"Your majesty, there seems to be an unidentifiable presence on the fringes of the Empire" Peltas said with a calm expression.

Azrian's eyes widened as he held his chin

"What do you mean?"

Peltas raised his glove-covered right hand its pal facing upwards. Around them, the room closed down, the windows closed and blue lines glowed on the roof. From the floor, a trapdor opened and from it a glowing blue orb emerged.

"Peltas Movley, Prime Minister" He said, his glove also glowing blue.

"Azrian Victorinne the First, Emperor" Azrian said as he looked on in pride at the Empire's greatest supercomputer - the Valiant.

"My Lord, I'll be opening a real-time stream with the Captain of the sighting ship" He said as he touched the blue orb. Before them, a hologram of a short, red-haired young man appeared. He was already on the floor kneeling and in a trembling voice said:

"Your Excellency and Your Majesty, I am honored to be communicating with you"

"The pleasure is ours" They said in unison.

"My Lords, the ship sighted seems to be some sort of bioform but is currently showing no signs of activity. It seems to simply be floating in space" He said as he stood up and brought up an image of the sighted object.

"Yes, but could you please elaborate more on this ship and the location?" The Prime Minister said.

"Oh, I apologize but I believe I'd already informed my Division Admiral of all the required details"

"We understand but I'd prefer a direct report from a direct observer" Peltas responded as he rubbed a finger against his forehead.

"Of course," The terrified captain squeaked " err, the ship is currently in the outskirts of the Olix System. This ship I'm commanding is the VIF Furst - A frigate of the IEEESF"

"Yes, thank you, now-" Suddenly, another man appeared in the hologram, a man in a military uniform and whispered in the captain's ear. The captain's eyes widened and his mouth was hanging slightly open, then his expression changed to one of horror. He ran out yet the messenger stayed but failed to notice his presence on the hologram.

The 2 watching the scene could only look on in fear. The Prime Minister was froze in place whilst the Emperor could only mutter

"What...what...what"

They looked at each other and Peltas nodded. He moved his hand and with a movement similar to pushing a button, the screen changed. Now, they were looking at the outside of a nearby ship, from there they could see not one not two but several, possibly 50 of the bioforms. They were advancing and showed no signs of slowing down. 

The Emperor rose from his throne and said

"Give the order to broadcast an ultimatum to these bioforms! If they don't stop, we will use military force"

"Yes my liege!" The Prime Minister said. "Shall I call for a general assembly of the government?" He asked.

"Yes, do it and have the Minister of Military Affairs be ready to ready and mobilize every single weapon and soldier in the Empire. If all comes to the worst, we will be at war by the end of the day."

[i]Later that day, in the Assembly Hall...[/i]

The hall was filled with silence, the air was tense and everyone in the hall - every minister, legislator and several commanders were simply staring at the Emperor standing behind the podium and the Prime Minister sitting on a lower platform in front of it.

"Gentlemen, we are officially at war" The Prime Minister said. Whispers could be heard all over the room. He raised his hand in the air, signalling for them to stop.

"I'd like to call the Imperial Expansion, Exploration and Exploitation Special Forces Head Commander to explain" A tall and stocky man in a military uniform walked to the stage. He was pale and visibly trembling as he moved to the stage. 

"Th-thank you, yout Excellency" He said.

"As you probably know, an unknown enemy recently appeared in the Olix System earlier today at 7:14:46 Capital Standard Time. They were originally somewhat benign and seemed not to pose a threat. Suddenly; however, more appeared and they began moving towards one of our own divisions. As per the Emperor's order, an order to stand down was broadcasted." He gulped

"They were not heeded and they were soon within firing range of our ships. By 8:46:03 they broadcasted their own message. It will be read after this. They, by then officially declared an enemy of the state, continued their advance and we opened fire. In the end, out of the 1,000 frigates present, 679 were lost but the UE (unknown enemy) lost all of their 500 strong attack force. We are currently deploying a research team to conduct an analysis but it seems the enemy's ships are essentially large bioform. As for the message: " He swallowed hard as everyone in the audience looked on with expressions of fear.

"We are the Zerg, we will enslave you all. Victory shall be ours." He was breathing heavily by then. The Prime Minister went back up as the other man walked off sweating heavily.

"In response to this, we are currently readying and mobilizing all forces to the Olix System. The IEEESF fleet that had recently been attacked is currently patrolling the system." Moreover, only 15 of our 50 Victorian Imperial Fleet Divisions will remain in the system, the rest are already being deployed to the Olix System and others to guard against the threat. We will also be producing new ships and are currently conducting research into bioweapons that could possibly have an effect on them. Nonetheless, the elephant in the room is that we are at war - at war with the Zerg. All I can say is this - We will survive."

The assembly was silent for a moment. Then, a single person began to clap, slowly yet with conviction. The rest of the hall then began to resound with the cry:

"Long Live the Empire!"