Chapter 78
Columex Approach, Columex System
Vorzyd Sector
There was a battle fought here, now over a year ago and honestly a distant memory, but the largest battle the galaxy had ever witnessed in the last one thousand years nonetheless. There was also little to no physical evidence it ever took place anymore, however.
No more debris fields, no more scavengers and scrap haulers and rescue cutters. In the Confederacy’s rampant thirst for ever more material to fuel its war effort, recycling the trillions of tons of wrecked durasteel and doonium aimlessly floating in space was an obvious decision, and thousands of salvage and breaking contractors had all but jumped onto the figurative gold rush. The Columex hyper-junction was empty.
And we were home.
Diedrich Greyshade had his eyes fixed to the displays as the green-blue pearl known as Columex grew larger and larger, suspended in space like a turquoise star and twinkling with the lights of hundreds of satellite foundries and shipyards. There was silence in Kronprinz’s pilothouse as dozens of officers set their eyes upon their homeworld, through shot and fizzling cameras and scopes, as if thinking just how much of a miracle it was that they were able to embrace the sight of it again.
My eyes were drawn to Diedrich’s expression, internally expecting to see a smile of some sort, even tears perhaps, as surely even I would let them slip should I see my homeworld–my true homeworld–again after my ordeals. Which was why I was so taken aback when I found a slight frown curving his lips downwards instead.
“It’s too empty,” he murmured, audible to all in the pin-drop silence gripping the Kronprinz, “It’s too silent.”
And as I ingested his words, it too gradually dawned on me how discomforting the approach to Columex was. The Columex System, the beating heart of the Commonality’s trade, was quiet. That alone was alarming in itself. The hyper-junction sat at the crossroads of two major hyperlanes; the Perlemian Trade Route and the Salin Corridor. There was trade flowing through here mere hours before the Battle of Columex erupted. By all means, Columex should not even know the meaning of empty and quiet.