"Commander James!" Dr. Yurnel greeted me excitedly as I walked into the medical ward. "I am so happy to tell you that we are ready for the first Nephilim transformation. I noticed you claimed the first transformation for yourself; are you not worried for potential unforseen issues?"

"I am, but I can't just let someone else be forced to handle the side effects of this sort of thing after it was my idea," I told her. "Besides, if I don't make it for whatever reason, I've left instructions for certain others to follow until they've reached the level and rank of Commander themselves."

"Very well, Commander," Yurnel said with a salute. "Please follow me and prepare yourself. Measurements must be taken and equations must be calculated."

"That's fine," I told her motioning her to move forward. "So how exactly are you going to do this? I've been leaving it up to all of you and I've purposefully had any updates you sent my way be left as vague as possible without leaving you unguided."

"I must admit that my team and I were inspired by your human genre of Sci-Fi," she answered. "We were particularly touched by the myriad ways to use microscopic nano-technology to augment healing and strength. We have spent the last week perfecting the designs for the nanites we created that will bond with you and further increase your body's capabilities. These nanites will be controlled by a series of programs that your Cybernetic Artificial Intellect will be able to interact with. Upon injection of the Nephilim Serum, your body will undergo a genetic change that will make you naturally stonger, faster, healthier, and tougher. Following the Serum's injection we will inject a group of nanites whose sole pupose is to bond with and strenghten your skeletal structure. After these nanites have bonded completely, we will inject the nanites that will bond with your CAI as well as the subdermal technology that will allow you to more easily interface with your armor and the tools created for Nephilim."

Wow. They had really gone all out with this it sounded like; I just hoped it would all pay out quickly.

"We are here," she stated, opening a door that led into a room with a large, rectangular tank that was surrounded by techs and medical personnel. "Over there you will strip from your uniform. Please do so and leave nothing on. It will just get in the way."

Now I was stripping for a bunch of aliens, great. After I had taken my clothes off the Warden techs began to take measurements of my body from my height to the length of my forearms and shins; they said it was to compare any size changes that may occur when I finished my Nephilim transformation. Once they had my measurements, they moved on to my strength and speed measures and my weight. If any of them changed outside of expected parameters they wanted to know and they wanted to figure out why. As long as they didn't ask me to run naked on a treadmill again, I was okay with their choices.

Finally after nearly an hour of measuring and testing, the doctor led me to lay back on a mesh bed that was suspended over the tank of fluid that would cushion me if I had an unexpected reaction and thrashed around while sedated.

"I will administer the sedative," Yurnel said, holding up a syringe. "You will begin to feel sleepy within the first ten seconds of being injected. Please do not fight this, the faster you are firmly sedated, the faster we can begin. Hold still Commander."

As she leaned down and began to inject the needle and the sedative into me she whispered so quietly I wasn't sure I had heard her correctly.

"Other Commanders sent orders that we were to put a means of control and a killswitch within your genetics so that if you ever turned, there would be no way for any of you to cause damage to the Wardens of Life or any goals they involved you in," she told me. "I could not in good conscience allow myself or my team to steal the free will of any race. Especially not one which will wipe the Scourge from the stars and see my people returned to our ancestral home. I have made certain that the technological teams were of the same mindset and I have informed Commander Gul-fen. He is on your side. I am sorry that I cannot identify your enemies within the Wardens of Life. Forgive my failure."

Stolen story; please report.

Before I could ask her what she meant, I felt darkness overtake me and I knew no more.

When I awoke, I was lying in a bed and surrounded by the various Commanders that had been in-system before I began my transformation. Upon seeing me, Gul-fen gave me a small Nephilim salute, right hand forming a fist and touching the middle of the chest. I needed to verify what the doctor had told me before I was sedated. And I refused to play politics.

"Is this room secure?" I asked Gul-fen and Cai.

"I detect no sources of mechanical surveillance," Cai answered me immediately.

"I have my own personal guard outside," Gul-fen said. "Everyone gathered here is dedicated to seeing the Nephilim misson succeed."

"So it's true then?" I demanded pushing myself to a sitting position and trying to stand.

"I am afraid it is," Gul-fen confirmed, offering me his arm as I wobbled to my feet. Huh, I could look him in the eye now. Was I taller?

"What about everyone in this room?" I asked.

"I have vetted them. With what the other Commanders demanded be done to you, I felt it prudent to ensure that all Commanders that are aligned with you and the Nephilim be introduced as soon as possible," Gul-fen said. Good to know I've got one person looking out for me.

"Commander James," Rinta, the Schneel Commander, said, "I have waited nearly two thousand years for a miracle to happen and grant my people a chance to take back our homeworld from the Scourge. That others who have waited even longer would attempt to sabotage your efforts to accomplish this is beyond abhorrent! Please, tell me what you wish my people to do and it shall be done."

"Thank you," I told the tiny, green woman with pixie wings. "At the moment I can't tell any of you what to do because I don't know how they will react to learning that Dr. Yurnel refused to go along with their demands, until we know what they will do, all I ask is that you begin to consolidate your people in safe areas. When they act, I have no doubt they will begin by purging whoever refuses to go along with their schemes. As your people consolidate begin slowly undermining their support base by any means except outright assassinations or declaration of their crimes. Either one of those can be spun by either party into something that will enflame their supporters and widen any rift that will form as a result of either action. If they want to control the Nephilim Army and make us do their bidding, I will end them at the time they reveal themselves. Will you support me no matter my course?"

"Of course," Gul-fen said as Rinta nodded her head.

"I cannot fathom what they feel they need an army of your Nephilim for," Hyell said, "but if they are focusing on gaining control of you, then they are not acting according to the code of the Wardens and they are not fit for their rank."

"I will do all I can to aid you in any way that I am able," Mult swore. "Krnnmt has also sent word through a personal courier that he is aligned with your course."

"I have wished to see the world of my people returned to them all my life," the Cthani Commander, Ullip, said, "that others would undermine your efforts sours my gulnarf."

Never had Cai been unable to translate an alien word before. Though apparently that was the word for an organ that humans and now Nephilim had no equivalent of.

"I have already informed my seconds to begin consolidating our people together," Hoolup, the Muthnar Commander, stated, his tentacle beard wiggling. "It will take time for my people to placed safely, Commander Gul-fen has offered to me several of the Tar-en-fil's under-crewed ships for this. I calculate that my people will be safe in approximately two years."

Good to know they were all behind me, now I just had to speak with Dr. Yurnel and set up safety measures to allow the other Nephilim to remain in control of themselves. God, I missed when I was just flipping burgers, now I was staring down the barrel of two wars, each promising to be so bloody that I could barely comprehend them.