Chapter Four: First Battle at Starsea

Leon looked toward Starsea Main, still roaring outside the hangar. "Make every one of them admit I belong here." Astra-X's core brightened faintly. "Record: combat objective clear." Far beyond the dome, Jupiter's storms continued to turn, like the first shadow of the galactic war. Leon did not know that at the same moment he won his first academy fight, thirty-seven Void blackships emerged from darkspace beyond the frontier. The final distress signal from Nereid-4 contained only one line: "They are here."