Jack of Harts

The Chinese and their allies had nearly scrubbed us from the over one thousand star systems within a hundred lightyears of the Hyades Cluster. It was the greatest prize humanity had found in the stars, a fortress of interconnected star systems, and the Chinese could accept no challenge to their control. We could have sued for peace, and the Chinese would have accepted it. But they would have forced us to pay a ruinous bill for the honor of peace. Money. Systems. Supremacy. We would have had to accept their domination of the stars from their base in the Hyades. The Western Alliance would have become a third rate power, while the Chinese ascended to the throne of mankind they have always believed they deserved. But they would have let us live. They would have stopped the killing. We could have ended The War a decade early if we were willing to live with that. We were not. And that is why the Hyades was so important to us.