1260 1260 The Sky Is Falling
The blaring of the emergency alarm the next morning woke Max from a deep slumber. Something had been detected on long-range scanners by the Alliance, and it had panicked them enough that they were calling every single Commander and military leader into a mass conference call. They were so concerned about something that they hadn't even sent details directly to the communicators. This level of security was usually reserved for the most important of military announcements, but they shouldn't be sent on such a wide scale that Max could tell that thousands of dignitaries aboard Absolution had received them.
The meeting began only a single minute after the message was sent, a testament to the urgency that that Alliance leaders felt when they were communicating it.
[Attention everyone, thank you for coming. We have an Existential Threat level report. Massive spatial fluctuations have been detected in the void around the Alliance territory. The patterns are identical to the preparations for the last round of assaults, but the signals are a hundred times more intense, with an area that cannot be discerned by our scans.
From what our experts can discern, the Great Enemy is intending to send an attack fleet to every single star system in the Alliance, all at once.
There is nothing that we can do to block this, and even with the help of the Arisen and the Knife Ears, there is an uncertain chance that any of our civilizations will survive the first wave of attacks. As for the second wave and the consolidation, the odds appear to be even worse.
The time to arrival should be less than one day, so we are requesting that all troops and armed vessels return to their home systems and prepare for planetary defence. May your deity of choice be with you all.]
Max immediately sent a message to Terminus, who wouldn't have received the message, and sent them further into the uninhabited spaces, looking for signs of lost civilizations. Their expedition plan was only a third of the way through, but Max framed the message as a hot lead in an extremely remote region that didn't currently support life.
"Is there a fallback plan?" The Envoy asked.
"Yes, it's been sent to all the Reavers. Does the Alliance have an equivalent?" Max asked.
"We do, I'll trade you the data. We're with you for this fight, our vessel has been repurposed for planetary defence at home." The Giant Envoy announced as he walked into the research bays.
"Then we're glad to have you. Pick the department you would like to join, and we will make sure they recognize your authority." Max replied.
[Alert. Spatial Fluctuations have begun in the Rae 5 System. Beginning anti-portal countermeasures. All travel is now restricted.] Felicity announced.
[Preparing to deploy countermeasures.] Sylvie agreed.
Between the two of them, they were confident that they could force the enemy to arrive at the outer reaches of the solar system, where they would be easy targets for the freshly rebuilt defensive weapons.