"Cai, please tell me that I'm not reading this right?" I begged my Cyber as the feed from the Milky Way Relay System came in.

"I cannot lie to you about this," he told me.

"Of course not," I sighed. I looked up at the feeds of news and data that streamed into my office and wanted to cry.

The Wardens of Life and their counterpart that had split from them, the Alliance of Galaxies as they called themselves apparently, had been unable to find a peaceful coexistence and they'd declared war on one another about five years ago. Just after I'd made the decision to jump ahead and accelerate the schedule to take back more galaxies. The Wardens had been kind enough to ask the Solar Empire and the Deva Collective to stay out of the fight, but the Alliance of Galaxies had fallen back on the official defense agreement they had with the Solar Empire.

The result of that was the Wardens of Life having their asses kicked from one end of the Milky Way to the other in the five years since the war started and the three since the Solar Empire joined.

"Cai, send word to all members of the Deva Collective," I said, "and make sure to broadcast it across all channels and make it public. We're not going to let this fight continue. If we have to conquer the Wardens of Life, the Solar Empire, and the Alliance of Galaxies to stop it, we will. If everyone lays down their weapons and come to a neutral planet like Rallypoint for a peace summit then I will personally guarentee the safety of all their diplomats and envoys. If anyone arrives with the intent of causing more damage, then they will be declaring war on the Deva Collective. And we've got all the fun toys for this fight."

"I have sent the message," Cai said.

"That's going to piss a lot of people off," Carrie observed as she watched the feeds from beside me.

"That's part of the idea," I told her. "I'm just surprised that there wasn't anything like this sooner. I expected it all to fall into chaos after we left."

"Politics," she said simply. "The governements were all grinning and bearing it until someone snapped and they had an excuse for this. The Deva as a whole stayed out of it because they can't go to war without their Chief Protector coming back to take command. That means they would have to send word to you before they entered the fight."

"And then we'd be right here anyway," I sighed. "Let's get ready to seperate the fighting kids then. I think we can give Sarah a fleet and send her and Bunny out to focus somewhere else in the galaxy until we're almost done. What about you?"

"Sounds alright to me," Carrie said. "She's been playing war games with you for decades and you've sent her into combat with terrible odds or against hostile non-Scourge races before. I think you and her are the best two options to oversee the coming campaign."

"Glad you agree," I said. "If she does well enough here, I'm going to put her back at Principality and then Bunny will be raised to Wing."

"It's a plan," Carrie said. "Touka, inform the bridge to set course for Rallypoint and send word ahead to the Collective there; start preparing for state vistors and start preparing the fleets for combat."

I didn't hear her Cyber respond to her but I did see my three Galaxy Jumpers alter course for the Deva capital planet.

"Let's hope things go right for us," I said.

"When do they ever?" Carrie asked as she began to walk out the door. "I'm going for food. Want to join me?"

The Galaxy-Jumpers came out of their faster than light speeds to see Rallypoint was surrounded by a massive fleet of ships.

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"All ships bear tags that mark them as Nephilim Army," the Paladin on duty informed me as we began to unload ourselves from the Phoenix's Wings. "The flagship Raging Bear is sending a communications request."

"Let's see it," I told him.

"Demigod," the Principality in charge of the starship in question greeted me as she appeared in hologram. "What are your orders for us sir?"

"For now, I want you to divide into three parts," I told her. "One part will stay here with me, under my command, one part will come under the command of Wing Applewood, and the last will be under your command. You will take all the ships under your command and you will divide them to reinforce all planets that are under the control of the Deva Collective. Wing Applewood will take her ships and she will begin to prepare for combat against any other fleets that do not stop fighting and send diplomats to Rallypoint. If no one arrives within the next year, or we only have a partial turnout, then I will take my fleet and begin the process I'd hoped to avoid. I will begin to conquer all the warring factions and I will officially place them under the umbrella and control of the Deva Collective. Do you understand?"

"I'm breaking up the fleet into three parts and then I'm on watchdog duty," she said with a salute. "Good luck, sir."

"And to you," I said as the hologram faded away.

"This is going to suck so bad," Carrie said. "They've had months to send diplomats and get the message and they're still fighting. We're going to have to fight the entire galaxy aren't we?"

"If it comes to that then I guess we can add something else to all that fluff on my name," I said.

"I'm not sure we want to add this one," she pointed out.

"You're right about that," I agreed. "But sometimes we just can't avoid it."

"I'll go tell Sarah and Bunny to get ready for transfer to their part of the fleet," she said after a moment, before leaving.

"Sounds like a great idea," I said. "Now I just have to hope that hope doesn't disappoint me."

I walked into the massive auditorium with Carrie and Sarah flanking me a step back and looked around at the assembled diplomats that had arrived for the peace summit I'd called for them nearly two years ago now. I wasn't looking forward to what I'd have to say to them.

The Wardens of Life had finally wised up and sought refuge either at the worlds the Deva Collective massed our fleets at or at worlds they threw all their resources into defending. Those worlds they defended had been under attack for the several months since they'd come together and all current races of the Wardens had sent diplomats to Rallypoint.

The Alliance of Galaxies had redoubled their attacks on the Wardens and they were using the momentum they'd gained early in the fight to stockpile resources and soldiers for the fight they expected to come now that I was back in the Milky Way. There were only a few member races of them that had sent diplomats and all of them had made it clear they expected this to end in their favor since they were winning the war.

The Solar Empire had begun to stockpile soldiers, fleets, and resources to defend their worlds and they hadn't bothered to send a single diplomat to Rallypoint. I was really unhappy about this choice.

"Welcome," I greeted the assembled diplomats. "You are all here because I called you here and, in many cases, because you believe that you will all be able to reach a satisfying peace treaty with one another. I am now here to inform you all of some very bad news."

I paused to gauge their reactions to what I was saying before I continued.

"To make this peace summit work, I called for all races and organizations that were involved in this war to come here," I said. "We are lacking the diplomats from many Alliance of Galaxy races and from all of the Solar Empire as well. Because of this, the Deva Collective is now at war with both of these organizations. The Collective will also be absorbing the races that have come to this summit, peacefully or by force, the choice is yours. I am sorry that we could not come to an agreement like wiser people, but to protect all that I have built, I will be removing all other organizations within this and all galaxies going forward."

I hadn't finished speaking when all the diplomats were on their feet crying out in disagreement and anger at what I was saying. I wasn't done yet though.

"The enemy I have dedicated myself to fighting is the Scourge," I said, raising my voice to be heard over all of them. "To focus my efforts upon this, I allowed all your organizations to form and I said nothing as they grew. Now that you are all squabbling like children for the same toy, I am putting my foot down. You will not distract me from my duty or mission any longer and to ensure this, I will be annexing you, your people, and your territories by any means neccessary. If you object to this, then I will use more forceful means to ensure the safety of my people and those I have dedicated myself to protecting."

With that I began to walk away from the stage and made my way out the door, the abuse and obscenities the diplomats shouted at me filling my ears as their bodyguards and the Deva security forces held them back from turning the verbal abuse into physical abuse. I had just declared war on the entire galaxy, to protect them from each other.

I just hope that history would see it that way.