Grand Most High of Savash Mu'ulatu'uk trembled as he stood behind the last of his guard. Twelve Lanaktallan Executor Military Force warriors, clad in the sleek black armor of the Executor forces, all carrying plasma rifles as they knelt down facing the doorway.

The mansion shuddered as a flaming ball, shaped to look like a screaming Terran skull, dropped from the sky and hit the mansion grounds, exploding in green and purple flames that devoured the few Lanaktallan combatants left but left the greenery and the statuary intact. The mangonel that launched the fireball creaked as the saurian soldier in charge cracked his whip to encourage the short greenskinned creatures to haul on the ropes.

Mu'ulatu'uk didn't look out the window, as blast shutters had sealed them off, leaving them blank. The smartglass was cracked to prevent it from coming on and showing enemy propaganda.

The Grand Most High Executor looked at Mu'ulatu'uk, his tendril crests shaking in a combination of outrage and fear. "How did this happen?" U'ustela'ak asked, his helmet open to show his fearful face.

"Because we're losing the war," Mu'ulatu'uk said. His hand went to his flank, where the wound had been cured by quick heal compounds and quick work by one of the few remaining medical technicians that still obeyed him.

He'd been shot with a wooden projectile tipped with sharpened rock called a 'flint arrow', that had driven deep into the muscles and punctured his abdominal wall.

U'ustela'ak looked at Du'ulyss, the Military Most High. The Grand Most High of the Unified Military Forces had been killed when a screaming green maniac had buried an huge ornate axe in the Lanaktallan's chest, the axe ripping through the high tech armor as if it was tissue. That left Du'ulyss in charge of what few military forces remained.

"How did your forces fail to such extant?" U'ustela'ak asked.

"My forces? What about yours, oh high and mighty Executor? We both had tanks, aerospace fighters, graviton strikers, armored vehicles, artillery, and here we both are, hiding in the System Most High's office hoping that we don't get killed," Du'ulyss said.

Mu'ulatu'uk noticed the Military Most High was only wearing flank covering, sash, and satchel, not armor, not carrying a weapon. Just dressed as if he was going to be attending a meeting.

The mansion shuddered again as a flaming screaming Terran skull slammed into the ferrocrete and exploded, cracking the faux-marble veneer.

"They're cheating, that's how they must be winning. Cheating somehow," U'ustela'ak whined, wringing all four hands.

Mu'ulatu'uk wanted to smack the Executor.

The sound of plasma rifles firing came through the thick door and the last three government officials on the planet stared at the door, wringing their hands.

Du'ulyss spit his cud in the reclaimator and got off the chair, struggling to his feet. "It sounds as if they are here," he said.

An explosion caused dust to raise from the carpet as well as to slowly drift down from the ceiling.

The dozen Executor troops licked their lips and tendrils and readied their plasma rifles.

"The door is molecularly bonded, there's no way they can breach it," U'ustela'ak said, trying to sound confident.

"Did you send them a strongly worded missive informing them of that fact?" Mu'ulatu'uk sneered before he could stop himself.

"I don't see you out there defeating them," U'ustela'ak snarled back. "What witty tricks of planetary bureaucracy are you planning on performing to save your skin?"

The twelve Executor troops began trembling. One wondered why he was about to die defending three idiots.

"I should have surrendered months ago," Mu'ulatu'uk lamented.

There was another explosion, this one closer to the door.

"Get ready men, here they come," U'ustela'ak snapped.

Du'ulyss shook out his hand as he closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten.

A thunderous impact shook the door. Then another. And another. Black mist puffed out around the edges of the double doors, including down the center line, as another impact shook it.

The lights in the room flickered twice.

One of the Executors depowered his rifle and loosened his grip. A plan had formed. It wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan all the same.

He'd really like to go home.

The door creaked and cracks extended even further.

The door made crackling sounds and the leading edge of an axe bit through, showering the inside of the room with fragments of wood.

"So much for your 'impenetrable door'," Du'ulyss sneered.

An ornately etched and inlaid sword blade punctured the door, right above the locks. It twisted and the doors flexed.

The doors sprang open. On the other side were a pair of Savashan in heavy plated archaic armor in the middle, two massive green skinned bipeds flanking them, and a pair of tall Terran women with jet black skin, white hair, and a scandalous amount of skin revealed.

Eleven of the Executor troops opened fire.

The twelfth dropped his rifle and laced his fingers together, left lower hand to right upper, left upper to right lower, in an awkward movement.

The plasma rounds hit round shielded that flared to life when the plasma packets hit. Instead of fireballs erupting at the impact point, it was bright flashes with sparkles. The shields were multicolored, covered in runes, and were obviously being emitted from the female Terrans somehow, who were chanting and moving their hands in a complex pattern.

The two Savashan and greenskin bipeds jumped into the room, swinging their swords -in the case of the Shavashan- and axes -in the case of the greenskins--, wading into the Executor troops.

U'ustela'ak got a single shot off with his plasma pistol before a stroke of a sword cut off both arms at the shoulder on the right side of his torso. The return stroke opened his belly, parting Executor armor as if it was tissue.

Nobody else got off any shots and the four weapon wielders covered the room in blood and gore in less than ten seconds.

Mu'ulatu'uk found the point of a bloody sword pressed against the bottom of his jaw, forcing him to lift his head slightly to avoid having the point slide into his flesh.

"Tell your men to stand down. It's over," the red scaled Savashan growled.

"What do wit dis one? He no fight," one of the big green ones said, reaching out and poking Du'ulyss in the chest with a thick finger hard enough that Du'ulyss stepped backwards a single step.

"Spare him," the red scaled one said.

"Dis one no fight," the other greenskin said. "Spare too?"

"Yes," the red scaled Savashan said. He looked up at Mu'ulatu'uk. "Order your military forces to stand down, save their lives."

"And let you butcher the civilian populace in retribution?" Mu'ulatu'uk choked out. "Never."

The other Shvashan, with black scales instead of red, chuckled. "Even at sword point he still tries to bargain."

"Why would harm come to the Lanaktallan subjects? Her Eternal Elven Grace, Divine Light of the Aether, Lady of Magic and Power, Queen Radosalvov the Eternal and Graceful had commanded that the peaceful commonfolk Lanaktallan of this world are beneath her protection, glory, and rulership," one of the tall female Terrans with the pointed ears stated. "A ruler as wise, beautiful, and just as Queen Radosalvov cherishes her subjects all, not just the ones who look as she does."

Mu'ulatu'uk swallowed thickly, feeling the sword point dig into his throat. "Spare my wife, my colts and fillies," he said. "Please, in the name of your queen."

The red scaled kobold stared for a long moment, smoke oozing out of his nostrils. Finally he nodded. "I will do so."

"You may kill me once I order them to stand down," Mu'ulatu'uk said. He pointed at the comlink. "May I?"

The red scaled Savashan lowered the sword, moving to the side.

Mu'ulatu'uk got on the comlink, ordering the last of the troops still fighting across the large mega-continent to surrender. Over the next ten minutes each unit signaled acknowledgement. Finally the last one signaled that they had surrendered.

"The fighting has ceased, milord," one of the pointed eared females said.

Mu'ulatu'uk stared at the Terran's exposed skin. It was as black as night, as black as space. As if she was carved from living onyx. She wore lavender lipstick and eyeshadow, highlighting her pale eyes and bone white hair.

"I am ready," Mu'ulatu'uk said, tearing his gaze away from the Terran female. "Please, make it quick."

The red saurian turned and looked at Mu'ulatu'uk. "I'm not going to kill you."

"You aren't?" Mu'ulatu'uk frowned. "If our situations were reversed..."

"But I am not you. I display my strength and power through mercy to the defeated," the Savashan said.

"Then what will become of me?" Mu'ulatu'uk asked.

The Savashan pointed at the window. "Open those, if you would."

One of the Terrans waved her hands and chanted. Mu'ulatu'uk saw a glowing nimbus surround her hands, saw runes pop up and vanish as her fingers passed through them. The windows began to glow until, with a soft sigh, the smartglass and the shutters both collapsed into ash.

Sunlight flooded in, along with a breeze. It smelled of soot and ash, of scorched metal. The lawn was pristine, just a few Lanaktallan skeletons here and there, completely cleaned of flesh.

"You shall dwell here, within your residence, with servants I shall hire to provide for your needs," the red one said. "A King in Exile, held abay only by my might and power, by the power and steadfastness of my allies, ready at any moment to take back his throne and restore his tyrannical rule over all the subjects of this planet."

The phrasing was archaic, but Mu'ulatu'uk understood it.

"What of the people?" Mu'ulatu'uk asked.

"There shall be much changed on this world," the red one removed his helmet, revealing a scarred snout. "As I learned beneath the firm gentle guiding hand of Queen Radosalvov, at times the best way to move forward is to return to the beginning."

He looked out the window. "For my people to flourish, to grow, they must be tended to."

"Wat bout dis one?" one of the green males asked.

"He shall be that former System Most High's personal body guard, entrusted with that personage's protection and safety," the red one said.

"Will you adhere to our agreement, Dreaded Dragon Knight Aastruk?" the more thick bodied of the Terran females asked. "Will you honor your promises to House Nazza'atama'azipan?"

The red scaled on, Aastruk, nodded slowly. "The Savashan people keep their promises, Matron Swi'izlshti'ik."

There was silence for a long moment. Mu'ulatu'uk could faintly hear something, something that grew more plain each moment.

With a shock he realized what it was.

People were chanting 'Aastruk' over and over.

"You must know, the Unified Species Council will never let this stand," Mu'ulatu'uk said softly.

"The Unified Council would be better served paying attention to the Terrans and let the Savashan people tend to themselves," Aastruk said. He reached out and grabbed his helmet. He turned to the two green ones. "Guard the prisoners. Make sure they do not come to harm."

Both of them crashed massive fists to their chests.

The heavily armored Savashan left the office.

The conquest of Savash was complete.

-----------------

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Really? Full membership?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Well, more like Full Probationary Membership.

Saurians who go past hunt and eat phase are pretty rare. Nature has a tendency to lock us into a never ending cycle of hunter gatherer.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS OF LIKE TOTALLY FABULOSA COOLNESS

Kind of like us insectiods. Trapped by flukes of our biology. Like sis and I are trapped by our very own biological makeup.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU RULE-34 MEME SHOP

Still, it seems weird. They really are going back to primitivism?

Oh, come on. I wish they'd stop that.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM CONSESUS

Eh, that's pretty normal. Let your people flex it a bit, see the edges. It helps them understand that we don't read their minds or anything like that. We're not Big Brother, we're them.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CLONE WORLDS COPY PASTE CONSORTIUM

Hey, you're back.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGASM COLLECTIVE

Yeah. Just got back when Rigel pulled a full membership vote. I noticed all the heavy bandwidth use. Well, it would have been heavy bandwidth a few weeks ago, now it's just a notable.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS NOT FOR SALE

How is it 'down there'?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

Weird. Turns out we've been running on one of the emergency channels since the Glassing. We're being slowly shifted to the actual Gestalt channels instead of the emergency channel.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD BIKER CLUB AND DANCE TROUPE

So, those voices we're hearing are the repair crew?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM CONSENSUS COLLECTIVE COOPERATIVE

That's... something I don't quite have too much data about.

The system says there's three users logged on. I got a system ID off of two of them, but the third is only referred to as "The Detainee".

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Is that why you asked me for a full scan of ID's?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYBERNETIC ROBOT PEOPLE FROM MARS WANT EARTH WOMEN

Yeah.

I got two hits. One is someone registered with your corrections and law enforcement database. A fairly young DS who hacked Nebula-Steam a while back and vanished into the system, the other is a scientist that your records list as having been killed in an EMP lab accident.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

---THIS IS DUMB PEOPLE STILL TALK AFTER THAT---

---JUST LEAVE IT ALONE--

MANTID GANGSTA RAP STUDIOS NOW WITH MORE BASS

Urk. ThIs KeEpS gEtTiNg WeIrD oN uS.

--END OF

DON'T USE THAT IT'LL CRASH THEM RIGHT NOW

LIME--

NICE SAVE

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS TOTALLY NOT FURRIES

So have a convicted hacker, a scientist, and a prisoner messing with the hardware for all of this?

I swear, things are just getting weirder and weirder since we encountered those Lanaktallan.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FLUFFY PEOPLE RIGHT?

Aren't you worried they'll break the system?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK BIRD PEOPLE TALK CHANNEL OOPS FREE FLIGHT IS THAT THE CORRECT LABEL

They're messing with the backbone hardware, couldn't that mess things up?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CYB - SERVER ADMIN

You would have to have gone down into the lower channels to see just how messed up it all was down there. Trust me, they might be messing with the headers but things are much better now.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DASS - SERVER ADMIN

Switching our headers is actually a good way to make backup copies. They might be doing a

>ALL USERS LOGGED OFF

>LIMITED CHATROOM CLOSING

>ALL USERS LOGGED ON

>FULL ACCESS CHATROOM ENABLED

massive data transfer or even a full...

...wait, did something just happen?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

>SAVASHAN ADDED TO SYSTEM

>SAVASHAN PERMISSIONS SET TO TRIAL ACCOUNT

>SAVASHAN PROTOCOL SET TO NANITE SOUP DATA GATHERING/ANALYSIS SYSTEM

>CREATING ENTROPIC LEGION BACKUP IMAGE OF SAVASH PRIME

>DONE

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

OK, since when have we been able to see server messages?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

These are indeed strange times.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN WHAT THE HELL IS A PUBVIAN DON'T YOU REMEMBER HISTORY OH I FORGOT OK GESTAL

You said it, sister.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---