Kallen Anaheim, as always, was on the fence about meeting new people. Her childhood made her cynical from the very start, especially the moment when they discovered aliens.
But then those aliens touched her son! A regular mother in her situation would panic, but she was not like the rest. When she became an Empress, she had power and authority to do things her way… especially now.
"Empress, the fleet is ready for your word." A voice brought her back from her thoughts.
"Very well." Her gaze went from the void to the crew of the bridge.
She looked at the descendant of Toudou, a middle-aged man serving in the Imperial Navy. Most of the Japanese descendants serve in her retinue. Her retinue is basically Yamato's army.
Yamato, also known as the promised land, is, in the most literal sense, the promised land. It's a world, or more like a Solar System, gifted by Marcus to Japanese people who followed him from the very beginning. Now they have the entire world, well, worlds, as Kallen took it for herself to govern it and all of its surrounding solar systems.
With Yamato as the centre of a province, it grew rapidly. It began with five million; over the past hundred years, it became a core world.
To become a core world, it must meet several milestones.
The first one is to have several generations of Imperial who are born and raised in this world.
Second is infrastructure, the world has to have logistics to support a fleet, in other words, orbital elevators, and proper drydocks, followed by several distribution centres where the cargo fleet can dock.
All of those exist, thus Kallen had a proper power base.
"Begin the procedures for space jump. We are going to jump right on top of their heads. We know where their home world is, yes?
So let's put fear into their very souls, let's make those four eyes have a trauma that they will never forget!"
"Yes, my Empress! Men to your stations! We are departing!"
Then another nervous officer came to see her.
"Your Excellency, the Emperor wants to speak with you in the comms room."
Kallen rolled her eyes as she swiftly walked away. She strolled to the long-distance comms room, where above a table a hologram of her husband was waiting.
"You do know that nothing happened to Julian." The Emperor said the moment she was close.
"I don't care! These pigs tried to capture him and make him into a slave! I will kill them for that! He is your son, you know!" The red-haired Empress crossed her arms and puffed.
The Emperor shook his head for a second. Her outburst amused him.
"I know, that is why you can use the Unicorn Corp, Trajan is eager for more data. You can use his Marines."
Kallen's eyes widened for a second, and she then grinned.
"You do know that I love you, my dear husband~ I will make sure to tell those four-eyes that you are sending your best regards."
"Do so. I am a bit busy, found another garden world. It will take time before I can join the frontlines.
Though by my estimates, the frontline will reach the Batarians when I am done."
"...Huh, another garden world." The beauty recalled Benning and Elysium—two truly alien worlds, with flora and fauna unlike any other. Especially Elysium, as Benning was a world in the early stages of life, Elysium was a proper alien world.
Then there was another world just on the outskirts of Arcturus Stream, an early garden world that Milly took for herself and turned into Academia, a solar system dedicated to academic research and higher education. It was an enormous project.
"Indeed, and guess what?"
"..Hm?"
"It was inhabited by Protheans before." Marcus dropped a bombshell, making the Empress speechless for a second.
"A Prothean world? I suppose, now I know why you skipped the last family gathering." Kallen rolled her eyes.
"Yes, well, I will make up for it." He nerviously chuckled.
"Anyway, have fun. I will see you soon."
With that said, the hologram turned off.
The Empress smirked a bit. As she turned around and went back to the bridge, walking to the edge, she looked at the void.
"Empress, we just received a message from central command. They sent us a route to the Batarian homeworld, and we got reinforcements?
From the Emperor himself." The comms officer said, a bit surprised. Did the Emperor himself join the attack?
He doesn't allow any reckless movement beyond the space they control. It was his doctrine to maintain a steady line so that no aliens, pirates, and other creatures would slip by.
So Kallen's reckless attack is something he should be against. But then again, these Batarians tried to touch their Prince, and that alone is worth an invasion.
"I know. The Unicorn Corp is joining us." The Empress commented
"The Marines?"
"Indeed. Let's wait for them and then jump space," the red-haired lady instructed her Fleet Commander.
Less than an hour later, three warships appeared on their horizon: a battleship and two carriers.
Kallen smiled as a hologram appeared next to her moments later. For short-distance calls, holograms can easily appear on the bridge.
"It appears I am on time. It's good to see you, mother." A blonde man said with a small smile. Trajan looked at one of his mothers.
"Indeed. I am happy to see that you are willing to help."
"That is given, he is my little brother and considering how precious Julian's work is to us. Attacking an exploration ship is as low as it gets."
The Empress nodded, then looked at her comms officer.
"Send over the navigation points to Trajan's fleet. We are leaving, there is no time to waste."
"Yes!"
"I will be waiting. This invasion is the perfect time for me to test an array of weapons we have been developing."
"Fufufu. It appears Batarians didn't realise yet, but we were waiting for them to attack us. There is an array of things that the Empire needs living targets for." Kallen laughed for a bit. Her Dagda went through retrofits recently. The military technology didn't advance much simply because they didn't have targets or enemies to test on. Now, they can finally do it.
"Precisely."
With that said, the Unicorn Corp fleet joined Kallen's, and moments later, the whole group launched their FTL engines and jumped into space.
~~~
Batarians were on high alert; in fact, they were preparing for conflict the moment they left the Citadel Council Space.
They knew that the Council took the Imperial side without hesitation. Which, in truth, pissed them off. Batarians realised that they were alone in this, and it was fine.
After all, these Imperials don't have friends anyway; the Citadel might take their side, but they won't get involved.
However, the issue is the fleet. In a normal situation, they would position their ships at the relay exit point, but these guys don't use relays.
So instead, they began to gather their forces in the middle of their solar system. The massive gas giant, in their opinion, could allow them to do a sneak attack on approaching Imperial ships.
Not that they fully understand the sheer technological gap between their species.
"S-Sir! Urgent news from Khar'shan! T-There are warships in the orbit!" The officer panicked.
"What!? How did they pass through the whole solar system without us knowing!?" The Admiral looked baffled for a second before snapping out and starting to bark orders.
"Quickly turn around! Double time back to Khar'shan!"
The officers were too shocked to understand what was going on.
"Hurry, you damn fools, we don't have time to waste!" The Batarian Admiral smacked one of them, making them snap out.
The smacked Batarian looked offended for a second, but he got back together and scrambled to his position.
"Sir, yes, sir!" The officers rushed to move the ships around and started to head back to their homeworld.
~~~~~~A Few Moments Ago~~~~~~
"Leaving jump space in 3…2…1… exiting Trans-Am!"
The Imperial ships in a synchronised order appeared in the orbit of a garden world of Khar'Shen.
The warships began to position themselves for an attack, as Batarian still didn't notice them yet.
"Marines! Into your drop pods!"
"Marines! Into your drop pods!"
"Marines! Into your drop pods!"
The comms officer's voice spread through the hangar bay.
"You heard the boss, Anderson! We get into your pod!" The squad commander's helmet closed as his shiny white armour reacted to his intentions, sealing off and pressurising.
"Yes, my Lord!" the young marine saluted as he did the same, sealing his helmet and stepping into a white drop pod.
The Unicorn Corp was Trajan's pet project, just like Marcus has his G-Force; Trajan has Unicorn Corp. The only difference is that the Unicorn Corp is mostly power armour-wearing elite soldiers.
Because of how fancy they looked, their helmets had horns, and they had white armours, the whole corps is considered 'Emperor's Finest Marines'.
Moments later, the floor opened, and the pods moved into positions.
[Pods in position]
[Starting launching sequences] Legion spoke as the holograms of the launching sequence appeared inside the marine helmets.
"Marines, you are going down with the Cataphrats. The mobile suits will remove the defensive installations, while you will take down the key buildings." Trajan's hologram explained inside the helmets as he summoned the map of the planet below.
'Damn, the Empress wants this planet burn… I pity these Batarians for their stupidity.' Anderson grimaced as he could only pity these four-eyed creatures. He read from the annals of history about the fury of the Imperial Anaheim family.
One simply doesn't mess with their family members, regardless of how big the family is becoming.
And now he will be part of it.
"Orders understood, my Prince." The commander of the squad replied.
"Then enjoy your first-ever alien hunt."
"For the Empire!"
"For the Empire!"
"For the Empire!"
"For the Empire!" Anderson saluted as the pod's timer ended, and it disconnected before beginning the descent to the planet below.
Their pod was not the only one, as there were a thousand of them that were getting launched from the two customised Unicorn Corp Arondight-class Carriers.
Four thousand marines will land on the Batarian homeworld.
But these were not the only ones, as Kallen's Yamato Division began their Mobile Suit deployment sequences.
Five catapult launch decks per carrier allowed the rapid deployment of their mobile suits. In less than a minute, over a hundred twenty mobile suits began entering the planet below.
As this was happening, the four battleships began to assume defensive positions to protect their carriers.
~~~
Trajan looked at the approaching Batarian ships.
"What ugly ships. Whoever designed those needs to be punished." The 1st Prince snorted in disgust. As a designer and creator himself, he saw these ships as something out of a cheap theatre play.
"Trajan, I leave space to you. I am going to the planet." Kallen's hologram appeared next to him.
The prince was about to complain, but then he saw the Empress was already in her pilot suit and inside her Gundam.
'Damn it, mother! I wanted to test my Unicorn Gundam!'
"Very well, leave the ships to me." The Prince sighed in resignation.
"You have my thanks." With that said, the Empress hologram was gone.
*Sigh*
"I can't say no to one of my mothers." The blonde prince closed his eyes as he shook his head.
"Especially with how many you have of them, my Prince." His second in command joked, making the Prince show a strained smile.
"You don't know half of it. Now, why don't we line up our ships for the maximum amount of damage?"
"As you wish, my Prince."
The battleships moved to the side, exposing their broadside; the carriers moved behind them and stuck to the gaps between them, creating something akin to a wall of beam turrets.
"Now, open fire, send them to their maker."
"Fire!"
Bluish pink beams rushed from the turrets, flying towards the Batarians ships.
While the sheer amount of ships was on the Batarian side, with hundreds on smaller ships, they would pop up and explode with a single beam hitting them.
The thing was, Batarians built these ships for kinetic damage exchange. Supercharged GN particles were shredding these ships like a hot knife through butter.
"Even if we blow several with a single salvo, they will overrun us." Trajan's second in command said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"That is why we still have half of the mobile suits. Now, if you would, boys and girls, please launch and prepare gravity missiles to stall them." The Prince issued the commands.
Moments later, the missiles rushed towards the Batarian ships, which finally opened fire to intercept them. However, the Imperials designed these missiles to detonate regardless of whether they hit, as they create small singularities that stall incoming ships just long enough for Imperial warships to shred them to pieces.
Then the mobile suits rushed over and began their slaughter as Batarian fighters tried to fight, but the mobile suits were far more agile.
~~~~~~Meanwhile, on the Planet's Surface~~~~~~
The anti-air guns finally opened fire as hundreds of landing pods entered the planet.
"Shoot them! Shoot them all!" The defence commander barked orders as the sky was turning red. It looked like an apocalypse.
"Why are the automated systems not working!?" He asked after realising that half of the turrets were not working.
"Sir, they can't pick them up! They automatically lock on the eezo emissions target manually!" The targeting officer said with fear in his voice.
"Then target manually, you simpleton!" The Commander smacked the idiot, and soon enough, they took over and began shooting at the pods.
However, upon impact, the pod simply dropped the four armoured beings.
In other words, a single target turned into four smaller ones.
"What the fuck…" the officers were speechless as the white armoured beings landed and pulled out rifles and began to blow up things.
"Men! Get your arms, we are defending this position with our lives!" The batarian commander rushed to grab their weapons.
His soldiers followed, but then they realised something.
The white-armoured soldiers were not even going towards them.
Instead, massive robots slammed on top of the turrets, one after another.
*BOOM*
Buildings shook as the sound of metal screeching followed. Before long, a clawed hand sliced through the building's roof and looked inside.
"Let me teach you all what happens when you touch my family, four eyes." A horned Gundam spoke as its blue eyes glowed with intense heat; it looked as if the machine were an incarnation of destruction.
"Aggghhhh!!!" The terrified Batarians opened fire without even thinking; they were trigger-happy at the moment.
Eezo-powered bullets slammed into the Gundam and its face. But not even a scratch was on the machine.
"Is that supposed to do something? Let me tell you a small secret. No physical attacks work on me~" The machine 'teased' before clawed gundam hand slammed into the interior of the defence building before crushing everyone inside. Once the machine was done, it used its CIWS to shred everything inside, then sliced the turrets with its claws and moved towards the next target.
~~~
White-armoured marines landed in the streets of the capital city of Qnobis. A metropolis built on a delta. Though the Marines swiftly noticed considerable levels of pollution in the atmosphere.
'Is this how uncontrolled expansion looks?' The Marines who grew up in clean, beautiful cities, regardless of their world of origin, were baffled by what they saw… well, whatever they saw, as the city was in a fog. Don't they have control over their weather?
"Switching to heat vision. The fog makes it difficult to navigate."
Soon enough, they saw better, as some of them used extended heat navigation.
But then Eezo bullets began to slam into the Unicorn Corp marines.
The alarm system reacted swiftly, and the AI began marking them. The Marine AI is connected to the battleship in orbit. So it's rapidly learning about Batarians, their patterns, weapons, tactics, and the environment.
Sure enough, the power suits reacted, and graviton-empowered barriers began predicting where the four-eyed creatures would shoot.
"I see you."
The marine pointed its beam rifle, and a bluish-pink beam slammed into a Batarian, instantly killing one.
Moments later, more beams followed, and the entire squad was dead.
Once they were clear, the marine began to move towards the administration building.
Other marines did the same as more and more pods landed, and the white-armoured marines began to spread, taking key points like crossroads, government-related buildings, and anything that could be important.
At the same time, the AI in Batarian networks were digging up everything that it found, which was horrifying to the Imperials.
There were hundreds of millions of slaves on the planet.
"Empress, you should see this."
The intel officer showed data to the Empress. Kallen's eyes widened as she was speechless; she never imagined that there were this many slaves!
Slavery was such a primitive concept for the empire, which spent a fortune training the next generation and, at the same time, making sure every single one of its citizens reached their full potential.
Not only was it barbaric, but inefficient!
"That's it. Send down the regs! We are taking over this planet!"
"But Empress…"
"I know what Mark said, damn it! But we will take it over and free these people!" The red-haired Empress said while gnashing her teeth. She felt a very old wound being scratched, and it was itching.
"Very well."
"Mother, a suggestion." Trajan popped up on the screen as he was part of the chat.
"What is it?"
"We can enlist the 1st Expeditionary Fleet. They are mobile." The Prince suggested.
"...Scipio's force? Isn't he on border duty?" Kallen commented, a bit confused.
"Do you think he will miss such an opportunity? Besides, he could bring his retinue, not the whole fleet." Trajan suggested, and it started to make sense to the Empress.
"You know, I am getting into this mess, but you are getting into it as well." The Battle Empress smirked, making the Prince shake his head.
"Things we do for our family, besides this is disgusting, and I hate disgusting things."
"Indeed, this is disgusting. Then send word to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet."
"Very well, but it will take time; these Batarians utilise archaic means of communication, and we are out of range for regular comms." The Prince replied as he ended the call, prompting the Empress to focus on what lay ahead, as her transporter ships soon began entering the atmosphere, carrying regular troops.
She didn't intend to use them at all, but there was that gut feeling that she would need them.
~~~
Soon enough, the battle in the orbit ended, and it was a crushing loss for the Batarians as the majority of their fleet became a debris field above their homeworld.
The mobile suits were so effective that it was considered a butchery rather than a battle. As Batarian fighters, while fast with their eezo cores and anti-gravity abilities, they still need to turn around in the old classic way, unlike mobile suits that can do the same things even faster, not to mention the four-eyed race has no means to counter beam technology.
Before long, the orbit and the capital of Qnobis were overrun by Imperial forces.
Mobile suits landed one after another in the Prime Administrator's palace, while marines, alongside the regulars who had just landed in the city streets, began sweeping them for any stranglers. The issue was that the city was massive.
Much larger than any Imperial city. Simply because it was so unorganised, uncontrolled growth like that was absurd for Imperials, as they had never seen such absurdity.
Growth like that meant that this world needed more resources than the planet could provide.
Sure enough, the soldiers and marines realised how bad the housing situation was in a city with 40 million people.
Some of them were living in conditions that were reminiscent of medieval society.
"My Lord, I just found a slave processing facility." A soldier said to a field officer who had just checked a housing complex.
"That's the fifth one in the last half an hour. These things are not people but monsters." The soldier was speechless. They were living in the space travelling era, planets, asteroids, mine them as much as you need! The resources are abundant! So why this much suffering?
'I suppose, we have our Emperor and his vision to thank for such incredible living standards.'
"What should we do?" The soldier asked his commander.
"For now, we are to hold this city and wait for reinforcement. This world simply has too many people to do anything without getting overrun."
As he said that, he noticed many civilian Batarians staring at them. Their Innovator's sixth sense tells them these people are pissed, and the Batarians can tell there aren't that many soldiers.
Are there 20,000 regular troops and 4,000 marines in a city with 40 million people? In such tightly compacted places?
Yeah, they can get in trouble, high tech or not.
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
The news of the Invasion of Khar'Shen has reached the Citadel Council.
The Citadel Council was extremely shocked, as it happened so quickly. They expected actual skirmishes and several battles before Imperial troops would land on the Batarian homeworld.
In fact, they hoped that Batarians would surrender before any of that would happen, and some sort of apology and reparations could satisfy the Empire.
After all, nothing has happened. The Prince was safe and sound.
"They moved far too quickly, far too quickly." Salarian councillor was pacing back and forth. He doesn't like what this means. If they can move like that, ignore relays, then these Imperials are far too dangerous!
"The intelligence that I got says that the Capital city of Qnobis fell in less than an hour. The sky has turned red as countless pod-like objects have dropped into the city, releasing tall, armoured white soldiers that are extremely fast and wield beam technology.
It was a bloodbath. The Batarians had no chance; on top of that, the navy the Imperials brought was not the largest.
Just like the report from Matriarch Benezia, it was a retinue of two Anaheim Imperial family members and not the main army." Turian Councillor commented as he was not in his best state. His people are getting stressed.
His Primarch already issued orders to increase the standing army and build another five Dreadnoughts.
The issue is that Five Dreadnoughts was a drop in a bucket. Imperials have hundreds of those!
"I have similar reports. Some of the spies sent information about a special robotic machine. I can assume that it's what they call a mobile suit. There was an extremely unique one in their ranks. I can assume that's the Empress machine." The Asari Councillor looked over her files, checking pictures and showing them to the councillors.
What they saw was a horned machine with bulky arms and clawed hands.
"It took us years to infiltrate Batarian Hegemony." Salarian Councillor replied as he sighed.
"At least we are getting something out of this." The Amphibian said, as they finally got some idea about the Imperial might.
The Turian's expression was telling enough for the Asari and the Salarian. These newcomers were deadly. While Batarians are not at the level of Council Races, they were not far off.
"Indeed. But the question is, what are we going to do now?" Asari said, crossing her arms.
"Don't we already have a plan? Sign treaties with them?" Turian was confused for a bit.
"Yes, but these treaties don't lead anywhere. The borders will be closed, we can only see the outer expansion zones, it will move, and eventually we will have to leave when these zones become core worlds." The Asari who can read between the lines and lived for centuries can see through what is going on a mile away.
Eventually, the Empire's expansion will reach us, and we will have to fight one way or another."
"In that case, we need to think of some sort of strategy?" Salarian nodded its head a couple of times.
"Indeed… I can see many similarities between the Imperials and us." The Turian Councillor said with a nod. While he is jealous of all the fancy military stuff he saw. One thing doesn't change, the discipline and military doctrine this Empire has makes him like them a bit more.
"Indeed. I suggest using any chance we have to get close and create stronger ties with them." Asari Councillor proposed.
Sure enough, they will have their chance soon.
~~~
Scipio Anaheim is pissed, no, he was jealous! He was the damn Grand Admiral of the whole Expeditionary Fleet! That means he should be on the front lines! But no! His old man put him on guard duty on a line that isn't even moving!
The West has been stagnating since Arcturus Stream was secured. Now they are rapidly expanding clusters named Exodus Cluster and Petra Nebula. The Citadel Council gave these names, and according to his father, they sound 'cool enough', so they are going to keep them.
But still!
'That boring Aurelian protects the South line each time I see him, it's like I am talking to Mother Leila.' Scipio massaged his forehead. He is so bored! The moment he heard that the first contact was made and it was hostile, he basically rushed through the doors to invade them and put the stupid alien in their place.
But no! He has his high position and is not doing anything because he is supposed to do this!
"Father."
"Hmm?" Scipio, who was brooding in his throne, snapped his gaze and looked at one of his sons.
"What is it?" He sighed.
"We just got a video message from 1st Prince. I have no idea what to do with it." His son sounded confused.
'Video message from Trajan? Why would he…' At that moment, his eyes widened.
'Wait, he was invading aliens! And their tech is probably primitive, or it's not compatible with ours.'
"I will take it in long-range comms rooms." The 2nd Prince jumped out of his seat with rejuvenated energy and strolled to the back of the bridge.
His son sighed; he had this feeling that whatever the news was, they could defy the Emperor.
The Prince closed the comms room doors and started the message.
"Scipio, the comms technology of the Batarians is a bit primitive, so all I could do on short notice is to send a recording." Trajan's hologram appeared on the terminal as the 2nd Prince was patiently listening.
"Batarians are worse slavers than we have considered. They have millions of slaves in the capital world of Khar'Shen.
Mother Kallen desires to free them all before we leave.
And to do that, we need manpower."
'In other words, you know that I am the only one who can defy our old man.' Scipio sighed.
The message ended just like that.
The 2nd Prince snorted. He realised that Trajan didn't even ask for help; the blonde prince is covering his ass. In other words, if he leaves now, it will be him who is defying his father.
"Amusing as it is. I can leave 1st Expeditionary Fleet here."
The Grand Admiral turned around and left the comms room and went to the bridge.
He was about to leave, but he turned pale as he saw Leila's hologram waiting for him on the bridge.
'Ah, crap baskets.'
"You do know that Central Command closely monitors all military-based messages?" The blonde Empress commented, arms crossed.
"...I have no idea what you are talking about, mother." Scipio smiled.
"Right. In that case, you don't know what is going on, and I am the one who will answer the call." The woman smirked at him, making the Prince deadpan.
"Sure, then I shall return to doing… nothing." The Prince dropped into his throne and proceeded to watch the void and the stars.
"Indeed, unlike you, I have no official deployment." With that said, the Empress hologram disappeared.
"Ugh. Damn it! What a waste! Well, I will have my chance." Scipio narrowed his eyes as he began to plot. Thankfully, he has a bunch of brothers who can take over for him as a guard dog for the west.
With that said, his finger began to tap the armrest. He began to ponder what to do.
~~~~~~Back in Khar'Shen~~~~~~
Kallen needed a filtering mask as the air, while breathable, was disgusting to breathe. The pollution of this world was insane. In fact, she hopes they take this solar system soon and fix it, because the longer she stays here, the worse it gets for her.
It was wrong on many levels. It reminded her of her childhood, though the ancient Britannian Empire was not as bad as it looked at right now.
"Did you secure the ruler?" The Empress asked the marines as she found the throne room and got herself comfortable in it.
"Yes, the Batarian tried to leave the palace through underground tunnels." One of the marines replied as another two brought a Batarian dressed in fancy clothes and full of alien jewellery.
The marines pushed the ruler to get on his knees before the Battle Empress.
"According to the codex shared by the Citadel Council. You are a vain species that believes in a strong caste system and wealth.
Does that mean I am your ruler now? Hmm? I have conquered your species, took over your capital." The red-haired woman commented as she checked a holographic projection of the codex. She was still learning about the aliens.
The batarian spat before snaring and looked with hatred at the Empress.
"We Batarians don't accept aliens as our rulers!" The Prime Administrator said with anger.
"That is to be seen. After all, we will attack and attack you, until you either go extinct or you kneel before us." She shook her head as she pondered what to do.
These guys are a bad species in general. The galaxy will be a better place if they are gone.
"You would exterminate the whole race?" The Batarian ruler was speechless.
"Of course, you are opposite to what we are. I am disgusted even to be here. Overpopulation, pollution, and slavery. Your species lacks control." The woman explained before motioning for the guy to be taken away.
"Take him away. Put him in a cell or something. We are here to free the slaves and not bother with them. The Emperor will decide their fate when we are done here." She got up from the throne. Now she feels that she needs a shower!
"Understood."
~~~
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