More to the Alliance

[The Great MM]

The Death Ray loomed just outside the Conquerer as Saberon's eyes gazed on the panel and his black claws clicked the metal. With a hiss, he stood up as the ship entered a loading dock, making a weird groan before it slowly descending and landed on its belly.

In an instant, a flood of Klenthurian soldiers pooled around the ship, all standing motionless as a ramp descended from the machine. The three warriors emerged first, silent and cool as if nothing had happened. Next came Rudolph whom, despite some whispers and laughs in the army, got his gained respect. Finally Saberon emerged from Gatoro towering behind him.

Saberon hissed and looked at his force and then the massive holographic display that loomed over the army, showing as Rosie and P.E.R.F.E.C.T fended off not just G-Rex, but the golem.

"We're not through here!" Saberon announced, shouting at his species, "Another race has been spotted! Just like I have here, I will be making contact and, hopefully, getting us yet another.... ally!"

As Saberon walked down the ramp, eying his soldiers. "In the mean time, 250 of you! The best of you!" He declared, "Will volunteer to join Gatoro in our first conquest. What better way to show true power by making their demolished capitol our first base!"

The reptiles shouted in glee, throwing fists into the air, "Four of you will escort me and Rudolph to this new species' ship, assuming they're reasonable."

Gatoro snorted and looked down at his friend. "You wish not to take me with?" He asked.

"No." The tyrant responded quickly, "You can do much more than just follow me around."

As Saberon moved through the armies lines, another caped reptile emerged, hissing as he stood in Saberon's path. "You're going to make contact now?" It said with a hiss, much like Saberon's own.

Saberon grinned, "Why not, Garan. No point in waiting. Wanna' come too?"

"Not my style." The spikier Klenthurian said, "Our boys are working on getting a transmission link now."

"Good." He said, "In the mean time, Rudolph," He began, looking at the scientist and making him lift his head in response, "Have your workers start plans on a new chimera. I want something big, mean, and very ugly this time. Then transmit the blue prints to Yay-Ann and her furball husband. Once they add on, and if this next species will agree, we'll send those plans to them." He declared, "A tri-force of terror. Absolutely, positively badass!"

"I've already been working on such for a while, just need to finish the gene splicing." The bald scientist answered as the four walked to the communications room, "I take you want to leave Stryker and Manticore in their cages for the time being. If so, I'll meet you in the command room later, I need to feed them, Manticore at least any more."

Saberon smiled. "Your pet has a healthy appetite." He laughed, "He'll make a fine warrior in a few months."

Rudolph turned away from the group and headed back to the Death Ray to feed the arachnid. About ten minutes later, give or take a few dozen seconds, Saberon sat in his comfy throne, looking at his staff as he readied another transmission, this time to the race known as "The Deities", a race that even the Klenthurians knew little about.

"What if they don't want to join with us?" Garan asked boldly, making Saberon look up.

"Then we'll put their names up to the test." He retorted, looking back at the camera just as the transmission started. "Morning, neighbors." He bolted, waving his right hand in a friendly manor, "This is Saberon Tchove. Grand master leader, general, and all around ruler of the Klenthurian race. I think we should have a chat!"

[HyperGFreak]

Approximately a quarter of the Earth’s circumference further along in orbit, a second ship floated in space. This, like many of the other extraterrestrial marauders, was focused in on the planet. However, unlike the others, who were presumably much more focused on various Kaiju action going on around the planet, particularly in Washington, DC, these alien men and women kept their eyes on probes and sensors carefully watching the Lawless Zone and the capabilities of other monsters as they fought. Nonetheless, the escalating violence in the capitol, and the intervention of the second alien force, caught their eye to some degree.

Thus, various technicians and computer specialists were fully aware when the transmission signals spread across the void to space from the Klenthurians’ Conqueror to the silvery, streamlined, square-mile large mothership of the Deities. Unfortunately, their machinery was not set to project everywhere, and it was thus that only several technicians lounging in front of a large, widescreen monitor received the declaration. It was not long before surrounding scientists were drawn over to watch, and even less time before the news was forwarded to the human traitor in charge of the Deities’ own foot soldier might. The news continued up the chain of command thus, swiftly making its way to the bridge of the ship and the leaders of the research party.

~~~~~

The Deity leant back into his seat, his arms sandwiched into his side by the cushy arms of the futuristic-looking, soft swivel chair that melded smoothly to the contours of the body beneath his thick coat. The recliner was the largest in the clean, white, featureless room roughly fifty feet high and a hundred feet in diameter, empty except for various other chairs and pinioned directly to the center. Here he languorously crossed his left, scuffed pant leg over his right and tilted his body slowly to the side, stroking his goatee as he glanced forwards at the wall of the room. Many of the chairs were located along the perimeter of the room, seats for various technicians who worked at their jobs along control panels jutting out of the walls. Massive, movie theater screen-size spaces were left open, with nothing but blank wall reinforced and armored on the outside by the best in technology.

However, this screen space was currently coated with the pinnacle in Deity projection technology, small yet powerful spires of electronics from the corners of the room sending a real-time image to the occupants’ view. The openness of space, black and pure stars surrounding a small, blue-and-white orb of teeming life was seen in clarity superior to anything a human eye could pick up, even if advanced to its peak by medical engineering. Taken in by high-speed, detailed, armored nanotech cameras lining every inch of the ship, the planet was raised to maximum quality before even being shown. Even as the “man” in the seat watched, the image slowly rotated to another perspective and magnified hundreds of thousands of times, swooping down to the Washington DC level so fast that everything was temporarily reduced to a prismatic blur.

As fire billowed up from ruins, buildings crunched, and the Bartosians joined the fray, Zajen Threnius, commander of the ADAM Organization branch, removed his hand from his chin and calmly folded it with his other above his freshly changed lab shirt, clean for the first time in weeks. “Such a pity,” he chuckled sadly, closing his eyes and shaking his head with a small smile. “Such a pity.”

A smaller chair, to his left and back by about a foot, was occupied by a second alien, pale and donning a suit of soft, blackish material. “And yet so beneficial,” he hissed in an even lower voice, his eyes never turning to his superior as the other tilted back his head and fixed his glasses. “I have been thinking again.”

“How surprising.”

“War has such negative connotations,” Syphriss purred in his undertone, completely undeterred. “And yet, it brings out the best in a race.” He waved his hand at the screen, even as Armada fired away with its visor laser, striking one of the Earth’s defenders. “The Alliance’s enemies – and, by association, ours – are the best and brightest of human militia. There is absolutely no method, no other manner, by which regular militias could achieve such advances in science. War brings chaos and turmoil. Turmoil brings a need. And the need is fulfilled by collaborations bridging massive scientific advances that their planet has never before seen.”

“It would come eventually,” Zajen mused, returning to his goatee.

“If an animal does not move, does it grow? Its muscles atrophy, it becomes physically weak and physically inept. If you did not actually use your brain, and did not actually apply your knowledge to any subject, you would not by any means grow more intelligent.” Here Syphriss threw back his head for a small laugh. “Survival is one of the basic instincts of any creature. Humans have managed to suppress that with intelligence. Negotiations! You yourself have researched them in great detail. Would any dumb animal stride into the lair of its natural predator? Would any natural predator allow such a fool to go free? And yet it happens. But when survival is threatened, humanity is finally forced to face the need for violence and push themselves to their limits.”

“Our enemies are the best the planet has to offer,” Zajen continued, seemingly unhearing of his companion. “None of the others would survive. Those who have risen to his occasion are incomparable among their brethren. It’s just a pity that in war…” He stopped to examine his nails and brush an imaginary speck of dust from his pants. “…the combatants and scientists are almost always the first to go, not the civilians.”

A pair of doors at the back of the room dematerialized, rapidly breaking down into such small molecular components that the heavy-set Russian could stride straight through it without breaking pace of flinching. He stopped a step or so before it as it “closed” behind him, solidifying as if nothing had ever changed. Vladimir Orlov-Polofsky did not say a word, merely glanced at the screen. Likewise, neither of his superiors turned to face him either, though a lone technician removed his headphones and turned to glance at the Deities in the center. Zajen still looked down at himself, while Syphriss just wordlessly met the worker’s gaze. After a few seconds of this, the scientist depressed a button, and the occupants all faced forwards as Earth disappeared.

"Morning, neighbors," said the bipedal lizard warlord onscreen as he waved his right hand. "This is Saberon Tchove. Grand master leader, general, and all around ruler of the Klenthurian race. I think we should have a chat!" The transmission at its end, the image froze, Saberon’s mouth freshly closed and his hand still outstretched in midair.

Zajen’s mouth twisted into a small smirk as he laughed again, just as mirthlessly as before. “I was expecting something like this sometime.”

“Our psychologist stated that the activity we picked up between the other vessels previously was almost certainly a sign of diplomatic activity,” the technician affirmed.

“Obviously,” Zajen muttered under his breath, without turning his gaze from the holographic lizard petrified before him. “The question is, now, what to do with you, Mr. Tchove…?”

“The Klenthurian are intelligent lizards,” Syphriss added, seemingly to no one in particular. “I’ve always been rather…fond of reptiles.”

The Russian near the wall removed his hat, propped it back to shape, and replaced it. “What information are we having on zees…Klenthurians?” he said, his blunt tone accentuated by his thick accent.

“Probably much more than they have on us,” Zajen said, finally turning to face Orlov with a kick of his legs. “While we do little more than make inquiries here and there, the Klenthurian leave a very…obvious trail as they go, as the Organization has observed.”

“Such as?”

“Dead planets. Dead machines. Dead people.” Zajen paused for a moment. “Lots and lots of dead people. I won’t deny that they’ve been actually helpful to us in the long run, though. They’ve effectively eliminated many species that have been antagonist or very belligerent to our diplomatic approaches, and we’ve actually been able to salvage quite of a bit from what was left of our old foes. In addition, any one or two surviving scientists from annihilated races are more than happy to pool knowledge with us, so long as we help them rebreed and rebuild as we did.”

“Could be risky, doing zat,” was Orlov’s comment. “You repopulate zem, in ten generations zey could be taking zoor knowledge and then be taking over you.”

“Pointless endeavor. Leaders mean nothing to us. Likeways, we impose nothing on them. Taxes are useless, and we want no resources outside of their brain. We help them, they help us, a mutual benefit. They can go around and claim we’re under them in three hundred years, we don’t give a shit. It makes no difference in the long run. They have no reason to attack, and if anyone was so politically stupid as to just try to erase us, we’d hit them back. And mind you, we hit hard when we want to.”

“Granted,” Tiamat intervened, his back still to the others, “There were some races that failed to survive Klenthurian passing. Completely.”

“Bah,” the younger Deity grunted, dismissing him offhand, “if any race is too stupid to get even a few refugees away in the middle of a way, they don’t have much to offer anyway. It was only a matter of time before Saberon reached Earth.”

“So ze question is being, are you wanting to meet or not, and where? We are needing response soon.”

“There is no ‘yes or no question,’” the commander responded. “Refusal would equal a diplomatic slight. A slight with the Klenthurian is the last thing we need right now.”

“Their motto is something along the lines of ‘You’re with us, or you’re against us,’” Syphriss said, now turning as well. “Crude and uncouth, the middle ground could even be advantageous for them on occasion. Nonetheless, I think being ‘with them’ would be fully advantageous to us in this situation. War is helpful, as I recently said. And entering the fray may permit us to salvage some humans.”

“Perhaps,” Threnius murmured as he drifted deeper into thought, his disapproval at annihilating humanity clear. “Orlov, bring us an escort of Deity scientists. Ten should be a fair amount.”

“Scientists? I have been looking, your people are being very focused on zoor Kaiju. You are not having foot soldiers?”

A dismissive flick of the wrist. “Our scientists are peak performance and can be enhanced with medicine and higher-powered weapons if needed. They can fight.”

“Firepower is being nothing with no experience,” was the Russian’s dark analysis as he turned to leave.

“I know,” Zajen called. “That’s why I want ten from the few dozen that you’ve started training back on the moon.”

Orlov showed no surprise as he turned, merely stating, “I have not been releasing open information on zat. I have ztarted merely days ago.”

“It’s our business to know things around here,” Zajen chuckled again. “Go now, Orlov, and bring us our men.”

As the door shut out the hall and the departing man beyond it, Syphriss stood, swishing his cape and making a show of checking his weapons even as he made a minor adjustment to his chest insignia. “Will you bring him?”

“Unwise. I feel for the man, but he has no trouble betraying humanity, and he’ll definitely have no trouble turning on us. Not that he has much of an actual agenda right now…Vlad’s a pretty cool guy, I’ll give him that, but he’s already engaging in his own clandestine activities. You yourself brought his would-be soldiers to my attention the other day.”

“The man is actually somewhat intelligent. It is called ‘common sense’ on this planet, I believe. He has more than the sum total of a dozen regular humans in less than a quarter of his brain, I would say.”

“Regardless, we might need our own higher scientists later on,” Zajen mused as the ten trooped in the array behind them. "They should be ready, though. They're all competent enough to realize when something big is going on." Finishing unprogramming the safety on his weapon, he turned back the front screen, Syphriss and his soldiers arraying behind him. With one hand, he gestured to the technician in the corner; with his other, he closed his lab shirt, buttoned his coat over his front, took a formal appearance for once. “Equally copious amounts of greetings and felicitations from the Deities, Saberon Tchove,” he called as the image returned, now in real time and showing the lizard leader in his own chair. “I am Zajen Threnius, the commander of our scientific exploration here. We see you have been rather active in space lately. Would you like to meet here on our ship, or would you prefer to, as our prospective foes say, ‘put your feet up for a bit,’ and have us come to you?”

[The Great MM]

Saberon looked at the camera and raised the scaly flesh above his eye. His forked tongue emerged from his closed jaws and tasted the air before falling back in. He smiled and nodded. "Our house is a wreck. You know what it's like? Too busy to clean up. Too busy destroying stuff, conquering stuff. All that fun."

Zajen didn't respond.

A second later, Saberon pretended to cough as he sat up straight. "Our transport is already loaded with examples and whatnot. Haven't unloaded since making friends with the fur balls over there."

"Fur balls?" The humanoid asked.

"Barbosians, or Yay-Ann and her stiff of a husband to be exact." Saberon responded, "We'll come over there." He declared, pointing a finger up and saying very quickly, followed by a hiss.

Zajen nodded, "Then we'll expect you in... 30 minutes Earth time?"

Saberon smiled and nodded, "We'll see you then." He said with a smirk and the feed was ended, turned into nothing but static. Saberon leaned back in his throne, "They're humans. The Deities are humans." He sighed, slapping the palm of his hand on the side of his head.

"You didn't actually expect them to be some mystical race of birdmen with golden arrows of light and big white beards did you?" Garan asked with a laugh.

The reptile lord rolled his eyes up to look at his chief commander. "Guess not." He responded, standing up and cracking his neck, followed by his knuckles. "If any more races are spotted, keep it to yourself for a few days. I doubt we'll need made more allies."

Garan nodded in agreement, "You heading out now?"

"No." Saberon responded overly serious, "I'm heading down to Earth to raid a hospital and eat newly born children. Yes I'm leaving now you idiot!" He said, walking out of the command room and back to the Death Ray, Gatoro following silently behind.

Upon walking up the ramp, a horrible sound came from the Death Ray. Gatoro stepped before Saberon and guided him up, keeping ready until he saw Rudolph in the cargo bay, looking on as the huge arachnid demolished some form of life. "You missed the show." The scientist said.

"Been there. Done that." Saberon answered as his four warriors entered the ship. "Well old friend, I'll see you when we return. Get your force together." He said, turning to face Gatoro.

The huge Klenthurian nodded. "As you wish." He said, turning to walk out, not exactly happy at having to leave Saberon to himself.

As Gatoro exited the ship, the ramp pulled up and doors closed. The Death Ray lifted off the floor and Saberon squatted down, putting his hand on the side of the tank's wall. Manticore hissed and shouted, throwing himself against it in an attempt to kill Saberon.

"A bug after my own heart." He laughed and stood up, looking at Rudolph. "So doctor, tell me about that thing you've been working on." He said with a hiss. Rudolph simply smiled.

The Death Ray flew on in the void, approaching the Deity ship....

[HyperGFreak]

The transmission ceased, the Klenthurians’ end fizzling out to mere static. On the Deities’ side, the hologram merely faded into nothingness, swiftly reappearing as the image of Earth. There was a brief pause of about five seconds as no one in particular spoke, Zajen rocking back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head and Syphriss still standing motionless. Up front, some bright technician took the initiative of slowly changing the image, rotating over and magnifying the Death Ray that approached.

Finally, Zajen, without turning to face the rest of his men broke the science. “I don’t actually need to give you lot rules on how to lay out a welcome party, do I?” Snapping his fingers, he pointed at the technician, who spluttered and tapped another button. “There’s a holding bay up front for vehicles, open it up, they should be able to find it easily enough. It opens up beneath the sharp nosetip, and is pretty much a standard empty room with our typical reforming and dematerializing doors for them.” Reversing to face the scientists, he added, “And are any of you still actually believing that we’re talking with them in a hangar? We have a place for receptions near there, am I right?”

One of them nodded. “There’s a room directly outside that’s fairly large enough and that packs furniture, but it’s full of supplies we’ve brought up from the moon as of now.”

“Do we have refreshments?”

“What do they even eat?”

Zajen shrugged. “From what we’ve discerned…meat, pretty much. We’ve got clones and such of some of the humans, haven’t we? Artificial homo sapiens or something?”

Another biologist nodded. “We’ve got enough to spare, though we’ve also gotten brains and some intelligence on some of them. They or the others might not take well to being dragged away.”

“Knock them out or tell them you’re taking them to the moon base or something, you can manage. Is the reception room heated? Lizards like warmth.”

“No.”

“Make it happen, all of it. We’ve got half an hour to get ready.” Zajen watched as the scientists scurried off out the door and away down a corridor to the side, then followed out, heading down a corridor to the opposite direction. The silent swishing of the cape indicated that Syphriss was in close pursuit. “Well? Impressions?”

“Hah…” The other grinned broadly. “The Klenthurian appear to have been rather disappointed by us. Our scientists are not in possession of the largest weapons possible.”

“Were you disappointed?”

“Well, as I said before, I do have a soft spot for reptiles,” Syphriss said, the smile leaving his face nonetheless as the duo quickened their pace, turning into a dim room illuminated merely by a large strategic war table in its center, each square of its grid-divided surface glowing brightly.

“Hmph. What do you think we can bring to the table in terms of a solid alliance?”

“Well…” The Deity glanced down at the table as its image quickly disappeared and reformed into that of Earth, space, and the moon, arrayed from left to right respectively. “I think you’re fully aware of what we could do, creation-wise. However…” Here he slowly raised a hand to before his face, his elbow cocked and bent luxuriously, as he smirked at Zajen, glancing at him from the side of his eyes. As he did so, he wriggled his fingers calmly, and the air before his face rippled gently and barely discernibly for a moment. “I think I can give them quite a few good reasons to be willing to exchange information.”

The other merely turned to the wall, digging through the shelves and removing a large box, akin in appearance to some sort of medical kit. Flipping it open, he nodded and handed several sheets of laminated plastic-esque material to Syphriss. “Genetic material and DNA sequences. I’m sure they’ll come in handy.”

“Indeed,” Syphriss chuckled, running his eyes over the patterns and his slender tongue over his lips. He looked up as Zajen removed several syringes and bottles of liquid from the box, before nodding in a satisfied manner and replacing them. “Wonderful marvels of science, they are. Tchove is quite an intelligent leader, or he would not have lasted in such a position for so long. I’m sure he shall be able to grasp the importance of such a thorough understanding of the universe as we know it.”

Threnius raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the hand proffering the sheets. Slipping them out from between the fingers-turned-furry paws to return to the box, he chuckled, “I’m sure the Klenthurian will appreciate us being even more mammalian than we need to be.”

Syphriss, in response, merely raised his hand, watching in mild amusement as he repeatedly shifted its genetics, warping it from an oversized rodent paw to a fish’s flipper and finally to a draconian, lizard’s claw. With a snort, he flicked his wrist, returning it to its normal shape, then grabbed the box off of the countertop and exited. Zajen lingered for a moment longer, bringing up the picture of one Deity monster, superimposed on its current position on the moon, then slowly placed his finger on it top of it. As he drew the appendage over to Earth in an arc, the representation of the Kaiju followed, ending on top of North America as his command was transmitted to the moon in seconds.

As he left after his underling, he glanced back over his shoulder, taking in the image of the Blackened Dove one last time. “You are one ugly son of a bitch, you know that, but I still love you.” He paused for a moment, then went on, now facing forwards, and muttering under his breath. “And if you’re actually capable of doing anything worthwhile without falling to pieces, I’ll damning neuter myself. I ask for more firepower and they give me a freakin’ compost heap...”

[The Great MM]

Saberon sat up front with the pilot by now, grinning as he saw the ship before him. "There's an opening down there." The smaller Klenthurian said, directing the transport Death Ray to it, "No doubt meant for us."

"No doubt." The tyrant repeated. He pushed his hands on the arm rest and stood up, "Takes us in easy. No need to make some tensions, least not this early." The pilot nodded.

Back in the cargo bay, Rudolph was giving the final preps to Manticore and Styrker's containers.

The snake was fully awake, looking around and hissing, while Manticore finally calmed down and remained still, no doubt digesting.

The Death Ray came in nice and easy, noticing that the hanger was almost empty. It touched down, and Saberon looked about, he could see some movement. Standing up, he could hear the metal grinding as the ramp lowered from its side.

"Might as well shut the engines down, no telling how long this could take." Saberon instructed.

"Roger that." The pilot responded, clicking a single button and the hum of the engines died.

Dr. Ackert looked back, watching as the door slid up, revealing the hanger outside. "Get ready to carry them out." He instructed to the four guards...

They crossed their arms and laughed as if insulted by the order. Rudolph tilted his head, "Please carry them out?" He asked with a hint of sarcasm.

The lead guard stepped forward, towering over the scientist. Saberon's voice interrupted the situation. "Carry them out. Now." He said, making the guard turn to face their leader.

"Ye-Yes sir." It said, walking over to place and reaching for the handle bars and, with a groan, they picked up the two heavy beasts.

"Let's go say hi." He announced, walking toward the opening.

[HyperGFreak]

Syphriss had entered the hangar almost instantly after the hangar resealed and re-pressurized itself. Various mechanical arms and worker robots, the movement Saberon had seen as he entered, put the finishing touches on their rearrangement of storage containers and tiny experimental craft even as the Klenthurian crafts’ engines shut down. Standing by the single door in the corner, the Deity ran his tongue over his lip in an anticipatory manner as he observed the Ray’s door open, the ramp sliding down to connect with a walkway running around the perimeter of the room.

“Lord Tchove! Welcome!” This came in an almost nonchalant, friendly manner, as he leaned his back against the doorframe. While he didn’t actually yell, his soft voice still snaked over to the six, particularly stinging the human Rudolph’s ears. “Ah, I see you have elected to showcase some of your toys for us,” he added as he noticed the guards struggling under the weight of the containers. “Well, as they say, ‘Sharing is caring.’ Perhaps you’ll be going home with some new playthings of your own. Now, shall we…?” Breaking from Saberon’s studying gaze, he gestured for them to follow and exited.

As he entered their balmy reception room, he took in its features once more, making sure it was large enough to accommodate their needs. With a row of ten chairs on each half of the room, parallel seats spanning the room’s thirty-foot length, and a width of approximately fifteen feet of empty room between them, there was plenty of space for any “showcasing” that needed to be done. Crossing to the far side, he took his empty seat next to Zajen, who gave him a questioning glance. “The Klen brought toys.”

“Excellent,” the Deity smiled, rubbing his palms together. “Perhaps now we’ll have some intelligent conversation.” He gestured to the remaining, standing scientists of their escort of ten, one on each corner of the room opposite the entrance; each alien nodded and made preparations with more of their kind outside.

Saberon and his men soon followed, awkwardly taking their places on the other half of the room as Zajen gestured for them to sit. However, despite the humanoid curvature of the seats, the cushioning material easily depressed, contouring to fit even tails, scales, and the weight of two Kaiju-filled boxes. “Once more, Saberon Tchove, salutations. I apologize for the rather…Spartan manner in which we are forced to meet,” he carelessly laughed as he waved his hand at the featureless, steel room.

His fingers paused to point at the wall on the left, which was also covered by a high-definition holographic projection. This one mainly involved billows of fire and smoke, as well as wreckage the wreckage of many buildings, but Rosie’s Mohawk was unmistakable, even from the top down. However, the greatest change to the picture now involved the hulking, tentacled Insidious looming over the others. “In celebration of what we both hope will become a lengthy and fruitful alliance, we have taken the liberty of dispatching one of our own creatures to the current battlefield. Granted,” he continued as he turned back to the lizards, “your Kaiju seem to be handling the situation perfectly on their own. Think of it as symbolism, if you will, or just safe overkill.”

“This is a scientific research ship,” Syphriss hissed, picking up on the last train of conversation, drumming his fingertips softly above his lips. “For the most part, we no longer are impaired by such social conveniences such as basic formalities. Why greet and give expressional acknowledgment to complete strangers that you presumably won’t see again? Even if you do know someone, why attract their attention if you do not have something valuable to say? That merely serves to squander valuable time and energy. We Deities tend to focus on ‘going directly to the point,’ so to speak.” Here he paused and nodded to a scientist near the door on the right. “However, we are willing to make exceptions for those unlikely to see the world in a manner as…shall we say, extreme as us.”

“We have also equipped this room with various biological sensors,” Zajen added, with a nod to the “eyebrow”-raising Saberon. “By reading your body’s mechanical responses and hormones, it should serve to raise the room’s temperature to something more comfortable to reptiles, rather than mammals, at least within safety guidelines.” It had occurred to him that a few of the other Klenthurian might not have the exact same tastes, but it was doubtful any of them would conflict with their leader. Leaning back and folding his arms, he smiled broadly. “Now, before we begin the festivities…from what we have seen, your race enjoys eating. As stated, we are willing to make exceptions to our own society for diplomats. Is there anything you would particularly prefer to consume?”

[The Great MM]

Saberon looked around the room, taking notice as the temperature increased to Klenthuria-likeness. His tongue darted from his jaws, and then he heard Zajen once again asking something about food. “Oh… Oh, no thanks.” Saberon said, relaxing back in the chair, soon followed by his four soldiers doing the same.

Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and folding it several times, Dr. Ackert made a small fan and started to fan himself. “Fucking hot.” He whined, increasing the speed of his fanning.

“Actually…” Saberon said, propping his feet on the table like he always does, “Something meaty will do us fine. It’d be a waste to let this feeding temperature go.”

The other four began to lick their chops. “Water.” Rudolph requested.

Saberon looked at the images of the demonic avian. “Pretty nice.” He responded, “Particularly its powers. We’ve tried once or twice to harvest those sort of powers. Only resulted in… well… Earthlings would call them zombies.”

“Hard to kill.” Rudolph added, “Nothing like those movie ones.”

[HyperGFreak]

((OOC: Week's been a bitch. Weekend won't be any better. Sorry for late post.))

“Hahaha…zombies, zombies,” Zajen chuckled. “Actually, we’ve picked up broadcasts of some of those ‘movie ones’ at some point, haven’t we?”

“They’ve been illogically popular with most of the scientists,” Syphriss picked up with equal amounts of humor. “Shoot yourself in the head when faced with overwhelming odds…thrust your head into the propulsion system of a helicopter rather than fight to survive? Well!”

“I suppose we all do share some degree of morbid tendencies,” agreed Zajen, “though the themes of these films are not what I would consider entertainment. Very pessimistic about human perseverance…they seem to go mad far too swiftly…” Glancing back at their guests, he nodded back to Insidious. “She’s a bit of an accident, really. Reanimated dead wasn’t our intention there…we’ve really been putting a lot of focus onto increasing regenerative capabilities recently.” Leaning forwards avidly, he went on, “It’s truly such an underrated capability. But that’s merely because no one really has the optimal form of it, is it? There will eventually be wounds large enough or in a specific ‘Achilles Heel,’ so to speak, as to override it. But when that weakness is removed, then you have an unstoppable juggernaut. As you can see, we’ve come very close to it,” raising an eyebrow in mild surprise as an excessively large chunk of flesh peeled off of the avian’s head and tumbled away. “We’d like to see what type of…undead you have later on the field. But why discuss this now? Death and decay is typically not considered conducive to the appetite.”

From the door on the right, a metal, two-layer cart glided smoothly in on anti-gravity propulsion systems. Hastily modified by various Deities, both the top and the bottom rack had been replaced with large trays containing equally large amounts of meat, the former containing cooked and the latter full of raw, wet feeding material, bobbing in a thin layer of reddish liquid with a faint smell of iron. Most seemed to be thin slices off various animals, ranging from circles with the diameter of a small mammal’s to several slightly larger than a human’s. Zajen calmly took a thinner slab from the top and tasted it as the cart hovered over to their guests, motioning for a second to be brought with his other hand. As a scientist, having followed the cart to the door, lobbed a mundane, Earth bottle of water to Rudolph, followed by what looked eerily like a human handheld battery fan, he commented quietly and half-jokingly, “Tastes like chicken.”

“That’s the human variation of bovine, sir,” another scientist muttered from his opposite side.

“Well, I’m not a damn biologist,” Zajen shrugged, glancing at Rudolph and his discomfort with mild amusement as the Klen took food. “Hm. Someone really ought to fix the human scientist up.”

“Put him out of his misery?” Syphriss smirked out of the side of his mouth in a low voice.

“Indeed, by putting down his natural cooling systems. Ah well, that’s for later,” he said in a louder voice that carried across to the other aliens. With a glance at the kaiju crates, he leant back for the umpteenth time. “So, then, shall we begin business?”

[The Great MM]

Rudolph took notice of their words and simply smiled and looked over at Saberon. Digging his teeth into the meat, the ruler looked at the scientist with annoyed eyes and then shrugged, pulling his head back and, with a thrash, ripping off a huge chunk of blood meat.

Swallowing the chunk whole and letting a flow of ooze fall from the corner of his lip and splash on the table, Saberon cleared his throat. "Rest assured, anybody make a move on Rudolph and more Hell will fall on this room than you can possibly imagine."

The other guards looked up, quickly forgetting their meal and readying for whatever was to happen. As did Rudolph, reaching into the pocket of his left side and pulling out what appeared to be glass balls, and in the other, the remote that could set both Manticore and Stryker free.

With a click of a button, the tinted wall died, revealing the snake and arachnid inside. Both contained, but no doubt looking at the Deities. Stryker hissed and Manticore remained on his back four legs with his front ones pressed against the side, drool falling from its mandibles.

"Manticore and Stryker." Rudolph said, "Chimeras in every sense of the word, and soon they'll be big enough to take part in the same sort of battle as the others."

Saberon grinned as he took another bite out of the meat, but kept his eyes on the Deities. One of the Klenthurian warriors said loud enough for the others to hear "I wonder how they taste?" Nodding in Syphriss' way, followed by snickers of the other guards.

[HyperGFreak]

“Ladies, gentlemen…or shall I say ‘lizards and gentleman,’ haha…please, please.” At Saberon’s mere words, the tension in the room rose noticeably on the Klenthurian side. Both of the Deity leaders’ grins remained untouched, though several of the lower-ranked aliens straightened and returned their focus to the situation. Zajen raised his hand and went on, “Why don’t you go scratch your itchy trigger claws…or whatever ‘trigger’ you have” – here he eyed Rudolph’s glassy orbs with mild curiosity – “and go back and eat, there’s nothing like adrenalin entering the body systems to put a living thing off their food.”

The Klenthurian guards and Rudolph remained on edge as Saberon leaned back wordlessly and merely tore another massive chunk of meat outwards. “I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood our intentions.”

“Partially my fault,” Syphriss said simply, his tone changing, though not quite reaching what human standards considered apologetic. “I suppose my choice of words did have a rather negative connotation, hmm?”

“I applaud your soldiers’ swift reactions, but our good Dr. Ackert has nothing to fear. We have no intentions of harming a potential ally, let alone another man of research and scientific prowess.” Here he nodded as the now-revealed juvenile kaiju, waving a hand and giving the go-ahead for his men to take a better look. “Lizard climates are clearly not conducive to human comfort. It is a simple application of basic medication to prevent his sweating and remove his body’s physiological response to the immense heat. I’m sure the doctor could do it himself, given the tools. Even the Earthlings have achieved this to some fair degree. We would have to ‘move’ on him to do so, admittedly, but it’s completely harmless.”

“Yes,” agreed the elder Deity as he got out of his recliner and got down on one knee for a better perspective. He didn’t approach for a better view, perfectly capable of seeing them from across the room. “Sweating isn’t all that necessary…maybe there would be some times where the higher body temperature would damage you, but some bioengineering would raise the human threshold of heat resistance. Excessive heat isn’t very healthy, you know.”

Screeching and crashing noises from the hologram attracted the attention of most everyone in the room as Insidious began her assault on Koal, coating him in what appeared to be, for the most part, snot. “Neither is acid,” muttered a Klenthurian guard from the corner.

After a few seconds of watching the violence, most of the Deities turned their attention back to the kaiju. As the conversation and meeting were clearly being recorded for later reference, none bothered to take notes, though several craned their heads for better views. The kaijuologist in Syphriss coming out, the scientist licked his lips again, his eyes narrowing and focusing on the chimeras. He gave an appreciative nod to Stryker’s creator as he noted the large bulge from the creature’s feeding. “What a little beauty,” he chuckled, shifting his gaze to Manticore. “And what in the hell are you?” he cooed softly to the arachnid combination, almost as one would to someone else’s newborn baby. The tiny monster buzzed its wings and slammed the walls of its cage, causing its watcher to shake his head appreciatively and laugh as he straightened. “How long until they reach their apex of growth?”

“In a few months, they’ll be large enough to devour the Earth’s kaiju,” Saberon said with a smirk and an impressive snap of his teeth, mirroring what Rudolph had last said to the Bartosians.

“Tasty.”

“Several months…?” Zajen said, leaning back and once more applying strokes to his goatee. “I’d question why you haven’t accelerated their growth process more, but I suppose you don’t need them on the field yet. I’m hoping they’ll have more powers at their disposal than mere size and natural weaponry, though…?”

Returning to his seat, Syphriss calmly folded his legs and drew out the medical kit from before. “Regardless…we can’t have our guests share their toys without giving something in return, can we? That’s not very…hospitable, even by our standards.”

“Really?” asked his commander with a flick of his head. “And to what might you be referring?”

While there was no verbal indication, the eyes on the Deity side all inexorably moved to lock onto the Klenthurian warrior who had expressed interest in experiencing the flavor of Deity flesh. “Welllllll,” Zajen grinned, “merely ‘wondering’ will get you nowhere in life. Knowledge is power, and only action” – the Deity slowly reached for the edge of his lab coat sleeve, rolling it up to reveal his pale, bare arm – “will gain you knowledge.”

All around the room, every other scientist did the same, either revealing their limbs or pulling out their own medical kits. Syphriss flicked up the lid of his own case, pulling out a switchblade and twirling it idly in his fingers, before grasping Zajen firmly by the shoulder and flicking it on. A small energy blade, roughly four or five inches long, popped out, glowing in the room. Once more, the corresponding Deities mimicked his actions, unsheathing weapons held dangerously near to their comrades’ limbs. Saberon’s grin widened, while the soldiers’ snickers died as their first though of a bluff started to die out.

Zajen snapped his fingers, and with a single fluid motion, six knives plunged downwards, neatly several half a dozen arms with a clean, cauterized cut at the shoulder. None of the Deities showed any visible pain, aside from brief facial tics on the faces of some younger scientists. Syphriss calmly flicked his blade off, as it was an everyday action, and neatly pulled a white sash of gauze from within the box, flicking it out and deftly tying a ribbon around Zajen’s arm as he dropped the knife back within.

Taking his limb with his remaining arm, Threnius observed the cut end, blackened and fairly clean, with only a minimal amount of gore leaking through. “As those stereotypically weak humans…the French, are they called…? Yes, as they say, bon appetit.” With that, he lobbed his ribbon wrapped arm across to Saberon, who caught it with an appreciative, dark laugh and who promptly tore off a finger. The other scientists followed suit, the Klenthurian soldiers eyeing the severed limbs.

“We’re a bit…bland, for mammals, “ Syphriss continued, reaching down and pulling up his clothing. “We don’t consume much in the way of food. We no longer have any need for sodium, nor much need for fluids, so we have little blood or taste at all. Very stringy,” he added, severing his own leg and tossing it across as well.

“We’ve been experimenting with converting the air and heat taken in by the body to energy, but it hasn’t ended well for the clones so far,” Zajen commented, pulling his sleeve down over the empty spot. His long coat’s arm hung limply at his side. To his side, Syphriss merely dropped down his clothes, returning his appearance to normal. “Too much like photosynthesis to work with non-plants, I’m guessing.”

There was a brief commotion from the side of the room as several scientists reached in and passed several cloned arms efficiently down the row of seats. Each of the lesser Deities took one and slapped it back on, the new limbs’ stumps coated with a blue, sticky, gelatinous material to hold them on. The pair of leaders remained still, though, not bothering to accelerate their own natural healing processes.

“Well…” Zajen said, leaning forwards with his one elbow on his knee. “Come, Lord Tchove, Dr. Ackert…share more toys with us.”

[The Great MM]

Saberon laughed as he placed the limb on the table in front of him. He smirked, laughing hysterically as if someone had told a funny. He slapped his scaly hands together once and leaned back. "Not bad." He laughed, amused more than anything. "I wasn't expecting a match of show and tell!" He announced, his laughter slowly subsiding.

"All we brought to play with was our little pets." Rudolph cut in, "All the fun stuff, the ice and fire serums, the weapon systems, Blaradon... All that is back at home in the closet." He added, spinning one of the glass balls under his fingers.

Saberon tilted his head and laughed again, ending with a hiss as he picked up the limb by the cauterized end. Holding it up, he looked over at Rudolph. "High five!" The scientist didn't move. The reptile's jaw dropped a tad before he switched sides, doing it with one of his guards whom slapped his limb into it.

Saberon took another chunky bite, this time revealing bone. While chewing, he added more. "I'm curious, do your limbs grow back naturally, like a lizard's tail when removed... Or do you use your technology?"

Zajen opened his mouth to answer but was cut off again, "And when you fight, hand to hand, man to man, do you use your weapons..." Zajen raised his own brow as Saberon brought up his hand bent the thumb, making it crack, "Or your own gifts?"

"Whatever the situation dictates." The Deity responded quickly.

Saberon smiled wildly, "Never once have I killed another with anything besides these hands. The same hands got me into power." He answered again, rotating them and making the armor plates crack together, "Over 1,000 dead by my hands, jaws, or tail."

"Impressive."

Saberon nodded. "I'm sure you've heard of us." He said, deepening his voice, "Now let's just skip the rest of these formalities and ass kissery. But what's interesting is... We've heard next to nothing of you. What have YOU done to warrant a... claim... on any world besides your own? What do you have to offer that could make us want to agree to an alliance, and not just think about it?"

[HyperGFreak]

“Indeed,” the Deity commander responded, straightening his back with a crack of his own knuckles. Around the room, the rest of the men mimicked this action, returning their main focus to the meeting. “As I’ve already said, we are quite fond of ‘skipping ass kissery,’ or general cordial bullshit, ourselves. However…I am rather surprised that you haven’t heard of us, with all the expansion and corresponding universal exploration your race has done. I suppose it may have something to do with our lack of an actual homeworld, as we prefer to keep our people in the realm of space…

“Just as we fight, we observe situations…we are not particularly secretive in our activities, but the situation indeed controls our moves. If it dictates clandestine movements, then we move quietly. Because we really would prefer not to squander resources on unnecessary conflict, though, we take care to avoid antagonizing or openly probing viable threats. You and your vast armies are quite a viable threat to anyone. I suppose someone higher up my chain of command made the decision to keep all of our forces out of your line of fire, and it has been so…until now.”

“That is indeed correct. You Klenthurian have indeed been helpful to us,” Syphriss continued, with a wave of his arm. “By following the…shall we say, trails of blood, haha…you have successfully annihilated many irritations in our path.”

“Now, what have we done…?” Zajen leaned back, stroking his goatee, and turned his eyes to the ceiling, a small smile playing around his lips as he put on the semblance of deep thought. “We have not done much at all in terms of conquest. However, as you have seen by our appearances and priorities insofar, we put a very strong focus on the growth of scientific knowledge, and that is where our strengths lie.” Here, Syphriss punctuated the line by lifting his clothes once more, to reveal the leg stump, which had already grown back roughly an inch or so in the last minute, and which was only accelerating after having bypassed the cauterization. “In answer to your last question…yes, perhaps generations ago, we healed through technology, but by now that same technology has changed our biology, controlled our evolution. We may be researchers, not soldiers, but what we have come up with ourselves can be very destructive. Indeed, the only reason we are merely advanced by years to decades, rather than millennia, is because of an unfortunate…malfunction in the testing in one of our weapons thousands of years ago, biological or mechanical.

“I suppose these really aren’t worth…‘claims’ on any other planet, but we have no need of ‘claims.’ Knowledge is our main motivation; we do not care to spend resources and time controlling others, nor do we care if others make ‘claims’ to us…provided they do not make requests that do not take ridiculous effort away from our studies to acquiesce. It’s all in the logic of the situation, really…would it take more effort to resist or just accept it? We don’t care about aesthetics and reputation at all. All we want from other people is knowledge, to be compiled and used, and we are more than willing to trade our own and share it with others.”

“For the greater glory of the universe,” Syphriss cracked jokingly. “What altruism!”

“No, no, I wouldn’t call it that,” Zajen said, wagging a finger at both his comrade and the Klen with his own measure of amusement. “We aren’t truly altruistic, I suppose…the further wellbeing of our race is essential to us, so while we are willing to openly share bioengineering, energy efficiency technologies, and whatnot, we do keep particularly dangerous technology away from potentially dangerous foes…” Here he raised an eyebrow at Saberon meaningfully. “…unless, of course, in the case of a alliance of…war.”

“We are only here because the dominant inhabitants of this solar system are quite intriguing to us,” Syphriss continued. Waving a hand at his chest and his underlings, he went on, “As you can tell, we do bear some resemblance to these humans, and some of us have exhibited excessive interest in watching them evolve. All we require from this Earth are samples of these monsters that plague their land, these more mystical aspects of their planet that are new to us, and whatnot…samples of their people…”

“Preferably without completely annihilating their civilization, of course,” Zajen broke in. “Call me a sentimental scientist and hypocrite, if you will, but I would like to see more like our own in the feature. The ‘more the merrier,’ as they say…” He leant forwards once more on his lone arm. “From survivors of your wars, we have heard your motto of ‘You’re either with us or against us’…We see no advantage in being ‘against you,’ and I doubt you have any either. As you can quite clearly see, we’re rather…scrawny. Our main idea here, of joining with you, is as follows:

“We do not interfere with each other, aggressively. I’m sure this feeling is mutual; I will not conjecture as to which of us would win in a full war, but regardless, the victor would be quite drained by its end. We will continue to supply our monstrous bioweapons and technology to support you in your battles; more allies are certainly better in this situation. We will openly share our war-applicable technology with you for now; in the meantime, I am sure we can glean some of yours. Other applications…such as, perhaps, making your bodies function at their peak efficiency, reducing their needs for fuel, can come later. You can have this planet, and any other you lay claim to, to do with as you wish…provided we have shared access to their scientists, monsters, people, and anything else that is a potentially useful source of knowledge.” Here he nodded at Rudolph. “I can see you already realize the importance of this. In this case, we would like to have experiments on the monsters here, which I’m sure we can take at the opportunity comes…and we would prefer a small contingent of humans to experiment with, no more than a society of a few thousand. Preferably the cream of their crop…their brightest and bravest arrayed against us right now. Prisoners of war, perhaps…?

“Questionable advantages, to be sure. But I would consider it…” He waved a hand at Insidious, whose newly inflicted burn wounds were already shrinking. “We’ve got quite a lot to bring to the table, even in the area of monsters…”

[The Great MM]

"Ah." Is all Saberon could say after all that. He nodded, acting as if he agreed and understood to it all, while in reality, a lot of it seemed more like big words with no real meaning to a cause for war. The room was silent for some time...

Rudolph broke the silence. "You forget something, however."

"Hmm?" Zajen retorted, looking back at the human.

"The other races. The other parts of this Alliance." He told them, "We've already set up an alliance with the Barbosians. I'm sure you've probably heard of them.

[HyperGFreak]

“Ah, yes, the other aliens,” the Deity commander acknowledged. “Yes, we’ve noticed other orbital activity recently. The Bartosians…aren’t they the ones you were meeting with right before us? And then there’s another race out there, if I recall correctly…tell us what they wish and we’ll change things if need be. I highly doubt we’ll be intruding on their business. They get more resources and allies in this combat for very little, if anything; hell, they’ll probably appreciate it if we took a few of those roaming ‘kaiju’ off their hands. Those creatures breed faster than the various forces arrayed here can kill them off. As for the humans, a few thousand’s what, half a medium-sized city? There’s plenty everywhere. And if they have any sense at all, they ought to be gleaning any interesting scientific knowledge they can here.”

“To be frank…aside from the various nostalgic wishes of our scientists, the humans are unlikely to be advanced enough to offer more than the other races here. The ‘kaiju’ are interesting indeed, but are unlikely to be the main casualties of any altercation, at least to the point where we can no longer harvest any.” With a meaningful glance at Zajen, Syphriss went on, “Of course, this is why we are willing to expend resources aiding an alliance against the planet. There is nothing like a raw violence on a grand scale to help people grow deeply acquainted with each other…and a long-lasting alliance, now and in the future, would prove beneficial to all parties involved. We are willing to sacrifice all the resources spent here on this planet, and risk losing some potential treasures, to strengthen any technological bartering between all our scientists in the future.

“Besides, I’m sure a mutual treaty of some sort between everyone here would also be good for the general health,” he said with a widening grin. “Oh, just imagine…the planet conquered, with all these different invading forces surrounding it, and what if there wasn’t a blanketing alliance? We may be inclined towards a peaceful withdrawal, but I highly doubt all the others would be so diplomatic as to let us…and that’s when things could get rather fun, or somewhat messy, depending on your opinion.”

[The Great MM]

"We and the Barbosians already differ on views on what to do when the planet is conquered." The reptile lord informed, "As a general code, we prefer not to turn on those that help. Nor do we lie, which is why we're always up front and speaking our mind."

Syphriss responded "I thought all tyrants lied for their power."

"I'm only a tyrant in the eyes of those that dislike me. I'm a hero to me species." He declared, many of his guards hissed in agreement, "Lying and treachery don't make for good heroes. Doing what comes natural, and guaranteeing the preservation of life for your own species, be it by the eradication of others, does, or at the very least making sure that, in the event of your extinction, you won't go unremembered as a whole by the entire galaxy."

"Killing dozens of races tends to make you remember." Syphriss laughed with a nod.

Saberon tilted his head, smiled, and locked eyes with the being. "Indeed."