Behold: Humanity!

The Unified Council has ruled over the base of the Cygnus-Orion Galactic Spur for over a hundred twenty million years. At the anti-coreward edge is the area where an ancient war rendered most of the stellar systems uninhabitable. While exploring the edges of what they call “the Great Gulf” or “The Long Dark” for any threats that may have turned up, they encounter new species gathered into the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems.

Soon afterwards it becomes apparent that the Unified Council’s explorations have awoken an ancient threat in the form of the Precursor Autonomous War Machines. These machines have no mercy for the living, ancient and terrible weapons from the Precursor War that devastated the central section of the Cygnus-Orion Galactic Arm Spur millions of years ago. The PAWM sweep down upon the Unified Council Systems, killing and destroying as they do so, with the Unified Council unable to mount any kind of coherent defense.

A series of battle between the PAWM and a few task forces of the Terran Confederate Naval Reserve reveals that the only thing capable of stopping the ancient threat is the newly discovered Terran Confederacy. But can the Galactic Stub survive the meeting of an ancient civilization that has ruled unopposed for tens of millions of years and a confederacy of energetic young races?