Humanity and the current situation

Months passed since the great battle between Alpha and Beta aliens.

I considered a pre-emptive strike against one of the nations, but in the end, I chose against such a risky move.

There is no way both sides send their entire fleets into one massive battle, they definitely had some kind of backup to defend themselves in case they lose.

There is simply no way they would risk such a thing, especially with a third party such as myself watching.

During these long months, a new class of ship was made.

The destroyer.

It is a 500-meter by 320-meter behemoth, it has six railguns and two long-range lasers inspired by the Alpha aliens, and improved Laser defense and shielding also inspired by the Alpha Aliens, who we now know to be Quskar Republic.

And from their enemy, the Kuckod Regime, we took the missile idea and strapped some of them to our own corvettes.

My fleet now has forty corvettes and ten destroyers, only ten for now, those things aren't cheap.

We have Expanded our borders to twenty-one systems.

And of course the most important development of all, we have made contact with the Quskars and Kuckods.

The two nations have been at war for years apparently, and neither of them liked the newcomer, us.

The Republic despised us, or more specifically me, for being born into power and being a "Noble pig."

The Regime has the exact opposite reasoning, it's because I am said "Noble pig" that they hate me.

It's an insult to their Emperor.

Nevermind, that's inaccurate, their God is a more accurate statement.

It's an insult to their god.

The people freaked out and everyone was either excited, terrified, or both.

I calmed the people down with military parades, I explained why we are in no immediate danger, and how with time, we will surpass all of our enemies as we did in the days of old.

This didn't make my two new neighbors very happy, but so what? They hate me anyways.

I made great, lengthy, and short, speeches to my people, the most popular one is actually my favorite as well.

I still remember it, it was the day the public found out the truth.

I stood on a balcony in the Imperial Palace, looking at the city below, even from here I could hear the people shouting and see them moving around nervously.

The giant screens on all skyscrapers were broadcasting me, and recording my every move live.

"My people, I understand why you are all so scared, this is a very unpredictable and Challenging time for all of us, but since when did humanity cower from challenges? When our ancestors were being chased around by wild animals were they scared? Of course, they were, and you know what they did?"

I talked in a flat tone, leaving everyone wondering why I'm so dead.

Silence, the crowd was completely silent, waiting to see what the Emperor's point was

"They made tools and weapons, they got stronger and stronger, smarter and smarter until they buried any being on this planet that dared to challenge our dominion over Earth."

I spoke with pride of our ancestors and continued.

"When they split the Atom for the first time, they thought it might end the universe, but they still did it, for mankind, men went to war knowing that they will never be the same after it, but they did it anyways, why? Why do such suicidal things?"

I let the silence hang in the air for a while...

"For their children, their families, and mankind."

"We shall never surrender my people, have you forgotten our anthem? Have you forgotten everything we have lost on our path?! We cannot bend, we cannot surrender, and most importantly of all..."

"We cannot let our fear paralyze us! Look at yourselves! Don't you feel any shame? shaking in fear at the Xeno's threats?! Remember where we come from! From the jungles and deserts of Africa to the first world wars, to the burial of the old world and rebirth of humanity as a new people!"

I spoke with pride, passion, and most importantly...

... Disappointment and anger.

Pride filled their hearts as well as disgust and rage, how COULD they be afraid? They SHOULD feel ashamed.

"We. all of us. are strong. and together, we are unbeatable! TOGETHER WE ARE HUMANITY!"

I said with passion and genuine belief.

The crowd roared with excitement and Adam could see the crowd getting rowdy.

"SO! My people, will you shake in fear? will you bring disgrace to your ancestors who fought to build our current lives?! OR. will you rise to the challenge and protect YOUR families?! YOUR future?! YOUR species?!"

Adam could hear their screams of pride and anger all the way from here.

"I have made my choice the second I swore to lead you, I will die before I kneel to the Xeno threat because HUMANITY NEVER KNEELS!"

"AND THE AZBURGIANS ALWAYS STAND TALL!"

The anthem started playing again, but this time there were all of the key moments since Adams's childhood and since he was crowned Emperor.

It showed Adam helping people even as a child, going out and meeting them, trying to understand their struggles and make their lives better.

He even proposed many ideas to his father and passed their words along in his own ways that his personal servants couldn't understand since they weren't his majesty's children.

It showed the corruption of Lucius Valencia and the nobles and the swift execution of all of them.

It showed the Emperor who went with his men to their first step into the universe, the Emperor who believed in their greatness even more than they did.

The Emperor who understood them, helped them, no matter their age, wealth, and family status.

The Emperor who was the best Emperor they could possibly ask for, the Emperor who they trusted more than anything else, Their Emperor Adam Valencia the First.

With that, the speech ended, and I was, and still am, very proud of it, partially because I genuinely think that this is the truth.

After leading these people for nearly two years, I genuinely like them.

They are courageous, hard-working, and intelligent.

So seeing them so out of control genuinely disappointed me.

If I can keep it together, they should too.

I'm very happy I was able to shake some sense into them.

It's been a month since then and my people are united once more, which is a good thing considering that my two new neighbors aren't very friendly...

Unfortunately in order to unite my people a lot of "Humanity first, Xeno last." Propaganda had to be used, which made the whole society quite xenophobic towards sentient xeno life, primitives are as far as I can tell, mostly unaffected.

All of this led to a huge boost in army recruitment, This civilization was already militaristic before, and now that a new threat has appeared it seems people have gotten more extreme in response.

Any new aliens we meet are gonna be immediately intimidated by this, which isn't all bad I guess.

At this point, people are so fanatical about me that if I told them to kamikaze the aliens, they would do it, no questions asked.

Scrolling the internet in my free time was also quite intimidating, there were videos everywhere about how "I'm the greatest Emperor ever!" and how "The Xeno scum messed with the wrong person!"

It was honestly funny, I was tempted to send one to my neighbors but decided against it.

I'll do that later to piss them off.

Now back to the important national Emperor stuff.

Now that we can understand their languages, we can spy on the Republic and the Regime, which is a great boon to us, although they have their more important channels encrypted, we can still listen to their people and observe their habits and strengths.

Are they physically strong? are they stronger than us? How about endurance? these sorts of questions.

Right now we are in the "Discovery phase" where we learn as much as we can to determine our chances of survival.

And the odds are surprisingly in our favor.

The Republic is indecisive and slow to move due to its inefficient system, but its a meritocracy, motivating its people to move forwards.

The Regime is more efficient, yes, however, their people are so fanatical that they never question what their Emperor does, their hierarchy is also a lot more rigid, meaning normal people rarely make it anywhere important.

Which has slowly corrupted them from the inside out, although it hasn't gotten too bad yet.

Although my people are fanatical, they still question me when I do something and suggest better moves.

So we have benefits of both Government types and none of the negatives.

Corruption spreads slowly due to the commoners, nobles, and the Emperor being connected so closely, and since the Emperor wields all of the decision-making power, The Empire will never be stuck due to being bogged down by inefficient bureaucracy.

Of course, it's not perfect, but as long as the Emperor keeps a watchful eye on his subjects then corruption will be basically non-existent.

It's due to these mistakes that these two Nations are only equal to the Azburgian Empire, despite being in space for years ahead of them.

Not only that, but the Republic is facing massive piracy, since they revealed how to make their FTL drives to everyone without consideration.

And the Empire isn't any better, although few and far between, some of their people are noticing their Emperor and nobles falling from grace. These people stole some ships and are now raiding their former comrades. Using any resources they get to build their own ships.

Meanwhile, the Azburgian Empire stands strong and united thanks to wise leadership and camaraderie between their brothers and sisters.

Previous Emperors had more than enough time to instill unity and strength into the human race, and they did it well.

The only people it didn't work on were the Seraphs, who continued extorting and threatening their "Family" for money.

And now they also believe this.

Anyone who is needlessly hostile is immediately straightened out, and the victims aren't victimized, instead, they are forced to go to the gym, walk outside, study, and do other things to strengthen them.

Feminism or any other ideology that would alienate someone from their species or make useless problems is immediately crushed.

Their only loyalty is to the Emperor and the Empire.

The men are loyal to their wives and children, and the women to their husbands and children.

The children look up to their parents and become like them, loyal to the Empire and each other.

And now, a united humanity looks at the divided universe in contempt, and although the surrounding alien powers don't know it yet...

...They will all kneel soon. For their new masters have fully ascended into the stars.