Interstellar Age

For quite some time, Tia had been sending probes into deep space in search of signs of those galaxies which were infested with Naraku, or currently under assault by their devouring swarm. And until now, she had received no reports from these probes.

This could have been the case for a variety of reasons. After all, traversing anywhere other than the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the various dwarf galaxies which revolved around them was still largely experimental from the perspective of the Milky Way.

But… Today was different. After several decades of sending probes into deep space towards the coordinates which roughly associated with distant galaxies. Tia finally received word from one of many sent to the Triangulum Galaxy.

The probe had not just entered the Triangulum galaxy and began to record its findings. No, it traversed as significant as the neighboring galaxy over the spans of ten, if not twenty, years.

The reason it had not reported back to Tia during this time was because it had come under repeated assaults from the natives, thoroughly disabling many of its features, including its deep space transponder.

However, after surveying the Triangulum Galaxy for nearly twenty years, and surviving all of the attacks upon it. The deep space probe returned mostly intact to the Milky Way. Alerting its master to its presence, even if it was not capable of making the journey back to Germania, where it had first launched in the years preceding the Empires’ reclamation of Earth.

Because of this, Tia quickly dispatched a salvage vessel, operated entirely by robots beneath her command, to collect the probe and return it to Earth. Naturally, the device was properly quarantined and scanned in the event that it had been tampered with, or booby trapped in some ways.

Once all signs revealed, the probe was safe to interact with. Tia still cautiously approached it, going so far as to isolate a portion of her consciousness from the remainder of the galaxy spanning network, which kept her active.

Her main consciousness would have no idea what it discovered in the probe, until it was deemed safe by the other party that they should re-merge, an action which only the primary consciousness could execute upon confirming that it was indeed safe herself.

And thus she waited. Until finally, enough safety protocol had been passed to continue with the merger. Once Tia had merged the two parts of her consciousness, she froze. Not in the way in which a computer would freeze when a virus had taken it over.

But more in the way a human being would when confronted with terrifying information. And that information was none other than the confirmation that Andromeda was not the only galaxy planning to invade the Milky Way.

Her probe had discovered many Naraku military installations within Triangulum, which Tia had processed over and over with all the knowledge she had about the Naraku. These military installations were meant for a single purpose: to invade the Milky Way Galaxy.

And judging by their progress, it was safe to say the invasion by Triangulum was being coordinated to occur at the exact same time as the one from Andromeda.

Facing the invasion force from another galaxy was a daunting task. One that Tia herself was not entirely certain of the victory of. But facing an invasion force from two galaxies, both of which were bigger than the Milky Way, only disaster could result from such a thing.

It was with this in mind, that she immediately dedicated a side processes to the construction of an ark like vessel that in the event of total defeat could allow Erich, his loved ones, and the most promising members of the Germanic race to escape from the Milky Way and try to re-establish themselves somewhere else off in the cosmos.

Hopefully, in doing so, they would be far enough away from the Naraku to give themselves time to prepare for the eventual invasion they would face, like the Milky Way had. Of course, Tia was not afraid to admit her finding to Erich, which was immediately what she did after setting up this side processes.

—

Erich had just successfully compelled the other Galactic leaders into bowing beneath his boot. His tyrannical presence had coerced them into for the time being accepting the existence of his military bases within their spheres of influence.

If all went as planned, they would act as staging points for after he defeated the Naraku and launched his attack on the weakened galactic powers.

There was just one problem with this plan, and Tia had come barging through his door with it.

“Master! We have a problem!”

Luckily for her, Erich was already done with his call between himself and the other galactic leaders, or he would be furious with the artificial intelligence. But because this had not been the case, he himself became quite concerned.

After all, it was unlike Tia to be so freaked out like this. And with this in mind, he was quick to demand an answer from her.

“What happened?”

Tia then spent a large span of time explaining everything she knew about her recent discoveries regarding the Naraku in the Triangulum Galaxy. To which Erich became quite silent for a long time. He thought through what exactly this meant to the galaxy, and what it meant to his future plans.

With a stern expression on his face, Erich finally interrupted the silence, while posing a question to Tia, one that would have a significant impact on the fate of the galaxy.

“Tell me honestly, Tia. Do we have a fighting chance?”

Tia sighed heavily. She knew that even if the chance was as low as 10% in terms of surviving such a catastrophic double invasion. Erich would stay and fight. It was simply in his nature to do so. Granted, she could easily clone him on board the ark if he failed. But she knew he would never truly accept running away with his tail between his legs.

That being said, she also knew that even if the chance of survival was below 10 percent, hell if the chance for survival was non-existent, Erich would still choose this fate. And thus, she was blatantly honest with him. Even if she wanted to lie.

“At our current rate of military buildup, the chance of the Germanic Star-Empire surviving, even in a minimal capacity, is less than 5% With that being said, assuming we pull a miracle out of our asses and win. The rest of the galaxy would be ripe for conquest, as most life would be extinct.

However, there is a possibility to increase the odds in our favor. Albeit an extremely dangerous one, one which I do not know the long-term consequences of….”