“Remember everyone, we’re just here to sit pretty and make the IFC look like it has some real bite to it. You should Not try and make yourself too prominent or push your way in front of any of the diplomats who actually know what they are doing. Just smile and wave.”

“Yes sir!”

Vice Admiral Oliver nodded, “Make sure you’ve got no creases in your jackets then and be ready.”

The IFC government had seemingly already planned for the situation. With instructions already mailed over to the fleet by the time Edward had finished his parle with the IUSR.

Then on the day before the meeting, a full diplomatic squadron jumped out of hyperspace with the newly constructed national yacht, escorted by two American designed King Class destroyers, A De Grass Class light cruiser, along with an assortment of supply vessels. Onboard them were the full set of admiralty officers, diplomats, but conspicuously not the foreign minister.

That, Edward thought, might be due to the risk of things turning violent if it all went wrong. An uneasy condemnation if he ever saw one of the safety of situation.

But on the next day, the Directorate delegation arrived, and the certainly made an impression.

Two massive ships that seemed like they cut through space itself had drifted out of hyperspace before making a gentle intercept burn. Seemingly to allowing everyone to get their telescopes on them and to admire their forms.

One was sort of mid-sized, with much thicker arms and a large central section, creating a rather bulky vessel. But despite that, it still looked graceful. Gold lines streaked down its pure white hull, with all manoeuvring thrusters and external components smoothly integrated with its hull. Every little bit of it seemed to have been thought out to make the ship a work of art. Form standing tall over function.

The other, however, was clearly a warship, following in the form of the other warships they’d seen. But far, far larger.

It must have been about twice the length of Vanguard with a monstrous set of engines flaring out of the rear of its arms. Arms that were bristling with guns, ranging with what seemed to be various PDW systems to anti-ship artillery guns. Eli’s estimates had put those larger ones at 30cms in calibre and it did not settle Edward at all. Especially not with the two massive spinal railguns that ran the entire length of the arms. That sort of railgun could probably cut straight through Theseus lengthways and have enough energy to then penetrate Vanguard’s armour too.

And right across its hull, illuminated by strip lights was its name: Humanity’s Rising Vengeance.

If Edward could call anything a Behemoth, it would be that thing. It’d probably be a better name than the one it actually had as well. I mean it’s current one is just God damned pretentious…

But that was something he probably shouldn’t mention to them. Something he probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to do either if he managed to stay unnoticed in some corner, as he was planning. Though something told him that plan might not be as easy as it sounded…

Well, at least they were all on friendly territory aboard the IFC diplomatic yacht.

“Everyone! Ready! Line up, aaand move!”

And with that, all the assembled officers marched in, forming up alongside a group of diplomats, all in clean, ironed suits. Edward kept his eyes off of them however, not wanting to comprise himself with a side look at Elliot. Though, the marvel of the hall they were in made it easy.

The roof was a massive cupola, the distant stars shining through the composite glass. It almost frightened Edward with how much he could see out of the ship through it, with a paranoia slipping into his head of how easily that could break,

The other parts of the hall however were equally as grandiose, with murals of space travel and life on earth, all done in a tastefully subtle style. All of them surrounding the large, central open space, which right now were filled with tables containing everything for various foods to cultural displays. All waiting for the guests that had yet to arrive.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. And yet nothing came. Silence.

“Everyone! Stand ready for the representatives from,” Oliver cringed, “The Awakened Directorate.”

Then, finally, the bulkhead door opened, revealing the delegation…

All of them were dressed in pristine white and grey uniforms. Without seams, dirt, creases, and indeed seemingly devoid of all flaws. Their double-breasted coats fitting tightly around them, adorned with intricate gold medals and buttons. They were supernaturally pristine and reminded Edward of Wehrmacht uniforms and their fictional counterparts from anime in both their design and perfect fit.

But the people in those uniforms were a different story. All of them had purple skin, perfect faces and bodies, just like their uniforms but…

They all had modifications to themselves and all of them looked like they had been ripped out of some horror story. Some had eyes replaced with robotic counterparts with multiple lenses like a microscope. Some had their lower faces exchanged for artificial bionic facsimiles with no mouths. Some had their arms replaced with mechanical ones, each featuring “specialisations” like computer jacks, wires running from them, up into their sleeve, and out of little holes to the side of their heads.

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But the most remarkable of them all was the scalped man.

The upper left half of his face had all the flesh and skin scraped from it down to the bone. Malleable golden material covered the transition point between it and the rest of his face. His left eye was encased in some sort of clear container, presumably to keep it moisturised. All finished off by a network of floral gold and silver patterns that had been grafted on the bare bone.

It made him almost want to vomit, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away from him. It was just too morbidly fascinating…

The diplomats approached each other, greeting each other, but the officers stayed back, eyeing each other from both sides of the room.

Edward couldn’t hear anything from the conversation between the two diplomatic parties. But, after a while, the signal was finally given, for everyone else to come forward and for the exchange to start.

And the first thing Elliot did, was move straight over to Edward.

“Please tell me I can hide with you?”

Edward let out a short chuckle, “I probably shouldn’t say this if any of them have bionic ears, but can I ask if it is because they look like the creepiest things you’ve ever seen?”

He nodded.

“Same here. But I doubt they’ll let us be alone…”

“Do you think they’ll just want to scope us out?”

“Yep…” Edward muttered, picking a glass from a server before swiftly taking a swig.

Elliot stared, “How can you drink champagne like that?”

“Practise.”

“That… Isn’t quite the answer to the question I was asking…”

“What? How can I not savour it a bit more?”

“Yeah… I think this is one of the brands that cost, like, three hundred dollars a bottle.”

“Well, I think I need the alcohol in my bloodstream soon…”

Elliot sighed, taking a small sip of his drink, as then suddenly he stopped.

“W-what is it?”

“Who did you leave in charge of the fleet?”

“Well… Oliver would have taken over if he wasn’t leading me and the other officers here so I decided to specifically put Elizabeth in charge. Everyone was quite happy about that.”

“But she’s here…”

“Yeah… They wanted her here to showcase the “diaspora of humanity” for our guests. So I had to leave-“

“David?”

“David.”

Elliot swallowed, “I’m not sure if he’s the best choice in a tense situation like this…”

“Me neither…”

Edward sighed, as his eyes started to drift around the room.

A lot of the more sociable diplomats seemed to be getting quite deep into conversation with their directorate counterparts at least. Though he couldn’t tell which way it was going from the polite, slightly bemused faces both sides had.

The situation between Elizabeth and a few other cornered officers with the Directorate officials, however, was a lot easier to read. Elizabeth was quite visibly uncomfortable with the arrangement as some of the other officer’s bodies seemed to be a little tense. All while the directorate representatives seemed not to care, not letting the others move away.

“You reckon they’re trying to get some intelligence out of them or do you think they’re just a bit uncouth…” Edward mumbled.

“Huh?”

“Those over there. I don’t like the look of it.”

“I- I see them…” Elliot mumbled, taking another sip, “Do you think I should try to help them out?”

“How so?”

“As in try and get them to lay the pressure off so the others can move away?”

“If you feel comfortable with it.”

“R-Right…”

He took a deep breath, his eyes focusing on the group.

“I’ll do it. But if I get trapped with them, don’t forget to save me Ed.”

A smirk slipped onto his face, “Will do El.”

Elliot let out a short huff as an elbow softly jabbed into his arm, the diplomat walking off to his new quest. Against the slightly terrifying cybernetic officers…

Edward couldn’t help but feel that it might have not been such a great idea after all, even if there were no guns around. But still Elliot went forwards.

The IFC’s officer’s eyes seemed to brighten slightly as he began to speak, the directorate’s eyes shifting over to him. So, with their attention shifted, Elizabeth and a few others were finally able to slip out, with Elizabeth heading straight to Edward.

Her entire body was tensed up, mouth gripped shut as their eyes tried to remain sturdy.

Edward slowly put down his glass, “What- What did they say to-”

“I’m leaving, sir. I will update the lieutenant commander on the current situation when I get back.”

“Captain. What. Happened.”

Her nostrils flared as their jaw seemed to tighten even further, their eyes piercing into Edward’s, “They’re all bigots. Bigots in the way that fits their god-awful uniforms. I hope I never see any of us having to get all cosy with them.”

And with that, she was gone, not even waiting for Edward’s response as she slipped out of the hall-

Leaving him unexpectedly face to face with the half-scalped man, and he only looked worse up close. The golden polymer seam between his skin and bare bone seemed to shimmer slightly with a sort of slimy coating. That eye as well… Just…

He had to resist shuddering though the small adrenaline boost of the man standing in front of him did help.

“I don’t believe any of us have spoken to you yet?” The man asked in a slightly familiar gravelly voice.

“N-No, not yet…” He murmured “I am Rear Admiral Edward Fletcher and you are-“

“Second Admiral Agricous Lavar. I think we have met over the intercom, and I’m a little disappointed you don’t have the keen ears or memory required to recognise that.”

“Well, now that you mention it I do realise that…”

“I’m glad you caught up.” Agricous smirked, “It’s unfortunate that your comrade just left. I wanted to probe him further on the… Abnormalities… that your society allows.”

“He? Who are you talking about?”

The second admiral huffed, “So you indulge in his delusions as well. Interesting… Well, it is quite undeniable that they are a man from their bone structure. Though, I doubt you are as educated as I am in the subtle detail on humanity’s bones, which is fair enough.”

Edward swigged the rest of his champagne, “Right. And you show off a quarter of your skull because-“

“Because it is a work of art, as you can see,” he stroked his bare skull, his fingers slipping across it like a wizard would with their crystal ball, “A product of our founder’s genius, our improved genetic code. It is the thing that allowed us to survive and our greatest attribute. Something we wish to share with those who are worthy in your society.”

He swallowed, the pit in his stomach growing ever deeper as he listened to the man, “And who would be considered worthy?”

“Are you interested if you might be?” He chuckled, “Well, it wouldn’t include any Abnormalities of course. Those who’s genetic code is already damaged or were born disfigured, mentally or physically. Those who go against mankind’s nature for mates and to stick with their given sex, especially those who disfigure themselves in that delusion... Those cannot be uplifted… They also must be willing to accept the will of our directors to be worthy of course too. We cannot have people who cannot stay loyal to their savours and benefit from their gifts can we? Those things cannot be accepted within their domain.”

Edward wanted to be sick. He wanted to get away as fast as possible from the god damned monster in front of him. The god damned monsters with a behemoth of a ship and quite possibly outnumbered the IFC in space, air, and land. The helplessness caving in as-

“Admiral?” Agricous asked, cocking his disfigured head, “Did I… Intimidate you?”

“No… Not at all.”