to the Shogun." Ayaka said while a smirk donned on her face. "This fucking mutt has cost us quite a bit of resources.... Transfer her to the Zhiang and inform the captain to set a course for Zipang Prime, it is time for this dog to bend her knee to the Shogun." Ayaka said while she motioned for the emitter droids and her IZRG guards to follow her to a large shuttle.

Office of the Shogun of the Zipangese Star Empire
Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

"So you have finally come to realise what we have known for the past 200 years.... The Final Reich." Meiya rose from her desk and motioned for her IZRG, Vassal Retainers Mana and Maya Tsukuyomi to back away of which they did while keeping themselves at Meiya's flanks. "While I had of course suspected, that old bastard Erwin to have been manipulated by the Nazis, I did not consider the Final Reich would bother with the CON. ...I suppose you'd know better than I, wouldn't you? Being closer to the threat and all..." Meiya then went silent as she heard the proposal, the idea of a substantial military force leaving the system did leave a sour taste in her mouth but she had evolved beyond the desire to exterminate the other forces of the Galaxy if possible.

"You are indeed right about allowing a military force to flee the solar system. ....However you are also right about the particle cannon system. We cannot simply get past it by tossing a meteor or anything in the direction of Sol, there's too many and they would simply blow it to pieces... It has Grand Admiral Thetch even stumped so I congratulate you on that, with him being my best naval commander. .....However I suppose I could allow this sizeable force to flee. Atleast you are aware of the threat to the greater galaxy and the multiverse, and not blinded by it. So I accept your proposal. Your fleet of colony ships and military ships will not be harmed and will be allowed to leave the system unmolested. However, understand if I am sceptical of this. In 230+ years, nary a word from Sol and our first encounter with them in over these 230+ years we come under attack by one of Erwin's pets." Meiya said before Vassal Retainer Michiru Isumi made her way past the hologram of the strange never before seen figure and whispered into Meiya's ear.

"Speaking of which, that same pet is on her way in chains to Zipang." Meiya said however that wasn't the only news, apparently Vassal Retainer Yui Takamura was waiting to be allowed in to the Shogun's office for a meeting of apparently the upmost urgency. "As I have said though, I agree to your proposal. If you will transmit these codes to my office, I can get them into Grand Admiral Thetch's hands within a few hours." Meiya said while she awaited a response.

[New Decius]

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

The Major watched his chronos device (OOC: Dimension 02 version of a watch but holographic) with baited breath as the time ticked by. The longer the operation took, the greater the risk of discovery by the Nazi’s who had regular patrols through the tunnels. The only safe factor was that the patrols avoided the areas beneath the Bavarium reactors because the still under construction reactors emitted toxic Bavarium gases due to the refining process used to convert the raw materials extracted from Mars core. That also meant that the teams had limited time to plant the bombs and get away safely without any long term damage to their health. But in the end it would be worth it to see the Nazi’s suffer so devastating a defeat as to lose their prized superweapon, their world-breaker that they had been dreaming of for hundreds of years destroyed. It might even lead the other galactic powers to declare war on the Final Reich and the countless star systems under Nazi oppression would at long last be set free from slavery and extermination.

Their time was almost up so the Major called out to the Commando’s setting the bombs who were themselves just finishing up. “Oi we’ve got two minutes to get out of the area before the gas starts to have an effect on us! Lets go! Move it along!” The group hurried to put the finishing touches on their work before withdrawing back towards the tunnels from where the Major and the other Resistance members began to lead the way back towards their rendezvous point. However, on their way back through the tunnels, the entire structure around them began to shake violently and parts of the tunnel started to cave in behind them. “Oh fuck! The Nazi’s must be landing one of their cruisers at the construction zone! If we don’t move quick we’ll all be caught in a cave in!” The group began to pick up pace as the rumbling only increased, a clear indicator that the warship above was getting even closer to its landing zone. “Come on we’re almost there!”

SMS Tyranny

As the viewports shattered and the vacuum of space began to suck out anything it could from the bridge, Julia grabbed viciously at whatever she could to sink her claws into something, anything. But it was useless, the ship had long since lost its main and reserve reactors so the emergency system would not slam a metal cover shut over the exposed viewports, and the amount of oxygen available was running out.

’No! I am an immortal! I cannot be defeated! I am Werwolf! her claws began to drag across the deck as the lack of oxygen began to take its toll on her, weakening her grip. Her mind was racing with calculations and theories to escape this threat but her body was slowly weakening and slipping away towards death. Dr. Geitzler, when he had been alive and spearheading the Werwolf Project, had experimented with the Original’s in vacuum chambers and found that the results were rather morbid; as any living creature does without oxygen, the body effectively died, but the mind of the subject continued to function and the Werwolf was kept in a state of limbo between life and death. Unable to die yet incapable of living. It was perhaps the one fear any of the Original’s had, to be trapped within their own bodies, and Julia could feel it coming on as she saw her claws release from the deck and felt herself being pulled out into space through the viewport. She felt the cold rush into her veins and then...nothing.

The Werwolf was inanimate floating in space, frozen for all purposes with her eyes and mouth wide open, yet behind those blank eyes the brain remained active and churning. ’NO! I CANNOT ACCEPT THIS! I AM TRAPPED WITHIN MY OWN BODY! I AM AN IMMORTAL THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!’ Julia began sending the sheer fury of her emotions through a mental link that all hundred of the Original’s shared and as she felt the pain and confinement within her own mind, so too did the rest get a taste of it.

Lightyears away, on Earth, Hans Günsche the ‘Alpha’ looked up and into the clouds...

Office of the Shogun of the Zipangese Star Empire
Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

Without warning, before Unit 00 could even leave the office even, a figure materialized in the middle of the office out of thin air. Particles assembled themselves and formed up in the image of a man, in so much detail and definition that it was as though he were actually present in the room with them and the Shogun’s guards even moved to intercept this stranger only for the hand of one to pass right through his face when attempting to grab hold. The man was tall, easily six and a half feet, with a broad military build though his clothes suggested some mixture of military and nobility based on the rank badges, medals, and ornate shoulder cape; his hair was a striking golden color that seemed to reflect light and which was of some considerable length but constrained in a ponytail. His blue eyes were calculating and diplomatic in their expression and this made it clear the man was not here to threaten. “Greetings your Most honorable Imperial Highness, Shogun Mitsurugi Meiya, duly proclaimed leader of the Zipangese Star Empire.” This man, clearly of European ancestry, then bowed to the shocked amazement of the room’s occupants whom had not been expecting such respect from the unknown intruder. “I am His Imperial Highness, Prince Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa, though I also hold the rank of Lieutenant General in the Imperial Army, and I come as a friend. I and my colleagues have been watching your nation bloom and spread from afar for many years now though Europa and the Commonwealth have remained oblivious, just as they remained oblivious to the threat we both know to be festering inside.” Now they all understood that Dietrich spoke of the Final Reich.

“As you no doubt have already guessed, the upper echelon leadership of both Europa and the Commonwealth have been long poisoned by agitators from the great evil that has been seeding this dimension with its influence. It was they who made Emperor Erwin and his Inner Council as well as the SDI’s Parliament more favorable to this great war for total dominance, to decide which power is more worthy of ruling over Sol until they can arrive in full to integrate their vassal. I plan to leave Sol and Europa behind, alongside many others, and establishing a new nation in the Perseus Arm.” He stood up once again and cleared his throat. “I will be taking with me a substantial military and colonial force and I realize you may not be entirely onboard with the idea of letting so many potential enemies slip away into the far reaches of the galaxy. So I have come to bargain.”

He brought up a hologram on his wrist projector of one of the EPSILON defense satellites that guard Sol. “No doubt your military planners have been working tirelessly to find a way around the particle cannon grid that protects Sol from outside attack, seeing as just the outer grid could wipe out your entire invasion force. It is impossible to avoid detection by the cannons since their range extends for quite some distance, and destroying every single gun individually will take far too much time and be far too costly. But what if I could give you the keys to disable this system altogether?”

Götterdämmerung Bauzone
Imperialer Subjektplanet des Mars, Galaktisches Kapitalsystem von Walhalla
Größeres Galaktisches Imperium
Dimension-02
Zipangese-Resistance Mission to Destroy Final Reich Superweapon

"Roger. ...What I would do to see a whole invasion force of the Zetan's war droids against these scum. ...Or even the Imperial Royal Guard." One commando remarked while he finished setting the last G-bomb. "All set and ready to touch off, when we get back to the portal we'll detonate them. The Nazis shouldn't notice them with the cloaking devices attached to the bombs. ....Unless one of them trips over it, then we'll have a problem." The same commando said as he rejoined the group. "Roger that. Alright, back to the portal, I'm sure Director Kouzuki and Shogun Mitsurugi are eager to review the footage gathered of this dimension." Lieutenant I said as he ran with the Major, the ZIC Commandos picked up whomever was lacking behind, carrying them under their arms while they ran, with their genetic and cybernetic modifications it was just like going on a ruck run in a swamp, no sweat off the brow of any of the commandos.

"I'd recommend everyone of your men and yourself get through the portal when we set those bombs off, the wind will be enough to knock everyone here into whatever nearby walls there might be!" Lieutenant I said to the Major while they ran to avoid the cave in.

Outside of SMS Tyranny

"When she isn't ripping our other units apart she actually looks harmless." A Modified Zetan War Droid remarked while it held a tactical pad and worked through it, joined by four small droids of whom arranged themselves around Julia before emitting a sort of hard light around her wrists and ankles. "Unit B-12879, check and see if the bindings are secure." The modified war droid clearly painted with the usual markings signifying a command status said to another droid of whom could be assume dot be Unit B-12879. "Uhm.... Are we sure she can't do anything?" The droid responded. "Just do it." The droid clearly in command replied. "...Roger." The droid hesitantly moved closer to Julia and touched the hardlight bindings around her wrists then her ankles, the hardlight bindings were indeed working as they were intended to, to restrain the captive. "Bindings seem to be working, commander. We should probably get her to the Fuso." The droid tasked with checking the bindings reported.

"Roger. Let's get her there. She can't possibly get out of those, I heard that's what they use to restrain Gyor dragons on Zipang 19." The commander droid said as it started towards the Fuso with the now captive Julia and the hardlight emitter droids and the other three Zetan war droids modified for the task they had to carry out in space, the ventral hanger of the Fuso opened up and the droids flew inside while the doors shut behind them and they landed while the hardlight emitter droids kept Julia suspended in air. Within a matter of minutes after the doors shut, the area around them was pumped with oxygen and pressurised. Grand Admiral Thetch, Lord General Kitagou Ayaka, Princess Yoshiko, and Admiral Rei Nishimura entered the area with a large group of mixed IZRG guards and IZN navy troopers.

"So this is the troublesome Admiral of the Europan Navy we've had to contend with. ...And your prize, Lord General." Thetch said while he and the group stood a good distance away from Julia. "Thank you, Grand Admiral. I will make a note of your cooperation and.... Assistance in my report to the Shogun." Ayaka said while a smirk donned on her face. "This fucking mutt has cost us quite a bit of resources.... Transfer her to the Zhiang and inform the captain to set a course for Zipang Prime, it is time for this dog to bend her knee to the Shogun." Ayaka said while she motioned for the emitter droids and her IZRG guards to follow her to a large shuttle.

Office of the Shogun of the Zipangese Star Empire
Zipangese Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

"So you have finally come to realise what we have known for the past 200 years.... The Final Reich." Meiya rose from her desk and motioned for her IZRG, Vassal Retainers Mana and Maya Tsukuyomi to back away of which they did while keeping themselves at Meiya's flanks. "While I had of course suspected, that old bastard Erwin to have been manipulated by the Nazis, I did not consider the Final Reich would bother with the CON. ...I suppose you'd know better than I, wouldn't you? Being closer to the threat and all..." Meiya then went silent as she heard the proposal, the idea of a substantial military force leaving the system did leave a sour taste in her mouth but she had evolved beyond the desire to exterminate the other forces of the Galaxy if possible.

"You are indeed right about allowing a military force to flee the solar system. ....However you are also right about the particle cannon system. We cannot simply get past it by tossing a meteor or anything in the direction of Sol, there's too many and they would simply blow it to pieces... It has Grand Admiral Thetch even stumped so I congratulate you on that, with him being my best naval commander. .....However I suppose I could allow this sizeable force to flee. Atleast you are aware of the threat to the greater galaxy and the multiverse, and not blinded by it. So I accept your proposal. Your fleet of colony ships and military ships will not be harmed and will be allowed to leave the system unmolested. However, understand if I am sceptical of this. In 230+ years, nary a word from Sol and our first encounter with them in over these 230+ years we come under attack by one of Erwin's pets." Meiya said before Vassal Retainer Michiru Isumi made her way past the hologram of the strange never before seen figure and whispered into Meiya's ear.

"Speaking of which, that same pet is on her way in chains to Zipang." Meiya said however that wasn't the only news, apparently Vassal Retainer Yui Takamura was waiting to be allowed in to the Shogun's office for a meeting of apparently the upmost urgency. "As I have said though, I agree to your proposal. If you will transmit these codes to my office, I can get them into Grand Admiral Thetch's hands within a few hours." Meiya said while she awaited a response.

Office of the Shogun

Dietrich knew immediately that she spoke of Julia von Kaalzebrütt, the Original whom had commanded the force sent to destroy the Zipangese so Europa could rule over the galaxy. So they had managed to subdue her, they of course hadn’t managed to kill her; it was accepted as impossible to actually kill an Original, not unless one could destroy every cell in their body at the same time without time to regenerate. “I see you too have discovered how damned impossible it is to kill one of the Original’s, that is what we call the first hundred Werwolf created by Dr. Hermann Geitzler whom are the ancestor superior to the current Werewolves of Europa. I must warn you then, since you likely utilized oxygen deprivation to subdue her, do not allow oxygen to get back in her system or she will regain full control of her body and be able to slaughter her captors. Since the Werwolf are incapable of dying, even depriving them of oxygen does not kill them, their bodies merely go into a state of limbo but their minds remain feverishly active. The Original’s have also manifested certain abilities over time, and Kaalzebrütt’s happens to be pyrokinesis the ability to manipulate fire in any form. Even if she is bound she will be able to manipulate flame utilizing her mental ability so keep her deprived of oxygen and away from fire.”

“I shall also warn you that by shoving her into that trapped state of mind, the other Original’s will be aware now since they all share a mental connection or a pack bond if you will. Specifically, the Alpha, General Hans Günsche, the First Original, will know that she had been captured and may inform Emperor Erwin...or he may not. The Original’s are such powerful beings that they have been subjected to repeated brainwashing to try and keep them under control but every now and then they have some free will. You will not be able to take any of the others when you invade Sol, they are indeed mighty as one being, but altogether they carry the strength to destroy nations, and the Alpha has the strength to wipe out an entire army. Or rather he would make it wipe out itself using his ability of Absolute Obedience. When he uses it, he can command the will of anyone to bend to his commands, either targeted or just anyone within range of his voice which when using the power can go for miles. The Emperor had made him command entire villages of dissidents to commit suicide during the Russian Consolidation. I will transmit the codes to you so long as you also agree that I be allowed to take the Original’s to my new state, all those save Julia whom you may keep.” He appeared forlorn now and filled with a regretful sorrow.

“These are soldiers all of them but all they desire is to finally die, to end their endless war for good so that they may finally know peace. Dr. Geitzler was a monster, even using experiments on children, some of the Original’s were no older than twelve when they were changed. At least if I can free them from the centuries of brainwashing, if they will not know eternal peace they will at least know their free will returned to them. Those are my terms, do you accept?”

Battle for Jupiter

Count de Haverlande had just torn apart another enemy Solar Gear when all of a sudden his entire frame began blaring alarms from everywhere, LOKI explained hurriedly to him what was happening. ”Your Grace, We must leave the current zone of combat immediately to avoid being caught in the blast.” Roderick was about to ask as to what blast they would be caught in when his sensors detected a hypermatter detonation imminent nearby. But that was impossible. Europa and the CON each had only developed one hypermatter energy source so far due to the immense cost and resources that went into such a scientific marvel. The CON-SDI had developed a reactor for the Concordia Aerostat whereas Europa had built a massive interconnected reactor system to power... “No! The shipyards! Their going to blow up the shipyards!” The Jupiter Naval Yards were powered by a hypermatter reactor which was what also controlled the rings orbit around Jupiter, and if it were to detonate as one force altogether, the explosion would not only destroy the yards and every ship berthed at them, but essentially vaporize every warship, fighter, and solar mech within Jupiter’s outer orbit or which were fighting near the shipyards surface. Thousands of ships of both sides would be destroyed and millions of lives would be lost, this was pure insanity, surely the battle could not be going that poorly by any sense of the word. “LOKI connect me to the Visionary now! I want to speak with Grand Admiral Raeder immediately, if not sooner!”

Within seconds, his console materialized an image of the Grand Admiral himself, wearing an expression of solemn admittance to an unspeakable act. “Grand Admiral Raeder what in the name of existence are you doing! You can’t seriously be considering blowing up the shipyards to destroy enemy ships! Thousands of our own ships would be lost alongside the enemy and millions of lives will perish when the hypermatter reactor goes critical!” Raeder could only respond ”Count de Haverlande, retreat from the combat zone, you are needed for His Imperial Highnesses project as are a number of others I am also ordering withdrawn from the combat zone. His Imperial August Majesty, the Emperor himself, has given me orders to destroy the naval yards to wipe out as many enemy forces in the blast as possible and also to deny them the chance to capture any of our dreadnought’s at berth on the ring. I must follow these orders or else I shall be removed and someone who will execute them put in my place.” By removed, Raeder meant killed and wiped from all records as though he had never existed, as would all his living family. It would be as though the Raeder family had just ceased to exist at some point in history. “But still, recall as many vessels as you can to save our men! These are our brothers in arms Grand Admiral, they are your command and you are charged with bringing them home to their families alive!” Again Raeder had a preplanned response which he gave clearly reluctantly ”The orders are to not make any sudden moves that would alert the enemy to this strategic maneuver and cause them to remove ships from the battle line. Our current estimate is that approximately 943 SDI ships will be caught in the blast and that 875 Europan ships will be caught in it, a third of both our fleets will be destroyed and we are to continue attacking even as this maneuver occurs so as to seize the momentum.”

Roderick didn’t even notice that LOKI had begun piloting his War Frame away from the detonation zone on a course for a return to the flagship, but he had one final act as he cut the transmission to the flagship. Utilizing the onboard computer in the Frame, he managed to send a message to that Frame he had been dueling with (Yuuya) so as to warn him to get away. His opponent had been a good pilot but an honorable one and getting caught in that detonation was no way for an honorable pilot to die. Before LOKI could detect it, he managed to get out a single word message to that SDI Frame (Yuuya) that simply read ‘RUN’. To his relief he saw that his opponent was already in the process of leaving the combat zone when the alert went out on his system of a critical mass event nearby and Roderick knew that the reactor was about to detonate and he forced the Frame to turn so he could watch. He needed to remind himself once more why Europa needed to fall and why Prince-General Dietrich needed to succeed and bring about the Vers Revival.

Moments later it happened. First the entire ring exploded as one great mass before it all became obscured in bright lights like a nuclear detonation going off, slowly expanding from the ring outwards, consuming nearby ships, fighters, mechs anything within its destructive reach. As they were consumed, everything burned away into nothing as they were drawn in, thousands of warships were absorbed by the critical mass detonation and who knows how many tens of thousands of fighters and mechs. Roderick watched on his screen as hundreds of IFF’s began blinking out and disappearing from the battlefield all at once and could not help himself now.

He let but a single tear fall for all those caught in this catastrophe of war.

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Office of the Shogun

Dietrich knew immediately that she spoke of Julia von Kaalzebrütt, the Original whom had commanded the force sent to destroy the Zipangese so Europa could rule over the galaxy. So they had managed to subdue her, they of course hadn’t managed to kill her; it was accepted as impossible to actually kill an Original, not unless one could destroy every cell in their body at the same time without time to regenerate. “I see you too have discovered how damned impossible it is to kill one of the Original’s, that is what we call the first hundred Werwolf created by Dr. Hermann Geitzler whom are the ancestor superior to the current Werewolves of Europa. I must warn you then, since you likely utilized oxygen deprivation to subdue her, do not allow oxygen to get back in her system or she will regain full control of her body and be able to slaughter her captors. Since the Werwolf are incapable of dying, even depriving them of oxygen does not kill them, their bodies merely go into a state of limbo but their minds remain feverishly active. The Original’s have also manifested certain abilities over time, and Kaalzebrütt’s happens to be pyrokinesis the ability to manipulate fire in any form. Even if she is bound she will be able to manipulate flame utilizing her mental ability so keep her deprived of oxygen and away from fire.”

“I shall also warn you that by shoving her into that trapped state of mind, the other Original’s will be aware now since they all share a mental connection or a pack bond if you will. Specifically, the Alpha, General Hans Günsche, the First Original, will know that she had been captured and may inform Emperor Erwin...or he may not. The Original’s are such powerful beings that they have been subjected to repeated brainwashing to try and keep them under control but every now and then they have some free will. You will not be able to take any of the others when you invade Sol, they are indeed mighty as one being, but altogether they carry the strength to destroy nations, and the Alpha has the strength to wipe out an entire army. Or rather he would make it wipe out itself using his ability of Absolute Obedience. When he uses it, he can command the will of anyone to bend to his commands, either targeted or just anyone within range of his voice which when using the power can go for miles. The Emperor had made him command entire villages of dissidents to commit suicide during the Russian Consolidation. I will transmit the codes to you so long as you also agree that I be allowed to take the Original’s to my new state, all those save Julia whom you may keep.” He appeared forlorn now and filled with a regretful sorrow.

“These are soldiers all of them but all they desire is to finally die, to end their endless war for good so that they may finally know peace. Dr. Geitzler was a monster, even using experiments on children, some of the Original’s were no older than twelve when they were changed. At least if I can free them from the centuries of brainwashing, if they will not know eternal peace they will at least know their free will returned to them. Those are my terms, do you accept?”

Battle for Jupiter

Count de Haverlande had just torn apart another enemy Solar Gear when all of a sudden his entire frame began blaring alarms from everywhere, LOKI explained hurriedly to him what was happening. ”Your Grace, We must leave the current zone of combat immediately to avoid being caught in the blast.” Roderick was about to ask as to what blast they would be caught in when his sensors detected a hypermatter detonation imminent nearby. But that was impossible. Europa and the CON each had only developed one hypermatter energy source so far due to the immense cost and resources that went into such a scientific marvel. The CON-SDI had developed a reactor for the Concordia Aerostat whereas Europa had built a massive interconnected reactor system to power... “No! The shipyards! Their going to blow up the shipyards!” The Jupiter Naval Yards were powered by a hypermatter reactor which was what also controlled the rings orbit around Jupiter, and if it were to detonate as one force altogether, the explosion would not only destroy the yards and every ship berthed at them, but essentially vaporize every warship, fighter, and solar mech within Jupiter’s outer orbit or which were fighting near the shipyards surface. Thousands of ships of both sides would be destroyed and millions of lives would be lost, this was pure insanity, surely the battle could not be going that poorly by any sense of the word. “LOKI connect me to the Visionary now! I want to speak with Grand Admiral Raeder immediately, if not sooner!”

Within seconds, his console materialized an image of the Grand Admiral himself, wearing an expression of solemn admittance to an unspeakable act. “Grand Admiral Raeder what in the name of existence are you doing! You can’t seriously be considering blowing up the shipyards to destroy enemy ships! Thousands of our own ships would be lost alongside the enemy and millions of lives will perish when the hypermatter reactor goes critical!” Raeder could only respond ”Count de Haverlande, retreat from the combat zone, you are needed for His Imperial Highnesses project as are a number of others I am also ordering withdrawn from the combat zone. His Imperial August Majesty, the Emperor himself, has given me orders to destroy the naval yards to wipe out as many enemy forces in the blast as possible and also to deny them the chance to capture any of our dreadnought’s at berth on the ring. I must follow these orders or else I shall be removed and someone who will execute them put in my place.” By removed, Raeder meant killed and wiped from all records as though he had never existed, as would all his living family. It would be as though the Raeder family had just ceased to exist at some point in history. “But still, recall as many vessels as you can to save our men! These are our brothers in arms Grand Admiral, they are your command and you are charged with bringing them home to their families alive!” Again Raeder had a preplanned response which he gave clearly reluctantly ”The orders are to not make any sudden moves that would alert the enemy to this strategic maneuver and cause them to remove ships from the battle line. Our current estimate is that approximately 943 SDI ships will be caught in the blast and that 875 Europan ships will be caught in it, a third of both our fleets will be destroyed and we are to continue attacking even as this maneuver occurs so as to seize the momentum.”

Roderick didn’t even notice that LOKI had begun piloting his War Frame away from the detonation zone on a course for a return to the flagship, but he had one final act as he cut the transmission to the flagship. Utilizing the onboard computer in the Frame, he managed to send a message to that Frame he had been dueling with (Yuuya) so as to warn him to get away. His opponent had been a good pilot but an honorable one and getting caught in that detonation was no way for an honorable pilot to die. Before LOKI could detect it, he managed to get out a single word message to that SDI Frame (Yuuya) that simply read ‘RUN’. To his relief he saw that his opponent was already in the process of leaving the combat zone when the alert went out on his system of a critical mass event nearby and Roderick knew that the reactor was about to detonate and he forced the Frame to turn so he could watch. He needed to remind himself once more why Europa needed to fall and why Prince-General Dietrich needed to succeed and bring about the Vers Revival.

Moments later it happened. First the entire ring exploded as one great mass before it all became obscured in bright lights like a nuclear detonation going off, slowly expanding from the ring outwards, consuming nearby ships, fighters, mechs anything within its destructive reach. As they were consumed, everything burned away into nothing as they were drawn in, thousands of warships were absorbed by the critical mass detonation and who knows how many tens of thousands of fighters and mechs. Roderick watched on his screen as hundreds of IFF’s began blinking out and disappearing from the battlefield all at once and could not help himself now.

He let but a single tear fall for all those caught in this catastrophe of war.

Office of the Shogun

"I will relay this information to Lord General Ayaka. ...And I must let you know that with the information you've given about these... Originals.. You should ensure all of them are with you on your departure.... Otherwise with how... Troublesome you've mentioned them to be, we might as very well just shove them in life pods and send them flying to the sun to be rid of them." Meiya said while the Siliconian seen earlier by the original 00 Unit reformed into it's humanoid form, approaching the Shogun, it whispered in her ear and seemed to put some of her fears to rest. "Well I suppose containing them will not be a problem if we do capture them... With recent... Information from a certain source, we can certainly contain them on Zipang Prime."

Meiya said while she waved off the Siliconian and a moment later, Vassal Retainer Takamura entered the office with the growing group of people already there it seemed as if it was now a small, rather boring party. "But anyway. I agree to your terms. However I also have my own plans for the CON-SDI that for the best outcome of the war to come after this, all three of us, Zipang, VERS, and whatever the CON reforms into must survive... Atleast up unto the end of the war to come. More resources and a possible force for us to keep us from tearing each other apart until we deal with the Reich, after all. You yourself have made it abundantly clear that you're no friend to the Reich, otherwise you wouldn't have reached out with this offer in the first place. ....Or you might and might just give us false codes. However with past experience on my part I know that anyone from Europe wouldn't waste their time with an Asian unless it was absolutely necessary and all. ...But anyway I suppose we will simply have to see if we truly for the time being can trust one another. ...I suppose when we get those codes that will be the true test."

Meiya said while the guards started to withdraw, the fact that this was simply just a more advanced hologram becoming more and more abundantly clear. "Regardless, you've admitted you know about the final reich, which has my attention already. So I suppose for now just assuming for the time being I can trust you is good enough. ...Or failing that we just lob G-bombs towards sol and hope for the best I suppose." Meiya had officially started to worry Vassal Retainer Isumi, Takamura, the 00 Unit and Meiya's Siliconian guest with that statement but they figured she'd of course like before be right.

Lord General Ayaka's shuttle to the IZN Zhiang

"Uhm... Lord General, Ma'am? I think the prisoner is waking up." Unit B-12879 said while it took ahold of Julia's cheeks and turned her head left and right seeing a "light" of life" return to her eyes. "Oh how troublesome...." Ayaka said letting out a sigh before she went to the cockpit of the shuttle and shut the door behind her. "How is that troublesome for- Oh my god!!" The droid said while the rear doors of the shuttle opened to the vacuum of space and sucked the droids out with Julia. "I hate this job!" Unit B-12879 said while the commander droid with it turned on it's own jump pack. "Quit your yammering, keep an eye on the prisoner while I talk to the Lord General." The commander droid said while it turned on it's comms. "Uhm... General? What do you want us to do with the prisoner?" The droid in command asked and Ayaka quickly responded. "Just keep an eye on her while I get a stasis pod out there to you, then you two get her inside of it, with it being in space it'll keep her deprived of air." Ayaka said as she cut off comms.

"Ugh.... I hate this job..." The droid commander said while the droid with it held Julia's hands above her head. "So what do we do now?" Unit B-12879 asked while the commander floated over to it and hit the droid. "You idiot, what do you think? Get her to the outer hull plating of the Zhiang, shorter distance for the Lord General to have to get a Stasis pod to us, just keep her deprived of Oxygen." The commander said while it fired up it's jump pack and Unit B-12879 followed up behind, lugging Julia with itself. "Roger that... Though not really option to give her oxygen, she'll tear us apart if we do, and we couldn't if we wanted to since we're in the vacuum of space." Unit B-12879 said while it followed it's commander to the outer hull plating of the Zhiang, keeping Julia outside in the vacuum of space, devoid of Oxygen.

Zipangese Type 229 Star Cruiser/Starfighter/Tactical Surface Fighter Carrier Zipang-Class, The Fusou, Flagship of the Imperial Zipangese Navy, Grand Admiral Thetch's office.

Grand Admiral Thetch returned to his office, it was a medium sized room with display cases built into the sides of the walls, walking to his desk he touched a orb halfway protruding from the top of the middle of the desk and it illuminated to show a map of Sol with information gathered from the Zipangese Imperial Intelligence Service, ship yards spread here and there across the solar system, he took notice of how Venus and Jupiter had become areas of main interest with shipyards and other objects of note around them. A second later there were two monotone beeps heard from the control panel to Admiral Thetch's office. "Come in." Thetch said while he turned off the hologram projector. The door opened to show Lord Admiral Rei Nishimura, she entered the office with two Imperial navy troopers and a few droids carrying some boxes.

"Grand Admiral, as per your orders the scavenging teams have gathered what they could from the officer's quarters on the SMS Tyranny as well as a few other ships of note from the Europan's destroyed fleet." Rei said while the boxes were unloaded and Thetch began examining each trinket and other objects of note from the materials scavenged. "These Europans... They're quite arrogant, are they not? Lord Admiral Nishimura?" Thetch held up one trinket of note some small wooden trinket that to anyone else would've been junk but to Thetch it was one of one hundred ways to read his foe. "That was taken from the personal quarters of the German's admiral, and the weapon next to it, the strange whip was also confiscated." Lord Admiral Nishimura said while Thetch began to examine the weapon. "Good... Very good... I shall keep this in in a special spot." Thetch walked over to his display cabinets and opened the centre one, placing the whip and small wooden trinket from Julia's ship inside next to a picture taken from the Captain of the SDIS Endeavor, being the Captain and his son.

"Hmm..." Thetch pondered the trinket and the whip for a moment, looking both over in the cabinet before he shut it and returned to his desk. "Is that all? Lord Admiral?" Thetch asked and Rei nodded her head. "No sir. ...Regent Ikaruga along with Vassal Retainer Shirogane, Fudai Kamiyo Tatsumi, General Xilian, Moff Gegranne, and Grand Moff Toshiko are here to see you, the IZRG is apparently to join us in the conquest of Sol, they will be providing a large percentage of cloaked craft and one of their Star Dreadnoughts, there is word that the High Command and the Council will be sending a new star dreadnought of their own for the IZN." Thetch listened and looked to Rei. "I see. Then allow them inside, do not keep them waiting." Thetch said and Rei bowed her head. "Yes... Grand Admiral."

[The Union of British North America]

Battle of Jupiter, Near the Europan orbital shipyard ring

Yuuya's console of his Orbital Frame involuntarily played the message from the Red Devil, warning him to get away. His Frame, Anubis, had an AI to assist the human runner in targeting, tactical advice, took over the Frame temporarily, as did the rest of the AIs in the rest of the Frames of Yuuya's squad. DELPHI, Anubis' AI, activated the Zero Shift of Anubis, the near-telportation device that allowed for closing the distance in combat as well as intra-system microjumps for getting around star systems. "What the hell is going on? How is the ring about to explode?" asked Yuuya. "My guess is that someone from Europan high command ordered the ring destroyed to wipe us out. It takes someone who doesn't care about collateral damage to do it this quickly into the battle. Only a number of hours after it began, it's now over with the loss of the Europan Jovian Shipyards. It must have been that mysterious Europan emperor." replied Delphi. The Battle for Jupiter is nearly over, and most of the CON-SDI Forces' fleet and starcraft were committed to this battle. A few seconds after being jumped from the space around the ring, Yuuya's team was in formation near the Duty Bound's port side. Request for landing was granted, and the flight of Orbital Frames entered into one of the smaller hangers on the port side of the ship that allowed for some discretion for the Frames. Yuuya and his team exited their units and headed up to the bridge to report to Vice Admiral Magbaredge.

Just as they arrived to the bridge, the fleet began reorienting itself to watch the ring; metallic shields were lowered over any windows and everyone was watching through the main viewing screen. "We got alerts of hypermatter going critical, detected on that orbital ring. I'm glad your AIs all made you come back as quickly as you did. We managed to reach minimum safe distance just as you landed." Magbaredge said. To put a period on her sentence, the hypermatter devices in the former battlespace of the ring imploded creating a huge ball of destruction that vaporized part of the atmosphere of Jupiter and shattered Io. The light was blinding for a few seconds, and died away. "I take it that that ring's destruction, the hypermatter implosion, and your return is all the debriefing we need. Dismissed." The squad kept saluting, but looked at each other, lost for words. The straightened up, said "Ma'am", saluted and went about face and exited the bridge. Yuuya was the last to leave. He thought about his half-sister. He sensed she was still alive. Something told him. Despite being partially cybernetic, he had some sort of special intuition about it. Something triggered it that intuition during the battle, he thought.

SDIS Duty Bound

The Duty Bound and the remaining 47 ships of the CON-SDI fleet all jumped from their present position near Callisto to the Jupiter trojans, asteroids at Jupiter's Lagrange point of L4. This was all of what was left of the SDI Forces Starfleet. Magbaredge received more bad news from the ship's chief medical officer that the evacuated President-General of the CON-SDI was killed by explosive decompression towards the end of the battle, and the Presidents of the Venus CON Mandate, Earth CON Territories, Mars CON Mandate, and Jovian Moons CON Mandate were all either dead or unresponsive as well from that explosion. "No civilian leadership." said Magbaredge. However, the Queen-Empress, the Head of the Commonwealth and Space Development Initiative, was still alive.

Magbaredge ordered that the surviving members of the SDI Parliament be assembled in the largest hanger of the Duty Bound, and that Her Majesty be in an adjacent room near the hanger, given tradition of the Monarch having to be invited to see Parliament. About half an hour later, the hanger was reorganized into a large audience chamber with chairs facing where the lowest catwalk of the hanger. Members of this rump parliament started entering the room, and started taking their seats. Magbaredge, at a door that let on to the catwalk, waited for everyone to take their seats. The door opened, and she walked solemnly to the middle of the catwalk, flanked by her immediate aides-de-camp and staff, as well as the highest ranking general officers of the SDIF Marines and the Air Forces that were in the fleet.

"As of one hour ago, the Presidents of the CON Mandates and Earth Territories, as well as the President-General, are either dead or incapacitated, and confirmed by medical professionals. Per Presidential Emergency Directive 999-021-S, authorized by the Continuity of Government Act 2217, and such Directive given on the 23rd of August of the at the outbreak of hostilities between Europa and the CON , I am declaring martial law for the remaining SDI territories and assuming supreme command of the remaining SDI Forces, becoming the Provisional Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations and Space Development Initiative. Per the COG Act 2217, any rump parliament that survives any catastrophe shall be organized as an advisory body to the Provisional Head of the Government of the CON-SDI until a new parliament may be elected and convened at a later date."

Rumblings from the Rump Parliament were audible to the few spectators allowed in the informal galleries on the sides of the hanger, mostly civilian refugees and staffers of the former civilian government, as well as news crews from the Forces' news apparatus to broadcast this event to the rest of the fleet. Yuuya and his team were also there, standing on one of other catwalks opposite of the one Magbaredge was on. After some rumblings a period of silence, the rump parliament stood and all said "Aye", effectively ending civilian government. It looked like an end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The rump parliament was being pragmatic. The CON had been pushed to its knees and it need reorganization to survive whatever comes next.

The Queen-Empress's private secretary banged on the door, like how the Usher of the Black Rod banged on the doors of the Commons to be let in. After one of the aides-de-camp opened the door, Her Majesty entered the hanger. Everyone followed her with their eyes. Even though this was highly unusually and not really following tradition, she was doing her best to appear as a constitutional monarch. She approached where Magbaredge stood and turned to the crowd. "My peoples, the other part of that statute also states that the Crown give assent to this provisional measure, and I do, to ensure the safety and security our Commonwealth. Not only that, but we shall return, stronger, and we shall never surrender. The war is not lost. We have lost the battle, but the war is not lost. For the Europans have not destroyed our spirit. They can throw everything at us, but we won't surrender. They committed acts of aggression against us, initiated this conflict to end us and subdue us. We won't let them. Long live the Commonwealth! God save her peoples!" she shouted to the rump parliament and to the audience, which grew once the establishment of military rule was declared, now with the crew of the Duty Bound.

"God save the Queen-Empress!" shouted the audiences.

[New Decius]

Imperial Dimension Research Unit, Zipangese Imperial Ministry of Defense
Experimental Portal Site A, Zipang Prime

Storch could only watch as the groups of Martian’s, many of them either starving or in desperate need of medical attention or both, gathered around in the massive portal chamber being attended to by an army of medical officers and orderlies while the members of his team examined each of them for any unwelcome side effects to interdimensional transportation. Many of the Martian’s were crying as they were attended to, not tears of pain but tears of joy at being freed at long last from the shackles of Nazi enslavement and knowing that they and their families would once again know the sweet cherished sensation of freedom. After years, and in some cases decades, of being enslaved and forced to work in the harshest conditions imaginable building a weapon meant to exterminate all life on a planet, they were once again masters of their own destiny. Storch would feel proud of what they accomplished here, a hundred thousand tormented souls free once more, if he didn’t know the cost of freeing them was the obliteration of the planet of Mars and the genocide of the rest of the Martian race with the destruction of the Götterdämmerung. They would not be able to ever return to a liberated homeworld because by now their homeworld was gone, torn apart by the combined detonation of the G-Bombs and the either functional or incomplete Bavarium Reactors meant to power the warship. And it tore at his heart strings.

He tried not to let it show on his face since Director Yuuko and General Voss were standing with him looking over the refugee’s but he could feel a presence tugging at his mind and knew that Kasumi, at Yuuko’s side always, could tell what he truly felt on the matter. Wolfgang Armitage Storch would forever carry with him the guilt that he was responsible for getting an operation to destroy a planet and kill over a billion innocents green lit, many of those killed also being Resistance members; his comrades in arms against the grip of Nazi tyranny. No matter how many times he told himself that this sacrifice was for the greater good and potentially saved trillions upon trillions of lives, the guilt of such mass murder weighed heavily on his shoulders.

Unknown to most of the raid party sent through to destroy the Götterdämmerung, in fact only the ranking officer among the commando’s had known about this, Storch had also dispatched several small probes with them that the commander was to deploy as soon as they exited the portal onto Mars. These probes, small enough to fit in the palm of ones hand, were meant to record the destruction of the Götterdämmerung, and Mars, for the purpose of spreading the news across the galaxy; each probe had coordinates input in their mainframe to, following the destruction, travel to the capital world of several of the galactic powers in Dimension-02. Specifically the Altai Republic, a rather liberal and open society of planets setup in a federal system, the Commune of Socialist System’s, a group of planets and star systems setup in a rather Soviet Union like fashion, and the Vaun Empire, a large military power that though mirroring many of Earth’s imperialist nations of old was not overly expansionist. Wolfgang had first gotten the idea during one of his many discussions with Director Yuuko about the galactic powers in Dimension-02, a way by which the Zipangese could set the others on the Final Reich and so end the threat through united force. The evidence that the Final Reich could be so severely hurt in a manner which the Resistance had never before been able to manage, might motivate the other powers to finally declare war on the Nazi regime.

“Well we have crossed the line well and truly now, no going back after this. If the Nazi’s didn’t know that we were actively working against them before they most certainly will now, and they will be looking for revenge. Not only did we destroy their precious superweapon, along with the entire Mars garrison which was tens of millions of troops and thousands of warships, we damaged their pride and proved that the bastards are far from invincible by dealing them their first real defeat in centuries.” He commented idly to General Voss and Director Yuuko as they watched the raiding party move through the crowd of refugee’s on its way over to them. The commando’s had also been intelligence gathering on Final Reich technology while in Dimension-02 not to mention both Storch’s team and Yuuko needed to run half a million tests on them all to make sure none of them suffered from exposure to Bavarium while planting the bombs. “Still...I wish there had been another way without effectively wiping out the Martian race and destroying their homeworld. I know that by destroying the Götterdämmerung we have saved so many trillions more lives than the several billion sacrificed on Mars to make that possible, but all the same the decision will stay with me for the rest of my life. Both of you weighed in on the discussion true but please do not feel guilty about this sacrifice for that is mine and mine alone to bear the consequences of, to know it was my choice which meant that all these tired and starving refugee’s will never know what it is to see their home liberated from the grip of Nazi tyranny.”

Das Kaiserhalle, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire, Europa Prime, Empire of Europa
Earth, Sol System

“And so far your August Majesty, while we have largely been successful in our operations here on Earth, our efforts in space have had decidedly mixed results following recent decisions.” Grand Admiral Fiona de Noblés reported to the Emperor on his throne as the Inner Council was gathered for His Imperial August Majesty to deliver their status updates on the war. At least ten members were attending via hologram due to their involvement in the various battle’s and operations across Sol, though most of them had the same grim news to tell; the war was not going as predicted. Though none of them were prepared to directly come out and say that many of the setbacks Europa had suffered in the war were due to the Emperor’s orders, they all valued their lives and those of their loved ones too much to tell him the truth. For instance, despite the fact that they were the greatest warriors in existence, the Emperor had not allowed any of the Original’s to be deployed to the battlefield and instead had garrisoned all hundred of them inside the Kaiserhalle for security purposes, meaning the old fool felt that someone would attempt to overthrow him during the chaos of the war. Then, the Emperor diverted the fleet support that was supposed to back up Operation Dragonfly, the invasion of China and Japan, to the Concordia Aerostat operation for symbolic reasons of wanting to snuff out the light of democracy once and for all. As a consequence, Operation Dragonfly went forward without orbital support save from the bombardment dreadnought SMS Ragnarok which was busy supporting all ground based operations across Earth, thus many of Dragonfly’s operations were quickly bogged down or supply lines were overstretched with the true scale of just how massive China was. The naval and air landings at Kyushu and Hokkaido were beaten back completely when Commonwealth warships were able to provide the Japanese defenders with orbital support. Then there was the debacle at Jupiter which cost Europa more than half of its entire Imperial Navy and most of its remaining dreadnoughts.

Grand Admiral de Noblés went on with her report for the Emperor. “Your August Majesty, though our glorious Imperial Army reports total victory on the African continent and in Iran, alongside the successful invasion of the British Isles, we have suffered some devastating setbacks in our campaign. The Pacific naval invasion operations in Indonesia and Australia were utter failures and any further attempt to resume the campaign in China without at least six months of buildup and resources stockpiling will be useless. Mars remains locked in an unbreakable stalemate now that both sides have lost their orbital support, both our ships and the Common’s having converged on Jupiter for the massive fleet engagement there. Regarding the events at Jupiter, we can hardly call the battle a victory for us even with the heavy damage done to the Commonwealth fleet. Not only were our only shipyards capable of building dreadnought’s destroyed, but approximately sixty-eight percent of our entire Imperial Navy was destroyed in the battle leaving our forces severely depleted.”

They could all practically feel the anger and rage flowing off of the Emperor at the reports of such massive failures. Despite his ego and arrogance, he was no idiot, he knew that they were effectively telling him Europa could no longer prosecute the war with victory a sure sign. Especially not with the fast approaching battle with the Zipangese on the horizon. ”Then it is the recommendation of this council that Europa, my glorious empire, declare a cessation of hostilities with the remaining Terran powers and thus present a united front to the Zipangese Star Empire.” Even though no one had the nerve to acknowledge him, the Emperor knew they all agreed with the statement. With one last reluctant grumble, he conceded. ”Make it so.”

---

This message to all powers within the reaches of the Sol System. The Empire of Europa does hereby declare a cessation of hostilities with all Terran powers formerly in a state of war with Europa. With the oncoming threat of the Zipangese Star Empire soon upon us, it is time for us to present a united front against this greater enemy. Our own squabbles can wait until after the greater battle has been fought.

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Imperial Dimension Research Unit, Zipangese Imperial Ministry of Defense
Experimental Portal Site A, Zipang Prime

Storch could only watch as the groups of Martian’s, many of them either starving or in desperate need of medical attention or both, gathered around in the massive portal chamber being attended to by an army of medical officers and orderlies while the members of his team examined each of them for any unwelcome side effects to interdimensional transportation. Many of the Martian’s were crying as they were attended to, not tears of pain but tears of joy at being freed at long last from the shackles of Nazi enslavement and knowing that they and their families would once again know the sweet cherished sensation of freedom. After years, and in some cases decades, of being enslaved and forced to work in the harshest conditions imaginable building a weapon meant to exterminate all life on a planet, they were once again masters of their own destiny. Storch would feel proud of what they accomplished here, a hundred thousand tormented souls free once more, if he didn’t know the cost of freeing them was the obliteration of the planet of Mars and the genocide of the rest of the Martian race with the destruction of the Götterdämmerung. They would not be able to ever return to a liberated homeworld because by now their homeworld was gone, torn apart by the combined detonation of the G-Bombs and the either functional or incomplete Bavarium Reactors meant to power the warship. And it tore at his heart strings.

He tried not to let it show on his face since Director Yuuko and General Voss were standing with him looking over the refugee’s but he could feel a presence tugging at his mind and knew that Kasumi, at Yuuko’s side always, could tell what he truly felt on the matter. Wolfgang Armitage Storch would forever carry with him the guilt that he was responsible for getting an operation to destroy a planet and kill over a billion innocents green lit, many of those killed also being Resistance members; his comrades in arms against the grip of Nazi tyranny. No matter how many times he told himself that this sacrifice was for the greater good and potentially saved trillions upon trillions of lives, the guilt of such mass murder weighed heavily on his shoulders.

Unknown to most of the raid party sent through to destroy the Götterdämmerung, in fact only the ranking officer among the commando’s had known about this, Storch had also dispatched several small probes with them that the commander was to deploy as soon as they exited the portal onto Mars. These probes, small enough to fit in the palm of ones hand, were meant to record the destruction of the Götterdämmerung, and Mars, for the purpose of spreading the news across the galaxy; each probe had coordinates input in their mainframe to, following the destruction, travel to the capital world of several of the galactic powers in Dimension-02. Specifically the Altai Republic, a rather liberal and open society of planets setup in a federal system, the Commune of Socialist System’s, a group of planets and star systems setup in a rather Soviet Union like fashion, and the Vaun Empire, a large military power that though mirroring many of Earth’s imperialist nations of old was not overly expansionist. Wolfgang had first gotten the idea during one of his many discussions with Director Yuuko about the galactic powers in Dimension-02, a way by which the Zipangese could set the others on the Final Reich and so end the threat through united force. The evidence that the Final Reich could be so severely hurt in a manner which the Resistance had never before been able to manage, might motivate the other powers to finally declare war on the Nazi regime.

“Well we have crossed the line well and truly now, no going back after this. If the Nazi’s didn’t know that we were actively working against them before they most certainly will now, and they will be looking for revenge. Not only did we destroy their precious superweapon, along with the entire Mars garrison which was tens of millions of troops and thousands of warships, we damaged their pride and proved that the bastards are far from invincible by dealing them their first real defeat in centuries.” He commented idly to General Voss and Director Yuuko as they watched the raiding party move through the crowd of refugee’s on its way over to them. The commando’s had also been intelligence gathering on Final Reich technology while in Dimension-02 not to mention both Storch’s team and Yuuko needed to run half a million tests on them all to make sure none of them suffered from exposure to Bavarium while planting the bombs. “Still...I wish there had been another way without effectively wiping out the Martian race and destroying their homeworld. I know that by destroying the Götterdämmerung we have saved so many trillions more lives than the several billion sacrificed on Mars to make that possible, but all the same the decision will stay with me for the rest of my life. Both of you weighed in on the discussion true but please do not feel guilty about this sacrifice for that is mine and mine alone to bear the consequences of, to know it was my choice which meant that all these tired and starving refugee’s will never know what it is to see their home liberated from the grip of Nazi tyranny.”

Das Kaiserhalle, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire, Europa Prime, Empire of Europa
Earth, Sol System

“And so far your August Majesty, while we have largely been successful in our operations here on Earth, our efforts in space have had decidedly mixed results following recent decisions.” Grand Admiral Fiona de Noblés reported to the Emperor on his throne as the Inner Council was gathered for His Imperial August Majesty to deliver their status updates on the war. At least ten members were attending via hologram due to their involvement in the various battle’s and operations across Sol, though most of them had the same grim news to tell; the war was not going as predicted. Though none of them were prepared to directly come out and say that many of the setbacks Europa had suffered in the war were due to the Emperor’s orders, they all valued their lives and those of their loved ones too much to tell him the truth. For instance, despite the fact that they were the greatest warriors in existence, the Emperor had not allowed any of the Original’s to be deployed to the battlefield and instead had garrisoned all hundred of them inside the Kaiserhalle for security purposes, meaning the old fool felt that someone would attempt to overthrow him during the chaos of the war. Then, the Emperor diverted the fleet support that was supposed to back up Operation Dragonfly, the invasion of China and Japan, to the Concordia Aerostat operation for symbolic reasons of wanting to snuff out the light of democracy once and for all. As a consequence, Operation Dragonfly went forward without orbital support save from the bombardment dreadnought SMS Ragnarok which was busy supporting all ground based operations across Earth, thus many of Dragonfly’s operations were quickly bogged down or supply lines were overstretched with the true scale of just how massive China was. The naval and air landings at Kyushu and Hokkaido were beaten back completely when Commonwealth warships were able to provide the Japanese defenders with orbital support. Then there was the debacle at Jupiter which cost Europa more than half of its entire Imperial Navy and most of its remaining dreadnoughts.

Grand Admiral de Noblés went on with her report for the Emperor. “Your August Majesty, though our glorious Imperial Army reports total victory on the African continent and in Iran, alongside the successful invasion of the British Isles, we have suffered some devastating setbacks in our campaign. The Pacific naval invasion operations in Indonesia and Australia were utter failures and any further attempt to resume the campaign in China without at least six months of buildup and resources stockpiling will be useless. Mars remains locked in an unbreakable stalemate now that both sides have lost their orbital support, both our ships and the Common’s having converged on Jupiter for the massive fleet engagement there. Regarding the events at Jupiter, we can hardly call the battle a victory for us even with the heavy damage done to the Commonwealth fleet. Not only were our only shipyards capable of building dreadnought’s destroyed, but approximately sixty-eight percent of our entire Imperial Navy was destroyed in the battle leaving our forces severely depleted.”

They could all practically feel the anger and rage flowing off of the Emperor at the reports of such massive failures. Despite his ego and arrogance, he was no idiot, he knew that they were effectively telling him Europa could no longer prosecute the war with victory a sure sign. Especially not with the fast approaching battle with the Zipangese on the horizon. ”Then it is the recommendation of this council that Europa, my glorious empire, declare a cessation of hostilities with the remaining Terran powers and thus present a united front to the Zipangese Star Empire.” Even though no one had the nerve to acknowledge him, the Emperor knew they all agreed with the statement. With one last reluctant grumble, he conceded. ”Make it so.”

---

This message to all powers within the reaches of the Sol System. The Empire of Europa does hereby declare a cessation of hostilities with all Terran powers formerly in a state of war with Europa. With the oncoming threat of the Zipangese Star Empire soon upon us, it is time for us to present a united front against this greater enemy. Our own squabbles can wait until after the greater battle has been fought.

Under the ancient Imperial Palace, Kyoto, The Union of East Asia

"All is set and ready ma'am. ...We have gained control over all communication satellites around earth." One member of the U~otchā said, while he looked over a technician's shoulder. "Good...." Ami said while she turned and made her way to a table, the room in which the U~otchā would finally expose themselves was the room in which the Shogun and her regency council would meet before the 2017 war, however redecorated to look ancient, like a room from the days of yore, long before 2017. Ami took her seat, behind her stood the other members of the U~otchā, members of state, military, and corporations. "Begin." Ami said and the technician began the broadcast, simultaneously all across earth and the closest colonies to the planet, the usual broadcasts were interrupted by the strange, creepy, and unnerving view of a group of people dressed in black robes, a black mask with gold details on it, and a long pointed hood. Infront of them, was a figure dressed much the same however with a white mask, obviously signifying this person as the leader.

"The circle closes... The end, begins. Do you think you're making a difference? In the end, our long awaited reclamation shall begin. In the end.. She. Shall win. Dark days lie ahead for those of you who have committed the greatest crimes against our species. Against all humanity, she is coming. She is coming with armies innumerable, with weapons only imagined by you who have been blinded by faux nobility. She is coming to purify the earth, to set everything you have poisoned with your jackboots, with your very presence, fire shall reign on your homes, on your families, on the soil upon which you have been bred until it surfaces as but glass. She is coming to reclaim what is her's. Our beloved leader, our Shogun is coming home. Her people will welcome her with open arms, and we shall transcend this world, we shall reach new heights while the weight of your heresy shall stay your feet and you shall be consumed by eternity. Especially you, the Europan Kaiser. Your works of evil shall be purged from existence by her holy light. For your destruction is the will of the gods, and she, our beloved Shogun. Is their instrument, your death is long overdue." The figure in the white mask spoke, clearly by now to those watching this figure was female. The figure removed her hood and mask to reveal Marshal Ami Chouno, the former temporary military governor of the UEA from just after the 2017 war while a government was being created, she lead the country and maintained order in place of the old Imperial government, or at the very least an android version of her.

"Our leader, is coming home." Ami said while the figures behind her removed their masks to reveal UEA members of government, the high echelons of the military, and corporate executives. "For years we have awaited, for years we... Watched, while the German Empire, now Europa spread across this world like a cancerous tumour would a body. Now, this tumour will be cut out, and destroyed. However take heart, for your final destruction will not come by us, the remnants of the old empire, here on earth... But we will assure our beloved shogun has a home to come back to, therefore. Any further attacks upon the UEA will be met.... By the final release of our G-bomb stockpile. This world shall disappear below the waves of the oceans before we surrender our home to you heretics. This is the one and only warning. I suggest it be heeded. For eitherway. Europe shall disappear from this earth. However it is your choice. Shall it disappear in fire. Or shall millions be swallowed whole by the seas?.... Who are we to be making these threats? We are the loyal subjects of her holiness. We are the U~otchā. And not one single foe of our holy lord will step foot on her land." Then the broadcast cut back to the "normal" programming which was essentially at this time emergency alerts or even if they were still up, news broadcasts.

Imperial Dimension Research Unit, Zipangese Imperial Ministry of Defense
Experimental Portal Site A, Zipang Prime

"It's hard not to, honestly. ...Though the weapon was only perfected by me, I can only feel some of the blame that it had to be used without any alternative..... Though sacrifices must be made for the whole of existence, we couldn't allow them to have that weapon. In their hands it'd only be more trouble for the rest of us." Yuuko said while she crossed her arms and looked to Cryska then Kasumi, and back to Storch. "However I believe you might be right. They will be sure to come after us now.... Though there's no use crying about it. We must continue our duties until the nazis are annihilated." Yuuko said again. "It is likely they suspect us but it's also not likely they truly know. ...For as it's been said, there are thousands if not trillions of other dimensions, if history has played out anything similar to our own dimension in any of these, we will likely be on their list of suspects, but there's also likely others they may suspect." Cryska said, looking around her to the refugees.

"Right. ...Cryska, please get more supplies for these people. Storch, please tell them that for now they must stay here, however we'll get them to another planet where they will be free to do and live as the wish." Yuuko said then looked to Voss, motioning for him to follow her and Kasumi while the two left the room.

Outside of the IZN Zhiang

Unit B-12879 motioned for the now returned shuttle to land on the hull of the Zhiang, it did so quite easily and the doors opened to show two more Zetan war droids carrying out a stasis pod to keep Julia contained and deprived of oxygen. "Alright, get her in there." Unit B-12879 said to the two droids of whom just replied with "Roger." Then set about their tasks, getting the German general turned admiral into the pod, freezing her in it before they loaded her up on the shuttle once more and the shuttle took off, quickly manoeuvring back inside the ship before it jumped in FTL back to Zipang Prime.

Lord General Ayaka stood on the bridge of the ship, while it travelled through FTL, then came out of it, before the planet of Zipang Prime, the capital homeworld of the Zipangese Star Empire, a planetwide city. "Lord General, we have arrived." The captain of the Zhiang said, bowing his head to Ayaka of whom turned around and walked past him to leave the bridge. "Make ready my shuttle for the Imperial Palace and inform the Shogun I have come bringing a trophy for her." Ayaka said while she left the bridge. "It will be done." The captain said but Ayaka had already left the bridge for the hanger.

Office of the Shogun, Zipang Prime, Zipangese Star Empire
After the meeting with Prince Dietrich of Europa, Meiya returned to her desk and Vassal Retainer Yui Takamura entered the room while the Shogun sent the given self destruct codes to Grand Admiral Thetch from her desk. Yui came to the Shogun's desk and took a knee, bowing her head. "Rise, Vassal Retainer Takamura." Meiya said after she finished sending the codes to Thetch. "Yes, my lord." Yui stood up and Meiya spoke. "You have come to me to make a personal request, might I ask what it is..?" Meiya asked, clasping her hands together on her desk.

"Yes ma'am. ....My brother, my half-brother Yuuya Bridges is alive. I can feel it." Yui said rather embarrassed about it. "Your half-brother...? The one from 200 years ago..?" Meiya said with an eyebrow raised. "Yes, your majesty. Him." Yui said and Meiya stood up walking around her desk to Yui, putting her hand to her shoulder, turning her to one of the great, large windows at the side of her office. "My dear Vassal Retainer. ...It appears most of those we thought long dead have risen from the grave." Meiya brought Yui to the window, standing with her at the window looking over the cityscape. "I myself suspect one to be alive still.... She is still alive as well.... So I suspect you wish to see your brother? Or to spare him from the reclamation?" Meiya said, looking to Yui. "My lord... Yes. I wish to see him again." Yui smiled, turning to Meiya. ".....You will be able to see him. However... He will be useful for our future plans. We shall require him to deal with a threat far greater than the Germans... I want him to meet with Grand Admiral Thetch of whom will have him speak to me." Meiya said patting Yui's back before she directed her back to the doors to her office.

"He shall serve a greater purpose as I and many others do... You will as well when the time comes, however your cousin will be the one to inform you of what I speak when the time comes." Meiya said while the two approached the door. "Cousin? You mean Kyoko?" Yui asked and Meiya nodded her head. "Yes. Kyoko. As she is to succeed me when I step down, after this war." Meiya said while the two finally reached the door. "Yes, your majesty.... So will I be going with the invasion force?" Yui asked and Meiya nodded her head once again. "Yes. You will. However for the meeting you'll be behind the battlelines, out of the way of fire.... Now please... I'm expecting another visitor." Meiya said and Yui bowed her head, then quickly left, passing Lord General Ayaka of whom was being followed by four Zetan War Droids of whom carried a large pod on their backs, approaching the Shogun's office.

Meiya could only look at this pod and the sight of these droids carrying it in wonder. How were they even managing this with their rather... Flimsy.... Design. "Lord General... Is this the..." Meiya asked and even Vassal Retainer Michiru Isumi looked to the droids with an eyebrow raised. "Dear Amaterasu..." Isumi said to herself while Ayaka bowed her head, taking a knee before Meiya. "My lord... Your highness, I've brought you a trophy greater than the petty groundpounders of our foe. Their most deadly weapon. Their fleet commander, one of their... Werwolves." Ayaka said, Meiya motioned for Ayaka to stand up, she did so quickly. "Thank you, Lord General. This certainly is a truly great day for us. For our empire, and our cause. ...However now is not the time for you to stand on ceremony. You must return to the front lines, to destroy those who would exterminate our people." Meiya said to which Ayaka bowed her head again.

"Yes my lord. ...What of this.... Mutt?" Ayaka asked, turning to look at the pod of which was now set upright while the droids stood around it. "Worry not, Lord General. We shall take care of it. ...Michiru, get a detachment up here and have them take her to... The sealing chamber." Meiya said and Michiru got to work immediately. Ayaka bowed her head to Meiya. "Thank you, my lord. I shall return to the battlefield." Ayaka said before she turned and began to leave. "You carry my blessing Ayaka, as well as the blessings of the whole of the Empire. May you be successful in your endeavours." Meiya said while Ayaka left, Ayaka left the palace appearing unnaturally happy, returning to the IZN Zhiang she'd be just in time for the strategy meeting between the IZN, IZRG and IZA.

Zipangese Type 229 Star Cruiser/Starfighter/Tactical Surface Fighter Carrier Zipang-Class, The Fusou, Flagship of the Imperial Zipangese Navy, Grand Admiral Thetch's office.

"Come in." Grand Admiral Thetch sat at his desk, Lord Admiral Rei Nishimura stood behind him to his right while Regent Ikaruga, Vassal Retainer Shirogane, Fudai Kamiyo Tatsumi, Moff Gegranne, Grand Moff Toshiko, and General Xilian entered the office. Regent Ikaruga and Grand Moff Toshiko took their seats while Vassal Retainer Shirogane, Fudai Kamiyo Tatsumi, Moff Gegranne and General Xilian stood behind the Regent and Grand Moff. "So we are all here then?" Thetch said, looking to everyone in the room before they were interrupted by Lord General Ayaka's return and entry into the room. "I apologise for my being late. I was dropping off a package for the Shogun. Rest assured, the Germans' mutt has been dealt with." Ayaka said while she took up her spot next to General Xilian of whom somewhat towered over the her. "I was not aware you had become a courier service, Ayaka." General Xilian remarked sarcastically. "Stuff it, droid." Ayaka said, not taking her eyes off Thetch. "I'm not a droid, lapdog." Xilian replied to which Ayaka simply rolled her eyes.

"If we could, focus on fighting the true foe to us all, and not squabble like petty children, that would be most appreciated." Thetch said while Ikaruga nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed. The reclamation comes first. All else is secondary." Ikaruga said to which Ayaka bowed her head. "Of course. My apologies on the part of the IZA for this disruption. Go ahead." Ayaka said and Thetch began the meeting, by showing a hologram of the whole solar system. "Our scout ships, cloaked on approach to the system, thanks to the IZRG have given us an updated appraisal of the situation, now you see, it appears the shipyard around Jupiter has been completely and utterly obliterated. And from initial reports it appears Japan is under the control of a loyalist cult devoted to the Shogun herself. Meanwhile it appears the Europans are signalling for a truce with the other powers they've started a war, they cannot seem to end. ....And in the destruction of their shipyard have given us overwhelming superiority in space.... Not that we didn't have it anyway." Thetch said while the hologram shifted while he spoke of the updates to the situation.

"So, what does this mean then?" Ikaruga asked, an eyebrow raised. "This means, if I know the Europans from what I've gathered, they will be spread thinly, attempting to defend all of their territory from us. We shall use this to our advantage, we shall hit one area with a medium sized force, they will believe this force to be the main invasion force, this force shall mainly comprise of IZN, and non-cloaked vessels of the IZRG, then when we have them, this will have given cloaked vessels of the IZRG enough time to manoeuvre into position behind them and commence a pincer attack, then with reinforcements to be obviously on the way, the IZRG shall engage their cloaking devices and the IZN will withdraw while the main, larger force shall come out of FTL precisely at their flank and we shall destroy their fleet. However there is of course one issue. I am trusting this personally to your care, Regent. Through various means, our Shogun has managed to acquire the self destruct codes for a sort of orbiting defence chain of turrets able to strike our fleets from a distance. ....All we need is one cloaked IZRG ship to slip through undetected and break through their cyber defences, then input the codes. This will leave the whole system open to attack." Thetch said to which Ikaruga had a sly grin appear on his face.

"That it? Want me to stop in Kyoto afterwards and get you coffee too?" Ikaruga said sarcastically. "No. I don't. And I find your attempt at sarcasm to be in bad taste for the current moment.... Returning to subject at hand, after the turrets have been taken out, we will have fleets coming from all across the star empire to join in the invasion. However there is one point of interest I have been informed of. We will require the future services of a Yuuya Bridges, I have only recently learned in the communication from, the Shogun herself, she has a plan of which will draw him into our cause to eliminate... Extradimensional persons pulling the strings behind the curtains of the CON-SDI. Overall this plan to my opinion may yet fail however, we must have results to know. So it is likely with your own mark on Earth, the CON and possibly even Europa have started using TSFs for a base for their own mechanised weapons. Should we be answered by Yuuya Bridges then he and whomever else he brings along are not to be targeted by our fighters, ships or other TSFs of the Empire." Thetch said to which an uncomfortable air had taken the room.

"If that is everything then this meeting is indeed over. Return to your ships and await the call to arms." Thetch said to which General Xilian bowed his head as did Moff Gegranne, Grand Moff Toshiko left the room with Ikaruga and General Ayaka, leaving only Grand Admiral Thetch and Lord Admiral Nishimura. "That went better than expected. ...However let's hope they follow my orders exactly, and not undermine my efforts." Thetch said after the door shut and Rei sighed, nodding her head. "You hope for glory in this, don't you. Grand Admiral?" Rei said, to which Thetch stood up and walked over to his trophy case containing the trinkets and other bits and pieces from the CON-SDI ship as well as the SMS Tyranny. "I do not require glory. Only results, for my Shogun." Thetch said.

[The Union of British North America]

SDIS Duty Bound, Jovian Trojans

Vice Admiral and now Provisional Head of Government of the CON-SDI Darzana Magbaredge gazed out upon the stars and blackness of space from her small port-side window in her quarters. She had a glass of Jameson with ice in her hand and had the empty bottle on a side table in the living room of her quarters--one of the few bottles left on her ship, and perhaps in the entire CON-SDI territories. Britannia and Hibernia had fallen to continental tyranny. The Spanish, the French, the Germans all failed when Isles were in their darkest hour, but that streak has been finally broken. Columbia is all that is left on Earth. The rest of the Commonwealth on Earth has been either wiped off the map or under occupation. Concordia Aerostat on Venus--destroyed by mass drivers. The Commonwealth Mars Mandates--domed cities invaded and devastated. Millions under foreign occupation.

The good news,presented by the remaining intelligence apparatus, was that the Euros ran out of steam--they made several strategic and tactical mistakes during the various battles. They had control of Earth, Venus, and Mars, but the Battle of Jupiter wiped out about two-thirds of their fleet. "Space Trafalgar. I should be dead from being sucked into the great void when this ship took a significant number, like the civilian leadership." she said to herself. As she continued to stare and sulk, the automatic door of her quarters opened, revealing Rear Admiral Kaoru Mizusaki, Japanese-North American and her 2-in-C for this sorry fleet of space bathtubs. "Ma'am. Our stay-behind intel units have reported two shocking pieces of news from Earth. First, The Bastard Kaiser has called for a ceasefire to counter a greater threat--the Zipangese Star Empire. Second, a shadowy group of business tycoons and government officials of the still surviving Union of East Asia have revealed their true allegiance to the Shogun of said Zipangese Star Empire."

"Ah, what a surprise. Jerry knows he overplayed his hand and now its going to bite him in the ass. Does he think that we even stand a chance if we managed to join forces against fascists from outer space who are very, very unhappy with us? Revanchism and expansionism. We overcame that, but not them. Hell, the Euros and this ZSE are mirror images of each other." she said in a sad, monotone way, still staring out the window. "We will endure, but we must get out of here.

"What do you mean, leave? Leave Sol? We don't even have our first extrasolar colony. Alpha Centauri was supposed to be our first." asked Mizusaki. "We are leaving. Let the Euros and ZSE kill themselves hundred times over. We will rebuild with what we have. If we stay here and fight, we'll lose everything: our liberty, our honor, our lives. Our fleet, and now the Europan fleet, if we were to join together, are not going to win this by a long shot. The ZSE have been preparing for the last two centuries. Jerry has managed to keep them occupied for this long. Yeah, the top brass of the SDIF have known of the ZSE's existence up till now, ever since one of the science ships from Alpha Centauri escaped. It was kept under wraps as the returned ship was picked up by one of intelligence branch's flotillas. The President-General, me, the Secretariat, we all knew, and we all knew how fucked up this was going to be."

She turned to face Mizusaki, and motioned her closer. She whispered unnecessarily because she was somewhat drunk. "The CON had a secret project in the case of the most serious catastrophe for the CON or humanity. A special deep-space ark, able to transport 20,000 people, enough to restore the current population of Earth on another habitable planet. We also have constructed several "digital arks" for the transferred consciousnesses of the three million CON citizens who had cyber-brains. Three million was all we were able to transfer. Per all the laws relating to this state of emergency and exception, we have activated the Project. And now we are planning to leave. We managed to evacuate about 500,000 CON citizens, mostly spacers, those without a permanent home on a rock. They are currently at our last orbital station colony at Neptune--Providence Station." She went over to her desk and produced a holographic display of the ark, as well as statistics and projections to Mizusaki's neural lace. "I am giving you the clearance. We can accommodate an extra 10,000 on the ark if we cut down on maximum-staff crews, just have a skeleton crew along with the ship's AI to operate everything else, plus bare minimum of supplies. There are also some colony ships that were earmarked for Alpha Centauri, but they can repurposed. They were able to hold 2000 with max-crews, but we can double it if we go with skeleton crews and AI and minimal supplies. There should be around 10, with 8 already constructed and two almost done but spaceworthy. So if we double their capacities and connect them to the Ark so they can share systems and processing power, we can evacuate about 70 to 75 thousand organic citizens, and three million consciousnesses."

"Wait, where are we going...ma'am?" Mizusaki corrected herself, stunned by the craziness of her CO's words. "Andromeda. I know, we're going in blind. And the ark is rated for interstellar travel, but it does have some experimental inter-galactic capabilities." replied Magbaredge. "How...how is this all possible? We don't even have our first extrasolar colony. And how was this all paid for? A black budget this big would have raised eyebrows and red flags."

Magbaredge straightened herself up, fighting against the effects of the alcohol with military discipline. "There was private money diverted from actual colonization projects, and a mysterious benefactor. Some rich arsehole interested in having us go to another galaxy. With the threat of Europa and some other great threat he alluded to, we quietly explored this avenue, and made significant progress in the last two decades. He had lots of money, and he was afraid...of something. Something worse, something that convinced us to go ahead with this project. The ZSE?" said Magbaredge. "But that doesn't matter who it is right now. We can restart elsewhere. It is necessary. I've already had about five thousand spacers be placed on the Ark as a preliminary start. We need those colony ships, and the remainder of our fleet. Navy ships have enough for a long, bare-bones ice nap."

"What about the others? We cannot evacuate them too?"

"It's a station, not a starship. It can't go anywhere. We can accommodate their consciousnesses but not their bodies. Mizusaki, ensure we have a diverse enough population so we can avoid inbreeding, and find young enough people. Find any cyborg spacers and have them, along with our organic citizens...transferred to Base Twenty-Two. It's in the Oort Cloud, where Ark is being built."

"What about Europa's offer?"

"Leave that to me. I'm going to visit this Europan Emperor, in person. We're going to talk face-to-face."

Dimension-2 Mars, Undergound caverns near Final Reich research facilities

"Where in the bloody hell are we going? We're running out of time. The Resistance-Commando team must be already on their way back to the extraction point, having planted the special surprise for the fuckfaces here." yelled Asgill, annoyed by Hawthorne's apparent wild goose chase.

The four entered another large cavernous chamber. "Jesus, is this version of Mars filled with tunnels and caves like a worm-eaten apple?" asked Asgill again.

"Patience. The multiverse is diverse and in flux. New and old worlds are born, destroyed, and reborn again. Many versions of you and I exist. We shape our worlds with our actions, we control their destinies. And here is where we will find the means to control our destinies." replied Hawthorne. Hawthorne's metallic device shown a light on a wall, revealing intricate markings and carvings in the wall.

Hawthorne grabbed Asgill's arm and placed his hand on a circle with a large solid dot in the middle. The wall parted, and revealed a likeness of Asgill. What the hell is this?"

"Asgill...you...you are what we are looking for." said Hawthorne.

Asgill looked confused. "What do you mean? I'm the 'chosen one' of some god-forsaken saga?" "In a matter of speaking, you could say that." Hawthorne smiled at him, suggesting with his grin he knew more than he let on.

"What do we do now?" asked the Martian resistance member. Glassman seconded.

"Well, take he will take us home. You have an inherent ability to visit other worlds. This journey has shown us your power, and if you concentrate and bring together your energies, you can take others with you rather than just yourself, and you don't need to build a special machine like the ZSE did. Go on. The bombs are about to go off, and we don't want to be here when that does."

Asgill thought about their home dimension. The air around them began glowing. The four instanteously vanished from the Dim-2 Mars and ended up in a more familar setting: the wilderness outside of the city sector of the planet Zipang Prime.

"My god...I feel more powerful and deliberate with my actions than before...I remember this area when I first came to the planet with the JPS exodus...who are you Hawthorne..." said Asgill as he stared into his hands, and the glowing light around them all slowly dimmed away. He looked up and only found the Dim-2 Martian, unconscious and laying on the ground. Hawthorne and Glassman were nowhere to be found.

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Imperial Zipangese Military General Headquarters, Zipang Prime, Zipangese Star Empire

Admiral Kazama Touko walked through one of the many thousand or so hallways that made up one of the 400 floors of the IZMGH, since the restructure of the Japanese Empire into the Zipangese Star Empire, her previous career in politics as the Shogunate's ambassador to Australia had almost immediately after the commencement of the 2017 war, after being called back to Japan, she was chosen to take part in Alternative V. Since then, she turned to the only line of work available for most. The Military. She'd not realise it but she'd get a second chance at politics. Directly ahead of her a young woman ran down the hall, and smiled as she saw Touko. "Admiral Kazama!" The long haired, black uniformed woman yelled as she reached Touko and bowed her head.

"I apologise, Admiral. But I've been ordered by high command to inform you, you've been summoned to the Imperial Palace, to meet with the Shogun." The woman said trying to catch her breath. "I see... Thank you...?" Touko trailed off as if to ask the woman her name. "Ah, right. ...Colonel Date Yukiya, ma'am." Yukiya bowed her head again while Touko passed her. "Thank you, Colonel Date, I shall be on my way then." Touko said as she continued down the hall and out of Yukiya's sight. ...Was this a sign? What was to come of her... Touko could only wonder while she made her way to a landing pad and awaited a transport.

IZRGSS Mikoto, IZRG Type 232 Escort Ship, Edge of the Zipangese Star System

Regent Ikaruga Takatsugu looked out to the stars while more warships of the Imperial navy and Royal Guard had gathered in the system... The number must have been maybe 500 already.... Maybe 600? Regardless. The Shogun had planned everything out carefully over the years, the previous engagement to the IZN was but only a rehearsal. The real performance was about to begin. And Ikaruga was about to play his part.

Vassal Retainer Maya Tsukuyomi stepped up beside Ikaruga and opened a local communications channel to the whole fleet. "Your excellency, it is time. Give us your orders." Maya said as she took a few steps back and took a knee, bowing her head. Ikaruga cleared his throat and turned to face the rest of the bridge, the bridge crew in their crew pits as well as a large group of IZRG members stood at the back of the bridge awaiting his word. "Brethren! This is the last step on a road we've travelled since our exile to our new home planet! The coming battle, to cement firmly in the memory of those who used to fear us, long ago..... Let us carve this reminder into their memory to last for all eternity!" Ikaruga raised his fist and the crew as well as the IZRG present gave the traditional banzai before Ikaruga turned back to the windows.

"The Mikoto shall go ahead of the rest of the fleet! We have our own orders, our mission shall clear the way for the rest of our brothers and sisters!" Ikaruga said before he closed the channel and the Mikoto went ahead through FTL to the bare outside of the Solar System. "Activate cloaking device! Now!" Ikaruga ordered and the bridge crew went to work, quickly activating the cloaking device. The Mikoto would be the first and only ship in the Zipangese Navy to enter Sol. ...For now.

Outside of the Imperial Capital, Wildlife preservation area, Zipang Prime, The Zipangese Star Empire

Within moments, an alarm was sounded around the preservation area and a hovercraft approached Asgill with flashing blue lights, the hovercraft came to a halt and it's rider jumped out of it, taking off her helmet it was a woman wearing the standard Zipangese Capital Police garb. "Another one today? Look I don't know how you people are getting in but you need to stop.....?" The woman raised an eyebrow at Asgil's appearance. Just who the hell are you?" She asked.

Imperial Dimension Research Unit, Zipangese Imperial Ministry of Defense
Experimental Portal Site A, Zipang Prime

Kasumi tapped Storch's arm with her right hand and she tapped Voss' arm with her left hand. "Excuse me.... I need to inform you both a order just came from the Imperial Palace.... The Shogun wishes to see both of you." Kasumi said before returning to Yuuko.

[New Decius]

Castle Troyarde, Mobile Territory of the Vers Empire
Beneath the Surface of Mars, Sol System
Exodus of the Vers Empire/Activation of Project VERS

At long last after seventy-five years of toil and hardship, it was finally happening, the project to which Prince-General Dietrich and so many others had devoted their lives was beginning to bear fruit. Beneath the red sanded surface of Mars, the thirty-seven Orbital Castle’s, along with a host of dozens of other smaller craft, were preparing for liftoff into the stars. With the ceasefire now in place, it was the perfect time to make good their escape, not that anything Europa, the CON, or even the ZSE had developed could put a dent in the Versian ALDNOAH technology, now that they would no longer have to fight their way through thousands of starships. The activation of a plan almost a century in the making was at last coming to fruition.

Within their docking bays, the massive Orbital Castle’s were generating enormous amounts of energy as their engines powered up and their shields came online, a signal which sensors on the surface, both Commonwealth and Europan, would soon start detecting. The just over three kilometer long and almost a kilometer in diameter spire-like craft would rise up and shatter the surface rock above them using a combination of kinetic force and a series of controlled detonations from conventional explosive planted both above ground and on the ceiling of the Launch Chambers. The extensive facilities of Project VERS were now practically uninhabited save for a few technician’s and guards rushing to their assigned castle before takeoff. This was the last anyone would see these ancient Versian ruins and rebuilt science centers in their full undamaged splendor, as a series of hundreds to thousands of pre-planted explosive charges of all manner of caliber that would utterly destroy all remains of the vast facility. This was largely unnecessary, seeing as Prince-General Dietrich was the only one capable of activating the ALDNOAH technology or blessing an individual with activation rights what with the activation code burned into his genetic sequence. All the same, Dietrich was giving no one the chance to study this technology, deactivated or otherwise.

On the bridge of Castle Troyarde, the domain of Count Slaine Troyarde, first among the Knight’s of Vers and a Lord of the Realm, the final preparations were underway. His Excellency, Count Slaine Troyarde, was watching on the central hub as various other signal’s from across the Sol System came online and connections were established with their exodus forces. A number of admiral’s and even several grand admiral’s, including Wolfgang Raeder the most prestigious fleet commander in Europa, had pledged their loyalty to Prince-General Dietrich and would abandon their posts at the Terran defense lines across the system, taking with them as many ships as they could, and join the exodus movement. All accounts told and final reports tallied, approximately three hundred warships would abandon their posts to join the Exodus; mostly cruisers and destroyers but several flagship dreadnought’s as well. After the Battle of Jupiter had so badly devastated the Imperial Navy, to the tune of the loss of several thousand warships, a loss mirrored upon the Commonwealth which suffered similar casualties after the shipyards were intentionally detonated, this would leave the Imperial Europan Navy with barely six hundred warships in unhampered fighting condition to deploy, maybe seven hundred if damaged vessels were rushed back into action.

The doors to the bridge slid open as His Imperial Highness, Prince-General Dietrich Augustus Stadtfeld di Europa, entered the command center and approached Count Troyarde who pivoted to face his sovereign and kneeled before him in respect. “Your Imperial Highness, all final checks and preparations are complete and we await your order to depart.” Dietrich nodded and then proceeded to the central dais from which he could address the other Knight’s in their castle’s and also the collaborators within the Imperial Navy. He waved his hand and a holographic console appeared for his usage to open a channel to his forces. “My friends and subjects, I will not detain us any longer by making any long-winded speeches regarding the founding of our new empire. The Zipangese will soon be upon us and we must depart before they arrive so I will make this brief. All craft are to depart immediately for the preset coordinates beyond the Orion Arm.”

And with that, 37 Orbital Castle’s burst through the surface of Mars and headed for open space as hundreds of warships left their posts to follow...

[The Union of British North America]

Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

Asgill was fast asleep in one of the state guest rooms, rooms usually reserved for the leaders of the other member races of the ZSE when they visited--he was dozing in and out of consciousness as he was totally exhausted of his ordeal of evacuating four people, including himself, through sheer willpower back to their home dimension. He was having a very lucid dream, an internal conversation with himself. It felt like he wasn't dreaming, but he also felt that he was in some sort of comatose/unconscious-like state. The last thing he remembered was that, in passing, the park ranger that found him in nature preserve was ordered to hand him over to the IZRG for close observation under the bakufu, surpassing the IZMOD and their special research division. The shogun had taken a fancy to his abilities, personally.

Hawthorne, and his henchman, Glassman, had disappeared. After he willed them all back into their dimension, they were nowhere to be found. "Lost in transit." said a voice in his "dream". It sounded like Hawthorne's. "Quite. Got lost in the seas of time and parallels. It's possible they materialized somewhere else in this dimension, or perhaps went to another parallel world. But if you are him, why are you talking to me?"

"I'm him and not him, and I'm you and not you. Ah, "you" see, there are lots of Hawthornes, and lots of Asgills. This is the multiverse. Virtually the same physical and near genotypical characteristics, but slightly different personalities and histories. There are Asgills from different universes, most of them with a British North America existing and an enduring politically unified Anglosphere, and there are Shogun Mitsurugis too, usually paired with certain dimensions that are undergoing high levels of energetic flux, so to speak, given the characteristics of the world in question. For example, this dimension, with three powers engaging in near-total warfare with each other since the first of the great globe-consuming conflicts. Hundreds of millions dead since the middle of this 20th century, really picking up after the Pacific War of 2017, and now with this impending invasion of an colossal evil entity. Mitsurugi is a special kind of individual, in terms of her "energy". Her willpower and influence give her capabilities to lead and manage great projects, ranging from a Pacific Rim empire back on Earth to now an interstellar empire. This attracted two individuals with similarly large energy, one from the Commonwealth and one from this Vers Empire that you will soon see.

"Who, who are they?" Asgill woke up, like he had a nightmare. The voice had left him, and he felt like he was in "reality." He got up from the bed and walked over to the servant droid that was holding light refreshments for him. Dr. Yuuko, and two nurse droids followed her. "Shogun wanted you to be my personal physician, huh?" he turned his body, realizing he was just in his underwear, and grabbed the bathrobe that was laying on a faint couch. The room had a European look to it, like he was in some Rococo room, like he was in Versailles or something. He touched his head, felt a pang of vertigo, and collapsed.

Jovian Trojans, Sol

The Battle of Sol was over. It was a draw, and the opposition had left the field. What remained of the Europan fleet mysteriously decided to leave the system. Their jump drive exhausts registered energies far more than needed for an intra-system jump. Something was happening and it was going to be bad when it revealed itself.

Nevertheless, Magbaredge was determined to escape Sol. Zipangese, or some rumored thing that was even worse, or flesh-consuming zombie aliens, they were all things to get away from, to keep CON going and some goodness left in this world. The Zipangese and Europans were up to no good.

The last bit of business left for the CON remnant...yes this is what was left of the CON-SDI, she thought to herself. So much gone in so little time. The euros were devastating. We held them back, but it was a draw. And now they fled the scene. She felt like there was a wolf howling at the moon, another threat.

She got on the personal comms systems of her special Orbital Frame squadron through her command neural lace--she needed the privacy. "Bridges. This is Magbaredge. You have a mission, from me. It's concerning our future, so you must ensure this mission is successful. You are to extract assets from this location, in the Oort Cloud, at a secret CON research facility. I am vaguely aware of what this facility contains, but info was still on a need-to-know basis, even for someone like me this close to the upper echelons. However, from what intel I managed to scrounge from our remaining intel network in Sol, we should be able to access it given our current emergency situation and continuity of government protocol. It should be easy to transport and secure, but bring your whole team with you to find anything else useful."

"Affirmative." replied Bridges. He was unsure and uncomfortable about this mission. He looked up at the stars through the small viewport on the ceiling of his quarters. He got up and walked briskly to his crew's location on the ship.

In five minutes he was in the private hanger of the ship, with his squadmates and service drones working on their Frames. "New mission. Asset retrieval. Gear up in 20 minutes. It's off the books so we'll have to use a special exit off the ship." ordered Yuuya. He didn't know much from what the Admiral told him, but it was an order and it had to be done. He sensed something was going to happen. He felt a familiar presence, but could not place it.

After making sure everything was taped and strapped down, and whatever functionality of their Frames still had were still there, the crew departed for the secret snatch and grab with no enemy to grab it from.

---

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

Yuuya's Frame glided carefully into the hanger of the facility, his floodlights illuminating the main docking area. No electricity, no air, minimal gravity. It was abandoned and deliberately shut down. The whole place was essentially an oddly shaped space station, one that could be mistaken for an experimental ship. It apparently didn't have any thrust capability, according to scans and visual observation. Perhaps, an experimental still being built?

Yuuya and Marinaris exited their Frames while Nagase and Egret were in a patrol orbit, watching out for any surprises. Euro spec ops was the most worried about, though not too much trouble given the circumstances.

"It's this way, according to my HUD. Strange. It just gave me the coordinates. It's in a large storage area of the facility."

The two made their way there, with their service pistols drawn. They both wore helmets that allowed them to operate in low-oxygen/vacuum environments.

An odd voice entered Yuuya's head. "This way, ho, this way, ho, I lift my lantern at this breach!" A feeling of familiarity and a vision overcame Yuuya, making him fall to one knee. "No, it can't be..."

He got up with the help of Marinaris, and the two entered the storage room. A strange figure was standing there, lecturing on something theoretical while a female was beside him, mildly interested while also wanting to go off and explore. She sensed something and turned her head at Yuuya and Marinaris.

The both sides drew their side arms at each other. The lecturing figure turned to see what the the commotion was. "It's two guns against one. Who are you and what are you doing here?" ordered Marinaris. The female had a certain stance that Yuuya recognized. A certain demeanor too, even though he couldn't make out the face.

"I'm Hawthorne, and this is.." began the lecturer. Then he sensed who he was guiding. "Ah. You know who this."

"I know who that is." said Yuuya loudly. Marinaris was confused, and gave him a long side glance. She refocused her attention on the unknown female after a few seconds.

"Hello, half-sister."

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

Asgill was fast asleep in one of the state guest rooms, rooms usually reserved for the leaders of the other member races of the ZSE when they visited--he was dozing in and out of consciousness as he was totally exhausted of his ordeal of evacuating four people, including himself, through sheer willpower back to their home dimension. He was having a very lucid dream, an internal conversation with himself. It felt like he wasn't dreaming, but he also felt that he was in some sort of comatose/unconscious-like state. The last thing he remembered was that, in passing, the park ranger that found him in nature preserve was ordered to hand him over to the IZRG for close observation under the bakufu, surpassing the IZMOD and their special research division. The shogun had taken a fancy to his abilities, personally.

Hawthorne, and his henchman, Glassman, had disappeared. After he willed them all back into their dimension, they were nowhere to be found. "Lost in transit." said a voice in his "dream". It sounded like Hawthorne's. "Quite. Got lost in the seas of time and parallels. It's possible they materialized somewhere else in this dimension, or perhaps went to another parallel world. But if you are him, why are you talking to me?"

"I'm him and not him, and I'm you and not you. Ah, "you" see, there are lots of Hawthornes, and lots of Asgills. This is the multiverse. Virtually the same physical and near genotypical characteristics, but slightly different personalities and histories. There are Asgills from different universes, most of them with a British North America existing and an enduring politically unified Anglosphere, and there are Shogun Mitsurugis too, usually paired with certain dimensions that are undergoing high levels of energetic flux, so to speak, given the characteristics of the world in question. For example, this dimension, with three powers engaging in near-total warfare with each other since the first of the great globe-consuming conflicts. Hundreds of millions dead since the middle of this 20th century, really picking up after the Pacific War of 2017, and now with this impending invasion of an colossal evil entity. Mitsurugi is a special kind of individual, in terms of her "energy". Her willpower and influence give her capabilities to lead and manage great projects, ranging from a Pacific Rim empire back on Earth to now an interstellar empire. This attracted two individuals with similarly large energy, one from the Commonwealth and one from this Vers Empire that you will soon see.

"Who, who are they?" Asgill woke up, like he had a nightmare. The voice had left him, and he felt like he was in "reality." He got up from the bed and walked over to the servant droid that was holding light refreshments for him. Dr. Yuuko, and two nurse droids followed her. "Shogun wanted you to be my personal physician, huh?" he turned his body, realizing he was just in his underwear, and grabbed the bathrobe that was laying on a faint couch. The room had a European look to it, like he was in some Rococo room, like he was in Versailles or something. He touched his head, felt a pang of vertigo, and collapsed.

Jovian Trojans, Sol

The Battle of Sol was over. It was a draw, and the opposition had left the field. What remained of the Europan fleet mysteriously decided to leave the system. Their jump drive exhausts registered energies far more than needed for an intra-system jump. Something was happening and it was going to be bad when it revealed itself.

Nevertheless, Magbaredge was determined to escape Sol. Zipangese, or some rumored thing that was even worse, or flesh-consuming zombie aliens, they were all things to get away from, to keep CON going and some goodness left in this world. The Zipangese and Europans were up to no good.

The last bit of business left for the CON remnant...yes this is what was left of the CON-SDI, she thought to herself. So much gone in so little time. The euros were devastating. We held them back, but it was a draw. And now they fled the scene. She felt like there was a wolf howling at the moon, another threat.

She got on the personal comms systems of her special Orbital Frame squadron through her command neural lace--she needed the privacy. "Bridges. This is Magbaredge. You have a mission, from me. It's concerning our future, so you must ensure this mission is successful. You are to extract assets from this location, in the Oort Cloud, at a secret CON research facility. I am vaguely aware of what this facility contains, but info was still on a need-to-know basis, even for someone like me this close to the upper echelons. However, from what intel I managed to scrounge from our remaining intel network in Sol, we should be able to access it given our current emergency situation and continuity of government protocol. It should be easy to transport and secure, but bring your whole team with you to find anything else useful."

"Affirmative." replied Bridges. He was unsure and uncomfortable about this mission. He looked up at the stars through the small viewport on the ceiling of his quarters. He got up and walked briskly to his crew's location on the ship.

In five minutes he was in the private hanger of the ship, with his squadmates and service drones working on their Frames. "New mission. Asset retrieval. Gear up in 20 minutes. It's off the books so we'll have to use a special exit off the ship." ordered Yuuya. He didn't know much from what the Admiral told him, but it was an order and it had to be done. He sensed something was going to happen. He felt a familiar presence, but could not place it.

After making sure everything was taped and strapped down, and whatever functionality of their Frames still had were still there, the crew departed for the secret snatch and grab with no enemy to grab it from.

---

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

Yuuya's Frame glided carefully into the hanger of the facility, his floodlights illuminating the main docking area. No electricity, no air, minimal gravity. It was abandoned and deliberately shut down. The whole place was essentially an oddly shaped space station, one that could be mistaken for an experimental ship. It apparently didn't have any thrust capability, according to scans and visual observation. Perhaps, an experimental still being built?

Yuuya and Marinaris exited their Frames while Nagase and Egret were in a patrol orbit, watching out for any surprises. Euro spec ops was the most worried about, though not too much trouble given the circumstances.

"It's this way, according to my HUD. Strange. It just gave me the coordinates. It's in a large storage area of the facility."

The two made their way there, with their service pistols drawn. They both wore helmets that allowed them to operate in low-oxygen/vacuum environments.

An odd voice entered Yuuya's head. "This way, ho, this way, ho, I lift my lantern at this breach!" A feeling of familiarity and a vision overcame Yuuya, making him fall to one knee. "No, it can't be..."

He got up with the help of Marinaris, and the two entered the storage room. A strange figure was standing there, lecturing on something theoretical while a female was beside him, mildly interested while also wanting to go off and explore. She sensed something and turned her head at Yuuya and Marinaris.

The both sides drew their side arms at each other. The lecturing figure turned to see what the the commotion was. "It's two guns against one. Who are you and what are you doing here?" ordered Marinaris. The female had a certain stance that Yuuya recognized. A certain demeanor too, even though he couldn't make out the face.

"I'm Hawthorne, and this is.." began the lecturer. Then he sensed who he was guiding. "Ah. You know who this."

"I know who that is." said Yuuya loudly. Marinaris was confused, and gave him a long side glance. She refocused her attention on the unknown female after a few seconds.

"Hello, half-sister."

The Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

"You've finally woken up?" Yuuko said as she looked over from a holopad and raised an eyebrow, looking to Asgill. A IZRG Tozama caught Asgill and set him back on the couch, looking around he'd notice the Shogun was there too. As well as her secretary and aide, Isumi Michiru and a face Asgill might not entirely remember, now Admiral Kazama Touko, a former ambassador of Japan to Australia. "Hmm... And that officer that found him said she found him with a martian?" Meiya asked Isumi of whom nodded. "Yes, your majesty. She found mister Asgill in the nature reserve with the martian." Isumi said to which Meiya looked then to Asgill. "Alright, have the IZRG administer the martian an amnesiac and send them to the other refugees." Meiya said to which Isumi bowed her head. "Yes your majesty, it will be done." Isumi said then left as Meiya began speaking.

"I'm glad you're back, there is a matter I wish to speak to you of concerning Earth and the post war order to come. As you are aware, Kyoko will be taking over the reigns of the empire after I step down, however there is the matter of establishing order with the old governments of earth likely to flee as we had. You, Asgill shall be governor of the former CON territories on Earth. To control the territories as you see fit. Zipang shall be taking possession of the territories formerly belonging to Japan before the 2017 war as well as german territories across the globe. Europe on the other hand will be divided up. Formerly neutral territories on earth during the war shall be left alone, Governor Gegranne shall have her France and southern Europe, Mister Voss shall have the North of Europe and the east. Storch shall have Central Europe. And Admiral Touko, now Moff Touko shall be overall planetary governor to report to the Zipangese council of Regents, Moffs, Governors, Generals, and Admirals." Meiya said and Toukou stepped forward bowing her head.

"Hello." Toukou said before she stepped back behind Meiya.

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

Yui stood in amazement, this dimension was indeed quite different from the one she came from. Humanity was at war with the BETA, and yet just in this dimension, it was already the far flung future and humanity was fighting itself just as in the Asia-Pacific war, the Japan she came from, lost. "So, it is you then. History changed in this dimension... Or well... ...Yes, I suppose for you it would be history but yet, in mine we're fighting the BETA. ...There's still a lot off about this dimension, it's almost a perfect mirror, save for this... CON, Europe, and the Shogunate. ...Where did this Mitsurugi character come from? Did something happen to house Koubuin?" Yui asked as she looked to Hawthorne then Yuuya and his team.

This Yui was indeed quite different, she was indeed very similar to the Yui of this dimension, however she didn't wear the golden livery of the IJRG, she wore a dark grey and blue trimmed suit of which sleeve design looked similar to the IJRG however was still different, and a patch could be made out on the side facing Yuuya, one made up of mostly red, some white and black, reading at the top and bottom "Advanced Tactical Surface Fighter Technology and Research", in the middle was what looked to be a Type 82 Zuikaku TSF with one side shaded black and the other white, near it's feet were the word Prominence all in English. On her lapels were two blue collar tabs both with an intricate design, on her right sleeve, was another patch. A grey shield with the earth and all the continents on it in blue and white, two letters above it ""UN" and the earth was surrounded by oak leaves, below it a ribbon that could be barely made out to read "United Nations Pacific Command, Yukon Force."

IZRGSS Mikoto, IZRG Type 232 Escort Ship, near Earth, In range of the Earth Orbital Defence Grid

"Your excellency! We're in range of the grid, shall we begin?!" The captain of the Mikoto, Vassal Retainer Ishikawa Daichi yelled from down in the crew pit of the Mikoto to which Regent Ikaruga turned around and gave the nod. "Yes sir, beginning input now, also seizing control over all communication satellites to hand control over to the IZN Fusou for a speech the Shogun delegated to Lord General Kitagou Ayaka." Vassal Retainer Daichi said as the crew went to work on the Mikoto, it didn't take long for the Self Destruct code to be input and the grid to start going up. Surprisingly as well, it also didn't take long for the crew to also take control and lock the CON-SDI and the Europans out of their own communication satellites across the solar system.

Ikaruga watched the destruction of the satellites with a smile on his face, finally after 330 years. After three centuries of being in exile. Finally. Japan. Now Zipang. Had returned with a vengeance. It didn't take long for the rest of the fleet to catch up.

Zipangese Type 229 Star Cruiser/Starfighter/Tactical Surface Fighter Carrier Zipang-Class, The Fusou, Flagship of the Imperial Zipangese Navy, Near Neptune, Sol

The largest fleet ever assembled for one purpose and one purpose alone was arriving in the system. The Zipangese Star Empire had finally come with one goal in mind, vengeance. Grand Admiral Thetch stood aboard the bridge of the Fusou while the other ships of the fleet around now 700 strong fleet of warships of mixed designs had finally shown it's head, however the most common among the fleet was the Zipang-Class, along side the Fusou, the Zhiang came out last. "Open a comms channel to the Zhiang." Thetch said to a low level lieutenant in the crew pits, and almost instantly the figure of Lord General Kitagou Ayaka had appeared. "Lord General, so you've been tasked with announcing our return. Don't disappoint." Thetch said to which Ayaka let a grin don on her face. "Don't worry. I won't." Ayaka said before she closed the comms channel before taking over control of the satellites given to the Fusou for her own ship, the first words to be heard and the first figure to be seen would be that of the Europan's dog they sent to Zipang's own door step.

It was Grand Admiral Julia von Kaalzebrutt "Attention to the inferior creatures inhabiting this star system, specifically the Japanese cowards who fled our righteous crusade against their fascist tyranny over two centuries ago during the Great Patriotic War! Long have you sheltered here, hidden away from the just vengeance you so surely deserve for all the crimes you have committed! Rather than stick it out till the end fighting and die like true warriors with honour, a principle the Japanese mongrels claimed to revere above all else, you cowards chose to run away and hide! Well you could only stay hidden for so long before justice found you! Our glorious Emperor, may his reign be eternal, has declared that all the cowards be exterminated, that all those who associate with the cowards be exterminated! The Europan Empire will wipe away every last trace of your civilisation from existence! DOWN TO THE LAST BEING! YOUR ARMIES WILL BE SUBDUED! YOUR CITIES WILL CRUMBLE! YOUR WORLDS WILL BURN! AND I WILL SINK MY TEETH INTO THE NECK OF YOUR BITCH OF A SHOGUN AND ENJOY THE TASTE OF HER BLOOD! THERE WILL BE NO QUARTER! NO MERCY! ONLY JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE! FOR EUROPA AND FOR HIS MAJESTY! THE EMPIRE IS ETERNAL!"
Then immediately after the speech ended the figure reshaped into the form of Lord General Kitagou Ayaka.

"So fades the greatest harvest of deceit. We have come to recognise what even now the CON-SDI is blinded to. Even the false nobility of Europe under your grip. Blinded as ever. However, you left much to chance didn't you? In 2017, you turned the world against us. ....But how foolish of you. To believe your pets would protect you from us, forever. If you've truly not managed to destroy the one side that allied with you in your foolish war against us all those years ago, then you certainly aren't the threat we believed you to be after we learned the truth of who pulls your strings. Kaiser." The grin on Ayaka's face turned to a smug smirk. "Your handlers were your greatest ally. Dog. However, they've abandoned you.... Haven't they? They know just as they meddled in this dimension, we became able to meddle in theirs.... Yet... Because of us, your greatest crimes yet committed are to be prevented here and now." The smug smirk turned back into a twisted smile on Ayaka's face. "You're long over due to rest in hell." A light giggle escaped from Ayaka's lips.

"For over 300 years, we prepared, we grew stronger. While you rested in your false cradle of power, believing yourself to be safe from our retribution! You trusted in your monstrosities, your technology, but our own technology blinded you from the truth. You assumed no force could challenge you. And now, finally. We have returned. You. Were deceived, and now your Empire shall fall along with every last bastard child of yours still in this system!" Ayaka's image then disappeared from all holographic projectors, all holoscreens, every method of communication from radios to television(if it still existed) before the Zipangese Imperial Navy moved out and began to converge on earth, flying to pass Jupiter and the hulks of wreckage left over from the earlier conflict the CON-SDI and Europa fought before they realised Zipang was still a threat.

[The Union of British North America]

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

"Yui. My...half-sister. The doll has returned. JPS lapdog...but, it's not her. I sense something different about her." Yuuya whispered to Marinaris. "Doll?" Marinaris asked, whispering back. "And she's her, but not her? What the hell are you talking about?" They began a argument via whispering when Marinaris got the idea she wasn't a threat, along with this stranger lecturer, who introduced himself by breaking the quiet argument between Yuuya and Marinaris.

"Hawthorne? Like Nathaniel Hawthorne?" asked Yuuya? "Yes, the American author. 'The Scarlet Letter.'" replied Hawthorne. Marinaris was confused, there wasn't any author named Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote a book called 'The Scarlet Letter'.

"How...how do I know that, even though it doesn't exist?" wondered Yuuya. "And what's this Prominence; and the United Nations, it was dissolved after the Pacific War since it failed to prevent the last major war until now, and the world quickly devolved into two camps, CON and Europa. For Shogun Mitsurugi, she was the bigwig leader of the Japanese Pacific States, the successor to Imperial Japan after the Second Great World War of the middle of the 20th century. The JPS occupied the Pacific territories of Eurasia and Western North America. Then the Pacific War happened, and the combined forces of the German-led European Community and the North American-led Commonwealth of Nations defeated the JPS." replied Marinaris, annoyed with this girl and felt Yui was playing games with them; she didn't raise her pistol at her again however. "Are you with the advance team of this invasion force?" Marinaris carefully chose her words about who was entering the Sol System as she was unsure. She heard the rumors and unconfirmed intelligence of an impending invasion from an outside force. Euros? A revanchist JPS? Something worse? "We are aware of this invasion, and we outnumber you, so I advise you come quietly with us..."

"What the hell are you doing? You can't do this, and I'm in charge of this section." whispered Yuuya, resuming their quiet argument. "Shut up, we need info, and she's probably a scout for this invasion force, and we caught her." "Wouldn't she be trying to kill us right now? JPS troops aren't the type to ask questions before shooting. Plus, everything about her...is...different." Yuuya grabbed his temple and fell to his knees.

"I...remember...something...something I should not be able to remember...BETA...Yukon...EML-99x...Siberia..."

Marinaris got a message from Magbaredge after Yuuya recovered from his episode. "Bridges, we gotta head back to the Duty Bound. Something has come up. Your're coming with us. Hawthorne, you're an asset, and this Yui, you're coming with us as a prisoner." She raised her pistol at her. "No sudden movements."

Jovian Trojans, Sol

"We've picked up two all-channel transmissions before our system-wide comms systems went down...wait we're locked out of it? We can't access even the e-band." replied the communications officer of the Duty Bound. "We've lost contact with the remaining naval assets, just our ODPs that haven't been taken out by the Europans. I'm getting a large fleet on passive radar, counting over three dozen signatures."

"This must be the Zipangese, and their dictator Mitsurugi. Recall any units close by. We have a limited window to get out of the system before they realize we're here." ordered Magbaredge, as she moved up closer to a display of Earth, showing satellite footage of invasion forces before being cut off. The CON remnant fleet was obviously not going to put up a fight. Magbaredge thought she had an extra day to get things finally ready, but they were ready enough to go now. She went back to her quarters, and contacted Yuuya Bridges's team, giving them an order to return with whatever they had found.

"The end of an era, and the start of a new one."

Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

"Ah, hello, Admiral." said Asgill, dimly aware of his surroundings; his instinct to be cordial with people he never met before kicked in. He was still somewhat in vertigo from all that has happened in the past twenty-four hours. "Ambassador Toukou, is that you?" he just remembered who this was; RNAMP kept records of envoys to the other member countries of the United Empire when they needed to follow up on alibis of diplomats and their staff, and Toukou was there at the consulate-general in Drakestown, Upper California, for trade negotiations between the United Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, particularly over access to the Panama Canal. Asgill didn't know why he remembered that particular event, besides knowing he was there. He did remember they struck up a conversation over something two people with academic backgrounds would know, particularly military history--the Anglo-Japanese Siege of Vladivostok, and the Baikal Campaign. And Drakestown looked different, more lively and full of energy than he remembered. Lots of red, white, and blue too, the Union Jack and the Jack and Stripes flying everywhere. And the prominent leader of the CPS delegation was the trade minister of the Republic of China, with the Empire of Japan taking a backseat in the negotiations.

"Admiral, you look different." replied Asgill. "But we shall catch up later, over cigarettes and drinks at the Capital Club?"

Asgill suddenly remembered where he was. "I'm sorry, I've must have mistaken you for someone else." He turned away from Toukou and looked at the Shogun. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. Shogun Mitsurugi, you said that I would be assigned all CON territories after the occupation of Earth by the Zipangese forces. And Ambassador Toukou would be planetary governor. I'm in agreement with this arrangement..." he fainted again.

[New Decius]

Das Kaiserhalle, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire, Europa Prime, Empire of Europa
Earth, Dimension-01

”What did you just say Admiral?! The entire defense grid has been destroyed!” The Emperor practically screeched at the remaining members of his Inner Council, which now numbered at about nineteen as opposed to the original forty, so many of them having fled with the expats who launched from Mars. There was also a distinct lack of any Original’s in the chamber, hell on Earth or the Sol System, as General Hans Günsche, the Alpha, had apparently broken through the brainwashing long enough to get himself and the other ninety-eight remaining Original’s to ships which departed with the exodus. Admiral Henrik Van Doorner had just informed him that the entire Sol Defense Grid, the system of thousands of particle cannon satellites which defended the planetary bodies from asteroids or extrasolar incursion, had been destroyed. “Yes Your Exalted Majesty, it would seem we have been betrayed as it appears that the grid received valid and up to date codes ordering it to self destruct just prior to the event. A traitor, likely one of the expats, has given the Zipangese the key to Sol’s defenses and pulled the doors wide open for them.” The Emperor was seething with fury at this betrayal, added on top of the losses the Imperial Navy had suffered at Jupiter and the fact that forty percent of its remaining strength fled with the expats. A mere three hundred vessels now served the Imperial Europan Navy though that was hardly going to be enough to defend against an extrasolar invasion.

The Emperor needed time to think, something he was not in possession of at the moment; Europa still commanded approximately fifty million ground troops on Earth itself spread across the globe, and there was the ground based MANTIS-XVIII system of anti-orbital railguns but the guns only could fire up into low orbit giving the enemy opportunity to knock them out from high orbit. Thousands of helicarriers and airship dreadnoughts still flew in cooperation with thousands of marine vessels including ballistic missile submarines. ’Yes I still have more than enough firepower at my disposal to turn Earth into a fortress! The Zipangese dogs will waste their time trying to crack this fortress while we rebuild our fleet on the ground and use the Commons and other remaining ‘free’ nations as cannon fodder. Then we will rise up and take our rightful place as the masters of existence!’

”Admiral I order you to recall all our forces to Earth and begin fortifying our ground defenses, you are to abandon all positions beyond the asteroid belt and withdraw any useful supplies here to defend the homeworld. Everything must be brought to Earth! At once!” Admiral Henrik Van Doorner, recently promoted to Supreme Forces Commander of the Imperial Navy with the treason of Grand Admiral Raeder, and a decorated commander of Twelfth Fleet which spent the war defending the Helium-3 mines on Luna, saw a massive flaw in the Emperor’s plan quite quickly. “Everything Your Majesty? Withdraw from all our positions? But what about the Luna Mandate, it is vital that we maintain control of the Helium-3 deposits on Luna and those in the asteroid belt if we are to rebuild our fleet and maintain our own power grid on Earth. Approximately sixty-eight percent of all the Empire’s terrestrial power supply comes from Helium-3 transported from Luna on freighters! If the Zipangese were to seize control of Luna they would effectively cut us off from our main power source and have access to it themselves! Without Luna for a steady supply our reserves would dry up in two months under sustained planetary siege! And furthermore-“ Just as Henrik was about to get into the military research stations on Luna that could also fall into enemy hands, the Emperor cut him off...rather loudly at that.

[i]”SILENCE! I AM THE EXALTED RULER OF EUROPA AND MY WILL WILL BE OBEYED WITHOUT QUESTION! Our enemies are far too arrogant to even bother with Luna and they will come right for Earth! Two months is plenty of time to rebuild our fleet or if need be, convert our atmospheric fleet for space combat! Now commence the fortification operations! Let my will be obeyed!”[i] And with that the Inner Council was dismissed and its members ejected from the Throne Hall to attempt to do their duty to Europa. Despite the sheer madness of essentially trapping them on Earth, the officers on the Council had no choice but to start sending out orders withdrawing all Europan military forces to the homeworld.

Over the course of the next few hours, military outposts all across Sol were abandoned as their garrison ships and troops departed for Earth, all three hundred ships remaining in the Imperial Navy largely destroyers and light cruisers now with precious few cruisers or carriers and only two dreadnoughts left to the fleet. At least a fourth of the fleet now being assembled at Earth was comprised of walking wounded, damaged ships which had escaped the Battle of Jupiter, while the rest were staffed by combat-weary crews and in desperate need of repairs and resupply. Even the twelve cruisers guarding the vital Helium-3 refinery’s and Alpha Research centers on Luna were withdrawn to Earth orbit, very reluctantly by Admiral Van Doorner.

One thing was for sure now that the Emperor’s decision had been made, the Zipangese would most certainly be coming for Earth ahead of schedule and the great battle was soon to begin...

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Das Kaiserhalle, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire, Europa Prime, Empire of Europa
Earth, Dimension-01

”What did you just say Admiral?! The entire defense grid has been destroyed!” The Emperor practically screeched at the remaining members of his Inner Council, which now numbered at about nineteen as opposed to the original forty, so many of them having fled with the expats who launched from Mars. There was also a distinct lack of any Original’s in the chamber, hell on Earth or the Sol System, as General Hans Günsche, the Alpha, had apparently broken through the brainwashing long enough to get himself and the other ninety-eight remaining Original’s to ships which departed with the exodus. Admiral Henrik Van Doorner had just informed him that the entire Sol Defense Grid, the system of thousands of particle cannon satellites which defended the planetary bodies from asteroids or extrasolar incursion, had been destroyed. “Yes Your Exalted Majesty, it would seem we have been betrayed as it appears that the grid received valid and up to date codes ordering it to self destruct just prior to the event. A traitor, likely one of the expats, has given the Zipangese the key to Sol’s defenses and pulled the doors wide open for them.” The Emperor was seething with fury at this betrayal, added on top of the losses the Imperial Navy had suffered at Jupiter and the fact that forty percent of its remaining strength fled with the expats. A mere three hundred vessels now served the Imperial Europan Navy though that was hardly going to be enough to defend against an extrasolar invasion.

The Emperor needed time to think, something he was not in possession of at the moment; Europa still commanded approximately fifty million ground troops on Earth itself spread across the globe, and there was the ground based MANTIS-XVIII system of anti-orbital railguns but the guns only could fire up into low orbit giving the enemy opportunity to knock them out from high orbit. Thousands of helicarriers and airship dreadnoughts still flew in cooperation with thousands of marine vessels including ballistic missile submarines. ’Yes I still have more than enough firepower at my disposal to turn Earth into a fortress! The Zipangese dogs will waste their time trying to crack this fortress while we rebuild our fleet on the ground and use the Commons and other remaining ‘free’ nations as cannon fodder. Then we will rise up and take our rightful place as the masters of existence!’

”Admiral I order you to recall all our forces to Earth and begin fortifying our ground defenses, you are to abandon all positions beyond the asteroid belt and withdraw any useful supplies here to defend the homeworld. Everything must be brought to Earth! At once!” Admiral Henrik Van Doorner, recently promoted to Supreme Forces Commander of the Imperial Navy with the treason of Grand Admiral Raeder, and a decorated commander of Twelfth Fleet which spent the war defending the Helium-3 mines on Luna, saw a massive flaw in the Emperor’s plan quite quickly. “Everything Your Majesty? Withdraw from all our positions? But what about the Luna Mandate, it is vital that we maintain control of the Helium-3 deposits on Luna and those in the asteroid belt if we are to rebuild our fleet and maintain our own power grid on Earth. Approximately sixty-eight percent of all the Empire’s terrestrial power supply comes from Helium-3 transported from Luna on freighters! If the Zipangese were to seize control of Luna they would effectively cut us off from our main power source and have access to it themselves! Without Luna for a steady supply our reserves would dry up in two months under sustained planetary siege! And furthermore-“ Just as Henrik was about to get into the military research stations on Luna that could also fall into enemy hands, the Emperor cut him off...rather loudly at that.

”SILENCE! I AM THE EXALTED RULER OF EUROPA AND MY WILL WILL BE OBEYED WITHOUT QUESTION! Our enemies are far too arrogant to even bother with Luna and they will come right for Earth! Two months is plenty of time to rebuild our fleet or if need be, convert our atmospheric fleet for space combat! Now commence the fortification operations! Let my will be obeyed!”[i] And with that the Inner Council was dismissed and its members ejected from the Throne Hall to attempt to do their duty to Europa. Despite the sheer madness of essentially trapping them on Earth, the officers on the Council had no choice but to start sending out orders withdrawing all Europan military forces to the homeworld.

Over the course of the next few hours, military outposts all across Sol were abandoned as their garrison ships and troops departed for Earth, all three hundred ships remaining in the Imperial Navy largely destroyers and light cruisers now with precious few cruisers or carriers and only two dreadnoughts left to the fleet. At least a fourth of the fleet now being assembled at Earth was comprised of walking wounded, damaged ships which had escaped the Battle of Jupiter, while the rest were staffed by combat-weary crews and in desperate need of repairs and resupply. Even the twelve cruisers guarding the vital Helium-3 refinery’s and Alpha Research centers on Luna were withdrawn to Earth orbit, very reluctantly by Admiral Van Doorner.

One thing was for sure now that the Emperor’s decision had been made, the Zipangese would most certainly be coming for Earth ahead of schedule and the great battle was soon to begin...

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

"Yui. My...half-sister. The doll has returned. JPS lapdog...but, it's not her. I sense something different about her." Yuuya whispered to Marinaris. "Doll?" Marinaris asked, whispering back. "And she's her, but not her? What the hell are you talking about?" They began a argument via whispering when Marinaris got the idea she wasn't a threat, along with this stranger lecturer, who introduced himself by breaking the quiet argument between Yuuya and Marinaris.

"Hawthorne? Like Nathaniel Hawthorne?" asked Yuuya? "Yes, the American author. 'The Scarlet Letter.'" replied Hawthorne. Marinaris was confused, there wasn't any author named Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote a book called 'The Scarlet Letter'.

"How...how do I know that, even though it doesn't exist?" wondered Yuuya. "And what's this [i]Prominence; and the United Nations, it was dissolved after the Pacific War since it failed to prevent the last major war until now, and the world quickly devolved into two camps, CON and Europa. For Shogun Mitsurugi, she was the bigwig leader of the Japanese Pacific States, the successor to Imperial Japan after the Second Great World War of the middle of the 20th century. The JPS occupied the Pacific territories of Eurasia and Western North America. Then the Pacific War happened, and the combined forces of the German-led European Community and the North American-led Commonwealth of Nations defeated the JPS." replied Marinaris, annoyed with this girl and felt Yui was playing games with them; she didn't raise her pistol at her again however. "Are you with the advance team of this invasion force?" Marinaris carefully chose her words about who was entering the Sol System as she was unsure. She heard the rumors and unconfirmed intelligence of an impending invasion from an outside force. Euros? A revanchist JPS? Something worse? "We are aware of this invasion, and we outnumber you, so I advise you come quietly with us..."

"What the hell are you doing? You can't do this, and I'm in charge of this section." whispered Yuuya, resuming their quiet argument. "Shut up, we need info, and she's probably a scout for this invasion force, and we caught her." "Wouldn't she be trying to kill us right now? JPS troops aren't the type to ask questions before shooting. Plus, everything about her...is...different." Yuuya grabbed his temple and fell to his knees.

"I...remember...something...something I should not be able to remember...BETA...Yukon...EML-99x...Siberia..."

Marinaris got a message from Magbaredge after Yuuya recovered from his episode. "Bridges, we gotta head back to the Duty Bound. Something has come up. Your're coming with us. Hawthorne, you're an asset, and this Yui, you're coming with us as a prisoner." She raised her pistol at her. "No sudden movements."

Jovian Trojans, Sol

"We've picked up two all-channel transmissions before our system-wide comms systems went down...wait we're locked out of it? We can't access even the e-band." replied the communications officer of the Duty Bound. "We've lost contact with the remaining naval assets, just our ODPs that haven't been taken out by the Europans. I'm getting a large fleet on passive radar, counting over three dozen signatures."

"This must be the Zipangese, and their dictator Mitsurugi. Recall any units close by. We have a limited window to get out of the system before they realize we're here." ordered Magbaredge, as she moved up closer to a display of Earth, showing satellite footage of invasion forces before being cut off. The CON remnant fleet was obviously not going to put up a fight. Magbaredge thought she had an extra day to get things finally ready, but they were ready enough to go now. She went back to her quarters, and contacted Yuuya Bridges's team, giving them an order to return with whatever they had found.

"The end of an era, and the start of a new one."

Imperial Palace, Zipang Prime

"Ah, hello, Admiral." said Asgill, dimly aware of his surroundings; his instinct to be cordial with people he never met before kicked in. He was still somewhat in vertigo from all that has happened in the past twenty-four hours. "Ambassador Toukou, is that you?" he just remembered who this was; RNAMP kept records of envoys to the other member countries of the United Empire when they needed to follow up on alibis of diplomats and their staff, and Toukou was there at the consulate-general in Drakestown, Upper California, for trade negotiations between the United Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, particularly over access to the Panama Canal. Asgill didn't know why he remembered that particular event, besides knowing he was there. He did remember they struck up a conversation over something two people with academic backgrounds would know, particularly military history--the Anglo-Japanese Siege of Vladivostok, and the Baikal Campaign. And Drakestown looked different, more lively and full of energy than he remembered. Lots of red, white, and blue too, the Union Jack and the Jack and Stripes flying everywhere. And the prominent leader of the CPS delegation was the trade minister of the Republic of China, with the Empire of Japan taking a backseat in the negotiations.

"Admiral, you look different." replied Asgill. "But we shall catch up later, over cigarettes and drinks at the Capital Club?"

Asgill suddenly remembered where he was. "I'm sorry, I've must have mistaken you for someone else." He turned away from Toukou and looked at the Shogun. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. Shogun Mitsurugi, you said that I would be assigned all CON territories after the occupation of Earth by the Zipangese forces. And Ambassador Toukou would be planetary governor. I'm in agreement with this arrangement..." he fainted again.

Oort Cloud, Secret CON Facility

"Unbelievable." Yui said in Japanese before narrowing her eyes at Marinaris then switching to English. "I'm not going anywhere until my questions are answered. What is this "JPS".. And who is this pretender Shogun, there is only one. Shogun Yuuhi Koubuin, of the sixth regency house. Who. Is. This Mitsurugi character?" Yui was clearly adamant about this, stubborn too. Of course even the one from this dimension was stubborn too. "If you will not answer then I will not be going anywhere with you, for all I know, you're from Allegience or the RLF, and you're attempting to trick me with all this nonsense to give up everything about the XFJ programme, I won't speak. You will not get that information no matter what methods you use. No matter if you somehow managed to turn my brother against the the programme."

Yui crossed her arms and a nearby screen lit up, showing the speech by Lord General Kitagou Ayaka. "......Very convincing. However I don't buy it." Yui said, her eyes fixed on Marinaris. "Some freak like that wouldn't ever make it in the IJMDF, nor would she make it in the UN." Yui said before she rolled her eyes.

Zipangese Type 229 Star Cruiser/Starfighter/Tactical Surface Fighter Carrier Zipang-Class, IZN Agano, Solar Space

Yui was the only one aboard The IZN Agano, it was one of the last ships to arrive, meanwhile on scanners the rest of the Zipangese fleet spread out across the system, Zipangese ships were ordered to focus on the Europans, so specs of ships previously engaged were spread out throughout the Imperial Navy, the Zipangese couldn't be bothered with the CON-SDI, they were less of a threat than space pirates to the Zipangese Military. Not worth wasting the ships to destroy. Yui went down to the crew pit of her ship and began transmitting a recorded message across system. By now the Zipangese would've atleast allowed the other powers to view the messages they had from the Empire. The message transmitted out from her ship across the solar system.

Code: Select all

Yuuya Bridges, your sister has returned.
I wish to speak with you, to clear up previous matters. And to inform you of far more important news. Please. Come to the coordinates provided. Come quick, the survival of your CON depends on what I have to tell you. I promise you will be able to return to your people are I tell you, unharmed of course. Come, brother. - Vassal Retainer Yui Takamura of the Zipangese Imperial Royal Guard.

Some short distance away from what remains of the CON-SDI in space.

More and more ships just kept coming, they had to have numbered in the thousands now. The bulk of the Zipangese invasion fleet was headed directly towards earth. Ships that already arrived spread out over the solar system and began planetary invasion operations of Mars and other colonies across the solar system. Now the Europans and CON finally got to see the face of their enemy, the Zipangese Imperial Army, dropped troops via drop pods and transports it was clear, the Zipangese new what they were doing. As if they rehearsed it to perfection.

Walkers were transported too down to the surface while the 8th Generation of TSF's the Zipangese had developed entered the atmospheres of these planets easily enough, more so they also left planets themselves, without need for help from transports or otherwise. In territories that had been discovered to belong to the CON-SDI, citizens were almost virtually ignored, so as long as they didn't pose a threat.

However... Citizens in the Europan colonies didn't fair well. They were put through the stages of assimilation into the empire rather brutally, and would continue to go this route as Zipang's vengeance against the Kaiser and his Empire. While the CON's citizens were readily given rations and access to water, citizens of Europa were forced to jump through hoops metaphorically to get even a single ration or a drop of water. It was clear where Zipang's anger lied. More so with Europa than the CON. ...The declaration of a genocide campaign by Julia von Kaalzebrutt would prove to just be another reason by the Zipangese to just take what they wanted and leave the Europans for dead.

[The Union of British North America]

Oort Cloud, Secret Cloud Facility

Marinaris was not happy, with her commanding officer refusing to see the obvious truth that this was the enemy, and thus a prisoner of war given the circumstances, and with this "Yui" being difficult. "What the hell are you going on about? RLF? Allegiance? Some resistance groups back on Earth? Never heard of them--you're stalling here. What this XFJ program? The Zipangese have some weapon to make everyone toe the line or else? There will be a reck--". Yuuya cut her off, raising his hand in front of her face while he stared at Yui intensely.

"Wait, did you say brother? I have a sister that looks exactly like you, even personality-wise, but you are different obviously. You are here out of context, so to speak, and so are we. You are a Yui...not of this world." He remembered something that he should not have.

He was at a coastline, in a very distant, unfamiliar place, but it was on Earth. He was with others, all of them in strange machines. TSFs, he remembered. The JPS used them to "pacify" Western BNA and their other colonial territories. He felt a sense of dread, of a great and terrible monster coming this way. He also felt uncertain about a particular weapon attached to his TSF. It looked like one of the railguns used by the NAF infantry, or one that could be attached to a Gear, though this was extremely large and overpowered. He had a complete understanding of how it should work, even though he should not have this understanding. It was requiring that he stay in one place and batten down in order to use the weapon effectively.

Breaking from his flashback, he explained it to Ken and Yui. "Sir, you've gone off the deep end. It must be the stress of the recent events." replied Ken. "I could say the same thing, you're not obeying my orders." Yuuya snapped back. Ken looked away, annoyed but resigned herself to following her CO's orders.

The message from General Ayaka reached the station. "Ah, Butcher Ayaka. If you don't know her, I think you could describe her as a walking war crime, no conscious, and no one really able to stop her, even by superiors. She committed many atrocities in the years before the Great Pacific War two hundred years ago, in the Japanese Imperial Government-General for Western North America, the Western Provinces. When war broke out, she was off what was her leash and muzzle. Mitsurugi, on the other hand, is the dictator of what was the Japanese Pacific States, the new superpower that emerged after the Second World War. After their so-called defeat during the GPW, they have apparently returned, itching for revenge, as the Zipangese. Zipang, an old poetic name for Japan. Like Cathay for China, or Britannia for Britain."

He was interrupted by a communique from an unknown source, but it became clear what this entailed. Of course, he would meet both of them. The universe had a cruel sense of humor.

"Takamura. Yes, I know your last name. I won't stop you from leaving this place, this universe. You should go back. Unless you need to tell us something important here. If so, speak quickly. But Marinaris and I need to leave quickly. We won't hold you back. We're leaving--with nothing. That character over there will help you, Yui." He turned to Ken.

"Marinaris, take the rest of the squadron and return to the flag ship, I need to do something by myself. It's paramount, for the fleet's departure. No arguing, that is an order." Marinaris, still angry with him, wanted to protest, but she had lost the battle, and in front of a total stranger no less.

The two left began to turn to leave the the alt-Yui and the strange scientist, when the ship was rocked violently, lurching everyone to port side.

SDISDuty Bound, Jovian Trojans

Magbaredge was anxious, now that the time has come. She ordered the fleet to prepare to leave the system, and gave out final instructions to the remaining communication buoys that still worked and reached Earth. Any and all intelligence units still operating in Sol were considered free and relieved from duty and "to do anything and everything to survive", and ordered to carry out final orders of destruction of any and all sensitive information, and that the Provisional Government of the CON-SDI is declaring the remaining CON territories in Sol to be open. What ever garbled messages got to the provisional fleet from Earth, it was reports of a different treatment for CON and Europan civilians, and reports of mass killings beginning in Europan territories. She gave the order for Yuuya's squad to return to the ship. It's now or never.

"God save us all."

[Zipangese Star Empire]

Oort Cloud, Secret Cloud Facility

Marinaris was not happy, with her commanding officer refusing to see the obvious truth that this was the enemy, and thus a prisoner of war given the circumstances, and with this "Yui" being difficult. "What the hell are you going on about? RLF? Allegiance? Some resistance groups back on Earth? Never heard of them--you're stalling here. What this XFJ program? The Zipangese have some weapon to make everyone toe the line or else? There will be a reck--". Yuuya cut her off, raising his hand in front of her face while he stared at Yui intensely.

"Wait, did you say brother? I have a sister that looks exactly like you, even personality-wise, but you are different obviously. You are here out of context, so to speak, and so are we. You are a Yui...not of this world." He remembered something that he should not have.

He was at a coastline, in a very distant, unfamiliar place, but it was on Earth. He was with others, all of them in strange machines. TSFs, he remembered. The JPS used them to "pacify" Western BNA and their other colonial territories. He felt a sense of dread, of a great and terrible monster coming this way. He also felt uncertain about a particular weapon attached to his TSF. It looked like one of the railguns used by the NAF infantry, or one that could be attached to a Gear, though this was extremely large and overpowered. He had a complete understanding of how it should work, even though he should not have this understanding. It was requiring that he stay in one place and batten down in order to use the weapon effectively.

Breaking from his flashback, he explained it to Ken and Yui. "Sir, you've gone off the deep end. It must be the stress of the recent events." replied Ken. "I could say the same thing, you're not obeying my orders." Yuuya snapped back. Ken looked away, annoyed but resigned herself to following her CO's orders.

The message from General Ayaka reached the station. "Ah, Butcher Ayaka. If you don't know her, I think you could describe her as a walking war crime, no conscious, and no one really able to stop her, even by superiors. She committed many atrocities in the years before the Great Pacific War two hundred years ago, in the Japanese Imperial Government-General for Western North America, the Western Provinces. When war broke out, she was off what was her leash and muzzle. Mitsurugi, on the other hand, is the dictator of what was the Japanese Pacific States, the new superpower that emerged after the Second World War. After their so-called defeat during the GPW, they have apparently returned, itching for revenge, as the Zipangese. Zipang, an old poetic name for Japan. Like Cathay for China, or Britannia for Britain."

He was interrupted by a communique from an unknown source, but it became clear what this entailed. Of course, he would meet both of them. The universe had a cruel sense of humor.

"Takamura. Yes, I know your last name. I won't stop you from leaving this place, this universe. You should go back. Unless you need to tell us something important here. If so, speak quickly. But Marinaris and I need to leave quickly. We won't hold you back. We're leaving--with nothing. That character over there will help you, Yui." He turned to Ken.

"Marinaris, take the rest of the squadron and return to the flag ship, I need to do something by myself. It's paramount, for the fleet's departure. No arguing, that is an order." Marinaris, still angry with him, wanted to protest, but she had lost the battle, and in front of a total stranger no less.

The two left began to turn to leave the the alt-Yui and the strange scientist, when the ship was rocked violently, lurching everyone to port side.

SDISDuty Bound, Jovian Trojans

Magbaredge was anxious, now that the time has come. She ordered the fleet to prepare to leave the system, and gave out final instructions to the remaining communication buoys that still worked and reached Earth. Any and all intelligence units still operating in Sol were considered free and relieved from duty and "to do anything and everything to survive", and ordered to carry out final orders of destruction of any and all sensitive information, and that the Provisional Government of the CON-SDI is declaring the remaining CON territories in Sol to be open. What ever garbled messages got to the provisional fleet from Earth, it was reports of a different treatment for CON and Europan civilians, and reports of mass killings beginning in Europan territories. She gave the order for Yuuya's squad to return to the ship. It's now or never.

"God save us all."

IZRGSS Mikoto, IZRG Type 232 Escort Ship, Jovian Trojans

As if the situation couldn't get any worse, four warships appeared just a medium distance away from the Duty Bound in visual range, almost out of thin air, their shield were up but weapons weren't armed. "That transmission was just what we needed to find them. Open a frequency, now that they have control over their communications back. Let's have a chat." Regent Ikaruga Takatsugu said as he stood aboard the bridge of the Mikoto, a smile on his face. He atleast had some reassuring news for the CON. News they'd atleast find comforting and put them to some slight ease as a transmission was sent out, broadcast in English for the Duty Bound, demanding to speak with whomever was in command.

Oort Cloud, Secret Cloud Facility

"You are right, I'm not apparently of this world. But my name is Yui Takamura, Lieutenant. On loan by Japan to the United Nations for Project Prominence and it's sub-projects, including the XFJ-Programme." Yui said as she looked distrustfully at Marinaris. It was clear she would be far from trusting anyone in this dimension, possibly even her own brother, but his recounting of the battle on Kamchatka against the BETA was mostly accurate. ..Was this her brother? "So you do remember..." Yui said after Yuuya recounted the battle of Kamchatka against the BETA. "Yes, you were using the EML-99X on the Type-94-1C Shiranui Type-1C. ....And after the battle we had to leave as the BETA overran the soviet base we were stationed at for the time being." Yui went silent after that, simply listening at Yuuya talked, everything about this JPS and Zipang was different, neither state existed in Yui's dimension.

"Japan didn't win the second world war, it lost and the Shogunate lost it's power, reduced to nothing more than a figurehead for the military, but like the Emperor, it's a central pillar of Japanese life, there wouldn't be a Japan without either... However I don't know how this Mitsurugi pretender got power in your dimension, the Mitsurugi house is to my knowledge a vassal house under the Koubuin regency house... Which the Koubuin regency house is the current sitting Shogun with Yuuhi Koubuin at the head of the family." Yui said before going silent as the others left.

"....I don't have anything I could say that would possibly help the situation. ...But I do have something, after the attempt on my life and me being forced to go back to Kyoto to secure future funding for the XFJ Project, I met with our father. He was happy I was set by fate to find you... And before we were transported to this dimension... I grabbed this, as our father wanted you to have it.... Well. The "you" in my dimension, however I believe you'll find better use of it." Yui walked over to a table near her and picked up a katana, holding it in both her hands horizontally.

"He was happy you had found your path in life, and happy you had finally accepted your Japanese heritage, he wished for me to tell you he was sorry he couldn't be with your mother, and he loved her with all his heart, however the culture of Japan had yet to embrace the idea of relationships with westerners. When it did, she was already dead. He regrets he wasn't able to raise you as his own however... Should you find yourself in our dimension. You'll always have a home in our Japan. ...But we must keep fighting to keep that home safe... And to save the earth from the BETA. Which is what Project Prominence is for. Now please, take this. You, in my eyes need it more than the Yuuya in my world does." Yui said, a smile on her face.