End of a Journey

Adam left shortly after recruiting Lucie, his hope now reignited by this lucky encounter.

It took longer than expected to find a talented individual, but Lucie was worth the wait, even if she only had the potential to be half as strong as Adam.

Now, the journey was on again. Adam explored many more planets, but he could never go too far from the core worlds since he needed to be capable of swift return to the capital in case of an emergency.

Adam saw many more varied cultures. Although the Azburgian undertone could be felt everywhere, these people were proud of their culture while still being loyal to Azburgia without any hesitation.

Adam could only marvel at the power of thousands of years of indoctrination; his ancestors did a very good job.

'I have visited tens of worlds, but no one else is showing an inkling of potential? Are talented espers really that legendary...? or maybe they have to go through some kind of trauma?'

Lucie was most certainly scarred; she witnessed her parents both consumed, her planet destroyed beyond recognition, and she had to kill in order to survive, all that in a single day.

If that isn't the perfect recipe for trauma and PTSD, Adam doesn't know what is.

Adam himself went through many things in this life, and his past one too. In this life, he is still an active soldier and has sterilized many planets in his righteous crusades to free his kind.

In his past life, he had dealt with a lot more. Ranging from gang warfare to... very hands-on teachers, let's say, Adam's previous life was without a shadow of a doubt a lot more difficult than his current one.

'I'm definitely going back there with the Imperium behind me.'

Adam had no intention of leaving his past Earth behind. No, he would find a way to traverse the multiverse if it exists and dominate more of the Omni-verse than anyone could expect.

Still, he's just the Emperor/Imperator of a relatively small and weak nation in a vast universe that couldn't care less, for now. His ambitions would have to be fulfilled gradually.

Still, Adam had confidence that humanity would prevail, with or without him. Considering the ambitious and expansionist nature of humans, Adam had no fear that they would fall and become subservient sheep to another rising power.

No, Azburgian humans are way too prideful for that, and Adam would die before he allowed that to happen. And so will every Emperor that comes after him. He is sure of it.

'Well either way, the trip can only be so long.' It's time to return now, with the new AI threat emerging on the horizon; this is the ideal time for Adam to further his ambitions.

Opening up a console while sitting on his comfortable seat, Adam looked through top-secret classified documents, looking for info regarding the newly emerging AI.

The AI near Earth, or Holly Terra, is mostly dormant, not doing anything of note aside from taking over the system in which it was found.

Other AIs are not like this; most are expanding anywhere they can. Some declared war while others simply took uninhabited systems and engaged with diplomacy.

What didn't make sense to Adam, however, was that these AIs were supposed to protect organic life. They were meant to maintain the interference networks around habitable planets so that the Hive wouldn't find and consume them. So what caused the sudden change?

A simple glitch is always an explanation, sure, but these programs are incredibly complex, so complex that Adam didn't even bother trying to understand how the programming works.

It's also hard to imagine that a civilization as complex as the Matriarchy would fail with such a relatively simple task, especially so considering it alone dominated an entire arm and almost single-handedly drove out hundreds of invading Hives.

A nation so advanced couldn't make a stable AI? That's ridiculous.

Another interesting thing people have noticed was that the AIs seem to have picked up things from their organic charges. For example, if a civilization was aggressive, the AI would be aggressive as well.

Another strange thing was that nations that have been conquered by others seem to have not awakened their own AIs, much to the relief of the entire community and especially nations like Azburgia, who have conquered and subjugated more than they could count.

But that beckoned the question, why didn't they have AIs assigned to them? Was the nation with the most potential assigned as the center of the interference network? In which case, it would be significantly larger than estimated, or was it something else?

Every question that couldn't be answered increased the odds of something spiraling out of control, and when dealing with things on such a large scale, a domino effect would become unstoppable terrifyingly quickly.

As far as Adam could tell, the AIs held all the advantages. If all of them worked together to eliminate all organic life in the arm, there would be absolutely nothing that could be done as each nation collapsed one by one from internal and external pressure.

From superior technology to perfect efficiency, and even perfectly simulating emotions if they desired, the AIs seemed perfect in every way, but progress was being made.

Life always finds a way after all, and with some of the friendly and hostile AIs actively fighting, it was a golden opportunity to analyze and learn from the wreckage, allowing the entire arm to leap forward in technological advancement a bit into the future.

Analyzing technology that's so much more advanced proved difficult, however. If you gave a caveman a gun, it doesn't matter how smart he is; he will not understand how it works. With a bit of luck, he will learn what it does, but nothing else.

So, while the rest of the community struggled to piece technology possibly millions of years ahead of their own together, Adam decided to focus the Imperial effort elsewhere.

Since researching is going to be so slow and inefficient, they would try to simply ask, offering anything they could in return for even a bit of knowledge.

They got nothing sadly, but it was certainly worth a shot. And it would have been funny if the entire community collectively realized they forgot to just ask nicely.

Adam grinned a little to himself as he imagined the reactions from those across the Orion Arm.

It would be absolutely hilarious.

Anyways, Adam returned back to Earth, the sacred birthplace of humanity. A planet renowned across the Arm.

Adam was happy to hear that his family had finally returned home after their trip, their minds rejuvenated by the beautiful things they saw while away.

Adam was certainly quick to accept and return his wife's embrace, his own son coming a few seconds later to greet him.

Adam and his son were vast friends, so there were no "majesties" or "highnesses" in their greeting, a simple "sup" was enough for them.

Alexander's girlfriend, still rather professional, greeted Adam in a more royal manner, something which Adam returned, albeit way more casually.

"How was your trip dear?" His wife, Serenity, or Serena for short, asked.

"Oh well, it wasn't anything special, although the Proxima Centauri system was way more busy than I expected.

"That's probably cause you were there." His son made an accurate judgment.

"Yes, the Imperium is still as fanatic as ever about the royal family." Lea, Alexander's girlfriend, spoke up.

"Yeah Yeah, I do wonder about the rest of the Imperium though; I'll definitely visit as many

Imperial planets as possible in my time."

"Good luck with that chief; you already have a long list of places, and it isn't gonna get smaller, I can tell you that much."

The group walked into the palace, the family eventually leaving Adam's side and walking down a different corridor.

Adam had business to attend to; the AIs were still rampant, and his Imperium needed his leadership.

Adam walked into a war room, its confines had grown larger, the table in the middle of the room now becoming one with the floor, leaving it 100 meters wide and tall.

As Adam stepped in, the "floor" began to glow, and a simulation of the Orion Arm appeared on it.

There were already a few other men in the room, each one an expert in the art of war and someone certainly worth paying attention to.

They all saluted immediately while shouting the typical "Greetings, your majesty!"

Adam returned the greeting with a salute.

"Relax, all of you; we have a more important matter at hand." The generals nodded, knowing that Adam is right as always.

All of these men were there when he drove the first alien invaders away, when he forced the Hive back, when he protected the Imperium with his own mind and body, and they felt nothing but respect for him.

"Of course, your majesty, here is the situation." As one of the generals, a man with a brown beard and slick black hair, said this, the map zoomed in on the area near Imperial borders.

"Our own borders are stable; no chaos has been caused thanks to our fleets dutifully patrolling our vicinity. The same can't be said about other nations, however."

The map zoomed out; the AIs were all marked in crimson red so they would stand out.

"Our neighbors are also doing relatively well, but areas that are not protected by us or other great powers are under serious threat, with the AIs already taking over considerable swaths of land."

The hostile AIs were incredibly quick to expand, only held back by immense coalitions and friendly AIs fighting them every step of the way.

Even other great powers struggled to maintain the balance in their neighborhoods as the AIs near their capitals wreaked havoc if hostile, but they proved invaluable if friendly, offering protection from hostile AI forces.

Adam took all this information in and said the following:

"What about our AI; has it done anything yet?"

"No, it has done absolutely nothing of note; it simply exists in that one system."

"Really? No great fleet being constructed? No grand... anything?"

"No, nothing."

Adam was truly confused, kerfuffled, and bamboozled by this.

What is that AI planning? Did it just glitch itself out of any action? Did its program break?

"The AI is still "alive;" ships and drones are moving around, doing maintenance and mining minerals in asteroids and planets, but nothing else is being done."

"Hmm..." So it's hoarding materials? But why, why would it do that?

"For now, just observe the AI closely; make sure you don't let a thing slip past us. Also, deploy more fleets into our neighbors. With their permission, of course."

"Yes Sir!" The generals saluted as Adam turned around and walked out of the room.

"I swear to God, why don't things just stay calm sometimes?" Adam muttered this to himself, not willing to ruin his image in the minds of the servants.

He promptly returned to his own room, where Serena could be seen reading a book titled "How to be a good wife part 10."

She promptly hid the book when Adam walked in, but to her dismay, Adam saw it and already thought it to be the most adorable thing he has ever seen.

Adam was too tired to act on it, however, and promptly fell asleep.