“Of course. The Empire of Tellus uses Helldiving, which is utter insanity. Finding a viable alternative was our number one priority. If you are wondering why we don’t use Gates, it is an energy demand thing. It is also why we want to use the Gloom. Gating is best used in a strategically crushing manner, either escape or attack. The Gloom is best used for maneuvering or trading between secure locations. The phlos are best used for mass movements, tactical deployment, and exploration, especially into unknown territories.

“The scout ship that found the Grimshield was following a phlogiston river, expanding our galactic map. We have mapped out connections to several million stars, but we have not completely charted all the phlos to and from those stars... and needless to say, there are a great many more to go.”

The Ruk glanced at one another, which I caught. “Would it be unseemly for me to venture that your Rootcharts are not as precise as they once were?”

Despite themselves, the Ruk sighed. I was catching on to too much stuff they’d rather remain hidden. “Some of the Roots have indeed moved, or are no longer there at all,” King Rittercrun admitted.

I flicked a fairly current starchart of the galaxy to them, and they both gasped at the sight of the massive Rift cutting across it, tearing a gash in the firmament. “All phlos passing through the Rift are severed. This undoubtedly has caused shifts in the phlos throughout the galaxy. I would hazard to say that there are slow changes still happening... and in any event, at some point the Rift will start to heal, and then the phlos will shift again.”

They gazed at the image of the galaxy, so different from the ancestral records in their databases. They were picking through it, probably looking at key points and locations of the past, seeing what they were named, if they existed, and who held them, and their beards revealed both anger and gloom as the size of their loss and status was made ever more apparent to them.

The galaxy had once been the realm of the Ruk, and they had strode across it like giants, ruling all with a hand that, if not always just, was generally acknowledged to be fair by the older species. Until the Compact came, there was generally peace across the galaxy for uncounted years, with only biovores and the regular uprisings of the Goblins creating excitement. While the ambitious might have seethed under the domination of the Ruk, they were not unduly exploited or restrained... unless they turned violent, in which case they were crushed remorselessly.

The Ruk were on top, but while they dominated, many species had gained the stars, and were able to stay there. Perhaps cold and distant, the Ruk were still their protectors against the great evils of the galaxy. When the Ruk fell, the galaxy did indeed enter a dark time... and humanity’s xenophobia had not helped a bit.

How many of those species even existed still? I was aware of over thirty species that had been systematically exterminated, and those were only the ones who had tried to fight back. There were many, many more who had been obliterated so easily and thoroughly there were barely any records that they had existed at all...

It was an action the Ruk had undertaken against only the most violent and cunning species. Humanity had just spread out like locusts, devouring everything they could after the rise of the Warp Gods, and found plenty of things out there to feed Klaw’s thirst for war...

“We have never found another race using the Roots,” the elder admitted. “Always dimension-jumping, phase-shifting, inertialess travel, teleporting, and similar things. This is a surprise, Engineer Sama Rantha.” Beards indicating that, and some suspicion of where we got the technology.

“Humanity’s technology flows up the Water tree, Elders, with a minor in Earth. We have an expertise in redirecting energy and forces natural to our species, as opposed to your working with matter and mass on the Earth tree, the Goblins’ instinctive mastery of the Fire tree, or the Elvar’s casual mastery of the Air tree. Indeed, the solar sails of the Elvar could easily have reached the level of flowing with the galactic winds, instead of the Roots, but they prefer to use the Gloom and short bursts of sundiving, from what we have witnessed, perhaps because of the dangers of sailing between the stars.”

“You do not use Dark Matter and gravity to drive your ships?” The Ruk were shocked.

“While we understand the principle of Mock Gravity, we are less adept at it than your people, and our Harmonic and Tachyon Drives are equally viable; stronger in some areas, lesser in others. In particular, your system seems to scale better, while ours seems to be faster and less energy-consumptive at smaller sizes.”

I could see their pride at the admission we simply couldn’t make flying mountains like they could as easily.

“I have a preliminary assessment of assets I can sell and lend to you.” I waved it over to them, and they instantly were perusing my counter-offer. There were a lot of drone, mine, and sensor-ghosting stuff to play headgames they were probably disdainful of, but they were part of other packages the Ruk were looking quickly at.

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If they were quietly unsettled by some of the tech, well, that was par for the course.

Most of the species we had run across had a major bias for one of the tech trees, and a minor bias in one or two others. All the major races had two minors, namely the Elvar, Goblins, Humanity, and the Ruk. The biovores mostly did, too, although it was usually in the Lesser Trees of Shadow, Moon, or Light.

A major in a tech tree let you advance along it at full TL. Below Seven, the variant was effectively only 1 or 2 levels. An Earth-biased race might lag behind Water in biosciences, but not by so much.

As you passed Seven, however, your bias naturally sent you down a specific line of development. It wasn’t hard to track, as your Tech Level couldn’t exceed the highest Level of your people, and the others would fall behind. A minor meant you lagged two Levels back at TL 20, and all other tech levels were four Levels behind.

Humanity seemed to have a major in Water, which basically meant more about redirection and fluidity of energy. Our minors were in Earth and Moon, Earth making us decent at structural technology and manipulation of mass and gravity, while Moon was a +1 bonus to all other technologies, so only at -3 with them, and -1 with Earth.

It meant that we could reach TL 17 tech, apex effect, even if we couldn’t do it as efficiently as other races.

The Elvar were majors in Air, with minors in Moon and Sun. The drow were majors in Shadow, with minors in Moon and Air. The Ruk were majors in Earth, with minors in Fire and Moon. The Goblins were Eminent in Fire, and minors in Shadow.

As a result of all this stuff, understanding the advanced technologies of other races was indeed difficult. Even humans had a -3 to understanding tech trees we weren’t aligned to, as the tech really didn’t work well for us.

If it was tech based on things like Death, Dreams, Soul, Organics, Time, and other really weird stuff, the penalty was naturally bigger, and we wouldn’t be able to understand the apex tech without Eternals. It was why Mythos tech was so bloody strange, as most of it was devised by post-Twenty creatures with truly esoteric understandings of reality.

Being Ranthas hadn’t broken any of these rules. We understood stuff at the same Levels as other humans did, despite our crazy intellects. We could just understand it faster and more thoroughly, and we didn’t have to ‘reach’ those Stat Levels, as we pretty much gained them by default. Normal humans had to continuously raise their Intellect to get that extra Level, a process that got more and more difficult with Level, especially if you wanted to stay human.

A Mark of Intellect did ease things a lot, however...

The exception to this was Ronnie and her Curseline. For whatever reason, Tekrons seemed to be majors in Death and Moon. So, the Fantastic kids understood negative energy REALLY well, and were effectively at -0 on Earth and -2 on all other Elements.

So, yeah, Ronnie could totally build a Dark Matter Core system, it was just that the rest of humanity would need to be Eighteens to understand it. That Level difference meant it was kind of a non-starter, except for specialized Rantha-only use. White Hole Cores were the things we directed base humans to learn.

It also meant that our possession of the Citadel and in-depth scans of it had been very fruitful, and the Fantastics were chuckling over everything in their little conferences.

Having the flexibility of Moon seemed to be a key component of having staying power. Without Moon, the Goblins were always lagging back on their auxiliary and support tech, outside their specialties of Moar Fire and Sneaky Git stuff. Sure, they could harness the friction of dimensions rubbing together and create the Fire of Creation (among their kind, it was called The Big Bang) if they hit Sixteen, with their Eminent savancy in Fire. But their sensor systems, logic engines, and hulls never quite matched up to their firepower and stealth tech.

The Ruk’s technology inclinations basically suppressed the Goblins entirely. It was no wonder the Goblins hated them...

“If you want to use our living assets, I will have complete tactical discretion on how they are deployed. I have seen your technology, and I have some idea, at least, of how it can be used. You have no understanding of us and our tactics.

“In addition, I have two recommendations, hiring us or no.”

They looked up from the list of what they might get from me. “What recommendations, Engineer Sama Rantha?”

“Fire up that core, and release the crew of the Grimshield using the systems I have put in place. Then, pull out of the Grimshield at all speed, take all the vivic generators with you, and let its Curse deal with anyone stupid enough to attack it. You’re not going to be able to fight with it while it's Cursed, anyway.”

His eyes dropped, and he looked around at the thousands of kneeling, petrified Ruk. His beard glimmered with hard thought.

The tiniest of nods, the smallest of grunts. I made sure not to smile in relief, but Cantor did it for me off-camera.

“Also, how do you feel about being the bait for a rather large trap? As it turns out, a rather significant portion of those assets are already in place at a location not too far away...”

His eyes widened slightly as he realized that I’d been expecting trouble all along, and I’d been prepared for it. More to the point, those assets weren’t in place around this position, and certainly could have been.

I was far, far ahead of him in preparing for this fight...

A tiny sense that he might be dealing with a very dangerous person began to grow in his heart. A dangerous person was much better to have as a friend than an enemy...

He stamped approval for all the assets and sent it back to me. “Will it wreak great damage upon our foes, Engineer Sama Rantha?” he asked carefully. I noticed the ‘our’, carefully put in there.

I smiled, and showed all eight of my canines. “Why, yes, Your Majesty. When you go hunting, proper bait is one of the most important things. You, sir, are some of the toughest and most valuable bait in the galaxy. I think this will be very damaging indeed...”

------

Power flowed into the Dark Matter Core. The multi-aspected Runetech flared to life as it did, and space shuddered as the siphons reached out and grabbed the local Dark Matter.

Gauntleted fingers hit buttons, and the globes on the pedestals we’d left behind lit up, watery, pure, shimmering, and vibrating in a wordless song, liquid, flowing, rising and falling...

Trembling...

Tremble, oo oooo ooo, Tremble, we come...

Tremble, Tremble...