The Disruption (IC)

Xonoc sighed. "An indefinite postponing of whatever the rest of the meeting would have been will be effected, Quite a climax." Xonoc just finished talking when the reverberations reached the tower, shaking the ground beneath the Emperor's feet.

"Or perhaps I spoke too soon..."

Xonoc moved over to the sealed door and cut it open with his sword, allowing exit for the rest of the chamber's inhabitants.

"Absolute's efforts, no doubt." Xonoc remarked as the rumbles continued to shake the building.

He sprinted down through building until encountering and using a raw gravity lift, instead of an elevator, incase of malfunction.

Xonoc reached the exterior surroundings in time to see a large dust storm filled with debris on the near horizon.

The representatives of the Federation and the Covenant soon followed Xonoc. The dust cloud hadn't yet settled, but the damage was apparent.

Grand Admiral Barborin swiftly read through several reports of the very recent events using his scouter. "Seems the ship Absolute used to get here crashed into a relatively nearby crowded area. There are most likely dozens of causalities." He remarked, his face remaining stoic though his voice showing small cracks of emotion. "Nothing we haven't seen before. I'm ordering nearby fleets to defend this location. No doubt he will target the tower and it's nearby surroundings. I'm also activating the Overcharge Protocol. You'll see what it is by the time it's done." He stated with a grin, disregarding the Grand Councilor's confused look.

"I have ordered nearby fleets to defend the surrounding area. The military envoy I arrived in has also mobilized. ' Sentinel Theranis growled. Wtihin minutes, pods containing Krathunian soliders slammed onto the ground to protect the representatives and get them to a safe area. In addition, the fleets that had been requested exited slipspace above the planet.

"Impressive..." Noted Xonoc. He removed a data screen from his right arm's forearm armor, and tapped in a D-9 command signal to nearby Jorro'kil fleets belonging to the large megafleet, Royal Defense.

Twelve Jorro'kil Destroyers, somewhat of a rare variant, soon appeared over the planet via slipspace, and assumed defensive and offensive positions around the area of interest.

Xonoc's escort guards assisted the Krathunian soldiers in a protective perimeter around the officials, with the higher ranking guard staying close to Xonoc.

Xonoc turned to the Grand Admiral. "Overcharge Protocol? Interesting. I hope it involves the enemy forces not being able to retreat because they no longer exist." He smiled very slightly, then turned his attention back to the debris storm.

"In that case," said the vendor, "allow me to recommend some specially zigg-fed Azman from Drazu. The natives of that world use this meat specifically as a high-protein component in their diet when they must hike for long distances. It is low in fat, yet high in nutrients. Care to sample some?"

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"Sir!" They're launching missiles!" cried the helmsman. "What should we do?"

While their message had been transmitting, Marr had been preparing to do an emergency beam-out for himself, just in case. As the missiles approached, he readied to activate. Seeing the missiles fly off without harming them, he quickly deleted his earlier command.

"Quite jumpy, aren't they?" he said in his usual cheerful manner. He listened to the instructions sent to them with a smile. "Well, you heard the robot," he said to the helmsman. "Jump to it now." The ship followed the instructions accordingly and then waited.

Ravage absolutely knew she could not sample meat in a public location. She visibly seemed to flinch at the thought of it, and shook her head, "Sir, I know you are a very kind person, but I absolutely cannot eat meat in a public location, for very specific reasons." Although on many occasions she might seem very controlled, Ravage had much trouble whenever she tasted blood. This was different, even in comparison with other carnivorous aliens classified as intelligent life. The primal part of her brain that controlled predatory behavior overruled her reason, in such cases, and she was a solitary diner for this reason. Much like an Earth shark, she became lethal and dangerous upon tasting blood, entering a sort of frenzy in which she was unpredictable, and could without warning attack anything that moved, oblivious to the fact that it might be a friendly presence. Sometimes she didn't even need blood as a trigger, sometimes Ravage just felt some sort of madness come over her, and she knew she would enter a fit of rage that seemed to have no apparent cause. She would use her claws, too, not the ones on her hands, but the powerful, metallic weapons in her forearms. She didn't like people seeing her claws outside of a battle setting, they weren't normal, they were freakish and unnatural.

Ravage turned to the Prince, "Perhaps we should go, sir, I don't think I can keep looking anymore..." Her feathers were ruffled with stress, and the faint reptilian pupils in her eyes were thin slits. All of a sudden the sun was too bright, and the heat felt as though it would burn her alive. All the people milling about who had been making a regular volume of sound suddenly became an uproar. The feeling that she had been threatened somehow had heightened her senses to the point that she could no longer handle a regular setting. This was why her Stealth Strider had been dark and cold; it made her feel safe again, nobody could see, except for her, and she didn't have to hide what she was. Even on a planet as open as this, there were some things that could not be known to society, because society was better off not knowing. Ravage was not so much afraid of these people, so much as it was that she feared herself, and what she could do to someone innocent as the vendor and Prince. They did not need to know.

Absolute had been ready for this kind of outcome, and actually Absolute’s original plan had been to find out the location of the orbs and then assassinate the Confederacy’s leadership. Noting this, it wasn’t a wonder that only ten minutes from the cruiser’s crash on the surface Absolute’s fleet appeared to the system. It was leaded by an old Jorro’kil destroyer. Its hull was heavily scarred and patched up, but the blue Jorro’kil markings were still clearly visible, as was its name, Critical Mass. This already powerful ship had been transformed to real monster. As the ship was now in AI control, there was no need for life-support or crew compartments. All space had been filled with backup generators, internal armour and extra weaponry. The ship had three autonomous shield generators, meaning that when one got overloaded, another could take its place. This combined with Critical Mass’ retrofitted frontal particle drill made it very deadly assault ship. This the Confederacy knew, as the ship had been part of Absolute’s fleets for almost five years.

There were seven Jorro'kil destroyer-sized ships in the fleet, from which three were more-or-less salvaged. Rest were brand new, skyscraper-shaped UFIAI ships with frontal rail cannons. Rest of the fleet consisted of several dozens of large frigates, and about a hundred of corvettes. Capital ships arranged themselves to a circle formation while other ships placed themselves to defend them. The formation rushed towards the planet, with some of the longer range ships already opening fire at the defending forces. Behind the advancing fleet was a gate ship that was already deploying its wormhole.
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As the Marr’s ship arrived to the close proximity of one of the asteroids and deactivated its systems, suddenly dozens of squid-looking mechanic ships emerged from the asteroid. They moved fluently, almost like swimming, thanks to their flexible tails with engines at the end. They also had four sturdy arms or ‘tentacles’ which also had an engine on them. They flew from the asteroid, towards the ship, and one by one they closed in and took a firm grip from the ship’s hull with their four arms. When finally all of them had taken a grip from the ship, they launched their engines and started to drag the ship to another side of the asteroid belt. After few minutes the ship had crossed the belt, and on the other side waited a rather large, industrial looking module. The mechanic drones dragged the ship to the module, and the module attached its heavy arms to its hull.

Suddenly a quick jerk went through the ship as the module made a short warp-dash to the inner system. Now the ship was only several hundreds of thousands of miles away from one of the gas planet’s moons. The moon was currently in the shadow of the gas giant, but the dark sphere was lighted up at by hundreds of red lights. The space around the moon was filled with blinking lights and structures of all kinds. As the mechanics and the module dragged Marr’s ship closer, some of the structures became clearer. One of them however captured the sight of an eye: An extremely long structure coming from the moon’s side facing at the gas giant. The structure came from the moon, and went right at the gas giant. Its proportions were mind bending. Hundreds of lights were constantly lighting up the construct. They were stabilizer engines, needed to balance the moment of inertia, and prevent the whole structure from snapping into pieces. Suddenly, after long silence, Keepers voice started to speak “I will take you to the moon to ensure most fluent conversation as possible. However you can start explaining this proposal in more depth right now. What do you have to offer, what will you want in return, and what do you wish to accomplish with this proposal?”

Vey saw at once that something was wrong. He was reminded of something else that he had heard of before, and he decided to try a similar solution. "Shall I bring you back to your ship Ravage?" he asked, maintaining his calm.

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As the ship was dragged along, the crew looked around with awe and fear. Except Marr. To look at him, one would of almost thought he was bored. He ignored the spectacle going on around him, instead making some adjustments to the ventilation controls. As the AI's question came through, he smiled.

"Worthy questions, my friend," he replied. He then put a nearby gas mask on his face. "If you don't mind," he continued, "I'm going to do a little something with the ventilation, just to ensure that our little discussion is as private as possible."

With that, he threw a switch. Gas began pouring into the room. Before long, all of the crew was sprawled on the ground. Marr then vented the gas, and removed his mask.

"They'll all have fine headaches when they wake up, bu in the meantime, on with the answers to your questions."

"What exactly do we want from you? Partnership, no less. Such an alliance would benefit us both. You see, at this time, we have a common goal. I'm sure you are well aware of the existence of a few orbs held in the possession of the Third Arm Confederacy. Jiiran also has need of these orbs."

"Here is what we propose; let us pool our efforts. Once the goal has been obtained, we can split the profits. Half will more than satisfy my Lord Jiiran's needs, and I suspect the case is similar with you."

"I suppose you might be wondering what we can give you that might elicit some trust from you. We have powerful ships of the best design, designed by Lord Jiiran himself, whom, if I do say so, is an absolute genius when it comes to technology. I suppose your probably thinking 'Big deal, we have our own ships.' That being the case, we have some other little tidbits we can offer."

"We have some of the finest cloaking technology you can obtain. If you want an idea of just how good it is, I can tell you that we have slipped inside Confederacy territory a few times without them even noticing. And there is also our communication encryption techniques. We have a special method of encrypting all of our communications so that, unless received by a device that can interpret it, our transmissions appear to be nothing more than regular subspace static. If you would join us in an alliance, we would gladly offer these things for your use. What do you say?"

"Yes, please, Spode, this isn't normal." Ravage said. She didn't realize she was having a panic attack of sorts, as a result of extreme anxiety coming back to bite her. Feeling as though she were losing her sanity was normal for such a thing, but she couldn't know if she was able to trust herself. He had also developed a sort of fear of herself, which further strengthened the illusion. In her ship, there were no mirrors or pictures. She had gotten rid of them, hating the look of her own face.

Sentinel Theranis projected a holographic image of the UFIAI fleet as it appeared and the defending forces onto the ground. It could be noted that though there were many Jorro'kil and Ryun Wreae ships, much of the Covenant forces could not be seen. Though the situation seemed dire, the Sentinel had started to laugh. "Fools." He whispered. "One cannot rush into a battle that he does not observe thoroughly at first. Their only focus is on this side of the battle." At that moment, tons of Krathunian made ships decloacked to the side of quickly approaching fleets, firing upon the huge UFIAI ships.

Krathunian ships are made to be large, powerful, and imposing, and with technology that is many years ahead of most other races, this could be achieved well. Destroyer class ships opened their tendril like arms, activating advanced weaponry systems. Beams of accelerated compressed molten metal shot from the arms, while railguns fired upon the enemy ships.

Grand Admiral Barborin watched upon this, having studied Covenant tactics and weaponry when they became a part of the Confederacy. The education of allied and enemy weapon systems was standard in Federation military, as it helps tremendously in case of battle. "Sentinel, what kind of ship is that in the center?"

"It is a Daemon class Fortress Ship. It is a very rare ship - This is one of the few times it has seen combat. It is fitted large magnetohydrodynamic weapon systems and a Genesis Directed Energy Weapon."

"As in a Genesis Device?" After the Sentinel had nodded, Barborin chuckled. "I have a very bad idea. Do you want to hear it?"

Genesis Devices, which had created the Jorro'kil species, were designed to suck in matter from a targeted source and create a specified object near the device. In the case of the Jorro'kil, the devices on Irooscin targeted water sources, carbon, and other mineral necessary for the creation of the species. Since then, the device had been largely improved, and was now primarily used for war. They suck in targeted sources of energy, usually enemy shields, and use it to create a compressed particle beam, making it a powerful one-two punch, though the other ship's shields would not be completely gone.

After listening to Barborin's suggestion, the Sentinel had the weapon systems operators and AI on board the Daemon to instead target the large asteroid belt near the planet. As the massive Fortress Ship began firing upon the UFIAI fleet, the device activated, and sucked in the minerals that they were made of, creating a makeshift asteroid that was suspended using the Fortress Ship's gravity systems. After it had grown to a reasonable size, they used the gravity systems to fire the asteroid upon UFIAI forces that had targeted the Covenant fleet. It barreled through, ripping apart many smaller ships and doing major damage to one of the Destroyers.

Seeing this, the Sentinel laughed. "Let the wrath of the gods be upon them!" the UFIAI had a large and imposing force, but would have to fight from two fronts - And the Confederacy would not give in easily.

Finally the Mar's ship reached its destination on the moon's low orbit. Mechanic drones docked it to a large shipyard complex. There were dozens of ships being assembled all owed the complex, and the pace was immense. Keeper connected several instruments to the ship, and started answering to Marr's proposal: "The war is eating up our resources, and forcing us to expand just in search of materials for new warmachines. If we can trust your praises about your military might, you could indeed provide us the power to break the Confederacy's defence. I will consult the other UFIAI members for the decision." Keeper cut down the comm, but AI conversations are swift. After four seconds Keeper's voice came back: "We have decided to take this offer of alliance. Furthermore we decided that in certain situations we could allow you to use parts of our vast wormhole network. Such situations include the situation when the rapid transportation of troops would be essential or significantly beneficial. If you have military fleets ready, such situation is currently going on around the planet Muthara. The whole Confederacy's leadership is currently present at that planet. If you would be willing to aid us, you could give some of your fleet's coordinates, and we could give you the coordinates to closest wormhole rout."
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Absolute's ship took a heavy toll from the Kathuan fire, but Absolute just tightened the outer ring of smaller ships to defend the inner formation of destroyers. The wormhole was deployed now, and reinforcements were already arriving, but the main group was still caught in the crossfire. Absolute decided to use up the special weapon that ole of the UFIAI destroyers was fitted with.

The destroyer fired six large torpedoes from its prow-mounted torpedo tubes. These were special black- hole torpedoes. Instead of standard payload they carried wery similar devices that were installed to the portal ships. Absolute steered these torpedoes to the sides of its fleet, three for each side. Then, almost simultaneously each of them engaged their devices, and created a black hole. They were small black holes with radius of only some five hundred thousand miles. They caused a large distortion in time-space, throwing off and sucking in large portion of the fire coming from the sides. Sven lasers were affected, thanks to the high gravity around the holes. The holes were also very short-lived, lastin only about an day before dissolving to a hawking's radiation.

"Look at the size of their fleet." The Grand Councilor remarked, pointing towards the Sentinel's hologram. They were now safe in an extremely fortified bunker away from the Tower. "They must think our entire leadership is here. However, I am one of five Councilors, and the Sentinel is a high ranking military officer, not an emperor. However, Xonoc is a vital figure to the Jorro'kil. We cannot take any risks."

The Daemon continued to use the minerals from the asteroid belt. Though it had punched several sizable holes in Absolute's defenses, ships replaced those shredded apart. The black holes were a slight problem, but several destroyers equipped with Genesis weapons were able to use Absolute's defenses to their advantage - Sucking in the gravitational energy from the mass of the black holes charged the weaponry, allowing them to both fire upon the UFIAI forces and deplete the energy and mass output of the black holes over time. Federation ships were constantly receiving reinforcements, making them into an even more potent force. Among them was the same Dreadnought from the battle above the crystalline planet 10 years ago - the Wrath. It had been upgraded enough to become its own class of ship, though not enough were made to correctly classify it.

Grand Admiral Barborin, having been transported into the ship by a secure military envoy, was heading its operations once more. "Grand Admiral, as you can see, that wormhole is allowing reinforcements to come in." A bridge commander stated, bringing a diagram up on the hologram projector. "Hypothetically we could use the ship's conduit system to redirect the main particle gun to inside the main fleet and near the wormhole as to cripple current fleet and the reinforcements at the same time."

"Excellent idea. Do it." While plasma torpedoes flew full speed towards the fleet, using redirection AI to go around the wormhole and into either the Destroyers or smaller ships surrounding them, the nuclear fusion reactors deep inside the ship activated. Like the Critical Mass, much of the space inside the Wrath was filled with extra armoring and energy reactors due to the Wreae AI implemented within it. The conduit system activated, sending out energy redirection conduits for the particle beam to hit and send in targeted locations. The hull of the Dreadnought opened up, and the harsh red beam shot furiously out. It hit the first conduit, splitting in two and hitting another two. These sent it directly inside the main UFIAI force and one coming out of the wormhole at that moment.

Vey made to escort Ravage back, then noticed something on the vendor's shelves, a small vial. Good. He reached out a hand with some money. Seemingly of its own accord, it flew over and dropped itself on the counter, after which the vial flew into Vey's hand, as if on its own accord. "Keep the change," he said to the vendor. Leaving the somewhat startled vendor behind, Vey quickly began leading Ravage back to her ship. As he did, he opened the vial and offered its contents to Ravage. It was a formula especially designed to sooth the nerves. "Have some of this, Ravage," he said. "It might make you feel a little calmer."

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Marr listened with a smile on his face. "I'm glad you accept. So, you require our aid right now, eh? Just one moment while I contact Lord Jiiran." He pressed a few buttons.

"Well?" said Jiiran's voice after a moment.

"Negotians have been successful, M'Lord," said Marr. "The UFIAI have agreed to be our allies. And it seems they require our assistance fighting the Confederacy at Muthara. And get this; some of the leading officials of the Confederacy are there. Apparently the UFIAI have some sort of wormhole system that can zip us there instantaneously. All they require is the coordinates of some available ships that we can send, and then they'll direct us to the correct wormhole."

There was silence for a moment. "I have sent you coordinates," said Jiiran finally. "Thirty-five cruisers are ready and waiting."

Marr then sent these coordinates to the AI. "By the way," he added, "would you mind sending me along as well? Never could resist a good battle."

The Executive dipped his beak. "You may keep the copy of that document, to show to your superiors. I'll inform mine of your agreement and we should soon be able to establish a trade link. We willl, of course, require coordinates to any one of your habitations, or a point of interception for the goods."

Lirr nodded. "Right. I'll give you the coordinates for our nearest trading centers, and for Markova as well. And by the way," he continued, "if you ever require our assistance for anything else, we would be happy to lend it. All you have to do is ask us."

Keeper was silent for a moment as it examined the info. “We are in luck; your fleet is only two gates away. Move then to this system,” Keeper said giving coordinates to system less than ten LYs from the fleets coordinates. “They will be directed to a right gate from there. It will take them to a system that contains gate taking them directly to the battle. As for you, I will take your ship to the same system that the fleet will pass by. You can join them there.”

The docking equipment released the ship from their grip, and the mechanics immediately started to take the ship towards one of the wormhole gates orbiting the gas giant. Mechanics released the ship just before the gate and headed back towards the moon. “You can now activate all your system again, although we would appreciate if you could generally keep your weapon systems down while in our systems. Absolute will inform you more on the current situation in the target system”
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The particle beam struck right through the main formation of Absolute’s destroyers, barely hitting the Critical Mass. However, Critical Mass’ three shield generators managed to deflect most of the shot that instead went through one of the looted Jorro’kil destroyers, ripping its left side open. One of Critical Mass’ shield generators overloaded, and one got overheated. The deflected shot also went right thorough the wormhole, causing havoc on the other side if the gate. The gate, however, survived unharmed. The fleet quickly regrouped, and started a ferocious bombardment against the forces stationed around the planet. Two of the destroyers disengaged from the formation and took several smaller ships with them, and went back to defend the gate while the rest of the fleet also slowed down, directing more power to their shields and weaponry.

A Jorro'kil Super Destroyer, the Punisher, under command of Shipmaster Xolva Xavitra, appeared. Combining fire with the Destroyers, the Punisher fired its Sunbeam into several of the more aggressive Destroyers pushing against the Confederacy ships. An upgraded and altered version of the original Xikarian Sunbeam, the nuclear power was bolstered by magnetically guided ION energy, making it more potent against shielding.

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The Zealot paced. He was anxious to start the operation but gave no outward sign of it. As if that stopped a machine's detective capabilities.

After being congratulated on his efforts prior to the conflict over the crystalline planet, he went on to recover from his wounds and was eager to engage in the new war. Measures taken by some of the Jorro'kil's Governing Council members prevented him from returning immediately to fight against the enemy, telling the Zealot he was too valuable an asset to waste.

This was not to last, however, as he was secretly transferred to the RWF project Overcharge.

Xej Therus continued to pace.

As the battle raged over Muthara, two more wormholes opened. But it was not UFIAI ships that emerged. Out of one came Admiral Marr's ship. Thirty-five others emerged from the other, all heavily armed and armored warships. Ten of them were designed specifically for bombardment, though they could engage other spaceships to some degree. The rest were all battle cruisers. Marr sent a transmission to Absolute. "Here we are. I have twenty-five battleships and ten bombards, and the bombards can also send out boarding pods."

Down on the surface of Muthara....

"I've linked up with the Super Destroyer above, for continuous first-hand combat reports-"
Xonoc stopped, listened, and continued, "-Numerous unidentified ships have just entered the space around Muthara. Intentions don't look good, either."

"Du'rakk it, I feel helpless down in here."

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Onboard the Punisher...


"Ma'am, unidentified ships appear to be organizing in an offensive formation."

Shipmaster Xavitra sat in her command chair, mulling over the situation.

"Let's try to keep as many lives in this battle as possible. The enemy will not be spared. Redirect Destroyers 0-9989D9, 1-6334D9, and 12-567D9 to defensive positions, order firing solutions on the larger ship after any sign of aggression."

Several Jorro'kil cruisers and carriers emerged from slipstream space behind the Super Destroyer, reinforcements following both protocol, and need.

"Sir, unidentified ships are coming out of the wormholes." A bridge commander remarked, bringing up scans of the Despot's fleet. "Their energy signatures indicate that they are not of UFIAI origin, however the two seem to be working together."

"From what I can see, ten of these ships seem to be specialized for bombardment. The others are warships." Barborin observed. He quickly searched the energy signatures and scans through Confederacy databases to see if any other races had encountered these particular ships. "Nothing. The good thing is they do not seem to be aware of the capabilities of both the Confederacy and Muthara's defenses."

"Should we target the ships? They are firing upon our forces." The bridge commander asked.

"Please do. We do not need any more civilian casualties." Barborin said, nodding at the commander. He then sent out an encrypted COMM message to the Jorro'kil and Krathunians. "These new ships are of an unknown architecture and energy signatures. I need the Covenant and Jorro'kil fleets to stay focused on the UFIAI, especially the Critical Mass now that it is more vulnerable. Jorro'kil, keep that small fleet engaged on the new fleet." He then targeted the new fleet with the COMM system. "You are invading upon the territory of the Ryun-Wreae Federation of the United Ieegan Systems and the Confederacy. State the name of your empire and your purpose within our territory. Hostilities have been noted, and you have a choice - Retreat, or face your annihilation."

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location...

Captain Unit 8164392, after passing several advanced clearance tests arrived in the room where Xej Therus paced anxiously. Within the room were several scientists and engineers, and in the center, a sealed chamber. The Captain approached the Zealot.

"I've received the message. The Overcharge Protocol has been activated. Are we ready to begin?"

Xej nodded. "Yes. Just waiting for you. I am eager to see the operation carried out as soon as is convenient."

Ulium Yujake paced from a single point to another, examining his soldiers' work. It was an obstacle course, in a sense, but much more advanced. These were the newest Dark soldiers he was training. It took a lot to become a Dark Slasher, which these soldiers were training to be, and so far, Ulium wasn't displeased. They were impressive, even for Slasher standards.

What did the Blood generals put in these Nolwikkans...? Steroids?

Machines, designed to look like other aliens such as the Jorro'kil, fought back with superhuman strength. Even these machines were supposed to be deactivated through doing a certain action, some of the recruits were simply tearing them apart.

Ulium smirked at the thought of his new fighting force. He didn't know if he could ever put it into use, but he couldn't help it. Everyone knew that Vil-Nolwikkans were practically made to fight.

"Master?" Ulium turned to his slave, a creature called a Naam. The Galactic State of Bellorphon was partially destroyed by the Vil-Nolwikkan Greater Dominion, and had to pay a large tribute to avoid being completely wiped out. However, the war took its toll, and many of the native Naams were either enslaved or killed.

Ulium turned to his Naam with an indifferent look on his face. "...What is it, Eoto? I told you to stay inside."

Eoto flinched, obviously seeing something gruesome on the obstacle course. "Ooh, that robot... I apologize, master, but the Quarterlord has just contacted you, and wants to arrange some expeditions."

"What...? Expeditions? What do you mean?"

"To be honest, master, your guess is as good as mine."

Ulium shrugged, and replied. "Okay, then. Watch over the obstacle course, and tell me about the results." Eoto froze; obviously sensitive to violence. Ulium walked into the bowels of the Military base, leaving Eoto to his fear.

***

Ulium sat at a able with the Quarterlord, the leader of the planet. It was big business, considering that Ulium was the third highest-ranking general in the Dark Army.

"Okay, t's this simple. It's been... What, Fifteen years? Yes. It's been about fifteen years since the Ruthless War, and the Galaxy's free. The Archlord wants to explore the other half of the galaxy. He has chosen fifteen explorers along with their teams, each assigned to a part of the galaxy. There are large empires over there; he knows it. However, they remain mostly unknown, considering how little of the galaxy we know about."

"And you're telling me this, because...?"

"Because, Ulium, you're in charge of this. Scouts belong to the Military, and not the House of Science, as some of the dumber members of the public believe."

"And the conspiracy theorists. Anywho, I can get the job done and the message sent in a few hours. Don't worry about it, Ikyu."

"The funny thing is, knowing you, It'll probably be a day."

***

Two days later, and one day after the message was sent, fifteen ships left Lanipus to explore the galaxy.

Captain Talithe was stationed on the Ryun-Wreae Federation border world of Wentinun. Wentinun was naturally suitable for Ryun habitation, as it had a geography and climate similar to that of Ieegar. Talithe was glad to be stationed in a place similar to her home - Many other colonies and Confederacy worlds that others were stationed on were not as friendly to the Ryun biology. Wentinun, though fairly far from UFIAI reach, was a pseudo-shield world. To preserve its natural beauty, Covenant engineers had decided to not build the hollow metal shell around it like most other shield worlds. Rather, it used an energy shielding bubble that all worlds had nontheless, but this one was far more powerful due to lack of the outer shell. It was near invisible from afar, but up close, it seemed to be a near transparent sheet of hexagons. Around Wentinun there were several large ship docking stations. These were the military bases. One could go back to the surface by using a shuttle, and certain sections of the shielding bubble allowed the shuttles to go through, but no other vehicles could without being destroyed outright or sustaining major damage.

Talithe was on board one of these orbitting space stations when several ships of unknown make entered the system. Scans were quickly up on hologram projectors - A scouting fleet. The Captain was both puzzled and excited. They were not UFIAI ships, or that of any known hostile empires, so she was glad to meet a potentially powerful and friendly race. On the other hand, she did not know if the fleet had known of the planet's presence, or their Federation. It was possible that they were there to attempt an attack. Nonetheless, she boarded a medium-sized diplomacy ship and was escorted to meet the fleet by two Assault Cruisers and several frigates. This was a precaution, and none of the ships showed hostilities.

Talithe sent out a COMM message to the approaching fleet of the Vil-Nolwikkan Greater Dominion. "Welcome to the colony of Wentinun and the territory of the Ryun-Wreae Federation of the United Ieegan Systems. Please state the name of your empire of origin and your purpose within Federation and Confederacy systems."


((Will edit to add a post on the Overcharge Protocol tomorrow.))

The Leader of the fleet, Yellow Lieutenant Hijix, was pleased. The young Lieutenant has made a discovery that could benefit his empire greatly, and he was sure that this meant a bright future for the empire. However, he didn't know his Archlord well.

"Greetings! I am Yellow Lieutenant Hijix of the Vil-Nolwikkan Greater Dominion! We have decided to send out a scouting fleet towards your side of the galaxy to explore the new area, now that there aren't any wars bothering us. Speaking of exploring, could you explain who you are...?"

Onboard the Punisher....

"Do we have any information on these new intruders, crewman?" Shipmaster Xavitra asked. More opponents. Fun, but they could also prove an annoying accessory to the UFIAI. "If indeed they're not simply fighting us all...."
Xavitram disregarded the thought with an unnoticeable smile, a ridiculous notion, these new ships would not survive the firefight if that were true. Not that she planned on letting them either way.

"Other than a scan of their vessels and the biosignatures coming from inside, no ma'am."

"Hm. Biosignature scan?"

"Scan reveals a heat intake in certain portions of their ships would have crew, possibly suggesting they are endothermic, and most likely carbon-based life forms."

"Interesting. Rotate frontal missile turrets, target the nearest of their ships and fire. Time to study how they react in combat. Send orders for counterattack firing solution to nearby cruisers."

"Yes ma'am..." There was a pause as the orders were carried out. "Missiles away, orders sent to surrounding cruisers."

Another crewman, a COMs officer, interrupted, "Ma'am, message received from Emperor Xonoc down on the surface. he wishes to come aboard."

Xavitra was slightly startled by this. "Open a secured COM channel to Emperor Xonoc's location, crewman."

"Yes ma'am. COM channel open." Replied the crewman.
_________________________________________________________________________

Orbital station Vessel of Will...

"Yes, thank you, Admiral Lirr. Perhaps we'll take you up on your offer sometime. In wartime, who knows." The executive stood up, indicating the meeting was over.

"It's always interesting to meet a new civilization." The executive dipped his beak.

"The security officers will escort you out of the station, where you may retrieve any items taken away at arrival."

"My name is Captain Talithe." The female Ryun responded, glad to see that this new empire wasn't trying to destroy the envoy. "I am of the Ryun-Wreae Federation of the United Ieegan Systems. The Federation is a fairly large and powerful interstellar empire of two races. The first is the Ryun, the second being our creations the Wreae. However, we are on equal grounds within the Federation. We are also a part of the galactic Confederacy, along with a couple other large empires."

((Busy, will add stuff about the Overcharge Protocol in a bit))