---3rd Person POV, Planet Deviluke ---
“Father, Mother, I have found myself a husband!!”, Lala proclaid, barging into the throne room enthusiastically, “We need to set up a marriage interview imdiately before it is too late. Send an envoy to the Imperium of Man imdiately, please!”
Startled by her abrupt entry, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her. Realizing that it was Princess Lala, the various ministers excused themselves to give them so privacy. Waiting for the room to be cleared, Gid and Sephie turned to their daughter with a very confused expression. Recalling that her marriage interview was with a nobleman from the southern Galactic Republic, they were curious how she encountered soone from the Imperium of Man, a nation known for its isolationist tendencies.
“While I am elated to hear that you have found a suitable partner, how about we start with a na first.”, Gid chuckled, “Also, what beca of the marriage interview we arranged for you?”
“We did not make it, so we instead dug into my future husband’s background.”, Lala answered, brimming with excitent. “His na is Victor von Stark, and he is just as smart, if not smarter, than !”
“I see, and where exactly did you et him?”, Gid asked, wanting further details about this stranger.
“Aboard the Artemis Space Station, he and I had a brief discussion about one of my inventions.”, Lala replied, leaving out crucial details to avoid another scolding.
“Lala dear, the Artemis Space Station was not one of the predetermined stops along the route your father charted for you.”, Sephie remarked with a scary smile. “Please tell us exactly why you strayed off course.”
Attempting to change the subject to setting up the marriage interview, neither of her parents was letting her off the hook that easily. Before they could begin drilling her harder for an explanation, Zastin stumbled into the room, panting heavily from chasing after his charge. Taking a mont to compose himself, the knight knelt before the royal family and announced their return.
“Ah, Zastin, you arrived at the perfect ti!”, Sephie said, giving the knight a friendly smile. “Can you please explain to us how your ship ended up at the Artemis Space Station?”
“Of course, Queen Sephie!”, Zastin acknowledged, “The whole ordeal started when Lala-sama escaped from the ship…”
Giving her parents a detailed report on Lala’s accidental rampage aboard the space station, they nervously accepted the final bill from Zastin. Hesitantly looking at the total printed at the bottom, Gid fell from his seat in utter shock. Having grown accustod to paying off his daughter’s destructive escapades, especially when he and Sephie had begun searching for suitable husbands for them, this bill was by far the highest he had seen yet. Reading over the list of damages they were requesting paynt for, he understood they were nearly at the point of no return now.
‘This is the eighth incident my daughters have caused in allied nations this year. At this point, so of them are bound to think we are doing this on purpose to soften them up for an invasion. If we are not careful, I am going to get sucked into another awful war that I want no part of.’, Gid thought, releasing a long, frustrated sigh, “Lala, I am grounding you for the next month for this incident. You will be confined to your room and forbidden from tinkering with your gadgets during that ti.”
“Oh, alright…”, Lala sighed, accepting her punishnt reluctantly, ‘I will use the ti to hone my feminine charms, just like Mother told !’
“Moving on, what were you able to uncover about Victor von Stark?”, Sephie asked them.
“Unfortunately, our intelligence network was only able to collect a bit of intelligence on Lord Stark. He has done an immaculate job keeping information about his family and himself hidden.”, Zastin comnted, accessing the report on his wrist-mounted computer, “To start with, Lord Stark’s native holand is a galactic nation called the Holfort Kingdom. He holds the title of duke in his country and currently presides over approximately a third of the nation’s territory. Outside of that, he holds the positions of Jedi Sage in the Republic, a Platinum Rank in the Bounty Hunters Association, and Primarch in the Imperium of Man.”
“I have not heard of the Holfort Kingdom or the title of Primarch before.”, Gid responded, rubbing his chin as he searched his mory in more depth.
“That is to be expected, Your Majesty. The Holfort Kingdom is approximately twelve galaxies away from us; it is located next to the Human Galactic Empire.”, Zastin clarified, “As for the title of Primarch, it is roughly equivalent to a prince.”
Elated that Victor was qualified to marry his daughter, Gid was seconds away from giving his approval when Sephie stepped in to stop him. Understanding her husband’s desire to be free from the burdens of leadership, she refused to hand her daughter over to soone with such a mysterious background. Moreover, since Victor had ties to the xenophobic Imperium, a marriage to him could incite panic amongst their allies and people.
“Dear, we need to be conscious of the potential backlash the arrangent would create. The Imperium of Man is extrely xenophobic; a marriage to them could cause us more harm than good.”, Sephie reminded her husband, “Lala, are you certain you want to marry a man like that? As your mother, all I want is for you to be happy and safe.”
“I know, mother!”, Lala replied, with a big smile, “Victor is definitely not xenophobic; he has several xenos in his harem. All his wives are super-duper cool and strong!”
“He has a harem…”, Sephie remarked, with a sigh, “Tell more about these won, please.”
Before Lala had a chance to begin speaking, Zastin hesitantly interjected himself into the conversation. Requesting a private audience with the king, he inford everyone that he had so disturbing information to share with him. Insisting that it had nothing to do with Lord Stark, it was simply sothing he ca across during their investigation. Piquing their interest, Lala and Sephie refused to leave the room as they wanted to hear whatever he had to say.
“Anything you have to say to can be shared with my family.”, Gid remarked, with a suspicious look.
“My King, you once told to always act in the best interests of your family. Please trust when I say that this topic is extrely sensitive and potentially disturbing for Queen Sephie.”, Zastin answered, looking his king dead in the eyes.
Realizing that Zastin had sothing big to share with him, Gid agreed to his request. Sending his wife and daughter to his study, they waited for the door to close before speaking again.
“What is the topic of this discussion, Zastin?”, Gid asked, leaning back into his seat.
“As I was looking into the Holfort Kingdom and the Human Galactic Empire, I ca across so disturbing footage regarding the Tyranids.”, Zastin replied, pulling up the recording they retrieved from the Bounty Hunter Association’s servers. “Given the queen’s harrowing encounter with them in the past, I felt it was best if she did not hear or see this.”
Having lost her howorld and parents to the Tyranids, Sephie had many deep ntal scars from the horrors she bore witness to. Grateful to Zastin for thinking about the well-being of his wife, he motioned for him to play the video. Nervously hitting the play button, the security cara footage projected itself into the air for them to watch.
“Dear lord… those are… they cannot be!”, Gid shouted, rising from his chair.
Watching a group of heavily ard humans battling against a host of human-sized Tyranids, Gid’s blood ran cold. Unlike the primitive creatures he was accustod to seeing, these creatures were coordinated like a proper military force, spoke like ordinary people, and utilized actual weapons. Quickly overwhelming the humans with sheer numbers, they began to devour them while the poor souls were still alive. Listening to their agonizing screams, Gid told him to stop the recording imdiately.
“Here I thought those bugs could not get any worse.”, Gid said in a cold tone. “It is true then; we really have been fighting their scouts up till now. Why the hell has the association been sitting on this information?!”
“No idea; if I had to guess, it is because they cannot validate the information. Their region’s Interstellar Gate has been offline for many millennia now; without it, it would take several thousand years to receive a response.”, Zastin answered.
“Wait, then how did Victor reach the Galactic Republic?”, Gid asked, with a curious look. “Does the Holfort Kingdom have sothing its neighbors do not?”
“Lord Stark fields a plethora of technology that surpasses anything we have in this region of space. He possesses functional Blink and Folding drives, weapons that can annihilate planets in seconds, and can reverse engineer most technology in a matter of days.”, Zastin stated, “I can assure you that while he holds the title of the Primarch in the Imperium of Man, he does not share their sa views. He is a kindhearted man who went out of his way to help the victims of the princess’ destructive machine. In fact, he is the reason that bill was not significantly higher.”
Nodding his head, Gid glanced over at the door to his private study. Understanding his wife’s hesitation in marrying Lala to soone from the Imperium, he knew full well that his daughter would never pursue a cruel, wicked man. While they had spoiled her greatly, they had also instilled within her a powerful sense of right and wrong. Gid was certain that Victor was a good man; all that was left to do was convince Sephie of that fact.
“Send an envoy to the Imperium of Man requesting an audience with Victor.”, Gid commanded, “The only way this marriage will work out is if Sephie cos around.”
“And Victor as well.”, Zastin added, “He seed acutely aware of Lala-sama’s past antics and made it abundantly clear he wanted nothing to do with her.”
“Is that so?”, Gid said, with a big grin, “And he knew she was a princess of the Devilukean Empire?”
“He addressed her as such when they first t.”, Zastin confird.
“Well now, he has piqued my interest too.”, Gid chuckled, ‘It is rare to find a man that would turn down power and wealth. If he truly ant that, he might be my perfect replacent!’
Having Zastin follow him, the two n headed off to find the Minister of War. With a bloody war on the horizon, they and their allies needed to prepare for the storm headed their way.
---Algrand Empire---
Summoning the most prominent of his nation’s noblen to the capital, the Emperor inford them that a representative from the Imperium of Man would be paying their nation a visit in a few days. Uncertain why their leader had agreed to such a thing, given that the Imperium was a backwater galactic nation, a few nobles inquired if there was sothing to be gained from it.
“The representative they are sending is not a native of this region of space; he is from a nation called the Holfort Kingdom. Unlike the Imperium, his holand is far more advanced than we are.”, the Emperor proclaid, having carefully weighed the benefits of this eting already. “The Holfort Kingdom has functional Blink and Folding Drives, magical powers that rival our own, and weapons capable of decimating entire solar systems with a press of a button. I agreed to this eting not for the Imperium of Man, but to establish relations with the Holfort Kingdom.”
“Furthermore, Duke Banfield, the representative, has asked to speak with you privately after his eting with the Emperor has concluded.”, the Pri Minister said, looking at Liam with a worried expression. “For the sake of the empire’s future, please refrain from your usual antics.”
“If I may, who is this person exactly?”, Liam asked, wanting further details.
Sharing with the nobles what little information their intelligence network had confird, they were quite surprised to learn how well connected he was. Possessing the highest rank in a well-respected, intergalactic organization and solid connections to two galactic nations in their region, he was absolutely soone they needed to ally with. Failure to do so could lead to them being left behind while their neighbors flourished with technological aid from distant parts of the universe.
“I understand; I will do my utmost to ensure I leave a favorable impression on him.”, Liam swore, expertly hiding a fiendish smile. ‘Hehe, the prince of a highly xenophobic nation wants to et with specifically. He must have heard about my dastardly deeds here in the empire and wants to swap shop with ! I will show just how evil I really am!’
Commanding his subjects to be ready to receive their guest in two days’ ti, he dismissed them so they could begin their preparations. Exiting the throne room with his wife, Rose Sera Banfield, and his AI maid Amagi, Liam waited until they were in their hovercar before speaking.
“Amagi, please make the necessary preparations to receive the representative.”, Liam requested.
(Amagi)
“Liam, do you have any idea why he wants to et with you?”, Rosetta inquired.
“No idea, but we can do so digging into figuring out why.”, Liam remarked, wanting to keep them in the dark. ‘Feinting ignorance can be troubleso sotis, but if I can gain another villainous colleague, it is worth it!’
Wanting to pull out all the stops to show off for his potential ally, Liam asked Amagi to pull out all the stops for this eting. Promising to do her utmost to fulfill his request, the maid switched to discussing so issues that their two children had been causing.
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