AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.

(Story)

In the year 2685...

If there was one thing Deidre had learned from her mind worm friends, it was that an orgy was never a bad thing. Yeah, the whole fungal bloom thing? Totally a mind-worm orgy. The only real reason the mind worms had begun attacking the human colonists? Because they started moving their procreating forms. It certainly explained why fungal blooms shivered. However, none of this mattered after Deidre had stopped dreaming.

As Deidre awoke, she found herself in the kind of world she had never expected to wake up. There, right in front of her was a screen. She recognized the street as the main street down Gaia's Landing. It was beautifully engineered so that man and planet intermingled at near optimum efficiency. On the screen she could clearly see a society that looked so familiar, and yet so foreign.

She could see the Dragonite symbol waving clearly in the air. She could see the Gaian symbol decorating ever tree. The thing that surprised her was that she could clearly see the Believer symbol on every church and a Spartan symbol on the gym. It...was such an odd sight to see the intermingling between four factions. Perhaps in her absence Mogul had signed pac-...pacts? They were clearly forbidden. He was running high treaso-...oh who was she kidding. She laid back and rested, Mogul had committed treason nigh a hundred times. Sometimes she had even punished him for committing treason. As far as the World Council was aware, Mogul had whip marks on his back. They didn't need to know about that it was a cover-up story for why she really punished him. But...that's a story the children aren't allowed to hear.

Before her on the screen came a slide show of pictures. Each one portraying events that had happened. For 32 years she had been comatose, and here before her were the pictures of what had happened. The first slide was of four factions intermingling together, if not on a political scale, perhaps more on a social scale. People having cast out their differences to unite together as a single society ruled by different parties. Next came a picture of a map of Chiron, where the world stood at 2653. Then the map progressed as first the Believer and then the Spartan territory altered if only slightly. They transformed from their respected orange and black colors, to a mixture of orange and green and pink and black. Over their territory, they were given a superior name United Factions. While in a gray, smaller size, each faction was given a border of domain and its original name.

Something else she noted was that the Peacekeepers had reunited. The Pherals at length were absorbed back into the Peacekeeping faction. The Hive remained the same, the University, and the Morganites as well.

However then pictures began to slide by that wasn't a map or a picture of a street. There were a few pictures of a massive banquet it seemed. At a head table, she could make out Mogul, Miriam, and even Santiago sitting in front of an enormous multicolored flag. It held the four symbols of the four factions. Among the people that the faction leaders sat before, were hundreds, if not thousands and thousands of civilians, even drones! However, it was a movie slide, as was apparent when an audio light became apparent on the screen and she could hear words.

"I would like to be the first to congratulate our four great societies on their unification. Though we may be vastly different in many respects with our ideology, it was what is similar that makes this union possible." Deidre could see it was Mogul speaking. He paused to look around the room. "We share two arms...two legs...a mind...and a soul. We share a thirst for betterment, for the continuance of our species. To intermingle with the world."

He casts his arms open wide as if gesturing to the world, "There are those concerned of what this union will result in. That it is little better than a pact." Mogul shakes his head, "Before we celebrate let me clear the fog around this issue." He takes a breath before continuing, "You can be for certain that the articles of this union does call for a gradual dismemberment of individual factions, and turning them into a part of a greater state. It does not! however," voice booms out to them, "call for the dismemberment of individual beliefs! In the era of unity we are trying to achieve, we hope that people shall remain true to the beliefs they decide to hold! But we want them to choose their fates together. As a species...not as nations or kingdoms or factions. But as a SPECIES!"

To Deidre's amazement, this speech is answered with a loud applause. People stand and continue to clap for minutes, and it goes on and on. Before the crowd is settled the movie clip is over and the next slide comes up. It is a picture of the World Council, with Miriam as the head representative for the very large section of the UF. There, over half the the council is made up of United Faction delegates. It is clear the UF holds the power, the people, the resources. It held enough sway and the kind of Unity, that could not be shattered easily.

As if reading her thoughts a new video came up, of a council meeting amongst the heads of state. Sitting around a table with Deidre herself not too far off screen they conversed with how to hold their factions together. As the video came on, it was Miriam who was speaking, "-ee how it goes from there."

Santiago looked like the proverbial cat who caught the canary, "It seems Project Betty will be most useful for the emergency the Kazzak Wall," a brief picture of a wall between the Spartan and the Hive territory shows up, with a mini map off to the side, "and the Myriad Wall," another quick picture of a wall much larger between the Gaians and the Morganites shows up also with a mini map on the side, "we should be able to take care of any immediate dangers."

Mogul seems to contemplate her words carefully, and in turn, both Miriam and Santiago wait patiently for what he has to say. At length he draws breath and begins, "I do not think that the others will try anything direct. While yes, the University could supply the technology, the Morganites and the Hive could produce it, and the Peacekeepers and the Hive could wield it, the war would suffice for not. Not without some deep insight into our plans and inner workings."

Miriam in turn responds, "If the shepherd has sheep to lead, all you but need do is lead them well."

Santiago, one more for tactics than 'silly waving of words', gives her own response, "What does that even mean?" her eyebrow arches. It captures the attention of both Miriam and Mogul, though this detail is not hardly visible.

Mogul is the one to answer for Miriam, "It means, that we will need to keep a close watch on our people. Make sure they remain loyal." To which Miriam nods in his direction. All three exchange looks and then look over at her, still sleeping there unconscious, until they are drawn again to look at Mogul. He sighs deeply, "I will inform the Viceroy Elrond to execute operation Slewd-Q1."

The video image fades out and in turn a calendar is set up to portray the year 2680. Just five years prior. Then the screen is dark before it flashes image after image after image of death and gore. Images that made the Great Wars seem so tame. And there...the final image! Project Betty could be seen clearly. Great Mind Worms, over 300 meters long could be seen coming out of the ground and then another flurry of images as these Mind Worms attack all sorts of settlements. Not limited to UF or AUF (Anti-United Faction). Yeah...the guy who does abbreviations? He has the day off.

Then, an image of the world...a plane of some sort had to be doing the recording as it flew over the continents...it was over 30 hours in length, but Deidre watched every second of it in horror. She could only tell where they were by the mini map on the corner of the screen. But as they flew over cities, there was nothing but ruin. Her two bright hopes as she watched this...were the two Great Walls. She watched in horror as the plane came upon a gigantic hole blown, not eaten, but blown out of the second Great Wall. There inside she could see what had happened next.

Then, as if by a miracle...as the plane approached the Isle of Dexamenus, she could see activity! She watched in sheer raptured joy as the plane went around and showed the new island. No longer was there the isle, and then the Great Wall surrounding it out at see. Mogul, had somehow built the island to extend to the Great Wall, and even beyond in many parts. But in the Oval of the original Great Wall, she could see a massive structure towering upwards. So this had been his plan? Extending outward from this structure were lightening bolts of platforms connecting the Sea Bases.

As the final image faded, Deidre wondered had all of that really happened? It seemed as if she were just in a United Council meeting trying to work out the technical details of psi baronics. How could she have slept for so long?

(Story)

AN: December 6th, 2011: Alright, so I'm almost finished with the edits for this story. That's good! Mostly because I really need to focus on Tails Combined and A Tale of History. Please review my friends!