“Good evening Nick,” Stylo said, floating his usual couple inches off the floor of the Compound’s longhouse.

  I’d just arrived, walked in and sat down at the table.

  “Just the guide I wanted to see.”

  “Oh? What is on your mind?”

  I shifted in the seat. It really wasn’t that comfortable. I’d have to replace it. Legs up on the table, I asked the question of the day.

  “What do you know about Incursions?”

  “A lot,” Stylo replied. “Everything known in the System of course. Why do you ask? A newly opened planet does not need to worry about Incursions for at least a decade.”

  “Which is what Tammy had told us you had told her. That’s the official, set in stone, time frame?”

  “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “So Earth has an Incursion,” I said.

  Stylo didn’t respond. I looked up at him and saw the confused look on his normally expressionless face.

  “That is unexpected,” he finally said.

  “Yep.”

  “Give me a second please.”

  I nodded but wasn’t sure if he saw it. His face had gone blank. Stylo, basically a hi-tech hologram AI, was accessing his data banks. It didn’t take long.

  “It is not completely unprecedented,” Stylo said. “An Incursion before the ten year period has occurred one hundred and twenty-seven times over the course of the System.”

  “That many?”

  “It is only .1% of the total amount of Incursions.”

  “Oh,” I said, not liking that.

  It meant there was something else going on. Some reason Earth was going early. Most likely we were being targeted. By who? I didn’t know, which is why I’d sent a message to Jeriyan as soon as I’d gotten to Crossroads. Hopefully, he’d be able to find out more.

  “It is extremely rare,” Stylo continued. He floated closer, shifting to make it easier on me to watch him. “I am sorry. For this to happen to an unprepared world..”

  “We knew it would happen someday, so we made some plans, but never expected it this soon. With how accurate the countdown to Earth opening up to the Multiverse was, we figured the incursions would be the same.”

  “And normally they are.”

  “In those one hundred and twenty-seven times it’s happened before, how and why did it happen?”

  Stylo’s eyes took on that blank look again. Searching his data took longer this time.

  “In all those occurrences, it seems the non-native force was invited.”

  I cursed, very loudly. Once I got that out of the system, I started thinking about the implications of what Stylo had just said.

  I immediately thought of Newton Graceberry, the vagabond member of the Ring Fellowship from Hobnit. He’d told me his people had basically thrown him out, only keeping him in their Faction to use his Guest slots. When I’d invited him to join the Solace Fellowship, he’d left the Ring and took the oaths to join us.

  “The oaths of joining a Clan, can those be circumvented?”

  “You are thinking of Master Graceberry?” Stylo asked, getting a nod. “Not at your respective Levels. Higher Levels, it is possible, but by the time anyone reaches those Levels there are other methods in place. The Celestial Challenge System would not allow Master Graceberry to violate his oath to the Solace Fellowship.”

  I sighed in relief. For a bit there, I’d been afraid that I’d made a huge mistake.

  “And also, Master Graceberry would not be high enough up in the Faction hierarchy to invite another Faction.”

  I sat up at that.

  “So it would need to be someone in Faction leadership?”

  “Yes, and a Faction that is strong enough to have a controlling interest in the overall planet. On planets like Earth, where there is not one ruling Faction, those Factions on the planetary World Council would have the ability to invite other Factions to Earth.”

  That significantly narrowed down the suspects. I knew how the controlling interest in the planet worked, as it was something we, meaning Kat who then told me, closely monitored. Right now, no one had full control of the planet. The territories held, members, etc.. were all too close. Fred’s United American Alliance was usually tied with Subudai’s Bounding Dragon Sect. They went back and forth as number one and number two. Last I checked, they each had twenty-five percent or so. The Solace Fellowship was third with fifteen percent, and had grown a little bit with the recent acquisition of the Gray Wolf Clan.

  And that may end up turning out to be a mistake. But we’d see.

  From there it went down a lot with about a dozen Factions having enough percentage to qualify for the World Council.

  “It is not typically done this early in the planet’s opening,” Stylo continued. “It is dangerous as the invited Factions are typically stronger and will overpower the newer ones.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I nodded. That all made sense. And it was really why the System funneled things through the Nexus. A neutral place, where the stronger and weaker could interact without fear of losing their homes.

  But if someone had invited the incursion, that was definitely not good for Earth. There was one positive though. Not really a positive, more of a small bright spot.

  “The strength of the invading Faction is limited though, right?”

  “Correct,” Stylo answered. “Earth is a newly opened world, so it is capped at Level 100. That means that 90% of the invading force will be at Level Seventy-Five or lower and the remaining 10% will be between Level Seventy-Five and One Hundred. And for every Earth native that is over Level 100, the invading Faction is allowed an equal number. That does not mean they will be weak as they can come in great numbers. We are all part of the Celestial Challenge System afterall.”

  “And we all know how much it loves its challenges,” I said with a sigh. “Being limited is something at least.”

  “I am sorry this is happening,” Stylo said.

  “Appreciate it,” I replied.

  “It is a very rare occurrence, so rare that it was not thought an event worth considering,” Stylo said. His voice was normally lacking in inflection, but there was something there now. Guilt, regret, sadness. “As I said, it has only happened one hundred and twenty-seven times over the millenia.”

  “One hundred and twenty-eight times now,” I said. “But it’s not your fault. I don’t think anyone could have planned for this.”

  Anyone but the stupid idiots that had invited the invaders.

  When I found out who had done it, they’d be in for a world of hurt.

  I briefly thought that maybe the Gray Wolf Clan had been the ones to invite the invading Faction. They came to Crossroads, made a quick deal, which probably wasn’t very good for them, and then joined the Solace Fellowship. But that made no sense. The incursion was in their backyard.

  It had to be one of the other Factions. There were a good many that were on the Council, but only a handful that I could think of that would do something like this.

  I’d have to chat with Fred at some point when I got back. And Subudai too probably. But first I’d have to see what the incursion was all about.

  I really had hoped for the ten years of peace before having to deal with this crap. Ten years to build up our strength, make alliances, and set it up so no one wanted to bother with Earth. I knew that someday we’d have to deal with incursions on any planets we gained in the future, not that I wanted to turn into an expansionist, but it was inevitable. But I had really hoped that Earth would never have to deal with one.

  Probably naive of me, but that had been my goal.

  One goal on the checklist crossed out.

  I stood up, figuring I’d head to the store to check in on Tammy, Mac and Fields. As I did, I saw a notification flash across my vision. I opened it quickly, seeing a message from Jeriyan. He was going to meet me in my shop.

  Two birds, one stone.

  I hoped he had some good news, like how the invading force was a bunch of push-overs.

  ***

  Of course they wouldn’t be push-overs. I wasn’t that lucky.

  I stood in front of the counter in the shop, which we had closed for a bit. Fields and Tammy were behind it, Mac off to the side. Jeriyan stood next to me. He had his palm out, a small green diamond sitting in it. Floating above the diamond was the image of a Gnoll.

  That was the closest I could describe the thing. It looked like a Gnoll from the old fantasy stories. A humanoid dog-like creature. Standing about eight feet tall, hunched, with very broad shoulders. It was covered in a thick coarse fur. The head was like that of a dog, long snout, sharp teeth, pointed ears. The Gnoll wore heavy armor. Nothing crude about it. Well made.

  I’d seen a couple of them in the Hub. They’d never paid any attention to me, or me to them. Just more Adventurers. I’d be keeping an eye out from now on.

  “The Grimdar Sect,” Jeriyan said. “They are mostly of the Aureic race. There are some others that have joined them over the centuries. Some voluntarily, most forcibly. The Grimdar are an excellent fighting force. Do not let their harsh appearance fool you. They are smart. Very smart.”

  I sighed. Of course they were.

  “They are also powerful,” Jeriyan continued. “With many connections.”

  “Of course they were,” I said.

  “Because of that,” Jeriyan started, and something in his tone warned me that I wasn’t going to like what he said next. “I have been told to inform you that the Sunrise Formation will not be taking any direct involvement in this conflict. It is between your Earth and the Grimdar.”

  I nodded, understanding. I didn’t like it. I had been hoping for their help. It would have put us in debt with the Sunrise Formation, which I didn’t want, but at least I somewhat trusted them to have some of Earth’s best interests in mind.

  “Aside from this information crystal,” he said, handing it to me. “Which contains everything we know of the Grimdar Sect.”

  “Thanks,” I said and meant it. That information would be extremely helpful. “I suppose you want me to send Sunie back here?”

  “Not at all,” Jeriyan said with a devious looking smile. “Sunie Teralei is a registered member of your party. Even though he is a member of the Sunrise Formation, he is allowed to operate outside of any Faction restrictions as long as it is in the defense of his party members.” That smile didn’t disappear. “And even though officially the Sunrise Formation is not getting directly involved,” he continued, putting some emphasis on the word ‘directly’. “We do have contracts with your Faction and as it is your territory under the incursion, we can provide some aid in defense of our interests.”

  I smiled back at him.

  I really hated politics and how it prevented people from doing things sometimes.

  But I was a real big fan of the loopholes.