Space Princesses: Mirror Garden

That is to say, if I'm allowed to say important-sounding things, democracy is the philosophy of making friends on equal terms, not of creating master-servant relationships. I want to have good friends, and I want to be a good friend to other people. But I don't want a good master or to be a good servant. That's precisely the reason I have not been able to uphold the same flag as you

5320 AE, three years after the singing of the historic Danton Accords, the long war between the Phoenix Empire and the Republic of Jardin has settled down into tense peace and unease. In the Empire, Emperor Sebastian III attempt at democratic reforms ring hollow with the echoes of the brutality of putting down his father in a coup and the execution of several of several of his own siblings. While the core Imperial lands are seeing some attempt at liberalization, the great vassals of the Empire have retreated into isolation and are not so quietly building up their power, the foremost among them the Grand Duchess Sakura-Zel.

In the Republic, the aftermath of the failed Dressler Assault that had attempted to take advantage of the Empire's chaos saw the nearly half the Republic fleet lost in the twin battles of Graveyard and Weishaupt, the resulting losses plus Imperial instability lead to the historic Danton Accord. Now for the first time time over three hundred years, the Republic's attention can be focused towards its other borders. On the opposite side of space from the Empire, lies the Beyond. Dimly explored when it was first encountered in 4000 AE by the nascent Republic, home to minor polities ranging from warring planetary nations to multi-system polities of varying sizes, it also home to many shadow colonies and pirate lairs. With the abject failure of the front, and inability to rectify that, the various military organs of the Republic are now turning their eye towards the vast frontier of the Beyond, long the private playground of Jardin's Gendarmerie.

One such mission is a expedition to the "pirate" kingdom of Gallows's Peak, to deal with a persistent band of planetary marauders that have plagued the farming worlds of the Hearth Belt. The year is 5320 AE and the forces of history are starting to move again and this is your story.