Prologue

Just beyond the outer rim of the Empire, a serene if non-descript blue planet orbits an unremarkable star. It is a quaint, peaceful scene.

Without warning, the calm is shattered! The space-time continuum screams in outrage as it is rent asunder. A literal tear in reality opens, and two men, impossibly alive in the void, emerge from this... obscenity.

They are locked in mortal combat. Semi-virtual weapons strive to penetrate techno-armor that defies the laws of physics. The titanic conflict releases impossible energies all directions.

The struggle builds to a frantic crescendo until, suddenly, a mortal blow is struck. Blade pierces flesh, mind pierces mind. The release of radiation flares like a meteor in the planet's stratosphere.

The loser, now deathly still, begins to drift from the battlefield. His residual energy bleeds into space. Soon, caught in the grip of the blue planet's gravity, he begins an inexorable descent to a final grave.