Everything since the beginning of time itself had led up to that moment. The clash of swords rang through the air as crystal impacted crystal, a small shower of fine white sparks leaping into the air as the two blades impacted. The blades slid together and the hilts locked, leaving the two swords hitched together as both opposing fighters began to pour their strength into the combined grip.

"What is the capital of the Ryjax Commune?" came a mechanically-filtered feminine voice.

"Trick question!" was the response of the other female through grit teeth, exertion bleeding into her voice as she struggled against the blade lock, "The Ryjax place equal value on all of their territory!"

With a simple twist of the sword, her opponent broke away only to use the momentum to swing full force at waist height, forcing her to quickly leap backward to avoid the blow. Planting her paws firmly on the narrow wooden beam beneath her, she paused for a moment to take stock of the extra distance between her and her combatant.

The other woman easily dwarfed her own size through sheer bulk, her metallic exoskeleton carrying with it the unnatural strength of machine kind. Despite her hostile posturing with her shoulders forward and tail straight backward, her ears betrayed her thoughts - the tall alloy extremities were perked up and rotated in her direction, breaking the hostile appearance from the neck-up.

A gust of wind brought her attention back to herself as she was forced to shift the grip of her paws on the beam, her tail flicking in the opposite direction to balance herself as she shifted her weight back to the center. She couldn't help but glance past the beam at the kilometre drop to the desert sands below, a weight settling into the pit of her stomach as vertigo threatened to overwhelm her senses.

The whirring sound of a combat drone immediately brought her eyes up to the approaching disk. The electric prod mounted under its sleek form crackled with electricity as it raced towards her face with single-minded determination. She had to bring her sword up hastily in an inelegant arc in defence, slicing the drone cleanly in half despite the clumsy motion. Its halves went sailing past her towards the ground below, trailing thin plumes of black smoke.

At that moment her opponent struck, leaping off the beam towards her position with a single graceful lunge, "Focus, Octavia!" she snapped as she brought her blade around in a downward arc towards the unprepared fighter.

With a squeal of surprise, Octavia inelegantly brought her sword to bear just in time to deflect the blow, but the force was enough to make her stumble backward. Struggling to regain her balance, she fell to a knee and gripped the beam with her free hand, looking up at her combatant with wide eyes just in time for the machine to take an aggressive step forwards with a stabbing lunge.

Octavia was forced to duck forwards under the stab where she stood up and shouldered her mass against the warm metal of the machine's torso. The impact of her shoulder on the metal stung, but it was enough to throw the combatant off-balance. Seizing the initiative, she pirouetted around the machine, depositing herself behind the other warrior.

"Impressive footwork," the machine replied as she whirled around to take a wide swing at Octavia, which she deftly ducked out of the way of without losing her balance, "How many years has the Startide Federation been at war with the Omni Animus?" she asked as she curved the trajectory of her sword into a low sweep in the opposite direction, forcing Octavia to leap backward to avoid having her paws sliced off.

"Oh, crap!" Octavia exclaimed as she stumbled backward on the landing, nearly falling off the beam. Flailing her arms around in circles to try to rebalance herself awkwardly, she made an unflattering expression of shock as she recovered her balance just in time to bring her sword up as another drone raced towards her head with its electric prod crackling. The blade effortlessly ripped the drone asunder, creating a small explosion and puff of smoke in front of her.

Octavia's eyes went wide as she just barely caught the glint of a sword racing through the obscuring smoke towards her face. With no time to think, she hastily brought her sword up into a defensive position with both hands just in time to stop the blade from decapitating her. The swords connected inches away from Octavia's muzzle, and it took all of her strength to not be carried off of the beam by the momentum of the swing.

"Focus!" the machine demanded once again, her voice jumping an octave in irritation as she swiftly drew the blade away from the clash and thrust at Octavia's midsection.

The thrust was parried with only the briefest of connections between the blades, Octavia using her smaller size to avoid the stab as she used the machine's own momentum to redirect the blade. With a grunt of exertion, she managed to reply awkwardly, "Fifty years!"

The riposte came swiftly in the form of a light jab towards the chest, which Octavia was once again forced to parry with a sideways swipe of her blade, "What spurred the Federation into action against the Omni?" the machine asked insistently as she stepped towards Octavia as she followed the momentum of the deflection to enter her opponent's defensive space.

Forced to either take a faceful of armoured chest plate or retreat, Octavia opted to hastily step backward along the beam, putting several feet between her and the machine as she backpedalled, "They released the 'Omni Virus' into the galaxy!" she responded breathlessly as she planted her back paw on the beam and brought her blade up into a defensive stance.

"You need to attack, Octavia," the machine insisted as she lunged forward, crossing the several feet of distance in one attack, forcing Octavia to parry the tip of her blade, "Who runs the United Planets of Humanity?" she asked as she whirled the blade around into a tight swipe out of the parry.

"Planetary governors," Octavia replied breathlessly, her chest heaving as she took two quick steps back only to step forward and swing her own sword at the machine in front of her, their swords connecting between them. The blades slid together as the hilts once again locked, and Octavia stepped closer to the machine to push her weight into the grapple with a strained groan.

"And who actually runs the United Planets of Humanity?" The machine prompted as she leaned down into the grapple, her head towering over Octavia's as she peered down at her with a sudden smirk of amusement as the intense edge left her voice briefly.

Octavia couldn't help the short bark of laughter that escaped her despite the blade lock and physical exertion, her own lips curving up into a smirk as she replied, "Interplanetary corporations, duh!"

As she answered, she couldn't help but notice a faint shimmer in the air directly behind her sparring partner's towering form. It appeared at the far end of the beam they were standing in, obscured by the wavering air in the desert heat, but the silhouette was more than enough to cause Octavia's heart to stop in her chest. With its enormous mechanical wings, angular head, and white glow, Octavia could recognize the figure of her nightmares from anywhere.

An Omni.

The lapse in her focus as she fell prey to the war machine's presence was just enough for her opponent to gain the upper hand - without any fanfare, the machine she was facing off against wrenched her blade to the side and in a deft display of swordsmanship, she rounded the blade out of the withdraw and slammed the flat of her blade against the side of Octavia's head with a resounding thunk of crystal against metal.

Sufficiently surprised by the blow to the head, her balance was immediately lost and she let out a shout of terror as she felt her paws slip off of the wooden beam. She closed her eyes tightly as gravity took her and she fell into the warm embrace of the desert wind, plummeting towards the sands a kilometre below.

She slammed into the ground on her back, the impact forcing the air out of her lungs as she gave a distinct sound of displeasure. Allowing her sword arm to fall limp beside herself, the crystal blade clattered noisily against the cement floor, and she slowly sprawled herself out on the ground as her muscle aches caught up with her. The sound of heavy metal footsteps against concrete made her tall ears flick towards the source automatically, drawing her attention as she lazily opened her eyes and fluttered them against the harsh light of the training room.

"That was sloppy, even for you," the machine remarked with a vaguely annoyed tone as she looked down at Octavia's prone form, the white overhead lighting haloing the back of her metallic head. Letting out a drawn-out sigh, she extended a hand down towards Octavia and leaned forward to close the distance.

With an annoyed groan, Octavia reached up and gripped the offered metal hand, the warm metal unyielding compared to her own fleshy palm. Using her own effort combined with the aid of the machine, Octavia pulled herself to her feet and nodded, "Yeah, yeah. I know. Got a lot on my mind," she replied dismissively as she let go of the offered hand, dusting off the angular plating of her armour, "Plus, summoning an Omni was a cheap distraction and you know it."

The amaranthoid grunted once in response, then she bent over and picked up the discarded sword, taking a moment to look it over with a discerning eye. Satisfied, she turned the sword around, gripping it by the crystalline blade as she offered the handle to Octavia, "You're not following through with your attacks. Your amarkai is heavy enough that you don't need to focus on the strength of your attacks, but if you don't commit to your strike then that weight will only drag you down."

Octavia let out a small sigh and gave a nod, "I get that in theory, auntie Valentina. But the difference between theory and practice is... significant," she admitted as she reached up, gripping the ancestral blade with a ginger grip bordering on reverence, "And it still doesn't feel like mine," she added in a subdued tone.

"The difference between it being yours and it feeling like yours is significant," Valentina remarked teasingly, "But the distance between the two will fade with time. Your family's blade is yours now, Octavia. Fight against it all you want, but you can't change reality," she added. There was a small pause before she turned towards the exit, "Go take a shower and get ready to present yourself. Your meeting with the Federation representatives is in an hour, and you look like you just got beaten up," she remarked at the edge of a chuckle.

"I wouldn't look like I had just gotten beaten up if you took it easy on me once in a while," Octavia called back playfully, shaking her head in amusement as she watched her aunt leave the training room, leaving her alone to her thoughts.

"If it's any consolation, I think you did better than usual that time!" another woman called from the edge of the room, drawing Octavia's eyes towards the purple facsimile of herself standing in the corner with her arms crossed.

"Oh please, you're just saying that," Octavia remarked with a roll of her eyes, "Besides Vita, you didn't help at all!"

Vita gave a laugh as she unfolded her arms and strode towards Octavia with an amused expression, "That's because auntie Val told me not to help you, and you know damn-well I'm not about to fuck with that five-tonne war machine."

"She can't even touch you!" Octavia exclaimed dramatically before breaking into a laugh.

"Doesn't change the fact that she scares the shit out of me," Vita replied with a similar laugh, shaking her head in amusement before gesturing towards the door, "Shall we get out of here? Auntie Val's right; you look like shit."

"Oh, ha-ha," Octavia remarked, rolling her eyes as she turned and began to stride off towards the door, "You know, you don't get to say anything. You don't even have a body!"

"I don't need a body to look better than you," Vita teased playfully. She blinked out of existence and reappeared at the door where she swiped a hand over the controls, sliding the doors open with a hiss, "Ladies first," she added quickly, a growing smirk on her lips.

Rather than reply, Octavia stuck her tongue out at Vita as she walked past, trailing off into a laugh as she strode off into the bright light of the sun, her paws padding along the tightly-knit wooden walkway. The sounds of the ocean lapping at the beach made her ears instinctively twitch towards the source, and she glanced off at the sapphire blue waves in the distance with a longing look.

"You think we'll ever get to see an actual ocean?" Vita asked as she trailed along beside Octavia.

"I mean, maybe," Octavia replied with a shrug, watching the waves crash gently into the beach to her side, "Not many planets with beaches like this anymore. I was hoping we could go to Paradise when we got back, but we're a day late and a dollar short for that," she remarked with a vaguely bitter tone, turning her gaze forwards as she navigated the wooden walkway towards the showers.

"Maybe this Federation gig'll send us somewhere with a beach like this?" Vita suggested hopefully with a faint hum.

"Doubt it, but I like the optimism," Octavia remarked with a chuckle. She stopped at a phantom doorway offset from the wooden walkway and swiped her hand over the edge. The door slid open, revealing the wooden alpine sauna beyond. She stepped off of the beach and into the cozy wooden room, making her way towards the lockers at the back.

"Oh, hey Octy!" a mechanical male's voice drew her attention. An amaranthoid was sitting on one of the benches, one of his tall ears held in one hand and a multitool in the other.

"Magnus!" Octavia exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you were on parade duty today?" she asked as she made her way to her locker, removing her helmet with a faint huff. She briefly swept her hand through the coarse sandy fur on her head, only for her expression to shift into a look of disgust as she found her palm had become slick with sweat from under her armour.

"I was, but there were a few malfunctions," he remarked with a chuckle, holding up the dismembered ear for emphasis, "Kept hearing a phantom ringing, so I asked for the rest of the day for maintenance," he explained. The lights of his eyes shifted towards Vita and he nodded respectfully, "Heya, Vi!"

"Hey yourself, Mag," Vita remarked with a smirk as she crossed her arms and leaned against the lockers in the middle of the room.

"What scenery are you guys in right now? I'll sync up," he suggested briefly.

"Alpine Lodge! Seed zero-zero-one-nine-zero-two," Vita replied automatically.

"Phantom ringing is a side effect of the retirement process, right?" Octavia asked as she set her helmet down, turning to look at the machine sitting next to her.

"Yeah, it's supposed to go away within a few months. I'll take phantom ringing over phantom limbs though," Magnus added with a chuckle, shaking his head as he turned his eyes back down towards the ear in his hand.

"If it's a symptom of retirement, why bother trying to fiddle with your ear?" Octavia pointed out curiously.

"Makes me feel better," Magnus replied nonchalantly with a shrug.

"Speaking of retirement, do you ever feel smaller than you actually are?" Vita prompted curiously.

"Sometimes," Magnus admitted as the tool began to whir gently in his hand as he set to work, "Jumping from five-five and ninety pounds soaking wet to seven-oh and six hundred pounds is a bit of a body shock," he added with a chuckle. His remaining ear suddenly perked up and his gaze shot up towards Octavia, "Hey! Don't you have a meeting with some Feds today?"

"I'm just about to head there," Octavia replied with a nod, fiddling with the straps on her armour as she began to undress, "Had one last training session with Auntie Valentina before heading out. I think she just wanted to beat me up one last time," she admitted with an awkward chuckle.

"Man, you're lucky," Magnus replied in awe, leaning back against the lockers with a faraway expression, "Valentina Tiberius was a legend when she was the Captain of the Honor Guard. Does she still use two amarkais at once?" he asked, his voice shifting into an excited tone.

"No, not anymore," Octavia admitted awkwardly. She slipped her family's blade off of the magstrip on her back and presented the decorated mulberry sheath and handle, "She gave me her other one when she started training me."

Magnus sat up in wide-eyed attention, his dismembered ear all but forgotten as he leaned in close to eye the blade in awe, "You're not lying," he remarked in shock, "That really is one of the Tiberius Twin blades," he whispered reverently. One of his hands raised for a moment before he caught himself and quickly shuffled back, giving the blade some room as he came to his senses, "Sorry, wasn't gonna touch it," he defended hastily, "I've just never seen one of her blades so close before."

"S'all good, Mag," Vita remarked with a chuckle, "Tell you the truth though, Octy here'd probably let you take it if you wanted to."

"Shut up, Vi," Octavia snapped with a roll of her eyes, setting the blade down within her locker as she returned to stripping, "It's just weird to have it after all this time."

"Your mother wielded that blade in some very historical moments, Octy. You should be proud," Magnus remarked, his features cracking into a smile as he leaned back into the lockers and turned his gaze back down to his ear, "I still can't believe my dad gave our amarkai to my younger brother," he added, his voice turning bitter briefly as he rolled his eyes.

"Your brother diffused a nuke after getting shot through the lung. Come on, Mag, you gotta admit that's badass," Vita remarked playfully, leaning into Magnus's space with little regard for his privacy, causing him to recoil with a distasteful look.

"Badass, yes. Does it mean he's more worthy to carry on the family name than me? Eh..." Magnus trailed off after a moment and gave a little shrug, "Still, you guys are lucky to get the Captain back into the game just to train you. I'd give anything to have another lesson with her, it's been ages since basic training. Do you remember our first day in basic together?" he asked, glancing up at Octavia before suddenly shaking his head, "What am I saying - of course, you do. It probably feels like yesterday to you."

"So everyone keeps telling me," Octavia replied with a sad sigh as she closed her locker, "See you around, Magnus," she remarked with a dismissive wave as she hastily strode off into the shower block, leaving the amaranthoid behind.

________________________________________________________________________________

The meeting room for interplanetary visitors was a dull affair. Since outsiders weren't able to connect to amaranthian digitecture, it had been designed specifically without being connected to the planetary network, making it a small beacon of physical reality within a planet full of digital illusions. It was a small concrete box with a door on one wall, a door on the opposite wall, and a large metal table in the center with several metal chairs on either side. There were no windows, nor any decorations or colours, making for a drab and functional space.

"This place is pretty boring," Vita remarked with a digital sigh.

"I don't know what you're complaining about; this is what amaranthian architecture looks like behind the digitecture," Octavia replied shortly, shuffling in her parade stance next to the door.

"I'm complaining because I don't have a body in here, Octy! Do you know how boring it is to not be able to walk around and interact with things?" Vita complained, her voice taking on a whining tone as her disapproval bled into Octavia's mind.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But there's no digitecture out there in Federation space, so you'd better get used to it," Octavia added, shaking her head in irritation.

"Get used to it, my ass," Vita remarked bitterly before fading into an unhappy silence.

The silence was quickly interrupted as the door beside her opened up and a young white-furred amaranthian strode into the room, clad in royal mulberry robes and finery. She paused for a moment to look over her shoulder at Octavia, looking her up and down with a discerning eye. Apparently satisfied by what she saw, she wordlessly turned towards the table and stepped towards it. In an elegant motion, she sat down in the centermost chair and set a holopad on the tabletop in front of her, which chirped as a feed of information began to flow onto its screen.

"Is that Alba?" Vita asked in shock, "Man, I know she's our great-great-great grandniece, but I'd tap that. Look at how white her fur is! That's impressive," she remarked, much to Octavia's chagrin.

"Cut that out, you know we're not supposed to talk in private," Octavia chastised internally, having to focus hard on not speaking aloud to her companion.

"No no, you're not supposed to talk to me in private. I can talk about how hot people are as much as I'd like," Vita teased with a short string of laughter before trailing off into an amused silence.

The silence didn't last long as the opposite door opened up, revealing a human male. He was middle-aged with short greying hair and a rough stubble, wearing the prim and pressed blue uniform of a Federation officer, complete with a golden star over his heart symbolizing his position as a Captain. He carried a small metal box tucked under his left arm, a primitive bio scanner lock visible along its leading edge.

Immediately behind him, a much taller and bulkier individual entered the room. Octavia immediately recognized the stone figure of a ryjax, standing near seven feet tall and several hundred pounds. He was composed of dull grey rock, uneven and vaguely humanoid in shape. The only way that she could tell that it was a male was that the energy pulsing through the cracks and crevices in his rocky form was a light green, compared to the sage of females. He wore oversized loose blue cargo pants, heavy black boots, and a simple T-shirt to cover his rocky torso - a pair of dog tags hung from his neck, denoting his name and rank in the Federation.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Octavia focused her vision on his dog tags and zoomed in, the accessory filling up her vision as her optics enhanced the image. As the enhancement filtered in, she could clearly make out his name as B'roka Tur, a Lieutenant in the Federation Regulars. Satisfied by her findings she returned her vision to normal, flicking her sights between the two Federation members on the far side of the table.

"Captain Hale, welcome to Amaranthia-Prime. Please, take a seat and we will begin," Alba bid in a bell-like voice, sweet like honey. She made a carefully calculated sweeping gesture with her hand towards the chairs on the opposite side of the table, and the corners of her mouth tilted upwards into a measured smile as she waited for their move.