Chapter Three: The Admission Order from the Stars

Not a frontier preparatory academy like the one on Helios-9, but the highest military academy in the Solar Federation. Every year it selected pilot prodigies from hundreds of colony worlds. Its graduates went directly into core fleet units. The people there were not sons of mining administrators. They were heirs of admirals, students of aces, monsters from optimized bloodlines. "Why?" Leon asked. "Because the front needs you to grow faster," Ardent said. "The Void will not wait for us to understand Astra-X. Helios-9 was only a reconnaissance strike. Three days ago, Frontier Route Thirteen went silent. Yesterday, the orbital ring of colony world Nereid-4 was destroyed. This morning, we confirmed that the main Void force is gathering."