The moment the Crystal City's communication arrays detected a highly concentrated FTL signal beamed in a direction to deep space, all hell broke loose. A military breach team quickly disabled the shields on the small Zetan craft with the use of several plasmatic mines attached to the outer shield barrier, vaporizing the shields within moments. With the smell of ionized gasses still in the room Androids and Akun armed with both ballistics and energy weaponry breached the command deck of the ship, it wasn't a large starship, able to fit ten of the little green bastards within. The Zetans watched in horror as a blade made of pure energy sliced through their command bridge's heavy maglock door, two inches worth of thick heavy durable metal sliced away as if it didn't exist to begin with due to the sheer heat of the bright red blade.

The moment Vomo saw one of the ugly black eyed green creatures he raised his Akun automatic rifle after quickly attaching his fusion sword to a small maglock on his combat armor dedicated for the weapon, the moment it connected it shut off with a click. Both of Vomo's eyeturrets rapidly switching to keep and eye on all of them, and he screeched in the aliens ugly language. "Surrender immediately or face termination by order of the Emperor!" He and his team of other males did not lower their eyeturrets, they could do so later. One of the 'Zetans' as he was briefed they were called, raised a compact energy pistol aimed at him, that was the last mistake it ever made as three infantrymales peppered it with their automatics, and with as much grace as a Qavik being struck by a speeding motorcar, it fell to the floor dead. The ugly creatures blood was not red as his own, but more like something from a species he had learned about called 'changelings' ,a bright neon green color, even then a changeling looked better than these things. It didn't take much after that to convince the others that fighting back was a rather horrible idea, watching a fellow of your own species die in such a way often had a way of convincing others to not make the same mistake.

The one wearing what seemed to be the fanciest one piece rubber suit, which he remembered most species from what he was taught in an Empire educational class, wore clothes to show status rather than the much more efficient body paint of the Akun, slowly asked. "How do you even speak our language? What even are you, your species is not within the database from what I can see."

Vomo's snout was a slight red. "You are not to ask questions prisoner, you are to answer them in the name of the glorious Emperor! March!" He shoved the alien with the butt of his rifle, pushing it forward while his males dealt with the others, as well as the Androids securing the ship itself, it only took three minutes for the ship to be confirmed empty of all but the nine zetans being hauled out over the coms by his unit.

One of the males lower in rank to Vomo turned an eyeturret to Vomo. "Special Unit Leader Vomo, where are we to take these ugly creatures? Can we not just shoot them and be done with this task?"

Vomo swung an eyeturret back to look at the male. "No. We may not just shoot them, we are under direct order of the Emperor." They all lowered their eyeturrets briefly, this seemed to confuse their prisoners. "He has extended his mercy to these ugly creatures, and thus will have them questioned, what happens after we deliver them to the cells is none of our concern."

The male waggled his eyeturrets. "Yes Superior Sir." And promptly shut his maw with a click. After that it was quiet except for their footsteps, as well as those of their prisoners, and a five minute walk to the interrogation cells where each Zetan was tossed into a cell by themselves, to not allow communication between prisoners. Androids stationed at each cell, two per cell, guarded them holding their new 18-D plasma rifles, long, elegant, and deadly efficient.

The lead android of this unit looked down at Special Unit Leader Vomo, who in return affixed both eyeturrets onto the machine, who saluted, in return he took the posture of respect and his team skittered off to elsewhere in the starship, they had other tasks to do after all.

---------------------------------------------------------Uktain's POV---------------------------------------------------------

I was forced to watch as my Navigator tried to defend us, he didn't even get to raise his blaster fully before he was killed by pathetic ballistic weaponry of all things, they didn't even have the most basic of decency to not use those horrid weapons on him. The small.....lizard things, where only a few inches shorter than my crew, wearing some green protective armor, carrying rifles that rather than shooting a bolt of plasma per pull of the trigger, shot rapid bursts of gunpowder based ammunition like Humanity had been phasing out before they went and killed themselves off, good riddance, that species was too random and adaptable. What Uktain didn't expect was for an insectoid that had the general body shape of a human walk into the room, its solid blue eyes and grin putting him on edge, before it's horn began to glow a bright green, the last thing he remembered before blacking out was it laughing, a horrible cruel laugh. The same fate unknown to him, befalling his former small crew.

---------------------------------------------------------------Lorenzo's POV---------------------------------------------------------

Looking to the DIA changeling infiltrators I kept my face calm, and calculated. "You all know the task I have assigned to you, it must be done, for the Hive, for the Empire, and for Equis itself. If you back out now, I will not hold it against you, but once this is done there is no going back. Period. Do you understand the gravity of the task I have given you all?"

The ten changelings, each one looking exactly the same, nodded, while one who was slightly taller than the rest saluted. "We will not fail the Hive. The Empire is the Hive, and we fight for the Hive, we will not fail this task Your Majesty, if we do may we be struck from the Hivemind with extreme unmerciful prejudice." She bowed, as did the others before me.

I nodded. "Good, the implants given to you should keep you fed for a maximum of four months, you shouldn't need them that long, but if anything goes wrong you know what to do, you all do. Now go, the repairs done to the Zetan scout ship have been completed, the data wiped, and an alternate outcome of how you 'escaped' implanted into the ship's computer systems, go now, for the Empire, for the Hive." They stood to their full height, dark emerald flames engulfing their forms as they changed, their transformations came naturally to them as this was what their species had been doing since its very conception, and before me no longer stood ten Changelings, now stood before me where the ten Zetans whom had been on that ship. Without another word they walked out to the Zetan scout ship and the cargo bay doors opened, allowing them to pilot the ship out, and it took off after a few moments, its FTL leaving a blue energy streak across the void of space for a split second before vanishing into the blackness. It was only then when I was alone looking out at the vastness of space, did I let a smile slip onto my face. A very wide, very....sinister, smile.

Deep within Zetan territory, a small scout ship appeared, it's IFF was identified as friendly. After a moment of checking the records the advanced computer intelligence concluded this scout craft was the one that had sent out a relay message a few hours ago, it was happy to see the crew through the cameras aboard the small starship alive and well. It began the standard docking procedures to ensure the safety of the crew, enveloping their small ship into its energy field range. It enjoyed protecting its creators, the species that gave it life, and sentience, a purpose. The station was its body, the crews its family.

-----------------------------------------------------------Crystal Empire, Drunken Horse Bar and Grill--------------------------------------

Onac twisted one of his eyestalks at the Naga sitting beside him, while eating his ribs, a glass of wine next to him. "Yes, it really is very hot on my homeworld, much more so than here."

Cloudyfangs grinned at the Letera. "If it's as pleasant as you make it out to be, I'll have to take a vacation there sometime, the hot sun, desert sand, it sounds like quite the nice place to rest and just soak in the sun."

Onac waggled one of his eyestalks, a motion that while awkward for his species, was all he was taught to do to show agreement, it was the Akun way. "It is, Epona is chilly in comparison, but this isn't a bad place due to the weird shield you have up around the chunk of the Empire on this part of the planet, bless the Emperor for such a thing." He lowered his eyestalks for a moment, then went back to the conversation. "I still find it hilarious that dark chocolate acts like a drug to the Akun, it just tastes weird to me, but its certainly no drug for my species, that I am thankful for."

Cloudyfangs nodded. "I found that weird too, I mean, why dark chocolate of all things? I know certain plants act like narcotics to my species, we used to use them for medication." He finished his glass of bourbon. "Well my friend, I must be off, I still have to manage several things based around how my species is accumulating to the Empire thus far, we've had great progress so far, as my former citizens are no longer attempting to kill every Kirin they come into contact with due to irrational fear." He slithered off, while Onac watched with interest at how that creature, his friend, moved, while finishing his ribs.

Author's Note

Hallo all! Hope you had a good holiday! If ya enjoyed, like, comment, share, the general stuff, tell me what ya think! Always leave a comment, seriously leave a comment or I'll break your fokkin kneecaps, dem kneecaps shall be mine if ya don't.