Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

"Next proposal."

"A report from the vassal state, the Rost Crystal Federation, states that three surface civilizations—the Moro Cluster, the Kess Cluster, and the Lachman Cluster—have begun to enter the interstellar age."

"One silicon-based civilization, two carbon-based civilizations, let's begin the vote."

Inside the Golden Hall, the rotating board members, seated on a high platform, initiated a vote, while the other board members lazily flipped through the civilization documents submitted by the vassal states.

This is the Boros Global Foundation, which possesses the main spiral arm of a bar-shaped galaxy. Currently, no single entity has emerged as the strongest in this galaxy, so it can be considered one of the galactic overlords.

In this civilization, the corporate system has long been performing all administrative functions. Their products and brands are sold to other galaxies in their star cluster, and they are determined to dominate the market profits of their star cluster and expand their trade system to another star cluster.

However, other global giants in this star cluster are competing with them. Centered on commerce, this trade war has been going on for quite some time, long enough for many surface civilizations to go through the entire journey from origin to decline and extinction.

As a global corporation, in the grand drama of interstellar conflict, they tend to use economic means to strike at their opponents. Therefore, unlike those extreme xenophobes with racial fastidiousness or expansionists who prioritize military supremacy, the Boros Global Foundation has accepted many vassal states.

A vassal state only needs to fully open its market, sign a most-favored-nation trade agreement with the Foundation, accept the Foundation's establishment of branches on its planet, and grant passage rights to all star systems to the Foundation's merchant fleet in order to obtain military protection from a superior civilization.

Goods produced by vassal states can enter larger galactic markets through the Foundation's channels, but of course, the Foundation will take a cut.

In the video materials presented by the Rost Crystal Federation, a silicon-based civilization resembling an amethyst, a carbon-based civilization of marine life, and a carbon-based civilization of mammalian life all showed signs of progressing towards the interstellar age and needed to be judged by a higher civilization.

"This civilization is quite good-looking. Let's allow them to become our vassal state," a director said to the mammalian civilization, who looked a bit like his pet.

The main race of the Boros Universal Foundation is also mammals, consisting of a torso with major organs, mechanically powered limbs made of bones and flesh, and a head with intelligent thinking capabilities.

This life form is quite common in the universe, and the main race of the Boros Foundation has a pair of horns that merge at the back of their heads on their skulls, and their heads have facial features and their skin is close to yellowish-green.

Since one board member has shown interest, the decision regarding this civilization will be made first. These furry mammals with large ears will be received by the Rost Crystal Federation into interstellar society and then travel to the Foundation's home planet for a submission ceremony.

"Let's proceed with the other two as usual," no director objected. The rotating director ceremonially tapped the table with a gavel, "Voting is over. I declare this resolution passed."

The other two civilizations, perhaps due to their less appealing appearance, were decided by the board to be managed by the Rost Crystal Federation, a directly subordinate territory. The Foundation did not restrict its vassal states from developing their own.

They have too many subordinates, and the board members can only vaguely remember that the Crystal Federation is a silicon-based civilization. Therefore, the amethyst-shaped civilization is very likely to be accepted as a subordinate of a subordinate. A notice can be issued, and interested merchant fleets will naturally go there to conduct trade activities.

As for that civilization living in the ocean, it has neither emotional nor commercial value, so let it live and die on its own. Anyway, new civilizations will always emerge in this river system, and there's no end to the money to be made.

"Please note, the next item is a special proposal."

The rotating board members issued a reminder to prevent the board members' thoughts from wandering too far. These people, who had undergone genetic modification before birth and have been sitting on the stage ruling a spiral arm of a galaxy for so long, seem to have no end in life. Over time, they will always have a lot of complicated thoughts to think about, just like different processes of a machine.

"The Star Eater was destroyed by a new, unknown entity. The following is the observation data submitted by the vassal state."

The silvery-white dragon skeleton in the picture dismantled the massive Star Eater into scattered fragments, and the energy readings marked next to it required the board members to repeatedly check the energy level.

"The Star Eater is dead?" This news appeared so abruptly in the current era. For the board members who had long lifespans, the existence of the Star Eater was like common knowledge throughout their lives.

Unlike the Crystal Federation's helplessness against the Star Eaters, they have studied this giant creature and determined that it was born from the fusion of dark matter and stellar matter in subspace, and that it exhibits reproductive behavior after devouring countless stars.

This probability of birth should not be unique, so there may be multiple star-devourers in the universe at the same time, but at least this is the only case in their star cluster.

The Star Eater that roams their star field has not yet given birth to the next batch of offspring. It is speculated that this behemoth has a strong instinct to devour and aggregate, and is unwilling to actively split before the energy it has accumulated reaches the limit threshold. Furthermore, the Star Eater may not have maternal instincts and may devour its offspring after reproduction.

The Boros Foundation has never sent a fleet to eliminate the Star Eaters. Their business acumen is ingrained, and they are unwilling to go to great lengths and risk huge losses to do something thankless. Their contingency plan has always been to let the Star Eaters devour worthless stars.

If the Star Eater wanders into a colony system, send ships to attack it. This behemoth is quite vengeful and will relentlessly pursue its attacker until it is destroyed. This can lure it away from the current star system, or even be used as a means of attack to make it devour important stars of hostile civilizations.

A star consumed by a Star Eater will continuously reduce its energy output, which can indirectly destroy colonies within that star system and transform habitable planets into desolate, frozen planets.

The Boros Foundation has always been trying to maximize the benefits of everything. They covet the nature of the Star Eaters and would try to capture and study any offspring they give birth to, in order to develop an active star-devouring weapon.

"Order the Rost Crystal Federation to blockade this star system and dispatch research ships for investigation and research."

The board of directors quickly passed the first vote on this special proposal. Even though the data showed that the dragon that killed the Star Eater had devoured the prey's corpse before leaving, and the detectors had not found any remains, they still did not give up on profiting from it.

"The second vote concerns whether to initiate an application to include the newly emerged behemoth entity in the 'Leviathan' register."

"Agreed," "Agreed"... The board members were well aware of the Star Eater's strength. A behemoth that could easily hunt it could undoubtedly bear the name "Leviathan." The Boros Foundation would report the entity's information to its superiors and wait for the galaxy cluster overlord to come and investigate.

"Before officially determining the name, based on the characteristics of 'Tianlong' matched with the database and the state of the skeleton, we have tentatively named it 'Undead Tianlong'."

"In the third vote, based on preliminary research, this 'Undead Dragon' has not shown any destructive tendencies towards intelligent life forms and possesses potential intelligence. Should we dispatch a diplomatic fleet to attempt communication with it?"

"Agreed," "Agreed"...