“I would’ve never thought that females would go to war over that kind of thing...”

-Antioch

***Outer Rim***

***Antioch***

I relax into the extra wide canvas chair and let out a satisfied sigh. Lisandra is snuggled into my right, sharing her cooled raspberries with me, while Fiona is to my left, awaiting the spectacle with an orange flavoured ice-stick in her hand. Silith has a place lying between my legs, using my belly as a cushion while she slurps on a cooled drink.

Lisandra chose a white, one-piece bikini which leaves a little skin free here and there, just enough to get a man’s imagination going. Fiona and Silith went for black and blue two-pieces which covered just enough to be decent.

The scene around us was a perfect imitation of a tropical beach, including white sand and a coastline with gentle waves of saltwater. Someone had put a lot of effort into creating this illusion for the sake of relaxation.

We weren’t on a planet. This was a large hall on the inner side of the ring which spanned around a planet with rich resources. But the walls were sophisticated holograms which gave us the illusion that this was a real island.

Only the wall in front of us, the one which faced the barren rock of a planet around which this whole structure was built, was a large pane made out of reinforced glass. The image of the sea was cut off abruptly as it was replaced by a grey planet in the middle of the scene. To the left and to the right, the rest of the superstructure of the ring could be seen. Above and below the planet, two glittering hemispheres of countless hexagonal mirrors were waiting, large enough to be seen from here. Each had its own propulsion system to keep it in orbit.

The planet itself was riddled with scars and slightly deformed, signs of a decade of mining with Van Neumann drones and other methods which didn’t consider the environment, like blowing off a part of the planet’s crust with an antimatter warhead to gain access to more resources.

Jenny and her crew had joined us on the beach, taking care of Martin in a similar manner as my wives did with me. Sam and Min had claimed a spot in the sand closer to the water, allowing the waves to tickle their feet. They had a friend with them, a girl who I didn’t know, but who was trustworthy according to Min. I didn't care, they were old enough to make their own decisions and this wasn't a secret event.

Grabbing a handful of butt to either side of me, I smile and enjoy the moment. “It’s great to be a king. How long will it take for the show to begin?”

Julie, Kylie and Alie were standing slightly in front of us and to the left, all three of them interacting with holograms of their own. They could have used the network for such a task, but for some reason, most of the older personalities want to have something tangible in front of them.

The sisters were flaunting their shimmering bikinis, which were made of some material that reflected light in all colours of the rainbow.

“The setup is about to be ready. We are just waiting for the affirmations that everything is okay. The updates are coming in from all around the superstructure, so there is no sense in being too hasty,” Kylie informs us.

I nod and decide not to rush them. What we are about to try is unique in the galaxy – as far as we know. All good things need time.

Instead, I spend the time in reminiscence of what we heard about the conflict zone. We got quite a bit of intelligence from a few scout-vessels which were left behind and in the three days it took to revive those close to me, I had plenty of time to go over the data.

Our gamble to play the G.S. against the Cyber was a success, if not as much as we wished for. When the Cyber noticed that we pulled most of our assets out of the conflict zone and threw the rest at the G.S., they reacted exactly like our psychoanalysts predicted. They took the chance to strike at the weakened G.S. and by now, both factions are caught up in a life and death struggle. The Cyber committed their forces, and pulling back now would be stupid, since it would give the G.S. time to rebuild their lost ships and solidify their position. On the same account, the G.S. can’t run away, since they have most of their industry and shipyards in a single system. To abandon their assets would mean to abandon the crusade.

The Cyber had to take the chance since it gave them the perfect opportunity to wipe out all G.S. assets in the Outer Rim.

I hoped that their conflict would give our people time to colonize the former Prip homeworld, turning it into a fortress which would be a thorn in the sides of both of our enemies. Sadly, that didn’t work out as planned. While the nano-plague did infect the whole planet, and was ultimately activated by the planet’s leader, he did it a little too late.

The G.S. had more than enough ships in place to hamper the initial growth of the nano-tech, which slowed down as the planet’s bio-matter was used up. Originally, the nano-tech should have built a few spires which pierced the atmosphere and should have made it easy to gain some presence in space. The bombardment the planet had to endure stopped that part of the plan.

At least our people made it to the surface and went underground.

The planet is now under siege, much like it was on Earth. Our people don’t know exactly who holds the orbit at the moment, but whoever it is, they are throwing rocks on any large emerging structure. At least it seems like the party in question doesn’t have the assets in place to sterilize the planet.

From the looks of it, I find it very likely that the remaining G.S. forces were driven away by an incoming Cyber fleet. And instead of cleaning the planet, the Cyber decided to leave behind a small strike force to keep the planet under control, while the main-fleet pushed deeper into G.S. territory.

My thoughts return to this outpost, which was originally intended as a permanent colony for our people, a safe haven which doubled as a large shipyard. Haven is a ring which spans a large and metal-rich world, about 15,000 kilometres in diameter. The ring-like superstructure is irregular with wider parts where more facilities are concentrated, but on the average, it's about thirty thousand kilometres in diameter and five-thousand in width.

For its size, Haven is seriously under-populated, with not much more than five-thousand demons. All available resources went into drone technology and industrial projects, with the few demons who were born on this outpost acting as drone managers and scientists. They also had to build up a surplus of nutrients for the Hardware Backups which we sent with them when they started their journey.

It was remarkable what my people could achieve when they spent a few decades on nothing else than building and mining for resources, using all the technology available to us. The downside was that we mined this solar system clean of any easily available resources. Originally we hadn’t planned on taking it quite that far, but with technological advancements came big plans and dreams. We realized that Haven wouldn’t have to be a fixed installation and super-shipyard.

“Everyone, we are ready when you are. Please pay attention to the useless piece of rock we are currently orbiting,” Julie informs us with anticipation in her voice. Her tail trembles a little and a bead of sweat forms on her forehead. “This will be our greatest work so far.”

There is cheering from Sam’s camp.

Martin furrows his forehead in concern when he notices Julie’s nerves. “What if this thing blows up like the one we tested? Wouldn’t it be better to be far away?”

Kylie laughs and shakes her head with a mocking grin. “If this one blows up, there won’t be anyone to tell the tale in the entire system. Hell, we will probably destabilize the star.”

“Now you are exaggerating, Sis,” Alie steps in. “The star won’t have a problem, but you are right that the radiation will sterilize the system.” She quickly waves a hand to dismiss Jenny’s grimace. “We tested this application thoroughly. The warp-emitters of eight colonies were enough to create and stabilize a small singularity. If our enemies hadn't destroyed too many colonies, the singularity would have stayed stable indefinitely. We’ve run the numbers and checked them with Jill. Even the Blue didn’t find any mistakes.”

“Yes,” Julie chirps. “And even if something goes wrong, we have two more sites like this one. Once we are revived, we can correct any mistake. But don’t worry. I assure you that this will work.”

“I wonder why that doesn’t reassure me,” Silith mumbles with the straw from her drink between her lips.

“Yes, I don’t want to die again,” Lisandra joins in. “At least not when it just means to resurrect at another colony without a shopping mall. Why is there no shopping mall on this colony?”

Yes, and that’s exactly why I went with the plan to sacrifice most of our assets in the conflict zone. It has been three days since my wives didn’t have access to the damned shopping mall, and look, they are suddenly paying attention to me. Beginning with Lisandra, I had a lot of happy occasions with Fiona and with Silith, just like it should be.

Not to mention, the whole massacre gave me an unbelievable shitload of skillpoints. It will take me days to study my skilltree and to decide in which direction I want to go from here on, though sticking to things which synergize with nano-design seems like the smart move.

Kylie clears her throat. “We didn’t have the time to build one. Besides, all the people who live here are very busy.”

Fiona sits up. “Do you want to imply that a shopping mall is less important than work?”

“N- no, Mom.” Kylie quickly returns her attention to the scenery in front of us. “Look! It’s beginning!”

Everyone falls silent as we watch the activation of several thousand warp-emitters, arranged all around the superstructure. Each is aimed at the nameless husk of a planet, now bereft of useful metal, except for its core.

Kylie recounts some numbers, keeping us updated on the activation state. At first, it seems like nothing would happen, but then the changes slowly become visible.

There is no grandiose explosion or noise, but the planet slowly shrinks in on itself, a slow and gradual process which is accompanied by the effect of the planet’s surface smoothing out into a perfect sphere as it gets smaller.

“Matter compression is increasing. Everything looks fine,” Alie comments.

“A few emitters burned out right at the beginning, but it was expected to happen. We are working with more than enough of a safety margin,” Julie explains.

The ball of compressed rock shrinks further until it starts glowing red. It seems to melt in front of our eyes, turning brighter by the moment.

“Reaching ignition phase.”

Finally, the glowing ball of nuclear fire turns from red to bright white, turning into a miniature star and all of us cheer when it's clear that there won't be a big bang today.

“Okay, now we will keep it right there,” Kylie whoops. “Now move the shutters, mirrors and radiation collectors into place and we have an – almost – infinite energy source!”

“Yep, and if the mass ever gets used up, we just dump another planet in there,” Alie giggles.

Following her command, the two hemispheres of shimmering mirrors move into place, surrounding the artificial anomaly. They are there to regulate the amount of radiation which reaches the superstructure and to collect the energy which will be needed to move us through space. I grin like stupid, imagining the potential of having a mobile colony of this scale. All that’s left to do now is to test if we indeed can get this entire thing to warp-speeds.

Silith sets her drink aside and turns around on top of me, plopping her soft chest onto my belly. She grins while supporting her chin with her hands. “And now that we know that we will be living here from now on, how about moving that shopping mall a little further up on the list of important projects.”

I stop grinning immediately. “The shopping mall is just a distraction from other important things. First, we have to get our numbers back up. For that we need living quarters, get the nutrient farms running. There is a lot to do until we get this superstructure colonized.”

“Yes.” Fiona presses in from my left. “But people need a place to relax.”

“And a shopping mall is an important part of the female culture,” Lisandra whispers from my right. “Think of all the women who will revive soon, bereft of a place to meet in person and mingle.”

A shadow falls over us and I find myself surrounded by all the females present on the beach.

Jenny crosses her arms, looking down at me with disapproval. “I noticed that all installations which even remotely resemble a shopping mall were moved to the bottom of the construction list.”

And then they start talking. “We need...” “...shopping mall...” “...beauty salon...” ...and so on.

My eyes glaze over while I try to find out why I am suddenly the focus of their wrath. Apparently, taking away the shopping mall from the women was a landmine waiting to be stepped upon.

Am I facing my first revolt? Does this have the potential to turn into an outright rebellion or can I get out of this by stamping my foot down?

My eyes search for help from my own gender, but Martin and Sam are sitting down at the coastline, studiously ignoring the scene and paying full attention to the miniature star which is now surrounded by glittering shutters and mirrors, dimming its brightness to manageable levels.

Traitors!