The crew of the Red Angel had been on board the Praxian complex –now named Vulcan by Nya— for over a month now while Nya was busy learning as much as she could about the Praxians and the station. The Jaegers were also doing what they could to familiarize themselves with their new biotic suits and the new technology that was available to them.
Kiva and Amara were in one of the established living quarters aboard the station, spooning in bed.
"I love your cute ears," Amara cooed as she lightly nibbled on the rim of her ear, causing Kiva to squeak,
"Don't do that, they're very sensitive." Kiva pouted.
"Sorry, couldn't resist," Amara apologized, kissing her girlfriend on the forehead, "what do you think of this place?"
"Nya seems enthralled by it, so I don't think we'll be leaving anytime soon." Kiva answered with a sigh
"But what about these Praxians? They built this place a billion years ago, right? That's longer than the history of Hyperion a thousand times over, but we've never heard of them. Where are they?"
"I guess they died out." Kiva said, "When I was younger, my mother once lectured me about ancient races that all grew too big too fast, killing themselves in the process."
"You never talk about your childhood," Amara noted, playing with Kiva's long hair, "or your home, or even your mom."
"I don't see why I should," Kiva said defensively turning away from her girlfriend
"I love you, Kiva," Amara said, "I want to share your everything, even the worst of it,"
"W-what does that mean?" Kiva quivered
"We've been together officially for about a while now. I think it's about time we took the next step."
"M-marriage?" Kiva demanded, sitting up,
"I mean, if you want to." Amara sat up to meet her eyes, "We live together, we sleep together. For fuck sake, you met my dad. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"I… I can't do this right now," Kiva said, getting off the bed and going to the bathroom
Amara watched her go, heaving a frustrated sigh, then got up and followed her, "What's the matter?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Kiva snapped
"You don't want to talk about anything," Amara chastised, "Not about your past, not about why you were running, and now not about our future together,"
"What future?" Kiva scoffed, "The one where in another two hundred years or so I'll be standing over your grave, because with my lifespan, that's how this ends. I will live for millennia, the dozen or so decades that I'd spend with you is nothing compared to that, so why bother?"
Amara stares at her, her eyes welling up with tears, then she storms out of the room, leaving Kiva with the shocking realization of what she just said.
"Nice going, Kiva," she scolded herself, "you sounded just like your mother."
Sometime later, Amara ended up at the control center at the top of the pyramid, where Nya was sitting at the main terminal, with a dozen byte constructs around her.
"Scale down those guns, and push back the fins, that should leave enough space to—" Nya was saying, then she noticed Amara, pushing away the screens she was working on, "Oh, hey, what's up?"
"What are you doing?" Amara asked coming closer
"Well, with the Genesis Cube fully operational, Vulcan is 100% automated, and since no one else is using it, I figured I'd take it for myself," Nya said, pointing to the wall behind her, where her emblem was now engraved,
"Now, I have an advanced fully-functional industrial complex." Nya proclaimed,
"But this place is extremely far from Avalon, how are we going to bring in the people needed to study it?" Amara asked
"I was thinking about that, and look." Nya turned to a different screen, it was a stellar map, far more detailed and conclusive than those used in Hyperion, on it were several blinking red dots; one of them was in the heart of Hyperion space, right between two of its galaxies.
"What am I looking at?" Amara asked
"The Praxians developed a complex network of portals that allowed them to cross from one point in space to the other instantaneously." Nya explained, showing a construct of a large ring, "I haven't yet figured out the science behind it, but one of those deactivated Praxian gates is in Hyperion space, right outside the Garner system."
"The Garner system is a hotbed of conflict between petty warlords and pirate bands, not much is there that would attract the nobles, but moving a portal gateway from there would attract attention. How do we even do that?"
"This planet is a wealth of raw materials, and these constructor bays can assemble almost anything using byte matter, it's way more advanced than any fabricator available in Hyperion." Nya said, "With this, Avalon's industrial capabilities has increased by a hundredfold at least."
"What about that thing you were working on earlier," Amara asked, referring to the one she was first looking at, "it looked kind of like a sword."
"That's a personal project," Nya said casually, "nothing to do with Avalon."
"Why don't you trust me?"
"Who says I don't trust you?" Nya said slowly
"Me and my Jaegers serve under you as the Grand Marshal, we trust you with our lives, but we're not part of your inner circle." Amara said.
"Do you want to be?" Nya asked, a sinister look in her eyes. "If you want in, there is a cost; absolute loyalty to me and no one else, not even Avalon."
"W-what?"
"I didn't claim this station for Avalon," Nya reminded her, "That is my personal crest on the wall there, I'll only be allowing the nation of Avalon to make use of it. Call it an altruistic gesture."
"But, you're the defender of Avalon," Amara protested, "You liberated the planet and brought order,"
"I didn't do that for you people, I did it for me. I needed a place to base myself." Nya answered coldly, "I'm not from Avalon, I have my own agenda that doesn't involve Avalon, and wouldn't always be to Avalon's benefit. Helping your planet also helped my agenda at the time. Terror and Kiva understand this, I'm a pragmatist; I won't act unless I see a benefit for myself. They also know that they can pursue their own agenda much better with my help, so long as they are useful to me, that's why they're in my inner circle. If you want to achieve greatness, I'll help you, but know that I will always come first."
Amara stood there, in front of the young woman she had called her superior for the past ten years, completely stunned. There had always been something about Nya Crimson, something cold and dark, everyone who met her knew this; she had a thing in her that could almost be called evil. Right now, that evil was laid bare to Amara for the first time, and it was world shattering, the thing called Nya Crimson was just the mask worn to disguise a terrifying daemon, which made Commander General Quinn and Kiva damned souls in its thrall. Did Amara want any part in that?
She steeled her nerves and looked Nya directly in the eyes, "Yes, I want it,"
A satisfied smile creeps up Nya's face, and her eyes took an ethereal glow, "then kneel."
Amara gulped, and took a knee, and Nya puts a hand on her head, "Amara Varaxi. You have shown your resolve to stay by my side. On my authority as Regis, I welcome you to my court, Amara."
In both of their minds, a window flashed with a message;
[ALERT: YOU HAVE JUST CONTRACTED [AMARA VARAXI] TO BE A MEMBER OF YOUR COURT! SHE HAS MET CERTAIN CONDITIONS TO BE APPOINTED AS A SENTINEL! SHE HAS VOWED TO SHARE YOUR FATE AND CAN NOW BE NAMED YOUR SUCCESSOR!]
Amara feels Nya's power invade her body, she trembles as she feels the power settle within her body. On the back of her right hand was Nya's crest,
"Congratulations, Amara," Nya said with a wicked smirk, "now, I literally own you."
Amara rises to her feet, to see Kiva by the entryway, stunned.
"What have you done?" Kiva demanded
"I made a choice," Amara said, walking off.
Once Amara was gone, Kiva turned to Nya, "How could you?"
"She came here asking for it," Nya shrugged, "I wasn't going to pass up the chance to get a valuable pawn."
"She's not a pawn!" Kiva chided
"We'll see." Nya said, "Anyway, you should probably go and bring her up to speed on the whole court thing."
"This isn't over," Kiva said,
"Yes it is," Nya said, going back to her work, "I'll call you when I have need of you."
Once she was alone again, Nya brought up the plans she had been focusing on.
[Your mistreatment of your court could reduce their effectiveness.] Merlin told her,
"Terror was my ideal knight, Kiva was convenient since she was an elf and an adept; I gained knowledge of two types of threats. Amara will be the first step of phase two of my master plan. But before then I figured they'd all been getting too comfortable."
[That's why you left Terror alone without guidance or oversight and introduced a point of conflict in Kiva and Amara's relationship? But how will this be of benefit?]
"My past experiences have taught me that people's innate talent awaken best when something they want is on the line." Nya said as she finished the final touches on her personal project, "Using all the byte constructors, how long do you think it'll take to finish?"
[Only a handful of the constructor bays have been brought back online, but given the capabilities of this facility, the full processing power of the Genesis Cube and yours truly behind it all? Should be ready in another week at the least.] Merlin replied
Nya closed her eyes, she could sense the active constructor bays already at work. There were twenty-five bays in each dome, totaling to a hundred massive automated factories. So far, only twenty were functional, and they were being used to speed up construction.
"Good, make it your top priority. I don't want to leave Avalon unattended for too long,"
* * *
In the three months since he fully assumed the responsibilities of the Commander General of Cerberus, Terror was swamped with work. His approval was needed for every major military decision, his attention was called to the hundreds of different developments that took place within their local system, and he was in charge of the security secrets of the entire ecumenopolis. He had no idea how much work Nya took off his hands as the Grand Marshal, while still having time to pursue her own agenda.
He was in the Grand Marshals office, where he'd occupied since Nya left, going through reports on the latest Jaeger missions when the desktop system flashed an alert.
WARNING! FOREIGN MILITARY FLEET SPOTTED APPROACHING AVALON SYSTEM!
"What?" Terror demanded as images from monitoring satellites several hundred liyes from their local system showed over a hundred warships approaching.
He called an emergency session with the High Order to discuss their battle plans, even Mari had to be there in person, accompanied by her security detail of Jaegers.
"By our analyst's best estimations, the fleet should be in our orbit within the week." Terror said
"What about the orbital platforms?" a councilwoman asked
"We have seven already deployed, the last five are still under construction, but are nearly done." Councilman Tao reported.
"We should deploy all the ships we currently have." Terror advised, "Not just the nineteen Paladin warships, but the dozens of other ships we currently employ."
"We'd already started decommissioning the older frigates and cruisers from the old regime, and we can quickly outfit the large cargo haulers and patrol ships for heavy combat, added to the Paladin class, that's a veritable armada at our command." the Marshal for Star Command reported
"What can a few dozen makeshift battleships do against a hundred genuine warships?" another councilman demanded
"They can buy us time." Terror insisted, "I just got word from Grand Marshal Crimson, her journey was a successful one and she's on her way back with precious gains from her travels."
The news brought an influx of new questions;
"How long until she arrives?"
"What did she bring with her?"
"Where did she go?"
"Did she come back with a powerful ally?"
"How will she turn the situation around?"
"Alright," Mari interrupted, "We're enacting contingency 8 of the war plans drawn up by Cerberus Command. The Marshals will relocate to the orbital station, Phalanx, and begin prepping for our counter-offensive. All of you, to your stations."
As the council-members dispersed, Mari pulled Terror aside to speak with him, "You just lied to the top echelon of the Avalon government, I hope it was for a good reason."
"How did you know?"
"I'm your wife, I know you," Mari scoffed, "now, why did I just cover for your lie?"
"In Nya's office there was a list of situations and contingent." Terror said, "for military emergencies; maintain order, keep the High Order placated."
"Does she even know we're under attack?" Mari asked, nervously cradling her belly, she was now in the third trimester and could give birth at any day,
"There is a way to contact her," Terror said, "it's somewhere in her office."
"Let's go, because this baby is coming any day now and I am not giving birth as a prisoner of war."
The two of them went to the Grand Marshal's office, tearing through it, looking for a way to contact Nya.
"Where would Nya put an emergency beacon?" Mari asked
"Who knows, she's the kind of person who would put it somewhere very annoying." Terror said, "I mean; we're in the middle of an emergency and without Nya we're pretty much fucked."
COMMAND PHRASE AND VOCAL MATCH IDENTIFIED. A mechanical voice spoke.
The husband and wife turned their heads towards the shelf behind her desk, where sat several paraphernalia; a vampire skull, a Providence agent's badge, the cap of a captain in previous World Lord's army, and the World Lord's helmet. It was the helmet that spoke.
EMERGENCY SITUATION CONFIRMED. ACTIVATING EMERGENCY COMM-LINK.
"Of course, the fucking helmet." Mari huffed
The visor projected a holo-comm of Nya in bed.
"Fuck, I didn't expect this call so soon," Nya said as she looked at them, the projection flickered every few seconds, "I take it the mysterious benefactor is there?"
"On their way, they'll be here within a few days." Mari said
"I'm not quite ready yet, can you hold them off? Buy me as much time as you can?" Nya asked
"I don't know; we've got about seventy or so ships that we can use to put up a good fight, but they've got a small armada of warships." Terror said
"Those odds aren't that bad. Grand Marshal emergency override; active plan 'Flash-Bang'."
The room beeped, CONFIRMED GRAND MARSHAL. DEPLOYING SCRAMBLER MINES.
Unbeknown to most of the High Order, during the renovations and reconstruction, Nya added several dozen failsafe directives within the planet's infrastructure. Plan 'Flash-Bang' was a series of stealth satellites she had launched out into the system, each designed to rapidly fabricate and deploy EMP mines. It was a delay tactic at best to disrupt the vanguard of an enemy force.
"That should buy you time," Nya said, "Mari, you look ready to pop, get yourself to a hospital before quick. Terror, get yourself into space, the Commander General should face the enemy from the Phalanx. Don't make a mess 'til I get back. Nya out."
The hologram shut off, leaving the two of them alone in her office.
"How does she do that?" Mari asked, "she's told us practically nothing about when she'll be back, yet I feel more reassured somehow."
"Who knows," Terror replied, "C'mon, we have our orders."
* * *
A few days later when the enemy fleet arrived at the precipice of Avalon, the planet was fully prepared, or as prepared as they would ever be.
The Baron on the command ship watched the planet below, he wanted all of its riches, all its women and everything it had to offer. That was the way of Wes Lao.
"Captain, hail them. All channels." He ordered
In every bunker, one every screen, from every device that could pass out video, audio or holo transmission, Wes Lao was witnessed.
"Citizens of Draxia Urma, your World Lord has failed you. His ministers have failed you. His armies have failed you. As the man who put the World Lord in power, I promise you I will NOT fail you. Lower your weapons, release your shields and power down your cannons. I am a merciful noble; surrender to me and I shall shower you with my love and protection. Draxia Urma is a jewel because of all of you, and I will protect it."
On the space station, Phalanx, the three Marshals looked to Terror for directions.
"What shall be our response, Commander General?" Marshal Dax of Star Force Fommand asked
"Let them get closer." Terror said.
When no response came by, the first ships made their approach, once they were within a certain radius, the cloaked scrambler mines went off, disabling a number of the ships.
Of the hundred of warships there, only about fifteen were affected by it, the command ship was unscathed, and Wes watched as a number of ships simply turned off. He sipped a glass of wine and shed a tear, "Alas we must do it by force. Captain, find the source of those EMP bursts and burn their defenses to embers."
"Yes sir." The captain affirmed with enthusiasm, "All ships, return fire."
And so the siege of Avalon began.
* * *
Back at Vulcan, the crew had not taken the news of the attack as Nya had surmised. She expected them to be in a panic, rushing to return home and join the fight, yelling at her to abandon her mission since their homeworld was in danger. However, what met her was silence and order, the Jaegers looked at her with determination and discipline.
"What are your orders, Grand Marshal?" Amara asked, her face calm, cool and collected
"Just like that?" Nya asked
"We care for the fate of our homeworld and families," Amara said her voice wavering, "But as your right hand, our first loyalty is to you. Your orders?"
Nya was genuinely impressed, Amara seemed to have taken what she had said to heart and adapted, and had gotten the rest of the Jaegers to adapt as well. Impressive.
"My orders are simple; we race back home as fast as we can and then we make these invaders rue the day they set their eyes on our homeworld!"
The Jaeger roared with cheer and adoration as she started giving out orders.
"Elko and Chaxe squads will return to the Red Angel and lock down all systems, control will be relinquished over to station computer." Nya said, "Elko squad will remain here to continue cataloging the station and facilitate future contact with home forces."
"But what about the rest of us?" Kiva asked, "How would we get home?"
Nya gave a mischievous smiled, "There was a reason we were waiting here this whole time."
Out the observation window of the command center, something massive floated into view that attracted their attention, they all gawked at it in awe, while Amara grinned back at Nya,
"You evil bitch."
"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the Black Excalibur." Nya said, "She's still not done yet, but she's ready for a fight."
"Even with that beast, it still took us weeks to get here," Amara said, "the fight back home is happening right now."
"Oh ye of little faith." Nya said as she snapped her fingers and they instantly found themselves in a large oval command deck, full of highly advanced stations and terminals. Towards the middle of the command bridge was a raised platform which held at its front a throne-like captain's chair. Nya appeared atop the chair, after apparently getting a change of outfit.
"Well?" Nya asked, crossing her legs, "Are you going to make me say it?"
The Jaegers in the room took positions at the different station as the ship came to life and screens lit up, while the remaining eighty or so found themselves at other stations around the new vessel.
"You still haven't explained how we're getting home?" Amara said, as she took her place at Nya's side.
"I'm getting there," Nya said, "Merlin, engage warp-shift."
"Are you serious?" Kiva demanded, "A full scale warp-shift is only theoretical, you would need a dozen astropaths to attempt one on a ship this size."
[That may have been true for your level of development, but the Praxians were significantly more advanced and possessed all manner of technology and research, including a calculations for actualized warp-shift… after I cleaned them up.] Merlin boasted from the intercom. [Plus, the teleporter that you just used is an acceptable proof of this concept.]
The captain's chair swiveled around, to face a large command table that rose from the ground, above the table, a stellar-map appeared, made from more floating byte constructs. "Merlin, track the last emergency call I received from Terror and extrapolate the coordinates."
On the map, a dot pinged right where Avalon would be, [Coordinates set.]
"Alright, engage!" Nya ordered, as the entire ship was enveloped in a bubble of energy.
[Engaging warp-shift in 3… 2… 1…]
In a second, space itself was distorted and the energy bubble imploded, pulling all of reality to fill the gap in space, before everything returned back to normal, but the ship was gone.
* * *
Terror was impressed that they had lasted as long as they did. On the plus side, the fifty ships he had at his disposal showed they could contend adequately against the enemy invasion force, utilizing tactics and strategies that had been devised by Cerberus Command to exploit the home field advantage against the enemy. On the minus side, the enemy warships were better armed and better equipped than Star Command, and they were slowly pushing through Avalon's defenses.
The siege of Baron Wes Loa had continued for almost five days now, and they were starting to feel how outclassed they are. Three of their new paladins, along with a dozen of their older cruisers and frigates had already been destroyed. The scrambler mine defense satellites had put up a good fight, but most of them had already been taken out and the rest were of little use once they were out of range. The seven operations orbital defense platforms, which had just been deployed, were really living up to expectations. So far, a few dozen of the enemy ships were serious damaged, and only about five others had been destroyed, but the enemy still had an overwhelming advantage. Cerberus was close to falling.
It was at that time, that Paige, Terror's new assistant, came rushing to him. her hand was bandaged and she still had some significant burns from when the station was hit with incendiary weapons, but apparently she was still strong enough to be up and about.
"Commander General Quinn," she called out
"What are you doing out of the medical bay?" he demanded, "you should be resting."
"With all due respect sir, bed-rest is for those too beaten to stand. I can still stand, so I'll be of use."
"Alright, what do you have?"
"The astropaths reported some strange readings in the mana stream, some sort of building space-time anomaly," she said, right as a hologram of Nya appeared right behind her.
"Yeah, that would be me," Nya said, scaring the poor girl nearly out of her skin.
"Nya?" Terror asked, "what are you wearing?"
"You like?" she said taking a spin, "I think the look suits me."
Nya was wearing a very extravagant military uniform, with a long custom black military greatcoat with red lining, cuffs, lapel and raised collar, adorned with golden buttons, shoulder tassels and other such accessories. The right shoulder was adorned with a blood red mantle, adorned with the Avalon emblem embroidered on it. She also wore fitted black pants and heeled combat boots. A fancy military officer's cap was perched on her head and her hair was done in a simple and long fishtail braid. She looked sexy and intimidating in her uniform, which seemed designed to highlight her figure, and still she commanded an aura of respect in how she carried herself.
"What's going on?" the three Marshals demanded, before they saw Nya's holo-comm, "Grand Marshal Crimson. Will you be joining us in this battle?" they saluted
"Of course." Nya said, with a nod, "Pull your forces back from grid sectors 187 through 213,"
"As you wish," Marshal Dax acknowledged. "but that would leave our flank exposed."
"Not for long." Nya boasted,
Nya then turned to Terror,
"Do you have anything to add?"
"When you get back we're going to have a very long conversation." He said in a low voice, and it didn't take much for Nya to realize he was upset.
"And I owe you that," Nya nodded, "but for now, enjoy the show."
* * *
On board the capital ship of the Baron's fleet, he was in his chambers, with two naked attendants pleasuring him, watching the events of the battle via monitor when a message over the intercom came to him.
"My lord, the enemy forces have pulled back along one of their planetary fronts."
"Advance, I want the planet under control within the week." Wes said
"At once."
As four of his ships moved in to the yielded territory that the planet's forces had abandoned, their scanners and adepts would pick up a massive disturbance in the mana of the immediate area, which would be followed by a freak electrical surge that completely disabled one of the enemy ships, followed by a spatial distortion that ripped apart two other ships, and finally, the appearance of a massive object out of nowhere, that cut though the last ship like a knife through flesh.
Everyone who witnessed the series of events were left speechless. In the midst of the carnage that remained of four of the Trade Union's finest vessels was a single black warship.
The vessel was over two miles in length and possessed a burnt black hull, with a long and narrow frame, marked with distinctive angular bow. Along the keel, a large mast jutted from the belly of the craft. The stern was comparatively skeletal with a more utilitarian arrangement and modular configuration, with a mechanical construction engraved with intricate circuits that pulsated red energy, four large angular detached fins were situated around the stern, covered in glowing circuits, and at the rear were two large pylons with a glowing red orb between them. The length of the ship was studded with an assortments of weaponry, including; broadside plasma batteries, torpedo ports, and rail-gun turrets distributed across the frame, with twin large mass accelerator cannons positioned at the front, with a third at the stern facing the rear. At the prow of the ship was a figurehead embedded into the hull in the form of an armored woman, resembling Nya, wielding a lowered sword in one hand and an outstretched lantern in the other. The ship shared similar gothic aesthetic as Vulcan, and along the hull, written in bold white lettering was the name; X001-BLACK EXCALIBUR.
From the lantern of the figurehead, a massive hologram was projected into space for all to see, a hologram of Nya Crimson.
"Greetings all, this is Grand Marshal Nya Crimson, Blood Angel of Avalon. I am currently standing in a frankly amazing piece of military engineering, the Black Excalibur, and am about to unleash hell on our enemies. For anyone who doesn't want to be annihilated, stay out of my way!"
The forces of Cerberus command cheered in elation and relief, while the forces of the Baron, looked in in confusion and uncertainty.
"My lord, your orders?" the captain called over the intercom.
"That monstrosity is an affront to my enjoyment. Hail this Nya Crimson."
The screen changed to that of Nya in her uniform, which excited the lust of the Baron. "Greetings, Grand Master. I am Baron Wes Lao, I'm just here to take control of this planet from the World Lord, I have no problems with the nation of Avarot, or whatever. If you stand down, I'm sure we could come to an agreement."
"Baron Loa, you are mistaken on several things. I am the Grand Marshal, that planet is Avalon, and I killed the World Lord, like, ten years ago." Nya replied
"Oh, so you're the one who's been holding up the mythril shipments?" Wes said, "Well, I'm sure we can still work something out. You don't need to lose that ugly warship of yours fighting me."
"Actually, I have no intention of doing any further business with you right now." Nya said, "Withdraw your fleet or suffer the consequences."
"Wait!" Wes yelled, "You might've killed some lowly World Lord, but I'm a Baron. I'm too rich and too powerful for you to threaten me, little girl."
"I don't care, I'm dying to stress test my weapon systems on your fleet. Good day" Nya sneered before the connection was cut off. She even had the gall to turn her back to him, which was the equivalent of flipping him the bird.
"Captain." Wes ordered
"Yes sir?"
"Destroy that abomination, and bring me that red-haired whore in chain!" he bellowed.
Amidships of the the Black Excalibur was the command deck, where sat Nya and the bridge crew. Around her, the Jaegers at the different stations were still adapting to the new interface for their stations.
"Grand Marshal, the enemy forces have locked weapons on us," one of the officers reported
"Gunners, arm weapon systems and be ready to fire," Nya instructed, "be advised that the targeting systems still aren't done so there may be a bit of trouble there."
"No worries, Grand Marshal," the one at the weapons station said back, "With something this seamless, the handicap should barely make for a fair fight."
The Barons forces shifted their attack towards the Black Excalibur, but their plasma bolts simply splashed off its thick hull. They were unaware that beneath a standard kinetic barrier, the outer hull was reinforced with armor plating nearly as durable as urm. As the Black Excalibur shrugged off their barrage, its broadsides were primed to deliver a crippling counterattack, and when the powerful large calibre MACs were fired, the Barons warships were torn apart with each salvo.
From over a hundred warships to less than forty in the span of a few hours, the Excalibur cut through the enemy without restraint. Even the capital ship was no match for the black warship, and eventually retreated with the remains of its fleet.
That night, there was a planet-wide celebration in the honor of Grand Marshal Nya Crimson. In the capital city, citizens were waving banners and posters in her likeness and cheered as she led a victory procession down Triumph Avenue towards the Throne of Valor. For year, people would tell stories of the valiant hero of Avalon who brought her black sword down on the enemies and single-handedly drove them back. With the Black Excalibur in the night sky, the people of Avalon cheered and praised the name of Crimson.