“And you are positively certain without any reasonable doubt that this… monster of an Outworlder is going to engage in such a foolish and suicidal endeavor?”

“Indeed, I am, Admiral Roberts. I have evidence to support my claims as well.”

It was rare that the Council of Admirals convened when it was not the date of the annual meeting, but Admiral DiVeto had called them together, though not in person, to deliver the same warning that Axton the Outworlder had given to him. As you might imagine, the other Admirals were skeptical of the validity of the information given to them. Outworlders were new, after all, and thus they could not be fully trusted. However, the evidence given by one of their own number began to shift their views.

“This… this is…”

“Quite so… This is not a simple Raid or even a terror attack. Although they do announce such things ahead of time, they usually give multiple targets and then randomly pick one among them. For them to commit all these resources in a single attack…”

“And on the seat of The Revelry itself, no less…”

“It is…”

Admiral DiVeto nodded and spoke the one word that all of the other Admirals had for this course of action.

“Suicidal.”

The others nodded. They could not think of a valid reason as to why any being would so recklessly throw their life away. There was not the slightest chance that any of the attackers would make it back to the Empire. They would be able to push in, but they would be trapped either in orbit or on the ground and torn to shreds by both Void Fleets and Ground Forces alike. Even though they were hitting so deep, the numbers and ships that the enemy were seeming to put forward were… well… beyond minimal. To try and do anything to a Throne World of a major faction with so few men and such little equipment was beyond suicidal.

“But, my friends, you forget one crucial aspect of our foe.”

Admiral DiVeto’s words alerted the other Admirals to that which they had overlooked. Yes, the attack would be suicidal, but they were to face many Outworlders as well as regular Natives. Natives would die when you cut them down, but as for Outworlders? It didn’t matter how many times you blew them up, cut them to ribbons, or immolated them. To an Outworlder, death was naught but an inconvenience for them at most. If they had a near-immortal enemy force on their planet, acting out behind the lines and being unable to be permanently dealt with, it would be a tactical, strategic, and logistical nightmare!

“So, then, we agree that they cannot be allowed to land?”

“All in favor?”

It was a unanimous decision. The foe would have to be intercepted and forced to do battle elsewhere. But the question remained; how would they force the Empire to change targets when they had made it so vehemently clear that they intended to allow their “Extragalactic Supermen” to attack a singular planet? There were discussions to be had, but Admiral DiVeto had a solution. It was the answer to the problem, and it was also the cause of it.

The reason why an incursion was to take place at all was due to a one-sided feud between two Outworlders. The one in the Empire had bribed some of the people who were supposed to be untouchable, and by doing this had called the loyalty of many more besides (even those of other Admirals) into question. That one Outworlder was the target, and the other, Imperial-aligned Outworlder was the sole aggressor. It was by his hand that the corruption was made known, but it was by his hand that their beloved home (adopted or otherwise) was now a target.

There was only one real solution that would solve all the problems without the Admiralty looking like a bunch of pathetic cowards by exiling or surrendering one whom one of their number declared to be protected.

“Go fetch that Outworlder. Axton will either agree or he will be on his own.”

…

Meanwhile, there was other tomfoolery afoot. Axton had gotten in contact with Thomas once he was back from meeting with Admiral DiVeto and the two of them began to hatch a cunning scheme. Axton was popular due to the cinematics made from his Beta gameplay, and although Thomas had forced the company to give him royalties from those cinematics, the oligarch had thought ahead and made the payments so small that they were easily written off as easily affordable losses.

However, Axton’s details were left in as a ‘fuck you’ to Thomas and Axton, but neither of them cared about that right now. In fact, that attempt to put a target on his back was now a tool to be used in the pursuit of vengeance and justice. Axton had full access to the forums, and once he made his presence known, there was no shortage of random people from all over the world who wanted to meet him or talk to him, even if only in the virtual world.

Thomas also had some colleagues to deal with. Other oligarchs and their children who were not too happy about what Donovan and his fuckwit allies had gotten up to were more than pleased to fuck around with that asshat in-game, but Thomas directed their irritation in a more… useful way.

They were all rich, powerful, influential, and very, very interested in maintaining their position at the top. Donovan had threatened that position with his dumbfuckery, and it didn’t take a genius to realize he had no intention of stopping his actions. He was a time bomb, and they needed to show that they did not support the destruction that he caused. Sure, they would be seen as traitors of a kind, but what was a bit of betrayal when the one you turned against threatened everything you held dear?

They did not wish to get personally involved, as they would need some plausible deniability should anyone decide to express their discontent with the betrayal. Thomas had an answer to their conundrum that was as old as human history itself. It was two simple words: Proxy War. America, the PRC, and Russia (real life, not in-game) had both funneled weapons, training, equipment, and munitions to groups that supported their desires, heedless of the cost of such actions in the long term.

They would secretly funnel these resources in through third-party actors while openly admitting that they empathized with the side that they supported while vocalizing in equal magnitude that the equipment that was obviously theirs was stolen and that the trainers AWOL. It was a scheme as old as time, and the more they funneled into the eventual conflict and the more that they spoke about their animosity towards Donovan and his gang of hedonists, the more likely it was that the masses would, in the event of a rising, ignore them and theirs and focus on the ones who had caused such misery.

And while Thomas rallied the rich gamers, Axton gathered an army of plebs, all of whom were eager to deal a blow against the unassailable 1%, either out of pure malice, a hunger for fun or out of a desire to ‘fuck the system’. It was only a matter of the two Players directing the two groups to work together, even if begrudgingly. Soon, there would be tens of thousands of low-level but highly armed Players ready to ‘fight the power’. All that was needed was a battleground and a time and when the asshole arrived and started the fight, he wouldn’t know what the fuck had hit him.

If all went well, Donovan and his people would be ganked for dozens of in-game months straight by the very plebs that he despised so much. Vengeance would be sweet.