On the previous timeline, the Galactic Empire's second war of conquest against the Commonwealth and Earth had actually begun in 845 of the Common Era—thirteen years from now. It certainly matched the "Great Prophet's" prediction.
The Empire's pretext at the time was that the Commonwealth had supplied weapons of mass destruction to imperial separatists in the Femo Nebula. As it turned out, this hadn't been entirely fabricated. A Commonwealth cargo ship had delivered a portion of its neutron bombs and antimatter bombs to the Femo Nebula, only to be caught red-handed by an imperial fleet.
Earth's leaders later declared that it was all slander, insisting a third party must have impersonated the Commonwealth's military-industrial department and bribed the cargo ship's captain to frame their country. It was even quite possible that the Empire had staged the whole thing itself.
However, after the cargo ship's captain, first mate, second mate, navigator, and boatswain all shot themselves a hundred times in the back, the case was destined to sink without a trace.
That raised a question. On that timeline, the Commonwealth's claim to being the "third-largest military power in the galaxy" had been exposed early. The Empire had gained possession of a colossus weapon capable of destroying stars early on, and for a long time it had been the only nation with such a weapon. This had thrown the strategic balance between the two superpowers briefly out of whack.
But none of that had happened on this timeline. And thanks to Earth's victory over the Katai in the battle of the Nishio system, and the way Earthlings—meaning me—had dominated the War God Festival, Earth's claim to being the "third-largest military power" still had plenty of swagger.
On top of that, although the Earth military's overall performance in this joint operation hadn't exactly