Chapter 16: Voyage Home
Layla wake up the next morning, she sees Lenora pressing randomly of the small communicator equipment that they have bring down from the fortress. "What's wrong Lena?" she asked the bothered Lenora. The sakhalin fox crosses her arm. "Someone is trying to contact us using this com. The signal origin is unknown." Both tried to figure out the source, Ilya opens her room door with a toothbrush in a mug that she holds. She drowsily makes her way to the toilet. "The cat finally leaves her bed huh?" Layla teases her. "No kidding, I barely can get a shuteye in that futon bed. It's too uncomfortable and it feels different from our empire's furniture." Ilya mutters it while passing them to enter the toilet; dragging her tail at the floor. "Ilya is not a morning person…" Layla expresses it to Lena. She only gives a faint laugh since she wakes up too early to make coffee for herself when she notices the com blinking. "I guess we need to wake up Naiki and Vexis. I'm not too great with understanding complex signal source and identification." Layla stated it and goes to Vexis's room.
She opens it to find it empty. "Naiki's room then…" The red fox shortly says it and knocks on the room beside Vexis's; she hears no response from within. Slowly she tries to open the door but it was locked and tried again. As she is about to knock for the second time, Naiki opens the door while holding Vexis in her small beast form. "Master, there is a signal that come from the communication device that Lena bring down yesterday. Me and Lenora cannot find the source." Layla speaks directly at him without noticing where is Vexis. Naiki yawns and rubs his face at Vexis's back fur as she is still sleeping. Layla finally notices her after Naiki did that. "Wake up smol fox. Quit playing dead sleep when you can hear us." Naiki shakes Vexis up and down slowly as she follows the movement; this makes Layla turn to the outside wall with her hand leaning for support, trying to hide her laughter. "Mph…what~?" Vexis look upwards to him, she opens her red eyes to see him looking down at her with a worrisome face. "I got a feeling we need to go back quickly, especially that signal Layla speaks of." He says to her, Vexis pointed her arms upwards; she slides out of Naiki's hold and land at the floor as she quickly changes into her anthro form in front of him. With that, she quickly checks her limb and clothes before leaving them to quick deploy a teleportation beacon at the town with the explanation set of orders for the town leaders.
A quick short goodbye to Araki; all of them teleported back into the mobile fortress. Naiki notices the ship interior looks different than before. It is not dark as the light illuminates evenly in each room. "Too bright…" Ilya marks the difference. Using his powers, Naiki dimmed the light and started the galaxy scan of their position. Lenora send the signal direction to the fortress's database with Layla marking the warp paths. Naiki sits on his throne, he materializes his crown. As he is about to wear it, Vexis snatch it from his hand. "What the…Vexis, hand it over." He looks at her while the others remain quiet as planned. "No…" Vexis says it while putting it at her neck. Naiki quickly tries to snatch it, she transforms into her small beast form and sits in front of him with the loose crown on her neck. Again, Naiki darted to snatch her. "Yip yip yip!" Vexis blurted happily while dashing away from him with her agile speed. "Girls, help me catch her." The irritated Naiki asked the others, only Lenora responded while the Ilya and Layla continues plotting the route. Little that the both of them know, one of their drop points is at the first origin of the Cybran Empire. "Sorry master, you need to rest and not use your power too much. It's for your own good." Lena answers him while pressing the depart interface. "Don't try to invent stuff at the assembly bay. I have locked it." Layla voices off after Lena.
"Fine then…" Giving up to their plot, he retreated to his room at the lower floor from the bridge while grabbing a drink from the fortress inventory. Vexis pops her head out at the spot she's been hiding. "Did our plan work?" Vexis asked them. "Yeah, maybe master is a little cross and surprised that all of us did that." Ilya directly says it to Vexis. "You heard what Araki said to all of us, he needed at least 3 months to rest for his power to finally stabilize." Layla noted. Vexis changes back to her anthro form and sit at her throne beside of Naiki's. She wears the crown. The effect surprise her expectation as the crown flows too much information and extend her normal senses. She quickly takes it off and pant in shock as her heart rate increases. "What's wrong Vexis?" Lena asked her after seeing what have happened. "I-I'm not going to wear it again…" Vexis says it frightfully and put the crown away in her inventory space while the others watch her. "How did Naiki handle that much information; able to control billions of autonomous units and see the whole galaxy accurately at the same time?" As Vexis says that, the others are in shock of what she said. "That is insane, it is like the hive core of the sentinels before. A single entity controls the other Sentinels and act as the extension of its senses. Did master wanted to become like the sentinel core?" Ilya says it in hearing range of the others.
"Sentinels?" Lena cluelessly asked them since she forgotten about it. Layla quick tapped the projection device to show her what have happened before to the Cybran Empire. Vexis quick checked Naiki's whereabouts using her tracking senses, she is relieved that he still stays in his room. Lenora watches the brutality of the Sentinels fighting the Cybrans using the same tactics that Naiki used destroying the Draconians but much more coordinated and merciless. Vexis asked Ilya to check out on Naiki and occupy him by any means necessary while they recap the events to Lenora. She immediately leaves the bridge and use the stairs instead of the hover lift. Ilya arrives at the front of Naiki's room, a quick tap and it opens. She peeks in first before entering the room. The snow leopard sees him relaxing at the sofa bed in the next multi linked room. He silently reads the holographic data on energy flow that pops out of his communicator while enjoying the darkness of the space. Ilya takes the opportunity to give him a nuzzle at his cheek.
"What, did Vexis make a mistake at the bridge?" Naiki pats her head while she still rubbing her cheeks at him. "No, she asked me to keep you company." Ilya says it while sitting next at him. "Hmph, after kicking me out at the bridge…" He scrolls through the page before Ilya lay down at his lap. "It's for your own good master, you cannot use your powers until you can control all of it. We don't want a 2.0 to happen again." Naiki remains in silence after hearing Ilya's words. She wrapped her tail at Naiki's neck. "Your warmth is making me sleepy Ilya." He yawned after saying it to her. "You want warmer?" She undresses herself slowly in front of him and lay down on top of him. "Why don't you take the lead master?" She quick smooches him as Naiki embrace her warmth. "No, not in the mood for that." He simply deflects her invitation but allowed her to remain on top of him while he pulls a blanket to cover them and scratching the back of her right ear. Ilya returns a smile, waiting for more. "Why don't you sleep Ilya?" Naiki suggested it to her while marking the info from the holograph with his other hand. She starts to purr softly before reaching down in his pants. "Maybe if I rubbed this softly, you'll get turned on master." She strokes the tip of his member with her thumb.
"Even if you try hard enough when I am not in the mood to do so, it won't get up for you. Horny cat." Naiki flicked her left ear, she immediately stops doing so and tries to convince him again. "You've done it with Vexis, why not to the rest of us? Master, at least I wanted to be fully owned by you." Naiki sighed hearing her request; he stroked the back of her fur gently and still looking at the holographic data. "Now is not the time Ilya. I am figuring out what Araki says to me." She counters his words directly. "At least finger me…" Naiki stunned for a second, he did not expect Ilya to be straightforward since she often to back off after a few warnings. He looks straight at her as she waits for his decision. "You spoiled fur ball...Alright, I'll do it." Naiki replies back shortly with Ilya nuzzling her face to Naiki before turning around. Naiki does it slowly until she climaxes. Ilya shudders in orgasm and exhaled long in ecstatic while smooching Naiki. She pulls his hand and lick it clean. He cuddles her for 30 minutes before decided to return to the bridge.
"Ilya, go and get a cold shower. I want to return to the bridge. I'll wait for you." Naiki strokes her head as she immediately nods. Ilya rolls to the right and off to the shower. Naiki stands and folded the blanket; he sees the wet part of his sofa and begins cleaning it. "Naiki, what have you gotten yourself into?" He speaks to himself. After cleaning it, he puts Ilya's clothes near the bathroom door as he checks for the stain at his own clothing. Since there is none, he did not change it. As she waited for Ilya, Vexis is halfway explaining the Sentinels to Lenora with Layla observing the 36th multi jumps that the Storm Fortress have made since their departure. The three munches down the food that Vexis give while the Storm Fortress continues it warps. "I did not know that the Imperial Cybran Empire fight so hard for survival before." Lena observes the projected battle scene as the Cybrans fanatically fended the Sentinels off at their home turf planets. The death of few of their comrades did not faze them as they push onto breaking the enemy tactics. The wounded is evacuated quickly from the frontline; the heavily armored armies marches on with air support while the space ships keep blanketing them from space at the same time fending off oncoming orbital assaults.
Vexis quick skip to where Naiki have returned as he docks the ICS Electrosphere to the ICS Leviathan. All of the battered soldiers that preparing to enter their respective warships sees him and quickly kneeled, some cries out of happiness as the Emperor have returned. Naiki couldn't hold his feelings as he wipes his own tears away. "They are so loyal to him, the old cybran peoples think that their life is for the Emperor to use as he frees them from their old world; while the new generations of cybrans thinks of him as a god and having a mindset that they are the guardians of his empire." She pauses before remembering something while saying it to Lena. "Heh, I remembered when Naiki blatantly yelled at one of them at the academy for calling him a god and say to them 'I am no god; I am just a cybran like you lot and I can bleed too!'. His voice rang at the walkway and immediately people that have known that voice shouted 'Long live the emperor and the Imperial Cybran Empire' repeatedly. Naiki is so flustered, he grabbed one of the combat helmets that Chase is holding and put it on." Layla laughs, remembering the moment. Vexis again quick skip at the projected images. This time, it was the battle inside the sentinel core worlds. She did not say a word to Lenora as she is fixated watching how they all fight and Naiki turns savage; enjoying the chaos of battle and drinking the core electron liquid of a giant sentinel machine. Noticing Naiki entering the bridge with Ilya in tow, the arctic fox cut the projected image and changes it to a projection of the galaxy. "That is another part of our history, Lenora. Now you know why we become like this." Vexis ended the quick history lesson. Lenora nods and continues to monitor the fortress systems. Ilya walked to her station as if nothing has happened and she blankly hides her thoughts from Vexis; preventing her from reading her mind.
Vexis goes directly to him and handed his crown. "I know what you plotted; Ilya explained it to me." He says it to her without the others hearing; Vexis sticks out the tip of her tongue. Naiki sits while watching the range to enter their one-shot warp point location. Vexis sniffs him from where she stands; she shrugs shortly after. "I smell what you did there~" She eyes Ilya while telepathically speaking to Naiki. "It was you who asked her to do it." Naiki scoffs, answering her the same way they used before. "Well I won't deny that one. So, did she taste as good as me?" She lustfully bites her lips while eyeing Naiki. Naiki look at her with a stern face; but dropped it shortly after. "We didn't copulate, I am in no mood for that. I only do the light one as she did not back down on the topic." Vexis cross her arms as Naiki explained it to her, disagree with his methods. "Next time, just take her. Ilya needed you that badly because she only pours all of her warm feelings to you." Vexis pauses. "How about a round with me~?" Naiki shakes his head of Vexis voluptuous behavior. She giggles while giving him a kiss at the cheek. Naiki's reaction quickly changed when he sees a familiar planet at the bridge view. "Stop the jump!" He shouted. Layla quickly stops the next jump. Naiki slowly approaches the front view image projecting from the bow of the fortress. "Darling, what's wrong?" Vexis touches his shoulder. Immediately memories of Naiki pours through her mind as she stuttered from walking. The three watches the same image from the fortress bow as Naiki does. "It was our former home, the cybrans. Planet Charon." He felt a heavy lump in his throat while holding his emotions, the planet is lifeless as the atmosphere opens up holes in multiple pattern.
The scars of weapons of mass destruction used is seen in his former nation land. Vexis sits down at the floor as she is trying to suppress her own feelings of sadness that Naiki have felt. Ilya walks to his side. "Uncle…you spanner." He says the old slang softly but the voice carries through the bridge. Lena notices the signal origin was exactly here and goes to him to inform it, she also experiences the same feelings when she lost her home planet because of war. "Emperor, the signal source. It is here." Vexis stands up after hearing what Lenora have said. Naiki gives a quick conclusion; he even used some of his powers to see clearly at the planet surface. "They tried to contact others, in desperate of Charon dying. My uncle perhaps try to replicate our space faring technology but have failed. No one managed to leave the planet…" Layla scanned the planet for lifeforms, it was in vain as Naiki already known of the aftermath. Vexis embraced Naiki but he stops her shortly after. "Layla, are you recording this?" Naiki stated to her with his cold demeanor. She instinctively nods as she already does it without his order. "I wanted to show the fate of our origin planet to the guardians, put the observation data inside it. They will be informed of what have happened here. After that, continue our course." Naiki gives the command. "But darling-" Naiki cut off Vexis word and hugged her briefly, she is shocked at how Naiki was able to stay calm even after seeing the devastation of his origin planet. "Let's move on Vexis; we will not forget the past that easily and learn not to make the same mistake again in the future, especially for the cybrans." Naiki stated it, he pats Ilya and Lena's head with the same forced smile he has shown to Vexis.
Naiki sits down with a cold gaze at his former planet, the terran planet that he has grown up and watches the last time before they left to their new home world; now it has turn into half barren, cracked and apocalyptic because of endless conflicts. Layla finally finishes the data and continues the jump as Naiki remains silent at his throne, Vexis worryingly watches him from afar as she knows very well that he is not okay. The Storm Fortress reaches the optimal range for a one-shot warp. Ilya gives the warning and they started the warp straight to the capital planet. In a short time, they have arrived at Seraphim sector. It was exactly as the same bustling sector as they see it. Lenora eyes widen in surprise; seeing multiple fortresses, the megastructure space observatory surveying the galaxy and the uncountable number of warships remain anchored at their docking bays each with different marking and fleet insignias at their respective bays. Layla nudges her while they see a few fleets warping in and out of the sector. "Welcome to the capital of the Cybran Empire." Layla says it to her. The travel data is immediately linked to the Seraphim mainframe. Naiki's iris flashes red for a brief second before turning into normal. "Orbit the storm fortress to a nearby fortress branch. We'll teleport from here." Commanded Naiki. The Storm Fortress moves while overshadowing one of the space fortresses guarding the capital planet. Naiki awaits them at the teleportation room after he has set it to the spire, his companions finally arrive including Vexis that leads them. "See you on the other side." Naiki says it while teleporting first, forcing another smile at them before turning dead serious.