Jack of Harts

By the end of the century, the member nations of the Western Alliance had consolidated control of nearly the entire Pleiades Corridor.  It was a long corridor of stars, and our fleets were spread out to defend them, but we were confident that the Russians and Chinese would hold to the Lunar Treaties that outlawed fighting close enough to planets to threaten them with stray relativistic strikes.  It was unfortunate for us all that the Shang did not follow them.