"What do you mean it's a good thing that they are lost?" I yelled at Xarius.

"Calm down, Mike. I don't mean it like that, and I want you to think. What is the average Tier of our settlement at the moment?"

Saro: Interesting. Listen to what he has to say. But for the record, the average Tier is 2.1; when Luke and Sarah are here, it jumps to 3.5.

That doesn't make sense. Two Tier 5 individuals …

Saro: Tier 5+, they skew the results exponentially. There is evidence that one or more of them have begun the path to transcendence.

What about Raechina?

Saro: She is not officially part of the settlement and has protection from her class as a leader. If you did count Amy and Raechina, then it would be worse.

What do you mean?

Saro: I think Xarius is trying to explain.

I knew when I needed to listen. "OK. I'm listening."

Xarius and I were having a briefing in the Larawag Conference room, formerly the "Andromeda Room." We were seated around the large oval table with coffee and tea cups in front of it.

"Either Luke or Sarah could steamroll most people on this planet. Including the Karassian forces. A Tier 5 individual is worth several thousand Tier 1 and 2s."

I nodded. I had seen the recording of Luke's fight with the Incursion Master and how he had survived the giant pig that had decimated the first cohort.

"There are two issues at play here, there really. One is similar to your Cold War mentality. The Karassians will bring in one of their Tier 5 assets to counter ours as soon as possible, either when the Accords release the protected status or if they get an invite from a planetary leader."

"So if Luke goes into battle for us, he gets countered by one of these Karass, and we don't want to remove him from our strategic assets if he just gets tied up against a similarly powered opponent."

Xarius nodded. "A Tier 5 battle can be devastating, too. Then there is the fact that we are losing experience and energy opportunities here. If Luke or Sarah fight all the moderate to difficult fights, we won't improve, and that leads to the third issue: they don't improve here and can even atrophy. They require resources and energy to survive and improve. It is not sustainable for a Tier 5 individual to remain on a Tier 1 or Tier 2 planet. Earth will become Tier 3 in a decade or so, but it takes time. Lule and Sarah need Tier 4 or 5 challenges. If Luke and Sarah stay, they will slow down Earth's progression by sapping resources and opportunity."

"Shit. Does that mean …"

"They can't stay here. They can visit and do all that, but until the energy stabilises, they must focus on getting all the opportunities to level and grow. Luke is quite low-levelled for his Tier, which will become a detriment if he keeps making waves."

I nodded, and it did make some sense, "What about Amy."

"Well, after her cluster fuck with the Murhog Slavers, it just reinforces the issue. She might have chased them off, but they may return with more resources. They do not take lightly being thrown out of a system and having such a prize taken away from them. Amy is slightly different though, as I believe that her mission is more mobile, and she will not remain with a settlement, they had the advantage of their AI. According to Julie it cheated for them."

"And Raechina?"

As I said that, Raechina and Alakaʻi entered the briefing room.

"Privacy please Alaka'i. Everything you can throw at it."

I saw my girlfriend frown as the lights dimmed slightly.

"Ten minutes, then it will be obvious, and I'll have to borrow energy."

Raechina smiled, "This won't take long."

"I will solve most of your problems in one go. I refuse to remain passive any more. I won't solve the problems by myself, well not all of them, but quite a few. Luke needs to be back here for the Tribulation. That is something that he needs to face and lead on. We, and by we, I mean myself and what remnants of the First Cohort we can recall, will assist. Earth is not ready yet, but it needs to be. There is some time for that, but before then, we are leaving."

I stood, "What?"

"Luke, Amy, Sarah and I will challenge the Imperial City. Well, once he gets the fuck back here."

"What do you mean challenge?"

"It has fallen into decay and deteriorated. There are numerous Void and Chaos incursions throughout the city, and my limited contact with the decayed city AI reinforces it is a mess and dangerous. We must appease the Writ of Justice, and I must present myself to the Hunter Throne before we lose control of those artifacts. The legion has not been able to breach the defences since it went into lockdown. However, I have some priority overrides that will let me, my consort, champion and maybe one or two others through."

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Xarius calmly said, "I will be coming with you."

Raechina shook her head, her perfect hair making it look like a shampoo commercial, "No. You have another mission. You will complete the training base here, recruit enough people to fill it out, and then leave Serap to oversee training. Then, you will recall the First Cohort in secret. Your mission is to return to Madauros and purge the corruption, reclaiming the senate from the grip of my father's Engrams. I will drag Tasar out of retirement to assist with other training, and we have a couple of decent Sergeants from Earth who can fill the gaps."

"Will Amy go for that? She is quite powerful and might not be on board."

Raechana smiled evilly this time, "She will have no choice. I will travel to Brisbane, and Earth Inc. will merge with IPC or whatever they call themselves."

She sighed, "I will officially claim this as the Earth Alliance. I will be the Empress of Earth, and I will eventually merge us back into the Empire."

Saro: There will be some teething issues, but it will benefit us.

I had to ask, "Does Julie know?"

"She is the one who suggested it. It is the only way that we can guarantee stability. She has a predictive skill that gives it a higher chance of stability for Earth over remaining separate groups. You missed her Corporation Merger presentation; the merger will result in huge profits for all Earth Inc. shareholders. She was pleased."

Damn, Luke was lucky. He had done next to nothing and had become rich again. Not that I'd ever hold it against him, he was pretty chill for someone who was loaded. He was one of the nicer rich people I knew. Not that I had a large circle of people I knew who were wealthy.

Racheana was all business getting my attention back, "Julie seeded some of their regulations and is working with their System and its delegates to make the transition smooth. It has been pretty easy since Amy went to Sydney. I will need to travel to Brisbane to make sure Amy does not throw a spanner in the works. Luckily, Harold managed to get her out of the picture with his quest so they could organise and grow without her keeping him safe, stunting his development. She is possibly the most powerful being on the planet right now, which is scary considering Sarah, Luke and myself. Her stats are an outright cheat, and Harold got sanctioned for that and her energy matrix density."

"You seem to have this sorted. What happens to Earth Inc.?"

"Well, it will become an Empire Faction in its own right: the Earth Alliance, and we transfer most of our structures into the combined Faction. At the moment, Luke is the major shareholder, with Julie and Hydrox on behalf of the Vitohydress, and there are other minor shares out as well. I don't know what the new structure will be; that is what I have a counsellor-at-law for, and under duress, I have Lawrence as my Earth Legal counsel. He is a detestable man—friendly and likable, but detestable."

"I guess what I am asking is what my role will be?"

She smiled, "Imagine all the bonuses you would get for being an Imperial Administrator, Mike. You need some levels and some training, and I want those bonuses. Integration Skills: your potential is one of our aces; your planet lucked out."

Saro: Imagine that. Logistically, you could save the Empire billions in credits and energy. She's pretty canny.

Imagine my shield. Is there a cap?

Saro: Yes, it is directly linked to your Tier and the Tier of the Organisation. The Empire is only a Tier 4 Faction, so it would not max out even when we merge.

Once I got my head around some of the changes, I focused on what Rach was saying as she kept talking, "Your job is to grow the settlement and manage the logistics, really leverage your skills. We need to lead the way and get our population up. Beg, borrow, or steal citizens. You need to make sure the military has what they need. Xarius is going to move to a minor conflict footing. Brisbane needs defence, as does Western Queensland. A big priority is to deal with the Selwin issue before containment breaks. I suggest sending your researcher off to use his Library connections. We might have to hire some experts; it is in my top five things that could ruin us."

"Right, Energy Dome for Brisbane, air support and maybe move an autonomous space platform there. We have a few blueprints; I can bring some of them forward. Population is harder, people don't' want to move once we stabalise their home areas."

Xarius spoke quietly, "Maybe we save resources by not saving every settlement, it is a scale of economics. Lager towns only, and we stop funding minor ones. It means if people don't move, they have to fend for themselves. It is a cruel choice, but Levels come from adversity, not sitting behind walls. Earth Humans need conflict to succeed post-integration."

Raechina nodded. "Run up some projections, Mike, and then work out what gets us people here. We need to be more mobile and get a fighter wing stationed here and another in Brisbane."

Shit, that was going to be expensive. We had a reasonably stable budget and some income, but it would hit us hard if we didn't get more income.

The Empress looked at Xarius, "We have some months before things fall into place. I need you to get to Luke's holdings and sort that out. We still don't know if they are in trouble, faking it, or it was hijacked. Someone is playing with the information flow. We need answers. When you are there, bring back an honour guard suitable for the champion and consort."

I still smiled when I thought of Luke, Sarah and Raechina. She had them wrapped around her fingers. Come to think of it, she had all of us here dancing to her tune as well. I couldn't talk. I was in a similar boat with Alaka'I – I'd burn Earth and everyone in it to protect her and keep her safe, but not that she would need it.

Xarius looked like someone making extensive notes in his HUD, so I started making notes and setting goals for Saro to manage.

"The chain of command will be the Imperial Family, My Champion, My seneschal. Mike, you are on organisational and logistics, Xarius for Military, and then if we need to move further down the chain, we are in a bit of trouble."

"Who is your seneschal?" I asked. I quickly reviewed the conversation, "I am sure I didn't miss who you appointed, and shouldn't we have voted on it or something?"

Alaka'i moved next to me, "I accepted the offer. I have the capacity, integrity and connection to the System to facilitate being an Imperial Seneschal. You mistake the Empire for being a Democracy. It is not. Raechina is the de facto leader and is currently in the process of acquiring the controlling interests in Earth Inc."

"That's all well and good, but back to the original point, what are we doing about Luke? He should be here for those decisions."

Raechina didn't look happy. "We are doing nothing."

Xarius didn't look happy, "He is missing in action. We need …"

"I am not having this discussion again, fuck you for rubbing salt into an open wound, Xarius, but we are not doing anything. We don't have the resources and can't even begin to find out where he is. The best we can do is hope he makes it back. Dance won't help, and The Hodaa has said she can't interfere and suggested we talk to Pandemonium, the DJ at the Gala."

"Shit, for a bunch of powerful people they …"

"Are letting us sort out our problems and learn and grow. Dance said he had some plan to help us if Luke didn't return, but it was a long shot and not guaranteed."

"Crap. I guess I'd be pissed at people asking for help all the time, too; it just is ..."

"If Luke is in trouble that he can't get out of, then there is not much we can do about it; I worry for the rest of his team.