We flew in what seemed on the outside to be a helicopter. Its shape was determined by EIS. There were windows that allowed me to check the ground for any signs of life. There was none. Leaving Rockaway Beach we flew over Manhattan in search of people. There was none at any part of the flight. What happened to the people?

 "Stop trembling Wilbur, everything will be ok," said Surita.

I hadn't known I was trembling. I took a deep calming breath that didn't work, I still trembled. Where were all the people? I rode searching in vain for signs of life.

"EIS can you tell if a dimensional portal has formed in the last 8 months or so since we were in the Hero Land?" I asked.

"No that's impossible for me, but perhaps for the dimensional intelligence system," said EIS.

"Can you contact it?" I asked.

"We would need to build a portal," said EIS, "so we can access the dimensional trans nexus."

"Let's do it," I said.

"We will need materials," said EIS.

"I know, and power too. We can make solar collection cells," I said and continued with, "how long will it take?"

"From harvesting to development should take a day. We will need to land and cannibalize the vehicle," said EIS, and it was done.

I felt a squeeze on my shoulder, "It will turn out alright," it was Surita.

 The next morning came and went with the awakening of the rest of my crew. It was towards midday when EIS said, "it is done, Wilbur. I am detecting residual Dimensional Energy Detections from the portal system. Most are chaotic but there is one ordered signal detected." 

"Chaotic detections?" I asked.

A sensor read appeared before us. I examined the readings and if it weren't for my super intelligence I would not have understood what I viewed. I did understand it though, it seemed there were billions of pocket universe portals that were shut down. The energy was the only residue available. 

 There was one energy reading that was ordered, letting me know it was on. It was in Arkansas I found as EIS indicated its location on the map. We headed there after retrieving the nanoparticles that were tasked with retrieving raw materials for the factory nanobots. The more of these we had, the faster we could create things.

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I looked at the other crew members, whose names I did not know, and wondered if I had a betrayer on hand in one of them. I looked at them and was afraid that one of them was secretly working for Thomas Kane. Surita seemed to trust them, but how had the two suicide bombers gotten so close. They were on my ship. Don't let your left hand know what your right is doing. I would play things close to my ear.

When we got into Arkansas we, specifically Ocandu found or more specifically felt something flying in a circle over our target. EIS had no satellites to fall back on so we had to use powers. That was another issue. I could craft powers for my crew. I was at level 1 so I could enhance three people with powers of my choice. If I did, what if I chose a traitor. I would hold off on that for now, I didn't know these people beyond that they were my crew.

I had some sort of a relationship with Clyde, Surita, and Ocandu, but that was about it. I never really had that many friends growing up, I was cold to most people. Somehow these three people touched me. We arrived at the signal's location and found it bustling with activity. People in powered armor were everywhere and many floating vehicles moved here and there.

I said floating vehicles because not one of them looked like they were produced by human beings. They were probably built by and for AI systems. Before I knew it though we were circled by at least 13 of those flying objects. They circled but said nothing. We tried every radio signal we could but they didn't answer.

Surita said, "I've got a bad feeling about this Fish-Man. Let's get ready to run"

Trusting her intuition I turned to Ocandu, "do you think you can protect us with a wall of air at this distance?"

"I think so, expecting trouble?" Ocandu asked.

"Better safe than sorry," I said. Old cliche but true nevertheless.

Suddenly the radio picked up a broadcast, "human, land your craft."

Human? That was weird. 

"Send this to the AIs, EIS stop playing around, what is going on here?" I asked EIS to relay to the other EIS copies.

"I don't think those things are controlled by EIS copies," said EIS, "they are not answering me."

"Land now human!" Demanded the voice.

"Land us EIS," I said.

"Is this something from Thomas Kane?" I asked.

"Although I don't know I doubt that it is," said Surita, "he doesn't have the resources here."

"They are telling us to come out with our hands up," said EIS.

 "Let's do it," I said and I and my crew left the ship.

Our hands were up. Several powered armors trained guns on us and led us to a building. We were split up and I found myself in a room with one door and no windows. A person in power armor motioned for me to sit down. I sat in a chair at the table that appeared. It looked like they had nanotech also. Whoever they were.

 "We are the Krellion Empire and we rule The Twelve Galaxies. Your world is now a slave world, all you have is ours. We destroyed a few of your tribes to demonstrate our power. You all left after that with a technology that we are unfamiliar with. You have come back to this world, we detected your arrival in the sea. Your ..."

With that, there was an incredibly powerful explosion. The entire room shook with the force of it. The power armored individual fell to the floor.