The Star Dragon, Pt 1

Sorallus Orbit, Pallan’cha System, Hegemony Conflict Sector DCX-02

High Admiral Therid de Jardin, Commander of the 5th Hegemony Fleet, the Dregha Skeszha himself stood on the bridge of the Grand Carrier ‘Gladius Pax’. Around him were all his officers and technicians, most of whom were tending to their terminals.

Though the pips on their collars displayed their ranks, on all their left sleeves were thin silver bands - most with one, some with two. It was a mark of their rank, and more critically, a mark of their knowledge and expertise.

The Star Dragon had five.

All of the holographic displays around the bridge had numerous warnings and alerts, all of which produced a level of panic on the bridge itself.

The most prominent of the data on the displays was a simple graph. It displayed the number of confirmed Federation warships in the entire sector, plotted over time. And it confirmed that their numbers had indeed doubled in the past cycle.