I was at the furthest world from my capital, and preparations were going swimmingly. When word of eldar came, I doubled the defenses budget! Hah. In actually, there is no budget. But I did allocate more personal to speed up construction of this world, along with more ship's.

  Hell, one of my Cairns, The "Crueltys of the Sun", was here. I had it relocated from one of the core worlds. That along with the multitudes of cruisers and escorts and I was sure that if we got attacked, we would hold well.

  Speaking of, I needed to send that PD Escort. With some tweaks here and there, it was ready. An armament refit and gun allocation changed the whole ship! Along with more armor. It now has fewer capital grade guns, but many Death rays, plus a scarce few Particle whips. In passed fire, they could likely take out one of our own escorts. The range on the rays was increased in preparation, as well as power. Not suitable for attack craft, but oh well.

  I should also inquire if we could put some Death rays on our other ships for protection... I'll send a note along with whe schematic. One of the best things about being an overlord, in retrospect, is that I just have to give them the idea, and my crypteks make it reality! As it should be.

  But I digress. The systems fortifications were increasing hour by hour. Fortresses built within planets, moons, even a scarce few asteroids. This was good. The system was the gate to our little dynasty.

  I tap my throne on the bridge of the "Sun" (the ship, not the stellar body, mind), and look out at the stars. I was looking through a holo, but it was so good, it was like an open view port to the void. The stars burning so far away, truly beautiful. I wish we had artists. I would kill for a painting of this.

  Stolen story; please report.

  I switch the fantastic view to one of statistics, readiness, and other such data. If I had to put a percentile on the completeness of system fortification, it would be low 30s. Perhaps 32.98901%. It was raising quickly, but fortifying a world was no easy task.

  I have plans to begin diplomatic talks with the Alliance when defences reach 40% readiness. Perhaps 45%. I plan to send my warden along with Neheret. He is the least combative of my lords. I HAD picked them all for their... shall we say, lacking blood lust.

  They still weren't keen on talking to mortals, they just weren't xenophobic enough to kill them outright. Oh, if they came to our systems? They would happily slit their throats and hang them from our tombs, but they wouldn't go out of their way to do it. That, with what we had suffered and some gentle manipulations on my end, they are the best I could likely ever hope for.

  I must admit, I have hopes for these young races. And yes, that was a deliberate step away from calling them lesser. Anyway, I have my hopes that they show us things that give us something we lack. Competition. The will to advance.

  See, the C'tan, though the worst of the worst, were masters of the material universe. They gave us advanced technology, ideas, and understanding. Whe have lost much of this. Even my innovations were more like shifting a bit of sand to create a new dune. Nothing truly new, just ideas based on older ones.

  I hope for genuine innovation. For improvement. THAT, is my goal. I could care less about the organics. I care nothing about their desires. But if it drags us out of our self imposed stagnation, then I will do as I must. For if we don't... I fear we may be naught but dust.