“When conducting offensive operations, avoid dividing your fleet excessively. Dispersed formations risk defeat in detail and inevitably require a reserve force to respond to unforeseen developments. Likewise, an enemy must not be allowed to compel such dispersion. Limited distribution of forces is only justified when sufficient ships are available to maintain a sensor network while protecting a strategically valuable asset. If adequate defensive strength cannot be maintained under these conditions, withdrawal should be considered before risking unnecessary losses.”

  — Advanced Space Battle Tactics, Vol. 6

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

  Location: Unknown yellow dwarf system: near the third planet

  Frowning, Vice Admiral Thorrison of the 2nd Rapid Response Fleet of the Second Human Federation studied the tactical map on the display 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."

  "In the last engagement we lost the FSF Battlecruiser Heracules to a chance hit and the FSF Cruiser Detroit under concentrated Association fire," his lookout officer responded promptly. "Smaller but manageable losses include a Destroyer, five Frigates and two Corvettes. 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 did not grasp the full gravity of their predicament. The visual feed confirmed what Vice Admiral Thorrison already knew. Six of his Frigates and all of his three remaining Corvettes were dispersed among the controlled moons, maintaining a sensor grid to prevent unexpected Association advances. Seven were engaged in combat near the orbital refinery, while the remaining six Frigates were assigned to the defense of the fourth and seventh moons. Each contested zone was further reinforced by Destroyers and Cruisers providing fire support.

  His flagship, the FSF Battlecruiser Defiance, together with the FSF Battlecruiser Hamilton, three Cruisers, and five Destroyers, formed the fleet’s rapid deployment force, ready to intervene should the Association’s capital ships make a move. In theory, they were also meant to contest the third moon, but attempting that now would be nothing short of suicide.

  Vice Admiral 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 with military spending at an all-time low. 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 processes from deteriorating. But for now, he was still fully capable of overseeing the fleet’s operations.

  “Eight of their Frigates and three Destroyers, as well as a Cruiser, were annihilated by our antimatter weapons,” the sensor officer continued. “Aside from that, the Association has suffered no further losses. Their entire fleet of twelve Frigates, twelve Destroyers, five Cruisers, and two Battlecruisers is concentrated within the contested zones. Reports indicate that the skirmish for the orbital refinery station is nearing its conclusion, with Association forces beginning to withdraw.”

  A small victory. But not nearly enough. Vice Admiral 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 sizeable. 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.

  The Association in turn knew the battle was most likely lost. Any rational force would have retreated by now. But due to their willingness to inflict civilian casualties and to hold a human colony hostage had forced him into a risky drawn-out conflict of small skirmishes, where ambushes became a big risk. Already he had paid a great cost for one such mistake, he couldn’t risk a second. The only thing making this battle truly devasting for him though was the Association’s sheer antimatter output and technological advantage.

  The Association was among the strongest military forces in the galaxy. They held a technological advantage over most nations, including the Federation. Still, by all reasonable calculations they should have depleted their antimatter reserves hours ago. The sheer volume of antimatter they were expending should have been unsustainable, seeing as they did not have 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 used only a third of what the Association had already expended. More than anything else, this was what prevented him from crushing them outright. Reckless aggression would only lead to catastrophic losses.

  Plasma shields and PDC-L systems were nearly useless against railgun projectiles carrying antimatter payloads. All ships under his command bigger than a Frigate possessed hypershields, but even those would not endure sustained antimatter bombardment. Meanwhile, breaking hypershields with conventional weaponry was nearly impossible under real combat conditions. And the Association possessed hypershields on every one of their ships, including their smallest. A technology the Federation had as well but hadn’t yet come around to install on all their ships.

  "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, he could at least understand why they hadn’t found the Association build-up 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 would the Association place their rapid deployment forces over the third moon instead? There was 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 voicecom, a small in-ear communication device that every officer in service of the Federation fleet had, crackled to life.

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

  Vice Admiral 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.

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  "What is it, Junior Lieutenant Morris? And why exactly are you using this… peculiar method of contacting me?" he subvocalized into his voicecom.

  "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.

  Vice Admiral 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?"

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

  "Understood, Sir. While performing my duties, 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 that the signal appeared less than an hour after some of our misfired antimatter missiles 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."

  Vice Admiral 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 contacting you directly through the voicecom. Luckily for me, it was still linked to the ship’s network."

  Vice Admiral 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 Lieutenant. 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.

  Vice Admiral 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, Vice Admiral Thorrison exhaled slowly, his mind working rapidly. "Alright, Junior Lieutenant. Listen to me carefully. I’ll know transfer a few priority codes to you, and you are to 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 something. Do you understand me?"

  A long pause. Then, Junior Lieutenant Morris’s voice, replied with a quiet shake. "Understood, Sir. Good day, Sir."

  The line cut. Vice Admiral Thorrison stared at his console, expression grim. He could only hope Junior Lieutenant 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, the Union maybe being the only exception to that, 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 decentralized they were, they had maintained friendly relations overall. Most territories of the Ruidan Raider Association were located far from Federation space. With no conflicting interests between them, tensions had never arisen after the First Federation had been overthrown.

  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, Vice 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 way to many years, they had held 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 many of its still standing allies, and facing overwhelming odds.

  For months, Vice 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 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 all wanted independence and territorial expansion or had caved under external and internal pressure. 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 in Federation territory. If Vice Admiral 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, and even entire warships had been sent to Federation space. But even with that aid, the sheer resilience of the Federation was remarkable. And now, Vice 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.