It was the first true GA summit that had taken place in over four years,; the first true meeting of the alien nations since Earth seceded and newly made alliances fractured. Now here they were cobbled together into a Frankenstein's monster of what they once had been, but still it reminded him of the old days.

Adam stood on the steps of the GA summit skin burning under the distant blazing sun. A hot arid breeze blew past him bringing with it the smell of the blue coppery sand that stretched miles into the distance on all sides. Overhead Irus's three moons glowed in the sky. Two high and on the distant horizon. From here, he couldn't see the fractures that marked Irus's green moon, but it was certainly hard to forget leaping across its surfaces through wells of diffused gravity as the void poured in around them. After the moon's fracture, and with no void to catalyze a continued breakup, Irus's moon had slowly fallen back into place tugged there by the strings of its own gravity.

It was a smaller moon than it had been before, but not by a significant amount.

Still it was not without consequences.

The sudden shift in gravity had had some foreseeable side effects, including the sudden eruption of volcanic hotspots which irus ha mostly gone without for so many years. Thousands had to be evacuated from cities along Irus's equator, and civilizations form the north and the south had to be moved when springs of water erupted from the ground and onto Irus's surface. Irus was primarily a desert planet, but it was not without great stores of water running deep below its sand.

The Rundi had evolved not to need more than trace amounts of water in their systems, but still life was not generally present without water, and now both the northern and southern hemispheres were host to a sudden eruption of inland lakes. Rundi scientists estimated that, at the current rate many of the lakes were likely to emerge forming the first sea's irus had seen for what might have been millions of years.

It was all rather fascinating, but completely irrelevant to the day at hand.

Adam looked out over the little courtyard before him, and entertained a memory.

A memory of a young man who had started an innocuous game of tag.

Wind swept blue sand across the stones and he watched it swirl in spiral patterns before dying away.

Where had that young man gone?

Easy

He had been buried behind a mountain of responsibility, sorrow, and war. That young man had become a father and a husband, and a leader and a grudging politician. That man had uncovered the mysteries of a universe that only proved he had an even greater part to play than he originally expected.

But was he really a young man anymore?

His adventures had begun what felt like eons ago in his late teens, and now a decade later it was hard to believe everything that had happened.

Humanity discovered aliens, joined a peace agreement, left a peace agreement and then joined again. There had been several wars, at least two invasions. Oh and lets not forget the time they had discovered the existence of the soul.

That was mildly important.

"Time is not a kind mistress."

He turned his head eyes falling on a familiar shape standing beside him. Her long knuckles pressed against the sandy stone green skin shining dim against the bluish stone. A simple robe was draped over her inhuman form as she stared heavily out over the sand.

"You know." he began, "it occurred to me the other day that I don't know your name. Almost ten years and I've only ever called you're the chairwoman or the chancellor or president of the GA."

The Rundi shifted stretching her long neck under the high sun, "It is as it was intended."

He turned his head to raise an eyebrow, "oh?"

"As head official of the GA, I have no personal stake in the decisions that are made. I am simply a tool of the state to lead and finish disputes. I can have no agenda of my own, and I must keep myself neutral. There is no glory to hold in my position, when I die all the records connect my rein to the years that I was in office and nothing more. It helps to keep us honest, to avoid a desire for power. You cannot leave behind a legacy when you have no name."

"So you don't have a name then?"

She shook her head, "I might have once, but no longer. It was struck from the records when I took this office and officially lost, an easy thing to do with the Rundi. When I die, I will die nameless as it should be."

He turned his head back to the sand, "Would it be that I could die nameless, but even when this body passes I can't imagine my afterlife will be quiet."

The chairwoman clicked rather softly, "Impetus."

He sighed deeply an abiding exhaustion falling over him, "I miss it you know. The days when I worked for the GA simply a man in search for new worlds, not a fighter for some sort of cosmic conflict that has been going on for eons. That word hands over me like a thunderhead and ever time I think I see the sun it begins to rain and I am reminded of what is waiting for me. Eons of war..... the foreverwar."

It was rare he let these thoughts leak through. He was an optimist at heart and he was sure his melancholy wouldn't last long, but still. Thinking about the future and the future of his son made it all hard to stomach.

She did not interrupt his thought, and didn't disagree with him. He got the sense that she felt the same way.

"I remember the call you know."

"What call."

"it was many years ago when I received a distress signal from a Bran mining colony about a sentient predator species, I was the one who dispatched the ship to come meet you. In fact I was curious enough to be aboard that ship myself."

He lifted his head in interest and turned to look at her, 'you were?"

"Yes, I was there when they brought you and your companions aboard the ship, and I watched the linguists work for language acquisition." She turned to eye him, "Don't pretend to wish for the simple life Adam Vir, you were not made for it, and neither do you want it." She must have seen the surprise on his face because she kept going, "You have no concept of not being involved and you have been that way since the beginning . You will never be ready to settle down. Perhaps you will enjoy the quiet for a week or a month, maybe even a year but eventually the itch will come back."

He felt the ghost of a smile pass across his lips. He knew she was right.

He wasn't made for the quiet life.

Never had been.

And deep down he didn't want to be normal he liked what he was, "Perhaps you are right, but things have been so intense lately that I haven't had time to stop and catch my breath."

She turned and whistled in the Rundi equivalent of a laugh, "What makes you think its supposed to slow down?"

"Well that's not particularly comforting." He said as he turned to follow her down the hall and into the GA meeting chambers. The large semicircular amphitheater was crowded with bodies, the sound of voices and the strange smell brought him back to different ties. He remembered the chanting of LFIL crowds outside as he spoke to the GA on their behalf. He could still feel the rolling thrill and the knot in his stomach.

Looking around

Everyone was here

Rundi, Gromm, Iotins, Bran, Burg, Tesraki, Rundi, Lumin, Mikes, Drev, Humans, Celzex, and now the tricar newest members of the GA since not a few months before. The human section was split into multiple sections for the different factions, there was a Martion, Europa, Earth, Arcadian, and other collective delegations with different representatives.

Kanan had taken the place of the Drev ambassador and Sat next to sunny on one side who straddled the line between Anin and Arcadia.

Lord Celex sat in his human form right next to the Celzex delegation. Lord Avex sat on his father's shoulder the two of them making the odd pair as they sat. And all around them there were other familiar faces.

Adam took his seat as the chairwoman stood and the lights dimmed, "Thank you, one and all for agreeing to be here today. I am both pleased and relieved to see you since the events of the polarus Revelation began our slow spiral into fracture. Now we have joined together with the knowledge of a knew world order keenly aware of threats that surround us from all sides." The room was quiet held in suspense at her words, "We are caught in a war that has existed for thousands of years, Makers and Void poised at each other's throats with us balanced I the middle." A soft murmuring rose up around the room, "Many have gone so far as to say that the war that rages around us is none of our business, the job of someone else. " She walked in a slow circle around the main floor and eyes followed her form all sides, "This is not the case, Thousands have been lost to the void, and Earth remains crippled after an invasion that would have wiped the planet out were it not for Adam Vir and member of the Arcadian military."

A somber silence filled the room. Eyes were downcast.

Delegates usually prone to murmuring were silent.

"We are under siege. The makers are loosing footing and the void grows closer and closer to their goal of destroying reality as we know it and returning the universe to a state of prestructured chaos. This we cannot allow."

Soft whispering, "This is not a task we can fulfill alone." She turned in another circle, "Through our hours of talks, agreements and planning we have come to a decision that may well affect every member of this room, our children, and those that come after."

Silence followed, a bated breath waiting on a razor's edge.

"The void must be dealt with, and so by the power vested in me by this council, and out of near unanimous vote." She turned towards Adam and the two of them locked eyes, "I reinstate Admiral Adam Allen Vir as high command of the combined GA fleet and task him with locating and destroying the Void stronghold wherever it may be. Please Admiral Vir, if you will take the floor."

Adam' heart fluttered softly inside his chest as he stood, all eyes on the room turned to him.

Admiral Vir.

Those words made his insides thrill.

How he missed them.

"The chairwoman is right." He began, "This may not have started out as our war, but the void has brought it to our doorstep. Thousands have died, and millions of others have been infected by the insidious hand of a group that wishes to cease existence as we understand it. it is my desire, as it is the desire of the rest of this council to see that doesn't happen. While the makers fight their war, we must look to our own for strength. I, Admiral Vir of the GA intend to take the fight to them. Too long we have allowed them to batter at our defenses, too long have we remained stagnant, and too long have we allowed their oppression to continue." His hands curled into fists his voice growing harder, "Well no longer. I will not stand by and allow the void to take the future from my family, and from my son from OUR sons and daughters." He took a deep breath.

"The void is a force of chaos. It hates structure, and despises what the Makers have created, the structure that exists. We believe they wish to return the universe to a state that once was before . The void does not wish to b trapped using physical laws, but this is to our advantage. Through discussion with our scientists and other members of the community, we believe that Like Revelation the Void has a physical location that can be found and destroyed, or at least set back. "

He looked around slowly at the room , their eyes glittering I the near dark, "It is my desire to seek out the void where it nests and deal with hem directly instead of waiting for them to come to us. I will lead that charge with the Empyrean and her crew. We do not ask others to join us, but we hope that you will aid us in what ways you can. I will not take an entire fleet with me, but the Rundi and the Drev and the Celzex have already pledge several hundred ships to be called on at such time that we are to locate the void. It is my desire that all will join in our efforts, and if I have my way I wish for at least one member of every species and delegation on the crew of the empyrean."

A soft muttering fell around the room.

To his surprise the Lumin and the mikes were the first to stand, "You will have our support." They said one after another.

Adam shifted, "I.... your generosity is heartwarming but, as natural Non Maker constructs we cannot ask you to join this fight."

One of the lumin slowly drifted forward ethereal white skin giving off a sort of soft glow, "We may not be maker constructs but we still live in this universe, and we do not wish to see it destroyed, you will have our support."

Adam smiled and nodded.

"I have promised you ships, but I will give you legions." Lord Avex said, "And when the time is right I myself will join you when called. My father will lead those legions when he joins you." Lord Celex nodded emphatically.

One by one other groups stood to add their support.

The Drev promised all warriors that were willing to come. The Tesraki offered resources. Only one or two delegations did not offer their support though neither did they offer their descent.

Either way.

This ship would sail.

And it would sail at his command