Their fleets burned through the galaxy like rivers of fire, spreading across the spiral arms until every world bowed to their power. Their empire was so vast that even the light of conquered sons carried their banners. The archives described them as a violent, short-lived, yet brilliant species that came from a deadly world, erased too dangerous to survive their own wars. It started quietly at a small border outpost on the edge of Vail Space, a system no one cared about with a single gas giant and a mining moon. Thousands of energy signatures appeared and vanished, as if the universe itself couldn't decide what was real.