Pours himself a drink. Say, that reminds me, the military's made yet another subdivision of the Taeskors. They're to be called Taeskor Legionaries, and they'll be trained to fight as large-scale battle infantry. The Supreme Octicate will have four legions under his direct control at all times. It's rumored that one Taeskor legion will be able to take on three standard Army battlegroups, in other words, five times as many troops. They'll be our first elite infantry aside from Army spec-ops teams. Couple them with our new type of battleship and the general enlargement of the fleet... Raises eyebrows. Interesting that our military is expanding so much in times of peace. Like I've said, we've exterminated the rebels.
Leans down toward Athena and lowers his voice. It's rumored that the Greccha may have returned. In case you're not familiar with Phylydion history, two thousand years ago, about three hundred years after we came through the wormhole to this galaxy, an inefficient political system made the Nation of Phylydia, as we called ourself then, weak and plagued by internal squabbles. A conquering race called the Greccha scouted us out for a few years, then moved in to attack. They viciously swept through our dozen-world space and conquered us. For over four hundred years we were their slaves. But a resistance movement was always fighting. Eventually we started a fifty-year project, a construction project that took place in the hollowed-out core of a dense moon. Every Phylydion contributed, passing a piece of metal, a weapon, a tool, from person to person until we had a vast ship being built. Smiles.
That ship was the Phylydia. In fifty-five years, she was complete. Then, one of the resistance's agents "allowed" information about the moon to fall into the hands of the Greccha occupiers. The information stated that the moon itself was being turned into a weapon. A massive Greccha fleet assembled, flew to the moon, and started pounding its surface. The Phylydia, inside, used the bombarment as cover to blast its way out of the moon. It destroyed the Greccha fleet completely. It proceeded to fly to each of the dozen worlds and wipe out all Greccha presence their. The rebellion then became overt, and within weeks a fleet of ships had been scraped together. The Greccha probably could've mustered enough strength to defeat the Phylydia, but to do so they would've had to leave much of their territory undefended. They left, and within a few years we had drastically expanded our military and territory, due mainly to our new government, an early form of the High Octicon. It was at this point that the rebellion started. Several thousand citizens opposed the new government and simply left.
But anyway, after the Imperium was formed, we launched a retaliatory strike on the Greccha for the atrocities they had commited. We swiftly demolished their fleets and pounded their planets to rubble-in some cases, literally. Eventually we reduced their formerly thirty-planet empire to their home planet and its two moons.
However, we have no idea how many may have escaped during our attack. And their have been reports...Drifts off.
A dashing young Phylydion walks into the room in a black high-collared uniform. Garrion! Good to see you, old friend.
-You too, Traek.
Garrion bows elegantly, and his eyes catch Athena's on the way back up. His smile changes slightly. Cicion notices this and rolls his eyes. -Ah, who's the lady? May I try my hand or have you already charmed her beyond recognition?
Oh, give me a break, Garrion. You know I don't go after Humans. Glances at Athena. No offence.
-Ah, yes, that's right. Too bad for you.
Garrion takes a seat at the bar.
-Cicion, did you ever work for PhylSec?
No.
-You have no idea how much paperwork has to be done for a simple spy mission to be undertaken. Ordinarily I'd already be in suspected Greccha territory by now, but I probably won't be going for another few days. Glances at Athena and grins. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
Cicion sighs. My apologies for my friend, Athena. He's rather...energetic and risk-taking. Probably what makes him so good an agent. Care for another drink?
...well...anyway, could you get me a chocolate milkshake? old-style-down-the-entire-bar thing ya know?