Chapter 52 – Hyperspectral Duality

Caleb woke up in the disarray of overhead lights, blinding him like a lover in the midnight midst of confrontation at his bedside. A Llavalite woman- at least, they looked like a woman to him, wearing a blond wig, in her early 30s, face caked with makeup, looked down on him with a smile. “Morning sunshine, how are you feeling?” She was the first face he’d seen since waking. She introduced herself as Tessa. He’d been in their holding bay for 5 days, and had yet to get out of the bunk and stretch his legs. He remembered the mission that he'd been sent here for, and the incident that went awry. A simple bit of diplomacy, him and Jel were to recruit the Outlier Llavalite clans towards Ursula's cause, but something went wrong. Something wrong with Jel's translator she hid? Caleb remembered yelling at her.

"YOU DON'T SPEAK YOUR PEOPLE'S OWN LANGUAGE?!" He shouted.

Jel's eyes went wide. She turned to a guard holding her. "I mean dude, they're barely my people.." She said.

Caleb slapped his face. "This whole plan rested on you atleast pretending to have some pull with these people!" He said, as she tried to keep a straight face with the tears coming out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry I wasn't raised on a freakin asteroid in space, geez" She folded her arms and pouted, green lips glowing with her expression of frustration. “And why would I have any connection with them anyway? These are Llavalites that don’t want to live in or be a part of Xi, period.”

She was right, he should've had a more specific plan when dealing with her translator skills he realized. He should've used a Llavalite with an adequate knowledge of the language, and probably an escape plan in case things didn't work out. But it was what it was. He was arrested, Jel presumably too. The Outlier Llavalites weren't anything like the regulars in Xi that had pledged their loyalty since gradeschool, so they weren't exactly so welcoming of two Xi'an Military associated individuals in their home.

"...so how long am I gonna be here, and when are you going to let me out of the cage?" He finally asked the Llavalite.. girl? Not-girl?

Tessa smiled wider and flashed a mischievous grin. She was cute, actually. It was the first time he was face to face with one of these people and they'd showed him any kindness, most guards dropping some rations down a chute and leaving. The fact he was still breathing, made him consider himself very lucky.

He'd get by, he'd get out, he'd get away with a simple reprimand if they knew the details of the operation, or an embarrassing public appearance if not. At least if not his freedom, he could still go back to the military. "We don't want to scare you. You've been here for five days now. You were arrested with an associate of yours, the name of Aeliana, is that right?" She said.

"Um, her name was Jelena." He replied.

Tessa shook her head. "That was her civilian name, Llavalites keep their own private names upon hatching. So its Aeliana, alright? We were going to call you together for interrogation, but she seems to have accepted her fate. Are you the leader of this particular faction, then?" She asked, showing him a badge of the Dark fleet alliance- shaped like a red 'X.'

Caleb cleared his throat. "Y-yeah, I was sent as a representative.I’ m just here to establish a treaty with the Outliers. As you can imagine, we have a lot in common." He tried to lie a little on his feelings with that one. "She, uh, did a lot of the dirty work on finding this place. Jel or, 'Aeliana' as you called her is a smart cookie. She doesn't know alot about Llavalites, if you can believe it."

Tessa nodded. "I can tell. Very inexperienced with her own origin and customs, how regrettable. That's why we're doing this now."

"Can I eat first?" Caleb finally asked, and Tessa smiled at him again. She looked away for a second before a guard slid a tray with food in.

Caleb ate it down to nothing, and had a full view of the Llavalite?woman who was the warden of the station. "This place, will you tell me where we are?"

"Sure, we're on what they call a Darkstation, a space prison that Outlier Llavalites use hidden by Cascade, an outpost of our meteor hives. I'm sure if you were looking for that info to be part of your, supposed 'alliance', that's a well-known open secret among dissidents of Xi'an tyranny." She said, Caleb a little surprised with the information.

"Why are you so kind to me, by the way? Are you going to kill me, or are you just going to let me live, and then put me in some hole forever? You're not going to kill me, are you?" He asked.

Tessa smiled again, and Caleb looked at her in confusion. A smile was uncommon for Llavalites, and the ?woman's was infectious. She did seem like a nice person. Not that he didn't respect Jelena's ribbing and usual take-no-prisoner's attitude, but seeing a Llavalite and

?woman with a smile for a change made him feel warm. Woman should smile more often, he thought. Whether they’re woman, or ?woman.

"That depends on you. Let me ask you, will you continue being as stupid as you were before, or do you have the slightest inkling of responsibility now?"

Caleb nodded. "I'm sorry I kinda, made a scene when trying to escape. I swear I thought that garbage chute was an escape hatch- " Tessa looked at him strangely. ”..you are one idiot, aren't you? How did you even get here without the military killing you?" She chuckled. "A secret?"

"I could try to tell you that, but I doubt it'd convince you." He said.

"A secret it is." She chuckled. "If you're smart enough to keep that a secret, I'm convinced." She stepped back, keeping the electric force field down.

"So...are you letting me out now?" He asked.

"Our Princeps would like a word with you." She told him. "Please follow me, we have a lot to discuss." Tessa began to guide him through the halls, steely walls and floortiles amongst what looked like black carbon, iron-nickle and silicate, but felt more organic with their warm heat and cool breeze- like he was walking into an organism of an entirely different kind.

"I'll tell you what, I'm glad we met." He said. "You're rather pretty, you ever consider dating a human?"

Tessa paused to laugh. "That makes me really uncomfortable. Please just walk. We have to discuss matters of grave concern." She said, guiding him.

She led him through the metal corridors, a soft light shining over the hall as they went deeper. The sound of metal scraping metal could be heard in the distance, and the smell of meat, rotting food and blood. Tessa was silent, keeping the conversation to herself for the time being.

Caleb scanned over the walls, he could feel his hands shaking with excitement. A Llavalite?woman was holding his hand- by proxy, it felt good.

Soon Caleb entered a large chamber with an entire ring of podium-like stands and in the center, was a round table and flat leathery couch with no elevation, atop it his partner. "Jel!" Caleb yelled, running to the llavalite girl. Jelena was eating some sort of fruit, her fingers sticky with grease and fruit juice staining her fingers. "Jeez, it's been- "

"...a long time? It’s only been a few days bro." Jel smiled at him. "Nice to see you too." Jel chuckled.

"Did you convince them to let them go?"

Jel shrugged. "Nah, this is an execution meal. Traditionally Llavalites give a special feast to those they're going to execute. That way you go with a smile on your face, knowing you're going to die happily." She patted the table. "Have a seat man. They got me a table."

"And why didn't you tell me you had another name!?" He demanded to know. She swallowed, then shrugged.

"I really didn't care for it. 'Aeliana', it was weird. It makes no sense."

Caleb stared at one of the podiums, where Tessa was sitting with another llavalite. “Jeez..."

"This is not a joke man. You're going to die." Jel said. Caleb tried to stay silent.

Soon, a figure walked in, another Llavalite- more masculine looking, who Caleb and Jel hadn't noticed was hiding behind the podium. He was dressed like a prince, with a long black cape, red tunic, red leathered gloves, with two yellow scimitars at his waist. His skin was a dark verde with a black beard. "Welcome back. I'm Lord Alvar. Head Princep of the Outlier clans.

Welcome to our home." He said. Alvar had a calm, stoic demeanor. He turned to Jel. "Young scarab, you are of the west-allied clans in your sun-sign, among the sanoa-otsaan bioclusters are you not? Your egg leeches from the nests of the unstarred, with the whores of Babylon and their false prophets. A ways from us. As such we do not recognize you as blooded among us in the Outliers."

"What does that mean?!?" Caleb asked confused.

"I'll tell you if you ever get out of here. Or I could tell you now, but you probably don't have the brainpower to understand it." She said, raising her eyebrows. "Just know Llavalites have all sorts of beef with each other and divisions, and I'm not one of the 'good ones' they want. Llavalites have, quite alot of factions even among themselves."

Alvar smirked. "You're a fool for coming here knowing the sanoa-otsaan are not welcome among our type, and I feel somewhat inclined to kill you for that reason alone. Your partner however, I find a curious one." He looked at Caleb again.

"He looks as nervous as you do, and I'm sure he has many secrets. He looks like a human- but he isn't one. We know you're not human, what is your race if it isn't human?" Alvar asked. Caleb looked down at the floor.

"W-what are you talking about? Of course I'm human!" Caleb yelled back, genuinely confused.

"Did you come as an Xi’an spy?"

Caleb shooks his head. "N-no, I'm not with Xi! I mean I am an Xi'an, but my name is Caleb. I come here to represent a woman named Ursula, who is working with a fleet to overthrow the Xi'an regime. We're revolutionaries! Y-your people have alliances and strong forces that can aid us, that's what I'm here for."

Lord Alvar scratched a green scaly cheek. "Ah, an XU spy." Alvar said, looking down at him. "You seem to be a different kind of Xi'an, from those we're familiar with, but you're still an Xi'an. XU is merely Xi under a pink coat of paint. Why would we of the proud Outlier clans want to ally with you? The woman you represent is responsible for pacifying and feminizing your entire population, and many of ours. How would you benefit us?"

Caleb thought hard. "I-I don't know, man. But our fleet is stronger than yours, we can give you the armaments to conquer Xi and take it over if you want, but..." he took a deep breath. Caleb lowered his head, as if trying to project some sense of humility. "It's a secret, but, our leader Ursula has been causing the Enigma behind the scenes. If you and your, scared little clans hiding behind Cascade storms want to get back on top, this is your chance. This is your chance at

a glorious revival. I don't know, I'm just your humble messenger. It's up to you guys if you want to be involved." He said, looking up at Lord Alvar.

Lord Alvar smiled. He turned to Tessa and shrugged. "We're not going to kill him." "So...wait, so you're going to let us go?" Caleb asked.

"We're going to send him to the arena and have 'that one' kill him. To the battle chamber." Lord Alvar said with confidence. He then turned to his guards. "Bring them out, they can eat. They can enjoy the show, if we're fortunate enough. We'll have them watch from the balconies."

Soon Caleb was dragged away kicking and screaming. "J-jel, what was that bullshit about an execution feast?!?!"

She belched. "Oh sorry broski, that bit only applies to Llavalites." She said as they were dragged out the door towards a long corridor and then a hexagon shaped ring with pews, guard- rails lining the pews uptop for viewing from above. Both were thrown on the center where the spotlight shone down. On the opposite of the battle chamber, a gate slowly opened up.

An audience of Llavalites in military uniforms were gathered, with Lord Alvar among them. "Well...are you ready?" The guard who'd escorted him said. A dark shadowy silhouette slowly began to draw near.

Caleb gulped. "Wait, is that a-a-demon?"

"That, is a Mokonoran, or 'Bastard Dragon' as they call themselves. A sort of Blackwind migrant that ended up in Xi centuries ago and carry a long lineage of brutal warriors and beasts. They live on the outskirts of our meteor worlds and sometimes infiltrate them. They were once a proud warrior race, but, over the course of a few millennia their minds have faded and have been devolving into their body into nothing but muscle, and now they are merely animals, and our greatest threat." He looked down at Caleb with a smirk. "They're strong and fast, but slow to think and very dumb. They're more like humans than Llavalites are. They're easy to kill, and you are going to scream in terror as they devour you apart! Enjoy the show."

The 'Mokonoran' was not at all human, he had a black, feathery wings on his back, and dark brown and black skin with thick brown scales on his body and hands, horns protruding from his skull, small fangs and an extremely long tail. "Eat him. Kill him. Shred him. Feed. Feed. Feed!" Lord Alvar shouted. The Mokonoran ran towards him, its slim shape barely larger than Caleb but reminding him of the dimwitted Blackwind dragons that Xi employed as allies in the High-Fleet.

Blackwind types were used for their incredible strength and raw ferocity but had been considered more primitive and animal-like than most Xi'ans. The bastard ran towards him, with claws sharper than glass, scales like armor, and a muscled body that could break apart a person. Caleb could see this was the end for him, as Jel, and everyone on the stands watched on, waiting for the show to begin. "W-wait, don't I get some saving grace?"

Lord Alvar folded his arms.

"A prayer? We don't share the same religion or belief assuredly." Caleb shook his head.

"N-no, I meant more like a fair chance. A weapon of some kind maybe?"

Lord Alvar and his fellow Princeps began to negotiate among each other. "We could allow him to have a weapon, if its not too dangerous. That's a fine idea. It won't help a beast of that magnitude anyway." One of the Princeps spoke.

Caleb smiled, and Jel did the same, giving him a thumbs up. "Could I request one of those electro-spears your guards use?"

Alvar shrugged, pointed to a guard who then threw in their spear. Immediately Caleb told Jel to distract the Mokonoran, while he grabbed the weapon and began to pull apart the metallic panel on the pole and reach around the wires, fingers rapidly rewire and recalibrate it like a complete expert.

"Caleb, Caleb, what are you doing!?" Jel yelled, crawling away as she rolled and dodged the Mokonoran's attacks.

"Just stay alive!" Caleb called back.

"...Alright!" She said. The bastard chased them both, his eyes glowing with orange and red colors, a flare of its scales glowing with the light of battle.

Caleb held up the electro-spear in his hand, and turned it on, a surge of electricity passing through it, the pole turning blue with power. He yelled in joy. "Gave it a little more juice! Hi-Yah!" With a plunge of the spear, it shot a series of electrical bolts and rapidly fired beams of blue thunder like a machine-gun. Its power lit up the room and shot loudly and without pause, Caleb's technological intuition able to make the simple electric spear into an arc of pure destruction.

"Got you, bastard!" Caleb yelled as Jel rolled on the ground, laughing with pure delight.

The situation of the two running from the creature rapidly reversed, both chasing it as the Mokonoran fled from the battle zone. Caleb continued to throw his electrified bolts, knocking it down to the floor with a direct beam to the head. Him and Jel began to approach it like hunters having cornered their prey.

"Kill it!" Caleb shouted to Jel, who responded with a 'Yeah yeah! Go go!' as the Mokonoran rolled on the ground, steam rising from its back. The creature's vision was blurring, the last blow to the head had left it disoriented from a wild electrical concussion.

"Come on...get up!" Lord Alvar shouted.

The disorientation for Mokonoran began to fade as the world returned into focus. It stood up from the ground, its body now glowing with heat, and it turned around, and Caleb and Jel continued to approach, the two of them now standing side-by-side. Rather than lurch forward like a raptor, it stood perfectly upright, its head rapidly assimilating information that felt worlds away from itself just now. Even the smell and sight of these two seemed familiar.

"Die!" Caleb said.

Jel then took aim and said. "Yeah, die!" Caleb came down with the spear and charged.

Mokonoran grabbed the pole right before the tip, shoving Caleb back into the air and ripping the spear from his hand. The beast then charged at Jelena, swinging her up into the air with the back of the pole and pushing her back. Slowly, Mokonoran began to pace back and forth. Then it began to pace around, hissing and glaring at the humans. Lord Alvar held his head in his hands in anticipation. "What's it doing?!"

Eventually Mokonoran sighed and leaned forward, offering its hand to its enemy. "J.. joot.. jat...jjijijii.. C-a-le-bbbbb." It pronounced slowly. "Cal-eb. Caleb. CALEB!" It glomped him at once, giving the two a tight hug and throwing them to the floor together.

Jelena rolled on the ground, trying to hold back laughter. "Wait, what...what are you doing?!" She looked up.

The Llavalites in the audience were cheering. "It's strangling him with its grip! Fight!

Fight!"

Caleb felt himself squished and squeezed between the dragonoid's affectionate arms, but

he kept calm. "W-why are you doing this?" He asked, and Mokonoran leaned in closer.

"Hhhhhmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." It squeaked out again. "Calebcalebcaleb!

Calebbbbbbbbb ish me!" It then gave him a big hug, squeezing his guts out, and then, released. It stood up and looked around, sniffing the air like a dog. The crowd was going crazy, and Jelena rolled to the side with laughter, gasping for air.

Caleb squinted. "H-huh? Who?"

"I don't think he knows..." Jel said, already having put it together.

The Mokonoran then said a single word, pointing at himself. "Jet!" His wings flapped rapidly, like a dog wagging their tail in excitement.

"Jet?!? Jet?!" Caleb looked confused. "Wait.." "It's Jetti you idiot." Jel yelled at him.

Caleb looked down at Jetti who was jumping around on the ground. "You're J-J-J-J- JETTI!?" Caleb cried out. Jetti wagged his tail as the crowd went wild.

"What the hell are you talking about!?" Lord Alvar shouted. He looked down at Caleb, Jel and Jetti, who were now sitting back to back, holding hands. "What the hell did you all do?”

"We-" Caleb's mouth was immediately cupped by Jel who continued. "He tamed it your Princep-ness! By battle chamber rules and ritual executions, if the will of the sentenced manages to overcome that of the executor in combat, the sentenced may live, and the execution must cease. This man has tamed a Beast and saved his own life! It is a matter of who has the stronger will. But if you ask me, it's clear to see that Caleb, has won." Jel said, as the audience cheered and laughed. Jetti huggled Caleb more, wagging his tail.

Caleb tried to get a breath in. "Is that s-seriously a rule? That's so stupid.." He turned to Jel. "How did you know that? Did you have a rulebook?"

She shrugged. "No, we don't have rule books. We have traditions and rituals, rules are passed down."

"Jel, you don't know ANY of your traditions. How do you know that of all things-" "I saw it in a movie once, screw you shhh shut the hell up dude." She slapped him. Lord Alvar was now visibly irritated. "Do you know what you've done here?!" Caleb shrugged. "If I did, would I do it?"

He said, looking at Jetti who was sitting on his back, wagging his tail.

Lord Alvar huffed. "Kill them." The guards began to encroach in, spears pointed.

"What are you doing?!" Caleb said, the two of them surrounded by Llavalite guards now. "C-calebii! Get back, Jetti protects!" He yelled back, growling and standing in front of Caleb defensively.

"You're not getting out of here alive." Lord Alvar said, as Jetti-Mokonoran hissed. Suddenly the Princep heard a click. Beside his temple a gun was pointed, he looked up.

Tessa, holding a Bolt-pistol to his head. "Back down!" She said, pointing it at him. Lord Alvar growled. "Why are you doing this!?! This is insubordination!" He glanced towards the guards, who rather than rush to him simply stood in place. The other four Llavalite Princeps of the Outlier clans simply stayed in their seats, giving him a stern glance.

"You expect me to follow that ridiculous tradition and show mercy? Mercy is what lead our people to weakness under the Xi'ans." He yelled.

"You don't have to worry about any of that anymore, sweetcake." She took a step back as the guards began to approach behind Alvar. "We relive you of your command and title."

The others grabbed his arms. "Get off me! Don't disobey me!" The other 4 Princeps yawned. "This is a coup!"

"Nope! You were a bad princep. A crappy one. I got tired of your crap so I had a talk with the head priestess, then she had one with the others." The other Princep said.

One of the other Princeps spoke up. "Alvar, we've been wanting for food and basic supplies. You've cut us off from everything for some time now. Our llarvalites grow hungry. And you've been losing wars as we speak, you've become a liability to our clans."

Alvar hissed, his eyes filled with anger. "We'll have no mercy for you! You traitors!" He looked to Tessa. "If you're going to take my position, you're going to have to kill me. That's our way!" He said, as he stared her in the face.

Tess shook her head. "Regardless of how you feel about it, I think our prisoners down there have showed us that, perhaps, its worth trying 'mercy' for a change."

She said, raising the pistol and pointed it at his head again. "Let's start with you." She squeezed the trigger.

The gun was blank without any electrostasis charges. She threw her weapon aside in a symbolic display. "Throw him in the hold."

The soldiers threw him on the ground, as the audience of Llavalites cheered, and as Jetti wagged his tail he made a few 'yelps' and 'hisses' along with chortles that sounded more like human laughter. Caleb rubbed his head. "Jetti? What the hell is going on here? Why are you.. a dragon?"

She laughed. "Who the hell cares?!" Jel rolled on the ground. "I've been reborn!" Caleb and Jel looked at each other. Jetti was licking them both up and down. "Well.. umm.." Caleb shrugged.

"I guess you're- alive?"

He said, a series of confusing and frustrating feelings welling up deep.

Suddenly the ground shook, lights flickering on and off. Jel and Caleb looked up. "What's-" Jelena began to say, until the lights were fully restored, and a series of red

lights began to flash. Tessa turned to the other 4 Princeps. "Dear me, I thought it might turn out like this. He certainly had his supporters and loyalists." She said.

Lord Alvar yelled at her, "They're not going to let you get away with this! You're going to lose your-" Tessa kneed him in the gut and turned around. Other llavalite soldiers soon flocked in and began firing at those aligned with the newly-declared regime. The Llavalite Darkstation became a warzone, Jetti shielding Caleb and Jel as they rushed to the halls in the midst of the infighting. Caleb and Jel ran, while the soldiers fought, and the rest of the Princeps and those loyal to the overthrown Lord Alvar tried to hold the fort against those rebelling. Thousands of Llavalites fought in every hall, chamber and cavity throughout the facility, and the battle raged on.

Jet-Jetti kept looking back at Caleb, sniffing at him. "P-please, stop that.." He turned to Jel. "Why the hell is this happening?"

The girl shrugged. "Like I said, Llavalites always have beef. We have beef with Xi, we have beef with each other, and we have beef with the Gods and their damned snooty priestesses." She said, running with the guards. Aiming to change the status quo for her people was always possible. Keeping it, tended to be the hard part.

Caleb looked back at the chaos.

"But, is this an attempted mutiny? A coup?" He asked. She shrugged. "It's an opportunity."

Jel laughed as the three of them ran.

 

 

 

Approximately 9 months into the forging of the Dark Alliance, the rebellion consisted of Ursula's Starbreakers, the Exodus dominion and their allies, and finally the newly Llavalite outlier clans who had reformed their ranks as the Darkstation's Outerworlders after their own regime change. The Dark Alliance was a formidable coalition, one that began to pour their resources together to form a fleet approximately 1/10th the size of the High-Fleet, consisting of over 80 million warships. Even the Soveignity volunteered funding and information to help undermine Xi, despite declaring itself non-aligned with Ursula and vowing in a hostile fashion that it would consider XU under her as much its enemy as Xi was under Sandra, something Ursula figured Croix had determined long ago.

Very much like her sister to sit back, scheme and let her do all the hard work.

Though far from equal in numbers, it was nevertheless still a huge fleet. The 3 factions, and the new Dark Alliance were able to unify under a common cause-

The destruction of the Xi'an galactic empire, once and for all.

Llavalite forces, the Exodus and the Dark Fleet, under the Starbreakers, were now on course to a full blown war with the High-Fleet. The Darkstation that they’d initially taken base in was gone a few months into the war, destroyed by the High-fleet after the rebellion took flight, and though it still stood as a shell, a tomb to the beginnings, it was now a graveyard of corpses and a reminder of where this war truly began. The X-Dominion simply scattered to other dark pockets within Xi, practicing their religion and organizing Ursula’s war from the shadows.

Within 13 months, the entirety of the 144 Llavalite meteor worlds and their armadas were now shared in the clutches of the Dark Alliance, as all the factions now operated together. Due to the worsening Enigma, detecting technologically which meteors were Hiveships and

which were inert asteroids became impossible for Xi, giving the Dark alliance an entire guerilla operation to hit-and-run with. The war had begun, pitting Xi against XU once more.

 

 

1.2 years since the XvX war began

 

 

By the time the conflict was only a year and a half long, the damage done to the High- Fleet and Xi'an civilization in general was immense, and the High-Fleet itself in particular suffered greatly. Nearly 10% of the entirety of their armada had been wiped out, the equivalent of the entirety of the Alliance's forces in terms of numbers, leaving them in a state of shock and demoralization, as many had been left stranded on the outskirts of the High-Fleet, with dwindling supplies and a sense of dismay and fear in the air due to the Enigma worsening their fighting capabilities. But still they often remained victorious over Ursula's Starbreakers and allies, due to sheer numerical superiority, aided by the surveillance and galactic directive capabilities of Racquel, the technological designs of Machine Mother and the immense warrior spirit of Rondo, their most fearsome warrior. Even the destructive capabilities of the Starbreakers did not break the stars in Xi’s eyes overnight like Ursula hoped. Taking Ameisa Blight hostage has deprived them of a powerful logistical thinker and strategist, of which Ursula believed the present success would not be possible. The Xi'ans were always the most prepared when it came to war, and the readiest of all factions for a conflict of this size and scope. But the Enigma had begun to weaken their greatest advantage, their scientific and technological superiority, and the High-Fleet itself was merely relying on the advantage of a war of attrition against the Dark Alliance in their a struggle for survival.

Due to this slow undoing, like an anaconda slowly wrapping around a great tuskbeast and choking the larger opponent over time, Raquel and Machine Mother had to invest a great amount of time attempting to solve the Enima as it worsened, and though they began to get close to its answer, the High-Fleet was being whittled away by the Xi'ans and the Llavalites, the Starbreakers and the Exodus in a series of pitched battles that slowly took their toll.

1.5 years XvX

On the Starbreakers end, Ursula was faced with a conflicted tactical move that would harm their long-term strategy. While utilizing the Enigma to cripple the Xi'an technology at critical moments in the war, repeatedly overusing her control over it at an absolute advantage would lend, deductively to the Elderdragons realizing she was behind it and her it was tied to her abilities. Such a discovery could lead to them making the connection and finding a countermeasure in quick order. Removing Ameisa from their ranks had taken substantial cognitive resources away from her enemies, and Entraptra proved a valuable asset in innovating new weaponry and overcoming Xi'an technology.

Though the High-Fleet in many instances did fall into the trap of Ursula's Starbreakers and allies, and suffered a series of defeats at the hands of small but well-coordinated Llavalite

outlier forces, the High-Fleet proved that they were still the greatest power in the galaxy, though they were dwindling in strength.

On the High-Fleet's end, the Xi'an military was faced with a conflict of their own, a crisis of identity. They had been facing multiple wars for decades, now and all at once, and the destruction of the Enigma had lead to a significant weakening of their ability to wage all these wars at once. The conflict with the Llavalite outlier clans was a new war to the High-Fleet, and at the time were now the facing the Exodus Dominion war as well. Intense debates began on the possibility of, against Sandra's doctrine, making a truce with the Luminary galaxy and stopping the war with the Set, whose lions and tigers and beasts were tearing the Xi'an forces apart at each turn across a separate galaxy and taking up half their forces.

They were also faced with the question of what to do with the Sovereigntists, a rising terrorist faction unassociated with Ursula but still aligned with her goals. The terrorist faction which had been responsible for much of the chaos during recent uprisings was an internal threat within the Xi'an empire. Raquel was already well aware that dissatisfaction with the Enigma was working against their favor in the eye of public opinion. Economic woes, the height of supply issues and technological setbacks that had already begun to degrade a great deal of Xi'an infrastructure had already begun to affect the Xi'an Empire as a whole, and both the Sovereigntists and Ursula were working to capitalize on that. A terrorist faction was already growing danger to the Xi'an people.

Ursula imagery however, began to appear on screens. Billboards. Galanet media, broadcasts, even the tiniest of devices would show the XU premier, primed to give speeches on the failings of XU, blasting propaganda preying on the social weaknesses plaguing Xi. Raquel who would have to go through great lengths to block these interruptions could feel the tides changing against them.

2 years XvX

The Enigma was being used more than ever by Ursula, with her allies. As a means of breaking the High-Fleet's grip on space for one thing, but more dangerously it was eroding civil society and confidence in the government to manage, which fed challenges to Elderdragon leadership and recruitment efforts to their enemies. Though, the High-Fleet was slowly getting beaten back, Raquel was confident they would win in the end. She oft felt the need to present as the face of Xi'an resilience in these dark times, with both Ameisa and Sandra removed from their ranks. Raquel's face and offered her rational, compassionate voice evermore the voice of Xi'an power, the Xi'an high-command and military as a whole to maintain morale. Though Machine Mother face and voice had dress, makeup, and space-themed jewelry all became marks of fashion for Xi loyalists to show their support.

Likewise, as more planets and systems fell to the rising Dark Alliance that was declaring the revival of XU, Ursula became a popular figure to emulate in terms of aesthetics. During the war, supporters would both show their report and clash with these stylings- dressing in fashions like either Raquel and Machine Mother, or Ursula while feeling contempt for the other side.

2.5 years XvX

Xi’an support was slowly fracturing along political ties. Many politicians that had only superficial power under Sandra's military dictatorship, including prominent the Starguard saw the lack of Sandra's public appearance and the propaganda war of Ursula's as a sure sign that the winds were soon to change. Many Starguard were being won over, and the political divisions began to form again. Raquel and Machine Mother had a difficult time, keeping the balance of power in their favor, as they had the military, the Elderdragons and the Xi'an people overall, but were not in complete control of the Starguard. Many political leaders, the ones that had never been fond of Sandra to begin with, began to see a potential to rise in status, with XU at the helm of power. As a result, the Starguard were already becoming a faction in their own right, a force to be reckoned with, rather than a graceful subservient military wing that had served the Ximperium previously. Although they stopped short of defecting to Ursula's side too soon, many felt intense sympathies with the Grand Premier again and her motives to reclaim XU from those who had clawed it away from her.

4 years XvX

Along the territories Ursula controlled, she has rapidly began socially engineering the same society she’d fought to reclaim. Her screens were put everywhere on every street, building and star port. Her infamous culture of luxury, fashion and cosmetics was restructured in record time, with the knowledge that consumers were supporting the war effort. Deep instincts that had seemingly been conditioned into Xutizens when Ursula was last in charge of the galaxy, simply switched on like a lightswitch when put in the right environment. They had been waiting for this moment for decades. A single voice. A single image. A single purpose. The Xutizens were a culture of consumers, and as much as the Elderdragons and their allies had fought for the cause of the Ximperium, the Xutizens had been fighting to maintain a society that provided them with a lifestyle they could tolerate. And Ursula had just handed it back to them.

Reeducation in every school was swiftly instated. Artifacts of Xutizen culture, such as salon booths, pornographic movie theartes, Galanet literature promoting love and harmony. She hired new artists and architects to create a new aesthetic, one that resembled more of a luxury society, rather than a military one. The propaganda was always in place. Reconquered territories of Xi resisted at first, but once spoilt to the limits of prissery, became loyal Xutizens in no time and began to support her war effort in numbers. Xi’s propaganda fighting back failed in a losing effort all the while, the Militaristic imagery falling flat and hollow without Sandra, or worse, masculine, violent and barbaric compared to the intellectual and aesthetic life Ursula offered them. Reason told them that a civilization of consumers could not survive on the same type of food, technology and lifestyle as an imperial military state and the Elderdragon war machine would soon run out of steam, not on paper, but in reality.

Everywhere one looked in the growing XU, one saw pastel colors returning to the world as if they’d resuscitated life into it. Pleasure and sex was celebrated, hedonism was given its day again with new drugs on the market to put every Xutizen in a state of bliss. There wasn’t a child in that part of the galaxy who didn’t Awe and Ooo at the Starbreakers or own a Shooting Star doll, a Black Rock Road action-figure. Expats and tourists, especially from Orchid seemed to support the XU government more as time went on- a warring champion like Satsuma earning popularity and acclaim, as most had seen Lyras as merely a failure challenger who was currently

succeeded by her son en route to be the new Domina. With Goliath’s influence in Orchid and Satsuma’s in Xi, they rapidly changed public opinion for Orchidians and other universes to be highly favorable towards Ursula and her regime.

In knee-jerk response, Raquel and MM tried to show how Ursula was ‘brainwashing’ her citizens and how her schools were vile reeducation camps disguised as beauteous opportunity centers. To further her cause, Ursula and Llavalite outlier clans had begun to form their own galanet and had opened their own galactic news station, under the name of Stardust News, and began to broadcast to the Xi'an populace, showing footage of the High-Fleet being beaten back and footage of how things were different in XU. Prosperous. Peaceful. Pretty.

Stardust news with its trendy, big-breasted anchors, drag show segments, diversity initatives for Llavalites, Celebrity sing-offs, Set and Orchid panelists, and a slew of gossip and showbiz news won the hearts of the public, a more modern take on the old news. Xi news was becoming old-fashioned and the High-Fleet was becoming authoritarian and boring, with its new, stagnant and harsh news coverage, focused on the war. Raquel and MM, and Sandra to a lesser extent, as well as many other Starguard, all began to be seen as reactionary, bitter, authoritarian, militaristic, repressive, and worse- fascists, while the XUtizen cause was one of beauty, glamour and peace, as well as the liberation of a new people. Even the name Stardust had a more positive ring to it than Galanet. A popular meme among Stardusters was ‘Where is the Gala?’, mocking those still using the old social media and galactic web servers when the new net was welcoming them with adoring, open arms.

 

 

5 years XvX

Ursula's power and influence grew on the rise. The war in the Llavalite outlier clans was practically over by now, but it took the rest of the year for the battles on the Exodus Dominion and its allies, the Starbreakers and the XU'ans themselves to draw to a stalemate. The High- Fleet was now no more than a quarter of its original size four years in, and had lost much of its strength in technology and morale to the attrition war that Raquel and Machine Mother had tried to win and once thrust upon them.

The Exodus Dominion thanks to their new allies in the Luminary region- given full Set support, had more than doubled in size since they'd began. At over 196 million ships, they were about just short of equal to the 245 million remaining in the High-fleet, and morale among their side had become substantially higher. Though they were weaker than the High-Fleet, they were winning and turning the tide. By now Machine Mother and Raquel had put enough investigation in that Ursula, who overplayed her hand seemed too directly tied to the Enigma to be ignored.

Everytime they'd lost a strategic battle, some incident with the Enigma was involved, leading them to conclude with 98.8% algorithmic certainty that she was responsible. However, they couldn’t truly say how her powers worked or understand how to stop her, even knowing this due to her adaptable nature. Raquel had done all she could to remove any mention of Ursula in the media, as a means of removing her recruitment and propaganda efforts, but the social pendulum had already turned and found too much momentum. The Elderdragons, under tough

negotiation, had to resort to military oversight and martial law to suppress liberties and keep the populace in line, and many people felt that the cost in resources to maintain those measures was not worth it.

While Ursula was promising them resources, prosperity, food and growth, safety and opportunity, hope and happiness, the Elderdragons could only offer an endless war that had dragged on for years and continued to escalate. With so many military dictators, Raquel's regime was seen as a direct contrast to the kindness, the feminine eloquence and beauty that Ursula represented, despite previously being chosen as leader due to her perceived feminine qualities, as an artificial lifeform her imagery couldn't win over support competing with that of Ursula's.

Raquel knew that the only way to win this war would be to erase Ursula from the picture entirely. But she knew that was never going to happen, and she knew that, given time, Ursula would find a way to undo them completely. But at this point the only chance they had was to make a complete, total and absolute victory in this conflict. No negotiation. No compromise. She after great pains with the the lost and distant 6th Elderdragon- Remium Requiem of the edificial Lament, finally convinced him to attempt to negotiate a truce with the Set leadership and return home where he was needed as their top strategist. Remium argued, with great passion that the Set were a far greater danger than some civil war back home- since if the Set were victorious, they'd invade Xi regardless of which side won. He characterized Ursula and her flock as beauteous, effeminate, all appearance and no substance, curators of salons and talkshows and not battlefields. but doomed. They'd fall to internal dissention, their flaws would see to it.

Raquel did not agree. "She's completely different now, much stronger." She said. "Her entire nature is unlike anything Xi faced before."

Remium sighed, knowing her mind was made up. "You do this at your own peril." He said, as Raquel took a bow.

"Then I'll just have to pray to the Cascade that it is not." She replied. "It's no longer a game. It's a war." .

Raquel scoffed. "Not to me."

A truce between the Set and Xi'an factions was made under Raquel's and Machine Mother's leadership. They had little leverage in the military conflict with the Set, and Remium was correct- the Set were a greater immediate threat. Although the Set were their greatest military opponent and the greatest threat to their people in terms of strength, they did not utilize their full capability, in part due to internal conflicts with their caste system long-going, and in part due to fears of the Caldari galaxy threatening them across the other side of the pond. However although the signed truce freed up an entire arm of the High-fleet to return home and fight in a struggling internal war, it allowed the Set to support funding their enemies in the Dark Alliance with even greater impunity. And they could not risk undoing this truce simply to complain about the Luminaries supplying and aiding their opponent.

5.3 years XvX

In rapid time, under the brilliant tactics of Remium taking command in his own personal mech and his patriotic swagger, the Xi'ans began to recover ground and fight back again after the pendulum had swung against them for so long. Remium was a man said to be able to win a war under even the direst circumstances, even if outnumbered 20 to 1. Remium began to fight back and push the Dark Alliance from territory. A massive fleet and an immense military offensive had been sent to the forefront.

The next 6 months saw Remium deliver a sweeping charge of tactical victories, involving genius manuevers none had ever seen. He even found ways to exploit weaknesses in the Starbreakers, in addition to exploiting weaknesses in Ursula's overall command and her tendency to be too easily swayed by emotion. For a short while, it felt like the war had begun to turn in the Elderdragon's favor. However, this only set the stage for the final, brutal conflict.

5.9 years XvX

The Xi'an military was finally beginning to win, for the first time in the conflict. The Dark Alliance's forces had begun to dwindle in size again, and the High-Fleet had been able to hold its own against them, even with the Enigma, in a series of major battles that had been won, against all odds. Ursula herself had been pushed back. And as a result of this momentum, Xi'an morale and energy and optimism had also begun to increase, just as it was losing hope as the war raged on. But then came the worst blow to Xi'an morale in the history of the war. A blow that would change the course of the conflict forever.

Appearing one day, on every single screen in the galaxy was not Ursula's usual hijacked broadcasts or some diatribe against Xi-leadership. Rather it was the devastating public image breaking sight of Sandra herself. Or, what appeared to be Sandra- dyed bright pink, face sparkling with makeup and glossy lipstick, a cheery smile to her that was nothing like the military tactician they knew and loved.

She broadcast on galanet newscasts and across screens and space stations, that Xi had lost their leader and she now happily served Premier Ursula, pronouncing her surrender to the cause of XU. Xi'an politicians, soldiers, pilots, and personnel of all kind watched as their military dictator who had led her people to victory in their darkest hour, now appeared as a feminized and fragile, sugary-pastel woman who had been corrupted by a manipulative feminine siren- and it was too much for Xi'ans to stomach.

Machine Mother and Raquel attempted to explain, that it was a trick of the Enigma, but to no avail. That was all they could do. They attempted to put a spin to the story, to make it sound like she'd voluntarily, heroically given herself up to the cause of XU. But it failed. Sandra herself had been found by Ursula in some Caldera bar in cryostasis and after being brought in, made into Ursula's thrall and mouth-piece seemingly made to act out this spectacle, and the Xi'an people wouldn't have it. Public trust in the Elderdragons and government plummeted.

Countless politicians and even many military chiefs defected to the enemy's side, believing if Sandra was declaring her loyalty to Ursula they should aswell naturally.

On top of that, the Xi'an economy had suffered greatly under the constant strain of war, as their resources, the Enigma, Ursula's subversion, austerity measures and the overall state of Xi'an military dictatorship was collapsing the state of things. A constant problem being created by the war- Which Ursula and her giggly mascot, Lil Sys promised they could be the solution for. The populace, who were already in disarray due to Sandra's surrender had begun to fall into a state of chaos.

With Sandra's own declaration of surrender- the Xi'an political and military establishment began to fall apart.

6.5 years XvX

Xi, lead by the 4 remaining Elderdragons was again overturned by a string of defeats in a 7 month period following that declaration, in a massive victory against Xi'an tyranny. Ursula now took command of 1/3rd all Xi territory across the galaxy, while rapidly recruiting its armadas and its people in successive battles to her own. The Starguard that had previously supported Xi, had now effectively defected completely by now back to Ursula.

Then, for unknown reasons, the Set governance one day announced the annulment of the their treaty, and attacked Xi immediately. Any attempts at communication or diplomatically halting their advance were shut down. The Luminary Empire allied with Ursula in the successive months. Additionally, a large fraction of the Starguard defected.

The High-fleet thus had now less than 166 million ships left against 245 million of the combined alliances of Ursula, and were now outnumbered those commanded by the her. With Luminary's support, Xi faced war against the Set, Dominion, rapidly defecting Starguard and the Llavalite outlier clans who had re-armed and declared war again, the High-fleet now faced 4 separate fronts. Additionally, the Sovereignty saw it the best opportunity to attack both sides, launching a terrorist campaign to undermine Xi and XU, desiring neither to truly emerge victorious and rule over the galaxy. Machine Mother and Raquel now saw that time was now a factor that they needed to deliver a quick decisive blow towards the Dark Alliance, and it had become an impossible objective. The High-fleet lost more and more ships each day, their galaxy lost more territory each passing hour while the Dark Alliance gained greater and greater momentum, even as they got closer to finding an answer to reversing the Enigma. Raquel and Machine Mother, who had no plans to negotiate with Ursula or her allies knew this would only get worse.

 

 

6.8 years XvX

Xi'an morale had hit rock bottom and Ursula's promise of a new world under XU had given new strength to the war effort on her side. A new world where the Xi'an people would find

prosperity, food, water, housing, work and opportunity and a new galactic society. No more wars. No more strife. No more strangling, pitiful resource-restrictions.

No more Enigma.

In her and Lil Sys's broadcasts which could no longer be blocked, she promised beauty. Pleasure. Excitement. Fun.

Raquel and Machine Mother, and the remaining loyal people of Xi knew this was a trap and not real. A lie. But many felt that Ursula's promise of a new age was far grander and more fulfilling than whatever miserable state of war and destruction the Elderdragons had lead them to.

Ursula had come to be feared by Xi'ans. As they had learned to fear the Enigma, the fear of Ursula's name had permeated into their hearts. And they grew afraid, they grew worried.

They were losing their people, their resources. Their ships. Their power. And a portion of their populace had taken up Ursula's philosophy and had begun to work to undermine their leadership and weaken their war effort in secret. Their resources grew more and more strained, and their government was beginning to turn to outright tyranny to control the populace- as they had to in order to stop planetary riots.

The war effort against the Set had ended in a truce, as the Set told Raquel something to the effect of 'Your foreign affairs no longer interest us.' Perhaps, she speculated, they'd planned on taking both the Dark Alliance and High-fleet in a single bout after weakening both and swiping all of Xi in the aftermath. Once it became clear it would not be a slow mutual destruction but the Alliance had gained so much momentum with the sails on their back, that that the Set were unlikely to gain much from the war in Xi'an territory, they simply cut their losses and retreated. Only a month later would further information confirm they had their own woes on their side to be concerned with- apparently struggles on the homefront and tension with the Caldari galaxy had forced their hand into retreat.

But even so, Xi was still in a losing position.

The Dark Alliance had now declared open war on the High-fleet, and Ursula had turned her entire arsenal of weapons upon the remnants of the Elderdragons. The Elderdragons had to watch Blackrock appear from the farthest reaches of space and like a bullet of Strong- Interaction, ram herself through endless numbers of their warships. Her sister, Shooting Star would only need to get herself in close enough proximity to charge the weak-interaction to charge and upset the gluons in atomic particles and cause supernovas to erupt in the depth of space. And the worst of them, the Orchidian, Satsuma only needed to be within a few lightyears of any arriving set of ships to prepare a lethal barrage, where like catapults of ancient rome and most primitive siege weapons, her simple sling would send a cannonade shelling of projectiles across the cosmos to devastate the war machine that called itself the High-Fleet, blasting and destroying ranks in massive casualties. The 245 million ships of the High-fleet the Elderdragons had all left, were being shredded to the atomic and galactic levels of sub-atomic particles by the very fabric of the universe, all by Ursula's will.

6.9 years XvX

Raquel, Machine Mother and the remaining loyal Elderdragons sent an urgent message, a desperate cry to her allies and even to Ursula in hopes that her forces would relent, that they were surrendering their remaining fleet, but would need an armistice to preserve what they could, in order to try to hold some semblance of peace. Their agreement was that Ursula could hold onto the 1/3rd of the galaxy she'd taken and it could become her territory, a sovereignty she could govern under, so long as the remainder of Xi was left unharmed. A peace between the two factions, galactic borders negotiated fairly. To Remium this was an absolute outrage, a surrender borne of cowardice and fear. He saw the war as a clear cut, not a negotiation. No matter the cost. But Raquel explained to him, they would lose all of Xi, every ship in their armada if they did not have an agreement. It was a hard sell, but she did her best to convince them this was for the best of Xi.

Remium, at great reluctance agreed- but refused to go to the meeting itself to be in any part of such appeasement.

Lil Sys was overjoyed to learn her Mistress's greatest opponents were about to surrender to her, in such defeat and devastation. That Xi'an society and government was beginning to crumble, her propaganda broadcasts and her Enigma-powered media had successfully destroyed the High-fleet's resolve. The very empire that Lil Sys previously lead, she was now cheering the slow destruction of. Ursula would now be able to hold a position on Xi'an land, under Xi'an territory and command the remaining Xi-fleet as her own, to use as she wished.

Ursula and her loyal supporters were overjoyed. However, Ursula had another trick up her sleeve.

Raquel, Rondo and Machine Mother, along with dozens of military commanders and a few hundred staff arrived at a great conference hall, under the flag of the High-fleet- a 6-sided serpent in red and black across a white star on it to negotiate a truce. Upon entering the room, they were greeted with the familiar face of Sandra as Ursula's right-hand woman, but now wearing a pink skirt and jacket, pink lipstick and makeup.

"Sandra." Rondo said, stepping forward. "Who, me? Oopsies! Forgot the dramatic pause! Silly me! Psst. Xi’an buddies? Should’ve joined XU. Like, yesterday. Ursula’s waaaay nicer. Plus, she fixed my brain! Now I don’t even stress about boring stuff"

She said, with the same sugar sweet voice and a giggle, looking like a 1950's housewife who knew the secrets to a perfect home.

"Sandra, what the f…" Rondo trailed off, trying to comprehend that their previous military leader and galactic Xistress was now some barbiedoll being paraded by the enemy. The Sandra he knew and loved, who would stare him down and kill herself on the spot if she ever caught herself saying that, she would never have gone along with this. But, Xi, and the Xistress and the High-fleet had long since ceased to be what they had been before, or what they were

supposed to be. And this Sandra who seemed to have accepted being a mouthpiece, a puppet- a brainless vapid fool.

Ursula sat on a high chair, crossing her legs.

There were however, no other diplomats, generals or anyone to negotiate with but her and Lil Sys, and three of her Starbreakers behind Ursula in the form of Blackrock, Shooting Star and Satsuma. At this point, Raquel knew that something wasn't right. That they'd been setup.

They'd be played. They were here to negotiate, but they were now to be used as instruments in a trap.

Ursula was ready for Raquel and Machine Mother's arrival to the conference, to welcome them and announce their surrender to her on live galactic feed. Ursula handed her a comm disc. However, as Raquel read the data-packets and scrolling holographic terms that projected as a long list of terms, she grew irate. "The High-fleet will be liquidated and absorbed into the Starguard? The remaining Xi-territories will become a protectorate territory under XU jurisdiction for a 'transitional period' of 2 years? I'm not even going to get into the 'trade agreement' but you do realize Xi will be crippled under these conditions." Raquel said.

She grew a little irked that she'd been tricked and set up, that Ursula had the audacity to set her own negotiations on her. But she knew this was all she could do.

Lil sys giggled. "Raquey, I know you've been brainwashed by Xi poopoo-ganda" Ursula said. "But, like if you don't sign this, the High-fleet will be reduced to a pile of ash by our Starbreakers. Totes will!" Lil Sys said, in an overly cutesy, overbearing voice of someone who hadn't quite learned to master their social-interaction yet.

"Sign it." Ursula said terse. "You have nothing to bargain with. This is our offer. Take it, or lose it."

"NO. The deal was to let YOU keep 1/3rd of the space you've since taken control of, not to surrender the entirety of Xi over to you!" Raquel said defiant. Lil Sys feigned fear, running hugging into Ursula's arms who stroked her hair and protected like her like she was her own child. "

Satsuma's eyes shifted away from Raquel, to Rondo. "Rondo. Your High-fleet has failed to defeat me, the great Satsuma. Perhaps you'd better join your friends in their surrendering to our Premier? Convince her." She said.

Rondo folded his arms and and grunted. "I'm not a politician. If you'd like to duke it out personally, I'm sure I can do some 'convincing.'"

"Oooo, scary." Satsuma teased.

"Ursula. We do not surrender. This agreement is void and null." Raquel said, tossing Ursula the comm-disc. "I do not consent to this treaty. I refuse to sign it. I will not, and we do not surrender. We will resist and shall continue to fight you."

Lil Sys scowled and Ursula sighed. "How regrettable. I thought it might come to this, but no one ever said that I would need to threaten your lives directly." Ursula said, as Lil Sys grinned in delight.

"Oh please!!" Lil Sys said. "You're just being a baby. You do want to be free, Raje-lucy?

And Meanie mommie? Ronald McDonald?" She pouted.

"This is serious. Enough joking around, Ursula. If you want to force us to be your enemy, fine." Rondo said, getting on his feet. Ursula stood as well.

Ursula walked out to the center of the room, to face off with the Elderdragons. "Very well. It's a shame. It would have been very nice to have you all surrender voluntarily, but I'm afraid all things must be taken care of in a manner befitting their station. If you three want to flap your gums and sit pouting and holding your breath, do so at your leisure." She walked to a small podium and lifted a metal hatch over some spherical device, pressing her finger into the spear until it glowed a bright neon-purple. A forcefield around the Three elderdragons appeared.

Ursula said. "As for me, I will be taking care of my business. As I'm sure you're well aware, I have plenty of enemies in this galaxy, and there's plenty of ways to deal with them."

Slowly the forcefield grew iridescent and then began to spin, a sound grew louder and louder, as an unimaginable amount of force pressed in, as the room grew hotter and the energy in the air more and more intense- Rondo felt the pressure growing.

"Soooo…" Lil Sys said, wagging her finger in the air. "Why don't you 3 jerks take a little vacation for awhile? I mean, I know you were kind of busy with the war and stuff, and all- but seriously, you must be tired, and like I don't mean to be a total jerk, but you know, YOU NEED A LIFE!"

Soon the sphere spun fast enough that one couldn't see within. "Misbehaved children get punished. Go to time out." Ursula quipped, watching as the sphere imploded in and a great pressure exploded out. When the implosion of light finished, the three were gone. The three Elderdragons were nowhere to be seen from the room.

"You, killed them?" Zari asked, feeling a tinge of unease.

"Of course not. I'm not an executioner or some brute." Ursula corrected. "That device was something Croix concocted to give me an out from my imprisonment. Of course I never used it, knowing the devil my sister can be. It simply sent them somewhere else."

"Where did you send them?" Zari asked,leaning over abit.

"Who knows?" Ursula began making her way towards the exit. "Somewhere they won't escape, I don't know anything more than that. But now, I have things to do. Much to do."

"Hey, why didn't you just kill them?!" Satsuma asked.

"The Xi may be the enemies of XU. But it would be unconscionable to give them the pleasure of having died by XU's hand. We can't afford to lose our own potential future allies by killing them like common enemies."

"Hihii, good thinking Ursula!" Lil Sys said, clapping her hands in glee, as if standing as a perfect example in the flesh.

"So, who's next?" Lil Sys asked. "Do I get to smoosh them too? Pleeeease?" "No, Lil Sys." Ursula replied. "You don't."

"Aw." Lil Sys pouted.

Satsuma looked to her leader, Zari did not respond- her eyes, like the 2 others was now glued to Ursula's movements. "Tsk, she's way too merciful. No Orchid leader would ever give their enemies a chance to return and plot against them. Ever."

"Speaking of Orchid.. We finally going to meet our benefactor? The so called 'new Domina', do they still have their hands full with that so-called challenge of theirs?" Zari remarked.

Serena stared ahead, her neon-red visor glowing eerily. ""I have no concerns there." She said in a cold steel voice, with an emotionless, but firm face. "Orchid politics are not any of our business. When they're ready to pick up the phone and help us with our war, we'll do introductions and help us with theirs."

Ursula smiled. "In good time. He sent his little messengers to be his liaison the day we escaped. And for that, I am grateful. But the time for formal introductions will come. When the stars are right, it will happen. I trust him."

Ursula and Satsuma smiled, the latter more forced than the former. The emphasis on 'him' at the end amused the pitcherplant.

Rondo meanwhile, had been shunted into some other pocket universe, with the 2 others arriving to survey the scene. The room they'd been teleported into was completely featureless- no lights, no textures. Just the 3 of them. Somewhere between dimensions. "Where the hell are we?" Rondo asked.

Raquel, for the first time in her entire existence couldn't feel the presence of Xi. Not here, a million lightyears away, anywhere.

"Nowhere." She said.

Machine Mother, feeling a terrible sense of deja-vu, and an even greater sense of horror and dread gazed out over the empty abyss overhead. Thoughts of concern for Lil Sys- no, for Sandra weighed heavily on her mind. Behind them, hundreds of their men and top personnel would soon join them.

7 years XvX

After their banishment, the High-fleet, some 127 million warships and counting- all the ships and the massive armies, infantry, swarms of Aphidstritus astrastrata cisterna and remaining military forces began gathering at the centerpiece of the High-fleet's line of defense- at the Mourning Moon in all its bio-terrestrial glory. Remium, as the last free Elderdragon in acting capacity was charged with its fledging defense.

He'd be forced to watch over the months as Blackrock, Orchidian Satsuma and Shooting Star would appear from no where and begin to dismantle the High-fleet's war machine- and as they did, thousands of smaller ships would arrive to surround and take apart the High-fleet's vessels piece by piece, until they were taken apart entirely. The armadas of the Dark Alliance were in a thousand lightyear distance from the Mourning Moon. The High-fleet surrounding it however, was now a de-facto resistance movement, fighting to preserve the remnants of the empire and prevent Xi from being fully taken over by Ursula.

Within Remimum's fighting bio-mech, the A-BSP Lariat Remimum took the sight of rows and rows of over a hundred million ships in phalanx formation in the skies of the moon. The Mourning Moon itself, had gigantic maw-like gaps in its fleshy structure the size of small countries, gigantic tentacles flailing and protruding like whips from it. Built atop its platinum chassis were 358,976 plasma-lance turrets and 22,318 particle-beam batteries, each able to melt through a 12KM fleet carrier in a matter of seconds. Its flesh had been re-engineered over the decade with a new kind of biotech armament layer to be a hardened metal, that could hold out the elements of space better, and absorb a wide-spectrum of galactic kinetic energy and radiation.

Despite the armada, Remium knew that this wouldn't be enough. Ursula was not going to stop at half. She would not rest until the entirety of Xi had been brought to heel.

He recalled battles on worlds thousands of years past, where large castles would be built with walls, moats and mortars to try to fend off invaders and attackers attempting to siege them. They'd built such a fortress on this moon- its impenetrable armor, its defensive batteries, its slow mobility through the Galaxy and it's hull thick enough to serve as a bulwark for the empire itself. For whatever they could hope to do against a supernova or lightspeed missile and the forces of the universe, the Mourning Moon would not go down without a fight.

Remium realized as he sat, staring at the void of endless starships, that they'd all fight to the death and die in vain to save their home.

No, he thought, this isn't how it ends. This can't be the answer.

"Remium." He heard his inner voice. "What are you going to do? Will you yield?" The voice asked. "No." He said, and as his bio-engineered brain began to work, he realized what he needed to do.

The Mourning Moon would not be capable of stopping the Starbreakers' own weaponry, but He would take their own energy source and turn it against itself. The MM had a specialized

star-like core that powered it, its weapondry and main planetary-destruction beam. Such a thing would do little against Strong-Interaction, but if turned against itself, he could cause the entire Moon to collapse.

"I'm going to destroy this Moon." He said. "And I'm going to use all its energy as a weapon to try to destroy the Starbreakers." Yes, he thought to himself. Even if it costed the High-fleet their greatest fortress in the galaxy, the Moon imploding and turning its core into a singularity, would cause it to collapse into a blackhole. If he timed it right, he could isolate all three Starbreakers at once and take out the Dark Alliance's greatest weapons. He immediately began to issue the orders for the High-Fleet to fly a few thousand AU out of range, and for numerous Stellar-class fusion bombs to be moved from the turrets to the core. This drew immediate shock and outrage from the remaining brass.

"Remium! What are you doing!?" Officer Kuza blared, her voice filled with shock.

Remium realized that he'd just revealed his intentions to his ship-computer, and to anyone else who might be listening, and that such a move could very well cause great harm to the Xi, just to prevent greater harm to the empire as a whole. But it was necessary for the survival of the empire.

Remium was forced to defend his decision, he'd been in battle and seen the face of war. What had costed hundreds of millions of lives would be sacrificed to save the Xi. "Our people, our world and our entire galaxy is threatened by the powers of the Dark Alliance. They've already conquered over 1/3rd of Xi, and we're in a losing battle. They've outmatched our abilities and our resources, and their generals are far more powerful and stronger than even the brightest minds of Xi can imagine. This is our only recourse- we destroy our greatest asset to take out theirs. Once the Starbreakers are gone, it'll just be a match of sheer numerical superiority and numbers, and with my tactics I can surely route and defeat the remains of their fleet." He told Kuza and the others listening. At first, Remium's plan was met with outrage. Then hundreds of top crew members began to murmur in agreement.

Kuza glared. "Remium, are you sane?" She said. "Or are you on some kind of drug? With due respect, it would be suicide to self-destruct the Moon, not to mention we have over 200 military installations in this quadrant within lightyears. Do you have any idea how much destruction creating a blackhole to tear through our galaxy could cause?" Her lone objection lead the brass to silence. Most of the more ardent and competent officers had been trapped with the other 3 Elderdragons when Ursula pulled her trick, leaving those scared, desperate and most importantly obedient for a solution.

"I'm also going to strip you of your command. I'm going to issue the order to self- destruct the Moon." He said, giving the order to Kuza.

"I'm sorry, Kuza. But what we're doing is just going to hurt us more and more. This is my solution, my final option and it's the only way we can win."

The Stellar-class bombs had begun to move, 240 were loaded into the core of the moon, enough to cause a supernova which would blow the Mourning Moon from inside, and then

collapse it into a dense singularity after causing a blackhole to form. It was not a matter of if the Moon was going to collapse, but when.

Within 60 hours, the Dark Alliance's ships had arrived at the edge of low-scan detection. Like a great scourge upon the stars, the ships of the Peacekeepers, the Reformants, and the X- dominion poured in through subspace, as Blackrock, Satsuma and Shooting Star circled their orbit. Among them, were a few thousand Orchidian scout ships, sent from the new Domina-in- trial to observe the battle, much to Satsuma's amusement.

This was the final phase. The war was going to end one way or the other. Ursula and the Orchidians planned to take it one way, the High-fleet planned to take it the other.

Lil Sys stared out over the endless dark abyss and its infinite stars. The darkness was beginning to change. And it wasn't because of the Stellar-class fusion bombs they'd planted at the core. That was hours away. But rather, Remium had ordered billions of smaller Scavenger Swarm-Class ships to gather outside of the warships and fly in range of the enemy. Such a force wouldn't pose a terrible threat to the Alliance's biggest warships and the Starbreakers, however the Scavengers carried a strategic purpose.

Shields and cannon fodder.

"Good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder, they'll fill a pit as well as better men.." Remimum said, quoting Shakespeare. His princely visage watched on the scanners as innumerable of the Swarm ships appeared from the abyss and onto the horizon of the enemy, firing plasma-bolts and beam arrays of a range low-sweep, like throwing lit matchsticks and fireworks against an army of canoes. Following them was a Calvary-like charge of millions of small ships Sparthawk cluster vessels, all armed collectively with hundreds of millions of mini- nukes and warheads, plasma-bolts and rail-guns cannon, each one carrying a Stellar warhead with massive thermonuclear bombs, and each one capable of causing a Cascade-charged warhead equivalent to a 50000-megatons of TNT. They began sweeping the night with these firebombs, like a brilliant light illuminating the darkness, each one like a falling angel.

The Peacekeeper commander ordered his ships to move back out of range, with the other two factions doing the same. The plan Ursula and X-Night gave them was to put their combined forces on one wing, then use the Starguard on the backfoot to cut off their retreat once they sieged the Mourning Moon. "What the hell are they doing? Trying to out-flypaper us?" The commander scoffed. Suddenly, his radar, scanners and communication became more confused, as the Sparthawks all to begin sending 120,000,000 Stellar warhead missiles in their direction. The ships were already moving out of range of the scanned detonations, their computer systems and machines calculating the impact and de-accelerating, then accelerating backwards rapidly back from the intended detonation point as to miss most by a few tens of thousands of miles.

"I-I never-" The commander said in dismay. "What the hell are these things? Our sensors are going crazy, it's as if they're trying to swat flies!!"

The same effect repeated across the Dark Alliance- sensory and communication technology was cut off. Far from the battlefield, Ursula observed a planet away. "What the hell's going on?" She asked.

Blackrock got chills, floating in the deep of space. Serena, sharp of wits cut past the lightshow as her communications channels on her comm were blocked and she realized the extent of the enemy's strategy. She flew rapidly to a nearby Starguard flagship and conveyed it to their captain. "They're not using these bombs for attack, they know blowing their load early will bleed them dry- they're using the EMP properties. That's why their nukes are overshooting. The transient electromagnetic disturbance is frying our sensors. They're trying to take our eyes and ears hoping we're fighting blind.”

The two conveyed this to Ursula listening lightyears away. "Good. That's the smartest move. It's just a shame they're not smart enough to realize it would only give us more space to prepare our own attack. Our battle would be a thousand times harder if they saved those to use defensively." The premier said.

Soon the battle was underway. The Dark Alliance's ships began to move forward. "They're still charging in!" Kuza yelled.

"Why would they attack with their channels and electronics jammed? They're flying right through the EMP field." Remium asked.

"Their ships have EMP inducers too. Not so many, but they're still vulnerable to them." She said.

"But we're the ones leading a sortie. An EMP wouldn't cripple us nearly as much as them storming into a defensive position blind." Remium said confused.

Suddenly, on every High-fleet scanner their opponent's ships began to suddenly appear within neck's range of their fleet, as if teleporting out of the abyss. Dots popped onto sensor screens in rapid order by the millions.

"How?!" Kuza panicked. "Is it some new cloaking technology?" "No.." Remium took a moment. "It's, the Cascade?"

The High-fleet were just as flummoxed by the sudden appearance of the Dark Alliance's forces, only theirs had just suddenly appeared within the Mourning Moon's defense range.

Blackrock, Satsuma and Shooting Star were only just now moving in their defense as the Mourning Moon fired upon them.

Back from Ursula's war room, she folded her hands. "Not that we needed the confirmation- but we have our Llavalite friends for thanking us for the, auxiliary research they provided on Electra-magnetic radiation and Cascade storm Parativity. Remium's move is just what we needed. Thanks to the little flux of electromagnetic field he created, our wavelength generators could raw pickup and convert it into a raw Cascade field.”

Remium was about to see, for the first time in his life, a Cascade storm on this unprecedented scale. He looked at his command and saw that the battle had begun. In front of them was the Dark Alliance- previously lightyears away in bombarding range, now pinching within orbital range of the Mourning Moon. In ancient battles of long-range weaponry, walls, shields and trenches were needed to rally one through the no-man's land. In space warfare of large significant numbers, tactics were no different. To transverse the empty space controlled by the opponent's firepower required ships to be organized into smaller charges, and organized into wings, fleets and battle groups that could navigate around the mass-fire that would annihilate them.

Today's high-tech warfare, was no longer an ancient battle. The massive Cascade field that Ursula's tech had created from the EMP field put her entire forces right beyond the trenches of space, and entered into the atmosphere of the Mourning Moon, behind even enemy lines. It was if she was able to get directly to her opponent's capital or military base while bypassing their catapults and cannons completely.

Their result- a surprise, devastating sneak attack. The Mourning Moon's automated computer control system, began to move the hundreds of thousands of turrets to their proper positions. "We're in the hornet's nest. Got that virus ready?" Ursula asked on her communication channel.

"Ready freddy! I've been cooking this bad baby up allllllllll night! Uploading now!" Entrapta yelled from her workshop, typing away on 7 different holographic keyboards and looking at two-dozen screens. Her signals already hijacked the Mourning Moon's encryptions and began rerouting their defense systems.

The turrets were no longer meant to fight back against Starbreakers. They would destroy each other. By destroying the Mourning Moon's own defenses, Ursula would quickly gain free access to her interior. It had been twenty minutes before

all the Highfleet's turrents were gone. They'd all been converted, self-destructing and killing each other in rapid order. The Highfleet was only now arriving back in range of the teleported Alliance fleet, having to turn around to fight an opponent that was previously in front and now skipped completely behind them.

"Remium, the turrets are gone!" Kuza explained.

Let's go!" Blackrock yelled into her comm unit, charging her Strong Interaction field and flying directly into the MM. Her body went through platinum, steel and hardened flesh as if it were sea-foam, meeting no resistance whatsoever.

The Mourning Moon's computer system, having been programmed to detect Strong- Interaction intrusion began a self-destruct sequence, 25 minutes to give any personnel within enough time to evaluate. While the High-fleet arrived, Satsuma had already prepared and was waiting for them. With a grip of gravel and lead artillery in her hands, she began shelling the returning ships rapidly, creating a series of vivid explosions in the distance.

"They're shelling us! Relativistic shrapnel!" Kuza announced. "We're 5 steps ahead of them. Get those Clusterhawks around her."

The swarm of a billion dragonfly-like ships appeared from the former position of the Dark Alliance's ships, now surrounding and firing rapidly at Satsuma like cicadas. She slung her shots again, the sheer number absorbing the impact of her spread and "Ugh, stupid, stupid, stupid- Sending flies to block me." She'd only managed to destroy the enemy by the thousands each second, the fleet too numerous for her to make a meaningful break or eat away at their numbers.

Shooting Star was prepared for as the other High-Fleet warships gathered near, the beam from her visor destroyed their bombs and weaponry flying towards her and the Mourning Moon, they too created a series of explosions in a grandiose and grand scale, like a thousand firework displays each more colorful and larger than the next.

"They don't care that they're firing at their own base? We're on their home turf.

Something's up.." Zari said.

In the deep of the enemy stronghold, Blackrock felt the Mourning Moon begin to rumble with atomic force, her visor's own scanners showing the massive gravitational stresses within the Moon's core and the pressure that was building. "Ursula, the Mourning Moon's slowly collapsing." She announced.

"So that's what they're counting on." Ursula replied. "They want to trap us and fool us into thinking we take their little prize- then they run off while they destroy it and all of us. A very aggressive plan, only someone as foolish as that Remium could come up with it." She said.

Within the Moon's core, Remium sat, watching the Mourning Moon's computer system show the battle as it escalated. The core's reactors began to overload, and the gravitational stresses within the core was becoming more and more unstable.

Their radar, Star guard communications and sensor equipment had been fried as they entered. Caleb, Veronica, Jel and the Star Guard fleet were charging in from beyond the Moon- piercing and sandwiching the Highfleet in a pincer attack between them and the Dark Alliance forces that had warp-jumped via the Cascade storm earlier directly to the Mourning Moon's orbit.

The Star Guard was all smiles, but the Highfleet was panicking. The Star Guard had taken their ships in the flank and cut them off from their communication, using the darkest of the Cascade storm they could produce to send ships right through to the other side of their own weapon-fire. Sending them directly to a knife-fight, an attack-all direction- to an all-out free for all.

The nature of the Cascade storm, which had now spread and engulfed around the entire Mourning Moon seemingly uncontrollably worked to turn the battle into a topological nightmare of a dogfight. Highfleet ships would fire at targets, only to find said opponents 'behind them' and firing back from their rear or flank. Positional coordinates and calculations

were thrown off, and the electromagnetic radiation had overwhelmed most sensor equipment ruining long-range visibility and clarity for both sides. The attacking space, and even time of each warship and ship became almost impossible to predict- as they were now cut off from their own sensors and were forced to try to navigate and battle by sight- something that since the dawn of space warfare where operational ranges could be thousands and millions of miles, was impractical to impossible to execute at such great distances and poor visibility.

At times, ships would warp through space-time, ending up minutes, hours or years ahead, or even backwards in time once hit, the storm throwing the temporal chronology of a great number of both side's forces into jeopardy. While shielding and detection had long since been installed to prevent such phenomenon under milder conditions, the escalating density of the Cascade Storm and its radiation frying many onboard systems interfered with these precautions.

The Mourning Moon began to warp and distort as its gravitational pressures, its own

self-destruction and the implosion of its core would create a blackhole that could be as big as the entire Highfleet. Its own mass was slowly tearing it apart.

Caleb in his Ex.II-Star Paw flew through, sighting the gigantic gaping maw of the Mourning Moon that could lead deep inside. He swerved and dived directly within to enter the base, avoiding the dense cavalcade of hundreds of millions of ships firing at each other at once.

"Our weapons are useless. We're so close to their lines that they're going to destroy each other with their own fire- but look! They're sending their own ships right to the brim of it, they're attacking all the way in!!" Commander Winslope explained, dismayed by the fact.

He and the other High-Fleet officers could feel the gravitational stresses of the moon from within the cores, many ships starting to become pulled in affecting their inertia, acceleration and trajectory in the dogfight. The entire battle was on the Moon's surface, so vast that it was affecting the entire Highfleet itself and their ability to fight an organized defense in addition to the temporal-distortion.

Shields, computer systems, detection and armor, any and all conventional wisdom in a spatial battle were going to be useless at such distance and gravitational warping, making it impractical to attempt to defend. It became almost impossible to do any fast and meaningful maneuvers, both defensive and offensive. They were in a space-dogfight within an imploding blackhole, with the political fate of the entire galaxy upon them.

At the same time, there was no ability for the Highfleet to tap into Cascade-powered engines and flee during the heart of the storm. Any tiny miscalculation of jump coordinates, turbulence, warping in spacetime or just random accidents could easily doom their escape, for every ship across the entire fleet.

The Dark Alliance was in control, half of their forces not even sent into the fray yet, waiting outside the storm like cavalry there to charge any escaping ships. Ursula smiled as she watched the battle unfold, Remium had made made one of the most critical errors in any type of warfare- packing all his forces in one dense formation, effectively putting all his eggs in one

basket. And now those eggs were scrambled eggs at the heart of a storm they couldn't control or get out of.

Ursula finally made it to the base too, her own flagship arriving into orbit of the Mourning Moon. Her private fleet, the Pastel Patriot appeared from nowhere as the Dark Alliance's ships swarmed the Highfleet ships from above and beneath them, both inside orbit and outside the storm. While they fired upon each other, 40 million Starguard ships swarmed and surrounded the High-fleet from outside the storm, sending a barrage of railgun artillery- shots that a working forcefield or shield could easily defend against, had most computer systems not been cooked in the propagating EMP now reaching its sender. "All guns, all guns- fire at the center of the fleet." Her ships fired, railgun shots impacting and penetrating their cores in unholy wounds, destroying the heart of the alliance that formed to defend the Mourning Moon, and collapsing their ships one at a time from within, in a single endless assault.

The High-fleet officers saw it coming, but their escape routes were cut off by the surrounding Starguard. By the dozens, hundreds and thousands every passing second, their ships were being destroyed within the heart of the Cascade storm. Zari looked upon the sky like a great specter of the cosmos, a projected kaleidoscope swirling in every reach of the horizon from her view. The Dark Alliance was slowly swallowing them up, surrounding them, and turning the tide of war.

"Know what's happening here, kids? This is the darkest hour. The moment this goes our way, everything goes our way. Ursula might have her entire empire at their command. I'm sure they haven't even been able to come up with a fraction of the resources that we have at our own disposal. But this is the moment we turn it around." Remium said, watching the data on the Mourning Moon's core as it continued to implode.

Kuza messaged in. "Remium sir! Our escape route is cut off, the Highfleet cannot escape!" She told him.

"What?" He replied.

"The Blackhole will swallow us too, we'll be wiped out at this rate!" She said in dismay. "It's the end of us!!"

"The end of us? I'll give you the end of us." Remium said, ordering the Mourning Moon command to fire its solar core out into the atmosphere. A gigantic mouth hundreds of kilometers opened up around the planetary Bio-sphere. Mile by mile, the solar core's plasma burned the Mourning Moon's atmosphere, a brilliant beam and flash of light. The High-Fleet and the entire dark Alliance could see it as it burned like a flaming torch into the atmosphere that burned through ally and enemy alike. The burst of plasma cut like a laser through the fleets and storm, blowing away ships in every direction and every moment, destroying them like so many bugs flying through a flame along with the cyan electric-blue cloud surrounding them.

The Cascade field was destroyed. It could no longer propagate.

"The field dissipated, we're returning to normal!" Jel on the a Comet class vessel announced to the Starguard, her own ships suddenly free from the EMP-radiation, their computer systems back online, and their sensors back up and running again. The Highfleet, Alliance and Starguard alike found organizational ability returning, with massive losses from the several hundred mile wide 'torch' that sweeped through the stars

Kuza was furious. "Remium, you bastard! Those were OUR MEN you shot at too! Those men we trained, drilled, trained and led on all the way through to the gates of hell- now you've got the guts to shoot us in the back!" She yelled.

"Necessary sacrifices. Victory at all costs." He said. "If we cannot commit to winning tactics because of a little friendly fire, we may as well have already surrendered."

Ursula from her flagship waggled her finger. "Killing their own troops, just to get rid of a storm they created and backfired on them? Even the great Xistress would find that a little too coldblooded." She said. With the EMP field gone, the Star Guard could use it's own Cascade- powered engines and swarm the Mourning Moon. "We're in now, the whole way through. Let's go." She said to the rest of her Star Guard Fleet.

Lead by Caleb, Comet, Dove class ships flew into the Mourning Moon's interior. Zari and the others were now aware, the core of the Mourning Moon was now falling down, its gravitational fields now too much to hold against its own internal pressure with the blackhole and singularity forming as Remium's own strategy was unfolding. Caleb flew to the central command organ of the MM and fired at the defending soldiers, before getting out, a large cube- like device on his back. With aerial support from Starguard fighters, he unanchored the cube onto the ground which rose to a pedestal and then expanded horizontally, its massive metal body unfolding like the petals of a flower, until a blue disc was generated out.

Caleb looked at the encroaching soldiers. "You haven't heard of the Compact Warp Engine before?" From the disc, Llavalite soldiers began to pour out and fire at the defending soldiers, who in the confusion and chaos were caught offguard to both footsoldiers and ships above filling the interior spaces of their base. "It's basically a Warpgate on the go. But it makes teleportation possible without having to setup a massive and expensive intergalactic network of portals. With a Llavalite flagship's jump coordinates, we can use it to jump our troops in to any battlefield." The Discs expanded and the Llavalite forces poured in, filling the interior of the Moon's base.

Crawling out of the disc was a squirming, slimy fleshy beetle with turrets and cannons attached to it, its pincers and mandible screeching as it traveled through. Inside, Veronica in her form-fitting A-BSP gear piloted the gigantic insect, her psychic connection to it enabling her to control it telepathically as it shot down any High-fleet soldiers in its sight.

Zari soon joined inside and sat within a centipede-like command vehicle, watching it expand and the Llavalite soldiers and technology coming out of it as they assaulted MM personnel. She walked with a casual stroll- a single tap of her her hand and the weak-interaction touch she inflicted reduced soldiers to gluon soup in a microsecond. Like flies to light, the Dark Alliance poured in and filled up their numbers.

The Mourning Moon's core would collapse in minutes as it destroyed and crushed the High-fleet's base. Sensing it, the High-fleet command began retreating, firing the Mourning Moon away from them, using their own fusion drives and Cascade-tech to escape.

Caleb reached the command center after a dogfight, Veronica providing cover with a guttural roar of her carapace coating with herself inside. Thousands of Dark Alliance and enemy personnel fought with the hundreds of thousands of High-fleet troops- shooting, slicing, stabbing and storming each other. MM personnel were falling one after the other as Caleb moved in, Zari and Veronica moving in behind him, followed by the others as they entered into the Mourning Moon's command halls, running towards the main operational room.

Soon, they'd found the operational control room, and were ready to finish the High-fleet for good. Veronica in her Aphid tore apart the remaining soldiers and Caleb ran to a massive console, a room with servers and industrial infrastructure as far as the eye could see. He took out a Comm-drive and plugged it into the mainframe, Entraptra lightyears away already taking control via the electronic entanglement and a hijacked data-stream.

Caleb and the others fired their weapons and took out the last remaining Mourning Moon operators, a single woman attempting to pull out her knife before Caleb shot her in the leg and Veronica trampled her to death in her Apid.

"It's over." He said.

"One moment!" Entraptra said, taking over the entire base and its firepower. Blackrock and Ursula were on board the Pastel Patriot, and they watched the Highfleet's retreating ship begin to become targeted- the Mourning Moon's high powered planetary 'torch' split into hundreds of thousands of bending beams that rapidly shot beyond its atmosphere from its core, razing and firing at the Highfleet's escaping ships, firing on each and every one.

"That's impossible!" Kuza yelled, watching the Highfleet's ships become the Mourning Moon's targets. Millions of ships were swept in the ensuring beams and lasers, the Highfleet fleeing in different coordinates- but their defenses were only just a little too slow, accelerating too late, a fraction too far behind in the planet's 150 AU firing range.

The Mourning Moon itself however after firing began to tear itself and the High-Fleet asunder, its gravitational fields and atmosphere now falling upon them like a tsunami.

Blackrock began to panic. "It's just as I suspected, goddamn that Remium! He must've known we were planning to capture it." Getting word to get out of there, Caleb, Veronica and the invading soldiers had already rapidly began to make their retreat back through the portable Warpgate before the stability reached a critical threshold. Caleb road on Veronica fused in her A-BSP, riding back through the gate.

On the surface, the Mourning Moon gleamed. Its own gravity now too much for the High-Fleet to escape from, they were being dragged into the core of the Moon's black hole, pulled inwards along with the entire dark Alliance and Starguard. It had become a planet-sized ball of plasma, that was as hot as the sun and as bright as a city's night sky from the dark of space. The entire Mourning Moon began to implode in the deep interior as a series of Stellar

warheads blew its stability further from within. Its dense center, its own star-like core, destabilizing it, it's energy and radiation was sucked in by the blackhole and collapsed.

The light that came from it grew brighter and stronger, even as platinum continental beams on the surface began to bend and suck inwards, the blackhole began to take in its energy and light and eat away at the bio-planet that had served as the High-Fleet's legendary fortress.

"God damn him! He knew we'd do this! He knew! And he did it anyway!" She yelled.

Ursula patted Blackrock on the head, her pushing the woman's arm away forcibly and sulking a few paces aside.

Outside the perimeter of the battle, a lone woman floated in space. Her hair radiated like gold as it flew in the windless void, her body glowing as she began to move. She slowly lifted off, her eyes shining as they locked onto the light of the Mourning Moon, her wingspan stretching and unfolding as she flew hundreds of thousands of miles through the Moon's atmosphere. She could see billions of Clusterhawks falling like rain from the Moon's destruction, billions of them falling towards the center of the Moon and slamming into the surface, the gravity of its singularity-creating core and planetary body overpowering them with an invisible vacuum pressure, crushing their life to death as they crashed into the Moon's atmosphere.

Mercy walked around casually. She had for years been on Goliath's beck and call, doing little chores, taking care of problems, aswell as searching for Becca as requested. For the most part Mercy stayed out of intergalactic politics, letting Ursula do her thing and the war between them and the Xi'ans play out uninterrupted. Whenever Goliath asked about Ursula or how the war was going she'd say "She's cool I guess. I like her fashion." or "It's still going." The years simply flew by for the girl who on SS was once called a prophet.

A single Clusterhawk flew past her head, before impacting into the moon with a loud crash. It died with a whimper, not even the slightest of flinches, or the energy to complain. Mercy's wings unfolded, and she began to slowly move to the darkside of the moon.

She'd watched the battle unfold with curiosity, like a sports match or a movie. As the Cascade Storm appeared from her visage, she'd sat on an asteroid and had done nothing. But as the fight progressed she flew up and began to watch it from the sky like a hawk, following it, taking in the action, and watching it all unfold- even as the Highfleet's ships started to lose cohesion and flee, she'd merely watched many pass by. Now she walked the surface with others screaming and running for their life, going 'Hmm' and 'Aaah'. She put her head to the ground, ear listening closening to the rumbling. "Oh. It's 'sploding." She said.

She smiled, but the smile on her face turned to a grimace as she saw the moon's core imploding. The gravity, the pull was now unstoppable. The entire High-fleet, Dark Alliance, Starguard and even Llavalite ships and personnel that still remained on the surface of the moon were being sucked in like a gravitational vacuum, like water being pulled down into a sink.

Mercy sighed. "Alright. Time to take out the trash." Her wings flapped, she lifted herself high up to gain some distance, then flew back down, drilling herself through the Mourning Moon's bio-surface. She flew and flew down, her wingspan spreading, occasionally digging

whenever a solid surface was breached. Soon she reached the core, feeling her wings pulled in, an occasional feature or two blowing into the singularity.

It was a hot and bright place, the light and gravity of a star-like core. In an instant she could see the blackhole. The gravity, the force and the immense temperature was unbearable and impossible for most, but merely felt like an annoying blowdryer or heated fan to her.

Cracking her knuckles, she stepped on a rocky platform and started marching towards the center of the blackhole, still stable enough to be the size of a large house. "Lemee see here.. I've never dealt with one of these."

As black glowing lines began spreading throughout her skin, she pushed the blackhole inwards, pressing with all her might. It began to buckle and compress under her strength, each hitch and push she gave with her hands becoming more and more intense, the blackhole beginning to grow smaller and smaller. Her skin glowed as she continued to press with her full strength, her body and soul straining as the entire gravity of the void, embodied in a schwarzschild black hole was pushed back and away with her own strength, her body, her will, and her own determination.

Mercy began to feel her body being stretched to the point of tears, the power and magnitude of the blackhole now pushing against her with the strength of a million supernovas. Suddenly, the Blackhole began to collapse like a vacuum, suddenly contracting under the force of her strength, crashing into a tiny shape no larger than a watermelon- then with another hard press, a tennis ball.

"HNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG..." She kept pressing, squeezing and compacting it until the blackhole was the size of a teardrip between her two hands, 3 dimensional Euclidean space ripping within the infidestimal and inter-dimensional fabric of time itself. She felt the entirety of the power, force and the energy of the void and cosmos being poured into her in an instant, her body feeling her every vein, muscle, atom, bone and organ being strained beyond its limit as she made to squish and squash the blackhole with her strength- and finally, she did it. She'd squeezed so hard that she'd inverted the blackhole's gravity in on itself. "Oops- uhhh, didn't mean to do that, what just happened?"

When she released her hands, it appeared like glass, a tiny crystalline droplet. Upon squinting closely- the droplet had been compressed do tightly that it captured 4-dimensional spacetime, effectively becoming a miniature universe along a topological manifold within the singularity, like a snowglobe one could shake. On close inspection, tiny galaxies swirled within- an entire mini-universe, now compacted like a marble within Mercy's hand.

She caught her breath, still sweating from the heat and pressure. "Heh, not bad!" Mercy tossed the marble-universe up a few times, before putting it in her pocket. She then looked upwards, extended her wingspan and rocketed off with a few flaps.

A quarter of the Mourning Moon fell apart like a house of cards in the aftermath, countless metal structures, isles and collapsed pieces drifting aimlessly like a rain of shooting stars. The remainder of it was left decrepit with massive holes and patches in it, but despite the damage it remained recognizable and present. The Starguard surfaced and parked on the

planetoid, celebrating their victory. Other ships in the Dark Alliance were already pursuing the decimated, fleeing High-Fleet, Satsuma shelling projectiles at any she could see still near within a few lightyears destroying countless fleeing warships.

The Outlier Llavalites too were recovering from the ordeal, their ships still intact despite the gravity and heat from the explosion.

On the surface of the Moon, Mercy and Satsuma sat down. "What's going on?" Mercy asked the Orchid girl asked. Satsuma never cared much for the Solar Society, but a woman who could found her own religion, she always reserved a level of respect for. "Our time has come." Satsuma replied.

Mercy nodded, her head slowly bobbing, a tiny smile appearing from the corner of her mouth. "Then let's go kick some more ass." She said, picking up a rock and throwing it at .85 C at a Highfleet vessel. Her and Satsuma began an impromptu tossing contest, sending makeshift missiles across the void lightyears away for fun, to kill time, to wait for an event- and to celebrate victory over the highfleet, of which was now a straggling few scattered survivors in the wake of a devasting battle where they'd failed to halt the advance of Ursula, her alliance and indestructible Starbreakers.

A few hours later, on the High-fleet command ship, Remium stood in despair as he faced his officers, accepting the inevitable truth. No words were said, none expected any comeback speeches or any damage reports outside what was a formality of defeat.

Remium stood in awe as the intergalactic battlefield went on before him. All that was left was space- a vastness of nothing but the endless cosmos that had been emptied of itself, a lifeless void.

The Highfleet was gone. It was over.

Remium had lost. The last of the Elderdragons had been defeated in his element- a tactian whose final gambit had failed.

The battle that began on a prison planet and stretched across the horizons of the galaxy, was now concluded. A war that had been fought for a decade was over.

The dark Alliance, led by Ursula, took over the entire territory of the Ximpirium and soon after, announced the return of XU immediately and the liquidation of all remaints of the 'Failed Xi regime'.

7 years XvX

The Ximpirium was no more. Ursula had won.