the Emperor of the Eighty Worlds

[Prologue]

He - realigns. Synesthesia at full bandwidth, a multitude of criss-crossing scrolling information in three layers of sight, pending legislation and supplicant requests and the buzz of Home's local industries, pending reports from the Navy, the frontier, the coreward coalition. One alert, military glyph, blazes priority blue, fractal curlicues of the highest encryptions. With a clutch of worry -

(Home, crush in the gravity well, crash on the rocks, interlocking realms and bright currents of interdimensional forces, Home, drive, strain, will, Home Home Home)

- he lets it fill his sight. A tiny Rix strikeship has dropped out of sublight, inexplicably, impossibly inside Home's orbit. To close to use any of the most devastating ship-to-ship weapons without risking damage to the planet. He seethes. How dare they, how dare the monster-worshipping mechanical abominations come to his doorstep, his Home, how dare they.

(you brought this)

The strikeship's fuel is nearly expended, and the Navy, even hobbled, even stunned, engages with alacrity; the battle unfolds from detection to pincer to devastation in minutes. The ship is gone. But several shuttles escaped the wreckage, have already vanished in the vast noise of Home's continental megalopolis and the accompanying datastructure. Scale works in their favor, as long as they stay concealed, needles in a great grass plain. A handful. But a handful of Rix, on Home.

They will be hunted down, he allows, like the rats they are, and approves the move toward quiet but rapid mobilization, every branch of military and enforcement agency notified that enemies of the state may be activating. Some (few) are told that it's the Rix they are hunting, may be facing. Not all - now is not the time to spark more chaos for the Rix to hide in.

[OOC: Just some scene-setting for Rix and Imperials: PC Rix may assume they made it onto the planet more-or-less unscathed and have lost pursuit for now. Imperials of any combat stripe can make their own judgements about how much intel they want to have, and whether they'll go robot-hunting or just go about their duties on heightend alert and/or encounter them by chance. Even secularists will regard the Rix as a very serious enemy - the last Rix Incursion took a heavy toll.]

( Private for Bush, Bruce, Iris, Zane, Morgana, Sylvanas, possibly others? If you think your character could have personal access to the Emperor, talk to me, we'll hash it out. )