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The palace gardens where the Explorer touched down had been completely changed. Gone were the numerous busts of past emperors and other important Shi'ar past and present. Gone were several bits of landscape artwork that the Shi'ar had seen as the height of art with their disdain for all things imaginative.
In its place was left an open plane of grass with several different zones spread out. One area seemed to be marked out for eating with several dozen rectangular tables. Another had a wooden floor that looked like it would be used for dancing, though Harry had no idea if the Shi'ar danced or not. Then again, judging by the scantily clad ladies there, perhaps the Shi'ar simply have an appreciation of certain specific types of dances?
Everywhere there were clumps of Shi'ar moving about, several hundred or more. They were all dressed in what looked like formal clothing, which looked like slightly tighter versions of the same kind of formalwear that Harry had seen on occasion when interacting with the Hellfire Club and Emma. Except the only colors they seemed to come in were silver, black, and gold.
As they approached, the ship was directed toward a specific landing zone by several live Shi'ar gesturing them down with colored flags. Indeed, Harry could see many more servants around than he had seen in the court when they first met D'ken. "So, are those extra servants all wearing Electron-style suits underneath, or are the added servants something they do when it's a formal party?"
Reed replied to Harry's almost rhetorical question with a simple, "Yes. Recall this is an ancient culture, a culture that has been ancient and unchanging for thousands of years. They have technology that we on earth cannot match on a commercial level available at their fingertips. So a sign of wealth is using live servants. The more servants, the more wealthy. And the more servants seen here, the more imperial favor is on display."
"Right, and no music either, or if they do have some, it will not have come from the Shi'ar themselves. So we should all expect a lot of bowing, lots of scraping, but like I said, no music. Maybe some marching bands, but no cadence or anything else. It will be entirely boring to us, I feel, but remember what is really going on here behind the scenes," Harry said, shivering internally. He would never admit it, but a major part of his decision to act against the Empire had been made long ago when they had first learned that imagination among the Shi'ar was seen as a mental defect and ruthlessly stamped out. It was a kind of mindset that was so foreign to Harry as to be utterly and completely alien, above and beyond the fact that they actually were another race.
When the group who would be taking part in the festivities in person exited the ship, this theory was proven. Instead of someone beginning to play the equivalent of God Save the King or the Star-Spangled Banner, the various instruments began to play simple thunderous noise. First, the drums, a rolling cadence, followed by a bugle, then a string instrument. One after another, they were played, becoming a cacophony of noise rather than any kind of music that Harry had ever heard.
"What the hell?" Warpath muttered, shaking his head, his words distorted by the wrap that covered him from jaw to thigh, a visible sign of his wounded state. "We just said they might have music from one of their subjugated races. Why the hell would they not have come up with an anthem instead of that, that aural assault?"
"Because they don't care," Storm answered grimly. "Because to do so would show the subject races that they have something the Shi'ar do not. Instead, they revel in their lack of imagination, making it a sign of their dominance that they do not look to other races for aid in this area. It all comes back to that lack and the fact they do not see it as such."
The group made their way forward, and a group of Imperial Guard, mostly of normal Shi'ar height but coming from several other races, lined up in formal lines leading away from the ship. As the rolling cacophony ended, there was a moment's stillness, the entire party turning in the direction of the humans. Then the two lines of Imperial Guard Slammed their heels together and raised their right arms in salute. "Hail, Hail, Hail!"
At the heels of this shout, D'ken's voice called out, amplified somehow from the head of the longest table there. "For the glory of the Emperor and the Empire, welcome our honored guests. They gave us the key of the three against Galactus the World Eater and his mad Herald."
As the crowd cheered with the eagerness of true sycophancy, the humans made their way forward, with more than one of them wondering if these people understood at all how weird this all was, even if they didn't know what was hidden under this forced frivolity. More than one person there wondered if they were just supposed to have forgotten the throwdown they had here before fighting Galactus. "I mean, I've heard about fair-weather friends, but this is ridiculous," Ben Grimm muttered.
"For me, I'm kind of annoyed at the whole 'gave them the key to victory," Harry quipped under his breath to Storm as Hela and took her position next to them on his other side. "Really? I don't recall any of the Imperial Guard being involved in fighting Galactus, and I could've sworn it was our own Warpath who finished off Morg."
"There is no delusion like an Imperial delusion," Storm quipped, reaching over to take his hand in hers and squeezing gently as they reached the crowd of party-goers through the lines of Imperial Guardsmen. "Something I would love for you to remember whenever you think of getting a swelled head," she teased, although there was a core of seriousness to her words, as she looked around, shaking her head at the odd panoply on display.
"With you and the others around to burst my bubble, that would be an impossibility. Although, oh weather goddess, perhaps someone who once lived in a glass house should refrain from throwing stones," Harry retorted, winking at her.
"Ah, but that just makes me all the more qualified to say such, does it not," Storm answered with a laugh, joined by Hela on his other side.
The goddess sobered quickly as she saw Lilandra moving through the crowd towards them. "Game face on my dears, let the show commence." Yet even as her face shifted into a serious and formal expression, Hela was doing capers on the inside. Oh, Father, if you could see the joke your daughter is playing now! I would wager that even through the influence of the Those Who Watch Above in Shadow, you could feel the call of like to like!
OOOOOOO
Elsewhere in the galaxy, the trickster god Loki looked away from his work on his aspect of the upcoming assault on Earth, finding allies among the powers already existing there. Staring out over the capital city of the Skrull empire, his brows furrowed in confusion even as his lips quirked into a wry if confused, smile.
Across from him, Thanos looked up from his own work in the plan – combining several fleets of the Skrull Empire into one unstoppable hammer, his eyebrow rising. "Are we boring you somehow, Loki?"
"Your pardon, I just felt for some reason inordinately proud just now for reasons I cannot quite understand."
"Just another day then as I would wager you feel overly proud for no reason all the time," Thanos answered, and the trickster god acknowledge the point with a wave of the hand as he bent back to his work.
OOOOOOO
D'ken stood at the front of the long table, smiling benevolently as Harry and the others joined them. "Ah, my friends! Word of your deeds reached us here long since. I cannot thank you enough for the good you have done my Empire and the galaxy as a whole. Please, sit at my own table, be my honored guests!"
Harry nodded back as if he was fully aware of the honor being dealt them when in reality, he was anything but. As Harry came closer, D'ken leaned forward, his whole body language showing remorse or something similar. "I hope this goes to some lengths to address my debt to how I treated you all. My apologies. Gladiator was a powerful asset to the Empire, and I overreacted to his loss. Your actions were that of an emperor yourself, and I should have treated you and the rest of you humans as such regardless of the age of your people or single-system status."
"I accept your apology, and may I offer my own condolences on your losses in the battle," Harry answered, keeping his tone formal as he bowed his head toward the Emperor, biting back any tart or unnecessary words. One does not warn the wild snake you are about to stab him after all. "They died with honor."
Turning away from the Emperor as a server laid a plate down in front of him, Harry waved one hand over the meal in front of him, looking as if he was performing a benediction almost, which caused the Emperor to frowned for a moment. But catching his eyes, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "It's a thing we do before we eat, a farewell to the fallen. I apologize if it made you uncomfortable."
"Ah, I see, and not at all. We Shi'ar are used to dealing with other cultures," the Emperor said.
He was completely unable to see the color of the magic around Harry's hand glowing first green and then black as it warned of the narcotic substances in the meal. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner," Harry snarkily announced through Jean, who was now connecting the entire team via her telepathy. "The food is laced with some kind of drug, but not with anything that will eventually kill us. The wine might be just purely poisonous, but the spellwork can't tell the dosage, so I'd recommend sticking to the water. As for the food, I would imagine another kind of psychedelic like whatever is in the incense. Reed, are you certain these nose plugs will filter it out? Now would be a bad time to discover they won't.
"Don't worry, I have used those nose plugs for years. They are very old technology to me. I am certain they will work," Reed replied.
"Good, the smoke honestly is the aspect of this drug-based assault I am most concerned about," Harry answered. He had known that before but hearing it once more relieved him.
"And we are certain the magic on our bracelets or gauntlets will be able to protect us from the food and drink?" Banshee asked through Jean, deliberately using the same words Harry had a second ago. "And if so, Harry, for faith's sake, you might have found another major seller. I ain't even thinking about dignitaries, but people in drug or alcohol rehab programs!"
"Essentially, yes. Anything that would affect your brain at all or negatively impact your body will be eliminated. So long as you use the hand with the enchanted item on it to eat with and take your time between bites. I would still stay away from the wine, as that could be something immediately poisonous, and they might become suspicious if we don't start keeling over because of that," Harry warned once more, even as he filed that idea away. It was a good one, and if Hela or Steven, who had been the ones to design that enchantment, had any need of money in the future, he would be certain to relay that.
Nearby, incense burners were also sending up wafts of pleasant scent, but Harry knew that was just another avenue of attack.
"You speak of our losses first, yet I can also see you are missing companions as well, and several injured. What happened to Reed Richards, the one we initially reached out to, for example? D'ken asked politely, not knowing Harry's mind had turned to other things for a moment.
"I regret to say that Reed Richards died in the battle. A stray bolt of energy caught him in the back of the head, and he was dead before any help could come to him. Magma too passed on due to the backlash caused by her part in weakening Galactus," Harry answered. "My companion Phoenix was also badly hurt due to the final stage of the conflict, that resulted in the star exploding. She will recover in time but is not in any position to join us now. We also lost our other companion, Stephen Strange, in the last moments of the battle against Galactus."
The Emperor made politely commiserating noises, asking if perhaps the gala should be postponed to allow the humans more time to mourn. When Harry demurred, D'ken then changed the subject very slightly, expounding on the losses that Deathbird had told him, speaking of a few of the dead as if he had known them personally, and if Harry hadn't already had a good idea of the man's personality and known that he was already inebriated, he might have believed him. As it was, it was taking all of Harry's considerable self-control not to stab the man every time his eyes glanced towards Storm and Hela where they were sitting with Deathbird and Lilandra slightly further down the table. Like Harry, they were dressed formally, and the dresses they wore were doing an extremely good job of accentuating their forms. But the way that this man was looking at them both made Harry wonder if he could get away with covering them both in sackcloth for the rest of the day.
"When do you think he's going to spring the final trap?" he asked, both to keep his minds off thoughts of violence for the moment and actual curiosity.
"It depends," Jean replied. "While I can't break into his mind just yet, given what we know of his personality D'ken might not spring it at all when you consider that he is right here, right where things can go wrong. And if we aren't visibly being affected, he might call it off…"
Sighing in annoyance but knowing that Jean was right, allowed her to pass on that information to the others. After all, they weren't just preparing for this betrayal. They wanted it to happen. "Everyone act like the gas is affecting you first, then the food. Not the poison, though."
"This makes me wish we could have asked more about what the various drugs are supposed to do from Deathbird," Storm interjected. "Do you think you're close enough to the Emperor to negate his mental defenses?"
"Reed?"
"No, you're just at the edge, I think. If you could get within another foot, it might be possible. But the signal isn't strong enough to cover two yards between the device and the target," Reed answered promptly.
Sighing, Harry began his acting, setting down his fork and stretching his neck, then leaned back as if he was getting comfortable, a lazy, almost dirty smile on his face and a certain gleam in his eyes as he looked over at Storm and then from her to Hela. He normally would have a lot more control than that but given that one of the drugs was supposed to make humans horny, he figured it was a good way to show that he was being impacted by the smoke.
Hela did not respond to it, turning her face away from Harry, a faint blush visible under the lower edge of her half-mask. "Grah, my Seidr Man, that is unfair. I know thou art acting yet still, such a mixture of mischief and desire is enough to make me think very wrong thoughts with battle soon to be joined."
"Should I apologize?" Harry retorted with the mental equivalent of a snort. Glancing back at the Emperor, Harry saw his bit of acting seemed to have done the trick. D'ken was now smiling thinly, his eyes narrowed with predatory anticipation. "Still, this seems to be the right track. Acting skills, people. Put on a performance."
Banshee was the first to follow in Harry's footsteps. He began to flirt with one of the servants, then began to ask about some music. "And no' of that shite you all were playin' earlier. I mean some music we could dance to. Dancing uses a lot of hips and thigh muscles, y'know, it's advertising, is what it is, and I'd like ta return the favor yer outfit be doin' me," he slurred to the Shi'ar woman in question.
She, and the other servants nearby, wore the Shi'ar equivalent of a maid outfit. Instead of being white and black, this uniform was black with gray, and the skirt was replaced by leggings. The top was literally skintight, without any of the silver edges or folds of cloth that the other Shi'ar women in the party had to keep their formal wear from being too sexual, and the servant women were very obviously not wearing a bra.
The Shi'ar in question answered by simpering and smiling, and D'ken turned back to Harry. "I, of course. The Empire does have a few other races who make music. Would you all like that in the background, do you think? As I said, this party is mostly in your honor, and if it would make you more comfortable, then so be it."
"I think that would be lovely, and then we can all show you some human dances," Harry acknowledged before turning back to his meal. He conversed with the Emperor about the Empire and the other aliens that Earth had met with before, but his eyes kept on straying over to Storm and Hela, then slowly, with a fervent mental apology to the three of his ladies who were present, Harry started to let his eyes wander.
Soon, music began to play, and Banshee was up and dancing, with Storm soon following along with Havok. She and Hela were not nearly as at home with flirting in public, so their acting consisted of letting their own eyes wander and acting somewhat drunkenly. But Storm was the first of them to act as if she had been weakened by the drug in the food. She stumbled halfway to the area that had been quickly cleared for dancing before continuing her walk as if she had merely lost her footing for a moment. Meanwhile, Warpath was making a big show of not moving very well, grimacing occasionally and keeping to drinking rather than eating. Ben just kept eating a lot, slowing down a tiny bit with each plate he consumed.
Nearby, Hela was doing a great job acting like someone who was both slowly succumbing to an LSD and a powerful muscle relaxant, twitching her head this way and that as she caught sight of moving objects while slumping further into her chair. "Mmm, the colors are, they look tasty, and ooh, that one is shiny and blurple. HMMM… but I am so tired right now. Jus, just want to go to bed…"
From where he was sitting at the head of the royal table, D'ken watched all this in glee. He was a bit confused about how each of the Custodes was being affected differently, and none of them seemed to have been affected by the actual poison. Still, that was alright. It looked as if whatever defense they had against poisons didn't work on things that weren't actually fatal. And this way, D'ken would be able to… have fun with them later.
Finally, it looked as if Warpath and Ben, the biggest of the humans and the ones with the strangest physiology, were also beginning to succumb. He watched then as Harry, the one he was most concerned about, stood up, his eyes locked on Storm as she swayed to some music played by a group of young-looking aliens of the same race as Astra, the Imperial Guard's equivalent of Kitty.
But as the human male stood up, Harry stumbled, nearly going to his knees. And it looked like he wasn't nearly as affected by the LSD drug as the women were. Which again made sense, as that particular drug had never been tested on a human male, just like the aphrodisiac in the smoke. Although that seemed to have worked on all but the two super-strong humans.
But what was most amusing to D'ken was the sudden widening of Harry's eyes and how he instantly turned his head to glare at D'ken. "What did you do!?"
The Emperor smiled, then began to laugh wildly, shaking his head in delight. "Hahaha! Ah, I knew you humans would let your guard down, but to this extent, I could not have asked for better!" he looked around, waving his hand airily. "Take them."
Instantly several Imperial Guard did so. Several of the strength enhanced variety made for Ben and Warpath. Many were of the Warstar variety, leavened with a few Titans and Smasher variety. Several of the smaller robotic symbiotes carried large nets with them as they rode their larger partners. Elsewhere in the party, several dozen Shi'ar servants and party-goers also began to move. One of them, an Electron, led the way onto the dance floor as the female servants all scattered. Given what they had been wearing, there was no way for the female servants to be replaced by further Imperial Guard.
"W, we trusted you," Harry said, his voice warbling as he apparently tried to fight off the effects of the drugs. "You, you, we helped you!?"
"We needed you to deal with Galactus, true. And perhaps if you had come before me humbled and awed by my Empire, eager to help your betters, I would've treated with you fairly," D'ken intoned. "But your arrogance, your slaying of my messenger, made this inevitable." His face seemed to shift in an instant, becoming almost a parody of anger and haughty disdain. "Did you honestly think that you humans could be allowed to live after treating me in such a manner, after killing such an asset to the Empire as Gladiator!?"
He laughed then, shaking his head as he took several steps back away from the table, waving his hands around. "Take them," he repeated. "The ladies to my seraglio, and the men to the prison cells. Make certain that the intravenous devices are prepared. I will deal with Potter personally later tonight. But I have other things on my mind right now…"
D'ken made to leer towards Hela and Storm. But as he did so, Hela straightened up, pushing Deathbird away from her with one hand while her other fist took Blackthorn, an Imperial Guardsman who looked almost like an android, in the throat, her blow exploding the droid's neck. "Enough of this farce."
The Imperial Guard and their masters had barely a second to stare before Harry shouted out, "Now!"
An ambush turned against itself is among the worst situations a military force can find itself in. The Imperial Guard learned this now.
Magma dropped from below the ship, slamming her hands down onto the ground. An earthquake hurled many of the Imperial Guard off their feet as Banshee leaped into the air, screaming his way up to the flyers above them. Two Manta-type men screamed and grabbed their heads, their species being more susceptible to sonic-based assault.
At the same time, Jean, released from her duty as 'the glorified communications device', as she had once sarcastically put it, lashed out. Oracle barely had time to widen her eyes before she screamed as all of her telepathic defenses were torn asunder like a glass house in a tornado, and Jean growled into her mind, "I honestly can't understand a woman who would be willing to help in the rape of other women, let alone someone who thinks that is simply their duty if a pleasurable one. Really, seeing your mind like this, I think I am doing the universe a favor."
Oracle continued to scream as Jean Gray tore her mind apart until the pain became too much and her heart stopped.
The screaming of Oracle and the suddenness of the violence threw Lilandra for a moment, as Deathbird leaped to her feet, shouting, "They were prepared! Call in the reserves!"
Then she raced towards her brother, ignoring the fact that she could've taken Havok in the back, claws out and reaching.
One of the few Titans had paused in reaching forward to pull Warpath away from the table. But now Warpath exploded back into the man, pushing himself up and away from the table so fast the table was sent flying, while his feet left a crater in the ground. Warpath had hit the man before the Titan could grow too large, taking him in the chest, smashing him off of his feet. At the same time, Warpath tore through the paper-thin wraps covering his neck and chest. When it and the outer clothing he had worn with it fell away, the Apache warrior stood there in his armor ready to go, smirking at the dozen mixed Warstar, Smasher, and Binder troops around him. It was a good mix, but it remained to be seen if Binder's powers were strong enough to hold Warpath or Ben.
"It's clobberin' time!" Ben roared, smashing the table in front of him to splinters and hurling bits of it towards a nearby Flashfire trooper, then barreled into a Neutron troop, before hurling him bodily into a Smasher. Two Warstar symbiotes leaped on him in turn, and the three devolved into a massive super-strong brawl.
From above several dozen Imperial Guard of the various flight-capable troops, Manta, Kytes, Arcs, and Electrons, began to pour down fire, but Banshee was already rocketing up towards them with Storm following. At the same time, Havok had rolled with the earthquake and now blasted an Electron off his feet. Like Warpath, their own 'wounds' were proven to be nothing but disguises.
An explosion of magic that looked like an over-powered Expeliarmus blasted everyone near him away, and Harry stood up, showing no sign of the various drugs that the humans had been given as D'ken glared at him. "And I can't honestly believe you didn't think we'd be prepared for betrayal. Only this time, D'ken, we don't need you."
The Emperor had quickly retreated behind one of his force bubbles, watching as his Imperial Guard, gathered here at such strength as to take a planet, hurled themselves into the fight. "Dammit! Starbolts, destroy their ship, trap them on the planet."
Even as a twelve-man squad of flying Starbolts dove down towards the Long Voyager and the Astra troopers raced forward, a shield appeared around it. Their blasts of plasma struck but didn't do anything. Then Banshee attacked them from behind while Storm lashed at them with a blast of condensed air that shattered bones and flung them out of the sky. They, in turn, were attacked by another group of Electron-suit clad Shi'ar.
But as they did, the group seemed to fly into a spot of the air that was entirely black, like someone had just dropped a container of ink into the world. Their cries of shock and dismay didn't last for long as Banshee dove down on the former musicians, their intangibility proving to be no defense against his sound-based assault.
Meanwhile, Storm tossed some kind of balled lightning into the area of blackness. There were many screams, and Shi'ar fell out of the cloud, their suits overloaded by the intense bolt of energy. A few seconds later, the blackness covered the ship entirely, Nightside doing her part to help her new friends.
"Jean, how are the others doing?" Harry asked mentally as he slammed his hands onto the earth. "Shi Jundai!" Instantly, a horde of golems appeared, who started to grapple with the Imperial Guard all around the palace grounds.
One in particular nearly sliced Lilandra in two, but a quick dodge and an even quicker hipshot took the golem in the face.
"They're in the SOCC and waiting!" Jean reported while maintaining a watch over the battlefield and the massive space battle that had just erupted in orbit. "And Deathbird's fleet is on the move."
Harry took a moment to look at the twitching, spasming corpse of Oracle, then around. He saw Deathbird through the tumult as still more Imperial Guard began to arrive. She looked back just as Havok, who was launching an attack D'ken's way, took a blow from a Warstar before he could get away.
Harry turned away from Deathbird to turn the symbiotes into so much smelted iron before turning back towards Deathbird. She looked at his work, dodging under a blow from a golem, then nodded, once, and a second later, raised her head to the sky, giving out a cry that a shrike would envy. "KRRREEEAAAAAAAA!"
Instantly, Deathbird's allies among the Imperial Guard struck out at their fellows. "Down with the false Emperor!"
Turning back to D'ken, Harry was unsurprised to see that for all his megalomania, the man did actually learn from past mistakes. In this case, the instant the battle had begun, he began to retreat. That was the last thing Harry could see before a Mammoth got between him and the Emperor while several Mantas fired down at him from on high, blinding Harry momentarily even though a hasty Protego allowed him to ignore their actual attacks.
Seeing some of his reinforcements beginning to fight amongst themselves, D'ken knew what had happened. "So, you betray me at last, Deathbird!? I knew that you were power-mad, but to work with the humans? I didn't think you would debase yourself like that. You know that you have no chance! None! The Orbital defense platforms will…"
"Do you think I have planned so poorly, brother!?" Deathbird howled in laughter. "At this moment, those self-same platforms are battling it out with my forces in orbit. As for down here, they would never interfere without being certain you were safe in the bunker beneath the palace. Until they have that," Deathbird shrugged before dodging a blow from a sword of all things in Lilandra's hand, then ducked under a blast from her pistol. "And you fight for that madman sister?"
"As if you are any better, sister!" Lilandra made that term an epithet. "As much as I might loathe our brother and everything that he stands for, he is the proper Emperor. If you take the throne through force and external allies, where does it end!?"
"It will end with me on the throne!" Deathbird retorted, lashing out with a kick, then a slash from her talon-like weapons that nearly opened up Lilandra from throat to crotch. She dodged, and then there were a golem and a Neutron between the two women, rolling around on the ground.
With Deathbird busy with her sister, D'ken had taken the opportunity to bring in some of the Starbolt and Electron units, trying to clear an avenue of retreat. Seeing that, Harry let the Mammoth guardsman's corpse fall to the side, half of its head removed by a Reducto, and glanced around. He saw with some satisfaction that the Shi'ar were running into the same problem as in the fight in the throne room. The Imperial Guard had quantity, tremendous amounts of it. Looking around, Harry saw at least forty Electron type armored units, a dozen Warstars still in the fight, and an equal number of a lot of the other types. D'ken had even thought to simply not include many of the more useless variety of Imperial Guardsman, like the Fang type of alien.
Yet Harry and his fellows had quality. Without Gladiator, there wasn't anyone on the other side who could really hurt the Thing or Warpath, although some could match them in strength. Hela was simply too skilled and too strong for most of them, and Storm and Banshee were flying rings around the flyers among them, cutting down a flying Imperial Guardsman every few seconds, while Magma's tectonic energy bolts were able to make hash out of any armor they touched. And it was in the air too where Deathbird's betrayal seemed to be felt the worst at this point, many of the Starbolts and Kytes turning against their fellows, shattering the Guard's cohesion, which they might have been able to use to, if not win, then certainly hurt his people.
Worse, they hadn't thought to plan in terms of indirect warfare, as Harry had against Morg and Galactus. They hadn't even brought in a replacement for Nightside. The Imperial Guard unit brought together here was built for power, capture, and energy attacks instead of abilities that attacked their opponents' senses, having trusted in the various narcotic concoctions. And against the Custodes, that wasn't going to be enough.
The battle was chaotic and god-awful, but even as Harry used his magic to crush a segment of the Imperial Guard who had fallen back to try and create a firing line to target Hela, Harry knew that his side would win it. With that in mind, he began to think about their objectives for this battle beyond sticking D'ken's head on a pike.
"Good, freeze them. We have this fight in hand, I think."
"If that just jinxed us I will never kiss you again!" Jean grumbled, even as she obeyed.
OOOOOOO
Down below in the SOCC, work had continued unabated even as violence erupted at the party above. Whatever was going on elsewhere, the work of communicating with and running the disparate portions of the Empire could never stop. Only an imperial mandate could stop communication out from the Empire's capital.
That was what happened now.
Jean's voice blared into Morph and Psylocke's minds, a soothing kind of heat in their heads. "Okay, folks, Harry says the time is now. Are we ready?"
"We're ready," Morph answered, staring up at the central command spire.
As Psylocke replied in the affirmative, information flooded into her brain, a series of codes and numbers that Jean had found in Deathbird's mind during the meeting she'd had with Harry and her sister-wives (regardless of if Hela had officially joined them, that was what she was to Jean). After all, most of the Imperial planets were in constant communication, or else their plan with the virus wouldn't work. But they needed some time to work without any other Imperial force arriving to mess things up.
A second later, the individuals working at the consoles all around Morph and Psylocke suddenly stopped all movement, their brains simply shutting down, their bodies held rigid by Jean's telekinetic grip. It was tough to use telekinesis this far removed so far out of your own sight range, but Jean had practice reaching out further than this during the Eurasian War to deal with nuclear missiles. Doing so now through however many meters of rock was difficult, but not impossible.
Looking around in shock, Morph shook his head as the person he'd been talking to, a close friend of the face he had assumed and one who seemed to have some romantic interest in him, froze solid. "Okay, that was creepy."
He quickly looked over at Psylocke, who was dealing with something of the sort herself. But she had actually been communicating with some distant planet and had to interrupt herself. Nor was she alone in this. Several dozen other workers had to do the same, with Jean controlling their minds and compelling them to act in the same manner. "Hold one, repeat hold one. An Imperial Edict has been issued, code number Zed Four Niner Tango Edith Alpha Orange Five Ten Eight Seventeen. Blackout commencing. Repeat, Empire-wide blackout commencing."
The individual at the other end of the line seemed to take this in stride, to Psylocke's surprise, and Psylocke hung up on the man without any other words. "Say what you will about them, but the Shi'ar have created a very regimented Empire."
"Yeah, well, that's about to bite them on the ass, and it couldn't happen to a nicer group of idiots," Morph said, winking at her as he turned into Reed Richards, raising his hands up toward the distant control tower, his legs and hands both stretching like the man whose face he was now wearing. "Besides, you know I'm all about flexibility, baby!"
"Ugh, you couldn't leave that one alone, could you?" Psylocke groaned, before leaping to her feet and racing up her body to the central tower whose primary computer could interact with all of the other computers around them at once. With that, they would send the virus out all at once across the Empire, where it would quickly propagate.
"You signed, sealed, and practically delivered it, so no," Morph laughed as he joined her, moving to pick up the Vin'car's head, opening his eyes and sticking one finger into a specific small opening in the system there. A moment later, the screen in front of Psylocke flashed green, and she began to input commands into the system…
OOOOOOO
Outside, D'ken had been able to extract himself from the battle and was now racing on surprisingly fast feet towards the castle. But Harry, who had basically removed himself from the fight at this point, the better to rest if one of the orbital defense stations did fire on them despite D'ken being there, saw him break out away from the tumult. "After him! Havok with me, Storm, Hela, you two are in charge here."
"How goes it, Jean?" he asked, even as he slapped his hands down on the ground, creating hundreds of golems who rose and continued to fight amongst the shattered remains of their fallen brethren.
"The SOCC is ours, and Morph and Psylocke are downloading the virus now," Jean reported. "I'm readying the memories to be implanted in them now. I've also found a few that seem to be among Deathbird's agents. We want to really muddy the waters, right?"
"Right," Harry blasted aside an Electron, then ducked under a punch from a Smasher, lancing out at him with a spike of stone that took the man in the face, piercing his head and sending him flying. But something in Jean's mental tone had him ask, "What are you thinking, love?"
"I am thinking of maybe setting them and a few diehard D'ken followers with mental orders to attack one another," Jean replied coldly.
Harry winced. He knew the price of using Imperio, the need to dominate and control that the spell demanded. That was why he had used it so sparingly, And to do the same to someone via telepathy might be even worse. "Jean, you don't have to…"
"Tell me this won't help with the plan. Tell me that, and I won't do it," Jean challenged.
Harry said nothing for a second. It would, and he knew it. Any chaos would help their plan immensely, further screwing things over for Lilandra or Deathbird, whoever took over the capital after today. Harry was leaning toward letting Lilandra have it, with Deathbird retreating, trying to control the outer reaches of the Empire and Lilandra consolidating her hold in the Shi'ar populated center. That, with the virus, would help the chaos keep on growing, making certain the Empire could never come together. Having the SOCC operators' loyalty come into question would just further slow Lilandra's assumption of power further. "It would, but not enough to…"
"To what, to make me use my power in such a villainous way? Deathbird's agents were already primed to start some violence among their fellows. And besides…" Jean's mental voice softened, becoming an almost caress. "It isn't just you who has to sacrifice their personal sense of honor for this plan, husband of mine. At least in this way, I can know the kind of burden this will put on your shoulders."
"I, I understand, and I love you for that, Jean, and for so many other things I can't even count them. But if you do it, do it well. Make certain that Vin'car is dead at the start of the violence. And time it so that the virus starts to activate at the same time," Harry replied, his own mental voice warm and loving at first before becoming grimmer as he went on. "That way, we can modify their memories from thinking it was definitely a last-minute thing from D'ken to being able to blame one another for it, maybe."
Jean answered in the affirmative, and Harry turned all his attention to the world around him again, noting they had nearly reached the palace, where several automated defenses were coming online. A quick Protego protected him, and Harry returned fire, noting that Havok had rolled to one side and was doing the same, trying to use the dead body of a Titan as cover.
"Deathbird's going after him too, but Lilandra just cut her off," Havok shouted, over the slowly dying out sounds of battle, pointing to one side. "That isn't a matchup we want, right?"
Harry turned and saw that Havok was correct. After their initial clash had been interrupted by a Neutron trooper, Lilandra had been very careful to stay away from her sister. But now they were both racing for the same doorway their brother had just passed through and looking at their speed, Lilandra had little chance of getting through the doorway in one piece.
"That just won't do," Harry muttered and then shot both of them with the Stupefy spell, knocking both sisters out.
This instantly shifted the fight's dynamics. Deathbird's remaining followers started to attack the scattered Custodes while fighting their former brothers in arms at the same time. But the golems turned on them just as quickly, and Harry knew both sides had lost too many troops to turn the tide against the Custodes. Banshee, one of their few vulnerable members, had retreated to the ship to join Magma in close defense, but Storm was still fighting well up in the air, and the ground battle was turning against the Imperial Guard as they lost members to Harry's golems. And Ben and Warpath were just too strong and too durable for even the Imperial Guard's toughest to deal with.
Ahead of Harry's charge towards the palace, a troop of mixed Neutron, Blackthorn, and Starbolt-type Imperial Guardsman tried to interpose themselves between Harry and Havok's position. This was courageous but not wise.
A wave of his hand slammed several of the Starbolts to the ground as he muttered out a spell which blasted the Blackthorn trooper into pieces. The last one, the Neutron, took Havok's energy wave attack and used it to power its own blows, nearly sending Havok flying along with the corpse he had been using as cover.
"Accio hotheaded Summers kid," Harry shouted, lips quirking as he used the Accio spell to grab Havok out of the air. His other hand conjured up a Protego, then, as Havok was pulled towards him, Harry reversed the spell, tossing Havok over towards a window above the entrance D'ken had barreled through.
"Oh, you bastard!" Havok shouted, even as he put his hands together, blasting out another kinetic assault, shattering the window. A second later, he flew through the shattered remains, entering the palace.
"Jean, do you still have a read on where D'ken's going?"
"He's apparently making his way to the SOCC. Why I don't know, but Nikolai is in a position to block them off. I'm contacting him now."
Despite her earlier suggestion and the fact she could have simply reached out telepathically to shut down D'ken's mind, Jean didn't offer to do that now. That wasn't the way this was supposed to go, in her opinion. No, he deserved to die while awake. And Jean also knew that Harry wanted to give Havok some closure. In this, justice and vengeance are one and the same.
"Good, direct Havok in that direction, too," Harry requested, blasting the door to the palace off its hinges, idly noting it was the same entrance they'd used on their first visit here.
As he raced through his palace, D'ken was furious not just with the humans but even more so about how his own sister had betrayed them. She betrayed me, betrayed the Empire. This cannot be allowed to stand! Still, her use of the humans means they will win this battle. Especially since Deathbird must have warned them about the drugs!
But if I can get to the SOCC, I can activate the Primus protocols. The palace will be bombarded from orbit, which will slaughter at least some humans, if not all of them, and cover my escape. Simultaneously, a signal would be sent out to a fleet on the Empire's borders facing towards where Earth was supposed to be. On his orders, that fleet would move in and scour the Earth of human life.
He was almost to the corridor leading to the SOCC when a man dressed in a palace guard uniform stepped in front of him. "What are you doing? You should have joined the other place guards to fire on the Custodes. Now get out of my way!" D'Ken growled angrily.
Across from the Emperor, Nikolai smiled grimly and raised his rifle, pointing it at D'ken. "I think not, comrade target."
D'ken instantly pulled out two pistols, moving faster than Nikolai had anticipated. Still he brought out his mutant power, absorbing and quickly redirecting the bolts back towards D'ken.
Swiftly, the Emperor ducked out of the way, rolling back around the corner as the 'Fizz-crack' of the gauss rifle filled the corridor. "Traitor! Are you one of Deathbird's agents?"
Behind him, Harry had arrived at the end of the corridor, with Havok on his heels. D'ken turned, staring at them in shock, then glancing back around the corner towards Nikolai. "Damn it! I, I will not, this is my palace, I will not…"
Harry smiled grimly at him but then stepped to one side, patting Havok on the shoulder. "Havok, he's yours."
The younger man acted as if those words were the equivalent of releasing a dog from his leash, lunging forward, howling out his battle cry. "Cry Havok, you bastard!" As he raced forward, Havok thrust out his hands, and from them blasted out his mutant power, the circles of coruscating energy barreling down the hallway like a battering ram of repressed fury.
The energy crashed into D'ken's hastily raised shield, doing little for a moment. But the shield started to overload as Havok continued the assault while also racing forward. But while cornered, D'ken wasn't without defenses, nor had he lost the ability to think. D'ken quickly redirected some of its energy with a few taps on a controller set into the wrist unit of his suit, and the shield compressed until it blocked just the area right in front of D'ken. Then from his waist, he pulled out a pistol he ritually carried, along with a sword. He now pointed the pistol around the shield that had shrunk, unloading several shots towards the young man.
Reflexively Havok canceled out his own attack, throwing himself sideways away from the fire. Then he bounced off the wall, using his arms to blast off behind him with his power like he was using a rocket.
A second later he crashed into D'ken, taking the Emperor to the ground where they rolled together, the pistol flying away as the two men grappled. D'ken tried to push Havok away with one hand as they rolled, reaching for his waist to grab at the short sword there. But Havok, despite not being as strong as D'ken, was the better brawler. He kept a hold of the Emperor, pinning one arm against his body while hitting everything he could with his other hand. This caused D'ken to release his grip on the sword, which was kicked away a second later.
"Enough! I am an Emperor. I will not wrestle in the dirt with a primitive like you!" D'ken shouted, finally breaking his arms free from the grip and using both hands to crack a blow into Havok's head, sending him to the ground and rolling away. The Shi'ar was quick to capitalize on the breathing space, swiftly grabbing up his sword again.
Havok quickly put his hands together and fired off another kinetic blast, which lifted the Emperor off his feet and slammed him into the far wall before he could activate his shield again. The Emperor cried out in pain, blood bursting from his mouth as he fell to his knees, some of his ribs having cracked under the blow. Yet D'ken somehow kept hold of his sword and pushed himself back to his feet.
"N, no!" he shouted, raising his sword, his eyes wild, his hair feathers unkempt, all his hauteur and rage gone, leaving only desperation and a growing fear that he, too, was mortal. "No, this is not how the Emperor will die… I…"
"Oh, it most definitely is," Havok growled. Disdaining his mutant power for a second, he moved forward, pulling out a dagger that he had added to his uniform's expanded pouch after meeting his father. The blade was made out of Orichalcum and cut the tip of the Emperor's blade off easily. Before the Emperor could retract his arm, Havok cut his wrist with the backswing, causing the Emperor to cry out in shock, reeling away.
It was a shallow cut, but enough to cut all of the arteries and tendons there, the hand becoming useless. Thanks to the Shi'ar physiology being different than humans, he wouldn't bleed out as quickly, but that hand would be useless unless he saw a healer that could repair the damage.
As he tried to lunge forward with his one remaining hand, Havok caught the Emperor with a kick in the chest, causing him to stumble away. Still, say what you would for the man, he wasn't giving up, and he wasn't begging for mercy, which a part of Harry had actually expected.
Now he watched as D'ken stumbled to his knees, glaring up at Havok then over at Harry. "Too scared to your own do dirty work? And I thought you were a leader!"
"I am a leader. And normally, I would indeed do my own dirty work. But this is personal for my young friend. So I figured in this, he could act in my stead." With that, Harry turned, looking at Havok sternly. "End it."
Scowling slightly, Havok breathed in raggedly. Part of him wanted to just keep wailing on D'ken, killing him slowly. But that would make me no better than him, wouldn't it? So after a single tense moment, he nodded. "Right, I don't want to stoop to his level."
Havok stepped forward, gripping the dagger in a knuckle-white grip.
When he stepped forward, the Emperor's bracer, the one with the controls for his shield projector, changed shape. From the palm portion, a dagger flicked out, and he lunged, nearly catching Havok, slicing across his stomach but not penetrating the light armor he wore. Havok just took the blow, stabbing the man's forearm and forcing him to scream again before he whipped the blade around, aiming for the man's throat.
The attack slit the Emperor's throat, and he gurgled, his hand lifting to his throat as he glared up at Havok with all of the anger he could, even as his life's blood began to pour out from between his fingers. While the arteries in the wrist and forearm were not as important to a Shi'ar's blood flow as it was to a human, their necks were just as important, and D'ken had but seconds to live.
But there was one thing Havok had to do before the man could be allowed to die. D'ken had to know why Havok was the one doing the deed. He leaned forward and whispered, "This is for my mother, Katherine, you son of a bitch!"
And then he rammed his dagger through the man's heart, staring into D'ken's eyes as the life faded from them.
Reaching forward, Harry pulled at Havok's shoulder, pulling him away from the corpse as it fell to the floor. Havok didn't struggle, just staring at the body as Harry pulled him away while reaching down the telepathic link Jean was sustaining between them all at the moment. "Jean, we're done here. Make certain the fight's over. Then it is time to start the cleanup…"
OOOOOOO
While the battle on the ground had, generally speaking, gone the way Harry and his fellows had thought it would, i.e., a horrifying bloodbath of the Imperial Guard from which few had been spared, it turned out that Deathbird had been bluffing when she taunted D'ken by saying that her forces would be able to deal with the orbital defense stations. Three of the defense stations were slag and quickly falling into the planet's atmosphere, but Deathbird had perhaps greatly overestimated how much of the home fleet would be willing to follow her lead or how much of an edge surprise would give her forces in space. Many of the ships she had taken into battle were now heavily damaged, and her remaining bombardment ships had found their longer-range defenses no protection against the guardians of the Shi'ar homeworld.
Worse for her forces, many of the captains that might have joined her had been attacked by the remainder. The rest of the Home Fleet had apparently decided to stay neutral in this conflict, and after punishing the traitors within their ranks, they had broken away from the battle, moving into a position around one of the gas giants.
By the time Steven's spells went to work, doing much the same in space as Jean had done in the SOCC, the fleet units which had followed Deathbird had been forced away from the planet having lost several dozen ships of all classes. This had made it somewhat easier for Steven to snare the attackers and remaining defenders in a single spell, once he reached them anyway. By that point, the rest of the outer system and the portions of the home fleet which had stayed out of the fighting were already under his spellwork.
Hela and Harry joined him as soon as D'ken was dealt with. They spread out now, making certain that the rest of the Shi'ar home system's population were found and entrapped. Thanks to the fact that no communications were heading out of the system, this was much easier than one could have supposed, but that didn't mean it was at all an easy or a fast operation. Indeed, even at the speeds they could fly, or the Long Voyager could move, it took more than two days to make certain that they had put everyone within the system under magical control. Part of this was simply distance. The rest was numbers and power.
Harry and Steven, the strongest in terms of magical ability, could only enspell a few hundred million Shi'ar at a time. When the system's population was measured in the hundreds of billions, that was not a large number, thanks mainly to the ecumenopolis that was the Shi'ar's original homeworld. Luckily, Jean could do much the same thing as the magic users with her telepathy and could use it on a similar number. And honestly, what they were actually doing: knocking them out as safely as possible and modifying their memories, didn't really take much in terms of energy for the magic users.
It still added up, and all of them were utterly exhausted by the time it was done. But the magic users were able to do it. When the spells, which had all been tied together and would activate as a single monstrous spell, any information about the humans would disappear from their minds. None who knew about the humans in the first place, which was a surprisingly small number once you moved away from the palace, would remember anything about them.
To the citizens of the home system, Galactus had been forced to retreat by the sacrifices of the Imperial Guard and the brilliant tactics of Deathbird and the death of his herald. But then, disaster. Riding her success, Deathbird launched a coup. Those in the court knew that this occurred before D'ken, fearing Deathbird's sudden spike in popularity, could remove her, while to the majority of Shi'ar it would simply seem like a natural thing to expect from the genetic throwback.
Now D'ken was dead. But Lilandra, who, according to Jean, was much better thought of than her siblings among the common Shi'ar, had survived the coup, beating off Deathbird's attempt to grab the throne. Which would, in turn, mean Lilandra's ascension to Empress.
Of course, this was just a broad overview of the memory which Harry and the others had come up with. Each mind had to have this new reality colored by the personality, job, and knowledge of the mind in question. But that was the brilliance of magic. While telepathically, Jean would have been hard-pressed to create and insert those memories en-masse, magic could do the same thing by, to continue the coloring analogy, pushing a paint by numbers outline into every victim's mind, and then have the individual minds do the coloring in for them.
By the time they were done with the mental side of things, the virus had spread throughout the Empire. Every system, every ship, every space station. Every piece of technology connected to the central communications grid, all of it.
Surprisingly, there weren't any secret holdouts or private systems. None at least that D'ken knew of from what Reed could find in his personal databanks. Researching that and working with Ororo and Betsy on what technologies they wanted to ahem, acquire, was how Mr. Fantastic spent his time while the others were busy with the rest of the cleanup.
Even as the ship slipped under its various cloaking spells, Harry and Hela were still not really happy with what they had done. It wasn't perfect, and the Shi'ar, for all their problems, were not fools. If they suspected anything, then perhaps, somehow, they might look to Earth as the reason behind their current issues. But it was the best they could contrive, and Harry knew it. So he looked over at Steven, the other wizard sweating as much as Harry knew himself to be doing, then over at Hela, who was showing even more strain in her face despite the upper half of it being covered by a half-mask.
All around them, reality shimmered like the top of a shallow pond in an earthquake, all three of them straining to contain the magic they had been doing until finally, Reed announced, "Alright, we are fully hidden under cloaking and are hugging a worthless lump of asteroid rock the locals call the CIN4847. You can release your magic."
The magic users did so, nearly collapsing as the strain of holding the magic back left them. All across the solar system, minds whose memories had been modified began to awake, and Harry breathed in deeply before wearily slumping into the chair next to Jean, putting a sweaty arm around her shoulders despite her protests. "Now we figure out if this all worked, for better or worse…"
OOOOOOO
On her flagship's bridge, Deathbird found herself waking up, with no memory of the fact she was doing so. Instead, she, like those around her, simply kept on doing what they thought they had been doing for a long while. The pose that Deathbird had been placed in, with one hand over her eyes, kept her from seeing a few of the crew who were slower to come back to themselves than the others.
There would be other examples of that throughout the system: people feeling groggy, looking around in confusion before the new memories that had been emplaced in their minds could fill in the blanks for them. In any other circumstance, perhaps someone might have noticed how many instances of this kind of thing there were. But soon enough, the individual citizens and soldiers in this system and every other system of the Shi'ar Empire would have other things to worry about.
Lowering her hand from her face, Deathbird growled to herself, wondering how it had gone so badly wrong. She had been ready! With the death of Gladiator in the fight against Galactus and his Herald, and with herself able to ride the winds of that victory, she had everything in motion. Everything! Her Borderers, the adoration of the naval fleet who had stood with her, her agents inside the palace, inside the SOCC, inside the Home Fleet, all of it had been ready. All of it!
But somehow, her brother had been ready for her. He too had called in Imperial Guard units and had extra protection woven into the festivities to celebrate the defeat of the World Eater. Perhaps, perhaps he feared my popularity after becoming the one who would be touted as the one who defeated Galactus. He wasn't prepared for my agents within the palace for certain.
The party had wound down, and then had come the betrayal, when her brother had begun to demand she give over her position as Minister of War and head to the distant border of the Empire, and Deathbird had reacted by springing her trap, only to walk into D'ken's own. I was astonished that Lilandra fought so well in D'ken's favor. She was able to rally the Imperial guard after my Borderers turned on their fellows far too well. And her retreating from the palace to personally oversee the orbital defenses was a master stroke. I had hoped to knock them out of the battle early on, but with Lilandra stiffening them, that was impossible.
Still… Deathbird looked down at the talon-swords at her side, reveling in the blood she saw on them. Still, D'ken is dead.
That sight caused Deathbird to become a little more upbeat even as the remnants of her fleet retreated out of the orbital defense's range and started to come under attack from the various other units in the system. The victory against Galactus was because of Deathbird. Her fleet, her plans, the scientists she brought in, and the sacrifices that her troops had made, along with that of the Imperial guard. This would be huge in the hearts and minds of the empire.
Moreover, Deathbird knew she could rally the outer edges of the Empire. She was much more popular along the borders than either of her siblings had ever been. Lilandra would probably be able to rally the majority of the Shi'ar planets to her side, but not on the military side of things. And the other races which make up our Empire will probably split right down the middle.
She watched impassively as another ship exploded before it could get out of range of the orbital defenses, snarling in joy a second later as two battlecruisers were blown out of space in front of her fleet, the Home Fleet unable to get more of its larger units into place to stop them leaving the system from where it had retreated.
It would become a civil war, but it was a war that Deathbird knew she would win. Lilandra had no stomach for war. She was a diplomat, a stateswoman rather than a warrior. She would lack the willpower needed to truly wage an intergalactic war, especially against their own people.
Deathbird had that will. If I have to burn half the Empire to control what remains, I will!
Moments later, Deathbird's fleet jumped out to the nearest system. And because of that, Deathbird did not see the beginning of the end.
OOOOOOO
Lilandra too awoke as the spell went off, and once more it was as if there had been no break in the events around her. She continued to bark orders, demanding that the orbital defenses continue to try and hit her sister's ships as they fled their attack on the orbitals. "Harry them! Harry them dammit!"
As she shouted, tears began to drip from her eyes. D'ken might've been a monster, he might've been an arrogant Emperor, but he had allowed Lilandra to run portions of the Empire for him, had given her real power, and had been her brother. And her sister Deathbird had killed him. And she tried to kill me too. May the blackness of space claim you, Cal'syee, no Deathbird! I knew you were a throwback, but to think that on the eve of our greatest triumph, you would betray the Empire and your family so? You are no better than a beast!
Of course, Lilandra knew that D'ken had been planned to undercut Deathbird and send her to the hinterlands because of that the very victory, but that was simply good politics. Removing a rival to the throne like that was something that any good dynast should do, and both D'ken and Lilandra had known that Deathbird resented D'ken's power over her.
Deathbird's own actions though, killing the Emperor, that was opening the door to chaos. It threw the very idea of who was worthy to lead the Empire into question, making it a thing of personal power and charisma rather than heredity. That could not be borne.
And then, to strike at the strategic operations command center? That was piling pure madness upon insanity! How else could they govern the Empire without the SOCC whirring away in the background? And yet, Vin'car was dead, along with several dozen operators, many of whom had apparently turned their weapons on their fellows.
Civil War she thought grimly, Civil War will happen if she gets out of the system.
Moments later, she repeated those words to the officers who had remained neutral, glaring angrily into the pickup. The Fleet Admiral was dead, slain by one of Deathbird's agents. This had thrown the choice of what to do in the face of violence within the royal family onto the shoulders of all the various captains. This, coupled with how close the fleet had been had allowed the captains who wanted to stay neutral or loyal to easily destroy the dozen ships who wished to join Deathbird.
"She must be stopped! If she leaves the system, we will not be able to stop this chaos from reaching out for the entire Empire! Deathbird must be slain, here and now!" Breathing in, Lilandra tried to rein in her temper with mixed results. "If I had an ounce of evidence in front of me that any of you knew this was going to happen prior to hostilities commencing, I would be asking for your removal. However, given your loyalty," she bit off the word, because it really hadn't been loyalty, "up to this point I have allowed you the benefit of the doubt. But I will only continue to do so if my sister is stopped from jumping out."
"My lady, we are too far out of system too…" one officer began hesitantly.
"Your ships all have emergency boosts built into their systems! You can! Deathbird cannot be allowed to leave this system alive. If she does, all of your positions are in jeopardy, as are your heads!"
Just because Lilandra was softer than her two siblings, did not mean that she didn't know how to threaten someone. Although D'ken would've made it long-lasting, and Deathbird would've wielded the talon-swords herself. Lilandra disdained such. The Imperial family had perfectly acceptable executioners after all.
As the captains cut off the communication and began to obey her orders, redlining their engines dangerously, Lilandra sighed, knowing that whatever else happened it was out of her hands. If Gladiator had survived the battle against Galactus this would never have happened. But it has, and I need to think about what to do now.
She watched the screen for a time, until it became certain that alas, Deathbird would, get away. The captains hadn't been entirely lying to save their skins, the Home Fleet had been badly out of position to catch Deathbird thanks to the direction they had taken after pulling away from her own forces. Battlecruisers and other smaller class ships could catch Deathbird's fleet, but lacked the firepower to do much damage.
Lilandra was still watching when Deathbird jumped, and she sighed. "Get me the Minister of Assassinations. As I warned them, the lives of the captains who could not catch my sister are now very much in jeopardy."
She stood up then looked around at the SOCC. "Pass the word throughout the Empire. Deathbird is a traitor, kin-slayer, and regicide. She and all those with her are enemies of the Empire and will be dealt with accordingly."
With that she powered up the system in front of her, wondering where her sister would go, while going through the names of those fleet admirals who could be recalled. Loyalty was a question now, when it had never been before, but Lilandra knew she needed someone in command of the Strategic Operations Communication Center. Commanding it and ruling were too much, even with the various Ministers, most of whom had survived, to help her. And then there was the need to organize her coronation. Which was something that had to be done soon.
How many hours Lilandra spent pouring over the first, and perhaps most important choice in her reign, she didn't know. But eventually her progress was interrupted, as the lighting in the SOCC went out. Emergency lights came on, then flickered off, then on again, then off, as screen after screen that she could see from the royal pillar began to go black. "What's going on!?" she shouted in the darkness, lit now only by emergency lights, noting idly that she really had been shouting too much today.
"I, we don't know mistress, something is going wrong with the computer system! Everything's shutting down shorting out, it' it's like the computers are trying to slag themselves!" Suddenly even the emergency lights went out, and Lilandra bit back a strong sense of panic.
"Get me a report on what is going on please," she said, now keeping her voice cool and calm with difficulty. But she already suspected what was going on here. A last gasp effort from Deathbird perhaps? Or some kind of failsafe left in the system? D'ken was a vindictive sort she thought to herself, a new fear roiling in her gut.
Moments later, she had her answer. All of the systems were down, every computer system connected to the intergalactic web. The SOCC was completely cut off, and no one was able to communicate. Thankfully the doors in the palace all had manual control systems, and they were able to exit out into the rest of the palace, only to find it similarly affected.
Lilandra let the ministers attempt to discover what they could of what was going on in the palace, her feet carrying her almost unbidden outside and to a nearby hill that was incorporated into the gardens. There, Lilandra climbed up a single massive tree that was left there to grow in solitary majesty.
From the top of it, Lilandra stared out towards the nearest city, shaking her head as she saw the lights gleaming there. "Oh Deathbird, what have you done?"
OOOOOOO
Elsewhere at much the same time, Deathbird was coming out of hyperspace into a nearby system, one populated by Shi'ar. She knew that word was probably set ahead of her, but Deathbird knew the fleet commander in this system, and knew she could possibly suborn him.
But only a few minutes after they exited hyperspace, one of the sensor operators frowned, raising his voice to get Deathbird's attention. "My lady, there's something going on."
"That is Majestrix to you!" Deathbird growled out, hopping from her admiral's chair and moving towards the man. "What do mean something is going on? Be more specific in your reports or…"
"The computers, the communication system in this system is…" he paused, frowning as surges began to go through the computer system, and suddenly, the computers started to die, sparking ,flaring and just dying out all around them.
"What the! Is this some kind of attack?" Deathbird shouted, her hand on the man's shoulders gripping like talons.
"I, I don't know my lady!" The man said, stammering the words now, unwilling to meet her eyes. "It's, it's possibly some kind of virus but I…"
"Trying to restore from backup, backup failed." Another officer reported, panic starting. "I can't get the engine room at all!"
"We might have to switch out the ship's computer cores. Doing it physically will take time," another officer reported, slightly calmer than the others.
As emergency lighting flared throughout the ship, Deathbird scowled angrily. "Launch shuttles, we'll need eyes. We need to know if the rest of the fleet is all right, and if we are under physical attack as well."
This of course led to the problem that the shuttles had no way of communicating back to the ship, but this proved to be a small problem. The shuttles flew out to the other ships, doing a visual inspection of each of them, then moved out past the fleet towards an incoming force which had been moving to engage them. There though, they discovered something shocking. Not only was the attacking fleet not commencing its attack Deathbird's fleet, but they too seemed to be afflicted by the same kind of virus.
Several hours later, Deathbird finally had a report of what was going on beyond what the shuttles had reported. First of all, all interstellar communication was down, and any attempt to communicate with anyone else in the system failed. Second, there were no electronic emissions larger than the shuttles themselves anywhere in the system not even from the planets deeper into the system. And third, the attempt to switch out the cores failed. The Instant the cores were implanted, something in the rest of the system infected them too. Life support was still on, as was weapons, but nothing that was to move the ship, or to communicate functioned.
The implications of all this terrified Deathbird more than even facing Galactus had. And there was only one thing she could think of that could have happened, only one man to blame. "D'ken you madman, what have you done…"
OOOOOOO
Harry, his friends and followers watched from the bridge of the Long Voyager as the lights of an intergalactic empire went out. First the energy emissions the ecumenopolis died, followed by the lights on every other space station and everything else inside.
A feeling of sickness wound itself through Harry's guts as they waited, watching for several hours as nothing happened. But Harry pushed aside his guilty feeling, knowing that it had been necessary. And maybe, just maybe, what rises from the ashes of this Empire will be better than what came before. That is all I can hope. Rebirth through the ashes of death.
Shaking his head, Harry turned to Ben, ordering him to plot the course to their meeting place with Chris Summers and his crew. "Let's get out of here people. One more stop to meet up with the Starjammers, then we are going home. Missions accomplished…"