Birthright

Calmly, coolly, he began issuing orders. A feint here, a quick engagement there, a minor sacrifice here, a

major bloodbath over there. And always, when he moved, it was toward Deluros. Within a day his fleet had dwindled down to half a million; by the end of a week, there were less than sixty thousand ... and still he drove toward Deluros. Eight days into the battle the computers could find no alternative to complete surrender, and so he directed his remaining handful of ships himself. At last, brilliant as his resistance had been, he was surrounded and englobed. His eyes darted to the viewscreen, trying to pick out the huge, shining star that was Deluros, but it was still too far away, totally lost amid the light of a million of its neighbors.

He stared dully at the screen. It was just too big, too much for one man to take, to even dream of taking. The only word that occurred to him waspresumptuous. “And to think,” he mused wistfully, just before the firepower of the Navy tore his ship apart, “that Alexander wept because there was nothing left to conquer....” 16: THE CONSPIRATORS

...It was Admiral Ramos Broder (5966-6063 G.E.) who not only brought some measure of stability to the military after the fearful events of 5993, but also managed to ferret out Wain Connough, the prime mover in the death of the Oligarchic Era... —Man: Twelve Millennia of Achievement ...It is this author's opinion that neither Connough and Boron were so black, nor Broder so white, as history paints them. For while it is true that Connough was executed for treason within a month after the fall of the Oligarchy and Broder's conduct during that period and for the next seventy years was exemplary, it seems unlikely that the entire situation could have arisen without the mysterious death of Broder's superior, Admiral Esten Klare (5903-5993 G.E.). Be that as it may, it can safely be said that no other body of similar power ever fell as swiftly as the Oligarchy...

—Origin and History of the Sentient Races, Vol. 8 “Blame it on Grath,” said Broder, looking at a small, illuminated, three-dimensional map of the galaxy. “He's been dead for more than eighty years,” replied Quince. “I don't really see what he has to do with it.”

“He was the first,” said Broder. “He showed them how far one man could come. It was only a matter of time before the other warlords would figure out just how much farther they could get if they banded together.”

“But even Grath never managed to win them over to his side,'’ protested Quince. “He tried right up until his final push toward Deluros.”

“First they had to see that it could be done,” said Broder. “They had to know that an outlaw force, properly marshaled, could attack the Navy and get away with it. Also, Grath didn't need them.”

“In the end he did.”

“They wouldn't have done him any good,” said Broder. “There couldn't have been a hundred million men