Starship Fleet Commander

In another galaxy, far, far away from Earth, an evil Empire controls 3/4ths of the star systems and yearns for more. Those regions not under their control have either traded obedience for their sovereignty, are too wild to tame, or too dangerous for Imperial troops to tread upon. The main thorn in the Emperor's side is the Frontier, which occupies a third of the lawless and barbaric Outer Rim. Countless commanders and fleets have been sent to pacify and annex it into the Empire. All have failed.

With Admiral Gorgo's personal empire decapitated, dozens of systems are in the lurch. Without supply lines and a clear chain of command, it's up to the Grand Admiral to step in and clean things up before too many people starve to death...or worse. Some of the systems have accepted his command authority and new supply lines are forming, but others are not. Some are defiantly claiming independence, while others are searching for options to continue their barbaric ways that they know Aatroxiss will stop.

The insectoid alien race known as the Vitri have invaded the Imperial world of Naugh in retribution for the deal broken by Grand Admiral Aatroxiss. Doing the right thing has consequences, and by saving the Turook he has doomed another world to slaughter if the Empire can't take it back in time. Aatroxiss and his flagship, the Redemption, arrive to meet up with the Imperial forces already engaged in battle, but what the Emperor's sole Grand Admiral finds there is far more than expected.

While the planet Naugh is under siege, more invasions start popping up across Frontier worlds. Alien fleets led by phantom Imperial warships that are not supposed to exist. Caught between time, a lack of supplies, badly trained troops, and numerous foes, Grand Admiral Aatroxiss is pressed to his limits to free Naugh and bring back some semblance of order to the Frontier.

When his old Spymaster reappears to help Aatroxiss in his struggles against the Frontier invasions and, ultimately, against the Empire itself, information becomes the most important factor as the number of alien invasions backed by Imperial warships increases dramatically. With too few ships to adequately defend every star system, it's a matter of coming to the rescue too late and hoping to catch and destroy the invading fleets before they can attack again.

With the demise of the Gangi Dynasty, galactic politics are fracturing. The Emperor is restructuring his efforts to unite the people around his singular rule while the opposition looks for alternative options. Many of those are turning to the Green Empire and Grand Admiral Aatroxiss's new seat of power on Prime, but behind the buzz between these two polar opposites another hand is at work...and about to reveal itself to the galaxy in dramatic fashion.

Taking on an Apprentice was not in Aatroxiss's plans, but the universe doesn't have a cinematic mode and he has to swing with the punches while the galaxy around the Green Empire falls further and further into war. Hundreds of thousands of starships are being destroyed in the process, but the Rim Consortium is holding firm while the Imperial Sentinels are mysteriously kept on the sidelines.

With resources flowing out of the Vitri annex of the Green Empire, the damage done in former High Admiral Duon's domain starts to be rebuilt at an accelerated rate, but the small fleet Aatroxiss has to work with isn't ready to tackle the advanced ships of the Hand of Independence in large scale warfare. But when two disobedient Captains create an incident, it threatens to wreck the stable balance between the Yellow Empire and the Green Empire in the minds of the Imperial population, and Aatroxiss will be forced to enter the Separatist War far sooner than planned.

Defection. Once it starts, the flood gates open as Imperial troops sent to the Frontier to die for the Emperor suddenly see a chance to survive by hopping across the border into the Green Empire. The mass civilian exodus was bad enough, but when the Emperor's own fleet starts doing so in alarming numbers only a bit of trickery on the part of the Emperor is going to lead to victory before he loses too many ships to the growing sanctuary of sanity that is the Green Empire.