Chapter 17: The Emperor's Council
Naiki teleported at the secondary hall of the spire, all of the elite guards saluted at him in sync. Vexis, Ilya, Layla and Lenora teleported shortly after him. Lenora is still in awe seeing the massive palace spire from the inside and guards at every corner. The commander of the palace elite guard strides to them. "Emperor, the guardians have arrived on your orders and waiting for you in the council room." He noted Naiki. "Very well, thank you for sending the information personally." The commander nods and leave. Naiki signal them to follow him. "Vexis, how big is this spire?" Lenora asked Vexis while they are walking behind Naiki. Vexis pulled at her side. "Regent Lena, from this point; it is wise for you to say our respective ranks. If you did not know their rank; Introduce yourself and they will do the same…" Vexis says that slowly, not making a fuss of the situation. "My apologies Empress." Lena apologizes to Vexis. "To answer your question, it is big enough to fit 40 divisions including their toys." Vexis wryly smile while answering. "It doubles the amount now, since the nearby underground complex is completed…" Eavesdropping Naiki correcting his wife words. Layla joined the chat. "Regent Lena, one cybran citadel can house an army group. There is a thousand citadel in this planet alone, not counting the other planets. So, if one army group consist of one and a half million soldiers. You know how much there is in this planet?"
Layla gives a quick math to her. Lena slowly counts until she stops and nearly bumped to Ilya. Ilya grab a hold of her shoulders as they continue walking through a warp like door. "1.5 billion. Since this planet is three times large than Iresta and have high military forces, you can multiply it by 15. Not counting the civilians." Ilya answers while Lena's is baffled that the capital planet have 22.5 billion ground forces. They suddenly remain silent as they approached the council room. They entered it and sits on their respective seats. Layla signals Lena to follow her. She sits first and pointed her chair at her side, Lena sits silently as they watched Naiki and Vexis enter their throne one story above of them. As all of them have seated comfortably, the middle light ring glows; revealing the guardians of the Emperor and the Cybran Empire. "Emperor, Empress; you have returned." The stoic man of his prime age in his highest-ranking admiral uniform gladly speak out while Lena watches his nameplate and rank glows when he speaks, He pauses for a drink before continues. "You have been gone for a month now." Vexis did not expected that. "What?" she says slowly in the earshot of Naiki. Naiki hold her hand as she calms down. "My regents followed me to stabilize my powers. They do it out of worry."
"It is alright to us since there is no trouble at all, but the eastern front logistical needs to be established. The territory is still fresh and some planet are not self-sufficient; others need to be rebuilt and terraform before they are recolonized. They are not in full jurisdiction of the core worlds of the empire." The marshal voice echoes through the room. Naiki crosses his leg and sits lazily with his eyes lit red while basking the dark, this caught the attention of the guardians and his companions. "I know of this, that is why I deployed one ship on each planet in advance to support their recovery. While Iresta, the capital planet of the east regent is under construction; their main fleet is patrolling the sectors to prevent intrusions. Regent Ilya and Layla can assist Regent Lenora since their territory is close to each other." Naiki explained fully of his plans. One of the guardians suddenly looks at Lena. "And why, your highness is explaining this and not the regent herself." The sharp voice of a female high admiral stated her opinion. Ilya stands and nods at the Emperor. Naiki's smile can be seen by the feline with her clear light blue eyes even the room is fully dark. "Regent Lena needs to learn more about our empire; our military traditions, ways of handling the civilians, the 'EDG (Evenly Distributed Goods)' policy and especially our technology since her origins is different of us that is already born in the empire." Ilya forgot the rest what she wanted to say after watching Naiki poking the outer fur of Vexis's right ear while she flicks it furiously; trying to remain serious.
Ilya sits while clearing her throat. "Again…why she remains in silence without answering us directly?" The head of Cybran Corp speaks out, the other guardian members look at her sharply as they awaited for the response of the east regent. Lena takes a deep breath before standing. "I Lenora Leonard, regent of the east; will do everything in my power to stabilize my territories and make them self-sufficient to support the main core world of the Imperial Cybran Empire or we will die trying to do so." Lena says it, clearly seen by the others regents that she is nervous since her legs is shaking as seen by Layla. "Very well. know this; if you need our assistance, we will gladly help you. The eastern sector must recover quickly before we set our eyes back on the west." One of the guardians stated it while holding his staff like silhouette; only it shines for a brief moment that it was a huge rifle he is holding. Lena sits down quietly. "Chase…" Naiki says the name at a normal tone, he remembers the uneasy feeling that they have been through. The background lights turn to normal as they all can be seen properly. Colin press the center room projection display of the west part of the empire. "Emperor, you don't need to worry of that sector anymore. It has disappeared." He says it to Naiki. His eyes widen in surprise as Zarck stands. "The Laylat sector disappeared exactly after 2 years you remain in cryosleep. After a sudden high energy reading at the sector sun, it makes an energy light outer ring at the edge of the system and vanishes. My apologies for not telling this to you first." Zarck bowed after giving the news, Naiki nods. "I also have news to all of you." Naiki pauses before bringing the visual image of their old home planet at the projection display. All of his guardians have mixed expressions on their faces. "Our old home planet, Charon have perished due to using multiple type of weapons that slams some part of it into space freezing temperature, riddle with craters and some breaks the crust of the planet." Naiki explained what he sees. This makes Zarck and Ivanov analyze what they see. "Space shredding weapon?" Ivanov asked Zarck. Ivanov's father Grukev shakes his head. "No, it is used inside the planet. Not outside." Grukev look at Zarck before he concludes. "There are three major weapons that is used; Atmospheric destabilizer, High yield explosives and tectonic plate igniter." Zarck immediately asked for Naiki's permission. "Emperor, may I produce this type of weapons in my company for our use later? Give me one week to make each prototype." Naiki hears his suggestion, Lena is speechless of the deadline that he wanted just to complete three types of weapon. "I thought we have them in the forbidden arsenal?" Vexis stated since she knows what's in that place.
"Yes, Empress. But this one is not as strong as the planet shattering weapons. It is enough to render the targeted planets uninhabitable for a brief period before we terraform and occupy it." Zarck assured. "Very well, after successful tests and mass produced; send one type of the regents preferred to their sectors." Naiki gives the green light. The three regents selected their last resort weapon on the oncoming display from the Cybran Corp orders. "Darling, don't tell them of the planet that we have at the most southern part of the galaxy. It is not ready yet." Vexis telepathically says to Naiki. He only returns a nod. As the council moves on to technological advancement, future plans and so on; the meeting finally ends. The guardians have a short time with their respective families; exchanging pleasantries with the emperor, empress and the three regents before they leave doing their daily routine. Layla asked Lena to accompany her and forced to bring Ilya that wanted to work straight away to eat outside the palace at her favorite place. Naiki followed Zarck to his manufacturing company; the Cybran Corp since he is fascinated with the new technologies that Zarck have invented. The high admiral however, remains in the spire; sitting at one of the resting spots. This intrigues Vexis that was just walking pass by to the teleportation room. "High Admiral Altia?" Hearing that familiar voice, she puts the pen like tablet at the table and stand to salute at her. "Yes Empress?" She responded naturally. "Filling up data updates on your fleets progress?" Vexis guess. "Yes, father wanted the last surveying team data at the western side of our empire. I forgot to give it to him since he is reorganizing the stationed fleets of the core worlds." Altia explained. Vexis decided to help her, she is surprised that the Empress sits at her side and quickly opened the explored sector at the table. Meanwhile at outer side of the spire. "This is delicious." Ilya says it while taking another spoon from the ice cream cake slice slowly as she is savoring the taste, her ears moves the same time she chews it. It did not melt as she takes it bit by bit, she silently uses her cold powers to make that happen. Lena tries the fish fillet with some kershen sandwich. She immediately likes the food. Layla eat her normal order of some magnolia slice with salad as a side dish, she is happy to see the two of them enjoying the time off. "I am first to think that the people here will greet us in crowds like before, but that did not happen." Ilya stated to Layla. She finishes the food in her mouth and answers. "Yeah, it is normal now to see us and the higher rankers and governors strolling around. They tend to over-greet but was noted by Shultzkov to 'act normal' and continues what they are doing. Oh look, the movie is starting." Layla pointed at the broadcasting projector inside the restaurant. "Layla, how many more sectors that the emperor wanted to control?" the question that Lenora asked makes her stop for a brief second. "Hmm, maybe the whole galaxy?" Layla jokes the answer since she did not know it. "It is best if you asked master directly, I only followed what master has ordered me to do. I did not question why, even if it's wrong. Because-" Ilya shared her thoughts halfway, she did not ready to open up to the others. Vexis arrives in her human form as she waved at them, Layla that sees it; waved back at her. She sits down adjacent to Ilya and Lena. Feeling the tense from Ilya, Lenora backs out her question.
Vexis look at Ilya. "Maybe we can have a heart-to-heart conversation later, but not at this place. For now, let's watch the movie." Ilya gives a slight smile to Lena. "Vexis, where is the emperor right now?" Ilya asked. Vexis slump down at her chair. "I dunno, he left me to follow Zarck." To add salt to her wounds Layla speaks out slowly. "You're too clingy to him." Vexis scoffs at Layla. "Says the girl that wanted to get into his pants years ago." Layla nearly choked her food that she just chews. She swallows it immediately and take the recover time to answer her back. "I give up that part long ago." Hearing that, Vexis makes a taunting 'really?' face. Back to Naiki who is visiting one of the branches of the Cybran Corp, he is amazed of what Zarck company have invented as some of it begins mooring maneuver at their designated places. "A capital command ship that can hover, I'm impressed Zarck." Naiki says it while admiring the ship. "Thank you, Naiki. I have built ten of each variant; battle carrier, dreadnought and battleship; more are under production. They can hover at sea level to near orbit. Want me to send them to the frontlines?" He looks over to Naiki, he only nods.
"So, about the other project?" Naiki asked him discreetly. "It's on final phase. When it is complete, I will notify you." Naiki gives a devilish grin. They walked to the next set of experimental technology that Zarck wanted to show him, Naiki gives a few tips of improvement here and there before he decided to leave Zarck to work on the three weapons. He watched his communicator, there is a message from Vexis letting him know where she is. Looking outside, it is already dark. "Oh shit, she is going to be mad at me." At the private quarters in the spire, Vexis paces around the living room while knowing where he is using her own powers. The exact moment, Naiki returns there. "Hmph, what took you so long darling?" Vexis walk fast to him and stop in front of him with her face an inch away from his. "Sorry, I got distracted by the new techs that Zarck shows to me." Satisfied with that answer she back away to one of the floating chair cushions and playfully spins it around once before stopping it. "Should I cook or you wanted to get some instant food?" She asked while looking at the projected news on Lena's sectors at her bracelet. "Neither, where are the regents?" Naiki asked since he did not see the three regents while sitting at the front view of the gorgeous sea afar near his wife is sitting, he sighed seeing it a little bit tainted with the underwater space base near it that Shultz built for safety measure. "They go to the medical facility to enhance Lena's DNA, maybe making her age a little slower than the rest of the post-human cybrans." Vexis answers, she smiles seeing the fast development of Iresta than what she expected.
"She is going to have a rough night at the med fac." He ordered a wine glass with a bottle of wine at the inventory table. It materializes and he fills it a portion to drink. Vexis smelled the familiar scent since she too loves that particular wine. "Trying to get drunk darling?" She questions his behavior. "No, just enough to forget some things that I wanted." Naiki answers while tilting the glass of wine to the clear night sky. He drinks a fraction of it and places it back at the table. She did not question what is wrong since she can read what in his mind, Vexis kisses him before inviting him to bed. Naiki refuses politely as he got some internal management of the capital to do until midnight. At the west border of the inner core worlds, Shultzkov host a space fleets exercise to keep them on high alert. "Sir, there is a squad of space faring ships approaching from the outer ring. They move in formation at 15 degrees bearing of us." The navigator of Shultz's retrofitted planetary destroyer ICS Executioner warn him as he drags the coordinate to the main projected map for the captain to see. "Cap, cancel the exercise." Shultz pauses and changed the frequency of the whole fleets that is involved. "Attention fleets, Unknown contact at the west ring; prepare to warp and intercept."
The command from Shultz rang at the fleets respective flagships. All 4 fleets that total around 80 thousand warships warped to Shultz fleet and again to the targeted coordinates. They warped out silently and remains in cloak. "Theatre Admiral, they did not look hostile." His daughter hailed from her flagship. "Let's wait and see…" the squad of space ship is small compared to the Imperial Cybran Empire standard cruiser class. There are a few turrets on the ships. Shultz gambled that they are not hostile and ordered the whole fleets in to intercept front of them without the cloaking system online. The exact reaction that Folkvangr did before repeated again, they immediately stop with their turrets seeking for targets and tries in all frequency to hail at the Cybran ships. Eisenheart flagship punch through their firewall and displayed it on their communication device. "This is Imperial Cybran Empire class 7 controlled space; state your intentions and origin or we will scatter you on the deep space abyss." Admiral Eisenheart that commanded the fleet on Shultz's left fleet hailed at them while Shultz observes.
A lady steps into view, she opens her winged helmet and speaks in a calming tone. "I am lady Svidana, the Valkyrie of the icy world of Altora. We have come here on behalf of our nation to seek out other nations to form an alliance." She smiles at her communicator while her warm gaze is enough to reach the receiving end of the communication. This makes Shultz very wary of the situation and quickly wanted to slam a few warp missiles at them to a random location of the galaxy. He decided to test them. "Very well, follow us to the capital ship." Shultz says that while notifying the emperor, empress and regents including his order to move the leviathan at a temporary location near them. Again, the Imperial Cybran Empire is forced to be involved on outside matters while taking advantage of the situation.