Interstellar Age - #274 - 274 Time Flies By

Time flew by, and before Erich knew it, another two years had passed, while living in a world dedicated every waking hour that was not to his family, preparing the orc clans for war. It turned out Orcs grew quite rapidly, because the generation of half orcs born between Germanic Star-Marines and Orcish warrior women were already much larger than their Germanic counterparts would have been. 

These children were undergoing a strict martial based education, based primarily on what Germanic boys went through in their youths. They were born and bred for the purpose of becoming the leaders of the Iron Horde, and Erich made sure they had an education that focused on this purpose. 

And while Tia continued to expand the fleet for Erich’s new warriors, the man himself continued to wage war against the Oricsh clans, or at least those who refused to submit before him. There weren’t a lot of Orcish clans, only a few dozen. But each had their own identity and culture passed down through generations of bloodshed and warfare. 

It was because of this that many of the clans, who were far more combative to the idea of submission to a greater power, chose to fight rather than kneel beneath the increasing might of the Iron Horde.

Every battle was similar to the last. The two groups would meet in a primitive world, and wage war against one another with little or no strategy. The overwhelming power of the weapons and armor that the Orcs of the Iron Horde wielded was enough to win the day, even if the enemy outnumbered them a hundredfold. And they suffered little losses doing it.

It was because of this that Erich found himself in control of over half of the Orc clans after only two years of conquest. Though his wars of unification did not go unnoticed by the greater powers. And despite the fact that Erich had resigned as an Archon, only Lunaria and Celestia bore witness to it, and thus he was officially still an archon. Because of this, his actions had caused him to be monitored, but not outright attacked by those other galactic powers or sub-galactic powers who might fear Erich’s rise to power. 

Unknowingly, Erich was still protected by Lunaria, despite refusing to kneel before her any longer. Perhaps it was the woman’s intense love for the man, or something far more sinister, but she continued to protect him from her rivals, even when she was not obligated to do so. 

By now there were a thousand ships in the Iron Horde’s Fleet, half of them were dreadnought class ships, that acted as the primary housing for the horde, as well as battleships that could deal some serious damage to other dreadnought class ships, even the world sized vessels of the Alfheim Dominion.

While others were more conventional capital ships, such as destroyers, frigates, battleships, etc. All of which were operated primarily by artificial intelligence. After all, the Orcs were not a species that was exactly renowned for its naval supremacy. But with Tia’s consciousness embedded in the computers of every ship, she could operate them all with peak efficiency, and without human error. 

This eliminated the need for Orcs to be bred for the purpose of naval warfare. Instead, Erich had begun to implement rudimentary tactics and training for his army of orcs. Though they still fought over the chain of command, they were no longer simply charging forward head first with the simple and woefully inefficient tactic of spray and pray. 

Instead, they began to practice how to breach and clear properly, how to use long range weaponry, antiarmor weapons, and artillery. But getting a race of warriors who had only ever charged headfirst into the battle, relying entirely on their overwhelming physicality and natural regenerative abilities, to actually perform military maneuvers, tactics, and strategies was honestly like pulling teeth. 

It was incredibly difficult and painful to achieve. Simply because the Orcish warriors were always butting heads and challenging one another to duel so that they could establish dominance. And thus, Erich found himself with an army of barbarians, who he was attempting to turn into a roman legion. 

After two years of this, Erich decided he needed a short break, and thus, he spend the last two weeks alone with his family. By now, Ayumi had given birth to her own half-Germanic hybrid, which was a young daughter who looked oddly like a mix of her two parents. She had Erich’s silver hair, but Ayumi’s horns, pointed ears, and amber eyes. 

This young girl, whose name was Aiko, was very close to her older half-brother Kurt, who by now was running around, and causing trouble with the orcish children that were roughly the same size as him. Currently, Erich was sitting on a raft in the river, fishing for some of the better tasting aquatic lifeforms that lived in this river. 

By his side were Aiko and Kurt. Both of which were doing their best to mimic their father, as they waved towards their mothers who sat on the river bed, and enjoyed the sights of their children playing together with their father. 

While Erich complimented his two kids for catching some fish that were no larger than a bluegill, he heard a familiar voice in his head, which belonged to none other than Tia. 

“Master, we might have a problem?” 

Erich sighed heavily and communicated with the advanced artificial intelligence which his thoughts. 

“What now Tia? Let me guess one of the clans is rebelling again? Or better yet, they provoked a sub-galactic power, and are in need or reinforcements? Or don’t fucking tell me, they kicked open a Naraku hive nest, and have unleashed a galactic menace on some poor corner of the galaxy?” 

Tia’s voice turned smug before she expressed her sympathy for her Master’s plight. 

“It really is like trying to corral a bunch of rampaging bison, isn’t it…. But no, when Tia said that we might have a problem, it actually surprisingly had nothing to do with the Orcs. But rather the fact that Emrys has begun to post propaganda which demonizes Master as xenophile and a traitor. In response to Master’s threats.

It would appear that Emrys has begun a campaign that seeks to restore the Empire back to its previous state. Before Master proved to be a hero to the people and began to dispel the discrimination against mutants and aliens. 

By Tia’s current estimates, by the time Master’s army is prepared to wage war against the Empire, the likelihoods of him gaining the people’s support before and after the war will be virtually zero. It will require Master to completely re-educate the Germanic population, through complex propaganda campaigns, and authoritarian crackdowns on those who refuse to enter the new age. 

This is not account for the fact that one of Mater’s motivating factors for waging this war is to save S’aleth Tavarian…. Tia suggests immediately beginning a counter campaign against Emrys’ agents, and to liberate so called dissenters who align with Master’s views.” 

Erich simply scoffed before asking Tia the question of which he was already intimately aware of. 

“And you are asking me this why? Haven’t you already begun deploying countermeasures the moment Emrys began this campaign of hate?” 

Tia responded to Erich with a slightly embarrassed tone before confirming she had indeed already begun such methods to control the minds of the Germanic population.

  “Master knows Tia so well…. Well, since that’s the case, then Master must know that Tia is simply asking for approval because she wants Master’s attention.” 

Erich sighed as he took a sip from his alcoholic beverage before responding to Tia’s remarks in a way she did not want to hear. 

“Tia, I’m with my kids right now… I’ll pay attention to you later, but unless an emergency appears that requires my full attention, please allow me to relax for the time being. After all, in three days I’m going to have to go back to trying to control these fucking gorillas that call themselves Orcs…” 

Tia began to pout when she heard Erich’s response, but silently disappeared knowing that Erich had a lot of time to make up for as a father especially regarding his son Kurt, considering he had missed the first few years of the boy’s life. 

As for Erich, he was immediately questioned by his young daughter on why he was staring out into space. 

“What is daddy thinking about?” 

Erich chuckled when he heard this before petting the girl’s sleek silver hair. 

“Nothing important sweetheart, now let’s see who can catch the largest fish. Winner gets their fish eaten for dinner!” 

Thus, a competition began between Erich and his two children. One a pureblooded Germanic male, who had no mutations to speak of. And the other a half-oni female, who would be despised by her father’s people if they were to ever learn of her existence. 

By the end of the day, they had caught so many fish that the two children’s mothers would have a hard time cooking them all.