Yue

 23rd December

13:27 GMT

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and such other variations as nature or nurture have created."

Thick strands of orange light glow from me, fat and shimmering in a way which reminds me of the proton beams from the Ghostbusters films. No, the animated series. I think I.. only watched the films once each, whereas I must have watched dozens of episodes of the series growing up.

And on the far end of each strand is a replica of the capital ship next to it.

A hollow one, of course, but since they're opaque I doubt that anyone other than me knows that. From the gobsmacked expression on her face I'm certainly confident that Lantern Dul doesn't.

"This demonstration of the potential output of an orange power ring comes on behalf of me, the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. In case you're wondering how many Lanterns I have working on this-"

One battleship turns its turrets towards its doppelgänger, and I have my construct copy the action.

"-demonstration, I will tell you. One. This is just me. Two rings, but that's just to extend my battery life."

Leaving the surface of the planet I see a twinkle of extraordinarily focused will. Ah, it seems that Lantern K'ryssma is joining us.

"And while I'm afraid that my colleagues aren't yet as capable as I am-" Okay, who designs a ship with that many crenellations? "-I've only actually been doing this for a year and a half. Part of the compact we're going to try to interest you in today involves giving your citizens rings like the ones I'm using to do this."

Complete, complete, complete…

I fire the construct ships' engines.

"The Green Lantern Corps is hampered in effectively resisting the Reach in two ways. Firstly, they simply cannot make rings fast enough to expand their Corps. We do not have that problem. We have a reserve of several thousand rings, and we're producing more constantly. And we want new recruits. Oh, we'll need you to do a certain amount of psychometric testing, there's no point in us trying to train someone who won't be able to cope. But you have between you a population about fifty million times that of the worlds we've been limited to recruiting from so far.

And though there are already hundreds of Orange Lanterns, I want to make that thousands."

"Secondly, their existing treaty makes them powerless to resist the forms of conquest which the Reach is currently using. We don't intend to wait for them to conquer the minds of all those who oppose them."

Lantern K'ryssma slows as she gets closer. She doesn't seem too concerned about me, but Lantern Dul and Lantern R-K'rr warrant a second look. Ah yes. So far no Guardian has taken up Hinon's offer of a tour. And -just a hint of yellow, well contained and controlled- she knows that Guardians aren't immune to assimilation.

"And I assure you that it is very much-" All of my construct ships roll, guns pointed away from anything fragile. "-in your interests to make that don't either."

Come on, grande finale. And this actually is going to stretch me. Another tendril reaches out.

I need to convince them of the power of power rings relative to the opposition. This is the best chance of realising my objective, of halting the Reach at a border we can reinforce. And I kind of want to show the Green Honour Guard Lantern what I can do that none of hers can.

Our Corps is the best.

And when we pull this off, no one is ever going to forget it.

The last tendril grows larger, flying out into space before generating a Reach battleship construct. Not one of those little cruisers or battle cruisers they send out to the Periphery to 'protect' trade convoys or 'deter pirates'. No. One of the big and terrifying ones they keep back with their reserve fleets firmly in Reach territory because they don't trust anyone but their own species to go anywhere near them. And because they take a stupid amount of resource to build and maintain.

And all of the construct guns that can lock on and fire.

This is just a demonstration, so I'm not actually simulating the exact weapon profiles, shields or armour. If these ships fired at this range in normal combat conditions the battleship's shields would… Well, they'd feel it a bit, but it would have already destroyed them before they got anything like this close. But I think that my simulated hull breaches and internal explosions give a rather better impression.

I simulate an uncontrolled core breach, then dismiss my-

Warning: low power. Nine percent remaining.

-constructs. "We usually encourage Lanterns to create things a little smaller than that." But I'll be fine for the rest of this talk. "My colleague Lantern R-K'rr told me earlier that he's occasionally run into difficulty with negotiators who aren't convinced -despite its words- that Maltus is prepared to pull its weight. This is Maltus pulling its weight. In a few hours my colleagues are going to start talking nuts and bolts with you; the ship designs they want to build, what they'd like each of you to contribute. And I'm afraid that this is one of those investments that will probably never show a profit."

"But it will prevent a rather significant loss. And I'm afraid to say that we have current information on that too. I'll be available later today if any of you have any questions which you wish to put to me personally."

Though now I think about it… Ring, how many people are sending me questions directly right now?

In excess of ten thousand.

I roll my eyes. Eris help us if these people ever get Twunter.

"Thank you for your-"

Conquest!

What was-?

"-for your time."

Ring, end transmission.

Compliance.

"Orange Lantern-"

"Excuse me a moment."

I hold out my hands and call my lantern-. Alan's old personal lantern, not the pile of fail I made yesterday. Out from subspace.

"This is my cause, this is my fight.

Shine through the void with orange light.

I've claimed all within my sight.

To keep what is mine, that is my right."

Orange light blasts out of my lantern and into both rings.

"Charge at one hundred percent." / "Charge at one hundred percent."

Now what was it I felt..?

Conquest!

That way. And in that direction is..?

The ring shows me the Gordanian ship. Looks… Most Gordanian ships are designed to be places of habitation as well as combat ships. That's clearly a pure warship. Recognisably Gordanian, but… Definitely improved. It's… I can't scan it properly, not the interior. But judging by what I can get from the shields and from the look of the weapons… Not quite on a level with our ships, but better than anything else. Interesting. I think I'll need to prioritise them.

I smile at Lantern K'ryssma. "I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"I wanted to wish you success. And to inform you that they want me to examine every agreement you strike in order to ensure that you are treating honestly with these people."

"An excellent idea. In fact, why don't you come back to Maltus with us once this is over? You can see everything first hand."