UGT: Unknown; 45 minutes after May repaired the camouflage shield reactor

  Location: Unknown yellow dwarf system: near the third planet

  Frowning, Admiral Thorrison studied the tactical map in front of him. The situation wasn’t dire just yet, but it was far from optimal. The last engagement with the Association forces had resulted in the fleet’s first losses, and damage reports were beginning to mount. He exhaled sharply. "A report on our tactical losses and the current battle situation. Now."

  "One of our Frigates has been destroyed, and a Destroyer was forced to disengage," his sensor officer responded promptly. "The Association maintains firm control over the fifth and sixth moons and has operational dominance over the space surrounding the third. Control of the fourth and seventh moons, as well as our orbital refinery station, remains contested. The first, second, and eighth moons are securely under our control. Optical feed is being transmitted... now."

  The officer’s confidence was almost irritating. He was one of the newer appointees in a leadership position and likely didn’t grasp the full gravity of their predicament. The visual feed confirmed what Thorrison already knew. Nine of his Frigates were spread across the controlled moons, maintaining a sensor grid to prevent unexpected Association advances. Six were engaged in battle near the orbital refinery, while another six were evenly split between the fourth and seventh moons. Each contested zone was further reinforced by three Destroyers and a Cruiser for fire support. His flagship, the Battlecruiser FSF Defiance, along with another Battlecruiser, two Cruisers, and a Destroyer, formed the fleet’s rapid deployment force, ready to intervene should the Association’s capital ships make a move. In theory, they were also supposed to contest the third moon, but attempting that now would be nothing short of suicide.

  Thorrison’s gaze darkened. "What are the Association’s current losses? And update me on their fleet’s positioning." He had given this order countless times over the past day. The habit was ingrained, an old reflex from his years in command. Unlike the newer generation of officers, he had been a captain during a time when automation in ship operations was far less advanced. A relic of an era shaped by over two centuries of peace, when humanity was still scrambling to recover from the Great Collapse. The thought made his jaw tighten. Military advancements and true war doctrines had been an afterthought then. But now, he had no choice but to adapt. In a few hours, he would need to rest to prevent his thought process from deteriorating. But for now, he was still fully capable of overseeing the fleet’s operations.

  "One of the mercenary Frigates and their Destroyer were annihilated by our antimatter weapons," the sensor officer continued. "Serves those traitors right. Aside from that, the Association has suffered no further losses. The remaining mercenary Frigates have fully integrated into their forces. Their entire fleet of nine Frigates, six Destroyers, and three Cruisers is concentrated within the contested zones. Their rapid deployment force consists of their sole Battlecruiser and four Destroyers. Reports indicate that the battle for the orbital refinery station is nearing its conclusion with the Association forces beginning to retreat."

  A small victory. But not nearly enough. Thorrison wanted nothing more than to crush the Association under his heel, and under normal circumstances, with a fleet of this size, that would have been trivial. The Federation’s numerical superiority was overwhelming. In a fair fight, this battle would have been over in hours. But fairness had never been the Association’s way. Those bastards had no qualms about indiscriminate bombardment, as they had already proven with their attack on the first moon, the only other inhabited colony in the system besides Hestia’s Crown. He had no doubt that if he withdrew even a handful of Frigates from civilian protection, the enemy would seize the opportunity. They would punish him for the decision, and the cost would be paid in innocent lives.

  They knew the battle was lost. Any rational force would have retreated by now. But instead of cutting their losses, the Association had chosen a different approach: a brutal war of attrition. Under normal circumstances, a vastly outnumbered enemy attempting such a strategy would be doomed. Their resources would deplete, their formations would crumble, and their forces would be wiped out in mere hours. But the Association was anything but normal. Their blatant disregard for the Galactic Convention of War was only part of the problem. Obviously not every branch of the fractured Association had signed it. It was just dumb luck this one hadn't. No, the real issue here was their sheer antimatter output and technological superiority.

  Thorrison knew that the main branch of the Association was among the strongest military forces in the galaxy. He knew they held a technological advantage over most nations including the Federation. Still, by all reasonable calculations they should have depleted their reserves hours ago. The sheer volume of antimatter they were expending should have been unsustainable, seeig how they had not even a single antimatter Freighter with them. And yet, they kept firing. At this rate, his fleet would run out of antimatter long before they did, despite having only used a third of what the Association had burned through. This, more than anything, was what was preventing him from crushing them outright. Reckless aggression would only lead to catastrophic losses.

  Plasma shields and PDC-L systems were near-useless against railgun projectiles carrying antimatter payloads. Sure, the capital ships under his command had hypershields, but even those wouldn’t last under sustained antimatter bombardment. Meanwhile, breaking hypershields with conventional weaponry was nearly impossible in a real combat scenario. And the Association? They had hypershields on every single one of their ships. Something that should have been impossible by Federation standards. But the Association didn’t care about Federation standards.

  "But why are they protecting the third moon? It just doesn’t make any sense," he muttered to himself. Although a serious failure on the part of the local fleet elements, I could at least understand why they hadn’t found the Association buildup around the fifth and sixth moons before it was too late. Now, those positions were partly fortified against space assaults, making them difficult to reclaim. But why place their rapid deployment forces over the third moon instead? There’s nothing of value there. And why actively seek battle when they could have just fallen back to the fifth and sixth moons? Why defend the third moon so stubbornly? It just didn’t make any sense. Suddenly, his personal voice com crackled to life.

  "Eh… Admiral? This is Junior Officer Morris. I… uh, sort of hacked into your voice com. Sorry for that. But I have something I think you’ll want to hear, Sir."

  Thorrison’s expression darkened. That should have been impossible and was highly against protocol. But for now, he was willing to listen. There were no incompetent officers on this ship, he had personally ensured that. If he was contacted anyways, it was probably important.

  "What is it, Junior Officer Morris? And why exactly are you using… this peculiar method of communication?" he subvocalized into his com.

  "As I said, Sir, I have something important to report. My senior officer refused to let me contact you through official channels, since I wouldn’t share this information with anyone else," Morris replied, clearly nervous now.

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  Thorrison’s patience thinned. "You have one chance to explain yourself, Morris. You’d better hope this is as important as you claim. Interrupting me during battle, bypassing your superiors, and using unauthorized communication methods could easily be considered sabotage. In combat, that could even be seen as mutiny, or worse, treason. If this is some kind of joke, you won’t like what happens next. Do I make myself clear?"

  Morris gulped audibly before speaking again, now fully aware of the risk he was taking.

  "Understood, Sir. While performing my duties as junior sensor officer, I was analyzing the enemy’s rapid deployment forces around the third moon when I noticed an unusual signal on its surface, just for a fraction of a second. It came from a specific mountain range. The strange thing is, the signal appeared less than an hour after some of our misfired projectiles hit that very location during our failed attempt to drive the Association away. Then, just as quickly, the signal vanished. At first, I thought it was nothing except a small sensor glitch. But our sensors showed no malfunctions. That’s when I decided to focus my scans on that mountain range. For hours, I detected nothing. I was about to write it off as a mistake… but then the signal reappeared, this time inside the mountain. Unlike before, it was steady, weak, and barely noticeable. If I hadn’t already been focused on that exact spot, I never would have caught it. But I did. And Sir, there’s no doubt, what I picked up was the unmistakable energy output of a fully operational antimatter reactor."

  Thorrison’s eyes widened slightly as Morris continued.

  "That was when I first tried to report this through the proper channels, Sir, but I was shut down. A few hours later, the signal vanished completely. That was my second attempt to reach you, but I was blocked again. The last forty-five minutes, I spent finding a way to bypass the system and contact you directly through the voice com. Lucky for me, it was still linked to the ship’s network."

  Thorrison remained silent for a moment, absorbing the implications. A hidden base on the third moon? That would explain why the Association was defending it so fiercely. The third moon controlled key approach vectors to the fifth and sixth moons. But if the base was that well-hidden, it likely wasn’t heavily fortified, meaning the Association forces didn’t have the kind of ground support they’d need for a long-term fight.

  Logically, they should have retreated to the fortified moons. But they hadn’t. Why?

  If the Association had simply abandoned the third moon, he never would have even scanned it. There would have been no chance at all that he’d have found that base.

  "Thank you, Junior Officer. I don’t understand why you kept this to yourself instead of informing your superior, but your report is valuable. I’m willing to overlook your… unconventional methods this time. Thanks to you, I finally see what’s really happening. You will now report to your superior and—"

  "Sir, I sincerely apologize, but I don’t think you understand the real situation yet," Morris interrupted him abruptly.

  Thorrison’s eyes narrowed at the sheer audacity of the junior officer.

  "The energy signature I detected, it wasn’t the Association’s. It was old. Very old. Older than anything the Association still has in use. And it bore an eerie resemblance to known Aetherian energy signatures we learned of. Weaker, yes, but still unmistakable."

  Morris took a deep breath before delivering the final blow.

  "Sir, in all of recorded galactic history, only one civilization has ever successfully reverse-engineered Aetherian technology, even partially. That signal? That reactor? That base? It’s not just old Association tech. It’s a remnant from the First Federation. Before its eventual downfall."

  Silence. Then, Thorrison exhaled slowly, his mind working rapidly.

  "Alright, Junior Officer. Listen to me carefully. Delete everything. Erase every log, every record. Make sure it’s irreversible. Wipe all traces of this conversation. If anyone ever asks, you know nothing. Understood?"

  "Sir?"

  "This is far above your pay grade, Morris. Hell, it’s above my pay grade. If anyone finds out what you know… you won’t live long enough to regret it. So I’ll say it again: You know nothing. Forget you ever saw it. Do you understand me?"

  A long pause. Then, Morris’s voice, quiet and shaken:

  "Understood, Sir. Good day, Sir."

  The line cut. Thorrison stared at his console, expression grim. He could only hope Morris would listen. Because if he didn’t… He was already a dead man. A still-functioning relic of the First Federation? No wonder the Association was protecting the third moon. No wonder they were willing to die for it. Compared to that kind of technology, every power in the galaxy except maybe the Union was nothing but an afterthought. Now everything had become clear. While the Second Federation and the Association had never truly been allies, as was impossible with how decentralised they were, they had maintained friendly relations overall. Most factions of the Ruidan Raider Association were located far from Federation space. With no conflicting interests between them, tensions had never arisen. In fact, the Federation had engaged in multiple trade agreements and contracts with the Association’s local branches.

  Now, 250 years after the Great Collapse and 210 years after the First War of Independence finally ended, the Federation had managed to partially recover. Two centuries of peace had done much for the nation. Perhaps too much, because when the Second War of Independence broke out 16 years ago, no one had been prepared. A coalition of breakaway star nations, rebellious Federation systems, and rogue factions, many of which had gained independence after the Great Collapse and the First War of Independence, decided that it was time to finish what they had once started. They even secured indirect support from the Independent Systems Alliance, another one of the four galactic superpowers. But unlike last time, the Federation did not crumble. It fought back.

  For 16 years, Admiral Thorrison had waged battle after battle, emerging victorious in most. A few years ago, the Federation finally transitioned from defense to offense. Just over a year ago, the Federation reclaimed the last of its lost systems. For the first time in decades, they had a real chance at ending the war. Then, the Ruidan Raider Association and the Independent Systems Alliance struck. No declaration of war. No diplomatic warnings. Just a devastating first strike that crippled the Federation’s hard-won momentum in a single, decisive blow. Suddenly, the Federation was surrounded by enemies, abandoned by its allies, and facing overwhelming odds.

  For months, Admiral Thorrison had questioned why two superpowers that despised each other would work together. The Federation had been far more useful to the Association as a stable trade partner. It made no sense for them to side with their archenemy just to bring the Federation to its knees. He understood the Independent Systems Alliance. They wanted to expand their influence and destroy the Federation for good. The rebels and smaller human nations were easy to understand as well: they wanted independence and territorial expansion. But the Association? Their involvement had been a mystery. Now, he knew.

  They didn’t care about the Federation itself. They wanted something else. Something buried in Federation space. First Federation technology. Somehow, they had found it before the Second Federation did, despite it being on Federation territory. If Thorrison had to guess, the Association would withdraw or perhaps even switch sides the moment they secured that technology for themselves. It wouldn’t surprise him. After all, despite everything, the Federation was still holding its own against two of the galaxy’s superpowers.

  Yes, the Fourth Superpower, the Aetherian Memorialist Union, strongest starnation of the galaxy, had been providing support. Weapons, equipment, even entire warships had been sent to Federation space. But even with that aid, the sheer resilience of the Federation was remarkable. And now, Admiral Thorrison had a decision to make. A hard one. “The entire fleet is to regroup around our position. Our new primary objective is to secure the third moon. The cost is irrelevant. Our one and only goal is to take control of that moon. Prepare all forces for a full-scale landing.”

  Would this decision lead to civilian casualties on the first moon colony? Most likely, yes. But if the technology hidden on the third moon was what he suspected it to be, it could change the course of the war once and for all.