A/N: HEY EVERYONE IM HAPPY TO START THE NEXT BOOK!

THE RISE OF THE GREY IMPERIUM!

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Book 2 – Chapter 1

As they jumped through dimensions both ship’s lights swapped over to a sort of light purple light, signaling that they were in a dimensional jump. It was a special feeling, once they arrived they could feel the difference.

*Dimensional Jump Completed.* Eden announced as the lights returned to normal.

“Helm, begin scans. I want to know where we are and to find the nearest habitable planet if possible.” Leo directed.

People scrambled to get to work as they were now on the clock, scans from both ships were sent out in hopes of finding anything. According to the dimensional jump and Eden, they were on the outskirts of the Koprulu sector, near the Umojan Protectorate and the Terran Dominion. Where exactly between the two they weren’t sure. After a little bit of waiting they realized they were in what would be called the safe zone. They were actually at the corner of both civilizations and it was actually ideal for both of them to begin their little settlement before the Dominion took notice and to build reputation with the Umojans.

“Sir, we’ve found a planet that tops the list and matches our requirements. The planet is 30% water with similar atmosphere to earth. Atmosphere is good, temperature is a bit cooler but within acceptable ranges, Life forms are mostly non-threatening. Eden recommends the massive increase of greenhouse gasses to raise temperature. The only issue is the size.” A young Ensign reported.

“Good, take us there. Once we establish orbit I want a full detail on the planet, minerals, possible settlement sites, and ecosystem analysis. The works. After that I also want 20 million replicators in box form ready if we decide to make it our new home. Now open a channel for every single person to hear.” Leo said to his helm.

“Channel is ready, sir.”

“Everyone, as you can tell we have arrived in our new universe. As of now you are no longer from any country of Earth, you are now free from those bonds. As of this very moment we are one people and our nation is not a place but an idea... the idea that we all deserve to live. We all want that and therefore we will fight for what we believe in. With that notion home will never be where we are but who we are with. As of now, we are all men and women of ‘The Grey Imperium’.” Leo addressed them.

As the link closed Leo asked his pilot, “How long to reach our destination?”

“Thirty-two minutes sir.”

“Good, I want all of this ready by the time we arrive there. How’s the hyperspace drive?”

“Entering Hyperspace in ten seconds.”

“Good.”

As the ships pulled into hyperspace, people began moving to compiling the information that Leo asked for. People on the ship had been trained intensively for the better part of three years. A lot of them were geeky military personnel that saw Leo as the man who gave people like them a chance. Collecting sensor data, rendering 3D holographic projections, and determining clear locations for settlements wasn’t very easy from a few hundred light-years away. Yet as they exited hyperspace Leo got that information and more.

The planet was about twice the size of earth and twice the gravity, luckily they had gravity control technology. After they established orbit around the planet, the deep planetary scans began. They searched for everything, stable bedrock for settlements, large mineral deposits, atmospheric pressure and content, every piece of information regarding the planet and possible colonization was recorded and processed.

“Ok people! We got lucky!” Leo announced to everyone.

“Prepare five replicator drops; four will make settlements, while the last one begins replications for massive mining operations. We’re going to name this planet… Olympus, our new home. Have the replicators beamed down as soon as they’re ready. Contact the engineers on the Prometheus to prep for beaming and supply drops.” Leo ordered.

Olympus’ scans revealed several interesting things about the planet. The terrain was very similar to mid-west America, a little of everything. The four settlements would be located in the plains, each roughly 200 miles apart from each other. The good thing was that the replicators would build roads in between each settlement for ease of travel. Beside good settlement spots it also did a mineralogical survey of the planet and they were lucky, very lucky. The planets size warranted them the ability to do massive amounts of mining without too much worry, mostly due to the advanced mining techniques of the replicators.

One element, the famed blue mineral crystals of the Starcraft universe was detected and would be collected later for study. No doubt that it would end up being an important resource. The next thing was the discovery of Naquadah and Trinium, of which there were tons and tons of it here for some reason. Not that anyone was complaining, with the combination of the two elements they would be able to produce very advanced alloys. With those alloys they would be able to produce ships that would equal the Asgard and Atlanteans, problem was that it would take time that they didn’t have.

“Next I want the replicator managers to be beamed down once the replicators have cleared an area. Make sure that each colony has enough space to sustain and also grow. We may be taking in refugees in the future and I want them all ready for expansion.” Leo continued.

Replicator managers were people that were granted access to control replicators to a certain degree. Leo decided that we would need a more believable reason as for why he could control the replicators. So he created a crystal chip that was inserted into his brain which would grant him more fluid control. From this little invention he made more that would let others interface with them and allow them to be used to various purposes. They were given permission to do only a few things, build, mine, deconstruct, and restrain. If anyone tried to order the replicators to do anything else without proper authorization, they were immediately restrained by the replicators.

“Lastly, I want us to search for some rich asteroid fields for mining later. We’ll use those materials for our future space port. Now let’s get to work.” Leo finished.

On the Prometheus Sadia received the green light that they would be settling and ordered her crew to begin preparations. Over the last five years she had been trained to step up in leadership roles, something she took too very well. While Leo would be leading the settlement and try to bring it into a fully operational society, she would be managing the people who would help him do so. She was the emotion to his logic and that suited her just fine.

After a few minutes they got word that the replicators had already landed and began clearing sites already for people after the gravity control was installed. Colonists on the Prometheus were already clamoring about how quickly they found a planet. Over the last couple years some fanatics of Leo had started pushing him as a figure head of a joke religion. Leo and Sadia heard this but brushed it off as nothing too big a deal. However what they didn’t know was that it had been dubbed an actual belief and called the Church of the Lightbringer. On the ships themselves, over a third of them were believers. In this new religion Leo was the living God of a religion and its sole worship.

After an hour one settlement got its antigravity and had a replicator manager sent in. Each settlement for about a million replicators used for construction. Each manager in charge of building the settlements were civil engineers and had spent several years developing simulated societies on different terrains. Today they were using some of those simulations on how to start each settlement. One was using a ring method, while another was using a square method, in the end though each city would be tested and then modified for future worlds.

The other replicators were sent hundreds of miles away, where they would immediately start replicating until they reached their maximum of 100 million blocks. They were each replicator was assigned to build two other units of replicators, before starting to mine key elements. These replicators required no manager as they were directly controlled by Leo. In just a two days they would be able to reach max numbers, and maximum allowed mining for that specific mining area.

At five hours after established orbit, the settlements were ready for their first settlers. People beamed down in groups of forty every few minutes. The first groups were logistics, the people in front of managing housing, food, and supplies. After that were the technicians, people in charge of installing power and more detailed users of the replicators in building key structures, then finally were the common settlers.

Settlers in the sense just that, people who were selected from all walks of life. From manual labor to skilled negotiators, everyone was a possible candidate. There were also a fair number of children included as settlers, they were actually twenty five percent of them. Leo had a strong belief that educating the young would lead him into prosperity. He may have wanted a utopia but he knew that would never happen, so he settled for efficient. He made sure to recruit specialist from all over the world. From farmers to botanists, accountants to economists, bank tellers to business men, and construction workers to architects, specialists from every field were recruited.

Before they left everyone was granted what Leo called a credit chip, which would hold their funds called IC, Imperial Currency. In order to do that Leo would need raw materials to trade, preferably with the ‘Umojan Protectorate’. After that the economy would be established and they could start relations and begin friendships. Sadly, the Koprulu Sector had lots of unfriendly people.