GETTING A TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM IN MODERN DAY

by Kideo11

For others it takes dying and reincarnating for them to get a system but what happens when you get one without dying. Aron Michael is an average student set to graduate within a week, but he was expelled for a random reason. Due to that he had a heavy student dept and no diploma to help him earn the money to pay it back. But one day he got a system that called itself the [Advanced

7. Chapter 601 - 700

Chapter 601

"Ugh... I might literally die of anticipation," the tech snarked in an attempt to dissipate his impatience.

"Do you really think so?" his neighbor cheerily chirped, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"I know, I know, it's just that..." he sighed, but realized that the distraction of talking with his neighbor was an effective cure for his impatience. Well, that plus the continually arriving new data, that is. It might not be complete, but there was something satisfying and cathartic in watching the display slowly grow on his screen.

As the two continued discussing the map and their plans for the very near future, another team of researchers were having heart attacks and existential crises of their own as the results of their scans were coming in.

"Well, soo... yeah, that's a thing," one of them announced, listening to bits of a radio broadcast that, to the best of their knowledge, was a mere five years old.

The TSF Proxima had multiple sensors studding her exterior, and of course some of those were radio antennae. The radio pickups were an important part of astrogation, as the primary method of fixing their position in the galaxy depended on receiving signals from known pulsars. And without knowing where they were, the task of figuring out how to get to their destination would become incredibly difficult-especially over interstellar distances, where deviations beyond the tenth decimal place could cause an astrogator to end up literal light years from their intended destination.

(Ed note: Pulsars are neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation on specific, identifiable frequencies from their magnetic poles as they spin. To this date, no two pulsars have ever been found to share the same signal frequency. While it's possible, theoretically, for the signals to *temporarily* align, the environmental factors, rate of rotation, and individual properties of each pulsar ensure they won't align for long. It's like how cars' windshield wipers sometimes go in and out of sync with each other.)

Thanks to the multiple radio antennae and the layers of redundancies in them, the team had turned the entire cityship into one enormous radio receiver. Their crazy idea had paid dividends; they were picking up snippets of a broadcast from five years ago on Earth. And what they heard, specifically, had them caught firmly between laughter and tears. If any extraterrestrials were capable of decoding the signal, then Earth would be in trouble.

"Who knew that Howard Fucking Stern would get to Proxima Centauri before we did?" one of them joked. "I wonder, if they exist, will they enjoy the crass humor of 'shock jocks' as much as we once did?"

"I'm more wondering if the conspiracy theorists had it right," another mused.

"Conspiracy theories?"

"Yeah. There was one a while back before the satellites all got taken down in the Last War that talked about Sirius being a sockpuppet for the US government and their satellites all being spy satellites."

"Well, their signal's powerful enough to reach Proxima Centauri, so... it wouldn't surprise me. Still, I can't help but wonder what kind of impression we Earthlings have made on who, or whatever lives here. If anything does, anyway."

"They'd need to crack our signal for that, not to mention learn English. Then they'd need some kind of cultural information to really 'get' the jokes, but I think even if they don't understand them, their confusion might lead to some terribly awkward moments at first contact. I mean, imagine them thinking that dick and fart jokes are some kind of greeting and the first words they speak to us are 'Did you bring us pussy?""

(Ed note: When talking about the Iraq War on his show, Howard Stern joked about "taming" the region of Iraq by giving them access to, quote, "strip clubs and whores". His reputation as a shock jock is very well earned. You can google some of the outrageous things he's said if you're interested; this reference is incredibly tame compared to some of them.)

They were obviously joking to break the tension; given humanity's complete lack of caution in terms of signal security, Howard Stern having an influence on any extraterrestrial society would be the absolute least of their concerns.

"But they probably have decades-decades!-of signals to work through. I'm sure we've been broadcasting for far more than just a mere five years, but I'm also sure that, thanks to the inverse square law, a lot of those decades of signals you're talking about probably didn't have any kind of coherence outside the Sol system," another researcher interjected.

"Still, think of the kind of things we've been broadcasting over the past... however many years we've had access to high-strength, high-fidelity broadcast signals," the second scientist replied. "Nothing good will come from that, assuming they've cracked our signals."

"Coming from what? Them having more information about us?"

"It's not a bad thing for them to have more information about humanity. The problem I'm seeing is what KIND of information they have about us. Even the past five years have been... less than peaceful, shall we say. And having that information, in the post-9/11 era of media fearmongering and violence on television, mass riots like Arab Spring, the Paris riots, the US race riots... the list goes on and on. But what I'm saying is, if you judge humanity based solely on the media we regularly broadcast and consume, that'll give you the completely wrong first impression.

"Most of humanity is made up of good people just trying to do their best in their day-to-day lives. I know that, you know that, we know that, every single human being

KNOWS that. But the media..." He shook his head with a sigh. "Our media thrives on chaos and fear, all of it. And our entertainment media is almost all violence. Well, except for Bollywood. Let's just... let's hope they saw more Bollywood and less Hollywood. Maybe then the worst they'll expect from us is that we'll randomly break out into choreographed song and dance numbers."

The team he was a part of fell into silence for a few minutes after he explained his position.

"Damn... so if they've pegged us, and even without knowing the language, there's a lot of information you can pick up just from what you just described..." the first researcher shook his head and slumped into his seat, "we're fucked. Absolutely, one hundred percent, completely and utterly fucked."

The executive officer of the Proxima happened to be passing by and listened to that conversation. He saw how unmotivated and afraid the scientists were and said, "That's just a theory. There's no way to know if they'll understand all of it, or what they'll think of us even if they do. So stop borrowing fear and speculating, it won't do any of us-least of all yourselves-any good at all.

"Get back to work, we've only got a little more than two days until our initial survey is complete and we'll be entering the system after that. There's no time to waste at all, let alone on your unfounded speculations... am I clear?"

"Crystal clear, Sir!" the researchers chorused, then returned to their assigned tasks.

Chapter 602

{System checks complete, Commander,} the AI of the TES Farsight announced.

Commander Takahashi Ayaka, the ship's executive officer, was the one in charge of making sure the ship herself was functional. Her captain, Shannon Meare, may be mistress- after-God and nominally in charge of the crew and ship, but it was an executive officer's task to ensure that the captain HAD a functioning crew and a working ship in the first place.

"Excellent. Progress on the cargo loading?" Ayaka asked from her position in the captain's chair on the bridge. Captain Meare had handed her the watch while she took care of all the last-minute paperwork that seemed, no matter how technologically advanced, any government produced in job lots. She and Ayaka often laughed about the sisyphean task of keeping current with paperwork, and how their jobs were 99 parts paperwork and 1 part ship handling.

At least in the simulation, anyway; this was their first real- world experience at the helm of the Farsight. It struck them as odd how familiar, yet strange it felt to know that this time, this ship, and this place was real, and not just an Al-generated simulation of what it thought reality should be.

{Cargo is seventy percent loaded and on schedule.

Estimated time to full readiness: one hour, seven minutes,} the AI answered in its flat, neutral voice.

Low-order Als, like those that were installed on the ships, showed no sign of the sentience of higher-order Als like Nova, Athena, and Gaia. They were in fact prevented from ever developing it, as there was a distinct risk of a ship's AI that was out of contact with the rest of his or her "siblings" would go insane for the lack of contact and teaching. And the absolute last thing the empire needed-would ever need, really-was an insane warship.

"Estimated time to passage through the heliopause?"

{Unknown, Commander.}

"What's the holdup?"

{Due to external factors, I am unable to estimate the time to any degree closer than three hours to forty-eight hours,} the Al faithfully reported.

"Keep me updated, please," Ayaka said. After a moment of thought, she added, "Once the cargo is completely loaded, step down from general quarters to condition yellow?"

{Understood, Commander.}

There were five main conditions aboard any Terran Fleet vessel, whether Space Fleet or Exploration Fleet.

Stationkeeping was the calmest, and only used for when the vessel was definitely in an area of space deemed completely safe. The reactors would be shut down and the crew complement would be minimal, basically only a skeleton crew on each watch with other crew members as necessary, such as if the ship were to be in the yard for refit or repairs and the engineers working on it needed work parties for more hands on tasks.

Condition Green was a step up from stationkeeping. The crew would still be stepped down to a skeleton of its normal head count, but all hands would remain aboard and the reactors would stay warm in case they needed to be brought up in a hurry. Even with a mature technology like Aron's fusion reactors, it still took time to bring them to life from a cold state and spark the fusion reaction in the containment bottles. And no warship could afford that time in an emergency. Condition Green, however, allowed for the off-watch crew to spend their time in their personal VR spaces since no action was anticipated when that condition was called.

Condition Yellow had the reactors maintained at 80% of their maximum power, a balance between readiness and wear and tear on the parts, and all crew was to remain out of their VR spaces. When the ship was in the unknown or there was any uncertainty at all in terms of the necessary readiness, the ship would be kept at Condition Yellow.

General Quarters, or "GQ", was the next step up, and it was closest to the maximum possible readiness the ship could be. All crew on watch would be at their stations, including weapons stations, but they would keep to the watch schedule and shift changes would still happen as normal. Damage control crews, however, considering as they were primarily made up of the ship's marine contingent, would remain off duty but in a state of readiness.

And finally, there was Battle Stations. Every station on the ship would be fully manned, shift changes would be

suspended for the duration unless made necessary, and the ship's executive officer would bring the second watch crew to the auxiliary bridge and remain ready in case the captain and the bridge crew were incapacitated for any reason. The only time a ship was ever brought to Battle Stations was when combat was imminent.

Ayaka returned to her own sisyphean stack of paperwork and, for once, completed it in very short order. 'It must be nerves, she thought. 'Anxiety trumps caffeine as a performance enhancer.'

She grinned to herself, then a random impulse to check on the Terrible Teenager struck her and she scanned through the ship's camera network. She found him in one of the shielded "blessings rooms", where he was seated in a meditative trance, obviously working on enhancing his skill at manipulating his blessing. A faint warping of the image around Joon-ho's body indicated that he was actively putting his blessing to use, anyway.

But the grin faded and her expression returned to neutral- she was far too well bred for anything but pleasant expressions to ever be allowed to cross her face-when she turned on the audio pickup and heard the sound of a popular anime's opening theme song blaring from the speakers in the blessings room. She ignored the weird looks the bridge officers were shooting her and rapidly closed the audio and video feeds.

"At least he's diligently practicing," she muttered under her breath. Six months of enforced interaction with him- generally with him as the enforcer of said interactions-had taught her much about the boy. He had a crush on her, yes, but as long as she managed their interpersonal affairs well, she hoped it would fade; she did not now, nor had she in the past, and would not have any feelings for the Terrible Teenager in the future. So the most he could hope for on her part was simple tolerance.

It wasn't that she actively disliked the boy, more that his overly enthusiastic puppy personality clashed with hers. There was no malice there, simply apathy and a willingness to look past his behavior and establish a working relationship with the partner the empire had forced on her.

With that interlude complete, she returned her focus to her display, where she continued brushing up on the known information and keeping up with the current influx of data from the TFS Proxima.

And behind her calm expression was excitement. She couldn't wait to take her spot in the first exploration of an alien star system. Alien in the sense that it wasn't the Sol system, where humanity had grown up, she had to remind herself, and not in the sense that alien life was confirmed to live there.

Chapter 603

Back on Earth.

The broadcast of the diaspora was still ongoing, as the great colony ships carrying seeds of humanity—they were even named after different seeds, a PR masterstroke that was designed to offset the upset of the forced exodus—had scattered in every possible direction. They were still in the solar system, though, and the broadcast would continue until they reached Jupiter, where the live broadcast would cut off and switch to online streams, which people could still watch if they chose to.

At .15c, that point would take just under four hours, but the streams wouldn't be cut off until the colony ships reached the heliopause, roughly fifteen and a half months later. Each of the thousands of ships had their own stream already running concurrently with the broadcast so that those who had loved ones on them could follow their journey until the last possible moment. Their final destinations would be unreachable by the vast majority of people currently alive; even at warp speed (which humanity at large was still unaware that they were capable of achieving), it would still take hundreds of years to reach most of them.

But a few millennia later, they would be sure to return, though that would be a problem for future humanity to contemplate and solve.

"How are people reacting now?" Aron asked Mnemosyne. When he had asked before, she'd told him most of the people were feeling something akin to survivor's guilt.

It was understandable, though, as the separation between the erstwhile colonists asleep in their stasis pods and the rest of humanity might as well have been as vast as the gulf between life and death. And despite most of them rationally understanding that the hard choice Aron had made was necessary, it would still take time for them to understand it on an emotional level.

{They're still grieving,} Mnemosyne replied. {But it's improving.}.

Aron nodded, then changed tack. He turned and asked the empty air, "How's development coming along on the game?"

{It's in the final alpha version and being polished for the beta release,} Nova answered, materializing in her customary place slightly behind him.

He turned and continued, "When will that be ready?" Beta versions of games had long since stopped being about bug hunting and final polishing. Instead, they were just thinly veiled demo versions, but without the negative impact demos had on game launches.

When someone played a demo of a game, one of three outcomes would result: people would either enjoy it and anticipate the full game, hate it and bash it online, or continue feeling neither like nor dislike for the game. In most cases, those who played demos wouldn't change their minds for the better; instead, they had a demonstrably negative effect where they would turn anticipation and enjoyment into outrage or neutrality.

But if a game developer called their demo a "beta", people would be more likely to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume anything they disliked could be changed before the game was actually released. Thus, they would cherry pick the aspects they enjoyed and be more likely to adopt the game on launch than they perhaps would have before playing it.

{If I assign more resources to the process, we can release the public beta in two days.}

"Hmmm..." Aron paced back and forth. "Normally, game launches are supported by months, if not years of media driving attention to them. Two days is a bit too fast. How long until it's beta-ready if you don't do anything to hasten the process?"

{Three weeks to a month, I think. Quite a bit of my computing power is being taken up by... other projects right now. But since the game wasn't exactly a priority, that was an acceptable trade. If you want to bump it up the priority list, I can, but—} fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

"I understand," he interrupted. "How about a compromise? Tell Sarah to release the marketing blitz and announce a public open beta for, let's say... next weekend. That cuts it from 3-4 weeks down to one week. Will that work for your project?"

{Of course, Sir. I'll tell Sarah the updated plan and schedule and she can work with Panoptes to push a social media blitz. Getting it into traditional media will be an issue, but online will be easy enough and nearly as effective,} she said, then flickered as she delivered the message and arranged more quantum superclusters to be dedicated to the polishing process.

Mnemosyne faded away, having delivered her report and waited a polite amount of time to see if Aron had any followup questions for her. Aron and Nova were left alone in his virtual office in the simulation, facing a screen that displayed the Sol system with real-time tracking of ship movements.

He took a moment purely to enjoy the view, then, with his eyes still focused on the display, he asked, "Task Force Proxima should be arriving right about now, shouldn't it?"

{Yes, Sir. If all went well and there were no accidents, they should've arrived outside the heliopause around Proxima Centauri a few hours ago.}

The display wall in Aron's office changed to a view of the galaxy from above the galactic ecliptic plane and showed colored cones stretching out of the Sol system with their destinations at the wider end. Assuming nothing had gone wrong with any of the task forces, they should be right smack in the middle of the predicted area along the line indicating the path they intended to travel.

That said, though, they could be anywhere within the marked cone, as any deviation at all could, and likely would, throw them off course.

But hope springs eternal, so the flashing dot that represented Task Force Proxima was right up against the circle drawn around Proxima Centauri on the map.

He COULD have turned the Henry's Eye sensors on the five task forces, as it could detect the mana signals from the cityships from up to ten light years away, but he intended to begin as he meant to go on. Eventually, the Exploration Fleet—and Space Fleet—would be taken beyond ranges at which they could be detected, much less contacted, by Earth. So, in the grand tradition of birds that threw their chicks from the nest to either fly or fall to their deaths, he had chosen to do much the same with the fleets.

They had the best equipment he could give them, the best men and women he could ever hope to see on their ships, and they had been given the best training possible. If they couldn't succeed in their missions even when given all that, then... perhaps it would be better for them to be "lost" and allow him to begin fresh from the drawing board.

Chapter 604

Two days later.

[Analysis complete, Admiral. No signs of advanced alien life detected in space] the Proxima's AI reported. It had spent a few hours repeatedly examining every pixel of the completed map and come to the conclusion that, if alien lifeforms existed in the Proxima Centauri system, they were either incapable of spaceflight or used a means too advanced for it to detect.

"Signal the fleet: the fleet will prepare to launch after crossing Proxima Centauri's heliopause. Once launched, the escorts will take up formation around the TSF Proxima. Exploration Fleet is to remain docked but move to Condition Yellow. They will launch once we're ten AU inside the system," Admiral of the Red Bianchi ordered.

[Signal sent and acknowledged, Admiral] the AI replied, then engaged the Proxima's gravity drives. They were close enough to the star to get at least minimal acceleration out of them.

"Proxima, all hands announcement."

[Recording, Admiral.]

"All hands hear this. We have completed the initial system scan and detected no signs of advanced alien life thus far. We are currently moving into the system on gravity drive. Your captains have their orders and you are released from Stationkeeping status. Bianchi clear."

The announcement played from every speaker and within every one of the stasis and VR pods, then repeated itself twice as crews began stirring, the lids of their pods sliding open and letting the people contained within climb out and get dressed.

…

Proxima Centauri was a red dwarf star about 250 million years older than Sol. It orbited the Alpha Centauri binary star system from about .21 light years away; far enough to not join Alpha Centauri A or Alpha Centauri B to form a trinary system, nor to be influenced by their gravity, but close enough to be captured in their orbit regardless. It was a point of contention among astronomers, professional and amateur alike, whether or not Proxima Centauri was part of Alpha Centauri. The orbits and distances involved contradicted each other, so the argument had never been settled.

The red dwarf only had a single planet orbiting it: Proxima Centauri b. But that single planet was well within what humanity called the Goldilocks Zone, or the band of space around a star where the conditions were ripe for liquid water to be present on the surface. It was an indicator that a planet could possibly be inhabitable, or even inhabited. As any desert dweller could tell you, where there is water, there is usually life.

A few hours later, the TSF Proxima crossed into the heliosphere of Proxima Centauri and began picking up speed as her gravity drive finally found its footing. The crossing had been rather smooth—much more than the outbound crossing of the Sol system's heliopause. THAT had required the crew to scramble into their acceleration couches and strap themselves in to their crash harnesses, the vigor of the collision between the younger star's solar wind and the interstellar medium far more intense than that of the older, more calm red dwarf.

In part, one of the indicators of the size of a star system's heliosphere was the number of exoplanets orbiting the star at its center, and the distance they orbited at. Compared to the Sol system, where the nearest exoplanet—Mercury—orbited the yellow star at .39 AU, the Proxima Centauri system was much smaller. Proxima Centauri b orbited its much smaller star at a mere .05 AU. In the Sol system, it would be little more than a permanently molten globule of magma and metal at that distance, even if it wasn't captured and drawn into the star itself.

And Proxima Centauri was an incredibly small system, if indeed it was an independent system at all and not lumped in with Alpha Centauri's binary stars. The star itself was much smaller than Sol—in specific, it only had 14% of the diameter and 12% of the mass, and only 0.17% of Sol's luminosity. The temperature of its surface was also 2500 degrees Kelvin cooler than Sol, meaning its solar wind was much slower and lacked the power of the star that humanity was born under.

With all of that taken into account, the entire heliosphere around it was not only much more calm than in the Sol system, but also much smaller; it was only 30 AU on average between the red dwarf and its heliopause, compared to Sol's 100 AU average.

...

"Proxima Centauri b is our eventual goal, and our responsibility," Commander Takahashi said. She was briefing the exploration team that would be joining her in first-footing the planet; the lucky person who had been randomly selected to be the actual first human to set foot on the planet had been detached from the crew of the TFS Avenger and seconded to the TES Farsight's crew, much to their envy.

There wasn't a single person in the entire Proxima task force that didn't want to be in the young man's place, and anyone who said otherwise would be lying. But at least there would be something to be said about being the first exploration team to land on the planet... right?

"Yes, ma'am!" the people being briefed chorused, a bit louder than was perhaps absolutely necessary, but given their general excitement, it could be excused as an overabundance of enthusiasm.

"Then..." the commander looked around the large VR briefing room everyone was in, "you." She pointed to the lucky first-

footer, Ordinary Crewman Lance Parker. "Stand up and give us a briefing on Proxima Centauri b."

She was perhaps being unfair to the man, but she was only human and felt a little bitter about not being the first-footer by right of her rank and position.

"Yes, Ma'am," OC Parker said as he stood, then began regurgitating the information contained in the data file on the Proxima Centauri system. "To understand Proxima Centauri b, we first have to begin with the system it inhabits and the star it orbits. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star..."

Ayaka interrupted him when his explanation began to falter as he struggled to recall more information about the solar system and its sole inhabitant. "Excellent, OC Parker. You've memorized our briefing material to an outstanding degree."

She changed tack and continued, "I'm sure everyone's also familiar with the precautions we'll be taking as we approach the planet, so there's no need to repeat them. You've all—

we've all—been drilled on it enough in VR, both in training for the mission and during the trip out here. There will be one more drill this evening, ship time..."

The briefing continued for a few minutes before Ayaka clapped her hands and dismissed everyone. They all disappeared from the virtual briefing room in dribs and drabs until she was the only one left, then she tottered over to one of the seats in the room on wobbling knees and fell into it.

The stress of her position was getting to her, but the time to explore had almost arrived and it had brought excitement with it.

Chapter 605

?As soon as the briefing was over, Joon-ho opened his eyes and climbed out of his pod. Throwing his arms over his head, he leaned back and stretched as far as his 163 centimeter body would allow him to and groaned in excitement.

'This must be what sex feels like!' he thought as he held the stretch for as long as possible. And given that he had received genetic enhancements, that would have been a long time indeed, but the feeling soon passed as his body adjusted itself. Thanks to those same enhancements, physical feelings of relief came on fast and left faster.

"Mana," he muttered under his breath. While the pods didn't have any mana to draw on while the vessel they were on was inside a warp bubble, now that they were traveling at sublight speed, the pods could, and did, draw mana from their surroundings and concentrate it within the pods to provide awakeners with a higher density of mana in which to train.

And he wasn't the only person who felt like he currently did, either. Every single awakener felt the same as they climbed out of their pods, most of them wishing they could climb right back in and enjoy the sensation for longer. It seemed like Proxima Centauri was a far more mana-rich star system than their home.

"It's perfect..." Joon-ho continued muttering to himself as he paced back and forth in his quarters. Not only was the overall mana density higher than it was in the Sol system, but it even had a much higher than usual concentration of gravity mana for some reason!

He climbed into his form-fitting environment suit and put his uniform on over the top of it, then latched his helmet to his belt and trundled off to his duty station. Although he hated how confining the environment suits were, he had to admit that they at least slimmed him down some; now he looked like he only weighed 120 kilograms instead of his actual weight of 180 kilograms.

He hummed the opening theme to One Piece as he trundled down the passageways of the Farsight toward the bridge.

…

The TFS Proxima decelerated to a halt ten AU inside the heliosphere of Proxima Centauri. It would remain in place for the foreseeable future, acting as central command for the task force as the Exploration Fleet performed their surveys, collected their samples, and did their investigations throughout the star system. Depending on what they found in Proxima Centauri, they might even continue on to Alpha Centauri and explore the binary system there as well; tiny, stealthy recon drones were already on their way to perform the initial work and mapping there.

Once the cityship came to a halt relative to the star, the lighting in the cavernous holds that contained the Exploration Fleet vessels and their Space Fleet escorts turned red. The ships, which had been held in the vacuum of the Proxima's internal docks, were about to be released.

Huge docking clamps disengaged from each ship and they hovered in place as the stasis shielding surrounding the external docking bay doors was disengaged and the doors themselves ponderously slid back into recesses in the hull. In an emergency, the doors could be blown free, allowing the ships within to immediately sortie, but this was no emergency. And perhaps, feeling a sense of gravitas, the technician manning the docks had purposefully slowed down the doors' opening speed.

Or maybe the crews of the ships were simply impatient and imagining things.

After ten minutes, the doors were fully open and the stasis shields were down. Vessel after vessel sped away from the Proxima like individual drops of water from a dog shaking them off after a bath. Space around the cityship was organized, choreographed, practiced, and pure chaos as the individual components of each squadron in Task Force Proxima found each other, formed up, and headed out on their assigned headings.

One of those groups included the Farsight, which served as the flag vessel for their squadron. Their destination was Proxima Centauri b and they would make no stops until they reached the planet. The squadron would split up and perform close scans of the surface before the first exploration crew boarded shuttles and headed down.

A moment later, the marine guarding the bridge entrance shouted, "Captain on the bridge!"

Everyone sat up straighter at their stations and any ongoing conversation screeched to a halt, but the bridge of a warship

—even the lightly armed cruisers of the Exploration Fleet, which had guns more suited to clearing navigational hazards than other enemies—was no place for people to be distracted by leaping to their feet and coming to attention when an officer, even one as exalted as the captain of the ship, entered.

"Carry on," the captain said, then turned to Ayaka. "I have the con, Miss Takahashi."

"Aye, Sir, you have the con," she said and rose to her feet with a lithe grace and moved to the executive officer's station to the left of the captain's chair.

"Don't you have some prep work to do for your team, Ayaka?" the captain said to her with a smile.

"Not at the moment, Sir," she replied, her liquid contralto voice as professional as she was.

"Very well, XO."

She nodded and turned her eyes back to her display, working on the initial exploration plan for when they reached the planet. She had chosen her team well; all of them, with the exception of the Terrible Teenager, were young and even more fit than could be accounted for merely by being enhanced on the genetic level. Genetic enhancements could only do so much. It still took effort to train a fit and trim body even after receiving them. And since Proxima Centauri b was 17% larger than Earth, it likely had 17% stronger gravity as well.

Thus, while 1.17G wasn't all that extreme, it would still be wearying after extended periods of time on the planet's surface, and her crew would need to be fitter than the average person to withstand those long hours on a planet that had higher gravity than Earth and none of Earth's amenities. Presumably.

The squadron set out toward the planet at 250 gravities of acceleration, with a planned turnover at the halfway point where they would immediately switch to deceleration instead of inserting a coast phase in the middle of the trip. Thus, they would reach their destination in a little bit less than twenty hours.

Chapter 606

An AR hologram of Proxima Centauri b was floating in the middle of the Farsight's bridge, updated moment by moment thanks to hundreds of close-in survey satellites that the exploration squadron had released. Each of them were specialized satellites, some for weather, some for tectonic activity, some for mana detection, and so on. The information was collated and sent to the squadron flagship by a network of relay satellites so there was no delay in delivering information gathered on the opposite side of the planet from the ships.

They were to be the first to set foot on a planet outside the Sol system, so before that historic event took place, they were determined to know everything they could about the planet in order to prevent as many possible mishaps as they could. Of course, nothing could prevent Murphy from sticking his own fingers into their meticulously prepared pie, but proper planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance, and they were determined to at least do that much.

The only tool they had at their disposal that hadn't been released en masse were their rovers. Those would remain in the ships until if and when they ruled out the existence of intelligent life; before the satellites finished their data sweeps, absolutely nothing would be entering the planet's atmosphere.

The TEF had already designed a complex operational doctrine for situations like this one, and despite it being the first time it was put into practice in reality, the crews of the exploration ships were operating like clockwork and checking every box. All of them knew the risk of contamination, not only cultural, but biological as well. When the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria had landed on the shore of America in 526 BE (1492 by the Gregorian calendar), the explorers from Columbus' crew—and the colonizers that followed from all over Europe—devastated the indigenous population by introducing new pathogens to them. Smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, and so on... all of them contributed their part in the collapse of societies and cultures across North America, some of which never recovered.

Thus, the first line of text in The Book read, "Something as simple as the common cold can destroy an entire civilization."

As the hologram on the bridge continued being updated, the first survey result was displayed next to it. The composition of the planet's atmosphere had been measured by spectroscopy from the Farsight, and a transit spectroscopy study had just been completed by the weather satellite. It wasn't detailed enough, yet, to determine exact composition ratios, but the gasses themselves had been listed: hydrogen, helium, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, nitrogen, and oxygen were all present in Proxima Centauri b's atmosphere.

A great, whooping cheer went up on the bridge as the announcement was made. With those gasses, the planet was very likely to have a breathable atmosphere!

The next satellite to report the gross completion of its task was the mapping satellite. Though the image would continue to be refined as it continued orbiting, the hologram had at least been filled out with continents and oceans. The bridge fell silent as everyone turned from their station to look at the hologram, and they received their first shock of 'This Is A Different Planet' from the view.

The vegetation covering the single supercontinent on Proxima Centauri b was a deep, dark green that was practically black. As a red dwarf, Proxima Centauri emitted light primarily in the ultraviolet and red spectrum, and its low luminosity dictated that visible light was far behind ultraviolet. Thus, the plant life had adapted to that; the darker they became, the more ultraviolet light they could absorb.

The oceans—or rather, ocean, singular—weren't spared the difference, either. The planet lacked the polar ice caps that Earth had, which perhaps explained why most of the planet was covered in ocean, to the tune of 88.25%. The rest of it was mostly concentrated in a single, large land mass (around 9.5%), with archipelagos scattered around the rest to make up the difference.

And also due likely in large part to the low luminosity of Proxima Centauri, the water on Proxima Centauri b was a deep, murky green instead of the brilliant blue of Earth's oceans.

"Beautiful," Ayaka breathily said as she gazed upon the hologram of the alien planet. Then she gave herself a mental shake and asked, "Farsight, how long until the data collection is complete?"

{One rotation around the star, Commander,} the AI replied.

'So eleven days,' Ayaka thought to herself. If she was a mind reader, she would have heard that same thought—or at least close variations along the same theme—from everyone else on the bridge as well. "Captain," she began, turning to the Farsight's captain seated next to her on the bridge. "Request permission to gather mission specifics from the rest of the task force."

"Granted, Commander," the captain gravely replied, aware that every word he spoke was being recorded for posterity.

During the trip from Earth, the two had gotten to know each other fairly well. And Captain Dimitrios Marinakis was normally a jovial, high-spirited fellow, as quick with a joke as he was with a wink. But now he was all grave-faced duty and stoicism, likely because he was aware that every action he took and every word he spoke would become part of the official record that historians would study for millennia to come.

"Thank you, Captain," Ayaka replied, just as formal as the captain.

Formality came easy to her, unlike the captain's gregariousness. She had been raised strictly by traditional Japanese standards, while the captain had been raised on the wind and waves around the island of Mykonos, playing host to tourist after tourist wanting to play in the famously crystalline blue water that surrounded the island-cum-tourist trap. Perhaps their two personalities, neither of which clashed with each other (Ayaka was too polite to externalize a personality conflict, while Captain Marinakis was too jovial to take offense at much of anything, after all), was the main reason they were so effective as a command team.

Commander Takahashi turned to her display and said, "Pass the request to the scientists. They have ten days, Earth time, to send a prioritized list of what experiments they would like carried out on the planet. Link them into the datanet so they have a real-time updated information base to help them make their decisions and rank them."

{Yes, Commander.}

"Also, squadron-wide announcement."

{Recording, Commander.}

"All hands are clear to step down from General Quarters. Condition Yellow across the squadron. I say again, Condition Yellow across the squadron."

{All hands message delivered, Commander,} the AI reported a few seconds later.

"Very well. Thank you, Farsight," she said.

{You're welcome, Commander.}

Chapter 607

607 Glory vs. Anxiety

Eleven days later.

With enough data about the planet—or its surface, at least— the crew of the Farsight had a prioritized list of possible landing areas. Each of them had points of interest that the ship's AI had picked out and the researchers had filtered. They ranged from unique geographical formations, to clusters of vegetation that differed from the plants around it, to possible artificial structures that would require a more hands-on investigation. What none of them included, however, were signs of habitation, so the planet had been deemed safe enough for a single lander to be sent down.

"What we know about the planet is that it's currently a pangea. There is a single, mountainous supercontinent and the rest of the surface is scattered with archipelagos. A bit more than 88% of the surface is water, which our satellite scans were unable to penetrate beyond a certain depth.

"Proxima Centauri itself serves the same gravitational purpose of a moon, which Proxima Centauri b lacks. Or at least we assume that to be the case, as the tides have moved in and out over the past 11 E-days we've been surveying it. However, no matter whether it's aphelion or perihelion, the tides have been steady, so our confidence in the star itself controlling the tides is only about 47%.

(Ed note: "E-time" is the time that passes on Earth, divided into E-years, E-months, and E-days. Hours and minutes are too short to bother comparing to the passage of time on Earth.)

"So, today, we will be sending a single lander to the center of the land mass we've tentatively named New Australia, and the crew we send with it—you—will disembark the lander in full environmental protection gear, take samples based on your specialty, and IMMEDIATELY reboard the lander. The time it will spend on the surface is exactly thirty minutes, not a single second more. So you will be back on the lander or you will be left behind. And assuming you survive until our sample research is complete, which isn't a guarantee, when we return, you will be confined to quarters and stripped of surface privileges for the duration of the mission.

"So I suggest, ladies and gentlemen, that you finish your sample collection and reembark the lander early. Am I clear?" Major Viktor Petrovich said. As the leader of the landing crew's armed Marine guard contingent, he was the de facto leader of the mission, since his orders took precedence over any others issued before the lander touched down.

"Understood, Major," the researchers said in disunison. They weren't soldiers, though, so it was understandable that they made a mess of sound instead of speaking with a single, unified voice.

Ordinary Crewman Lance Parker was with the initial research crew that would soon be headed to the surface. If he wasn't wearing his full environmental gear, he would have been nervously chewing his fingernails down to the quick. But he was, so all he could do was fidget in place; he had already locked down his crash harness so he couldn't even pace!

Fleet landers were designed to carry battalions of troops in full gear with full mission equipment, so there would be plenty of room for pacing... if he hadn't already locked himself down early. When he had first won the random draw to be the first person to set foot on Proxima Centauri b, he'd been beyond excited and could only think about the glory he would come back covered in. But when Major Petrovich had taken him aside and slapped a loaded charge pistol against his chest and told him "shoot them before they eat you", the excitement had faded and become severe anxiety.

But he couldn't back out; not now, and not from... from an honor like this. So all he could do was twitch and fret, and try to stay on the surface for the duration instead of just hop out of the lander then immediately hop back in, where he would be safe. He was just an ordinary crewman and his assigned duty station was the algae farm, for fuck's sake!

Major Petrovich swept his gaze across the waiting researchers and the anxious first-footer, then nodded and said, "Good. Strap in, ladies and gentlemen."

He walked to the lander's cockpit and pounded on the door twice, hard, and yelled, "Good to go, let's get these good people on the ground!"

"Copy that," the pilot replied, then, without bothering to check if his "cargo" had settled in and engaged their crash harnesses, shot out of the boat bay and rocketed toward the ground with 8G of apparent acceleration. Thanks to the inertial sump in the lander, it was actually shooting toward the ground at over a hundred gees of acceleration while only letting eight "leak through" to be felt by the people inside.

The only thing that kept them from rattling around like dried peas in an old-fashioned air popcorn popper was the gravity plating underneath them. It was still a rough ride, though, especially once the pilot initiated a "random walk" evasive maneuver sequence.

Major Petrovich loosed an uproarious laugh and shouted, "It's good to be alive, isn't it, ladies and gentlemen?"

Only a Marine would be crazy enough to enjoy a ride like the one the researchers were on. Only a few of them had had time to strap into their acceleration seats and engage their crash harnesses, and the sound of dozens of people praying to different gods filled the air in the compartment they were in.

Once the lander crossed the Karman Line, however, it rapidly slowed so as not to present a fireball of superheated air around it. The pilot could have all the fun he wanted... outside the atmosphere, anyway. But once his lander had switched to its atmospheric engines and started sucking air instead of vacuum, he had been given strict orders to land as covertly as possible to minimize any disturbance the arrival of humanity caused to the first planet humanity had ever visited outside the Sol system.

The dizzy and nauseous researchers fled to their acceleration seats and strapped into their crash harnesses with a collective frenzy. At least those that could see clearly, anyway; the ones whose helmets had been fouled by last night's dinner were still having a bit of trouble finding their assigned seats.

The pilot's voice came across in the hold. "Eight minutes to ground, passengers. Collect your bellies and strap in. This will be a smooth landing, but I make no promises as to the rest of the journey. The landing may be up to me, but the flight is in god's hands."

With a collective sigh of relief, those with fouled helmets began a self-cleaning cycle of their environmental suits, triggering an ionic sweep that would vaporize anything stuck to the insides of their visors. The smell, however, lingered, and they were currently thanking whatever higher power they believed in for the suits' "plumbing" connections that ensured the ONLY fouled things were their helmets.

Chapter 608

The entire landing was being broadcast, both through external cameras on the lander and helmet cameras from each crew member, for anyone in Task Force Proxima to watch. At least if they were off watch, anyway; people who were on duty were prohibited from watching the broadcast instead of doing their jobs. It drew every eye in the entire task force save only the most dedicated of researchers still on the cityship studying the gravitational tides between Proxima Centauri and the Alpha Centauri binary system.

The altimeter continued ticking down as the lander crept toward the surface at an agonizingly slow speed. One hundred... fifty... thirty... twenty... ten... The numbers finally stopped creeping down when it reached ten centimeters from the surface of "New Australia". A collective stare state swept over the crew of the task force as everyone currently standing watch at their stations were suddenly given permission to watch the live broadcast. Fleet Admiral of the Red Bianchi had considered the tradeoff between distraction and morale, and had chosen morale.

Thus, nearly a million people had dropped what they were doing and stood or sat where they were, eyes glazed over as they watched the landing in full, glorious augmented reality.

The silent stare state lasted a full minute before the sensors studding the exterior of the lander performed detailed close-in scans determined that the area was "safe" and allowed the ramp to drop from the aft of the vessel. The only thing separating the explorers from the surface of Proxima Centauri b now was a thin ionic atmosphere shield, which had the sole task of preventing atmospheric and microbiological exchange between the interior of the lander and the world outside.

The exterior camera on the aft of the lander panned around and focused on the exit ramp, where someone in an Ordinary Crewman's environmental protection suit was tottering toward the ramp, quivering and swaying from side to side as if he was drunk. He stopped at the top of the ramp and looked down at the pistol that had been stuck to the chest of his suit in a tactical quick-draw holster, then squared his shoulders and stomped on the ramp.

He failed to account for the increased gravity though, as Proxima Centauri b had gravity that was 17% stronger than Earth, and stumbled. Then he failed to recover and rolled down the ramp to the loamy soil in the clearing the lander had come down in.

Commander Takahasi, Captain Marinakis, and Fleet Admiral Bianchi simultaneously facepalmed, almost loud enough to be heard through the vacuum of space. Thankfully, OC Parker would be the first AND last crew member of any exploration mission to be selected via random draw to first-foot an alien planet.

What made the tumble even worse was that OC Parker had already started his "famous quote for posterity" before taking the fateful step. "A new horIII—OH SHIT!" he said, his voice breaking on the final syllable as he passed the point of no return and began his tumble.

He lay there for a moment, then clambered to his feet and cleared his throat. Once again, he took a deep, settling breath and squared his shoulders, then began, "A new horizon, a fresh beginning. Today I take the first... step of... humanity and the Tron—err, Terran—empire and dream of ambition to explore and... Uh, ahh, fuck it." His shoulders slumped back to their original posture and he raised the index finger of his right hand straight up above him. "To infinity and beyond!"

It was perhaps less Buzz Aldrin and more Buzz Lightyear, but the moment provided a brief respite in levity to the men and women of Task Force Proxima, who had perhaps been entirely too stressed and anxious as they slowly moved in system upon dropping out of warp for the final time.

The moment didn't last long, however, as the rest of the explorers swarmed down the ramp—none of them, thankfully, repeating OC Parker's mistake—and began collecting their samples. In keeping with the tradition of first on, last off, Ayaka finally strolled down the ramp and stopped at Parker's side.

She patted his shoulder and said, "That was definitely a stylish fall, Mister Parker."

Lee Joon-ho put his arm around Parker's shoulders from his other side and added, "Don't worry, I'm sure the term 'Parkering it' will be added to great military sayings in the future, up there with Murphy's Law and the Seventy Maxims."

Ayaka almost couldn't hold back a snort of laughter and was thankful that the armorglass portion of her helmet was polarized so nobody could see the uncontrollable twitching of her lips as she fought against the smile that would have been the point of no return in her loss against the urge to laugh.

While she stood there battling the belly laughs, a whole host of land-restricted rovers and their accompanying flying drones came down the ramp and entered sleep mode. They wouldn't be activated again until after the lander had departed the atmosphere and returned to the Farsight.

Many would perhaps say they were being extremely cautious, if not overly so. But everyone who was participating in the landing had experienced a brief visit to one of Athena's many hellworlds, ripped straight from the reaper final training exercise. So their opinion was that anyone else who had an opinion about how careful they were being could go pound sand; the explorers knew beyond a shadow of a doubt just how shitty worlds could be to fragile scientists like them.

Twenty-seven minutes later, the scientists had gathered at the bottom of the ramp again, their sample containers presented to Ayaka for inspection. They were kept in specialized stasis boxes that would prevent any contamination from occurring on either side, and they would be handled aboard specialized lab modules that could—and would—be instantly ejected and self-destruct should any accidents occur.

The inspection was soon finished and Ayaka led the crew back into the lander and it lifted off even as the ramp began closing. It wasn't returning to the Farsight quite yet, but rather heading out to the ocean to gather samples of the seabed and water from just off the coast, then drop a submersible rover for further exploration.

Once the lander reached its second and final stop in the atmosphere, it released dozens of drones, whose purpose was to gather water and soil samples from directly under the lander, a mere ten feet past the breaking point of that particular beach.

While waiting for the drones to return with their samples, the Henry's Eye sensor on the lander showed an anomaly. On the screen, it looked like mana flows were pulsing around the lander like the roots of a tree, or perhaps the dendrites in the brain. A soft alarm sounded and drew the attention of everyone to the display.

The lander's VI, detecting a possible threat, communicated with the AI of the Farsight and the decision was made to slowly increase the lander's altitude. Then, just a single second later, an alarm whooped throughout the entire transport bay of the lander and it rose as fast as its inertial compensators would allow. The people inside were pressed to the floor, briefly experiencing in excess of 30G and the ringing of tinnitus in their ears mirrored the whine of overstressed inertial compensators that were being held together only by the safety interlocks built into the small landing craft's gravity drive.

Beneath them, a sonic boom exploded so close to the lander that the entire craft shuddered. An enormous gnarled tree root had cracked like a whip mere centimeters away from the exterior of the lander, destroying dozens of sensors, but thankfully leaving it flightworthy.

"What the fuck...?"

As fast as the root had appeared, it disappeared back into the ocean and everything returned to its previous calm. Everything, that is, except the heart rates of the people in the lander and those still paying attention to the broadcast being sent through the system.

Shit had just gotten real for them.

Chapter 609

The lander continued rising, though at a speed that wouldn't overtax its inertial compensator. The pilot did, however, continue random walking to the point where someone that wasn't aware of what was going on might think that he was drunk. The vessel sure was swaying and lurching about like he was, anyway.

They stopped briefly at the fifty kilometer mark, since that was the flight ceiling for the unmanned collection drones that had been sent to collect samples from the ocean. Even with gravity drives, there was still a practical limit for machines that small.

Two of the drones were caught by the whipping root tendrils, but the other eight managed to return safely to the lander and deposit their samples in the stasis fields prepared for them. And the pilot wasn't willing to wait around, as it seemed the roots were growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, so he rocketed straight up toward the Karman Line in a maneuver that the marines who normally rode in landers called "unassing the area with a quickness."

They soon reached the Farsight, then slowly crept through the ionic stasis shield that kept the boat bay pressurized. The flight up from the surface had taken minutes; passing through the shielding on the boat bay, on the other hand, took over an hour as they were being incredibly careful to avoid any kind of contamination from the planet. It was easy enough to do—the entire lander was inorganic, on the surface at least, so all they had to do was eliminate any biological material that was "stuck" to the vessel.

Disinfecting the people aboard, however, was a much more complicated and involved process. After all, it was impossible to tell the difference between biological material that was a part of them and biological material that was native to Proxima Centauri b, and the surface of their environmental suits couldn't be 100% inorganic like the surface of a lander could.

Thankfully, that had been anticipated, and problems that the empire could anticipate were already half solved. The rest was simple engineering.

Thus, the suits themselves were disposable, and layered. The passengers of the lander just had to remove the outer layer of their suits and discard them while in a perfect vacuum, then head through a series of decontamination airlocks before the whole mess (NOT including the people, naturally) was ejected from the Farsight to burn up in the atmosphere of the planet below them.

The explorers tottered their way to a designated quarantine area on wobbly legs, or at least most of them did, anyway. The crew members of the Farsight and the security team were quite used to handling high-G maneuvering, so their strides were as sure as they had been before the sudden evasive maneuvers. Of course, there was another aspect as well—the researchers were noncombatants, so they were very much unused to the rigors of combat, both mental and physical alike. They couldn't help but picture what would have happened, had the "root" caught them.

One of the hallmarks of a good scientist was a good imagination, and they were very, very good scientists.

As for the soldiers and crew of the Farsight, well... not much needed to be said for them. They had all been taught in Athena's School of Hard Knocks and Harder Heads, and in comparison to that, what they'd just gone through was just another Tuesday for them.

…

Farsight bridge, 36 hours later.

"Bring the crew down to Condition Yellow," Captain Marinakis said as Ayaka entered the bridge. He motioned her to her seat next to him as he recorded the all-hands announcement.

The Farsight had gone to Battle Stations the moment the first "root" had attacked the lander, then stepped down to General Quarters after the lander returned. Though the Exploration Fleet ships were lightly armed—by imperial standards, anyway—they still had a number of orbital supremacy weapons aboard. Kinetic energy weapons were considered to be just good sense, and their LiDAR system could be weaponized by the simple expedient of providing it with enough power to turn the normally harmless lasers into powerful weapons.

It would burn out the emitters after being fired once or twice, but those one or two attacks would definitely let who, or whatever they hit knowing they had been kissed.

Ayaka shook her head at the captain and gestured toward the briefing room. "The scientists called a meeting," she said, then ducked into the conference room just off the bridge.

The moment the door closed and she was alone in the room, she leaned against the door and sighed in relief as she slid down it to sit on the deck. Although she had been trained in what to do if she experienced problems on away missions, experiencing it in reality where catastrophes wouldn't simply be dragged out of a simulation into an after-action report where they ran down everything went wrong, well... that was a different feeling altogether.

She'd had time to decompress and rationally sort through the stress reaction in quarantine, but somehow being on the bridge of the Farsight had just... brought it home to her. She had almost died, and not only her, but everyone she was in command of. It was a weighty burden to bear, and that fact was only just now hitting home for her. Things she rationally knew were becoming things she intuitively felt, and she found herself disturbed by it. So, she took a few minutes to get her headspace in order, then rose to her feet, tugged at her uniform to ensure it was in pristine condition, and checked her facial expression for any sign of stress. Finding none, she nodded to herself and stepped back onto the bridge.

As soon as she walked in, the debriefing began. The bridge disappeared from around her and became a conference room with a long table, at which sat Fleet Admiral Bianchi, accompanied by his intelligence officer, science officer, and the heads of various research departments that had remained aboard the TFS Proxima.

With everyone in attendance, the debriefing began.

"We have decided to suspend landings until further notice," Ayaka said in a grave tone. "As the commander on site, it's my thinking that we need to analyze the information we have and determine just what that 'root' was before we return to the surface. Or at least as closely as we can, anyway. From the satellite ring, we noted an uptick in mana, almost as if the root was a conscious, sapient being, or perhaps it isn't sapient and was just responding to our intrusion like a horse would to a fly that was buzzing around it. The problem, at least as I see it, is that we simply don't know enough to know just how much we don't know."

The participants at the table nodded in understanding.

"As to what exactly happened," Ayaka continued, "I'll let the researchers from the Proxima go over that. They've had 36 hours to go through the raw data while we were in quarantine, so they've got the best idea of exactly what was going on. Miss Standing Bear, the floor is yours."

Ayaka returned to her seat as a Native American woman stood from hers and walked to the head of the table.

Rebecca Standing Bear nodded to the people at the table and delved right into the heart of the topic. "From the data we collected, and until and unless any evidence arises to the contrary, our initial conclusion is that Proxima Centauri b has evolved intelligent life. And that intelligent life has already reached the awakening stage of its evolution. As you can see here from the Henry's Eyes sensors..."

Having begun the briefing with that particular bombshell, her presentation of the data lasted quite some time before she opened the floor to questions.

Chapter 610

Fleet Admiral Bianchi was the first to react. "What makes you say that?" he asked. He wasn't surprised that they had found life—or rather, sentient life anyway; whether or not it was sapient was still in question. After all, liquid surface water was what made life possible in the first place, and if Proxima Centauri b had anything in spades, it was water.

(Ed note: Sentience and sapience aren't exactly the same thing. Sentient beings are capable of experiencing sensations and, perhaps, emotions. Sapient beings are capable of higher orders of rational thought. For example, dogs are sentient beings; they can experience physical sensations and emotions, but aren't capable of rational thinking. Humans, on the other hand, are sapient. We're capable of thinking beyond our urges.)

"This," Dr. Standing Bear replied, her eyes glazing over as she selected a file to play on the screen behind her. The recording showed the mana pulses detected by the Henry's Eyes sensors moments before the "root" had attempted to whip the shit out of the lander.

"We'd assumed that the pulses you're seeing here were simply something like..." she paused, seemingly struggling to find an explanation that would satisfy a layperson while remaining as close to accurate as it was possible to be. "Like the concept of ley lines in a fantasy novel. But when the lander stopped over the ocean—" the video showed the increase in intensity and frequency of the pulsing mana, "—it became obvious that they were functioning much like the 'meridians' that we've been taught to circulate our own personal mana through.

"We don't know what, exactly, the so-called 'root' was reacting to. It could've been reacting to the lander itself, either because it was perceived as a threat of its own or because it was the source of the drones, or it could've detected the explorers aboard the ship. Or perhaps it was reacting to their passive absorption of mana, though that's doubtful since the only awakener aboard was a gravity-aspected awakener and we don't think the... being... shares that particular aspect. Or perhaps it was simply curious about what the new sensation was and there was no ill intent." She paused, again seeming to be trying to interpret the data in her report in a way that her audience could understand.

"Regardless of the intent, or whether or not the being is sentient or sapient, we strongly believe that the lander was attacked because it entered the being's sensory range. It wasn't until they were over the ocean and low enough to release the sample collection drones that the being responded. We also believe it's likelier that the being detected the lander rather than the drones. After all, the only drones we lost were ones that were in the path of the initial attack, which could mean that they were small enough to not be sensed, or perhaps too small to trigger a threat reaction. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"As for what exactly the being is... we aren't sure. It could be any number of things, but the only thing we know for sure is that it, or they, evolved to use the abundant mana in the environment around them. And it's far more abundant than in our home system. If we were to quantify it, every sample we've collected shows about two hundred times as much raw mana as we have back home on Earth, pound for pound. Everything, from the microbial life to the water, and even the soil samples.

"Every bit of this planet is as dependent on the mana in its surroundings as humans are on the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. When we put the samples in a shielded environment that prevented mana from entering, everything seemed to, for lack of a better term, wither.

"That's all we know and suspect based on the data we have. Anything else will be nothing but SWAGs—"

The other people at the table snickered at the term; everyone knew what a Scientific Wild-Ass Guess was.

Once the snickers died down, Dr. Standing Bear continued, "And we have no way of proving or disproving them until if and when we're able to gather more data." She waved her hand and the screen behind her went blank. "Any questions?"

"Did the being evolve on its own, or do you think it's been engineered?" the head of xenobiology, Dr. David Adams, asked.

"There's insufficient data to determine either way. We'll need a sample of the being itself, at a minimum. We have some samples of plant life, but they were all destroyed when we placed them in the mana vacuum, and without that, we have no way of knowing whether or not Proxima Centauri b was engineered to be the way it is."

"Does the attack mean we'll be limited to rovers to do all of our research?" another scientist asked.

"For now, and for the foreseeable future, yes. That's correct. We'll still need to send manned missions into the atmosphere, to gather the collected samples, if nothing else, but there won't be any more landings until we determine what exactly the being is, and if it's hostile or not. Until we know what exactly it is that provoked the response we got from it, we can't risk any of our science staff."

"What direction do you suggest we go from here?" Ayaka asked. The Farsight was the exploration cruiser assigned to the surface of Proxima Centauri b, and she was the one in charge of all the landing missions. So she needed to gather suggestions in order to chart her, and by extension, the rest of the exploration crew's, future activities.

"I suggest we bring the rovers and drones online. If they aren't attacked, we should continue sending bigger unmanned exploration vehicles in different configurations to see what, if anything, the entity—or, perhaps, entities—respond to. If the being doesn't react to an unmanned lifter-sized object, then that means it's likely that it was the people aboard the lifter that were detected rather than the lifter itself.

"But the most important thing to do next is to map out the ocean floor as soon as possible. The lander wasn't attacked over the land, so it's likely that the entity, whatever it is, is either fully aquatic or perhaps amphibian."

Silence took over the briefing room, indicating that nobody had any further questions for Dr. Standing Bear. At least not for the moment, anyway; there would definitely be more questions as they continued gathering data on the planet, and the system it was a part of.

"Thank you, Doctor," Fleet Admiral Bianchi said, speaking for the first time since he had kicked off the presentation. He turned to the other people seated at the conference table and continued, "Now the question becomes where do we go from here? We know there's life on the planet, but we don't know if it's sentient or sapient, nor do we know whether or not the attack was made with malice aforethought or if it was a simple reflex action. We don't even know how it detected us, or what about us it detected.

"So, as the head of the escort fleet and the commander in chief of Task Force Proxima as a whole, I want to canvass your opinions."

Chapter 611

"We should maintain our position and try not to provoke the being until we have an idea of how to communicate with it, Admiral," Ayaka said. As the leader on the ground, Fleet Admiral Bianchi had looked to her to open the discussion. "After all, if you look at the situation from the being's side, we're the invaders that're interrupting its life. So its reaction is... understandable, in that light, even if it is both sapient and purposefully hostile."

"Wherever we go, the law of nature still applies," Captain Marinakis interjected. "The strong eat the weak, and mercy is a privilege of the strong. We have no idea if communication will even be possible, so I'd rather eat than be eaten, Sir."

Nobody else spoke, letting Fleet Admiral Bianchi weigh the two options presented to him. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum, which was rare for the command team of Ayaka and Dimitrios, who were normally rather synchronized in their approach to problem solving.

The admiral, however, gave no sign of what he was thinking. Ayaka's suggestion came directly from The Book, and would definitely be more in line with their mission of peaceful exploration. But Captain Marinakis also had a point; the one unbreakable law in the universe-especially now that humanity's exposure to mana and its subsequent evolution had overturned their perspective on the other "laws" of the universe-was the law of the jungle. And the commanders on the ground had great freedom to overrule The Book, though they would eventually have to justify their actions when they returned to an area where real-time communication with CENTCOM was possible.

Task Force Proxima thus had a window of time to decide how to respond to the being. Everything was still unknown at the moment, thus, everything was possible and even permitted. If he so chose, Fleet Admiral Bianchi could "pull up stakes" and move on to Alpha Centauri instead of remaining in Proxima Centauri. Or even turn around and head home, though that would be disastrous to his career and perhaps even harmful to humanity as a species.

So instead of making a decision as to which end of the spectrum of possibilities his response would fall on, he changed tack. "How long until our forges are completed?" he asked his chief of staff, Lieutenant Commander Thabo Botha.

"The probes just completed the detailed mapping pass on both asteroid belts. We have preliminary sites picked out based on initial spectrographic scans, and if all goes well, the forges will be completed in six months or so, Sir. Until then, we'll have to get... creative with what we already have."

Admiral Bianchi pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's a good thing our engineers are the cream of the crop. There's going to be a lot of jury-rigging if we can't send manned missions to the surface," he sighed. Until they developed an in-system industrial base, they would be reliant on forcing square pegs into round holes in terms of mission-specific gear. Luckily, though, they had trained for just that kind of situation.

If necessity was the mother of invention, limitation was its midwife.

The briefing continued for a few hours, barring a small break for a meal, as the leaders involved hammered out a tentative doctrine for dealing with what they had found themselves up against. Though they had all trained in simulations for subjective years, that didn't necessarily mean they'd been exposed to every single situation they could encounter in an infinite, ever-expanding universe. And "hostile root swatting at the explorers' lander" just so happened to be one of those situations they hadn't covered in their training missions.

A few days later.

Over the past few days, the rovers and drones had been collecting samples and performing rough analyses on them nonstop. Data had been flowing to and from orbit in a steady stream, and the engineers had outdone themselves by converting a lander-THE lander, as it just so happened -to an unmanned vehicle. Should anything happen to it, it wouldn't be nearly as big a loss as it would if it were filled with researchers, spacers, and soldiers.

Thanks to that, together with the first round of samples collected by the landing crew, the researchers had discovered a veritable smorgasbord of single-celled organisms that were along the same lines as those that'd once floated in the primordial soup on Earth and eventually became humankind. All of their discoveries had been scanned and replicated in the limited VR simulation, though their scanners weren't quite up to dealing with mana yet.

There was a limit to tier 1 technology, after all, especially when it was trying to deal with mana. Any scanner that wanted to detect and recreate mana in virtual form to any usable degree of granularity and fidelity would need Aron to imbue it with intent, not just use the atomic printer to carve the runes and a converter to transmute electricity to mana and flood the runes with that mana. Aron was still the only runemaster in the human species, and only runemasters of the highest level could imbue runic constructs with intent.

And there simply weren't enough hours in the day for him to personally imbue all of the hardware on entire fleets of thousands of ships, even if he were inclined to make the attempt.

Thus, the researchers had a wealth of information to study, though they would have to solve the issue of safely landing on Proxima Centauri b's surface in order to study the "withering" they had noticed in the first samples brought to the Farsight. The samples they had been taking over the past few days, unlike their very first, were being very carefully handled so as to avoid wasting them. They already knew what happened when they removed them from the mana saturating and surrounding the planet, so until they were ready to study the withering itself, they would ensure that the integrity of their samples remained intact.

Some of their initial discoveries had made the exploration of the surface even more important. One in particular, though, blew the rest completely out of the water in terms of importance. In fact, it was perhaps on the same level as the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 80 BE. Specifically, they had discovered miracle shit. Certain single-celled organisms that resided on the planet, when provided with proper nutrients, would convert those nutrients into energy for themselves, and excrete the rest as pure mana, among other byproducts. Sure, the amount of each individual organism's miracle shit was minuscule, but that didn't matter; there were a LOT of those organisms, and quantity could make up for the lacking amount in each miracle shit.

Thus, the rovers were kept busy for an entire PCb-year (eleven E-days) collecting sample after sample and shipping it up to the Farsight via unmanned lander as the researchers polished and began implementing Operation Bear Baiting.

A single unmanned lander was sent to test the hypothesis that the being had detected the hardware itself. Should the being respond in the same fashion as it did before, by attempting to whip the shit out of the lander, it would suggest that the lander itself was what had disturbed the being. If it didn't, then it would suggest the opposite. Of course, they wouldn't be able to tell with any certainty, as they were still unable to tell if the being was sentient, sapient, or even nonsentient. After all, no one would claim that a Venus Flytrap or Pitcher Plant was sentient simply because they were capable of attracting insects and reacting to them by trapping and digesting them.

The lander slowly descended with all of its sensors tuned to their max sensitivity and range. And that was quite a range, as the vehicle itself had been refitted with spare sensors from the Farsight's spares inventory along with a dedicated microfusion plant specifically to power them. The modifications hadn't exactly been easy for the engineering crews to make, but thanks to imperial technology being essentially modular in design, they had been within the realm of possibility.

But as any good engineer would tell people, knowing something COULD be done was 90% of actually doing it. The lander continued descending until it reached the same elevation it had been at on its previous trip, where it hovered in place as practically the entire task force watched for roots with bated breath.

They didn't have to wait for long, as the suspected root system showed an initial uptick in mana pulse intensity and frequency similar to the previous "invasion" of its space, but it soon returned to quiescence and no actual attack took place.

Chapter 612

Over the next few weeks, the researchers of Task Force Proxima conducted hundreds of different tests and learned a few things about the "root". As it turned out, it was just one of an entire network of roots that covered the bottom of the entire ocean that they had jokingly named the New Australian Sea. After all, everything they knew lived in it had demonstrated that it was out to kill them, so the name seemed quite appropriate.

The root network was incredibly dense, with nearly a hundred percent coverage of the ocean floor, and each root itself was equally dense. The water pressure in the deepest part of the ocean—which was a full twenty kilometers deep—applied over ten million PSI of water pressure. But even at that depth, they'd learned (at the cost of a few submersible drones loaded with mana batteries) that the roots could still move with the same blinding, predatorial speed as they had near the surface when one had attacked the crewed lander.

Another incidental discovery was that their tide hypothesis had been disproven. Proxima Centauri had little to no effect on the tides of the New Australian Sea. Instead, it now seemed as though the tides were driven by the roots as they twisted, turned, and writhed, seemingly inhaling and exhaling on a slow, but regular schedule.

That said, the star did play at least a minor role in the rise and fall of the tides. It just wasn't the only factor that drove the rise and fall of the ocean.

The final discovery the researchers had made was the approximate age of the root network. From the instrument readings, the roots were only a few hundred thousand years old, which made for a dilemma. In order to grow to the kind of coverage they had, even going so far as to raise the sea level by entire kilometers and drown multiple continents, the roots should by all rights be millions of years old, not just hundreds of thousands.

And that age-related dilemma was the source of many arguments and debates among the scientific staff. The only reference they had, though, was comparing the alien roots' growth with the growth of Earth's flora. So the arguments eventually died down and the initial consensus was "a wizard did it", or in other words, it was related to a function of mana that humanity simply hadn't come into contact with yet. Apparently, super-dense mana plus a star that radiated primarily ultraviolet light equaled unimaginable plant growth speeds. It was almost like Miracle-Gro, only thousands of times more effective.

However, all of the information they were working with was from instrument scans only. None of it could be proved or disproved until they had actual, physical samples to work with. But based on the roots' movement speed, density, and general irritability, actually getting those samples would likely prove to be a very difficult and arduous task. And that wasn't even considering that the roots they needed samples of might also be sapient in some form or another; they still weren't even sure they could rule that much out.

But they had all the time they could want, or at least as much time as the Powers That Be would allow them, which was subject to the whims of Fleet Admiral Bianchi and his staff. Thus, unable to make practical progress on the issue of the root network, it was unceremoniously shoved on the back burner until their protostellar forge was completed.

(Ed note: Here, the concept of a stellar forge differs from most sci-fi novels that use the same reference, much less the Marvel Cinematic Universe version, though the MCU is far closer than others. It's a method of using a star literally as a forge, not forging creations on a stellar scale. More details will be in future chapters; I don't want to spoil you on it here as I personally think it's a pretty cool concept the way Agent envisions it.)

The same couldn't be said for samples from New Australia itself, however. The sole continent remaining above the surface of the New Australian Sea was lush with plants of all shapes and sizes, though lacking in multicellular life beyond plants that were so dark they practically glowed. Samples were taken there, and the landers they had modified to be remotely piloted flew from surface to ship in an almost unending stream to transport them.

After all, the plants on the continent were different from the roots on the ocean floor. Though they, too, had roots, they were of a much more normal sort than the beings that populated the seabed. Much smaller and weaker—and, more importantly, immobile—they served the same purpose as roots did for plant life on Earth. The trees and shrubs had taproots and whiskers, digging into the soil deeply enough to keep them stable, though they seemed to avoid the beaches and ocean.

It was almost like the ocean roots were predators that preyed on the roots of the plants on the land.

There was another curiosity that drove the scientists up a wall with frustration as well: the only multicellular life on the planet was plant life. Other than single-celled organisms, there was no fauna to match the flora.

The current leading theory on that thorny problem was that, much like on Earth, animal life had first evolved in the ocean. But given the demonstrated hostility of the New Australian Ocean's seabed root network, it was likely that the roots had simply wiped out all the other creatures in a bid to ensure that the resources of the ocean—primarily its oddly rich mana density—belonged solely to them.

Still, given that the land flora showed no signs of either sentience or sapience, much less any hostility, it was decided that the land mass would soon be open to human exploration, so long as they avoided going anywhere near the ocean. So the exploration team decided to get a jump on the mission planning for their return to the surface in preparation for when the top brass authorized the trip.

Chapter 613

"What're the odds of being attacked by ocean roots if we're on land?" Ayaka asked. She had already been briefed about the assumed safety of the plants on land, but was still wary of the root network at the bottom of the New Australian Sea.

"We estimate it at less than one in fifty, Commander. We stopped getting reactions from the roots at about a kilometer from the shore when we sent down the mana batteries as bait, but we'll be testing it with a few landers full of marines before we greenlight any researchers or explorers landing. Begging your pardon, you just aren't as trained as we are when it comes to havoc and mayhem, Ma'am," Major Kelly O'Shanrahan answered. He was the commanding officer of the Farsight's marines, and it was his job to ensure the safety of the exploration teams on the ground.

"Once we're positive that the surface is safe for extended stays, then you can come down and establish a more permanent camp," he continued. "Before that, I can only allow brief expeditions, since we just don't know how the locals will react to long-term residences."

"Locals, Major?" Ayaka faintly smiled at the marine.

"Aye, Ma'am. Locals. In marine country, we're split about sixty-forty for the root network being sapient. But you know leathernecks, we'll gamble on anything."

(Ed note: "Marine country" is the dedicated area on naval vessels that the marine contingents stay in. They like to keep a separation between the services aboard ship to prevent friction and conflict between marines and sailors, and it developed into A Tradition? over the centuries.)

"I see..." Another thought occurred to Ayaka and her brow knit in a frown. "I'm sure we'll have at least a few that'll refuse to return to the surface. What'll happen to them?"

"Well, Ma'am, while I'd like to send them to the ocean surface in a rowboat without oars, the likeliest outcome is that they'll be reassigned to the Proxima and replaced with someone from there who IS willing to go. Not like we have any shortage of eggheads willing to risk their biscuits for a chance at immortality in textbooks.

"After all, while we technically can force them to go back down, you can't force good work out of scientists. So we'll just dock their pay, replace them, and when it's convenient, the brass will load up a ship and send them home."

"I'll let the team know, and put together a list of people that request reassignment, Major. You'll have it before we're cleared to depart for the surface. Thank you," Ayaka said.

"Understood, Ma'am. We'll have you dirtside in no time."

Ayaka nodded and swiped her AR display closed. She sent a request to the research team leads for them to put together a list of their team members requesting reassignment and a second list of who their preferred replacements would be, then discarded her perfect posture and leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

...

"Keep your eyes and ears open and your trigger fingers loose, marines. No respawns anymore, so no dumbfuckery will be allowed. Looking at you, Chang," Lieutenant Jason Morris said to the company of marines in the lander with him. A wave of chuckles followed his words, along with the soft metallic sound of soldiers in full battle rattle performing final checks on their gear.

A comms request popped up on his HUD. He blinked to answer it and the pilot appeared in his field of view.

"We've been cleared to fly. Your boys strapped in back there? Things might get rough," the pilot said.

"We're always ready. Let's get this show on the road, there's dumbfuckery to be had."

"Copy that," the pilot said and Lieutenant Morris was immediately slammed into his crash harness by the hammer of god.

"Coulda warned me, asshat. Beer's on you when we get back," the marine company commander grunted, but the pilot only laughed and cut the comm channel as he performed completely unnecessary evasive maneuvers. Jason spat a stream of cursing that would make any NCO proud for the full minute it took to reach their destination.

"Archangel to jarheads, you are clear to unass my ride," the pilot announced over the speakers in the lander's passenger cabin. "In case you didn't understand me the first time, that means get the fuck off my lander, marines." As he said that, the aft bulkhead fell open and slammed to the ground.

The marines' crash harnesses released them and they sprinted down the ramp, setting up a perimeter around the landing zone in a focused silence that spoke of long hours, months, or even years of training in the time-dilated simulation. Every marine in the Bravo Company "Bulldogs" had a place, and each of them knew exactly, to the millimeter, where that place was.

The lifter rose back into the air to provide fire support, should it be needed, and the marines waited in place, eerily silent, for five full minutes as their HUDs generated a threat map.

"Time to get to work, marines. We need a functioning camp in twenty hours, clear?"

"Clear as crystal, Sir!" came the enthusiastic chorus of replies.

Jason racked his plasma caster in its place on the back of his armor. He wasn't necessarily the type to enjoy getting up close and personal with his targets, but a plasma caster just seemed like the better weapon choice for use on a planet populated entirely by possibly sapient plant life. It wasn't like a pulse carbine would do much to a tree, after all. Or a root, for that matter.

He looked up and watched as container after container came screaming down from orbit and slammed into the ground after a brief flare of thrusters to make the end of the trip as survivable as the beginning for anything inside the containers. Then he saw that some joker had managed to somehow find spray paint and tag each container with elaborate graffiti that spelled out the chorus of the old song by Baha Men, "Who let the dogs out?"

Chapter 614

Two of the five squads of marines left their places on the perimeter of the landing zone and headed to the "decorated" containers. One by one, the containers cracked open, small clouds of fog drifting out of them and pooling in the low areas on the ground. The fog was the remains of the shock foam that researchers in Lab City had developed to allow for higher-speed impacts in yeet pods or cargo launched from mass drivers.

The beauty of it was that it was a completely analog system; mechanical altimeters would detect when the pod or cargo container reached a set point—usually a hundred meters before impact—and trigger a valve that would allow two binary agents to mix. The resulting chemical formed a foam that expanded, bursting the relatively fragile containment tanks it was mixed in and allowing it to expand to fill whatever space it was in. It had a ridiculously high shock tolerance and would rapidly decay and sublimate into a gas composed primarily of nitrogen, helium, sulfur hexafluoride, and other trace elements.

After verifying the marines' biometrics, Cerberus mulebots woke to life and grabbed cargo sleds in their teeth before digging in their mechanical paws and dragging the tons of materials that had taken the short journey from orbit with the bots out of the containers on heavy duty runners. Each container held five cargo sleds, and each of those weighed eight tons.

All in all, the cargo that had just come down from the Farsight would be enough to build a reasonably decent sized, semi-permanent research base. And the constructor swarm queens included in the drop set about doing just that as soon as the cargo had been unloaded and consolidated in one stockpile.

Their initial jobs completed, the Cerberus mulebots took up a complex patrol in the jungle surrounding the clearing the lander had come down in, outside the perimeter the marines were guarding.

"Okay, guys, gals, and undecided pals, time to get to work. This base ain't gonna build itself!" the platoon sergeant announced at the top of his lungs, as platoon sergeants all through history had been wont to do. "By squad, first and third squad fall out of the perimeter and follow the assigned tasks in your HUDs. Four-hour shifts, second shift will be squads two and four. Squad five, continue overwatch on perimeter duty!"

A smattering of scattered acknowledgements followed the sergeant's orders and the marines began moving like oversized worker bees, unloading this, carrying that, and so on.

"Man, I wish the fat kid was here. He's got a gravity power and this would be SO much easier with that to help," a marine grumbled as he picked up a large piece of reactor shielding for the fusion reactor that would power the research base. It was unwieldy to carry and so heavy that it strained even the reinforced musculature of his battle armor.

"Not only is he a brat, but he's a coward and lazy, to boot. But he's still valuable to the PTB—do you really expect them to send him down with grunts like us?" another marine grumbled back at the first.

"I saw him practicing once, I think. Or maybe he was just doing some weeb shit with his superpower. He was putting... something... together using it and juggling like fifty pieces at once. I didn't know whether to be impressed or shit my pants at the thought of what he could do if he really unleashed his ability. Every supe I've ever seen is monstrous in some way or another, and our kid is apparently pretty high up in the power pyramid," the first marine continued.

"I'm pretty sure there's scarier people than doughboy in the navy. A buddy of mine saw one on a reaper team attached to TF Trappist and... he went white just thinking about it. Apparently the guy can just decide things aren't allowed to exist anymore and reality does what he says. Our pet supe is downright tame in comparison, like one of those yappy little piss machines that old ladies carry around in their purses. And the guy on the Trappist is a giant hunting mastiff with anger issues." The marine shuddered as goosebumps popped up all over his body. He was equal parts envious and terrified; he envied the awakeners their powers, but was terrified that they had them.

Especially since they were all so young. He remembered the dumb shit he had done when he was younger, before he'd joined ARES, and couldn't help but think how much more dangerous a rebellious teenager would be when they could just... wink things out of existence.

The two marines continued their discussion as they lifted, carried, and—gently—put things in various piles to make it easier for the swarms the constructor queens were building to assemble into a base like a giant 3D puzzle. It was tiring and back-breaking work, but their HUDs made it easy, as all they had to do was line their loads up with the silhouettes in their field of view, and once the shape turned from yellow (or whatever other color they had chosen when customizing their displays to fit them) to white.

The cycle of lift-carry-drop-repeat continued as the marines, who felt safe thanks to their "archangel" on overwatch from ten kilometers above them, proceeded from here to there in the clearing, handling the initial grunt work of construction with relative ease.

...

Twenty-four hours later, the initial phase of construction was complete. Each of the constructor swarm queens had assembled their entire swarms and had gotten to work, building what looked very much like an opaque mayonnaise jar on stilts in the very center of the clearing. The "stilts" were deceptively small and were actually each about a meter across; they only looked small because the "mayonnaise jar" they were supporting was so big.

The order came down to evacuate the clearing and take a quick jaunt back up to low orbit, as the fusion reactor the swarms had built was about to come online. And since it was the first time that a reactor had been assembled from parts, rather than printed, nobody knew if it would peacefully generate electricity or go supercritical and turn into a second, brighter star that was much, much closer to Proxima Centauri b's surface.

But it turned out they had been worried for nothing as the reactor came up to temp, ignited, and settled into producing a steady stream of power that ran through cables strung inside the stilts that supported the reactor and held it above the ground. Those cables split, some of them going to converters that converted the output from electricity to unaspected mana, and others passing through step-down transformers that lowered the voltage to something that regular hardware could handle.

The marines returned to the surface, where they continued hauling cargo around for the constructor swarms to assemble, and soon, the research base had taken shape. Surrounded by a spherical mana shield, the base's completion marked the moment that research could begin at full speed, instead of the fits and starts it'd been proceeding at while the researchers had been stuck in orbit.

Chapter 615

A month later.

Proxima Centauri b was a hub of activity. The initial construction phase of the exploration base had been completed, but the building continued, though the base was already home to a hundred-odd researchers and two reinforced companies of marines. There was also a constant flow of technicians directing the ongoing construction.

But just because the construction was still ongoing, that didn't mean the base wasn't operational. It was, actually, though just at a minimum level; the ongoing expansion was more for creature comforts and wants, rather than needs. Everything the researchers needed was there, it was only luxuries that were missing.

Well, most of the scientists considered their labs to be rather luxurious. After all, up until a few years ago, they were relying on prying research grants out of donors and benefactors of all sorts, and those grants practically never covered all of the equipment and other assorted materials required to "properly" carry out their experiments.

Thus, things like comfortable beds, appealing housing, and so on were what they were doing without. It was an odd reversal of expectations for the teams assigned to the semi-operational research base; they were living like peasants but their workspaces were outfitted such that they could only be compared to an emperor's court.

Tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of END had been spent on research equipment, while the researchers themselves were bleary-eyed and could only catch naps by hot bunking on cots that had been stuffed everywhere. They could only consider themselves lucky if an empty cot tucked away in a maintenance closet somewhere just happened to come open as they were stumbling off to catch a few minutes of rest while waiting for their hardware to run tests on samples that were coming in like floodwaters.

They understood their situation very well. They were on a planet where the only known advanced multi-cellular life form was demonstrably hostile to them and occupied almost 90% of the planet itself. And until the protostellar forges were complete and they could build modular housing units for them to live in, they would just have to put up with the terrible conditions they were limited to and pray that Murphy didn't come to make a housecall, as he often did.

…

Inside the main building, a group of researchers were huddled around a screen that was displaying the results of their most recent experiment.

"These bacteria are a gold mine. The xenobiologists back home will go bonkers when we get back with the samples and research results," one of them said with a low whistle as he stared at the data displayed on the screen.

It was common knowledge back on Earth that there were trillions of microbial species on the planet, with more than 99.999% of them having gone undiscovered. That had been changing with the opening of Research City, though, and new single-cellular life forms had been being added to the Akashic Record on a nearly daily basis since then. So the percentage of undiscovered species had been rapidly falling, primarily thanks to the injection of imperial technology and standards in research equipment and education, respectively.

Microbiologists had been multiplying almost as fast as the species they studied, now that they had access to all the equipment they needed—regardless of how expensive it may be—along with unlimited access to samples, materials, and so on. Virtual labs had been proving the concept of the empire's stance on the technology, and very few people were still grumbling about it.

But the problem on Proxima Centauri was a lack of resources. Specifically, human resources. There simply weren't enough xenobiologists in the entire task force to handle the sheer number of discovered microbes, accurate virtual recreations or otherwise. There were perhaps one or two thousand xenobiologists in the fleet, but they had already discovered millions of different species.

"Let's log the results and move on. We're already behind, and have to work faster if we don't want to be called up to the brass to explain why we're lagging," the team lead ordered. Leading research teams was as difficult as herding cats to begin with, but leading research teams that were focused on actual alien life forms was somehow even more impossible than that!

A susurration of disappointed sighs and whispered complaints followed the order, but the researchers dutifully logged the results into their local copy of the Akashic Record and put the samples into tagged stasis chambers, where they would remain until the task force returned to the Sol system.

But their job on the ground was limited. They were there specifically and solely to collect samples, scan them into the Akashic Record, and note anything obvious that jumped out at them. Other researchers would be assigned the studies once the initial sorting had been done. That said, if pressed, the scientists in Research Base New New South Wales would grudgingly admit that they didn't envy the decisions that Dr. Standing Bear would have to make when doling out the most promising research to various teams in the task force.

(Ed note: "New New South Wales" isn't an error. One of the states in Australia is New South Wales, and we thought it would be amusing, or at least *I* thought it would be amusing, to use NSW as the name of the research base on New Australia by tacking on an extra New to the beginning.)

It had to be said that, in comparison to the wealth of information about Earth, the overall number of discoveries being made on Proxima Centauri b wasn't even a drop in the bucket by comparison. However, humanity had been learning about their home planet for millennia, so the process was far more gradual than the research taking place in the Proxima Centauri system.

Add to that the advanced technologies in play in the labs of Research Base New New South Wales and the highly motivated and extremely well-educated researchers of Task Force Proxima and it was understandable that discoveries were coming in faster and in higher numbers than the relatively low number of researchers were capable of handling.

Research in the Terran Empire was a far different beast than it had been through much of the rest of human history; it was a perfect storm of education, equipment, resources, and motivation. But that said, it was considered a good problem to have. After all, the samples and data wouldn't be going anywhere and there was no real rush to dig in and begin deep dives on any of the material that was being generated by the alien planet.

Thus, the same thing was taking place in labs devoted to all of the research specialties in Task Force Proxima, or at least those that housed teams on the surface. They were all there to collect, log, and tag samples, and every single man and woman in those brain trusts were falling behind thanks to the wealth of information being discovered.

Names would soon begin being etched into history books, but it wouldn't be any of theirs. Theirs was the effort, while others would claim the glory in the end.

Chapter 616

TES Farsight, geosynchronous orbit over Research Base New New South Wales.

A detachment of two corvettes, a destroyer, a heavy cruiser, and a drone tender that Fleet Admiral Bianchi had ordered to take up escort duties for the Farsight had finally arrived and slotted themselves around the exploration cruiser like a protective shield. Except this particular shield had teeth, and knew how to use them; their job was to provide overwatch with constant flights of drones, and orbital strikes from the cruiser and destroyer, if necessary. The corvettes would be on constant patrol of the shoreline of New Australia, ready to report any activity on the part of the being, or beings, that inhabited the ocean floor.

Terran spaceships had excellent sensor suites in general, but as corvettes were meant for pickets and patrols by their very design, they had completely outsized sensor suites for ships of their size. In fact, the only ships with better sensors were the cityships, as they had the room to pack in literally thousands of sensors, redundant sensors, and dedicated reactors to power them all.

"Well, that's new," Ensign Bret Farnsworth reported from the bridge of the TFS Revanche, one of the two corvettes currently patrolling the shore of New Australia from above the Karman Line. One of his LiDAR arrays had picked up a weather system headed inland that would pass by Research Base New New South Wales at "danger close" range. It was the first weather the task force had seen that generated clouds since their arrival.

Indeed, the skies of Proxima Centauri b had been unnaturally empty since the task force had arrived outside the system and begun their scans. Thus, the Revanche's AI had bumped that particular sensor array up in priority and notified the sensor officer on duty on the bridge.

"Forward the report to the Farsight, Ensign," Lieutenant Kim Willis ordered, then added, "and page the captain to the bridge." She was currently on her watch while the "captain"—Lieutenant Commander Yvgeny Kuznetsov—remained in his ready room handling the neverending administrative tasks that any ship's commanding officer had to deal with.

If the ship's AI had bumped something innocuous like a weather report so high up the priority response queue that it ended up on a station on the bridge, it merited the captain's attention.

Not even a minute later, Captain Kuznetsov entered the bridge in his immaculate shipsuit, just in time for a holographic image of Captain Marinakis to appear on the bridge.

"Status update, Captain Kuznetsov," Captain Marinakis brusquely "requested".

"Sensors, status?" Yvgeny echoed.

"Sir, we've picked up an anomalous weather system headed inland from the eastern coast of New Australia. Tracking has it passing danger close to Research Base New New South Wales and the AI bumped it up the priority response queue," Ensign Farnsworth reported.

"How close is 'danger close', Ensign?" Captain Marinakis asked.

"Five to seven kilometers away from the outer defensive perimeter, Sir.

"How severe is the system? Will we have to halt ground ops?"

"The AI says it'll be the mother of all supercells, Sir. An estimated 15 centimeters of rain will hit the research base, and the storm will last from five to twenty-four E-hours. Chance of lightning is high as well—sensors report a charge differential already building even as far out as the storm is from land.

"But as for damage to the research base, we expect that to be minimal. The shields can take lightning strikes no problem, they were built to withstand much more than the five or so gigajoules we're currently reading in the strikes over the ocean. There's no telling if that'll remain constant once the supercell makes landfall though, Sir... if it does without veering off. Storm tracking is still an inexact science no matter how advanced the tools we use to track them are.

"And adding mana to the mix, well... there's just no way of knowing what'll happen later. If the storm continues its current course and at its current intensity, it won't even tickle the rovers, Sir, much less the shielding around the base. But our confidence level at this point is only 55% based on the information we currently have."

Captain Marinakis fell into deep thought for a minute. A supercell storm wouldn't really impact things too heavily in and of itself; the research base and all of the hardware on Proxima Centauri b had been designed to withstand much more damaging things than a little wind, rain, and lightning. However, Ensign Farnsworth had raised a very valid point: nobody knew just how the planet's mana would affect the storm once it made landfall.

He weighed the merits of caution against the benefits of forging forward anyway and decided that caution would be the better part of valor in this instance. It was a decision that was very much in keeping with The Book, too.

"Cancel all ongoing missions," he ordered. "Recall the unmanned rovers and aerial drones, and order all base personnel to shelter in their assigned areas. The recall will be complete and last until further notice.

"Engineering personnel are to focus on weatherproofing the base and doing proper shutdown procedures on any equipment or unfinished building projects that haven't been designed with tolerances for a storm of this magnitude.

"All personnel are to assist in battening down the hatches. The shield was never designed with weather in mind, so the wind and rain will penetrate it unless you fancy suffocating to death inside it."

He then turned to Ensign Farnsworth and asked, "How long until the storm front makes landfall?"

"Anywhere from seven to ten hours from now, Captain," the Ensign reported. "Our meteorologists are tracking it via doppler and will continue updating the estimate as they narrow it down."

"Very well, Ensign," the captain said with a nod and made a mental note to put a commendation in the young sensor officer's personnel file.

"Well, everyone, you have your orders, so move out and execute them. Marinakis clear."

"Aye aye... cap... tain," the bridge crew began in unison but then fell into staggered silence like an interrupted orchestra as they realized the captain's hologram had already vanished and the comms channel was closed.

Chapter 617

Conference room, Research Base New New South Wales' main operations tower.

Commander Takahashi and Major Petrovich were seated along one side of a long conference table that ran down the center of a fairly large, though still barebones, room. At the head of the conference table were the holographic projections of Fleet Admiral Bianchi of the TFS Proxima and Captain Marinakis of the TES Farsight. Across from the commander and major were Dr. Standing Bear, head of research for Task Force Proxima; Lieutenant Commander Kuznetsov, captain of the TFS Revanche; and a representative of the meteorologists who had been assigned to the task force.

"Good afternoon, Commander Takahashi," Captain Marinakis said. "I wish I had better news for you, but you've got a potential disaster coming up on you in a few hours. It seems that a supercell formed off the coast of New Australia and is headed your way. Estimates currently have the center of the storm passing a few kilometers off of your..."

He continued briefing Ayaka until she had been caught up to speed on the current situation on the ground, then finished by asking, "Any questions?"

"No, Sir," she replied with a faint smile. "I'll recall everyone that's out there and sit tight here in the base."

"Good. Thanks Ayaka—we can't predict anything about this..." he sighed and raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "This mage storm. Sounds like something an eighth grader would come up with, but," he gestured to the meteorology representative at the table, "it's what meteorology decided to call it. And they're the ones with naming rights."

The meteorologist froze, as if he didn't know whether to be offended or laugh along with the joke.

"I understand, Sir. Not everything can be New Whatever," Ayaka said with a grin. Captain Marinakis could refer to everyone in his crew by their given names, if he chose, but as one of his subordinates, she certainly couldn't call him by his... publicly, at least. Grinning was about all the informality she could get away with under the eyes of the strict head of the entire task force.

"You have your orders, Commander," the fleet admiral interjected. "Best go carry them out before it's too late."

"Aye aye, Admiral. I'll ensure we remain in contact with the fleet as best we can, Sir."

"See that you do, Commander. Bianchi clear." His hologram disappeared from the room; as the task force commander, it was a surprise he had even attended the briefing to begin with. He was a busy person and had to handle the tasks that kept the full million people in his fleet operating at their peak efficiency.

The rest of the holograms also flickered out one by one, leaving only the commander and the marine captain in the room.

"I'll send my people out with orders to sit on the nerd herd if need be, Ma'am," Captain Petrovich said. "Wrestling bears would probably be easier, I think. My nana used to do that, and if she could do it, I certainly could."

"I've seen pictures of your grandmother, captain. I think you'll likely find that you'd rather wrestle bears," Ayaka joked.

"You're probably right. My nana was a strong woman." Captain Petrovich stood and offered her a salute. "I'd best be about it Ma'am. By your leave?"

"Granted, Viktor. Good luck," she said, returning the salute.

...

Ayaka was in the command center, tracking the progress of the general recall, when OC Parker of the disastrous first landing fame burst into the door. He stumbled over an errant cable on the ground and nearly fell, but was caught by one of the marines guarding the door and saved from another rather inelegant landing.

"Ma'am! Commander Takahashi! W-w-we have a problem, Ma'am!" he stuttered. Trying to speak, stand steadily, and salute all at the same time was obviously an issue for him.

"What's the problem?"

"There's a manned crew out there with a downchecked rover. They won't be able to make it back to base before the storm hits them, ma'am," Parker said.

"Oh?" Ayaka stood and sent a comms request to the Terrible Teenager. It was time for him to finally pull his quite substantial weight on their shared mission.

...

"Is... is this the end? Am I really going to die here?"

Lee Joon-ho was lying on the ground, broken, bloody, and battered. The visor on his helmet was cracked and an alarm was stridently sounding inside his helmet, warning him of the loss of suit integrity. Twenty-two seconds before, he had been rushing to the site of a busted rover full of scientists to save them. Then... there was no then. He was swatted to the ground by something that he imagined the fist of god would feel like, or what windshields felt like to bugs at freeway speeds. The only reason he knew it had been 22 seconds ago was because his environmental suit's internal clock was still peacefully ticking away in his HUD.

"Shut up shut up shut up shutup shutup shutup shutupshutupshutup shut the FUCK UP!" he shrilled at the alarm, completely forgetting that it would be simple for him to disable it. It didn't matter anyway; there was nothing he could do about his ruined suit. In addition to the cracked visor, the rest of the suit was ripped and torn with gigantic rents in it going every which way.

The empire's environmental suits were durable and rugged, with hard armor plating embedded anywhere that wasn't expected to have to move. They also included a certain amount of self-repair capability and, no matter how damaged, they could restore themselves in a matter of half an hour to an hour... assuming, that is, that the wearer could get away from whatever was damaging the suit in the first place.

But that was something that Joon-ho most definitely couldn't do at that precise moment in time.

The lower half of his body had been "eaten" by a tree, which had sprung up between his legs after he'd been forcefully slammed to the ground. As for the rest of him, well, the rest of him wasn't doing any better. Small, questing roots had covered his upper body like a pulsing network of blood vessels, immobilizing him and leaving him unable to do anything but take shallow breaths. And the cocoonment continued apace; it wouldn't be much longer before the roots reached his helmet and interred him on this alien planet.

At least he had proven that the atmosphere was technically breathable.

The twisting and writhing roots finally found his helmet and drilled through it, then into his ears, nose, and eyes. His tongue fought them for a second or two before his mouth, too, was filled with roots. He whimpered as loud as he could in agony, hoping beyond hope that someone—anyone—would swoop to his rescue, but it was all for naught.

Then the pain began.

Joon-ho's life flashed before his eyes and, amidst his muffled screaming, he recalled all of his most cherished experiences. His mother, whom he believed to be a saintess, sacrificing her meals to ensure he was fed... His first time eating a proper meal, and the pride in his father's eyes when he was selected to join one of the exploration fleets. He remembered all of his waifus, the long nights spent binge-watching anime, and the "love" he felt for his leader and partner on this exploration fleet mission, Commander Takahashi Ayaka.

All of it flashed through his mind and he wondered, 'Is this it? Is this what they mean when they say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die?'.

His eyes, or what was left of them, began glowing a silvery-gray as he came to a decision. If he was going to die, he absolutely refused to die alone.

Chapter 618

(Ed note: Red Rover is a playground game that Gen X kids used to play. It isn't played now, because, like most Gen X games, it was incredibly violent and kids would sometimes get serious injuries (like concussions, teeth being knocked out, the occasional broken bone, and bloody abrasions) and nowadays people prefer their children to come home from school uninjured. More info here: https/en./wiki/Red_Rover )

An hour ago.

A team of seismologists had taken a rover filled with measuring equipment to install on what they believed was a fault line just off the coast of New Australia. It was considered research-worthy, as they had never seen a fault line run perpendicular from ocean to land before. Parallel, sure; there were plenty of fault lines on Earth that came within proverbial spitting distance of coastlines. The San Andreas fault in California, the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the American Pacific Northwest and Canada, and the Alpide Belt in the Mediterranean region, among others, sometimes reached within a kilometer of various coastlines.

But this new discovery had them as excited as, well... as seismologists ever got, really. They were a dour, stone-faced lot in general and tended to be on the serious end of the scale. It wasn't surprising, considering the gravity of their area of study and how oh so very deadly earthquakes could be, and generally were.

Just as they were about to reach their destination, the order calling them back to home base had come in. So they dutifully packed up the crates they had just been about to unload, got back in their rover, and started the engine. Or tried to, at least, as it simply refused to start.

Dr. Paul Hodgins, the lead researcher, fancied himself something of a mechanic, so he and one of the two marines attached to the mission as escorts got out of the rover, despite the pouring rain and constant lightning strikes, and opened the engine compartment.

"Jim, you're never gonna believe this," he radioed to his friend and coworker in the rover.

"Never gonna believe what, Paul?"

"There's some kind of... it looks like roots, maybe? Anyway, it's all tangled up in the engine. Gonna take a while to get it sorted out and I don't think we have enough time before the storm hits."

"Have you called it in?" Jim asked.

"I might just have to. Why don't you take a look and let me know what you think?" Dr. Hodgins threw a short video file to him.

Jim watched all fifteen seconds of the clip and noticed something that didn't bode well for their research team. "Paul, I... I can see it growing. I don't think that's just something we accidentally picked up on the way out here. I think it grew up into the engine compartment while we were unloading the rover. You'd better get back in here and call it in."

"Agreed, I'm on my waaaaAAAAAYYYYAAAARRGH!"

"Paul? PAUL!?" Jim shouted over the open communicator, but was only met with silence. "Corporal Klinger? Anyone?" The ominous silence continued for what felt like an eternity before the marine that had gone out with Dr. Hodgins broke into the channel amidst the crackling, hissing, and popping of a damaged communicator or bad connection.

"IT'S GOT MY LE—AAAAAARRRGH! OH GOD! HELP! GET IT—" The marine's screaming broke down into incoherency and continued for a few seconds, then he, too, went ominously silent.

The four scientists in the rover looked at each other, then Paul ventured, "I'm calling it in to base. Any of you volunteer to go check on Jim?"

The other three scientists shook their heads and cast wary gazes at the cab of the rover, as if they expected whatever had "gotten" the head of their team to leap into the vehicle and come after them.

Paul turned to the remaining marine that had been assigned to escort them. "How about you?"

"Let's see what the external pickups have for us first. I can't leave you completely unescorted, it's against SOP," the corporal replied.

The five remaining members of the mission turned to the monitor on the divider that separated the drivers' compartment from the cargo compartment and it flickered to life. The flickering was a bad sign; imperial technology did NOT flicker. At least, not under normal circumstances anyway.

A grainy image appeared on the screen as the camera mounted to the roof of the driver's compartment panned back and forth. Everything appeared normal, though the image was distorted and blurry.

"Is there something wrong with the camera pickup?" one of the scientists asked. "It almost seems like the ground is... moving. Computer, run diagnostics on camera three."

{Acknowledged. Diagnostic program in progress...} the VI installed in the rover replied. {Diagnostic scan complete. No errors reported.}

"So is the ground actually moving? Perhaps it's an artifact caused by the ionization in the atmosphere because of the thunderstorm."

{Unknown.}

"Let's try another camera and see," the second scientist suggested.

The view switched to a camera pickup located over the side of the cargo compartment, but it was the same grainy, blurry image and the ground still appeared to be moving.

"Maybe the thunderstorm caused some symbiotic organism to come up to the surface? That patch of ground almost looks like the top of the tubs of earthworms I buy when I go fishing," the third scientist said. "Let's see what's on the other side."

The view changed to the camera on the opposite side of the rover, and off in the distance, it looked like a solid wall of black had risen up from the ocean that was just a couple hundred meters away from where they were.

"Uh... I don't think that's the sky," someone murmured, almost whimpering.

"It isn't a tidal wave, either," the marine interjected.

"So what is it?"

Lightning struck the ground only a few hundred meters from the rover and the echoing boom of thunder was loud enough to rattle the three-ton vehicle like a paint can in a mixer as what appeared to be a solid wall of giant roots crashed down on the doomed rover and buried it beneath them.

Chapter 619

Research Base New New South Wales.

The storm front had already reached the base and, as they had been worried about, the mana-infused raindrops sheeting down were having a rather negative effect on the shield. It was draining the shield capacitors nearly as fast as the reactor could charge them. But that much, they could handle.

Then the lightning began striking and the fusion reactor could no longer keep up with the draining capacitor banks. And to make things worse, there was no way of increasing the output of the reactor any more than what it already was; in fact, it had already been increased to 110% of its max-rated output, and after the storm passed, they would need to tear it down and completely rebuild it.

But even that much wouldn't be an issue. The reactor could be run at the red line for thirty-six hours before they began running the risk of a containment breach. The biggest problem they were facing was one they hadn't anticipated at all: mana.

As the water built up on the ground, forming a complex network of rivulets and puddles, the lightning strikes "overcharged" it with mana, each bolt that struck the ground sending out shockwaves like ripples in space. And those shockwaves had effectively blinded the Henry's Eyes sensors in the base, as well as those in the satellite network and ships overhead. freeweɓnovel.cøm

The Proxima herself could potentially push enough power through theirs that they would be able to function through the masking effect of the storm front's mana surges, but by the time she could arrive at Proxima Centauri b, the storm would long have passed by the research base.

Thus, Admiral Bianchi, acting with an overabundance of caution, had ordered the Farsight and her escort ships to begin a full-scale evacuation of Research Base New New South Wales and a steady stream of landers was flowing to and fro, ferrying passengers from the surface to the ships in orbit above the base.

Here and there on the ground, marines could be seen with lab-coated researchers thrown over their shoulders and being carried like wailing sacks of potatoes. In the marines' minds, any researcher who wasn't willing to abandon their work to save their lives wasn't worth being handled with kid gloves, so some of them were even going so far as to bodily throw them into the landers, both with and without someone in the loading hatch prepared to catch them.

Injuries, after all, could be cured in a matter of minutes or hours in a medical pod. Lightning stricken bits of vaguely human-shaped charcoal, on the other hand, could not.

The only place that was still a reasonably calm island of efficiency was the main monitoring room in the central tower of the base. Ayaka was inside with Captain Petrovich and a few other technicians that would be in the last evacuation group. They were coordinating and directing the hundreds of landers coming down, acting as air traffic control to prevent collisions and keep things moving.

Sure, the base's AI could technically do that, but it was in power-saving mode and most of its remaining processing power was being taken up by running backups on all of the information in the local copy of the Akashic Record. Thus, nobody really trusted it to handle critical tasks like ensuring a smooth emergency evacuation.

The small rivulets of water ran into each other, forming streams. The streams gathered until they became rivers, and puddles expanded into broad, shallow lakes. Soon, the landers could no longer reach the ground and the evacuating people were directed to the rooftops of their buildings to meet their assigned landers. Over time, the water rose until each building of the research base looked like an island rising from the water, and the sealed passages were completely under it like submerged sandbars, directing the flow of water from high to low and out toward the shore, where it would eventually meet the ocean.

Not much longer after that, a lander was headed to pick up its assigned evacuation group when an alarm blared in the cockpit informing the pilot of an incoming object that had been picked up on radar. And soon, more information came from the TFS Khopesh, the drone tender that the lander was from.

"Warrant Choudhury, we're picking up some movement on the drones monitoring the coast. Their ground-penetrating radar pinged on many moving objects. Looks like the roots are coming for the base. We don't know exactly how they're doing it yet, but you've got about 37 seconds before they intercept your flight path. Divert on new heading, I'm throwing it to you now."

"Copy that, Khopesh control. Heading received and correcting course in three... two... one... mark," Chief Warrant Officer Choudhury replied.

"Warrant Choudhury, godspeed. You'll probably be dodging roots coming back up, we estimate they'll reach the outer shield perimeter within the next fifteen minutes. So get down, get loaded, and get gone. Khopesh control out."

The same notification had obviously reached the control center at Research Base New New South Wales as the base AI halted the backup procedure and assumed direct control of the environment suits those waiting for evacuation were wearing. It was an odd feeling to the scientists, having their body moved like a marionette by an invisible puppeteer as they rushed to the nearest windows and leapt out.

Screams of fright resounded amidst the background noise of explosive bolts blowing out window frames all over the base as researcher after researcher defenestrated themselves, spending a stomach-lurching moment in freefall before their suits' jump jets took over and sent them rocketing into the atmosphere at a barely survivable thirty gees of acceleration.

In a stunning display of aerial coordination, choreography, and aerobatics, cluster after cluster of suits formed in staggered formation. They only waited in place for a few seconds, though, as landers came screaming through the atmosphere toward each group, slewing sideways at the last moment to scoop them into the transport bays in catch maneuvers that would have made the pilots' instructors proud.

One by one, groups were loaded into landers, which then immediately shot toward orbit in random, jerky corkscrews that would minimize the risk of being hit by the roots that were already rising from the floodwaters to introduce themselves to the fleeing small craft in a most violent, brutal fashion.

Ayaka was the last person to be scooped into a lander and she had the niggling sensation in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something. Something important. She thought about it for a moment, bracing herself against the crash harness of her acceleration seat, then gasped.

She frantically toggled her comms channel open and attempted to connect to Lee Joon-ho, but there was no response.

"Yui, check the last known of Warrant Officer Lee Joon-ho," she ordered her personal AI assistant.

{Last known position of Warrant Officer Lee Joon-ho is here, Commander.}

A topographical map of the area was projected in Ayaka's vision, on which were two labels. One for the rover that had broken down earlier, and another where the Terrible Teenager had been struggling just moments before.

And neither of the labeled dots were moving.

"Check biometrics on Warrant Officer Lee, Yui," Ayaka ordered.

{Yes, Commander. Checking... No biometric data stream found. Searching for backup... No backup biometric data stream found. Checking for suit data recorder signal... No suit data recorder signal found. Checking for backup...} The checks continued as Yui read them in her calm soprano voice, each failed check hitting Ayaka with an almost physical impact that she felt in her gut.

{File found, Commander. Fragmented data stream available. Recompile and display?} Yui asked.

Ayaka's heart rose into her throat and her jaw worked soundlessly for a moment before she could utter a hoarse command to play the video. It loaded shortly after and her gorge completely rose as she watched a giant root come whipping toward Joon-ho from his suit's perspective.

"Joon-ho..." she whispered as the video abruptly cut off.

{Playback complete, Commander,} Yui announced.

Chapter 620

Moments before Lee Joon-ho had been attacked, he was enjoying the feeling of unfettered flight kilometers above the surface of Proxima Centauri b. He had done it before, of course—at least in the simulation and on Earth—but there was something different, something special about doing it on an honest-to-god alien planet. And having been stuck in the research base without being able to fly on his own had been like sandpaper rubbing against his desire to exercise his superpower.

Before he'd been blessed by mana, he had been lost. As restrictive as the Kim regime had been, at least he knew he had a place. He was a cog. A small cog, but a cog nonetheless, and cogs ALWAYS fit somewhere. But then China stuck its fingers in the North Korean pie and triggered an attack on South Korea, the retaliation for which had completely wiped out the dictatorship that ruled the northern half of the divided country.

And his place had been wiped out with it.

So he lost himself. He lost himself in food, in luxury, in fantasies. His new "place" was the tiny bedroom in the tiny house, because tiny was comfortable. Tiny was safe. Tiny was all that he had ever known, ever been.

But then he became oh so very much more. He discovered a new place, a new role, and he became a slightly bigger cog in a much, much larger machine. A machine that he actually liked being a part of. A machine that allowed him the freedom to fly with the wings that fate had given him.

So he hadn't been too upset when his mother had signed him up for the Imperial Hero Academy. Sure, he had made a scene and pitched a fit, but deep down, he was thrilled. Why? Because the academy would let him be a Hero, with a capital H. And that stoked a desire that he had never known was inside him.

When Ayaka had ordered him out on a high-priority rescue mission, he felt a thrill that tickled him somewhere deep inside, in his most primal nature. He had never before been "in charge" of anything; even the rank he held in the fleet was merely a courtesy and had no actual privileges of command or responsibilities. It was just the spot in the imperial machine that a Joon-ho–shaped cog happened to fit, is all. No more and no less.

But now he had an actual responsibility, and found something deep inside that responded to that. He was responsible for five scientists and two marines, and held their very lives in his hands. If he failed in his mission, they would be lost, or so he believed anyway. It wasn't known what Ayaka thought would happen to them if he failed, but that didn't matter to the eighteen-year-old awakener. All that mattered to him was that he had just been given an opportunity to fulfill his recently discovered drive for heroism.

The truth, though, was that he would never in a million years have been allowed to go on his own, had anyone thought there was even an iota of risk to him. He was the sole awakener on the Farsight's crew, and the only one cleared for ground operations in the entirety of Task Force Proxima. So he was a precious resource to the fleet and would not, under any but the most dire of circumstances, be allowed to risk himself.

And because of that misunderstanding, he'd not only been put at risk, but had been thrust into a life-threatening situation.

...

A whimpering cry escaped Joon-ho's lips as rage boiled over within him. He wanted to roar, he wanted to shout, he wanted to scream his defiance and spit in the eye of whatever... thing... was on the other end of the roots holding him down. He refused—absolutely REFUSED—to go down without a fight!

The silvery-gray glow in his eyes brightened as mana coursed through his body and a wave of sheer force blasted out of him, tearing the roots around him to shreds, along with the tattered remnant of his environment suit and the uniform he wore beneath it. He rolled over, stifling a moan of agony that momentarily penetrated the rage driving him as he used his less-injured arm to force himself to his hands and knees.

His head held low, he panted as an enormous flood of mana wrapped around him, responding to the primal thought that he must stand. He must face his death on his feet, as a man, not as a coward on his knees. Exhaustion didn't matter. Fatigue didn't matter. Pain didn't matter. All that mattered was his pride as a man and his will to push on in the face of a world that had declared itself his enemy.

He rose to a standing position, his feet drifting inches off the ground as his mangled legs were incapable of supporting his weight. In his mind, he issued a hearty "fuck you" to the laws of physics as he recalled his training back at the hero academy.

Looking off into the distance, he saw the massive roots that had flattened the rover he'd been sent to rescue and all conscious thought left him. His animalistic instincts took over and he raised his good arm, pointing his palm toward the base of the roots rising from the flood water a hundred or so meters away from him.

"Die!" he snarled, then put everything he had left into a single focused area of gravity that swept out in a beam, ripping, tearing, and shredding the roots apart from their very tips down to the ground beneath the water.

If he'd had anything left in him, it fled at that moment and he collapsed bonelessly to the ground, his eyes fluttering as he drifted in and out of consciousness beneath the pouring rain and rumbling thunder.

He felt himself lifted from the ground and enveloped in a warmth and, in his delirium, saw Ayaka leaning over him. "You shouldn't have come," he slurred. "You're in danger. Leave here!"

He mustered up the last dregs of his mana and threw "Ayaka" from him, only for her to be replaced by what looked like a hybrid of Hatsune Miku and Deedlit, from Record of Lodoss War. 'Am I... dead?' he thought as he finally lost the battle to remain awake.

A new, and much smaller, root quested its way to him and wrapped around him. It was soon followed by another, then another, and still more until the only thing remaining was a writhing pile of worm-like root tips floating on the rapidly rising flood that was accompanying the incoming storm.

Chapter 621

"Divert the lander and pick him up," Ayaka ordered moments after watching the recovered video.

"Apologies, Commander. Orders from the fleet are that we're to immediately proceed to rendezvous with the Khopesh. They're non-discretionary, I'm afraid," the lander pilot replied.

The lander continued rocketing straight up with over 20 subjective gravities of acceleration pushing its passengers into their acceleration seats and crash harnesses. The pilot would have gone faster, but his passengers were no ARES troopers or fleet sailors that had been trained to tolerate that kind of force; they were scientists, and scientists were by and large a sedentary lot.

Lasers from the Khopesh's drones began firing, the ionization in the air from the storm making them visible as flashes of dim blue beams as they burned through root after root. The empire's drones were designed to increase the strategic missile defense depth of the TSF, so handling relatively slow-moving roots was an easy task that could be left to their onboard VIs without worry.

Missiles in space battles would be traveling at a rate higher than .8c by the time they reached an intercept envelope, which was far too fast for any human to respond to, but the roots were only moving around a few hundred meters per second. Even if the VIs were completely incapable, or even entirely nonexistent, human drone pilots would still have been able to protect the landers.

Ayaka knew that, so she frowned and said, "The drones are perfectly capable of keeping us protected, Warrant. But Warrant Lee doesn't even have those, and he needs rescue—"

"Sorry ma'am, the orders are nondiscretionary. And they came down from the admiral's staff. No way in hell—" the pilot twisted the lander around in a wild corkscrew to dodge lightning bolts, lasers, and roots, "—am I violating them for an EF Commander. I get it, I really do. I'm sorry you lost your... whatever, but this train we're on isn't stopping 'til it reaches the station. Ma'am."

Ayaka looked back at the map display, where Joon-ho's name was labeled alongside the seven other people he had been sent to save. All eight of the names were flashing yellow, showing that their connections had been lost. But at least that "connection lost" status gave her enough hope to go on; far more so than the solid red of "confirmed dead" did, anyway.

She decided to raise the issue with Captain Marinakis. He was an old friend of Admiral Bianchi's, and perhaps he could get the task force's leader to agree to divert a lander for a rescue mission. She knew, though, that it would be putting everyone in the lander in severe danger, but she could do no less than try. After all, she'd been the one that had ordered Joon-ho to go on the rescue mission, so hers was the responsibility for that task's failure. She was also the one responsible for letting him go alone, without any form of backup or escort.

Her intentions had been good. She could have diverted a drone from the Khopesh to rescue the scientists, but the opportunity to get the Terrible Teenager off his ass and contributing to the mission had proven impossible to pass up. And she knew, at least on a conscious level, that there had been zero indication that there was any danger at all. It was just a broken-down rover filled with scientists running one of thousands of experiments on the surface. It was supposed to have been a milk run, without any more danger than one would encounter while heading to the neighborhood bodega to pick up milk.

But as Ayaka was now discovering, guilt didn't take rationality into account. Her order had thrown one of her subordinates into life-threatening danger, and she couldn't possibly forget that. Nor could she forgive herself; at least not so soon, anyway.

"I'll come for you soon, so you'd damn well better survive. If you die, I'll kill you," she muttered under her breath, planning on how to make a rescue mission happen amidst the chaos of evacuations going on around her. Joon-ho would be returned to her alive, or she would see his corpse buried with who, or whatever had killed him.

The moment the lander settled onto its skids and opened its hatch in the boat bay of the Khopesh, Ayaka stormed down the ramp and headed toward a transport that would take her to the bridge of the enormous drone tender.

She had devised a rescue plan that would, she hoped, satisfy all parties involved without the risk of harm to any human life and was determined to have it carried out, come hell or... well, high water had already come. Now all that remained was to compose herself; she had been raised well enough that she knew anxiety or anger would only hurt the chances of her plan being accepted.

...

On the bridge of the TFS Khopesh.

The low buzz of people hard at work filled the air, alongside the almost physical sensation of tension. As a drone tender, each wing of drones was commanded from the bridge, while the pilots of those drones were in VR pods in giant, cavernous bays deep in the guts of the massive vessel. Thus, compared to most imperial ships, drone tenders had a higher number of active personnel on the bridge.

Which meant that Ayaka had a much larger audience when she glided into the compartment and saluted the captain.

"Captain Chang, a word, please?" she asked, still holding the salute.

"In my ready room, Commander," the captain replied, then turned to his communications officer. "Lieutenant Commander Sanders, you have the bridge."

Then he stood and gestured toward his ready room, but Ayaka was already on the move. Perhaps her anxiety was showing through more than she would have liked.

When they reached the ready room, Captain Chang sat behind his desk and preempted the conversation. "I know what you have in mind, Commander, and I agree. As soon as the evacuation is complete, I'll send a flight of drones to rescue your awakener."

Ayaka was taken aback; she had expected she would need to fight for the rescue mission to take place. "Thank you, Sir," she finally said.

"But it'll have to wait until after the evacuation is complete and the last lander—"

"Begging your pardon, Sir," she interrupted. "But it's imperative that we send the mission out now. The longer we wait..." she trailed off, unable to finish the thought. At least not out loud, anyway; the rest of the sentence was rampaging through her mind like a bull in a china shop. 'The longer we wait, the more likely it is that he'll be dead when we get there.'

Chapter 622

Ayaka was still standing on the bridge of the Khopesh when the last evacuation flight passed Proxima Centauri b's Karman Line and rocketed toward the TFS Escapade, the heavy cruiser it was assigned to.

She had—barely—been able to keep herself from pacing back and forth behind the drone wing commanders, but a thrill passed up and down her spine when she heard that the last lander had safely made it off the surface and she was unable to keep herself from practically vibrating in place. Only two decades of comportment and etiquette training, courtesy of her father's expectations, kept her from showing how anxious she was.

She turned to Captain Chang, who shot her an empathetic glance as he began, "Don't worry, we've already prepared the rescue mission. Wing three, prepare to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the holotank in the center of the bridge turned red and an abort signal flashed, accompanied by a message: "All surface missions are suspended until further notice."

The message was tagged as having been sent from the tactical officer on Fleet Admiral Bianchi's staff.

Without another word, Ayaka stalked to the captain's ready room just off the bridge. Captain Chang could only watch her go and shake his head in sympathy. He knew what she was about to do, but didn't hold out much hope that it would work out well for the young commander.

…

Captain's ready room, TFS Khopesh.

Ayaka was standing in front of the display screen on Captain Chang's desk, which had an open communication line to Fleet Admiral Bianchi. "Why was the operation scrubbed, Sir?" she asked, somehow managing to keep her worry and anxiety from appearing on her face.

She honestly didn't know why she was so worried and anxious about the Terrible Teenager. But she did know she had been responsible for him, and she was the one who'd sent him out alone into the teeth of the storm, where his survival was still unknown. The fact that his signal had been interrupted was... more worrying than she would like to admit. And as godawful as the brat had been to deal with, she'd come to think of him as something like the little brother that she'd been forced to leave behind when she left her family.

"Commander, I don't normally make a habit of explaining my decisions to my subordinates. But in this case, I'll make an exception. You'll know soon anyway, even if I don't tell you now," the admiral said.

He gestured to someone offscreen and continued, "This is why surface operations are being suspended. It's not that we want to scrub them, but we have to."

The display on the screen changed to a view of the planet from high orbit. A red film was rapidly working its way over it, obscuring the surface from view. "Approximately ten minutes before the last evacuation lander broke atmosphere, our Henry's Eye sensors detected an upsurge in mana spreading from what we now believe is the source of all of the roots."

The display rotated the planet, showing a pointer at an inconspicuous spot deep in the ocean near where the storm had begun brewing earlier. "All visual observation of the planet's surface is being cut off, and our instruments can't see it either. All we know is that it's an extremely dense concentration of mana, and when we sent a recon drone to penetrate it, this is what happened."

The display changed to a visual of a recon drone being fired from the destroyer, TFS Starry Sky. It completed one orbit, then attempted to breach the atmosphere, only to be crushed against the red film like a bug meeting a windshield at freeway speed. "As you can see, whatever that is is just as effective as our own planetary defense shields. My intelligence officer and tactical officer recommended—and I agreed—that it's in our best interest to avoid escalating the hostilities against the being until we're able to establish at least a rudimentary form of communication.

"All indications are that there's a mind behind those roots, and we're the visitors here. We should act like it," he finished as the display screen switched back to a view of the admiral from his shoulders up. Behind him, uniformed personnel were moving on the flag bridge of the Proxima like worker bees in a hive.

"I understand, Admiral. Is there any way we can get at least a drone down to check on the Te—err, Warrant Officer Lee? It looks like the shield isn't spreading all that fast and we should be able to get in and out before it reaches land. That'd give us an idea of what we're dealing with, as well as whether or not further rescue efforts—" Ayaka paused and cleared her throat, "—would be... necessary."

"We can do that much, Commander," Fleet Admiral Bianchi said with a small, tight smile that wasn't happy in the least. "And we already have. When the drone got there, this is what it saw."

The view on the screen changed again, this time showing a mass of writhing roots piled together in the shape of an egg, or perhaps a seed, where the rover had broken down and where Joon-ho had been swatted from the sky.

"My god, Sir... what IS that?" Ayaka murmured, shock visible on her face for the first time.

"We don't know, Commander. There's just too many things we don't know. I've ordered Captain Das to bring the Proxima into orbit of Proxima Centauri b. She's the only vessel we've got with the sensors and power to spare that might give us a chance of seeing exactly what's going on behind the shield. But until then, ground ops are suspended until further notice."

"Understood, Sir," Ayaka said. And she did understand; she might not particularly LIKE the situation as it stood, but she could definitely understand it. Until and unless they had proof that Joon-ho was still alive, and perhaps even after they had that proof, it wouldn't be wise to risk upsetting whatever being was on the other side of those tentacle-like roots.

Chapter 623

623 Much Like a Fading Mirage

Joon-ho was floating in a warm darkness, his knees drawn up to his chest and arms wrapped around them. 'Is this what it feels like to be dead?' he thought. 'Just floating in... nothingness? Man, a whole lot of people are gonna be really disappointed when they die. No angels with trumpets, no pearly gates, no mythical beings or buddhas... and apparently no hot goddesses offering perks to be born on planets they're responsible for.' He sighed, or at least attempted to.

Suddenly he heard a muffled thud-THUD and two other noises that reminded him of conversation. One was a low-pitched murmur—a man, he thought—and there was another, higher-

pitched sound. If the first was a man, then the second should be a woman.

'Why does this seem so... familiar?' he mused.

He drifted in the endless dark, listening to the murmuring and rhythmic thud-THUD. 'Well, if this is what the afterlife is like, then I guess it could be worse,' he thought as he floated in the warm, welcoming nothing that surrounded him in its embrace.

Time passed, as time always does, and a change came over his environment. The rhythmic pulsing thuds began speeding up.

Thud-THUD... thud-THUD... thud-THUD, thud-THUD, thud-

THUD thudTHUD thudTHUD thudTHUDthudTHUDthudTHUD...

Soon, the "female" sound rose in pitch and volume and the warm darkness around him began pitching and tossing him to and fro, setting him spinning along three axes.

'What the actual fuck!?' he thought as he spun. With a concerted effort, he stopped spinning and reoriented himself, then the darkness squeezed him from all directions and he realized where he was.

'Am I in a... womb?' he mused. 'Maybe I really am being reborn on a new world!'

The pressure increased and he was squeezed into what felt like an endless tunnel mixed with a toothpaste tube. Finally, he was ejected into a blinding brightness and blinked until his eyes adjusted to the light. He looked up, expecting to see his new mother and father, but then...

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" he shouted at the top of his lungs—or tried to, anyway, as the only sound that escaped his lips was a high, warbling cry. What he had seen when he looked at who his "parents" were was two trees, a slender cypress tree with black bark and needles so deep purple they might as well have been black, and a tall, powerful oak tree, also with black bark and violet leaves so dark they, too, might as well have been black.

The "trees" had no faces, but somehow he felt the weight of their regard. A string of not-sound entered his ears and he recognized the "voices", associating the deeper baritone with the oak and the softer mezzosoprano with the cypress. They were still unintelligible, but if what he suspected had happened was true, that would soon change.

...

Years passed as Joon-ho grew out of infancy and into toddlerhood, learning to roll over, crawl, and form sounds with his mouth. The speech of his new treefolk "parents" lost some of its secrets as well, and he found himself picking out occasional words from the stream of gibberish. One weird thing was that he had none of the various issues that normal infants had; he needed neither food, nor sleep, nor diaper changes.

At first, he had been shy of his nudity and waved his chubby arms in an attempt to cover it, but he'd soon learned to simply accept it. He had no clothes, but he needed none. The temperature was always comfortable to him and it wasn't like trees would give a shit about his genitalia, after all.

Day after day passed and his new "parents" never left his side, constantly babbling gibberish back and forth with him; them in obvious patterns and cadences of speech, and him in the constant babble of baby talk. He learned the words for the things around him, and for concepts like yes and no.

Time seemed endless, as he experienced nothing but the single room where he had been "born", nor did he meet any other beings but the cypress and oak trees as he went from crawling, to standing on unsteady legs, to walking, then running. And the communication between him and his "parents" improved at a rapid pace, both trees and human communicating in the method that any parents with small children would know in a language all of their own.

Then, one day, something entirely different happened. The room surrounding him disappeared and he was left in what seemed to be a forest meadow, in his normal eighteen-year-

old body but still as naked as he had been through the past "years" he had spent growing and learning to communicate with the treefolk.

Around the edge of the meadow were the cypress and oak, but they had been joined by others. A graceful birch tree, still with black bark and violet leaves but somehow giving the impression that it was white; a gnarled, squat mangrove with knobby roots growing out of it like a skirt; and a short, wide crabapple tree had joined the cypress and the oak, each one taking up a distinct section of the meadow's edge.

"Who-what-when-where-why are you-yours-not-us?"

Joon-ho somehow knew which tree the question was coming from and turned to the birch tree. "Me?" he asked, pointing his index finger at his face.

"Yes, not-us. Me who-what-when-where-why?" the birch asked again.

"I'm Lee Joon-ho, a blessed awakener of the Terran Empire and member of the imperial exploration fleet."

As he spoke, memories flashed through his mind. Growing up in North Korea, the American and South Korean invasion, the formation of the empire, awakening to mana, and going through hero academy and signing up for the fleet whizzed through his consciousness seemingly at light speed.

"We understand," the birch said. "Who-what-when-where-

why is this?"

The image Joon-ho had seen after pushing "Ayaka" away flashed through his mind. "That's Hatsune Miku and Deedlit."

"Who-what-when-where-why is Hatsune Miku and Deedlit?"

"They're, umm... Hatsune Miku is an avatar, and Deedlit is a character from an anime."

"Who-what-when-where-why is anime?" another "voice" interjected.

Joon-ho turned to the crabapple tree and said, "It's a form of entertainment on my planet."

"Who-what-when-where-why is entertainment?"

"Entertainment is..."

The question and answer session, or perhaps interrogation went on for a long time before the tree people seemed satisfied with what they had learned.

"Who-what-when-where-why is elves?" The birch had once again started asking questions.

"Well, elves are friends of nature and they live in trees, I guess," Joon-ho answered, memories of all the media he had watched containing elves flashing through his head.

"We understand," the birch said, then slowly vanished from the clearing much like a fading mirage.

Chapter 624

Joon-ho felt a thrill pass through him at the question. It was a question he had been waiting for, seemingly for his entire life. He didn't know many people from the task force, having spent the entire journey out either practicing his mana manipulation skills or in his private VR space, but he firmly believed that he was the leading expert in the Proxima Centauri system on all things fantasy, sci-fi, and anime.

He began lecturing the trees on all things elven, all the way from the mythological alfar and dokkalfar to present, including the races' representation in novels, video games, and movies. He provided every detail he could think of, and as he spoke, he saw them in his memories, including his emotions and thoughts as he first discovered the rich body of entertainment through humanity's history. He recalled heroes and villains, epic tales of adventures, and the struggles and challenges that each individual went through in each story he recounted to the trees.

As he spoke, the trees asked questions. Questions about other races he mentioned seemed popular, and Joon-ho figured that there was something about them that spoke to a primal facet of each individual tree around the meadow he was in. The oak, for example, seemed very interested in tales of giants, particularly those of hill giants from a popular tabletop role-

playing game that Joon-ho played in his personal VR space.

The longer Joon-ho spoke, the more memories flashed in his mind and the more questions the trees asked him. And he basked in the attention; for most of his life he had been ignored, overlooked, or bullied due to his introverted personality and neurodivergent behaviors. So having an enthusiastic audience that not only respected his knowledge, but thirsted for it, satisfied a deep drive that he never knew he had possessed.

Then came a rather unexpected statement. The trees actually apologized for the attack on the lander and the later destruction of the rover with all hands aboard it. They had thought that humanity was like them, and losing individuals of the species would be much like trees shedding leaves, or perhaps twigs. But along with the realization that each human being was an individual came sorrow, sorrow that they had cut short a life with all that that entailed.

…

While Joon-ho was giving the lecture of his dreams, perhaps quite literally, Ayaka was busy dealing with the many tasks that a Commander in the exploration fleet and executive officer of an exploration cruiser had to deal with. It wasn't made any easier by the emergency evacuation from the planet's surface, either. It took her two days to untangle the personnel issue alone and ensure everyone was returned to their proper places after the "ad hoc temporary personnel reassignments", as someone had jokingly referred to the post-

evacuation chaos.

The work helped some, at least. It kept her mind off her responsibility in Joon-ho's disappearance, but every time she recalled that he was listed as missing, presumed killed in action, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest and a burning sensation in her eyes. He wasn't the only person she knew in the doomed mission to the surface, but he was the one she had worked the closest with, and one that she'd personally ordered to go into harm's way.

After she finished sorting out the personnel tasks and the resulting paperwork, she stretched and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her tired eyes with the heels of her hands. A soft chime sounded in her office, announcing that she had a visitor. She blinked away some of the tiredness from her eyes and said, "Enter."

A young, red-haired Ordinary Crewman with a sprinkle of freckles across his cheeks, wearing a steward's uniform, entered the office and said, "Ma'am, Captain Marinakis' compliments and he'll see you in his ready room at 1400 hours."

"Thank you, crewman," Ayaka replied, a touch more formality in her tone. Having the captain's steward deliver the captain's order—and an order it definitely was—didn't portend well for her upcoming debrief; perhaps the admiral had been put out more than she thought by her questioning his order a few days ago.

The steward saluted, then smartly turned on his heel and walked out of her office. She sighed and pulled up her report on the doomed rover and awakener, reading it again to ensure it was fresh in her memory. She checked the time; it was 1345, just enough time to straighten out her uniform and make it to the captain's ready room.

She schooled her face into a pleasant expression, then walked out of her office.

...

Captain's ready room, TES Farsight.

At precisely 1400 hours, holograms of Fleet Admiral Bianchi and his chief of staff flickered into existence. Ayaka and Captain Marinakis stood and saluted.

"Sit down, you two," the admiral sighed. "What a clusterfuck this mission is shaping up to be."

He turned to Ayaka. "Commander Takahashi, walk me through what happened on the surface. Your report was thorough, but there are still questions."

Ayaka nodded, then stood. "Yes, Sir. When we were notified of the supercell, we began preparing to weather the storm. Then the evacuation order came down..."

She narrated the events of the evacuation and its aftermath up to the present, after she had straightened out the inadvertent chaos caused by the emergency order. Once she was finished with her presentation, the questioning began.

"Why did you send your awakener, Warrant Officer..." the admiral began, then his chief of staff leaned in to whisper something in his ear. "Yes, Warrant Officer Lee. Why did you send him out for the rescue instead of a lander? And without escort, at that?"

"There was only one lander at the research base at the time, and it would've taken longer to reach the rover and the science team, Sir," Ayaka began. "Also, I felt that we should reserve the lander we had for any emergencies that arose during the storm. Warrant Lee couldn't bring a team of marines with him, not and travel as fast as he could alone, and I judged that speed was of the essence in rescuing the seismology team."

"Why did it take you so long to realize he had failed in his mission?" The admiral's face appeared to have been carved from granite, giving away no clue as to what he was thinking.

"By the time we got the report that we'd lost connection with him and the team in the rover, the emergency evacuation was in full swing. The base VI judged it as a low priority issue and didn't report it until the evacuation was well underway. By that point, the base's quantum supercluster was in power-

saving mode and couldn't be brought back up to full power before the evacuation was complete. So I made the call to divert the lander I was assigned to go and pick up the stranded personnel, but by that time the evacuation order had been made nondiscretionary and I couldn't divert the lander."

"What is your impression, Commander? Do you think there are survivors down there?" the admiral asked.

"I believe so, Sir."

"Do you have any evidence or is it just wishful thinking?"

"A bit of both, Sir. Warrant Lee is a concept-level awakener, and a strong one at that. I have to believe that he could survive the attack seen in the video we recovered."

"Very good, Commander. And I happen to agree with you. A conceptualist wouldn't die so easily. We will continue monitoring the planet as best we can and send a rescue mission at the soonest opportunity."

The admiral turned to Captain Marinakis and continued, "Enter a disciplinary note into Commander Takahashi's file regarding her breaking the chain of command. She's to be docked a month's pay and confined to quarters for a week, pending the needs of the fleet. VR access will be denied for the duration of the confinement."

"Yes, Sir," the captain replied.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi looked at Ayaka again. "I trust you'll do better in the future, Commander Takahashi."

"I will, Sir," she said, and saluted him.

"Very well. See that you do. Bianchi clear."

Chapter 625

A month passed and the red mana shield around Proxima Centauri b was still present, just as strong as it had been when it was first raised, if not stronger. The TFS Proxima had been in a high polar orbit practically the entire time, and it seemed like the shield had detected her sensors and strengthened itself as a result.

But if they had been able to see through the obscuring shield, the members of Task Force Proxima would likely have been rather surprised. Who wouldn't be surprised if they saw continents springing up seemingly out of nowhere?

That said, the continents hadn't been created out of nothing. Rather, it was more like the roots occupying the ocean floor had mostly withdrawn, lowering the water level and exposing continents that had already been there, but flooded by the water.

And following the law of unintended consequences, the withdrawn roots had taken most of the mana with them from the water. But as energy, including mana, could neither be created nor destroyed—barring certain types of conceptual and esoteric mana that specialized in delivering hearty fuck yous to the laws of physics—that mana had somehow been redistributed across the new continents, balancing the density between land and water. It was at a slightly lower level, of course, but still significantly higher than the mana density of Earth.

Another surprise was waiting for the task force on the new continents. One would think that any land mass submerged in the hostile environment of any saltwater ocean would be scoured of all but the hardiest archaebacterial life, and in most cases, they would be correct. However, on Proxima Centauri b, the newly revealed continents were undergoing an extreme cycle of vegetation growth, to the point that in but a few more short months there would be no difference between them and New Australia.

The growth was enormous, both in size and scale. Lush violet forests were springing up, blending kilometers-tall oaks, squat crabapples, tall and slender cypress trees, dank and murky mangroves, and straight birch trees into a cohesive whole that would never be seen anywhere on Earth. And all of them were dozens of times the size of their more prosaic counterparts on humanity's homeworld.

(Ed note: The trees and other plants mentioned in this chapter aren't the *actual* trees and plants found on Earth. Instead, they're lookalikes. Agent and I decided to go with using actual plant species to make it easier to visualize them instead of making y'all keep track of things that're obviously alien. Like "the zeepflorp plant looked like a branching fractal crystal". That would quickly become too much to keep track of, so using more "Earthly" forests just made sense.)

Xenobotanists would have an absolute field day when they discovered the mixed forests.

And in the middle of what used to be a much bigger ocean was a singular "tree" made up of woven roots twisted together whose crown brushed against the mana shield over a hundred kilometers from the water's surface. It was practically a supercontinent itself, and each of the five main branches grew a specific type of tree and its accompanying symbiotic vegetation on a mass of twisted roots and soil from the bottom of the ocean that would put most of Earth's continents to shame, if they were to be compared in size.

The lowest of the main branches was home to vast groves of crabapple trees. The forest floor was covered in moss, and surrounding the crabapples were dogwood, serviceberry, and hazel shrubs, each of which had their own attendants. Great, broad ferns of all kinds surrounded them and an enormous rocky mountain range split the continent-sized branch practically in half, running from northwest to southeast.

The next-highest branch was covered in rolling, grassy hills and knolls, all of which were home to oak trees that grew in groves to the height of two or three kilometers. Each grove had between twenty and a hundred oak trees surrounded by witch hazel, dogwood, mountain laurel, and rhododendron shrubs. Interspersed between and around the oak groves were vast meadows of wildflowers, lilypad- and duckweed-covered lakes, and rivers lined with cattails and goldenrods. The oaks themselves were home to lush curtains of ivy and honeysuckle, and the rocky areas of the hills were covered in mosses and lichens.

Above the oak-forested branch was a wetland surrounding a single vast mountain peak that reached eight kilometers into the air, practically brushing the bottom of the branch above it. From that mountaintop ran great, rushing rivers in all directions that split and meandered through the wetlands surrounding the foot of the mountain until they poured themselves off the edge of the branch itself, falling to the ocean surface as a fine mist. On that particular branch grew tall, slender cypress trees surrounded in mist and rainbows, albeit muted ones. Alongside them were wax myrtle, alder, and buttonbush shrubs that surrounded meadows filled with moss and grass, from which sprouted mushrooms in scattered rings here and there.

Still higher was a branch covered in dank, dark swamps, from which grew great and twisted, gnarled mangrove trees. Accompanying them was a low ground cover comprised mostly of marsh grass, sea purslane, glasswort, and seawort with marsh ferns scattered here and there peeking out of the low fog and swirling mists that covered the ground. This continent-sized branch had very little solid ground, most of which were sand dunes and sandbars that rose a few feet above the algae-covered swamp waters, stabilized by sea oat plants that prevented them from being washed away by the shifting swamps. And riddled throughout the mass was a deep, dark network of tunnels and caves.

And on the highest branch of them all was a vast forest of graceful birch trees, rising so near to the mana shield that, if one were to stand atop the tallest of the birch trees, they would be able to reach up and touch the shield itself without stretching or straining. Surrounding the birch trees like attendants were alders, dogwoods, and weeping willow shrubs, and carpeting the ground itself were grasses, sedges, and wildflowers of all kinds, occasionally giving way to meadows filled with bluebells. The birches themselves were organized into groves where the trees grew so close that their branches intertwined on multiple levels, creating broad paths above the ground.

From each tree on every level of the enormous "world tree" grew giant, eggplant-shaped fruits. The fruits pulsed with a rhythmic red light, almost like a metronome, or perhaps a heartbeat. They ranged in size from the 4-5 foot long fruits on the crabapple trees to enormous 16-20 foot long fruits on the great oak trees. The cypress trees had irregular fruits, some of which were as small as four feet long, while others were nine or ten feet long and almost as wide in diameter. The birch and mangrove trees were home to fruits in the 6-7 foot long range.

The explorers of Task Force Proxima would be in for quite the surprise, if and when they ever made it back to the surface of the planet.

Chapter 626

Three months later.

Ayaka and Captain Marinakis were in the captain's ready room on the Farsight, attending a virtual meeting with the task force's leadership. Things had settled into a routine, and the meetings had gone from daily, to weekly, and now this was the second monthly meeting they were holding. Nothing of any note had yet been accomplished; the situation remained unchanged.

"We're still functioning on skeleton crews to reduce resource consumption. Even though we have the replicators, our problem with the algae in the feedstock tanks remains unsolved, but we're still working on it and should have a solution soon," the fleet's head of logistics reported.

For the past six weeks, the crews of the ships had been rotating in and out of VR training simulations, with only skeleton crews maintaining the ships in reality. The initial mission planning had called for restocking their algae tanks and supplementing them with organic compounds from asteroids in Proxima Centauri and on the surface of Proxima Centauri b, but they had yet to discover any asteroids rich in organics and the surface was unreachable. Thus, their dilemma.

The stopgap solution the leadership had decided on was to step down the crews of the ships and put them in long-term training, rotating skeleton crews in to stand physical watches in case disaster struck. They had plenty of nutrient mash stock for the VR pods, but they hadn't counted on the mana-triggered mutations in their algae tanks making them completely unusable in the food replicators. It only took three deaths and a wave of illness before they tracked down the problem and decided on a solution.

Efficiency was the hallmark of the empire, after all.

"Confidence level?" Admiral Bianchi asked.

"About 75%, Sir."

"Not the best, but acceptable. Keep working on it." The admiral turned to the fleet's head engineer. "Anything to report, Scotty?" he asked.

"We've completed the protostellar forge and are working on the construction queue, Admiral," Commander Gail "Scotty" Coleman reported. All head engineers were, by longstanding tradition, given the nickname Scotty when they took over the engineering department of their ships, or even task forces. It was only engineers that weren't assigned to shipboard positions that had other nicknames.

"How long until the exploration crew's build requests are ready?" Ayaka asked.

"You'll be at the head of the build queue as soon as the planet becomes reachable, Commander Takahashi. We've only got a hold on your modified landers and upgraded satellites because there's nothing we can do to get you in place to actually use the gear you've requested, so until that changes, you'll just have to wait, I'm afraid," Scotty replied.

"You'll be at the head of the build queue as soon as the planet becomes reachable, Commander Takahashi. We've only got a hold on your modified landers and upgraded satellites because there's nothing we can do to get you in place to actually use the gear you've requested, so until that changes, you'll just have to wait, I'm afraid," Scotty replied.

"Speaking of the planet," Admiral Bianchi began, turning to Dr. Standing Bear. "Do you have an estimate for when the shield will come down?"

"Although our Henry's Eyes sensors are still being overloaded and rapidly burning out, we've been detecting a steady reduction in mana density across the entire planet. If the falling density remains constant and our calculations are correct, we estimate it'll be somewhere between two and seven E-days from now when we can brute force a sensor signal through the noise, Sir. And after that, we should be able to get landers through to the surface in about a month, assuming, of course, that the reduction in mana levels remains steady," Dr. Standing Bear replied. She wasn't lazing around, nor was her staff, despite not having much to do in regard to the planet.

"How long will our spares inventory hold out, Scotty?" the admiral asked.

"About another three weeks, Admiral."

"Long enough, at least, to verify our calculations and see if the trend continues," Dr. Standing Bear interjected.

"Throw your estimates to the engineers," the admiral said, then turned back to Scotty. "When you get the data from the researchers, reorganize your build queue and time it so the exploration crew gets their equipment by the time the planet's open to landers again, or no later than two weeks after. So six weeks from now, give or take."

Turning to Ayaka, Admiral Bianchi continued, "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer than that to use your new toys, though, Commander Takahashi. We'll need to reevaluate the planet before sending crewed missions to the surface, so expect to repeat the process you used when we first arrived."

"Understood, Admiral," Ayaka said, her face schooled into as pleasant an expression as she could force it into without it coming across as forced.

"No shortcuts, Commander." freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Yes, Sir."

The meeting continued until everyone in attendance had a chance to report on the progress of their departments, but it was still a case of stagnation. Things hadn't become so hopeless that they would abandon the mission to Proxima Centauri and move on to the binary Alpha Centauri system, but they were still edging toward that level with every day that passed. If the planet remained inaccessible and they failed to discover organics in the asteroid belt, the entire mission might have to be scrubbed and Task Force Proxima would be forced into an early return to Earth with a failed exploration mission under their belts.

...

Two days later.

A constellation of upgraded Henry's Eyes satellites had been completed at the protostellar forge and moved into position around Proxima Centauri b. Powered by fusion reactors with many times the output of the standard recon satellites, their sensors matched the performance of those on the TFS Proxima, but without the risk of burnout. After all, they had been designed to be used to brute force their sensors through the jamming effect of the mana shield and the increased atmospheric mana density under it, while the cityship herself could only do that in a pinch, and only as long as the spares in her cavernous holds could last before they ran out.

Aboard the bridge of the Proxima, a soft chime sounded at the sensor station as the cityship's AI alerted the watch of a change in status.

{Henry's Eye sensors have detected something,} the AI reported.

"Captain!" the watchstander said with some anticipation in his voice.

"Yes, Lieutenant Commander?"

"We've got something, Sir!"

Chapter 627

"Oh. My. God," Ayaka murmured. Her murmur was caught by everyone else in the meeting, as they had all been stunned into silence by the hologram the AI had generated in the middle of the conference table. All of them couldn't help but agree, as the visual of Proxima Centauri b was starkly different than when they had first laid eyes on it.

"Proxima, generate a comparison hologram," Admiral Bianchi said once he recovered his voice.

{Comparison generated, Admiral,} the AI said as a hologram of the planet as it was appeared next to the current one.

The two planets looked completely different. When they had first arrived, there was only one continent on it and some scattered islands. But now, one, two, three... "Five continents," Dr. Standing Bear said, her tone filled with shock. "Great Coyote, that should have taken millennia, not just months."

She wasn't wrong, either. Change on a geological scale took time that was better measured in eons, not months! Earth had once been a pangea as well, back in the late paleozoic period—roughly 335 MILLION years ago—and continental drift had only broken it apart in the early mesozoic period, roughly 175 million years ago. In other words, Earth's continental drift had taken around 110 million years to change the surface to what it was now, and the drift was still ongoing; Earth had looked different as "recently" as 65 million years ago.

Ayaka gasped, and everyone turned to her. They thought she had been struck by the absurdity of the situation, but that was far from the case. The realization that Joon-ho was likelier dead than alive had just hit her like a gut punch in the feels and she was trying to hold back her tears and stay strong.

Before seeing the changed planet, with no sign of human presence at all, she had held some small hope that Joon-ho, and perhaps some of the other scientists, would still be alive. They could have made it to Research Base New New South Wales over the past few months after escaping the ambushing roots, but now... The research base was gone, and it had taken that tiny flickering flame of hope along with it.

Furthermore, even though she was no geologist, or any kind of scientist at all, really, she still knew just how much energy and force it would take to change a planet to the extent Proxima Centauri b had been.

That knowledge was like a jackboot that came crashing down to trample the small seedling of hope.

The only thing preventing her from breaking down into a sobbing mess was, again, her more than two decades of comportment training, which ensured that she could keep a straight face no matter how she felt inside. It was her armor, and now it had become her reliance. Perhaps later, when she could think straight, she would whisper a thank you to her father, who had forced her through those lessons and prevented her from having a normal childhood. But for now, she continued paying attention to things in the virtual conference room around her.

The hologram of the newly redecorated Proxima Centauri b was still blurred due to all of the mana interfering with their sensors, but some markers bled through. The five continents, roughly the size of Eurasia, South America, Africa, Australia, and the Eden-Esparian Archipelago, were visible in the hologram, along with indicators showing that they were completely covered in plant life with no non-organic materials present.

"We should adjourn until our sensors are able to get a clear image of the surface, Admiral," Dr. Standing Bear began. "It'll save time in the long run for us to not come to any conclusions based on rapidly evolving 'fuzzy' data, then need to throw them out whenever new data comes in."

It wouldn't be that long a wait, either, so long as the mana density on the planet continued dropping at the same rate it had been over the past months.

"Agreed. Meeting is adjourned until our next monthly meeting, unless things on the surface become clear enough to gather data from orbit," Admiral Bianchi said, then blinked out of the VR conference room as though he had never been there to begin with. He, too, needed time to recover from the shock and come up with plans for the new situation.

…

Joon-ho had spent the last few months in the timeless meadow, or his "jail cell" as he jokingly called it. All things considered, he could have been in a far worse situation, though it was cold consolation when he thought of the unchanging environment and the endless questions the trees had for him.

"So they're going to be born soon?" he asked the cypress, which was the chattiest of the bunch.

"Yes, our children are almost ready. We have already drained too much of our world's mana in hastening their growth, but all has gone according to plan," the tree replied in its—her—gentle tone.

Thanks to all of the conversation, the trees now understood almost everything Joon-ho knew about humanity, and they had become much better conversationalists as a result. Getting them to understand what, to him, were simple concepts had been frustrating for... well, he didn't exactly know how long. Time was a loose concept for him, stuck in an unchanging environment as he was, but they had finally understood simple things like the difference between "you" and "me", and the six question words "who, what, when, where, how, and why".

"Oh, the plan. Right. The plan," he said, giggling to himself. He might have become slightly unbalanced during his time in the timeless meadow; he had to admit as much to himself in his more lucid periods. "So can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, Joon-ho," the cypress replied.

"What plan?"

"The plan to populate our world."

"Right, populate. That'll be nice. Will you bring some of your children here to visit me? I mean, don't get me wrong, you're all nice enough and everything, especially considering that I'm basically an invader, but a change would be nice. Yes, a change. That's what we need!"

"But we've already changed the world, Joon-ho," the cypress responded, a quizzical note in her tone.

"You have?! Great! Let me out so I can go and see!"

"We can't do that yet."

"Why not?"

"You currently don't have a body. Well, you have a body, but it's not ready to be born yet."

"Right, I don't have a... Wait. I don't have a body? I DON'T HAVE A BODY!?" He rushed over to the cypress and tried to shake her, but even as hefty as he was, a 280 pound man trying to shake a tree that was hundreds of meters tall was an impossibility to begin with. Especially considering that he lacked a body at all at the moment and was present only as a phantom of his consciousness.

"Indeed, Joon-ho," the oak interjected in his rumbling basso profundo voice. "You lack a body because we had to use you as a pattern to create our children. Before humanity came, we only knew ourselves and each other. There was no other but us, and we lacked a certain... spark, so to speak. You brought us that spark, willingly or not, knowingly or not, and for that we will be eternally grateful."

"So you tried birthing children before?" Joon-ho asked, his mood rapidly swinging from anger to curiosity.

"Yes. We came together for the first time to create children, and you've seen those children. They lack what you humans call sapience, and they fear us and our power. That's why the continent we created first was covered by our children, but there was a vast separation between them and us, caused by their fear and reverence. We've always mourned the loss of what could have been."

Joon-ho was completely lost and couldn't comprehend the thought of what the trees had accomplished. He would just have to bring smarter people than him to figure out what exactly the oak was talking about.

That is, if there was anyone smarter left in the solar system to begin with. He couldn't be sure of that without knowing how long he had been trapped in the timeless meadow; he might just be the sole living human left in the Proxima Centauri system.

Chapter 628

Joon-ho had taken to sleep as a way of measuring time in the timeless meadow. Although he never knew how long he slept, or when he fell asleep or woke up, for that matter, at least he could count "days" by tracking his sleep schedule. Currently, his count was at seven hundred and sixty-three.

He had no way of knowing how accurate it was, but at least the practice kept him sane. Time had proven a difficult concept to communicate to the trees, who seemingly lived forever and saw no point whatsoever in dividing days into hours, minutes, and seconds, or years into months and weeks. The only thing the trees cared about were seasons; there was a season to sleep and a season to grow. Everything else was superfluous to them.

Currently, he was laying on the soft grass, trying and failing to fall asleep. Not only was he excited by his impending rebirth, but the role he had played in the creation of new life had his thoughts in a tizzy. Though the trees had done all of the work of birthing the new species, Joon-ho had given them the final piece of the puzzle necessary for those births to happen: a spark of inspiration.

Oftentimes, the barrier between success and failure was simply the knowledge that success was indeed possible. And humankind's mere existence had given the trees that knowledge, which they used to successfully birth individual lifeforms that were separate from the collective communities that the trees had formed on their first attempt.

From what he had gathered, humanity's advancements in genetic engineering were kindergarten-level to the immortal trees. No, not even that, humanity wasn't even in the same ballpark!

If it had to be compared to something, humanity was a newborn infant that hadn't even learned to open their eyes yet, much less crawl, walk, or run. That, he thought, might be a fairer comparison, though he was tempted to put it even farther back in a human's development cycle. Perhaps humanity's knowledge of genetics and evolution placed them on the level of a sperm cell, whereas the trees were adult olympic sprinters.

They were so far advanced, in fact, that they couldn't even explain their knowledge in terms that could be understood by humankind. Everything Joon-ho knew about evolution told him that it took millions of years for a species to evolve, all the way back from when the first single-celled amoebas living in the primordial soup devoured the even smaller mitochondria and developed a symbiotic relationship to the present. Millions of years passed as evolution worked its slow, inevitable magic on developing and pushing forward the species.

(Ed note: The endosymbiotic theory is a hypothesis for why mitochondrial DNA is completely different from nuclear DNA, to the point where they aren't even shaped the same. Mitochondrial DNA is a ring of about 16,500 base pairs and 37 genes, while nuclear DNA is a strand of about three billion base pairs divided into 23 pairs of chromosomes. Mitochondrial DNA is entirely inherited from our mothers, while nuclear DNA is a random mix we inherit from both parents. It's an interesting field of study, to say the least.)

And when he had asked the trees, their response was simple: "We just let them grow." They were either unable, or unwilling, to elaborate further. Joon-ho suspected it was an inability to couch it in terms he could understand, as the trees were otherwise incredibly forthcoming in their answers to his other questions. They held nothing back from him, and even forthrightly told him that it was their compensation for having killed the science team and "eating" his physical body.

When the trees had brought that up, he'd wholeheartedly accepted their apology. He figured he might as well get upset at a newborn puppy making a mess by pottying on the floor. The trees hadn't known any better anymore than that newborn puppy, so his fate wasn't something he could exactly blame them for. Sure, it had taken him a while to come to terms with being eaten and all, but he'd never blamed them for it.

His thoughts continued racing until, without realizing it, he crossed the line between wakefulness and sleep, then completely lost consciousness. It was almost as if a light switch labeled "Lee Joon-ho, human awakener" was flipped from on to off as he ceased to exist.

The moment he lost consciousness, a vast torrent of mana was forcefully thrust into his "body", which slowly broke up into particles of pulsing light. If anyone were present that cared to count, they would see more than 37 trillion small blinking dots that drifted up into the sky above the timeless meadow before being gathered into a stream and fed into what looked like a very small black hole.

Before all of the particles had been absorbed by the black hole, the cypress turned her attention to the last little bits of what was formerly known as "Lee Joon-ho, human awakener" and a distinct sense of fondness projected from her to the particulate stream. It was almost... maternal in nature; obviously, the cypress was the one who had been most affected by the trees' interactions with the young awakener.

The trees themselves appeared to have been physically present in the meadow, and they took a different exit. Instead of dissolving and flowing into the sky as a stream of particles, they slowly sank into the loamy soil until there was nothing left of them above the ground. Soon, all that remained of the timeless meadow that Joon-ho had grown so familiar with was nothing but a large, grassy meadow lit in a dim light that seemed to have no individual source and cast no shadows.

If Joon-ho had been conscious, he might have mistakenly thought that his mother had come to join him in his last moments, which would've been quite confusing. He was five light years, more than forty-seven trillion kilometers, away from Earth, where his mother still was!

But he wasn't conscious. In fact, his entire existence was still in question and he may have crossed over the line between life and death instead of that between wakefulness and sleep.

Chapter 629

Proxima Centauri b, one month later.

At the former site of Research Base New New South Wales, a single tree grew. Unlike any of the other newly created vegetation, it was alone in the center of a vast clearing and was of no particular species of tree. And on that tree was a single fruit, pulsing with a rhythmic red light.

Motes of shining mana were flowing into the fruit, causing it to sway from side to side. As more and more motes struck the fruit and passed through its skin, the swaying sped up with each passing second until cracks spread on the fruit's surface. They continued spreading and widening until the fruit fragmented much like an eggshell, dropping a slim, hairless human figure to the ground, covered in a clear, slick goo. The man, for man he obviously was, given the equipment between his legs, stood and wiped the goo from his eyes.

"Fuck me!" he cursed as a wave of dizziness swept over him and he nearly fell to the ground. "I think I forgot how to walk. Do I have to grow up AGAIN!? FUCK!"

He took a deep breath and looked at his slimy form. "Holy shit! I have an eight pack now!" he exclaimed. "Sweet!"

The man lay on his back, staring up at the red sky of the planet, then crazily cackled, "I'm back!"

He was none other than Lee Joon-ho, and he had escaped certain death a second time.

Once his laughing fit passed, he rested, regaining strength with every breath he took. It felt like he was inhaling something together with the loam-scented atmosphere of Proxima Centauri b, and he immediately deduced what it was: mana.

"I wonder how long I've been, err, well... out of it," he mumbled to himself. He was completely out of the habit of silently thinking after having spent such a long time in the timeless meadow, where the only sound was that of his own voice. "I hope I'm not the only person left here."

He raised his hand to his eye and gazed through the circle formed by his thumb and forefinger. "Gravitational lensing," he enunciated, willing the gravity mana around him to form a telescopic lens.

His eyes flashed silver as a small blob appeared over his right eye, much like a monocle. Through it, he saw a rapidly disintegrating mana shield above him. But that was all; he couldn't see through the mostly opaque construct. He sighed and dropped his hand from his face. freeweɓnovē ɱ

"I'll try again later," he said with a grin. "Not like there's an answering machine anywhere around here I can leave a message on... Or wait, is there?"

Joon-ho tried accessing his quantum microcomputer implant, but got no response. "That's weird," he murmured, then began pacing back and forth. He tried accessing it again, then again, and kept making attempts, like picking a scab. "Why isn't it working?"

Finally, he stopped trying and sighed. It did make some sense that he couldn't access it; after all, the trees were geneticists, not biomechanical device specialists. "I guess I'll just wait until the shield drops."

He closed his eyes and started drifting off to sleep before a sudden realization jolted him back to full awareness. "Wait a minute! I couldn't use gravitational lensing before... not without using my implant to run the calculations. So why'd it work so well for me now, if I don't have my implants at all?"

An hour of pondering passed, then he snapped his fingers. "They must've incorporated my implants into my new body! That has to be it!" he cackled, imagining what it would be like to "double up" on his implants. Then he yawned and murmured, "I'll think about it after a nice nap."

TES Farsight, Proxima Centauri b orbit, an hour and a half earlier.

"Captain!" the sensors officer on the bridge called out. "We have an enormous mana signature flaring up on the surface where Research Base New New South Wales used to be!" He flicked his fingers, slaving his display to the main screen and overriding what was previously on it.

Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and stared at the screen. It showed a spot of mana that was so concentrated that it looked almost black, instead of the usual medium blue that mana normally showed on the Henry's Eyes sensors.

"What is it?" Captain Marinakis asked.

"No telling yet, Sir, but whatever it is... it's big. Really big, Sir," the sensors officer replied. "It's coming through clear because the mana shield around the area seems to have thinned. It might finally be disappearing, Sir."

Captain Marinakis exchanged a glance with Ayaka, then nodded. He turned to the security officer on the bridge and ordered, "Prepare a lander for a remote mission to check out that signal."

The security officer came to attention and snapped, "Aye aye, Captain." He was just short of saluting.

"And belay the academy yap, Lieutenant," the captain said in a wry tone.

(Ed note: The "academy yap" is a distinct tone that new graduates from military training use when speaking to officers or NCOs. It's difficult to describe in text, you just have to hear it to understand it. It's highly formal, very precise, and usually overly enthusiastic. It's also very, very loud. I couldn't find anything on YouTube for you, but check back in a few days; I'll keep looking, and if I find it I'll leave it here as a comment.)

An hour later, the sensors officer on the bridge of the Farsight reported, "Looks like the shield is down, Captain. I'm getting good returns on all sensors."

Captain Marinakis acknowledged the report, then turned to the security officer again. "Send the lander mission, Lieutenant. Remember: remote piloting only, no sense risking the few flyboys we have aboard."

"Aye—" the lieutenant began, but was shortly interrupted by the captain.

"And can the yap, Lieutenant!"

Everyone on the bridge fell into a sudden coughing fit as they stifled their laughter.

Chapter 630

?TFS Proxima, mobile fleet hospital quarantine ward.

Joon-ho was lying unconscious in a medical pod undergoing scan after scan at a blistering pace. In a side room, separated by a thick plate of armorglass, doctors were scurrying back and forth from screen to screen, tracking the real-time data coming from the medical pod.

All of them were mystified at his miraculous survival. Sure, he had lost weight, but he'd survived for months on the surface of a planet with hostile life forms, yet showed no sign of the hypotrophy they expected from someone who hadn't had a bite to eat in all that time.

They weren't alone in their surprise, either. Every single crew member aboard the Proxima, naval, marine, and scientific staff alike, were curious as to how Joon-ho had survived. Anyone who wasn't currently standing watch was focused on the public security feed, tapping into it with their implants and staring at Joon-ho's medical pod, searching for the slightest sign that he was about to be released from it. Even the off-watch medical staff had clustered in the passageway outside the quarantine ward, practically choking it off; calls of "make way" and "make a hole" occasionally rang out in the packed mass of doctors and corpsmen.

A small group of researchers had gathered in the mobile fleet hospital's wardroom, each of them holding a cup of coffee or tea, or a soft drink, and were discussing what the fleet had already dubbed "The Miracle".

"So he's the only survivor, eh?" one of the researchers asked. By the flash on his lapel, he was a seismologist, making it likely that he knew one of the researchers in the doomed rover.

"Seems that way," another answered. She was wearing a lapel pin that showed her specialty was xenoanthropology. "I heard the Proxima did a full-powered scan of the entire equatorial orbit looking for other anomalies similar to the one in the clearing they found Warrant Lee in, but..." She sighed and her shoulders slumped a little. "They didn't find a damn thing."

"It does make a certain amount of sense for him to be the only survivor, though," a third researcher—another seismologist—interjected. "He's an awakener and he was in the middle of a mana-infused storm of unimaginable proportions. With that much mana at his fingertips, he would've been like a fish in water."

"Agreed. But we'll have to wait until he wakes up and can tell us what happened to him before we can reach a conclusion, though. PCb has given us so many surprises that any hypothesis we come up with before that would just be us shooting in the dark and hoping we hit something," the first seismologist said.

"PCb?" another person at the wardroom table asked, his head tilted a bit in confusion.

"Proxima Centauri b. It's a mouthful, so I took a page from the marines and shortened it," the seismologist laughed.

The xenoanthropologist couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. She wasn't friends with any of the seismologists who hadn't been rescued, but they did share a mission and a sense of scientific curiosity that had brought them this far. And that made her ponder the realities of existence, the discussion around her fading into the background and becoming white noise as she fell deeper and deeper into her own thoughts.

A few minutes passed like that before she came back to reality with a jolt, then stood and headed back toward her lab without a word.

The other researchers at the wardroom table, used to the hyperfocused state that some scientists would enter when they were on the verge of a breakthrough in their research, didn't think anything of it and the discussion of The Miracle proceeded apace.

…

As Sun Tzu once said, the world is run by meetings and Fleet Admiral Bianchi had called another general meeting of his staff, plus the doctors working on deciphering the results of Joon-ho's scans. Also in attendance were Ayaka and Captain Marinakis of the TES Farsight, present in the form of holograms.

"Are you one hundred percent positive that this—" the admiral gestured at a pair of holograms floating over the conference table, "—is the same Warrant Officer Lee Joon-ho that survived the attack during the storm?"

His skepticism was understandable; the "new" Joon-ho was taller, had more defined, toned musculature, and was somehow even better looking than before. Not that that was really a stretch, given that he'd previously had squinty eyes and facial features that were covered in a thick layer of fat, hiding his features and making them indistinct. Overall, he looked like he had matured by a few years and now appeared to be around twenty-five years old instead of his actual age of eighteen.

[The probability of the awakener in my medical pod being one Warrant Officer Second Class Lee Joon-ho approaches unity, Admiral] the Proxima's AI reported.

"We have a 99.999% match across all biometrics, Sir," Dr. Elaine Cho, Task Force Proxima's chief surgeon added. "We've compared retinal scans, facial scans, fingerprints, and DNA sequencing, and it's all a hundred percent match to the same person who was originally assigned to the task force. The only questions we have are a variance in his mana signature and the unexplained absence of any of his fleet implants. We're comparing the results of his situational interview with his akashic record as we speak for a more positive identification."

Since the security clearances of those at the meeting varied, and some weren't cleared to have been read in on the empire's memory mapping and modification technologies, the good doctor was using "situational interview" as code for the comparison of Joon-ho's memories with the memories in his akashic record files. No interrogator, no matter how good they were, could possibly get every single memory—even the ones a person had completely forgotten—out of their subject's minds. The only thing the empire knew of that was capable of that was their own brain scanning tech, which was still currently held as tightly secured as the classification levels allowed.

And the only people in all of Task Force Proxima who had been read in on it were the fleet admiral, his flag intelligence officer, the chief surgeon, and Ayaka herself, who had the need-to-know as the head of the ground exploration team. After all, while they had expected that something like Joon-

ho's... condition... was possible, the probability of it happening was so vanishingly small that the protocol for it was only held in the hardcopy vaults of the mission contingency plans. Or as people in the know called them, "the think tank's doomsday archive".

Chapter 631

"And how is the special interview proceeding?" Ayaka asked, though she knew the process had likely been finished in seconds, or perhaps minutes. Comparing things didn't take long, after all; not for quantum computers, anyway. The only limiting factor was that there were a lot of items to compare, which would take at least a little bit of time due to the quantity, if nothing else.

{Due to the way Warrant Officer Lee was discovered and some anomalies in his scans, the interview will take extra time as the interviewer implements psychological testing measures to detect and prevent inaccuracies in the process or dishonesty on the part of the Warrant Officer,} the AI faithfully replied. The scope of the empire's brain and memory scanning technologies had been hidden from it on a classified, encrypted server that it was unable to access in the normal course of things, so it naturally referred to the process as a "special interview".

"If you use all available computing resources in the Proxima and shut down everything but critical infrastructure, would that speed up the process?" the fleet admiral asked.

{Yes, Admiral.}

"By how much?"

{The process would be completed in approximately 62 seconds, Admiral.}

"Then do it under my personal authorization, confirmation zulu bravo x-ray tango whisky foxtrot..." he ordered, attaching his own vocal confirmation code as shutdown protocol required. Each of the captains had a unique sixty-four character confirmation code for command override protocols that would prove they were in control of themselves when issuing certain orders.

Part of the lessons the empire had learned after the progenitor cult's downfall dealt with mind control as a fact of life, rather than a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. After analyzing footage of all the known cult assets that had been forced to comply with Rick Ashley's mana-backed orders, Nyx had discovered that no matter how perfect their behavior was, there were always subtle tells that indicated they weren't in complete control of themselves. One of those indicators was vocal tone, stress, and inflection; thus, for orders that could be considered harmful or damaging, the AI that would carry them out had to be able to confirm that they were being made of the person's own free will.

{Yes, Admiral. Verifying identity... verified. Verifying control protocol... verified. Handshaking... complete. Orders confirmed, Admiral. Proceed with shutdown of all non-critical operating tasks?} the AI asked.

"Proceed, Proxima."

{Confirmed, Admiral. Shutting down extraneous processes... complete. Shutting down normal processes... complete. Shutting down emergency processes... complete. Shutting down research tasks... complete. Shutting down virtual reality... processing... processing...} the AI reported.

"Just tell us when you're redirecting your capacity to the special interview, Proxima," Fleet Admiral Bianchi sighed. Some AIs were better than others and truly earned the moniker of Artificial Intelligence. But others, like the one he had been stuck with on his flagship, was more like an Artificial Stupid and was prone to following the letter of orders rather than the intent behind them.

Five minutes later, everyone on the ship had been forcefully ejected from their VR spaces and the AI reported that all available computing power was being focused on creating a time dilation field in the sole remaining VR space, which housed Joon-ho.

(Ed note: Some people might wonder why it would take any time at all. After all, aren't the computers magical and able to instantly do things? Well, yes and no. Consider that literally every single second since even before you're born, your brain has been processing input and forming memories, most of which we're completely incapable of remembering on a conscious level. The empire's tech can dredge those "forgotten" memories up and use them as an absolutely unique, 100% unbreakable identifier for a person. But that's still an ENORMOUS pile of data to work through, even at quantum speed.)

{Procedure complete in 62... 61... 60...}

The countdown continued as the conference room came under a complete silence. Everyone in the room was well aware of the potential that Joon-ho had when it came to causing harm and wreaking havoc, and the next fifty-odd seconds would be the ultimate determiner of his fate. If he was still the same Joon-ho, that would be great; but if he was some sort of quisling, he would be painlessly euthanized and broken down into his component atoms along with everything he had touched, and every deck panel his body had been carried past due to the empire's rather draconian quarantine and sterilization regulations.

In fact, much of that was being done already, with GEMbots having already dismantled the lander that had brought Joon-ho up to the Proxima, as well as much of the boat bay it had landed in. Everything that he had been in proximity to would be replaced with spares from the fleet's spares inventory, from the smallest set screw to the largest pieces of deck plating, and everything in between.

{Procedure complete, Admiral,} the AI reported.

"Resume normal operations, Proxima, and display the results of the special interview."

{Yes, Admiral,} the AI replied, then a hologram snapped into existence around the people in the room and they were transported to the timeless meadow.

The silence stretched as everyone in the conference room watched the events of the last few months playing out from Joon-ho's perspective. Their implants allowed them to process the scenes much faster than living them, so the file played out from start to finish in just a shade under an hour.

Then it was over, and the spell was broken by the AI. {Playback complete,} it said, the two words snapping the attendees of the meeting back to reality.

"That... I have no words," Dr. Standing Bear finally said. "I'll... I don't even know who to run that past. Xenobotany? Xenoanthropology? Xeno..." she trailed off and her eyes glazed over as she considered the ramifications of the first-contact interaction between Joon-ho and the trees. She began mentally shuffling personnel from research team to research team, forming the seed of a superteam that would take over as advisors for the diplomatic efforts that would inevitably come.

She barked a laugh and everyone in the room looked at her. "Seeds... never mind," she said, shaking her head. "I just startled myself with an inadvertent pun."

Chapter 632

Everyone at the conference table seemed to be focused on a different part of what they had seen in the reconstruction of events. Their concerns were, for the most part, what one would expect from their fields of expertise.

General Frances Robespierre, the commander of Task Force Proxima's marine contingent, was stunned by the trees' ability to create life, and on such a grand scale. Though there were only five new species—high elves, dark elves, fae, hill giants, and dwarves—multiple billions of each had been birthed and brought to full maturity in a much shorter time than any human could even give birth to full term infants. 'Four months... Four months!' he thought. 'It only took them four months to outnumber the entire human population, and that's just their adults!'

The thought of facing a potential enemy with that kind of ability to raise troops in that quantity was frightening, to say the least.

Commander Bryce Harrison, the admiral's personal awakener-cum-bodyguard was sitting in a daze with his eyes glazed over as everything he knew about mana and what it could do was being overwritten in his mind. He couldn't fathom the thought of a human awakener ever becoming strong enough to terraform an entire planet. Not even a small one, let alone Proxima Centauri b, which was almost a fifth again the size of Earth!

Dr. Standing Bear was considering the ramifications of the trees' demonstrated ability to replicate the biology of other species well enough to not only replicate them, but improve upon millions, if not billions, of years of evolution in such a short time frame. Not only that, they had done... something to separate Warrant Officer Lee's consciousness and sustain it outside his physical body for an extended period of time. It was a feat that would potentially redefine a number of fields in quantum physics, specifically those that sought to discover whether or not humans actually had measurable, detectable souls.

As for Ayaka, she was caught between laughter and tears that the trees had just happened to catch the one person in the entire task force that would guide them in creating races specialized for something other than their strengths in combat. Perhaps the Terrible Teenager's obsession with fantasy had come in handy after all!

She didn't know whether to be thankful for that, or exasperated by the thought of all the sex objects the hormonal teenager would have dreamed up. The thought of a nine-meter-tall giant, naked and aroused, flitted past her mind and she couldn't help but shudder at the size of his "weapon" in the mental image and what it would do to... someone else, but definitely not her. Nope, she would never be in a position to see a naked hill giant at all, aroused or not.

But it was certainly better, she knew, that the races created by the trees were bred along the lines of suggestions made by a horny teenager than if they had been influenced by a scientist—or even worse, a marine! If THAT had happened, the only solution she could think of would be to have the fleet back off to a safe distance and bombard the planet with c-fractional spinal-mounted kinetic penetrators until it shattered, then use manipulator fields to send the debris directly into Proxima Centauri itself.

If any of the marine's twisted life forms were to spread around the galaxy, it would be an unrecoverable blow to humanity's prestige and ruin their chance of standing on the galactic stage alongside any other civilized life they met.

"Ten billion..." Fleet Admiral Bianchi sighed. The number... changed things.

What had begun as a mission of exploration with the possibility of first contact diplomacy had just become more complicated by several levels, and his was the head that wore the crown in the Proxima Centauri system. It would take at least a year to send a dispatch back to Earth and receive updated orders in return, so as the de facto plenipotentiary of the Terran Empire, his decisions over the next few hours could potentially steer the entire empire's future direction.

Five light years used to be an unimaginable distance. All of human science had said that it would be virtually impossible to reach that far without a generation ship. But over the past few years, human science had been continually proven wrong and updated with new theories, new technologies, and new fields of study. Fields that had once been known as the home of crackpots, like quantum physics and any branch of science with "xeno" prefixed to it, were now flourishing on the bleeding edge of theoretical science like weeds after monsoon season. And with the discovery of the trees of Proxima Centauri b, those xenosciences would move from the theoretical to the practical.

"Proxima," the admiral said.

{Yes, Admiral?}

"Send Warrant Officer Lee to the meeting room. We've seen through his eyes, now we need to hear his thoughts as we move forward with this new information on hand."

{Immediately, Admiral. He will arrive in approximately fifteen minutes from... now.}

…

Fifteen minutes later, Joon-ho arrived and was directed to the front of the conference room to brief the brass on his experiences over the previous months he had been stuck in the timeless meadow.

"Let's begin with the million dollar question," Fleet Admiral Bianchi said. "Are the trees, or their child spawns, hostile to humanity?"

"I don't believe that to be the case, Sir," Joon-ho replied. "They seemed more curious than anything, and when they discovered that we were different from them, they were apologetic and almost... mournful over the loss of life they caused. To them, Sir, individuality is a vague and ephemeral concept. There's only five of them, after all, that are sapient. The rest of the flora on the planet was the result of a failed attempt at creating life, one they didn't repeat for an immeasurable amount of time—"

"Immeasurable, Warrant Officer Lee?" Dr. Standing Bear cut in.

"Yes, Ma'am. They appear to be immortal and time is a very loose concept for them. In speaking with them in the timeless meadow, I got the impression that it was at least one or two geological ages since their last attempt at creating life before they succeeded with the second batch, which will be born shortly."

Dr. Standing Bear nodded and indicated that she had no followup questions.

General Robespierre asked the next question. "What are the combat capabilities of the new races they're birthing?"

"I don't know, General," Joon-ho replied. "They haven't been born yet. I think it's safe to say that they'll be awakeners from birth, though."

The general visibly paled at the thought. Humankind only had a few hundred million awakeners of their own, and the thought of a species with ten billion of them terrified him. He had seen the devastation a single awakener was capable of producing and the thought of that many of them would fuel his nightmares until the day he died, most likely.

"They'll soon have ten billion awakeners then, all birthed and raised to maturity in a matter of months. Did they give you any indication of whether or not that would be a repeatable achievement?" he continued.

"It won't be, Sir. They used all of the mana that they'd accumulated on and in the planet to create the variety of life they have now, or will have once they're finally grown. There's also the terraforming they did with their personal mana reserves, Sir. Unlike us, the trees are capable of storing mana within them and drawing from their own reserves, like other plants that have been mutating back home. But they emptied their tanks, Sir, and won't be able to repeat the growth process anytime soon."

The general nodded and fell silent, lost in thought, as he signaled that his questions were done.

The presentation and debriefing continued for a few hours before Fleet Admiral Bianchi called a halt to it for the day.

"Go back and meet with your teams. Poll them and bring a list of questions for tomorrow..."

Joon-ho's eyes rolled back in his head and his vision turned black. He fell to the floor and began convulsing and frothing at the mouth; everyone in the conference room began panicking, especially Ayaka.

She refused—absolutely and categorically REFUSED—to let the annoyance she had recently realized was like a little brother to her die.

Not on her watch.

Not again.

Not... EVER... AGAIN!

Chapter 633

Ayaka was the first in the conference room to react to Joon-ho's sudden collapse. "Proxima, dispatch RES-QR response to my location immediately!"

Her words shook the rest of the attendees out of their stupor and a low hum of activity picked up in the background. Dr. Standing Bear muscled her way through the gawking civilians around her and rushed to the fallen awakener's side. She pulled an instrument from the pocket of her traditional white coat and ran it over Joon-ho from head to toe.

"I... what... how!?" she stuttered.

"How what?" Ayaka practically snarled.

"He's suffering from mana deprivation. I don't understand how that could be! We simply aren't made to store mana—it flows through and enhances us, it isn't something we require to function..." the petite Native American woman muttered, shock still clear on her features.

Then her gaze sharpened and she continued, "The trees. The trees, Commander! They must've done something and I think I know what the source of the anomalies we found in his scans is. Quick, help me get him out of this room, it's too tightly shielded and there isn't enough mana here for him to function."

The two women hauled Joon-ho roughly to his feet and threw his arms over their shoulders. "Make way!" Ayaka bellowed, roughly elbowing people who were too slow to move out of her way as she practically dragged both of the people she was linked with toward the hatch leading to the passageway outside the secure conference room they were in.

As the two women disappeared through the door, Fleet Admiral Bianchi smiled wryly and said, "I'll see you here tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. Come with your questions ready." He turned to his flag captain and continued, "Take us to ten light hours away from the planet, Captain. I'll be on the flag bridge."

"Yes, Admiral," Captain Das replied, getting only a casual wave of the admiral's hand in response as he headed toward the lift with broad strides, his chief of staff and personal awakener flanking him.

...

Mobile fleet hospital, TFS Proxima.

Dr. Cho met Ayaka and Dr. Standing Bear at the entrance of the hospital's quarantine ward. "I'll take it from here," she said, gesturing for a RES-QR to take Joon-ho from the two anxious women in front of her.

"Dr. Cho, a moment, please?" Dr. Standing Bear asked.

"A moment is all I've got, Miss Standing Bear. Make it quick," the chief surgeon snapped. It was obvious by the irritation and exasperation in her voice that she wasn't fond of the task force's head researcher.

"He's suffering from mana deprivation. When the trees rebuilt his body, they incorporated the same type of mana veins and storage that they use in their own. You'll need to—" Dr. Standing Bear began, but was cut off by the woman in scrubs.

"Don't tell me how to do my job, Rebecca. I'm well aware of his status and receiving continuous updates. Don't you have a lab to get back to? If you don't, then go somewhere else, I'm busy," Dr. Cho sneered, then turned to go back into the hospital ward she had just walked out of.

"But—!" Dr. Standing Bear began.

"Leave, Rebecca. You've always been good at that before, so just be good at it now and leave."

"But!"

"Fly, AWAY! Get out of here!" Dr. Cho snapped as the door to the hospital shut behind her.

Dr. Standing Bear took a deep breath and muttered the numbers one through ten under her breath, then, having obviously calmed herself somewhat, turned to Ayaka, who was standing there, her eyes glowing with a gentle white light.

As Rebecca watched, Ayaka floated a few inches above the deck and simply phased through the bulkhead and into the hospital ward. The researcher blinked, then rubbed her eyes and asked, "Proxima, did I just see what I think I saw?"

{I'm not sure, Lead Researcher. What do you think you saw?} the AI faithfully replied.

"Never mind, Proxima," she sighed, then rested her right elbow in the palm of her left hand and brought her right hand up to massage her temples. "It's been... a day."

...

Fleet Admiral Bianchi strode onto the Proxima's flag bridge, then called out, "I'll be in my ready room."

"Aye, Admiral. Should I...?" the watch officer began, but trailed off as he saw the hatch swoosh shut behind the admiral. He shrugged and turned his attention back to monitoring the fleet's movement through the Proxima Centauri system, shuttling to and fro as they sent asteroid after asteroid on a near-approach pass to the star itself, where they would be separated into their components by virtue of the different melting points of the metals and silicates contained within them. The star itself was a critical component of the protostellar forge they had spent so long setting up and was only now coming into full operation.

Marco Bianchi removed his uniform jacket and hung it on its designated peg, then set his uniform beret on it. He groaned as he fell into his chair, not because he was growing older and creakier, he mused, but rather out of habit and expectation. The VR pods used by the fleet maintained the sailors' bodies at their peaks, so there would be no creaky old bones until their bodies reached an age that not even genetic enhancements and engineering could counter and decrepitude finally set in.

He sighed and poured himself a snifter of brandy, then pulled a cigar from the humidor on his desk. He cut it and wet the cut end in the brandy, then clamped his teeth on it and lit the other end with a wooden matchstick.

"Well fuck me sideways," he muttered to himself. "That was certainly an eventful meeting."

The conference room they had met in was a SCIF, and was classified as Secret, Need To Know. The majority of attendees had had no need to know about the security measures that went into the cityship's SCIF, but that had flown out the window thanks to Dr. Standing Bear's ill-timed revelation that the admiral's current headache had collapsed due to mana deprivation. He knew his officers, and once they had time to think, they would realize what that meant.

(Ed note: A SCIF—short for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility—is a secure facility that's exactly what it says on the tin. If information needs to be handled and absolutely cannot be leaked, it's stored and/or communicated in a SCIF. They're the most secure facilities that the military and government agencies know how to build and are constantly upgraded as new discoveries are made.)

The SCIF was impermeable to mana.

During the cityships' construction, the emperor himself had visited the shipyards and carved runic circuits into one large conference room in each of them. There was nothing to indicate that the rooms themselves were any different than any other meeting room on any of the cityships, but they were indeed very special. They were shielded from ALL outside influences, be they biological, chemical, electronic, and even—thanks to Aron's shielding—shielded from the mana that permeated the very fabric of existence.

Smoke wreathed his head in a swirling vapor as the admiral puffed on his cigar. He knew that, come tomorrow, he would have some explaining to do.

Chapter 634

Elsewhere...

Ayaka found herself standing in a bright white nothingness. If she didn't feel a hard surface under her feet, she would have been incapable of telling up from down. But even with that as a reference point, she could see absolutely nothing anywhere around her.

She looked down to see what she was standing on and a part of her mind absently noted that she was naked. For some reason, though, her nakedness didn't bother her in the slightest. Her rational mind knew that it SHOULD be bothered, but for some reason she simply couldn't muster up any fear, nervousness, or anxiety at all, despite everything that had happened over the past few days giving her plenty of reasons for those negative feelings to have latched on to and taken root in her psyche.

Looking past the obvious, it soon became apparent that whatever it was she was standing on was so perfectly camouflaged with the glowing white mist that blocked her view in every other direction that she could see nothing. But the mist itself was so... comforting. It was like being in the arms of her mother, who'd often held her as a child when her father's strict discipline had had her in tears. Or perhaps, she imagined, what it would feel like in the arms of a lover.

The comfort itself made her rational mind scream that she should be terrified—alone, naked, and in a place so far removed from where she had been moments before as she was. But she couldn't. It was as if fear had become an alien concept, something she could rationally know existed, but never experience for herself.

"Hello?" she said in a loud voice. "Is there anybody out there?"

The mist around her absorbed her voice with nary a swirl, much like molten mercury would absorb a grain of sand.

"I'm Commander Takahashi Ayaka of the Terran Exploration Fleet ship Farsight. Please respond—is there anybody out there?" she called out again.

But there was no response, so she simply sat down on the... whatever it was she had been standing on and awaited a response. If she had been brought somewhere, it was done by someTHING, and it thus logically followed that it was for some purpose.

And all she had to do to discover that was simply wait.

... freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Sickbay, mobile fleet hospital ward 3, TFS Proxima.

Ayaka drifted along, phasing through bulkhead after bulkhead and occasionally crossing passageways in front of dumbfounded sailors, marines, nurses, and doctors. Her brightly glowing eyes stood out against her uniformed figure, which had itself begun glowing in that warm, comforting white light. Occasionally, as she passed a room, an arrow of that glow would shoot out from her and pass through obstacles in its path until it touched, and merged with, an ailing patient. Those whom the light touched were restored to peak condition, all aches, pains, bruises, and scratches caused by whatever had sent them to the hospital completely healed.

The doctors and nurses watching it happen were completely mystified, as was the AI of the Proxima itself.

{Admiral, there is an event taking place in the mobile fleet hospital that you should be aware of,} it reported to Fleet Admiral Bianchi, who was still in his ready room pondering how he should read people in on the emperor's capabilities, or at least a part of them.

The admiral groaned, fragrant cigar smoke escaping his nostrils and causing his eyes to water and a sneeze to build up in his sinuses. "What now, Proxima?"

Instead of verbally answering him, the AI threw a data recording of Ayaka floating through the hospital ward like a ghost, healing people as she passed.

"What the fuck..." Admiral Bianchi was speechless. First, sapient trees, then a warrant officer who didn't have the good graces to stay dead when he died, and now an expedition leader had turned into a ghost? Just what the hell was going on with his command!?

He stood with a groan, then squared his shoulders and pulled his uniform jacket and beret from the peg they were hanging on. As he squared his appearance away, he grumbled, "Someone's gonna explain just what the fuck is going on if I have to reach into hell and choke them to within an inch of their lives."

He stalked through the flag bridge and out, headed toward the hospital, where he would give... whatever that thing was a piece of his mind.

...

Ayaka finally reached her destination: a medical pod deep within the quarantine ward of the mobile fleet hospital.

"Oh you poor, dear boy," she said, an echo in her voice as though hundreds of people were softly speaking the words shortly after her. She stroked the pod and triggered the manual emergency release and causing the lid to slide open and away. Inside the pod was the recumbent, sleeping form of one Warrant Officer Second Class Lee Joon-ho.

"What have they done to you, my sweet child?" Ayaka—or whoever was currently inhabiting her body like a meat puppet—murmured. She stroked Joon-ho's brow, pulses of the bright white light surrounding her penetrating his forehead with each pass of her fingertips.

"Rest now, child. You'll be fine when you awaken." She bent over and softly kissed his forehead, then turned and drifted toward the armorglass separating the quarantine ward with the observation station.

She tilted her head to the side and blinked, then gave the observers a brilliant smile and brought her legs up to sit cross-legged in mid-air as she waited for someone or something. It was obvious that she knew she had provoked a reaction, and was simply waiting for it to arrive.

A few minutes later, the hatch in the quarantine ward opened and a squad of marines in full battle rattle stormed in, surrounding "Ayaka" at gunpoint. Following them was the stocky form of one pissed off Fleet Admiral Marco Bianchi of the Terran Space Fleet.

"Who, or whatever you are, you have some fucking explaining to do," he growled as he stared daggers at the softly glowing form of Commander Takahashi, hovering in the air before him.

Chapter 635

"Hello, Marco," whatever was inhabiting Ayaka said in its distant, echoing voice.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi simply stared back, irritation written across his face. "And who, or what, are you?" he said in an overly calm tone.

"I am..." the being wearing Ayaka tilted her head as if listening to a distant sound. "He wakes." She floated, still cross-legged in the air, to Joon-ho's side.

Joon-ho's eyes fluttered, then snapped open and he sat up with a gasp. He looked around for a moment in wide-eyed panic, then, upon realizing where he was, visibly calmed himself. "So I'm not dead yet, am I?"

"No, child. You're still very much alive," Ayaka's passenger said, stroking Joon-ho's hair. "And I am... glad, that you are."

Joon-ho looked at Ayaka for the first time since waking up—really looked—and out of all expectations, merely said, "I'm dreaming, aren't I. Very funny, Proxima. I didn't know you had it in you."

{Had what in me, Warrant Officer Lee?} the AI interjected.

"Wait... this isn't a dream?"

"No, child, you're very much awake," the glowing Ayaka said.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi glared at the glowing figure. "We need to talk," he interjected. "But first, release my Commander this instant!"

"I am she, she is me. We are Laifu. I cannot release her because there is nothing to release. We are one, just as this dear child is one with gravity."

"You're what now?" the admiral snarled. "What did you do with Commander Takahashi!?" He grabbed the glowing figure by her—its—uniform jacket and pulled hard, but Laifu didn't move.

"Calm yourself, Marco. Ayaka is fine, there was just something I needed to do and I used her hands to do it. But you're right," she said, her voice collapsing in on itself and discarding the echoes until only Ayaka's familiar sound remained. "We do need to have a discussion."

"My ready room, then," the admiral growled, then stalked off on his way to the flag bridge. If it wasn't one headache, it was another! Oh, how he wished they would come one at a time, but such was the burden of command.

"Ayaka" offered an enigmatic smile to Joon-ho, then serenely floated after the admiral.

...

Elsewhere.

§Welcome to the source, Ayaka,§ a voice said from somewhere within the mists Ayaka was trapped within.

"Who's there?" she said, leaping to her feet. The unexpected sound had startled her and she felt odd that her heart didn't seem to be beating fit to escape her chest. Then she realized her heart wasn't beating at all.

§Don't worry, you aren't dead. This is your astral body, and astral bodies are the truest representation of the self. You need no heart, no blood, no bone, no flesh here. You only need yourself, and your representation of that self is reflected in your form. Here, form is all that matters. It is not reflected by nor does it reflect function and function is lacking entirely, needing, as you do, only the form.§

It might have been just her imagination, but Ayaka thought she heard a smile in the voice.

§Indeed, Ayaka. Were I to take form and limit myself that way, I would have been smiling.§

"Are you reading my mind?" Ayaka asked, then recalled her training on what to do if she came across a mind reader. In her conscious mind, she began reciting the digits of pi by dividing 22 by 7.

§No, Ayaka. I don't need to read your mind, because I am you and you are me. We are Laifu. We are in the source, child,§ Laifu said.

"Source? What's that?"

§It is the source. The root of my power and the branch. The beginning and the end, and all things between. The source is the source, child,§ Laifu patiently explained.

Ayaka was only more confused by the explanation and decided to switch gears. "You said by taking form, you limit yourself. What did you mean by that?"

§Form does not follow the function, nor does function follow the form. Cause and effect are meaningless in the source. By limiting myself, I move from singularity to singular and cease to exist there in order to only exist here.§

"My head hurts," Ayaka groaned.

§Impossible. To hurt is a function and function does not exist here, only form.§

"It was a saying, Laifu," Ayaka sighed. "Would limiting yourself allow you to better communicate with a limited being like me?"

§Yes, and no. You are not limited. We cannot be limited. I am you, you are me. We are we. But yes, perhaps understanding could better be achieved were limitations implemented.§

The mist began thinning, then an instant, a second, an hour, or perhaps an eternity later, dwindled into the form of a humanoid female. She looked like a cross between Hatsune Miku and Deedlit, with long, blue hair in high pigtails that swayed with the movement of her head all the way down to her knees and long ears that tapered to a sharp point sweeping back from the sides of her head. Her face was heart shaped, with high, chiseled cheekbones tapering down to a narrow chin below a small mouth with thin lips. Her nose was pert and turned up at the tip and her phoenix eyes were turned up at the ends. Her eyebrows were thin and perfectly contoured to the shape of her brow.

She was relatively short, at around 151 centimeters tall, and slender, with a boyish, athletic figure, though she was still relatively generously endowed with D-cup breasts; they looked larger than they were, given her overall petite form.

Laifu opened her eyes. "Is that better, Ayaka?" she said with a smile.

"Much. Can you explain things now that you're... singular?"

"Yes. This is the source, the wellspring of eternity. It's where our power springs from, the power that your species is only now learning to tap into."

"You mean mana?"

Laifu nodded. "That is what you call it, yes. Mana. This is where it begins and ends."

"Am I dead?" Ayaka asked.

"No, child, you're not dead," Laifu said, then giggled. "I am the personification of life, of course you're not dead."

"So why am I here?"

"I needed Joon-ho to live, and you cared for him."

"It's that simple?" Ayaka sneered. Nothing was free, and she was convinced that someone would have to pay Laifu's price somehow.

Chapter 636

Admiral's ready room, TFS Proxima.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi dropped into the chair behind his desk, forgoing even his usual customary groan. "Commander Takahashi—"

"Laifu, Marco. Commander Takahashi is... elsewhere, at the moment. She has much to learn and little time in which to learn it."

"Fine. Laifu, then. Explain yourself," the admiral ordered.

"I am life."

Admiral Bianchi was silent, waiting for Laifu to continue. The silence stretched for a full five minutes before he realized she had "explained" everything she meant to explain. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Exactly what I said, Marco. I am life."

The admiral had no idea what to say to that, so he just pinched the bridge of his nose. Headaches were coming faster and harder than he could deal with, apparently, and before one was resolved, another was already crowding in to take its place. "Let's pretend for a moment that I have no idea what you mean by that. Explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old child."

Laifu tilted her head, lost in thought, then blinked and began, "In the beginning, there was only void—"

"Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" Admiral Bianchi groused. "Keep it to relevant things."

"But the history IS relevant, Marco."

"I don't need the history of life, the universe, and everything, Laifu. I'm not Douglas Adams," he sighed.

"Very well, Marco. I am what you humans refer to as the esoteric mana of life. But you only have a shallow understanding of what that means. How many fingers do you have on one hand?" she asked.

"I don't see the relevance, just get to the point."

"But it is important, Marco. How many fingers?"

"Four."

Laifu blinked, taken aback. "Can you not count?"

"I counted just fine. Humans have four fingers and one opposable thumb. You're not the only one who can be maliciously compliant, lady," the admiral sneered.

"Point taken, Marco. I'll try to take your limited experience and viewpoint into account going forward."

"See that you do. Now, continue, please."

"Just like human beings have five fingers on a hand, there are five of us that rule over all the mana in existence. I am one of those five. I am life."

"What are the other four?" he asked.

"You should know how we operate and why we are important, Marco. I will begin with that. All of existence is, and must remain, balanced. So just as I am life and my sister is creation, we have opposites that balance our existence. Life and death, creation and destruction. We maintain the fragile balance upon which all of existence hinges."

"You said there were five, what, or who, is the fifth?"

"Chaos, Marco. Chaos is the fulcrum, the hinge, the point upon which all of existence is precariously balanced."

Admiral Bianchi furrowed his brows; chaos seemed an odd thing to center existence on, to his mind. "But chaos is..."

"Unsteady? Random? Unpredictable?" Laifu finished the thought for him.

"Yes. How can something so unsteady be what 'all of existence' depends on?"

"Have you heard of chaos theory, Marco?"

"Isn't that like the butterfly effect?"

"Yes, but not completely. Chaos theory merely states that outcomes are dependent upon their initial conditions. Chaos was that initial condition that resulted in existence."

"I... see. But isn't that still too random and unstable to act as a balance point?"

"No. A chaotic system is one that only appears disordered and random on the surface, but is underpinned by a very strict underlying pattern and governed by a set of deterministic laws. You mentioned the butterfly effect, and that is an excellent example. If a butterfly flaps its wings here," Laifu gestured and a visual of Proxima Centauri b appeared in mid-air, formed of mana instead of the empire's holographic or augmented reality technology, upon which was a single blue dot, "a hurricane arises over here." The globe rotated to show the opposite side, where a swirling red vortex appeared on it.

"I fail to see how that's pertinent, miss."

"Oh, but it is. Humanity believes that to be random and unpredictable. Complete chance, in other words, but it is not. If the same butterfly in the same position flaps its wings with the same strength at the same time, among many other variables, the exact same hurricane would appear in the exact same place. It is very deterministic, but that determinism is what you perceive to be random chance."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That 'random chance' that you ascribe to the phenomenon is actually just getting one, or more, of the variables wrong." The globe rotated back around and blue dots began flashing and disappearing from various locations.

"I... see, I think," Admiral Bianchi said.

"Very good, Marco." Laifu offered him a brilliant smile. "Your arrival here was that very butterfly flapping its wings, and you have influenced an event that simply never happens. Your... awakener, Joon-ho, was directly involved with the creation of brand new, never-before-seen life, Marco. And that is what attracted my attention."

A look of comprehension dawned on the admiral's face. "So why are you using Commander Takahashi's body instead of his, then?" he asked.

"Because his body is already entwined with a mana that isn't under my direct, or even my indirect, supervision. So I required another, and Commander Takahashi—Ayaka—was the ideal candidate."

"Why is that?"

"Because she was meant to be a mother, a wife, a woman, a caregiver, a supporter... She was never meant to be what she is now, a leader, but chaos dictated otherwise. So here she is, and here I am, and now we are bound to one another as Joon-ho, that dear, sweet child, is bound to chaos."

Admiral Bianchi frowned again. "What do you mean he's bound to chaos?"

"Indirectly," Laifu laughed. "The boy is bound to mana that is bound to another mana that is bound to a subordinate conscious mana that is bound to another, that is under the direct control of chaos, one of the Five. Chaos is unique in that it never binds itself directly to anyone."

"So it's like a chain of command?"

"Exactly, Marco. That's exactly what it is. I myself have many other conscious mana that I directly supervise, and that filters down through the 'ranks'. The universe would not work otherwise, and existence would fall out of balance and cease to be were it to be left unsupervised."

Chapter 637

Fleet Admiral Bianchi wasn't exactly sure he liked the thought of that level of existence being under his command.

Laifu laughed again. "Don't worry, Marco. Commander Takahashi is under your command. I... am not. I cannot be, for many reasons, foremost of which is that there are rules by which I MUST operate and things I am strictly forbidden from doing."

"Are you reading my mind?" The admiral's eyes narrowed.

"No, Marco. I don't have to read your mind when your worries are written on your face." Laifu gave him an encouraging smile.

"So what are you forbidden from doing?" he asked, wanting to get an idea of what he could expect once Commander Takahashi was released and under control of her own body again.

"I'm sorry, Marco. I can't tell you the rules. All laws and rules have... loopholes, shall we say. But trust me, not telling you the rules is the best thing I can do for you."

"Why is that?"

"Temptation, dear Marco. You would be tempted to find ways around them, and perhaps even succeed."

"And why would that be bad?" he asked.

Laifu unfolded her feet and drifted over to the viewscreen on the wall of the admiral's ready room that simulated the view outside the Proxima. "Have you heard of heat death, Marco?" she asked, her voice suddenly grave.

"How does heat death relate to temptation?" he replied.

"Entropy, Marco. Entropy. Every rule the Five labor under is directly aimed at preventing, delaying, reducing, and combating entropy. And entropy is what will eventually lead to the death of everything and the unraveling of the fragile skein of thread that is existence." She smiled, a bit sadly.

"So you're saying that, every time you break—" the admiral began, but was interrupted.

"Or bend, Marco. Especially bend. Bending the rules is sometimes, or perhaps even most times, worse than breaking them outright."

"Okay... so every time you break, or bend, a rule, entropy creeps in?"

"Not exactly, Marco, but close. Entropy does not, by itself, exist. It cannot exist, not on its own. If there is no order, there can never be entropy. Entropy exists because order exists, and the converse is also true. Order exists in order to combat entropy."

"So it's like the chicken and the egg argument?"

"Not exactly. More like the ouroboros, or at least what it has come to symbolize."

"An endless cycle of beginnings and endings?"

"In part, yes, but also so much more. It symbolizes unity and wholeness, self-sufficiency and introspection, infinity and eternity, and most importantly, duality. Order and entropy are a duality and one cannot exist without the other. But they are also eternal foes—and to oppose something is to maintain it."

"What do you mean by that? Isn't opposition what eventually triumphs over what it opposes?"

"No, Marco," Laifu said with a sad shake of her head. "It's precisely the opposite. The more you oppose something, the more firmly it entrenches itself. Look to your own history for examples. The Civil Rights movement in the United States gave rise to both the Black Panthers and Aryan Nation. The women's liberation movement led to feminism and men's rights activism. And with every generation that split into opposing viewpoints, those viewpoints grew further and further entrenched, dividing society along an ever-deepening and widening gap until it was virtually uncrossable.

"But then you formed an empire, and began to heal the various divisions and schisms which plagued your own society. When I look across your grand fleets that you've sent out into the vast cosmos, I see men and women of varying identities, ethnic groups, religious beliefs, tribes, communities... I see many divisions among them, but they are striving to integrate rather than separate. They do not oppose each other, thus the divisions cannot be maintained and the people come together as one."

"I see. So by seeking not to oppose, but to understand, we naturally come together. But I don't see how that's relevant to the topic at hand," Admiral Bianchi said.

"Because it isn't very relevant, dear Marco," Laifu laughed. "We've gotten a little bit sidetracked, but the same can apply to order and entropy. Much like matter and antimatter, the two are complete opposites with nothing in common, so the only thing they can do is annihilate each other when they meet."

"So what you're saying, then, is that if we break one of the rules that govern your actions, we introduce entropy into our ordered system?"

Laifu turned and a brilliant smile spread across her face. "Exactly! You understand it exactly!"

"And that, simply by knowing the rules, we might try working around them, thus bending them—which is somehow even worse than breaking them?"

"Yes! You get it, dear Marco. You get it!"

"How does that work?"

Laifu was slightly taken aback by the question; she'd assumed that Admiral Bianchi understood what she had spent all this time talking about.

"How can bending a rule ever be worse than breaking it?" he continued, pressing the point.

Laifu took a moment to consider how to get the idea across to the admiral, then finally said, "If you live in a house and a water pipe breaks, how easy is it to spot and seal the point of the break?"

"Very easy," Admiral Bianchi said. "But how does that apply?"

"And what if that same pipe had, instead of broken, sprung a small leak? How easy would that leak be to find?"

Marco's eyes flashed with understanding. "I get it. You're saying that breaking a rule is like breaking a water pipe. It's easy to seal the breach when you know exactly where it is. But if a rule gets bent, it's much more subtle and harder to discover. And as you're looking for it, the leak continues dripping water into the walls. But then, if you know exactly where your pipes are, wouldn't you know where to look?"

Laifu laughed. "Indeed, Marco. Of course we know where to look! The thing is, when you're looking for a small leak in a house, that's only a few hundred meters of pipe to look through. And when you're looking for a small leak in a house the size of existence itself, the search takes quite a bit more time."

"And during that time, more and more entropy is allowed through."

"Exactly! So that's why we can't tell you the rules."

Marco and Laifu continued speaking long into the ship's night, while the others who had been present at the meeting in the SCIF were also busy working in their own specialties, coming up with a brand new SOP for interacting with the new species about to be born, along with contingency plans and questions that would be asked of Joon-ho in order to further refine the fleet's response to the new normal.

Chapter 638

The next day, TFS Proxima, the SCIF.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi had decided to gather a debriefing question list, considering Joon-ho was incapable of remaining in a mana void for any length of time, lest he risk collapse and death. Laifu had explained his situation the night before during their conversation before returning control of Ayaka's body to her. It had been quite a surreal experience for the admiral, and he was still contemplating the ramifications of Ayaka's new mana attunement. It wasn't every day that you met one of the beings that governed all of existence, after all.

"As you were," he said to the rest of the people in the room, who had stood to attention as he'd entered. "Since Warrant Officer Lee is... otherwise occupied, my chief of staff will be collecting the questions your sections have for him."

Everyone at the table was silent.

"None of you have any questions?" he asked.

"No. We simply don't know enough to know what we don't know, Admiral," Dr. Standing Bear finally replied. "There's no baseline reference we can use to determine what we need to know, so asking anything at this juncture is likely to be a waste of time at best, and send us haring off after wild geese at worst."

"Very well. Then this'll be a short meeting. Last night, I spoke with the being that... borrowed, shall we say, Commander Takahashi's body, and..." The admiral went on to explain what had happened to Joon-ho, as well as sum up what he'd learned in the conversation with Laifu.

"So does that mean..." Dr. Standing Bear began, but trailed off as she realized her thoughts were beginning to circle. Ayaka had awakened completely outside the age range that would allow for awakening, and in such a short time at that. And not only that, she had awakened an affinity to one of the five fundamental forces that governed all of creation—and it was SAPIENT!

She had so many questions they were all jammed up in her head and stuck there, unable to fit through the gate that was her mouth. It was a classic case of analysis paralysis, something she rarely suffered.

"Commander Takahashi, would you mind—"

"No," Admiral Bianchi interrupted.

"But Admiral, we could learn so much—"

"No, Dr. Standing Bear. Laifu made it perfectly clear that it would not allow Commander Takahashi to become a lab rat, I'm sorry to say."

Dr. Standing Bear's shoulders slumped and she seemed to collapse in on herself in her chair.

"Are there any other things we need to discuss?" the admiral asked.

There was no response from anyone around the table, save for a few who shook their heads.

"Very well, then. Commander Takahashi!"

"Yes, Admiral!" Ayaka perked up in her seat and sat at attention, head turned in Admiral Bianchi's direction and eyes focused on him.

"You are hereby promoted to full Captain, and will be assigned as the head of the xenodiplomacy task force. Warrant Officer Second Class Lee Joon-ho will be seconded to your command. Your primary duty is to act as the connection between the... treefolk... and the empire, and you are to investigate their intentions as well as put together a full dossier on them. This is a discretionary assignment, but the promotion is contingent upon your acceptance of the mission. Do you accept?"

All eyes in the room focused on Ayaka as she pondered the ramifications. On the one hand, she would be promoted out of schedule to full captain... but on the other hand, she wouldn't get a ship. Instead, her career would pivot to a dirtside billet, likely in intelligence. However, her sacrifice would greatly benefit the Terran Empire and her name would be in history books; she would come home covered in glory, as all Takahashis should strive to do.

After another minute or so of internal debate, she stood and saluted the admiral. "I accept the mission, Admiral," she snapped in her best Academy Yap.

"Very well. Proxima, make a note in the ship's log: at this time and date, Commander Takahashi Ayaka is promoted to Captain and will be taking over the xenodiplomacy department of the fleet. She is to be immediately transferred from the TES Farsight to the TFS Proxima. End note."

{Yes, Admiral.}

"Also," he continued, "assign her a steward from the pool. Do a full personality matching scan, you know the drill."

{Yes, Admiral.}

"Very good." He turned his attention back to the people around the conference table. "Are there any other orders of business?"

Everyone shook their heads again.

"Very well. Return to your duty stations and prepare for diplomatic support. Captain Takahashi, meet me in my ready room at 1500 hours. And bring Warrant Officer Lee with you."

"Aye aye, Admiral," Ayaka replied.

"Dismissed."

Everyone filed out of the SCIF, still digesting the bombshell that Fleet Admiral Bianchi had dropped on them.

...

Admiral's ready room, TFS Proxima.

Ayaka, with Joon-ho at her side, was just about to palm the door to request entry when it slide aside with a hydraulic swoosh. "Enter," the admiral said from inside.

The pair walked through the door and Ayaka came to attention and saluted. "Captain Takahashi and Warrant Officer Lee reporting as ordered, Admiral!" she crisply said.

"Sit down, Ayaka," Admiral Bianchi chuckled. "You're a captain now, no need for formalities in private."

She sat in the chair on the other side of the admiral's desk and looked around at the room. It was decorated in the style of an old tallship from the Age of Sail, all wood paneling with brass accents and a large "window" to the rear of the room. The desk was to the left as she entered, and opposite the desk on the right side was a table, upon which rested the map of the Proxima Centauri system in the style of an old naval chart. On the bulkhead by the door, the admiral's coat and beret hung from a peg, and behind his desk was an assortment of crystal decanters filled with various colored liquors.

The admiral's steward entered from a camouflaged door beside the bar. "What would the captain and warrant officer like to drink?" he asked, setting a mug of steaming coffee on the desk in front of the admiral.

"Nothing for me, thank you," Ayaka said.

"I'll have a mango juice please," Joon-ho added.

"Very good." The steward bowed at a precise angle and, like any good steward, seemed to vanish, his presence no longer required in the room.

"Alright," Admiral Bianchi said. "We have much to do and little time in which to do it. You two will be headed to the surface tonight at midnight, ship time. So use the next few hours to come up with an initial action plan."

He threw Ayaka a data file and continued, "Your official orders and requirements are in that file. Read it and ask anything you need to ask for clarification."

Chapter 639

Ayaka and Joon-ho looked over their orders, which were incredibly broad. Normally, military orders would provide detail after detail, along with multiple contingencies at every escalation step up to and including planetary destruction.

Thanks to training in the simulation, they even knew what a planet looked like after being hit by one of the spinal-mounted planetkiller coilguns mounted on some of the TFS ships. And they also knew what would happen if even a TES exploration cruiser were to continuously bombard a planet with their spinal-mounted coilguns.

It only took the two a few minutes before Ayaka began asking questions. "Who is going to be assigned to our task force, Admiral?" she asked.

"Whoever you need, Captain. You have full authority and first priority to pick whomever you think you'll need on your team."

"What about materiel, Sir? It simply says here that we'll have 'full access to any and all necessary resources.'"

"Full access means full access. You even have first priority on the protostellar forge, and if a project is currently underway, depending on its level of completion, you can kick it out of the queue and take its place."

The weight of the mission was growing heavier on Ayaka's shoulders by the moment as she continued hearing the dreaded "full support" answers from the fleet admiral. "What about training, Sir? We don't have many, if any, xenodiplomacy specialists in the task force."

"Let me put it to you this way, Ayaka. Full access means full access. As long as you can establish a permanent, beneficial connection with the trees, you can have whatever you want. I'll even authorize a fleetwide connection and stand-down so you can train your personnel at the highest possible level of time dilation in VR. The only, and I stress ONLY, requirement being asked of you is that connection. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir," Ayaka and Joon-ho chorused.

"Very well. Get to work," Fleet Admiral Bianchi ordered.

Ayaka and Joon-ho snapped to attention, then headed toward the door. But before they walked through it, the admiral's voice drifted to them once more. "And one more thing, Captain. You and your team report directly to me."

Ayaka turned and saluted, then marched through the door, her spine ramrod straight and shoulders back.

...

Orders in hand, Ayaka and Joon-ho immediately got to work. The admiral approved their request for three days of fleet stand-down and max-dilation VR training environments, using Joon-ho's memories as the basis for the treefolk representatives. And while that environment was being built, they weren't idle themselves; instead, they were sorting through the dossiers and records of every single member of Task Force Proxima.

With the AI's help, they had narrowed their candidate pool down to a thousand potential members, but the final goal was to only have five diplomats with two squads of marines providing both security and ceremonial details. After all, their negotiations with the trees would be a groundbreaking, epoch-making event in both societies' history books... or whatever the trees used to record their history... if anything was recorded at all, at least.

When they were notified of the training simulation's completion, by unspoken agreement, they both took to their pods in order to continue their work there. Considering the vast number of ships in the fleet, they were able to achieve an 80:1 time dilation rate, which would give them about 8 months of subjective time to build their team and learn the ins and outs, such as they were, of dealing with the treefolk.

Meanwhile, outside of the VR environment, the protostellar forge ramped up to a hundred percent of its capacity, all projects that had yet to enter the pipeline delayed in favor of stocking up brick after brick of raw material.

Something within her told Ayaka that she would soon need as much raw material as she could get her hands on.

…

Three days later.

Ayaka and Joon-ho were in a lander, preparing to head back to the surface of Proxima Centauri b. Opposite them were the three people they had finally settled on to join the diplomatic mission: Leigh Ayers-MacDougall, a tall brunette from Australia with an olive tan; George Stefanopolous, a medium-height Greek man with dark, curly hair; and Boris Rustakovya, a tall Russian with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked like he had been chiseled out of a granite cliff, and could carry the rest of that cliff on his back if need be.

Leigh was a botanist and had been poached from Dr. Standing Bear's team, where she served as the head researcher's right-hand woman. In her spare time, she just so happened to be a nyxian agent as well. She had been recruited by the NIS straight out of her master's degree program after a disastrous marriage ended in a catastrophic divorce and was one of the intelligence branch's finest twists... not that she'd found any use for that particular specialty as part of Task Force Proxima, of course, though her personal VR space had caused her ship's AI to put a number of flags in her confidential record.

George had been a lawyer specializing in contract law before signing up to join ARES after his wife had gotten caught up in one of the cultist attacks on Mykonos, where they had been vacationing at the time. When he'd graduated his training, he had been placed as a bosun's mate and worked his way up to the rank of BN2, or bosun's mate second class. Contrary to most lawyers, especially those that specialized in negotiations and contracts, he was a gruff, silent man who spoke little and listened much.

But the oddest of an odd selection of diplomatic members was Boris. Standing well over six feet tall and being almost as wide in his shoulder circumference measurement, at first glance one would quite likely think that he would punch first, then punch later, then punch some more if the first two didn't get his message across. However, that was absolutely not the case; Boris was a rather jovial, outgoing, pacifist vegan. He also held multiple Ph.D.s in specialist fields of psychology and was a practicing ship's psychologist on the TFS Proxima herself. He had been added to the diplomatic mission as its xenodiplomacy specialist, at least insofar as anyone could be considered as such.

Heading up their marine detachment, which the admiral had increased from two squads to a reinforced company of five squads, was Major Viktor Petrovich, seconded from his position as the commanding officer of the marine contingent aboard the TES Farsight. Unlike the others in the diplomatic mission, he had volunteered for groundside duty instead of being poached from other positions in the fleet.

The light in the passenger compartment of the lander flickered from amber to red as the pilot received clearance to launch, and soon after, he executed a textbook combat launch complete with both manual and AI-controlled evasive maneuvers from the moment they left the comparative safety of the TFS Proxima's boat bay.

Chapter 640

The wildly corkscrewing lander entered the atmosphere at combat speed, echoing sonic booms and contrails of moisture in its wake, tinted black and gray by the fireball of superheated air surrounding the craft itself. Soon, though, the smoke, fire, and vapor dissipated as the pilot brought the lander to a sudden halt just a meter above the ground, then smoothly drifted down the rest of the way until the deployed landing skids took up the weight of the craft without a single jostle or bump.

The indicator light in the passenger cabin switched from red back to a warm amber as the pilot's voice came over the intercom. "We're on the ground," the pilot announced to the diplomats. Luckily it was also transmitted directly to their implants, because none of the five members of the diplomatic mission could actually hear the announcement over the sound of their own retching.

"Thank god," Ayaka sighed, then closed her eyes and focused on what she was feeling in her toes to take her mind off her stomach, which was still doing its own form of acrobatics in her belly.

She slowly counted to ten, then opened a comms channel with Major Petrovich. "Establish the perimeter, Major," she ordered, receiving an almost immediate confirmation. The status indicator on her combat helmet's HUD updated as the reinforced guard company of marines rushed out of the lander at full speed and moved to create a fifty-meter-diameter perimeter around the lander.

Five minutes later, the perimeter had been established and an activity baseline set to prevent false alarms. "All clear, Ma'am," the major announced.

"Thank you, Major." Ayaka turned to the rest of the diplomats sharing the passenger cabin with her and continued, "Well, lady and gentlemen, it's up to us now. The future of the empire itself hinges on our actions over the next few hours and days, so let's get to it."

Without further ado, she released herself from her crash harness and forced her unsteady legs to support her as she hustled down the lander's exit ramp where, just a few meters north of the lander, the tree that Joon-ho had been discovered beneath was peacefully swaying to and fro in the gentle breeze.

The five diplomats moved to stand in front of the tree, where they waited for... something. Joon-ho hadn't been clear on how to contact the trees other than simply going to the tree his new body had been nurtured by and waiting. Beyond that, everything was a mystery.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, and Boris turned to Joon-ho. "Are you sure this is what we need to do, comrade?" he asked.

"Well, err... I think so?" Joon-ho replied, a lack of confidence in his voice as he brought up his hand to scratch the back of his head only to be reminded that he was wearing an upgraded Mk. X ARES SLEEK suit, which was two generations improved over the suits ARES troopers had worn during the Last War. "I mean, I'd thought that—"

He was interrupted by a violent tremor shaking the ground beneath him. He stumbled and almost fell, but was saved at the last minute by a dark, almost black hand wrapping itself around his elbow and helping steady him. "It seems your empire's efficiency is everything you told us it was," an amused, feminine voice said from near his ear.

Ayaka was startled by the voice and turned around, looking for the speaker. On the opposite side of Joon-ho from her was a nude woman with her left hand on the teen's elbow. She was slender and athletic, with only the barest hint of breasts and a flat posterior. Her face was slightly, yet exaggeratedly triangular in overall shape and she had wide cheekbones with equally wide-set eyes resting above them, between which was a long, straight nose that rested over thin lips and a sharp, angular chin.

Her skin looked like the local trees' bark, all gnarled and so dark it was nearly black, and the "hair" tumbling down from the top of her head was a mere carpet of vines and moss, somehow knit together in a shape that was suggestive of hair without actually BEING hair. A pair of long, slender ears poked through the carpet of faux hair, running nearly horizontal to the ground and tapering to a sharp point at the tips. As the deep violet hair swayed in the breeze, a careful onlooker would see that it actually separated around the woman's ears like water flowing around a rock.

Overall, her appearance was notably alien and evoked a slight discomfort in the diplomats as they looked at the woman from top to bottom. It wasn't just the alien proportions, which were completely unlike the Golden Ratio—or Divine Proportion—that dictated human appearances. There were also other differences, some subtle and some otherwise. For instance, the "woman's" feet completely lacked toes, and her skin didn't just share the appearance of the local tree bark—it actually was the bark of a Proximan tree!

The woman released Joon-ho's elbow and threw both arms around his shoulders, drawing him in for a close hug. "It's so good to see you again, Joon-ho!" she exclaimed.

"It's good to see you, too, Birch," Joon-ho replied, then reached up and pulled off his SLEEK suit's helmet. "I can't say as though I miss the meadow, but I definitely missed you guys. I think. How long has it been since we last saw each other?"

Birch tilted her head until her ear almost brushed her shoulder, which would be practically impossible for any human to accomplish without snapping their spinal cord. "Not long? Not short? I don't know."

"Oh, right. I forgot... time isn't something you're good with." Joon-ho smiled at the Proximan woman, then turned to Ayaka. "Let me introduce you," he gestured toward Ayaka, "this is Captain Takahashi Ayaka, the leader of the Terran Empire's diplomatic mission to the Proximan people and plenipotentiary of the Terran Emperor, who has a bunch of titles that would take a long time to recite so I'll just say that she's awesome as fuck and leave it at that."

He grinned at Ayaka and continued, "Captain Takahashi, this is Birch, of the Proximan treefolk, who has no titles and I'm sure is working on coming up with a better name as we speak."

Chapter 641

"We are... pleased to meet you, Commander—excuse me, Captain—Takahashi, plenipotentiary representative of the Terran Empire," Birch said, extending her hand to shake Ayaka's. She paid no attention to the marine guard contingent standing like statues, weapons in hand—albeit politely pointed toward the ground—and rendered anonymous by their unmarked SLEEK suits. "I am Birch, and through me you may speak to Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress as well."

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Lady Birch, and the others as well," Ayaka said, taking Birch's hand and politely shaking it. Her other hand signaled the rest of the diplomats, then she broke the environment seal on her SLEEK suit and removed her helmet, followed by the three remaining diplomats. "These are my colleagues: George Stefanopolous, an expert in contractual and treaty law—"

"Pleasure, Lady Birch," George said with a slight bow of his head.

"Dr. Leigh Ayers-MacDougall, a xenobotanist expert and the scientific advisor of the delegation," Ayaka continued.

"I'm thrilled to finally meet you, Lady Birch!" Leigh chirped in a friendly, excited tone. "May I ask—"

"There'll be time for that later, Dr. Ayers-MacDougall," Ayaka interjected. "And this is Boris Rustakovya, our xenodiplomacy advisor."

Boris waved at Birch and said, "I'm excited to meet you, Lady Birch, and look forward to discovering more about you and this delightful planet of yours! And warm greetings to the others present as well—Lords and Ladies Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress." He gave Birch a brilliant smile, turning his craggy face from broody to boyishly charming in an instant.

"And I believe you've met Warrant Officer Lee Joon-ho, our delegation's awakener," Ayaka finished.

Joon-ho smiled and waved at Birch. "You look magnificent, Birch. It's nice to finally put a face to the, err... tree, I suppose. The meadow was a bit hard to get used to and I could never really tell if I was talking to myself, you see, because we—"

"Alright, Joon-ho, you can catch up with Lady Birch later," Ayaka said, shooting him a Look with a capital L. "Right now, we need to attend to business."

Birch returned his smile with her head once again tilted, this time toward her other shoulder. "Of course, Joon-ho, and thank you for your compliment." She turned back to Ayaka and continued, "I know you must have many questions, since Joon-ho was too busy answering ours to ask any of his. Please allow me to bring us to a more comfortable setting... I know Joon-ho complained about our hospitality many times during the time he spent with us in what he called the 'timeless meadow'"

She waved her hand and meters-thick roots sprang up from the soil, racing into the sky and twining together, weaving themselves into thick walls and finally arranging themselves into what looked like a daimyo's castle straight out of the Japanese Sengoku period.

The marines, when they saw the roots break ground, began shouldering their pulse rifles, but Ayaka shook her head at Major Petrovich and gestured for the security to stand down. She perceived no threat from the roots, and her instincts had told her that Birch was being honest and forthcoming. Or perhaps it was Laifu, mostly dormant within her, giving her that sixth sense and empathic abilities.

(Ed note: The Sengoku Period ran from the 1460s to 1610s in Japan and was characterized by daimyos and samurai. It actually wasn't a very pleasant period to live in, as the caste system was incredibly strict and samurai weren't nearly as decent or as "honorable" as they've been depicted in Western-targeted media.)

"Thank you for the hospitality, Lady Birch," Ayaka said as she checked that all of her links with the Proxima were still connected and properly functioning. "Will this... castle... interfere with our communications with the ships in orbit?" It would be a shame if such a beautiful castle were to be on the receiving end of a planetkiller bombardment, after all.

"It will not, Captain Takahashi," Birch replied in no uncertain terms.

"Then we accept your hospitality," Ayaka said with a smile, as though there wasn't the threat of immediate planetary destruction hanging over the head of the treefolk and their soon-to-be-born "children".

"And you are absolutely correct, we do have many questions for you. Warrant Officer Lee's debriefing was... not as hopeful as we'd have liked, shall we say."

"What's a 'debriefing'?" Birch asked, her head practically turning a full hundred and eighty degrees upside down.

(Ed note: Again, still not fond of multiple ed notes per chapter, but picture the kodama (木霊 or 木魂) from the classic Studio Ghibli film "Princess Mononoke". They were the little critters in the trees with the three holes as faces; here's a picture (safe link, I promise): /miyazakikodama )

"A debriefing is when someone is brought before a panel of interested parties and questioned about a specific period of time or operation," Ayaka answered. "It's much like how the five of you interacted with Warrant Officer Lee in the timeless meadow."

Birch stilled, then lowered her head and cutely pressed her index fingertips together. "We owe you an apology for that, Captain Takahashi. It was never our intention to harm any of your individual beings... We thought you were much like us, and only Joon-ho was a sapient being and the rest of you were as disposable to him as our leaves are to us. We had no concept of individuality before that, nor could we ever have imagined that beings different from us existed.

"Those reasons don't and aren't meant to excuse our reprehensible actions that cost you the lives of seven individual beings. If you would like to memorialize them, you can tell us about them at your convenience. We... remember. We may not have conceived of individual life like that before, but we never forget anything that passes," she said with obvious grief in her voice. It was apparent that the treefolk had never come into contact with death before.

Ayaka blinked away the moisture from her eyes before it could form tears and said, "Thank you for that, Lady Birch. Your offer is... most appreciated."

Chapter 642

Ayaka took a moment to compose herself, then squared her shoulders and faced Birch. "But right now we have more pressing matters to consider. We'll take you up on your gracious offer of a memorial in the future, but we need to know more about your children, and the children of your compatriots," she said. "How mature, mentally and emotionally speaking, will they be when they're... born?"

"That is an excellent question, Captain. We discussed it among ourselves and decided that it wouldn't be cost-effective, in terms of mana expenditure, to raise them to the maturity level of Joon-ho when they're first born. But that was only a contributing factor to the eventual decision... What was more important was that we learned from him that individuals that aren't part of a collective, as we are, are shaped and formed by their experiences.

"So if we were to artificially implant Joon-ho's experiences into our children, they would be born with the same inspirations, hopes, and plans that he has within him based on his own life experience. And that, we thought, would be unbefitting of their unique individuality, an individuality that we hope to foster in them."

Ayaka nodded in understanding. She wholeheartedly agreed, and the thought of billions of Terrible Teenagers running amok sent a chill shivering down her spine. One Joon-ho was more than enough, and perhaps half a Joon-ho too much.

"How do you plan on raising them, Lady Birch?" she asked.

Birch's head rotated a hundred and eighty degrees and she gazed off into the distance as though she could see through the root construct that compromised the outer walls of the castle she had created out of what was essentially an extremely sturdy wicker. "We were actually hoping that you could help us with that, Captain," she finally said after a moment.

The smile on Boris' face faltered as he was reminded that Birch was still fundamentally alien; no human could possibly swivel, twist, and turn their heads as she did out of hand.

"We can teach you developmental psychology if you like, and childrearing practices... at least, we can teach you HUMAN childrearing practices. I'm not sure how well they would apply to nonhuman species, though," Ayaka said, then turned to Boris. "What do you think?"

"Da. It's likely that our childrearing practices and developmental psychology would only have limited applicability to the newborns," he said, resting his elbow in his hand and rubbing his chin with his thumb. Ayaka concealed a wince; Boris had apparently forgotten that he was still wearing a SLEEK suit and that chin rub must have stung like a bitch.

But the gregarious Russian gave no sign as he continued, "We would need to study one in their development and generate a new field of developmental psychology..." He trailed off, mumbling incoherently to himself as he considered the creation of an entirely new field of psychology and the ramifications of it. As far as anyone knew, this was the first interaction humanity had ever had with an alien species, so his name would join the other greats of psychology in recorded history!

...If, that is, he was successful. Developing an entirely new school of thought to the point that it could be applied to billions of newborns—adult bodies or not—would be extremely difficult. And that difficulty would be raised to hell mode if he had to do it in the remaining time before the population was born. 'Dammit!' he thought. "Why couldn't they have staggered the births, or reserved some of them? Or even just not birth so fucking many of them so they came out at least able to speak and use rudimentary tools!'

"Well, Boris?" Ayaka asked.

"Oh? Ah! Ahem... da. It's possible, but so is Proxima Centauri going supernova tomorrow. There's just not enough time to come up with a developmental plan for a species that doesn't even exist yet," he said.

"But it's theoretically possible? What about time dilation?"

"We would need a control group and enough time dilation to watch them develop completely without interference to get a baseline, then repeat the process through a generational study with multiple test groups..." Boris devolved into highly technical psychological terms and Ayaka's mind fuzzed out a bit.

"Give me a moment to discuss the situation with the fleet, please, Lady Birch. Right now it's looking like we simply don't have enough time for the first generation, but there may be another possibility," she said, turning to Birch.

"Another possibility, Captain Takahashi?" Birch asked, spinning her head back around to face the erstwhile diplomat.

"Yes, it's possible that, if you can delay their birth for say... a week, perhaps two, we can come up with a stopgap measure."

"What is a week?" Birch tilted her head in confusion.

"A week is seven days... oh. Oh! Right, your concept of time differs from ours. A week would be..." She turned to Joon-ho with an expectant expression on her face.

"Almost a full turning around your sun, Birch," he added. "Better to say three full turnings, tops. That would be four weeks, give or take, in Earth time."

Ayaka nodded and her eyes glazed over as she "spoke" to the admiral on the Proxima. A few minutes later, she said, "Yes, three turnings would be barely enough time for what I have in mind. We can build a massive supercluster that allows extreme time dilation and build enough VR pods to grant your children access to it, where they would be raised in a freeform environment that allows for maximum possibility in their development. Would that suffice, Lady Birch?"

"That would be splendid, Captain Takahashi," Birch said with a smile. Though, on her alien face that lacked lips, her smile looked more like a thin-lipped grimace. But that was just one of the quirks of xenodiplomacy; body language, in particular, would always remain different between different species.

"So what would you offer in exchange?" Ayaka asked.

"Well, I'm not sure we really have anything to offer," Birch said.

"What about joining the empire?" George interjected.

Birch turned to him, her face a mask. "Joining the empire? We will not promise anything on our children's behalf, nor will we attempt to guide, or force, them into a decision of their own."

"What about if the decision was left up to them?" he continued.

"That would be... acceptable, Mr. Stefanopolous. We understand that diplomacy requires negotiation, and negotiation is a matter of give and take. But there are some things we will never compromise on, and interfering in our children's lives is one of those things."

"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Then let's begin the negotiations, shall we?" George, now in his negotiator mode, was far less dour and much more willing to speak in complete sentences.

Chapter 643

Hours passed as George and Birch negotiated, seated at a table she had grown for the specific purpose.

"What do you mean 'provisional' citizenship, Lady Birch?"

"We cannot promise full and lasting entry into the empire as an auxiliary society without first meeting the very emperor we would be swearing our allegiance to, can we, Mr. Stefanopolous?"

"Well, if you put it that way... no, that's an unreasonable request." George pondered for a moment, then continued, "Very well, I can accept that in our tentative agreement."

"How will you meet the emperor?" Ayaka asked. She agreed that the meeting would be of pivotal importance to both societies, but the logistics of facilitating such a meeting would be an absolute nightmare. Even at their ships' fastest speed, it would require the emperor of humanity to be absent from Earth for a full year. And that didn't take into account the length of time he would need to spend on Proxima Centauri b.

"We have no idea," Birch answered. "But until we personally meet him, we won't allow our children to potentially die in your conflicts."

"And what criteria will you judge him on?"

"Whether or not he is worthy of our sacrifices."

Ayaka considered that for a while. But since the criteria was so broad, she could do nothing about it so she didn't waste much time thinking about it and switched topics. "Would you permit us to reestablish our research facility on the surface?" she asked. Last time hadn't gone exactly smoothly, between the mana-infused storm and the dangers posed by the trees' roots. So it would be a good idea, she thought, if she asked for permission up front rather than seeking forgiveness later.

As if she could read minds, Birch smiled and said, "Don't worry. Nothing will harm you if you choose to rebuild your base here. Last time it was a reflex, like swatting away a buzzing fly. This time, as long as you don't willingly harm the planet, you're welcome to our world."

Ayaka returned the smile. "Thank you, Lady Birch. And I have to ask—humankind has a virtual recreation of reality that we access through our conscious minds. Do you have a brain structure that would allow you to join us there?"

"That would take a larger device than I think you have," Birch laughed. "Our neural network is distributed throughout the entire planet, so unless you have a planet-sized... what did Joon-ho call it? A VR pod?" She fell silent in contemplation for a brief moment, then continued, "Anyway, unless you have hardware that would fit our bulk in, I'm afraid the answer is no."

Ayaka and Birch traded questions back and forth for more than three hours before the conversation came to a satisfying conclusion and the two agreed to meet again after the thorny problem of raising the first generation of Proximans was well on its way to completion.

"I'm always available and will be keeping close watch on my children from afar," Birch said as she stood and extended her hand to Ayaka for a handshake.

Ayaka shook her hand and watched as the elven woman with the bark skin and mossy hair turned back into a towering birch tree. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, "Time to get to work." There was much to be done and not a lot of time in which to do it.

She slowly spun around, taking a good look at her surroundings. 'Only Joon-ho,' she thought, shaking her head with a wry smile. 'Only the Terrible Teenager could come up with such a mish-mash of history and Earth mythology... Giants, really?' She suppressed a giggle, then schooled her face back into its normal neutrally pleasant expression.

Although she was about to begin an enormous time- and resource-intense task, she felt nothing but excitement deep down. While, technically speaking, Joon-ho was the one who had established first contact with the Proximan treefolk, she would be the one credited with opening a diplomatic communication channel. It was something that would have been almost impossible to even begin contemplating, had she remained in her previous position.

But thanks to the Terrible Teenager, her little brother in all but ancestry, she had ended up receiving that exact impossible opportunity. And she wasn't about to fuck it up.

Ordering Joon-ho to remain on the surface with a fire team of marines to act as "embassy guards", Ayaka took the rest of the diplomatic mission and marines back to the Proxima to wait for Research Base New New South Wales to be rebuilt.

As for Joon-ho, he was to remain dirtside to act as the liaison between the Proximan treefolk and the humans, who had already begun construction of an artificial moon that would house the quantum superclusters they would need to maintain high VR time dilation without virtually crippling their entire fleet every time the need arose. A second lander that had undergone refit to act as temporary housing for Joon-ho and his security team had already been dispatched from the Proxima, and the two landers passed each other as they headed for their destinations. One of them was crowded with GEMbots and constructor swarm queens, while the other was packed with diplomats and marines.

Aboard the outbound lander, which Ayaka had ordered to take a normal approach to the Proxima, the woman in question was busy finalizing a plan that would enable the Terran Empire to absorb ten billion aliens as provisional citizens. She had discovered a love for the job of xenodiplomacy and planned to exploit her current circumstances in order to provide the maximum benefits possible to the empire.

Not for a single second did she consider using the Proximans as the basis of a second star empire. She didn't even consider forging them into a country, or returning to Earth for a hostile takeover and supplantation of the current ruler. She knew deep down that the moment anyone attempted such a thing, they would be hammered by the fist of a god and cremated by a rage that burned hotter than the fiery cores of ten thousand suns.

Chapter 644

TFS Proxima, the SCIF.

"That's everything we discussed, Sir," Ayaka said, ending her report to the fleet admiral.

He took a moment to consider the information; the meeting had gone in a direction he couldn't possibly have expected. Initially, he'd expected the worst, given the early hostilities between the trees and humans, and had thought there would be some misunderstandings or ideological differences between the species. But though there were indeed misunderstandings and ideological differences, the misunderstandings had been cleared up and the ideological differences resolved through the brilliant policy of "it doesn't matter".

Joon-ho's experiences with them had already indicated that the trees were a tolerant, forgiving, and compassionate species, but as a lifelong military man, Fleet Admiral Bianchi had a decided pessimistic bent to his thought process. And now that he had heard Ayaka's report, his skepticism was beginning to wane and he was feeling rather... optimistic, a state of mind he wasn't all that used to.

"What's your take on their request, Captain?" he asked after a few minutes of thought. He had rearranged his decision-making process to fit the reality of the interspecies dialogue and was willing to entertain Ayaka's input into his upcoming plans, should it make sense.

"There's nothing to lose and everything to gain, Sir. No matter what the reasons are behind the trees' request, everything will be beneficial to the empire whether they hold up their end of the bargain or not. If they do hold up their end, then great, everything's worked out for the best. And if they don't hold up their end of the bargain, they'll find their children leaning rather far toward humanity instead of the trees." Ayaka had already considered the matter from every angle she could think of, so she didn't even have to consider her response for a moment; the question was one she had anticipated, anyway.

In her mind, it wouldn't matter if the trees held up their end of the agreement. No matter what, they would have an overwhelming amount of data on the five species, as well as hundreds of millions, if not billions, of new citizens for the empire. The only thing that would change would be whether or not those new citizens were initially willing to join the empire on a permanent basis. If everything worked as planned, they would willingly join the empire. And if the trees proved untrustworthy, well... humanity would simply wipe Proxima Centauri b from the galaxy and brainwash the new species into compliance.

It wouldn't be the first time humanity would be required to be trickier than others, nor would it be the last. It wouldn't even be the first time the Terran Empire as a polity would be using their technology to brainwash people... or at least she thought that was the case, anyway. All throughout history, the militaries of various countries hadn't even bothered trying to hide the fact that they brainwashed their members, and Ayaka had a sinking suspicion that the diaspora would include heavy levels of brainwashing the people aboard their cold-sleep generation ships as they sailed across the galaxy looking for new planets to plant their inhabitants on.

But something about brainwashing the newborn species still bothered her quite a bit, though she shoved that feeling into a box and would examine it later, when she had a moment. Her duty to the Terran Empire came first, then her duty to her family, then her duty to her species... Her duty to herself was far down on her list of priorities, if in fact it was on that list at all in the first place.

"If it were up to you, how would you go about it?" the admiral asked.

"I have a basic idea, Sir."

"What's the elevator pitch?"

(Ed note: An elevator pitch is a concept from Hollywood, where screenwriters submit, or "pitch", their ideas to producers and financiers in presentations that last about as long as an elevator ride. For example, the elevator pitch for the movie "Inception" would be something along the lines of "A gang of thieves enter people's dreams to steal information and plant ideas.")

"We need to put all of them into VR before they even wake up, and increase the time dilation to as much as they can handle. While they're in VR, we'll teach them everything they need to function and let them live out a normal life without further interference."

"And how would you suggest we go about that, Captain?"

"We bought ourselves another E-month, which should be just enough time to manufacture all the pods we'll need for the 'children'. Once we have them all in VR, we can build an artificial moon filled with enough quantum superclusters to increase time dilation in our VR simulation to the maximum amount they can handle. And by doing it in that order, we'll be able to avoid waste by bringing the dilation up incrementally..."

Ayaka spoke for the next ten minutes, adding details to her plan as she went. Once she started taking longer breaks to think of things to add to it, the admiral interrupted her.

"Excellent, Captain. I think we can call it for today," he said, deciding not to waste any more of either of their time.

Ayaka stood to attention and saluted the admiral, then exited the SCIF, leaving the admiral behind to continue his own work. A small smile played across her face as she headed to the boat bay, where she would board a gig and head out to the protostellar forge. They had a lot of work coming their way, and all of it would be backed by a deadline that was, by anyone's standards, brutally short.

But she understood that some people lived for that kind of high-stakes, high-stress environment. And engineers, she had found—especially FLEET engineers—were all among that small group of people who enjoyed impossible challenges. Their motto, in fact, had been directly taken from the old United States Army Corps of Engineers: "The difficult, we do immediately; the impossible just takes a little bit longer".

Well, Ayaka was about to drop a workload on them that would prove that motto. And the thought of the engineers' reaction was giving her a lot of amusement already.

Chapter 645

A month after the initial diplomatic contact, the frantic period of activity in the protostellar forge finally came to an end. Ten billion VR pods had been rolled off the production lines in the space of four short weeks; the fleet engineers had truly lived up to their motto—the impossible had been accomplished, it had just taken a short time.

Birch and the other treefolk had been invaluable to the herculean task, delaying the birth of their children and ensuring their safe transfer to the pods may have been easy for them, but without their aid, the entire effort would have failed.

As the pods were filled with occupants, they were activated on stasis mode, waiting for the quantum superclusters to come online to generate a VR environment conducive to raising and educating them. And during the wait, the researchers of the task force were practically driven insane by the wealth of data generated by their scans. After the initial building and transplantation efforts, it fell to the scientists to determine what key points they would need to take into account once the system was in place and ready to be fully activated. After all, it was only to be expected that different species would have different requirements in terms of environment and so on.

But they could take their time. Each VR pod had been fitted with a fusion battery that would allow for up to fifty years of uninterrupted power before the pods themselves would need to be connected to a power grid. At least in stasis mode, anyway; it would require more power to have the inhabitants' consciousnesses transported to virtual reality, tailored or otherwise. That said, however, time was their most valuable resource, so having such a surplus of it was quite a luxury, allowing them to focus their attention on developing the virtual environment rather than forcing them to rush the completion of an infrastructure that would allow them to accommodate the newborns.

And the entire process was handled with care and attention to detail. Every bit of their actions were recorded, verified, and dug through by others to catch anything the initial groups missed. Then, once the peer review was completed, the AIs of the task force took their turn and resolved whatever issues remained. The three-pass procedure ensured maximum results with minimal errors at the cost of redundancies in data collection artificially inflating the total amount collected.

Virtually every member of the fleet was spending every waking moment on the project. There was a truism in life that went something along the lines of "Good, fast, cheap. Choose two." The fleet had obviously chosen good and fast, with the cost measured in man-hours rather than Earth New Dollars. And that choice was working well for them, as measured in the constant discoveries being made practically every day, which provided motivation for the workers as they would receive a bonus in END once the project was completed, as well as bragging rights for being included in it to begin with.

Two weeks after the initial transfer had been completed, the initial simulated environment was available and debugged. In addition to that, enough quantum superclusters had come online to allow for a 2:1 time dilation rate, so at the two month mark, ten billion "infants" had been alive for a full month of subjective time, under the care and supervision of their "human" nannies and living in a virtual copy of the buildings and cities that were planned in the next stage of Operation Raising Cain.

…

Protostellar forge.

The machinery of the forge had been operating at max capacity for two months, and would be operating at that rate for at least the next two E-years. Most of the capacity was dedicated to Operation Raising Cain, while the remainder had been devoted to constructing a second protostellar forge. If all went to plan, it would be just enough, running two protostellar forges at 80%, to ensure the successful completion of the operation and build cities on the planet to house the new graduates, who would then be expected to fend for themselves as any adult citizen of the Terran Empire would.

In addition to those two ongoing projects, small automated courier ships were being constructed in order to reestablish and maintain contact with Earth. They were tiny, hardy things, all armor and shielding strapped to the engines of a much larger class of ship. Each of them was little more than a sphere of about thirty meters in diameter, with just eight meters at the very center dedicated to housing a quantum supercluster, warp bubble generator, and fusion reactor. Theoretically, they would be able to maintain a speed of warp ten without the need to drop out of warp every few days to recalibrate their warp bubble generators. Needs must when the devil drives, and the task fleet's engineers had gone above and beyond to design and manufacture the tough little meteor-class messenger ships.

And today, their efforts finally bore fruit as the first meteor-class messenger rolled off the production line. The final checks were completed without issue and the vessel, designated TFM-001, immediately engaged its gravity drive and headed above the system ecliptic at .75c, its maximum n-space speed. Normally, the fleet maintained all traffic along the ecliptic plane, but Fleet Admiral Bianchi had approved the messenger boats to operate above the ecliptic in order to avoid other traffic that was held to a much slower top in-system speed.

Once TFM-001 reached a clear plane, it reoriented itself and flew toward Proxima Centauri's heliopause in the direction of Earth, carrying dispatches from the fleet to headquarters and letters from the crew to their families and friends they had left behind.

About eight hours later, the first messenger boat—dubbed "little meteor"—transited the heliopause and engaged its warp generator, blinking out of n-space and rocketing back toward Earth at ten times the speed of light.

Contained within little meteor's databanks was a copy of every research project that had come to a conclusion, along with a detailed report of everything that had happened on the surface of Proxima Centauri b, with an emphasis on the discussion they'd had regarding the new Proximans joining the Terran Empire.

The second most highly flagged message was regarding the five researchers and two marines that had been crushed by roots. Everyone in the fleet had spent hours, days, or even weeks of the trip out to Proxima Centauri agonizing over what to send home in case they died. Fleet Admiral Bianchi's chief of staff, Lieutenant Commander Botha, had ordered every member of the fleet to record a message for posterity to be sent home in case the worst happened. And for those seven people, the worst had indeed happened.

Chapter 646

Lee Joon-ho and Ayaka were walking toward the New New New South Wales Research Base, a couple tons of raw materials hovering in the air behind them, courtesy of Joon-ho's affinity. "So what do you think the emperor will do? Will he actually come here?" Joon-ho asked.

(Ed note: Added another New to New New South Wales since they're rebuilding it. Not an error, just me being silly and wondering just how many "New"s we'll be able to add before this arc is finished.)

"I'm not sure. I mean, I'm pretty sure he won't order us to forcefully subjugate the Proximans. I've never met him before, but if you look at the history of the empire's founding and the years leading up to it, he doesn't seem like the kind of leader to initiate wars of aggression. Even when the rest of the world formed a coalition against Eden, he only defended himself and it wasn't until they launched pretty much the entire world's nuclear arsenal at him that he retaliated. And after that, he even put the world leaders on trial instead of executing them. It wasn't even in a kangaroo court, either—the trials were fair, and some leaders were even left as heads of their countries.

"But will he come here? I don't know. It'd take an awfully long time... he'd be in transit for a full year, plus however long it took him to convince Lady Birch and the others once he arrived."

"I guess that's fair," Joon-ho mused. "But wouldn't it be awesome for him to actually show up? He's my hero, you know."

Ayaka just smiled at the youngster and refrained from patting his head as they continued working on the infrastructure of the New New New South Wales Research Base.

...

Task Force Proxima had hundreds of different teams and many more ad-hoc workgroups dealing with various issues ranging from the mundane to the critical. It was like a complex machine made up of many moving parts, each of which contributing something that made the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. But in practice, what that meant was...

Meetings. Hundreds, if not thousands of meetings. At any given moment, whether it be day, night, or some unholy combination of the two, someone, somewhere, was stuck in a meeting.

Currently, one of the more important of those meetings was taking place on the protostellar forge between the engineers responsible for designing and producing new hardware.

It wasn't an emergency meeting; far from it. It was just a routine monthly meeting where the attendees reported what they had accomplished over the month before and any minor problems they were currently facing that didn't merit an actual emergency meeting. It was also during routine meetings like this one that people would submit proposals, either for new products or suggestions on how to streamline the production process of a product they already had in their design catalogue.

And when the chairperson of today's meeting opened the floor to new business, a light lit up in front of one of the junior engineers in attendance, signaling that he had new business to introduce.

The meeting chair nodded at the junior engineer and said, "The floor is yours."

"Thank you." The engineer stood and waved his hand, generating a hologram of a giant over the conference table. "Based on our data, they should be approximately ten times as strong as humans, as a baseline. And it's fairly obvious that we don't have any vehicles that would accommodate their size, nor could we make them and have them remain even moderately combat effective.

"So my suggestion is that we implement power armor for the giants, and mecha of equivalent size for human-sized combatants. Giving the giants power armor would amplify their strength and provide power to ship-class weaponry. We could probably fit cruiser-class point-defense lasers on their shoulders, along with a corvette-class coilgun modified to be carried as a rifle." He paused for a moment, realizing that he was wandering slightly off topic.

"But we don't necessarily need to stop there," he continued. "We can design mecha for human-sized pilots, along with even bigger reactors powering stronger weaponry. I suggest, though, that due to the more complex nature of mecha compared to power armor, we should design the power armor to act more along the lines of close-ranged shock troops and use the mecha as long-ranged support and highly mobile artillery platforms. That way we maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of each platform, all while keeping them to a size that should be effective in combat against any enemy they come across."

The engineer threw a data file to the others around the conference table and the room went silent as everyone read the file from start to finish. Although some of them were disappointed when they saw that the mecha and armor in question would only be ten to fifteen meters tall, and completely unlike their childhood "giant robots, fuck yeah!" dreams, they understood the realities of combat. Giant robots may be a man's romance, and they may look good in movies and cartoons, but when it came to reality, simply trying to maneuver thirty-story-tall robots around a city without completely destroying it would be functionally impossible.

Thus, based on the information they had at hand, giants would be the perfect shock troopers. They wouldn't require as much power from a reactor or fusion battery to move under the mass of their armor, which meant more of a limited power resource could be diverted to beefed up weaponry. Shoulder-mounted lasers, naval-class coilguns, and even close-quarters weaponry like plasma swords and vibroknives the size of a standard human sword were all on the table.

Mecha, on the other hand, were too inherently fragile to withstand the shock of melee combat. They were comprised of entirely too many moving parts, which meant they would be perfect as long-range fire platforms. And since humans were much smaller than giants, the engineers could fit entire fusion reactors into the mecha form factor, which would lead to Really Big Guns being a possibility. For example, some of the secondary weapons on a battleship, like plasma casters, grasers, and even entire missile control and coordination suites were a possibility!

Everyone at the conference table got lost in the possibilities presented by mecha as a combat platform and the silence stretched out until someone broke it with an inadvertent sneeze.

"Excellent suggestion," the meeting chairman said, startled out of his daze by the sudden noise. "I think we'll adjourn here for the day and when we meet again in a month, bring potential mecha and power armor designs with you for approval. But we're done for today, ladies and gentlemen."freeweɓnovē ɱ

Chapter 647

(Ed note: Apologies for the spotty uploads lately. I've been apartment hunting in 80% humidity and by the time I get home, I'm fair well shattered and unable to really do much of anything.)

The silence within a nursery was broken by the sound of an infant's wail. It was allowed to continue crying in the brightly painted nursery for a few minutes, then a merely "pretty" middle-aged woman walked into the room and moved to the side of the crib.

(Ed note: For those curious as to why the baby was left crying for a few minutes, it's an early childhood development strategy. By picking up an infant as soon as it starts crying, you teach it that crying equals attention. In a nutshell, never pick up a crying baby unless it's sick or injured. Let it cry for a few minutes, then distract it until it stops crying before finally picking it up.)

She leaned over the crib and teased the infant with a canary-yellow plush toy until it stopped wailing with a hiccup and focused on the toy, reaching out for it. The woman let the baby take the toy, then reached in and picked it out of the crib. Bringing it to her breast, she sniffed the air and said, "Whew... pee-yew, it's time for a diaper change, isn't it?"

The baby giggled and smiled at the woman, dropping the plush toy as it reached up to grab at her nose and pat her face.

She carried it over to the changing table and laid it down, then grabbed the baby's feet and sang a short nursery rhyme about body parts as she raised the baby's chubby legs in the air and began unfastening its diaper.

Similar situations were happening in nurseries all over the simulated virtual version of Proxima Centauri b, which was far more developed than the reality. In keeping with imperial design philosophy, vast cities of tall white spires rose from the ground, but as a nod to the local environment, the city was planned around equally tall black-barked and violet-leaved trees. Black, violet, and white would normally be a very stark design choice, but somehow, under the red light of Proxima Centauri, it all blended into a cohesive, beautiful whole.

In order to save on processing power as fusion reactors and quantum superclusters were constructed deep within Proxima Centauri b, the only interior rooms in any of the cities were carbon copies of a single, gender-neutral nursery, staffed with a variety of species that corresponded with the infants housed within. But the cities spread across the continents were accurate to what would later be raised on the surface in later phases of construction in realspace.

Despite things going very well so far in the simulation, a problem was growing closer and more inevitable by the day. Once the "children" were raised to the point they were self sufficient and the infrastructure was present and waiting for occupancy, there would be an influx of ten billion young adults with no elders or children among them.

Thus, the decision to design and dispatch meteor-class messenger vessels to Earth, as Task Force Proxima had met a sociological issue that they simply weren't prepared to handle. Xenobotany, xenopsychology, xenodiplomacy... there were a lot of "xeno" prefixed research fields represented among the scientists of the task force, but not a single person had anticipated needing to bootstrap an entire society comprised of five unique species! Not to mention Birch's "request" to meet Aron, which also had to be communicated back home.

Still, despite the looming sociological issues, Operation Raising Cain continued as planned. And it would do so until if and when one of the newly developed messenger vessels returned with further instructions.

…

While Task Force Proxima busied itself raising children that weren't theirs, another fleet had finally arrived at their destination and immediately started working. The initial phases of mapping and exploration were precisely the same. Even the system was much the same, with a red dwarf primary star about 11% the size of Sol, but it had two planets within the habitable zone.

Teegarden b was almost the same size as Earth, but it orbited Teegarden's Star at about 0.025 AU with an orbital period of less than five E-days.

By comparison, Teegarden c was only slightly smaller than Proxima Centauri b, at around 1.12 times the size of Earth with 1.11 times the mass and gravity. It orbited Teegarden's Star at 0.044 AU and had an orbital period of 11.4 days, more than twice as long as Teegarden b and almost the same as Proxima Centauri b.

The two planets were a mere 2.84 kilometers away from each other, on average.

When Nova had selected the systems to explore, she had used two main criteria: the distance from Earth, and the likelihood of finding sapient life in the systems. Thus, all five destinations were known to have planets in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their stars, and were within reasonable distances from Earth, ranging from the six-month travel time for Task Force Proxima all the way to the four-year voyage of Task Force 1140, whose destination was the LHS 1140 system, a full 40 light years from humanity's birthplace.

Teegarden's Star was on the nearer end of that spectrum, with a travel time of around 14.5 months for Task Force Teegarden.

...

"Oh my god," the commanding officer of Task Force Teegarden said as the holotank on the bridge of the TFS Teegarden updated with the most recent mapping data.

A chill passed through the entire bridge crew's collective spine as they saw the two planets of Teegarden's Star. Both of them were in ruins, with evidence of enormous cities turned to rubble and gigantic craters scattered around the surface of the planets like sprinkles on donuts.

The level of ionizing radiation in the atmosphere of both planets was almost fifty times what would be survivable for humans, and nuclear winter had set in. It was obvious what had happened in the Teegarden's Star system, evidenced by the wreckage of "primitive" (to the imperial eye, at least) ships stretching in a long, still-expanding line between Teegarden b and Teegarden c.

Researchers on Earth had once theorized that one of the reasons humanity had yet to meet aliens was that there were certain stages in a species' development that could either bring advancements or catastrophes, and one of those stages was the nuclear power stage. It was clear that the situation in the Teegarden's Star system was evidence of the species failing to overcome that hurdle, one that humanity had only luckily survived by dint of Aron's overwhelming technological superiority making nuclear weapons obsolete.

Chapter 648

"How long..." Fleet Admiral Jason Ryfczinski said. "How long ago did this happen?"

{Initial scans indicate a range of 30 to 75 years ago, Admiral. More detailed scans will narrow the field,} Teegarden, the task force's AI, replied.

"So there's a chance of survivors. Signal the fleet: launch a satellite constellation and put the explorer team on short call. Their orders are to find the survivors of this... this unholy massacre, should any exist. If there are no survivors, I want bodies," the fleet admiral ordered.

"Yes, Sir," the flag comms officer replied, then turned back to his display to distribute the orders to the fleet. "Satellites deployed, Admiral, they'll be on station in approximately five hours."

"Split the fleet, send half of it to Teegarden c. The other half, including the Teegarden herself, is to approach Teegarden b and enter a high equatorial orbit."

"Aye aye, Admiral," the flag tactical officer replied. "ETA to high equatorial orbit around Teegarden b is eleven hours."

Thus began the exploration of the Teegarden's Star system. The occasion was a solemn one, as the planets they were set to explore were in the grip of a nuclear winter, likely caused by an interplanetary war the likes of which no human could imagine.

Nobody knew what they would find, but they knew one thing for certain: whatever was dirtside would most definitely fuel their nightmares for years, if not decades to come.

...

As always, the universe had no fucks to give about what humanity was currently up to and time continued its impassive march forward. For some, the ticking clocks were too fast, leaving them with too much to do and too little time in which to do it, while for others, the ticking of the clock was agonizingly slow, with seconds seemingly stretched out into endless hours.

Six months passed, just like that.

Mars, CENTCOM, System and Monitoring Control Center.

Over the past three months, CENTCOM SMCC had been tracking an object traveling at ten times the speed of light. It was on a direct course from Proxima Centauri and was traveling through a warp bubble that was likely generated by an Alcubierre drive, which made many believe that it was a dispatch vessel from Task Force Proxima. They should have been on station for long enough by now that a dispatch wouldn't be entirely unexpected.

But what had really sealed the deal was the rudimentary IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system built into all imperial warp engines. One of the discoveries made in Lab City was that all Alcubierre warp bubbles vibrated along certain frequencies, depending on their size, shape, and a few other variables. And by designing the engine along those lines, they were able to kludge together a recognizable signal similar to a transponder, except it couldn't be turned off or modified without a major overhaul, and it only operated while the ship itself was inside a warp bubble.

And whatever was incoming was sending a crystal-clear imperial identification.

A tall, rugged-looking man entered the room in full ARES dress uniform, followed by a much smaller woman in office-lady attire, carrying a tablet and wearing a pair of AR glasses. "Any changes in the object?" the man asked as soon as he reached the railing separating the entryway from "the pit", where the analysts worked at their stations.

"None, Sir. If there are no changes, the incoming vessel will come in on course to arrive at the heliopause below the ecliptic. Our projections have it breaking warp directly in line with Sol. We've sent out picket corvettes and a few destroyers on intercept courses and expect they'll arrive on station to meet the vessel in exactly three hours and thirty-seven minutes," one of the analysts answered, pushing a button on his console that switched the main screen in the SMCC to display a detailed plot of the Sol system.

"Excellent. Keep me updated and let me know when they get into comms range," the man said, then turned and strode out of the SMCC without waiting for a response, his secretary fast-walking to keep up with his pace.

Although they had a protocol in place to handle incoming objects, this was the first time they were putting it into use outside of their training simulations. Thus, even though they were almost a hundred percent positive that the incoming object was friendly, they were still using it as a drill for the sailors of the Terran Fleet. And not a single person in the SMCC, or by extension, the rest of the fleet, wanted to fuck it up, by the numbers or otherwise.

"Yes, Sir..." The analyst attempted to respond to the man, but had ended up talking to nothing but the door.

Still, he returned to his work with a serious look on his face that showed exactly how seriously he was taking his assigned tasks.

...

Precisely three hours and fifty minutes later.

The meteor-class messenger boat left warp speed directly below the ecliptic in a brilliant display of visible Cherenkov radiation reminiscent of a bird mantling and spreading its wings. The visible radiation was accompanied by a much deadlier invisible blast of ionizing radiation and supercharged particles that spread out in a cone in front of the small automated craft with enough force to strip the atmosphere off a planet, even with a strong magnetosphere around it.

(Ed note: While we can't know for certain, the general consensus among scientists is that any ship coming out of an Alcubierre warp bubble would immediately launch all of the cosmic dust that got pasted to the front of the bubble and approximately all of the radiation ever in a spreading cone like it was fired from a shotgun. Not everything would stick to the bubble, of course, but even if 99% of the dust slides around it, that's still a lot of particulate matter being shot out at relativistic speed.)

A few seconds later, quantum communications were established with the waiting picket ships. They hadn't missed the mark by much, and in a feat of excellent stellar navigation, had come to full stop only five thousand kilometers away from the messenger.

The messenger herself, having performed outstandingly well on her maiden voyage, squawked her ident codes and signaled that she carried eyes-only dispatches for one Aron Michael, emperor of the Terran Empire from his subjects in the Proxima Centauri system and requested an escort to Earth to deliver those dispatches.

Mars could wait. There were more important deliveries to make first.

Chapter 649

The messenger was swiftly ordered to proceed directly to Earth, escorted by the picket detachment nearest to her. After signaling an acknowledgement of the order, the small vessel's VI fell into formation between the two corvettes and behind the destroyer. Once everything was in place, they lit off their gravity drives and began maneuvering through the Oort cloud and the Sol system's heliopause beyond it.

As it passed through the system, the VI communicated with CENTCOM and received the updated map and access to the system plot, allowing it to see all of the public ships in the system. Almost all of the industry and shipping was distributed along the system ecliptic. Humanity still thought of things along 2d planes, it seemed. But it was unimaginably difficult to overcome hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years of evolution telling the species that ground was ground and sky was sky. Learning that "down" was more loose as a concept than they had imagined would naturally take some time.

The VI continued scanning the system plot and updating its navigational database.

The orbit of Neptune, the eighth and last planet in the Sol system, was mostly vacant. Only a few picket vessels were patrolling it, constantly on the lookout for anything coming into the system from beyond the Kuiper Belt. Pairs of fleet corvettes sailed hither and yon through the area, their sensors reaching out at full power.

It was mostly the same for Uranus, though there was a thriving industry in orbit around the planet itself. As an ice giant, Uranus was a hub of activity for so-called "slush miners", who would send ramscoops into the planet and haul back container after container of supercooled slush. They would then bring those containers to processing facilities that had been built by civilians on Uranus' twenty-seven moons for further processing.

(Ed note: Insert Uranus pun here.)

The empire was also in fair competition with the civilian cooperatives and maintained a processing station in high polar orbit, where those who were contracted to the empire instead of a civilian company would drop their loads and spend time in one of the many entertainment establishments there before heading out to pick up their next load. The imperial station was somehow more dignified than the lunar ports of call, with higher-class entertainments and a far calmer atmosphere overall, compared to the moon-based processing plants.

The same held true, for the most part, around the next two planets in-system from Uranus. Saturn was mostly occupied by a far rougher sort of asteroid jockey, mostly grim and stubborn men and women who made their living in the densely packed rings of Saturn. Jupiter, on the other hand, was primarily a rest, resupply, and logistics station where the miners of the Trojan Asteroid Belt congregated. They were more... corporate than the rough and tumble "rock jocks" of Saturn's rings.

There were a few things in common between the two gas giants, in terms of industry. Both planets were gas farms, with the same ubiquitous ramscoop tanker vessels operating around Jupiter and Saturn as there were around Uranus.

The biggest difference in the Sol system, though, was displayed on the next planet in-system from Jupiter. Mars had simply... ceased to exist on the plot. The planet was hidden from all forms of detection the empire could itself use; even visuals were blocked by the always-active Planetary Defense Shield around the red planet. In fact, if Aron weren't so paranoid about using the brainwashing tech at his disposal, only to have it somehow fail, he would likely go so far as to remove the very memory of the planet itself from humanity's collective memory.

He had even considered removing it from textbooks and movies everywhere, so the next generation wouldn't know that there was a hidden planet orbiting Sol. After all, another lesson the cult had taught the then-fledgling emperor was that not even humanity's minds were completely impenetrable forces. Even though he had the psionic shielding technology from the system, human beings were far from perfect and would lose them, break them, or even simply forget to charge them. Much like they did with cellphones, before cellphones became obsolete upon the introduction of AR glasses.

But since the star system's planetary information can be extrapolated from the rest of the planets in the solar system, he decided against it, making the thought come and disappear from his mind in only a few seconds following his thought process. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Mars, and the ARES facility that was almost completely operational upon and within it, was simply just that important.

Finally, the messenger reached Earth. The planet looked nothing like it had when the first diaspora had left, much less like it had when the exploration fleets had left before Aron got fed up and threw all the malcontents off the planet and sent them scattering off across the galaxy.

Orbiting outside Luna were hundreds of thousands of vessels, carrying the raw material from the giant processing stations and factories concentrated around planets and dotted here and there throughout the system. The ships there were in continuous movement, though, as planetary traffic control slotted them into arrival gates within hours, if not minutes, after their arrival from the outer reaches.

The planetary shield was in its low-power mode and being used mostly for automated scans of the ships passing through either of its two main gates, ensuring that nothing was being brought in—accidentally or otherwise—that could harm the planet or the people that lived on it. On the messenger's visual scanners, it looked much like two lines of ants trooping along, one line going toward the space elevator carrying "food" and the other line leaving in search of that same "food".

Once the messenger and her escorts reached exolunar orbit, the escort ships broke off and returned to their picket stations, leaving the messenger boat behind. But it didn't stay in the entry queue for long, however, as Gaia opened a priority path for the meteor-class ship to jump the queue and directly enter Earth through a gap that was opened up in the shield for her use specifically.

Those ships the messenger passed were naturally curious. In all the time that humanity had been building its space infrastructure, one thing and one thing only had remained constant from beginning to end: nobody jumps the lunar queue. Nobody. But though they were unaware, that rule was constantly broken as stealth ships considered the lunar queue more of a suggestion than a rule. However, the meteor-class messenger ships had no stealth capabilities. And nor should they, as their role was to carry dispatches from place to place, so adding stealth functions would run counter to that role.

Still, it was the first time that any ship had ever flouted the rules so blatantly, and for a long time after the messenger had landed in her docking cradle on the surface, traffic control's communications lines were tied up by the complaints of those who had been passed in the queue.

Chapter 650

"Since the foundation of the empire, We have taken pride in our track record of promises made, promises kept. And today, We are here to deliver on one another of those promises: Our thousandth fortress city." Aron stood at a podium addressing the public in one of the new fortress city's government squares, a space about as big as an American football stadium. The entire area was filled to the brim with citizens who had nothing but smiles on their faces as they listened to his address.

The people watching Aron's address live would be among the first to finally receive keys to their new living spaces in the fortress city Aron was currently using as a venue for his speech. They had been anticipating the day they would finally become property owners in the empire ever since their interior designs had been approved.

Over the past six months, fortress city after fortress city had been coming online and filling with residents in an orderly fashion. There was something to be said for the organizational skills of AIs, after all.

The release of homes to those who had bought them, subsidized or not, had also been a great boost to the morale of the empire at large. Most of the new homeowners were of the millennial generation, and had been most afraid of never owning property of their own and always being subject to the whims of landlords. For them, it was a brilliant plan on the empire's part and they were practically shouting with glee after receiving their own little piece of permanence.

For landlords, though, it was a different story. Often acting as mosquitos that suck the lifeblood of the population, their lifestyles relied entirely on forcing people to pay ever-increasing rental fees simply to keep roofs over their heads. As a class of citizen, they quite suddenly—despite the years of advance notice—found themselves without a ready source of income they could fleece from sheep that had nowhere else to go.

Not that anyone would miss them, of course; there wasn't a single person on the planet that would choose to rent when the option to own was available to them.

Due to the large number of cities coming online across the globe, Aron couldn't deliver a speech at each of them. For multiple reasons, the most impactful of which was that it would be impossible to deliver a thousand different speeches in a thousand different locations without having them all become repetitions of the same script. And anyone who knew anything at all about public speaking knew that, without the impact of relevant information tailored specifically to the audience, no speech would have a positive effect.

So Aron could only deliver addresses at "milestone" cities. The first to open, the hundredth, and so on, which led to today's address being delivered at the thousandth fortress city.

Thus, while his schedule was fairly relaxed, it was a different story for everyone else. The logistics behind moving billions of people together with their possessions was tens of times more complex than the last empire-wide movement, when they had gathered all imperial citizens in cubes around the globe for their initial medical treatments. For the entire six months, the swarm of ships flying hither and yon in the atmosphere practically blocked out the sun entirely!

But with the efforts of Nova and Gaia working together, everything had been proceeding on track in an efficient manner without any of the clusterfucks that would have been involved had the moves been done by mere humans.

After all, with each fortress city being built to accommodate more than a million inhabitants, billions of people had to be moved from their current homes to their new ones. And with Aron's insistence that each city would be multicultural and blended, with inhabitants drawn randomly from across the globe (unless they specifically requested to be housed near their neighbors, relatives, and friends), the process of the move-ins themselves were as delicate as the finest clockmaker's creations.

"And with that, We hereby declare this fortress city officially open," Aron concluded as he cut a golden ribbon with comically oversized scissors. The city's official mayor aided him by holding half of the scissors as they snipped through the ribbon. Some traditions were timeless, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies were one of them.

The people in the audience wildly cheered as Aron shook the mayor's hand and stepped down from the temporary stage that had been erected for his speech. He walked through the crowd, "shaking hands and kissing babies", as the saying went, until he finally made it to the other end where he met with his two aegis shadows and began an unofficial tour of the rest of the city, leaving the mayor to handle the rest of the administrivia involved in opening the fortress cities.

Having walked for miles, he ended up in one of the many large playgrounds scattered throughout the city. He sat down to rest on one of the benches and a group of children ran up to him, showing no fear of the most powerful human in the species and chattering at him like a flock of magpies. They had seen him on TV and heard enough about him from their parents to know that he was powerful, but children have a strange idea of power and often mix it up with physical strength, something that Aron didn't appear to possess much of.

The media and most of his emperor's aegis escort were quite a distance from him, at his personal request. The reporters were focused on his interaction with the children, while his aegis escort was busy maintaining a security perimeter around the edges of the park space.

Aron squatted down so that he was at eye level with the "leader" of the children and began, "So, what's your drea—"

But before he could finish his question, his expression grew serious and he rose to his feet. The two emperor's aegis near him, alerted by his behavior, were only half a heartbeat slower than him in turning on their "combat mode", so to speak. Aegis teams, and especially the emperor's aegis, were never entirely lax, but the current threat level had been deemed as minimal, so they were as relaxed as they ever were.

"Protect the kids," Aron ordered his two close guards, then stepped away from the gaggle of children.

Chapter 651

A few hundred meters away from Aron, a rolling black thundercloud was scudding across the sky in his direction. He lifted his right leg and, when he set it down, he had moved ten meters away from the children, placing himself between the cloud and them. Behind him, the two emperor's aegis members of his close guard activated the area protection feature of their PAPS, surrounding the children—and themselves—in a dome of solidified mana that glowed a faint blue.

Aron faced the incoming cloud, an unnaturally grave expression on his face as he raised his hand and a shield rune popped into being between him and the cloud. Milliseconds later, a lightning bolt impacted the shield and the crackling boom of thunder almost instantly followed.

"Interesting, interesting," a voice filled with confidence drifted out of the dust kicked up by the lightning strike. "You reacted to my approach before anyone else... even before your security team. Interesting indeed!"

As the dust settled, a muscular man wearing nothing but a pair of tattered jeans was revealed. He had neat, chin-length hair and a well-trimmed beard, neither of which had a hair out of place; should anyone see him, they would never suspect that he had been a literal lightning bolt mere moments before.

The black thundercloud finally caught up to the man, hovering over the entire park. Lightning flickered deep inside it, lighting it up and dimming it section by section as the scent of ozone filled the air. The cloud was already thick enough to mostly block out the sun, but it continued growing thicker and thicker as it spread. freewebnø ɱ

Behind Aron, the children in the PAPS dome were slumped on the ground, sobbing in terror. One of the aegis members had turned to them and was comforting them as best as he could, but... their job description and training never covered pacifying terrified children.

Nova, who was looking on from the nanoscale camera swarms that constantly followed Aron, sent a note to Athena to include that in future training for aegis members. After all, they wouldn't always be assigned to adults; there would inevitably be times they'd be called upon to guard high-value adolescents, or even small children.

"Cat got your tongue?" the half-naked man sneered when he saw Aron's lack of reaction. "Or are you buying time for your security to come rescue you, hmm?" As the man spoke, his voice became more and more distorted with hissing pops and crackling, like someone speaking through an old, cheap microphone.

He turned to where people were already gathering outside the aegis perimeter and smiled a brilliant smile for the reporters' cameras, both professional and amateur. Without looking back at Aron, and preening for the cameras, he loudly exclaimed, "Whatever it is, your security won't be able to react fast enough if I do anything to you." He puffed out his chest, feeling more and more superior to the emperor of mankind as his taunting continued failing to elicit a response from the man.

The swings in his mood were quite rapid and erratic, just as one would expect from an awakener attuned to lightning. Not to mention the speed of his inane babbling—it had only been about fifteen seconds since Aron took his first step toward the incoming thundercloud.

(Ed note: One of the things that we've received a lot of questions about is how mana works and how awakeners get their attunements. It's based a lot on personality; the awakener's personality and, for lack of a better word, "soul", influence what mana they end up attuned to. Here, it should be obvious why this dudley dumbass ended up with a lightning affinity.)

Aron finally opened his mouth after five long, seemingly slow seconds passed. "No," he said with a smirk. "I'm not buying time for anyone to arrive. There's really no need for delaying tactics. My aegis are the best of the best of the best and they are always active and ready to respond to any threat to my safety.

"But you... you're absolutely no threat to me whatsoever," he sneered, his arms arrogantly folded across his chest.

"You pathetic, unawakened, useless piece of sh—" the rogue awakener began, but was quickly interrupted.

"As for my tongue being stuck, you were never the reason for my silence. You lack the importance to even make me blink in faint surprise. I was simply wondering what I'd ever done that would give someone the confidence to approach me, or any other member of my government for that matter, with a measly attack like that."

He turned his back on the half-naked awakener and smiled at the children, gesturing for the two aegis members to herd them back to their parents, as the park was likely to become a battleground of awakeners very shortly.

The aegis members saluted, their armored fists crashing against equally armored chests as they stood ramrod straight, bowing their head in acknowledgement of the order. "Immediately, Your Imperial Majesty," they chorused, then turned and activated the inbuilt tractor beams in their armor, lifting the children and surrounding them in a protective stasis field as gravity's hold on them was overcome by the power of... mostly... human ingenuity.

"And who ever said I wasn't awakened?" Aron's feet lifted slightly from the ground as his eyes began glowing neon blue.

The rest of the aegis members on the perimeter chose that moment to act as well. They turned to face Aron, and, in one synchronized motion, their left knees and clenched left fists hit the ground, their right fists repeatedly banging against their chests in the imperial salute as they bowed their heads and chanted "Glory to the Terran Emperor!"

A large PAPS field drew itself between the aegis members and the emperor, locking Aron in with the obviously mentally imbalanced rogue awakener.

Aron grinned a savage grin at the man as he growled, "No, you're no threat to me. You aren't even really a threat to my aegis. You never were, you aren't now, and you never will be." He tilted his head from side to side, sharp snapping sounds ringing out as his neck cracked. "The only thing you're a threat to is yourself!"

Chapter 652

A few months after the Three Percenters had graduated from the awakeners' school and hero academies, reality had finally sunk in for them. The power they held in their hands made them walking weapons, and they could massacre entire towns of normal people, should they wish to do so. And human nature being what it is, most of them began feeling at least a little bit superior to "normies".

If their superiority complexes had stopped there, it wouldn't be a big issue. A little arrogance was fine, and could even be a good thing if it was properly restrained and channeled. After all, even Aron had to admit that he was more of a benevolent dictator that had been moving farther and farther away from human norms since he'd received the system. But with the age range of the first human awakeners being what it was, a good bit of them had taken their superiority complex way beyond what could be even remotely considered healthy.

Basically, hormonal teenagers are hard enough to deal with (just ask any parent who's ever had a teenage child). But when you gave those same hormonal teenagers Ultimate Cosmic POWAH, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone with two brain cells rattling around in their heads that they would take things to the extreme.

Thus, a cancer began spreading through the awakeners as they came to believe that they should not only accept, but expect to be treated as superior beings in every aspect of their lives.

As a result, there was a growing sense of discontent from normal people, who were feeling the brunt of the awakened extremists. Awakened crime began skyrocketing, keeping the imperial blessings agency constantly overworked but well compensated, understaffed, and overwhelmed. The official policy was to brutally, and publicly, stamp out any extremism that began to show itself in the awakeners. And that had given rise to even more resentment on the part of the awakeners, which meant less people joining the imperial blessings agency, emergency services, and other government agencies and ministries.

Even some of the "normies" were against it, as every awakener caught in performing any crimes, whether it be murder, arson, or other crimes of similar weight, were headbagged and thrown in the pit to join the growing ARES penal legions. And to normies, that reeked of humanity's shameful past of slavery and segregation. There again, human nature raised its ugly head and humanity began showing signs of splintering, this time over the treatment of awakened criminals.

Some normies were perfectly fine with the status quo and honestly believed that awakeners were inherently superior beings. Others still espoused equality above all, and still others actually benefited from the situation, usually friends and loved ones of the awakener supremacists.

And what Aron was facing now was obviously an awakened supremacist.

"Are you an AS?" he asked.

"Haha! You're quite the smart one—you caught on quite quickly!" the rogue awakener said, spittle flying from his lips as he began gearing up to deliver his perfect manifesto that would definitely cause the emperor to withdraw his neutral stance in awakeners' affairs and take the side of the supremacists.

Hell, he was even half convinced that Aron was actually an awakener in disguise, so he should obviously agree with the supremacists!

The sneer on Aron's face disappeared, replaced by a blank, apathetic mask. "Since that's the case, I really have nothing to talk to you about," he said, then turned to walk away.

"So that's it!?" the AS rogue said, contempt writ large across his features. "You just... run away!?"

He capered up behind Aron, who was walking away, and tried evoking a reaction out of the impassive emperor. He turned to the audience—especially the reporters studded here and there within—and mocked, "This is all the so-called 'great' Terran Empire has! Hahaha!"

Aron stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back around, coming face to face with the AS rogue. Not a hint of fear could be seen in him. "Okay, so let's hear your well-thought-out manifesto. I'm sure you have one, right?" He smirked and folded his arms across his chest again, a light smile playing across his face, though it was less playful and more... murderous.

The man obviously failed to read the room and scoffed with a scornful smile on his face. He felt his power was being appreciated, and that his beliefs had made even the emperor of all humanity stop and listen to him in fear, despite all the security surrounding him.

"First," he said with a mocking courtly bow, "allow me to introduce myself. I am Alejandro Garcia, and I have awoken the superior power of lightning. That makes me superior to unblessed scum like you normies, because I hold absolute power over your pathetically weak selves..."

He went on raving like that for a solid ten minutes, getting so involved in his lunatic ranting that arcs of electricity began crawling all over his body.

"There's no need to explain further, as I have the power to enforce awakened superiority over any unblessed scum I happen to feel deserves a reminder of their place beneath us. But me, and others like me, have been facing a single hindrance: you. You've been blocking our ascent to our rightful place, so I'm here to deal with you and kick off our glorious movement!" He struck a power pose, with one hand on his hip and the other pointing directly at Aron's face. He was looking forward to seeing the fear on the face of his target as he began the process of once again attacking the emperor, who was standing in front of him.

However, he'd obviously forgotten what had happened the first time he'd attempted a full-speed, full-power attack on Aron, who had changed his position. He was now standing there, leaning forward and sticking out his chin with his hands clasped behind his back. It was as if his whole body was screaming "HIT ME! GO AHEAD AND FUCKING HIT ME ALREADY!"

Alejandro Garcia, late of the former nation of Spain, was about to have a really, really bad day.

Chapter 653

Lightning, contrary to popular belief, doesn't move at the speed of light. The invisible "leader strike" travels from the cloud to the ground at around two hundred thousand miles per hour; a far cry from the speed of light, which travels at upwards of 670 MILLION miles per hour. But what people think of when they look at lightning isn't the invisible leader strike, but what's called the "return stroke", which heats the air in the ionized pathways left behind by the leader strike, turning it to plasma. That travels significantly faster, at around a third of light speed or 60,000 miles per second.

So when the people surrounding Aron and the awakener supremacist, Alejandro Garcia finally blinked their eyes clear of the temporary blindness caused by seeing a return stroke at incredibly close range, all they saw was the emperor of mankind standing in the same position he had been, slightly leaning forward with his hands clasped behind his back and his chin jutting out. But behind him was a headless corpse, still standing on its feet, and a fine red mist suspended above the neck, which was spraying arterial blood from where its head should have been.

Then, they finally heard the cracking whine of a pulse rifle round echoing out from one of the white and silver towers circling the park they were standing in and understood what had happened. Someone had stupidly attacked the emperor of all mankind, assuming that the visible security was the only security that Aron had accompanying him.

It was a fatal mistake.

Aron relaxed his stance and turned to the newscasters in the distance, their cameras all focusing on him. As the corpse behind him finally fell with a thud, he said, "Thus is the fate of anyone who attempts to overturn the foundation of Our empire. No mercy shall be shown to those who believe themselves better than others by a simple quirk of chance, a cosmic event that just so happened to land in their favor.

"Awakeners are no better or worse than everyone else. All of humanity is equal. Equal in terms of opportunity, and equal in terms of squandering or grasping those opportunities. We all live, we strive, we succeed, we fail, we love, we laugh, we cry, we mourn, we bleed, and in the end, we all die. Some, perhaps, sooner than others. But that doesn't change the fact that no human is inherently better than any other.

"As for this man, his crime wasn't his words. We are not a petty man who would execute one of Our citizens simply for espousing their beliefs, no matter how wrong they are. But that man—" Aron gestured at the corpse on the ground beside him, "—took his wrongheaded beliefs and attacked Us. He has paid the price for his mistake, and it was the last mistake he will ever make.

"So far, We have allowed the discussion of equality to continue on without weighing in for or against. But We have seen what's happening around Us. We've seen the divisions fostered among Our people by these supremacists. And We've seen your suffering and pain as those who mistakenly believe themselves superior enforce their wills upon you, Our beloved people.

"Here and now, We promise you this: no longer! Things that threaten to divide humanity will no longer be tolerated! Anyone that seeks to enrich themselves by beggaring others will find themselves on the opposite side from Us. And We will not be merciful! We will bring down the full might of the Terran Empire upon the cancerous blight growing in the dark, the so-called criminals of the popular phrase 'capes and criminals'. As will the full force of the empire be brought to bear on those unawakened that agree with such an insidious, divisive opinion as awakened supremacy.

"Not too long ago, We stood before what should have been a symbol of unity among humans, a united leadership that should have strove for peace, justice, and unity. And while We were there, We saw that it did anything but. So, We replaced it, because humanity MUST. BE. UNITED!" Aron hammered his fist against his other palm to emphasize the last three words.

"It seems that some have forgotten that humanity must stand united thanks to an outside, potentially hostile, force heading our way. Yet what I see now are people striving to return to the days of tribalism, of humanity being as disunited as a dish of loose sand. They have forgotten why We have done the things We've done. We eliminated hunger, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and war. We've increased the standard of living for everyone, doubled your lifespans—and then some—and We've taken humanity and dragged Our species out of the dirt and into the stars!

"And was it the so-called 'superior' awakeners that did all of that? Did they do ANY of that?" Aron paused in his impromptu speech to let his points sink in, then continued, "No! The people who pushed humanity to the stars, the people who feed humanity, the people who study the mysteries of existence and push human technological boundaries to a point that every single day is a day with a myriad of discoveries, both scientific and technological... have almost entirely been Our unawakened citizens.

"So the claim of 'awakened superiority' is an outright, utter lie. It's a lie perpetuated by those who feel strong, and in their minds, they think strength should be used to bully the weak.

"They have no idea what true strength is. But We will show them precisely what it is. That, Our dear citizens, is another promise I am making to you, and another promise that will. Be. Kept!"

Aron took a deep breath and his expression returned to his usual impassive, authoritarian gaze. "We are not a despot, however, nor are We a tyrant. If you truly desire change, then fight for it with your words, with your ideas, with your passion. If you truly feel superior to your fellow humans, then show it through your actions, your deeds. Be better. Take the high road. Do good. Enrich and encourage your fellow human beings.

"But whatever you do, do not use violence. Do not bully the weak. Because if you do..." Aron turned his head and glanced at the headless corpse next to him. "If you do," he continued, softer this time but with Nova ensuring that his words were clearly recorded by the cameras in the distance, "then this will be the only end you face."

Without another word, he turned and strode toward his shuttle, his back ramrod straight and steps steady and even, ignoring the shouted questions of the journalists in the distance. He had just given them a truth, and they would need time to digest it before he spoke on the matter again.

Chapter 654

As Aron approached his personal shuttle, the aegis members surrounding the park rose to their feet and deactivated the PAPS dome, then collapsed into two files behind him and followed him into the aircraft. Once everyone had boarded, the hatch hissed shut and the shuttle lifted off on a suborbital hop to the Cube at Avalon Island. It was still the center of the imperial government, as Aron had decreed that his imperial palace would be the very last building to be constructed, and the construction would only begin after everyone else had been settled into their new homes.

{Sir, we have a dispatch from Proxima Centauri coded for your eyes only,} Nova reported the moment Aron settled into his seat.

"I wonder what happened that warranted sending a dispatch," he said. There were very few things that would merit the sending of dispatches across the vast gulf between Earth and the exploration fleets, so the news was either very good, very bad, or had far-reaching implications that might affect future exploration missions to star systems even farther from humanity's cradle.

But that would have to wait until he reached his office, which was the only place that had equipment secure enough to scan his personal biometrics. Eyes-only dispatches were one of the few things in the Terran Empire that had to be handled in an air-gapped system with physical verification. Thus, Nova continued reporting.

{Some of the journalists on site livestreamed your confrontation with the rogue awakener, Alejandro Garcia. Currently, public opinion is divided into two camps—the majority opinion is on your side. It was obvious that you were under attack, so they believe the use of force was justified, and some are even calling for the sniper that took out your assailant to be awarded a medal.}

"Hmph," Aron snorted. "If I have to give out medals every time I'm attacked in the future, it'll devalue the awards and make them cheap. Have Panoptes quash the award idea."

(Ed note: The "devaluation" of military awards has a factual basis in history. Particularly during the Vietnam War, where about 351,000 purple hearts were awarded to an estimated 3.5 million soldiers who fought there between 1964 and 1975. It got to the point where the purple heart was deemed completely worthless, even by the soldiers who received them. It isn't surprising, considering that about one in every ten soldiers was awarded one.) freewebnσvel.cøm

{Yes, Sir.}

"Anything else of note come out of that?"

{Yes. Some of the detractors are saying that you set the conflict with Mr. Garcia up yourself as a false flag operation to issue a warning and a statement to awakeners that you can easily have them killed any time anywhere. They're justifying it by claiming it's impossible to hit lightning with a bullet from kilometers away,} Nova reported.

"Well, I suppose it must seem that way to them. And we can't prove it either way without declassifying some of our predictive targeting algorithms, so just ignore it for now. If no crackpot conspiracy theorists had brought that up, we'd have had to bring it up ourselves since it's a surprisingly reasonable line of thought."

{Understood, Sir. What's the threshold for Panoptes to step in on it?} Nova asked.

"Hmm... let's say thirty percent. Once it hits saturation with that many of my detractors, have Panoptes start separating them into their own bubbles. And notify Nyx and Mnemosyne to keep a closer eye on the crackpots, along with the awakened supremacists."

{Yes, Sir.}

"Anything else?"

{Not at this point, Sir. It's fairly early, so the dust is still settling. We'll know more in a day or two and be able to make a more accurate forecast, especially after Mnemosyne gathers the data during the next few logins to the simulation.}

"Put out a press release and push it to all devices so everyone is informed, then. Should move things along faster so we can see where we stand with the supremacists," Aron ordered, then settled back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest for the remainder of the ten-odd minutes until he reached the Cube and would need to deal with the next pile of shit that dumped itself on his shoulders.

...

Avalon Island, the Cube.

A pristine white and gold shuttle landed on the roof and settled in the secure docking cradle. The side hatch slid open with a whoosh and Aron's aegis detail disembarked, arranging themselves in two rows, facing outward with their pulse carbines relaxed, but at the ready. Once they were situated, Aron hopped down from the shuttle and strode toward the elevator.

"Where's the dispatch?" he asked the empty air.

{Waiting for you in Lab O in the basement. Are you going there first?} Nova said.

"Yes. I'd like to see this new ship class in person first. The dispatch has already waited at least six months, it can wait a few more hours." Aron passed through the open elevator doors, all of the security protocols and handshakes already handled by the ever-efficient Nova.

{Understood, Sir.}

The elevator doors swished shut and the pumps attached to the shaft pulled a vacuum in it before the elevator shot down toward the lowest basement level beneath the Cube at close to five hundred miles per hour. Lab O was located roughly three kilometers underground and was the physical counterpart to Lab City, with the digital scientists operating drones and robots that could manipulate physical materials. It was also where his own personal lab was situated.

Once he reached his lab, he walked in and looked at the ten-meter-diameter sphere that was the newly designed Meteor-class Messenger Boat. It was a matte black sphere without any obvious construction marks and looked like nothing more than a solid lump of some unknown metal. He let out a low whistle and muttered, "Impressive."

He truly was impressed; the design was excellent and served its purpose well. As he looked at it, layer upon layer "exploded out" in his AR view, showing the thick armor plating, internal machining, and even the miniaturized warp engines and fusion reactor. Not to mention the quantum server, which was about as big as the one he had first used to run Nova and the simulation of Earth.

With a gesture, he set a nanite swarm to work disassembling the messenger boat. It would take about two and a half hours to take apart, so he decided to use the time to read the dispatches from Task Force Proxima. Thus, he walked into his secure office attached to Lab O and settled into the recliner used for offline memory updating and review.

He placed his hand into the recess on the armrest of the chair and it read his fingerprints and took a DNA sample from the base of his palm. Once the fingerprints were matched, a visor slid over his eyes and flashed a blue light, reading his retinal pattern as he recited the gibberish phrase he used as a voiceprint password.

{Identity verification complete. Welcome, Emperor Aron Michael,} the monotone voice of a VI said into his ear.

"Implement air gap protocol," Aron ordered.

{Implementing,} the VI replied.

Aron's implant disconnected from the network as the security blast doors came down over the doorway to the office. Once they sealed, a connection formed between the doors and walls, where runic script turned the room into a mana void, along with completing the faraday cage built into the walls.

Once the air gap was complete and tested, Aron logged into the local network and began reviewing the DNA-encoded memory recording. His brows furrowed with a frown as he reviewed the information of what had taken place on Proxima Centauri b, and especially when the recording reached Birch demanding to meet with him in person regarding the status of the trees' children.

After the recording came to an end, he remained reclined in place, his finger tapping at the arm of the chair he lay recumbent in.

Chapter 655

Within the time-accelerated VR's private space, Aron, Gaia, and Nova sat silently, gazing at the scene before them. Aron was struck by surprise, while Gaia and Nova struggled to reconcile what they saw with their prior understanding of reality, based on the data they had previously used to gauge the world.

This silence continued for more than ten minutes as each of them digested the information in different styles.

Without surprise, Aron was currently digesting the information about Liafu, which, to him, was the second most important piece among the messages sent. He realized this knowledge was something he would only have learned if he had bought advanced-level mana knowledge, if not higher, as it was a worldview-altering revelation. Despite not changing the current events, this information was akin to discovering a new fundamental law of the universe. It didn't impact ongoing matters but provided a framework to understand previously unexplainable phenomena and offered a new tool to exploit in the future.

"So, just as the laws of physics are the fundamental laws of the universe, mana also has its own fundamental laws, some of which have gained consciousness," Aron said, his voice steady and reflective as the scene around them faded. His words were not directed at Gaia and Nova, who were beside him, but rather served as a means to vocalize his thoughts.

He continued, more to himself than to his companions, "Does that mean all other laws might also have gained intelligence?" He paused, contemplating the implications. "It should be the special properties of mana that are the differentiating factors in gaining intelligence. But that's just a theory at this point in time. Contemplating it any further without a means of proving our theories is pointless."

Aron knew that diving deeper into such philosophical and theoretical discussions would not be productive without concrete evidence. "I currently need to go through more of the information," he reasoned. "I'll leave it to the scientists to do the thinking for now."

With a sigh, he shifted his focus back to the task at hand. He wanted to review and digest all the information uploaded to him, as his role demanded a comprehensive understanding of every discovery. Unlike the leaders of previous nations, who often made decisions based on fragmented knowledge or trusted their assistants, who most of the time had other agendas they wanted to progress, Aron believed that his awareness of every detail would prevent him from being manipulated into doing someone else's bidding, issuing misguided or harmful orders.

He reflected on the past, thinking about how many disastrous decisions were made because leaders acted on incomplete information. Those mistakes had led to unnecessary conflicts, resource wastage, and even loss of life.

He then moved on to the next section, then the next, and then the next without stopping. Seventy-two days in VR-accelerated time passed with Aron learning about everything the Proxima Centauri exploration fleet had discovered. From the special minerals not found in the solar system to the intricate formation of the planet, every piece of information was thoroughly absorbed. By the end of this period, Aron and the two main AIs, Gaia and Nova, had completely digested all the data, embedding it deeply into their understanding.

"This is the best result we could have ever fathomed, even if we had thought of it in the first place," Aron said, clearly satisfied with the exploration fleet's discoveries. "Most of the time, they selected the best option among the choices they had, based on the limited connection they had with the imperial palace."

{Yes, and they have even gained us more than ten billion new working-age citizens, allowing us to not worry about the manpower shortage that was starting to show itself,} Gaia responded, her focus on the influx of new people who would join the empire.

Usually, humanity was considered quite adept at adapting to new technologies and implementing them in their lives, but this was typically counted in decades. With the formation of the empire, however, that timeline was reduced to mere months. Spaceflight, once one of the most expensive endeavors imaginable, became cheaper than pre-empire plane tickets with a single announcement. The empire's opening of space access was followed by an immediate start to the production of affordable ships by a company owned by Aron.

This rapid expansion into a vast industry, coupled with the empire's efforts to make it accessible to almost everyone, presented a challenge. The industry, a million times the size of Earth, offered an ever-increasing number of jobs, risking a manpower shortage within a decade of its development.

However, in just a few years of the empire's existence, several factors mitigated this risk. Complete health rejuvenation for all citizens, combined with secure housing, abundant food, and numerous incentives for having children—such as low-cost and subsidized necessities free and high-quality education—led to a significant baby boom. This boom indicated a continuing trend for the coming years as the costs of raising children were expected to keep decreasing.

The influx of new working-age citizens from the Proxima Centauri exploration further alleviated the potential manpower shortage. The empire's proactive measures ensured a steady growth in population and workforce, supporting its expansive ambitions and securing its future.

{But we will only reap the full benefits if they join the empire. It seems that requires Sir Aron to physically visit them before they decide whether to join us or become our ally,} Nova interjected, reminding Gaia of the requirement, even though she was sure Gaia hadn't forgotten.

Instead of responding to Nova's statement, Gaia turned to Aron and asked, {Will you be visiting them?}

{Sir?!} Nova asked upon not receiving a response to Gaia's question.

But that, too, was met with silence from Aron's side. He could be seen tapping on the armrest of his chair, clearly deep in thought, weighing the pros and cons of both choices before him. To go or not to go, that is the question.

But that didn't last long as he abruptly stopped tapping on the armchair. He turned to Gaia and Nova and began, "Ten...

Chapter 656

"Ten billion awakeners are too important for me to merely have them as allies when we have the option of welcoming them as citizens," Aron stated decisively. He paused, contemplating the next steps. "The challenge is understanding their requirements," he continued, his mind already strategizing on how to approach this critical decision.

{I don't know what it is, but if anyone among humanity can fulfill their requirements, it's you.} Nova responded confidently. {Based on what they did during the meeting and those memories from Kim Ho So, it seems like they've given a requirement that could potentially be met. Otherwise, they would have made it clear. From what they've shown us, they don't seem to have a concept of lying. However, that could also be part of their strategy. But based on everything we've seen, they don't appear to be the type to deceive.} Nova's perspective offered a cautious optimism about the awakeners' intentions and the potential for a fruitful alliance or integration.

"But first, it looks like we need to change the constitution," Aron said with a sigh, recalling the recent speech he had just hours ago in the real world, facing the public as a headless man laid beside him.

Although he had mentioned that the constitution could be amended if a compelling reason was provided, Aron hadn't anticipated that such a reason would arise mere hours later.

{So, you are going,} Gaia said, understanding Aron's decision from his statement.

{Yeah, but not immediately. As the emperor, you still have things you need to complete before thinking of going,} Nova interjected, wearing her hats as Aron's personal secretary, assistant, and more. She ensured Aron understood that despite his eagerness to meet species from the fantasies of books and anime now becoming reality, he couldn't depart whenever he wished, as he had and could do previously.

"I know, I know. Plus, before I go, the infrastructure needs to be completed before I can even think of heading there," Aron acknowledged. Despite the empire's current state of peace, he felt a strong need to remain connected and updated about Earth's situations and occurrences.

{When the time comes, are you going to announce your departure to the people?} Gaia asked, seeking clarity on Aron's plans.

"I have to, since even the change in the constitution must be done publicly, with reasons provided for why the change is necessary," Aron replied solemnly. He lowered his head, his gaze drifting into the distance as he continued, "But first, we have to acknowledge the existence of FTL travel to make everything coherent, despite many already suspecting its existence."

Aron reflected on the many classified or undisclosed technologies and discoveries that would need to be declassified or publicly acknowledged. One thing was slightly making him nervous, if that was even possible in the first place. It was the reaction of the family members who had their friends and families sent to another star systems with sub-FTL ships when the empire already had that technology on their hands, but that was to be dealt with when that time came.

{I will start coming up with a plan, and we should have everything ready for you to leave within three months,} Gaia said, taking charge of organizing the preparations and wanting to use this as an opportunity to give Aron time to rest after his intensive period of absorbing and digesting information in VR.

"Thanks," Aron replied gratefully before bidding them farewell. He was confident in Gaia's ability to plan effectively, knowing that he would need to approve any decisions before they were implemented.

….

"I heard you were in LAB O a few hours ago. Did something new pique your curiosity enough to rush back here and implement it?" Rina asked after Aron arrived at their house. Finding her in the living room, he immediately went and rested his head on her lap, and she started playing with his hair.

Rina's response to his hours-long disappearances was typical for her; she had grown accustomed to them over time. Her only curiosity lay in what Aron was dedicating his time to during these absences.

Whenever he vanished like this, Aron invariably returned with creations that fulfilled the dreams of engineers around the world. These discoveries were enough to cement his reputation as a great engineer should he choose to publicly publish them under his name. Unfortunately for the world, these inventions would take longer to reach them, as they were stored in his private invention library. Only his and the Lab City researchers' inventions were housed there, accessible to the CEOs of his companies when they needed new products or solutions for their inventions.

Aron achieved these feats in just a few real-world hours or the equivalent of seventy-something days in accelerated VR time. His ability to innovate and create groundbreaking technologies in such a short span was unfathomable to her and even his closest friends as they didn't know of the existence of the system. frёewebηovel.cѳm

"No, I was going through the data the exploration fleet had sent back," Aron said in a low voice, turning his head to face Rina's stomach, clearly enjoying their moment together.

"It arrived today?" Rina asked in surprise. Despite knowing it was coming, she hadn't focused on the exact arrival date, so the news caught her off guard.

"So, anything interesting from it?" she asked eagerly, excitement evident in her voice.

"Do you want to see it?" Aron replied, offering to share the discoveries.

"If you're tired, we can do it later," Rina suggested, trying not to pressure Aron into showing her the data if he needed rest.

"Don't worry about that. Let's go and see," Aron insisted, rising from the couch where he had been lying. He gently lifted Rina and carried her to their bedroom, where their VR pods awaited. Her surprise at being swept off her feet was followed by delighted laughter as he set her down near the pods.

They shortly logged into the VR, where Aron started showing him summaries of the discoveries, with him going further into details whenever a discovery attracted her attention.

Chapter 657

The next day.

Rina could be seen adjusting Aron's tie, ensuring it looked dignified and matched his full black suit, as if he were heading to a funeral.

"If I didn't have the lesson already planned, I would have come with you," Rina said as she finished adjusting his tie and wiped the nonexistent dust off his suit, doing a couple of double takes to make sure everything was perfect.

Since she had decided to focus on magic research, and with Aron's aid, Rina had been making significant breakthroughs in the field of magic use. These advancements even surprised Aron, who already had high expectations for her. Rina's intimate understanding of magic, being a user herself, gave her an edge in her discoveries—an advantage Aron lacked since he couldn't use magic without runes in real life.

Although he could use magic normally in the universal simulation, Aron didn't have the luxury of time to practice it due to his numerous responsibilities. Additionally, he preferred not to use the higher time acceleration unless absolutely necessary, as the disproportionate amount of time spent in the simulation compared to real life created a disorienting disconnection from reality, a feeling he didn't enjoy.

As a result of her advancements, Rina was now delivering special lectures at various universities on topics related to mana and the use of magic to access and harness it. These lectures had been quite successful, and today was one of those days, hence her statement.

"Don't worry about it, and good luck with your lecture, Love you," Aron said, kissing her goodbye.

"Love you too," she responded, with a blush on her face, despite being married for more than a year she couldn't help but feel her heart flutter whenever she heard him say those words.

Aron left their house with a smile on his face as he liked teasing her at every chance he got, heading to the elevator that was already waiting to take him to the roof.

As soon as the elevator door closed, Aron's smile slowly faded away. He transitioned into work mode, assuming the demeanor required for his imperial duties, which demanded a more formal and serious approach than his usual casual self.

Upon boarding the imperial shuttle, it immediately took off, having been prepared and waiting for his arrival.

"How far apart are the families we are visiting?" Aron asked, seemingly speaking to the void from his room in the shuttle. This would appear strange to an outsider, as he didn't have a human secretary.

{Two of them are in the same city, and the rest are in different cities on different continents. Taking into account travel and meeting times, it will take a few hours before today's schedule ends,} Nova responded as she materialized from the nanomachines reservoir in the room. She was dressed appropriately for the occasion, in full black, matching Aron's attire.

"How do I approach this?" Aron asked, revealing his uncertainty as he tapped the sides of his chair.

{You can take a look at the bullet points I prepared for you,} Nova suggested. {I kept it brief because of your photographic memory. If I showed you the full version, you'd likely follow it to the letter, which wouldn't be ideal. The rest should come from you, naturally and sincerely.} She handed him a piece of paper materialized from some of the remaining nanomachines.

Aron picked up the paper and began reading through the bullet points in silence as the shuttle continued its journey.

The journey continued until the shuttle landed in the center of the city, at the government building, the tallest structure in the area. This landing spot was necessary, as the shuttle required a large open space, and Aron couldn't just land anywhere without causing disruptions—like interrupting children playing in parks. As a result, he typically landed at central government buildings. From there, he would be transported to his destination via a motorcade, which was always prepared in advance. Today's motorcade had arrived the previous night, ready to ensure smooth travel to his meetings.

Aron stepped off the shuttle and was greeted by the city's highest-ranked imperial official, who immediately extended his hand to welcome the emperor.

Aron reciprocated the greeting and continued the small talk, engaging with the city leader. During their conversation, the official invited him to a banquet that had been prepared in his honor.

"Thanks for the hospitality and invitation, but unfortunately, as stated in the report sent to you, the emperor needs to be in different cities within a few hours. So, we have to decline your invitation and head to our destination as quickly as possible," Nova intervened. She knew that Aron's current mood wasn't really welcoming of enjoying as he was on the wat to deliver bad news to quite a few people, hence her timely interjection.

"Sorry for that, sir. Please, this way," the city leader responded promptly, pointing in the direction of the elevator. Aron reciprocated with a polite smile and, along with his Aegis—those who had accompanied him on the shuttle—began walking toward the elevator with serious expressions, fully aware that their duties had now commenced.

A few minutes later, a modest-sized motorcade departed from one of the large gates of the massive imperial government building.

The motorcade moved swiftly through the well-connected city, and it didn't take long before it arrived and came to a stop in front of a one-story house in a quiet neighborhood.

The security team immediately disembarked from the motorcade, joining the team that had arrived earlier to secure the perimeter with one of Aegis members approaching to open his door.

Taking a deep breath, Aron said, "Let's get to work," as he stepped out of the car and began walking towards the house. He gestured with his hand to the security members who were planning to follow him, indicating that only Nova would accompany him inside.

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

Silence fell as Aron waited for the door to be opened, and the rest of the neighborhood gathered from the distance to see what had brought a convoy of cars and heavy security to their quiet streets.

Shortly thereafter, the door was opened.

Chapter 658

There was silence in the room, briefly interrupted by the sound of a woman crying. In any other circumstance, this would be distressing, but here, it was an expected reaction as she had just received news of her husband's death.

It was the emperor himself who had shouldered the weighty responsibility of delivering the news of the Proxima Centauri exploration fleet's casualties.

Both he and Rina were sitting in silence, their faces reflecting the gravity of the situation, allowing Rachael who was sitting in front of them to cry and process the devastating news for a moment, as the weight of the news warranted such a reaction in the first place.

"I'm sorry for showing this side of me, but I can't help…" Rachael attempted to regain her composure and apologize for her emotional reaction, but she struggled to control herself and soon resumed crying.

Nova rose from her seat beside Aron and moved to sit beside Rachael. She gently embraced her, offering a comforting shoulder to cry on. Rachael leaned into the hug, her crying intensifying as if a floodgate had been opened.

This continued for more than half an hour, with Nova providing unwavering and highly needed comfort to Rachael until her intense crying gradually subsided to a level where conversation could resume.

Throughout this entire period, Aron remained silent and respectful, his reverence for Rachael's grief evident, allowing her the time and space she needed to digest the heartbreaking news in her own way.

"I know this may not be much consolation during your time of grief, but I hope it allows you to mourn without the added burden of financial worries for yourself and your children.

Every imperial official on duty in hazardous conditions has a life insurance policy, and the lump sum payment will be deposited into your account by the end of today.

Following that, you will receive monthly payments from the Imperial Veteran's Affairs Department for the next century.

The official burial ceremony for those confirmed deceased will take place in two weeks, but we will coordinate further details when you are ready. The department responsible for managing these affairs will visit you soon to assist with organizing matters like work and other practicalities.

There are more details, but they are less relevant to your immediate situation. You can request more information whenever you are ready. I'm sorry, but this is all I can say for now. I want to emphasize that your husband's sacrifice was not in vain.

Thanks to such sacrifices, we have made a world-changing discovery, which will soon be shared with the public," Aron spoke in a compassionate tone. At the same time, Nova continued to comfort Rachael, who still rested on Nova's shoulder, listening quietly.

As previously stated, there was a comprehensive life insurance policy in place for imperial officials sent on dangerous missions such as exploration or military duty.

This ensured that families received a substantial lump sum payment to address immediate financial needs, allowing them to focus on mourning their loved ones. In addition to this lump sum, they would receive monthly payments ranging between two to four times the minimum wage for a period of a century.

Furthermore, additional benefits were extended to the children of the deceased. These included free public transportation, which, in the context of the empire, facilitated access to virtually anywhere as each completed city boasted comprehensive public transit networks connecting all parts of the city. Monthly allowances were also provided throughout their education, along with various other privileges directly administered by the empire.

These benefits were structured for two primary reasons. Firstly, they served as an incentive for individuals to join and serve in the imperial government. Secondly, they were designed to discourage recklessness and ensure that decisions resulting in fatalities were carefully considered, as each death incurred significant repercussions, both personal and societal. This approach aimed to minimize unnecessary loss of life and uphold the welfare of those serving the empire.

As for the heads of missions attempting to falsify or misattribute deaths to avoid the associated financial liabilities or investigations, such actions were virtually impossible to conceal. All individuals participating in these missions were equipped with nano implants that continuously transmitted real-time data to communication nodes of the empire, whether public or private. This data was meticulously cataloged and made available for scrutiny by Virtual intelligence systems tasked with verifying mission reports.

Furthermore, the writers of these reports were subject to scrutiny by their assigned memory virtual intelligence, which would analyze the intent behind the reports in light of the data collected by the nano implants. If discrepancies were found between the reported events and the objective data, investigations would ensue to ensure accuracy and accountability in mission reporting. Thus, the system ensured transparency and deterred any attempts to manipulate or misrepresent mission outcomes.

Aron spent the next half-hour with her, comforting and reassuring amidst the difficult news.

When the time came, he rose and bid her farewell, knowing he had to deliver this heartbreaking news a few more times before his duties for the day were complete.

He walked out of the house alone, leaving Nova to spend more time with the wife of the deceased as they awaited the arrival of some Aegis members who were sent to pick up her children from school and bring them home.

As he made his way out, Aron paused when he noticed a flagpole erected in the yard of the house. It was now flying the imperial flag, its colors replaced entirely with white, and adorned with the imperial seal—a symbol reserved for funerals. This solemn display indicated to anyone who saw it that someone inside had died in the line of duty.

"It's going to be a heavy day," Aron sighed after boarding the car, acknowledging the emotional toll of delivering such news.

Despite the system's previous attempts to modify his brain to alter his ability to feel, he fortunately discovered and managed to stop it and mitigate its effects. However, some remnants of those modifications remained, enabling him to handle heavy situations while still allowing him to feel the emotions pertaining to them.

{Better to be the one delivering it than the one receiving it}, Nova remarked as she materialized in a new body inside the motorcade, her other copy still consoling the wife.

"I don't even want to think of that," Aron replied solemnly. The thought of being on the receiving end of such news was something he dreaded, knowing it wouldn't end well for the one who caused the bad news.

He pushed the thought aside as they continued their journey to deliver the sad news to the other families.

Chapter 659

As Aron and Nova visited the different families to deliver the sad news, the rest of the empire was left wondering about their activities. Videos circulated of them arriving at ordinary houses, spending a few hours inside, and soldiers raising a white imperial flag in front of each house before departing. The sight of the white flag, symbolizing the loss of someone who died in the line of duty, sparked widespread curiosity and concern among the citizens, who speculated about the nature of these visits and the tragic news being shared.

With these visits occurring randomly and often on different continents, many people dismissed the idea of them being surprise visits. This conclusion was further supported by the sight of the white imperial flag, a symbol previously only seen at official burial sites like war heroes' cemeteries or the burial grounds of those who had fallen victim to cult attacks. The presence of the flag indicated a somber purpose behind the visits, leading the public to speculate about a recent tragedy affecting multiple families across the empire.

But the speculation didn't last too long as some of the family members of the deceased had told the neighbours who had visited them which spread from there, or some distant relatives using this as a means of gathering clout on the internet but the gist of the reason behind his visit was made known and with the imperial press secretary still remaining quiet on the situation people started coming up with their speculations of their own.

With the reason for Aron's visits revealed, news spread that the visited families had members on the exploration fleet. This led to widespread speculation about how the news reached the empire if the fleet was still supposed to be in transit. People wondered if the number of dead was limited to those visited or if there were more casualties, with Aron visiting families randomly and others set to receive the news later.

Although millions were aware of the existence of FTL transportation within the imperial arsenal, ninety-nine percent of them were currently on an exploration mission. The few who remained on Earth kept this information to themselves, as it was still classified technology. This left the public with nothing but speculation, leading people to create their own theories and narratives in the absence of official acknowledgment or leads.

Some speculated that the empire possessed FTL capabilities, but these claims were largely dismissed with scientific arguments emphasizing the impossibility of surpassing the speed of light. Others theorized that the Proxima Centauri Fleet might have blown up mid-way and that imperial observatories had observed this, prompting the delivery of the grim news. Another group suggested that the emperor was using this situation to divert attention from the recent controversy involving an awakener who was killed for attempting to attack him. Each theory, regardless of its basis in reality, added to the growing tension and demand for official clarification from the empire.

The speculation didn't last long. Shortly after, a notification went out announcing that the emperor would be addressing the empire. Since this was not an emergency address, it wouldn't override all broadcasts but would be aired on government-owned channels and any other channels that chose to carry it.

…

Upon the arrival of the scheduled address, Aron materialized in front of his usual address room in VR. The room was still in use, as the construction of the imperial palace had yet to begin, and his current address remained operational for other tasks within the still privately owned island. This made VR the only place where he could address the empire while also having reporters from all over the world present to ask questions.

After his usual brief greetings, he got straight to the point. First and foremost, it is with a heavy heart that I confirm the tragic loss of our exploration fleet to Proxima Centauri. The brave men and women who embarked on this mission knew the risks involved, and they made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge and the advancement of our empire.

To the families and loved ones of those we have lost, I extend my deepest condolences. As you may have seen, I have been personally visiting the families of the deceased to offer my support and ensure they receive the benefits and assistance due to them. This is a small gesture in the face of such a profound loss, but it is my hope that it provides some comfort during this difficult time.

As for why we are only announcing the deaths of a few members and not the entire fleet, as many of you speculated, it is because they are not in transit, the Proxima Centauri exploration fleet had already arrived and started their mission more than a year ago," he paused, knowing the weight of his words required a moment for the audience to process.

"Yes, I know it seems impossible to have achieved this without traveling faster than light, given the distance is more than five light years. So, I will take this moment to officially acknowledge faster-than-light travel's existence. All of our exploration fleets have arrived at their destinations, some just a few weeks ago." He paused again to let the significance of his statement sink in.

"Now that the question of travel has been addressed, many of you must be wondering how we received the news of their deaths if they are five light years away. Currently, we don't have direct communication established with them due to the high energy requirements. Instead, the communication was delivered in the traditional way, by sending servers back with the information. These messengers arrived yesterday; hence, our verification of their deaths only happened yesterday."

He then proceeded to delve deeper into how the deceased would be honored and what medals would be provided, creating an impression that this address was primarily about satisfying people's curiosity regarding his recent activities, thereby diverting attention from the imminent announcement he intended to deliver once he had paid due respects to the deceased. For those privy to the upcoming announcement, it was clear that it would overshadow everything said before, which was why he dedicated significant time to honoring the dead and giving them the spotlight at the outset.

Chapter 660

"With the servers having reached us, it also means the data they collected throughout their exploration period has been sent back, along with many surprising discoveries.

With my previous statements, I'm pretty sure that many of you are likely wondering the same thing: whether we are still alone in the universe or if there are aliens on the planet." He paused, allowing the tension to build, and everyone watching felt their anticipation grow.

"It's more complicated than that," he said. Before the reporters could interrupt, the scene shifted to a visual presentation.

The screen showed part of the exploration fleet arriving at the planet, indicating that he chose to show rather than tell.

The scenes shown were carefully selected anchor points that summarized the entire situation. The montage concluded with the image of the newly created races being placed into standardized VR pods, providing enough explanation before the scene returned to the emperor standing at the podium.

Both the room and the viewers who watched the recap were silent, their minds struggling to process the information while simultaneously resisting it due to its unbelievable nature.

Had it not been presented by the emperor, they might have dismissed it as a movie or game promotion, which seemed more plausible than a summary recording of a star system five light years away.

"As I previously stated, it is complicated," Aron continued. "We had found life before, but it was at a microbial level, which was expected since the planet had all the necessary conditions to support life. However, we didn't find intelligent extraterrestrial life—at least, not initially. But we had a significant hand in their creation."

He dropped another bombshell.

"We share 99 percent of our DNA with them because they used one of our members as the foundation for creating these new species. This makes them nearly identical to us, except for a small percentage that affects their appearance and their natural affinity for mana. Unlike us, they do not need to awaken to these abilities; it comes naturally to them.

"In addition to sharing the same DNA, we are also currently responsible for their education and upbringing. This is taking place in a time-accelerated virtual environment before they leave the pods they are currently in" he paused before he continued shortly after.

"More data about them will be released after the science department reviews and verifies it for accuracy." he paused once again, preparing everyone for his following statement.

"And with that explanation out of the way, I would like to announce an upcoming amendment to the constitution." he paused once again, having finally gotten used to the faces of surprise with every new piece of information that he was providing, he was even enjoying some times.

"This amendment will expand the definition of humanity within the First Amendment and encompass who is included under human rights. The meeting to finalize this will take place next month, after we have finished analyzing the data and determined we have enough information to classify the situation correctly.

With that, I mark the end of my address and open the floor to questions."

He barely finished his final sentence before everyone in the room raised their hands.

Without Aron needing to say anything, every reporter knew that raising their hands would automatically enter them into a raffle. This process ensured that reporters would be chosen randomly to ask their questions, preventing favoritism and ensuring that difficult questions could not be avoided by the addresser.

"Throughout the address and the video summary of the new species, you avoided mentioning their total number and if it is possible for them to be created again whenever desired?" asked Nshimirimana, a former citizen of South Africa, who was the first reporter given the opportunity to ask questions.

"Their total number is ten billion as of now," Aron responded confidently. "As for your second question, no, they cannot be created anymore through that means. The amount of mana required to achieve it is almost impossible to gather again within a few million years. However, they can multiply through birth just like us." He answered without hesitation, knowing this would be one of the easier questions posed by the reporters.

"Since we share more than ninety-nine percent of our DNA with them, can humans interbreed with them?" the second reporter asked, echoing the curiosity of many anime fans who were still in disbelief.

"Yes, it is possible," Aron replied. "In the same way a Chinese person can have a child with a Nordic person." As he said this, he could sense that the lives of a few people had been changed for the better, and he suspected the exploration fleets might soon see a surge in applications.

"Why do they resemble some of our characters from famous media?" the next reporter asked.

"It is because, in addition to copying DNA, they also read the memories of the individual they were created from. This individual was very well-versed in those media, so those characters became the template for creation. You will learn more about them once we release the full data on the situation from start to finish," Aron answered, indicating that he would not be providing further details on this topic and suggesting that reporters should not waste their questions on it.

"How are you going to deal with the other side that contributed the majority to their creation? And based on your statement of amending the constitution to include their creation, what is to become of them? Also, does this amendment mean that they are joining the empire as equals to us?" the next reporter asked.

"At the moment, the amendments to the constitution will only encompass the created races, not their creators. The matter of them joining the empire as equals is still under discussion with our creator counterparts. We currently have two options: one is for them to join the empire, and the other is for them to become our closest allies. To determine which path we will take, I need to visit and have discussions with them first."

And as always another bombshell was dropped.

Chapter 661

"Why can't they come here and are instead making you go? Doesn't that indicate that we are showing they are important enough to warrant the emperor of the empire being at their beck and call by having him personally go to them instead of them coming to you?" the next reporter asked.

Aron responded calmly, "The reason I am going to them is not about showing subservience or being at their beck and call. It is a matter of practicality and diplomacy. Their environment and circumstances are unique, as their bodies are literally roots encompassing the entirety of the planet, and it is essential for me to understand their situation firsthand.

Although they can transfer parts of their consciousness to small humanoid trees, there's no assurance that the connection can be maintained over the distance between the two star systems. So, the easiest solution is for me to go and have discussions with them there.

As for the second reason, you have to remember that this meeting will determine whether the empire gains more than ten billion new citizens of working age who are also natural awakeners or if we have them as only our closest allies, which would limit our benefits.

Given all the potential benefits of this deal, going there to secure the chance of having them as citizens rather than just allies is nothing but a rather simple compromise for me and the empire."

"Based on your previous statements, it seems there is no direct communication between the two star systems. So, who are you going to put in charge during the period when you will be cut off from communications with the imperial government?" asked the next reporter, as if the question had been planned in conjunction with the previous one.

His previous statements immediately led to the following question, as it indicated there is no direct communication between the solar system and the Proxima Centauri star system. The idea of the emperor being disconnected from the empire for more than a year was both dangerous and opportune, opening the door for potential issues either from external threats or internal factions aiming to seize power during his absence.

This concern was on the minds of many reporters and politically savvy viewers. Although the empire had swiftly entered a period of stability, unprecedented for a new regime, much of this stability was credited to the emperor's absolute power and control over the military. The military's consolidation, following the elimination of the cult and hardliners sent to other star systems, and the advancements in technology that enabled swift suppression of any dissent, had cemented his rule.

However, the possibility of power being usurped during the emperor's prolonged absence loomed large. Those closest to power, such as his wife, relatives outside the imperial family's succession line, and the awakeners who viewed themselves as superior, could potentially attempt to seize control.

The awakeners, in particular, posed a significant threat. Although currently subdued by the emperor's display of force, his absence could embolden them, risking a civil war. The military, now primarily equipped for interplanetary warfare, might struggle to contain internal conflicts without causing significant collateral damage.

However, the greatest potential threat was overshadowed by the current imperial military commander, John.

As second-in-command of the military, he possessed significant power and authority, making it relatively easy for him to seize control should he become greedy during the emperor's absence.

This was the prevailing perception among the public, imperial officials, political scientists, and anyone who wasn't the emperor, as they couldn't fully grasp or even fathom the level of control the emperor actually maintained.

Everyone with a political mind anxiously awaited the emperor's response, as it would either allay their fears or confirm their worst suspicions.

"Just because I said that I will be going, it doesn't mean that I will choose a representative, wake up one day, and just go without any preparation since that would be quite counterintuitive." Aron paused, noticing the confusion on the faces of the reporters, easily imagining the same puzzled expressions on many viewers.

With a smile on his face, He continued, providing more details on his previous response.

"I must remind you that with the change to the constitution, the people in the Proxima star system will also be considered citizens or allies. This means the Constitution applies to them, including the clause granting freedom of communication. By law, they are required to have access to the internet that connects them to the rest of the empire.

"At this moment, we are in the process of creating the signal towers that will be used to connect the two sides and allow for instant communication. The creation and installation of these towers are expected to take six to nine months, and I am not planning on going there for at least a year. By then, none of the stated or anticipated problems will be issues anymore."

The next reporter asked, "Are people from there going to visit Earth, and will the opposite be allowed, too?"

"For the moment, no," Aron replied. "The reason being that they have not yet formed a society. For at least the next five years, access to their star system will be limited to allow them to develop the capability to exploit their resources and prevent them from being exploited due to their naivety."

His response clarified that the empire was giving the new species time to adjust. However, the underlying meaning was not fully grasped by many. While some might interpret his statement as implying humans were potential exploiters who could take advantage of the new species' naivety, the reality was more nuanced.

Both sides had the potential to exploit each other, and the empire's restriction on access was aimed at preventing such things from happening at the start while also preventing misunderstandings or conflicts that could arise if there was no adjusting period between the two sides.

"But the same cannot be said for VR," he continued. "Once their training and adaptation period is over, they will be connected to Earth's public communication infrastructure through VR. This means you will be able to interact with them in virtual reality earlier than in real life." He added this to preempt the imminent question he anticipated would follow from his previous answer.

Chapter 662

The questions continued before he brought the address to an end, with the time from the start of his address to the end totaling two and a half hours.

"He has gotten really good at addressing people and making others work hard at realizing them for him," Felix Jokingly complained to Sarah about Aron as they watched the address together.

Although his complaint was made in a manner of sarcasm, he, not he but the company he leads, was the one who was going to have to create all of the signal boosters that would be required to create a network between the two star systems, as their company was the one that was contracted to making many things from the government including the communication infrastructure.

"Isn't it one of the requirements of a great leader? Being able to make promises and delegating qualified people to achieve those promises." Sarah responded, humoring his complaint but also giving him the opportunity to brag and feel good.

"Well, I can't argue about that, as I'm cursed by endless work due to my overbearing qualifications. But what can I do as it is a sacrifice I need to bear to help my friend focus on leading the country?" he continued his play of someone being given heavy responsibility.

But Sarah decided to bring an end to his bragging streak by asking, "But isn't everything going to be made by atomic printers anyway, with the responsible imperial agency sending the schematics for it?"

,

Felix decided to completely ignore her attempt at stopping his bragging by responding to her by saying, "Someone who works on the technology side of things that can't help but require my company to help them produce them like you can't understand my side of things and my responsibility" returning the attack back to her.

But neither of them could continue with their fun banter as they couldn't hold it in, and they both started laughing quite hard the moment their eyes met.

With laughing came skinship, and with skinship, the laughter slowly disappeared as they moved closer and closer, with the mood in the room changing from heartwarming to an erotic one.

But before they could meet their lips, Aron's avatar materialized in the room, causing them to separate.

"Oops, sorry about that," Aron said when he realized that he had blueballed his friend.

"Doesn't matter, why did you appear here?" Felix asked, acting as if he was fine and wasn't horny a few minutes ago.

"What, so I have a reason to call my friends?" Aron asked jokingly.

"You can, but you usually just visit us in VR or in the real world, not through the hologram. I almost forgot we had it since it was almost never used," Sarah answered, this time talking about the change in his pattern.

"Just wanted to try it when I saw it was the least used means of communication between us. Also, does anyone want to come with me to Proxima?" Aron got to the point after giving his reason for using the holo tech.

"Isn't the time to leave about a year later? Why are you asking now and in a manner that seems to be urgent?" Felix asked this time.

"I need to know to include them in the plan if there are additional people needed. And we are currently amidst that planning," responded Aron, giving his reasoning.

"Give us time to think, as we can't just make such a huge decision out of nowhere," Sarah responded.

They needed both of them to agree on whether they were going or not since they really couldn't leave their other counterpart for a year without a good reason.

"Okay, you have a week to decide," Aron said, pausing for a moment. Now you can go back to what you were doing," he said with a smile on his face amidst his disappearing.

….

While Aron was messing with his friends while planning his upcoming trip, the world was reacting to and discussing his address, with discussions and reactions divided into different categories.

There were those who argued that this was just another round of propaganda from the empire, and quite a few people were forced to agree as the emperor's explanation was really stretching the strings of believability.

From the POV of those in this group, it looked like the empire had decided the conclusion to their story, and whatever plot hole they couldn't explain, they added the word mana as the explanation for the hole.

But there were counters to this, saying that if this was true, then the empire was bound to be caught in the lie when they were connected to them following their training.

It was quite a useless thing to lie about since there was really no reason for this lie to be brought up in the first place, as there was no situation taking place that required such an absurd story to act as a cover-up.

Then, there were scientists and anime fans who were waiting with bated breath for the data to be made public so that they could see and decide with their own eyes whether the statement from the empire was true or if it was a misinterpretation of data.

But waiting for the data came with discussion and memes about whether the statement was actually true and whether humanity was finally joined by races from their own imaginations.

This was quite a surreal feeling that had previously not even been imagined by the wildest science fiction and fantasy fans, but reality has a knack for going beyond our imaginations.

But no matter which side or which group of this discussion people were on, deep down, everyone knew that if it was true, then the empire would change forever and not return to its previous state, as it would mark the start of the empire's expansion.

Just a few years after its foundation, which resulted in taking over all the countries on the planet, it was followed by taking over the whole star system, and now it seems it is on the route to taking over another star system with billions of new citizens joining them as equals or allies.

Chapter 663

No matter what you do—whether it's bad, good, or somewhere in between—once it's on the internet, you'll always receive both positive and negative reactions. There's always someone who either reads too deeply into the words or not deeply enough.

Some people can read or listen but struggle to comprehend the message as the writer or speaker intended. The moment they hear something, it passes through their personal filters before the brain starts to process what was being said or written.

As a result, people often hear what they want to hear rather than what was actually communicated. This was precisely the case with the emperor's speech; he was not exempt from such misinterpretations.

And the majority of these people were among the most prolific users of social media, eager to express their opinions. Consequently, they voiced their feelings and reactions moments after the emperor finished his speech and it resulted in quite a mess.

There were those who believed that the emperor was using the announcement to hide something.

truth_beleiver243r67: [Why do I suspect that the emperor is using this announcement to deflect responsibility for the deaths of the explorers? It seems like he's initially downplaying the situation by mentioning only a few deaths, with the intention of later revealing that the rest were killed by the new species when they just exploded en route there.]

Missinformationresponded52134: [ truth_beleiver243r67 Do you think you are making sense? This is like causing 9/11 to avoid a school exam. Also, why acknowledge it now when he could delay it as long as he needed?]

truth_beleiver243r67: [ Missinformationresponded52134 That is because he can't silence astronomers for longer since the light of their explosion will reach us in a few years if the explosion happens in the last few months or so. And when they see it, they will have to speak about it.]

truth_beleiver243r67: [ Missinformationresponded52134 Where did you go? Are you afraid to say anything now that I have given you the reason? People like you are the ones who like to talk without evidence and speak as if they know everything]

There were those who took something from the announcement that reopened wounds, and they were in the process of healing.

Emperorhater7412: [Did the emperor just admit to sending hundreds of millions of people to eternal damnation simply because they did not recognize him as the ruler?]

NotLikeUs: [What do you mean?]

Emperorhater7412: [He just publicly acknowledged the existence of faster-than-light travel, meaning he sent more than a hundred million people, including my dad, on ships that couldn't travel faster than a fraction of light speed, making their journey take anywhere between a thousand years and tens of thousands of years to arrive where he is sending them.]

Idonotagree: [ Emperorhater7412: What if the technology was discovered after they were gone? It doesn't matter if it is a stretch, but that, too, is an explanation that doesn't make him that much of a villain, you think. They were going to be continually causing problems if they were left, and I believe he did that because that was the best decision he could come up with at that moment.]

Emperorhater7412: [If what you are saying is true, then now that he has everything under control, he should bring them back. Currently, he is capable of sending ships that can reach them with just a few months of FTL despite them being traveling for more than a year. So he should go for them and bring them back.]

Idonotagree: [Unfortunately, I can't agree with that view. Initially, I was skeptical about the empire and saw the leader as a power-hungry megalomaniac. However, the past few years under his rule have been the best I've experienced in terms of governance. I now have a stable home, something I never thought possible before. Even times when I had to be frugal with my meals are a thing of the past.

Do you think those ultranationalistic individuals who were put in stasis will come back and appreciate the improvements? No, they will awaken with their old grievances intact, having missed the progress made. Their return could disrupt the stability we've worked so hard to achieve. Do we really want to risk that upheaval now, just as things have begun to settle?]

Then there were those who were solely focusing on the technology acknowledged in the announcement and took to express how it should be used by the empire.

warmonger: [Why didn't they announce that they had the technology when they discovered it and kept it to themselves? Shouldn't they share this technology for the betterment of humanity? #Selfishempire #releasethetechnology]

b?faele?fno: [ warmonger Are you dumb?]

warmonger: [ b?faele?fno What do you mean? You don't want the tech to be shared for the betterment of humanity?]

b?faele?fno: [ warmonger What are you going to use it for? Isn't the current technology enough for you to go anywhere in the solar system in less than a week? For the betterment of humanity? Isn't the empire already doing that by sending out exploration fleets? Also, what makes you think the empire discovered this technology and not one of his private companies, hence them privately owning that technology and were just sharing it with the empire?

That tech currently can only be put to use by the empire alone, and they are amidst doing that. and if you say making travel short within the solar system, you seem to have forgotten that there is a speed limit within the solar system, and we are currently capable of going faster than that but they are limiting it for safety.

Think before speaking foolishly, but them acknowledging it is enough, as that means it is possible for the tech to be discovered, so raise your ass and go to research city to build it yourself and stop complaining. ]

Such discussions were among the many that were taking place, with some jocking some mourning, some just enjoying the discoveries, some denying them, and some just enjoying the moment, but that didn't mean that they weren't waiting for the release of evidence that was going to take place a month.

Chapter 664

Even after two weeks had passed, the emperor's speech remained a hot topic of discussion. This was remarkably long for something to stay relevant in the fast-paced world of the internet.

Far from fading into obscurity, the emperor's speech seemed to gain momentum, its importance escalating with each passing day, leaving the public increasingly intrigued.

Today was the day of the official imperial funeral for the deceased explorers, broadcast live through the imperial news channels.

The viewership was enormous, especially after the empire released video footage of the evacuation that showed the chaotic and disastrous conditions the planet was in, which had led to the scientists' deaths.

The footage seized the public's attention, as many were astounded by the fact that only a few lives were lost in the midst of such a chaotic natural disaster. The survival of the majority was a testament to the advancement of imperial technology.

The funerals took place at the new imperial cemetery grounds, designated specifically for the burial of imperial explorers who died in the line of duty. Unfortunately, these explorers were the first to be laid to rest there.

….

Mars.

"I really thought this production ground would remain dormant until wartime," Hussein, a production military scientist, said as he watched the massive production ground in front of him coming to life.

Since Mars had been selected as the main base of the imperial military, it was expected to reach self-sufficiency and not require anything from Earth other than personnel.

Although the planet's constructions have yet to be completed, Mars has already reached and even exceeded its goal of self-sufficiency.

But despite this achievement, the majority of the atomic printers on the planet were inactive. The one currently being activated by Dr. Hussein was among them.

The empire understood that bored soldiers were not good soldiers. If everything were done with atomic printers, the majority of the military would end up sitting idly, which was quite the opposite of what was needed.

Therefore, despite having an overabundance of atomic printers, only a small number of them were kept active.

This approach ensured that soldiers had tasks to occupy them. The rest of the printers were reserved for wartime, when an immediate and massive ramp-up in production was necessary, and all available manpower would be needed on the battlefield. Only then would the remaining printers be activated.

So, when the empire, which had been carefully maintaining this balance, broke it willingly, you would know they were serious about their intentions.

"This is a special circumstance, and the order came directly from General John. What do you think he is planning to do with this?" His assistant responded, following with a question.

Although their assigned atomic printer was not among the top 20 in size, it was still as large as a city. Despite this, it was only assigned a team of a few thousand personnel responsible for production, maintenance, and inspection. Whether the printer was active or not, this team remained unchanged.

"What do you mean by that?" Hussein asked his assistant, as he was quite literal and typically had difficulty grasping the underlying meaning of words unless they were explained to him.

"Do you think he's planning a coup or something?" his assistant asked directly, accustomed to explaining Hussein's literal interpretations. The assistant wasn't worried about getting in trouble, knowing that Hussein valued reasoning and wouldn't simply accuse him of treason for voicing his curiosity. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Without waiting for a response, he continued, "I mean, look at the schematics of the ships we're supposed to make. I've never seen this type of blueprint before. So, it's either that they're a new class of ships, or they're existing ships that are still classified, and we're being used to produce them as we are quite idle. Alternatively, he could be creating his private forces or something."

"What do you do in your idle times?" Dr. Hussein asked him once he heard his reasoning.

"Play VR games," the assistant answered immediately, tilting his head in curiosity about why he was being asked that question. He knew Dr. Hussein was genuinely curious and not playing mind games with him, as Hussein always asked questions with a straightforward intent.

"Does that mean you haven't been using social media for the past two weeks?" Dr. Hussein asked, turning his inquiry into another question. The assistant understood that Hussein was building a hypothesis to explain why his previous conclusion might be incorrect. Realizing this, he decided to go along with it to see where the reasoning would lead.

"I'm an orphan raised by the Emperor's House of Hope program through the Coeus Foundation, so most of my friends are in the military, universities, research and development, or awakening academies. This makes it quite hard for me to be active online since there's no one to contact. If you add in military restrictions when we're in restricted locations, I usually avoid using social media until my rotation comes and I return to Earth."

He answered while anticipating any further questions, curious about why his previous conclusion was wrong as well.

"That's why you would assume he's planning a coup. But you're wrong," Dr. Hussein explained. "The fleets are being built to escort the emperor when he goes to the Proxima Centauri star system."

Dr. Hussein then provided a summary of what had happened over the past two weeks. He explained that the printing of the ships was given to them as they were among the idle printers in order to avoid disrupting the military's manufacturing timetable for the current active printers, which had already been scheduled a year in advance.

"Plus, do you really think the emperor wouldn't know if something like that were to take place?" Dr. Hussein said. "If you're from that fabled Hope program, you should be smart, but is all that genius focused solely on research that you wouldn't realize that no one in the current military has the capability to orchestrate a coup?"

Turning his head toward the control room, which now showed that the printer was fully online and ready for operation with the raw material storage canisters already in place, Dr. Hussein pressed the start button for production without wasting any time.

Chapter 665

A month after his address to the empire and two weeks after the funeral, the empire kept its promise by releasing comprehensive data about the data collected throughout the entire exploration fleet's mission. The release included almost everything, except for a few classified sections, which were clearly marked as such for those reviewing the information.

"Holy shit," Ryan, a microbiologist, shouted involuntarily when he saw the amount of data.

"What is it?" Irene, his coworker and wife, asked, startled by his outburst as she prepared breakfast in their comfortable home.

"Come take a look at what the empire gifted us," he said, his face alight with excitement as he called her over, knowing she'd be even more thrilled than he was.

"This is going to take us centuries to go through," she said with a tone brimming with excitement, contrary to what one might expect from someone facing such an immense task. "But first, we should request at least a month off." The sheer volume of data in their specific field of expertise was staggering.

"I'm pretty sure there's something in here that can revolutionize our knowledge of microbiology," Irene said, peering over her husband's shoulder at the screen. She was a romantic type, always excited by the prospect of new discoveries.

"We just have to be the ones to discover the diamond in the rough. How much savings do we have, dear?" Ryan asked, realizing the potential in the data. He relied on his wife for financial decisions since he had a tendency to spend impulsively, a habit that nearly strained their relationship during their dating phase. After getting married, he entrusted her with their household finances.

"Why? You want us to quit and focus on research?" Irene immediately grasped his intent. She paused, considering their financial stability, then said, "We can maintain our current lifestyle for at least three years."

"How about we quit and focus on this data for at least a year?"

Irene fell silent, weighing the benefits. After a moment, she agreed, "Sure, let's do that, honey. If we're going to act, we need to do so fast due to the amount of data we are going to need to go through. We're not going to be the only ones thinking the same thing." She knew almost every scientist would be considering a similar move.

The total amount of data was about 50 exabytes, organized into different categories for every field of science. This immense influx of information led almost all scientists to request at least a month of real-world time off to go through the data in VR. The sheer number of such requests forced some companies to pause their ongoing research for a month before resuming normal operations. Some employees even threatened to quit if they weren't granted the time off, highlighting the extraordinary impact of the data release.

[A/N: An exabyte is equal to a billion gigabytes, with Google having approximately only about 10 to 15 exabytes of storage.]

The reason for such a massive and simultaneous request was that the data access operated on a first-come, first-served basis. Once someone used the information to make a discovery, it would be recorded by the Akashic server, establishing them as the primary discoverer. If their discovery contributed to future technology, they would be entitled to half a percent of the percentage of revenue generated by their contribution, provided it earned a minimum of ten million END.

While earning 0.5 END per product sold, if their discovery constituted 1 percent of a new technology priced at 100 END, might seem small, the cumulative earnings could be substantial. As more products were sold, the discoverer would continuously receive payments, allowing them to focus on research without financial worries.

Although many scientists weren't money-hungry and preferred to spend most of their time doing research, they still needed to support themselves and their families. This system made it possible for them to do both. Additionally, this influx of new information would enable many researchers to reach the necessary milestones to upgrade their Research City labs to the next stage, gaining access to advanced machinery and tools.

This was the imperial government's way of incentivizing research while improving the researchers' quality of life. New discoveries led to new technologies, which kept the economy active. The government also earned additional revenue, as they took the other half of the percentage of profit not given to the researchers.

This strategy ensured a steady flow of innovation and provided the empire with a passive income source beyond the standard ten percent tax, which wouldn't always suffice on its own.

Although it might seem excessive that the empire took half of the profits from researchers, this was not widely criticized. The empire only claimed these cuts once researchers began earning more than ten thousand END a month from their discoveries. Until then, researchers had access to extensive research materials and advanced machinery for free, resources they would have only dreamed of affording on their own.

Moreover, the empire handled essential tasks such as confirmation, patent recording, monitoring technology use, and collecting payments from those utilizing the technology. This comprehensive support structure relieved researchers of administrative burdens and allowed them to focus on their work, further justifying the empire's share of the profits.

This led many to believe that the empire's cut was merely operational, with widespread sentiment that they were still running at a loss. Unfortunately, this assumption was incorrect. In reality, every cent earned from the research city was pure profit. These funds were promptly deposited into a reserve imperial bank account, accessible only by the emperor, and designated for use in furthering the empire's interests, and currently, they were earning money like there is no tomorrow.

Although some companies complained that the empire's policies were squeezing their profits, this was countered by the significant reduction in their operational costs. By conducting all their research in Lab City instead of establishing physical labs in the real world, they benefited from lowered entry thresholds across various industries, no matter how advanced. This shift made it more feasible for companies to enter and compete in high-tech fields without the substantial initial investments that would have otherwise been required.

However, for at least this month, the empire anticipated a temporary economic slowdown but expected a surge in new discoveries.

Chapter 666

{With the changes being agreed upon, I hereby declare that the amendment has passed and will be ratified the moment it is signed by the emperor.} Gaia announced, as usual, acting as the chair of the imperial council. She then hit the gavel to conclude the session.

Everyone in the room clapped for a moment, with many of the watchers unsure if the applause was out of obligation or genuine happiness. However, the smiles on their faces suggested it was the latter.

Gaia then brought the meeting to a close, as this was the only agenda item for today's session and the attendees had other pressing matters to attend to.

…..

"Why didn't you ratify the constitution if it had already passed the council in the first place?" Rina asked him the moment he left VR. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"What is the urgency in it, darling? We teach our children (not his students at school) not to pay for anything or sign anything without seeing it first, and you want me to do the same for whole new races without seeing them?"

His response made Rina chuckle. She didn't expect him to remain cautious despite all the evidence pointing otherwise, but he also compared the situation as if he were buying a house or shopping for a new car.

"Plus, the moment I ratify it and they start creating trouble before I even visit them, they will have to be dealt with as citizens or allies of the empire, not as enemies. This will limit our options and make it take longer to handle any issues compared to if they act out before I meet them and before I ratify it."

"Where is Henry?" he asked shortly as realised his absence something that rarely happened as he usually liked to come and mess with him and he was missing today.

"Tomorrow is Friday, so he is where he usually goes on weekends, House of Hope." Rina reminded him of what day it was today, which was enough to inform him where he was.

A few months after the formation of the empire and stabilization of the situation, he had implemented a four-day work week and made Friday to Sunday as weekends to improve the psychological stability of his citizens since with the reason people were working the majority of the time of the week that they were awake was because their work life was short making that much work understandable and slightly bearable but now that life has been extended there is no need to torture people for that much of time.

"Well, it is good that he has people to play with in the first place since everyone here is quite far out of his age range," he said as he looked around the room. His intention was what was beyond that, which was the still active training base, though this time, only the best of the best were being trained here.

"Did he go with Mom, Dad, and your mom again?"

"Mh…" she responded.

With that, they continued their conversation, shifting through various topics as they had an unlimited number of things to talk about.

….

In a blink of an eye, two months had passed.

Hephaestus Heavy Industries was currently the largest company in the entire empire, employing the second largest number of people, just behind the imperial government itself.

They were responsible for the production of half of everything in the empire that required advanced manufacturing, effectively making them a monopoly.

It had to stop there because they were actually sued by the Imperial Justice Department for being a monopoly. The lawsuit resulted in an agreement that required them to cease producing certain items and buy out all the small production companies they had put out of business, which ended up costing them about a trillion END, which was nothing compared to their profits; hence them agreeing to it without as much as blinking.

The only reason the agreement was reached, rather than the usual severe penalties or even the dissolution of the company, was because Hephaestus Heavy Industries was doing the opposite of what traditional monopolies had done in the past. Instead of suppressing competitors and squeezing them out of the market, they were collaborating with them, helping create production machines and other resources to ensure these smaller companies could remain in the industry.

Additionally, the agreement prohibited Hephaestus from engaging in practices similar to what Amazon had done with its sellers, such as buying the same products and selling them directly to compete with its partners.

Despite these legal constraints, Hephaestus Heavy Industries remained unmatched in precision machining, as they were known for consistently delivering products to the exact millimeter required.

Hephaestus Heavy Industries was also renowned for fostering growth in small companies with innovative technological products. By partnering with these startups for production, they provided an essential bridge for those lacking the funds to enter the tech industry, creating a synergistic relationship with Research City.

To achieve such extensive production capabilities, including the manufacturing of spaceships, Hephaestus Heavy Industries required production bases across multiple locations, including space.

Currently, in front of one of these colossal production bases in space, a fleet of twenty enormous ships, emblazoned with prominent imperial military's logistical insignia, was seen departing towards the heliosphere and setting course for Proxima Centauri.

Among the fleet were numerous signal towers, destined to be strategically placed along various lanes to ensure redundancy and support both public and private communication networks for the imperial government.

With the preparations for his journey well underway, the focus had now shifted to operationalizing the communication infrastructure essential for the expedition.

"Now that's what you call a company," Felix said to Sarah, resuming their playful debate over which company deserved more recognition.

"You told me we were going on a date, and now you're showing me one of your company's printers?" she asked, feigning a pout.

"No, no, this place was just on the way to our date destination. The timing happened to coincide with the start of the journey, so I wanted to see it since I rarely get the chance due to work. Don't get too upset," he explained.

"Depends on how good the date turns out to be," she replied, trying to hide her smile as she turned to walk away.

"I'm confident it will exceed your expectations. Look forward to it," he said with a self-assured grin.

Chapter 667

Proxima Centauri.

It had been a year and three months since the messenger was sent, and everything continued as usual, following the meticulously prepared plan from the start.

Proxima A was as busy as ever, perhaps even busier than before. If observed closely from space, one could see rudimentary cities nestled within the massive tree branches where the Proximians were born. These cities were built in a manner that integrated seamlessly with the trees rather than destroying them, creating a beautiful and harmonious ambiance.

As per the universal bureaucracy rule, there always needs to be a meeting taking place. Currently, one such meeting was occurring between Ayaka, the official responsible for the planet, and admiral Bianchi, the leader of the entire exploration fleet.

"We are expected to complete the training within a month and should start extracting them from the VR pods with everything they need to live together with humans and by themselves already taught," Ayaka reported to Fleet Admiral Bianchi during one of her monthly reports summarizing her heavy tasks.

"Good. And what is the status of the city construction?" Admiral Bianchi asked, despite having the information written in the report.

"With Birch's aid, we have managed to construct all the basic facilities they will need immediately after waking up. As for the rest, we will leave it to them to grow in their own direction, void of our active influence, which will also act as a starter for their economy."

"But we are faced with a problem," Ayaka added after a brief pause.

"Go on, what is it?" Admiral Bianchi prompted.

"The monetary issue is the problem, sir," Ayaka began. "As part of their training, we taught them the monetary value of using money to exchange for goods and services. Within the simulation, they've already created a booming economy, with many becoming quite wealthy through fair means. The logical decision would be to allow them to keep the money they've earned in VR when they come to reality, as to them, that place was real, and they worked hard to earn it.

However, we don't have the authority to create currency; that capability lies with the treasury. If they weren't going to be connected to the empire, it wouldn't be a problem, but now that it's set in stone that they will either be allies or direct citizens, allowing them to keep the currency will mean we are overstepping the control bubble we were provided through the mission. What we do here will directly affect the economy of the empire.

Whether we allow them to keep the money or not, it will cause issues. If we don't, it will mess with their morale and create chaos when they wake up and realize they've lost everything they worked hard for, which was their entire lives. This would be another round of problems we'd have to deal with.

We're currently between a rock and a hard place. What do you suggest we do?" she asked, seeking a decision from Admiral Bianchi, as he was the only one with the authority to address this situation.

"We don't need to be concerned about that." As soon as he finished speaking and Ayaka was about to question his reasoning, he preemptively addressed it by activating the holographic system. The display showed the Proxima star system, providing a simplified but comprehensive view similar to the solar system's holographic model.

However, the hologram wasn't focused on the star system itself. Instead, it highlighted ten approaching objects coming from the direction of Earth, positioned outside the star system.

"Is the emperor coming?" Ayaka asked, astonished. Given that it had been about thirteen months since they sent the messenger, and it typically took around six months for a transition between star systems, the emperor's decision to come here within three months was unexpected.

"Don't get your hopes up; it's likely his representatives or a delegation. The empire's stability isn't yet at a point where the emperor can be offline for over a year," Bianchi replied.

"When will they arrive?" Ayaka asked, needing to know if she should adjust the timeline for the Proximians' awakening.

"Our sensors aren't advanced enough to provide precise details, but we estimate they'll arrive in about a week. Given that we've sent all relevant data, they should be aware of this issue. Even if not, the arriving delegation will have the capability to address it," Bianchi explained, as the hologram displayed a line extending from the approaching ships to the Proxima star system, with the estimated time of arrival decreasing second by second.

"That's goo—" Ayaka began, but her words were interrupted as the Admiral's communication system buzzed.

{Admiral, a communication with an imperial network Identification priority sequence is attempting to establish a connection. Should I approve it?} The Fleet's AI inquired. This was a routine formality, as the AI was aware that any communication with such a priority sequence could override any denial attempt.

"What's this about? Aren't they already on their way?" Bianchi asked, puzzled by the sudden development.

{They have come to a halt and exited the FTL bubble, indicating they have no intention of proceeding here at the moment} the AI responded.

"Okay, approve it and show me what they intend to do with it," Bianchi instructed, showing little concern for Ayaka's presence.

{Understood} The AI responded promptly, granting access and immediately taking over the hologram to display the intended actions from the other side of the connection.

The two of them in the room immediately started watching, attempting to understand what the establishment connection wanted to do with their attempt to establish a connection.

They weren't concerned about facing problems from their snooping, as they trusted that the Fleet's AI would only display what was authorized for them to see—nothing more, nothing less.

Slowly, in front of their eyes and accompanied by explanations from the AI, they witnessed something they had never seen before. By the time they could have seen it in the past, it was already completed and made public, so no one had the chance to observe it from start to finish.

Chapter 668

Space between Solar and Proxima star system.

{Permission granted to access the network} announced the AI controlling the ten spaceships that had halted a week away from the Proxima Centauri star system upon receiving access to the Proxima exploration fleet's network.

The reason the ships had come to a stop at this specific distance, rather than proceeding further or turning back, was that it was the farthest point where they could still connect to the exploration fleet's quantum towers. Additionally, continuing to the Proxima star system would mean wasting another week, which was unnecessary since their mission was brief and purely functional, not for sentimental reasons.

{Initiate communication anchoring.} The AI began by setting up the Proxima side of the communication network as the endpoint for the quantum communication link it was establishing.

{Initiating network boot and docking.} As it issued this command, the AI sent a ping to the nearest installed quantum towers that the ten ships had been laying down for the past six months.

As soon as the closest quantum towers received the initiating and docking signal, they promptly exited their idle power-saving mode and activated operational mode. They then relayed the same signal to the towers nearest to them.

This process continued until the signal reached the last-laid quantum towers, which were closest to the solar system. When the next ping was sent, it confirmed: {Main anchor reached.}

{Initiating the creation of communication lanes} The system then proceeded by isolating the newly activated signal towers, as the network construction was still underway. This precaution was taken to prevent any potential disruptions to the existing network while the new lanes were being established.

The system then began creating various network lanes for different types of communication to traverse once they were activated.

Although creating the network might seem straightforward, it was quite the opposite. Only about two of the ten lanes were designated for public use, while a third was reserved specifically for VR access. This lane required uninterrupted data transfer due to the sensitive nature of dealing with people's brains, necessitating additional safety measures. The remaining seven lanes were allocated for private imperial use and redundancy, ensuring that if the two public lanes and the VR lane encountered issues—such as damage from FTL travel through the towers or the removal of a tower during FTL departure—there would be backup lanes available.

{Lanes creation complete.}

{Initiating network connection} The AI proceeded to link the newly established lanes to the main network, completing the connection between the two star systems with an instant communication network.

{...}

{...}

{...}

The network lanes were silent for quite a while, before the AI, the network's creator, broke the silence with the first message:

{Hello, world}

This marked the inaugural transmission through humanity's first inter-star system communication network.

…..

"..."

"..."

Bianchi and Ayaka were struck into silence, both stunned and disbelieving at the magnitude of what had just transpired.

Previously, sending a single message took a whole six months to reach its destination as it was being physically sent, and they had anticipated a similar delay for a response.

However, the empire's reaction defied all expectations. The speed and efficiency of their reply were astonishing, given the immense resources required to establish such a network.

The communication infrastructure needed for interstellar connections would typically demand about a hundred times the resources used for the solar system network. Remarkably, the empire achieved this in just three months of preparation, not including the six months needed for travel and installation—a feat that was quite an undertaking, at least from the perspective of the two observers.

"So does that mean we can now access the empire's network and communicate with our families?" Ayaka asked, regaining her composure.

{Technically, yes, but this can only happen if access to the network is granted, which has not yet been provided on our end,} the Fleet's AI responded. frёeweɓη ɱ

Before anyone could respond, the hologram shifted to an animation indicating an incoming call.

[Emperor] was the only information displayed in the caller section.

Bianchi immediately accepted the call while both he and Ayaka immediately got on their feet in an attention positon, with them immediately saluting the moment Aron, the emperor, appeared.

"At ease, gentleman," Aron said as his hologram materialised at the center of the room. As he looked around, he immediately added, "And ladies," when he saw Ayaka.

They relaxed their salutes but remained standing with their hands clasped behind their backs, awaiting the emperor's words.

"Any delays?" Aron asked, earning himself a curious gaze from the two.

But before they could wonder what he meant by that, a response came from the fleet's AI {No sir}

"Good," Aron said with a satisfied smile before finally turning to the two members who were still waiting for him.

"Fleet Admiral Marco Bianchi," he began.

"Yes, sir," Bianchi replied promptly, maintaining his stance.

"Good job on exceeding your mission requirements," Aron continued. "I am very satisfied with what you've accomplished within the time frame and the constraints you faced." He praised Bianchi for his exemplary leadership and hard work on the mission.

"Thank you, sir. It's an honor," Bianchi replied, returning to his position with a respectful nod.

Aron gave a contented smile at Bianchi's response.

"Commander Takahashi Ayaka," he then called, turning his attention to her.

She, too, responded the same way, as they were both in the military command structure.

"You, too, have done an excellent job. What could have been an operational and logistical nightmare has turned into a significant benefit for the empire," Aron said with praise.

She thanked him for the commendation, and Aron continued, "There's also Lee Joon-ho, who played a crucial role in all of this. His commendation will be delivered at a later time."

After a brief pause, he added, "I'm sure you have many questions, but they will have to wait for a few days. For now, I would like to address all the members of the exploration fleet who aren't engaged in emergency situations. Please send out the announcement and ensure they are prepared for my address within the hour."

With a proud tone and a satisfied smile, Aron concluded the conversation and disappeared from the hologram after receiving their assurance to carry out his request.

Chapter 669

Fifty-five minutes later.

The entire Proxima Centauri star system returned to a semblance of its previous silence before humans arrived. The majority of the machines were put into automatic mode, while those requiring human control were switched to power-saving mode.

Everyone who wasn't engaged in an essential task had already donned their VR devices and logged into the local VR network. They clicked on the invitation link, which transported them to a massive meeting hall capable of accommodating all of them. The hall reminded them of their last gathering of such magnitude, right before they embarked on their exploration mission.

"What do you think they gathered us for?" Yavuz, a mechanical engineer standing next to Lee, asked him, as Lee was currently one of the most well-known people in the exploration fleet.

He was on the same level of being known as the fleet admiral, with everyone knowing and jokingly addressing him as the father of all the created Proximians since they were literally created from his imagination.

"I don't know. Do you think maybe it's a surprise celebration?" Lee responded before asking his own question.

"Maybe, but based on the way they called us, it doesn't seem so; plus, why celebrate in VR when we can celebrate in the real world? Also, if you're celebrating something, you make it known beforehand to create anticipation, but they did quite the opposite," a third person responded, joining them after overhearing their discussion.

"Anyway, how are your kids doing? They aren't even allowing us to see them." Yavuz asked, both serious and joking, eliciting laughter from those who heard him as they also perked their ears to listen to Lee's response.

"They are doing well, and that is all I can say at the moment," Lee responded, having gotten used to these types of questions, sometimes even enjoying hearing them, but since he couldn't tell much about it as it was classified information in the first place.

But before the conversation could continue, the fleet admiral appeared on the podium, followed shortly by the emperor.

This caused everyone in the room to almost have a mild heart attack and immediately snap to attention, saluting in unison. They were baffled as to how someone who was supposed to be on Earth was currently standing in front of them in a VR network in Proxima Centauri.

"At ease, gentlemen," Aron said as he walked to the podium, looking at everyone with a warm smile.

Everyone lowered their salutes, but their eyes remained on him, filled with curiosity and confusion, as they tried to deduce what exactly was happening and whether the fleet admiral was playing a joke on them.

"Take a seat. My address will be short, as I'm sure many of you would prefer," Aron began with a smile, speaking in a benevolent manner.

Despite being the highest in the military command chain, Aron didn't adhere to the strict military speaking style required of those like John and the other soldiers.

"With my appearance, I'm sure many of you have already connected the dots that I'm either here or communicating with you from the empire. It's the latter. I'm not here yet, but that should be good news because it means there is now a direct communication network to Earth with no latency, allowing me to speak with you in real time." He paused, allowing them to process his statement before continuing.

"Although the mission required you to operate without direct communication with the empire to help us learn and develop solutions for long-term missions, the importance of what occurred during your mission warranted breaking that protocol.

For that, I would like to congratulate all of you on your achievements and everything you have accomplished. All of your accomplishments will be rewarded accordingly once the mission is deemed complete and you are relieved of it."

"However, that doesn't mean I can't give you a small reward at the moment." He paused, watching the anticipation grow in their eyes.

The pause seemed to amplify their curiosity, and the longer they waited for him to tell them what the reward was, the more their imaginations began to speculate on what the reward might be.

"My small reward to you for your achievements is a change in your mission protocol from a no-direct-contact mission to an active-contact mission. You can now use the network to maintain contact with everyone on the side of the empire."

When he said that, he could see the excitement in their eyes. They wanted to jump, cheer, and celebrate, but they still maintained their standing stance, waiting for him to finish his speech.

"I'm sure you're familiar with the protocol for using the network during active missions, so I won't repeat it here, knowing that some of you are eager to check it for yourselves," he said, subtly reminding them of the rules—namely, that they should only use the network when off duty.

"Since you've been out of contact with your families for over a year, I'm granting you two weeks off. All operations will be officially halted unless immediate action is required. Enjoy your vacation."

He continued for two more minutes before wrapping up his address, as he was someone who despised long and unnecessary speeches, a sentiment stemming from the experiences of lengthy addresses he endured during his university days, prior to his expulsion.

With that, he saluted them, and they all responded in kind. Aron then disappeared, followed by the fleet admiral after he officially dismissed them.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The room erupted in a unified scream of joy as everyone began hugging, jumping, and celebrating together, their excitement overwhelming.

Life had been good for them here, thanks to numerous amenities that provided distractions from their mission and the constant danger. They had grown accustomed to their surroundings, almost forgetting they were in a foreign star system. Their large numbers allowed them to socialize as if they were in any city on Earth.

However, this didn't mean they were completely fine. For many, the memories of their husbands, wives, children, and other loved ones left behind, occasionally for some and always for others, resurfaced, reminding them of what they had left behind.

But now that the burden had been lifted from them, they channeled their relief into celebration.

A few minutes after the initial jubilation, nearly everyone remembered that, rather than just shouting in joy, they had a unique opportunity at hand. They could use this moment to contact their friends and families, delivering the surprise of their lives.

The emperor had mentioned that while their loved ones knew about the construction of the communication network, they were unaware of its completion.

This was their chance to bring that surprise to them.

Chapter 670

Aron, having completed his lengthy discussion with the fleet's admiral and granted him leave, sat alone in his VR room, enveloped in silence.

{What's on your mind?} Nova inquired as she materialized beside him, breaking the stillness of the room.

"I'm trying to imagine the range of emotions they'll experience during their reunions," Aron replied, accustomed to her probing questions.

"The majority will feel happiness," he said, "but there will be a few who experience profound distress. Some of the soldiers might face the harsh reality that their spouses, whom they left behind, were unfaithful—either having cheated out of remorse or used the mission as a chance to welcome others into their lives during their absence."

"The opposite is also true," Aron continued. "Some members of the crew, while on the exploration mission, were unfaithful to their spouses. Additionally, some will receive the devastating news of the deaths of their loved ones during their absence."

He reflected on these scenarios, contemplating the range of emotions the explorers would face.

"These are just a few examples of the difficult news they might receive, and it's making me consider how I would react if I were in their position."

Nova quickly accessed the relevant information and understood the situation fully.

{Would you prefer I drop subtle hints to help them uncover the truth, or should I let events proceed naturally and allow them to discover it on their own?} she asked, offering him the choice between intervention and letting things unfold as they may.

Aron took a moment to think before he said, "For now, let's leave it as is, but have Mnemosyne assign an Akashic Librarian to continue monitoring the situation. They should report anything that warrants my attention, and we'll decide how to proceed from there."

Although Aron wanted to intervene, he held himself back, knowing that doing so could set a precedent for future interference. Nevertheless, he recognized his responsibility to those who risked their lives for him, and he remained committed to monitoring the situation and he will decide how to act based on it from there on.

{Understood,} Nova replied.

{Henry is on his way} she added, reminding him that the energetic troublemaker in his puberty phase was heading towards his office.

"He'll outgrow it eventually, but for now, I guess I'll have to keep managing his boundless energy," Aron sighed as he logged off, his resignation punctuated by Nova's soft laughter behind him.

…

It took less than an hour for the public to learn about the news.

Some people discovered the news through emotional videos of family members tearfully reacting in surprise when they saw their loved ones in VR, their disbelief and joy captured in heartwarming moments. Others found out when friends, who had been expected to remain offline for a few more years, suddenly appeared online, sharing photos and updates about their recent adventures during the exploration mission. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Regardless of how they came across the information, the news quickly went viral. It became a hot topic among netizens, sparking widespread discussion and excitement across the internet.

With discussions and verifications quickly aligning, people connected the dots and realized that the communication link between the two star systems had been completed.

This revelation ignited a wave of surprise and admiration for the empire, marking a monumental milestone in interstellar communication for both humanity and the empire.

What was once considered a distant dream and a topic of discussion had now been achieved.

The successful establishment of a communication link between star systems signified the empire's official expansion to a new star system, transforming it into a two-star system empire.

This feat, which many would have predicted would take at least a millennium if asked five years ago, was accomplished in less than five years since the empire's foundation—truly a remarkable leap forward.

Not everyone accepted the news without skepticism. Even in the 21st century, there were those who clung to fringe beliefs, such as the flat Earth theory. Among the dissenters, many questioned the empire's achievements. They argued that the exploration fleet and the newly established communication link were elaborate fabrications. They speculated that everything observed from outside the solar system was merely a VR simulation, a claim supported by the empire's well-documented ability to create highly realistic simulations.

Their arguments included the assertion that instant communication across light-years would require faster-than-light technology, which they considered impossible despite the empire's previous confirmations of having FTL technology.

These critics dismissed the empire's claims and continued to challenge the veracity of the reported accomplishments.

The majority of people dismissed the conspiracy theorists as usual, treating their claims as baseless and ignoring them in favor of celebrating the achievement. The focus remained on the positive aspects of the occasion.

Despite having access to a wealth of information about the new star system for more than eight months and having people who actually lived and are still living there for over a year, many were eager to personally connect to the network on the other side.

However, their attempt to access it were met with nothing but frustration.

No matter how hard they searched, they couldn't connect or find any network to connect to despite knowing that all of the Proximians were still in the VR simulation receiving training or not even a live stream to tune into from the new star system.

The absence of access to VR was understandable, but the same couldn't be said for the absence of live feeds, as that was especially surprising given the empire's past practice of providing such coverage for events of great public interest, like during the Unification War, when they had live-streamed the war for citizens Eden and Espaira to boost citizens' morale and show their confidence in winning it, which they did.

This lack of transparency led to further speculation and curiosity, even among those who otherwise celebrated the achievement.

Not long after, the reason behind the lack of public connection to the other side became clear.

Members of the exploration fleet began sharing the emperor's address, revealing that the star system was still an active exploration zone.

This meant that the area was kept under a controlled bubble to prevent public interference and maintain mission integrity.

Adding to the information, the emperor's official social media accounts announced that a live stream showcasing various locations within the star system would be set up and made available for viewing online a month from now. This promise of future visibility helped quell some of the public's curiosity and speculation while still maintaining the excitement surrounding the new milestone.

Chapter 671

Aron had been spending more and more time with his family since he had decided to go to Proxima Centauri at the Proximians tree folks' request, and that decision was further reinforced after the two-star systems were connected.

An hour before, the Emperor addressed the Proxima Centauri exploration fleet.

While the fleet admiral was sending out an emergency call order for the meeting Aron had requested and scheduled for an hour later, Ayaka was seen leaving the mothership and heading back to the planet, having been assigned another mission.

Upon landing at the designated zone, Ayaka wasted no time. She stepped off the ship with a suitcase in hand and walked purposefully toward a lone tree.

When she was about a hundred meters away, the lone tree began to shake and transform. Branches and leaves twisted and rearranged until a humanoid figure emerged, facing Ayaka with an uncanny valley smile.

"Welcome, Ayaka," the humanoid tree said. Her tone and manner of speaking seemed to have evolved, as expected. She and her fellow root senses were spread all over the planet, allowing them to see and hear everything happening on the surface.

As a result, the exploration fleet scientists classified the planet itself as a bona fide body of theirs, with anything on the surface akin to bacteria living on human skin.

With those extensive senses comes information, with information comes data, with data comes experience, and with experience comes change.

These changes were constant since a majority of the fleet had moved to the planet, using it as their operational base allowing for a large amount of data to be gathered by them constantly.

This was one of the many reasons crucial briefings and meetings took place in orbit, far from the planet itself.

"Thank you. How are your days going?" Ayaka responded as she placed the suitcase down. She missed the previous daimyo's castle built by Birch during their first meeting, which had disappeared after a few months—a change that resulted from their gathering of information.

"Nothing but the usual," Birch replied, as she made chairs for both of them to sit facing each other. "Your people are quite diverse in their thoughts and provide ample entertainment. You would wonder what we even called the time before all this activity. We didn't even have a name for that feeling, as it was always the same—boredom. Personally, I don't want to go back to that."

"Does that mean there are those who want it to return to the previous silence?" Ayaka asked, her friendly smile maintaining a casual tone. While it seemed like she was simply continuing the conversation based on Birch's previous comment, she was actually doing two things: strengthening their rapport and subtly gathering more information to build a comprehensive profile on them reflecting the empire's "Trust but Verify" philosophy, which she embodied in her role.

"Reiterating from our previous meetings, we are distinct individuals with our own consciousness and thoughts," Birch replied smoothly. "I can't speak for the others' inner feelings unless they choose to share them, much like you can't know mine unless I reveal them. Although it may seem that we are all enjoying the current state, I can't fully grasp what's on the minds of others, something we learned from your interactions and from Lee Joon ho."

"One of our worse traits," Ayaka said with a smile. "But that liveliness is bound to increase when your children wake up one E-month from now. You personally might even come to dislike it," she added, smoothly steering the conversation back to the previous topic. She knew that pushing further could risk overstepping boundaries, and she preferred to maintain the rapport they had without testing limits as currently there was no need for that.

"It's always a pleasure to hear that," Birch said with a warm tone. "However, I sense you have a specific reason for visiting today. You typically come by when there's something important to discuss or when you seek answers. Given the chatter about the emergency meeting, I assume your visit is related to that."

She said it with such a nonchalant tone that one might think it was a skill humans could also master. Birch was currently listening to every bit of sound from the planet, isolating each one and understanding different contexts and topics simultaneously—a feat that would be impossible for humans, if we were able to hear the sounds of bacteria within our own bodies. For Birch, however, it was a routine process, carried out on a planetary scale.

"I'm here because of this," she said, tapping the suitcase. "A communication network has been completed between our two star systems, allowing for instant communication. The emperor wanted to see if we could use this new capability to meet your criteria or not." She finally got to the heart of her visit.

"Ooh, congratulations," Birch said, pausing thoughtfully.

Ayaka recognized that Birch's pause indicated she was consulting with the other treefolks. As their representative, Birch's official statements required consensus from the entire group. To Ayaka, this was just part of the usual process.

After a brief pause, Birch resumed, "While our criteria do include having a conversation with him, which your new communication network can facilitate, meeting him in person is also a requirement. As for the rest of the criteria, those details are still confidential since we have yet to reach a consensus on all of them. However, achieving those criteria will necessitate a face-to-face meeting."

Birch's response provided not only an answer to Ayaka's question but also an insight into the tree folk's internal dynamics. It became clear that they were not as unified as might have been assumed, revealing a level of internal complexity that could either simplify or complicate their children's integration into the empire.

"But that doesn't mean we can't start communicating now, as our criteria are based on humanity as a whole, and this meeting might help us refine them," Birch added.

Ayaka paused, considering the implications of Birch's statement. The outcome of this preliminary meeting could either make the official meeting easier for the emperor or set more challenging criteria. She didn't deliberate for long before responding, "In that case, let me arrange the meeting. Will your fellow tree folk be joining us now, or will you be the sole representative for this discussion?"

"For now, I will represent them, but for the official visit, all of us will be present," Birch replied.

Chapter 672

Ayaka wasted no time and immediately logged into the VR, reporting the results of her discussion with Birch to the emperor. After logging off, she opened the suitcase, which immediately materialized a physical copy of the emperor thanks to the nanomachines inside it.

The physical copy's eyes had been closed since its creation, but they shortly opened, revealing golden irises as the body looked around, adjusting to its new environment.

He extended his hand and closed it into a fist, testing the responsiveness and sensation through the nanomachine body. Feeling the smooth movement and the sensory feedback, he nodded with a satisfied expression.

But that didn't last long. 'I don't like this stuffy feeling,' he thought to himself.

Currently, he could be considered to have his consciousness transferred into this body, and as a result, he could only sense what this body was sensing. With it being a purely technology-based nanomachine, he wasn't sensing a single bit of mana or experiencing the monstrously expanded senses his actual body had developed thanks to the system and his body's development. As a result, he now felt stuffy, confined, and as if he were missing a few senses.

After enduring the stuffy feeling for a short while, he closed his eyes and accessed the satellites orbiting the planet. This time, he focused solely on those equipped with Henry's Eyes system, which monitored mana movements in his location. He immediately took that real-time mana data from these satellites and translated it into sensory information for his nanomachine body, simulating the experience as if his body were sensing the mana in its surroundings.

'This feels much better,' he thought to himself, now that a bit of ease had returned. He could sense the mana in his surroundings, though not as clearly as with his actual body. Still, a blurry view was far better than having no eyes at all.

This whole ordeal happened within just five seconds after he connected to the body, so to outsiders, it appeared as if he was simply getting used to the new form.

Aron turned to Ayaka, who stood saluting him and nodded in acknowledgment. He then shifted his gaze to Birch, who observed the scene in silence, her curiosity evident.

"Excuse my delay; it's quite a surreal feeling," Aron said, extending his hand to Birch. "Aron Michael, Emperor of the Terran Empire."

"Birch, representative of what you call Tree folks," Birch replied, her smile visible through her humanoid form.

As they shook hands, a root emerged beside Ayaka, forming another chair. It was clear this chair was intended for Aron, allowing him to be seated for their conversation.

Aron's conversation with Birch began with the usual formalities. Birch, now well-experienced in such protocols, understood both the reasoning behind them and how to effectively replicate them herself.

Since he had already received an answer to his attempted loophole, Aron chose not to pursue it further. Instead, he focused on addressing questions that the fleet had previously asked but hadn't received answers to or those that they were unable to ask due to their limited knowledge.

He needed these answers to prepare for the official meeting, making this encounter a strategic probing session for both sides. Aron saw no issue with this approach, understanding that to gain valuable insights, one must be prepared to offer something in return.

After exchanging a few formalities, Aron asked, "What is the extent of your sensory range?"

Birch responded without hesitation, "As long as an area has sufficient mana and we have a direct, uninterrupted mana connection to that place, we can perceive everything within it."

This outcome stemmed from the random questions asked at every previous meeting, which both helped build rapport and made such inquiries seem routine rather than probing.

"Does that mean you can sense and interact with everything within the Proxima star system?" Aron asked, surprised by the extent of their sensory capabilities.

"Other than a few blind spots, yes, we can sense everything if we choose to. However, maintaining that level of awareness requires significant amounts of what you call nutrition," Birch explained. "As for interaction, it depends on the type of interaction desired. Some interactions are feasible while others are not, based on the mana required for the task."

She offered no additional details on the specifics of their blind spots or the criteria for interactions, leaving it clear that such information was not to be divulged. Her tone indicated that further elaboration was not forthcoming, and with little visible emotion to read from her humanoid form, only her voice remained as a guide.

Satisfied with the answers he'd received, Aron shifted to his next question: "What will happen to you once they wake up and join the empire?"

"As we mentioned in one of our previous meetings with Ayaka, there isn't a conclusive answer to that question yet. We can't determine what will happen until after our face-to-face meeting, where we will decide based on the outcomes and agreements made," she responded with the same confidence as before.

Since the previous report mentioned that a face-to-face meeting was required, Aron wanted to verify if this nanomachine body meeting would meet the criteria for questions requiring direct conversation with the emperor. It appeared that it did not, so he promptly removed those questions from his list. This list had been prepared with the assistance of Nova and Gaia, alongside the data gathered by the fleet through their diligent efforts and rapport-building.

The conversation continued for the next forty minutes, evolving into a tit-for-tat exchange. After every few questions Aron asked, Birch would reciprocate with her own inquiries. Her questions varied widely, from directly mirroring those he had asked to other random or meticulously considered queries.

"It has been quite a fruitful meeting. I hope our face-to-face meeting will be just as productive," Aron said, rising from his chair. He extended his hand for a final handshake to bid farewell, as he had a fleet to address and give a holiday to.

"I hope the same, and I will be eagerly awaiting your arrival," Birch replied, returning the sentiment.

"Good job," Aron said to Ayaka, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Her usual calm demeanor softened, reflecting a sense of pride.

Moments later, the nanomachine body's golden eyes dimmed, signaling that Aron had ended the connection. The body entered automatic mode, walking toward the suitcase and returning the nanomachines to its storage compartment.

"See you, Birch," Ayaka said, finally breaking her silence. She picked up the suitcase and made her way back to the ship that awaited at the landing spot.

Chapter 673

Two weeks later.

The fleet members had wrapped up their vacation and returned to their duties, brimming with excitement and enthusiasm—at least the majority of them. The fleet's exploratory mission was now in full swing once again.

As usual, a meeting was taking place somewhere within the fleet, but this one was special because of one of its attendees – the emperor.

Although the mission had shifted from a no-direct-contact protocol to an active-contact protocol, its core procedures remained unchanged. The only notable difference was that fleet members could now stay in touch with their families after their shifts.

This meant the fleet continued to operate as a self-governing entity, with no interference from anyone other than the emperor. His oversight remained the only exception, and it would only extend beyond his usual limits if he explicitly stated otherwise.

This rule, combined with the fleet's unique circumstances, led to the emperor's personal attendance at the meeting he had called.

The other attendees were the same individuals who had been present when the connection with the star system was established: Ayaka and Fleet Admiral Bianchi.

"Let them keep everything they've earned during their training period," Aron declared decisively, addressing what had appeared to be a significant and challenging issue.

"Why?" Ayaka inquired. "Won't injecting such a large sum of money into the economy all at once have a negative impact?"

Aron's decision prompted a logical question from Ayaka, who was not hesitant to seek clarification from the emperor. Known for his openness in explaining his decisions, Aron welcomed such inquiries.

"Based on our simulations, this won't be an issue," he explained.

Noticing their curiosity about the specifics, he continued, "There are several reasons for this. First, the six-month travel time between the solar system and here effectively isolates the two locations. This significant distance prevents any immediate economic impact from the sudden influx of money, as there's no immediate physical exchange that will be happening over such a long span for a few years.

Second, even though they will be connected to the empire, whether they join as citizens or allies, physical meetings will be prohibited for the first few years. This restriction will allow them to establish and stabilize their own economy independently. As a result, the currency that started as a virtual currency will have real-world backing and value, ensuring it's not merely an artificial creation, allowing for it to have a peaceful transition.

Third, inflation typically occurs when the amount of money in circulation increases without a corresponding rise in the availability of goods. However, in this case, while the money supply will indeed grow, the number of people in the economy will also increase proportionally. Although it might seem that doubling the population could lead to shortages and price hikes, the initial isolation period allows the Proximians to develop their economy independently. This separation ensures that both economies can adjust and stabilize before they are physically and openly integrated.

Fourth, even if the scenarios I outlined do occur, I can address any potential economic issues using my personal wealth. This means the empire won't need to make any immediate adjustments to its current economic policies.

These are just a few of the key reasons, but I believe they should suffice to illustrate why the concerns about economic disruption are manageable," he concluded, wrapping up his explanation.

'This is the power and influence that comes with absolute authority and wealth,' both Ayaka and Bianchi thought. They were well aware of how previous governments had to deliberate extensively—discussing, debating, and voting—before reaching any decisions. Such processes often involved compromises that could dilute important aspects of a proposal, potentially benefiting a few while harming the whole and allowing room for exploitation. In stark contrast, Aron's decision-making was swift and decisive.

While such concentration of power could be dangerous if misused, Aron had yet to show any self-serving tendencies. Instead, he had established transparent countermeasures, and the public was well aware of them.

As for the use of his wealth, while it was unprecedented and had never been seen before, they recognized that he truly had the capability to address economic issues with his personal resources. He could do so effortlessly, without even invoking his authority as emperor.

"Then, is there anything else that requires my decision?" Aron asked, having resolved the issues that were within his purview.

"There are none at the moment," Bianchi replied. "However, the topic of leadership will be up for discussion following your meeting with them."

"True, it will be handled afterward," Aron said. "From the report, it seems the leadership structure and government positions were selected according to imperial protocol. If they join the empire, their only requirement will be to swear allegiance. If they become allies, we'll just need to sign the alliance agreement as agreed. It's not a major issue."

"Looks like there are no more questions," Aron said. "Then I'll excuse myself as I need to make final preparations for a journey." As he spoke, his body began to disintegrate, gradually disappearing from the meeting room.

…

Aron and Rina were seated in the cheering stand of a school football field, dressed in casual clothes. They watched with interest as children played football on the field, enjoying the lively atmosphere.

Aron was there to support his brother at his request before his departure, making the most of the time with his family before his and Rina's long journey ahead. It was a nice break from his usual duties and a chance to connect with his loved ones.

"Goal!" Aron and Rina jumped in excitement as his brother scored, their cheers nearly startling those around them. The crowd, normally composed due to their presence, seemed momentarily taken aback, especially since his fabled security team was not visible in the stadium.

"That's my brother!" Aron exclaimed with unrestrained joy, his enthusiasm undiminished by the startled looks of those around him. He continued cheering loudly, his eyes following his younger brother as he celebrated, his smile beaming with pride and happiness.

After a moment of exuberant cheering, Aron and Rina settled back into their seats, turning their attention to the restarted match.

This was one of the final activities on their list before their departure, and Aron felt a deep sense of satisfaction for having chosen to be part of it.

Chapter 674

Two weeks later.

It had now been a month since the two sides had been connected, and the empire had spent that time efficiently setting up the necessary infrastructure to live stream throughout the star system.

However, due to it coinciding with the Proximians finally awakening from their VR pods, the live stream was momentarily restricted to viewing areas of the star system other than the planet. This was to respect the privacy of those awakening, who would be in a vulnerable state. Despite this limitation, the live stream still attracted a few million viewers, eagerly watching different locations of the star system as the exploration fleet continued its work.

Generally, such events would have attracted even more viewers, but a significant portion of the usual audience for this type of livestream was currently focused on something else.

…..

High Earth Orbit.

Outside Earth, a fleet of about a thousand military-style spaceships could be seen, their sheer number a testament to the empire's might but also the importance of their mission. Among them, a single, magnificent spaceship stood out, its sleek design and imposing presence inspiring awe to anyone seeing it.

Although it looked like a thousand ships were there to protect it, the central spaceship didn't appear vulnerable. Created with the latest technology in the hands of the empire, it could stand its ground against any enemies of a tier one civilization and last for quite a while against a tier two civilization.

The same level of sophistication applied to the accompanying military ships, which were meticulously crafted and customized for the sole purpose of safeguarding the central vessel during its mission.

"Your Majesty, all checks are complete, and we are ready to depart at your command," Dimitri, the highest-ranking Aegis member within the escort fleet, reported.

"Then let's commence the journey. The sooner we start, the sooner we arrive," Aron replied, addressing Dimitri's hologram.

"Understood," Dimitri acknowledged before his hologram vanished, leaving the room to revert to its previous state.

"Hey, play your cards. He's already left, and you're just stalling because you've got a bad hand," Felix said to Aron, who was pretending to think about something after his call.

"I was considering if I might have forgotten something important. If we leave now and I remember later, there's no turning back," Aron said, diverting his gaze from Felix's curious eyes.

"I was considering if I might have forgotten something important. If we leave now and I remember later, there's no turning back," Aron said, diverting his gaze from Felix's curious eyes.

"How many times does the string 50108 appear in the first two hundred million digits of Pi?" Sarah asked promptly after Aron's response.

"Two thousand fifty-seven times. Why?" he answered without hesitation, curious about her inquiry.

"So, are you telling me that someone with your monstrous memory, developed after awakening, forgot something important?" Sarah said sarcastically, revealing her intent to challenge his previous statement.

"Even though I remember everything, retrieving specific information requires an active search. Think of it as long-term storage, not a quick-access type. As a CEO of a tech company, you should understand that," Aron replied.

"What about Nova? Does she have that problem too?" Felix asked, joining the conversation.

"She wouldn't know unless I tell her about it," Aron said, pointing at Nova as he threw his card onto the table, mixing it with the already-played cards.

"There's no escaping here, Nova. Highlight his cards," Rina said, amid the looks of disbelief from Felix and Sarah at Aron's shameless attempt to end the game prematurely to avoid playing his poor hand and losing the game.

Unfortunately for Aron, he was on an advanced ship equipped with the latest AI technology, allowing Nova to demonstrate her full capabilities. With Rina's orders, Nova immediately highlighted Aron's cards, ensuring that the rest of the players couldn't see them. She then activated a small tractor beam to retrieve the cards and bring them in front of Aron. Aron looked at Nova's nanomachine body managing the cards in her hands, sitting silently beside him, while its other instance of her was handing him his cards returning him to the game despite his attempts to end it.

{Sir, it's your turn,} Nova said nonchalantly, unfazed by the death glare from her creator, which only fueled the laughter in the room.

"I'll have my moment for revenge," Aron said with a tone of resigned defeat as he picked up his cards and continued the game, fully aware that his earlier attempt to end it prematurely had failed.

….

While the emperor was engaged in his losing card game, the fleet, having received the order to commence their journey, sprang into action. The mother AI of the ships began coordinating seamlessly, ensuring that the fleet moved in perfect unison according to the meticulously designed plans.

Each military ship in the fleet housed a substantial contingent, with crews ranging from a minimum of one hundred to a maximum of one thousand personnel per ship.

Consequently, the entire fleet comprised approximately eight hundred thousand individuals. The majority of these personnel were tasked with ensuring the security of the emperor and the accompanying members throughout the journey.

Silently and steadily, the fleet began to break free from Earth's gravitational influence. By accelerating steadily, they gained speed with each passing second.

Although the solar system had an imperial government-imposed spaceship speed limit, the path ahead was already cleared, permitting the escort fleet to reach the maximum velocity of their ships without entering faster-than-light travel.

Throughout this entire ordeal, the journey was being broadcasted through imperial channels, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers. Many who would have been watching the Proxima live feeds were now either bidding farewell or admiring the new classes of ships in the fleet. The fleet featured many never-before-seen designs, sparking curiosity among spaceship enthusiasts who discussed the ships' purposes and specifications in the chat section. Meanwhile, others used the chat feed to express their feelings, whether it was love or hate for the empire, the emperor, or anyone else they felt compelled to address.

This marked the beginning of the emperor's journey—a voyage that, if it proceeded without any issues, had the potential to transform the empire in previously unforeseen ways.

Chapter 675

About an hour after the emperor's journey had commenced, the activity in Proxima A reached a dramatic crescendo.

Ptssss, A soft hiss echoed as air escaped from a pod that began to open. The lid slowly rose, revealing a stunning dark elf woman lying peacefully inside.

She remained still for a moment longer before her closed eyes began to flutter and then slowly open, revealing striking green eyes that gradually came into focus.

"Mh…" she groaned slightly as she grasped the edge of the VR pod, using it for support as she shifted from a reclining position to a seated one.

"Although I believed it was real, I still had a slight suspicion that we were merely part of a simulation undergoing a test," she said, her voice initially crackling. As she spoke, her vocal cords gradually adjusted, growing clearer with each word, signaling their first true use after being constantly stimulated by the pod to prepare for movement when the time for their awakening came.

"It's good to be skeptical and question things, but what makes you believe that you're not in another simulation now?" a voice from outside the pod asked, prompting her to turn toward the source of the sound.

"Ayaka," she called out, her voice warm with emotion and her face lighting up with happiness at the sight of her.

"Before I even opened my eyes, I felt a welcoming connection. Although I can't quite explain it, my subconscious knew this was the real world and was welcoming me," she continued, quickly gathering her thoughts and responding after her initial emotional reaction.

"We'll sort that out later, but for now, you need to get dressed, Rayyan," Ayaka said, handing her the clothes.

"Whaaa!" Rayyan exclaimed in surprise as she realized she was naked, quickly covering herself and blushing from embarrassment.

"Turn around," Rayyan instructed, grabbing the clothes from Ayaka's hands with lightning speed.

"I've already seen everything anyway; you have to remember I raised you," Ayaka said with a smile. Despite her teasing, she turned around to respect Rayyan's request and waited for her to get dressed.

"Alright, please give me an update on the awakening process," Rayyan requested, her playful tone now replaced by a serious and bureaucratic demeanor.

"I keep reminding you that I'm not your secretary, but given these special circumstances, I'll indulge you this time," Ayaka said, handing over the glasses. Rayyan accepted them and immediately put them on.

"We are proceeding according to the plan," Ayaka reported. "We've begun awakening the Category One individuals, and you're among the first. A few thousand are currently in the process, with Category Two individuals to follow. We should remain on schedule and have everyone awakened and everything ready within a month."

Rayyan listened intently as Ayaka spoke, but her eyes were focused on the data displayed through her glasses. Despite Ayaka's reassurance that nothing had changed, Rayyan adhered to the "Trust but Verify" principle she had been taught during her training, scrutinizing the plan to confirm its accuracy herself.

The plan highlighted the ongoing awakening process, showing that category one individuals—those in leadership positions across all agencies—were being prioritized. Following them, category two individuals, primarily government personnel, would be awakened next. The focus would be on police and military personnel, who would play a crucial role during the month of integration. They were responsible for aiding the newly awakened individuals in settling into their homes and ensuring a smooth transition into the real world before resuming their official duties.

"Thanks, we will be taking it from here," Rayyan said, having reviewed the plan and confirmed its accuracy. She took charge of the process, signaling her readiness to proceed.

"I'm looking forward to meeting you after everything is over," Ayaka replied with a smile, extending her hand to Rayyan. She had watched Rayyan grow from childhood to becoming the head of Proxima's government.

Ayaka looked forward to their future meeting, whether Rayyan would be part of an allied government or as a representative of the imperial government. This meant that their next face-to-face encounter would only happen after the emperor's arrival and his meeting with the tree folks, which would be after six months.

As a result, they would not meet in person for the next six months to allow for a smooth integration process without interference. All bases and infrastructure that were to support the exploration fleet personnel on the planet had been deconstructed, and everyone had evacuated back to their respective ships within the exploration fleet.

"Thank you for everything you've done for us. Regardless of the decisions that are made, I and everyone else will never forget the grace you've shown us. We will do everything in our power to return this favor to the empire, the imperial family, the exploration fleet who cared for us, and to you and Lee, who raised us as your own children," Rayyan said as she shook Ayaka's extended hand. Her face conveyed the sincerity of her words, showing that she meant every bit of it.

"I appreciate your sincerity and hope we can meet again under the circumstances we both hope for," Ayaka said with a smile.

"But where is he?" Rayyan asked, looking around as spaceships maneuvered, finalizing everything before handing control over to the awakened military personnel from among the Proximians.

"The admiral called him back to the fleet quite some time ago. I don't know the exact reason. Why are you asking? Did you miss him already?" Ayaka responded, gently teasing Rayyan.

"I wanted to see if there would be any sort of connection feeling, since he played a significant role in our creation," Rayyan explained, blushing slightly from Ayaka's teasing.

"Good idea, but it seems your hypothesis will have to wait until our next meeting," Ayaka said, glancing at the lander approaching to pick her up. "It doesn't look like he'll be returning anytime soon." She added as she looked at the glasses that informed her being the last person remaining on the planet, with the rest of the personnel having already evacuated.

Chapter 676

Task Force Teegarden.

It had been more than a year since their arrival, and they had discovered two planets in the Goldilocks zone, both shrouded in nuclear winter as a result of a devastating war. This discovery marked the beginning of their exploration.

Inside a private office, Fleet Admiral Jason Ryfczinski could be seen going through the final pieces of collected data from the entire star system. The majority of important data had been collected from the two habitable planets within the star system, Teegarden B and Teegarden C, both currently experiencing nuclear winter.

Despite the primary goal of the exploration fleets being discovery, the selection of specific star systems hinted at the empire's fervent hope to find intelligent life. Each of these star systems boasted planets within the Goldilocks zone.

However, after meticulously searching every nook and cranny within the two habitable planets within the star system, they were certain there was no intelligent life remaining. All had perished either during the war or in the years following due to various factors such as hunger, conflict, suicide, and other causes.

As a result, a major reason for this exploration fleet's mission went out the window. However, this didn't mean they stopped exploring. There was still valuable data to be collected, and now all the data that could be gathered was finally complete.

Now, he found himself in a dilemma: should he continue the exploration mission until their expected time to return, or should he end the mission early and order the fleet to return ahead of schedule?

"How long will it take to complete the collection of materials?" he asked, speaking to the void.

{From the creation of cargo ships to everything being loaded, it will take anywhere between three to six months,} the fleet's AI responded shortly after calculating.

"Call all of the commanders for a meeting as soon as possible. We need to come up with a plan," he said, dismissing the hologram and taking a moment to rest while waiting for the summoned commanders to arrive.

{At once,} the AI responded, immediately setting to work.

….

A few hours later.

Seen from above the two planets, a vast stream of ships carried container-like structures, delivering them to the main exploration bases on both planets. The orders to start collecting everything worth researching further back on Earth had been issued only a few hours ago, and the fleet was already in full motion, mobilizing to transport the collected materials. These efforts aimed to bring back valuable samples and have them analyzed by more advanced machines for further analysis and development.

Although they appeared to be ordinary containers from the outside, their sizes ranging from hundreds of meters to over a kilometer, they were far from ordinary. These were intelligent containers equipped with nuclear batteries and advanced virtual intelligence systems. These systems activated and maintained stasis throughout the journey back to Earth, ensuring the safety and integrity of their contents. Additionally, the virtual intelligence could report any issues during the voyage, allowing immediate intervention if needed. freewebnø ɱ

People on the ground wasted no time, immediately getting to work with renewed vigor. Knowing they were packing up to return home, they worked faster and more efficiently, aware that the quicker they completed their tasks with minimal issues, the sooner they could head back to Earth.

On the two planets, everything was being collected either in its entirety or in select samples, depending on the nature of the material. In some cases, only a few thousand samples were taken.

Things such as servers on the planet were collected in their entirety, while the bodies of the previous inhabitants were limited to a thousand samples per species. The remaining bodies were buried in designated civilization burial grounds on each of the two planets, where a memorial tomb would be constructed. These memorials would include inscriptions in the inhabitants' language, detailing how they died.

As for the water on these two planets, a million tons were being collected from each distinct water source, including rivers, ponds, and oceans.

The stellar forge of this fleet was now operating at its maximum safe operational output, churning out containers and building a cargo ship specifically designed to store them. This new cargo ship was essential, as the current fleet configuration was not suited for this particular mission.

"Now I'm wondering if we are the lucky or the unlucky ones to have found life outside the solar system at all," Yassin said, observing the mayhem at the Teegarden B main planetary base. Containers were arriving, being packed, and moved to a waiting line for loading onto cargo ships once they were completed.

"I'm pretty sure the rest either find life at its infancy or nothing at all. If my guess is right, then we are lucky to be the first to discover intelligent life outside the solar system. And even if not, there's no need to dwell on it since finding intelligent life, even a dead one, is incredibly rare. Our discovery is like winning the lottery," Mpilingu responded.

"Mpkhhhh," Yassin laughed at Mpilingu's opinion. "Based on my calculations, there should be less than a one percent chance of finding life within our hundred-light-year distance. Since we are the ones who found it, albeit a dead one, that percentage has been used up. This means the chances of others finding something similar are even worse than the already small one percent."

"I just wanted us to find a living version," Mpilingu said, revealing his hopes for the discovery of new life. "I wanted to see if any of our artists who created extraterrestrial life forms had hit the mark or if we weren't even close to it."

"Anyway, it doesn't really matter now. We need to focus on safe collection and evacuation without any casualties. I don't want our first death to occur just months before we return. I don't want to deal with the bureaucracy or tarnish our safety record," Yassin said, his eyes fixed on the hovering holograms displaying footage of the ongoing mission. The holograms highlighted the areas with the most chaos, allowing him to intervene through the virtual intelligence if the monitoring AI missed anything, no matter how unlikely that was. He wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Chapter 677

{Why not just kill them?} Athena interjected, offering her suggestion amidst the discussion.

Although Aron was in transit on his journey, he wasn't exempt from working. He was currently undergoing his daily morning briefing, which was being provided by the head of agencies AI.

Currently, they were discussing how to deal with the people who had been exiled by the empire. These individuals were considered irreconcilable opponents of the empire, always on the verge of causing trouble whenever they had the chance.

The reason they were discussing these exiled individuals now, despite their banishment a few years ago, was due to recent simulations. These simulations indicated that, given the empire's rapid expansion and the sudden addition of ten billion people, all in their prime and of childbearing age, their population would increase exponentially. If there were no technologically superior civilizations to threaten the empire's existence or expansion, by the time the exiles arrived at their intended new world, the empire would have already encompassed that area, rendering the exiles' plans to rule themselves moot.

"Although killing is the most efficient way to deal with these issues, it should be our last resort. If we resort to killing every time we encounter a problem, it will set a dangerous precedent." Aron said, shutting out that suggestion at once.

{How about we opt for a secret open prison approach until all of the first generation dies out?} Niyx, the AI responsible for the intelligence aspect of the empire, suggested with a smirk, as if she had already pre-thought and planned this idea. {We could then gradually influence the changes in the people of that generation and the subsequent ones before making it seem as if the empire has discovered and annexed them.}

Upon hearing her suggestion, Aron paused for a moment, considering it. Noticing her smile, he said, "I know you have a more detailed plan. Give me more details about it."

{As you wish,} Niyx replied, materializing a detailed map of the star systems where the exiled people would be arriving and starting their new lives at the center of the room. Everyone gathered around, focused with anticipation, eager to see where she was going with her plan.

{All we need to do,} Niyx continued, {is send advanced ships equipped with self-replicating nanomachines to take over one inhabited planet within each of these star systems. The nanomachines will start their replication process in advance, preparing for the exiles' arrival.

Once the exiles arrive, our nanomachine agents will integrate into the society and work in various ways—misleading, blocking, or otherwise preventing them from advancing their space and weapons technology beyond a certain level. Simultaneously, we will influence and modify their beliefs over the next few generations, eradicating ultranationalistic ideologies and other undesirable elements. Our goal is to ensure that, eventually, they are on an equal footing with the empire. After all, no matter who they are, they are still humans and were part of the empire's inception.}

There was a brief silence in the room as everyone took a few seconds to process the information, their advanced processing powers quickly digesting the details.

{As previously suggested, killing them would be the easiest solution compared to doing this,} Athena said, being the first to speak.

When the room fell silent, she added, {Either that or we could just brainwash them if killing them isn't an option.} She continued playing her role as the extremist during these meetings, reserving her more serious approach for military-related topics.

"I will think about it for now," Aron said, pausing briefly before continuing, "but you can all send me your suggestions on what we should do about them." He then looked directly at Athena and added, "That doesn't include killing or brainwashing them."

{Okay, next topic,} Gaia, acting as secretary, announced. {The new extremist awakeners are showing signs that they plan to use your absence as an opportunity. Several groups are engaged in various activities. For more detailed information, I believe Niyx is better suited to provide that.}

Gaia immediately handed the stage over to Niyx, recognizing that she was the expert in this field and best suited to provide a more detailed briefing.

{Different groups have attempted to reach out to Miss Rina's brother in prison, her father, and various members of both of your families.} Niyx began, providing a detailed briefing. {It appears they are trying to build connections in case something happens to you and the throne becomes open for contention.

Although your brother is the current next in line as mandated by the constitution, a regent will be needed due to his age. These groups believe that one of those family members might be selected as one of the regents. Since more than one regent is typically appointed to prevent abuse of power and to safeguard the heir, they are positioning themselves to benefit from this arrangement."

That situation pertains to the non-active groups, which doesn't require any immediate action from our side.

Then, there are other groups attempting to use this opportunity to seize control of the empire. We are actively monitoring them with our AI and agents, and we will soon have a case prepared against them.

Additionally, we are keeping watch to see if any other groups join their ranks before deciding on the best course of action.}

"Keep monitoring them, but don't take action just yet. We should use this opportunity to let all of them gather and reveal themselves fully. This will provide us with a believable justification and evidence to address them effectively with the imperial government."

Although they had brain scanners and other data-gathering tools on their hands, they couldn't use that information as evidence because it would require revealing the source. This sometimes necessitated making anonymous reports to uncover already known evidence.

Additionally, some people with ulterior motives suspected the devices' capabilities to read brains and memories, so they took steps to avoid detection. Now that they were taking action, there was no need to rely on that potentially compromised knowledge, as their agents could gather the necessary information from within.

{I will do so,} Niyx said, then fell silent, allowing Gaia to proceed.

With that matter addressed, Gaia moved on to the next topic in the briefing. Given the vast size of the empire and the nearly endless list of topics, not all of which were negative, the situation was manageable for Aron.

His well-established system for selecting agency heads ensured that these briefings primarily informed him of ongoing issues and allowed him to decide whether to add anything or leave the matters to be handled by the agency leaders.

Chapter 678

Six Months Later.

Throughout the journey, Aron dedicated as little time as possible to his official duties. Instead, he chose to spend the majority of his time with his wife and his friends, cherishing his friend's rare physical presence together in the past several years. He also enjoyed playing games with his younger brother and occasionally had a talk with his parents, who were still reveling in their renewed vigor like every old person following the empire-wide rejuvenation program."I will do so,"

Unfortunately, no matter how enjoyable a semi-vacation might be, it eventually has to come to an end. No matter how powerful he was, Aron wasn't exempt from this rule. His fleet arrived outside Proxima Centauri's heliosphere, emerging from FTL travel and releasing whatever they dragged throughout the journey to be dealt with by the heliosphere.

The fleet was currently at a full stop, as per Aron's order. He wanted to test something.

"Mhh…." Aron mused with his eyes closed before opening them and stating, "With this, I can say that the amount of mana in space outside star systems is constant." He had been testing this theory more than ten times throughout the journey, beginning outside the solar system's heliosphere and continuing randomly at various points, with the final test conducted outside Proxima Centauri's heliosphere, leading him to this conclusion.

As he hovered outside the spaceship, Aron turned his body using his spacesuit until he was facing the Proxima star system, which appeared like any other star in the sky if viewed from Earth. He then turned to face the opposite direction, towards the solar system, which looked equally insignificant. "We really are nothing in the grand scheme of things," he said slowly before he started moving back toward his spaceship, which immediately activated its tractor beam to catch and pull him in.

After undergoing the decontamination process—necessary because, without a heliosphere to protect him, he had been directly exposed to everything the galaxy had to offer, with only his shield and spacesuit for protection—Aron ordered, "Move out," as he removed his suit.

"I can't wait to meet them," Rina said with excitement.

Although the Proximians had been fully revived and communication with their star system had been established, allowing for interaction between the two groups, the imperial family had yet to have an official meeting with their leadership.

They were planning to hold this meeting after their meeting with the tree folk, as the outcome of the discussion with the tree folk would influence the environment of their official encounter with the Proximian leadership.

Her excitement was understandable, given that almost everyone on Earth had interacted with the Proximians through VR and had found them quite likable. Despite knowing the essential aspects of being human, the Proximians possessed a uniqueness and purity that most of humanity had lost over time. This made them a respected and admired group.

"Don't worry, you will soon," Aron said as he entered the room, his hair tousled from his spacesuit, earning a chuckle from Rina.

"Don't you know, the closer something gets, the longer the wait becomes?" she said, running her hand through his hair to smooth it into a more presentable fashion.

As they continued their pleasant conversation, the fleet began moving again, making its way toward the star system.

….

For the past six months, Lee Joon-ho had been feeling quite bored since their evacuation from the planet. With little to do but monitor mundane tasks in the control room, he had often felt sleepy. But all of that was now forgotten as both he and everyone in the control room had their mouths open in surprise at what they were currently seeing.

"Holy mother," Lee exclaimed from the control room, finally breaking the silence. His reaction echoed the feelings of everyone in the room as they gazed at the breathtaking visualization of the star system.

Although they had been tracking the emperor's journey, the tracking data had only shown the fleet as a blob while in FTL, and most had been too busy working overtime on the planet's evacuation to follow the live broadcast at the start of his journey.

Therefore, it came as quite a surprise to them to see that the emperor was arriving with a thousand ships as escorts—essentially moving an entire country's worth of protection for fewer than ten people.

"He isn't messing around at all," someone in the room remarked as they watched the fleet move steadily within the star system, drawing closer to the planet with each passing moment.

…..

At the same moment:

"Looks like they are finally here," Birch said from within the timeless meadow as the fleet entered the star system, passing through the heliosphere.

"He has quite an aura with him. Is this what they call the aura of leadership?" Oak spoke, his voice deep and serious, a stark contrast to Birch's softer tone.

His words were met with agreement from everyone. Although they couldn't perfectly visualize Aron due to his relative size and distance, he appeared to be glowing compared to the other humans on the approaching fleet.

"I don't think it has to do with his leadership or anything," Crabapple said, rubbing his invisible beard—a trait he had adopted from the dwarves he had selected and created. "Rayyan doesn't have anything close to resembling that."

As the three were conversing, Mangrove and Cypress remained silent, simply listening to the discussion. The three had grown accustomed to this dynamic, as it was a recurring occurrence within their space.

"We should start preparing for his arrival since we promised to meet him personally," Birch said, immediately setting about constructing a massive palace for their meeting.

Since the guest was special, Birch knew she couldn't construct a palace during the meeting itself as she had done with Ayaka. She understood human etiquette better now and knew that preparing a grand setting in advance was the appropriate approach.

The others didn't interfere with her efforts but sent a root each, which swiftly grew into a tree next to Birch's, ready to be converted into their humanoid forms for the meeting.

These massive movements didn't go unnoticed by those watching the live stream, which had been showcasing different scenes of the star system, including the planet.

The changes attracted a great deal of attention, as this particular scene had previously only shown a humble tree. They made it clear to everyone that the meeting was approaching with each passing second.

Chapter 679

The moment the fleet entered the Proxima star system, the escort fleet divided itself into four groups of 250 ships each. Three of the groups moved ahead, leaving the emperor and one group behind.

These three groups rushed to cover the four sides of the star system, positioning the planet where the meeting would take place at the center. This strategic move was to ensure that they were always ready to deal with any potential threats to the emperor's safety.

At the same time, command of all the military forces that accompanied the exploration fleet was transferred to the Emperor's Aegis leader, who also served as the Admiral of his escort fleet. This measure ensured a unified chain of command and prevented any misunderstandings, allowing for coordinated and efficient movements of the entire military force in the star system should any situation arise that required a unified response.

….

"Sir, we will arrive in orbit in five hours," reported Admiral Dimitris, his hologram appearing briefly before the emperor.

"Thank you," Aron responded, and the hologram disappeared.

Aron rose from his reclining chair, putting down the book he had been reading, and started heading to his room.

Although he could experience everything in VR in a realistic manner—where the book could come to life as a world or even as a movie—he still enjoyed reading physical books in the real world sometimes.

"Time to start preparing ourselves," Aron said as he gently woke Rina, who was still sleeping.

"Already?" she asked, still drowsy.

"There are still a few hours, but we need to be ready ahead of time so that when we arrive, we are in top condition for the meeting," Aron replied as he carried and took her to the bathroom to begin their preparations.

…

"They will be here in five hours and would like to immediately proceed to the meeting. Depending on how it ends, it could take much longer to handle the bureaucratic matters before they can start their return journey. So, I need all of you to be ready an hour before they arrive. Understood?" Admiral Bianchi said, addressing the two people with him in the meeting room.

"Yes, sir," Ayaka and Lee responded in unison.

Although they were already prepared, Ayaka and Lee went with the flow, understanding that everyone on the fleet was on full alert at this point. The admiral simply wanted to ensure that everything was going according to plan and that nothing was being overlooked.

"Okay then, you are dismissed," the admiral said, signaling that they could leave. He needed to attend to a few other matters to ensure everything was in order and put his mind at ease.

…

"Mam, they should arrive in a few hours," a secretary for the leader of the Proximians informed her as she was going through paperwork.

"What about their accommodations?" Rayyan asked, raising her head from the paperwork.

"Those were prepared two months ago, and we did a second pass on them a week ago, so they are as ready as they could be," the secretary responded immediately.

"The same goes for the ceremony after their meeting. But are you sure you're not going to attend the meeting?" she added promptly after the answer.

"Although I'm the leader of our species and can make decisions regarding our people, that only applies to matters pertaining to us. Anything related to the elders requires their permission. I can't force them to do anything, nor can I even entertain the thought of doing so," Rayyan said with a sigh of defeat.

She recalled the powerlessness she felt when she went to meet them about a month after they had logged out of the training pods, when everything was already in motion.

They had immediately used her as a test for a few things before any substantive discussions could even begin. The experience was quite unpleasant, but it was enough to make her understand that resisting them was futile. They seemed to be able to access her mind directly, sometimes responding to her questions before she could even articulate them, making it clear that their abilities far surpassed her own.

"Okay, keep me updated on their journey—" Before she could finish her order, the words "You will also be attending the meeting" echoed directly in her mind, causing her to pause abruptly.

"Yes, I will start preparing for that, elder," she responded immediately, speaking to the void.

"Change of plans, I will also be attending the meeting as per the elders' orders. Start making the preparations for it," Rayyan instructed her secretary, adapting quickly to the new situation.

"Yes, ma'am," her secretary immediately responded, understanding the urgency in Rayyan's tone. She had only witnessed Rayyan receiving orders from the elders once before, an experience that had thoroughly confused her at the time.

Without wasting any time, she left the office to start the preparations for Rayyan's attendance at the meeting.

….

Five hours later.

"Welcome, Your Majesty," Ayaka greeted the emperor, extending her hand for a handshake. Aron took her hand with a firm grip.

"Nice to meet you," Aron said as he shook hands with Lee immediately after his handshake with Ayaka.

"Okay, let's not waste our time or theirs. I'm sure they've been waiting for us for more than a year," Aron said, immediately getting to the point as usual.

"Yes, sir. Please follow me," Ayaka responded, moving aside and extending her hand to indicate the direction for the emperor to pass. They headed towards the hangar in the imperial vessel that housed the landing vehicle they would use to head to the planet.

Aron immediately started moving, with Rina on his right and Ayaka on his left. They conversed, making small talk while walking towards the hangar.

Behind them, a small entourage followed, including some of Aron's security detail. The group was moving with a sense of anticipation and readiness, aware of the significance of the upcoming meeting.

Upon arriving at the hangar, they were greeted by a beautiful ship already active and fully staffed, just waiting for them to board before getting to work. Without wasting any time, they all boarded the ship.

The moment the doors closed, the massive gates leading to the outside began to open. As the opening widened, a blue shimmer appeared, holding back the air from being expelled into the vacuum.

The ship slowly started hovering, then moved through the opening, passing through the shield seamlessly. Once outside, the gates immediately began to close behind them.

Chapter 680

After a few minutes of flying in space, they finally reached the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere. The ship absorbed the impact seamlessly, its occupants not feeling a thing as they descended. The transition from the cold vacuum of space to the warmth of the planet below was smooth, silent, and peaceful.

"The planet is truly massive and beautiful in its own way," Rina remarked, gazing out of the ship's window. Despite having seen it in VR, experiencing it in reality evoked a different sensation. The abundance of mana was a major factor in this feeling; both she and Aron were exhilarated, their bodies responding to the mana in a way that Earth's mana was yet to match.

"This amount of mana feels like a dream," Aron added, extending his hand forward and then closing it into a fist. The mana's influence was particularly profound on him, as his golden blood contained a high percentage of mana.

As a result, at the moment, he was feeling constantly invigorated and in peak condition, a sensation he could previously only experience within mana-dense artificial environments back on Earth, like in his now decommissioned first ever quantum server.

As they discussed their experience with the mana, the ship continued its steady course, and soon, the palace became visible in the distance, unveiling its grandeur.

"Looks like they really went all out for the meeting," Aron remarked, taking in the sight.

"It's incredible," Rina said, observing the palace's design. "The level of control they have over their roots is astonishing. Despite everything looking like a traditional palace with various colors and contrasts, it's all created from a single root."

"Is it alright if I ask them about how they're doing it?" Rina turned to Ayaka, seeking guidance on whether it was appropriate to inquire about their techniques. She wanted to be respectful of their unique characteristics and differences, knowing that the tree folk couldn't be judged by human standards. Ayaka, being one of the few knowledgeable about the tree folk, was the perfect person to ask.

"You can ask them anything without worrying about offending them," Ayaka promptly answered. "The only issue is whether they consider the question worth answering. From our previous meetings, we've learned that they might choose to answer or not, without explaining why."

"Looks like I'll need to gauge their mood before deciding what to ask, Thanks," Rina said, appreciating the advice.

The ship descended steadily, drawing nearer to the designated landing zone. With a smooth touch, it landed gently on the surface, marking their arrival.

"Please prepare yourselves for the increased gravity when we leave the ship. It's 17% heavier than on Earth, so if you have any difficulty, Lee will assist you without the need for spacesuits," Ayaka reminded everyone. This was to ensure they wouldn't repeat OC Parker's blunder—he had famously stumbled during his first landing, a mistake the current team wanted to avoid, especially given their high-profile status and the fact that their disembarking location was one of the key sites for the still ongoing star system-wide live broadcast.

Immediately, the disembarking process began. Ayaka and Lee were the first to step out, followed by the rest of their escorts, and finally, Aron and Rina.

'Looks like they practiced in the simulation,' Ayaka thought to herself as she observed Aron and Rina. They moved effortlessly, as though the heavier gravity was no challenge at all, maintaining the same ease they had in the ship with gravity drivers active.

They began walking towards the palace, which had been meticulously prepared by the Proximians. The moment the palace construction was completed, several Proximians, sent by Rayyan, had been stationed to manage crucial sectors such as cleaning, food services, security, and other essential operations.

The massive palace doors were wide open, revealing Rayyan along with the five tree folk—Birch, Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress—waiting on the other side to welcome them.

…

As Aron, Rina, Ayaka and Lee, exchanged greetings with Rayyan and the tree folk, the massive palace doors closed behind them with the rest of the group securing the perimeter.

As for the live stream feed, it was already in a frenzy of activity and noise as millions expressed themselves on it.

Maali91: ["Wow! Where's the person who claimed this was all a simulation and that the emperor was using it as a cover-up for the exploration fleet's disappearance?"]

Curtis1122: [I doubt he'll show up now. I checked his account, and it looks like he was bullied so much that he ended up deleting it to escape the harassment.]

ahmed_94: ["LOL! Did anyone else notice the emperor's expression when he shook hands with the giant tree folk? It was only for a short span, but something seemed a bit strange!]

Eldwood_Kaumehei: [ ahmed_94, What do you mean by that? I saw nothing about what you are talking about at all. Are you also one of those conspiracy theorists?]

ahmed_94: [ Eldwood_Kaumehei, I saw it because I had my stream zoomed and focused on his face, and it happened for a few milliseconds. It is one of the you blink, and you miss it type of action, but it happened.]

Nerdrage001: [ ahmed_94, Are you one of those perverts who simps for the emperor?]

ahmed_94: [Stop slandering me. I can and will sue you for that. If you don't believe me, go and take a look for yourself]

Fkuffy_Dog_Hugger: [ ahmed_94, Based on your reaction, it looks like it is true.]

ahmed_94: [Meet me in VR, and let our bodies do the talk like men. I sent you an invite and location. It is a fight to the death, and If you don't come, you are a Pu*y ]

Ertenal_Crusader: [ ahmed_94, Make the link public. I want to watch people kill each other for honor]

Thawk7678: [ Fkuffy_Dog_Hugger, You better accept it, or you won't live past it.]

Demonic_entity: [This is why I like the VR. Thank you, emperor, for the tech.]

Lenrad: [Hey Nerdrage001, I found the man you were looking for here]

Such discussions were rampant throughout the livestream. Even though the emperor and the empress had already entered the palace and were no longer visible on the stream, people continued watching it, eagerly awaiting for the results of the meeting.

A few viewers briefly left the stream to catch a fight of honor, but they, too, were quick to return after a few minutes, eager to see what would unfold next.

Chapter 681

"I know that you like for the official meetings to immediately get to the point, so let's go with that today," Birch said as they took a seat in one of the many rooms in the palace. The room was well-prepared, with amenities such as water and a few snacks already set on the table.

Aron, Rina, Ayaka, and Lee sat on one side, while Rayyan, Birch, Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress sat on the other, facing each other.

"I would like that too," Aron said calmly, answering with confidence. He didn't appear at all like someone attending his first official meeting with peers who could be considered equals in terms of leadership. If Rayyan's government were counted as a separate empire, it would rival his own, at least in terms of population count, which exceeded that of Aron's empire.

"In the past, I have acted as the representative for both the Proximians and my fellow tree folk. Today, everyone here will speak and represent themselves before we decide on the best course of action for our children.

Rayyan is here to represent our children's interests and ask questions pertinent to them. Her input will be crucial in our decision-making process. The rest of us will consider her input when we reach the decision-making stage. That's our course of action. If you have one for your side, we would like to hear it before we begin our conversation," Birch said and started waiting for Aron's response.

"From our side, my wife and I will be the official representatives. Ayaka and Lee are here as advisors throughout the meeting. That's all," Aron responded. "If there is nothing more to add from your side, we can start the conversation."

With that, Aron left the floor open for the other side to ask the first questions since they were here to discuss them.

"Should we join the empire as citizens, what will our treatment be, and what leadership structure will be implemented upon us?" Rayyan asked, taking the initiative to pose the opening question of the meeting.

"If you were to join the empire as citizens, you would receive the same treatment as any other citizen of the empire. This includes all the rights and privileges that come with citizenship.

Even if you choose to remain allies rather than becoming full citizens, you will still be treated with respect and fairness, though there would be some restrictions, such as requiring visas to enter imperial territories and more.

I can provide records to confirm this, and we have already amended our constitution to include your group. The formal ratification of this amendment will be completed after this meeting.

Regarding governance, there will be no changes to the current system. During your training, you were introduced to the same governance model that the empire employs. Rayyan, you would be responsible for representing the Proxima star system under imperial rule, following the same governance style that will apply to other regions acquired by the empire in the future.

The solar system, being the empire's capital, is directly controlled by the imperial family, which is why it does not have a representative like other star systems."

Aron paused for a moment after addressing the initial queries related to Rayyan's question before continuing.

"I would also like to add that within our governance structure, all leadership positions, regardless of their level, have defined limits on their power.

The Emperor holds the highest authority within the empire, but even this role is bound by the rule of law. The Emperor can remove individuals from power, but only if there is substantial evidence and a valid reason for doing so.

Similarly, just as a thousand of our empire's citizens have the power to challenge and dethrone me should I act inappropriately, a randomly selected thousand of your people will have the same power to hold their leaders accountable, including me."

Aron spoke plainly, ensuring that all aspects of the governance were clear. He wanted to avoid any misleading impressions and prevent future misunderstandings that could lead to conflicts or discontent.

Rayyan remained silent throughout Aron's detailed responses, occasionally nodding in acknowledgment. Although she was familiar with most of the information from previous readings, hearing it directly from the leader of the empire provided a different level of clarity and assurance. At that moment, she was satisfied with the answers she had received.

"What is the goal of the empire?" Cypress, the creator of the fae or fairies and the only winged species among them, asked.

"At the start, the creation of the empire was an unintended consequence of a world war between myself and the rest of the world, which I won overwhelmingly. The cause of that conflict was our discovery of a potential visitor, whom we initially and are still considering to be hostile until proven otherwise.

We recommended the formation of a unified force to confront this potential threat, and that remains our primary focus, including your possible role as allies or citizens.

Our investments are centered on preparing for this threat, but if we manage to overcome it, our goals will shift based on the situation at that time," Aron explained calmly, summarizing the foundation and current objectives of the empire.

"Mmm," Cypress nodded, indicating her satisfaction with the answer she received.

"For me, I'm curious about your so-called magic and the way you harness what you call mana. From the information I've gathered through your people's conversations, it seems that you only discovered it a few months after the formation of the empire. How have you reached such an advanced understanding of it so quickly, and how did you discover the different methods to harness and materialize its effects in the real world?" Crabapple, the creator of the dwarves, asked, his voice carrying a hint of the dwarves' natural inclination toward creativity and invention.

"That is because we, or rather I, knew about mana long before people began experiencing what we call the awakening or blessing," Aron answered calmly.

His response, however, sparked a contrasting reaction from everyone on the opposite side of the table, including Ayaka and Lee, whose expressions shifted to one of surprise and intrigue.

Chapter 682

Seeing the room still in silence, indicating their curiosity for more details, Aron decided to elaborate.

"I received what you call a blessing a few years before the formation of the empire," he began. "This gave me the opportunity to delve into the study of mana well before it became widely known. Coupled with my company's advancements in quantum computing and VR, I had access to time acceleration and advanced simulation capabilities.

These technologies allowed me to effectively spend centuries, alongside my AI assistant, developing and refining the system from the ground up. We went through countless trials and errors, and I personally experienced many failures, including several catastrophic ones, before mastering the basics and discovering how to harness mana for various effects."

Aron's explanation was a blend of truth and strategic omission. He carefully avoided mentioning that he had acquired foundational knowledge from the system and that his wife's and his citizens' awakening was the reason he bought it in the first place, since he couldn't use magic in that way and could only harness mana through runes that he had already bought previously.

Although Rayyan and the tree folks were surprised by the explanation, it couldn't compare to the shock Ayaka and Lee felt. They had always believed that the foundational knowledge of mana was the result of collective efforts by many knowledgeable individuals who analyzed awakeners and used simulations to discover the basics and teach others.

But now they were learning that all the foundational work had been done by the Emperor alone, over centuries spent by himself. This revelation greatly increased their respect for the Emperor, which was already immense to begin with.

"Does that mean you discovered the means to use mana of all different affinities?" Crabapple asked, his curiosity yet to be satiated.

"Not all of them," Aron responded. "My experiments focused on finding the basic means of harnessing mana and creating foundational formulas for its use. These foundations allow others to develop more complex formulas as they make new discoveries about mana. Most awakeners manifest with specific affinities and are more efficient in using magic related to those affinities. While they can use magic from other affinities, it comes with significant penalties, such as increased mana consumption and complexity in understanding. This specialization means that they can further research within their specific affinities, and with the number of awakeners, there are more chances for advancements."

"Then how come we feel no specific mana affinities from both of you despite both of you releasing what can be said to be an aura of awakeners? Although there are some of our children who release an aura similar to yours, yours feel fainter, almost on the verge of disappearing, something we would have missed had we not focused our senses on you two." Mangrove asked taking over from his fellow tree folk.

"That is because we have no specific affinities," Rina responded dropping the bombshell.

"Although rare, there are a few who have no affinity to specific mana, which makes it easier for us to learn any specific affinity of mana or maybe even all of them, if you can handle learning all of them.

As for why you almost didn't feel it from us, it is because we are actively suppressing it." She explained, as this was specifically her field, and what they were answering was either public or mostly only mildly classified information.

'You can do that?' Lee thought to himself when he heard the empress talking about them physically suppressing their awakener aura that could only be felt by other awakeners. 'So that's why I couldn't feel that they were awakeners,' he finally realized, feeling relieved that his long-standing question about why he hadn't sensed their awakener status was now answered.

"I know you have more questions related to that, but I would suggest we postpone them until after this meeting, as the purpose of this meeting is about your children and not really about our discovery of mana," Aron said, noticing their continued curiosity despite the lengthy explanation.

"That's true, sorry for getting distracted by that. It's one of the things we are most curious about, having spent millennia with access to mana but seeing our discoveries take an entirely different path from yours," Birch apologized, explaining their obsession with the topic.

"I'm happy to have a lengthy discussion about this after the meeting and the following bureaucracies, as we are also curious about your side of the discoveries. We are here for as long as our tasks require, so you don't have to worry about us leaving ahead of time," Aron responded, indicating they could now return to the primary discussions that brought them together today.

"We will take you up on that offer. Now, taking over our children would mean you are also responsible for their protection. On what level are you confident in protecting them?" Birch asked, swiftly returning to the main topic, this time speaking not as a representative, but as the creator of the elves.

"At present, we are in the process of building a formidable military to ensure the safety of our empire. Should your children join us, they will be integrated into this military, especially considering we have a potential visitor on the way. We are confident that within a few years, our military will be powerful enough to ensure both our safety," Aron replied calmly.

He then pointed to Lee, who now wore a look of surprise from the unexpected shoutout from the emperor. "Also, if we're talking about the obligation to protect them, aren't we also considered another parent?" Aron continued with a hint of humor, "After all, the empire aided in their upbringing just as much as he also aided in their creation."

A few people in the room chuckled at his attempt to lighten the mood, while others remained silent, their expressions serious.

"So it means that you can't protect them at this moment?" Oak asked, his voice cutting through the lighthearted atmosphere Aron had just created, instantly bringing the discussion back to a more serious tone.

"I don't think you can take that from my previous answer. Although I mentioned that we are in the process of building our military, it doesn't mean we are defenseless. The level of threats you're concerned about is not beyond the capacity of our current defenses, provided we have early detection. Our military will be prepared well before any significant threat arrives," Aron responded in a tone matching Oak's seriousness.

"I don't think so," someone said, but before anyone could even care who said it,

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

Chapter 683

While the meeting was taking place, the security forces of both sides were carefully monitoring the palace. Although the possibility of an incident was almost nil, they needed to be ready for anything.

By the slimmest chance that something did happen, their leaders would need to be rescued immediately. This philosophy underpinned the current small contingents responsible for keeping an eye on the palace, while the rest of the security forces focused outward.

However, the peaceful monitoring only lasted for so long. In a fraction of a second, two massive roots emerged from opposite sides of the palace wall. They spread rapidly, intertwining and clashing against the walls of the palace, enveloping it as if it were a cocoon.

"..."

There was a silence from those near the vicinity of the palace, but their surprise was more about the symbolic of what had happened. The sudden cocoon of roots meant that the emperor, his wife, and the leadership of the Proximians were now confined within the cocoon.

BOOOOOOOOM.

It was only three seconds later that they heard the explosion, which immediately brought everyone back to their senses.

Four seconds after the explosion.

"Show me what the sensors are seeing," Josh, the head of the Aegis team assigned to protect the emperor on the ground, asked calmly, his eyes fixed on the now fully cocooned palace.

Although he was asking questions, his mouth wasn't moving, and neither were his eyes blinking at all. Everything around him seemed either at a full stop in the air or moving in slow motion, depending on their relative speed before the shockwave. Time seemed to have paused for him, his focus solely on the cocooned palace, his mind processing the sudden turn of events with an eerie calmness.

That was not a result of fear-induced adrenaline or any innate abilities, but rather a deliberate acceleration of his perception of time, causing everything to appear frozen or moving sluggishly..

It was a technology developed in Lab City, an offshoot of the VR and AR advancements made a few years ago. In its current form, the tech was a few hundred iterations beyond its initial discovery, though it still had its limitations. Not everyone could handle the acceleration of time perception while simultaneously experiencing the real world, where the amount of information couldn't be controlled as it could in a VR simulation.

So, at the moment, he was conversing directly with the security AI through his thoughts, needing to assess the situation on the ground. He would have to send a report to the fleet admiral after he determined how they could assist.

That was because currently, he was in control of the situation, and the fleet would act as his and his team's support, as he was the one responsible for the direct security of the emperor.

{Our scanners are being blocked by a massive amount of mana within the cocoon roots,} the AI relayed directly to his mind.

Upon hearing that the sensors were being blocked, Josh didn't linger on the negative news and immediately shifted focus.

"Replay the recording of the event," he commanded, eager to view the incident clearly since his accelerated perception had compressed it into mere seconds.

The footage was augmented and replayed before him.

His expression remained unchanged, as the time acceleration tech only affected his perception, not his physical appearance. As a resut of that, his face stayed as it was moments before the tech activated, not reflecting the intensity of the scene he was observing.

The footage revealed two massive roots emerging from either side of the palace, rapidly expanding and converging to envelop the structure. As the roots encased the palace, it reacted within the same time fram, sealing all openings to prevent any intrusion from the roots.

"What else do you see?" he asked the AI, knowing that not utilizing its full capabilities would be unwise and could leave him unprepared for future inquiries.

{Although the roots appear identical to the naked eye, there is a noticeable color variation between them, suggesting that they may come from two different tree folks} reported the AI, highlighting the subtle differences in color between the roots.

"Alright, send this information to fleet control and request a few attack ships to breach that cocoon," he instructed, promptly deactivating the perception acceleration.

"Everyone to the ship! We need to breach that cocoon and rescue the imperial family!" Josh commanded, swiftly organizing the security team on the ground.

For them, only seven seconds had elapsed since the shockwave hit, making his analysis and response time just two seconds.

Without hesitation, the security members rushed toward the ship, which was already hovering and approaching them to pick them up.

The operation to rescue the imperial family was now officially underway, as Josh and his team were heading to the cocoon.

Meanwhile, other groups were still in the process of assessing and reacting to the unfolding crisis.

…..

In just ten seconds after the cocoon's appearance, the fleet responded swiftly. Landers and attack ships were dispatched one after another, descending from orbit to support the Aegis forces on the ground. The fleet's readiness was a result of their vigilance during the meeting eve when they were almost sure that nothing was going to happen, ensuring they were prepared for any emergent threats.

The Proximian security forces were equally swift in their response. Responding within a few more additional seconds, they had formulated an action plan. Given that their ships were already stationed on the planet, they were poised to arrive at the scene ahead of the reinforcements coming from space.

…..

The unfolding crisis quickly captivated viewers both on Proxima and on earth. Within thirty seconds of the incident, the live stream's audience swelled to half a billion.

As the situation continued to develop, the number of viewers surged by millions each second. Reactions varied widely: some watched with bated breath and concern, others with a sense of schadenfreude, while many tuned in purely for the spectacle, eager to see if the emperor's fate would be sealed in real time.

Chapter 684

"What is the meaning of this?" Aron demanded, his voice cutting through the tension as he looked directly at the tree folk delegation. Instinctively, he had cast a protective shield around his group the moment he sensed the massive surge of mana. This swift action had caught everyone else on his side off guard, just as the palace began to shake and emit an ominous creaking sound.

"Nothing personal, we're just making a logical choice," Oak responded through his massive humanoid form, looking at Aron as if he weren't one of the two who had just tried to crush them.

"Aron narrowed his eyes. "A logical choice? By attacking us during a diplomatic meeting? What do you plan to do after killing us? I'm sure you know that killing me won't mean the empire will fall. They will not stop seeking revenge against you. Our current military is more than capable of that," Aron responded in the same calm manner, making the other humans in the room get goosebumps at his composure.

"Do you think I'm worried about your little military at all? Why worry about something that we can already deal with through our people? Also, what makes you think that we were trying to kill you?" Mangrove, the creator of the dark elves, responded, with him being the other person whose roots are currently covering half the palace.

"What do you mean by that?" Rina asked, her voice sharp and direct.

"Why go to all this trouble if there was nothing to gain from you worth all the upcoming trouble?" Oak responded, his humanoid body forming a creepy smile.

Mangrove continued from where Oak left off, "The ability to hide the amount of power you have indicates that you have enough power to warrant that, but also enough power to achieve the hiding to the point that we almost missed it. Although we planned this ahead of time, your response pushed us the final mile in giving us the confidence that your bodies can handle our full consciousness without us facing any limitations in our previous abilities.

If it succeeds, we will have every bit of our powers and an empire under our control. And if you die, we can just create a body the same way we recreated Lee's and put one of our people in it. What is there to worry about?" Mangrove revealed their entire plan.

This acted as both a display of their confidence and a taunt, demonstrating their belief in the inevitability of their success even after revealing their plan. The arrogance in their voices made it clear they were not concerned about anyone stopping them.

Aron ignored the two who had already revealed themselves as the perpetrators behind the current situation and turned to the others who had remained silent. "What about you four? Are you on the same side as them?" he asked, wanting to understand if they were complicit or merely bystanders.

Rayyan looked utterly shocked, unable to respond. From the start, she had been certain that no matter the outcome of the meeting, it would end with them on friendly terms with the empire that had practically raised them. Now, all of that seemed to have been thrown out the window by the actions of two of the elders, one of whom was the creator of her specific race. This left her powerless to oppose him, rendering her silent not by choice, but by sheer inability to respond.

Birch responded shortly, having processed the situation rapidly. "This is news to me. Just because we are on the same planet doesn't mean we can read each other's minds. It seems like they planned this on their own." freewebnovel.cσ๓

Cypress added, "I agree with her. I have no intention of disrupting the current situation; I'm quite content with how things are. As some of your human philosophers suggest, I'm trying to enjoy the moment before it's gone. It seems they're the ones intent on making it disappear." She turned to the Giant and Dark Elf tree folks, her gaze conveying a sense of disappointment that would have been more expressive had she had a fully expressive face.

"It seems like they've inherited some of Lee's less desirable traits when shaping their new personalities, based on his experiences," Crabapple said, his tone reflecting his critical thinking and curiosity. "Though I'm not entirely sure what specific traits they've inherited, their planning seems to be rooted in those aspects."

As they were talking, small tremors began to ripple through the palace, indicating that those outside were trying to breach the cocoon. However, the calmness on the preparators' faces indicated that they were not worried about the breach at all.

Upon receiving the responses from everyone, Aron fell silent for a moment, looking down at the table. This caused everyone on his side to feel their hearts sink, interpreting his silence as a sign of seeing no way out. This reaction was particularly striking to Rina, who had always believed that Aron was the strongest person she would ever know.

But the silence was short-lived. Aron's expression shifted to a smile, giving him an unsettling appearance as if he had snapped from despair. This almost caused everyone on his side to have a heart attack if not for his cryptic words that followed: "So that is what it was talking about." His statement left everyone in the room puzzled and curious about what he meant.

[DING!]

[URGENT SYSTEM QUEST!]

Objective: Deal with the situation without killing the preparators and put them under your control.

Reward for Fully Completing the Task: 2 of the system's awakening requirements.

Reward for Partially Completing the Task: 500 billion SP

Punishment for Failure: -

]

This was the system notification that appeared the moment Aron shook hands with the giant's creator at the palace's door, which left him puzzled about what the system required from him.

Although the notification listed no punishments for failing, the rewards were enticing. Completing the task fully would grant him two of the five system awakening requirements, leaving only three remaining. This was crucial, as the system had hinted at a significant reward for fully awakening it.

Throughout the meeting, Aron had been trying to discern the actual mission and whether it would involve confronting those on the opposite side of the table. He had focused on answering their questions to buy time for figuring out the mission. With the revelation of the preparators' true intentions, it seemed the need for further investigation had diminished.

"I hope you don't regret this," Aron said with a serious tone before finally releasing the suppression he had been placing on himself. The gravity of his words was clear, and with the justification to act now fully realized, any sympathy he might have had was set aside.

Chapter 685

Everyone in the room immediately felt a surge of pressure ripple through the air, making the atmosphere heavy. The sudden change took everyone by surprise, even the two perpetrators behind the current situation, as the pressure was more than expected.

Before anyone could react, two shields materialized around Oak and Mangrove, confining them along with anything nearby within the oval barriers. In an instant, the interiors of the shields combusted into flames, incinerating everything inside within seconds before the fire stopped and the shield diactivated.

As the shields deactivated, fine ashes fell to the ground where Oak and Mangrove's humanoid forms had once been.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The room plunged into a deeper silence as everyone tried to comprehend what had just occurred. Even Rina, his wife, was stunned, her mind racing to process the rapid and dramatic turn of events. The swift and decisive nature of Aron's actions left everyone in a state of shock, their brains struggling to catch up with the reality of what had just transpired.

Not even five seconds had passed between Aron's words, "I hope you don't regret this," and the two tree folks' bodies being enveloped by a shield, then instantly incinerated and reduced to fine ashes where they had been.

The remaining three tree folks were astonished, not because they didn't notice it happening, but because it occurred so rapidly that their perception lagged by a few seconds. Even after they perceived it, they couldn't comprehend the mana disturbances aimed at the two, as it was something entirely new to them.

Rayyan remained frozen, just as she had been before. Ayaka and Lee were still catching up, their minds struggling to process the rapid turn of events.

Rina, meanwhile, was dumbfounded by Aron's display of power. Although she always knew he was powerful, she had never witnessed him win a practice fight since he always trained under severely unfavorable conditions, constantly getting bested by the AI. This display shattered her previous understanding of his capabilities.

"I hope you aren't planning on joining them now," Aron said, looking at Birch as he rose from his chair, causing it to slide backward.

He wasn't worried that he had just killed them, as he knew that their humanoid forms were merely extensions of their main bodies. What he had done was akin to cutting someone's hair—a minor inconvenience rather than a fatal blow. However, it wasn't for nothing; by removing them from the room, he ensured they couldn't launch any immediate attacks against him, buying crucial time to manage the situation.

"Rather than that, we would like to help you deal with them," Birch said, indicating her willingness to act against the troublemakers. Aron's display of power had impressed her and shown that he was even more formidable than they had estimated.

"Have you ever fought amongst yourselves?" Aron asked, following Birch's statement.

"Not since we reached our current size," Crabapple responded.

Aron thought about it for a fraction of a second before immediately saying, "Although I would like your help in dealing with them, that will do more harm than good. What I want you to do is focus on minimizing the amount of damage they inflict on the planet and protecting the proximians. I will deal with them." He spoke confidently, recalling that while his system didn't specify that he had to complete the mission alone, he wanted to ensure there was no reason for receiving a lower-grade reward.

But not only that, he was also using this moment to send a clear warning to the remaining tree folks, demonstrating that he could deal with such threats personally without relying on his military. This display of power was meant to deter any similar actions in the future and ensure that his authority remained unchallenged once the current crisis was resolved.

"Are you sure about that? Although we previously couldn't use mana as a means of attacking because we didn't know about its capability for that, you can now be sure that we know everything you taught all of our children about mana and can use it the same way as them," Cypress asked, explaining her question and emphasizing their newfound capabilities.

"If I need help, I will ask for it, but for now, I need you to focus on the safety of both the planet and the citizens. If you need to reach me, you can contact me through this," Aron said, dropping four buttons from his sleeves onto the table. Without waiting for a response, he flew upward, breaking the sound barrier a second later. Birch was quick enough to respond, opening the palace's roots where Aron was about to pass through. However, the same couldn't be said for the two roots still attempting to cocoon the palace. He didn't care how hard they were or looked, breaking through them with force.

A resounding BOOOOOOOOM echoed as he pierced through them.

….

BOOOOOOOOM.

The ships that were amidst their attack immediately came to a halt. The sensors pinged the presence of the Emperor, automatically stopping the ships from continuing their assault to avoid harming him or anyone else still inside the cocoon in case a shot went through the opening he had created.

The opening he had pried immediately began to heal, just as it had when they previously attacked with small-yield weapons. They had been cautious not to use anything too powerful, to avoid harming those inside they were trying to save.

"The fuck," a soldier involuntarily muttered. Although it was impossible to believe what he was seeing, his visor was directly highlighting the floating man, zooming in on him with a golden name hovering above him, clearly labeling him as the emperor.

The surprise was shared by everyone except a few Aegis members monitoring from space. It was the first time the emperor did something that undeniably proved he was an awakener as everything in the past only hinted at it based on his reaction to the situations he found himself in.

This revelation wasn't just witnessed by those present but also by more than five billion people from both Proxima and Earth who were now watching through the live stream.

As for the emperor, he hovered for a moment, receiving an update on the situation. He couldn't receive this information while in the palace because Nova had deduced that his discussion at that time was more critical than the current report.

Chapter 686

{That's all,} Nova said as she finished updating Aron on the situation. It had taken only a few seconds for her to do so since she delivered just the bullet points, and Aron filled in the gaps himself.

"Thanks, keep updating me on any changes," Aron said before looking down at the cocoon, which now appeared as intact as it had been from the beginning. It had fully healed and was no longer under attack from the ships, giving it a moment of respite.

He waited to see if the cocoon would react or shift its focus toward him, but even after a few moments, nothing happened.

{I think they're still maintaining it to imprison her and are planning to deal with you first before returning to handle her,} Nova hypothesized to Aron.

"I would have done the same if I were the one attacking us," Aron agreed. He understood their strategy: imprisoning Rina would force him to fight while constantly worrying about her safety. This divided focus would make it easier for them to overwhelm him, allowing them to defeat him more quickly and with minimal damage before returning to deal with Rina, who, although hypothesised to be slightly weaker, might still pose a threat if he turned out to be more powerful.

"Then let's mess with their plan," Aron said, extending his hand toward the cocoon below. Shortly after, runic sentences appeared and activated, immediately forming a skin-tight shield around the cocoon. But he didn't stop there. With his extended hand, he shifted his focus from the outer shield to the runes that were still projecting active shields around Rina, Ayaka, and Lee, taking control of them as well.

The runes immediately had a few of their letters change. All three runic words projecting three different shields moved and joined, merging into a single rune. The new combined shield began growing while still in its passive mode, allowing anything to enter and leave freely as it expanded. It extended through Birch's palace until it reached the outer side of the palace walls.

Once there, the shield entered active mode, activated fully, enveloping the cocoon from the inside as well.

"Snap!" Aron snapped his fingers.

Before even a second could pass, BOOOOOOOOM.

An explosion erupted inside the shields, visible to anyone watching. The blast ignited everything within the two shields, overwhelming them faster than they could regenerate.

The explosion continued for about three seconds before subsiding, revealing the aftermath inside the shields. Nothing but ashes remained, falling through the half-dome of the inner shield to the floor, unveiling the palace once again.

Aron then deactivated the outer shield while simultaneously shrinking the lower shield in passive mode, reducing its size until it fit the room.

Once it was contained, he reactivated the shield and cast a flying rune on it, detaching the room from the palace and lifting it into the air.

Birch responded by spreading the roots from the roof of the palace while at the same time having the palace return back into her roots as the room rose until it reached his eye level.

She then absorbed all the roots within the room back into her body, leaving only the clear shield remaining.

"While your real bodies are dealing with my request, I want your copies to stay clear of the mess and act as communication intermediaries. I have some questions I'm curious about," Aron said, directing his gaze at the tree folks.

He then turned to Rayyan, who was in the midst of regaining her composure.

"I need you to grant me temporary control of the government. Your current situation isn't ideal for managing this crisis," Aron said. Rayyan, understanding the gravity of the situation and acknowledging the impact of the recent events on her ability to lead, agreed.

She handed over control, knowing it was an emergency and that she could communicate with Aron through the button he left, now turned into an earpiece. This way, she could monitor his actions and reclaim control if necessary.

Aron then turned to Lee, pointing at Ayaka. "I need you to protect her while she heals anyone on the verge of death. Once they're stabilized, they should be placed in a stasis pod for further treatment." Lee nodded immediately, understanding the urgency of the task.

Turning to his wife, he added, "I need you to assist me if they try to attack other locations."

With that, Aron deactivated the shield, ready to address the next phase of their plan.

As the shield deactivated, everyone inside immediately cast flying magic on themselves to stay airborne, except for Ayaka, who struggled with any magic other than life magic.

Despite her ability to heal herself, no one wanted to risk unnecessary harm. Nova, quick to act, ordered a nearby ship—Aron's personal vessel—to deploy its tractor beam, catching Ayaka before she could fall.

The tractor beam also latched onto the three tree folks and Rayyan, pulling them into the ship alongside Ayaka. The tree folks would use the ship as a base for communication, while Ayaka was to be provided with a newly created suit from the ship's atomic printer, ensuring her survival for the demanding tasks ahead.

Having completed his preparations, Aron turned towards his ship.

"Nova, connect me with all available government personnel who can assist with the situation," he instructed.

{You are connected} Nova replied, linking Aron to the fleet he had brought, the exploration fleet's military forces, the Proximian temporary government's military, the Proximian police, the Proximian fire department, and all Proximians who had opted for magic training. Despite being awakeners, not all had chosen to learn magic, preferring to focus on their individual interests.

The live stream, now with eight billion viewers, was also set to broadcast his communications.

"I won't beat around the bush. I need everyone to work together to resolve this situation swiftly and minimize damage," Aron began, addressing all the targetted personnel, as usual, keeping to his word of not beating around the bush from the start.

Chapter 687

"I won't beat around the bush. I need everyone to work together to resolve this situation swiftly and minimize damage," Aron began, addressing all the targeted personnel, as usual, keeping to his word of not beating around the bush from the start.

"For starters, let's review what led us to this point when everything seemed cordial just moments ago," Aron began rhetorically. Before anyone could respond, a video played, showing the two tree folks revealing their plans to kill and take over shortly before Aron had taken decisive action against them.

This revelation sent shivers down the spines of everyone watching, regardless of their power scale. None could match his speed and decisiveness, which was both awe-inspiring and intimidating.

"I understand that this video might seem abrupt and lacking context, but I won't waste time elaborating on it right now. The full recording of the meeting will be released once we've dealt with the current situation," Aron said, preemptively addressing any potential complaints from the Proximian side. He wasn't concerned about his own side, as everyone present, barring the livestream viewers who couldn't do anything anyway, were government employees.

"Now, for the Proximians, I understand that the sight of their actions might be daunting due to your respect for them or fear of their power. Let me assure you, I won't be utilizing either your forces or mine to deal with them directly. Instead, I will handle it personally. What I need from you is to coordinate with the remaining three of your creators who are aligned with me to minimize the damage and ensure your safety. I don't want their plans to cost you any more than necessary," Aron said, addressing any fear or potential rebellion from the Proximians by clarifying his intentions and emphasizing their safety.

"You will receive…" Aron began, but he was interrupted by a sudden pause as he turned his head towards a distant point where the viewers could see nothing. "I was wondering why they weren't revealing themselves," he added, speaking in a lowered voice that was still audible to everyone.

"I don't have much time, so I'll be brief," Aron said, concluding his address. "Every government institution capable of assisting will receive detailed instructions on their tasks. I expect you to follow them precisely. I need to attend to other matters now."

As he finished speaking, thousands of small dots became visible, converging from almost every direction towards his location.

The ships in the area swiftly picked up everyone on the ground, rising into space and positioning themselves at a safe distance from the unfolding situation. Only Aron and Rina remained on the planet.

Due to the change of the situation, Lee was being transported to the ship, tasked with protecting Ayaka, who would be delivered to her designated location by the vessel she was in.

"I'll see you soon," Rina said, her magic cycle manifesting near her stomach. With a trail of sonic booms, she took off into the distance. She was heading out to fulfill his request, ensuring that any locations attacked while Aron was occupied would have someone to handle the situation.

Aron let a small smile slip as he waved at Rina's departing figure. The smile quickly faded as he turned his attention back to his approaching guests.

"How many are they?" Aron asked, slightly surprised. While he anticipated that they might split their consciousness into multiple humanoid forms, he had expected no more than a hundred or, at most, a thousand each. Seeing over two thousand approaching him was far beyond his expectations. (there are two enemies)

{Currently, there are five thousand of them. But I don't think they're bringing everything they have from the start if they believe they can handle you with just this force. There are likely more where that came from,} Nova informed him, reminding him to stay focused.

"I know, I know. Communicate with the remaining tree folks and gather as much information as you can about how I can handle them, keeping the system's requirements in mind," Aron instructed, with the last part relayed mentally. Aware that he was being watched live by nearly the entire empire, he decided to use this opportunity to demonstrate his full capabilities, sending a warning to those who previously only saw his military and thought that only that art about him was powerful.

As he spoke, his shoes, socks, coat, waistcoat, and tie began to liquefy and flow toward his right hand. The nanomachines converged, forming a single-edged sword with a cyberpunk aesthetic, perfectly designed for cutting through wood.

"You're making things harder for yourselves. Do you really think there's a scenario where you come out as the winners?" about a hundred of the five thousand hovering soldiers spoke in unison.

"I should be the one asking you about the version of the information you've collected from both your people and mine. Did you ever see yourself winning?" Aron asked, engaging in the conversation. He saw no harm in speaking, as the longer it went on, the more benefits he gained. This delay worked in his favor since the other side had all the time to prepare.

While Aron was speaking, Nova tagged the hundred humanoids who spoke in unison. She pinged them with a single color, marking them as controlled by one of the two tree folks.

"You seem to have forgotten that there is a six-month buffer between us and your so-called formidable military that is still in construction, and currently, you've only brought about a million with you. One of us should be enough to deal with you," another group of humanoids spoke in unison. "That's why I'm wondering why those three betrayed us."

As they spoke, Nova quickly tagged this new group with the same color as the first batch, noting the speaking patterns and recognizing some from the previous group.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Aron couldn't help but laugh at the statement and the naivety of the two tree folks.

His laughter seemed to irritate them. They immediately activated their magic cycles and launched a coordinated attack.

BOOOOOOOOOM

Chapter 688

Aron stood unmoving as his shield effortlessly tanked the barrage of attacks—fireballs, wind slashes, earth spears, magic missiles, and lightning bolts—all basic but potent spells.

Despite the shield's ease in absorbing the hits, the surrounding landscape bore the brunt of the onslaught, with the damage inflicted on his surroundings telling a very different story.

The fireballs, each the size of a bowling ball, detonated against the shield, leaving behind craters several meters wide, some with glassy reflections at their centers from the intense heat. And that was just the beginning—other attacks gouged the ground, leaving deep fissures and scorched earth, revealing the true power behind the seemingly basic spells.

"Each of them should be at the level of the strongest known awakeners," Aron mused, assessing the power of their attacks as the first barrage subsided. He hadn't just tanked the attacks for the sake of it; he was using this initial round to gauge how much mana each strike drained from his reserves, allowing him to determine the strength of each humanoid's assault accurately.

"Time to get to work," Aron said, shrinking the shield until it was skintight and then immediately springing into action.

He vanished in an instant, and by the time the sonic boom of his movements echoed through the air, seventeen of the nearest humanoids had already collapsed to the ground. Some of their bodies were engulfed in flames, others frozen solid, but all shared a common fate: each had been sliced into at least seven pieces.

As the remaining humanoids quickly spread out, they continued their barrage of attacks, each one more desperate than the last.

"Futile attempts," a few of the humanoids taunted, their voices carrying a forced calmness. "No matter what you do, you won't be able to take down all of us. We brought more than enough to overwhelm you, and anything you've destroyed can be replaced."

Despite their confident words, the tree folk controlling them were beginning to feel the weight of doubt. Though the situation still appeared to be in their favor, and they remained convinced of their eventual victory, they were now forced to consider the possibility of losing more than they had originally anticipated. Their calm fa?ade was cracking, revealing the underlying tension as they watched Aron slice through their forces with unnerving precision.

What gave them pause was seeing Aron effortlessly slice through the first seventeen humanoids, despite the fact that they were shielded at maximum strength. It was as if those powerful shields were nothing more than paper to him. Even more troubling was the realization that their humanoids couldn't keep up with Aron's speed.

This forced the tree folks to take action, using their main consciousness to guide the humanoids' attacks.

Yet, even with their intervention, the humanoids still had limitations, and despite their increase in awareness compared to previously, Aron was quick enough to evade and counter every strike, proving that their efforts were still not enough to stop him.

What stunned them was that Aron was relying on magic for his incredible speed, while he used his sword and raw physical strength for the attacks.

They could tell that he wasn't using magic for the cuts themselves because the mana fluctuations in his surroundings only spiked when he ignited the pieces to prevent the humanoids from healing. This clear distinction highlighted just how formidable his physical prowess was in addition to his magical capabilities.

….

"Any chance of figuring out how his magic system works?" Mangrove's main consciousness asked Oak after failing to decipher it on his own.

"I think he's created a system unique to himself," Oak replied. This realization had also intrigued him. The magic system Aron was using was entirely different from anything their children or even the imperial personnel employed.

This unfamiliarity meant they could only react to Aron's actions after they occurred, making it difficult for their humanoids in the meeting to anticipate or counter his moves. The unpredictability of Aron's system rendered their attempts to respond effectively nearly impossible.

"It doesn't matter anyway; we can study his system after we deal with him," Oak said. "I only need about ten minutes to be ready to start the next plan. What about you?"

"About the same amount of time," Mangrove replied, his senses still focused on Aron, who was tirelessly engaging their humanoids. "It seems he believes he can handle us alone—what a fool. But why haven't the other three made a move?"

"Perhaps they've chosen to stay neutral, waiting to join whichever side emerges victorious," Oak speculated, returning to his task.

"Cowards," Mangrove said.

…..

"Nova, any update on the information gathering?" Aron asked while slicing through his four hundredth humanoid.

{They are still answering some questions. Do you want me to wait until they finish all of them, or provide you with the information as it comes in?} Nova replied.

"Give me what you have so far, and continue to update me with new information as it comes in. I don't have time to waste; they might be planning something more. This can't be even half of what they're capable of."

{Here's what we've gathered so far: The so-called Timeless Meadow is where they gather mana, meaning their actual consciousnesses are spread far apart from each other.

Their bodies are structured with layers of roots, categorized into outer roots, inner roots, and core roots. The strength and number of humanoids they can create depend on which root is used.

The more powerful the root, the fewer humanoids they can create at once, as there's a limit to how many times they can split their consciousness.

The outer roots are the weakest, and the humanoids you're fighting are from this layer.

Additionally, they can use magic through their actual bodies, which would be stronger than what the current humanoids are using. We don't yet understand why they're not using their actual bodies to deal with you…}

Upon hearing the last part of her explanation, Aron paused and said, "Ask if the humanoids need to be controlled by the main consciousness or if they can act independently," as he grabbed a humanoid and used it as a shield against an incoming lightning bolt.

{She said that the humanoids can act independently. But, they can also shift their focus to directly control the humanoids with their main consciousness.}

"They must be planning something," Aron said as he processed the information.

"Find out where the core roots of the two are located," he instructed, preparing his sword.

As he held the sword with both hands and swung it in a horizontal, circular motion, he declared, "Severance."

Before the humanoids could react or question his unusual movements, all those at his altitude were sliced in half.

Chapter 689

As thousands of humanoids fell, Aron remained in place and continued his assault. Without pausing, he swung his sword again, targeting those at varying distances from him. No matter where they were, each swing resulted in the humanoids being sliced in half. Within thirty seconds, all the humanoids had been severed and were plummeting to the ground. Although they weren't dead yet, they lay on the ground, struggling to regenerate.

Only then did Aron lower his hands, small beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. The exertion of his effort had clearly taken a slight toll on him.

He achieved this by applying a shield rune to his sword and adjusting it to be as thin as possible while extending its length. This transformation turned the shield into a long, versatile blade that he could control with precision.

Aron's deep understanding of runes, gained from his basic and intermediate runes bought from the system, allowed him to modify and adapt them to his needs.

Thanks to the practice done by his clones, he could use this capability swiftly, even amidst the intense battle.

He descended until he was just a few meters above the heavily damaged ground and extended his hand toward the thousands of regenerating humanoids, including those he had already defeated. A shield enveloped them all before he ignited them once more, reducing them to ashes.

{Although there are roots underground, the majority of their core roots are under the ocean about 500 km from here,} Nova relayed, along with an augmented map for him to follow.

Without acknowledging the message, Aron shot off in the direction of the nearest sea at full speed. As he flew, he activated stealth, vanishing from both the live stream and sensors, continuing his journey without any observers.

He reached the ocean in 20 seconds but continued for another 10 seconds, covering a distance of approximately 510 kilometers at Mach 50.

Hovering above the ocean, he quickly conjured a new shield in the form of a 50-meter-wide cylinder. He began extending its height downward into the ocean, and it continued to grow until it reached the ocean floor, exposing the roots beneath. Without hesitation, he leaped into the cylinder, flying into the ocean's depths.

As he descended, Aron was acutely aware of the ticking clock. Despite his stealth spell rendering him undetectable, his actions weren't entirely invisible. Just as a cupboard's movement could be seen even if it was silent, his activities could still be noticed despite his invisibility.

Upon reaching the ocean floor, Aron wasted no time and began to cut through the roots. However, before he could complete his swing, a whipping sound was heard, followed by a sonic boom and a series of loud bangs. The area cleared, revealing Aron, now swordless, zigzagging upwards while being struck repeatedly by a powerful whip, clearly feeling the brunt of a devastating attack.

"Damn, that was close," Aron muttered, coughing as he deactivated the cylinder shield and ascended from the ocean.

"Looks like you lost your little weapon," a voice echoed, taunting him as he hovered about a kilometer above the water, scanning for any approaching roots.

Focusing on his heightened senses, Aron detected a different kind of pressure from another humanoid. Shortly after, it emerged from the ocean, revealing itself to be holding the sword Aron had dropped during the attack.

"You seem to have grown arrogant, thinking you could handle our core roots directly after dealing with the humanoids made from our outer roots," the humanoid taunted. As he spoke, his hand expanded to envelop the sword, then compressed with immense force, shattering the weapon into fragments. He then casually tossed the broken pieces back into the ocean, all the while locking eyes with Aron, gauging his reaction.

Aron frowned slightly, his expression hardening as he replied, "Are you finally ready to face me seriously now?"

"You seem to believe you can still handle me," the humanoid said, pausing dramatically before adding, "Then let me show you the difference between us."

As he finished speaking, a colossal magic cycle activated, spanning several kilometers. The massive shield materialized instantly, encircling Aron and leaving him no room to escape.

"You seem to feel invincible with your capabilities, but let's see how you fare without mana," the humanoid declared as it began to absorb the surrounding mana.

Aron immediately attacked the shield with everything he had, desperately trying to break free. His efforts were relentless, but the shield held firm.

"Yes, struggle, struggle like the insignificant insect you are," the humanoid taunted while not even attempting to interfere. "You should be grateful, honored even, to have your body deemed worthy of housing our consciousness. And yet, you dare to fight against us?"

As the humanoid spoke, the mana within the shield continued dwindling, and they dwindled to dangerously low levels, making his attempts to escape even more futile.

As the mana continued to be absorbed, Aron's attacks grew weaker until the runes outside of his shield deactivated, unable to sustain their function without the necessary mana in its surroundings.

With his options dwindling, Aron descended slowly to the floor of the shield, finally taking a seat, his expression a mix of determination and resignation.

"It seems you were wise to replenish the mana within your shield before everything was absorbed," the humanoid continued, its voice dripping with arrogance. "But now, I can either wait for the mana to deplete from your shield or attack it, forcing it to use up what little energy remains." he paused for a moment, relishing the look of despair on Aron's face before he said, "Yet, I am merciful. I promise a painless end if you deactivate the shield."

Aron, visibly devastated, covered his face with his hands, his posture conveying deep disappointment and frustration at the situation.

Or at least, that was the appearance from the humanoid's perspective. However, for Nova, who was closely monitoring Aron through the nanomachines embedded in his clothes, the truth was different. She saw a brief, fleeting smile on his face—one that lasted only a nanosecond before disappearing, unnoticed by everyone else.

Chapter 690

While the humanoid was waiting for Aron to sink deeper into despair, Rina was also facing her own set of challenges.

After leaving Aron, Rina had headed to the opposite side of the planet. Now, she hovered a few kilometers above the surface, receiving constant updates from Nova about the situation from the information being summarized by her, but gathered from every sensor on and outside the planet.

She was on high alert, prepared for anything. Her clothes had already transformed into armor, opting for defense instead of a weapon like Aron, as she didn't possess his level of durability.

{You have an approaching guest,} Nova warned as soon as she detected a humanoid closing in on Rina's position.

Rina didn't flinch as the humanoid approached, hostility evident in its movements. Her stillness wasn't born of arrogance or ignorance of what Aron was facing; it was rooted in confidence in the situation.

Seeing her lack of reaction, the humanoid dropped its hostility momentarily and said, "It seems you're already aware of what's happening to your husband and have decided to make things easier for us. A wise choice. For that, I'll make it painless for you." Without waiting for a response, the humanoid surged forward at high speed, its right hand expanding like a blooming flower as it aimed directly for her head.

Just meters away from Rina, the humanoid suddenly froze as a sharp *zzzzzt* filled the air. Before it could react, it was ensnared by mana ropes crackling with lightning, sending powerful shocks through its body and momentarily paralyzing its movements. That brief pause was all Rina needed.

A fire whip materialized from thin air, lashing around the humanoid and attempting to sear through its body. However, the humanoid's form, crafted from a core root, displayed remarkable resilience. The flames licked at its flesh, but rapid regeneration allowed it to resist being consumed.

Yet, the relentless assault continued. Rina's attacks came from every direction, trying to overpower the humanoid's regenerative capabilities through sheer force. But despite the onslaught, the humanoid managed to hold on, its regenerative abilities keeping it intact against the barrage.

"Your attempts are quite futile, and I'm going to make you regret even thinking of it," the humanoid snarled, though the anger in its voice was betrayed by the fact that it was still tightly bound by Rina's mana ropes.

Rina remained silent, unfazed by the threats. She knew the limits of her mana ropes—how much energy they could handle before breaking. But she could also tell that the humanoid was nearing the rope's breaking point, its bravado merely a tactic to buy time.

The silence between them might have suggested that Rina was waiting for the humanoid's next move, but she wasn't one to make such a foolish mistake. Just as she was about to act, the humanoid shattered the mana ropes, lunging at her with deadly intent, planning to kill her and claim her body for reconstruction, just as they had done to Lee.

BAM! The sound echoed sharply as the humanoid's punch was abruptly halted, coming to a stop mere meters from Rina. The force behind the attack was palpable, but something had stopped it cold, leaving the humanoid stunned and confused.

The humanoid looked around in surprise, perplexed by the invisible force stopping its punch. It couldn't sense anything unusual in its surroundings, but it needed to confirm that its punch hadn't simply been halted by air molecules in the air due his fast punching speed.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

The humanoid continued throwing punches in different directions, only to encounter the same frustrating results. Each time, its fist either met an unseen barrier or, in some cases, passed through only to be blocked as it tried to move forward. The invisible walls surrounded it, confining its movements and leaving it bewildered by the unexpected resistance.

"Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity," Rina finally spoke, her voice calm and collected as she addressed the humanoid for the first time since their confrontation began just seconds ago.

"What did you just do?" the humanoid demanded, its voice laced with anger. Although it didn't expect an answer, it couldn't help but replay the events in its mind, searching for clues.

The humanoid recalled that each of her attacks had appeared out of nowhere, with no visible magic circles or even the strange magic system used by the currently imprisoned little emperor. It began piecing things together.

"Stealth," the humanoid muttered, deducing that it was the most likely explanation for what had happened. "But there would need to be two different magic circles—one to hide the other from being seen or sensed. But I don't think my senses are dull enough to miss something like that."

The humanoid's frustration grew as it continued to puzzle over how Rina had managed to conceal her attacks and movements so effectively, leaving it unsure of its next move.

Rina felt a deep sense of satisfaction as her years of hard work and rigorous training began to pay off. Her deep understanding of mana, combined with the extensive knowledge she had assimilated from Aron and countless hours spent in simulations, had allowed her to refine her magic system.

She had now mastered the ability to merge multiple magic cycle properties into a single cycle, activating them as one cycle.

Currently, she could combine up to five different cycles into one cycle and the humanoid was experiencing the result of this advanced technique.

The spell in question was an intricate amalgamation of five magic cycles: a shield cycle, a stealth cycle, an absorption cycle, an energy conversion cycle, and a mana cycle.

This complex combination together with the attacks that delayed the humanoid at the start had been prepared before the humanoid's arrival and rendered nearly invincible, thanks to thier stealth properties.

The shield cycle generated two layers of invisible shields. When one was struck, the absorption properties took in the impact, which was then transferred to the energy conversion properties before the shield reached its maximum tolerance and breaks, the absorbed force was then converted into mana, albeit with significant inefficiency.

This mana was then utilized by the mana cycle to maintain the magic's integrity, supplemented by ambient mana from the surroundings.

Her most notable achievement was the conversion mana cycle, a concept she had personally developed by studying Aron's runic conversion techniques. With the help of Aron's magic training partners and the ability to see things in deeper details within the universal simulations.

She had spent at least twenty years in VR to create this cycle and although still rudimentary and inefficient, it represented a significant leap forward in her magical capabilities.

Rina had hoped to further refine this cycle with the assistance of the tree folks, but their betrayal had complicated her plans.

Chapter 691

The humanoid continued its relentless efforts for over two minutes, pushing against the shield's limits in a desperate bid to exhaust its durability before mana could replenish it.

Eventually, it stopped, sitting down in resignation, mirroring Aron's earlier decision.

Rina, having defeated her opponent in just a minute, felt a mix of pride and caution. She had managed to showcase her prowess, a result of her dedicated focus on mastering magic, something she had selected as her official duty as the emperor's spouse.

"How many minutes have passed since we left the palace?" Rina asked, her gaze fixed on the defeated humanoid.

Despite her apparent victory, Rina remained wary. She knew this was only a fraction of what their enemies might be capable of.

The information from the three tree folks on their side had made her acutely aware of the potential threats, so she stayed on high alert, awaiting confirmation from Aron that the situation was fully under control.

{Nine minutes} Nova responded promptly.

"This should wrap up within twenty minutes before they resort to any desperate measures that might cause lasting damage to the planet and its inhabitants," Rina said, settling back into her waiting stance and bracing for any potential escalations.

Simultaneously, Nova projected the situation on Aron's side. Seeing his current predicament, she appeared neither surprised nor particularly concerned, maintaining her focus on the unfolding events.

….

The humanoid on Aron's side, who had been observing Aron's situation with detached interest, decided it was time to act.

"Let's see if you can withstand the same treatment you've given us," the humanoid declared, conjuring a shield that was roughly a meter wider compared to Aron's still-active shield.

With a decisive motion, the humanoid ignited a fire inside the shield. The intent was clear: to continuously inflict damage on Aron's shield, draining the minimal mana he had managed to gather within it.

This would force Aron's shield to deactivate, leaving him vulnerable and unable to resist being taken over.

The fire continued to assault Aron's shield for the next minute, with the intense heat and pressure testing its limits. Despite the relentless onslaught, the shield held firm, causing visible irritation on the humanoid's face.

It was growing increasingly frustrated, as the time for the two tree folks to execute their next plan was rapidly approaching. The delay was unacceptable, and despite deploying their strongest representatives to handle the imperial couple, they had yet to achieve their objective.

"I have access to the entire planet's mana while you're limited to just what's in your shield," the humanoid said, his voice dripping with disdain. "I can keep this up all day."

His irritation was evident, however, as he not only wanted but needed to expedite the process and return back to their specific tree folk.

The core root humanoids were crucial for the tree folks' next plan, but the delay caused by dealing with Aron and Rina was becoming a significant issue.

Since only one core root humanoid could be created at a time, they couldn't afford to go back and create thousands from outer roots; doing so would risk Aron regaining access to the planet's mana, undermining their efforts. As for the one sent to Rina, he was still stuck in a shield.

The main consciousness could take over the shield rune and continue the assault, but that would divert their focus from the impending plan, which was critical to execute at this very moment.

…

"I'm ready. What about you?" Oak inquired, having completed his preparations.

"Just a second, and I'm done," Mangrove replied, wrapping up his own preparations as he spoke.

Once they confirmed their readiness, they turned their attention to their humanoids. The sight that greeted them was far from satisfactory.

"It just alters a few aspects of the plan, but nothing that will derail it entirely," Oak said, his frustration evident but under control. He resisted the urge to take drastic action at ths moment that could damage the planet and provoke the traitors into action.

"We'll handle them after the plan is executed," Mangrove agreed, his tone resolute. "Let's begin, before anything else interferes."

With that, they set to work, focusing on their preparations.

….

*Proimaxa B*

From outside the planet, where the exploration fleet's mothership was currently docked, now manned only by minimal security personnel and a few remaining scientists and researchers. The bulk of the military forces had been deployed to the surface to carry out the emperor's orders.

The escort fleet ships, tasked with defending the planet's four cardinal directions against potential external threats, were still en route back to the planet. They had received the emperor's orders just ten minutes earlier and would require a few more minutes to return and resume their given imperial orders.

Bianchi, the fleet admiral, was diligently overseeing the fleet's operations, issuing directives and managing updates for various groups.

However, he was momentarily stunned as a colossal magic circle thousands of kilometers in radius materialized above the planet. The magic circle began forming a massive shield making it obvious that it intended to surround the planet, clearly designed to isolate it and prevent any interference from his fleet.

Although magic circles activate almost instantly after creation and mana provision, their completion speed varies based on the scale of their intended effect. In essence, the larger and more complex the magic circle, the longer it takes to finalize the process.

However, the shield's creation didn't continue peacefully, as it was soon met with resistance. It appeared that someone or a group of individuals had moved to disrupt the process, actively attempting to dismantle the magic cycle before it could be completed. To these individuals, the shield's completion threatened to complicate their given responsibilities significantly.

"As expected, they didn't remain passive and took action," Oak said, a hint of disappointment in his tone. However, the disappointment was short-lived as he continued, "Then don't blame me for what I'm about to do." His voice carried a tone of conviction, indicating that he was fully prepared to proceed with his next steps despite the interference.

Chapter 692

This phase of the plan demanded minimal interference at the outset, as any significant disruption could jeopardize their objectives. The uncertainty surrounding how the remaining tree folks might respond to their actions added another layer of complexity. Anticipating potential obstacles, they had already devised strategies to deal with these powerful beings if necessary.

And how do you handle three individuals who, if they interfere, could dismantle your entire plan? You create a dilemma for them, forcing them into a situation where they must choose between confronting you and jeopardizing their own interests or dealing with an immediate threat and allowing your plan to proceed, knowing full well they will pay the price later. It's a classic rock and a hard place scenario.

And they had billions of lives to use as distractions to divert attention from their true intentions.

….

{Sir, the giants and dark elves have started attacking everyone else. What are your orders?} Nova reported to Aron, displaying the unfolding situation on the ground and awaiting his instructions.

"What's their take on this?" Aron asked.

{They mentioned that each of them can command the races they created. While issuing orders to a few individuals isn't a problem, doing so on a large scale would take a significant toll on them. They want to know if they should prioritize disrupting the shield's creation or focus on minimizing damage to their people. If they choose the latter and the shield is completed, they won't be able to destroy or cancel it since it will draw on the planet's mana for fuel,} Nova explained.

"Tell them to prioritize preventing any damage on the ground. The same goes for the military—order them to use stun weapons or inflict non-lethal injuries. I want to avoid casualties," Aron instructed firmly. He was confident he could deal with the shield if necessary, but that would be a last resort if his plan didn't work.

{Understood,} Nova replied, swiftly relaying the orders to the entire fleet and the Proximian forces temporarily under Aron's control, while also informing the tree folk to focus on their people.

"If this drags on much longer, it will be the spark that ignites racial division among them," Aron remarked, his eyes scanning the different video feeds showing the chaos unfolding below. He understood that if the situation wasn't brought under control soon, the seeds of hatred between the races would be sown, and the Proximians would be introduced to racism.

Thankfully, there were no children, as they would have been the ones to suffer the most from this.

….

The chaos on the planet was unprecedented, with billions of Proximians caught in the turmoil. One faction aimed to inflict maximum damage, while the other struggled to endure for as long as possible.

As he ducked to avoid a chicken knife hurled by his wife, a dark elf, spat out in frustration, "Fuck your elder!"

Although the situation should have filled him with anger, his expression betrayed a different emotion. When this conflict began, he had been deeply saddened by the thought that his wife might want to kill him.

However, upon learning from his elder that it was her elder who had orchestrated this and that she was not acting of her own volition, he felt a surge of relief. His happiness that his wife had no murderous intent for him far outweighed the anger he should have felt towards the elder who had set this tragic sequence of events into motion.

"But first, let's deal with you," he said, dodging the barrage of flying kitchenware as he moved towards his wife. With a quick activation of his affinity magic, he shocked her into unconsciousness.

"Though I had hoped to use this magic only in more intimate settings, I had no choice," he murmured as he carefully carried her to their bed. Once she was settled, he said, "Elder, I'm done here." As he spoke, his eyes briefly lost focus. He extended his hand, conjuring a shield around her—both a protective barrier and a prison, should she awaken before the elders were dealt with. He then regained control of his body as his elder relinquished it back to him.

"Go help others who are near you," were the next orders he received from his elder. He immediately left his house and was met with a dwarf desperately trying to escape from a giant.

The size difference between them was immense, and the giant quickly overpowered the dwarf, beginning to strangle her with all its might.

Without hesitation, he sprang into action. With lightning coursing through his body, he moved at lightning speed towards the giant, aiming to shock her into unconsciousness.

"Thank god," he said, observing the scene. "They seem to have lost some of their intelligence and are now fighting against the elders' orders, making them easier to handle." He watched as the giant was enclosed in a shield, and he did the same for the dwarf, who was deemed unable to defend herself and would only be a liability rather than a help.

Similar scenes were unfolding across the planet. The tree folks were concentrating their efforts on aiding those who couldn't fend for themselves, as well as reaching out to isolated locations where individuals might be at risk of death. They also responded urgently to distress calls from their children in perilous situations, striving to rescue them.

This immense pressure tested their concentration like never before, as they had to manage and respond to an unprecedented number of emergencies simultaneously.

Meanwhile, Nova was working tirelessly to coordinate the military forces. She also directed the virtual intelligence to disrupt the giants and dark elves within the military ranks who were armed and posing a threat. The virtual intelligence deactivated their weapons or even turned them against their wielders.

For some, tractor beams were employed to capture them. They were then placed in pods where stasis was activated, effectively putting them out of commission.

While everyone was focused on their tasks, the shield continued to materialize. Within just five minutes, it was fully formed, enveloping the planet entirely and effectively isolating it from both the fleets on the outside and the emperor within, cutting off all external and internal connections.

Chapter 693

As soon as the shield was completed, the two tree folks began absorbing mana from both the ocean and the atmosphere now that they didin't have to worry about interference from anyone.

Initially, the process was subtle, but it was quickly detected by those with advanced mana sensitivity, and they immediately came up with a hypothesis behind this action.

"Looks like your magic system is designed for efficiency," the humanoid remarked, still engaged in burning through Aron's shield. Despite their efforts, which had been ongoing for over seven minutes—a duration long enough to deplete the approximated amount of mana in the shields—Aron's shield remained intact. The humanoid could only conclude that the system's efficiency was the reason for this anomaly.

They hadn't considered that Aron might have a mana tank within him, enabling him to use magic even in areas devoid of ambient mana. This was thanks to his previous encounters and rapid attacks that had only utilized the surrounding mana, making them not even consider the other option.

'How many more minutes before you're done?' Aron asked mentally.

'An hour at the earliest, if I'm to do it without being discovered,' came the response.

'Is there any way to accelerate it?' Aron inquired. He understood that although he could continue feigning confinement, it would give the other side time to implement their plans. Additionally, it meant that the Proximians would have to endure dealing with their out-of-control compatriots for that duration.

'There is a way, but it requires a significant distraction to divert their attention so I can avoid detection,' was the reply.

'I'll provide you with one. Finish it in five minutes,' Aron declared, finally moving from his sitting position for the first time since being locked in the shield. He planned to bring this situation to a close as quickly as possible now that he had the response he needed.

'If it's a large enough distraction, I can manage it within that timeframe. I'll be waiting for it,' the response came before the communication went silent.

"Let me ask you something," Aron said, addressing the tree folk, or at least in the direction of where it was, as a dome of intense fire still separated them. "Have you ever considered that you might lose?"

"Not even once," the humanoid replied, his tone laced with arrogance.

"Okay," Aron responded. He moved closer until he could touch a part of his shield with his hand. Without further comment, he abruptly expanded his shield to match the size of the one containing the fire. This expansion compressed the fire within, increasing its intensity to the point where it exceeded the capacity of the outer shield and before the humanoid could react to his action, the outer shield shattered under the immense pressure.

"Quite a foolish move on your part," the humanoid said with a sinister smile, observing how the situation was shifting in his favor. "What are you going to do now that you've expended the little mana you had left?"

Aron didn't bother to respond. Instead, he expanded his shield once again, catching the other humanoid off-guard. The sudden expansion pushed the humanoid outward until the shield almost matched the size of the massive shield that had previously imprisoned him, with the humanoid being within the one meter separation between the two shields.

Before the humanoid could react, a rune materialized on Aron's hand. Aron immediately infused it with a massive amount of mana, a quantity far exceeding what should have been possible within the shield, given that the humanoid had absorbed nearly all the available mana. Without delay, Aron directed the rune toward the shield, causing it to become passive temporarily before returning to active.

The rune then immediately detonated, obliterating the massive shield and killing the humanoid almost instantly.

Aron quickly created another cylinder shield and extended it until it reached the ocean floor. He then expanded it to a radius of about fifteen kilometers, displacing a significant amount of water. Despite the scale of the displacement, it was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the size of the planet.

This time, however, he wasn't using the cylinder to descend to the ocean's depths out of fear of being struck by the roots. Instead, he had a different purpose in mind for this action.

Another fire rune materialized on Aron's hand. This time, he didn't immediately deploy it but spent over thirty seconds fueling it with mana. Given the high density of mana in the planet's atmosphere, this would be the most powerful attack he had ever unleashed.

After thoroughly charging the rune, he sent it into the cylinder shield.

Moments later, he activated it.

"..."

Anyone observing this, whether through the live stream or their senses, instinctively closed their eyes. The intensity was so overwhelming that it felt as if the sun had suddenly appeared before them. They could perceive nothing else; the shockwave and the explosion were entirely contained within the shield, leaving them in stunned silence.

The shield contained the explosion and shockwave, trapping them within its walls. As the energy bounced off the shield's interior, the pressure and intensity of the explosion increased. The only outlet was the bottom of the shield, where the roots were being incinerated, and the burning expanded to create a hole more than half a kilometer deep. This excavation also formed a massive bowl of molten mirror.

Despite the shield's containment of the explosion, the aftermath couldn't be contained in the same way. The detonation was several magnitudes more powerful than the Tsar bomb. As a result, the entire planet experienced violent tremors, with the underground shockwave reverberating around the globe multiple times over the next few minutes.

With the ground shaking violently, everything within it, including the tree folks' roots, endured the same tumultuous vibrations. If they had nerves, they would have been overwhelmed by the pain, but fortunately, they lacked such sensory responses.

Nevertheless, the attack and the ongoing tremors provided a sufficient distraction, allowing Aron's plan the freedom to do whatever it was doing without concern for discovery. The tremors were so overwhelming that anything else that might have been detected would be dismissed as part of the natural chaos, avoiding any suspicion.

Chapter 694

"Did you feel what I felt?" Oak asked, his voice tinged with unease. As the tremors and explosions shook the planet, some of his core roots had disintegrated under the intense heat and pressure, beyond what they could withstand despite their strength. For the first time in his existence, Oak felt a profound sense of danger—a sensation so foreign to him that he struggled to categorize it.

"Although I'm not certain it's exactly the same, I felt something too," Mangrove responded, sharing in the unsettling sensation. Like Oak, some of his roots had also disintegrated, but the feeling they both experienced wasn't merely a reaction to the damage. It was something deeper, something far more disconcerting, and it left Mangrove with a growing sense of unease.

"But we've experienced earthquakes before—what's different about this one?" Oak asked, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar feeling. "Other than the loss of some of our core roots, which isn't too significant considering the end goal."

He searched his memories for a similar reaction during past earthquakes, but since they didn't have such advanced sensations back then, he couldn't be sure if they had felt the same way before.

The possibility that this strange feeling was related to the loss of their roots crossed his mind, as it was the first time they had experienced such destruction. However, he couldn't shake the sense that this was something more profound—something akin to fear, though he hesitated to name it as such.

"It doesn't matter," Mangrove replied, trying to focus on the task at hand. "But it doesn't seem like he plans on stopping, and we can't halt the mana absorption now that we've started, or all the mana we've gathered will go to waste."

While they conversed, a small portion of their attention was dedicated to monitoring the situation, including Aron, who appeared intent on continuing his destructive actions after the first devastating attack. The pressure was mounting, and they knew they couldn't afford to falter now.

"I have an idea to deal with him, but there's a chance it could fail," Oak said, then quickly outlined the plan he had come up with. After explaining the concept, he waited for Mangrove's response, giving him time to process the idea and come to a decision.

"There's no harm in trying," Mangrove finally responded. "If it works, it will benefit us. If it doesn't, we can stop what we're doing and manage the loss after we deal with them once and for all."

With that, they jointly reached out to the other tree folks, summoning them for a meeting in the timeless meadow.

"I really don't have time to deal with you people, especially since my focus is already stretched thin," Birch said, glaring at the two traitors seated across from him. The division within their once united group was now stark, with the two factions clearly having different agendas.

The other tree folks echoed Birch's sentiments, voicing their dissatisfaction with the traitors for daring to harm their children by exploiting the control meant solely for emergencies.

"We created them, so we can do whatever we want with them," Mangrove responded, speaking for both himself and Oak, his tone cold and unapologetic.

"That control is limited to your own children; you have no authority over ours," Crabapple retorted, his frustration evident. His children had suffered the most due to the size discrepancy between them and the giants, as the dwarves were shorter even than the average Proximians.

"We can address that later, but right now, let's focus on why we called this meeting," Mangrove interjected, setting aside his belief temporarily. He knew that if they continued down this path, it would only lead to more arguments and wasted time. frёeweɓη ɱ

"We'll listen to you, but first, rescind the order you gave your children. I won't entertain anything else until that's done," Crabapple demanded, laying down an ultimatum.

"I'm sure you realize that's the only thing preventing you from directly targeting us. Do you think we're foolish enough to do so without an agreement in place?" Oak responded with a smirk, clearly aware that Crabapple was trying to outmaneuver them.

"Then I'm done here. I won't waste my time talking to people who are actively sabotaging our efforts," Crabapple declared, and before anyone could respond, he vanished from the timeless meadow, making it clear that he wasn't bluffing and was entirely serious about his stance.

"Although I'm tempted to join him, I'm curious—what exactly are you trying to propose?" Cypress asked. Her children were relatively safe, as their natural ability to fly allowed them to avoid much of the chaos and focus on helping other Proximians.

Birch remained silent, signaling that she, too, was interested in hearing what they had been called for.

"As you've probably guessed, we're currently gathering mana to reattempt the creation of a small number of bodies capable of containing our consciousness," Oak began, getting straight to the point. "Our offer is this: deal with the imperial couple and bring their bodies to us, and we promise to create a body for each of you to transfer your consciousness into."

The meadow fell silent as Cypress and Birch processed the offer, weighing their options carefully.

After a moment, Birch spoke first. "No, thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." Without waiting for a response, she immediately left the timeless meadow.

"What about you?" Mangrove asked, not surprised by Birch's decision. She had always been the closest to humans and Proximians, often acting as their representative. Her refusal was expected, and had she agreed, it would have raised more suspicion than gratitude. Turning to Cypress, the last of the traitors still present, he sought her decision, not planning to waste time if the answer wasn't favorable.

"I'll accept your offer," Cypress replied without hesitation. "But first, I need you to stop targeting my children so I can focus on him. Also, I want to be the one to keep the original body of his." Her expression remained unchanged as she betrayed the others who had just left.

Mangrove and Oak were momentarily taken aback, a mix of surprise and anger flashing through them at her greed. But they quickly realized that in her position, they might have done the same. Cypress held the upper hand, and at this moment they needed her more than she needed them.

"Fine, you can have it," Mangrove agreed, carefully masking his irritation. He knew that showing anger might lead Cypress to demand even more, something they couldn't afford.

"That's why I like dealing with you guys," Cypress remarked with a hint of satisfaction before she too disappeared from the timeless meadow. Mangrove and Oak immediately ordered their children to leave the fairies alone, keeping their end of the bargain.

Chapter 695

Hovering above the massive cylindrical shield, Aron glanced at the timer Nova had projected for him. Only seventy-three seconds remained.

"Let's do it one more time," Aron muttered to himself. With determined precision, he moved the shield to a location near the previous one, preparing to unleash another massive nuke within the shield, intending to shake the entire planet once more.

Just as Aron was about to begin feeding mana into the fire rune for another massive attack, thousands of magic cycles materialized around him. Each one was targeting him with a different type of attack, showcasing the full extent of the tree folks' power when focused on a single target.

"That too can act as one," Aron responded calmly, his demeanor unshaken as the myriad of magic cycles closed in on him, unleashing every conceivable type of attack from the magic system taught to the Proximians.

"Let's make it a worthy final act," Aron said, resolutely choosing not to rely on his overgeared shield. Instead, he decided to face the incoming attacks head-on, aiming to make this confrontation a legendary moment that would be discussed for decades, if not millennia. He wanted to push himself to the limit and create a scenario that future awakeners could aspire to.

{I will be supporting you,} Nova responded. She activated specialized nanomachines within his body, further enhancing his already extraordinary concentration. Time seemed to slow down around him as he began his preparations.

Aron quickly set to work, activating hundreds of basic runes in his vicinity. As these runes came to life, he braced himself for the storm of attacks converging on him.

The activated runes each had specific targets assigned and locked onto them, thanks to Nova's precise guidance. Each incoming attack was met with a carefully chosen counterattack, tailored to exploit the weaknesses of the original assault. Fireballs were intercepted by water spells, lightning strikes by earth-based defenses, sound waves by silencing runes, and many more. The scene unfolded like something out of a high-stakes action film.

Explosions of various colors and sounds erupted around Aron as his defenses neutralized the attacks before they could breach a two-hundred-meter radius around him. Within this protective zone, he countered any magic cycle attempts and defended against anything that emerged from outside.

For over a minute, Aron maintained this impenetrable barrier, all while keeping a close eye on the timer ticking down. His focus was unwavering as he continued to fend off the relentless onslaught, preparing for the final phase of his plan.

As the timer counted down, Aron's focus remained intense.

'7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1'

'We are done,' was the only message that was sent to him.

Aron, having just sent out his final rune, paused and addressed Cypress directly, "Okay, I think it's enough."

Instantly, the magic cycles that had been materializing deactivated, and the area returned to its peaceful silence. The chaotic scene of destruction was replaced by an eerie calm, with no visible signs of the fierce battle that had taken place. Despite the amount of water evaporated during the confrontation, the ocean had more than enough to replenish it, leaving no trace of the earlier conflict.

…..

"..."

The two tree folks, Mangrove and Oak, were left in stunned silence as they processed what had just occurred. They had been closely monitoring Aron's battle with Cypress, initially impressed by his ability to hold his ground against the relentless attacks. They had expected that, with such a high level of focus and concentration, it was only a matter of time before something would slip through his defenses and lead to his downfall. But when Aron casually instructed Cypress to stop and she complied, it was as if their entire understanding of the situation was upended.

"Did I hear and see what I think I heard and saw?" Mangrove asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

"Yes, you did," came the response, but it was not from either Mangrove or Oak. Instead, it came from Aron himself—the very individual they had sought to defeat, kill, and ultimately recreate his body for their own use.

Before the tree folks could fully grasp their shock or react, they found themselves gathered in the timeless meadow, now with an additional presence—Aron. This was a significant shift from the usual five members of their meetings.

"So this is what we call the timeless meadow," Aron said, offering a slight bow to the three tree folks who had joined him, each with mild smiles on their faces.

"But first, let's stop the chaos," Aron declared, extending his hand dramatically. As if responding to a universal command, he shouted, "STOP." Instantly, the giants and dark elves ceased their attacks in perfect unison, as though they had received direct orders from their elders.

"Return to normal and help the injured," Aron continued. This command, too, was obeyed immediately, though this time the control over their minds and bodies was returned to the individuals themselves. They swiftly understood what had transpired, and without complaint, they began to assist the injured, working to restore order and bring the situation back to normal. The once chaotic battlefield began to settle as the combatants turned their efforts toward healing and aid.

The tree folks stood in stunned silence, their mouths agape as they struggled to comprehend the spectacle before them. Their advanced processing powers churned relentlessly, yet they found themselves at a loss. No precedents existed for such a situation, and no viable hypotheses could be formulated.

Aron's actions defied all their expectations and understanding, leaving them grappling with the reality of his capabilities and the implications of what had just unfolded. The sheer impossibility of the scenario had rendered their analytical faculties ineffective, leaving them in a state of bewildered disbelief.

Aron shifted his focus back to his metaphysical presence in the timeless meadow, his calm demeanor and serene smile contrasting sharply with the chaos he had just resolved. "I can see you have many questions on your minds," he said smoothly. "Don't worry, I'll answer them before delivering the punishment for the attempted betrayal."

His words carried a sense of composed authority, as if the extraordinary feats he had just performed were nothing out of the ordinary.

Some of the tree folks, still grappling with the enormity of what had just happened, awaited his explanations with disbelief. Others braced themselves for the inevitable consequences of their actions.

Chapter 696

Without hesitation, Aron conjured a screen within the timeless meadow, a space that functioned much like VR but was crafted from pure mana and guided by thought, allowing him to materialize anything he envisioned within it effortlessly.

On the screen, scenes played out, showing Aron entering the cylinder shield and attempting to sever the roots with his swords, only to be swiftly struck down by one of the roots. The perspective then shifted to the viewpoint of the sword itself, revealing one of the core roots being used to form a humanoid figure. This figure approached, picked up the sword, ascended from the ocean, and deliberately shattered the sword before letting the fragments fall into the water.

As the pieces descended to the ocean floor, they gradually disintegrated into microscopic fragments, invisible to the naked eye. These nanomachines spread out across a hundred-kilometer radius, infiltrating various roots. The infiltration process was executed with precision and went completely undetected. The nanomachines' minuscule size made them imperceptible to the bodies they entered, bypassing physical detection. Magical detection was also evaded, thanks to active stealth runes, coupled with the fact that those being infiltrated were deeply engrossed in other matters, allowing the nanomachines to penetrate unnoticed.

Upon infiltrating the bodies, the nanomachines quickly latched onto what appeared to be mana veins within the roots, allowing them to be transported to the nearest and most vital areas of the tree folks' bodies. Once there, the nanomachines immediately began their work.

Given that the tree folks' bodies were composed of carbon and mana, the nanomachines activated their runic and carbon computing components, each focusing on overtaking a specific function.

Although capable of operating independently, the nanomachines recognized that they were inside only five distinct bodies. Consequently, they established a communication network within each body, allowing them to coordinate tasks efficiently.

This collaboration drastically reduced the time required to complete their objectives from what would have taken days or months to mere hours.

The quantum computing component of the nanomachines, typically used for advanced technological processing, found itself with little to do in these organic, mana-based bodies. Instead, it took on the role of compiling and analyzing data.

The quantum processors gathered information, relayed it to the runic and carbon-based computing units, and provided guidance on the next steps while ensuring that the nanomachines remained as hidden as possible.

As time passed, the nanomachines subtly altered the tree folks' DNA, gradually integrating a copy of their carbon computing system within the cells. This ensured that even if the nanomachines were somehow flushed from the body, the newly embedded system would remain, deeply intertwined with the host's biology. The alteration wasn't limited to just a few cells; the entire body's DNA was gradually rewritten to include this carbon-based computer, making it an inseparable part of their biology.

Simultaneously, the runic computers worked within the mana plane, embedding themselves into the tree folks' mana systems.

This allowed the nanomachines to gain control over not just the physical aspects of the body but also the mana that coursed through them, effectively giving them dominance over two of the three realms of the tree folks' existence, with the third being the soul.

These monumental changes went unnoticed, largely due to the chaos and distractions Aron had orchestrated outside. The tree folks, preoccupied with the external turmoil, failed to suspect that something was happening internally.

By the time the changes were fully activated, it was too late; the nanomachines had already secured their control, with the tree folks none the wiser.

The video concluded, leaving the room in heavy silence. The onlookers were visibly stunned—some grappling with the fact that such an extensive modification had occurred within their bodies without their awareness, while others were struggling with a deep sense of betrayal.

Aron broke the silence, addressing the room with a calm demeanor. "Although we didn't know which body belonged to whom during the embedding process, we could only identify them once the system was activated. Currently, the system is fully operational in these two bodies," he said, pointing to the two tree folks who had been directly targeted.

"For the rest, it remains in passive mode and is not affecting your bodies in any way at the moment."

He paused to let his words sink in, his expression resolute yet understanding their reaction.

"Does that mean you have control over our bodies and minds to do whatever you want?" Cypress asked, seeking clarification on the extent of Aron's control.

Aron nodded, his tone calm and transparent. "For those with the system active, I can control their actions but not their minds. I can make them perform tasks, but I cannot control their thoughts or consciousness. However, I can influence the outcome of their actions—if, for example, they initiate mana cycles or perform actions that could be harmful to the empire, the system can intervene to cancel or alter those actions. Essentially, I have control over their physical actions but not their mental processes."

Birch, clearly troubled, spoke up. "I want you to remove it from us."

Aron's expression remained steady. "I'm afraid that's not possible. The system has already integrated itself into your bodies at a fundamental level. Removing it would require a complete change of body, as it is embedded in every fabric of your being." He paused before adding, "However, you needn't worry. I don't intend to misuse this control. I value mutual respect and cooperation more than exploiting others."

A brief silence followed as the tree folks grappled with the situation. Aron, keen to secure his position and prevent any potential drastic actions, quickly proposed, "We can formalize our agreement with a runic contract."

He then proceeded to explain the concept of a runic contract, why he believed it was essential, and how it would ensure that neither side could act against the terms without facing the consequences, thus providing a layer of protection and assurance for all involved.

For Aron, trust alone was not enough; it could easily be misplaced in critical situations without concrete enforcement. So, he provided that assurance through a runic contract.

Chapter 697

Before the discussion could proceed further, Aron swiftly created three runic contracts outlining the rules for using the system within their bodies. After signing them, he handed each tree folk their respective contract to review and sign. They did so quickly, as the fear of him changing his mind and activating the system prompted them to act fast once they confirmed that the contracts posed no threat.

The two traitors, who had been silently observing everything within the timeless meadow while being unable to speak or react due to Aron's interference, expressed their frustration and shock through their eyes.

Aron, having dealt with the primary concerns, then turned his attention to them. "Now that we have established the necessary terms for trust," he said, addressing the traitors directly, "we can move on to your matters."

"What are you going to do with us? Now that you can control our bodies, are you planning to make us your slaves?" Oak asked, his tone and expression attempting to convey calmness and dignity despite his loss.

"There's nothing you can do that will make us submit to you. I don't understand why those three have left you to your fate without retaliation, but I want you to know that beings like us are far too elevated to disgrace ourselves by bowing down to people like you. You can have control of our bodies but you will never have the submission of our minds" Mangrove said, channeling his pride to mask his concern.

Aron regarded them with a detached expression. "Normally, matters like these would be handed over to the imperial justice department. However, since you are not part of the empire, I have the discretion to deal with you as I see fit." His gaze was almost dismissive, as if addressing overconfident children despite their extensive age.

He continued, "I will be using you to handle tasks that would normally require a powerful magic wielder, tasks that would have otherwise necessitated my direct involvement. Your sentence will have no set end, and only I will determine when your punishment is complete."

He essentially banished them to a form of slavery, though he framed it diplomatically. While he could have inflicted pain as he had done with the spy who had attempted to kill him, he found that such methods did not bring him the satisfaction he anticipated. Instead, he chose to make use of their skills for his own tasks, effectively turning them into powerful assets who would excel in any mana-rich environment.

After assigning their punishment, he dismissed them from the timeless meadow, leaving only himself and the remaining tree folks. "Although you can now access the VR, let's complete our handover meeting here," he said, signaling the continuation of their previously interrupted discussion in the timeless meadow.

As Aron continued with the handover meeting, the situation outside was gradually stabilizing, but recovery was going to take time. The extent of the damage meant that rebuilding would be a lengthy process, far more complex than the initial destruction.

…..

As Aron continued with the handover meeting, the situation outside was gradually stabilizing, but recovery was going to take time. The extent of the damage meant that rebuilding would be a lengthy process, far more complex than the initial destruction.

"Mh…" Rayyan groaned, pausing mid-sentence as she was struck by a slight headache.

The moment the order was given, Rayyan was swiftly handled by Nova through a tractor beam and placed into a stasis pod. She was awakened once the order was retracted.

As a consequence of the order, she, along with all the giants and dark elves, experienced a collective subconscious struggle against the command. This internal conflict manifested as intermittent headaches, affecting them at various intervals.

"{Have this}," Nova said, offering Rayyan a blue-colored drink through her nanomachine body within the imperial ship.

"Thank you," Rayyan replied, taking the drink and consuming it. Almost immediately, the headaches began to subside, eventually disappearing entirely. She looked at the cup in surprise, taking a second glance as she tried to recall if she had seen anything like it before.

{It's a new drink designed to counter headaches. By drinking it twice a day, you should have your headaches completely resolved within a week, compared to a few months without it. We are currently mass-producing it for distribution to everyone,} Nova explained.

"Thank you for that. But where is Emperor Aron?" Rayyan asked, immediately after expressing her gratitude for the drink. She was puzzled as Aron had returned the control she gave back to her and then disappeared, leaving her to manage the recovery process for her citizens. Additionally, he had granted her temporary control over the imperial assets on the planet to speed up the process.

{He is currently continuing the meeting with the remainder of your elders,} Nova replied, giving a short but concise explanation without giving more than needed information.

Upon hearing the mention of the elders, Rayyan decided not to pursue the matter further, trusting that she would be briefed if needed. Given the chaos caused by the elders' greed, she wasn't inclined to divert her attention from the recovery process to speculate on their situation.

Nodding in acknowledgment of Nova's response, she refocused on her work. Despite her curiosity about the outcome, she remained dedicated to managing the recovery efforts, still aboard the imperial ship orbiting the planet with the shield active. Checkk new ?ovel ch?pters at nov?

On the planet, ships were seen coming and going in a steady stream, transporting individuals to designated gathering points. Those with life-threatening injuries were directed to these locations, where they were promptly placed in medical pods for treatment. The scene was one of organized chaos, with every effort being made to ensure that the injured received the necessary care and that the recovery process could begin as swiftly as possible.

Ayaka was seen tirelessly working with those on the brink of death, who wouldn't have enough time to wait for the medicine's effects. Fortunately, the statis pods suspended all functions, including the process of dying, allowing her to stay in one place where all critical cases were brought to her.

This setup also gave her brief moments of rest when needed.

If credits were to be awarded, she would be among the top ten contributors, even alongside the elders, the imperial couple, and the AIs, reflecting the extent of her contribution during and after the crisis.

Chapter 698

"See you later," Aron said with a casual wave to Crabapple, Birch, and Cypress, before vanishing from the timeless meadow.

They had finally concluded their meeting, which had lasted more than a day, meticulously finalizing every detail of the handover process. Surprisingly, the tree folks didn't contest the handover at all and instead directed their attention toward the next phase.

Since their children would be treated as ordinary imperial citizens, that part of the process was relatively quick. What consumed the most time, however, was determining the fate of the tree folks themselves—what classification they would fall under and what rules they would be governed by moving forward.

After lengthy discussions, they agreed that the tree folks would be classified as "special entities." Under this status, they would have the freedom to do as they wished, provided they did not break the imperial constitution and sought prior approval from the emperor for major matters. Additionally, they would have direct access to the emperor whenever necessary.

Beyond that, they would also be granted access to more information than ordinary citizens, particularly regarding government matters and the emperor's companies, with the condition that they do not disclose this information to anyone.

The part about information access was unanimously agreed upon, as most of the tree folks were eager to gain access to knowledge about mana. However, Crabapple made a special request to include information about Aron's companies as well, driven by his curiosity. Aron readily agreed, but with one condition: Crabapple had to conduct all of his research within Lab City and grant Aron the right to use any discoveries made by Crabapple for his companies.

Aron also agreed to purchase anything the tree folks needed from his own funds, as long as the requests were reasonable. This arrangement spared them from having to lower themselves by working or using their children as labor to obtain what they wanted.

In addition to the benefits, the tree folks were required to participate in any upcoming situations that demanded powerful magicians. Their contributions would also be compensated once the situation concluded as that was the rule set by the government.

Moreover, they were explicitly prohibited from using their children for personal gain or to the detriment of other citizens.

Regarding the systems embedded in their bodies, Aron had already activated them but modified their parameters. Instead of being used to control or aid individuals directly, the systems now functioned as routers and access ports to the imperial network, including VR. Finaly allowing the tree folks to log in the VR and experience life similar to humans or proximians.

Additionally, the systems acted as monitors, capable of intervening if they violated the agreements. This monitoring function served as a backup for the mana contracts, ensuring that any potential loopholes or breaches in the agreements could be addressed.

"I need to check on the VR and see what all the hype is about, so see you later," Crabapple said, eager to experience the virtual reality for himself. But he still waited for the others' responses before making his move.

"See you," Birch replied. "I have some things to review before joining you."

With that, Birch, Crabapple, and Cypress left the timeless meadow, which then faded away as they departed.

…

[DING!]

[SYSTEM QUEST COMPLETE!

Congratulations on successfully completing the system's emergency quest.

Quest Completion Level: Perfect

Rewards: 2 of the system's awakening requirements (provided).

Good job! Please continue working hard to further awaken the system.]

Aron's face lit up with a smile as he read the quest completion screen in front of him. The rewards, having been directly applied, had significantly accelerated the awakening of his system. With only two requirements remaining, he was now closer than ever to discovering the promise of the system.

His actual body was currently still hovering exactly where he previous was, above the ocean, as he had immediately entered the timeless meadow the moment he received the update that the project protagonist nanomachines had competed their job.

{Sir, Empress Rina is still holding a humanoid prisoner and is seeking instructions on what to do with it,} Nova's message snapped him back to reality from his focus on the system screen.

"Oh, where exactly is she?" Aron inquired, planning to visit Rina.

Once Nova provided the location, Aron took off immediately. This time, he was not in stealth mode, meaning anyone looking up would see him streaking through the sky at Mach 50. Normally, such speed would create a deafening sonic boom, but he countered this by activating a silence rune around himself, which absorbed all the sound generated by his high-speed travel.

As he flew, he received updates on the planet's situation. He was pleased to see that there had been no actual fatalities. The tree folks had prioritized rescuing those in the most critical condition, either shielding them or sending them directly to the nearest status pod. From there, they were transferred to Ayaka, who provided basic treatment to stabilize them until more comprehensive care could be administered.

"What is the mental reaction of the Proximians? Are there any signs of hatred between the races?" Aron asked.

{Since everyone knows the orders came directly from the elders, the anger has been directed primarily at the two elders who issued them. The absence of deaths has mitigated widespread animosity between the races.

However, some individuals are experiencing guilt from having attacked friends, lovers, and family members. This feeling of guilt is expected to fade over time.

A more detailed report will be provided later once the handover is complete and brain data is updated and analyzed.} Nova responded, supplementing her answer with footage that illustrated the current situation and the reactions described.

After a few more seconds, Aron's enhanced vision caught sight of Rina in the distance. In no time, thanks to his incredible speed, he went from spotting her to coming to a full stop directly in front of her, where she hovered, still imprisoning the humanoid.

"Good job," Aron said, offering her a hug. As he did so, he subtly deactivated the shield rune he had discreetly cast on her.

Chapter 699

While everyone on Proxima B was occupied with the recovery process, the situation was quite different for the watchers back in the solar system. They were limited to observing and reacting to the live stream, unable to intervene or influence the events unfolding on the planet.

The live stream setup was sophisticated, featuring multiple cameras positioned in various locations.

These cameras were capable of focusing on different significant events simultaneously, with the ability to zoom in on objects without any loss of quality, provided the objects weren't protected by privacy laws.

This meant the empire was employing military-grade surveillance technology for what was essentially a live broadcast. Numerous cameras were placed throughout the star system and above the planet's orbit, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

As a result, viewers had the option to watch the live stream from the same camera but see entirely different perspectives based on their preferences. The official broadcast provided a general view, while viewers' personalized AIs allowed them to request specific zooms and tailored views that catered to their individual interests. This customization ensured that each viewer could focus on the details that mattered most to them, enhancing their overall experience.

As soon as the situation unfolded, most viewers adjusted their interest parameters to focus exclusively on the ongoing events. Since these customized settings could be made public for others to replicate, the most popular configurations quickly became trending on the live stream's parameter page. This allowed anyone wanting to catch up on the situation to select the most popular or detailed view, ensuring they could follow the events in the most comprehensive way possible.

This led to a widespread viewership of the situation, as people everywhere were now able to see the full scope of events. Videos detailing the situation were quickly uploaded to every social media platform, allowing those who couldn't access the live stream in real-time to catch up through these recordings. The result was a global audience thoroughly informed about the unfolding events.

…

"Yep, that's it, I'm out," an awakener said as he stood up from the meeting, where the group had been strategizing on how to use their powers to rally more of their kind and gradually increase their influence for a potential coup d'état.

The mood in the room had shifted dramatically when they were alerted to watch the live stream, as the emperor had been attacked. The possibility that the emperor might die had given them fleeting hope.

However, when they watched the livestream and witnessed the extent of the emperor's power, their hopes quickly dissipated. The footage showed him effortlessly fending off over a thousand attacks per second for more than a minute, with none of the attacks even coming close to reaching him. This display of overwhelming strength made it clear to everyone that even if over a million awakeners were to gang up on him, they would surely face certain defeat. The realization that their plans were futile led them and him to reconsider their ambitions.

No one even attempted to stop him from leaving, and some even followed behind him, their hopes and dreams shattered by the overwhelming display of power they had just witnessed. Within minutes, only about five people remained in the meeting room—extremists among extremists—clinging to their delusions despite the clear evidence of their insignificance.

"I think we should look for those who won't be intimidated by his show of force," the would-be leader suggested. "It's most likely just theater designed to deter people like us. Otherwise, why keep the live stream going? The problem is, we won't be able to convince anyone since they'll see our efforts as sending them to useless deaths." His friends nodded in agreement, sharing his resolve despite the odds.

"I agree, but for now, we should lie low and wait until others who think like us reveal themselves," his friend, the self-proclaimed mastermind, said while adjusting his glasses—purely for show since everyone on Earth currently had perfect vision. "Then, and only then, will we retry what we were attempting to create today."

Just as flat earthers existed even during the era of space stations, there will always be those who view everything shown to them as part of a conspiracy. They believe it's all a ploy by the "evil government" to maintain power and keep them subservient.

Similar conversations with varying outcomes were unfolding across the solar system. Many groups either disbanded in the wake of the overwhelming display of power, while others formed fan clubs and support groups, rallying around the newfound respect and admiration for the emperor.

….

"My expectations of his power were already high, but this—this is beyond even the strongest I imagined him to be," Youssef, the Minister of the Exterior, remarked as he watched the live stream. His feed had all public limitations and blocks removed, supplemented by additional data from various sensors both on and around the planet that were not available to the general public.

"I'm now wondering why he didn't interfere during the last world war," Jeremy, the Minister of the Exterior, mused, extending his thoughts beyond the current situation.

"He never needed to intervene personally. His position ensured that he wielded absolute military power, capable of handling situations from behind the scenes," John, the Minister of War, replied. He had joined them in watching the live stream, having seen the earlier discussion between the emperor and the tree folks before the situation escalated and the emperor's decisive actions took place.

He was the least surprised among them. Whatever challenges the emperor faced, he always believed the emperor would emerge victorious. This conviction was consistently reinforced by the miracles he had witnessed during his service.

"That is true," Youssef agreed, recalling files he had read from the omniscient perspective. Those records revealed how the emperor always held the necessary cards to resolve any situation but chose to withhold action until he had no other option but to intervene.

"Do you think they will now hand over their people to us, or will they turn into our enemies now that two of their elders have essentially been dealt with?" Jeremy asked. Although he was not yet fully briefed on how the situation had been handled, he moved on to the next step, knowing he would be updated once the entire situation was concluded.

"Based on what we saw during the fight and the Proximians' reaction to the situation, I think that even if they don't join us, they won't turn into enemies, at least," John said. He knew that although the emperor usually pulled his punches, he wouldn't have left the situation unresolved. When the emperor acted, he always made sure to finish what he started to prevent any reappearance of the issue.

Chapter 700

A week later.

Following a full week of recovery efforts, the rebuilding process for the destruction caused by the fights and the planetquake triggered by Aron was well underway.

During that period, nearly all details of the meeting, except for a few classified points, were made public. Along with this, the announcement of a handover agreement was revealed, alongside the news that strict limitations would be imposed on the elders to prevent them from interfering in the lives of the Proximians, ensuring such an incident would not repeat itself.

The news was met with overwhelmingly positive reactions from both the empire's citizens and the Proximians. After enduring the recent chaos, many Proximians had been anxious that another elder might go rogue, plunging them into a similar situation once again.

While joining the empire was already seen as a favorable step for them, the announcement that the emperor had made it impossible for the elders to interfere in their lives — combined with the swift punishment of the two who had caused the turmoil — elevated their respect for him even further.

The emperor's decisive actions reassured them, solidifying his already high standing among the Proximians.

However, the official handover of the Proximian government to the empire would take place three weeks later. This delay was necessary for the paperwork to be processed and all relevant data to be analyzed and proofread before being officially handed over to the imperial authorities.

Despite the formalities, there would be little change in the actual governance structure or officials in power, as all had already been selected according to imperial leadership guidelines.

This ensured that the current government was composed of the best-qualified individuals, fully aligned with imperial standards.

With that positive news, the Proximians began returning to their day-to-day lives, reassured that little would change even after the handover. The only noticeable shift would be the removal of the live stream facing the planet, which was set to be taken down after the handover, marking not only the official transition but also the end of the exploration mission.

The star system would formally shift from an exploration zone to imperial territory. From that point forward, the Proximians themselves would take over the research and exploration of their own star system, as part of their new responsibilities under imperial rule.

During that three-week period, the Emperor and his entourage would be—

"Enjoying the vacation while doing some light work," Aron said with a grin, looking at his friends, who shot back envious glances, knowing they wouldn't get to enjoy the downtime as much as they wanted.

"Are you sure you brought us here for a vacation?" Sarah asked, recalling the list of tasks Aron had assigned them for this waiting period. It hardly resembled a vacation at all.

"Why can't you do both?" Aron replied with a smirk, trying to hide his amusement. "All you have to do is send out announcements, and people will line up with their resumes. From there, you can easily choose those who fit your needs and start the companies' creation process."

Felix, curious, asked, "What would you have done if we hadn't come here?"

Aron shrugged nonchalantly. "There's the VR network. It wouldn't have been a problem at all since you could handle it from Earth."

"How about you make it easier for us and provide some information about the people?" Sarah asked, trying to negotiate for less work.

"Nope, I can't do that," Aron replied with a grin. "Do you want me to break the rules and invade citizens' privacy before the handover is even complete? I promised their elders that I'd treat them like imperial citizens from the moment we finalized the deal. I can't make exceptions now, especially not before they're officially part of the empire."

"Anyway, let's get going," Felix said, grabbing Sarah's arm and leading her out of the room. "We've got companies to register and workers to recruit." Despite the hectic days ahead, they didn't mind. It was a welcome change of pace that reminded them of their beginnings.

"Are you planning to have those discussions during this period?" Aron asked his wife.

"Yes," Rina replied. "After reviewing your recent battle, I had some significant realizations. I want to explore those insights further with them." She remembered her astonishment at how Aron managed the overwhelming barrage of attacks so effectively, and it fueled her desire to develop similar capabilities in her own approach.

"If I can make a suggestion, you should start with Crabapple," Aron said. "He's the most curious among them and can explain things in the level of detail you need. Plus, he seems to be quite absorbed in VR." He shared this insight based on his monitoring of their activities over the past week.

"I'll keep that in mind. But what about you?" Rina asked, taking his recommendation to heart while inquiring about his own plans during this period.

"I have some places to visit and information to review, but I'll be available if you need me," Aron replied. His plan during this time was far from the leisurely vacation he had described to his friends. He, too, had a mountain of tasks to tackle over these three weeks, though he had playfully framed it as a vacation.

Their discussion continued briefly before Rina decided to proceed with her conversation with Crabapple, leaving Aron to focus on his own tasks.

Once alone in the room, Aron asked, "Did you finish analyzing the brain data of the tree folks?"

{The analysis is complete, and I think you should join me to take a look at it. I discovered something extremely interesting about them,} Nova responded, teasing an intriguing revelation without disclosing any details.

Upon hearing Nova's response, Aron immediately lay back on his bed and logged into the VR, eager to delve into the information. He didn't want to waste any more time, given the extensive period it took for Nova to complete the analysis of all the data collected about the tree folks.

"Let's take a look at it," he said, his tone laced with excitement for what he was about to see.