Two stranded souls.

Adam Valencia, Emperor of the Azburgian Interstellar Empire and the first Emperor to set foot into a foreign star system sat upon his opulent throne, towering over the used-to-be nobles now turned criminals kneeling before him, his cold gaze sent an oppression of fear as the entire room seemed to shrink back in fear from him.

His eyes did not betray any fury, however, merely a cold, calculative gaze, as if he was simply playing chess with real people being the pieces, and he wanted to win no matter the cost.

There are no people in the room other than the most loyal and capable guards surrounding the Criminals and the Emperor, their hands at the ready to grab their weapons if needed.

The recipients of such a gaze trembled in fear, the criminal's heads lowering even further until they almost touched the soft red carpet below them.

They were being silently choked by the silence that hovered in the room, but they did not dare to break it.

They had to wait until the Emperor spoke, or allowed them to speak, hence the silence stretched on for minutes, as every second felt like hours to these kneeling people.

Their brains recalled that this is exactly how the late former prince Lucius kneeled before the monster of his younger brother, and the horrible things he, the Emperor, did to his elder sibling in his wrath.

Cold sweat dripped down their backs as they collectively panicked in their heads, their bodies have long gone into fight or flight, and their brains wracked themselves, trying to figure out how to survive their predicament.

Their heinous crime?

Well, there isn't merely one, after all, commoners or fallen nobles wouldn't have the honor of meeting the Emperor unless they did something so remarkable that even the Emperor wished to personally reward them, or something so vile that even the Emperor couldn't stand still and personally got involved.

This case is the latter, as the people before Adam were responsible for many things.

Firstly, they kidnapped women, and the part that peeved Adam the most is the fact that they would gladly kidnap children too!

They wouldn't merely kidnap them, no no no, they drugged them, turning them into mindless slaves to be used for...well anything they wished, whether that be pleasures of the flesh or any other thing they came up with.

Luckily, Healthcare within the Empire is free to all its citizens, and the respective people were returned to their families after fully recovering.

Still, some trauma remained, as no medicine could fully cure the mind, so they could only wish them luck and give them contact with various popular therapists.

The next thing they did is spreading unrest via threats, extortion, and manipulation, this proved largely unsuccessful, but the fact they even tried it is already just as punishable, successful or not.

After that, they raped women, and sometimes even men, usually the people they kidnaped but often normal individuals who were aware of what was happening, and killed them afterward to remove witnesses.

The men before Adam are all young, and there aren't only men of course.

Women are also subject to such carnal pleasures, even if less than men.

There are sixty people in the room, all kneeling before their almighty Emperor.

Now it doesn't seem surprising that they are so scared.

"Rise." The Emperor spoke up after a full thirty minutes of oppressive silence.

They immediately stood up, their minds slightly broken due to the immense stress placed upon them.

Their knees shook as their bones creaked after kneeling for so long, even if the carpet was incredibly high quality, it could only do so much.

Their heads remained low, afraid of meeting the Emperor's gaze, some of them gulped when they imagined the look he gave them when they entered full of confidence and looked upon his figure without fear.

Now, they understand why the other nobles are so obedient when dealing with him.

"You have two choices in front of you. You will either get tortured and executed for the horrible things you have done, or you will tell me everything, including how you managed to avoid capture for so long, and any individuals who provided aid to your wicked group."

"In return, I will allow you to live the rest of your pathetic lives in a light security prison, ensuring you have basic comforts and certain privileges."

"Y-Your majesty! shouldn't we get a fair trial...?" A leader of the group piped up, a brave man who looked to be in his twenties.

His slick black hair and beard gave him a trustworthy vibe, and his eyes were sharp brown, still, such a person stood here now.

"I am the supreme leader of the Empire, meaning that I stand above everything and everyone else in it, this makes me the supreme judge, jury, and executioner if I wished to be one."

"Do you still want to have a trial?" Adam asked, his cold voice revealing a slight joy.

This is the man nobles fear, the man that is called the Father and protector of humanity by the people, but the 'Bloodied Imperial hand' by the nobles.

Still, many nobles supported him since he treated loyal subjects exceptionally well, creating a divide and distrust between the noble factions, and even their own members couldn't be trusted.

Hence why they haven't removed him from power via calling a great meeting, not that the people would allow such a thing anyways.

If they did that, the people would definitely riot, and many noble lineages might be abruptly ended in a bloody coup.

The man who spoke up shrank back down, his hope completely shattered by the Emperor's merciless words.

"Well? What will it be?" The Emperor spoke impatiently, and as the people sensed his impatience building, it was only a question of time until someone broke and sold out their comrades, creating a mass reaction that triggered more and more to admit to their crimes.

Adam looked at the desperate nobles and scoffed, such people still exist, and they would continue being a pain in his back until they stopped existing altogether.

Completely eliminating the nobles is unfortunately impossible, so he had to allow them to continue existing unless something changes in the future.

"Very well, you, you, you... and you," Adam pointed to the people who spoke up first.

"You will live, take the rest away, and into the dungeons."

"Yes, your majesty!" The guards saluted and began dragging the criminals away.

Adam listened to their screaming and begging with a poker face, already used to such sights from his long years of being Emperor.

Adam sighed, not caring about the other people still present in the room, he slowly looked up at the people who stayed behind and spoke to them in a nonchalant way.

"Right, guards take these ones into the temporary part of the dungeon, someone else will come by and take them away."

A trial will still be needed to be held, but it will only be for show, since Adam, the supreme authority, has already decided their fate.

Adam stood from his throne and walked outside, as he informed the maids that his business is done, and they may clean the room, he noticed the 'Sparred' nobles walking outside the room with their escorts.

The idea of killing them anyways crossed his mind many times but as the Emperor...

...He will keep his word of course, but he will ensure that every prisoner knows of their horrible actions. In disturbing detail. Every. little. thing. they have done.

They will do the dirty part of the job for him, even murderers have standards, and people like them who touched even children will not stand a chance there.

As Adam walked to his personal quarters, excited for his break, an important message reached his phone.

He looked at it and changed directions 180 degrees, moving back the way he just came.

He made plenty of calls while running towards the war room, where many people already gathered themselves before Adam reached it.

The point of the meeting was clear, new artificial signals have been discovered, and that's not all.

Many strange, flesh-like ships have been spotted around them, slowly encircling them and their nation.

Hence why the war meeting has been called so urgently.

"Your majesty, we believe that the opposing civilization is unlike any we have encountered before, our scientists believe we may have encountered a hive-mind."

"How could a hive mind work on such a large scale?"

"We do not know, but it seems highly likely considering their swift movements, and complete lack of detectable signals between their ships."

So they sneaked around us, using their lack of signals to hide. Slowly encircling us at a safe distance.

"Have any attempts at communication been detected?"

"None."

"Then we must prepare for war. It seems we have accidentally resolved the 'dead zone paradox'."

"Also, your majesty, a world on the cusp of interstellar travel has been invaded by this hive, they appear to be infecting the living creatures there through an unknown method, taking complete control of the host and using them to spread further."

"As we speak, their civilization is completely crumbling, many strong signals have been detected coming from them, which we have managed to translate as a plea for aid, and it is thanks to them that we even realized our current predicament."

"Right, they may have invaluable information on our new enemies, send in the navy and rescue any leaders or influential people, I will join them in this endeavor."

"I will have to advise against that your majesty, but if you insist, I will have no choice but to allow you to join."

"I insist commander. We will begin our attack in six hours, in the meantime, reinforce our station's defenses, don't forget about the colony world either, make sure their defensive station also gets reinforced."

"Of course your majesty."

"I have full trust in your capabilities gentlemen, therefor I will leave the plan of attack up to you, I shall prepare myself and get briefed onboard."

"We shall not disappoint you, your majesty."

The Emperor then proceeded to get himself suited up and made his way to the Royal Station, where he proceeded to board a Corvette.

He relegated his duty as Emperor to his sister for the time period in which he will be unavailable and set out with his Imperial Fleet.

It would take hours to get to their destination, which gave Adam some time to think about their newfound enemy.

Their enemy is a hive mind, or they at least believe it is a hive mind, such a nation should have a crushing advantage against them, since it is effectively one person with the knowledge of an entire species controlling every single thing within it.

This means that the soldiers are gonna be incredibly wise, and completely loyal as well.

Also, such a species should advance significantly quicker than normal species, giving them an advantage in research in essentially all areas.

So why are they so cautious? They have clearly done this many times already, what made humanity different from the other nations they have destroyed?

What could a possibly ancient Hive mind be so cautious about?

There are simply no definitive answers to such speculation, maybe they are just cautious by nature, or humanity is special in some strange way.

Adam could only hope that whatever they were scared of proved to be valuable to them in the future, and not turn against them as well.

The Imperial Navy soon reached the home system of the Diats.

Their homeworld looked similar to Earth, while the red dwarf they orbited glowed with a dull red, casting a comparatively humble amount of light across the system.

In the distance, one large gas giant could be seen, while five barren planets orbited the star, each one unique from the other.

The battle that followed proved to be rather unremarkable, with the Empire's fleet annihilating the essentially defenseless troop carriers.

Except for one rather important detail...

The corvette with the Emperor got destroyed by concentrated fire on it, the Hive somehow realized the presence of their leader and used this as an opportunity to kill him.

Escape pods fell toward the planet below them, as the Imperial fleet scrambled to figure out which one the Emperor was in, the aforementioned Emperor sat in an ordinary-looking pod, looking at the planet below him, he couldn't help but mutter a simple curse at nobody in particular.

"Shit."

Adam Valencia, in his mighty power armor, now fell towards a planet that had the equivalent of a zombie virus on it, except so, so much worse.

As the pod neared the atmosphere, Adam took the initiative and took manual control of the pod, using the little fuel remaining to lower his speed as much as possible, hopefully lowering the noise he will make while falling.

This did little to help though, as the pods generated a deafening *BOOM* as they broke the atmosphere, becoming beacons of light and sound, attracting all attention in their surroundings for tens of kilometers.

Adam could almost feel his odds of survival dropping at a quick rate, the Hive already targeted him, and now there would definitely be company waiting for him down there.

And as suspected, there was.

Adam fought creatures varying from large bundles of cobbled-together flesh to infected animals to infected Diats, he used every function his suit had in this crucial time, even having the pod self-destruct as he threw the multiple-ton object at the enemy, making a massive explosion.

It was during this explosion that he managed to escape, using the chaos to his advantage.

After concluding that he was safe, he assessed the damage he has been dealt.

The suit itself is a miracle of human ingenuity, such a thing is extremely sturdy, hence why the suit only had surface damages, the issue with fighting however is that Adam constantly had to dodge the enemy, never nearing them.

Such a thing is impossible, and there were many times when the enemy tried to get to him through his ventilation system, which he had to completely shut down halfway through the battle.

No matter how ingenious, there is little that human engineering can do about the human need to breathe oxygen.

Hence Adam had to flee for his life so that he could get a bit of fresh air.

"Computer! Clean ventilation shaft!" Adam ordered while gasping for air.

"Understood, your majesty." A cold mechanical voice answered.

The reason Adam didn't do this before is simple, the computer freezes the machine in this process, hence no way to fight and do maintenance at the same time.

Such a thing is only an inconvenience when there is a group of power-armored humans together, but alone? It is a huge problem.

Adam had to jump out of the suit during this process, and he was incredibly hesitant to do so, but when his eyes started to blur, he knew he had no choice.

So he jumped out for two minutes, wearing only his clothes and no protection whatsoever.

He would complain to the people who came up with this the very SECOND he made it back.

After a nerve-wracking two minutes of waiting, he heard a distant sobbing sound.

'A person? No, It might be an attempt at luring me out.'

'Then again, if they know I'm around here, aren't I basically screwed anyways? They probably have me encircled already.'

'Let's take the risk, worst-case scenario I have to break out with pure force.'

So with little choice and utmost caution, Adam advanced through the thick forest, or perhaps even jungle, terrain.

His power armors bulkiness proved to be a disadvantage, but he managed with it.

After quietly sneaking up to the clearing where he heard the sobbing, Adam was stunned to see a simple, although good-looking, girl, if it weren't for the horns and tail, he wouldn't even know she was an alien, but rather a pretty human woman.

He felt a bit awkward, he wanted to go toward the cave, but he didn't want to interrupt her right now, since it might end in an aggressive first contact.

After a little while, he decided that it wasn't that important and that he valued his life more than the emotional stability of some random Xeno female.

So he resolutely began standing up but stomped on a twig in the process.

The female reacted abnormally, which further cemented in Adams's mind to be careful when speaking to her.

"Hahahaaah, now that's not happening." She smiled with neglect for her own life, determined to bring down as many infected as possible with her.

"If you're normal come out now!" She shouted after pointing her pistol at Adam

"Coming! Just don't shoot me." Adam quickly spoke up, still hoping for a cooperative relations ship.

Adam's massive armor must have surprised her, even if a little dirty, it still maintained a formidable presence, while also out gearing any weapons these primitives have made so far, this marvel was truly worthy of such awe.

"Uh... who are you...?" She asked, still a little stunned.

"My apologies, I forgot my manners. my name is Adam Valencia and I come from a Nation known as the Azburgian Interstellar Empire, do not worry, I am here to help you and your kind. It is an honor to meet you." Adam spoke like a refined gentleman, making his voice as soft as possible so as not to seem overly threatening.

"An alien!?" She reacted rather violently to this revelation, but Adam expected it.

That did not make him particularly happy to be shot, however, and he immediately ripped the gun out of her hands and held the alien in front of him by the neck, not choking her but making it clear what the current power dynamic is like.

"I said I come in peace. Or did my translator malfunction?" He questioned in a menacing tone.

"N-No, it didn't uh... A-Adam was it?" She spoke with fear in her voice, which is understandable.

"Yes, I will let you go now, but do not shoot me again, I want to work together with you and get us both out of here, okay?" Adam once more spoke with a gentle voice, hoping to calm her down.

"O-Okay. Right."

She still seemed a little out of it, but considering what she must have gone through today, Adam understood it and gave her some space.

"Oh right! I completely forgot, what is your name?" Adam asked.

"Lucie."

"Lucie Wertmore"

"It is nice to meet you, miss Wertmore."