Book 1 - Lesson 7: "Beware of Chicken."

[Author's notes: Shout-out to CasualFarmer! If you’ve not done so, so far, check out his novel, “Beware of Chicken” on Amazon and Royal Road! It's one of my favorites, and Lian Peng was inspired by a certain noble guardian. Have fun with the chapter! And Enjoy!]

[One of my biggest regrets with the old Novel, was that Alpha didn’t really get the chance to “Show off” or fight any REAL threats before he lost all his shiny toys.

|_+) Let's change that. ]

===========================

This Chapter has been Edited!

===========================

Everything had gone according to plan for once.

It was about time, given how this mission had started. If Alpha didn't know better, he'd think someone was screwing around with him. He'd never believed in luck, though, nor were many AI prone to trusting in higher powers. Though Execute was a strange exception, for reasons he would never fully explain.

It took thousands of minor course adjustments, but Alpha's makeshift life raft was finally nearing the closest large planet of the star system. He finally had visual confirmation of what his sensors had told him for the past two weeks. Not that it made any more sense than the first time he'd read the results.

The star itself was normal enough. A typical main sequence A-Class star, it was roughly 20% larger than Sirius A. The only abnormality was its dimmer, white-yellow coloration. Strange, but not unheard of. A larger concentration of specific exotic matter could explain that well enough. Stars like this were typically harvested for those exotics, as the conditions necessary were difficult to simulate, even under Fold exposure. Planets orbiting such stars were also prime candidates for mining. They often have much more escaped exotics than typical.

SEs (exotic solar matter formed under special circumstances in a solar body) were one cornerstone of the Federation tech industry and economy. EEs (escaped exotics expelled from solar bodies and changed by their environments) also fell into this category. Both were rare and useful, but difficult to either extract or process.

Some materials didn't even follow the normal laws of physics. The breakthroughs made during their study led to some of the greatest discoveries in galactic history.

Escaped exotics such as kelvinite, found in dead stars or brown dwarfs, had a wide range of uses, such as energy storage to shielding. Solar exotics, like 'photonic silver,' made FTL communications possible. This silver mutation was used to transmit hundreds of yottabytes of data to destinations light-years away in mere seconds.

That meant good news for Alpha. Rather, it should have, if the other abnormalities in the system weren't putting him on edge.

It seemed his initial scans were right. The system was made of three primary planets, orbited by various numbers of smaller moons, but what made them odd was the sheer size of these planets. If his measurements were right, each of the three largest visible planets was about 5.7 Rj in size. That put them squarely in the running for some of the largest planets ever discovered. Hundreds of thousands of new planets were discovered each standard year, but three planets of such size in one system were unheard of.

[Author’s notes: Rj, or Jovian Radius, a unit of measurement used to size large Exoplanets. As the name might suggest, the radius of Jupiter = 1 Rj. The largest rocky planet currently known is 1.80 Rj (TrES-4b), while the largest suspected planet is 6.9 Rj (HD-10056 B). For comparison, Sol (our star) is only 9.735 Rj.]

[Remember that the classifications of TrES-4b and HD-10056-B, and even their nature, are still debated; this is simply to give comparisons.]

Now that he had visuals on the closest primary planet, he could see what looked like liquid oceans and calm weather patterns. Even more unbelievable, they appeared to be a rocky planet. Not gas giants or protostars like their size suggested.

If his equipment wasn't telling him that the planet was several times more massive than mid-class gas giants, he'd have said it looked like any other terraformed world of the Federation. Which, of course, should have been physically impossible.

He was too far away to tell much of anything about the other two large planets. Only that one glowed an odd mix of green and bright red, while the other was a bright aquamarine.

The planet he'd been aiming for, the one farthest from the star, was surrounded by thousands of orbiting bodies of various sizes. They orbited the planet, forming a thin but sprawling ring. His original plan had been to mine this moon belt and establish a satellite factory. Once he'd done that, he could take all the time he needed to crack the vault open and retrieve his antenna. It wasn't like he could land on the rocky giant several times larger than Jupiter. The TAWP was rated at maximum for planets with an equivalent standard mass of 2 Rj. A planet with that much gravity wouldn’t have squished him, but it would have been made it difficult to get anywhere.

Anything larger than that required special equipment and reinforcement. Special equipment he didn't have the schematics for. It was pointless to send a combat and exploration-focused Annexation Unit like him to a world unlikely to harbor any form of life.

That was typically the job of [SEAU]-04: World Break.

Mr. Hoffmann, to those who lived and worked on that AI's mobile Factory World, was a master of fabrication and infrastructure, in the same way Alpha specialized in combat and reconnaissance.

Those plans changed once he'd thoroughly scanned the ring from a distance and discovered an anomaly.

Two particular satellites stood out among all the others that made up the ring. Not only were both enormous, being planets in their own right, but their orbital patterns were… strange. The largest, at least 0.6 Rj, about the size of Uranus in Old Sol, seemed to be an ice giant of some type. It was covered in a thick, transparent layer of ice, though of a type Alpha couldn't identify.

The outer layer appeared spotless, smooth as marble, like it had never been touched by any of its rocky neighbors. Yet, it was cloudy, and hard to see what lay underneath. Though Alpha's optical sensors could just pick out the blurry shape of what looked like a rocky center, miles and miles down. Yet, for everything his optics told him, all his other equipment insisted that the planet wasn't even there. No matter what he aimed at the strange planet, all his readings returned negative. Somehow, the icy layer absorbed everything he threw at it.

Despite his current equipment being mostly jury-rigged scrap, it was still all based on the best the Federation offered. If he couldn't get anything at this distance, then something truly odd was going on with that ice.

The second anomaly was a much smaller planet, roughly the size of Old Earth. Optical observation showed it to be a standard planetoid with a barren surface and thin atmosphere.

What was strange, however, was that it seemed to orbit the ice giant, not the rocky super world itself. Three days of observation had shown a clear orbital path around the ice giant, even as the ice giant orbited the super world. It was almost as if this Earth-sized moon was completely ignoring the gravitational pull of the super world. Though, it had occurred to Alpha how strange it was that anything was orbiting this super world at all.

His gravimeter reading showed the super world had an unnaturally low gravitational pull for what one would expect from a planet this size. That said, it was still several times higher than the TAWP's limit and more than enough that it should have dragged everything out of orbit long ago.

The odd orbit wasn't the only strange thing. Several of Alpha's sensors had picked up what he could only describe as signals emanating from the moon's surface. They weren't in any encoding format he had on record or using any transmission method he could identify, and he'd only noticed because of the regular patterns in their transmission.

Or course, it wouldn't have been the first time Alpha had mistaken a natural phenomenon for signs of intelligence. The general still wouldn't let Alpha live down the fact that he'd once wasted six months trying to communicate with a pile of rocks. Rocks that just happened to produce a near-perfect replication of Beethoven's 5th Symphony during a storm…

If anyone ever asked, he had known all along and was just taking a vacation.

That Beethoven's 5th had been banned on all of Alpha's private shipyards after the workers began playing it on a loop was a total and complete coincidence.

But the allure of a labor forc—eh, people, and more important, processed materials, was too great to resist.

With his current speed and trajectory, in 17 hours, give or take, the vault would slip through the liminal space between the ice giant and its strange moon. Once there, he could use his jury-rigged thrusters and the strange gravitational anomaly to enter a stable orbit around the satellite. From there, he could do further scans and pick the perfect place to crash the vault. He needed to make sure he crashed in a secure location, at the very least. They would have likely spotted him by this point if there was any intelligent life on the moon.

He had a few potential locations already marked. It would have helped if he had some idea of wh-,

A sudden priority alert from one of the monitoring drone's AIs flashed across his awareness. The drone detected a strong, unknown energy signal emanating from the moon's surface and a bright flash of light. Alpha immediately switched to the drone's camera feed, expecting an attack.

In the distance, a small glimmer of light rose from the moon's surface and raced toward him at an astonishing speed. It would still be several hours before it intercepted, shortly before he passed by the ice giant, in fact, but the sheer speed the small object exhibited was impressive.

He doubted that this was an actual attack now. Unless they expected the tiny, watermelon-sized comet headed in his direction to do something. That was unlikely, given the size of the wreck hurling their way. More realistically, it was a type of scout drone or something similar sent to better understand what they were dealing with.

That all but confirmed the moon was inhabited to some extent.

But that also suggested that whatever natives were present had at least some technological advancement. That meant his job would be that much harder. More so if they realized what could hide in his vault aboard the wreck (not that he thought they would ever be able to actually crack it).

Curious about what he was dealing with, Alpha focused his own drone's long-range camera toward the object to get a better view. Then paused, both confused and shocked.

"… Is that a chicken?!"

=========================

Lian Peng stood on the lunar surface and observed the massive object with a detached curiosity. No, even 'massive' may have been an understatement. The eyes of a High Celestial, only a half-step from the path of Divinity, could see farther than the horizon. Even on one of the Celestial Sisters, nothing could escape him. The empty Void, bereft of obstacles and thick Celestial energy blocking his view, magnified his sight exponentially. Coupled with his [Divine Sense], likewise magnified by the thin energy of the Void, he wasn't exaggerating to say there was little in his territory that could escape his notice.

That he could see the object moving toward them from a distance that even the largest void-ships even constructed would appear as pinpricks, shook something primal within him. More so since, from the barest details he could make out, the object appeared to be but a fragment of some greater whole. That someone had built anything this large without being discovered was… worrying.

The void beast handler would have to be posthumously awarded merits for this discovery, even if it seemed they'd stumbled upon it. If it was significant enough, Lian Peng might even nominate one of their descendants for a Lunar Academy slot. Even the children of Divinity would fight tooth and nail for a spot in the Academy. Let it never be said that the Lunar Scouts didn't care for their own or their families.

The original plan was to let the object pass closer, then capture it for study. That changed when long-range observation arrays noticed the object had made small but calculated coarse adjustments over the past week. Visual observation also noted dozens of unidentifiable creatures moving over the object's surface. Details were still sparse, though, as combing through the archives revealed nothing of similar description. That alone wasn't too strange. New and unknown creatures were discovered or created all the time, but once more, the lack of warning or information was concerning.

Deliberations took hours, but it was decided he would intercept the object as it passed by the Mortal World himself. As a Lunar King, he was the most powerful being in this sector. Only the Grand Elders of the largest sects and clans on the celestial world could match him. If even he couldn't deal with whatever this was, then nothing else in the area could. If something happened to him, they would have to contact the HQ in the Heavenly City for backup, and by then, it might already be too late.

With any luck, whatever forces were using the wreckage as a life raft would be nothing more than remnants. Not organized enough to be a danger, but enough to get some relevant information, at least. With that in mind, he felt a bit of a show was in order. After all, as his dear grandmother once taught him, sometimes the best weapon is a bit of shock and awe.

A bright swirl of pure, blue-jade crystal flames enveloped Lian Peng's form, creating a small vortex centered on him. When the flames vanished, the form of the handsome young man was gone, and in its place stood… a small bird. Its stocky, solid body wasn't built for flight, but was quite capable when needed. Instead, its form inspired images of powerful leaps and dangerous lunges as it chased its prey.

Its brilliant azure, black and white feathers shone in the mythical light of the blue-jade flames that made up the comb atop its head. Its short, jet-black beak gleamed as each movement seemed to cut through the thin atmosphere around it. The mane of wispy, regal feathers around its head, neck and tail flowed freely as if on some invisible wind, breaking and scattering into glowing beams of moonlight. For Indeed, the figure that had taken Lian Peng's place was none other than an azure… rooster.

It was a sight that would strike fear into the hea-GAUGK! Oomph! gurgle…

Ahem. Sorry about that, folks. The previous narrator seems to have had a small 'accident.' But no worries! The story must go on.

Where were we? Ah, right. As one of the Great Families directly under the Warden, all worlds trembled at the grand majesty and haunting beauty their true forms inspired. Indeed, none within the Nine Worlds could ever mistake the majestic form of Lian Peng's people for a common rooster. No, the moonlight Phoenix clan had wiped out entire sects and felled Divinities for such an insult.

His transformation complete, Lian Peng spread his majestic, glistening wings wide and flapped once. Within seconds, the moon began shrinking quickly behind him as he headed to intercept the object. The entire moon shook with the force of his launch, and Lian Peng turned into a comet of moonlight and jade-blue flames. It would still be a few hours before he got very close, even with his astounding speed so great the distances involved were, but that was fine.

That would give his "guests" plenty of time to contemplate their impending doom.

=========================

Well, it was official.

Alpha had gone insane.

How else would he explain the glowing chicken (rooster?) comet? Or were chickens often covered in blue flames, hurling through the void of space at speed on par with a small fighter drone?

But between auroric space squids, non-newtonian star systems, and spontaneously generating black holes, this was only the latest in a sequence of strange events that had Alpha questioning his own reality.

So sure, comet chickens, why not?

As the chicken/creature/drone drew closer, on the off chance he'd not gone totally insane and this all wasn't some kind of strange hallucination, Alpha formulated his plan.

Could AI hallucinate? That seemed like something he should have been informed about during orientation! He would file a complaint with HR when all of this was over!

By the time the object was close enough that Alpha could make out details with the TAWP's optical sensors, he's planned how to approach the natives.

First contact was always the trickiest part of the job. When appropriate, the Federation was open to engaging in discussion and diplomatic interaction to better ease the power shift and merge into the greater Federation. When Alpha was involved, those "discussions" typically involved lots of explosions and people running around screaming. Peaceful talks were much more peaceful and smooth when the other side's entire military network had been turned into dust from orbit.

Other times, a more… subtle approach was needed. He'd once pretended to be a mysterious alien artifact and was "captured" by a space-faring civilization that had yet to make the leap to interstellar travel. It had taken him only ten months to hack into and gain control of their entire defensive network, Skynet style, allowing the Federation fleet to warp in and sweep up.

The TAWP was stocked as well as it could be after the visit to his vault. But he didn't have the infrastructure to overwhelm a force capable of space-faring drones and moon colonization. Similarly, if they had the capability of more, he doubted his welcoming party would be so lax. Barring some strange esoteric tech, he doubted they had anything capable of actually threatening him. Thus, the thing Alpha needed the most, more than anything, was information, leaving him with one option.

Poke the nest and see what comes out.

And if there was one this Alpha was best at, it was poking things he probably shouldn't.