Chapter 29: Take over
The next morning, Naiki wakes up in his room. He remembers very well locking with his field barrier from the other girls entering the room including his wife for a lone comfy sleep. He takes a brisk shower and quickly dressed up. Naiki unlocked the room and goes to see all of them sleeping at Vexis's tails in her mythical form near the living room below. "Aww, my fuzzy furballs. Pity that I don't snuggle in that fluffy tail too…" He says it slowly while approaching Vexis. Naiki rubbed her cheek softly, she woke up seeing him in her view. "Hmph, I thought about ambushing you with all of us at once, but you locked yourself in your room with your powers even before we can get in" Vexis psionically says to him while giving a short exhale. "You think that you are the only one that is sneaky?" Naiki replies that made Vexis nudge him with her nose. The arctic fox wakes up the others while Naiki grabs his crown on the 3rd floor above to link himself back to the mainframe.
As he processed the information, something caught his attention and made him sigh. Vexis who just arrived on the 3rd floor questions him since she is blocked from reading Naiki's mind. "What's wrong?" She asked; Naiki slides down his sofa bed while explaining it to her. "Seems like a nation needs some help, a death mark squad just notified me. If they are wiped out, the others will turn their attention to each other and the north." Vexis pauses at the nearby floating chair and sits briefly. "Should we assist them? It's not like we care since we can just conquer all of them in one swoop with our armadas and forces." She says it while stretching one of her arms. "We should, at least I want another valuable ally or vassal. Don't want to overburden the furballs and lord governors." He pauses with Vexis acknowledging his methods. "Where are the others?" Naiki asked her while she leaves for the bathroom. "Taking a shower at the guest bathroom, you should take a peek since I told them that the doors have mechanical problems and will get stuck if locked…or…you want to take a shower with me again~?" Vexis mischievously says to him from afar. Naiki throws a small hologram projector directly hitting her head that almost making her stumble; Vexis throws it back at him as he sends warning orders to Shultz via his gauntlet.
After all of them freshen up and eat something that Naiki has ordered, He briefed all of them while suggesting their opinions and ways of approach. Lenora's Idea strikes Naiki's fancy by removing the armada's insignia and origin while assisting them, only to be shown if the tide is in their favor. With that, all of the regents leave to prepare their armadas at the southern border. Vexis on the other hand takes the chance to snuggle Naiki from behind while he puts his autonomous units on standby using his crown. "You are lucky that I am in no mood to turn you into a rug right now…" He slouches back to her rack. "Will this help?" Vexis directed her tail in front of Naiki, waving it around to bait him. He instinctively hugs it. "Oh goodness gracious yes! Dammit, my wife is distracting me!" She laughed hearing Naiki's statement, he struggles to get out of the comfort zone with Vexis pampering him much more. After the Empress fixed the Emperor's mood, they immediately warped to the border planet of the empire's territory near the kingdom.
Planet Scte'I was under the direct governance of Regent Svidana. The emperor sees the cybrans under her govern are equipped with different weapons than theirs, following Svidana's taste in tactics and weaponry. Most of her warships are colored in gold and red lines. "Oooh, fancy weapons and paint job…" The first thing that Naiki says before Svidana and Layla approaches to greet him. "We are ready," Svidana says to the emperor and empress, Vexis is quick to start the operation as she and Naiki are first to warp at the distressed nation capital planet with the guidance of the death mark soldiers. Ilya and Lena's armadas begin striking the other side of the galaxy in full intention of conquering it while the other nations are busy stabbing each other's back. One such fleet is preparing for orbital bombardment on the planet that Naiki and Vexis just arrived. "They are planning to nuke this planet to oblivion…" Vexis noticed this using her psionic powers and says it slowly to Naiki as they see the local forces desperately trying to thwart it by activating their planetary shields using the magic activation sequence; the nation ruler figure from afar takes the command himself. "Don't you want to take the bombarding fleet out by yourself?" Vexis asked him while marking a perfect spot for Layla and Svidana's armada to warp at. "I think I will do this the lazy way." Naiki shrugged seeing a nearby ground-docked logistical warship that is full of volatile materials using his powers.
He short teleported silently behind a container to it while asking the organized crewmember disembarking the warship. "Is the crew fully out?" Pointing out to the warship, one of them nods as the leader figure approaches them. "Everyone, evacuate to the underground complex. Quickly now!" He directed the nearby civilians with his soldiers and looked over to Naiki. "Hey, you! Come on, don't give up on me!" He says it, running over to Naiki that is touching the bow of the ship. Naiki lifts the ship with his telekinesis powers and throws it directly at the orbiting fleet while the planetary shield begins to activate. The human approaching him stops as his mouth agape in shock. The other spectators see it in disbelief including the nation soldiers. As he sees the warship reach the front end of the fleet, Naiki lights it up with his lightning powers; passing the planet shield. The volatile warship exploded violently and sends chain reactions towards the rest of the fleet since they are arming it with nuclear shells, eliminating all of it in one go. Vexis warped at Naiki's side with four of his death marks soldiers that is already on the planet beforehand as all of them looked at the ruler.
Right on cue, the two regents' armadas warships warped near the orbit one by one. The massive size of their warships alone is enough to scare the inhabitants of the planet. "Tremble before the majesty of the emperor and empress for we all walked in their immortal shadow!" The death marks say in sync at the ruler as a part of the armadas blocking away the sunlight of the planet and fending off the other approaching enemy fleets. The planet ruler dropped to his knees, seeing Naiki and Vexis stand proudly as the nation soldiers quickly arrive at their ruler's side. Some of them pointed their guns at the six of them while Naiki walked to him. He positively thinks that his call for help is received. "Our call of distress for the northern part of the galaxy is answered, my kingdom…my planets…my people…are finally saved…" He says it with the other soldiers supporting him to stand. Naiki extends his hand at the ruler as he shakes it, this did not surprise the others as their ruler often greets people informally. "Valentine Griffin, the ruler of the Aster Kingdom." The human introduces himself shortly to the cybran. "Naiki Russ, about my country; let's keep it a secret until the tide of war has fully turned in our favor. I want to keep a low profile while we assist you."
Understandably, he nods and invited them to his governing building. His son comes out running to him. "Father, we are under attack by another force!" The young human around his 20 says it to his father. "It is fine Ian; they have come to help us." Reassuring his son, even the guards escorting them have doubts about it, especially by their appearance alone. They are led to a command room; it is short of people even if fully stationed. "Where are the others?" Naiki queried. Ian displayed their forces on the command screen. "They are defending the other planets. Unfortunately, we are fighting an uphill battle…" Val speaks out his mind as Vexis sees the cybran armadas in the display marked as unknown. Naiki takes over control and command with his powers, he focuses on the identification markers and marks them as friendlies with the others watching how he does that in quick succession as his eyes glow briefly. A soldier approaches Ian, he whispered something to him as he left with the soldier. Val notices that one of Naiki's death mark soldiers sees it, he did not want to cause trust disturbance and explains it. "My son left to take care of his mother, we transferred her here for security purposes. She was fully paralyzed when a magi soldier disguise themselves in my soldier's uniform and used his power to strike us down. She was lucky to be alive but my daughter passed away during that occurrence. We have tried all sorts of things, technology to magic; but we still cannot cure her." Naiki is surprised that he opened up to them, even though they just met a few hours ago.
This makes him take drastic measures as he exhaled sharply before giving his command. "Vexis, you can null the effects on his wife; right?" As Naiki questions her, she nods and directly goes there with Val quickly ordering some soldiers to guard her in case of the infiltrated enemy. "My elites, clear out any of the known infiltrated enemies that you have noticed in your observation phase," Naiki ordered his death mark soldiers, they nodded and disappeared under their warping powers. "You are watching us this whole time?" Val questions in surprise. Naiki gives the long answer while filtering the galaxy displayed on the screen. "Yes, we are observing you for at least 3 years now. We wanted to make sure a perfect time to intervene. Arriving at your nation early will trigger the rest of the nation to team up to annihilate you first by siding with an extremely strong nation from the northern galaxy; Arriving too late will cause more casualties on your nation." Val calculated what he said, all of what Naiki explained is true since they already wanted to take out the Asters in the first place since they govern rich resource planets.
Naiki explained detailly of his plans and current motion of action to Val as the Aster soldiers watched keenly. Vexis returned later with an anthro female jaguar following her from behind with Ian. Val quickly recognized and greeted his beloved wife. "Evelyn, you are cured!" He embraced her as she returns it, Vexis silently returns to the side of Naiki. Ian is the first to go to Naiki and Vexis, he bowed his head a little to them. This surprises Naiki and Vexis who did not utter a single word of it. "Sir; Madam, I am sorry for doubting you and treating you with wariness." He apologizes as his father also does the same with the queen. "I also want to thank you for curing my wife and assisting in our nation's defense. You are a true blessing for us in these bleak times." The three stand normally after the short bow with the soldiers easing up and doing the same. Naiki looks at Vexis who did not know how to respond. "It is fine, would you mind if I borrow some space behind the command room?" Naiki says it while asking for permission. Vexis seems surprised that Naiki is not being a show of force like his old self. Val nods as Naiki goes to the designated space, two projected devices are materialized by Naiki.
It activates with all of his regents already wanting to give their progress reports to him. Vexis acting playfully guards his back as he faces away from them. "My companions, what is your progress against the other nations?" Naiki says it while winking at them. They immediately enter their character without exposing their nation of origin, even the empire's logo, banner, and the regent's respective icons are hidden. "Armada One, we have successfully conquered 15 sectors of an opposing nation. They did not mount any resistance since their rulers left them for dead without governing since they take the loyalist mainly to their space bases and fleets. A portion of my fleets stays there to guide them and offer assistance as they accepted our rules." Ilya is the first to give her report.
"Armada Two, most of the two nations' combined fleets have been destroyed. We gave them a chance to surrender but they cursed us. Only one warship surrendered and pleaded to spare their space colonies from our attacks. There was zero resistance so far from the colonies since we treated them with kindness and increased their agricultural output. Helping them stabilize food sources." Lenora smiles at Naiki after the report, Naiki nods and looked at Layla as she finished drinking some water. "Armada Three, we have thwarted the enemy attack on the nation you are in right now and spread their debris across the cold space. Beginning the full counterattack on their sectors before they managed to regroup." Layla shortens her brief as she gives orders to her armada. "Very well…" Naiki shortly accepted it.
Svidana is next to give her report as she saluted Naiki. "Armada Four, we have finished blockading five sectors. They will not surrender since the other four nations neighboring them combined their forces to stop us." Svidana reported her status. "Four, I will assist you since our operation area overlaps each other." Layla shortly says to Svidana. The Asters watched Naiki since he is absorbed in the reports of his companions. "What an honor, everyone wants us dead…" Svidana cracks a joke. All of them laughed including Naiki and Vexis. All four of them looked at Val who approaches Naiki's side. "Then; 5 out of 15 of our fleets will assist you, the rest will remain to guard my territories, the Aster kingdom. Mark the ship with my emblem as friendlies." He says to the valkyrie while showing his emblem to them, he turned to nod at Naiki. "Very well; know this, my armada is merciless towards the enemy. Don't expect us to stop for a breather or two." Svidana noted him while looking at the Emperor. Naiki only nods as the four of them saluted before cutting off the communication. "Naiki, your companions are scary and strict." He says to him while wiping away his sweaty forehead.
"They are dead serious about their goal. We take warfare to another level, especially since we have strong militaristic traditions and the lesson learned from our history." Vexis explained it to Val. Evelyn stands at the side of Val. "Dear, our guest must be hungry and tired." She says to him with his son supporting his mother's statement. "Yes, they have been with us since this afternoon and now the sun has set." He looked at Naiki calmly, Val looked over at the time and it is true. "Would you like to join us for some aster cuisines and do you have a place to stay for the night?" Val asked both of them. "Well, I intended to land one of our auxiliary corvettes at the nearby lake as a spot to rest and eat. I'll save that for the next day." Naiki stated his words. "Then, let us guide you to our mansion." Evelyn bowed with her recovered self. Naiki hesitated to accept it but Vexis told him psionically to play on, Val led them to the mansion that is close in proximity to the governing building. The Aster rulers keep the guest company at the mansion till late night finally arrives. Naiki and Vexis rested in one of the guest rooms with the mansion being fully guarded in case of intruders.