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”They finally gave up?” Lilly asked with clear relief in her voice. She had been more worried than the others. “They kept it up for a lot longer than I thought. Two weeks of working on something like that with no result to show for it demonstrates their determination if nothing else.”

“Yes. They actually got closer to breaking through my defenses than I thought they would.” Haven confirmed with some hidden relief of his own.

“I thought you said they would not be able to get through the temporal defenses without a psion skilled in the field?” Amaterasu questioned.

“There are exceptions to everything. I did not consider the fact that they would have access to a rather powerful method of undermining all sorts of psionic abilities where there’s no psion maintaining the effect. It’s somewhat similar to the natural resistance of the Dashane. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. If you don’t have the skills to use a very specific method to counter your enemy, then using a method that works against pretty much everything becomes a viable choice to try even if it isn’t optimal. All they lacked was sufficient power. If the defenses had been reinforced by a random Dhar instead of a Keeper, then they might have actually succeeded.” Haven explained.

“That seems like a rather large oversight on your part.” Xiaoli pointed out with a teasing tone.

“Yes. I’m loathe to admit it, but sometimes we underestimate those that we consider lesser. Perhaps I should give these beings more credit. They were uplifted by the Dhar for a reason after all, and they’ve been around since then. That’s a lot of time for them to develop and pick up a few things.” Haven grudgingly admitted.

“Speaking of, for a race that has been around for such a long time, I kind of expected them to have technology almost at the level of Dhar. Well, maybe not quite that, but a lot more than we’ve seen so far.” Xiaoli voiced a thought that others besides her had pondered on for a while now.

“Well, there can be several reasons for that. One of the reasons is that technological advancement tends to come in waves. You are all in the middle of a frantic phase of technological advancement, so it can be a little hard to understand, but civilizations usually hit rather large plateaus in technology at key points of their development. You’ll also face the same thing in a thousand or so years, give or take a few centuries. There are certain key materials and advancements that spur periods of rapid development due to the large number of improvements that can be made in a short time. The problem is that once those easy advances have been made, you’ll be stuck waiting for the next big thing as your technology stagnates.” Haven explained a phenomenon they’d observed several times in the past.

“I can see how that would work. Phase space and the materials that came with it was one of those key technologies. And a proper AI before that.” Xiaoli nodded in understanding.

“Right. And when your race becomes more and more advanced, the harder it becomes to make those key discoveries. Partly because you simply don’t have access to the materials required, or because it requires a radical shift in thinking. Anyway, the second reason for the relatively low advantage in technology the enemy seems to have is due to the fact that they come from a different galaxy. They’ve spent a large chunk of that time traveling the void between galaxies, and their technology is pretty much stuck at the level it was when they started the journey. Even if there have been major developments at their home galaxy since then, the word has not reached this galaxy. And it’s doubtful they sent their best and brightest on the journey. Not if we assume they sent such expedition to other galaxies as well.” Haven brought up another point.

“Fair enough. So what are they doing now that they gave up?” Xiaoli asked.

“I can’t say. They seem to have made camp near the place where they tried to disable my defenses, but they aren’t really doing anything as far as I can see. They’re making some plans but I can’t tell what those plans might be. If I had to guess though, it seems like they’re waiting for something.” Haven replied while he observed the enemies.

“So instead of taking this chance to engage in further diplomacy, they’ve adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach. I don’t think that’s good news for us.” Amaterasu pursed her lips. “Whatever they are waiting for is not likely to bring a positive change to the situation.”

“Any word from Illum?” Xiaoli asked.

“They realize that this situation might not be one we can just sit out, but they’re reluctant to get involved in another war. We just won the last war that we had been involved in for so long. As a result, my people are quite weary. They’d like to enjoy the peace for as long as it lasts. On the positive side though, they are taking this opportunity to build up their fleets so that when they do need to get involved, they’ll have as many ships as possible to throw at the problem." Amaterasu replied with a grimace, clearly not happy about the reply she had gotten.

“Hah! Should’ve known!” Xiaoli mocked.

“Oh? And the Cybran are jumping at the chance to get involved, are they?” Amaterasu shot back with a snide voice.

"In fact we are. We're looking at this as an opportunity instead of a problem. Since the Mrrroww are likely to be on the frontline of this war, the Cybran city-ships are starting to move towards Mrrroww space. We've even reached an agreement with the cats. We’ll be supplying them with ships, mostly controlled by AI, and working as extra shipyards for them, while they supply us with materials and some technology so that we can better combat the enemy.” Xiaoli preened a bit in victory.

Amaterasu’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I see what’s going on. The Cybrans are not thrilled about their inevitable future under the rule of the Illum, so you’re taking your flying cities and relocating in a different section of the galaxy. Is that it?”

"Basically," Xiaoli admitted freely. "Most of our assets were on the city-ships anyway, so this is the perfect opportunity for us. As it happens, the Mrrroww have also run into some free real-estate in the form of the worlds that used to belong to the Dawn Collective. Their attempts to absorb those worlds and everything left behind by the synthetics have been somewhat difficult due to all the other trouble they've been mixed up in, and Cybrans just so happen to be experts in dealing with AI’s, synthetics, and salvaging materials. The synthetics left behind a lot of stuff to salvage after all. Especially if one happens to know where to look.“ She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. She knew exactly where to look after all.

“Gotta admit. They got one over you there. A point for the Red Spider.” Yrala interjected, giving credit where it was due. “Although, that does mean that unlike the Illum, the Cybrans will be much closer to the danger posed by this new enemy.”

“Opportunities come with risks. And if the worst should happen, our cities can fly away. That has always been one of our biggest advantages. We’re hard to pin down.” Xiaoli shrugged.

Amaterasu placed a hand to her ear as if listening for something. “What’s that? Can you hear it?”

“What?” Xiaoli asked suspiciously while Yrala grinned in expectation.

"That's the sound of the Illum's interest in taking part in this war plummeting," Amaterasu whispered theatrically while playing the part of a completely surprised person.

“Haha, very funny.” Xiaoli quipped back.

“She does have a point though.” Yrala pointed out once again. “While your idea is a really good one, it does incentivize the Illum to stay out of it. Assuming they wish to think of it only from their own short-term perspective, which could be quite dangerous with an enemy like this.” She looked pointedly at Amaterasu.

“I’m aware. That’s not how the other Illum will see this though. I can mitigate it somewhat, but…” Now it was Amaterasu’s turn to shrug.

Lilly’s communicator gave a signal suddenly, and she read the message she had received. “It seems Moonshadow is almost done with her diplomatic tour for now. She actually got some races to agree to an alliance. She still has one more stop to make and then she’ll be returning.”

“Good. Maybe then we can go back. As much as I’ve enjoyed this little tour of your galaxy, we still have business in mine.” Yrala stated emphatically.

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“Are we ready?” Selendil asked as Nochehuatl, Nox’s two bodies, and the two Dashane Ka’aukai and Ka’eo took their positions at the various consoles of the bridge.

"As much as we can be," Ka’eo replied with a cheery voice. “We have never operated consoles like this, but I suppose we can do our best.”

“Just keep an eye on any strange readings, especially large energy spikes. Those will likely be the enemy using some Dhar weaponry they’ve salvaged. Ka’aukai, you’re actually taking part in a hunt of sorts. I need you to scan the surface of the planet and the orbital facilities for the readings I gave you. As we need precise scans, we can’t scan large areas at the same time. You’ll need to find the target as fast as you can. The faster you do find the target, which may or may not be hiding, the faster we can finish this.” Selendil explained.

“So what exactly am I hunting? Knowing details might help me in the hunt.” Ka’aukai asked a good question.

“You’re trying to locate the AI core that was taken from the station similar to Haven that we visited earlier. They’ll be using the core as the heart of their warp network, so it’ll be protected. There’s also a decent chance that the AI is taking an active part in the management of the empire, so the core might be in close proximity to their governmental center.” Selendil offered some suggestions.

“I just got the signal. The Shinzen fleets are ready. They managed to sneak by the Cortoid phase space monitoring stations following your instructions. They are ready to make the jump.” Nox reported. She would be the one to keep in contact with the Shinzen as Selendil would be busy dealing with the Cortoid psions. The Shinzen were not particularly pleased, but they acquiesced once they discovered how quickly Nox could communicate as an AI.

“Good. Let’s start the operation ‘Fallen Empire’.” Selendil declared.

The destruction of their offensive fleet had thrown the Cortoids into chaos, as the number of ships lost meant that they no longer had the ability to make such attacks anymore. The sudden confusion also allowed the Shinzen to take part in a bold plan with Selendil. Instead of weeks or months of slow grinding against the Cortoid defenses, the Shinzen fleets would skip the other core worlds entirely and go for the Cortoid throne world directly. That would allow them to eliminate the leadership of any further Cortoid resistance. Besides, it would also lead to the Cortoid surrender without the need to take over all their core worlds.

Despite her anger against them, Selendil wasn’t in favor of a complete genocide. With the destruction of most of their fleets, the throne world, and the disappearance of their warp capabilities, the Cortoids would be crippled but not wiped out. Their empire would be done, but their species would live on. Assuming they could reach some sort of a compromise with all their old slave races. "Send in the first wave," Selendil ordered.

As the throne world of the empire, the whole system was heavily defended by both ships and orbital defenses. The entire system was a fortress. However, the largest danger came from the Dhar weaponry the Cortoids took from the station, as well as the large number of enemy psions combining their powers. Selendil would personally be dealing with the latter problem, while they had a plan for the former. Enduring Symphony used the ship’s phase drive to stabilize the drives of the Shinzen, which allowed them to jump deeper into the system than was normally possible. Close enough that they would already be in the middle of the defenses so that if the Cortoids wanted to use the Dhar weapons, their own ships and defenses would also be in the line of fire.

The first to jump in was a large number of Shinzen Hives, hollowed out asteroids filled with millions and millions of tiny Shinzen flyers, all strapped to large engines. As soon as the hives came out of phase space the alert went out into the system, but by that time the large clumps of rocks and ice were already on them. The tiny Shinzen flyers all flooded out while the large hives rammed the defensive platforms with their sheer speed and mass. Shields were all well and good, but a rock with the mass of millions of tons traveling at one third the speed of light made mockery of such defenses.

After the hives came a large number of relatively small ships with high firepower that could dart around and take advantage of the shock and chaos. Along with them came many of the combat Queens that could add to the chaos and snipe some high-value targets in the first moments of the battle. After that, the heavy hitters of the Shinzen fleet arrived. All of the largest Shinzen vessels were spread out evenly, flanked and supported by the smaller vessels so that they would not offer a tempting target for any Dhar weapons. The combined numbers and firepower of the three massive Shinzen fleets converging on a single system was staggering to stay the least. Yet they fully expected to lose most of those ships.

Selendil's ship was the last to arrive. "It's been a while since I saw such a huge number of ships in a single battle.” She said nostalgically while mentally crushing any of the Cortoid psions trying to pool their powers together, keeping them off balance. With the number of Cortoid psions present in the system, she was focused on defense and making sure they could not do anything large to sway the battle. There were still battles between individual psions and Shinzen Queens, but that was the extent of it.

“I would’ve thought such sights were common for the Dhar?” Nochehuatl asked curiously.

“You would think so, but Dhar usually valued quality over quantity. Even though we had large enough fleets to match the Shinzen in number, they were rarely deployed in full as there was no need.” Selendil replied off-handedly while swatting down another Cortoid psion who tried something stupid.

Their ship was mixed among the Shinzen fleets as the tidal waves of Shinzen vessels crashed against the Cortoid defenses. The battle was now truly on as the Cortoids managed to gather their faculties and started putting up a proper resistance. “Any time now Ka’aukai.” Selendil urged the Dashane on.

“I’m searching, but so far no luck.” The man shouted back, fully focused on his hunt.

“We have an energy spike!” Ka’eo shouted. “They’re aiming for us directly!”

It looked as if a bolt of lightning had smashed through the shield as it struck the side of the ship, and a rift to phase space tried to form and tear the ship apart. The rift soon collapsed though as it didn't manage to gain the necessary energy, and didn’t seem to cause damage. “And that’s why we have the structural integrity field boys and girls.” Nox crowed with clear smugness in her voice.

"That's also the problem with trying to use our own weapons against us. Naturally, we've taken them into consideration when planning our defenses. They’d do much better if they used that weapon against the Shinzen vessels.” Selendil added. “It does seem like we’re drawing their attention though.”

“I got it!” Ka’aukai interjected. “In the heart of the imperial palace. They’ve actually hidden the core in the throne room, which is why it took me this long to find it. I thought it was too obvious.”

“Well then. Time to end this.” Selendil declared and teleported straight into the throne room. Her teleportation range had really increased to an absurd degree.

As she arrived into the room accompanied by a flash of light, the guards around the room started to turn their weapons towards her, but were in turn sliced into sashimi before they even got her in their sights. The room itself was filled with the highest-ranking nobility of what was left of their empire, and on the throne sat a seemingly female Cortoid with two rather powerful psions flanking her on both sides. At least the two had been strong enough to block her first attack, which was commendable.

‘Master.’ Nox’s voice whispered in a slightly warning tone.

“Well then. I expected to find the AI holding some sort of position in the court. I did not expect it to be the one sitting on the throne though.” Selendil announced.

“I prefer Empress X’lthic XIV personally.” The AI in a Cortoid body countered.

“You may prefer whatever you want. To me though, you’re nothing but a traitor blaspheming the name of your old masters.” Selendil shot the AI’s words down ruthlessly, though only moments later her thunder was stolen rather flagrantly.

Another flash of light brought the tiny canine looking Shinzen Queen into the room. Selendil could feel the satisfaction practically oozing off the Queen as it managed to copy the Great Teacher’s trick. Selendil had to admit the thing was a quick study even if she had shown the ability to the Shinzen several times before. The thing about Shinzen was that once one of them learned something new, they could share it with the others, and soon enough ten other Queens appeared in the throne room.

‘I have to admit. I did not see that coming.’ Nox whispered in Selendil’s mind, and the Dhar Keeper was forced to agree.