The new Orion

Years spun by, and the Orion Arm changed accordingly.

The weak were no longer weak, now they were either dead or subjects of the strong.

Trade resumed at full strength between major powers which decided war wasn't worth the effort, and diplomacy once again regained a foothold among the stars.

Those who wished to keep the chaos going, to continue their conquest, were met with more and more walls blocking them from the territory they so desired, each thicker than the last.

So an unsteady peace descended upon the civilizations, just as fragile if not more so than the peace of the Cold War.

A single sudden movement of military significance would send the entire Arm into war again, and no one wanted another one so soon, at least not yet.

Everyone quietly prepared for the clashes that would happen, secret superweapon projects becoming the worst-guarded secret as everyone with any knowledge about the situation predicted the nation's maneuvers, which were mostly accurate.

The Azburgian Interstellar Empire quickly established itself as one of the major powers of this new, trade-dominated era.

With their wise leadership accurately predicting the situation years ahead, their capital, Earth, and the other so-called "Core worlds", became bureaucratic titans, each with immense trade value alone generating more than some nation's entire economies.

Many of the war-focused species took a back seat in this era, and many expected the warmongering humans would end the same way, but they were once again surprised by the adaptability of humans, capable of war and trade with equal finesse.

Humans manipulated deals and played entire megacorps like they were in the palm of their hands, never giving them even the tiniest illusion of control.

The humans were in charge. There will be no debate.

Megacorps still set up many branches on the human worlds, seeking profit was in their nature.

But their scheming and attempts at gaining power were all suppressed with refined ease, shocking many who have begun to fall for their trickery, unintentionally helping them regain control of their own states again.

So the plan of many greedy corporations was ruined by the humans, and they didn't even really try.

Their fellow champions had such effects on their surroundings as well, each one surprising the others by staying relevant through other means instead of conquest.

Some became paragons of technology and understanding, advancement surging in their societies, surpassing even that of the Empire, something their Emperor, Adam, was very disgruntled by.

Others became traders or propagated their federations through the internet and billboards, hoping to convince the people or their leadership to join them in return for safety and protection.

As power moved from the hard of muscles and weapons to the soft of words and deals, the civilizations that specialized in those departments and managed to survive became more prosperous, sadly, most never truly flourished, sucked dry by their overlords.

The ones who managed to keep their freedom, however, became the new leaders of the era, fueling their fleets with all the resources they could muster while still investing in their new sources of income.

The outer powers stopped their expansion after the major powers stopped fighting one another, not that they couldn't stomp them all if they wanted to, but it would be incredibly inconvenient, like killing a cockroach with a nuclear bomb, the thing would somehow manage to survive.

Instead, it would be better to patiently wait and then promptly stomp it to death when it was looking elsewhere, which is what the outer powers are now doing.

The current major powers reformed the council, with some members either completely gone or evicted from it due to being too weak, new blood now leads the council in a more active manner.

They would make a pact, an agreement of sorts, which states that if they or their subjects get attacked by the outer powers, they must band together against them, those who refused would be kicked off the council and be embargoed by everyone else.

Everyone signed the paper since there were no real downsides.

They would come for them all eventually, the sooner they pushed them back, the better for them all.

So the new, "Orion Defence Pact" was formed, and its existence was loudly broadcasted across the Orion Arm, reaching the major powers, who, in turn, didn't do anything, but something was surely brewing under the surface.

Now the Aburgian Emperor was officially thirty years old, but he still looked like a man in his twenties.

A wonder of the anti-aging technology, which was improving faster than ever thanks to the breakthrough in DNA altering and manipulation technology.

Azburgia made more and more allies in this period, trade deals and research treaties ran amok, as all civilizations capable of giving something struggled to gain the favor of the Emperor, an endeavor in which few succeeded.

Those who succeeded, however, were the heralds of a golden age the likes of which their species hadn't seen before, their names forever etched into the history of their respective civilizations.

hundreds of billions of corpses laid as the base of this new era, and it would take far, far more to determine the one who would dominate it.

The prize would be four hundred million stars, something worth more than mere lives.

People could be made, but resources were limited, for the foreseeable future anyway.

Matters were also changing in the rest of the Milky Way, as more and more nations expanded and shrunk, the Elders stood ever vigilant against any that might threaten the selfish, greedy, and downright manipulative life forms that inhabit it.

These most ancient and powerful nations never expanded beyond a few million systems, some even as small as a few thousand systems, but all of them were the most powerful forces this galaxy has ever seen, some even as old as the Earth, if not older.

They worried that others might come for their galaxy, an intergalactic nation would come to subjugate them, and they stood together against such a threat.

But maybe there is no greater threat than the guardians capable of stopping one...