Martial Situation

On a hot desert planet, two children played with balloons under a blazing sun.

The temperature was about 35 degrees Celsius, a relatively mild day for the planet Cronos I. Yet, for the native Geoils—humanoids like kangaroos—it was a suitable climate. The two children had been playing with balloons almost all afternoon, and were just about to return to their hut.

But then one of them unconsciously released his balloon.

He stared up past it, toward the black traces swarming in a mass that hid the burning sun of Cronos I.

Spaceships.

Cronos has always been a sparsely populated system, so poor in resources that few outsiders bothered with them. The system's membership in the Federation only stretched back a decade, and only in response to the Geoils being worried about the aggressive expansion of the Orc Empire.

So spaceships of any kind were rare in the sky of Cronos I, let alone such a fleet. While the two children stood, stupefied, by what they saw, a horrifying noise reached them from across a great distance.

The emergency alarm of the nearest city.

Broken out of their daze, the children ran home, crying.

At home, their two parents stood around a device called a "super-inverter," capable of picking up any radio wave from space, given they were tuned into the right frequency. It was an extremely common device on isolated colonies like the Cronos I. 

The super-inverter announced terrible news. The Orc fleet, led by Great Warlord Regnier, had just violated the Federation border. In response, Supreme Chancellor Souley had declared martial law throughout the Federation and had appointed Grand Admiral Azerof as special military governor of the Cronos, Diolas, and Kios systems—including Cronos I, where the Geoil people lived, of course.

If their planet had just come under direct military supervision, that meant there was a very real chance of suffering direct consequences of the war. This was truly terrible news.

*** 

CRONOS I PLANETARY CAPITAL

Cruisers appeared over the city as thousands of Federation fighters settled into the planet's atmosphere, a show of force to deter possible civil unrest following the Federation's announcement. 

In addition to the hovering fighters, several shuttles landed in the garden of the planetary governor's palace. A man in a colonel's uniform exited the ship with several hundred Federation Special Forces soldiers, then rushed into the palace and ordered an immediate evacuation of everyone except the planetary governor.

This surreal scene repeated over and over across the planet as Federation Special Forces took over the most strategic points on the planet.

After clearing the palace at the capital, the colonel turned on his hologram and said, "It is done, Grand Admiral Azerof! Cronos I is under quarantine and we are prepared to defend the planet. As you ordered, we have placed nuclear charges at strategic points in the largest cities on the planet. If the Orcs land here, we will make sure they suffer maximum losses!"

It was a desperate measure, but Azerof had no choice. After three weeks of latent crisis—in addition to several months of unrelated tensions before the destruction of Planet Era—the Orc fleet had finally taken action and penetrated the Federation borders. Even if war had not yet officially begun, the situation could collapse at any moment into open conflict. 

Even though he strongly suspected Azerof of treason, Chancellor Souley had no choice but to appoint Azerof as Military Governor of the three solar systems on the frontier, granting him more power than any other military officer in the Federation.

After all, the Orcs didn't care about Federation politics. If they chose to attack, the loyalty and cohesion of their enemies would mean absolutely nothing.

*** 

CRONOS I ATMOSPHERE—AZEROF'S CAPITAL SHIP

Azerof was holding a special meeting involving not only Grand Admiral Wesley but also many who were attending remotely in hologram form—Supreme Chancellor Souley, General Ralfot, and several other political and military members. 

Many of those at the meeting hated one another.

In particular, Ralfot had left Azerof's command suddenly and without explanation. The Grand Admiral later received a communication from Terra that Ralfot had been relieved of his service under Azerof because he was needed elsewhere… which made no sense for his rank at the time.

It became clear as soon as Azerof saw Ralfot's promotion to general, and his presence at this meeting, that the officer had been a spy for that bastard Souley all this time. He'd grown slightly suspicious around the time he assigned Ralfot to spy on Apophis's warband, and now cursed himself for not realizing the truth sooner.

Well, that didn't matter much at the moment. The situation was so critical that all of these people put their differences aside for the moment. The Federation hadn't been at war with another galactic nation in more than thirty years, so this was a major historical event in the making. 

Anti-war and anti-martial-law riots had broken out across the Federation, and neither diplomatic discussions nor attempted mediation by the broader galactic community had stopped the escalation between the nations. 

The purpose of the meeting was simple. They gathered to discuss whether it was necessary to declare war on the Orc Empire now that it had violated the sovereignty of the Federation. 

Of course, Human Supremacists like Azerof desired open war, but the Chancellor and General Ralfot were against it. Due to the opposed desires of such powerful people, the debate slowed to a deadlock. 

The meeting finally broke apart when the fleet of the Great Warlord Regnier appeared in the Cronos system. Supreme Chancellor Souley, weary from the debate, prepared to announce to his people—and to the rest of the galaxy—that the United Federation of Planets and the Orc Empire were now at war.