Interstellar Age
Chapter 400 Renaissance

Tia developed a containment plan for Ayumi and her newfound abilities. In fact, she perfectly mapped out a plot of stars that were ideal candidates for Ayumi to suck the life out of so to speak.

After all, every time Ayumi feasted on a star's power, the star would age by a few million years. This could have drastic consequences to a civilization living within its vicinity, or more important the resources contained within the system.

As a result, Ayumi made sure to target stars that were either relatively new, and had billions of years' worth of life within them. Or stars so old they were going to go supernova sooner rather than later.

In the mean time Ayumi was able to live a normal life within Erich's home, acting as if nothing had happened. But every now and then she would have to go out into the galaxy and either harvest energy from a star, or train her powers in a simulated environment, one that could not cause any harm to the Germanic Star-Empire, or Erich's future plans.

In the mean time, Earth was rebuilt to a standard capable of acting as the Germanic Star-Empire's capital. Any vestige of the previous and decadent civilization that had once permeated across the planet's surface was thoroughly scourged to the point of non-existence.

As if God himself had wiped the slate clean, the Germanic peoples returned triumphantly to their homeland, restoring the youthful vigor of ancient Germania and its wooded lands. In fact through exceptional effort and advanced technology, the Earth was restored to a pre-industrial state, one that existed in harmony with the modern technology, and fortifications of the Germanic Star-Empire.

This was not the same architecture that had once been so renowned for its coldness and authoritarian approach. The architecture that the Germanic Star-Empire had used for centuries. Rather, through reclaiming their homeland and searching through the ruins of their ancient civilization, a new architectural style was fashioned.

One that revived old styles of the early modern Europe, while blending it with the futuristic technology of the modern world. Erich no longer lived in a citadel, one whose spire towered into the atmosphere, and looked down upon all life as insignificant.

Instead, he lived in a grand estate, meant to mimic the castles of the ancient European world, as well as the Palaces and chateaus that succeeded them. While functionally a stronghold, this new estate was also a work of art of the highest caliber.

It was a sign of a new era, an era of reclamation of the Germanic peoples' ancient, pre-exile heritage, a revival of past learning and wisdom, a renaissance, if you will.

And with this new renaissance came a rebirth in society. Like Erich had always planned from the moment he assumed the title of Supreme Leader, the Germanic Star-Empire began to distance themselves from their previous fanatically xenophobic ways. While they still held some prejudices towards aliens, the idea of keeping them out of the Empire altogether began to fade.

Instead, new embassies were established on Earth, from a host of different civilizations. And with them came merchants. Merchants brought a level of trade to The Germanic Star-Empire which it had never really seen before.

While largely self sufficient, the Germanic Star-Empire began to expand its trade routes across the galaxy, something which it had previously been isolated from. And though immigration was largely prohibited from outside civilizations and species, tourism was beginning to take off.

After all, people were curious about these civilizations which in the span of half a millennium rose to become one of the galaxies greatest powers. And the cooperation agreements with the other major powers meant that the mass movement of goods and services between borders became more frequent.

Within the span of just two to three years, the Germanic Star- Empire had become almost unrecognizable. With the constant growth of the Germanic race, and the expansion of its colonies into thousands of new worlds and systems.

The only way that Erich would be able to maintain a strong central authority over these many new worlds was by effectively remove human elements from the local governments. With the click of a button, society could be manipulated to his will thanks to Tia and her mass automation.

The Germanic society became split into effectively two castes. The Warrior Caste, and the Civilian Caste. Those who chose the life of a warrior would live in the military, and would effectively serve their entire life in it.

As for civilians, they now lived in a post scarcity society, and were free to pursue whatever gave them meaning in life. There was no need to toil the fields, or slave away in the factories. Everything that mattered in society had completely become automated under Tia's ever vigilant eye.

However, Erich was ultimately afraid of the society becoming 15:15

too hedonistic, as people had a tendency to engage in degeneracy when they had no troubles. Because of this, the strict sense of traditional morals which Germanic society was heavily enforced.

Still, this had always been the case in the past. It was nothing new, and it was the norm in society. Because of this, the freedom that people found in their daily lives came down to what they wanted to do. Did they want to paint for fun? Play video games? Sculpt models, travel the galaxy? Write fantastical stories? Or perhaps become a poet?

What one did with their life was no longer subject to what they could provide to society, and so long as they remained within the strict moral code of society, they were allowed to do whatever they wished.

Of course, each world was required to provide a certain number of soldiers to the Armed Forces, and because of this, if these quotas were not met, then civilians would be conscripted into the Warrior Caste.

But this was never an issue, as the warrior like culture prevailed, and as men found their freedom to do what they wished, many of them wanted to traverse the stars and follow the honorable traditions of their ancestors.

However, the logistical and support sides of the military were entirely operated by Tia and her army of robots. Because of this, these men would naturally replace themselves sorted into combat positions, making the Germanic Star-Empire's military the largest and most powerful in the galaxy.

Before Erich knew it, the time for his covert operation into the Andromeda system had arrived. Knowing this, he was now faced with a difficult task of invading another galaxy and crippling an extra-galactic threat in a desperate attempt to buy himself more time.