Our extensive analysis of recovered historical records, several hundreds of thousands of years old, lends credence to the idea that these caches were intended as a kind of trap, albeit of a highly sophisticated nature. Any species sufficiently advanced to develop interstellar civilizations without the benefit of faster-than-light travel, so the thinking goes, would naturally exploit the contents of any Maker cache they might stumble across in their process of expansion. Given sufficient time to discover the drives inherently destructive properties, they would ultimately destroy themselves either through internal unrest or during conflict with other species.

Following the cessation of this earliest known Nova War, the surviving Magi built fleets of autonomous starships and directed them to seek out Maker caches and destroy them. The majority of these Magi ships were later destroyed by the Shoal Hegemony who, forewarned by events in the LMC, created a stable empire controlling interstellar traffic throughout much of our own Milky Way until they, too, were destroyed by internal factionalism and an aggressive territorial war conducted with a neighbouring species two centuries ago.

The Shoal Hegemonys departure from the greater galactic stage has since allowed for humanitys rapid expansion, by making use of nova drives recovered either from derelict Shoal craft or from the Maker cache in the Tierra system. Such rapid growth, however, makes it difficult to keep track of the devices and, given their hugely destructive potential, we recommend prioritizing the acquisition by any means necessary of all extant nova drives, including those recently recovered by independent human colonies such as the Three Star Alliance.

Taking control of this technology is therefore an essential step towards preventing the occurrence of another Nova War.

We do, however, anticipate strong resistance from the Three Star Alliance in particular, and a draft proposal has been prepared regarding the possibility of military action should current negotiations fail to reach a satisfying conclusion.

ONE

Megan

June 2763, 82 Eridani System (the present)

Megan Jacinth watched as the ship that had carried her down to Avilons surface lifted up once more, its drive-fields flickering as it passed through the former asteroids atmospheric containment field. She had been the only passenger.

The stars overhead were still in visible motion, unsurprising given that Avilon had only jumped into this system within the last few hours. Avilon was a boosted world, after all a landscaped rock barely a few hundred kilometres in diameter, with a gravity engine at its heart and a containment field to keep its atmosphere from dissipating. Light and heat came from fusion globes, orbiting outside the containment field like tiny suns.

She looked around at the wide, dusty plain on which she now stood. The horizon appeared so close that it made her feel as if a single step might send her toppling over its edge.