A breakaway military state founded by the rogue Martian admiral Winston Duarte, who defects through the ring gates with a significant portion of the MCRN fleet and seizes control of the Laconia system. Duarte's forces discover active protomolecule technology on Laconia and use it to build a new class of warship far beyond anything Earth or Mars can field. After decades of isolation, the Laconians emerge through the gates and conquer human civilisation in a single swift campaign, seizing Medina Station and imposing imperial rule across all thirteen hundred systems. Duarte's vision is to unite humanity under a single authoritarian government strong enough to confront whatever force destroyed the gate builders. The empire's grip eventually fractures when Duarte's protomolecule-enhanced body fails, leaving a power vacuum exploited by his subordinates.