The Nexus was no longer just a concept.
It had become a revolution.
And revolutions, Kairos knew, always drew storms.
This time, it wasn't just an enemy fleet coming.
It was a Sovereign coalition.
The old guard.
The empire of tradition.
And they were coming to burn Starwell—the first independent trade-linked planet under the Nexus charter—to the ground.
The Strategic Importance of Starwell
Starwell wasn't powerful.
It wasn't rich.
It didn't have fleets, armies, or planetary weapons.
But it had what Kairos needed most.
Data.
A relic buried beneath Starwell's surface was one of the First Market Engines, a pre-Sovereign artifact said to power autonomous interstellar trade routing. If Kairos could interface with it, the Nexus could bypass Sovereign-controlled supply gates entirely.
No more relying on old star lanes.
No more buying passage from Sovereign lords.
The Market Engine was the key to Nexus Autonomy.
Which made it a target.
The Council of Rebels knew it too.
