Chapter 4:
Samus sat in the cockpit of her gunship as she sailed through subspace and sat, thinking. Six months had past since the destruction of Daiban, and the deaths of nearly one third of the Galactic Federation Council. These last six months had been full of turmoil as well. First of all, the people and the government of planet Earth were being less than cooperative in Elric's eyes. While Earth had drastically increased the amount of foodstuffs given to the Galactic Federation, they had been hesitant to outright hostile towards enforcing some of Elric's other decrees. Earth had refused to enforce the military draft, stating that it had been the government that had suffered the casualties in the assault and not the military, which had shown itself to perform admirably against the Space Pirates in the past. In addition, Earth was refusing to allow itself to be the capital of the Galactic Federation. The reason that Elric said that Earth gave was that they did not want to be targets for the Space Pirates or be a part of the Galactic Federation, foolishly thinking that they were above Federation laws.
He also added that Earth did not want to make space for the many dispossessed civilians of Daiban, and that the people of Earth were showing themselves to be selfish. Many of the media outlets had supported Elric's stated reason for Earth's lack of cooperation. However, Wolf News Channel, a news channel based on Earth, but that had viewers and ears far beyond Sol, countered Elric's claims, stating that the reason Earth was being less than cooperative was mainly due to the fact that the Federation was becoming more of a dictatorship, than the democracy that it had been before Elric had taken office. In addition, planets that were a part of the Galactic Federation had previously been autonomous and not under direct control by Federation representatives. That was no longer the case, and it disturbed the people of Earth greatly, including Councilman Colin Williams, who still championed the rights and freedoms of individual planets, assuming basic sentient rights were adhered to. In addition, Earth feared that many of the "civilians" that were coming to settle on Earth were part of Elric's new secret police, called the Watchmen, based upon an old Earth comic book superhero team.
Samus could not argue with Earth's reasoning, if everything stated by Wolf News was true. The channel had reported that there had been raids on civilian houses and entire families had been taken captive, ostensibly on charges of sedition, but most secret witnesses and sources inside the Federation stated that the reason for the captures was because the people captured, and sometimes even killed, were taken because they knew the secret of Cyrus Mann, or other important allies of Elric. Cyrus had been another reason that Earth was less than eager to accept direct rule by the Galactic Federation. Elric's decision to place him in charge of Earth, answerable only to him, was probably the real issue that Earth had with the Elric and the Federation Council. Cyrus's immediate promotion to Vice-Chairman of the Federation Council was one of the primary reasons that Earth had been mistrustful of Elric since he had taken office. Earth still held to the story that Cyrus was a known criminal on that world, and Earth refused to be ruled by a criminal.
One thing that the tragedy of Daiban had done was allow Elric to maintain control of the Galactic Federation, despite the imminent impeachment hearing. With the emergency powers that the Council had granted him, he had been able to fill the seats of the dead Council Members with his own people. As such, when the time to vote on Elric's impeachment came, the Council narrowly voted against impeaching Chairman Elric. This move was made even more controversial due to the fact that the Council had given Elric emergency powers. It was a move that that Earth, as well as the rest of Sol, took a close look at, for none of the Council Members that represented Earth or any of the planets or moons in Sol had voted to grant Elric emergency powers, fearing just such an abuse by him. Elric's justification was that strength and solidarity had to be shown and that the vacant seats needed to have been filled as quickly as possible in order to show the other powers of the galaxy that the Galactic Federation was returning to business as usual. Sol did not believe it for an instant. The fact that Elric had given so much power to the Police and military, or rather his Police and military, made it seem all that much more suspicious. Despite Earth's misgivings, though, most of the Federation planets accepted Elric's actions and decrees with a minimum of grumbling. Many worlds had already gotten over it and were willing to place the needs of the Federation above their own. They had joined Elric in calling Earth arrogant, stubborn, insular, and isolationist. They accused Earth of hoarding all of its rich resources so that it could profit from the destruction of Daiban. Such accusations incensed Earth and as a response, Earth said that the rest of the Federation had surrendered to Elric and had gone against the very principles that the Galactic Federation had been founded upon. Earth called them cowards, letting a dictator use a tragedy to justify his acquisition of power through illegal means. Earth's president had even gone on record and said that the Federation died the moment Daiban exploded and the entity that called itself the Galactic Federation was now a Galactic Empire. As of now, Earth and the planets and moons in Sol, were dangerously close to actually seceding from the Federation. The Federation, of course, could not allow that to happen. However, the Federation fleet was now having troubles of its own.
The Kriken Empire had smelled blood, and had begun launching attacks on Federation frontier worlds, having taken several colonies, with others still being hotly contested. These attacks had resulted in costly losses to Federation defense task forces in the frontier sectors, and had required the shift of naval assets to the protection of the contested colonies, and the retaking of the captured colonies. In addition, the Space Pirates had launched some costly raids on Federation shipping lanes, and on Federation ships, themselves.
In the six months since Daiban had been destroyed, the Federation fleet had reported the theft of dozens of ships, among them a Gehenna-class battleship, an experimental dreadnaught commissioned by Chairman Elric that was twice the size of an Olympus-class battleship; one Kraken-class troopship which held one-hundred thousand troops along with armor and equipment, two Asgard-class heavy cruisers, and many other cruisers and frigates. While most of the cruisers and frigates were of older designs, gradually being phased out of service in favor of more modern starships, they were still quite powerful in their own right. And in the hands of the Space Pirates, they would be a force to be reckoned with.
Soon, another dreadful thought crossed Samus's mind. In the last few weeks, she and the Federation had received numerous reports of Aurora Units on numerous ships and worlds malfunctioning. Some of them had even attacked their operators, resulting in the deaths of many good and renowned scientists. Even hospitals, orphanages, and other facilities that gave care to others were attacked and destroyed by rampaging malfunctioning Units. In addition, a number of Federation starships had self-destructed in the middle of space with no known problems reported before the self-destructions. Among these ships had been at least two Olympus-class battleships. One thing all of the lost ships, both captured and destroyed, had in common was the fact that they contained Aurora Units. What made things even more interesting, and in a way, disturbing for the Federation, though, was the fact that none of the Aurora Units on Earth, or based upon Earth's Auroras were being affected in any way. However, the Auroras on Earth had detected strange signals coming to many other Aurora Units, especially to those that had malfunctioned just before the malfunction.
Aurora Unit One, Earth's first and lead Aurora Unit, postulated that the Space Pirates had likely gotten some DNA and command codes from Aurora Unit Zero before Daiban's destruction and had managed to clone it. This was especially bad since not only could the Space Pirates use their own new Aurora Unit to take control of any and all non-Earth based Aurora Units, it also granted them access to a great deal of Federation information, such as troop deployments, fleet deployments, the strengths and weaknesses of most of the current Federation starships in service. The possibilities were practically endless for the Space Pirates.
As such, Samus had recently been dispatched to find the location of the Space Pirates, or whoever had stolen the Federation ships and retrieve the ships; or, barring that, destroy the enemy and ensure that the ships are unable to be used by any enemies of the Federation. She had been searching for signs of the Pirates in deep space for six weeks when she had received a distress signal from two starships that said that they were under attack by Space Pirates. Upon checking her computer, she found that the signal had been sent by a group of Unicorn-class destroyers, starships that were smaller than regular cruisers, and about the size of light cruisers, but packed greater firepower than medium cruisers, but less than heavy cruisers, that had been part of the Star Elf Defense Force, the official planetary militia of the Star Elves that had since been nationalized into becoming a part of the Galactic Federation Navy. Despite the troubles that were occurring back at Sol and on Earth, Samus had still been given the assignment of tracking down the Space Pirates. This was likely going to be her best chance to find them. She knew that the destroyers would be a great prize for any marauding force, especially the Space Pirates. Even more interesting was the fact that both ships had Aurora Units onboard. This clinched in Samus's mind that the Space Pirates were using a clone of Aurora Unit Zero to control a great deal of the Federation fleet. Samus almost hoped that the ships were in the process of being taken by the enemy, so she could find out if the reason so many powerful ships had managed to be taken by the Space Pirates, since she doubted that the Pirates had enough troops to take hold of and crew twelve starships, especially given that some of the ships were so powerful. Granted, the Space Pirates may well have cloned some new troops, but given what she had read about the ships that they had taken, the ships had been crew-intense ships, despite the presence of Aurora Units onboard.
She looked down at the console and asked, "Time to last known location of the Kirin and the Indrik?"
Adam's voice sounded over the speakers, answering, "About two minutes, lady."
Samus sat back in her seat and activated her gunship's stealth system. Should the ships still be there, but under the control of enemy forces, she wanted to give herself a chance to be able to latch onto one of the ships and board it, if for no other reason then to find out where the attackers were taking the ships. Samus then waited for her ship to arrive.
Back on Earth, in the former Team Galactic Building, Cyrus sat at his computer in his office on the top floor of the building. Outside his office, several Watchmen stood by, protecting the entrance to his office. He stood up and exited his office, entering a special laboratory. Inside the lab were three ovular containers with wires on top leading to a large machine reminiscent of a super-computer in the corner that looked to have been designed to hold Pokémon, specifically Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit. The machines had been designed to extract energy from the Pokémon and form the Red Chain, an energy chain that was used to bind the Legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia and allow Cyrus to command them. His plan had failed, but he had managed to duplicate the chain before, and he would be able to do so once more. This time, however, he had no intentions of using it to summon Dialga and Palkia and binding them. His target was much greater, and much more powerful. He also had to keep his work secret. He could not allow the Federation and Elric to know what he was planning. While Elric would likely try to usurp his command over the Dark Original One, the Federation, itself, would likely turn on him and immediately oust him from his office. And even if the Council, and Elric, did not, then Earth would, for Earth had been down this path once before. Last time, it had taken the actions of a select few to stop Cyrus's dreams from becoming reality. Earth, and the universe, might not be so lucky next time.
He went over to one of the technicians working on the machine and asked, "So, how does it look?"
The technician turned to him and replied, "So far, so good. We still have enough of the energy collected from the crystals on Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit to recreate the Red Chain."
"Will it be powerful enough to contain Dark Arceus?" Cyrus asked.
The technician looked over his readouts and replied, "I don't know. If you had asked if it would be powerful enough to bind Dialga and Palkia, then the answer would have been yes. However, since we don't know the full power of Dark Arceus, I can't say for sure."
Cyrus scowled. "Your best guess."
"Again, I'm just a technician going by my current readouts," the technician responded. "Charon might have a better idea since he worked with you when you bound Dialga and Palkia. But if what they say about Dark Arceus is true, then I can't see anything being able to bind him. I mean, what could? He's basically a god, if not, the God."
Cyrus grunted. "Thank you, anyway, technician," Cyrus answered. "By the way, how long will it be until the new Red Chain is completed?"
"If we start now, we can likely have it completed in a few days. It will take at least that long for us to generate the proper amounts of energy for the chain to have a chance of being able to contain a Pokémon of Dialga's or Palkia's power."
"Then get to it," Cyrus commanded.
"Yes, sir," the technician responded as he went back to work on the machine.
Cyrus smiled and then left the technician to his work and went back into his office. Once he was inside his office, he closed the door so that he could be alone with his thoughts. When he went to sit down at his desk, he saw a flashing light on his computer's console. He moved the cursor on the screen to the light and clicked on the mouse. Immediately, the face of Chairman Elric appeared on the screen. Cyrus almost recoiled in shock. He immediately hoped that Elric had not discovered his secret plans, for if he had, then Elric would have forced him to move a little sooner than planned. He hoped that Elric was only calling for a status report.
"Vice-Chairman Cyrus," Elric said in a low voice.
"Chairman Elric," Cyrus answered, lowering his eyes as if he were bowing to the Chairman. The there was a pause for a few moments. After the pause, and hearing nothing from Elric, Cyrus asked, "May I ask why you have called me?"
"How is everything going on Earth?" Elric asked. His tone, however, sounded suspicious to Cyrus, as if Elric was hiding something.
"As fine as can be expected, given the circumstances," Cyrus replied. "So far, we have had few riots in the streets. Those that did occur were mostly started by a few malcontents. However, there has also been Wolf News Channel. They have been spreading reports about the abuses of power that the Police and Watchmen have perpetrated. In addition, we have been rounding up those who have spoken out against your rules, though Wolf News has also been making reports about that as well. In addition, we also are having difficulty getting Earth's military forces to cooperate with us. As a result, the construction of the Orbital Defense Ring Network has fallen significantly behind schedule."
"Is that all?" Elric asked, his voice not bothering to hide his displeasure.
"So far, sir."
"What about the Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum? What about Leaf?" Elric asked. "What about the ape, Donkey Kong? Hell, I'll take any information you've got on the potential return date of the Chosen Four, or anything you've got on the Marios."
"I have nothing on those specified individuals, yet. I have mainly been dealing with seditionists and those calling for Earth's secession," Cyrus told him.
"I need these people to be dealt with now, Cyrus!" Elric cried, which took the Vice-Chairman aback. His surprise at Elric's outburst was evident on his face. "And if you can't deal with them, at least tell me where they are, so I can hire the necessary forces to deal with them."
"I'll get to work on it, Elric," Cyrus assured him, regaining his composure.
"You'd better," was Elric's only response before the screen went blank.
"What is your obsession with these people?" Cyrus muttered to the absent image of Elric. While Cyrus had a grudge against Ash Ketchum for stopping him from having Dialga and Palkia create his own universe, he had never even heard of Leaf, Donkey Kong, the Chosen Four, or the Marios. Cyrus made a note to himself to find out everything he could about these people, especially if they had the ability hinder or prevent the accomplishment his goals. Even so, he suspected that they would not be able to stop him. Ash was just a child and in another region entirely, and as such, he doubted that Ash knew much about the Galactic Federation aside from who the Chairman currently was, especially since he was on his Pokémon training journey, rather than sitting around the table at home, watching the news during dinner with his family. Even if he knew the name of the Vice-Chairman, there were a number of humans named Cyrus. As long as he did not stand out while on television, he doubted that he would be recognized by those who knew him. So far, the Federation had not intruded in the daily lives of those on Earth, though that was quickly changing, at least in Japan. And that would soon spread to the rest of the world. To him, the real problem would be the Sinnoh League Champion, Cynthia. She had powerful Pokémon, and also knew his secret. He did not doubt that she was the reason why Earth's government and Councilman Williams had been so suspicious of him when he had been made the Vice-Chairman of the Galactic Federation. She must have passed her knowledge of him on to Williams and Earth's current government as well. As such, he knew that even with the Federation Police and the Watchmen with him, he would have to be careful of any Earth Police stings. He also wanted to fly under the radar of Earth's military forces as well. While the Federation had officially nationalized all planetary militias and military forces of the individual worlds into the Galactic Federation military, Earth, naturally, had not complied with the order.
Cyrus turned off his computer and then folded the screen down onto the keyboard. He then left the office and went towards a second room across the lab area. Inside the second room, he found a duffel bag that contained six Poké Balls. Inside the Poké Balls were six Pokémon. These Pokémon were Houndoom, demonic looking dog-like Pokémon with black fur and gray horns; Crobat, a purple bat-like Pokémon with four wings, a Gyarados, a large Pokémon that looked like a cross between a dragon and a snake; a Honchkrow, a bird Pokemon that looked like a large, black crow; a Weavile, cat-like Pokémon that had purple fur, sharp claws, and pink frills on the fur, and a Spiritomb, a gaseous Pokémon that resembled a swirling vortex of purple and green orbs of various sizes circling its face, along with green eyes and a green mouth. He got out the Poké Balls and strapped them to his belt. He felt as if he would need of their services in the future. All he could do now was wait. If nothing bad happened in the next few days, then in three or so days, he would be the god of a new universe that had been made from this old, flawed universe.
Meanwhile, onboard a large starliner just outside of the Sol system that was now known as Federation One, Chairman Elric emerged from his office and returned to the new Galactic Federation Council Chamber on his ship and proceeded to listen to the arguing of the members of the Galactic Federation Council that were present onboard the ship. It was a good thing that the starliner was almost five miles long, for the ship had literally been transformed from a luxurious transport, to the, hopefully temporary, home of the Galactic Federation Council and its Chairman, Elric. Surrounding the ship was a task force of two starcraft carriers, the G.F.S. Gehenna, the first of the new Gehenna-class battleships commissioned by Elric, and captained and crewed by a his own hand-picked crewmen; four Asgard-class heavy cruisers, and eight Griffin-class frigates. Despite the protection afforded to his starship, Elric was still concerned. He did not like the reports of so many Federation ships either going missing or being destroyed. Even worse was the fact that many Aurora Units had started to malfunction, and the only ones that seemed to be fine were the Aurora Units built and designed on Earth, which only used technology based upon Chozo technology, rather than Chozo technology and genetic samples from Mother Brain as the basis for their construction. That had only given Earth even more reason to be wary of Galactic Federation ships coming down to the planet with possibly malfunctioning Aurora Units. The humans of Earth did not want the Federation Auroras being able to figure out the Earth's Auroras and allow whatever was causing them to go haywire to affect the Earth's Aurora Units as well.
Elric listened to the arguments and grinned. He knew that most of the Federation had been against Earth in its unwillingness to open itself up more to refugees to Daiban, despite Elric's plan to have Watchmen impersonate refugees, as well as recruit refugees from Daiban into the special police force. In addition, most of the Council was not thrilled that Earth was unwilling to let the Federation use it as its headquarters, despite the fact that Earth had superior defenses to any other planet in the Federation, and possibly the galaxy.
"We need to get off this ship and get down to Earth, now!" a Star Elf representative on the Council cried out over the entire chamber. This was met with a chorus of applause, "yeahs", and "he's rights".
On the other side, Councilman Colin Williams, said calmly, "There are many good reasons why Earth does not want to be the capital of the Federation…if we can still call the Federation, the Federation, that is," he added coldly.
"Yeah, and what are those oh so great reasons, selfish jerk?" a reptilian humanoid alien called out in response.
"The fact that as of yet, our Aurora Units are still in working order and are unaffected by whatever is afflicting the others," Williams replied calmly. "Earth is not nearly as heavily populated as Daiban was. We don't want our entire landmass to be converted into a city." He then focused his gaze on the reptilian alien and said, "You call us selfish, but we're the ones who are setting aside more land to grow crops and providing you with food, both in the form of meats and plants. We are adding to our exports, without raising prices, in fact, we've made our emergency provisions free for the survivors of Daiban. We have also allowed the survivors of Daiban to settle on our colony worlds, most of which are prime planets for farming or growing and breeding livestock. And we even allowed settlers on Earth, until it was discovered that Watchmen were posing as survivors of Daiban to get access to our planet."
The alien scoffed. "Yeah, you're bein' real helpful. You refuse to let your military be nationalized by the Federation. You proceed to kick off the settlers that came to your world, tellin' them that they can only go to the frontier hick worlds, rather than the nice, cozy, inner system worlds of Earth and Mars."
"Those 'hick worlds', are actually closer to the core than Earth," Williams corrected. "And as stated before, we only kicked them off once we realized that many of them were agents of the Federation, or rather, Elric. Given the recent freedoms that have been curtailed by the Federation, we have a right to be concerned. How much is too much, Councilman Frazze? How many freedoms must we give up before we become the very thing we hate? The very thing we fought against for so long? Do you want to know why Earth is so suspicious of the Federation? It's because we've gone through this sort of thing in our own history. The first freedoms to go when the government is going to perform a tyrannical takeover is the right to keep and bear arms. Well, according to the Federation Council, that right is now gone. Without a special permit granted by Elric, a member of the Council, or the local sector governor, no citizen can keep and bear any sort of gun, be it a projectile or energy weapon. Even bows and arrows are quickly being outlawed. And now, the media is getting taken over. We also have reports of people being arrested for speaking out against the current direction of the galactic Federation. When will it end?"
"That is quite enough, Councilman Williams," Elric proclaimed loudly over the assembly.
"You said that once the crisis was over that you would relinquish power back to the people," Colin Williams called out over the din of people muttering back and forth.
"The crisis isn't over!" Elric replied, pointing at Williams. "Over a dozen ships are missing, with over a hundred more either destroyed or damaged. Entire fleets have been wiped out in the Kriken advance because the Aurora Units on the ships malfunctioned and left the ships defenseless before the enemy." His gaze then narrowed on Councilman Colin Williams. "You are a member of the Galactic Federation Council. It is your duty to carry out my decrees. Now, get your planet in line, or I'll replace you right here and now!"
"Yes, my lord," Williams responded bitterly, giving an exaggerated, stiff bow. It was not the right honorific to use for Elric, yet, though it got his point across not only to Elric, but to the rest of the Council as well. He hoped that it would give those who were not appointees of Elric due to the deaths of almost a third of the Council just prior to the death of Daiban something to think about, but he cynically believed that his cries would fall on deaf ears. The rest of the Federation wanted to exploit Earth since it was the most resource rich planet of all of the technologically advanced worlds, in addition to being the most heavily defended world as well. Having Earth as a headquarters would give Elric even more leverage since he could hide behind Earth's massive defenses and planetary shields. He did not have any intention of following Elric's order, though. The President of Earth was right. He could see it in Elric's eyes when he spoke. Elric was out of control. He knew that something had to be done quickly, before things got even worse. Councilman Williams then rose from his seat and proceeded to leave the chamber. He was quickly followed by Councilwoman Madeline Powell of Mars and several other representatives from several of Jupiter and Saturn's moons, Aliehs III, and Corella 5, both of which were major ship and fighter production worlds, along with Earth and Mars.
The rest of the Council chamber erupted into an uproar at the leaving of what they had titled the Earth Alliance. The problem, in their eyes, was the fact that several important worlds had left along with the Earth faction. The rest of the Council was less than pleased at the leaving of the representatives of Aliehs III and Corella 5.
"You must keep the Federation in line, Elric!" one representative, a human male in his early sixties shouted.
"We can't let Sol, Aliehs and Corella form a coalition," another Council Member cried. "We could afford the loss of Earth, barely, but Aliehs III and Corella Five? Our starship production ability would be cut in half, not to mention the loss of Mars, Luna, and Earth!"
"I know!" Elric roared at the entire Council. "Rest assured, I'll keep them from seceding from the Galactic Federation. And even if they do secede, I'll bring them back into the fold."
"How?" a female avian alien with blue feathers asked. "Sol, Aliehs, and Corella are not without their own militaries. In addition, a noticeable portion of the Federation military is quite loyal to the worlds that just left us in a storm. They may not have seceded yet, but if this continues, what will happen if they are ordered to fire on Earth, Corella Five, Aliehs III, Mars, or Luna? What then?"
"That's why I have been upping our recruitment quota from various colonies and increased pay to all military soldiers," Elric responded. "We need to get fresh, loyal, troops in place in case just such an emergency happens. And we can still bribe some of the more senior officers in the Army, Navy, and Marines to serve us."
"And those that won't?" the avian Council Member asked.
"Then we'll deal with them when the time comes…with whatever force is deemed necessary."
That caused the rest of the Council to murmur among themselves. Elric waited for a few moments before suggesting, "In light of the recent events with the early departure of Council Members Williams, Powell, Diego, Dorn, and several others, I suggest a recess. We'll reconvene in three hours."
The other Council Members then quieted and then all nodded. With that, the rest of the Council proceeded to depart the chamber and headed over to their individual quarters. Elric could not help but notice that groups were forming among the Council Members ranging in size from six, to two dozen or so. Elric scowled. He did not need others to begin considering the possibility of secession, or speaking out against his orders. So far, the damage had been contained to Sol, Aliehs, Corella, and a few unimportant systems. However, if Sol, Aliehs, Corella, and their worlds all seceded and formed their own government, then things could get difficult, especially with the losses the Federation fleet had suffered in recent months. Elric could tell that the Federation was on the brink of great change. Whether it would become the great Empire that he desired it to be, or collapse into dozens of bickering alliances remained to be seen. He resolved to do everything in his power to make it the great Empire that would unite the entire galaxy into one force. However, first, he would need to get the current Federation back on its feet, before other discontent systems had had too much and decided to take the same route as Earth and Mars seemed to be taking. To do that, though, he would need help. Fortunately, he knew exactly who he could turn to.
Elric then retreated back into his own chamber. The door slid closed behind him as he entered his chamber. He suddenly heard the faint rustling of cloths in a closet in the corner of the chamber. He immediately drew his defensive sidearm and waved it around the room. "Show yourself," he barked. "I know you're in here!"
"Put down your gun, Elric," a young feminine voice echoed around the room. Elric immediately dropped the weapon, for he instantly recognized the voice as belonging to an Elvanheim, or Magic Lord or Dragon Lord as Elric and the rest of the galaxy had known them before reading about the battle on Z-1A between the Magic Lords and the Chozo Alliance. Unlike many other races in the galaxy, Elric's people had been engineered by the Magic Lords during their war against the Chozo, Luminoth, N'Kren, and Ylla. They had used human DNA as the primary template for the creation of Elric's species, and many other elfen species. Some had been bred for beauty, others for strength and yet, others, intelligence. The Star Elves had been bred for a combination of all of these things. As such, they had a gift with languages, were very physically fit, and pleasing to behold. They had not taken part in the fighting against the Chozo, for they were still too young, and had only really known their creators at the beginning of their existence, since the war had seen the near extermination of Magic Lords.
A girl then stepped out from the corner. In her face, she looked to be only fourteen or fifteen Earth years old. She was tall, though, easily taller than Elric, who stood at over seven feet in height, despite her youth. She had blond hair, blue eyes, and a fair skin tone. She also had pointed ears, similar to Elric's but were much longer, strongly resembling a Hylian's ears. She was incredibly beautiful to Elric's eyes, and to the eyes of anyone else who would have looked upon her form. This was not her species' natural form, though, for their forms came to them at their own whims, but forms similar to this was one of their preferred form. The woman was dressed in a golden breastplate that covered the torso, though her arms and legs were both left devoid of any clothing. At her waist was a sword that undoubtedly had a great deal of magical power.
"What are your orders, my lady?" Elric stammered in question.
"Rise, Elric, leader of the Galactic Federation," the teenaged Magic Lord, or Lady, commanded. Elric immediately rose. "Tell me of the affairs of the Galactic Federation," she ordered softly.
Elric immediately told her of the events of the past year. He told her of the incidents onboard the Bottle Ship, Sector Zero of the Bottle Ship, Research Facility 777, and the barely averted disaster onboard the BSL research station. He also told her of the attack on Daiban, which cost the lives of nearly one third of the Galactic Federation Council, as well as Daiban's destruction, which had killed nineteen billion people. He also informed her of the losses to several sector fleets that had been disabled by malfunctioning Aurora Units and marauding Space Pirate forces. The Magic Lady laughed at his exposition. "This must be the worst year of your entire life, Elric," she commented jovially. She then gave off a childish laugh.
"Not entirely," Elric admitted. "So far, everything has been going smoothly, save for the destruction of Daiban. That, I was not expecting."
"That's what happens when you deal with Space Pirates," the Magic Lady chided. "Anyway, on to more important matters. Have you identified all of the Chosen Heroes of Earth yet?"
"Some, my lady…" Elric began.
"Call me Aglara," the Magic Lady interrupted.
"Understood, Aglara," Elric answered. "As for having identified the Chosen Heroes of Earth, I have yet to identify all of them, but I have found a few that appear to be people of interest."
"Tell me their names and descriptions," Aglara commanded.
"Ash Ketchum, a boy of about twelve years old, with black hair and brown eyes. Leaf, a Pokémon Trainer that is the twin sister of Ash with black hair and blue eyes. I don't think he knows that she is as close to him as she is, yet. I have also identified an ape called Donkey Kong who fits the description of one of the Chosen Heroes."
"What about the Chosen Four, the Chosen Pokémon, and the Marios?"
"I have found no trace of the Chosen Four or the Marios on Earth, yet. For the Marios, I heard that they vanished off the face of the Earth over a decade ago or so." That answer almost seemed to relieve Aglara. "However, I have managed to find and identify most of the Chosen Pokémon you told me to find. Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, a yellow mouse-like creature with black stripes on his back and red cheeks, fits the description of one of the Chosen Heroes, as does a certain wild Jigglypuff, a pink puffball, and a wild Lucario. I have no doubt that this Lucario is also one of the Chosen Heroes. In addition, I have identified and located the Pichu you sent me the information on."
"Excellent," Aglara cooed. "This will be very useful to me."
"I was unable to find anything on the psychic Pokémon, Mewtwo, though," Elric informed her a little warily."
"That is of no concern right now. You have actually given me more than I had expected. My current mate, brother-lover Aramon, and I need this information should you fail in your mission."
"What mission do you have for me?"
"Go to Earth and deal with these identified Chosen Heroes now, before they become a nuisance to me, and to you, later."
Elric's eyes flashed at the statement. Aglara confused his shocked expression as one of being worried about getting to Earth rather than his surprise that a group of humans, Pokémon, and an ape could be a threat to them. "You must do this," she insisted harshly. "I am mighty and powerful, but I am not invincible, alone. The others are too cowardly to strike now, while the enemy is weak, but I will not make that mistake. I shall deal with the heroes now. Do this for me, and I will ensure that you remain the ruler of the Galactic Federation for all eternity, for I can give you the gift of eternal life."
"Understood, my lady, Aglara," Elric replied, genuflecting before Aglara. Suddenly, Aglara disappeared, accompanied with a snap of air filling in the space that she had just vacated. Elric knew what he had to do. He immediately went to his computer and activated the ship's intercom. He then called, "Secretary Gabbie, get Inspector Kreatz and Commander Mauk in here, immediately."
"At once, Chairman," a female voice answered.
Elric waited for a few minutes until he heard a chime sound. "Enter," he bellowed. Immediately, the door slid open and both Kreatz and Mauk entered the room.
"You called us, Chairman?" Kreatz asked.
"Yes," Elric answered. "I have a special assignment for you two." He then took out two files and gave one to each of them. They each opened the files and saw the names and faces of Ash, Mia, Donkey Kong, and others. "Inspector Kreatz of the Federation Police and the Watchmen, and Commander Mauk of the Federation Marine Corps and also the Watchmen, you are tasked with traveling to Earth and apprehending these people and creatures as quickly as possible. I have something that needs doing, but will be arriving at Earth in order to support you soon. Until then, you have jurisdiction on Earth. You are answerable only to me in this regard. You won't even have to worry about Cyrus for this mission. Do you understand?"
They both nodded. Mauk then thumbed through the files and asked, "Chairman, may I ask what crimes these people have committed? I see that some of these guys are only kids."
"They have helped spread sedition around Earth, and are Pokémon Trainers," Elric responded. "As such, they have dangerous bioweapons at best. At worst, they have used such weapons against others. Now go. There's a transport waiting for you down in the hangar bay."
That seemed to satisfy Mauk's question. "Will that be all?" they asked.
Elric nodded. Kreatz and Mauk then proceeded to leave Elric's office. Elric then proceeded to call once more on the intercom, saying, "Captain, this is Elric. Once the scheduled transport departs, take the starship to coordinates four-by-two-by-eight-by-six."
"But sir, that takes us into unknown space, where several ships have disappeared," the captain responded.
"I know that Captain, just do it. The Federation is in dire need of help and some friends can be reached in that location," Elric retorted.
"Understood, Chairman," the captain responded sheepishly. "Course heading laid in and we are underway."
"Good," Elric responded. He then sat back. Man, the information we got on Z-1A about the locations of the N'Kren and Ylla homeworlds had better be accurate, he thought harshly. He had not wanted to make first contact with two of the elder races by groveling before them, begging for their help and looking pathetic, but he knew more than anyone what would happen if Earth seceded. Earth had much more than just its ships and defense platforms defending it. If he were to conquer the planet, he would need a special edge, one that only one of the elder races could grant him.
Meanwhile, in a realm outside of the normal Nintendo Universe, Aglara sat with her brother, and current mate, a teenaged Magic Lord male named Aramon that had taken the form of a male elf in his early twenties with red hair and blue eyes. In front of them was a crystal ball that showed Elric siphoning off his assignment to two members of their servant races, another Star Elf and a Simian.
"What is he doing?" Aramon asked in an annoyed tone similar to so many teenagers throwing a fit. "I thought you specifically commanded him to take this assignment himself!"
"Helping us in our long-term goals, if all goes well," Aglara responded calmly. "For Elric is going to make contact with the N'Kren and the Ylla and try to get their help in dealing with the current crisis that the Galactic Federation currently faces."
"But that will bring the other two elder races back into contact with the Luminoth and the Ascended Chozo! Also, any remaining non-ascended Chozo are likely to be drawn to the Federation as well."
Aglara then gave a smile. "And that will spell the end of the alliance that brought our people to the brink of extinction," Aramon said in a sinister tone.
"What do you…wait, I see, now," Aramon exclaimed as he knew what her lover was getting at. "Yeah, you're right. This is more than we could have ever hoped for!" The two sibling lovers then sat back and laughed as they continued to gaze into the crystal ball, barely able to wait for the mayhem that was about to unfold.
Samus Aran's gunship emerged from subspace at her intended destination. Immediately upon emerging from subspace, she saw two Unicorn-class destroyers, the Kirin and the Indrik, outside her cockpit window a few hundred kilometers away. She then looked down at her sensor screens and found several ships flitting about near the ship. They were small, about the size of transports. Samus immediately recognized the ships as being Space Pirate Assault Transports. Samus made certain to double-check her stealth systems to make sure that they were functioning properly. Once she was sure that they were fine, she activated her long-range sensors and took deep scans of the Kirin and Indrik. She found no Star Elf life-signs onboard the starships. However, she did detect several hundred Space Pirate life-signs onboard the starships. It also appeared as if none of the escape pods had been jettisoned. She was both saddened, but also a little hopeful at what she had found. While she was saddened at the deaths of the crewmembers of the ships, this was also a great opportunity for her to find the base of operations for the Space Pirates and she might not get another chance to find it and take it out.
She slowed her ship as she got close to one of the destroyers, the Kirin. The Kirin had suffered little external damage during its capture. Samus took readings and saw that the ship's Aurora Unit had vented the atmosphere of the entire ship, causing the crews to suffocate. The atmosphere had since been replenished so that the Space Pirate captors currently onboard the ship would not suffocate as the original crew had. Samus immediately took another scan and saw that the hangar bay doors were closing, as the ships that had once been orbiting the destroyer were now boarding the ship. She knew that she would not arrive fast enough to be able to board the ship without managing to blast through the hangar bay doors and alert everyone onboard the ship that there was an intruder onboard. However, she could latch her ship onto the destroyer and ride it to the location of the Space Pirate base.
She approached the Kirin very carefully, wanting to make sure that she did not set off any of the destroyer's sensors and alert the Space Pirates to her presence. "Samus, I'd really like to know what you're doing," Adam blurted in over the speakers.
"I'm going to latch the gunship onto the Kirin and ride it to its destination, which will hopefully be the Space Pirates' base of operations," Samus explained.
"And what if that area is crawling with Space Pirate warships?" Adam asked tentatively.
"Then let's hope this ship's stealth systems are up to the task of shielding this ship from being detected," Samus answered. She then sat back in her chair as she noticed the stars out in space become long lines. The ship was accelerating to warp speed. She then saw a flash of purple energy, indicating the passing through a window into subspace. Then, Samus sat and waited for the ship to emerge at its destination, which she hoped would be at the Space Pirates' new base of operations.