The Ascension of the Imperium IC (All Tech, TG for interest)

[Irenton]

Resource Consolidation System #5412
The Octavian Station

Beneath the small, featureless, mask of his power armour, Consul Arthus silently seethed. As was usually the case with Arthus' anger, it was entirely unwarranted and ultimately unhelpful. Regardless, it remained, and he couldn't simply vent it for fear of upsetting their tentative new ally.

"Please, lead on," his voice just about managed to maintain the expected veneer of politeness as they followed behind the Octavian.

These damn robots! Clearly they did not take well to organic life, that was evident enough in their polluted atmosphere and governor's manner of speaking - even if, to her credit, she hid it well. Arthus could only predict how extreme in their hatred the higher-ups of Octavia would be - though maybe he was just being paranoid, as he tended to be around new and unknown variables.

"We keep our options open." Arthus spoke down the IntraSAT system within his armour, silent to all except the recipients - Ranger-Commander Eule and Lieutenant Kirin - "if their leaders don't want our help, we may be in trouble. Myself and Kirin will try and capture the governor and move back to the Corvette; Eule, you take a squad and leave us behind, gather up every trooper on duty and come in shooting - cause some chaos and let us get starbourne."

"Understood, sir."

Lieutenant Kirin, a visor affixed over her eyes and a rebreather mask over her mouth, took over much of the negotiator's role - she had known Arthus long enough to know that he was far more a fighter than a diplomat, and the situation as it was required a careful and calculated touch.

"Governor Val," she began, voice heavily filtered by both the mask and the filters her own cybernetic throat had put in place, "our two Empires have mutual goals and mutual enemies," - a blatant lie, but her counterpart didn't need to know that - "and we wish to make as much use as our forces assisting you as we can. Though, of course, proper procedure is needed - would it perhaps be possible to waive much of it for the time being? In order to render our support quickly and ensure the situation proceeds in our mutual favour quickly."

Kirin was a true weapon, Arthus thought, in the wrong hands she'd be a monster.

[Gonswanza]

Cyberattacks soon start to ramp up, as a rather harsh Egyptian attack strikes deep into American soil, seemingly out of nowhere, with several major pipelines being shut down along with a few major refineries, leading to a minor fuel shortage in rather short order. Paired to the sudden terror attacks, martial law is declared along the west coast, spreading across the nation as the strike almost cripples the nation, but the will of the people refused to fall. Ironically, it seemed to reinforce it, akin to a certain tragic event in September 2001.

The same cannot be said for Australia and Japan, the latter immediately locking down with the JGSDF being deployed sharply, as first responders scramble to do their work.

Across Europe, the attacks lead to civil unrest, as the EU considers shutting down their borders, shifting the blame to migrants, which only offers plenty of fuel for nationalist groups that were waiting deep in the cracks of a flawed series of systems. North Ireland is soon subject to a repeat of the past, as mobs swarm hastily prepared police checkpoints, with a former enemy rising again to challenge the British presence there. Or as they call it, the "illegal occupation of our rightful soil".

Australia is crippled, with naval depots going up in flames, though their submarines were luckily spared, almost narrowly. Yet, the attack there is blamed on possible "French insurgents" due to a failed submarine deal a long while back. France fails to respond, dealing with massive riots and a loss of communications and power across the country.

Taiwan is knocked down and out, yet, they scramble their aircraft and try to hold off against an invisible enemy, as China throws another wave against them to take advantage of the sudden chaos. It barely works, though now Taiwan was effectively split in two, as the PLAN and PLA struggle to deliver supplies and prepare proper logistics trains.

In Ukraine, the attacks harshly cripple the "mock" NATO offensive, with Russia now deciding to throw even more into the country, in hopes of taking advantage of the chaos as the resistance against them and their proxies begins to falter.

Yugoslavia reacts negatively, locking down the country and declaring martial law, going so far that they almost down a passenger aircraft from Israel, but active countermeasures helped in avoiding what could have been a far worse international incident. Alas, the aircraft was grounded in Hungary, given that Yugoslavia repeatedly warned the pilots that they were trespassing a no-fly zone, that they would be shot down if they didn't turn away, and that if they so dared to land (assuming they survive the shootdown, hypothetically) everyone on board would be arrested and held for questioning.

Europe is on fire. America is refusing to give but is also under attack. Russia is still unsure, lost, and desperate. China is still trying to make its move. And Gonswanza... Well... It's still sitting back, even as the island goes into lockdown, though trade continues almost uninterrupted with a short pause. The trains will run on time, as they always have.

And yet, the world grows closer to the brink. The stock markets jump, before taking a nosedive, then rising again in an odd flash-crash. It's rather comical, really, as a heavy bit of poorly planned foreshadowing. Not that it would matter, at this point. We all know what's going to happen.

[The Dark Domain]

Hello Unknown Civilization!
You have encountered a fleet/emissary/army/trader of the Octavian Imperium and we would like to open friendly diplomatic relations with your state. Please refrain from any violence as the Imperium may be willing to participate in trade with your state should it qualify for it. Thank you and may we have a peaceful and prosperous relationship.[/box]

PANROX SYSTEM
THE OBLIVION
SANCTUM
Deranis Vil sat in his throne, surrounded by orbiting slabs of gemstone, staring at the Octavian ships on the wall of crystal opposite him and waiting for their reply
An moonstone slab flashed once and moved to in front of his face where the Image of a man robed in grey appeared, surrounded by machines and hurrying Magi in similar robes "My Lord, we have received a reply, the Machine-mind running the invading ships requests that we not attack as they may be willing to trade with us, provided we qualify"
A sapphire slab moved beside the moonstone "they however have not stopped moving and have apparently began to power weapons"
"THE ARROGANCE OF THOSE CREATURES!" bellowed the Mage-Captain, surging to his feet and storming across his Sanctum, sending subordinate Magi scurrying to move out of his way
"Contact The Grandmaster at once" he spat at the white robed mage standing beside the crystal wall

THE PLANET NEXUS
THE MAGEOPOLIS
TOWER OF THE DARK FIGURE
COUNCIL CHAMBER
The fat Orange-robed Grandmaster of the Conjuration School turned from the continuing argument as a large slab of Spessartine beside him began to glow, an imp flew down and lifted it before his face
The image of Mage-Captain Deranis Vil appeared in it "My Master, the Octavians have expressed a wish for diplomacy but have not left our space and have began powering weapons, I request permission to wipe them from our space"
"Denied for the moment" Ojamar turned to the other council members and shouted over the noise "My Lords and Ladies, the Octavians have said they wish to negotiate, I do not believe a war is in our best interest"
The other council members all quickly agreed and The Conjurer turned back to the gem

PANROX SYSTEM
THE OBLIVION
SANCTUM
The Mage Captain turned from the Crystal Wall with a sigh, gathering his Orange robes around him as he returned to his throne,
As he sat he turned to the Conjurers filling the Sanctum "Warm up the Hellgates" then with a gesture the moonstone moved in front of him followed by a slab of emerald and another of ruby "Abjurer, Wards, Evoker, prepare yourselves, Technomage, relay my words"

Walls of crackling energy burst to life surrounding the Monolith while hatches and ports began to open on all sides and the massive Glyphs on each face began to glow

Octavian fleet, you have two minutes to power down your weapons or be destroyed, you have ten minutes to leave our space or be destroyed However the Council has authorised a meeting with a diplomat in the Atarvas System, outside our space, send a single ambassador in a single shuttle, a single dignitary will be waiting

[Horacellum Testing Grounds]

St.Delia Magical Institute's Sky Arboretum
The Most Serene Utopian Republic of Horacellum

The ten Archmages, who with their brilliance, managed to open the way to a large scale interdimensional travel, now rested themselves beneath the green shades of the Sky Arboretum. Although..

"Did you really have to pick this place? We could've gone to the Institute's cafeteria, not stuck among trees", said a male Archmage among them, seemingly furious at the choice of their colleagues' resting spot. Another Archmage then decided to say her pieces after the rant, "Are you not bored of just shoving food down your belly for resting? Shut up and enjoy the view just this once, will you?". What came from a small debate grew into a clash of words among the Archmages as the others seemed to not be able to hold the urge to debate among each other.

Yet, among this mildly heated debate, a certain male Archmage was lost in his own thoughts. He was the same Archmage as the one who sent off the signal for the Edenor fleets. And suddenly, a burst of shock and anxiety flooded his mind, and he suddenly said to his colleagues, "Friends... I am afraid I think we might have a big problem..". Interested, they stopped their debate and decided to listen to him.

"The Dimensional Door... I think.. I put the wrong codes on the outer circle. I'm.. I.. I just remembered..", the anxious Archmage said while tremor shook his hands.

Then, the furious Archmage who complained a while ago screamed at him, "What?!! This is ridiculous! A mistake in the code could mean sending them to their own death!! You just killed 90% of our military, you fool!".

The rest soon proceeded to throw down more insults at him. But he simply replied to them, "B.. but.. I saw the other Edenors being sent to the Dimensional Door.. that means that the ones who entered first were still safe.. right? Right?! We should confirm their situation. I'm going to pass through the Dimensional Door. It's up to you whether you all want to join me or not".

Not spending even a second idling, the anxious Archmage quickly flew away from the Sky Arboretum, making his way to the Dimensional Door. The other nine Archmages who were with him decided to join in as well, believing that they too, must take responsibility for such fatal mistake.

Inside Edenor Aveyan's Command Center
Above Red Square
Moscow
Russian Federation

While the Archmages were making its way to the Edenor fleets, three of the Six Divine Saints, the Delia, Hevne, and Hevya were discussing about their next moves in the upcoming war.

"It is expected that they will definitely use nuclear weapons. However, a single Barrier Crystal Core were proven to be powerful enough to resist 2 of Grand Aspect Blasts, which, mind you, are far stronger than several atomic bombs combined. We've deployed ten of them so it should be---", the Delia, Dahlia Gelabez, was explaining to her fellow Divine Saints as a crew interrupted them.

"An emergency, Your Graces! The Archmages who opened up the Dimensional Door have requested an audience. Shall we let them pass?". Slightly annoyed by the interruption, the Delia answered begrudgingly, "I'll get them right over here". She then pointed at the floor and closed her eyes. "Where are they... ah, right there!", as she said the words, a strong pulse of Force Ensof flowed from her index finger and created a magic circle into the floor. The ten Archmages quickly appeared from the magic circle, and quickly knelt down to the Delia and put their staves on their left.

The anxious Archmage said to the Delia, "Your Grace.. I come bearing a severely bad news. Apparently, I... I.. did a mistake in the drawing of the portal and.. sent our forces into the wrong dimension. We plead for your mercy, Your Grace. It was entirely my fault, since I put the wrong codes on the outer circle."

The Delia was a bit shocked, but soon reassured the anxious Archmage, "What do you mean, a mistake? Look around you. It's still the Moscow we used to know. Still the beautiful Red Square. If anything, at least from what I heard, you've sent us to the Earth where our allies fell and an abomination rised from its ashes. Remember, Cheter Ilani made his discovery through an accident, too. I'm afraid you might.. not only lead to at large scale interdimensional travel, but.. time travel as well. I wish all of you to stand up, what you did was nothing short of incidental magnificence".

"T-thank you, Your Grace. Your words assured my anxious heart.", replied the anxious Archmage. Not long after, all ten Archmage stood up, took their staves, and one of them asked, "Y-your Grace.. what should be the next move, then? If we may know.". The Delia responded to her, "That, I'll consult with all the heads of states. I'm afraid I will need the full Wisdom of the Divine Saints... and the Lord Sovereign.. I guess".

The three of the Six Divine Saints then stood in a formation of a triangle, and together, they raised their hands. Then, a hexagram, with a circle covering the tip of each point as well as the middle appeared on the floor below them. Ensof of three different colors sprung up from each of their hands, and four more, with different colors as well, sprung up from the circles. After few seconds, four people appeared in sequence; Sheanna Erun the Yahkayef, Almont Marasiya the Aveyan, Dayne Herdatur the Fruma, and Lord Sovereign Delmunt Aliah, who appeared in the middle of the hexagram. After all of them appeared, a magical wall appeared around them, preventing their voices from being heard from outside.

"Mind you, Master Delia, I was moderating a very heated debate in the Hall. This summon better worth our time. I'm sure the rest was on their duties as well", said the Yahkayef, in her annoyance.

Responding to her words, the Delia explained to the other leaders, "I summoned all of you to ask for the full wisdom of the Serene Republic's leaders. I have recently received a report that our Archmages who were tasked of opening the portal to the Soviet Union made a blunder, and set the destination to an incorrect one. However, I fear that we have landed in a Terra where our ally had fallen years ago. I assumed that we coincidentally found a way to time travel, although it is unlikely, since our years of research in time travel proved to be fruitless".

The Fruma soon asked the Delia, "Well, Master Delia.. I personally think we've set upon the right course. We will restore the Union to life, even if it means engaging in an armed conflict or two. But, is it truly worth it? Surely we wouldn't want to be seen as the villain in Terra, attacking nations and all".

"Well, from what I have hea---" as soon as the Delia tried to answer the Fruma's question, Delmunt quickly interrupted her and said in a rather upset tone, "Are you joking right now? 'armed conflict or two', how could you say those words so lightly. People die, Seersfolks or not, and are we not going to try to prevent it? Beside, it might not be time travel, but simply a misdirection in the Dimensional Door. I believe that the real Soviet Union, one that we've known and befriended, is still waiting for our share of the deal. I cannot accept that my Order will partake in this barbaric practice when our true ally await somewhere in another dimension".

Delmunt then walked a few steps away from the circle and took command of the Sword Order that was present, "This is your Commander-in-chief speaking. All Sword Order units within this dimension are to retreat immidiately. I repeat, all Sword Order units within this dimension are to retreat immidiately. We have landed in the wrong dimension, and we shall open a new Dimensional Door to our true ally. Do not attempt to re-enter this dimension in the future".

Delia, angered by Delmunt's sudden decision, dispelled the soundproof wall and shouted at Delmunt, "You coward! Always keeping up with the idiocy! Why are you always like this? Don't bother becoming Lord Sovereign if you don't want to see blood, you bilge rat!". Turning his back to the Delia, and holding his tears, Delmunt simply replied, "Do what you will, but I will not sacrifice my Order into this pointless bloodletting. You and your Order are to exit this Edenor immediately. We shall return to our homeland. So long".

As all Edenor fleets received the command, they all began to make a turn and fly towards the Dimensional Door, while the Battlemages soon teleported into the Red Square. The Six Divine Saints did the same thing, and soon, all Sword Order units entered the portal and returned to their respective stations.

"Ugh! Why do we have that manchild as a Sovereign! It could've been his iron fisted spouse!", the Delia kept on ranting and ranting about Delmunt and his decision to withdraw his entire Order. Five minutes of pure anger later, the Delia calmed herself down, and ordered the summoned Divine Saints to get back home. They agreed, and teleported back into their original spots before the summoning.

Now left with two fellow Divine Saints, and a small part of her own Magic Order, the Delia decided to send an order directly to all Battlemages within the Order from her Voicelink Crystal Orb, "Attention to all active Battlemages of all ranks. I repeat, attention to all active Battlemages of all ranks, begin preparation of a full scale war, and proceed to enter the Dimensional Door. Spare no Battlemages for defense, except for those within the Eight Stars. Bring forth all the Barrier Crystal Cores we have, as well as others of our supplies. This is a direct Order from the Grandmaster and is to executed immidiately. End of command".

The Hevya, as soon as Delia finished her command delivery, said to her fellow Divine Saints, "Well then, this means that we will only have the Magic Order at our disposal. But this should suffice. Our enemies are Terrans, after all. Guns would have a hard time breaching Ensof Shell. And now we wait for our units to arrive. It shouldn't take a long time".

[Imperial-Octavia]

Earth

As the governor of Earth, Hu'Tae was not having the best of times. It seemed that no matter what victories he seemed to be able to eke out from the disaster he was handed that there was always a larger catastrophe waiting around the corner to wretch it out from his hands and provide an even bigger mess than he had started with. This was exactly the situation Tae found himself in now with Europe in open revolt against Octavia, multiple other revolutions rocking key parts of the Imperium's hold over this planet, and the humiliating campaign in Grozny and the backlash from that, he had much to worry about. Suddenly the doors of the former Buckingham Palace, the place where Hu'Tae had based his administration, flew open revealing a male organic and a short one at that, only about 5'5 compared to Tae's near 7-foot frame. The man was bald with a grim expression on his face wearing the expression of one who could only be experiencing the deepest of fury, this was the leader of the ERG, Raymond Hiddleston and he had just arrived at the face of Tae and began with his tirade, "What the bloody hell is going on with your drones clanker! My boys in Africa keep telling me that your machines keep declaring them as traitors! The fuck's going on down there!" he said spittle landing all over the face plate of Tae.

Tae sat as his face cleaned itself, squirting out water from the ridge of his his head to wash away the spit before a tendril peeked out from his back with some sort of fabric on it which then dried his face, "I don't know what you're talking about Raymond. Have your men been committing treason?"

"I sure as hell hope not but I know the men that your drones killed were innocent!" Raymond yelled, slamming his fist against the table Tae was sitting at

Tae sighed, "And how can you be sure of this exactly?"

Raymond put on a mock look of thought, placing his hand on his chin and vigorously rubbing it, "Hmm, I don't know, maybe it was that they had literally just been fucking promoted the day before?"

"That seems like enough time for treachery to take place. Maybe you're just emotional about this, maybe you should take a short break from your duties hmm?" Tae said

"Ah yes, 25 officers all decided to commit treachery on the same day! Perfectly normal that, nothing at all out of the ordinary!"

Tae paused for a moment, "Do you mean to tell me that 25 officers were killed on the same day?"

"Damn right I do! And I want to know for what reason! My men are in shambles right now because every one of their commanding officers are being murdered by your bots!" Raymond once again attempted to slam his fist against the table but was stopped by Tae's hand this time. Raymond began yelling again but Tae wasn't listening, the Octavian was too deep in thought to bother giving any processing power to home in on the indignant cries of an organic. Surely there wasn't some kind of purge of the ERG going on behind his back, right? He was important enough to know if it was time to liquidate the collaborators in one way or another. Furthermore, it didn't seem right that it would be drones doing individual assassinations, if these men truly were marked for death by the Imperium, it would usually be the Mechanators doing it, drones would only come in if there was widespread rebellion and Tae would know if such had happened in the ERG.

Going off that Tae could eliminate the chance that the Imperium had actually decided to kill large amounts of the ERG command staff and not tell him but that begged another question. Then who? Who had the know-how and the ability to ape Octavian drones? Well, he knew the Ignisae weren't on the planet and The Mandate should've had no way to smuggle this equipment past the current line of battle. That only left the Reavers. The same Reavers who had already tried to distract the Codex with their trash bundled together with salvaged pieces of drones. It was almost certainly those same Reavers.

"Reavers..." Tae's voice was cold to a point that was unexpected even of a machine.

"What about those rebels has to do with your drones going haywire?" Raymond asked, an eyebrow now raised.

"Those rebels have everything to do with the drones shooting down your men Raymond. They've been making fakes of our equipment and sending them out to try and derail the Imperium. I assure you; I'll have this sorted as soon as the situation in Europe stabilizes and we can nail down their production sites. At that point we'll be able to get back at those degenerates two-fold." Raymond nodded as he heard Tae's words.

"So, the cheeky bastards can make copies of your tech now? Bloody hell...and here I thought that the ever-so-perfect machines would have a mind to keep their bots out of enemy hands."

Tae sighed, "You are dismissed Raymond. Relay this to your men and tell them to be wary around any drones that seem off in any way. Mechanators should be the only one catching traitors, drones have no part in that." Tae gestured for Raymond to leave and with rolled eyes he left out of the palace doors to return to his duties.

"If I had known how annoying this post would get, I wouldn't have accepted it...." thought Tae as he began to look back on every disaster that had befallen his administration from the time he got to Earth, "Grozny, the invasion, and now this! It's like this planet is cursed! At least I can be sure that there won't be another catastrophe for a bit, these revolutionaries probably subsumed every other mess in the waiting..."

It was then he received another message, this time from what remained of Octavian command in Europe, telling of a troubling development within the continent. It was strange that they had much to say considering their current position, but it may be important to know.

To: Governor Hu'Tae

We would like to inform you that various Vampire warlords have announced their loyalties to the Sky Reaver rebels and are aiding in hostile operations against us. We shall continue the fight where we can despite our lessened capabilities. All Hail to the Imperium.

Tae looked at the message for just a moment before swiping it away into his garbage alongside the other files he wished not to be reminded of. The situation somehow continued to degrade, and he knew that at the rate this was going to get him removed from his post (which really didn't seem like the worst outcome now). Despite his personal feelings on the matter, Tae knew that he had to do something drastic if he wanted to keep any grasp on this situation. The vampires defecting was a sign of bad things to come; if not punished then the other collaborationist forces may try and recreate their treachery and the ground forces of the Imperium would not be able to hold if DIO decided to turn traitor as well. It was time to devastate Europe.

Skies of Europe

While the revolutionaries pushed eastward clashing against Mechanators and drones alike their backlines would be met with a sight reminiscent of the day of the invasion. Hundreds of drone fighters, all those able to be siphoned from the orbital battle occurring in the space above them, would come dropping death and destruction upon all that which the rebels had begun to rebuild. Roads, power plants, and water treatment plants would find themselves blasted to pieces by missiles dropped from on high. Recruitment centers and supply depots would be rended apart from particle beams sent down in strafing runs. Any rebuilt factories would be especially targeted by these bombing raids, depriving the revolutionaries of key resources that they'd need to continue the war effort against the Octavians. Those with a keen memory however would remember what came after the last time the Octavians subjected their world to a bombing campaign.

Invasion.

Eastern Europe

Stan Dixon and his revolutionary followers would find harsh resistance from Octavian forces as they pushed their way towards Western Europe. Mechanator, drone, and collaborator alike would offer fierce resistance towards the Reaver advance. It was imperative that the revolutions in Russia and Europe did not meet and the fashion in which the Octavians fought against the rebels indicated as much. The Octavian forces were supported by artillery and aircraft derived from the Octavian stronghold in Kiev and if the Reaver Revolutionaries would want to put an end to the constant barrage they would have to take Kiev from the Imperium.

Housing Camp A-1001

Qozk had seen better days. As a Mechanator he had expected to leave his home planet of Abbada and go forth into a life of adventure and glorious combat but instead found himself at the end of an assembly line scanning weapons for defects. His job was one where he had to have his consciousness present in his body unlike many in the Imperium, a job that was soul-crushingly boring for the young Abbadi. Qozk should've known that the recruitment ads were bogus and yet his stupid sense of ambition made him think that he was destined for greater things than being another shell in the assembly lines. Ironically that was what he had become anyway. He sat on one of the human chairs that he had requisitioned placing all the defective rifles in a pile to his left (closer to the workers) and allowing all the properly made rifles to continue their way down the line.

"Rifle number 2404 defective.... Rifle number 2405 defective...Rifle number 2406 defect-" Qozk took a moment to consider how many of the rifles that he had received had come out defective. The last 32 guns were created wrong in one way or another and it made him wonder if this was on purpose. The organics may have just been unaware as to how to properly construct a laser rifle, but he couldn't be sure as to what exactly was going on. His questions were answered once he found an organic rushing him with what seemed to be half-finished electrosaber sending crackling sparks of electricity bouncing off the blade to which Qozk jumped back allowing his attacker to slice the chair he was sitting on in half. Qozk swung up his arm and released his arm cannon, carving a hole directing through the rebel's chest. Moving his attention Qozk would learn that the man he just slew wasn't the only prisoner here rebelling, everywhere the Abbadi looked there were prisoners trying to best their Mechanator guards. Carnage and combat reigned as the previously calm camp erupted into rebellion. It seemed the battle that Qozk had been looking for had come to him.

---

Across most housing camps there were similar rebellions, though they would run into trouble when it came to overpowering the few Mechanators that were within the camps. Despite the camps being mostly comprised of collaborators those few assimilated beings that guarded them would prove as tough obstacles to the success of these rebels.

Resource Consolidation Station #5412

Valten twisted her head around 360 degrees to look at Kirin as she made her offer. She wasn't sure if she would be allowed to make such an exception for a cyborg and the organics accompanying her but what Kirin had said made sense. If the Imperium was to receive aid, then it would be best that it came as quickly as possible even if it came from these unverified strangers. Though she wasn't sure of the legality of skipping the diplomatic process Val certainly sure that if these potential allies were to back out of the alliance because of her insistence on procedure then she would face the wrath of her superiors and that wasn't something that she much wanted to risk. So, it was decided, she would allow these Iretons to skip the bureaucracy that such things would usually entail.

"Ah, well of course! The Imperium's future allies deserve only the best! I'll need only a few moments so I can pull a few strings and I'll be able to connect you with someone able to work out the details of our future alliance!" Val's voice was as upbeat as ever as she paused for a few moments, presumably pulling the strings that she had mentioned. It was after these moments that a light began projecting itself from her visual sensors forming itself into a hologram of an Octavian flag which then warped and twisted itself into the form of a humanoid head.

“Hello, you are speaking to East Diplomatic Node #A442. Please present the details of your alliance so that they may be processed and taken into consideration.” A cold, robotic voice spoke this time clearly coming from the diplomatic AI which had manifested itself in front of them. If they wanted to expedite their time on this station, they had certainly done it.

Gonswanza Earth

Nine was watching the events happening on this Earth very closely. It seemed that the tensions which existed on this planet had suddenly and dramatically begun to expand with what seemed to be no end in sight. At the rate things were progressing it was clear that the only way that these mounting tensions would be relieved would be in war which could potentially cause some issues when it came to mineral extraction assuming that somehow Octavian stealth shuttles were revealed. If that nightmare scenario were to take place, then it was highly likely that one of the many enemies the Imperium had accrued would make their way over to this Earth to put a stop to it.

"Should I arrange an end to this? I am already involved in one pointless war, there's no reason why I shouldn't prevent another one." thought Niner while he weighed his options. He could fairly easily put the brakes on all this for the time being, a few well-placed cyberattacks and the whole system the organics here had put in place would be totally immobilized. They'd be in no position to send assassins against each other let alone organize a war and if that wasn't enough, he was sure that the Imperium had enough capability to engineer a crisis large enough to pull away their attention. Perhaps a disease of some sort? Nine decided to shelve that option for the time being as he reviewed the situation as a whole, such a radical option would require more deliberation before being put into action. For the time being he would simply oversee the continuing escalation and see what exactly Octavia may lose if the organics got into a self-desructive war of their own.

As Nine stopped deliberating on the issue of the oncoming tide of war another issue came to his attention with a ping coming from inside his own mind, he had just received a message from the Gonswanzans on the satellite images from Russia that he had asked for not too long ago. The information received was bizarre for a planet such as this, what sort of technology could the Russians possibly have if they could create a burst of energy strong enough to be compared to a particle beam? That was technology far beyond the tech bracket of this planet, let alone the nation of Russia which seemed like a lesser power when it came to technologies such as this. It was something that was most certainly worth investigating and luckily Nine had a contingent of infiltrators tucked away in the Russian Federation...

Siberia

The locals of Muyevka were unsure as to when the new villagers came into town. No one saw the family of 4 arrive to the village and no one knew anyone in the village that were related to them or were even acquainted to one of them before their home propped itself up in the middle of the night a year ago. They were rarely seen outside their little house but when they were it was always the seven of them leaving town-always quietly-and then returning after a few days' time before they once again retired to their home to be seen whenever it was time to leave again. Some said they were members of the SVR RF, spies deployed in their small village to engage in daring espionage against the Chinese, others claimed that they were just a normal if not reclusive family that had moved in and that the rest of the village should stop snooping around in other people's business, and some of the more eccentric villagers claimed that they were alien infiltrators sent to destabilize Mother Russia and bring about their rule from the stars. These people were considered conspiracists by the rest of the village. Something so wild could never be real.

Except for the minor detail that it was.

Infiltrator Team K-"Rus" had settled themselves in this innocuous village not too long after the Imperium had made contact with Gonzwansa, used their nanite pre-fabs to place down a "wooden" house (with a sizable cache of infiltrator equipment located underneath), and waited for any orders to keep the system a steady stream of minerals for Imperium. It was today that they would receive one such order.

The rickety door to the shack was thrown open by a gruff looking man his chin covered in facial hair, his face was utterly devoid of emotion, he no longer had to wear the facade of humanity now that he was returned with his squad, “Hey! Get off your asses lads, Command finally decided to give us shit to do! There's some kind of event going on to the east and Nine wants us to check it out." His cover labelled him as Sergei Malkovich, a Russian intelligence agent sent from Moscow to pursue any Chinese agents rabble-rousing in Siberia.

Another man who was curled up in a ball in a poor imitation of a dog rose to his haunches as if he were a dog sighing, "Dear god, do I really have to start standing again Karnch? I'm still not used to the feeling." His assumed identity was that of Teterev Malkovich, close brother of Sergei and fellow spy. He had messy brown hair that fell down to his shoulders and a scraggly beard that fell to his chest.

Karnch grimaced, “For fucks sake Hur, maybe if you stopped whining about it, you’d get used to the legs faster. I'd love to have my other arms in this meatsuit but you don't see me complaining, do you?” he growled out the sentence as he began tapping in a combination of numbers while pointing it towards the ground prompting multiple racks of clothing to rise from the ground mainly made up of suits and uniforms for various organizations.

Hur sighed as he got to his feet, "Yeah, yeah I get it, I have to get up, but I have to say that being a Seendi and wearing one of these human suits isn't as bad a transition as the Katan experience."

Karnch was about to reply when a small, blond woman stood up and placed a hand between them, "Come on now, we don't have time to argue over which one of your races has the worst time being a human. Let's get dressed and be done with this."

The last member of the group, a tall, bald Russian man was already deep within the hidden closet picking out emblems for the mission, "I agree with Kay'Lara on this, you two bicker too much. We'd probably have already left if you two weren't having your mini race war."

Hur groaned, "Of course the Octavians would understand the troubles of being within a body that doesn't conform with their true one. Humans and Octavians are just soooo different to each other, I could hardly imagine how you two are able to persevere in those bodies. Maybe I should get a wheelchair for you Sa'Lon? Perhaps some crutches for you Kay'Lara? Anything to help." his words were soaked in sarcasm as Karnch applied his hand to the back of the faux-flesh that made up Hur's head.

"Alright! That's enough dallying! Get on some FSK uniforms on and get in the truck!" yelled Karnch as he began picking out uniforms and hurling them as his subordinates. Not too long after, the town would once again see the mysterious group riding out of town in their truck, riding off to some new place.

Red Square

The Horacellum guards watching over the area in which their airspace had apparated into this reality would find four Russians determinedly marching towards their position. Each one was clad in a black suit with sunglasses which gave them an air of anonymity as they marched on. Each very visably had a pistol holstered somewhere on their person though it wasn't any model that the guards would be able to recognize. It wasn't very long after that they would arrive at where the guards would be at at which point the leader of the group of black suited men would flash a card bearing the symbol of the FSK, the Russian intelligence agency, before coolly stating, "FSK, we have a message to give to your leaders coming from the highest levels of our intelligence. It is of the uptmost importance that your leaders recieve this message so please, allow us through." They would stand in formation waiting for the response of the guards.

Panrox System

It would only take a few moments for the crew of the Monolith to receive any sort of answer from the Octavian fleet, the pros and cons of this arrangement argued in full in the few moments that it took for the answer to be relayed to them, but the answer seemed to be clear enough once the Monolith received a message simply stating

Code: Select all

Affirmative

and then the fleet warped out of the system, waiting just within the one directly next to it within Octavian territory in case the proposed negotiations were to end poorly.

Atarvas System

Just as the Domain had asked a single shuttle holding a single dignitary would enter the system though the diplomat inside was likely not what the mages would expect from Octavia. The shuttle's interior was mostly black with red lighting illuminating the hazard suit that the diplomat was clad in though it certainly wasn't for its sake. If one were to look inside the suit and past the darkness that consumed the interior, one would see luminescent bulbs hanging down from what looked like stalks dangling from somewhere above the lights. A blue light revealed lime leaves growing out of something distinctly fleshy confirming that this was some sort of plant-based life; another, final look deeper would discover that the flesh that could be seen behind the plant matter was in fact some sort of organic, at this point its species could no longer be determined after extensive use by the parasite that was now in control of the body. The hazard suit was for the receiving dignitaries, not Mechanator Budding.

As the shuttle reached the Domain station, a message would be sent to the station to inform them of the Imperium's arrival.

To: The Dark Domain
As requested, an Imperial emissary has been dispatched alone within an unaccompanied diplomatic shuttle to meet your diplomats. If you would grant the Imperium permission to dock, we would be willing to begin negotiations.

Vonia-III

It had been a long time since Tenrin had enjoyed his work so much. Over the last year he had been working away at perfecting his hybrid creature, tweaking its DNA, carefully monitoring its development, and ever so closely watching the merger of the two Tzyakuza that he had been given. It was a careful process he was overseeing, making sure that not one gene had been spliced incorrectly, that no mutation would throw his masterpiece into ruin, that the mental state of the creature that he had made remained loyal to the Imperial cause, and most importantly, that The Paramount didn't cancel the project outright. Tenrin supposed he could understand his master's worries, the entire empire was based off the premise that flesh was inherently worse than the machine and to employ one to help win the most important war that the Imperium had ever faced? It sounded insane on its face, but Tenrin knew that what he was making had the potential to be the greatest asset the Imperium had to bear against its foes. Of course, it did have the side benefit of being the most engaging project that Tenrin had been assigned in his hundreds of years of working in OPRA but he wouldn't be mentioning that to The Paramount.

It was for work like this that he had been imprisoned all those hundreds of years ago, "Fools...", he thought. The indignities that the Abbadi Republic had inflicted upon him for improving their race were unforgivable! He was stripped of his honors, his wealth, all of his well-earned prestige for all the advancement he brought about for his people and because they thought live experimentation was a step too far, he was somehow a monster?

"Those morons got exactly what they deserved, I'm sure they would've listened to my suggestions if they had known that a superior people were coming right at them. Ugh, just thinking about the weaklings annoys me, with their babbling about intermixing of the clans being good and what not...Idiots, all of them. I mea-" As he was continuing his mental rant a message about movement inside the hybrid's chambers, "Ah, I should go check on it."

The lizard-machine walked his way over to the bed chambers of the hybrid. It had very recently had some of the last DNA strands implanted into its genetic code and it would be a good idea to see how it was taking to the last few changes to its gene-modding. He approached the door and thought of entering the room to which the door acquiesced and opened allowing Tenrin to enter the room. His first action, upon entering the room, before even announcing his presence was to give the Imperial salute, raising his hand a full 90 degrees and spinning his hand around in a full circle, mostly just to check if the hybrid had picked up on the smaller bits of Imperial procedure. He moved next to the hybrid's bed, a chair appearing behind him as he moved to sit (His mechanical tail retracting itself to allow him to sit down).

Tenrin would chuckle at the hybrid's comment "So I see I've made something of a philosopher. I didn't think that you would be all that introspective, but it doesn't matter much. What does matter is how this existence feels? How are you feeling?" Tenrin asked, his voice tinged with intrigue.

Orion Space

H'Krell had been waiting for this day. From the moment the Imperium had met that the Imperium had met the Ignisae with their empire at the time they knew that at some point in their history that they would come to blows. Two empires of such size and power could not border other without conflict and The Paramount, in his wisdom, directed Krell to send Infiltrators into their border planets to learn of their ways and prepare a path for the Imperial army when the time was right. Now was the time to strike and Krell (through some considerable politicking) had managed to take the position of Grand General of the campaign from Kranz and into his own hands, it was he who deserved to preside over the Imperium's greatest conquest so far. Afterall was not Krell the most loyal of The Paramount's followers? Had he not been The Paramount's right hand since the times of the civil war? It was only right that he got the prestige for this most momentous achievement.

He sat at the helm of the Voidscreamer, extensively renovated since its wrecking by the hands of the Zravvisk; all the architecture and pomp had been stripped away from the craft leaving only the plasteel hull exposed to the cold void of space. This, of course, left significantly more space for weaponry and point defense which was exactly what the space was filled with. Missile pods and point defense lasers, particle beam emplacements and boarding pods, they all filled the space left by the new renditions to the dreadnought. Krell looked at the inside of the craft and noted the similar changes within the interior of the dreadnought, instead of Imperial flags and busts of Imperial figures from over the years there were now laser turrets and screens for memetic attack should the craft be boarded again. The Voidscreamer was now a combat ready craft.

The Voidscreamer was not the only craft in the invasion force that Krell had assembled however, far from it, the Grand Mechanator had gathered a Grand Armada. 20,000 ships, not counting those carrying drones and Mechanators, were sent to invade the Orion Republic, the largest fleet that the Imperium had ever mustered and for good reason. The size of the Orion Republic meant that even this many ships wouldn't be enough to fully occupy the Republic, but Krell knew that ultimately the organics would be unable to stand against the reign of fire the Imperium would bring against them. His contingent of the 10,000 strong force was 7,000 strong, one of the largest of them all which was warranted for the leader of the invasion. Every fleet was en route to one of the border planets that the Imperium had bombed last year, and it seemed that Krell's fork of the armada had approached the planet which he had been sent to seize.

As the aramada appeared into orbit they took only a moment to settle after the jump before sending a message to the forces and fleets defending the world.

To: The Defenders of this World

Behold! The Imperium has sent its fleets to liberate the Ignisae people from the tyrant which is Strein! If you lay down your arms now, then you and those on the surface may be spared from the death and destruction that is war! Your corrupt government lies to you! Claiming that we are responsible for the desolation of these worlds when in fact the Imperial government has done nothing of the sort! If you surrender now, we can present such evidence to you and reveal the truth of your government's lies to you!

Krell was almost certain that these Ignisae would refuse the offer presented. Even if it were true the racism present within their foolish society meant that they would never take the word of one who wasn't one of the races that they arbitrarily decided to be worthy of equal treatment. This worked perfectly to Krell's designs, he wanted to cut down the Ignisae so that they may never pose a threat to the Imperium and if they wanted to send their army to their deaths then they could go right ahead. Their blood would only grease the gears of the Imperium.

[The Dark Domain]

ATARVAS SYSTEM
TEMPORARY BASTION
INTERNAL

Lady Tatiana sat watching the entry of the Octavian vessel to the system on the wall of crystal opposite "I DO wonder what use i will be with these Octavians" she said, a wry smile touching her lips "I can't imagine my charms would be particularly useful against a robot"

"You aren't there to seduce them" replied a gruff voice from the multifaceted gem imbedded in the table before her "you are there to find out what they want"

"And what they have to trade" added a second voice, this one lighter and more seductive

"Of course My Lords and Ladies" said the Enchantress as the metallic contraption beside her relayed the Octavian transmission "now I must greet my guest"

ATARVAS SYSTEM
TEMPORARY BASTION
EXTERNAL

The block of black stone floating in space unfolded like a flower, moving in ways that seemed to defy physics to form a pair of inverted pyramids connected by a walkway, covered with runes and surrounded by a shimmering bubble that contained air, on one stood a splendid wooden table and two chairs, all inlaid with gold, silver and walnut, in one sat Tatiana and several covered dishes, bottles and glasses sat waiting on the table

Tentacles of force unfolded from the other to coil gently around the ship and bring it in to land before vanishing

[Imperial-Octavia]

ATARVAS SYSTEM
TEMPORARY BASTION
INTERNAL

Lady Tatiana sat watching the entry of the Octavian vessel to the system on the wall of crystal opposite "I DO wonder what use i will be with these Octavians" she said, a wry smile touching her lips "I can't imagine my charms would be particularly useful against a robot"

"You aren't there to seduce them" replied a gruff voice from the multifaceted gem imbedded in the table before her "you are there to find out what they want"

"And what they have to trade" added a second voice, this one lighter and more seductive

"Of course My Lords and Ladies" said the Enchantress as the metallic contraption beside her relayed the Octavian transmission "now I must greet my guest"

ATARVAS SYSTEM
TEMPORARY BASTION
EXTERNAL

The block of black stone floating in space unfolded like a flower, moving in ways that seemed to defy physics to form a pair of inverted pyramids connected by a walkway, covered with runes and surrounded by a shimmering bubble that contained air, on one stood a splendid wooden table and two chairs, all inlaid with gold, silver and walnut, in one sat Tatiana and several covered dishes, bottles and glasses sat waiting on the table

Tentacles of force unfolded from the other to coil gently around the ship and bring it in to land before vanishing

Atarvas System

As the tentacles of the bastion came out to envelop the envoy craft its sensor suite began to cry out, begging for the ship's AI to evade the hostile force moving towards it, but the artificial pilot of the ship remained still aware that nothing should happen to its occupant (and if they were crushed by the mystic tentacles enveloping them, it would grant the Imperium vital insight on the ways of this new foe). Mechanator Budding personally found the whole situation very intriguing, it wasn't very often that one found themselves pulled into a magical space pyramid and the Endred planned to savor the experience. As the ship was docked, Budding made his way out of the craft, its door automatically opening once the onboard AI realized that it had reached the mystic port and began walking out. It would be clear that the Octavian ambassador wasn't exactly the standard as he staggered and lurched his body further, very obviously unused to movement. After a few tentative steps his walking pattern began to normalize into something far more normal and finally he reached Tatiania's table and sat down.

Budding pulled out a tablet with a tube connecting to the bio-suit that contained the Endred which would begin displaying white text for Tatiana to read, "Hello, I am Mechanator Budding of the Octavian Imperium here to begin negotiations with The Dark Domain." The tablet paused for a moment to show a quick gif of the Imperial flag waving with a thumbs up beneath it, "May I have your name?" The tablet provided a voice to speech prompt for Tatiana to speak through.

Ultimatum

Only a few days after the Stormwinds had noticed the military build-up on the border systems a message would be transmitted to the diplomatic arm of their government. The title of the message would be immediately alarming for any diplomat viewing it the first time, "Ultimatum on the matter of Stormlander Piracy". The document within was a large thing, numbering in the hundreds of pages all about a reported "epidemic" of piracy on the Octavian-Stormlander border with various logs reporting attacks on hundreds of cargo ships with damages numbering well into the hundreds of trillions of credits. Of particular note to that unfortunate first reader would be a list of demands that would follow soon after the descriptions of the damages caused by the apparent epidemic of piracy.

...As a result of these damages against the Imperium and the seeming inability of the Stormlander government to control this overwhelming wave of piracy spilling over into Octavian borders, we are forced to issue a list of demands in order to secure the future integrity of Octavian trade.

1. The Stormlander government is to allow for Octavian observers to enter into its government and military to determine the causes of the deficiencies in pirate suppression.

2. Octavian advisors will be allowed to edit and create laws in the Stormlands in order to curtail future piracy until such a time where the pirate threat is deemed to have past.

3. A Mechanator presence is to be placed onto each of the owned planets of the Stormlands in order to ensure the compliance to any new laws provided by the Imperial advisors as well as providing assistance to security forces in the Stormlands in dealing with the pirate problem.

4. Stormlander military forces may be ordered by Octavian advisors in order to better co-ordinate pirate suppression in conjunction with the above measures. Said orders given by advisors will be on the same authority as the highest military official within the Stormlands.

5. The previous damages done to Octavian shipping due to the unchecked piracy shall be repaid by the Stormlander government with an intrest of 10% as to recoup the damages done to the Octavian economy.

6. The above measures will be put in place indefinitely until such a time where it has been deemed that the pirate issue has been resolved and Octavian shipping is once again considered safe.

The Stormlander government has 36 hours (or any equivalent thereof) to accept these terms lest the Imperium need to consider punitive action to protect its shipping lanes. The Imperium hopes that a peaceful resolution, but it will not and cannot accept this flagrant abuse of its shipping and trade. We are willing to resort to whatever necessary methods to prevent future violation of Imperial trade. We implore the Stormlander government to accept the terms outlined above to prevent any potential unneeded loss of Stormlander life...

The message continued farther from there, continuing to urge the Stormlander leaders to accept the terms of their ultimatum and prevent any hypothetical bloodshed but it was clear what it would be now. This was the beginning of everything that the Stormlander generals had been fearing since they had noticed the military build-up. The die had been cast and now came time to see what would come of it.

The following sections of the post were written in a co-write with Pax Cybertronian

Sardinia
Italy

It was not that long ago that he was Prime Minister.

Although Antonio Bocci still held that title, it was not much more than an honorary position at this point. He could remember the Passione gangsters that had infiltrated his government so thoroughly, the same ones who had invited him into one of their compounds in Venice for one reason or another were allowed into the government’s buildings without any hassle. He didn’t know why quite yet but he had hoped that he could avoid the worst of what Passione had to offer. It wasn’t uncommon for politicians who had opposed their will to end up dead and in strange and horrific ways, cars exploding from out of their bodies, vomiting pounds of razors and having scissors burst from their jugular veins. Antonio hoped that he might be able to avoid such a horrible fate.

Although he was the gang’s puppet, there was one thing he was doing to defy their will. Just one single thing that could’ve possibly incurred their wrath.

“Do they know?” he thought. “Could they know that I was looking into the Boss?”

It wasn’t particularly long ago that he had started to try to look into the identity of the Boss, finding nothing but the vaguest hints of potential identities. Not that he even had nailed down which one might be accurate or if he even had the right names but it was a start. Perhaps he’d be able to narrow them down somehow, a little more digging through financial records and checking lineages and maybe he’d be able to get a lock on the bastard. He even had hired some people to get some information out of his father while hiding his own identity in the process. Even if they were caught no one in that organization would be able to track it back to him. That much should be impossible.

He was so sure was going to be safe from being murdered inside this place he was invited into. Nothing could stop him now.

As he approached the gates to the house, he was sure he would find out who the Boss really was.

He walked forward onto the gravel path and looked at the imposing building in front of him. It appeared to be a simple warehouse with large red doors in the front and no windows.

“Why is this place so ominous? Maybe that’s what they wanted me to feel?” Antonio thought as he approached the door.

He hesitated for a moment before opening the door, what if he did know? Could he run? Perhaps he could join Cobra and continue his work from there?

“Calm down Antonio! If you run now, he’ll know for a fact that you went behind his back. You must remain calm… he shouldn’t know what I’m up to, I’ll be fine as long as I keep my cool.”
Antonio thought before he threw open the door to find nothing but a concrete floor, some assorted crates, and a pink-haired young man in a purple sweater that exposed his midriff. He wore a nervous look on himself that seemed uncharacteristic of a mafioso like himself but Antonio reckoned that he was just some gangster sent to search him for their boss. He did find it strange that someone so young would be chosen to watch someone so important to Passione but Antonio took it as more proof that he was safe from being killed by one of their assassins.

“Please walk in, Mister Bocci. The Boss should be calling any minute,” the man said.

Antonio nodded while he looked around for a phone. He looked at the man and around the warehouse and yet it seemed that no phones were around the general area. It was strange but perhaps there was something that Antonio wasn’t seeing.

“How bizarre… He’s going to call me?”

Antonio had to wonder what this was about, he knew this boss was secretive about his identity but this was ridiculous. On the bright side at least it gave more credence to the idea that he would survive this encounter.

Suddenly, the man began making a weird noise as his eyes began to glaze over as he seemed to be looking for something.

“Dorurururururru! Dorururururururu!”

Antonio looked on confused as he walked about looking for something yet unknown.

“Are you oka-” Antonio tried to interject before he was interrupted by a man, who was now on his hands and knees, looking for something.

“Shh! I’m looking for the phone!” he was yelling at this point as he frantically searched for this non-existent phone.

“I’m not understa-”

“Dorururururururu!” Finally, the man seemed to come upon his “phone”, picking a button off of Antonio’s shirt and placing it on his ear. “Boss? Can you hear me?” He said as he held the button to his ear, clenching it between his thumb and pointer finger, “Yes, I see.” The man handed the phone over to Antonio. “The boss wants to speak to you.” and with that he started walking away, seemingly out of the warehouse.

Antonio stared at the button and looked at it, was there actually some sort of microphone that was hidden in his button or was the man he was talking to just crazy? He couldn’t see one, maybe if he-

“Hello, Mr. Bocci.”

A new voice entered Antonio’s ears and along with it an intensely painful warm feeling in his chest. He looked down to see a gaping hole in his chest, blood streaming from the wound staining his suit and pouring onto the floor. He tried to muster the strength to speak to the man behind him who was doubtlessly one of the assassins from Passione sent to kill him.

“You tried to discover my identity - for this, you must be eradicated, Antonio.”

The Boss spoke into Antonio’s ear, but how did he get here? How could he have possibly gotten into the warehouse without a sound? Antonio could barely think about these things as the sharp pain in his abdomen began to fade and it began increasingly hard to keep his eyes open. He tried to stand from the chair to attempt escape but his legs would move no further as he collapsed onto the ground taking his chair with him. He tried to move his hand up to crawl but it was no use.

It was here Antonio knew that he would die.

Diavolo watched as Antonio faded away, the former Prime Minister unable to pose any threat to his empire any further. The man had died with his pride intact as he struggled until he could no more and Diavolo could almost feel some respect for the ambition the man showed in attempting to take him down. Almost. Diavolo wordlessly walked out of the warehouse as Antonio's corpse lay on the cold concrete.

Necrom's Ship
Earth

Back in his ship, Necrom continued to read through his new Book. It was apparently of Unicronian origin, but now that he began reading it, he found it hard to stop. He believed that he might as well delve into its secrets and enhance his powers as much as possible. Strangely, it seemed to be specifically tailored to his interests. How coincidental, although he didn’t think too much of it.

Better he didn’t. He didn’t want to end up in the clutches of some fragging cult once they figured out just what he was tampering with.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t dwell on the topic much more as it appeared that the Paramount wanted him for something – again.

The screen on Necrom’s ship flashed red and purple. The Paramount had activated a comm-line with him.

”Hello Necrom, we would like it if you would bring the Pillar Men back from the dead.”

“Resurrect the Pillar Men…” he muttered to himself. He then spoke up louder. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. Would you rather talk to them or keep this comm-line open?”

“Don’t worry about keeping the comm-line open, we’ll be there fast enough to talk to them in person. We have some…choice words for them.” he said, a tinge of resentment in his voice

So… the Pillar Men pulled a stunt, it seemed, he thought to himself. Well, he was used to this. Very used to this. It was common enough in the Empire, yet the Decepticons still thrived. A bit of him thought that this environment even benefited the Decepticons, but he wasn’t absolutely sure about that.

Necrom raised his hands to the sky and crackles of purple energy erupted from them. Within a few seconds, they shot up towards the sky and ended up somewhere in Italy, the place where their consciousnesses were purported to have been terminated. From there, the bodies of Kars, Santana and Esidisi were reconstructed, their souls being brought back from the depths, and they were implanted within their newly-constructed bodies.

The process seemed to be improved greatly thanks to the Book of the Consumer Necrom found. He still had the urge to find more but he’d do that later. He had to appease the Paramount for the time being.

Kars looked around. He was alive?! Yet… he was in the Decepticon’s ship. He was thankful that the machine brought him back from the depths and yet… was the Paramount aware of his scheme?

No matter.

The Pillar Man began to laugh, and Esidisi and Santana followed soon after. “It seems not even death itself can hold the Ultimate Lifeforms back for long! Jojo! I will come for you soon enough!”

It hadn’t been very long after the Pillar Men had been brought back to life when The Paramount walked into Necrom’s ship almost as if he was waiting outside for this very moment. Kars stopped cackling.

”Ah, there you are. It’s been a while hasn’t it, Kars?” The Paramount scanned each of the Pillar Men to make sure that the presence that had possessed them was gone now, “Would you perhaps like to explain why your bodies were being controlled by some nanites last year?”

Nanites… but the culprits would either be some Autobot trick or those Gladians, Necrom thought to himself.

“The Pillar Men died about this time last year if my memory circuits are right… I can pinpoint that the corpses come from Russia, but the odd thing is that… that was just their bodies. Some Decepticons who were in Italy told me that they thought they could detect his consciousnesses when they reported the Pillar Men’s deaths to High Command.” It seemed like Unicron’s magics were doing him wonders, he thought to himself. “So, if I can ask… where did you see this?”

“Ah yes, that Ginostra business. That was us along with some annoyances from the organics. We found those three there in some gestalt controlled by nanites.” The Paramount paused for a moment to direct his attention back to the Pillar Men. “We do not yet know where the nanites are from specifically but we would like to know why it was that they had been a part of it.”

Esidisi and Santana turned to Kars. Maybe… he could think of a way out of this predicament?

Kars turned to face the Paramount. He believed he could fluff up the truth. “Unfortunately… it appears that the Gladians tricked us. We struck a deal with one of their agents and made us a part of their gestalt.”

Paramount began to snicker as he heard Kars’ attempt to conceal the full extent of the situation from him, did he really believe that such a deal wasn’t inherently traitorous? The snickering soon escalated into full blown laughter, how brazen he was to try and hide himself away in such a fashion. The Paramount shook his head as the last of his laughter began to subside.

“Ahahahaha….we were not aware you were a comedian, Kars. Do you not think that we wouldn’t know that whatever deal it is you made with the Gladians had to have been inherently traitorous? Please tell us, what sort of deal did you make with our enemies that would not make you traitors, hmm?”

How dare this insolent tin can mock me, Kars thought, scoffing as he did. I am the Ultimate Lifeform! No one shall dear mock me! I am Kars! I am- …no. I mustn’t get too angry. That’s what this machine wants. I will deal with it later. For now… I must contend with the Joestars. They are my top priority. Mark my words… I will crush the Paramount into scrap later!

“You dare insult the pride of the Pillar Men?” Esidisi interjected before Kars raised his hand, calming him. Perhaps a more diplomatic option sufficed.

“Neither of us will benefit if we come to blows now,” Kars said. “Don’t you want this planet? Only your forces and mine can bring about this planet’s conquest. How confident are you that the other forces of this planet can vanquish the Joestars?”

Paramount silently snickered as he watched the Pillar Men seethe at his words; for “ultimate” life forms they seemed to be unable to take a bit of ribbing. It was unimportant now, but it would be worth noting if their pride could ever be used against them.

“Moving past your bickering, there is a matter that requires your attention. Europe has fallen to revolutionaries and most of your Empire lies in ruin. You had best get on that if you wish to maintain your holdings.” he said neutrally, seemingly over the emotion that had him mocking the Pillar Men earlier.

As he turned to leave he realize that there was one more thing that he should tell the Pillar Men, “Ah yes, one more thing for all of you. Paramount’s head rotated around allowing him to look directly at the Pillar Men, “If any of you make any more “deals”, we’ll make sure that your race goes extinct. Permanently.” With that The Paramount seemingly faded from existence, a small yellow pulse emanating from the module in his chest.

As Paramount drifted through the alternate dimension that the module provided him, he could only think one thing of the Pillar Men: “Stupid organics…”

“Stupid machine,” Kars muttered under his breath as he turned to face Santana and Esidisi. Nodding at them, the three generated eagle-like wings and soared off.

Dio's Mansion
Florida

A year had passed since the Dios had begun waging war with Cobra.

DIO recounted that it was more or less a year and a few weeks, give or take, since Cobra Commander’s forces attacked his outposts. Their bombs had done a great deal of damage to his outposts, but his cultists were quick to pick up the slack and repair the damage done. He knew that he had to retaliate from that point on. How could he, DIO, let some insignificant ants assault him and impede his attempt at ruling the planet and, be it indirectly, his ascension to heaven? This could not stand.

After dealing a long lecture to his younger self about going off on his own crusades without him knowing (something about him crushing his younger counterpart’s skull; the affair was over relatively quickly) – he didn’t even bring any damn Stand users with him! This was a fact he needed to rectify going forwards; he’d bring Dio a Stand arrow at some point – he began plotting his retaliation. That Cobra Commander’s head would one day be beneath his feet, and he’d rid himself of those ever-so-meddlesome Joestars soon enough.

Even if his fight with Cobra was in some sort of stalemate – he, DIO, planned on fighting Cobra Commander himself soon, be it in Europe, in America, or even in Asia – his empire had been doing fairly well otherwise. Although his cultists were still somewhat lackluster, they were better trained than they were before. His army of Stand clones, coveted by his younger self from the Decepticon necromancer, was coming along nicely as well. He had even managed to covet the allegiance of Cobra Commander’s own son. What an amusing thought that was! He planned on gathering more information about Cobra Commander, and then, once Billy’s father was dealt with, he’d have Billy dealt with. If he carried even the slightest shred of his father’s ambition, he’d be a threat to his power.

He opened his diary and began reading it to refresh himself on his plan. He was thankful that Necrom had managed to extract his memories of the diary’s contents as Jotaro had so unkindly burned his original diary.

What you need is my Stand: The World.
What you can find beyond the powers of my Stand is where you need to go in order to find Heaven.
What you need is a trustworthy friend. He must be someone capable of controlling his own desires. He must be someone who is not interested in political power, fame, wealth, sexual desires, and must be someone who chooses the laws of gods before the law of men.
Will I, DIO, be able to meet someone like this one day?
What I also need is the lives of more than thirty-six humans who have sinned. That’s because those who have sinned harbor a strong power within.
There are fourteen phrases that one must keep in mind.

• Spiral staircase
• Rhinoceros beetle
• Desolation Row
• Fig tart
• Rhinoceros beetle
• Via Dolorosa
• Rhinoceros beetle
• Singularity point
• Giotto
• Angel
• Hydrangea
• Rhinoceros beetle
• Singularity point
• Secret emperor

I’ll engrave these words onto my Stand, so I won’t forget them. What is most necessary is courage. I must have the courage to destroy my Stand – momentarily. My Stand, as it disintegrates, will absorb the souls of the thirty-six sinners, and will give birth to something new.
Whatever is born will awaken. It will show interest in the fourteen words that my trusted friend will utter… my friend will trust me, and I will become his friend.
Lastly, I need an appropriate location. North latitude 28 degrees 24 minutes, west longitude 80 degrees 36 minutes…
Go there, and wait for the new moon… that’s when heaven will come…

DIO closed his diary and placed it in his drawer. It was time to contact the Octavians to see what new improvements had been made. He had his trustworthy friend, Pucci, who would continue his plan if he died. He just needed thirty-six souls to fulfill his plan, but neither those Cobra upstarts nor the Joestars and their friends could be allowed to interfere.
Before he ascended to heaven, those who opposed him would have to be crushed.

[Ella2 6]

OFFICIAL DISPATCH



TITOCHI IN KAKEMAWO
Quingy of Stormlands House of State

TO THE OCTAVIAN IMPERIUM FOREIGN OFFICE

In light of the apparent pirate infestation along the Kakemawo-Octavian border, the government of Kakemawo extends its full support to the government of the Octavian Imperium and stands with the Octavian Imperium in solidarity. Kakemawo will accept the following terms of the 'Ultimatum on the Matter of Stormlander Piracy'.

1. Octavian and neutral observers will be permitted to investigate the cause of any deficiencies relating to piracy suppression in the House of War.

2. Octavian diplomats will be permitted to advise the House of State on government policy relating to piracy suppression.

3. Octavian diplomats will be permitted to advise local planetary governors on matters relating to piracy suppression.

Kakemawo cannot accept the remaining three terms of the 'Ultimatum on the Matter of Stormlander Piracy'. Kakemawo has always respected the sovereignty of the Octavian Imperium. The Octavian Imperium should show Kakemawo the same respect. Any threats to the sovereignty of Kakemawo will be met with an appropriate response.

For the remaining three terms of the 'Ultimatum on the Matter of Stormlander Piracy', Kakemawo will offer the following counteroffers:

4. Kakemawo will permit Octavian military advisors to work closely with the House of War in matters relating to piracy suppression.

5. Kakemawo will offer international aid to those affected by the pirate infestation.

6. Kakemawo will maintain appropriate measures until such a time when piracy in the affected regions has been deemed to be sufficiently reduced by neutral observers.

If the government of Octavian Imperium finds the above terms unfair, Kakemawo is more than willing to submit to the judgement of an international conference.

[Sky Reavers]

The situation had changed, Octavian forces are extremely dangerous and uncompromising foe even agaisnt fiercest and most clever of revolutionaries, and so, it's imperative to prevent them from regaining their strength. Otherwise, without the momentum, Sky Reavers will fail to defend humanity. With this in minds, the Council had another session about the situation and came up with several new plans. After they all have been considered, the council voted and approved several plans, they thought, would work the best.

Plan "Stalin"

Spymaster Blackbird, Casey James and Isabella saw the espionage and camp rebellion reports and realized, that despite it's ingenuity, the previous plan with Octavian drones "purging" collaborators has been uncovered. Enemies no longer trust these machines and there msut be a change in plans. Still, to her, that was only for good, as it's possible to analize the mistakes and make adjustments in strategy. For example, most drones from "Purge" assignments would be reassigned to the enemy frontlines, where they could move more freey, scout enemy positions thanks to the transmitters inside them, or even sabotage enemy artilley in rare mometns, whenever it's possible to do so. These drones' cores would be rigged to explode and blow up when either remotely triggered by the agent, when he sees fit. Like, this drone is near some important object. Or when they are destroyed. And yet, a fraction of the fake drones would still attempt to hunt and kill collaborator officers for "Treason", just to make it look like Reavers didn't suspect a thing.

It was harder to replicate mechanators and in such way, that it's not a paper thin disguise, due to enemy being highly advanced. Indistinguishable ones are extremely hard to make, and thus would be used as wisely as possible. Thus, only three small squads of them have been created. Still, whenever a new fake mechanator is made, it would join one of three squads.

They had parts of their original AI modified to not be loyal to Octavia, just pretend. But could be given commands, or even remotely controlled in case there is a need to do something complicated. Whatever their sensors saw, could be seen by agents assigned to control them. They are made to behave like Octavian true mechanators, but due to incomplete cultural knowledge, some more complicated aspects might lead to slip up. Still... agents knew, that "too perfect" can also tip off an imposter, so they left it as is.

Squad "Yagoda" would be taked with espionage in Collaborator most important facilities. These "mechanators" wouldn't just kill key officers outright. Under the guise of "Overseeeing" due to increased cases of espionage and Sky Reaver subversive activities, they would be gathering intel, seeking for assets, aiding and advancing spies and obstructing counterintelligence by sending them on a wild-goose chase, diverting attention from real spies, or giving them double agents to catch. They would also still kill key officers "for treason", but not outright. They would at first either find some flimsy evidences or just plant some. Every intrigue or corrupt person within the structure would be a great asset too, and so such shadowy games would be subtly encouraged. Them being able to give orders in Octavian name just makes the task easier. Each important action would be checked before beign conducted, failure in this operation would cost much.

Squad "Yezhov" would infiltrate some of the "Rebellious" production camps, under the guise of putting the rebellions down. Wherever some mechanator was downed, one of them would come and replace it. After this, a rebellion is "put down", or appears to be put down, and then Yeshov mechanators would "Oversee" the production of energy weapons. To make rebellion being put down less suspicious, fake mechanators would execute the "snitches" among the prisoners, so this doesn't look suspiciously bloodless. Many weapons producd would work fine, but some of the weapons would look fine only at first glance, but elaborately rigged to explode or malfunction after some extensive use. In the meantime, some of the weapons or their parts would be misplaced, so it would look like logistic failures.

Squad "Beriya" gets an important task to infiltrate Octavians in Kiev plus the rest Ukrainian cities, and make it easier for Sky Reaver forces in Europe and Russia to finally reunite and cause some seroius trouble to Octavian forces and hopefully even kick the invaders back to space. They would firstly "inspect" enemy positions and send the data to Sky Reavers, and then if possible, during invasion, they would either assume control of enemy artillery and make it fire at enemy position, or just sabotage it. They would also try and sabotage other equipment, while keeping Reaver forces updated on the situation. Before the invasion though, they would remain dormant.

The plan was named Stalin, because no matter what the objective is, fake mechanators would conduct some purges within collaborator ranks when the opportunity arises.

Plan "To make Makhno proud"

Situation might and will become dire in Europe, if immediate action is not taken. Enemy bombardment of supply lines and infrastructure will prove trouble eventually. The attempts to put some facilities underground, disguise them, mark some fake ones, use anti-air defenses made of Octavian gear, and airforce are nice, but they alone would only delay the collapse of Europe. Thus, Shawn Bjornson, Casey James and Stan Dixon have drafted a plan to attack Eastern Europe from two sides, using captured artillery on known Octavian positions. If fake mechanators have exposed one, be it fortification, warehouse, logistic line, or other important object, it could expect to be pounded with captured Octavian artillery and Sky Reaver own, upgraded with scavenged and adapted Octavian parts before the main attack. All, while the anti-bombardment measures would hopefully make it harder for the enemy to finish the task in Europe and make them remain for longer, thus weakening their positions in orbital battles. Sadly, orbital battle is not something Sky Reavers can control...

Then Reavers would attack from two sides simultaneously after initial artillery strike, using intel, gatehred by fake mechanator squad Beriya and drones for more effective tactical planning. For western forces, this data would be most useful, as they are to press the attack due to haste and have to rely more on gathering supplies from enemy than eastern forces.

Also, Reavers would try to spark some rebellions in Ukraine near borders, if it's even possible, to distract enemy forces or perhaps even encircle them. All this is called Plan "To make Makhno proud". Perhaps, Reavers will make Makhno proud of his legacy.

[The Dark Domain]

Atarvas System

As the tentacles of the bastion came out to envelop the envoy craft its sensor suite began to cry out, begging for the ship's AI to evade the hostile force moving towards it, but the artificial pilot of the ship remained still aware that nothing should happen to its occupant (and if they were crushed by the mystic tentacles enveloping them, it would grant the Imperium vital insight on the ways of this new foe). Mechanator Budding personally found the whole situation very intriguing, it wasn't very often that one found themselves pulled into a magical space pyramid and the Endred planned to savor the experience. As the ship was docked, Budding made his way out of the craft, its door automatically opening once the onboard AI realized that it had reached the mystic port and began walking out. It would be clear that the Octavian ambassador wasn't exactly the standard as he staggered and lurched his body further, very obviously unused to movement. After a few tentative steps his walking pattern began to normalize into something far more normal and finally he reached Tatiania's table and sat down.

Budding pulled out a tablet with a tube connecting to the bio-suit that contained the Endred which would begin displaying white text for Tatiana to read, "Hello, I am Mechanator Budding of the Octavian Imperium here to begin negotiations with The Dark Domain." The tablet paused for a moment to show a quick gif of the Imperial flag waving with a thumbs up beneath it, "May I have your name?" The tablet provided a voice to speech prompt for Tatiana to speak through.

The Enchantress smiled warmly at the creature before her, showing none of the confusion she felt (she had expected to be meeting with a robot) "I offer greetings Mechanator Budding, I am Lady Tatiana von Obrigo, Voice of The Dark Figure"

She gestured at the laden table before her and the covers on the dishes before her vanished, exposing a wide range of delicacies, from meat to shellfish, fruit, vegetables and various desserts, all perfectly prepared, bottles rose form the table and filled the wine and beer glasses before them both "Please partake of my table, freely and without obligation" Tatiana reached out and picked up one of the wine glasses and took a sip "I am uncertain if you eat but the offer of food and drink is traditional in Domain diplomacy, do tell me if there IS anything I can offer you that isn't here"

The Voice put down her wineglass and leant forward placing her elbows on the table and resting her head on her folded hands "So what then ARE your intentions in Domain space?"

[Irenton]

Resource Consolidation Station #5412

“Hello, you are speaking to East Diplomatic Node #A442. Please present the details of your alliance so that they may be processed and taken into consideration.” A cold, robotic voice spoke this time clearly coming from the diplomatic AI which had manifested itself in front of them. If they wanted to expedite their time on this station, they had certainly done it.

Well, Kirin thought, that certainly had sped things up.

Say what she would - in private, of course - about the Octavians, she could certainly not deny that when it came down to it they got things done. She hadn't even had the time to assemble a notes draft on a possible - and certainly temporary, HIGHCOM would see to that - alliance between the two powers, and already she was being asked to present it. The time for careful planning, it seemed, had been abandoned; there was little doubt in her mind now, the Octavians were having more difficulties than had otherwise been apparent.

"I am Lieutenant Kirin, officially representing the Irenton Empire in these negotiations." A good first sentence, simultaneously presenting one of the two involved parties and allowing Kirin time to think of whatever would come next. "In accordance with that capacity as representative, I have been authorised by my government to present preliminary terms for a military cooperation agreement between our two parties. The Irenton Empire wishes to extend, to the government of the Octavian Empire, a joint official declaration of non-aggression and friendship - with the Irenton Empire to be permitted to provide military forces to assist the Octavian Empire in its current conflicts. Given the current nature of the situation, the official legal documentation of this agreement will be temporarily postponed, until such a time as the Irenton Empire and Octavian Empire can meet at an official summit, with location and negotiators to be determined."

She turned back to look at Arthus, completely covered in his bulky suit of black power armour. Though his face wasn't visible - with only a small, wide, dome where the very top of his head would be making it apparent that there was even a person underneath the suit - she knew that he was practically chomping at the bit to get into the action. She had known him long enough to understand - and even begin to appreciate - his strange personality; he was far more at home, comfortable if you will, aboard the bridge of a starship in the thick of combat than in the relative safety of the station.

"Once these preliminary terms have been confirmed," she said, turning back to look at Valten, "it would be very useful if you could put us through to some form of military command. We're fresh and ready for any conflict zone we're needed in."

Over IntraSAT, silent to all except Eule and Arthus, Kirin simply said, "we're in."

[Ignis States]

Vonia-III

It had been a long time since Tenrin had enjoyed his work so much. Over the last year he had been working away at perfecting his hybrid creature, tweaking its DNA, carefully monitoring its development, and ever so closely watching the merger of the two Tzyakuza that he had been given. It was a careful process he was overseeing, making sure that not one gene had been spliced incorrectly, that no mutation would throw his masterpiece into ruin, that the mental state of the creature that he had made remained loyal to the Imperial cause, and most importantly, that The Paramount didn't cancel the project outright. Tenrin supposed he could understand his master's worries, the entire empire was based off the premise that flesh was inherently worse than the machine and to employ one to help win the most important war that the Imperium had ever faced? It sounded insane on its face, but Tenrin knew that what he was making had the potential to be the greatest asset the Imperium had to bear against its foes. Of course, it did have the side benefit of being the most engaging project that Tenrin had been assigned in his hundreds of years of working in OPRA but he wouldn't be mentioning that to The Paramount.

It was for work like this that he had been imprisoned all those hundreds of years ago, "Fools...", he thought. The indignities that the Abbadi Republic had inflicted upon him for improving their race were unforgivable! He was stripped of his honors, his wealth, all of his well-earned prestige for all the advancement he brought about for his people and because they thought live experimentation was a step too far, he was somehow a monster?

"Those morons got exactly what they deserved, I'm sure they would've listened to my suggestions if they had known that a superior people were coming right at them. Ugh, just thinking about the weaklings annoys me, with their babbling about intermixing of the clans being good and what not...Idiots, all of them. I mea-" As he was continuing his mental rant a message about movement inside the hybrid's chambers, "Ah, I should go check on it."

The lizard-machine walked his way over to the bed chambers of the hybrid. It had very recently had some of the last DNA strands implanted into its genetic code and it would be a good idea to see how it was taking to the last few changes to its gene-modding. He approached the door and thought of entering the room to which the door acquiesced and opened allowing Tenrin to enter the room. His first action, upon entering the room, before even announcing his presence was to give the Imperial salute, raising his hand a full 90 degrees and spinning his hand around in a full circle, mostly just to check if the hybrid had picked up on the smaller bits of Imperial procedure. He moved next to the hybrid's bed, a chair appearing behind him as he moved to sit (His mechanical tail retracting itself to allow him to sit down).

Tenrin would chuckle at the hybrid's comment "So I see I've made something of a philosopher. I didn't think that you would be all that introspective, but it doesn't matter much. What does matter is how this existence feels? How are you feeling?" Tenrin asked, his voice tinged with intrigue.

Orion Space

H'Krell had been waiting for this day. From the moment the Imperium had met that the Imperium had met the Ignisae with their empire at the time they knew that at some point in their history that they would come to blows. Two empires of such size and power could not border other without conflict and The Paramount, in his wisdom, directed Krell to send Infiltrators into their border planets to learn of their ways and prepare a path for the Imperial army when the time was right. Now was the time to strike and Krell (through some considerable politicking) had managed to take the position of Grand General of the campaign from Kranz and into his own hands, it was he who deserved to preside over the Imperium's greatest conquest so far. Afterall was not Krell the most loyal of The Paramount's followers? Had he not been The Paramount's right hand since the times of the civil war? It was only right that he got the prestige for this most momentous achievement.

He sat at the helm of the Voidscreamer, extensively renovated since its wrecking by the hands of the Zravvisk; all the architecture and pomp had been stripped away from the craft leaving only the plasteel hull exposed to the cold void of space. This, of course, left significantly more space for weaponry and point defense which was exactly what the space was filled with. Missile pods and point defense lasers, particle beam emplacements and boarding pods, they all filled the space left by the new renditions to the dreadnought. Krell looked at the inside of the craft and noted the similar changes within the interior of the dreadnought, instead of Imperial flags and busts of Imperial figures from over the years there were now laser turrets and screens for memetic attack should the craft be boarded again. The Voidscreamer was now a combat ready craft.

The Voidscreamer was not the only craft in the invasion force that Krell had assembled however, far from it, the Grand Mechanator had gathered a Grand Armada. 20,000 ships, not counting those carrying drones and Mechanators, were sent to invade the Orion Republic, the largest fleet that the Imperium had ever mustered and for good reason. The size of the Orion Republic meant that even this many ships wouldn't be enough to fully occupy the Republic, but Krell knew that ultimately the organics would be unable to stand against the reign of fire the Imperium would bring against them. His contingent of the 10,000 strong force was 7,000 strong, one of the largest of them all which was warranted for the leader of the invasion. Every fleet was en route to one of the border planets that the Imperium had bombed last year, and it seemed that Krell's fork of the armada had approached the planet which he had been sent to seize.

As the aramada appeared into orbit they took only a moment to settle after the jump before sending a message to the forces and fleets defending the world.

To: The Defenders of this World

Behold! The Imperium has sent its fleets to liberate the Ignisae people from the tyrant which is Strein! If you lay down your arms now, then you and those on the surface may be spared from the death and destruction that is war! Your corrupt government lies to you! Claiming that we are responsible for the desolation of these worlds when in fact the Imperial government has done nothing of the sort! If you surrender now, we can present such evidence to you and reveal the truth of your government's lies to you!

Krell was almost certain that these Ignisae would refuse the offer presented. Even if it were true the racism present within their foolish society meant that they would never take the word of one who wasn't one of the races that they arbitrarily decided to be worthy of equal treatment. This worked perfectly to Krell's designs, he wanted to cut down the Ignisae so that they may never pose a threat to the Imperium and if they wanted to send their army to their deaths then they could go right ahead. Their blood would only grease the gears of the Imperium.

Orion Space

For a moment after the message is broadcast, there is absolutely no response. The space near the fleet is completely silent. For a moment, there is nothing.
In an entirely separate dimension known as the Void, a fleet of 100 ships sails through a swirling current of purple light at several thousand times the speed of light.
Sleek and angular, black in coloration, the warships aren't too impressive size-wise, simply being 1.5km long each.

One of these ships in particular, a Saevkyruz-class assault craft, flies in front of the others. In the center of the bridge, a small room filled with glowing hardlight monitors and a variety of computer consoles, a lone figure sits in a chair at the far end of the room, a large monitor in front of him.
His outfit is a standard NSU, a blood-red shirt tucked tightly into a black cargo skirt, complete with black leggings and dress shoes. The right side of his chest, just above his pocket, is a nametag reading "Eiteruz". Over his left pocket is a bar sporting various ribbons, almost too much to even fit on there adequately. His collar sports two shining pieces of metal, shaped like silver kite-shields with golden centers.

"Navigator, how much longer?" In a chair next to him, a human with a similar uniform looks up from the monitor, a purple star on both collar points.

"In mainline space, they're a few lightyears ahead, sir." Captain Eiteruz, leader of the strike force, a Continental Corps' worth of men, nods.

"Send out the order to the other Captains. We're entering realspace." After receiving a 'yessir!', he goes back to staring at the monitor.


The Octavians finally get their response; In a flash of purple light, less than a lightyear away, a strike force of 100 Ignisian ships breaks through the Void and into mainline reality. Fire controlmen brace themselves and Eiteruz stares at his computer console.

"Sir, the time to strike is now! On your orders, sir!" An Akagaitan woman, the rank of a Centurion displayed on her sleeves as opposed to her collars, yells.
And with that...he shouts the fateful word: "Fire!"

To the Octavians, it seems as if something briefly enters their close-range detection before, at once, all hell breaks loose. A hellish combination of photonic and ion bombardment is fired from all 100 ships at the Voidscreamer in particular. As soon as the first volley is finished up, the ten assault crafts fire odd looking beams of energy, a swirling mixture of black and white.
"All ships, repeat this firing pattern until ordered otherwise, over!" And with that, Captain Eiteruz waits with clenched fists and flattened ears. Will these blasts destroy their shields in time for the Mizlrvekiza to take effect? He can only hope.
If all goes well, the bombardment will be sufficient to weaken their shields so the Mizlrvekiza can destroy large chunks of the Voidscreamer's physical mass. But that's a mere hope.

Vonia-III

The chimera simply returns the salute after a few moments of deliberation, perfectly executed. The look on its face is, however, one of amused disdain now.
"I feel excellent. Moving, breathing, feeling the power in my body...There's really nothing like it." The chimera thrusts their arm out, whereupon a scimitar-like blade of pure, razor-sharp bone erupts from the underside of their arm, sort of like a tonfa. An eerie chuckle builds within their throat.

"I'm a walking weapon. Even most machines can't come close to what I am. Thank you. You've created something better than yourself. All scientists dream of that, right?"
A...tad bit arrogant, aren't they? Slowly, they stand up before walking towards the exit of the room. Tenrin is almost completely ignored by them, surprisingly.
"Reimrask. If you want a name, it's Reimrask. Do you have any orders?"

[Gonswanza]

Despite being told to refuse, they instead let them pass. The events prior of the strange anomalies had rattled the troops, of course, as they'd rather not be forced to fight and die over something as pointless as a letter. Hence, the infiltrators (whom they had assumed were human) are allowed to pass on to their final destination, even with a pair of rather annoyed leaders being present for them, the rest of the cabinet being dismissed or unavailable due to more immediate matters.

However, the world was, of course, on a razor's edge. These anomalies didn't help it either, but at least tensions won't skyrocket overnight due to this. In fact, it may even help reverse them, slightly, buying up some futile few seconds on the doomsday clock which continues to teeter dangerously close to midnight itself.

Just as Laura Ortiz had desired, orchestrating a global crisis from behind the scenes, a madman given the power to change the world. An insane puppet master, pulling the strings as she desired.

[Eisenstern]

---

【✦】Deep Space【✦】
【Fringes of Octavian Territory】

The Dreadnoughts - Randy Dandy-Oh

⠀

---

It was very difficult to hide in space. There was fundamentally very little one could hide behind, or within, or between - a vacuous void, its meagre contents laid bare for any errant pulse of sensory probing. Yet it was also very unlikely that the lone robed figure, suspended in the airless expanse in a fairly casual, standing pose, would be picked up by anything much. Space, for all its lack of cover, was also very large. Nobody had any real reason to trawl through this particular backwater tract of it, and certainly no reason to look for a single human-sized speck - an object that statistically-speaking may as well have not existed. Of course, there were other precautions in place. The difficulty of concealment was, after all, more or less meaningless to those who didn't abide by the rules that made it so.

Seven hadn't been waiting long. Even with everything in place, extending the operational window too far would prove risky. From between folds of black cloth, a mirrored mask reflected myriad stars; a mass of inky void, broken up by specks of warped, distant fire. Eight of which began to very suddenly grow in size. These were not stars - too close, too small. Far too uniformly scattered. Eight vortices of light, coming into being mere hundreds of meters away along a perfectly-centered axis. They blossomed outwards in sync with one another, sprouting eight amalgams of wood and polished metal - tangled in the curved reflection, they resembled merely some abstract jumble of timbers, perhaps borne from the nightmare of a carpenter. Outside the mirror-world, however, one could quite clearly discern them as ships.

Seven small, one large. Still miniscule by comparison to warships one could find scant scores of light-years away, mired in combat - a galleon and a gaggle of sloops, by naval standards long since forgotten. In the face of some kilometers-long dreadnought, almost laughable. Yet archaic forms and substandard sizes didn't quite match up with the caliber of trouble these eight hulls had been embroiled in over the past year. They came abreast of the figure, now - brass and lacquered hardwood, drawing level, rushing past. Seven waited for the elevated prow of the largest ship to slide alongside her, fingers brushing against each brassbound letter in turn - "Morgan's Revenge". Then the deck was at foot level, and thus she stepped aboard.

---

【♜】The Tower【♜】
【Council Realms, The Forge Below】

Vernian Process - Behold the Machine

⠀

---

Gong.

Mallet on metal. Scale unimportant, mutable - kilometers per atom, folding inwards, arranged just so. A hand grips the haft, brings it around for another swing. Gigatons of arbitrary explosive, packed into a light tap.

There are other hands. One grips a star, funneling its heat into rivulets of alloy. Run along grooves, passed through itself, tweaked to perfection. Another holds a glass of lemonade. This is thirsty work.

---

The Sixth Councillor stepped back a foot or two. Irritably, she noted the inconsistency - with a gentle adjustment of locality, feet became miles. Alvad approached with an ornate jug, refilling the proffered glass; gulping down another measure of lemonade, Sabira gave a satisfied grunt.

"That should do it."

It was a thing of beauty. Neither of them saw it so as a baseline, as fundament, but neither of them could deny it. Exactly eight hundred meters in length, down to the hadron - colossus to some, glorified strikecraft to others. It didn't matter either way. The hull twisting, spirelike - delicate at first glance, yet structurally coiled along complex optima, drawing strength from angles not ordinarily attainable to any shipwright or artisan. Paradigms more familiar to artists, perhaps, or madmen. Lines of gold and silver, brass and iron, woven into contiguous unity; alloys at a macro-scale, combining a myriad sheens and colors into a single unified block. Each protrusion, existing either out of the purest, groundless need for expression of form, or the most plainly-presented, essential necessity. Perhaps a way had been found, here, to superimpose both. Vanes of crystal could be mistaken at first glance for ornate portholes, but lead simply to further external voids - no insight into the thing's interior could be found here, no visible sign of operability by man. Yet it very clearly had an interior, a viewable space if not a livable one, concealed beneath hullform intricacies; to behold it was to understand this, and possibly this too had been the intent, achieved through some arcane projection of idea unto corporeal being. It looked, to Sabira, good enough.

"Alvad, give me a timeframe. Arbitrary scale, shouldn't matter. Second refinement."

"One thousand, seven hundred and twenty-five years, nine months, eleven days, nineteen hours, eighty-one seconds as of the conclusion of this sentence."

"Externally?"

"Seven picoseconds."

"It'll do."

Joints cracked in the recesses of a body that had far too many. Another sip of lemonade, to underline the current state of contemplation.

"Fetch me a bottle of champagne."

One was produced, by unclear means, within the span of a few moments. Sabira weighed it experimentally in one hand, squinting vaguely at the distant prow of her creation.

"Tradition states that it be swung using a length of rope."

"Shape would make that tricky. Besides, what care do we have for tradition?"

The bottle sailed through the air across kilometers, at a speed that was as excessive as it was arbitrary. Its impact against the prow reduced it to a plume of scattered plasma, the shockwave blasting a superheated furrow in the ground beneath. Nary a mark was left at the site of impact, on the vessel itself; at a brief gesture from the Councillor, the faux-earth began to reknead itself back into uniform shape.

"Now that that's dealt with, it needs a name."

"I believe the order is, ordinarily, reversed."

"Blast. Of all the things to get wrong-"

"With all due respect, my lady. It can't be wrong, by definition. Not here."

The diminutive engineer's face went from a discouraged pout, through various wholly inscrutable intermediary shapes that probably shouldn't have been possible with standard facial musculature, into a vaguely puzzled frown. Then, a shrug, and a return to the usual baseline of absent-minded curiosity.

"I suppose you have a point. But we still need a name for it."

The two of them regarded the vessel, once more, in silence. In some cosmic way, it stared back. This went on for about as long as it would take to formulate a thought, before Sabira nodded her head in response to nothing in particular.

"Yes. That works."

A finger was flicked. Along the hull's surface, indentations sprang into being, winding around a portion of the prow. On their own they meant nothing, were nothing - they were designed and constructed to reflect within them something in each viewer, some facet that would allow for comprehension in a form that was known. Osmosis of language, of cultural context. Alvad had nothing of the sort it could piggyback on, so what it returned to him was essentially a debug string. Meaning without language, impulse without envelope. "Apex, Between the First Hours". He nodded, in turn.

"An excellent choice."

"As excellent as any other, under the circumstances. Now-"

She turned to him, appraisingly.

"What do you think of it?"

He looked fractionally down. Towering over her, there was some inner impulse to lower himself. To kneel, perhaps - right an interactive imbalance that didn't really exist outside of these theoretical confines. But he knew that this would only elicit annoyance. Thus he merely gave a fractional bow as he spoke.

"I cannot begin to discern the ultimate purpose behind it. However-"

Glancing over the thing's glimmering curves, he returned his attention to Sabira.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that it is adequately equipped, designed and constructed to handle whatever task you intend it for. It is, as always, an impeccable achievement."

"Hm. Well, I'm glad you're a fan - you are, as of this moment, assigned as its captain. Conditionally helmsman also, though it can handle that itself for the most part."

"My lady? You won't personally oversee it?"

A surprising development. Difficult to peg as "out of character", considering the lack of definition thereof, but still decidedly odd.

"Yes, sadly my schedule has been co-opted. You'll have to start out the first round of proceedings yourself - I'll return to it in due time. But for now you're the captain and project leader both."

"It is a great honor."

"Come along now - I'll lead you through the basics."

Distance contracted once more - up ahead, assorted metals flowed outwards, forming an opening large enough to accommodate them both. Golden strands beckoned from within the nebulous interior, revealed beyond mere promise. As two sets of feet ascended a ramp of shimmering silver, Alvad cocked his head.

"My lady, I must ask. What is the objective here? What goal am I to pursue?"

"Oh, the overall goal is easy. Minutae might be a pain to figure out, but I'm sure you can manage. I want you to, in essence, fight things."

"Things?"

"Ships, ideally. Throw it into combat. Try to co-opt existing conflict, hold preference for asymmetry - get it hit with as much assorted stuff as possible. Get shot at, shoot back."

"A limit-test?"

"Not entirely. I know the limits. This is more of a data collection thing - it'll make sense when you look over it all."

"The collated project."

"Focus on this for now. I will sort what needs sorting, rendezvous with you, and then we can begin in earnest. Now-"

As the hull was re-sealed in their wake, the ramp retracted, a final few snippets of dialogue drifted out into the open.

"We begin here, with wheels."

---

【♜】The Tower【♜】
【Guild Hall, Collation】

Light Club - Blizzard

⠀

---

"Report."

Two cloaked figures. A darkened room, its furnishings vague. There are elements of purpose here, but the darkness shrouds them.

"A novel element. Of potential use beyond local scope, but primarily useful within the current project."

"Of matching intentions?"

"Actively hostile to any and all Octavian interests, insofar as such are identified. Small in scope, comparatively. Easily missed, for the time being - a resource sink, but a minor one."

A face? Faces, multiple, shifting - an expression of thought.

"Act to secure a favourable first impression. Direct Rondel, obfuscate channels. Force an encounter."

"And ready an emissarial team?"

"Of course. Once you put something together, notify me."

There is no handshake, no thunderclap, not a sound to signify a changing state, a sealed pact. Only two already-indistinct forms, fading back into the darkness.

---

【♜】The Tower【♜】
【Council Realms, The Brume】

Dan Terminus - Solar Maxima

⠀

---

Sabira pushed open a set of double doors several times her height, each with the thickness of a not-insiginificantly aged tree. She did this with about as much effort as a toddler stepping on a sandcastle, but it was difficult to ascribe the feat to her own strength or the peculiarities of the locale. It could well be that they were feather-light regardless of size, or heavier still by far. Slabs of convincingly painted air, or creatively packaged neutronium. The truth lay, most likely, between the extremes - but at any time it could stand at either, or both at once. Such was the nature of this place. The room beyond was grand, lit by braziers that could have served as torches to giants. A table that could have seated hundreds was currently host to one; in truth two, but forming a single figure. Clad in shimmering darkness and pallid complexion, revealing little to the world beyond a face of ethereal, inhuman beauty. The Seventh Councillor turned, and waved to the Sixth.

"Glad you could make it. Hope this didn't fly in the face of too many projects of yours."

"Beyond where we're going through with it, I can't fault you. I can make time, for something like this."

A figure of speech? Difficult to assess, given the speaker. Celena smiled.

"Call it an added layer of security."

"You are anal about that sort of thing."

"Which is why this was a reasonable choice! In any case, they're all here."

There were plenty of assorted things scattered across the acres of table, but a patch in particular had been cleared. Six ornate arrows, arranged to point inwards. All of subtly different design, bearing marks consistent with varied histories. All inexplicably familiar. Sabira looked over them quizzically.

"This is all we have to work with?"

"There was a bow, as I understand it. But the framework doesn't actually require it. Oh, and-"

Something was withdrawn, from within the darkened folds. Intricate, angular, the size of a child's head.

"Vinz passed this along as well. Make of it what you will."

She set it down next to the arrows, forming a curious sort of collage. Sabira, for her part, grabbed something vaguely resembling a screwdriver from her belt.

"Let's have at it, then. Your turf, you start."

"Of course."

Casting her arms wide, the witch grinned. The air was cracked, and reformed, and arranged outwards into a framework of power. Temperature within the room plummeted, as expected - Sabira stepped forwards, and joined her fellow Councillor at the table. This would be a labour of two equally gifted, equally alien minds; it was very nearly exciting enough to gloss over not seeing the launch of her new toy. But it was an obligation, a duty enforced, and one that was not wholly unpleasant in concept or execution. She could have settled for worse.

Thus the two of them set to work.

[The-International Space Organization]

MDV-IX I33 'Blood Brothers'
Relative Dimensional Space 'Up'

---

"We've got realspace targeting brackets." Ira muttered, leaning into the targeting console - Adjusting the torpedo parameters as the MDV completed a 'long' turn. "Parameters confirmed. Fifteen megatons realspace, ready for launch."

The Blood Brothers was quite expect for the cracking of its hull against indescribable forces. "One torpedo, fifteen megatons." Ova rattled off, looking at the targeting data on his own screen. He much preferred the old fashioned methods when it came to this style of warfare - AI were good, but they could rarely replace the true competence of a well trained crew. "Load tube one, prepare to fire."

"Tube one, loaded." Ira called back. "Brackets drawn, wires rigged. Manual control over torpedo is... Confirmed."

"Target confirmed." The sensor officer, James, called. "One bracket, centered. Neutral command center, unaware of impending attack. Communications traffic normal."

"Are our other parameters clear?" Ova asked, his brain shifting to the final stages for a torpedo attack.

"No obvious chain reaction from center to large fuel tanks." James rattled off. "No notable traffic expect for accepted volume for a facility of this capacity and size."

"Good. Weapons, fire tube one." Shifting back in his chair, and bracing.

"Firing tube one."

---

An MDV torpedo was a miracle of the most advanced science in the universe. A long, thin, metal tube that had been refined over thousands of years from a hammer into a scalpel. A variable payload, advanced guidance systems, point defense systems, its own electronic warfare suite - One of these torpedoes could represent years worth of money for many governments.

This torpedo had been cheaper than many others - Relying on cheap antimatter over expensive H chemicals for its explosive payload, as the torpedo began to race forward from the tube. Massive accelerator rails ripped it from a standstill to an appreciable chunk of C in a few blinks of an eye, the VI taking over the moment it was given clearance to.

First, following procedures it would normally use against ships expecting this style of attack it went up in dimensions. Not many, seven or eight, but enough to hide its realspace shadow as it curved in its arc. Orientation upon exiting was one of the most critical parts of a torpedo, and dimensional space to real space was a nightmare of math to properly figure out in the fractions of a nanosecond the torpedo had.

Fifteen megatons worth of antimatter sat in its containment unit, bubbling with excitement - The VI surging downwards as it picked up energy at a rapid rate. Every 'hop' down brought it more, like an electron moving between levels... Closer. Closer. Closer. Faster.

The Torpedo surged into realspace less than a kilometer from the command center - Travelling at what might later be reported as being well in the area of .99C. The VI had but ten-thousandths of a second to trigger all the protocols. Within moments the torpedos' nosecone slammed into the top of the command center - And the payload of antimatter inside detonated.

---

Grumman Corporations Owned Mobile Foundry Ship 'Imperial Ambition'

---

"What do you mean I can't mine here?" Vernas turned, the ICN officer shrugging.

"Mining rotation came through, you're three sectors out of your license." The officer said, turning to look at the hangar. Shuttles and other mining vessels were coming home to roost, with his own transport behind him. "This sector is being transferred to a local galactic government for their own efforts, our rights finally expired."

With a sigh, Vernas dragged a taloned hand across his face in exasperation. "... Alright. We'll be gone shortly."

"Thank you for understanding." The ICN officer turned, stepping onto the shuttle - As Vernas raised a datapad from its holster at his side, sending off a quick query for his new location to High Command as the officers' shuttled slid out of the hangar bay. In its place more mining and transfer shuttles docked, as he moved through the corridors towards the interior tram system.

Thankfully the crew was well experienced, and already preparing for the move. He'd barely even stepped onboard a tram before his datapad pinged with a response - Vernas glancing down and frowning at it. After a few more moments he shook his head... It wasn't the oddest relocation ever, but... It sure took a notable place on that list.

Acknowledging that he had received the information, Vernas tapped his datapad and waited as it connected to his headset before issuing orders to the helmsperson on the other end. "I'm relaying new coordinates now, proceed to them with all do haste."

There was a pause. "Isn't that an active warzone, cap?" The helmsperson replied.

"It was downgraded recently." Vernas said, the tram coming to a halt as he stepped off it - Heading for the bridge. "It has decent mineral rights, and our scattered defense network should be more than enough by the intelligence also sent to me."

"Alright, cap'." The helmsperson muttered after a few seconds. "We'll be golden for jump in a half hour."

"Good. I'll be there in twenty minutes." Vernas cut the call, stowing the datapad and picking up pace down the corridor...

---

Someone had one compared an Elephant and its support vessels to a swarm of insects. And if one could stretch their sense of disbelief far enough, that comparison might be apt for a mining vessel. Seventy five kilometers from prow to stern, and carrying 56,700‬ pods it could become a monstrous industrial machine with few equals that were as truly mobile as it was.

An outside hull of mining modules fed into internal hangar bays, and massive conveyor belts and refineries turned raw material into advanced materials. Factory modules turned those basic and advanced materials into the industrial furnace that fed entire empires - And now, six of those ships from all across the eldritch economy that Stuhr was the face of were descending upon Octavia. Not for any overly nefarious purpose - No, for once, Stuhr was being honest with what he had told people.

Weapons and drones were the heart of the Octavian War Economy. Stuhr had agreed to upgrade the entire war machine from the ground up - Improving weapons, standardizing logistics, and changing an already massive army into one truly worthy of the title of a robotic swarm. These six ships were designed to do just that - Efficient machines capable of tearing apart entire asteroid belts in but months of dedicated production effort. Stripping entire planets down to their molten core in mere weeks, and churning it from raw resources into production.

These were Organization mining ships - And they were here for War.

---

Grumman Corporation MOSA-2 'Longshot'

---

"Hold that burnline." Ervak muttered, as the MOSA-2 burned through the atmosphere of a planet engulfed by alien invasion - Every EW and countermeasure system working at full overtime as it shunted its forward drop plates to a slightly different angle. A second later the thrusters roared in response as the burning comet of the MOSA-2 began to level out.

Despite being an utter monster of an aircraft, the MOSA-2 was fast. Massive over-sized H fuel powered thrusters gave it a kick that meant it was fully capable of true interplanetary travel on tis own - If mounted with the proper systems, and given a BFD. The 'Longshot' was once such MOSA-2, as Ervak glanced at his HUD. "Approaching drop zone."

"Thirty seconds." His copilot, Zela, called without a pause. "Drop bay ready."

The Longshot was a fast, nimble, vessel despite its raw size - Even with a cargo bay packed full of ammunition, guns, food, medical supplies, and anything else that they could pack into its oversized bays. As designed, the MOSA-2 was a troop transport. In Ervaks' claws, it was a blockade runner. An MDV had dropped them off just kissing atmosphere, and now they were racing to be through before anyone could vector to intercept them - Oversized engines churning atmosphere into speed.

"Five seconds. Dropzone cleared." Zela said, reaching up for a switch - The HUD flaring green as Zela flicked it, the cargobay spilling open. Within a breath, heavy duty parachutes had come thundering out of the cargobay. They'd been specifically designed for this stress, and barely even shuddered under the weight of drifting down to a gentle touchdown in a place well behind 'Skyhooked' lines for the soldiers to find...

Afterall, it was hard to keep an enemy bogged down without the proper weapons. And Organization made rifles were more than capable of doing the needed damage.

"Drop good." Zela said, as Ervak pointed the MOSA-2 towards the rally point - Burning upwards towards atmosphere with the first drop of many completed...