The royal commander was seated on the Black Knight's bridge. Prince Haakrus Heraur had been in command of the Armolegian Kingdom's navy for near a decade and showed himself to excel at the role, having never lost a battle or retreated from enemy forces. His crew supported him and believed in him. A fine leader indeed. In the last century especially, many worlds of the peripheral systems had doubts in the King and his ability to protect them because of the raids. Haakrus changed that.

Three weeks. Thirty rotations, it had been since the last enemy encounter. Rarely did they show abnormalities in military operations. If there was one thing the Taigians could be relied on was their organization. It was the greatest strength as well as their weakness, but what now that they are nowhere to be seen?

The conflict began near a millennium ago. The Taigians insisted on colonizing one particular world within disputed territory between the Valandian Empire and the Kingdom, a small wildlife preservation of little importance. It was not because of their history of destructive habits or even to refuse bowing to their ego, but because of its proximity to the Kingdom. Vallis agreed to sell the system to the Kingdom in exchange for a trade agreement whose details could scarcely be remembered. What mattered was the Taigian response to this. They broke off the Council and did what they pleased. Invaded worlds, enslaved entire races, destroyed defences all across the Outer Rim. It was chaos. The Armolegian royal guard—being the largest fleet of the Council's nations—was granted special privileges in exchange for defence over bordering systems.

Many nations collapsed under pressure and were absorbed into the Kingdom's fold over the centuries into various provinces but even in its current size the Taigian Empire dwarfs theirs. A third of the galaxy was now under their rule, all worlds within have lost contact with the Council.

"There you are, I searched for you," said Sekeleus. She nagged him to rest often and take care of his health. He ignored most of it but knew she only did so out of concern.

"I apologize for keeping you awake, Seke. The first of our scouts should be returning shortly," he said only to her. She was about to put up a fuss, he could feel it in her mind, but decided better of it. It was his duty, his passion, and his life. And there was nothing she could do to change that.

Moments after, the ship received a call on the viewscreen. "I have news commander," said the somber scout ship captain.

"Oh? Of what kind? An indication of Taigian activity?"

"More than that, so much more, I'm afraid." He paused to compose himself. "There has been an attack, and invasion. We have no estimates on casualties but they must range in the millions or more."

The words struck him, he swiftly stood from his chair and approached the screen. "What system?" he asked.

"Li, sir."

"Vallis! How can this be?"

"It is so," said the captain.

It was a shock to the bridge crew as well, their eyes were blank in thought and their minds were pained with the possibilities. "The Valandians have a peace treaty with them, they have been allies for millennia, even longer than their independence." There was no immediate explanation he could consider at that moment.

"Sir, we have with us one of their ministers, he wishes to speak to you."

"Yes, yes, of course. Put him on."

The tall desert-hardened black-skinned creature stood a couple heads taller than the captain, his yellow eyes glowing in emotions he could not guess; pain, rage, both perhaps. "Greetings, Prince Heraur, I am Valar. As the captain has informed you, my people have suffered an atrocity. Our homeworld is under siege by those we believed to be our allies but were indeed traitors as many suspected. Our defences proved no match to their numbers and they overwhelmed us. We have done nothing to provoke them. The system was stormed in under a rotation, hundreds of their city ships have made landfall and all our cities except the great temple Alatza have been razed to the ground."

He nodded, expecting what he would say next.

"We have been aware of the possibility for only a short time and have constructed carrier ships to bring out refugees should a situation such as this occur. I have come to plead for your help. No, I beg you," he continued though weaker in voice. "We have lost billions already. Family, friends, children, there are no exceptions to their tactics. Hundreds of millions remain stranded below the surface unable to escape."

A silence had fallen and all eyes were on him. All but those of Valar who stared at the floor. Though he was swayed by his words, the choice was not his to make. "I will contact the King as the decision rests with him; you have my word I will not allow so many innocent lives to be taken." He had said the words but staying true to them would be more difficult than he may have realized. He was not confident his father would agree to this.

And he was correct. "They take with them genocide everywhere they go. Where will be next? It is clear this tactic is a provocation to us. Their Empire has been the closest to ours since the beginning of our colonization period. It is simply too close to the peripheral borders," he insisted.

"It is not our place! The outer provinces, perhaps, but it is nowhere near the Kingdom itself. The Valandians are not our allies, they have been our enemies since the very beginnings of our history. They are ruthless animals who have destroyed their ecosystem all on their own long before we even knew of the Taigians."

"That is hardly the point," he argued. "They need our aid for the survival of their people as a whole. There are plenty of legal actions we can take against them! Do you not want to force them to back down?"

"And go to war with the Taigians? Hah! You foolish child! They have made no direct aggression against our Kingdom. Why provoke them with a direct attack? We have been mere keepers of the peace across the Council nations, if we attack we are declaring war against a nation far larger than our own."

"I am not a coward!" he barked. He looked to his crew hoping for them to give him answers, but they were battling their own conflicting feelings on the matter at the moment. Valar still stared at the floor, only now next to him he saw how truly defeated he appeared. "You understand I cannot and will not sit by knowing so many have already perished and the rest soon to join them unless I act."

"You will do nothing. I order you to."

"I will act even against whatever orders you choose to give."

"Mutiny on behalf of my commanding officer, my heir to the throne? How dare you!"

He would not accept this. What he said next was entirely instinctual. Had he given it more thought he may have phrased it differently but there was no stopping the words once they began.

"How dare I? How dare you stand by and allow so many to die. And for what, fear of an enemy attack? Coward! You are unfit to hold the title Lord of the Twin Worlds," he spat at the screen and then watched as his father became hysterical.

"Were you not my only child I would have you sentenced to death for such a statement, I assure you. They will destroy you and then the Kingdom. If you do this you will no longer be welcome in the Armolegian sector. Never again will you set foot on the Twins."

He let the thought sink in, and continued.

"My years in service have taught me many things. I have seen injustice from both sides in the treatment of the peripheral systems. Many openly denounce your ability to protect them and refuse to acknowledge your rule because their children are dying. I will gather what forces I can and save the children of Vallis for they have done no wrong. One day you will see the errors of your ways. At that time, I will already have won this war." He ended the call and collapsed into his chair.

"Sir," said Tomrek, his communications specialist. "The frequency has been open to all ships in the armada. They all heard you. Shall I make a statement?"

He nodded, rubbing his forehead, exhausted.

"You have heard what is decided," he began. "Those who wish to join in the evacuation campaign are requested to set coordinates to join the Black Knight. Those who either cannot or do not wish to will not be judged. I kneel before a man I have a great respect for, a friend, my commander. I have pledged my full allegiance to Prince—no, Admiral Haakrus. Midday tomorrow the fleet will depart."

The night came quick, the morning even faster. He walked the halls from the mess hall to his post on the bridge feeling the minds of those around. Many were afraid, but none objected to his decision. Many of them may not see their families for a long time.

Upon arriving at the bridge, he was given a full report of the ships that joined, raising his confidence about the upcoming day. Three additional carriers bringing the count up to five, eight battlecruisers bringing the count up to twelve, several dozen destroyers and frigates, and hundreds of strike craft.

He spoke to the fleet: "Today we make a choice, we take a stand. We defend those in need regardless of their allegiances. The Taigians have done as they please for far too long, this latest affront will be the last we allow. We may not save the system, we may not even be able to ensure all escape in time. Our primary objective is rescuing as many civilians as we can and prevent the enemy from taking aim at the convoy. According to the last surviving minister, all they await is a launch window. We will provide them with that window and ensure they clear the gravity well and escape. After that time, we will leave the system. There are too many for us to stay any longer. Engage archion drive on my command." He took in a deep breath, and gave the order.

A static enveloped the ship, bolts of green and teal lightning silently tore their way along the shields increasing in frequency as the hyperdrive spun up. Once at full power, the bolts raced to a focal point at the frontmost point and explosively racing to the back and jettisoning off into the void sending them on their way. A single jump would get them to their destination, nearly a hundred lightyears away.

Dropping out of hyper speed, he was struck with the frightening reality of what he was seeing. The enemy did not waste time conquering this world. The Li System was overrun by Taigian warships and orbital structures.

"Scanners indicate large clusters of debris in low orbit surrounding the planet. They will enter the atmosphere in approximately one or two hours," said Gentam.

"That means we have a deadline. Once the debris begins raining down in fireballs there will be no chance for anyone to take off." A somber thought indeed. He had fought off invasion forces of theirs before but nothing like what was in front of him now. It was as if they were setting it up to be a military stronghold for a long time to come, only reinforcing what he thought would happen next.

He split his fleet into four groups, each one to cover one side of the opening forming a tunnel of sorts. He was relying on an assumption that the enemy truly did not care one way or the other about the lives of the natives but rather would focus attention to his forces.

"Valandian ships dropping from hyper speed," said Tomrek. "Accepting call."

"The defences here have been defeated. Our remaining colonies within this region have been evacuated. We have heard of your mission and are here to offer our assistance. Most of us may have never walked on this world but it is still the birthplace of us all. We will distract them by opening fire on their communications array. We are proud to fight alongside you. Please. Save our people."

He gave them a respectful nod before the call was cut.

"Saulo, fire main cannon on the nearest capital ship when in range." The short weapons specialist began to make the calculations. Minutes later, when their approach had brought them into firing range, the ambient lighting dimmed to a comfortable red and the groups got into formation. They were taking aim at a carrier dead ahead. "Firing in five," he said. The energy beams, six of them, made contact with the ship's shields, cutting a hole into them. Once pierced, a plasma bomb shot down the centre and slammed against the hull causing the ship to erupt in explosions and atmospheric venting. Many tiny fighters evacuated before what remained of the carrier itself collapsed into a singularity.

Laser and plasma weapons fired in all directions hitting their targets. Ships on their side eventually could not sustain shields and the weapons hit the metal directly, on their side however, they imploded into singularities. He shouted commands to various ship groups, ordered fighter squadrons to make passes protecting the frigates, and gave the order to fire when ready on the nearest battleship. All secondary weapons on the Black Knight stopped firing as the six beams again shot out towards the enemy, and again a plasma bomb was slammed into the ship's hull.

Over the years he and the other experienced combatants became skilled at taking out Taigian ships. Their main defence was in shield strength, invulnerable to nearly all energy weaponry and powered by an antimatter plant. The only viable option in destroying them was to overload the plant. Once it destabilized it would detonate the ship's wormdrive—a wormhole generator serving as their equivalent of a hyperdrive—collapsing anything within reach into a singularity smaller than a sand grain.

"Admiral! Taigian mothership ahead!" He saw it there, tall and menacing, the Silver Sky of the Sacred Seven. Each was feared by all who knew of them. Individually they were powerful beyond words. Together…

"Receiving hail from enemy ship."

"Display," he said.

The tall grey cyclops showed his face to him. "Lord Haakrus, captain of the Black Knight. The perfect war machine that has gained its own reputation among our border fleets. I know not the reason for your intrusion in this colonization campaign but I welcome the chance to defeat you and put an end to your harassment of our fleets." The message ended with a shot firing from one of its ion cannons. They fired back, but it was only the mothership attacking them.

"Sir?" Saulo said.

"They want a duel, so let them have it." He was unsure if it was mad to agree to such a thing, one on one with the legendary menace. His only advantage was that his ship was built for combat while the Silver Sky in particular was built for surface bombardment.

"Thirty-seconds until main cannon can fire!" In that timeframe he fired several volleys of plasma bombs and all ion cannons kept a constant energy stream flowing into their shields but it was barely having an effect. He had, however, one trick to play. A guess, rather, as to where the wormdrive was located.

"Fire main cannon at the lowest neck near the engines!" The beams made contact again. There was an implosion, but not on the scale he had hoped. The engine section's bulb suddenly collapsed, but the power plant must have been located elsewhere. At this point, the other enemy ships opened fire on his flagship. "So much for honour."

Coming from the planet he could see Valandian ships. Hundreds more were on their way. Luckily this battle would be over soon.

"When charged, fire on the central neck and the rest of you begin evacuating once all transports have left the gravity well." A battlecruiser next to his ship exploded, but not before taking out an enemy carrier with it. He could see many of his forces in the other three groups backing off; the last of the convoy was on its way. He looked over and saw that the debris was raining down on Vallis.

The main cannon fired one last time. He held his breath. There was an explosion brighter than the star itself that blew the two halves of the ship apart.

The convoy left the gravity well.

"Engage hyperdrive!"

In total, Haakrus had saved four hundred and seven million people that day, a victory in his eyes. He had gained the eternal loyalty of the Valandian people who were given a new capital on Yucatec in the Orion nebula. The Taigians rarely entered such places. They were now citizens of the Kingdom and loyal only to him and not the coward King who wanted to sentence them to death.

"I hope you know what you have done," his father said to him.

"I saved an entire people from destruction."

"You foolish child!" His father ended the call unwilling to hear him out. They would not speak again for many years.

"And so it is," he said to no one in particular. "The Taigian Wars have begun."