Chapter 424 - Far Future, Ch. 134 – The Third Offer... Accepted! (1/2)

He was truly mediocre as an Admiral, barely worthy of his braids. The fact he had achieved his rank was due to longevity and luck for never being involved in a truly dangerous fleet action before.

If it had not been for the Ranthas, he would likely be dead even now, and they both knew it.

He hated it, but he owed them, and they were fully aware of it. They could break him now, or they could offer him a lift past the First Ceiling that had vexed him his entire life.

He was not a great commander, a fine leader, or even a decent manager. He was only ambitious, but did not have the tools to deliver on that ambition, and the craving for glory behind it.

”I agree to your terms,” System Admiral Colos finally breathed out.

Well. Well, well, well... Francesca found herself smiling, and the Admiral went cold on seeing it, despite himself. A smiling Rantha was a very dangerous thing to see... ”Very good, Admiral.” She rose to her feet without his leave. ”The first item you will need to know is that breaking through to Seven... requires you to be subordinate to a Rantha.”

One step, two... Her presence and aura were swelling, Diamond Vajra Mark IV behind a 50 Charisma, Intimidation and Diplomacy Ranks, Masteries, Skill Focus Feats... she was overwhelming him on many, many levels. He was a Six, a penultimate normal human at the edge of what was humanly possible thanks to his cybernetic grafts... the same grafts that had been holding him back from Seven, his crutch to cover his own lack of ability.

He could only stare as she came up over him, tall and powerful in so many ways, and he was just a small man in a high position, and realizing it just now.

A +55 modifier to social Skills did not give a damn if you were a Fleet Admiral, one of the great officers of humanity.

He was a little man, she was a Ten, and he was going to be one of hers.

She reached down and grabbed his lapels, stepping down onto the chair which was more than wide enough and sturdy enough to accommodate them, having been designed at least partially with that purpose in mind. After all, the names of the women under his command he had liaisons with had been listed out in the file...

She was far, far stronger than him, and he wouldn't have been able to resist even if he wasn't completely stupefied by her at the moment. Her tongue filled his mouth, extended past and up to his nasal cavity as the aphrodisiacs on it sent his eyes rolling up in joy, bypassing all those little nanofilters that were supposed to protect his brain from such biological attacks. Her lilithi tail, already glowing red at the tip, emerged from her tailbone, and arced over and past her precisely to deliver the first of the Brands on his spine.

He jerked in ecstasy as he was Marked and Branded, body and soul, for there wasn't going to be any backing out of this agreement.

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An hour or two later, Francesca left the office of System Admiral Colos, who was now sleeping very soundly and rumpled up indeed in the small chambers to the side of his office. She looked as perfectly turned out going out as she had been going in, and Ensign Jillia Haberrings held out her hand as Francesca walked past, the Spire-born Marked who had seen direct action against zwilnik gangs in Downspire snickering despite herself.

Francesca touched Jillia's hand, taking over Jillia's Marked link to her sister Olivia with Olivia's blessing. Jillia set about sending out the transfer paperwork that would move her new Rantha to the Admiral's personal tactical team, laughing quietly to herself that she was now equal in Marked Rank to the Admiral of the whole Janus System Fleet...

System Admiral Colos was going to wake up Awakened, Opened, Branded, Marked, a Noble/7, a Human/3, a Source Psion, and magnificently motivated to get rid of his cybernetics, retrain his Class Levels, and actually get good at his job. All that Karma he had accrued and simply failed to apply was now going to be put to work.

He was plugged directly into the Markspace network of hundreds of thousands of Good people, if not millions of them, and connected directly to a woman so far his mental and spiritual superior everything he had ever thought about his life was crushed just standing before her.

His Rantha would be right there, holding his hand as he pulled himself out of the mire of his own ambitions and started walking on the road to greatness, because a true Source could do no less, and she would be rock and steel as she supported him on the long road of glory now shining before him.

It would be the best deal he had ever made in his life. If it meant he had just sold his life, soul, loyalty, and position to some force outside the Empire... he just couldn't bring himself to regret it...

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A barren hillside some miles outside Kiloplex Abepb...

Space whorled and receded before a dark vortex from underneath the system's Veil. A conduit from beneath normal space reached up for the first time in over six millennia, and established a connection to something lost and silent on the surface of Janus III.

The first figures stepped through the portal, which looked like little more than an extension of shadows. It was naturally in full armor, sealed against the corrosive environment. They looked around with sharp eyes, their gazes inevitably drawn west to the shield walls and oscillating energy dome guarding the human city on the horizon.

Kiloplex Abepb was small as the human arcologies went, only mustering a few hundred million souls, many of whom had died recently in the Xeno-vore invasion whose after-effects were still extant in the remaining cities.

The warriors of humanity were tired, dispersed, and fractional. Such situations were ideal to exploit and take advantage of.