While Eric was busy meandering through barren galaxies, Arel had succeeded in creating her pilot less mecha warriors. Since there would be nobody inside, the mecha itself had much more leeway in terms of design.

Unlike the Terra formers, these colossal warriors  took a more arachnid-esque shape. Six mechanical legs worked in tandem to keep the mecha stable and upright. A huge, solid azandium body that protected its energy core and programming chip, and four arms with no shortage of the rebels new and improved weapons. Figuring out a decent propulsion system was the hardest part. Trying to allow these mecha to balance themselves when in flight, so that they would remain accurate in combat was paramount.

Now Arel and Sile are standing in front of the first batch, dwarfed by them.

"Your mecha are more terrifying up close" Sile said nonchalantly.

"They're infinitely more terrifying when in combat mode" Arel quipped proudly.

The two watched a few demonstrations of the spider like mecha, feeling confident with Arel's invention. They were comforted knowing they had an offensive force if necessary. They wouldn't have to just sit back and wait to be attacked, allowing those that attacked them to retreat whenever they wished.

Sile on the other hand was relatively free. Apart from the early constructions of their defences, and the warp point, her main role was managing the crops, and completing the deliveries. Sile could be said to have been extremely relaxed, especially compared to the emperor.

The emperor thought he could finally take a rest, after the whole debacle with the rebels, but it seems fate doesn't want him to be so comfortable.

The federation that borders the empire is a collective democracy that rules over as many galaxies as the empire. They have vast resources and well supplied armies. The empire and federation have never been able to get along, perhaps the differences in political beliefs, or simply the selfishness of humanity. Either way, the two sides have had altercations for millennia. However they won't do anything detrimental to each other on the bright side. Apart from some friction on the border, and some disagreements in opinion, most actions they take are in secret.

Now the federation has asked the emperor for a student exchange program. It isn't actually the first time the two sides have tried this. Everyone is human, so at least they are better to each other than to their sworn enemy- the zerg.

However, in recent years, after the new president of the federation was elected, the superficial peace between the two sides has become harder to maintain. The president of the federation is actually a female Omega. This itself has already shown the differences in thinking between the two sides. The empire has maintained a patriarchal standpoint since the time of its conception. The federation wasn't all too different, they were definitely more lenient towards omegas, but patriarchy was still the mainstream.

All of that changed with the new president. Her name is Salessa Edrick. She was born to the federations most respected marshal. As the only child of marshal Edrick, Salessa was expected by her alpha father to inherit his mantle. He was a believer that ability trumped all, and with his devotion to Salessa's Omega father, who had been his childhood sweetheart. It was destined that Salessa would be his heir. He didn't treat Salessa as an Omega, instead he trained her ruthlessly.

He told her that any weakness can be overcome with sheer will and tenacity. So he forced her to train out the inherent weaknesses that came with being an Omega. He showed no pity. Although he loved his daughter, his connivance would only bring her more danger in the future.

This way of thinking was clearly successful. When she reached adulthood, marshal Edrick began to take her to get acquainted with his army. When facing battle he would give control to his daughter, only to intervene if her decision would cause an unacceptable defeat. Thankfully though, Salessa seemed to have inherited her father's military capabilities. Even though she had to deal with an immense amount of discrimination, but with her father supporting her, those alphas and betas quickly succumbed to her excellence.

After an extremely successful military career, with countless victorious campaigns, when the federation was finally at peace and there was little need for any military officer, she grew impatient. She knew there wasn't many chances to fight in the foreseeable future, and she still had unfulfilled ambitions. Salessa had always known she was someone who wanted power. Even if she was never discriminated against by her father, she saw the way her gender had been treated by alphas, and she had grown dissatisfied with the status quo.

Taking advantage of her and her father's connections, she quickly began getting involved in civil politics. She worked hard to win the support of the public, promising many benefits to the people, which the other candidates at the time weren't willing to part with. She never mentioned her idea to make all genders equal. There was no need to mention that yet. Instead she chose to promise a few benefits that didn't harm the interests of the alphas and betas.

From her well planned and methodical actions, it's easy to see why she was able to win with such a "disadvantage". Her political acumen was no worse than her ability to command the military. So without any doubt, she easily outclassed her opponents, and won the position of president. She was also very understanding of what the term "too much attention is not always a good thing" meant. The moment she took the position, she knew that everyone would be watching her actions, waiting for her to make a single mistake, and then condemn her for it.

So she was very obedient. Fulfilling her promises, which brought some resistance from other politicians, but in the end these reforms were successful, which made the public very happy to finally have a politician that kept their word. Her popularity afterwards was astonishing. Year after year she was able to maintain the dominant position in the votes, by a large margin.