"Ahhhh, that feels great. Keep up the great work."

  Inquisitor Flavian relaxes in the warm waters of the spa as multiple servants groom him. He had such a hard time after his embarrassing loss to the humans, especially since he had to have his arm regrown, and the healers kept messing it up, so it kept getting removed and regrown until it was perfect. He cannot tolerate anything less than perfection for his glorious body, as it is the first thing anyone notices when meeting him, and as one of the direct hands and sons of his most Holy Majesty, he must always be looking just as divine.

  Pulling a giant, golden hand away from the servant doing his manicure, he stares at the freshly grown limb. He still remembers the pain from the human weapon that easily removed his arm, and it greatly bothers him. He has been harmed in a similar way before in his thousands of years, but nothing has felt so... cold. It was pain but simple, no mana left behind on the object's trail of destruction. Just cold and empty, no divine spark or warm caress of mana. Somehow, it felt colder than when he took an ice-spear through the gut. Not only did the sheer indifference of the weapon bother him, but the fact that he had a magical shield around himself when it hit him. When a shield is up, one can feel everything passing through it, and for a being such as himself, he can normally react when something is about to hit him, but instead, the human weapon propelled something at him that he couldn't sense at all until his limb left his body.

  This alone has concerned him, a human... knight... possibly... managed to harm him, an inquisitor, and of the king's lineage! This is why he has to look his best, he will soon reveal to the entire Eternal Kingdom the true nature of these humans, and from there the King will make his decree on what should be done about these pesky humans...

  Hours later, a crowd has gathered in the courtyard of the main palace of the planet of Aeden, the local lord stands above the crowd hyping them up to feverish levels as they prepare for the High Inquisitor to give his speech which will be broadcast on the magical communication relay to every world within the Eternal Kingdom, and even to the King himself. The crowd is practically foaming at their collective mouths as the king will see them himself on the broadcast. As a frontier planet, they are generally neglected by the crown, and having been designated a resort planet, they require tourism from the nobility of the core worlds to survive, as this designation bans all mining and farming on the world. Making the capital believe they are a perfectly loyal world means more rich nobles.

  When the Lord feels as if the crowd is hyped up enough and the transmission orbs are all focused on the balcony, his booming voice announces,

  "Ladies and Lords of the Eternal Kingdom. I, the lord of Aeden, have the pleasure of hosting our beloved High Inquisitor Flavian Ontos. May his words bless and keep you all!"

  The crowd goes absolutely insane at this, and the lord steps away from the edge, granting room for the Inquisitor.

  There is momentary silence as no one approaches, then in a sudden and massive flash, the crowd once more is sent into fits of excitement. The flash reveals the Inquisitor himself, seemingly descending from the sky and onto the balcony. The crowd continually cheers as their semi-divine leader stands above them, arms raised as he takes in the adulation of the crowd. When he eventually feels as if the crowd has screamed his praises long enough, he lowers his arms, and as if a switch had been flipped, the crowd goes silent. He looks over the gathered commoners and clears his throat. Using magic to amplify his voice, he announces to the crowd,

  "My wonderful people, faithful servants, and zealous hosts, it is both with great pride and sadness that I come to you all with news.

  I know some of you may have heard the rumors that a new race has revealed itself to our wonderful kingdom. It was believed to be nothing new, and in fact it appeared to be a wonderful opportunity for us. This new race had already begun sailing the stars before they even met us, and it would've enriched our kingdom to have such a novel race joining us. I truly believed for a time that this new race could one day be considered one of the greatest of our entire kingdom. A race so young, so naive, yet able to sail the stars just as we do. This ambition and capability, with our most holy highnesses' guidance and enlightenment, could have led this new race to be one of the greater races within the Kingdom, a new brick in the foundations of our ever-expanding kingdom."

  The Inquisitor takes a moment for the information to settle in. His words are incredibly brazen, as no new race added to the kingdom has ever been elevated to the point of being part of the greater races, the most coveted position in the Eternal Kingdom, other than being one of the children of His Majesty himself. The crowd murmurs in surprise and uneasiness, as all of the Inquisitor's words are past tense, meaning he no longer believes these things. Any reason for that not to happen would be very dire after such high praises.

  The Inquisito,r when he is sure his message has reached every corner of the Eternal Kingdom, then continues,

  "While I may sing praises of these beings who seem to have been crafted by his Majesty himself as friends and possibly saviors, if some of their claims are to be believed. But just as there are angels in our world, ones sent by the crown itself, there are also perversions of perfection. Things that exist without the permission of his majesty, things created by unknown hands in the darkness where light cannot reach. Savages masquerading as civilized peoples.

  In my research and in my experience with these humans, I have come to a painful discovery, in more ways than one. My heart is saddened that I couldn't see it sooner, but my kindness and hope to bring enlightenment to the stars blinded me, as the light I saw in humanity was merely artificial, a camouflage to hide a waiting predator, and we have suffered for it..."

  The Inquisitor feigns wiping his eyes as if the thought of his next words nearly brings him to tears. With a wave of his hand, a glittering wall of golden fog forms, and slowly images form on it. Visible to most of the crowd, and very visible on the communications orbs. Slowly, the city where the Inquisitor was humiliated by the humans comes into view. It showed the commoners living their normal daily lives when suddenly buildings began exploding, sending pillars of dust and shrapnel in every direction. Valiant knights and guards are shown attempting to rescue civilians, running into homes, and pulling the panicking people to safety. The people were so panicked that it looked as if they were struggling against their saviors. No one notices that the sudden and violent eruptions caused by an unseen force seemingly are not interacting with the knights, "saving" the commoners, and that the civilian homes are clearly cast in a different shade of light than the places where the human weapons hit.

  The crowd covers their various types of mouths in horror as massive metal objects fall from the sky, dozens more than what happened in actuality. From these metal objects leaped massive monsters of metal, their gazes hollow with non-reflective lenses instead of eyes. To those who can see in infrared, the eyes glow with unknown power. The metal monsters begin slaughtering random knights, but minor details are off; sometimes they are fighting on grass when standing on a cobble road. Other times, they are on polished palace floors when standing in dusty courtyards, but just under their feet, and the perspective of the imagery makes this difficult to see unless one were to pause and inspect the moving images. If it weren't for how horrified the crowd is, then someone might've noticed that the same knights are killed by the metal beasts over and over. They don't even notice when one of the metal beasts kills a cowering commoner family that its hand passes through, then, rather than crushing them as a massive metal glove like that should do, the family is cut down by a sword. On the wall, the shadow of a knight can be seen, not one of the metal monsters.

  The perspective shifts to the inside of the palace, where the Inquisitor is fighting his hardest against the monsters who clearly never are able to get close to his perfect form. He dashes, dodges, and casts mighty spells, but the monsters keep coming even after being covered in divine flame. This goes on for a while, showing the inquisitor's expert movements as he does his best to protect the remaining palace guards, no one notices that the interior of this perspective is of the palace here on Aeden, not the world the humans "attacked".

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Then, once the show goes on for a few more minutes, a valiant retreat is shown where the royal forces managed to save as many people as possible. The Inquisitor and his knights only retreat once a desperate plea from a commoner woman and her dozen or so children, who are all surprisingly clean for being in a warzone, reaches the heart of the Inquisitor, and he abandons the corpses left behind. As the ship rises into the air, great beams of light, definitely from the humans' cowardly hidden ships, begin to scour the planet and destroy anything else the humans hadn't destroyed already.

  The Inquisitor stops the show immediately after this. His back to the crowd and a hand covering his face. He lets the crowd get riled up, filled with hatred for the humans who would destroy and defile such a beautiful world. He even hears some in the crowd shout his praises for choosing to live another day and for saving all the people. The Inquisitor's hand hides a smile, not a sad face on the verge of tears. Once he feels he has let them warm up further, he turns around, a look of pain on his fac,e and he continues speaking,

  "After all I've seen there, I believed their bloodlust to be their only evil. Yet, these humans found even more evils to commit. When one of their smaller groups came to a different planet, they claimed peaceful intentions, and we had allowed it, as this was before their slaughter. They utilized... temptations... mind control... brainwashing... and automatons that look just like people to begin preaching against his Majesty. Blinding much of an entire world in less than a few months. They led our brothers and sisters astray, but I have done my best to bring them back to the light."

  The Inquisitor thinks back to when he burned them all on a pyre and has to stop a smirk from forming on his face. He then continues,

  "Thus, for their destructive nature... no, not destructive... corrupting and evil nature, I do not believe they can be saved because salvation would be the death of what they are. They are beings created by the natural forces of the universe in defiance of His Majesty as perfected savagery and predation in the darkness between the light of the stars. If his Majesty has angels...

  Then the humans are Demons..."

  From deep within an old mineshaft on an alien world, the group of Spooks watches a small communication orb that they had "acquired". They had lost much of their equipment when the Inquisitor purged their budding cult, and their base of operations had been found. Luckily, their suits are equipped with air recyclers, and they managed to save their air purifiers so they can continue to breathe, but edible food ran out a week ago. Water is easy to decontaminate from Mana radiation, but food was more complex, but that was not their worry at the moment. One of the specialists says,

  "Well... we were sent to destabilize, but it looks like they unified."

  Another responds,

  "No, we are just up against a multi-thousand-year-old propaganda machine. We don't have the numbers or the time to dismantle it enough. No matter what we do we will have to rethink our plans."

  One of the operatives in the corner, who had been working on a machine, states,

  "Well, boys, I think I have this radio working. We can call for pickup."

  The group says nothing as the radio comes online and connects to the small satellite in extreme orbit around the planet. The satellite then relays their message through short-range quantum communication to the USS Catfish. It's a short one, so it only takes a few minutes to translate into binary and transmit, stating,

  "Mission failed, requesting pickup. Supplies exhausted. High Priority information."

  The message is sent, and within the hour, a response comes.

  "Hold tight."

  At the edge of the system, an object slips into the gravity well of the local star. The USS Heron drone carrier. Its sleek and flat triangular shape makes it hard to see against the background void of space. The ship silently slips through the solar system, burning only at specific times so as to avoid producing large gas trails from its thrusters, the only thing that can, in theory, give it away.

  This slow crawl takes the ship days to reach the planet where the special forces men are waiting for pickup, and this slow crawl was done for good reason as the space around the world is teeming with dozens of the large capitol ships of the Eternal Kingom along with many more of the smaller, wooden vessels. Hiding behind the local moon, the darkness shrouding the large vessel, the crew on board begins deploying multiple small fighter drones to do some scouting and to work as communication relays with the men on the ground. After an hour, contact is made, and the location of the trapped men is found. A pickup zone is decided, and one of the bomber drones is deployed with its internal bays empty. Escorting it are seven fighter drones armed to the teeth.

  The delta-shaped craft all enter the atmosphere during nighttime on the side of the planet, their black hulls difficult to see, and the slow "skimming" method used to enter the atmosphere meant there were no massive reentry effects. This leaves their insertion undetected by the sleeping inhabitants below; the only things to see the jet-black objects are the trees and the nighttime critters singing their chorus.

  This type of extraction has been around since the age of propeller planes for mankind; this is simply the evolution of it utilizing stealth aircraft.

  The bomber drops a package for the men on the ground, and they quickly collect it and begin inflating the helium balloons found inside. They then hook up special harnesses to their EVA suits and wait with their balloons high in the night sky. They stagger the lengths of their balloon cables so as not to crack their helmets on one another when the violent jerk comes.

  The bomber does another pass, this time with the munitions bays wide open, a special hook is deployed from within, a temporary mod for this mission alone. Then, with a nearly silent pass, the operatives watch as each person in front of them is yanked from the ground as if the hand of God had come and plucked them from this world. The men are left dangling in the wind as the bomber slows down to its minimum atmospheric speed and an internal winch, usually used for loading munitions hooks onto each of the operatives' cables one by one. The last one is pulled inside the protection of the munitions bay, and his back is grabbed onto by the hardpoint of the bay. All of the collected operatives are held by their EVA packs by the mounting points usually reserved for high-yield nuclear munitions. The bay doors close, and without being seen once, all of the drones begin their ascent, slowly following the curve of the planet, rising higher and higher, accelerating much slower than usual to not liquefy the human payload.

  This time, though, the rising streaks of light are seen by people on the ground, but the majority are peasants and low-level town guards. They saw the streaks in the sky as the drones flew into the dawn, but simply assumed it to be strange weather, or some magical stuff they are too lowly to understand. Therefore, no alarms were raised, and the drones were able to slip into space unmolested.

  Unfortunately, the alarm is raised in space.

  As the drones left the atmosphere, an entire warship popped into existence right in the flight path. Luckily, the bomber was far enough behind in the formation to only need to utilize a 7G move, which left the operatives uncomfortable but alive. A few of the fighter drones were forced to pull over a dozen G's just to avoid passing into the shields of the huge warship, and then be forced to deal with both gravity and an atmosphere, which at their current speeds would've most likely caused some warping of the airframe if they were forced to turn any later than what they did.

  Right where the drones were when they were forced to turn away was right in front of the bedroom window of one of the executive officers of the vessel, who just so happened to be looking at the planet below while enjoying his morning beverage. While still somewhat dark, the multiple black deltas stood out like sore thumbs as the sun barely peaks over the horizon of the planet. Immediately, the man ran off to declare a state of emergency. The drone operators on the carrier immediately begin finding paths as far away as possible from all Kingdom vessels.

  While the drones were left thinking, that split second of indecision was enough for the ship's defenses to start coming to life, and nearby space was filled with brilliant beams of nearly pure mana radiation. The agile drones, though, are very hard to hit due to the slow traverse of the main battery weapons being utilized against them. With a new path found, the drones scream past the awakened vessel and head back to their mothership, the operatives inside the bomber feeling very nauseous and their heads still spinning from the evasive maneuvers.

  Due to the detection of the drones, the carrier prepares to GTFO while the drones burn towards the dark side of the local moon. The carrier is practically defenseless unless they deploy all their other drones, but with the need to recall the ones sent on the mission, it was deemed better to just get out of the system as soon as the returning drones are docked, they can unload them later.

  Just as the drones are grabbed by the big mechanical clamps of the ship and are pulled inside a sealed hangar, the Alcubierre drive spins up to life, just as an Eternal Kingdom warship pops around the horizon of the moon to take a look. The Eternal Kingdom's navy has slowly wisened up to certain human tricks, and the best place to hide in space is to go behind a celestial body.

  The large vessel only sees the vague shape of the carrier for a few seconds, barely enough time to swivel their forward weaponry to it before it "blinks" from reality as it slips into its own little bubble of warped space...

  The mission was completed, but the information shared by the operatives left many worried within the US Intelligence community...