Interstellar Age

Erich knew very little about the Maw, meanwhile Daelia seemed to know quite a bit about it. There was no doubt that she was withholding information from him regarding this matter. But it was also not something he could force out of the woman.

And since there was no guaranteed proof that the Maw would be returning to the Milky Way, Erich could only focus on the threats that were confirmed. Which came in the form of the Naraku, and their future invasion of the galaxy.

During the following years, Erich would work together with Daelia to improve the military strength of their two nations. While simultaneously cooperating with Mala so that she united what remained of the Orc clans beneath her banner.

The Iron Horde was quickly established once more, with Mala as its war chief, who had sworn an oath of vassalage to the Germanic Star Empire. And in doing so received significant gains in terms of weapons, armor, and warships for her people to make use of.

At the same time, Erich once more began his breeding program, for the most hardened, accomplished, and genetically pure of his veterans to take Orc wives, which would foster an entire new generation of Officers, and NCOs, among the Iron Horde. In doing so, this would organize the Orcs from nomadic raiders into a proper functioning military.

Meanwhile, Ayumi continued to develop her powers as a Star God, her need to consume the energy of celestial bodies become less and less frequent as the years passed. And as the frequency of such needs become less frequent, so too did her power sky rocket.

Combined with Tia’s training programs. Ayumi quickly became more efficient at controlling and wielding her powers. So much so that she was no longer a potential threat to the Germanic Star-Empire and its worlds.

This meant that she could once more live long term within the Palace on Earth, which had a particularly affectionate reunion with her family. Speaking of which, enough years had passed by now that Erich’s children with Erika, Ayumi, and S’aleth were now full-grown adults.

Kurt had entered the Star Marine Corps and quickly ascended through its ranks to become a young general of some renown. Though he was the Crown Prince of the Empire, in the Military he had no such special status. Instead, the boy went through the same exact training standards and promotion conditions as anyone else would.

Meanwhile, the boy’s half-sister Aiko had returned to the Great Oni Empire, where she was groomed by her grandmother, Yumi to be her successor. The reason for this was simple: Ayumi had evolved beyond the state of governing a minor galactic power. But her daughter not only contained the royal blood of the Kondo Dynasty in her veins, but she also contained the royal blood of the Jaeger Dynasty as well.

This meant that while Aiko was a blight in the eyes of the traditionalists within the Kondo Dynasty, she was considered a strong link between the Great Oni Empire and the Germanic Star-Empire from the perspective of the Matriarch and her supporters. Something which held a significant amount of renown among the younger generation of Oni, who saw the Germanic Star-Empire as a powerful protector of their people.

S’aleth’s daughter S’hareth had also returned to the land of her Mother’s birth. She became a prominent politician among the Dvrakian Consortium, despite her mixed heritage, and eventually became the Chancellor of her people. Where she reorganized the Consortium from a loose collection of independent worlds to an imperial power which bowed to her dynasty.

Finally, there was Mirage’s child, which was the youngest of her half siblings. Unlike Kurt, who was considered a normal Germanic male, Mirage wanted to make up for her previous prejudice towards mutants, by having her child resemble both of her parents.

Mirage’s daughter, who was named after her paternal grandmother Krista, had a mixed appearance between Erich and Mirage. With silver hair and red eyes. After all, Mirage had long since discarded her original body, in favor of the blue hair and red-eyed variant that Erich seemed to favor.

As for Krista, she had quickly entered the Imperial Intelligence Services upon reaching adulthood, and had risen through its ranks to become the youngest director in the Empire’s history. While she managed the internal intelligence of the Empire, rooting out criminals, terrorists, and other such enemies of the state. Her mother managed her own secret intelligence agency, which focused on monitoring extra galactic activity.

The next generation of Erich’s bloodline had risen to areas of supreme prominence within the empire, and their mothers’ respective domains. This was, of course, accomplished entirely by their own merit, with Erich himself providing little if any support once they had entered adulthood.

And because of this, the future was starting to look like it wasn’t such a bleak eventuality after all. That is, of course, assuming that the Milky Way survived the upcoming conflict with the Naraku, and whatever may come afterward.

—

Of course, while Erich was making preparations for this future war, his enemies were doing the same. In the decades following Erich’s surprise attacks on Andromeda, the Naraku Empress of the neighboring galaxy had recuperated her losses.

Not only this, but she had begun conspiring with the Empress of another galaxy, which bordered the Milky Way to plot a joint invasion. A plot which Erich had yet to fully discover. With each passing day, millions, if not billions, of Naraku were hatched in preparation for this invasion. And the hatred which the Andromeda Empress had in her heart towards the Milky Way grew further.

So many of her children were killed in the wake of Erich’s surprise attack. And to this day, she still had no idea what she would be walking into. Or whether or not her invasion would succeed. All she had was decades old information, which could not be relied upon for the day her invasion came.

Worse yet, she continued to receive word that any attempt to send agents into the Milky Way was quickly discovered by the locals, and eliminated. Because of this, she was fuming at the moment, while screaming to her subordinates.

“Just what the hell is going on? Why can’t we penetrate the Milky Way’s defenses and land at least one of our probes into the galaxy? What the hell are the seers doing at this time? Have they stilled not determined what kind of enemy we are up against?”

One of the Empress’s bodyguards, which was an insectoid with an anthropomorphic form like herself, was quick to respond to his master’s worries. There was a bit of hesitancy in his voice, as he knew the fate of those that disappointed their empress, but he also knew he needed to speak the truth on the matter, and thus did so, despite knowing what would happen to him.

“I’m afraid, your highness, that the Seers can’t see into the future regarding our invasion of the Milky Way. It would appear that whoever is scheming against us is also a seer. Which, as you know, means that their abilities cancel out the abilities of our own seers. And vice versa.

There is simply no way to tell what will happen when we finally invade the Milky Way in the near future. I’m afraid we must be prepared for the worst possible scenario….”

The empress did not take this news lightly, and instead reacted to it by attaching her mandibles to the head of her bodyguard, and crushing it with the overwhelming strength of her bite force. Thus killing her servant on the spot, and in doing so sending a warning to the other bugs in her nest.

“Do better!”