"My lady" Klifik said. "We have detected the Dragon Claw's fleet. They have entered the system."

"Did they come alone, Klifik?"

"Yes, but they really brought more forces than they needed. Why would Lord Krall bring more ships than he needed this deep into the elven sector? His stupidity is going to make our ruse much more difficult than it need be."

"We should still be able to take care of them, Klifik. We will need to pounce quickly. Have all of our fighters ready to go right now. We're probably going to lose some refineries and infrastructure, here, but we can strike a big blow to the Nal'Hirak."

"Yes my lady" Klifik said. "Admiral Kildore" Klifik said pushing a button down. "It's show time. Her highness wants all the Dragon Claw ships destroyed. Deploy the fighters and make a quick strike before they can assume defensive posture."

"All right" said a voice on the radio. All of Avistra's ships started up and began moving immediately towards Lord Krall's forces. The elven ships struck with deadly force, immediately taking two of the large dreadnaughts down. A flurry of polyphoton guns from the fighter craft destroyed missiles and guns on several of the ships. They had the numbers to stand a chance but too many of their ships were too badly wounded to do anything.

"I think this is well in hand, my lady" Klifik said viewing the battle from the window. "Let's go ahead and start recording right now." Avistra nodded her head and Klifik readied the camera. He flashed three fingers at her, then two, then one…

"Loyal and strong subjects of the great elven kingdom, today is a very solemn day for all of us. Our system which we have perfected over many centuries has given us a remarkable amount of stability and minimized pointless, progress-killing sectarian conflicts. But there comes times when we have to hit the reset button and change course.

Princess Zorthia has served honorably and in good faith, but the direction in which she has led the kingdom has been deleterious to our interests. It's a direction that has resulted in a failure to play a proper supervisory role over our evolutionarily inchoate human cousins, whose collective vices of greed and tribalism and dangerously-democratic social structures have hampered progress on the construction of our great armada and endangered our security and theirs alike. Queen Tarissa once said 'There are three types of government… governance by the ruthless, governance by the foolish, and governance by the wise.' We as two species of hominid comprise a single nation regardless of whether we have two different independent states, and it is one that will either be led by us in a role that will be seen by many as overbearing or by the foibles of human nature. This leadership role will be critical as empire of the reptilia grows increasingly dangerous and bellicose and wary of hominid settling throughout the galaxy.

There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead. Things are sure to not be as peaceful as they are right now, but we must remember that peace is not merely an absence of war but stability from things being within a proper order. In the meantime, we must all be vigilant of those that would try to undermine this needed transition. Your cooperation and understanding within this transition is greatly appreciated.

"Cut" Klifik said cutting off the camera. He walked over to the window. The Dragon Claw ships were all in pieces. None wanted to retreat and face the shame of defeat alive.

"The day we've been waiting for is finally here, my lady" Klifik said admiring the wreckage. "I think we played that pretty well if I do say so myself."

"It's too early to start celebrating yet, Klifik" Avistra admonished. "I learned from Zardin that the gem in the talisman we picked up on Eizen is fake. I strongly suspect the real one is among mother's things within the floating castle. And we've got to find the human that can enter the hyperplane and reactivate it. Without the wisdom of the goddess, my reign may not last a whole lot longer than Zorthia's does. We need to have some people at the palace to ensure none of the heirlooms or any of mother's stuff is removed from the castle."

"Yes my lady" he said.