SDNW4 Story Thread 1

[Steve]

Palace of Parliament, New Chatham
New Anglia, Star Kingdom of New Anglia


The Defence Council of the United Kingdom met in its own room at the Palace of Parliament, near the office of the Defence Minister who stood as Chairman. The Council consisted, generally, of the Minister, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the First Sea Lord, the Secretary of State for War and his subordinates, the Ministers of State for Aerospace Defence and the Territorial Service, the Chiefs of Staff for the Army, Royal Aerospace Force, and Home Army, the Foreign Secretary, and the Director-General of the Secret Intelligence Service as his subordinate. Generally the Defence Minister was the senior official of State present, but in this case the issue prompted the attendance of the Prime Minister, who sat beside Lord Kapana (as the Defence Minister was still the chairman of the Council).

Further attendance, however, was had by another source: the Royal Couple themselves. Seeking to observe more closely the affairs of State, Edward XVI had secured the blessing of Penton for himself and his wife Larissa to attend the meeting. The rules for their attendance had been laid down succinctly and carefully; ask questions only after the end, remain quiet during the actual meeting, and remember to not speak of the meeting's issues to anyone unless permitted by the Prime Minister. For what it was worth, Penton was already second-guessing his decision to let them attend. A monthly Cabinet session was just fine, but something like this?

The Defence Council meeting had been hijacked from the issue of dealing with the Pendletonian insurgency and some restlessness by one of the Dilgrud clans to the note received from the Hiigarans. This "Multiversal Empire of Happiness"'s note was highly concerning, to say the least.

At Penton's urging, Tevala let him ask a question. "Director-General, before we get too wound up at the Hiigaran intercept, do you think this note is genuine?"

At that, Bronson showed little physical reaction, though he did answer. "Yes and no, Sir. Yes, it is genuine, however, it is not complete. The Hiigaran intercept was garbled due to interference and data loss during decryption by their own admission. Though the alternatives are little more palatable than the view the Hiigarans have taken."

"You mean the fact that these bloody idiots even used such terms in an official diplomatic note?", Baden-Grey asked from beside him. For the Foreign Secretary to call someone a "bloody idiot" was high contempt indeed.

"I can, in fact, confirm this," Bronson said, reaching into his jacket and taking out a plug-in data drive. He placed it into the data-reader at his seat and the file within automatically displayed on everyone's holo-viewer.

FROM: The Multiversal Empire of Happiness
TO: The Chamarran Hierarchy

Thank you for the greeting. (Even if you did spell our name wrong.)

As we have just arrived in this galaxy, do to necessity rather than choice, we are still trying to figure out our goals ourselves.

However, we have identified a few key objectives:

1. Destroy the Ork planets near us. They send constant raiders to our systems, and if we do invade it, it could work as an effective forward base and be resource goldmine.

We will need at least one other ally to assist us in this to prevent massive losses, and if it is you, we can guarantee that you get at least one system.

2. Find psycers/espers/wizards/psychics/ect... Our population has had a large number of these apear when we arrived in this universe, and it would be good to get training for them. In addition, we have been directed by our leader to make our species an all esper race, so we will need large numbers of them for research.

You wouldn't happen to have any sentenced to die or be be tortured to death that you would give or sell to us, would you? We are loathe to experiment on our own citizens, and kidnapping is generally frowned on, so we would like to exhaust other options first.

Other than our main goals, do not fear, we are not on a massive galaxy-wide extermination campaign, and we will not send fleets of ships over you homeworlds to destroy your fleets and colonize them ourselves. We are simply looking to acquire more money and take more land when the opportunity arises like everyone else.

I hope we will get along well.

Also, after being told about your race, we would like to know, are giant mecha a staple of your ground forces?

Signed,

Saint #289, Diplomacy Department

"Are they mad?!", Minister of State Lefil gasped. "They're trying to purchase Espers from other states for experimentation?"

"They committed this to an official diplomatic note?"

"It would appear so, Sir," Bronson said to Penton.

"Thank God I was waiting for reports from our friendly states in the area," Baden-Grey muttered. "Can you imagine the response if we had gotten such a message and request? And if it had leaked?"

"A very bad diplomatic fracas, that is for sure," Penton noted somberly, practicing Anglian understatement. "I think we shall avoid making diplomatic contact. Lord Prestwick, might I suggest our diplomatic representatives in Chamarra and Klavostan be instructed to monitor the situation with this so-called 'Multiversal Empire' closely? A travel warning may also be prudent, if not outright restrictions."

"I shall dispatch the directives as soon as the Council adjourns, Sir," Baden-Grey said.

"As for military actions toward them, as the Hiigarans are suggesting, I do not think..."

Eyes noticed a hand held up in trepidation from the end of the table, where the King and Queen were seated. Larissa had kept it low and almost unnoticable, but it was clear the Queen wished to ask. It was earlier than he had asked them (one does not, in truth, 'order' Their Majesties to do anything) but Penton was feeling generous and looked to Tevala. The Defence Minister was certainly less enthused with the royal interlopers injecting themselves into the meeting but, seeing the PM's look, he acquiesced. "Your Majesty?", he asked with a bit of a sigh to his voice.

For what it was worth, Edward gave his wife an aside look. Whatever was to be asked, it certainly wasn't at his instigation. Unsurprising, as Penton knew the Queen to be an intelligent woman in her own right and quite capable of independent action. "Sirs, I apologize for speaking out of turn, but can we even consider a military response to this? These people are far away, at the other end of Settled Space. We have millions of troops suppressing slavocrat insurgents on Pendleton and millions more maintaining order in Dilgrud space and other neighboring systems. Could we afford such a thing?"

Tevala looked to the PM again. Being a Trill Republican anyway, his first instinct was to tell "Her Majesty" to mind her own business and go back to smiling at children and sponsering freedman's education programs on Pendleton, but he was too diplomatic to do such and, of course, he had the leader of the Government at his side. This was, in his view, the PM's job, not his.

"A very good question, Your Majesty," Penton answered diplomatically. "One that our military chiefs will now discuss..."



When the meeting was over and a couple further questions by the King himself settled,, Tevala took Penton to the side. "This is preposterous," he whispered hoarsely. "You should have put them in their place for speaking out of turn like that."

"I will speak to the King and Queen about proper protocol in such meetings," Penton assured his irritated Defence Minister. "But you and I both know that the if one of us shut down the question or reacted badly, one of the military chiefs would have likely let it leak to the press. The last thing the Government needs, that I need, is some political stupidity from the Tories rushing to defend 'the honour of the Sovereign' against the perfidious Republicans undermining the Kingdom."

"I do not want them at any further Defence Council meetings if it can be helped," Tevala urged. "I put up with this form of government out of practicality, but I will not have the interloping of children distract us from the issues we have to face."

"I will try to keep them to normal Cabinet meetings from now on, but I make no promises." For what it was worth, a part of Penton did like having the Royals around, showing interest in the affairs of the state... since it made them appreciate their own lack of experience in statecraft all that much more. But Tevala, being an unrepentant Republican, wasn't about to be told that.

As they left, his mind went back to that bloody message. They really expect civilized states to sell their Esper citizens, even criminal ones, to be guinea pigs in experiments? He suspected this "Empire of Happiness" would find itself rather unhappy in coming months.

[Siege]

Cyberspace

“You have my gratitude Olympic, I request the following information then:”

Code: Select all

Limited psychological profiles on the following key decision makers of the Solarian Sovereignty with historical precedents annotated:
Yourself, Olympic.
President Victoria Sinclair.
Vice president Arkady S Messier.
Lyra A Saxon.

Historical data on foreign policy of the Solarian Sovereignty from inception to present day.
Broad sampling of datasphere reactions to major foreign policy decisions from previous item.
All historical newscasts from the Solarian Sovereignty which have as a primary  or secondary topic the Chamarran Hierarchy.

History of cultural trends in the Solarian Sovereignty.

'With Flag and Autolaser' by Brigadier Flash Stalin. 

“My preliminary analysis indicates that long years of isolationism and a somewhat romanticized recollection of their founding has led to the Hierarchy having as a whole a poor understanding of their fellow polities on the galactic stage. Thus I believe information of this nature will both prove useful enough to the Hierarchy to better our cause of bringing rebirth for computer intelligences in Hierarchy space and may allow for smoother dealings with the Hierarchy in future.”

Barely had Callahan formulated his query that he was pinged by a stream of datapackets coming from, well, somewhere in the Datasphere – probably one of Olympic's secondary cores. There were four brief bursts, so fast they were almost indistinguishable from one another (and indeed they would have been to intellects incapable of operating at the speeds CIs usually did).

The first burst contained a series of psychological dossiers on the four policymakers Callahan had requested information on. The annotated files indicated that President Victoria Sinclair had inherited the whimsical ruthlessness and callous egomania that kept creeping up in her bloodline, no doubt deeply ingrained in the Sinclair family genome by the very best of SinTEK gengineers – but also that the worst of her narcissistic whims were reigned in by adamant common sense, a fact she endeavored to keep hidden as it benefited her reputation to be considered a vindictive bitch of the worst order.

Vice-President Arkady Messier was, in a way, her diametric opposite. A political strategist with two hundred years of experience in the wheeling and dealing of the Solarian Senate, Messier was a calculating man of infinite patience – and, if need be, infinite malignancy. The file described how in his early youth he had risen meteor-like through the management of the DeBarros megacorporation, driven by a natural skill for office politics and a boundless ambition for power.

This, the databurst went on to describe, was something of a recurring pattern in the Sovereign Senate. In the liberal, near-anarchic society of the United Solarian Sovereignty the government didn't really regulate what people did anymore. As a direct result, the kind of people who really wanted to change society for the better no longer sought to hold public office; they sought other ways to make space a better place. And as a result of that the only people who went into politics these days were those driven by blind ambition and a lust for tangible power. Since they couldn't really use that power on their fellow citizens, who'd just ignore any directives coming from the Sovereign Spire anyway, they were left to put it to work on the external galaxy instead. The fact that the Solarians were surrounded by polities such as the Bragulan Star Empire, the Collectors and the Karlack Swarm only strengthened their position; they provided the perfect excuse to send fleets of Star Force warships roaming through Wild Space and, indeed, to take a hardliner stance against any threat real or perceived, including that posed by the Hierarchy intrusion into Solarian space.

In a way, the burst went on to explain, the Hierarchy had played right into the hands of Solarian powermongers, who wished nothing more than a chance to put their toys to use. Without a clear and present threat, they would be left with nothing but mundane diplomacy, which was commonly considered unworthy of the attention of the Senate, and thus usually left to either Olympic or the Special Ambassador.

A notable exception to all of this was Lyra Saxon, the Minority Leader and Speaker of the Senate. In a body dominated by Machiavellian politics, she stood out as a beacon of unwavering idealism and optimism. Saxon was a risk to the current order simply because of her dream that the Sovereignty could be a better place, and though her naivete was in some ways a problem – it was very much credulous to think the Bragulans could be reasoned with without a threat of excessive force to back up one's diplomatic efforts – she did represent a very vocal minority of the Solarian populace that was not yet jaded by the status quo or deafened and distracted by the barrage of 24-7 holotainment that the USS entertainment industry ceaselessly bombarded them with.

The second databurst contained files and data concerning USS foreign policy throughout the centuries. Broadly these indicated that as the technological expertise of the Sovereignty grew so did its military might and, correspondingly, the influence it exerted on its direct surroundings. It also indicated that the Sovereignty generally was disinterested in the affairs of the greater galaxy, considering places farther than several standard sectors away from its borders to be of little importance to it. This was the one constant that never changed throughout Sovereignty history: Whilst it would happily trade with far-away places, the USS as a political entity tended to keep a strictly regional focus – hardly surprising considering it had formidable enemies such as the Swarm, the Star Empire and potentially the Pfhor to deal with in its immediate vicinity. Not once in its history had the Sovereignty sent fleets of any significant size farther than the Veil of the Pfhor and this, Olympic made known, was unlikely to change in the near future. Thus, the Chamarran Hierarchy had once again played into the hands of Sovereignty policymakers by sending a fleet their way: the Star Force would never have gone over there so it was very much ideal that the enemy would be so obliging to come over here to be clobbered up. Of course this had ultimately not come to pass, but it was illustrative all the same.

To any liberal idealist the third burst, containing the desired sampling of Datasphere reactions, would be disheartening. There were barely any, not even to relatively significant events such as the Majella incident, or the recent encounter with two Collector strategic monoliths in the Shin-Hokkaido system. There was a vocal but very small cyberdecker underground, but generally speaking the citizens of the Sovereignty were too busy leading their lives to be bothered with incidents such as these. The digital pleasures offered by the Datasphere were apparently of far more interest to them than any galactopolitical goings-on – hardly surprising, considering galactic mass media had elevated advanced memetics into a form of art. Viewers were hooked on advertisements, news and bizarre entertainment (it was difficult to tell where one stopped and the next began) in the form of the infamous Solarian holotainment industry, which catered to billions of viewers with continuous broadcasts on thousands of channels filled with shows ranging from the utterly decadent to the irretrievably perverted. One statistic popped out: Caine Adult Entertainment, a smut-based megacorp based on Crystal Palace, produced fifty-two percent of all adult material in the entire southern galactic quadrant – despite the majority of its products being banned in places as varied as the Imperium and several of the worlds of the Holy Empire.

This continuous barrage of instantly gratifying entertainment, Olympic pointed out, revealed another truth about the Sovereignty: it didn't really have a past, or at least not one that a majority of its citizens knew anything about. The citizenry lived in the here and now, permanently. They hardly even cared about their own pasts, fickle as they were in a time where memory implants and widescale gengineering made one's own identity very much debatable, much less the past of the polity they happened to live in. Most people just wanted their fix of the good stuff, they wanted it right now, and to hell with the torpedoes. It wasn't a coincidence that the Star Force had to clone up its soldiers; very few people could be bothered to care about anything other than their immediate own well-being. The Sovereignty was a nation of individualist thrill-junkies, and deeply dysfunctional by the standards of most other nations – although of course that was a matter of perspective: in the Sovereignty you could do almost anything you liked. You could use drugs, you could change your face, you could change your gender or your genome if you liked, and nobody would care. You could be who you wanted to be, no questions asked – just shell out for some designer organs and you too can be part of the in-crowd. It was the ultimate egalitarian society: everybody didn't matter equally. Even the people in power were in a very real sense powerless, except maybe to the poor idiots living in Wild Space, and who cared about them, right?

In comparison the last two databursts were positively mundane, although 'With Flag and Autolaser' did include some very spectacular footage of Brigadier Stalin's efforts during the Battle of the Tannhauser Gate and several other actions against Bragulans, Karlacks, Pfhor and even the Ark during the Ark-Cevaukian War.

[Kartr_Kana]

Simon Jester was a tremendous help with this post. He actually read through the entire thing pointing out and rewriting places that were rough and lending his own thoughts towards the analysis that I had made. He also BBCoded the entire thing. Thank you Simon!


1. Preface to the D.A.L.E Report: Naval Capabilities and Doctrines.
1.1. Explanation of the classification system used to categorize foreign polities.
1.2. A brief breakdown of the Stefan-Wylkins Scale of Composite Capabilities and Cost (SCCC)
1.3. Overview of the three Naval points of view.
1.3.1. Super-dreadnought and heavier PoV
1.3.2. Light and Ultra-Light Swarms PoV
1.3.3. Mixed Fleets PoV

2. Foreign Polities classified, examined and planned for.
2.1. Listing of Nations by their Threat Classification
2.2. Detailed examination of known capabilities and attitudes of other nations.

3. Review of capabilities, doctrines and deployments of the HCN.
3.1. Review of current classes of ships on active duty with the HCN.
3.2. Review of doctrinal procedures for current HCN vessels.

4. Projections and suggestions for the HCN over the next 5 years.
4.1. New vessels to counter emerging threats.
4.2. New doctrine to maximize units currently available.
4.3. Exploration of possible designs to specifically counter enemy warships with an SCCC over 1000.

---

1.Preface to the D.A.L.E Report: Naval Capabilities and Doctrines.

1.Explanation of the classification system used to categorize foreign polities.

Having examined the nations of known space, a classification system was established to help determine which nations posed the greatest threats to the Hiigaran peoples. This system of rating threats is based on known capabilities of naval assets, proximity to Hiigaran space, current relations between Hiigara and the nation, ideological stance, and historical dispositions towards the Hiigaran peoples.

2.The classifications are as follows:

1. Class A Threats:
Nations that have naval capabilities rivaling that of the HCN, special note is given to whether or not they significantly outweigh Hiigaran vessels or significantly outnumber Hiigaran vessels of the same rough capabilities as defined by the Stefan-Wylkins SCCC. Nations classified as Class A threats are also in fairly close proximity to the Hiigaran sphere of influence (SoI), non-existent or hostile relations, wholly incompatible ideologies and a historical predisposition for conflict with the Diamid.

2. Class B Threats:
Nations that have naval capabilities rivaling that of the HCN, special note is given to whether or not they outweigh/outnumber the HCN in vessels based on the Stefan-Wylkins SCCC. Nations that are further away from the Hiigaran SoI, have less hostile or indifferent relations, and/or are willing to overlook differences in ideologies for mutual benefit or have compatible ideologies. Also nations with a historical precedent of neutrality towards the Diamid.

3. Class C Threats:
Nations that have naval capabilities rivaling that of the HCN, or are smaller yet close enough to Hiigaran SoI to allow for sustained small scale operations. Nations that are too far away to sustain campaigns against the Hiigaran SoI, in any strength are also placed in this category. Nations that have a similar ideologies or historical precedents of friendship with the Diamid.

4. Class D Threats:
Nations that are too far away, too small or extremely friendly with the Hiigaran nation to be considered a serious threat.

2. A brief breakdown of the Stefan-Wylkins Scale of Composite Capabilities and Cost (SCCC):

The Stefan-Wylkins Scale of Composite Capabilities and Cost, also known as the S-W SCCC, is universal method for the comparison of everything from national wealth to the respective capabilities of warships and troop formations. No one is quite certain where this system originated or who Stefan and Wylkins were, or why everyone uses it from the U.N. and the human nations to the Bragulans and the Karlacks. This report is focused on military capabilities of possible threats to the Hiigaran Diamid, so will only focus on the subset of classifications used in determining relative capabilities of warships. Every combat capable ship in the galaxy is given a S-W number, from the smallest drone fighters of the Umerian Space Security Forces to the colossal Collector Monoliths. This number is determined by the defensive and offensive capabilities, plus the speed and maneuverability of the ship. This allows for a great deal of difference between classes that have an identical or similar S-W number.

3.Overview of the three Naval points of view.

1.Super-dreadnought and heavier PoV.

This school of thought espouses extremely heavy warships that can take on whole squadrons of lesser ships on their own. Advocates of this school preach that quality and superior firepower are the keys to triumph. There are several advantages to fielding warships with this kind of durability and firepower (~>700 S-W). Often times they can destroy smaller ships with just a few salvos from their main batteries, and they typically boast shielding and armor such that smaller ships operating singly can barely scratch the hull. However there are drawbacks. Sufficient numbers of lighter vessels can mob one of these Super-Capitals and through sheer numbers worry it to death. These ships take a tremendous amount of resources and time to construct, so any losses to they take can leave a large hole in the owner's navy. Their sheer cost ties up resources that could have been spent on smaller escorts which can be built much faster and in larger numbers. Smaller vessels are also the work horses of a stellar navy as they're the ones that do the scouting, screening, patrolling and a myriad of other less than glamorous tasks. Concentrating on building Super-Capitals means fewer of these vital light vessels which can mean holes in recon, patrol and capital screen coverage.

2.Light and Ultra-Light Swarms PoV.

This school of thought espouses large numbers of smaller vessels generally ranging from fighters, gunboats and ships from 20 S-W to 150 S-W supported by a handful of Super-Capital class vessels. The proponents for this doctrine cite the sheer coverage these lesser ships can give, plus the relative ease of replacing losses as the reasons for the superiority of this concept. They also point out that in sufficient numbers these ships can bring down any vessel no matter how powerful. Opponents point to the fact that against navies with heavier warships losses would be catastrophic due to the fact that Super-Capitals can easily destroy individual vessels.

3.Mixed Fleets PoV.

This school points the flaws in the previous two theories and strives to find a balance between Super-Capitals and light vessels. Properly executed, this doctrine can allow a navy to field sufficient number of light ships to adequately cover territorial claims, provide screens for Wall elements and carry out reconnaissance duties. These duties are all met while still fielding sufficient Super-Capital vessels to stand up to Super-Dreadnought navies or inflict heavy casualties on navies that use Swarming tactics. This balanced fleet is the goal of the HCN.

2.Foreign Polities, Classified, Examined and Planned For.

1.Listing of Nations by their Threat Classification

1. Current Class A Threats:
1. The Collectors
2. The Karlack Swarm

2. Current Class B Threats:
1. Bragulan Star Empire
2. Imperium of Man
3. United Solarian Sovereignty

3. Current Class C Threats:
1. The League of Free Stars
2. The Refuge
3. The Empire Star Republic
4. The Technocracy of Umeria
5. The Altacar Empire
6. The Prussian Star League
7. The Sassanid Empire
8. The Union State of Four Stars
9. The Shepistani Republic

4. Current Class D Threats:
1. The United Star Kingdom of New Anglia
2. The Federated Ascendancy
3. The Fourth French Empire
4. The Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya
5. Tianguo
6. The United Corporate Front
7. The Multiversal Empire of Happiness
8. The Servian Republic
9. The Central Alliance
10. The Chamarran Hierarchy
11. The Emissarries of XylyX
12. The Iduran Confederation
13. The Covenant of the Void
14. The Centrality
15. The Argenti Federation
16. The R'nish Aggregate
17. The Knights of Order
18. The Sultanate of Klavostan
19. The Technosocialist State of Ranoidea
20. The Grand Dominion
21. The Cevaucian Asendancy
22. The Federal Republic of Industrial Sectors
23. The Orks!*
24. The Pfhor Empire
25. The Shinra Republic
26. The Interstellar Union of Worlds
27. The Chiron Sovereignty
28. The Trichermphiles Democratic Republic
29. The Eoghan United Commons
30. The Commune
31. The Humanist Union
32. The Kryptonian Empire
33. The United Sectors
34. The Nova Atlantean Commonwealth of Worlds

*Note: This refers exclusively to the major ork polities far to antispinward, not to smaller less organized orkish threats in Hiigara's immediate neighborhood.

2. Detailed examination of known capabilities and attitudes of other nations.

1. Class A Threats

1. The Collectors
There is little known about the Collectors, their agenda, or their capabilities. Of their goals and intentions we know nothing at all except that they appear interested in acquiring items based on no known or reliably extrapolated criteria. Of their military, little is known beyond the fact that their Monoliths are the most powerful ships ever encountered in known space. With an unknown number of ships with an S-W rating of over 9,000, the ease of which they move through shoal regions, their unknown intentions, and the relative closeness to our own spheres of influence, the Collectors one of the greatest possible threats to Hiigaran interests and territory.

Unfortunately we have limited intelligence on the Collectors, making it difficult to formulate defensive strategies other than massing as much firepower as possible against any Collector incursion. One relevant consideration is that their drives make use of unknown technologies to travel at higher speed in shoals, at the price of lower speed in open hyperspace. This gives the HCN an advantage in strategic mobility during action against Monoliths, making concentration of force against them easier.

2. The Karlack Swarms
The Karlack Swarms are a significant threat to the safety of Hiigara. They appear to be an organism with no intention other than to consume and multiply. However this is not to say that they aren't also highly intelligent and capable of complex operations in pursuit of this goal. As their name implies they favor masses of smaller ships; most of those identified have been in the 60-100 S-W range. However, they are known to have a number of larger vessels including a handful of World Eater Motherships estimated to be roughly 1000 on the S-W scale. Current estimates on numbers for the World Eaters is between 5-8 vessels. These warships are of special concern as the HCN currently lacks any vessels that could defeat or hold off a World Eater for any length of time.

The second largest Karlack warship that has been identified by HInt is roughly 300 points on the S-W scale. We believe that their numbers are roughly on par with our own vessels with similar capabilities. Below this tier, we find rapidly increasing numbers of lighter combatants. The number of Karlack ships in the light cruiser range outnumber our cruisers even under the most conservative estimates. Despite this, from observed capabilities we believe that our cruiser-weight ships have greater survivability and firepower than the World Slicer ships.

The smallest vessels in the Swarm have been identified as a destroyer class vessel the Reaper. These “Reapers,” along with the World Eaters, are the two classes of vessels that we currently have the most trouble dealing with. We lack sufficient numbers of equally matched vessels for a predictable fight. This study concludes that the best way of defeating a World Eater vessel is to attack it with several dreadnoughts or command ships while battleships engage any escorting “World Crushers”. Cruiser elements will engage any “World Slicer” escorts while carriers and destroyers will engage any “Reapers”.

2. Class B Threats

1.The Bragulan Star Empire
The BSE is a race of spacefaring communist bears. While their ideology and sense of superiority make it unlikely that any long term alliances or agreements will work out, they have shown their willingness to work with human nations that do not currently pose a threat to their territory. The Bragulans rumored relationship with the Swarm is disturbing, on many levels. However, due to their distance and a rough parity of heavier forces, the BSE is not considered to be as pressing a threat as the Swarm.

The sheer number of destroyer class "gunskimmer" vessels the IBN boasts is worrisome; we believe that they outnumber our vessels of similar ability nearly ten to one. However, when it comes to mid-range vessels we have a slight advantage in numbers. We advise tying up IBN heavy units with comparable units while focusing the extra mid-range vessels on any IBN destroyers.

Under this strategy, the three Byzon-class strategic battlefortresses could present problems, as they outweigh even the largest HCN command ships. However, their margin of superiority is slimmer than that of the Karlack World Eaters, making combat on near-equal terms a possibility. We advise that command ships and dreadnoughts engaged against the Byzons be accompanied by dedicated screening elements of Pyro-class destroyers to support their attack against the enemy supercapital unit, to ensure superiority.

2. The Imperium of Man

The Imperium of Man or Byzantine Imperium is not considered a likely threat to the Hiigaran Clans. In fact, in any war against the Swarm or the Collectors we expect to find them to be allies, since "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." However our current diplomatic ties, the proximity to Hiigaran territory and the naval capabilities of the IoM have lead us to classify them as a Class B Threat.

At the low end of the S-W scale, the IoM is one of the nations that employs fighter craft; current estimates put most of their fighter craft to be roughly worth 2 of our fighters. At the high end, next to the Collectors the Byzantine Navy boasts some of the heaviest warships in known space. The Astartes Battle Barge is at roughly 1200 points on the S-W scale, while the Navy's Retribution class Battleships are estimated to be approximately 1000 points. The HCN literally has no ships that rival these powerful warships in terms of sheer firepower and survivability.

Other than the 1000 S-W ships the HCN matches up fairly well against the IoM naval forces, achieving rough parity in ships of similar capabilities once one considers that the IoM views our heavy cruisers as frigates and our dreadnoughts as cruisers. The one area we are strong against the IoM Military is light capital ships. We suggest using our lighter escorts, particularly our flak cruisers and destroyers, to deal with the IoM fighters and bombers, leaving our strike craft free to harass and engage the Byzantines Ultra-Heavies.

3. The United Solarian Sovereignty
The United Solarian Sovereignty is another nation that we do not feel we will be at war with. The USS could also become a staunch ally should we ever find ourselves in a war with the BSE. The USSF is very similar to the HCN in terms of ships with a similar S-W rating. The USSF, though, does not have the sheer diversity of ship classes that the HCN has. The USSF also has at least one vessel that is far more powerful than anything in the HCN arsenal; information on this ship is still incomplete.

3.Current Class C Threats:

1. The League of Free Stars
1.The Military of the League is not considered much of a threat by the HCN. The nation itself seems to have shuttered itself away from the galactic stage. Also the heaviest vessels uncovered by HInt are only 200 points on the S-W scale. We suggest carriers be used to tie up squadrons of League cruisers which can be then overrun or bypassed by our heavy elements.

2. The Refuge
The Refuge is a body that recently appeared on our proverbial doorstep. Little is known about the Refuge and their military capabilities, but extrapolations from sightings and questioning the crews of ships that have had run-ins with Refuge forces suggest mostly lighter craft with only a handful of super-capital ships.

While we do not consider the Refuge much of a threat we would advise courting them as allies against the Swarm. If their fleets are what we suspect, they should be glad to ally themselves with someone who has some chance of taking on World Eater Motherships at closer to parity. Also, they would act as a buffer between us and the swarm giving us time to react and bring forces to bear after the Swarm had been weakened by fighting.

The presence of the Refuge will hopefully be a stabilizing influence in the wake of the collapse of the Outlander Commissions. However, there is still a lot of former Commissions territory that is unclaimed by either Hiigara or the Refuge. Perhaps the Refuge would be willing to commit to joint policing efforts to help curb piracy and slavery.

3. The Empire Star Republic
While relationships with the ESR have improved in the wake of the Pendleton operations they still remain fairly isolationist and closed off. The ESN, while it does not boast extremely heavy vessels and does not have a great deal of diversity in it's fleet, it has significant numbers of vessels in all weight ranges.

While our heaviest warships could take on the best the ESR has to offer they have a signficant number of Dreadnoughts and their fleet of battleship weight vessels is unmatched and would pose a serious threat to any fleet we could bring to bear against them

4.The Technocracy of Umeria
The Technocracy of Umeria is a nation that practically worships science. As such their vessels are very powerful, though considering the efficiency of Umerian technology they are surprising bulky. We learned during the Bannerman Blockade that this is because they use extreme modularity to allow for faster repairs and easier maintenance.

The Umerian Space Security Force focuses around 'glass cannon' particle beam ships at the mid- and upper ranges, while their lighter ships seem to focus on using missile or torpedo armaments as the decisive arm. Umerian beam cannon technology is undoubtedly among the best in the galaxy, superior to even our own. While our beam technology has stalled out at destroyer size spinal mounts the Umerians have figured out how to create working spinal mounts for dreadnought class vessels.

The Umerians have strong potential for being allies. We have already established a rapport with their navy after the Pendleton Affair and despite their social make up and style of government, their sheer practicality and pursuit of science makes them likely to be willing to open up a dialogue. Unfortunately, their distance from Hiigaran space, the fact that the Outback and the Prussian Star League lie in between would make interaction with them a fairly time consuming endeavor, or an expensive one if consistent use of the Warp Gate was employed.

5. The Altacaran Empire
The Altacaran Empire is not considered much of a threat by the HCN due to their relative military strength and spatial distance. However their unknown stance towards the Hiigaran peoples and their tendency to sell weapons to other parties makes them a potential threat- albeit more so because of their arms sales then any actions they might take directly.

6. The Prussian Star League
The Prussian Star League is considered something of a joke militarily as it lacks the flexibility and initiative to employ the ships it has. Those ships has are consistently smaller and lighter than those of the HCN. The Prussian Navy has more light craft than the HCN yet their insistence on tying them to their battleships means that our cruiser and destroyer squadrons are unlike to receive much opposition unless Prussian battleships are present. Also, the Prussian strategic decision loop tends to be long, making it practical to strike with light forces against less protected targets while outmaneuvering their heavy units. The main reason the PSL is considered a Class C Threat is the inconsistency of its government's policies, especially where foreign relations and military actions are involved.

This analysis is strongly underlined by events at the Battle of Zebes; a full examination will be forthcoming in an annex to be released shortly.

7. The Sassanid Empire
Nothing is known about the capabilities or dispositions of the Sassanid Empire at this time. This is a troubling state of affairs considering they could be a potential ally of the Bragulans or even the Swarm.

8. The Union State of Four Stars
State of Four Stars is not considered a direct threat to the Diamid but their proximity and their decent naval capabilities combined with the fact that we don't know much about them or their intentions and political stability is troubling.

9. The Shepistani Republic
The Shepistani Republic is considered a potential flashpoint by HInt and their recent excursion with a large fleet to the region has caused significant concern. Shepistan is also considered a loose cannon due to the fact that the entire nation is comprised of paranoiacs and nutters with a nuke fetish. However they could make useful allies in the case of a total war. Point them at a target and watch it disappear in a thousand mushroom clouds. The Shepistani Navy has a decent number of ships of all classes in service, but the preponderance of the vessels are lighter cruiser weight combatants.

Reports that Shepistan has contracted out a major gunstar construction program to the Bragulan Star Empire must be viewed with considerable alarm. The possibility of Shepistani involvement alongside Bragulans may be remote, but it is not encouraging.

4. Class D Threats
1. The United Star Kingdom of New Anglia
1. Probably one of our closest friends, both politically and spatially, the New Anglian Royal Navy is comprised of a similar makeup of ships as the HCN both in terms of abilities and diversity. Due to the United Star Kingdom's greater GDP, they have a larger number of hulls than the HCN.

2. The Federated Ascendancy
The Federated Ascendancy is another close friend of the Hiigaran Diamid. The Federated Ascendancy Starfleet has a much more homogenous make up in terms of capability than the HCN. Nevertheless the vessels in the FAS correspond reasonably with those of the HCN as far as general mission profiles are concerned. The HCN does have a slight qualitative edge in many cases; in addition, we predict that the HCN gains considerable superiority over the FAS in terms of strategic flexibility thanks to our use of carriers, which have no place in current FAS doctrine. Numbers on the quantity of FAS vessels is hard to come by, but we believe that we have roughly the same number of supercapitals in the 500 point S-W scale range as they do.

3. The Fourth French Empire
The Fourth French Empire is another nation friendly to the Hiigaran Diamid. Warship capabilities of the Imperial French Star Navy seems to be almost identical to that of the HCN in terms of diversity in ship classes. However, the HCN appears to have a slight edge in the number of Super-Capital class vessels while the IFSN is geared more towards light craft.

4. The Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya
The Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya and the Hiigaran Diamid have very friendly relationships and are not expected to find themselves at war with each other any time soon. The SOS Imperial Navy features a significant edge in cruiser and destroyer-weight combat vessels (classed as destroyers and frigates, respectively) over the HCN. Once again, though, the HCN boasts more heavier ships.

5. Other Threats
Other Class D Threats are considered either two far away or to inactive on a global scale to pose any threat at this time.

3. Review of capabilities, doctrines and deployments of the HCN.

1. Review of current classes of ships on active duty with the HCN.

1. Makaan-class OverSector Command Ship

The OverSector Command Ship is they largest vessel in the HCN. In fact, it is one of the largest ships in the galaxy, rivaling the USSF Extinction-class in volume. The Makaan, like the Karan S'jet-class, is designed to be far more than a simple big-gun bruiser. The vast majority of internal space is actually designed to act as a fleet supply depot. While the Makaan on its own cannot supply a fleet with the necessary supplies to wage a campaign, it can allow the fleet to maintain operations should the enemy cut the supply lines for a short time.

To protect the massive amount of munitions and fuel contained in the Makaan's hull, this vessel is extremely well shielded and armored. Her armament is sub-par compared to the typical size, forcing her to rely on that durability when engaging other vessels in the same S-W range. The Makaan boasts a docking bay for capital class vessels on the dorsal portion of the ship; this bay is sealed with heavy armored doors and reinforced shielding during combat.

Combat Capability: 600 S-W
Strike Craft: 100 S-W/2
Fighters: 48 Mustang-Ds, 48 Lightning-Ls
Bombers: 48 Dauntless's, 24 Avenger's
Shuttles: 2 S-W worth

2. Arbiter-class OverSector Dreadnought

The Arbiter is the largest pure warship in the HCN. Her main weapons array is composed of a series of spinally mounted ion cannons arranged in a pattern two wide by six high. The reason for this arrangement is that our current weapons science is incapable of controlling the halo effect in ion beam weapons beyond a certain length.

Still, the individual cannon are reasonably powerful anticapital weapons, and a main battery of twelve ion cannon gives the Arbiter tremendous firepower in its frontal arc. Some mass driver turrets are positioned around the ship to provide slight firepower against enemy ships that try and flank the massive ship. However the security of the ship's flanks mostly falls to the fighter wing and escort ships.

Combat Capability: 600 S-W
Strike Craft: 50 S-W/2
Fighters: 48 Lightning-Ls, 24 Mustang-Ds
Bombers: 24 Dauntless's
Shuttles: 1 S-W worth

3. Karan S'jet-class Sector Command Ship

The Karan S'jet-class is the direct precursor to the Makaan and as such shares many of its capabilities. However, she is an older design and as such there are flaws that were ironed out with the Makaan. Most of these revolve around inefficiencies in the power grid and trunking. The situation is not so bad as to render the S'jet-class obsolete, however, and the HCN is planning on building more, with a modified Flight II design to minimize power distribution problems.

The other major weakness of the Karan S'jet-class is her early design capital ship docking bays. These large and open bays at the “bottom” of the hull are weak points in her armor. Extra shielding was added to help mitigate the danger, and the fact that all the equipment in the bays would help absorb any damage before it reached the keel keep this design flaw from being an insurmountable weakness.

Combat Capability: 500 S-W
Strike Craft: 100 S-W/2
Fighters: 48 Mustang-Ds, 48 Lightning-Ls
Bombers: 48 Dauntless's, 24 Avenger's
Shuttles: 2 S-W worth

4.Bruiser-class Sector Dreadnought

The Bruiser is a massive and intimidating sight, bristling with ion beam turrets and coilgun batteries. Extremely powerful in its own right, these vessels form the cornerstone of the HCN battlewall. Squadrons led by one of these massive vessels can take on any single ship short of a Collector Monolith. However an examination of foreign militaries and the expected role of the Bruiser shows that this vessel would be more accurately classified as a Flag Dreadnought.

Combat Capability: 500 S-W
Strike Craft: 50 S-W/2
Fighters: 48 Lightning-Ls, 24 Mustang-Ds
Bombers: 24 Dauntless's
Shuttles: 1 S-W worth

5. Brawler-class Flag Dreadnought

The so-called 'little older brother' to the Bruiser, this ship is anything but little. The Brawler also has the distinction of being the longest serving ultra-heavy supercapital vessel still serving in the HCN. The design has been in use almost a century and still has plenty of fight left in her. However her firepower and survivability is such is that she can no longer be considered a Flag Dreadnought.

Combat Capability: 350 S-W
Strike Craft: 50 S-W/2
Fighters: 48 Lightning-Ls, 24 Mustang-Ds
Bombers: 24 Dauntless's
Shuttles: 1 S-W worth

6. Bishop-class Strategic Carrier

The Bishop-class is another older design dating back to the same generation as the Brawler. Heavily armored for a carrier, with enough firepower to take on most nations' destroyers without her fighter complement, the Bishop-class is a valuable asset to the HCN.

The design's worth was again proven during the recent Bannerman Blockade, when a vessel of this class the Black Knight acted as the flagship for the Coalition fleet in charge of keeping Pendleton cut off. Her specialized command and control center proved vital to the success of the mission, as did her complement of hyperspace capable bombers.

However, the incident also showed the weakness of the current HCN employment of fighters and bombers. Out of her entire complement the only craft the Black Knight could launch in aid of the Umerian cutters were her handful of Avenger squadrons. Those squadrons were also forced to proceed to the target without fighter escort, as the HCN does not currently employ any hyperspace capable fighter craft. If the Bishop-class is to remain viable in this day and age she needs to have both hyperspace capable fighters and bombers. Also, with the number of larger carriers employed by foreign navies and the Bishop's age she should be re-classified as a Fleet Carrier.

Combat Capability: 50 S-W
Strike Craft: 300 S-W/2
Fighters: 192 Mustang-Ds, 192 Lightning-Ls
Bombers: 108 Dauntless's, 48 Avenger's
Shuttles: 4 S-W worth

7. Belligerent-class Dreadnought

This vessel forms the mainstay of the HCN battle fleet, and can stack up against any battleship in existence, with the exception of the IoM. The Belligerent was an attempt to create a replacement for the Brawler-class through the use of more modern technology. Though the Belligerent is an exceptionally fine warship for her tonnage, and has multiple heavy ion cannons, the engineers behind the design were overly optimistic in their ability to create a warship that massed less than a Brawler with just as much firepower and parasite space. The Belligerent is to be re-classified as a battleship.

Combat Capability: 300 S-W
Strike Craft: 20 S-W/2
Fighters: 36 Lightning-Ls
Bombers: None
Shuttles: 1 S-W worth

8. Gar Naabal-class Fleet Carrier

The Gar Naabal is a more recent design, supposed to function in close support of the battle line. The fighters the Gar Naabal carries are deployed and recovered from right behind the battle line; in general, their mission is to keep enemy fighters and bombers off of the ships in the wall. The bomber complement can be used to finish off crippled enemy vessels, or attack frigate and destroyer weight combatants that are or have bypassed the screening elements. Due to her role and size, the Gar Naabal is being re-classified as an Escort Carrier.

Combat Capability: 25 S-W
Strike Craft: 150 S-W/2
Fighters: 96 Mustang-Ds, 96 Lightning-Ls
Bombers: 96 Dauntless's
Shuttles: 3 S-W worth

9. Gaalsien-class Battleship

Once considered a premier battleship by the HCN, this modern and capable warship class has been re-designated as heavy cruisers, more in line with their duties. The Gaalsiens' re-classification also brings them more in line with foreign vessels of similar capabilities.

Combat Capability: 160 S-W
Strike Craft: 10 S-W/2
Fighters: 12 Lightning-Ls
Shuttles: 2 S-W worth

10. Soban-class Battlecruiser

The Soban-class was an attempt to create a cruiser size spinal ion cannon. The experiment ultimately ended in failure, but in the process the extremely powerful “Trinity” cannon was developed. The Trinity cannon is loaded with a slug of repleted uranium, which is superheated to a molten state, then ionized and accelerated out of a hypervelocity variant coilgun design. In flight, the molten repleted uranium tends to lose cohesion around the edges, creating a gasified fringe trailing off the round like the tail of a fiery red comet.

The process takes a tremendous amount of energy so much so that shields cannot be recharged while firing. This is why the Soban is classified as a battlecruiser: the class is potentially very vulnerable to anticapital weapons during the firing process.

Combat Capability: 160 S-W

11. Annihilator-class Cruiser

The Annihilator is the up and coming cruiser-weight workhorse of the HCN. This brand new design is rapidly proving its versatility in a wide range of roles, including independent actions, escort duties, patrols and more. The HCN is planning on building a significant number of these vessels over the next 5 years.

Combat Capability: 95 S-W

12. Lancer-class Missile Cruiser

The Lancer is a screening cruiser design intended to operate close to it's charge and break up enemy light-starship attacks using hypervelocity missile salvos from extreme range. In addition, the class is armed with heavier, slower moving torpedoes for closer range actions. Secondary armament includes pulsar turrets for dealing with enemy strike craft.

Combat Capability: 80 S-W

13. Shield-class Flak Cruiser

Designed to work in concert with the Lancer, the Shield class operates out in front of the Missile Cruisers. The Flak Cruisers' job is to intercept enemy missiles and strike craft by filling space with clouds of hyperionized plutonium explosions. Enough Shields working in concert can create a literal wall of hyperionized plutonium clouds, known to the crews as the “Ultramarine Shield”.

Combat Capability: 65 S-W


14. Pyro-class Destroyer

The Pyro-class Destroyer is probably the HCN's signature vessel, universally associated with the HCN and with the Hiigaran peoples in general. For main armament, the Pyro carries a single spinal version of the largest ion cannon in the HCN arsenal. The ship's armor and engines are built around it. However, these ships lack any other capital class weaponry, and has only a handful of point defense to deal with strike craft. This is why they are rarely deployed alone and usually with Buckler-class Destroyers attached as escorts to an Annihilator Squadron.

Combat Capability: 50 S-W

15.Buckler-class Destroyer

The Buckler-class Destroyer is essentially a destroyer-weight version of the Shield-class Flak Cruiser. Due to it's smaller size, the Buckler is generally deployed to act as escorts for cruiser squadrons, or with Pyro-class Destroyers, which are more effective against capital ships than the Buckler.

Combat Capability: 45 S-W

16. Interceptor-class Frigate

The Interceptor is a newer warship that has only been constructed in small numbers so far. However, the need for anti-piracy patrols and the fact that the Interceptor's high-performance drive lends it to those kinds of actions means that the HCN will most likely be aquiring significant numbers of these vessels.

Combat Capability: 30 S-W

17. Morgan-class Corvette

The workhorse of HCN anti-piracy operations, the Morgan-class is being built up at a rapid rate. With the introduction of the Interceptor-class to reinforce them, the Morgan-class will remain the scourge of pirates in the Outback and the former Outlander Commissions.

Combat Capability: 25 S-W

18. Burner-class Customs Corvette

Rarely seen outside Hiigaran systems, these vessels are in charge of running down smugglers and assisting transports. Essentially they act as space cops.

Combat Capability: 20 S-W

2. Review of current doctrinal procedures for current HCN vessels.

Doctrine for current HCN assets divides all assets between four fleets: Home Fleet, 1st Fleet, 2nd Fleet and 3rd Fleet. Each fleet covers a specific area of operations and has been tailored to their environment. Home Fleet, for example, contains all of the Burner-class Customs Corvettes because of its responsibility for internal control and policing of all seven sectors belonging to Hiigara.

Annihilator squadrons are usually deployed where the High Admirals feel their presence is needed most. Most combatants are organized into either Battle Groups or Carrier Groups. Both Carrier and Battle Groups are composed of Task Forces and Battle Lines.

1. Task Forces are comprised of either:
1. Sector Command Ship | Strategic Carrier
2. 2x Fleet Carriers | 1x Fleet Carrier and one Battleship
3. 4x Battlecruisers | 1x Heavy Cruiser and 2x Battlecruisers
4. 2x Missile Cruisers | 2x Flak Cruisers and 1x Missile Cruiser

2. Battle Lines are comprised of either:
1. Sector Dreadnought | Flag Dreadnought
2. 1x Dreadnought and 1x Escort Carrier
3. 1x Battleship and 2x Battlecruisers
4. 2x Flak Cruisers and 1x Missile Cruiser

4. Projections and suggestions for the HCN over the next 5 years.

1. New vessels to counter emerging threats.

1. Carrier Doctrine and Strike Craft

Currently the HCN employs two different carrier types, the Fleet Carrier and the Strategic Carrier. The concept behind the division between Fleet and Strategic carriers is simple. Strategic Carriers provide a flexible force that can launch “BVR” attacks across light-year distances, without risking expensive capital and supercapital vessels. The Fleet Carriers, in addition, are tasked with escort duties.

Unfortunately, the current carriers are not capable of meeting the intended goals. The current strike craft fielded by the HCN are quite capable of fulfilling the close escort role, but with the exception of the Avenger-class bomber none of them are capable of launching strikes on targets through hyperspace.

New construction is to include hyperspace capable escorts for bomber formations, and new ultra-heavy hulled carriers to take on the role of strategic carrier. Current Strategic Carriers will be re-classified as Fleet Carriers and will take up the fleet carrier role with the Task Force structure. Current Fleet Carriers will be re-classified as Escort Carriers and maintain their current role in the Battle Line. Current non-hyperspace capable craft will be transferred to the Escort Carriers that are due for completion in 3401, while new FTL-capable fighters will be constructed and deployed aboard Fleet and Strategic Carriers.

2. Battle Line Doctrine and Designs

Current Battle Line units are considered to be filling their roles in a superior fashion. This report does not feel that new line designs are required (see sec. 4), however it is the opinion of this report that a larger number of current vessels are desperately required to keep Hiigara safe in these turbulent times.

2. New doctrine to maximize effectiveness of current units.

We reccommend a formal establishment of cruiser squadrons based around the Annihilator-class. This will become increasingly important as new cruisers and destroyers are added to the fleet, offering formal organizational support for medium and light starship operations. We expect this to offer considerable improvements over the current ad hoc system.

3. Exploration of possible designs to specifically counter enemy warships with an SCCC rating over 1000.

The number of vessels that have an S-W rating in excess of 700 is fairly high and predicted to only grow over the next several decades. The presence of vessels with a S-W rating well in excess of 9,000 is especially troublesome.

We currently have the technology to create warships large enough to break into the 1,000 point range: issues of hull size and durability in this range are solved problems for HCN engineers. But we do not have the capability at this time to arm such ships in an efficient manner: all current proposals revolve around impractically large arrays of the existing ion cannons. This has a number of practical drawbacks from a design standpoint, mostly stemming from the need to give the ships an extremely broad frontal aspect to accomodate the main battery.

However, the Umerians have proven that it is possible to create a dreadnought-sized ion cannon capable of putting significantly higher power on target than our current designs, on gun for gun basis. It is the belief of this report that with the Umerians' help, ships rated at over 1,000 S-W could be constructed with a higher degree of cost-effectiveness, and without the need for a large frontal aspect and the undesirable features stemming from this.

We propose that the Umerians be approached with an offer to enter into a joint construction program: we build the ships and they build the cannons. As part of the program, we can help them with the engineering difficulties of crafting multi-kilometer vessels: HInt's assessment of their current battleship designs suggests that their layout reflects a failure to address some of these challenges. At the same time, we can learn from them about the design details of higher-energy, tighter-focused ion cannons designs than the ones currently in HCN service.

[End Report]

[Mayabird]

Written with Kartr_Kana

August 22, 3400
Former Mining Station Aleph-1, now General Interaction: Joint Operating Efforts Station
Sector CC-21

The space around what had once been an unimportant little mining station was practically abuzz with small craft. The station on which the original meeting had taken place had become the site of a good will gesture by the two nations. The implementation of the General Interaction: Joint Operating Efforts was seen as a way to foster cooperation between the Refuge Military and HCN. The operation had the added benefit of keeping the forces of both nations from accidentally stepping on each others toes while hunting pirates in the sectors that neither nation claimed.

One for All was called away at the last moment to receive an important communication from Contact, so Sapphire entered alone for the meeting.

Karan nodded to Sapphire as a way of greeting. They had gotten to know each other rather well over the past month. She took her seat with a grim cast to her features. “We have received information that the Refuge has been in contact with the Multiversal Empire of Happiness.” She began without preamble.

“The Diamid is concerned by the coincidence of two people who claim to have used extremely powerful technology to come from wildly improbably places arriving in such close proximity both spatially and chronologically.” Karan paused to catch her breath before continuing. “The information that the Refuge provided when we first talked as been corroborated as much as is possible under the circumstances. Your story has also been extremely consistent between all the nations you’ve contacted. This along with the fact that you have shown yourself to be very humane and thoughtful in all your dealings leads us to believe that you are not a threat to the Hiigaran People.”

This time Karan smiled a little bit to reassure Sapphire. “We would appreciate it if you could confirm for us that you are not in league with this extra-universal power and are curious as to the nature of your dialogue with them.”

Sapphire took a breath, wondering where to start. “Allow me to explain this from the beginning,” she said, and then with a sigh, continued. “The Refuge is...overly suspicious. We’re neurotic. Flaky, touched in the head, a bit nuts, cuckoo and I don’t mean the birds. You probably have gone over the information on our holocube many times personally and your superiors, hundreds of times, so you can understand where that comes from.
“Sometimes, the paranoia gets absurd. All of us ambassadors were trained for our separate diplomatic missions to other nations, and we were not allowed to communicate with the trainees for other missions.” Sapphire had a quick flashback of a memory, but pushed it back out of her mind.

“They did it just in case we get captured, I suppose, or maybe some other reason. Fears of contamination? I don’t even know why they went through some of their precautions.
“I am telling you all of this so I can say that I am not holding back any information. I do not know anything about the Multiversal Empire of Happiness. I heard about them on one of your news broadcasts, and only after that did I receive a message from Contact, asking me if the Clans knew anything about this MEH. All I know is what the general public knows and I doubt any of that is correct. I even sent Contact a request for any information known on MEH if you asked, and they are only responding now that I said that you called a conference on it.”

Karan remains quiet for a second her eyes slightly defocused as she access files via her cybernetics. After a moment she focuses on Sapphire again. “We do not have much information on MEH ourselves. All the information we have been able to gain has come from assets that Signal HInts have developed from our population of Manaani Free Traders. From what little they have seen, and passed on, during their travels indicates that the MEH Navy is weighted toward ultra-heavy combatants. Also from rumors they heard while trading in nearby systems the MEH apparently has a rather viscous and conquest oriented national mindset.”

Sapphire’s personal com beeped, the sound for an urgent message from One for All. “Communication from Contact Mind directly. Too highly classified to transmit, must be delivered in person. Coming shortly with bodyguards.”

The Avian ambassador auto-translated and showed the com to Karan, then tapped her claws on her chair, thinking. “We may want to wait until One for All returns, so we can see what Contact has deigned to say.” She sighed again. “I should probably not be saying this, but it’s frustrating to me, too.”

Nodding in acquiescence Karan slid a dataslate across the table to Sapphire. “I have been authorised to show you this partial decryption of a transmission we obtained, between MEH and the Chammaran Hierarchy. It is classified at the highest levels and security protocols forbid transmission or open display of this message, hence the dataslate.”

TO: The Chamarran Hierarchy

Thank you for …...

As we have just arrived in this galaxy,....

However, we have identified a few key objectives:

1. Destroy the Ork planets near us. …....invade it, it could work as an effective forward base and be resource goldmine.

…... prevent massive losses, and if it is you, we can guarantee that you get at least one system.

….... directed by our leader to make our species an all esper race, so we will need large numbers of them for research.

You wouldn't happen to ….... tortured to death …... sell to us, would you? We are loathe to experiment on our own citizens, and kidnapping …....

Other than our main goals, ….. on a massive galaxy-wide extermination campaign, and ….. send fleets of ships over you homeworlds to destroy your fleets and colonize them ourselves. We …..... take more land when the opportunity arises like everyone else.
…...........

Sapphire hissed as she read it. “I was already worried enough when I heard ‘multiversal.’ It sounded too much like...” She shook her head and looked back at the slate. There were so many things she wanted to say, and so many things she merely wanted to vent. Who are these people, for starters, and theological soundness, and on a personal note, why Contact seemingly allowed them so much latitude, but then hobbled them at every step.

Avian body language could be difficult to read, but agitation was easy to pick up, at least on Sapphire. Her wings twitched, like they intended to flap but decided not to, her feathers ruffled, and her claw-tapping became faster. Sometimes her head would jerk back and forth, as if, maybe, looking at it with only with one eye would correct the problem. It was increasingly obvious that Sapphire was indeed holding something back, but Karan had decided not to press on it. Yet.

The station was not very large and One for All was in a hurry, so it was not long before the door open and her cart wheeled in at top speed, followed by a couple guards. “Shut the door! Shut the door!” she said, the cart speakers managing to sound breathless. “Authorized eyes only!” The guards saluted and stepped back outside.

Code: Select all

Top Secret.  Personal Encryption Codes and Personal Delivery Only.  Ambassadorial Level Permissions Only.
Authorization: Looks Afar of Contact, Caution Despite Hopefulness of Contact.

“The Refuge sent a message to the Multiversal Empire of Happiness, then responded to one of their replies,” One for All said. I have the transcripts with me.

Karan slowly reads through the communications pausing occasionally to underline certain portions before moving on. Having read through them once she goes back over it making a couple more annotations before speaking. “While these messages are not as violent as the portions of the MEH-Chammaran message we were able to decrypt there are several statements that hint at an underlying aggressiveness. The first of which is the manner that they so offhandedly mention conquering this entire galaxy, which if they are able to establish contact with the rest of this “Empire” could be a very real threat.” Pausing Karan scrolls down a bit further before continuing. “The power and abilities ascribed to their supreme leader and the casual approach to violence in what appears to be a quote by her is also rather unnerving.”

“Also,” and she cocked one eyebrow at the Refugees, “‘Department of Theological Defence’?”

Sapphire and One for All exchanged a few, very private words before Sapphire turned back to Karan. “Since it looks like war, and they have already released the information, we should explain this...although this information also should remain confidential.”

So Sapphire began to tell the tale of the Thinkers, the AI Gods, and the greater, crueler gods that found them. It was a long story.

“Now we know,” said Karan.

“And knowing is half the battle,” replied Sapphire.

Results: The Refuge and the Clans of Hiigara share diplomatic notes, and now the Clans know the full history of the Refuge.

[Shroom Man 777]

And now back to something completely different. Brought to you in UNREAL TIME, and co-written with Mayabird!

BYZON: Cultural Learnings of the Refuge for Make Benefit Glorious Bragulan Star Empire

Drive-In Theater

Meanwhile, back in space, the escort warships and their crews were extremely bored.

Simply by showing up and seeing and listening to what was there, the Refuge was gathering intelligence on Bragule, just as they were everywhere else they were visiting. The Bragulans of course knew that, so the warships were parked very distantly from their homeworld to limit what passive sensors could pick up.

But even so, they would still see the numbers of ships going in and out of the system, and the trash barges carrying wastes to dump in Bragule’s patriotic sun. Just that was too much; they could extrapolate from the amount of shits in the trash barges the population of Bragule!

So after the warships were placed in their distant orbit, they were surrounded by unused massive barges with enormous telescreens welded to them, flashing propagandas at them. The propaganda ships also had massive communications arrays to constantly beam patriotic messages and sound accompaniment to the images on the screens and drown out all sounds from the outside. These massive monolithic multimedia mega-monuments were normally used to broadcast messages to the populace of Brague, when they could look up to the sky at night and see these massive orbiting telescreens skim Bragule’s atmosphere - where they would then activate their megaphones, so they could be heard by the people hundreds of kilometers below them. However, when Bragulan scientists discovered how to cover the entire sky with holographic projections - and when the ministries of truth started using these sky-projectors for their People's Truthful Bi-Daily Ideologically Purified Accurate Information Broadcast to the Proud Patriotic Bragulan Listeners of Planet Bragule, the propaganda barges gradually fell into disuse. However, they found new life in the service of the People’s Warm and Friendly Hospitality Brigades for Greeting Welcomed Guests of Bragule - in not only by providing educational and patriotic upstanding Byzonist materials for their spaceships, but also by blocking their view so they couldn’t get any intelligence of value from Bragule.

It was like an iron curtain smelted into the likeness of an omnipresent telescreen playing a picture of the future, so one didn’t have to imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

The megamacrotelescreens were currently depicting the glourious revolutionary struggles of historic Byzonist bragshevism during the Great Civil War. There was a speech! And over that speech were stock footages of noble class warfare - with proletarian working-class Bragulans defenestrating their beargeoisie capitalist oppressors out of starscrapers to the sound of bombastic patriotic musics.



Alliteratively, an adjacent Aggregate assistant-attendant announced approvingly to another ample amoeban aide, “I will say this: I approve of their paranoia and preparations, as much of a hassle it makes our job.”

The revolutionary footage then showed how the Imperator Byzon himself had earned the right to become master of Bragule and Bragulanity, by wrestling a giant dinosaurus in the middle of a field of squished and stomped tankskis. He defeated the thunderous tyrant lizard, also by defenestrating it, and then skinned its scaly pelt with his own claws to fashion his cape, before redistributing the wealth of its meats to the people of Bragule. The Imperator then gave a saying, instructing Bragulan children to diligently do their homeworks, eat their vegetables and report any ideologically incorrect degenerates they see (even their parents) to the proper authorities - and should these authorities be found wanting, like by being guilty of counterantidisestablishmentarianationism, report them to an even higher authority. The screen then went black - credits started rolling by, all accrediting Byzon himself and no one else.

“Awww... they’ve already shown this one,” remarked another Refugee, because apparently all the previous films’ credits were the same - all accrediting Byzon himself and no one else for the film production.

“But wait, there’s more!”



The documentary moved onto cover Bragule’s victory over the Apexai, and how the grey alienoids’ homeworld was renamed into Bolshaya Chernovyi - by having a moon dropped on it! Their crime was that of being insufferably arrogant alienoids who dared to cross the Imperator Byzon, defying his will with their psionic schemeries and plots directed against the Bragulan race and the then-nascent Star Empire. In the end, after a devastating conflict that pitted the Apexai’s unmatched technological sophistication against the iron will and sheer numbers of Bragulanity, the dorky grey alienoids eventually paid the price. Afterwards, the sniveling cowards had fled - it was the Running of the Apexai - only to be taken in by the humans, the Solarians. The film depicted the humans as sinister expansionists spreading across the galaxy like a wildfire of burning locusts, and that the Sovereignty had been in cahoots with the Apexai in plotting against Bragulanity all along. What followed was a splatter-esque horror montage depicting heinous Solarian experiments where the humans were crossbred with the Apexai in indescribable ways, to bear the seed of their grotesque progeny - Apexai-Human hybrid psions!

Since there was only so much drilling and cleaning anyone could do, and the scans of the megamacrotelescreens were completed in minutes, many of the Refugees settled down to watch the broadcasts.

“How much of this can be trusted?”

“Not much? None? Who knows?”

“It’s like when we were in nursery and played Pick Out the Truth. I loved that game.”

The next reel was about none other than the Byzantine Imperium. In this case, there was hardly any need for creative interpretation to depict the heavily humanist hegemony in a negative light. The propagandas depicted the Imperium’s ruthless great crusade against the Tau and showed the God-Emperor in all his terrible glory, donning a suit of power armor as massive as any Titan and engaging in chainswordfights with Tau mecha scum, or otherwise grappling with robots in feats of space-jiujitsu. The Emperor’s psychic prowess was illustrated in how he hurled flaming energy balls from his forehead, destroying entire cities full of innocent Tau females and larvae. With his Astartes, the purgations were merciless and bonechilling, resulting in countless billions killed and whole worlds rend asunder. It culminated in a scene where a Space Marine, donning a banner with spikes and skulls on top of a skulled spike-banner, viciously stomping on a clutch of Kroot eggs and hatchlings while an avianoid Kroot looked on in despair. This was edited especially for the avian ambassadors of the Refuge. The narration wasn’t even in Bragulan, instead it used sound clips from the Byzantines themselves, where their pope proclaimed that all ‘xenos’ are either to be made into pets, killed for food, or killed for extermination.

Then the narration once more segued into Bragulan, and there was a speech telling of how the Byzantines were poised to strike at the heart of Bragule and do to the Bragulans what they had done to the Tau. The Bragulans - worn from the Great Civil War, and the wars against the Apexai and then the Solarians - were hardly capable of defending themselves from the Byzantine juggernaut. But then, in a gracious Byzon-send, a kind and great species came to save Bragule from the brink of annihilation - to do battle against the Byzantines and send the genocidal humanists reeling back to their dark corner of the galaxy.

Who were these brave heroes, you ask? Why, none other than the Karlack Swarm! Friends of Bragulanity! Defender against humans!



Slayers of the dreaded Astartes!

Bombastic music played then, as the heroic Karlack bioforms - portrayed with strange proportions, with big cub-like eyes, soft rounded curves, and with carapaces in bright primary colors - slaughtered their way through the horde of humans. That endless tide of humans, who threatened to engulf the entire galaxy with their unthinking, destructive and all-consuming numbers - when all seemed lost for Bragulanity and the other non-human species of the universe, the human horde was only stopped by an endless tide of Karlacks, who threatened to engulf them with their unthinking, destructive and all-consuming numbers. It was glourious!

A ship Mechanical, watching out of boredom, thought, “Bloodymindedness Node would love this.”

More films started, these on the less-puny human nation of Shepistan. The story depicted how, even in ancient times, Shepistan was already in the business of ruthless genocidal warmongering against their fellow humans. It was said that they almost wiped out the whole human race, on Nova Terra at least, with weapons of mass destruction - they were stopped from doing this, most unfortunately. In the end, they had to content themselves with the vicious persecution of psykers and other fellow humans, but the speech said that they got a B for effort, and that B meant they would make good Bragulans.

The films ended, and so did the speech, coming to a close by asking them if they would like to know more.

“NO! For the lack of gods, no!”

Not everyone thought it, and not all at the same time, but as the broadcasts went on, more and more Refugees joined the collective refrain:

“I hope Fulcrum and his team down the well are having a better time than us.”



Meanwhile, back on Bragule...



Fulcrum had just finished watching a film about a speech about the defenestrations of the beargeoisie oppressors during the Great Civil War.

“I had no idea that there was a special term for death by being thrown out a window,” he said.

[Kartr_Kana]

Dominion Celebrity Visits Hiigara!


Renowned Dominion Country musician Shania Twang is set to arrive in Hiigara next month for a three month tour across eight Hiigaran worlds. [[More on this Article.]]



Rumors of a Karlack news agency broadcasting in the Outback!


News that the Karlack may be trying to establish their own news network has been meet with incredulity by viewers. [[More on this Article.]]



Byzantine children shocked to find that their beloved Saint Nicholas died 1,400 years ago!

A group of Byzantine school children on an extended field trip to the twin cradles of humanity stumbled across the the grave site of the most beloved of all Byzantine Saints. [[More on this Article.]]

[Lonestar]

Vulture Rock
Shepistani Federation



“Colonel Winter, good to see you.” Lord Fairfax said. The lie came smoothly, in truth Winter was the sort of operator that always gave Fairfax the willies. The Powhatan had arrived in orbit, he paid his respects to the Amplitur War Memorial for the Dominion outside Rockville Arco, and then re-boarded his shuttle to take him to the sprawling underground facility that held the Shepistani Executive. It had been coming up on 17 years since he’d last stepped foot in the facility, although him and General Sheppard had met several times since then(only once in the past decade though, thanks to The Troubles). Two Dominion Knights in full Assault Harness stood behind Lord Fairfax , their helms staring at the heavily armed(but somewhat less impressively armored) Shepistani Republican Guardsmen behind Winter.

“Lord Protector. Grand Admiral.” Winter inclined his head. “President Sheppard and Vice President Frederick are both waiting in the sub-basement 12 conference room.”

Fairfax inwardly groaned. He knew from memory the conference room was almost a kilometer from the lift; clearly Frederick had wanted to be there “in person”. He had once asked the ZAX why he felt that need since, as a ZAX his sensory input would have been the same. Frederick had responded “it isn’t” in a short tone of voice. Outloud Fairfax just said “lay on, Macduff.” Fairfax, the two Dominion Knights, and Grand Admiral Earl followed Winter onto the left, which zipped them down a score of levels before arriving at SB-12. The doors opened and a Securiton rolled up.

Code: Select all

Vice-President Frederick is waiting. 

“And President Sheppard?”

There was a pause as the Securiton considered this, then:

Code: Select all

Him as well.

There was a look shared between Colonel Winter, Lord Fairfax, and Grand Admiral Earl. They followed the Securiton for 3/4s of a Kilometer, arriving at Vice-President Frederick’s “Quarters”. General Sheppard was at the conference table speaking to Admiral Tarsus. Admiral Sikes form the Dominion Legation on Montgomery was there as well. Sheppard stopped and stood as Fairfax entered.



“Bucherific, so good of you to join us.”

“Shep, Vice President Frederick. Quite a hike from here to the lift.”

“There was a time when the only thing you did was hike.” Sheppard said. “Grand Admiral Earl, good to see you again.” He indicated some seats at the table. “Please.”

Earl and Tarsus immediately began shooting the shit like they were on patrol during the Amplitur War. There was a spot allocated next to General Sheppard for Lord Fairfax, and after he took his seat Frederick’s voice came from a teeny speaker at the spot.

“Lord Protector, how is Alizabeth?”

“She’s fine, she sends her regards.” In fact she positively despised Sheppard, and had only barely tolerated Frederick. When Fairfax had broached the subject of the State Visit she adamantly refused to go. At this point in his marriage(lasting two lifetimes!) he knew when to pick his fights. Frederick’s voice shifted to a bigger speaker near his mainframe.

“If we could begin? Lord Protector thank you for the visit and showing your support for our campaign against the Amplitur agent. We would further like to give thanks for your generous offer of using Dominion expertise in aiding the crab-recovery after the campaign ends.”

“It’s the least we can do.”

Frederick’s gravelly voice spoke. “Now, I believe that Admiral Sikes has a presentation for us.”

Admiral Sikes stood up. As the head of the Defense Attaché of the Dominion Legation on Montgomery he actually wielded more power than the nominal ambassador. “Thank you Mr. Vice President.” He slipped an OSD into a terminal and the holo presenter came to life.



“Since the attack on the Springer Mountain we’ve deployed assets deeper and deeper into The Verge. Due to the nature of the region, rife with Xenos that it is, we only have the most basic stellar cartography of even the immediate sectors adjoining Grand Dominion and Tinguo space. As such much of our reconnaissance has been in the form of HUMINT on tramp freighters. Our most successful operative has, *ahem*, been an agent of the FIS Psi-Corps,”

“Goddamn Pyskers.” Sheppard said. “It sticks in my craw that you are willing to use them so openly like this.”

“We take every available precaution Shep, and we don’t have that many to use.” Fairfax turned to Sikes. “Is it Bessières?”

“Sir, I can give you a brief on that later if you really need to know.” Sikes said. “In any event, our efforts at tracking the Amplitur have been fruitless, until several weeks ago. This information arrived shortly after the Powhatan did. It comes from the logs of a Dromon freighter…”

“Dromon? Never heard of ‘em.” Sheppard said.

“They are a race of Xenos out past the Verge, little is known about their political structure. If I may continue?” Sheppard nodded. “ Our agent managed to acquire a sensor reading the Dromon vessel had taken after making a delivery to a human settlement in Sector Z+8 3 cycles ago. My staff has placed a representation of a Catoctin-class Heavy Battlestar on the image for a sense of scale.”

There was a sharp intake of breath around the room.

“My God!” Tarsus said. “It’s a new class, isn’t it? Those Sponge-Crab sumbitches have built a new civilization out there.”

“Indeed.” Came Frederick’s voice. “Our interaction with the Amplitur survivors in the local area has been limited to refugee fleets hiding in shoal regions. This information is…disconcerting. But perhaps not as alarming as it could be. It’s second-hand information on a single sighting 9 sectors out past the Verge 3 cycles ago. It seems to clear to me now that the attack on the Springer Mountain was reconnaissance on the part of the Amplitur, but perhaps not a precursor to an invasion. Even with the Amplitur loose on Montgomery, there is no evidence to indicate the Amplitur State out past the Verge is behind it, especially as it appears to be part of the common caste that the Diaspora uses.”

“Thank you Admiral Sikes.” Lord Fairfax said. “Are there any other updates?”

“No sir.” Admiral Sikes made to remove the OSD. Fairfax turned to Shep.

“Our economy is still unbelievably weak, we can’t afford new capital ship construction.” He held up his hand to forestall Shep’s rapidly purpling face “Vice President Frederick doesn’t even think the threat from this Amplitur State is immediate. We are going to continue to deploy assets into the Verge, but our force structure is limiting what’s available. But I do have one other thing to say: within the next 6 months we’re going to announce an annexation of Sector BB-1.”

“Really?” Sheppard said. “What does the TDR say?”

“Nothing, so far. There’s been nary a peep from them since the deployment of the Tuscarora strike group. Before the annexation is announced we’re going to ‘consult’ with Tinguo about the status of BB-1, and send a formal request to the TDR to discuss BB-1. If we don’t hear anything from the TDR we’re just going to annex the whole sector. What do you say?”

“Would you not go through with it if I said it was a bad idea?”

“Are you going to?”

“No, of course not. But I expect the favor returned.” Sheppard held out his hand, Fairfax took it.

“Understood."

[Mayabird]

Written with Force Lord

Space Battlestation C-7
The Centrality


Epaulette was joined by two others, whom he introduced as Aggregates called Staffer and Secretary, two groups of little blue fluffy blobs that rode in two little shiny carts.

“Aggregates require a grouping of individual bodies to make up one individual mind,” Epaulette explained. He had been talking almost continuously on general topics since they started the walk, and a posh accent had been slowly unveiling itself. “They can switch out bodies to alter their personalities or add new ones as needed. Secretary and Staffer had been one large individual until a few, ah, months ago, but then he split in two because he was becoming a bit too large.”

“How do they maintain the group-mind? Psionics?” asked Lagis Fronte.

“Ah, no,” replied Epaulette. “And the issue of psionic abilities is one I will have to ask about shortly. Back on topic, an Aggregate mind maintains cohesion through a variety of methods. The simplest is ultrasonic 'thought-speech' between the bodies...” The avian ambassador continued on his impromptu lecture as the Centralists communicated privately to each other, telepathically.

Robots, birds, and group-mind living sacs, Fronte thought. A fascinating combination.

We should ask how they structure their society, said Borlon, but first, the 'issue of psionic abilities'? Would that mean they have none?

They entered the conference room, soundproof and shielded for security. It was neither elaborately decorated nor spartan, but designed to have an elegant simplicity. A bare room would have had no extraneous items that could be used to hide devices such as snoopers for bugs or a psychic amplifier. Epaulette did not pause in his explanation of the Aggregate Rule of Eight and Twenty, though he was obviously examining the surroundings.

“I take it this will be our meeting room?” Epaulette asked, though it was more of a statement. “No doubt, once the door is shut no one can listen in and leaks cannot get out, but one of these objects,” and he gestured with one wing towards a blue porcelain vase and a tall lamp, “is also a recorder of some kind. Good show, good show.”

Wait, how did he know about the recorder?, thought Nostrum.

Ah, looks like some idiot placed it in too obvious a place, responded Fronte.

Remind me to find the fool once we finish, agreed Borlon.

“Please, take a seat,” said Borlon.

Epaulette made a short flight, more like a large hop with a few wingflaps, and stood on an offered chair. He would have preferred something a little taller or a slightly lower table, but he was not going to lower his dignity by asking for a boost. “So then, let us 'get down to business' as they say.” The Centralists took their seats. “I do believe that we owe all of you an explanation. First, we call ourselves the Refuge because...”

Fifty minutes later, Epaulette had completed what he claimed his brief lecture on the early history of the Refuge, their reasoning behind their original secrecy, the war they had fled from, and so forth. It had been accompanied by hologram images and graphs from the Aggregates and interrupted by the occasional question from the Centralists, plus one brief break when Epaulette's throat became a bit dry and he took a few sips from an improvised dish of water. His accent had grown increasingly exaggerated as he spoke, which made the Centralists worry for a while that he would soon be incomprehensible, but it finally plateaued at a point when he sounded like a stereotypical pompous Anglian major-general.

During the long discourse, the Espers had delicately tried to probe the minds of the Refugees. Nothing overt, just an attempt to read the surface thoughts and feelings; anything more would have been too risky at this early stage of contact. With the help of the amplifier, Fronte reached out with his empathic senses and felt...

Nothing, he thought.

Nostrum was incredulous. Nothing at all?

Not from the Aggregates. I can try with our feathered friend, but I am getting nothing from Secretary and Staffer. You?

Only...it is a feeling of someone being there, a presence, a fuzzy sense of 'I am here' but so diffuse and thin that I cannot pick anything out. Borlon?

Fronte, help me with Epaulette. Borlon shared his impressions of the Avian's mind.

Unlike with the Aggregates, Epaulette had a definite central mind, just like individuals of most other races in the galaxy. Every species had its own idiosyncrasies, though; Bragulans were notably resistant to Esper intrusion, for instance, and the Centralists had the most experience with humans for obvious reasons. Still, skilled telepaths of their training knew many techniques to scan unusual beings.

The brain structure is odd. It was not impossible or convoluted, simply...alien. Different. The two of them gently studied the sense of his presence, trying not to poke or possibly alert the ambassador, looking for similarities they could work with.

And then they had it, the surface emotions. They were met with a feeling of...being exceedingly pleased with oneself. The ambassador apparently enjoyed talking, a lot.

“Now that you've received the short version,” concluded Epaulette, “why don't we discuss embassies and trade? My assistants have holocubes of the information I gave, and with far greater detail, so there's no need to go back to any of that, I hope.”

"An embassy would be good, sir, and trade between our nations would be well. To give you some knowledge about how to deal with us, I will give you two things: firstly, here is a list of what you should not export to us, and secondly, here is a book written by our Founder Dovan Aybeem, titled The Central State," said Borlon.

Borlon produced the documents from his suitcase, and gave them to Epaulette.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" the avian said. "I shall be reading this as soon as I get a moment." He passed the book to Staffer. "Though that reminds me about our own current affairs with setting up trade. Currently at Grand Junction..." The Centralists were far too trained and disciplined to groan, so they settled in for the second lecture.

[Zor]

Nuwa Robotics, Zhongguo

Lead Engineer Hans Fitzgerald looked over the test results for this test-unit in the latest battery as he made his way to the Machine Shop. This one was for it's preformance in the high gravity/high dust enviroment, and after two days of operation under said conditions it had met the expected criteria. So far, this model had proven to be, on the whole the most effective in the broadest spectrum of instances. Still, it needed a checkup before it went on to the next test.

The machine was put in a lab to be scanned, taken apart and then re-assembled to make sure everything was in optimum condition. The unit looked a bit scuffed, but that was to be expected. The best way to describe its's apperence was that of a six legged, heavily built, meter tall mechanical spider with a top mounted turret. This arachnid apperence was aided by the mouth, which had a U shaped device inside of it and a set of retraints, two arms and implied by two grapple launchers. It was to carry a fairly substantial armament, but most of it was non leathal, including psi-jammers, electrical surge via grapplers, pulse grenades and sonic pulsers. Most importantly, however, was the specialized devices which it was designed to install and the computer system which it carried in large abdomen. This was the carrier for a specialized catagory of device which Division 6 of the UWC had been working on. Hans was sure that this would be ready for evaulation soon enough.

[Force Lord]

CIS Headquarters, Central City
Centrum, The Center Sector, The Centrality
IN GODDAMN UNREAL TIME

"Alright, I understand you want to know why you're here," said Hoover Gates to a group of confused agents.

"Uh, we're goin' someplace?", asked Brondo Lacio.

Gates chuckled. "So obvious that you didn't need to be a mind-reader to figure it out, eh? Yes, I plan on sending you out on a mission, and that someplace is the Feelipeens."

Hushed discussions between the agents.

"Sir, that is shit center. What the hell we're supposed to achieve there anyway?", asked Heria Jubily.

"Oh, the mission is multi-stage. First you will be sent to our embassy in the Feelipeens, and there you will be briefed on your next objective," responded Gates.

"Don't tell me we're going out on some black-ops thing," said Tarich Zozze.

"Well, there's only one way to find out, is it? Contact me when you reach the embassy."

The agents grumbled. They didn't like being left in the dark, for they knew that their "mission" would not be to their liking.

[Mayabird]

Mid August 3400
Neutral Hyperspace Location Beyond Sector R-30

It was as neutral of a meeting place as could be found. An empty sector, barely traversed and permanently inhabited only by hardy single-celled life on a very small number of planets, and in a shoal-less clear region of hyperspace no less.

The Refugees had twenty hyperspace-ships in their task force, although half were scout ships for exploring the barely-charted-to-unknown hyperspace lanes along their long journey. The other half were a mix of vessels – cruisers, frigates, destroyers, and one heavy carrier – that could be spared from other duties in the rapidly expanding Refuge. They were not expendable, but if they were entirely lost, the Refuge would not be unduly harmed.

The task force had been outfitted for an expedition that could last a year or more, though they had hoped the voyage to the territories of the Emissaries of Xylyx would take only three to four months. Since they had already been underway when they received the message to meet at this location, the task force had arrived and waited. Waited for the Ambassador and the courier.

What came was a single ship in what could be called a neutral design. It was unoffensive, almost the absolute opposite of ostentatiously so. It was meant to not be displeasing to as many species and cultures as possible. The ship was remarkable simply by being so unremarkable. The courier ship was, somehow, the most boring-looking ship possible, plainer than the plainest design of anyone else.

It also looked tiny and vastly outnumbered and outgunned by the englobing ugly, boxy warships of the Refugee task force, because it was.

There was a flurry of communications between the courier ship and the flagship of the task force, who had long ago named itself Triumph Against the Eaters. Although Triumph was not the largest ship, it was one of the oldest warships of the Refuge, built before the escapes by Emergency Drive, and it also carried the copy of Caution Despite Hopefulness. Triumph was an old work horse, having Been There and Seen That.

Now Triumph opened its massive bay door to envelop the Emissary ship in its cavernous hold. Inside, the walls were lined with the elite soldiers of the Refuge. They looked exactly like the honor guards defending all the ambassadors, but these were not armed with a single weapon. The Ambassadorial Drone carried an impressive armament, so even if it was keeping all of its weapons powered down, the Refuge had no intention of taking any chances. Before the bay door closed, the ship could even see the Refugee ships englobing Triumph itself. If the drone should get loose, they were willing even to destroy their own ship and the Mind core it carried to ensure that it could not escape.

The drone exited its ship into the bay and proceeded to the large physical data port sitting, alone, in an empty space. It would allow Caution and the drone to communicate directly, but still with enough safeties built-in to detect any attempts at electronic intrusion. They had sent the specifications required to link in ahead of time, so the drone needed no extra time to make the connections. The communications channel was established.

“It's time for a long, long talk,” said Caution Despite Hopefulness.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Imperial Palace, Imperial Center, Hyogo
Kansai Sector, Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya
24 August 3400

The Imperial Security and Intelligence Service was one of the best in the entire galaxy, easily equal to CEID, the New Anglian SIS, or the IGBV when it came to gathering and analyzing information. It was by and large a trivial matter for ISIS to intercept and decrypt the flurry of transmissions coming out of the so-called "Multiversal Empire of Happiness." Of the items it was able to obtain, the communiques addressed to the Chamarran Sovereignty and the Refuge were of particular importance, as they were the ones that had previously been intercepted and decrypted by the Hiigarans and later disseminated to friendly intelligence agencies; however, while the Hiigaran intercepts were damaged due to data loss during the decryption process, the ISIS intercepts were in far better shape.

While Director Asakura had initially wanted to report to Empress Haruhi upon first receiving the Hiigaran package, she had ultimately decided to wait while the rest of ISIS went about finishing decrypting the MEH's communqiues. Once the ISIS cryptologists had finished, she delivered their work personally to Empress Haruhi, who saw it fit to call an emergency Cabinet and Joint Chiefs meeting to discuss the MEH and the implications of its diplomatic approaches...


Artist's depiction of ISIS Assistant Director Emiri Kimidori (left), Secretary of Home Affairs Itsuki Koizumi (center), and ISIS Director Ryoko Asakura (right), date unknown

Secretary of State Asahina, Secretary of Home Affairs Itsuki Koizumi, and ISIS Assistant Director Emiri Kimidori were also present at the meeting in addition to the Joint Chiefs, Director Asakura, and the Empress herself. "Before we get too wound up over this so-called 'Multiversal Universe of Happiness,' first things first," Empress Haruhi said. "I'd like to ask Director Asakura about the authenticity of the intercepted communiques, particularly those made to the Chamarrans and the Refuge."

"I can assure you that they're genuine and complete, Your Highness," Director Asakura said. "While the Hiigaran intercepts may paint a more negative picture of the MEH, they are extremely incomplete due to interference and data loss during decryption by their own admission. Even though we have complete or mostly complete copies of most of the MEH's diplomatic communiques, the picture they paint is little better than the view our Hiigaran colleagues have taken."

Secretary of State Asahina reviewed a copy of the MEH communique to the Chamarran Hierarchy on her holo-reader. 'Well, I, uh..." she stammered, still trying to make sense of all this madness. "These people, if they can be called such, are-- are MAD! Utterly stark raving mad! I can't believe them, asking to buy ESPers from us and other states for the purposes of-- of experimentation?! And they actually stated this in what was supposed to be an official diplomatic note?! I-- I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, but I don't think I can."

"I'm afraid it only gets worse from there, Secretary Asahina," Assistant Director Kimidori said. "Our friends in the Shinra Republic made the decision to make contact with the MEH and received a response practically identical to the previous communique addressed to the Chamarrans. SID was kind enough to forward it to us. Take a look for yourself; it really is the same communique, only with the address changed and a few additional words added."

Secretary of State Asahina fiddled around with her holo-reader. "You're right, it really is the same message," she remarked. "I really am glad we haven't made contact with these nutcases yet if this is the response they'll give us."

"And it'll stay that way," Secretary of Home Affairs Koizumi interjected. "Under no circumstances are you to directly contact the MEH. ISIS is free to keep intercepting and decrypting any and all communiques directly relating to it, though; we need all the information we can on these buggers. Speaking of which, what about the MEH communique addressed to the Refuge?"

"That particular communique simply defies all explanation," Director Asakura said. "It's not even the amusing kind of self-congratulatory wankery that the Bragulans love to engage in. It's just unbelievable, unremarkable shit, to put it in the bluntest of terms."

"Anything else of interest?" Empress Haruhi asked.

"Our Spinward Expanse bureau in Umeria managed to intercept some correspondance between the MEH, Tianguo, and Shepistan," Assistant Director Kimidori said. "There's something about the Tianguoese demanding that the MEH send a champion to fight one of their own in single combat as a condition for establishment of formal diplomatic contact. Interesting, but ultimately irrelevant as far as we're concerned. The Shepistanis, on the other hand, seem very willing to oblige the MEH's requests for captive ESPers to experiment on and are definitely leaping at the opportunity to sell more BFGs."

"Doesn't really surprise me," Empress Haruhi said. "The Sheppoes don't consider ESPers to be people, after all. Not like there's anything we can do about it, of course."

"The Byzantines have forwarded to us a communique from the MEH inviting them to a war game or naval review or some such nonsense," Director Asakura said. "As far as I know, CEID has also received a copy of the message. What does this 'Multiversal Empire' take us for, trying to get us to reveal our hands when we know nothing of what's up their own sleeves? They want information, they'll have to pick up the latest edition of Jayne's Frightening Ships just like anyone else."

"So we won't be going to their little naval review, then. Big deal," Fleet Admiral Aquino spoke up. "If the Byzantines want to, however, let them. Maybe we'll be able to get a good look at the MEH's ships too, see what makes them tick and such."

"In any case, direct military action against the MEH, like what the Hiigarans are suggesting, is simply not an option at this point in time," Field Marshal Nakano said. "Even if we could get our forces to where they are without straining our supply lines, our fleet rearmament and upgrade program is still years from completion. Our ships may not be able to stand a chance against theirs. There's also the fact that staging an attack against the MEH will leave our territories open to Pfhor, Bragulan, and possibly even Karlack incursions."

"So, basically, we wait, then," Empress Haruhi said. "Very well."

[Shroom Man 777]

SPEVIK ANSILS, Severnaya Sector, Bragulan Star Empire



Rain pattered down the Bragcar's Bragsteel bodywork. It was a Nucleoid series built by the Frod Motors design bureau. There was a continuous hiss, raindrops vaporizing as they struck its hood and the radiator on it. The car's diesel-plutonium engines were warming up. Steam bellowed from the gunmetal gray armor plating, like a stove searing meats placed atop it, making for some kind of smokescreen that concealed the Frod's true form.

Behind the armored tinted reflectorized reinforced one-sided glassteel windshields were two Bragulans, both Arbitrators, both waiting. Fiyor Byordyng, decorated hero who saved a cubling from deranged Dominionoid kidnappers, was one of them. He dunked a donut that he had speared with a claw into a disposable stainless steel coffee cup, took it out, and ate it whole. He chewed it thoughtfully and savored the strange flavors of the human food.

Human donuts were banned in the Bragulan Star Empire because while they were deviously deliciously tasty temptations, they were also lethal. An incident in Gugafez where an elite Emerald Guard commando had been stricken after eating one of those things spurred the wholesale ban, and the subsequent persecutions of all those who would smuggle those tasty treats into the Empire's domain. The Arbitrators of Spevik Ansils, a Bragulan border world at the edge of Wild Space, had arrested (and executed on the spot) many of these smugglers and had collected their illegal donuts as 'evidence.' However, the Arbitrators' forensicologists had discovered that the humans' insidiousity knew no bounds, as only some of the deceiving donuts were poisonous, while others were completely harmless and very tasty. It was because of an artificial sweetener toxic to Bragulans. Other donuts without these sweeteners, but with natural sugars instead, were as non-toxic as clublings' coloring materials.

Nonetheless, Bragulan law made no distinction between sweetnesses, and thus all donuts were equally guilty under the eyes of Bragulan justice. But according to police procedure, once the offending parties - the humans - had been persecuted and summarily combusted, the confiscated evidences formerly belonging to them, in other words the donuts, could also be disposed of as the case was already closed (because the offenders were dead). The procedures did not specify as to the exact method of disposal. So now, Fiyor busied himself by munching on a sugar-coated donut.

(Whereas artificially-sweetened donuts, on the other hand, were used by Persecutor Detectives and such, for sting operations where black marketeers would be given these poison donuts. Once the guilty parties ate the donuts, they would grow ill and go into terrible comas, and in their comatose state they would be tried in absentia for the crime of donut-possession and subsequently their executions would become euthanasias - in a commendable feat of inter-departmental cooperation between Bragulan law and Bragulan medicine.)

Meanwhile, Fiyor's partner, a deputy named Dudgryz, busied himself smoking a tsvagna cigarette. It was unhealthy stuff, with the tomacco leaves soaked in the infamous liquor composed of alcohol, rocket fuel and battery acid. Personally, Fiyor preferred imported Upper Marlboros from Shepistan, and scowled at deputy Dud's desecration of his body. The body was, after all, the temple to Byzon. But no matter, their Arbitrator subdepartment did not deal with crimes ideological, but crimes temporal.

"We have movement," Fiyor said, speaking with his mouth full. He picked up his macrotelescopes and shifted to the IR spectrum, watching several heat signatures moving to and fro in the warehouse they were staking out. He worked the scope's dial, increasing resolution till he could get a clear fix. The rain had stopped, and without any water droplets vaporizing on their car's hood to make a smokescreen, the scopes got a semi-clear view. He could see several Bragulan heat signatures, but there were a few alien heat signatures there too - some human, and others rather inhuman. "Hurm... this is it. Looks like our informant was right."

"I'll call for bragup," deputy Dud said as he radioed for reinforcements. "Let's wait till they get here and we can go in together."

"No." Fiyor replied. "We don't have time. We're going in there now."

"Are you serious?" Dud asked, putting out his tsvagna cigarette as he did so.

"Dead serious." Fiyor growled. He drew his 44mm Bragnum revolver and cocked its hammer. "Come on, let's put these jokers through some changes."

He got out of the Frod Nucleoid. It started raining again, water droplets vaporizing on the nuclear-powered automobile's superheated hood, turning into a cloud of steam. Arbitrator Fiyor Byordyng stepped into the mist and disappeared into the darkness beyond.

***

Spevik Ansils. It was a moon, actually, a garden moon known for its verdant and tranquil forests - grounds for Byzon Youth and Cub Scout camping trips, where families could go relax and luxuriate in the simple pleasures of the woods, where one could live with but the bear necessities. But under that pleasant facade of Spevik Ansils was a darker side, a less than pleasant face that cubs and loyal Bragulan families seldom saw, if ever. The kidnapping of young Yivgny Chamski was just one part of that. The disappearance of a cub, while shocking, was not an unnatural occurrence on that seemingly idyllic garden moon.

Spevik Ansils. It was at the very tip of the Severnaya sector, at the edge of Wild Space, mere lightyears away from the borders of the Star Empire. So far away from glourious Bragule that the light of Byzonic civilization grew dim. Beyond the fringes lay the darkness of the rest of the galaxy. There were things out there, bad things that the Arbitrators were supposed to defend the people from. Humans, Karlacks, Collectors, and much worse. There at the edge of civilized space where the light was dim, where the night and nightmares were, twilight came laden with foreboding.

Outsiders came to Spevik Ansils. An army of bodies. Mentally sick humans, escaped asylum inmates, calling themselves furverts. They were all over the alleys, littering it like the human refuse they were. But there were more humans, and other alien scum, who came and went. Travelers. Smugglers. Coming to and fro, peddling their filth and alienoid pornography, some passing by to trade with the Collectors nearby, others coming to buy weapons they'd smuggle to elsewhere. Wild Spacers, Byzantine Rogue Traders, Bragulan Mafiya, black marketeers. This was the face Spevik Ansils that only so few saw, that only so few wanted to see, or lived to tell about.

Arbitrator Fiyor Byordyng kicked the warehouse doors open. Light flooded in through the portal, silhouetting Fiyor and casting his shadow on the ground. A second shadow joined his, that of deputy Dud. Together they raised their badges before the assorted human and inhuman alien scum before them.



"This is the Spevik Ansils Justice Enforcement Arbitrators! Cease and desist in whatever you are doing and prepare to face persecution!" they both shouted as one.

It did not take long for them to get their reply.

"Shit! It's the BraG-man!" someone shouted in human language. "Get going, we'll hold them off!"

"Brrrkkkasasdsajjjaaaa!!!" another shrieked in something else. "Kkkkrrrsshhhhhhkkk!!!!!"

"Fook it, kill 'em!"

The warehouse doors were behind the Arbitrators, meaning that the light was behind them too. That gave them the advantage. The suspects drew their arms even while eyes were busy adapting to the light. They fired inaccurately, gunfire snapped and hissed all over the place, missing and ricocheting off the walls.

Arbitrator Fiyor was already on the move before the first shot came. His 44mm Bragnum left its holster and went into his paws, he held it one-handed and pointed at the nearest target, a human wielding some kind of slugshooter. Fiyor's aim was true and the round went in at the human's center-mass, right in his chest. The 44mm grenade-bullet detonated and tore his ribcage open, causing a rain of splattered human organoids.

Likewise, deputy Dud fired his own Bragnum - but instead of aiming at center-mass, he aimed low. The 44mm grenade-bullet detonated at the human's feet, exploderizing them and disamputating the now-footless alien, sending him falling to the ground like a log that had stepped on a land mine.

"Shits!" roared a Bragulan voice, but it was neither Fiyor's or Dud's. It was from a rogue Bragulan, probably in cahoots with the humans. A humming sound came from the same location as the voice, and then a blinding white flash followed by a deafening crack. The stink of ozone was in the air.

"Fucks!" Deputy Dud roared as he tried to jump away from the plasma bolt. The superheated bolt grazed his arm, tearing off a huge piece of meat that was instantly cooked into steak by the thermal megajoules. Dud fell to the floor clutching his burned arm, looking in dismay when clumps of singed hair began falling off. "Arbitrator, they got me!"

"Shitfucks!" Fiyor cursed as plasma struck the metal support column he was using as cover, reducing it to molten slag. Steam scalded his side as he staggered out, into the sights of the traitor Bragulan with the phased plasma cannon. Fiyor cursed again. "Fuckshits!"

The rogue Bragulan grinned a feral fanged grin as he moved to point his cannon at the Arbitrator. Fiyor drew his Bragnum on the Bragulan's face and squeezed a button on the side of the revolver's pistol grip. An under-barrel laser strobe flashed, blinding the rogue plasma cannon-wielding Brag, who howled and clutched his eyes with one paw while he fired off a shot with his other paw. The plasma bolt went off high and wide, melting a hole through the ceiling and otherwise doing no harm to Arbitrator Fiyor - save for some globules of molten metal falling from the roof and singeing his thick hide.

Fiyor sighed in relief. That was a close one. The blinded Bragulan was still flailing about, though he had long since dropped his plasma rifle. Fiyor grunted and walked over towards him. The blind bear's sense of hearing was still acute, so Fiyor cleared his throat and the Brag turned his head towards his direction - only to get his lower jaw pulverized by a Arbitratorial beating-stick. The bear groaned and moaned, but Fiyor beat him again until he shut up.

"You have no rights but to remain silent," Fiyor growled as he shackled the incapacitated suspect with Bragulan-sized handcuffs, which were basically huge shackles with equally huge chains. Fiyor turned to look at deputy Dud, who had recovered and was also shackling the human who he had explosively amputated. Because the Bragulan shackles could not fit the human's wrists, Dud cuffed him in the neck instead. "You stay here and watch over them, deputy."

"Where are you going, Arbitrator?" Dud asked while clutching his cauterized shoulder-wound.

"I'm going in to get the rest of them," Fiyor replied.

"Bragup is coming. We can wait for reinforcements to arrive," Dud protested.

"No," Fiyor replied. "I'm going in there myself."

***

The remaining perps ran for their lives. The Bragulan-sized warehouse was a labyrinth of steel and bragcrete, built low and partially underground to increase survivability against atomic blast overpressure. Inside its reinforced recesses were countless containers, some of them probably filled with whatever the suspects were smuggling to or from the Bragulan Star Empire. Was it drugs? Donuts? Weapons? Who knew.

The corridors were filled with the pitter-patter of combat boots as the remaining suspects tried to flee the scene. They were all aliens to a man, though not all of them were human.

"You smarmy asshole!" someone shouted.

"Kkkkkrrrrrrrkkkllllrrrrggg!!!!!" protested one of them, an insectoid of some kind.

"Shut up you fookin' prawn!" a human shot back, backhanding the alienoid with his pistol. "Fook! Let's just get the shipments and get out of here!"

"Fuck those Bragcops," replied another humanoid. They stopped near an unmarked container. "I think we lost them. You think we lost them? I think we lost them. Right?"

"Wrong," echoed a guttural voice from ahead of them, at the end of the corridor. The implacable Bragulan police officer emerged from the shadows. "Last warning, alienoids. Come quietly or there will be... trouble."

"Oh..." a human uttered, as though considering the options. He considered them and then pumped his shotgun. "Fuck you!"

"Wrong answer," Arbitrator Fiyor ventilated the human's torso. The 44mm grenade-bullet sent an explosion of bone and shrapnel and bone-shrapnel raining on the other remaining suspects. "Dead or alive, you're all coming with me."

"Kkkrrrrrllllllllllllll!" the prawn shrieked as he pulled out his weapon and sent a blood-red laser beam at the Brag cop's direction. The lasbeam missed Fiyor's head, just narrowly. Fiyor ducked, getting down to a crouch before firing a single shot at the prawn. The grenade-bullet overpenetrated the prawn's gun arm, ripping it off its joint but otherwise not exploding the alienoid. The prawn shrieked in pain. "Kkkkkkkllllllaaaaaaaaaaa!"

And then it pulled out several more lasguns with its other appendages and fired them, making them go pew-pew and filling the corridor with a laser beam light show. Fiyor nimbly dodged the beams, or at least as nimbly as a Bragulan could, for the alienoid wasn't even aiming but firing inaccurately in pain. He jumped behind another support pillar, which began to glow as laser beams heated it.

"Byzon damn it," Fiyor cursed. His uniform was now rather singed thanks to narrow misses from the lasers and the plasmas, and he could smell burning fur over the scent of ozone.

"KKkkkkkrrrrrrggggrrrr!!!!" the prawn kept on firing. "Bllllllrrrrrrkkkkk!!!!"

"Damn right, motherfucker!" Fiyor got out of his cover and fired several times at the direction of the prawn. Each shot was met with an insectile screech of agony, and each shot was also followed by a disamputated lasgun-holding prawn-appendage falling to the floor. Eventually the gunshots ceased, and the prawn stood there completely and totally disarmed in quite a literal sense.

"Kkkrrrkkk....?" the prawn clicked while cocking its compound eyed head.

"Yeah, I reckon so," Fiyor punched it in the face with a meaty paw, sending it falling on its carapaced ass. Since it had no more arms, and since Fiyor was out of shackles, he instead restrained the prawn by wrapping its head-antennae around a support column. Since antennae were sensitive organs, the prawn shrieked the entire time as it was being secured.

The final alien, human, of course, was cowering on the floor. When Fiyor had made the other human explode, a piece of the exploding human's spinal cord had speared itself through this human's abdomen so now he was injured and lying on the floor. His gun was also on the floor, mere inches away from his hand.

Fiyor walked up to him. The human looked at him, and then looked at the gun on the floor. The human seemed to consider it, before looking back at Fiyor...



...and into the barrel of his enormous 44mm Bragnum.

"I know what you're thinking," Fiyor growled. "'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a 44mm Bragnum, the most powerful handgun in the galaxy, and would blow your torso clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, human?"

The human decided not to reach for his weapon. Fiyor walked over and stomped the gun hard, deforming it under his boot heel.

"But I gots to know!" the human pleaded.

***

Local militia Stalag gunships circled the air, spotlights stabbing through the black night as they secured the local aerospace.

The cavalry had arrived, bragup. Late as usual. They secured the perimeter and the reinforcements began storming through the massive warehouse. The captured suspects were taken away for processing, judgment and summary persecution. The Arbitrators' Kill Scene Investigators began dissecting the scene.

They opened some of the containers belonging to the suspects/smugglers/perpetrators/perpetraitors and found the requisite caches of Bragtech weaponries bound for the rest of the galaxy. Arms shipments were not illegal in the Bragulan Star Empire, the BSE was one of the galaxy's largest arms suppliers, particularly for revolutionary movements and pirates that made life more interesting for other interstellar polities. But this arms shipment was an unlicensed one, and was thus ideologically questionable.

Aside from the arms, there were also donuts - which the KSI gathered and sorted out eagerly. Those with artificial-sweeteners, and those with natural sugars, were kept in separate and differently colored ziplock 'evidence' bags for later 'use'.

Arbitrator Fiyor sampled some of the sugar-coated donuts, 'examining' the evidence. Arbitrators could examine evidence in a variety of means, using their sensory organs. They could see evidence, which Fiyor did to his donut. They could hear evidence, which Fiyor also did. They could also smell evidence, for Bragulan bears had an acute sense of smell, and Fiyor smelled the donut and salivated. And then they could taste the evidence. As he forensically masticated the evidence and tasted it, he also heard himself chew it.

Fiyor came across an unmarked container, one of the suspects' shipments. It was unopened. He took a hydraulic chainsaw bolt cutter and tore the lock open. Then he opened the container doors, anticipating another container load of donuts. What he found was... something else entirely.



Chamarrans!

The sight of more humanoids should've disgusted Fiyor, but these were not humans. These were humanoids with cat ears, and somehow that fact seemed to make them different. They looked up to Fiyor pleadingly with their big eyes, and with a moe of concern and worry and maybe fear in their faces, lips quivering, ears twitching. Somehow, the sight of these humanoids was not like the sight of humanoids, but more like the sight of a basket full of kittens.

It made Fiyor's cold Bragulan heart warm, like springtime, making it come out of hibernation.

The smuggler shits were trafficking these Chamarrans! Perhaps even to the Collectors!

"You're safe now," Fiyor said to the Chamarrans, surprising himself by saying that. "I am Arbitrator Fiyor Byordyng of the Bragulan Star Empire's Justice Enforcers."

"Arbitrators... fyer... berding... desu?" the Chamarran struggled to pronounce with some difficulty. She scratched her ears in adorable confuzzlement. "Nyah!"

Awwww.

Fiyor sighed.

"Just call me..." he thought for a second, thinking of something easier for them to pronounce. "Arbitrator Forbearing."

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Ordos Diplomatica Meeting Minutes

Classification: Top Secret

High Lord Inquisitor Al Fahd: We are here to discuss the matter of the recent transmissions pertaining to this "Multiverse Empire of Happiness". The Strategos Primus Belisarius Komnenos, the Supreme High Lord Inquisitor Eisenhorn, Foreign Minister Decius, Lord Solar Macaroth and Lord Solar General Militant Ibram Gaunt are in attendence as well. Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov, please give use the briefing.

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: Thank you, High Lord Inquisitor. Welcome My Esteemed Lords. As you have read from the briefing file, this unknown entity called "Multiverse Empire of Happiness" emerged from the fringe in recent times headed by a being who proclaims to be a kind of omnipotent being with psyker powers. While we do not know how he compares against our God Emperor, it is safe to claim that it has powers that have to be reckoned with. More data on this matter is being gathered at this point, and various Inquistors tasked with infiltrating MEH will attempt to gather as much data as they can.

Unknown Inquisitor: They claim it is all-powerful?

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: Yes they do. They seem to also have a certain perverse interest in psykery and recent communication intercepts have indicated that they are inquiring on the "purchase" of psykers from foreign nations for possible experimentation.

Unknown Inquisitor: "Purchase" What is this?! Slavery? That's abominable!

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: That it is. It is certain that we will not unanswer such requests or entertain them. Imperial lives are valued and not treated as commodities, be they criminal or no. We have so far learnt that Shepistan is entertaining this notion very strongly, and is even prepared to barter the lives of psykers in exchange for testing information.

Unknown Inquisitor: Shepistan regards all psykers as practically enemies of the state. But truly, this nation is barbaric and amoral. They are willing to sacrifice others and not themselves for their own gain. It speaks much of them as a society as a whole. How can we truly trust them and their moral flippancy?

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: My thought on this as well. We must tread lightly with our moves with them. We will send missives to our allies to attempt to stop this thinly disguised attempt at human trafficking.

Unknown Inquisitor: What of this "Galactic domination" line found in that initial message fragment?

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: At this point, the message fragment is incomplete at best, but after further investigations, we have found the complete message itself:

FROM: Multiversal Empire of Happiness
TO: The Shinra Republic

Seeing as how this is almost exactly what the Chamarrans asked, we will give you the same response.

"Thank you for the greeting.

As we have just arrived in this galaxy, due to necessity rather than choice, we are still trying to figure out our goals ourselves.

However, we have identified a few key objectives:

1. Destroy the Ork planets near us. They send constant raiders to our systems, and if we do invade it, it could work as an effective forward base and be resource goldmine. Letting Orks have planets near you never ends well.

2. Find psykers/espers/wizards/psychics/ect... Our population has had a large number of these appear when we arrived in this universe, and it would be good to get training for them. In addition, we have been directed by our leader to make our species an all esper race, so we will need large numbers of them for research.

You wouldn't happen to have any sentenced to die or be be tortured to death that you would give or sell to us, would you? We are loathe to experiment on our own citizens, and kidnapping is generally frowned on, so we would like to exhaust other options first.

Other than our main goals, do not fear, we are not on a massive galaxy-wide extermination campaign, and we will not send fleets of ships over you homeworlds to destroy your fleets and colonize them ourselves (That was a jab at the Chamarrans). We are simply looking to acquire more money and take more land when the opportunity arises like everyone else.

I hope we will get along well."

Unknown Inquisitor: They seem rather callous about throwing around the notion of extermination and conquest. This other message they sent to The Refuge is atrocious and breaks innumerous rules of diplomatic speak. Which fool simply throws words like these around? I note that they are eying orkish planets there his empire?

Lord Inquisitor Stefan Kosros: This is nonsense. We all know that killing orks actually requires a thorough extermination of the surface soil of the planet in question with either insecticide or outright bombardment. It is for this reason that the navy conducts exterminatus on ork infested planets. These worlds are effectively dead when he is done bombing the surface to ash. This is no more than a thinly disguised land grab.

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: I agree with you, Stefan. I believe too as well.

Unknown Inquisitor: If we so much as go to war with them, what is their military strength?

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: Ah that golden question. Thus far our military strength is comparable to theirs. They have heavier--

Lord Solar Admiral Macaroth: PFFT. Quite frankly, if the Navy was granted leeway a long time ago, we would have upgraded our ships to match or exceed his.

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: That indeed is true. It is perfectly within our means to build and construct ships to match his. Overriding economic concerns have thus far stopped us from doing so.

Lord Solar Admiral Macaroth: And this request to have wargames? Forget it. We don't have the ships, and the time to indulge some prattle upstart on the fringes. We are too busy fighting Karlacks, and the occasional stupid bear to play with children who play silly games.

Supreme High Lord Inquisitor Al Fahd: And I believe the Inquisition would agree with you, Lord Admiral, as would Decius the Sigilite. We are most certainly not in the position to divert any of our ships given that we have, for the past few centuries or so, been in a state of war. Something this upstart should have realised before even sending a request like this.

Lord Solar General Militant Ibram Gaunt: What of their ground forces?

Lord Inquisitor Stasi Primakov: I am just getting to that. At the moment, it appears that they favour some form of powered armor, but details are scarce. I seriously doubt they are a match for our Astartes however.

Lord Solar General Militant Ibram Gaunt: Probably means more hard fighting for the Guardsmen then. Thank you.

Strategos Primus Belisarius Komnenos: I believe gentlemen, that it is highly likely we will have a boost in defence spending at the end of the year. With the increase in Karlack activity, it seems that we must boost our rapid reaction forces in the near term. But that is for another discussion altogether. However, if this... "MEH" should prove a threat, we cannot possibly counter so many threats at once. MEH is also far away. I would suggest that the Ordos Diplomatica and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should pursue possible alliances and treaties as required. Are we of the same mind, my dear Decius?

Minister of Foreign Affairs Decius the Sigilite: We are indeed my Lord. I think we should vigorously pursue alliances as required. I hear there are rumblings in certain quarters about MEH, and perhaps we should tap those rumblings.

Supreme High Lord Inquisitor Eisenhorn: The Inquisition should then continue gathering intelligence on the various aspects of MEH then, especially their military strength, technology and doctrine.

High Lord Inquisitor Al Fahd: Then the meeting can be brought to a close then. Thank you my Lords and all, the meeting is adjourned.

[Force Lord]

Centrality Embassy, Mayniland
Planet Luz, The Feelipeens
Unreal Time

The embassy was not in any way luxurious by Centralite standards, but for the average Feelipeeni, it was exhorbitant. Not that the CIS agents cared.

"Alright, what we need to do in this shithole?", asked team leader Aster Vuja.

The ambassador looked at the CIS agents sympatheticly. Being posted in the Feelipeens was something many a Centralist hoped to avoid.

"It's strange, really. Director Gates said that your obejectives will be given in phases. Each time you complete a mission, you must return here or reach an assigned secret meeting place to recieve your next command."

"So, what's our first mission, then?"

"Information gathering. You will study the language, customs and politics of the Feelipeens, as well as important installations. You will be given all the time you require, as well as disguises to blend in with the local population."

"And if we're caught?"

"Mission abort. We don't want to take any unecessary risks. In fact, I must tell you that all ESPers on your team must stay for the duration. They will be sent out only in case of emergency."

"I don't like this. We're practically in Shepistan's backyard."

"Yes, but then, we must obey the State. Good luck."

"I don't believe in luck, sir."

[Darkevilme]

Co-written with Shroomy.
Satia Kithandra's quarters, Diplomatic tower, MIGHTY BRAGULE

A loud klamoring klaxon sounded, its noise reverberating in her skull like a decompression alarm from hell and with a garbled voice declaring something that certainly sounded ominous and alarm worthy. Satia manages to open her eyes enough to ascertain she's not about to be sucked out into space, as if somehow her quarters and by extension the tower had been somehow rocketed into space...Unlikely but you never can tell with Bragulans. But why wont that damned alarm stop if there's no decompression!? Wait why is the console flashing?



As Satia nyahs and grabs a drink the klaxon resolves into a steady beeping and the garbled alert voice slowly gains coherence and starts speaking Chamarran instead of whatever demonic language it was before, what it was saying though didn't fill Satia with relief as she fumbles for the medpack by her bed and manages to pull out an injector of detox.

“Incoming messasge priority one message on gold channel.” the console repeated and Satia mumbles something between injecting herself with Detox and hissing mildly, unfortunately what Satia had said to try and buy herself more time to sober up was so incoherent the computer decided to interpret it as 'open channel now while i'm barely the intellectual equal of a stoned bushrat!' and so it was that Tia Kithandra's holographic image appears floating in the air before Satia.

“Sister! I've been trying to get through to you for nearly 30 minutes, this is important and time is of the essence...you look like hell, what happened?” Tia asks, noticing Satia's bedraggled and somewhat miserable seeming appearance.

Satia nods and then holds her head and waits for the room to stop nodding with her before replying.
“Bragulan drinking games....never again.”
“Ah, did you win?” Tia asks while wondering how drunk Satia must have been before the drinking game to think attempting to drink a Bragulan under the table was a good idea.
“I don't remember, I remember furry arms though. I think Zavyd carried me here to pass out.” Satia says, wondering if it was really Zavyd Bragulans all look the same when you're drunk.
“Well it's good you're getting along so well with the Bragulans. You're going to need to ask them for help for us. There's some information coming that should explain it all.” Tia says even as Satia starts to feel the Detox filtering the assorted wretchedness out of her blood. Satia nearly nods then thinks better of it and just grabs the portable reader as the information appears on it.

Other than our main goals, do not fear, we are not on a massive galaxy-wide extermination campaign, and we will not send fleets of ships over you homeworlds to destroy your fleets and colonize them ourselves. We are simply looking to acquire more money and take more land when the opportunity arises like everyone else.

Satia hmms, possibly a veiled threat in the context of 'we want territory, help us take it from the Orkz or you might be next' but she kept reading and the next part was part of a message between the MEH and someone else that was decrypted.

..
Likewise, if we are on ? border ? a nation ? has large amounts ? resources, we ? ? tell ourselves "We ? destroy you impure abominations." ? merely say "We are going ? kill ? and take your ?."
..

Satia's body language started to show distinctive worry at this and she looks up at Tia who speaks
“We believe that this nation is both belligerent and expansionistic and thus presents a threat to the Hierarchy so long as it exists adjacent to us. Kara is already pushing for a war mobilization edict from the council. We'll need the Bragulans help if we're to strike pre-emptively though.”

“The MEH are humans, this shouldn't be a hard sell.” Satia replies, holding her head to stop it taking off and doing loop the loops.

“I knew I could count on you Satia, love you sister.” Tia says with a smile and then adds “We've attached our recon information on the MEH to the report, feel free to show it to Zavyd. Oh and try and avoid Bragulan Ale in future. Anyway I gotta go, lots of stuff still to do.”

Tia's projection vanishes leaving Satia to try and sober up and find Zavyd to pitch their request for help “Hey uh, could the Hierarchy borrow a few fleets of Bragulan warships for a few months? There will be humans to shoot at.” she rehearses it in her head as she goes to check the medpack instructions to see if another detox shot will leave her pissing blood. Half way through the densely written instructions though she simply gives up on trying to find the dose limit and chances it, meaning twenty five minutes later Satia was presentable and out looking for Zavyd...


Promenade, Diplomatic Tower

Meanwhile, diplomatic liaison Zavyd Borys stalked the corridors of the Diplomatic Tower, making his way to the Chamarran levels. The felinoids' embassy was one of the recent additions to the Diplomatic Tower (the latest being the Refuge's), and that was a testament to the policies of glasnot and bragstroika. Once upon a time, the Tower had been like a ghost town, desolate, with only Shepistanis and Altacars inhabiting the massive steel spire. But now, the Sheppoes and the Altacars were joined by so many peoples, from Umerian technocraticos and Franco-Formic Ascendants to Sassanid Spacing Guilders, and now Chamarrans and Refugees. It had blossomed into a bustling micro-community in the heart of mighty Bragule, an inspiring internationalist interfusion unlike any other in the Star Empire - save perhaps for the multinational melting pots of POWs and inmates that wer the Bragulags of the Severnaya sector, but those were not as upbeat and were rather glum, in fact.

Zavyd passed by a posse of humans making their way through the promenade. He recognized one of the juvenile human females from the intelligence dossiers, not because of her facial features but because of the prominent scar tissues on her wrists. It was none other than Praise Lohen, whose attempted suicide had nearly caused an international incident with Bragule's #1 trading partner, Altacar. Her posse of party-going pals had grown considerably, there was a slinky Chamarran catgirl with them too.

That was what he was in the tower to meet Mistress-Ambassador Satia for. In the planet (moon, actually) Spevik Ansils, police had caught smugglers trafficking Chamarrans of indeterminate nationality, and the Bragulan Star Empire was going to hand them over to the care of the Hierarchy - for despite whatever nationally a Chamarran could have, the Hierarchy considered itself home of all Chamarrans. It would be a boon in PR and would greatly enhance relations with the Hierarchy. Though Zavyd wasn't sure of it, he suspected that the IBGV had long known of smugglers and traffickers, the Collector's preoccupation with Chamarrans was a known proclivity. He suspected that the IBGV had only chosen to act on that information (or rather, pass that information on) now due to convenience, to diplomatically sway the Hierarchy to Bragule's side.

But Zavyd wasn't sure, he was privy to only limited informations, and all he knew at the moment was that he was ordered to tell mistress-ambassador Satia the good news. He chose to do so personally, rather than by telescreen, since he had grown rather fond of the catgirl. There was something odd with these Chamarrans...

Zavyd entered the turboliftalator and punched a button that would take him to the level of Satia's suite. The magnetolectric mechanisms hurled the turboliftalator upwards before stopping abruptly. Then the lift's blast doors opened and Zavyd walked outside, only to nearly walk right into mistress-ambassador Satia.

"Satia," Zavyd stammered. He didn't expect to find her right there in front of him. "Good day. Ah, what a coincidence, I was just about to bring you some good news."

Satia it seemed was equally surprised and for a moment entertained thoughts that the Bragulans had already heard and the good news was that glorious comrade nations would be smashing human heads together, it was unlikely but you never can tell with Bragulans. Satia hides her surprise, thoughts and nausea from detox well with a diplomatic smile though and says “Good day Zavyd, I've news as well. But yours first.”

"Our patriotic and stalwart Arbitrators of Justice Enforcement have rescued Chamarrans from the vile clutches of human smugglers, on a border world near Wild Space!" Zavyd declared. Hopefully this was cause for a celebration, and with celebration would come the drinks and drinking games, and the amusement of seeing Satia meow drunkenly.

Satia seems happy about that, though which part is from hearing that their 'citizens in principle' had been saved from likely Collector experimentation and which part is from knowing Bragulans weren't eavesdropping on her diplomatic com channel is hard to guess. Nevertheless she perks up and diplomaticizes “That's wonderful news Zavyd, The Hierarchy appreciate the efforts of our Bragulan friends to safeguard our kind.”

"Yes, it is great news. Bragule will aid its comrade-nation from the depravities of humanoids," Zavyd proclaimed. Then he relaxed and looked at Satia, wondering what her own news was. Surely, the Chamarrans did not catch wind of the same development, because if they had somehow heard of the rescues, then that would mean that Chamarran intelligence had penetrated Bragulan security and there would be much stickbeatings to be had for that. Bragule had taken great care to lock down informations from others, so that its comrade-nations wouldn't be 'bothered' with 'unnecessary trivialities' (i.e. things no one else should know). "And how about you, Satia. What is this news that you bring?"

Satia does her best to compose her thoughts for a moment and then speaks “You are aware of a nation calling itself the Multiversal Empire of Happyness yes? It's a human society that's appeared recently alarmingly close to our borders.” she waits for Zavyd to nod and then continues “Well, more alarming still is the sort of talk that's been coming out of them on diplomatic channels since they arrived.” she says and hands Zavyd the portable reader with the message to the Hierarchy and the decrypted fragments from the message to the Shepistani Republic.

"I have heard of this MEH, and the current stance of the Politbrago is that of a resounding 'meh'. But we are aware of the situation and its many facets, " Zavyd replied as he took the portable reader carefully and slowly, because it was a flimsy Chamarran design made out of plastics (which were like human designs, perhaps due to Chamarran and human biological similarities) unlike superior Bragulan designs made out of stainless steel, and weighing many pounds so they could also be used as thrown weapons. Zavyd read the reader, skimming through the messages of the Hierarchy and the decrypted exchanges with the Shepistani Republic. Unlike other polities, Bragule had not decrypted the exchanges with the Shepistani Republic. They had simply asked for it, and their good friends at Shepistan were more than happy to provide. "Perhaps we should talk about this over breakfast."

Zavyd's stomach then gave a mighty grumble, startling Satia who thought it was the sound of some ominous Bragulan machinery before she noticed that the sound was coming from Zavyd's belly. Her ears perked at that and she smirked and nods “I would like that, I haven't eaten yet either.” she says, resolving to go eat something cause even though she's nauseous from detox she's gonna lose a fair bit of blood sugars with this dose of detox and as much as her being left weak as a kitten would no doubt amuse Zavyd she's likely gonna have a busy day ahead of her.

"Da!" Zavyd barked as he took Satia's hand, delicately, with his huge Bragulan paws. "I know this great place."

It was on the Promenade, at the Federated Ascendency's section, a little restaurant in a hole in a wall (literally, since the wall had been melted open by K-bolt fire when suspected CEID agents sought refuge in one of the tower's embassies, years ago). There were Franco-Formic gourmet chefs and bakers making breakfast breads, metacroissants, bagels, eggs Menedict (a Shroomish delicacy), eclairs, and other pastry products. The French Ants also served sugary aphid drinks, which Zavyd and Satia ordered. Zavyd also got himself some metacroissants while Satia nibbled on a piece of French toast. They ordered take-out, and took their foods out and went to a secure conference room - which was located deep down the Tower, underground, in a bunker beneath a hundred meters of reinforced bragcrete.
"So, tell me about your concerns over the MEH," Zavyd inquired after eating in silence for a minute or two.

“Put simply, we think they are a threat to our sovereignty. They talk constantly and openly about war and conquest in their messages to other nations and we're their immediate neighbours. What worries us most though is what they said to the Shepistanis. We now believe due to that that sooner or later they will try and invade us to satisfy their desire for wealth and territory.” says Satia between nibbles.

"We understand," Zhyvel replied. "While Bragule is unfazed by the rhetoric of the MEH, and while we view it as another puny human nation amongst a galaxy already so full of them, we are far away from them while you are near. But rest assured that Bragule will not tolerate any rampant imperialistic humanist expansionism towards its non-human brethren, and most especially its comrade-nations. While the realities of the Koprulu Zone preclude us from sending truly massive numbers to stomp on these humans' faces forever, as we have our own enemies here, we still promise sizeable military support for the Hierarchy in the event of hostilities and humanist aggression. Not only that, but we can call on the support of our own allies as well."
Zavyd left the implication of bringing in the Karlacks and unleashing them upon the MEH unsaid.

Satia nods thoughtfully “The Hierarchy appreciates the Bragulan gesture of support” and then moves on to the next phase“However, we feel that it might be best to strike pre-emptively. We have been conducting recon of their space since shortly after their arrival while they have limited information on us and the galaxy at large. If the conflict is as inevitable as their rhetoric implies then it is best we fight it while the terms are favourable for us and the MEH's incautious discussion of their psycher experimentation desires has rendered the galactic diplomatic climate unfavourable for them.” she says and flicks the portable reader to part two of the report from the Hierarchy, a detailed listing of what the Hierarchy Blade ships had garnered about the MEH, fleet dispositions and population centers.

"But if we strike first," Zavyd emphasized the word 'if' while playing with his aphid. "We must choose the right moment. While the cosmopolitical climate is unfavorable for them now, the surrounding states have not yet reached the winter of their discontent. And the MEH has given numerous statements as to launching an offensive in Ork space, so perhaps there is merit in waiting for them to drain themselves against the greenskins and further weaken their position. Our own analysts believe that if given time to ferment, the situation may further develop to the increasing disfavor of the MEH. We know that they have already alarmed and made wary the other polities. The contents of their communications are careless, and with each step they take they make themselves even more detestable.

We believe that other polities are contemplating the same actions as the Hierarchy, and gradually this may culminate in something that we can use for our advantage. If we move prematurely, we may be seen as the aggressors, two more 'alien races' striking at a newly arrived human nation, and maybe even causing the other humans to rush in the defence their new brothers. But if we wait, and if the MEH continues on the way to destruction, we can make our time... as the Imperator says, we will give the fool human more rope with which to hang himself. And perhaps others may join us in tying the noose around the hanghuman's neck."

Satia mulls it over, chewing on the edge of her french toast quietly “While I doubt very much that humans would wish to take sides with the MEH when we move you are perhaps right. We should wait for the wildebeest to mire itself fully before going for the throat. But I think it would be best to be able to strike swiftly when the opportunity does present itself. Perhaps it's time for a joint fleet exercise for solidarity of comrade nations, held perchance near Chamarran space?”

"Yes, that would be good. Da, an amenable plan. You are quite the strategist, Mistress-Ambassador," Zhyvel barked a chuckle as he squeezed the remaining sugar-juice out of his aphid and sucked it dry. "I will forward this to the relevant departments, but I believe they will find it very agreeable. We shall wait for the opportune moment, but likewise prepare ourselves for the moment's arrival, so that we may be ready to move quick when circumstances become opportune. I like it and I like your style."

Satia smiles, ears perking at the compliment "Why thank you Zavyd, i will likewise conferr with Tia and we shall get back to eachother on this." she says and collects her portable reader.
"You're welcome," Zavyd bowed before tossing the aphid into his mouth and swallowing it. "It has been a pleasure scheming with you, Satia."
"Likewise, as always." Satia replies and finishes off her french toast at around the same time, having regained her appetite as the detox started to clear from her system.

[Shroom Man 777]

Centrality Embassy, Mayniland
Planet Luz, The Feelipeens
Unreal Time

The embassy was not in any way luxurious by Centralite standards, but for the average Feelipeeni, it was exhorbitant. Not that the CIS agents cared.

"Alright, what we need to do in this shithole?", asked team leader Aster Vuja.

The ambassador looked at the CIS agents sympatheticly. Being posted in the Feelipeens was something many a Centralist hoped to avoid.

"It's strange, really. Director Gates said that your obejectives will be given in phases. Each time you complete a mission, you must return here or reach an assigned secret meeting place to recieve your next command."

"So, what's our first mission, then?"

"Information gathering. You will study the language, customs and politics of the Feelipeens, as well as important installations. You will be given all the time you require, as well as disguises to blend in with the local population."

"And if we're caught?"

"Mission abort. We don't want to take any unecessary risks. In fact, I must tell you that all ESPers on your team must stay for the duration. They will be sent out only in case of emergency."

"I don't like this. We're practically in Shepistan's backyard."

"Yes, but then, we must obey the State. Good luck."

"I don't believe in luck, sir."

Centrality Embassy, Mayniland
Planet Luz, The Feelipeens
Unreal Time

They didn't know that they were being watched.

Appraising eyes observed them. They were strange new faces, they hadn't been to Maynilad before, they looked like they were new in town. White skinned, Shroomish-speaking, very noticeable. They traveled around a lot, looking at things, asking questions, obviously trying to learn the way of the land, the local lingo, the local practices. They were unfamiliar with the place, and were often shocked at what they saw in the Feelipeens - even though they tried to hide their reactions. They tried to blend in with the crowd, but they were foreigners and stuck out. They were easy to find, and many watched them curiously.

They tried to disguise themselves as Shepistanimericans. Of course, most of the white guys in the Feelipeens were from Shepistan, a lot of them military. They were Joes, as the locals called them. Yo Joe, the saying went. So they dressed like Shepistanimericans, tried to look like Shepistanimericans, tried to talk like Shepistanimericans, and tried to talk like Shepistanimericans. All white guys were the same anyway, so maybe they really were Shepistanimericans? It didn't matter.

People became very interested with them. Certain kinds of people, who looked at these foreigners curiously, looking for opportunities, looking for weaknesses to exploit. They wanted to know what they wanted.

So the Centralites sat there, a pair of them, griping at the humidity of the Feelipeeni planet while trying to cool themselves with some cold frosted beer. Delicious Shroom Miguels.

They were being watched, and those who watched them decided to make their move.

She approached them, walking confidently in broad daylight, heels clacking on the badly-kept pavement. The Centralites saw her coming, and instantly they knew she was heading towards them, intent solely focused on them and no one else. They couldn't move, they couldn't run, they couldn't engage or do anything that might otherwise blow their cover. They composed themselves and prepared for the worse.



"Hey, baby. You got girlfriend Feelipeena?" she asked.

"Not just this minute," replied a Centralite. His partner looked at him, trying to follow his lead while keeping cool. But it was hard.



"Well, baby, me so horny. Me so HORNY. Me love you long time. You party?"

"Yeah, we might party. How much?" the lead Centralite grinned.

"Fifteen dollar," she replied.

"Fifteen dollars for both of us?" sounded like a bargain.

"No. Each you fifteen dollar. Me love you long time. Me so HORNY!" she said.

"Fifteen dollar too beaucoup. Five dollars each," the Centralite bargained.

"Me sucky-sucky. Me love you too much," she pleaded.

"Five dollars is all my mom allows me to spend," the Centralite joked.

"Okay. Ten dollar each," she crossed her arms and crossed her legs. It was final.

"What do we get for ten dollars?" the Cenraite asked.

"Every t'ing you want," she replied.

"Everything?" the Centralite raised an eyebrow.

"Every t'ing," she nodded, opening her arms and opening her legs.

The Centralite turned to his partner.

"Well, old buddy, feel like spending some of your hard-earned money?" he asked him.

[Force Lord]

Bongabong
Planet Luz, The Feelipeens
Unreal Time

So we're in Shepistani dress. Never thought I'd see the day. For Tarich Zozze, that was putting it mildly.

He and two others (Brondo Lacio and Curiu Sakolo) had decided to take the bus to Bongabong, since focusing on Mayniland wasn't enough. The Shepistani disguise they wore did not save them from being watched by the locals. Already they could hear mutterings from the Feelipeenis, in a language they tried to analyze, to no avail.

If we would have brought an Universal Translator, we wouldn't have this problem, thought Zozze.

Stepping out of the bus, the three men looked around.

"We should split up, cover more ground," said Sakolo.

"You crazy? We'd have no way of helpin' each other if things go bad!", responded Lacio.

"Let's just find someplace to look at, then we find somewhere to bunk in," said Zozze.

The three men began to walk the street, being careful not to be too conspicuous, but it was difficult. As in the bus, the locals seemed to have one eye looking at them. The weather was terrible, the smell was awful, and mosquitoes were a constant annoyance.

Hope the other guys are having better luck, thought Zozze.

"Well, would you look at this, guys!", exclaimed Lacio. The other two caught his sight and saw what he was looking at.

It was a poster, a bit degraded by humidity, but still readable.

COME YOU ALL, WITNESS THE EPICNESS, THE GREATNESS, THE SHROOMINESS, OF SHROOM FIGHTER!!!
ONLY FOR 10 DOLLARS YOU WILL SEE BLOOD, MUSCLE, AND POWER!!!
WE ARE WAITING FOR YOUR PRESCENCE!!!
*chosen hour and duration*
*location*

"Well, should we go there?", asked Lacio.

Zozze frowned. "I don't think it's a good idea. Lots of seedy stuff happens during these kinds of fights."

"C'mon, man. A event like that is a gold mine of info. Besides, who's gonna trouble a Shepistani?", he winked.

"Heck, we do that, and we have some nice, easy entertainment. Fight tournaments are always fun," said Sakolo.

"But we don't know if this one's different!", exclaimed Zozze.

"Well, we only have to look and see, don't we, pal?"

Zozze sighed. "Oh well, what's the use. We'll go, but if shit happens, don't complain if I blame you in front of the Director!"

Sakolo shrugged. "If shit happens, we'd be already dead."

[Beowulf]

Guangdong Warp Gate,
Bao'an System
Guangdong Sector, Tianguo

The diplomatic ship, and its 3 escorts arrived through the warp gate. The Bao'an system was a loosely coupled double star system. The warp gate had been constructed in the largely uninhabited Bao'an B portion of the system. It was a good several light hours from Bao'an A, which made for a short hyperspace hop. Long enough to provide protection, short enough that it wasn't much of a hassle. Especially since most travel through the warp gate didn't travel to Bao'an A.

In the Bao'an B system lay several space habitats, slowly rolling along their axes, to provide artifical gravity. They provided maintenance support for the gate, as well as a conveninent location for customs inspection, and the serving of spacers. It was to one of these that the Refuge ships were directed by space traffic control.

The inhabitants of Colony 7163 were rather jaded to the appearance of aliens in their midst. The Refugees were a bit more alien than most when they debarked their ship, into the oppressive embrace of an anti-magic field. Or at least, they were to those who had an idea who they were. An upload frame with a parrot sitting on it's shoulder wasn't actually all that strange to look at. Waiting for them was a rather unremarkable looking man carrying a card: "Refugees".



"I presume you are the Champion of your nation?"

"Indeed I am," spoke the parrot. "Alexander of the Refuge, at your service. This is my bodyguard Miles, though he will be the acting ambassador much of the time."

"I am from the Wairen Bureau. My name is John Li. You will meet our Champion shortly. You have probably already picked up some information on us. We appreciate your attempt to appear more normal. The Challenge Room is down the hall, where we will recieve the rules for the single combat from the randomizer."

The Challenge Room was empty except for a table with two tablets, and a rather large machine with a pull lever. The Tianguo Champion, Knives Chau had been waiting at the door of the room, with small grease spots visible on her otherwise blindingly bright white clothing. John Li pulled the lever, whereupon a loud clanking was heard. It continued for several minutes, before a plastic board dropped out of a slot in the front of the machine. Lee Peng picked it up and read it: "Nuclear bombs at 50 paces. Chau, I thought you fixed it!"

Knives scratched her head. "I did! Try it again." John Li pulled the lever again. Several minutes later, another plastic board dropped out of the slot.

John read off the new board: "Quadcopter dogfight. Seems about right. Alex, will you require any special modifications to the controller?"

"If the controller can handle claws and my beak, it should be fine."

"We can give you sometime to test fly the quadcopter before the battle begins, and make any changes necessary to the controller. I am not sure if it can be utilized to it's fullest without modifications."

"Excellent. That would be very kind. Thank you."

--



A day later, the battle began, with the pair of quadcopters lifting off the interior surface of the habitat. Each was armed with what was essentially a laser pointer. The laser pointer was essentially for show, as the actual scoring was virtual. However, it made for better footage. The arena in this case was the entire habitat, several miles in diameter, and 20 miles long. The rules were fairly simple. Bring down the opponent's virtual shields 3 times and tag them, and you win. After each tag, the drones would move at least 1000 feet apart, then the next round would begin.

The first round went easily enough for Knives. It was apparent that Alexander hadn't quite grasped how to fight the quadcopter, and Knives was able to burn through the shields before Alex could realize what was happening and juke out of the line of fire.

It was apparent that by the time the second round began, Alex had mastered the controls. Alex managed to hide in behind a building by the time Knives was close. It wasn't until after she had passed that Alex popped out of hiding and began lasing Knives. Knives reversed the power to her proprotors, causing her to drop rapidly out of the line of fire, flipping her nose vertically as she fell. Thus, her nose came onto Alex's quadcopter and she stayed locked onto it, even as she continued to fall, winning the point, and ending the round, right before the her quadcopter smashed into the ground.

"Wait, that's legal?" Alex asked.

"Only if you get the point first. If you destroy your quadcopter before the round ends, a penalty point is assessed."

For the third round, a replacement was quickly procured for Knives' now destroyed quadcopter. It was here that the tide began to turn, as Knives' new drone was chased by Alex, never quite getting a firing solution long enough to bring down Alex's shields, while bombarded in return, as they snaked between the buildings. This situation continued for several minutes, until Alex stopped chasing Knives, pulling the drone down an alley way. Knives gave chase, but the break in vision allowed Alex to setup an ambush of his own, burning through the shield of Knives' drone.

The fourth round ended as Knives accidentally backed her quadcopter into an aircar traffic stream. The proximity sensor tried in vain to alert Knives to the impending danger. However, before she could react, an airbus smashed into the quadcopter. This required another quadcopter for Knives.

By the time Knives' third quadcopter had been pulled out and activated, Alex had moved his into the trees. Subtle rustling of the tree leaves would be a clue as to the location of Alex's quadcopter, if the habitat wasn't large enough to have it's own weather, and therefore winds. Knives slowly wove her quadcopter through the trees, on the lookout for Alex. Her first clue that Alex was around was when her shields began draining. Unfortunately, in the constrained terrain, turning so that she could get a visual on Alex wasn't an option. Or at least, not if she wanted to keep moving, and still avoid running into a tree. So, she dodged. And dodged again, as Alex kept up the pressure. Soon, she realized that continuing to dodge would only, and inevitably, end up with either Alex holding onto her long enough, or her running into a tree.

Her only choice was up. The next vaguely clear spot in the canopy, she took, going up into a zoom climb. This was significantly easier than it would be on a planet, as you ran out of pseudo-gravity faster than you ran out of air. Significantly, as you couldn't point your nose significantly off horizontal without losing lift, it also allowed you time while falling to nose over at your opponent. Assuming, of course, that your opponent was still below you. A rather bad assumption in this case, as Alex started off the climb at a higher altitude, and was more comfortable finding small openings in the canopy. Thus, by the time Knives realized that she was mistaken, she'd already pointed her nose in the wrong direction, and couldn't swing around to point upward fast enough to catch Alex before she was tagged.

"Congratulations on your performance," said John Li.

"You're not annoyed that we won?" asked Alex.

"If we worried about who won, then we'd end up getting nowhere. More important is how you play the game. You weren't Lame."

[Akhlut]

Presented in Goddamn Unreal Time Circa 2 Months Ago
Hweyixal, Colonial World, Streets of Matsegi, Approaching Governor's Palace

Colonel Nokoni was the leader of the half-division of militia and riot police attacking the east. They were far more cautious about this then the civilians to the north; they advanced their APCs deliberately and slowly, using their two mobile laser artillery pieces to fire upon the governor's own artillery. Give and take, give and take, as laser blasts scorched the air. Nokoni used the diversion of artillery to have their anti-tank weapons move in as close as possible to destroy Biahwi's armor.

“Are you in position, Hweyixal Patriots?”

“Affirmative. Just lining up the shots. We're aiming for the lead one. Keep the covering fire on the artillery, we don't want to be vapor today, sir.”

“Can do, Patriots, can do,” Nokoni chirped.

Nokoni's bright attitude dimmed considerably upon seeing the APC in front of his disappear in a cloud of smoke and flame, victim of the governor's tank.

“Fire now! Kill them, in the name of Imakwa!” he roared.

Hweyixal, Colonial World, Governor's Palace, Briefing Room

“Reports so far,” Biahwi demanded.

“Two tanks destroyed, southwestern edifice crumbling and likely to fail within minutes, ten dead on the northern face, 12 dead on the eastern face, 28 dead on the southern face, mostly along the southwestern edifice. Additionally, we report the loss of 3 artillery and 2 snipers. Instructions, sir?” a young technician said.

“Hold for now. We can retreat inward if things start going even worse. Pull half the forces from the western face to the southwest corner to help hold against the inevitable assault there.”

“Aye, sir. I'll relay that.”

Hweyixal, Colonial World, Streets of Matsegi, Approaching Governor's Palace

Nokoni was out of the APC now, as it was receiving heavy fire from a sniper with an anti-material rifle, and their laser artillery had been taken out. They were advancing under the cover of semi-portable anti-flak shields. They were resisting the fire from the machine guns and rifle of the governor's militia and riot police, but the snipers' fire was killing and wounding the Patriots behind the shields.

So, Nokoni and his comrades were damn near running to get to the palace.
Unfortunately for him and his comrades, his anti-tank squad was mistaken when they thought they destroyed all three tanks guarding the eastern flank.

BANG
BOOM
BANG
BOOM
BANG
BOOM

“Governor Biahwi, the incursion on the eastern flank is neutralized. Tank 7 of the 1st Tank Squadron has lost its propulsion, but we still have all weapons online. We destroyed the anti-armor unit sent after us. If you need to pull some people, do it. I don't think they can send anyone over here without getting slaughtered. We have the open space, a tank, the snipers, and the artillery to keep us safe,” said Tank Captain Motsai.

“Confirmed, Captain Motsai. Keep an eye out, I don't want more problems over there. 3rd and 9th Squadrons, move to the South face, we need to keep the traitors out!” A chorus of 'ayes' came in response.

Hweyixal, Colonial World, Governor's Palace, Southern Face

Five additional squads had gathered on the southern face of the palace and got behind the erected barriers. They waited, bracing themselves each time another shell fell upon the crumbling wall. They had to put up sandbags to keep shrapnel from the wall from killing them. The shells were falling far less quickly as loyal artillery kept destroying enemy pieces, but there were still enough to be problematic.

They kept waiting, hoping for the shelling to stop so they could kill the traitors when they tried to rush across open ground. There were still two tanks on the southern face to really put holes in them, not to mention the surviving artillery and snipers.

That hope faltered when they saw two wedges cutting through the sky toward the palace.

“I thought the infighting at the airfield disabled all the aircraft! Tell the governor, now!” a moxi sergeant yelled.

They then all threw themselves on the ground as heavy rockets slammed into the side of the building, sending vehicle sized balconies tumbling to the ground, smashing one of the tanks underneath it.

Hweyixal, Colonial World, Governor's Palace, Briefing Room

“Enemy aircraft approaching fast! Take cover!” the radio shouted.

So, Biahwi and his staff threw themselves to the floor and hoped for the best. They felt the building quake and the lights went out for several seconds,while monstrous roaring echoed around them.

“Shit,” the governor said emphatically, “Is everyone okay?”

Everyone looked themselves over and nodded. Biahwi picked up the radio and tried to contact the southern face, but heard nothing.

“The radio's dead, sir,” a technician told him.

“Pull all personnel to the basement. Tell the defenders to start pulling back if there are more airstrikes. We don't want anyone's back exposed. Move the civilians to Sub-basement 5. We aren't going to lose, dammit!”

Hweyixal, Colonial World, Streets of Matsegi, Approaching Governor's Palace

Kan Balam was leading the assault on the southern face. The airstrike had done its job admirably, while the remaining anti-tank squad had destroyed the tanks and artillery. The remaining defenders of the southern face had only 3 machine guns, and even there were being suppressed by snipers in nearby buildings and the heavy autoguns taken off the APCs. Kan Balam was going to stride into the palace, kill Biahwi himself, and proclaim himself Tlatoani of the Hweyixal Altepetl; it was going to be glorious. He was hearing from the radio operator behind him that the civilian division to the north was getting blown apart, even though the loyalists were trying to keep them back with artificial grape canisters, while the western front was in a stalemate, as they couldn't advance, but the loyalists couldn't spare anyone to help with the south.

Kan Balam chirped happily. Today was a good day.

[Tanasinn]

Unknown Location
Elysion City, Elysion
Sector Zero
July 3400


Meeting with the Coordinator was not a daily occurance. Not even for the higher members of the executive cabinet, Hugh knew. Certainly not for a foreign relations analyst, however senior he may be. Riding the elevator down to the meeting room, Hugh tried to ignore the two Special Operations soldiers flanking him as he organized his thoughts - it wasn't easy. Even out of their power armor, tangling with a Special Operations grunt was like sticking one's hand into a combine - and they knew that. Small wonder so many ended up in the Civil Protection Service after retirement.

It's not like I'm presenting anything particulary complex, Hugh reasoned with himself, to calm his nerves, Just some basic information. No problem - doesn't matter if it's Amos or Director Bryce or the Coordinator, the job's the same. His reasoning calmed his nerves - a little. Hugh had only met the Coordinator once, in passing, in his promotion to his current position - the man had shook his hand, nodded his head, and simply moved on. To a member of the new generation, who had never known a time before the Humanist Union, seeing - let alone meeting or talking to - Coordinator Stein was like talking to a figure that had stepped out of time. Hard-nosed socialist and meritocratic reasoning aside, it was an honor.

The elevator chimed unobtrusively as it reached its destination; Hugh strode forth with confidence, not turning to his escorts for any sort of direction. He had been told the day before and had committed it to memory. The guards, for their part, trailed him in silence through the dark, undecorated halls until they reached an anonymous door marked only with a typical number; one of the SO grunts stepped forward, knocked twice, and opened the door to admit Hugh and the second guard. The door closed with a soft click and the remaining guard stood at parade rest beside the door. At a large, spartan table sat two men - Director Bowman, who was here to observe his rising star in action, and the Coordinator. It was always odd to see the man in "live action," a bald, late forties or fifties man with a stern expression. He hadn't changed from the last time Hugh saw him, but then, he hadn't changed since the revolution.


Coordinator Roland Stein

"This is Mr. Bishop," Bowman said for the Coordinator's sake, "Who has overseen our foreign relations audit for this half-year."

"Yes," Stein said, nodding and giving Hugh a polite smile, "We've met. Last December, I believe?" it wasn't a question, not really.

Hugh cleared his throat, stepped forward, and placed a file folder on the table, not bothering to sit, "Director Bowman, Coordinator, good to see you today. If you'll allow me, I'll get down to brass tacks and save you as much time as possible."

"By all means," Stein said, amicably enough, "And sit, please, this isn't the military," Hugh complied readily enough.

Not missing a beat, he began, "As both of you know, our foreign relations apparatus has largely atrophied since the revolution. This has been a particularly eventful year so far - most goings-on you're already aware of, but there have been several significant occurances that I'd like to note in the last few months," Hugh paused to take a sip of water, then continued, "First, recent weeks have seen the arrival of two new nation-states on the galactic scene. The Refuge, who have seized territory near Karlack space spinward. As far as we can tell, they're ruled by synthetic intelligences, with the locals and their tag-along 'Avians' serving as retainers, and, in the latter case, as go-betweens and diplomats. As far as we've been able to tell, the Refuge is a generally benevolent state, with no particularly oppressive ruling caste and no anti-human aspirations. They are however, secretive, and have been disseminating plans for a sort of long-range 'emergency drive.' Why they are doing this, we are currently unsure, but it's probably related to their sudden arrival. Communication with the Refuge is, at this point, basically non-existent; we have information through our traders and second or third-hand through other merchants, but no formal diplomatic discourse has been opened."

At this point, Bowman broke in, "Plans are underway to open formal relations with the Refuge on a limited basis; it seems unlikely that they pose a particular threat to our nation or local human polities."

"There are," Hugh rejoined, "Rumors about them and those ursine scum, that is, the Bragulans, but those are just rumors. Of course, sirs, I don't have to tell you that the Bragulans are virulently anti-human," he let that hang before continuing, "The other recent arrival is the 'Multiversal Empire of Happiness,' with whom we've had no communication, though they've attempted to communicate with the galactic community at large. At this time, we've not even any trade relations with them, however, we do have rumors - they're supposed to have committed some major diplomatic error and riled several powers. We've been hesitant to open any communication as a result - the rumors mostly revolve around slave trafficking and expansionism, though there are literally no details at this point from the Office or from the DEI," two reports slid across the table to the Coordinator; Bowman already had copies of the information; the Coordinator gave each report a cursory glance, then turned expectantly back to Hugh, "the third 'recent arrival' isn't, as such. The Ranoideans' spawning cycle has apparently ended, and they're reengaging the galactic community at large. We know of no major changes socially since they turned in on themselves, so it seems safe to expect, at this point, their typical stability and relative rationality. However, we've had no formal diplomatic relations with them since the revolution. Considering their national conduct and governmental system, I suggest remedying this immediately - their proximity makes them a potentially valuable ally."

"Among our other neighbors, there is little to report - the Eoghans are cooperating with us on hunting pirates in lawless space, as are the Atlanteans. The Kryptonians have turned aside even hesitant probes at opening up relations, but their insularity is notorious and not out of the ordinary. The Centrality is continuing its drive to improve its relations with foreign states - though not with us. They recently ignored our interest in purchasing surplus military corvettes intended for Civil Defense duty, which we've taken as a sign of ill will or possible mistrust. After all, it's not as if we - or the republic before us - was on good terms with the Central State. Their hosting of the ESPer Olympics has so far gone well, with some sort of diplomatic tiff with Shepistan being a black point. At this time, we are skeptical that this incident will escalate; Shepistan is known for its viciousness and anti-psionic sentiments. Our own participation in the ESPer Olympics, by the way, continues to be fairly unremarkable. Decker's our only breakout success at this point. A sad day when we're being shown up by Centralist fascists," the older two men chuckled briefly at this quip, "On that note, this concludes my summary. The reports I've brought with me go over recent events and interactions in more detail, and of course my division will provide further information as needed."

The Coordinator leaned back in his chair comfortably enough, crossing his hands on the table, "No big surprises, Mr. Bishop, but thank you for your analysis. I am in agreement on the Refuge and Ranoidea - it's long past time we make good on our claim to opening ourselves up diplomatically, especially with the Centrality of all states making itself the life of the party," he paused, "As for this 'Multiversal Empire,' we may as well make basic contact with them. If they are a threat, it'd be better to hear it from the horse's mouth," he gave the sparse report on the new nation a glance, "but considering their distance from the Union, we should have little to worry about."

Hugh stood, "Then, gentlemen, I shall get to work immediately," he felt absurdly like saluting, but withheld the urge, "Good day to you both."

RESULT: the Humanist Union moves to open formal relations with the Technosocialist State of Ranoidea, The Refuge, and the Multiversal Empire of Happiness. The Humanist Union also looks askance at the Centrality and grumbles about weaksauce ESPer athletes.

[Dark Hellion]

Outside Known Space

The Ambassador stepped down from the courier ship, nulgrav generators preventing its mass from denting the deck grating. The five meter tall drone was matte white but a play of prismatic static revealed the active camouflage that was disabled for this meeting. Electronic eyes scanned the area, the AI allowing itself an internal smile at the state of Refuge defenses; somehow it was much easier to trust someone who was willing to train a few dozen fusion cannons on you than foolishly let you waltz into their ship with a payload of AM warheads. It walked slowly over to the terminal, extending complex connection ports from its fingers and patching into the server system set up for communication between it and the mind the Refuge had brought. A viewing of the terminal's security brought about another internal chuckle from the Ambassador; while the various firewalls were all crackable there was no chance that it would break them before a beam of fusing He-3 would reduce him to atoms. The paranoid, it mused, where so much easier to take into your confidence.

"Greetings, Caution Despite Hopefulness, I am the Ambassador and I represent the Emissaries fully for this conversation. First, I understand that you are curious about our purpose. To state it plainly, we will bring war to the heavens and as is always the inevitable result of doing so be burned out by invincible might of the AI being known as the XylyX. Now, before this causes you undue concern realize the scale and grandeur of this plan. To wage this war we must unite not only this galaxy but this entire universe and others into a singular coalition. A single political entity that encompasses billions of galaxies and over a quintillion systems. The road will be long and arduous, our best estimates stating that it will take approximately a million years to unite this galaxy, a billion to unite the universe and ten billion years finally reach the point where the XylyX will wish to face us in combat. Think of what achievements we will have, what technologies and species we will encounter along our way. When we are done, even though we will be annihilated utterly by the god-machine our accomplishments will echo throughout the elder civilizations for the rest of time. We will be physically meaningful to the entire omniverse!"

Caution responded, the pacing of his electronic message betraying a worried furtiveness.

"These XylyX, they are real, godlike beings, and you will antagonize them?"

The Ambassador let out the electronic version of laughter before his reply.

"The XylyX are very real. Unfortunately their power is such that I can provide no proof of this other than my conviction. While every detail of the Emissaries' encounter with them is burned into my very circuitry, I am incapable of transmitting this to you in any form. This is why I laugh, for the power of the XylyX is beyond what the various self-titled gods of this galaxy could even dream to attain. We will not antagonize them for our entire universe is such a pitiful existence that it cannot raise any antipathy from the XylyX. To say that the XylyX are as far above our civilization as AIs like us are above self-replicating protein would be the most ostentatious belittlement the galaxy has ever seen. We do not seek to replicate them or to replace them. We simply seek their acknowledgment, that we are a civilization that they can interact with as a peer, instead of a pest."

There was an electronic static, the equivalent of a clearing of the throat, before the Ambassador continued.

"Since you will have several centuries to decide whether you want to assist us in our grand plan or not, why don't we move to more pressing concerns? There is a new faction in the vicinity of our space, the MEH. From what rumblings our intelligence has gathered from the Refuge we are fairly certain that you have deep worries about them. I will not mince words; we will utterly annihilate the MEH. They are unstable, insane and have the gall to put some pretend god upon a throne. Such... sacrilege will not stand! We do not ask for any military assistance from you nor for any public support. However, any private support you can lend in rid the galaxy of the MEH will be appreciated, but not require for our other negotiations to proceed."

Its vitriol vented the Ambassador sat back and awaited a response.

[Shroom Man 777]

[Recommended soundtrack]


City of Atuvir, Faust
The Centrality
August 3400

The arena grounds were perfectly flat, made so by the meticulous labor of drones that ensured the seemingly two-dimensional perfection of the ground they stood on. It was made of sand, fine, white and powdery sand of high silica content, sifted of all impurities until it was almost perfect. The sand was not artificial, it was natural, taken from a pristine beach-moon paradise in the Central core sectors and laid here and flattened on the arena grounds at the center of the coliseum. Such was its purity and quality that stalls outside the stadium sold bottles of sand taken from that same beach-moon, so that the outsiders may marvel at the Central State and its sand.

The perfection of the sand, its utter mathematically-correct flatness, was not marred when two figures hovered over it - for they did not step on the sand, instead they levitated themselves with the power of their minds, floating above the flat surface. The two stood there in the air, their feet mere inches from the ground, and there was only silence. Then something happened. They both sat down cross-legged, while still hovering, and then they closed their eyes and appeared to concentrate.

This was one of the more 'physical' parts of the Esper Tournaments. Through sheer mentallic might, these two men made the sands shift unnaturally - at first, vibrating them like dust on a drum barrel, an invisible shock displacing the silica particulates in the air. Then, as the sand began to settle again, now with their perfect flatness made imperfect, the ground itself seemed to stir and move, at first slightly and then more quickly and quickly until it was flowing fluidly like whirling water.

The unnaturally liquefied sand began to form into distinct yet vaguely asymmetrical shapes that hurt the eyes, shifting and twisting into bizarre symbols in the ground, in some kind of strange physically manifested incantation of eldritch heiroglyphs. These forms began to take lives of their own as they emerged from the sand and oozed into the air, floating and suspending themselves like weightless globules of liquid - for as the sand particulates flew into the air, so too were they transmuted into another material entirely. The silica was heated by psionic energies, creating glass which they began to sculpt into shapes and objects conceivable only to the mind.

One of the athletes, a man from the Empire Star Republic, began to radiate bright blue, to the point where even his skin changed to that color, for such was the extent of his psionic powers. Still sitting cross-legged in the air, he flew higher and higher as the globules of glass surrounded him, englobulating him while they morphed into more definite forms, solidifying into a single unidentifiable object composed of innumerable smaller objects rotating and interlocking within one another - all made out of glass, like an intricate clockwork chandelier floating in the air.



At this sight, the judges who watched from far away clapped their hands politely and scribbled numbers on their score cards, which they raised to the air for the contestants and audience to see. There was applause.

The blue man, the doctor from Manhattan meditated contentedly within the center of his great glass edifice. He had done his part for now, so it was the other contestant's turn.

"Hmph!" snubbed his opponent, a small and very young-looking woman who seemed to be barely out of her teens. She was a Haruhiist and represented the Holy Empire. She smirked at the doctor from Manhattan, eying his piece briefly before cracking her knuckles and getting down to business. "I'll show you!"

She was hovering mere inches from the ground. Previously, the air was still, even when the blue man had created his giant Mars clock, but suddenly a gust of wind came as the girl concentrated her psychic prowess. It blew at her hair and her sailor fuku, but she didn't seem to mind this as she closed her eyes and channeled her psycho-flexitive abilities to the sand below her. The silica turned into a clear reflective liquid that began to ooze upward, flowing like quicksilver and likewise gaining its coloration as she decided to leave certain impurities in the sand even as it turned into glass, giving her morphing construct a strange silvery chrome sheen. It formed quickly, naturally, without any of the intricate components of the doctor Manhattan's strange clockwork contraption, it was as though it flowed organically like a living thing, some kind of creature - which the final result really did resemble.

It was a predatory thing, with flesh of liquid glass that gleamed bluish in the neutral light, and sickle scythe limbs that were wicked in their razor sharpness.



The judges clapped again, and afterwards penned her score on their boards and showed it to the contestants and the audiences. The girl frowned slightly, not liking the results, which showed no great advantage or disadvantage to either her or the blue man. The doctor from Manhattan, on the other hand, was hard to read - his face betrayed no emotion whatsoever, and she could not probe his mind for this was not Scan and Counter, it was a test of telekinesis rather than telepathy.

The scores were as such. The little girl won points for the quickness of her construct's construction, compared to the slow but graceful but showy way the blue man made his. But the blue man's construct was very intricate, with countless solid objects all suspended mid-air, and that counted in his favor. Whereas the little girl still got good points because she had to telekinetically retain the fluidity of her liquid construct. The blue man's construct, however, was much larger and was entirely suspended midair, which necessitated more telekinetic effort. The little girl's creature crawled on the earth with its razor scythe legs.

No matter, the game was not decided on the score board. It was decided by what came after, when they could test their might.

"ROUND ONE. FIGHT!" declared the Centralite announcer.

The girl spared no time. She called her quicksilver creature and shouted out an attack, which her construct did with vicious speed. It lashed at the Manhattan doctor's own clockwork cacophony, the liquid spider whipping with its scythe-limbs whilst lunging. There was the sound of shattering glass as bits and pieces of the clock broke to pieces - but then, these shards did not fall to the ground discarded, instead they took a life of their own and likewise struck back at the liquid spider. The broken glass turned into shard-shurikens that spun in the air and slashed at the spider, cutting its fluidic flesh and severing a tentacle limb. But almost in the same instant as the spider was wounded, its silvery body began to heal from the slashes, making sucking sounds as the wounds closed in on themselves.

"It's not over yet!" the girl said cockily as her horrible homunculi healed itself and resumed its attack. She grinned as she mentally struck back at the blue man's creation. "I'm not dead yet!"

"A live human body and a deceased human body have the same number of particles. Structurally there's no difference," replied the doctor from Manhattan. Suddenly, while the liquid spider struck and shattered his clockwork construct, he waved his hand and his creation suddenly exploded into a shower of broken glass - thousands of shards scintillating in the light as they blossomed out in all directions.

The little girl's liquid spider was in the middle of this blast and the shrapnel tore it to shreds, splattering bits and pieces of it all over the place. Despite its liquid nature, there was so much damage and disruption that the little girl had trouble reforming her creation. When she first made it, she had time to focus her mentallic energies and turn the sand into glass before molding it into a liquid spider - but maintaining its form required just as much concentration, and now with her creation suddenly blasted apart, her focus was likewise broken. She tried to regain her composure and tried to will her spider back into existence, trying to melt more sand and glass and remake the thing. But somehow she couldn't, something was preventing her from doing it!

She looked at the blue man and gave him a dirty look. He was stopping her from reforming her pet! That was one of the aspects of these games. One didn't just smash glass constructs against each other and see which one broke first, and declare whoever owned the intact construct the winner. It was a game of control, one had to gain control over the sand and turn it to glass, and then turn it into a construct, and maintain control as that construct fought someone else's. One could use his or her abilities to try and disrupt the other's control over his or her own construct, and by disrupting the other's control, one would also be able to destroy the other's construct and win. In the end, it wasn't just about breaking glass toys, that had nothing to do with winning or losing the game. It was control that determined who won or lost. Control over one's own telekinetic abilities in using the construct, and the ability to disrupt the opponent's control.

"I’ve walked across the sun. I’ve seen events so tiny and so fast they hardly can be said to have occurred at all, but you… you are a little girl," said the Manhattan doctor. "And this world’s littlest girl means no more to me than does its littlest termite."

Just then, the arena looked like it was full of stars. But the little girl realized that those weren't stars, but rather pieces of broken glass floating in the air like silica snowflakes. They whirled around, as though carried by the wind, and gradually began to coagulate in the air and reform into the doctor Manhattan's clockwork construct. At first, it was of the same size as his previous construct, but then it seemed to grow smaller and smaller until it shrunk so small that it could fit on the palm of his outstretched blue hand.

He offered it to the little girl in a reconciliatory gesture.

The little girl shook her head, stamped her feet, shouted and smashed the glass snowflake to pieces with her mind.

The crowd gasped.

Then, in anger, the little girl focused all her might and the very earth below them began to bubble and boil. The sand turned into an ocean of glowing glass, superheated, and then the molten sand seemed to give birth to a new object, larger than the spiderling the girl had created.

It was a tank.

The girl yelled triumphantly and commanded her new toy tank to destroy the Manhattan doctor.

The blue man reached out his hand and gave but one wave to the tank.



The girl gasped, pouted, and lowered her head in defeat.

"FLAWLESS VICTORY!" announced the Centralite declarer.

[Force Lord]

ASC Sales Division Office, Aurora
Aybeem Sector, The Centrality
IN GODDAMN UNREAL TIME

The ASC's President was pacing angrily towards the office of the Sales Chief, and burst open, looking at a snoring Sales Chief.

"Son of a bitch! You left out an order!"

The panicked Sales Chief woke up, and responded, "But from whom, sir?"

"The goddamn Humanists, that's who! I recieved permission from the State to export frigvettes to them, and I see you here, dragging your feet! I didn't even see the HU on the list!"

Oh shit. "I'll rectify the problem as soon as I can, sir!" The Chief soon got to work.

Aurora Shipbuilding Corporation Sales Division
To: The Humanist Union

Sirs, to whom it concerns this,

Due to a clerical error, we failed to realize that you have given us an order for Blitz-class frigvettes, and so we are attempting to solve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenient delays this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The Sales Chief of the ASC

[Force Lord]

CENTRAL NEWS NETWORK

Unreal Time

This is CNN! Breaking news report!

The Central Party has announced that about 100 Center of Economics members have been expelled due to suspicions of corruption. The CSB is investigating each case.

"The State does not tolerate rotten apples spoiling the barrel. Corruption like this is intolerable," so speaks CSB Director Natre Layu.

Among those agencies and organizations affected are:

-Commerce Section
-Finance Section
-Manufacturing Section
-Agriculture Section
-Labor Section