The aftermath of the "Green Monolith" incident left the Helios-9 sector in a state of surreal, terrifying beauty. The debris of the Ashen Legion's vanguard did not drift as cold metal or jagged stone. Instead, it floated as massive, crystalline blossoms and vines of solidified life-energy, a celestial garden that mocked the very concept of entropy.
While the citizens of the forty-two worlds rejoiced, Aegis knew that this victory was a double-edged sword. To defeat a Tier 17 mercenary force was an achievement; to transmute their technology into a display of forbidden vitality was a provocation.
The Galactic Authority, the shadowy collective of Tier 19 and 20 entities that governed the "balance" of the universe, could ignore a local war. They could not, however, ignore a Tier 15 world that had begun to rewrite the laws of causality and existence.
