Jack of Harts

There are rules to interstellar warfare. It is slow. Every system is separated by vast interstellar gulfs. There is no such thing as calling up for reinforcements from another system and having them arrive in time to save the day. You have to bring everything you need with you, or you do without. The Hyades Cluster violated all of those rules, and the Chinese had used that fact to smash almost every Alliance system they could find within a hundred lightyears of the cluster. Considering that Earth is only 150 lightyears from the Hyades, that was a disturbing amount of the stellar real estate available to mankind. The Hyades was a fortress in the stars, and as long as the Chinese held it, they had the advantage. We had to crack it.