Miller stood on a stage. Standing beneath a set of scanning equipment and aetheric sensor-arrays. The last time he’d stood on a stage like this he’d been back in his academy. A scrawny teenager with a chip on his shoulder. Later he’d get himself straightened out after a few tours in the Imperial Navy, but he’d never outgrow the regret he’d felt from the last time he’d stood on this stage. When he failed his intro to Mechanized combat course.

Nearly every child in the Novem empire fantasized about being a mech pilot at least once. The pilots were the heroes of the empires. The knights that slew the buggy men of the Stygian collective and the Empire of Eternal Darklight. Miller had been no different.

Unfortunately, he’d also been part of the great majority of the population that lacked the potential and talent needed to maintain the mental constructs and advanced spellwork required to pilot a mech. Thus he’d eventually had to outgrow the dream.

Now here Miller was again. Standing on the stage. Looking at a device that looked strikingly wristwatch. He frowned at it. Still not quite believing what the video had shown. Still not quite believing what the apparent future-head of the Luce family had promised the band could do.

If the younger man’s words held true, the device on Miller’s arm was comparable to that first flintlock rifle that invented during the ages where people fought with only spears, bows, and swords.

Whether the young man knew it or not, he was about to start a revolution and cultural churning that would flip the entire galaxy on its head.

“Well, there’s nothing to it but to do it.” said Miller. Clucking at his tongue at himself after realizing that he’d still been hesitating.

Miller pressed the screen on the wristband. The screen flashed blue and interfaced with the earring that served as Miller’s sprite. Miller heard a sharp three-note song in his head as the sprite and the device interfaced with his nervous system. Then he felt something engulf him. A great beast swallowed him whole and pulled him inside its gullet.

Suddenly, Miller was there. He was standing on the stage he’d always dreamed of. Standing in the altered-space that served as a mech’s cockpit.

“Shit...It’s real. It’s really real.” said Miller. Gazing down at the large metal fingers of the machine he was piloting.

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Elsewhere in the launch bay that had been created within one of the building’s outer room’s others were going to the same experience. Many were like Miller who’d lacked the talent to pilot and mech and now were amazed to find themselves sharing the skin of a metal giant for the first time. Others had the talent but now found themselves standing on a higher peak than they’d ever dared dream of reaching.

The engulfment process combining with their natural skills and training, and taking them to a place they’d never been before. Allowing them to reach a level of man-machine synthesis that only a few of them had even heard of.

Andrew watched it all from the rooftop of the building, his countless eyes turned inwards and outwards at the same time as he stretched his consciousness in multiple directions.

“All according to plan, my ass…” said Andrew. Snorting and deriding himself as he took a swig from a bottle of brandy he’d snatched from what he was currently calling the “leader’s lounge”.

He couldn’t get drunk but that wasn’t the point. He just wanted to drink something harsh that would make him feel warm inside.

Speaking of plans, there had been an original plan set in place before the sudden growth spurt and the sacking of Harlow. It had been a simple plan.

All Andrew had needed to do was graduate school. Go through his mandated military tour. He’d come back home, and he and Sophia would marry and start a family. A real family, not the vast collection of machines and duplicates that they had currently.

They’d use the intervening time to build a simple base for Sophia and him to rely on and then live a roughly normal life as the leaders of a young clan.

That plan both had and hadn’t gone completely out the window. Now that he knew what to look for Andrew knew that he’d never be as normal as he liked. He was still growing and eventually he’d come to the attention of various powerful beings that he couldn’t pretend to be normal and still be able to deal with.

Add to this the destruction of Harlow, and Andrew and Sophia had ended up having to make a few adjustments. The first of which was the speeding up of their plan to become a major player within the empire.

The initial intention had been to slowly introduce bits and pieces of the tech that would eventually be put together by some other individual. The pieces would combine to form what Sophia called the selkie, or demon skin, systems. It was an invention they could introduce to the mortals without pissing off too many immortals, and/or, bringing about the destruction of the universe.

If done according to the original plan their clan would create ripples in the Blackrose galaxy’s history providing a legacy for their future followers and descendants. Now, they’d ended up introducing things all at once, in the most bombastic of fashions. Creating a massive splash in the fate of the galaxy.

The only reason they’d dared to do so was Andrew’s current increase in strength and the increase in strength Sophia would soon enjoy, after she’d finished tapping into and fusing their root systems.

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Up in the heavens, amidst the starry sea, sailed the HMS Valeria. A stellar dreadnought 63,360 feet in length, with a wingspan of 15,840 feet. A mobile fortress that usually carried over two dozen frigates, fifty corvettes, a hundred steller fighting-fish, and more than a thousand mechs.

It had over one hundred light cannons, fifty launchers that could fire a mixture of conventional ammunition and missiles, thirty heavy-lasers turrets, and one moon-destroying aether beam.

With its scale and power, Valeria was a true red-eyed whale. The Valeria was also the base of operations for the Rear-Admiral of the Novem Empire’s 217th Fleet. The woman was a birdkin, her features eagle-like and sharp. She sat in the command cabin with the seven officers that worked been her as her staff.

The entire ship was in chaos as they prepared to join the battle after sailing at top speed from Arevik, Oddessa’s closest core-ward neighbor in the galaxy. Using a mixture of ship-based warps and resource-expensive jump-gates to reach the fight before it was already over and the Stygians had properly gotten themselves firmly entrenched in imperial space.

As the Valeria reached the Oddessa system, exiting the tunnel on the other side of the last jump-gate that they’d gone through and appearing in the space above Harlow, one of the Rear-Admiral’s subordinates stood. Interfacing with their sprite and the Valeria’s communication equipment to call out.

The dreadnought was letting everyone know that she here and present. This was standard procedure when entering a battle like this. It not only limited the chance of their ship taking damage from an overzealous ally trying to keep enemies from entering their space. In the case of dreadnought-class vessels like the Valeria, it also served as an intimidation tactic against their enemies.

Nothing put fear in the heart of the “bugs” and the “gems” like a big whale splashing into the water. Ready to make even bigger waves.

The Odessa forces that were already present and the forces from neighboring fleets that had managed to already make it over all did a roll call. Radioing in with their call sign and position so that everyone where everyone else on their side was as they were firing at the enemy.

The only exceptions were those who were flying cloaked. Flying under literal and technological invisibility cloak, for the purpose of getting a few key potshots at the Stygian forces.

Amongst the names that radioed in, there was a number of familiar ones. There were the Graves, the Vandals, the Marcellos. There were the Harringtons, there were the Kyles, the Ramos, the Karans and last and far from least the Quirks.

The Rear Admiral even cut in as she recognized a familiar name. Switching that particular call to a private channel and letting her second-in-command briefly take over the roll call.

“Carmella Quirk, as I live and breathe. Is this where you’ve gotten to?” said the Rear Admiral. Maintaining a professional posture as she sat silently and stoically in the commander's chair. Allowing her sprite to convert her thoughts into speech.

The other woman’s voice sounded tired as she responded.

“Oh, you know how it is. First, you get married, then you find yourself settling down to deal with kids, zwei-wives, in-laws, and a big ass bug infestation on your backyard. Life eh?”

“Uh...That’s why I’m still dodging my folks whenever they try to get me hitched the with the nice neighbor boy from down the lane.”

“I’d hardly call Lord Rednorth of Ionis VII, a nice boy down the lane…” quipped Carmella.

“Nh...Yes. Nice man, then?” said the Rear Admiral. Smirking.

There was a snort from the other end of the connection. Followed by an explosion in the distance.

“Seriously though, how are you holding up?”

“Not good...But this is the army, I’ll do what we’re trained to do and soldier on till the job is done.”

With mental acceleration and the clarity of the connection, the call took less than ten seconds time. It was a brief moment of humanity before she gave herself over the madness and hellfire that was surrounding her ship and the many lesser ships she carried within her berth.

The Rear Admiral spared a final thought for her old friend and quickly returned to being every inch the hard-ass professional her underlings knew her to be.

She gave orders through her sprite and her subordinates sent orders to the rest of the ship to make sure they were put into action.

The ship disgorged the smaller vessels and mechs it carried within it. They weren’t flying at full capacity and had only brought what the Arevik system, and the empire as a whole, were willing to shift over. However, that was still a full hundred ships and nearly five hundred mechs entering the fray.

The Valeria herself didn’t just float idle, either. She fired her cannons and lasers. Releasing car-sized bullets that would explode when they reached their targets. Sending out great columns of angry red light that melted through metal and chitin with ease and was barely slowed down by the electro-kinetic shielding that covered most of the enemy vessels.

They responded to calls for help and calls for assisting fire. They sent flounders out. A type of autonomous, non-combat oriented, shuttle. Sending the small, low-profile, ships out to pick up those few of their men who’d gotten their mechs or fighting-fish blown up but managed to escape in time to avoid the blast.

A lucky few would be picked up in time. The rest would have to decide whether to hold out and hope someone noticed them floating out there in the void, or self-terminate before they ran out of air and suffocated inside their suits.

There reached a point where the only communication in the command room came in the form of electronic signals. As the rest of the ship grew more hectic and chaotic, the command room grew increasingly silent.

This trend continued till suddenly every one of her subordinates had a change in expression. The data they were receiving from the ship’s sensors and closed-circuit network that has been created during the roll call showed a strange aberration approaching at high speed.

It emerged from the surface of Harlow and was creating quite the stir behind enemy lines.

“Can we get a large image of what the hell is happening down there?” said the Rear Admiral.

“Yes, ma’am.” said the subordinate. Opening a window in all of their sprites that showed a close-up video feed that was being streamed from a ship that was closer to Harlow than they were.

“Is...Is that a building?” said the Rear-Admiral.

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“Yeeeeeehaw!” hollered Andrew. He still stood on the roof of his and Sophia’s condominium. Riding its tip like a surfer riding the waves.

Sophia was inside controlling the more sensitive systems of their makeshift vessel. Andrew was on the outside supplying most of the power and data, and laws required to make up the vessel’s form.

The “ship” was still largely building shaped but now it had thrusters and cannons and great rectangular extrusion that whipped around it smashing through anything that entered its reach.

Around them flew a great flock of metal angels. “Cherubs”. They were a standardized product that Sophia’s Housecarl Industries would have begun producing next year if the Stygians hadn’t decided to come and burn down Harlow.

Though the mechs themselves were identical, their pilots and the powers they were able to channel through the mechs were not. So each cherub's wings glowed with a different colors and the blasters within their palms created different effects.

Andrew stood on the rooftop not quite dancing. His arms swung about wildly, matching the thrashing extrusions that the building was swinging around. His eyes and hair glowed brighter and brighter, and the aura around the ship and its winged companions grew more intense.

Andrew used a mixture of hand signs and movements to control the tentacles and cannons of his makeshift ship. Part of it was because he’d gotten caught up in the moment, and had watched too much anime as a kid. Part of it was for an actual purpose and from the way he felt when he did it, the movements were actually supporting his magic.

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All the Stygians knew was that something was tearing through their ranks. When one of their commanders finally caught sight of what it was they couldn’t help laughing bitterly to themselves. People spoke of kicking a wasps nest, no one had ever heard of a wasp’s nest flying over on its own to do the kicking.

Oddessa’s starry sea was soon filled with even more explosions. A grand cascade of light, fire, and screaming that was made even more cacophonous as everyone realized there were eerie sounds of laughter echoing through their audio feeds.

The Rear Admiral and all her fellow imperials would watch the aberration fly up from planet Harlow and cut the Stygian forces in half. Blowing apart many of the Stygian's ships and crippling even more.

Once they realized what had happened, the Novem Empire’s forces quickly redoubled their efforts to retake that quadrant of space.

It was only later after the job of beating back the Stygian forces had been done that people would look into what exactly that strange ‘thing’ that had appeared in the middle of the fight had been. And once they did look into it, there weren’t many who’d be able to believe what they found.