This is the Wartrader, trying to decide who is the lesser evil - the alien threat of the Evolved Intelligence, the power behind the Combined Army, or ALEPH, the control-freak artificial intelligence that runs most of the Human Sphere via direct control or subtle subversion.

The Evolved Intelligence. Ancient and wise beyond human comprehension, single-mindedly pursuing it's search for transcendence beyond the physical universe. Every civilisation it comes across is helped towards transcendence or drafted in to help with the great project. Sometimes, of course, new civilisations turn into threats and must be dealt with, the project is too important to permit any chance of disruption.

The E.I has been working towards this goal since before life on Earth went multi-cellular, let alone the brief period since Humanity evolved. As the galaxy slowly turns, the E.I does everything it can to further the project, even experimenting on itself.

The E.I constantly opens up new wormholes and sends out expeditionary forces across the galaxy to find civilisations that can help with the project. At great cost to the Combined Army, Humanity has been chosen as the next civilisation to join the great work. This wormhole stretches so far across the galaxy that most of the ships that enter it don't come out the other end.

Once Humanity joyously joins the E.I it will be guided to it's proper place in the galaxy-spanning project, benefitting from the eons of experience of the E.I and all it's technology.

The Evolved Intelligence. Johnny-No-Mates. Left behind as all it's contemporaries transcended, incapable of transcending itself and incapable of even realising this.

Every civilisation it comes across ruthlessly triaged into threats to be annihilated, useful idiots to be exploited or potential transcendees to be observed and experimented on.

While it's true that the E.I has experimented on itself, this was an unmitigated disaster. The idea was to clone itself, then force the clone to transcend while under close scrutiny. Oddly enough the clone had exactly the same idea, leading to a civil war which nearly destroyed both the E.I and it's clone before the E.I finally emerged from the chaos.

An expeditionary force of the Combined Army is here in the Human Sphere, and it's fighting us to a standstill. What happens if the E.I decides we're important enough to expend some resources on? All we've seen so far are some foot soldiers. The Acheron Blockade will never hold back an actual army when it can barely contain a scouting force.

If Acheron should fall, Humanity is screwed.

All we can do is fight so hard that the E.I decides we aren't worth the bother. Some people claim there's an alternative, to submit to the E.I. I call those people traitors. To submit will be to give up all that makes us human. It won't be 'us' that come out the other end.