Another few months had passed, the construction of Vaults and the subway tunnels connecting them in each kingdom or empire had been completed a few weeks ago, each kingdom had a massive vault under a city, small towns where left with no vaults, but railways to get there by train. Queen Carnelia's empire had them built as well, I had Empire robots construct theirs, deep as they could go. Other interesting news was in the wake of the Abyssinian Empire's retaliatory strike with the use of Arcane Warheads on the kingdoms of Saddle Arabia, the Caribou Empire, and the Bison Empire, resulted in several million dead since apparently Capital cities are heavily populated, thankfully it was mostly military personal, equipment, and only a few thousand civilians per capital who got killed. This raised some eyebrows but due to the stance on war here being 'you don't attack me, I don't attack you', not many minded it beyond offering medical and financial aid to the kingdoms effected, a few here and there protested, but it didn't amount to much when the atmosphere of warfare was attack when attacked, however the Griffon Empire refused to send aid, while Equestria and the UCSR were sending truckloads of medical supplies, medical personal, food, and other items needed for life.

Another layer of defense had been added to the solar system, the Akun Atomic Cannons had actually been rather interesting, and it would be a waste to just destroy all those nuclear shells, so I had what amounted to a rotary cannon built to fire those shells at a rapid pace, put into high orbit around Equis and the Moon pointed outward, the shells had been enhanced with quantum, which had the same effect as combining it with a M45 Tactical Nuclear mini-nuke warhead, it doubled the power of the shells. They may not have been the most powerful nuclear weapons to exist but surely hucking several dozens of them at something would do SOME sort of damage, moreso when it was at the rate of a minigun. Exalted Fleetlord Issit was put in command of a small fleet of starships around the solar system, primed with active energy and nuclear weapons ready to unleash their destructive power at a moments notice. Equestria had tossed some orbital defenses up as well, their arcane deathrays, which if you all remember was a magical version of Zetan Deathrays, my Empire had non magical ones, but called em Plasma rays. Same setup, antigrav engines, a reactor or two, and a computer linked with several others hooked into a central command in Canterlot to monitor and fire em.

Another starship with a plasmatic lance was being built, smaller than the Crystal City it would only be a mile large, and new starship Point Defense Weapons were being hooked into existing starships, such as a 20 millimeter plasmatic lance cannon, a beefed up SPRMK3, but not as powerful or huge as the plasmatic lance in a ss'ket starship, or the Crystal City, but still a very powerful weapon since its plasma could tear through energy shields like tissue paper given enough time. Other kingdoms benefited from Akun technology also, such as Hydrogen powered cars, trains, and other interesting items like self guiding missiles, which they had been struggling with producing a reliable one, now they had thousands. The starship fleets of other kingdoms and empires was growing thanks to the Akun factories efforts to produce what was requested, they were being paid plenty for their work. Equestria now had a fleet of 185 starships, the Griffon Empire 125, and the Union of Canine Socialist Republics 75 starships, while the Abyssinian fleet had been expanded another 45 starships.

News that they had gone to another universe had finally managed to get to the Red River Union, the government of the Ss'ket, and to say they were surprised and shocked was an understatement. They were absolutely horrified at the prospect of knowing nothing about the space around them, but at the same time many of them were filled with great joy to experience something never before seen, a new universe, the revelation more than one universe existed has spurred many new research efforts into that for them. They also benefit from Akun technology, such as hydrogen jet engines, which where a vast improvement over the ones Blue Gadget had invented, which I found funny because he was really salty about that. They have entered vast trade agreements for scaled up and slightly modified Akun Automatic Rifles and upscaled Akun Landcruisers, meaning tanks, to replace their admittedly less advanced ones, which I found odd since they had invented the plasmatic lance, yet couldn't invent a functional advanced tank that could go head to head with another tank.

In power armor news, Equestria, the Griffon Empire, and the Abyssinians where now using it, the first two had been using it just barely before the Empire vanished, and when I came back they had made their own makes and models, as well as their own way of powering them, rather than a fusion core they plugged a gem etched with runes into the port in the back of the power armor, working by pulling ambient magic from the air into itself to power the armor it was plugged into, and that had made me think. Fusion Cores where great and all, but the power armor had been more or less stuck in the Fallout Style, big, bulky, and slower than an elderly woman walking her dog. Remembering my XO-4 Advanced power armor project, which had yielded my prototype suit of personal power armor, some changes had to be made for battle performance and protection, but it was geared into full production a few months ago to replace the older XO-3's.

This new generation of power armor was the most advanced thus far, called XO-5 Advanced Power Armor, the fusion core system was scrapped and replaced with an Empire Standard Miniature Fusion Plant hooked into the back of the power armor, built in, almost unlimited power for hundreds of years, so no need to replace a dried FC in the field or rely on the backup FC's that the older models had in the arms and legs. And no, it didn't make it look like the big bulky battery pack of Fallout 3's power armor, the shape of the back stayed the same as if it had never been changed. The XO-5 Came with several advanced miniaturized computers built into the power armor for real time movement feedback, users had to have a small cybernetic chip installed somewhere in their head to link with the power armor, but this was easy compared to replacing entire organs and limbs. This allowed the power armor's computers a direct link to the users internal information, what organs or bones needed repair, things like that.

The helmets no longer followed the classic Fallout style of two eye plates filled with some sort of advanced clear plating to see through, that was always a liability if a sniper got a lucky shot in. Now the helmets looked more like the face of an insect, five glowing red 'eyes' on each side of the helmet, front, back, and sides. These where advanced sensors and cameras which would give the user a whole 360 view of a battlefield at any point they needed it, They made the user look terrifying, and it prevented a sniper from using the eye plates on the helmet as a an easy weakness, since naturally those parts of the helmet would be weaker than a solid wall of metal. This power armor also was faster than Classic Fallout power armor, you could sprint in it as if you were wearing nothing, thanks to the cybernetic chip linking the armor with the users movements as they happened, so it was as if the power armor was another body. It featured its own built in weapon systems but users still carry Empire weaponry, if said weaponry is lost or deemed useless for current battles, internal weapons will be chosen for the fight. Needless to say this was a huge advantage over other kingdoms still using the tried and true Fallout styled armor. The power armor still looked like something you'd see in fallout, I decided I liked the aesthetic choice, but other than basic looks it was nothing like the older power armor my Empire had been using, which was now going to be fully replaced within the next week.

Infantrymale Vomo looked down at the small gravestone of his former friend with both eyeturrets, it read Johnson Aberdale, died protecting what he loved and those he cared for. His snout was blue, he had still not gotten over the death of his first friend in this new and weird Empire which had merged his former empire with itself, as was the way Empire's worked, stronger ones took the weaker ones. He set an Epona flower on the grave, a lilly, he remembered Johnson saying he was fond of them in one of their many conversations before his early death. Vomo would have smiled sadly if he could, sadly his face was imobile due to his species, but the blue snout turning what an Eponite would call 'lime green' indicated happiness, Vomo thought it was time to let his friend rest in peace, without being bothered by his daily visits. "Goodbye, friend." With that said, he walked out of the small graveyard, to continue his life as his friend would have wanted.

-------Lorenzo's Universe, location unknown, time, unknown, solar system, unknown------

The Council of Five sat in their seats, head of the Council, Soro, looked around at the other four with his large black eyes. "It has come to our attention that the Solar System X-42 is no longer protected by unknown means, we can enter it now without starships being destroyed upon contact with an unseen barrier."

Olkzar, second in power within the Council nodded. "Yes, recently we sent a small scout craft, but it went offline, and the footage transmitted before it did was startling to say the least, former homeworld of the Humans, as they named themselves, has undergone horrific changes, as has the entire solar system, as shown here." His long green tentacle like finger poked a small button, causing a holoprojector within the center of their small table to spark to life, a holographic view of...the most confusing and horrific thing anyone in the Council had ever seen, a Solar system that was mostly normal, but the Sun revolved around what had once been Earth, leaving the rest of the system unchanged. Minus the two planets, which had seemingly been smashed into one another creating another asteroid belt just out of the solar system.

Vopro's eyes widened, making them look even larger, with horror. "What could tear a sun from its own orbit and alter an entire solar system like that? It should not be physically possible." Uslin nodded in agreement, while Eeste had no words, stuck staring at the hologram before him.

Soro nodded. "Yes, this is what was found horrific, but the disturbing part is how life changed on the planet below, with the humans having a second wave of nuclear destruction wipe out what remained of their civilizations, this is what shot down the starship." Another image replaced the one from before, showing a....weird furry creature with two horns on its head, a 'crown' made of iron on, and a weird blue flowing cape, a mad smile on his face, but what was most interesting, was the staff it held which seemed to be a directed energy weapon, shooting lightning like beams of energy directly at the starships cameras. "This downed our scout craft, which may I remind everyone here, had shields as is standard protocol for anything beyond the home system with which we are currently in."

Olkzar brought up another image, this one an American soldier in T-45 Power armor carrying an automatic plasma rifle. "The death of this species still surprises me to this day, it was sad they died out, but had they advanced any further than they had, we'd have had to destroy their civilization and reduce them back to using primitive stone and metal tools anyways."

Soro waved a hand. "While this may be true, this species was the most fanatic about its nuclear energy and nuclear weapons out of any we had ever encountered, before or after. No species who uses nuclear weapons lasts long before destroying themselves, but most don't also use it for energy either, species use it for one or the other, but very rarely both energy and warfare. This is where humanity was unique, they devised some of the most devastatingly powerful nuclear weapons any species could foresee, yet they also used it to power household robots, their technology was primitive in terms of computers, but if they had advanced a little more, within another hundred years they're own computer technology would have surpassed our own."

Uslin spoke. "I'd also like to bring up how rapidly they took to plasma weaponry, even making automatic heavy plasma weapons, while our own have remained unchanged for thousands of years, if we're able to get onto Earth or in Earth orbit, we should do so as soon as possible, I'm going to authorize another scout ship, this one armed with better shields than the last, to investigate the solar system and see how advanced or primitive the planet has become and thus allow us to plan accordingly."

Soro looked around the table at all who sat before it. "If we are all in agreement then, this meeting is concluded, and you may return to your normal duties maintaining our systems." They each left, while the hologram faded out of existence as it powered down.

Author's Note

Hiya, hope you all enjoyed this, remember, like, share, all that good shit, join the discord server to chat with others who enjoy the series so far. Mithrill, check yo discord boi. Annoyin.

Sorry I haven't written a lot lately, just haven't felt like it too often.