The intruder seemed to have lost their blaster because it lay on the floor along one wall, forcing them to engage in hand-to-hand combat against the individual who appeared to be protecting the young man.
The two of them fought fiercely against each other across the room, throwing punches and kicks while trying to grapple the other to gain an advantage.
Eventually, the defender started to gain the advantage and began to push the intruder back, putting them on the defensive until the intruder made a mistake, allowing the defender to land a clean hit.
"Ggggaaaaahhhhhhhh," The intruder groaned in pain.
Seeing that he was about to lose the intruder made a desperate attempt to flee from the room by bolting towards the doorway.
Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Victoria came rushing into the room while shouting, "STEVEN!"
She immediately noticed the intruder dashing towards her in the doorway and quickly raised the blaster before aiming it at the intruder's leg and pulling the trigger.
A red flash accompanied the vanishing of the intruder's leg, causing him to cry out in pain as he collapsed to the floor while his blood pored out onto the carpet.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."
"Mother," Steven said with relief as he heard and saw his mother enter the room before he came out of his hiding spot.
"Oh, thank god," Victoria said with relief as she saw her son was unharmed before she quickly pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you," She said as she turned to the shadow.
The shadow only responded with a nod.
"Restrain him so that we can question him later," Victoria instructed just before Andromeda's vision blurred again.
"Well, that could have gone worse." A Scaulxun male said to himself as Andromeda watched him read messages on what she recognised as an old cellphone-like communicator that was used years ago.
"We managed to eliminate almost all of the imperial family. Though it's a shame we couldn't get rid of Victoria and Steven, I guess we will have other opportunities to get rid of them.
We also achieved our primary objective," The male said as he looked at one specific message that said.
[[Object acquired]]
Andromeda saw that the man was about to close the communicator when a new message appeared that made him freeze.
[[Andrew and Petunia have be captured by the Ororis family, they somehow have a data log of our communication with Andrew.]]
"Fuck." the man cursed before appearing to think for a moment, after which he used the communicator to make a call.
"Sir, I have a report."
"Yes, sir, we have completed the primary objective, but there has been a complication."
"The Ororis family has captured Andrew and Pertunia, and they appear to have a data log that shows Andrew was working with us."
"Unknown, sir, but the fact that they captured them and have this data log means they know more than we would want."
"Understood, sir. We will pull out immediately. What about our plans for the Terrans, though?"
"Understood, sir."
Andromeda watched the man end the call before sending a quick message.
[[Pull out]]
He then closed the communicator and threw it into his bag before slinging the bag over his shoulder and leaving the room, after which Andromeda's vision blurred again.
As her vision returned, Andromeda found herself looking down on a table full of food and drink that was surrounded by members of both the Terran and Phoenix races.
"Focus on Tessa, and your oracle powers will show you something interesting." He said as he gently cupped her chin and turned her face towards a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes who was serving drinks to a Phoenix that sat at one end of the table.
As Andromeda focused on the woman, she was surprised to witness the woman's hair and eye colour changing. Her hair turned from blonde to black while her eyes turned from blue to green.
"Princess Tessa Terrana!" Andromeda said in surprise as she recognised the woman.
"That's right."
"Why is she pretending to be someone else in the TISF?"
"Later, for now, watch what is about to happen carefully."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Kirkmeld. I must say that this beverage is quite delicious," Andromeda heard the Phoenix say to Tessa as she replaced his drink.
"You're most welcome, Ambassador. It's a very popular drink on many of the planets within the Sandanar Galaxy, though not as popular as God's Oasis."
"Haha, that's not surprising, there isn't a drink in the universe as popular as God's Oasis."
"Bridge to captain." Andromeda suddenly heard from a comm.
"Go ahead," A woman who sat at the opposite end of the table to the male phoenix, while wearing a TISF dress uniform.
"We have just received a fleet-wide emergency communication from Terrana Five space station."
"What did it say?"
"Apparently, Homeworld has had a massive planet-wide power loss."
"Power loss? Like on Trillion? Has the neutron reactor been attacked?"
"Planet-wide power loss? Is this related to Trillion?" Andromeda asked in surprise, as she only knew that the imperial palace had lost power.
"Hush and focus," The unknown man whispered into her ear.
"Aparently, investigations are still ongoing; however, no explosion was detected before the power loss."
Just then, Andromeda noticed an odd movement from one of the TISF officers serving food, and as she turned to look at them, she saw that the officer was pulling a small blaster out from under their uniform, where it had been hidden before aiming it at Tessa.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" One of the other servers who had short black hair said in alarm before shouting out loud as she saw the officer starting to pull the trigger, "STOP…. NO TESSA!"
Tessa turned her head to see what the commotion was, and her eyes shrank as she spotted the small blaster that was aiming at her.
Before she could react, the Phoenix that she had been talking to, who sat at the end of the table, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him while falling from the chair towards the ground.
Andromeda watched as the TISF officer pulled the trigger just before a gaping hole appeared in the Phoenix's back as he was now covering Tessa.
Before the TISF officer who shot could react and the others could fully raise their weapons, a female phoenix who wore a PSF dress uniform and appeared to be the most senior officer there had raised her hand and shot fire out of it at the TISF officer, burning him alive.
"AMBASADOR RYSE!" The female PSF officer shouted in panic after burning the TISF officer to death.
"TESSA!" Both the TISF officer who sat at the head of the table and the one with short black hair shouted in panic before rushing towards her.
"I'm fine," Tessa said before she felt something wet on her and, realising what it was, said in alarm, "AMBASADOR!"
Andromeda watched as Tessa rolled the phoenix ambassador off her and began to inspect him.
"He's dead," Tessa suddenly said, causing the room to turn quiet.
"Step back quickly," the senior PSF officer suddenly said before grabbing Tessa and pulling her away.
"Admiral Solaris, I understand you're upset. But I think you can agree that this wasn't Lieutenant Kirmeld's fault," The senior TISF officer said with a frown.
"You misunderstood, Captain Ororis. I only want to keep her and everyone else from harm. Please step back as the ambassador is about to go through his rebirth cycle."
"Ah, my apologies," Captain Ororis said as everyone stepped back, and they, as well as Andromeda and the unknown man, observed Ambassador Ryse's corpse.
Soon, a red glow surrounded the ambassador's corpse before it burst into flames.
Everyone watched as the golden red-orange flames burned the ambassador's corpse to ash, before finally dying down and leaving only a pile of ash.
After the flames disappeared, Admiral Solaris removed her jacket before approaching the pile of ash and bending down.
She gently brushed the pile of ash away until she revealed a golden egg that had flame patterns on it, which she picked up with her jacket and carefully held.
"Wow, I had heard about the phoenix's ability to reincarnate, but I never thought I would witness it," Captain Ororis said.
"Honestly, I would have preferred you never had the chance to witness it," Admiral Solaris said before Andromeda's vision started to fade until she once again found herself on her bed with the unknown man.
"What was all that about?" Andromeda asked.
"I can't tell you much since you, of all people, understand that some things have to be learnt at the right time. All I will do is repeat myself: the new Terran Emperor will need your support; otherwise, the leaders of the other races wont respect him or the Terran race. You saw how young he was after all and how he hid when his life was in danger."
"He is indeed very young. Why then wouldn't they have Victoria become the true empress and not just one in title?"