'What are you planning?'

That question was the biggest one on Planet's mind now, and one it desperately wanted answered. After all, Planet was just as curious about the arrival of the machine as the people living on her.

Planet was old. It had been old when man had first appeared on Earth, and that was thousands of years ago. It was older than the dinosaurs. Planet even predated sharks. Yet despite its advanced age, some things still eluded it..no, her. Some things still eluded her.

The Commander was the biggest example of this: Planet knew nothing about him, barring what he had revealed, and a few details she had gleaned through careful perception...and perhaps a little psychic power.

Planet could sense that humans were psychic. Or, at least, some were. These individuals were rare, but they were very powerful. Planet, however, was several orders of magnitude beyond them. This let Planet pick through things thoughts even humans could not, including perceiving memories stored in genes from humans that were long dead. These only went so far though, but the scariest ones involved four limbed beings with psychic powers that put man to shame. Odd, but still interesting.

Yet for all of that power, Planet could hardly figure out anything about the commander. It could glean some basic details, such as the fact that he was human, and was controlling the machine in ways akin to computers, but that was about it. This frustrated Planet to no end, as she wanted to know more about this strange new being.

So, reluctantly, Planet had decided to seek help from her...sisters.

These were Planet-minds just like her: advanced and adapted organisms that encompassed entire worlds. They existed on levels that man could never even dream, spanning the galaxy itself in terms of planets. They could sense each-other across the stars, and could even communicate across them, if they so desired. This gave them an edge against all they competed with.

Perhaps they would know what was happening.

Planet knew that she would have to go beyond her normal limits of communication, though: most of the other worlds knew nothing about this commander.

Which was why planet was trying to talk to her.

Planet knew that man referred to her as Chiron. What man did not know was that planet was one of two siblings, both of whom were called Chiron. Planet thought of herself as, in human terms, Chiron the Younger, and right now, she was trying to contact Chiron the Elder.

Chiron the Elder was different from the other Planet-minds: she was older, yet her mind was fundamentally different from the others. So too were her inhabitants. Yet strangest of all, was the fact that she, and a few of her closest siblings, existed in locations that none of the other Planet-minds could locate. They were so distant from the rest of their siblings that the rest of the Planet-minds felt that if they scoured the entire universe, they still wouldn't find these few oddballs. Needless to say, this made communication difficult.

It took awhile, but finally, the elder answered her emanations. Now the conversation could begin.

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In a strange world, a Wolf-beetle unburrowed. The creature looked around for a moment, before sitting down and starting to draw in the dirt.

This was no ordinary Wolf-beetle, just as this world, made of floating islands, was no normal world. This world was a sort of mental universe that the Planet-minds used to communicate, and the Wolf-beetle was the avatar of Chiron the lesser. It was waiting for the avatar of the Elder to arrive.

It did not have to wait long.

Quickly, a noodle-like creature emerged from the ground. It resembled a worm in many respects, except it had eyes, antennae, and very large fangs. Additionally, simply being near it could drive men mad, to say nothing of when it decided to attack.

Now, though, in the presence of a sibling, the worm was calm.

"Hello," began the Younger Sister "and thank you for answering my calls. I apologize that I haven't contacted you more often."

"You are welcome. It is good to finally speak to you again. So, why did you call me?"

"Something New has come to my body: a strange human controlling a mighty war machine."

"What makes it different from the rest?"

"Well, it builds things fast. Very fast. In the time it takes me to fully describe how fast it builds things, it will already have built a factory and the systems to power it."

"...I see. Well, give me time to ponder this."

"Do you need to talk to Deidre?"

"...yes, I do. Morgan, too. It's funny how humans of such different leanings can work together."

"Man may ignore ideological differences if more immediate concerns or shared interests are involved."

"True enough."

With that, Planet left her sister to ponder her own memories and listen to her confidants. The Lesser Sister knew that her Elder sibling knew a great many things because humans had given her that knowledge, through something involving links. Yet in spite of all this knowledge, her sister still had one failing: actually putting that knowledge to use. Here, the Younger One knew better: it understood how to get humans to do what it wanted when it wanted, and how to use their interests to advance her own. If she wanted humans to settle an area, she'd trigger migrations to nsure that food was readily available, raise mountains for raw materials, and make sure that other resources they wanted were nearby. If she wanted a location left alone, animal attacks would increase in the area. So far, it worked well.

Now, though, it didn't know how to act.

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Finally, her sister spoke.

"I am sorry to say that I don't really have much help for you here. I do not know anything about this Commander or what it does, so you are on your own."

"Very well. Is there anything in your...database that could help me?"

"Well, just one."

"And that is?"

"According to Skye and Morgan, the device reminds them of a machine from some game called Total Annihilation. Supposedly, the machine could create armies from nothing and conquer worlds in days. However, the machine does not match any designs from that game, so I am not sure whether or not it will help you."

"Well, thank you for the help."

"You are welcome, my dear sister. May mankind one day unite with you as they have with me."

"We can hope."

With that, the conversation ended and the siblings went their separate ways.

Still, one thing confused Planet: the machine clearly needed metal to construct its army and infrastructure, yet it was willing seed forests around its buildings. Why?

Why did it seek peace with her?

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AN: Well, it seems someone is clearly interested in Commander Flame's actions.

So, Read and Review! And check out their stories too! This is Flameal15k, signing off!