Chapitre 135: Epilogue 2: Let the Chaos Begin
'Long have I waited for this moment...'
As the ship entered into the Rocky territory, all that is different for the ship is simply a displacement into the region of space, and yet Brakagi can already feel a distinct impact of returning home on his soul. He can feel it, the distinct frequencies his home is giving off, the sensations and the tiniest vibrations of the universe rhymes with the flow of his spirit. He has come a long way. It took him just as long to escape his prison in the Black Pegasus region in the wild regions. Just as he thought he will be buried in the gravity well for the rest of his days, the universe opened up for him, and granted him the ring.
The ring of Instability. With its immense and uncontrollable power, Brakagi was able to escape the planet he was stuck on, and then the black hole clusters that he was trapped in, albeit the physics and astronomy of the Black Pegasus will likely be forever changed by his actions, the universe is so vast that no one can really feel the impact of him sending black holes flying away from their stable orbits or smashing a planet apart.
Despite his system level destruction, he felt empty, and those actions were indeed void of impact.
'This is not the place...no...' Brakagi finally realized, 'the universe has granted me this power for me to take my revenge, take my revenge on those that wronged me, on those that exiled me from my own home...'
No, Brakagi knew that he will have to be careful with the second chance he has been given. Raging out on his own people for betraying him will only satisfy his lust for revenge for a split second, but anyone with a brain cell will know how foolish that would be. True power not comes from the ability to destruct and destroy, but rather to control and inspire, the people, the trillions of being in the galaxy.
No...instead of revenge, it's about making a statement that can change the minds of Rockies, make them worship him as a savior with his radical methods rather than despise him for his actions. The revolution will happen, but it will not happen due to fear, but rather through the collective anger.
There are plenty of enemies out there, so Brakagi will need to pick carefully, thankfully, it wasn't hard.
It was the galactic establishment, and it was the GBI. Initially, all he wanted was for Rockies, who formed a third of the galaxy's species to get more more than a third of resources and respect, and yet the humans and Aquarians dominate both in terms of resources, military power and political influence. The Rocky's passive history in politics played a major role, but that will change with his return. He failed in his first attempt because the establishment feared the changes he proposes will change the power dynamic and the paradigm of the galaxy, as the Rockies grew in power, the power for the other two will inevitably decline, and they simply can't afford that.
Everyone in Brakagi's party know that the GBI has a hand in throwing him over by supporting the opposition with both resource and man power, and that pathetic female Rocky has only kept the Rocky race in the gutters, in the sewers, in the underground tunnels waiting for the scraps of the other two species!
How disgraceful! The Rockies rose above the harshest of the conditions out of the three, and received the least amount of respect. Just thinking about this lit a fire inside Brakagi's heart as his hands shook of anger. The ring of instability shined as a result and pulsed a bright blood red as the shuttle he is own began experiencing turbulence, despite the lack of an atmosphere in intersystem space.
'Please stay calm! We are experiencing an unexplained cosmic phenomena...' The voice of the pilot broke him out of the anger, and Brakagi performed some breathing exercises and calmed down both himself and the ring as the shuttle continued it's smooth sailing and the pilot's calmed down again.
No, now is not the time, not yet. He has spent the past year trying to earn enough money to return home, he did mercenary jobs, he did underground fighting, learning about the limits and the weaknesses of his ring and his body, and he know that there are so much untapped potential remaining in the ring, waiting for him to access. His first stop as he went back will be to get his body enhanced as well as getting in touch with his old allies who are in hiding.
Then, when he is ready, he is going to make a statement.
As the illegal shuttle landed in the outskirts of the Rocky's capital planet, Brakagi didn't get onto the ground shuttle, instead, he walked towards the limitless sand and rocks, where a hidden shuttle has been prepared for him by his most trusted lieutenant Jozzor.
The instructions for the direction to Jozzor's safehouse was already preprogrammed, and once Brakagi's identity was verified, the shuttle took off and brought him straight to the caves that Jozzor now resides in.
'Leader!' As the shuttle landed directly into the opening of the cave, a Rocky with a mix of grey and brown fur greeted him as he hopped from leg to leg and jumped towards him as Brakagi was walking down.
They two shared locked their elbows together and pressed their foreheads aginast one another as a gesture of Rocky brotherhood before Brakagi finally let go.
'When I heard that you were back, I couldn't believe it!' Jozzor exclaimed excitedly and his particularly long and well groomed facial fur flop up and down like an ocean wave as he spoke. Everything was as Brakagi remembered as before, and Jozzor looked just as good as the last time he saw him.
'It wasn't easy.' Brakagi said, still pondering over the thought of telling Jozzor about the ring, 'a lot has happened.'
'Same here, leader.' Jozzor said before stepping back, 'something happened to me in a way I don't quite understand. You will have to see it to understand it.'
Then, he reached his hands forward and looked at the far corner of the room before his body was stretched and compressed in an absurd manner as he dashed to the other corner in an instant. Throughout his body, there are circular loops around his elbows and knees that glowed orange as that happened. Then, he dashed in this manner all across the room, appearing on top of the shuttle one moment and showing himself on the ground the next.
'What is happening to me?' When Jozzor finally stopped, he was a little out of breath.
'You.....too?' Brakagi said with a low voice before he started laughing maniacally, it was a laugh of joy. This is divine justice! Both him and his top lieutenant are now users of this strange artifacts...the universe must felt like they were wronged before.
'Leader?' Jozzor said, a inquisitive tone in his voice.
Brakagi reached out towards the shuttle he just came in, and puts a hand on it. The ring of instability shined as the shuttle's frames collapsed from its own weight, 'you are not alone, Jozzor, I have a strange power too.'
'So is this.....'
'Did you hear the phrase: fight, using the artifact, fight?' Brakagi asked, 'when you first obtained this item?'
'Yes.'
'This is divine intervention, Jozzor!' Brakagi said, grabbing his lieutenant by the shoulders with his iron grip, 'this is the universe telling us to rise up once again and take our rightful place!'
'Leader!!!' Jozzor also grabbed Brakagi by the shoulders as his voices become muffled and his eyes become teary.
'THIS IS OUR CHANCE!' Brakagi said, 'there must be more of us in the region that had the same power! We will track them down, and with the universe on our side, we will succeed!'
Then the two broke their embrace before locking their elbows again.
'Don't call me leader, Jozzor, from now on, call me brother.' Brakagi said, 'now, tell me about the current situation in the capital.'
It has been a year and a half since the overthrow of Brakagi from his campaign that almost lead the entire Rockies race to war against the Galactic Government for the demands that he made at the galactic senate. A lot has changed for both the Rocky government since then as well as each of the individuals participated in the previous overthrow. Brakagi was reckless and rash then, and his opponent was calculated and sought for the help of GBI before Brakagi even considered gaining allies that shared the same sentiment as him.
Instead, he was branded and attacked as a spoiled angry brat with nothing but a pipe dream before squads of riot control droids stormed his office. The speeches he made that put him in his office were nothing but a flashback in people's memories. Over the past nine months, the Rocky government has begun it's reform from the previous One Rock Government and began slowly implementing a form of senate system, in which representatives from various Rocky settlements and regions each has way more of a voice than before as various factors now have to be voted through by the majority rather than decided by a ruling council.
However, despite the Rocky's history of ultra-efficiency, the senate system has began to take it's toll as examples of malpractice, bribery and corruption showed its ugly teeth for the first time in a long while. The Rocky people were used to the One Rock Government and spent years perfecting it's performance, and the imperfect new system allowed for plenty of holes to be exploited. It all sounded good on paper, but it is a lot less appealing in practice.
'Just because it worked somewhat for the humans, and it worked well for the Aquarians doesn't mean it will work for the Rockies.' Brakagi shook his head at the foolishness. He was foolish then, but now he knew better. The best political system for Rockies are the ones that are designed with the Rocky culture and history in mind, with the best interest placed on the people. Both him, and the current establishment are making the mistake of placing their own set of ideal scenario as the priority and are trying to conform the Rocky society towards the 'ideals'.
This is why he failed, fundamentally, and that's why the current system will fail.
And, to allow the dominos to fall into place, all Brakagi needed is a shove in the right direction, the right amount of stress onto the current paradigm that will be enough to expose their hypocrisy, and turn the public's opinion.
'Brother, what is your plan then?' Jozzor asked, 'what's this shove you are talking about?'
'We need something to happen, and we need it big. It needs to be a singular event that kickstarts a chain of events, which will push the galactic government to make decisions that they would hate.' Brakagi said, bringing up the galactic map and pointing towards the Olympus system, 'the system of trillions and trillions, the crown jewel of the galactic society, the Olympus system.'
'What do you plan to do?' Jozzor asked, his voice sounding terrified at the thought of Brakagi possibly killing trillions, 'I cannot support genocide.'
'No, it won't be.' Brakagi said, shaking his head, 'I can not only control the state of instability and decay in systems, I can also control the rate at which this decay will occur, 'the system will have plenty of time to evacuate, and they will have plenty of money to do so. We can provide them with the information with our station of solar researchers, and they have their own stations too. They will know what will happen, and it is up to them to decide what will happen.
'Their sun will go supernova and swallow everything, but it won't happen nearly as quickly as you might have thought. They would have time for the warning, they would know what the right thing to do is...'
'But they will probably push back as much as they have to...' Jozzor murmured, pondering over the thought.
'We will regain our control in the Rocky Government before that and offer all of our aid.' Brakagi said, 'it will be up to them whether they will take it, but I can assure you, their ugly faces will show themselves eventually, and this is our chance.'
'What would happen after then?'
'They will need a new system to settle in, but all of the systems near Olympus are nearly fully settled, except for the nearest system in Rocky Region. We will welcome them in, with the public's backing and establish a new galactic capital, much of which is under our control.' Brakagi said, 'there will be a lot of moving pieces, so we will need a lot of time to prepare for it.'
Jozzor stood there, speechless at Brakagi's plan before they locked elbows again.
'Before I can blow up a sun, I will need some enhancements done,' Brakagi said, 'how's project M going?'
'The next generation nanotechnology enhancements will perform way better than what's on the market,' Jozzor said, though his voice sounded worried, 'though the process of integration is a lot more difficult and painful, as it is a reprogramming of your physiology rather than supplementation like before. You will literally be a different being after this.'
'Put me on as soon as possible.' Brakagi said, his voice resolute and unwavering, 'I am no stranger to pain.'
It was another six months before everything that had to be prepared fell into place, and both Brakagi and Jozzor used that time to perfect their use of the artifacts. Jozzor's artifact is called Sling Shot, as he could establish two points space and sling shot both himself and others through in between. This made travelling across vast intersystems distances a cake walk for them without having to use any of the conventional means. Jozzor apparently found and activated this artifact in the midst of a intersystems race, which was his favorite pass time.
The Sling Shot cannot be used instantaneously, however, and the longer the distsance they are trying to cover is, the longer it will take him to plot out the exact trajectory of the Sling Shot. However, Brakagi can simply use that time to train his artifacts while Jozzor prepared to take them directly towards the Rocky research station near Olympus. Before that, he had some practice with some celestial bodies in unsettled systems in the wild regions. Despite the success of his move, pushing a perfectly stable system into chaos, he clearly felt the repercussions of it through traumatic internal bleeding and coma for a few days after.
However, the condition that would have killed him prior now only injured him severely, and that's a plus.
And finally, the day has come. They started off in a pod in the deserts of the Rock, and they appeared in the dock of the Rocky Research Station in low orbit around Olympus, as giant sun shields protects the station from the deadly radiation coming from the sun.
'Could you verify your identity please?' The station control asked the approaching pod, but Jozzor, who's also gone through the enhancement procedure sling shot both of them into the station before they even realized. The pod moved away from the station in it's programmed path, but remained in the shadow of the station's protection.
As Brakagi and Jozzor dropped onto the floor of the station, the corridor they dropped into was empty. When they were in the midst of a slingshot, the surrounding lights and images between bent, stretch and contorted ed, or rather it was their body that's being stretched into a strand of light until the sling shot was finished. Then, everything returned to normal as Jozzor deactivated his artifact and brought up the plans of the building they are in.
'Let's move this way, brother.' Taking Brakagi to the sun-facing lab which had multiple layers of protective shielding to prevent whoever's inside from being burnt alive, the outfit the two are wearing also blended in into the environment without any issues.
This is the safest way to get as close as they can to the sun, and their destination was a mere sets of doors away. The security system denied them access, but all it took was a simple touch with Brakagi's hand for it all to go away. There was only one Rocky working in the lab, and from the moment they have entered the room, there was a stench from the room.
The Rocky scientist was moving quickly and with haste as her hands moved from one instrument to the other before going back onto the holograms. Her head were bobbing rhythmically as if she is listening to some sort of a music.
Then, she looked up and saw Brakagi and Jozzor standing there in the hall way.
'How did you get in? This lab is exclusively my own?' She said, 'I swear I have made it damn sure it only belonged to me!'
'Well, excuse us lady.' Jozzor said approaching towards her, 'we are going to need you to leave this lab for a bit, or you might get hurt.'
'Excuse me?'
'You heard me perfectly clear.' Jozzor said, continuing his approach.
She dropped whatever she was doing with her hands, and turned her head to look at Jozzor with a mocking eye, 'you think you can do anything to me?'
Then, her legs glowed a white orange as her fur lit up and she stomped on the ground. Just as she stepped, a strong heat wave in the form of a gust of wind formed as a result of her stomping the ground as it hit Jozzor head on and sent him flying back towards Brakagi, who caught him with one arm.
After putting his brother back onto the ground, they both shared a look.
'Be careful here,' The Rocky scientist said, leaning casually on the desk next to her with a taunting look towards the two, 'I may have a bit of a...temper.'
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone