[Starhawk]

2421.5
At the same time throughout the whole of Icara all vid screens all and all channels suddenly went black for a moment, seconds later the Imperial Anthem began to play softly in the background as the Imperial Eagle, with a world held in it’s right claw and a starship in it’s left appeared on screen. Throughout Icara billions gathered around screens to see what was happening.
Then the face of the Praetor himself appeared and throughout the Empire people fell silent in curiosity and fear as they waited for their beloved leader to speak.

“My fellow Icarans, my friends, brothers and sisters today I come before you with news both great and terrible, for this month two things have happened that may forever change the fate of the empire.
The Great news is that our brave men and women have found and conquered what they believe to be the Phong homeworld, though it’s population numbered less then one billion we believe this to be a great blow to the enemy, especially as the rest of the Berchest system fell to the 3rd fleet swiftly, those worlds that could not be conquered were sterilized for the safety of all humanity. Also the Briggia system suffered a similar fate, several hundred million Phong have been sterilized leaving their worlds open to human colonization.” all over Icara people cheered, the war was finally drawing to a close as more information scrolled across the bottom of the screen with information that the HMS Shadowclaw had just entered a third Phong system and was preparing to sterilize all worlds therein.

But the cheers came to a swift and sudden halt as the Praetor raised his right hand, palm facing the screen. “However my dear people, there is terrible bitter news that I must inform you of, for the HMS Tigerclaw and HMS Satuki have both been lost to a new star nation known as the Andoran, 4,400 sons and daughters of Icara perished in the brutal attack launched by an Andoran battleship. Now though we are angered by this situation I must remind you that 4,400 lives are nothing as compared to the billions of Icarans that would be put at risk should open war come between ourselves and the Andoarns, because of this I have ordered our Political bureau to send ambassadors to the Andorans in an attempt to bring peace, know this however though peace may come they will be made to pay for the lives they took on the 3rd of this month.

As always my friends I will guide and protect our people, Praetor Leonidas signing off.”

2421.6
Admiral Babcock sat numbly in his command chair, when his fleet had entered the Zerg system they had fully expected to find Phong worlds, instead they found more Xeno’s of the Xiati variant, the same ones that had lost an entire squadron to a single Icaran super dreadnought, and in a single broadside to boot.
Deciding that since the Xiati had proven hostile from the start Admiral Babcock directed his infantry regiment to launch a direct assault on the first Xiati world in system.

Landing the troops was easy enough as the world had no weapons platforms or orbital defense satellites what so ever, but once the infantry of the 1st Icara landed they soon discovered that the Xiati were totally unlike the Phong, they were tall brown skinned and over 30% of their body mass consisted of cybernetic enhancements, fortunately for the invading soldiers the Xiati world was defended by only a small force of lightly armed militia and fell swiftly.

On the Phong front the Shadowclaw had “sterilized” three entire worlds held by the Phong in the Fyras system, the 3rd fleet had just entered the Arich system and soon it too would fall before the might of the glorious Icaran Empire.