"Commander, I don't understand why you won't take all of us," Julio said as other remaining Wings stood with him while they argued my decisions. "This isn't just about seeing home, not anymore. This is about saving everything we've ever known and we want a part in that."

I watched my other Wings nod their heads in support of Julio's words. It was good that they were all united in this but I needed to outline my reasoning for them and why I was only taking half the Nephilim for this.

"I have made my decision," I told them. "This isn't up for debate. I am leaving all of you here because of one reason. Rallypoint will be vulnerable if we were to leave. If we left and there was no one to protect Rallypoint and any humans left here, then our enemies would swoop in and take them hostage and claim this planet."

"What enemies?" Wing Gordon asked. "There's only the Scourge."

"Cai, project our findings and what Dr. Yurnel has theorized," I said.

In an instant the holo-projector in my office was showing several genome strings and the genetic jargon that went along with them to everyone inside the office, it was feeling a bit cramped but thankfully the holograms were floating at eye-level and higher.

"These are the genetic studies of Scourge," I explained. "For those of you who are not versed in the vocabulary of a geneticist, these genome strings point to some very troubling theories that the good doctor has put forward. The first one that cannot be disputed, the Scourge were engineered. Normally that wouldn't be as troubling to me as it is, but Dr. Yurnel and her team have identified at least two instances where their genetic structures were altered. One of those allows the Queens to transmit memories to one another and the other allows the Queens to adjust the genetic makeup of their hordes. These are not natural. Both of them match with Warden database races that are referred to as Founder Races. More specifically, the now extinct race of Gwathnu and the still alive race of Iollan. Both of these races built the Wardens of Life, they strongly argued for the Wardens to rally together against the Scourge and they've been the ones holding certain aspects of the research divisions back."

I paused a moment to let my words sink into my Wings. I wanted to wait until they were Principalities before informing them but I had no choice now. There was a wolf in the henhouse watching the fox sink its teeth into every throat it could reach and it was laughing. I needed every one of my upper rank officers to understand that we couldn't trust anyone from the Wardens without thourough investigation; even now I didn't trust Gul-fen and the others who claimed to be whole-heartedly behind the Nephilim Army as much as I wanted to.

"Dr. Yurnel went missing almost ten months ago," Wing Ichika said quietly.

"Yes, she did," I said. "She went missing because she left for the Phoenix's Wings, the first of my Galaxy-Jumpers. There she and certain members of her personal team have been studying the Queen's corpse and the embryo that I brought back when I first claimed Rallypoint. This data comes from that team."

"I thought that none of the Galaxy-Jumpers would be ready yet," Julio said. "That they'd take the longest to create."

"I had Krnnmt and his engineers focus solely on making it while Rinta and Hyell focused on making the first fleet. I couldn't trust many of them but I have had to take chances. Now I can't leave chances and trust to them all. There's at least one traitor somewhere in the Wardens of Life and as we try and flush them out, we can't let the other races allied with us come under our umbrella. We have to make sure that our house is solid and that everything we've built can't come crashing down. That brings me to another two points. Dr. Yurnel and her team did a fantastic job with our new genetics, this and everything else discussed today doesn't leave this room. The first point is that Dr. Yurnel was able to halt most of our aging process; that means that we as Nephilim officially have a lifespan at least ten times that of a human. This means that as time goes on, I will be able to build an organization that will outlast everything the Scourge can throw at us, and if I fail I need people to take up the slack. I need people that will be able to see my vision and go beyond it. I hope that's all of you."

I could see that my words had stunned them quite a bit. I understood exactly what they felt; to go from seeing maybe sixty years more with at most thirty of them seeing you in prime condition to staring down the barrel of almost a thousand with most of that being in a body that was as capable today as it would be in five hundred years was something that you couldn't understand unless you experienced it yourself.

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"The second point is that I've left false data within the Warden database. Cai's done an excellent job at that. He's made a virus that leave certain parts of the database different for other races so that we can narrow down where the breach is. If they attempt to use certain chemicals or frequencies, that will tell us who orchestrated any attack on us that might come up. If they don't, that means that some form of coordination occurred and that we have more enemies than we thought. If they stick to using Scourge though, I have full confidence that you will all pull through."

Here I saw Julio tense up, he had heard me and he had quickly understood why I had chosen to leave that false data. Good, it was his sharp mind more than his capabilities as a leader that had made me eye him over all the others for a promotion to Principailty first. I needed him to be on the lookout for what plans and actions the other races chose to use and what they would tell us with them more than I needed him to hunker down and prep for something that wouldn't be difficult for him.

"You are dismissed Wings," I told them turning my attention back to the tablet before me and the numbers of medicines and the food stores that would be prepared for the trip back. I also had a meeting to get to soon with some of the humans that hadn't joined up. Angie had made sure to coordinate with me for everything they wanted and I couldn't thank her enough; I would have had some sort of breakdown if I'd been forced to take care of all of this myself.

"Rickshaw," Cai alerted me, "it is time for the meeting with the humans."

"Let's get this over with," I muttered standing to leave my office for one of their conference rooms they insisted on meeting me in.

"Demigod James," Richard Walker, the British man who had become the spokesperson for the largest number of humans, pleaded "you must help me to make these people see reason! They want to leave our families and our nations to weather this catastrophe alone! This isn't something that we can allow!"

His use of my official rank title was pissing me off and making me want to agree with Yuki Kobayashi and her group who were asking to be allowed to settle on Rallypoint officially. I couldn't just give in to my own petty wants for this though, sadly, I needed to hear out both sides before throwing weight behind them.

"Commander, we want to make use of the opprotunity that has been given to us," Yuki said. "The chance to remake our lives and to contribute to something that is more meaningful to us than simply being another replacable part in the societal machine that we feel Earth has created. Please, do not force us to prepare for an eventual return to Earth."

I could understand exactly what she meant. The chance to settle another planet, without any of the baggage that came from national ties and political agendas on Earth was tempting even to me, and I'd already thown my lot in with the Wardens of Life by making the Nephilim army.

"She and her group are espousing ideas that are causing strife and arguing for everyone else," Richard insisted. "They've constantly flouted the rules about changing the beds and rooms they sleep in and they are always going out of their ways to make things more difficult for everyone else who actually wants to go home. If they continue to do so, then I must insist that you use your leverage with the aliens to imprison them and prevent them from frightening anymore people."

"Hell no," my blunt answer came faster than I could think. "I will not imprison people that want something different than the rest of you just because you don't like them. I certainly won't be using my 'leverage' as you called it to order the races within the Wardens of Life to force everyone to comply with what you want. I might use my command of the Nephilim to make sure that you can't speak to anyone else until your old and gray for what you're suggesting though. Would you like that?"

I could see by the way his mouth opened and closed silently that I'd caught him off-guard. I could also see by the way his face flushed that I'd made him angry. Good.

"If you don't have anything pressing for me to take care of then you have wasted my time," I told him as I stood. "Mr. Walker, you will be leaving for Earth when I do and you will not be coming back to Rallypoint. You have demonstrated to me that you are, even now, far more worried for what little political power you don't command, than you are for the actual well-being of the people you claim to speak for. Ms. Kobayashi, you and your people will not be able to settle on Rallypoint. Instead, if you are all willing to wait just a bit longer, then I can ensure that a planet more suited to humans is set aside for you and yours. That will also give your people time to practice making a settlement. When that time comes, you will all be able to demonstrate to me that you are capable of surviving, so that I know I'm not leaving you all to die slowly because you don't know what to do."

As I prepared to leave, I noticed Kobayashi salute me Nephilim style as Walker just sat there staring ahead, his face paler than it had been a minute ago. Good, with that taken care of, I had more important things to do.