A great flash of light erupted at the edge of a small system on the galactic northeast as a great Seraphim Mothership dropped out of warp, quickly followed by dozens of smaller ships, two battlecruisers, ten frigates, and a number of dropships.

"Begin system scans," Tech-King Roi clicked. His eyes glinted with hope, though he made sure to hide it from his bridge crew.

The faint clicking and pattering of Mothership Kyodain's ancient computers scanning the small system. It only consisted of Five planets, two rocky and three of gas, and a pair of asteroid belts. Initial scans dated the planet at only 3 billion years of age.

Minutes passed before anyone responded.

"The second planet from the star appears to have a roughly 80% similarity to the homeworld," AI Kyodain replied in her raspy monotone.

"But is it habitable," Roi questioned.

"Further planetary scans will be required."

A small warmth ignited in Roi's stomach. Maybe, just maybe. After hundreds of thousands of cycles and a dozen generations of wandering through the void between galaxies, there just might be a new homeworld for the Seraphim, a new Donum Lux. 

"Gather the tech-priests," Roi called out to his crew, "Tell them to prepare in docking bay A029." he paused for a moment before continuing. "I will personally see to the examination of this new planet." The Tech-King stepped into one of Mothership Kyodain's thousands of Tubrolifts and typed in the command for his destination. Once upon a time, those turbolifts had been pearly white, but centuries of use wore them down.

In reality, minutes passed. But it felt like a century for Tech-King Roi. For the first time in many lifetimes, he just might be able to give his Seraphim a home on solid earth, more real than Mothership Tochi could ever hope to provide. It took all the Tech-King had to stop himself from darting off the tubolift to the dropship, and even more to prevent himself from excitedly taking a seat in the pilot's chair. Instead, he managed a brisk pace with an air of dignity expected of his station as Tech-King.

As he stepped inside the dropship, Roi noted the team of five Tech-priests already had their equipment prepared and were waiting with scanning drones and various other equipment. The Rigger pilot finished his flight preparations just as Roi took his seat. 

"Take off for the second planet in this system," The Tech-King ordered, this time not even bothering to conceal his excitement.

Roi smiled under his breathing mask as his dropship swooped down from orbit. The ship rushed over oceans of gigantic, lush trees and in between rock spires taller than anything he had seen on the dead planets in between galaxies. Something about them made Roi want to climb them and build a home in their branches, even though the only experience he had was with building starships. The Tech-Priests were already taking readings of the lush planet below, measuring every visible oject. With every passing moment, the Tech-King's hope for a new home for his Seraphim grew. It was moments before the dropship found a place to land in a small clearing.

The Tech-Priests darted outside and wasted no time setting up their equipment. Round atmosphere containers to store for later study, dials to measure toxicity, and dozens of other strange and alien equipment used to quickly analyze all the information around them. Roi, on the other hand, did his best to feel the small green leaf-like blades under his Pressure Suit's boot. Grass, he thought AI Tochi called it. He was pretty sure there was only a small pasture of it somewhere on board.

Roi checked the readings on the Tech-Priest's scanners, they seemed good enough, almost more than he really needed. He slowly raised his upper arms to the clasp of his breathing mask, he switched off the flow of oxygen from his mask and quickly unclasped it.

"Roi," One of the Tech-Priests shouted, "no!" 

The Tech-King ignored them, instead choosing to take a deep breath of rich, cool air for the first time in his life.

The Tech-Priests stopped protesting as soon as they saw their leader still standing, breathing deeply from the rich and flavorful air. One by one, each tech-priest took off their own mask. Quickly realizing that the oxygen, recycled many hundreds of times, was stale in comparison to the rich flavor they were breathing in now. 

There was something about the air, the space of being on a planet. Tech-King Roi wanted to explore everywhere, climb every tree, and most all, build a giant, spacious city for all his people to live in. Perhaps they could even bring in new species to join the kingdom of the Seraphim. One great, big harmonious kingdom.

But it all had to start somewhere. And that somewhere, Roi hoped, was right on their new planet.

"What do you think of calling this world our New Lux Donum," the Tech-King asked. Mostly into thin air, but also to the Tech-Priests and the Rigger, who had also taken off his mask. There was a wave of consent from the other members of the expedition.

"Call the other motherships and bring them here. All our people must see this and begin construction of our new home immedeately," Roi ordered.

Tech-King Roi and a team of Riggers started exploring the forests of New Lux Donum on foot. All had their breathing masks off, but force of habit kept their weapons in hand. This was a new and alien world, and as such, threats were expected.

A strange brown-furred and antlered creature stepped into the path ahead of them and bent down to eat a flower sprouting from the ground. One of the riggers fired his Arc rifle in panic and the creature fled in a gallop.

"Native animals," one of the Riggers commented, "It's strangely... cute."

Some Riggers murmured in agreement, others chuckled in embarrassment. The party continued onward, admiring the natural beauty of a gigantic forest. The likes of which none of their kind had seen for centuries. They trekked further and further away from the landing site, taking in everything they saw. 

Suddenly, a great roar was heard nearby, and a gigantic, 10 foot tall beast of flesh the color of stone charged towards them. Its angry snout  frothed with fury and saliva. Almost instinctively, the Seraphim scattered and scrambled up the nearby trees. Tech-King Roi, however, took this as an opportunity to prove why he was the Tech-King. He darted forward and flourished his Arc Blades from their scabbards. With a flash, Roi sliced off the beast's left forward leg and dodged backwards to avoid the Beast's snapping maw. The Tech-King smoothly drew his arc pistol from it's holster behind his waist and calmly fired four rounds into the beast's skull. Killing it for good.

"Let's return to the landing site," Roi suggested," The construction suits and materials for our new city should be arriving soon.

Dozens of seijo battlesuits retrofitted for construction clumsily swooped down from the sky. All of the pilots had no experience working with atmosphere or large amounts of gravity, a whole 1.5 gs worth of it. The dropships were faring slightly better since they had thrusters that automatically compensated for the increased amount of gravity, but landing was still a little tough. Tech-King Roi chuckled, the riggers back on the mothership were going to have a lot of 'fun' banging out those dents. He decided to have more shorter shifts to give everyone a chance to construct on the planet. 

As for construction itself, the Kyodain would start with shelters. AI Kyodain had given them blueprints for dozens of different kinds of structures. Farms, homes, factories, laboratories, mines, and the like. All were there for them to build. The riggers started on the homes: All small, dome-like structures dug into the ground, giving them minimal profile, maximum protection against the elements, and an easy way to expand their buildings. In the meantime, the suits began construction on a small factory to begin constructing tools and vehicles to help with the expansion of their colony. Roi realized that they would need construction materials before long. They couldn't work with refined scrap metal for very long.

Tech-King Roi travelled back to Mothership Kyodain on one of the returning dropships and ordered a Frigate loaded with his Battlesuit Shiki with five other mining suits to explore the nearest asteroid belt for resources.

As he walked towards the frigate docked in one of Mothership Kyodain's two massive docking bays, the Tech-King gave out orders for the remaining ships waiting lightyears away, to begin their way to the new home. The New Lux Donum. He boarded the nearby frigate and greeted and thanked the tech-master, tech-priest, Rigger Pilots, and the crew before giving the order to launch.

A few short minutes later, the frigate arrived at the inner asteroid belt. Roi and his other pilots launched.

"Okay Riggers," Roi said through the commlinks in the Battlesuit, "We're looking for the ideal sector to begin a mining operation. Take mineral samples from every large asteroid you find and fill your onboard hold. Once full, take it back to the Frigate. The Tech-King pulled up a mining laser and powered it on. "Launch," He he ordered. With a burst of light, the five miners and Roi streaked through the emptiness of space and into the asteroid belt.

For dozens of deca-cycles, Tech-King Roi and his fellow riggers burned through asteroids. Carving out mounds of minerals for research later. Even though they were all relatively common materials like Iron, Nickel, and Copper; they were all incredibly useful and they were plentiful. This was a young and unexploited system, which meant this was perfect for the existence of Clan Kyodain, no, all Seraphim. Maybe one day their kingdom could even welcome new species into their ranks. Something AI Kyodain said never happened back in the empire.

“Riggers,” Roi sent through the comms, “I believe we have enough minerals for analysis. Call Motherships Senshi and Shisoka  out here to begin mining and construction of stations immediately.”

They were so close. Soon, Clan Kyodain would become more than a clan. They would have territory. They would be a kingdom. A great kingdom of unity welcoming all, a new beggining for a small race in a small system.

Tech-King Roi, landed on one of Clan Kyodain’s five battleships and ordered scanning probes prepared. It was time to stake their claim on the system by surrounding it’s outskirts with probes. Giving them an early alert on anyone - or anything - who entered the system. That way, frigates and battlesuits could quickly find and ask what they wanted to do in Kyodain’s new kingdom. Once it was finally set up of course.

“The Tech-Priest has plotted a course for us,” The battleship’s Tech-Baron said, “It will take us in a full sphere around the system.”

“Very well, Tech-Baron,” Roi replied while staring out the battleship’s bridge window. He stared out into the the inky blackness of space. Of the many stars that dotted the empty void, his Clan Kyodain had the good fortune of finding one such dot to be the perfect home. He listened to each thunk and observed as another blip on the ever expanding early alert grid came online. He had made sure that the network would overlap itself, so a wouldn’t be able to sneak in one ship and destroy a probe to sneak the full size of their fleet through. Yes, this would be a good home for Clan Kyodain. The perfect place to for a young kingdom to enter the galactic theater.

[End]