Daryl Pac was a very lucky man. That was clear in the mind of Laurence Naqo. If his little excursion had not brought any kind of new, interesting, vital information, Daryl Pac would have payed for it with his job, and potentially even criminal charges.

Still, two years after Pac’s now famous excursion in the year 7166, a lot had changed.

For example, one still had not found an FTL drive that could not be build or at least maintained in Therion’s universe. It was spectacularly unlikely that there was no exception, but it looked more and more likely that any version of FTL available in the current universes of the UE could be maintained in Therion.

Which in turn made the decision to built the dockyards for the space fleet there all the better. After all, not needing to remove your FTL drive before going into a dockyard was a great advantage. Or being capable of actually fitting the FTL drive into the ships while those were built, on that matter.

Some where advocating for an operation to somehow gain access to Terra’s FTL drive, or at least test what one already had. Maybe one would work?

But even though there were a lot of methods to reduce risk, like for example using the FTL method of Sartio, which was the fastest to date, to travel somewhere far away, like, lets say, the next galaxy or so, to test that, but no one wanted to take the risk that they were fighting an intergalactic and not just interstellar empire.

Or, from what the UE knew far more likely happenstance, that there was somewhat regular trade between the galaxies, or a possibility to figure out what was happening through some sort of signature.

Admittedly, all of that was unlikely. But, as the President of the UE had said nicely: “While the risk is small, it is there. And what gain would we have when we take it? Our FTL capable ships a few weeks earlier? Weeks during which we will need to analyze the enemies computers, the enemies ships, and maybe even drastically change the basic design of our ships, for example because we did not see a danger? No, the risk while small, far outweighs the gains of peace of mind that we would gain. Especially because that peace of mind might be false.

And thus it was clear that the first offensive would begin through non-FTL capable ships. And, if the circumstances were just right, or wrong, for that matter, the second, or even third wave as well. After all, the only thing necessary to bring the current ships into Terras universe at any point they wanted to was a Gate and being certain that only materials that were proven to be unproblematic on board of those ships. Although it might be helpful to have actual targets and at least some intelligence. Going through a Gate could, no would, leave those ships vulnerable.

There was another point of interest in this matter. Therion’s universe did not seem to have a method of FTL. They might be wrong, after all, they had thought the same thing for Terra’s as well, and that turned out badly in the end. Still, the UE would take no chances and was continuing to fortify its dockyards, as well as testing FTL-drive after FTL-drive. After all, if they found it, they could design countermeasures.

The UE was a waking giant. On Terra, skirmishes continued, and at least one serious colonization attempt by the invaders had already been prevented. The UE had not been happy about that revelation and decided to answer with a new missile barrage. That attack had wiped out three enemy ships, one of those a large freighter, the others of the smallest class of warship seen to date. Still, multiple other ships had been damaged and the Kyreikon fleet had decided to retreat a bit from Terras orbit.

Although they were already returning, slowly. Which the UE actually liked and encouraged were it could. After all, that would make the counteroffensive a bit more easier. Still, colonists could not be allowed, and not just because of how disrespectful that was for the fallen of the battle of Terra. The first battle of Terra as some where already calling it, because it was near certain that there would be a second.

There had been no real diplomatic contact between the UE and the Kyreikon empire, although some communication had happened. Mostly consisting of threats and demands for surrender, but it had happened, so progress?

The relationship between the UE and the Kyreikon empire during the so called siege of Terra was interesting. On one hand, no side had any real capacity to hurt the other, on the other hand, the Kyreikon empire was holding the orbitals of the homeworld of the UE. Some might argue that they were holding the world itself, because the hundred to two hundred soldiers the UE had permanently on Terra were for certain less that the more that fifty thousand the Kyreikon empire had deployed, and, after the first year or so, clashes between the two forces were honestly rare. It was a big planet, and the UE could not invade in force without taking the orbitals first, or at least denying them to the enemy, while that enemy could not take out the UE’s forces, considering the mobility advantages those had.

That both sides did not really talk to each other did not help the situations of course, but silent agreements were not just common, they were the norm. For example, the UE had, at some point in 7164, deployed troops to the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was a very small group, less than ten, and their presence was know to the Kyreikon two weeks later for sure. Still, no assault on the fairly morale improving position was mounted. Why is not entirely certain. But on the other hand, the UE did not launch an assault to free the old League of Nations building, which had an even higher prestige value to them. And that was as well held only by a token force.

In the end, that situation could likely have continued for decades more with only very light casualties. That is, if the UE had not built a fleet.