1.03

Burning orange flashes of astral firelight saturated the bridge of the Chrysalis between stygian blinks.

Vae gripped the central command console with fingers that now ached. Vibration shot through her arms and down her spine. The whole ship jostled on its unsteady trajectory straight through the galactic core.

If this was to be her last moment, Vae swallowed hard and accepted her fate.

1.02

The resupply of the Dreadnaught at Erania took so little time that Rane did not even have the chance to go planetside on his own homeworld.

Not that he wanted to. The first priority in Rane’s mind was Thalassar and Vice Admiral Roland Scothern. The plan required a delicate balance and he couldn’t let Scothern blunder into a moment of accidental competence and ruin the whole operation. 

The details had been kept to a select few higher in the chain of command – outside of the Security Council, Fleet Admiral Hammersley of the Federation Space Armada, and the President and Vice President, only Rane knew how the Thalassar operation was meant to play out.

He liked it that way. 

1.01

Executing a new mission had always been Rane Dryden’s favorite part of being Vice Admiral, with its preparation and planning coming in a close second; it was like putting together a puzzle whose final and completed form revealed another victory for the United Empyreal Federation.

His least favorite part was what happened after. 

1.00

The war began before anyone fighting it today was born. The exact start of the conflict remains disputed, but most historians would agree the secession of planets declaring independence from the United Empyreal Federation was the catalyst which set the greater conflict in motion.

Following a long period of economic reforms, rollbacks in social safety nets, and consolidation of power into fewer and fewer privileged hands, resistance grew among the laboring people on various planets under Federation control as those elected to represent the people failed to do so. This trend continued, although it could not continue forever. Incremental changes over time pushed the working people to their breaking point, and they began to push back, demanding a greater say in the systems controlling every part of their lives. Too many people had been held down for too long, deprived of the basic needs they deserved as human beings and left with no legal recourse by those in power as the electoral system continued to produce the same unwanted result of preserving the inequities of the status quo. 

Thus, the course was set for revolution.