Once I'd dropped the Chancellor at her room, I made my way to the bridge to check in with Carrie, who I'd left on the Phoenix to monitor the fleet in orbit of Earth while I lead the ground assault to capture the Chancellor and the capitol city, Solar. Not the most imaginitive name I thought, but I didn't have to do anything with it, so I didn't care too much.

"Any problems up here?" I asked as I walked onto the bridge.

"Nope," Carrie said. "Thought about meeting you when your shuttle showed up, but I decided against it. How's the Chancellor?"

"Pissed," I answered. "She's upset that I took her by Snow to confirm that she was the Chancellor and not a stand-in, not to mention how mad she is that I wouldn't let her martyr herself back on the planet."

"She did what?" Carrie demanded incredulously. "Martyr herself?"

"Yeah, she waited for me to get to her in her office and then she threw herself out of the window on the eightieth floor," I said. "If the Seraph Drive didn't let us go faster than a natural terminal velocity then I'd have been too slow in freefall to get her before she hit the ground."

"Crazy bitch," Carrie muttered. "Why would she do that?"

"Ask her yourself," I said, shrugging. "Her room is being monitored and since she's a proven risk, all sharp instruments and corners were removed. Hopefully, she doesn't try it again."

"When has hoping ever worked out for us?" Carrie scoffed.

"When we were younger," I said. "I'm going planetside again. Someone's gotta direct the Nephilim down there."

"Good luck," Carrie called as I left the bridge for the hangar. I'd need as much of it as I could get.

Turns out that luck was very handy and useful.

After I stepped off my shuttle, I was bombarded with messages from the various mayors, govenors, and leaders left on Earth, all asking if I would accept the surrender of their cities and towns, now that I had total control of the planet's capitol. I was happy to accept their surrender to my forces; it meant fewer of them or my own forces would be at risk of losing their lives due to accidents. With Earth securely under my control, I turned my efforts to taking the rest of the planets the Empire controlled. That took all of three weeks after I sent out a message for the planets and fleets left to surrender to us. I guess the fact that Earth fell so quickly was a bigger blow to morale than I'd expected. With Snow and Grandine no longer fanning flames and pushing for more fighting, the Solar Empire and Humanity officially ended their participation in the Alliance-Warden war, that had swept across the Milky Way.

"What's next?" Carrie asked as I took my place on the bridge of the Phoenix. "Wardens, right?"

"They're actually surrendering to us now that we're turning our eyes on them instead of the Empire," I said. "I've sent some fleets to the remaining planets and bolstered their forces enough to push back the Alliance of Galaxies and keep them from being removed entirely."

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"Now, we're going after the Alliance's forces," I said. "The first stop is Gran'inxe. The seat of their ambassadors and the planet that is considered the capitol of their forces."

"Hoping for another Solar Empire house of cards?" Carrie asked. "We can hope that's the way it goes."

"Yeah. Did you hear from Kyouka's messenger?"

"I did, they said that she's on the way back, turns out the last two galaxies she's been too haven't had any Scourge show up in them so she's set up the listening posts and now she's out of gear for them," Carrie said. "Julio's had worse luck though. He ran into a galaxy with a greater number of habitable planets and they're all Scourge now, so he's barely a fifth of the way into his galaxy. Poor guy."

"Yeah, I'm thinking we can wait for Kyouka to show up and tell her the new way I'm planning to do this," I said. "From there she can either continue as she was, help Julio, or do like we were planning to."

"She's probably going to mimic us," Carrie said. "Did you see the pictures of her kids? So cute! I wish we'd been able to watch them grow up."

"I saw the pictures," I told her. "She and Matt did good with them. I'm glad they're happy."

"Makes me think about having kids of my own," she sighed. "What about you?"

"I've never given it much thought beyond the idea that I'd hate to bring a kid into this screwed up world when the Scourge are still kicking," I admitted. "This is a problem that's going to take more than the centuries I have left and I still feel like I have to be the one to solve it all."

"Why not just have a kid and be happy for a few years?" Carrie suggested. "Forget about the Scourge, the Wardens, the Rif'nay'fex, all of it, and just be happy on some tourist planet or something while they grow up. Then get back into the fight and make the Scourge regret everything."

"I wouldn't be able to forget the Scourge," I admitted. "They're always on my mind. Like we're some messed up telling of Moby Dick or something."

"They're your whale?" she asked. "You really picked a big one to obsess over."

"Yeah I did," I sighed. "Let's get ready for the rest of this fight. No telling how long it'll take."

Six months later we were walking on the last hold-out planet in the Alliance of Galaxies, the rest had either surrendered or been conquered already. This was the last one.

"Why can't all our fights be this short?" Carrie asked. "We haven't even been in the damn galaxy three years, and we've conquered it again. I wish the Scourge would surrender to us."

"Moaning and groaning about it won't change anything," I told her. "Let's get everyone back to Rallypoint for that summit. There's a lot we have to go over for this."

"I'm not looking forward to this part," she said. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am," I said. "I've had some time to think about this and I see it as the only way we can make sure something like this doesn't happen again."

"The Collective's not going to be happy about this," Carrie said. "They're half convinced that you're their trained attack dog at this point."

"Let them be pissed about it," I said. "We're supposed to fight Scourge. Not police the rest of the civilized universe. That's for better people than us."

"And if this turns them all against us?" she asked. "What then? We kind of need them all on our side and giving us resources, people, and ships. They get planets and safety from the Scourge out of it and now you're changing the deal on them. They won't be happy about that."

"Like I said, let them be unhappy," I said. "We don't have the time to keep coming back and ending these fights. Best to nip it all in the bud now and take care of the consequences later."

"Fine," she relented. "Did you look over the choices we're making about the additions to your squad?"

"I did," I nodded. "Some variety this time."

"You say that like you weren't the one to pick me and later Sarah," she said. "Bunny was a special case from the start, so she doesn't count."

"I know," I said. "It just seems like you girls are trying to pick out pretty bachelors for you to have."

"That is not the reason," she cried, swatting at me as I laughed at her reaction. "Don't you dare say that to Sarah either or she will do that."

"Oh, I know she will," I laughed.