The greater threat
Now, all of that history and work was threatened once again by others, and this time, they were not in a good or even bad position.
No, they were in a horrible position, and even that is an underestimation of how bad this is.
The Arm grew incredibly quiet, or as quiet as it could get with the intense communication between each nation now spiking.
Everyone was scared. This was a power that none of them were even close to possessing, and if the outer powers wanted to, they would all already be long gone.
They could only be thankful they decided they weren't worth the effort for now, but they can no longer simply fight like this and waste resources on one another.
An alliance against them must be established, even if it's fragile, even if there will definitely be a traitor that will doom them all, this is their only shot at victory, and even then, it would be incredibly difficult.
The Champions began negotiations, but they couldn't be too obvious, if the Outer powers realize that they are teaming up it will already be too late for them.
So the battles continued, each soldier believed that they were fighting for the survival of their race, but now they were simply a part of the charade without even knowing it.
The people were all deceived by their respective rulers, and by extension were the outer powers as well.
Hidden behind thousands of other meaningless communications were the requirements and thoughts of the newly forming federation, each ruler rapidly communicating with the others.
And after a few months, a new, great, federation was created.
The Orion Federation, a federation containing a majority of the champions, and by extension a majority of the Orion Arm, was formed with the intent of protecting themselves against the supreme threat the outer powers are.
The Champions led the federation, all thirteen of them eventually joined or were forced by their neighbors they were fighting, all of which jumped into the federation the second they could.
The federation made it easy to trade and communicate, all while defending its members from any threats.
This of course did not make the outer powers happy. Instead of weakening one another and simply cleaning up the mess left behind, they now had to fight with a Galaxy arm-spanning federation, one which would not surrender easily.
Now, there were two options in front of them, launch an all-in attack on the capitals of each champion power, or give up on the idea of conquering an entire arm.
The others would surely realize which they would pick, and if one or more of their fleets were sent out to do this, their rivals would without a doubt take advantage and attack them while they were distracted.
But the benefits would be immense, with so many people and only so many planets and habitats to settle them on, they would eventually run out of space, and becoming a galactic power with all of the prestige and influence that came with it pushed many over the edge.
And so, the last great war of Orion began.
Azburgia soon found itself on the front, its unlucky positioning forcing it to take a part of the blow head-on, and the opponent was just as formidable as expected.
Planets were destroyed, billions were evacuated and moved barely in time as the enemy ravaged the outer territories and quickly moved inwards, towards the royal palace.
Planets were turned into blue paradises, or that's what was expected, but humanity in its infinite spite refused to give an inch of immediately usable land and blew up tens of incredibly powerful Tsar bombs.
They would have to restore the atmosphere if they wanted to use human land, and only over their corpses.
Even children and their mothers were not spared in the following war, their fathers fought to buy them even a few more seconds of time.
The Azburgian fleets all gathered into one immense force, their wrecks littered the many systems in which they fought with the enemy.
The enemy was nigh untouchable, their weapons merely grazing off the paint on their ships, and that's only if they managed to get through the incredibly powerful shields.
The Empire was falling, and fast.
The only reason it was still alive was thanks to its immense shield of subjects that took a majority of the blow in the beginning, buying Adam Valencia enough time to prepare the nukes and some traps.
The other champions failed to lend any aid as they dealt with their own invasions, each one also suffering immense casualties while waging guerrilla warfare against the enemy fleets, something that proved difficult to do.
The only light at the end of the tunnel came when a rival civilization of their invaders contacted Azburgia, The Miriar Wos.
They offered technology in return for a strong ally in the region.
They did not want their enemy to become so influential and possibly join the elders, who would make it impossible for them to dominate their enemy.
Having them subjugated would be far too much of a hassle, and it would only result in an inevitable rebellion anyway, so why not be friends instead?
Additionally, the Empire has proven itself worthy of being an independent nation in their eyes, and they would gladly give more help once they could have more to give.
Also, they warned that the message will definitely be picked up and decrypted eventually and that the Azburgians must hurry before hell comes their way.
Adam accepted without hesitation, and while the technology was clearly not the best their new allies had, it leaped ahead of what they currently knew and understood.
So, for the next few months, the outer powers were confused that one of the champions became such an easy target, and allowed itself to be trampled on like a bug.
They were very surprised when they realized what had happened, and more fleets moved toward Azburgia to stop them from upgrading their fleets and defenses.
But they were too late, and when they charged into the Sol system where the fleets were gathered, the first foreign fleet was last, and the Federation claimed its first decisive victory.
All of it visible from Holy Terra itself.
(Note: Adam is forty years old now. before I said he was twenty-five with an almost adult son, which is BS, so yeah, just so you all don't get confused. :)
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