Big Gray's grand ambitions for the L-Cluster were not going to be realized anytime soon.
After the Gray Tempest catastrophe, most nations had been left wary of the L-Gates. After all, the Gray Tempest Fleet was capable of wiping out even a Lost Empire's Titan fleet.
Besides, most nations would not welcome a Gateway that connected to the L-Cluster suddenly appearing in their territory.
Thus, nations with L-Gates continued to keep them sealed. The only active L-Gates were at the Faranis black hole within Xi Yan's territory and the Succubus' Call black hole within Minamar Specialized Industries.
While directing aid to the L-Cluster, Xi Yan also dealt with the Empire's internal affairs.
Cybernetic ascension had been fully completed.
Compared with synthetic ascension, which directly transferred consciousness to create entirely new life, cybernetic ascension merely patched up the existing flesh and did not require particularly advanced technology.
The Insectoid Teriaz, a Curator leader, had fulfilled all the prerequisites for cybernetic ascension in a single step with his Organic-Mechanical Interface Technology alone.
Cybernetics had begun to see use in certain specialized jobs and in treating some illnesses. The Empire's several million people with disabilities could also receive cybernetic implants and return to normal lives, working rather than relying on state support.
Quite a few researchers in the Academy of Sciences had also installed brain-computer interfaces to assist their research.
Although cybernetics offered questionable improvements in strength, the technology was not particularly demanding. The real focus was the synthetic ascension now underway.
Research into that avenue of ascension was left to the Academy of Sciences, while Xi Yan closely monitored sensors throughout the Empire, trying to pick out unusual events from the flood of information.
Many famous event chains originated in tiny anomalies.
The Faranis black hole.
An L-Gate stood beside this