Silghen Morseg watched as the human picked itself up and began cutting the cables that moored the ship in place. The atmosphere had vented, and the tainted were spooling up the engines. A dark blue glow gave away the inefficiency of its thrust generation. Once the last cable had been cut, the human glided over to the entry hatch of the ship. Moments later they left, unaware they were leaving Silghen to do his dreary duty.

He had begun to ready the combat reactors when several alerts pinged his comms. The passive sensors had registered multiple readings of micro-wormholes being created, and then dissipating. His eyes narrowed as he opened the data files. The readings came from three planes of the local system, too similar and close together to be natural. Someone was performing reconnaissance and using astronomical resources to do so. If someone was watching him, it was either the hidden Jeweller. Alternatively humans had tech vastly beyond what the White Messenger had.

As Silghen took this in, he shrugged off his hibernation robes, revealing the well- fitted purple combat harness. All ten of his limbs had various straps and pouches on them, bulging with tools and parts. He dropped down lower to the floor as he sped up his activation, no longer needing to step carefully around the robe. All four of his arms began sliding across the terminal's screen. If the Jeweller was scouring him out, it was time to move into phase two.

The interior of the ship lit up for the first time in a millennia as the reactors hit max power. Holographic displays surrounded him, streamlining his information gathering and control of the ship. The combat computer had started up as well, and began coalescing information from sensors. The dark matter effect field was ready to be deployed once more.

All of these preparations took time however. In that time the sensors registered another wormhole reading, this one however was massive. Alerts immediately blared, jarring Silghen from his reverie of preparation. The new wormhole was nine of Silghen's own ships in diameter and wasn't dissipating after a few seconds. He saw the source of the wormhole through the milky blue haze of light being warped by travel. It was the humans from Sol.

———

The Sol fleet strode through the wormhole as if it owned space itself. First came the smaller white ships, then the black and red destroyers and cruisers. After those came the rest, battleships and carriers, their vast spires of silver metal like ancient skyscrapers unmoored from the earth. The last that came through was the largest of them all. Intercepted light wave transmissions labeled it as the Aperio for Silghen.

It was massive, just under the size of the wormhole. Reminiscent of a many-petaled flower or a biblical angel, vast arrays bloomed from a central core shaft. Nestled in the center of those petals and at the tip of the shaft was a bulb of blinding blue light. That beautiful, destructive light was a tell-tale byproduct of anti-matter obliterating matter.

The fleet arranged itself in a rough sphere around the titanic ship. The smallest ships arrayed throughout the sphere. However, the largest battleships and carriers stuck close to the gargantuan ship. Light wave transmissions saturated the space around the sphere; two transmissions however were directed outward. One towards Silghen's ship, the other to Plinth and the Glint.

———

The terminal in front of Silghen chittered then spat out the translated message.

We are the forgotten fleet of Sol and allied ships of the Nine Planetary guilds. We are here to protect the Glint, cease your hostilities and open communications. Silence will be taken as an answer.

His eyes narrowed, Silghen snarled, "I am Silghen Morseg last of the Tharg, Captain of the Dawn's End. I have no intention to harm you or the Glint. I am here for the Jeweller hiding here, after I find them I will excise their taint from this system and leave. You cannot stop me."

At that he closed communications and marked the entire human fleet as hostile. The fools would take his actions as hostile no matter what. Besides the dark matter effect was ready to be used again. Sweeping his hands across the displays Silghen activated the cloak and combat intelligences. Time to go to war again.

———

Deep within Hirst, the first planet of the Plinth star system, machinery shivered and groaned to life. The buzz of light wave transmissions and dark matter being warped had woken it. The grand purpose was to be fufilled, the master's work was in jeopardy. The master would need to be awakened.

Signals crisscrossed vast superconductor lines and activated more machinery, computers and rudimentary intelligences among them. It cascaded from there as soon the entire planet was lit with EM signals. In the center of the planet a pod opened up, mist flowed out of it as a gnarled foot the texture of bark came forward. It was followed by two more as the Jeweller awakened from hibernation.

As it bathed in soft yellow light, it shook off remnants of chemical dust. Upon the three thick legs sat a wide trunk, with three limbs sprouting off each direction. Atop the trunk, wreathed in red fronds, light twinkled from multi-faceted crystals.

It strode towards a nearby wall of machinery and terminals, all of which had ornate filigree spiraled all over. The three limbs began tapping buttons with staccato rhythm, almost musical in its cadence. Vast diagrams bloomed to life and faded as the branch like limbs danced across the ornate computers and screens.

Slowly the tapping faded, like a dancer reaching the end of play, replaced by a hum of building power. Nearby in a large chamber a shimmering blue portal opened. Stars and a white ship could be seen through it.