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Independence Day: Return of the Ancients


jesbro

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Continued from this with a few changes (seperate from Mogar's stuff unless Mogar specifies otherwise)

After Jesse got the second message from Maelstrom he knew they needed to move fast. "I don't think I have time to see the artifact."

 

"That bad huh?" Osman asked him.

 

"Maybe. I will try to be there when you show all of this to Emperor Johnathan and Empress Kara but until then I have something else I have to do."

 

"OK. Will remain here until you are ready to meet with them. "Good luck Jesse with whatever it is you need to do."

 

After they finally got back to Earth the first thing Jesse and Adria did was head up the mountain to where Maelstrom was. It had been a while since they last saw each other but these messages at that bad time made Jesse a little angry. "There had better be a good reason you made me come back here from an important meeting before it was done. What the heck is going on Maelstrom?!"

Edited by jesbro
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Maelstrom was coiled around the summit of everest, deep in meditation as Jesse arrived. 

 

"I have submitted my report to the homeland. My ancestors are coming here. The children of your ancestors, are coming here. Because I told them that now is a time the earth and its indigenous life is weak, disorganized, and in need of... a guiding hand." Maelstrom's eyes slowly opened as he gazed upon Jesse, lighting was arcing across his pupils between the sides of his iris. The old storm dragon was undoubtedly now fully awake.

 

"Winter is coming. You must prepare the earth for great darkness and cold if it desires to resist it. A winter unlike none other. A winter that may never end. That all depends on the outcome of, well, third contact. Your ancestors came, because they were looking for worlds like this. When they didn't respond to my ancestors, they sent me to find out what happened. When I discovered this world was ready and what we were looking for, I created turmoil upon it and sent a report home. Now, the Armada arrives. The Empire, is coming." 

 

"If they encounter resistance, this world will be under siege. The solar system it lies in will be blockaded. It will occur in ways humanity cannot even fathom that exploit the tactical and strategic elements of this system in ways never before conceived by man."

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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OOC: My final post for tonight

 

The look on Jesse's face went from anger to outright rage as Maelstrom said all that. He knew what needed to happen now. "So its going to be like that. After everything that has happened, after everything that we have done for each other. You are just going to stab us in the back without even a second thought. It is clear now that we should have blasted this mountain to hell and gone the moment you arrived and unless you are ready to have a change of heart that may still very well happen!" He looked back at Adria. "If you believe he may still have a change of heart and help us defeat them than fine but if not you will want to get as far away from here as possible because I will make sure he is the first one to die for betraying us like this!"

 

As Jesse left in anger Adria looked back at him with an angry but also sorry look. "How could you do this to us?! After everything we have been through and everything you taught me do we truly mean so little to you that you would stab us in the back like this?!"

 

Meanwhile as Jesse flew back to Shangri-La he contacted his good friend Emperor Johnathan. "I'm barely getting you Jesse. What is the situation?"

 

Jesse was still angry but managed to calm down a bit "Well it turns out Maelstrom really is a traitor and now his friends the "Ancient Dragons" are coming to "claim what is theirs and destroy us."

 

"Come again Jesse? Did you say ANCIENT DRAGONS?!"

 

"Confirmed Jon. Its time for the Winter Contingency. The one situation we feared the most."

 

"May God help us all."

 

Promo for what is to come (subject to change)

 

We knew this day would come

 

Jake: "When Maelstrom first arrived we detected a signal coming from his crashed ship heading for deep space but thought nothing of it."

 

 Jesse: "A distress call. That bastard set us up from the beginning!"

 

He helped us only to betray us.

 

Adria: "He taught almost everything I know. A lot more than our mother did."

 

Jesse: "It wasn't your fault. None of us saw it coming

 

Adria: "But I trusted him the most Jesse. I should have seen it coming."

 

But all hope is not lost.

 

Emperor Johnathan: "How many ships do we have left?"

 

Jesse: "Not enough. But this is our only chance."

 

For there will always be bravery when you need it most.

 

Jake: "We knew that eventually those our ancestors came from would find us. We knew we may have to fight them. But after seeing how powerful they are it is clear we were never going to stand a chance."

 

Jesse: "We didn't last time either against your father Henry and his forces but we beat him anyways. We convinced both Dragons and Humans to unite and work together when we joined Johnathan and the Imperium. That we would sacrifice for each other no matter what the cost! And I believe that is something worth fighting for!"

 

And Bravery can be the key to Victory 

 

Dragon Empire Leader: Your people will not last much longer without the light of your sun. Your final days are at hand!

 

Jesse: Maybe you are right. Maybe we can't win this. But we will fight you regardless! We will sacrifice and we will find a way to defeat you! It ends here!

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"Betray you?" Maelstrom shook his head. "They have technology unlike you have dreamed. They could bring advancements to this world that it would take millennia for it to get to on its own." He let out a sigh, "And I have left you and the Imperium to negotiate it all. How they react to you.. will partly be up to you. The question is, who will fire first. Don't judge so quickly. Their intent only seems obvious."

 

"You have no idea what their intent is yet. I only.. well, having been with humanity for so long, I have learned to expect the worst." He chortled.

 

Meanwhile.. aboard a ship whose name might be interpreted ISS Diamond, the Admiral of the Imperial Siege fleet was going over sensor readings of structures detected in the Sol system and its defense forces and the studies of its planets.

 

"Number three there, seems the hotbed of activity." Admiral Darlok intoned to Captain Tharg in their gutteral tongue.

 

"That appears to be the home world our agent has spoken off. The hydrogen content of this system is excellent, the star is young, and while the rest of the mass is still heavier elements it does have a lot to process. The system has an unbelievably common 8 major planetoids and an untold sum of smaller bodies including the debris field outside the 9th. Heliopause is as expected, negligible for such a small star. Most of the planets except the two gas giants should prove to be lighter than anticipated for the bulk of our service workers and civilian personnel, it truly is a gem of a system."

 

"And the life here?" Darlok asked.

 

"The science officer reports seem to indicate early fusion technologies, fairly primitive, but growing quickly as they just obtained their first AI. Thier communication technologies have far surpassed their others, including their medical sciences based on the open air radio broadcasts we have found in their system. They are a very warlike race, ascended from apex predators. Call themselves Humans. Pick at each other over the most trivial differences. First contact will likely be difficult for them."

 

Darlok nodded, "Take point on this encounter. Assume a position of strength and leverage. We need them to work with us but we need them to know the consequences if they do not."

 

Tharg nodded, "Yes, sir." He sent out a fleet wide command and contact operations began in earnest.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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"Well perhaps you should now start to expect the best from people." Adria told him. "I know Johnathan and Kara well. If your people try to be peaceful than we will more than likely try to be peaceful as well but if they threaten us with death and destruction than you can bet we will fight back. I know our leaders well. How well do you know yours?" 

 

Meanwhile as Jesse met with Jake and others at the Imperial HQ in Shangri-La he had calmed down quite a bit since he left the mountain. He was now in a conversation with Emperor Johnathan (although Jesse just called him Jon) using a hologram table. "What do you think about all of this Jon. As Emperor and Empress the final decisions for this come from you and Kara."

 

"Do you believe they are going to be hostile?" Johnathan asked him.

 

"I believe the right thing to do would be to treat them as friendly until they prove otherwise. Keep the defense fleet on high alert but don't do anything that would provoke an attack."

 

"If they really are dragons as well than I want you to take point on this Jesse."

 

"Jon. What are you asking me to do?"

 

"When they approach us for a diplomatic meeting I want you to be there as well. If we prove that we have dragons working well with humans here it might make things a lot better for all of us."

 

"Of course. Will let you know when they do send for a diplomatic envoy. Jesse out"

 

After the conversation was done Jake asked him what everyone else was thinking. "So what now?"

 

"Is the fleet ready? Do we have good enough defenses in case this does turn ugly?"

 

"The defense fleets for each planet are on high alert just like you asked and although we never really had a threat to test our newer defenses against they are all as ready as they ever will be."

 

"Good. I don't want this to turn into a war but if they try to do anything that will threaten any of us you can bet their will be one."

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Insertion

 

Phase 1: Establishing orbit.

 

Two large vessels the size of small moons gated in from outside the solar system into an orbital position roughly between Earth and Venus using what humans might one day would call a Higgs-Boson Field Distortion Drive or Intermediate Distance Wormhole Generator, massive emitters would power an electrical field that would literally peel apart space in front of the ship, the ship and normal matter/space around it would flow in to fill the void at the same rate the universe was expanding against the outer void, meaning close to the uninhibited maximum speed of light. Because the space/time fabric was being peeled apart and the ships were passing through the created envelope, the ships themselves passed undetected, but their wake left a moderate radiation trail. 

 

They came in at a tangent to the orbital path so that their inertia would slip them in right where they needed to be. The point of entry of the orbit was right at a spot between the core of the earth and the core of the sun on the ecliptic plain, a very important spot in the solar system. 

 

These super size vessels weren't warships. Technically, they were large scale terraforming facilities with multiple uses. The narrow end of the vessels pointed towards the earth, the larger ends toward the sun.Their shape gave the vague impression of a pine cone and whatever substance coated them appeared to absorb most light. They otherwise seemed relatively featureless. On the solar laboratories of earth that were pointed at the sun and sun-gazing satellites, they looked like a set of fairly sizable sunspots.

 

All around the core ships were several smaller vessels ranging from dreadnaught to frigate, destroyers, and fighters with some smaller patrol and recon craft that were escorting the larger vessels. This ships were shaped very similarly to the terraform vessels and colored much the same, absorbing much of the em spectrum they were very hard to detect other than as part of the sunspots on the observatories. 

 

They waited to see who would greet them.

 

Phase 2: Communication


Aboard the Diamond, which was one of the terraform vessels, Tharg began a communication with the people of earth. He spoke into a microphone which translated his voice. They would hear, creepily, the voice of Ronald Regan. This was a pattern the Dragonisians had synthesized from radio and television broadcasts that had been propagating through space.

 

"People of Earth. I am Admiral Tharg of the Dragon Empire. As a new species that rapidly is approaching the age of Inter-stellar Space Exploration, the pan-galactic council has appointed us as your overseer and temporary guardians. You are not alone.. in fact.. woefully opposite. The Universe is full of life. We have been evaluating your species and its worthiness to travel the stars and we have some serious concerns, that your morality and your wisdom have not kept pace with your technology based on our observations of your interactions and communications. We would seek to speak with your people, to determine if you are ready to join our community.. or to determine if you are a threat to civilized life. Please prepare your ambassadors. We will collect them from your capitols one standard earth rotation hence from this time mark. Our vessels will appear as meteors but will land gently on your streets leaving no damage or marks at their arrival. They will have two armed security and a cabin for your ambassadors for their return trip to our ships for the meeting and then after, to their homes again. We guarantee their safety so long as they cause no harm, and attempt no espionage. We await your reply. Nations failing to identify themselves and their capitols will risk a lack of representation at a time of key importance to the evolution and adaptation of your species to a new epoch of its being."

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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At first Jesse was a bit confused by the message about "multiple capitols" and stuff like that but once Jesse recognized they were trying to use Ronald Regan's voice he understood why. "They don't think things are much different now than they were when that message was sent almost 200 years ago. Boy are they in for a big surprise."

 

"Agreed." Johnathan said. "But there is one other problem. If Maelstrom had been telling them about us than why wouldn't they know things are a bit different now? The Imperial Capital is technically in Tokyo but we are no longer different nations besides the some different tribes still doing their own thing in Africa. Besides the tribes which we agreed to leave alone the Imperium is in control of not only the entire Earth but the rest of the Solar System as well."

 

"Well they said to send the leaders of the Earth. In that case it would be me, you, and Kara. I would represent the dragons already living here and you and Kara would represent the Imperium and everyone else."

 

"Sounds like a plan to me. Me and Kara will get on their meteor ship when it comes here to the Moon. And you will get on the one that goes to Shangri-La. Lets do this."

 

"Yes sir. But before I go there is one more thing I need to ask someone."

 

After getting Jesse's message Adria relayed the question to Maelstrom. "How much do they really know about us and what have you told them since you woke up? Things have changed during your "hibernation". We are a lot more united now than we were before you went to sleep. Do they actually know that because according to that message it seemed like they didn't?"

 

 

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Maelstrom smiled to Jesse, "You see, my being here was not treachery. I was simply a scout. I replied a long time ago that I successfully landed here and that this planet was habitable and had a higher form of life that may soon see space travel. They would have instantly dispatched the Armada upon receiving that communique because a species threatening to leave its system could disrupt the very carefully set up order that exists in the rest of the galaxy and disrupt trade.. purely by accidental mis-steps of first contact. This is the contact fleet. They will determine if humanity has come far enough to be entrusted to travel the stars." 

 

"Beyond that, when they began closing with this system they likely encountered your voyager craft sent so many years ago and have been picking up on the sights and sounds that Earth has been broadcasting carelessly for just over half a century now. They have seen humanity develop very quickly and as an old species that lets them know humanity is capable of maturing quickly and catching up. Lot of potential, but also a lot of danger in that. The worst part is, this has been perhaps your most violent century. You are going to have a lot to answer for. Hitler, Stalin, Mao Ze Dong. Just remember to keep pointing out that the good guys for the most part were victorious and that pluralism for the most part prevailed over hatred."

 

"As for the last communique. Let us just say that had I not replied.. the earth would already be basked in molten lava from an out-of-system in origin, hyper velocity spinal mount rail gun shot that would have struck the earth at speeds approaching a third of that of light. They were asking if I were alive, or had been slain. That woke me from my meditation, because.. well, I have a chip in my brain that forces the reply so I don't inadvertently get a species killed. They were also using that chip to check and see if my biological functions had in any way been impaired or if I was in distress. Fortunately, that all checked out okay so they verified the report as... accurate. I told them to hold the shot, to investigate, that it wasn't as bad as it looked and that is all I told them. I gave humanity a chance. Good luck."

 

 

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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"You got all of that Jesse?" Adria told him through their comms as Jesse entered what they were calling the meteor transport ship

 

"Yea I did. So as long as we keep peaceful there should be no problems but just in case I want you to stay with Maelstrom for now. If he gets any messages from his fleet, especially ones that would be bad for us. You let me know."

 

"Yes. But what if the comms don't work while you are up there?"

 

"Then tell Jake. He will be in charge until me, Jonathan, and Kara get back."

 

Jesse then entered the meteor transport ship and prepared for the journey to the Flagship of the Dragon Empire Fleet. The whole ride there Jesse couldn't get a bad feeling out of his head. He did believe what Maelstrom said about the Dragon Empire wanting peace with them and making sure they could do well with the rest of the galactic community but he couldn't help but feel like someone had it out for them. That the leader of the fleet had plans of his own which could end up leading to all out war.

 

Meanwhile Emperor Johnathan and Empress Kara entered their transport as well. They felt a lot better about this than Jesse did but they also knew that it may not end well if they were threatened in any way for even if they did they knew the rest of the humans and dragons that lived there would rise up and fight back against this Dragon Empire. "I really hope we are doing the right thing here Jon." Kara said to her husband.

 

"I know we are. Look, I really don't think they flew 90 billion light years to come down here and start a fight."

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OOC: This huge wall of text post was writen by me and Maelstrom at the same time. Enjoy! 

 

Aboard the flagship, Tharg was enjoying his field promotion to acting Admiral of the contact fleet. The Albino Dragonisian however, was greatly concerned. The last catalog they had of information from this world prior to their arrival here had some 200 different nations and distinguished cultures. And now this world was down to a handful. They had few locations to send drop pods, as so few replied. He studied the map of the world that had been intercepted from one of the Earth's communications satellites as it was relayed across the global internet. It had changed significantly in just two decades and there were reports of major recent wars and conquests by many faction. This one remaining, called the Imperium, appeared to have been the major victor.. while other nations fell to nuclear ruin. Still yet, the radiation from the great exchange between Druk Yul and the Persian Empire floated in the atmosphere.. as well as the attacks in Europe. This world had been a hot bed of conflict.

 

But for the last century things were different. By the year 2025 the war was over and Imperium controlled the world. For the next 125 years there was peace. The very peace many had died for.

 

Meanwhile, on the earth, projectiles shaped like stretched eggs entered the atmosphere on course to the responding nations. They landed carefully and awaited their cargo. On board, two marines waited. They looked like dragons in complex mechanized augmentation suits, but they were only the size of men. What their diminuitive stature may not tell their guests, is that they were normally over 30 feet tall and even now, weighed tons. Due to special fields within the suits, the spaces between their atoms had been reduced and they had been compressed to these forms. The suits were all black, constructed of some dense carbon plating. It is hard to tell how they would see outside their own armor. They seemed to lack any eye holes or optics, face plates were smooth and oblong to cover the dragon's horns and muzzle.

 

The Surface of one of the face plates vibrated, they heard a voice in the language native to their region, "Please, get in. They are waiting our return."
Jesse would be the one entering the pod on Earth. Since he and the other dragons didn't seem to age at all during the last 125 years he kept his position as leader of Druk Yul and after joining the Imperium he was made the leader of the entire Imperial Asian region and eventually became the most powerful person on Earth second only to Emperor Johnathan and Empress Kara.

 

"My name is Jesse. I am pretty much the leader of Earth second only to the Imperial Emperor and Empress themselves." he said to the two Dragonisian marines.

 

"I am Sergeant Skrall, my partner is Attendant Nrekk. Please fasten yourself into the restraints for safety. The rapid exit of your atmosphere will take us to several fold your planet's gravitational strength as you may know from your own nation's space ventures. On board inertial dampeners will partly dampen the effect, but are not as strong as on our primary vessels. Also, we ask you follow our instructions precisely. The first of which, is to wear this augmented reality visor." He offered the visor to Jesse.

 

Jesse took it and put it on. He was not new to helmets like that given HUDS where built into Imperial Military helmets as well. So far the part that really amazed him was their suits and how it made them smaller than they really were.

 

"Full disclosure. Our ships interior exists in more than 3 dimensions. To stay on board one for any sustained duration of time one must be specially trained in order to remain sane or have naturally adapted to such environments. You have not yet. This will keep you from going nuts. It also will keep you from seeing anything that may put you, your species, or us at risk. You will see our ship as it is now, and only now."

 

"Also, one of our ships temporal drives failed on a standard patrol with one of our sub-species on board. We apologize in advance for the Roswell incident and rumors of reptillians taking over your society for the past 16 or so decades."

 

"Don't want me to see anything that puts you at risk." Jesse said as he chuckled a bit. "Have to admit that is the first time someone directly said that to me."

 

"Your species had a an astronomer by the name of Nikolai Kardashev.. are you familiar?"

 

"Yea I've heard of him. Been a while since anyone mentioned that name." Jesse said

 

"We're about a class 2.25 Civilization by his scale, and rapidly improving upon that every day.." The rocket shuttered as they began their journey up. Skrall kept talking. "The things we keep on our vessel, especially in its internal state of temporal flux.. are not something for someone unadapted to that environment to be around. If you step to the wrong spot at the wrong instance and the parallel time lines happen to put an antimatter containment object there.. well.. it does no one in this system any good. We all go up. That's why you need this visor. It will make you aware of the actual corridor you are on at the moment you are walking, instead of being aware of what is going to happen before or after, just as your normal preception of time allows. On the other hand, for a radical improvement of our crew's efficient and tacitcal performance.. the ship's ai and most of the crew are aware of most possible instnaces of time ahead of us. For the sake of security, I will let you speculate how far we might see because we don't want you to know how many steps we might be ahead should the meetings go awry."

 

"Also, for security purposes, until you leave the ship. You'll find that you cannot remove the visor without rendering yourself unconcious."

 

"OK. Good to know" Jesse replied.

 

Nrekk, looked over to the Sergeant, "Can I blow his mind just a little? I love messing with the young ones." The voice sounded feminine. If it was at random or intentional is hard to tell giving their matching suits and the possibility it may have just been stolen from a tv series. In fact. It sounded disturbingly like Lucy from I love Lucy.

 

"Long as you keep it within security parameters Nrekk, I don't care what you say." It trilled.

 

A  computerized voice spoke for Jesse's information mostly, "5 minutes til arrival."

 

"So anything else I should know within the next 5 minutes?" Jesse asked them.

 

Nrekk looked to Jesse, "Just don't upset Tharg. He's got his head full since his promotion and his fate is sort of in your hands. That's the only real advice I can give you. But.. just have to ask, are you familiar with theories of Maintenance involving Temporal Aawareness?"

 

"Forgive Nrekk, they're an engineer." Skrall rumbled, "Can't keep from jabbering on about technobable."

 

Nrekk seemed to snort, muffled by their gear, "The last time I actually spoke to a species has been so long. This form of discourse is so, nostaligic."

 

"Yea sorry I'm not into the technobable much either. Although there is this one lady I know who is and honestly she would probably be thrilled if she came with me on this. However lets just say there are reasons why she couldn't." He was of course talking about Admiral Osman but they didn't need to know that.

 

Skrall looked to Jesse, "You were concerned for her and wanted her to stay withour scout in case things went south, completely understandable." How did he know that?

 

"No I was actually talking about someone else. The one with "your scout" is there for a different reason."

 

Nrekk stated, "Sad your friend could not come. If they were important enough to be considered, they had to have been someone special to your people."

 

"Oh she is special. But lets just say the stuff she does is too important to even bring her here away from her work. If all the stuff you say about how far advanced your technology is true than you would probably already know who I was talking about. However if you don't I would prefer to keep it that way."
Skrall engaged the personal filters on Jesse's visor and Jesse could now see both Skrall and Nrekk even though their suits were still on. Skrall was a black scaled dragonisian with burning red eyes, and apparently came from a family where horns and crests where common. Nrekk on the other hand, was navy blue in color and her eyes were a green jade and her skin leathery rather than scaley. Nrekk smiled, "Some of us know more than others."

 

Jesse smiled. "And yet even you don't know everything." Jesse said as his eyes glowed light red for a second before returning to normal.

 

The soft sound of a thunk was heard as the ship landed in its bay.

 

The door would lower. "Watch your step."

 

Jesse exited the craft and felt a breeze waft over him. He found himself in a beautiful white room that was mostly featureless except for some frond plants. Then it began to dawn on him. This looked like a dancing hall from a cruise ship on earth.

 

A few moments later a computer would chime, "Anomalous DNA and biochemical field detected. This life form is not human."

 

Jesse chucked as he thought to himself "Yea and it took them this long to realize that. Not as smart as they think."

 

Skrall and Nrekk looked to each other and then looked to Jesse with a head tilt.

 

Another chime would go off moment slater, "Ship's infectious disease control functions optimized. Life form and its biochemical field are no longer contagious with the threats present on its person. It is safely admittable."

 

"Welcome aboard me, Jesse." The Computer would chime in. "Nice to meet you. All these announcements are for your information and convience to remove any insecurities you have about your boarding. Please simply mention any concerns."

 

Jesse continued to smile. "As I said even you don't know everything but at least your AI does. For now just know that we are not so much different as you might think."

 

"Assertions confirmed. Comparison to genetic database indicates you are a Dragonisian Forerunner. Your survival merits our deepest respects. Tharg will be very interested to know of this anomaly."

 

"Oh I'm sure he will." Jesse said under his breath. He was beginning to like them a bit more but he still did not fully trust their leaders. Hopefully this meeting would change that.

 

A projection appeared on the deck before Jesse. It was of a small cat-like pseudo dragon. Alarmingly disarmignly cute. It looked to Skrall nad Nrekk. "By Tharg's orders, escort this one to the conference room."

 

Skrall picked up the little avatar of the critter, though only a projection it seemed tangible enough and seemed to pet it. "The ship you are in is a sentient being, please treat it with respect. Imagine how you would feel if you had someone walking inside of your body." Skrall chortled. "Also, many of the interfaces operate on sensoral luminesence fields. The AI is tuned to feel your interaction with it just like someone touched your skin, so.. don't bang on the consoles. Or it might get angry."

 

They began to lead him down a white, featureless hallway. The temperatures seemed maintain in a comfortable mid-70s in farenheit. A tropical like breeze wafted through the halls. If Jesse weren't miles above the planet he would swear he was on a beach. These guys really did travel in style. Or was it all simple illusion?

 

Jesse's mind did note the environmental conditions but he remained focused on the task at hand. He did not disrespect the AI at all. In fact so far the ship was his favorite out of all of them. It was their leader Tharg he still didn't trust. He hoped that would change.

 

They entered the conference room. Everything, again a flat white. But there were.. windows? And out it, a sea-side view of the Atlantic as if it were taking around the North-Carolian to Georgia coasts around the North Americas in mid july? Humans ran and played on the beach. The sounds of music wafted inside. On the far wall, three distinct sets of monitors. Past, Present, and Future they were labeled. The past had obvious events from human history. The Present had ongoing events including the arrival of Jesse in the room. The future was mostly black. Yet that was the one that Tharg seemed to obssess over. 

 

Jonathan and Kara appeared next to Jesse in the same room without Jesse's awareness.. as Skrall and Nrekk left.

 

Before them in a white uniform that matched the room decorated wtih many decorations similar to what earth humans might wear was the Dragonisian Admrial tharg. His pink albino eyes still not diverted to them, but facing those empty black screens.

 

"How do you like the many to one doors?" Tharg didn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular.

 

"They seemed... interesting to say the least." Jesse said to him.

 

"The technicalities of it are interesting, but you're not interested in those. Please, all of you, have a seat."

 

They all sat down as instructed. Emperor Johnathan and Jesse were both focused at the task at hand yet Jesse couldn't help but notice Kara was trying to hide the fact that deep down she was a bit frightened. However he could not tell what it was about.

 

"First things first.. we need to get a few things out of the way. Before this meeting proceeds, we all need to be in a sound state of mind." He gestured at Kara, "This one is not."

 

Tharg sat down at the end of the table while staring at Kara for a few moments. "I already know your concerns. You should be gracious and inform your peers. Otherwise, this may not go well. An open dialog between all, is important."

 

Johnathan already knew she didn't trust them because of the conversation they had before they got onto the transport. However after she looked over at Jesse with a worried look he understood it as well. She was scared for her people and in a way he was as well. "She is fine." Jesse would say. "She just has the same concerns we all do."

 

He looked to Johnathan. "Then voice them." Tharg seemed to be getting slightly agitated. Mostly due to the fact he's not accustomed to communicating this way. It is extraordinarily slow and cumbersome for him.

 

Jesse gave him a nod and then Johnathan spoke the truth. "You come here from across the galaxy with ships and big weapons so hopefully you would understand it if we don't yet fully trust you."

 

"Ships yes. How do you know we have weapons?" Tharg tilted his head. "Perhaps tools would have been a better choice of words?"

 

"How do we know you don't?" Jesse would say. Not holding back what he was thinking anymore. "How do we know you are not hiding them? Sure you come saying you want peace but how are we supposed to know that is not some trick. Believe me there have been others who have offered us peace in the past but in the end they only brought war. If you know all about us as you claim to than you should know that as well."

 

He smiled at Jesse, "Who were those others though? There is a distinct difference from them.. and those you are talking to, isn't there?"

 

"After all I have been through I'm not so sure there is."

 

"Which part are you referring to? I don't seem to feel the same way." Thrag inquired.

 

"Dragons in general." Jesse said. "Sure your "scouts" were ok at first. Even got me to trust him. But in the end everyone seems to have ulterior motives for what they do. I'm just trying to figure out what your's is."

 

"Typical pre-warp species thought processes. Paranoia and misunderstanding, always second guessing the purpose of routine scouting activities. Our scout was merely surviving on your very inhospitable world that spent several decades hunting and attempting to exterminate him. In the mean time, correct me if I am wrong, he helped set up the framework you inherited for this unprecedented age of peace you are experiencing... but had to hand off the negotiations to you because of the paranoia of the humans on the planet."

 

This is where Johnathan stepped up. "Well if you know all about our history and "thought processes" than you would know there is a very good reason for that paranoia!"

 

"If you want us to be friends than we can be friends." Jesse told Tharg. "But you can't just expect us to believe everything you say just because you say it."

 

Tharg stood and quietly walked to the window. "I know your history.. but not your reasons. You're expecting me to bring my thought procesess back several centuries. Remember, that I can always see the intentions of my peers. You still live in darkness. I don't know what it is like to live in doubt of another's intentions. I know yours. You want to go to space. You want our help. You want peace. But I am sensing a depth of paranoia that is found almost universally in all species about to make the leap beyond the borders of their own system. And what I am here to assess his how deep that paranoia is. So far, this discussion has not been promising."

 

"How many of you here are related to my ancestors?" He asked them mainly out of kindness and retrospection.

 

Johnathan looked at Jesse and nodded then Jesse told him. "Out of the 3 of us only one." Jesse said as he transformed into his red dragon form. "But across the system there are a lot more of us."

 

"Why do you take their form?" He pulled something similar to an earth Cigar out of his pocket and quietly lit and began to smoke it. However, unlike tobacco or cannibis, this particular smoke was genuiely healthy clearing his airways, revitalizing his lungs. Whether or not the cigar was even real was probably a question they all might have on thei rmind given the interface they have with their current environment. "Why do you run around looking.." He gestured outside to the humans on the beach before shapeshfiting himself into looking like a human, startlingly similar to Fidel Castro. "Like them?"

 

Jesse smiled. "Because it makes them more comfortable. Because unlike you we actually care about those you would seem to consider a "lesser species". Sure we may not have always gotten along well but now we are united in our struggles in this system. We are united against any and all threats both foreign and domestic. And if you threaten us in any way you can bet we would be united against you!"

 

"Why do you have the impression we do not care? There we go again.. threats. Is this all your people know?" He gestured to the past montiors and a global history of world leaders engaging in tribailistic discussion about uniting against the threat filled his screen. Everyone from Hitler to FDR to more recent figures, even his own scout. "It is a pity how low your people brought him merely to survive."

 

As Jesse looked at the screen he would give a worried look until he saw Maelstrom. He then remembered the warning Maelstrom gave him before they even arrived. He remembered the feeling after his mother died about how something bad was coming and indeed he knew all those warnings were true. He looked back at Tharg and answered. "No. If anything he is better than you will ever be. He understood what people need to do to survive. Before we came here he gave me a warning. That winter was coming and that we would need to do everything we could to protect our people and stop it. I think now I finally know what your ulterior motive is. You might say you care about us but so far if what you have said means anything it is that you don't care about us at all and only about how you can exploit us for your own gains!"

 

Tharg seemed genuinely confused and reverted back to his dragon form. "For your information, we are explicitly forbidden from harming this system unless it is deemed a galactic threat and our communications are even now being monitored. My motives are irrelevent."

 

"No." Jesse said. "All motives are relevent. And what they are could be the difference between survival and death."

 

Tharg looked at Jonathan and Kara. "You have both been very quiet. Does this one speak for you?"

 

Johnathan answered. "At first there was a bit I wanted to say but so far Jesse has voiced all of our concerns truthfully and accurately. How do we know you are not just going to try and use us for your own gains instead of for the good of the galaxy. If what you say is true than I would be much more interested in talking with this Pan-Galactic Council than I would be talking to you."

 

"That is possible, but we need to eliminate a few other obstacles to that possibility. Why is it that you are uncomfortable with my egg brother in his native state on your world? Why is it he feels compelled to take this form to make your people comfortable?" It is important to note that as he asked this question, images of the KKK, ISIS, and other notorious racial hatred groups would appear on monitors. "This is our concern."

 

"Because unlike those radical evil groups he actually cares for the people on this world." This time it was Johnathan speaking but he agreed with what Jesse said. "All they cared about was hurting and killing as many people as possible and while Jesse says Maelstrom was worried about that at first he learned that there were some of us who didn't want to hurt him because he was different."

 

Jesse finally understood the truth to what Maelstrom had said to him. "Because Maelstrom is not evil. Because we will do whatever we can to protect him and his family. Just as I am sure he would do the same to protect us. He is my friend. And I really hate it when people say bad things about my friends." Jesse said as his eyes glowed a bit more red.

 

"Your small group here is not my concern." Tharg observed, not at all disturbed by Jesse's red eyes. "Your rage is not merited. The reason for my inquiry is a relatively simple one. If your species still is unable to allow a Dragonisian to roam its streets unfettered, how will it react to the shock of a multi-racial intergalactic system. These groups are racist wtihin their own species, which is absurd.. and such tendencies I would think are hard to root out. How will such a society fare among the stars among a diverse population?"

 

"You would be surprised." Johnathan said to him. "The Imperium is open to working with other species across the galaxy just as you say they are already open to working with each other."

 

"We would like evidence your society is ready. We have a relatively simple lithmus test if you are willing to abide it." He looked to Jesse. "Go home and don't change form. Walk among their streets. Show us you are ready. To clarify, show us you are part of the 10% possible outcomes from this world that are genuinely altruistic."

 

Jesse had a confused look on his face. "So all you want me to do is go back to Earth and walk around in my dragon form like I have no care in the world? That's it?"

 

"Down a major human city street.... go shopping. Show us you can live your day to day life in that shape without a care in the world. This test will last a month. At that point, we will assess the results and reconvene. Until then, you will not see this fleet move from its position on your solar observatories."

 

The Diamond's AI materlaized queitly on the table next to Tharg in its pseudodragon state and hopped into tharg's arms where it was quietly petted and began to kneed against the admiral's arm. Diamond purred, "I hope they prove me wrong. They rarely do."

 

"As you wish." Jesse said.  "I will prove you wrong and we will be back here a month from now. Good day." Jesse said before he, Jon, and Kara left the room together this time.

 

Diamond observed, "They really do not like you."

 

Tharg shrugged, "Few like being tested and judged. We knew this was a posisble reaction. I hope they do not take it personally."

 

"For some reason I don't think this will be as easy as you think it will be." Jonathan said to Jesse on their way back to the transports.

 

"It will be unless they do something to interfer with it." Jesse replied. "Which is why you need to keep an eye on them this whole time. I still don't trust him."

 

Skrall and Nrekk would join the trio on their way out. "How'd it go?" Skrall asked.

 

Nrekk observed, "Seems inconlusive. They gave so many responses it's a bit silly."

 

"You have one interesting leader." Johnathan told them.

 

"One that I still don't trust." Jesse added. "Cant wait to see the look on his face when I prove him wrong."

 

"You have to realize he's a lot more complex than he appears. That room you were there.. isn't really laid out like that as you probably guessed." Skrall replied to Jonathan. Nrekk stood along side Jesse. "You don't have to tell me again. He's my ex."

 

Skrall looked at Nrekk incredulously, "You shagged the Admiral? He'd drive me nuts the way he knows things seemingly so far in advance."  Nrekk shrugged, "Guess that's how he charmed me by knowing exacatly what to say." Skrall snorted back at her, "Talk about an abuse of temporal mechanics."

 

"Just get us back to Shangri-La please." Jesse told them. "I have a big day tomorrow where I will do some shopping in my dragon form for all to see."

 

Nrekk sighed, "Yeah, I suppose I should have put him on report.. but.." Skrall blinked, "You still have feelings for the bastard!" They looked to Jesse, "Sure, we're taking a shuttle for 3 back since the three of you seem to be together."

 

Johnathan smiled. "I think this will be good for you Jesse. It been a while since you were last out in your dragon form."

 

Jesse gave him an angry look for a second and then calmed down. "Yea. Well at least this time there won't be a hundred bad guys trying to destroy me."

 

They got to the hangar and settled with their guests into their seats. As they were boarding Skrall chortled, "Don't trip over your talons when you are yourself again." he laughed.

 

"Don't make me want to use these talons to slit your throat." Jesse retorted.

 

The AI made one last brief appearance on the floor between his three guests, "Well met all of you. I hope you don't mind I borrowed from the English dictionary.. we didn't know what accent you'd most be familiar with."

 

The tiny dragon popped up and took all their visors off once they were all safely in the shuttle. If they looked outside the window the actual internals of the ship looked very strange. It appeared almost like an amorphous black void of energy that was constantly shifting.

 

"So Jon what will you be doing while I am out going shopping?" Jesse said with a small chuckle.

 

"Making sure no one tries to interfere with what you are doing. He seems really certain you are going to fail for some reason even given how things are right now and I want to know why."

 

The shuttle shuddered as it headed towards earth. Less than a minute later there was a re-entry warning.

 

"All I know is he is going to be in for quite the shock when I succeed and watch him eat his words." Jesse replied.

 

Skrall barked back, "He seems to think it's human nature. I hope you guys do not mind, but I and Nrekk have a bet going on you." Nrek noted, "As typical, I have bet against my former lover. The humans seem to learn fast, I can see them getting rid of all their xenophobia within 125 years..."

 

Jesse thought to himself "Yea. What I forgot to tell him is that almost have of the population of the Imperium are dragons now after all of the breeding with the humans and stuff like that."

 

Promo for what is to come:

 

Jesse has a big month ahead of him doing things normal humans would do but in dragon form.

 

Jesse: "If anything he is probably hoping this will be embarrassing. I swear when this thing is done I'm probably going to kill him."

 

Adria: "Oh it will be great Jesse. The people need to remember why you are leading them and how we are united with them."

 

Meanwhile the mystery about who killed the scientists in Singapore continues to unravel.

 

Jake: "Yea these scientists were definitely killed by a dragon. A really strong one."

 

And it is up to Jake and Adria to stop him.

 

Adria: "The thing this guy is looking for is on Ganymede Station. We need to go there and stop him before he gets what he wants!"

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As Jesse prepared for his day on the town in Shangri-La in his dragon form Jesse and his sister Adria talked about what was going on. "I still don't get what he is trying to make me prove. The fact that humans and dragons are already getting along should be enough."

 

"I agree." Adria said. "But it is understandable that he doesn't really believe it at first and so he needs to see it for himself."

 

"Yea but still it feels like he wants me to fail even though everything is pointing to this being a success. Half of the people in the entire Solar System are actually dragons now (not counting the Dragonisian Fleet) yet he still doesn't believe they will accept me in my true form."

 

"Again all he see's are dragons disguised as humans though. While they may not do it here on Earth as much many dragons do stay their dragon forms full time and during this test I am sure he will see just that. You think this might be embarrasing but believe me it won't be. The people will see you for what you really are and remember all the battles you fought in to help bring the peace we are all enjoying."

 

"Yea I guess you are right. Anyways do you remember your task with Jake?" Jesse asked her

 

"Yes. We are to continue our investigation into what happened to those scientists and find out if there is a connection between that and the arrival of this Dragonisian Fleet."

 

"I hope there isn't one but if there is than it may prove the reasons they are here are not as peaceful as they want us to think. And that is what worries me."

 

As Jesse went through his day in Downtown Shangri-La it was not as bad as he thought he would be. All around people (both humans and dragons) were actually smiling when they saw him. Many knew of the things he had done and there were enough pictures and video's of him in his dragon form that everyone still knew who he was and that he was always there to help them. As he entered a local grocery store and got his usual stuff the clerk did make a comment about it. "Been a while since anyone last saw you in your dragon form Jesse." She said to him. "What's the special occasion?"

 

"Because the leader of the alien fleet told me to." Jesse said to her. He want's going to hide anything especially since Emperor Johnathan told everyone the Dragonisian's were peacefu and wanted to see how dragons and humans really got along. He just didn't mention Jesse was at the center of that experiment.

 

"Really? That's it?" she asked. Now she was a bit curious.

 

"Yea. As Emperor Johnathan said, their leader just wants to see how good dragons and humans really get along so he wanted to see me out in my dragon form while not caring what anyone else thought about it."

 

"I see. Did you tell him that Humans and Dragons actually get along so well that now almost have of the people in the Imperium are those that can turn into a dragon like you when they want to?" she asked him.

 

"Didn't tell him the part about half the people in the Imperium actually being dragons but soon I think it will become much more clear to him. He wants to see if we would get along well with other races in an attempt to make us a part of the larger galactic community which consists of many other alien species."

 

"Well I know we would but there are still others who wouldn't. There are some who care about only dragons and others that care about only humans. It is up to the rest of us to show him we do care about others no matter what their race or species is."

 

Meanwhile Jake and Adria continued their investigation at the research base in Singapore to find out who brutally killed the scientists there and why. So far what they found did not change. "It is clear they were each killed by a dragon." Adria told him. "But it will be a while until the DNA tests come back so we can tell whether it was one strong dragon or more."

 

"That is not the part that worries me." Jake said. "The fact that this happened right as some huge Dragonisian Fleet showed up does not look good and we still don't know why he/she/they wanted these scientists dead."

 

"I do have a theory about that but we need to investigate some more before going there."

 

"What is it Adria?" Jake asked.

 

"What if it was someone who did not want this project to become a reality. Someone who did not want all humans to be able to turn into dragons like us?"

 

"If that is the case it is someone who apparently would go to all lengths to keep that from happening. Someone who we can't let that Dragonisian leader find out about."

 

"What are you saying Jake?" Adria asked him.

 

"I'm saying we need to figure this out on our own and in a way that does not interfere with what Jesse is trying to do. If what you say is true than Admiral Osman could be in danger and we need to make sure whoever did this can't get to her. Most humans and dragons do get along but there are some who would try to kill as much of the other race as they could. And those are the type of people that would put all of us at risk."

 

Meanwhile on Ganymede Station

 

A brown dragon walked up behind Admiral Osman and startled her while she was reading some research notes about the "Dragon Transformation Project".

 

"Hello Sarah." he said to her.

 

"Father?" she asked in shock.

 

"There are some things we really need to talk about." he said in an evil voice.

 

Promo for what is to come:

 

Everything is going well for Jesse so far

 

Jesse: "I feel great Jon. Even before you gave that speech I knew this was going to be a success. The people don't mind me in my dragon form and I believe the same could be said about anyone else who decided to walk around in their dragon form."

 

But someone threatens to tear that all apart

 

Admiral Osman's father: "The humans were not meant to become what we are Sarah! There is a reason we are stronger than them and trying to turn them into what we are will not change that!"

 

Now it is up to Jake and Adria to save her before it is too late.

 

Jake: "We need to save her and stop him. If we don't the entire Imperium is at risk!"

 

Will they save her in time?

 

Sarah Osman: Go now! Before it is too late!

 

Or will her father get what he wants?

 

Admiral Osman's father: "The guardianship of the galaxy and everything in it belongs to us dragons. And only dragons!"

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Meanwhile on the ground... Dragonisians walked in human form, now also walking around the Empire once named after them. They quietly inserted themselves into the lives of other professionals, mostly doctors. They would arrive in the night, beaming down to the surface with quantum teleportation and duplicating technology direct into the homes of said professionals and quietly put their families to sleep so they would not realize the day had passed or what was happening and beam them up to their ships. Then they would quietly slip into the lives of those individuals. The purpose?

 

Genetic sampling. They were gravely concerned with the alarming rate that dragons had appeared on this world's surface in the past several years and they were very concerned someone was tampering with its natural gene pool. They were also growing to be concerned that humanity may be starting a trend towards extinction. 

 

What Jesse did not realize, is not only was Tharg concerned for his own kind, he was concerned for the humans and the species was showing signs of potentially being in distress due to another reason, xeno-evolutionary dominance of a foreign predator. In summary, an alien species was starting to dominate a world of origin of a domestic species.

 

The Dragonisian doctors went about their stolen identities, unknowingly to the patients of these practitioners, quietly sampling the dna of every entity they came into contact with to perform a census summary study of the earth. Each major city on the earth would be represented in the census.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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Admiral Osman was a bit surprised to see her father there on the station. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

 

"I am here to prevent you from doing something that will put us all at risk. I am here to shut down your "Dragon Transformation Project"." He told her.

 

"Yea well you don't have the authority to do that and if you don't leave I will have no choice but to call the guards on you." She said as the same squad that the transformation worked on came in behind her father "And believe me there are reasons these guys were the first who went through it and survived."

 

He looked behind and gave an evil smile. "So these are the first humans you have transformed. I have to say they do look right but can they fight right?"

 

The dragon squad behind him dove at him but he beat them back with a tail whip. After that they each tried to attack him one on one but each time he was able to beat them and within a few minutes he was still standing and the squad were groaning on the ground. 

 

"Pathetic." he said as he stepped over their groaning bodies. "They may look the part but they are not true dragons."

 

"Well then maybe its time for me to prove you are not a true dragon either." she said as she transformed into a purple dragon and moved to do her own tail whip at him.

 

Meanwhile back on Earth Jesse had gotten home after a long day out on the town. The first thing he did after getting back to the Imperial Palace was contact Emperor Johnathan and told him how things went. "I feel great Jon. Even before you gave that speech I knew this was going to be a success. The people don't mind me in my dragon form and I believe the same could be said about anyone else who decided to walk around in their dragon form."

 

"That is good Jesse but we still have to remember not absolutely everyone we be that way." Johnathan told him. "Even before they arrived there have been reports about anti-dragon riots in some of the "no so good" cities and even anti-human ones as well but there are not quite as many of them."

 

"So just like what Tharg talked about there is more distrust with humans hating dragons than dragons hating humans." Jesse repied.

 

"Yes but again just about all of this is happening in the low income underdeveloped cities and not in the major ones. Although he won't admit it I believe the same could be said about the Dragon Empire as well. I am sure there are other races that do not like them as much."

 

"I'm pretty sure there are Jon but right now that is not our problem."

 

"See I have to disagree with you on that one Jesse. The fact that some of the other galactic races might hate them is relevant because it means we would not be the first to dislike them a bit. The fact there may be races a part of this Galactic Community that don't like them but can still work with them proves that there is nothing to worry about even if some don't like them."

 

"Are you saying you don't like them Jon."

 

"No Jesse that is not what I am saying. We can work with them. What I am saying is that they can't hold a whole race accountable just for the actions of a tiny minority. If they attack us because of that than we have a right to defend ourselves and the galactic community will see them as the attackers."

 

"I agree. Lets just hope it does not come to that." 

 

More of what is to come:

 

The battle between Sarah and her father is just heating up

 

Osman's father: "How can you defend the humans like this. You really think changing them will change how they feel about us?!"

 

Sarah Osman: "Everyone deserves a chance to live. You can't hold a whole race accountable for the actions of a few!"

 

And the fate of the Imperium is on the line

 

Adria: "If the Dragonisians find out about this they will not be happy even if it is what a lot of humans like you want."

 

Emperor Johnathan: "Than we will make sure they don't find out. Keep Admiral Osman and that research data safe."

 

Will things go well?

 

Jesse: "Time for me to continue with this experiment."

 

Or will things get violent?

 

Emperor Johnathan: "If we are threatened with destruction we will do what is necessary to protect ourselves Jesse."

 

Jesse: "I know. But lets see what Tharg actually has to say before we do anything like that."

 

Only time will tell. 

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  • 1 month later...

As Jake and Adria arrived at Osman's office on Ganymede Station, Sarah and her father were still fighting each other. The office was a mess and neither one of them had gained the upper hand in the fight until Jake and Arya entered the room with their guns drawn. Sarah stood in front of Jake and Adria while still looking at her father. "Its over. Whatever evil thing you are planning ends here!"

 

"Oh it is not over yet Sarah." her father said with an evil voice. "This is just beginning."

 

He then broke the window and flew out as the room began to depressurize. Admiral Osman then gave the station AI an order while they hung on. "AIDA activate pressure doors!"

 

Metal doors then closed over where the window was and the room went back to normal air pressure. "Thanks for the help you two." Sarah told them. "But unfortunately he escaped."

 

"That is the vacuum of space out there! How the heck could he survive that?!" Jake asked.

 

"Because he is not like any other dragon."

 

"How so?" Adria asked her.

 

"Will tell you all later. Right now we have to warn Jesse that something bad might be happening soon."

 

They then contacted Jesse but he was not worried about what happened there as much as they were. "You are safe and you stopped him from getting whatever he was there for. I'd call that a win."

 

"I'm not so sure." Sarah told him. "He was trying to find the data about what we are doing with turning humans into dragons if they want to. For all we know he may have gotten what he wanted."

 

"Even so there has been no sign of him since then and even if he can survive in space if he plans on using his wings to fly all the way here it will take a very long time."

 

"But what if he does get back and tries to sabotage the "experiment" you are doing?"

 

"Than I will deal with him myself. Don't worry about me Sarah. Just worry about keeping yourself and that data safe.Your evil father is one thing but we cannot let that data get into the hands of the Dragonisians or else it will be very bad for us."

 

"I won't Jesse. I promise."

 

Over the next month the experiment continued and after a while just about every other dragon was in their normal form as well. Whether it was their intention or not the Dragonisian's experiment worked well enough to bring almost every dragon out of hiding and with how good they were able to help each other and the humans they were counted as one of them. Everything was going perfectly and once the time for the experiment was done Jesse and Emperor Johnathan were ready to meet with the Dragonisian leader again. They felt like they were ready for just about anything. However only time would tell if that was actually true.

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  • 3 months later...

As things continued they made it past the expiration date of the experiment and so far things had been quiet.

 

Dragons were widely accepted in their dragon forms all across the Imperium of Asia yet in other parts of the Earth things were not quite as peaceful as in Asia and the Solar colonies. There were still many Anti-Dragon groups all over but they were so small many wouldn't even call them a small minority because they were really smaller than that.

 

A week after the month ended Jesse spoke with Emperor Johnathan about what was going on. "The experiment so far has been a success and we made it past that month but have not heard back from them yet."

 

"I know." Emperor Johnathan told him. "I am getting an uneasy feeling about this. That the whole experiment with you in your dragon form was just a distraction from their true plans. If we are threatened with destruction we will do what is necessary to protect ourselves Jesse. You know that right?" 

 

"Yes I do. All of our forces have been on alert ever since they arrived. If they try anything like that we will be ready. But first lets see what Tharg actually has to say before it comes to that."

 

"What about Sarah Osman's father?" Johnathan asked.

 

"Nothing about him since the attack at the station. Hopefully he is dead but I have learned not to think that unless I saw it happen myself. He will probably show up again and when he does we are ready for him as well. Will kill him myself if he tries to hurt any of us again."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Maelstrom was called in before Tharg, "You were right, humanity has advanced. They aren't hostile to us or each other near as much as they once were. I'm sending the bulk of the fleet home. You will resume your place on the surface in retirement with your family. Send for your in-laws. We have a non-aggression agreement we need to discuss. We're going to consider the Earth an autonomous friend of the Dragon Empire and initiate trade. Thank you for your services." He nodded to Maelstrom who returned the nod. "It's been an interesting life, a pleasure to serve."

 

Maelstrom went forth and summoned Jake, Jonathan, Adria, and his Son by via internet phone services. "It is time, Tharg has seen enough. He is convinced the Earth is not an enemy. Well done."

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Maelstrom went to the bridge after the communique. He looked down at what appeared to be a thriving world. But yet through another pair of eyes that saw the world's soul, he saw that it was emptying, dieing, decaying. It was hollow, empty, a shell full of people who just were, but did not live. With a long lamenting sigh of days of glory. He now pondered his return to his home-world as echoes of the past haunted his mind. He returned to his solemn, singular bunk in the crew quarters.

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Jesse, his sister Adria, Jake, and Emperor Jonathan would then go to meet with Tharg. As they were on their way Jesse and Jonathan talked a bit more about it. "See Jon. I told you this would work. They know we don't want to fight them yet they also should know we will do anything to protect our people."

 

"Agreed. Still I can't help but feel this is not over yet. That there is still something bad coming and if its not the Dragon Empire than who else could be powerful enough to threaten us?"

 

"I don't know Jon but I am pretty sure we will find out soon enough. For now lets just worry about signing this non-aggression agreement and go from there."

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  • 4 weeks later...

Tharg was waiting in the conference center and nodded to Jesse, Jonathan, Adria, and Jake as they entered the room aboard the flagship, "Welcome. After considering the results of the survey we have determined your claims to be accurate, we are concerned whether Earth will remain peaceful or this is just a phase. That said, we are willing to sign a non-aggression agreement for now and simply observe your development. I will warn you, your period of probation during which we will not advance beyond this level of treaty could go for a century or more. We need to be certain the violent tendencies in the planet's native species have resolved. We will vouch for you at the Galactic Tribunal and prescribe a course of observation and patience rather than any form of intervention. It's all documented in the paper work I am prepared to sign. You are welcome to review it and give your input for consideration."

 

He slid the document on a data pad forward, it would be a lot of reading for anyone with only an optical interface. There were data jacks though that could be connected to for anyone with augmenting implants.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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While Jesse and Emperor Johnathan were busy reading over treaty important things were happening elsewhere in the Sol System. 

 

On Mars a group of scientists were busy reading through mountains of data recovered from some alien ruins they found buried under the sands of the red planet. Thess ancient ruins were dated to have been over 1,000,000 years old perhaps when the planet was capable of sustaining life but since then it had remained buried under the sands of Mars until they were found by the Imperium which had just started colonizing planets and moons beyond Earth at the time of the discovery. The data recovered from the ruins had helped jump their technology level to where it would have been in 200 years otherwise. The archeologists did not know who had built the facility but had theories that the Dragons may have been responsible if they were not really from Earth originally.

 

"Are you seeing all of this?" the lead scientist asked Jake who was there to investigate what they had recently discovered.

 

"Yes I am. This all was not lit up like this before?" he asked. 

 

"No. Before the one you call Tharg arrived this facility was mainly dormant even though we could still extract data from its archives but since the Dragon Empire ships arrived its like this whole place is coming back to life!"

 

"So if anything it probably means this place was built by them long ago at the time Dragons first arrived on Earth."

 

"Agreed. The question is why would they abandon this place and all of the information it contains."

 

"Probably because there was something which should have stayed buried."

 

Meanwhile...

 

At an unknown location Sarah's father waited until his second in command finally gave him the info he was looking for. "Sir our agent on Mars has reported back. There is indeed activity which started up when Tharg arrived."

 

"Finally. Soon it will be time to take back that which was lost to us thousands of years ago and bring back our ancient leader who was meant to lead us in conquest of this world before he was betrayed."

 

Promo:  

 

Thousands of Years ago Mars became a lifeless planet

 

Mealstrom: "It has been said throughout the ages that without great sacrifice there can be no victory."

 

In a great act of betrayal some dragons managed to stop an Ancient Evil from conquering the Earth

 

Maelstrom: You want to know don't you? Out of the many billions of planets in the galaxy. Why did they come here? Why did I come here?

 

Now those secretly working for him plan on bringing him back.

 

Ancient Dragon leader: Humanity now stands as the greatest threat in the galaxy! The Dragon Emperor has returned!

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

After reading over the treaty multiple times to the point where Jesse fell asleep Jonathan finally agreed to the terms of the treaty.

 

"Everything seems to be in order. We can agree to this."

 

Meanwhile Jesse woke up when Jake contacted him with important information.

 

"Jake you know very well not to wake me up from my naps unless it's important."

 

"This is important. Ask them about Dragon Empire history. Our translators just got done looking over these ruins on Mars and they mentioned something called the Dragon Emperor. This place is not a research base as previously believed. It is a prison."

 

"Are you sure?"

 

"I wouldn't be contacting you like this if I wasn't."

 

"That is what I was afraid of."

 

Jesse would then whisper something to Jonathan who then looked at Tharg. "Before I sign this I need to know something. What do you know about Dragon Empire history and more specifically your history here in the Sol system?"

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Tharg would nod, "I'll be blunt. Sol is a penal system for our most nefarious criminals. Mars, specifically, cages the most evil force we have ever seen. Tempest, Maelstrom's about 20th time's over grand sire. Tempest was not just an Emperor, but he believed information was power. So much so that he held the Imperial Research Council in his iron grip. Tharg's field was the study of consciousness, em fields, and gravitational quantum mechanics. Seems relatively harmless so far? Doesn't it?"

"Did to everyone else as well since we had no idea of the applications beyond psychotherapy and FTL drives. He had a very close group called the Iron Council. Iron, you see, is the last element starts can fuse, thus it was named. What they were working on was so above everyone else's security clearance that they had a lab to themselves among their other projects. What they were studying is how to impress a functioning mind into various mediums. They brought to life a being of fusion, fission, and finally gravity. Fully able to think and function within the parameters of its particle set much like organic lifefunctions on cells, atoms and electrons. Then they discovered how to move existing minds into such a state. The goal was to survive the inevitable collapse of the universe. They called this transference 'Transcendence", the migration of awareness beyond a matter state framework."

 

"What you have in the core of mars, is what is left of Tempest at the completion of their projects. It still thinks of itself as one of us, has an identity like one of us, but is not like any life form you have ever seen before and the size of it, though the mass of several large dragons.. elders even, is so small it cannot be seen because light does not escape its gravity. Its appetite is infinite. It is contained in an anti-gravity field that prevents it from getting close to any other mass to absorb, inside of a 1 foot by 1 foot cube. The cube was sent here via wormhole as this system was forming. It had sufficient mass to start to pull together a gas cloud. I believe you call that part of the gas cloud mars now. Tempest is a threat to everything.. period."

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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Jonathan then looked at Jesse. "So was that the answer you were looking for?" he said as he hid his worried look.

 

"No that was much worse than what I thought he was. Now it looks like I need to go save the universe." Jesse said as he excused himself and contacted Jake. "Whatever you do don't enter the deeper section of that place!"

 

All Jesse heard was static because Jake was too far below ground for his communicator to work.

 

"Well now I need to get to Mars before it is too late." Jesse said.

 

Meanwhile Jake and an archeology team was far into the ruins. Unknown to Jake the rest of them were working for Sarah Osman's father who intended to free Tempest so they could take over the universe and destroy the Galactic Dragon Empire that had abandoned him and called him an outcast.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It was too late for Jesse to get to Jake. Just as he thought he found something cool he was knocked out from behind and when he woke up he had his hands tied behind his back with rope strong enough to hold them tight without breaking no matter how hard he tried.

 

"Don't bother trying to untie it." Their leader said. His name was Raven Osman. "My parents gave me that name because my dragon scales seemed more like feathers of a bird."

 

"Yea you are different from other dragons I have seen like me and Jesse." Jake told him.

 

"Yes I am. And because of this difference I was considered an outcast. I was kicked out of the Dragon Empire long ago because I was different and thought differently than the rest of them. So I started searching for a way to get my revenge against them and I found it when I heard of someone who used to be the Emperor of the Dragon Empire. They betrayed him and left him to rot in a prison here on this red planet of Mars. Eventually I made it to Earth where I unfortunately had to wait till their technology was advanced enough to uncover this place. Now that we are here I can free him and we will both get our revenge on those who betrayed us."

 

"What about your daughter Sarah?" Jake asked.

 

"She should have joined me when she had to chance. Instead she decided to work with my enemies. She has chosen her fate and by trying to fight me so have you."

 

"Than why haven't you killed me?" Jake asked.

 

"Because you are the only one who had access to the scans of this place. You know exactly where we need to go and you will take us there or the people I am working with will kill your entire family."

 

Jake thought about his wife Adria and the young daughter and son they now had. "Fine I will help you."

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Tempest swirled like a dervish in a teacup.. isolated and alone.. he had been dormant, in a sleep like state that prevented him from total madness. Then something stirred him. For years the gravity well of mars remained stationary, stagnant other than the occasional celestial object falling or passing. But something was moving near it now that didn't move in line with traditional physics. Something moved with intent. Gravity never lied.. he felt them move. He felt their motion by the impression of their mass on the very fabric of space time. Someone was coming. This brought his consciousness to full awareness. He struggled against his binds.. and mars trembled with a moderate quake near its core.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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