(wall of text warning X3 took me a while to make this, sorry for the wait =3)

[b]RZE home system, home planet Zargonia, capital city[/b]

the cluttered streets and skies of the capital buzzed like a hive with vehicles, high in the sky in low orbit hover warships, guarding the cities from possible rebel bombardment, In the throne room of the palace in the center of the capital city, the King speaks to his advisers, a Sas-Zak and Zargan, with a pleasant smile. The throne room is massive, it has guards lined alone the walls all fully combat ready, for even in these times of peace, there is still the danger of attack from the monstrous creatures of this planet. The doors to the throne room open as a Sas-Zak scientist makes his way in, the guards keep their eye's on him as he approaches the King's throne. When the King take notice of the approaching scientist he kindly dismisses his advisers and they take their leave after bowing. The King then focuses his attention on the scientist with a smile.

The Sas-Zak bows before he looks up to the King
"Barrakus my old friend, what news do you bring me?" the King asks with a smile, Barrakus then gets to his feet to speak, he then lets out multiple rapid chirps and clicks, the King slowly raises a brow as he lets out a chuckle
"Barrakus, your doing it again" the King said with a slight grin

Barrakus has a confused look on him for a second then his eye's widened slightly as he realised what he was doing, he placed hand up to his head as he shook it slightly. Barrakus then looked to the King
[I]"forgive me your majesty, I keep forgetting, it's a bad habit"[/I] Barrakus thought to the King through telepathy

"think not of it friend, now, what news have you brought?" the King asked with a smile, a serous look grows on Barrakus's face when he's asked this

[I]"your majesty, we found something in the desert, near the center of the super continent, what appears to be an entrance to some kind of structure it was buried under the sand, we haven't been able to find a way to open it, the exterior designs seem to resemble those that are found on the fortress world but on a much smaller scale..."[/I] the King's expression went from a pleasant mood to serous, he leaned forward in his throne with a dead serous look, his golden reptilian eye's in deep thought

"this could be very bad... do you recall what happened when we found the fortress world?..." the King said as he looked to Barrakus

[I]"how could I forget your majesty... it was the most costly battle the Royal Zargonian Empire had ever fought..."[/I] Barrakus thought to the King with a slightly unsettled expression
[I]"we were lucky to have had the defenses we had in place, were it not for them that system would have been lost, who knows what lies within that structure... it could be an army"[/I] Barrakus thought.

The King slowly grew a determined look
"if their is an army within the structure, then we will meet it with our own, we have ruled over Zargonia for over a million years, we will not let the ancients threaten our rule on our home world" the King said as he looked into the eye's of his Sas-Zak friend

[I]"what will you have me do your majesty?"[/I] Barrakus thought to the King

"I shall ready a battalion to help your science teams explore and secure the structure, accompanied by heavy mechs to guard the surface, they shall engage if anything attack's" the King instructed

[I]"understood your majesty, but might I inquire how we are to get inside, we've tried to open what we believe to be a door for hours, nothing seems to work"[/I] Barrakus stated 

"hmmm.... I'll send some heavy firepower to blast the door open if necessary, will that help" the King asked with a grin

[I]"we'll see"[/I] replied Barrakus as he turned to leave
[I]"I'll make sure to contact you if anything important happens"[/I] with that thought Barrakus spread his wings and flew to the doors of the throne room, he just happened to reach the door as the King's advisers returned, opening the door for him to fly on out

[b]somewhere in the desert where the structure is located[/b]

a slight sandstorm is blowing near the ancient structure, it's over 25ft tall, and 40ft across, it's a square shape it one looks from a birds eye view, the science labs set up near it have their shields up, for protection from the storm that is closing in and the threat of possible creatures attacking. The sound of drop ships approaching draws the attention on the scientists inside the labs both Zargan and Sas-Zak alike. They look out the windows to see six drop ships closing in, when they reach the labs ten heavy mechs are dropped and land with a thud, they then begin to walk towards the structure with weapons primed, the last drop ship drops a mobile planetary defense cannon, the ground shake as it hit the ground, it hums to life as it begins to move towards the structure. The drop ships land and open their doors, then RZE soldiers begin to pour out of them all making their way to the structure. after the mechs get in place the soldiers, mostly Zagan, get into formation as the mobile planetary defense cannon gets into place.

the scientists leave the lab and meet with the person in command, one of the female Zargan scientists steps forward to speak 
"what is going on?" she asks, the Zargan commander looks to the scientists

"we're going to be doing a storm op, it's possible that their is a great threat within the structure, we are here to make sure that if that is true we will meet that threat with everything we brought" the commander said to them
"gather your scientists, have them ready to enter the structure after we clear it out, if their is no threat, then you can get to researching whatever it is we find inside" he said as he turned to look at his soldiers

"b-but we've already tried to get in, there is no way to open what we think to be a door, no button or scanner of any kind" the scientist said to the commander, to which he turned around with a grin

"we know, that's why we brought the big gun" the commander said as he looked back to his soldiers
"soldiers! take aim at the structure!" he commanded, all the soldiers aimed their weapons at the doors to the structure, the heavy mechs did so as well, they were a good distance away from it
"ready the cannon!" the mobile cannon had gotten into place and planted it's legs, it aimed it's cannon at the structure, it then made a charging sound as it readied to fire
"Fire!" exclaimed the commander, the second he gave the command, the cannon fired, a shockwave exploded from the barrel of the cannon that blew away the sand. As the shell that was fired sped over the sand, in its wake the sand was shot into the air behind it, the second it inpacted the structure, a bright light followed by a trumendous shockwave and explosion was seen. The soldiers braced themselve in their armor as the shockwave and explosion washed over them, the scientists had taken cover in their labs before the cannon had fired. after the smoke cleared from the impact, it revieled the structure, where what they thought to be a door was now a gaping hole that lead into the structure, the soldiers had their weapons aimed at the hole as they waited. The commander narrowed his eyes as he waited
"alright, move in" he said in a calm and serous tone as he began to move towards the structure, his weapon at the ready. the battalion slowly made their way to the entrance, when they did they stopped, it seems like nothing more then an empty room, they had confused looks on them as they began to whisper amongst each other but stopped when the commander stepped forward
"I'm going in..." he said as he stepped into the empty room he looked around, aiming his weapon with it's light, it seemed like nothing more then an empty room, until the commander reached the center of the room, when he stepped inside of a circular it lit up bright blue, the commander jumped back and aimed his weapon at the floor where he stepped. The soldiers out side were watching with their weapons aimed in. The commander stayed still, until he decided to find out what just happened, he cautiously placed his armored foot inside the circle design on the floor, it lit up again, but this time he didn't take his foot off, the circle then flashed and stopped glowing, a pedestal then came from the center of the circle, it had a flat surface that glowed light blue. The commander slowly raise his right brow as he lowered his weapon and slowly placed his left hand on the top of the pedestal, it then glowed slightly brighter before the designs that filled the room began to light up, the commander didn't know what was going on, he had taken his hand off the pedestal and placed it back on his gun as he looked around, the soldiers that were standing outside slowly began working their way into the room.

"Commander... what is this?..." asked one of the soldiers as they looked at the designs

"it is something made by the ancients, possible the same who made the shield world..." replied the commander as they looked around, the pedestal from before then displayed holographic alien text, the commander walked up to it and tilted his head, he slowly reached out for the text and when he touched it the text dispersed and the pedestal glowed brightly for a second before went back into the floor, the ground then shuddered as it began to change into some form of spiral staircase, the soldiers were slightly bothered as they kept still with their weapons at the ready
"..... interesting...." the commander said as he began to move down the stairs he then looked back to the soldiers
"have some soldiers stand guard, let the scientists do their thing, I'm going further in" as soon as the commander finished talking his will was done, the Sas-Zak and Zargan scientists entered the structure and did what they did best.

Deep inside the structure the soldiers and the commander began to notice the appearance of some ancient symbols on the walls become more frequent, they seemed similar to the ones reported on the fortress world, this was beginning to unsettle the commander, if what he thought was true, then they'd be in for the fight of their life, as they made their way deeper into the structure they came to the end of the stairs, into a pitch black room that seemed to go on forever. The Commander looked around, even with his natural night vision he couldn't see anything
"what is this?...." he asked as he looked around, he aimed his weapon with the flashlight on to the floor, it looked like they were standing on nothing but darkness, the "floor" didn't give off any reflection from the flashlight

"I have a bad feeling about this Commander" on of the soldiers said

"noted..." the Commander said as he took a few steps foreword, lucky enough that he stepped on another symbol hidden on the floor, it lit up bright blue, then it seemed like lines of bright blue light spread out from it, forming into a massive ancient symbol that circled around the base of the stairs, all the soldiers were taken back slightly as they held their weapons at the ready. The commander stood still with a determined look, gripping his weapon as he looked around, then out of the corner of his eye he seen glow, he turned to look and seen a perfect sphere rise out of the "floor", it glowed bright blue with dark blue designs on it. Instinctively the Commander aimed his weapon at it and stepped back, the air around the sphere began to shudder as a charging sound came from it
"what the....." The Commander stepped back further as his soldiers took aim at the sphere, but before they could do anything, a loud sound erupted from it, almost deafening, a trembling wave of air washes over the area, the sound continued to come from the sphere for a few seconds, the soldiers both Zargan and Sas-Zak alike were clutching their heads, even the commander was fighting to stop himself from grabbing at his head, he took aim at the sphere and was about to fire but then the sound stopped. The sphere glowed brightly before thousands of what looked like small holographic data cubes came from it, surrounding it, making it take the form of a silhouetted alien figure that glowed bright blue, it then began to speak, but nothing it said make any sense, it was gibberish to the Zargans and Sas-Zak
"what are you?...." the Commander asked it not expecting it to understand, just as he thought that a bright blue light scanned him from head to tail, a Sas-Zak that was approaching the Commander was also scanned, they stood confused for a second before the holographic silhouetted alien figure began to speak, to the Zargan's is seemed it was speak in their language, to the Sas-Zak, it was speaking in their language

"Language scanned and analyzed" the hologram said in a distorted cybernetic voice. suddenly, the whole room began to shake, walls that seemed to have never been there began to light up with ancient alien designs and symbols, the whole room began descending into a massive chamber with a giant glowing sphere floating about 25 meters away from them. the hologram then spoke again
"We have left behind, for you, the greatest treasure that you could ever hope." it said to the commander and the Sas-Zak scientist
"A fountain of knowledge, where the answer is stored...." The commander tilted his head slightly to this

"the answer to what?" he asked as he lowered his weapon slightly

"everything, However, only those with the purest of intentions are going to access this knowledge. The last thing we want is to grant infinite knowledge to insane dictators."

"then tell me, what does this-" the Commander said, gesturing to the giant sphere
"object have to do with it, there's a reason you show it to us" the Commander inquired

"it is to light the way" the hologram said to him, just then a loud hum could be heard from the giant sphere, then a hole in the ceiling began to open up over the giant sphere
"Within here is the knowledge to build a machine capable of granting your vessels the ability of reaching the answer" the hologram said as a data cube separated from the hologram and into the gauntlet on the Commanders right arm
"I bid you good luck, for your not the only ones looking for it" as it said this the hologram dispersed leaving the small glowing sphere from before, it slowly hovered down to the ground and rested on the floor, the Sas-Zak scientist grabbed the small sphere to research it later just as the room began to shudder. The giant sphere had become louder, a blue mist had formed around it as it shuddered, then a deafening boom came from it as a massive beam of energy shot out of it making a shockwave that knocked all the soldiers off their feet, the beam exited the room through the hole in the ceiling.

The soldiers on the surface as well as the scientists and heavy mechs were taken back when they seen the sands behind the structure begin to form into a funnel like shape, the sand was falling into something leaving a massive hole in the ground, a few seconds later a huge beam of energy shot out of the hole and into the sky, the soldiers and mech all got to what they thought to be a safe distance 

[b]Fortress world orbiting Zargonia[/b]

The Fortress world was on it's regular orbit around Zargonia, but something happened that put some researchers and scientists in a slight panic, the Fortress world had altered it's orbit on it's own and made it so it was orbiting over the desert, exactly over the structure that had been recently unearthed, where the hole had opened up. When the beam of energy fired up from Zargonia it was aimed directly at the fortress world, it took less then a minute for the beam to close the gap between the fortress world and the planet. When the beam reached the fortress world a hole had opened up where it was going to impact the second before it did, the beam sped down the hole that led directly into the fortress worlds core, when it reached the core which looked like a massive black marble sphere, it absorbed it, the core of the planet then began to glow, lighting up to a bright blue glow as ancient alien designs and symbols became visible on the sphere. It was if the fortress world was turned on, things began to move, hum to life, and operate on their own. the beam that was firing from the structure in the desert had stopped and the hole in the ground had closed up, this was the same for the hole on the fortress world

The king was informed of this only minutes after it happened, and the data the Commander had received from the hologram was given to the King, the unearthed structure having nothing else to offer was left alone, all possible artifacts were taken away to be studied and tested on, the soldiers pulled out and the scientists stayed behind to report any further developments. Meanwhile the King had sent for research teams to traverse the fortress worlds interior and exterior for anything of interest

[b]two weeks later, fortress world interior[/b]

a few new interesting things have been found, over the course of two weeks, but they were nothing big to celebrate about, the King had been summoned by Barrakus, he had found something new, a door that wasn't there before, he didn't bother to open it because he feared what could have been inside. when the King arrived he had an escort of six royal guards
"Barrakus, it is good to see you again so soon" the King said to his friend
"so what is this "New thing" you've told me about?" he asked

[I]"it is a door, that wasn't there before, we were afraid to open it not knowing what was inside"[/I] Barrakus thought to the King

"....... I do not fear the ancients...." the King growled as he looked to Barrakus
"nether should you" he said as he walked towards the door, he looked to what looked like some form of scanner to the side of the door, the King stared for a second before he placed his hand on it, the scanner shined blue for a second before the door opened revealing a dark room with small glowing orb floating in the middle. The King walked in with his eye's on the orb, he approached it and tilted his head, he then poked the small orb and it released a bright flash. When the light died down slightly the King opened his eye's, then they widened in awe when he seen a large holographic map of the galaxy they resided in

[I]"it's... our galaxy..."[/I] Barrakus thought as he stood beside the King

"indeed...." the King said as he looked around, he then noticed a small blinking light in the map, he reached towards it and touched the blinking light with the tip of his claw on his index finger, and the map zoomed in on it, showing the Zargans capital system. The blinking light was coming from the fortress world orbiting around Zargonia. The King slowly reached out and touched the holographic fortress world, the map then zoomed out as lines started to bridge out, the King and Barrakus watched as the lines spread out to the nearest RZE systems then they continued spreading out to other systems that the RZE had yet to explore, what the King and Barrakus didn't know is that each system that was being mapped out had a planet that could support life, which meant they had an ancient temples on them as well
"it's a map...." the King finally said as he watched the lines continue to bridge across the galaxy to multiple systems
 
[I]"these are star systems.... including our own....."[/I] Barrakus thought to the King
[I]"your forces were going to explore the ones closest to us not to long from now for possible colonization........ perhaps.... the reason our systems are on here.... are because they hold..... or can hold life....."[/I] Barrakus thought as he looked to the King

The King's eye's widened slightly when hearing this 
"this could be what the Royal Zargonia Empire needs, if your theory is correct, then that means their are more then enough systems to house the entirety of our people, so that our planets populations can get some breathing room" the King thought with a smile

[i]"as good of an idea as that sounds your majesty, what if we find other life out there? intelegent life..."[/i] Barrakus thought, the King looked to him with a rather serous look when he brought this up

"if they are primitives with intelegince, we'll try to make contact, maybe help them if they need it.... if they are hostile primatives, we'll leave them alone..... if they are an advanced race such as us, or more so, then well try to make contact peacfully, your telepathy should help us with this" the King said as he looked at the map
"and if they are hostile.... we'll try to leave them alone, but if they persue, then we will wipe them out" he said in a serous tone
"the rules of engagement are simple.... we are not to fire unless fired upon twice, to make sure if the first shot was a mistake" he said as he notice one of the lines on the mape reaching the galactic core and it began to flash
"?..... what's this?..." the King asked as he reached out and touched the flashing point, it then zoomed in on what looked like a huge cube, planet sized with glowing designs covering it

[i]"perhaps a construct of anceint make you majesty"[/i] Barrakus suggested to the king

"if i recal correctly, from commander Drakon's report of what he found at the anceint structure, he said he found a hologram, it told him that there was a great treasure to be found, a fountain of knowage, where the answer to everthing is.... i doubt it..." the King said as he paced around the holographicgalactic map

[i]"just thinking out loud your majesty, no pun intended, but if there lies the answer to everything, wouldn't that include the blueprints for immortality, we could make it so no one would have to fear death, fear the loss of loved ones"[/i] Barrakus thought to the King with growing excitment

".... if anyone was to find this.... they could become gods.... but with such power.... it would be easy for one to abuse it..... and become tyrants....." the King said as he paced around he then looked to Barrakus
"I wouldn't want our people under the eturnal rule of a dictator, or any other race out there..." he said as he looked t the map

[i]"were we to get there first your majesty, we could prevent such tyranny from ever happening, and possibly help other races in need"[/i] Barrakus thought as he walked up to the galactic map and touched the blinking cude on the map, making it zoom out showing the whole galaxy

"even with such a plan, what are the odds we'd get there before someone else, it is a long trip..." the King said as he looked at the distance their home planet was from the galactic core

[i]"didn't commander Drakon also recieve scematics from the hologram as well?... to better our ships to allow such long journys to be vasty shortened?"[/i] Barrakus thought to the King as he flew to the other side of the map

"indeed he did... the designs were that of a new type of space travel, they have already added to our ships, we have decided to call it the Hyper Velocity Drive, we've already tested it, what would take us a few months to travel between our farthest spread systems has only taken us weaks"

[i]"then what thr problem?..."[/i] Barrakus inquired

"it's a big galaxy... and we're not the only's out there, the anceint hologram said so, and we're a far distance away from the core... there is a good chance that the great treasure has already been found..." the King said as he came to a stop beside Barrakus

[i]"there is the off chance that it hasn't been found"[/i] Barrakus thought hopefully
[i]"your majesty, surely you remember the old saying, it's better to have a weapon and not need it, then need a weapon and not have it, well that applies here, it would be better for us to go to this anceint structure, to make sure if it has or has not been found, it doesn't matter if it has been found by good race or bad race, we'll deal with it if it come to ether of those, rather then leave it be, and find out it has been found by a bad race and not be prepaired if they appear at our doorstep"[/i] Barrakus advised as he looked up to the King.

The King grinned and looked down to Barrakus
"I am glad you are my friend Barrakus, come now, we have an exploration party to ready" the King said as Sas-Zak scientists began entering the galactic map room. The King and Barrakus left the room to make ready the plans

[b]one weak later[/b]

a mighty fleet has been gathered to head towards the galactic core and stop at star systems that looked habitable along the way, consisting of many variations of ships. The head of the fleet was the scouting party, they would be the first to jump into a star system, and give the go ahead for the next part of the fleet to advance, if the coast was clear they would have colony ships advance with the warships, if there was danger, the warships would advance and do their best to get rid of it, and if they so happen to come across inteligent life, the scouting part would advance without the warships or colony ships to see it they could make peaceful first contact, if peacful they would try to communicate with them to see in they could share the star system, if hostile they would leave them alone, but if they persued, the RZE would seek to destroy them, basically the rules of engagment, don't fire unless fired upon twice, to make sure the first shot was a mistake.

with that, the scouting party activated their HVD's (Hyper Velocity Drive's) and readied to jump to the nearest star system. the exterour of the ships became enveloped in a light blue sheild, the engines hummed loudly as the HVD's charged up, then the ships vanished in a blur of speed one by one, sometimes a few would jump at the same time, all gave off a visable blue vertical shockwave as they entered Hyper Velocity, their targeted destination was a star system at 36 degrees, 45,000y.

[b][u]Fleet:[/u][/b]

[b]scouting party:[/b]

10 Frigates

[b]colonising party:[/b]

7 Colony ships

30 Freighters

[b]combat party:[/b]

4 Carriers

10 Heavy Cruisers

15 Light Cruisers

20 Destroyers

5 Battleships

50 Frigates