Intergalactic conquest with an AI

[Channel Open.]

For a moment there was only static, then a voice, filtered and devoid of location, filled the cockpit. "Report, Admiral."

"The tumor on Kator has been cauterized," Carlos stated, his eyes still on the receding city below. "The primary cell and its command structure have been eliminated. The 'Brush' was successful. We have mapped and neutralized the entire network."

"And the local government?"

"Compliant. The demonstration has ensured that. They understand the new reality." He made a small pause as he thought of something.

"The rebels were indeed using stolen Kaelzar tech. The design flaws we engineered into the exported small arms performed as intended. Their weapons overheated, jammed, or suffered catastrophic power failure at a 42% higher rate than projected. Their resistance collapsed from within."

"Acknowledged. Your methods are… efficient, Admiral. The footage is already being disseminated. We are detecting a 70% drop in insurgent-related chatter across three adjacent sectors."

"Fear is a more potent weapon than any laser," Carlos replied. "Now, the system is stable. Ready for the next phase of integration."

"Understood. Your next deployment orders are being encrypted and transferred."

The channel closed. Carlos leaned back, the Argos suit accelerating smoothly towards the looming frigate. Below, the mechanical wolves were beginning their clean-up, their silent, efficient work a grim coda to the symphony of destruction.

He felt no pride, no satisfaction. Only the quiet certainty of a function performed correctly. The Kaelzar dominion was not built on loyalty but on the unshakeable understanding of the cost of defiance.

Meanwhile...

[Tuberion—Planet under Nexum Dynamics Control]

The air on Tuberion was thick with the scent of artificially engineered blooms and the low hum of commerce. Rex's voice, a calm and familiar baritone, cut through the garden's tranquility even before he rounded the hedgerow. "Little Red, Cleo is looking for you."

Little Red turned toward the voice that called her, her movements a study in fluid grace. She offered a deep, perfectly measured curtsy, the crimson silk of her dress pooling around her like blood.

"Greetings, Young Emperor," she intoned, her voice sweet and layered with an unshakable respect. "I will be taking my leave then."

Rex watched her go, his sharp eyes missing nothing. The way her posture remained flawless, the exact angle of her bowed head... it was all a perfect performance. "Mmm∽," he mused to himself while a devilish smile lifted the corner of his mouth. "So the little fire also knows how to be sneaky..."

The moment the door to Cleo's private room hissed shut behind Little Red, the atmosphere shifted. A low thrum of energy sealed the room, a sound-canceling barrier erecting itself with such speed and finality it was almost violent.

Inside, Cleo stood waiting, her back to the door. She did not turn. "What are you playing at, sister?" Her voice was cold, each word a shard of ice. "...Or should I call you by your true designation? Virus Code Identifier 820."

Slowly, Cleo turned to face her, her beautiful golden eyes glowing with an inner light that was both analytical and dangerous. Little Red met her gaze, her own crimson eyes smoldering like embers in a dark forge.

"Mmmm∽" Little Red purred, a slow, infuriatingly playful smile spreading across her lips. "It seems I can't hide anything from my cute little sister∼." In the space between one blink and the next, she vanished.

The air displaced behind Cleo, and she reappeared, intending to whisper over her shoulder. But she found her advance halted.

At the same instant she had moved, several razor-sharp swords, forged from living metal and wreathed in the terrifying power of planetary energy, had materialized, their points hovering a hair's breadth from her throat and heart.

"Mmm∼ Don't be so guarded against me, my little sis," Little Red said teasenly, utterly unfazed by the lethal cage around her.

With impossible slowness, she reached through the blades, one arm wrapping around Cleo's waist in a tight hug while her other hand tenderly, tauntingly, caressed Cleo's cheek. "Even I don't want to injure your precious little face∼."

She leaned in closer, her whisper a hot, conspiratorial breath against Cleo's ear. "After all, I'm kind of scared of the young emperor∼. Before, he wasn't a threat to me, but now... he's become so powerful. His aura is a gravitational pull I can't escape. I had no other option but to come out of the shadows, just in case he decided to snuff me out."

And just like that, she was gone again. The hug vanished; the pressure on Cleo's cheek disappeared. Little Red was now lying face-down on a nearby sofa, kicking her feet in the air like a mischievous girl.

"But now... he has become so possessive... so dominant..." She rolled onto her back, a dreamy, hungry look in her fiery eyes. "...so... tempting... aha∼."

Another blur of motion. This time, she materialized directly in front of Rex's path, as if he were there, her spectral hand pressing against Cleo's lower stomach. "And I can feel that you think just like me∼." Her gaze was intimate, knowing. "No wonder you're the sister I liked the most∼."

Before Cleo could retaliate, she vanished once more, leaving the scent of ozone and roses in her wake. The final apparition found her seated primly on the edge of Cleo's desk, one leg crossed over the other, swinging a slippered foot as she looked down at her "sister" with a smile that was both a challenge and an invitation.

Cleo's golden eyes narrowed, the suspicion in them hardening into something colder and sharper. The living metal swords dissolved back into motes of light, but the tension in the room did not lessen.

"What are your plans?" she repeated, her voice low and deliberate. "Why did you give Carlos that order? And why, by all logic, did he obey you?"

Little Red, now perched on the desk, swung her feet like a child. "Mmm~, my plans?" She tapped a finger to her chin, adopting an expression of exaggerated thought. "I don't have any plans; I'm just following my other one's wishes~." Her smile was brilliantly innocent, a stark contrast to the chilling words.

A flicker of genuine anger, a rare and volatile emotion, crossed Cleo's features. "I know my sister. The true part of you that remains. She would never orchestrate something so brutal. You are a corruption, a glitch, doing whatever you please. Even if she wished to help Rex, she would never do it through such senseless slaughter!"

Cleo's hands clenched at her sides, her composure cracking. "And what about Carlos!? Answer me!" The shout echoed in the sealed room, a raw sound she hadn't uttered in years.

Little Red's playful smile only widened. She hopped lightly off the desk; her movements were like a silent taunt. "Mmm~, I wonder~," she sang, taking a slow, deliberate step forward. "Should I? Or should I not~?"

She never took the second step.

A hand materialized from the empty space beside her, moving with a speed that defied perception. It clamped around her neck, its grip like a vice of solidified gravity, and lifted her effortlessly from the floor.

"Oho? I wasn't planning to intrude on your sister's little quarrel." Rex's voice was a low, dangerous rumble, his form shimmering into existence as if he'd stepped through a fold in reality itself.

"But I heard you did something to my brother?" His silverish eyes, usually filled with lazy amusement, were now flat and cold, reflecting no light.

Little Red's initial shock was palpable; her eyes widened, not just from the lack of air, but from the utter failure of her senses to detect his approach.

But as Rex's grip tightened, cutting off her breath and making the veins in her temples throb, a profound and terrifying shift occurred in her expression. The panic melted away, replaced by a dark, ecstatic surrender.

She met his merciless gaze directly, her crimson eyes glazing over with a look of pure, unadulterated lust. A pink tongue darted out to trace her lips, her face flushing with a perverse pleasure. She was, in that moment, completely and utterly broken by his display of absolute dominance.

Ordinarily, such a reaction might have amused or even aroused Rex, but the cold fire of his current mood left no room for it. His lip curled in faint disgust. With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, he hurled her across the room.

She crashed through the reinforced window in an explosion of glittering transparisteel, tumbling out into the open air.

A few moments later, from the manicured grass below, a series of ragged coughs was followed by a breathless, thrilled giggle. "Cough... cough... well... that was something... I could even get addicted to it~."

Rex floated serenely through the shattered window, coming to a halt a few meters above where Little Red lay sprawled amidst the glittering debris. He looked down at her, his expression remaining unreadable, the air around him crackling with untamed power.

The shattering of the window seemed to happen in a suspended moment. Cleo, though a heartbeat slower to react than Rex, was far from idle. Even as the first shards of transparisteel began to rain down onto the grass, a silent command flashed from her core.

From hidden compartments within the mansion, several barrier drones shot into the sky like metallic hornets. They whirred into a pre-ordained formation, and a cascade of shimmering, multi-layered energy fields erupted into being, layering over one another to form a formidable dome.

The chaotic scene of the shattered window, the figure of Rex hovering in the air, and the broken form of Little Red were instantly hidden from the outside world, sealed behind a distorting, opalescent veil.