Preamble to the End

Being a soldier had little meaning now. Lost in a galaxy torn by thunderous wars against tyranny and alien dominance; wars that were started by long dead aristocrats who had the right thing in mind but the wrong motivations behind it. It was over now. However it was not over because of victory; not over because the enemy was wiped out. It ended because of corruption, deception and the near end of many species in the war’s wake. It stopped because everyone just lost the will to fight.
The remaining colonies of the great Imperial Terran Expanse have to pick themselves off the floor, regather and reform whatever republic they can. They must erase and try to forget the destruction of the past; forget the atrocities committed by both sides. The wars with the Karians brought out some of the worst in humanity and it nearly destroyed everything they had built.
The Karians motivations for the war were never clear. Fear and xenophobia? Maybe. Religious fantacism? Humanity was quite familiar with that motivation. Regardless, the Karians had a difference sense of honor and ethics when it came to waging war. And in many cases, humanity responded in kind.
Second lieutenant Landon Flamerendor and his team of Imperial marines had travelled from one planet to another, trying to find some semblance of a command structure or sign of the old Terran Imperial Fleet. Nothing. Only fragmented colonies that were beaten down to near stone-age technology trying to salvage what they could from their destroyed planets. Local governments were rolling back to feudal systems, or even worse, criminal oligarchies. It was dangerous out on the outer rim sectors. They could only hope they could scrounge enough fuel to return to a Core secetor and find home.
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