A month had gone by since Blue Gadget damn near Microwaved himself into a crispy overcooked pony flavored TV dinner, and I grinned watching some Akun soldiers fire their weaponry down range at several moving targets, each one hitting their mark. They had finally mastered almost every weapon in the Empire's arsenal that they could carry and use, the ones being used now had been the alien energy rifles, which I myself had named the Type-Z Plasma Rifle, or just Type-z, normal plasma rifles had the designation of 18-B because they had been based on the unique Experiment-18 A Plasma Rifle you could get from the institute.

In sadder news, for the Akun, Former Emperor Ranzaer of the Akun Empire had passed away a week ago in his sleep, thus ending the bloodline that held for almost over a million years, I allowed him to go through their traditional way of honoring the death of an Emperor. It involved cremating him, and even grinding his bones into powder to add to the ashes before those ashes would be placed with a photo of him in the Hall Of Past Emperors within a ceramic urn, and two days of not working or really doing anything but praying for their departed Emperor. As for why I allowed this was rather simple, it would be the last time they'd ever preform this ceremony since I can't die.

The Diamond Dog Empire had gotten primitive fission bombs, that had damn near caused be to have a heart attack. That was before I realized they have no aircraft or missiles in which to deliver the bombs, even their heavy airships couldn't life 25 tons worth of bomb, so they'd have to dig tunnels to whatever target they wanted gone, and somehow roll or drag or push the bomb to the site before blowing it. Meaning nukes wouldn't start going off at random without warning since diamond dogs made the ground vibrate quite a bit when they dug.

Speaking of Nukes, the Akun nuclear shells with the payload of 15 kilotons had been simply upgraded using Quantum and like the mini-nukes, or the M45 Tactical Nuclear Warheads as their called, this doubled their power, so 30 kilotons of power all by adding a little crystallized quantum to the inside of the atomic shell. I'm so glad for game logic sometimes.

Chrysalis was left on Vanov to continue to govern there while I maintained the main section of my Empire, while Moon was sent to Letera to govern there as well, this would only last a few months until the Akun finally got used to being a part of my Empire, another two or three months would do it I think, they had been adjusting well, if a bit miffed as to how I could have made their God Emperor bow to me, but since I had there was no doubt that I was stronger than him, of which I was even without my Empire and game logic, I mean come on the dude was four and a half feet tall, I'm six foot one for fucks sake it would be like an adult kicking a toddler, easy as hell.

The Akun starships, vehicles, aircraft and other things had finally been fully upgraded with new fusion power plants and for the jets and helicopters, Fusion Turbofan Jet Engines, thus their full integration into the Empire's military was completed within a matter of days after the upgrades had been completed. It wasn't hard to train the Akun who already had been trained for their own aircraft and the like to use them with the new upgrades to their systems, just took a bit of explaining and testing for them to get the hang of it.

--------------------------------------------------------------Diamond Dog Dig Team, Old Crystal Empire----------------------------

Rover looked over at the blueprints he had set in front of him hung on the bare crystal and stone wall of the tunnel they had been in, if they had been correct an ancient vault would lay close by, in which he was ordered by the Denmother to crack into this vault and take any of the valuables within for the Diamond Dog Empire. He would do so gladly as it would mean he would be paid rather well, before he could think further on the matter of what to do with all the goodies he would certainly get to keep for himself after handing most over to the Denmother, one of his workers called out. "I think I've found it!"

Rover called back. "Stop digging then! I want to come witness this myself!" And thus he bounded down the tunnel on all fours, diamonds dogs are bipedal yes, but are best at running on all fours. Within a few moments he was standing with the rest of the team, overall 15 dogs with mining helmets and sharpened claws for digging. Before them stood a massive door absolutely covered in runes and sealed shut, this had to be the vault he was instructed to fine and crack so he looked to Mutt, it wasn't his real name but everyone called em Mutt, so Mutt he was. "I want you to place the explosives on the door at each corner and in the center in an X pattern, once we get far enough away from the door we'll blow it."

Mutt nodded. "Alright sir." Before turning to the wooden crate and grabbing several sticks of dynamite and sticking them to the door one by one using heavy duty duct tape while another dog began to make a long fuse which would lead to the sticks of dynamite, each bundle of dynamite holding 6 sticks each it was bound to be a large boom. After setting it all up correctly and making sure each bundle would stay in place, Mutt ran down the tunnel to the rest of the team and looked to Rover, who grinned and lit a match.

Rovers grin almost reached ear to ear as he lit a match from the matchbook he kept in his pocket. "Its Boom time boys!" Bending down he set the match to the fuse and watched it rapidly burn, a small flicker of light traveling down the tunnel before the tunnel shook as the large explosion rocked the ground itself, thankfully his orders and instructions to reinforce the tunnels had worked as they DIDN'T collapse onto their heads and crush them like an egg being tossed from the roof of a tall building.

The ancient runes on the stone door had been damaged heavily in the blast, and the arcane energy flowing through them destabilized and caused further explosion as the door shattered into fragments. A shadowy mist leaking from the once strong barrier, now free after millennium something from within spoke. "Yesss.....We are finally free after so long, go forth my children, bring about our rightful retribution against those who dared to lock us away forever!" Ponies made of...Shadows, began to flood out of the tunnel where the door had once been.

Rover and his crew looked on in horror at the flood of shadows heading towards them and opened fire with their small arms, mostly pistols and one rifle, however it did nothing as the projectiles passed through the shadow beings before they struck, Rover screamed in horror at watching his teammates fall one by one each diamond dog that fell dead became a shriveled mummified husk of what had once been a healthy living being. Before they could reach him Rover put his pistol into his mouth and fired, splattering his brains and bits of skull and splatters of blood across the wall of the cave he had been standing next to, his body falling dead and lifeless to the floor with a wet squelch. The shadows parted for their leader, a tall black mare with slit crimson eyes and long crooked horn, she grinned with a mouth full of fangs. "Those who dared to lock us away forever shall fall, it shall rain crimson upon the land like it did so many eons ago, it is time my children, to bring retribution." Her solid form melted as shadow like mist overtook her form and she flew forward like a gust of wind, her children following her the moment she did so.

Author's Notes:

Hiya all! I'm getting the Akun, Letera, and the Ss'ket drawn! Ain't that gonna be a treat? In other news I got the AER-10/11 drawn! The only differences between the weapons is the color and power of the laser they produce, the AER-10's is purple as you all remember, due to crystals only found in the Empire being used to produce the crystal arrays within the weapon, the crystal arrays in the AER-11 are made of crystallized Quantum.

Let me know if you liked this chapter or not! Leave a comment and somethin nice ^c^