“Lord Emperor, DSON operatives’ reports from angelic occupied planets suggest major withdrawals across the entire front. Several planets have been lost to invasion.” A projection hovered above the table in front of them, detailing the entire galactic arm.
Several sections in particular were highlighted in lurid red, causing a frown to write itself across Ajinan’s face. The area surrounding their target sector was splashed liberally with the color, which was… unfortunate. “I have an idea of what’s happened. Unfortunately, this means the angelic forces are no longer likely to be major players.”
“And our target?”
A claw swept through the holograph, blooming the projection of a small cluster of stars, bound tightly in stable paths. “Their involvement is eminently plausible, but demonic intervention is equally likely. Ensure we do not lose DSON operators.”
“Acknowledged.” A soft chime echoed as the call cut out, leaving him alone on the bridge of the INS Transcendent once again, resolute in a sea of blinking lights and complicated consoles. Sighing, he repositioned some forces, consulting an AI program he’d taken the time to write out, because Kitsune’s rules prevented him from just manifesting a data chip from nothing.
Trajectories adjusted on the projection, a glittering line of dominion and semi-robotic conquest like an arrow from the old home of the dragons. An ultimate weapon pointed at what DSON had reported as a relatively primitive but magically dense region of space. An area that Ajinan recognized as what was likely the greatest threat to their dominion. “All personnel, report to jump stations. Path initialization in five minutes.” He watched the stars, even as immense exotic matter fusers came online deep within the largest ships of the fleet, pushing energy into intricate, winding pathways and long banks of machinery in careful geometric arrangement.
The bone-deep feeling of reality folding inwards upon itself wormed its way into the atmosphere of the entire fleet, an unnatural stillness falling upon even the cool dark of space. Then, in an instant, the starlight shattered- and the universe turned to swirls of bloody red and endless black. Energy readings screamed warnings, capacitors emptied their long accumulated charges as they walked a path across the stars and shot out of the shattered path into space above an aquamarine world.
Grinning, the fleet scrambled into position. It was time-
………
Tabs felt the fabric of reality flicker for a moment, yet incredible in its force. A shattered path, open for a brief moment, as wide as a small moon. Juna Ken felt it too, if the concerned glance thrown her way was evidence of anything. “Demonic invasion, perhaps? I’ll put the forces on standby-”
Sighing, she pushed herself to her feet, staring up at the sky. “No need. An old acquaintance of mine has come to visit. Alert the emperor to ready the fox formation.” She grimaced. “They weren’t supposed to find me so soon.
“An old acquaintance? You can talk? You made me do charades for hundreds of years and now-”
“Focus! His name is Ajinan. Extremely powerful, and last I heard, emperor of all dragonkind. Which I imagine he’s brought here.”
Juna paled, then saluted, dashing away in a burst of ozone and sharp winds. Subtlety had gotten her this far… but perhaps the time for that was done now. She’d been found- and now they would find the depths of her superiority.
………
Ajinan stepped onto a platform, and above the capital city of the empire a visage of a dragon wreathed with a crown of stars and enrobed with the darkness of space towered over them like a mountain. To a microphone he spoke, and to a city of millions his voice boomed. “Local populations. This planet is under interdict. Relinquish the kitten, and you will be spared.”
As the citizens of his empire looked upwards in terror and befuddled confusion, the emperor rose from his palace in a streak of light, spear of the heavens held aloft. “Never shall the eternal bow, not until the sky itself fails and the light of the stars end! Behold the power of the empire eternal, and flee to whence you came!”
“Very well. As of this moment, your transient domain and the Draconic Technocratic Imperium are at war.”
High above the world Ajinan stepped off the platform to the soft whine of high-broadband transmitters returning to sleep. The bridge beckoned, stars above and planet so far below, little specks of light fanning out around the tactical projection of the globe. “Admirals, prepare fox protocol.”
Two serious nods echoed his words as he closed his eyes, victory in grasp-
Five miles beneath the surface of the planet, the real emperor stood in a massive cavern hewn from the stone, two massive stone pillars suspended above a sea of inscribed runic work, thousands of lines converging on those two stones. “I pray this works. May the fox’s formation save us-” and he crushed the chain, dropping the monolithic block into place.
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The cavern shone like the surface of the sun-
Like stars from heaven, a sea of lights were disgorged from the autonomous platforms which had encircled the globe, flashing down from the heavens-
On the earth beneath them a thousand disparate grand works shone golden blue with the lifeforce of the planet, canals and great roads, mountain passes and city palaces- the entire magical ecosystem of the planet subtly re-routed. A second set of ley lines, twisted into a single immense formation-
Twenty terratons worth of orbital bombardment splashed off a shield written into the very fabric of the world beneath them
In two different places, a kitten and a dragon grinned equal grins. Finally things were getting exciting.
………
“Embark!” Space cracked around them as the landing craft shifted through a shattered path that existed for a single moment before reappearing over the capitol alongside two of its brethren. Dragons spilled forth like locusts, membranous wings catching a foreign world’s air as they swept out in a wave of fire and force. Local forces rose into the skies to meet them, but they were hopelessly outmatched-
All but one. A single golden figure, whose presence smote any dragon that dared interfere in the battle between its nearly divine presence and the three eldest of the wyrms. Immense power crushed the earth beneath them and sent ripples across the heavenly shield in the sky.
A single dragon dared not interfere in the battle just yet, hovering above the city like some divine being- accurate, to the one who knew his true nature. All she had to do was show up… and then he would win.
Which meant, obviously, it wasn’t going to happen. It would have been quite the blunder, to appear just to get blasted into oblivion by his army at the height of its strength- but there was nowhere she could go on the planet he wouldn’t follow. Not to the ends of the earth-
An outpouring of energy pricked his senses and he watched as the emperor stabbed one of the dragons, ripping the ancient being apart under the force of his spear. Scowling, he focused his will, eyes blazing as an array of thermonuclear warheads built themselves out of nothing in the air in front of him before flashing out to different points in the battlefield- and a bolt of scintillating order flashed through the battlefield. It jumped from dragon to dragon, soldier to soldier, circling around the emperor like a crown before it split in twain and sheared through the remaining elder wyrms.
In a moment, three quarters of his landing force, nearly ten percent of all dragonkind and some of their best soldiers, were reduced to crystal and ice. The emperor merely turned, met his gaze with a flinch and a smile, and cast his spear to the side. “We surrender.”
So Tabs had run after all…
………
‘They’re fighting for their lives back there, and we’re running like cowards!” Yet still, he ran- fear or the commanding presence of his pet cat, he couldn’t tell, but something urged him to flee with all its might. “The entire empire depends on your strategies- you’ve left them to die!”
“Think!” Impossibly, the kitten easily kept pace with him, its strange lightning shearing through the shattered path behind them and closing it as if it’d never been. “I could have made this empire as advanced as the dragons, but I didn’t. Why?”
“To…” hide. It was obvious. To the rest of the universe they’d been a relatively unremarkable cluster of planets, mainly a single world, oppressed by demonic forces. “Then, it was pointless to stay. You’re saying those dragons outclassed us.”
“In almost every conceivable way. If we’d made a formation to block all spatial transport, then they’d probably like… throw us into the sun or something equally excessive. Or throw the sun into us.” Juna shivered at the thought of the power required to that- a formation written across the stars, those strange magics he’d seen them wield on monumental scale.
“So then, why are we running?”
“Simple. We’re a resistance now- won’t that be fun?”
Juna glared at the cat, furious gaze utterly ignored by the adorable blue ball of fuzz. “No! I would much rather have a single, unopressed empire!”
“We’re likely vassalized already. If the emperor followed my orders, he surrendered after activating my final trap. His continued presence should keep enough patriotic sentiment to support a strong rebel base.” She grinned, and Juna felt the glee of it in his soul. He wondered what crime he’d committed in a past life to be saddled with this nightmare of a creature. “It was a contingency, but why spend all my effort industrializing, when I could have someone else do it for me?”
“That still doesn't explain why we’re running through a shattered path, straight into hostile territory and an environment inimical to continued life, instead of just… hunkering down.”
“Well? I have another acquaintance to meet, and an alliance to propose?”
“An acquaintance? Like that dragon emperor-”
Tabs smirked, and Juna trembled. “Of course. An old friend of mine- but you’d know her better as the demon king. Kitsune,” and then, no matter the shocked exclamations or furious demands for an explanation, she refused to elaborate.
Truly, the kitten she’d learnt the art of snobbish brattiness from would have been honored to see his techniques perfected so.