Vasari, To War!
Northern Galaxy, Outer Rim Territories, Makito, Satellite 1. Makito had two moons. Satellite 2 was barren, containing nothing but endless permafrost. From space, it appeared yellowish-brown under the reflected light of the star.
Satellite 1, however, had an atmosphere. Its surface was covered in eternal permafrost and forests of ice crystals, giving it a pale blue appearance from space.
Yet Satellite 1 did not produce gemstones as abundantly as Makito. Without a resource like gemstones, its icy environment was a fatal obstacle to industrial development.
Thus, although Makito was highly developed and had long served as the headquarters of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, with a thriving financial sector, it had now become the most prosperous planet in the Northern Galaxy. Satellite 1 had not benefited from this prosperity. For a time, it had served only as a prison for death-row inmates.
However, beginning a year ago, Satellite 1 had completely vanished from all data records. The moon was cut off from all communication, as though it did not exist at all.
Yet many black spacecraft had suddenly appeared around it. These ships had no official records and evaded all detection. Even Makito's administrative authorities had declared the surrounding space a no-fly zone. No one knew what had happened on this moon.
But today, February 30, 8 BBY, the calm was finally shattered.
On the surface of Satellite 1, in the southern hemisphere, vast glaciers and forests had been completely leveled. Dark gray foundation stones had been laid into a massive plaza spanning tens of millions of square meters, with a black altar at its center.
Over a million fierce soldiers stood solemnly in formation. They were all Vasari—or, more precisely, elite ground troops specially gene-modified and cloned by the Vasari!
The Vasari possessed a complete genetic map