As soon as Basillius turned to walk away from the Atteni he saw Aurelius dead sprinting back to him as red lights and sirens enveloped the room. He looked back at Catherine and gave her a calm smile before bringing his gaze back to Aurelius. "Arch Primarch! What is the situation?"

Aurelius cleared his throat and saluted the projection of the emperor. "We have just detected the early signs of a dimensional rift opening about 7 AU out from the -Glory to the emperor-. The rift is estimated to be as large as one of the original Sol invasion swarms... Shouldn't it be impossible though? You killed their god, Mael after all. We haven't had an attack even half this size since you killed him though..."

Basillius's expression darkened considerably and his eyes flashed with a green flickering flames, "So, he's finally revived and he already wants another beating."

He looked across the bridge and studied the resolute faces of the crew for a moment before taking in a deep breath and roaring out, "Tonight, we are going to make history again! We are not only making first contact with a friendly alien government, but we are also going to introduce them to our favorite dish..." A malicious grin crossed his features as he growled out, "Calamari."

The crew roared out battle cries of their own as they flew into a flurry of activity, charging the weapons to max capacity, sending out the drone swarms, activating the Temporal Sovereign, and resetting the fleet's formation to anti-swarm. The ship started humming to life as the stellar core kicked into gear causing the Atteni to freeze up.

One of the windows showed a seething mass of ships pouring around the fleet like water. The thousands of ships were marked as 'Hunter-Killer squadrons' with a coinciding number of up to a thousand but there were far more than a thousand fighters in the mix. Valenthi turned her gaze to Catherine, "How many ships are in one of those squadrons?"

Catherine looked it up in her mental interface and happily replied, "There are twenty fighters to a squadron!"

The Atteni's jaw dropped and they yelled out near-simultaneously, "Twenty thousand fighters?!" They looked back at the pulsing black mass of ships flying around the capital ships in wonder.

Aurelius turned to Basillius and said in confusion, "Lord Basillius? There are two unknown ships that just entered the system. They are due to arrive behind the Azarian rift. We scanned their ships and the designs are relatively similar though one is far more advanced than the other. The findings indicate that they bear some resemblance to the Atteni ship Miss Catherine made contact with. They are liable to be caught up in the fighting as the rift will open any minute now..."

Almost as if the Azarians heard Aurelius a crack appeared where the rift was predicted to be. The green crack began slowly expanding, and within seconds the immature Azarian Swarmers started trying to force themselves through the small hole that was ever-widening.

Basillius pinched the bridge of his nose in thought before he let out a soft sigh. "I'll go pick them up. It's an emergency so there's nothing I can do about scaring them."

The crew on the bridge all heard him say that he would go get them and they felt a tinge of excitement and anticipation. Soon, all eyes were on Basillius as he muttered, "Maleficus, haksha demo tet feldent ket den ah riftus!"

His eyes turned into pale-green flames. As he spoke the language of the gods each word carved a new set of firey runes into his body. With the final word, a crack appeared before him and his fingers lit up with the magical fires of the veil allowing him to pull at the torn fabric of space while he simultaneously formed a bubble of energy around the crack to prevent the energies of the veil from leaking out into the ship. The rift opened quickly allowing Basillius to step into the extradimensional hellscape that is the veil.

In Tarma's ship, the crew was pouring over all the possible scenarios and negotiations they could imagine when they suddenly felt a horrifying chill run down their spines. Tarma immediately dropped the ship out of hyperspace, ignoring the warnings for possible damage to the ship.

The whole crew had the wind knocked out of them from Tarma's sudden stop. Sliv immediately began heading over to the lockers grabbing everyone's gear and tossing it over. Sliv tossed handguns to the two newbies and took a heavy las blade that he could attach to his tail before tossing a heavy kinetic shotgun to Tarma. Sliv then followed Tarma's eye line to the center of the room wondering what could be there. "Nice to see you still have a sense for danger, Captain. I was worried that pencil pusher work rusted you."

Tarma readied his shotgun and pointed it at the back of the ship. There was nothing but a wall there but all of Tarma's senses were screaming at him to run, screaming that something was coming.

Suddenly ten pale green flames appeared out of thin air and the whole crew could feel the chills. Alaina took a panicked shot at the center of the flames only for the shot to hit the wall behind the flames.

The whole crew watched in horror as the flames slowly spread apart and then a tear formed in midair. What they saw beyond the tear in their universe was an absolutely titanic god of death. They could see his eyes burning with the same green fire that his fingers were, all along his body were runic symbols in pale green fire from a language that none of them knew but all of them understood.

The whole crew started shooting, Sliv whipped the las blade at the figure in the midst of the fire. Every single thing just seemed to bounce off of him aside from the las blade, which managed to leave a small cut across his face that instantly healed. After the gunfire ceased, they all heard it. The dead beckoning to them from beyond the breach. Alaina fainted and Saren had begun to cry.

Basillius stared at the tiny creatures for a moment, stunned by the fact that he was really seeing a menagerie of alien pets with tiny guns. After the gunfire died down, the dog fainted, and the fox started sobbing. He sighed and scratched his head awkwardly before extending his hands in a placating gesture, "I am not going to hurt you. I apologize for scaring you, but there was no time. If you do not come with me you will die. The veil will not claim your soul so long as you are with me."

Tarma slowly nodded and moved to pick up Alaina while Sliv led Saren into this reaper's cold embrace. They hadn't a choice after all.

Tarma felt like he couldn't breathe. The giant that he stood next to now was much taller than he had previously thought. Looking through the rift Basillius had seemed half the size he was in reality. He didn't even make it much further than the ankle of this monstrosity.

He looked around at the veil around him. He could make out various silhouettes of beings that seemed like humanoid clumps of black smoke drifting about. The ground he tread upon was covered in contorted faces that looked as though a being had been born into the rock and tried to claw their way out screaming. The sky went on into infinity, and he could hear the screaming of an uncountable number of lost souls. The screaming seemed both distant and right beside him at the same time, somehow. Tarma looked to Sliv who was literally shaking in fear as he wound past the stone faces and in between stone appendages.

Tarma looked back to the imposing giant who was carrying the unconscious Alaina and traumatized Saren, "What is your name? Why have you brought us here?" His voice was icy and threatening.

The figure looked down with glowing green eyes, "You may call me Basillius. I brought you here because you were about to fly into a combat zone between my people and the Azarians. I apologize for the scare. I normally would not have made my entrance like this, though I'm going to have to do it again soon." He paused for a moment and then looked down at Tarma with a smile. "What's your name?"

Tarma looked up at the giant with a discerning gaze before a resolute expression crossed his features. "You are not quite what I expected. Well, there's nothing I could do to you, so there's no point in being uncooperative... My name is Tarma. The man to my left is Sliv. The two you have in your arms are Alaina, who is currently unconscious, and Saren, who is curled into a ball."

Basillius looked down at Saren, "Is it okay if I pet you, little one?" Saren just nodded his head while shivering. Basillius took one finger and gently scratched just behind his ear. Saren stopped shivering and his breathing slowed within seconds. "You know I gave one of you little guys to sweet little Catherine for her 7th birthday. I wonder if the little tike is still around?" he said absentmindedly.

Basillius looked back to Tarma, "So what were you expecting from me?"

Tarma watched, awestruck as the giant calmed down Saren with just the touch of his finger. "Well, you both look and feel incredibly deadly... Then there was your literally magical entrance. Honestly, I had assumed that the incarnation of death had come for us."

Basillius snorted a laugh, "Ha! You aren't exactly far off the mark little one. though, I am not the incarnation of death. I am only her friend." Sliv and Tarma exchanged confused glances but shrugged it off as him being some eccentric god of the veil.

He shrugged and continued, "Enough about me, we are almost back to my ship, after that I have to go retrieve your friends,"

Tarma cocked his head to the side, "What friends?" he asked.

Basillius stopped and looked down at Tarma, "The other ship of similar make to your own that was heading here. It was only an hour or two behind you, though they were coming in from a different angle." he said as he started moving again. Tarma suddenly felt a hint of concern as he considered why another ship was heading to the Terrans.

Basillius waved his hand and green fire appeared in front of him. He reached inside of it with his free hand and then a fully opened rift appeared in place of the flames. "Right this way, gentlebeings," he said with a smile.

Tarma stepped through with Basillius to an array of soldiers who were standing and saluting. That's when it hit him. "You're Terrans? Our reports said you might be just over four feet tall... Clearly, our estimates were off... Well whatever, I'm over being shocked for today. After all, nothing compares to a giant opening a magic death portal on your ship." he said with exhaustion clearly creeping into his voice.

Basillius picked Aurelius out of the crowd, "Get this man map data and the designs on that other unknown ship. He wasn't aware of its existence so it may not be friendly after all."

Aurelius snapped another salute before pulling up the map data on the ship. "Here you are... little badger person?" he said questioningly.

Basillius set the other two down in a luxurious bed he snapped into existence with the help of nanites. "So, are they friend, or foe?"

Tarma's eyes were glued to the magically formed bed for a moment before his gaze returned to Basillius, "They appear to have come from the High council's world. Likely spec ops. I have to speak with your leader. I was to come here as an ambassador and negotiate peace with the Terran Cargo Freighters guild." he said with renewed vigor.

The whole bridge crew stifled chuckles as Basillius shot them a glare. "You're in luck, I am the emperor of all Terrans. What did you need to talk about?"

Tarma's eyes widened and he nodded in satisfaction. "I hadn't expected an Emperor to have the bearing of a warrior rather than a king..." He cleared his throat and gave a bow, "Emperor Basillius, I need to know if the three Atteni who defected are alright. We care for our own."

Basillius beamed with a heartfelt smile, "That's honestly really good to hear. We may have a great friendship in the future. The Atteni ambassadors are just fine. In fact, they're probably doing better now than ever before. They have little Cath spoiling them after all."

Suddenly a bright light flashed through one of the windows bringing their attention to a horrifying scene of battle just outside. The massive fleet made Tarma and Sliv shiver as they mentally sized up the combat power before them. The ships were letting loose with bullets, lasers, missiles, and even the ships themselves. The people of the Galactic Compact watched on in horror as a wall of death was unleashed onto another horrifying existence.