The Wormhole Caedhes had opened with the Wedge on the Cybrex Alpha Ring World led to the Vagros civilization's Homeworld System.
A sizable hostile fleet would appear there and demand that the Empire hand over the Wedge.
Naturally, handing it over was out of the question. The Empire would not tolerate even the slightest indignity.
Xi Yan did not know how large the hostile fleet would be, but committing all the Empire's fleets would certainly be enough.
Without the slightest concern over security, Xi Yan left a small fleet at the border and gathered all the others at the capital Ring World.
The Gateway network allowed the fleets to redeploy quickly, but even that would take at least a hundred days.
All they could do was wait. Their young Caedhes would just have to be patient.
Then a report from the construction department caught Xi Yan's attention.
The Synaptic Lathe was officially complete!
This incredible news lifted everyone's spirits.
The Synaptic Lathe was the core structure of the Crisis Carrier, a part of the Empire's development that it would inevitably have to sample.
Once built, the Synaptic Lathe needed to be filled with people. Otherwise, running empty would cause it to explode before long. People with the virtual trait could not be put inside, either. After all, acquiring knowledge required consuming brainpower.
From among the alien refugees who had fled to the Empire since the Great Khan incident, Xi Yan had selected a billion who refused to obey orders or had blemishes on their records, preparing them to become the Synaptic Lathe's first batch of consumables.
Now the Synaptic Lathe was fully complete, built in orbit around a desert world in the Iron Purifier Sector.
This desert world was an important power-generation planet for the Empire. Beneath its yellow sands