Empire Rising

PRELUDE TO FIRE AND SORROW... Thirty years before the outbreak of the Escalation Wars, the Circasian Empire was a small, largely insignificant power located on the edge of known space. However, the Circasians were not weak. Decades of brutal anti-raider warfare forced the Circasian Star Forces to learn and adapt to the hostile universe which surrounded them. The lessons learned in the Raider Wars would be put to the test when, after years of thinly veiled hostility over the negotiating table, the actions of the Chouka Theocracy finally forced the Circasian Empire to make a fateful decision. By order of the War Council, a fleet was dispatched to begin a pre-emptive invasion of Chouka space. The Chouka War had begun.