A monkeyzell production, [img]http://i.imgur.com/FOtkqY3.png[/img] [color=yellow][center][h1]The Dominion Of Man[/h1][/center][/color] [img]http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25800000/Planetary-Bombardment-star-wars-25837632-1600-1200.jpg[/img] A swath burnt across the stars.. The screams of billions hushed by a malevolent vision.. From the ornate, Gilded command center buried deep within the Dominion's flag ship, The Titan "Maledict", The mighty Faust presided time and time again over the destruction of his perceived villains. Be it with the mighty weapons that pervert a world with vicious blue fire or the silence brought forth by the various biological creations, Faust was winning his war. The few occasions that this man walked the surface of an alien world, all shook in fear. This man was far more intimidating than most. Sharp and aggressive facial features, Robust and tough physical form and a deepened voice that chilled most to the bone. The Victims of this horrible man would call him evil, killing innocents... Are they innocent though? History [i]is[/i] written by the victors. --- A doomed world, long forgotten by the galaxy at large. The Dominion, Victorious yet again struck at the worlds on the Dominions fringe. A fleet over five hundred strong had came to a well defended world. With all the enemies weapons of war and the tenacity of people fighting for their last remaining world.. their last remaining home, did nothing against the superior might and ferocity of the Dominion. The surface was broken and scarred from the days of intense orbital bombardment. Major urban centers that once held structures that pushed a mile into the sky had been reduced to a literal crater, and industrial centers that the Dominion would repurpose to further their war machine sat eerily silent as the chemical fog gave way to perfectly preserved machines with skeletal fingers still clinging to controls and door knobs. Worse more so was that Faust himself wanted to visit this new addition to his already massive and powerful empire. This wasn't personal he would say, but it was the end of yet another space faring nation that stood in his way... Worse though, was that the world was controlled by an alien race, one that was now endangered. "Go Makka, run for your life! they are coming!" was the words of an blue-skinned older man, trying to shoo his young son into an old construction yard. The Old man sighed in relief as the boy disappeared into the labyrinth of buildings. Hope however was shattered when the screams of the boy filled his ears. Rage filled his heart and with mighty force he leapt from his hiding place. It was an powerful moment, raw emotion had clinched his fists to the point that his palms began to bleed. It wasn't to be though.. as the pain shot down his spine and he fell to the ground. "Where do you think you're going." a dark voice said. The Old man leaned with what little energy he had left to view an Dominion warrior standing tall over him. The man wanted to reply, wanted to tell the warrior to go to hell, or any equivalent curse one could place. His mouth opened but his mind slowed until the veil of the world closed over him. Darkness lasted for an eternity but mere minutes passed before he found himself awake. awake inside a strange room. Makka across from him crying as hard as he could. The Old man was angry but it turned to fear when the sound of clanking metal plates drew near. From a dark doorway approached Faust himself. "You abominations are weak." was the only words he muttered as his left hand grasped the boys forehead. He pulled his head back, revealing a rapidly gulping neck. There were no tears any more as fear was gone. Perhaps shock... or maybe acceptance had ended the whimpering. Faust gave a curious look, pondering if he had broke the boy already or if he was stronger willed than he had thought. It mattered not though as with his right hand appeared a long dagger. It was ornate at one point but years of dried blood had turned it into a true symbol of hate and a man with no remorse. Nothing stayed his hand though as the dagger pierced the gullet of the young man. His gasps for help were but a whistle from the hole Faust had made. The Old man screamed in rage as what he had rose from birth was thrown to the floor in a puddle of his own blood. Faust never smiled, never shown emotion as he made his way towards the Old man. "You.. You're a monster." the Old man said, maybe trying to coax Faust into a parlay. It failed when Faust knelt before him and drew a large pistol. Faust the leaned in and furrowed his brow, flanked by a devilish grin. "You're right." As the Archon and his entourage left the room, Father and son laid together for one last time. --- Hours later, aboard the Maledict, Inside the granduer of Maledict's bridge sat a command table. Like much of the room around it was litered with holographic images of any shape one could desire. Men and Women moved about with purpose as Faust entered the room. Before he could even speak, the Captain of the ship snapped a salute, followed by the rest of the officers of the room. "Congratulations on a victorious campaign!" Faust piqued a brow before giving a simple salute back, "It is your tenasity and dedication that brought this victory. Let it be known that Humanity will win the day, not because of me.. but because of Humanity's divine purpose. At ease." After reaffirming the hearts and minds of his crew, ahead was the real reason he came to this place, the ones who truly led the campaign and a friend that he had long trusted. The First to greet was the Admiral that led the final charge to break the planets blockade, Shaila Amanae. She was a simple looking person with no real prolific features but all knew her, all knew what she was capable of given the tools to do so. Faust extended his hand, "Admiral Shaila. Your actions here were flawless, as I knew they would be." Next on his list was the man to the Admiral Left, General Rosarius Braddok. "Archon, I am surprised you chose to come here, especially this close to the end of battle." He said. Faust smirked, "Some of us cannot sit in a building all day." Rosarius nodded and turned to the man at the opposite side of the table from Faust, Grand Exectius, James Conrad. His title was much different from others as it was a resurgence from the days of the old Imperium. It was unique and was well suited for one of the Archon's cheif agents. James and stood at attention "It's excellent to see you Faust. Glad you to see you weren't hurt while you were on planet. We had heard you ran into some company down there and were worried." he said as he moved around to greet his old friend with a warm handshake. Faust returned the gesture in kind, "Good to see you too James." He was quick to dispatch the pleasentries however as Faust was well known for being serious on the field. "Now, there is much to discuss. That being the future of this sector of space and the filth that still lays at our feet." General Rosarius cleared his throat and gestured to the table, "Archon, as you can see, there is a sizable concentration of Xeno's that have been corralled into the large metropolitan area. We are in the process of walling it off and installing security measures within. I believe they can be repurposed after extensive reconditioning." Faust nodded at the idea and then turned to Shaila, "Admiral, any input?" She shook her head, "Their presence is an abomination but I will gladly accept any judgement you lay upon them. That said, My personal opinion is that of greed. We shouldn't give them respite inside their ruined capitol. Relocation to further dampen their defeat and break their hearts would be prudent. We can salvage the machinery and spread it through the system." Faust nodded at that idea as well before turning to James. "And you? We are presented with a problem of early a quarter billion vermin on our newest prize. I believe allowing them to live would work to our advantage for a time, give us labor until they aren't needed." James looked down taking a deep breath before giving his thoughts "We go though the same situation on every planet and it always comes to the same decision. We enslave them for our use. Giving false promises before extermination or continued enslavement. I believe the best option is the normal option." He then stood up from the table and looking at the crew through the door "We have an oportunity to allow the senate a ruling on what to do with our newly aquired planets. Not only would it seem we're returning some of the former imperium's ideas. But we'd also be showing the Dominion shouldn't be as hated by all as we currently are. At least not by humans who are treated as demi-gods to a point." He then turned back to the Faust and the commanders "The decision as always is your Archon Faust." "Indeed" he said, "Reforming a 'peoples government' has been pretty effective for these measures, however in this case, giving the people power over our military is only asking for trouble. They already support what we do." He turned to the general and then the admiral, "However, James is correct. Our course of action shall remain the same. My friend here is obviously a patron of keeping things simple, therefore we shall. Make preparations to disperse the population into controlled camps, but retain them on this one world. We shall get the best of both worlds from Shaila and Rosarius, spread them, thin them.. yet keep them local and easy to monitor. Dismissed, except you James" After a series of salutes, Shaila and Rosarius left the room, leaving only the two men. Faust backed away from the table by a few feet and motioned to the table. "Bring a view of the sector." he said softly. Within a few seconds, a very precise view of the sector they resided in appeared. Faust ran his hand through it, pointing his index finger on specific ones. As his fingers touched the individual points, a display of the world and important information would appear but none seemed to fit his desire until finally, the last star on the fring of the sectors so called, "Northern expanse" appeared. "This... do you know what this point is?" he said with a smirk. He motioned his hand, removing all but that single star from the tables view. As he clinched the star, it became a large image, showing the eight planets and a display of their orbits. "Our prize is so close.. Earth. Earth my friend... Earth. Birthplace of our kind. We have to take this icon of Humanity." James nodded remembering the times of old from when he was last on earth. " Yes, we do. However in case you've forgotten Earth is currently a hellhole after you great-grandfather's supposed death. Also we must not forget who currently controls Earth. The Imperium's Remnants, and going to war with them would be tough. Not only are they equipped strong and lead by a stubbern old man. But they're Human and they'd be our first Human enemy. We're already hated by alien neighbors we must keep the Humans in line and going to war with them would not be helpful." There was silence for a few minutes as Faust processed the severity of the upcoming decisions. "This would indeed be a difficult issue but the Imperium doesn't control as much on earth to warrant aggression towards them. What if.." Faust started to pace slowly and rose his thumb to his chin. "What if we tried to drum up support from Uther's Imperium. Perhaps find a way to coerce him into allowing us near the planet from that direction, forfeiting any issues with being surrounded by both the Imperium fleets and any other hostiles that are still fighting on and above the cradle of mankind." James thought to himself before nodding. "We would need Uther's support in the future anyways. I suppose now would be as good of time as any. Though the question would be how to do it." he then began to walk toward the monitor and watch over the galaxy waiting for faust answer. "Perhaps we stage an incident." he said with a menacing intent. "Perhaps..." He stopped though, "No, not this early. Should we play on the Imperiums fears of the Barbarians? United we stand and so forth? Drum up patriotism between our two nations and maybe distort todays actions of letting the alien filth below live as a sign that we aren't as ruthless towards the true enemy as we are. They know my opinion of alien kind. They know I would exterminate them from the universe if I could and that scares them.. but what scares them more? being human and spared from the flame? or being eaten alive by the foul creatures far from us?" Faust stopped pacing and leaned on the table, laying his hands upon it to leverage his weight. "James, You know the Dominions true goals and purpose, you know what I would expect from a parlay with Uther, alas I cannot leave the Dominion during this upcoming social event." He was clearly alluding to the upcoming "elections" for the peoples puppet senate. "I will use Uther and I's back channel and ask a meeting between you and him. Try and gain his support but know that he is stubborn to a fault. Which makes him predictable." Faust looked directly at James and with a serious tone a simple question was asked, "Do you think this to be possible?" James shook his head "As you said these are important times. Yet why not have him come to you. Offer him an invitation to the capital of peace talks. Allow what he believes himself to be a wolf into the hen's house so to speak. Perhaps go as far as to give him a chance to join us and show him how [i]similar[/i] to his beloved Imperium we are even with out [i]Democracy[/i]. I myself being the most open to aliens in this entire empire was hoping to speak to the Second Terran Imperium and The Musashi Empire. Perhaps get agreements both of their leaders were loyal imperialists anyways." James then turned to Faust "But I serve at the pleasure of the Archon." He said with a little bow. There was a calm silence once more as Faust thought of his next move, "James, your wisdom is much appreciated and I believe using that tactic to lure him into our court would be effective but actually drawing him from his borders would be like prying a star from a blackhole. And I honestly would be the same way if I were surrounded and filled with xeno's and other threats that we may not even know of. Your idea is perfect but sadly our guest would decline to attend as he has for nearly two years of attempts." He frowned slightly but looked to his trusted friend, "I feel like we would be wasting time inviting him and him not showing, then having to go to him anyway... I cannot see any other way, I will trust you to meet with Uther and sway him into our loving arms, arms that once clung.. will not let go." ---- Days later, As the Maledict slowly drifted towards a large floating speaker box, a voice came through, "Welcome to Space Mcdonalds, what can I get for you today?" Faust looked down at the monitor to see what the compliment of the crew had requested. and then rolled down the space window. "Um.. yeah. I've got a pretty big order."