The Hellgate War. The Confluence Crisis. The Destruction of Ydan. A damn good fight. The events of Ydan have been retold by many names.

The introduction of the four Chaotic Gods of Hellspace and their minions, as well as the ancient power that once opposed them, shook the game world of Dreams Amongst the Stars to its core. Whether they were ‘Locals’ in game, or Nomads on the forums, or even people who never played, but enjoyed watching streams of the action, the Hellgate War was all anyone could talk about. Everyone knew that the game world that they had known up till then had been irrevocably changed.

Of all the groups in Known Space, the Consortium was the least changed by the events leading up to the Confluence Crisis, and what came before. Weakened by the X’thari Harvester’s assault on Coldana, the Consortium rallied with the annexation of Shadowgate, and the technology that they had developed over their time-dilated isolation. With the chimeras of Shadowgate forced into debt slavery, and their psy-users bolstering the military’s ranks, the Consortium soon found itself in a stronger position than they were before Coldana. Many said that Coldana was poised for a new golden age.

Though they had no involvement in the Hellgate War, the Free Worlds Alliance continued to fracture. With the Kul’tiran Navy a shadow of its former self, piracy began to run rampant throughout the Alliance. The Alliance, never entirely unified to begin with, devolved into a series of fiefdoms and warring states, with some worlds even becoming overrun by pirates. Corporate Wars raged across the Alliance as different groups struggled to maintain their power and influence. But soon, the fighting began to get out of hand, until, suddenly, the fighting stopped as the homeworld of each of the major combatants was hit by Greenwave weapons launched from stealth ships. In the ensuing power vacuum, the Black Star Company stepped up to lead a reformation the Alliance, with a Corporate Council at its core.

The Confederation of Allied Planets was hit hard by the Destruction of Ydan, with their capitol system ravaged by the fighting. Rebuilding what was lost would be the work of years, but the work was hobbled by questions about how the event started. Hackers uncovered and leaked the identity of the event’s instigator, as well as several ‘black’ projects that he had been assigned by Confederate Naval Intelligence. When the ‘N-Comms’ project, designed to replicate Nomad communications by using Nomad brains as a primary component were revealed, the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, which had ordered the project’s creation, were publicly lynched by a mob of those who had lost family during the Destruction. The newly elected Senator from Dimiya and new head of the Oversight Committee, Elnaril Triswyn, promised that such a project would never again be launched under his watch.

The Ihm Imperium ceased to exist as a functioning political entity. Over three-fourths of their former space was drawn into the expanding Eye of Despair, before the spread mysteriously halted near the world of Aidac. The Ihm, as a people, saw their population decrease by over 95%, making them an endangered species. Many believed that, with their homeworld lost to the Eye of Despair, the scattered Ihm would eventually go extinct, but those that remained were fierce survivors, constantly ready to fight the forces of the Goddess of Pride.

The Free Port of Nuevo Edo and the corporate world of Star’s Reach saw an influx of refugees from Known Space. At first, this only served to equalize the gender ratio of Nuevo Edo, but soon both worlds started to get crowded. Using the data provided by the Starhunters, they began to expand, colonizing new worlds. Eventually, the two worlds joined together, along with their colonies, to become the Norma Union. With their complete Gate Index and the Starhunters, they quickly became one of the preeminent forces in the galaxy.

The forces of Hellspace, thrown back and weakened by their defeat upon the Sendal Plane, were sent into disarray. But a champion arose in the form of a Nomad, the leader of the Chaos Brigade. Under the Chaos Brigade and their devotion to Chaos Undivided, the forces of the four Hellspace Gods united in an uneasy alliance of convenience, licking their wounds and sharpening their daggers. Whether those daggers would be aimed at the material world, or the backs of their ‘allies’ was an open question, however.

The Terran Empire, bloodied and nearly broken by civil war and the Ihm Invasion, rose from the brink of disaster, like a phoenix from the ashes. Under their new Empress, the Terran Navy quickly regained their former strength, and the whole of the empire rejoiced as the Empress put her might towards wiping clean the stains of war, and pushing back the forces of Hellspace that harried them. At the Empress’s direction, a beacon was made, allowing navigators across the galaxy to chart their course by Terra’s light, even when they ventured into the untamed wilds of Hellspace or the desolate nothingness of Darkspace. Little wonder then that religious orders began to arise, venerating the Empress as a divinity in her own right.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The Black Star Company, at the center of many of the changes to this point, took a step backwards from the public eye, consolidating their gains and rebuilding their Navy, which had been greatly weakened at the Battle of Dimiya. However, that is not to say that they did not make their presence felt. The Company still had a major presence in the Confederation, and their diplomats helped in both the reformation of the Alliance and the creation of the Union. Not only that, but traders bearing the Black Star symbol could be seen throughout the Consortium and the Empire as well. According to the financial reports, the Black Star company was now the thirty-seventh-largest corporation in the galaxy, an unprecedented rise to power considering how young the company was.

Nomads throughout the galaxy grew to even more prominent positions as their usefulness was proven once again. Soon, it was said that there wasn’t a single head of state or company director that didn’t have a Nomad as an aide somewhere in their inner circle. While this ‘favoritism’ rankled many natives, the groups who tried to strike against Nomads soon found themselves getting hit back ten times as hard, as the Nomads worked together to take down their common foes.

On the second real-life anniversary of the launch of Dreams Amongst the Stars, NERV announced that the total player base for the game had risen above fifteen million monthly active users, making it easily the largest MMORPG in the world. The Spike, as the players called the interruption of communications during the Dimiya Event, was shown to have been well below danger levels, and had no out of game effects. Soon, players began looking back on it fondly as one of those events that were told and retold, despite how badly it affected them in the moment, like the Corrupted Blood Plague of older games. This further cemented Dreams Amongst the Stars as the preeminent VRMMORPG.

And as for Mirikon Mollen? The Admiral of the Black Star Navy, Owner of the Black Star Company, and Governor of Star’s Reach settled back into an oversight position, surrounded by his harem of lovely ladies. He made sure to keep up his playboy image, but worked just as hard at making sure his new empire ran smoothly. Administrative work often tied him down, but at least once a month some backwater station would find the Starlight Raven docking to deliver a package, with Captain Mollen at the helm. Some thugs and gangsters tried to take advantage of the perceived weakness when he showed up on station with only his harem for protection, but they soon learned that he hadn’t lost any of his edge, or his vengeful streak. And pirates knew not to mess with the Starlight Raven, because wherever the Raven was, they knew that an Assassin could always be lying in wait, just in case.

He had a reputation to protect, after all.

The End

The hardest part of writing an episodic series, I’ve found, is knowing when to let the story finally end.

As a writer, when a series is going well and people are enjoying it, there is a strong push to keep going, to keep pumping out chapters. This push isn’t just from reading people’s comments as they happily read what you’ve written, of course. There’s also the financial aspect, as well. If people are liking what you’ve written, and are continuing to offer up their money for it, then you, as a writer, obviously have an incentive to try and drag the story out as much as possible.

But after a certain point, the story begins to tread the same old ground again and again. Themes are repeated, and storylines grow old. You get to a point where you find yourself jumping through greater and greater hoops just to try and top the last thing you did, and keep the readers interested. After a certain point, the story needs to end, or you find yourself falling into irrelevance, with only a dogged core of diehard fans who are only reading it because it is there, while you are only writing the story for money, instead of for the love you once had for the tale.

And, I’m sad to say, that the time has come for Into the Black to come to an end. For four years, I’ve written this story, taking Captain Mollen from his rough start, all the way to the current time. Four years is a long time, but I could not have done it without all of you, my readers. Your comments and support have driven me forward, and more than one of your comments have given me new ideas about where to take the story.

I thank you all for your support and your patience during these four years. I am certainly going to continue writing, though I plan to take a breath, and drop down to just four projects a week for a bit, before starting something new. Until then, I offer you this quote:

Puck:

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:

if you pardon, we will mend:

And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call;

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

--William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream