And So It Begins: Starbase Byron

[Ethan Talon]

"You know about that eh? Though, I suppose it ain't a state secret. " He flexed he right mechanical hand and let out a mixture of a growl and sigh. "I wouldn't recommend it, but it's better than being dead or in a wheelchair."

[Ophelia]

"Indeed... and I am starting to see why Trinity would be so in love with a crippled soldier. You have quite a strong aura of the Iljuna around you." Ophelia said and hummed. "I also see you have a 'thing' for helping 'bad girls'... like Kalia Lei. I am rather fascinated by her and her brother... especially after my father neutered him and his old lady. Seriously she's old enough to be his grandmother. Great-grandmother even." she snorted. "Anyway... you help me, I'll keep the hatchet from your head and we'll leave Terra Alpha alone... but we'll still take some planets. Force you to do better. Evolve or die. The Iljuna is so confused and battered here... never seen that. Course I'm only months old... so lots of things I haven't seen first hand."

[Ethan Talon]

"That it is," Ethan agreed. "I can't promise you we won't come after you, but I can promise you I will not today."

[Ophelia]

"Oh I want you to come after me. That's the whole point." Ophelia said as she gave some commands on her wrist communicator. "My parents and my brother are probably not going to last the day, so I'll be in charge before nightfall." she looked around and saw the damage that she had already caused to Byron. "I figure you'll need a few months maybe a year to rebuild, repair and re-crew. Which will be plenty of time for me to rebuild my own power base and perhaps I won't have any need to come to this conquered system again. And you were conquered. That future that your wife and you came from, I could have made that happen. Daily EMP attacks, just when you start getting civilization back online... it goes out again. Fire up the Imperium remnant, and then when you've all fought until you've exhausted every avenue... open the rifts and swallow the Alpha Quadrant into a nice tidy blackhole. But then... what fun would that be? You wouldn't evolve, you wouldn't better yourselves or improve... you'd just turn into grunting cavemen." she crossed her arms and smiled. "No, I want you to get better... to get smarter. To stop thinking with your Ape Brains and use the higher levels of your intelligence. It'll be arms race General. Who'll evolve quicker. Me and my Scions or you and your Alliance? I don't have quite the nihilistic tendencies of my father or the outright conquering spirit of my mother. Like i want to have to run EVERYTHING? That's far too much work. No... I want to see where all this goes and nurture the Ajem'dasis side of the Iljuna back to health. There must be a balance after all."

[Ethan Talon]

"I agree with the balance thing," Ethan said. "There's no dark without light, but I don't like killing. I don't like hurtin' folk, but I will defend what's mine, and I will defend the innocent. I wish I could say you do your thing and we'll do ours bit we both know that isn't going to happen."

[Ophelia]

"Oh of course... you're smart enough to know not trust a bloody thing I say, but you and I... we'll part as neither friends nor enemies. I've already gotten what I believe I truly wanted out of all this and you... you'll get to say whatever you want about how this ended. How you beat me. How I ran tail tucked between my legs. Although I can always say the same about you, I let you live... when you knew full well I could have ended everything you love within a moment and I didn't." Ophelia gave him a smirk. "So General... may the best side win in the end."

[Ethan Talon]

"I do not lie sis. You got the best of me. You got the best of all of us, and I suspect you even outsmarted your own side. I believe there's hope for you yet. Perhaps you are more like Órlaith than you'd like to admit. Until next time, and I truly hope it's a very long time. But, let me leave you with this: love isn't weakness, and hate isn't strength. Loving someone else takes a strength that is contrary to innate selfish human behavior. Do yourself a favor and open your heart just once."