They had planned for this eventuality as remote as it might have seemed at the time, so as soon as that first crack appeared on the surface of that first eggshell, things had been set into motion. They didn't know a lot about the Kree, they had never officially joined the GA, and with their home planet now destroyed, there was little hope of learning more, so keeping what remained of the Kree Race alive would be a daunting task.

There were somewhere between three hundred and four hundred eggs, all which were genetically tested upon hatching. They had enough experience with genetic testing to know which Kree chicks were related biologically and which were not. From there, they were each tagged and chipped for future reference. Upon hatching, each Kree child was immediately inoculated against the void sickness, though the inoculation served more than just a protection against the void.

Injected with adapted DNA, they might potentially avoid the genetic drift or bottleneck event often seen when a population gets this low. They had enough Kree to make 50 mated pairs, if that eventuality were ever to happen, but five hundred would have been needed to avoid genetic drift. They barely had five hundred kree all together, so whatever genetic advantage they could be given was going to have to do.

Their geneticists considered reconstructing extra Kree through artificial means in order to spruce up the population and add extra diversity, but such a program was still a ways off, and would have to be discussed at a later time. Right now, there was still the matter of keeping these little ones alive.

Heading a team of scientists, Krill, directed the creation of a dietary supplement that should fulfill all of their needs, synthesized by examining the egg yolk from which the kree children had been sustained for nearly half a decade. The Kree hatchlings had all been born at the same time, which in itself was surprising, but led the the assumption that the kree had seen their demise coming, and had secreted cohorts of their eggs away in different caches, to create greater chance of survival.

Citizens of Arcadia hated to think that they had missed other caches of kree children on the Kree homeworld before it was destroyed, but those times were past.

This is what remained.

Now that they were fed, and accepting the food that was offered to them, it was up to the scientists to determine what else the chicks needed including the proper temperature, and handling. Assigned handlers used voice modulators to synthesize the kree language almost exclusively when they were working with the chicks. Some even wore hoods in the shape of adult cree heads, and feathered cloaks to simulate Kree parents.

All and all it was a very strange few weeks at the hospital as they took care of the Kree chicks.

Not all of them survived, of course, as was to be expected.

Whether it be from illness, or genetic defect, a predictable few slipped away, and though they were prepared for that outcome, that didn't mean it wasn't devastating. More than a few of the eggs never hatched, but that too was to be expected.

Other Laws went into effect following the birth of the Kree, including the purchase of an uninhabited rocky planet to be slowly terriformed over the life of the Kree until they were adult enough to take on the planet as their own. Teams of scientists were tasked with examining live footage taken From the kree homeworld, along with atmospheric readings and ecological information, in order to potentially synthesize a planet similar to their parental point of origin.

It would be a difficult task, but they had learned a lot from the creation of Arcadia,

One thing they had learned.

Sunlight.

Sunlight was a requirement.

Arcadia, and Noctopolis were the only two planets in GA airspace that existed without light of some sort and with every passing month that reality was becoming more and more difficult. Even with the artificial suns, it was becoming clear that maintaining a planet in darkness was not ideal.

Noctopolis was a planet that was never intended to support life for long periods of time. It was a mining colony that was originally meant to be abandoned, and was now solely dominated by a seedy sort of underbelly that kept the terraforming plants working despite the horrendous costs required to keep the planet functioning. All of this due to, in no small part, to their massive blackmarket connections, and the myriad of crime lords that pushed money into funding their sunless affairs.

Arcadia, on the other hand did intend to survive with a natural ecosystem. The problem was, nothing they had brought here, had naturally evolved for a sunless world. Humans, Drev, Tesraki, Finnari, Dogs, Wolves, Deer, jeffery snakes, Only the space jellies seemed indifferent to the lack of sunlight.

Everyone else....

It was a conundrum, and one they didn't intend to struggle with on their new Kree homeowrld.

Then there was the matter of raising the kree, no one was really sure how that was supposed to work. No one understood their lifespan or their mating rituals. Krill and the others were already working with autopsies and other imaging techniques on the deceased kree to get a better idea, but at the very best they were flying on well educated guesses.

One thing was for sure.

Someone needed to raise the kree.

That thought process resulted in an Arcadia- wide plea encouraging anyone who was willing to sign up for potential foster care for a Kree child, a call that was answered with great zealousness, much to the scientists delight.

Such a program wouldn't be put into place until they had a greater understanding of Kree genetics, but at least they had parents and families on standby were that to happen.

Krill and Riss had discussed the topic at some length and come to the conclusion that they were willing to take up such a position were it ever to arise. Young Vrul grew up so fast, and the triplets were practically adults despite being younger than a decade. It would be an interesting challenge to take on a Kree child in the future.

Adam's brother, and director of engineering in their space program, David had spoken with his husband Jordan on the subject, and the two of them were glad to take on a Kree or even two, an idea which they brought up to their young son, who agreed readily that he wouldn't mind having 'bird brothers'.

Adam had brought up the idea with Sunny on at least one occasion.

She had not been opposed to the idea, but suggested they wait to see what kind of monstrosities that lay in wait from their own genetic union. Sunny had recently allowed for 3D imaging of her own womb-bound children, a choice she immediately regretted upon discovering several pronounced oddities.

Krill couldn't be sure if those issues were just a fact of their own genetics trying to intermix, or if there was significant malformation.

They would have to see.

Both of them were noticeably nervous.

Her due date was approaching faster than either of them wanted to acknowledge.

To Adam, it seemed everything in his life was happening all at once: Kelly's Presidency, the SE soldiers, the compromise of the GA chairwoman which they had yet to prove, The potential birth of the twins, and on and on it seemed to go.

And now on the eve of all of this, Maverick had come forward, and was insisting that she wanted the Anima procedure done as soon as possible, a fact which worried both him, and Ramirez to an incredible degree, though Ramirez beat him out on this one.

Ramirez wasn't generally the kind of person to worry about anything, but upon llearning that maverick intended to let krill cut into her brainstem and, "fuck around with her soul." as he had so eloquently put it, he had gone a bit overboard in worrying. He might have even tried to talk her out of it, though talking Maverick out of anything was lying trying to convince the ocean to be less salty.

It simply wasn't possible.

Plus, as she had so eloquently stated, "its my soul to determine who fucks with it and who doesnt."

Adam didn't hear the full extent of the conversation, but Ramirez had lost, rather predictably.

It's not that Ramirez thought he had any control over Maverick's soul. Ramirez wasn't the kind of man to try and control someone, man or woman, but He did so, Adam thought, out of a great sense of fear for his friend.... Lover?

Adam still wasn't sure about that part.

It was clear that Ramirez had some feelings for Maverick, but Maverick was a lot harder to read. As far as Adam had seen, Maverick had never had feelings for anyone, and sort of reminded him of his brother Thomas in that way. The bond she had with Ramirez was more than friendship, but not something so easy to articulate as love. Or, perhaps, that was also the wrong way of phrasing it, What they had was certainly a kind of love, firstly the love between friends then the love between brothers in arms, and perhaps a love that was deeper than either of those things, but still not in the way that Adam Loved Sunny.

He didn't want to speculate on the topic, it was hardly any of his business, but he hoped Ramirez would be able to recover from her, if, in the end, she decided something else. Or alternatively, he hoped that Maverick knew what she wanted since those seemed like the two options available to them.

Either maverick didn't feel for Rmirez like he felt for her, or she did, but hadn't yet figured out how to show it yet, or act upon it.

Adam hoped it would work out, whichever direction things finally landed.

But that wasn't even the half of everything that seemed to be happening. With the birth of the kree, he also felt.... A sense of something else, a sort of change. He would have said a 'disturbance in the force' if people wouldn't have laughed at him.

But it felt like things were escalating.

They had been fighting a war for a long time, his life had only been getting faster and more dangerous.

But now, he sensed that there was an end coming. Whether this was to culminate in a good way, or a bad easy, he couldn't be sure, but still he could sense something was changing, something was coming.

Somewhere in the galaxy Kazna was rallying her forces.

It was time he rallied his own