O5-9 quickly and calmly walked down the sterile halls of Site-01. The Foundation was on high alert, and all the O5s needed to be present at the meeting for a K-class scenario of this magnitude. This was not only to make sure they don't lose any during the chaos inherent in an K-class scenario, but to make sure no one who wasn't supposed to hear this meeting could.

"Hello Nine, Does the Black Moon howl?" An unknown voice asked.

"When those that are not shriek," Nine responded, confirming her position, before turning to look at this mystery voice. This only confused her more, due to the fact that she couldn't make out anything about their face. In fact she couldn't make out anything about them at all.

"Does the Black Moon howl," she said back in turn, hoping to see whether the unknown man was a friend or foe.

"Only when we are forgotten," they said, before smirking, "Not even a hello?"

"Eight," she deduced.

"In the flesh," they said.

Nine held in her sigh of relief, hoping her earlier panic didn't come out in her voice. Eight was the founder of the antimemetics division. Due to a freak accident in the division, Eight was impossible to remember without taking mnestics, and impossible to perceive without an even higher dosage.

"Did you take your higher dose today? Don't want you to forget me mid-meeting," they said playfully. Any unprofessionalism would soon leak from Nine's mind after she stopped taking the required mnestics for this meeting, and Eight knew it.

"I did."

Turning the corridor revealed the Site-01 meeting room. Nine squeezed the door knob before pushing it open to the 11 face of the other O5 council members.

"Nine and I assume… Eight?" The man known as O5-1 says to both of them, a wiley smile on the old man's face. They shake Nine and Eight's hand as they move past him.

"Welcome! We are ready to begin the meeting now!"

All the O5 who were not currently seated moved to their proper seating as O5-3 let out a cough before beginning the meeting's opening.

"At approximately 1800 hours yesterday, an unknown vessel arrived in Earth's Orbit. The intentions of this vessel is unknown, but we do know it sits at the edge of the Kuiper Belt. This emergency summit of the O5 Council is to discuss the possible intentions of these invaders, and our appropriate course of action in case of hostility. We may now begin."

"Well it's obvious what they want," O5-6 says with his trademarked southern accent, "They want to conquer Earth!"

"Or at the very least, compromise humanities sovereignty," O5-5 says.

Six continues on, saying, "We all know about our sudden appearance in this universe a month ago. Obviously we had the luck to appear on the edge of some alien empire. Or, even worse, we appeared in the middle of an alien empire! My suggestion is to immediately mobilize a military response to beat these aliens from our solar system."

"I'm inclined to agree with Six," Eleven says. "Their intentions most likely are expansion, a military response is most likely the right play."

"I disagree," Four says, "Their intentions are most likely understanding. We appeared suddenly in their galaxy, they likely did not expect to find any one here. I believe the best course of action is to send a diplomatic vessel to make contact and explain our situation. During which, we may find out whether they are a threat or not and respond accordingly."

"Agreed," the feminine voice of death, O5-13, says, "Their hostility is not a given, we may be able to work out a way that does not end in their death."

"BULLSHIT!" Six yells. Their hands slam on the table as they stand up, furious.

"There is no way death itself is looking for a way to minimize loss of life! You're just trying to lure us to our death! You know the intentions of these beings align with invasion and are hoping they take as many lives as they can! I'm not going to let the People of America and the World walk into your death trap!"

"I am not looking to expand my workload right now," Thirteen responds calmly, ignoring Six's outburst.

Six, then realizing the rest of the council's eyes were on him, responded, "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"With the amount of death that has happened in the last month alone, I have surpassed all the deaths I had to collect for all of human willingly expand it would be insanity."

"All the deaths? The death rate hasn't changed noticeably at all in the last month?" Nine says, curiously.

"I concur," Twelve says, "the death rate has not deviated from standard human rates, I wish to know what you noticed that I have missed."

"I do not solely collect from your world, I collect from the universe in its totality. Here, in this universe, this galaxy, death is common. Skirmishes with casualties in the billions, bloody conquest, the end with everyone dead, people dying in the streets as they are worked to death. If you attack them right now, you are dooming the planet, and putting more work into my hands then I wish for. So go ahead, attack them if you wish, but know you are the ones responsible for the death of everyone here."

Silence. O5-6's mouth gaped at what Thirteen had said. He was now sitting back down and pondering what she had said.

"Well…" Four broke the silence, "My motion still remains on the table, open diplomacy."

"I agree that's our best course of action," Three says.

"As do I."

"Okay," One says, "Let's hold an official vote for the proposal of sending a diplomatic mission to the unknown craft and opening diplomatic relations between the Foundation and the extraterrestrials."

Proposal: Send a diplomatic craft to investigate the Unidentified Craft in the Kuiper Belt and open Diplomatic Channels if Necessary.

For: II, III IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII

Against: N/A

Abstain: I, VI

"It seems we are mostly unanimous," One says, "Four, as the Head of Foundation Diplomacy, and as the person who proposed this plan of action, I assume there is no trouble putting you in charge?"

"Not at all," Four responds. "Although I would also like to have Six join me. I believe his expertise in combat will be useful in case diplomacy breaks down."

"I'm fine with going, I still think this is a bad idea, but I'd rather tag along then have no overview in this."

"All right, fine with me," One says, which seems to be the consensus with the rest of the council.

"Alright then. I assume we can end this meeting now?" Another wave of collective nods from the council confirmed this. "Okay, then this ends the emergency summit of the O5 Council. Fellow Council members, you are dismissed."

I'm back! Sorry it took so long! Combination of ADHD and lots of real life stuff prevented me from working on this but I'm back! I'll try to get back into the flow of things and post a chapter every two weeks, sorry about everything.