"Let me get this straight: The Emperor, a potentially insane engram of the deceased Emperor, is demanding we return his daughter to him," I asked in exasperation.

"Asked is being polite. The pressure will mount as soon as the Ambassador arrives, and things will get interesting." Xarius handed me the report.

"So what is the real status of the Empire? Top five events that are affecting us will do."

"Let's see, just the big ones. First, The Emperor and The Empress. She will need to visit the Imperial City at some stage to counter the Senators backing the Emperor. Second, corruption in the Legion. We know that there are some Karass agents in high places within some Cohorts of the Legion, and until that happens, I will not move the First Cohort back unless there is a direct recall of all Legions. Even then, I have some leeway with the Empress here. Third, Karass infiltration of the Senate. Until we know the extent of that, everything is suspicious. Luke and his mission are fourth and important to us, but they are missing in action. We know they are alive as we keep buying in information; it is too expensive to get details, but we can get active within the Empire. Lastly, possibly the most urgent, is our failure with the Blight. The only thing keeping it contained is the remoteness of the settlement. Our settlement AI estimates it will spread and jump containment in two to three months. Slow, but if it does, it will be dangerous."

It was about what I expected, but we could add a few more to the nearly urgent list: Amy and IPC down south, the Drakes, and we had also lost our westernmost settlement to an unknown force. We still had next to zero communication with anything south of us, and further west was a vast, empty desert. We could not plan for any other global action until our region was under control. We were stretched thin, and we had very little we could do. Our major bonuses were our protection from the gifts from the Drakes and the fact that we had a jump start on most other settlements. So far, we were assimilating smaller settlements at a reasonable rate, and those who didn't want to join were isolated and left alone. We needed population, yet Australia was one of the least populated continents on the planet. Once you left the major metro areas, a town of over a hundred thousand people was rare.

"How bad is it?" I asked Xarius. I knew a lot of what was happening, but I was still not as strategically minded as someone trained for it.

Hawk spoke up, "It's bad. Too many things are going on, and war is all but certain. We will be protected from that for a bit, but you can bet that the Karass are not wasting their time on the rest of the planet."

"We need more territory. We need more trainers, we need more levels, and we need more people."

The meeting was being held in our custom-built Legion Briefing room; it had everything we needed for large-scale meetings and briefings despite our 'army' being very small. What we lacked in people resources, we made up for in strategic resources thanks to Luke, Sarah and the Drakes. We had a lot of automated resource collection happening, but we didn't have the population or people to use it.

The Empire System and Prism had an agreement to prevent the exploitation of an indigenous population during an integration event and for a lengthy period of time afterwards. It was to give the species, in our case, Earth Humans, a chance to grow and join the wider galactic community. The loophole the Karass used that of a willing stooge who essentially invited the devil to dinner was irrelevant to the System and our plight. We could not import the numbers we needed. We could bring small numbers in, like my workers and the First Cohort, but we could not even begin bringing an army or small platoon here.

It was frustrating that it took too long for things to fall into place. We had pushed too hard too early and were now paying for that with a lack of energy for larger things. The settlement, or Regional Capital, was miles ahead of the curve in every aspect except population.

Raechina stormed in, her elegant gown flowing behind her. Ever since Sarah and Luke had gone, she had taken to wearing office robes. She had been in a foul mood since Luke vanished.

"That damn bastard, digital facsimile of my rat father. Xarius, I command you to unite this planet; I need an army, and I need it yesterday. Send more people to get Sarah back. I, well, we need her. Any news on the Alpha Team? I know he is alive. The position of Champion would be compromised if he were not. Damn, don't just stand there. Do something."

To his credit, Xarius just raised an eyebrow. "Command? Are you sure you want to assume that role without your Champion here? I would suggest..."

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Royal Decree: Unite the Planet. Gather an Army.

He sighed. "If you insist, your Highness." His voice was frosty and resigned. "Min Min, best estimate to unite the planet if we started today without consolidation or .."

Min Min: The best estimate is 2 years to reclaim this zone and 7-15 years to capture the rest of the planet. Timeframes would be reduced with the return of Luke and Sara, significantly reduced if Earth Inc. merged with IPC, and significantly reduced by claiming the top position during the System Tribulations.

Luke had named the AI and assigned it a personality. It was slightly bossy and a bit of a know-it-all, but it was a very efficient and capable AI.

Xarius told Raechina, "Your Highness, we are working on multiple fronts. We will suffer in the long run if we abandon all of these to reclaim this planet. The Senate and Legion are compromised, and now we must deal with the Engrams of the Emperor."

"He is not the Emperor. He is, but don't call him that. "Raechina spat. "According to your information broker, some people claim he is the real Emperor."

Xarius sighed, "To be fair, Your Highness, to the average person in the Empire, the existence of the Emperor is akin to a myth, and there is little or no direct benefit to them from the status quo."

She glared at Xarius and didn't say anything.

"You know some of the stakes, some of the Imperial Secrets. You know he can't rule."

Xar nodded quietly, "Julie has gone south to Brisbane to deal with IPC and their entity, Harold. Luke was certain we could trust them. Julie will look after Earth Inc.'s interests, which will help us stabilise our southern borders."

I smiled at him, "Our borders? Are you part of this now? Are you an Earther? Gone native?"

The Empress snorted.

"That is almost an accusation of Treason. I am sworn to the Empress, and she IS the Empire. If she is here helping you for whatever reason, I am here helping you. They are Luke's borders. Therefore, they are The Empress's Borders. Therefore, they are my borders. Clear?"

I just nodded. It was something that would have to be sorted out.

According to the System, Luke owned the settlement and had to negotiate to gain access to either the Empire or the Prism. I guess that Min Min was finally in the Empire camp.

It was always something, "So gather an army, just like that. We are on a knife edge here Your Higness, Xarius. There are more incursions and stones that are appearing than we can keep an eye on."

Xarius nodded, "That is why there is a rush to get to the next stage of settlement, once there is a proper network of settlements, clear of danger, we gain the benefits of an Empire, or whatever you want to call the organisation. Chaos will be penalised as long as the Karmic Balance of the population remains positive."

That was one thing I could see in the Settlement UI; we had a positive Karmic Balance so far. I could not see the exact score, but it was in the green and trending upwards. I could see the trend lines and the rates of change, and everything there was green. We had some blips around the time Sarah came back and was swearing, but luckily for us, her changing race fixed those problems.

"What about the reports of the incursions being closed and the stones being claimed? That is not good, is it?"

He looked peeved. "No. Well, it is good they are being closed, but someone has collected three stones: Tier 1, 2, and Tier 3. As Luke told you, you get a warning from the System about claiming one. I suspect we have someone who has made a deal with, dare I say it, a Void Prince or Chaos Lord."

"Who would be stupid enough to do that?"

Xarius just looked at me.

"Right, Noah."

"Next thing on the report is Selwin. Any developments?"

"No. The containment is being held, and we are investigating it. We do not have the resources or the skills to deal with it right now. It might be something that we need Amy and Sarah to help with."

"Not Luke?"

"This looks like a magic and energy issue and a high-tier one. Sarah is a mage—not very skilled, but very powerful. Amy is a High Priestess and Mage, from what Julie was able to ascertain, so she would be my best bet to deal with it."

"Is she powerful?"

Raechina looked at me, "She is the Chosen one of the System. Harold told Julie that he made her a 20th-level High Priest and a 15th-level Mage. Her stats would put her above level 100, but that is impossible."

"Harold told her?"

"Their entire organisation is based on openness and transparency. If he doesn't want to say something, he will let you know, but most of the time, he is quite willing to provide information, especially in exchange for knowledge or access to skills and spells. He is not allowed to buy them as he was just copying them to his System, but we can exchange them if needed."

"Luke said they were using an open-source model for their nanite code. Does copyright exist anymore?"

Xarius answered for her, "Yes, if you copy something from someone else, you have to pay for it. The System can enforce royalties payments for artistic or scientific endeavours."

"How does that work?"

"For some basic skills, you just get a cut of the purchase price. For more complex skills, you may get a portion of the energy cost each time it is used. Eye of the City Watch, created by Doso Corp, gets a fraction of the energy each time it is used."

"Hydrox said it was the most common skill people get going beyond Tier 1."

Xarius nodded, "Trillions of people use it daily."

I just whistled.

Raechina looked bored. "Well, as riveting as this meeting is, as Empress of Min Min, I have things to do. Xarius, I believe I need some training, and Mike, you look like you could do with a bit of exercise, too. Who is that Sergeant you found? He is the perfect …"

"Um, just as soon as I finish this urgent report, Your Highness." I grabbed my coffee and tablet, bowed low, "Empress of Min Min." and left.