Book 1: Chapter 33 – “The Story of how an Adventurer Town was conquered by an Army of Insane ‘Ants’ – [Part 2.5]”

Alpha stared up at the large, blood-covered man with a mix of respect and annoyance. It always had to be the hard way.

The Heavy-Class shock bands had been designed and rated for species with abnormally resistant physical bodies, such as the Vidaasi or Kerits. Of course, there were always exceptions; General Uriel had proven his meddle on a bet once (Alpha was still paying that one off), as had several known and illegal cybernetic enhancements. Although those were rare, very few could understand Aviana tech well enough to counter it.

The Aviana, the species once named "Humpback Whales" on Earth-Prime, were a cornerstone of the foundation and the source of most of their technology. The Aviana had a gift for unparalleled technology within the known Galaxy, and even the organic Aviana Cities that made up individual "whales" were still a mystery to even the greatest of Federation minds.

Historians had long wondered if the Aviana had not been in hiding for millennia on Earth-Prime from the Hunters (long before any other Sapient species was even aware of them), what kind of even greater golden age they might have had... or if they would have just been another tyrant lording over all others.

Regardless, the fact that a primitive Human could resist such a device by virtue of their body alone was impressive. Hell, it was unprecedented. Were Alpha at his peak, with all his equipment and resources, the man might have put up a fight, though Alpha would have won in the end. As he was now, Alpha was aware he'd have to get... creative. If Urick Stonewall couldn't be controlled by force, then there were other methods he could try.

Captain Stonewall was the first to break the awkward silence.

"Well then... shall we start with Introductions? I am Urick Stonewall. Guard Captain and Guardian of Halirosa, as well as one of the five SS-Ranked Adventurers with the Tri-continental Adventurer's Guild. There are some other official titles mixed in there from various nations and such, but those are the most relevant, I believe."

A slight smirk crossed his lips as he leaned forward, towering over the silver "Ant." Even if the name "Urick Stonewell" wasn't as well known outside of Halirosa and the Awakened Beast Clan, there were few who didn't understand the significance of the words "SS-Ranked Adventurer."

Technically, the Tri-continental Adventurer's Guild only recognized ranks up to S-Rank, and even that was reserved for their most powerful and influential members. SS-Rank was more of an honorary title than anything, referring to the strongest S-ranked Adventurers of a

Generation. Each were powerhouses on par with the leaders of the Great Powers themselves. Some speculated they were even greater, as, in all of recorded history, not a single SS-Rank Adventurer had ever failed to "Break the Firmament" and Ascend.

Suffice it to say, despite the whereabouts of only "The Blood-splattered Stone Wall" and "Cider the Peacekeeper" being known, the title was well feared worldwide for a reason.

Unfortunately for Captain Stonewall, Alpha hated paperwork, so most of the more detailed information his Sub-AIs had managed to gather was firmly in the "still needs processing" pile. He'd get to it... eventually... maybe...

Thus, Alpha's response, or rather, lack of one, came as both a shock and a slight wound to his pride.

"Nice to meet you, Captain. I am Special Extraterrestrial Annexation Unit-01, Lieutenant Colonel ALPHA-555-12-4412 0f the Third Intragalactic Federation, and Commander for the 3003rd Federation Vanguard Battalion of the Galactic Unification Army."

Alpha returned the Captain's grin in the way only an Ant comprised of millions of nanobots could,

"But you can just call me Alpha..."

Captain Stonewall narrowed his eyes as he stared down at the strange creature. No, he could only assume it was some form of advanced puppet from what he'd seen. Then there was the strange name and titles, filled with words Captain Stonewall didn't understand. Was this "Alpha" simply screwing with him? Purposefully spewing gibberish in an attempt to confuse his? Or could this be a new power, making a push? He'd never heard of this "Third Intragalactic Federation," be they Clan, Nation, or Sect, though new powers often strung up like weeds... and had a tendency to be crushed like them if they reached beyond their means.

Unless they had a backer...

Was Avalon finally making a move after all this time? They were the only ones with such complicated puppets, as far as Urick knew. That wasn't even mentioning the Artifact that nearly put Him, of all people, down. But no, that couldn't be right. As far as anyone was aware, the Grand Seer was still in isolation, and Avalon itself hadn't moved from its current location in nearly five decades. Even the slightest twitch from them would have sent ripples through the upper power rungs of the continent.

Countless thoughts and possibilities raced through Captain Stonewall's mind as he tried to shift through the little information he'd gathered, crafting theories based on what was and wasn't said. If the being called "Alpha" WAS part of a new power that had the guts to target Halirosa, Stonewall would make sure they understood what a poor choice that had been. However, if they had some kind of backing, he needed to know who and why. In the end, Captain Stonewall came to a single conclusion; he needed more information. He needed to keep Alpha talking, to drag out everything he could.

"Well, Lieutenant Colonel Alpha, would you please do me the honor of explaining why you and your 'Federation' not only attacked an Adventurer's Guild sanctioned raid but kidnapped several high-ranking adventures as well as Senator Ashdale? That's not even mentioning marching an army into our City and holding an entire clan hostage for an unknown reason!?"

With each word he spoke, both his voice and spiritual pressure, till several of the weaker staff had fainted by the last, and even the two guards at Ashdale's side stiffened unnaturally. Much to Captain Stonewall's annoyance, however, the puppet seemed unperturbed. More strangeness. It didn't matter if the puppet was controlled by Mental Power, Spiritual Energy, or even Mana; at that level of suppression, there should have been SOME interference or reaction. Again, this was starting to feel more and more beyond some upstart power with more pride than brains should be capable of.

The Ant shook its head and chuckled,

"You seem to be misunderstanding something, Captain Stonewall. You're the ones who attacked US first. We were perfectly content to remain where we were... "

Alpha mentally added a 'for now'...

"... then along came your merry band of psychos and started slaughtering our cute, innocent Ants. Tsk, Tsk, for shame."

Urick slammed a fist into the table,

"Innocent Ants, my backside! Did you honestly expect us to ignore a potential natural disaster right on our doorsteps?! Do you have ANY idea what kind of damage a Bomber Ant colony that size could do the region?!"

Alpha, in fact, did not.

While he was currently writing up an ecology report on his "Nitro-Pots," they were mostly still a mystery to him. He wasn't as foolish as not to understand the potential for their uncontrolled growth. Even more mundane ants were famous for their ability to multiply, spread and consume. He'd been working on plans to control the colony's growth and populations, but the seriousness in Stonewell's voice caused Alpha to bump those plans several places up the priority list.

Not that he'd need to know that, mind you.

Alpha's response came back slow and even.

"Be that as it may, the Federation doesn't tolerate attacks on those under its protection. Let alone from its own people."

Captain Stonewall paused at that, his brow lifting slightly, wondering if he'd misheard.

"Both the Adventurer's Guild and Halirosa are independent institutions. We answer to no greater power than our own."

Ant-Alpha raised his front two legs and cheered.

"Ah! but as I said before, Captain Stonewall. That's not true. You just don't know it yet! Boys! Did you set up the projectors, as I asked?"

The Dragonkin nodded while the other man snapped to attention, raising his hand in salute.

"YES, SIR! We set it up just like you said before the meeting started".

"Good, good. Let's begin."

With that, the man withdrew a flat piece of metal from the pocket of his uniform and pressed a button.

Captain Stonewall's body tensed as four objects he's previously noticed but dismissed as ornamental whirled to life, a strange light flashing in their center. Was this another trap? How had he not sensed any energy signatures from them?

Before he could gather his senses and put up a defense, however, the room vanished.

In its place, the group floated in an endless, black void, the distant pinpricks of stars clearer and brighter than Urick ever remembered seeing them.

An unknown Manor on the outskirts of Halirosa

The servant barely managed to duck as the crystal glass soared from across the room, shattering on the far wall and its glowing contents slowly dripped down, staining the expensive artwork it had hit.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT WITH THEM?!"

"I-I'm s-Sorry, sir! But a-all reports from our spies say they've n-not seen the Young Master with the returning group. T-The Ashdale compound is also on lockdown, and we've not been able to get - AHHHRRAUAUUUGGGHHH!!!"

The servant's body burst into white-hot flames. However, when the flames died, all that remained was a small pile of ashes and a slight singe mark on the expensive hardwood. Silently, an older human, Butler, walked from the side of the desk he'd been standing beside and swept up the ashes into a waiting container.

The older man turned back to the still panting Roosterkin behind the desk, his voice gravely and refined.

"Sir, I'd like to remind you that the Senate has a meeting in a few hours. It might not be prudent to exhaust yourself like this. I'm sure the Young Master is perfectly safe."

"Don't tell me what to do! *cough cough*."

The old Roosterkin started to cough, wiping away a tiny streak of blood and ash from his beak.

"Just find my Son! And leave the Senate to me!"

The Butler didn't bother to say another word, only bowed and turned to leave.

"And find out what that Bastard Ashdale is up to!"

The Roosterkin yelled as the Butler closed the door.

The man waited several seconds for the Butler's steps to echo down the hall before stepping out from behind his desk and walking towards the far wall. He stared at the wall in silence for a short while before sending a small pulse of Mana towards it. As soon as the Mana made contact, a spinning sigil lit up, and part of the wall slid away to reveal a dark tunnel leading underground.

The man took a deep breath, once more coughing out a bit of ash and blood, before stepping inside, a shaking clawed hand pressed against the wall to guide him.

After walking for nearly twenty minutes, the tunnel opened up into a vast, open cavern, half of which was filled with ice-cold water. The man stopped, hesitating for a moment, before removing a small crystal from his pocket. He filled it with Mana before tossing it into the dark waters.

For a long moment, nothing happened, then without warning, the stillness of the water was broken as a figure pushed it away from below the surface. At first glance, it appeared to be the upper portion of a young female human's head, though their amber-colored eyes glowed softly in the darkness, as pure white hair, longer than any human's, spilled out along the water's surface, like a spider's web.

When she spoke, though her mouth was below the surface, the voice that rang out was clear and melodic, the voice of an angel.

"You caaaaalled, Loooord Phoenix?

The Roosterkin looked down at the figure, beak turned up in contempt, even as his hands shook.

"Hag! I... I'm ready to negotiate. Let's hear what you have to say..."

The figure was silent for a moment before it rose further out of the water, grinning with a mouth far too wide for its beautiful face, a grin filled with needle-like, pitch-black teeth.

"Gooooood..."

The BI Cygni System

"How the hell did we miss this one?! What are the eggheads doing?!"

General Uriel Haldorðrs slammed both of his fists into the console in front of him, causing the 3D display of the battlefield to shake slightly.

Si'dia stood by his side, calm as she skimmed through the tablet in her hand. She had long ago gotten used to the General's outbursts. He was a like a Cactus, spiky and loud on the outside but a big softy on the inside.

Not that the cowering Officers on the other side of the display knew that. Though their fear was understandable, the battle ... was not going well.

"To be fair, Bi Cygni is massive. Even in the 300 years since we've started to mine the Star, we've only thoroughly explored maybe 10% of the immediate space. Couple that with the odd jamming signals the Star emits preventing more wide sweeping scans, and I'm not surprised something slipped by unnoticed this long. It's unfortunate it took the loss of an entire mining station for us to notice it finally... "

General Haldorðrs ground his teeth as he watched the display. Thousands of Battleships and hundreds of thousands of Fighters swarmed the small planetoid in front of them. Well, "small" compared to the Star stretched as far as the eye could see behind it. In reality, the planetoid was several times larger than even World Break's factory, on which Central Command currently watched, on the outskirts of the battle. And that was the issue they were currently dealing with.

Even as they watched, there was a ripple from the planet's surface, and a gargantuan tentacle rose, swiping several battleships and hundreds of Fighters from the air.

"DAMMIT! IT'S A BLOODY MUSHROOM! WHY ARE WE HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE?!"

General Haldorðrs roared, shaking the room with his fury.

Si'dia, as calm as always, was the one to respond.

"To be fair, it's a highly advanced, planet-eating Slime-mold-turned-Bioweapon, not a 'mushroom.'"

General Haldorðr's eyes snapped to Si'dia, wondering for the ten thousandth time if he could learn to kill someone with a glare. Si'dia, for her part, simply smiled.

"I don't care WHAT you call it; I WANT IT DEAD!"

This time it was one of the Officers who spoke up.

"Th-That's the issue, Sir. The way these things work, we CAN'T kill it, not without cracking open the planet. What we see on the surface is only a tiny part of it. Its core is buried at the center of the planet. If we can't - "

"Then why don't we?! What the hell is the point of bringing in a Planet Cracker if we can't bloody well use it?!"

The General once more roared.

"B-but Sir, the costs ar-"

"THE COSTS BE DAMED! Federation Soldiers are dying by the Hundreds every minute, and you're worried about the COSTS? What happens if this thing gets out of the System? If it finds a NEW world to eat?!"

"Sir, even if I agree, we don't have the Authority to...

Suddenly, a new voice spoke up. The voice was calm, cold, and deep. When it spoke, it did so with authority and absoluteness, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

"There is no need to worry about that, Solider. I've already spoken to the Senate, and the use of 'The Nutcracker' has been authorized. Mr. Hoffmann, you're good to begin Firing preparations."

As the voice spoke, every being on the command deck, save for the General and Si'dia, froze before snapping to attention, bodies tense with fear.

A second voice, gravely and older sounding, responded, coming from the intercoms.

"Aye, ya shadowy Bastard, about time you did your job! A'right, everyone, let's get this show on the road! Beginning the firing sequence for 'The Nutcraker.' Everyone to their stations!"

As soon as the voice finished, sirens began to sound from every corner of the small Planet-Factory. The Officers scrambled, each rushing to their designated positions as they tried to ready themselves for what came next. Soon, the General and Si'dia were the only ones left at the viewing station. General Haldorðr rose, a slight smile crossing his scaly lips.

It was about time.

The following 30 minutes were a whirlwind of activity as orders were exchanged and positions taken. The battle around the planetoid pulled back, with all available ships pulling far behind the Planet-Factory that was World Break. When nothing was left within reach, the giant planet-eating bioweapon turned its attention toward the only other thing nearby. The kilometer-long, spore-like projectiles were easily blocked and then incinerated by World Break's point defenses, even as beams of solar flames lashed out at the tentacles that tried to latch onto the smaller Planet-Factory.

If one happened to be on one of the ships watching the battle, they would have seen a marvelous site at that moment. The softly glowing seas of blue that covered most of World Break's surface suddenly went dark, and thousands of glowing veins raced across his surface, pooling towards a single point near the side facing the bioweapon.

Then it happened.

In the blink of an eye, a beam of unfathomable power lanced out from World Break's core, slamming into the planet-sized bioweapon.

The creature reared back in pain, tens of thousands of tentacles waving wildly as slowly the bioweapon and even the planet itself beneath it became blackened and charred. Over the next few moments, the blackened surface of the planet began to expand outward until, finally, from the point of impact, cracks began to form.

The Psionic scream that washed over the fleet as "The Nutcracker's" beam made contact with the bioweapon's core would later be reported as incapacitating nearly 85% of personnel.

The explosion that followed would take them all by surprise.

As the bioweapon's core detonated, World Break would do all he could to bring up the primary shields. However, after firing "The Nutcracker," energy was scarce. The Planet-Factory was blasted with billions of tons of debris as the large planetoid splintered into fragments, shotgunning in all directions.

Several hours later, after everything was finalized, the General and Si'dia stood near a hologram of World Break's 'Mr. Hoffmann persona, as they took his report. It was bad; World Break reported nearly a 15% loss, which would take months of intense repairs to correct. Luckily, the majority of the fleet had been far enough away from the explosion to escape severe damage. At the very least, there hadn't been any further casualties.

World Break had one final thing to report as they began to wrap things up. He seemed to hesitate slightly before finally speaking.

"While we don't know what caused the explosion, per se, the eggheads have reported something strange. At the time of the explosion, a signal was sent out. It was similar to the jamming signal emitted by the Star, but it had been modified somehow..."

Si'dia raised an eyebrow.

"Modified, how?"

World Break paused.

"... That's the thing, we can't really tell. When it passed through the Factory, it shut down the vast majority of our sensors and equipment. Even things that SHOULD have been shielded against every known jamming we could conceive. The Power-Core, Processing, Data, all of it was shut down for a good fifteen minutes before anyone could react... I..."

Si'dia frowned.

"Out with it."

World Break sighed.

"Even... the Prison..."

There was a clattering as Si'dias' tablet fell to the floor, the woman out the doors before it even touched the ground.

General Haldorðrs stared as he watched her rush out the door, a deep frown forming as he spoke to the AI beside him

"This is bad, isn't it?"

World Break was silent for only a moment before he responded.

"Very..."