The next day, at r/ArkosForever, my enemies gather...

Two massive star dreadnoughts dropped out of hyperspace above the planet. Unlike r/RWBY, it was mostly wilderness. White ice caps on the poles, blue seas, violet mountain ranges, black volcanic areas, and continents covered in forests. Not all of them were green, some were red and orange in perpetual fall. It resembled a wetter and more verdant version of the legendary lost planet Gallifrey.

Unfortunately, this beauty was marred down on the surface. The crystal dome over the capitol city had shattered, and the city itself was up in flames. The Space Elevator running through the center still stood, but it wasn't very useful without one of its endpoints. In the streets of the outskirts and other cities around the planet, anti-Arkos rebels, striking from at least one hidden base on the planet, were causing even more destruction.

The rebels hadn't touched the massive spaceships above the planet, though. One dreadnought was round, bulbous, and streamlined, colored a pale blue. It housed massive shield generators. The other was sharp and angular, colored dark purple. It had a powerful superlaser in the bow. The first was called Protect, the second Eliminate. On board the Protect, the leadership of Arkos was meeting to find a solution.

"I think we all know why we're here," said Blue Whale King, Grand Admiral of the Starfleet and Oligarch of Arkos, as he sat down at the table in a meeting room.

"The Catastrophe was bad, but we have the capability to rebuild," said Chaos Vulpix, captain of the Eliminate and Advisor to the Oligarchy. "The real problem is the rebels down on the surface. They're disrupting everything. We must destroy them before we can do anything else."

"Way to state what we already know, Vulpix," said Strike Freedom D'Elise, Supreme Commander of the Air Force. "The real question is, how? The rebels are too deeply mixed into our own territories. We can't use overwhelming force without killing civilians and our own troops. And that would just turn more of our people over to their side."

"We have to find some way to separate them and us," said Blue Whale King. "If we rally our people, we can drive the rebels out of our cities, then we can finally fight them on our terms."

"They must have a secret base as well," said Vulpix. "They aren't just rioters, there's some kind of organization behind this. They have too much tech and too many weapons. Otherwise our security forces would have put an end to it hours ago."

"I dunno," said Blue Whale King. "The Catastrophe was only a day ago. It takes longer than that to put down riots when the whole government is in shambles. I guess time will tell how powerful they really are."

Just then, the door opened, and a figure in a trench coat walked in. Everyone at the table stood up.

"Rodents! How did you get in here?!" asked Vulpix.

"Same as you did," said a squeaky voice. "Though the door."

"Hey! Don't piss them off!" shouted another small voice. "Whale has a pet snake!" The coat began convulsing as the various rodents inside began fighting with each other. "Plus we're supposed to be helping them!"

After a few moments of struggle, a voice under the hat at the top spoke up. "That's enough, I'll take it from here." The coat silenced. The hat tilted upward, revealing a porcupine underneath.

"Really though, how did you get on board?" Strike asked. "These ships just came from the most secure facility in the Nation of Arkos. No unauthorized personnel can enter without getting vaporized."

"Ah yes, r/BlueWhaleKingDNW," said the Porcupine. "So strange and secretive that a million conspiracy theories have sprung up around it."

A voice piped up from within the coat. "We wanted to see them aliens!"

"I said quiet," said the Porcupine. "Anyway, most ships, in space or at sea, have rodents on board. It wasn't difficult to blend in."

"I'll tell Madman Lava to tighten security against all lifeforms," said Blue Whale King. "But more to the point, why are you here? Don't think I've forgotten what you did in Character Survivor!"

"That's exactly why we're here," said the Porcupine. "We know we went too far, and wanted to make amends. We're planning on starting a new business soon: Ship Sinker and Couple Breaker Technologies. We'll be hiring out to anyone who needs a ship overthrown. With what's going on, we'll be sure to have lots of business. But first, we're going to help you win your next battle."

"That's wonderful, thank you!" said Strike. "We're not ready to fight yet, but until then, do you have any info about what's happening on r/RWBY? There's been a communications blackout ever since the Catastrophe. Penguino went over to assess the situation, but we haven't heard back."

The Porcupine bowed his head. "It's a terrible situation. Every ship nation except Guns N' Roses and Armed and Ready are gone. No one knows how those two survived. An anomaly surge from the machine has turned most of the planet into WWI tech. Several new factions have already arisen and declared War on each other. Some of them are from r/FNKI. They all seem to be based on Meme Ships."

"And what about Lord Penguino?" Blue Whale King asked, fearful of the answer.

"I'm so sorry, he was killed in the fighting," said the Porcupine. "The entire AAA Orgy squadron was wiped out. He managed to help take an attacking ship down with him, though."

"Gods damn it," said Blue Whale King.

"Fuck," Strike muttured.

"And he was just promoted, too," said Vulpix. "What a tragedy."

All three of them bowed their heads.

"Yeah, we lost a lot of good leaders in the Catastrophe," said the Porcupine. "Also A Pun, Anti Logic, Draztco, Inferno, Jelo, Kazehh, Melanie Antiqua, Onyzyon, Psiah, Rade Blunner, Sam Shazam, Torrasque, and most of the Mod Council, plus others I forgot. And many more are missing."

"Sam's gone too?!" Blue Whale King asked.

"Yeah, in the collapse of the Pink Rose Gold headquarters. Whole cities were leveled."

"This is fucked up," said Strike. Blue Whale King and Vulpix nodded.

It's amazing how the order of society can fall almost instantly. They say it only takes one bad day to drive a person insane, the same can be said of a civilization as well. Even the most powerful nations and alliances are not safe. There will always be some threat, some disaster, that can topple them into chaos at the drop of a hat. No matter how blissfully secure their people may feel. Exciting, isn't it?

"What about Link, Generic, Jannis, and Armory?" Strike asked.

"Link is missing, Generic, Jannis and Armory are still alive," said the Porcupine. "I don't know any more than that."

"That's a relief at least," said Strike. "Not everyone's dead."

"You said Meme Ships?" asked Blue Whale King. "If that's how it is, we'll have to do the same. We'll find our most secure cities and establish them as interim states based on Meme Ships. They will provide rallying points against those rebels. Once we crush the traitors, we'll move our forces to r/RWBY and stabilize the situation."

"That sounds like an excellent plan," said Vulpix.

"Arkos of Erusea is already well established," said Strike. "We can use that as one. I'll call r/EruseanPrincessWaifu for help. The Queen's forces will join us."

"Perfect," said Blue Whale King. "I have a couple other ideas too. ArkTanic and Miraculous Arkos."

"If you're having multiple ships, you should have a name for your new alliance," said the Porcupine.

"What about Arc-Nikos Appreciation League?" said a voice from the trench coat.

"No," said Vulpix. "We want to be seen as wholesome." The others nodded.

"We'll need something meme-y," said Strike.

"I got it," said Blue Whale King. "We shall be the Society for Arc-Nikos Support, or Team SANS."

"It doesn't get much meme-ier than that," said Vulpix.

"Let's do it," said Strike.

"Excellent," said the Porcupine.

"Now, to figure out which cities to use," said Strike.

And then they had a very boring meeting that you probably don't want to read about. Well some of you might, but too bad! I'm corrupting everything, even this story! Mua ha ha!

City of Farbanti, r/EruseanPrincessWaifu

The sun shone through the windows of the Royal Palace, where Rose Cossette Freedom D'Elise was on the phone with her husband. She gasped in horror as she learned the recent events.

"I'm so sorry about everything that's happened, my love. You and your friends just can't seem to stay out of trouble, and it's not even your fault. I wish I could do more to keep you safe." She smiled. "Of course I'll help you! I'll be over as soon as I can. I love you too."

After talking with Strike, Rosa called the commander of the Ustio 6th. "Futtlescish, the RWBY sector needs our help again. Prepare my ship."

Three days later, back at r/ArkosForever

"Looks like we have a good set of strongholds," said Vulpix. "Arkos of Erusea has the most military strength, ArkTanic has the best connections to other areas, and Miraculous Arkos is the best hidden. If the rebels are as weak as you say they are, Whale, they won't stand a chance."

"Let's hope I'm right," said Blue Whale King. "As long as they're as weak as the ones we just fought."

"With all of us working together, the Nation of Arkos will stand strong once again," said Rosa. Strike smiled and kissed her.

But you already know it couldn't be that easy. What good is a story without villains? Sure, there are some good ones, but there's no story at all without conflict of some kind. And most of the best stories have strong antagonists. Though people love to hate them, the story wouldn't stand without them. And what good is life without stories? People need stories. Evil is necessary in this scheme, and someone must fill the role. So isn't it good to be evil sometimes?

Blue Whale King's Net-Comms watch came to life with a distress call. "Your Blueness, ArkTanic is under attack! They have a huge force, we can't hold out much longer. Please help before- AAAGGHHH!" The connection turned to static.

Strike, Blue Whale King, Vulpix, the Collective of Various Rodents, and Rosa rushed to their vehicles of war to aid ArkTanic, praying that they could arrive on time to save the city, and cursing themselves for tempting fate.

But fate had nothing to do with it. Back on r/RWBY, Generic fought his own battle, blissfully unaware of his impending doom.

"People of the Subreddit, heed my words!" he called into his radio from a fortified position in a trench. "I am a man of logic. And my logical analysis has shown that Stairway to Haven lacks substance. They are bound together by a meme, but nothing more. What are their politics? Their ideals? Their plans for the future? They have not decided on that.

Any government formed by Stairway to Haven would be a failed state, as its members fought each other to establish anything beyond their shallow meme. This would only prolong the fighting and anarchy that plague us now. We cannot allow this! If we are to recover from this catastrophe, we must back Meme Ships that have established convictions and plans. To make way for them, we must eliminate Stairway to Haven!"

The people shout in agreement, and prepare their armies to wipe out the stale meme ship.

Let their tanks roll over Stairway to Haven. Let them think they're winning. It will make their downfall that much sweeter.

A pair of sinister red eyes watches Generic from afar, reveling in their evil plans.

Soon.