Chapter 32: Pacts, Preparations and Protections

1 month after Chapter 31

Over the month after the Draconia-Terran Dominion War, tensions had eased to an acceptable level between the two powers. The fact that the war was short and few lives were lost meant that fewer hard feelings had needed to dissipate before the leaders could return to the negotiation tables without risking major protests or rioting.

Draconia had alerted Korhal to their coming and they were prepared. However while the Terran Dominion had heard of the Fall of Aiur, they had not heard about the Phoenix class. As such, a small group of battlecruisers were waiting at the edge of the Korhol system for Malkira's arrival.

Onboard the Captain and first officer were talking.

"I wonder what Draconia will do now?" the Captain mused.

"Well with the Crown Princess coming, they'll be sending escorts. Though she'll probably be on one of those Sovereign class."

"Draconia warp signatures detected, massive ships inbound."

"Maybe a few Sovereign class then," the XO muttered. However it wasn't just a Sovereign, but a Phoenix, couple Sovereigns and a small frigate escort.

All around the bridge of every Dominion ship, jaws hit the floor. If they had been stunned by the Sovereign, then the Phoenix blew them away completely. Finally the captain managed to speak. "If they had that available, then I think this war ended at the right time."

The IDS Manastorm and her escorts slowed to meet with the battlecruisers. Letting them move around the massive ship to bring it to Korhal's orbit. The frigates and Sovereigns waited a few AU from the planet, far enough to not worry them, but close enough to respond in an emergency. Once in orbit, Malkira and a few guards beamed down to the palace and she headed to the throne room. Once she was announced, she walked partway to the throne and gave a short bow of respect, flaring her wings slightly.

"Emperor Mengsk," she greeted Valerian.

"Princess." Valerian replied with a slight bow of his own. "Welcome to Korhal."

"It is good to be here. Per your discussion with my father, I am here to finish negotiations on our trade and non-aggression treaties."

"Of course. Shall we move this to a better location?" He gestured around the still somewhat battered throne room. "We're still recovering from your last visit."

"Of course, it was an un unfortunate time. While we do regret the necessity of war, we are not afraid of excelling in it. Gold Dragons may be wise and calm beings, who prefer diplomacy and reason, but even they are to be feared when on the warpath."

Valerian smiled thinly. "Naturally. Come, this way, Princess."

Malkira nodded and followed him while her guards kept a respectful distance. It was the same office that she had been to after the end of the war, and there was General Warfield waiting along with one of the Dominion economic advisors. There were also a few marines for added security.

"General, Mr. Finch," Malkira greeted the others as she sat down at her side of the table.

"Princess." Warfield nodded, saluting her. Finch merely nodded slightly.

"Shall we get right to it As we have little time?" The others nodded. "Then per our earlier discussions gentlemen, with regards to piracy patrols; I would request that our border patrols coordinate efforts. I'm not suggesting a full military alliance, but that if pirates raid both sides of the border, then it's best that our forces pin them down together."

"I have to concur, but I believe it is in our interest to run some naval exercises together." Warfield commented. "While piracy is a problem, the Zerg are still by far the biggest threat out there and it will work in our favour if our forces are already used to flying and fighting together."

"I doubt that will be a problem. Besides as a military man I'm sure you'd want something like a Sovereign providing fire support," Malkira said with a small grin. "I can certainly have it arranged for joint war games to be conducted. We are also working with the Protoss on such matters after what happened on Aiur."

Valerian nodded. "A sound strategy. I do have a request of my own, however." He exchanged looks with Warfield. "Lord Admiral Davis should be part of these war games and I suggest that, in the event of any joint operation, he be given full command of both forces for the duration."

"We can certainly have that arranged. But I must inquire as to why you want Lord Davis in command of your forces as well as ours?"

Warfield sighed. "Because, despite our history, he is the best commander available. He understands both our tactics and yours, the capabilities of both sides and his record against both the Zerg and any other foes speaks for itself. He is a man that both sides can respect and follow."

"I agree, and I suppose even if it is grating, the shortness of our war means that there's fewer hard feelings that need to dissipate between our forces. Leading to a hopefully much smoother transition and cooperation."

"Indeed." Valerian said. "I would hope that we will not require such an operation soon, but I suspect that we will back in combat far sooner than we would like. We need to be prepared for such a situation."

Malkira nodded before sighing slightly.

"On that note, comes non-aggression but before we do. I wanted to let you know, Draconia's long range probes have picked up battlecruisers in these sectors," Malkira shifted a pad with a galactic map and pictures taken. "As you can see, these battlecruisers are of a similar but different make and they seem to be headed in our general direction of space. While we have our suspicions, we wanted your thoughts on the matter."

Valerian and Warfield took the pad, their agitation clear, examining the data for a moment. Warfield was the first to speak. "The markings and types definitely do not match any of ours. I've fought the Combine enough to know these aren't them either."

Valerian nodded. "They aren't Umojan, either. I'd recognize those. But the insignia is vaguely familiar. Could it be one of the militias, General?"

Warfield shook his head. "I doubt it. A force of that size is bigger than any militia." As he spoke, he tapped on a nearby terminal, his eyes narrowing as they came up with a match. "What the hell?"

Valerian looked at the screen and his own eyes widened. "United Powers League? What the devil are they doing out here?"

"Probably the same reason they sent the "undesirables" out here in the first place. Your people were the frontrunners, now they're coming to collect on what they see as their investment," Malkira suggested. "Good news is their technology is not too different than yours. That and the Fringe Worlds are in their path meaning they'll have to come through us most of the way."

"I almost pity the poor bastards." Warfield said. "But I'm more interested in why they would now choose to show up, after all this time."

"They want the Dominion, and probably think to use the Zerg as weapons against the Protoss, but their information is likely out of date with regards to leaders, territory and space," Malkira said.

"They're going to regret that one very quickly. They're probably expecting to be able to just stroll straight in and take everything." Valerian commented.

"Indeed, I'm certain even your ghosts sensed that clash on Aiur," Malkira said with another small grin.

"I think the other side of the galaxy sensed that little conflict." Warfield snorted.

"You do know that was my father and our main enemy battling, no one else? It was just the two of them going at it."

"We know." Valerian said. "You're not that good at hiding information."

"Just making sure you are aware of what we are facing," Malkira said with a light shrug.

"The end times, if we lose. Yes, you can safely say we are aware of the stakes."

"I want to say good, but nothing about it really is." She shifted in her seat. "So, about trade. To begin, I'm proposing that we allow vessels on both sides to buy and sell goods across the border. Barring restricted or illegal goods without proper licensing. Right now I don't believe that tariffs are required on anything."

"A most generous offer." Finch said in his slimy voice. "One would wonder why you are inclined to be so generous."

"We are risking the end times Mr. Finch, we are trying to build up both our economies to handle an overwhelming war effort to face off against Earth, the Zerg and Kardis' servants. We see no need in posturing when both sides have much to offer. For example, something to negotiate further but if Draconia's Arms and Armor were to take a contract to improve the durability of the CMC suits by 50%; would you complain if we had minimal trade barriers to slow such a negotiation? Would you General?"

Warfield shook his head. "Absolutely not. As long as there is sufficient money being made to stay in business, productivity and readiness must take priority over pure profits in these times."

"Agreed, and I am prepared and authorized to negotiate such a contract. We can even help with your rifles too, I notice they've been having penetration issues against the Zerg not to mention accuracy issues."

Valerian and Warfield exchanged glances. "That would be undeniably helpful. I get that there is a lot you can do to help us and having us ready for combat is going to help you." Valerian commented. "But is there nothing else that you are after in this deal?"

"Yes there is, we are after deuterium, and specialized crystals deep in planet crusts and mantles separate from the minerals everyone uses. Some of our planets have these crystals but a lot of them are in Dominion space. I can provide you with the specifications we are looking for. But they wouldn't help you at this point."

"Doesn't much matter." Finch said, showing more animation than he had throughout the rest of the conversation. "We already have a substantial mining industry in place, adapting it to recover and refine these minerals in addition to the resources we already mine will not be a massive undertaking. You get the resources you need, we get the boost of finances and jobs that this sector needs to get back on our feet."

"Agreed, now on the specifics of contracts, that is something we want to make clear from the get go. Our contracts are binding, meaning unless released, they cannot in anyway under coercion direct or indirect break the contract outside of the legal means. By binding I mean we use magic to enforce them and tie them to the life-force of the signature. This is not hidden, and the contracts are free to be evaluated by legal experts before they are signed."

Warfield, to everyone's surprise, chuckled. "I think there will be a large number of changes at the upper ends of a lot of companies when these start to come into force."

"Hence why my father put every ounce of his efforts from the beginning to eliminate loopholes and maximize protections to both parties."

"Someone is still going to try and get around them, you can count on that. This might be exactly what we need to clean up the system." Valerian put in, eyes gleaming slightly.

"Sounds good, now Mr. Finch, these crystals are stable so if they break, nothing to worry about We need them at minimum 90% intact for each. They are powerful but very delicate under the right conditions."

Finch raised an eyebrow. "Delicate? How delicate? And what are these 'conditions'?""

"By delicate I mean, the standard SCV tools would break them with ease, something like a Protoss Probe would be more precise but with the right modifications and guidelines. Let me put it to you this way, one of you could take one of these crystals in your hands and snap it in half with the same effort you'd put into ripping a book. As for conditions, we are using them in our new reactors as we move away from matter/anti-matter technology into extracting energy from subspace in real time."

The three humans exchanged startled glances. "What sort of consequences would there be if one of these were broken?" Warfield asked slowly, not sounding particularly sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Outside of a reactor? Just a mess like you'd get from breaking a crystal glass. Crystal exposed while generating subspace energy? You don't want to know."

"And while refining these into a usable form?"

"They are already usable from the start, within the reactor, when the process engages is when they are 'refined' I'm keeping the details vague because we have enough safeguards and practice while experimenting with this technology. I definitely don't want risk an incident similar to what we've been warned about; and that is something nobody should know about until they are ready for this technology."

The others shivered at the thought.

That same time

Draconia

New Vancouver

Xapferey's private office

Xapferey was staring at a very nervous Tychus Findlay. Considering Tychus had seen the clash between Xapferey and Kardis his nervousness was to be expected.

"Relax Mr. Findlay I didn't call you here because I was angry with you, I wanted to speak to you about a job and one with a big reward. Trust me, it's one you'll very much enjoy."

"What kind of job?" Tychus asked slowly.

"See on Lodoss, there were six ancient Dragons, each with a massive treasure horde, and by massive I mean to the point where a measly fraction of it could buy you a fleet of battlecruisers. If things have gone according to plan then this horde will be unguarded as the cave would be shielded from the effects, but the lands were exposed to a nuclear blast. But if it is not, well the guardian will need to be killed by your team and you will have the firepower to do it. If you agree and don't have to kill the guardian you shall earn one percent of what you see in this photo. If you do, then five percent," Xapferey showed Tychus a picture of the horde kept by Narse and waited for the man's choice.

"Why me? You doubtless have your own teams that could extract this from its location."

"Because despite the close connections I enjoy with the leadership of the Marmo Empire, there are those who do not like us or our capabilities. They could cause us a fair bit of trouble. You Mr. Findlay are at best loosely associated with Draconia. Besides, I'm quite certain you agree that we have enough trouble to deal with without adding more on the home front."

"So, you want a covert retrieval then, I take it?"

"Completely, while I'm certain the Marmo wouldn't object us taking it, especially after the coup of sorts they had to deal with and the troubles it posed for us. But we need those resources, gold even now is still very valuable and we do need to buy a lot more in the future."

Tychus considered the idea. "Covert isn't exactly my usual style. That's going to add another layer of complexity to this job."

"I know, but you do have skills that would serve you well if Narse is still alive. What I am asking is simple, you need to go in, scout these caverns, report on if anything is there or not and recover the horde. But your second objective is to see if Kardis still slumbers there. If she does, you will withdraw to the hoard and place transporter beacons where the fleet can finish the extraction."

"Kardis." Tychus said quietly. "Any limitations on my team?"

"Nothing overt from Draconia, the Marmo if they do spot you, they may think you mercenaries from offworld at worst… but this operation cannot be tied to Draconia in any way."

"Shit." Tychus spat. "Then this will be no cakewalk, no matter how pretty it looks."

"Agreed, now a specialized stealth ship is waiting for you and your team at launchpad 17, it will take you to the drop point and wait while under cloak to extract you when done."

"I haven't agreed yet."

"Two percent then, of your pick, barring any magical artifacts," Xapferey offered, making a sweeter pot.

"This isn't about money, for once. If Kardis is even close to there, this is a suicide mission and money is useless if you can't spend it."

"Kardis is slumbering, while she can create avatars, she is at her limit controlling the Swarm through a single one. But I suppose I'd better leave that part to those more qualified in such matters. Focus on the hoard and the presence of Narse then, nothing more."

"Agreed. Give me what information you have on Kardis, if we see her, we'll let you know but I'm in no rush to go searching for her."

"Agreed, everything you need will be on this pad here," Xapferey passed it to him. "It's all I have on her and Narse. Good luck Mr. Findlay," Xapferey said.

"Thank you. I may well be needing it."

With that, the man left to assemble his team and head to his ship.

Korhal

2 hours later

After the initial meeting with Valerian, Finch, and Warfield had concluded, the Dominion Emperor invited Malkira to a formal dinner with his innermost circle. Having accepted, Malkira joined Warfield, Finch, and several others at the table along with Valerian.

"So, yes, magic can do many things and is also useful in some pranks like this one a student pulled on his non-magical friend when Draconia was masquerading as a medieval society. See the non-magical friend Arthur wanted upgraded armor so he asked for an enchanted set of armor. Well his friend Emrys went off and did as he asked. Well, when he came back, he brought the completed plate armor… but it was made completely out of dishware."

Valerian blinked before laughing. "Dishware? Seriously?"

"Yes dishware, Emrys looked so innocent and confused before he said 'Oh plate armor, whoops, my mistake.' Needless to say Arthur wasn't very impressed and it was all I could do to not die laughing."

Warfield chuckled. "I would imagine that magic would allow for a much larger variety of practical jokes to be unleashed on the unsuspecting."

"Oh it can, but there's also laws to protect against people going too far. Now don't get me wrong, functioning as armor by sheer strength of the enchantments that 'plate armor' could rival your CMC suits. But more often than not, Draconia hasn't had time or opportunity to do beyond combat oriented casters, and with what's coming we really can't afford to waste time."

Valerian looked slightly downhearted at this. "A shame that these times force such measures upon us when we should be growing as a culture and a people, rather than focusing solely on our survival."

"Unfortunate but true, in an ideal world, Draconia and the Dominion would be the best of friends, the Zerg broken and Kardis dead from her wounds. But I believe the saying is "it's always darkest before the dawn? Well let's make sure we can enjoy the dawn," Malkira said encouragingly.

"We can only hope." Warfield said quietly. "I would love to go back into retirement."

"I myself would love to not have to study so many different spells on how to eviscerate or blast things," Malkira said just as quietly.

Outer border of Draconia on edge of wild space.

Phoenix class Dreadnought IDS Silverlight

Per the threats of the Zerg and the possible invasion from Earth, Draconia's various fleets were patrolling the border when they received a distress call from one of their occupied colonies. It was under assault by the Zerg, so Lord Admiral Etrinus Voidhunter was rallying his forces; despite the positive reports from the Draconian troops that were beating back the Zerg regardless of the initial surprise.

As the fleet reverted from warpspace, the tactical data began to flood their systems, demonstrating the knife's edge balance between the two forces on the planet. The Zerg wouldn't be easily driven back but neither would the defenders fall lightly.

Seeing the trouble the defenders were having, the Draconian ships deployed to provide orbital support to the ground forces. Their heavy phaser cannons already firing on Zerg positions to break the majority of the Zerg advance. At the same time, Draconian marines were sent down to reinforce their defences on the surface.

As the Draconian forces began to reinforce the defences on the planet and take the fight back to the Zerg, a lone Terran battlecruiser, using the heavy storm clouds as cover, observed the battle unfolding below them. On any other day, this wouldn't be a unusual occurrence, battlecruisers would take up similar positions to provide somewhat concealed support fire. But this ship was in fact the Aleksander, the flagship of the UED Expeditionary Force, sent to subdue the Koprulu Sector for the UED. The mighty ship and its crew watched in near silence as the two titanic forces clashed in close-quarters combat on the ground and the mixture of aerial forces tore into each other with fresh viciousness.

The Draconic troops, with the support of the fleet were driving back the Zerg with great vigor. Their weapons and tactics marking them as something that the UED was not expecting or fully prepared to encounter. Still, the Draconic forces were clearly experts at fighting the Zerg, but still unexpected things happened in war, such as a Draconian missile missing the Zerg it had been fired at flying off into the clouds, as it flew, its sensors picked up a nearby target and it sped off before detonating on the Aleksander's shields.

The UED flagship rocked under the impact and the sudden flash in an unexpected location alerted both Zerg and Draconians to the ship's presence.

"Try to get us in range of that ship, when we are, drop cloak and power the interdictor field, if that is who I think it is, then we need to make a statement to them." Lord Voidhunter commanded as his mighty ship surged forwards under its cloaking field.

The Aleksander, seeing how effective the Draconian fleet had been against the Zerg, decided they had precisely no interest in staying around for the meet and greet session that was likely coming, throwing full power to their main drives and accelerating through the cloud cover, continuing to use it to mask their emissions from their pursuers as they prepared their departure route.

The Draconian forces detached a Sovereign and a destroyer pack to add security to the pursuit, but while they were gaining, the Aleksander was able to power their warp drive and escape from the planet.

"Damnation, send word possible UED incursion, all fleets are to go to yellow alert and raise defenses. If they stick to schedule, Braxis will be their next target, recommend that the 12 fleet and 15th fleets move to track them and ambush them if they attempt a full onslaught on the system."

"Yes Lord Voidhunter," the Ops officer replied. 10 minutes later various orders were passed around the various fleets before their readiness level was raised and various Phoenix class ships were stationed near the system with their escorts ready to catch the UED in a pincer maneuver.

But as time passed, it appeared that the unexpected encounter with the Draconian forces might have scared off the expected UED assault. Days passed without any sighting of the UED, confusing all of the commanders.

Xapferey idly twirled a whisker as he perused the galaxy. The Lord of Spaceflight was certain the UED would make a move on the Fringe Worlds, but he was also wary of flanking attacks attempting to go around Draconian space and hit the Dominion, and had shifted some reserves to aid them in patrolling their space. The question was, what was DuGalle planning? He couldn't avoid attacking forever, and he would be needing to restock on supplies.

When the attack finally came, however, it came in a direction that no one had expected. DuGalle had indeed gone around the edges of Draconian space towards Dominion territory. But he had gone far further than anyone had expected, attacking the high value Tyrador system, close to the edge of both Zerg and Protoss space. The sudden savage strike shook the still recovering Dominion war machine's morale. DuGalle was fully halfway across the sector from where anyone had thought that he could possibly be.

However, Tyrador was on the way from Korhal to Forceria and Malkira's escort was passing by the system half an hour into DuGalle's strike. In addition, the Liberator and Hyperion, fresh from finishing combat exercises with the Protoss, were also within range of the distress calls being broadcast from the system. If Dugalle had hoped to avoid the powerful Draconian forces for longer, he might have succeeded, but he had the trade-off of facing off against some of the best, brightest and most experienced warriors in the sector. Knowing that Malkira would no doubt move to investigate, Jason also turned towards the system, emerging on the far side of the system to the Draconian squadron, alerting the 12th fleet, flying a few hours ahead of them, to return to assist. In the meantime, however, the defence was left with a Phoenix-class, three Sovereign-class, three dozen Draconian frigates and a dozen Behemoth-class battlecruisers, plus the two original Raiders flagships. In contrast, the UED had struck with over a hundred upgraded battlecruisers, with full fighter cover and by the time the two separate support forces arrived, many of the Dominion's defences forces, including the orbital defence platforms, were clearly on the ropes. Even with the Manastorm, the fight ahead would not be an easy one. The sheer shock that the UED had upon seeing the Draconian flagship was swiftly removed by their professionalism and concentrated fire began to dial in on the massive vessel.

"All right that's how they want to play it, let's play hard, split our frigate escorts into hunting packs and launch our own. Three Novas for each Defiant. Split them up and let's provide some cover fire to the Dominion, send our fighters to clean that mess from our screens, in the meantime, let's repay the favor… all batteries return fire." Malkira ordered, from the Draconian forces, over a thousand fighters and another 16 frigates joined the fight from their carriers. 24 Draconian frigates began poking at the UED lines, trying to entice various groups out of position and cut them down with their greater firepower.

The Manastorm, her three battleship escorts and the remaining two dozen frigates advanced. The Manastorm then began firing, her batteries shredding multiple battlecruisers before moving on, the Sovereigns around her ripped into several ships each as well. From the Draconian ships, they began bombarding the UED ships with their weakest torpedoes. Though it took three of them to drop a Behemoth's shields, four for the upgraded UED ships, the sheer number of torpedoes flying was enough to batter them a lot.

To add insult to injury, the Liberator burst out of warp space to perfectly strafe the unprotected sterns of the UED fleets, catching the fleet off guard and crippling many of the ships that had focused their shields forward to withstand the Draconian barrage.

"All ships, this is Lord Admiral Davis, I am taking command of the fleet. Dominion ships, fall back against the orbital defences of Tyrador VII, keep overlapping fields of fire. Manastorm, I'd appreciate if you join them. All other ships, set up a battle line around the hostile ships, push them back against the planet. Let's catch these bastards between the hammer and the anvil."

"Right, Helm, bring us about; Ops order our un-tasked escorts on us, we need to give as much support to the ODPs as we can muster," Malkira ordered as her ship and their escorts shifted towards the orbit of Tyrador VII before parking themselves among the damaged ODPs a minute later.

The UED, realizing that suddenly things had got far more real than they might have expected and faced with the choice of standing and fighting against both the powerful Draconian fleet and the livid Dominion forces or attempting to run the blockade past, chose to scatter instead, splitting up to avoid being easily targeted. As far as tactics went, it was not the best, but it did achieve the desired result, allowing much of the UED fleet to slip past the two forces and forcing them to turn to pursue, costing them valuable time. Many of the allied ships did pursue and were able to score kills as the UED fled, but three-quarters of the UED fleet successfully escaped into warp. Given the number of Dominion ships that had been damaged or destroyed, it had to be said that the day went to the UED and all that the two supporting forces had been able to achieve was preventing an utter rout and total devastation of the system. When Jason came aboard the Manastorm later that afternoon, he was still in a foul mood from the day's battle.

Malkira wasn't in any better a mood when Jason met up with her given the small ribbons of flame she was snorting from her nose.

"14 Novas need to get their shield emitters completely replaced, 270 fighters need to get fixed and on top of that a gaping hole in the Dominion defences plus 17 of their battlecruisers either destroyed or total write-offs. When I get my claws on DuGalle," she grumbled her claws flexing in annoyance.

"You don't need to tell me. We got played and big time." Jason snarled. "And that's not even the worst of it."

"We've only seen a fraction of DuGalle's forces, but tell me what's the worst of it Jason?" Malkira asked.

"You're right, we only saw a small fraction of his forces here. I just heard from the 12th. They caught another distress signal and sent a group to investigate. The rest of the UED fleet were raiding the joint shipyards at Mar Sara. The shipyards themselves are a ruin and most of the ships are gone. Including ten Sovereigns and a Phoenix."

"Well not for long, what I'm going to show you is for your rank or higher," Malkira pulled up a ship registry with specialized command codes. "Initiate code 1011 order 579, self-destruct 5 seconds, silent warning."

A moment later each of the ships names were black indicating a successful override and destruction.

"It's a pity, but those protocols are in every computer, every panel, and unless the ship is stripped top to bottom with every isolinear chip or neuro-gel pack removed, there's no way to stop it. It's a regrettable severe material loss but they won't have our technology, never let it said we don't take our security seriously."

"That only improves things slightly, there's a lot of ships that they just gained, certainly enough to replace what they lost here. Let's hope they weren't smart enough to try and copy what information was in the computers before the ships went up."

"We don't upload anything of use until the ships are launched under the command codes of the captains. But father's not happy, I can sense his annoyance from here, and knowing him like I do... he is strongly considering Order 52 on Earth in retaliation if they annoy him enough."

"Lovely. Another fight to look forward to." Jason paced back and forth. "What I want to know is how they knew where to strike. That shipyard isn't exactly advertised. And with that sort of timing, that's been in the works for a while."

"Not Duran, he's toast… possibly one of Kardis' agents giving them information? I do not know. But for you and you alone Lord Davis, you know about Midway and her sister station Starseeker. But their main weapons array my father was loathe to do, but he realized it would be needed in the future… the main weapons array when the phasor projectors focus their diamond focusing emitters, the beam is strong enough to shatter a world into fragments. In this kind of war, father needs to keep all options on the table. But DuGalle made a big mistake Jason… what is my father?"

"He's a god."

"And what happens when you piss off a god?" Malkira asked with a smirk at Jason's expression. "Exactly, DuGalle made a huge mistake. By taking those Sovereigns he made my father annoyed. By taking the Phoenix class he outright pissed him off. DuGalle is now replacing Kardis in my father's crosshairs and for him, that's not a place anyone wants to be."

"No kidding," Jason muttered thinking of the brawl on Aiur.

"I think the UED will be getting a harsh lesson very soon about interfering in a god's affairs," Malkira said with a evil laugh as she felt her father's will begin to stretch out in search of the UED fleet. "Oh I can't wait to see what he has unleashed."

In time, even Earth itself would tremble at the fury of the Dragon God.