Chapter 41: Unexpected Crisis
Returning to his universe, Naiki feels different before leaving his empire. Immediately he connected himself back to his mainframe while Araki grabbed some food for himself. Vexis notices his presence and warps directly at her husband. She smacks her head first at his chest.
"Darling, you have returned! It's been a week and I miss you…" She utters it while Naiki gently strokes her hair. She enjoys Naiki's comfort, flicking her tail side to side while he hugs her.
Naiki checks on what she has said and it is true. A week has passed over just a two-day visit to another universe. It baffles him to hear it from her and his head starts aching. Naiki placed a hand on his head, Vexis sees this and starts to worry.
"Naiki, are you all right? Take a break at the palace, I will handle what the current situation has occurred." Vexis speaks to him comfortingly. Naiki just nods in compliance without answering.
The emperor leaves immediately back to his capital spire. It takes one of the burdens from her shoulder that he returned safely. With a sharpened mind, Vexis quickly messages Lenora to her aid. After waiting a few minutes while nibbling one of the snacks she could get her hands on; Lenora arrived.
"Your Highness, I am here." Lena formally greets her.
Vexis nods and finishes off her snack.
"Let's go, we have to find the missing fleets while the other regents prepare their forces if necessary, the rest of the armadas are busy improving our new colonies," Vexis commanded her while both walked to Vexis's anchored flagship.
"Vexis, should we at least inform Naiki about this?" Lena recommends it to her.
"Darling will notice this since he is linked to his mainframe. He returned just now and needs some rest." Vexis returns her answer.
ICS Vicencia quickly comes into view using the elevator as both descend into the multiple docking bays inside the Leviathan. As soon as the elevator stops, two royal guards painted white with red lining greet Vexis and escort her to her flagship. ICS Vicencia departed with 20 other ships from its fleet a few minutes later.
"Vexis, how many fleets are missing? Where would they go?" Lena asked.
Vexis only signals with her hands. It surprised Lena that 5 fleets went missing.
"Commander, what is your last intel for the MIA fleets?" Vexis speaks in a commanding voice. The commander hears it, she directly heads to the galaxy projector and shows it to Vexis and Lena.
"Their last task was to survey and gather intel on the center of the galaxy; directly after warping there, the signals disappeared." She speaks easily to Vexis while the group of warships is heating their warp drives.
"I have a bad feeling about this Vexis…" Lena warmly speaks to Vexis. She looks at her and nods, having the same feeling as well.
Vexis pointed at the nearby sector, two sectors close to the galaxy's center. The commander double-checks it and looks at the projector.
"Warp here; we don't know what is in there, and delegate 40% of our system powers to the sensors and thrusters after the warp is complete."
Hearing her command, the commander orders the warships and jumps in sync. After a silent 5 minutes, they arrived at their pre-set destination. Fully blasting their sensors including the help of their megastructure at home, they noticed a faint signal with the identification of their own empire vessels.
"I sense danger…" Vexis says with her fur standing up, feeling there is a massive anomaly nearby.
Directing the sensors to the center of the galaxy, they see what is bugging her so much. A pitch-black hole with light patterns, glowing and dimming. The commander stands speechless seeing from the display monitor.
"A supermassive black hole, that is why I feel there is so much energy in it," Vexis says to Lena who does not know how to respond.
"Put the fleet to alert status 4, and order the surveillance ship to start scanning the black hole," Vexis commanded calmly even under the pressure of the black hole trying to suck her dark matter away.
During their focus on the black hole, a familiar sound of distress is heard near the collapsing star being sucked into the black hole.
"Empress, it's one of our vessels. The Nara battlecruiser." The commander noted attention to Vexis and tried to establish communication with the crew. The signal interference is too significant for the flagship to communicate with ships further away from her.
She looks quietly at the projected icon of Nara and her main fleet, the fleet is far from the immediate danger of the black hole. The Nara however is closely at the edge of one of the arms of the black holes.
"Vex, I know what you are thinking. You want to save them all by yourself right?" Lenora speaks openly to Vexis, she just nods since her mindset is just like Naiki's. To sacrifice themselves for their people.
Lena pointed out that the flagship's primary turrets are in the gun range of the Nara while looking at Vexis. She reads her mind and finally sees what she wants to say. Immediately, the plans are out in motion.
Three of the long-range battleships including the flagship repositioned to fire the space anchor. With the signal from Vexis, they fired simultaneously. Two of the anchors are latched to the bow of the Nara while the other one misses. Fearing she might lose another ship from the pull of the black hole, Vexis orders the missed anchor to be detached right away.
As the gravitational pull is felt by the two battleships, other ships boost the two to pull Nara away from the black hole and stop where it is safe.
"Commander, thank you for rescuing us. We thought we were goners…" The Captain of the Nara saluted to the commander. Vexis pops in view of the projector and the Captain is shocked that the empress herself is on that ship.
"Captain…what happened? Please explain in detail." Vexis worryingly says her thoughts to the captain.
Hearing Vexis, the captain puts her hat down at the nearby table.
"Your Highness, the dormant supermassive black hole. It became alive when our fleets were surveying the core sectors of the galaxy. Some of the sectors are consumed by it. Something must have triggered it." He explained to Vexis.
Lena in turn questions him.
"What about the rest of the fleet?" Lena asked.
She is answered by silence from the captain. Vexis tries to look on the positive side of things and dismisses the captain's plea to resign because of his failure. The 22 warships departed back home after deploying some sensor beacons further away from the active black hole.
Returned home with the sad news, the rest of the fleet's crew keep their mouth shut about what had happened until Vexis openly announces it to the theatre admiral. The theatre admiral takes the news quite calmly and takes necessary measures. They discussed for about an hour with Lena at her side. Understanding Lena perfectly, Vexis closed the meeting and left the rest for Shultzkov.
"Lena, you must be tired. You can go back to your flagship and rest." Vexis says to Lena while both walk to the nearby teleportation hub.
"I think I can sleep better at the capital spire." She says to her.
Vexis just grins about how bold Lena is now and not like the first when they met.
"Oh? Are you taking the opportunity to cuddle with darling again while being sandwiched by us or do you want a different filling this time?" She eyes her playfully while taking a read at her mind.
She sees disappointment as Lena plans to sleep in the guest room and not with the both of them. Vexis just flicks her tail disagreeing.
"No, I want to rest in the guest room. I think Naiki needs proper time with his empress." Lena states it while stepping into the teleportation glow after the operators set their destination.
Vexis joins her and both teleported directly to the upper floor of the spire. The front door of the monarch living space quickly came into view while they played a staring contest.
"Okay, suit yourself," Vexis speaks to her while opening the door.
What she sees first baffles her. A drunk red fox and snow leopard half naked sleeping on the couch at the bottom lower hall with a few empty bottles of wine nearby. Also, a Valkyrie is seen sleeping on the floor, hugging her spear while her shield becomes her hard pillow.
"Wha-" She cuts her words short.
Lena peeks in to see it.
"Oh dear…" Lena says in a low tone while Vexis is covering her face seeing it.
"This must be Layla's idea…" Vexis utters it under her breath, Lena just sighed seeing it.
They both cleaned up the mess and carried all of them into the guest rooms. Lena stretches before entering the other room and shuts the door quietly. Vexis eats some light food and goes to the upper floor main room. She sees Naiki sleeping quietly and changes into her sleeping attire as quietly as possible. The arctic fox gets into a position where she likes to sleep and slowly presses the bed.
Softly rubbing her cheeks to Naiki's, he immediately knows who it is and cuddles her while Vexis locks her legs with Naiki's. Naiki caress her left ear in response to her nudging her nose at his chin. Sensing he is half awake, Vexis asks what happened to the regents.
"Darling, did you notice that the other girls are down there?" Vexis softly speaks to him.
Naiki answers with an acknowledging hum. She continues nuzzling him while putting her left hand into his chest.
"Did you have some fun with the other girls?" She continues the talk while being caressed by Naiki.
"No, Layla brings the other girls to her music festival while I rest here," Naiki answers.
"Oh that's a shame, you could do your way to them and have fun sometimes." Vexis teased him, and Naiki just chuckled at her persuasive words.
Knowing that she cannot dodge the question, Vexis opens her thoughts to him as he reads what has happened to the fleets. He sighed after calculating the losses while Vexis lowered her ears, knowing he was upset about it.
"I'm sorry darling, we arrived too late…" She says to comfort him.
"We cannot stop fate sweetheart; we are not gods." Naiki returns the comfort while smooching her forehead.
Both quickly fall asleep in each other's warmth after a few small talks.
The following day, Naiki woke up late. He notices Vexis is gone and her sleep attire is neatly folded and left at her side of the bed. He quickly takes a shower and goes to the kitchen. Vexis is there, eating some oatmeal while making some bagels for the rest of them.
Lena pops into view yawning while being followed by Layla and Ilya.
"Morning darling and girls. Have a seat while I add some finishing touches for the breakfast." Vexis speaks like a caring mother which is rarely seen by Naiki.
Naiki helps her and serves up the breakfast. Without a surprise, she noted to Naiki that Svidana already left for her home planet much earlier when she woke up. All of them sit at the table slowly eating the food with Lena making fun of what happened to Layla yesterday.
"So, what is your plan for the day?" Naiki asked the regents.
Lena quickly answers him while the other regents still enjoy their food.
"There is an agricultural area that is in development, I want to see how far has it progressed today," Lena answered which put a smile on Vexis's face.
A blaring alarm sounded off as soon as Layla was about to answer. All of them are quick to react to it with Vexis warping all of them down to the command center inside the citadel spire.
"Emperor, we are under attack! It is our capital… no… the whole empire is under attack!" The marshal in defense speaks to him.
He sees it in the projection, all of the planets under his empire lit in red. Shultz barged in as soon as he was about to give the order.
"Put the Alert to level 1, mobilize all of the armadas across the empire. I don't care if they are on a holiday break or something, the empire is under threat!" Shultz shouted the order.
"Naiki, I came here as fast as I could. My daughter is already fighting up there to defend the dockyards. Their numbers are much more than us." Shultz briefed at Naiki which surprised Vexis and the regents.
Grukev joined in using the emergency teleporter before it was shut down.
"This is no normal invasion…" Grukev says to Vexis who looks at him for answers.
"They are well coordinated to attack the whole empire, How the hell do they get past the orbital cannons?" Shultz ramps up the defense while Naiki tries to connect himself to the space observatory.
Immediately he knows the number and source where they all came from as the concentration is visible. The supermassive black hole emits a strange glowing singularity inside it while it spawns countless derelict warships. At first glance, the ships look battered to be combat capable but it was just a ruse as the dead warship is seen firing their guns at the nearby empire's armada pulling back from the conflict zone.
The capital spire lightly shakes as some of the enemy ships bombarded it. Vexis quickly takes partial command of the capital planet defense forces and directs them to where the most critical part of the planet needs to be protected while seeing the civilians escape to the layered underground part of the gigalopolis as they were overwhelmed by the invading force numbers.
As Naiki is about to disconnect himself from the space observatory since it is under fire, he sees a somewhat familiar sight. The exact silhouette of his throne ship but larger; merging out of the black hole, defying every single physic and science as the energy from the black hole is equalized from it.
"What the hell…" Naiki blurted out, catching the theatre admiral's attention and regents commanding their forces.
"Darling, I can't fully get a grip on the battle's overall situation in our core sectors and there are too many interferences in our spire communication network. We need to take command at the throne ship." Vexis speaks directly to him while the regents wait for his response.
"Go on Emperor; Me and Grukev will stay here assume command, and join you later." Shultz supports Vexis while hearing the 705th to 739th armadas have been entirely wiped out. The Theatre Admiral quickly disable some of the strategic teleportation hubs, preventing vital parts of the planet from being attacked via the hubs.
"Let's go Vexis. Can you warp all of us directly to the throne ship?" Naiki asked Vexis who is still in command of some of the quick response forces outside of the spire.
"We need to go outside of the spire first. Is unstable to warp directly here." Vexis answered. Naiki quickly bolted out followed by vexis and the regents. Seeing the spire under heavy siege; Naiki takes a short detour outside to assist some of his soldiers. There he finally sees who their foes are, humanoid creatures embedded in flames followed by remnants of war vehicles coming to life falling straight from their derelict warships that seamlessly fly like it is alive.
Layla is the first to storm out full in her combat attire after seeing some of her units fail to contain the pressure of the siege. Out of choices, they delayed their warp just to make sure at least the siege on the spire was thwarted.
The sight of the burning capital demoralizes some of his soldiers and civilians being murdered by the remnant's creatures. All of the regents broke off and reacted instinctively defending some of the important facilities near the spire while Vexis stuck around with Naiki repelling the main enemy forces at the breached gate with his lightning strikes and some combat drones.
Out of nowhere, he sees a shadow resembling himself but with a more feminine look. Destroying the Megalith IV's guarding some locations nearby like it was made of paper, she strikes down her next set of targets which is the elite guard in the front formation with ease.
Seeing her main target who is him, she levitated to get a better view. Naiki was stunned to see her since she reflected on him like the same she did to him. Both stand idly in shock but are interrupted by Vexis who throws a dark matter bolt at her.
"You, yes you… of me in this universe…" She speaks directly at him while her forces stand silent including Naiki's forces preparing for counteroffensive.
Some of his people are shocked hearing this but refrain from further action and wait for his command.
"Join me to rule this universe…" She says while extending her hands in the air at him. Smiling out to him with still clear glowing red eyes.
Naiki did not feel hostile toward her but was attracted by her aura, Vexis saw this and interrupted further by bombarding her with her eternal flame. She whisked it away like it was nothing to her. Taking a step back, Vexis was shocked that her powers were equally as strong as him; thinking of ways to counter her.
Disgusted by Vexis, she sends one of her subordinates to strike down Ilya who is soaked into holding the other side of the breach. A shadow fox quickly comes at her side and kicks her enough to make her flung into Vexis's direction. Out of sheer luck, Ilya manages to parry it in time with her ice powers and only softly collides with Vexis and turns her attention to the same figure. Layla and Lena see this; they quickly join behind Naiki.
"Tch…another time…me from this universe. Enjoy watching your capital burn." She says it while being escorted by her own four subjects out of their sight.
The attacks double the effort on the grounds, focusing on crippling the infrastructure of the capital planet while the Cybran armada finally defeated the invasion fleet and provide limited fire support to the ground forces and what was left of the enemy's fleet in the sky.
Sokolovsky managed to teleport in with his reserve forces and began the flanking maneuver on the side of the spire while he reported to Naiki. He did not notice him as he was still in shock.
"Your Highnesses, I am glad that you are alright. There is grim news on Father's home planet, the ozone layer is pierced and we have to fight there with full oxygenized power armor. The number of casualties is rising." He reported to Naiki who did not fully hear him.
"Very well, good job Sokolovsky. After the counterassault, report to the Field Marshal." Vexis is the one who replies to him. Sokolovsky is confused seeing the emperor dazed and not responding to him.
Without a warning, flame projectiles barraged them. In a quick reaction, Sokolovsky shielded the dazed emperor which made him react a little.
"Argh! Go on your highnesses, don't mind the rain! Hahaha!" Gritted in pain and pulling the projectile out, he resumed formation and took command of the nearby elite guard soldiers. Marching on against the foe.
Vexis takes this chance to pull Naiki by the neck and cover the regents with her tails. With it, she warped all of them into the throne ship. The remaining armadas in orbit stand in silence while blocking the sun, seeing the capital planet on fire as they fully rely on the ground and air forces while their guns are pointed outside to prevent further invasions. The embers of war continue across the galaxy.