Life in the sealed-off L-Cluster was dull, but not lonely. Empire Will watched over their children, finding lasting joy in their every movement.
The Gray Tempest liked wandering aimlessly, taking its fleets of nanites all the way from Terminal Egress to Nanites Factory in the deepest reaches. Empire Will loved that vitality.
Gray Tempest preferred strolling across the planets of the Dessanu Concordat, admiring the scenery of the former Dessanu Civilization. Yet she was unhappy. Tomorrow never came for the Dessanu Concordat. Everything was a clumsy imitation of that once-flourishing civilization.
Beneath the mountains and rivers lay lifeless nanites. This Disguised Nation was hollow, and Gray Tempest desperately craved new knowledge and new experiences.
Empire Will comforted her sadly, hoping she would wait patiently.
-When that day comes... when the L-Gates reopen, you can leave this place, leave the distant, isolated L-Cluster, and travel to that brilliant galaxy, observing everything with your own sensors...
-But my daughter... you must wait. Do not lose your desire to explore or your curiosity. Always remember that your destiny belongs to Distant Stars...
The L-Cluster had been isolated for far, far too long.
Meanwhile, the Milky Way Galaxy was facing an unprecedented crisis.
They could sense a terrible war unfolding in the galaxy, countless dangerous presences reverberating through subspace. The Shroud whispered, and mysterious, forbidden powers seeped into the physical universe. Gods and mortals alike were swept into a terrible catastrophe.
Higher-dimensional hunters, fleeing tides of the Swarm, hidden machine intelligences, a world-destroying queen, and even more terrifying beings appeared in the galaxy one after another. Unrelenting war shattered countless stars, turning the once-flourishing galaxy into a hellish battlefield.
Countless nanomachines swirled throughout the L-Cluster. These unconscious nanites actively concealed its existence. As the galaxy plunged into one apocalyptic crisis after another, Empire Will