A near-term princess is betrayed in her battle to conquer the galactic core. Her unborn daughter Serena is taken from her body, raised in a foreign empire, and trained to be a lethal weapon.
Twenty years later, multiple attempts are made on her life, but Serena will defy anyone who would use her toward their own ends. Chased across the galaxy, she begins a mission against her oppressors in a battle to discover who she really is.
The galactic core, the ultimate prize.
Princess Mariko Mitsubi stood on the bridge of the battlecruiser and Armada flagship Yamato, gazing upon the galactic core through thousands of multisensory receptors funneled into her neuralink.
Soon, my child, Mariko said to the near-term fetus inside her, soon, the galactic core shall be yours!
No more wars, no more retreats.
An end to constant bickering between Empires, to the tides of conquering and capitulating, to treacherous dealings in stealth and poison, to whole worlds denuded to stamp out rebellious populations, their skies littered with the orbital detritus of defeated navies, thousands of years of civilization ending abruptly in sudden annihilation.
An end to two centuries of constant war.
I will bring war to an end, my child, Mariko told her unborn, her first-born daughter, her heir. Third in line for the Mitsubi Throne.
Mariko stood to inherit nearly a quarter of the Milky Way, eldest daughter of Fumiko Mitsubi, the Matriarch of the Mitsubi clan and Empress to their domains. The Mitsubi Empire ballooned across the Delta Quadrant, straddling most of the Norman Arm, the lower Scutum-Crux Arm, and the mid Carina-Sagittarius Arm, the largest Empire in the Milky Way.
But we'll always be vulnerable to the Empire that captures the galactic core, unless we capture it ourselves.
Mariko signaled through her neuralink to the armada behind her. Above, below, port and starboard, phalanxes of fighters, destroyers, and battleships edged forward until they came abreast her ship's position.
