The explosion of the interstellar frigate Artemis sent shock waves not only through the filigree orbital mesh but also into every last corner of settled space. Politically, the Unified Systems had been a powder keg for decades, now somebody had lit its fuse, and quite literally so. Artemis had been built by scientists and explorers, it had weathered three stellar wars, and served as the unofficial flagship of the Systems’ vision for humanity. It had housed the Maker’s Guild, many veterans and refugees of the Centauri incident, and thousands of pioneers determined to devote their skill and knowledge to advancing our species.
All that, gone in a fraction of a second.
There had been no immediate suffering, at least, but a long and bloody civil war would ensue, driven by unhinged desires for expansion, fractioning humankind even further. The Blighted Suns would start settling systems like the locusts they had already been seen as; the Democratic Empire of Kepler, too, started annexing neighboring moons unchallenged; whereas the Unified Systems regressed into a cesspool of deluded zealots around an idiot king with a court of infighting bootlickers.
They all prided themselves in having been the first to declare war on the others. The ensuing conflicts saw no winners, only corpses, wreckage, and scorched earth.
Still the spirit of the Artemis prevailed in secret. It became a new powerful movement, passed on by the elders and embraced by the young and the hopeful. Once the incumbent factions run out of fuel for their warmongering, and their generals dead and forgotten, the Artemists will build a new society on the ashes of the previous. For that, it first has to burn.