It didn't take long for the Aschen to notice the strange vessel appearing in high orbit above Langara. Almost immediately, roughly three hundred individual orbital defense arranged inside battle-clusters of four to six bastion platforms in geosynchronous orbit. It was a synchronous show of massive space stations aligning onto their targets.

There was a panic, millions of souls spread across tens of thousands of kilometers were ushered to readiness in a few moments, one after another, battle-stations in orbit began to adjust their alignments, until they had all come to bear against the single two and a half kilometer ship.

Many of these defense stations were long range mass driver platforms, but roughly a dozen were singularity drivers, massive fifty-kilometer long stations that bore an elongated gun like appearance.

In orbit, thousands of Aschen warships began to move into defensive position, there were only three Reverence IIs that could be spotted among the chaos of the responding home defense fleets. However, a rapid-response task force of three Hastati class cruisers, and two Triarii class fast-attack cruisers were closing on the Cobalt Glaive quickly.

--

Through all this, Admiral Claire Hanley was watching her display, which had lit up with the brillaint blue icons of thousands of Aschen warships. Her expression darkened.

"Transmit a message to the Ministry of Defense." Claire said to EVE. "Have the watchtowers run a full diagnostic on their planck systems, and prepare an intercept course. All hands action stations!" Claire called out, the low rumble of her Reverence II lurching forward was felt as a reverberation throughout the entire superstructure.

"Esteem Actual, this is Commander Jensen, of the Hour of Need! I'm on an intercept course to the unidentified vessel, estimated time to intercept, two minutes!"

Hanley nodded in response as a transmission came in from the Ministry of Defense.

"Admiral Hanley, Sitrep." Minister Chaska said, as her face flickered into view as a three-dimensional hologram in front of Hanley.

"Unidentified Xenos vessel somehow managed to slip through perimeter defenses, fleet's moving to intercept." Hanley responded.

"Keep me updated, I'll inform the Emperor." Chaska responded, and then terminated the link.

"EVE, Transmit hostile challenge and ID." Hanley ordered.

The flickering hologram of EVE nodded, and a message was transmitted to the Cobalt Glaive.

"Unidentified vessel, this is the Home defense fleet of the United Aschen Empire, lower your shields, disengage your engines, disarm your weapons, state your intentions, and prepare for boarding action. You have thirty seconds to comply, failure to do so will result in the immediate destruction of your vessel."

Marlene quietly raised her eyebrow, She hadn't peered into the distant future, to do so would require months of careful meditation. Her cursory glances into the coming years were somewhat reassuring, but it seemed Marlene needed more data.

"Asylian physiology perceives time differently, I sensed the temporal disconnect when I was in proximity to the station, your mind can process information far quicker than the human mind can, moments stretched to hours."

Marlene pushed herself away from the console, and muttered as the woman's appearance changed. "Well... we aren't exactly ready to make our little video, I still have many questions for you, more for EVE than for myself." Marlene briefly checked the clock, ten minutes had elapsed, which meant there was twenty three minutes left until they performed another random jump.

None the less, Marlene appeared quite intrigued at the level of molecular manipulation this strange entity was capable of. Marlene watched him influence Halena's physical appearance.

"Typically prisoners are deprived of both food, and sleep, you might want to have your friend add that to your changes." Marlene said, tapping her chin, before she started towards the conference room. Interrogation cells wouldn't do here, she would treat Halena as a guest, so long as she remained cooperative.

"So, I need to know what we're up against if this goes south, I'm not so much concerned with what the Asylians are capable of, we'll get into that later, but I need to know precisely what the Asylian Empire knows concerning the capabilities of the Aschen Empire." Marlene said, as she walked, but that path was interrupted by an IIA Agent, whom had been walking briskly to catch up.

"Director." The man said, handing Marlene a simple piece of paper. Marlene's eyes gazed down at the paper, and they narrowed, the Anquietas text read one simple word.

'Shimshon'

Folding the small piece of paper, Marlene approached a door, and gestured for Halena, and Tolend to step inside. Inside the room was a round table with six metal chairs, a sparsely decorated conference room.

"Do you require sustenance?" Marlene asked. "It's going to be a long night, I can have the cook prepare something for us while we talk."

The Tethys Ocean was known to be a cold, and unforgiving ocean among the inhabitants of Langara, a planet that was important in both Galactic Commerce, and the Empire of which it was the seat of power.

The sky was blue, and the harsh sun beat down on the ocean, the air was calm, and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. It was a good day to fish, and that's exactly what the fishermen of the MV Coho, an unassuming fishing ship happened to be doing.



Fishing nets were cast, and the sound of a bell filled the air.

A gutteral cry almost immediately followed. "Air adhart làn!"

The grizzled captain cried from his post within the helm station of the ship's pilothouse. "Sinn a 'dol a tharraing a-slaodaidh math an-diugh!" The Captain cried out once more, while the boat continued to move underway.

One of the crewman spotted the figure in the water not shortly after, and his hand outstretched, the ragged redhead in a bright yellow rain slicker cried out. "Corp san uisge!" He shouted.

Another voice rang up. "Dè?" A second fisherman asked, and a small group began to gather on the main deck of the fishing boat.

"Hyperdrive stands ready!" The Bridge officer called out.

"Sir! I'm getting increased readouts across the board! Something's pushing us away!" Another officer called out.

Hiroki breathed a sigh of relief.

The shrill whine of the hyperdrive continued to fill the superstructure of the Soja, and in sheer defiance of Eras, Hiroki called out.

"Execute Hyperspace jump!"



Lines filled the display screens of the Soja, and Hiroki braced himself. The ship lurched forward with all it's might, and in an instant, it wrenched itself free from Eras' grasp.

"The Taiyou won't likely do anything until their Emperor has recovered." Prince commented, while Marlene nodded in agreement. "Many high level officials of the Taiyou Government were killed, or wounded during an ambush on a diplomatic mission, it's largely paralyzed the Taiyou government, and left it's administration in the hands of the Shogunate, and their youngest princess." Marlene explained, waving her hand as a hologram of Aeka Takayama flitted into view.

"The Daughter of late Emperor Nobuo Takayama, and former Admiral Kendra Shaw." Marlene said, sweeping her hand, as another photograph flitted into view, of a woman that had a lot of Taiyou features, and she was wearing a uniform that was unrecognizable, it was an Aschen uniform from before the rise of the Empire.

"The Taiyou military is massive, and it can easily fight this uprising, and assist us, it's not exactly a gambit your leadership has thought through, but that presents us with a unique opportunity." Prince said, agreeing with Halena. "Astralpolitically, the Taiyou won't lose out on their interests in this galaxy, Our alliance with them is merely one of convenience." Prince added, turning his attention to Marlene.

"Do what you must, Director. I'll do what I can with the Quorum, and the Ministry of Defense to minimize resistance, and loss of life. We'll focus our efforts on mitigating the damage to our infrastructure from Asylian strike forces."

"If there's nothing else, I'll return to Langara." The older man said, while Marlene took another bite of her food. "There's a lot of things I'm sure we can offer." Prince added.

After she finished her food, she waved her hand, and an Adjutant stepped into the room.

"Director, the stage is set, Holding room C." He reported, offering a salute.