Domination.

The battle has been a glorious victory for the Empire, and both enemy homeworlds are now exposed to attack.

The only remaining question is who to strike first.

The choice was made swiftly by the upper command, who chose the Quskars Capital.

Although Adam wanted to exterminate the Kuskods first, he understood the choice made and had no logical objection to make, hence, he said nothing.

The guiding factor to this decision made by the upper command is the fact that the republic's fortress is much weaker compared to the Empire's and the Regime's stations.

Survival of the fittest is true on every level of existence. And Interstellar warfare is no exception.

The reason the Republic did not spend as much into building their main station is ironically for their people.

People in the Republic demand certain privileges, and these privileges must be met.

Such are the burdens of a righteous democracy.

These free people demand better pay and constantly want more even when they already have more than enough.

That is fine on its own, but the issue is when lazy people get into higher positions, this encourages corruption and a nation vide domino effect ensues.

And it's incredibly difficult to terminate the vermin since they need overwhelming evidence.

So, the Republic was forced to choose between building a large fleet or a station, since they didn't have the resources or capable manpower for more.

The Republic chose the fleet, which most would say is the correct choice.

And in most situations, yes, it would be.

But the Republic's weak, corrupted insides and aggressive, judgmental foreign policy have led it into this horrible predicament.

A predicament that could not only prove fatal to itself but also the entire Quskar species.

And it could all have been so easily avoided if they sought friendly relations with the Empire in the beginning, or just weren't so judgmental.

But the leadership of the Republic, and neither the people, harbored such regrets.

They genuinely believe that they are fighting a good battle, and the sacrifices for a free universe are all worth it.

A noble and idealistic goal, one that shall not be fulfilled by them it seems.

Such were the thoughts of the people from the Quskar Republic as all of their remaining ships, be they cargo, trade, or independent, received whatever weaponry the Republic had left.

The Empire announced its intent clearly both times.

The first time, they said they will spare the children, and maybe even a few key individuals.

The second time, they informed not only the Republic but also the Regime of their intent to slaughter, maim, and purge the universe of their filth.

Either Humanity would remain standing alone, or they would cease to be.

This is a war for their right to exist.

Most of the pirates returned to the home system and gave whatever resources they had, including spare weapon parts.

The Republic pardoned them and allowed them to join the battle ahead.

They needed all the Quskars available.

Right now, they don't have the privilege of being picky.

So, A hundred ships, all barely capable of combat and each with only a few weapons strapped to them watched vigilantly, as a ripple in space was detected by their lower-quality sensors, each giving them a warning that the Royal Fleet was going to arrive in their system in an hour max.

Every ship went into a frenzy as last-minute traps were set up.

All mines and explosives, literally any debris that could be used to give them an advantage was used.

and as the last ships retreated to return to their allies, a large flotilla of professional warships slowed down and dropped out of FTL travel just in front of the debris

The FTL drives safety kicked in just in time and stopped the Empire from suffering massive damage before the battle even began.

This was when the Quskars noticed that the Empire wasn't alone, many of the pirates joined forces with them in return for keeping their lives.

Not only that, but the Empire offered to make a new state and put them in charge!

How incredibly lucky.

If these people were any smarter, they would suspect that the Empire would betray them, but they are not.

Which means the Empire can use them as it pleases.

Thanks to these pirates, the battle reached a scale never before seen by the Empire or the Republic.

On the Empire's side, there are their own twenty corvettes and thirty destroyers, along with the pirate's twenty corvettes.

The republic has sixty-five converted ships, these barely count but they serve as good meatshields, their only ships capable of dealing damage are thirty pirate corvettes along with five pirate destroyers.

Seeing how powerful the pirates are, Adam isn't surprised the Republic couldn't keep them under control.

Their firepower equaled that of the Republic, and even the Empire, and they most likely had people in the Republic.

Truly terrifying how far these pirates have gone unimpeded.

But now, all of them and their species will be wiped off the face of the milky way, and the universe as a whole.

The republic's ships circled their station, it was a ball-shaped station with a ring surrounding it, the two weren't connected, making them separate stations, powerful weapons came out of it, and its smooth, sci-fi-looking metal walls seemed incredibly sturdy from afar.

They will be put to the test soon.

The ships circled the station, hoping the Empire would attack them and charge into the mines scattered around it.

Meanwhile, the Empire's fleet stood still for a second, from their perspective, they could see an amazing sight.

A hundred ships, all looking different from each other, with different color schemes and different designs.

Hundreds of radically different individuals came together, showing unity unprecedented by their species in their whole history, all of them came to protect their family, friends, and species from death and extinction.

Their jungle world below the station was covered in a green glow, like an emerald shining brightly against the darkness, with the old class G star towering majestically in the distance, its surface exploding with violent bursts of magma, Giving the planet a halo-like ring above it.

These males and females have earned humanity's respect. But they shall be culled either way.

The best they can give them is a warrior's death and killing their people swiftly without pain.

So, the human fleet began to slowly maneuver towards the station.

They shot at the mines using their point defense, but they were unable to cause a chain reaction because the Republic spaced out the mines just far enough to not catch each other when they exploded.

So the Empire slowly clawed its way through the minefield, and when the first ships made it through they immediately got blasted from all sides, destroying them.

Of course, these ships are pirate ships, why would the Empire send its precious ships first?

So the allied pirates charged through, as the gap in the minefield widened further, allowing more ships to pass through it at the same time.

Now a horrible slaughter ensued, as the essentially defenseless civilian ships charged at the Empires professional forces.

Many rammed into the Empire's ships, causing serious damage, but the Empire did not allow that to happen often as their ships outmaneuvered the Republic's ships.

However, the debris floating around made this difficult, hence some suicide attacks were successful.

Still, the battle-hardened and well-trained Azburgian fleet dominated the untrained swathes of ships, achieving an impressive kill-death ratio of 5-1.

But their numbers were still overwhelming, every time they killed one ship, two would take its place.

But slowly and surely, despite taking massive casualties, they methodically removed all resistance.

Now, the Empire has only five corvettes and twenty destroyers left standing in the system, as some ships retreated after suffering heavy damage that made them useless in combat.

The pirate fleet only has a handful of corvettes left, as they took the brunt of the first attacks.

It's honestly a miracle that any of them survived.

Just as they were celebrating how lucky they are, the destroyers of the Empire trained their weapons on them and fired.

They all died without even knowing how.

A mercifully quick death for such filth.

Now their eyes set on the jungle planet below them, the massive settlements could be seen from outer space, even during the day, as their cold and artificial steel background formed a sharp contrast to the planet's thick, dark green, thriving jungles.

Two major continents, with a bunch of smaller islands between them, covered the surface of the planet.

As the soldiers from the royal navy analyzed the planet's defenses for hours, the soldier transports arrived above the planet.

Before they dropped down, the fleet first bombed the world for days, and not with ordinary bombs.

After all, what good is a nuke if you're not gonna use it?

And so, where once great cities stood, filled with vigor, life, and culture, now only a dead, hollow, and depressing skeleton of once great cities remains.

The nukes also contain no long-term radiation, since they used neutron bombs.

Billions of people were obliterated by the destructive power of human ingenuity and past hatred for each other.

Only Quskars hidden in bunkers remained alive after a while, and that's when the transports went down.

And the Emperor joined them.

Hundreds of large transport pods, each built to get down on the ground as fast as possible and covered with multiple layers of shielding, make their way through the thick atmosphere of the Quskar homeworld.

The atmosphere burned brightly against them as if the planet is trying to remove the unwanted threat.

But despite their bright visibility, no weapons fired against them as an eerie quiet hung over the cities.

No animals could be heard, nothing, just a tranquil quiet.

Until the pods violently crashed into the ground, creating a loud *CRASH* and *SCREECH*ing of metal crashing against metal that echoed throughout the entire city, thousands of such echoes could be heard in the distance as well.

The soldiers and his majesty left the pod and scanned their surroundings, their guards as high as their weapons pointing towards the surrounding buildings.

The sidewalks are completely covered with metal, and the buildings are built out of durable concrete.

Only the buildings directly caught in the initial blast and near the point of explosion are damaged thanks to the nature of the neutron bomb only throwing out gama and neutron waves, killing all living matter in a kilometer-wide area.

These waves penetrate even concrete, sparing only underground bunkers from a slow death.

There are bodies everywhere, the streets covered with hundreds of bodies, all pointing towards one direction, most likely where the shelter is.

As the soldiers walked methodically toward the suspected location of a bunker, Adam observed the bodies of their opponents on the ground.

Their skins are peeling off, and a yellow liquid is around their mouths, most likely their stomach acids, or their equivalent of them anyways.

Their eyes are withered and green blood was most likely pouring from them a few days ago, judging by the blood around their mouth mixing with the vomit, the blood found other escapes as well.

Their mechanical legs were still twitching, their programming alive, constantly sending out requests for help and warning any other people in the area of the danger they find themselves in.

Every kilometer, they would encounter another crater, which they would cross with no problems.

In one crater, however, a massive worm-like creature suddenly emerged out of the ground, the beast killed five unlucky men before they subdued it.

But such losses are negligible, there are hundreds of units moving towards each bunker, and all of them combined had a little less than a million men.

Now they know why the Quskars reinforced the floor with steel.

So they kept moving, not even blinking at the smaller aliens half-buried by their bigger counterparts.

Most likely their children, buried alive by their collapsing parents who tried to protect them until their last breath.

Adam paused at this sight, and the men escorting him stopped and looked at what he was looking at.

They immediately understood what made Adam pause.

But Adam didn't waste much time and kept moving forwards, his escorts quickly moving after him.

after a few more minutes of walking, they reached a large structure in front of them.

The Administration.

In this building, all of the important decisions were made, and the leaders of the Republic are hidden inside with their families.

Thousands of bodies are piled up at the closed thick doors to the administration, all of these people were desperately struggling to save themselves and their leaders did not help them, even though they could have.

And Adam knows that as a fact.

They could have helped them, there are more than enough resources and space for more people.

But they abandoned them, which is the correct strategical choice.

The leaders ARE more important than a few extra common people.

but what irked Adam about it is that THESE people were preaching to him about equality and helping everyone and this other bullshit.

But when their own neck came under threat, they did not hesitate to abandon their own values and leave even their children to their fate.

And Adam doesn't deny being responsible for this. But he did it for the safety of his species, they were a threat and refused to back down, whether he was nice or evil, they just wouldn't listen.

Adam looked with pity at the smaller creatures, innocent souls killed because their parents elected fools into office.

"Break it down," Adam ordered with a cold voice that didn't reveal how he felt, but the soldiers could hear that subtle anger and disappointment in it.

They all pointed their plasma rifles at the door.

Just then, the door opened and an alien rushed out of it.

The soldiers were startled for a second but quickly formed a defensive perimeter around Adam.

The alien hurriedly spoke before he was executed by the humans.

"WAIT! My name is Qurpon, I am the president of the Republic, Please, I beg of you, spare at least our children, they haven't done anything wrong!"

The soldiers looked towards his majesty after hearing their translators explain to them what the alien was saying.

Adam simply straightened out and walked towards the president.

Their bodies aren't very tall, and the president was only half as tall as Adam.

He looked up at Adam and waited for an answer.

Instead, he was surprised when he got a question in return.

"How many bunkers are there in this world?" Adam did not wait for an answer and answered himself, "Twenty-one thousand three-hundred and forty-eight exactly."

He continued, "They can facilitate over fifteen billion people, so why are there eight billion casualties when your population is exactly fifteen billion people? Why did the rich get preferential treatment? Isn't everyone equal in the Republic? Why did you allow the rich people to close the bunkers early to heighten their own chances of survival? Huh? Why did you do that?"

Adam walked over to a child's corpse and picked it up, its skin peeling off as he did so.

He threw the corpse to the president's feet and asked him again.

"Why? Why weren't you wiser? why intentionally piss off two equally powerful Empires when one was trying to befriend you?"

And then he paused and continued shortly afterward.

"Now you ask me to spare your children? aren't you a bit late? You killed them by your stupidity and ignorance, YOU have caused the downfall of your entire species!"

"Your species will be forgotten, never achieving anything great within the infinite universe. Because you and your corrupted friends destroyed EVERYTHING!"

"You self-righteous, hypocritical baboons absolutely screwed yourselves, and now you want me to bail your offspring out so that they can fuck things up more? are you insane?"

"In short. NO. I will slaughter you all, and the last Quskar will be ripped apart by me personally!"

As I finished saying that, before the president could whip up any more nonsense, I shot him with my plasma gun, giving him a quicker death than he deserved.

Afterward, we moved towards the bunker and destroyed any obstacles in our paths, meeting several units along the way in, we joined forces and killed all Quskars remaining.

This happened all over the planet, and during this, the fleet destroyed all remaining stations in space.

So, On the tenth of November, in the year three thousand two hundred and forty-nine of the Azburgian calendar, the Quskar species was officially announced extinct.

And now, Adam Valentia and his Empire set their eyes on the Kuckods...