Hariko Lee watched the ongoing hand-to-hand battle with growing concern. A male tiger warrior, cd in a lion's outfit, emerged from the fray, shouting a battle cry in honour of Akina Wang. Intrigued, Hariko wondered about this mysterious individual and the entity he spoke of.

  A female tiger, one of the tiger women, stepped forward to confront the male. "That old battlefield is ours," the male decred. "Our ranks have been besieging that human vilge for 120 years."

  "We've lost billions of locals and trillions of our light bugs in this war," the female countered. "Just to take most of the world. Our ancients were able to take out the vilge due to bombardment from an unknown location, which is why that area is abandoned."

  "I don't care," the male snarled. "Leave or I'll have to beat you into submission."

  Hariko could wait no longer. He ordered a full orbital drop on the dual location, and twenty-five drop pods nded in the centre.

  As the female tiger circled the male, the tiger women began to retreat. "Oh, the soldiers of the humans," the male taunted. "Aren't you all supposed to be sves under our capital?"

  "It seems the combat system identified you as hostile," a female sve leader replied. "Surrender or we'll have to avenge our defeat at the Elven pins five years ago."

  The male tiger rushed at the sve leader, but his head was severed in an instant. The sve leader shouted a battle cry and introduced herself as Kanna, the leader of an armed unit tasked with defending the vilge.

  "How close is the Elventiger tribe?" Hariko asked.

  "Fifteen miles west," Kanna replied. "We discovered S0-6 material, so we built S4 ships in the final days of the war. They and five million locals escaped, but a billion of us died in the Human-Tiger war."

  The tiger women and their counterparts bowed before Kanna. But just as a sense of peace settled over the battlefield, a rge cannon echoed from a nearby location.

  The female sves surrounded Hariko and began scanning the area. They found eight male tigers observing them from a distance.

  They approached the enemy position and pinned them to the ground. Kanna's visor detected 192 soldiers opening fire with their HNA guns at the attacking enemy forces. After the st foe was killed, Kanna reported the casualties.

  "Defender's casualties: 200 Elventigers and 60 human natives," she said.

  Hariko asked about the status of the drop pods. "They left the LZ five minutes after nding," Kanna replied. "They were scanning for a clear zone to leave."

  They began their march toward the vilge, which took two hours to reach. As they set up camp, a soldier from the vilge smelled fire and went outside to investigate. He discovered a rge camp of humans and rushed back to the bunker to report the incoming rescues.

  After a night's rest, they approached the vilge. The gate guard recognized Kanna and whistled for the gate to be opened. Hariko and the freed sves entered the vilge and knocked on the bunker door. The scientist who opened the door was weary but hopeful, asking if they were willing to relocate all 300 of them to another pnet.

  Hariko and his forces requested drop pods, and within two days, all the locals left the vilge with their research.

  "I've detected a rge city with 499,800 biosignatures just four kilometres out," Kanna reported.

  As they marched toward the city, they encountered a force of 50,000 soldiers. The co-captain on the S2 fgship ordered an orbital strike near the enemy position, causing them to surrender. However, 5,000 of these troops ambushed Hariko's forces, but they were quickly defeated by Kanna and her allies.

  As they entered the city, peace negotiations began, and the Elventigers agreed to become part of the Imperial Empire. Kanna and her forces led the Elventiger leader and 45,000 soldiers back to the vilge, but 44,000 were ordered to stay outside.

  After seven hours of searching, they discovered a strange ship that matched the S1 series battleship with two extra cannons. The Elventiger leader requested to learn how to use this new means of travel.

  A female in a yellow and white outfit appeared before the 45,000 Elventigers. She introduced herself as Morrigan, a guardian tasked with defending their fgship and disciplining their forces.

  Hariko's mind raced. She was beautiful, but he knew he couldn't hit on her until the matter of the sve trade was resolved.