Humanity Endures

Part 5 - War is Politics With Bloodshed | Chapter 1

"When I die, take my ashes and scatter them into space: I will not let my body be a trophy to be fought over, neither will I allow my remains to give one planet any more influence than it deserves in a fair system. I, just like my Empire, belong to all of humanity."

— The First Imperator

***

Despite the fearful exodus of all politicians and bureaucrats to safer sections of the ship, the bridge of the Ineffable thrived, pulsing with more energy than it had been witness to before — however, this energy was not wholly positive. The air was filled with the buzz of not only intense, nervous conversation, but it also echoed with the strained rumbling of the ship's deck, as the Ineffable breached into the Tehkria system. It was good to be returning home, yet Tehkria, though it was arguably the safest place in the galaxy, was still dangerous in light of recent events; if this fact wasn't an indicator of how desperate the times had become, Yezalax did not know what was.

Not only was he anxious to return to Tehkria, but Yezalax nervously awaited his reconnection to the galaxy's strategic network, so that he could catch up on the latest news from the crisis, and monitor the most recent movements of both the Nahmatiixian and alien forces — anything could change during a long stay in the Remnant, especially when the galaxy was in the midst of not just an alien invasion, but a rebellion. So far, from what little he had heard just before he stopped sending ships out of the Remnant to check on the status of things, Nahmatiix and Tehkria were waging a small political war to accompany their military one; both were attempting to convince the galaxy that the other was the aggressor, and as of yet, the galaxy seemed undecided. Yezalax could hardly believe there was still any debate, when one side had clearly ambushed the other; it seemed like truth had, at some point, become secondary to rhetoric and ideology. Yezalax then sadly realized that this had always been the case, and that he may not have had the most unbiased point of view, as one of the people who had been ambushed; many with anti-Tehkrian inclinations may have seen the ambush as a preemptive strike against an invading fleet, and this was a point of view that was indeed hard to refute when Lassarha had been travelling with the intent of deposing Heralax. Yezalax cursed: he thought that he'd escaped politics when he'd joined the military, and yet, now he was at the forefront of a galactic dispute!

On the military side of things, since Lassarha's force had warded off their ambush, a pair of Nahmatiixian fleets, together roughly similar in size to Lassarha's remaining force, had appeared and began to follow their Tehkrian counterparts; even as Lassarha reached the well-fortified Tehkria, the hostile forces continued their pursuit. Their presence was intimidating enough to convince the Ihndrastarian portions of Lassarha's armada to remain with her for protection, until their pursuers had been dealt with — however, considering how fraught with danger the galaxy was, and how much of it was targeting Lassarha, Yezalax imagined that it would be some time until all their pursuers had been dealt with. Though he had kept a good distance away from the Nahmatiixers, and was mere moments away from entering into the relative safety of Tehkria's star-system, Yezalax couldn't help feeling a bit of anxiety. The Nahmatiixian fleets' unceasing pursuit of Lassarha's navy — which he, as her senior naval tactician, commanded in her stead — meant they were confident about their chances of success in an engagement, or had some other, sinister objective waiting for them in the Tehkria system. If that fact alone wasn't enough to unsettle him, Yezalax had received word from a passing convoy of civilian refugee ships that alien fleets were striking worlds that had already attacked before, in greater numbers than ever seen; that convoy was now following his fleet back to Tehkria for safety and lodging, but the news it brought was ill — Tehkria was under threat not just from traitors, but, for the second time, aliens.

As things were this way, it brought Yezalax great relief to see the gleaming, endless cityscape of Tehkria come into view; not just a haven, but a fortress, capable of repelling any of the malevolent forces that the universe wielded against humanity. In such dark times, safety was the most valuable commodity someone could hope to possess — in this regard, Yezalax considered the galaxy to be destitute. As his fleet completed the breach into the normal space, Yezalax's relief at seeing Tehkria was quickly dashed; textcomms from across the planet brought to him the crushing news that Earth had been invaded, and that Kesaldax, the imperator, had been killed. Everyone on Earth had their humanity called into question, and, as appointing a possibly alien imperator was a risk that the Empire could not afford to take, humanity was now frozen in an interregnum. For Tehkrians, Lassarha had supplanted much of this devotion to the late imperator, and Tehkrians always felt a closer attachment to their own planet than to Earth, yet none of this made the death of Kesaldax or the invasion of Earth a palatable experience. Wherever grief did not reign in the hearts of Tehkria's people, there was fear, or simply a shocked, mortified awe of the aliens' seemingly infinite power. Many, Yezalax included, also wondered what would become of the Empire without a clear leader to succeed the fallen; some of those who had been a part of the ambush in the Remnant dreaded to think what Heralax's conspiracy would do with this terrible opportunity.