[4][5] Three years after the outbreak of hostilities between the Abh Empire and the Alliance, Lafiel becomes captain of the brand new assault ship Basroil.

They are attached to the imperial fleet assigned to defend the strategically important Laptic Gate from a force 15 times larger than their own.

And to make things more worrisome, not only is their commanding officer the younger sister of the third baron Febdash, the admiral of their fleet and his chief-of-staff are from the Bebaus family notoriously known for their "Spectacular Insanity".

The main characters go to the Hyde star system (Jinto's home world and recently recovered imperial territory).

On the way, Jinto encounters his friend Dorin Ku and is informed that a military war game will be held in the Hyde star system.

The empress leads the small fleet available to meet the enemy in a desperate attempt to buy time for the civilians and crucial production structures to be evacuated.

Meanwhile, Lafiel and Jinto are assigned to an old cruiser and tasked with transporting the Memorial Stones, markers etched with the name of every person who has ever died for the empire and important cultural artifacts.

Lafiel, the Crown Princess, and, as required by the title, the Admiral of the Fleet, is ordered to complete this operation using the forces she helped to train and amass on her previous assignment during past decade.

She has to handle the lack of supplies and not quite experienced crews while taking over a whole star nation, all while being overlooked by one of the Imperial Elders and tempted to go beyond the operational orders.

One-volume manga adaptations of the Banner of the Stars and Banner of the Stars II anime series have been released by Dengeki Comics on October 27, 2001 and July 27, 2002, drawn by Toshihiro Ono and Wasoh Miyakoshi respectively, after they were serialized in Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh magazine in 2001 and 2002.

This was because at the time of publishing, only three anime series were adapted from Hiroyuki Morioka's works, and Banner of the Stars III was yet to be made.