A meeting and a decisive strike

His Majesty sat upon his throne, and his soon-to-be wife sat on a smaller platform a few steps below him, looking down on the "human child" before them.

The room was filled to the brim with guards, all of them eyeing the child with fear and caution.

This "human child" had brown hair, green eyes, and a cute-looking face, and it seemed very natural.

One wouldn't believe this thing is a monster in human skin, and Adam wouldn't either if it weren't for the substantial evidence given to him a few hours back.

This thing is a Hive creature, a Hive-spawn if you will.

Unlike the other Hive-spawn, this one did not send off any alarms which would normally evoke the uncanny valley effect.

In fact, the creature has managed to evade detection for who knows how long, and only after discrepancies began appearing did they catch the thing.

It looked normal, but the behavior didn't match up and it wasn't recorded in any institutions.

While being caught, it demanded to see his majesty personally to negotiate, not only that, it never showed any signs of nervousness or fear, only a slightly bored, if not deadpan face.

When it entered the throne room, its eyes widened slightly, but that was it, no wonder, no excitement, just cold calculation.

Now this could still be explained as a complex mental disorder, but its anatomy couldn't.

everything LOOKED fine, but its insides were all over the place, with organs slightly misplaced and bones either thicker or thinner than they should be if they were even there at all.

It was around eighty percent accurate, it was as if a child tried making a detailed copy of the human body out of clay.

Considering the complexity and intricacy of the human body, even this much is impressive, and the threat this posed could not be ignored.

The spawn locked eyes with Adam, and it seemed to smirk slightly before opening its mouth, its face showing emotion for the first time.

Just before it spoke, Adam ensured that it understood who was in power here.

"Are you not going to kneel before your Emperor?"

"Ahaha!" A cacophony of different voices rang out as if laughing at the suggestion, "You are not MY Emperor your majesty!"

"What do you want, Hive."

"Hum Hum... what could I want? Well, peace." Adam blinked in surprise at the answer, as he did not expect the creature to want peace.

"Don't be so surprised! you people aren't worth the effort anymore. A good analogy would be... cockroaches I believe? you are way too difficult to kill!"

"Also, I have a name thank you! It's Qui consumpsit."

"Is that Latin?" Serena spoke up, it seems she recognized the ancient tongue.

"Aah right, Serenity, you know you two should be grateful, I could be crowned matchmaker of this galactic cycle for everything I did to get you two together." It mused, "And to answer your sharp inquiry, yes, it is the ancient language that humans know as Latin."

That brought a lot of disturbing implications, did the humans of the past know of this thing? Did they fight? But how could they possibly win such a battle?

"Now now my dears, it is best we move to the negotiations, isn't it? If I told you all the things I have seen, you wouldn't remain sane I'm afraid."

"...Right, what are your terms?"

"Well, I am a generous being, and I think you won't say no to such a thing after I tell you." It chuckled. "I will leave you to expand and do as you please, you are free to do anything you want, I don't care, Just do not approach... could you show me a map or something so I can point the systems out to you?"

After being handed a blank datapad with a map of the Orion-spur arm, which showed no names or locations, merely the presence of stars, it pointed out two groups of stars each with forty to fifty systems, still a distance away from the Empire.

"Those, don't expand towards those and don't send any signals towards them."

"Are there other civilizations there?" Serena asked.

"That doesn't concern you if you want peace."

"Is that all?" A dam intervened in the discussion.

"Yes, you can do as you please, systems without things to consume are worthless to me anyways."

'So there are other civilizations there.' Adan connected the dots, and so did Serena.

"Do you agree to the conditions?" The Hive asked.

"...Yes," Adam answered after careful consideration.

"Excellent! Now I would appreciate it if you could get rid of this reject," It pointed to the body, "I'm quite frankly ashamed that I failed so horribly at creating something." Blood began pouring out of its nose. "Oh! seems like you don't have to, the whole thing is coming apart."

"Well then, your Majesties, it has been an honor." It did a little bow and the body promptly collapsed onto the floor, lifeless.

"Take it outside and burn it, make sure it is completely erased."

"Yes, your majesty!" The soldiers carefully put the body in a bag, making sure none of them directly touched it in the process, just to be safe, and took it outside.

"Why is that thing named in Latin? and why did it sound like Latin isn't even a human-only language? I am so confused right now..." Serena mumbled absentmindedly.

"There is no point thinking about it since we can't get answers anyways, now we must prepare for a second war."

"A second war, So you don't intent to follow the agreement?" Serena said puzzled while tilting her head slightly.

"I do, just not forever, besides, how could we just let the Hive expand and get stronger while we do nothing?"

"True, I wonder how the people are gonna react to this..." She said troubled, and it's easy to see why.

Hatred of the Hive has rooted itself in every fabric of society, as humans need something to blame for their misfortunes, what better thing to blame than the Hive which caused all of this?

So when they learn that the Emperor has decided to have peace with the thing, it might cause an uproar, especially when they inevitably find out we are forsaking two other species to be consumed alive.

"Well, what can we do? I'll order the AIB to spread rumors that we are gonna backstab the Hive, hopefully, that should appease them."

"Haaah, this is such a headache..." Serena complained while rubbing her forehead.

"Haha, get used to it dear, when you become the Empress your only gonna have it worse."

"Wooo... I'm so excited..." Serena sarcastically cheered, and the two of them laughed.

The announcement was received with anger, but understanding and relief as well.

The people are tired of living in factories, constantly worrying if this is the day their loved ones die, and endlessly making weapons.

The people came to an angry but peaceful conclusion, which was greatly helped by the rumors which rapidly spread across the Empire, giving everyone a sense of excitement.

The Empire rapidly expanded, now unimpeded once more, and the Imperialism within it was renewed with a vigor never before seen in history, fueled by anger and a hunger for power.

The Imperial fleet also got a makeover, rebuilding itself with the new flow of fresh resources and new men entering service.

Adam ensured they slowly expanded towards the marked locations, but in a very roundabout way, never directly beelining for them.

It was while expanding in all directions that they received their first transmission from one of these civilizations, and after months of translation, they learned a few things.

This civilization is called the Retoria Traders, led by multiple corporations and nations working closely together to survive, with the ATRIA corporation holding major power, effectively leading the entire civilization.

Their ships are all significantly larger, but paradoxically they are about half as tall as humans, due to the stronger gravity on their homeworld.

Their flagship "STAR" is one of the reasons they haven't gone extinct yet, with each passing month their species nears extinction.

That is all the information they managed to get, everything else is just a request for help, and promises of wealth and anything one could desire if they respond.

Of course, the Empire didn't respond, not yet, they would have to hold on for half a year at least before Adam felt confident enough to tumble with the Hive again.

The other region has been dead silent, maybe they are already dead, Adam had no way to know what could possibly be there.

Months passed, with the Empire strengthening itself and rebuilding, the Hive utterly ignoring them, for a while.

It was when the Azburgian borders were about fifty systems away from the Retorians that the Hive contacted them again, and it wasn't happy.

Its form was an exact copy of before, along with the imperfections and failures, it seems the thing just cannot perfectly recreate the human body, much to its frustration.

"Could you kindly tell me what the agreement was?" It spoke, frustrated.

"That we don't contact the aliens?" dam played dumb, clearly toying with it.

"Not that part!" it shouted now, clearly unhappy.

"That we don't expand towards them?" Adam asked, his voice laced with stupidity and ignorance.

"Yes! now explain yourselves!" It demanded.

"There is nothing to explain, we are doing what any living being does, surviving, and leaving you threatens our survival more than whatever those aliens have in store." Adam concluded, "You are too big of a threat, be honored, you will have the privilege of being annihilated by humanity."

"Ha! Well, this is expected! though you recovered faster than I thought, human psychology eludes me I suppose." It shrugged, "I will see you on the front, lost soul." It grinned at Adam's pale face, and its eyes glowed with power unknown.

The soldiers, seeing the Hive as now a threat to the Emperor acted quickly, completely annihilating the body it created without mercy.

With the thing dead, Adam let out a relieved sigh, and the Empire immediately contacted the Retorians much to their relief, as they are on the brink of collapse.