Azariah stepped back into the light of the stage and moved beside Basillius, "For this day forward, we shall be allied to the Terran Imperium! They will be allowed all of the benefits of a Council race and a seat on the Galactic Council itself! Now, the subject of the capitulation to the Terrans is over. We may move on to a new subject." As she finished her sentence she brought her gaze to Basillius, hinting that he should take the floor. Basillius nodded to Azariah before directing his gaze back to the crowd. "As you all know, my people have been in a war. You apparently saw direct footage as well. You know just how terrifying these Azarians are. They once brought us to the brink of extinction and it is only in the last few centuries have we been able to hunt them down with minimal casualties. It was only through constant improvement of weapons and groundbreaking achievements in every scientific field possible. However," He let the silence hang for a moment of suspense before continuing. "The scientific breakthrough that brought this calamitous God to our doorstep, was also our salvation. We broke through the physical limits of this universe and began mastering time. Time is the authority belonging to Mael... The father of the Azarians. The being you saw at the end of the battle. In beginning our mastery over time, we angered him and he brought his immortal hordes to our civilization. It took another two centuries of death before we created the most important piece of technology I will impart to you." He held out his hand and a grizzled-looking tube with four jutting spikes at the tip fell out of his palm. He held this seemingly innocuous object out towards the Councilors, "This, is the Temporal Sovereign. Though this is an admittedly old design that's been warped by the veil... This prevents the Azarians from regenerating to their previous states infinitely. It has a rather insane energy consumption so we will need to completely rebuild your fleets and your powerplants across your civilization. Now... The reason I started with this little thing here... I want you to know that this is the crystallization of our efforts for survival. We utilize time, but we don't abuse it. The ability to manipulate time is solely for survival. If we give you this technology, know that there are extremely strenuous safeguards to prevent misuse. Safeguards that could remove a planet. Please, don't abuse this power we are granting you." With that said, the Rantari Councilor barked out, "I will not allow you to put an apocalypse-grade device on any Rantari world! Especially if we don't have the big red button!" A few murmurs of agreement rolled through the crowd and Basillius sighed. "Then you will perish. Your worlds will be scoured. Mael uses anything other than his own as livestock and they love to feed off of emotions such as fear, complete despair, hatred, etc. So they are all incredibly sadistic. In ground wars, the Azarians are known to often attempt capturing whole families alive just so that they can feed on the emotions emanating as they skin members of said family alive in front of the others. As they will be immortal without this, you have legitimately zero chance of survival." Basillius' words were like a bucket of ice water being splashed over the crowd. The Rantari Councilor's mouth hung agape in shock at his words before he shook his head, "No... No this is just some threat to get us to take your apocalyptic item. There's no way such... evil exists..." Basillius brought his palm up to his face with a resounding 'clang', "Come on... I get the distrust, I really do. But you really don't think something that evil exists? Have you never had criminals in your society? Have none of the other races in this room or otherwise had criminals like that? Ugh... Whatever. If you won't accept it, I won't force it. I will simply station an extra fleet of my own in your systems to ensure your planets don't get annihilated. I don't want to see any ruined planets under my watch. I don't have enough fleets to protect you all, though. So, please. At least some of you take the initiative to trust us and help defend your own worlds." Amaranth elbowed him in the side, "You know, the way you said all that kinda sounds like you're threatening them with extinction whether they agree with your demands or not. Let me handle this." She turned towards the crowd and smiled, "As you know, I am the previous goddess of death. Mael is my brother. I can assure you all that he is exactly as Basillius described. Ruthless, malicious, sinister, etc. Every single word you could use to describe evil fits my brother and his people. As Basillius mentioned, if you don't accept his help, you will die. You will die incredibly horrible deaths that would make you regret ever being born, to begin with. Basillius here is as menacing as Catherine as long as you aren't committing evil on par with Mael. He wouldn't do anything to you other than help. I've seen all of his memories, his emotions, and I've spent tens of thousands of years by his side. He won't hurt you. Mael will." Basillius quirked an eyebrow at her, "I think that speech was about as threatening as mine was honestly." Amaranth shrugged her shoulders, "Well, It was the truth and nothing more." Basillius just sighed and shook his head. The rest of the Councilors were staring at the pair in a mixture of confusion and fear, not even uttering a sound until Malenth and Atrenta spoke up simultaneously, "I will gladly take your divine assistance!" Basillius smiled at them and held out his hand towards them. In his hand, two little data drives formed, "This is more than the Temporal Sovereign. This is the culmination of all our technology to date. You will be completely caught up with these and hopefully, be able to do more for your people than regular defense." The two took the data drives and the rest of the Councilors finally let go of the breath they had been holding. They started clamoring around as they each asked to receive one of the data drives containing the knowledge of high technology. Finally, it came to Nadim of the Rantari. "I will... I will take this technology... But know this... I will use it to bolster my defenses against not only these Azarians but also the Terrans. You are free in GC territory, but not the Rantari core systems." Basillius nodded, "That's fair. Just make sure to defend yourself properly. I will send engineers here to rebuild and retrofit your current fleets, so if you want yours rebuilt bring them here. Also, I would like to request permission for my main fleet to warp in and protect this system as it's your main body of government. Additionally, I would appreciate it if you allowed me to upgrade your cyber security for our A.I. population." Azariah looked around the crowd of Councilors before turning to Basillius and nodding her head, "We will comply. You may bring in your fleet and update our security, though I would like to monitor you doing so as to ensure that you do not steal, or otherwise sabotage anything important." Basillius raised his eyebrows at her with a small measure of shock. "You... Entrusted it to me just like that? Cyber security is one of the most sensitive things in Terran history... Well, I thank you for this trust you've placed in me. I will be sure to only perform actions worthy of your trust. With that said, Basillius formed a datapad in his hands and began to tap away. He projected the scene of his datapad for the rest of the room to ensure his word was kept but he suddenly froze and then his gaze shot over to Azariah in confusion. "What the fuck? Where's your cyber security? You had like, two firewalls that I thought were adblockers and that's it."