Chapter 34: Alliances
Xapferey sighed to himself, the gold Dragon God was busy staring at space outside the Forceria in orbit of Korhal as various plans flitted through his mind. This attack made things interesting for the two empires, though interesting wasn't always good for him or his allies.
Right now Xapferey was currently talking to Jason as the two stared at the damaged defenses around the Terran capital.
"This was an attack of desperation, the question is… why?" Xapferey asked.
Jason frowned. "An attempt to break up any alliance attempt before it can form? The Dominion would be the logical accessible weak point in any alliance, despite their power. Getting through to Forceria would be near impossible, Aiur has already has been hit and Shakuras is going to be far better fortified than Korhol."
"Hmm, we're missing something, you know that's something that bothered me from the original… canon. After AIur fell, and the events of Starcraft 1 through to the beginning of Legacy of the Void… what happened to the Protoss Empire, there was no mention of it, no mention of any destruction on or off camera. Even without Aiur and separate from Shakuras, the Protoss still have a very powerful fleet and army. So we're in pretty good shape all things considering, still Kardis knows we'd respond in considerable force. There's no way she could take or break Korhal in the time she would have had even without my help."
"Take Korhol, no. Cripple their leadership and ability to respond to future attacks, yes. And the Dominion still controls more territory than practically any other government in the sector. They're by far the easiest to stretch out and neutralising their commanders would give Kardis plenty of time to steal their territory."
"True, hence why I claimed the Fringe Worlds for my Empire to compensate for this fact. Hmm… you don't think it could be a distraction?" Xapferey wondered. "There's one world with considerable resources and defences but no defence or warning against Kardis or her servants."
"Zerus." Jason breathed.
"No, they have some warning because of Amon's original arrival. I was thinking of Earth."
"I would hope that they would have some warning, they're obviously keeping tabs on this sector. But they may not have put it all together in time. You mentioned that you'd made some sort of friendly contact with DuGalle, might be worth asking the question of him."
"Odd, get the fleet in defensive formation, I sense incoming ships," Xapferey ordered.
Jason nodded to the captain nearby, and the fleet swiftly began to reposition into a defensive posture.
In the outer system, a massive fleet of UED ships arrived in system, easily 2,000 battlecruisers currently escorting the Aleksander.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Jason smiled.
"Let's see what he wants, comms hail his ship. Admiral DuGalle, welcome to Korhal. I do hope you're not here for a fight," Xapferey warned. Considering that there were 25 Phoenix class dreadnoughts plus all their escorts around the planet, fighting would not be advisable for the UED forces.
"For some reason, that had not crossed my mind." Dugalle said dryly.
"Then what brings you here Admiral?" Xapferey asked.
"I had been in near constant contact with UED headquarters during the entire campaign. But about 12 hours ago, I lost contact with Earth and we've been unable to reestablish contact in any form. There are enough safeguards in the system that there is no way that communications wouldn't have been reestablished unless there is something truly terrible going on."
Xapferey closed his eyes and cast his attention towards the direction of Earth for the moment before withdrawing rapidly.
"Earth is currently under the sway of Kardis, her Hybrids slipped in and have taken over the population from what little I could see. The sheer amount of Hybrid energy I sensed just coming out of the system was almost overpowering."
"So we get tied up in Korhol so we can't support Earth?" Jason frowned. "We wouldn't have been able to able to support them in time, even if we had known, would we?"
"No, it would have taken 19 hours to get to Earth and that's with me and Malkira pushing the fleet together. It would have left her exhausted and me too distracted to immediately respond to any divine level moves or powers they would have been able to throw at us."
"Kind of rules out Korhol as a distraction tactic, then." Jason mused. "Admiral, I'm assuming you're looking for whatever help you can find for Earth, given the situation."
Dugalle remained shocked by the seemingly casual way that he had just learned his homeworld was likely under enemy control, but managed to shift himself back into the issue at hand. "Given the nature of the enemy, is retaking Earth even a viable option?"
"Eventually, we need to force her into a direct engagement. The problem is Kardis' main avatar is difficult to pin down. We need to put her main avatar in a point where she can do nothing but commit her all and will force her to release things she controls for more energy. Her avatar is at its critical limit right now."
"One thing I don't get. If Earth was her primary target, why was she here?" Dugalle asked.
"Because we'd be suspicious otherwise." Jason realised. "A major attack like that and she wasn't here to lead it? That would be ringing alarm bells, I imagine."
"You do know a god or avatar can charge a location with their power and a pre-recorded message when they need to. Deevdru di vi shashti vulshir upadoc bikil," Xapferey swore in Draconic. "That's exactly what she did," the Dragon snarled.
"Hang on." Duke pointed out. "She was clearly reacting to the events of the battle here. Even weapons fire seem to affect her in a very small capacity."
"She could also use a Hybrid to pretend to be her for a time. She hasn't awakened yet and as far as I know, she doesn't have enough power free to send another avatar."
"Lovely. So is there any good news out of this mess?" Jason asked.
"Her primary Hybrid facilities in Dominion space will be destroyed by tomorrow," Xapferey said.
"You know there will be more than that out there." Jason warned.
"Obviously, but it's a short term gain. Take every silver lining we can in this blasted situation."
"Fair enough. Not like there's much else we can do." Duke muttered.
"There is something we can do, I'm inviting all the major leaders of our forces to Draconia to negotiate a full alliance. All of us working together, Protoss, Terran and Draconian."
That rocked the others back on their heels somewhat. "You seriously think that you're going to be able to forge a united force out of the entire sector? Let's face it, you terrify half of it, by accident or not, and the other half have so many hang-ups in between that untwisting the old festering hatreds that run between them all is going to be a near impossible task, god or not." Jason commented.
"He's got a point. Those hatreds were something the UED were counting on to exploit in the invasion here and they certainly haven't gone away." Dugalle agreed.
"True, but quite frankly we all know what's at stake, we need to stand united, period. I understand old hatreds all too well," Xapferey said with a sigh. "Right now petty squabbling between us is what Kardis wants, and I intend to not give it to her."
"I understand that, but you aren't the best choice for trying to unite everyone, I'm afraid." Jason straightened, staring Xapferey in the eye.
"Perhaps not, but I already made it easier for those who can, namely you Jason, I'm not trying to do this alone. I'm trying to form an alliance, and perhaps I'm being overly optimistic… but I know we need everyone to pull this off, so I'll do my part."
"I know, but for all your power and skill, on this political arena, you are the new kid on the block. Everyone is either scared stiff of you or won't take you seriously. A summit isn't going to change that and it would be easy for Kardis to slip a spy or other agents into their delegations and you'd end up with a hell of a battle on your front doorstep. I'm pretty sure you don't want that."
"Then I'm listening, my friend, as you seem to have a better idea in mind."
Jason gestured to the group. "All of us have reputations around the sector independent of yours, contacts and everything else. Don't try and jam everyone together immediately like a bunch of bricks into a building. Build it step by step, foundations, walls, roofs etc. Let us gather our own races and peoples together into a cohesive whole before we try and combine with other races as well. Spread the shock load with creating the alliance out, so that the strings of yarn don't get too tight and snap before we can spin them together."
"I trust you my friend, you've always been someone who helped me refine my plans for as long as we've worked together," Xapferey said with a smile at Jason.
Jason shrugged. "You have your genius. Ours comes from refining yours into something that's actually workable."
"OI!" The Dragon grumbled.
Nova raised an eyebrow. "Do you intend to argue the point?"
The Dragon eyed the blonde in partial annoyance.
"In this instance… no, in others yes."
"Of course you would. You need to learn to pick your battles better." Nova said mildly.
The Dragon rolled his eyes at her.
"Vraktor nomenoi keari, thric tekilek ihk asta tilabili," he said in Draconic.
"If you can't say anything nice, you shouldn't say anything at all." Nova said in a singsong voice. "At least, that's what our elders taught us."
"I'm not paid enough for this," Xapferey grumbled. "Do what you need to do my friends, I will do what I do best… namely make the plans needed to save the universe. Plans that apparently need refinement."
The Dragon used his powers to return to Draconia and turned his attention to the Galaxy, beginning to plot and plan. At the same time trying very hard not to feel offended by his friends opinions of his plans.
"God of Creation… refinement... I'm trying to save the galaxy here maybe… " he grumbled to himself before smirking to himself. He turned his will back towards his friend's mind and contacted him. "Jason, you claim that my plans need refinement, and perhaps you are right. But consider I would like to see how well you can walk in my shoes for a few minutes. Tell me after feeling what I had to plan for or deal with at all times you think planning for everything is easy for me. Would you like to try?"
Jason's reply was quick and to the point. "I would not. I'm not stupid and neither are you. But we do our best work working together, you know that. You rip my plans apart and put them back together in a format that will keep us alive, I do the same for you."
"I know, you know, it's funny, despite my age, I'm only technically a teenager in Dragon terms, and an infant in Godly terms. I've put so much on myself I think I took the weight of the entire galaxy without realizing it. It's stressful Jason and sometimes I react in ways I shouldn't. I'm so used to seeing the big pictures, something I really think you should see for yourself."
Xapferey could sense Jason's refusal even before he spoke. "Maybe you think I should, but I won't. I don't have your strength, Xapferey. If the weight from this makes you falter, then it will crush me. We both have our way of doing things and they are mostly compatible. I don't need to see this and frankly I don't want to either. Please, don't ask me to." There was a note of pleading in Jason's voice, something the Dragon was certainly not accustomed to hearing. "You need someone focussed on the immediate picture, rather than the bigger one, otherwise you will miss the present issues by chasing future ones. Remember that little stunt of contacting the Overmind?"
"As you wish, you're right. That was a calculated risk. The weight doesn't make me falter, I can handle it. I just wish for simpler times is all. You're right however, I do sometime lose track of the smaller picture in favor of the larger. When you see and feel all of creation as I do, it is hard to."
"I understand. I've heard people wish for interesting times. Having lived through so many, I'm reluctant to tempt fate like that."
"I try to cherish all life and it hurts to know I will have to kill it to save the greater whole. Being the God of Creation does have some drawbacks."
Jason chuckled before pulling his mind back. Nova and Sarah's training in that regard was rapidly improving, and he'd already had a fine basis to begin with.
Xapferey sighed before nodding to himself, he returned his mind to controlling his shipyards so that his powers would directly speed construction. The question was where would Kardis strike next? He had to be ready to counter her or all of creation would suffer.
