The conquest of the Confederacy was as swift as it was brutal. Few people knew about the existence of alien life within the borders of the degenerate state. And those who did only knew about civilizations that were not even powerful enough to be considered minor powers.

The Empire had sent a small expeditionary force, no more than one hundred ships, and a quarter of those had the purpose of providing logistics and supplies to the combat operations. Yet these hundred warships were significantly larger than anything that the Confederacy had to offer, and advanced in capabilities beyond their wildest dreams.

Even if the spies in the Confederacy had not completely disabled the nation’s defenses, the war would have been an absolute bloodbath. Within hours, the banner of the black sun was waving proudly on every world except for earth.

Germanic spies had been extracted from the few worlds that the Confederacy had occupied, and rather than launch a military invasion, the Empire simply launched a single torpedo at these worlds. A torpedo that would rapidly destroy everything on the planet, and terraform it into a world ideal for Germanic life.

In other words, a continental world whose entire climate was based upon that found in Europe. Naturally, all life on the planet was extinguished in the process. The news was spreading across the screen in Bruno’s office that all worlds aside from Earth had lost contact after a single message was sent back to Humanity’s homeworld.

“The Germanic League has returned.”

Bianca was, of course, terrified, her hands only calm due to the amount of liquor she had consumed while watching the chaos unfold across the Earth. People began to panic, as a race of humans they until just now believed to be extinct, whose last gasp on Earth was to wage a bloody campaign of terror in an attempt to create an ethno-separatist state now returned from the stars to exact revenge.

Naturally, Bianca was not only in fear for herself and her family, but also for her people. And because of this, she mustered the strength to ask Bruno exactly what would happen to Earth now.

“What… What is going to happen to us all…”

Bruno poured himself another drink as he detailed the exact plans for Earth and its human population. One that caused Bianca to become overwhelmed with dread.

“Any minute now, the expeditionary force will arrive above Earth. Our legions will deploy to the world and will cleanse its streets from the filth you have all created here. The majority of you, an estimated 99% will be slaughtered like the fiends you are.

The remaining 1% like yourself, those of a more moral character, who have resisted the degeneracy around you, and have a higher concentration of our people’s DNA in you, will be spared and incorporated into the Empire.

You will, of course, be second-class citizens for several generations, as it takes time to bleach the filth from your gene pool. We will not bother wasting our advanced technology to speed up the process when it can be done naturally through eugenics.

And once you have been properly bred to perfection, we will, of course, allow you to maintain the same rights and privileges as any other citizen. Morality and decency will return to Earth as we tear down your statues and monuments that immortalize your forbearers who destroyed this planet.

While your cities will be dismantled, rebuilt into an image properly suiting of the world which gave birth to our great race. Humanity will be redefined by a single race, our race.”

Bianca never knew that her boss was secretly a member of the Germanic League, a terrorist organization she once believed to be extinct. That is, until today. But she still did not understand how he was. After all, he looked like any normal human being. And because of this, she was quick to ask this.

“I don’t understand. Why are you doing this? Won’t you be a second-class citizen as well? Why would you subject yourself to such a fate?”

Bruno did not understand the question at first, and then he realized he was wearing a skin of a standard “human” thus he chuckled before shaking his head while correcting this misunderstanding.

“Oh, I see your confusion. Do you think I am one of you? No, Bianca. I was born many light years away in a world called Alemannia. A world named after a great tribe of our ancestors that once struck fear into the hearts of Roman Legionaries.

I was born to a family of esteemed military officers and politicians. My father was a sector governor, while my brother is the current Supreme Leader of the Empire. In a way, you could say I was born into our equivalent of royalty.

When I transferred from the Star Marines to Military Intelligence, I was given a very specific task. Infiltrate the Confederacy of Human Worlds, rise through its corporate ranks, and weaken the nation from within.

Not that it really matters. One of our warships could destroy your entire navy. As well as all of your paramilitary forces. In all honesty, I think Erich just has a pension for the theatrical. Sending a hundred war ships? A Paltry sum: should we be fighting against the likes of the Ennead Theocracy or the Asuran Cabal, but for you? Completely and utterly superfluous.

But this is why he is the Supreme Leader and I am a mere field agent… I can not comprehend his thoughts, or his reasons for sending so many ships to deal with a civilization so meager it doesn’t even rank on the galactic power index.”

Suddenly, the sky turned dark; the sun was blotted out by massive warships which hovered over the Earth. When Bruno saw this, a wide smirk appeared on his face as he spoke his thoughts aloud.

“Ah, right on time. As per usual… I can’t tell you how efficiently our military runs, just like clockwork. Unlike your dreadful excuse for a Navy. Do you have any idea how flabbergasted I was when I witnessed the state of your navy?

I mean the sheer incompetence I that was blatantly on display! It was well and truly maddening! I’ll tell you one thing: half of that fleet’s personnel would have been executed for their inability if they were in the Imperial Navy, and the other half would have been flogged!

You are all just lucky that you have survived so long without contact with any other civilization, because if you had, you would not have survived long enough for there to be today’s reckoning. But what more can you expect from a bunch of bastardized mongrels whose entire purpose in life is to engage in hedonism and rampant consumerism? Truly worthy of extinction…”

While Bruno spoke, orbital drop pods launched from the ships, sending men and vehicles to the surface. At the same time, dropships began to fulfill the same task. If one was partially blind and they looked up at the sky, they would have thought it was raining.

But it was not water that was hitting the earth, but rather soldiers and their heavy equipment. Earth did not even have orbital defenses, meaning that the Germanic warships were capable of sitting safely in the atmosphere, without risking any form of counter attack as they effortlessly deployed their forces.

It was the easiest invasion that the Empire had ever partaken of. And while the streets quickly began to run red with blood. Bianca did not dare look at them, and instead focused on the man in front of her, dying to know how what he had just told her was true. If he looked like her.

“I thought your people were supposed to have white skin and light hair? Why do you look like us, if you really are from the Germanic League?”

Bruno did not bother correcting the woman on the current name of the society which his people belonged to. There would be time enough for that in the re-education camps. Instead, he chuckled and addressed her concerns.

“My people have long sensed perfected the technology to transfer our consciousness into different bodies. In fact, if by some miracle a mishap happens, and this tower is struck by one of those drop pods, killing us both, I will be resurrected into my actual body on board one of those warships. With all of my memories intact.

But I wouldn’t worry about that. Our people are very precise in our calculations. As for why I look like you, the answer is simple. We cloned bodies to blend into your own society and transferred our consciousness into them.

We have been doing this for centuries, waiting for the day that we finally had a chance to reclaim Earth. You would never know it, but there are thousands of us here on Earth, and spread across your Confederacy, infiltrating the most powerful and influential positions among your civilization.”

“Oh? That must be the extraction team. It never ceases to amaze me how precise our soldiers are. Well, Bianca, I believe that is our cue. Shall we embrace the new order together? Do not fret, they will not harm you.

As I said, the Supreme Leader is my brother. I can vouch for your good nature, and thus they will simply take you into custody, and verify your information before allowing you into my custody.”

Bianca had a sudden urge to jump out the window and join the majority of her people in death. But there was something about the tone in Bruno’s voice when he spoke to her. Almost as if he genuinely cared for her safety. And because of this, she sighed heavily and reinforced her grip on his hand. Walking into the ashes of the confederacy, knowing that she had been given a chance to live within the new order.