Plausible Deniability

The Base was empty. All of it. Not even the security features remained stripped out by personnel so that they didn't interfere with the plans laid out. Asteroid base 45K98X had been completely stripped of everything, apart from the life support systems, though Myric guessed they were not really needed as both he could survive in a vacuum and his guests so to say probably had their own ways too. He had been waiting here 7 hours, not moving an inch he sat at the head of a gigantic table, resplendent in his Golden Armour his Halberd Shadowsong was nowhere to be seen. He rested his head on both of his knuckles and his elbows rested on the table. He was bare headed, his helmet put to one side on the table. Revealing his divine features.

He was currently waiting for someone. Or many people, he simply didn’t know. For all he knew this was some sort of big hoax. The faction he was meeting today was nothing like anything else the Union had encountered any short of the Skia, and the Nakai. A race shrouded in such myth and secrecy he didn’t know if they existed or not. Today, here on the lowly asteroid base, he would find out. This was of such secrecy only he and he alone know of what was to be discussed here in the coming meeting. The Union was to have contact with a race simply known as the Flux Ascendancy, nothing else was known. Myric had accommodated himself with all the myths and legends of all the races concerning the Ascendancy but no one had ever seen a member and remembered. Myric smiled, could they erase his memory too? He chuckled, probably not but still he would like to see what they can do. He waited a little longer, his infinite patience having no trouble, he liked time to himself... it was a luxury to an Emperor who ran an inter dimensional empire. He suddenly felt a disturbance...

His guests had arrived.

Yet, at first, the mighty Emperor saw nothing. The room was unfilled and vastly empty; no mice, no roaches, nothing beyond perhaps microbes growing between the few cracks in the fortress’s tiling. Yet he had felt something, and he maintained his gaze patiently. No ship had approached-at least, no ship had been detected approaching-but then no airlock doors had been opened either. Still, there was that undeniable sensation…

Then, a voice, ephemeral and wind like, came silently out of that empty room.
“We are not acclimated to invitations.” It said simply. It was a man’s voice, but incredibly faint and distant, and it almost had a musical inflection to it, as if it were really a set of wind chimes, or the sound of water flowing over rocks, or wind itself taking voice and finally breaking its silence. And with equally gradual form, a spectral form appeared. It was more not there than there. Particular fibers and pieces of dust were gradually rising from the chamber’s floor, and they held the light ever so slightly more than their neighbors; and as this cloud slowly rose, and even slower still moved towards the seated form of the Emperor, it coalesced and shifted into a vaguely humanoid shape.
“But that you managed to send an invitation so…subtly…” the shape continued, as it glimmered in the chamber’s dim light, and gradually began to take on the shapes of a figure in flowing robes, “merits our acceptance.” Myric knew that who he was speaking too wasn’t fully there, if at all; the apparition was not the result of phasing, or some variety of stealth; he could feel it as something entirely foreign and alien to his understanding.
The figure stopped at the far end of the table, his hands enveloped in the long, flowing robe.

"So it seems this venture wasn’t fruitless after all" The Emperor said smiling "Your truly do exist" He looked at the figure. "I am Emperor Myric, Lord of the Union of worlds, incarnation of light. Though I guess you might have known. Who may I be addressing?" Myric then stood up and saluted in the traditional Union manner by banging his hand against his chest.

The figure at the far end of the table nodded, before bowing in a remarkably restrained yet fluid manner. "We do know of you, yes. Your Union has come far from whence it started." The figure slowly rose from its bow, and looked towards the seated form at the end of the long table. "How do you know of us?"

Emperor Myric smiled "We have indeed come along way... Our forces in the newly discovered Ancerious galaxy discovered many ancient texts and legends concerning an ancient empire, we began to explore and regardless of how much we found we would be sent back to square one by an unexplained force" he said pointing a finger at the hooded man "So naturally the information found its way to my desk so to say. I looked it over and I was intrigued. I delved deep into our archives to try and find something; I found a mention of your people’s names in our deepest libraries. I was amazed at how well you hid yourselves and so I decided to test if the information I found was true. I sent out an invitation, one you couldn’t refuse" Myric said with a kind face.

The specter glanced quizzically at the larger figure seated at the opposite side of the table. “We choose to present ourselves in forms which you will remember, yet you make claims as to what we could or could not do. You presume much, Emperor Myric.” The phantom abruptly jumped—like a record skipping forward –and in the next instant was abruptly partially embedded in the table; yet he did not seem to notice this. “The Nakai still warn their children that we will come if they do not do as their mothers say. They would not smile upon you if they found you were fraternizing with our kind.”

Myric rubbed his chin at the his guests movements "Truth be told they already knew, I consulted with Herious Grand leader of the Nakai remnants, He tried to talk me into destroying you, restarting the war of old" Myric shook his head "I refused, though we may be the Nakais ancestors we will not rekindle old hatreds, the Union wishes only peace. It would be pointless to start conflict with one another. We both possess the weapons that brought the old war to a stalemate, I am not about to destroy the cosmos over a billions of years old squabble"

The specter fell silent for a moment in contemplation. What had happened between the Nakai and the Ascendancy was ancient even by their standards, and he wondered over whether or not the Nakai had even been honest to their leader about its full extent. Some things were too terrible ever to address honestly, for fear of what truth might bring…
“Nor do I see reason in altering your status.” The figure conceded earnestly. “In time, we shall arrive again before you with proper emissaries, but for the immediate future we are preparing for the Great Confrontation, and what comes afterwards. We have no desire to intervene in your people’s destinies, Emperor Myric.”

Myric nodded "Agreed... Final Confrontation?" he said puzzled.

The figure before him tilted its head slightly in confusion. "What is myth and what is reality...blends," it said with a certain degree of ambiguity. "We were made as warriors for the gods. When the time is right, we shall fulfill our commission and join them at the Great Confrontation. Once it is over..." the figure seemed to sigh. "Our path becomes more...clouded."

Myric raised an eyebrow "Interesting... will this great confrontation affect the cosmos? Or any of the other races?"

The figure before him seemed about to speak, but abruptly shifted again back to its past position at the end of the table. As the conversation went on, Myric was beginning to question whether the figure was a man or not; it seemed to become less masculine in nature in terms of posture, and maintained an unsettlingly fluid demeanor.
The robed figure looked aside at the otherwise empty wall of the chamber as it spoke.
“We do not know when or where this battle will occur; only that it is our purpose to be there for this one moment in time and to aide those who made us. We have remained unseen for longer than time itself simply to wait for that day. It may not even be a real thing…” The figure abruptly turned back towards the seated Emperor and looked towards him with a strangely absent gaze.
“I would suppose, from experience that any day in which one fights beside the gods shall leave its ripples upon reality.”

Myric sat intrigued, this figure was rather cryptic though from what little data he read he was getting more out of this figure than all races combined had over the last billions of years. Myric smiled "Truth be told I do not believe in gods, though I have met many figures both claiming to be gods and considered to be gods. I fought some of them and alongside some of them, I agree when one fight alongside beings to such power those moments will forever be known"

The figure cast a confused look towards the Emperor; which, given the rumored extent of the capabilities of the race he represented surprised Myric to a minor degree.
"You rule an empire of angels..."
The figure fell silent for a moment, before adding. "To rule an empire dedicated to the annihilation of evil implies a belief in the existence of the thing it fights."

"We are Angels in appearance yes. We are weapons, created by the Nakai in an attempt to recreate the Universe incarnate; they sculpted us into a form seen as gods to help the races see us as their masters. We had no choice" Myric said with a hint of sadness in his voice
"We believe in our mission, because it was entrusted to me by my father, he was considered a god; I didn’t see him as such. He taught me what I now know and I see his mission to be correct. I merely lead the Union for what I think is right"
"I believe in a need to end suffering, for everyone to be equal and to enjoy peace without repression or fear" Myric said in his usual charismatic way.

His visitor said nothing at this; but its mind found little agreement with the Emperor’s claim. It enjoyed suffering no more or less than the other figure in the room, but for a species so entrenched in secrecy and conscious efforts to avoid detection, an absence of fear or control was a rather difficult idea to wrap around. Instead, it focused on the purpose that had brought it here.
“As long as your forces do not engage those in our command, we can assure you that no interventions into your people’s fates shall be engineered by us.”
Privately, the visitor truly hoped that the Union of Worlds would never find itself at odds with his own people. They filled a valuable role as a stabilizing agent in this galaxy, and they prevented the existence of a vacuum which would only cause further unrest in this plane.

Myric smiled "Our forces will not interfere with yours, you have my personal word on that, also all files and instances of your race in our data banks as well as any sightings shall be repressed"

Myric’s visitor seemed to smile at this, much as the Emperor had hoped. “Then we have an understanding. Long life to the Emperor.” It added in conclusion as it again bowed, before abruptly fading away.

Myric sat down, and wiped his brow, it didn’t have any sweat on it but he realized that he had possibly just averted a temporal cold war of several billion years old from being reignited. He had a lot to do, he had to make sure the Ascendancy would never be found, and also he would have Herious trying to wring what was discussed out of him. He sighed; sometimes it was hard being Emperor. He laughed "What am I saying? I wouldn’t miss this job for anything" He activated his coms bead "I’m finished here pick me up" a reply came near instantly "Did all go according to plan sir?" Myric laughed "I’m not at liberty to say... though I can say we won’t be destroying the Universe anytime soon" He smiled and stood up, picking up his helmet and putting it on. There was a flash of light and in an instant the Emperor was gone, a few moments later the asteroid base was consumed by fire, no trace was to exist about the happenings here. Just like the Ascendancy Myric had to erase to protect.