Nefarious Empire

People
Leader	Emperor Nefarious Dr. Nefarious (temporarily)
Notable members	F-44 Junk Bot KT-7461 (formerly) Nefarious Troopers
Locations
Headquarters	Nefarious City, Corson V
Other locations	Kedaro Station, Cordelion Zordoom Prison, Viceron
Connections
Enemies	Ratchet Clank Rivet Kit The Resistance Space pirates Goons-4-Less

The Nefarious Empire is an organization featured as the main antagonists of Rift Apart. It was a tyrannical sovereignty with a stranglehold on the entire known universe in Rivet's dimension, ruled by its evil, robotic supreme leader, Emperor Nefarious—a dimensional counterpart of Dr. Nefarious. The Empire's capital is Nefarious City, Corson V—the Emperor's abode and where he rules from Nefarious Tower. For years, the undefeated Empire's only remaining opposition came from the robot space pirates and a galactic Resistance, whose most notable member was a rebel lombax named Rivet.

The Empire is singularly devoted to the worship and satisfaction of the Emperor and the relentless militant spread of his influence throughout the universe. The Nefarious Troopers, the Emperor's robotic army, are the Empire's uncompromising enforcers, destroying or imprisoning all those who will not obey. Citizens under the Emperor's totalitarian regime are granted few civil rights and endure extremely long work hours for little pay.

After Emperor Nefarious temporarily vacated his throne to personally neutralize the last oppositions to his rule, Dr. Nefarious arrived in Rivet's dimension using the Dimensionator and impersonated the Emperor, seizing power over the Empire. The Emperor later returned to retake control and sought to expand his Empire and conquer every dimension in existence. In his attempt to invade and subjugate Ratchet and Clank's dimension, the Emperor was defeated by the combined forces of his enemies, overthrowing his Empire and finally liberating Rivet's dimension.

A counterpart of the Empire also existed in dimension ???, though this version of it was not as infallible, having lost its Kedaro Station to Juice.

History

Before Rift Apart

Little is known about the earliest days of the Empire, but it can be deduced that the Emperor's rule predates Rivet's childhood. During his conquest of the known universe many years ago, Emperor Nefarious prioritized planets with developed civilizations and dense populations to subjugate. He therefore largely dismissed remote worlds like Sargasso for its acidic swamps, primordial beasts, and overabundance of bugs, and Torren IV for its outdated conditions, deeming them unworthy of his time and effort.

The kerchu were once workers under the Empire, harvesting gelatonium at Outpost L51 on Sargasso, but were wiped out and presumably made extinct for misspelling the Emperor's name on their tax returns. Another race known as the morts then took over the kerchu's operations and salvaged what they could. The Empire's crackdown on poaching caused the grunthor to rebound from endangered to abundant, making them a now common threat on Sargasso.

For unknown reasons, the planet of Scarstu came under attack from the Emperor and his Empire. A synthenoid robot known as Mr. Zurkon was used to rain mass extinction on Scarstu and its people, after which, the planet was destroyed by the Emperor's forces. Following this, Mr. Zurkon gave up his violent ways, took on the alias Zurkie, and built an establishment named Zurkie's in the debris of Scarstu.

Throughout the years, the Emperor has crushed all heroes and villains alike that have attempted to oppose his Empire's rule. Under unknown circumstances, he at some point came into conflict with his dimension's counterpart to Chairman Drek of the blarg, leading to a war. The Empire eventually emerged victorious over the blarg, and the clash ended with the Emperor personally turning Drek's counterpart into a docile, harmless sheep with a Sheepinator.

Nefarious City, the new capital of the Nefarious Empire.

Ten years prior to the events of Rift Apart, the Empire conquered Corson V and constructed Nefarious City, which the Emperor chose to make the site of his throne and from where he rules the universe. The Emperor promised peace and order, but delivered oppression (and slightly cheaper consumer electronics), with heavy restrictions on civil liberties, public crying and travel to other worlds. In response, a Resistance force against the Empire was formed on the planet, with more recruits joining from across the universe. Rivet joined this resistance and proved to be a formidible force amongst their ranks, crossing paths with the Emperor himself many times, but ultimately failing to ever defeat him. While the morts are officially neutral in the galactic conflict, they have taken Rivet in like family, helping hide her from the Emperor's rebel-hunting spies.

KT-7461 patrolling the Imperial Zone of Nefarious City.

To keep the Emperor's galaxy secure, the Empire created a new and exceptional weapon named KT-7461. The powerful warbot patrolled and protected the Imperial Zone of Nefarious Tower from intruders, and the Emperor praised her as being his greatest weapon. After a clash one night with an intruder, the warbot suddenly abandoned her post and fled the planet. What had happened to her was left unknown to the Emperor and the Empire.

The robot space pirates have been a thorn in the Empire's side for many years, plundering the Emperor's ships and looting his bases. After leaving the Resistance, Quantum joined the pirates disguised as a robot, seeking a more adventurous lifestyle while still opposing the Emperor's forces. After planting a bug on the Emperor's Assistant, in a stroke of luck, Quantum was able to eavesdrop on all of the Emperor's plans, enabling him to quickly rise through the pirates' ranks and become captain himself. Quantum became adored by the pirates and they flourished under his leadership, allowing them to always remain one step ahead of the Empire's efforts to destroy them.

Zordoom Prison, the Empire's most notorious penitentiary.

Prior to the rise of Emperor Nefarious, Zordoom Prison was already the galaxy's most feared penitentiary, housing murderers, despots, and monsters. After the Emperor rose to power, the prison fell under the control of him and his Empire. For years, it is where the Emperor has sent suspected resistance members, actual resistance members, and anyone who has committed extremely minor offenses against the Empire. Rivet was captured and incarcerated here at some point for a period of time, where she became very familiar with the prison's layout, and eventually escaped with the help of a fellow inmate named Angela.

Kedaro station's Rubion Forge.

Some time years ago, at the Empire's sub-aquatic Kedaro Station on Cordelion, the Emperor discovered a mysterious creature swimming through the oceans and had it captured. Using the creature's extreme amounts of bioelectricity, he had it forcibly used as a living battery for the facility's powerful Rubion Forge to create many of his army's troopers, battle mechs and armors (as well as espresso machines). Most of the blizon mined from Blizar Prime is shipped directly to the station for use in the development of its various dark projects.

Shortly before Rift Apart, the Emperor devised a plan to temporarily vacate his throne and embark on a series of missions to wipe out the remaining opposers to his rule in the Resistance and space pirates: Phantom, MoyDoy, Captain Quantum, Clatchky and Rivet. He also designed a giant combat mech for himself based on his own appearance and ordered its construction to the Science Bots at the Rubion Forge. He named it the Imperial Power Suit and intended to use it for only the most special of occasions against his greatest enemies.

Rift Apart

Dr. Nefarious takes over the Empire in the Emperor's absence.

An infobot containing the Emperor's hitlist was escorted through Nefarious City by the Emperor's Assistant, where it was intercepted by Rivet on a mission for the Resistance, who escaped the planet with it. Seekerpedes were deployed to search remote planets for its signal to retrieve it, and one was sent to Outpost L51, Sargasso. Shortly after the Emperor left, his counterpart Dr. Nefarious arrived in Rivet's dimension using the stolen Dimensionator and forcibly transported his archenemies Ratchet and Clank with him to make them experience a universe where Nefarious reigns supreme. The critically damaged device then exploded, kickstarting a dimensional cataclysm. In the confusion, Dr. Nefarious awoke in Nefarious Tower where he was mistaken for the Emperor himself by his followers and seized control of the Empire.

Upon crowning himself emperor, Dr. Nefarious issued a series of self-serving decrees, starting with what he calls "Operation: Dream Job", mandating citizens role-play his 'first' day of emperorship, an unlimited R&D, weapons, and science budget for his personal use, parties every day, and everyone to buy his upcoming memoir. He also dismissed concerns about the dimensional rifts now plaguing the universe, ordering they be ignored. Whilst making announcements to his subjects, he repeatedly reaffirmed his emperorship and ordered subjects to destroy any who claim to also be the emperor, ordered statues of the Emperor remade to better reflect his own "nefariousness", and demanded each subject submit one hundred reasons he is history's greatest emperor. In "Search the Factory", Nefarious Troopers were deployed to locate and destroy a Resistance spybot spotted at the Nefarious Business Factory loading platform, deeming it a threat to the Empire. Their mission failed, and Ratchet successfully retrieved it.

A Seekerpede sent to recover the infobot locates Rivet's hideout.

Once Rivet decrypted the infobot on Sargasso, the Seekerpede tracked its signal and broke into her secret hideout, compromising its location to the Empire. The Seekerpede accidentially abducted Clank instead, however, and Rivet pursued it where she engaged it in battle. The craft's pilot was eventually destroyed and Clank was rescued. Rivet then checked the decrypted infobot, where she learned of the Emperor's hitlist targets and relayed the information to the Resistance's network.

Dr. Nefarious offers a dead or alive bounty for Ratchet and Rivet.

At Zurkie's, the Emperor's Assistant spied on Ratchet, Clank and Rivet's plans to build a new Dimensionator, and relayed this information to Dr. Nefarious, who soon made a public broadcast offering a bounty of three squillion Nefarious freedom coupons for the dead or alive capture of Ratchet and Rivet. He sent Nefarious Trooper strike teams to intercept their arrivals on Savali and Blizar Prime. The troopers took the monks hostage on Savali and attempted to plunder the Interdimensional Archives for the Emperor, but were thwarted by Ratchet and Kit, who obtained the Dimensionator blueprints. Elsewhere in the ruins of Blizar Prime, another team of troopers hunted for Rivet and Clank, but were also unsuccessful in stopping them from recovering Phase Quartz to power the Dimensionator.

Later, after the troopers had failed to stop Ratchet and Rivet, Dr. Nefarious made a second broadcast where he attempted to dispel panic that the dimension is in danger and discarded them as lies. He also greatly increased the bounty he had placed on the lombaxes to 27 squijillion Nefaribucks, although it is likely his bounty was in fact a ruse and he had no intention of providing any reward.

Dr. Nefarious contacts the Kedaro Station.

To build the Dimensionator, Ratchet and Kit traveled to Cordelion to use Kedaro Station's Rubion Forge to create the device. The station is one of the most secure outposts in the galaxy with the only Rubion Forge powerful enough to construct a device as complicated as the Dimensionator. The duo accidentally alerted the patrols on the surface and the facility went into lockdown. Using blizon crystals to shift to another dimension where the station is long abandoned, the two found their way into the facility and shifted back to Rivet's dimension. They reach the forge, but mistakenly activate it with auxillary power only and destroy it, putting the station into high alert. Eventually the creature powering the forge named Juice was freed from its prison and escaped with Ratchet to the other dimension using the blizon. Juice and his counterpart powered up the decrepit forge here and the Dimensionator was finally recreated.

Dr. Nefarious lays an ambush at Zurkie's.

Ratchet, Kit, Rivet and Clank met up at Zurkie's together to finally complete the device and repair the damage to the dimensions. Dr. Nefarious however had anticipated their return and had his Nefarious Troopers apprehend Zurkie; the establishment's owner and prepared an ambush inside the Gastropub for them. A squadron of troopers train their weapons on the four and force them to surrender. The Emperor's Assistant takes the Dimensionator and Phase Quartz off of the two Lombaxes and presents them to Dr. Nefarious who steps out into the open. The Doctor gloats how good this dimension is to him as he loads the Phase Quartz into the Dimensionator. The Lombaxes silently coordinate an escape and Ratchet surprise attacks the troopers behind them with his wrench while Rivet runs ahead and tackles Dr. Nefarious through a window into the Battleplex.

Rivet and Kit fighting Dr. Nefarious in Zurkie's Battleplex.

Rivet and Kit fought Dr. Nefarious in the arena where he began displaying great overconfidence in his new position of power, declaring himself as the one true emperor that cannot be defeated and is beloved by all his subjects. Soon, the Doctor began using the new Dimensionator to send them through rifts in attempts to quickly destroy them and return to enjoying his reign. He mistakenly brings them back to the Battleplex again, however, and they are able to defeat him.

The Emperor makes his return and seizes the newly built Dimensionator for himself.

The quickly spread news that the rebel lombax was fighting the emperor himself caught Emperor Nefarious' attention and he immediately went to Zurkie's, where he claimed the Dimensionator for himself. He boasts that he is almost finished neutralizing all his enemies, with the exceptions of Captain Quantum and Rivet. He confronts his injured counterpart and the Doctor pleads for an alliance, which the Emperor finds tantilizing and accepts. With the Empire's earlier discovered knowledge of Rivet's base, the Emperor proposes a home game to Rivet before he and the Doctor disappear into a rift. Rivet knows this to mean he is going to Sargasso and sets off after him with Kit while Ratchet and Clank head to Ardolis to save Captain Quantum before the Emperor reaches him.

The Emperor's forces invade Sargasso.

After Dr. Nefarious had been exposed, the Emperor took full control of the Empire again and launched an invasion of Sargasso. Dr. Nefarious began working in a sub-commander role, but the Emperor's immense ego created much tension with their alliance. The Emperor attacked with a large Nefarious Starship as the invasion force's mothership, swarms of attack dropships, hundreds of troopers and a fleet of battle cruisers. Using the power of the Dimensionator, the Emperor opened multiple rifts for his troopers, ready for deployment, to enter and instantly appear on the planet's surface below.

The Emperor orders his battle cruisers to raise their shields and activate their Destruct-o Beams.

The troopers were ordered to begin exterminating all life on the planet in a ploy in draw Rivet in. The morts were able to repair the damaged Seekerpede Rivet fought earlier and used it in defense of the planet once it was freed from a dimensional anomaly by Kit. The Emperor eventually ordered his battle cruisers to activate their Destruct-o Beams to destroy the planet. With the help of Trudi and gelatonium bombs created by the morts, Rivet was successful in destroying the cruisers in time, thwarting the Emperor's plans. Although Rivet and Kit's efforts managed to save the planet, the Emperor used the Dimensionator to unceremoniously banished them to a pocket dimension before leaving, unaware that Rivet had the means to escape.

The Emperor contacts Kedaro Station after his return.

Upon returning to Nefarious City, the Emperor announced his return and addressed his subjects to call out Dr. Nefarious as a “Bumbling Quack with notions of grandeur” who tried to replace him. He declared he will deal with his citizens soon, having deduced that they were so devoted to him to the point of not noticing the difference. He also publicized that he was working on a new music track that he would be releasing soon, a duet he forced Dr. Nefarious to sing with him entitled "Join Me at the Top". After hearing about the destruction of the Rubion Forge, the Emperor contacted Kedaro Station and addressed the staff with concealed anger, promising all of their deaths for allowing it to happen.

The Emperor sends Quantum to Zordoom Prison.

Later, after Ratchet and Clank had successfully tracked down Quantum on planet Ardolis and saved him, the Emperor had also finally found the captain and opened a huge rift beneath his ship to send the three of them to his prison. Although unbeknownst to him, Quantum had tossed Ratchet and Clank to safety and sacrificed himself so the two could escape.

The Emperor makes a broadcast announcing the defeat of the final threats to his rule.

Despite the apparent defeat of his remaining enemies and total control of the galaxy, the Emperor was stricken with a feeling of emptiness. Dr. Nefarious deduced that he had mistakenly equated happiness with success, and with nothing left to achieve, his life has no purpose now. The Emperor angrily rebuked this and instead declared he needed to expand his Empire and enslave every dimension in order to truly find fulfillment. To do this, he needed the coordinates to travel to every dimension, and so the two of them set off to Savali in search of the Dimensional Map within the Interdimensional Archives. Ratchet, Clank, Rivet and Kit listened into his plans using Quantum's spy device and the four headed after him.

The Emperor's flagship and armies arrive over Savali.

The Emperor soon arrived at Savali onboard his flagship, along with an army of troopers and dropships, where his forces attacked the Archives and heavily damaged it. Gary and the Savali monks however hid the Dimensional Map within an anomaly in order to keep it out of the Emperor's hands and Gary was imprisoned on the flagship. The Emperor's overuse of the Dimensionator began to have negative affects, weakening the walls between the dimensions further. As a result, aggressive, skeletal creatures from a nightmare dimension began breaking into Rivet's universe through rifts, attacking both Ratchet and the Emperor's own forces, hampering their progress in finding the map.

The two Nefariouses ambush Ratchet and Clank and steal the Dimensional Map.

After Rivet and Kit infiltrated the Emperor's flagship and rescued Gary, he instructed Ratchet and Clank to head to the planet's catacombs to retrieve the map before the Emperor. As Clank retrieved the map, Doctor and Emperor Nefarious ambushed them and stole it, before then sending them through a rift to Zordoom Prison. Rivet and Kit show up too late and Kit attempts stop the Emperor herself in her warbot form, but his life is suddenly saved by Dr. Nefarious with the Dimensionator, who sends her to Zordoom aswell. The Nefariouses then escape through another rift, leaving Rivet alone and distraught at the revelation that Kit was the same warbot who caused her to lose her arm years ago.

The Emperor's Assistant in her new role as warden of Zordoom Prison.

Rivet then traveled to Viceron with the goal of rescuing her captured friends from Zordoom Prison. The Emperor had recently offered his Assistant the job of warden at Zordoom, where she quickly became drunk in her new position of power. Her solution to the prison's serious overcrowding issue is to "reform" them with a gauntlet of crushing pistons. With Rivet's past knowledge of the prison's layout, she landed her ship on the outskirts and made her way to the Prisoner Processing Centre, where she freed several resistance members including Quantum and Phantom. She saved Clank from being incinerated and pursued Ratchet and Kit's priority prisoner cell as it was transported throughout the prison.

A Nefarious Starship is dispatched to retrieve Ratchet and Kit from the emergency evacuation platforms.

After breaking into the warden's office and releasing every prisoner in Zordoom, Rivet teamed up with the Goons-4-Less and space pirates to fight their Nefarious Trooper captors. Ratchet and Kit's VIP cell was transported to the prison's Emergency Evacuation Platforms where a Nefarious Starship was dispatched from a rift to evacuate the two off of the planet. Rivet fought her way through waves of the assistant's Nefarious Troopers and destroyed the Royal Guard Escorts. After the billions of bolts in damages caused under her watch and numerous prisoner escapes, the assistant was fired from her job. Rivet rescued Ratchet and Kit in time and prevented their evacuation to the starship.

The Emperor launches his invasion of Ratchet and Clank's dimension.

As the escaped rebels met back up at Zurkie's and formed a counterattack plan, the Emperor made a broadcast announcing his intention to conquer every dimension in existence and revealed his war fleet assembled in orbit of Corson V. Once he proclaimed Dr. Nefarious' home dimension to be his first target, the Doctor was shocked and angered, believing it to be rightfully his to rule. The Emperor then declared his first destination to be Megalopolis, intending to rename it New Nefarious City and opened a rift for his armies to cross dimensions.

Ratchet and Clank arrive in Megalopolis in the midst of the Emperor's invasion.

With the walls between dimensions crumbling, parts of Rivet's dimension began merging with Ratchet's, with Nefarious Tower now appearing in Megalopolis. Upon the Emperor's invasion, his troopers and dropships proceeded to attack the city indiscriminately, and his Empire's insignia was brandished on many of the buildings. At the Midtown Mall, Ratchet teamed up with the Goons and pirates to fight back the troopers and force them back to the Emperor, who then summoned his Imperial Power Suit into the battle, co-piloting the mech with Dr. Nefarious.

The Emperor unveils his Imperial Power Suit.

A massive battle with the Power Suit and the Emperor's forces against Ratchet, Rivet, the goons and space pirates then took place in the center of Megalopolis. The Emperor's confidant façade slowly crumbled however as the heroes began gaining the upper hand, with the Emperor becoming enraged while Dr. Nefarious relished at his struggling. He shouts in bewilderment as to why they will not simply submit to him, to which Dr. Nefarious illustrates this great tenacity from his enemies is the true reason his dimension is so hard to take over and not the notion that the Doctor was incompetent as the Emperor had believed.

The Emperor summons all his armies to force Rivet to finally submit to him.

After Ratchet destroyed the Suit's bio-mechanical heart, the mech collapsed onto the Midtown Atrium, where the Emperor furiously vowed to bring in every last one of his followers to make Rivet bow to him. He fired the Dimensionator wildly into the sky and thousands of Nefarious Troopers poured out of the rifts, surrounding Rivet and training their weapons on her. Suddenly, however, a rain of missiles struck the troopers and Kit arrived, saving Rivet's life. The two agreed to team up, as Kit held back the army of troopers while Rivet fought the Emperor himself.

Rivet battles Emperor Nefarious whilst Kit holds back his army of troopers.

Whilst battling Rivet, the Emperor became increasingly deranged, hysterically declaring himself the beloved, destined ruler of every dimension. He mocked Rivet's attempt to reason with him and stop the destruction of the dimensions, demeaning them as "thankless and uninspiring". After sustaining damage, the Emperor ordered his troopers to protect him, while Rivet ridiculed his cowardice. Kit helped Rivet with the attacking troopers and the Emperor mocked that she would come back after so long just to betray him. Kit fully denounced her previous life to him and declared he was not her emperor. On the cusp of being defeated, the Emperor again ordered all his remaining troopers to protect him, which Rivet and Kit fought off together, leaving him utterly alone now.

Rivet stops the Emperor from overclocking the Dimensionator and destroying the dimensions.

Refusing to ever accept defeat, the Emperor went mad and began overclocking the Dimensionator to collapse every dimension in existence into nothingness. Kit hurled Rivet towards him, and she struck the Emperor with a powerful blow to the face. The heroes reclaimed the Dimensionator and used it to summon a kraken, who attempted to drag the Emperor inside a rift. As he begged Dr. Nefarious for help, the Doctor, who had endured the Emperor's constant abuse, mocked him in kind for his defeat and kicked his hand off a ledge. The Kraken dragged the Emperor into the portal and it closed, leaving him to his presumed doom and bringing his long reign to an end.

The Emperor's statue is pulled down in Nefarious Plaza.

Following the Emperor's defeat and the reparation of the dimensions, Ratchet, Clank, Rivet and Kit were present in Nefarious City as the giant statue of the Emperor was being pulled down to mark the liberation of the planet. The Emperor's Assistant briefly attempted to slip into the Emperor's now empty throne to usurp some of his power that she had longed for, but she was quickly chased out by Ms. Zurkon and Phantom.

Society

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I think everyone deserves a little subjugation.

Emperor Nefarious

Propaganda material displaying the alien text "Obey Nefarious".

The Emperor himself appears to not have a contempt for organic life like his counterpart and is content with subjugating both robots and organics alike, allowing them both only to exist purely at the service of him and his empire. Robots are however considered in a higher social class over organics, in fitting with the Emperor's own preferences, with the Nefarious Troopers referring to them as "squishies" and gleefully boasting their total robot domination over them. As Rivet was spotted by Nefarious Troopers whilst abducting Clank in Nefarious City, they pursued and ordered her to "release the hostage", showing that they had identified Clank as a robotic citizen and attempted to save him from an organic threat. While Ratchet and Kit attempted to use the Rubion Forge at Kedaro Station, they were confronted by a ultility robot known as Junk Bot, who referred to Ratchet as Kit's "steed", refusing to speak to him and only conversed with Kit. It is implied from this that organics are treated on the same level as a pet or animal to robotic citizens of the Empire. When asked by Clank if she worries the people she meets are working for Emperor Nefarious, Rivet admits that pretty much everyone she meets in the universe does work for Emperor Nefarious in some shape or form.

A Nefarious brand drink with "Consume" on its side.

Nefarious City in particular caters almost exclusively to robots, with organics having almost no place in its society or even much of a means to coexist. The entire City is monitored by a constant surveillance state, ensuring citizens can not act without the Emperor's forces knowing, and also contains frequent security checkpoints. Attempts to evade sensors are punished by immediate detention. There is much of a lack of vegetation, with holograms of trees left as commemoration and only small pockets of plantlife found in severely neglected slum areas. Despite robots having a societal priority, they are still however given very few rights and exploited heavily by the Emperor's economy and brutally corrupt work ethics. Many consumable products are adorned with the image of the Emperor on them, such as drink cans.

Emperor Nefarious Commemorative Statuettes.

The Emperor is known for throwing social events and creating culture for his citizens, this however is done specifically to feed his own self-absorbed ego, with parties celebrating his own greatness, artisan crafts made in his own image, and original music created and sung by himself. He has a great desire to be loved by his citizens and does not care what methods are carried out to ensure that happens. Anyone that steps out of line or expresses dislike of the Emperor's art or music is either destroyed or imprisoned, wherein they undergo rehabilitation, which leads to either extensive brainwashing to love him or death.

A product that is aggressively forced upon the population are Emperor Nefarious Commemorative Statuettes, which are made in huge quantities and shipped in the millions regularly. Citizens are expected to have at least one in every room of their homes, with a new weather resistant model now for balconies and patios.

Economy

Nefarious Empire currency, seen on Zurkie's pub counter.

The economy of the Empire used the Emperors own brand of currency, that being Nefarious dollars, known more commonly as Nefari bucks or Nef bucks. They appear to be red paper/polymer-like banknotes with the insignia of Emperor Nefarious printed on them and emitting a light, luminescent glow. The currency is used throughout Nefarious City and even as far out at establishments such as Zurkie's Gastropub and Battleplex, where several 100 marked notes can be seen at the bar, jammed into a decapitated robots head, being used as a tip jar. It is assumed they are used throughout the rest of the universe as well and everywhere under the Empire's control, which would include all developed planets that use legal tender.

Due to the oppressive nature of the Empire, citizens work long hours for little pay and are subtly threatened to purchase as many products as they can when shopping. Purchasing data on all customers is also collected to identify those who are avoiding spending more, and 100% of all proceeds go directly to the Emperor. The Empire also used what are known as Nefarious Freedom Coupons, which are assumedly used for discounts on goods and services. One of the very few positives from the Empire's influence is slightly cheaper consumer electronics. Another positive influence of the Empire is their crackdown on poaching, which saved the grunthor from extinction. This very had ulterior motives however, as the Emperor may have disliked that poachers were making large sums of profits from illegal venues outside his Empire for personal gain and not contributing to his own economy.

Bolts however still appear to be used and have monetary value, as seen with Ms. Zurkon's vendor, which uses them as payment for weapons and ammo. Her being an ally of the Resistance against the Empire may suggest she has personal reasons to not use the Emperor's currency. The degree to which Nefarious dollars and bolts are used in conjunction is not known, but Nef bucks appear to be much more prominent amongst the public. The damages caused by Rivet's jail break at Zordoom Prison is said to be in the range of numerous billions of bolts.

Military

The strength of the Empire's military might has remained unmatched in the universe for many years. The Emperor has been in countless conflicts in his life and was never defeated in any of them, with his armies destroying all competition, his Empire and military forces were able to flourish and encompass all civilizations in the known universe. Undeveloped primitive worlds like Sargasso, primarily populated with non-sapient creatures are of no interest to the Emperor, as he deems them to be repulsive and to have nothing worth conquering.

Emperor Nefarious' War Fleet.

The Empire's primary military forces are the Nefarious Troopers, robotic soldiers of a variety of shapes and sizes, created to enforce Emperor Nefarious' will on the universe and destroy any who oppose it. The Troopers are created in manufacturing facilities across the universe, with a very prominent one being the powerful Rubion Forge at Kedaro Station on planet Cordelion, the birthplace of many of the army's battle mechs and armors. The Emperor commands a fleet of several enormous Nefarious Starships, among them being his main flagship that he operates from. Each one housing thousands of Troopers ready to be deployed for planetary invasions.

A Nefarious Battle Cruiser.

Amongst the ranks of warships are the much smaller Nefarious Battle Cruisers, however these are equipped with devastating Destruct-o Beams, capable of blasting straight through a planet's crust, destabilizing the core and destroying it entirely in mere minutes. The Cruisers also each have protective shields that are impervious to conventional weaponry, requiring a significant force to destabilize and cause them to deactivate. For aerial battles, the fleet can also deploy several airborne explosive mines for their enemies. It is noted that the Empire is in the possession of at least five planet destroying cannons.

Zurkie, an elite synthoid weapon (prior to his turn to pacifism) was responsible for wiping out and causing the mass extinction of the population of Scarstu, a planet then destroyed by Emperor Nefarious, from where Zurkie's was then built in its debris field. It is implied by this sequence of events that Zurkie was working for the Empire to commit this act of genocide and was employed by its military before he retired from his violent ways and opened his gastropub.

Other more exceptional creations by the Empire's military industrial complex include the Imperial Power Suit, a giant battle mech standing at over 100 stories tall, armed with an array of deadly weaponry, designed and piloted by Emperor Nefarious for only the most special of occasions. The Suit was built with extremely durable metals crafted in the Rubion Forge and created in the very image of the Emperor himself.

KT-7461 (Kit), Emperor Nefarious' greatest weapon.

Another special weapon developed by the Empire was the warbot KT-7461, who would later go on to be known as Kit. She was a very powerful soldier, created to keep the Emperor's galaxy secure and protect Nefarious Tower on Corson V from intruders. Designed to be extremely efficient in battle, being of a rather large size in bulk and physically powerful. Equipped with wrist mounted missile launchers, destructive lasers fired from the eyes and fast flight capabilities via a jetpack. She was hailed by Emperor Nefarious as being his greatest weapon, a mark of praise she took great pride in. Unlike the other robots made to serve the Empire however, KT-7461 was naive and had a sense of empathy. When she attempted to stop a rebel in the Imperial Zone and blew off their arm, she discovered the extent to what being a weapon to the Empire truly meant and fled her role in great shame, exiling herself to the remote planet Savali to keep others safe from her own destructive capabilities. She dedicated her efforts to preserving knowledge with the monks who live there and chose to use a more diminutive mode compared to her hulking warbot form.

Alternate Counterpart

The Junk Bot of dimension ???.

In an unknown alternate dimension, designated only as dimension ???, an alternate counterpart to the Nefarious Empire existed with presumably an alternate Emperor Nefarious ruling it. In this dimension, the Kedaro Station on planet Cordelion has long since been abandoned. Years ago here, a utility robot named Junk Bot formed a friendship with a strange creature from Cordelion's oceans. Upon revealing the existence of the creature to the other workers at the station however, he was dismayed when they forcibly captured it and used its extreme amounts of bio-electricity to make it a living battery for the Rubion Forge. Later in his distress, Junk Bot broke the creature out of its containment and it proceeded to decimate the facility. During these years, Junk Bot named the creature Juice and stayed with it on the abandoned station, where the utility bot's mental health deteriorated in his extended isolation.

The old remains of Nefarious Troopers in dimension ???'s Kedaro Station.

This alternate dimension appears to be very similar to Rivet's dimension, with certain events playing out under slightly different circumstances. In Rivet's dimension, a counterpart to the creature was first discovered by Emperor Nefarious instead, who also had it captured and used as a power source for his Rubion Forge. Here, Junk Bot had no such relationship with the creature, meaning it never escaped its confinement and remained a battery. At the site of Juice's escape in the abandoned station's power room, the old, wrecked remains of Nefarious Sluggers and Lasertroopers can be seen strewn around the chamber, indicating Juice had attacked and destroyed them.