after a brief interlude when their location is leaked to the conclave, they are visited by the conclave fleet, consisting of a single ship from every member race of the conclave. the conclave leader, general gau, begs john to either give up the colony or secede from the union and join the conclave. john refuses, and asks general gau to surrender. baffled, the general tells john to make his peace, and orders the conclave fleet to open fire. almost immediately, the entire fleet is annihilated. special forces members, during the prior year, had methodically tracked down every ship in the conclave fleet and attached an antimatter bomb to the hull. the officer who accompanied the erstwhile roanoke colonists then waited for every conclave ship to arrive before detonating the explosives, save the leader's craft. this shatters the conclave into multiple factions, several of which swear vengeance on the union. jane staves off an attempted attack from one faction, remotely controlling the colony's defense lasers, although some people are killed.