Grimcar sent word of the official Grequenok surrender to the upper Command, not expecting anything good to come from it. They surrendered in full, and requested aid freeing the rest of them from the Vllthed and the disabled ships which wouldn't sustain life for long. Colonel Grimcar was quick to accept the surrender and aid request. He thought that Costan had been joking or gone insane, but he stood corrected.

They spent weeks rescuing stranded Greq sailors and putting down the stray Vllthed. It would have been a lot harder if Costan hadn't had enough of those helmets for the boarding parties and told them what to watch out for. The Vllthed were sneaky bastards, and claimed the lives of two Nekogians. They learned to counter those two tricks almost immediately, and the Vllthed never changed their tactics.

All the ground equipment aboard the Void Hammer was put on the home world, to help rebuild, and make room for rescuees and refugees. More of the surviving Grequenok planet side were juveniles than adults, because it only took a few adults to create scenes of ordinary life. The Vllthed were good at deception, and used most of the adults for the war, food, and their own insidious reproduction.

Nobody really knew how to care for mentally traumatized Greq children. Then, everyone on the bridge watched as a portal opened and the Nekogian god of fertility yelled "hey you". Costan turned to look, but got smoked in the face with a bundle of books. She was closing the portal, but had to stop to throw the books, that had sailed right back at her, back at Costan.

"Read them and tend to the children." She was yelling and hanging half out of the portal with her breasts on full display. Costan gave her a simple, flat no as an answer. This made her angry. Stepping through the portal fully, she demanded that he obey because he was the only one who had the skill at a enough to care for the nearly one billion Grequenok children.

Costan corrected he, stating that no single person could even care for that many individuals, even if they were adults. She groaned and then pointed out that they could supply him with enough peyote to make it happen. He scoffed and reminded her that the fertility goddess has some nerve to try and order a eunuch to care for other's children. "The Greq have a god, tell them to take care of it."

"He went missing when the Vllthed were found out, a fake god."

"So I got sent to hell again for attacking it, only for it to be a fake god telling the Vllthed your plans so that they could more easily conquer this universe? You bunch already owe me for that, and the accidentally sending me to hell on a separate occasion."

"We owe you nothing, it was decided that you will be the savior of the "

"Stow it, cause I ain't gonna."

"What?! How dare you deny the "

"I ain't gonna. There are no steps that the gods are taking to correct, repent, retribute for the wrongs that have been"

"Shut up. We are gods, you are not. We don't bend to you"

Costan punched her in the face.

"I AM DONE BENDING TO OTHERS, ONCE MY STENT IN THE MARINES IS DONE, NO ONE WILL COMMAND ANYTHING FROM ME OR FACE DEATH IN THE MOST GRUESOME OF FASHIONS."

The goddess was running from Costan, which is a disturbing fact, if you think about it. Grimcar ordered Costan to stop, and being a Marine in good standing, Costan stopped. The goddess made a comment that definitely damaged, if not destroyed, any chances of willing cooperation from Costan.

"You shouldn't be so angry. You having offspring was never in the divine plan. You were supposed to be happy with a successful business life, but that went sideways."

"I had a feeling that was the case, and the fact they made me wear this stupid amulet. They didn't intend on giving it all back."

Grimcar and Grimclaw were both stunned. Costan picked up the bundle of books and dropped them in a garbage can. "Sheila, incinerate that can." There was the distinct pop of a circuit failing, and the acrid white smoke of roasted electronics.

From another portal came another god. "I am Murphy, human god of things going wrong. You will read those books and acquiesce to her request or I'll make a certain set of stasis cylinders fail."

Costan gave him a depressed look of resignation. "The goddess of fertility openly admitted to me never having children, and those who removed my genitals never intended to give them back anyway. Your threatening an already guaranteed outcome. Just go away."

"I was told that your life dream was settling down and have chil..." Murphy looked at the goddess. "His dreams are already unachievable?"

"They were not planned to be, Murphy, and the plan has been altered too much already."

"No wonder he is radiating depression. I, uh, I'm just going to go now."

There was a very strong silence that hung in the air when Murphy left. The goddess had no cards to play that wouldn't harm the plan, she doomed herself to fail. She eventually left after the silence became over bearing. Grimcar cleared his throat and ordered Costan to take the Ethics mission, which did not help the mood.

Costan took the books and read them. Everyone watched in uncomfortable silence as the text of each book swirled into a fist and punched Costan in the face. Grimcar regretted the order, but it had to be done, they were Marines, not monsters.

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By the time Costan finished reading all the books, he was bleeding from one eye and one ear. It was a concern for Grimcar, but Costan lit his pipe and got to work. Grimcar asked to pull all available information on Shamans, and prioritize anything comparable to Costan's unique situation. Sheila proceeded to do so, pulling up a few old legends of a Shaman from the eighth era who developed an insanity.

The shaman in the tales was forced to do a lot of things before puberty, which caused a kind of split personality disorder. The actual personality split was associated with the moving of an entire mountain range, causing the boy to bleed from the eyes and ears. While the split partially receded after he became an adult, he died of old age with two names. One name for the suicidally depressed side, and another for the maniacally energetic and happy side.

Then there were the records of the K Series clones who were successfully sterilized, where they all eventually went insane to some degree or another. The primary reason, amongst many, why cloning Nihil is specifically forbidden, even in partiality. Cloning full people was outlawed, but some exceptions were made in cases of infertility so long as the DNA was roughly a fifty fifty split between the couple.

Colonel Grimcar thought his way through the past deployments of the War Shaman and hoped that Costan would be alright, or at least be treatable. He remembered how he was already bleeding from the eye and decided to make some calls, especially to Emperor K.A.R. because he was probably one of the few with experience in such things. He also called up a renowned brain surgery who specialized in the treatment of severe multiple personality disorder.

K.A.R. was surprised to hear about such a possibility. Given the mental strength of Costan, it shouldn't have been an issue, but then Grimcar informed him about the fight with two worlds worth of psionic parasites, the scuffle with the gods, and the current task. The fact that some books made Costan bleed from the eyes and ears was the tipping point, K.A.R. mobilized, signing a document that he had hoped that he never would have had to sign.

He realized the lack of actual care Karcos had for his son, and lack of capacity as an Emperor. To settle the rebellion, civil tensions, and escalating conflicts with the immortals and Samaritans, he signed the physical document. Karcos was stripped of his position as Emperor and K.A.R. became the acting Emperor once again, even though neither of them wanted it that was. Karcos should have listened to him and Costan.

Karcos had allowed the Empire that K.A.R. built to falter, kneecapped their own industries, and pissed off the Immortals. It was all for listening to his favored daughter, who was insane and on a power trip. Hopefully he could resolve things in a decent way.

He had many plans to achieve stability of his empire, but the best ones involved Costan to some degree. He didn't know how Costan figured out resurrection, but that was valuable. The best plan, in his opinion, required Costan to not die and not develop multiple personality disorder, so that he could be forced to the throne. He liked that plan, because of the memes that would follow. Memes were a new thing to K.A.R., but he quickly picked them up as a media tool and entertainment.

The news outlets were just about on fire with the forced abjunction of Karcos, but the civilian networks were being pushed to the limits. Everyone was in an uproar to some extent. He expected as much, and gave a very quick and concise speech.

"When I was resurrected, I found the Empire I built to be at war with the Grequenok, to be divided in standing, and to have broken many of it's own ethics laws. I delayed the forced rescoochment of the throne in hopes that my descendents would self correct and resolve the issues on their own terms.

They did not, and the problems that face our citizens and allies have only grown worse. This has forced my hand, and now I will be resolving those issues. If you realize that you are part of one of those issues, you may want to stop. I was known as cruel but fair for many reasons, much like all of my laws exist for reasons.

If you suspect that I am in league with one side or the other, you are wrong. I built this Empire. I can, and will, rebuild it from rubble and ash again. Just like last time."

The internet crashed from the sheer amount of information exchanged multiple times that day. Yidas would have used it as a call to arms, if she was not being beaten into giving an apology to all of those she had insulted or wronged. She would have complained about her treatment, if she hadn't been executed immediately afterwards on the same recording.

The orders had gone out. Everyone on the list of known associates would be hunted down arrested, killed if they were to resist. Karcos sat in his room with Yitan, thinking of all the ways things could have been different. He didn't know what all was going on outside, but the thudding boots and occasional weapons discharge didn't bode well. He was effectively grounded like a child.

K.A.R. didn't like being Emperor again because of things like that. Having to put down rebellion and war wasn't something he liked to do. It was necessary for the good of normal people who just want a normal life though. He immediately changed, and deleted, some of the newer laws. Whoever thought that civilians, in the age of interplanetary conflicts, shouldn't carry weapons was a dumbass, and likely the reason why they had lost the colony before being able to mount a counter offensive.

He didn't have the time to get through all of them, but got the most egregious of them dealt with. He didn't need to find a way of keeping Costan alive and mostly sane. The apologies of Yidas and her execution got two strikes repealed from the Emish, so he could at least talk to them.

K.A.R. made a few calls, and assembled a team. He and Turnunder managed to resurrect his wife, a very skilled mind shaman who managed to keep many K series clones semi sane during the days of rebuilding. She would definitely be of use, especially if she could get to Costan while the hemorrhaging was still happening. They borrowed the Speedy Yeet from the shipyard, it was supposed to be a Venom Company patrol ship, but they let K.A.R. order them around... for now.

Every available ship, aside from it and the ones needed to secure the system, was sent to aid in the new ethics mission of rescuing stranded Greq and freeing them from the Vllthed. The Speedy Yeet was the fastest ship ever made by the Empire. It didn't have the room for medical or cargo. It had speed, shields of a larger ship, and two positively huge guns. It had been made to the exact specifications from one of many black files.

They got to Greq Prime in two days, a record. Costan had been planet side for two weeks, caring for children. They transferred over to the Void Hammer and outlined the plan to Colonel Grimcar. It was all hands to prepare for the first time in a long time that a Shaman had to be shamanically healed. They had brought along a couple of brain surgeons and a full medical staff, just in case.

Then they waited, for another week, and worried that Costan may have died. Turnunder pointed out that he was still very much alive, though slowly dying from overusing his powers before they, and he, fully bloomed. He eventually popped up on the bridge to inform Grimcar about the successful mission. Costan was slurring his words and bleeding from everywhere.

They quickly got to work. They spent two days straight on fixing his scrambled brain. The back to back large scale actions combined with the divine texts had done a lot of damage, even the previous uses had caused minor issues. They were able to get it done though. It seemed that Costan's use of time shenanigans and mass childcare simultaneously were definitely passed his limits. He would wake up confused with a massive headache, but they recommended leave and bed rest with nothing stressful and absolutely no spirit walking for a month.