“The day of victory is coming for us all. We may just have to wait for it a while.”
- ww2jacob
Speech to delegates at Troy Summit


Leeds, the newest addition to the Mighty Hispanic Alliance, was a dreadful system in reality, because it had been overused for all of it’s worth long ago. Still, the glory of Leeds was not in the thick brown clouds of pollution that adorned it, or the complete lack of mineral resources, but in the manufacturing centers all over the system.

Now, standing on a deck on the huge, new Massif Station, young Captain Valencia, the station’s first mate, admired the surroundings. It was strangely beautiful to him, but he had a skewed view of beauty, after being born on and growing up on Planet Malta in far-away Omicron Alpha. The cardamine scrubs and small trees were beautiful to him, but this place was unlike anything that he had ever seen before.

The station itself was also a marvel of engineering. The station was massive, as its name suggested, with dozens of torpedo launchers, and around a hundred high-powered lasers. The station had been quickly built out of a hollowed-out asteroid found floating near Leeds. Now that there were rumors that the newly formed Rheinland Axis wanted to take the system back, the Hispanic forces in the system had been doubled, and Massif had received some upgrades. The one thing that the station still needed, though, was one of the new cloak detectors, or else the station would be open to attack from cloaked vessels. However, since ships couldn’t fire while cloaked, the detector wasn’t high on the priority list for the station’s occupants. The Axis wouldn’t be able to exploit this advantage anyway.

Valencia despised the pathetic and foolish Axis. The Hispanics were the rightful rulers of Sirius, and they deserved their chance to finally expand after centuries of oppression that had led to their decay into piracy. Now, they were back, with a fleet to match, and the houses had cowered in fear as they blew through the Sigmas, Omegas, Taus, and now Bretonia. The pathetic Bretonians had fled as huge Outcast fleets moved into Leeds, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Cambridge. Their King had tried to bargain with the Outcast Don Chavez, but he was in no position to even speak to the Outcast leader. Since then, the Bretonians had gotten a new king, King Bret, but he didn’t appear to be any different, except that he had asked the small Axis for help. House Rheinland’s Chancellor DSQrn, House Liberty’s President Picard, and the BHG’s ww2jacob had met with the hapless King, and had promised aid, but nothing had happened, and despite the rumors, Valencia didn’t think the Axis foolish enough to attack here, in the Hispanic Bretonian capital.

To quell the rumors, however, the Corsair Third Fleet had arrived just yesterday, to bolster the defenses of the system. Now, with their forces added, the Hispanics seemed invincible.

“The Axis would never attack us here,” Valencia thought.

As he continued his gazing out the viewport, Valencia thought about how easy the conquest had been. He had been the captain of the battleship Thoth, and had laughed as the pathetic Bretonian forces had fled at the sight of the mighty Outcast Fourth Fleet. It had been so easy, he had thought. They had occupied the system, and then, on a whim of kindness, the Don had ordered the Leeds citizens sent to New London, to tell the terrible tale. Valencia had seen some of them as he helped supervise the vacating of the planet, a huge effort. Their faces had been filled with defeat, despair, and dejection. Many of the conquered people had wanted to stay at their homes, but were easily moved when Hispanic soldiers with guns came to force them out. Now, with the planet vacated of Bretonians, it seemed empty, since there would never be enough Hispanics to fill the planet. Various military stations had been set up, and the planet had become the new production center for the “Rapier” SHFs.

A man in a crisp Outcast Armada uniform walked up to him, as he stood at the window.

“Sir, we have detected various anomalies on the dark side of the planet. The Colonel says that it is probably just a side-effect of the testing we did back there last week, but we can’t be sure. Should I dispatch a wing of fighters to check the area?”

“I don’t think that is necessary. If it really is something important, then our scanners will pick it up soon enough. It is probably just another random jumphole forming. Besides, all of our scouts are on patrol, correct?”

“Yes, sir. I will have my men keep an eye on it.”

“Thank you, Corporal.”