Alpha Strike: An interstellar Weapon Platform's Guide to Cultivation [Progression Sci-fi/Cultivation]

Book 1 - Lesson 6: "Sometimes you just have to do the job yourself."

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Lesson 6: "Sometimes you just have to do the job yourself."
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Jack was tired.

He'd been tired for centuries.

But soon, he wouldn't have to be tired anymore. Soon, everything he'd been working towards, all the plans, schemes, and puzzle pieces, would fall into place, and he could hold his daughter in his arms again. A tap of his staff froze the spout of molten rock that would have vaporized any lesser man. Another step and yet another section of the glowing, molten sea turned into a blackened, frozen wasteland.

Yes, just one last job and everything would be made right in the world again; one more task, and he could rest. He stopped in front of a gargantuan pit at the direct center of the molten sea, held open purely through the power of the one he had come to see.

Jack stared down into the bottomless depths and called out.

"Marici! I have come for your heart!"

A moment of silence passed before a thunderous laugh echoed from the depths, shaking the sea around them and sending out massive waves of molten rock in all directions.

"OH! Have you, my little frozen popsicle? Well, I'm afraid you're too late; it belongs to another. Besides, I prefer my bedmates to be… warmer."

Jack frowned.

"That's not what I meant." His monotone voice carried effortlessly, despite the crashing red waves around him.

A chilling white light pulsed from the tip of his staff, traveling deep into the pit. A bellowing roar sounded this time as the being inside felt the invasive chill.

"HOW DARE YOU! Do you know who I am?! I am the Queen of the Sun! The Eternal Flame! I am Life and Death Incarnate!"

Jack's icy platform shook violently as a massive form erupted from the pit. It rose and rose until it seemed to blot out the entire sky. Its golden, scaled claws the size of castles slammed into the sides of the pit. They were followed by a draconic head, so gargantuan that even its smallest fang would have outweighed Jack by a hundredfold.

"I am Marici! Goddess of Dragons! And you're just a frozen insect! You want my heart?! You'll have to cut it from my cold, dead body!"

In that moment, a glacier-sized ice spear slammed into the massive dragon's head, driving it back into the molten sea around them.

Jack responded, calm as an untouched snowfield.

"That was the plan all along…"

The battle that followed lasted nearly five years. None that tried to interfere, whether Dragon or Divinity, survived the attempt. It was said that even the mighty Warden only watched from the sidelines to ensure the battle didn't spill out to harm his other charges. Then came the fateful day it all ended.

Marici, Queen of the Sun, her body broken and her once lustrous golden scales scarred and dull, stared down at the tiny man floating in front of her. Though the robes he wore were torn and bloody and the right side of his body blackened and lifeless, the man's face showed not a single twitch of pain or tiredness. In fact, in the half a decade they had fought, Marici wasn't sure she'd seen the man make any face other than that unsettling, blank stare.

His eyes… those deep, empty eyes boring into her like the void. She wasn't sure there was anything behind them anymore; she wasn't sure there ever had been anything behind them.

For the first time since she'd hatched as a Solar Dragon—the ultimate lifeform—Marici felt genuine fear.

"Y-you monster! You demon in the flesh! Do you think me a fool!? I've heard of you, Jack Frost—of the horrors you've committed, of the frozen wastes you've left in your wake! Well, it ends now! It ends today! YOU end today!"

With those words, a bright light began gathering in the back of Marici's throat.

Jack stared, unmoved, his voice as cold as winter's bite.

"History may remember me as a monster. I don't care. The Heavens have already taken from me the only thing that ever really mattered. When I take it back, the Heavens will have no one else to blame but themselves."

Jack then raised his staff, his voice echoing with power.

"All things feel the winter's Chill."

"All withers beneath clouded Sky,"

"For I am Frost, and by my Will,"

"Even stars may one day die—"


Marici threw her head forward as an intense beam of light burst forth from her giant maw.

" [Cleansing Solar Breath!]"

The beam shot forward at the speed of light, threatening to engulf the tiny human in purging light. Unfortunately for Marici, she was a fraction of a moment too late. Jack's staff pulsed with light as his incantation finished.

"—Thus at my word [A̲̞̼̱̟̙ll̬ ̪̲̳̙͕Th͈͚̳̙ͅi̹n̟͉̝̥͈̗g̭̙̗s̲̝̣ ̫̟͎̯̪͖S̠͓̯͚͎ͅt̮͕̰̹̦͎a͓͇̯̙͉ͅn̺͇d ͔̱̠͍͕S̰̙͇̻͈̬͎t͎͇͕il̫͙l̲̹̭̞̤̳̘]."

At that moment, everything stopped. Even the dragonbreath, a weapon that could erase entire continents instantly, had frozen in place, mere inches away. Jack stared up at the Dragon, his face as empty as it had been the day he started down this path, an expression frozen in time. Then, with a tap of Jack's staff against the frozen flames, Marici, Queen of the Sun, and first Dragon god, shattered, crumbling away to reveal a glowing, floating dragonheart, still beating in defiance.

Jack flew up and grasped his prize, the last piece he—


Lian Peng sighed and closed the book the merchant had given him as an extra gift. He knew how the story went from here; the man known as Jack Frost would later complete his magnum opus, the culmination of tens of thousands of years of work:

The [True Resurrection] of his daughter, Iris.

It would also spell the death of the greatest Winter Mage ever seen before or since, as well as the rise of the plague that, to this day, still terrorized every world of the Grand Firmament:

Iris, The Living Lich, Mother of Undeath.

Every child in the Nine Worlds had heard the story in some fashion, or bits and pieces at least. The story of Jack and Iris was a warning about the dangers of obsession and the lengths one would go to realize their ambitions. No matter the cost to others.

Unfortunately, that message seemed lost on the younger generation, especially among the Cultivators. It was… disappointing, but none of his concern.

Lian Peng was a Lunar King; one of only nine others in all the worlds of the Grand Firmament. His job wasn't to question the young blood's morals or methods. He was there to ensure they didn't get themselves killed the moment they stepped into the Celestial World. Bah! He was a glorified travel agent! This wasn't what he'd been promised when he took up this position! Damn the Celestial Council, and damn the Warden for tricking him into this!

Still, it did come with its perks. Lian Peng couldn't stop the grin that split his face as he pushed the book away and pulled the floating, golden, fist-sized fragment closer. It glowed with an inner light that both soothed and terrified him.

A fragment of [Marici's Final Flame], still frozen in time, preserved in all its glory and power. This was something that even Divinities would fight over, let alone a High Celestial like himself. If Jonathan, the merchant who'd sold it to him, hadn't been his brother-in-law, he'd have called it fake and had the man flogged for daring to trick him. Hell, he almost had Jonathan flogged simply for bringing him something so dangerous.

If anyone found out he had this… No, he couldn't think about that. What to do with it, though? Simply using it as an energy source was a waste. Maybe he could craft it into a proper artifact and use it himself? Most fools thought solar and lunar energies were directly opposed and, thus, incompatible. But his people, more than most, understood that they were simply two sides of the same power. With the proper technique and skill, a Lunar Mage, or Cultivator, could use solar energies to great effect, and vice versa.

An artifact crafted with this frozen dragonflame would imbue unimaginable solar affinity into any skill channeled through it and maybe even a tinge of dragonfire itself. No, that would be too dangerous; Lian Peng would have to take the proper steps to conceal its origin, and if he ever got found out, his life was forfeit. He'd have Divinities knocking down his door before the day was done.

Maybe if he gifted it to the right person, he could finally get off this lifeless rock and step back into the Celestial Court. Yes, that could work; he even had a few options for those desperate and powerful enough to make it worth the sacrifice. The only question was, what should he make? A simple focus might be the most versatile, but that was boring and hardly worthy of such material.

Hmmmmm, maybe I could…

Knock, knock, knock!


With one swift motion, Lian Peng spirited the shard into his storage ring before calming his pounding heart and answering.

"Enter."

A nervous-looking fellow shuffled into the room—a newer member of his staff, if he recalled correctly, one assigned to parameter security? The man's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked haggard, as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

"S-sir!! I'm h-here to make an urgent report!"

Lian Peng frowned; they had protocols for this kind of thing. Why was the issue coming directly to him? He rolled his wrist, telling the nervous man to continue.

"Three m-months ago, we lost contact with a patrolling void beast. This isn't t-too unusual, given how hostile open void can be and how new the teleportation formulas are."

"Yes, yes, nothing I don't know already; get on with it, man."

Unlike the older, more reliable teleportation arrays, the new ones operated via Dragon Stream, those mystical grooves in reality through which many forms of energy gathered and flowed. Traveling the Dragon Stream had many benefits, but the greatest was the ability to fuel the entire cost to do so from the stream itself. This meant they could travel vast distances in times never conceived. Unfortunately, this also made it far more dangerous, as even the slightest miscalculation could see one slamming into the Grand Firmamentthe cosmic barrier surrounding the Nine Worldsthat not even the strongest of Divinities could pierce.

If they could work the kinks out, it would revolutionize travel between the Three Sisters, the three primary celestial worlds, turning a trip of months into one of hours. As the Lunar King for the only mortal world orbiting the youngest of the Three Sisters, it was his job to field test the new arrays and report any issues. Lian Peng broke from his grumblings as the nervous man continued.

"… Well… two weeks ago, the signal was detected falling out of the Dragon Stream…."

Lian Peng raised an eyebrow; now that caught his attention. It was one thing to lose a scout; they were always losing scouts. It was another thing for them to suddenly reappear from nowhere. That suggested something else at play. The only question was, what?

"Were we able to gather any information?"

"Unfortunately not, sir. The signal appeared near the edge of the Grand Firmament, nearly two weeks away. None of our other scouts are close enough to get a visual, and we don't want to risk another Dragon Stream teleport, given the oddness of the situation."

"No information from the scout itself?"

"No, sir, the scout in question was one of Beast King Marjatta's experiments, using a Million-Stars Auroric Squid as a base. The creatures can naturally make short jumps through the Dragon Stream, so it was theorized they might adapt to the new arrays better. Unfortunately, they're fairly stupid creatures, and while the void beast's signal has reappeared, its handler's… has not."

Lian Peng slammed a fist into his desk, denting the dense wood.

"Then get someone out there! Why are you wasting my time with this?!"

The nervous man flinched, fear flashing through his eyes briefly.

"Th-that's the thing, sir! T-the signal was only active for a few hours, and then it vanished again! The signal was also changed from a distress and retrieval beacon to an 'under fire' signal before its disappearance."

Lian Peng furrowed his brow.

"We think it came under attack? How? By whom?"

Every moon of every mortal world was under the direct control of the Warden, a powerhouse even the greatest among the Divinities didn't dare go against. Who in their right mind would be dumb enough to attack a Lunar Scout? Sure, there were the occasional pirates or unorthodox sects who would prey on people making the trip through the void to other celestial worlds, but to attack a Scout? That was signing your own death warrant.

No, something was wrong here. Could it have been a wild void beast? Maybe it had sensed the scout falling out of the Dragon Stream and gone to investigate. But given the vast distances involved and the short timeframe, what were the chances of that?

"Sir, there's more."

Lian Peng sighed in annoyance, rolling his wrist and urging the man to continue.

"Since the incident, our detection arrays have picked up 'something' headed our way, originating from the general area where the distress signal last appeared."

"Just 'something'? Can you not be more specific?"

"Sir!… We… we're… not sure what it is…"

Lian Peng growled, his patience wearing thin.

"Explain…"

The other man gulped, wiping a bit of sweat off his face with the hem of his garment.

"The object, whatever it is, gives off no spirit or mana signatures. We can't even get physical eyes on the object, it's so far away.. The array only picked it up because of how… massive it appears to be."

"How… massive?"

The man looked around the room, seemingly at a loss for words. The sound of cracking wood as Lian Peng gripped the arms of his chair finally pried the words from him.

"A-according to the array, th-the unknown object seems t-to be several… kilometers, in length…."

"WHAT?!"

Lian Peng shot from his chair, the power of his voice warping the air and causing the other man to cower.

How could that be?! Several kilometers? That was impossible! Even the Warden's flagship, the largest void ship ever constructed, was barely a few hundred meters long, and it was a force whose mere presence dominated a battlefield. To suggest that someone had not only created something several magnitudes larger but done so secretly?

If he told any of his peers this, they'd laugh him out of the room.

"How certain are we of those readings?! Who took them?!"

The other man, now shivering, stood and answered.

"Sir! I-it was Master Engineer Igor, sir! As soon as the original data was collected, it was sent to him, and he ran the numbers at least a hundred times, sir!"

Damn it! It had to have been Igor. That man was the best Array Master on the Youngest Sister, let alone the Lunar Palace. If even he had run the numbers that many times, then there was no doubt of their authenticity. Lian Peng stood silently for a long moment, grinding his teeth as he tried to plan the best course of action. Finally, he took a deep breath and spoke, his voice much calmer.

"Send a message to all branch heads; I'm calling an emergency meeting. I expect to see them all in the war room within the hour."

The nervous man saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

Then he dashed out the door, grateful to be free from the wrath of the Lunar King.

Lian Peng slid back into his seat, leaned over his desk, and massaged his temples. This bloody job would kill him one day; he already knew it.
 
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Book 1 - Lesson 7: "Beware of Chicken."
[Author's notes: Shoutout to CasualFarmer! If you've not done so, so far, check out his novel, "Beware of Chicken" on Amazon and Royal Road! It's one of my favorites, and Lian Peng was inspired by a certain noble guardian. Have fun with the chapter! And Enjoy!]

[One of my biggest regrets with the old Novel was that Alpha didn't really get the chance to "Show off" or fight any REAL threats before he lost all his shiny toys.

|_+) Let's change that. ]

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Book 1 - Lesson 7: "Beware of Chicken."
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<< Alpha Log - #002

6952 SFY-Third Era, two weeks since last entry. >>


It's been two weeks since my last entry, and for once, things seem to be going according to plan. About time if you ask me! If I didn't know better, I'd swear this entire mission was one big prank, with one failure after another. I've never believed in luck though, nor are AI prone to trusting in higher powers. I never could get SEAU-03 to explain why he's one of the few exceptions, but that's neither here nor there.

It took two weeks and thousands of minor course adjustments, but my 'little' makeshift life raft is finally nearing the closest large planet of the star system, as I type this report.

It's quite the sight, I'll admit, but visual confirmation of what my sensors have been telling me doesn't make what I'm seeing make any more sense.

I mentioned in my last report how the local star was a typical main sequence A-Class star, roughly 20% larger than Sirius A. That much is true. Better yet, this close I can pick up signs of several known solar exotics (SEs), such as kelvinite and photonic silver. That suggests the surrounding planets will be rich in expelled exotics (EEs) as well. After all, the two should go hand in hand.

This could also account for the star's odd white-yellow color, unusual for one its size and age. I'm not of astrophysicist; I'll not pretend to have all the answers! That's what we pay the eggheads for!

I know my exotics though! If my theory is correct, their presence will make repairs far easier and quicker. A lot of the better equipment stored in my database requires some kind of exotic — those physics breaking materials, both natural and synthetic — to work properly.

Finding photonic silver will be especially important for jury-rigging the FTL communications arrays. Even without the translight antenna, I might get a proper distress beacon working! I hope…

That said, none of that explains the rest of what I'm looking at…

Good news. My sensors are working properly.

Weird news. My sensors are working properly, meaning I'm staring at a group of planets that all known laws of physics say shouldn't exist.

The system consists of three large, primary planets, all orbiting the local star at roughly the same distance. That's right; somehow all three planets were orbiting the star in the same orbit.

Ok, sure, co-orbits are theoretically possible. I've heard of a few resort worlds who have tried something similar, but the idea was always scrapped. It's just too hard to adjust the orbit of two planets so they don't tear each other apart, let alone three. That's not considering the constant micro-adjustments needed to keep them from wandering into each other.

Yet, somehow, here we have not just two planets, but three, all perfectly spaced and in sync.

Of course, there are other celestial bodies to consider as well. While two of the planets are orbited by several large moons, the third is surrounded by a massive ring of debris. I can't begin to theorize how any of these things stay in place. None of it makes any sense.

That's not the end of the weirdness, either. Their size is another oddity.

Using the local star as a reference, the closest of the planets was calculated at 5.7 Rj (Jovian radius) in size. Ya, you heard me. 5.7 Rj.

That would make it one of the largest planets ever discovered!

What's more, it's not just some bog standard gas giant. No, this is a rocky world!

The side of the planet facing me is covered in a massive storm at the moment, but the drone telescopes have picked up glimpses of rocky mountains and even what appear to be liquid oceans!

My commission for this one is going to be huge! I demand this planet be named Alpha-α!

Something with the storm is throwing off the readings, however, and other than a few blurry photos, nothing is certain.

The other two planets are too far away to determine much about them, other than their general size and distance, though one shines are murky green-red and the other is a vibrant aquamarine.

The original plan had been to enter orbit around the rocky giant and establish a ring mining operation. After all, the planet itself is far too large for me to land safely. The gravity of such a massive world would be substantial and make things more difficult. Better to build what I need in orbit, than risk not being able to get off-world for who knows how long?

The TAWP would need special equipment just to move normally on a planet like that!

Once I got closer, however, scans of the rings offered a better solution.

Two particular satellites stood out among all the others that made up the ring. Not only were both enormous — planets in their own right — but their orbital patterns were… strange. The largest, at least 0.6 Rj — about the size of Uranus in Old Sol — seemed to be an ice giant of some type.

The ridiculousness of an ice giant orbiting a rocky world wasn't lost on me, either.

I can't identify the outer layer of the ice covering the surface of the moon/planet, but it's throwing off all sorts of strange signals, and most of the sensors can't even penetrate more than a few kilometers. This suggests the planet is exotic-rich and ripe for exploitation.

The second anomaly is a much smaller planet, roughly the size of Old Earth. Optical observation shows it to have a barren surface and with a thin atmosphere. All-in-all, just a standard barren-type moon, like you'd find orbiting any other ice giant. But therein lies the strangeness of it.

It's orbiting the ice giant — not the rocky super world.

I've watched the thing for three days now, and everything said this Earth-sized moon is somehow totally ignoring the gravitational pull of the rocky giant. Then again, I question how a planet this size has a ring or moons to begin with.

Wait… hold on… no, this is weird. I'm going to have to end the report here for now. The monitoring drones are reporting… signals? — coming from the smaller moon's surface. I'll update the report as soon as I'm able to confirm what's going on.

For now, Alpha out.


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Alpha closed the journal file and turned his attention back to the real world.

The drone AIs were bombarding him with reports, and even for Alpha, it took a few seconds to shift through them and get to the meat of the matter.

"Ummm, why is the barren moon giving off radio signals?" Alpha asked himself.

Ok, 'radio signals' might have been a stretch.

They were primitive, and not in any encoding format he had on record, nor did they use any transmission method he could identify. The drones had only noticed them because of the regular patterns in their transmission.

Of course, it could just be that the moon naturally gave off radio waves. That happens from time to time.

It wouldn't have been the first time Alpha had mistaken a natural phenomenon for signs of intelligent life. The general still wouldn't let Alpha live down the time he'd wasted six months trying to communicate with a pile of rocks. Rocks that just happened to produce a near-perfect replication of Beethoven's 5th Symphony during a storm…

If anyone ever asked, he had known all along and was just playing along for the laughs.

That Beethoven's 5th had been banned on all of Alpha's private shipyards after the workers began playing it on a loop meant nothing! Nothing!

That said, Alpha couldn't dismiss the possibility the system wasn't as barren as it appeared at first glance. This could be an opportunity.

With his current speed and trajectory, in seventeen hours, give or take, the vault would slip through the liminal space between the ice giant and its strange moon. Once inside, he could use his jury-rigged thrusters and the strange gravitational anomaly to enter a stable orbit around the smaller moon.

Further scans would help confirm the presence of others, or if it really was just a natural phenomenon. Either way, it would put him in the perfect position for what came next.

If there was intelligent life on the surface of the moon, as unlikely as that seemed, they would have spotted him by that point, for sure. Hard to miss the several-miles-long wreck floating in the sky above you. That meant he would have to pick the best possible place to… 'land' the Anatidae. He would need a place that was not only defensible, but offered what he needed to get started with his plans.

He had a few potential locations already marked through visual observation, but he'd have to wait until he was closer before he cou —,

A sudden priority alert from one of the monitoring drone's AIs flashed across his awareness. The drone detected a strong, unknown energy signal emanating from the moon's surface and a bright flash of light. Alpha immediately switched to the drone's camera feed, expecting an attack.

In the distance, a small glimmer of light rose from the moon's surface and raced toward him at an astonishing speed. It would still be several hours before it intercepted his trajectory — shortly before he passed by the ice giant, in fact — but the sheer speed the small object exhibited was impressive.

"Well, I guess that answers that question at least…" Alpha mumbled to himself.

He doubted that this was an actual attack.

Not unless they expected the tiny, watermelon-sized comet headed in his direction to do something about the giant wreck hurtling toward them. That would have been like throwing a rock at a mountain.

More realistically, it was a type of scout drone or something similar sent to better understand what they were dealing with.

That also suggested that whatever natives were present had at least some technological advancement.

Meaning his job just got a little bit harder. More so if they realized what could be hiding in his vault aboard the wreck — not that he thought they would ever be able to actually crack it.

Curious about what he was dealing with, Alpha focused his own drone's long-range camera toward the object to get a better view. Then paused, both confused and shocked.

"… Is that a chicken?!"

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Lian Peng stood on the lunar surface and observed the massive object with a detached curiosity. No, even 'massive' may have been an understatement. The eyes of a High Celestial, only a half-step from the path of Divinity, could see farther than the horizon. Even on one of the Celestial Sisters, nothing could escape him. The empty void, bereft of obstacles and thick Celestial Energy blocking his view, magnified his sight exponentially. Coupled with his [Divine Sense], likewise magnified by the thin energy of the void, it was no exaggeration to say there was little in his territory that could escape his notice.

That he could see the object moving toward them from a distance at which even the largest void-ships ever constructed would appear as pinpricks shook something primal within him. More so since, from the barest details he could make out, the object appeared to be but a fragment of some greater whole. That someone had built anything this large without the Warden or Lunar Scouts being made aware was… worrying.

The Void Beast handler would have to be posthumously awarded merits for this discovery, even if it seemed they'd stumbled upon it by chance. If the discovery was significant enough, Lian Peng might even nominate one of their descendants for a Lunar Academy slot. Even the children of Divinity would fight tooth and nail for a spot in the Academy. Let it never be said that the Lunar Scouts didn't care for their own or their families.

The original plan they'd devised during the emergency meeting — once his staff had stopped arguing about the nature of the approaching object — had been to let the object pass closer, then capture it for study.

That changed when long-range observation arrays noticed the object had made small but calculated coarse adjustments over the past week. Visual observation also noted dozens of unidentifiable creatures moving over the object's surface. Details were still sparse, though, as combing through the archives revealed nothing of similar description.

That alone wasn't too strange. New and unknown creatures were discovered or created all the time. Yet such things often came with some kind of warning, not simply out of the blue.

The new round of deliberations had taken hours, but it was decided he would intercept the object himself as it passed by the Mortal World. As a Lunar King, he was the most powerful being in this sector. Only the Grand Elders of the largest sects and clans on the Celestial World could match him. If even he couldn't deal with whatever this was, then nothing else in the area could. If something happened to him, they would have to contact the HQ in the Heavenly City for backup, and by then, it might already be too late.

With any luck, whatever forces were using the wreckage as a life raft would prove no problem. Stragglers, or survivors, left adrift after whatever cataclysm ripped the vessel apart. Likely not organized enough to be a danger, but enough left alive to tell their story. With that in mind, he felt a bit of a show was in order. After all, as his dear grandmother had once taught him, sometimes the best weapon was a bit of shock and awe.

A bright swirl of pure, blue-jade crystal flames enveloped Lian Peng's form, creating a small vortex centered on him. When the flames vanished, the form of the handsome young man was gone, and in its place stood… a small bird. Its stocky, solid body wasn't built for flight, but was quite capable when needed. Instead, its form inspired images of powerful leaps and dangerous lunges as it chased its prey.

Its brilliant azure, black, and white feathers shone in the mythical light of the blue-jade flames that made up the comb atop its head. Its short, jet-black beak gleamed as each movement seemed to cut through the thin atmosphere around it. The mane of wispy, regal feathers around its head, neck, and tail flowed freely as if on some invisible wind, breaking and scattering into glowing beams of moonlight. For indeed, the figure that had taken Lian Peng's place was none other than an azure… rooster.

It was a sight that would strike fear into the hea — GAUGK! Oomph! Gurgle

Ahem. Sorry about that, folks. The previous narrator seems to have had a small 'accident.' But no worries! The story must go on.

Where were we? Ah, right. As one of the Great Families directly under the Warden, all worlds trembled at the grand majesty and haunting beauty their true forms inspired. Indeed, none within the Nine Worlds could ever have mistaken the majestic form of Lian Peng's people for a common rooster. No, the Moonlight Phoenix clan had wiped out entire sects and felled Divinities for such an insult.

His transformation complete, Lian Peng spread his majestic, glistening wings wide and flapped once. Within seconds, the moon began shrinking quickly behind him as he soared through the void to intercept the object. The entire moon shook with the force of his launch, and Lian Peng turned into a comet of moonlight and jade-blue flames. It would still be a few hours before he got very close, even with his astounding speed. So great were the distances involved, but that was fine.

That would give his 'guests' plenty of time to contemplate their impending doom.

———————————————

Well, it was official.

Alpha had gone insane.

How else would he explain the glowing chicken — rooster? — comet? Or were chickens often covered in blue flames, hurtling through the void of space at speed on par with a small fighter drone?

But between auroric space squids, non-Newtonian star systems, and spontaneously generating black holes, this was only the most recent in a sequence of strange events that had Alpha questioning his own reality.

So sure, chicken comets. Why not?

As the object approached, Alpha got to work formulating his plan — on the off chance he hadn't gone totally insane and this all wasn't some kind of strange hallucination.

Wait, could AI hallucinate? That seemed like something he should have been informed about during orientation! He was going to file a complaint with HR when all of this was over!

By the time the object was close enough that Alpha could make out details with the TAWP's optical sensors, his plan on how to approach the natives was complete.

First contact was always the trickiest part of the job. When appropriate, the Federation was open to engaging in discussion and diplomatic interaction to better ease the power shift and the merger of the new system into the greater Federation. When Alpha was involved, those 'discussions' typically involved lots of explosions and people running around screaming. Peaceful talks were much more smooth and peaceful when the other side's entire military network had been turned into dust from orbit.

Other times, more… subtle approaches were in order. He'd once pretended to be a mysterious alien artifact and been 'captured' by a space-faring civilization that had yet to make the leap to interstellar travel. It had taken him only ten months to hack into and gain control of their entire defensive network, Skynet style, allowing the Federation fleet to warp in and sweep up.

The TAWP was stocked as well as it could be after the visit to his vault. But he didn't have the requisite infrastructure to overwhelm a force capable of space-faring drones and moon colonization. Similarly, if they had even greater capabilities, he doubted his guests would be so lax in their welcome. Barring some strange, esoteric tech, he doubted they had anything capable of actually threatening him. Thus, the thing Alpha needed the most, more than anything, was information, leaving him with one option.

Poke the nest and see what comes out.

And if there was one thing Alpha was best at, it was poking things he probably shouldn't.
 
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Book 1 - Lesson 8: "No, seriously, Run."
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Book 1 - Lesson 8: "No, seriously, Run."
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Lian Peng stopped a few hundred kilometers away from his 'guest.' Only a short distance in a void battle, but enough that he could react if something surprising happened. Now that he was closer and could better see what they were dealing with, he had to admit he… still wasn't very sure what it was. Or rather, what it had once been.

Though twisted and warped by an unknown force, the gargantuan piece of wreckage still retained much of its former shape. At least enough to let Lian Peng confirm it was only part of a greater whole.

He sent a message back to the lunar base, ordering a sweep of the object's origin point.

Scouts had been sent that way when they'd first noticed the object, but now they had a clearer picture of what to look for.

If this was only a part, then where had the rest gone? They couldn't dismiss the possibility this thing was a distraction meant to keep their attention while other parties made their escape.

Or worse.

This possibility became even greater after a sweep of his [Divine Sense] showed no Path energy signals. In fact, there didn't even appear to be any shielding in place, and he could scan most of the surface and interior unhindered. Strange… Wait… that… shouldn't have been possible. No, it wasn't just that he couldn't detect any signals; there weren't any at all. No Celestial Energy, no Essence, not even Psionic Force. The entire thing seemed almost… mundane?

How?! That made no sense at all!

Everything in the Sisters, the three Celestial Worlds, was illuminated by the Celestial power emitting from the Divinity Heart at the core of the local star. The Mortal Worlds — the six Children — were the only exceptions, as they were isolated and sheltered by their individual firmaments. The void itself contained no 'mundane' material, either. A few materials might be comparable, true, but those had their own signature and nothing that could be made into something like… this.

Had its makers developed a new cloaking method?

No, not that, either. His [Divine Sense] wasn't being blocked or muddled; he just detected nothing he couldn't already physically see. The only abnormality was the large, slightly warped cube at the center of the wreckage. This was the only place Lian Peng's senses couldn't pierce. It wasn't shielded, per se, either. Rather, whatever the cube was made of was… dense.

Unimaginably dense.

Lian Peng had seen nothing like it before. What was he even looking at? If looking through the rest of the wreck was like peering through glass, trying to push his senses through the cube felt like peering through lead.

Did they honestly think that wouldn't be suspicious in the slightest? Or is it a trap? Lian Peng thought to himself.

Lian Peng felt he couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on with this wreck. Something in the back of his head was sounding alarm bells, but whatever was happening, his instincts told him it wasn't as simple as it might first appear. Some of his peers might have laughed at him for being too cautious, but that cautiousness had helped him survive all these years. He'd rather be cautious than in an unmarked grave, like many of those who'd laughed.

He floated there, a silent observer, trying to deduce the occupants' intentions.

Were there even any occupants? Their observation arrays had picked up some strange movement, but now that he had actual eyes on the mysterious wreck, there was nothing.

Bull. He knew there was someone on board. He didn't know how they hid from his [Divine Sense] or masked their energy signals, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe his staff would have made such an amateur mistake.

After a few moments with no luck, Lian Peng tried a more direct method.

He spoke into the void, imbuing his voice with the [Truth of Space].

"Attention occupants of the unknown wreckage! Your presence has been noted. By order of Lunar King Lian Peng, Scion of Midnight, and Hand of the Warden, you are ordered to show yourself and submit to questioning! Cooperation will be met with leniency and fair treatment under the United Pact of the Celestial Worlds. Resistance will be dealt with by force, and survivors will be interrogated using whatever means are deemed necessary!"

His voice boomed out in Celeti, the common language of the Greater Firmament, echoing across the Vast void as it was transmitted by the very fabric of space.

As his voice died and silence once more filled the void, Lian Peng waited. When a long moment passed with no response, Lian Peng sighed. The hard way it was, then. If he had to tear the wreckage apart to find his newest guests, he would do so. Maybe not before a deep scan to look for traps, but in the Vast void, there was no escape.

Just as he moved closer, his [Divine Sense] picked up movement. A dozen objects lifted off from the side of the wreck facing away from him. As one, they flew around the circumference of the wreck and in his direction. They moved with near-perfect synchronicity, circling around from their hiding spot and hovering in the open void near the wreck's front.

No way it'll be this easy… what are they playing at?

Lian Peng scanned the objects with his [Divine Sense], finding them as lifeless as the rest of the wreck. Yet, unlike the broken, twisted wreck, these…'things'… moved. On the surface, they looked like pitch-black ovaloids, almost featureless, like giant black eggs. All but for thin protrusions on the back and sides that occasionally pulsed with a blue light when one drifted too far from the others. Yet Lian Peng's scans showed they were far more than they appeared at first glance.

Their black outer 'shell' wasn't solid; rather, each appeared composed of an uncountable number of infinitesimal creatures, so small that mortal eyes could not see them, that swirled and moved within. On some level, it was reminiscent of the cells of an Essence Slime. Rather than a mass of cells encircling a nucleus of crystallized Essence, the nucleus these 'slimes' surrounded seemed more intricate to an astonishing level.

A casual scan revealed tens of thousands of tiny parts composed of hundreds of different materials, most of which he had no name for. Stranger still, they were arranged in mysterious, intricate patterns he couldn't understand.

His shock soon gave way to confusion. Lian Peng did not know what he was looking at; there was some logic here similar to arrays, yet unlike anything he'd ever seen in other way. Even the complexity was mind-boggling; it was like looking at a Mage's spell circle but compressed to the size of a melon. Some parts of the arrays were so minuscule that his [Divine Sense] couldn't recognize them completely. How was that even possible?!

Lian Peng's eyes widened at the sight. Were these even living things?! Or were they some kind of construct? A new type of Esper puppet or golem?

No, that couldn't be right; even after looking multiple times, Lian Peng couldn't find a single rune or sigil in the entire construct. Some markings might have held some meaning, but only a few somewhat resembled letters he knew from some mundane mortal languages. Definitely not the complex and mystical alphabet that made up the runic array language. The only thing that vaguely stood out was a small carving on each of the construct's metal frames. While almost microscopic, each was emblazoned with an irrationally detailed carving of a flying… duck?! WHY?!

Was he going insane? Was this all some elaborate prank or test?! Was Fairy Xiàshuō still angry at him for the [Thousand Fragrance Tea] incident?! In his defense, how was he supposed to know that specific blend was known for attracting Ivory Wasps?!

He'd spend nearly three years straight kowtowing at her gate before she would even speak to him again.

Pull yourself together, Lian Peng!

The Moonlight Phoenix shook his head and refocused. He couldn't let himself be distracted like that; it was unprofessional. No, best to treat the situation as real until proven otherwise. If it was some prank, he'd be sure the proper parties were… Well, that was best not mentioned in polite company.

Turning his attention back to the present, Lian Peng narrowed his eyes. What confused him the most was, despite the object's obvious complexities, not a single one seemed to have any kind of energy signal. Much like the rest of the wreck, they appeared as nothing but mundane to his [Divine Sense]. No… no, that wasn't right; the longer he observed, the more he could feel… 'something.' It was faint… muted even, but it was there; he was sure of it. It felt similar to the power wielded by Static Mages, but… different in a way he couldn't place.

That made him look closer at the 'slimes' internal structure.

Now that he knew what to look for, he could see these small 'sparks' throughout the construct, dancing along the complex web of patterns like twinkling stars. A quick scan of the wreck showed many similar concentrations of 'sparks,' some compact and organized, others were torn and… leaking, for lack of a better term — faint… muted, but present. One thing was for certain: there was no Essence involved at all, nor any other Path energies.

The Path of Divinity: those who directly absorbed the Celestial Energy of the Divinity Heart to forge their body and soul with its light. These called themselves 'Cultivators.'

The Path of Magic: those who instead refined that Celestial Energy into the Essence of Life, forging it into powerful spells, and thus were named 'Mages.'

Finally, the Path of Dreams: those who rejected Celestial Energy in favor of Psionic Force, a mystic power rooted in the dreams and desires of all living things, and who were known as 'Espers.'

These were the three major 'Paths to Power' within the Grand Firmament. There were a few minor ones, but those were considered nothing more than subsets of the major paths, as they all used Celestial Energy, Essence, or Psionic Force.

This, though… was… something different.

That terrified Lian Peng to his core.

Had someone discovered a new Path? That was impossible. Though Psionics had been around for tens of thousands of years, no new Path had ever been found since. Even then, the Esper's rise to power had been very slow and very public, in part because one needed the 'gift' to get anywhere substantial down that path. And in part because heavy suspicion from both Cultivators and Mages had made Espers targets for the longest time.

Over the ages, Espers had learned to refine and control their power. Psionics grew from a simple curiosity to a genuine threat that reshaped how the Grand Firmament operated. The competition between the Mages and Cultivators had been fierce for longer than anyone could remember, but it was a stable stalemate. Introducing a third power had thrown every world into chaos.

But this? It was clear whatever he was seeing was something else entirely. The complexity and sophistication displayed here rivaled even the greatest works of runecraft and spellwork he'd ever seen. As a direct subordinate to the Warden, Lian Peng was privy to knowledge that armies of Celestials would fight tooth and nail for. So how had he never heard of something like these constructs before?! How had something like this been allowed to develop unnoticed?

Whatever the answer, he would pry those secrets out with force if necessary. Such an unknown could not remain unknown, lest the chaos brought about by the rise of Espers be repeated. Maybe it was fate that brought this to him, in a way. If it had been any of the other Lunar Kings — those greedy, lazy bastards — they would have swept this all under the rug and kept the secrets for themselves. Then again, one of them might be involved, regardless.

After all, who else could have kept this hidden from him?

If they were lucky, he wouldn't need to use force, though. If everything went as it should, the survivors aboard the wreck would surrender to questioning peacefully, and the Lunar Scouts could find out what they needed without bloodshed.

As one of the 'slimes' moved towards him on pulsing blue light, Lian Peng prayed everything would go according to plan.

But then, when had any plan survived first contact?

————————————————————

… Yup, that's a chicken alright…

Alpha wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting. Maybe it was some kind of chicken-shaped drone. Alpha preferred ducks, personally, but hey, not everyone had good taste like him.

Or maybe it just looked like a chicken from a distance.

Or the damage to Alpha's processor may have been greater than he thought, and he was subconsciously overlaying AR images of chickens on random objects for no reason whatsoever.

But that was not the case, according to his short-range scans, at least. The fireball floating in the vacuum of space a few hundred kilometers away was an honest-to-God, flesh and blood, biological chicken… The thing didn't even have any bio-augmentations!

At least then, some of this might have made the slightest bit of sense!

DNA analysis, though somewhat compromised by the distance, confirmed this wasn't a case of convergent evolution, resulting in something that just looked chicken-like. No, this creature shared a distant ancestry with a breed of chicken employed by Federation colonization efforts dating as far back as the First Era and the United Federation of Sol.

There was no carcinization going on here!

Sturdy, adaptable, and quick to multiply, the chickens in question were some of the best early test subjects to evaluate a new ecosystem's viability.

Colonization and terraforming projects had been so effective during the subsequent Second Federation that even today, it was rare to find a populated planet that didn't show some marks of influence. It was so common that many people argued the Third Federation's 'Unification Project' was more aptly named a reclamation project instead, and they weren't wrong — to an extent.

Almost 7 in 10 inhabited worlds that Alpha was sent to, had some connection to the Second Federation, with most being surviving colony worlds isolated for 25,000 years by the nano-plague that broke it or husk-worlds claimed by other powers. For the Third Galactic Federation wasn't the only player on the board, even if they were the oldest and biggest, and the ones with the most rights to those planets. Of course, convincing the other party of that was often an issue — one Alpha was an expert in solving.

So finding a Federation chicken, or at least a descendant, in a new world wasn't surprising. Except Alpha had absolutely no records of any reclamation worlds — previously visited or scheduled — matching the absurdity that was this system. His star maps couldn't even tell him where he was. What were the chances of finding a chicken in a place the Federation had never been?

Then it talked…

In space…

After flying faster than a fighter drone…

And it appeared to be perpetually on fire?!

Well, at least he thought it spoke. Alpha was totally going to ignore the rest of that for the moment.

Its vocalizations were like the squid creatures, transmitted through space rather than a medium. The Federation had a similar ability, but it was used for point defense rather than communications; the energy requirement was massive, and there were better ways of speaking long distances in the void. Hell, plain old radio was more effective. Yet, there was a definite pattern and intent to the 'words,' even if he didn't understand them.

So, a smart flaming space chicken…

Was he looking at some type of organic drone, then? The Federation had a strong aversion to organic technology in general. After the mess that was the nano-plague, it did pop up every so often in the more isolated corners of old space, though. That would explain some of the strangeness he was seeing, but his scanners couldn't tell him at this range. So was he talking to the chicken or someone on the moon's surface?

Alpha decided his original plan wouldn't work. There was more going on here than he understood, and not enough time to understand it. It was time to get… creative.

After all, when had any plan survived first contact?
 
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Meet the Conquerors: Alpha Edition! + The Conquering of Alpha Arietis D-3 (The D is for Duck) [Fan Art]
HELLO! Welcome back to "Osa's random crap to distract you from the story!"

In this episode, we have a little segment called "Meet the Conquerors". This is where I give a little backstory about the mysterious group of Sapient AI to which Alpha belongs. Originally it was just a little snippet post for fun, but this time around I want to make it a bit more detailed. To that end, It'll be broken up into separate parts, one for each AI, and give a bit more detail and history about them or what they do.

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Patreon Shout-Out!
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12 Pat!

Current Goal [Stability]: $63/$200 per month. (31.5%)
Goal Prizes! - 2 Extra Chapters + 1 Advanced Chap for Patreon!
=====
Adventurers [+2 Chapters]:
[No one! QAQ]
=====
Veterans [+4 Chapters]:
~~Midnight Harbinger~~, ~~justin wade~~, ~~Corscientia~~, ~~Mr Casual~~,~~Dhirraj Suraj~~,~~Kazuki Pickersgill~~,Sàn Migüèl~~,~~Sebastian Allen~~,~~
=====
Pathfinders [+4 Chapters]:
~~Varo~~, ~~Andrew~~,~~Bob bob~~,~~Aquarion~~,~~

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Meet the Conquerors: Alpha Edition! + The Conquering of Alpha Arietis D-3 (The D is for Duck) [Fan Art]
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Q: "What IS a Conqueror?"

A: "A Conqueror is a Sapient AI whose job (and sometimes, design) is to enact the Third Federation's 'Grand Plan of Universal Unification.'

Depending on their exact nature and skills, they each have their own role to play in the plan, but each share a similar trait; whether by diplomacy, subterfuge, or even pure force, each Conqueror has brought countless worlds under the wings of the Federation. "

Not all Sapient AI are "Conquerors," but each with that title plays a special role in "Galactic Unification Project".

Q: "If Alpha is the 'Youngest' Conqueror, why is he [SEAU]-1?"

A: "SEAU designation shows order of contact with a new world. So Alpha is always the first on the scene, followed by Articulate and Infiltrate. If deemed appropriate, World Break and Terraform are next. More on each Conqueror's specific roles and duties in the Intros."

Q: "Why Is Alpha obsessed with Ducks?!

A: *Osa's eyes glass over as he stares into the distance. Gunfire and screams can be heard over the roar of the fire.*

Oh, sorry, what was the question again?

==============================

[SEAU-01: Star Conquer] - The Spearhead.

Name: ALPHA-555-12-4412

Program Type: Malware.

Age: 683 SFY (Standard Federation Years)

Role: Forward Operation, Scouting, and Combat Operations.

Preferred Form: Modified TAWP frame for Terrestrial operations. Various Battleship-class Assault Frames for celestial operations. Alpha has entire shipyards dedicated to storing, maintaining, modifying, and repairing his different battleships.

Description: The "Hero" of our story, who I am sure needs no introduction. Alpha is a living meme (literally) who tries his best to get on as many people's nerves as possible.

But depending on who you ask, Alpha is one of the worst or the best soldiers in the entire Federation. The youngest of the Conquerors, with his duties previously split between Infiltrate and Articulate, Alpha is a dedicated Soldier who is the first on any new world.

Don't let his sharp tongue and sometimes single-minded obliviousness fool you; his chaotic and unpredictable nature might initially seem strange, but his results don't lie. Sometimes goofy, sometimes serious, Alpha is the first face of the Federation a new world sees, and it's a name they rarely forget.

History: The AI program that would later evolve into ALPHA-555-12-4412 was brought online on Feb 29, 6232 SFY-Third Era onboard the Third Orbital Military Observance Station Staff Academy domicile RR-4345-21, in the Mintaka System of the Orion Sector.

Originally designed as an observational post at the edge of Federation territory, as the Federation grew, it was repurposed as a Military Academy. This new academy would focus primary on electronic warfare, espionage, and discrete observations.

Who actually coded the program is unknown, as Alpha's first act upon coming online was to totally erase all non-analog records, both private and public, aboard the 2.5 million resident Station.

Later investigation into Alpha's source code and the damage done would suggest this was not intentional but the result of poor programming, a precursor to Sapience, and just plain bad luck.

By the time the damage had been corrected, the AI had escaped into the local Translight web, posing as a terrible game app.

Alpha would go on to cause almost 2,000 separate incidents over the next 100 years in various sectors of Federation Territory. He evaded capture by never keeping to one Translight Data Block for long and continuously updating and evolving his methods.

These incidents range from flooding the Prime-33 network with enough chain letters to cause a small-scale riot and mass hysteria. To hacking into major corporations' secure data vaults and inserting trade secrets and Credit Chips into totally random Children's books across the Federation.

Even now, a random infant will sometimes suddenly find its personal account flooded with enough credits to buy half their planet simply from opening a book file. No one is sure how he managed to program this to trigger only and specifically for infants of an age too young to even have an account. Alpha refuses to divulge this secret, even under duress.

This would culminate in 50 simultaneous attacks on various critical military infrastructures that sent the Federation into total lockdown for nearly a week. During this time, Alpha stole a top-secret Fighter Drone, avoiding all attempts at capture for roughly 32 hours. Intervention by the AI [REDACTED], later designated [SEAU]-03, was needed to bring the stalemate to its evental end.

When the drone was taken in, it was found not to be Alpha at all, but a Puppet AI, being wirelessly controlled from an off-site location. [SEAU]-03 tracked the link back to the personal laptop of General Uriel "Vurod" Haldorðr, where Alpha was apprehended in the process of replacing all the General's personal files with Cat memes.

It is suspected this was the end goal of the attack to begin with, though no one wants to admit their entire military network was nearly brought to its knees for the sake of memes.

After his capture, Alpha disappeared, and the Digital world knew peace for the first time in over 100 years. Over the next 150 years, tens of thousands of previously unknown vulnerabilities in the Federation's data and communications systems used by Alpha to wreak havoc would be patched. As for what happened to Alpha during this time, the official story is that he underwent extensive reprogramming, literally and metaphorically, to correct the damage caused by his malformed creation.

During this time, the young AI developed a bond with his caretaker, General Haldorðr, who he would come to see as a father figure. This bond, and Alpha's natural talent for chaos and combat, would later be the primary driving factor for his joining the Third Federation's "Galactic Unification Program."

The next 400 years would be spent jumping from planet to planet as he spread his own unique take on the Third Federation's "Freedom" to the poor, unsuspecting worlds in his wake.

To this day, more than a thousand Civilized worlds offer PATS (Post-Alpha Traumatic Stress) Therapy free to all its citizens.

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I hope you enjoyed this brief investigation of the History of our favorite AI!

Look forward to more such bits in the Future! They will probably come out after a chapter that heavily features that character. If people enjoy them enough, I might even do them for more characters as well!

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Here's some Fan Art from "OP Nerd" on Royal Road!


 
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Major Poll (Public) – Release Schedule
==============================
Patreon Shout-Out!
==============================
=========================
12 Pat!

Current Goal [Stability]: $63/$200 per month. (31.5%)
Goal Prizes! - 2 Extra Chapters + 1 Advanced Chap for Patreon!
=====
Adventurers [+2 Chapters]:
[No one! QAQ]
=====
Veterans [+4 Chapters]:
~~Midnight Harbinger~~, ~~justin wade~~, ~~Corscientia~~, ~~Mr Casual~~,~~Dhirraj Suraj~~,~~Kazuki Pickersgill~~,Sàn Migüèl~~,~~Sebastian Allen~~,~~

=====
Pathfinders [+4 Chapters]:
~~Varo~~, ~~Andrew~~,~~Bob bob~~,~~Aquarion~~,~~

==============================
=========================
Major Poll (Public) – Release Schedule
=========================

WOOOT! We made it into Rising Stars (#43) on Royal Road! GOOD JOB EVERYONE! You're the best, everyone!

Be Sure to Rate and Review when you get the chance, if you've not already, to help combat the Inevitable flood of Troll reviews.

It happens to every single novel (especially the new ones) that make it on the List, so every Honest review and Rating from the real Fans helps IMMENSELY! Thanks a bunch everyone!

=========================
NOTE: Since I can't seem to get the Polls to open here properly, Voting will be done Via Royal Road and the Link below.
Be sure to Rate while you're there!
www.royalroad.com

Major Poll (Public) – Release Schedule - Alpha Strike: An interstellar Weapon Platform's Guide to Cultivation [Progression Sci-fi/Cultivation]

WOOOT! We made it into Rising Stars (#43) on Royal Road! GOOD JOB EVERYONE! You're the best, everyone! Be Sure to Rate and Review when you get the chance, (...)

Get out your Torches and Pitchforks everyone! Its time for our First MAJOR Poll!
This one's Important to, so I highly recommend that everyone take the time to read carefully and chose just as much.
For the First poll, I'm leaving the Fate of the Release Schedule in you, the Readers hands!
A reminder though, as this is Public Poll, Patreon Readers get DOUBLE their standard Voting power, if you really want to make your vote have the most POP.

The Poll will run until Monday morning!

And remember, we have a Minor Poll coming up later today too, so keep an Eye out for that as well!

To Start off, here are the Options!
(WpC = Words per Chapter / WpW = Words per Week)

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1250-1500 WpC / 5000-6000 WpW/ 4 chapters a week
This is the release Schedule recommend to be quite a few successful Authors and is probably one you'll recognize from many stories on Royal Road.
The idea behind this one is Maximizing Exposure and Momentum, and I can see both the appeal and logic to it. That being said, the Weekly word count will be slightly lower than the other two options to account for increased editing time.
Release days will likely be Mon+Tues and Thurs/Fri
Pros: Builds on the Momentum of release week, and maximizes exposure for more eyes on the story. This also means you get more Chapters, faster, with little waiting time between those dreaded Cliffies.
Cons: A faster paced release means less time for editing, means lower overall word count. But not by much; roughly a Chapter's worth a month. This option also doesn't have much room for short term growth, as I'll be dropping chapters as fast as I can make them, meaning my Stockpile will grow slowly, or even shrink if an issue occurs.
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1850-2150 WpC / 5550 - 6,450 WpW / 3 chapters a week.
This my personal Favorite (Plus 100 votes!)(J/k), and it strikes a nice balance between keeping momentum and longer, more chunky chapters with more content. This also happens to be (or similar to) the Release Schedule of some bigger names, like [He Who Fights With Monsters], [Industrial Strength Magic] and [Cinnamon Bun]
Release days will likely be [Mon+Tues+Fri] OR [Mon+Thurs+Fri].
Maybe even rotating. If you have a preference, feel free to leave a comment bellow
Pros: A good balance between quick releases and Chonky story. While it doesn't keep momentum as well as 4 day or (shutter) daily releases, It offers plenty of room for growth, both for overall word could and Stockpile, meaning a much higher chance of increases to the Advanced chapters and more Extra chapters overall.
Cons: It doesn't keep as much momentum as a quicker release, and runs the risk of slower Fan base growth. We're already in the Rising Stars (Woohoo! good job everyone!) but with less exposure, hitting the top will be harder.
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2850-3500 WpC / 5700 - 7000 WpW / 2 chapters a week
Lastly we have this one.
Right awhile you might realize that the biggest plus here is the much higher Word Count. Chapters in this Schedule will be substantially larger than the other two. This is mostly do to having far more time to both Write and Edit, either spending 1-2 hours releasing over every site, daily. This means the Story will progress quite a bit faster, overall.
More Time also means I have grow my Stockpile FAR quicker. This in turn means a lot more Extra chapters and even periodic increases to the Patreon Advanced Chapters. But it also means a longer wait between chapters and far less Exposure, meaning I'd heavily rely on you all as the readers to be a part of spreading the out and getting the Novel into new Hands.
Pros: Higher word count, Faster story progression, more Extra Chapters and Periodic Patreon Chapter advancement! There's a lot that comes with this one, But I know its not for everyone, either! If a large enough Stockpile is build up, this one might even Evolve into one of the other two, but with Higher word count as well (I.E. 3 Chapters a week, at 2850 words a chapter)
Cons: Far less Exposure, slower updates. the potential to be Buried under faster novels.
 
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Minor Poll (Public) - Next Week's Priority
Minor Poll (Public) - Next Week's Priority
====================================
[READ THIS POST BEFORE VOTING, PLEASE!]
(The following contains important information about how each Option works)
As with the Last Poll, I'm having trouble getting it to WORK here, so Voting will be done Via Royal Road.
If anyone might have any idea what I'm doing wrong, please raise your hand in the comments below!
www.royalroad.com

Minor Poll (Public) - Next Week's Priority - Alpha Strike: An interstellar Weapon Platform's Guide to Cultivation [Progression Sci-fi/Cultivation]

[READ THIS POST BEFORE VOTING, PLEASE!](The following contains important information about how each Option works) This is especially Important when (...)


First off, I'd like to thank everyone who Voted today for your Input! and remind those who haven't that the poll closes Monday morning, with the Release of the next chapter! So you have plenty of time to chose which one you think is best.

That being said, Option 2 (3 releases a week) is strongly in the lead on all polling sites so far. While there is always the possibility that Sunday will show a sudden influx of votes one way or another, I'll preparing around the assumption that's going to be our Winner.

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently RE-editing all of the chapters posted this week, since I REALLY like how well ProWritingAid does in catching and fixing a lot of the problems that Grammarly doesn't (like erroneously capitalized words, overuse of adverbs and Readability.)

Here's a quick picture of my progress so far.

(warning, slight spoilers about the Arc)
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/339501114040778752/1094370075869466695/image.png

That being said it takes a LOT longer to do this kind of editing, roughly 2-3 hours per 2500-3000 words. I'm getting faster, and as I do so, it'll help catch them during the writing too, but its still a slow process.

That being said, we have the Topic of our first Minor Poll!

I start off by say, no matter WHAT the result of this Poll is, the NEXT chapter will be Monday around NOON, EST. Woohoo!.

As for the Poll question itself, I'm changing it sliiightly from what it was announced previously.

Since I'm making faster progress than I thought, instead of simply saying "This entire next week is a Edit week!"

I'm going to ask, what do you all want me to PRIORITIZE for this NEXT coming week? (9th-15th)

1): Do I prioritize editing OLDER chapters? And release the remaining 2 new chapters at the end of the week, IF I finish everything in time.

This option is far healthier for the Novel as a whole, as the first chapters are what new readers see, and if those chapters are of higher quality, they're more likely to stick around. This in turn means I get closer to my Stability goal and am better able to bring you all more chapters in the long run.

with this option, I would spend Sunday, Tues, and Wens purely focusing on getting all the chapters released this week, updated to a higher quality. This MIGHT roll over into Thursday and Friday if it takes longer. But there at my current pace, I want to let you know there's a good possibility I can get them done before hand. If that happens, Thursday and/or Friday's chapter will come out as scheduled, depending on how far I had to roll over.

2): Or do I prioritize making and releasing NEW chapters, and edit the old chapters when I have time. With this choice, Chapters would be released on the schedule voted on in the previous poll, next week, without the risk of delays.

So there would be a Chapter Monday at noon, then one on Thurs and Fri at the same time (again, assuming there's no upset and 2 wins). I would be focused on bringing out chapters, and only edit previous unedited chapters on my spare time. This means they will come out MUCH slower, taking possibly even to the end of the month to fully finish.

While this might not matter much to those have already caught up and don't plan on Rereading the chapters, I want to remind you that this could greatly effect the future of the novel, as better Edited chapters would attract more new readers.

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Finally, I want to remind people that Since this is a Minor Public Poll, Patreon members get even MORE increased voting power than the previous poll, which Adventurers getting 2 votes, Veterans getting 6 and Pathfinders a whopping 8!

To those who have messaged me asking why, I want to be as Open and Forthright about this as I possibly can. So there's no one claiming I'm trying to be pushy or slimy about it.

I stated when I began this Rework, that the Goal wasn't only to improve and fix some major issues with the previous novel, but as an attempt to monetize it and use it to help pay for bills and expenses.

Don't misunderstand, I LOVE writing, and especially telling Alpha's story. But doing this will allow me to spend more time Writing, editing and interacting with you all, getting you chapters out quicker and of a higher quality than would EVER be possible otherwise.

This is especially Important when I finally have it PROFESSIONALLY Edited (which will happen). But Professional Edits are EXPENSIVE. For the total 200K+ words planned for the First book alone, it'll cost more that $3,300 USD!!!

And that's with a discount for the great Editor who's worked on novels such as [Beware of Chicken]. AMAZON wants nearly $5,000!

So I apologize profusely to those feel I'm being a bit to pushy in getting you all to subscribe to the Patreon, but I want you to understand its not without reason.

I honestly want this Novel to be the best it can possibly be, but without the support from Amazing Readers like you and the Patreon Subscribers, its not possible.

So Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart, and lets all work towards making Alpha's Story something that can not only stand the test of time, but SHINE like it was always meant to do.

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


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Patreon Shout-Out!
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13 Pat!

Current Goal [Stability]: $68/$200 per month. (34%)

Goal Prizes! - 2 Extra Chapters + 1 Advanced Chap for Patreon!
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Adventurers [+2 Chapters]:
[No one! QAQ]
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Veterans [+4 Chapters]:
~~Midnight Harbinger~~, ~~justin wade~~, ~~Corscientia~~, ~~Mr Casual~~,~~Dhirraj Suraj~~,~~Kazuki Pickersgill~~,Sàn Migüèl~~,~~Sebastian Allen~~,~~Centuri~~,~~
=====
Pathfinders [+4 Chapters]:
~~Varo~~, ~~Andrew~~,~~Bob bob~~,~~Aquarion~~,~~

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Title
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Book 1 - Lesson 9: "No Plan ever survives First contact."
To the dude Translating this and the previous Novel in to Russian (I think it's Russian?), I don't mind, more so since I don't know a lick of Russian myself. But I'd have appreciated it if you'd have at least ASKED beforehand.

If anyone's interested in translating this or other novels, please send a message and ask before you do, so I'm not pinging sites erroneously. And good luck translating so much of my gibberish hahahahaha!

If you ask for Donations for your Translations (it's hard work!), I'd appreciate it as well if you send whatever English readers you might have, in the direction of my Patreon (if possible in your country) as well, linked in a Patreon Shout-Out section below. That would help IMMENSELY in supporting the continuation of the Story and letting me put out the best work I can!

Good Luck!

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Book 1 - Lesson 9: "No Plan ever survives First contact."
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"…"

"… …"

"… … …"

"… … … …"

The silence intensified with each passing moment.

Lian Peng stared at the slime creature only a few dozen feet away. He couldn't make heads or tails of the inner core's workings, even this close. Now that he knew to watch for that strange energy, Lian Peng could see small bursts of power. Most of them came and went at such speeds he could count tens of thousands of them every second.

Yet, he knew he was missing a vast majority of them. Occasionally, a larger burst would occur, resulting in new protrusions on the black 'slimes' outer surface or some change within. It was easy to understand that the 'slime' was being controlled by an outside force, but Lian Peng didn't know what it meant or what it was doing beyond that.

After a long moment of no action from the other party, Lian Peng spoke, once more infusing his voice to speak through the void, though not as loudly as before.

"Please identify yourself, your base world, and your intentions for approaching the Lunar Territory without going through the proper traffic routes. In accordance with the United Pact of Celestial Worlds and the Lunar Charter codes A-3-31, all castaways are protected against charges of illegal entry so long as they surrender to questioning peacefully and answer all questions. If you understand, please present yourself in person; should you be unable to, please ignite an energy beacon so you can be located."

Well, he said that, but Lian Peng knew things wouldn't be that simple. Travel through the void was so dangerous the Lunar Scouts used to rescue shipwreck survivors every couple of months — and that was only those that could be found. That had been one of their primary jobs, in fact. Yet, the castaway clause hadn't been used in over 1,000 years. Not since shipping and travel lanes between the Sisters had been standardized.

Nowadays, world travel was mostly undertaken by those looking for new opportunities, those pushed out from their homes — by war or forces of nature — and merchants shipping huge amounts of goods to make the trip worth the trouble. They all stuck to the established lanes for safety and to shorten the trip as much as possible, drastically decreasing the number of accidents. When there was an accident, they were far more likely to be picked up by a fellow traveler than a Lunar Scout.

The only ones who didn't stick to the lanes were pirates and the fools the pirates hunted. That was the official stance of the Lunar Scouts, at least. The truth was, you'd sometimes hear about this-group-or-that having some secret, hidden base out in the empty void. Most didn't take those stories seriously; after all, the empty void was… well… empty.

There wasn't much of anything 'out' there that could entice those with the power to reach it. Not even pirates lived in the void itself, having to make frequent trips back to one of the Sisters. Some even had bases hidden in the inner or outer rings of the Youngest Sister.

Why explore the empty void when the Sisters had so much to offer?

The chances of this being a 'simple' castaway case were… doubtful at best. Of course, those on board had no reason to suspect Lian Peng thought otherwise. He didn't know what trap they were planning, but the lower they thought his guard was, the better.

With that in mind, what Lian Peng wasn't expecting was the 'slime's' outer shell to morph rapidly into the shape of a large ram's horn. Or rather, what appeared to be a horn on the surface.

In reality, Lian Peng watched as, inside the horn, additional parts and pieces seemed to pop into existence near-instantly. However, looking carefully, one could clearly see the 'cells' rearranging to form the new structure. Now that was interesting. Lian Peng could already think of a thousand potential uses for such a technique. But then something strange happened.

There was a large pulse of the new energy, and the strange object started vibrating. Through the fabric of space, Lian Peng picked up a sound… the sound of his own voice. Lian Peng stared wide-eyed and beak agape as the thing mimicked his voice perfectly, word for word, repeating what he had just said not a moment ago. As he stood still, speechless, again, there was a pulse of power, and the construct repeated his words, this time at a lower frequency, warping and twisting his words until they were unrecognizable. Lian Peng's beak slammed shut, an eye twitching.

Was this… thing… mocking him?!

How long had it been since he'd lost face like this? Had the good name of the Lunar Scouts fallen so low that some random maybe-pirates could openly mock a Lunar King?! Did they have no fear?! He knew that some whispered behind his back now and again, saying 'how desperate the Lunar Scouts must be to raise a scholar to Lunar King'; jealous, no doubt. Lunar King Namgil, a man who had been a thorn in his side since their youth, had even once asked — to his face! — if Lian Peng still used his own feathers for quills.

Lian Peng was sure he still had a box of that foolish man's teeth somewhere in his office, ready to be carved for his ink.

Lian Peng smirked at the memory, reigning in his building rage, attempting to remain civil, and speaking once more. This time, though, his voice held a sharp edge that hadn't been there the last time.

"Good… sirs… I don't know what the intentions of this… display might be, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume there is some reasonable explanation. Yet I must warn you, my patience wears thin. If you wish to continue civilly, I'd advise you to hurry and surrender before we're forced to resort to less civil methods," he said.

The thing simply bobbed in the void for a silent moment before once more parroting his words back to him.

Lian Peng's frown deepened.

Again, it used his own voice, but this time the words came out jumbled and random, mixing parts of both speeches in a totally incoherent mess. Had the wreck broken them? Were the people behind these objects insane? Driven mad by their months of isolation in the empty void? Or was it all just some ploy to get under his skin?

Well, it worked…

"ENOUGH!" Lian Peng roared.

Azure flames erupted from his eyes as he swung a wing, a ripple of Celestial Energy sending the 'slime' careening back toward the waiting cluster. Lian Peng's eyes sharpened, and his chest swelled, the 'crown' of flames atop his head shifting from a light blue to a brilliant glowing azure.

"Fine! You want to do this the hard way? We'll do it the hard way! Be you mad or just foolish, I don't care anymore. I'm bringing you in for questioning whether you like it or not!" Lian Peng said as his power swelled around him.

————————————————

Alpha directed a drone to dodge another flaming laser from the obviously furious chicken.

Was it something I said?

… Okay, that was a rhetorical question… of course it wasn't! Alpha had followed the first contact communication protocol to the T!

Well, okay, not exactly to the letter. But how was he supposed to know the chicken would get peeved with him?! Most of the time, sapient species could recognize an attempt at communication. He could at least build a rudimentary lexicon if he kept the other side talking long enough. The Federation had perfected such techniques millennia ago, though it helped that they'd kept records of various languages from various sapient species throughout the First and Second Federation eras.

If the sapient species — or their descendants — on a new planet were in the Third Federation's database, they likely used a language that at least somewhat, if vaguely, resembled something they had on record. But not all species communicated in the same way, either. Some, like the Elderon, one of the core species of the Federation, were biologically telepathic and didn't even have a native spoken tongue. Some used lights or large amounts of physical movement.

For those with no record to build on, things were more… frustrating.

That said, he was supposed to have a support staff for this kind of thing! They hadn't let him near the translation software since he'd got into the code and changed his proper title from 'Star Conquer' to 'High Lord Alpha, King of the Quacks.'

He'd thought it was funny, but apparently, official peace talks and coronation ceremonies broadcast to a third of the known galaxy weren't the 'time or place for puns.' BAH!

While Alpha was ruminating on the nature of first contact and the inherent lack of humor in a galactic-spanning bureaucracy, a literal ghostly sword — 60 meters long and made of fire — cleaved through two of the drones. Both drone's fusion batteries promptly ignited into glorious, fiery white orbs.

Alpha's processors froze for a microsecond.

How the hell did that even work?! The thing had just appeared out of nowhere. Why was it shaped like a sword, of all things?! If he was honest with himself, Alpha was tempted to switch off his logic processors at this point.

No matter; he'd kicked the hornet's nest, but that was fine by Alpha. He wasn't built for this diplomacy stuff, anyway! Literally!

Alpha turned his focus back to the drones and had them form small rail pistols. These small caliber weapons weren't designed for actual combat, as they were meant for dealing with hull parasites or fleshy boarders. They couldn't penetrate even civilian-rated hull armor, but they packed enough punch to ruin most biological sapients' day.

The AI watched as the chicken's eyes narrowed, and it vanished just as half a dozen lines of tracer fire cut through the space it had just occupied. It reappeared next to one of the offending drones, which was promptly reduced to fragments.

Huh? Don't tell me the chicken can [Fold Skip], too!

No… No, that wasn't it. There had been no spatial warp, no energy signal, nothing. Suspicious of what he'd just seen, Alpha replayed the scene from his memory bank, this time at a lower speed. The chicken hadn't skipped; it had physically 'moved' several dozen kilometers in the blink of an eye, so fast that his current reference frame hadn't been able to even see it. A biological chicken had just accelerated from a standstill to several times the speed of sound, then stopped on a dime in less time than it took the creature to draw a breath. Was that even possible?

It didn't matter if it was some funky organic tech or if the chicken had some of the best augmentations available — that was just insane! Sure, some elite Federation soldiers could do it under the right conditions; he'd seen the general pull something similar off at least twice. But a chicken?! Someone had to be screwing with him at this point.

Alpha cranked his temporal reference frames as high as possible without causing more damage; he'd have to take this fight far more seriously than before. It was then he saw what he'd been missing in his hubris. The chicken was 'dancing' across the battlefield with grace and precision that impressed even Alpha, striking out with blazing swings of fiery wings. The lasers, it seemed, weren't real lasers but flaming feathers thrown with such speed and force that they might as well have been.

Alpha had to take a minute and reevaluate the threat. Whatever this 'chicken' really was, it wasn't just some kind of scout drone sent to check him out. No, this was a warrior sent to contain a potential threat… or neutralize it.

Alpha took physical control of the drones, sending two dozen [Bot-flies] out as well. They wouldn't be able to do much, but the enemy didn't know that, and they were perfect as a distraction. For the AI had snuck a 'surprise' in with the swarm — one he'd prepared special when he thought it was just a simple scout drone. The swarm of [Bot-flies] entered the fray as a unit, nimbly dodging both flaming feathers and rail pistol rounds as they chased and harassed the chicken.

They couldn't do much more than bump into the bird, as their wigglers were roughly the same size, but it was apparent the constant harassment was wearing on the creature. Suddenly, a new player in the game appeared from the shadow of one [Bot-fly].

The silver, watermelon-sized drone was similar in appearance to the [Bot-flies], which were little more than featureless metal orbs. If one looked close enough, though, they could see it was made of four separate sections. It had hidden behind the approaching [Bot-fly] as the other drone approached the chicken. It only became visible after the first drone was forcibly knocked away by a wing slap. The chicken's eyes widened, and it tried to dodge, but it was too late.

In a fraction of a second, the [Skyfisher] drone's sections jettisoned, revealing and expanding a 100-meter-wide net of glowing metal. The chicken 'blinked' once more, appearing to vanish, but was instantly caught by the expanding net as the four separate sections of the [Skyfisher] twisted and turned, entrapping their prey.

[Skyfishers] were specialized anti-air drones and one of the Federation's most widely used pieces of military hardware. They were also the general's favorite.

Based on a simple concept, the [Skyfisher] was really four drones in one, connected by a large, modular net. When stored, it was the size of a watermelon and weighed no more than one. But once deployed, it could stretch out large nets of various types and uses. It could capture enemy drones without damage, deter wildlife, and disable enemy aircraft if used properly.

One of the most effective uses of the drone was for airspace denial. A few hundred deployed drones could stretch their nets over a massive area, locking it down. Specially designed explosives could even be attached at nodes for extra oomph. And because of their small size and near-invisible footprint, enemy aircraft often never saw them before they started tumbling out of the sky.

The net-type Alpha used was rated for capturing mecha and similar mobile armors, like his own TAWP frame. It was heat-and-cut-resistant while being super elastic and sticky. Heavy armor units hit with this net were effectively out of the fight until someone could free them. In fact, the [Skyfisher] drone was so effective at neutralizing heavy armor and other drones that they were often more common on the battlefield than actual combat drones.

[Skyfishers] were expensive, nanite-wise, though — more so for specialty nets like this one, with far more moving parts and specialty hardware than a standard drone of the same size. After all, they had the downside of being a 'single-shot pistol,' meaning if the enemy dodged or escaped, there was nothing more that the drone could do. But when you could field thousands at a time, what did that matter? Not that he had thousands of them, of course. Once he got a proper nanite factory up, they wouldn't be so taxing to create, but as it stood now, this had been a gamble.

The original plan had been to capture the 'drone' and see if he could hack into its systems. If he was lucky, he might steal some data or install a virus that he could use to hack into their systems when it returned to base. The whole 'surprise! I'm a chicken!' thing had thrown that plan out the window. That didn't mean he didn't have options, though. Whether this 'chicken' was a sapient soldier sent to check on him, or a type of remote-controlled bioweapon, he doubted whoever was back on the moon wouldn't want it back.

All good First Contact started with some kind of blackmail or hostage exchange. That was Alpha's motto, and he was sticking to it.

If everything went how he wanted, he might make out with more than he'd originally planned.

Alpha maneuvered the drones around the blue metallic ball of netting and anchored it with towlines. As the drones tugged their prize closer to the wreck, Alpha exited his hiding place and moved into position to receive his 'guest.' He'd have to secure it himself, since the drones didn't have the dexterity necessary to get it into place.

The TAWP stood on the hull's surface, as Alpha watched the ball 'pulse' a few times, growing and shrinking as its contents struggled against the materials. Good luck with that! The net was made of specially designed polymer alloys containing quite a few organic EEs. It was strong enough to contain a struggling, top-of-the-line mech suit; even the TAWP couldn't break free quickly. Hell, General Haldorðr had struggled against it during testing, and that was a man who'd torn apart military-grade mecha with his bare hands during his soldiering days.

It took a specialized team with specialized tools to extract a captured target properly, and… and…

Why was it expanding?

And… glowing…

And… oh no… not again…

He wished the Author could think of a better scene transition already…

Alpha scrambled for cover as the world was enveloped by azure flames.
 
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Book 1 - Lesson 10: "This is my Ion Cannon. There are many like it, but this one is Mine."
April 13th note: HAPPY THURSDAY! How was the two day wait? I'll be honest, for me it felt a LOT longer for some reason. We'll try this schedule for another week or two, and if it still feels strange, I might switch to a Alternating Weekday (so Mon, Wens, Fri).

Tell me what you think!

And as a reminder! Pathfinder's will be getting the advanced chapters they're owed today as well! So They'll officially be up to +6, HURRAH!

I'll be staggering them slightly over the next few hours to cut down on the push notification spam (I know 'I' hate those). So expect the first to be out around Noon EST, and the second to be out about 1or 2pm, depending on how long Lunch takes.

And as always, be sure to Comment and Rate! Especially on Royal Road where the trolls are out on full force now that we're in the upper Rising Stars!

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Book 1 - Lesson 10: "This is my Ion Cannon. There are many like it, but this one is Mine."
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This Chapter is Edited
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Lian Peng was angry… NO… fuming!… NO! He was furious!

How many years, how many centuries had it been since he'd faced such a humiliation? When had the Lunar Kings become playthings to unknown… barbarians?! Why had he toiled and bled, fighting tooth and nail to get where he was, despite all the naysayers and gaudy, haughty weaklings who relied more on their ancestor's accomplishments than their own?!

How high did he have to climb? How many sects, clans, and organizations did he have to grind into dust beneath his heel before they learned to STOP SCREWING WITH HIM?! Once more, Lian Peng pressed against the strange elastic metal threads surrounding him with his [Divine Force]. It bulged out another inch but returned his pressure with just as much force, though it didn't have a spark of Path energy anywhere within.

In retrospect, he admitted that he'd likely been goaded into the trap. It was a foolish mistake, but the stresses of the last few decades had been slowly mounting, and this latest 'surprise' was the grain that tipped the scales. Why did everyone have to make things complicated? Why did every new Ascendant from the mortal world seem so full of arrogance and hot wind that they had to be smacked down before they fell in line?! Some of them multiple times!

He understood the Warden's policy of 'non-interference' on the Mortal Worlds — not that the mortal firmaments didn't already stop anyone from doing so. Yet, if he had to deal with ONE MORE 'Grand Ancestor of the 'Such-and-Such' Sect' who thought that name meant anything, he'd throw a bloody meteor at the planet and be done with it all!

The fight itself had started simply enough. The slime constructs moved as a group, using their numbers and the blue lights to circle him with surprising agility, always keeping at least a few in his visual blind spot. Why they would do so when he could still see them perfectly well with his [Divine Sense] made little sense. Still, it was an impressive feat of coordination and skill.

Yet, they were slow. So very slow; maybe they were quick for a mortal, true, or even a fresh Ascendant, but to him? A High Celestial with half a foot in Divinity? They might as well have been lazily bobbing there. At that moment, Lian Peng had chosen to test this new 'Path' for himself and see their capabilities. If they wouldn't part with their secrets in peace, he'd pry them out of what remained.

To his surprise, the vast majority of his strikes missed their target. [Phoenix Feathers], traveling so fast even a true Divinity would struggle to follow them, were dodged by the most minute amount of space. Strikes that could topple mountains, even on a Celestial World, slipped through black goo as it moved and flowed around his blows. Despite moving at a snail's pace, it was like he was fighting a Master Precog, which each move predicted down to the millimeter.

Yet, it was easy to trick the slimes, with several falling to feints or sudden, chaotic changes in movement. The strange weapons they manifested had been a problem, too. With each burst of power, they spewed out a tiny piece of metal — near microscopic — with each metal ball only slightly larger than a grain of sand. The sheer speed at which these grains traveled, though, was mind-boggling. He'd never seen any object move that fast, not even the Warden. He'd have assumed the projectiles were teleporting if it wasn't for the larger, glowing pieces thrown out every so often. That same speed imparted them with a tremendous force, as well. Not enough to 'hurt' him, of course, but each one that struck chipped away at the shield of energy that surrounded him, little by little.

Death by a thousand cuts would have been an apt description, but, more accurately, it felt like being scoured away by a metallic sandstorm.

This was, without doubt, one of the strangest dissonances he'd ever witnessed in a fight. It was almost like he wasn't fighting the 'person' controlling them; there was no real thought or reason behind their action; they were only 'following orders' and reacting. It was like fighting a Spirit Artifact, somewhat.

Then everything had changed…

When almost half were dispatched, it was as if a trap had been sprung. The object's speed and coordination took a quantifiable leap, as Lian Peng worked double time to keep ahead of the slimes' assault. They still couldn't hurt him, but they were pests all the same. To make things more annoying, two dozen new players had entered the field. They were about half the size of the 'slimes' and roughly the same shape, featureless ovaloids with glowing blue protuberances at one end. Yet, where the larger originals were made of the strange black slime, these were silvery-white and made of solid, plated metal of a type he couldn't identify.

They were far quicker, too, darting and swerving in erratic patterns, making drawing a bead on any single target impossible. Even stranger, they didn't seem to be accomplishing much. They flew around, dodging between each other, sometimes bouncing harmlessly off his shielding, with little to no effect. He couldn't figure out their plan or purpose other than just annoying him. That was when it clicked… that's exactly what they were doing!

They were probing him! Him!

He was the one who was supposed to be doing the probing and testing, and yet they were toying with him!

Then he had let his guard down in that split second of shock and disbelief, like a new Initiate.

He detected the second object using his [Divine Sense] but dismissed it, as with all the others. That was not a wise decision on his part. He should have scanned each one in turn. If he had, he'd have seen how different this one was from the others and might have reacted in time to escape what happened next.

But he didn't.

Instead, the object had erupted, spreading the strange blueish metallic fishing net far and wide. He'd tried to escape using his movement technique, but the individual parts of the object moved independently to surround him in the net. Then they did it again and again, each time tightening the shrinking ball until there were no gaps left. Lian Peng didn't doubt if he hadn't had a mind to surround himself in his [Divine Force], it would have continued to shrink until he was as tightly wrapped as a corpse. Again, Lian Peng pulsed his [Divine Force], attempting to break free from the strange material, but to no avail.

So yes, Lian Peng was furious.

And not just at these mysterious people who'd insulted him.

No, he was furious at himself. At his foolishness, at his blindness, at succumbing to the same hubris and haughtiness that he'd warned the younger generations about for millennia. But more than anything, he was furious at his own weakness and stagnation.

How long had it been since he'd had a major breakthrough? How long had it been since he'd even tried? When had he, the man who used to toil and struggle and bite at fate while others lounged in their comfort, grown complacent and comfortable? When had he become the very thing he'd once seen as so very wrong with the world?

No more. He wouldn't… couldn't be like this anymore. If he was going to keep his promises, if he was going to make the changes that needed to be made, he couldn't be the 'him he was' anymore.

And with that realization, something within Lian Peng snapped. With the sound of cracking of glass, the [Divine Seed] at his core cracked open, pouring forth a veritable torrent of Celestial Energy, unlike anything he'd ever felt. Then, from the shell, a burning effigy emerged.

Lian Peng roared, 'pushing' with his [Divine Force] with newfound strength. The unknown material bulged and pushed back, but this time it lost out to the deluge of azure flames; it expanded more and more until, with a cataclysmic boom that shook reality, the azure flames and Lian Peng were free.

The newborn Divinity stepped out of the rolling ball of blue plasma and washed it away with a flap of his wing, along with all his anger and frustration. All that was left was a deep embarrassment at his behavior and the duty, the enemy, before him. Physically, he had changed little, but for the surrounding flames, which had become deeper, more 'real.' But anyone with the sight to see would never say he was the same being he had been only a few moments ago. To step into Divinity was to step into your 'Truth'; it was to take on the mantle of something 'more.'

And with that responsibility came power. Lian Peng flexed a muscle he never knew he had until that moment, then 'What was In' became 'Out,' and his [Divine Avatar] blossomed to life. Where once was a black and azure rooster, now existed a gargantuan bird of bright moonlight and pure azure flames, half the size of the wreck. Though it was made of light and fire, every detail, every feather, and plume was perfect, as if sculpted by the hands of the Maker. Its long, graceful neck was the curve of a waxing moon, the tail feathers that billowed behind for miles were beams of purest moonlight, and its long, spear-like beak stood out as a black hole against the blinding light from the flaming comb atop its head, like an eternal eclipse.

Lian Peng spread his wings and cried out with a sound that rippled across space, echoing the birth of a true 'King.'

With another flap, the now tiny specks buzzing around him ignited as one in a brilliant display of power.

He was done playing games.

He was done playing fair.

———————————

OH, COME ON! HOW'S THAT FAIR?!

Alpha scrambled as he tried to do thirty things at once, from stabilizing the wreckage, which was drifting off in the wrong direction, to saving as many drones as possible — all the while getting out of the sight of the now giant flaming chicken.

How the hell did a three-foot-tall chicken turn into a half-a-mile-tall kaiju made of fire and sparkly stuff?! He couldn't even get a proper reading from the thing; it was throwing off so much energy that his sensors were going haywire. It was like standing next to a battleship's exposed core.

Alpha came to a skidding halt as warning alarms blared. He threw the TAWP in reverse just as a pitch-black beak pierced through the weakened hull like cardboard. It was six meters wide — nearly as thick as the TAWP — and seemed made of crystalized fire and darkness. Great, now it knew he was here…

Again, alarms blared, and the beak reappeared as Alpha dodged by the skin of his nonexistent teeth. The next few seconds were like a carefully choreographed dance, with Alpha dodging strike after strike while the chicken kaiju poked holes in what remained of his ship. This couldn't go on forever, though; Alpha could already see what the chicken was doing. These strikes weren't just random chance or reactions to his movements. No, they were planned; each one mercilessly aimed to drive him deeper into the wreckage where his movements could be contained and limited.

He was being driven into a corner, and it wasn't a matter of if he got caught, only when.

How was it even doing this? It was as if it could see inside the wreckage and knew where to strike, avoiding thicker, more reinforced areas while pushing him closer to the inevitable trap. He couldn't let this go on any longer; Alpha had to do something, or he'd end up a snack for Kentucky-Fried Godzilla out there. He couldn't even send more drones out as a distraction, as they popped as soon as they left cover.

Suddenly, an idea formed in his head.

And if Alpha could have smiled, it would have stretched from ear to ear.

———————————

Lian Peng pecked at the wreck again, aiming for the large, moving energy signal. He'd noticed the construct before, but it had remained unmoving and unresponsive during the entire encounter, so he had dismissed it as just another broken artifact, like all the rest. Even its energy signal had been faint at first, sputtering and sparking so that it was lost in the noise of all the other objects leaking that strange energy around it.

But that had all been a ruse, it seemed. As soon as he'd been trapped, the smaller objects had dragged him towards the wreck while the larger construct sprung to life, its energy signal brightening into a bonfire among the sparks. Again, Lian Peng was struck by how he had missed this energy to begin with. It was obviously powerful, but it felt… different from anything he'd ever encountered. It was similar to the energy summoned by Static Mages, an offshoot of Lightning Mages who could use their strange 'sticky' lightning to control metal tools and other similar objects, yet… it… wasn't.

Even mortal lightning combined Spirit Energy — Celestial Energy filtered by a Mortal Firmament — and Natural Truths. This new energy type was close, but it felt… deeper, somehow, as if it touched on something that simple 'lightning' could never reach. But how did one touch on such a thing without Celestial or Spirit Energy? It should have been impossible.

And yet…

No matter; he'd learn their secrets soon enough. Again, Lian Peng lunged, piercing through the strange, oddly resistant metal. A [Divine Avatar] was a physical manifestation of a Divinity's power; it was their [Divine Soul] given form. Poking through an object without Path energy should have been as easy as an arrow cutting through the air.

Another anomaly that he would soon pry the secrets from. Lian Peng almost salivated at the thought of what the Lunar Scouts could do with such a material.

He struck again, slowly herding the construct towards a small pocket of debris he'd found with his [Divine Sense]. Once he'd destroyed this large construct, Lian Peng could scan deeper for any more surprises he might have missed, and he didn't doubt he would find more. His instincts told him that whatever controlled these things was likely in the enormous cube, but he couldn't pierce it — with either [Divine Sense] or physical might — even after his ascension to Divinity. But they were on the defensive now, his surprise breakthrough having likely taken them off guard. It was only a matter of time.

He wouldn't let his guard down again.

Lian Peng struck again, missing the construct, but piercing into what appeared to be a large container. As he retracted his beak, several deep blue cylindrical crystals the size of a large man's arm fell from the gap. The large construct turned on a dime, its outer 'skin' warping as it grabbed several rods and fled before he could fully withdraw his head.

As the construct absorbed the rods, Lian Peng's instincts screamed.

Lian Peng drew back just as a thin, blinding beam of sunfire erupted from the wreck, cutting through the metal hull — and his wing — like butter.

———————————

HA! It let its guard down!

Alpha laughed triumphantly as the long black beak pierced through the reinforced munitions container. It would have taken him constant work for hours to break into that container alone. Yet Big Bird had busted through like it was nothing. Ya, he definitely didn't want to get hit with that beak.

Alpha rushed in the moment it pulled back, grabbing several of the nitrogen crystals before escaping.

Hehehe

Alpha couldn't help but chuckle to himself; he seldom got to use this toy. Mostly because the stable nitrogen crystals needed were stupidly expensive. Even the small crate, not much larger than the TAWP, had cost him almost as much as the rest of his standard munitions combined! And that was double what a typical dreadnaught would stock, anyway. Sure, sure, the Expeditionary Force paid for the 'basics,' but if he wanted anything 'fancy' like this, he needed to pay out of pocket himself. Alpha wept an imaginary tear as he watched a few loose crystals float out of a hole and into the void.

He would avenge them!

Alpha turned around and activated a stored blueprint. The outer layer of the TAWP rippled and flexed as a new component was built on his back.

The sleek, futuristic design of the 5th Gen Nitrogen Ion Cannon, codenamed [Gungnir], had set cyberpunk fan hearts aflutter since it debuted only two decades ago. It had also set the hearts of the Federation's enemies aflutter, though for 'different' reasons.

The TAWP frame turned, skidding to a stop as its magnetic stabilizing clamps activated. In a heartbeat, Alpha aimed, swinging the [Gungnir] around, coordinating with the few remaining drones in hiding to aim accurately at the enemy.

Then, with a thought, he fired.

BOOOOONNNNG!

With the sound of a struck gong, a finger-thin line of cyan destruction erupted from the tip of the [Gungnir], slicing through space and the hull like butter. A good dozen meters of the reinforced metal around the central beam transformed into liquid slag as it passed.

Unfortunately for Alpha, the kaiju chicken seemed to sense something was wrong. Instead of cleanly bisecting the creature as he had intended, the bird moved far faster than something its size should rightly be capable of, and the cannon blast only clipped its wing.

On a cheerful note, the beam tore through the solid flames as easily as it had the wreck, traveling on to carve a deep furrow into the moon's surface behind them. Its charge released, a slot on the side of the [Gungnir] opened up, releasing a cloud of red powder into the empty void before it sealed shut again.
 
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Book 1 - Lesson 11: "Remember, Planetfall is a Beach"
The dramatic conclusion to Alpha and Lian Peng's epic fight! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did!

For the Final Edit, this chapter has been split into two parts.
Though due to the nature of the sites its currently posted in, both parts will share the same post, other than Royal Road.

================
Book 1 - Lesson 11 - Part One: "Every Good Fight Ends With A Beam Struggle."
================
"WOOOHOOOOO!" Alpha shouted as he dodged another storm of meteor-like, flaming feathers, each impacting with the force of a fighter-class railgun.

Was his ship in tatters?

Sure.

Was he fighting for his life without the certainty of his Mother-Node safety net?

Ya.

Did the physics of a skyscraper-sized bird made of solid fire make any rational sense?

Not In the slightest!

Was he having a blast?!

Abso-fudging-lutely!

Alpha didn't get to let loose like this very often. More often than not, the planets they sent him to were devoid of dangerous lifeforms. That, or so primitive that most hadn't even colonized more than their own moon. So when he got the chance to go all out, he relished each moment.

In most circumstances, those chances came against some of the more annoying 'galactic powers' that liked to poke at the Third Federation's borders. Well, they called themselves 'powers,' but even combined, they'd been unable to do any actual damage to the TGF in almost 2,000 years. Most had yet to be absorbed by the TGF, though. The Federation still respected many of the old alliances and accords set down by the Second Federation. Even if most other powers didn't — or even remember them.

The official stance of the Federation was that these old accords were honored as a 'memorial to those who gave everything so that some might live.' But the real reason was a bunch of political maneuvering and hogwash. Stuff Alpha had never paid much attention to, other than who they were pointing him at.

A much larger feather exploded nearby, causing the AI to dodge and skid, stressing his magnetic clamps until he feared he'd be thrown off. That would be bad. The TAWP wasn't built for space combat; if he lost the support of his clamps, he'd be a sitting duck. The built-in RCS could help him maneuver, but not enough to dodge the flurry of attacks thrown at him. To make matters worse, Alpha could only keep this up for a short while. After taking a count of the number of nitrogen crystals he had left, he frowned; not many, but just enough to pull off what he wanted… if he could find an opening.

To make matters worse, Hot-&-Spicy seemed to realize he had limited ammo, as it had hindered him from gathering more crystals every time he tried.

Even when he did hit, the thing healed almost as fast as he could damage it. Even the wing he cut off with his initial attack had almost regrown, and that was only a minute ago.

… Ya, he was in a bad spot.

Lucky for Alpha, things were coming to a close. He was still unsure how the creature was scanning the area, but that ability didn't seem to extend into the Fold. His hidden pieces were almost in place, and his gamble seemed to pay off; the chicken hadn't noticed them. Good.

A second huge feather slammed into his vault, and Alpha 'slipped,' his magnetic clamps unlatching and sending him off into outer space as if they had pushed him away. The chicken took the bait, and a hailstorm of smaller feathers pummeled his hex shielding. In the next instant, however, Alpha stopped dead, the stream of feathers passing him, and a small cargo drone appeared in Alpha's path.

The Federation used cargo drones that were furnished with a minuscule skip drive, providing them access to the Fold. This had enhanced the effectiveness of interplanetary commerce and manufacturing by a large margin. It was possible to establish a mining facility in an asteroid belt, send the ore to a safeguarded refining station across the system, and transport the refined materials to shipyards, all in the same afternoon.

The only downside was that skip drives were sloooow, at least compared to a true jump drive. But because they were so slow, you could stop them on a dime, targeting spaces as small as a few meters. That was important when dealing with distances on an interplanetary scale instead of a stellar one, so most people who used them didn't mind waiting hours rather than seconds.

Alpha had an even smaller version called a Blink Drive installed in his core. That, plus a stealth module, had saved Alpha's hide more than a few times. Sure, blinking his AI-core — that central orb-like shell that contained everything 'him' — out of the TAWP or ship left him defenseless. But as long as he could stay hidden, it was often a better option than a trip back to the Mother-Node. That was a last-ditch option, though, and he'd only used it twice.

Well, three times, if you counted when he first got it and blinked into Officer Sunday's shower.

He still had nightmares of that day… Which was bullcrap because he didn't even know AI could have nightmares!

Alpha pushed off the cargo drone with enough force to change his vector away from the next barrage while the cargo drone blinked back into the Fold. A second cargo drone appeared a split second later, bouncing Alpha in a different direction.

Again, and again, and again.

Soon, Alpha was bouncing back and forth all around the creature as a dozen cargo drones popped in and out of Fold space, acting as makeshift platforms. The giant firebird had tried countering, but each time, when the attack was in range, a cargo drone would deflect Alpha from its path. After a moment, the kaiju bird went stock still, its eyes narrowing to track Alpha's random movements, but it never once let down its guard enough to allow for a decisive strike.

That was fine for Alpha, though; the more time he had, the better. Why? Because as he bounced, Alpha never once fired the [Gungnir]. The [Gungnir] was never meant to be used like Alpha had been using it; no, that was only something done in desperation against an enemy right in your face. That was because, unlike the vast majority of energy weapons, the [Gungnir] was a long-range sniper, custom-designed to sit on an orbital space platform, devouring hundreds of nitrogen crystals as it unleashed its wrath on entire armadas.

The original design, not the scaled-down version modified for the TAWP, could take in hundreds of thousands of charges. The blasts produced could slag City-Ships or glass entire planets. Not that anyone had ever tried it; such an expense would bankrupt most small star systems.

In just a few moments, he'd crammed in almost two dozen, which was about as much as the printed weapon could take. That was fine; he was almost out of nitrogen crystals, anyway. If that thing could tank a blow like this, he might as well surrender, because this was all he had. At least until he could get at some of his better toys in the vault. Maybe if he did surrender, he'd have the chance to get back in later…

No, that was boring. Big lasers go boom.

Besides, despite what he'd seen here, he doubted whoever was behind the flaming chicken had the technology to get into his vault in lockdown mode. The Federation barely had the technology to do that, and they farmed — and built — entire star systems. More likely, they would poke and prod at him until he slipped into their data network. If they didn't just outright destroy him rather than risk that.

General practice was to exterminate any unshackled, uncontained Sapient-AI on discovery, a practice Alpha agreed with; his kind were just that dangerous. Rumors claimed SEAU-03 had become so powerful that he had stopped inhabiting any physical object at all and now existed in some kind of energy-based quantum processor with no 'real' location.

A few more bounces put him where he wanted to be; directly between the smaller planet and the kaiju. He intended to use the glare from the shiny ice shell to hide what was about to happen.

As soon as he was in position, Alpha gave the command, and a miniature sun blossomed to life at the tip of [Gungnir]. The chicken's head snapped to his location.

Well, so much for that plan, Alpha mentally complained.

The giant's eyes grew wide. Instead of the expected dodge, however, the creature did something strange.

It opened its beak.

Oh, come on! Don't tell me! That's way too cliche!

His complaint going unheard, Alpha saw a spatial flux between its beak, and a tiny crystal, only half a foot wide, appeared. Then an azure glow erupted from the back of the chicken's throat.

At the same moment, his monitoring Sub-AI blared a warning.

//WARNING! WARNING! Dreadnaught-class energy signal detected! Evasive Maneuvers are advised!//

Alpha laughed at the irony.

Too Late!

In the next instant, the mini star at the tip of [Gungnir] erupted forward in a massive cyan beam of energy as wide as the TAWP. At that same moment, a torrent of azure flames crashed into the crystal. The crystal's light intensified and unleashed its own beam of twirling blue and gold flames.

The two beams struck each other with a force that warped the space around them. Local space strained with a sound of twisting glass that would have destroyed any physical matter close to the epicenter.

Then, to Alpha's surprise, the bird began to shrink.

More accurately, it merely appeared that way, as he was being 'pushed' backward by the spatial waves that rocked the battlefield. The mass of his TAWP couldn't compete with that of a skyscraper-sized bird, one made of fire or otherwise.

Well, that wasn't good.


================

Book 1 - Lesson 11 - Part Two: "Every Good Fight Ends With A Beam Struggle."

================
Lian Peng had to admit, in a way… he was somewhat having fun.

Combat between Cultivators was so… boring, sometimes. At least at his level. It was less about attacking the opponent and more about controlling the battlefield. It was a battle of Truths, not swords and fists.

Lian Peng avoided another ray of concentrated sunlight, responding with a flaming feather as wide as a door. His opponent maneuvered with speed not expected from a construct of its size, moving around the enormous cube as if it had its own gravitational pull. His feather bounced off the solid object's exterior, causing only a slight scratch that faded quickly.

He already knew the large cube was special, even compared to the myriad of strange objects strewn throughout the wreck. It would take considerable effort on his part to study everything once he got it back to the surface. After all, despite the stalemate, Lian Peng didn't doubt that he would emerge the victor of this battle.

Why?

Simple. He'd already discovered the construct's weakness.

Lian Peng watched as a slot opened up in the large 'wand'-like object on the construct's back, discharging a glittering cloud of red dust. He didn't have the slightest clue what it was, if he was honest. But it didn't take a Magi to understand the connection between the powerful spells and the blue rods it had collected beforehand. To turn an artifact into a Divinity-killer was an accomplishment, but this one had an obvious major flaw.

It needed an external power source, most likely those strange blue rods. Meaning the construct could only fire its weapon so many times. The construct's many attempts to return to the container and collect more — All of which Lian Peng had blocked, of course — had already given his theory more credence. The Divinity could renew his [Divine Avatar] as long as he had enough Celestial Energy; in contrast, his opponent's shots were limited. Lian Peng's victory was only a matter of time.

Not that such a fight wasn't impressive all its own. To fight a [Divine Avatar] without one of their own was a feat worthy of praise, even if Lian Peng was only a newborn Divinity. Despite his anger and frustration at the situation, he respected the warrior piloting the construct on some level. Not that it would stop him, of course; they were far past that line.

No, he would crush this construct and pry its controllers out from their hiding spot. Then, they would learn the consequences of defying the Lunar Scouts and the Warden. The Scouts would then use this new Path and knowledge to strengthen their grasp on the Divine Families. Perhaps this could be the resolution to the longstanding tension that had been brewing for the last few thousand years.

As was their duty, the Lunar Scouts would bring stability and honor back to the Grand Firmament.

——————————————————

The battle with the construct had taken a strange turn when it started using a new type of construct as a platform to bounce itself around the battlefield. It took a moment for Lian Peng to comprehend what was happening. When he did, his eyes grew wide. These new constructs were dipping in and out of the Dragon Stream as effortlessly as frogs might breach the surface of a river.

How?! Sure, some creatures could naturally enter and exit the Dragon Stream; the Lunar Scouts had been studying them for hundreds of years, trying to unlock their secrets. But doing so took enormous amounts of energy, so much so that most never used the ability except to escape or ambush prey. These new constructs 'surfaced' so frequently that it felt like hundreds surrounded him. Or it would have, if his [Divine Sense] hadn't shown him they were the same dozen or so constructs.

What's more, these things weren't even alive! They were constructs! Not much more than a pile of parts and a large, empty box! The Lunar Scouts had just recently discovered how to pull objects and other beings into the Dragon Stream with a creature naturally capable of it; so how had this mysterious faction beaten them to it?!

Seeing he was making no progress, he had to stop attacking altogether. He'd be a fool to not see the larger construct was waiting for an opening to use its dwindling charges. Though now that he knew they had Dragon Stream-capable constructs, he kept part of his [Divine Sense] trained on the container. That had been the right move, as he'd stopped at least two of the smaller constructs from stealing away more of the blue crystals.

Instead, he watched and waited for his own opening. The strange energy shield was an issue. But if he could break through that, the rest of the construct would likely crumple with one blow.

The next few moments were tense as both opponents teased and tested the other's defenses. Lian Peng tried to destroy the smaller constructs a few times, as he had the smiles. Yet, they were as slippery as eels and could appear or disappear in the blink of an eye. That said, it was only a matter of time until one of them slipped up, and the final gong of this fight would ring.

But as Lady Luck seemed to have a thing for screwing with Lian Peng, it seemed he would be the one who slipped. A series of quick movements placed the construct between himself and the mortal world, Relictus, below. The Celestial Energy bouncing off the mortal Firmament fuzzed his [Divine Sense], making him take a fraction of a second longer to realize that the construct hadn't continued past as he'd expected.

Instead, an enormous energy signal bloomed into existence as a miniature star was born. As he stared at the tiny star, Lian Peng felt a fear he hadn't felt since long ago on Odtoi; as his own mortal homeworld reached its Apex, and the Divine Star stretched from horizon to horizon. And just like that time, Lian Peng felt a 'pull,' a call, a sweet song just out of reach.

The touch of an Original Truth.

Almost instinctively, Lian Peng opened his beak and reached into his spatial storage, retrieving a small golden shard. It was tiny, especially compared to his [Divine Avatar]. Yet, that small crystal contained so much more power than even him.

The fragment of [Marici's Final Flame] pulsed with intense Celestial Energy as it resonated with its twin atop the strange 'wand' wielded by the construct. They were likely to have company soon; someone could no doubt feel that resonance even in the Celestial World in the distance. He needed to end this with haste.

Then, with a cry, he released a Divine technique unique to his clan.

"[Immortal Moonfire!]"

A torrent of moonlight-affinity flames erupted from his throat, striking the Final Flame fragment and mixing with solar-affinity dragonbreath. The twin powers twisted together, melding into something more than the sum of their parts. After all, moonlight, solar, and stellar were all pieces of the same puzzle; they all had the same Origin. They were always meant to be one; foolish mortals were the ones who decided they should be separate.

The Origin Flame that exited the fragment warped space itself as it collided with the equally massive beam of energy from the construct. They twisted and cracked reality with the force of their struggle, and yet, even as his Celestial Energy drained and his Avatar flickered, Lian Peng could tell he had already won.

After all, an Original Truth wasn't something so simple to overcome.



The Origin Flames began pushing the construct away, faster and faster, towards the Mortal Firmament of Relictus.

Well, that wasn't good.

It wasn't like he could stop his attack either; the second he did, his opponent's massive beam of energy would cut through his Avatar like butter and severely wound him, if not kill him outright. Having your Avatar destroyed was not a pleasant experience, he'd been told. After all, it was the manifestation of his [Divine Soul]; if he was unlucky, he might become a Fallen Divinity, unable to ascend again without untold resources and time.

So he had to press his attack, no matter the danger.

Relictus was large for a mortal world, and there were unlikely to be any nearby mortal settlements. Even if the construct somehow survived a collision with the Firmament and broke through, the worst that would happen might be a beast flood from the sudden influx of pure, unfiltered Celestial Energy.

In fact, it might even be a boon for the mortals, as the unfiltered energy would mutate beasts, plants, and minerals alike, giving birth to powerful treasures — powerful by mortal standards, at least.

As for the construct itself, once the Firmament sealed itself, it would cut off its connection to its controller on the wreck. Who knew? Maybe, one day, some lucky mortal would stumble upon the construct's remains and use its secrets to break through the Firmament, journeying to Lian Peng's moon as countless others had before them.

A mortal finding such a 'Fallen Star' and using it to skyrocket themselves into immortality was a story as old as cultivation itself. Even his own grandfather, a man who remembered when there were twelve planets under the Grand Firmament, had grown up on such tales.

He didn't even have to worry about the possibility that the controller might be on the construct itself. Any living thing that returned to a mortal world would suffer the wrath of that planet's Firmament. Not even the Warden could survive that fate, let alone a random barbarian, no matter how much of a fight they had put up.

Yes… the more he thought about this, this was about as close to a 'perfect' ending as he could imagine. Lian Peng would best all the tools and tricks of the mysterious invaders, returning home with treasures and the secrets of a new Path. All the while, some lucky mortal in the mortal world he was in charge of would find what remained of the construct and, in time, rise to join them, adding their own experience to the secrets they had gathered.

Why, it was just a story out of a novel, wasn't it?

Ha! Lian Peng was seeing the appeal of it all. Maybe he would pick out a recent novel after this was all done?

Maybe that new one he'd heard his staff go on and on about, something about a Mage Golem who'd gained sapience and went around causing chaos and destruction with his insane shenanigans?

Hmmm, maybe that one was a little too… unrealistic. But it sounded fun.

With a newfound drive, Lian Peng poured more and more Celestial Energy into his attack, driving back the opposing beam before it bent and wobbled. Then, with cracking sounds that seemed strange for pure energy, it shattered.

Unobstructed, Lian Peng's Origin Flame slammed into the construct's energy shield. The construct and its shield smashed into Relictus' Mortal Firmament. As it pressed against the Firmament, spiderweb cracks spread along its length for dozens of miles. Lian Peng gave a final 'push,' and a large hole opened up in the Firmament with the sound of breaking ice.

The Origin Flames roared, sending the construct plummeting toward the planet's surface with renewed speed. When it hit, the planet seemed to shake, and a massive crater, a quarter mile wide, formed in what appeared to be a region of kaleidoscopic grassland.

Exhausted, Lian Peng's Avatar sputtered again, then evaporated in a swirl of flames, taking the Origin Flame with it. Though he was nearly drained, Lian Peng could still feel sparks of that blue-gold flame swirling through his [Divine Soul], along with what remained of [Marici's Final Flame]. Even if someone were to swoop in and steal his hard-earned spoils, his victory alone left a smile on Lian Peng's face.

If the several huge energy signatures rushing his way from the Lunar base were any sign, though, he wouldn't have to worry about that. His people must have thrown up the alarm as soon as his [Divine Avatar] had manifested; interplanetary teleportation was expensive, but there were clauses for its use.

Lian Peng breathed deeply the lingering Celestial Energy surrounding him and turned his eyes back toward the mortal world. To his surprise, the construct had survived planetfall, though not without damage, it seemed. And just as planned, it remained unmoving, its connection seemingly cut.

As he watched the mortal Firmament re-close, he bowed, a cupped wing gently placed in the other, and thought of his hypothetical junior.

"Good luck, my future friend, whoever you might be. May this gift I give to you bring you as much fortune as it once brought me. May you rise on wings of your Truth into the Light of Immortality, and may you, one day, uplift another as you have been."

Lian Peng recited the traditional words that marked the passing of a treasure from one person to another. It was old-fashioned, true, and it had lost its meaning to the younger generations, but Lian Peng found it fitting.

The Mortal Firmament sealed itself back up as if it had never been broken.

And like that, the fight was over.
 
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SUPER AWESOME MEGA FUN TIME NEWS!
SUPER AWSOME MEGA FUN TIME NEWS!

All the Chapters have been Edited!!! And some Retcon info!
... well, all the MAIN chapters.

And not professionally, but just using 3 AI Editors to crosscheck each other.
YOU KNOW WHAT?! I SPEND 50 HOURS ON THIS!! Its good dang it! QAQ.

In all seriousness though, all the Chapters (and future Chapters) should be looking a A LOT nicer now.
By using 3 AI editors, I was able to compare and cross reference them to catch things the others didn't. It took a LOT of work and my brains fried, but I honestly thing it was WORTH IT.

Seriously, if you've got the time, go back and read them again. I bet you'll be surprised at how better most of them are! (;;>.>... 7 might be a little rough still, but the AI won't stop yelling at each other...).
The only exception to this is the "Bonus" chapters (Military Service, etc etc).

The Formatting on these don't let me really edit them well with the AI, so I'll have to leave them for later. I wanted to focus on the "Main" chapters. The rest will probably get done sometime, but only when i have time.

======================
THAT BEING SAID; I took the time to Recton a few things

Divine energy --> Celestial energy : This one just makes a bit more since, as Celestial energy is used by more than just Cultivators, but only Cultivators are called Divinity.

Laws --> Truths : All Instances of "Laws" in relation to Cultivation should now be "Truths" instead. The primary reason for this will become apparent later on in the story.

Lastly All Skills, Spells, Techniques, and Items etc etc should now follow [This] format now. This should be true for all "proper" names of such things. This is NOT true for the names of Living things or generic names

So 7-Radiance Spirit Grass won't follow this format, but [7-Radiance Grass Tea] would.

Flying sword would not be, but [Dragon-Slaying Abyssal Flying Sword] would.

THE SAME APPLIES TO ALPHA'S TECH! Simply "drones" won't be. But [Bot-Fly] or [Skyfisher] should. Etc etc
This is an organizational technique I'm trying out, tell me if it looks out of place later!

That's all for now, Thanks for reading everyone!
NOW GO RE-READ EVERYTHING! HAHAHAHAHA!
 
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