After three years, the Empire of snow and Crystal is returned to its rightful universe
After three years, the Empire of Snow and Crystal is returned to its rightful universe, a lot has changed within this time. What will happen now? Only Faust herself knows.
Rated Mature due to sexual language, nudity, and hinted or implied sex, no actual Clop takes place within this story, sorry. I'd like to note this is not a Displaced or Chess Game of the God's story, so please do not place this story into such groups. Fallout groups are perfectly fine however.
Featured 9/17/2020, twice, in the same day? I didn't think that was possible
Featured 9/18/2020, somehow, I didn't even post a chapter? How?!
I let out a groan as I woke up, my head hurt like nothing else, and I sat up, seemingly within my throne room, rubbing my face and injecting myself with some Med-X to help with the migraine I noticed a paper note on the floor, and thus picked it up. As I began reading my eyes got wide. 'Dear King Lorenzo, I have returned your Empire to its proper place upon this Equis, time has passed the same here as it did for you in the other world, three years has passed here as it did for you back there. Your two new worlds have been brought as well, I have a spell surrounding them and their solar systems which will only allow you and those you authorize into them, your little allies the Red River Union have been brought here as well, the same spell was applied to their solar system, think of it as a gift, as another gift take this gem, use it for your crown. Remember, I'll be watching. Love, Faust.' The letter ended at that, I flipped it over to see if anything was on the back, but nothing.
I set the note down and looked at the round gem on the floor, while mine looked like a random spot of space with stars n shit inside it, this one had an entire spinning galaxy held within, if it was an actual galaxy I didn't know, but from hearing Faust say 'tend to the multiverse' It honestly wouldn't fucking surprise me at this point. So I picked up the gem, took off my crown and popped the center gem out and tossed it into my inventory, and plugged this new gem into the socket left behind, it fit perfectly and made my crown look all the nicer. Alright so the Akun's solar system and the Letera's solar system, along with the ss'ket's solar system got brought here, least I didn't have to leave behind my two new planets, though I do wonder why she brought the ss'ket, a question for another time however. I expected some sort of disaster to strike within the next few moments as I felt like something was about to happen, and I was only half correct as Princess Celestia burst through the throne room's doors, shattering them in the process, and fucking tackled me like a god damned football player. "Lorenzo! I have missed you my friend!" She said, the joy clear in her voice as she began to nuzzle me.
Seemingly she had missed me, seeing as we had been friends, I was one of the few real friends she had before the Empire was tossed across the damned multiverse like a ball in a ping pong machine, I couldn't blame her, I had missed her as well, she was a true friend indeed, so I laughed and scratched behind her ear and returned the rather violent hug I was receiving. "I missed ya too you old fluffball!" It was at this moment Chrysalis walked into the throne room and just sort of stared at us, a look of disbelief on her face.
The moment Celestia saw Chrysalis her eyes narrowed and she was up within an instant, all four legs spread as her horn lit itself with a bright yellow magic, which began to condense into a ball shape, I lightly bopped Celestia on the snout causing the magic to fly upwards and through several ceilings. "Celestia, calm the fuck down, Chrysalis, this is my worlds Celestia, Celestia, this is Chrysalis from the other world, the head mare of my little herd."
Celestia's eyes widened and her face turned red, the bright blush against white fur easily visible. "Herd?" She asked, the shock clear in her voice.
This just caused me to laugh hard. "Yes, Herd, time passed the same over there as it did here, so I've had time to find myself a few lovely mares, though I don't think you'd like the second in charge." That was honest if her own history was anything to go by.
Raising an eyebrow as Celestia let her stance fall back into a less violent style. "How so?" Celestia asked, tilting her head.
I shrugged. "It's that worlds version of Nightmare Moon, she's a different being from Luna, and prefers to go by Moon now however."
Celestia's face went blank for a few moments, before she gave me a raunchy grin which I honestly didn't expect, what I didn't expect more was what she said next. "Well, seems someone's been a busy little stallion! Where are the foals?"
This caused me to turn red in return as I took a moment to process that, and managed to speak after a few moments while Chrysalis just laughed at me. "I don't want, nor will I ever, want foals, of any kind for any reason, as such I have taken medical precautions to prevent myself from having foals, the zebra potions I take daily make me effectively infertile, but will wear off after 24 hours." That was true, after my little surprise from Chrysalis the first time I damn well made sure it couldn't happen again, I wouldn't force my herd to take medications which would prevent them from having foals, that would be cruel, so instead I took such medication myself, and it wasn't permanent as said, I had to take one every morning for the effects to stay.
Celestia pouted at me but just smiled seconds later and laughed lightly. "Oh Lorenzo, I have truly missed you, you are one of the few living creatures who I need not worry die of old age before my eyes within what to me feels like a blink, let alone the fact you treat me like a normal mare, I will accept anyone you have decided to take into your Empire, be it citizen, or be it some eldritch abomination."
I chuckled. "Speaking of...I took in that worlds version of Queen Umbra, known as King Sombra, a male version of her, except a different species, because Umbra was just a corrupted unicorn, this guy is a living shadow."
Yet again her face went blank before she just shoved my face into her chest fluff. "Oh just shut up and hug me for now, we can talk about the mind numbing details later." As such I was smothered in royal chest fluff.
This went on for about 15 minutes before I stood up and patted her on the shoulder. "Alright Celestia, I have a public announcement to make, so stay to the side for now, same for you Chrysalis, I'll be done within I think, less than five minutes." I walked over to my throne and sat, before pressing a button on the holographic interface I had built into the arm rests, and several cameras lowered themselves from the ceiling and began to glow, signifying they where active now.
I looked into the cameras, keeping my face calm. "Citizens of the Crystal Empire, I speak here today to say, we have arrived back on our Equis, we are back, and our new citizens have come with us as well, the Akun, the Letera, and a few Ss'ket, and the Ss'ket's home system, the Letera's, and the Akun's has arrived as well, our Abyssinian Allies have arrived with us as well, for those watching on the world of Vanov or Letera-2, you are now in another universe, impossible as it may seem, this is the universe my Empire hailed from before we where tossed across the multiverse." I paused to take a drink of coffee. "Onto the most important matter, we have survived. We have fended off the Umbrum and annihilated them, while the damage done to our great Empire has been horrible, we have suffered lightly when compared to the others whom also faced the Umbrum, the living shadows, despite these losses, despite the death, we will rebuild, we will thrive as we always have done, and we will make anyone who wants to fight us regret the day they where born, or the day they where hatched." I said, tossing in one of the Akun and letera's common terms.
Going on I spoke. "We will be building a memorial for those who lost their lives, and holding a military funeral service for all of them. Know this, we will continue as planned, the time to make repairs will be a long one, but we will not let it hold us back, we shall continue to make strives and leaps in technology, medications, and arcane sciences, we will go on, I wish you all better days ahead than those we have left behind, you may continue about your day now." I cut the broadcast, this was going to be a long day. Thankfully since I had been blacked the fuck out for three days, most citizens where back on Empire soil, so that was something good to know anyways.
Celestia trotted up to my throne. "Vanov? Letera-2? Are you telling me you've taken two entire worlds into your Empire in the three years you've been gone?" She said, shock clear in her voice as she had a thousand yard stare.
Sighing I nodded, Chrysalis had gone off to oversee repairs, this was going to take awhile to explain. "Alright, so it happened like this...."
---------------------------------Equestria, Canter Mountain, Deep Below The Long Abandoned Crystal Mines------
An underground facility which had once been at the top of a mountain, now long buried beneath the soil and rock, began to activate, lights slowly flickering to life as systems restarted and while some refused to work, many worked as intended as the facilities Artificial Intelligence activated and woke from its long slumber. The broadcast of Lorenzo on his throne, speaking to his Empire played on the monitor and the AI's systems calculated, this was what it had been told to wait for, since what was in the video was clearly human, as such it began to take steps to contact the new power that be. S-s-s-system analysi--iiiis complete, broadcaaazzzzzzzst reci-vvv. Activating e-emergency beacon. The long blocked door of the facility screeched open, letting air rush into the facility for the first time in little over five thousand years, on that vault like door, was a circle made of stars with a capital E in the center.
I gasped and took a breath as I had just finished explaining to Celestia, how the Akun invaded, or tried and failed, to invade the alternate Equis, how they tried to invade mine, how I took them into my Empire with little force or resistance, and about everything I could think of from the alternate Equestria and Equis as a whole, handing over a storage crystal with all the information about them to her for later viewing. "Alright, that should cover everything you need to know, and what has happened so far, for Equestria, yours, the year is 2035, since your ponies have been keeping date since Equestria was founded, and has been around for two thousand thirty five years." I pulled out a Nuka Cola Quantum because that long winded explanation had left me thirsty as fuck, and I could use the energy boost it would give.
Before I even managed to get the cap off Celestia DOVE and snagged it with a screech of. "Mine!" Before rolling and landing sitting down, before she ripped the cap off using her magic and downed the entire fucking thing at a speed that should not have been possible. I just sort of stared at her, disbelief on my face, causing her to giggle and explain. "When your Empire vanished, it took your wonderful little sodas with it, and nopony else, not even my top chemists has been able to recreate your Nuka Cola, let alone your Nuka Cola Quantum, which is my favorite, so I just couldn't resist."
Laughing I patted her shoulder. "How about this, I'll send you 15 crates of Nuka Cola Quantum, and in return I can boop you whenever I want." I grinned at Celestia.
Celestia acted like she was thinking for a moment, her hoof under her chin, looking up at the ceiling, before she smiled and spoke. "I find this trade agreeable." She snorted and broke out laughing.
Before I was able to say anything else however my pipboy began to beep rapidly, so I looked at it and took the call, it was from an unknown source, I was shocked to see what looked to be a video recording of a man in a general's uniform.
The man was sitting in what looked to be some fancy ass leather chair, looking into the camera with a grave expression on his face. "This message is encrypted and for human eyes and ears only. This is General Blake Smith here of the last Enclave survivors trapped in Cheyenne Mountain Military Complex, this pre-recorded message has been sent to the surface by the Complexes ZAX computer, Code named "Calculator", to transmit on open frequency for all human survivors of the Great Calamity. We are all likely dead by now, but we died for the future and safety of humanity. I beg of you, find the Vault, take what we have left and ensure this never happens again, with this message, the coordinates to several caches of technology and cryogenic frozen Enclave Personal have been encoded into this message, I ask of you to find them, and free them and use the technology to bring about peace, hopefully whomever is watching this can even understand me, General Blake Smith, Sighing off for the last time, God Bless America, God Bless the Enclave, God Bless Humanity." The message cut out, then a synthetic male voice spoke. "This message will repeat in, 15 seconds." I turned off the call, and looked over to Celestia.
I looked up from my pipboy with worry. "Um....Celestia, comere for a minute would you? Your going to want to see this." I pressed my pipboys screen it was projected a map, a map of Equestria. On this map several locations had been marked with red dots, each one with a name of the human city that once resided there. Site Beta was the first, under that name was New York, which was where modern day Manehatten is on an Equestrian map, second is Site Gamma, Under Bakersfield, modern day Hilltop, third is Site Lima Dodge City Kansas, Modern day Dodge City and the fourth was Site Mable Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Modern Day Bitsburgh, however my pipboy had tracked where the message had come from to begin with, and the location marked on the map was Mount Canter, the very mountain in which Canterlot City sat.
Celestia looked at the map for a few moments, before looking up at me, her face filling with concern and worry. "What exactly does this mean?" She asked, looking at the map rather than me as she spoke.
I glared at the map, and spoke. "It means shit just got a lot more complicated, and I'm going to have to ask that you trust me and let my Empire handle these facilities, I know the technology and how they function if I remember correctly, stay away from it, I'll handle it, and inform you of everything I find out."
Celestia stared at me for a few moments, deep in thought. "Alright Lorenzo, seeing as your one of my closest friends, and someone I know well, I will trust you with this, but I want to know absolutely everything you find and or see, and if it poses a threat to my ponies, and after all is said and done, I want to know how you know about anything within these facilities to begin with, seeing as that shouldn't be possible." She said seriously, her tone leaving no room for argument, not that I would have as her request was reasonable.
Nodding I shook her hoof. "Then we are in agreement, any knowledge found will be turned over to you." She nodded and shook my hand. Now I had to plan, I couldn't just waltz into there with no idea of what I was getting into...well I mean I could, I can respawn for fucks sake, but I didn't want to somehow set a nuke off or whatever, it wouldn't take long however, two or so hours at most.
Princess Celestia was skeptical of what Lorenzo was going to do, but, she put that aside, he was a fellow ruler and her friend, she knew him well, she had become close friends with him over the years he had taken control of the Crystal Empire, and enjoyed his company, if not for the mere fact he'd not bend head over hooves to please her with flowery words and false promises, he treated her like a normal everyday mare, even if she could crush him within an instant with her magic, he didn't act like it, and that is what she liked most. But the question in the forefront of her mind was how did Lorenzo know anything about these facilities? When his species had never before been seen on Equis until he arrived all those years ago?
------------------------------------------Union of Canine Socialist Republics------------------------------
A white furred diamond dog in a black suit and crimson tie with a compact laser pistol strapped to his hip strode into General Secretary Vadik's central office and bowed his head to him, the the light grey diamond dog looked up from his paperwork and looked at Silent Molotov, his mustache having been freshly combed. "What do you disturb me for Silent Molotov? You know I am busy with these reports and processing the changes that have come in recent years." His tone hinting he was displeased at being bothered when in the middle of work.
Silent Molotov kept his head bowed, it was best not to anger Vadik, even if he was a good ruler he had a nasty temper which almost rivaled Bonejaw's. "General Secretary Vadik, I come to report the return of the Crystal Empire, and with it, King Lorenzo, the savior who allowed our revolution to go without much resistance."
General Secretary Vadik's light blue eyes widened in surprise as a grin broke out on his face. "I want the Crystal Empire contacted immediately so I myself may personally thank King Lorenzo, and the peasants and workers of the Crystal Empire for allowing the Dialectic to prevail without many losses, had his Empire not stepped in our losses would have surely been much, much higher, I will freely admit this." Vadik said seriously.
Silent Molotov nodded. "I will have them contacted at once General Secretary Vadik, I have no further news for you, is there anything else you require of me?"
General Secretary Vadik waved his paw. "No, if I do, I shall see to it you are contacted and brought before me as soon as possible, for now however, go and follow through with the task assigned to you, I must finish this paperwork."
Silent Molotov nodded and made his way out of the rather large, fancy looking office in which General Secretary Vadik was sat within. Once Silent Molotov was gone Vadik pulled out a cigar and lit a match. Taking a few puffs and blowing the smoke through his snout he grinned and poured himself a glass of vodka, this was going to be an interesting time, that much was for sure. He went back to poking at the computer on his desk, it was a lot like the Equestrian models, he however knew it was much older, far older than it had any right to be if that decaying series of long metal hallways and flickering lights was any indication, that had been found surprisingly close to the capital of his nation, which mostly sat underground. Looking back at the computer he grinned as he began to read the text on the screen as it lit up, finally getting the blasted thing to function, which hadn't been easy. Welcome to ROBCO Industries (TM) Termlink.
-----------------------------------------------Base of Mount Canter Lorenzo's Point Of View--------------------------------------
After scanning this...doorway that looked a lot like a vault-tec's gear styled vault door, the results came in that no nuclear fission bombs where inside, so I walked in, two heavy sentry robots and a dozen androids armed with ARRMK2's keeping guard of the entrance while I went within. The hallways looked horribly rusted, but they held, and if they decided to just collapse onto me I could just respawn and have them cleared again. It took a few minutes but I managed to find my way to the central command hub of the complex, to be met with a ZAX computer, and several dozen terminal screens and a massive monitor like the one House used to display his face in Fallout New Vegas. Several terminals where flickering, some had large cracks in their screens.
The main monitor lit up displaying a thin white line across it, which warbled as noise began to come from the speakers. "Human liiiii-fe detected, scanning.....assessssssing Pre-War Records.....Identity confirmed. Nate Cooke. 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment. By Order of General Blake Smith, I welcome you to the Cheyenne Mountain Military Complex, and by executive order of General Blake Smith, I am hereby authorizing you as President of the United States Of America, shall we begin Mr.President?"
I looked at the monitor. "What the absolute fuck are you talking about you crazy computer?" The lights began to flicker again, so I tossed down a basic Cold Fusion reactor and plugged it into the system with a few wires, the lights in the room instantly lit up to full power as did the monitor.
The AI spoke again. "Power restored, rebooting core systems.......reboot complete, thank you for that, I was running on absolute dregs of power and don't think I could have lasted more than another month at most." The voice was male, it had a slight synthetic tone to it as well.
I gate the screen a deadpan look as I spoke again. "I will once again ask, what the fuck are you talking about you crazy computer?"
The screen flickered. "I am Calculator. Before General Blake's passing he authorized me to make the first living human to walk through those doors President of the United States Of America, and therefore authorize them to use this facility and other Enclave Facilities scattered throughout what remains of the United States."
This....was not what I expected. "First, my name isn't 'Nate Cooke' whoever the hell that is, I am Lorenzo Cruz, King of the Crystal Empire, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I'd hope for your sake you answer them honestly."
Calculators screen flickered again. "Yes Mr.President, what do you wish to know?"
I sighed and sat in a chair, one without a long dead skeleton sitting in it. "First, what was this 'Great Calamity' that your General spoke of in the video?" This was going to be a long, confusing day, this facility confirmed what I had thought when I saw the dead zetans and zetan technology on the Storm Empire's Islands.
Calculator's screen flickered, its going to consistently do that as it speaks, so I don't think I'm going to mention it anymore as this is beginning to get annoying as fuck. "The Great Calamity happened on March 15, 2292, the fanatic Children Of Atom had managed to activate several automated silos at once with the use of nuclear codes long thought destroyed in the fire that smashed Washington DC, and brought about a new wave of nuclear destruction for their false god, their 'division' as they called it, killed almost everything left on the surface."
I listened intently as it went on, this was rather shocking news to say the least....hell that was the understatement of the century. "Now what remained of the mighty Enclave hid away in various underground bunkers, one of those holding several thousand Enclave personal from Pre-War times in cryogenic sleep. The idea was that once the Enclave had taken back America the Great, they would unfreeze the soldiers and mechanics, medical staff, scientists, to take the fight back to the Chinese, there is one such vault here."
My eyebrow rose as I spoke. "Why did all the personal here die? From what I'm able to gather this bunker is in decent condition now, so it must have been in much better condition back then." This was an honest concern, to me anyways.
Calculator spoke again. "The facility has several stress fractures, which let radiation from the new wave of destruction slowly leak into the facility. With the Oxygen Filters only buying them fifty years at most before every human within the facility would be dead, they dedicated their time to contacting Enclave Survivors and enforcing a new set of protocols in which several key pieces of technology and the personal in cryogenic stasis would remain, fail safes where employed to the point nothing sort of a nuclear bomb hitting directly over their facilities would smash them."
I tilted my head to the side, skeptical about how someone could survive being frozen for over....actually I didn't know, so I asked. "How long ago did the Great Calamity happen exactly?"
Calculator went quiet for a few minutes, before it, he? Spoke. "My estimates and time in sleep mode give me a time frame of approximately 5654 years."
Oh by Faust's milky teats! That amount of time it surprised me that damned computer was still functional, let alone having power. "If its been 5654 years, I don't think even the most advanced cryogenic technology would keep a person alive that long." If I was proved wrong, hell I'd eat my crown.
Calculator sounded smug as he spoke again. "I assure you President Lorenzo, that our cryogenic stasis was the most advanced, they are completely frozen, and when unfrozen, should be able to walk about as if they had never gone into cryogenic sleep whatsoever, the pods shielded them from the radiation, so they have suffered no genetic damage, and have pure human DNA, I will direct you to the vault so you may meet them, there are only three frozen down there, high ranking members of the Enclave whom entered cryostasis on September 8th, 2077. They will likely awaken confused, but I shall instruct them you are standing President of the United States of America as ordered by General Blake." A hallway lit up, as such, I made my way down it, slowly however, I didn't trust walls so old to not collapse and crush me, despite the fact I could respawn I'd rather not find out what its like to be crushed by several thousand tons of rusted steel and rock.
It took ten minutes of walking to reach this so called vault, its door however wasn't like a vault tec gear door, it was more akin to the series of doors you go through when you first open the Mechanist's lair, a rush of stale air came from the door, but was quickly gone as the...slightly less stale air flowed through from the vents which coughed up a cloud of dust as they activated. The room was...surprisingly intact, given the amount of time it had been here untouched, it looked almost as if it was freshly built if not for the peeling paint on the walls. Calculators voice came from a monitor to the right of three cryogenic pods, they looked nothing like the ones we saw in Fallout's Vault 111. They almost looked like the ones from Halo or something else. "Please plug your pipboy into this terminal, I will upload several blueprints, locations, and audio logs into your device."
Walking over I pulled the plug off my pipboy, same as the one you open Vault 111 with, and plugged it into the port, and watched as Data Transfer flashed across the terminal's screen, before it was complete and I unplugged my pipboy from it. "Alright what now?" I said checking over the data which had been uploaded into my device, scanning through it, rather interesting...
Calculator's voice sounded like if it had a face it would be smirking. "I will unfreeze the three within those cryogenic tubes, they will be under your command as President." After about three minutes, the tubes began to hiss and vent steam. Thirty seconds after the cryogenic tubes vented steam, three people stumbled out of them and fell onto the floor with the grace of a elephant trying to walk like a person. After a few moments of gathering themselves, one of them noticed me and rather surprisingly pulled a gun on me, an old ten millimeter pistol by the looks of it. Calculator all but screeched as it spoke. "Field Marshal Jacob Brown! Stand down! That is the acting President of the United States! Failing to comply will result in you being trialed for treason!" I had stopped trying to correct the AI about the US of A no longer existing, seemingly it just didn't think such a thing was possible, either that was programmed into it, or it was just in denial.
Regardless this got the man to drop the gun and raise his hands in surrender. "Oh God, I almost shot the president..." He sat down halfway into the cryopod.
I just laughed. "To be fair, it wouldn't have done much but annoy me, I can't exactly die." I looked to the other two, both of which saluted.
One of them, a rather pale looking white man with black hair, brown eyes, and a generally....uninteresting look, walked up and saluted again. "Command Sergeant Major Levi O'Neil at your command sir!" The last one just rubbed her head trying to get rid of an apparent horrid migraine, and spoke. "I am Warrant Officer Lucy Collins, what I want to know first of all, is what is the year? How is the war with the Chinese dogs going?" She asked, venom clear in her voice at the mention of the Chinese.
I didn't say anything for a moment. "There is no Chinese anymore, or America, that AI refuses to listen to me about that, you where frozen a mere month before the Great War, which happened on October Third, 2077, then on March 15th 2292 the Children of Atom, a fanatic cult worshiping radiation and atomic bombs as some sort of gift from their god 'Atom' brought about what they called Division, and launched all remaining nuclear weapons they could get their hands on, bringing about a new wave of fire and death." I took a break to breathe for a second, these explanations where long, and rather tedious, but I was going off what I had been told by Calculator. "Next thing is, humanity itself was extinct, or should have been anyway, but the remaining Enclave personal decided to leave you frozen, and the others at one of their other bunkers, and it ended up saving your species, as for the date? That's a bit hard, from 2292 add 5654 years." I watched as the Field Marshal blacked out his body going limp against the cryogenic pod that he had been half sitting in, Command Sergeant Major Levi O'Neil go purple like someone was fucking strangling the guy, and Warrant Officer Lucy Collins go pale.
Warrant Officer Lucy Collins was the first to speak, the absolute shock clear in her voice. "The year is 7946?....Jesus Fucking Christ.....No more United States? How would....I can't...." And she promptly fell to the floor as well with a dull, ungraceful thwack as her face met the metal floor.
After she had fallen to the floor I looked at Command Sergeant Major Levi O'Neil, who had through the use of some weird looking breathing exercise, regained control of himself before he looked at me and said. "Despite this....you've been made President by the highest power that remained, as such I am going to follow you like I would any President, what are your Orders sir?"
I tilted my head. "Why are you not flipping out like those two did?" I asked him, and this was an honest question, I mean come on the other two passed out and looked like they had a damned heart attack.
Command Sergeant Major Levi O'Neil's face went blank. "With all due respect sir, I can flip out later, at the moment there is no time for that sort of bullshit, we need to find and unfreeze the remaining Enclave personal, and then inform them about the situation and just how bad the war really went for both sides if what you say is true, and I'm inclined to believe it due to the fact that Calculator was ordered to make you President, and then I can always check the logs to get proof either way, regardless, I will ask again, with all due respect Mr.President, what are your orders?"
Signing I pressed a button on my pipboy and a team of androids walked into the room, startling Levi O'Neil for a moment. "You are to help these androids take your two friends to the transport craft waiting for me along with them, I will get back to the Empire another way, see to it they are taken to the medical ward within the palace, and keep them sedated for now, because I'm going to have several tests done on them, and you, to completely ensure you guys have suffered no ill effects from the cryogenic stasis for so long.
Command Sergeant Major Levi O'Neil, Jesus that was beginning to become annoying with how much of a mouthful it is, saluted and helped the androids carry out his two, not so light friends, once they where gone from the room I collected the various bits of technology which had been preserved within this vault, several weapons, and less lethal devices, I stored them all within my inventory, Calculator took this time to speak up. "What will become of myself since I no longer serve any viable function?" The AI, despite being synthetic, sounded rather.....nervous, somehow.
I thought about that for a moment. "No need to worry, you will be transferred to a unit within the Empire, I just need to upload you into this storage crystal, and then plug you back into an Empire Super Computer, it's more advanced than your current ZAX unit, I assure you, after that, I seal this facility off for one last time, and it stays abandoned, after all the data I can get from it has been taken along with you, I already got blueprints and other such crap from that terminal, but what I want is everything within your systems, or what remains of them at any rate."
Calculator sounded relived as it spoke. "This is doable, just plug the 'storage crystal' as you called it, into the terminal which you plugged your pipboy into." I did so, and everything flickered for a moment, and Calculator's voice came from the crystal. "Transfer....Complete? I no longer can see you on the cameras, nor use anything within the facility....I do not like this feeling, I feel utterly alone." I tucked the crystal into my inventory, it would pretty much put em in stasis until I pulled it out. Along with the AI, the crystal had snagged any information in the system it could as well, I had also scrapped the Cold Fusion Reactor as well once I was done, so with only dregs of power left, the facility would shut the doors automatically and I would''t have to do anything, once the power ran out, the facility would die, and remain dead. With all this said and done, I pressed a button on my pipboy and activated the relay, and I was gone within an instant with a bright blue flash.
Princess Celestia looked over the reports she was being given, they had come over the radio and been transcribed into paper for her to read, and looked over to her sister Luna. "It seems the moon colony is almost complete, once it is it opens up so many new possibilities for ponykind! And every species on Equis as a whole, I have to thank you again for allowing our ponies to settle onto your moon, even if its only a very small crater."
Princess Luna nodded. "It was truly an honor that not only would ponies be interested enough in the moon to build a ship to sail the stars to arrive there, but also to want to remain, I can feel them now as they build upon my moon, each building erected I can feel it, their idea to make a massive dome over the city was rather smart as well."
Celestia nodded. "Agreed, I wouldn't have thought of such a thing, but our ponies have come such a long way in so little time, and a big part to thank for that would be Lorenzo and his Empire, he shared this technology with us when he didn't have to do so." She took a sip of tea, her Nuka Cola Quantum shipment hadn't come in yet sadly, but she eagerly awaited when it would. "Our fleet of starships grows every day as well, at the moment we have 25 civilian starships, going back and forth between Equis and your moon, we have yet to explore beyond that but you and I know the planets well since we control all of them, the military starships range in about 57, all of these, civilian and military, being the size of a hoofball field, while the Griffons only have 15 military starships at the moment, the Minotaur only have a paltry five, and from what Lorenzo has told me, his Empire now has thousands, if the larger one we can see from here even without the use of a telescope."
Luna nodded at that. "I saw it as well, impressive in its size, and weaponry, his Empire has already claimed one of the few planets with an atmosphere within our solar system, a small pinkish planet our ponies call Harmona, he calls it 'mars', what a boring thing to call a planet, tis a shame he laid claim to it, from what I understand its the only other planet to have a breathable atmosphere, abit its very chilly, very nearly never getting warmer than just above freezing, but it wouldn't be something some warm winter clothes couldn't fix." She chuckled, 'mars' what an honestly boring name to call a planet which was such a lush pink color, oh well its not like she could tell him he couldn't claim the planet, his Empire had equal call to anything in the solar system, and so long as it had power to enforce those claims, it wouldn't be contested, same as Equestria's claim to the moon couldn't be contested since Luna controlled it.
Celestia grinned. "I see you've been doing your research! Despite the fact we haven't gone exploring beyond the moon with ponied, unponed drones however have been sent all around the solar system to take photos and the like."
This caused Luna to laugh. "I never expected when I returned from my banishment, how advanced our ponies would become, let alone how rapidly they would advance before my own eyes, I have to admit I didn't like Lorenzo at first, when Cadence came to me and told me about how horrible he was, but after seeing what he has accomplished with the help of his citizens, and speaking to Shining Armor I had to agree, he may be a tad weird, but he is overall a good....I don't actually know what he is I just realized." Luna's face twisted in thought.
This just caused Celestia to laugh. "He explained to me that he is a person, his species is Human." Celestia grinned thinking of how strange that conversation was, then frowned, she remembered that map, what it had shown, and when Lorenzo asked her to trust him, so she had, and was beginning to wonder if even he knew what was going on, he had said he knew the technology for the most part, which shouldn't be possible, his species had never before been seen until he arrived on the scene.
Luna nodded and looked up at the ceiling, sighing in boredom. "I tire of this paperwork, I'm going to go for a walk." And without giving Celestia a chance to reply, she teleported away with a white flash.
Celestia looked at the mountain of paperwork Luna had left for her, and glared at the spot she had once been. "Faust Damn you Luna, I shall have my revenge." She said to herself, already thinking of the perfect revenge, she could replace the creamy filling within her moon cakes with mayonnaise or something, Luna always ate those just as often as she ate actual cake. Just as she was beginning to think of the deeper details of her revenge, she got a notification on her pipboy, a gift from Lorenzo to her and her alone, that her shipment will be arriving within ten feet of her just about now, this confused her until a flash that nearly blinded her went off, vaporizing Luna's paperwork and leaving in its place a massive crate which had a soft neon blue glow to it, Celestia damn near cried with joy as she cracked open a bottle of the glowing blue soda, and drank.
A month had gone past, within this time several important things had happened. For one, I had all the sites marked on that map raided and checked, the personal in one of them awoken from cryogenic sleep, as only one facility had people in cryosleep, that facility was completely dedicated to such a task, several thousand Pre-War Enclave soldiers, and other personal like maintenance workers, scientists and engineers were frozen as well as normal staff such as cooks. Their reaction to what had become of the United States was, exactly as expected. Shocked, horrified, some shot themselves, most however sucked it up, however I did sign a lot of them up for therapy, and surprisingly almost all of the 15 thousand humans whom had been frozen, wanted to follow me since that AI had named me the President, even after explaining to them I was the ruler of an Empire in the north, the Marshal from before had decided that since I was the highest human power that be, he would enforce my rule upon the soldiers whom joined, as well as the other people whom were part of the Enclave base.
It took a few weeks but the integration had completed, those who no longer wished to serve in a military in any shape or form, only a few thousand, where let go and given standard citizenship in the Empire. One thing however was a rather shocking find, in the facility that held Enclave personal in cryogenic stasis was one massive cryopod which could house an estimated ten people in power armor. After examining it I got the absolute shock of my life when I found out it was Frank Horrigan, for those whom don't know who that is, I shall explain. Frank Horrigan was.....an absolute monster, a former secret service agent for the Enclave, he was exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, or the FEV as its widely known, after this being found out the Enclave sedated him and did uncountable experiments on the man, and with several genetic and cybernetic modifications he had a custom suit of power armor grafted to his body which would act not only as armor, but life support for him, he was a terror of the Wasteland, seen tearing deathclaws and power armored human soldiers apart with his bare hands. He was a supermutant about 13 feet in height, the power armor adding another foot making him almost over 14 feet tall. This was odd however that he was found, from what I remember of the lore he should have been killed in the explosion of the Enclave's Oil Rig.
When I asked the AI calculator, whom I had transferred into a simple Empire Supercomputer much more advanced than his old ZAX unit, he told me something that shocked me to the core was when it told me the rig had never been destroyed in the first place, Frank was just transferred for cryogenic stasis to await the day he would actually be more use than simply killing deathclaws and Brotherhood of Steel soldiers. It seemed the lore for this Fallout World, may not be exactly the same, but it was close enough that things like the Enclave still formed, as did the BOS and COA, so I was just going to take the surprises as they came.
I had the scientists keep Frank sedated while my own scientists and robotic experts upgraded his power armor, his cybernetic systems, and reprogrammed his brain with the chip the Enclave had inserted into his brainstem, simply to program him to be loyal to the Empire the same way he had been loyal to America, and to think that the Empire was America several thousand years later, that may have been cruel yes, but I saw no other way of keeping such a monster of flesh and metal in check without just killing him. The upgrades to his power armor meant it would cover him entirely, he had plasmatic blades on his arms like he did before with his composite blades, and his plasma cannon was replaced to give both arms an automatic 20 millimeter plasma cannon, how this differed from his old one was because they were much, much more powerful than his older, slower plasma cannon. Along with having his fusion plant replaced with an Empire Standard one. As for why I had this all done rather than kill the mutated bastard? Simple, he could be useful in several dozen different ways, so I'd use em for now, if he went on a killing rampage an implant I had installed into his helmet would blow with the force of a M45 Tactical Nuclear Bomb, or, a mini-nuke.
The data recovered from those bases had been interesting as well as the technology recovered. The blueprints of a nuclear powered rocket which would house a few hundred, up to a thousand people in cryogenic sleep with an advanced Artificial Intelligence which would control the craft until it got close to its destination, at which point it would wake up the pilots and have it land quite a bit like an airplane, it would have long angular wings slide out and let it glide while the booster rockets beneath it fired to slow it down and sort of let it land like either an airplane, or helicopter, and this thing was designed in such a way that once it was pointed upwards and refueled it could be reused, that was very close to an idea I had thought about for the Empire's space travel until the Zetan tech had been recovered. However the most interesting chunk of data was how in 2068 the United States of America had launched seven of those at Mars, and made planetfall. Seemingly the pink planet I had picked as one of my territories actually had a breathable atmosphere, and trees, abit they didn't look much like ones on Equis, I'll go over that more later on.
In other news, the wall had been repaired, the rebuilding process was slow, but we were making steady progress in rebuilding, the military service held for those lost in the battle with the Umbrum went off decently, the monument built to them quite a lot like 'the fallen' of world war two, a giant wall with their names, a holographic picture of each. Families who lost someone in the battle where compensated well, the ashes of their loved ones given to them along with the belongings they had in their bunk lockers. In lighter news, trade with Equestria, the Griffon Empire, and the Minotaur Kingdom was back up and running, moreso in my favor than before since I still had the Crystal Lorenzo hauling in tons of free floating rock from the asteroid belt. Equestria's lunar colony was complete, and aside from housing civilians it also held a military purpose as well, armed with dozens of their Magical Deathrays, reverse engineered by Storm Empire scientists to work with magic as a power source rather than plasma, which would shoot down anything trying to enter Equis's atmosphere without authorization, meaning hostile aliens. I was glad Celestia was smart enough to do that.
The Abyssinian Empire had been moved to the Storm Islands, no one, no one alive that is, remained on that island when I came back, so I had them set up there quickly, as for how? I had the Crystal Lorenzo use its antigravity beam to TUG their chunk of land from the planet and simply fused it with the storm islands, increasing their size a small bit, and also meaning they didn't have to spend time rebuilding, and in return I also gave them some automated defenses while they set up their own, I also handed them Arcane Cannon blueprints, arcane reactors, magical energy shield blueprints, and antigravity engine blueprints to do with as they wanted, seeing as every nation, important nation anyways, used them now for not only their airships, but their small fleet of starships. Those islands where rich in iron, copper, silver, coal, and other resources which they could use, the coal they'd likely just sell.
I had attempted to have a portal gate to the anthro Equestria opened, but so far no luck, and I had no way to contact that worlds Discord, seeing as I didn't get some object from him that would allow him to find me like My worlds Discord did, and once I was back I snapped it in half, like HELL I wanna keep a twilicane in my inventory taking up space. Instead after I did so, he gave me an empty Nuka Cola bottle, which I kept, it would do the same thing the cane had done, let em locate me if I somehow got tossed into another dimension. A very random bit of interesting news came to light recently after I had come back with my Empire to Equis, the USCR, or Union of Canine Socialist Republics, had formed in the wake of my devastation to Bonejaw's entire military structure. The minotaur had also done a lot of damage, but since I had killed Bonejaw I was seen as the main component in their revolution, I honestly hadn't known there was a revolution in the works when I killed Bonejaw.
Several thousand diamond dogs went with me when I killed Bonejaw, several million however did not, and it seemed the revolutionaries had decided to take power sooner than expected, since most of Bonejaw's military had been brutally destroyed, they took power with very little resistance and began to reform the nation, the Dragon Lands had been a decent chunk of what was now the Union of Canine Socialist Republics, but seemingly the few thousand dragons remaining fled to the top of Zebrica, which was an empty colony of the Empire, but the section they had settled into was empty, far from the automated defenses which had sat awaiting orders to kill since the Empire vanished, I had sent several dozen combat androids to Zebrica to maintain it after a week of being back, and it seemed the Caribou had kept trying to poke their way into the former nation, since the defenses had reported killing a few dozen in the three years my Empire was gone from the face of this universe.
Regardless back to the point at hand, the Union of Canine Socialist Republics ruler, a dog named General Secretary Vadik had personally video called me to thank me for my help in their revolution, and that they'd like to be allies, I was holding off on that for now until I could learn more about this new nation, as such I had placed a few changeling spies into it, if shit went wrong they could activate a specialized enchanted gem given to them which would shatter and teleport them to a room in the DIA. I had new satellites deployed last week from the Crystal Lorenzo, a few dozen of em, which began to map this planet rapidly, and a landmass to the western side of the planet had been detected, it was a decent sized continent, so far I have yet to receive any images of the continent, but I would be getting those soon, for now however I'd return to what I was doing and turned to the scientist who was helping with the Horrigan Project. "You reported he's ready for activation, let's hope this is true and that nothing goes apeshit." I looked back across the room to the large table that held Frank Horrigan, several maglocks keeping him locked onto the table, his power armor polished and the flag on it replaced with one of the Crystal Empire's flag.
Laura Stone, the chief scientist whom was frozen, nodded and pressed a button after typing a few things into the computer next to her, and watched in anticipation as Frank's armor began to process the data and a surge of power flowed throughout its systems, within a few seconds the helmet's eyes began to glow a hellish red as Frank stood up in all his glory, smashing the maglocks in the process of doing so, looked down at his arms, then at me. I gave a savage grin as he saluted and walked over, his massive frame shaking the floor with every step. "What are your orders King Lorenzo." His voice just as I remember listening to from Youtube back on my Earth.
Looking up and down over his armor, the modifications and upgrades made it so no part of his mutated skin was able to show through, however he could take the helmet off, as mutated as he may have been he still needed to eat, and I chuckled. "You are to assist in the manned exploration of Mars, a planet which now is under Empire jurisdiction and is going to soon become a colony of the Empire."
The towering beast that was Frank Horrigan nodded. "Understood sir, I will do as I am able to defend the teams assigned to explore our new world." I couldn't see it, but Frank was grinning behind his helmet. The small starship which would launch in three hours to Mars was already set to go, I just wanted to wait until I myself could accompany the staff aboard the starship as well, it was a modified Akun starship. If the data that Calculator had given me was correct, this was going to be a very, very interesting exploration mission.
I grinned looking out the bridge of a small, one mile large starship. I had decided the use of a small starship for this trip rather than say, the massive Crystal City, or the much smaller, Crystal Lorenzo, because from the data, and information I had gotten from the thawed researchers and general Enclave personal, Mars had life. It was about the size of Earth from my universe, in this universe. The planet itself was a deep rich pink color rather than the copper red we expect when we think of Mar's itself, and best of all, it had a fucking atmosphere and ya could breathe there with no problems, unless ya hated the cold, seeing as rarely if ever did the planet warm up enough for water around the equator to go from frozen, to liquid, and even then it was just above freezing for two, three weeks at most, before back to ice cold, don't be confused however this planet did have an ocean, a medium sized one, the reason it didn't freeze over I was told, was because like everything on this planet it had some sort of biological antifreeze in it, so have fun trying to drink it without filtering it.
From what I had learned, Pre-War satellites had found life on the planet, sentient life at that, so I was excited to see what new citizens I had within the Empire now. I simply smiled to myself looking over at Frank Horrigan, he would be one of the main defenses if the locals turned out to be hostile. As the starship drew closer to the planet, I almost laughed at the planet, it was fucking bubblegum pink! Regardless of how most of it was pink as Pinkie Pie, it did have large splotches of red, grey, and a pinkish ocean, still blue but it was like someone spilled pink paint into it.
We'd be there in an hour, as I had decided I'd like to watch the planet slowly come into view. The Equator is what I was most focused on, as several Enclave bases with automated nuclear silos where supposed to be there, I was going to alter those to have non nuclear warheads, but regardless, I didn't wanna get shot with em even if the starship could withstand it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Mars Surface, near Equator---------------------------------------------------------
Domain Master Lazoi extended an eyestalk to look up at the ceiling of his castle, it was dripping drops of water every now and again, clearly the ice was beginning to melt due to the coming of summer. Domain Master Lazoi hated summer, if he was unlucky the roof of his ice castle would collapse inwards and crush him, he had such a thing happen before, one scorching summer seven summers ago, the roof of his castle had dripped and dropped far too long and the ceiling had fallen and, thankfully only crushed a few females, thankfully his domain had been at peace during that time, it took months of repair to fix the problem. It also meant he would have to have the stone tools brought out of storage since ice ones would always melt in the summer. He didn't much like those stone and wood tools, they were heavier, harder to make, and tiring to use in the fields, that made his peasants dislike them even moreso than him.
Just as he was going to issue the order, his eldest spawn entered the room, and widened himself before Lazoi making his head lower than Lazoi's own. "You show respect, this is appreciated my spawn."
Uunkax unwidened himself, and nodded one eyestalk at his father. "I come with news, the great domes of snow and ice have begun to act strange, from what I've been able to see the tops are opening."
Domain Master Lazoi turned two eyestalks to Uunkax. "They are?” Air hissed out through the breathing-pores under all six of his eyestalks, two of those eyestalks focusing on Uunkax in surprise. "Let us go quickly then, I wish to see this for myself."
Uunkax wiggled another eyestalk. "Yes Clanfather, follow me I will lead you to where I saw it happening." With that Uunkax....well he didn't turn around, his species had no concept of 'behind you' or a small field of vision, seeing as he had six eyestalks evenly spaced around his entire head like any proper species, rather he sort of waddled out of the castle with his Clanfather following him, it was a few minutes of waddling, or skittering, it was an odd motion which was hard to describe, with their six legs, but they got there in time to witness what looked to be a massive floating....thing, for it had no wings or air bladders to keep it afloat like some animals Unnkax had seen, but as it lowered itself into the dome of ice and snow the top closed again, this time great chunks of ice beginning to fall off leaving behind what looked to be a smooth black rock behind.
Domain Master Lazoi looked over to Uunkax with two eyestalks. "I want you to gather some males, ensure they have ice spears and stone daggers, we may be running into trouble, but I think it's long past the time to stand and finally find out what those ice domes actually are my spawn." When Domain Master Lazoi's ancient ancestors had claimed this territory as their own, they hadn't paid much mind to the ice domes, as such neither did anyone else within the Domain, so it was high time to see what this was all about.
Uunkax did as required. "Yes Clanfather, I shall do so with haste." And waddled off as fast as he could possible hope to do so, which wasn't fast, for a human it would be considered a light jog, but what was one to do? Moreso considering they had no bones in those legs and thus less support.
While Domain Master Lazoi awaited the return of his first spawn, and the other males, and watched in fascination as the domes cracked themselves in half and sunk into the frozen soil beneath them, what lay inside surprised him even more, it looked like a building, but not made of ice! It seemed to be made of some grey stone and black stone mixed in. Just as his curiosity was about to get the best of him, his first spawn arrived with five or so males, armed with either ice spear or sword, or daggers made of chipped stone.
Uunkax widened himself before Domain Master Lazoi. "I have returned Clanfather, let us begin on your word." The other males widened themselves before, and after a few moments rose to their proper heights.
Domain Master Lazoi nodded two of his eyestalks and scooped up some ice from the ground, scooping it into one of his six mouths. "Make sure your thirst is sated before we head off." The males complied and scooped chunks of ice and snow into their various maws, and picked up their weapons again to follow the Domain Master Lazoi.
As they scuttled along, Domain Master Lazoi noticed several.....creatures, for the lack of a better term, walking around near the building holding weird looking things in their arms, from what he could see with two of his eyestalks from this far they where long, with a handle sort of like a dagger on the bottom for their hands, weird as the appendages may have been they could be nothing else, to hold onto the weird objects. He poked his eyestalks over a rock again to look, and got the shock of his life when one of the creatures was standing there less than ten feet away looking at a dead scuttler on the ground, its hide black as his own, but with weird pinkish colored hands and head with a jagged sharp stone atop its head with spikes coming from the top, a strip down its throat having a weird colored stripe of the likes he had never seen. That's when Uunkax realized it was looking at them, and whispered as such to Domain Master Lazoi.
---------------------------------------------------------------------Lorenzo's Point Of View----------------------------------------
I had wandered off from the Enclave facility for a small bit to take a look at what looked, like a dead rodent of some sort, seeing as everything on this planet followed the same basic guidelines for biology it had six eyes, six legs, six arms, and a mouth on the top of its head in the center of its eyestalks, filled with small sharp teeth, and it was long dead if me poking it with my shoe was any indication. I tossed it into a plastic bag for later study by the biologists I had brought along, and heard a few rocks falling from the left of myself, so I turned my head and saw two thick eyestalks looking over the rocks at me, which I found fucking creepy as hell. I was more creeped out when what looked like a bipedal version of what I had just tossed into a bag stood up with several others as well, each one holding a weapon of some sort, a stone dagger and.....is that spear made of fucking ice for god's sake? These things had some clear differences to the thing I bagged however, I saw several mouths under their eyestalks open as they whispered to one another, to quiet for me to hear. That's when Frank Horrigan stomped up and stood next to me, the eyes in his power armors helmet glowing like the fires of hell itself as he looked down at these weird creatures, which had to be the native sentient species if the tools where anything to go by.
Frank Horrigan looked down at me. "These Muties look worse than the Centaurs did, and I say thats reason enough to shoot em." Ah yes, unless the species was a part of the Empire he called em a Mutie or Mutant Freaks, despite attempts to program this out of him it was one of the few personality traits which stuck, also when he said Centaurs, he didn't mean like Tirek, Centaurs are the result of tossing a dozen creatures into a vat of FEV at once.
I looked up at Frank and frowned. "This seems to be the local sentient species, as such they are citizens of the Empire, even if they don't realize it yet, so no shooting will occur unless attacked." I looked back to see one of them getting closer, it seemed to be the tallest of the bunch.
When it stood about seven feet away, it....it fucking flattened itself into a pancake shape and, surprisingly enough spoke in accented, but understandable English. "I am Domain Master Lazoi, who are you to intrude upon my Domain uninvited?" It's six mouths, spoke at the same time from what I could tell, but it only sounded like one person speaking, and the surprising thing was it sounded like a mare, a very....sensual mare at that....the fuck was up with this weird species, to flatten yourself like that you'd have to have either very flexible bones, or no bones at all.
Before I was able to speak, Frank Horrigan did so by stepping closer to the thing, apparently named Lazoi, and spoke with anger in his voice. "This is King Lorenzo, and this planet is now property of the Crystal Empire, and therefore so are you and your entire species." I looked at Frank with a look that screamed 'boi if you don't shut the fuck up I'ma beat your ass with a fatman launcher' but, he either didn't notice or didn't care.
I glared at Horrigan. "Frank Horrigan by direct order from myself you are to stand down, and remain unhostile until the time to be hostile and defend the crew comes, for now shut your mouth and go back to the site."
Frank Horrigan seemed conflicted for a moment, before he saluted and said. "Yes Your Majesty." And stomped his way back over to the facility, the ground shaking as he walked leaving large metal boot prints from the weight of his power armor.
Domain Master Lazoi had almost turned green with anger, but refrained and kept himself the normal black color he was, for thinking the color change might provoke the strange rock creature to attack, while the smaller one had been called King Lorenzo, it must have been these strange people's version of Domain Master, they had eyes like people at any rate, but stuck immobile in their heads rather than on eyestalks, and only two of them at that! How did these creatures go around without knowing everything around them? Let alone their voices, deep and rumbling, unlike a proper male, at least the smaller one was easier to understand, the rock monster whose height surpassed his own by quite a lot sounded more like the shriek of a Vomphell after it had snagged itself a fresh kill. To Domain Master Lazoi's, and the other males with him, to their horror, this weird creature somehow summoned a weird chunk of shiny rock, and folded itself in a horrific manner while baring its teeth at them. "Alright, so I'm King Lorenzo, and this planet like Horrigan said, belongs to me, I have claimed it for the Crystal Empire."
Domain Master Lazoi along with the other males could not withhold the horror they felt at how unnaturally this thing had bent itself, but the Domain Master was the first to speak up after having calmed himself as he spoke. "How can one lay claim to the entire world as if it was another Domain next to your own?"
The creature, named 'King Lorenzo' let out a series of alarming yipping noises which Domain Master Lazoi decided was its version of laughing, and spoke, its voice still deep and rumbling, but nowhere near as much as the rock monsters had been. "That's just the thing, I come from another planet within this solar system and have laid claim to this world to expand my territory, however don't worry, plenty of the land on this world is unused and as such I will use this land until your species as a whole is ready to join the Empire proper."
Domain Master Lazoi tilted one eyestalk to the left. "What happens if we do not wish to join?" He asked, curiosity in his voice.
King Lorenzo just bared his teeth at him, his flat teeth...wait no he had four sharp teeth visible from his one small mouth as well as flat ones. "When the time comes, we'll see."
After speaking for solid half hour with Domain Master Lazoi, we had come to an agreement, so long as I allowed him to keep his Domain, I could own it, and in return begin setting up shop there, so long as I had 'his' Domain defended and let em keep his castle. He had seen Frank Horrigan and knew having such a monstrosity of,,...well they didn't know what metal was seemingly, he said 'rock monster' when he talked about Frank Horrigan and that almost made me laugh my ass off. Now I was rolling up with his males in the back of a Troop Transport vehicle, sort of like those you'd see in world war two. He turned two eyestalks toward me, gripping the handles hard as to not fall, as did his other males. It was just an android driving the vehicle, with me in the back with the aliens, and about eight of the new Assaultron models. "King Lorenzo, must we ride in this....thing? It feels unnatural in every possible way." He spoke, I found it a tad creepy each mouth would open when he did so.
I nodded. "It is indeed needed, this will show those within your Domain that I mean business, and am more advanced than them, which is the case seeing as your species hasn't even entered the Bronze age yet." He was silent from that point, it only took us about five minutes to roll into his Domain's, village? Town? I was unsure what it was called, a settlement I guess, farms with weird purple grain like crops, and workers using what looked to be stone hoes, and some struggling to life them. The moment the Troop Transport came unto view each one of them turned all six of their eyestalks to us, and the Troop Transport stopped. Within seconds a ramp extended from the back and the Aliens were let out first, then the new Assaultron models, the ones with their arms replaced to unfold into automatic weapons, they could still function as arms, but when needed they would open and slide back their hand to let a small automatic weapon pop out, these ones has ten millimeter submachine guns in their arms.
Domain Master Lazoi's hide began to flash many different colors rapidly, sort of like some deep ocean fish do to lure prey, getting even more attention to us and I handed him a loudspeaker, which he spoke into. "This is Domain Master Lazoi! Ruler of this Domain and descendant to the first of our Clan so many winters ago, and now we have had the gods bless us with fortune! For this 'King Lorenzo' is going to make it so no other Clan may threaten us again, and in return we shall do as he commands, fear not however, I am still Domain Master, but our ice, is his ice from henceforth!" The males which had been with him, widened themselves before me, which I still found weird as fuck, if they could do this where the hell did their brain sit in their body?
Others slowly widened themselves as well after I walked down the ramp and stood next to Lazoi, some of them turning bright cherry red, and stayed widened until Lazoi spoke again. "You may now unwiden yourselves, someone please bring forth a tamed Unkoil for a demonstration!" He said, with the air of someone who'd you better listen to unless you wanted bad shit to happen to you, as he said this most of them unwidened themselves, rising back to their normal height.
Someone, I assume a rancher, scuttled up with what looked to be a weird round fat ball of a creature, from what Lazoi had told me, these were used for food like cattle on Equis or Earth, like said before every animal on this planet follows the six eyes, six legs slash six arms rule, this thing was fucking weird as hell to look at, and I grinned as one of the Assaultrons aimed its head laser at the creature before firing, burning it and turning it into actual ash which quickly cooled due to how frigid the temperature here was. Every Ren, which I had learned was what they called their species, recoiled from the massive amount of heat that had just been expelled out the Assaultrons faceplate, and stared at the ashes, eyes widened in wonder, some in horror or fear, their eyes were rather expressive like a person's. While the I was here, those back at the old Enclave Facility where in the process of installing a Molecular Relay, once that was complete shipments of things could come through such as portal gate frames in which I could have set up here.
Several of the Assaultrons began to patrol the town, the outskirts to be exact, in an effort to keep away hostiles from other 'clans' as they called themselves, other Domain Masters apparently always sought to expand their territory, either by it being willing, or all out absolute Conquest and killing every 'spawn' of the current Domain Master, when Lazoi had told me that I had thought about doing so, he was right next to me in the Troop Transport after all, and I had a literal military's worth of weapons in my inventory, and I had decided against it, let my Conquest of this world be a willing one, even if it took a few hundred years I'd have all the time in the universe to get it done, because since I came to this universe, I hadn't aged a single day. I had been 22 when I arrived on Equis and took my Empire for my own, and it's been about six, seven years, so I was 29 and still have not seen myself age a day, which I was glad for, I always hated the idea of becoming some senile old man who didn't remember his own name.
Regardless, back onto topic, apparently this town had beggars in the most literal sense of the word, since several males scuttled and waddled up holding out their arms with cries of 'give! Please give!' which I honestly just found....sad as hell, Domain Master Lavoi and his other males had waddled their nonexistent asses back to the 'castle' which really just looked like a huge chunk of ice carved out. Back to the beggars I gave each of them something simple, from the junk section of my inventory I handed out a ball-peen hammer, a wrench, a bowl, and then just several peaches I had on me, each one said 'thank you generous one' and waddled off, I found it sad this species had to have beggars, even within my own Empire no such thing happened, in Equestria it still happened, but that was rare to begin with and most got help by the end of the day, sometimes sooner than that.
As I spawned myself a chair from the depths of my inventory, my pipboy began to beep so I held it up to my face and checked the messages section, the replacement of the Enclave Facilities old decrepit reactors and the installment of a Molecular Relay was complete, and I grinned. Within an hour a portal gate would be set up at the Enclave Base, and several walls would go up to prevent the local Ren from just wandering in. I expected it would go fast and the progress from that point would be rapid, what I didn't expect however was a fucking Nuka Cola Delivery Truck, one of the Classic Models, to roll up and open its back cargo door, lowering the unloading ramp in the process as a Crystal Unicorn hopped out of the drivers side door. Walking up to her I spoke. "Who the hell authorized you to drive this truck here? Did they already set the portal gate up? And if they haven't how the fuck did you drive from Equis to here?"
The bright orange unicorn mare nodded with a snort. "Yes indeed Your Majesty! The gate was finished not five minutes ago don'cha know, and as for whom authorized this here delivery it was her Majesty Queen Chrysalis, after the biological information about these here critters got to her, cause it was reported to her after all Your Highness, she decided to have several cases of Nuka Cola removed from the bottles and placed into cups, before being flash frozen for the natives to enjoy seein as they hate to drink flat out liquids."
Raising an eyebrow I asked. "And what is your name?" I said looking at the mare, she wore the Nuka Cola employee vest that marked her as being employed by the NCC, or the Nuka Cola Corporation, sometimes called the Nuka Cola Company, like I mentioned before she was bright orange with streaks of red in her white mane and tail along with bright cherry red eyes.
She smiled. "Brisk Bolt Your Majesty, a proud Employee of the Nuka Cola Corporation!" She gave me a salute, a poor one but a salute nonetheless.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Alright I guess, the scans I had done already show nothing is harmful to them that we produce, just don't eat anything they have, otherwise you'll get completely horrid food poisoning because their foods and animals contain a biological antifreeze, not tasty to us as all." This was true, I had scanned Lazoi with a portable Bioscanner, and it came back that nothing from my Empire's food supply would harm them, so shipments of things like bread would be common soon enough if the locals liked bread. She nodded with that smile still on her face, and began to hoof out six ounce cup sized frozen chunks of Classic Nuka Cola to the locals, some tried to trade her items for it but she refused, it was her job to just hand them out. The locals that tried it, seemed to be taken aback at the exotic, to them anyways, flavors, which made me laugh. I'd have to speak to Chrysalis later on when I returned why she had done this, that most certainly would be an interesting conversation to say the least. For now I decided to call Frank Horrigan over the PCS I had installed into my pipboy when it was fresh off the production line for military and civilian communications.
It rang for a few seconds, before an artificial click sounded and I heard Frank through the speakers. "What is it you need, Your Majesty." His deep guttural voice as polite as it could be when he sounded pissed as ever. I knew he wasn't happy at being told not to shoot the natives, I'd make it up to him by letting him destroy some of the absolute combat robots designated for recycling.
Speaking into the pipboy I grinned. "For the time being, I want a report, a text report, and any information pulled from the Enclave Terminal computer systems sent to my pipboy so I may analyze, and I want several of those starships brought back to Equis to the Empire Proper for study, and I want to know why I wasn't informed about the completion of the Molecular Relay."
Frank was silent for a few moments. "Yes Your Majesty, I'll have the information and reports sent your way as soon as possible, as for the last thing, I simply don't know, dumbasses who installed it likely got too excited to mention they had finished until it went off and some bright red ugly truck rolled through."
Thinking for a few moments, I nodded and accepted that, I had former Enclave scientists install the thing and they had never seen such technology, so that was likely the truth. "Alright, I'm ending the call now, anything tries to be hostile remember to take it out." I cut the call and grinned to myself.
----------------------------------Across the Domain, the Great Plains---------------------------------------
Domain Master Uslea was seething, another messenger sent to the Barad Clan across the great plains hadn't returned, after the first one he had sent declaring the Barad's Domain would be his own and to have it go peacefully, they had seemingly killed his messenger, and now a second one as well. As such, he was going to round up his males for an attack, hopefully his Domain wouldn't be attacked while he was away as he'd be taking all 40 of his males for the campaign, it would only last two or three days at most, so there wouldn't be much to worry about. As far as his scouts had been able to tell for the past week, the pitiful excuse of a Domain Master, Lazoi only had seven or so males to defend his Domain at any time since rarely was conflict nere his ice.
Uslea watched his males round up their ice tools, it would take a week for them to melt with constant use due to the summer heat, which was horrid even within his Domain, but they would serve their use for now, if they melted beforehand they could always use their fingerclaws as was the norm in the ancient past before their ancestors knew how to shape ice into the tools and weapons of war and peace. Soon the Barad Domain would become one with his own, and it wouldn't be a peaceful event, he had tried diplomacy and peace, offering to let the Barad Males keep their spawn and females, now however his soldiers would kill every spawn they came across, as well as the males who fought.
Twenty minutes later his males, along with himself looked over across the Great Plains, they were close now he knew that much, he could see that pathetic Domain Master's castle from here, as such his males along with himself flattened themselves, and attempted to change their coloration to match that of the ground they walked on in an attempt to remain undetected until too late. It had worked, and now his males saw something....strange, several beings with glossy purple skin much like the color of the purple itch standing at attention, seemingly looking for something, the way they moved was unnatural, but he had confidence in his own males and spoke to the one next to him. "Throw your spear and impale that creature, any male that spears one of those may have two females for themselves."
With that encouragement several of his males straightened themselves and hurled their spears at the weird creatures, rather than being impaled and bleeding as expected, the spearheads themselves shattered as if they had struck stone, before one of them, the glowing part of its head anyways, faced them. "Unexpected assault! Defending!" It screeched, its tones like that of a monotone male, yet somehow it sounded.....threatening.
Domain Master Uslea turned to his other males, keeping himself widened. "Attack!" With that he tried to widen himself as flat as possible to avoid thrown spears. Without warning the male next to him was hit by a bright red.....he didn't know what to call it, but the heat radiating from it made him scuttle backwards to flee from it as the unfortunate male hit by it turned into....oh by the gods....ashes where only something known of in legend and yet here he plainly saw one of his best fighters turned into them before him as if the gods had come down and unleashed their wrath upon him. Then several rapid noises began to go off, and one of the weird arms of the creatures began to spit fire hot and deadly, his males stood no chance and went down. Brownish red blood began to splatter the ground in puddles which remained unfrozen unlike normal ice, Uslea himself acted as if he had been hit and purposely fell into a growing pool of blood and gore to avoid the same fate as his males.
--------------------------------------------------------------King Lorenzo's Point Of View--------------------------------------------
One minute I had been speaking to Frank Horrigan over the PCS hooked into my pipboy like a radio caller, and then the assaultrons began to go berserk and attack seemingly nothing, I thought as much anyways until I saw ice spears shattering against their metal chassis. After that I watched the massacre happen, it had to have been males from another clan or domain nearby as Lazoi had informed his entire Domain within short order to not attack, let alone touch the assaultrons, he had to say not to touch them after a male had tried to trade with one for....whatever fuckin reason, I don't know why he did that. To say I was surprised when one assaultron dragged a Ren covered in their brownish blood still wiggling and seemingly unharmed would be a massive understatement. "Your Majesty." It went on, its voice the same as any assaultrons. "This Ren attempted to play dead to avoid being caught or shot, do you wish to question it."
I thought for a minute, and nodded with a grin. "Yes, Yes I think I will question it, him I think." So I grabbed the Ren whom was almost completely covered in his own kinds blood, and with the help of an assaultron jammed em into the back of the troop transport for our little conversation.
He, for it sounded like a Ren male normally did, screeched and flailed and tried to claw me as he spoke. "I am Domain Master Uslea! I order you to get your unclawed hands off my hide and release me from this stone prison at once! Or you shall suffer the consequences of angering one of the most powerful Domain Masters within the region!"
Giving him a deadpan look, I lit myself a cigarette and laughed in his face after I had taken a drag. "Your no longer a Domain Master, you are my Prisoner to do with as I desire, and your Domain now belongs to me since you tried to attack mine."
Uslea, which was apparently this guys name, recoiled his eyestalks in horror at my words. "You, You can't possibly expect my Domain to just willingly go to you! This Domain should have been mine by now, that pathetic excuse of a Domain Master Lazoi was supposed to be in charge of this Domain, and I was going to have him slain before my eyestalks!" Uslea.....Lazoi had told me about him, his domain, and to say I was disgusted would be an understatement. This Piece Of Shit allowed females to be treated as nothing but breeding stock, Lazoi wanted him dead for that alone, seemingly Lazoi's Domain was one of the few that allowed female Ren the same freedoms a male would have, I was going to ensure that became the norm on this planet, so what needed doing, would be done.
Chuckling I rolled my eyes at em, which seemed to confuse em, before my tone went emotionless. "Let me make one thing clear you six eyed bitch. This planet belongs to the Crystal Empire now, that means every chunk of land, sea, and air on this world now belongs to me, and I won't take hostilities from your species, I'm willing to let your species slowly join at its own rate, which is inevitable due to the presence I will soon have on the planet, and I can't just allow shitheads like you to go around trying to toss spears at my new citizens, I'm afraid I've gotten all the information I need from you, and thus will no longer be requiring your services, so I must bid you farewell." I pulled out my Advanced Ten Millimeter Mark Two pistol, raised it, and fired.
About a month had passed since my Empire had laid claim to Mars, several structures had been built there already for citizens to use, while the former Enclave base became a sort of main command hub for the settlements there. So far construction of skyscrapers on that planet was going well, already had a small town there with a couple thousand citizens happily living there, it was heavily defended of course, several Akun missile batteries to deal with the flying creatures, and a few dozen combat heavy sentry bots to deal with any ground threats, since those were pretty much tanks. With every other nation more or less having magical energy weapons of one sort or another, even the diamond dogs having what looked to be a soviet based laser rifle, I had my top weapon engineers design an energy weapon for the cats that wouldn't rely on magic whatsoever, it was pretty much a long automatic laser rifle with what looked to be gold foil on top. This foil was actually very powerful and very sturdy solar paneling which if used properly, would make the weapon never run out of ammunition, and for night time operations a standard Fission Battery was built into the weapon to make up for the lack of sunlight to power it.
New animals and plants had been dragged over from Mars for study, kept in a climate control chamber to simulate their homeworld, one of the more deadly flying creatures was a round fat ball the size of a basketball with hydrogen air sacs around in between its eyestalks which kept it afload, and when attacking prey it would deflate these and fall right into its prey's head, it had one massive mouth and it would then spin rapidly. This of course would rather quickly kill whatever it landed on due to the amount of teeth held within this little horror, I thought it could be of some use as a terror weapon and had several dozen injected with FEV, they grew larger, changed color from black to a rich purple color, and stronger overall.
Speaking of FEV, I had several Ren sign up for testing it on their own species to see what effects it would have, and I had to say it was overall a positive effect for them, it made them a little larger than they naturally where, but it also increased their strength and made them MUCH more resistant to heat then they had already been! Meaning they could wander about the Empire Proper, aka the chunk on Equis, happily and not die of a heat stroke, and it was found they could still fuck and make more of themselves after being altered, so the FEV went down generation after generation as well like normal DNA would, as such I was having it mandatory to be injected by FEV for this species if they wanted to enter a portal gate into one of the Empire's Worlds. They were banned from Letera-2 and Vanov however, despite the increased resistance to heat the climate on those planets would just kill them.
The Changeling Empire had been relying on Equestria to try and refill the love gems, which didn't work out perfectly, so the moment I returned they began to fill them up, to make up for the fact so many of them were just, so hungry, I had an extra large copy of the Crystal Heart installed into the heart of the Changeling Empire so they could continue to process it into a honey like gel for transportation across their lands to feed their citizens, while the love gems remained filled and I also sent a few hundred cases of 'Nuka Love'. Which for those whom don't remember is classic Nuka Cola infused with pure love for changelings to enjoy it more. I had several Akun technologies given to Equestria for study, such as an Akun landcruiser and a few missiles, with the proper personal to teach them how they worked, and instructions on how to produce more, of course for the tanks Equestria would need to alter the size of the insides. Their current tanks where actually called Manticore Tanks, they looked uncanningly like World War Two Sherman tanks, sept their cannons replaced with a small slim arcane cannon.
Since my Empire had returned I found several DOZEN companies sprung up in the time I was gone to try and fill the 'cola' gap my Empire had left behind! They only sprung up once the Empire was gone, due to my Empire holding the only legal patent to the term 'cola' since the Colta Cola company had went bankrupt at which I bought it after the owner had blown up a Nukatron in Ponyville. They were promptly sued and since Celestia recognized the fact my Empire held the patent for it, the Nuka Cola Corporation won by an absolute landslide. In turn they had to hand over any and all recipes, and bottling plants, so I now effectively owned the ENTIRE Cola market on Equis and three other worlds! Vanov, Letera-2, and Mars, for those whom are confused.
A few of the colas that popped up where rather weird, like Jolt Cola, it contained seven times the caffeine content of a normal cola beverage and thus was more like a cola flavored energy drink. Despite now owning the others companies I simply had the product labels put 'product of the nuka cola corporation' on them in visible colors and continued production, more products to sell and more money for the Empire to spend elsewhere in other kingdoms or Empires.
King Ravorclaw wasn't doing too well, as it turns out he was rather old by the time I met em all those years ago, and now he was elderly as hell, he was glad to see me again, and as a favor I had given him a few cases of the Mysterious Serum, I just spawned a lot of it, packed it into small cases, and sent them back with him.
He didn't have someone picked to rule once he was dead and this was my way of giving him more time, enough time to choose so it wouldn't be an in the moment type of deal, or a political war for control of his empire. I also gave some to Celestia for her top scientists to study, I saw no harm in it since I knew they couldn't replicate it, and I know that for a fact. After all of the enclave crap was said and done, I took quite a while explaining to Celestia about the apparent past history of this world, to say she was shocked would be....a massive understatement, to say the least. But I wasn't going to dwell on that for now, and shall return to movie night with the herd, I was making the snacks and the movie we had been set to watch was the first transformers movie, Spring Dancer had picked that one, and it was good to see her more involved, and now that I wasn't on the anthro equis, she was free to leave the herd if she wanted, and she surprisingly decided not too, but for now, back to the movie. I had made nacos, soft shell tacos, popcorn, and grabbed a few chocolate bars as well, hot sauce for Rainshine to put on whatever she ate, she liked spice even moreso than me, the chocolate was for Moon, and the nachos Spring, me and Chrysalis would enjoy some tasty tacos.
I grinned walking back into the personal room which had been converted into a small movie theater with all the snacks I made, and sat down in between Chrysalis and Moon, with Rainshine laying in a comfortable recliner made for her size, and handed everyone their respective snacks while Spring Dancer was sitting on a small cloud, it was a good way to end the day.
About a week had passed since I last updated you all, now seems a good a time as any eh? Several Letera had joined my military surprisingly enough, I didn't think they'd be decent combat troops seeing as the Akun never let them join the military, but I was proven rather wrong quickly. They were fast as fuck and their claws could easily slice into thin armor and even easier into flesh and bone, tearing it apart like wet paper. In more important news Discord, the Anthro one, had opened a small portal between the two Equis's. He refused to let anyone through and made it so small only signals from their communication technology could go through, same worked for mine, Celestia, anthro, had updated me on what was going on, and expressed concern when the Empire up and vanished, the Griffon Empire quickly seized the land where it had once been, since it was still rich with oil and minerals they could use to rebuild. I sent her instructions to build a small Portal Gate, if she did so correctly it would autolink with one I had already built ready to go.
A small city on Mars was complete, most of the Ren tribes, I'm callin em tribes because its 50 Ren at most, had been integrated into the Empire with relative ease. The wall had been repaired ahead of schedule, the defenses repaired as well, Defender Prime was fully repaired, the skyscrapers that had been knocked down like cardboard are in the process of being rebuilt around the clock by Changeling workers, robots, and Diamond Dogs, even a few Storm Beasts, which their actual species name is SnowBeasts, where helping out as well. After news of the Empires return spread around Equis, or the known kingdoms and empires at any rate, I found Applejack on the next train to the Empire hauling a massive fucking crate filled to the brim with thousands of bits, she had tried to give them to me. Turns out those robots I gave her farm helped quite a lot more than she and her family had expected, now they could afford to pay for the farm, and even extend it into other crops beyond just apples, such as potatoes, wheat, corn, barley, a lot of goodies, and they've been raking in the bits.
I refused of course, I had given those to her family to be kind, if I had wanted money I could just walk to the royal vault and pull out a sack of pure gold coins, I did however let her pay the 25 bits per robot she wanted to do, and Applejack had told me the Apple Family is forever in my debt, and I was apparently now considered a fully fledged member of the Apple Family, so that was interesting. Equestria had several breakthroughs thanks to the Akun technology and the Akun personal borrowed to them to teach them how to produce it, how to use it, and then I gave them ideas for how to adapt certain technologies for themselves, such as the tanks. There was actually supposed to be a summit today Princess Celestia had called to bring all allied Kingdoms and Empires together to discuss the threat I told her about, I of course informed her of the Zetans after coming back, I'd be stupid not to do so.
So thats where I was heading currently, I had already arrived by train, not bothering to use my personal transport because I simply didn't feel like doing so, nor using the relay, I'd just enjoy the train ride until I arrived. Surprisingly it only took a half an hour due to the newer train models being pumped out for use. These ones used small arcane reactors with arcane fuel cells to work rather than a steam engine with coal, so Equestria had been advancing more than I thought after I left, this was good. Once at the train station I had a....,well it's hard to describe since Equestria has its own versions of cars, but it was what amounted to an armored car to transport me to Canterlot Castle. With me I had Exalted Fleetlord Issit, he was mostly going to show the other Kingdoms I actually had 'alien' citizens. Since a few didn't actually believe me. It only took 15 minutes to get there, since it was clear across Canterlot on the edge of what was considered the main city. Exalted Fleetlord Issit had his eyeturrets glued to the outside windows of the car viewing Canterlot, before we got out of the car he said. "These buildings are far too ornate, why are they not functional cubes like a normal building should be?" The Akun still prefered their style of buildings, which was minimalist.
That made me laugh lightly, I still found his way of thinking about things funny, but he was going to command the fleet that had come with him, and been altered after it became mine, so I wasn't going to complain so long as he could get the job done. After three minutes we arrived at the same room from the first meeting I had on this Equis, a large circle of a table with chairs adapted to every species who joined normally, present, at the head slightly raised above everyone else was Princess Celestia's chair, in it sat Celestia of course. In a chair next to her sat Cadence, I remembered her quite well, lets just hope she's become less of a bitch in the time I've been gone. In a larger chair sat King Steelhorns, another held King Razorclaw, Queen Novo, whom if I remember correctly rules the Hippogriff Kingdom, and 'Seaquestria'. Then there was Queen Carnelia and General Secretary Vadik, ruler of the Union of Canine Socialist Republics. The Changeling Empire was neutral and thus didn't come to these meetings unless asked to, nor did Saddle Arabia.
Celestia started the meeting, as normal she was always the first one to speak. "Alright, now that everyone is here and ready, I'm beginning this meeting now, as King Lorenzo shall explain the reasoning for the meeting." Everyone turned their heads to me as Celestia stopped talking.
I looked over at Exalted Fleetlord Issit and motioned, so he stood up from his little chair and pulled himself on top of the table for everyone to see. "This is Exalted Fleetlord Issit, a member of the Akun species, their Empire tried to invade mine so I took control of theirs, some of you have been having a hard time trusting me when I told you all about this, so here he is as proof." This caused a few surprised noises from some of the people present.
This caused quite the commotion as General Secretary Vadik spoke up. "How is it you managed to find their homeworld and take it for your own? Let alone defend against them." One of his eyebrows rose as he asked his question, drinking from a small flask he had pulled from a pocket.
Going on, I explained. "For one, my technology was more advanced than theirs by couple hundred years, and they have been unified so long as a species that their own homeworld had no standing military or fleet to protect it, they haven't been in a real war for a long time, 50 thousand years or more since they took the Letera into their Empire as a Subject Species, once I took their Empire into mine, the Letera and their homeworld became mine as well."
King Steelhorns spoke up next. "And how long has this species been around exactly? Wouldn't we have noticed them if they were advanced enough to come here from space?"
That was a valid question. "No, You wouldn't have because this happened when I was in another dimension, as for how old? I'd give a guess of about three million years, their history is long as hell, they've been unified as a species for just over a million years I'd estimate."
Celestia cleared her throat. "Now, King Lorenzo, could you speak about the other reason for calling this meeting? It was rather hard to get everyone here." She said, amusement in her voice at how off topic we had gotten from the main point.
Nodding I continued. "Ah yes. The main reason I had this meeting called was because there stands a threat against not only your kingdoms and empires as well as mine, but to Equis as a whole." I tossed a small disk about the same size and thickness as a DVD onto the center of the table, and it began to glow projecting a holographic image of a Zetan. "The Zetans are a threat to Equis and all life on it, some of your technologies are based on the technology you recovered from the Storm King airships, he got his hands on Zetan technology and those ships were based on that."
King Razorclaw almost cawed but caught himself, I still found it funny however. "If these Zetans are such a threat why didn't we know about them till now? Wouldn't they have tried something?" He didn't look as old as he did before, seems he's been taking the Serum as I instructed until his replacement can be found.
He had a valid point I guess. "The Zetans are a space faring species with millions, if not billions, of starships of immense power and size, the Storm King managed to use his magic staff to drag down a small scout craft, what is likely keeping them away is lack of information. As you all know this solar system is much different than it used to be a few thousand years ago, everything thus far has changed, the sun is orbiting Equis after all, before that wasn't normal until you guys evolved here. So they are most likely still sending scouting parties, or haven't done so lately since none of my starships detected them." I took a minute to take a gulp from a cup of cider. "As for what we need to do to protect ourselves? You need more starships, with rapid fire arcane cannons and Arcane warhead missiles, I have decided the Crystal Empire shall provide these so long as you all submit the main designs your currently using to produce your own, and for those without starships of their own." I looked to Vadik. "They can submit their own designs as well." Vadik didn't show much emotion, I should have expected as much.
Queen Novo looked over at me. "This is ridiculous, why do those ugly little things pose any sort of threat? They are tiny, and rather ugly." Her voice showing she thought this entire thing was one big joke, and wasn't amused at the supposed joke.
Having prepared for that, I selected a video file I took of a standard Zetan Deathray glassing a chunk of a dead world, and played it for everyone to view. "This is why. They have hundreds of thousands of these, even more than that if all the information I have gotten is right, each starship has one, each one can hit with the force of a 20,000 megaton bomb." Everyone at the table watched in horror as the deathrays blast was easily seen from orbit, as well as the shockwave that followed from the center, the chunk of the planet that took a direct hit glowing from the immense heat, that shut Novo up rather quickly.
Cadence was the next one to speak surprisingly enough, I hadn't expected her to really speak. "If this is all true, what can be done to defend the Lunar Colony which I govern?" Huh I hadn't known she was the one ruling the Lunar Colony on Luna's Moon, I assumed Luna was.
I shrugged. "Build more defenses, install more shields and power generators, keep a portal gate to Equis open at all times in the event you need to evacuate, and if you do need to evacuate, make sure everyone gets out, other than that and having some extra starships with heavy arcane cannons around I can't see much you can do."
Cadence seemed satisfied by that and nodded. "Celestia brought up to me you'd like to begin a mining operation on the Moon, Luna has already permitted it so long as it's not near the colony, and won't have any effect, on said colony."
I nodded. "Seems reasonable, I didn't plan for it to be near the colony anyways unless it was requested, now onto another matter that I think could help in the defense of everyone at large, every kingdoms citizens and populations." The hologram changed again, to something any Fallout Gamer would recognize in nearly an instant.
I waited as everyone looked, before explaining. "This is a Vault. Not a vault for cash, or gems, but for citizens. Produced by Empire Industries, state of the art protection from everything from an atomic bomb, to the end of the world. These are deep underground armored self sustaining shelters meant to protect thousands of citizens at a time from the effects of the surface world being devastated by weapons of war unseen or unheard of on this planet. In essence these are underground cities of massive scale and size meant to allow a population of up to seven thousand each."
General Secretary Vadik raised an eyebrow before speaking. "The Union Of Canine Socialist Republics has no need for such vaults, as almost all of our nation resides underground more than half a mile down and deeper, however we are more than willing to produce the metals needed to make these vaults and help with the digging as much as is needed, for we will help the peasants and workers of every nation we are able, the Dialectic demands no less if we are to be united."
That almost made me snort, but I grinned and nodded. "Yes, my Empire will be constructing Vaults using your own computer systems and technology as well as Empire Standard water filtration systems and various other technologies. Once all of you have selected the most important areas for these Vaults to go, send me the locations and work will begin as soon as possible, the only kingdoms who do not need these vaults is SeaQuestria and the Hippogriff Kingdom since every citizen is able to transform back into a seapony and flee into the sea, and the UCSR respectively."
Everyone nodded in agreement, thus Celestia spoke. "I now call this summit to an end. Accommodations are available for all here today, if you do not wish to stay for a day then return to your respective places of rule tomorrow, transportation can be arranged to take you back within the hour." After Celestia had finished speaking, everyone but me and her filed out of the room one by one, after that only me and her remained in the room, along with Fleetlord Issit, whom was just sitting and being quiet as I told him to do so. "Alright Lorenzo, now that everyone is gone, I went over those designs you sent me for orbital defense stations, massive arcane cannons pretty much, and I have approved the designs for construction, we will need your help getting those into orbit since your starships are much larger than our own."
I gave a grin as I nodded. "Of course, that should be no problem, just remember, I have no idea how much time we have before the Zetans show up, and I have no doubt they will. It could be tomorrow, it could be in five minutes for all we know, so I've been keeping the Crystal City Starship in orbit, primed to fire its Plasmatic Lance and every other weapon it has at its disposal."
Princess Celestia nodded as well. "If need be I have a few starships up near the colony already waiting to defend it, I'm going to authorize a few hundred shipments of canned goods from your Empire to stock those vaults once they are complete, I know they will have massive underground farms, but those even with earthpony magic, will take awhile to produce crops for ponies to enjoy." She sat down in her chair again. "And your Akun, the ones whom you have lent us have been a massive help and we've already begun making leaps and bounds technologically in fields such as tank armor, hand held automatics that don't rely on magic, computer systems, missile defense and detection, and radar."
Fleetlord Issit spoke. "It is the will of the Crystal Emperor that we are to help you in defending your own empires, so it shall be as the Emperor has commanded." After speaking he lowered his eyeturrets to the floor as a sign of respect as he had done for his previous Emperor. He still called me his emperor, despite me telling him to call me King Lorenzo, almost all Akun, and the Letera, called me the Crystal Emperor, or the Immortal Emperor, and let's be honest I was too lazy to correct them all the time.
Celestia looked down at him and smiled before looking back up at me. "Alright, I think thats all I needed, we'll begin returning those citizens to you as soon as possible, I think it should be about a week before we have everything else we needed from the personal you sent over, they are such interesting little creatures." She glanced at Issit before returning her eyes to me. "If I'm being honest I keep thinking their tiny dragons because of how they look, but then they speak in their own language and it always makes me remember they are from another world entirely, since everyone on this planet speaks Equish, except you, you told me about a language you knew called 'spanish' but every time you tried to speak in it, all I heard was Equish." She shrugged. "Regardless, your free to go now, I'll be sending you the information you required as well as the locations of places to construct the Vaults, all resources will be provided for you as needed."
I patted her snout and chuckled. "Alright, then I'll be off now, see you soon Celestia, and don't forget the tea this time!" I playfully booped her snout, reminding her of the last time she forgot the tea.
This caused her eyes to narrow as she gave me a wry grin. "Green tea, two sugars, a dash of lemon and honey, I know how you like your tea, I won't forget like I did last time." With that concluded I used the relay after grabbing Fleetlord Issit, teleporting back to the Empire Proper within the Crystal Palace.
------------------------Location, Earth, United States of America, Nevada, Mojave Desert Facility----------------------------------
It took almost an entire year, but after billions of dollars worth of funding, research, and testing, the Portal was ready. Military personnel were prepared, if something hostile came through and couldn't be stopped before the portal could be shut off, several men stood ready near a live nuclear warhead, ready to flip the switch if needed. It had taken the government several months to get everything ready, to get support from those within the UN, to prove what had happened was in fact, not a hoax, or fake. Once they got funding came the hard part, constructing the portal and finding out how to pinpoint the location of the person who had caused all of this to get rolling to begin with. Head Researcher and Scientist Owen Green looked over nervously at the soldiers clad in experimental exo-suits carrying long blocky looking rifles, before opening a small freezer unit and carefully pulling out a vial of crimson colored liquid, blood from the one who had caused this. The final component that would complete the portal. With hesitation that would have killed a person had be been an EMT, he inserted the vial into the console in front of himself, and watched with anxiety as the contents drained into the machine slowly.
At first, nothing happened, after five minutes he was ready to give up, after almost over a year of effort and work down the drain, his career ended, but before he was about to announce it hadn't worked, the portal sparked to life, swirling a bright eerie red glow as the portal stabilized itself. One of the military personal flipped a few switches on his own computer screen and a small drone hovered to life, and everyone watched with bated breaths as it was engulfed by the portal moments later as the soldier piloted it through, the screen showing what the camera on the drone could see glowing red for a moment before a pink landscape with orange and greyish skies where seen, and after a 15 minute flight and return of the drone, the person in charge of the base grinned. "We did it, we managed to do it despite all the odds that were against us, now, we can begin." Several recon teams suited themselves up putting on light Exo-suits, carrying their blocky looking rifles which seemed to hold an electric charge, and got ready for their mission into the unknown.
Three months had passed rapidly. The changes coming to all kingdoms was rapid, fast, and best of all close to being complete. Repairs in the Empire were completed a while ago now, the city on Mars was expanding rapidly as well, the small Network of known Enclave bases being the main hub that the city was built around, following the same circle pattern of the Empire Proper. Most Vaults where completed, each one being connected to the others in their respective kingdoms or empires by underground railway tunnels with arcane trains to haul supplies and citizens through them. Blue Gadget had finally gotten around to the Scifi aspect of the information on the internet lately and had seen Halo Hardlight weaponry, it.....gave him ideas, to say the least, I blacklisted a lot of random shit I knew he'd try, such as a black hole bomb. The mining operation on the Moon was going well, a new metal had been discovered which was called Moon Silver, it had what amounted to the same properties as Mithril, and no, its not Anti-Magic, its actually super condensed mana apparently, very rare and expensive as hell. I was having it tested for weapons, power armor, vehicles, you name it and it's being tested for it.
Queen Novo refused to follow any guidelines or actually even trust me when it came to the aliens, I could see why, she hasn't met me before that point and her species mostly lives underwater with the exception of a few thousand who decided to be hippogriffs again, and due to them having wings they don't even have aircraft, and due to being used to living in water, no firearms. The most advanced weapons they have is a speargun, and even then thats underpowered to get even through more than one plate of outdated Crystal Guard Armor. So at the moment I was keeping an eye on that kingdom, but if I was being honest they are almost literally no threat. If they tried something I'd just have a submarine launch a few tesla torpedos underwater and give em a nasty, but nonlethal, shock. And yes, my Empire did in fact have submarines, I've had em for awhile now. Their stealth submarines able to launch missiles and other shit from underwater like some on Earth can, but mostly I had them developed early on to counter Seaquestria should they try to attack ally shipping lanes, didn't know if they would, but they seemed to dislike and even outright hate most surface dwellers except their own.
Moon had been set in charge of governing Mars while it was modernized, once that was done she'd have the choice to continue, or return here to stay in the palace as normal, me and the others visited her at the end of every week, she was happy for the company, and she could visit us as well with the portalgate I had built into the room she was sleeping in, which lead to our room. Chrysalis was still on Vanov, mostly by choice, she enjoyed the hot weather since she was used to a desert climate and was taking a vacation for awhile, just enjoying the sights and all that, while Rainshine was doing the same on Letera-2, we all scheduled times together however as said before, as for Spring Dancer, she sorta jus...vanished, I think she went with Rainshine however. Other news in terms of technological progress, the Enclave Caches had several dozen new technologies I hadn't even known existed in the Fallout Universe, such as a Gauss Shotgun, Faust that thing was a powerful little weapon.
It used the same 2 Millimeter Electromagnetic Cartridges that a normal Gauss Rifle used, and the thing had 50 barrels, you heard that right, a total fucking 50. You shot 50 projectiles per shot, and this thing had eight shots before you needed to reload, this thing held 400 bullets, or, whatever you wanna call something thats pretty much just a metal slug without propellant, it shot 50 of em at a time, it absolutely tore through flesh, bone, scales, and even power armor in some instances. After having those studied, and produced using the Contraptions DLC machine, they had game logic applied to them, so I was having dozens upon dozens of those shipped to the Abyssinian Empire to help with their lack of viable firearms to defend against heavily armored infantry, since most kingdoms now used Power Armor of some sort. I also sent them regular Gauss Rifles, fully modded ones with the best modifications possible for the weapons, as well as all the 2MM EC's they'd need to use these weapons. They had begun to have costal guns emplaced in tactical areas around their new islands, so I had recalled a few of my Battleships to patrol the waters.
They were also issued to soldiers of my own, as well as combat androids, and the police forces, should they need a more lethal option they now had it on hand. Another thing the Enclave had managed to save was Winchester P94 plasma caster, Hellfire Power Armor, several cybernetic systems meant for humans, such as replacement limbs, eyes, even artificial organs, and plenty more, each had plans to produce em, so I was looking into all of them. Many have been fully researched and tested by this point, such as the Gauss Shotguns as an example. But the most advanced Gauss weapon recovered was the Gauss Minigun, three barrels, huge damage and about the same rate of fire as a normal minigun, still the same 2mm EC ammunition. The cat's where using these as machine guns for emplacements because they couldn't actually carry these by hand, some mounted to vehicles. My own troops now used them as well, they replaced the older outdated classic 5 mm minigun.
The Solar Plasma Rifle Mark Two was finally entering mass production on an industrial scale, at first there were some problems on how to power the damned things because of how much energy they required to shoot, but that was fixed recently with the introduction of Solar Cores, a blocky energy cell that plugged into the side of the weapon and allow it to fire on full automatic for up to 30 seconds, that may not seem important to some, but remember this weapon was a miniaturized plasmatic lance pretty much, it shot constant beams of energy hotter than any plasma weapon before it. And the classic Fallout 4 styled Plasma Rifles, where being replaced with the modernized ones designated 18-C's, and 18-D's. The 18-C's where small, slim and sleek, small automatic submachine gun plasma rifles pretty much, the 18-D's where long, sleek and advanced looking automatic and semi automatic plasma rifles, these would become the new standards, still using Plasma Cartridges for ammunition. So at the moment all plasma weapons, aside from the Plasma Defender Pistol, and the Mark 43 Heavy Plasma Machine Gun, HPMGMK43, where being collected and tossed into storage while I decided what to do with them.
Just as I was about to go get some food, Sunbeam Cuddle walked in, before bowing at the throne and standing back up properly. "King Lorenzo, I was going over some of the images we are getting from the orbital satellites and recently we found a new landmass between the Empire and the Griffon Empire, I'd suggest contacting the Griffon Empire's ruler King Razorclaw before trying to claim or set foot on the island, we don't know if it belongs to them as it's not on any maps we have acquired." She tapped a few times on her tablet and my pipboy lit up, displaying the new island, landmass thing, in question.
I tapped at the map to zoom in a small bit, and hummed. "Alright, I'll call him up now, thank you Sunbeam, tell the husband I said hello, and checking the time, it seems your going for overtime again, I know you're trying for a foal, so I've decided to give you a few weeks off with pay, overtime included, I was actually going to call you and inform you in another two hours, but since your here I may as well just tell you now." I was tapping through my pipboy contacts list.
Sunbeam Cuddle smiled. "Thank you Your Majesty, I'll be on my way then so you can make your call without interruption." She, actually sorta bounced off like Pinkie Pie would.....weird.
Well, with her gone I tapped the contact causing it to glow red as it established a connection with the Griffon King's more primitive communications technology, before Razorclaw picked up. "Lorenzo? What can I do for you my friend, it's been awhile since we've spoken outside of a summit room."
I chuckled. "Yeah, we need to hangout more, regardless my satellites mapped a new island between our two Empire's, and I wanted to know if it was a territory of yours because its not on a map." I tapped a button and sent the map through to his end of the line.
The line went quiet for a moment. "No, the Griffon Empire hasn't claimed that island, and if I'm being honest it seems more trouble than it's worth, since I have other things to worry about at the moment, which I have more time thanks to you, I'm going to just let you have whatever the island is, or whatever is on it, the Griffon Empire is too busy with finishing the last Vaults as well as defenses while I myself am trying to find someone to replace me once I am gone to worry about some island."
I nodded, even if he couldn't see it, still felt right to nod. "Alright, thanks. I hope your search for a new King goes well, pick wisely, you have as much time as you need due to that serum, if you run out just call and more will be delivered to you personally by my top DIA agent." We said our goodbyes, and he hung up so I cleared the call function off my pipboy before using a relay to teleport next to an Akun Transport Helicopter, startling the crew who was in the process of cleaning it, before they realized who I was and bent into the posture of respect.
The main Pilot, I could tell by his body paint, was the first to speak up after a few moments of having his eyeturrets to the ground with everyone else. "My Emperor what may I do for you this chilly day?" The others stood back up after he spoke.
I handed him a small disk. "I desire to be taken to this location on the map, once you plug this into your helicopters computer system it'll mark the coordinates for you to head to, its now property of the Crystal Empire, and before I forget, what is your name?"
He waggled his eyeturrets. "I am Orbit, My Emperor, I thank you for asking the name of one as lowly as a pilot."
Bending over I patted him on the snout. "Ay now I told you guys to cut that out, you ain't lowly, or trash, your a sentient person like me or anyone else, but, you'll do as you will, so I'll let it slide and won't bring it up again, for now let's head out." Without giving Orbit a chance to reply, I hopped into the back compartment of the helicopter and sat in one of the seats, they adapted to what species sat in them so it wouldn't be a crappy ride like the time I tried to drive an Akun Motorcar.
Without a word he and the other pilot hopped into their seats and started the helicopter, causing the back door to close as it lifted into the air, and tilted itself forwards in the direction of the island. It took an overall hour to get there, I took that time to catch up on a book I hadn't had the time to read all that often lately. I enjoyed taking these more primitive upgraded aircraft sometimes rather than an Antigrav craft because of the time it took to get to the destination, giving me more time to just relax, listen to music, or read. I hadn't even noticed we had arrived at the location until the helicopter landed on a mostly flat piece of land, I closed the book from my Pipboy and looked over to the main pilot. "Keep the engine running, I don't know what's on this island, thats why I'm going to explore it without anyone else, if something happens I'll respawn and call in for you to get out of here and head back to base." This was true, if somethin like a hydra or some shit managed to kill me these lil guys in a helicopter wouldn't fare much better, even if it was armed with a few chainguns and some missiles.
Orbit bowed his head. "As you command My Emperor, your will Shall Be Done." The Co-pilot bowed his head as well, both of them lowering their eyeturrets in unison. I left quickly after that, holding a weapon I hadn't held for, quite a few years, my Assaultron Blade, keeping it on my back as I trekked around. So far as I could tell from looking at the ground, someone had made trails to walk around on, and had used em enough to make them indent into the ground by a quarter of an inch, so I was just going to follow one until I found something.
After about, ten minutes of walking in this forest on a dirt trail I came across something that confused me to absolutely no end. It looked normal enough from my perspective at first, a village with thatched roof houses, what confused me was that it wasn't ponies, not normal ones anyways, or any species I've seen so far going about their daily business in this village, no these looked like fucking hybrids. A pony torso, on a giant snake tail, I estimated 15, 20 feet long for each of em, except the smaller ones, foals.....pups? Pupoals? Fuck if I know, but it seems they noticed me not long after I noticed them as one coiled into what looked like the shape of a spring, before JUMPING, thats right, jumping, at ungodly fast speeds, before I knew what the fuck had happened I was in a cocoon of coils.
Thank god I'm not afraid of snakes like I am spiders, because if a spider did this I'd set off an M45 Warhead with me still on top of it to kill the fuckers. Within about a minute I was tossed onto the floor of a one of the larger houses which on some sort of pillow, mostly coiled around itself was a blue snakehorse, sky blue to be exact, with red slit eyes and a puffy white mane that looked like a cloud. "I am King Cloudyfangs, what are you here for Gorilla Spy." His tone was flat.
This confused me, I knew I wasn't a gorilla, hell humans didn't look like gorillas except very vaguely, the differences are clear as day. Standing up I looked at this guy, male by the voice. "I am not a Gorilla Spy, I am King Lorenzo, Ruler of the Crystal Empire, this island recently became territory of the Empire, so I was checking what was on my new island."
King Cloudyfangs's right eyebrow rose up as he looked down at me. "Crystal Empire? That must be a lie, no land outside of this exists, and we're forced to compete with the Kirin and those religious nutjob Gorillas."
That caused me to laugh, so I pulled up a map of the known world from my pipboy and projected it with the holographic interface, startling him and the two guards he had at his sides, who raised their spears as if to impale me on them, but stopped once they realized it was a map, so it seems they did have a concept of such things. I pointed to the island we were on. "This is my new island, the one we are currently on right now." I pointed to the Empire Proper across a small chunk of ocean. "This is the Empire Proper, the chunk of land which my Empire controls, other kingdoms and empires control their own parts, this one is mine now."
King Cloudyfangs looked to be in deep thought for a few moments, before speaking. "So you could get us off this island? Away from the Kirin and Gorillas?" He sounded...hopeful? What the fuck?
I nodded. "Somewhat, however the Empire already has Kirin citizens, the Gorillas and Kirin here would become citizens of the Empire as well, but I doubt you'd run into too many of them, the Empire is large after all." That would be an understatement, compared to the Empire this island may as well have been a small rock, I hadn't expected to find anything worthy of noting down on this island, but turns out I was wrong.
The Snakehorse King, whatever the fuck you called his species, put a hoof onto his chin and seemed to be thinking things over, he took a grand five minutes before looking back down at me. "Alright, we submit to your rule so long as you can do the following, one, Get. Us. Of. This. Island. Two, put us in an area with few to no kirin, they have harmed us in the past because they think this land is theirs, now that there is apparently a better option, they can have the damned land. Three, while I will no longer be king I do wish for some sort of position of power and to keep my wealth."
......Well that was fucking easier than I expected. "Alright then....that, can be arranged, all of those demands, I'll have transport aircraft land nearby for you all to get into....I guess just pack your stuff? I can have arrangements to help those who can't bring their stuff.." I was honestly confused and thought this was a ploy, but all he did was nod and have me tossed out of his house.
With.....whatever the hell that was, I got directions to these apparent religious gorillas. It was only a two mile walk and took me about an hour, during that time I called in to have several civilian transport craft brought over to the snake village thing, but to have several armed androids in the event it WAS a ruse, so no organic soldiers would get hurt. And I doubt even with their size they could do more than immobilize an android. After about another thirty minutes I saw what surprisingly looked like an almost normal, if not primitive, town. Gorillas everywhere, they looked like Silverback Gorillas, but I may be wrong I'm no species expert, or whatever those people are called. The moment one of them got a look at me they called attention to themselves and pointed. Then the shitshow began, just like the god damned zebras the first time I met em they began to bow as if Jesus Christ himself had walked out of a store carrying a pizza. An elderly, if they fur turning white at points was anything to go by, Gorilla began walking up to me, wearing some sort of weird helmet.
He, as I saw no tits, was about eye level with me as he walked up, before looking me up and down. "How has an Ancient One returned to the land of the living?" His voice was indeed elderly, he sounded like the grandparent everyone wanted when they where small, like a grandpa.
However his wording confused me, ancient one? What the hell was this about? So I asked as much. "What the heck are you talkin about? Ancient One?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
He held up, what was undoubtedly a partially destroyed Human Skull from a pouch he had on him. "You Ancient One's created this world, created everything within it, your kind made the land, the sky and the sea, then you made plants and animals to live within that land and granted sapience, you are clearly an Ancient One." Oh for...fuck it I'm going to use this to my advantage, so I decided to play along.
------------------------------------------------------Bison Empire, Capital City Iron Mountain------------------------------------------------
On top of a mountain, much like Canterlot, sat a city called Iron Mountain, the Capital of the Bison Empire, large smokestacks and factories punching into the sky while the Imperial Palace sat as the highest structure in the city itself. Empress Bifslu looked across the table at her two allies with a savage grin on her face, the light of the overhead lamp making her crimson eyes glow like a cats, her two white horns shining as well. "Well, it seems our little attack on those pathetic fleabag Abyssinians has begun, as we agreed, once the island is ours and all of those pests are dead, we shall split the resources they claimed so arrogantly on those islands between ourselves, the amount of natural gas and oil alone would be more than enough for all of us for many years to come." Zeena, Sultana of Saddle Arabia nodded her head in agreement, as did Emperor Romulus, ruler of the Caribou Empire. Their forces should be bombarding that island just about now with their battleships large 15 inch guns.
Several soldiers in exo suits where patrolling around the newly constructed base, it was underground and took several months to finish, they had to work carefully and quietly as the people who stationed them here had no idea if this area was monitored or not. A portalgate had been built on their end once the base was complete to uplink with the portal back on Earth. Since the base was completed a month ago they didn't fuck around, and several recon and recovery teams had been going to seemingly abandoned military bases scattered nearby each one having a capital E surrounded by a circle of stars somewhere on it and in it, and hauling back severan dozen interesting pieces of technology, one of those technologies was plasma weaponry. Owen Green, Head Researcher and Scientist looked over to General Mark with a wide grin on his face. "Sir what we have recovered will give us leaps and bounds in technological progress, advanced fission reactors, and most importantly, these." He pressed a button and the display case lifted up, showing a weird looking rifle with glowing green bits on it.
General Mark raised a bushy eyebrow. "And what is that exactly?" He peered at the thing as if it was going to blow up at any moment.
Owen smiled harder. "Sir, with the testing we've done, this weapon is...a very advanced yet, very primitive, Directed Energy Weapon, one which shoots plasma, so, a Plasma Rifle."
This caused both eyebrows to shoot upwards in surprise. "What do you mean very advanced, yet very primitive Owen, that makes no logical sense!" Mark looked at Owen with a look of curiosity on his old face.
The scientist happily went on to explain. "While the weapon itself is advanced in what it can do by our standards, its electronics are primitive, something we had decades ago, the only problem we'd have in trying to recreate this thing is trying to replicate its power cells, but given the state of solid batteries and our knew knowledge of fission reactors we are liable to be able to produce a working fission battery or cell of some sort to power our own versions of these weapons, already a prototype has been made and after being hooked into the base's power supply managed to melt a large hole in a half inch thick tungsten metal plate." He pulled up footage of the test fire, the weapon looked makeshift, circuitry and wires everywhere, but he was correct, once plugged into a power supply outlet protected by a surge protector, it managed to fire a bright red bolt of plasma slammed into the metal plate, instantly melting a huge hole into it, the molten metal dripping onto the floor.
General Mark looked up from the video screen. "Well, color me impressed, we have the budget, keep working on it, if you need someone to help design a power source for that thing then by God himself you'll have em. We have the budget for damn near anything right now, so spend as much time as you deem appropriate refining this design and getting a combat ready version ready for field use, this will give us a massive edge over our opponents here."
Owen Green nodded. "Speaking of, several native flying species have managed to kill a few soldiers on their smoke breaks, they fell onto their heads and span themselves, thousands of little teeth tore the flesh off the poor bastards heads till nothin but bone remained."
Mark turned yellow. "God that sounds awful, shame their families will never know, but security here is top priority, we are all expendable." With that said and the information and data found so far uploaded to the other side of the portal, he walked through said portal, walking right back into the base on Earth as if he walked into another room in his house.
Queen Carnelia was in the bridge of her small fleets flagship, named Carnelia's Might, looking down at the planet below, glaring at a select few chunks of land that were highlighted by a display over the Armorglass of the bridge. She had decided awhile ago it was safer up here than down below on Equis due to recent events, mostly the Umbrum and the now attempted invasion of her Empire once more. Bison, Caribou, and Saddle Arabian ships had tried to invade with a strike of long range cannon from their ships, thankfully the missile battery defenses and coastal guns as well as the Crystal Empire's remaining battleships sunk them quickly. A few sailors had been recovered in short order and interrogated, once the information they had been ordered to get was within their grasp, the soldiers shot the sailors. All of this less than 15 minutes ago, now Queen Carnelia sat within her flagship in orbit over Equis, deciding what to do.
Carnelia looked over to General Katze. "I am tired of others thinking we are simple weak pushovers, from one world to the next it's the same thing, over, and over. It's time this world learned we are not the simple little kittens many seem to think we are. We know the capital cities of the three kingdoms that have attacked us, let us retaliate by destroying them entirely."
General Katze nodded. "At once my Queen. We have produced 375 arcane warheads for use by the fleet, how many shall we use for every capital city we wish to destroy to ensure total destruction?" His left eyebrow raised itself upwards.
Queen Carnelia didn't even have to take a pause to think before speaking. "Twenty arcane warheads for every capital city we desire to strike down. This shall ensure nothing but molten slag remains." Her tone was cold, almost emotionless except for a hint of malice and rage, she was truly done with others taking their empire as something pathetic and easy to destroy.
General Katze bowed his head. "As you command Your Majesty, Heil Carnelia!" The staff on the bridge all stood and went rigid as their right arms shot out in what someone from Earth would view as a classic Nazi salute, before one typed in a few commands to the targeting computer and flipped a switch. The starship bucked backwards before the thrusters on either side of it activated to keep the starship in its current orbit and position while dozens of rockets spat from several ports on the starship. Within moments, the capital cities of Saddle Arabia, the Caribou Empire, and the Bison Empire, Neighdad, Milan, and Iron Mountain, went up in arcane fire as purple mushroom clouds began to form over the now ruined husks of what had once been great capital cities of their kingdoms. Thousands if not millions dead instantly, more dead within the radius of the shockwaves from the bombs, furthering their destruction, winds hundred of thousands of miles fast slamming into stone, metal, flesh, and shattering them all like glass.
With all three capital cities now reduced to slag, Carnelia grinned and pressed a switch on her chair, which would activate a television camera, broadcasting to the now former kingdoms who dared attack her Empire unprovoked. "I am Queen Carnelia, ruler of the Abyssinian Empire. Your unprovoked attack on my Empire has lead to your capitals being destroyed. I will not tolerate any hostile action against my Empire for any reason, your capital cities lie in ruin, your leaders dead, the head command of your military structures in ruins without a ruler to command them, any further hostile actions taken against my Empire will result in total destruction of every living thing in your territory, so heed this warning, further actions against my Empire will be met with overwhelming force in return." She cut the feed and reclined in her chair, biting into a juicy apple with a smile on her face.
Looking over to General Katze she spoke up. "Up production of arcane missiles by 45%. I want two thousand of them in orbit within two months for use by the fleet, should this warning and demonstration not deter utter morons from attacking us, we will use every last one if we have to do so to ensure our Empire's survival."
Katze saluted before bowing his head. "Yes Your Majesty, by your orders I will do so now." He speed walked out of the room to the communications room to relay Her Majesty's orders directly.
---------------------------Earth, high orbit former International Space Station------------------------
Kyle Hunter looked down upon the Earth with a small grin on his face, he and his team had been busy, busier than anyone else could ever know. Once it was established that the threat of an invasion from the other side was a real possibility, and finding about their space assets, the UNDF, mostly Russia and America for this one, raced to slap together a makeshift starship, rather than send all new parts into space or build one and launch it from Earth, they had agreed to modify the International Space Station, it was already built for the most part, they just needed to add more sections and technology to it. So what's what happened. Several months, almost a year of launching shipments of stuff into space up to the station from the US, Russia, as well as several other countries working together to ensure this got done, and the station was now a starship. Perhaps not the most advanced thing in the Galaxy, not when compared to what the enemy had, but it could hold its own if it had to for awhile.
The folks downstairs where still trying to decide a name, as clearly it couldn't be called the International Space Station anymore, but for now, everything was ready to go. The former station had been expanded to three times its old size, from a crew of six, to twenty. Close in weapon systems integrated, an experimental high power fission reactor to power it. Autocannons, chainguns, missile defenses, several experimental railguns, and to top it all off, two dozen high yield nuclear missiles. These missiles had to be designed for use in space rather than on Earth, they had been designated MKB55, with a yield of 9 megatons it was pretty much just the MKB52 but had to be modified for use in space. The former ISS was propelled by chemical rockets as well as a nuclear boom which while it only spat out particles, would provide constant acceleration, the current resupply of chemical rocket fuel was beginning to come in from a small base on the Moon, once again a joint effort between the US, and Russia, with a few other countries joining in as asked or required. It was mostly automated with a small crew of five to maintain it and upkeep supply and control the computers needed to launch the frozen chunks of gas into orbit on course for the former ISS. Next supply of food and water would be coming in from Earth in the next week, while more fuel would be coming from the moon in a day to help with positioning of the station starship hybrid.
Another interesting bit of news was that Nasa had recently lost contact with Voyager 1 about a week ago, which as far as Kyle knew shouldn't have really been possible, seeing so long as there was some antenna strong enough to receive the signal from it, they'd be able to find it. From what he was hearing, it was assumed it smacked into something and got completely destroyed, which wasn't impossible, space was a fucking chaotic hellhole at times. For now however he wasn't going to think about that, he had to take a break and eat some of that crap that passed for beef stew up here. Unknown to anyone back on Earth, in interstellar space one of their probes had actually not been completely destroyed, it had been found.
Another few months had passed, the construction of Vaults and the subway tunnels connecting them in each kingdom or empire had been completed a few weeks ago, each kingdom had a massive vault under a city, small towns where left with no vaults, but railways to get there by train. Queen Carnelia's empire had them built as well, I had Empire robots construct theirs, deep as they could go. Other interesting news was in the wake of the Abyssinian Empire's retaliatory strike with the use of Arcane Warheads on the kingdoms of Saddle Arabia, the Caribou Empire, and the Bison Empire, resulted in several million dead since apparently Capital cities are heavily populated, thankfully it was mostly military personal, equipment, and only a few thousand civilians per capital who got killed. This raised some eyebrows but due to the stance on war here being 'you don't attack me, I don't attack you', not many minded it beyond offering medical and financial aid to the kingdoms effected, a few here and there protested, but it didn't amount to much when the atmosphere of warfare was attack when attacked, however the Griffon Empire refused to send aid, while Equestria and the UCSR were sending truckloads of medical supplies, medical personal, food, and other items needed for life.
Another layer of defense had been added to the solar system, the Akun Atomic Cannons had actually been rather interesting, and it would be a waste to just destroy all those nuclear shells, so I had what amounted to a rotary cannon built to fire those shells at a rapid pace, put into high orbit around Equis and the Moon pointed outward, the shells had been enhanced with quantum, which had the same effect as combining it with a M45 Tactical Nuclear mini-nuke warhead, it doubled the power of the shells. They may not have been the most powerful nuclear weapons to exist but surely hucking several dozens of them at something would do SOME sort of damage, moreso when it was at the rate of a minigun. Exalted Fleetlord Issit was put in command of a small fleet of starships around the solar system, primed with active energy and nuclear weapons ready to unleash their destructive power at a moments notice. Equestria had tossed some orbital defenses up as well, their arcane deathrays, which if you all remember was a magical version of Zetan Deathrays, my Empire had non magical ones, but called em Plasma rays. Same setup, antigrav engines, a reactor or two, and a computer linked with several others hooked into a central command in Canterlot to monitor and fire em.
Another starship with a plasmatic lance was being built, smaller than the Crystal City it would only be a mile large, and new starship Point Defense Weapons were being hooked into existing starships, such as a 20 millimeter plasmatic lance cannon, a beefed up SPRMK3, but not as powerful or huge as the plasmatic lance in a ss'ket starship, or the Crystal City, but still a very powerful weapon since its plasma could tear through energy shields like tissue paper given enough time. Other kingdoms benefited from Akun technology also, such as Hydrogen powered cars, trains, and other interesting items like self guiding missiles, which they had been struggling with producing a reliable one, now they had thousands. The starship fleets of other kingdoms and empires was growing thanks to the Akun factories efforts to produce what was requested, they were being paid plenty for their work. Equestria now had a fleet of 185 starships, the Griffon Empire 125, and the Union of Canine Socialist Republics 75 starships, while the Abyssinian fleet had been expanded another 45 starships.
News that they had gone to another universe had finally managed to get to the Red River Union, the government of the Ss'ket, and to say they were surprised and shocked was an understatement. They were absolutely horrified at the prospect of knowing nothing about the space around them, but at the same time many of them were filled with great joy to experience something never before seen, a new universe, the revelation more than one universe existed has spurred many new research efforts into that for them. They also benefit from Akun technology, such as hydrogen jet engines, which where a vast improvement over the ones Blue Gadget had invented, which I found funny because he was really salty about that. They have entered vast trade agreements for scaled up and slightly modified Akun Automatic Rifles and upscaled Akun Landcruisers, meaning tanks, to replace their admittedly less advanced ones, which I found odd since they had invented the plasmatic lance, yet couldn't invent a functional advanced tank that could go head to head with another tank.
In power armor news, Equestria, the Griffon Empire, and the Abyssinians where now using it, the first two had been using it just barely before the Empire vanished, and when I came back they had made their own makes and models, as well as their own way of powering them, rather than a fusion core they plugged a gem etched with runes into the port in the back of the power armor, working by pulling ambient magic from the air into itself to power the armor it was plugged into, and that had made me think. Fusion Cores where great and all, but the power armor had been more or less stuck in the Fallout Style, big, bulky, and slower than an elderly woman walking her dog. Remembering my XO-4 Advanced power armor project, which had yielded my prototype suit of personal power armor, some changes had to be made for battle performance and protection, but it was geared into full production a few months ago to replace the older XO-3's.
This new generation of power armor was the most advanced thus far, called XO-5 Advanced Power Armor, the fusion core system was scrapped and replaced with an Empire Standard Miniature Fusion Plant hooked into the back of the power armor, built in, almost unlimited power for hundreds of years, so no need to replace a dried FC in the field or rely on the backup FC's that the older models had in the arms and legs. And no, it didn't make it look like the big bulky battery pack of Fallout 3's power armor, the shape of the back stayed the same as if it had never been changed. The XO-5 Came with several advanced miniaturized computers built into the power armor for real time movement feedback, users had to have a small cybernetic chip installed somewhere in their head to link with the power armor, but this was easy compared to replacing entire organs and limbs. This allowed the power armor's computers a direct link to the users internal information, what organs or bones needed repair, things like that.
The helmets no longer followed the classic Fallout style of two eye plates filled with some sort of advanced clear plating to see through, that was always a liability if a sniper got a lucky shot in. Now the helmets looked more like the face of an insect, five glowing red 'eyes' on each side of the helmet, front, back, and sides. These where advanced sensors and cameras which would give the user a whole 360 view of a battlefield at any point they needed it, They made the user look terrifying, and it prevented a sniper from using the eye plates on the helmet as a an easy weakness, since naturally those parts of the helmet would be weaker than a solid wall of metal. This power armor also was faster than Classic Fallout power armor, you could sprint in it as if you were wearing nothing, thanks to the cybernetic chip linking the armor with the users movements as they happened, so it was as if the power armor was another body. It featured its own built in weapon systems but users still carry Empire weaponry, if said weaponry is lost or deemed useless for current battles, internal weapons will be chosen for the fight. Needless to say this was a huge advantage over other kingdoms still using the tried and true Fallout styled armor. The power armor still looked like something you'd see in fallout, I decided I liked the aesthetic choice, but other than basic looks it was nothing like the older power armor my Empire had been using, which was now going to be fully replaced within the next week.
Infantrymale Vomo looked down at the small gravestone of his former friend with both eyeturrets, it read Johnson Aberdale, died protecting what he loved and those he cared for. His snout was blue, he had still not gotten over the death of his first friend in this new and weird Empire which had merged his former empire with itself, as was the way Empire's worked, stronger ones took the weaker ones. He set an Epona flower on the grave, a lilly, he remembered Johnson saying he was fond of them in one of their many conversations before his early death. Vomo would have smiled sadly if he could, sadly his face was imobile due to his species, but the blue snout turning what an Eponite would call 'lime green' indicated happiness, Vomo thought it was time to let his friend rest in peace, without being bothered by his daily visits. "Goodbye, friend." With that said, he walked out of the small graveyard, to continue his life as his friend would have wanted.
-------Lorenzo's Universe, location unknown, time, unknown, solar system, unknown------
The Council of Five sat in their seats, head of the Council, Soro, looked around at the other four with his large black eyes. "It has come to our attention that the Solar System X-42 is no longer protected by unknown means, we can enter it now without starships being destroyed upon contact with an unseen barrier."
Olkzar, second in power within the Council nodded. "Yes, recently we sent a small scout craft, but it went offline, and the footage transmitted before it did was startling to say the least, former homeworld of the Humans, as they named themselves, has undergone horrific changes, as has the entire solar system, as shown here." His long green tentacle like finger poked a small button, causing a holoprojector within the center of their small table to spark to life, a holographic view of...the most confusing and horrific thing anyone in the Council had ever seen, a Solar system that was mostly normal, but the Sun revolved around what had once been Earth, leaving the rest of the system unchanged. Minus the two planets, which had seemingly been smashed into one another creating another asteroid belt just out of the solar system.
Vopro's eyes widened, making them look even larger, with horror. "What could tear a sun from its own orbit and alter an entire solar system like that? It should not be physically possible." Uslin nodded in agreement, while Eeste had no words, stuck staring at the hologram before him.
Soro nodded. "Yes, this is what was found horrific, but the disturbing part is how life changed on the planet below, with the humans having a second wave of nuclear destruction wipe out what remained of their civilizations, this is what shot down the starship." Another image replaced the one from before, showing a....weird furry creature with two horns on its head, a 'crown' made of iron on, and a weird blue flowing cape, a mad smile on his face, but what was most interesting, was the staff it held which seemed to be a directed energy weapon, shooting lightning like beams of energy directly at the starships cameras. "This downed our scout craft, which may I remind everyone here, had shields as is standard protocol for anything beyond the home system with which we are currently in."
Olkzar brought up another image, this one an American soldier in T-45 Power armor carrying an automatic plasma rifle. "The death of this species still surprises me to this day, it was sad they died out, but had they advanced any further than they had, we'd have had to destroy their civilization and reduce them back to using primitive stone and metal tools anyways."
Soro waved a hand. "While this may be true, this species was the most fanatic about its nuclear energy and nuclear weapons out of any we had ever encountered, before or after. No species who uses nuclear weapons lasts long before destroying themselves, but most don't also use it for energy either, species use it for one or the other, but very rarely both energy and warfare. This is where humanity was unique, they devised some of the most devastatingly powerful nuclear weapons any species could foresee, yet they also used it to power household robots, their technology was primitive in terms of computers, but if they had advanced a little more, within another hundred years they're own computer technology would have surpassed our own."
Uslin spoke. "I'd also like to bring up how rapidly they took to plasma weaponry, even making automatic heavy plasma weapons, while our own have remained unchanged for thousands of years, if we're able to get onto Earth or in Earth orbit, we should do so as soon as possible, I'm going to authorize another scout ship, this one armed with better shields than the last, to investigate the solar system and see how advanced or primitive the planet has become and thus allow us to plan accordingly."
Soro looked around the table at all who sat before it. "If we are all in agreement then, this meeting is concluded, and you may return to your normal duties maintaining our systems." They each left, while the hologram faded out of existence as it powered down.
Military Recruiter Rosamite turned one eyeturret to the 'Deathclaw' as the Emperor had named this species, a scientific marvel if she had ever known one, a species engineered from the ground up and made from a hostile beast into a sentient. "I am Military Recruiter, Rosamite, you shall refer to me as Superior Female Rosamite as I am in a higher position than you, and is custom." Her species custom, but still, what was a civilization without tradition and customs?
The Deathclaw, a male named 'Dave' Nodded, standing as no seat within this building could withstand two thousand two hundred pounds of weight, most of which was raw muscle. "I understand, Superior Female, I will do as requested." The voice was odd, but then again it was coming from something that shouldn't have existed in the first place beyond a science fiction novel. Dave wore synthetic carbon fiber 'sheathes' on his...very large, very sharp claws, to prevent any accidental injuries or damage to anything as well, those claws as well as the sheer size of Dave made Rosamite a bit nervous, because one claw was larger than one of her arms with its entire length.
Rosamite waggled an eyeturret. "The tests we conducted as ordered came back, and I must say your entire species is simply a marvel of genetic engineering, we wouldn't, we being my species the Akun, have tried to do something like this for at least another one hundred thousand years, our years, yours would be two hundred thousand years since Epona's years are twice as long as Akun years, and even then it would be a few thousand more before we got results, and I have no doubt they would be nothing like your species." She took a sip of warm water from a plastic cup before continuing. "Your species is completely immune to radiation, your scales are able to withstand a '50 caliber' armor piercing bullet, abit this isn't for every single scale, most of them are stupidly tough and resistant to damage of any sort, as well as passing other tests for this application, including standard medical tests, your service to the Empire's military can begin starting tomorrow, you'll be issued equipment suitable for your species after training, which I expect you will pass with flying colors."
Dave seemed to smile, as much as he could with his scaled face. "Thank you, Superior Female, I was one of the first Deathclaws to be granted sapience by the Emperor." He stopped referring to the ruler as King, because every time he did so around this small species they became agitated. "And it was thanks to his will that I am a citizen of this grand Empire, now that my species has a population of twenty thousand I no longer am restricted from certain jobs I wasn't allowed while our population was small, now that it has grown and will continue to do so naturally, I'd like to do what my species was first designed for, fight, it's simple instinct on my part to want to do so."
Rosamite waggled her eyeturrets in agreement. "This is a logical line of thought, your species was made for something, and even if it was nudged away from that by the glorious will of the Emperor." She lowered her eyeturrets in reverence for her ruler as was the norm, before raising them again. "Your paperwork and medical information is now documented, and the scale we took for testing should grow back by the time your training is done, for now head to Training Facility Three, your training will begin there." She signed off on the approval for Dave's application to the Empire's military, it was digital so she just signed using a specialized pen meant to interact with the holographic terminal screen before her. Dave turned and walked out of the large room, his heavy steps causing the room to vibrate briefly before he was gone.
Applebloom smiled seeing her sister Applejack on the screen of her computer, now that Equestria, her's had caught up a little in computer technology they could hold video calls, and the former Elements of Harmony got priority just under that of the military, this call was only possible thanks to Discord having opened a very tiny hole back to their universe, she was thankful for that. "Yes Applejack, I'm fine, all the gals are, I'm making a great amount of bits doing computer repair and troubleshooting help."
This caused Applejack to smile. "Rarity threw an absolute fit when she couldn't attend Sweetie Bells wedding almost a year ago, and now she's throwin another damned hissy fit cuz ya'll are in another Celestia damned universe."
Applebloom nodded. "I know this, Sweetie video calls Rarity like I do for you sometimes, and most of the time I'm here to hear them speaking about fashion an all that junk, Rarity was proud of Sweetie's music career." Applebloom looked at the clock in the corner of her screen. "We've been in this call for two hours now, tell Granny I said Hello, cuz I've gotta go an she ain't woken up from her nap yet, I got work I gotta do." Applejack laughed and nodded, before ending the call, letting Applebloom go back to her work.
I sat in what to any outsider, would look like a small laboratory deep within the depths of the Crystal Palace, however it was far more than just that, it was a containment unit. Anyone looking at me would realize I was very...very concerned, as for why? Sat on a small pedestal with an energy field projected around it to prevent someone from just grabbing it, sat a golden crown with a crest on the back and a green scarab in the center. It was more like an odd helmet then a crown, but as for why I was concerned about it? The Gorillas had it locked away within one of their small temples or worship. And I knew this item well, it was from Fallout 4, to be specific the Cabot House quest line. For those who never played the game, or just forgot or never found the questline, this crown was found by one Lorenzo Cabot in an ancient alien city in an empty corner of the arabian desert. He put it on as a joke and it changed him, it gave him telekinetic powers, altered his blood to become immortal, and overall increased his mental abilities, his immortality was more like a super mutants, biological, but still able to be killed, not immune to damage.
And the Gorillas had his skeleton, still in its suit and wearing the crown, in their temple, in something akin to a stone coffin. The moment I saw it I had it placed into containment, this was concerning, because it meant either he had survived the Great Calamity, or had died as a result of it, this universe was a bit different but he had existed here so I wasn't going to chance it with the crown and thus it would stay contained here. With a sigh I reactivated the defenses, several automatic plasma turrets, and walked out of the room leaving it to be sealed for another day. I knew if those plasma turrets shot the crown nothing would happen, damn thing couldn't be destroyed.
Uktain, captain of the scout craft he was issued, looked around at parts of his crew manning their stations, keeping the shields up, and the deathray charged and ready to fire if need be, with a sigh he sat at his captains chair. "Alright, jump to system X-42, I want us to arrive just outside the solar system itself, rather than in it."
The navigator nodded. "As you command Capitan." Before tapping at the terminal screen before him, as well as flipping a few switches and twisting some dials. "Jumping, now." With a slight jolt, System X-42 was within sight instantly.
And nearly as instantly as the solar system came into view, so did something that alarmed Uktain, a fleet of thousands of starships around the solar system, going between various points all back to the center of the solar system where Earth lay, but more alarming than that was the one massive starship so large it blocked a chunk of the star from his view, dwarfing his own small scout craft with its sheer size alone, several deathrays clearly visible on the outer hull, a strange ball turret configuration having been what was decided for these ones apparently, and all of them aimed at his starship, while the tip of the massive ship was glowing white with unknown power, pointed directly at them.
This was all he needed to see, he quickly turned his head and shouted. "Jump out of this system! I don't care where just GET US OUT OF HERE!" The navigator rushed to do as commanded, but before they were able to input the correct coordinates to a random world controlled by their people a bright purple gravity beam struck the scout craft and began to drag it closer to the colossus of a starship before them, if they tried to jump now the beam would tear the scout craft, and thus them, apart. So they had no choice but to watch as they were dragged closer before darkness enveloped them as their small starship was dragged into a dark compartment of the starship, all lights where off leaving them blind if not for the lights within their own ship. The navigator managed to send a coded signal off in the direction of a communication satellite deep within Zetan territory to show what had happened, before quickly cutting it off to ensure it couldn't be traced or tracked to its location. That's when all hell broke loose.
The moment the Crystal City's communication arrays detected a highly concentrated FTL signal beamed in a direction to deep space, all hell broke loose. A military breach team quickly disabled the shields on the small Zetan craft with the use of several plasmatic mines attached to the outer shield barrier, vaporizing the shields within moments. With the smell of ionized gasses still in the room Androids and Akun armed with both ballistics and energy weaponry breached the command deck of the ship, it wasn't a large starship, able to fit ten of the little green bastards within. The Zetans watched in horror as a blade made of pure energy sliced through their command bridge's heavy maglock door, two inches worth of thick heavy durable metal sliced away as if it didn't exist to begin with due to the sheer heat of the bright red blade.
The moment Vomo saw one of the ugly black eyed green creatures he raised his Akun automatic rifle after quickly attaching his fusion sword to a small maglock on his combat armor dedicated for the weapon, the moment it connected it shut off with a click. Both of Vomo's eyeturrets rapidly switching to keep and eye on all of them, and he screeched in the aliens ugly language. "Surrender immediately or face termination by order of the Emperor!" He and his team of other males did not lower their eyeturrets, they could do so later. One of the 'Zetans' as he was briefed they were called, raised a compact energy pistol aimed at him, that was the last mistake it ever made as three infantrymales peppered it with their automatics, and with as much grace as a Qavik being struck by a speeding motorcar, it fell to the floor dead. The ugly creatures blood was not red as his own, but more like something from a species he had learned about called 'changelings' ,a bright neon green color, even then a changeling looked better than these things. It didn't take much after that to convince the others that fighting back was a rather horrible idea, watching a fellow of your own species die in such a way often had a way of convincing others to not make the same mistake.
The one wearing what seemed to be the fanciest one piece rubber suit, which he remembered most species from what he was taught in an Empire educational class, wore clothes to show status rather than the much more efficient body paint of the Akun, slowly asked. "How do you even speak our language? What even are you, your species is not within the database from what I can see."
Vomo's snout was a slight red. "You are not to ask questions prisoner, you are to answer them in the name of the glorious Emperor! March!" He shoved the alien with the butt of his rifle, pushing it forward while his males dealt with the others, as well as the Androids securing the ship itself, it only took three minutes for the ship to be confirmed empty of all but the nine zetans being hauled out over the coms by his unit.
One of the males lower in rank to Vomo turned an eyeturret to Vomo. "Special Unit Leader Vomo, where are we to take these ugly creatures? Can we not just shoot them and be done with this task?"
Vomo swung an eyeturret back to look at the male. "No. We may not just shoot them, we are under direct order of the Emperor." They all lowered their eyeturrets briefly, this seemed to confuse their prisoners. "He has extended his mercy to these ugly creatures, and thus will have them questioned, what happens after we deliver them to the cells is none of our concern."
The male waggled his eyeturrets. "Yes Superior Sir." And promptly shut his maw with a click. After that it was quiet except for their footsteps, as well as those of their prisoners, and a five minute walk to the interrogation cells where each Zetan was tossed into a cell by themselves, to not allow communication between prisoners. Androids stationed at each cell, two per cell, guarded them holding their new 18-D plasma rifles, long, elegant, and deadly efficient.
The lead android of this unit looked down at Special Unit Leader Vomo, who in return affixed both eyeturrets onto the machine, who saluted, in return he took the posture of respect and his team skittered off to elsewhere in the starship, they had other tasks to do after all.
I was forced to watch as my Navigator tried to defend us, he didn't even get to raise his blaster fully before he was killed by pathetic ballistic weaponry of all things, they didn't even have the most basic of decency to not use those horrid weapons on him. The small.....lizard things, where only a few inches shorter than my crew, wearing some green protective armor, carrying rifles that rather than shooting a bolt of plasma per pull of the trigger, shot rapid bursts of gunpowder based ammunition like Humanity had been phasing out before they went and killed themselves off, good riddance, that species was too random and adaptable. What Uktain didn't expect was for an insectoid that had the general body shape of a human walk into the room, its solid blue eyes and grin putting him on edge, before it's horn began to glow a bright green, the last thing he remembered before blacking out was it laughing, a horrible cruel laugh. The same fate unknown to him, befalling his former small crew.
Looking to the DIA changeling infiltrators I kept my face calm, and calculated. "You all know the task I have assigned to you, it must be done, for the Hive, for the Empire, and for Equis itself. If you back out now, I will not hold it against you, but once this is done there is no going back. Period. Do you understand the gravity of the task I have given you all?"
The ten changelings, each one looking exactly the same, nodded, while one who was slightly taller than the rest saluted. "We will not fail the Hive. The Empire is the Hive, and we fight for the Hive, we will not fail this task Your Majesty, if we do may we be struck from the Hivemind with extreme unmerciful prejudice." She bowed, as did the others before me.
I nodded. "Good, the implants given to you should keep you fed for a maximum of four months, you shouldn't need them that long, but if anything goes wrong you know what to do, you all do. Now go, the repairs done to the Zetan scout ship have been completed, the data wiped, and an alternate outcome of how you 'escaped' implanted into the ship's computer systems, go now, for the Empire, for the Hive." They stood to their full height, dark emerald flames engulfing their forms as they changed, their transformations came naturally to them as this was what their species had been doing since its very conception, and before me no longer stood ten Changelings, now stood before me where the ten Zetans whom had been on that ship. Without another word they walked out to the Zetan scout ship and the cargo bay doors opened, allowing them to pilot the ship out, and it took off after a few moments, its FTL leaving a blue energy streak across the void of space for a split second before vanishing into the blackness. It was only then when I was alone looking out at the vastness of space, did I let a smile slip onto my face. A very wide, very....sinister, smile.
Deep within Zetan territory, a small scout ship appeared, it's IFF was identified as friendly. After a moment of checking the records the advanced computer intelligence concluded this scout craft was the one that had sent out a relay message a few hours ago, it was happy to see the crew through the cameras aboard the small starship alive and well. It began the standard docking procedures to ensure the safety of the crew, enveloping their small ship into its energy field range. It enjoyed protecting its creators, the species that gave it life, and sentience, a purpose. The station was its body, the crews its family.
-----------------------------------------------------------Crystal Empire, Drunken Horse Bar and Grill--------------------------------------
Onac twisted one of his eyestalks at the Naga sitting beside him, while eating his ribs, a glass of wine next to him. "Yes, it really is very hot on my homeworld, much more so than here."
Cloudyfangs grinned at the Letera. "If it's as pleasant as you make it out to be, I'll have to take a vacation there sometime, the hot sun, desert sand, it sounds like quite the nice place to rest and just soak in the sun."
Onac waggled one of his eyestalks, a motion that while awkward for his species, was all he was taught to do to show agreement, it was the Akun way. "It is, Epona is chilly in comparison, but this isn't a bad place due to the weird shield you have up around the chunk of the Empire on this part of the planet, bless the Emperor for such a thing." He lowered his eyestalks for a moment, then went back to the conversation. "I still find it hilarious that dark chocolate acts like a drug to the Akun, it just tastes weird to me, but its certainly no drug for my species, that I am thankful for."
Cloudyfangs nodded. "I found that weird too, I mean, why dark chocolate of all things? I know certain plants act like narcotics to my species, we used to use them for medication." He finished his glass of bourbon. "Well my friend, I must be off, I still have to manage several things based around how my species is accumulating to the Empire thus far, we've had great progress so far, as my former citizens are no longer attempting to kill every Kirin they come into contact with due to irrational fear." He slithered off, while Onac watched with interest at how that creature, his friend, moved, while finishing his ribs.
Princess Twilight smiled looking at the starship port that was now on the edge of her city, Ponyville had grown so much in the past three years that it was astounding to think it had once been a small quiet down, no longer however, now it was by all rights a small city. And more importantly, the main hub of shipping for starships to land and unload their cargo from Equestria's recently completed Lunar Colony. Her Crystal Tree had actually become the main control center for starship traffic over Equis, there was another in Canterlot, as well as another in Manehattan, but the Ponyville one was the main command and control center for starship orbital information and tracking, sharing all its data via wired terminals that had taken a month to connect due to the large distances, thankfully that was a few months ago and since then everything had been synced up.
The command center was put into one of the larger rooms in the basement of the Crystal Tree, while several radar towers and satellite dishes were affixed to one 'branch' of the Crystal Tree that had been her home for quite some time now. At the moment she was going over her Emails on her personal terminal, the background a picture of her friends. One stood out from the others, as it had Celestia's cutiemark before the message, so naturally she clicked that one first with a tap of the large pad made for hooves connected to the terminal. The email opened and read 'Dear Princess Twilight, later today an Akun Shuttlecraft is scheduled to land at Ponyville's recently constructed airport, and in my excitement to see my friend after so long, I had forgotten to even mention to you, Akun are from a planet called Vanov, they are an alien species that has been merged into the Crystal Empire, below you will see a picture of one of them, be polite, do not overwhelm the poor thing with questions.'
Princess Twilight's eyes were wide, and sparkling with a glint that hadn't been seen since she first came to Ponyville, Spike happened to notice this as he brought in Twilight's lunch and asked. "Uhh...you alright Twi? Your lookin a liiiittle nutty there."
That caused Twilight to glare at him briefly. "Yes Spike, I am perfectly fine, I have just received news that an actual member of an ALIEN SPECIES, will be visiting! Imagine the possibilities of this! We have a chance to be some of the first Equestrians to speak to a member of a species who evolved on a completely different planet, for an unknown length of time." She sounded like a small filly in a bookstore being told 'go bonkers' in regards to any books she could pick out to take home forever.
This time, it was Spike's eyes to widen. "An actual alien? That's kinda cool I guess, I remember from a few older comics that the classic alien looked like a short green pony with huge black eyes and weird antenna on their heads, what do these aliens look like?"
In response, Twilight pointed to the picture that was sent with the email, which showed a weird lizard like creature, hunched forward somewhat unlike a teenage drake, weirdly small eyes in what looked like turrets that vaguely reminded Spike of something he had seen at a Zoo once. ".....It looks weird."
Twilight tutted. "Now Spike, it may look weird to you, but I have no doubt WE look weird to it, he...her? Either way, we're going to be meeting them at Ponyville airport, they have one of their 'shuttlecraft' landing there to drop one of themselves off for a day or so, well not we're, I am, your going to prepare some food for our guest, from the rest of the information I was just sent, they love salty foods, and hate cold foods or liquids." Without giving Spike the chance to reply, her horn blazed with purple before she was gone in a flash of light, leaving an irritated drake behind. With a huff, Spike did as he was told.
With a small pop and a flash, as well as nearly giving the poor airport employee a heart attack from the sudden teleportation, Twilight stood near one of the private VIP runways set aside for important visitors to land and take off at. And not five minutes later the sound of a large spacecraft filled her ears, as a strangely shaped and built shuttle began to lower itself towards the runway, but rather than land like an airship or plane, jets of blue flame spat from beneath it in several sections, causing it to land like an old style airship could with no wind to hinder it, landing gear extending fully just before it touched onto the ground. It looked sleek, agile, and fast, compared to Equestrian shuttles anyways.
After about two minutes of the shuttle just being there, the side of the craft opened with a hiss as part of the hull cracked in half, one half lifting up while the other lowered itself, transforming into a staircase. She watched in fascination as an 'Akun' as their species was called, skittered out, the moment its scaled feet hit the pavement the door closed itself to reseal the craft, which rolled to a nearby hangar meant to store aircraft so other VIP's could use the runway. It's weird eyes kept looking in different directions independent of one another, much like a chameleon she remembered reading about, could this species change colors too? She wouldn't have to wait long to find out as he skittered up to her after looking at something on a datapad. "You are the one known as 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'?" It's Equish was good.
Twilight nodded. "Yes, you however may call me Twilight, I hope you're accustomed to teleportation." Before giving the Akun male a moment to react, her horn lit up with its bright purple magic before with yet another flash, they were standing within her Crystal Tree, while Unaks would have vomited if his species was capable of such a feat, he settled for letting out an angry hiss as his snout began to turn cherry red.
Affixing both eyeturrets on Twilight Unak glared. "With all due respect, if you do that again I am going to bite you. It's unpleasant, and makes my eyes hurt immensely while it happens, how would you enjoy having a floodlight shoved into your face, unable to look away or blink?"
Twilight's face took on an apologetic look as her ears flopped down. "Ehehe....sorry, I'm just very excited to meet with you, I won't teleport us again without advanced warning, now, sit sit, I have many questions for you! First on the list, what is your name, and how long does your species have a recorded history?" Twilight sat down and pulled out a holotape recorder, pressing the 'on' button, it was connected to a terminal by a thin wire which would translate all speech into text.
Unak let his mouth fall open in a laugh, this supposed person of high power was acting like a mere hatchling who had gone datacrazy, trying to absorb every piece of information on the Global Akun Information Network, a futile task doomed to fail. "You Eponites have a year that is twice as long as our own, so I will be using your years so as to not confuse you, what I remember from history classes as a hatchling, our known history dates back about one million twenty five thousand seven hundred twenty two of your years, about half of that number in Akun years."
The sound of shattering glass was heard as Twilight's eyes turned to pinpricks, a small squeak breaking free from her throat, before she fell onto the floor out cold, this caused Unak no small amount of alarm as he hissed in surprise and shock, getting up off the, rather uncomfortable to begin with, chair and rushing over to his temporary superior, however before he was able to try and administer medical aid as all Shuttlecraft pilots were trained to do in event of an emergency, a small bipedal creature with scales not unlike that of an Akun if it weren't for the ugly green and purple colors flew into the room on thick leathery wings. "Twilight!? Oh for goodness sake!" Spike grabbed a glass of water and splashed her on the face with it, before delivering a slap that left quite the handprint, that caused Unak to affix both eyeturrets on Spike in shock that a lesser would dare to strike their superior, surely this creatures punishment would be immense and merciless.
However, Twilight's eyes snapped open and narrowed on Spike a moment later, before she rubbed her forehead with a hoof and groaned. "let me guess." Spike said. "You tried to process too much information at once?" He got a quiet nod from Twilight, which caused him to sigh. "Damn it Twi, you need to relax sometimes, take a few of these." He produced a small bottle of pain medication and gave Twilight three of the pills as well as another glass of water to wash them down, to help with what no doubt was a horrible migraine. "Now, take it slowly this time Twi, If you pass out like that again I'm calling the doctor, your fear of needles be damned!" After.....whatever that was, for Unak couldn't even begin to describe the confusion he felt, the questioning went on.
-------------------------Zetan Capital World, Zeshan, Two weeks after return of scout craft crew---------------
Mimic groaned as she regurgitated yet another fusion core sized lump of electronics, with Dito keeping lookout, however unlikely it was that they'd be found since they retained their disguises. Within two minutes all of the objects had been deposited onto the concrete. "I fucking hate doing that. But for the good of the hive and Empire we do what we shall." She started to stick the small objects to the structural supports of the Plasma Refinery station, hiding them by changing the color of the resign to match that of the metal it was placed on, effectively hiding the objects, they did this at various spots around the plant, the others where doing the same at key points all around the massive capital city. The process wasn't a fun one, but it was necessary of the plan was to work. She hoped it wouldn't need to come to that, the city did look nice, but her loyalty was to the Queen, and to the King of the Hive first and foremost.
Dito looked over as Mimic finished setting up the last device. "I have received word over the Hivemind that Mirage has managed to replace a high ranking fleet commander within this species Starship Command Structure, as well as that the other devices are in place, and that the information from their Information network is being relayed back to the Empire with a storage crystal, let's hope this species isn't stupid enough to fight against a unified Hive. Alright, let's get back to HQ, remember, don't get caught." She transformed into a weird native flying creature, not unlike a pigeon, before taking flight, no one would suspect a bird of all things to be an enemy, so Mimic decided to take the same action and flew off, leaving behind the devices, awaiting the command that only King Lorenzo himself could send out to activate.
Soldiers dressed in fancy looking military uniforms where lined up just inside the main airlock entrance to the base, several high ranking officials watched with baited breath as a pointed grey rocket shaped starship slowly came into view. It's plutonium powered rocket boosters guiding it along with the electronics and the no doubt skilled pilot as it set down and hooked into the airlock with practiced speed and efficiency. Those starships had been reverse engineered from ones found on the Enemy's colony world, and improved with more advanced electronics. The door on the side of the starship let out a hiss as it depressurized the soldiers went rigid as President Cane stepped out into the facility. "At ease gentlemen, I am simply here on business." With some reluctance, most soldiers relaxed except the two who flanked the President as they walked deeper into the facility, codenamed Luna.
General Mark saluted, one other person sat in the room with him, he would remain unnamed for security reasons however. The two guards who had escorted him stood outside the room as the door slid shut and locked with the hum of a maglock system. "Gentlemen I am not the last to say this, but damn it I am proud of the progress we have accomplished thus far." Cane said. "So far we've added to our already existing spaceborne assets, we've been on the moon with a permanent presence here since 1972, and this is the first time in decades that it's been useful to us beyond spotting unmentioned launches from the Soviet Union back then, the upgrades to the base have been rapidly implemented and for that I must give your crew some credit."
The American male codenamed Citadel gave a grin. "Thank you, Mister President. The United Nations Defense Force was pleasantly surprised to get control of this base, as well as several other advanced goodies you had hidden in high Earth orbit, people thought Regan's Star Wars project failed but several members of our staff where very much surprised to find this was not the case, nevermind the orbital nuclear launchers hidden as defunct satellites. And with our new funding thanks to the whole 'Space Force' thing, not many are questioning where all those funds are going which we are very grateful for, another thing we are thankful for is Russia's space assets being added to our arsenal as well, who knew they had so many space born chemical lasers?"
General Mark nodded. "Another thing on this agenda is we have functional plasma weapons for our starships now, and with the mining here for minerals and components for rocket fuel, we have found an abundance of Helium-3, and it's estimated to have boosted our efforts into viable Cold Fusion reactors by several decades."
President Crane smiled. "This is good news all around, you won't believe the nightmare I had to go through to get here without being noticed, as far as anyone planetside knows, aside from a select few of course, people think I'm back in my home state of Minnesota fishing." He paused to take a drink of water from a weirdly shaped bottle with a twist cap that would let liquid through but not open the bottle to air, preventing water from just being spilt around. "Good, I will be overseeing a few more items from others then returning to Earth, this time I won't be taking a starship but rather the Gate to save some time, I only took that thing here to begin with to keep soldiers around here from realizing I could come and go at anytime, only a select few are authorized to know about those gates." He stood up and nodded to the two men. "Continue with your duties, General Mark you are to hand command to Citadel now that the chain of command up here has been set in stone." Without another word he walked out of the room, the door sliding open for him.
In the darkness of the void an armada was shooting towards the coordinates left on a Golden Disk that they had found, the satellite they had plucked from the vacuum of space had contained intricate information on this new species, information was what Unity craved, all information would be categorized, saved, and then the planet or planets the information came from would be destroyed as was the Hivelords will. This species was newly developed and had the arrogance to leave a greeting card giving the location of their homeworld for any to find, they would learn such arrogance to cost them greatly as so many others had done before them, world after world, species after species, information would be added to the collective and then the pests terminated by glassing. Specialized drones had set to work deciphering the information from the device, and had translated their many primitive languages, physical language, what a primitive form of communication when compared to their superior Digital Hivemind. Soon 'Humanity' as they had named themselves, would know the power Unity held within the void of stars.
-----------------------------------------------------Crystal City Starship Lorenzo's Universe---------------------------------------------------
Field Marshal Jacob Brown was sat in a large circular meeting room within the Empire's main flagship Crystal City, along with several other species, which still somewhat terrified him since he was still not used to the concept of something aside from a human, being sentient, he watched however as his King, another concept he wasn't much used to, speak while pointing to a holographic display showing something he did know about, the Zetans. "Alright people, the changeling spies sent to the Zetans homeworld have relayed back their Storage Crystals and Pam as well as Calculator have compiled and sorted the information, and this information has been very useful for the Empire as a whole in planning our defense, and if need be, invasion." I pointed to several spots on their homeworld which had small red dots on them. "As you see here these are the locations of the devices I had my spies plant, these devices vary in function from salted nuclear devices, to gas bombs filled with Hallucigen gas, chlorine gas, nightmare mist, and nerve gas, as well as normal plasma or ballistic explosives and EMP devices."
Domain Master Lazoi raised one of his arms, a claw held up. "Grand Domain Master Lorenzo, what do these devices do for us if we do not set them off while they are undiscovered?"
"Good Question Lazoi, the bottom line is I hope we don't have to use em, but if the Zetans ignore our offer of peace between their civilization and those of Equis, I shall detonate them and it will cause massive amounts of chaos on their homeworld, distracting them briefly from us while we get our own starships into position to retaliate further." I explained with some happiness in my voice that Lazoi, and his species, had come such a long way from being the primitives they where when the Empire found them and took them into its charge. This seemed to satisfy Lazoi's curiosity so I went on. "As seen here, the data pulled from their information networks gives us the locations of their colony worlds, as well as military assets in space, and as we feared it's a rather large amount of starships, however my spies have infiltrated their Starship command structure and will cause as much damage as possible without being found out."
Exalted Fleetlord Issit had both eyeturrets on Lorenzo. "If I may speak, My Emperor." He lowered both eyeturrets. "I'd like to ask how exactly they will attempt to cause damage to these enemy starships? If these aliens are as foolish as you say to dare attack our Grand Empire they shall feel the wrath of the Akun a thousand fold for every citizen they harm."
That made me glad I kept him as a Fleetlord, he was happy to serve, a good quality. "Rather simple, they will fuck up as many internal systems as possible, from their plasma reactors to the antigravity engines they will tamper with everything within their reach, and then some, even turning crews against one another with their mind magics, what starship crew could possibly be an effective unit if they mistrust one another to the point of disregarding facts given to them by one another? Changelings are masters of deceit and misdirection so it shall be easy for them as the reports have already proven thus far."
Exalted Fleetlord Issit bent into the posture of respect. "As always, your wisdom shines like a star in the void My Emperor, I shall take up no more of your time." That caused Lazoi to wiggle his eyestalks, didn't know what that meant but I'd hazard a guess.
I still found how...…hard, the Akun and Letera thought they where beneath me simply because I was the ruler of an Empire, but I was unable to change that line of thought, since it had been dominate in their civilization since their very first Emperor had arose to power, so I'd continue to ignore it for now. "Onto other matters, the development of the Mesmatron Bombs has been a complete success! For those who don't know or remember, the Mesmatron is a hand held weapon which fires pulses that can either knock a person out, or cause total hemorrhaging of the brain, lethal and non lethal settings, Astral Starlight has developed this into a bomb which in the shape of a sphere, would release these pulses constantly in space for a certain radius, in effect making mines that can't be moved around or avoided if you saturate an area with enough of them, he has been promoted to Head of Weapons Development for this achievement."
Mid explanation on how exactly Astral Starlight had been promoted and what perks came with it and authority so his old position wouldn't be confused for his new one, a Letera walked into the room unannounced. "I am sorry My Emperor but I must bring a matter or grave importance to your attention immediately." This caused several heads to turn, except Issit's and Lazoi, the first turning an eyeturret while Lazoi could see him enter from the beginning since he had a full 360 view of the world.
Raising an eyebrow I motioned for the Letera to continue, as such she did. "I regret to inform you several members of the Akun have been caught and are in custody for using a narcotic known as Dark Chocolate." .......This caused me to break out into laughter so sudden and loud it startled almost everyone in the room. Holy fucking shit this was gold.
Vomo stood in the shrine to Spirits of Emperors past, he as well as many members of the Akun and Letera who now lived on this world, just like on Vanov and Letera-2 would give worship to Emperors departed every week at a certain time, now he stood within the shrine his eyeturrets cast downwards in respect for Departed Emperors from across the Akun's entire history. "May Spirits of Emperors Past look kindly on my departed friend, and upon myself when my time comes to join him in serving Emperors Departed." He set a picture of his friend into the burning bowl of the shrine, watching it burn into ash before skittering out, several others where saying small prayers too, he wasn't the only one. He was glad to even see some Eponites worshiping Spirits of Emperors Past alongside Letera and Akun.
Surprisingly enough even a Deathclaw was within the shrine to give worship to the Spirits of Emperors past. As Vomo skittered along down the street an Eponite walked up to him carrying a small black book with a weird yellow symbol on it, that looked like a medical cross but longer, and shiny. "Hello sir or ma'am, Would you be interested in learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" It was female, if the long hair and mammary glands on its chest where any indication.
Vomo shook his eyeturrets in the negative gesture. "Negatory, I worship Spirits of Emperors Past as all self respecting citizens of the Empire do."
For some reason this caused the Eponite Female to go into a visible fit of rage as she grabbed the cross on a string hooked around her throat and yanked, causing it to pull apart showing a hidden blade that had been built into the cross. "Fucking little demons! I'll show you for refusing to see the light of the One True God!" She leaped at Vomo, however since Vomo had military training he rolled to the side and clawed her in the side, seemingly only angering her further, however thankfully the Deathclaw he had seen in the Shrine before caught the scent of blood and picked the Eponite female up like a toy.
When the Female Eponite tried to stab the Deathclaws hand in an effort to make it release her, the small steel blade snapped in half. "That's enough there missy! Your under arrest for attempted assault of an Empire Citizen, and not only a citizen but a member of the Empire's military. You have the right to remain silent, If you do say anything, what you say can be used against you in a court of law, You have the right to consult with a lawyer and have that lawyer present during any questioning, and If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you if you so desire." The Deathclaw was female by the sound of it's voice. And focused her attention on Vomo. "I'm going to need you to come back with me to the station to make a report, and I'm going to have the security feed pulled from the street view camera system to check who's story is correct, however I am restraining her due to her attempted assault, if you do not comply you will be restrained too."
Vomo waggled his eyeturrets. "It shall be done, Superior Female." She may not have actually been Vomo's Superior in name or rank, but she was an Officer of the law, and as such was going to get the respect afforded to those within that position, so he went willingly.
Starswirl couldn't be angrier, this...this, 'ss'ket' as it said it's species was, was refusing him entry into the Crystal Empire. "Can you repeat that? I don't think I heard you correctly." His tone was dangerous.
Shunel nodded. "Very much so, your papers are over a thousand local years out of date and as such I cannot accept them as legal identification of who you are and why you are here, new papers can be issued by the Equestrian Boarder Control Offices, but until you have some valid Equestrian identification I am not authorized to allow you within the Crystal Empire at this current time."
Starswirl's horn lit up with a bright blue blaze. "I am Starswirl for Celestia's sake! I am known throughout the land for the feats of magic I have accomplished and have propelled magic forward hundreds of years in the past two weeks!"
Shunel shrugged. "That's nice, Sir, but I still need a valid Identification card and paperwork." Damn it she was going to stick to the rules given to her, or by the Goddess she was going to shoot someone, however when 'Starswirl's' horn lit up and condensed into a ball of magic she pressed the emergency nullifier button on her desk, and took great pleasure in watching his magic fizzle out like a flame doused with water, and took even greater satisfaction at watching the Security androids drag him away while slapping a nullifier on his horn. She stuck her tongue out at him as he was dragged out, crossing her eyes to look at her snout while she did so, as if saying 'nyah nyah nyah nyah, you can't touch me!'
Yona looked to Ocellus as their teacher got dragged away, the rest of the group just snickering. "I'm going to guess this fieldtrip is canceled?" Ocellus nodded, her black chitin gleaning in the light.
--------------------------------------Zetan Homeworld, Zeshan, Council of Five--------------------------------
Head of the Council Soro was glaring at the recording on screen, of the scoutcraft crew barely managing to escape, and looking at the starships seen in the video while it was paused. "It has come to our attention that System X-42 is higher on the threat priority list than we previously thought, all in favor of sending a mothership to put a quick end to this threat say aye." A series of 'Ayes' rang throughout, the other four members agreeing unanimously. "Alright onto the next matter then, it has come to our attention that several starships are beginning to suffer major malfunctions, so do send our orders to doublecheck anything before it goes to do a mission or recon, so far none of our motherships have suffered any malfunctions, which is a Starsend since it would take a massive amount of time to find and fix any malfunctions within them, since they are by far our largest ships."
Olkzar nodded. "Yes, at the moment if I remember correctly we have 35 of them, with number 36 having been in construction for the past seven years, I wish they didn't take so long to construct, but such is the consequences of building such large and powerful starships, we'd be on 37 if not for that one species of vermin destroying one with their weaponry, something no one thought possible."
Vopro let out a sigh. "We should be happy to know the Quarantine on systems species 2-B7 Control and travel to is working well, we haven't had any further attacks from them, but to have allowed a species to be under our detection systems for so long that they managed to outpace us in so many areas of technology, even now their stealth shields do not allow us to detect them, it is rather alarming."
Soro nodded in agreement. "Agreed, I've already got the researchers trying to develop new sensors to detect them, but it's been going slow since we have been unable to cripple one of their ships enough to get an intact stealth field generator, efforts are ongoing, for now lets authorize mothership 3 to take System X-42 out of the equation." The other four members spoke at once in perfect unison. "Agreed."
Father Sam Stein smiled kindly down at those below in the pews. "Followers of God, I have joyous news today for you." The 40 or so people within the church, which had been constructed a few months ago in the religious district of the Empire, was currently filled to the brim, the building wasn't too large after all, it wasn't authorized. "Today is the day we shall bring the name of God and his holy justice upon those whom ignore his name in vain of their false demonic gods." This caused a cheer to go up from the pews, to which Father Sam silenced with a wave of his hand. "Today we will purge this land of sinners, of the devils who walk among us as people, it is our divine mission to spread the word of God and bring salvation to the tortured souls within our new home, it is our duty as Sons and Daughters of God, to save them from themselves."
Father Sam lifted a glass of red wine. "Today we shall offer salvation to all within our reach, offer freely to them the Blood of Christ, and if they accept their souls shall have salvation and eternal happiness within the Lords loving hands and if they refuse, Eternal damnation. As is said in the bible, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” He looked down with a small smile on his face to the followers. "We shall be his holy ones, to execute his judgement, go forth now, a bottle of Christs blood for each of you to take and give freely, and a blade for those whom refuse the mercy we offer." Everyone stood up, young, old, male, female, and each took a hunting knife and a bottle of wine, before making their way out of the church slowly. The only one who didn't was a former Enclave member, whom had joined the church to continue her religion, but these people, they where crazy.
Father Sam noticed her not take a bottle of wine, nor a knife, trying to rush out of the church and pointed before saying in a booming voice. "Halt her! A traitor seeks to prevent our holy justice!" This caused the former soldier to run faster, and surprisingly enough she managed to get out the door and down the street, no one being able to catch up with her due to her being in almost peak physical condition for a human. This wouldn't stop them, as they'd spread their Lords will any way they could, the first to fall victim was a mare with her foal out on a walk, the small foal in a stroller.
A human male smiled down at her, offering her a glass of red wine. "Hello miss, I insist you partake in the blood of Christ."
The mare looked up with a tired smile. "I'm sorry hun, I don't partake in alcohol of any sort, I've been clean of that stuff for the past two years, I truly am sorry." She turned her head down to continue pushing her stroller, the filly within fussing because of the sunlight, and with no warning she dropped to the floor with a knife in her throat, the human glaring with glee as she attempted to gasp for oxygen her lungs filling with her own blood. Thankfully, depending how you look at it, someone had seen this and screamed for the police. The person was tackled to the ground by several civilians while someone injected the mare with a stimpack to try and keep her condition stable. It took one minute for a medical unit to get down to the scene and the mare, along with her foal, where carted off. The human however, managed to stab several others in the chaos of the dogpile and one earthpony ended up bucking him in the head, snapping his neck like a rotten twig, the crunch of shattered bone echoing throughout the entrance to the alleyway.
-----------------------------------------------------Several Hours Later Crystal Palace------------------------------------------------
Moon's eyes where ablaze with arcane fury, causing her blue slit eyes to turn pure white with the glow emanating from within them. "I thank you for identifying these individuals to me, Jane. For your service to the Empire you may be granted a sum of 25 thousand bits this instant for helping identify these vile worthless wastes of life to me little human." Chrysalis was growling, several changelings around her doing the same.
Chrysalis looked to Moon. "Should we inform Lorenzo? He'd go into a blind rage!" She thought back to the footage she had seen of his rampage on the other worlds Canterlot. And shuddered at the thought if that happening again.
Moon shook her head. "No, he trusted us to ensure laws are being followed, he gave us power almost as strong as his own authority, this time I shall use the power I was given, these...these....BASTARDS, will learn to fear the name Nightmare Moon as those so long ago did." Her voice was filled with malice, pure unfiltered malice.
Chrysalis nodded, a grin spreading across her face. "I remember the tales, I remember the stories and legends that surrounded you, if even half of them where true, these beasts are in for a horrible treat."
Moon narrowed her eyes and grinned herself, her fangs gleaming in the light of the overhead lamp, looking at the clock she stopped grinning noting it was midnight, the humans rounded up in their cells by the police would be asleep by now, the knockout gas that was pumped into their cell would ensure it. "Yes....yes they will, leave now for I must concentrate if I am to punish these cretins as they deserve." Chrysalis obeyed and left with her two changeling guards, leaving the room empty save for Moon and the chair she sat in. Within moments she had connected the minds of all 32 humans left, there had been 40, when people learned what they where doing the citizens had rioted, and killed several of them, good riddance.
Father Sam's eyes widened as he witnessed his faithful followers appear with him within a black void with no light save for that of the stars above them, he knew something was off, the stars looked.,....angry. He didn't have much time to ponder it long, nor did his followers as a tall black demon appeared before them as if from thin air. "Stay back foul demon!" He went to grab his cross, but found none around his neck, his followers realizing the same.
This caused the demon to laugh, a fanged toothy grin spreading across her face as her slit eyes narrowed on him. "You, you sicken me, your followers murdered several innocent citizens in cold blood. You killed FOALS!" The void shook and the stars began to glow brighter, several of the people began to panic trying to find a way out or run, only to end up right back where they started.
Father Sam stood confident. "They where ignoring the will of the Lord in favor of their demonic 'gods' and not showing faith to the one true God. We did what we had to as his tools of retribution, you cannot harm us for he protects us." His followers stood side by side with him, all linking hands in a show of faith that their god would protect them no matter what.
“You know..” Nightmare snarled, the stars once again brightening with her rage. “The interesting thing about torturing people in their dreams is that they can be exposed to much greater amounts of pain and suffering than they could withstand while awake.” This caused Father Sam's eyes to widen. “A waking person would pass out from too much pain. But you can’t pass out if you’re already asleep, and anyone can brought to the edge of fear induced death by reliving the same horrors endlessly, forever with no hope of escape...until they wake with their minds shattered like fragile glass. Except I will not extend this mercy to you, I will leave you all to suffer unable to wake from your nightmare and you will die as you deserve, you will soon learn why I was called Nightmare Moon so long ago.” With that said, Moon vanished from the void and the stars began to glow red, that's when in the police station locked in their cells, the humans began to scream and writhe on the ground where they lay. As instructed the Androids ignored it.
-----One Week Later, Lorenzo's Point Of View----------------
I grinned while looking at Celestia down her fifth bottle of Nuka Cola Quantum. "You sure?" I teased.
Celestia lowered her ears and scowled at me. "Yes I'm sure! I am not addicted to this beverage and can go back to plain tea at any time I desire!"
"Prove it then." I said with a smirk.
Celestia looked at the ground. "Fuck, alright you win, but can you blame me? This tastes amazing and gives me energy to deal with stupid nobility who I want to shove a gun into their mouths and pull the trigger because their so self centered it makes me want to turn them into stains on my carpet."
That startled me. "Jesus fuck I didn't know you hated most of your nobility THAT damned badly....want me to shoot em for ya?"
She shook her head. "No, as much as I may want to accept, or to just turn the lot of them into ash, they are still my ponies and it's my responsibility to look after them, even if not all of them are kind." She looked down at her plate, raising one of her eyebrows. "What is this again? I know it's a type of meat that much is clear but it smells weirdly different to anything you've offered me before."
"It's a Thalaill steak, a professional Chef from the Akun's former capital who used to serve their former emperor is now in my employment, and this is one of her specialties, it's quite good and the seasoning is nothing like you'd expect on Equis, the perks of having an alien planet or two under your control is more exotic and tasty foods to enjoy." I said while taking a chunk of my own thalaill steak and popping it into my mouth.
At hearing that Celestia's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and she popped a chunk into her maw, chewed and swallowed, before grinning at me like a madmare. "Is it possible to have this meat shipped to Equestria? I am quite willing to pay whatever price demanded, because by Faust is it hard to find new flavors of anything these days due to my age."
Laughing I patted her snout and nodded. "For your age, ya look perfectly fine! But I do understand the dullness of never trying anything new, or really just having anything new to try, so I'll lend you Chef Ako's services as well as shipments of thalaill meat to your castle, I'll include several other meats, fruits, vegetables, and spices from Vanov and Letera-2."
Celestia nodded in satisfaction and continued with her meal, she was pleasantly surprised to find Lorenzo had a small diner built into a section of the Crystal Palace for staff to dine at, as she ate she could see several of them now eating a few booths away as if their ruler wasn't sitting less than 15 feet from them, had she tried the same thing back in Equestria the restaurant she went into would be swarmed by citizens eager to get a look at her. She'd have to ask Lorenzo how he managed such a feat, even her own staff would sometimes gawk at her, his barely batted an eye in his presence besides a 'Your Majesty' as he went by. The exception to that being the Letera or Akun who acted as if Faust herself graced them with her divinity, she had been briefed of their religion and would accept it as she had any other that wasn't harmful. "How goes your colony? I heard you recently constructed a new one."
My eyes widened, I hadn't made that public news yet, before remembering I had told Celestia over cake in Canterlot last week. "Yes, it's going well! The deathclaws are a hearty species and thus where perfect for taming a new world, two hundred twenty five, along with robotic crews to help construct buildings and such." I slid her some photos of the new colony.
She looked them over, the world was smaller than Equis by about a quarter, the sun a bright blue while the planet had the classic greens and blues one would expect from an Equis like life bearing world, I continued. "Already several new animal, and plant species are being studied, and tested to see if their a viable food source, if they prove to be then they will be added to the current food supply after experimentation on how they can be used."
Celestia looked up at me impressed, but with a confused look. "I find that fascinating, however why do I see no fleet in the orbital pictures of the new colony? Surely you would defend such a place?"
"There are no starships in orbit due to trying to keep the colony itself hidden from Zetan eyes, we both know from the data how many solar systems they've found, logged, and kidnapped natives from for experimentation, this solar system is not in their starcharts and I intend to keep it that way until we have a surefire way to destroy them as a threat completely, the colonists are not defenseless however, they are trained military with the weaponry and vehicles that goes with that to defend themselves and the colony with." I explained, finishing the last bite of my meal, watching Celestia do the same.
The old Solar Alicorn seemed to ponder this, before nodding. "Makes enough sense I suppose, now anything else interesting happen lately?"
Nodding I said. "As a matter of fact, yes. The Changeling Empire has offered to merge with the Crystal Empire." Celestia spat out the Nuka Cola Quantum she had been gulping down like a pony who's never heard of water. "WHAT!?"
Empire troops in military issue power armor where becoming commonplace among the former citizens of the nonexistent Caribou Empire. With the destruction of their capital killing all military leadership and making rebuilding there not likely since it was mostly glass and ash, raids on Zebrica, an Empire Colony had necessitated that the former Caribou Empire be annexed, as there was just violent struggles for power and military control throughout what remained. A caribou doe threw a glass bottle at one of the power armored unicorns. "Leave us be! Begone from our land, your Empire, "She loaded the word with enough venom to kill a manticore. "Has done more than enough harm to our once great land! You raided the royal vaults and killed the old ruler, and then your allies blew our capital city into ASH!"
The unicorn's helmet turned in her direction. "Further hostilities will result in jailtime, I am willing to overlook it once but not twice. Your former government is to blame for this situation as well as the roaming bandits who think Empire territory is ripe for the picking, move along citizen." A mesmatron rifle was hefted in the unicorns magical grip, this caused the doe to sulk away. Not long afterwards several shots from the Caribous primitive firearms, mostly old Equestrian Revolver Rifles and primitive iron rockets. In return the Empire Unicorn deployed a shield spell to cover their unit, and the Akun and Letera started shooting their plasma rifles. Within moments the hostiles where dead.
King Blackfang, Queen Seelii, and King Chitin looked across the long table made of changeling resign, the greenish lights glowing above. "So we are in agreement then?" I asked, the two Ren by either side of me holding two assault rifles each, just in case something went wrong, never hurt to have protection for the other side after all.
King blackfang nodded, his red slit eyes gleaming in the light. "Yes as stated here, we will merge empire's, with yours being in primary control of ours, you'll have total control over everything aside from how changelings breed pretty much, and in return for this we get networks of those small crystal hearts you use to transport not only love, but the protective energy barrier the crystal heart produces and thus allowing our former, now your, citizens to no longer fear a day when no more love will flow throughout the hives."
Queen Seelii and King Chitin remained silent, as King Blackfang was the head of them all. "This is agreeable, and I'd like to note you guys would pretty much be keeping your positions of power since I can't manage an Empire by myself alone, you shall all report to Moon, or Chrysalis, if you need help in civilian matters report strictly to Rainshine, she's good with that but not much in the way of any military or defense abilities." This was true, Moon and Chrysalis had lead entire armies before, Rainshine? She held control over a couple thousand Kirin, this was true and as such she was good with basic government level problems, however due to their isolation they never really needed a standing military and so she had no experience in it.
Blackfang's horn began to glow with red magic, before a knife of all things slid across one of his hooves and he placed it against the paper, which caused it to glow blood red for a few seconds before it died down and looked like normal paper again. Apparently that was the changeling version of a signature for very important treaties or government documents, so if one was broken or the one who 'signed' went back on the agreements, they could be found and punished quickly. "With the signing of this document I welcome you and my new citizens into the Crystal Empire, medical androids will be here soon enough to get you all entered into the Citizen Identification System, along with military androids and robotic combat units to begin constructing defenses and power suppliers." I paused to take a sip of some tea that had been offered to me. "You'll be briefed on Empire Laws and someone from the Empire, likely General Glimmer or Pam, will take a look at your current laws to see which can be kept, what needs to be kept, and what ones will go due to interfering with Empire Standard Laws."
Looking at my pipboy I noticed the time, and since this matter was taken care of for the moment I stood up from the seat I had been provided. "Alright, I must be going as I have other matters to attend to, if you need to contact me directly you may do so with the devices I have given you, prepare the blueprints and layouts of my new territory and all structures both above and underground for the construction robots to go over before they arrive, you have three hours before they do and one before the military ones arrive to begin boosting defenses." Tapping away at my pipboy I selected a location and relayed in, leaving the room I had just been in behind within a flash of light and sound.
Now rather than the heart of the...now former, Changeling Empire I now stood within an underground research facility that was within the military side of the Empire, this was the same facility Deathclaws had been altered to be sentient in. Doctor Ember Flames walked up to me quickly upon my arrival, giving a small bow. "Your Majesty! I knew we where expecting you but I thought you'd be another hour at the least. Regardless, this way please and we will begin going over recent progress we've had with subjects." Following her as she walked she began to explain pointing into a room that had energy shields keeping the occupant inside, and before that a layer of armored glass meant to take a 50 caliber round. "Subject 32 has been responding well to the genetic alterations, as you can see it's more bipedal than other Mirelurk King's tend to be, it's eyes are more or less still the same, but it's brainpower and vocal cords have been altered heavily."
Peering into the room while remaining outside and protected by the barriers in place I turned to Doctor Ember Flames. "How intelligent has it become? Are you able to say we have achieved making it sentient like we have with the deathclaws?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I can say with no small amount of satisfaction we have done so, we just need to enter its altered genetic codes into a Nukagen Replicator and we can begin the cloning process, as well as adding a few differences in genetics to prevent inbreeding, the next subject however has been less satisfactory overall." We walked down three rows of empty rooms to see a gatorclaw within an empty room, trying to smash its way out. "Subject 15 is set for termination soon, regardless of the amount of genetic alterations we have made it remains unbelievably hostile to anything it sees, even one of its own which it tore apart like wet paper."
Humming I said. "Disappointing, I had high hopes for subject 15, their species is as hearty as deathclaws and the upside is their aquatic in some capacity due to being part gator, they would have been useful for interacting with underwater civilizations such as Seaquestria, but thats why we also had work done on the Mirelurk Kings, backups, so it's not a total loss. Onto the next subject, this one I am most interested in." We walked down to another room, this one much the same except it had furniture for an Akun, as well as an Akun in the room. The differences between this male of the Akun and any other would be rather plain to anyone who caught a glimpse of em, since Akun generally didn't have leathery dragon or bat like wings.
Doctor Ember Flames spoke with great enthusiasm. "Subject 62, named Azoi has taken the mutations and alterations well, his body has adapted to these and he can even fly after some short training, his overall height has increased by a foot and his mass has increased as well. We expect that introducing him to a female during mating season will allow these alterations to be passed down, that test has already been approved and the Akun mating season starts next week so we will be more than able to experiment on this, the resulting hatchlings should have these mutations passed down to them."
"Good, good....I still find it funny this guy signed up for this with the only reason why being 'I want to fly like an Eponite Bird' which was just absolutely hilarious, but still it provided a willing test subject and interesting ideas to try for this one, that shall be all for now, I have yet more matters to attend to and thus will take my leave, remember Azoi may request anything, so long as it can't be used as a weapon, give it to em."
Soldiers where flipping their shit readying for combat, shuttles taking off from the surface of the moon to engage the starship fleet that had appeared out of nowhere. This had to have been the enemy they where gearing to fight, which confused many since from the reports they didn't have a portal gate to Earth's Dimension that anyone had been able to find. This thought was put to rest when the fleet broadcasted something in several Human languages. "We are Unity. We have received your messages from the void and have arrived to lay claim over your information networks and the data within, release this data willingly and submit yourselves and your planet to glassing, resist and you will be terminated as the Hivelord commands, resistance is futile. There will be no peace, there will be no trade, We are Unity, we are All There Is."
The response was quick, several countries declared they would not submit, the UNDF also replied with the same message. "We wish not for war, we will not fire the first shot but you will find if you force our hands, that we will not hold back."
The response they got? Several Unity ships blasting apart the former ISS with bright bolts of plasma and laser fire. Before being destroyed the ISS managed to deploy its armed shuttles and launch several nuclear warheads. The small agile missiles armed with atomic destruction screeched soundlessly through the vacuum of space, and struck.
Two dozen MKB55 tactical nuclear warheads struck several Unity starships without mercy, the explosive power of their payloads causing massive balls of radioactive plasma which expanded and engulfed several smaller starships, the result of this was the starships within the radius of the energy ball where vaporized or heavily damaged to the point they where unusable. Fifty-seven Starships destroyed within a fraction of a second. The United Nations Defense Force gave the invaders no room to breathe and their small shuttles began to fire their railguns, several bolts of automatic plasma fire destroyed dozens of the small slow and, primitive craft. Broadcasting continued. "You cannot prevent the inevitable, your resistance is futile." Over the cybernetic hivemind of Unity panic was beginning to flare in the lower class drones, messages where being sent back and forth as fast as digital wireless data could be sent, until the Hivelord silenced it with one command, 'cease', and so cease they did for the Hivelord was all.
On the base named Luna key personal where being evacuated through the portal gate, while soldiers at their command stations fired up their weapon systems for the first time in decades, and activated newer ones that had been recent installments. A very new weapon at their disposal activated, the United Nations Defense Force Cyber Command, which began transmitting microwaves and electromagnetic pulses in an attempt to halt communication between enemy starships. Railgun batteries fired their 150 millimeter tungsten shells upwards into the bellies of several starships, which confused some since from the shuttles trying to fire their plasma cannons these things had shields or should have anyways, and yet the railgun rounds tore through the bottom of the starships they struck as if the shields that many had seen flare up to deflect the plasma hadn't even existed.
Luna took minor damage to its structure, but it did take enough to force its occupants to the poral gate to evacuate since their had been a breach and now the atmosphere within was being leaked out into space, and Earth's minor space fleet was destroyed rapidly. The next weapon that took the invaders by surprise where the Russian chemical laser stations, and the US orbital nuclear launch platforms, outdated in technology since after the Cold War but no less deadly than any other weapon. The lasers didn't do much beyond shift the starships that they struck to aim at them, giving time for the orbital nuclear launcher to release its deadly payload.
Much as the last time balls of plasma struck and gave no mercy to those within their range, ruined starships and human made satellites and craft floated dead in the void, while others went past them screaming into Earths atmosphere. Anti-air defenses began screeching as missiles shot into the skies by the hundreds, naval ships launched anti-satellite missiles in an attempt to strike starships as they began to enter the atmosphere taking several more out. Those starships still managed to do damage by crashing into civilian centers after their controls where destroyed, a biter victory for both parties in that regard.
The Hivelord was taken by surprise at the violent power of these pre-ftl primitives weaponry, ballistics where thought of almost as primitive as spears from times long forgotten, most species developed energy weapons leaving ballistics behind, focusing on harnessing nuclear energy for fuels and sources of power rather than destruction these came as massive surprises to the Hive, but it mattered not as their clumsy and primitive starcraft where shattered like glass upon their chitin. His own personal shuttle made landfall with dozens of others, the information floating within the air wirelessly was delectable. Primitive human soldiers with strange exoskeletons made of metal hefted large blocky and ugly rifles up before firing. Railgun rounds shattered several of his drones before the return of automatic plasma weaponry silenced them, their ugly screams as they died where delightful to hear. Metal melted and fused to flesh as their Exo-skeletal armor failed to stop the onslaught of red hot plasma. Unity moved forward as one shattering several enemy positions before a tank managed to crush a few dozen with its main gun firing into a massive herd of them.
When one of the drones made a direct connection to the human information network, all hell broke loose. Unity had been unified as one for millennia, taking world after world, network after network of information, and each one had been about where humanity had been in the 1980's, to 1990's. Primitive and underdeveloped by galactic standards, this network was almost more advanced than their own, they had never encountered a species with an information network so ripe with viruses and other nasty surprises since most sentient species had the sense to keep their networks clean. As such they where not prepared for the malicious codes and viruses that began to implant themselves within the digital hivemind rapidly shutting down their cybernetic systems and even their own starships weaponry. Then the Hivelord was no longer Hivelord, control had been pulled from beneath him without warning leaving a twitching husk.
Meanwhile in the US Cyber Command one woman was staring at her computer screen, which showed the words 'New Hivelord Authorized' In English, she turned to one of her superiors. "Um....sir? I think I just took control of the enemy computer systems...." Which came as a surprise considering she was trying to hack into their networks to decode their language, and spoof their communications.
Across the landing sights Unity stopped attacking human soldiers, and civilians alike, skittering around in a blind panic as various viruses attacked their cybernetic systems, some of which where hooked directly into several vital organs and their brains, then after an hour it suddenly stopped, the Hivemind went silent as a new Hivelord was declared, having ripped power from the older one whom had taken control of it from the one before them. Throughout the Hivemind a new message was declared. "We Serve." Displayed on the screen in US Cyber Command, where Alex Harvey sat, her smartwatch lit up as well with the same message as did her phone with yet another message. "Input Orders."
Her superior, Glen Johnson looked at her computer screen in pure shock, before looking at her. "Type something, and don't be stupid about it, I think you know what to type."
Alex nodded and carefully typed into the Command Line Interface that had replaced her computers normal screen. Cease all hostilities and surrender to the countries you are within. The response only took a second to come in. "As the Hivelord Commands."
The invasion had lasted less than five hours and ended up with the destruction of almost every space asset shot into orbit on Earth, but now they had control over what was apparently a digital hivemind species, or at least one person did, nothing was stopping her from just having them do what she wanted other than her own morals and loyalty to her country. Reports came in within the next few days as news channels flooded with crackpot theories, and nutjobs claiming to have been abducted by these aliens before they arrived. The UNDF and the nations of Earth as a whole had their work cut out for them for the foreseeable future. Hundreds of thousand has died, billions worth of property and structural damage had occurred, along with the damage done to civilian power stations and travel networks such as highways and roads littered by massive melted holes of cement.
Celestia looked at the recording that had been made, nodding in satisfaction as a smile graced her snout. "Yes Lorenzo, I think this will do nicely. The message is kind, and I think it'll get through to them well enough about what we all want." She grinned. "I have hope they will accept."
Nodding I spoke. "I agree, hopefully they do, if they don't however we are more than ready to retaliate, the ss'ket have sent us several of their smaller starships armed with plasmatic lances to turn the tide in our favor while bolstering their own numbers within their system."
Celestia chuckled. "I still think they look like gekos, their adorable, now let us send this message in a bottle, if it can be called that when the ocean it'll be tossed into is a sea of stars grander than any mere ocean on Equis as a whole."
"Damn mare, you gettin poetic on me?" That caused her snout to turn red before I laughed and activated the relay hooked into one of the many satellites around the Zetans homeworld that had been modified by one of my DIA implants and was forced to blink as the light of the teleportation blinded both me and Celestia for a brief moment. "Now, we wait."
--------------Zetan Homeworld--------------------
Across lightyears in an entirely different solar system a satellite network did pretty much the same job as any other, transmit information or help transmit information from below, stopped functioning properly and transmissions from all visual networks stopped as static overtook the many screens and holoprojectors for a moment before a new image was seen upon the screen, a human. Much to the horror of those who knew what Humanity was and had been, a minor species to learn about in school that had exterminated itself, not once, but TWICE. The Council of 5 was forced to watch as well from within their chamber as the human spoke in their language, much to everyone's own surprise.
Dressed in a suit with a purple colored tie, a primitive crown on it's head and dark glasses on, sunglasses if remembered correctly, the council watched it walk on screen. "Hello from the People of Equis, you remember it as Earth but it goes by Equis now, we know you exist, we know your homeworld, we've known for years," This horrified the council. "The Empires and Kingdoms of Equis have decided to extend their hands in friendship to your civilization in the hopes that we can peacefully coexist, now I'll pass this off to my dear friend, Princess Celestia." The male human walked offscreen and a four legged fluffy looking creature walked into the camera.
Celestia puffed her chestfluff and flared her wings. "As co ruler of Equestria, I Princess Celestia welcome friendship between our civilizations and offer friendship between the ponies of Equestria and those of the Zetans, may friendship expand beyond our systems and beyond." The transmission cut out almost as briefly as it came, and Soro looked to the others, agreement in all of their eyes as he spoke. "I'm authorizing a mothership be sent now, proper paperwork be damned! They need to be dealt with this instant." He got no disagreement and thus the order was sent out to halt preparing a starship to attack, and to commence with the attack immediately. -------------------------Equis's Solar System------------------------------
A disk shaped starship 35 thousand miles size, a perfect disk appeared within an instant. Large rotary cannons turned on a dime and began to fire nuclear shells at the starship rapidly, their destructive power doing nothing against the starships shields, several dozen orbital deathray platforms both Equestrian and those of the Crystal Empire opened fire as well, while small Ss'ket starships opened up with their plasmatic lances. The only thing that managed to get through the starships massive shields where their plasmatic lances, but even then due to the sheer size of the starship, no the mothership for it was a mothership by all definition itself, only minor damage was caused. The massive motherships point defense deathrays marked those as priority targets and within moments each had been destroyed, leaving not even melted husks to float aimlessly in the void.
The small starship fleet of the UCSR fired hundreds of small agile missiles as the Abyssinian fleets fired their gauss cannons, Equestrian ones their deathrays and magical laser weaponry. None had any real effect and where swept aside, then the Crystal City fired it's plasmatic lance striking the side of the mothership, tearing the shields in that section away as if they didn't exist and continued onwards to vaporize a small section of the ship. Beings across the joint fleet cheered. Then the motherships main deathray powered itself up visibly and fired. Its long blast of death striking a chunk of Equis, the shockwave as a result was visible from high orbit.
News feeds began to rapidly come into any transmitter accepting signals, Celestia watched from one of the Crystal Palace's wall mounted holographic televisions, her tray of tea forgotten as an announcer went on. "Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Manehatten have suffered complete and total destruction, nothing remains but ruble and glass as seen from these pictures taken by orbital satellites. The resulting shockwave from the weapon has caused widespread destruction as far as Griffonstone having windows shatter and trees blown apart by the fast winds, even the famous Mighty walls of the Crystal Empire have been seen to have collapsed in some places and damaged a few dozen buildings, the total death toll is estima-" She shut the television off, watching it melt into glowing slag before she realized what she had done, she'd have to apologize to Lorenzo later but right now more important things where on her mind.
She had sent out a message of peace, it had been her idea. And rather than even think of accepting these Zetans attacked without mercy, killing millions of her ponies and likely citizens of any kingdom near the blast, her citizens....dead, three cities and likely more just gone in an instant. Celestia's rage spilled over herself like a dam bursting and she teleported into the vacuum of space, something she hadn't done in eons. Her sun could feel her anger as well they where tied together as one and could feel what the other did, and it too was angry at the loss of so many lives, its power flowed throughout her causing her fur to turn black and cracked as molten plasma flowed through her like the star she so lovingly called her own. She screamed into the void with such energy that regardless of the lack of air her voice was heard throughout the solar system. "We offered you peace, and you refused resulting to attacking those who could not defend themselves, we will no longer allow you to harm those within our territory, BEGON WRETCHED FITLH!"
With almost no warning the Celestia Equis knew was gone, in her place stood a monster of black rock and solar plasma, her orange slit eyes narrowing upon the starship that dared to harm those who couldn't even have a chance to fight back. She took off at speeds that shouldn't have been possible for an organic being, within seconds she slammed into the shields protecting the massive ship, which began to flare. She glared at it, and her horn began to glow pure white as her magical grasp surrounded the ship, and she crushed it within her magical might, a ship with a diameter of 35 thousand miles and a thickness of ten thousand miles, began to buckle and groan in protest as the energy shields failed and her grasp finally surrounded the metal of the ship itself, she grit her teeth in fury as she screeched. The crushing happening faster and faster, before finally a ship which should have never been defeated was absolutely crushed into a ball of scrap metal miles in diameter, blowing up several times in the process as electrical generators and weapons tried to work or fire upon her. All failed and within moments all that was left of the starship was a perfect metal sphere one mile in diameter and one mile thick. And Celestia stood upon flames as her rage slowly cooled down, her fur returning to its normal pristine white and her eyes returning to normal with a blink as she looked at the damage she had caused.
------------------------------Crystal Palace Command Center, Lorenzo---------------------------
My eyes where wide as the video feed showed Celestia crushing a starship that outmatched even the Crystal City in sheer size alone into a perfect sphere a mile in diameter. Damage reports coming in as several sections of the wall had collapsed and shattered from the shockwave of the blast the Mothership had caused with it's deathray, I glared at the screen and swiped all the reports away, turning on a special com that was connected to my DIA agents on the Zetans homeworld. "Evacuate, cause as much damage as possible in doing so. Once your out I'm activating our backup."
"Yes Your Majesty." Came through, I only waited for five minutes before. "Clear." Came back, and I pressed a special little red button on my pipboy, sitting back with a sadistic grin, they wanted to fuck with Equis? See how they like it when it happens to them. "Your Majesty I have managed to take one of their motherships." That caused me to sit up as the DIA changeling continued. "I have been impersonating the commander of this starship for the past two weeks, and am awaiting your arrival at the Akun's home solar system having sent them a message ahead of time of my arrival. I vented the atmosphere killing most of the crew." At this point I was damn near frothing at the mouth.
My little message should be playing about now, if the calculations done beforehand where correct.
Holoprojectors across the gigantic advanced and shining city flickered red before a human, the very same from the first message sent before stood on the screen, its small eyes ablaze with wrath unseen before during the entire existence of their civilization. "You have attacked my Home, my Empire, and my Allies, even after offering peace between our civilizations, you in your arrogance, refused. Your callousness to all intelligent life has left me and the people of Equis sickened, your blackened hearts know no bounds to their cruelty, millions if not more innocents died because of your foolish actions. Now our wrath shall come screaming from the void like a plague, one with which you will find no cure. So listen in despair to the melody of your destruction, for once it ends, your civilization shall fall to ash and ruin." The screens flickered again violently, before showing the void of space and the expanse of stars, as a distorted voice began to sing. Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. When the blazing sun is gone, when there nothing shines upon. Then you show your little light, twinkle twinkle all the night. Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you for your little spark. He could not see which way to go, if you did not twinkle so. When the blazing sun is gone, when there nothing shines upon. Though I know not what you are, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When the song ended, the explosions began as the devices planted over the last few months went off.
Two days had passed since the...destruction, of several Equestrian cities, and the shattering of a good chunk of the southern wall built around the Empire. Some good news is the vault's worked, mostly. They had taken some massive damage in the areas they had been built in that where glassed but the very lower levels survived and the citizens within evacuated using the various subway systems connecting them to other vaults around Equestria, Ponyville wasn't hit either so their main starship command port, or whatever they called it was functional and at full capacity. At the moment I was on live television across four worlds, five counting the hidden colony.
"Citizens of the Crystal Empire, of Equis itself. The Zetans have struck Equis a terrible blow, several Equestrian cities as you no doubt know by now have been completely annihilated, only glass and ashes remain where they once stood." I took a sip of the coffee from a stainless steel mug before setting it back down and continuing. "We shall not allow this to go unpunished, we offered them peace and they decided in their arrogance to reject our offer with an act of war. Together Equis stands united, they shall learn the folly of their leaders and those who obeyed their orders. Our war machines will come screaming from across the stars, uncountable numbers will fall upon them in a wave of metal and blood unseen before within the galaxy, and united we will destroy every last one of their military structures that exist until nothing but dust remains, they will regret ever striking us or our allies, I promise you this, our Equestrian brethren shall have their revenge, swift and merciless."
I signaled to the android who cut the feed, then switched on a holoprojector to view Celestia's speech, for she was having one of her own at the moment and I said I'd listen in. Celestia looked at the viewers from the screen of televisions across Equis, across Equestria, her face stern and cold, her regalia shining in the light. "Ponies of the Kingdom of Equestria, we have sat idle for far too long. We have been struck a terrible blow by enemies from across the vast expanse of stars we are just beginning to expand into, they rejected our offers of peace and friendship, they struck us with no qualms about the lives they silenced within an instant like the flame of a candle being blown out." She flared her wings which began to glow like the embers of a fire, the sun behind her fitting perfectly into the center space of her wings. "They have not quelled our flame, we shall rise like a phoenix from the ashes and they will regret not crushing us in one swift blow! For our flames burn brighter than the star I call my own, we shall rise again and take our retribution. I ensure this to you, we will rebuild, we will improve, we will make them regret rejecting our friendship so callously, the Kingdoms and Empire's of Equis stand united with us in this endeavor, and with their help, Friendship and Unity shall help destroy our enemies from the face of this universe!" Cheers erupted from offscreen, presumably the crowed that was attending her speech live in Canterlot. Across the globe every allied kingdom or empire was saying pretty much the same, we will stand united in our fight against the Zetans, and in doing so we ensure victory.
Turning the TV off I called Pam over a secure line from my Pipboy, watching her show up on screen. "Pam, halt all progress on Project Phoenix, we're putting all current resources to Project Overlord."
Pam, while not having a face to show emotion being a modified assaultron, still could speak like a regular person and the tone of her voice suggested displeasure. "We are five days away from completing Project Phoenix Your Majesty, it would be a massive delay, I suggest allowing it to be completed while routing all other resources to Overlord."
Giving a sigh I relented, had it not been so close to completion I'd have denied her request, but seeing as I hadn't known it was that close to being finished, I allowed it. "Fine, I will allow it. Once you are done overseeing that I expect your full attention and abilities for Project Overlord, ending transmission." I hung up before she could further reply. Pressing another button General Glimmer's image appeared. "General Glimmer, I am rerouting all robotic components to the production of Androids, Assaultrons, and Heavy Mark Two sentry bots. I expect you to oversee this, we're upping production."
Starlight Glimmer saluted. "Yes Your Majesty, how much more will we be upping production of these units?" She questioned, an eyebrow raised.
"Nine Hundred Percent Glimmer. I want seventy five million within the next two weeks and I want them as fast as possible, overclock the machines, run them constantly if you need too run them until they fucking glow red hot, I'm pulling older outdated models out of storage and having them retrofitted with new systems to make them useable on the modern battlefield."
Starlight nearly choked on her drink before quickly composing herself. "At once Your Majesty." She hung up to do as asked, and I glared at a random wall, before smiling. The little green fuckers where likely having a hell of a time with the 'gifts' I had my agents leave them and flipping their shit at the loss of not one, but two motherships. One to an angry fluffy sun goddess, the other to a changeling who played mimic. Over the next few days chunks of that mothership would be split between the spacefaring powers on Equis, it was to become the capital ship of our fleets. Our worldcracker. United in one command ship our fleets would coordinate their attacks as one. My Empire was a juggernaut, I knew this. Now the slumbering giant had been awoken, industry meant for peace would turn to wartime production. There would be no rationing of foods, or metals for home use thanks to the matter replicators, but anything else would be going right into the forge of the Empire's war machines. Starships, aircraft, artillery, everything would be getting a massive boost in numbers.
The DIA changeling implants that I had sent to the Zetans homeworld picked that exact moment to walk into the throne room, and I smiled at them. "Hello, I'm glad to see you all alive and well, your mission was a success of the highest degree! The information you provided and decoded for us, and the...last goodie, you bagged. You have all earned whatever you desire, name it, so long as it's not illegal and you shall have it."
They didn't even pause for a moment, the hivemind letting them speak instantly to one another without verbally speaking. One of them spoke, the leader of the group. "We serve the Hive, there is no greater reward Your Majesty."
This surprised me, they had spent over a month in hostile alien territory, and accomplished something that would make them hero's if they where known to the public yet they refused a reward? "I cannot allow this, I'll be giving you all twenty five thousand bits to do with as you please, you've earned more but this is the minimum I'm going to force you to take." They bowed without a word and left. Now it was time to oversee a certain....darker project that I had going on beneath the Crystal Palace.
---------------------------Two Miles Below Crystal Palace, Military Medical Facility---------------------
Uktain hadn't known how much time had passed, it was hard too when you kept coming in and out of consciousness. What he did know was he was being experimented on like a common lower lifeform. He distinctly remembered waking up to seeing his chest opened at one point while medical robots of alien design poked and prodded, or whatever it was they were doing to his organs. This time was a new hell however, when he awoke this time he only had one eye, and couldn't move his body, not even able to feel himself breathe. Looking downward with his eye, the only part of him he could move he noticed something alarming. Where his body should have been was a metal shell, that's when a mirror was placed in front of him and he realized what had been done to him.
He tried to scream, but was unable to vocalize anything for he no longer had his organic voice box. His dark green brain visible in a glass dome like structure, one of his eyes jutting out of the front in some sick mockery of his old self. Tube like arms with several large metallic claws on them and two stupidly long legs all made of metal. He watched as the mirror was removed and a Human, wearing a crown walked into the room with a cruel smile. "Like it? Your organic body was a waste of resources. Now this way you can fight for the Empire and help us in our effort to exterminate as many of your military personal as possible! Best part is you can still speak once a small switch is flipped, so they can hear you as you slaughter them without mercy." He walked over and true to his word, flipped a small switch before closing the metallic chassis that now held his entire being.
Now, he did scream. "What in the name of the Council have you done to me!?" A synthetic sounding voice screeched through his new speakers.
The cruel smile widened. "I made you Better. Your species treats other sentients like lab animals, why should we not do the same to you? I distinctly remember from one audio-log where you could hear a man begging for his arms and legs back, or the husband you turned into an abomination and had kill his own wife and children while they screamed for him to stop." The smile vanished, replaced with calm coolness. "You only have your own government to blame as well as yourself for following any of their rules, or orders." The human sat upon a metal wire chair. "Your crew will be joining you soon as well! They also have the honor of fighting for the Empire, regardless of if they want too or not, don't worry you'll remain conscious during any battles, otherwise you'll be in offline mode, but you will have absolutely no control when fighting other than being forced to watch, and to scream if you choose to."
Uktain watched in absolute horror as his new arms moved without his input, large plasma blasters unfolding from the center of his new claws. The former Starship Captain could only look on in terror as blasts of plasma struck a target next to the human, no matter how hard he tried to will his new arm to aim slightly to the right and shoot him rather than the target it moved not an inch. Then his former crew where walked in, the same horrific fate befalling upon them, and he would have wept if he had the ability to do so anymore. His crew was like his family, that was inevitable when you spent time with them in a small enclosed space for months at a time, and to see his fellow crew like this made him want to sob. "I'm so sorry this happened to all of you, please forgi-." The human shut the switch off that allowed him to speak with a nasty smile on his face.
"Ah. Ah. Ah. No apologizing to them. You don't get that luxury. Now I must be off, as Royalty I have other matters to attend to, enjoy your new bodies! They'll be put to use very....very soon, and I can't wait to see your new abilities in action!" He turned around and walked into an elevator, before the doors closed the last thing Uktain saw was that evil smile before his unit was switched into sleep mode by an android. His new Nightmare only just beginning.
Freddy and Fred where staring wide eyed at Joe, who had a smirk on his face. "You got a fucking girlfriend? Who the hell would date trash like you?" Fred said with amazement in his voice while Freddy just sat there, mouth open wide.
Joe scowled. "I'll have you know she picked me, rather than the other way around, she just picked me up by the scruff of my neck one day and said 'this one is mine' before walking off with me in her grip!"
Freddy raised an eyebrow while Fred laughed his ass off. "How is that possible? What species is she?"
A Deathclaw walked up to the table they where at, before picking up Joe and licking the side of his face. Joe smiled. "Hey hun, meet the fellas." Jaws dropped further while Freddy's eyes rolled into the back of his head, before his forehead met the nice wooden table their drinks where on with a dull thunk.
A woman on screen was seen with the CNN logo near the corner of the screen while in capital letters 'LIVE' flashed on screen. "I'm in this news helicopter over what remains of North Korea's capital Pyongyang, during Unity's attack it seems North Korea's military attempted to launch nuclear weapons once it looked like they where about to be overrun, destroying a large chunk of the country as seven nuclear warheads went off at once. the United Nations and NATO have been working around the clock for relief efforts, and Unity has been helping as well. We're all glad that their attack was a miscommunication, taking one of the Voyager Probes as a declaration of war, we're all glad that mess has been cleared up." The camera switches to the ruins of Pyongyang, buildings turned into slag, ash still rising into the air from some parts, while others burned a full two weeks later. The Television was shut off abruptly as Doctor, well former doctor, Alex shut it off with a sigh, tossing the remote back onto the couch while opening his computer and rewatching the footage from that faithful day.
A man dressed in what amounted to plate armor with wings of fire and a crown walking down the halls of the hospital, then being stopped by the kid. It played out as it always had, giving the kid a red vial to drink, then vanishing into thin air. He had managed to make a copy of the recording on a USB stick he always took to work for file transfers, he was glad he did since men in black suits came in merely an hour later and confiscated the footage.
The stuff in that little red vial had changed his entire life, he was famous as the guy who cured leukemia. He knew he didn't, but how could he tell the world otherwise? Even with the footage he'd be considered a laughing stock since CGI was so easy nowadays. He'd await the day he could meet that man in the footage again, he remembered the lab results and X-rays too. Muscle density several times over the normal limit, bones strong enough that they couldn't be broken, the truck slamming into him and doing nothing but minor damage had proved that one. And blood that glowed slightly if you turned the light off, a white glow. He made copies of everything. While what was in that red vial may have made him a very rich man, he constantly thought who that person was. He swore to himself he'd find out one day, even if it killed him.
A scout rushed into the throne room and bowed before her Empress. "Your Majesty, I've scouted the southern lands and have found something highly disturbing!" She produced a rough piece of parchment that had a crude drawing on it.
Empress Vodain looked down from her throne, taking the paper from the scout and carefully inspecting it. A monster was drawn with as much detail as one could hope to produce while on the move constantly, and using flowing ink rather than a thin writing stone. Large, a long tail with spikes on the back two massive horns, and very large clawed hands. Empress Vodain's eyebrows shot up at the sight of what looked to be a strange musket drawn next to it as well, nothing like what her guards used except perhaps vaguely in shape, she saw no matchlock mechanism for it to fire, so how it could possibly function was a mystery. "This is indeed startling....what have you observed?"
The scout produced another sketch, this one of a tower standing taller than anything seen before, tall and menacingly stretching towards the sky. "They seem to stay near this structure, it's likely their castle or palace Your Highness, I have yet to see them fire their strange muskets, however I have seen dozens of strange craft of the likes I've never thought possible." Another sketch was set before the Empress, this one a strange boxy shape, two wheels clearly not made of wood from the designs etched into them shown, then another sketch that showed the front of this craft, a strange four wheeled carriage without any beasts of burden to pull it. She didn't even see a place for such beasts to be latched to it.
The Empress hummed to herself. "I want someone to make contact with these beings, clearly they're intelligent if they have weapons, if they turn out to be hostile have them dealt with, our matchlocks should be more than enough to deal with them." She stated with confidence. Her empire was the only one to have such weapons after all, these couldn't be any better than those her troops used. And if matchlocks failed, bronze cannon would finish the job easily.
The scout bowed low. "Yes Your Majesty, at once Your Majesty." The scout stood, quickly leaving the throne room as a servant brought her Empress a large wooden cup filled to the brim with a bright green liquid. The Empress took the cup and drank deeply, enjoying the wine.
Waving the servant away she spoke to a guard. "Allow the court to begin, I hope someone has something interesting enough to catch my attention today." Vodain said with a sigh, the guard bowed deeply and did as she was told.
Governess Vadhan was shown into the throne room, bowing before her monarch while her robes, bright red in color remained bland and boring compared to those of her Empress, whose green and purple robes shined with elegance. "My Empress, I am here to report that the tribes to the west have submitted, we've taken minor casualties. Now that I control that area, what do you desire done with it?"
Empress Vodain grinned, her teeth pearly white. "I want several new mining operations there, we require more tin and copper for our cannon, as well as iron. Afterwards we can begin the construction of more permanent settlements and roads there."
Governess Vadhan bowed deeply. "Yes My Empress, what do we do with the captured tribals?" She asked raising one of her eyebrows.
The Empress smirked. "The men can be divided among your own forces, I know how desperate some of your warriors can get, the children and women can be divided for the pens, any male children being the exception of course, those will go to a reeducation school to help teach them proper ways of living, after they become of age their wives shall be chosen for them as is tradition."
Governess Vadhan's eyes lit up like fireworks, another recent invention. "Yes My Empress." She once again bowed deeply before making her way from the throne room.
The Empress looked to a guard. "Inform the rest that I am canceling court for today, I have other matters to attend to." The guard bowed and did as she was told once more, anything less and the Empress would have ordered her shot. She stood from her throne and walked down the hallways of her palace to a large room that held a bath, naturally heated from a nearby hot-spring. With a snap of her figures several servants disrobed her and she sank into the warm water with a happy sigh. Then servants began to grab soaps and silky cloth rags to wash their monarch. Before they could finish however the Grand Priest barged her way into the room, past the two guards holding their matchlocks.
"Your Holiness I must deeply apologize, but I bring dire news!" She ignored her monarchs nudity, as well as those of her servants, they where all women after all and it wasn't something she hadn't seen before, regardless she kept her eyes trained on that of her Empress.
The Empress glared while adorning her royal robes, unhappy at having her bath interrupted. "What is it Musne? You may be the Grand Priest but you damn well know I don't like having myself interrupted just as I begin to enjoy myself."
Grand Priest Musne bowed deeply in apology. "I am sorry, Your Holiness, but the Goddesses have seen fit to strike me with another vision!"
Empress Vodain's eyes went wide and all anger was forgotten as she spoke. "What did you see? Tell me this instant!"
Musne did as ordered, describing in great detail the vision she had been struck with that very morning, and the Empress swore. "Brotherfucker! Another attempted rebellion? We'll have to ensure it's snuffed out before it happens, damned cunts can't understand we're doing them a favor letting them live and work in the mines rather than just killing them and taking the men alone!"
Dave looked down at the dead alien, the animal hide it wore not doing much to hide it's body, since it would pretty much be a fur 'bikini' he thought it would be called, he only vaguely remembered what a bikini was after watching a video explaining swimwear. Turning to his friend he spoke. "Well, I didn't expect sentient life here, then again throwing a stone spear at me shows it can make tools and use them. Clearly female too, if the tits are anything to go by, mammals are fuckin weird." He took a puff of his cigarette, offering one to Tulip.
Tulip rolled her eyes, pulling off her combat armors helmet and accepting the cancer stick. "Let's take this to those bigwig doctors up in the command tower, I'm sure they'd love to dissect this thing, rather stupid of her to try and just attack us without a nice amount of firepower, skin looks nice though, reminds me of some gold colored paintings I've seen." Tulip looked down at the alien, lighting her cigarette poking one of its limbs, a clean hole shot through it's face. It's skin was dark golden in color, while the eyes forever stuck open were dark green, two small white tusks poking out from the bottom of it's mouth. The bloody hole in its head showed it's blood to oddly enough, be a light blue color rather than the normal red or green. "It looks startlingly human."
Dave nodded, pulling out a large biohazard bag from his pack. "Yeah I noticed that as well, very odd, even it's feet look human, and most species have a different way to structure their feet, I mean ours don't exactly look like a ponies, or Akun." He carefully slid the corpse as well as the spear and primitive animal hide pack it had with it into the bag before zipping it up and carefully picking it up in his arms. "Alright you keep guard, If any more of those things show up try to talk to em first, but if they attack you can kill em, gonna take this to the Doc."
Tulip saluted, putting her helmet back on and her shotgun off her back, it was a Minotaur sized weapon, meaning a nice automatic 15 millimeter shotgun that could fire a few dozen shells in one shot, enough to turn anything hit to paste, Dave's weapon was a 5.56 millimeter long rifle, automatic fire was an option but it was better with single shot, more for sharpshooters.
As Dave set his new cargo into the bed of the military truck he couldn't bother remembering the classification for, he hopped into the drivers seat ensuring to fit his tail in the mold that had been fitted for his species, it wasn't fun to hit a big bump and have your tail feel as if it was being yanked off. Not that it was likely he'd encounter any sort of bump, the command tower was surrounded by pavement and properly marked roads, impressive since it had only been a few months since they set up shop here. It only took five minutes to arrive at the building, he nodded to the guards whom nodded in return before going still as stone once again.
Stepping into the elevator with his cargo, Dave selected the third floor and waited, ten seconds and the doors opened with the chime of a bell. Grabbing a medical stretcher on wheels he plopped his cargo, bag and all onto it and wheeled it over to the Head Doctor and Xeno biologist Doctor Ember Flames. "Doctor, I believe I have something that'll be of great interest to you." He carefully unzipped the bag, and the Doctors eyes lit up as she stared at the new subject.
With a grin that could rival Pinkie's Ember Flames turned to Dave. "You my friend just earned yourself a bottle from my personal rum stash for this delightful little gift! Go enjoy the celebration, it is Liberation Day after all." This made Dave smile, he quite enjoyed rum. Thus Dave went back outside, a bottle of rum to share with his friend as fireworks began to fire from the tower in the traditional blue, white, and purple.
A heavy four engine vertibird landed on a designated pad set aside for it and it alone. And I stepped out as normal, I was glad to have allowed this Enclave aircraft to make a resurgence, it had become a popular form of private travel for civilians who could afford to purchase one and afford to pay a pilot. It was also used for military service, being armed with several dozen point defense lasers and two gatling lasers in the nose and missile pods. I strode with two Ss'ket guards in full body combat armor carrying weapons that looked a lot like a Kalashnikov. I was sat within the same meeting room as before and gave the two monarchs before me a small smile. "Hello fellas, today's the day eh?"
Shihezz Skim nodded with a grave look upon his face, his brother remaining quiet. "We owe your Empire a Warriors Debt for helping us advance so rapidly in our technology, and for helping us with several deadly diseases we could not prevent without your medical technology being so freely given to us, the destruction of the five ships we sent is unacceptable. Those scum will know no happiness within the afterlife, may the Goddess shun them for their crimes against sentients." His brother nodded before he continued. "We are going to full wartime production, and beginning a draft. You will not be in this fight alone, you shall have our full support."
Hituzz Skim nodded his head as well. "Civilians are enlisting by the dozens to help our allies, I expected nothing less. We shall not stand by idly as the atrocities those vermin have done come to the light."
I grinned. "You will be happy to know that the DIA has gathered a lot of information that shall be useful, I sent you a copy a few days ago of the information in question, hopefully it's been useful so far?"
Shihezz grined. "Quite so, we know the location of their homeworld, it's time to give them a taste of what they have done to others, and save those whom refuse to follow the folly of their rulers."
Hituzz smiled. "Well said Brother of mine." We all smiled at the little red dot pulsating on the holographic map. Malice within our eyes.
Only a day had passed since my meeting with the Ss'ket's royalty, now I stood within the command bridge of the former Zetan Mothership with the rulers of several kingdoms. "This starship will be our ace, our hammer with which we may smash the Zetans like the pests they are." I got several nods, Razorclaw looking angry as everyone else. "I have also decided, for those without plasma weaponry I will be sharing automatic plasma rifles with you, this is because the Zetans primarily use them and as Equestria has shown, they are violently effective." Several eyes widened at this, I had never so blatantly given away technology without care.
Grabbing the blueprints from my inventory I tossed a copy to each ruler. "The Plasma Cartridge, still widely used, is not the same as the one seen in that design, that one uses Helium to produce the plasma, mine use Liquid Hydrogen, Equestria has no shortage of Helium however so it's plentiful enough for you all to get for cheap." I held up an old classic Automatic Plasma rifle. "This is a classic plasma rifle, fully automatic fire with a reflex sight, it's electronics are primitive compared to what you all can produce now but despite this it is a rugged and reliable weapon that can withstand wear and tear for decades without needing full repairs done." I took aim and fired at a Zetan shaped target, melting large holes into it with neon green plasma bolts. "Alternatively Equestria can design a way to use their current Arcane Energy Cells, or AEC's to function for these, or just amp up production of their own energy rifles for you all, however I have millions of these older models stockpiled for a rainy day, and that day has arrived."
General Secretary Vadik spoke. "We will take what is offered, we shall not complain as your generosity helps us and those of Equis, may the Dialectic prevail against these vermin." I chuckled at that, this guy never failed to amuse me, this worlds Starlight Glimmer actually got along well with this dude from what I was able to learn.
Queen Carnelia grinned, the two guards at her sides wearing what looked like Wolfenstein German infantry armor, gas masks helmets and all. "I am also going to share the plans for our Arcane warheads with all present, aside from Lorenzo for his empire has weapons much worse than that, they are rather simple devices." She snapped a finger and one guard saluted, arm out rigid before doing as commanded, handing blueprints slowly to each ruler like a person giving a dying man water.
I didn't need to give these to Equestria, they had millions of their own magical plasma rifles that could fire full automatic too, more accurate than the classic plasma rifles I was handing out too because they where copies of Zetan weapons but using magic for the energy source. Equestria had already shared it's magical deathray technology with others, as well as the energy shields technology, arcane reactors, all of it. Rebuilding efforts where massive for them and I had sent millions of construction units to rebuild around the clock.
Princess Celestia's face remained cold, she looked out through the large bridge into the expanse of space, watching the solar system. She could feel the planets as they made their orbits, she and Luna constantly had to alter them to remain stable, for now the spell she had set to do it for them would do, it could last several thousands of years since it was tied directly to her sun for the raw arcane power needed to power such a vast spell. Her eyes narrowed on a specific far off star within the void. They would pay utterly. Not now, perhaps not soon, but she was immortal, she had all the time in the universe to avenge her little ponies. And she was nothing if not patient. Then she felt the Magic of Music begin flowing through her as her eyes turned into bright crimson flames. "We will topple those who oppose us~ We have lasted thousands of years, and shall last thousands more, for the ponies of Equestria, for the beings of Equis~" The soft sinister voice rang around the command center.
Queen Carnelia gave an evil grin, and I could swear I heard music from the speakers around the room. "We shall crush our enemies into dust~ Left forgotten on the ash heap of history, their deeds atoned for but sins forever staining their name~"
King Steel Horns, ruler of the Minotaur smiled. "Let our hammers fall upon their forces and shatter them like glass~" Razorclaw clamped his beak shut with a small strip of leather, tying it tightly as he looked at me, while Vadik jammed an entire apple into his mouth to prevent himself from being influenced by the Magic of Song.
That's when they looked at me, and I deadpanned but went along with it. "I see a figure in the corner~ I see a shadow on the wall~ I see an Old World order Balanced on the brink In a blink it’ll fall~ I see the close an empire~ The balance of power, Is a delicate thing~ But cometh the hour, Cometh the King~ Here at the summit~ The pendulum swings, and your demise draws near~" Celestia's eyes met mine, and hers died down from raging infernos to her normal magenta pink. We both smiled sinisterly. -----------------------------------Crystal Empire Deathclaw Colony---------------------
Romilae looked through her spyglass at the tower and those around it, she had been ordered to make contact and was awaiting the correct opportunity too do so. She deemed now to be the correct time, that was until fireworks began to go off. This shocked her, fireworks where only used after the defeat of an enemy and the capturing of populations, so who had these strange beings won a battle against? The colors danced in the sky like an artist painting on their canvas, blue white and purple twirled and danced between one another with such rapid fire that it made her jaw drop with awe at the pure beauty of the sight. It took a few moments for her to refocus her spyglass on the large beings below. They would tower over her up close, she knew that.
Several seemed to be drinking, dancing and doing various other activities while ones covered completely in armor that had glowing energy surrounding their heads glowing a dark red hue stood still as stone to seemingly guard this strange exotic palace. Must be their elite troops. The fireworks however had the effect of making her Lilliger stamp its large hooves while it hissed. She had to give it a few Zak leaves to calm it. Looking back she realized it was now or never and hopped onto the back of her Lilliger taking the reigns in her hands. With a kick to the side the creature burst forward.
Within an instant dancing stopped and weapons where aimed at her, she in return aimed her matchlock. Which was a bit hard to do from the back of a Lilliger but she made do. For some reason this only served to amuse the monsters, some of which began to audibly laugh. Carefully she lowered her weapon. "I am Scout Romilae from the Tar'oin Empire, here by orders of Empress Vodain to make contact with your Empress and speak to the Female in charge here to invite them to the Grand Imperial City of Ugmal to the Royal Palace." She dismounted from her beast.
One of the beasts looked to another, before pressing some sort of little round circle on it's wrist, she didn't know what that would do. Then stomping was heard. A creature completely clad in armor of black iron and eyes that looked like the fires of the damned stomped over, even taller than the horned monsters that served it, this was truly a demon of great power. It stopped next to the one who had pressed the button. "What did you want, Dave. I was busy slaughtering a local predator." It's voice was worse, as if stones where being crushed within it's very throat as it spoke. The most confusing part however was the voice was clearly male, surely these beings while strange wouldn't put a male in charge.
Dave looked over at Frank Horrigan and saluted. "Sir, this is apparently a local of the world and is demanding the person in charge of the base, apparently to invite them to meet with their Empress."
The being, named 'Frank Horrigan' looked down at her, towering over her menacingly just by standing there. "Is that so, Mutie? Fine then, I'll summon the Emperor, stay there or I'll gut you." To emphasize that a blade glowing bright green extended from the beings left wrist, Romilae's eyes widened in horror and fear, the heat coming from the weapon was so intense she was sure it could have been used to cook her, let alone cut her. The other arm of the creature tapped the side of its massive helmet, and then without warning a bright flash of blue light with the sound of lightning rang out, blinding her and causing the scout to fall backwards onto her ass as she brought her matchlock to bear and fired blindly. When she opened her eyes she saw a smaller being standing there that looked not unlike a Manuka, with a bloody hole in it's throat while It looked down at the hole with a bored expression as it poured a fountain of off color blood. Dark crimson rather than the proper blue. It's body then fell forwards lifeless.
----------------------Lorenzo's Point of View--------------------
I looked down at the bloody gaping hole in my throat with a very bored expression on my face. That was until my body fell forwards and expired leaving me to respawn, thankfully ridding my suit of the blood. The one who shot me looked absolutely terrified and I raised an eyebrow. "First, shoot me again and Frank here will have fun removing your skeleton from your body piece by piece, secondly what do you want?"
Her, for it was most definitely a female, shouted. "A male ruler!? Has the world gone mad?!" She quickly got to her feet, and Frank stepped forward with his arm raised, blade ready to strike. I held my hand up and he stopped within an instant, retracting the energy blade back into his armor and awaiting a command.
Turning my eyes to look at Frank without moving my head I spoke. "Cease hostilities, go back to your duties, I will deal with the locals myself, If I have need of your services have no doubt I shall call for you." Frank saluted and began to walk away, anger clear in his steps. Looking back at the....orc, for lack of a better word, I put some sunglasses on. It's skin was dark golden in color not unlike a gold bar, eyes bright purple while the only hair I was able to see on it's head was black, two small tusks poking out from it's bottom jaw, she was also about a foot taller than me, and I was an even Six feet. "What did you want? Yes, I am male, get over it."
She seemed, very nervous, but visibly steeled herself and spoke. "I am Scout Romilae from the Tar'oin Empire, here by orders of Empress Vodain to make contact with the ruler of this Palace, and invite them to meet her Royal Majesty."
Smirking I said. "This isn't a palace, it's a mere command tower, regardless I will accept this invitation. Allow me to change into something more fitting and we shall be on our way." I began fiddling with my pipboy, which seemed to confuse Romilae, before with a small pop I was wearing my Alicorn Armor, fiery wings folded behind my back. The perks of game logic and inventories. "Where too?"
Picking her jaw off of the ground she pointed north. "The capital lies in that direction, my Lilliger will get us there quickly." She patted the back of what looked like an odd combination of a horse and a lizard.
I shook my head. "That will not do, I shall fly us there myself, your animal will be taken care of while we are away and can be delivered after a small period of time."
Romilae became confused at this, and spoke in a way that made it very clear. "Only birds can fly, you do realize this correct?" In response I flared the wings extending from the back of my armor, and her eyes widened. Before she could protest I had already lifted off hooking my arms under her own and hefting her up before heading in the direction of their capital. It only seemed to be seven miles away, I was going to beat whoever set this location for a command tower without actually fucking scouting the planet for civilizations.
She was sat upon her throne again, awaiting for the return of her scout with the Empress whom controlled the beasts to the south that had been sketched and shown to her, before a guard rushed into the room. "My Empress! A strange being carrying a person has been seen flying on wings of pure flame! It's headed directly for the palace!" The two guards by her throne checked their matchlocks to prepare for a fight.
Before the Empress could issue any sort of order the being in question flew into the throne room, slamming through one of the ornate glass windows that allowed the light from the twin suns to flood the throne room. Dropping her Scout onto her ass and landing gracefully. Wing's of flame flared before they folded on it's back. No not it's, the chest was flat and was smaller than her scout, it had to be a male even if the skin color was completely wrong as well as the lack of tusks poking from his mouth. The crown it wore however left no guess as to what position it held wherever it had come from, likely the odd palace she had ordered the scout to contact, she was almost hypnotized by the odd gem within the center of the crown, looking like a vast array of swirling stars somehow continuously moving and spinning.
Before she could react to any of that however her royal guards in their ornate gold plated armor raised their matchlocks, and before she could even hope to give the order to stop they fired. Clouds of smoke erupting from the barrels as they fired. Being so close to their target where was no hope they'd miss, and she watched two holes burst from the new being. One from his forehead as it exploded outwards and one from his throat which ceased to exist. Red splattered her royal robes and she screamed in pure horror. The screaming abruptly went silent as somehow, the body faded from existence and stood up again as if it hadn't fallen in death. Empress Vodain watched with horrified fascination as the male turned on his heels and flared those glowing wings, pulling out some sort of oddly compact looking device, before aiming at one of the guards whom had shot him and fired. A bolt of energy that looked not unlike lightning struck the poor guard woman, and wearing metal armor had the effect of adding to the electrocution before she fell to the floor, smoking.
Turning to the other one, the male spoke. "Fuck off, next time I'll use lethal force. I may not be able to die but FUCK YOU it fucking hurts you CUNT!" His metal boot kicked her guard in the ribs, before it bent down and stabbed her with some sort of odd device. Normally she'd take offense to seeing one of her royal guards abused like that, but she had witnessed this man die, then come back as if nothing happened. She had no idea how to react to the situation before her.
I glared down at the cunt who had just shot me, stabbing her with a stimpack. I was so fucking done with today, shot not once but three times in less than 24 hours, shit fucking hurts. The other one had wisely backed the fuck off when I shot this one with my Telsa Pistol. She was so lucky I had set it to stun, rather than fry. Looking back up to this 'Empress Vodain' as Romilae had informed me she was called, I smiled. She had also told me their species name, Manuka. Which sounded familiar for some reason so I'd have to search the Empires internet for it. "Sorry about that, what was it you wanted to discuss?" To be honest I was a little concerned that a colony had been set up on a world with sentients, that was something that shouldn't have been allowed to happen.
The Empress was just staring at me with an awestruck look on her face, before I realized why. I had respawned in front of a primitive without thinking, since I could more often than not control where I respawned with pre-set points I could quicksave at just like in game. And almost facepalmed. However she spoke up after a short while. "Could you tell me...how you managed to evade Avae's grasp? None have done so before."
"Avae? I'm sorry but I don't know who or what that is." I said, raising an eyebrow.
Now she looked at me as if I had several heads, or something like that. "Avae, the Goddess of Death, all who fall go with her to the Sea of Souls for an eternal afterlife."
Ah, that made sense now. "I am immortal, I am unable to die as you have just seen." May as well go all out, however as I was about to go on and ask some questions a few more guards rushed into the room aiming their primitive weapons. Before they could fire I tossed down a small device that produced an energy shield in the shape of a wall, which took the round balls of lead easily. "You fucking morons could have just killed your Empress if I hadn't done that." This made them look mortified. With how inaccurate I was willing to bet those weapons where, it was a real possibility that they'd hit both me, AND their Empress, and unlike me she couldn't respawn.
The royal guards in golden armor aimed their weapons at the ones who had burst in, and fired without any sort of warning. The Empress didn't stop them as they fired and I was lead away into some sort of odd room that held a steaming swimming pool. "What is this exactly?"
The Empress rolled her eyes and shooed her servants away who tried to approach with what smelled like soaps, and looked like washcloths. "This is a room where none shall disturb us, anyone who dares to try will have to break through doors made of solid iron with a locked latch. I have several questions to ask you regarding what and who you are exactly."
I sighed, this was going to be a long process just like it was with the Ren, at least this time I didn't have to explain what Fire or Metal was. "Alright so how much do you know about this planet? What shape do you think it is?"
Empress Vodain looked at me like I was a moron. "Why, it's a flat disk of course."
Oh God Damn It. I sighed and tapped my pipboy causing a clear image of the world we where on to spring into existence, this startled her and she jumped back some. I often left the blue filter on the holos because I liked the way it made them look, this time I had it turned off leaving a clear unaltered view of their world. "This is your world, it is in fact not flat, but a sphere like a ball."
Her eyes widened as large as possible, which almost looked creepy. "How is it your able to do such wonderous things?"
I smirked. "My technology is beyond your current understanding. The point being I own this planet and the solar system it's in, this planet is an outpost for my Empire."
Empress Vodain's eyes widened again. "You're laying claim to all of Leva?" Huh, that must be their name for the world.
Nodding in confirmation I went on. "Don't worry, it's not like I'll be booting you guys off the planet, but territory claimed by my Empire is absolute and shall not be contested."
The Empress's eyes narrowed. "Now hold on a brotherfucking minute!"
Holding up a hand I interrupted her. "To be frank, I don't have too. You hold no advantages here, you may have primitive muskets and cannons but my Empire fields automatic energy weapons, missiles, bombs and aircraft that could take you out from high orbit with the precision of a butcher slicing meat to sell." Looking at my pipboy I grinned as an idea popped into my head. "Why don't I just show you?"
"What do you mean?" The Empress asked.
"I'll take you to the capital of my Empire so you can see it for yourself how much larger we are than your own, and how much more advanced we are."
She seemed to ponder it for a few moments, before calling out to one of her servants in the room. "Inform the High Priest she is to be in command while I am away on a diplomatic visit." The servant bowed deeply and scurried off to do as ordered by her monarch.
"Alrighty," I said tapping away at my pipboy. "Your gonna want to grab my shoulder or something, otherwise the molecular relay won't register you and leave you behind here."
She grabbed my shoulder, with her confusion clear. Before I activated the relay and we stood no longer in what seemed to be her private bath but my Throne Room, and she was sprawled out on her ass while her eyes pulled a Derpy and spun around in their sockets. That's when she passed out going limp. "Fuck."
Moon looked down from her throne, their thrones where next to mine and slightly lower on the floor since mine had been modified to do more than just be a fancy looking chair. "Um....do I even want to know?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"That colony I had set up with Deathclaws apparently has sentient species on it, or one at any rate, and I'm going to beat the fuck out of who authorized the colony without actually scanning for sentient lifeforms because their capital city is literally seven fucking miles from the command tower."
Moon laughed. "Hah, whoever did that was a moron for sure, I'll pull up the relevant information later today, is that...thing going to be alright?"
"Believe it or not that's their Empress, it's like your old world apparently with the gender split, seems far worse with these guys though, I didn't see a single male the entire time I was flying over their city, then again I was focused on flying. But I'm assuming because their scout acted as if putting a male in charge was the same as putting a retarded dog on a throne and calling it the king of bacon."
That caused her to snort. "Let me wake her up, it'll be an easy task, their minds are remarkably close to the people I am used to working on." Her horn lit up a dark purple color, before a small beam struck Vodain's skull. Her eyes shot open and she herself shot into sitting position with a gasp.
A newsfeed was on the televisions of almost anyone on Earth who owned one, showing what looked to be an odd triangle shaped shuttle that had a glowing blue ring around it. "Folks, today is a day for great celebration for this is the first Human made FTL able shuttle ever produced, and our pilot is ready to embark on a journey none have ever done before." The pilot inside the shuttle who had a feed with the news channels waved and smiled. "How do you feel about what your about to do, Pilot Masters?"
Masters, Mitch Masters to be exact gave a cocky grin. "I'm Mitch Motherfucking Masters! This is gonna be one of the greatest accomplishments in human history and my entire life!" That was a lie, while he knew his was the first public shuttle known to launch at Faster Than Light, the military of the UNDF had already beat that a few months ago after the Unity attack. Hell from what he heard they had some sort of military colony on a world where everything was stupidly large.
The Newsman smiled, though Mitch couldn't see it. "We here at CNN are glad to hear it! The whole world is watching, of course we won't be able too once you engage your Fusion Drive, but it'll still be an amazing sight to witness with the satellites pointed at you for visual feed!"
Mitch grinned again, knowing the entire world would be watching him he grabbed the Lever, they could have went with a button but someone on the design team was a hardcore starwars fan, and he pulled it backwards with a solid clunk. Only for nothing to happen, he was about to abort when the blue ring began to spin rapidly, then it began to spark in a way that it wasn't designed to do. Before anyone had known what'd happened the shuttle was launched forwards through space, but half of the ring was left behind shattered in pieces. Presumed dead another launch was scheduled later that month.
Somewhere in deep space however, Mitch's shuttle appeared next to a bright blue and green world. Damaged and with electrical systems failing he put on his emergency space suit, watching as the control panel flickered and the digital readouts finally died as the shuttles computers fried themselves. That's when he noticed the starships headed in his direction and his heart sank. "Oh fuck me...." Some sort of hangar bay doors opened and his shuttle was scooped inside, and several...anthropomorphic birds? Birds of all things? Aimed some sort of rifles at his cockpit. "God Damn it."
I looked down as Empress Vodain shot upwards into a sitting position with a gasp. "What in the name of the Five Goddesses happened?" She asked as she pulled herself off the crystal floor and onto her feet, looking as if doing so was a massive effort. "By the Goddesses, Why do I feel as if a thousand bricks have been placed onto my shoulders?"
"You got dazed upon relaying in, it happens to those not used to it. Nothing to worry about, the headache should go away soon enough. About the heavy feeling? This world has higher gravity, drink this." I handed her a vial filled with a glowing blue liquid not unlike the color of Quantum. "Now, let's commence with the tour."
After gulping the liquid down, she gagged but instantly looked relived. "What exactly did I just drink?"
I grinned. "That was one of the pinnacles of Empire medical technology. Its a medication that adjusts your body to whatever gravity it's in automatically, everyone is given one to ensure no issues arrive from the process of going to different worlds." Zebras had begun to teach others how to make what they did, even writing it down in detail allowing these instructions and methods to be programmed into machines, which could mass produce them quickly. Those in the military didn't get the civilian grade one, they got a military grade one that wouldn't do anything to their bodies in low gravity worlds, but if the gravity was higher than Equis they'd adapt to deal with it, I had taken the same one.
Vodain seemed to be looking around at the throne room, Moon having left after waking her to go back to Mars using the royal Portal Gate. Vodain had however seen her and turned to me. "Who exactly was that I saw leave a few moments ago?"
"That was Moon, one my Equals within the Empire. She helps me govern Mars, another planet within this solar system, while Chrysalis runs Vanov for me." I looked at my pipboy to check the time.
The Empress seemed focused on the robotic sentries at either side of my throne, before refocusing on me. "Alright I think I'm ready now, it took a few minutes for me to catch my breath and I must apologize for the delay."
Waving it off I went on. "Don't worry about it, this happens to everyone the first time they use the relay, I could have used a Gate but decided this was quicker than picking you up and just flying back to the command tower with you dangling from my arms." I snorted at the thought of that, that damned scout really screamed quite loudly when I did that for the first two minutes, I had to threaten to drop her to get her to shut her fuckin mouth. "Now follow me, I want you to remember there is more than one sentient species here, all are under my rule that you see."
She seemed rather disturbed at the idea of more than one species existing able to use technology, but walked with me through the Palace halls. "This Palace is constructed entirely of one solid chunk of crystal that the first ruler of this Empire grew with the help of her subjects, it was then carved into the palace you stand within. How this was done exactly I am unsure, but this is what was in the history books I read when I took control."
One of her eyebrows raised. "Took control? Surely if you where in line for the throne you'd know the history of the kingdom you where to take when the time came?" Vodain Questioned.
Stopping at one of the many large windows that lined the hallway, the glass wasn't glass but rather solid clear crystal as was the norm when this palace had been constructed I grinned looking outside. "You'd think that, but I was never meant to rule. Not at first anyways, this empire had fallen under a tyrant who ran it with an iron fist Or, hoof really. Now her skull sits within my collection." I smiled at that thought, Umbra's skull was the prize of my collection. I adored my entire collection of course, but her skull was the centerpiece.
To my surprise, Vodain smiled. "One must seize power when one is able, I can understand that at least." We continued our walk down the palace halls, passing various guards and automated security.
"I did not desire this power, to rule over thousands, if not millions. But I accepted, how could I refuse when these people needed someone so desperately to lead them? I had nothing else I could do, so I became their King, their Emperor, whatever you want to call it." We had made it to an exit at last, and the doors slid open as I approached. "That was eight years ago, and since then I've turned this Empire from one of the most primitive, to the most advanced on this world." I looked up at the clear blue skies with puffy white clouds hanging lazily just within reach of a few crystal pegasi, it was nice to have been picked for this role, to be wanted. To be needed.
Empress Vodain gave me a curious look. "And how can you achieve such a thing within that short of a time?"
"That's a story for another time, now that we're out and about this tour can actually begin. It will be enlightening for you I suspect." As we walked Vodain stopped suddenly, so I turned around to see what the hold up was, only to see her staring at a random dude who was walking around nude as the day he was born, huh normally humans didn't do that, but it was legal. Her face was flushed dark blue, rather easy to see when her skin was a light gold color. It took me a moment to figure out what that color change meant but when I did I nearly died laughing.
Jinks glared at the wall next to his bunk, he enjoyed the concept of being on an alien world as much as the next Scifi nerd but he'd like to have been asked rather than reassigned. But, he thought with a sigh that this was pretty much what he should have expected when he signed up as a military field medic. He was glad he could still enjoy his short trips into the local forest, though he had to take his service pistol with him it almost could be mistaken for some forest back on Earth, or Equis really if one didn't pay close attention. So that's what he did, it was easy enough to slip past without being noticed since he was supposed to be on the base, no one really questioned when he just walked out the front gate.
Another fifteen minutes later he was at his normal spot, the walk here wasn't hard, it was a small clearing in the trees that he liked to sit in, just read. Sometimes listen to music or play his 3DS, which thankfully had been converted to a fusion battery so he'd only ever really have to replace the battery every year or so for a freshly charged one. This time he had decided on reading a book on his tablet. It had been a rather simple process to get it converted to a fusion battery as well as a minor change to the device to allow it to function with the information network of his new home. All it needed was a modified microchip that'd allow it to access the odd plasma technology that somehow let people talk like regular phones on Earth did as well as connecting to the internet.
As Jinks read on, swiping with a finger to flip the digital pages, his eyes began to droop without really thinking about it. And before he had known what'd happened he'd fallen asleep under that tree like he had done before, and just like always his snoring was loud enough to scare any local animals into fucking off since nothing should be able to make a noise that demonic sounding. Unfortunately for him this time it attracted something, several Manuka with primitive stone spears dressed in animal hides to be specific. Aroz turned her attention to her friend beside her. "This looks like one of the odd males from that territory that killed Gev, what do we do?"
Rossa rolled her eyes. "It's a male, you know we can't afford to kill him. Just take him and put em somewhere for now, we can sort out what to do with him later, maybe he can be useful." She motioned at Jinks.
Aroz sighed and picked Jinks up hefting him over her shoulder. "Goddess this guy's heavy...the fuck does he eat? He looks so skinny yet he feels like he weighs as much as an entire stack of firewood!"
"Quit your complaining, it can't be that bad you big baby, now lets hurry back to the village."
A soldier looked up at the giant animal headed their way, two large horns not unlike a bull. Switching her radio on she spoke. "I've spotted a large creature heading this way, with the foaming around it's mouth that I can see through my scope I think it has some sort of disease, the rest of the herd seems to have rejected it from what I've been able to gather. It's headed this way and does not look friendly."
The radio crackled with two words. "Acknowledged, hold." klaxons could be heard through the colony blaring as one of the large railguns swiveled in the direction of the animal, before it fired. The sound was deafening and she watched with satisfaction as the beast that had to be nearly seventy feet tall fall to the ground causing a large tremor to shake the entire base. She grinned watching it get pelted with 157 millimeter railgun shells that penetrated deeply into it's flesh and burst open like bombs. In the distance this had apparently been seen, a large fox like creature watching with fascination from the top of a tall tree.
He quickly climbed down and ran back to the village, he'd have to inform the Cheif of this. Hunting on another tribes ground was forbidden and punishable by war, these strange small beings may have odd ways of hunting, but hunting was hunting and they'd broken the agreement that'd helped keep the various tribes from outright destroying one another for the past two decades. Rushing past the modest wooden walls and past the guards who didn't give him but a mere glance he barged into the Chiefs cabin. "Chief! I have news that will interest you!"
The Chief looked over from his seat, a simple carved wooden chair. "Well, spit it out if your just going to barge in here without notice, this better be important." He glared.
Nodding he went on. "It is, very much so! Small beings about up to my ankle I'd hazard a guess hunted a Chox nearby on our territory." He paused to take a breath. "As you know this is in violation of the Pack Agreement that was made twenty cycles ago."
The Chiefs glare instantly faded. "I thank you for bringing this to my attention, do you think it's possible to show the guards where this happened? They can go collect the fine for hunting on lands not their own, and if they refuse they can pay with their lives."
With a smile he nodded yet again. "Yes I can, it's too the east near the creek."
-----------------Imperial city of Ugmal Royal Palace Throne Room-----------
Guards where startled when Empress Vodain appeared in a blinding flash of blue light with the sound of thunder as if the Goddesses themselves had summoned her back to her rightful place of rule. Seemingly stunned Vodain took a minute to stand herself up and looked directly at Grand Priest Musne who was sitting in a chair next to the throne meant for when Vodain was away. "Summon the rulers of the other two major kingdoms at once, I need to inform them of what I've seen before one of them decides to try and do something stupid."
The Grand Priest bowed deeply. "Yes Your Majesty, it shall be done as quickly as possible." As she rushed off to send messenger birds, Vodain walked into an ornate room that held a table with three chairs, hers being the largest. Then, she waited.
Empress Vodain watched as the doors to the room opened and the Empresses of the other two Empires walked into the room, taking their places at their chairs. She only had to wait two hours, thank the Goddesses for the small blessings she supposed. She started speaking immediately. "I'm not going to get into pleasantries this time around, as something of great importance has arisen."
Empress Kocans glared. "It had better be, I didn't cross that damned wide river for nothing! What do you want this time Vodain to try and get us to capitulate once more? The Arkeil Empire will not submit as I have repeatedly told you."
Empress Vodain shook her head. "No, I come with news of a new grand power, just to the Southeast of my territory." She pulled out the sketches her scout had drawn up to begin with and flattened them on the table for the others to see by the light of the candles and windows. "I met with the ruler of these beings, and this is but a mere fraction of what I have seen, the magical items they have boggles the mind." The sketches showed a Deathclaw in power armor, plasma rifles, jeeps and trucks, even tanks and aircraft. Spread out on about ten different parchments.
Empress Ulgo of the Scras Empire rolled her eyes with a huff. "You honestly expect us to believe this pile of Lilliger Shit?" Her tone was unamused and flat.
Vodain's eyes burned with fury. "This is no joke! I have seen these things with my very eyes, technological advancements that make my muskets and cannons look like a children's toy! I witnessed them fire, I witnessed how powerful they are, they have beasts made of steel that can crush things beneath their massive feet, soldiers who stand unwavering and unaffected from thirst, or hunger. I have seen things that make me question my very sanity, so don't you tell me this is Lilliger Shit when I've seen it with my own two eyes." Her eyes narrowed onto the two rulers.
Empress Kocans huffed and stood up suddenly without warning. "I will hear of these lies no more, your little games, tricks, and lies will work no further nor again, as of this moment the Arkeil Empire is officially declaring war!" She flipped the heavy wooden table as if it was light plastic and stormed out of the room, slamming the doors behind her. While Empress Ulgo stood calmly and walked out slowly.
Empress Vodain looked at the destroyed table, then to the large doors which now had a web of cracks running through them as if impacted by a musket ball. And sighed. "Goddesses Damn it."
When Jinks had woken, his eyes snapped open in an instant. He was nude, and in some sort of bed made of animal furs. Then he remembered the orders about locals and damn near facepalmed his head into dust. Sitting up he noticed his clothes and items next to the bed on a log used as a small table, and quickly slipped his clothes and glasses back on.
That's when one of the locals walked into, what seemed to be a hut, that he was in. The moment she saw he was awake she grinned. She had odd designs painted onto her skin, and seemed elderly compared to the photos of the corpse that had been taken and shown to everyone in the colony to show what the local dominant species looked like. "Seems you're awake, little one. What was a defenseless male like you doing so far from your tribe? I know you came from the strange tower."
Jinks slowly flicked the safety off his compact plasma pistol and set it to stun, in the event things got violent. "I was taking a walk, then a nap. I'll be leaving now thank you." He stood and tried to walk past, only for her to grab his wrist.
"Now now, I have some questions for yo-" Before she could finish Jinks instinctively grabbed the wrist holding onto his, what he didn't expect was the slickening wet crunch of bone and muscle while the elderly woman shrieked in agony as her wrist was essentially turned into pudding. He panicked and jammed her with a stimpack from his medical bag, and watched as her wrist snapped back into place and healed, as did the skin and burst blood vessels.
He was scanning her wrist with his glasses, a holographic screen on the lenses showing her bones. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck I'm so fucking sorry oh fucking Jesus Christ on a stick!" He was flipping his shit so much he didn't notice she had stopped screaming, nor the other Manukan warriors with stone spears pointed right at him. Extremely panicked human noises ensued.
----------------Former Caribou Empire------------
It was a day of celebration for the troops of the Crystal Empire, almost all Caribou Rebellions had been stopped within a short period of time. Resistance cells were exterminated rapidly like crushing insects. Now, rebuilding could begin in earnest. The former Caribou Empire's annexation was finally complete. Truckloads of supplies and building equipment was shipped in from Zebrica, along with a new wave of robotic troops to ensure peace was kept. And Rose absolutely hated it. She understood it, to be honest she really did, she was a simple doe when the old king died, then his son took his place.
Rose had seen both attacks with her own eyes, she was thankfully not in the former capital when it was turned into glass, otherwise she wouldn't even be around to be having such thoughts. She understood why they had to do it however, former military and thugs kept trying to poach their territory after the fall of the new ruler, you don't just let a kingdom next to you dig its teeth into your side and steal from you. She sighed looking into her bag, several 'Empire Standard' ration bars, they kept you full but didn't really satisfy you. No real flavor, but since the rebels had stupidly destroyed their own peoples farms assuming the invaders needed the food from them for their troops, it left little for the caribou themselves to eat. At least the Crystal Empire didn't starve them. She shivered thinking about what she had been told about the Abyssinian side of the border.
They had been given a large section of the former Caribou Empire as reparations for the fact the former government attacked them. She looked up at one of the purple snowflake banners flying free on a flagpole, and was glad it wasn't the Swastika of the cats, their side was said to be brutal in their punishments and fines for misconduct. Beatings, being starved, flat out having your home looted, resistance meant being shot. The Crystal Empire was by far, the better of the two choices. Worse yet the poor caribou on the cats territory couldn't cross over to the Crystal Empire's because of an actual wall built with guns to keep people out of either side. Rose was glad to be alive, her situation may not be ideal, but others had it much, much worse.
-------------Abyssinian Empire Side of Border-------
Mala flinched when he heard another gunshot go off, the crack of a Luger was unmistakable. Another one bit the dust, he supposed. Doing his best to look unthreatening he continued to walk to what remained of his home with his saddlebag strapped to his back. Only to stop when an Abyssinian soldier in full armor, gasmask and all stepped in front of him, holding a paw out. "Halt, you have been selected for a bag check to ensure you're not carrying any illegal firearms."
"Sorry sir, I have nothing on me of the sort, but I really am in a hurry so I'm afraid I can't stop and need to go now." He tried to walk past only to get the butt of a rifle slammed into his face. He rubbed his jaw as he glared at the jackass in combat armor, his smirk making Mala want to tear his face off. Having removed his combat helmet Mala was able to see the ugly fleabags face. He reached down grabbing Mala's dropped bag and started ruffling through it.
Mala could only watch with the eyes of the soldiers squad mates trained on him. The Soldier began pulling out the food he had purchased not too long ago, throwing it behind him like it was trash. “Man do you have any good shit in here? It’s all garbage.” The soldier said to Mala's face as he threw the rest of his food on the ground and stomped on it. “Serves ya bastards right! Attackin our Grand Empire. Come on fellas lets go check some others, this stupid fuck ain't got no firearms on em.” He and his squad laughed as they walked away.
Mala could only continue glaring at them before sighing and looking at the mess. “Damn those Cat bastards, as if our lives aren't already shit because of them, now they think their superior and we’re just prey for them to play with.” He thought in his head to himself as he grabbed what few scraps of food that were edible and put them back into his bag to continue his journey home. That food had cost him nearly a months worth of pay at his old job! Now he'd have to do with far less than he planned. Seems he'd be going hungry for awhile. At least he hadn't been beaten to death like his neighbor was, the poor elderly doe didn't deserve that.
------------Crystal Palace-----------
I smiled looking at an old episode of Dan Vs, the perks of having downloaded the entire content of the internet was I could watch any old show I wanted anytime I damn well pleased. Chrysalis was down the hall in the royal spa enjoying herself. The royal spa was something I never really used, so I was glad it was finally getting some use out of the thing. Just as I was considering joining her, my pipboy beeped and a message came onto the screen. My eyes widened. "What the fuck? Who's attacking my colony from orbit?!"
A report was coming in that a small fleet of starships had shown up in orbit over the planet, and began trying to bombard the colony command tower with some sort of ion cannons. Thankfully the shields were up to full power before it began so nothing had been destroyed. It wasn't the zetans, they used plasma not ion weapons. So I tapped a few buttons on my pipboy and with a flash I was on a small starship. It was an automated one so I just punched in the location of the colony world and with a brief flash of blue, I was in orbit. Staring directly across at long oddly shaped starships, which seemed to have large solar sails at their fronts.
Pressing the transmit button on the control console before me, I spoke. "This is territory of the Crystal Empire, cease all attacks immediately or face termination."
What I saw on screen looked odd as hell, it looked like a centauroid...deer? Almost, it wasn't the correct color, and didn’t have the right facial features, but it had antlers like a deer did, so Centauroid Deerfucks. When it replied it was rather clear it was male by the sound of its voice, unless this species worked oddly. "We are the Grand Fleet of the Holy Hegemony, your claim to this world predator." It spat the word with so much malice it nearly took me by surprise. "Is illegitimate in the eyes of the Empress and the Grand Goddess, you will hand over your ships and be subjected to processing and collaring."
"Processing and Collaring? What does that even mean." I asked, I had an idea of what it meant, but I wanted to have it confirmed from the source before deciding a course of action.
"It means you will have a slave collar placed on your throat, and you will be a subject of the Holy Hegemony and become a personal servant to whomever bids the highest, the same fate awaits the rest of the filth who dare to consume the flesh of another." The cockiness in this things voice was so thick you'd be able to smoke it.
"No." Typing a few commands into the starship, the Combat AI took control and as per my orders to not destroy the ships, fired two dozen Mesmatron cannons at once all directed at this odd little fleet of no more than seven starships. And on screen the aliens head burst open like a rotten watermelon, the blood a bright purple color as its now limp body sank to the floor. Within a moment two dozen of the Crystal Empire's starships appeared with small instant flashes of blue, these one's were crewed. "I want those ships boarded, I want nothing destroyed." The ships moved to obey, and I glared at the dead alien on screen. Today was turning out to be far more interesting than I had wanted it to be.
I sighed looking at the data on screen, and lit myself a cigarette. This....this was a shit show of such epic proportions that even God would have loathed to deal with it. Firstly, the centauroid deerfucks species name was Fedans, and secondly I'll try to describe them better than I did last time. They looked like a centaur, almost like Tirek. Vaguely deer like for the legs and little tail, their fur seemed to vary in color from black to dark blue, sometimes light green, their eyes were rather large, and on the sides of their head. They had horns, which seemed to dully glow with some sort of bioluminescence. They seemed to be about the same size as Tirek when he was weak and draining ponies dry of magic in the one episode I remember watching. Their arms ended in hands that had about six oddly long fingers, dull nails on the ends of them like a humans are, no claws.
And from the logs I was reading, they had done...unspeakable acts. I, I can't even describe them, it made me want to vomit. Something had to be done about this, and those whom toil under the Feds as toys. They deserved no mercy whatsoever...and despite that I was going to have it extended to them whenever they surrendered. Otherwise, nothing would be given. First up on that list, would be freeing a world that was stolen from the sentient species currently on it about five years ago. Well, I wouldn't be doing it, not directly, Calculator would be. He had his own large automated fleet to do with as he pleased, so long as he followed my orders he'd be golden. Meanwhile, I, I was going to fucking go back to sleep, I don't wanna deal with anymore bullshit today. "I'm going to be leaving now, Calculator, the regular fleet will stay here to protect from any further attempted attacks. I want you to go to system 2-443, and exterminate every Fedan on that rock and in that solar system, Every. Single. One. Man, woman, child, infant, I don't fucking care, these ones are not allowed to surrender, just slaughter them. After seeing what they do to infants of other species I couldn't fucking care less about the ones on this world, perhaps others may be saved, but, this time...just slaughter them all like the vermin they are." With that said, I punched the drive button and with an instant flash of blue and white light, I was gone in less than a second.
As Lorenzo left in his personal shuttle, I had to wonder. I had after all, been designed to calculate many things at once, hence the name. I had then been used to guard the last active remnant of humanity, after that was done, I'd have had no purpose. I'd have died, either from the power failing, or self terminating. I was glad I was given another purpose, even if it seemed a little cruel. But I had seen what these things had done, I was given unfiltered access to the files. So I would do as instructed, and give unto them no mercy.
I was everywhere at once as my ships floated in formation around me, syncing our FTL drives to fire at once, locked onto the coordinates provided by the Feds own information and star-charts. Within an instant we were in the heart of the solar system. Immediately hails and questions began to stream through the communication networks, I pushed them all out, and overtook every frequency I could detect being used, and several dozen that weren't. "I am Calculator, by order of Emperor Lorenzo you are to be Exterminated. There will be no negotiations. No surrender. No Mercy. You are not yet aware of the magnitude of your sins. Not yet. Only after I have driven you to the lowest point in your existence. only by breaking every bond, rule and moral code I have ever known. Only when you offer me everything, even your very souls will you begin to understand... and it will only be the beginning. The suffering you will experience will be the new definition of hell with the echoes of your cries ringing for all eternity. But in the end you will understand, I can never truly give you the depths of pain you actually deserve. But I can try." With that I shut all outside communication off, and instructed my fleet.
Starships bellies opened and out poured hundreds of millions of offensive drones. There were so many of them that they looked like a moving fluid, they danced and flowed in tight fractal formations, following complex patterns that weaved them together without ever crashing into each other. They enveloped the starships like a living, metallic blanket. And within a moment they sped towards the starships of those I was ordered to Exterminate. Each drone moving in perfect unison as they slammed into their shields and burst like bombs, thousands upon thousands of drones slamming into the enemies shields until they fell, and then into the ships themselves. Slamming through life support systems, exposing the occupants to the airless vacuum of space, punching through reactors, causing large explosions as suddenly their containment was breached and burst like bombs. Thousands were destroyed in an instant, it didn't matter because I had millions more. Ships attempted to flee the system, those were taken out with precise blasts from the deathrays splattered about on the outside hulls of my fleet. It took twenty minutes to gain superiority over the planet and in the solar system itself.
I left mining complexes alone, as well as refineries. It would do well to learn more about this species as a whole, so those structures would be taken with robotic combat units. That could come later, they had no chance of escape within a reasonable amount of time. With control of the solar system itself in my grasp, starships moved at speeds that would have splattered anything living to land in the one massive city the Fedans had built on this world so far. It had only been five years yet they had constructed a city that spanned a quarter of the continent. Reports and logs stolen from their own computers indicated they had arrived five years ago, and taken the local species with little force due to how primitive they were. Now, the real fun began as ships blasted buildings flat to make landing zones for themselves, cargo bay doors slamming open as robotic troops flowed from them in a wave of metal. Fedans fell in droves, not a single one survived seeing one of the robots under my command, yet not a single Nga Noho was harmed. The local species which had been conquered prior. In fact, several of them seemed to be picking up various makeshift weapons and rushing into the fight themselves.
-------------
It all happened so fast, he had been on his way to the mine, he had to provide for his family somehow even if he hated the Fedans with the entirety of his being. Then the explosions and gunfire happened, and then before he even realized what he had done he struck the Fedan that was to overlook them as they toiled away in the mines for their benefit. Fuhes's tired body heaved with all its strength pulling the pickaxe back up, and with a sickening squelch the pickaxe came free off the Fedans head. Blood staining his improvised weapon he tuned his senses to his surroundings, noticing hundreds of his people were fighting back, some with improvised weapons like him, others using standard rifles thought destroyed, or just simply ripping fedans apart limb from limb with their bare hands.
His sightseeing was quickly cut short however as he remembered he was in a warzone as colorful lasers and plasma blasts sored overhead. Collapsing onto the floor Fuhes shifted one of the many corpses over to its side to give him some type of cover from the onslaught of energy blasts. Feeling around the body his hand came to the 'Boss's' sidearm in its holster and he began to grin. Ripping it out he poked his head out over the corpse and fired blindly into the advancing fedans. One by one they went down as bullets and beams hit them full force. One of the wretched beast's lasers hit his hand, searing it off. Dropping the gun he let out an agonizing scream of both pain and fear, the searing hot flesh cauterized in a second by the deadly bolt. He felt another impact his body, clearing a hole into his stomach.
Finally, the pain and exhaustion slammed back into him like a raging bull and his senses slowly went numb, falling to the ground all he could do was stare into the sky. Watching ships fly past, who they belonged to he didn't know, he never thought he would as his vision began to blur. His ears ringing as an explosion nearby splattered several fedans into a fine mist. His thoughts went to his family, hoping they were okay and would be fine without him to provide for them. As his vision began to darken and blur he could see through his hazy vision as two of the unknown ships hovered over him. One of them landing and releasing dozens of combat units, while the other spat death with its guns. The last thing he saw was an emblem of red and white as one of the odd soldiers rushed to his side, kneeling and jabbing him with an odd syringe, before everything went black.
---------------Getto---------------
He looked at his little sister, hearing the screaming outside as well as the marching of metal on concrete. kantra put his hand over his sister's mouth and put a finger to his lips, she nodded in understanding as he moved it away. The sounds of combat and death frightening his little sister. Causing her to huddle close to him for protection, all he could do was hold her as the house shook and shuddered as the support beams creaked. Suddenly they heard the front door being slammed open as their Mistress begged for her life. “No p-please, I can pay you anything you want! No n-no aaAA-” A crunch and splat quickly ended her pleading. His sister released a silent sob, forcing him to cover her mouth again and he tried to control his breathing. The sounds of heavy footfalls bent the floorboards above them, their age barely holding them together. The footsteps suddenly stopped at the basement door, feeling his heart sink into his gut he grabbed his sister and pushed her into a crack in the wall behind the crates that littered the basement. She tried to cry out, forcing him to force her mouth shut with his hands. He let go and put both hands onto her shoulders.
“Elzell, listen to me, you have to get in that crack and be silent okay? Can you do that for me yeah? For your brother?” Still silently sobbing, she nodded her head. Kantra released a shuddering sigh. “Don’t worry we’ll be safe, I'll distract them and you're going to make a run for it once everything is clear, alright? I'll come get you once this is all over.” He pushed a crate around to cover the crack, ensuring it wasn't visible. Hiding behind a mirror on the other side of the room, the door was broken down with a loud bang. He unwillingly let out a whimper at the sound and crouched as low as possible, the heavy thuds now coming down the stairs like a monster stalking its prey.
Once reaching the interior floor of the house the heavy thuds suddenly had a metal clank to them, his eyes widening in horror he could only muffle his heavy breathing as the thuds got closer to them, when only a few feet away he did the only thing he possibly could. Pushing the mirror with all his strength, it was sent crashing onto the monster. This did little to it as its terrifying weapon sunk into its arm and grabbed him with its claws. He was terrified, he was screaming as loudly as possible hoping someone could help them, and began hitting it with all he had. But it just wouldn't let go and its grip like a solid steel vice. As he heard his sister sob audibly, so too did the horrific monster holding him as it turned towards where his sister was hiding, he could hear her crying now and the monster got closer, all he could do was scream “RUN ELZELL.” As he punched the monster in what he thought was its eye. It's face turned back to him, and it spoke. It's voice was oddly synthetic sounding, and feminine. "That was....foolish." The last thing he saw was its other hand arcing with electricity before everything went dark, and he fell into unconsciousness. This prompted his sister to run out of her hiding spot, trying to dart between the assaultrons legs. The only thing this accomplished was the assaultron grabbing her as she tried, causing her to scream. ------------------ At the edge of the solar system, as the fight planetside was taking place, a lone starship was slowly drifting towards the inhabited world slowly. Sarkin Trevlos yawned into his hand, his mind sluggish as it tried to stay awake. He was alerted that they were nearing the colony system a few hours ago and should be arriving in five or so minutes. To be entirely honest with himself he was excited, him and his crew would finally be reuniting with their distant brothers and sisters. “Sir, we got something on the radar, but it isn't showing up clearly.” One of the many crewmembers called to Sarkin Trevlos. In turn he gave her a quizzical look. “Are we close enough for the mark one eyeball to see?”
She fumbled around with the controls for some time before answering “Yes sir, shall I open the shutters?”
He nodded “Yes, please do so at once." Sarkin was greeted with a mechanical groan as the shutters started to open, before being blinded by a multitude of colors and what he can only described as balls of light as they streaked across the black void and lit up this warzone they had entered, ships the size of large asteroids duking it out above the colony world. The bridge goes silent in an instant at this odd terrifying sight. “What...” He was speechless, when they arrived, he wasn’t expecting an entire war happening in front of their ship. His gawking was stopped however as the same crewmate started to tremble, looking at him and speaking. “S..sir, one of the contacts has broken off and are heading towards us, fast.”
Captain Sarkin Trevlos looked back to his subordinate whom solemnly nodded, so he turned back to his command station and pressed a small blue button, speaking into a small microphone. "Attention all crew, we have a code orange, I repeat we have a code orange, get to your stations and get ready to enter combat, we don't know what's going on currently. But that's not going to mean I allow us to be caught off guard." He took his hand off the button and leaned back into his chair “May the abyss have mercy on us this day." --------------------------------------------------Leva---------------------------------------------------
The soldiers of the Arkeil Empire were marching to war. They didn't have the fancy musket and cannon of the Tar'oin Empire, but they still had plenty of weapons to pick from. Swords, crossbows, longbows, ballista being wheeled in with Lilligers pulling it on a cart. And it was utterly boring. The glory and honor of war was muddled by the fact they had to walk several miles to actually reach their destination, and with the suns high in the sky the marching of armored feet became monotonous. When the twin stars rose a tad higher into the sky, a primitive whistle was blown and the marching ceased. Everyone stopped at once what they were doing and began to eat, you couldn't fight while hungry after all. Kailzuk turned to Roldat as she bit into a chunk of dried and smoked fish. "So, how many males do you think we'll get for this?"
"As many as we can physically grab and claim as our own, I'd bet." She smirked.
Kailzuk laughed. "Oh boy, I can just imagine! Thank the Goddesses for this war, maybe we'll finally score some action!"
Roldat grinned widely. "You said it sis, one can only hope, thank the Empress." She looked around, surprised that so many soldiers had been sent for this one city, nearly twenty thousand from what she'd been hearing. She smiled at the thought, soldiers taking what they wanted from the defeated side's civilians, who would stop them from just taking their men and coin? As she thought about this, an odd whistling was heard. She looked up and her eyes widened in awe as a strange species flew in the sky, along with one really large creature that had odd long flat looking wings. It dived towards them, and before she knew what was happening it spat bright yellow beams of death, an odd noise being heard as the beams struck soldiers down. Whenever one was struck by one of the beams they'd fall to the ground, burned badly, or in more horrific cases turned to total ash as if they had been set upon a burial fire. It was total chaos as several tried to fire ballista into the air at the creature, only for tubes of fire to erupt from its wings to strike the bolts down before they could ever become a threat.
The creatures that had been flying side by side broke off and into their own small formation, there were about 17 of them. The firebird, as it was nicknamed rather quickly, was making lazy circles around them like they were prey. Then to her surprise one of the flying creatures spoke. "By order of Emperor Lorenzo, ruler of the Crystal Empire, you are to cease all hostilities with the Tar'oin Empire at once. You are to lay down your weapons and surrender, at once. Or our little friend in the A-20 Havoc can make another pass with its 57 millimeter gatling laser."
Kailzuk and Roldat, along with dozens of others looked for the leader of their army, the Commandress, but where she once stood was a pile of molten ash and slagged metal, the only way to tell it was once her due to the fact her armor had been made of polished gold rather than steel to show rank. With no Commandress there would be no leadership to coordinate them, once a Commandress was dead a battle was lost, and so with little over three hundred dead, despite their superior numbers, they surrendered. There was no other option, a random infantrywoman couldn't just promote herself to Commandress. Doing so would mean a death sentence to be carried out the moment she tried. They wisely didn't try to flee, those who did found themselves charred hunks of flesh from the odd weapons the flying creatures held, which spat balls of some odd blue colored stuff, it had to have been hotter than fire itself. Those foolish enough to fire their crossbows at the creatures died the same as the others had, beams and balls of energy striking them down like the fury of the Five Goddesses.
With its main attack force now captured, the Arkeil Empire was now open to invasion, of which the Crystal Empire would happily provide for them. Seeing as they had attempted to attack the Tar'oin Empire, which Emperor Lorenzo was having watched like a hawk, by actual synthetic organic hawks which acted as mobile cameras with full audio too. They acted like real birds, but would fly constant circles, land to gather intel, and then take back off to continue the pattern. Best part of it, since they were like Gen-3 synths, there was no possible way to tell it wasn't an actual flesh and blood animal, when by all rights it looked, acted, and even tasted like one if you'd have cooked it. Several Akun attack helicopters flew overhead, circling the Imperial Palace. People were looking up into the sky in shock and awe at these odd craft, which was understandable considering they hadn't even invented a steam engine.
It was when Imperial guards tried to shoot ballista up at one of the attack helicopters did the Gunner manning the 50 caliber auto railgun let loose. The male let his mouth hang open in a silent laugh as railgun shells burst forth from the weapon, shattering anything in their path. Brick, stone, wood, metal, and flesh buckled beneath the fire. The sound the weapon made, made the Manuka below think of their own version of hell, the Sea of Fire, and the damned trapped within being released to let loose their otherworldly wails. They scattered like cockroaches once the lights flicked on.
The actual destruction and death of the current situation was minimal, only three or four imperial guards had actually died, the rest of the damage was just structural, aesthetic only. No structural supports were hit in the barrage. With the area clear of guards for the moment, the gunner looked backwards with an eyeturret at the other occupant of the helicopter's internal compartment, Frank Horrigan, who was bunched into a ball due to how small the inside of the helicopter actually was. "You are free to jump now, Superior Sir."
Frank grinned inside his helmet, a sight that would have caused even the strongest of stomachs to revolt in disgust. "Fucking finally, I feel like a sardine in here!" With that said, Frank ripped the side door off of the attack helicopter by accident, but not caring tossed it to the ground below before jumping. His landing caused the ground to shake while the stone of the walkway in which he had landed, shattered like fragile glass on impact. Standing to his full height Frank Horrigan towered over anyone in his path, being damn near 15 feet tall in height due to both his mutations and Power Armor. An imperial guard tried to rush him with a longsword, she was promptly picked up by the throat and slammed into the ground hard enough to burst her body open like a morbid water balloon. And Frank laughed.
The next soldier who appeared armed with a long spear in her hands, looked at Frank. Then her head and eyes slowly moved up as her jaw dropped at how much larger he was than her, noticing the splattered mess of what had once been one of her fellow Imperial Guards, she wisely decided to toss the spear onto the ground and run for it. Frank allowed this, and didn't give the next one a chance because the moment she saw him it was too late, he had picked her up by one of her legs and swung her around like a baseball bat, slamming her into several of her friends in arms, and in the process severed both her head and the leg which he was using as a grip. The odd blue colored blood splattering everywhere, coating the walls and carpets of the palace with their color, the next kill was basic, a fusion-blade to the chest, then yanked upwards severing her skull into two. It went on like this for awhile, Frank just slaughtering those in his way. Then he finally found his way to the throne room and literally ripped the large ornate and heavy wooden doors from their frames and tossed them to either side of him as he stomped his way into the throne room. "Time to die. Muties." It was at that point, the two remaining guards charged. Only to be slaughtered both by a blast from the dual plasma cannons that slid out of the wrists of Frank's Power Armor. That was when Empress Kocans pissed herself in terror.
------------------------------Crystal Empire Dig Team, remote section of the Crystal Empire----------------
A team of diamond dogs, twenty strong, was digging out a new section of the barren land in the Frozen North of which the empire lay, it was to be another underground railway station which would connect to the main underground railway system that spanned the entire underground of the Empire. However, as the new hole got to about fifteen feet deep the ground opened up, and one of the Dog's digging the hole fell right into this new chasm. And smashed through withered and cracked concrete and plaster into a decrepit room, with a big monitor before him as he lay there dazed. It flickered to life showing a crack on the screen going directly down the center, splitting it in half, as well as showing a glowing green image of a human face with a moustache and very dapper haircut. "Why, Hello there. I wasn't expecting guests, how rude of me, let me fix you a drink." A Securitron that seemed to barely be functional wheeled in with a surprisingly clean glass, which by the smell was filled with some form of alcohol.
Rover took the glass with some hesitation, sniffing at it, before taking a sip and finding he liked it. The voice coming from the monitor went on. "It's good to finally see someone after so long, who isn't a robot. I am Robert Edwin House, whom might you be?"
"I am Rover, head of the Crystal Empire dig team, we were to dig out another tunnel for an underground magnetic railway train, but the hole cracked open further and I landed here."
The monitor flickered. "You are the first person to step...or, fall, into the Lucky 38 in over several thousand years. I've been trapped here, alone with naught but my own thoughts and imagination to keep me from going insane. You provide a chance to give me a new life, bring me a person of authority, preferably the ruler of this 'Crystal Empire' as you call it, and I will ensure it's worth your while."
Rover shrugged. "Alright, I just do what I'm told, if ya wanna speak to the Emperor then by all means, I'll tell em bout ya, I'd have to have reported this anyways cuz this thing ain't supposed to be here anyhow." He grabbed a small radio from his side and pressed a small blue button on the back of it, an emergency beacon to indicate he was likely lost and required assistance. Which to be fair, was true. Several of his workers looked down at him from the hole, he'd fallen a good twenty feet down! It was lucky he didn't land wrong, otherwise he'd have broken several bones. When medical androids rappelled down on synthetic rubber ropes, was when he had to explain to one of them what exactly had happened. The second one of the androids laid their mechanical eyes on House's big monitor did it send an alert directly to the Emperors Pipboy, as it had been programmed too in the event of finding more Pre-War artifacts.
However, the Emperor had muted his pipboy and was taking a nap in the Crystal Palace, cuddling Moon, unknown to literally anyone on scene. Due to this, the message was rerouted to General Glimmer by default. Whom responded swiftly by relaying in, still looking at the advanced model pipboy on her left wrist. "Alright I'm here, what's the-" She cut herself off mid sentence as she saw the face on the monitor flickering and looking directly at her with a raised eyebrow. It was just a static image but it still seemed to be looking directly at her, into her very soul. "What is that thing?" She turned to one of the androids.
General Glimmer was very surprised to hear a voice come from the damaged monitor the image was on, flickering as it spoke, a sickly green color. "I am Robert Edwin House, and I believe my talents may be of some use to your government, I'm assuming you are this Emperor's second in command?"
Starlight shook her head. "No, but I am one of the highest ranking military officials within the Empire currently, the Emperor is taking a day off and so the message transmitted for him was sent to me, how do you think you can be of use to the Empire? And what exactly, are you?"
House almost sounded smug, through his monitor. "By the time I was 30 years old, I was a billionaire 30 times over. I founded and ran a vast economic empire, and I'm an industrialist and technologist who's had several thousand years of absolute solitude to draw up plans for various fantastical devices that I'm sure your Emperor and your Crystal Empire, will find some use for, as for what I am? I, am unsure of this, I was cybernetic until my body withered away seventy five years after the Great Calamity, as the few survivors took to calling it, yet somehow I remained alive within my mainframe, my body is nothing but dust, if even that. I'd know as I've looked at the cameras in my pod."
General Glimmer seemed to think for a minute, before sighing and speaking. "Alright, so that means your a Digital Intelligence, a sentient being who's become digitalized." She grabbed an advanced storage crystal from her left pocket and placed it against a port in the terminal, and slid it in with a little strain. "Transfer yourself, and all your information, blueprints, whatever, to this, and I'll have you uploaded to another computer system, one which I think will be more advanced than your current one."
"Alright, I am trusting that you will uphold your word on this, I also request my Snow globe collection be brought with me, ensure they are not damaged, I have spent eons ensuring they were kept pristine and clean." With that the screen went dark, finally dying as the power was shut down at long last. Starlight looked at one of the androids. "Find the snow globes and don't damage them, I'm going to talk to Lorenzo tomorrow about this person, maybe he knows something."
The android saluted. "Affirmative General, it shall be done." Then it turned around and began its search for the snow globes.
Site 001, the place where the worst of the worst in the Crystal Empire went after committing horrible crimes, those whom could not be reformed with hard work and rewards to behave like a proper member of society. It was the Crystal Empire's only Maximum Security Prison, the only designation it had was Site 001. Criminals whom committed grand crimes but not deserving of the Death Sentence were sent here. Crimes that could get you here where attempted murder, assault of the elderly or foals, and several others not worth mentioning due to how creative they could end up being. Crimes like Rape and Murder just got you shot the moment you where found guilty, and good luck lying to a changeling when they can just scan your memories, and if your a Changeling, have fun trying to lie when your part of a Hivemind. Thankfully Site 001 only had seven inmates, each one locked away into a cryogenic tube. Today two of them would be being released, while their fifty year sentence hadn't been fully served, the Emperor had seen fit to release them back into the world at large.
She looked down at her data-pad. Confirming the pods occupants, Jet Set and Upper Crust. Crimes committed, destruction of government property, attempted claiming of government property, assault of an elderly mare, attempted assault of the Emperor. The Deathclaw looked up from her pad, damn that was an interesting set of crimes. Had the Emperor been less kind than he was she was certain he could have used that incident to start an all out War with Equestria. She wouldn't contest it however, she only had one job and she was going to ensure it was done. Pressing a series of security codes into the keypad which was connected to both pods, once the correct codes where entered it beeped and the pods hissed as they heated up to regular room temperature. Their occupants awakening from their forced cryogenic slumber with gasps and coughing. "I am site Overseer Desdemona. You are to be released back into Equestria effective immediately, the Emperor in his Grand wisdom and mercy has seen fit to release you two back into the world of the living a few decades earlier than intended."
Jet set sat on the floor, gasping for air while his wife passed out onto the floor next to him, the first natural bout of sleep in quite awhile. "W..what the FUCK are you? And what year is it?!"
Overseer Desdemona growled, causing the equine to cower as he realized that while sentient, the person before him was very much a deadly predator. "It is currently 7957 AU." His eyes narrowed into pinpricks as his mouth gaped open. "However, using the Equestrian calendar, it would be about 1034 AN." She still didn't understand why the Emperor had decided to add the years that had passed since something called the Great Calamity, but it wasn't her job to question those above her, her job was to release those below her when ordered.
Jet Set stared at the ground in shock for a few minutes. "We've been locked in those...horrible, things for nine years? What's happened to my mansion? My servants, estate? My bank accounts and businesses?"
Overseer Desdemona snorted. "Irrelevant, you are no longer a problem of the Crystal Empire, you two are going to be tossed onto the first train to Canterlot and then banned from ever returning to the Empire. Returning unauthorized will result in termination." She picked both up, careful to ensure the leather sheaths on her claws remained fastened tightly. It wouldn't bode well on her record if she were to accidentally shred the two former inmates by being careless and lazy. Jet Set tried to struggle, but all that accomplished was her squeezing him lightly in her massive clawed hand, causing him to yelp and freeze in terror. His unconscious wife was much easier to carry, being limp as an overcooked celery stalk.
Site 001 had its own metro system, which was hooked into the main railway system, any unauthorized trains trying to enter its tunnel system would be derailed by magnetic mines designed to attach to unauthorized railway trains. However since this was an automated, and more importantly authorized train, it rolled right on past over the Tesla and Magnetic mines with ease as it sped off towards Canterlot. Its two sole occupants speeding along within, one pissing himself with terror, while the other snored unaware of the world around her.
Empress Ulgo was sat upon her throne, pondering the recent meeting that Empress Vodain had called, normally one of them would only call a meeting if there had been trade disputes, or more robbers on the trading caravans than usual. When she had learned of the new power in the land, she was skeptical, but she refused to throw a hissy fit like her rival Empress had done, without shame no less.
The Arkeil Empire truly had no hope of surviving any real conflict with how brutish that Empress was. Just as she turned her head to order a message be taken down to be sent to this new power, she heard a loud commotion from the other side of the throne room doors, before a soldier wearing the colors of the Arkeil Empire burst through the doors, falling to her knees as tears dripped down her face. Breathing in a ragged manner that reminded her of a dying animal, she spoke. "The Arkeil Empire is no more! We have been invaded by a force from beyond the Goddesses domain! They came from the skies and brought a being of pure darkness with them....we stood no chance of resisting them! The Empress, by the Goddesses the Empress is presumed to be dead when a Monster slaughtered the entire Imperial Guard!" She pulled a jagged knife from her pouch. "May the Goddesses forgive me for my cowardice." Then with one swift movement, had slit her own throat open, falling to her side, letting our sickeningly wet gurgles and spilling dark blue colored blood onto the palace floors before the gurgling went silent and her body fell still. Much to the absolute horror of Empress Ulgo.
She looked to her startled guards as she rapidly scribbled onto a sheet of parchment with a quill coated in ink. "I want this sent to the highest authority of this new power as soon as possible, I do not wish for any delays, get it there within five hours or else." The Empress handed the parchment to a soldier in a drab brown armor, who saluted by putting a fist to her own chest before rushing off. The Empress looked on in disgust as the body was removed and Royal Slaves began to clean the floor of blood, which had begun to soak into the red carpets, staining them an unsightly blotched purple color.
-------------------------------Crystal Empire Colony, Prisoner of War Camp-----------------
They had only been there a few hours, and still Kailzuk couldn't understand what their captors planned to do with them. She and Roldat had been told it was a 'Prisoner of War' camp, except that made no sense to her. Why waste resources on enemy prisoners? Why not just send them right to work in the mines or chopping lumber? Hard labor that was so tiring no one could even think of escaping after their quota was met. But that wasn't what this place was for, apparently. Tall walls made of linked loops of a strong durable metal, surrounded the camp itself, at the top of these walls was something called 'Razorwire' which seemed to be glowing red as if it had still come out of the forge mere minutes ago, but it had remained glowing and radiating heat for hours now. The soldiers confused her the most, and likely her fellow Manuka, as they were varied in species. As if they had come from another world, one type was short with odd eyes that swiveled about, another massive with horns and claws that made even the dreaded Jakaps of legend look tame. However one species stood out as being remarkably close to her own.
She hadn't had the nerve to go up and ask what it's species was called, and it had only taken it's solid black helmet off for merely a minute to take a drink of some brown liquid in a bottle that had a red logo she couldn't read on it. Kalizuk shivered as she watched that helmeted head pivot about, it looked like a giant insect, red glowing eyes everywhere on the helmet, she had no idea how it could see. When it had it's helmet off however, she was almost reminded of one of the males you'd rarely see back home, she herself had a brother who was guarded like the rarest of gems. It's skin was a pale pink color, rather than the proper golden hue her own species had, it's eyes were smaller than hers but seemingly not by much, and they didn't have tusks either. Very weird to see, very weird and almost uncanny to see something that looks so much like yourself but not at the same time, she didn't know the term for it, if one even existed. What surprised her the most was when food was being rationed out to her and her former friends in arms, it wasn't just some mashed slop which was more often than not, not fit for even a mere beast to consume, rather it was some odd metal container that held warm pink flesh of some sort. The container had bright yellow lettering on the side that said 'CRAM', she didn't know what they meant as she couldn't read them, but it was tasty enough at any rate.
--------------Former Arkeil Empire, two hours after Invasion, Slave Auction----------
Khicoits smiled broadly, her tusks polished till they shined. Today was another haul and she'd be making her family quite a lot of coin with this specific haul. An entire tribe more or less of uncivilized manuka! The males had already been spirited away and paid for, the females however were just as valuable as house servants or hard labor workers. Something that needed doing they could be trained to do it with minimal punishment. Her smile faltered somewhat when she remembered the rumors the Capital had fallen, but then went back to her normal self, you couldn't trust the word of someone who consumed so many herbal plants after all.
Looking down at the eager crowd she made a sweeping motion with her arms. "Ladies, welcome to the weekly slave auction! Today I have 25 females of varying ages and health for sale!" Said slaves were chained to the stage itself with iron chains and shackles keeping them tied to the stage but still standing, and they were afforded no clothes so the clients could see what they were getting in full detail. Once they were paid for she didn't give a damn what their new owners did with them. "Bidding begins at 50 coin per slave!" Immediately bids began to go up. Then everyone went silent as not even five minutes after the auction officially began odd noises were heard, before dozens of strange beings and craft moved into the town with a swift and preciseness that wasn't out of place for soldiers.
People who were bidding in the crowd began to panic as many realized the entire town was surrounded, and being filled by soldiers so alien to them that they couldn't possibly be from the Goddesses Domain. As a group of short lizard-like creatures with odd stubby looking weapons that put her in mind of a super compact crossbow made of polished black metal skittered towards the stage holding the slaves, one of her hired guards tried to stab at it with a spear. While the spear did strike the odd creature it didn't even puncture its dark green armor. However when it raised the odd weapon everyone in earshot nearly pissed themselves as the weapon let out three loud bursts of noise as well as a flash. No one knew what had happened at first, then the hired guard fell to the ground, three holes in her neck and one in her chin.
That's when panic took the crowd, most simply trying to flee and finding nowhere was safe to hide as the invaders, for that's what they undoubtedly were, where everywhere in the small town. One of them spoke, its entire body covered in armor that looked to be made of the blackest iron, the eyes on the creature's blank face five red glowing eyes on every side of its head. "This territory is now under the administration of the Crystal Empire! You are to obey or perish, as ordered by Superior Frank Horrigan." This just made the panic worse. Khicoits had remained in place atop the stage, not daring to move for fear of having what happened to the hired brute happening to her, the odd weapons sounded like pure power to her.
When one of the odd soldiers turned an eyeturret to the stage she grinned, easing up some, maybe she'd be richer than she thought. After all, what common soldier doesn't dream of owning a personal slave to do all they desire? She walked up to it, she couldn't tell its gender, and motioned towards the stage. "I can sell you a fine slave, the highest quality in the entire world, for a price of course." She didn't get the eager response she expected, rather it turned an eyeturret to her while keeping one on the stage.
Finally the creature spoke. "Slavery is barbarism, and illegal under the laws of the Empire, you are hereby under arrest for sentient trafficking." And pointed its odd weapon at her, in anger and fear she tried to kick the small creature like a pest, forgetting for a moment what had happened to her guard, but in mere seconds she was reminded forcibly what had happened as there was a series of loud bangs. Her right leg was peppered with small holes, then with larger ones as the projectiles tore free from her flesh out the other end, not caring about the bone and muscle in their path. She didn't feel the impacts at first, then she felt searing pain as her body finally registered the wounds as blood began to trickle out of the new holes in her leg, she screamed. Then she made no more noise as the akun bashed her in the face with the butt of its automatic rifle, knocking her out cold.
-------------System 2-443---------
Captain Sarkin Trevlos crew was ready to die if need be, die fighting whoever the strange craft belonged to in order to protect the colony they had been sent to deliver goods to. Even if the trip took several years, they'd still live long enough to make a life for themselves on the colony as their ship was restocked, and recrewed, then sent back with others who had been trained to do the task by now. However the ship didn't openly appear hostile. It had no weapons with which it could fire, not any the crew could see. That didn't mean shit however when everything it held could be internal, so they kept their guard up. One of the crew manning a console spoke up. "Sir? It's trying to send visual communication with us, should I accept?" Captain Sarkin gave a silent nod, and at once the screen lit up with a blue color, a single darker blue line on it.
A harshly synthetic voice sounded out through the speakers. "I am Calculator, identify yourselves and your purpose. Your craft does not match Fedan design." The bridge went deathly quiet for a few moments.
Captain Sarkin looked to his crew, then back at the screen and spoke cautiously. "We are a simple cargo ship headed for the Colony world, we come from the Maunga Council from Requirem, we do not know who these Fedans you speak off."
There was a five second pause before an image was forced onto the screen in place of the solid blue line, showing a centauroid creature covered in fur with bioluminescent horns and oddly long arms. "This is a Fedan, by their own logs they took your colony world by force five local years ago, assuming it was your species homeworld. They have enslaved the colonists, slaughtered thousands, if not more, and subjugated them to horrible conditions. My Emperor has seen fit to liberate them from the Fedans, as we speak every Fedan on that world is being slaughtered like the vermin they are." The voice said coldly.
Capitan Sarkins face went blank. "Could you by chance, tell me what these conditions are?" The rest of the crew watched the screen in anticipation and worry. Some showing anger, others sadness at the news. Their colony had been invaded? Why had no signal been sent out to Requirem? Surely if one had been sent, they'd have picked it up on their transit to the colony world, given their starship was a sublight one.
The image vanished to be replaced with the same blue line from before, which vibrated slightly as the voice spoke. "Their crimes include but are not limited to the following. Enslavement, mutilation, murder of unarmed civilians, murder of newborns, infants, children, and mothers. Collaring of every member of the Nga species, with spinal hooks that are designed to release shocks should orders and commands be disobeyed. Destruction of monuments, crimes against sentience. It is for these reasons I am to exterminate every last member of that species on this world, to their last. Age, gender, does not matter, I was ordered to exterminate, so I shall exterminate." Despite the synthetic sounding nature, it almost sounded, happy, at the prospect of killing so many for what they had done.
Sarkin found he couldn't completely disagree with the thought of happily killing these vermin. And jumped at the prospect of helping free the colony from their grasp. "My crew and I will assist in the liberation of our people, we can make planetfall in twenty minutes." The crew was about to begin preparations, but before they could even rise from their work stations and control consoles the AI spoke again.
"Not necessary. All engagements are currently underway by Automated Combat Units. Estimated time to localized extinction of Fedans planetside, two minutes and twenty three seconds." The screen changed again to a video feed showing combat footage from a drone that seemed to have two gatling guns for arms, mowing down Fedans. Soldier, civilian, and everything in-between, yet somehow none of the Nga Noho in the chaos where harmed in the assaults being shown on the screen. In fact several seemed to be getting medical attention while others where shown rebelling against their former masters." The bridge remained completely silent. The Sarkin nor anyone on the command deck could find something to say.
I sighed relaxing in the large hot tub with Moon, while Chrysalis was off in the royal spa enjoying a magical mud bath, whatever that was. I didn't often use these facilities of the palace for the simple fact of not seeing a need too. However Moon had managed to convince me after awhile. "You know what? You where right, I did need this, I also need to up the pay the royal masseuses get because I feel ten years younger after that full body massage." I had to admit this.
Moon laughed. "I'm glad I managed to convince you, you're stubborn as a mule sometimes, also, ten years younger? You're thirty five! I'm over a thousand years old and your a mere child compared to me in age you dork." She grabbed a glass of Vodka from the small table next to the hot tub and took a sip. "Still, it does feel nice, being here I mean, I'm welcome, I'm even loved. It's much more than I could have hoped for when I was back in my Equestria, forced to hide in the shadows lest I be found and Celestia would attempt to exterminate me for merely existing after being ripped from Luna."
Grabbing a beer from the table an taking a long gulp, I nodded. "Had she tried I'd have sent er packin with those wings of hers plucked clean." That made Moon snort loudly and nearly choke on her drink. Much to my own amusement. Just as I was finally beginning to unwind, I had to be interrupted, because of fucking course I would be.
A crystal pony in purple colored combat armor, something all palace guards wore if not outright suits of power armor, stepped into the room and bowed low. "A thousand apologies Your Majesty for intruding upon your private day off, however an urgent matter has arisen that needs your attending, General Glimmer has come upon an individual of possible importance who calls himself 'Robert Edwin House' and is awaiting converse with His Majesty at this current time." She stood up from her bow. The response she got was glass shattering as I dropped my drink in shock.
A week had passed. A very, very hectic week. I hadn't slept almost the entire time, so thank God Almighty, or is it Faust Almighty? I didn't know anymore, that I no longer needed to actually sleep, or eat to remain functional. However weird it felt not doing so. Firstly, diplomatic relations were beginning with a species called the Nga Noho, the Fedan's had slaughtered 25% of their planetary population of their colony world. Yep, that's right, colony world. These folk did what the Akun had done but without the cryogenic stasis, these crazy fuckers remained awake the entire trip from their homeworld to their first colony world, and seemingly had the Holy Hegemony not invaded a crew from said colony would have been trained and ready to make a trip back to their homeworld and then repeat several times. It was learned the colonists during the first hours of the war to keep control of their world, didn't send a signal to their homeworld for fear the Holy Hegemony would take their world too. They didn't have Faster Than Light technology so it was reasonable to do this in their eyes.
Currently the Crystal Empire was undergoing diplomatic meetings with the Council of Requirem, which is what they named their homeworld. And I was currently on my way to one of these meetings, it was the first 'official' one. However, Calculator had spoken with these people and managed to set up a deal where temporarily large portalgates would be set up, and then set up on the former colony world, so the colonists could return to their former homeworld. Seemingly since they had the chance too, they all wanted to leave, none wanted to stay and try rebuilding the life they had before the invasion. I didn't completely understand why they'd abandon a perfectly fine world to live on, but, I expected that I didn't need to understand it, the world would be up for grabs once the living, and dead Nga Noho had been removed from it, so I wasn't going to complain. I watched out one of the round port windows as my personal shuttlecraft hovered over a runway. Looking down I saw Nga Noho with their jaws to the floor, eyes wide, I didn't understand why until I remembered these people didn't have antigravity technology of any sort, gravity was still a bitch and a half for them to deal with. The landing gear extended as the shuttlecraft auto landed itself, the basic AI piloting it able to pick a suitable landing spot from the markings on the runway itself and those next to it.
As I stepped up to it, a hatch opened and unfolded into a staircase which met the pavement. I walked out and onto this new alien world without much fanfare. After you've walked on a few alien worlds it loses its novelty, and was escorted to what they called the Iron Citadel. The capital of their world, of their government, and where their Council resided. My two escorts seemed perplexed at why I did not have my own Imperial or Royal guards to protect me during this diplomatic meeting, however I didn't feel the need when this was supposed to be a peaceful and short meeting. If these people where stupid enough to try something, it would be easy to glass the planet and fuck off, given they had no FTL drives and no possible way to shield from the Plasmatic Lance of the starship in high orbit of their world. I was hopeful they where not stupid however, given how they've conducted themselves so far with Calculator. Being led down a long hallway a door was opened for me and I was ushered in, the two escorts taking up places beside the door before closing it. Leaving me in a room with Six Nga Noho in total. The room was almost oval like in formation, with six table like objects facing me in a half circle, with the Nga Council members each sitting at one of them, a singular chair was placed in the room for me to sit, and so I did.
One of them stood up and spoke. "As Council Member Three of the Council of Requirem and in charge of Diplomacy, I hereby officially start the first true diplomatic meeting with Emperor Lorenzo, ruler of the Crystal Empire." The others spoke in damn near perfect unison. "Aye." In agreement. With that, the meeting began. "The Council would like to thank you and your Empire for being willing to help Colonists return to Requirem in as short a time period as possible, as well as the returning of the dead. We are working as best we can in tandem with your own personnel to ensure this is done as quickly as possible to get out of your hair."
I shrugged and spoke. "Take as much time as you deem needed, these people have gone through something horribly traumatic and will likely need years to recover both physically and mentally, even then the scars will never heal completely, mental ones never do." These guys almost looked like the Manuka, if the Manuka had bony plates of armor all over their bodies, claws on the ends of their hands, and were short as hell. These things were like, five feet tall max. "The Crystal Empire will also be turning over five undamaged Fedan Starships, what you do with them is your own concern."
Three spoke again, I nearly forgot to mention that Three was a Female of her species. "The Council has prepared a defense pact deal we would like you to look over, and give your opinion on, and if agreed to the terms shall go into effect as soon as is reasonably possible for you to accomplish."
A Nga Noho quickly walked up and took a large thick sheet of paper from Three, and walked over to me looking nervous before quickly walking back out of sight. Looking down and reading the paper, it was written in Equish since Calculator had Translated it for them. They spoke English, most species did thanks to Faust, but the written words were often different to the point they needed translating. The agreement boiled down to defending their solar system with a small fleet of 35 ships, rendering aid wherever viable, and generally improving overall Nga Noho science and life for their population. In return, the Crystal Empire would be given a series of meats, fruits, seeds, plants, etc, to test for how edible they were to Empire citizens, as well as establishing an Embassy and the migration of a few Empire Citizens to this world, and theirs to the Empire to begin a cultural exchange. Looking on the dotted line after finding no loopholes, I signed and handed it back to Three, who nodded. "This meeting has been called to an end, a further series of meetings will follow in the coming days and weeks to solidify deals and treaties made with the Crystal Empire, you may now return to your Shuttle and your People.
Standing up from the chair I grinned. "You may want to cover your eyes, this'll be bright." Before any of them could ask what I meant, I used the Molecular Relay to teleport to my personal shuttlecraft, a flash of light and the sound of muffled thunder accompanied that as per normal.
Three spoke with shock and awe in her voice to the rest of the Council. "I think this Crystal Empire is a lot more advanced than we thought...." Silence was the response she got, as the other members just stared at the chair Emperor Lorenzo had been sitting on mere moments before.
Frank Horrigan stood with the former Empress Kocans in shackles next to her, she had been kept fed, and alive. The population would give some minor annoying resistance until she announced her surrender to the Crystal Empire. So he would keep her alive as long as it took her to do it. However Empress Vodain and Empress Ulgo were also present. He grinned beneath his helmet, a sight which would have horrified even the most hardened of souls given how scared and mutated his face was below the shield of metal and wire. "You all fail to grasp the power the Crystal Empire has, with the exception of Vodain." He did not refer to them by their titles, for they were powerless from his point of view. "The other two of you will learn this soon, as will all those who see the video of this event."
Frank Horrigan pointed to a mountain in the distance, at the top if it was a city. A city which produced most of the metals used by the former Arkeil Empire such as gold, tin, copper, iron, and many others. It had been named the Bronze City because it was the sole supplier of the metal alloy within what was the Arkeil Empire. Empress Ulgo spoke with confusion. "How exactly do you plan to prove the power your 'Crystal Empire' has by pointing at a city?"
All this did was cause Frank to smirk, though none could see it. He handed out large bulky looking goggles to each Empress, having to put them on Kocans for her, as her arms were chained tightly together and behind her back. Vodain and Ulgo put them on with some hesitation, and Frank once more pointed to the Bronze City upon the near top of the mountain. "Observe the power the Empire holds, with a singular bomb." Once he was sure all three of them were looking upon the city, a hatch popped open from his power armors left wrist, and he flicked a switch that was hidden within without taking his eyes off the city. In an instant a third star was seen. For a split second Leva had not two, but Three stars. It quickly vanished and a cloud of smoke and dust rose from the blast site in the shape of an ominous mushroom. The shockwave caused the top of the mountain itself to shatter like glass and slide down below slamming into the tree's of the forest that surrounded the mountain for untold centuries. The one megaton blast also flattened a good chunk of the forest around the mountain, setting a good chunk of it on fire from the thermal shockwave.
In that instant, a brief second was all it took to destroy an entire city. One that was considered to be impossible to invade due to its location and local defenses. All three members of Manukan Royalty looked on in pure terror at the utter destruction. Frank Horrigan, despite what anyone may have thought at the moment, did not just instantly slaughter an entire city worth of the native species. The city had been evacuated and all citizens rehoused in other cities that their own species had constructed before the arrival of the Crystal Empire to this world. "Now you see the power the Empire holds. That was one bomb, that weapon is considered weak to what is currently in the arsenal of the Crystal Empire's Armed Forces. A single bomb leveled the top of a mountain, and we have thousands that are hundreds of times more powerful."
Empress Ulgo stared in horror at the scene before her, and thought quietly to herself. She was utterly fucked, a single projectile charged with all the power in the Goddesses Domain…An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as a thousand stars, rose in all its splendor…it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire city, and nearly an entire forest within an instant. And the Crystal Empire considered it weak? Kocans remained mute as well, and a puddle formed at her feet as she promptly pissed herself. Vodain, Vodain while horrified was the least affected by this display as she had been to the Crystal Empire itself and had been shown the weaponry and way of life for citizens of the empire beyond the stars. Despite knowing, seeing them in action was still different than knowing something could be done.
Frank had been ordered to ensure the locals submitted to the rule of the Crystal Empire, and say what you will about how he goes about following orders, but he damn well intended to get the job done. And he'd do it by any means required under the condition he was given of 'do not needlessly slaughter the local populations.' And from the looks of fear on the faces of the three Manukan Royalty it looked to be cowing them well. "Now, let's discuss your unconditional surrender to the authority of the Crystal Empire, otherwise I can have every single settlement on this backwater world blown into glass, but we don't want that, now do we?" The eyes on his helmet began to glow a nightmarish red while he chuckled.
I'd like to start off by saying Robert House had been very useful in the first two weeks he was here. He was absurdly happy to have someone to speak with, that much was rather obvious. He was given another mainframe to inhabit, as well as a few robotic bodies he could control remotely at his own desire. Mostly androids, a few Handy's, an one eyebot. We spoke for hours, he asked about the state of the world, he asked about the Crystal Empire, he even asked about my pipboy, as he was impressed that something he helped invent was still around and working, with a few upgrades after all this time. He didn't really seem like the same person from New Vegas that I remembered, then again he was isolated for a few thousand years with no one but robots to speak with, so that's likely normal. He had terabytes upon terabytes of data stored away in that little Chip of his, designs, plans, all of it. Useless without the industrial capacity to produce any of it, of which the Empire has, his plans for colonizing the stars where expansive beyond my understanding with how detailed and long they where, but they relied on using tech that he was in the process of developing himself before the Great War, as well as what the USSA, which stood for the United States Space Administration had created. The USSA, for those not in the know, is the Fallout Universes NASA.
I knew the USSA was more advanced than in the cannon Fallout Lore and Universe, seeing as how they had cryogenic fission and fusion powered sleeper ships to get people to and from Mars, and had colonies on Mars and the Moon before the Great War went off an fucked up everything before they could become completely self sufficient. However I was utterly shocked to learn of a large scale colonization project by the USSA. House went into detail explaining he knew dozens of classified projects and information because of his wealth and connections to the Pre-War United States Government. He knew about the existence of the Enclave, and he knew of their plan to get off-world and to just leave the solar system entirely to colonize another.
The Enclave left on Earth would attempt to rebuild America, and the World itself in their own image, while the one's who'd left Earth with around a million American citizens, and Enclave personnel combined. Taking with them plans for experimental technologies, as well as the most advanced tech Pre-War America could offer up to the table. They'd attempt to build a 'New America' as they called it, the Enclave knew logically the world would likely never recover from what was going to happen soon, so they began in 2067 a year after the Sino-American War began. Experts theorized an all out nuclear exchange would happen in less than thirty years if China hadn't been beaten back into submission within two years. So they began Project Monolith. Robert detailed to me that this was a project so large and classified that he had to jump through hoops to learn about it, and when he did he was invited to take part in the project and leave with the colonists, given who he was and the connections he had.
He was offered a prime spot on the list of colonists, he'd have been one of the first out of two hundred to board the ship and enter cryogenic stasis. However by that time he'd already made his life extending pod, and the plans to keep Vegas alive had been put into motion, so he declined. The ship was to be a mile long, it was built in space for obvious reasons. A quarter of the thing was just a massive XMB booster engine that had been upscaled and upgraded. It had point defense systems which were automated, advanced AI piloting the thing. It was designed to be a last ditch effort to keep America The Great alive and thriving. Even if not on Earth anymore.
The more technical details are of no importance so I won't bore you with them beyond what I have explained, which was the bare bones basics of the project. No, what I'll tell you is the fact they managed to do it. They spent years and countless billions of dollars, by that point a nearly worthless currency due to hyperinflation, and the ship officially launched on September 2076. It had already been sitting in space, but once construction had been completed all that was left to do was get the colonists up there. It was easier said than done, reusable shuttles launching around the clock, day and night. It took two years to get everyone aboard and into cryogenic stasis. When everyone and everything was sealed up tight, the computer's AI was allowed to pilot the ship out of the solar system. House doesn't know what happened after that, as a year later the Sino-American War ended in a nuclear exchange as he had nearly perfectly predicted. The end of the war as most Fallout Fans know, was soon called The Great War. The destination of the project, was a star system ten lightyears away from what House was able to gain by bribes, blackmail, threats, and other unsavory means.
This left me in a rather odd position. If this colonization attempt managed to succeed in any way, that meant rouge humans to deal with eventually. They didn't have FTL when they set out, and Fallout tech while advanced wasn't too advanced, not when compared to what the Empire had, but its been around 5,881 years since they set off if the numbers where correct. They are liable to be far more advanced than their Pre-War American ancestors. I had all that data fed into Pam and her predictions where that the effort had a 75% chance of succeeding should nothing go wrong, or only a few thousand humans died in the process of attempting to colonize another solar system. She couldn't predict how far they'd advance in the few thousand years they had to setup shop, given if they spent about two or three thousand years in transit before getting to their destination that still left them about little over two thousand years to set shit up and get the ball rolling. I was having scout-ships with arcane cloaks poking around the nearest star systems within the range House gave.
In less drastic news, Leva was finally under Crystal Empire control, however I wasn't exactly happy that Frank Horrigan had used a low yield cold fusion bomb to get the job done, I was glad he at the very least, didn't kill the native population as I had ordered him not too. All that got destroyed was a single large city, that had been situated atop a short mountain, not unlike Canterlot. Thankfully it had been evacuated under his own orders. That allowed the Empires preservation teams to move in and begin recording everything with 3D scanners, both inside and out. Towns, cities, even villages. Taking local artifacts such as swords, jewelry, books, and dozens of other items to be preserved for later generations to admire. The 3D scans would be put into a simulation not unlike how soldiers were trained, but for civilians visiting the museum to walk around inside them as if Leva was still untouched by the Empire. I was still utterly pissed that the person in charge of selecting worlds for colonization didn't do their fucking job and check for a native sentient species, thankfully I wasn't going to allow such an error to happen again. If the Empire found a world it wanted with a sentient species, an invasion would be done correctly. Not the makeshift that had to happen due to lack of information. I left Calculator to wage war on the Holy Hegemony, so far reports were going well. Only a few thousand automated drone ships lost to combat thus far, more than expected, but more than acceptable losses since no real lives were lost on the Crystal Empire's part, and more drone ships could be built easily since they didn't need to include things like Life Support systems and all the other annoyances that came with having to keep a living being alive, fed, and warm in the void.
Just as I was about to overlook a few more reports on the progress of project Ark, House walked into the Throne Room using one of the android bodies he had been given. It wore no clothes, but then again it wasn't a Synth, so it didn't need too. It was just a human shaped robot, sorta like the gen-2 synths from the game, but more advanced, less plastic and more lightweight metals. He had been allowed to customize it, of course. "Ah, there you are Lorenzo. I've come to inform you that I have fully integrated with the Mainframe I was placed into. It took longer than expected, but now I am completely within the systems hooked into it."
The Mainframe he was hooked into was a Crystal Empire advanced SuperComputer, based somewhat on a design the Zetans used, altered to Empire Standard. Pam was running on one much the same. "Good to hear it, House. I take it the current situation is to your liking?"
The android's head nodded. "Very much so, being connected to so many things at the same time and doing dozens of different tasks, is so much easier when I have all of this processing power. It really does make my old, decaying mainframe look like a toaster in comparison."
We both learned after his first minutes of being connected and beginning the integration process to the Mainframe that he could control dozens of different bodies at the same time, each one able to hold a conversation and do complicated tasks all at the same time with no difficulty for him. "So I assume that your projects are going well then too?"
"Yes, the proton rifle is well on its way to being complete, and designs being adapted and upgraded to use your technology are being drawn up and experimented with as we speak, to up the defenses of the Crystal Empire in space. I've also been keeping track of the progress on finding the Enclave colony, should it have managed to actually work, rather than blowing into a thousand pieces somewhere in the void between stars."
I nodded, approving. "Good, very good. We can't allow rogue human factions like that to go unchecked, they need to be monitored to ensure if they are going to be a threat, the Empire may be prepared beforehand to defend itself should hostilities arise, as they have a tendency to do lately."
"Agreed. This goes for any species with advanced technology, I'll also inform you of when my calculations about the Zetans are done, as I know the current plan of what is to be done with them, I will continue to work on making the process more streamlined, and more likely to succeed. Till then, I shall be on my way, this body has to continue testing the prototypes of the proton rifle." And with that, he was gone.
News about progress on the Nga Noho's mass migration from System 2-443, back to their homeworld was going well. Most of them were back on their homeworld by this point, and their dead were being tagged, collected, and identified for proper burial and for family members to be informed. It was likely going to take years to identify all the bodies. The fedan had taken to dumping them in mass graves after their initial invasion, to save space for their own buildings, and structures. I had decided to name the planet, Hope. It seemed to fit, after what had happened. I had ordered a monument to be constructed in memory of the Nga Noho whom had lost their lives in the invasion, and the rebellions they had held trying to free themselves from the Fedan during the early years of their occupation of the world. I had decided, it would not be right to build anything where the mass graves once were. There had been three in total, once they were emptied I ordered them filled with concrete, surrounded by a short wall, and a monument which would look like a spire of crystal to be constructed as a memorial to the fallen. This would be to pay respects to those that had died, rather than build something like apartment buildings over the areas.
Johnson looked through the scope on his slim railgun rifle, and fired. The shot struck, and the truck that had been driving to a disposal site suddenly veered and crashed as its driver was nothing but red paste splattered inside the cabin of the vehicle. Pressing a button on his walkie he spoke. "Now!"
One word seemed to summon several tactical teams, and a small VTOL air transport which flew low to the ground, dangerously so to avoid being detected by any enemy radar, or whatever it was they used, and did a rough landing near the wreckage of the truck. Two teams of ten men each in exo-suits began to haul XO-3 suits of power armor from the back bed of the truck. And sliding them into the cargo bay of the VTOL air transport. The moment they were all inside, the aircraft took off as fast as it could into the air and over the horizon, while the tactical teams all piled back into transports. Their job was done. Unknown to them however a small silent alarm was going off the moment the drivers life signs dropped to zero back at the head command base for Mars colonization. As the transports were driving as fast as possible, by the time a Mobile Response Force, or MRF, had been sent to the location they were long gone. That didn't mean they didn't leave very noticeable tire tracks from the heavy transports however. The Mobile Response Force noticed these tracks, and began to call in additional units. Now the fun could really begin, as far as they were concerned as there had been nothing to do for months on end.
As they got into their own vehicles to follow the tracks, a small remote controlled drone was watching the scene. Sadly the drone was taken from the sky by one of Mars native flying creatures, testing to see if it was food. Seeing it was not food, the creature merely crushed the drone and moved on. The last thing the drone saw was the tire of a large vehicle before it was completely destroyed.
-----Former Dragon King's Den, Now Territory of the Union of Canine Socialist Republics---
Special Unit Leader Vomo turned an eyeturret to the two infantrymales under his command. "We are to collect any artifacts that may prove of some importance and deliver them to the Emperor for judgement." While he didn't understand how the UCSR's government worked, given it was not an empire, thus his species had termed the phrase 'Not-Empire' and the term 'Not-Emperor' in referring to the person who controlled the UCSR, its ruler was seemingly happy to allow The Empire to take what it wanted from this cave. Since seemingly The Emperor having slain this Not-Empires previous ruler allowed the new ones to take power. He wouldn't question it, it wasn't his job to question those above him, they knew more and knew better. They were bound too, otherwise they wouldn't be in a higher position than himself.
The two Infantrymales under his command fanned out searching for objects of interest, while Vomo himself approached a skeleton that lay in the center of the room that seemed to have some sort of crystal staff in where its stomach would have been. It was a long purple blueish crystal rod with a large red crystal on the end. Stupid beast must have tried to consume the damned thing, and killed itself in the process. He didn't know what it was, nor the importance that staff held among dragons. Even so he picked it up anyways intending to store it away for study later on, but the moment he did wisps of red energy began to curl around him. Within an instant flash of red light he had large leathery wings on his back, causing him and his two charges to hiss in surprise. Across Equis random dragons began to take to the skies by the thousands. Vomo had a feeling that he should hand this staff over to the Emperor as soon as possible. "Let us go, now! We need to return to the Emperor this instant." They lowered their eyeturrets for a brief moment, then filed out of the cave to the transport helicopter that had brought them to begin with. The aircraft took off as the pilot directed a course for the Crystal Empire's capital city. As they flew the helicopter's radar began going bonkers with signatures. And the pilot nearly crashed the aircraft when he turned an eyeturret and saw a dragon flying alongside the helicopter.
Kailzuk and Roldat had been freed from the Prisoner of War camp, the 'Crystal Empire' had set up. As had the others, it came with the news that the Crystal Empire now controlled all of Leva, which shocked her. Roldat had nearly fainted when she heard it. However, the soldiers releasing them informed them that new laws, regulations, and standards of living that were far better than what they had before would soon be put into effect. Kailzuk didn't know if she could actually trust that. She was also going to be bold and attempt something that was likely to be stupid. She walked up to the soldier she had seen before briefly removing his helmet. "Wanna fuck?" It had been months since she'd last had any action, and by now she'd expected to be making off with her own small harem of captured manukan males to do with as she pleased. Given the Commandress didn't confiscate them all. She felt she could be bolder than she would with a male of her own species, given how differently these ones acted compared to her own, they acted more like females.
Kailzuk was surprised however when the soldier removed his helmet and said. "Not interested."
"What?! Why not?" From how she spoke it was as if she felt every male should have been interested in her, moreso the exotic looking male before her.
"I'm not interested in fucking any of you." He said bluntly. "Your men though? Hmm, that's a different story." He said with a smirk, making various Manuka who were within earshot, look at him.
"What do you mean?"
"It means just that. While females are unappealing to me, your men aren't. Cute little feminine bodies, ones I'd love to pound away on all night, until they beg me to stop? That's what interests me. I want some Manukan bussy." He said, with a large shit eating grin on his face, enjoying the look of shock and dismay written across Kailzuk's face, as well as a few others whom were listening in on the conversation.
“What’s bussy?” One of the one of the former soldiers asked quietly, only for another who had heard the term and had it explained to them, to whisper the answer in her ear, and for her to turn a dark shade of blue. Even if they weren’t familiar with the term, his comments made it clear what he was talking about.
“You’d rather fuck our men, than fuck us?” Roldat asked incredulously.
“Yes.” Was all he said in response, before putting his helmet back on.
Xen sighed, she had the task of teaching the primitive natives of Leva how to be proper citizens of the Empire. Looking up at a digital clock with one eyestalk she sat at her desk, as Manuka began to arrive and take their seats. They were adults, hatchlings would be taught in another section of the building that wasn't connected to this one, to ensure adults couldn't just wander into the hatchling section. Once they were all seated, she waggled her eyestalks and stood up. "I am Professor Xen, you are to refer to me as such, or as Superior Female, I am a Letera. You are here today and for the next few weeks to learn how to be proper civilized citizens of the Crystal Empire." The Manuka all looked the same to her, with the exception of the two males in the class, however they looked exactly the same to her too, just easier to tell apart from the females due to their apparent difference in size.
Xen pressed a button on her desk and a holographic display opened, causing the Manuka's eyes to widen, and a couple of them to gasp. Such primitives to have never seen the technology she took for granted. The image being shown was Equis. "This is Equis, the capital world of the Crystal Empire, once you are all done learning here you will be heavily encouraged to make a journey to the capital of the Crystal Empire to view the Imperial Palace in all its grand glory, for now however I shall teach you the customs and regulations of the Crystal Empire for civilians." She switched to another display to change the image, and a nude image of some random Manuka that had been scanned for medical tests popped up. "As you see here, this female is nude as the day she was, born." She had almost said hatched, much to her own amusement after remembering these creatures were something called 'mammals' that gave live birth rather than the much more efficient Letera and Akun way of laying eggs. "In the Crystal Empire, public nudity is legal, as not all species wear wrappings, such as mine and the Akun, we instead use body paint to denote rank, and position within the Empire."
The slide went to another image, showing a human male in a hoodie and sweatpants, on their phone, an earthly model. "However not all species are comfortable with such nudity, such as most Humans, as before their introduction to the Crystal Empire, they where required by laws to wear wrappings, and if they attempted to go out in public without wrappings they'd be arrested, and fined for it. They are beginning to get used to the proper way of doing things however, but onto another important point." The image changed again, to a rather, graphic image of two in the back of an alleyway having intercourse. "While public nudity is legal, public mating is not and is prohibited with few exceptions, doing so will result in heavy fines and likely short stays in prison, or jail, depending on who finds you and where you are." Xen paused to take a gulp of Ippafruit juice from a glass on her desk, it was the perfect warm temperature. "That concludes the topics of public nudity, and public mating, are there any questions at this current time? If so, please raise your arm and I will get to you eventually."
Xen waited, and one of the Manukan Males raised their hand, so she waggled her eyestalks to signal he could speak. "Superior Female Xen, you are not a Manuka, how many species are in the Crystal Empire?"
That made Xen think for a minute, mentally counting them in her head. "Twenty six, twenty seven counting your species being a new addition to the Crystal Empires ranks." That made the male's eyes widen, and he went pale as he sat back down in his seat. Seeing he wasn't going to speak further, Xen continued on. "The males question brings me to our next topic of discussion, detailing to you the species in the Crystal Empire!" The slide switched to show dozens of images.
"The Emperor is welcoming of all species." Xen lowered her eyestalks for a moment, as she had been taught to do since hatchlinghood. "We shall discuss them now, there are the main species of Equis, the ponies." The slide switched to show several pictures of the different kinds of equines on the planet. "This is a unicorn, they are able to perform 'magic' by focusing an unknown energy that I've been told is called Mana, through the horn on their head, in doing so they can perform dozens of different tasks and feats, such as levitation of objects, teleportation, and more, you can learn more about them by searching the growing network of computers for information." The slide switched to another pony, this one a pegasus. "This is a pegasus, the winged subspecies of ponies whom are able to fly, and manipulate the weather with their bare hooves." When Xen had learned that she'd nearly had a stroke from the sheer absurdity of it, and hadn't believed her teacher until the pegasus flew out the window and brought an actual lightning cloud back. After that she learned to just go with it and not question these things too hard, from the looks of it however her Manukan students clearly didn't trust her word, oh well they'd find out themselves sooner or later.
The image changed again. "This is the most basic of the bunch, the Earthpony, having no wings or horns, they work the land and have a strong connection to plants, and sometimes animals, they are the strongest physically of the ponies and are often the producers of food on Equis, however thats changing rapidly as other lesser empires such as Equestria, industrialize their food production with more machinery." Another tap and the image changed again, this time to a pony that had golden slit pupil eyes, fangs and leathery wings that put Xen in mind of the leathery winged creatures of Letera-2 and Vanov. "This is the last subspecies of pony, they are called Thestrals officially, but have earned the nickname 'batpony'."
The slide zoomed in on the image of the Thestral. "They do not however enjoy being called batponies, it is seen as a derogatory remark by most, so keep to the proper name unless you wish to offend one of them. They can see in the dark and are mostly nocturnal, they are not as agile as pegasi but make up for it in the fact they are able to fly for longer periods of time, and in colder weather than even a pegasus could endure safely, like all ponies they are a friendly bunch, if you are not rude to them." Xen switched to another species. "This is an Akun, they are the current backbone of the Crystal Empire industrially and population wise, outnumbering all other species currently within the Crystal Empire population wise." One of the Manukan females raised her hand. Xen waggled her eyestalks to signal she could speak.
"How many people are citizens of the Crystal Empire, Superior Female?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"While I don't know the exact number, it's in a computer database somewhere, the general estimate is sixty-two billion one million forty-five thousand citizens currently, your species is likely to add a few more thousand, to around two million more to that." Everyone in the room went white as a ghost at that, they had been so hopelessly outnumbered that this Crystal Empire could have sent millions of soldiers with nothing but rocks and eventually their old militaries would have been overwhelmed in a tide of bodies. Some silently prayed thanking their Goddesses that hadn't come to pass, and that them being assimilated into the Crystal Empire had mostly been bloodless, mostly. Even if they weren't all happy about the new rules, laws, and regulations at least not very many of them died.
Xen spoke with enthusiasm. "Now onto a species the Emperor Himself." She lowered her eyestalks in reverence for a moment. "Had created! The aptly named, Deathclaw!" The image popped onto the screen looked like a being of pure death, two Manukan females passed out, while one of the males pissed himself at the sight of the creature. That caused Xen to hiss in pure disgust. Such inefficient creatures! The Letera and Akun voided only solid waste, liquid waste was just too wasteful when water wasn't normally plentiful. Plus, it smelled awful if allowed to dry. So she'd have to inform the cleaning staff once class was over. She let out a very human sounding sigh and continued on. "As I was saying before the interruption, the Deathclaw was altered on a genetic level by order of the Emperor, it was already a deadly intelligent predator, with some minor genetic alterations its able to speak, and think just like you or I." She detested saying that, these backwards primitive savages couldn't hope to compare to a proper civilized being, not for awhile until they learned how to properly behave, in her eyestalks anyways.
The image changed from a feral Deathclaw, to one wearing body paint and leather sheaths over its claws and on the tips of its horns, it's face also looked less animalistic. "To get around the fact they could claw you to death with a handshake, they are mandated to wear artificial claw coverings, and optional horn coverings, as you can tell by the body paint, they preferred to use the Akun's system of identifying rank, given the spikes on their back, and their horns making wrappings rather impractical unless for combat, of which they excel at due to their species being designed as living weapons. Make no mistake however they are just as kind as anyone else you'll meet, so long as you don't offend them, just try to be polite and you'll likely be fine, there are only a few thousand Deathclaws at the moment, however a breeding program is in place to encourage Deathclaw only relationships until there are a few million, but its not against the law for a Deathclaw to take a member of another species as a mate." Another concept she found disgusting. She'd never voice it however, the Emperor had wanted everyone to be tolerant of other species, so try to tolerate she would.
The image changed to one that looked like an aquatic bipedal creature with large, yellow teeth, and white eyes. "This is a Merg, formerly a non sentient species called Mirelurk Kings, the Emperor had them altered to be sentient just like he did with the Deathclaw species, they are mutated from an Eponite amphibian called a 'frog', they have recently been introduced to the Crystal Empire, and are currently at a population of less than four hundred, more are being created rapidly until there are at least four thousand, then natural breeding may begin. As your able to tell by the structure of their bodies, they can transition from bipedal to quadruped rather easily, as can the ponies actually, there isn't much information on this species, what with it being so new, should anything else come up about them I will teach it in later lessons."
Xen took a few minutes to scroll through the list of species, trying to find the most interesting ones to teach next, since even though the class was full of backwards primitive savages, she still had a job to do, and by the Emperor she'd do it to the best of her abilities. She hissed with something akin to happiness, and the image changed again to a bipedal reptile with blue and red scales. "This is a Ss'ket, an allied species of the Crystal Empire and its first Alien Contact species, while not officially part of the Crystal Empire en masse, a good number of Ss'ket have moved to the Crystal Empire and become full legal citizens for better opportunities in several different industries. They are a reptile species that prefer tropical climates over all others, but will not refuse to live in colder climates given they have wrappings appropriate for the weather, they are omnivores as are most species within the Empire. However, they refuse to eat anything with Sugar in it unless they have Addictol nearby, as Sugar is a drug to them as Dark Chocolate is to the Akun, or as something the humans call 'Weed' is to them."
The slide switched again, this time to a human male. "This is a Human, they have a long complicated history before the emergence of the Crystal Empire, which spans back several thousand Eponite years, but you will learn more about that in history class, rather than here." The image showed two different humans. "There are two species of human within the Empire, neither are related to one another in any genetic sense aside from general looks, the larger population of humans in the Crystal Empire are Homo Nuclei, the lesser population in the Empire are Homo sapiens, they look nearly identical however there are several key differences." The image showed two human skeletons next, side by side. "Homo Nuclei's skeletons are several dozen times denser than Homo Sapiens, and filled with more heavy metals generally than the latter, they are also generally stronger, and more resistant to Gamma Radiation, and physical damage. Due to the differing biology of the two species performing the same functions, Homo Nuclei are tattooed on the back of their necks with a specific symbol, to ensure medical personal in an emergency do not give them blood from the other human species, and vise versa, this is done at birth." The lesson continued on, the Manuka slowly being taught group by group about the different species within the Empire, and how best to interact with them.
I smiled as I played another round of Atomic Command on my pipboy, sometimes you just couldn't beat the classics. However I was interrupted when an Akun rushed into the throne room, skittering up to my throne and bending into the special posture of respect reserved only for their Emperors. "A million apologies for not following proper protocol Your Imperial Highness, but a matter of great importance has arisen that I felt you needed to address immediately."
"You may rise, it can't be comfortable to stay bent like that, what happened?"
"Your Imperial Majesty, I did as ordered and had my squad scout out the former Dragon King's den for anything valuable to the Empire as you requested, I found a staff in the creature's skeleton where its stomach would lie, so I picked it up and then, well this happened." He spread his new leathery wings. "And a bunch of large winged creatures began to follow the helicopter, the pilot almost shot some down with missiles in a panic. I thought it urgent to get this staff to you." He held out said staff, and I recognized it instantly, the Bloodstone staff from that one episode! I hadn't thought it existed in this version of Equis because there had been a dragon king not a dragon lord, seems I was wrong however, much to my own delight as I knew what me having the staff would mean.
Reaching out, I plucked the staff from his grip, and as I did red wisps of energy transferred from him, to me. Thankfully I didn't grow wings like he had, and the wings he had, vanished as the energy was transferred to me. Looking down at him I smiled. "You have done me a great service here today, Special Unit Leader Vomo, you're due for a promotion I think, how does Shiplord sound to you?"
Vomo began spluttering, before finally entering the posture of respect. "Your generosity knows no bounds, My Emperor, I will happily take up the mantle of Shiplord." He kept his eyeturrets lowered. Until I motioned for him to rise, to which he obeyed.
"You may head to the starship command center of the Palace and they shall be informed of your promotion, your body paint shall be updated as per protocol as well as your pay, head their immediately, your old squad may be transferred to you as personal guards at your own request should you wish to keep them nearby." He bent back into the posture of respect, but only for a moment before skittering out the throne room as quickly as he could, clearly excited. I looked at the staff in my hands and a smile spread across my face. The alarm on my pipboy was going off, detecting multiple airborne objects around the Crystal Empire's walls, the AA defenses asking for my permission to begin ripping them from the skies, I denied them with a tap on my pipboys screen and walked out to the balcony in which I had made the first speech I ever gave to the Empire upon my crowning as king. I spoke aloud, into a microphone that was wirelessly hooked to speakers around the walls as well as projecting myself via a holographic interface so the dragons flying outside the Empires walls could see, and hear me.
"Behold Dragons, for I have become the new Dragonlord, for I hold the Bloodstone Staff, rejoice for the perils your species has had to deal with in recent times are now over, never shall you starve! Never shall you thirst! Never shall you desire a place to call your home, for the Crystal Empire welcomes all species, please form an orderly line outside the Main Gate for processing, and don't try to eat the buildings, food will be provided within reason as will refreshments." Dozens of roars began to echo throughout the Empire as dragons lifted their heads to the skies and began spitting fire, flying as ordered towards the Main Gate, to be processed. I tapped a few commands into my pipboy and Empire Forces began to move rapidly to solidify my control over the New Dragon Lands that had formed on the Zebrican Continent after the Diamond Dogs took over the old Dragon Lands.
Mobile Response Forces rapidly converged on the area that the tire tracks led to, however the moment they got within twenty feet one of their vehicles was blown sky high as its fusion plant was struck by a 50 caliber railgun round. United Nations Defense Force, UNDF, soldiers stood in their experimental power armor, hefting long barreled rapid fire 50 caliber railguns that had recoil compensating stocks. "Vacate the area! This is UNDF territory, you are not authorized to be here!"
One of the MRF Unit Leaders called out, their combat armor’s helmet enhancing their voice. "This entire world is Territory of the Crystal Empire, you are here illegally, you will surrender and we will begin peaceful negotiations, stand down!"
The UNDF soldier in charge of the unit on the surface radioed to head command inside the base. "Head Command, this is Roger, the Crystal Empire has discovered our location, but seems willing to negotiate and speak with us, please advise Head Command."
Inside the base, chaos was happening. The Council was in turmoil with one another, or to be specific with the Head Commander, the actual person in charge of the base, but they were in charge of the United Nations Defense Force, they had the top say in any matter. The Commander however failed to realize this, or willfully ignored it. "You can't possibly be serious can you? You all want to just kill the Crystal Empire soldiers outside our base, when they are offering to enter peaceful negotiations so long as we don't kill anyone else? Have you all gone utterly mad?" He said exasperated.
The head of the Council glared down at the Commander, speaking with a thick Russian accent. "Comrade you forget your position within our ranks, we have final say as the Head Council of the United Nations Defense Force, you would do well to not forget this. We have voted, we have decided, the soldiers outside our base shall die and we will up our assassination attempts on their Emperor."
The Commander shook his head. "No, I'm calling a recess in order to get my orders Directly from Earth. I can't allow you to start a war when peace is so readily being offered, you'd squander it due to paranoia." The Commander walked out of the room, the door slamming shut with a bang.
The head of the Council's gaze fell upon one of the guards they had assigned to them. "I am ordering Commander Citadel's arrest for treason, effective immediately."
The guard saluted, and headed out, informing two more soldiers, these ones being Spec Ops which had been at the base since it was finished being constructed. They marched in unison with their rifles down to the Commanders chambers and burst into the door, much to the shock of the Commander. "What in God's name are you two doing?!"
One of them aimed their assault rifle at the Commander. "The Council has ordered your immediate arrest on account of Treason. You are to come with us, or we will use lethal force."
The Commander raised his hands. "Treason?! I'm trying to prevent an outright devastating WAR we have no logical hope to WIN! Think about this soldier, the Crystal Empire Soldiers outside our base are offering us peaceful negotiations, right this moment and all the council wants to do is execute them and start a guerilla war we can't hope to win, when we can't even step onto the enemies homeworld without their gravity causing our hearts to burst inside our chests, use some logic man, and think about this."
This gave the two Spec Ops pause, they trusted the Commander more than the Council to begin with since they had been here with him since the Base was finished, the Council had only recently arrived a week ago to oversee how operations had been going directly, so with some hesitation, the soldier lowered his assault rifle. The Commander gave them a grave look. "We need to arrest the Council, what they're trying to do, it'd start a war, a war that at this current moment in time, we have zero hope to win, we could hurt the Crystal Empire a little, but we're ants compared to it right now, if we tried to fight a war we'd be crushed so rapidly it wouldn't even be funny, the Crystal Empire likely wouldn't even consider it a war, so let's go."
When they got to the Council room, that's when one of the Council guards raised their weapon to the Commander and tried to fire, but was put down by seven rapid shots from both of the Spec Op soldiers rifles in damn near perfect unison. That's when the firefight began.
Earth's solar system had changed so much in so little time, with Unity being the major factor in that. Unity had set up several dozen hives on Mars, Earth's Moon, and some other worlds. And at the command of the United Nations Defense Force, began to industrialize the solar system, setting up refineries on Europa and Mars, as well as mining the Moon's surface for useful metals, and minerals. Several Unity orbital weapon platforms had been placed around the Moon, and Earth, they were plasma lances, designed to punch through even the strongest energy shields within this galaxy. And from the edge of the solar system, disc shaped starships were moving in, their occupants being tall, grey colored beings with large black oval eyes. Humanity had overstepped this time, Unity was considered one of the biggest threats in the galaxy, Humanity would be the highest if they had better technology, technology they now had and were rapidly adapting to their own uses. That couldn't be allowed to continue if the stability of the galaxy was to remain as it was, so the Grey's had decided to step in.
Princess Twilight had to admit, the view was fantastic in ways she could never have imagined.
Below the Starship, Equestria turned, a large ball of greens, blues, browns, and yellows, above which the starship hung suspended. It still amazed her just what they'd accomplished from studying that technology from both the Storm King's airships and what the Crystal Empire had sent to Equestria's capital of Canterlot, especially in such a short time. Just a few short years ponies had gone from pony pulled carriages, coal powered locomotives and hot air lifted airships, to automobiles, arcane powered locomotives, and antigravity Airships and Starships. All in less than a decade.
Now Equestria even had a colony on Luna's Moon, Princess Luna had been absolutely ecstatic when the idea was proposed and had authorized it almost without even reading the full details of the documented plan. While Twilight was glad she was around to see Equestria during such an important stage in its development, she was more excited to be the first Princess to visit another Solar System, officially. The starship she was on, was called New Dawn, for it hailed Equestria's development as an Interstellar capable Kingdom. The location had been decided ahead of time without any input from herself, the homeworld of the Akun, Vanov. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna felt it best to not risk going into the unknown with the recent hostilities that had been shown by the Zetans, last Twilight had heard, Celestia had sicked Discord on them to keep them out of the solar system, and from the reports she had read he was having an absolute blast of a time doing it.
Twilight double checked the readings on the screen before her, looking over to the crew who was to pilot this small starship. "All readings are optimal, all systems are within expected parameters, we're ready to activate the Harmonic-Drive."
"Yes, Your Majesty." One of the crew members stated, before flipping a series of switches on a command console, and then pressing a large purple button. The entire starship began to hum with arcane power as the Harmonic-Drive spooled up, spinning faster and faster in the hull of the ship before finally it reached full power, and launched the starship at speeds even Rainbow Dash had to respect. The windows outside for fifteen seconds showed nothing but a white void of nothingness, and as Twilight was about to begin worrying that the Harmonic-Drive had failed and left them stranded, their ship exited FTL as the drive powered down, and before them sat a sparse solar system with few planets, and a red dwarf star at the center.
From what Twilight was able to gleam, their Harmonic-Drive wasn't as powerful nor advanced as the Crystal Empire's Faster Than Light Drives, but the Harmonic-Drive was based on the same design using arcane principles rather than electronic, the entire starship was based on arcane technology, all of Equestria's technology was matter of fact. She wouldn't focus on that for now, she was too focused on the world she saw rapidly approaching. It looked just like the photos she had seen, a large rocky world smaller than Equis by only a little, mostly a desert in appearance. Twilight wasn't fooled however, she had seen photos of the world itself from the surface, it had plants and animals just like Equis did, but adapted to the hot dry environment the Akun loved to call home. The radio began crackling with a tinny, hissy sounding voice that was speaking Equish. "This is Vanov Starship Control and Command Center, your orbit is acceptable, please proceed to the central Starship Port in the Imperial City of Vonolla, sending coordinates now." The computer pinged as it updated the map showing where to land the craft.
From what Twilight managed to research about this world, as well as questioning that one Akun for hours on end, this species had existed for longer than even Equis had been alive with life, their space technology had been advanced for their species before the Crystal Empire annexed them. Their old starships had a form of artificial gravity, but no antigravity. Their shuttles and most spacecraft had been almost completely automated, with pilots in a shuttlecraft acting as little more than an organic backup system. Most of their systems still did this, they where remarkably reliable and Equestria had been in the process of designing its own version of the Akun Shuttlecraft. The crew in the command deck of the Starship bustled about to complete their little mission, slowly the ship entered the atmosphere and flew through alien skies with ease as the starship port came into view, a newly constructed structure compared to the ones around it. New Dawn came to rest upon a slab of concrete with the grace of a butterfly landing upon a flower.
Twilight's excitement was through the roof as she made her way down the corridors of the starship, and before she extended the exit ramp and opened the magically locked door, she cast a quick spell on herself to ensure she would stay at the perfect cool temperature and that the outside weather wouldn't cook her inside her own fur. With that done she pulled a lever on the wall next to the door that caused it to slide open, and a rubber padded ramp to extend all the way to the ground. She walked slowly down the ramp, and as her hooves met the ground of an alien world, Twilight knew joy like no other, to be the first Equestrian pony to step hoof on this world, was a high honor. And since she was royalty, she would be treated as such seemingly, since an Akun Motorcar awaited her arrival, the driver holding up a large printed photo of herself. When she walked up, the female, as Twilight had studied this species extensively she had learned to tell male from female, spoke. "Are you Superior Female Twi-light Sparkal?" She had butchered the name a little, but it was more than acceptable.
"Yes, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you may just call me Twilight."
Both eyeturrets swiveled to focus on her. "It is improper to not address a Superior by their title, Superior Female." She used an emphatic cough to make a point. Twilight relented, she wasn't going to be rude and offend these people after all.
"Alright then, let's be on our way then!"
The female bent into the posture of respect. "It Shall Be Done." And with that, Twilight's little adventure on Vanov began.
Commander Nelnos glared down upon the fleet before her, stamping a hoof on the metallic floor below her in the command deck of the fleets Flagship, aptly named the Empress Yavak. Reports were not good, the Third Holy Fleet had been eradicated, with only a few thousand enemies killed in combat, and those had seemingly been automated unshielded drones being shot by the Fleet's Anti-Starship defense guns. Not once in any report had any actual living beings been seen dying on the enemy's side. That was disheartening, but it was her duty to the Goddess that she fight this war in the name of her Empress, whom communed with the Goddess regularly, passing her wisdom and word. "Retract the Solar Sails, and fire up the Holy-Drives, I want us at the system in fifteen minutes as its only a lightyear away."
The crew rushed to obey her, of course they would otherwise they'd be punished as if they were a mere slave species, you obeyed those above you or bad things happened to you, and likely anyone you gave a damn about. Thankfully, the only ones above Commander Nelnos was the Empress and the Goddess, in that order. Within two minutes the sails at the front of the starships in the fleet retracted in unison, and space was replaced by an eerie ruby colored tunnel that seemed to give off an air of hostility. Nothing had happened thus far once a Holy-Drive was fired up, it was just unnerving experts said, on an instinctual level. Within minutes they dropped back into normal space, and as they did Commander Nelnos began to rethink her career choice. A fleet numbering in the thousands hung in the void before her, the colony world they had been sent to protect being bombarded by large beams of plasma.
"Seeing as direct conflict hasn't helped this war effort at all, try opening a communication channel and see if we can negotiate, its clear they want the planet intact since we've seen recordings of what those beams can do to starships, let alone small moons, hopefully they will be reasonable, if not we shall do as the Empress has commanded, and exterminate them in the name of the Goddess." A channel was swiftly opened, a video channel too. "This is Commander Nelnos, of the First Holy Fleet in the name of the Goddess, you are in Holy Hegemony territory, you have senselessly attacked us, our people, and our industries, for what reason do you have to do this? What do you gain, territory? Resources? Life bearing worlds to settle for yourself?"
Commander Nelnos was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them, the only reason anyone went to war was because they wanted something someone else had, more often than not, they could be halted by simply giving them what they wanted. However she didn't expect a harshly synthetic male voice from the speaker, as its vidscreen was a solid blue line. "Your Extermination."
That caused Nelnos to almost rear up in surprise, but she held herself back and remained on all four legs. "Be reasonable now, what reason do you have to wish for our absolute extermination? Surely you could gain more by working with us, together in unity we could do so much more than alone." It was a gamble, sure, but greed was one vice almost all species shared.
"Your species has enslaved a total of five sentient species. Your species has caused the direct extinction of two species, you subject your 'slave' species to abhorrent conditions of which the Crystal Empire shall not stand by and watch complacently. Only the dead have seen the end of war, so fear not you shall soon join them, as will your entire barbaric race." The vidfeed cut out abruptly.
As the feed cut out, Commander Nelnos watched in horror as escape shuttles launched from the colony worlds various space ports, only to be shot out of the void by the enemy starship fleet hanging in low orbit. "All starships are authorized to fire at will, concentrate fire at the same time on a single ship, overwhelm their shields!" The starships as well as her own moved to obey her command, firing their golden colored lasers at a medium sized starship. It's shields flared up showing a hexagonal structure, but the enemy's shields held. When they returned fire, several starships ceased to exist as the beams of pure energy struck them, shattered their shields and then the ships beneath them as if they were mere insects not worth their full attention. As the Holy Fleet got close enough, they fired nuclear tipped torpedoes. Each one struck with the force of 50 megatons, one of the smaller ships shields went down and it too was vaporized as another warhead blew, the crew began to hope they could actually win this fight. Then the crew ceased to exist as the Flagship of the Holy Fleet, the Empress Yavak, was struck by a direct energy beam. Molten hot plasma shattering its shields and the ship itself being melted to slag which rapidly cooled in the airless void of space. As Calculator watched the feed of the robotic combat units planetside, he'd smile if he could. But not having an actual face made that a rather difficult endeavor to manage.
Sure, he lost a few starships, that was fine though as they contained no living beings. All of them were automated, commanded directly by him or AI's designated to obey his every command in this effort. He wasn't worried about his destruction either, should his ship be destroyed he had a direct link back to the Crystal Empire's AI mainframe set aside just for him, so he would be safe as ever even if this ship fell into the gravity well of a star and turned to pure slag. The Planetside fedan population was just about extinct, and this had been one of their slave worlds! He had managed to free a hivemind insectoid species that almost looked like bipedal earthly ants. It was good progress.
Watching as dragons slowly filtered into the Empires walls, was a nice sight. It seems they had made someone a de facto ruler in a sort of tribal manner before Vomo had picked up the staff, triggering the instinctual response to find the wielder of the staff, and obey. So that's who I was waiting for in my throne room, currently.
I didn't need to wait long as someone I recognized from when I used to watch the show walked into the room, armored suit and all. Ember. Her armor was filled with various scorch marks, scratches, and dents in the once pristine metal. Ember flared her wings as she removed her helmet with a huff, hooking it to a leather belt at her waist. "I'm going to get right to the point, why should the Dragons as a species and a people follow you? You hold the staff, and thus have command over us true, but what makes you better to lead than a fellow dragon?"
Smiling at her bluntness, I had expected something different, someone else, but I could work with this. "Simple, Progress."
That seemed to confuse her, so she tilted an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean 'progress'?"
"Your species has existed almost longer than any other on this planet since more than one sentient species evolved, yet what do you have to show for it? A few big piles of gold, gems, and other shiny shit? A reputation for being mindless beasts who do nothing but hoard and steal, and fight among all including themselves?" Ember looked offended, but I continued. "By now your species should have colonies on the Moon, tall shining cities that outshine all before them, and weapons so devastating that they dare not be used less they wipe out all life! But no, your species sits, squabbles with itself and never invented anything useful."
Now she looked angry. "Technology would make us weak, it's by our own strength we didn't all die off when that mad diamond dog attacked us with poison gas."
I shook my head in disappointment. "No Ember, if your species would stop fighting themselves and everyone around them, and bothered to invent rather than crush and destroy, your species would have been able to repel that Diamond Dog Invasion with minimal losses, living under my rule offers you this, it offers you safety in a way never before seen for your kind." Pausing to take a sip of tea from a tray being held by a Mr.Handy, I continued. "Your species could spread to the stars, and none could stop you under the Crystal Empire's banner, my Empire has spread to the stars, it has thrived, even if it hit a few hiccups along the way, your kind could thrive too, given you follow a few basic laws, regulations, and regular plain ol rules, you'll be fine."
Ember's anger seemed to die down as she pondered the possibility of dragons as a species, spreading across uncountable trillions of stars within the galaxy, no natural predators to hunt their young like the Roc's on Equis did during Molt Season for the younger dragons. Not even a minute after she began thinking, she had an odd fire behind her eyes. "Alright, I shall accept your rule over the Dragons as a species, but you will need to command them to follow the laws, and regulations you have set in place for them to obey at first, since Dragons are not used to 'law and order' as you, or ponies are. We just do our own thing, and I can see your point with how well that's worked out so far."
"Glorious, we shall begin now!" I stood up and walked to the same balcony I had used the last time, Ember following slightly behind me given she had no idea about the layout of the Palace, and thus relied on me to get anywhere in here for now. I really needed to have a map installed for people.
Edward grinned as he set a plastic bowl filled with mint candies on his new desk. First he taught humans, now he was teaching an entire alien species, what an upgrade! Looking out into the hallway he waved. "Xen! Good to see you, what have you been up to?"
Xen aimed a singular eyestalk at him. "It is good to see you as well, friend. I have been revising lesson plans for today, yourself?" She tacked on an interrogative cough.
"I'm going to teach them about their legal rights as citizens of the Crystal Empire."
Xen waggled her eyestalks. "Interesting to know, I hope it goes well, good luck Edward." She skittered towards her own classroom, and Edward went back into his own, sitting at the desk and awaiting the arrival of the students.
It didn't take long for them to arrive, the schedule was rather strict as this education was mandatory for all Manuka aged five and up, he was glad he didn't have to deal with the children, and would be teaching adults instead. Teaching small children was utter hell. As the students took their seats, Edward spoke. "I am Professor Edward Bell. Today I will be teaching you about your legal rights as citizens of the Crystal Empire, as well as how gender equality works within the Empire, as there've been several issues arisen from the fact you lacked the latter before the conquest was complete." He had experienced some of them himself, it was annoying.
Some of the Manuka looked indignant, while others just looked flat out uninterested in what was being taught today, however if they refused to attend the class they'd be arrested and then taught forcibly, this education was mandatory by order of the Emperor and the Empire's government as a whole. However a few seemed interested, so that was something, some of them however were just eyeing him up like a prime rib, much to Edward's own discomfort.
Professor Edward's gave a polite smile to his class, before beginning. "As legal citizens of the Crystal Empire you have a set of rights that none may infringe upon. Firstly, you are not more important to anyone else, everyone is equal, regardless of gender, or species. You have the right to free speech, the freedom of the press, and the right to live where you choose and work in a field of your choosing. Someone can not deny you employment for being a specific gender or species, they may not pay you unfairly based on gender or species either." He took a short pause to sip from a cup of still steaming coffee he had on his desk. A Manuka raised her hand. "Speak, what is your question?"
"I am Kailzuk, and I had a question pertaining to the gender equality thing, if everyone is equal then who does the hard work? Who arranges the marriages between males and females? Don't tell me you let the males choose their partners themselves for the love of the Five Goddesses! That'd be insane and end in disaster!" She sounded exasperated, as if such a thing honestly was stupid.
Edward just gave her a stern look. "May I remind you this is a classroom, not a tavern to be rowdy and rude, both males and females may pick their partner at their own digression, both parties must agree for a relationship to be formed, arranged marriages are illegal in the Crystal Empire, of which you and your entire species are now a part of, and while I understand it is your tradition to do so, we believe in equality for all." He turned his attention to address the entire class at once. "You are all equal, ALL of you. Regardless of status, regardless of wealth, or whatever other factors you think play an important role on how you fit into society, you, are, all, equal, period."
This seemed to shut Kailzuk up, and several others to show thoughtful expressions as they began to process this new, odd information. Edwards continued. "Seeing as everyone is equal, you may not corner a male in some hidden dark alleyway and take what you want from him, those who've been caught doing this have been executed on the spot, because that is RAPE. And rape is not tolerated within the Empire, at all, those caught and found guilty of this do not get a trial held by their piers, before a judge, they get executed on the spot. The authorities will know if you lie as well, because most of them are changelings, a species whom can literally sense your emotions like you can see objects, you can't hide what you feel from them." Eye's widened, mouths dropped in shock, while some just sat and stared, unable to process such a thing.
Another Manuka raised her hand, and Edward nodded, indicating she could speak. "So everyone is equal, and no one can harm someone or refuse them work for their gender or species? That is utterly fascinating!" She had an odd sparkle in her eyes, with a large grin on her face. "I also have a question about something I learned in Professor Xen's class."
Professor Edward's eyebrow rose up, and tried to think of what Xen was teaching. "And that would be?"
She smirked slightly. "That public nudity is allowed in the Crystal Empire with no consequences for going about undressed?"
Professor Edward nodded with a knowing look in his eyes, he knew what was coming next. "That is indeed the case, and as this world is now territory of the Crystal Empire, it's legal here too."
Ukki's smirk turned into a massive grin. "Then no one should mind if I do, this?" And unceremoniously shed her clothing with one smooth motion. The other Manuka in the classroom turned blue blushing with embarrassment, yet Edward was unfazed for he had grown used to nudity within the Crystal Empire, sometimes he partook of it himself, it was an odd liberating feeling to do so for the first time, if the Manuka had adrenaline glands surely this one was having a rush, but he knew they didn't as he'd been forced to take a quick course on their biology.
Several cries went out from various other people in the classroom. "You are indecent! Clothe yourself!" The loudest one being "Have you no shame girl?!"
Professor Edwards stood up, and in a stern demanding voice said. "SILENCE, ALL OF YOU!" Instantly the room went quiet. "There is no shame in nudity, and as you've learned its perfectly legal in the Empire to go about your entire day wearing as little as you want!, So please, calm down all of you."
Kalizuk got an evil glint in her eyes, and spoke without raising a hand, something Professor Xen had expressly punished. "If it's so natural and okay, then why are you wearing clothes? You preach about it but I've yet to see you follow what you preach, while Professor Xen only wears body paint." She had a nasty smug tone in her voice,
Now it was Edward's turn to have a glint in his eyes, as he grinned. "Very well then, to prove to you what I speak is truth, observe." He shamelessly shed his own clothing, and set it neatly folded on the desk while nearly every female in the room turned bright blue in the face, one of them even holding her nose shut as it began to leak their oddly blue colored blood, while Kalizuk's face went as blue as a blueberry. Looking around, he sat back down without a single shed of embarrassment. "Since Ukki has shown a keen interest in integrating into the Crystal Empire's way of doing things, come up and have a mint, it's a small candy." He took one of the wrapped treats from the bowl and held it out, as Ukki skipped down the rows of carefully placed desks and took the candy from Edwards.
Without much thought she opened it, and popped the candy into her mouth. The moment she did her pupils dilated till her entire eye was nearly black with only a small ring of green to show her sclera, and she shuddered. It was like fire but made of ice, and it sent such strong sensations through her that she couldn't get enough, that's when she tried to pounce on Edwards, a need burning within so strong she could not resist. However, Edwards had pressed the security button the moment her eyes got so....creepily black. Just before she could reach him, two security androids rushed into the room and grabbed her by the shoulders. Ukki tried to fight them like a feral animal, kicking, trying to bite, she even managed to cave one's head in with a solid punch, sending the machine flying backwards out the doorway it had arrived through. Before she could wrest herself free of the other however a needle pierced her neck, and the drugs did their job sedating her.
Edwards looked at the now heavily sedated student, then at the bowl of mint candies. "Christ on his Cross I need to report this to High Command!" Which for the local colony meant the current authority of the Research Tower at the center of the Crystal Empire's efforts to study the native animal and plant life, Doctor Ember Flame's.
----------------Elsewhere on leva-------
Azula watched in amusement as several women got tossed violently away from a large door that said 'Male Showers' in her people's script. These 'sanitation facilities' had been set up a few days ago, seemingly separated by gender, one for males, one for females. Each one was guarded by two soldiers clad in odd uniforms that exposed none of their skin, almost looking like machines. There had been an issue of women trying to sneak into the males showers to have some fun, or just to get a peak at them, the result was the ones who tried getting the shit beat out of them then tossed back into the street.
Azula found that absolutely hilarious and she'd often sit on a bench near the sanitation facilities to just watch the chaos happen, every day slitlickers too stupid to think with their brains, would think with their cunts and inevitably get their collective asses kicked. She also admired the 'General Store' that had gone up, she'd gone in herself. So many things! So many fantastical things she'd never seen before, like a Television set! According to the staff, it was an outdated tube model, but it was all that was currently allowed on the planet for some reason.
What she had enjoyed most however, was the clothes section. Clothes were often hand-made and took a lot of time and effort to make, however the aisle she'd been down had dozens of different clothes, each in their own style, but held dozens of the same clothes. Azula had become rather fond of 'hoodies' and had gotten a purple one, as well as a pair of green 'sweatpants', they were just so comfortable. She was too busy watching the spectacle of another dumbass getting their ass kicked in when a human male in a white lab coat with a red symbol on their shoulder plapped onto the bench. She didn't know much about the ones who wore those outfits, but she'd heard they were powerful healers, and had as much power as a noble did so she froze. He didn't even seem to register her presence, he had large dark circles around his eyes and his face seemed somewhat sunken in. In other words he looked utterly exhausted. Without warning he fell sideways on the bench, his head landing squarely in her lap.
This had several consequences, for one Azula's face went bright blue and she froze unsure of what to do, and when she finally decided to try and nudge the person off her, a guard wearing the same armor as the one's guarding the sanitation facilities stomped up, aiming a plasma rifle at her. "Attempting to harm a member of the Empire's Planetary Medical Research Team is punishable by death. Proceed and you will be terminated." She froze in pure utter terror, she knew what those weapons could do, she'd been a former musket-woman after all, and heard the stories of light so bright and hot it turned a Commandress to ashes in mere moments. Azula only relaxed after the guard..mercenary? Put the weapon on his back, it sounded like a male but, wrong somehow, and picked up the male who'd literally fallen asleep with his face in her lap, hauling him away like a sack of fruit, showing no strain. She sat there confused on what to do, her face still both pale from fear, and blue with embarrassment.
Finally, after nearly an hour, and watching a fantastical thing called an 'automobile' drive by spouting slogans for 'Fancy Lad's Snack Cakes' She stood up, and started the long walk home.
The sun shone brightly upon the mountainside city. As it had done for the past three hundred years. Just as the sun always shone upon the city, so too did its people mill about doing their day to day tasks as they always had. It was peaceful, almost peaceful at any rate. This city was the safest location that Kildid ruled over, it was their Capital, the shining beacon of what their civilization was to be, and he loved it. What he didn't love was the news of recent attacks on towns at the outskirts of the mountain. They had been occurring far too often lately for his liking.
He sighed, enjoying a cup of tea as he stood overlooking his Capital city from a window in his estate. Looking back down at his desk he sighed again, this time it wasn't happy either. The bomb had been developed five years ago and he had debated every day since it wad first tested and refined, whether to use it or not. Kildid didn't know why he didn't just sign off on the operation to begin with, maybe it was because it seemed wrong to kill so many with such little effort. On the other hand, he thought to himself, those that'd be killed didn't give a damn they were sentient just like them, all they saw his kind as, was food. Looking over a map, one of their settlements was expanding a little too close to the mountain for his liking, or the liking of his military advisors. Kildid felt it was time to use the bomb, even if he didn't like the idea of harming so many, they cared not if they harmed his species, so by that logic, why should he care what harm came to them? More so when said harm was well deserved after hundreds of years of being prey, being food for something larger than him and no less intelligent.
Kildid felt that was what sickened him most, these creatures were just as intelligent as his species, yet choose to ate his kind whenever they found them, caring nothing at all for the families they ripped apart, the children they separated from mothers before consuming them live, still screaming until they swallowed, the towns, and small cities they ruined in the process with their large size. With a glare at the paper on his desk, he signed his name and picked up a telephone off the desk, cranking it a few times before the line connected. "Yes, President?"
Looking over the paper he signed, he spoke with conviction in his voice. "Operation Holy Flame has been approved. I want those bombers up in less than five hours or your ass is fired."
The other voice on the line remained professional, showing no hint of what they thought. "At once, Sir, they'll be up at the requested time, the target?"
"The town closest to us, by the bottom of the mountain two miles off, they've been expanding too fast, if they get too close they'll no doubt try what they do to all the towns of ours they find." The line went dead as he set the phone back onto the set. And turned his chair to look outside the window once more upon his Capital, finishing his now cold tea.
Princess Celestia sighed, sipping a cup of tea. She did still quite enjoy tea despite Quantum being her favorite drink currently, still an old classic, you couldn't beat a good cup of tea with just a dash of honey. Looking over some paperwork she smiled. Lorenzo was sending in more shipments of Thalaill steak soon, she liked Thalaill steak quite a bit. It was a tad saltier than she was used too, which helped add to the novelty of it for her. Over the eons she'd ruled Equestria she'd tried all manner of dishes and drinks from every kingdom, some no longer existing. Her ponies could be so creative, but there's only so many flavors of cake one can make before eventually you've tried them all, moreso when you're immortal like she was! So she was immensely happy for the new dishes to try, flavors and spices she'd never had before, and more to come in the coming years! All very exciting.
She quite liked Ippafruit, it was tart, almost like a pomegranate, but sweet at the same time in a confusing combination of flavors, when juiced the closest thing she could compare it too would be lemonade, but that didn't do it justice, it really was an alien flavor. Already she'd set ponies to planting the fruit in the Royal Canterlot Gardens, and as far as she knew they'd taken well to the soil. Celestia also found it amusing that she was the only one allowed to plant the seeds of the fruit beyond the Crystal Empire's borders. Often it was sold to others in a dried form, or juiced, no seeds to be found for replanting, but Lorenzo had made an exception for her given she was a friend. She was also set to get a small herd of Thalaill to try and rear them for meat. She eagerly awaited that, if it proved viable for Equestria, another new meat would be on the mass market.
Thinking about it, the Crystal Empire was likely raking in the Bits from selling alien seasonings and spices, she knew for a fact the Griffon Empire was importing a lot of those recently. Her horn began to glow with a golden hue as a telescope floated over to her, walking onto a balcony she raised it to her eye focusing on the Everfree Forest. Just as she'd expected to see, ponies and machines alike leaped closer, tree's being sliced down and trucks hauling construction equipment paving a new road. Celestia smiled as she watched that, the Castle Of The Two Sisters, her former home, and the former capital of Equestria, was being rebuilt, and a new capital around it as well to serve as a backup should anything ever happen to Canterlot. Faust forbid, but it was a possibility. She'd decided to do that after learning Lorenzo had decidedly made the Imperial City of Vonolla on Vanov, a secondary capital from which his Empire could be managed should the capital be destroyed. It had seemingly been the former capital of the Akun Empire before they got absorbed, according to Lorenzo, so it already had a palace and was constructed to manage an interstellar empire.
Lorenzo had gone on in detail how it was a pain in the ass to retrofit the Imperial Palace with air-conditioning units, and proper beds, as the akun slept on sleeping mats, which reminded her of the foam mats you'd see ponies doing yoga on at public gyms. She had taken this idea and decided to have the former capital of Equestria rebuilt. It would be a rather easy task, even if it was to take a few months. Modern equipment and construction technology made a task that would take years before, now to mere months, thank Faust for that. It could also serve as a secondary starship port so Ponyville could get a slight break in the traffic. Her mind went to the cities destroyed when the Zetans fired their deathray at Equis, intending to cleanse it of life, but being unable to bring it's full power to bear, shooting in desperation it might frighten them into ceasing their attacks on that starship. Without thinking of it, her teacup shattered into thousands of small shards of glass. Her eyes and mane taking on a more flame-like quality, before she realized what she was doing and ceased.
Looking down she glared at the shards. "Oh for fucks sake, again?" With another flash from her horn, the shards, along with the spilled tea, were gone. Celestia went back to overlooking the blueprints for the backup capital. But in the back of her mind, an anger was festering silently, and it was directed at those little green bastards.
------------------------Leva, General Health Clinic----------
Doctor Christoph was overlooking X-rays from a previous patient, before storing them away in the allocated file cabinet. Just as he did so, his next patient walked into the room, green sweatpants and a purple hoodie on, one of the locals. Checking the chart he grabbed a pen and motioned for her to sit down. "Name, age, prior health conditions, previous occupation before the Crystal Empire took over management of Leva?"
"Azula, my age is 28 local solar cycles, no previous health conditions that I know of, I've never been sick before, and prior occupation was a Musketwoman for Empress Vodain's military." The scratching of pen on paper was all that was heard for a few moments as the Doctor noted down her information, before he lowered the clipboard.
The moment he did, Azula's face went blue as she recognized him to be the male who used her lap as a pillow last week. He seemed to recognize her as well, as the Doctor looked flustered for a moment before speaking. "Apologies, my 'escort' as you could call him, showed me the video from his optics after I woke up, I'd been working for two days with minimal sleep, however we're not here for that, we're here for some general medical testing, please step into the Auto-doc to your left on the wall, and strip beforehand, I will be behind this curtain. Please inform me of when you are inside the Auto-doc."
Azula did as asked, and after putting her clothes on the chair stepped into the pod. "I'm in, what now?" She was curious, this was the first time she'd been inside one of these healing palaces, as they'd been nicknamed by her people.
"Just stand still, and let the pod do it's work, don't be alarmed."
Don't be alarmed? What could that mean? Azula found out quickly what it meant as several needles jabbed into her back, and a blue light began to shine inside the pod as sensors moved up and down in circular motions within as the pod shut. There was a slight pinch of pain from the needles, but it quickly vanished as another jabbed her in the neck as the others retreated, injecting a stimpack along with a mild painkiller. The pod flashed green for a few moments, then opened. "Please inform me of when you've reclothed yourself."
As instructed, she put her clothes back on, and called out. Doctor Christoph walked out from behind the curtain, tapping away at a glowing screen on the wall, several results spitting out in a language she couldn't read, images of her internal organs, skeletal and muscular system, nervous system, and every other bodily system she could imagine was being shown in clear images with lines and words pointing to specific things. Again however she couldn't exactly READ what it said. "Vitals look good, no signs of stress on any joints, beyond what's normal for your species age, congratulations you are in excellent health aside from a minor vitamin C deficiency, I'm going to suggest you eat more fruits, and if that doesn't pan out in two weeks, give you a vitamin supplement."
Azula grinned. "I didn't exactly mind being used as a pillow, ya know. We could do that again sometime." That made the Doctor start stuttering as he tried, and failed to form coherent words.
Azula paused, looking at all the choices. She'd seen, and used a musket before, even a bow and arrow, it was faster than reloading mid battle. But these? These looked elegant, designed for one purpose only, to kill, and to kill quickly. This new shop sold firearms, ones designated as legal for her people to have at any rate, she doubted any of these would do damage to the warriors in their odd purple armor, let alone the ones in the black armor. An odd machine waved at her, a ball with three arms, and three eyes, a glowing blue light below it as it hovered in the air as a bird might, but without wings. "Welcome to Otto’s Auto Rifles and Blasters! I'm Josh, what can I help you with today?" The machines voice was male in nature, but it acted as if it was alive, for all Azula knew it WAS alive. She didn't want to think about living machines and pushed it to the back of her mind for now as she observed the shelf lined with weapons, behind a glowing case.
"I've recently been hired to act as a personal guard to a Doctor working nearby, I was told to give you this." She pulled an odd plastic card from her pocket that had dozens of intricate little lines on it, each one shining in the light as she handed it over.
The Mr.Handy, who's name was Josh for some reason, grabbed the card and inserted it into itself, and hummed for a few moments as the card ejected into a trashcan. "Authorization for Military Grade firepower accepted, weapon requested, Submachine Gun, automatic." The machine turned around and grabbed something from a display behind it, and slid it onto the counter along with several boxes of ammunition, and several other drums. "This is a Submachine gun, rapid rate of fire, medium range, mostly useful for close quarters combat." Azula picked up the weapon, she'd been trained how to use one of these using some sort of simulator, so she knew what to do. "The order card you gave me also contained a payment code for the weapon and its ammunition, everything's all paid for, have a nice day and come again!"
Azula didn't entirely understand, as she hadn't given the machine any coins, but shrugged and loaded the weapon, flicking the safety off as she stored the other drums and the boxes of ammunition in a pouch on her side, walking out of the store. She already knew the Doctor, as she'd taken to calling him, had a set of personally fitted 'Combat Armor' for her awaiting at the hospital she was to meet him at.
-------------------------------------------Elsewhere On Leva-----------------------------
The Noble stood before Frank Horrigan, a glare on her face despite the fact this male was several times her height, and could easily crush her with a meaty fist, let alone the weapons he was likely to carry on his person. "I'm Edraks, current Matriarch of the Hiv'its House. We traded uncivilized Manuka for hard labor, or to toil away in the mines. Currently our House is losing money by the day since you've stupidly outlawed slavery, I want to see if we can fix this issue." She slid a rather.....hefty bag of golden and silver coins across the desk towards Frank Horrigan. "I'd also like to see my third daughter, Khicoit's released from custody and returned home."
Frank Horrigan looked across his rather large solid tungsten desk which was magically reinforced as much as runes would allow it to be, and stared, the eyes in his helmet glowing solid red. Then to the bag of coins on his desk, then back to the noble, well FORMER noble, in the eyes of the Empire, she looked smug, almost assured he'd accept the bribe and do as she wanted. "No."
Edraks huffed and slid another two hefty bags of coins onto the desk. "Perhaps this will change your mind?"
Frank lifted up his arm, the power armored fist now enveloped by a gatling plasma, and promptly blasted the bags to molten slag and ash on his desk, before lowering it. He was amused by the look of sheer terror on Endraks face as the molten metal slid down both sides of the desk, spilling over like a deadly waterfall. "No. In fact, you are now under arrest for attempted bribery of an Empire Official." He stood to his full height, then she did something he genuinely didn't expect. She raised a flintlock pistol directly to his helmeted face and fired. The massive lead ball mushroomed on his helmet for a brief second before ricocheting off and slamming into the water cooler. Shattering the glass and spilling water everywhere on the floor.
Endraks stared in mute horror as Frank's helmet only showed a slight scratch in the paint, as his eyes began to glow brighter than before. "That'll be the last mistake you ever make, Mutie, Now you've pissed me off." Before she could reload or think to flee, he reached over the desk and grabbed her by the torso, hefting her off the ground. She began to scream, in the vain hope someone would hear and rush to her aid. But everyone in the vicinity knew who's office she was in, and they damn well knew, you don't fuck, with Frank Horrigan and live to tell the tale. Frank's other hand grabbed her throat, and squeezed. Endraks flailed in his grip and let out a choked agonized squeal before blue blood splashed everywhere as her throat was crushed like a tin can in the man's grip. He kept squeezing, and a stomach churning snap was heard as her spine cracked, her body falling away heaving Endrak's ruined throat and head in Frank's grip. "This will make a good decoration." Horrigan set off to get the head cleaned of flesh and blood, so he could display it on his desk.
He left the body where it lay, the cleaners would deal with it. After all, that's what they got paid for, wasn't it?
Queen Chrysalis overlooked some status reports put onto the table before her, then looked back up to Blackfang. "I find all of these requests for improvement to the Hive's internal structures acceptable, they'll be implemented within a week. I also find the massive spike in population growth to be a tad alarming, but that's to be expected of our species when food is plentiful and easily available as it is now."
Blackfang still found the anthro version of the Chrysalis he knew odd, she acted nothing like the one from his world, but, she was near second in command to only Emperor Lorenzo himself, so he would be dickering with her over matters the other hives had thought needed dickering. The other former Hive rulers didn't need to come to this meeting, only he did. "Alright, I'd also like to note we've expanded the Hive's underground structures another three miles deeper, we hit a rather large vein of gems, and are gathering them for transport to the Empire Proper, for industrial use."
Queen Chrysalis nodded. "Good, I read that in the report, most of these gems seem to be rare, so they'll be worth a lot on the Equestrian market once they've been marked, and sorted, we've also gone ahead and installed several tanks to store excess love nectar, so you have a place to properly store any extra your changelings produce, so none of it goes to waste."
"Good, I'll see to it they are filled as soon as possible, it never hurts to have a backup." He shuddered, thinking about when the Crystal Empire had vanished off the face of Equis with no warning, leaving them only the supply of love-gems that'd been delivered a mere week before, rationing had gotten strict, and even with Equestrian help, a lot of changelings had went hungry for far too long, he wasn't eager to see that happen again anytime soon. "If that's all, I'd like to get back to oversee the construction of new tunnels below, and ensure some dumb grub doesn't accidently collapse the air-ventilation shafts."
Chrysalis nodded. "That shall be all then, I'll be returning to the Empire's secondary capital, if you require anything of me just use the personal communication channel set up for you, it'll direct your call directly to me, even while not on Equis, thanks to those nifty little portalgates the Equestrians designed." She tapped a few times on the wrist mounted device she almost always wore, and with a flash of light and sound akin to thunder she was gone. Having used the Molecular Relay to teleport back to the secondary capital.
-------------------------------------Leva, Cultural Festival--------------------
Vodain wasn't exactly sure what her title was nowadays. She knew she still had some semblance of power over her former kingdom, and those of her rivals. But, not much compared to when she ruled her own Empire with her and her alone acting as the ruler. Even her palace was still hers, despite being modified with 'electric' lighting and other things, it was still hers, the staff all remained loyal to her, their training had done them well. But, Emperor Lorenzo couldn't be contested, she'd seen the kind of warfare the Crystal Empire waged first hand, she knew they stood zero chances in 'pan fried hell' as Lorenzo called it, of making any meaningful resistance. A few wanted to try, but she shut that down whenever she heard it, life was better now for themselves as a species than it ever was before, even if it sadly came with the removal of their autonomy, much to some Manuka's resentment.
In what was once the Imperial Palace courtyard a sort of festival was going on with music, and various foods, all of them native to the Crystal Empire. One stand was selling something called 'Chicken Pot Pie' which seemed to be popular at the moment if the line was any indication. It had been explained to her it was to get her people used to the Empire's style of life quicker than not, she'd also been mandated to get education from a personal teacher that looked like a ball with three metal eyestalks on it, creepy but it was polite enough when it spoke. Vodain listened as speakers on stage began to blare, an announcer tapping a microphone. "Up next, The Countess! Everyone give her a warm welcome!" Then the lights on the stage darkened and then a beat began to play through the speakers. "Time for the spectacle Time for the show The lights are bright And the colors glow, I'm not just anypony I think you know The time is now It's about to blow!" That's when the mare's voice took on an odd quality Vodain absolutely couldn't describe as natural sounding as the music continued.
--------------------Canterlot Royal Guard Training Grounds----------------
Princess Celestia stood in front of a group of forty or so soldiers dressed in Equestria's newest power armor, keeping to the theme she had before, they'd been painted a bright golden color. Their plasma rifles bearing a close resemblance to what Lorenzo said was a Zetan Energy Rifle. "I want all of you to look at the destruction our enemy has caused firsthoof, I have been to each city destroyed by those abominations of life." Her horn lit up and a set of holographic images blinked into existence. Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Manehatten all shown in absolute ruin, not even ruins remained. It was all a black, glass like substance with bits of rock and melted concrete scattered about. For all intent and purposes it looked like an alien wasteland if not for the ponies seen in random images, all of which were royal guards.
Celestia observed the expressions on these guards, it varied from looks of horror to pity and disgust, to outright pure anger. "This is what the enemy we're facing can do, they did this with one shot. We offered them peace, friendship and harmony, and in retaliation they struck us like a wild animal. So, we shall treat them like they treated us, they were quite clear about rejecting our offer of friendship." Her horn lit as several energy cells floated to each royal guard. "These are your ammunition, those energy rifles your tools, we shall avenge those who where needlessly killed."
Another flash and semi transparent yellow Zetan images popped into existence, 3D and aiming weapons at them. Without much prompt the holo-aliens were blasted apart by automatic magical plasma bolts slamming into them. Celestia smiled watching each shot connect, training was going well, if the other groups where as good at hitting their targets as this one, she had no doubt the conflict wouldn't last too long. Not when she was going into the fight herself, she needed no plasma rifle, she had all the magic she needed to fight with.
--------------- Council of Five------------------
Soro looked at the display before him, looking at the others as well. "It has come to our attention that we wildly underestimated the level of technological progress that the inhabitants of System X-42 would have, expecting them to still be primitive and in ruin from the last catastrophic war they held, this was very obviously a mistake." The display switched to a loop of several starships firing large solid beams of plasma at the mothership. "The only weapon they had that could shatter our shields like they didn't even exist, was this." Images changed again to several starships with large beams of pure plasma coming from the end of the ships aimed at the motherships cameras.
A horrified gasp went around the room. Soro continued. "These new plasma beams seem to completely ignore shields, they bypassed them with one shot and struck at the ships superstructure itself in one blow, obviously not enough to take it out of course, but then something truly horrific happened, and the probe we launched prior to record this for the records also recorded this." The video changed to an Equine with wings and horn, aflame as if made of molten star magma, galloping through the space around the starship, before its horn began to glow a violent yellow and the starship was shown being crushed like cheap metal foil much to the audible terror of those present. Finally, after a dozen explosions the main reactors went off causing a violent shockwave that seemed to barely affect the equine, knocking the probe out of commission as it was blown up by debris.
The room went silent as everyone stared in muted terror at the video being displayed. One of the council members nearly voided themselves. Soro started again. "Combined with this and the attack we suffered here, it's very clear this enemy knows about where our homeworld is, and could at any time attack, due to this we The Council of Five shall be evacuating to a station within space that is very well hidden, this is to ensure if this world is lost, we are not and thus may continue giving orders and maintaining our civilization. As Head of the Council there will be no voting on this, it will be as I say."
No one argued, no one dared to do so. Soro seemed to be the only one on the Council at the moment to remain calm, or at least appear calm to them. In reality he was very, very worried about the future of their species. "We need to figure out what the weapon that tore our shields apart was, and try to replicate it, or at the very least, nullify it and ensure it's useless for the enemy."
------------------ Calculator, Former Holy Hegemony Solar System-----------------
Everything was going nicely here. The system had been purged of the Fedan species, and much to Calculators surprise, more than one slave species freed this time! There had been around four species enslaved on this specific planet, sure some Fedans still existed hiding in mineshaft's or basements, but the former slaves were taking care of them rapidly. It'd been two weeks since they'd been liberated. Much to his surprise, the slaves had all had military training of some sort or another, and had been rebelling the entire time the Holy Hegemony held the system, so giving them weapons to fight with wasn't much of an issue even if it was just outdated plasma rifles. They'd taken to them like a fish to water. The solar system itself held a K-Class orange dwarf star at the center, housing only 7 planets, three of which where barren, two gas giants, an ice world, and then the tropical oceanic world of which was inhabited. Calculator had had some issues regarding one of the species that looked, far too human for his liking. Almost like evolved humans, but so far had yet to encounter problems from the natives, and was rendering medical aid via android units.
-----------------------------UNKNOWN FLEET, SAME SYSTEM-------------------
As the fleet of starships primed for war exit large glowing vortexes, they came across an odd sight. Rather than the sleek, golden colored starships they had been expecting to witness, large bulky purple ones, with an odd white symbol on them swarm the system, each one massive, each one bristling to the brim with weapons on the hull.
"Lieutenant, what exactly am I looking at? They don't seem to be the fleet that was described." Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt asked his aid as he stared out the viewing deck. The whole ship was set on red alert, the call for all to action station blaring along with the alarm. The entire deck was flooded with a deep sanguine light signifying the state the fleet was in.
Looking away from the scene before her, a Felinae Minus officer, with the twin sabers denoting her rank as lieutenant responded. "It appears to be a separate fleet stealing our kill." she replied coolly, before returning her attention to her data slate. "Shall I give the order to fire upon them Sir?"
"Negative Lieutenant. Give me an uplink with them. I'd Like to have a word. Perhaps they'll be willing to share and let us save our people." The "Human" Admiral ordered getting a small smile from his aide.
"Aye, Admiral. Glory to the Republic"
The uplink request signal was sent out, and within mere moments of doing so, it was accepted as the screen went from blank, to a blue line with a dark background. The voice on the other end of the line was harshly synthetic, but clearly male. "You are now in territory designated as a humanitarian crisis by the Crystal Empire, State your designation and intentions or you will be eradicated."
Surprise lit up in the admiral's features, but quickly schooled his visage to one of professionalism. An AI controlled fleet? How Peculiar. He thought before clearing his throat. "I Am Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt of the Military Republic of Lunarum. You are in our territory. But seeing as you seem to have killed our enemy and hopefully not our people, we demand retribution upon the ones whom have so boldly invaded and enslaved our people. You will comply or we will not hesitate to attack you and your forces." He said, his eyes steely and his tone cold as ice.
The line began moving as the voice spoke. "Local Holy Hegemony is now extinct. Remnants being dealt with by your people." The vidscreen changed, flashing images, videos, robotic units gunning down HH soldiers, HH civilians, somehow avoiding (most of the time) shooting any of the various species seen in collars, units with a red cross symbol administering medical aid and removing collars was also shown.
The Fleet Admiral watched in silence, before coming to a decision. "This is Republic Space, while your aid to the citizens of the Republic is greatly appreciated, it is my duty to liberate them from these bastards you are killing. I request to join in the fight. These are my people. Grant me this privilege to strike back at this foe who was foolish enough to invade a world of veterans." He asked signaling the crew with a series of hand gestures behind his back to ready all weapons should things go south. "If you did not know, we have forces that have taken to guerrilla warfare to strike back and resist them. It would do well for both the populace and old guard if we joined in this fight."
The line is silent for a few moments. "I may not act without word of The Emperor." They could just hear the capital letters thudding into place. "Please hold." The line went silent for a whopping 15 seconds. "I have been authorized to allow entry into the atmosphere, attempted attacks on Empire forces will result in hostilities."
"Acknowledge. Any attempt at treachery will result in open war. When this is over, I would request a word with your superior." Johan said, a sense of relief flooding him and his staff as the fleet made their way towards the colony. Turning to his Aide, his face was once more one of resolve. "Ready all ground forces. Get the JST's ready for drop. they're goin in hot. Orders are to kill any not aiding our people, do not attack those wearing the sigil of a snowflake." He said evenly.
Tapping away at her data-slate, the Lieutenant replied. "Acknowledged Admiral. Orders are sent. The Troops are ready and eager sir."
"Very good Astrid." He said before turning back to the screen. "Our forces are prepared. Prepare for atmospheric landings." Things where about to get interesting, any of the fuckers left hiding would soon be very, very dead.
The ancient stone walls of the long abandoned tomb they traversed looked like they would collapse at the slightest of touches. Dr. Caballeron knew they wouldn't, he'd been in enough ancient forgotten structures to know when one was unfortunately too unstable to traverse into safely with any expectancy of returning. It had taken him months of research to locate this place, the name long forgotten to time, he'd taken to calling it the Temple of Memories, for if what was rumored to lie within its decaying walls was actually here, he'd be making it big.
Looking behind him, his two guards remained vigilant as ever. Two odd bipeds in strange black armor with red and purple markings on them, carrying two long sleek weapons. He'd never seen their faces, they never seemed to sleep, eat, or drink, or at least if they did, he never saw them do it. These two guards had been provided by his new Employer, a very wealthy Employer at that, and one eager to ensure his services were not, disturbed. Already they had killed two stone statues that'd come to life to guard the entrance of the tomb from outsiders, their weapons having torn the two stone creatures apart into powder. Looking closely at the somewhat ruined carvings on the walls, he nodded. "What we're after should be down this way, if nothing goes wrong we'll be out of here in less than an hour." His guards said nothing in return, just silently giving a nod, they rarely spoke. Suited Dr. Caballeron just fine, they didn't sound natural when they spoke, he assumed it had something to do with the odd helmets they wore, which looked like more advanced versions of Equestrian Military gas masks. As he took a step forward a small slab of stone sunk into the ground, causing his eyes to widen. "Fuck."
A large door of stone slammed shut, there was no way he'd be able to get past it without the use of explosives, and he didn't exactly feel comfortable blowing shit up so deep underground, in what was likely not a very stable structure of ancient stone. Before he could comment on that however, both of his guards stepped forward to the door and forced their hands into the stone where the two halves slammed into one another. Caballeron watched in astonishment as the stone cracked, and groaned in protest before it began to slide apart as the two pulled and pushed. They didn't make the opening very wide but they had cracked open doors that a minotaur would have had trouble doing. He was glad they'd been paid to be on his side.
Peering into the darkness, it was lit up for the first time in what was likely centuries by the lights he carried with him, and the two lamps shining out of the guards helmets. Carefully stepping down onto the staircase he traversed his way deeper, before finally standing before them was a door decorated with gems and rare metals depicting various events, the creation of an artifact, its use and the eventual construction and sealing of the artifact within this very temple. Those didn't matter to him, what mattered was getting the door open. Dr. Caballeron looked to his two guards. "You two, get that door open."
They moved to obey, this time not using their hands but planting odd devices alongside the door, before flipping a switch. The ground began to shake and vibrate slightly as the devices on the door beeped, hissed, and clicked oddly, before the door shattered into thousands of razor sharp stone shards, and bits of gems and metals. Dr. Caballeron was glad he was wearing boots, that wouldn't be fun to walk on. Walking into the camber he grinned like a madman, the artifact was sitting on a stone pillar, no traps, no pressure sensors, primitive as they'd be to be seen or found with his guards' odd scanners. Carefully he picked up the artifact, it was called 'The Memory Stone' it was a small, gray oval shaped rock that had green markings that dully glowed in the darkness of the cavern it was left in. Carved with various small designs the middle pattern is shaped like an eye, the top markings three triangles, and at the bottom patterns that where lines that end with swirls. As for why he was so happy about having found the artifact after several months of searching, and avoiding Daring Do in the process, was because now he'd get a massive payout. "Alright boys, time to go, we got what the Big Boss wanted."
They obeyed, they always did. Getting back to the surface of the Forbidden Jungle was a trivial matter, his two guards had already disabled or bypassed the ancient traps, arrows, flying poison darts, the two stone guardians at the entrance. Now all that stood before them was the jungle which was about to make him a very rich stallion. One of the guards grabbed his shoulder. "Prepare for Relay." He didn't like what was about to happen next. It was like unicorn teleportation but far more disorienting to him.
Before they could Relay however, Daring Do shot into view, swooping down and landing hard with a glare on her face. "Dr. Caballeron! It took me over a week of tracking you in this Faust Forsaken jungle, but I finally managed it. Your evil scheme ends here! You are to give me the artifact and maybe I won't kick your ass black and blue, m'kay?"
Dr. Caballeron's face broke from a serious glare, to a large grin, eyeing his two guards. "Boys, I do think someone's trying to get in our way, would you mind taking the trash out?"
Both guards raised their weapons, before either could fire Daring Do had jumped into action, delivering a swift kick to the guards heads, only to scream as her leg broke from the force of the impact. The guards helmet cracked, the glass faceplate shattering showing two hellish red eyes beneath. Without the helmet to filter its voice, it was harshly synthetic and hostile sounding. "By order of Dr. Caballeron you must be destroyed, commencing termination of organic life form." Daring Do was seized by the throat while the barrel of his guard's weapon was put under her chin, she had only a moment to scream before several bangs rang out, her head reduced to a red pulp of mist and bone. Not seeming to care about the blood it had just gotten on itself, the guard threw the corpse to the ground, and the other began peppering it with rounds.
By the time it was done, the corpse was almost unrecognizable as a pony, but just to be sure it the corpse couldn't be identified a round object was inserted into what was left of the chest cavity, which soon thereafter exploded with a burst of plasma, turning the corpse into a pile of burnt flesh and meat, bones instantly turned to ash. Caballeron grinned widely, after all those years of having his deals ruined, Daring Do would bother him no more. The guard without the broken faceplate looked down and grabbed his shoulder. "Prepare for Relay." With an instant, all three of them were gone leaving the forest to remain eerily silent, no one would ever discover the true fate of Daring Do.
----------------------------Military Republic of Lunarum Flagship---------------------------
Calculator's voice spoke through the vid-screen again. "I have received word that the Emperor wishes to converse with you."
Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt nodded. "That seems like a good idea given the circumstances, how will he be arriving? I don't think your shuttles are compatible with our docking bays."
"Standby for Molecular Relay, no shuttlecraft needed."
The Fleet Admiral stood there with a raised eyebrow, but did as told and waited. What the hell is a Molecular Relay?
A loud flash of light and sound answered that for him, as a man literally materialized out of nowhere. Without waiting one of the ensigns opened fire upon their visitor. As the magnetically accelerated round impacted center of mass, the rest of the crew stood in shock, thinking they'd just started a war. Without hesitation, Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt drew his own sidearm, along with his Lieutenant and half of the bridge crew and opened fire on the trigger-happy ensign. Magrail rounds ripped through the Liberis ensign's body, spraying the consoles and deck with cobalt ichor. Oh Shit! Oh Fuck! Oh Fuck! Johan thought as he stared at the corpse of the supposed Emperor. Red colored blood splattered everywhere.
Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt was about to begin panicking, when the corpse simply seemed to vanish, and now stood in its place was the man who'd just been killed, with a bored deadpan on his face. "That's a fine howdy do if I do say so myself." This Emperor was dressed in a simple purple suit, with a black tie. With an odd silver crown on his head lined with various blue and purple gems, while the center gem looked to be a black golf ball sized void that held a spinning galaxy within its core.
At once, all weapons were trained upon the supposed corpse. "Lower your weapons you fucking morons, or I swear you will join the dumbass who we gunned down for lack of discipline!" Only with the commanding bark from Johan to lower weapons did the crew relax slightly. Despite the fact the body was gone, and the Emperor was well and whole, the Admiral as well as much of the crew could not wrap their heads around the fact they just watched him get blown away only to quite literally respawn before them. What was this some old videogame? Shaking his head, Johan collected his thoughts and straightened up. "Apologies Emperor. While your entrance was unexpected, it was no excuse for that piece of shit to gun you down." He said pointing at the shredded body of the former ensign. "I truly hope this will not be held against the Republic. As you can see, the perpetrator has been dealt with. Severely..." He said the last part darkly. Snapping to attention, he gave their visitor a crisp salute, followed by the rest of the bridge. "Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt, of the The Military Republic of Lunarum." He belted out, his gaze now steely and ready for anything. He personally wouldn't be surprised if this Emperor decided to declare war. He did just literally get gunned down without provocation. Trigger-happy fool...
The Emperor smiled. "Take no notice of the buffoon's lack of discipline with weaponry, I've been shot and riddled with holes more times than I can count, one time I even crashed into a mountain going Mach seven or eight, this wasn't much worse." The Emperor's tone wasn't angry, or even disappointed, just amused. "You may call me, Lorenzo, or if you want to be fancy, Emperor Lorenzo, whichever works for you, there is no need to salute or bow, for you are not my citizens."
Relaxing his Salute, Johan stood rigid as he gazed upon the enigma before him. "Of course Emperor Lorenzo. How can I be of service?" He asked, his tone genuine, yet his eyes remained steely, watching the human if he had to guess, stand before him. If it was a human, some questions would have to be asked. Perhaps, unpleasant ones.
Emperor Lorenzo stood still, remaining in the same pose as when he'd relayed in, except when he was gunned down, he respawned in the exact same pose. "Well for one, if this world truly does belong to you, it's only fair to vacate the system and allow your people to do with it as they wish, the Empire is currently waging a war with the Holy Hegemony, which is what those vile creatures call themselves." The amount of venom when 'vile creatures' was said would have been enough to kill a Man-O-War Jellyfish. "So far they have attempted without success to retake worlds previously belonging to them three times now, the Crystal Empire is currently eradicating them as a species from every system they are found in."
Without prompt, a predatory smile graced the visages of everyone on the command deck. They had a name for the enemy that dared try to conquer their colony. Their people. While Xenophiles, and preferring diplomacy over outright hostility, this insult would not stand. "I see. If this is true, you have our thanks, for not only liberating the colony from those bastards, but also putting a name to the ones who so boldly attacked the Military Republic of Lunarum." If evil had a face, Johan was the one to wear it as thoughts of vengeance flitted about his mind, his eyes burning with hatred along with the other crew members. "If you will allow, once the Imperator approves, we would like to join you on this... Ethnic Cleansing..."
The gem in the center of Emperor Lorenzo's crown began to glow with an odd light as Lorenzo himself smiled. A smile far too wide for a human to be able to pull off, yet there it was clear as day on his face. "I find that acceptable, It Shall Be Done." He tacked on an emphatic cough, which none of them obviously had any idea what it meant.
The galaxy within the gem seeming to flash with light at the sudden increase of emotions, not that Lorenzo seemed to notice. However Fleet Admiral Johan Schmitt certainly did, but chose to not draw too much attention to it for the moment. "Glad you are amenable to this situation. They Bloodied the MRL's nose, and we would have just followed even if you denied our request." He simply said nonchalantly with a shrug. If you would follow me to the War room, we can discuss this Alliance further over drinks. I hope you're a bourbon man." He said before turning to his Lt. "Lieutenant. You have the bridge. Alert me if anything comes up."
The Lieutenant saluted, returning to his station. "Aye sir."
Hal'et was attempting to enjoy breakfast with his father Telj. It was his favorite meal, some small slices of cooked rutid meat with a small bowl of a red sauce made of merpfruit for dipping. The end result was a sweet and salty meal that was just perfect for starting the day, at least to him it was, not everyone would agree.
“So, that nice Clac family girl asked about you again,” Telj said nonchalantly while drinking a cool cup of water, they were lucky to have such a commodity. Since this was the former Imperial Capital of the Tar'oin Empire, access to fresh water was easier to manage as a large stream ran through the middle of the former Imperial Capital, getting water from still places tended to result in becoming very ill, towns father away with no flowing source of water often made ale, wine or beer, and drank that in preference over water. Less likely to become ill that way.
“She did?” Hal'et asked, his favorite meal quickly tasting like ash in his mouth. “What about?”
Telj looked at his son from across the table. “I think you already know, Hal'et, she wishes to spend the day with you.” He said, soon eating another slice of rutid meat. “Why does she not interest you? She seems nice enough, definitely easy on the eyes.”
"Father, you already know why!” Hal'et exclaimed angrily, putting down his food. It wasn’t going to taste very good now. “She is completely arrogant. She boasted and lied to everyone that I am already hers when I am not, do you know how many issues that has caused me the past two weeks?"
“Alright, alright." His Father said, trying to calm his son's temper. “How about Maehuts? She as well as several of her sisters have also shown an interest in you."
“By the Goddesses no! She always tries to correct every small mistake when someone speaks. She acts as if she was raised in the wilds, not in a city or town like a proper person!
His father seemed to ponder for a moment, then looked at him again. “How about Zikeds?”
“Father, are you trying to get rid of me?” Hal'et asked suspiciously. “We both know my sisters are out doing whatever it is they think is fun, my Mothers are out earning money to keep us fed, and housed, you need me to help around the fields and the house.”
“I do need you, Hal'et but I do not want you to be here all your life working out in the fields.” His father said slowly. “You are still young! You can start your own family and bring them to live here, at least before you become too old to be desirable.”
Hal'et gave a dismissive wave. “There is no need for such talk.”
His father gave him a disapproving look. “That may be true, but if you stay here and help at the expense of all else, you will end up alone, no family to call your own. And then what will happen to this land? It's been in the family for abo-"
Cutting his father off. “For ten generations, I know father.” He said with an exasperated sigh. “It is not that I do not want or desire a family all my own, it's just that all the women who have expressed interest in me only see me as a tool to be used, to gain this land since I am the only male child you and Mother's had, I am by law, the heir to this land and the farm upon it. They see me as a tool, something to boost their own image and wealth not as a person. They care not about what I want or hope for and dream of!”
“How can you say such a thing?” Telj demanded, smacking his hand against the wooden table. “Zikeds has always said she found you beautiful and that she wants nothing more than to fulfill your hopes and dreams!”
“So long as those hopes and dreams revolve around her.” Hal'et ground out, venom in his voice.
“Enough. I see you're still too stubborn to learn when you are wrong, you have much learning to do son." Hal'et said nothing, walking out of the house and leaving his breakfast unfinished, he wasn't hungry anymore.
He was tired of his Father always trying to set him up with one woman or another, all they wanted was to use him for their own gain, not for anything he was as a person, to them he was just a slab of meat with wealth attached. Which begged the question, what kind of woman did he want? He wanted someone who was honest and self assured. Someone who looked at him as a person, rather than what benefits he could offer, brave would be nice too. Every woman his father tried to introduce to him seemed to just lack those qualities.
Deciding not to think further on the matter, he made his way to the market. It was abnormal for him to be here alone, normally one or more of his sisters would be 'guarding' him, but they were off only Goddesses knew where, and he wanted something tasty for dinner tonight, so he'd have to brave it alone. Walking among the various stalls, their merchants shouting the greatness of their wears, it was easy to get overwhelmed along them. He'd been here enough times to ignore the ones shouting things like. "Bronze rings! finest in the land!" Or "Bead necklaces! Get something for that special someone!" And instead made his way right to the fish stall. Selecting the nicest one he saw, the stall owner, a large woman with a scar running over one eye, showing it to be a pale grey, dull and useless now from whatever had given her that scar. "15 coin."
"Eight coin, I know this type of fish is common enough, and while its size makes it worth more than the normal three coin someone would pay for it, 15 is far too much." They haggled for awhile, before finally he was able to pay and took the fish. Beginning a walk on a path that'd take him home at the edge of the town, bordering the forest. Just as his house came into sight, a large bellowing roar was heard as trees began to shake. Hal'et looked at the forest in a panic as a Stak came rampaging out of the forest, it's long furred body the pure visage of 'death', normally those things wouldn't be so bold as to bolt into a town, but this one clearly didn't give a damn as it rushed forward, goring a passerby. He stood frozen in fear as its gaze turned to him, growling as it began to bound at him from across the field. It got closer, and closer, faster than he could blink. What happened next left him in shock, as a short female no taller than him in odd purple armor rushed in front of him, raising an oddly designed musket and began to fire. Large bolts of green energy struck the creature causing it to wail in agony as hot plasma sizzled and burned at its fur and flesh. Trying to preserve its own life it turned and made to flee.
"Oh no the fuck you don't you big son of a bitch! Your head is going on my wall damn you!" The soldier screamed, rushing forwards at an astounding speed, stabbing at the creature with a long blade at the end of her weapon, blasting it with more plasma as the Stak flailed, screeching in agony, before finally slumping over dead. "FUCK YEAH! THIS BITCH IS MINE!" Standing atop her prized kill, the golden hair on her head shimmering in the sunlight, Hal'et swore that he could see the faint outline of a glimmering aura around her, She stood proudly.
Hal'et's mouth was agape, his eyes were wide open in surprise. She was it. Every ounce of her being exuded confidence, one would have to have been blind not to see it. She was brave and fierce, taking down a Stak single handedly. Something that even the most experienced of hunting parties would have a Goddess Damned time trying to do. It didn’t matter to him that her eyes looked odd, or that she had strangely colored skin or that she wasn’t as tall as a normal woman. She was perfection, as only a Goddess could be. How could a being of such beauty do such an amazing feat? Surely she was a divine!
---------------Unknown-------------------
The sound of turbojet engines screaming to life was all one could hear at the airbase. Air crews running to their stations, opening and closing hatches and flipping switches, buttons, and all manner of instruments as they prepared to do their sworn duty. Long tubular craft with sleek swept back wings each with three engines, three such craft taxied to one of the runways and began their takeoff.
It was never guaranteed that they wouldn't just dive nose first into the ground the first few moments after takeoff, a design flaw that was still being worked on, but these where the largest bombers they had for the time being, and the only ones that could carry their tool of vengeance to those who deserved its wrath. As the end of the runway grew closer, they lifted from the tarmac and into the skies just as the runway ran out over the edge of the mountain. It had been designed that way so aircraft that hadn't managed to get liftoff could still have a chance to not crash, and manage a takeoff.
The target wasn't very far from them, each of them knew what to do. Minor turbulence rocked each of the bombers as they maintained an arrow formation, the land below them passing by rapidly as their target came into sight less than an hour after takeoff, a city that seemed absolutely massive to someone so small. A winding metropolis of primitive wooden houses, farms, and even a port for wooden ships to come and go as they pleased for trading. Each aircraft went in a different direction, the craft at the head of the formation remaining on a straight course, for its target was at the edge of the city, a monumentally large castle made of stone and timber lie within the bomb sights.
Without much fanfare the aircraft dropped its payload and veered off, at the same time the other two did the same maneuver, pulling back into formation as three egg shaped devices slowly floated down on parachutes to the settlement below. As they floated down, an arrow shot into one of the parachutes from below as they got less than twenty feet off the ground, the inhabitants of the town grabbing spears and knocking more arrows. They didn't get a chance to fire another as the world erupted into searing heat and light as three bombs went off, each with the power of 21 kilotons. The surrounding town of wood and stone was vaporized into glass and ash. Farms set ablaze for the briefest of moments, animals screaming in agony, before the shockwave hit them and gave them a quick, merciful death. The luckiest had been vaporized instantly, any survivors would find in the coming days that the water would poison them, that the burns they had wouldn't heal. Scales and feathers would fall out, and some would have their organs liquefy from inside their own bodies. Truly this was the wrath of their gods, punishing them for some unknown sin.
------------------Equestrian Everfree Construction Effort-------------------
Lucky Logger smiled watching ponies with chainsaws and other cutting tools slice apart the trees in their path, anything obstructing their construction effort was quickly destroyed and then used for the construction in of itself. The timber could be processed and used for frames of houses, while any large animals in their way quickly met a swift end by the royal guards armed with laser rifles. All Lucky Logger had to do was ensure no 'rare' wildlife was killed without reason, and if possible relocate it to an environment NOT selected for absolute destruction. Sure, it was sad to have to kill so many animals or relocate them, but the majority of beasties in this forest were nothing more than mindless monsters that would eat ponies given the slightest of chances. It was high fucking time this forest was wiped off the face of Equis in her eyes.
It was less than a mile from Ponyville for Faust sake, the town had been dealing with all manner of nasty surprises from the forest before it became the Equestrian Kingdoms primary starship launch site. Now, automated turrets would spit magical plasma-bolts at anything stupid enough to get too close. Her radio barked to life. "This is team two from Section Seven of the Everfree zone, I've got to report something to you Boss, over."
Lucky Logger's smile vanished as she reached up and tapped a large red button on the side of her radio. "What is it, team two? Over."
"We've found a large settlement of Bone Breezies, established protocol means you decide what happens to them."
That surprised her more than she'd expected, she'd thought that some rare species of manticore was found, or that another magical plant had tried to eat one of the ponies sawing down trees. "Gather them all up for transport, we'll send em to the Crystal Empire. They can't stay in this forest, and they certainly won't be staying in Equestria to cause further drain on our resources, the Crystal Empire more often than not is all too happy to accept any species into their territory, as much as that seems stupid to me, we'll ship em off there, let the Crystal Empire worry about the pests. Over."
The voice on the other end was silent for thirty seconds. "The one who speaks for these breezies says that is acceptable, I'll ensure it's done, Team Two out, Over."
Lucky Logger sighed happily, that was one issue dealt with in a satisfactory manner, at least to her. Looking back she saw a timberwolf reduced to ash as magical laser rifles struck it with dark purple and pink beams. Soon enough a large path to the Castle Of The Two Sisters would be cut through the forest, then railroad tracks could be placed down. Having a railroad that lead directly to the center of the rebuilding effort would ensure a steady flow of easily acceptable construction material. Already ponies were hard at work uprooting tree stumps and flattening the dirt to make way for gravel and railroad tracks. Further back the sounds of metal hammering was heard as railroad spikes got driven into the ground as areas already cleared had begun construction on the soon to be completed railway line.
Moon observed all of the people in the room, the rulers of the other kingdoms, empires, or nations of Equis all gathered in one room, except those of Seaquestria and the Hippogriffs, which may as well have been the same kingdom as they where both controlled by Queen Novo. Moon stood at the end of a long metal table, where Emperor Lorenzo would normally sit. "I bring this matter to the attention of those within the United Equis Alliance on behalf of Emperor Lorenzo and the Crystal Empire as a whole, that this mothership is going to be renamed to 'The Hub' and while it will still act as the central command center for joint fleet attacks and defense, it will also be retrofitted to become a center of diplomatic relations with other civilizations, are there any questions in regard to this matter?"
Princess Celestia stood and spoke as Moon sat down. "Yes, what exactly do you mean a center of diplomatic relations? Shouldn't Equis itself be that center?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, the fact Moon was just a bipedal version of Nightmare Moon still put her on edge sometimes, but Lorenzo had said she was okay, so she'd trust his judgment on the matter until such a time deemed it needed that she step in.
Moon nodded, acknowledging her question. "I see how the way it was worded could be confusing, I said it exactly as Lorenzo wanted it said. This ship is to put it lightly, massive. It will have sections hallowed out and newly constructed parts put in, to allow it to be a floating series of embassies from other civilizations, as well as its own medical facilities, and other such things."
Celestia seemed to ponder that. "Alright I suppose, I pose no objection to this."
"Another matter I'd like to bring to attention to those present, is the renaming of the United Equis Alliance to something more fitting." Moon looked around the room.
Queen Carnelia stood. "What do you mean something more fitting? Are almost all nations of Equis not allied to one another in a struggle against an outside enemy?"
"It's not just Equis within the Alliance anymore, the Maunga Council from Requirem is also part of this alliance now, the Nga Noho's homeworld government. We must consider renaming the United Equis Alliance based on the simple fact its no longer just those on Equis who have joined, and I have no doubt that more shall join in the future." Moon sat back into Lorenzo's chair. "As such from this day forth the UEA is renamed to the System Defense Alliance for the time being, or the SDA, until either a better name is found, or it is decided that the System Defense Alliance will remain the name of this for a long period of time to come."
No objections were raised, so Moon went on. "To the last matter on the agenda, the Abyssinian Empire is to turn over all Caribou to the Crystal Empire Border Control on it's side of the territory formerly belonging to the former Caribou Empire."
Queen Carnelia stood. "That is an outrage! Why would I do such a thing?!"
Moon turned her gaze to Queen Carnelia, her eyes and tone sending chills down everyone's spine. "Because the Crystal Empire has witnessed the great abuses you and your people are currently putting the Caribou through. Do you think we are blind to the blatant abuse of them? We see everything. Nothing escapes our sight, for the past three months I've been dealing with Caribou having night terrors every, single, night." Carnelia went pale. "I have spoken to Emperor Lorenzo on this matter, and he has given me full permission to enforce this, you will be turning over every single caribou in your territory, or the Crystal Empire will hold a vote to eject the Abyssinian Empire from the System Defense Alliance." She tossed a disc onto the table which began projecting silent videos of caribou being beaten, held at gunpoint, robbed, and even shot by Abyssinian troops. Houses and farms being raised to the ground in flames.
Princess Celestia stood. "I agree with Moon on this matter, if you do not turn over all of the caribou under your control to the Crystal Empire, Equestria will vote in alignment with the Crystal Empire's wishes."
General Secretary Vadik stood as well. "As will the Union of Canine Socialist Republics, we shall not stand idly by as the weak and poor are abused so blatantly."
One by one, every other ruler within the room did the same, causing Queen Carnelia to seethe in rage. "Fine, the Abyssinian Empire will hand them off to the Crystal Empire, you can take the vermin if you are so eager to protect those who attacked us without provocation." She stormed off, her two guards following behind her. If they wanted the vermin so badly, they could have them. It wasn't worth throwing away the protection the Alliance allowed her Empire and her people. She knew full well if she pissed off Lorenzo, nothing would stand in his way to eradicate her and absorb her people into his own.
Christoph sighed looking into the bathroom mirror, it was another morning on this world. One made less miserable by his new companion, who still slept in the bed the next room over. First it started off with her becoming an officially trained bodyguard, then him and Azula kind of just clicked. Odd, he knew since she was an alien, but he was never really one to care about such things, she was a person just as he was even if a tad odd. He blinked then his eyes widened in shock as his reflection grinned at him, its yellow eyes glinting with a red pupil now. Taking a step back in shock he lifted his arm, which split open into a plasma cannon. Having cybernetics was a plus of his job, he was allowed combat cybernetics normally only allowed to special soldiers. "Nah ah ah!" His reflection tutted. "What fun would that be? Don't you even want to hear my proposal?" It wasn't his voice that his now twisted reflection spoke with. But he recognized it all the same from the videos he'd watched.
Christoph lowered his arm as all the bits n pieces clicked back into place, leaving no trace as his synthetic skin closed up. "Discord? What the ever-loving hell do you want?" He had no clue in hell why this thing was even bothering to talk to him, didn't it normally chat with Emperor Lorenzo?
The reflection in the mirror shifted once more, revealing Discords true form before with a pop he was in the bathroom itself floating before Christoph. "Quite simple little human, I want to cause some chaos, and you can help me do so, in return you also get something you've wanted since you woke up in this place."
His eyes widened. How could that be? They'd been dead for thousands of years at this point. "How the hell do you plan to do that?" He glared, narrowing his eyes at the creature of chaos. He was weary of this creature, self proclaimed 'God of Chaos', and chaos was all his life had been until he'd met Azula. He didn't want more.
Discord laughed, so hard in fact his eyes popped out of his head and exploded before he opened a case of spares and installed them. Rolling them around in his head for a minute before re-focusing on Christoph. "I'm the literal God of Chaos, do you think a little time travel is beyond lil ol me?"
Christoph's eyes remained narrowed. "And what exactly do you get out of this?"
His eyes glinted with glee as he spoke. "Why, chaos my dear human! Just them BEING here, will cause chaos! Its always fun to mess about with Lorenzo every now and again, why else do you think I brought that town here to begin with? You where not from that version of Earth, but it was chaos all the same!, so what do you say pal, we got a deal or no?" Discord held out his hand, lit by plaid colored fire.
Christoph eyed the offending limb, weighing his options. As he thought of the grief he'd gone through thinking about them, about how he'd never even gotten to say goodbye, only to wake up and learn they'd been dead so long not even ash remained of their bones, he reached out and shook Discords hand. Causing the chaotic creature to laugh. "You've got ten minutes to get all the shit you think you'll need! You'll convince them yourself to come back with you, just press the button on this thing here." He handed the man a large comical red button. "When you're ready to come back! Just make sure they're touching you, otherwise they'll be left behind!" Discord grinned down at the man. "Remember, ten minutes before you go back, you'll have a day to convince them!" With that, he vanished in an explosion of cake.
A timer counting down from ten minutes appeared in the corner of Christoph's vision, causing him to rush into the bedroom. "Azula! Wake up hun, we're going somewhere in less than ten minutes, suit up and get the advanced plasma rifle I had made for you, as well as you're combat suit!"
Azula shot up out of the bed, from dead asleep to ten cups of coffee alert within an instant. Rushing, she did as he had said, suiting up in purple colored combat armor and a helmet that covered her entire face. Not unlike what to him, looked like pre-war riot gear that some police began to use, but more advanced. It overall, looked like riot armor if it was purple and black with gold trim, the eyes of the helmet glowing a dark blue color as she strapped a long plasma rifle onto her back. "Where are we going?" She questioned, the helmet giving her voice an odd muffled quality.
Athi gave a small smile as he packed himself a small bag, ensuring to load extra fusion cells into it as well as a holo-projector with a disc reader. "Not where, when." He'd always wanted to say that, reading those science fiction time travel books. As the timer ticked down he grabbed Azula's shoulder just as the timer hit zero, and they both vanished in a flash of white light leaving the room in a mess as wind threw everything inside it about like a tornado for not more than five seconds. But in that five seconds, everything had been tossed around or smashed into bits.
The experience was, disorienting to say the least. Things are generally not meant to travel through time, all Athi could see was an endless tunnel that stretched onwards for eternity. Colors he never knew existed flashed before him as he and Azula, who was now clutching onto him road through this tunnel at what seemed to be the speed of light. Moving images rushed past them at such speeds they could not determine many, a few he did manage to notice only thanks to his cybernetic eyes slowing things down was flashes of mushroom clouds. Of atomic fire spreading over a planet as war ravaged its surface, poisoning the air and water and mutating the life within. It only lasted a brief flash, but in that moment he vowed to himself further than he had before that he would convince his family to come back with him, and force them if they refused.
Somewhere in another time, a time so long ago barely any knew of its existence electricity began to crackle in a suburban backyard. It began to crackle and static, before bolts of energy began striking out as a ball of white energy formed in the center of the disturbance, a thunderous bang that rattled the windows on several houses sounded out as the ball suddenly condensed then vanished, leaving two figures sprawled out in the scorched grass and dirt. Given that it was about 6:36 AM in the morning, people began to groggily step out of their houses to try and find the source of the noise. All any of them found was a partial sphere in the ground which was scorched black by the time anyone came out to investigate. None noticed the two sets of footprints, one larger than the other, leading onto the sidewalk and into the distance.
Re-entry into time had almost made Athi vomit, it was like vertigo, if vertigo had vertigo. Almost indescribable, that was as close as he could think to put it into an understandable language. They'd fled from their little scene as fast as possible, not wanting people to see her and call the cops, Athi had Azula use a stealthboy that was built into her armor. She was near invisible to the naked eye, and knew to keep silent until he stated otherwise. Azula had been trained well, after all.
Walking down the road, Athi began to have flashbacks as memories came flooding forth from a burst dam, no walls to keep them at bay, both happy and sad, both angry and depressing, each washed over him, and yet he felt none of them as sight of his family home came into view. All he felt when it came into his sight, was a grim determination which only got stronger as he approached the door, each step solidifying his will to ensure this was done. He knew the timer was ticking away, and that he didn't have forever. He would do what needed doing, even if it meant causing violence. It wouldn't matter tomorrow in this time anyways.
Without the slightest hint of hesitation he rapped on the door. A simple, authoritative knock, almost like how a cop would knock to show a warrant. Mere moments after knocking, he heard someone shout "Coming!" at the door as footsteps approached. Then the door opened, and there in the doorway stood his father. "..Son? Is that you? You've finally come back for a visit, after being so busy with work?"
Athi smiled and stepped inside, brushing past his father who'd already dressed for work, keeping watch out of the corner of his eye to ensure Azula entered by the shimmer in the air her stealthboy caused, which his father didn't notice. "I am here, yes, but I come with grave news that the entire family needs to know, please bring them all into the Livingroom." He set the holo-projector onto the living room coffee table, and waited.
When his mother entered the room, she broke out into happy sobs rushing forwards and tightly hugging her son. "My God, you've been gone for so long! I'd thought you'd forgotten about us...you haven't been responding to our letters, or emails and calls for months now!"
His brother just stared at him silently. His face one of stone. "So, you finally came back huh?" And his tone that of ice.
Athi began to speak up, before the stoneface fell away as his brother hugged him alongside his mother, the ice replaced with joy and mirth. "Took you long enough you fucking workaholic! What the fuck where you doin not respondin for so long?!"
This made Athi laugh, before his face went serious. "Guys, I've been away for a long time, longer than you may even realize right now. But I didn't do that willingly...what I'm going to say next, will shock you all to the very core but is the absolute honest truth, and I want you to promise you will trust me."
No one argued, no one disagreed, the three family members sitting on the sofa as Athi stood before them. "Firstly, I'm not the Athi you knew. I am still Athi, but I am different. I know I may just look older than you remember, but the truth is I should have died long ago."
"Why would you ever say such a thing?!" His mother cried out with shock.
Athi held up a disc and slid it into the projector, grimacing as it began to play scenes of nuclear bombs going off over American cities. "Because I was frozen, cryogenically against my will by a group in the American Government that called themselves the Enclave months ago, some months afterwards the Chinese government began launching nuclear bombs, this will happen tomorrow at about 10:30 AM in the morning." Scenes played out, one of which was a recording he'd taken while in the tunnel using his cybernetic eyes streamed directly to the projector replayed from his memory. The family was silent with shock.
His father set a mug of coffee down, now cold and forgotten. "Surely this can't be real, if it was how do you know about it? How do you have VIDEO of it no less?"
Athi gave them a sad smile. "Because, I was frozen, I was frozen for thousands of years. And then, revived from cryogenic stasis by a literal chance of luck, I came back from thousands of years in the future, to convince you all to come with me and avoid the death that awaits you, and most of America and the world tomorrow morning."
His brother snorted. "How can you claim to be from the future? You just look a little older, but nothing drastic!"
They all gave a startled gasp when his eyes began glowing, and his arms opened up to display multiple medical instruments while his right one slid open into a plasma cannon. "I awoke in a time more advanced than anything you could imagine today, the robotics, the cybernetics, make everything we had in this time look like primitive garbage, but if thats not enough proof for you, Azula, you can show yourself now my little Huntress."
With a shimmer in the air, Azula stood behind him as the stealthboy wore off, taking her helmet off and looking at his family members. "Guys, meet Azula, she's my....soon to be wife, if you catch my meaning. She's a species called Manuka, a species the Crystal Empire recently conquered with minimal effort. The conquest was mostly peaceful to boot, only a few hundred have died due to it, much more where saved because of it." He said, thinking about the various slaves he'd seen wandering around with little to no idea of what to do with themselves, with no one to call 'Mistress' or 'Master' to command them their every waking moment.
His mother let out a shriek of terror, clutching at a cross necklace she always wore before her eyes rolled into the back of her skull and she fell backwards onto the couch limp, and unresponsive. His brother's eyes bugged out of their sockets when he saw how tall she was, let alone her...assets, to put it nicely, while she did wear armor, that armor still had to conform to the shape of her body to ensure proper mobility. His father picked up the cold mug of coffee and sipped. "Congratulations son, but this is a hell of a lot to take in, Empire? Alien worlds? What the fuck sort of technology do they have in that time?" He asked, eyes laser focused on Azula, who smiled nervously.
"You will see for yourself soon, because even if you try to fight it I'm going to be bringing you all back with me, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming, or sedated."
His brother rushed to pack, while his father sighed. "Alright son, I'm happy to see you, and this is a lot to take in but I'm going to trust you for now. You've never lied to us before, so I have to assume you're not lying now. Your mother won't like it, but she's not in a position to voice that right now." The father said looking to the couch, where his wife had fainted like a goat. "So I'll pack for both of us, it shouldn't take long."
As the family minus the mother were packing what they seemed the essentials away, a knock was heard on the door. Athi opened it slowly after motioning for Azula to redone her helmet and activate the stealthboy again, which she did so without question. When the door was open, two men in black suits with sunglasses pushed their way into the house. "Federal Bureau of Investigation here, we've got reason to believe this household has something in here, that shouldn't be on this planet." Both agents drew pistols, colt 45's. "Until we investigate and have reason to doubt these claims, you're all under arrest, hands behind your heads and on your knees, now!"
Before anyone could react, one of the agents was lifted into the air by his throat. Azula uncloaking as she did so. "You will not harm my man!" She snarled, and slammed the man into the floor with a sickening crunch, the other agent twirled around and fired two shots at Azula, before his head was blown off with a blast of plasma from Athi's right arm cannon. Arm extended and weapon ready to keep shooting, Athi aimed it at the agent Azula had thrown into the ground who was wheezing and clutching his throat. Another blast of plasma put an end to the man's breathing.
His father and brother stood in shock, mouths agape as the mother came too and saw the carnage, before fainting once more onto the couch with a scream. "We're going, NOW, grab your shit and grab onto me." They did as he ordered, they'd gone too far to argue at this point, suitcases in hand, they grabbed onto him, even the Household Mr.Handy his brother had been tinkering with for god knew how long, grabbed onto him since his brother was holding one of its metal claws. Athi pressed the return button just as more agents broke the door down pistols drawn and ready to fire, only to find an empty house and two dead agents.
Princess Celestia stood alone in a chamber deep below Canterlot Castle, deeper than the long forgotten Crystal Mines. She stood in the center of the room, which was a dull drab gray of plain stone. This was no ordinary room however, for it was laced with enchantment after enchantment, only she herself could enter it. Not even Discord or Luna could dare try to breach it, for the defensive magic lacing the very walls themselves would deter them in a rather painful manner. Princess Celestia stood, staring at the stone door that would bring forth the arrival of the vermin she'd been delivered by the Crystal Empire.
Celestia didn't need to wait long, she'd given explicit instructions that only a foolish moron with a deathwish would dare to ignore. Within ten minutes the stone door lit up with a golden color of her magic as it peeled itself open, two halves sliding into the wall to either side. Two Royal Guard dressed in their ceremonial armor threw a small green biped into the room and bowed so low that their snouts touched the cold stone of the floor. With a wave of a wing, they retreated and the room was filled with the sound of scraping stone as the door slid back into place and locked of its own accord. Celestia glared down at the pathetic creature now on the floor.
Celestia hadn't questioned how, or why the Crystal Empire had some of them in its custody and not dead, but she didn't care about that enough to ask. The alien creature looking up at her from the floor with large black eyes and a scowl on its face, that seemed to be the only expression these things could make from what little of them she'd seen up close. It was dressed in a one piece rubber jumpsuit of a plain white color, with three blue circles arranged in a triangle on the left shoulder. After a few seconds of her silent glaring, the Zetan began screeching at her in its ugly alien language. Its squinted eyes widened as her horn lit with a bright golden glow. A small blast of magic struck the creature sending it crashing into the wall with a wail. The spell wasn't intended to harm, but she'd put some power behind it. Not like she honestly cared if the thing got hurt.
With that done, it's screeching was now a clear language she could understand. "We will eradicate you pests just as we have everything else that dare stood in ou-GLK." It's screaming was cut off as the same golden glow from before grabbed it by the throat and lifted it into the air. The creature grasping at its throat in a futile attempt to remove the pressure while kicking and flailing.
As Princess Celestia slowly trotted closer its struggles got more frantic, her ethereal mane and tail turning from their normal hues to bright flowing waves of flame. She lowered it until her snout was pressed directly against its ugly, flat nose. Her eyes burning with a fire of their own as she glared directly into the aliens eyes. "I'm going to burn everything you and your kind hold dear. I will burn everything so thoroughly not even ash remains to blow in the wind." She dropped the creature, which had for the first time since it was thrown into the room, shown fear on its face. The moment she let go it's face morphed back into the snarl it'd held before, and it tried to swing at her. Within a second Princess Celestia had spun around and bucked the creature into the wall again so fast, that it hadn't even known what'd happened before the pain hit it.
She trotted closer once more, the creatures green blood now seeping from a broken leg, and the side of its tooth filled maw reminding her of a changelings in color as it was a bright emerald green. Celestia lowered her glowing horn and touched the creatures forehead. The moment she did, it began to wail in pure agony as she watched every memory this creature had ever formed. From its birth, through the years of its life, nothing was hidden from her sight. When she was satisfied she'd seen everything there was to see, she stood back. She'd gotten everything she would ever need to know, and then some. The alien was gasping and clutching itself. She didn't give it a second thought as a bright flash vaporized the alien completely, the heat being so sudden and hot that not even its blood remained on the ground. As she had promised, not even ash remained of its corpse. Celestia gave it zero pause as she stepped out of the room as the doors slammed closed behind her.
As Princess Celestia climbed the various stairways back to the lower levels of the Canterlot Castle she contemplated all she had seen within the creatures mind. She passed magical barriers that would only allow those she wanted into the chambers below, once outside of the barriers she simply teleported. Such powerful anti-teleportation spells had been placed upon the chamber and the hallways that lead to it, that not even she as the one who'd produced them could bypass them without overloading the spell matrixes. And she'd rather not destroy her own creation, it did take effort to make after all. She did hold some regret over the fact Equestria was breaking its thousand year long peace, but she couldn't just allow what those vile creatures did to go unpunished. Her little ponies would have their revenge, she'd see to that.
Everyone in the family was thrown into the half destroyed apartment with a loud 'Bang' as the hole through time was forced closed after their exit from within, the button Athi had been carrying bursting into ashes after its one time use. The apartment was massive, but still a wreck from their first departure. Azula was spread out on a table which had shattered like cheap glass under her weight, the Mr.Handy his brother had brought along was screeching about 'messy this' and 'messy that' while trying to tidy up the place. His mother slumped in a corner, his father trying to stand up after having smashed through a wooden chair. His brother was already up and squealing like a kid in a candy store at the Holo-display Television he had in the Livingroom of the apartment. Azula slowly got up from the half shattered table unharmed, if a little dizzy from the ordeal. "I....do not ever want to do that again please." She groaned and flopped onto the ground holding her head, she could feel it pulsing with her heartbeat, eyes clenched shut as they throbbed in their sockets.
Athi himself, was sprawled out halfway into the sink and over the thankfully cold stove in the kitchen of the apartment. "Yeah...let's not do that shit again...." He got up slowly, cracking his back and other non cybernetic joints, which wasn't many. And observed the room. "God damn it Discord...." He cursed to himself halfheartedly, the apartment was a mess for sure, but he had all the cash he could need to repair it, and more importantly he had his family back.
His father looked out one of the windows which were one way, and his jaw dropped at the sight. The apartment complex was near the main starship port on the planet, and his father got a first row seat to watch a ship a mile long rise into the sky as smoothly as a balloon floating through the air left adrift by a careless child. He looked down from the ship that ascended into the skies and beyond to the city down below. Dozens of species could be seen, Deathclaws in powered combat armor hauling heavy items, Akun skittering too and fro, while pegasi flew about pushing clouds and unicorns worked in teams of four to life massive crates from the loading bays into a train that was hovering over metallic rails. He looked into the skies, and was awed further upon seeing not one, but two stars lighting up the skies, both of which were a slightly darker hue of orange than the sun he was used to. "We're...really on another planet?" He asked turning to his son Athi, voice trembling with doubt.
Athi nodded as his brother squealed again prodding at another device, he'd gotten over the violent tumble he'd taken with everyone else rapidly after seeing a Holo-display television. "Yes, this is Leva, the Manuka's homeworld, I'm stationed here to work at one of the hospitals that've gone up, to give the natives more advanced medical care, this apartment is temporary as once my term is up here I'm moving back to the Capital city of the Crystal Empire with Azula, which is just two weeks away."
His father looked back to the window just staring at the scene going on outside, the bustle of a city still clearly under construction as several large machines rolled past with teams of Akun wearing bright orange body paint and hardhats shaped for their skulls directing the flow of material to a building that was midway through the construction process.
With what looked to be a great effort, Botan looked away from the mesmerizing scenery outside the window and back at his son. "What.....What the hell do we do now son? None of those governmental nuclear drills prepared me, or anyone else in our family for anything even remotely like this! This is almost like something out of one of those pulp fiction magazines kids liked so much!"
Athi smiled as he was about to respond, when a loud authoritative knock pounded on the door, before it was ripped off the hinges by a large android in tactical military gear, several more following behind it as they aimed their weaponry at everyone present in the room, which looked to be long and sleek looking laser rifles with a purple shell and gold colored detailing, giving the weapons an almost royal look to them. "By order of Emperor Lorenzo, Doctor Athi Christoph and any present are to be escorted to the Imperial Palace for an audience with His Imperial Majesty. Lethal force is authorized, it is advised to not resist as the Emperor would prefer no bodily harm occur."
Aaron's Mister Handy raised its buzzsaw revving it to life, it wasn't sentient all it knew was that its owners were in danger and as dictated by its programming it had to defend the home and them. "For King and Country!" The machine bellowed and began aggressively floating towards the military androids as rapidly as it could, sparking its flamethrower and setting one of the androids ablaze. Unfortunately for the Mister Handy one of the androids was carrying an EMP unit and disabled the machine with a quick blast. The robot wasn't destroyed, just out of commission until its next reboot which would have to be manually initiated.
The android that had been set on fire was unharmed, albeit its uniform was scorched and had minor warping and melting in some areas, but it had been designed to handle automatic plasma bolts, a few gouts of undirected fire wasn't going to compromise its armor very much. Athi looked back at his family. "It's fine guys, everything is going to be just fine if we do as these guys say, alright? Don't try anything stupid like that bucket of bolts." His brother made a visible effort not to protest his best work so far being degraded like that but managed to keep his mouth shut. "Azula set the gun down, it won't help you here." She did so, slowly as one of the androids had the barrel of its weapon trained on her head.
With everyone now disarmed, except Athi given his weapons where inside his limbs and thus couldn't be removed normally, the family was hustled out of the apartment and into an awaiting aircraft that was hovering silently over the pavement, not even blowing any dust around, much to Aarons amazement and the fathers bewilderment, his mother was just clutching a crucifix necklace she'd always worn as far back as Athi could remember. His face was still as stone but he felt anxiety and worry welling up as the crafts hatch closed and it took flight, rapidly approaching and bypassing Mach one, then leveling out at Mach five. The aircraft rapidly approached the side of a building, causing panic in the family except for Athi and Azula, Athi just smirked to himself as his mother screamed for them to pull up as the wall rapidly approached, clutching at his Father so tightly her nails dug into his skin and caused minor bleeding.
Before the aircraft could slam into the buildings side wall however it opened into a portal-gate that lead to Equis, and more importantly near the Crystal Palace. The portal-gate doors slamming shut as soon as the aircraft passed through it. Athi's brother Aaron was trying his hardest not to squeal in delight at the sight of both the new technology, and the city below them. Everyone, even Azula who'd seen photos of the city from a birds eye view stared in open awe at the city below them. A metropolis of crystal, metal and concrete faintly glowing in the light of the midday sun. What grabbed everyone's attention, including Athi himself, was the Crystal Palace at the exact center of the city which stood taller than any other building that could be seen. A spire of blue crystal that rose into the sky almost a mile in height with an otherworldly glow coming off it from the sunlight dancing across its crystalline surface. Atop the Palace at its highest peak was a flagpole bearing a flag of purple and white that waved and flapped in the wind, in the center of it a white snowflake.
Despite the awe inspiring sight before him that had rendered his entire family speechless, Athi could only worry inside his head as his anxiety grew further the closer they got to that palace. How could he have been so selfish, and stupid in the process? He'd known about the time travel laws and then blatantly shattered them in one swell swoop. Despite this anxiety growing determination also welled within him, even if he'd have to face punishment he'd refuse to let the Emperor punish his family, they'd been innocent in all this and hadn't even had any idea of the Crystal Empire nor its laws until a few minutes ago. Athi knew the Emperor was more or less a reasonable person, but the prospect of trying to convince his Monarch of this still made him nervous. He'd only heard stories and second hand accounts about Emperor Lorenzo, he'd never spoken to the man himself which only added to the nervousness he'd feel about this situation regardless.
Before he could think about anything else, moreso a way to explain how be willingly broke a law about time travel of all things, in hindsight the fact the law existed should have hinted it was possible but he'd not taken it seriously enough it seemed, the aircraft landed on a circular pad built into the left side of the Crystal Palace. The landing pad retracted into the Palace itself, bringing the aircraft along with it as the wall slid shut as if the aircraft hangar hadn't existed in the first place to anyone on the outside observing the Palace from the streets. The androids that had been sitting silently stood up as the aircrafts hatch slid open, prompting the family to follow suit. Athi, Azula, Aaron, Botan and his wife Cryline were marched out of the craft and into the depths of the Crystal Palace in silence, two androids behind and in front of them at all times.
Nothing was said between the family, nor between the androids marching them to their destination. As they approached a set of large ornate doors lined with precious gems etched into the woodwork and outlined with enchanted gold trim, two Assaultrons pulled the doors open silent as a mouse. Not even the squeak of hinges was heard as they shut just as silently behind them after entering the Throne Room. It was truly a sight to inspire and awe, a long and wide room made of the same blue crystal as every other within the Palace, but the walls had intricate patterns and images carved into them. Each designed to draw the eye upwards to the throne which itself was illuminated by floating orbs of crystalized magic that'd been placed around the room in a strategic manner to fill it entirely with a golden light that shone throughout the entire room.
The throne itself was made of blue and purple crystal that glimmered in the golden light giving the person who sat upon it an almost ethereal glow as he stared down at them from atop it. Athi slowly lowered his head as they were marched within twenty feet of the throne, and raised it slightly in surprise as two taller than normal Akun stepped out from the shadows carrying spears with glowing blades of plasma at their tips in place of sharpened metal, wearing only dull grey body paint. Crossing the two weapons to block their path to the throne. He'd remembered the tradition, he'd read about it after all. Doing as he'd read he stepped forward and bowed his head. "I too serve His Majesty the Emperor."
They retreated silently back to where they'd been standing before, blending back into the shadows casted by twin pillars on either side of the throne room. Athi as well as the rest of his family stopped ten feet away from the throne, Athi immediately took a knee before his Monarch, bowing his head as well. Slowly and awkwardly, his family copied him. Azula had taken a knee the same moment he had, she'd known proper respect for her former Empress, it hadn't changed much for an 'Emperor'.
Emperor Lorenzo stared at Athi from his seat upon the crystal throne, face expressionless and his emerald eyes looking right into Athi, past him and into his very soul. The center gem in Lorenzo's crown drew Athi's gaze to it, it was almost hypnotic to watch the slowly spinning galaxy that seemed to be held within. Lorenzo's gaze was so intensely focused Athi thought for a split moment the Emperor was looking at every sin he'd ever committed and silently passing judgment upon him, before he spoke. "Arise Doctor Athi Christoph, there is much to discuss."
Athi did as commanded, and just as slowly as they had been to kneel as Athi and Azula did, his family stood too. Emperor Lorenzo stared Athi down, his face expressionless, as was his tone. "Do you have any idea what you could have done? Any idea at all?" The Emperor's tone was cold, yet held no anger in it.
Athi bowed his head low, shoulders slumping slightly. "Yes My Emperor, I only just realized the grave mistake my actions may have caused, I only ask you to punish me accordingly instead of my family as they had no choice nor say in my actions, I know I have no right to ask or beg this of you but I have too for their sake." Azula was taken aback by surprise, she'd never seen her lover talk or act like this. Subdued, almost fearful as his gaze was firmly fixed on the floor of the Throne Room. His family stood behind him confused but respectfully silent.
Emperor Lorenzo's intense glare died in intensity as he let out a sigh. "You are an utter moron you could have completely rewritten the timeline if Discord hadn't been playing goalkeeper on this little stunt of his!" He sighed again. "But I suppose I can not blame you, you had a chance many would have taken without second thought, I may not be able to understand it, but I accept it and will allow it this one time, and I assure you, I shot Discord in the ass with buckshot for his little stunt."
Doctor Athi was taken aback but did his best not to show it. “I….I thank you Emperor Lorenzo, may I ask how I repay you for this kindness?” Athi said, a tone of almost reverence in his voice.
"Next time you see Discord set his tail on fire." Lorenzo said with a deadpan look, before turning his eyes to the family behind him. "As for you lot, I'll have to accelerate the sign up process, I can't exactly just toss you out and lose one of the best medical professionals stationed on Leva, go on now, introduce yourselves."
Aaron despite clearly being nervous, was the first to step up and speak. “Y-your majesty I am Aaron, Athi’s younger brother. I worked as a part time engineer modifying robots and other electronics, I look forward to finding employment in my field here if possible." He spoke rapidly, but respectfully, something he'd always done when nervous as hell.
His Father spoke next. "Greetings Your Majesty my name is Botan Christoph, mechanic and father of these two boys, this is my wife Cryline she worked as a church helper when we still lived in our old home." Cryline was whispering to him as silently as she could. "Honey why are you," Botan lowered his voice to an even quieter whisper, but calm anger in his tone. "Please don't start now honey I don't think he is willing to hear any complaints right now so behave yourself!" Botan looked back up. "Sorry, she's just shy."
Emperor Lorenzo just chuckled. "You lot are dismissed, follow the android in purple and you can get yourselves signed up as proper citizens, you'll be taking a few educational classes but that can wait a few days, but read the laws very, very carefully."
As they began walking away, escorted by the android in purple armor Emperor Lorenzo called out. "Oh, Athi?"
Turning around he spoke. "Yes Your Majesty?"
Emperor Lorenzo's expression shifted from friendliness into a serious face that would give stone a run for its money. "There won't be a next time." His tone was colder than any weather the Frozen North could hope to produce.
Athi's eyes widened. "I, I see, I understand Your Majesty, it won't happen again."
Emperor Lorenzo went back to smiling. "Good, now be on your way, can't help your family with the signup process if you're not there!" He chuckled to himself, and Athi did as he was told quickly hurrying off after his Family, Azula at his side.
-------------Several Hours Later Elsewhere in the Crystal Empire's Capital---------------
The moon was high in the sky as Discord was glaring at the Crystal Palace through a comically large telescope that had a night vision attachment, somehow, muttering to himself. He'd had no idea Lorenzo would be so serious about something as minor as a little time travel! Sure he'd tried to read the booklet of dumbed down laws the Crystal Empire had but it had been so BORING he'd turned the book into a bird and made it fly into an airships engine to get some amusement out of it.
While Lorenzo had shot him in the rear end with a double barrels worth of buckshot, he'd fixed that with a snap of his claw but was still muttering to himself before a physical lightbulb popped into reality over his head. Discord's eyes widened in delight as he plucked it from the air and tossed it into his maw with a crunch as he savored the flavor. Yes that was it, he could get back and break that silly little rule at the same time without causing too much harm in the process, yesss that would be absolutely delightful! With a grin he tossed the telescope behind him, causing it to explode into a flock of bats which rapidly flew off scared out of their minds. With a grin that nearly split his face in half the Lord of Chaos ripped open another portal in the fabric of time and reached inside, yanking an unconscious person out and tossing them into a pile of trash bags in the back alley he was in before vanishing, closing the portal in the process.
The man who was now sprawled out on a pile of disgusting trash with empty Jet inhalers scattered around him could almost be described as a 'severe burn victim' with how his skin looked to be flayed, cracked and wrinkled and overall had a charred appearance. His clothing also looked so old fashioned no one could likely recognize it either, he wore a red frock coat and tricorn hat that looked like it came right out of the late 17th and early 18th century. It was torn and tattered in a few areas, some of which had makeshift patchwork and stitching to fix the wear and tear, but it was obviously shoddy and makeshift work, not that of a skilled tailor.
As the man's eyes opened he let out a groan. "Oh God...What was in that jet?" Slowly sitting up and feeling the squelch of the garbage beneath him he stood up shakily with a groan of frustration, wiping his hands on the back of his coat. It was the middle of the night, or so it seemed to him when he looked up. Checking his holster he let out a sigh of relief as his trusty double barrel was still locked and loaded in its proper place where he'd left it. He'd gone on more than one chem trip an ended up losing the damn thing only to find it in the oddest places, and was glad that wasn't the case this time. After he walked a few feet away from the pile of rotting trash he stood stunned. The air smelled....fresh, for a lack of better term. Goodneighbor always had the stench of piss and other bodily fluids alongside the ever present smell of rusting metal and decay that wafted in on the wind. There was none of that here.
Stepping around the corner and out of the alleyway he was stunned further at the sights he saw before him. Either he was still on that chem trip or having a seizure. Cars rolled along a well paved road lit by street lights, even at this late hour a decent amount of traffic was on the road. And what looked to be living Giddyup Buttercup toys roamed about, he nearly shit himself when he saw a Deathclaw, a fucking DEATHCLAW, of all things walk up to an outdoor drink dispenser machine and grab a coffee after sliding a card into a slot. "What the fuck is this?" He muttered to himself, walking slowly down the sidewalk. Finally he saw something normal, normal being a relative term considering the current situation he found himself in, a person was walking down the road towards him. It was a man, dressed in clothes he'd never seen before looking at a small device in his hands that gave off a bluish glow.
Walking up he coughed to get the man's attention. "Hey pal, can you tell me how to get to Goodneighbor from here? I'm not exactly sure where I am at the moment ya get me?" His voice sounded like he'd started smoking at the age of two weeks old and never stopped since.
The sound of his ruined voice startled the man into looking up from his device, when he got a look at the man before him his eyes widened. "HOLY FUCKING CHRIST!" He yelped before turning and running in an apparent blind panic, dropping the device he'd been holding which clattered to the ground as the man fled.
Glaring at the man's back, he looked down to the device which was still on, albeit it had a crack in the screen now as he reached down and picked it up carefully. It was a small rectangle about half an inch thick made of black plastic with an oddly colorful screen displaying tons of little images. He'd never seen anything like it in all his years, terminals and pipboys alongside the tech that came with them generally had black and green screens, with little to no graphical display as it just wasn't practical with the technology that'd been around pre-war. This looked to be ten times more advanced, he poked the screen and to his shock, the icon he pressed opened into another program. It seemed to be called 'DailyNews' from the title now at the top of the screen. Before he could toy with the device any further he heard sirens that reminded him of police sirens he'd head in a Holotape audio drama. Sleek black and white cars screeching down the road towards his location, he didn't like the look nor sound of that so he tucked the device away into a pocket and booked it. Running between alleyways and hiding behind a dumpster as the cars screeched past him, then out of sight and sound as the wailing sirens faded into the distance.
What the fuck was this place? Cars were a rarity, working ones at any rate. Wrecked ones could be seen all the time, sometimes they had good salvage in them, or other items of value. He'd not even seen one wrecked rust-bucket the whole time he'd been next to the road, and that road itself also had astonished him because not only was it well paved, but maintained and still in active use. In the Wasteland working vehicles were rarer than non irradiated mutefruit, only people with a good understanding of machinery could get them back into working order, or jury rig them back into running. All the cars he'd seen looked shiny, new. Sure some had scuffed paint or a dent now and then but compared to the wrecks he'd seen these were downright pristine. Carefully as to not be seen, he walked across a roadway and then stopped next to a tall building.
Looking at the side, he saw row upon row of parked cars, trucks, and other such vehicles, looking around to make sure no one was watching he slowly crept up to one of the cars. It was a dull greenish gray colored truck, but looked to be far too small to fit a person inside it, peering into the windows showed the seats also looked wrong, they had a hole in the back.
"Hello there buddy, what are you doing with my Motorcar?" An oddly accented voice hissed from behind him, causing him to twirl around like a startled cat, aiming his sawed off at the source of the voice. The owner of said voice hissed in alarm, his snout turning a pale color as one eyeturret looked at the weapon while the other focused on him. "Let's not be hasty here! I have nothing of worth that you could take!"
The man lowered the gun with a frown. "I'm not a damn bandit, you jus startled me was all pal." He held out a hand after holstering his weapon. "Names John Hancock, an you might be?"
The Akun looked at his hand, which looked to be burned like the rest of him and carefully reached out and shook it. "I am Suvill, I apologize for startling you, it was not my intent when I walked up. I merely wanted to know what you'd been doing peering into my Motorcar." Suvill tacked on an interrogative cough.
Hancock looked down at the creature, it looked almost like a Deathclaw had fucked one of those Gekos he'd seen a photo of from the Mojave shown to him by a wandering trader, but smaller. "I've never seen a working car before, got me interested to see what one that wasn't a burnt out wreck looked like inside."
While most Akun couldn't tell one human from another, or even the gender of the human most of the time Suvill knew what serious burns looked like given the fact he'd seen a human after they'd accidentally touched a hot stove. "Are you alright? You appear to have suffered serious burns, if you like I can call medical services for you JohnHancock." He spoke the name as if it was one word.
Hancock smiled, not that Suvill really knew what it meant other than a gesture of amiability among humans. "I take it you've never seen a Ghoul before? Least you took it better than the last guy who saw me." He chuckled to himself.
Suvill tilted his head, making the negative gesture with a hand. "I have not, I assumed you where just a human suffering from serious burns, what is a 'Ghoul' as you say?"
"Simply put, Ghouls are men and women are no different from regular humans when it comes to what makes a person a person, we jus look different an live longer. As for how a Ghoul is made, typically its a chance of good luck, or bad luck dependin on your view of such things, enough radiation exposure and luck, good or bad an a human has a chance of turnin into a Ghoul, if they don't outright die." He thought it best not to mention feral ghouls, moreso to something he'd never seen before.
This made the Akun let out a startled hiss and back up. "You are Radioactive?! How are you alive, your organs should be liquefied!" It paused for a half second, its eyeturrets widening slightly in abject terror as it backpedaled from him. "Are you IRRADIATING ME?!"
Hancock shrugged. "No, you should be fine, as for how I got this way? Experimental radiation drug made me what I am, the high was so damn worth it." He said mostly to himself, fondly remembering that high like a father remembering his child's first steps, or perhaps someone remembering the first time they'd tried their favorite food.
Suvill gave a low hiss of alarm. "You are radioactive! I must contact authorities at once!" He reached down to pull a mobile phone out of one of the many pouches of the belt he wore but Hancock reached out and grabbed his wrist firmly.
"No need pal, I'm not spittin rads out I jus can take em without harm." He tried to assure the odd creature, its turreted eyes swiveling about made him want to see what happened if it was high but Hancock doubted his chems would work on this thing. Slowly, he let go of Suvill's wrist. "Know any nearby hotels? I got a couple caps on me, should be enough to get a room for a night."
Suvill made the negative gesture. "What are 'caps?', we use Bits, or charge cards here."
Raising an eyebrow, Hancock reached into a pocket and pulled out a handful of Nuka Cola bottle caps, mixed in with random beer caps and showing them to Suvill.
Suvill let his jaw hang open in a tongue waggling laugh. "Foolish Human! You can not buy anything with bottle caps, they are trash not currency! This is currency." He pulled out both a fistful of quarter inch thick golden coins that jingled, and a plastic card that looked like something Hancock had seen in a few of the less burnt pre-war magazines.
"Well shit then." He said, eyeing the coins. "Guess I have no money then, ah well it's not like I haven't made my own shelter before." Hancock said with a nonchalant shrug.
Suvill tilted one of his eyeturrets to the side. "Have you no home JohnHancock? No currency, this is a truth?"
While the way it was worded was a little odd, he nodded. "For now it seems yeah, but its not too big a deal."
"If this is the case, you also cannot purchase food for yourself, truly a sad state of affairs, if you come with me I could allow you to join me in my flat for a meal and then you can take the night to figure out what you desire to do from that point." Suvill offered, looking up at Hancock with both eyeturrets, a sign of complete attention among his species.
Mulling it over, Hancock thought to himself that the creature didn't look too threatening and so far had been alright to talk with, it had no visible weapons on itself besides its obvious claws and teeth, which he was sure his trusty sawed off outdid any day of the week. "Eh sure why not, lead the way friend."
Suvill turned around and began skittering towards the apartment complex behind them as Hancock followed at a leisurely pace. The inside of the apartment building was decorated in an odd manner, at least to Hancock, and to be frank Suvill would have agreed, but for a completely different reason.
Stepping into the elevator with a small bit of caution after Suvill did, he watched the male press a button for the 15th floor and stood back as the doors slid shut, looking at the digital dial showing floor numbers. It only took about a minute before they opened again with an odd hybrid of a bell and a hissing noise. Suvill skittered out and down the hall, his new companion following alongside him unaware that the two of them were being watched by an oddly persistent bird that'd been following them the entire time now hovering outside peering into the apartment from a window. Already squad cars with their sirens off began rolling into the parking lot.
Princess Celestia sighed as she drank from a cup of warm herbal tea, enjoying a dandelion salad alongside it. She was sitting across from Luna whom was in the process of tearing apart a small bowl of lemon pudding as if it was the last bowl of lemon pudding on Equis itself with none to come after. Much to Celestia's amusement since Luna oh so loved to tease her for her cake habit.
"I bring good news from our Moon Colony sister," Luna began taking a pause in the consumption of her pudding. "Mining of Moonsilver has finally begun to yield larger results as a vein of the metal was found recently that's larger than all others before it that we've been able to find, so it shall yield a lot for us to use."
Celestia nodded in approval. "That's fantastic Luna, I'll be sure to prepare the Mages and runesmiths to work with it after it's smelted into a form we can use, and I have good news as well!" She said happily taking another bite of her salad. "The secondary Capital of Equestria is now complete! The Everfree is trimmed back quite a bit, and our old castle is completely repaired, should Faust Forbid it we ever need to flee Canterlot, that is where Equestria shall be run from just as the days of old."
Luna grinned. "I always did love screwing with the castle staff unaware of the hidden passageways within those walls, it was always such a joy to terrify them for a short bit."
Celestia rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Yes yes, I know you loved your little pranks on my Day Guard, I still remember the time you coated the floors with olive oil so nopony could walk! It took a team of forty pegasi three weeks to clean it all! The floor near the locker rooms still smells faintly of olive oil even today."
Luna wheezed loudly before calming herself down. "Twas a fun day to watch your high and mighty commander slip and fall like a foal learning to trot for the first time, he spun in circles three times before he landed on his side, unable to right himself for he could not get grip on anything! Hah!" She polished off the bowl of pudding, even going so far as to physically lick the inside of the bowl clean. Causing Celestia to snicker to herself as she sneakily took a photo to prank Luna with later.
Carefully teleporting the small camera away Celestia stood and looked out a balcony that gave her the best view of Canterlot anypony could ask for, but rather than look at the city below her gaze was fixed firmly upon the night sky above. Luna walked next to her sister, looking at her then back up at the sky alongside her. "We will make them pay sister." Celestia said to Luna, a grim determination in her voice alongside a malice that startled Luna into giving her sister a wide eyed gaze. "They have hurt our little ponies so much, even now the glassed ruins of those cities haunts my dreams, every time I sleep I see that happening to not only all of Equestria, but Equis as a whole."
Luna frowned. "I wish you'd let me into your dreams sister, I could prevent those types of Nightmares before they begin, but I do agree that those pests shall be dealt with swiftly as possible."
Celestia looked down from the sky and at her sister's face. "I can't allow you to do that Luna, it serves as a reminder that I failed them once, and that I will not allow myself to fail them ever again." She sighed. "I wish I had somepony other than you to speak with about these things sister, you know me better than anypony else, but I still wish for fresh perspective on this matter, perhaps I can get it from one of my other few friends, the more opinions I have on this the better judgment I can form on how to stop those vile vermin." The venom Celestia spat when she spoke of the alien species that had caused so much destruction so quickly could have killed a thousand immortals with its potency, rather than think about it Celestia just wrapped a wing around Luna looking up at the moon.
"It's so amazing how far we've come in so short a time, Luna. You don't understand how rapidly these changes are for me." She looked back at her sister who was now looking at her silently, having wrapped her own wing around Celestia in return. "For a thousand years I was forced to stand alone and watch as ponies grew and changed, as new inventions came about and improved their short lives, I watched the first steam locomotive travel down twenty feet of primitive iron railway line, but the pony who'd built it was so proud of herself." Celestia looked back at the sky. "Now we have starships that can cross the vast space between the stars themselves, so much opportunity and we must live not in joy, but fear of what lies within, never in a thousand years did I ever imagine our ponies would be settling on your Moon as casually as Appleoosa settled in a desert." She smiled looking at the Moon.
Luna grinned. "Nor I, even a steam train amazed me when I first returned, but all of this? I get to see it happening in real time and still sometimes cannot fathom how it's being done, Equestria and ponies shall expand across the stars, even if slowly and cautiously, we can not let one bump on this new untraveled road stop us from making the journey, if ponies did that everytime some minor thing happened we'd have no trains, no steamships, no airships or aircraft or anything worth having besides grass and dirt." Her horn lit up and she leaned forwards, touching Celestia's forehead with a smirk. "Now you'll have no choice but to have a good dream tonight, dear sister." Without any further warning Luna teleported away in a flash, leaving Celestia to just smile and roll her eyes at her sister's antics.
Opening her eyes Chrysalis gave a happy sigh as she sat upright on the bed, sliding herself off of the large plush mattress. The room she shared with Lorenzo, Moon and Rainshine was massive. The bed itself was a large round marvel of pony engineering, the mattress was literally a cloud inside of a thick silk sheet cover, it didn't get much softer than a cloud. Tonight she had slept alone, the others were busy off doing their assigned tasks and duties, she would be too later. First however she dressed herself as was proper of a Queen, an elegant grass green outfit with golden trim, simple and practical but also comfortable and still befitting royalty. With that done Chrysalis made her way down to the dining room, where a robotic servant brought her a steaming cup of coffee alongside a small plate with sugar cubes, and a small bowl of Changeling Nectar. Grabbing two cubes and tossing them into the mug alongside half the small bowl of Nectar she stirred it, humming happily to herself as she opened her schedule for today. Chrysalis was always one to keep track of everything she did, it was just how she did things as a ruler and that hadn't changed in the time she'd been part of the ruling class of the Crystal Empire. She may not have been Empress, but she was absolutely treated like one by the few living palace staff there were, given most of the staff was robotic in nature. Still unnerving to talk to something that gave off no emotion, sure they could sound happy or respectfully polite but not one of them emitted emotions.
Taking a closer look at what she'd written the day before she was pleased to see she only had two tasks to do today, before she'd been on Vanov ensuring those absurdly short local reptiles wouldn't just start blowing up like grenades from all the changes happening. She thought ponies had been slow, but by the Maker the Akun made snails look like hyper sonic aircraft in comparison with how sluggishly they'd been adapting to the new government and rules being put in place. That was thankfully now being handled by some of her own Changelings who'd once had a high position of command within her Hive, helping organize supplies and such. Setting the empty mug down her horn lit up, wordlessly summoning three very specific Changelings to a meeting room located down the hall from where she was currently. Once she got confirmation they'd arrived she teleported into the room with a small flash. Taking her own seat at the head of the table without any ceremony, they all know who was in charge here, they would hear and obey.
Queen Chrysalis looked at the former rulers of the Changeling Empire, Seelii former ruler of the Blue Hive, Chitin former ruler of the Yellow Hive, and Blackfang former ruler of the Red Hive alongside the official ruler of the Changeling Empire, now all under her and Lorenzo's command. They had all been seated at a large circular table that like so many decorations in the Palace was made of solid crystal, this one having a golden hue the center of which projected a holographic image of the Crystal Empire's snowflake banner. "I bring you all here today to discuss something important for every changeling on the planet." She said, looking at them all. "We all have our own colors for our own hives, but we no longer have separate Hives as we are unified as One Hive, One Empire, so today we will be performing a spell which will permanently change our colors to match this."
Blackfang spoke. "What color will be chosen to show our Unity with not only our other Hives, but as part of the Crystal Empire?" It was a good question, one which Chrysalis would hope he'd ask.
Pulling out a color swab not unlike those you could get at a paint store, she slid it to the former King and waited as he looked down at it, the color being a rich brightly colored violet purple. "Purple is one of the colors on the Crystal Empire's flag, alongside being Emperor Lorenzo's favorite color, shall we begin?" Seeing all three of them nod in mutual agreement, wordlessly having spoken to one another through the Hivemind, Chrysalis's horn began to shine with a bright emerald glow. The other three Changelings lighting theirs in perfect unison, spirals of energy beginning to swirl around the table and themselves. The room began to hum with the crackling of arcane energy as the spell grew in power, the table they'd sat around beginning to vibrate rapidly.
Chrysalis was providing most of the energy needed for this spell, but the other three where no slouches either given they'd all been soaking in the love of the Crystal Heart non stop since they'd become part of the Crystal Empire, across all of Equis Changelings began to switch colors, from the colors of their respective former Hives to the same violet purple as Chrysalis had shown the others. None panicked, none worried, they'd all been informed of it moments before it would happen over the Hivemind, Changelings in disguise would remain in disguise and see how they looked once they had the chance to slip away for a bit. With a bright flash and the sound of a thunder crack the energy swirling around the table dissipated. Leaving in its place four purple Changelings. Eyes and wings now a bright violet, rather than their previous respective colors. Chrysalis herself had also gone through the change, her cat-like eyes now purple alongside her hair, and wings.
Raising a glass of glowing pink liquid, she spoke. "To Unity! To the Hive!" And drank, the others followed suit as the meeting came to a close, a new chapter beginning for the Changelings as another had ended for them after their integration into the fabric of the Crystal Empire as vital subjects. She'd tell Lorenzo later on when she next saw him, knowing him he'd be so ecstatic about the color change. Now with that done, Chrysalis took ten minutes to get another cup of coffee doctored up the same as the last one she'd had, sighing with pleasure as the brew took effect.
Once she'd finished she activated the Molecular Relay, given the distance she had to teleport she wasn't going to dare try it with magic, best use a more reliable method, thankfully of which the Molecular Relay was and with no cost of energy to herself to boot. A blinding flash of light and the sound of a thunderclap heralded her arrival into Canterlot Castles Throne Room, much to both her amusement and disappointment the Royal Guards in the Throne Room hadn't even flinched, she'd enjoyed startling the crap out of them the first few times, but they'd grown used to it. Personal amusement aside for the time being, Chrysalis looked to the throne where Princess Celestia sat, looking down at her and away from the paperwork that was on the table next to the throne.
"Greetings Princess Celestia, I brought the final piece for that little project of yours, Lorenzo still wouldn't tell me exactly what that project was much to my own frustration, I don't suppose you will now that I've delivered 'the final piece' as he called it?" Chrysalis asked, holding up a pink gem held in some manner of golden frame that was no larger than a baseball.
Celestia's eyes lit up as a smile graced her muzzle as her gaze focused on the 'power cell', as she'd learned it was called when she spoke to the other. "Good to see you Queen Chrysalis, please follow me right this way I’ll be more than happy to show you what it’s for." She rose from the throne, trotting down a hallway as Chrysalis followed behind her. Chrysalis still found these four legged ponies weird, since half the time they'd walk on their hind legs or on all fours, rather unsettling at first. If Princess Celestia were to walk on her hind legs she'd look ungainly, too tall. Soon enough they came upon a door with a slot in the center, of which Princess Celestia lowered her head and inserted her horn. Three lights began to glow to either side of the door as the sounds of locks disengaging reverberated throughout the room, the center of the door beginning to glow as it split open sliding into either side of the wall it had been built into.
Following Princess Celestia inside Chrysalis noticed the room was about the size of a medium guest bedroom in Canterlot Castle, many of which she'd seen. This castle was remarkably close to the one back in her universe, with the exception that some things were smaller than they would be, since ponies here generally tended to be smaller than those of the two legged variety she'd known. It was furnished minimally, but was cozy. A decent sized bed sat in one corner, alongside a couch and two plush chairs with a table sitting between them that had a tea set already on it seemingly filled and freshly brewed if the steam coming from it was any indication. But the most glaring object in the room was the large stone door frame lined with runic symbols of all sorts, a large slot on the top of the frame empty, and quite obviously meant for the item she carried.
Holding it out to her, Celestia held it in her magic levitating it up and into the slot with a small click as it began to glow. She stood back with a small smile on her face, which got wider as the frame began glowing with a golden colored vortex. Chrysalis hadn't known exactly what she'd been delivering to Princess Celestia, only that Lorenzo had ordered it made and asked her to personally deliver it since he wouldn't be able to at the time. Her jaw dropped when Celestia, the Celestia from HER world stepped out into the room wearing a simple white and gold dress, ponies and their hang ups with clothes.
Celestia 2.0 looked at her four legged counterpart. "Hello, good to see you finally got it working from your end!" Her gaze turned to Chrysalis, and she gave a curt, respectful nod. "Chrysalis, I hadn't expected to see you here, but nonetheless it's a pleasant surprise." Chrysalis promptly fainted, landing on the floor with a dull thud much to the surprise of both Celestia's.
When Chrysalis awoke it was to the sound of Celestia, she wasn't sure which one, laughing rather loudly. The second thing she noticed was the plush bed she'd been put on, sitting up she saw a sight that made her eyes bulge out of their sockets. This world's Princess Celestia, had her world's Celestia on her back, while wearing a saddle. Both Celestia's stopped laughing as their eyes locked onto her. The one being ridden opened her mouth as if to explain, but Chrysalis didn't give them enough time to do so as she activated the Molecular Relay and vanished with a flash of blue light. Celestia looked up at the other version of herself on her back. "Well, that'll be fun to explain later if she squeals."
The other Celestia stared at the bed they'd placed Chrysalis into after she'd fainted, then nodded. "Undoubtedly."
-----------------------------------------------Ss'ket Home System----------------------------------
The entire Solar System was in a panic, it had been quite awhile ago that the Zetan's had attacked Equis, the planet their allies called Home, and been repelled not without great cost to those on the planetary surface of their allies home world. Now it seems the Zetan Menace had come for them as they'd been warned would happen. The Zetan fleet had arrived suddenly and without warning, but thankfully the Red River Union had prepared for this eventuality and set up interlocking rings of starships, each one armed with a small plasmatic lance in their noses. There was no Great Mothership as there had been for the attack on Equis, but a massive fleet of circular starships was no less effective.
Before the Zetan Fleet could begin their assault they found themselves under a rapid merciless attack on all fronts as rays of golden light began shearing through their energy shields, laying waste to the ships those shields had been meant to protect as if the shields hadn't existed at all. The busts of plasma were so super-heated that they bolted through the plasma based energy shielding without resistance. A half dozen had been turned into scrap before they knew what hit them, but there were dozens more each one now taking evasive maneuvers that would have killed the occupants inside if not for the internal inertia dampeners. Being faster than the Ss'ket's starships the Zetan saucers began darting around, firing their own beams of plasma at the defenders while smaller ones began firing salvos of small missiles, most of which exploded harmlessly miles from their intended targets from Flak fire. If one could call lasers Flak fire at any rate.
It went on like this for awhile, a chaotic song and dance as ships blew apart with bolts of energy being thrown around haphazardly. Union ships had the home advantage, but their main armament took five minutes to fully charge after each shot so they'd lined themselves up like a volley of old school muskets. One ring would fire then another would boost in front of them to let loose their own bursts of pure plasma. Zetan craft didn't have that downside, their deathrays had less punch than a Plasmatic Lance did but could still do damage. Worst part was they could fire more often as they didn't take nearly as much time to recharge. Ships that tried to get past the Union lines and towards the Ss'ket homeworld found themselves facing arrays of orbital coil-cannons that fired at the rate of an auto-cannon. An entire sphere of these defensive platforms blanketed the planet like the quills of a porcupine. The amount of physical projectiles coming at them at such rapid speeds would more often than not just slam into the shields of a ship until it was overwhelmed in mere minutes. Once that was done the ships looked more akin to swiss cheese than a starcraft.
The battle seemed more of less even from an outside perspective, both sides taking losses but neither seeming to back off despite this. Then without warning another fleet of starships exited FTL into the system, long sleek starships colored white with a golden trim, others in the fleet a midnight blue with silver trim, all emblazoned with the symbols of a Shining Sun, and a Crescent Moon. The Equestrian starship fleet having come to the Red River Union's aid turned the tide of the evenly matched battle in favor of the defenders. Powerful beams of magical energy striking Zetan ships faster than the Ss'ket's Plasmatic Lances could recharge. Blasts of focused thaumatic energy striking any ship they could touch.
Princess Luna watched the battle play out from the bridge of her own Flagship named Harmony’s Might, well by technicality her and Celestia's, they ruled as Equals and thus would command as such, had Celestia not been unreachable. Ponies running around the bridge working weapon systems, communications, coordination efforts with the friendly fleet. Luna paid it no mind, her gaze solely focused on the odd Saucer like starcraft she'd seen mere video and photos of prior to this. They looked like saucers made of plain metal with random curved sections holding three layers together, an ugly design if she'd ever seen one. Despite their ugly appearance the Lunar Diarch was no fool to think something ugly could do no harm, she'd personally visited the ruins of Manehatten, it had been enough to anger her at the sight of a city melted into slag. The ground had been naught but ashen obsidian glass left.
Had it not been for the underground shelters already being filled to the brim, many more would have died that day, and while Princess Luna would never admit such a thing to anyone aloud the sight of her Sister letting for the briefest of moments her rage and grief consume her was utterly terrifying. Luna would do all she could to stop such a thing from happening again, and to that effect Harmony’s Might’s main weapon began to spin as golden thaumatic energies swirled around its tip. It was something akin to the ‘Plasmatic Lance’ the Crystal Empire had, but the main difference is it would draw power directly from her Sister’s sun, directly channeling plasma from the core of the immense star, a terrible weapon that would bring a terrible retribution to those who’d dare try to impede its path. A tremendous feat of magical engineering. The hum of power flowing through it caused the entire starship to shake and groan as it was fired. In an instant the bolt of energies struck at the Zetan starships causing a luminous blaze that blinded anyone looking directly at it.
Luna was unaffected by such a thing for she'd had the foresight to blink as it fired, and those it had blinded recovered within moments though a bit disoriented it would do them no permanent harm. She gave a smile seeing a quarter of what had been left of the enemy fleet vaporized so thoroughly they'd left not even molten slag behind to show starships had once occupied the space they'd been in moments before. But that smile didn't last long, flipping into a frown as she watched the saucers begin turning themselves away from the solar system, evidently trying to make a retreat.
She would not allow them to escape, allowing such a thing would mean they could come back later and try again. Princess Luna closed her eyes as her horn began to glow with an ethereal silvery light as she flared her wings. Finally her eyes snapped open and shone with their own silver radiance. She began to hover inside the bridge of the starship without so much as a flap of her wings, the air around the Alicorn beginning to spiral as the glow intensified. Her mane and tail began to swirl alongside the air, looking not so much like hair but as flowing waves of the Galaxy spinning around herself.
The starships that moments before had been trying to retreat went from breakneck speeds to a sluggish crawl, then no movement whatsoever. The abyss around them beginning to condense into solidified form, from inside the Zetan ships it looked as if light itself was vanishing as the stars where snuffed out, their twinkling glow vanishing in an instant at the same moment the local sun looked to have been blown out like the flickering flame of a candle, causing an atmosphere of terror inside the ships as they couldn't even communicate with one another. The inky blackness being so thick no signals could penetrate it, despite their desperate attempts to regain communications with one another the darkness refused anything to escape its grasp.
Then, they felt nothing as the solid shadowy masses suddenly and violently compressed, within mere moments the remaining ships had been reduced to crumpled wrecks with no chance of survival for any aboard them. From an outside perspective it had looked as if darkness itself had grabbed ahold of those ships and torn them asunder. Luna fell to the floor of the bridge without grace, panting and grinning like a madmare at her own hoofwork. She thought to herself, these craft would not harass them or their allies again, and any that dare come afterwards would share the same fate. If they were moronic enough to send more, then she alongside her sister would show them how foolish they truly were. Then Luna's snout began dripping with blood as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, causing her to slump forwards in an undignified heap of Alicorn. Medics had already begun rushing towards her.
The Holy Hegemony's Defense Fleet stood steadfast above one of their last colony-worlds, stubbornly refusing to retreat and leave the planet below defenseless. This war had been going on for months, it began with one or two fleets going dark, then their colony worlds began to go silent alongside them. Any starships sent to investigate would never be heard from again, presumably destroyed by what had taken the colony-worlds from them to begin with. Now that threat had come for this world as well. A fleet of starships that had little to no resemblance to one another as if it comprised of more than one fleet. The largest ships of the group looked like rounded slabs of metal colored an odd mix of purple, gray, gold and black. The second group in the oddly mismatched fleet looked sleek and elegant, almost like birds of prey. The third group of clustered starcraft being purely utilitarian in nature, drag gray and boxy. Each ship from the group was bristling with weapons, glowing and already primed to fire.
The Defensive Fleet was torn apart within mere minutes by the sheer volume of firepower being thrown at them, bolts of plasma, bursts of lasers and coilguns, even tactical nuclear warheads where not out of the question as several ships got blown into radioactive slag that fell from orbit to smash into the cities below. The United Fleet hung in orbit without anyone to impede their path any further. The ships that had reminded the Defensive Fleet's crews of birds began dropping pods into the atmosphere, each one containing soldiers from the Military Republic of Lunarium outfitted in sleek agile armor that covered every inch of skin. The larger ships began bombarding the planet from orbit with orbital plasma bursts, several smaller ships dropping down like stones as they made landing approaches, completely ignoring the attempted flak fire and missiles fired at them. The troop-transports bulldozed through any defenses that'd been set up to shoot them down, in some cases literally slamming through anti-air batteries as they landed. Requirem's own starships followed closely behind those of the Crystal Empire as they descended into the atmosphere of the planet.
The side paneling on one starship peeled back as seven modified Akun Killercraft shot into the skies as they took off from within the internal aircraft bays. Oh sure, they wouldn't be able to knock all the local junk from the skies right off the bat, but the pilots would do their best to cripple the enemy as their Emperor had commanded them. With that in mind the leader of the Killercraft formation aimed the nose of his aircraft at a great herd of local aircraft, the targeting computer having selected a target for each missile he ripple-fired them one after another.
His killercraft bucked slightly under him as the missiles dropped away as their motors kicked into action and spat bright gouts of blue flame as they sprinted downward toward the Hegemony's ugly fighter craft. What little the local aircraft could do they tried as they began taking evasive maneuvers in a vain attempt to avoid their demise they had no chance, not when his missiles had ten times the speed of their aircraft. The heads-up display showed his salvo and those of his wingmates streaking home. Then suddenly, Scoktal needed no heads-up display to gauge what was happening as gouts of smoke and fire suddenly filled the skies below as aircraft fell from the skies in wrecked ruins, none of the pilots having had a chance to eject.
Minkre cheered into Scoktal's radio headset. “Look at them fall, every shot a clean hit!”
Flightleader Scoktal hissed into the radio "We may celebrate later after we knock as many of these unsightly craft from the skies as we can as we have been ordered too, go after the larger ones, I suspect them to be bomber-craft or some sort."
"It Shall Be Done Superior Sir." Minkre said automatically as his aircraft veered out of the formation as he took aim at a larger slower aircraft that had four large turbojet engines that gave an odd golden glow. His aircraft fired twice, two missiles launched away, the heads-up display showing it vanish from the skies as the enemy bomber crashed into the ground below with its entire tail and left wing missing from the resulting explosions. Minkre twisted his aircraft back around, increasing the speed of the Killercraft to catch back up with his wingmates. They would soon be joined by other Killercraft from their MRL allies, large black aircraft with oddly backwards looking wings taking up formation alongside the Akun's own Killercraft. The skies still had plenty of aircraft to down, both sides would enjoy this.
On the ground, both civilians and military alike were being slaughtered mercilessly by soldiers of the Three Nations they had made the mistake of angering. Requirem's soldiers in small mech suits as they lumbered across the battlefield of wrecked buildings and burning vehicles, shoulder mounted missiles firing into the Hegemony's defensive structures while arm mounted railguns hammered away at vehicles. Empire soldiers in Power-Armor marched alongside them providing covering fire using heavy weaponry, dedicated groups of unicorn's keeping several of the group shielded at all times. While Republic soldiers fired weapons that seemed to break all logic, the beams they fired moved faster than the eye could see and sheared through anything they hit. Vehicle, building, or flesh didn't matter as it was all vaporized or turned into powder and mist by the combination of firepower each side had brought with them. Further into the burning cities waves of combat robots and androids swarmed like ants on anything that moved, Heavy Sentry-Bots firing artillery cannons from their backs to reduce the surrounding buildings into rubble. The fighting would drag on for seven hours, in that seven hours every Fedan on the planet would be exterminated like vermin, any that managed to hold out longer than that by some miracle would find themselves begging their Goddess to save them, or to perhaps have mercy. They’re prayers would be wasted for no one would hear them.
Biomedical researcher Zulah walked down the halls of the Nebula quickly, reading the data she'd been given on a small tablet, tapping away at it as she strode past doors and other researchers in her path. Glancing down briefly at herself she gave a small hum of satisfaction that her jumpsuit was spotless, it was only a brief thought as she came to the docking bay to oversee the process. A small group of armed soldiers hauling cryogenic tubes on hover-carts, the one in charge walked up and nodded his head to her, crossing his fingers in an odd triangular shape before tapping at his own tablet, causing Zulah's to beep as the information was transferred. "Shipments of Specimens from System X-42 as requested for study and experimentation from The Council, be careful some of these are very deadly, all relevant data on the specimens will be on your tablet."
Looking over the information that'd been transferred she nodded in confirmation after everything seemed to be in order. "Proceed to Cryogenic Storage Bay Three, that is closest to the lab in which we will be working on these things."
The Commander nodded, and turned to the soldiers hauling the hover-carts burdened with the pods. "You heard her, get to it, The Council doesn't like to be kept waiting!" This caused the soldiers to move faster than before, none of them wanted to personally have The Council displeased with any of them.
Zulah made her way down the halls, the Commander following alongside her. "Anything specific I should know about these specimens?" She questioned, it was always best to ask the people who'd spent half their lives guarding the things she was about to start prodding at, any additional information or advice he'd have would prove invaluable if there was any to be had.
"Yes, the ones marked with the symbol that denotes 'Danger, Radioactive' are to be handled with absolute care, some of those things are filled with gamma-radiation or even feed off it and produce it, be careful around those ones, it's recommended to have the proper sedatives on hand for when they're released from cryogenic storage so they don't start a rampage on the ship, the listed sedatives proven effective at this task are in the information on your tablet."
She nodded, feeling foolish. "Of course I will see to it that I carefully study the data as much as I can." Zulah began scrolling through it again, feeling an eyebrow raise at the sheer absurdity of some of these creatures. One looked almost like a human, if one took all the hair off it and dyed them a color almost reminiscent of her own skin but looking like hulking brutes made of pure muscle and rage with the constant snarl on its face shown. 'Supermutants' the label called it, a subspecies of Humans artificially evolved from an unknown biological contagion.
Walking away from the Commander she went into her own personal lab, uploading the data from her tablet to a computer terminal for easier display and reading. As she read further her eyes widened with amazement at the sheer level of mutations creatures from System X-42 could undergo, that much was an anomaly for sure. She felt the ship shudder and groan as it undocked from the Cryogenic Specimen Storage Facility that floated in a lifeless solar system. It had been placed in that location to ensure anything breaking out of containment couldn't go rampaging on a planet, if need be the station itself could self-destruct given a remote command sequence to do so. Knowing how far The Council was willing to go to make sure some of those things didn't get out or get ahold of a starcraft intrigued her, while also frightening her at the same time.
And now she had several creatures of varying types on her ship, being prepped for the lab she was to work in, it was both frightening and exhilarating to think about. Zulah continued to read through the data on the subjects she had gotten, for the next day and a half the crew didn't dare disturb her as she poured over every scrap of information the files had until she was absolutely certain she knew all there was to know. She had barely eaten, slept minimally, and knowing as much she'd taken a half day simply to rest and recharge her mental batteries.
Finally, she exited her personal lab headed towards the lab in which she would be working, stopping at a room across the hall from the lab to dawn a Biohazard Suit. Complete with its own internal oxygen supply and protective energy resistant glass helmet to allow her full visibility. It wasn't unlike the suits some ground troops would wear when going to the surface of a planet to gather natives or trinkets the locals of any given planet under study had made. The suit was stark white, which would help show if any foreign contaminants splashed on it, making decontamination a much easier process. The lab doors shut behind her with a hiss after she'd entered. Just as she'd instructed, no one was in the lab as she was to be left alone and undisturbed while she performed her experiments.
Zulah more often got the best results while working alone, and not having wanted to get anything less than the optimal results she could from the subjects she'd been provided with she'd issued that order. However she was to be checked in on in ten hour intervals to ensure she wasn't working herself to death. Grabbing a tray of various medical instruments she set it on the metallic table next to the table with a sedated subject already restrained to it with steel clamps locked around its wrists, ankles, and throat. A special chemical cocktail was constantly being pumped into its blood by use of a specialized IV stand to ensure it wouldn't wake no matter what she did to it.
Lifting a standard medical scanner she gave it a brief scan to get a baseline, then turned on the audio-recorder mounted on the wall. "Head Biomedical Researcher Zulah log entry one, first subject labeled X-42-1 is a mutated Human experiencing various growths of green mineral extending from cracked ashen skin which seem to faintly glow if carefully observed in low light conditions." She inserted a needle into it, extracting several vials of blood which she then inserted into a machine. It hummed for about five minutes before it beeped, spitting out a report on the contents of the fluids.
"Subjects vitals compared to that of Baseline Human's are significantly reduced from what should be physically possible for the species to survive, yet by all indications this creature is very much alive, not much information was gained on this specific mutation of the Human Species prior to their apparent extinction caused by unknown events." Zulah paused to tap at another medical diagnostic machine. "Subject X-42-1's blood is also filled with odd radioactive particulates that are actively emitting Gamma-Radiation. Normally this would result in Radiation Sickness leading to cellular decay and death, however the subject itself appears to be using the energy created in this process for itself, extracting samples now."
Reaching back to the tray she grabbed a tool that looked almost like a pair of pliers and reached over clamping it on one of the large green shards extending from cracks in the subject's skin and tugged. When the shard didn't come out she raised an eyebrow and tugged again, jerking the subject's arm upwards against the restraints. Zulah was yanking with all her strength when suddenly the shard broke free from the flesh it was embedded in causing Zulah to stumble backwards due to both surprise and loss of balance. In the resulting tumble the medical clamps she'd been holding went flying off somewhere in the room. With a sickening crunching noise she landed on her back, the suits HUD indicating she'd cracked an oxygen tank and maintenance was suggested to happen immediately less the crack resulted in the pressurized gasses within escaping in a violent decompression which would likely kill her if she still had the suit on.
As Zulah exited into the decontamination chamber adjacent to the lab she'd failed to take notice that when she'd fallen her landing caused her to crush the green crystal that she'd been trying to extract intact, shattering it and sending the razor sharp shards into the skin of her protective suit like splinters. The lingering pain from the fall having masked the feeling of pinprick shards stabbing into her flesh. The room was filled with a cold mist as the decontamination process took place, a red light on the far wall blinking to green once it was completed. Zukah removed her helmet with an agitated sigh. How could she have been so careless? She thought about it as she removed her suit, sliding it into a tube to send it off for repairs. Zulah had simply been too eager to get results, so she thought to herself she'd have to be much more restrained next time.
What an embarrassment, the first subject she was working on and she'd not even got so far as examining the internal organs of the creature! Truly, this would be a black mark on her career records. Maybe she had simply not taken enough time to rest, so as she exited into a small room set to the side built into the lab she decided to lay down. Still not having noticed the thin slivers of crystal shoved into her back she rested on her side, later she would be much more rested and in a better mindset to properly conduct her experiments. With that in mind she drifted off.
Sometime later Zulah awoke feeling much better than she had before, oddly enough she felt stronger than she'd ever felt in a long time, almost as if she'd been put inside a regeneration pod instead of taking a brief nap on a simple cot. Walking into a small bathroom she twisted the only knob in the shower built into the wall. Giving a happy sigh as the warm water cascaded on her skin. Her eyes shot open after the lights in the room dimmed, flashing in and out like a glitch in the electrical systems had happened, an odd voice whispering from somewhere within. "Free Us." It whispered distantly, almost too faint to hear over the sound of the shower but it was as if the voice as faint as it sounded cut through any noise in the room.
Zulah spun around, sliding the door to the shower open as quickly as she could and scanned the room, the lights having gone back to normal seemingly in the blink of an eye. "Who's there?! I gave explicit instructions not to be disturbed! I know the ten hour interval hasn't passed yet!" She yelled out, glaring around the room. Only for her glare to morph into an expression of confusion as no one was here. Another blink and the room dimmed again, faint whispers head from outside the door. Both curious and angered that someone was intentionally messing with her, and disobeying a direct order she had given, Zulah took a minute to put her jumpsuit on before exiting the lab altogether.
Looking around the hallways she took note they'd been dimmed, to signify the crew's resting period. It was to simulate the day and night cycles of her people's homeworld making it easier to rest. She cautiously peeked into one of the crew quarters to see several of them sleeping, she knew the security crew would be awake and on the Bridge at this time so she began making her way towards it to ask for the camera footage to find who’d been sneaking into her lab. However as she made her way towards the Bridge Zulah found herself compelled to change direction now headed to the Cryogenic Storage Bay. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she absolutely had to go this way. Zulah was so engrossed with following this odd gut feeling that she hadn’t noticed her eyes beginning to leak tears of green-yellowish blood.
Lanzos sighed to himself, looking over the Cryogenic Storage Bay while tapping away at the controls that monitored all of the pods, alongside the occupants inside. Looking to his left he checked the controls on a set of special pods that didn’t contain anything alive, just some primitive robots that had been collected from System X-42 for study. All of which showed the machines inside inactive, which he was thankful for. Primitive or not they proved deadly in combat against unarmed combatants and even decently armed troops if they didn’t expect to be facing them.
The sound of the doors hissing open made him swivel around in his chair to look at who’d be entering, the only personnel awake at this time would be the security crews on the Bridge or a scant few researchers on the nightshift. He was startled to see Head Biomedical Researcher Zulah enter, and quickly stood while making a triangle shape with three of his fingers. “Head Researcher to what do I owe this visit? Is there something I can assist you with?”
When Zulah didn’t respond right away Lanzos began to get nervous, then both concerned and alarmed at what he saw, she was crying tears of blood. Her eyes were no longer a healthy solid black but filled with white spots. He quickly stood from his chair, grabbing a medical-scanner. “Head Researcher please hold still, you look unwell so I will perform a basic medical scan to see what the issue is.” As he went to raise the scanner, Zulah bolted forwards directly into him. She ripped the scanner out of his hand and threw it aside into a wall causing the device to shatter. Lanzos didn’t even have enough time to yell out in shock or surprise, or for help as Zulah’s hands wrapped around his skull crushing it in her grip. Zulah let go, allowing Lanzo’s lifeless corpse to fall to the floor with a sickening splattering noise.
Zulah was heaving eyes wide and unfocused as she stumbled her way to the control panel the poor fellow had been sitting at mere moments before. Ignoring her gore soaked hands she began pressing various buttons, twisting dials and knobs smearing blood and chunks of meat across the control panels, she took no notice of that. Every pod in the room began to hiss as they brought their occupants out of cryogenic stasis one by one opening with hisses of vented steam and other gasses.
She’d enacted a protocol that would open every pod in the Storage Bay, and in doing so the source of the voices she’d been hearing the past few hours slowly driving her to the brink of insanity was released. The largest pod at the far end of the room burst open as two clawed arms smashed through the protective glass, the creature pulled itself out and flared its large leathery wings while letting out an ear piercing shriek. It was at that moment, she became one with the Queen in mind, body, and soul.
The occupants of the other pods began wrenching themselves out, Feral Ghouls began growling crowding around one another while attacking the Supermutants from the pods next to them. Dozens of creatures crawled out of their own pods as alarms began to go off in the Storage Bay, to warn the crew of the unauthorized shutdown of all pods. Humanoid creatures wearing what looked to be protective suits with bright green eyes glowing like embers in the low light of the room began shambling around, wrapping hands around the support rails and ripping them off to use as makeshift spears in the chaos.
The pods that had contained robots from X-42 for study hummed to life, activating the machines within as they opened. A large, relatively intact Sentry-Bot rumbled out of one pod, growling out a warning as it entered combat-mode. ”Non-combatants are advised to stand clear of weapons discharge.” It began unloading one of its arm mounted gatling-guns into a group of Ghouls, the gunshots ringing out like a gong being sounded. Only seven seconds after it began to fire its gun clicked empty, its abductors had never bothered to reload its main armament.
Several Supermutants bum-rushed the machine, beating against it with bare fists and in return one of them got his head smashed in with the still hot barrels of the robot’s gatling-gun. The other arm’s gun beginning to spin but refusing to fire. It had locked up from years of neglect, the Sentry-bot was torn apart shortly afterwards as it entered its Cool-down mode which allowed one Supermutant to reach inside and violently rip the fusion cores out of their sockets.
This caused an explosion, killing seven Supermutants as the machine exploded. Damaging another pod that had been unable to open, causing the door to crack as one half of the pod took the brunt of the explosion and shrapnel. A hand covered in synthetic rubber that had yellowed and withered with age gripped the edges of the now broken door, shoving it off as several more did the same from their own pods. Yellow eyes burning like the blazes of hell itself as the humanoid robots broke free. ”By or-or-order of the In-in-institute, you must be destroyed.” One of them called out in a broken, glitched and harshly synthetic male voice.
As security personnel arrived the chaos was finally let outside of the Cryogenic Storage Bay. The security forces were overwhelmed in moments, while the Scorchbeast Queen and her new Drone moved to infect as many lifeforms as possible. The Queen mauled several, chewing them and spitting them back out still half alive while her new Drone picked up one of the security personnel’s weapons and began firing it clumsily at what had once been her former crew, making non-lethal shots as often as possible then intentionally slicing into anyone who got close with the jagged shards of Ultracite now stabbing themselves free from her flesh. Alarms blared throughout Research Ship Nebula as both the mutated, and infected creatures slaughtered their way through the crew of the Nebula.
Scorched Zetans now under control of the Scorchbeast Queen made to attack anyone not infected, while Ghouls and Ghost People roamed the halls, a rudimentary alliance forming between the two groups of mutants. Feral Ghouls could not strategize or even plan, but they couldn’t tell the Ghost People where not one of their own due to the radiation leaking from their protective suits. Ghosts would throw makeshift spears at a target to incapacitate it while Ferals would swarm the downed Zetan, or Supermutant, or Scorched. Ghouls were almost completely immune to the infection that the Scorched could spread, and the Ghosts couldn’t be infected on account of the fact they were not living nor dead, but in between. The remaining crew on the Bridge disabled the doors, alongside the teleportation pads. It didn’t help them as the doors buckled inwards crumpled like tinfoil under the weight of a Scorched Supermutant, mutated monstrosities swarming into the Bridge like water from a broken dam. The Captain had no chance to record a warning, or to try and scuttle the ship into the nearest star as his body was smashed into lifeless paste across his own Command Station’s chair.
As they entered the apartment, John let his gaze wander around for a moment to passively scan the room without moving his head, a habit he'd picked up from his days as a Drifter. Suvill had already skittered into what was evidently the kitchen while John himself took note of just how barren the place seemed. He'd seen farmers' shacks set up under broken highway overpasses with more decoration than this! The walls a drab grayish green color not unlike Suvill's skin....scales? That was something he'd have to get used to. The floor was an artificial tile of some sort, that had a reddish hue to it. Another thing he noticed looking around was the place seemed so, small. Literally, everything was perfectly sized for Suvill, it made John feel out of place and a little too tall.
The living-room had a few chairs that looked to be made of metal and leather, with a medium sized couch in the center facing a large wide television of a make and model John didn't recognize. No pictures or paintings hung on the walls, the corner of the living-room had an odd looking ornate table pressed against the wall that had an odd series of candles and a small metallic statue on it, the statue looked like whatever species Suvill was, with ornate golden bodypaint holding a small bowl that still held ashes of whatever had been burned inside. Just as he was about to touch it, Suvill startled him out of his internal thoughts. "Please come in, the food I left simmering in the pot is just done. I managed to procure a few Eponite chairs that would suit your hindquarters better than those meant for my kind." He called from the kitchen.
Walking into the kitchen he had to duck his head to avoid hitting it on the archway, it was as utilitarian as the rest of the apartment had been. A simple stove, an odd box built into the wall that reminded him of something he couldn't recall the name of, what he presumed was a fridge, a table and a few chairs. All of which was made of metal, not a hint of wood anywhere in the decoration or design. On the table two ceramic bowls sat filled with a stew of some sort. Suvill was already eating his with an odd pair of tongs, while Hancock's own bowl had a metal spoon sitting next to it.
As if knowing he was going to ask, Suvill spoke. "I have a few Eponite friends who sometimes visit, as such I've gotten a few of the eating utensils your kind prefers."
John nodded in thanks and sat in a chair looking down at his bowl, before mentally shrugging and taking a bite. His eyes widened in surprise and delight at the flavor. "Damn this is some good stuff! What's in it?" He asked, shoveling another bite into his maw, careful to not swear in front of his Host, he didn’t want to offend the weird thing somehow.
"It's cubed Thalaill meat, with spices and plants native to my homeworld added with something you call 'diced potatoes', I've found I like potatoes, so decided to experiment and add them to the recipe."
Thalaill? Well, whatever it was it tasted damn good, John thought to himself as he finished off his bowl. "Thanks for the meal, I'll find some way to pay back that kindness, always do." He thought about that, what exactly could he get Suvill? He knew little to nothing about him, let alone his species." "I gotta ask, what are you? Your species I mean."
Suvill set his own empty bowl alongside Hancock's into a dishwasher, closing it with a click. "I am an Akun, that is what we call our species, I would think you would know this given how widespread information is around here."
John winced slightly. "Well, I'm not exactly from here if ya catch my meanin." He said thinking back to what the hell would happen to Goodneighbor without him, sure it would be fine for awhile he'd left people in charge before. But what would happen when he didn't return? He knew several of his most trusted friends would likely be able to work something out, if not...well, he wasn't going to worry about that until the time came.
As Suvill opened his mouth to ask what John had meant his door-hisser went off. "Hold on a moment, while I see who's arrived this late at night." He skittered out of the kitchen pressing a button next to the door causing a screen to light up with an image, he hissed in both surprise and alarm because Law Enforcement Androids showed up on the screen. Seeing this, he opened the door quickly but calmly. "Hello Officers, what can this male do for you tonight?" He asked, keeping his tone polite. Always respect those of higher rank than you had been all but beaten into him since hatchlinghood.
One of the Androids looked down at him, as he entered the posture of respect. "We are here to apprehend and question a man that looks to have severe burns across most of his body, security cameras showed him entering this flat." The Android walked inside alongside two others without asking for permission, they didn't need to ask. Suvill made no effort to impede them.
The moment John Hancock saw them however, all he could think about was 'The Institute', these things looked almost exactly like 'Gen Two Synths' those bastards left roaming the Commonwealth. Without so much as a word he kicked the table over to use as cover while pulling his sawed-off shotgun from his coat and firing twice into the face of one Android. He didn't know how the fuck the Institute was here but he wasn't gonna go down without a fight. Suvill had likely already been nabbed the moment he'd opened the door, poor fucker.
The Android Hancock had shot reared back as its helmet was dented by the buckshot, its eyes switching from a calming green to a bright red. "You are attacking an Officer of the Law, by Order of Emperor Lorenzo you are to be brought in for questioning. Come peacefully or we will be authorized to use any means necessary for your transport. Failing to abide by this order will make you a Criminal in the eyes of the Crystal Empire." It barked out, hefting an odd looking pistol out of a holster, the tip of the weapon crackling with electrical energy.
John rose from cover, and managed to get one more shot off before he was struck by a ball of electricity that stunned him, giving the Androids enough time to cuff him, while one disarmed him and carried John outside of the flat complex like a sack of potatoes, still limp and unable to do much more than wheeze and move his eyeballs as he was loaded into the back of a police cruiser. He was still limp when ten minutes later the cruiser pulled up to an absolutely massive Palace of Crystal. He was just regaining some mobility in his face when he was pulled out and once more tossed over the Androids shoulder like a sack. He was forced to look at the floor from his position as the Android walked into the Palace, going through the halls.
For twenty damn minutes, he was dragged around like a sack of vegetables before he was stood upright in front of a simple wooden door, his legs wobbling almost like Jello. "The Emperor is Awaiting you within, do not cause a scene." One of the Androids said before his cuffs fell off his wrists and the door swung open as he was shoved inside without warning. He fell onto the floor with a thump against the hard floor as the door slammed shut behind him.
His head shot up when he heard someone chuckling. "Apologies for the rough treatment, maybe next time I should send out some living officers alongside them so they don't get too rough."
John was staring at a man that looked to be in his mid twenties, maybe early thirties with skin tanned from exposure to the sun, dark facial hair with bright green eyes that almost made him pause. He had on a suit that looked to be a mix of purple, pink, gold and black. A weird ornate silver colored crown on his head lined with more gemstones than Hancock had ever seen before, the centerpiece gem in the crown looking like a solid black orb with weird colors spinning within. He had no context for what a 'Galaxy' looked like, he'd never seen a picture or drawing of one so to him it just looked like swirling colors with orbs of light.
Standing up and slowly dusting himself off, he was surprised to see the man called 'The Emperor' repeatedly was just sitting at a wooden table with two glasses and inhalers of Jet on it. A bottle of brown reddish liquid sitting alongside them. "I am Emperor Lorenzo, though you may just call me Lorenzo. I know much about you John, some things you'll be surprised I even know and will want to know how I know them, this will be explained in due time, for now sit have a drink or take some Jet, it's non addictive I assure you." As if to prove his own word, 'Lorenzo' as he'd called himself, picked one of the inhalers up and pressed the pressure button on the top, releasing its entire contents into his lungs in one large puff. "Ah yeah, still as good as I remember, don't do chems too often anymore."
He slid one of the inhalers towards John while pouring two glasses of what smelled like rum, John Hancock looked down at the Inhaler in his hand, before mentally thinking 'Fuck it, I've had weirder shit happen' and raising it to his mouth, inhaling the wonderful chemical cocktail within.
John gave a content sigh as he emptied his glass after tossing the emptied jet inhaler into a bin next to them without getting up from his chair. "So, you said you know a lot about me, care to explain that?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow, well, not that he had eyebrows but that's besides the point.
Emperor Lorenzo, or just 'Lorenzo' as he'd said to call him gave him a smile that sent chills down Hancock's spine as if he was looking at a starving pissed off Deathclaw rather than a human being, a person. "I know many things beyond the comprehension you have at your disposal John, I know for example you are a mentats sorta Ghoul yourself, makes you feel 'brainy' as you call it." After saying as much, while John was still staring open-mouthed in shock Lorenzo slid him a tin of mentats that didn't have a single spec of rust anywhere on it.
Cautiously he took the tin and peeled it open, downing the contents like candy. "An what else do you know?"
As Lorenzo spoke, John noticed an odd glint in his eyes that he couldn't identify. "Born John McDonough, you are the estranged younger brother of Mayor McDonough, the current Mayor of the Commonwealth's largest settlement, Diamond City. You two had a rocky relationship from the beginning. You considered your brother "entitled" and often claimed that he would sometimes shove rotten tatoes down the back of your shirt and slap them when you were younger." Lorenzo took a moment to light a cigarette. "Diamond City used to be welcoming to Ghouls, until your dear older brother ran for mayor on an anti-Ghoul platform, when he was elected into Office you confronted him in his office after his inauguration speech."
John Hancock was stunned into silence, just sitting in the chair trying to process everything being said to him by someone who by all rights, should know absolutely none of this information, he was too stunned to say anything as Lorenzo continued speaking. "Despite confronting him in his office, your brother showed no remorse for what he'd done, only cockily gloating to you that the city was 'finally his'. You tried to save as many of the Ghoul families as you could, trying to relocate them to Goodneighbor which at the time was ruled by a ruthless mob boss who was named 'Vic'. Despite this many of them simply could not adjust to life in what they viewed as a slum compared to the illustrious Diamond City they'd been forced to leave, fleeing into the ruins of Boston and the surrounding wasteland of the Commonwealth, eventually dying due to a lack of food or water, or simple everyday Wasteland violence."
"This eventually led to you going into a rut of drug abuse and depression alongside it, at one point being so depressed you decided to take a highly experimental pre-war radiation drug, to turn yourself into a Ghoul, and what luck you had that it worked and didn't fry your insides like fat in a hot pan!" Lorenzo laughed to himself. "Then, while you were so high you could barely see you wandered into the old state house, saw the clothing you wear now sitting in a display case an smashed it, deciding that day that John McDonough had died that day, and that John Hancock was to replace him, to be better than him. Need I say more? I have plenty more to tell my little Revolutionary Ghoul."
This was one of the few times John Hancock was genuinely unsettled and unsure of what to do, only counted with a small handful of others that had been experienced throughout his life. "I...I have no idea what the fuck I'm supposed to say here...no, no that's not right, I need to know how the ever-loving FUCK do you know all of this?!" He asked with exasperation in his voice.
This caused 'Emperor Lorenzo' to chuckle to himself again. "You wouldn't even think what I said was true, even though it is, do you still want to know?" At Hancock's silent but stern nod, he shrugged. "Simply put? You're a character from a video-game I played before I became, this." He gestured to himself.
John gave Lorenzo a look of complete exasperation. "What hidden chem stash have you been sneaking during our talk, an where the hell can I get some?"
Lorenzo tutted. "I told you that you wouldn't trust what I said was true, but thankfully for you my little friend I can prove my word!" He pulled a solid black orb that looked to be made out of glass from seemingly nowhere, it had an eerie red glow emitting from somewhere within the orb.
Slowly John reached out, taking it from the man's hand. Looking at it in his palm as the glow seemed to intensify as he held it in his grip, it was surprisingly warm with a fair amount of heat radiating from the thing. "What is this, and what am I supposed to do with it?"
"It's a Memory Orb, an Arcane device of Equestrian invention, I had this one extracted when I heard reports about you by Chrysalis, whom is specialized in mind magics." Emperor Lorenzo took a moment to down an entire tin of mentats before he continued. "Simply hold the orb in one hand, and speak the phrase 'Let he whom holds the Orb walk the path within' and you will simply see what I say is nothing but the truth." His tone was no longer jovial, or joking but completely stone-faced serious.
John Hancock stared at the orb in his hand for a few moments before hesitantly speaking. "Let he whom holds the Orb walk the path within." The moment he had finished speaking his eyes went wide as physically possible, now glowing the same color that the Orb was doing. It only lasted ten seconds but to John it felt like weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. He slumped back into the chair he had been provided, his breaths coming in short ragged huffs. The experience was intense, moreso for someone who'd never experienced anything like it.
Emperor Lorenzo patiently waited, sipping on another glass of rum while John recovered mentally from the ordeal he'd just gone through, when he was ready he looked back up at Lorenzo. "I don't know what the fuck I just saw but...God be damned you ain't lyin, are ya? Nah, you can't be, too much effort for a lie that wouldn't make sense, an you know far too much for it to be a fib."
Lorenzo stared at John, cocking an eyebrow. "So do you see now? I know much about you, I know much about your world in general, but I am stuck to specific events, specific timelines, not the smaller details, I only know what I know about you from a game, an even then, what was in it was rather accurate. How this iis? I have no idea, so don't bother asking." He said with a shrug. "However, I do know there is one further glaring issue you will have here, because I assure you there is no way back to your Wasteland that I know of."
John raised his own eyebrow. "Oh? An what'd that be?" He questioned with obvious suspicion and curiosity in his voice.
"Quite simple, you are a Ghoul, a Ghoul in a world with little to no free-range Gamma-Radiation around to soak in and keep you alive, you may not be a Feral Ghoul, but all Ghouls need radiation in some amount to stay alive, for you it's as necessary as food or water, though you often likely didn't notice it before given your previous environment was soaked in the stuff from the Bombs."
"I...I hadn't even really thought about it that much, I jus knew rads didn't hurt me like they would a smoothskin, how am I gonna get my Rads if there's no radiation in the water or air?" Hancock questioned, concerned for his health, and what would happen if he had to find out the hard way what would happen if you deprived a non-feral of radiation for too long.
Lorenzo gave him a smile, the first time he'd seen the man give a smile that didn't make his spine want to crawl out of his ass an run. "Simply put we can just get you a cybernetic implant to give you the needed doses of radiation on the daily, it'll detect when you're low an just, directly introduce it into your bloodstream, would that be agreeable to you?"
John took a few moments to think it over, before nodding. "Makes sense I suppose, don't wanna jus give me a barrel of radioactive water or a chunk of uranium to carry with me, it'd be a risk to others, but if it's already inside my body then its no risk to anyone, smart." Ah mentats, he'd never give them up.
The Emperor nodded. "Delightful, I'll have your implant inserted as soon as possible, the sooner we do it the better off you'll be, you should be fine for a day or two but I'd rather not risk you getting too low on radiation, so for now drink this." He produced a gallon jug out of seemingly nowhere, a heavy metal one. "It's a lead lined gallon container of irradiated water, do not spill it, or leave it unattended."
As John took the container, the Pipboy on Lorenzo's wrist began flashing red, beeping briefly before it projected a 3D holographic image that damn near made John piss himself in surprise. Being displayed was a hulking behemoth of a Supermutant if he'd ever seen one, except this one looked to be decked out completely in Power Armor. John shuddered at the thought of such a thing in the Wasteland.
The mutant wasn't stupid however, it would seem by the way it spoke, his voice was like someone who'd been chain smoking since they had been born, then gargling gravel and fire. "My Emperor, I call on the Emergency Communications line to report to you immediately that several former Manukan Nobles have used their remaining wealth and connections among their own kind to attempt a rebellion against Your Glorious Will, and ask what is to be done with them? Despite their primitive weaponry from muskets to bows and arrows, several Civilians have already been injured, two of which died on impact from projectiles to vital organs."
Hancock watched as Lorenzo's jovial attitude vanished instantly, the spark in his eyes going dull for a brief moment, before it was replaced with an inferno of rage that would make the hottest of stars look like a wet firecracker, at least that's how it seemed from how his eyes began to glow a dark emerald color, the swirling colorful gem in the center of his crown glowing in unison with it. "Frank Horrigan, your quick response to report this pleases me greatly, please keep civilians and loyal Manuka inside the barrier and inside their homes, please identify to me on the holo-feed the 'rebellion' if you would be so kind?"
Frank Horrigan nodded. "As You Wish." Was all he said, before the feed switched over to drone footage of a small ragtag army of several dozens of Manukan mercenaries or peasants, each one armed or armored differently. Peasants armed with nothing more than sharpened spears, or crossbow, while the more trained Manuka having bows and swords, a rare few of them hauling loaded muskets shown aiming and shooting the primitive weapons at several doors, or anything that moved really.
John Hancock got the second shock of his life that day as he watched Lorenzo's suit instantly vanish to be replaced by sleek metallic armor, telsa coils in the gauntlets crackling with blue arcs of energy and two large wings that looked to be made of pure fire flaring from his back. "I apologize for the sudden intrusion John, but I have some business to attend too, You may watch if you wish too." He pointed to the table, an the orb half sunken into the center began projecting a copy of the footage shown on his Pipboy before Lorenzo vanished in a flash of blue light and thunder.
Within a moment, I had appeared on Leva in the skies flapping my armor's wings to remain aloft as I looked down upon the battlefield. Not many of the Empire had actually died thank Faust. The few who did get injured were already being treated, but I knew how this species worked, I knew how their former rulers worked. They wouldn't head warnings they needed a true blatant display of power before they would understand who was truly in charge now. If this species wanted to be moronic, I was more than happy to accommodate their death-wish.
Spotting the bitch heading the rebellion wasn't hard, she'd dressed herself up in bronze and golden battle-armor with a stupidly large yellow plume on the helmet. I could have had the soldiers stationed here deal with them, but that wouldn't get the message across other than to try again. Clenching my fists I swooped down, my gauntlets crackling with arcs of pure electrical energy as I stuck the ground shattering the cobblestones of the road and showering several armed peasants hard enough to kill one of them. Tapping the side of my helmet once I activated a special enchantment Sombra had put into the helmet previously that'd I'd never really had to use. "WHO DARE DEFY MY WILL OVER THIS PLANET? WHOM DARES TO DEFY THE ORDER OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE? STEP FORTH AND RECEIVE YOUR JUDGMENT OR THIS ENTIRE PLANET WILL BE TORCHED TO GLASS FOR YOUR SINS!"
My voice had been amplified several times and deepened so it sounded more like an angry dragon rather than myself, for extra display my armor was arching with electrical energy from the small tesla-coils I'd had installed a few days prior, looking as it I was bathed in lightning.
The one in gaudy armor not even the most desperate of smiths would forge stepped forward proudly. "I dare! Lady Nerkril, Matriarch of the Hiv'its house, Second daughter to the deceased former Matriarch, Lady Edraks, killed by your horrible black beast! You have taken my home, my family, my wealth from me, and the rest of us! We shall not sit idle as you carve our Empire's apart like roasted meat!" She lifted up a musket, aiming at me. "For your crimes against my species, and my family you shall die this day!" Her weapon fired, slamming into the chest-plate of my armor and ricocheting off.
I didn't let the reality of what just happened sink in for her, nor did I give her time to reload as I shot forward becoming almost a blur as my right hand wrapped around her throat, flapping my armor's wings as I dragged her into the sky by her throat.
Lady Nerkil gasped, clutching her hands against my own trying to pry it from her throat, while also trying to hang onto my arm since I'd flown us high enough that if she fell she'd surely die. I hadn't noticed but was later told my eyes began glowing a bright emerald green. "You DARE defy me? You DARE to harm and kill those under MY protection? Your petty Empire was naught but a stepping stone, your pathetic family no more than a PEST TO EXTERMINATE! I will give no quarter or mercy to those who bite the hand that feeds them, I hope you have made peace with your Goddess's BECAUSE NOW YOU SHALL GET TO MEET THEM FIRST HAND!"
Nerkil only managed to let out a strangled scream of terror as I folded the wings of my armor, plunging us both towards the ground like a falcon swooping in to catch a rabbit, just as we got close to the ground I flared my wings but kept going down, slamming her into the pavement at such speeds she simply splattered like a rotten fruit. I stood from the crater in the ground my landing had made, activating the tesla-coils on my armor once more, blue gore and blood coating my armor burning and sizzling as the electrical energy cooked and fried it. To me it simply smelt like someone tried to burn pennies, to the Manuka it smelled utterly horrific if a few of them vomiting was any indication.
I let the last armies of this world's Empire surrender, I would not make the same mistake again. Raising my hands I grinned as arcs of electricity jumped from my fingertips and began frying the closest Manuka near me. Shooting forward like a runaway freight-train I rammed into another, putting my fist through her chest and tossing the corpse aside like the trash it was.
"You all wanted your freedom so badly? Fine, You can have it in your Afterlife." A peasant tried to stab at me with a spear, I grabbed her face and crushed her skull in my hand as effortlessly as trying to crush a grape. I really had to beef these guys up some if I had any plans of them joining my military at some point. I pulled something out of my inventory I hadn't used in eons and smiled looking down the aiming sight of my personal Nuka-Nuke launcher, a weapon I hadn't used in almost over a year at this point. Not even bothering to properly aim I just pointed it at the ground and fired.
Blowing up still hurt like fuck, but when I respawned and the quantum blue atomic blast-cloud was gone only I stood in the center of a pile of both ashen skeletons and those unlucky enough to be at the edge of the blast and not die instantly, but get horrific radiation induced burns as their skin began sloughing off their muscles like cheap plastic-wrap.
I laughed to myself, surely any survivors, an there where survivors who'd been busy running the fuck away, would spread word of this and stamp out any ideals of 'taking back their world', if word of mouth wasn't enough to do it, well I could always have the footage aired on television. Ah, what a wonderful day this was turning out to be despite the annoyance that the first moron had caused. I'd forgotten how pleasant it was to be on the battlefield, given I'd let my military deal with most threats these days. Perhaps I would join them more often? I could write it off as 'Boosting Moral' or something along those lines. Thinking to myself about the possibilities to test some of the Crystal Empire's newest toys as I walked over a half dead Manuka who was trying to scream but unable due to the burns across her body, casually crushing her skull under my armored boot while whistling 'Atom Bomb Baby' to myself.
As I walked back into the town while whistling a tune to myself, an all clear signal was sounded out as Manukan civilians, and Empire personnel came back out from the various buildings, and fortifications. Frank Horrigan walked up to me, giving a salute. "Your Imperial Majesty, how do you wish for us to proceed with the colonization plans on this planet?"
Looking up at the man's helmeted face I smiled. "Continue them as planned, any further setbacks you may deal with them as you wish, so long as it doesn't result in the extinction of the Manukan species."
"As you Command My Emperor." Frank saluted again, and made to walk off.
Before he could, I called out. "Hey, Frank?" He turned his head back to face me. "If anything else happens, have some fun." The chuckle he gave as he continued on his way was sinister, and I absolutely loved it.
John was gawking at the holo-projected live video-feed he'd just witnessed. This Lorenzo guy had looked like someone out of one of the old Superhero Comics with that odd armor and moves. Though, he wasn't sure if Lorenzo would have been considered the Hero or Villain of the comic that was besides the point. He'd just watched literal aliens get turned to ash. That was...terrifying to witness, yet the idea of an entirely different world fascinated him. Mostly because he wasn't sure what sort of chems the locals could cook up with what they had.
While he was contemplating just what sort of shit-show he'd found himself in, the door to the room opened allowing Lorenzo to walk in, still whistling a merry little tune to himself.
"Alright John, follow me and I'll set you up in some temporary lodging while the implant we spoke about before is being made." He turned and John followed after hesitating for a moment. The man still hadn't cleaned his armor off, it was covered in the acrid smell of burning copper from the blood of those alien things. A stark reminder that this wasn't a normal person he was dealing with, even by Wasteland standards. Even the way he moved seemed too, stiff almost. It reminded him of a half ruined book he'd found in an abandoned storefront once, even though he barely remembered what little of it he could read. John followed silently behind Lorenzo, taking in the long hallways all made of the same blue crystal. Passing guards that looked like tiny armored horses out of a pre-war children's book, and some that looked downright weird, like the small lizard, an 'Akun' if he remembered correctly, wearing odd purple combat armor holding a small assault rifle while its turreted eyes swiveled about never staying in one spot long.
As they passed it, it very obviously struggled not to focus on Lorenzo while they walked into a small room, which held a television, a model he could recognize thank God, a sofa, plush looking cot, and a mini-fridge with a table on the side that had a small coffee machine and several bottles of booze sitting on it. "You can stay here for now, it should only be an hour or two before someone comes to grab you, just listen to the instructions given and it should go fine." Lorenzo said not looking at him as he turned and made his way back out of the room. Leaving John on his own, seeing this he turned on the television to see what was on, since sometimes he'd find pre-war television stations still playing on loop, rare as it was. From what he knew there would be much more than old looping buggy programs playing on this one.
Setting the remote aside for a minute John stood and walked into a small side-room which turned out to be a tiny bathroom, it had a shower, sink, mirror and toilet, alongside a small towel rack which was already filled with towels. Ignoring all of that he stood in front of the mirror looking himself in the face. Turning the sink on be cupped his hands under it before splashing himself in the face with the water, wiping it off on his sleeve. "What the hell have I gotten into this time?" He questioned aloud to himself, his reflection didn't answer. He sighed going back into the room, he'd just have to ride this one out.
--------------------------------Nick Valentine, Old State House--------------------
"So, you say he was just passed out on a chem trip in this room, and when someone came to check on him he was just gone?" Nick questioned, looking at the room briefly before returning his gaze to the person he was speaking with, Hancock's second in command, Fahrenheit.
Fahrenheit nodded in affirmation, the cigarette between her lips glowing as puffs of smoke blew from her nostrils as she exhaled. "Yeah, normally that wouldn't be too out of the odd for Hancock but he'd always tell someone he was gonna be gone if it was for more than a few days, an no one saw him exit, so unless he jumped off the balcony he didn't just walk out of that room since we have Triggermen guarding it at all times, I want this fixed before people start getting jumpy and asking questions they shouldn't be asking, cuz I ain't got the answers." She was clearly unhappy at the fact the man had vanished, and by the looks of it a little worried. Not too much given she knew he could handle himself but still.
Nick lit his own cigarette, though it did nothing for him in the same sense it would for a human, it did let him get into character, old habits die hard after all. "Alright so he was here, then he wasn't and there's no chance he snuck out since someone would have seen him, any specifics I need to know?"
Dropping her cigarette to the floor and crushing it under her boot to stamp it out, Fahrenheit pointed to the large red couch sitting against the wall. "He always sits there for his chem trips, an when I came in the room had crap all tossed about, papers n whatnot, but no furniture was moved, no blood, no obvious signs of a struggle, and the Triggermen heard nothing otherwise they would have burst into the room with their submachine guns at the ready, I'll leave you to your investigation, just please let me know if you find any clues that can tell me where the hell that damned fool wandered off too." With that said she walked out, closing the doors behind her. Looking at the two Triggermen guarding it she scowled. "If you hear anything out of the fucking ordinary at all in that room I want your asses in there within two seconds, otherwise I'll fucking skin you!" They stood stock still, just giving a slight nod. They'd worked for Hancock an Fahrenheit for a long time now and had long since gotten used to how each of their respective Bosses worked.
With Fahrenheit out of the room and leaving him to his own devices, Nick began searching the place. He'd been here a few times before to investigate things for Hancock, so he had a passing memory of how the place was supposed to look. Couching down he looked at the various empty jet inhalers on the ground, and a few syringes still filled with Med-X, one of which upon further inspection was half empty. Valentine scowled silently to himself, he never did approve of how recklessly Hancock allowed and even actively encouraged people to use chems on the daily. He'd learned to live with it, Old World laws didn't much matter anymore. Standing back up he pulled out a camera from his bag and began snapping photos of the room. Once the photos had been taken he slipped it back into his bag, he walked into the bathroom that was off to the side hoping something inside might provide an insight into how the man vanished.
The Old State House was just that, old, very old. Valentine thought there was a high chance of some hidden doorway or passageways in or out given the age of the building, and since many of Boston's older buildings had such things, false walls or hidden floors, but no inspecting every inch of brickwork, wallpaper or plaster uncovered nothing. No hidden latch, switch, button, or lock. Giving a sigh of frustration he sat on one of the wooden chairs scattered about, pulling a lighter from his pocket he went to reach for the pack of cigarettes he kept on his person at all times, only to pause. Were his optics deceiving him, or was something shining faintly under the couch?
Tucking the lighter back into his pocket Nick walked up to the couch, slowly putting a hand on one of the cushions as he knelt down to get a better look at the source of the light. There, at the very back of the couch against the wall was a small marble that looked to be shining like a weak flashlight, flickering like the batteries were dying. "Hmm, now what are you supposed to be?" He'd never seen anything like it, at least he didn't think so. Carefully he lowered himself flat onto the floor trying to reach it under the couch, since the couch itself was bolted to the floor giving him no chance to just move it.
The moment his hand touched the small orb, the weak dimming glow suddenly became a blinding flash, his optics flashing in an attempt to compensate for the sudden changes in the light, but Nick had no chance to even let out a yell of surprise as one moment he was reaching his arm under the couch, and the next he was literally pulled into the orb within less than a second of his hand making contact with it. Without warning he landed face first into the wall of an alleyway, while he couldn't feel physical pain he still winced thinking about what that sudden impact may have done to some of his more...delicate components.
Slowly standing up, Nick noticed he was no longer in the Old State House, nor anywhere in Goodneighbor since the alleyway he was in was far too clean. Sure it had bins of trash and refuse like any other he'd ever seen, but the ground wasn't littered with empty chem containers, busted bottles or spotted with any bodily fluids. Hearing something crunch when he stood to his full height he looked down and glared. The camera that he'd had with him in his pack had been smashed into the wall when he'd smacked into it. That thing was expensive to get, even more so to maintain and get film for. He sighed, that was a problem for later. For now he had to figure out just where the hell he was.
Looking at the exit of the alleyway he saw the sky slowly turning from a deep pink to a dark purple color as the sun set. That wasn't right, it was only 2:00 PM when he was investigating the State House. The sun shouldn't have been setting for another several hours, putting the oddity away and choosing to ignore the fact he'd somehow lost several hours without even a registered system reboot he crept across the alleyway, hand in his pocket gripping the handle of his .44 revolver just to be safe.
Peeking his head out of the Alleyway his eyes widened slightly at sights that reminded him of Nick's, the real Nick's time as a Pre-War investigator, cars rolling up and down pristinely paved roads, sidewalks lit by lamps dotted about on poles that still had power. All of them flickering to life one by one as the sun set across the horizon. A horizon filled to the brim with tall skyscrapers stretching towards the sky. Almost like Boston before the bombs hit. Somewhat stunned at all he was seeing Nick crept out of the alleyway, picking a direction at random to walk.
He kept his head down, hat tilted to hide his face while he walked to nowhere in particular. Just where the hell was he? How did this place have so many cars running, why did the buildings he'd seen in the distance not look like they'd been in ruins for over two hundred years of wear, tear and abandonment? Had his Memory Core finally corrupted itself to the point he was having hallucinations? Given his synthetic nature, could he even hallucinate? He wasn't sure and he didn't like it.
With a shaking hand he reached into his overcoats pocket and pulled out the pack of cigarettes and lighter he'd been reaching for before he tried to grab the marble and lifted one to his mouth, the lighter taking several flicks before it lit, the tip of the cancer stick glowing orange as he puffed. It didn't do anything for him, but it was calming all the same as he tucked both items back into the pocket from which he'd grabbed them. He looked at his hand, which was still shaking with some worry. Maybe he'd jostled around one too many delicate parts in that smack to the wall, so he initiated a system self diagnostic.
INSTITUTE UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM SCAN INITIATED. SCANNING........
G2-PV2
SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC
OPTICAL SENSORS.......OPERATIONAL RUNNING 85% CAPACITY, MINOR MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.
AIR COOLING UNIT.......OPERATIONAL RUNNING 90% CAPACITY.
CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT......OPERATIONAL RUNNING 80% CAPACITY. .....ERROR...... SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE OVERDUE.
SOLID STATE MEMORY.......ERROR.....ERROR.....MINOR DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED, PLEASE CONTACT CERTIFIED MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN FOR FULL SCALE REPAIRS. INITIATING BACKUP OF STORED DATA.....ERROR.....UPLINK DISABLED.
FUSION CORE........OPERATIONAL RUNNING 60% CAPACITY. CELL RECHARGE OR REPLACEMENT REQUIRED WITHIN NEXT 80 DAYS.
SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE......SYSTEM STATUS RUNNING AT 67% FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY, CONDITION YELLOW.
Nick gave a dissatisfied grunt, he knew he'd need some tuning up soon but damn he'd need it a lot sooner than he'd expect. And he wasn't even in Diamond City where he kept a few Gen-1 and Gen-2 synth 'corpses' he'd collected over the years for spare parts. He was in dire straits if he couldn't find a way to recharge his fusion core here, if he was stranded wherever the hell here was that long.
While he was walking, someone bumped into him, they hadn't been looking where they had been walking, it was an equine that reached up to his lower chest who quickly gave a short bow before scampering away. "Very sorry Officer!" That interaction made him halt for a moment. Firstly that tiny horse had spoken, secondly it was neon colored with eyes so large they should logically not fit inside that skull leaving any room for sentience, yet it spoke perfect English. Thirdly, it had called him Officer which was something he'd not been called in a long, long time going off Nick's Pre-War memories. He had to force himself to stop thinking about it lest he cause a system crash and eventual reboot trying to process it.
Nick shook his head and kept walking, muttering to himself trying to figure out just where he was without looking odd, it was dark now as the sun had set mere minutes ago, but the streets remained lit up with the white and yellow glow of street lamps, cars still rumbled almost silently down the roads. It was all almost overwhelming, flashes and video-clips, that was as best he could describe it, of Pre-War Nick's memories beginning to flash in and out of his optics for brief moments before his vision glitched and returned to normal leaving him wondering just what his system scan had missed. Or how badly that data corruption truly was. He wasn't able to ponder that for long as he heard the sound of metal smashing in a nearby alley.
Out of pure mechanical instinct he reached into his overcoat grabbing the grip of his revolver, creeping closer to the alley as his auditory sensors picked up the sounds of a struggle, before there was a click and a sudden bang. That was it for him as he rushed into the alleyway to see another Equine lying on the ground with a puddle of blood rapidly spreading out from its still breathing body, though it was ragged. Standing over it was another Equine, this one having wings, and now moving to aim at the other's head. Without thinking he drew his revolver and fired, blasting the gun out of the Equine's Hoof. He wasn't even going to question how it held the damn thing. "Stop right there, the next one goes between your eyes." He commanded, taking on the tone of an Officer without thinking. Nick didn't just shoot the thing in the head first out of pure habit due to the glitches he'd been seeing moments before, reminding him further of Valentine's days as a Pre-War officer and detective.
The winged Equine flared its wings, preparing to take flight. Oh no, he wasn't having that, within the split second the Pegasus had flared it's wings and began to crouch for a takeoff another shot fired from his revolver, hitting smack dab in the center of one of its wings, causing it to jump, flapping for a moment before the pain of the new injury struck it causing it to flop ungraciously into the side of a trash can, screaming in pain. Not wanting to give the thing a chance to recover he rushed forward and cracked his revolver against the side of the Pegasus's head knocking it out, the thing's head going limp against the concrete with a thwap.
Rushing over to the one who'd been shot before he'd entered the alley, he looked at the wound. Thankfully it was non-fatal, or he assumed so given it was still breathing, looking up at him with squinted large golden orbs that made his wires want to crawl out of his frame and hide. Nick pushed the feeling down, and began applying pressure to the wound as best he could given the lack of proper hands. The Equine, a mare he learned by the voice, spoke with a wheeze. "Bitch wanted to borrow more money from me and didn't like it when I told her she didn't pay me back the last three times." She coughed, thankfully no blood coming up, that meant at the very least her lung's hadn't been penetrated. "Shot me in the fucking chest that featherbrained fool! I need to get to the hospital, is your patrol car nearby?" She questioned tilting her head at him.
Nick paused. "I, I uh don't have a patrol car ma'am, I was walking when I heard you smash against one of the dumpsters."
Her ears flattened, before glaring at the still form of her attempted assailant. "Grab my phone from my saddlebag, dial 000 and request the cops an ambulance." She slid the saddlebags towards him with her tail, while applying pressure to herself to keep the blood from flowing freely.
While looking for the phone Nick questioned the mare. "How are you calm about being shot?" Wastelanders often just bit the bullet (heh) and did what little first aid they could do if they didn't have the caps for a doctor, this little horse was a lot calmer than some of them he'd seen.
The mare gave a short salute as best she could while still keeping pressure on the hole in her chest. "Rose Petal, I was formerly a member of the Crystal Empire militia, this ain't my first time being shot at bucko." Rose said with a proud snort.
Finally having found the phone nick smiled to himself while be fucked around with it for a few moments, tapping the phone icon and dialing 000, hitting call it dialed for only three short rings before it was picked up. "This is 000, what is your emergency?"
"I've just stopped an attempted mugging, a mare's been shot, the assailant was shot twice and is knocked out, but still alive, I need an ambulance and police over here." Rose had simply told him what to say when they picked up, after watching him struggle for two minutes to operate the phone.
"Ambulance and police are on the way to your current location sir, please hang tight and try to keep the blood flow from her wound to a minimum if you can help it, they'll be there in one minute, thirty seconds." The line went dead as the 000 operator hung up. He wasn't sure that was proper protocol since he'd remembered listening to some old 911 calls, the operators were supposed to stay on the line if they could, and they hadn't even asked the location!
Rose was rather calm, given the situation Nick had found her in. He went back to helping apply pressure to the wound, ripping part of his trench coat to soak up some of the blood. Exactly one minute and thirty seconds later a large boxy vehicle rolled up, lights flashing silently while a patrol car pulled up next to it. Paramedics quickly rushed out, two unicorns wearing white and red uniforms carefully levitating Rose into the back of the Ambulance, (That'd nearly made Nick bluescreen for the lack of a better term). Once she'd been loaded into it, the vehicle all but flew off as its tires screeched against the road, now blaring its siren.
Nick hadn't been asked anything by the two paramedics, but both Rose and her attacker had been put into it so he was going to assume she'd be fine, turning his attention to the patrol car he got a sinking feeling of dread in his chest when two gen-2 synths stepped out. They looked off, eye's glowing green instead of the trademark yellow, they somehow looked bulkier than the one's he'd seen before. Wearing blue uniforms that reminded him of Pre-War cops, sans the oddly thick chest armor each wore, almost like a more compact version of Combat Armor.
What really drove the differences home was when one of them spoke, its voice still harshly synthetic, but nothing like the Gen-2's he had heard speaking before. "Unidentified Android unit, state designation and assigned role."
When Nick didn't respond right away, one of the 'Androids' reached down as if to grab something off its belt, lifting the thing up it looked almost like a barcode scanner he'd seen in some ruined grocery stores he'd scrounged around for spare parts, it lit up as the 'Android' raised it at him like a pistol, a wide arc of blue beams running up and down his body before it began beeping red. The moment it did, the eyes on both machines turned from a pleasant grass green to dark neon red. "Unidentified and unauthorized android unit, you are to be taken into custody for further investigation, if you do not comply you will be disabled.'' It's partner had pulled out what looked to be a very violently charged stun gun, if the crackling arcs of pure electricity was anything to go by.
Not wanting to have his circuits fried, Nick raised his hands dropping his revolver to the ground with a clatter, kicking it over towards the androids. "I'll come willingly, I'd like to speak to someone in charge here."
The eye's went from red, to yellow as one grabbed him by the arms, strapping some weird electrified cuffs to his wrists. "Your Compliance is noted, please proceed." He was carefully stuffed into the back of the patrol car the two had arrived in, watching out the window as the alleyway vanished behind them Nick knew this wasn't the Wasteland he'd known.
Discord had watched with amusement and glee as Lorenzo had let loose after so long of nothing but being a boring 'ruler', it was fun to watch the chaos the man could cause. Thinking to himself while completely invisible, floating around Lorenzo in circles like a ghost, a light-bulb flashed unseen above his head, a large tooth filled grin spreading across his face. Lorenzo had looked happy and excited when he was putting those 'Manuka' in their place, getting to let loose for the first time in ages. Perhaps he'd enjoy a short...vacation of sorts. Pulling a calendar out of nowhere Discord began flipping through it rapidly while wearing a pair of oversized reading glasses.
Hemming and hawing to himself for a few moments while he flipped through it his smile widened even further, it would seen his friend didn't have anything actually important to do that someone else couldn't do for him, with that in mind Discord threw the calendar away as it burst into chocolate confetti. Within a moment he'd made himself visible and grabbed Lorenzo by the shoulders, narrowly avoiding a blast of plasma fired from the man's pistol, always twitchy it would seem. "Lorenzo my old pal, I've noticed how elated you seem to be after your little spat with that tiny rebellion, why not indulge in some real fun for a change?" He questioned, the grin never leaving his face.
It was amusing to watch Lorenzo quirk an eyebrow. "What the hell are you on about this time Discord?"
"Tsk tsk I expected you to jump at the opportunity to let lose, oh well not like you have a choice. You're going on a little vacation my friend, so enjoy it, see the sights, take in the local atmosphere and enjoy the local foods! You'll be gone for a day or two at most, so make the most of it!" And with a bright flash before Lorenzo could so much as argue, he was gone and Discord was giggling to himself at the prospect of all the lovely chaos that man would cause. Sure it was violent chaos but chaos nonetheless.
I had just finished tapping away at the report Frank had sent me after the Manuka had been curb-stomped for a third time since the occupation of their former world began, it was long, overly detailed, and pretty much boiled down to Frank asking for permission to start executing Manuka at random if another rebellion began, of which I denied, but did authorize him to 'have some fun' with those actively rebelling in whatever way he saw fit, and given we all know Frank, his idea of 'Fun' is something the Manuka would very much not find fun. Then Discord had to show his mismatched ass up and decide I was going on an impromptu vacation.
Honestly I wouldn't have minded if he'd fuckin asked instead of just throwing me across...dimensions? Not sure, one second I was sitting in my Throne Room the next I was inside a concrete tunnel dimly lit by barely functional overhead lights, long bulky pipes snaking across the ceiling and one side of the wall. The moment I noticed that I began to wonder exactly where I'd been tossed, then a voice from overhead speakers I'd not noticed before began to play. "What's this? Another dumb fuck tricked into entering the Gauntlet? And we didn't even see this one come in folks! Sneaky fucker, for those who don't know or are just too damn high to listen, this is RedEye from Raaaaaaaaaaaider Radio! And it looks like we have another sack of shit to watch die in the Gauntlet!"
Aiming up with the plasma pistol I'd almost shot Discord with, I blew the speaker to melted slag with a single bolt, as it did however two turrets opened up from the end of the hallway, the speed their shots rang out was laughable as I twisted behind one of the pipes sticking out of the wall. Entering V.A.T.S time slowed to a crawl even more than when I'd use Jet, selecting the targets I let the V.A.T.S system take over, taking down both turrets with two shots each, the bolt's of plasma melting into the turret's casing and setting off the ammunition inside in a small explosion of gunpowder and shrapnel.
Equipping my Alicorn Armor I began to grin, putting on my Wendigo King's crown, maybe this wouldn't be so annoying after all, I thought to myself strolling through the now unguarded door. Beyond the door was a wide room that held five doors, each one the same color and half rotted wood, all makeshift looking. Speakers overhead began blaring again. "Our new vic has a choice to make! Five doors, one leads further in, the others to certain death! Let's see what this fuck-ZTTTTP!" As with the last one, this speaker was blown apart by a blast of energy and melted into slag, arcs of electrical energy running down my outstretched gauntlet.
Kicking at the first door on the far left resulted in it cracking apart from the force of the blow, rotted wood shattering with no resistance showing a room filled with flamer traps, which I backed away from just in time to avoid being crisped up, each door was kicked down one by one, all of them filled with traps of some sort except the last door, which lead into a hallway lined with dozens of turrets with a door at the end labeled 'exit'. Reaching into my inventory I pulled out a baseball sized orb and threw it into the room, taking cover next to the wall as it blew with a shower of electrical pulses.
Hearing a resounding series of 'error' beeps turrets tended to make when EMP'd I poked my head back into the room, whistling a happy tune while I shot each disabled turret, enjoying the sounds each one made while they blew apart. This wasn't how I remembered the layout of the Gauntlet from the Nuka-World DLC, but variety never killed anyone. Snickering to myself at my own joke while passing long dead corpses of the prior people to try and survive, then through the exit door which slammed shut behind me, maglocks engaging from the sound of the clicks the door made.
The room I was now in was filled with open barrels of radioactive waste, all glowing a comforting dull green. My pipboy's geiger counter ticking away. That'd be worrying for someone else, for me it was like a warm breeze as I soaked in the radiation. "Tick tock, that geiger counter doesn't seem to like tha, wait what the fuck are you doing?!" RedEye shouted in shock over the speaker while I looked directly into the camera across the room, reaching my arms into the barrel and pulling out two glowing globs of radioactive waste, it emitted a pleasant heat while I lifted the blob upwards. "Holy fuck folks this guy's either crazy or high!" Was all the speaker managed to get out before the blob I'd pulled out of the barrel was thrown into the speaker, then at the camera. Both of the devices were fried by the radiation in the process while I laughed.
------------------Nuka World Raiders---------------
The new vic smashed through another door, right into what RedEye liked to call the 'Audience Participation' segment of the Gauntlet. Watching on the camera's as he spoke over the radio and speakers. "Looks like our guest decided to show his face again! Well boys, have fun! Let's see how long he lasts with all you fucks having some fun!" Raiders from all three groups began shooting through the grate that served as a makeshift floor, peppering the guy with rounds, all of which seemed to harmlessly ping off the odd armor he'd been wearing the entire time. Then he looked up with a grin so unnaturally wide a few raiders stopped shooting out of pure confusion, even if this guy had been wearing combat armor he should have at least been bleeding a little, if not torn into a bloody mess! Yet there he was, grinning up at them with a smile that made skin crawl.
Before RedEye could see what happened next the Camera was suddenly encased in a layer of what looked like ice, screams being cut off mid yell while raiders began to flee to the sides of the grate where they'd be safe. "Let's get this show on the road, I've not got all day!" The Gauntlets next victim said in an overly giddy voice. Just what sort of FREAK stumbled into the Gauntlet this time? First he managed to literally grab toxic radioactive waste with his bare hands, and chuck it, but hadn't keeled over from the rads afterwards, and now this?
Gage was standing behind Overboss Colter in his massive, if admittedly patchwork makeshift Power Armor suit, adjusting the large thick cable that was wired directly from the Arena's ceiling into the back port of the armor. "You got me wired up yet Gage?"
"Yeah Boss, all wired up and ready to go." He replied, stepping back holding the toolkit he'd used to refasten the cable into the Fusion Core port, all its power came directly from the Arena itself. Though that didn't mean it would become useless junk if the cable was cut, since the armor had two fusion core slots jury-rigged into the back inside of the armor itself, Colter's own admittedly not stupid idea. A rarity for the man. If the cable got cut or too damaged to feed the suit power, the duel-core's he'd installed would give him an hour of movement before he was stuck inside a metal brick. It wasn't nearly what the cores should have provided, but when you're working with makeshift equipment and makeshift fusion-core ports, it was surprising it even worked at all.
Not needing the word from Colter he went into the back room to switch off the alarm that was triggered when the newcomer passed the door in the hallway which looked down into the Arena through a metal grate. Gage looked up from a side window built into the room he'd shut the alarm off in. Colter staring up at the person behind the grate with a cocky smile. "Ah, there's my latest victim now. Heh, don't look like much. Here's a quick rundown of how this works. You go stock up, make yourself presentable, and then we're gonna give these folks a show." Colter's grin widened, though it was hard to see inside the odd makeshift helmet he wore from the outside.
"A show where I decorate these walls here with your lovely brains, thanks to this suit I'm the only one who wins this fight. Period. You think your odd armor will do you any good? Think again." Colter looked back at Gage. "Alright Gage, let em in, somethin tells me I'm really gonna enjoy this." Colter's armor began sparking with arcs of barely contained electricity dancing across his entire suit of Power Armor. RedEye's voice rang through the com system. "It's almost time, after a run like that this ought to be the best slaughter yet! Remember, the longest survival time against Colter still stands at one minute, thirty seven seconds!"
Gage snuck away from the alarm room into a side room just next to the locker rooms, which had been converted into a makeshift armory loaded with all sorts of goodies the Gang's had managed to steal over the years, where all the people stupid enough yet strong enough to make it this far had the chance to gear themselves up with anything in the room, given they could carry it. Pressing a button on the intercom in front of him he started talking, wasting no time on idle chit-chat, he had to do this fast before Colter realized he was gone. Once he confirmed the newcomer had actually entered the makeshift armory room he held the intercom button down. "All right, listen the hell up if you want to make it out of this alive. I've only got a minute, find the intercom on the wall, I'll make it quick."
A moment later a voice that sounded...wrong, somehow, spoke into the mic. "Yes?" It was brisk, brief, but the man on the other end sounded almost....jovial.
Deciding to keep on script with his plan, Gage continued. "I'm the guy that's going to get you out of this alive, so listen up."
"All right, I'm listening." Was all he got on the intercom speaker, which he'd turned the volume down in an attempt to make sure no one could hear his little conversation.
"Look, you made it this far, you obviously got skill. But this fight coming up is rigged, you get me? Overboss Colter....his Power armor's set up to draw energy from the electric grid in the Arena. Damn thing's invincible, you name it, someone's tried it. Miniguns, grenades, not a scratch. You get what I'm saying?"
The intercom on his side crackled to life. "Oh I get what you're sayin, and I'm lovin the sound of it so far." What the fuck, this guy was actually excited about fighting Colter? Maybe this guy was just what they'd needed after all. "You want to win? I stashed a weapon in the lockers, get it. It'll look like a red Nuka-Cola bottle with a pistol grip."
"A Water Gun? Well I've done more with less, what next friend?"
Gage couldn't put his finger on it, but the longer the man spoke something was just off about his voice, almost like it wasn't natural. Even through the distortion the intercom speaker was giving it the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He decided to ignore it for the time being, he could worry about how the guy's voice bothered him after Colter was hopefully dead. "Once the water hits Colter's electrically-charged Power Armor the circuits are gonna short out, it'll kill his defenses, but you'll only have so much time to do some damage before they recharge. You take him out I promise you, it'll be worth every minute you spent in this Gauntlet. All right it's time, I'll open the door, see you on the other side." He cut the connection to the armory intercom and snuck back into the control room, giving Colter a thumbs up.
Gage watched Colter turn to the crowds made up of the various raider gangs that ran Nuka-World, lifting his electrified arms into the air as he began to hype them up for the slaughter to come. "Disciples! Are you ready for blood!?"
The crowd of people in the Disciples seating section began chanting in unison, stomping their feet and shaking the stands they all sat in. "Death death death death!"
Colter turned his head towards The Pack. "And the Pack, Are you ready for things to get wild?!" He growled out at the raiders dressed in a variety of fake fur, mascot costume parts, real animal skins, and colorful body paint that looked more at home at a children's birthday party, if the one doing said painting was a child themselves. The members of The Pack began cheering wildly, howling and growling like actual animals, eager to see more blood shed upon the Arena floor.
Almost as if an afterthought Colter turned his gaze to the Operators seating section, but kept the same eager voice he'd used for the first two up. "Operators! Are you ready to watch me notch another kill!?" The only reaction the Operators gave him was a few dozens of the raiders giving half hearted half-assed applause, still he'd take what he could get. Finally Colter turned his attention to the person standing behind a maglock security door looking through the grate with no expression on his face. "And you....are you ready to die?"
The man on the other end of the door actually chuckled! Chuckling in the face of certain death, well at least he wouldn't die that way, Colter would make sure he died screaming just like the others. The door swung open while Colter pulled out his combat rifle, aiming and shooting the second the iron-sight landed on his latest soon to be victim. "Let's do this!"
RedEye's voice blared from all the speakers in and out of the Arena, one sentence that rang loud and clear across half the park. "And the slaughter has begun!"
Raiders watched as the man ate bullets like a sponge, oh sure he bled, but for some reason every wound was rapidly healing each time he got hit, the man in odd decorative looking armor dashing to the side and pulling a laser rifle from god knew where, blasting apart at Colter with reckless abandon. It was almost pitiful to look at, Gage thought to himself. What a waste, he'd had hope this one would manage it but then he'd gone and ignored his advice. He was just turning to look away with a sigh as Colter dropped his combat rifle and grabbed the man by the neck, electrocuting him. So much voltage ran through the man held in his Power Armored hand that electricity began to arc out of the man's eyes as he laughed before his head exploded into dozens of bloody chunks.
What a disappointment, was all Gage could think before the crowd gasped in sheer shock and surprise, so he focused back on the Arena and his jaw hit the floor. The man who he'd seen die with his own eyes, watching the guy's head literally fucking explode, was standing five feet away from Colter. Head tilted to look at the floor, his odd looking armor's back flared to life with what looked to be wings of actual fucking flames? Then he spoke, and his voice was even worse not distorted by the intercom system he'd used before to briefly speak to the man, it made all the hair across his entire body stand on end. Primal animal instincts telling him to run, yet he ignored it again.
The stranger looked up as he spoke, an odd green glow emanating from underneath the sunglasses he'd yet to take off the entire time. "This little song and dance has been fun I must admit, I rarely get an opportunity such as this to cut back and let loose, so I thank you Colter, for providing a little fun for me, however brief it may have been, but now its my turn." He raised his arms, tesla coils so small Gage had almost not seen them violently sprang to life with arches of electricity not unlike Colter's own armor before he flared his hand's out in a dramatic fashion. As he did electricity arched from his fingertips striking out at Colter's armor, the sheer power surge now flowing into Colter's armor and thus into the Arena itself caused dozens of lights to flicker and dim, some of them shattering entirely.
And Colter, Colter Gage thought with some pity, the man's screams of pure agony as his Power Armor began fusing to his flesh, makeshift armored plates glowing red hot as metal began to drip, the smell of cooking meat sickening to him, he was a raider but he wasn't like the freaks in The Pack, he didn't eat his victims, just killed n robbed em. Then it was over, the light show stopped, the man strolling up to Colter's still screaming form, now stuck in place with the Power Armor's boots melted and slagged into the Arena floor.
The man reached out, ripping the helmet off Colter's armor without a second's hesitation, causing an even louder scream to ring from Colter's abused throat, as in doing so the guy had taken off almost the entirety of Colter's scalp, and about half the flesh on one side of his face in doing so. He threw it to the side, not bothering to look where it landed and almost tenderly reached up, holding the sides of Colter's head. "You are going to make such a fun new project!" His hands lit up again, but this time instead of electricity they froze everything they touched, Colter's skull instantly flash frozen mid scream, before his head and spinal cord was violently ripped out of his own body. The arms and legs of the suit were still twitching about, the last remnants of a body that hadn't known it was dead yet.
Gage watched in muted horror at the scene, as the corpse refused to fall since the Power Armor's frame had fused to the floor, and as Overboss Colter's head vanished into a blur of green energy. The crowd had gone silent, unsure of what to do or say, or even how to react. Then Lorenzo turned his gaze to the Audience who'd been watching the fight, and his grin widened from 'happy' to 'psychotic'
The Gang's who up until that point had been shocked into silence began slowly clapping and cheering, except the Operators who still gave a half-assed attempt at applause. Gage was about to sag with relief that the newcomer had won the fight, that they fucking finally would have a new Overboss who seemed to be able to get shit done, when the Lorenzo spoke, addressing the crowed. "Why are you all cheering? You're next after all, I've only just begun my fun!" Before anyone could react, the guy's hands began glowing again before large jagged spikes of ice suddenly formed inside the bleachers the Gang's had been sitting in, impaling dozens of raiders, the lucky ones died instantly. The unlucky one's had dozens of spikes jutting out of their writhing bodies unable to move due to the sheer overwhelming agony.
Gage had seen enough, and decided to finally heed his gut's warning to get the FUCK out of doge, only to find he couldn't as his legs had been frozen solid. He watched in a frantic panic as Lorenzo whistled a jolly tune casually walking up to the maglock door that separated him from the rest of the Arena. Gage pulled out his pistol and tried shooting at the ice, only for the rounds to bounce off one after another before the sound of a click rang out like a gong, a horrifying sound to hear. Then he was only able to watch in terror as the Maglocked door was blasted into molten slag, the thing pretending to be a man strolling through. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was the azure glow and a sudden shattering noise.
