Chapter 35: True Allies
Reviewers:
BGTom: Yes.
Liljimmyurine: Thanks. I always just considered Alpha+ psykers as upper Alpha class.
Silvanas: West knows Morden is with the shadows, but he doesn't want to initiate a full scale war with them until the main fleet can come through.
Darth: I'm glad I got you back into it.
Oblivionknight7: The main fleet will arrive when it arrives. The Alliance is handling the Cardassians and their allies.
Ssj4nappa: The Andromeda galaxy is already on my list.
Grayangle: The Imperium is not being destroyed. The Emperor is trying to make it the great empire it once was. Yes, a Federation captain is in charge of ONE of the advance fleets. This was an act by the Emperor to show the Federation that the Alliance stands for equal rights for all. The other advance fleets are under the command of Imperial officers. The Emperor is sending his best soldiers where they are needed the most. He knows that the people of the Imperium are more suited to fighting, while the Federation is better at diplomacy and negotiations. The Emperor trusts every one of his people. West does have a Commissioner. He simply chose to keep him aboard his ship because he knows that there are a lot of aliens on B5 who might try and pick a fight with him. Commisioners are not gone, they will always be around. The Space Marines will still crush he enemies of the Imperium. There are just two less enemies for them to fight. They have alway defended the Imperium from any threat, and they will continue to do so. They will just have to see that the Imperium was fallen from what the Emperor wanted it to be. Humanity does not have to kill every alien to rule the galaxy, only those who are ruled by darkness. The Imperium will always exist, and it will always be hte greatest power there ever was.
Daniel Hollander: I try to include as much detail as I can.
In the Imperium galaxy, things were moving along. The Eldar were slowly but surely moving into their new space. They had claimed most of the space formally occupied by the Eye of Terror. The Alliance had assisted them by installing Federation warp engines on Eldar ships and Craftworlds to help them bypass the damaged sections of their Webway network. With the Tyranids effectively out of the picture due to the virus that was crippling them, the Emperor had focused his attention on the Orks and the remaining Chaos cults.
At the moment, the Emperor's command fleet was awaiting the arrival of a contingent of Elder. Lead by Farseer Silvanas, they would join a delegation of Tau, and together, they and the Emperor would discuss the next phase of their alliance.
"Emperor, a fleet of Eldar vessels are dropping out of warp directly ahead," his second reported.
"On main screen," the Emperor commanded. The viewer showed forty three Eldar vessels dropping into normal space.
"Farseer Silvanas is hailing us."
"Put him on." The screen changed to show the glittering bridge of Silvanas's flagship.
"Emperor, I have come and I have much to discuss with you."
"You may come aboard as soon as you wish. The Tau delegation is here as well."
"Very well. I will come aboard in one half hour. Silvanas out," he said as he closed the channel.
Half an hour later, Silvanas walked into the conference room with two Eldar trailing behind him. They took seats across from the Tau delegation.
"It is a pleasure seeing you again Silvanas," the Emperor said. "However, I must ask why you brought so many ships with you."
"Of course. As you might know Emperor, many of my people still consider themselves superior to humans. They are concerned only with the rebuilding of our race."
"I know of this," the Emperor replied.
"However, myself and others feel that we owe the Alliance a great debt for the destruction of Chaos. A debt that goes beyond merely ceasing hostilities. We believe that human and Eldar should fight together and be true allies. Our leaders however do not share our views, and so those of us who believe in my vision have left our Craftworlds and come here. We officially pledge ourselves to the Alliance. All our men and technology is at your disposal."
"I thank you for doing this," the Emperor said. "We will provide you with whatever supplies and facilities you require."
"Thank you. Now I believe I have something you will wish to see," Silvanas said.
"Oh? What would that be?"
"While we were on our way here, we picked up a distress signal. We tracked it and discovered an Inquisition vessel, nearly destroyed. From what we found in the wreckage, it was evident the damage had been caused by daemons."
"Where there any survivors?" The Emperor asked. He knew that if daemons had attacked the ship, it must have discovered something very important.
"I am afraid not. We did however, find this written on the walls of the chief Inquisitor's quarters," the Farseer said, holding out a disk. He inserted in into the projector built into the table. Four words appeared. BATTLES TOLD. FATES UNFOLD. It was preceded by a string of coordinates. "These were scrawled over every surface. The Inquisitor appeared to have died by loss of blood. We believe the assault was repelled, but the Inquisitor was the last one alive. We do not know what the words mean, but the coordinates are those of a planetary system in the outer Halo stars."
"I know what they mean," the Emperor said a moment later. "The Inquisitor must have been under psychic attack, and only had time to compose the most basic message. I believe he is telling us which Chaos gods are still alive."
"How can four words do that?" Silvanas asked.
"Humans have a talent for finding the meaning in clues that seem too basic to mean anything. Look at the first two words. Battles told. I believe the meaning is in the first word, battles. The Chaos god Khorne was also known as the god of battle. The second two words. Fates unfold. Tzeench was known as the architect of fate. That means that the planet these coordinates reveal may be the planet where the remaining Chaos gods have gone to restore their powers."
"I believe you may be right Emperor," Silvanas said. "Since the Chaos gods were beaten, my visions have become clearer. I have seen visions of a planet covered in oceans of blood and orbited my moons with Chaos marks carved on their surfaces. That planet the writing indicates matches my visions almost exactly."
"Then our course is clear. We will make for this planet with utmost haste. The Chaos gods are undoubtedly restoring their powers even as we speak."
"What would you have us do?" The Tau Ethereal asked.
"Your people do not have much experience dealing with the forces of Chaos. I would request that you remain out of the fighting directly. However, with our exchange of technologies, Alliance scientists have come up with many weapons which could be useful. I would ask that the Tau continue with this research and with settling worlds which will accept you. This I hope will prove that the Imperium is no longer merely about destroying anything not human, but about establishing an empire which will endure forever, no matter what comes against it."
"We will do as you ask," the Ethereal said.
When everyone was returning to their ships, Silvanas walked up to the Emperor.
"I would like to speak to you in a more private place," the Eldar said. The Emperor nodded and the two men retired to the Emperor's private quarters. "I wanted to present this to you is private," he said as he held up a case as tall as himself.
"What is it?" The Emperor asked. Silvanas typed in a sequence and undid seven locks. The case opened and within it glittered a sword with a blade made from black crystal.
"This sword is one of the Eldar's most sacred artifacts. It took a great deal of convincing to get it. This blade was created before the Fall. You see Emperor, while most of my race was devolving into decadence and pleasure, a few of us saw through the illusions to the truth. We knew there was nothing we could do to prevent the birth of the great enemy, so we focused on creating a weapon to destroy the forth Chaos god when it emerged. This blade was created from the very energies of death itself. When the great enemy was born, we used the spirit engines of our entire world and concentrated their energy into this sword, but it was not enough. Though the great enemy was injured, it was not destroyed."
"But now that the Chaos gods are weakened," The Emperor said.
"The Death Blade may be able to destroy them once and for all," Silvanas finished.
"I thank you for this."
"If it works, then Chaos will be gone from this galaxy forever."
"Then let us, together, put an end to the threat of Chaos," the Emperor said, and he and the Farseer shook hands, sealing the union of two of the greatest races in the galaxy.
Meanwhile, in what was becoming known as the second galaxy, Alliance forces had won significant victories over the Cardassians and their allies. Alliance researchers had reverse engineered the Breen energy dampening weapon and had used it to disable many enemy ships without destroying them. The prisoners were taken to gigantic penal colonies where they would be held until the war was over. Cardassia Prime was the next target for the Alliance armada. Admiral Picard was leading the attack with Lord Admiral Madthayn. Once the Cardassian homeworld was theirs, the enemy alliance would certainly collapse. The Breen and the Tholians could not stand up to the Alliance, and the Shakurians were merely mercenaries. Agents were already buying the loyalty of most of the Shakurians who had joined the Cardassians.
On board the Enterprise, Picard and Madthayn were discussing strategy for the final assault on Cardassia Prime.
"I believe we should go in with our entire fleet and use the energy dampening weapons on them." Madthayn suggested. "That way we can end this war with little to no loss of life."
"Your plan is sound," Picard agreed. "But I feel we should give them more time to consider surrender."
"The longer we wait the more chances they will to strengthen their defenses."
"They believe we wish to conquer their worlds and enslave their people," Picard stated. "That is why they are resisting us so strongly."
"All we wish to do is bring them into our alliance and protect them."
"Yes, but they don't trust us enough to believe what we say."
"Then we must prevent them from doing harm to the Alliance. Once they see how we treat their people, I am sure they will see the benefits of joining the Alliance," Madthayn said. "But first we must stop them from continuing their attacks. We must take their homeworld. Once that system is ours, we can speak to their leaders directly."
"What if they continue to resist?" Picard asked.
"Then we will have no choice but to occupy their territory. The Alliance seeks peace and unity, but, just as is the case in my home galaxy, there are those who fight against it. In my galaxy there are many that doubt the validity of the Emperor. They believe his revival was brought about using tainted technology which has in turn caused him to become tainted."
"I am sorry to hear that," Picard said.
"They have been fighting aliens for so long that many believe that any aliens we meet wish to destroy the Imperium. They have been fighting them for so long they have forgotten what the beginning of our empire was about. When the Emperor began the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago, he did not seek the destruction of all nonhuman life. He sought to bring the galaxy back from the darkness that was consuming it. Chaos, the Orks and so many other dark enemies. He sought to bring those who were on the side of light together and destroy those whose souls were ruled by darkness. He did not wish to be worshiped as a god like most believe today. He only wished to save mankind from being destroyed. But that did not mean that only mankind could live. Just because he is making peace with those races who wish to survive and live in peace alongside humans, many consider him a traitor."
"I can only hope that in time they realize that their vision has been clouded by fighting for so long," Picard said.
"As do I Picard, as do I."
In orbit of Earth, the second advance fleet was preparing to go through. After the attempt to destroy the array, repairs were finally completed. The two wormholes which had been stabilized were opened and advance forces were moving through. The fleet headed into wormhole two had twenty ships and was under the command of Imperial Admiral Contsu. Contsu was a distinguished Imperial officer who had won many battles against aliens and traitor humans. He had a brilliant tactical mind and had one many victories, including several in the recent wars against the Orks. His flagship, the Emperor Class battleship Emperor's Wisdom, had recently been refitted and outfitted with the latest technologies, including energy dampening weapons and a cloaking device. As the fleet passed through, no one knew of the foe they would find.
How was that? The next galaxy will be Star Wars. What will happen? Will the Alliance join with the Rebels? Will the Chaos Gods finally fall forever? Will the Emperor be able to regain the trust of his people? Keep reading and find out. See ya soon, and don't forget to review!
ENTILZA