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Khrome’s space invaders. Surje’s faction, which could have provided much needed defense against the space invaders, ended up tag-teaming against Jan’Hax, leading to a massive global war.
    Meanwhile, Tyris made stealthy moves with his ignored faction via guerilla-style attacks on Jan’Hax’s forces. The Tanoeen then kept acquiring more and more technology in hopes of reverse engineering it. That drew the attention from a small cadre of Khrome’s factions, looking to team up against Jan’Hax’s crumbling empire.
    “No fair!” Jan’Hax whined. “Everyone’s ganging up on me!”
    “Only because you suck at ruling a world government,’ Khrome threw back gleefully. “Now you’re gonna get crushed.”
    After over three full orvs, the quartet took a break from gameplay to recharge. Everyone shut down their holoscreens and took off their gameplay visors.
    It was Surje who finally broached what everyone had avoided. “Are we going to talk about it? The all-hands meeting? Tomorrow? For Star Brigade?”
    “Not sure which Star Brigade all-hands you mean, since we’ve had so many recently,” Tyris snapped, with more bite than intended. The Tanoeen just wanted to spend time with his friends and not dig into Star Brigade’s fate.
    “Easy,” Khrome told Tyris before addressing the group. “You think Star Brigade’s toast?”
    “Yeah, pretty much,” Surje answered quickly.
    “No clue,” Jan’Hax gave a stiff shrug. “Honaa and Sam aren’t talking.”
    “Maybe,” Tyris finally admitted, a hard thing to say after almost two years. But with so little movement or communication from their remaining superiors, what other conclusion could he draw?
    “What are we going to do now?” Surje asked the group.
    Tyris had given his future post-Star Brigade a lot of thought over the past few months, so he answered first. “Think I’ll hook up a merc company. Remember what actual combat feels like.”
    “Ah. Combat…” both Khrome and Jan’Hax cooed nostalgically.
    The thrill of combat, the taste of a hard-fought victory, danger around every nook and cranny of a battlefield. Tyris had expected that when joining Star Brigade. But other than a few sparse side missions from months past, the Tanoeen had found nothing but disappointment. “All the boom-boom and ka-BANG of a skirmish. Starting to think I imagined it from another life.”
    Surje fixed on Tyris with one of his intense, unblinking stares when something bothered him. “What about heading back to your homeworld?”
    Tyris responded with a stony frown. “And do what?” Titanoa hadn’t felt like home since the ‘Temporal Incident’ many years ago. Now Titanoa had become infested with Imperium military bases and research stations. Other than the occasional visit every few years, Tyris had no plans on returning.
    “Might head back to the Twin Spheres for a while,” Khrome sighed, “figure out my next move.” Unlike Tyris, the Thulican actually missed home.
    “Me too,” Surje nodded hastily. “Head back to Aurealis, not the Twins. See the parents and take a breather.”
    Tyris exchanged a look with both Khrome and Jan’Hax at this news. “You better not turn all Joiner celebrant on us when you go home—”
    Surje rolled his colorless eyes. This wasn’t the first time his friends had expressed such concern on this particular matter. “ Lights be gone , I won’t!  My parents know that’s not the life I want.”
    “Until they try talking you into it for the zillionth time,” the Tanoeen retorted, unconvinced.  He’d known Surje to talk tough about defying his parents…when they were light years away. 
    Surje glowered, his complexion darkening. “Not this time.”
    “Like how they didn’t talk you out of dating a human?”
    “Oh, go fall in a black hole,” Surje snapped, the glow of his red skin as angry as his expression.
    Taking the hint, Tyris leaned away. “Point made. You’re inconvincible.”
    A tense lull landed in the