The Warlord (1)
Barely three days later.
The shocking bulletin arrived: the fleet of the Sir Citizen League—once counted among the great powers of the galactic east, even if it had in practice become little more than a vassal of Mekt-Fuchs—had been annihilated by pirates without even managing to flee.
And not by ordinary warships, either. By a ragtag scrapyard armada that looked as if it had been cobbled together in some backyard workshop, little better than floating junk.
The news slammed into the Empire like a kinetic strike. Overnight the subject began erupting in the halls of the Imperial Diet itself.
"That can't be right."
"A pack of common pirates, beating a proper interstellar state's fleet in open battle? Not some backwater micro-nation—an actual stellar power?"
"Could it have been another nation's fleet, just flying pirate colors?"
People were so desperate to reject the impossible that they started inventing comforting delusions. Then the next report landed.
"Apparently the Sir Citizen League decided to broadcast the entire anti-pirate operation live across the galaxy. They wanted to show off how thoroughly they were crushing the scum."
"…"
"And Warlord's subordinates knew it. They deliberately left the relay ships for last."
Thanks to the Sir League's own PR stunt, every nation in the galaxy received uncensored, real-time footage of a proper battle fleet—battleships included—being toyed with and butchered by a collection of wrecks and debris.
The moment I saw it, a long-forgotten game event slammed back into my memory.
Wait. Warlord? Don't tell me this is the Warlord event.
And of course it would drop right on schedule according to the game's systems. Exactly the kind of crisis event designed to jolt players out of their post-expansion complacency once they started turtling and consolidating.
Even after I recognized the chain, though, a doubt lingered. Could this Warlord really steamroll the surrounding powers the way the event demanded?
The timing matched, sure. In the original game this was roughly when player empires and their peers began mass-producing cruisers as their new backbone, or when the tech-rush nations started rolling out their first battleships. The Warlord's own forces were always scaled to match that era's average imperial strength.
The empires are already stronger than they should be at the Warlord's usual spawn window.
Yes, the Sir fleet had battleships… but it had been a slapdash anti-pirate task force, nothing more.
"It seems the Sir admirals grew far too complacent against mere pirates."
"That does sound like the most plausible explanation, doesn't it?"
Here in the Seveli Empire's court—and across the Galactic League—the consensus was that the Sir Citizen League had simply underestimated the threat and paid the price.
I couldn't share their optimism.
Looking at those bastards, it feels like they got some kind of systemic tech boost… and if that's true, this is genuinely dangerous.
Most people dismissed my concerns with a skeptical "surely not." Then the next wave of reports from the Sir Citizen League began rolling in, each more catastrophic than the last.
"The Sir punitive fleet has been wiped out. The pirate armada is now advancing on their capital…?"
"The remaining Sir fleets are gathering in the capital system for a last stand, little fleshling."
"Whoa."
Our Warlord friend was performing even better than I had feared—tech-tree correction or not. The Sir League's regular fleets, battleships and all, were being crushed in both numbers and firepower, suffering one humiliating defeat after another at the hands of the pirate horde.
Just as Alina had said, the Sir Citizen League—having lost the bulk of its strength in the blink of an eye—tried to dig in behind the orbital fortresses ringing their capital. Buy time with the fortresses, then beg neighboring states for reinforcements. That was the plan.
Warlord had no intention of granting them that time.
Barely a few hours after word of their final stand reached us, we received the Sir Citizen League's formal instrument of surrender.
Technically they claimed they were merely becoming a tributary state under Warlord's raiding host—the so-called Horde—but no nation in the galaxy treated it as anything other than total capitulation.
A single interstellar power toppled by pirates. The neighboring states reeled in open horror. The shock hit hardest among the Mekt-Fuchs Corporate Confederation, which had been quietly prodding and puppeteering the Sir League from the shadows.
"We will not surrender our commercial sphere to a pack of pirates!"
"Those savages cannot be left to run free."
Immediately after the Sir surrender, Mekt-Fuchs and the surrounding powers scrambled every available fleet into a containment ring around Warlord. Realizing no single fleet could face him head-on, they meant to force him into a grinding multi-front war and bleed him dry.
Warlord, of course, had no interest in politely watching the noose tighten.
While the encircling powers tried to close the ring and Warlord tried to smash it open, the standoff seemed ready to settle into a tense deadlock—until one of the pillars of that ring suddenly collapsed.
"We pledge our loyalty to Warlord."
"Oh."
"What."
The Kerzin Federation—once a self-proclaimed superpower—abruptly declared allegiance to Warlord and withdrew from the containment effort.
"What the fuck???"
"What the hell are they thinking?"
Kerzin's spectacular trolling sent the remaining encirclement powers into a frenzy. Even distant observers who had been content to watch from the sidelines began demanding daily that the Galactic League impose sanctions.
Kerzin's reply was almost serene.
"A man who merely harms others is still preferable to a man who butchers them."
The moment they received word that Prosnark fleets had been sighted, they decided that bowing to a pirate was infinitely better than being rendered into soap by the space Nazis.
With fresh forces suddenly added to Warlord's banner, the situation deteriorated at an exponential rate.
"In the name of the Warlord, I command you! Plunder everything the enemy possesses!"
"Any male larger than a fighter nozzle is to be taken as a slave!"
No longer forced to face the entire ring at once, Warlord threw his elite core plus the absorbed fleets of the Sir Citizen League and the Kerzin Federation into a lightning space blitzkrieg aimed at shattering the remaining encirclement.
Mekt-Fuchs and Zeltech fleets fought desperately to stop him. They could not, however, prevent the next betrayal.
"Now is the hour to reclaim our lost domains!"
"With Warlord at our side we can finally erase those treacherous rebels!"
One of the encirclement members—the Uko'Praknar Interstellar Union—turned on both the Ik Nur Bal Independent Republican League (which had seceded from them by rebellion) and on Mekt-Fuchs itself (which had stabbed them in the back earlier), delivering a spectacular reverse-betrayal of pure vengeance.
"You insane bastards!"
"Help!!!"
The force ratio flipped overnight from 5 : 2 to 3 : 4. Mekt-Fuchs leadership began flooding the Kerzin Federation with daily streams of creative, curse-laden insults for the trolling that had ruined everything.
They were not complete idiots, however. They moved quickly to salvage the situation.
"Mr. President, given how things stand, would you consider joining us in crushing these pirates?"
"An excellent idea."
They reached out to the watching Loirakan Republic, hoping to buy time alongside Zeltech for a coordinated counter-offensive.
Time, unfortunately, was not on their side.
While Mekt-Fuchs scrambled to reorganize, begged half-hearted help from Loirakan, and tried to coordinate with the still-fighting Zeltech fleets…
"Guh… we surrender! We surrender!"
"Very well. From this day we stand beneath Warlord's shadow!"
…the capital of the Ik Nur Bal League—already gutted by the earlier backstab—fell with almost insulting ease. At the same moment, Uko'Praknar itself knelt to Warlord, and did so far faster than anyone had expected.