It took surprisingly little time for everyone to prepare for the arrival of the Progenitors. Though, considering that everyone on Planet had undergone ascent to transcendence, that wasn't surprising. Especially considering what I discovered right after I became aware of the Progenitors' continued existence.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Okay, the Progenitors are alive. What do I do next.

Maybe we should prepare for war.

What?

Peace would be more preferable.

Huh?

I have to find a safe place for my kids now.

Who?

Time to go to my doomsday bunker

Prepare for battle

Seek Peace

Hide

Run

Fight

Talk

Kill

Die

Go/help/speak/strike/swipe

What the hell?

Live. Die. Eat. Breath.

Fight Strike Cut Kill

Run Hide Cry Beg

Try to talk to the new aliens

Our last two meetings with Aliens ended badly, why assume this will be different.

Maybe they could be our allies

We could profit off of them

MaybeweshouldkillthemWemustseekpeacePrepareforbattleGetthekidstoasafeplaceojdjeucjejcuricjfiejvjejvjtisjfkwjftk-

MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!

That seemed to do something, because then the voices in my head stopped. Well, all except for mine and one other.

Oh. Sorry about that.

What?

Oh, well, Transcendent Beings who inhabit my body can share their thoughts. I can block out someone's access to this hive mind, which I did to most of the people on this world, but I allowed you one way viewing into it.

WHY?

Um, I thought you could handle it. You do command an army of robots and receive huge amounts of input from them, don't you?

THEY CANT THINK COMPLEX THOUGHTS OR FEEL EMOTIONS! PEOPLE CAN!

Oh. Yeah. Right...um...hehe...sorry.

Your apology is appreciated...Is anyone else sharing thoughts right now?

...only the leaders of the colonies on this planet. I believed it would have been useful for them to share instant communication.

As long as it doesn't drive them insane.

Hey! I'm sorry!

Apology accepted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yeah, Transcending Beyond Mortality did quite a few things that the game didn't tell you about, since Transcending was a winning condition. Whatever happened after you transcended was irrelevant if you won the game.

There were quite a few advantages to a shared consciousness. Right now, one advantage in particular was pretty obvious: instant communication between the heads of state all over planet. Conversations could be held at the speed of thought, with the language barrier being a nonissue; people could, apparently, understand foreign thoughts even if they didn't understand foreign languages. This made conversations that would normally take a couple of minutes to happen due to translators need if to do their jobs happen in seconds. Idly, I noted that it meant they'd never need to meet face to face again if they wanted to hold a diplomatic action.

The immediate benefit of this was that it didn't take long for the 'United Colonies' to fill out the holes in the diplomatic mission roster. One representative from each sponsor would be sent, as well as assorted translators, engineers, security, and, in case all else failed, XCOM personnel.

Oh, and they wanted me to come along as well, just so that the Progenitors wouldn't assume anything suspicious regarding the Machines whose overlords they hadn't met. I could make do with that: building bridges was important. Plus it provided me an easy opening to steal the rest of their tech with computer Worms.

That wasn't all the Council of Colonies wanted me to do.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Let me get this straight," I said for the third and last time, " you want me to give up the Progenitor city in my territory - which I have just begun to examine in detail - to our new neighbors."

"Yes," was Fielding's blunt to response, "we do."

"Please understand," intoned Barre, trying with some sucess to be the voice of reason, "tjey were the first rulers of this planet. Their civilization thrived here long before we even knew this world existed. We really have no right to withhold what was once their technology from its original owners."

"Let these aliens have what is theirs," added Elodie, the xenophobia and unease in her voice plain to all. Somehow, I didn't feel that I'd be surprised if her actions started a Fourth Alien War. "It would make negotiations easier, and is a small price to pay for peace."

How she managed to reconcile her disdain of the alineswoth rational thoughts, I'd never know.

"Giving them back their city may also make achieving further technological breakthroughs easier," noted Vadim. I was thankful that I now had a measure of control over my acces to the new shared conscious on planet; it made this conversation much easier. "If the Progenitors think highly of us, they may be willing to share some of their advances with us."

"Additionally, our new neighbors may be inclined to share more with us than just technology," added Fielding. "We could be standing on the precipice of an untapped market of alien goods."

Her greed and ambitions were really showing through right now.

"Is profit the only thing you are interested in, Ms Fielding?"

"Whwhwhwhat?! No, of course not! The safety of everyone on this planet outweighs any material gains that could be made with the newcomers."

Oddly enough, she wasn't lying: my link to the hive mind of Planet told me that, while she was a rather greedy and ambitious woman, she valued other, respectable things, especially gender and ethnic equality. Given that she was a African American woman of Hispanic descent, this wasn't surprising at all.

"Must you needlessly antagonize Ms. Fielding?" questioned Moon, the disapproval evident in his voice.

I felt the tiniest modicums of anger at the man's remark, before calming and turning my attention back to Fielding.

"My apologies. That was uncalled for."

"Your apology is accepted."

"Thank you."

Then I turned my attention to the rest of the Council.

"All of your points are valid. I'm sending in some Machines right now to clean up the Progenitor city. I will notify you when they finish. Hopefully, it will be before the city's owners arrive. As for myself, my transportation has arrived. I will be joining the diplomatic team shortly."

"Thank you," responded the Council in its entirety.

I decided not to tell them that I would have given the city up even without their insistance. I needed them to feel that I wasn't going to hold their hands, that they couldn't depend on me to solve their problems forever. I could give them great innovations, but they needed to figure out for themselves how to use those innovations.

XXXXXXX

It didn't take me long to meet up with the diplomatic team. While some socializing did occur, mostly I was too busy monitoring the activity in orbit to attempt to make friends with the rest of the assembled diplomats. A large fleet was being formed to meet the arriving ship, mostly as a warning against aggression. I noted that the ships matched the one used in starships, albeit at the smallest size possible. Still dangerous, though.

It took another hour before the ship was finally close enough for the diplomatic mission to begin. The diplomatic team, myself included, was loaded onto an XCOM transport authorized for this mission, in part because those were one of the few ships that could break that atmosphere and still function. From their, it took and and ascended into orbit, eventually maneuvering itself aboard a space station that the fleet in orbit had focused around. A message was sent, asking the Progenitors to meet us on this station. The natives had managed to crack the Progenitors language, and my (currently limited) hacking spoils from the ship had proven that their cipher was correct. Now came the hard part: waiting for the response.

It took ten minutes, but eventually we received a response: the Progenitors would send an envoy to the station to negotiate with us, along with his aides. Half an hour later, they arrived aboard a insectile ship.

To my surprise, the Progenitors actually didn't look that surprising for aliens. The resembled the classical greys in physical appearance, though their heads were smaller, their skin tinged ground, and their bodies were far bulkier than the seemingly malnourished greys. The one who seemed to be in charge wore green and white armor, with some brown mixed in, while his aides were soft yellow and purple armor and his guards bright red and blue armor. The one in charge pulled up a seat while his companions either remained standing or took up guard positions.

A few minutes later, the lead Alien spoke.

"Greetings. I am Councilor Hyo. May I ask what your names are?"

"I am Mathis Bernard, representative of Franco-Iberia"

"Vladimir Sarov, representative of The Slavic Federation."

"Ethan Forest, representative of the ARC."

And so on, until, at last, the need for an introduction fell onto me.

"Commander Flame of the Infernum Federation."

I was surprised Hyp didn't press me further on the name.

"Now that introductionshave been handled, Councilor Hyo, may we ask why you came here?"

"Very well. My people have traveled the stars for a long time," he began, "and built an empire that span entire worlds. We created wonders that none had ever seen" I could sense a feeling of arrogance coming off of him.

The said feeling was replaced with sorrow.

"Yet as we spread, our civilization grew more conflicted and riven by factionalism. Colonies seeking independence would break away, uprising would occur, and soon our civilization collapsed. It's been...almost one thousand years...since we heard from another of our colonies. We have been searching the cosmos, hoping that we could find another colony, one that could help us trace our heritage, for we have lost much of our past. When we discovered a signal in our language coming from this world, we assumed we might find our kin, who could tell us where we came from, and what our ancestors had been like.

"Instead. Our travels lead us to meet you."

"I see," noted Sarov. "Tell me, what do you intend to do now? Continue on your journey, searching for more of your kind, or settling down on this world and beginning anew."

"We wish to settle down. We don't really have another choice in that regard."

"Could you elaborate?" asked Forest.

"Our ship was...damaged...by space debris...some time ago." His strange syntax confused me, until I realized he might be using translation equipment to talk to us and need to take break to let it work properly. "We cannot...remain in space...for more than...a week. We must...land soon...or we...will die."

"...I see," noted Mathis. "Well, while I understand the urgency of your need to land, do keep in mind we will need to know where you intend to settle, so that we can prepare-"

"The South."

"-huh?"

"We can...still sense...what we built here. Old cities...in Southern part of Planet...still stand. We will...settle there."

"...I see."

Well, I guess I didn't need to give up my city just yet.

XXXXXXXXX

The meeting lasted about an hour. Everything from what to the Progenitors are to what territory they would claim as theirs was brought up, all of which was settled without much fuss. I was surprised how subdued this was, but I think people had stopped bein shxoked after Transcendence happened.

A short while later, the delegates left and returned to their ship's. An hour later, a colony lander began its descent to the Southern Hemisphere of Chiron, carrying the fourteenth colony to arrive on Chiron.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read, Reivew, and point out typos! Going to bed now. This is Flameal15k, signing off!