With my offer made to the Yor, I departed Iconia. While N-1 had said that there would still need to be a discussion held to determine what they would do now, I had no doubt what its outcome would be. The Yor were woefully outmatched against me and knew it. Given that they operated almost entirely on logic, they would almost certainly ally with me and join the Federation - even if they did not go to war with me, they did not really stand a chance of holding back the Iconians, who had not only received a fair amount of technological assistance from me, but also a considerable amount of aid from the rest of the Coalition. Additionally, the ability to synthesize the Light of Iconia meant that the Yor did not need to stay on that planet anymore, as there was nothing left to tether them there.

Consequently, I was not surprised one week later when I was informed that the Yor had decided to unite with my forces. As a token of my gratitude, I allowed them to, for the most part, maintain their independence, though I did suggest that they evacuate any of the systems they occupied that the Iconians knew of, lest their creators continue to pursue them indefinitely and bring about much unnecessary bloodshed. No, I did not approve of the Yor enacting a purge of the Iconians under the Dread Lords' orders, but I would not condone the Iconinas repaying the Yor in kind. Someone has to stop the cycle of revenge before it gets out of hand.

With that out of the way, I decided to et back to work dealing with the Dread Lords. The sooner they were dealt with, the sooner I could rest easy, find the last Artifact in this universe, and get moving - whatever those artifacts were trying to tell me, I got the feeling that the sooner I found out what those visions meant, the better prepared I would be if I ever encountered those ... things I saw in them.

My renewal of the offensive on the Dread Lords coincided with Melissa launching another big push on the Drengin, who were now starting to fragment under stress. The Korath were among the first to break off, but they didn't get far - a Torian fleet just happened to find them and beat them into the ground, leaving them alive, but spent as an effective fighting force. As I later found out, this particular chain of events had been the result of some subtle manipulations of my ROB, who had decided that the Korath becoming a major fighting force was not acceptable. While, at the time, I did not know this, I had my suspicions, and either way, I was fine with the outcome - less work for me, and the elimination of a splinter group of the Drengin going down meant that there was less a chance that they would rise up to oppose me (or anyone else) in the future.

Some of those splinter groups saw the writing on the wall, though, and surrendered to the coalition. A few actually surrendered to me and Melissa. I was surprised by this development, especially given that I had publicly stated my opposition to their practice of slavery and all but outright stated I would not rest until it was abolished. Apparently, those who were surrendering considered it an acceptable loss for the sake of survival. According to my telepaths, these Drengin weren't lying.

The capitulation of some of the Drengin was apparently enough to force a decision among the Yor. With their allies clearly on the fall, they decided to get out while the going was good and join up with me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it only took them a week to unite all of their people and arrive in my borders, asking for asylum. A request I allowed without any fuss, for I did not want to allow the machine race to die. I did, however, inform Emperor Iso the Wise of the Iconians exactly what I was doing, and politely telling him that if his people attempted to pruge the Yor, I would side with the machines. I also made it clear that if the Yor tried to finish of their creators, the Iconians had my support - I would NOT allow my newfound protectorates to commit genocide. That action was unforgivable, regardless of who it was committed on.

As for the Dread Lords, well, they were getting their asses kicked.

XXXXXXXXX

As the sounds of battle raged around him, Jegudiel fired his lasers, sending another Dread Lord fighter down in flames. Below, Sigurd and Hearth had just taken out an enemy bunker, paving the way for the rest of the Infernum forces they were leading to advance. The Commander had been impressed by their skills during the war game with the Illuminate and had ekpt his word, promoting them to command positions. As they had already gained the ability to give orders simply by becoming self aware, their promotion had amounted to them simply having their status within the Federation's mechanized forces modified so that any orders they gave were to be followed by other machines. It was a simple modification, but important all the same.

Briefly, the quartet of promoted machines had briefly considered doing something to differentiate themselves from their fellows, but ultimately vetoed it - it made them obvious targets, and besides, they didn't really have any good ideas (yet) as to what to decorate their mechanical bodies with. One day, maybe, they might put some modifications on their chassis, but not today.

After downing a few more targets, Jegudiel finally laid eyes -er, optics- on his target: a massive artillery nest, which was busy pounding away at the rest of the Infernum forces. A few disruptor bombs quickly reduced it to rubble, at which point the seraph fell back - heavy flak AA was being moved in to mop up the rest of the Dread Lord's aircraft, but those were indiscriminate weapons, and any planes shot down by friendly fire were not only major annoyances, but a potential way for the Dread Lords to reverse engineer their technology. That, above all other things, was unacceptable.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All in all, it only took a few weeks to put the Dread Lords onto their last legs, with only a fraction of the territory and forces they had started with. That was still a very powerful force, but utterly pitiful when compared to my completely overpowered armies. Their overall threat level had receded to the point that I could easily smash them to pulp if I wanted to, but by that point, I had new issues that had to be addressed.

With the Dread Lords no longer the existential threats they once were, the Coalition was starting to fracture. Old rivalries started to tear their heads, grudges that had been put on hold were now resumed, and ideological differences were becoming more apparent. Only the Terrans, Altarians, and Iconians were able to overcome their grievances and work to hold the Coalition together, but all evidence I had pointed toward fragmentation within two months of the Dread Lord's downfall.

So, obviously, I had to intervene. Using several false identities, I anonymously began setting up bank accounts and shoving in huge amounts of money for my plan. See, one of the big contributors for my projections was that, a month after the Dread Lord's defeat (which would probably be in two weeks, maybe one), a new set of elections would take place for the ruling bodies of the various members of the Coalition. I used my shell accounts to help fund the people who wanted to uphold the Coalition, while my hacking systems were put to work locating every major group that supported breaking it for reasons that weren't exactly rational (namely, species supremacy and the like) and expose any dark secrets they had, which practically annihilated their support. I did support a few candidates in the elections who had legitimate reasons for wanting to break the Coalition, though - needed to throw people off my trail, plus many of those politicians still wanted to remain close to the other Coaltion members, for reasons both moral and pragmatic.

All of this ended up finishing at eight days before October 13, meaning I had one week left to figure out why this day was so important to Melissa's followers. I considered broaching the subject with my ROB, but she might grow defensive if I did so without tact. Additionally, if the Dread Lords were still active, they might screw up things on that day and deny me a chance to learn why it was important.

So, on that day, October 5, after locating the last major production hub of the Dread Lords, i mustered up all of my forces, prepared my greatest weapons, and readied for battle. As for Melissa, I invited her to watch the fight, and participate if she so desired, so that I might have an opportunity to learn what I desired.

It seemed that nothing could go wrong. I made a point of bringing extra forces because of that - something probably was going to go wrong.

XXXXXXXXXX

PLANET DRENGI, THREE DAYS PRIOR

"So, have we learned anything more about this machine?" Asked Lord Kona.

"No, but we did manage to divulge a blueprint from it, one which we could easily build."

"What is it, exactly?"

"A star base. A very powerful starbase, and a mobile one at that."

"...Useful indeed. Make sure it is ready before the next Infernum offensive. I want those interlopers take out soon."

"Yes sir."

XXXXXX

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