"They're a single object that's relatively easy to destroy, and they're easy to jam. They're fine in peaceful regions like this-"
He raises his left eyebrow and wiggles his Incident Report datapad.
It's still more peaceful than an active warzone, you know. Even if some of the incidents looks like one.
"-but they're be a bad idea anywhere near Reach space."
"So? Build them as far away from the conflict zone as you can, and you could link the opposite sides of NEMO together. The utility of being able to reinforce one part of your empire from another surely outweighs the irritation of occasional disruption."
...At the cost of throwing all sense of interstellar distances out of whack. An easy rapid-travel network tends to reduce the willingness to stray from it. Just look at the Relay Network of Mass Effect.
"We find it's sometimes best not to encourage our various member-species to meet one another. Aside from the fact that some look monstrous to the others, the cultural differences can make cooperation difficult. With species who are near-neighbours -even ones who don't like each other- they're usually aware enough of one another's culture that it moderates the difficulty. That doesn't apply to species from five hundred light years apart. And… Frankly, we don't really want species from different regions to grow accustomed to supporting each other."
...There's that too. One thing to say the people who look like your race's idea of flesh-eating monsters is friendly, another thing to
accept it.
"No? One of the things my organisation does with new recruits is acculturate them to our way of doing things. I'm rather proud of the fact that they all meet the standards of my specie's old military, both physical and social."
"Yes, but you're dealing with individuals. We're dealing with governments who are understandably concerned about signing up with a supranational agency and want to know that they'll retain as much power as possible. If they know that they'll mostly be cooperating with their neighbours under a mutually agreed upon framework which we monitor, that's a lot less of a problem than finding out that their fleet could to sent to the other side of the Orion Arm at a moment's notice."
Especially if they're in a precarious enough place that they'd rather their fleet stay within protective distance of their space.
"And if there's a major attack that local forces can't cope with?"
"Then we stick wizards on the ships of the Maltus reserve fleet and have either me or Illustres Xor tow it there. Or we carry out a spoiling attack a little further around the Periphery."
Greediporting is definitely a force multiplier in that respect, needed preparations and all.
He nods, understanding but not necessarily convinced.
"In the interests of openness and transparency-" We share a small smile. "-I believe that I should report the presence of Reach merchants visiting here and using the gate."
...Shit. No doubt doing some advance-wave spying in the process.
"Merchants?"
"According to them."
I'm sure
some of them are legitimate traders. But even a few can observe and report on matters in the region...
"Are you worried about them, or what I'll do about them?"
"Realistically, both are concerns for me."
Amalak probably half-expects him to fly off and disintegrate every last Reachian he can find. Which would probably be bad for business.
"I can get a Darkstar counter-intrusion squad sent here to educate your customs inspectors if you like. But… To be fair to the Reach, if these are the first Reach merchants in the area they probably are just here to trade and report back on what they see. They like to plan their annexations in detail before trying anything active. And…"
It might take them
years to assemble their plans, but they probably will try expanding this way eventually. If only to create a distracting flanking front in the war.
I shake my head.
"The Periphery is extremely porous. There's no realistic way for us to totally blockade them. I think we're trying to build up to the point where they can't move along certain segments, but that's about it. Trying to tell other stellar nations who they can and can't trade with is only going to irritate them. Still, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the Guilders. The Reach certainly aren't above taking advantage of local disputes to cause disruption."
So it's not
impossible that they might see a Spider-guilder Scarab at some point. Highly unlikely, but not 100% out of the question.
He smiles. "I doubt that their present ruler would have much interest in having dealings with them."
"Oh?"
Wouldn't take much to go further afield than that, especially if the Reach merchants are seeking 'trading partners'.
"She is your daughter, after all."
Ah-.
"Princess?"
Oh my god, what a payoff!
"Obviously I wasn't going to set up a puppet ruler from the local population; that would be begging for trouble. So I offered it to the Queen, and she accepted."
"You realise that she's a synthetic mutant and the Spider Guild don't actually rely on queens to breed, right?"
Hey, some of the locals respect monarchistic naming.
"Of course, but the ability to manufacture reliable and loyal administrators was too much to pass up. I was sceptical when she appointed Princess as her Governor, but she's an intelligent young… Person. Excellent at negotiating with ambassadors; they find her quite disarming."
I'm sure they do. She's probably still capable of kicking nine shades of ass if it comes down to it, though.
"You do understand that she's not actually my daughter, don't you?"
"Illustres…" He smiles. "You should just accept that you're never going to live it down."
He's got you there, OL.
"I-." I nod. "I do. And I don't mind people having a laugh about my alleged peccadilloes but I don't want people thinking that I'm a negligent father."
"Oh." He thinks for a moment. "I wouldn't worry about that. I'm sure that everyone realises that it's a joke."
...And there are probably people he knows
personally that think it's true.
"Right. Ah. Anyway, the main reason that I'm here is that I may know where I can get my hands on a Phantom Zone projector."
His face shifts into neutral. "What?"
Oh, that is one heck of a
bait!
"And I understand why you would be interested in such a device."
He inclines his head slightly forwards, glowering at me. "Is Zod there?"
He's sniffing the hook...
"As far as I've been able to determine, yes. Ursa too."
He pulls himself upright, restoring his facial expression to normal levels of animation. "Clearly, I want their heads very much. Might I ask how you came by such a device?"
And he bites. Hook, line and sinker. Best to keep the specifics under your hat, OL.
"Not at this stage."
"Alright." He nods. "And what will it cost me to finally avenge my people?"
At least he's going to be a
very happy man very soon.
"That you accept that you have avenged them."
He frowns for a moment-. Then he nods. "Because the people most likely to know how to create a Phantom Zone projector would be surviving kryptonians."
Ones dear to OL. So he's going to have concerns about you going looking for them.
"You may conclude that. I couldn't possibly comment."
"There isn't much I wouldn't do to get Zod. Just keep the rest away from me and I'll cancel my bounties."
...Hopefully it isn't a problem that humans and Kryptonians resemble each other
quite closely?
"There are other things."
"Get on with it, then."
"They want a trial. A public trial. Overseen by someone neutral."
Ah, Clark's side of the bargain, I see.
"What? It's-. Ah." He manages a cruel smile. "Because you know that there's no way that Zod would escape conviction, but the kryptonians are sticklers for proper process. And presenting a case would cause me to associate the crime with him rather than the entire species, and because they wouldn't like the idea of handing someone over to an alien to be killed. They want a degree of separation."
He's no dummy, that's for sure. When his rage isn't blinding him, anyway.
"Something like that."
"My people's law?" I nod. "And I can choose the location?"
...Is this going to go in a direction OL
isn't expecting?
"And they can refuse it."
He nods slowly. "I should.. consult with the other survivors first. But I'm sure that we can come to terms."
Yeah, this is not a thing to be undertaken
lightly.
