Augustus’s father, Angus, had finally set aside his work and was spending ti with his family in preparation for the Christmas festivities.
Over the past few days, Angus and Augustus had spoken many tis—conversations that often stretched late into the night. It was during these talks that Augustus ca to understand his father’s true intentions.
As early as twenty years ago, Angus’s revolutionaries had begun spreading out across planets in the sector. From their reports, he learned that on countless core worlds and fringe colonies, billions harbored growing resentnt toward the Federation’s oppressive rule.
During the Guild Wars, that resentnt festered into hatred, erupting into rebellion after rebellion. By this year, no amount of spin from the UNN or other news dia could disguise the truth: revolt was everywhere.
The Terran Federation had far more colonies than the Kel-Morian Combine or Umoja—but the more it expanded, the more it relied on brutal force to maintain order. Outwardly, the Federation appeared formidable, yet inside it was riddled with contradictions and decay.
Angus believed the Federation had expanded too rapidly, like an overpressurized reactor or a card tower waiting to collapse. Pull the right cards in the right place, and the whole structure would co tumbling down.
On the surface, the victory in the Guild Wars seed to have further expanded the Federation’s reach. But incorporating Kel-Morian planets only made their rule more fragile. The Federation hoped that, given a few more years, it could deport all Kel-Morians back to Moria and consolidate its grip. Yet right now—right at this postwar juncture—the Federation’s hold was at its weakest.
Thus, Angus believed this was the perfect mont to launch a revolution. If Korhal declared independence first, the long-dissatisfied worlds would rise up under the Revolutionary Party’s guidance. A wave of revolution would sweep across the entire Terran Federation.
But if the Federation succeeded in stabilizing its hold over the Kel-Morian worlds—if it fully devoured the Combine’s mining guilds—then it would beco an even more terrifying behemoth.
Angus no longer wished to wait—he was growing old. And right now, his influence on Korhal was at its peak. That’s why he believed this was the best ti to declare independence. If they waited until the Federation had the capacity to suppress Korhal’s Revolutionary Party and station more troops, the planet would lose all hope of liberation.
Old ngsk could feel his body weakening, and neither of his sons wanted to carry on his cause. Angus didn’t know how much longer he had to live. Just as Augustus feared, his enemies had already hired professional assassins and retired soldiers more than a dozen tis to kill him. He had no idea on which day death might finally reach him.
A family at odds with the class that granted it wealth and power was destined to be excluded. All the Federation had to do was dissolve Korhal’s senate, and Angus would be stripped of his authority. Five years, maybe ten—and the ngsk family might vanish altogether.
He also understood that revolution always ca at the cost of blood and sacrifice. But unless soone was brave enough to cry out for revolution, the entire Koprulu sector would remain forever under the shadow of the Terran Federation.
Angus believed the revolution wouldn’t last long. Once news spread that one planet had broken away and declared independence, others would quickly follow suit. The entire Terran Federation would be plunged into chaos. The Kel-Morian Combine, in an attempt to reclaim lost territory, would surely tear up the peace treaty, and Umoja was already on Korhal’s side.
Augustus knew that Angus wasn’t wrong. After Korhal declared independence, uprisings broke out on multiple Federation worlds and hadn’t stopped since. The rebellions kept the governnt’s forces constantly on the move.
But Angus never got the chance to see his plans co to fruition. In the original tiline, Angus declared Korhal’s independence in 2489. His zealous supporters and troops swept through the planet in a wave. Yet just two weeks later, a Ghost operative from the Terran Federation brutally took his head.
After that, the Federation assud the rebellion would collapse with the death of its leader and didn’t rush to retake the planet. However, under the leadership of Angus’s son, Arcturus, the revolutionaries regrouped. Nearly a year later, in 2491, the Federation Senate finally gave the order to annihilate Korhal with nuclear weapons.
Although Augustus agreed with so of his father’s beliefs, he didn’t think Korhal IV could hold out for three months under a full-scale assault by the Federation military.
Augustus used a star chart marked with population figures, troop deploynts, and fleet counts to show Angus that—even purely from a nurical standpoint—Korhal had little chance of victory. Their military simply couldn’t compare to the elite forces of the Federation.
Establishing a loyal revolutionary army was only the beginning. Korhal needed a fleet of its own.
In Augustus’s plan, the War of Independence would unfold in three phases. The first step was to seize control of Korhal IV and imdiately declare a state of war and warti supply protocol, using the planet’s imnse industrial capacity to manufacture weapons and supplies.
At that point, Augustus would already have a small fleet of retrofitted assault ships, light cruisers, and even explosive airships at his disposal. Umoja would also provide support with additional warships.
The second step: after declaring independence, Augustus would personally lead this makeshift fleet to launch a surprise attack on the Terran Federation’s shipyards at Dylar and Brontes, seizing the battlecruisers housed there.
During this ti, Korhal IV would act as bait—a sacrificial lure ant to draw the Federation’s attention.
Korhal IV had to build orbital defense platforms in the shortest ti possible. Missile towers and interception arrays the size of cities would be constructed on the far sides of its two moons to stall the enemy fleet’s advance.
On the ground, the Korhal Revolutionary Army would need to construct solid fortresses and defensive lines, transforming the planet into a bastion—a brutal at grinder capable of grinding down the Federation’s landing forces. Only then could Korhal barely manage to hold.
The third phase: Augustus’s fleet would launch a direct assault on Tarsonis, forcing the enemy fleet to retreat and defend. Afterward, the Korhal Revolutionary Army would abandon the devastated planet. The remaining Korhalians would then be gradually evacuated—sent in waves to settle in Umoja or other regions beyond the control of the Terran Federation to establish new colonies.
Of course, all of this depended on the Federation not deciding to nuke Korhal. Augustus had only hinted at this possibility to Angus, carefully attempting to convince his father through tightly reasoned analysis.
Augustus understood that a decision as extre as annihilating a planet with tens of millions of people could not be made by a fleet commander alone. It would have to be a resolution passed by the Federation Senate.
That ant that, alongside the war effort, he would also need to launch political and public relations campaigns aid at preventing the Senate from passing or enforcing such a resolution.
To do that, he would have to influence every individual with voting rights. That was virtually impossible, as aside from the senators themselves, every old family on Tarsonis held at least one vote—and the oldest houses, like the Tygore, held even more.
Still, Augustus swore he would stop at nothing.
After carefully weighing the full extent of the Federation’s brutality, Angus agreed two days later to the plan Augustus had nad the Phoenix Initiative. Though still rough around the edges, Augustus was devoting vast amounts of ti to refining and expanding it.
Carrying out this plan ant that millions—or more—could die on Korhal IV. Their beautiful holand would likely be consud by war and flas.
At that mont, standing beside his wife and daughter, old ngsk looked over at Augustus. His dark hair was tied in a ponytail that hung down to his shoulders, and the thick brows above his cold gray eyes were relaxed. Angus ngsk had a firm, handso face—almost a mirror image of what Augustus himself would beco in the future.
Seeing Lisa Cassidy and the other mbers of Heaven’s Devils also present in the wide banquet hall, Augustus suddenly rembered: in just a few days, he would be returning to the barracks.
And he couldn’t help but wonder...
How many of the Heaven’s Devils would still follow him, even after their service ended?
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