UGT (Unified Galactic Time): 17th Revol (July) 280 a.G.A. (after Galactic Armistace) / 9:19 p.m.

  Location: ASF Destroyer Aurora, Schwarzfels system (red giant), (Outer-)Noran Principality, Kingdom of Ferron, Milky Way

  [ Admiral von Kr?henfels and his fleet just jumped into hyperspace!]

  “Immediately cease fire on all civilian vessels and divert all ongoing attacks,” I ordered, my voice coming out sharper than I intended.

  [ Acknowledged, all our weapons stopped firing, and I took out the few attacks of ours that I was able to in time with our lasers. ]

  “Good. Now get me an open system-wide broadcast, one that all the civilian craft will be able to hear. Also keep our weapons ready should we need them and our shields up in case someone tries to ram us in desperation.”

  [ Done. You’re life now, Captain. ]

  “All civilian Ferron craft,” I instantly started speaking, my voice commanding. “I’m Captain May Lunaris and in the name of the Second Human Federation you are ordered to disengage from all hyperlane approach vectors and set course back towards your space station, where you will remain for the remainder of the war. Any ship that attempts to reach the hyperlane entry point will be destroyed without warning shots fired. Anyone not acting according to my orders will find themselves destroyed as well. You just saw that you should take my threat seriously.”

  It only took moment for the first Ferron ships to react. On the holoscreen in front of me I could easily see how their course slowly began to shift. Freighters that had been burning hard toward escape vectors rolled sluggishly, their engines flaring as they altered course. Smaller transports followed, their course corrections hesitant and uneven. Even through layers of sensor abstraction. As they noticed that, truly, they would not be shot down, they started to pepper the ASF Aurora with communication requests, but I told Fen to ignore all of them.

  Not a single ship dared to test my resolve as they all moved away from the hyperlane. Not surprising after I had just ordered the deaths of thousands upon thousands of humans. I was… unsure if I wanted to hear the exact numbers of ships destroyed and civilians killed, though I was sure Fen could easily tell me.

  Further away on the holoscreen I also saw the SHF fleet speeding across the system towards us. It would still take hours until they met up with us, even if we moved towards them, but I knew they would be shocked if not furious. I was sure Admiral Thorrison would either push the entire blame on me, or he would claim he hadn’t known exactly how much damage I planned to do. I knew his common navy personal would be out for my blood after I attacked civilians and fellow humans at that, even if they were part of Ferron and not the federation.

  “…Fen. Give me the causalities,” I said with a sigh. It was my orders that led to the situation, at the very least I could stand up and admit to what I had done.

  [ I’m still calculating and the number goes up with every second. Out of the estimated 460.000 civilians that failed to leave the system, there are at the very least 96.500 dead. We took out nearly a quarter of the Ferron freighters and multiple smaller craft in our attack before Admiral von Kr?henfels decided to abandon the system. I expect the number of casualties to rise up to 115.000 at least, maybe even all the way up to 129.000 if we do not save the people that managed to get to escape pods in time or wear space suits. ]

  I bit my lip. I really didn’t want to let any human set foot upon the ASF Aurora, and the Freighters wouldn’t have the capacity to pick up any more people with how overloaded they were. “How long do they have Fen?”

  [ Approximately another 6 to 12 hours. The SHF fleet will be here in time to pick up the survivors before they run out of oxygen. We don’t need to take any on board. ]

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I nodded at that. At least I wouldn’t have to damn anymore people to death than I already did. Well, at least not today.

  The next three hours Fen left me alone with my thoughts while we herded the Ferron civilians back to their space station and got closer to the SHF fleet.

  I knew that today I had crossed lines where there was no coming back from. That I didn’t feel any overly particular guilt at what I had done didn’t make it any better, from an ethical perspective at least.

  I wouldn’t pretend that what I had done was okay. I knew that a galactic war convention existed, and I understood very well why it existed. And no matter which philosophical or legal framework I used, I would always conclude that what I had just done was ethically wrong.

  I had taken civilian lives and ended them, both as collateral damage of the war, but also as leverage over Admiral Thorrison. In the end I abused that Admiral von Kr?henfels probably felt a duty to protect his people. And to achieve that I couldn’t have cared less about what the cost had been.

  The best reason I could come up with why it didn’t matter to me was that as an Aetherian, I most likely thought somewhat differently than a human would. Just like a human would care far less about war crimes towards a Ruidan, I did not feel any particular kinship with other humans.

  In the end, logical conclusions simply took precedence over my emotions. While towards the beginning of the campaign into the Inner-Noran sector I had still worried about how others would perceive me, I certainly didn’t anymore. I knew that my mission would make me the enemy of everyone in this galaxy anyways, so why bother?

  My campaign against Ferron did not allow room for moral paralysis. Admiral von Kr?henfels had built his strategy on optics, on the belief that the SHF would play according to the galactic rules. And while they may do so, I certainly wouldn’t. Not if it cost me my chance at succeeding.

  [ May, Admiral Thorrison is contacting us. Do you want to speak to him? ]

  That shook me out of my thoughts and quickly I nodded. “Sure, patch him through Fen. I expected that he would want to speak with me.”

  Moments later a holoscreen with the face of Admiral Thorrison on it appeared in front of me.

  “I thought Admiral von Kr?henfels would turn around. That he would at least try to save his people,” he said after a second of silence. He sounded… worn.

  “He chose himself and his fleet,” I replied easily. “That was always the expected outcome. While I would certainly not wish upon anyone to have to decide between protecting your people and protecting your fleet, I suspected he would be cold-hearted enough to sacrifice them for his fleet.”

  Thorrison nodded, but his jaw tightened. “I know. That doesn’t make what we just did any easier to watch. Especially with no destroyed Ferron fleet that we can point at for justification.”

  Silently I studied the Admiral. There was a sickness in his posture that had nothing to do with physical illness. His shoulders were rigid, his hands clenched behind his back as if he were afraid of what they might do if left free. He had commanded fleets for decades. But seemingly he had never been forced to come face-to-face with a war crime.

  “These were not soldiers,” he muttered quietly. “They were running. Some of them had barely powered their drives correctly. And we…” He trailed off, then shook his head. “We did what we did. You did what you did.”

  “Yes,” I said. “For it was necessary. Don’t think I felt any particular joy doing what I had to. But there was no other option without risking our mission unnecessarily.”

  With my words I finally felt some resolve coming back to me again. Ethics could be debated later, when the war had reached a point where debates still mattered. Right now, the priority was simple. The Kingdom of Ferron had to be broken decisively, and Admiral von Kr?henfels had to be denied every advantage possible, for he was a tricky opponent.

  “What’s the casualty report?” Thorrison asked eventually.

  “As of now we have confirmed 106.400,” I replied. “The final numbers will likely continue to rise for quite a while.”

  He closed his eyes briefly. “Stars above…”

  “Also feel free to push this entire debacle on me,” I added. “I don’t care about my reputation.”

  He looked at me before nodding. “Then so be it.”

  Over the next few hours we got the civilian Ferron craft back onto their station and properly established SHF patrols across the system.Emergency beacons continued to pulse, and by now rescue operations were already underway, the SHF doing what they could to mitigate the damage I had caused.

  Meanwhile my attention shifted to what came next. Admiral von Kr?henfels had fled into the Felsmark system. There I would defeat him once and for all.

  “Fen, make sure the fleet gets ready,” I ordered. “I want us reorganized for hyperlane emergence under hostile conditions. We have to assume prepared kill zones and layered defenses. I will talk to Admiral Thorrison later as well.”

  Whatever judgment awaited me at the end of this campaign would have to wait. For now, there was a fleet to hunt.