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The data streamed directly into Aidan's consciousness—not comfortable, never comfortable when you're absorbing someone else's entire life experience compressed into digital format. Achilles Ares had lived for nearly three hundred years. That translated to a lot of memories.
Aidan leaned back in the Conn-Pod, eyes closed, and let the information wash over him.
The Precursors. An advanced species native to a planet they called the Anteverse. Population: approximately sixteen billion. Average lifespan: two thousand years.
Two thousand years. That single fact recontextualized everything. These weren't short-lived mayflies building civilizations that collapsed within centuries. They thought in geological timeframes, planned across millennia, remembered grudges for longer than human recorded history.
Their homeworld was a nightmare. Radiation saturated the atmosphere, chemical pollutants had turned the surface into a toxic wasteland, and every living thing had undergone radical evolution just to survive baseline conditions. The Precursors themselves had adapted—biological filters for toxins, radiation-resistant cellular structures, the ability to thrive in environments that would kill a human in minutes.
But even they couldn't survive on the surface anymore.
The entire species lived underground. Massive dungeon cities carved ten kilometers deep into the planetary crust, sealed against the poison sky. The oldest excavations dated back two hundred fifty million years—built in response to a crisis called the "Toxin," some kind of fungal parasitic organism that had apparently driven the entire civilization underground.
The memories didn't explain what the Toxin actually was. Just that it was ancient, terrifying, and the reason the Precursors lived like moles.
Government structure: The Precursor Empire. A colonial military state that had somehow merged theocracy with fascist efficiency. Their state religion—the "Pioneer" faith—wasn't just spiritual window-dressing. It was the ideological foundation of their entire civilization, woven into law and culture so thoroughly that separating religion from government was meaningless.
The head of state was Ella Hayshiz—simultaneously empress and high priestess, wielding absolute authority over both secular and spiritual matters.
The capital: Cretes. The first "new" dungeon city, though calling anything built millions of years ago "new" stretched the definition. Largest population center, most advanced industrial base, heart of the empire.
Their technology was impressive. Controlled fusion power—not the experimental, barely-functional reactors humanity was developing, but mature technology that powered entire cities. Artificial intelligence systems running most routine functions. And biotechnology that made human genetic engineering look like kindergarten finger-painting.
But their military had atrophied. For two hundred million years, the Precursors had faced no external threats. The Toxin kept them underground, but it didn't attack their cities, didn't wage war. So their martial culture withered, became ceremonial, nearly vanished entirely.
Then came the Battle of Qibral.
The memories showed flashes: another species, called the Zibral, disputing control of nuclear materials. The Precursor Kaiju forces deployed expecting easy victory. Instead they got massacred. The Zibral used weapons of mass destruction—tactical nukes, maybe, or something worse—and wiped out ten percent of the Precursor population in a single campaign.
One-point-six billion dead. In months.
The Precursors responded with Category-4 and Category-5 Kaiju backed by fusion strikes, eventually crushing the Zibral through sheer overwhelming force. But the damage was done. They'd been humiliated, exposed as militarily weak despite their technological advantages.
The government reformed. The Internal Guard—basically armed police—got transformed into a proper foreign-facing military. Except two hundred million years without real war had left them culturally unprepared. They couldn't fight properly, couldn't think tactically, couldn't operate outside their own territory.
General Garid took command and rebuilt them from the ground up.
Year 275,000,000 of the Imperial Calendar: A military coup. The Inner Guard attacked the capital, tried to overthrow the government. But the rebels had a fatal flaw—they wouldn't destroy the fusion reactors powering Cretes, because that would doom the entire civilization to slow death in the dark.
That moment of mercy cost them everything. The coup failed. The rebels were executed or exiled.
The Imperial Guard Division was formed from the remnants of the old Pioneer Guards—fanatically loyal troops who answered only to the head of state and General Ares. Religious zealots with military hardware, acting as a counterbalance to prevent future coups.
Then the colonization began.
Year 275,000,000: First colony established on a planet called the "ancient fox terrestrial world." Success triggered expansion fever. The empire captured two more worlds—Montrell in 1312 AD and Montreut in 1946 AD.
But then public opinion shifted. War weariness set in. The dove faction gained political power, preaching peace and cooperation instead of conquest. The Inner Guard launched another coup attempt in 1990 AD, trying to reinstall the hawks.
Generals Ares and Garid crushed it.
And then the Toxin returned.
Not as history, not as ancient threat sealed away in the past. Returning. Coming back. The fungal parasite that had driven them underground millions of years ago was about to invade the dungeon cities.
The Precursor civilization faced extinction.
The government made the calculation: expand or die. Find new worlds, terraform them, evacuate the population before the Toxin reached critical mass and killed everyone.
2011 AD: They opened the wormhole to Earth. Achilles Ares led the vanguard forces—establishing the staging ground Aidan was currently occupying.
2013 AD: First Kaiju produced. Trespasser deployed to San Francisco. Humanity's nightmare began.
And for the Precursors, it was a desperate gamble. Win and migrate to Earth, saving their species from extinction. Lose and watch sixteen billion people die screaming as the Toxin consumed everything they'd built across two hundred million years of history.
The religious component was fascinating in a horrifying way. The "Pioneer" faith taught Precursor supremacy—they were the most advanced species, the most evolved, the pinnacle of universal development. Their technology and civilization proved their superiority. Other species were obstacles or resources, nothing more.
But there was nuance buried in the doctrine. The government should prioritize the people's welfare. The people should prioritize the species' survival. Mutual accountability, checks and balances built into theology.
No formal class system existed—at least not officially. The titles like "Ambassador" or "Bishop" just indicated job positions, not hereditary aristocracy.
After the 262 Incident (whatever that was—the memories were vague), military authority got transferred to the Senate to prevent another coup. The Ministry of Military Defense was disbanded. The empire entered an era of "military-political integration," which sounded ominous as hell.
Military Forces:
Pioneer Inner Guard: Reformed from armed police into proper soldiers. Equipped with integrated combat armor ("Banares"), smart rifles ("Athena"), and lightsabers.
Lightsabers. Actual goddamn lightsabers.
Well, technically "Hypnos" brand nano-material blades that superheated to cutting temperature and glowed blue during combat. The Type-A blue sabers were standard Inner Guard issue, representing military authority.
Imperial Guard Division: The religious fanatics. Same equipment as the Inner Guard but with red lightsabers representing administrative/religious authority. Only obeyed the head of state and General Ares. Terrifying combination of zealotry and military competence.
Kaiju Corps: Biological weapons controlled via hive consciousness. Current commander: Achilles Ares, whose memories Aidan was currently raiding.
Precursor Quartermaster General Department: R&D and manufacturing. Minister Rhea Hera—notably described as belonging to an "interstellar, high-IQ wandering race." So not Precursor by birth. Refugee, maybe? Or hired expert from another species?
Colonial Governor's Palace: Managed occupied territories. The governor of Edenia had been assassinated four times by local resistance. Current governor: Toth Hermes, former Inner Guard commander who mysteriously resigned right after the last coup attempt. Suspicious as hell, no direct evidence of involvement.
Pioneer Police Department: Yellow lightsabers, domestic law enforcement, took over after the Inner Guard became a military force.
The economic system was basically state socialism taken to its logical extreme. Education, employment, housing, resources—all allocated by the government. Most assets publicized. Efficiency over freedom.
Aidan's eyes snapped open, consciousness returning fully to the Conn-Pod. His head throbbed. Processing centuries of compressed memories wasn't designed to be comfortable.
But one detail stood out, buried near the end of Achilles's knowledge:
The dove faction still existed. After watching humanity's rapid technological development, after seeing how quickly Earth adapted to the Kaiju threat, some Precursors had started questioning the invasion.
They wanted cooperation. An alliance against the Toxin, pooling resources and knowledge to fight the parasite threatening both species.
Which meant there might be a diplomatic solution after all.
Or it meant the Precursor empire was fracturing, political divisions creating opportunities to exploit.
Either way, it changed the strategic landscape considerably.
Aidan looked at the three frozen Precursors still locked in magical stasis. Achilles Ares, commander of the expeditionary force. The man whose entire life history Aidan had just consumed.
"Well," Aidan said quietly to the empty Conn-Pod. "This just got a lot more complicated."
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