The Spider Queen

(Unova Syndicate- Planet Xerciam Prime)

(King's Island- Libera Financial Group Stronghold)

There were four major financial groups active on planet Xerciam Prime and each had carved out a territory on King's Island for themselves.

The resources in the mines scattered across the planet were abundant enough for each of them to make a comfortable profit but greed is a poisonous vice.

Secretly tensions had already started to rise and the uneasy truce between the financial groups was getting more fragile with each passing day.

It was only a few weeks ago that an entire company of private mercenaries belonging to the Canercose group had mysteriously vanished in the Bracken Forest.

Although the bodies were never found….

It was clear that those men would never be returning home.

No one took any responsibility for the incident so the Canercose group were forced to swallow their anger and loss.

But when more incidents begun to occur with startling frequency…. well… one did not have to be a genius to figure out what happened next.

The logging town owned jointly by the Northerium and Sepriena financial groups was attacked by raiders in the middle of the night.

What was truly insidious about this attack was the fact that the invaders had looted, burned, and pillaged only the Northerium controlled part of the town while leaving the Sepriena controlled territory untouched.

Although this attack was clearly not the handiwork of the Sepriena group, there was now a hidden rift between the two organizations.

The Libera financial group had done their best to remain neutral and not provoke any sides but now it seemed that their hand would be forced.

It didn't take long for whispers and rumors to flow through the local taverns and bars in the port city about what happened on the S.S Annamarie.

Now the number of people willing to cross the Rexanera Sea using their ships had declined by more than half.

This loss of reputation was enough to directly cut into that source of income.

The meeting held today in the Iron Stronghold was an important one for which all members of the shareholder board were required to attend.

Fifty alien creatures sat or lay on thick metalloid chairs expertly crafted to fit their different physiological traits and bodies.

They were all seated in the main hall of the stronghold.

A massive room with ceilings that stretched high into the air as spatial runes were carved carefully into the walls.

Fancy sculptures and pieces of art were built along the sides of the walls and beautiful serving girls brought drinks and refreshments to the shareholders.

The clothing, appearance and even languages differed slightly but each of these individuals were extraordinarily wealthy and bound together by a common interest.

Merchants no matter which culture or civilisation ruled the world through coin.

Few men are capable of resisting the allure of gold…

Fewer still can survive without it.

The head of the table stood up and addressed the crowd after the last alien had been seated,

"As you all are well aware, one of our transport ships was attacked by a crew of Troglites pirates led by a mercenary named B'rela."

"Security squads alpha and sigma have already tracked down the surviving pirates and all have been captured."

A polite wave of applause came from some of the shareholders as the efficiency of the security teams had to be lauded.

If Sophie were here, she would have been able to recognise the leader as a member of the same alien species as the crew on the unnamed ship.

Unlike the purely gaseous bodies of his brethren, the leader of the Libera group appeared to have a body whose state was somewhere between a gas and a liquid.

His murky red gas slowly swayed from left to right inside a dark black uniform with strange symbols made from rare metals sewn into the front.

This congratulatory atmosphere was suddenly interrupted by an arrogant voice that sounded out from one of the chairs at the back,

"Well, that's all great but what about the organization behind them. I hardly believe that mere pirates would be bold enough to attack the Libera group."

This comment opened up the floodgates and soon the main hall turned chaotic as several aliens shouted out their own opinions.

"This has the handiwork of those bastards from the Canercose group…. I knew those wretched mud barbarians would collude with raiders!"

"No! This is clearly the work of the Northerium. Who doesn't know that the president has connections with the Hyacinth mafia."

"I say we take this opportunity to capture a few mining towns and outposts…"

What was interesting was that every voice who dared to speak out were those who had just recently purchased shares of the company.

Not a single one of the old foxes uttered a word of protest and the look on their faces was one of anticipation.

The cacophony of voices only got louder and louder until a fearsome pressure descended upon the crowd.

Boom!

Wine glasses shattered and some of the nearby servant girls were thrown to the ground as they looked at the leader with fear.

"Did I give permission for you disrespectful brats to speak," a chilling whisper came from the gaseous humanoid.

No one said a word as the full force of a qi tide cultivator made them unable to breathe.

The old foxes knew that the leader was not a kind person and those who crossed him never ended well.

Even those with shares in the company were not immune from his rage.

The vice president had once commanded twenty percent of the company's shares and would oppose the leader at every turn.

Now one year later….

He had unexpectedly perished, and his shares were now in the hands of the leader.

The leader retracted his aura and continued to talk as if nothing had happened, "As I was saying…"

"Under torture we did not receive any useful information. It appears that whoever was pulling the strings behind this incident did not leave any traces."

"Even the captain thought that this bold move was his own idea, but our psychics discovered subliminal hypnotic messages implanted in his mind."

"Now is not the time for action."

The leader spread his gaseous body until it filled the entire room. Each of the shareholders did not even dare to move a muscle as an uncomfortable feeling enveloped their bodies.

One could feel a rage and beneath that rage…. a trace of insanity buried so deeply within that it was impossible to detect.

This was a creature who believed himself destined to rule even if what he commanded became nothing more than a pile of corpses and sycophants too afraid to disagree.

"I don't enjoy dancing in the palms of others."