Marshal Ers stood by the office viewport of the Void Dock, gazing out into the boundless void.
More than a dozen small vessels were docked outside the Void Dock. Workers were covering the logos of various shipbuilding companies from the Tyran Sector with an emblem that resembled a sun god.
That was the emblem of the Orphus Sector. When Orphus still existed, the Orphus Sector Fleet had used that emblem.
When he was young, Ers had heard his father speak of the Orphus Sector Fleet. Legend said that when the Orphus people's homeland still existed, that sector fleet had possessed hundreds of warships.
Then Orphus fell in less than a hundred days and lost contact with the Imperium. Naturally, the sector fleet vanished without a trace, just like the homeland of the Orphus people.
Ers had once asked his father how descendants of Orphus like them had survived.
His father told him that, by chance, a small patrol fleet had failed to make it to a major fleet engagement in time. Once that fleet realized it faced an enemy it could never defeat, it chose to carry a small number of Orphus people away from their homeland, preserving at least a spark for the liberation of the Orphus Sector.
"Then what happened to that surviving fleet, Father?"
Ers's childhood question echoed in his mind.
"Our family's ancestor, the leader of that fleet... sold every warship to the sector that took in us Orphus people, in exchange for this place beneath our feet, a refuge called New Orphus."
His father's answer lingered in Ers's mind as well.
"Remember that our homeland is Orphus, the sector occupied by those hateful xenos."
"Remember Orphus's revenge. Remember the wish of our ancestors."
"I do not expect you to achieve anything great, child. I only