”Nearly all races consider themselves superior to others, with few very rare exceptions. This isn't something strange as that feeling is inbuilt in almost all of us. This sense of superiority is the result of evolution and results in many advantages, the most obvious being a force driving us forwards and bringing us together in the face of an external threat. In some cases, this sense of superiority is even earned. Races like the Dashane or the Azi are larger and stronger than nearly all others and a physical fight between an average Azi and an average Coatl would be comedic at best. On the other hand, the Coatl tend to be more nimble and intelligent on average than their Azi counterparts. Nearly all races have their advantages and disadvantages, which feeds into that feeling of superiority.

That sense of superiority doesn’t come without a cost though. It results in a sort of racist attitude that can be quite overt in some cases, or it can be very subtle in others. The sense of superiority also comes with a healthy dose of xenophobia either because their perceived superiority is threatened, or because they feel entitled to a higher position than they currently have. A position that would be higher, if not for those pesky lesser beings! Sometimes there is a kernel of truth to these ideas, while sometimes there isn’t. Be that as it may, the original instinct developed for a reason and does serve a purpose with its upsides and downsides.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

--------

”Captain, you have to admit that your arrival here comes at a questionable timing.” The man on the screen stated. He was one of the higher ranked officers present in the system and he found the presence of Selendil and the ship they had stolen suspicious despite the forged orders they had relayed earlier. "Especially considering there is already Psicom personnel present in the system running security checks on my people. None of them were expecting your arrival either, nor do they even know who you are.”

Amaterasu was pretending to be the captain of their ship, mainly because she was more suitable for the job than Selendil. Although Selendil could understand the intricacies of how humans worked on an intellectual level and could improvise quite well when she so chose to go through the trouble, that understanding was not a substitute for decades of experience. They had briefly considered having Moonshadow do this part while staying hidden behind a forged image created by Nox, but the fake captain might be expected to show up once they got to the planet.

“It’s really not that odd when you think about it, and for the very same reason why you seem so worried about our presence," Amaterasu stated firmly, dismissing the man's worries. "You've tried to keep this whole gathering a secret. Well, you should be aware that the Psicom operates on a need-to-know basis. We were not aware of this gathering because we didn't need to know. Our boss probably didn't know. The Psicom members you asked about us didn’t know of our arrival for the same reason. They didn’t need to know. Our mission has nothing to do with your little operation. We’re here for a completely separate reason.”

“A reason you can’t explain, except that I should give you free access to land on the planet and extend to you any help you might require.” The man stated half as an accusation, half as a question.

“That is what the orders say.” Amaterasu countered while keeping a straight face, while a small bit of fake anger entered her voice with her next words. “And that’s really all you need to know. Now you have a choice to make. Either you can do your duty like a good soldier, or you can choose to go against direct orders from the Psicom. I’ll have you note that these orders come from much higher than anyone present in this system or even their commanding officers. Now, I’d personally pick the first option if I were in your position, but please do make my day and try to pick the other option. I do so love executing traitors.” She didn’t need to fake the bloodlust in her voice.

“Fat chance your little tugboat would have against the ships gathered here.” The man mumbled.

Amaterasu laughed. “You don’t command the fleet here. I doubt they would follow you into battle against a Psicom vessel, especially when they are informed of the reason, which I can do with a press of a button. Besides, I wouldn’t mind taking my chances.” Suddenly the halos she had kept hidden so far appeared behind her head. She only showed two though. The Tetrarchy actually didn’t have Deities on Amaterasu’s level, so showing all her halos would’ve been bad.

The sight of the halos almost caused the man to choke. “I will see to it that your orders are followed to the letter, Deity.” He finally admitted through gritted teeth and he immediately cut the connection.

“You know he’s going to try and cause trouble for us. You could’ve handled that more diplomatically.” Moonshadow pointed out. The Mrrroww High Ambassador was along as extra battle power even though she had to keep out of sight for now.

"Well, you're the diplomat of the group," Amaterasu admitted easily. "Despite my position, I'm not the most diplomatic person and I love putting idiots like that in their place. I’m not a leader because I can kiss the most ass, I’m a leader because of my other qualities, like being perceptive about certain things. He wasn’t making trouble because it was his duty; he was doing it because it made him feel important. If he had been more cordial and had questioned us out of a genuine sense of duty, I would have reciprocated that cordial attitude."

“You might be taking after the Keeper already.” Moonshadow grinned. It was true that powerful psions tended to affect each other due to emotional resonance. Moonshadow had sensed waves of grief radiating off Selendil when the Dhar woman thought no one was looking. Even if no one was looking, her sheer power caused the sensitive Moonshadow to notice such heavy waves of emotion. The thought caused the grin to fade from her face.

Amaterasu could sense what Moonshadow was thinking. Even though she wasn’t as sensitive as the Mrrroww woman, she had spent more time with Selendil. “She’s holding up surprisingly well all things considered. I don’t think I would be able to function if everyone I cared about was suddenly wiped out and all I knew was suddenly gone. That’s without considering this mind connection they supposedly had or the memories she’s storing of everyone. Those likely don’t make things easier.”

Moonshadow gave a small sigh. “She might not be holding up as well as we think. Nox actually asked me to keep an eye on her. A request like that from an AI that’s fiercely loyal wouldn’t have been made lightly. Anyway, where is she?”

“Ah, she’s making preparations with Xiaoli.” Amaterasu recognized a forced topic change when she heard one and obliged despite her curiosity. She was also a little ticked the AI had asked Moonshadow and not her.

“And how are you taking the presence of Cybrans on our crew now that Xiaoli accepted the offer?” Moonshadow asked, suddenly curious.

Amaterasu shrugged. “Well, I have nothing against the Cybrans personally. I know our races, or factions if you prefer, don’t have the best of relationships, but I don’t really hold that against them. Truth be told I feel a little bad for them. They are like the younger sibling forced to live in the shadow of their older and much more accomplished sibling, while both are rebelling against their parent. Now would I prefer those slots on the crew were filled with more Illum? Yes, of course. But as far as other options go, Cybrans aren’t too bad. I heard Selendil was considering filling the spots with Dashane.”

Moonshadow perked up at that. “Oh, that’s not a bad idea actually. Well, it could be a horrible idea depending on how it goes, but I think Dashane are a fascinating race and I get along with them quite well. I think they would get along with Selendil as well. Assuming they stopped running away from her that is.”

"I didn't even realize Dashane could get scared," Amaterasu commented with a small shiver. Not that she couldn’t sympathize.

“It’s not fear exactly. It’s respect towards a higher ranked predator.” Moonshadow was just about to launch into a lengthy explanation when a console suddenly beeped. One of the handmaidens gave the ‘all ok’ sign.

“Right. Take us in Nox. Seems our angry officer friend finally sent us a flightpath. While this ship is a bit dinky and small, the positive side is that we can land it on the surface. There’s a suitable place less than a hundred kilometers away from the Gondalim Plateau. That’s where Xiaoli stated the items were found.” Amaterasu gave the orders while the ship prepared for an atmospheric insertion. Despite all the advances since the early times of spaceflight, such maneuvers were still somewhat dangerous and straining on ships. Usually, the larger the ship, the more difficult such things would be.

------

The shuttles landed on the edge of the plateau that Selendil had pointed out. The place looked like a mountain had been sliced in two and the top half had been thrown away, leaving behind a stony plateau. The place they were aiming for was located on the plateau, and Selendil was quite sure the formation was not natural. In fact, she was certain that this had been done by a relatively powerful psion trying to get to the heart of the mountain, and she already had some ideas as to why.

“Are you sure you don’t want my troops to secure the place beforehand?” Xiaoli asked for the second time.

“I’m quite sure. If there’s anything void related present then your subordinates have no way to fight it. In fact, they would only get in the way. If the only risk here comes from the Tetrarchy, then I can handle it on my own. I’ll give the signal when you can all move. Xiaoli, you’re with me. The rest of you stay here.” Selendil didn’t relent with her stance though.

As the two walked towards the central area that was surrounded by rather non-descript buildings that had seen some better days, they noted that the area was pretty much deserted. “I’m surprised they didn’t send a team here. There aren’t even any guards or researchers present. The ruins are still quite interesting even if we sold off most of the stuff we found here.”

"I'm assuming you robbed the place quite clean while you were here, right? I thought so. Without the artifacts from the ruins, they don't quite realize the importance of the place. Without a way to detect void energy, how could they? Besides, you told me that they held this world before you, so they already got all they wanted from the place.” Selendil explained.

“Can you sense anything?” Xiaoli questioned warily. She still wasn’t sure what to think about the whole void thing despite the explanations she had received from Nox and Amaterasu. The Dread Empress had been surprisingly helpful actually.

“Faintly. Whatever could once be found here is now long gone. Now, all we can hope is to pick up the trail that might have been left behind. The fact that there isn’t some major research facility present is a good thing. That means that at least there’s no one trying to open a portal to the void phase at this location. No matter what else we might find, that’s a good thing.” Selendil led them straight to a building that only housed stairs going down inside the mountain.

As they walked down the long stairs and down the corridors they finally came to a rather large chamber covered in hastily discarded research equipment and the final remains of some sort of facility that Xiaoli could not recognize. The whole complex was rather small with just a handful of rooms connected by a single corridor. Only this large chamber was different. The walls seemed to be designed to hold various equipment and machinery, but it had all been removed a long time ago and the wall sockets were not really enough to tell what used to be here.

"I'm assuming this isn't the handiwork of your people? The missing equipment I mean. I know this chamber predates your race by a fair margin." Selendil asked. While others might not be able to, she was able to recognize the markings etched on the walls and the floor despite them being worn down over the grind of countless years. It was the script of one of the races that had served the Dhar, the same race the artifacts belonged to. What the facility was doing all the way here was a mystery though.

“No. We found some small items here, but no hint to the purpose of this room. I’m not sure if Tetrarchy is behind it either. At least the scientists we captured when we took over this world seemed to be wondering the same thing. The equipment was long gone by the time they got here, as you said." Xiaoli replied. "That's why we sold everything from here as it wasn't really of any value besides as a curiosity.

Selendil simply nodded and closed her eyes. Instead of using her eyes, she focused on her psionic senses. They could tell her things that even a thorough search with her other senses could not. It didn’t take her long to confirm her suspicions. There was a rather sizeable concentration of void energy located at the center of the room. The energy present was not a danger but it was enough to contaminate other sundry objects that spent a lot of time in the room. There were very few things that could cause such a heavy concentration of void energy. There were also traces of something that was suffused with that energy leaving the chamber, although the trace disappeared almost as soon as it reached the door.

“Nox, anything?” She asked after staying silent for minutes.

“Yes and no. The humans missed the archives as they usually do when they can’t connect to them from a console or a socket. This one requires either a mind connection or an AI skilled with such connections. That's the good news. The bad news is that whoever left this place in a hurry tried to remove all traces of their passing. They did a shoddy job as they were in a rush for some reason, but they still got most of the data." Nox replied.

“I need just one question answered. Extrapolate the answer from any fragments if you have to, and give me an estimate on how confident you are with the answer. A containment facility or an attempt to create a portal?” Selendil asked. These kinds of void energies had to come either from an actual void entity or an active portal to the void phase. Most likely the first one as the latter one would give off a much larger amount of energy. She could also sense that the mountain around them contained traces of artificial materials that happened to constrain the passage of void entities.

“Containment, with 83% certainty. There’s something else. I think whatever they tried to contain here got out when the humans first cracked this place open. The original containment failed for much the same reason as what happened with your stasis, and once the doors were opened…” Nox didn’t bother finishing the sentence.

“Once the doors were opened, whatever was inside found the necessary nourishment and a way to get out.” Selendil finished the sentence anyway. “Connect me with those on the shuttles.”

After a brief second, the holograms of Amaterasu and the others back at the shuttles were displayed in front of them. “What’s wrong?” Amaterasu asked immediately.

“When was this world first discovered and inhabited by humanity?” Selendil asked without explaining.

“Umm, I’d say roughly seventy years ago. I can give you a more precise number once we get back on the ship, but that should be roughly correct.” Amaterasu replied sensing that this was headed in a direction she would not like.

“So. For the last roughly seventy years, a void entity has been loose within the Tetrarchy.” Selendil stated wryly.

"That…doesn't sound very good judging from what you told me of them," Amaterasu stated with a grimace.

“That’s putting it mildly! I always knew the Tetrarchy bastards were crazy. Didn’t think they’d be possessed.” Xiaoli commented.

“Well, as bad as that might be, I consider it good news. A single void entity can do only so much, and with the current tech level of humanity, it is unlikely they could open a door to the void phase. Not without dedicating their entire focus and effort to the project for centuries. It took us a fairly long time to do the same and we had the might and brilliance of the Eternal Empire behind us. That said, we didn't want to open just a small portal, we wanted a grand gateway that could let fleets travel through it in short order. Even with the efforts of a void entity, I find it unlikely that the Tetrarchy could direct their focus into such a project without raising serious suspicion, especially while the empire is locked in a civil war. So in that sense, your little war might have saved the galaxy." Selendil mused.

“Thank you?” Amaterasu said a little uncertain if she should truly be happy about that fact.

“The bigger problem is, why was a void entity imprisoned here of all places? And if there is one, could there be more? Some of our subordinate species might have the technology to contain low-level void entities, but where did they get one in the first place, and why was it here?” Selendil mused.

“Excuse me, but I have a question.” Moonshadow interjected. “You told us that these void entities take over people. If one was let loose within the Tetrarchy, then who would such an entity target, and could it do so secretly? Could it jump from host to host?"

“It could do so secretly if it acted slowly. In battle such takeovers can be done quickly but are very apparent to anyone observing. A very low ranking wraith can’t change hosts, but the higher ranked ones can. The higher their strength the more often they can do it. The process leaves the previous host a dried husk as all its life-force is consumed during the process. Even a higher ranked wraith with full strength would need years between switching hosts, though that depends on how much the target can struggle. They would target either those beings that are very powerful but don’t have many defenses against them, so in humanity's case a powerful Deity or someone with a lot of authority if they had some goal they tried to achieve." Selendil explained.

“Wouldn’t one of the Tetrarchs fulfill both conditions? I heard that the military Tetrarch in charge of this half of the Tetrarchy is a powerful psion.” Xiaoli pointed out.

“I’m not sure I like where this is going.” Amaterasu sighed. “As much as I’d enjoy seeing bad things to happen to the enemy leaders, I would assume Selendil is going to want to get rid of this void entity and going after a Tetrarch sounds like trouble. It’s not something we can do just on a blind guess. The assassination of a Tetrarch will be a major incident with a lot of consequences, and no one will take the explanation about a nebulous void entity possessing that person seriously.”

“Your assumption is correct.” Selendil pointed out. She would go after the entity no matter what, but if these people came up with a good idea that allowed her to do it with less of a ruckus, then all the better.

“What would you need in order to find out if the void entity is possessing someone?” Amaterasu asked.

“I would need to be close enough. Depending on the strength of both the entity and the being that it is possessing, the distance can be anything from hundreds of kilometers to being in the same room. I’m trying to detect the void energy present, and the more energy the entity needs to use for the possession the easier it is to detect.” Selendil replied with pursed lips. This was all a rough estimation.

“That sounds troublesome. How did you manage it back during your war? You couldn’t have inspected everyone that was suspected from that close.” Moonshadow asked curiously.

“We didn’t have to. We were all part of the unity so any inspections could be done quickly and from a distance.” Selendil shrugged. “We don’t have that option here.”

“So we would need to get you in the same room with anyone we suspect of being the host of the void entity. We can’t focus blindly on our first guess as the entity might not have had the opportunity or interest to go for the obvious target. We might want to try and find what we can of the original expedition that found this place, as they would have been the first victims. Maybe the only ones if the entity was a low ranking one.” Moonshadow pointed out.

"So, in any case, we will likely have to infiltrate the highest ranks of the Tetrarchy. That doesn’t sound difficult at all.” Xiaoli stated sarcastically.