Fanfic / Conquest in the Name of Advancement!

Conquest in the Name of Advancement! is a fanfic by Flameal15k. After being shoved into a Commander chasis by ROB, Flame is unleashed upon the multiverse. There are hints, though, that something bigger is going on...

Following the conclusion of Arc 7 of the main story, Flameal15k announced that he was going to make a spin-off roleplay for the story, Far From Home, chronicling the aftermath of the events that happened at the end of Arc 7. Tropes for that story can be found here.

The author eventually discontinued the story due to being unsatisfied with how the plot turned out, and on September 1st, 2023, posted the first chapter of the reboot/sequel, The Two Commanders.

It can be read on SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Ambiguous Gender: ROB. The author has gone to great lengths to keep hir gender from being revealed.
  • Finally Averted in Chapter 46, where it is revealed ROB is female.
• Absent Aliens: A few so far:
  • From Planetary Annihilation: the Progenitors. Notable for being, so far, the only race of aliens accepted as being extinct.
  • From Spore and Darkspore, the Crogenitors, on account of them being wiped out by the Darkspore. Then it turns out some of them are still around. Averted after Chapter 100, as Flame finds a safe haven containing a whole colony of them, which he promptly moves back to his hub world for safe keeping.
  • From Civilization: Beyond Earth, the Progenitors (not to be confused with the ones from Planetary Annihilation). No longer the case as of Chapter 63.
  • This trope is completely Subverted in the case of Galactic Civilizations, as the Dread Lords have already returned by the time Flame arrives, the Arnor are still around, just not in a position to do anything at the moment, and the last remaining Mithralar, Draginol, is already watching Flame's progress.
  • The end of the Warframe arc reveals that the Planetary Annihilation Progenitors are still alive, but heavily isolationist.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Not many yet, due to the fic's length, but a few stand out:
  • The Grox from Spore, who regularly attack other civilizations because they are offended by the existence of organic life.
  • The Korx from Galactic Civilizations are an entire race of Corrupt Corporate Executives, with their introductory scene consisting of them attempting to attack two defenseless ships trapped in a minefield so that they can sell the remains of the ships and their crew for profit. Furthermore, as the they were the ones who made the minefield, its implied they've done this several times before.
  • The Drengin from the same setting aren't any better, being a race of slavers who consider it amusing to murder other people For the Lulz, and have actually farmed other races as food. They're considered so evil that Melissa willingly teams up with Flame to defeat them, effectively making The Hero and Big Bad of this story allies for an entire arc.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Flame is aware of the fact that the technology to do this exists in Civilization: Beyond Earth universe. He actually ends up ascending while on Chiron, due to the Mind Flower opening ahead of schedule. It’s not a big plot point, though, as Flame rarely references it (entering the ascended state the first time gave him a massive amount of Sensory Overload
  • Additionally, it's implied that Chiron the Elder comes from a version of the Alpha Centauri universe where this happened, as she mentions talking to Dierdre Skye and Nwabudike Morgan, something that would be virtually impossible otherwise.
• Berserk Button: For ROB, don't interfere with hir plans for Commander Flame. S/he goes absolutely livid when it's revealed a third party is deliberately manipulating which universes he goes to.
• Big Bad: As always, ROB fulfils this role.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: A first among PA SelfInserts: ROB is revealed to be subordinate to an even more powerful being, known as the OverROB. It's made very clear that ROB is terrified of hir superior.
  • There's also whatever the enemies of the makers of the artifacts flame keeps finding are, though as we know practically nothing about them, its hard to tell just whose side they are on.
• The Cameo: A Dragonache shows up during chapter 206. Viv got it for Flame's birthday. Flame proceeds to completely pulverize it in one hit.
• Canon Welding: Interlude: XCOM reveals that the XCOM organization has fought two alien wars, the second of which is heavily implied to have been the events from Xcom Terror From The Deep. Additionally, Mega Primus is also confirmed to exist, and is the center stage for the events of the second third of the Beyond Earth Arc. It's also mentioned that several aliens survived the war and sought asylum on Earth, with the surviving ethereals being described as appearing to be made almost entirely of energy. The Outsiders also make an appearance during the Earth arc.
• The Cavalry: Quite literally EVERYONE Flame has ever helped up to that point in the story show up in the final battle for the Warframe universe.
• Cerebus Syndrome: One of the major hooks into this story relative to other Commander fanfics is that it has an overall plot to it, as opposed to be an endless curbstomp.
• Chekhov's Gun: Several:
  • Vivian is briefly referred to as "Brood of my enemy" by Eidolon. Vivian is revealed to be half Progenitor at the end of the Warframe arc, which also revealed the Orokin sided with the Progenitors during the Progenitor Wars.
  • Flame mentions being given a box by the Tenno that ended up making his life a lot harder. The box is a Care Package from Outside-Context Problem, a copy of which ends up activating the Commander Defense System.
  • Chapter 217: Confusion has Flame mention that Alad was working on something with Natah. The next interlude reveals It is this stor's version of the Amalgam Project.
• City on the Water: As these are featured in the Rising Tide Expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth, they also appear in this story. EXALT uses one of them as a base, though it is restricted to a skyscraper on that city.
• Command & Conquer Economy: By default. Flame's forces are made by/under orders from him.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Chapter 4 features a battle between an Atlas Titan and a gigantic monster created by ROB.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The final battle of the Progenitor Wars, The One Minute War, is this taken to its Logical Extreme: over the course of exactly one minute, the Progenitors TOTALLY ANNIHILATED ALL OPPOSITION (And, in some cases, ALL LIFE) IN MULTIPLE UNIVERSES. And in some cases, entire worlds were purged clean by a single Progenitor.
• Didn't See That Coming: Flame is completely stunned when he sees Behemoth in the Monster Hunter universe, having left his home universe before he knew about the crossover event. He has similar reactions to learning Geralt of Rivia has shown up in the New World.
• Easy Logistics / Easy Communication: Again, by default.

• Freudian Trio: Flame deliberately creates two AIs so that he can have one of these, and names them Synais(ID) and Kathikon(Superego).
• Friendly Enemies: This seems to slowly be how things are turning out between Flame and Melissa.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Referenced by Flame when he's setting up shop on Planet from Civilization: Beyond Earth: Planet is intelligent and will send alien monsters to attack him if he pollutes it too much (or attacks the wildlife).
• Genre Deconstruction: The story is functionally one to all other PA Self Inserts by virtue of asking one question: what if the Progenitors left something behind to ensure that their technology was not abused?
• Genre Shift: The Commander-based curbstomping starts taking a backseat to major plot developments during the Civilization: Beyond Earth arc, and this continues later on. Word of God is that it is because the continuous curbstomping gets boring very fast.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality:
  • In the Civilization: Beyond Earth universe, i's made clear that none of the main factions are completely good or bad, with even the more immoral leaders getting humanizing moments.
  • Otherwise, this is averted: most of the universes Flame visits have very clear cut heroes and villains.
  • The main conflict of the story, between Commander Flame and his ROB, Mellissa, though, is definitely a case of this, as it is gradually becoming apparent that Flame and Melissa aren't so different.
• Great Offscreen War: Interlude: Aftermath heavily implies one happened in the past between the Progenitors, the Arnor, and the Dread Lords, and necessitated the Arnor and Dread Lords pulling an Enemy Mine to win. Draginol's P.O.V. during the chapter just further adds fuel to the fire.
  • Chapters 122 and 123 lend further credence to this idea, as it is revealed that there are some parts of Flame's code that the Progenitors put in to prevent him from accessing certain information related to them, which almost deletes him from existence when he tries to examine them.
  • Pretty much confirmed in Chapter 133, as Flame encounters a set of Progenitor ruins, including the husk of a commander, and scanning them leads to him experiencing visions of Progenitor machines fighting the Dread Lords.
• Heel–Face Turn: Of all people, Vivian undergoes one at the end of the Warframe arc.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Literally during chapter 125, when Flame takes his kids deep sea fishing.
• Info Dump: Chapter 100 has one regarding the plot of Galactic Civilizations II. Justified in that Flame was going over the potential allies and enemies he'd have in that universe.
• Jerkass Gods: Interestingly, this is a Downplayed Trope: While Melissa, the resident ROB, did shove Flame into a Commander Chassis and send in on a journey across the multiverse for her entertainment, she's also somewhat respectful of him, allowing him to know her gender, as well as a name for ease of communication, giving him good advice free of charge, and deliberately choosing not to mess with his son when provided the opportunity.
• Logical Weakness: Flame may possess an army of robots and machinery to build more of them, and exists primarily as a digital conscious, but he can be uploaded into a more human body, which is significantly squishier than his robotic one, and is also vulnerable to things that would not impair a robot as all, such as psychological warfare and concussions. It is for this reason that the Anti-Commander drone he faces at the end of the Warframe arc shuts down his commander network, forcing him to fight it in his human form. Flame is aware of this weakness and has begun to address it, however, by training himself to be able to fight without the Commander Chassis.
• MacGuffin: The Artifacts Flame keeps encountering in his journeys. Interestingly, they don't actually fit under any of the associated MacGuffin tropes very well, though it is made clear whoever made them is deliberately setting Flame on the path to find more of them.
• Morality Pet: The first universe Flame visits is the Spore universe, where he ends up encountering every sentient race he ever created in the game. He decides to let them tag along with him, and is constantly shown trying to make their lives better.
  • Interestingly enough, ROB also has a Morality Pet of her own: Cassidy, her daughter. It's also very clear that her own creations fulfil this role, as she's quite kind to them.
• Never Heard That One Before: This is Geralt's reaction to Resh calling him a monster and stating how Aloy brings shame to the Nora just by assocating with him (in addition to shaming her people by being an outcast). Keep in mind this is relatively tame compared to what Geralt generally goes through.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The end of the Warframe arc pretty much irrevocably shattered the status quo, and does a lot to separate the story from its peers. Flame and Vivian, who spent the entire story up to this point as enemies (albeit friendly ones) are now officially allies (and no, this is not an enemy mine, Viv resigns from serving Celm so that she can assist Flame), Celempheros is revealed to be a Progenitor, the Commander Defense System is awakened, and we get our first look at the creators of the enemies of the artifacts.
• Outside-Context Problem: While Commanders like Flame are normally this to, well, the entire multiverse, Flame himself has been faced with two so far:
  • The first is The Progenitor Commander Defense System - a mechanics designed to destroy rogue commanders. Unlike every other enemy Flame faces, the system is established as being able to match him in just about every way imaginable (uses Progenitor technology to match build times, appropriates technology and designs as it comes across new foes to counteract Flame's own adaptation, and bases itself in multiple universes to avoid being boxed in), forcing him to find other ways to beat them.
  • The second is The Reveal that several universes have either naturally fused together (XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization: Beyond Earth) or are undergoing events that are exchanging characters from multilple worlds (Monster Hunter: World, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Finall Fantasy XIV, and Horizon Zero Dawn).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Some of the Tech Priests that were in the Repository are shown as being unusually emotional. This is implied to be primarily because of the fact that they've met the Cephalons from Warframe, which proves it is possible for a human mind to be uploaded into a computer.
• Planimal: One of Flame's creations from the Spore universe are human-sized bristle worms with plant leaves growing out their sides, which they can use said plants for photosynthesis.
• Posthumous Character: As a whole, the Progenitors from Planetary Annihilation are this — while more than likely extinct by the point of the story (most of the Precursors in the universes Flame has visited are Not So Extinct, but this does not seem to apply to them...yet), their actions form a huge part of the story's Myth Arc. The end of the Warframe arc, though, reveals they are also Not So Extinct, but heavily isolationist.
• Precursors: plenty of beings in the universes Flame visits count as these. Unusually, most aren't really dead yet.
• Power of the Sun: While Flame has access to sun-based abilities due to his adventures in the Dark Spore universe, he also has a rather mundane version in the form of hyper advanced solar panels from the Civilization: Beyond Earth universe, which can even derive power from moonlight. Apparently, they can do this because of advances in solar power that were made by examining plankton native to Chiron, which are, in-game, capable of photosynthesizing using moonlight.
• The Remnant: Three examples so far.
  • There's about a planet worth of Arnor left in the Galactic Civilizations universe. Flame moved them to his hub for their own protection.
  • A similar situation occurs with the Crogenitors in the Darkspore universe.
  • Finally, there's the Repository, which contains not only the Orokin the Tenno did not kill off, but also members of several other civilizations, including the Forerunners. Unlike the other examples, they willingly decide to join up with Flame and enter his hub universe on their own accord.
• Retcon: While generally avoided, the dialogue at the end of the Warframe arc was alterd over a year after the chapter was originally posted. The initial version had several characters decide to join up with Flame in a speech that was reminiscent of the one given at the end of the prologue campaing "Storm of Steel" from Battlefield 1. Since some of the characters in said speech would normally say nothing like that due to moral reasons, the dialogue was rewritten to have them give in-character reasons for doing so, rnaging from wanting to have the chance to help others in need for the Tenno to wanting to be on the side that will let them live and give them generous terms for surrender for The Twin Queens.
• Sadistic Choice: Flame is given one in Chapter 169, when he finds a Progenitor Pyramid guarded by the Grineer, which is used to help trap the sentient Eidolon in the spirit world and is staffed with slave labor. With Grineer reinforcements en-route and unable to call in his own reinforcements fast enough, he's faced with the following dilemma: destroy the pyramid, depriving the Grineer of its secrets and presumably ensuring Eidolon stays stuck in the spirit world at the cost of everyone inside and denying him access to said secrets, or reboot the facility's system, which would cause its defenses to kill of the Grineer and spare the innocents, but would allow the Eidolon to access the material world more easily. Chapter 170 reveals that he chose the latter option.
• Save the Villain: While Flame is perfectly willing to kill enemies in battle, committing straight up genocide of them is crossing a line for him, as evidenced by his treatment of the aliens from XCOM Apocalypse.
  • The Grox from Spore and the Darkspore from the game of the same name are the only exceptions Flame has made to this rule, for good reason.
  • He also chooses to partially free the sentient Eidolon from its torment rather than allow thousands of innocents to die in order to make sure it stays sealed. The Eidolon gives him information on the progenitor magic system as a form of gratitude for this.
• Shout-Out:
  • Fielding's interlude mentions Old Earth stories aliens with green guns fighting secretive soldiers who wore armor with an X on it. This turns out to be Foreshadowing, as chapter 44 reveals that XCOM exists in this universe.
  • It's mentione that Harlan Wade is a member of the EXALT board of directors. According to Word of God, though, his daughter will not be involved in this story.
  • Apparently, Andrew Ryan, Sofia Lamb, and Zacchary Hail Comstock were all members of EXALT's 1900s board of directors.
  • The fight in Chapter 134 between Melissa and a skull crawler takes plenty of queues from Monster Hunter, especially Monster Hunter: World, with the battle itself being exceedingly simialr to World's reveal trailer battle with Anjanath.
• Sins of the Father:Hunhow outright tells Flame that this is why the Sentients intend to purge the Origin System even though the Orokin are presumed extinct. Given the fact that the Orokin achieved immortality by placing their minds in the bodies of mentally broken children, though, there's also elements of It's the Only Way to Be Sure in play.
• So What Do We Do Now?: It's noted that, amongst the beings rescued from the Repository, the Lizardmen have become somewhat listless, since they really have no idea what to do since they are no longer in the World That Was (and thus, don't have any way to fulfil the Great Plan). The Skinks have at least taken steps to adjust, and have asked their masters if they could create a new geomantic web in Flame's hub, but time will tell if the Slann will be able to adapt.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Due to Flame's forces killing off the XADA Queen in the Implosion Never Lose Hope arc, Jonathan and Jake are both still alive and kicking.
  • Rost is saved from his fatal stabbing by Helis due to Flame managing to distract the latter with a thrown knife. And due to circumstances Flame had not foreseen, Ersa survives long enough to receive treatment for her wounds.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: When 2B and 9S end up in the Horizon Zero Dawn world, both react with total confusion upon meeting the Tenno, since the latter are humans, who should be living on the moon in the NieR: Automata world. Etran, who is meant to be the Operator, says that they were, until someone tried to blow it up, referencing the events of "The Second Dream" from Warframe. After this, though, Flame helps both parties reach an understanding.
• The Syndicate: The initial antagonists of the Civilization: Beyond Earth arc are members of the criminal organization known as the Blind Eyes, after how the law seems to be turning a blind eye to their actions. It's quickly revealed that they are a front for EXALT.
• "Take That!" Kiss: During one of the Christmas episodes, Melissa tricks Flame into getting underneath a mistletoe with her, so that he has to kiss her. While she's talking about how much she'll enjoy this, he shuts her up using one of these...which both of them admit to enjoying. Also doubles as a "Shut Up" Kiss.
• Villains Out Shopping: One interlude briefly shows [[ROB]]'s most trusted subordinates in the heinous act of... playing Go Fish. Things go to hell a second later, as that particular segment takes place just prior to the battle featured in the previous chapter.
• The War Sequence: Interlude: War Games focus on a large scale training battle between the Infernum Federation and Empyrean Illuminate forces. It's told form the point of view of Flame's subordinate A.I.s, rather than from his own.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 15: Visions of Oblivion: Flame ends up receiving a vision of some sort from a device he found in the Spore universe, revealing an army of machines butchering people. He aslo receives schematics for a new building from said device.
  • Interlude: Widening World: We learn that a third party is deliberately choosing which universes Flame is visiting, and we get a reveal of the story's Greater-Scope Villain, the OverROB.
  • Interlude: Planet: We learn that the planetary intelligence from Civilization: Beyond Earth has several siblings, including the planetary intelligence featured in Alpha Centauri. It's also implied that said sibling exists in an alternate universe.
  • Chapter 44: Ally Unknown: It turns out that XCOM exists in the Beyond Earth Universe, and they end up fighting side by side with Flame against a crime syndicate.
  • Interlude: XCOM: It's revealed (or at least heavily implied) that the group that Flame and XCOM fought was a front for EXALT. It's also revealed XCOM incorporated several aliens into its ranks after they asked for asylum following the alien wars
  • Chapter 46: The Arrival: ROB meets Flame in person and, surprisingly, they actually get along quite well.
  • Chapter 62: Awakening: XCOM goes public again, and the Mind Flower opens.
• Weak, but Skilled: Compared to other commanders, Flame doesn't really have too much advanced technology, and frequently finds himself facing entities strong enough to match him, meaning he has fewer CurbStompBattles. His understanding of diplomacy, esoteric tactics, and willingness to accept help, however, let him match their feats.
• Worldbuilding: Chapter 125 acts as this, as while it focuses primarily on Flame and his kids going deep sea fishing, it also shows off his creations using the oceans, and actively shows off the relationships between these beings as they go about their daily lives.