The meeting between the leaders of all the powers assembled for the mission to save the colony at Proxima Centauri was, surprisingly, rather short. I think that having to deal with space aliens from another dimension had eroded any animosity between the leaders of the colonies, because when the Africa Union demanded action to save the colony, well, no one objected. The meeting was really all that interesting, and once it was over, I returned to my base on Chiron and started examining a new facet of the tech I'd acquired from the colonies.

To my surprise, it turned out that the colonists had managed to successfully create both Starships and FTL travel before I had arrived, but owing to the famine that had been going on prior to my arrival (blame EXALT for that), those fields had really been examined in earnest due to all of the scientists being too hungry to try and devote further study to those fields of research. Maybe EXALT had wanted time to catch up in that field? Whatever the reason, it didn't matter anymore, because now, with the need to save the colony orbitining Proxima Centauri (apparently designated Centauri 45 by the Seeding Program), Starships And FTL travel were in high demand.

I quickly used the worms I had embedded in Chiron after first meeting the colonies to purloin the starship designs for myself, making minor adjustments as necessary. The ships designs available to me were not that advanced, but they could be improved. I considered stripping out the life support systems to add in more generators or weapon's batteries, but decided against it - life-support was an appetizing target for raiders, so I just heavily armored the life support and bridge areas and removed only some of their functionality, mostly so that I could use them as fake weak points. I also made sure to buff up their weaponry - XCOM had finally been willing to offer me a fusion lance and blaster launcher schematic, as well as a fusion core, which were all things I really wanted my ships to have. Torpedoes were swapped out for dimension missiles, lasers augmented with disruptors and plasma weapons, some rail guns added in for extra firepower and when kinetic weapons could trump energy ones, and finally, a fusion lance for each ship. All of these weapons were carefully integrated into my ships without changing their external appearance, so that they could catch their opponents with their pant's down.

Yeah, my fleet was going to be super OP. No nerfing, please.

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Since I assumed it would take at least a day for the colonists and Earth forced to complete their fleets, even with the fabrication advances I had provided them, I decided to kill some time repaying the Zudjari for disabling the mothership on Earth. Using the intel I'd acquired over Earth, I'd located the next system they were were planning to go next. Turns out the system had a planet orbiting it ripe for habitation, albeit a little too chilly for life, not to mention too thin an atmosphere. Fortunately, I could change this.

I moved my Spore UFO to the planet and activated the Hot Cloud Seeder onboard, which I tuned to the Zudjari's preferred atmosphere. A human could survive this atmosphere indefinitely, but it wouldn't be comfortable. That might have explained why the Zudjari could easily survive on Earth. Once that was done, I used some plant seeds and animal embryos that I had secretly acquired from the Outsiders while still on Earth to seed in a biosphere not unlike the Zudjari's home world. Obviously, it wasn't a complete biosphere, but it would suffice. Finally, I left a note of sorts behind to thank them for saving my bacon and informing them that this was my way of repaying their kindness. There, thank-you finished. In less than an hour, too. Spore terraforming tech was completely broken.

Well, back to Chiron, then. Time to experiment with my new weapons and hone my E-DNA powers, as well as my psionics.

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Creating an obstacle course in my tower to test my teleporting powers out in was a trivial task, so I spent a lot of time refining it to give me a better challenge each time I bested the course. Moving pillars, laser walls, collapsing floors, all were added to my testing course, and all were eventually bested. It rapidly got to the point I became rather bored using the course. Soon, I lost interest in this form of training and focused on more martial pursuits.

I jumped back as Wraith slammed his axe at me, taking any opening I could to launch a counter attack. Compared to my previous matches against Goliath, I was doing better: while I'd lost all of the matches so far, I'd lasted far longer against Wraith than I had against Goliath. Granted, Wraith may have been holding back, but still. I'd learned to master the way of the sword, though I still had a long war to go. Still, practice makes perfect.

"Commander, one of the refugees from Mega-Primus would like to meet with you."

Well, there goes my trading.

"Alright, tell him I'll be with him shortly. What's his name? Or is it a she?"

"The person who wishes to meet you is a teenage boy named Tobias Reed."

Interesting name. I wondered what he wanted.

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Once I had hastily set up a meeting room that looked respectable enough for someone of my station (which meant it looked fancy), I invited Tobias to meet with me. He turned out to be a teen with straight black hair and blue eyes, with no trace of facial hair on him. He seemed somewhat nervous, which was not surprising - he was meeting someone who at least appeared to be his 'better'. That was an appearance I was not going to put up for long.

"So," I began, "greetings. I am Commander Flame of thenInfernum Federation. According to my secretary, you're name is Tobias Reed, correct?"

"...yes."

"Glad to hear. Why did you request an audience with me?"

"...um...well, first off, thank you for all that you did to save Mega-Primus from those aliens. Also, thank you for letting me and my family stay here during the last battle for the city."

"You're welcome. So, how long do you need until you are ready to return home?"

"Actually," he said, starting to calm down, "that's what I wanted to take to you about. You see, my house got leveled by an alien ship piece during the last battle, so my family doesn't really have anywhere to go now."

"Oh," I remarked, feeling rather guilty. "Well, perhaps I could assist you in acquiring a new home in Mega-Primus, or perhaps on Chiron."

Well, actually, I had something different mind," he responded, starting to get nervous again.

Well, this would be interesting.

"And what is that."

"...Could we...stay...here? As in, build our new home here?"

...what? He wanted to live here?

"Um, I have no problems with the robots, and if there are aliens living here, if they aren't evil, I'm fine with the. I have friends in the Mutant Alliace and S.E.L.F. My parents both need to be in hospitals at the moment and I have to work to pay off their medical pills and put food on the table. I promise that I'll-".

My rational mind told me that if I kept letting him talk, I'd feel like I murdered a puppy if I refused his request. So I held up my palm and waited for him to stop.

"All right, you can stay."

"...T-T-T-Thank you, s-s-s-sir."

"You're welcome. Though I would suggest that you wait just a little bit before getting too comfortable. I have a few things I need to finish up before you can join the Federation."

"I-I-I-I understand. I'll be leaving now."

"Farewell."

That was easier than I thought it would be...wait, now that I thought about it, o could probably get Tobias to do something for me.

"Tobias, wait."

"Yes?"

"Please tell anyone batnthe refugee slcenter that they are free to stay here if they wish, rather than return to their homes, but they just inform me first."

"Of course, sir. Goodbye."

XXXXXXXXXX

Once Tobias told everyone about my offer, quite a few people obliged. I quickly changed my mental gears to focus on dealing with the fact I now had a human population just needed to be fed and given homes. Not too difficult, given what I'd hacked form Mega-Primus' databanks. Decently sized houses, factories and retail outlets were set up, in accordance to what the city charter had requested. I would let them remodel this for later, but for now, this would have to do.

I was going to work on it some more, but then I received a notice that the forces assembled to save Proxima Centauri were ready to go. Well, time to have fun. I moved my fleet to join up with theirs, then, when the first few shops began the FTL jump, mine followed suite. Due to my advanced FTL tech, my forces got into communication range of Centauri 45. Apparently, pirates were attacking them right now. A moment lated, my ships popped out of FTL and confirmed that the transmission was accurate.

Well, let the epic Space battle begin.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!