As the battle along the Mardok Line drags into its fifteenth hour of combat, the lines of both the Alliance and the Kroats have shifted radically. Gone from the Alliance lines are the massive lynchpins of the Borg, and the Kroats have pulled back from their former eager assaults, instead engaging in a fighting retreat, clustered tight around their massive supercapitals as they make for the edge of the system, harried by the Alliance forces all the while.
These changes leave a strained peace on the systems, as ships jockey and wait for new orders to filter through. It doesn't last long.
All among the fleets, Romulan capitals begin to break off, making for the edge of the systems heading back into Quadrant space, cloaking as they go, while the combined forces of the Dominion, Klingons, and Alliance start to pressure the Kroat battle-balls, the smallest ships diving into and through the edge of the Kroat formations like dolphins harrying a bait-ball, darting in-and-out in fast-moving packs trying to pick off the remaining Kroat escorts while the larger Dreadnought-Style ships get into gun-duels with their much larger counterparts, the smaller Klingon and Alliance ships darting around between volleys of their spinal energy weapons as the turrets and missile silos of the Battleships attempt to swat them from the void with great barrages of explosive ordinance; all while swarms of fightercraft from both sides battled just as viciously as their larger counterparts in furious furballs, bombers trying to get close enough to deliver their payloads while their escorts fought furiously to either get them there or stop their opponents from getting there.
Losses quickly began to mount, the combined fleets feeling the pressure of the loss of both the Romulan heavies and the vessels of the Borg Consensus, as the Kroat supercapitals now had free reign to bully their smaller opponents with their sheer size disparity, massive guns struggling to find targets on enemies so small but utterly devastating when they do make contact.
The combined fleets do their best to minimize loses, rotating out strike-groups of ships with fresh reserves as they begin to rack up damage, but this is a type of warfare that none of the member-states are overly familiar with, and casualties continue to rise as the battle drags on.
And then, as the wrecks of both fleets begin to form genuine hazards for navigation, the tipping point arrives.
In one system, near the edge of the line where the Kroats had been in fewer numbers, the shields of the Kroat Battleship at the heart of the retreating formation shatter at long last under the concentrated fire of dozens of dreadnoughts.
And, like a predator leaping from the shadows, the Romulans return to the battle.
Eight D'deridex's and four Scimitars drop cloak within fifteen kilometers of the Kroat supercapital, and even as the fungoid's ships and turrets turn to engage them, they halt, spread their arrays, and unleash their Thalaron Pulse Weapons.
The void is set alight by the overlapping bursts of sickly green light, the radiation overlapping and penetrating the thick hull of the Kroat warship as if it was air. Within, Mooks and their larger bosses let out bellows of pain as their cells begin to petrify, the dying Kroats fighting their hardening bodies to get off one last shell, launch one last missile, before nearly the whole of the crew is reduced to so much dust.
The battleship, at last, falls silent, but the Romulans pay for it.
Despite being able to keep their shields active, only two of the D'deridex and one Scimitar survive the Kroat reprisals, but now the tactic is proven.
Without the oppressive presence of the eleven kilometer long behemoth to keep the Alliance forces at bay, the battle in the system is quickly mopped up as other Kroat heavy warships are mission-killed by further Thaleron assassinations, while the smaller ships are handled through more conventional means.
This begins something of a snowball effect along the line, as the systems with smaller Kroat presences clear their battlespaces and rush to reinforce those still engaged, and the Romulan capital ships again and again fade into view to bathe the berserker probes in that sickly green light and snuff them out.
It takes nearly twelve further hours of battle, and even then a bare few hundred Kroat ships from the areas with the highest concentration of their forces manage to fight their way out and escape, but the battle in the Void is won decisively, if at cost.
On the ground, things go…about as well as the commanders expected it to go.
The Borg, savaged in space by battle-hungry Kroats seeking peer opponents, have turned to the earth to seek their vengeance for all the voices silenced by the brutish fungoids. The massive constructs descend into the upper atmosphere of the trap-planets, Cubes and Spheres and Juggernauts dominating the skies even as the (comparatively) diminutive forms of Elachi frigates descend to the surface, shifting into their walker form to support their heavily outmatched allies, disruptor cannons and quantum micro-torpedoes carving through waves of Kroat war-machines much more easily than anything else on the Alliance side of the battlefield, breaking dozens of armored assaults beneath their oppressive presence.
Even as wavering lines stabilize, and ground-fire begins to launch skywards at these new, massive targets, the Borg make their displeasure known: tearing whole sections of the rocky earth from the surface and hurling them through Kroat formations, cutting beams lashing out over the cleared grounds to form trenches and barricades for the advancing Alliance troops to occupy and clean up, the Cooperative's swift action soon shattering the major Kroat groupings outside of the protection of the grounded cruisers: even the theater-shields of the smaller prefab bases could not stand against the might of the Consensus, battered to pieces beneath the weight of mountains and swiftly destroyed.
Losses were still taken, of course, but far less than had been experienced so far, and as the battle in space raged, the planets were slowly cleared of Kroat forces until only the Cruiser Citadels remained.
Initially, it was hoped that the Borg's might would be able to batter the Cruiser's theater shields down as they had with the prefab bases, but nearly an hour of such bombardment with no indication of significant progress made the truth clear: an assault would need to finish the remaining holdouts off.
And so, led by the best of the Dominion and Klingon Empire, with the Elachi walkers and the hulking forms of the Klingon's Vivisaurs looming behind them, the order was sounded.
"Charge!"
Founder Lebolo was in motion before the first syllable was even finished passing from the communicator carried by their accompanying Vanguards, flowing up out of the trench carved by the looming Borg Cube in the distance as a thinly-spread fog hugging the ground tightly, their Jem'Hadar following behind a moment later at a full sprint, cloaked by their natural Shroud and moving faster than normal in their advanced armor, almost managing to keep pace with Leblolo.
They'd have to remember to thank Odo again for the gift: these warriors were much better at actually supporting them in combat as opposed to getting in their way.
The theater shield loomed ahead of them, the faintly blue barrier rippling like a lake in rain as the Kroats just behind it fired through at the approaching Alliance troops, almost all Dominion on this front, a mass of armored Jem'Hadar backed up by several of the Elachi's frigates. They, of course, couldn't fire back until they were through the shield, so the Jem'Hadar were approaching universally under Shroud. Despite that, the Kroats had seemed to realize something was happening and were firing blind at the alliance lines; they were cutting down a few of the reptilian soldier race just through sheer volume of fire, but not nearly enough.
Lebolo was swiftly pulling ahead of the rest of the mass of troops, bullets and explosives passing harmlessly through their gaseous form the odd time they dipped low enough, and seconds later they were through the shield, the world overlit by blue and the Kroat trenches and bunkers just ahead, Mooks and their larger superiors shouting and jeering as they emptied their rifles at the unseen opponents, the closing distance causing more and more Jem'Hadar to fall under the rain of bullets.
Lebolo observed the line, and quickly selected a pillbox with several heavy, clattering crew-served weapons firing out of it as their first target.
They flowed through the gunports like a swift wind, the Kroats inside noticing and making confused noises before Lebolo's form returned to Liquid suddenly, forming a pillar in the center of the room from which emerged dozens of spikes, the liquid of their form turning to duranium to impale the fungoids with enough force to pin them to the walls. Even then, the belligerent creatures attempted to lift bulky pistols and rifles towards them, only stopping when Lebolo shot further spikes out inside the beast's bodies, shredding them in a spray of gore and flesh as they flowed back together.
Remaining in a semi-liquid state, they flowed out the back of the bunker and into the trench line, taking a moment to observe as their warriors dropped shrouds and lept into the trench with various warcries, polaron weapons blazing and blades unsheathed as they fell upon the Kroats, who responded with grateful roars of their own and met them blade-to-shovel.
A louder bellow drew the Founder's attention, and they watched as a half-dozen Jem'Hadar were sent flying further down the line in a great blast of energy as a centauroid Kroat in full power armor laid about himself with a crackling trench-club that exploded with lighting whenever it cracked against flesh or earth.
Lebolo idly lashed out with another bladed tendril, the shaped plasma tip slicing the Kroat shooting at them in half, before they began to slide rapidly towards the large fungoid, the Founder's body dissolving into a whirring blur of metal, plasma, and tentacles, parting the Kroats between themselves and their target like so many reeds.
It was, in a word: Horrific.
The forces of the Alliance, led by the Klingons and Dominion, pushed into the Kroat defenses, and on every front the battle swiftly dissolved into a contest of bodies: one the Alliance could win, but not without monstrous costs.
There were only two real 'bright spots' in the whole cluster: the places where Founders engaged the foe directly, and the actions of the Klingon Horta.
Regarding the Changelings, they carved through all but the largest and most powerful Kroats with little issue and all but immune to reprisal, they were able to quickly cut through to their first objectives, bringing in the best of Alliance special forces before usually leading them personally to the final target; the Cruiser shield generators. Each strike team accompanying a Founder was able to achieve their objectives with fewer than 30% casualties, and only two of the Liquoids were lost in the fighting: one to an overloaded Titan reactor that also wiped out nearly 5,000 Jem'Hadar as well, and another to a massive Kroat ensconced inside one of the Cruisers using some sort of unidentified Esoteric ability who was able to render the Founder dead without any indication of physical harm to their body as their final action before death.
Regarding the Horta, the silicoids experienced next to no resistance to their tunnelling efforts, most of the beings able to make their way through Kroat territory directly into their assigned Cruiser's guts, deploying their transporters and bringing in the saboteur teams before assisting them in reaching their objectives.
Unfortunately, unlike the Founder teams, these units usually took heavy casualties completing their objectives, with only the Horta managing to consistently survive these attacks.
However, regardless of the cost, it was done. Each and every Cruiser's shields were eventually brought down, and the might of Alliance warships were able to be brought to bear against the remaining Kroat forces, wiping them out wholesale.
It is a painful and costly victory, but Victory nonetheless.
You have weathered the initial storm. Now…what comes next?
Combat Concluded
Results:
-1 Kroat Warfleet Destroyed, 1 Warfleet escapes at Crippled damage status
-Alliance and Romulan Warfleets reduced to Bloodied Status
-Dominion and Klingon Warfleets reduced to Battleworn Status
Local Space Overview:
Center, North, Northwest, West: Kitomer Alliance
-Formerly the four quadrants of the Milky Way, the displaced territory of the Alliance member States has been merged with an area of the local Hypermassive galaxy, merging smoothly with the preexisting stars and the various tiny polities that were there before, resulting in an area of space with noticeably greater stellar density than elsewhere in 'local' space.
Northeast, Southwest: Minor Powers
-These areas of space consist of dozens of relatively small stellar nations, some within small alliances but most standing alone and constantly engaging in small-scale conflict with each other. No one seems anywhere close to establishing dominance in these regions of space, and as such, they are fairly open to military or diplomatic annexation by a larger, more unified polity.
Southeast: The Killing-Time Kroatanga
-A local berserker probe, the Kroatanga are a violent and brutal race that you've already tangled with once. The Killing-Time are a relatively 'fresh' Kroat Warpath, having only fully unified their sector of space and started lashing out within the last three years. You've delt a significant blow to their military, but they still have reserves to call upon and the utter incapability to do anything other than seek your destruction.
East, South: Contested Space
-Territory once held by various Minor Powers, now under attack from the Killing-Time Kroatanga. They are attempting to form some sort of unified defence against the fungoids, but are having little success, due to the majority of the nations being both small and technologically inferior to the Kroats. Your distraction and destruction of a significant portion of their forces have slowed the Kroat's progress significantly, but the nations here will almost certainly fold under the forces of the Kroats eventually without some kind of outside intervention.
"... and in conclusion we can see that our main weaknesses in this conflict with the Killing-Time Kroatanga where a lack of sufficient super heavy elements to combat their own. Both on planetary battlefields and in space combat. I'm aware the ACSDB is probably sick of hearing this from Romulan admirals but nevertheless, we need bigger ships." The blonde haired Romulan said, and didn't the knowledge that the Star Empire had taken enough human war brides to permanently introduce a new hair colour into their genome shake Silver Garland down to her isometric circuits, gesturing to the PADDs held by the assembled politicians in the Hall of Heroes.
"On your PADDs you'll find the details of my proposal for a stop gap measure until we can build the new shipyards needed to handle ships larger than 2.5km at their largest dimension. My proposal is quite simple and should present minimal logistical disruption. By gutting and replacing these supercarriers' hangar facilities with our largest spinal lance weapons and banks of torpedo launchers, we should be able to match the Killing-Time when they next attack."
"Are we really so sure that another attack is inevitable? And so soon?" interrupted President Okeg, a pleasant man normally the Saurian was visibly uncomfortable. His decision not to be actively involved in the Martok Line was lauded by federation pundits and the starfleet admiralty before the conflict and he had been banking on the good will gained from 'returning to federation values' to win him reelection. Then the casualty lists had come in and starfleet personnel who had lost friends in the battles asked why they could be there to save them while civilians asked why the President had risked such a powerful enemy breaking through and entering Federation space. Now his polling numbers were dropping and he was desperate, in Garland's opinion, to take good news back to his news services.
"I'm afraid so Mr. President. The testimony of our new neighbours was confirmed by a cross alliance team of geneticists who examined Kroatanga remains from the Martok Line. They found that this drive to kill and commit war is as core to them as blinking is for progenitor seeded species such as you or I. They are also connected to some kind of psychic link, similar to the Borg collective, which further drives their violence. According to Ambassador Odo the Founders think they could create a retrovirus to lower their aggression but they warn that such work would take at least 5 years. More likely over a decade. May I continue with my presentation?"
"Of course, my apologies for interrupting. The Federation will be pursuing that and alternative means to pacify the Kroatanga. We refuse to be party to a genocide." Well Garland would give Okeg this, he may be an electoral opportunist but even when the cameras were off he really did believe in the federation dream of peaceful coexistence.
"Thank you, Mr. President. The problem of a lack of heavy ground armour will be both easier and harder to solve than the problem in space. One the harder side of things all the members of the Alliance have rejected a need for mass armour formations in modern combat. Even against enemies who did use heavy armour like the Voth and Vaadwaur our lack of such formations has not been crippling. This is because the Voth and Vaadwaur were also both post-transporter and post-replicator tech militaries. Even when they brought heavy armour against us it was in support of and within the paradigm of transporter mobile infantry being the rulers of the battlefield. This does not hold true with the Kroatanga. Their mass formations were immune, at least partially, to our conventional means of dealing with them and their individual infantry and vehicles also outmatched all but our best troops." The admiral giving the presentation swiped her hand through the air and the holographic screen changed from casualty report statistics to a diagram of an Elachi Qulash Walker. "However there were some bright spots. While previously the Elachi were the only military known to field ground vehicles this large, the Kroat also brought what are now being called 'war engines' to the battles on the Martok Line. Unlike most of our ground forces Qulash Walkers were able to match and even sometimes overpower their opposite numbers. While Ambassador Tarsev will be giving a presentation next on the doctrine of Walkers and how they can work with our existing doctrines, the Elachi do not have the numbers to provide Walkers to every Alliance invasion or defence force. It is for this reason that I am proposing shifting some of each member's screenship production to the creation of new designs of war engines that can serve as starships and switch to a ground warfare form as needed in the same manner as the Qulash. These war engines will be able to counter Kroatanga mass formations and also function as nodes for the groundside transporter network. Unlike building larger ships these will not require new infrastructure. All alliance members shipyards should be able to construct these in large numbers once the designs are finalised. This concludes my analysis on the military capabilities of the Killing-Time Kroatangamas demonstrated at the Battle of the Martok Line. The floor is now open for questions."
Silver Garland flashed her running lights and bobbed to signal her intent to talk, beginning once the admiral nodded at her, "Admiral Antreidies could you give us a firmer estimate on the Alliance Fleet Intelligence Service's predictions regarding the timing of future Kroatanga attacks?" She didn't point out that Antreidies had failed to answer President Okeg's earlier question regarding the timing of the next Kratanga attack. No need to embarese the Romulan for lacking a perfect memory, this was her first presentation to the assembled Alliance heads of state and ambassadors as head of Alliance Intelligence and besides she was only organic after all.
"Of course Madam Chairwoman. Computer return to slide 23. As you all can see…"
RP spent
75/75 RP
Diplomatic Orders
-Spend 6 RP to send the Enterprise-F (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the Southwest Minor Powers with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send the Lleiset (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the Northeast Minor Powers with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send the Bortasqu' (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the South Contested Space with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send Odo and Loriss (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the East Contested Space with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
Intelligence Orders
-Spend 8 RP on counter-intelligence aimed against the Killing-Time Kroatanga. While they may seem straightforward it would be unwise to underestimate them. In particular seek out and prevent any attempts to seed the Kroat Military Ecological Complex behind the Alliance's defensive lines.
-Spend 4 RP on scouting the square directly north of the Delta Quadrant.
-Spend 4 RP on scouting the square directly west of the Alpha Quadrant.
Research Orders
-ACSDB Anti-Kroatanga Super-Capital Initiative:
Use the free slot to perform crash modifications to currently building vo'Devwl fleet carriers, Jupiter fleet carriers, Jarok fleet carriers, Ra'nodaire fleet carriers and Vanguard Jem'hadar Support Carriers to make them into crude Kroat "Cruiser" Killers. While these ships will still only be roughly 2 KM on their longest dimensions (destroyers by Kroatanga reckoning) their enormous hangar bays will be entirely removed and replaced with dozens of fixed forward torpedo launchers and spinal energy weapons. They are exchanging all carrier capacity and most ability to effectively fight ships of their own size or smaller in order to pack on the firepower to combat the Kroat cruisers.
-ACSDB Walker Initiative:
Use the 1 RP slot to begin work on designing purpose built titan scale war engines other than the Elachi Walker. This is hoped to involve less trouble than designing whole new Main Battle Units due to existing infrastructure for building vehicles of this size. It is also hoped that the doctrinal and engineering experience of the Elachi will make this an easier task to design and integrate into existing doctrine than brand new MBUs. The Alliance itself is not pursuing a war engine design at this time, currently preferring for the AFS to use member state designs until more is understood about how craft of this size influence ground warfare.
Each member state has their own designs but they are managed through the ACSDB to ensure they fulfil the tactical need for heavy armour:
Klingon qa'rol (lit "Big Bird") class Bird of Prey/Walker
While based on the advanced M'chala Pilot Bird-of-Prey only the "head", neck and nacelles of the M'chala survived intact to the final iteration of this design. Appearing as an ungainly and underarmoured M'chala in space once this Walker lands it resembles a large flightless bird (or perhaps dromaeosaur). While it has two anti-war engine disruptor cannon turrets and five anti-air/vehicle/infantry disruptor cannon turrets the qa'rol's primary weapons in ground combat are its nanopulse energy blades. These are two massive swords formed from its wings supplemented by three nanopulse energy claws on each of its two feet. The only mechanical war engine in the alliance designed primarily for melee combat the qa'rol has powerful antigrav systems, ventral impulse engines and redundant jump articulators in its legs to enable it to leap around the battlefield at ludicrous speeds. It also maintains the M'chala BoP's cloaking device and subspace jump teleport system for both ambushes and to help it reach melee range.
Gorn Ankylosaur class Support Vessel/Walker
While its overall design and performance resembles the older Varanus class Support Vessel while in space this is due to convergent evolution and shared design principles rather than a sign of shared systems. When it lands this Walker folds its warp nacelles into its armoured body and deploys four stout legs. While its land speed is relatively slow due to its short and widely spaced legs this is not seen as a weakness as its main duty is defensive in nature.
The Ankylosaur is armed with the traditional disruptor beams and photon torpedoes of a Gorn Support Vessel for use against enemy war engines, alongside smaller photon micro-torpedoes and anti-air/ground disruptor turrets, most of its mass is taken up by thick armour plating and its Phalanx shield array shared with the Phalanx class Support Vessel. This device projects a massive theatre shield with zero damage bleedthrough in front of the Walker. Unlike many theatre shields the Phalanx cannot be passed through by infantry or vehicles.
While unmatched as a defensive measure the shield does have flaws, it cannot be moved after deployment (though the Ankylosaur itself can) and is as impermeable to friendly weapons as it is to enemy ones. It can also only cover one facing at a time and will eventually be forced to drop under enough enemy fire. This shield can not only be used defensively to defend positions but also to cover friendly advances and cut off enemy retreats or reinforcements.
Starfleet Suraya Bay class Emergency Weather Control Ship
While the Federation can and does build purely defensive starships, wherever possible they prefer to create designs as useful in peace as during war. Named by the Risian lead designer after one of the planet's famous resorts, the Suraya Bay uses the tough and versatile Nova type hull frame of the Rhode Island class Scout Ship as a basis, maintaining its full tactical abilities and its ability to land on planetary surfaces. The Rhode Island class' astrometrics and stellar phenomena labs (along with their dedicated sensors) have been completely removed and replaced with weather control and remote geoengineering systems derived from the Risian Weather Control Ship. These allow the Suraya Bay class to supplement its conventional phaser beams, photon torpedoes and photon micro-torpedoes with lightning strikes, tornadoes, cyclones, rainstorms, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma swells, wildfires and blizzards. In peacetime these ships will serve as disaster relief for planets whose weather management systems fail or have yet to be installed.
Andorian Zabathu Escort/Ice Crawler
Based on the Andorian Kuthar, Chimesh and Thozyn Pilot Escorts this new ship moves their pair of oversized and overpowered wing phaser cannons from the wing tips onto the dorsal surface of the ship in turret mounts. With the rear turret above the fore turret in a layout similar to the superfiring dreadnought type battleships of earth and andoria's naval pasts.
While in space the Zabathu functions much the same as other andorian escorts. When landing on a planet it deploys three massive sets of tracks (despite the name of Ice Crawler the Zabathu can travel on any terrain) one beneath its forward primary hull and one beneath each wing joint. These tracks are articulated to allow the Crawler to manoeuvre over uneven terrain with ease. When landed the Zabathu's outer wings fold over its inner wings and cover its warp nacelles. This is mainly to protect the wings themselves from stress and collisions but also offers additional protection to the warp nacelles.
The fore phaser cannon turret can elevate above the rear turret to allow them to superfire to the rear arc and bring the Crawlers full firepower to bear in any direction. The dorsal surface of the main turrets feature smaller anti-air 360 degree phaser beams. The craft's nose contains two torpedo launchers able to fire photon torpedoes or photon micro-torpedoes while smaller anti-infantry/vehicle phaser beams are arrayed around the forward main hull's equatorial trench and on each end of the track pods at the wing joints.
Romulan Khellid class Drone Ship/Drone Walker
The existing Drone Ship, which keeps its veritable beam emitters and it's fore plasma torpedo launcher, modified with two pairs of legs attached to its forward hull and three pairs of much larger legs attached to its rear hull, making it appear somewhat like a leaping isopod or flea. This war engine specialises in asymmetric warfare, using its cloaking device, extensive ECM suits and ability to holographically camouflage itself as other war engines or parts of the geography to launch ambushes and hit-and-fade attacks. Its beam weapon emitters can change their sensor signature to match the war machine it is pretending to be, though this obviously cannot help it pretend to be armed with non-energy weapons. Like the purely spaceborn drone ships these walkers are controlled remotely by telepaths over multi-light year distances.
Suliban Coil class Cell Ship/Cell Walker
An example of Suliban modular ship design taken to its illogical conclusion. This colonial ship is anchored a large central corvette sized cell ship attached to which are dozens of strikecraft sized cell ships slaved to its bridge control and hundreds of even smaller autonomous modified cargo cells. The standard formation of these parasite craft forms long tendrils from the central control cell ship, giving the overall war engine the appearance of an earth octopus or similar derived mollusks. The central control cell is unarmed, instead completely dedicated to controlling and powering its parasite craft. The strikecraft sized cells are equipped with anti-air/vehicle plasma beams and plasma torpedoes while the smaller cells are equipped with anti-infantry plasma beams. The cells of all sizes can break apart and reform as needed, for example to dodge attacks, eject cells damaged beyond use and field repair or to assume formations which combine their plasma weapons into anti-war engine attacks. In war engine melee the tendrils can be coated in plasma and used as flails or crushing weapons in a grapple. This war engine is the Romulan Republic's mainline fighter and maintains that state's focus on not wasting its limited population by using uncrewed drones to absorb fire. Only the central control cell is crewed and it is equipped with a cloaking device to help it make a quick escape while its drone cells sacrifice themselves for it.
Dominion Aehallh
A 300 meter long, genetically modified and "uplifted" Aehallh. Like the Vorta and Jem'hadar these are an entire species of infertile and sexless clones created in factories by the Dominion. Also like the Vorta and Jem'hadar they are fully sophont but have a genetic drive to worship and obey the Founders.
Their base organism was already capable of growing to the size of small Titans, burrowing through sandy deserts at high speeds in the manner of an earth snake, was resistant to vehicle scale energy weapons fire and able to "vomit" acid projectiles powerful enough to destroy military duranium structures and artillery weapons. All of these abilities were kept and even enhanced through the addition of sub-sapient silicoid symbionts (derived from the Horta) implanted throughout the Aehallh's epidermis. These symbionts render the Aehallh even more resilient to weapons fire, provide structural support via an exoskeleton to allow the Aehallh to grow to their 300 meter length and the acid they secrete (along with their practically frictionless leading surfaces) allows the creature to burrow through even solid rock, though not quite at the speed of true Horta. The Aehallh's natural acid attack has also been improved to match that of a Horta. The Founders also gave the Aehallh sophonthood and a variation of the Jem'hadar's quick maturation cycle and hyper efficient metabolism.
Which is not to say they are left entirely to rely on their enhanced biology. In combat they are equipped with a fully covering environment suit (which is immune to their own acid) with additional armour plating around critical areas, fully covering personal shields, their three mandibles are fitted with polaron energised blades, their tail is fitted with a launcher capable of firing quantum torpedoes or micro-torpedoes, their armour contains rings of anti-air/vehicle/infantry polaron beams at intervals down their body, sonic emitters in their armour that liquify the ground around them to compensate for the armour preventing them from using their acid to burrow, at their mouth are nozzles that allow them to use their ranged acid attack (along with allowing them to change its shape and projectile properties) and between their mandibles are three war engine scale polaron cannons.
Their environment suit functions as an EVA suit and is fitted with strike craft scale warp and impulse engines and anti-gravity systems powered by fusion reactors so they can fulfil the design brief of being able to function as Corvettes and perform their own take offs and landings. They are relatively poor at space combat compared to their competitors but make up for this with their unique attributes in ground combat. (In terms of fighting style, imagine a scaled up version of the Slitherfang from Horizon: Forbidden West.)
Dominion Attack Ship/Attack Walker
Made by attaching a six legged walker module to the underside of an old Dominion War era Attack Ship (which have been gradually replaced by the Dominion anyway for the last few years) this is the simplest of the new designs being rolled out by the Alliance. The attack ship has no modifications for its rolle beyond the leg module (which makes the ship look even more beetle like then before) and is planned to be used in mass waves by the Dominion while the larger, more specialised and slower to produce Aehallh serve as elite formations.
Borg Cooperative Planetary Assault Probe/Planetary Assault Walker
A redesign of the Collective's Planetary Assimilation Probe. This vessel's landing legs are reinforced, lengthened and articulated to allow it to walk. Rather than use its nanovirus dispenser to assimilate the planet and its population the PAW uses them to provide medical aid and mechanical repair to friendly units in a wide radius surrounding the walker. In extreme situations the Walker can plant itself into the ground via its landing spike and use its nanovirus to assimilate the surrounding land and ecosystem to rapidly transform it into a redoubt for friendly forces.
Of course it is far from defenceless, with omnidirectional Plasma, Cutting and Tractor beams and the ability to form melee combat tendrils as needed. To defend itself from infantry boarding attacks it can grow autonomous anti-infantry turrets on its outer or inner hull or fabricate them on nearby ground. It can also use its nanovirus offensively to damage enemy cells and molecular bonds, though this can be counteracted and defended against in the same way as the Collective's nanovirus.
Industrial Orders
-Spend 19 RP to finish "upgrading" (really repairing following the Hur'q conflict that happened preISOT) the Gamma Quadrant to Industrialised.
-Spend 7 RP to upgrade the Beta Quadrant to Heavily Defended.
Military Orders
-Spend 1 RP to fully repair the Romulan Fleethorde
-Spend 1 RP to fully repair the Alliance Fleethorde
-Spend 3 RP to fully repair the Dominion Fleethorde
-Spend 3 RP to fully repair the Klingon Fleethorde
-Station the Federation Fleethorde and undamaged portions of the other fleethordes on defensive readiness by the Beta Quadrant/Killing-Time border. These forces will include the AFS Khitomer (Legend) and be under the overall command of General Martok (Legend).
Before anything else pops up to start the procrastination train again, posting now. Apologies for too many delays; will pass for polishing after sleep.
One week has passed since the arrival of the Pan-Human Commonwealth's Expeditionary Fleet on the other side of the Great Rift. There was a palpable air of heady anticipation among the personnel and colonists who had joined the initiative. Even with the risks involved, nobody could deny the shared excitement at the prospect of exploring a brand new universe, which only grew once the fleet's scouts and probes confirmed that this universe was teeming with signs of intelligent life.
As the fleet secured the host system of the Rift along with the surrounding dozen uninhabited star systems and scouted for potential habitable worlds, their first major challenge emerged. Two unknown fleets of starships, apparently mutually hostile, were on a direct course toward the Commonwealth's newly claimed space. Alas, despite the fleet's success in translating the aliens' language, their respective broadcasts alone did not provide enough context to verify either side's story.
After some deliberation among Fleet Command, the civilian Expeditionary General Council, and the Heroic Spirits and Masters embedded from the Chaldea Security Organization, it was agreed that this situation needed to be handled proactively. The majority of the Commonwealth's forces would remain in the newly-secured territory and focus on shoring up defenses, while the 1st Fleet under the command of Admiral Felix Trevelyan would embark on an intercept course with the two inbound fleets.
<"Confirming final trajectory to re-emergence into real space. Exit vector confirmed stable.">
<"Zero Sail system parameters confirmed nominal, real space anchor point is locked in. Initiating existence translation and waveform synchronization.">
<"All ships reporting nominal status and aligned on exit vector. Surfacing from Void Space in T-minus ten seconds.">
Thousands of glowing, three-dimensional ripples appeared in the fabric of spacetime as the 1st Fleet expertly breached back into material reality, accompanied by short-lived showers of excited spiritron particles and other exotic radiation. The streamlined, white-and-silver vessels sported a combination of aerodyne curves and angular surfaces, with central elongated hulls bracketed by large, well-blended propulsion nacelles toward the stern, almost reminiscent of tucked-in wings.
<"Real space emergence successful, all ships accounted for.">
Admiral Trevelyan leaned forward at the command holo-table on the flagship's bridge as sensor data and other information began to fill in. The 45-year old officer cut a somewhat lean figure, clean-shaven with short-cut semi-curly dark brown hair, light tan skin, and hazel eyes. He was joined by three Heroic Spirits: Odysseus, central hero of his namesake from Greek mythology, Rider-class; Zheng He, renowned explorer, diplomat, and fleet commander from China's Ming dynasty, Rider-class; and the Queen of Sheba, legendary ruler and half-djinn sage from biblical lore, Caster-class.
The fleet has exited just past the inner age of this star system's main asteroid belt, and were currently about a half-AU distant from the first of the two unknown fleets. The larger of the two was still trailing behind and had yet to enter the system. Trevelyan and the rest of the human staff already had their hardsuits donned, in case this attempt at first contact went south.
"Alright everyone, it's showtime," Trevelyan announced. "Comms, are we good to go?"
"Affirmative sir, comms are nominal and the translation program is online," the communications chief replied from his station.
"Very good, open a channel," he replied. The main bridge display lit up with a HUD indicating that they were live and transmitting. A scout squadron sent ahead of the 1st Fleet would relay the same broadcast to the larger pursuing fleet from a safe distance.
"Attention unknown fleets. This is Admiral Felix Trevelyan of the Pan-Human Commonwealth Space Defense Force, commander of the 1st Fleet. You are both presently on a course toward territory settled by the Commonwealth Expeditionary Fleet. We seek to establish a presence in this region by peaceful expansion, diplomacy and trade, however we will not tolerate the trespass of warring factions into our territory. I must ask you both to fully identify yourselves and state your intentions."
The 1st Fleet (a single Base Magnitude+1 fleet) advances to meet the first of the incoming fleets at interplanetary distance, opening communications to notify them of our presence and verify their intentions, as well as to try and gather more information on them in general. A smaller recon squadron will keep tabs on the larger pursuing fleet and also relay the same first contact message. A few dozen Heroic Spirits and several battalions of Dragoons (supersoldier mages) have been added to augment the 1st Fleet's strength in case of outbreak of hostilities. The fleet will have its barriers powered up, but will keep its weapons in stand-by mode, and will avoid aggressive sensor sweeps or pings.
How the 1st Fleet acts next will depend on the unknown fleets' response, but if they respond with hostility, the fleet will execute a fighting retreat while collecting preliminary battle data to better ascertain their capabilities. If they are much more powerful or advanced than our forces, then the fleet will prioritize exiting the battlespace and linking up with reinforcements. Same if they are roughly at parity with the 1st Fleet. If they are substantially inferior in capability, the fleet will move to engage and neutralize the threat before they can get closer to our territory.
Meanwhile the rest of the fleet will remain in the settled star systems and focus on building up infrastructure and defenses.
The first fleet to arrive is hesitant to stop at your cordon, a Commander Tai asking for safe harbor as a condition of stopping. At your insistence, however, they seem unwilling to push their luck, dropping out of FTL in bursts of ionizing radiation. It is indeed a damaged fleet that limps into the system, irradiated crystal and great rents and venting gasses telling a tale without words. Worryingly, further attempts to communicate with the second fleet inbound find only silence at this point, while your diplomats work to get the fuller story out of the survivors on the fleeing ships.
They claim to be retainers in service to the warlord Yu-An, from the fringes of the former Celestial Empire, once a mighty and prosperous realm, fled here as part of a desperate gambit to divide the forces of the bandit king. A tithe of remaining forces, made out to be half the still standing force, fleeing with messages of carrying the last hope of the region, the heir to the province's capital whom the bandit king had sought to seize as a source of legitimacy. To meet fresh extraversals was apparently unexpected, but far better than the expected outcome of leading the pursuing forces into a Kroatanga infestation.
As the talks drag on, teasing out more details and corroborating them as best you can, the Admiral's office is kept appraised of the incoming wake of the second fleet, and the fleet's weapons stay ready, the crews alert and formations intact. Which is a lot more than anyone can say for the pursuers dropping hot into the system as near as they can manage to the first fleet to arrive. Beams of ionizing radiation lash out apparently before sensors clear from their arrival, judging by how many of them miss.
Amidst the brief chaos of battle, many have lamented how even the best of plans tend to fall apart, and for once it happens in the best of ways. For you, at least. The enemy apparently expected weight of armor and vessel to carry the day for them, and exited in a jumbled formation already surrounded by your quite alert fleet, and though certainly dangerous the tactical advantage tells. Orders to carry out a fading battle are set aside in the face of tactical and numeric superiority, whatever their own plan was after dropping into realspace deep in the system on top of their quarry not having the chance to come to pass.
From the few survivors to take escape pods, your diplomats hear another side of the story. Of a warlord Bang, who had gathered the might of the commons to his cause and was making steady progress in uniting the lesser lords beneath his rulership. To hear their tale, Yu-An was an usurper who had taken the Xin provincial capital by bribery and held the heir captive in the hopes of deriving legitimacy for the next generation.
In time, the remaining fleet completes what repairs they can and seek leave to return, offering on their departure an odd disc of crystal that seems prone to refracting rainbows everywhere when any light hits it, and weighs more than its mass would imply. An Oathstone, they identify, symbolizing the favor you have offered them, and which will one day be returned.
The most pressing situation resolved, attention turns to other reports, and collating what is known of this new galaxy.
Closest to home, it becomes clear that the anomaly masking communications in the system you emerged in is not an anomaly, as hundreds more show a similar effect. Poking in doesn't show anything particularly problematic in them, just a few independent vessels hiding in them, but considering you stumbled on two black holes similarly cloaked it's safe to say that there is more. The other thing noticed among the fleet among the first few months in this new galaxy is that pregnancy rates are higher than expected, to a sufficient degree that statisticians tracking things are stumped. It is finally one of your Casters who is able to spot the cause, noting a subtle and mostly worn down divine blessing effecting the region.
Further afield, you gain information on two of the nearby regions of note from the two warlord factions you found. To the northwest are the Kroatanga, a violence-loving people once built as living weapons, and who excel in warfare. The local war is known as the Runt-Slappers, a menace to the region and apparently the end of more than a few extraversal visitors.
To the east lay the heartlands of the former Celestial Empire, known today as the Birth Stars. Both sides you hear from are confident that it will once again be reunited, though when or by whom is yet wildly in the void. Nonetheless, you have a standing invitation to visit Yu-An's holdings, where it sounds like you will be warmly received.
N15 - SW:
Communication Deadzones: A significant number of celestial bodies in this system appear to be under an effect cutting them off from communication and sensors. A boon for hiding things, but by that same token you're not sure what is hidden there.
(A military action to poke the mystery box is needed.)
Mandate (Fertility): A lingering blessing covers the region, promoting population growth. Currently, it doesn't do much, but with some work could be restored to be a potent boon.
(Gain 1 population per turn. The blessing can be used for 20% off on a population growth kiloproject.)
O16 - W:
Domain of Yu-An, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have gained a favor with this faction in the Birth Stars.
Domain of Bang, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have earned the enmity of this faction in the Birth Stars.
M15 - N:
Runt-Slappers: A minor horde of Kroatanga dwell here, fighting everything that moves and several varieties of immovable object as well.
In defense of Arrakis was arrayed the largest fleet assembled since the Battle of Corrin, the engagement that had named the Imperial House during the ancient days of the Jihad. By some estimates, it was even larger than that. Three quarters of the Guilds Heighliner fleet carried the Guilds entire battle fleet, the entire Imperial Fleet, and the ships of the vast majority of the Houses of the Landsraad. However, much of the fleet was not in orbit of Arrakis or any of the 8 planets of the Canopus system, but held in reserve in a neighboring system. The Canopus system itself had been turned into a veritable death trap. Small tripwire forces were placed into select orbits as bait, and atomic mines had been placed in the path of Hohmann and Brachistochrone trajectories the Mentat strategists had deemed the most likely avenues of advance for the Kroatanga. The moons and minor planets of Canopus had been heavily garrisoned with legions from across the Imperium. More than half of the assembled fleet stood ready to spring the trap and jump to the Canopus system once it was determined that the majority of the Kroatanga force had been engaged.
The Padishah Emperor himself is present, placing his flag on his own War Yacht, as part of the main in-system force orbiting Canopus' second gas giant. He was convinced that this battle would make or break his legacy as the first Emperor to reign in this new era, and believed that his presence would ensure that he would either be remembered as a war hero, or a martyr. Better than the legacy staining the Harkonnens, whose ancestors had fled the battle of Corrin. They had been placed in the defense fleet holding the orbits and lagranges around Arrakis. It was their fiefdom, and they would ensure that no elements of the military-ecological complex of the kroats landed on Arrakis. A restive indigenous population and dangerous megafauna were bad enough, the Baron and Emperor both shuddered at the thought of dealing with a Kroat population. Not to mention the effects the MEC could have upon the delicate ecological conditions that enabled spice production. House Atreides had been given command of the relief fleet, reinforced by two legion groups of Sardaukar soldier-fanatics. House Ordos was in command of the tripwire forces scattered across the system, ready to alert the main force to battle.
Corralling a fleet this size from dozens of vassals with their own interests and petty rivalries had been like herding cats. Duke Leto had grumbled at being the cavalry for the defense of his arch-rivals fief, but had been swayed by the dual promises of a CHOAM directorship, and his son and heir Paul receiving the Siridar-Governorship of Arrakis upon his death. House Ordos had been hesitant to accept such a dangerous position, but were persuaded by the promise of glory, and the elevation of many of Ordos' Minor clients to the status of House Major. And the Harkonnens had to be threatened with the humiliating alternative of being deployed on the line alongside a blocking detachment to have them take planetwatch positions above Arrakis. And that was just the three largest houses. But after weeks of maneuvering and scheming, the Emperor was satisfied that he had ensured both competent command and control, and that "friendly" fire incidents to settle old scores would be kept to a minimum.
Facing this was the single most dangerous foe the Imperium had faced in living memory, and far beyond even that. A Kroatanga battle fleet, carrying hundreds of thousands of soldiers able to overmatch all but the finest soldiers in the Imperium, inflicting up to 3:1 casualty ratios in infantry engagements. In the tight close combat of boarding actions, this had risen up to 5:1 casualties as they deployed flamethrowers and poison gas able to bypass infantry shields. And while the crude appearance of their ships and equipment made them appear to be savage beasts, there was an intelligence behind them. Additionally, the Imperium wasn't fighting a mere barbarian invasion: they were fighting an entire ecology, one dedicated to nothing but war. While this gave a negligible advantage in space combat, it gave the Kroats a near-insurmountable advantage planetside. This battle, and this war, would be won in space. Any Kroats making planetfall on Arrakis would be a disaster, the Kroats landing in force a catastrophe.
In the balance was the key to functioning and stable interstellar travel. If Arrakis and its spice production facilities fell, the Imperium would at best be relegated to a backwater collection of squabbling worlds in this new universe. At worst, it would mean the end of known human civilization.
The Kroatanga would have their decisive battle. Shaddam Corrino IV would make sure he would win it, or die trying.
The assembled force will split into three forces, in descending order of size:
A large reserve on standby in a nearby system, headed by Duke Leto Atreides.
The "primary" force, consisting of a primary battlegroup orbiting the Canopus system's second gas giant under the command of the Padishah Emperor, who is dual-hatted as the overall CinC. This force includes a variety of smaller "tripwire" forces dispersed throughout the system.
A planetwatch force in Arrakis' planetary system, charged with ensuring as few kroatanga - ideally none - land on Arrakis as is possible. This force is under the command of Planetary Governor Rabban.
Once one of the tripwire forces makes contact with the enemy, the other is to join the contacting force, and the outsystem reserve will be given the signal to jump in-system. The goal is to goad the Kroatanga into thinking the force defending Arrakis is smaller than it is, pin them, and destroy them by force of numbers. The ideal result is to achieve an envelopment and destruction-by-detail of the Kroatanga fleet.
The fleet is to attempt to avoid boarding actions, with a preference for destroying the kroats at-range with atomics and lasguns.
The fate of mankind rests on the outcome of this battle. If the Kroats take, or even cripple Arrakis, then the Spice production will cease. Without Spice, there will be no FTL travel; Without FTL travel, human civilization will collapse, easy prey for the Kroats or any other gang of marauders. Win, and the Imperium will survive, perhaps long enough to make its mark even upon the impossibly vast galaxy that is Vyranodasik.
Lose, and everything humanity has done before now has been for nothing.
When the Kroats pour in, the assembled House and Imperial fleets fight appropriately for the stakes involved. Upon encountering the main Kroatangan armada, the first tripwire squadron does a quick estimate on their odds of making it back to the rest of the fleet, send a warning message that the Kroats are on their way, and charge headlong into the most exposed contingent of Kroatangan ships they can find, salvoing every atomic they have and accelerating to ramming velocities. They are wiped out to a man within moments, but the attitude they display sets the expectation for how human servicemen will behave in the battle.
The primary defense force trades space as best they can, keeping the Kroats at a distance and salvoing away with long-ranged weapons. Atomics, previously hoarded, are new employed liberally, with stockpiles built up or abandoned being emptied in minutes. But they cannot trade space forever, not when every push backwards means the Kroats move closer and closer to Arrakis. Soon enough the lines are starting to close in places, and Kroatangan boarding assaults and bomber strikes inflict a heavy toll. Fortunately, they do not have to hold forever, and it is at this point that the Atreides-led reserve is committed in full, appearing behind the main Kroatangan fleet, catching the fungal horde in a vise.
Any human army would be thrown into panic, however momentary, at such an unfolding disaster. But the Kroats were quite literally made for war, and with retreat looking impossible, they simply resolve to have as much "fun" as they can before their inevitable demise. With no regard for self-preservation, they redouble their efforts to hurl themselves at the human defenders. Crippled ships vomit drop pods that hurl downwards onto the moons of Canopus, or hurl at enemy warships to escalate the series of boarding actions, each of which takes a fearsome toll on the far more fragile humans. The Padishah Emperor's own War Yacht was boarded twice, each attempt repelled only at a heavy cost to his Sardaukar bodyguards.
Still, the Kroats are dying. Slowly and at a heavy cost, but they are dying. A few squadrons manage to fight their way free to Arrakis, punching into the Harkonnen planetwatch force, and after a frantic battle, they are wiped out with only a handful of drop pods being launched at the world. Thankfully, they all appear to have landed in the most desolate desert regions. Expeditions are sent to purge whatever survivors remained regardless of the expense, which is able to finish off the couple hundred stragglers (though one group reports a scene that they described as "traumatizing" upon seeing several dozen Kroats grappling onto a Sandworm.) Perhaps a couple Kroat spores will have survived, but a close watch on all landing sites should prevent any real damage from being inflicted on Arrakis's spice-giving ecology.
The worst is over, and the threat of annihilation by Kroat hands has passed. It will take years to purge the Kroats entirely from overrun worlds across the Imperium, and even then most of those will never be truly free from feral Kroatangan infestations. But that lengthly process will not require the full might of the Impierum's resources. Now the time has come to look outwards, into the new galaxy that it has found itself in.
-Imperium of the Known Universe (1; Center): The displaced territory of the now incorrectly named Imperium. Having just fended off a Kroatangan marauder assault, the Imperium is now looking to make its mark in Vyranodasik. (Territory is Industrialized and Heavily Defended; 5 RP already committed to upgrading to Heartlands.)
-Art Installation (1; Southwest): A relatively barren set of systems with the only distinguishing feature being a massive, AU-tall "art" installation, which seems to depict a group of horrifying monsters and mad-sophonts trying to murder each other. It's also guarded by a fleet of automated defense drones and cultist worshippers that will shoot anyone who damages the installation. Or criticizes the skills of whoever made it. Or looks at it without enough admiration.
-Krincils Defense League (2; South, Southeast): A coalition of alien nations that have joined together for mutual defense against Druzhran and Tendriculous incursions from the Hopeless Abyss (as well as the ever-present Kroatanga.) With some light patronage from the Sentienality of Polrus, they have managed to carve out a decent set of space where the average sophont suffers only a minor chance of being captured in a slave raid or devoured by horrible shadow monsters.
-Tau Empire (2; East, Northeast): Another extrauniversal arrival in Vyranodasik, albeit apparently a more intentional one than the Imperium. The Tau Empire's presence in the Sector appears to have been part of a deliberate and widespread colonization effort, with long-ranging fleets having been thrown all across Vyranodasik and its Satellite Galaxies, making use of large-scale cloning and heavy automation to quickly build up once they've found a place to settle. This branch appears to be making overtures to the Krincils Defense League to join them as part of the "Greater Good."
-Warring States (1; West): A sector of space dominated by feuding warlords, Kroatangan warbands, and petty empires. Few have the numbers to pose much of a challenge to a massed invasion force, but they do at least have modern ToEs and much wider variety of weapons than the Imperium is used to fighting with.
-Tis'il Petty Regnum (2; North, Northwest): A sector of space dominated by what can only be described as a massive, multi-hundred kilometer long, space-faring worm. This so-called "Hograthux" also benefits from psionic abilities that let it dominate entire planetary populations into serving as its worshipping slaves, while other nations have bent the knee and offered tribute and vassalhood simply to avoid such a fate. It is unlikely that it intends to stop its current attempts at expansion anytime soon unless it is forced to stop.
Target: The Covenant, 7F-A2
Nature: Intelligence Gathering (Stealthy)
Resources: 6RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: The Covenant is a threat, not the most pressing threat but one that has directly attack us and dared to genocide our homeworld like the Jedi before them. Thanks to the information taken from the Arbiter we have gained valuable information onto the nature of the covenant, their military, High Charity, and more importantly The Ring. The Covenant is a military force that requires precision and The Ring and the implications of what this Great Journey is are troubling. Based on how they worship ancients and their Great Journey outright implies Galactic Genocide it can be presumed that whatever this Ring is, it's a superweapon and one of such scale that the risk of it's activation is too great. It could be anywhere and it's activation could spell doom for just the Covenant, everyone around them, or the entire supermassive galaxy.
The goal is to gather precise locations of Covenant Military Fleets, Infrastructure, where High Charity is, and the location of Halo Ring. And if possible, establish an Intelligence FOB on the Ring to gather more information on the nature of what it is, how it can be used, and how it can possibly be destroyed.
Sith Espionage: 1d6+4, rolled an eight post modifiers
Covenant Counter Espionage: 1d6+3, rolled a six post modifiers
(8v6, Sith marginal victory, accomplished most goals and remained mostly undetected, but couldn't complete all of them)
While actively infiltrating core covenant worlds and key stations proves nearly impossible to do for any real length of time with any sort of consistency, due to the Covenant always being on the lookout for Heretics and those who were infected by the 'shaping sickness'(more commonly known as the flood), remotely listening in on their conversations prove laughably easy, as their actual informational security proves to be almost non-existent in comparison to what Sith Intelligence is used to dealing with, as what passes for their internal firewalls are barely worth the name, and almost all of their most important of communications go through networks whose security doesn't deserve the name; mind you, the remaining few are hidden behind firewalls that are as far beyond your own as yours are ahead of what the Covenant consider to be average.
As for the information you gained… first thing, it appears that the sith actually got off rather light, as a small filing error actually caused a third of the forces that would have been sent at you to instead be redirected into scouring a series of relatively bare systems for forerunner relics; this was rectified relatively quickly, as the minister in charge of the force in question was reprimanded and said force was sent on its way… to the wrong warzone, as it was deployed to reinforce their front against the Federation instead of reinforcing either of the two areas where they were actually losing.
In addition, it appears that even if the entirety of the initially planned force arrived at the sith's door, it still would have represented a quarter of the Covenant's overall mobile forces, as they made the fundamental error of splitting their attacking forces three ways instead of focusing on any one opponent. As for their current deployment:
1x Magnitude 4 fleethorde: deployed against Sith, lost, down to ~60% strength; is now relegated border patrol duty against Imperial incursions and any follow up Sith attack.
4x Magnitude 2 fleethorde, 1x Magnitude 3 fleethorde: initially deployed against, and caught up in, ongoing border conflicts with the Imperium of Man, down to ~70% strength, but the conflict there is still ongoing.
2x Magnitude 3 fleethorde, 1x Magnitude 4 fleethorde: currently deployed against the Federation, current losses are at best 10%.
1x Magnitude 4 fleethorde: High Charity's personal protection fleet, currently with said mobile capitol stationed around a strange ring, a ringworld 10,000 kilometers in diameter, with apparent livable surface on its inner side. This appears to be the Halo they were looking for.
As for actively establishing a FOB on the surface of said ringworld, it has proven to be nigh-impossible to actively sneak by the fleet in orbit, and all attempts to do so that have been made so far have ended in failure and flash-vaporized ships.
Listening to their communication from a remote position mostly out-of-system has gotten better results, although what has been heard so far has been mostly religious drivel about a 'Great Journey' and them 'Ascending to join their Forerunner gods', which would have been worrisome had the Covenant actually had any sort of ability at all to even touch the Force, but as is any sort of Ascension has been deemed to beyond the Covenant's reach. Other information, the information about this 'flood', has been more worrisome, as they appear to be on constant lookout against it while on the surface of the ring, and it appears that their own containment measures against it have been why imperial intelligence has had no success in establishing a FOB on its surface, as they flash vaporize anything unknown that appears near the ring, and will even go so far as destroy any of their own transports that landed on the ring that fail to give back the correct signal code, which appears to change on a minute by minute basis, upon lifting off. (note that you don't actually yet know IC that their goals with the Halo Ring are outright genocidal, let alone the localized omnicide that it would actually result in)
Their other worlds appear to be less heavily guarded though, if each one having its own personal defense fleet, multiple military stations, and quickly enforceable 'containment protocols' planetside that happen to be effective against most more conventional military invasions as well. Said protecalls involve air support, military checkpoints that double as fire breaks that can be easily made to be on fire, and having each and every piece of infrastructure being some level of self sustainable and easily fortifiable. In addition, a good portion of their population appears to receive military training almost no matter what job they are performing, with only the Unggoy being the apparent exception, due to restrictions put on them after the past several times they have rebelled.
Target: Home Front
Nature: Counter-Espionage (Stealthy)
Resources: 4RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: The Covenant attacked Korriban. The Empire also has confirmation that the Covenant has been conducting some kind of intelligence gathering and succeeded enough to find out the importance of Korriban and its location. The Imperium is also a threat as they are a complete unknown. Sith Intelligence is going to begin counter-espionage operations in earnest and going to be raising internal security of operations to prevent any leaks.
As it turns out, while the Covenant might not be very good at infiltration, they are extraordinarily good at extracting data from enemy computer systems, to the point where it outstrips their own defensive capabilities by a rather concerning amount, to the point where the covenant's 'intelligence gathering' is mostly from the nav computers of a half dozen captured ships and a few hundred torn apart droid minds; combine that with a few captured slaves and other lower class beings given good food and other raltive luxury items in return for giving information on the discovered worlds, and you end up with a couple of startingly accurate maps of sith space within their database. Naturally, the intelligence operatives silenced the traitors and destroy all copies of this data that they come across, but nothing is certain in these times.
As for dealing with any potential leaks towards the imperium…(to be continued in next action)
Target: The Imperium of Man
Nature: Infiltration, Diversion, and Sabotage (Stealthy)
Resources: 6RP, ??? turns
Plan&Goal: The Imperium of Man is a unknown threat but one that is genocidal to all alien life and culture that isn't theirs. Unfortunately their military strength is unknown besides the Covenant believing they could outmatch them. The Empire can't afford a war on two fronts at this time and so Sith Intelligence is going to be working on preventing the Imperium from learning about the Sith Empire fully by sabotaging any efforts of theirs to gain information on us and deflecting their attention more towards the Covenant. Of course Sith Intelligence is tasked with also gathering information but that is secondary to preventing any and all conflicting from happening with the Imperium.
The potential paths for the Imperium discovering the Empire comes in three forms: the Mechanicus's Explorators, Rogue Traders, and random ships that have been lost in the 'warp' only to emerge in Sith space.
Of those, Explorators were rare, and their exploration fleets were easily seen gathering, to the point where a few key rumors inserted by Sith Intelligence were enough to send them on wildly different courses away from Sith space. Sadly, a few were apparently still sent out in the direction of Sith space. Luckily Explorator expeditions into the unknown tended to be extremely slow and methodical, to the point where the few that were sent out in the direction of Sith space are apparently still multiple years out.(guaranteed detection on turn four)
Rogue Traders were much more hasty, and already a few have been spotted reaching sith border worlds; luckily these traders were defined by greed, and a few well-placed bribes and hints at future lucrative exclusive trade deals managed to lure most of them into giving away information that, while innocuous to them, are of critical importance to sith plans going forward; naturally, both the conned fools and the more weary ones were swiftly dealt with, as very few of them had any military vessels worth the name. (enough information was gathered to have an idea of where many key civilian worlds are, including the general location of Terra(northern part of subsquare C-3 of 7-F); although no real information about their military capabilities were gathered, outside of a few stories about 'invincible space marines', the dangers of 'uncontrolled psykers', and a few clearly propaganda-ridden stories about their 'Astra Militarum'. In addition, a few civilian grade imperial ships(no void shields, no Adamantium, although extremely good gellar field generators and semi-decent, if barebones, plasma reactors) were gathered, alongside samples of basic imperial technology, including lasguns, autocannons, ceramite, plascrete, plasteel, a couple of Bolters, a single Plasma Pistol, and two Melta weapons)
As for scattered vessels? Outside of a few completely shot wrecks, the only notable thing to arrive was a single large Space Hulk, currently drifting out in the interstellar void well away from any inhabited systems(but still within Sith Space).
As for our own infiltration plans? While Sith Intelligence has managed to infiltrate several outer worlds, attempts to get agents into more important areas and positions has run into major opposition, in the form of the Imperial Inquisition, which has managed to stall out any sort-term plans to gain access to any truly important information and/or locations within Imperial space due to the uncomfortably high risk of discovery.
Target: Unknown Red Wall, 7E-C3
Nature: Stealthy
Resources: 1RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: A massive Red Wall. Such a thing is completely unprecedented and is a potential security threat. I.N.I.D is going to be tasked with gathering as much information on the thing and conducting limited probe and cloaked ship scouting on the possible entrances to learn about it without enticing anything that could exist on the other side.
Target: Unknown Red Wall, 7E-C2
Nature: Stealthy
Resources: 1RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: A massive Red Wall. Such a thing is completely unprecedented and is a potential security threat. I.N.I.D is going to be tasked with gathering as much information on the thing and conducting limited probe and cloaked ship scouting on the possible entrances to learn about it without enticing anything that could exist on the other side.
The two openings have been found, and what little has been scouted on the other side appears normal, if with an even higher than usual prevalence of inhabitable, and inhabited worlds. Sadly, any further investigation has been stalled out due to both the overly cautious nature of the scouting effort, and the presence of many, many large samples of void fauna, many of which proved to be somewhat hostile, although not outside the range of what is to be expected from an ordinary, if territorial, terrestrial animal. Although one exploration force did run into a bit of trouble in the form of all reports from them cutting off soon after they spotted a single vessel not far outside of the size range of an ordinary single-occupant strike craft. Later investigation would find the ships in question in literal pieces, as if they were cut apart by the universe's largest vibroblade, with no sign of any sort of obvious source to be found upon further investigation…
Target: 7E-C1
Nature: Stealthy
Resources: 1RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: Open Space. Potential area of colonization or potential threat of unknown threats lurking from the eyes of the Sith. I.N.I.D scouts are being sent into the area to learn more about the area and gather more information on what could exist; threats, areas of interest, resources, or potential habitable worlds.
Mostly empty, most of the few local civilizations are either newcomers to the stars or are outright pre-spaceflight, with only a couple of light protective alliances and a few trade agreements between them. Most of the space is empty, free for the taking of whomever chooses to take it.
As you move farther west though the region becomes somewhat more developed, with active interstellar traders moving through the region bringing goods and news from elsewhere. They are happy to trade with the new arrivals, and after the exchange of a few trinkets are perfectly willing to share some basic information.(basic galaxy map obtained, although it only really includes the actual current major policies) The few long distance traders coming through the area from farther to the west aren't as carefree though, as there is a hint of desperation about them, as there are stories of a fleet of zombie piloted giant pirate ships(averaging in what the locals would consider to be the Capital Ship class, with few being smaller than local 'cruisers'), of all things, coming through a hole in the Red Wall there, and isolated reports of ships fighting against them somehow losing their shadows of all things, and then burning in the light of any star that they dare approach anywhere near to(within the standard habitable range of), despite all common sense saying that they should be fine at the ranges that they were reporting. (7E-C1 is currently free for the taking, although reaching Heartlands level development would require negotiating with the locals, 7E-B1 is currently controlled by locals, but is under attack by zombie pirates, of all things)
1. (1 Free Slot) Particle Beam Implementation: The Squash fighters proved to be inadequate; although their weapons still proved useful. Their size, durability, and lack of maneuverability was their undoing and Marr desired to fix that. The Sith Empire will be implementing these weapons onto some of their Frigates to give them the firepower necessary to at least threaten the larger vessels of the Covenant or Imperium of Man.
2. (4 Slots) Super Dreadnought Research: Two major threats to the Empire. One active threat to our north. One highly probable threat to our east. Both; use reliably oversized vessels to what should be Galactic Standard, with only the Federation being similar. The Dark Council desires something to even the playing field and Taerab Starship Manufacturing along with Dromund Kalakar Shipyards and the Imperial Navy R&D Division are all being contracted to draw up designs and then build for a vessel of at minimum within 15,000 meters, similar to the long dead Republic Super Dreadnaught: Star of Coruscant.
3. (1 Slot of 10) Infinite Army and Power Guard Enhancement System Unification: The project was already slated to begin before the Force Storm incident at Ziost and with the loss of 95% of the Empire the population pool that the Sith can draw upon as been greatly limited, both for Force Sensitivities and not. Because of this Darth Marr has slated to begin the super-soldier project without any further delays. Right now it is just about starting the beginning phases of merging the two cybernetic super-soldier programs and allocating resources and funds before true testing can begin.
Particle Beam Implementation: plans here go as planned, although the usefulness of this new weapon option is questionable, as it makes great sacrifices in range and actual effectiveness against heavily armored void-faring targets(more heavily armored than what the Sith empire would consider to be standard, that is) in return for only a relatively moderate increase in actual damage output. Good news though is that this damage scales directly with the ship's own potential power and/or engine output, so this weapon class likely won't be any more obsolete than it already is for quite a while yet. (has the potential scale up to Extremis as your own power output scales up, but runs into range related issues and has difficulty hurting peer-enemy cruisers and capital ships, let alone any of their even heavier ships; although against all but the heaviest of Covenant ships this is theoretically more than enough.)
Super Dreadnought Research: this design goes forward as is, and prototype testing goes moderately well, although it is noted that firing its Desolator cannon in stage two multiple times while under active combat conditions, or firing it in stage three more than once under those conditions, runs into major power grid related issues, as the system becomes overly strained when trying to power it alongside everything else; and while energy storage and capacitor banks can alleviate said issues, trying to fire the Desolator cannon again at full power in any sort of timeframe not measured in potentially days while actively powering stressed shields and all of the ship's secondary and tertiary armaments runs into issues along the tune of "will need active time in a shipyard afterwards to repair burnt out powerlines and overloaded systems if it outright doesn't wreck entire sections of the ship's power grid".(no, you don't get to spam enemy planetoids with massed volley fire of stage-two Cyclonic Torpedo equivalents without having the local void battle already going your way to a rather significant degree)
Infinite Army and Power Guard Enhancement System Unification: progress here continues on as planned, although all but the most basic of prototypes will require more investment, or at the very least more time.
Status:
50 Population
7F-B2 (Sith Space Core): Heartlands and Heavily Defended
7F-B1: Colonized and Moderately Defended
7F-C1: Colonized and Moderately Defended
1. Increase development levels of 7F-A2 and 7F-A3 from Colonized to Industrialized (52 RP)
2. Increased 7F-B2 from Heavily Defended to Excessively Defended (15 RP)
The fires of industry churn ever onwards, as once relatively underdeveloped territory becomes a new bed of industrial development, as countless orbital mines and refineries are set up over an on lifeless worlds, and massive shipyards form over previously minor worlds. Already, prospectors have found and set up new lifters for Tibanna Gas and have found, and set up mines for, several other rather rare materials. Once barely colonized worlds have undergone massive population boons, as immigration to these worlds was highly encouraged, relieving what could have been a source of population based pressures in the sith core worlds in return for having more highly developed territory to patrol.
And on that note, the level of layered defenses in the Sith core has risen to nigh-unparalleled levels, with even the most minor worlds within it enjoying levels of defensive preparation that was previously reserved for key worlds like Korriban and Dromund Kaas itself, even as the core worlds themselves got elevated to levels of defense force buildup that was previously reserved for republic worlds like Kuat, Corellia, Annexes, and Coruscant itself; as station after station form a layered defense with no route through that doesn't involve many, many, many overlapping lines of fire. Here defensive fleets that would normally be considered overkill become the norm, and massive ion cannons and other such planetside defensive infestations seem to multiply almost out of control; on top of all that, Planetary Shields are becoming the norm on all but the most minor of outposts within this region of Sith Space, making orbital bombardment a drastically less convenient option, and, more importantly buying time for response fleets to arrive from any of the even more built up systems. In their home universe the proliferation of this level of defenses would have made the Sith practically invincible on the defense, while here this buildup is still considered drastic, but nothing outside the range of what is to be expected from your average well-established civilization within this region of space. Indeed, there are hints in the force that at some point even this might prove to not be enough for what is to come…
(territory improvements went through successfully)
Target: The Federation, 7F-A1
Nature: Friendly First Contact and Military Aid
Resources: Darth Marr and 8RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: The Covenant's invasion of this "Federation" can be used to our advantage. Information taken from the Arbiter and other Covenant sources implies them to be technologically advanced and possibly overly friendly. Darth Marr will be leading several fleet (See In Military Orders) to relieve the Federation and is acting as the head of a diplomatic and relief force to establish an immediate good relationship with this Federation and to join forces against the Covenant and their Galactic Genocidal Ambitions with the Halo Ring.
1st contact rolls: 5 for the Sith, 8 for the Federation
Initially generated tags:
Sith think that the federation is [enemy of my enemy] +1, [overly friendly] -1
Federation thinks that the sith are [prone to hostility] -1, [aid in the time of need] +1, [open about their cultural differences] +2, and [open to future exchanges of information] +1
Diplomacy rolls:
Sith: 1d6+4: 9, 6, 8
Federation: 1d6+6: 11, 9, 8
Post diplomacy the Sith think that the federation is [potential ally] +1, [cautiously friendly] +1
Post diplomacy the Federation thinks that the Sith are [prone to hostility] -1, [allies against our mutual enemy] +2, [open about their cultural differences] +2, [open to future exchanges of information] +1, and [saviors] +1
The federation is initially perfectly willing and able to accept the Sith's help against the Covenant, and become even more willing to work together going forward as formations of ships on both sides get used to each other's presence and fight together against a mutual foe. The Federation, while initially seemingly all to willing to accept the Sith's help on their word alone, becomes more cautious as they see the brutal manner in which the Sith fight and their sheer willingness to resort to weapons that would have been considered bannable back in their home reality; this blow is softened though by the fact that the Sith never hid what they are, nor did they hide why they came to this place- to foil the plans of their mutual enemy, the Covenant.
Going forward, what little discussion there was during assorted lulls in the ongoing battles raised the federation's own opinion of us by a rather high degree, as the Sith did manage to break the Covenant's assault soon after arrival, and didn't go and immediately hold the rescued worlds hostage, instead offering a joint military alliance and information about the enemy; and while the data about the Halo rings, as limited as it was, wasn't enough to convince the Federation that it was an immediate threat to be dealt with, they were thankful for the other information provided to them about the Covenant, and will likely be conducting their own investigation about this 'Halo'.
On a related note, the Federation will likely soon be reaching out for an informational and technological exchange and closer economic ties, in the hopes that their own culture will win over that of the Sith.
Darth Marr's Isotope 5 Armada
Darth Nox's Silencer Fleet
The Empire's Wrath
10 Magnitude 2 Fleets
Target: The Covenant invading the Federation, 7F-A1
Nature: Hostile
Resources: Darth Marr and the Isotope 5 Armada, Five Magnitude 2 Fleets, 8RP, 1 turn
Plan&Goal: Darth Marr is leading a combined force of four fleets and his own Isotope-5 Armada against the Covenant Armada invading the Federation. Utilizing information taken from the Arbiter and Sith Intelligence operatives, Darth Marr opening plan is to cut off the Covenant from reinforcements and supplies while simultaneously destroying their outlying raiding and hunting fleets away from their major fleet concentrations, just like when they invaded Sith Space, before moving on against their singular City Ship.
Darth Marr aims to achieve this by having one of his five fleets run interference between Covenant and Federation space with layered Interdictor Ships and Mines zones so as to prevent retreat and reinforcement for an extent period of time while separating, harassing, and destroying any small or large fleets.
Meanwhile, within Federation space, Darth Marr will be going out to establish contact with the Federation to coordinate military efforts and gather more precise data on Covenant Ship movements. The plan to destroy their outlying raiding and hunting fleets remains the same, isolate and then destroy them in detail with Silencers and Battle Meditation. Additionally the Isotope-5 Armada will be acting along with them to act as a heavy hitting response force against Covenant Response or their powerful Supercapitals.
The hope is to isolate them and squeeze them until they are mostly forced around their singular City Ship, where a Decisive Battle can take place. However Darth Marr has a plan. Knowing that the Covenant has thus far been unable to detect their cloaked vessels, Darth Marr has requestioned a few and has crewed them with either volunteers, disgraced, or more likely just Droids and has turned them into cloaked Fire Ships, loading them with massive amounts of explosives; including Barradium Fission Devices. The plan being to have the cloaked Fire Ships move into the hopefully tightly packed Covenant Fleet and detonate. Of course there is a chance that this fails and if it does then instead the conventional approach will have to be taken. Regardless of it it works or not Darth Marr aims to coordinate with the Federation and take the fight to this City Ship and it's accompanying Fleet, Fire Ship or not. It just helps minimize casualties.
However. The desire is to only destroy the enemy fleet, not their City Ship. Darth Marr desires to seize and take control of the massive City Ship. Darth Marr will be utilizing a Desolater equipped Harrower and use only the First Firing Stage and use the massive vessels' own internal atmosphere against it. Temporarily ionizing the atmosphere within and shutting the entire station down from the inside out and preventing the Covenant from scuttling it, hopefully. Afterwards Darth Marr will conduct what is essentially a Ground Invasion of the City Ship, aiming to seize and then take control of the important parts of the vessel and then sweep it clean from there.
Permission to enter Federation space to assist them against the Covenant was given almost as soon as a line of communication could be established, and the Sith's ambush of the Covenant was absolute. Caught completely off guard, multiple Covenant fleets that would have reinforced their station and front lines were annihilated in planet-shattering bursts of annihilating light, while other covenant fleets, both those previously and those newly isolated, were jumped on and were quickly annihilated by a combination of the hammer of the Silencers and the anvil of the Isotope 5 enhanced fleets. Soon after, before the Covenant has time to come to grips with its new opponent and regroup, their single supporting mobile station is under attack, and temporarily disabled by a massive blast of ionic energy while what remains of its supporting fleet after the detonation of several Baradium Fusion devices is completely outnumbered and swiftly overwhelmed by the newly arrived Sith fleets.
While temporarily securing the area surrounding the station and temporarily disabling its systems was relatively easy, the active fighting over its internals was not. For even as its internals danced with ionic energy, even as its occupants were forced to turn off several key reactors to prevent system wide failure, they were preparing for combat. Even as the assault boats were streaming in, and precision fire disabled any currently visible point defense weapons, they were activating internal defenses and setting up barricades. And so when the sith forces arrived upon the station, they were faced with a bloodbath, as nearly each and every member of the Covenant aboard the vessel was a highly trained member of their military, and they held the terrain advantage, for here the Sith had no way to deploy their own War Engines, while the Covenant could and did deploy their own within the larger caverns. Here each and every open space was an ambush point enforced by precision sniper fire, each building, each hallway, and each small maze of rooms was a grinding slog, reinforced by nearly endless waves of Unggoy Grunts; and while they had no prelates here, no individuals able to stand up to Sith Warrors and Lords in a 1v1, they had countless Zealots and a non-insignificant deployment of Honor Guard, which were more than enough to deter the Sith themselves from brute forcing their way through the entire station. It was a slog, it was a grind, it was a death trap the likes of which hasn't been seen since Darth Vitiate snuffed out an entire world. Luckily, this time the Sith, led by both the Emperor's Wrath and Darth Nox, managed to prevent any and all attempts at a self destruct from being initiated, and this time the Sith managed to capture one of the Covenant's city ships intact, although it will likely be many months before the place ceases to smell like an open air slaughterhouse.
With a chunk of their reserves being vaporized, the fall of their main local resupply point, and the steady rolling up of their front by a combination of Sith and Federal forces, the Covenant swiftly withdrew, breaking through the would-be cordon and leaving it shattered in their wake as they swiftly broke out through the weakest front of this would-have-been encirclement. With their leaving, comes an end of the local conflict, and the start of a potentially quite solid military alliance between two very different factions, the Sith and the Federation.
Losses post repairs:
1st-5th fleets were repaired up to full at the end of the turn, having suffered minimal casualties in this most recent engagement.
The 6th-9th fleets remain battered even after repairs(at 90% strength going into next turn), having participated in the bulk of the heaviest fighting both here and during the initial fight back home. Note that these losses are disproportionately ground based, as capturing the City Ship caused massively disproportionate losses amongst the Sith's non-sith ground forces.
The 10th fleet was left battleworn by the regrouping/withdrawing Covenant forces here, and even after repairs remains bloodied(at 70% strength going into next turn).
Baalthus was one of the most well regarded of the remaining Bentusi among their peers. And so they took it upon themselves to handle the distribution of duties after the Somtaaw most ably saw to the defense of the fleet from the local marauders. The pirates who wished to remain captives were given their own special habitat. This one secured against tampering and with somewhat less capabilities for industry. From there they can apply for jobs on less crucial Unbound mining ventures and allowed to slowly integrate into Unbound society under careful supervision. The pirate fleet commander is kept separate as requested. It costs the Unbound little to do so and he may prove useful in the future.
The refugees are allowed more leeway in where they are allowed to settle. However the aim there too is to integrate them into Unbound society. Which since they are outnumbered twenty to one should not be a problem. However because of that same population discrepancy they are not where Baalthus's main focus was. Instead it was on building up new habitats for the Unbound's displaced civilians. The Unbound had by this point lost multiple home worlds to various disasters and the Bentusi were by nature a nomadic people. Added to that was the refugees tales of all their major settlements being purged by an advanced race.
The final result of all this was simple. Planets, and to a lesser extent habitats, were a mistake. The population should at all times be ready to pack up and move. As such the Unbound embark on a vast campaign of ship building. They construct immense shipyards in which to build massive arks to house their populations. Or at least that is the intent. At the moment they lack hyper drive cores of sufficient size to move these arks at FTL speeds. So for now they are mostly somewhat more mobile habitats. But the plan has been laid out. In time the Unbound will be true to their namesake. They will not be bound by gravity or borders, but free to live and move among the stars.
While the Bentusi are handling civilian matters Melkor Somtaaw's tasks as fleet command never cease. Almost as soon as scouts are dispatched they return reports of more Unbound fleets scattered in nearby space. Melkor consults the navigation charts along with the preliminary scout reports on the Unbound's neighbors intensely and eventually sends out two orders. The fleet in the territory of the crystalline beings is ordered to emergency jump for the void between systems. It is expected that with their simpler territorial instincts the crystalline entities will not follow them. As such the fleet will have time to regroup and make an orderly transit to Unbound territory even if their initial emergency jumps scatter them further.
However the fleet in Kett territory is different. Such a scattering may well put them into even more of a disadvantageous position compared to the Kett Military response. As such they ordered to regroup and hold position in a single star system until the Unbound's primary fleet can arrive. That fleet will be lead by the Kuun Lan in a bold excursion straight into Kett territory. The plan is simple. Rush in, retrieve the wayward fleet, and then immediately rush back to Unbound space. Hopefully before the Kett can respond in force. Any Kett ships that do encounter the Unbound forces will be sent a simple first contact package and told that the Unbound are simply moving to reclaim some accidentally lost ships and that this is by no means an invasion.
Starting: +70 RP
Upkeep: -10 RP
Industrialize J4 North East: -30 RP
Start Work on Heartlands in J4 North East: -1 RP
Build Heavy Defeneses in J4 North East: -10 RP
Repair Fleet One Level: -1RP
Purchase 3 Research Slots: -1R, -4RP, -9 RP
Diplomacy Action: -4 RP
First Slot: Crystal Communications
Several science vessels will be built and escorted by military patrols into J4 North to examine the emissions of the crystalline lifeforms. They will stay away from their primary territories and sit on the edge of crystalline systems in order to avoid aggravating the beings. Their purpose is to study the crystalline beings and see if there is some way that the Unbound can meaningfully communicate with them.
Second Slot: Seraphim Class Destroyers
The Bentusi Exchanges are fantastic and the Bentusi are quite capable of building more of them. However doing so requires two things which the Unbound lack. The first is a shipyard capable of the advanced metallurgy needed for their armor. The second is that actual Unbound are needed to pilot the Exchanges to maximum effect and there is a limited supply of such. Of course eventually both those problems will be rectified as the Bentusi and Somtaaw integrate their technology and ship build capacities, but in the meantime a ship is needed to fill the gap.
Fortunately there is an easy solution. The Archangel class dreadnought is already based on scans the Somtaaw took of the Bentusi Exchanges. Somtaaw engineers were unable to get the Bentusi drives to work based only on their scans and had to scale down the design, but with actual Bentusi assistance they can use their original plans.
The Seraphim class Destroyer is essentially a quadrupled Archangel with all the weapons and armor that implies. There are a few changes from being a purely larger version however. A quarter of it was retrofitted with the carrier bays from a Shaman carrier to give the new ship some strike fighter capacity. And the drive itself is even more powerful in proportion to its size than the Archangel's version as it is directly based on the Bentusi reactionless drive technology. The result is something similar, but not quite the same as the Bentusi Exchange. It actually sports almost twice as much firepower as an exchange. However it requires a much larger crew and its armor is less advanced which makes it somewhat slower and less durable than an Exchange.
Third, Fourth Slot: Universal Shielding
Somtaaw sentinels can generate a shield when used in conjunction with each other. In addition Taiidan field frigates can generate a limited EM field that can protect against all but the heaviest weapons. By combining these technologies it should be possible for a ship to generate a field to protect itself. The sticking point is that the Unbound have seen the Taiidan field frigates in action however being a mainly Bentusi/Somtaaw venture lack access to its actual blueprints. Thus this project is a difficult one until they either a major Taiidan force arrives (ie. Lord Makaan) arrives or they can salvage local ships equipped with shields. Fortunately the Unbound have done just that.
An Opening Exchange
Target: Alliance of Sol
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 4RP, 1 turn
Plan:
A single Bentusi Exchange will quickly jump through the void regions of Kett space avoiding contact until it can reach the Alliance of Sol. There it will open up standard merchant relations. Offering to trade some metallurgic and drone technologies at bargain prices as an opening enticement. The hope is to encourage a peaceful relationship and exchange cultural information so that the Unbound and Alliance of Sol can work together in the future.
A Quick Rescue
Target: The Kett
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 0RP, 1 turn
Plan:
The first fleet led by the Kuun-Lan will jump to rendezvous with the second fleet in Kett territory. They will broadcast messages for the Kett that they are not invading and simply wish to retrieve their wayward comrades and establish formal diplomatic contact with the Kett. As soon as the two fleets have linked up they will jump back towards Unbound territory. If any Kett wish to talk a location will be designated at the edge of the two territories where formal discussions can be held.
If the Kett want to fight, then the two fleets will begin a fighting retreat back to Unbound space. If any Kett follow them across the border, then both fleets will rally and initiate a full fledged battle to destroy them before they can enter the area where the civilian habitats are being constructed.
D10 Roll Result: 4
2 Negative Traits / 1 Positive Trait / +1 Extra Positive Trait (Master Diplomats)
Modifiers
- Good Plan: +1
- Well Funded: +1
- Master Diplomats: +1
The initial first contact with the Alliance of Sol started out rockier than desired. The Bentusi Exchange was able to deftly circumvent the Kett and arrived safely on the edge of Alliance Territory, where they made contact with a patrol fleet belonging to the Cabal Empire, one of the Alliance member states.
The Cabal tend to be hot-blooded and confrontational, and their demeanor suggests a highly militarized society. Diplomacy doesn't seem to be their strong suit, at least at first glance. On top of that, in light of the ongoing hostilities with both the Kett and the Chaos Warbands, the Cabal are especially guarded and ill-receptive to dealing with mystery merchants. If nothing else, they take their job of protecting Alliance territory very seriously, something the Bentusi could respect.
No shots are fired thankfully, but definitely a cold start. The Cabal commander advises he will send word to the Alliance Council, but warns the Exchange to proceed no further until permission is given otherwise.
The Unbound's first impression of the Alliance is [protective]+1, [well-equipped]+1, [confrontational]-1, and [unreceptive to trade]-1
The Bentusi exchange captain heeds the Cabal's order and maintains a parking orbit in-system, during which time they request to learn more about the Cabal people. The fleet commander delegates this task to one of his Psion officers. They paint a history of the Cabal as a formerly expansionist empire with vast armies, mighty fleets, and several client races integrated through a mix of conquest and diplomacy. But about a half century ago, a genocidal species they call the Hive descended upon their homeworld and most of their colonies, putting most of their people to the sword.
Empress Caiatl led their remaining people to the Sol system, the homeworld of humanity and the Guardians, and a prior invasion front for the Cabal. While they were enemies before, circumstances created the conditions for a tenuous alliance between the two races to better push back their numerous enemies, which ended up becoming the basis for the Alliance as it is today. The Bentusi now view the Cabal, and by extension the Alliance, with even more respect, gaining the [survivors]+1 trait toward the Alliance.
Meanwhile, the same Psion asks if it would be possible for the Bentusi to send an envoy to speak with them face-to-face, as they suggest that the Cabal are more receptive to those who would stand before them in person. The Bentusi explain that, unfortunately, this is not possible because they are cybernetically integrated into their starships, and have no freestanding crew to disembark. The Psion is surprised by this information, but elects not to inquire further for now.
Thankfully the wait doesn't last long. Merely a couple hours after initial contact, the Cabal commander informs the exchange that a diplomatic party assigned by the Alliance Council wishes to meet with them in person. The fleet provides the exchange with coordinates and provides an escort.
Just days later, the Unbound are hosted at a large orbital starbase, where they are greeted by a delegation composed of all the Alliance's member races.
The meeting this time around goes much more smoothly. The human delegation apologizes for the initial cold treatment, explaining that the Alliance has been under a great deal of pressure, both from being ripped from their home universe and also from dealing with hostile neighbors and trying to aid refugees. The Eliksni in particular are fascinated by the Bentusi, and are eager to learn more about their technology.
The Bentusi in turn explain that they were once part of a vast, space-bound society of traders, facilitating the growth and flourishing of other races in their home galaxy, but they ended up forced into exile by the Beast, giving them a rundown of the events that led them to this new universe. The entire delegation resonates with this strongly, explaining that they too have all encountered their own extinction-level crises which they had to endure and survive, most notably the Hive, the Vex, splinter factions of their own species, and chief among them, the Black Fleet, a powerful and enigmatic foe apparently responsible for multiple near-extinctions and the driving force of most of the hostilities against the Sol system, and the threat that caused them to band together.
From this exchange, the Alliance also learns that the Bentusi willingly integrate themselves into their ships for both cultural and practical reasons, but the Unbound as a whole also have plenty of unintegrated crewmembers and citizens. Like the Alliance, different groups and even former enemies were forced together for survival from all-consuming threat of the beast.
For the Bentusi, the [survivors]+1 trait is upgraded to [fire-forged alliance]+2 and the [confrontational] trait is removed.
In the end, the Bentusi and the Alliance representatives successfully hash out an opening trade deal. In exchange for samples of Unbound forge and drone technology, the Alliance gives the Bentusi a collection of high-quality firearms, all of which use a mix of exotic electric, thermal, and gravitic energy charges for ammunition. The Bentusi are also given a bulk cache of programmable matter called Glimmer, used by the Alliance as currency.
By the end, both parties have left a very positive impression on eachother, and mutually agree to go to their respective leadership and recommend opening up further relations. Hostile forces seem abundant in this galaxy, and new allies would be very welcome.
For the Bentusi, the [unreceptive to trade]-1 trait is removed from the Alliance.
Meanwhile, the Kett prove to be utterly unreceptive to diplomatic overtures, and muster an immediate hostile response, both to the wayward Unbound fleet appearing in their territory and the ingress of the fleet led by the Kuun-Lan to retrieve them.
Alas, the Kett fleet is mostly pre-occupied fighting on other fronts, and the reserve forces are few in number. On top of that, they were not expecting a full-size fleet to appear out of nowhere inside their space, making for a fairly disorganized response. The garrison fleets that do attempt to attack the wayward feet are quickly driven back with few casualties, and soon enough the Kuun-Lan's fleet arrives and escorts them back to friendly territory.
The Kett do not pursue the Unbound's forces after jumping beyond their borders, but based on their disposition up to now, it's likely that they will escalate their aggression in near future.
The Unbound now begin the work of laying down industry and infrastructure in their new home region, with vast mining complexes, orbital foundries, and shipyards blooming like flowers in the void, protected by large networks of defensive weapon platforms. While there are some among the refugees who yearn to return to planetary living at some point, most of them see the wisdom of spaceborne habitat-ships after having lost their original homes. It helps that a shared proto-culture of life in space has already developed among the refugees thanks to their circumstances.
But above all else, they are elated that they can now actually live, work, and grow in the relative security of an actual organized polity, and are highly motivated to contribute and ensure that the Unbound's efforts succeed, so that they and their offspring never have to experience the trauma and deprivation of being at the mercy of tyrants and marauders ever again.
J4 Northeast is upgraded to Industrialized with Heavy Defenses.
Fleet One is repaired and replenished back to 100% capacity.
The observation of the crystalline entities bears fruit. As it turns out, they communicate with each other via biologically-generated electromagnetic signals and fields. When translated into an audio format, it almost sounds like a kind of strange singing. By observing how the crystalline entities behave and react in response to different signal patterns, together with observations on their life cycles and social dynamics, the science team is able to put together a preliminary software program for modulating Unbound EM broadcasts for communication with them.
The science team emphasizes that there is still much they don't know about the crystalline entities, including how they will react to non-crystalline entities attempting to reach out to them, or whether or not they are fully sentient. They advise that the initial software only accounts for relatively simple and reliably repeated social cues, and that a full grasp of the intricacies of their communication will take much longer. For now though, hopefully it will be enough to at least avoid agitating them, but the only way to know for sure is to test it out in the field.
Basic Communications with Crystalline Entities is now unlocked.
The design and creation of the Seraphim-class proceeds with few hiccups, thanks to utilizing existing technology and design principles. As with any new design, it takes some testing and prototyping to iron out the bugs, but soon enough a fully-functional and field-ready production pattern is finalized and distributed to the foundries.
Seraphim-class now available and in production.
Creating universal energy shielding proves to be an interesting challenge. For the Unbound, shields tended to be power-hungry specialty modules that served in a niche capacity compared to armor. But the salvage from the Black Spot marauders shows that more efficient, shapable deflector fields can be produced using a combination of previously unknown energy conduit geometries and a linked network of secondary generator nodes. They still consumed a good chunk of power, but the degree of added survivability seemed worth the expense. The new technology was also more power efficient than prior known methods of energy shielding, and could be scaled more easily.
The challenge was ensuring that the new energy circuit arrays were correct and consistent between different ship scales, as well as redesigning current ship classes to make the necessary room for the extra power relays and shield nodes. But thanks to the amount of R&D resources devoted to the task, by the end of the year, all ships in the fleet are now redesigned and equipped with the new shielding.
Universal Energy Shielding for ships is now available.
-Spend 6 RP to send the Enterprise-F (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the Southwest Minor Powers with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send the Lleiset (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the Northeast Minor Powers with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send the Bortasqu' (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the South Contested Space with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
-Spend 6 RP to send Odo and Loriss (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the East Contested Space with the aim of at least securing a mutual defence pact among the entire sector to fight the Killing-Time Kroatanga and a maximalist aim of convincing them to join the Khitomer Alliance as full members.
The Alliance dispatches many diplomatic missions this turn, aimed at their nearby tiny neighbours who aren't omnicidal fungus beings. The results are…mixed.
-Diplomatic missions to the Southwest minor powers go fairly well, though not necessarily for the expected reasons. Though many of the polities there are impressed by the Alliance's handling of the Kroat warfleets they faced and have for the most part expressed positive dispositions in working with the Alliance to put down the Fungoids (with maybe a fifth of these expressing an interest in joining up properly as full members), the polities on the westmost border have somewhat desperately begged for the Alliance's assistance against a new, different threat coming from beyond the western border of the sector: dark, knife-like ships making offensives into the subsector and wiping planets clean of life before terraforming them into toxic hellscapes with strange, alien biospheres adapted to breathe the dense mixtures of caustic, toxic gasses.
(Result: The Mag 1 Fleethord of MP(SW) will be available for offensive military actions against the Kroats of the unknown xenos designated Blades. The sector will very likely be willing to join the Kitomer Alliance wholesale with minor efforts to prove the Alliance can in fact back up its military claims to protect members. Another unknown power is actively making a slow incursion into the sector from the west)
-Efforts in the Northeast are less useful. Though Commander Jarok is met cordially by the various minor powers in the sector, baring a few small powers who are at least open to the possibility of working against the Kroats, and one small thirty-system power very interested in joining the Alliance wholesale, she is, for the most part, brushed off regarding working against the Kroats, and at one point laughed at wholesale when the possibility of joining the Alliance is brought up.
(Result: The Northeast powers 'respectfully' say "Thanks, but no thanks. We're doing fine.")
-The contested space to in the southern sector is another area of limited diplomatic success, though in this case, it is mostly due to the fact that the sector is still being overrun by Kroats. The destruction of two Warfleets has slowed the progress, but not by as much as would be expected, and the powers in this region of space are still scrambling to try and slow down the Fungoid offensives, without a great deal of success. Worlds are dying, and the scattered governments are too busy trying to keep their people (or themselves) alive to meet with the Va'Kel Shon. The general sentiment seems to be 'get rid of the Kroats, and maybe we can talk.'
(Results: Southern Contested Space is currently being slowly overrun by the Kroats. Will likely be lost in a turn, maybe two, with no assistance. Local powers will likely be rather grateful for Alliance intervention)
-The east, much like the south, is still dealing with Kroat offensives. However, unlike the south, the greatest of the minor powers in this sector have managed to unify into a Defense Council, marshalling the military and economic abilities of nearly all the spacefaring species in this area of space to stalemate the Kroats at great cost to all of their peoples. Founder Ordo is greeted into a meeting with the members of the Council, who greet him cordially and offer their thanks for the efforts of the Alliance that have made their union possible. They respond positively to the offer of assistance and cooperation against the Kroat Threat and express an interest in potentially joining wholesale once the Kroats are forced out of the subsector.
"Get these Fungus-Brained Monsters out of my space and away from my subjects, Founder Odo, and I'll be more than happy to talk about joining your Alliance." - Empress L'Elnec'At Horgash-Bemn of the Pungoth Civic Union, to the general agreement of the Folgrath Defense Council
(Result: East Contested Space changes to Local Defense Council. The members of the council are willing to have proper discussions about joining the Alliance as full members, but only when the Kroats have been forced out of the subsector. When fighting in this sector, you will have the equivalent of Moderate defences assisting you. They are currently not at risk of being overtaken by the Kroats, but that could change fast if the fungoids are reinforced with another warfleet)
-Spend 8 RP on counter-intelligence aimed against the Killing-Time Kroatanga. While they may seem straightforward it would be unwise to underestimate them. In particular seek out and prevent any attempts to seed the Kroat Military Ecological Complex behind the Alliance's defensive lines.
Alliance Intelligence Agencies are vigilant in their work to ensure the Kroats don't try and pull anything smart, coordinating efforts to form a net to catch anything trying to slip through. Nowever, beyond a few small disorganized raiding/privateering flotillas of what seem to be low-level Kroat leaders taking individual initiative, nothing much happens over the course of the cycle.
(Result: The Kroats made no determined efforts to work covertly against the Kitomer Alliance this cycle, and the various small actions of raiders are halted outright with no significant loss of industrial material)
The Alliance scouts who head north of known space find a mixed bag of situations.
On the one hand, there is a large amount of empty space with few to no spacefaring species in it, ripe for the picking by the Alliance if they desire to expand their territory.
On the other, a quarter of the sector is under the control of what looks like The Borg come again but in this universe's scale, and they are fighting a race using technology that can barely be understood from what has so far been observed, and despite having only a single subsector under their control, the later aliens are, for the moment, winning.
Sector Contents:
-Empty Space (Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Southeast): Not actually empty, these areas nonetheless have no significant populations of sentient civilizations, and those that are there mostly consist of pre-spaceflight or single-system spaceflight civilizations, with only a bare handful of tiny interstellar polities beginning to explore the stars. This unclaimed territory is ripe for the taking by whichever spacefaring civilization is fast enough to take it.
-Nu-Borg (North, Northeast, East): The most troubling faction encountered in the sector, the aliens designated as the 'Nu-Borg' Control a full third of the sector: very little exploration could be done of these areas due to the immediate hostile responses from their ships whenever they encounter Alliance explorers. The name, Nu-Borg, is not given lightly, as Alliance explorers were able to observe (via use of cloaking devices) these aliens invading and overrunning a dozen pre and just post-spaceflight civilizations with massive fleets and forcibly converting the populations into cyborgs to serve alongside fully-mechanical constructs. At this time, they seem almost wholly focused on fighting the Clarks and building up their own local space over expanding into the sparsely populated territory in the rest of the subsector.
-Clarks (Center): Very little is known about these aliens, beyond that their technology seems extremely advanced. Their crescent-shaped ships, beneath a decorative outer veneer of orange, white, and gold, are made of gleaming silvery metal that, at times, seems to almost be alive: actively repairing itself from weapons fire from the Nu-Borg at a rate visible to the naked eye, in the rare instance said weapons could break their shields. The ships retaliate with arcs of what looks like emerald lightning at close range and fluctuating beams of white-green energy at longer ranges, one vessel often capable of ripping through ten times its number in Nu-Borg vessels. Attempts to investigate the Clark's territory have been met with a firm but so far non-lethal resistance, with even cloaked ships being met by escorts that fire off a volley of warning shots before interposing themselves between our ships and their space in a very clear message to go back from whence we came.
As should be expected by this point, Alliance Explorers of this section of space found a massive war being undertaken between two different polities that split the territory in half: one of which seems to be some sort of alliance not unlike our own, utilizing four entirely different design philosophies on ships of all size classes across their fleets, while the other is considerably more unified, thought the quality of their vessels is drastically different between the largest and smallest size categories, with their smallest vessels appearing to not even have shields.
A full third of the sector is currently contested between the two polities, with bitter combat being an almost daily occurrence somewhere in that massive area of space. Their core territories seem fairly insulated from the conflict, but are working constantly to supply material to the grinder in the middle of the sector.
Sector Contents:
-Union (Northwest, North, Northeast): The more agreeable of the two polities found in this sector, this polity has four main different design philosophies worth of ships moving around within it, causing us to believe they are some sort of Alliance not dissimilar from our own. They are by far the most 'friendly' unknowns we've yet run into, so far only going so far as to use tractor-beam pulses or physically blocking our vessels to keep us from going where they don't want us to without resorting to weapons fire at all. Cloaked investigation deeper into their space shows fairly cosmopolitan planets with a large mixture of species present.
-Contested Space (West, Center, East): Disputed territory between the Union and Blades, with low-level conflict occuring almost daily and major probing attacks occurring on a semi-regular basis, as well as nearly 500 active planetary seiges currently underway from both sides.
-Blades (Southwest, South, Southeast): Named for the knife-liek shape of their vessels, the Blades seem to be both hostile and expansionistic, as they are both fighting the Union and seem to be making expansionary efforts into the Southwest minor powers. So far, all meetings with Blade vessels by explorers have met with immediate weapons fire (in the case of military vessels) or flight (in the case of unarmed ships). These aliens seem to have a very unusual respiratory system, as all their colonized worlds are shrouded in clouds of toxic, caustic gasses not dissimilar to an ancient Human chemical weapon known as Mustard Gas.
The modifications to under construction supercarriers are, as predicted, fairly simple, with the hangar bays stripped out for massive energy weapons and an almost unreasonable number of torpedo tubes. Informally called 'Capital Destroyers' and/or 'Assault Ships', these retooled vessels will serve as an adaquate stopgap for the threat posed by local capital ships, but the designing of new classes at the local scale is considered a significant priority if future conflict is expected (which the scout reports suggest is highly likely).
Result: Capital Destroyers/Assault Ships unlocked and added to the Khitomer Alliance roster
The Walker Initiative, on the other hand, can be considered a partial success.
Each of the member-states of the Alliance devoted significant resources to developing a pair of designs filling different expected combat roles, with plentiful coordination between design teams to ensure that there isn't too much (if any) overlap.
However, even with the assistance of Elachi advisors and designers, the creation of these multirole ground-space combatants was foreign enough that the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and Dominon were only able to get one each of their planned designs into production by the end of the cycle and begin phasing them into their respective fleets. The other designs will require further investment of resources to bring to fruition.
The Borg, of course, only having one design, got their models out into production as well.
"...I'm not sure whether to be awed or horrified."
"I believe both to be a reasonable response, Doctor."
-Excange between Andorian Genetecist Dr. Ivossi Sh'chikrer and Vorta Overseer Menath while observing the first practice-deployment of an adult Aehallh in battle armor.
Result: The Qa'rol class Bird of Prey/Walker, Zabathu Escort/Ice Crawler, Khellid class Drone Ship/Drone Walker, Aehallh, and Planetary Assault Probe/Planetary Assault Walker have been unlocked and added to the Khitomer Alliance roster. The remaining 4 designs will require a single Research Point to finish.
Across the space of the former milky way, the industry of the Khitomer Alliance kicks into high gear. Unimaginable amounts of resources are extracted and transported through the streamlined replicator-based industrial processes ubiquitous to the member-states to bring all the bits and bobs necessary to the places where Alliance Command believes it is most necessary: specifically, the Gamma and Beta quadrants.
The commitment to the Gamma Quadrant is, in essence, simply the continuation of already begun efforts to repair the damage done in the conflict with the Hur'q shortly before the Transference to this reality. Billions of tons of material and finished parts move into the quadrant and are swiftly organized and directed into place by the Vorta overseeing the majority of the work (with the odd interested Founder also occasionally involved). Repairs are done to ravaged infrastructure, space stations and shipyards are rebuilt and often expanded, Jem'Hadar production facilities are erected alongside new Aehallh growth plants, and by the end of the cycle, the Gamma Quadrant stands as an industrial equal to the Beta Quadrant once again.
And speaking of the Beta Quadrant, it is there that the majority of the remaining resources are funneled. Not into housing or industry, however. Oh No: these resources all go into Defenses.
In space, starbasses and weapon-satelites are pieced together, both around inhabited worlds and in strategically valuable systems. On planets, massive shield generator complexes are erected in every major population center alongside anti-orbital weapon silos and garrisons for local detachments of planetary guards trained to the same standards as standard military units. Local patrol fleets defend their assigned sectors, modern escorts flying alongside last-generation capital ships pulled out of mothball and brought up to standard as best can be managed.
After the scare at the Martok Line, the Alliance wants to make sure that, if the Kroats do manage to punch through to populated space, they'll have a solid fight on their hands until reinforcements can arrive.
And so, it is done, and with only minimal protestations from elements of the Federation.
Likewise, massive numbers of resources are expended to bring the bloodied fleets involved in the Martok Line back up to full strength, shipyards nearly vomiting out hulls as material for ground forces roll out of replicators. The various polities draw in new blood to crew these ships and weild these weapons in their own ways, and by the time the cycle has ended, the fleets are once again back up to full strength.
Results: All Fleethordes are now once again Undamaged.
-Station the Federation Fleethorde and undamaged portions of the other fleethordes on defensive readiness by the Beta Quadrant/Killing-Time border. These forces will include the AFS Khitomer (Legend) and be under the overall command of General Martok (Legend).
The military might of the Kitomer Alliance masses at the borders of the Beta Quadrant, this time joined by the members of the United Federation of Planets, whose captains and crewmen stand ready and eager to do their part now that the full scope of the threat they face has been so viscerally displayed to them.
However, though they do intercept and destroy small forces of Kroats who try their luck, for the most part, the forces of the Kitomer Alliance don't do much more than stand watch this cycle, as it seems the Kroats are more focused on smaller, easier targets for the time being.
Results: The Killing-Time Kroats seem content to leave you mostly alone for now.
– from burnt fragments recovered from the Alba archives, attributed to the ancient poet Elliot
'The Destroyer has challenged, and this time I will answer him. But to win, we need to cast off the old ways of war. None of my other Warsmiths can think like you, they are all too bound up in whether a fight can be won to understand that sometimes a fight needs to be fought. The coming war will demand leaders who will fight even when every logical thing says they shouldn't - warriors who will confound our enemies at every turn.'
- Last words of Primarch Perturabo to Warsmith Honsou , before the Second Black Crusade and his disappearances atop the Chaos flagship Eternal Ravager
One
Ruminations.
Masks and Steel
Champion
Warsmith Gideon Harrsk grimaced, his gauntleted fist resting on his command throne. Data screens flicker all over the deck of the Olympia's Glory, updating the latest happenings across the dozens of different battles the Battlegroup has now found itself engulfed in. It's only been months since the fleet arrived in this new galaxy and already they have found themselves in a 3-sided war. His left eye glows the deep red of a bionic, a gift from the furious battle against Eldar slavers near the Garrantine System 10 years ago.
Around him, bridge crews scampered back and forth, as klaxons alert of incoming enemy fire absorbed by the straining void shields. The Warsmith, at the moment, seems to transcend the fire and fury across the void around him. For in his mind is rumination about war. War is at first glance, everchanging, ever transforming in its myriad forms, as the barbaric horsemen of feral steppes, to the fire of planetary annihilations following the XIVth's campaigns. But all that those multiple appearances and aspects of war are is mere window dressing, a facade. For all battle from the moment a primitive primal creature bashes his rival's head with rocks, to tank clashes across the ruined highway can be reduced to calculation. A deadly game of regicide, where the stakes are the planets and people of his realm.
But he thinks of other aspects, the reality he saw in his centuries of service, as he remembers a young mother in Hansa V. Her charred corpse, in her final moments still sheltering her offspring from what looked to be Orks Burna Boyz. In Megron Quintus, where that squad of Sisters of Battle stood against a dozen Talos Pain Engines, sacrificed themselves in agony to buy only just barely enough time for the Space Marine reinforcement to arrive and relieve the Eldar attack upon that cathedral packed with refugees. In Santiel, it was his fellow Battle Brothers in the 3rd company, who died to the last to hold back Xi-se-lath-me-sa-tha-glan, before the exterminatus fleet consigned that tainted world to oblivion, and in Cadia, where he remembers those Guardsmen from that twisted tribunal that distracted Sigismund as the cost of their lives, allow him to drive the Destroyer back from Cadia in a decisive strike that sent the Chaos Lord reeling for 400 years. Loss, honors, bravery, sacrifices; all serve to remind him that the costs of these calculations are more than just numbers and regicide pieces, it's blood and flesh of the Imperium.
Blood and flesh of the Emperor's flock.
Theoretical, and Practical, just as the blue clad sons of Guilliman would often prattle. This war would be no different, as Xenos and Abominable Intelligences trade shots with the Holy Imperium across dozens of worlds and hundreds of void battles of various scales across this Sector while also striking each other relentlessly.
There is an opportunity there, he could see it. A new regicide board was set, another game has begun even as the previous match was interrupted. Another Equation is offered to be solved. And more blood and flesh would spill in this deadly game, for in this universe, war is eternal , and its nature were...unchanged.
The ship rocked as a particularly heavy weapons struck the Olympia's Glory void shields.
Seemingly ignoring the commotion, the Warsmith refocused, and ordering his fleet to enact maneuvers so as this battle is quickly brought into conclusions, shouting for the Macrocannons and lance batteries to focus fire on the major Scourge vessels that were causing serious losses while sending further orders to the Astropathic choir, to further contact the various different parts of the Battlegroup engaging across the Sector. Time to play another maneuver.
=============
Corporal Vyrkens stands in watch. It was already the 12th day of artillery strikes on the tides of metals trying to push themselves past the guns of the Guard.
What was the phrase that Son of Horus said in Badab? Something about how Big Guns never tire?
He hoped their own guns matched that expression, for it seems the swarm is endless in their ferocity.
His unit was sent in alongside several other Armageddon regiments...and Kriegers. Dour lot, he gathered, and this is even after sharing transport ships with the Mordians.
They never seem to socialize, they never share a smoke, they never seem to take off those damn masks of theirs.
The Steel Legions wore gas masks too...but the Kriegers...there is something quite unsettling about those ones. After all, from all the contacts Vyrkens has had with the bastards, it seems they consider their mask as their true faces. In battle, they marched and charged with near suicidal fury, stepped on their dead as they advanced.
The Kriegers gives him shudders.
A few weeks ago, reinforcements arrived in the form of those tin-soldiers of the Admech. These ones don't wear gas masks, but instead display elaborately carved metal death masks on their faces, all with expressions of disturbing serenity. Compare to Kriegers' suicidal marches, the Tech Guards fought with inhuman precision. Every movement calculated, every shot calibrated, they fight with the the level of humanity comparable to those abominations they fought againsts, as Cognis-stubber and Transuranic slugs slammed into the machines with horrifying lethality
Not that he'd ever say that in earshot of one of them-
His contemplation was interrupted by the alarm.
A flechette shot whizzle over his head as Vyrkens raced towards his position, lasgun ready.
The enemy had moved past the corridor the artillery had been trying to confine them to. Groundticks lumbering and heavy attack drones dashing in support of the mass of machines, they charged the trenchline.
Vyrkens held down the trigger, putting more and more lasbeams downrange againsts the Horde, trying to thin them out, desperately hoping it would blunt their advance before they reached knife range. Around him Heavy bolters, lascannons and mortars spat their payloads, seemingly holding similar hopes.
A hope forlorn.
Chaos ensues as the Scourge reaches close ranges, the order of Fix Bayonets is sounded. And the sons and daughters of the Imperium fixed their monoedge blade to their las rifle, the officers turns on the power fields of their weapons, or rev their chain blade one last time, before jumping into the fray.
Vyrkens follows, Flechettes and neutron sparks whizzing around him as he unleashes a hail of Laser beams at a quadrupedal machine, ending its shooting spree with its body filled with scorched las weapon wounds.
He has no time to celebrate that small victory before a hail of flechette shreds through his calf.
Vyrkens fall. He closes his eyes, mumbling the few scripture lines he remembered from the sermons.
Several shots ring out, and the approaching machines fell .
He opens his eyes and sees Red Robes.
Vyrkens holds out his hands.
The Skitarii gives him a glance, then it keeps marching, leaving him behind.
Vyrkens saw darkness.
The Corporal opens his eyes, the battle was still rages on, as he crawl with a wounded leg...towards...he don't know anymore. The sounds of metal footsteps alert him. In front of him are the machines' fast attack platform. Gunhounds, they called them. Its turret raised, ready to finish Vyrkens for good.
An action that it does not get to fulfill, as a Skull-masked Krieger slams into it. They wrestle with each other, a death spiral in a grotesque parody of a man playing with his beloved canine. Even as Vyrkens tries to aim his weapon with one arm towards the metal beast, a loud gunshot rings out, and the Gunhound slumps to the side. The Krieger stands up, shotgun smoking. Their mask is practically ruined by the thing's claws, almost split in half, and they let it fall to the side.
She let it fall to the side.
Dark hair, with a face unblemished even with the soot and ashes of the battlefield. Her skin is pale, unhealthily so, comparable to a corpse.
In any other context, he would say the woman in front of him is beautiful.
But as he looks at her eyes, a cold yellow, an overall feeling of cold numbness spreads through his chest.
Those flat, empty eyes remind him too much of the dead.
Lightly, he remembers that in certain mythologies, a spirit or deity of Death will arrive take a dying man towards the afterlife as he fades from the world.
Vyrkens felt he knew how those dying souls felt when they saw the Pale Rider, the Grim Reaper.
The spirit of death spoke:
"Gefreiter Natalia-345312, Grenadier, 4th Company, Krieg 45th Infantry. State your name and rank."
"Stay down, Corporal." Says the weathered, blood-spattered medicae leaning over him. "You've kept your leg thanks to the Emperor's Grace, but sudden movement could reopen the wounds. Amputations would be more than likely necessary then."
Vyrkens sighs, but listens to the medicae and tries to move as little as possible.
In the days laying on this cot, he has time to think. About the grim gas-masked men he fought alongside with. He was wrong. Even with their cold and expressionless masks there is something still of their humanity. For within those very suicidal charges, within their desperate desire for death to honor that mysterious debt to the Emperor he heard rumored about, is their very humanity dedicated.
And for once in his life, he thinks some of the Kriegers are not so bad.
==============
Private Joachim-2134 marches onwards, heedless of the chaos surrounding him.
For he is already dead, such is his existence of the entire Volks.
Their existence is only borrowed, to repay the Sins their ancestors stained themselves with.
Themselves and all their get, forevermore.
Treasonous scum, turning their backs against the Emperor, forsaking His loving graces for mere decadence and petty politics. They had proven themselves not worthy of his Love.
Now, they carry only numbers, for they have forsaken their names.
They go to War, for they have forsaken their fates.
Now, their only hope is His forgiveness as they breathe their last in the service of His Majesty.
In life, War. In Death, Peace. In life, Shame. In death, Atonement.
Joachim-2134 marches forwards, the corpses of his company behind him.
They fell, charging a Xeno gunline. Only he was left in that skirmish. A short prayer, for the Emperor to accept their atonement, and strength for the living one to find his redemption.
Scavenging his comrades' bodies for ammunition, he moved on.
Joachim-2134 marched forward, amidst the ashen deserts and the raging battle.
Tanks trading fire with warbeast mounted gun platforms. Las-shots and bolt shells hurling towards Xeno energy beams. Men and alien exchange shot for shot, life for life.
An amphibian-looking Xeno spat a roaring bioalchemical firebomb towards him. The Krieger ducked into cover, the corpse of a Coral-like Xeno warmachine. He returned fire with his Lucius-pattern lasrifle, only as for the thing to answer with several shots from its heat ray weapons. And back and forth, until the alien made a mistake, a wild fireball that missed, giving room for the Joachim-2134 to stop the Xeno from making further mistakes, as he planted three lasbolts right between the creatures ' eyes.
He sighed, and marched forward. Lasgun ready.
The soldier came across a clearing. The battlefield is strewn with corpses. Uniforms the deep blue of the Mordian, the Ochre of Armageddon, the drab olive of Penal legionnaires, and the field grey of Kriegers. The robes of Priests, the carapace of Stormtroopers, the longcoat of Commissars. All drab over the dead...and by the living. Here, an Ogryn bashes the head of a Torodo with his oversized Ripper gun, there, a squad of Mordians being cut down by enemy heat rays. He even sees a squad of Sororitas Seraphim jumping towards a battery of enemy artillery, gun blazing. But he hears a shout.
"Don't you dare stop, you cretins! Every last one of you- keep coming! Keep trying to clog my chainblade with your intestines if you can!"
Bawling out over the war-born orchestra was a clearly vox-augmented voice.
Standing straight, assuredly exposing herself to the guns of the enemy, she lashed out with hateful words. Her sneer as biting as any sword, she was surrounded by four shock-maul wielding military Arbites, thrumming warshields ready and mauls sparking with energy. And two hulking Bullgryns with power mauls in oversized fists and dressed in the uniforms of the 34th Mentravik Penal Legions
There was no tact required when commanding a penal legion. Its operation was simple, its purpose clear. It was an instrument of penance and cold logic. A commander would select an enemy position, and then drown it in bodies. Often, these scums would be led to the line by zealous Commissars and Arbites Prefects, whose chance of making out alive are barely higher than their charges.
This one however, looks to be missing their usual fodder. Most likely they have perished by heat ray and the claws of warbeasts. She is a muscular woman , towering over her Arbites subordinates, her dark Carapace armour emblazoned with her badge of Office. Her Arbitrator helmet, she wears proudly. Face covered, so that no one knows who the gaze of Justice will fall uon next. Mouth clear, so everyone will hear Judgement clearly. A nasty scar stretches across her neck, strapped with a vox grille. She fought, bolt pistol ablaze and chainsword roaring, reaping a tally of dead Xeno among her "field retinue".
Joachim charged into the fray.
They emerge- a brute of a Xeno, smeared red and bellowing at the top of his lungs manifests out of the smoke. Shapes materialize behind him as he charges headlong towards the trench. Joachim snaps his lasgun up and aims.
She eyed him, as mechanical as the grilled vox-hailer that replaced her throat
The Krieger squeezes the trigger. The head of the alien snaps back as the lasbeam blows through his skull and incinerates his brain- his body falling limp. The scene repeats for the next trio of enemies, lasbolts burning through armour or cratering the bare chests of the aliens as they leap into trench, their weapons firing, their hands curled into claws or fists, their teeth sharpened to nail points.
Joachim watches from the corner of his eye as the Prefect takes on a different aspect, she has her bolt pistol aimed and firing, she pulls the trigger with succinct curtness, taking her time to direct her shots despite the alien before them. The woman doesn't flinch from the erupting melee, bullets snap through the air around her but she hardly pays them any mind, simply stepping to the side every so often and letting a bolt round fill the space she had once occupied.
The bulk of the charging horde hits the trench. One of the xeno tackles an arbite, and by the time a boltpistol is pressed flush against his skull he has already eaten through the arbites throat, and by the time the bolt blows apart his head, three more of these fiends have crashed into the others and they are lost from view.
The Prefect, howling her battle hymns only gives the faintest sign of acknowledgment, her remaining shield-bearing enforcers shifting around her, power-mauls crackling with energy.
"This is our stand!" She bellows, her bolt pistol ejects a cascade of shells as she holds down the trigger, emptying an entire stack in a matter of moments- the trench before her exploding into a gore heap as mass reactive rounds tear through Xeno warriors and warbeasts alike. "No mercy, only death! Only duty! Only the Emperor!"
Joachim emptied half of his lasguns powerpack into the first two, he had no time to even remember what they looked like, what horrid weapons they bore, nor their screams or battle cries, they were the enemy, and they needed to die. Joachim moved to shoulder the lasgun, but the confines of the trench were quickly becoming too cramped, so he shifted, lifted the barrel, aimed from the hip, and held down the trigger.
Superheated beams of light punched holes in unarmored cultists, searing through flesh, boiling blood, burning bone and stitching a line of charred meat through the alien dregs.
The Krieger whipped around, grabbing the barrel of his weapon- ignoring how it scalded his hands-and smashed the stock over the head of a Xeno nearby. He kept ahold of the bent lasgun, swinging it back around and into the gut of some fish like creature with wings
It grabbed the bent piece of metal that was once a lasrifle, and he let it have it. A snap-step back, and the Krieger feels Arbites carapace against his back as he did so.
Joachim rips his revolver, a scavenge from his atoned company leader earlier free from its holster- fanning the hammer, he held down the trigger, each shot tore chunks out of the enemy, each lasbolt powerful enough to dig a hole in the trench wall before dissipating. The chamber turns and a desultory whine is all he hears- he's out of power, but that doesn't mean he's without a weapon.
He spins the revolver around in his hand, he catches the heavy metal handgun by the barrel, despite its recent eruption, cool to the touch. He shouts- a roar ripping up his throat as he hauls back and clubs the reinforced plasteel grip across the head of a Xeno. The scarred head of the creature snaps down as the grip clobbers his skull- Joachim sets him right again, slamming the grip back up in a reverse swing, crunching the jaw of the alien shut- his tongue flopping uselessly into the mud as he bites it off.
With a final third swing, Joachim roars and smashes the alien's nose back into its face with a powerful blow. The enemy warrior staggers back, limp and choking. The Krieger spits, spinning his revolver, he deftly slips it back into its holster, there he draws his shovel, he nearly loses his grip when something sharp yet blunt smashes into his side. Joachim grunts, the weapon then drawn out and slammed back home again.
He whips around, ignoring the pain, his arm sliding out like a striking snake, he slashes the cultist responsible for wounding him across the neck. The alien stumbles back, trying to hold his ruined throat closed.
Joachim stumbles, grunting from a savage blow slamming across his back, spinning him around.
A hulking brute of an alien sneers down at him.
Chitin armour covered his entire body. On one of its six small front limbs, a protruding claw acts like a wicked sword. On the other, a pincer snapped threateningly, fluked tails waving for balance.
It hauled back for another strike with his weapon in the close-in confines of the hellish trench. Joachim doesn't give him the chance to strike again. He slams forwards, striking his entrenching tool into one of brute's arms, letting the serrated edge and wrapped barbed wire dig into flesh and tear through viciously, causing as much damage as he could do in as short an amount of time as he could manage. Ripping the blade out he jumps back- fighting for distance when in truth he had none. All he succeeded in doing was jumping back into the wreck of an overturned tank.
Before the hulking Xeno could exploit his mistake, the Arbites Prefector jumped in. She dodges a clumsy swing, countering, she slams her chainsword up to the hilt in an approaching alien's side, before ripping it back out and clashing her sword with the brute's bone-sword. She duels the thing, for how long, he don't know,
A roar, louder than the alien battlecry and louder than his own, shrieks overhead
Airstrike, he thought, as crustacean shaped aircraft soar overhead, launching missiles, including one that slams down near him.
He opens his eyes after the shock of the explosion fades, only to see the alien slam his bone sword into the Prefector, lying without her blades on the ground.
The Krieger reaches for his shovel, only for it nowhere to be found. But a chainsword laying around instead.
Madness gives the man fortitude, letting him ignore the bleeding wound across his face, his eyes shot with rage. With his fingers curled around the handle, he shoots up, and lunges at the alien with a guttural roar, and it roars back. His bonesword struck the Krieger's chainblade, as the soldier continued the arbitrator's duel. Slash, dodge, parry, riposte. Chainsword against claw-blade, chainsword againsts striking pincers, chainsword againsts whipping tails. The duel went on. No mistake, no mercy, each waiting for his opponent to slip up, for the killing blow.
The cacophony of war roars around them.
The Urkalsik is a soldier, a proud combatant in a martial race that expelled the weak from their midst. Advanced training combined with natural strength makes the creature a formidable warrior, in the service of the Volksrepublic. His opponent is just a mere Private, an expendable cog of his own Empire's legion of expendable cogs. By all rights, the pitiful thing in the battered gas mask must have been crushed into two pieces by the Urkalsik pincers by now. But in this precipice of life and death, in this lethal duel amidst the battlefield, fortunes change like winter leaves. And the Urkalsik warrior never expected his misfortune as the Krieger jammed his chainsword right through his abdomen. And Revs.
He can only look down in shock, before the soldier yanked the weapon out in a shower of gore, kneel down , unintentionally in a pose of exhausted triumph
And as the light of sunset illuminate him , like a halo, one can see the falling shadows of Space Marines drop pods
Void:
Lure Volksrepublik and Scourge ships againsts eachother , utillizing the advantadges of Imperial ships to deal lopsided casualties towards both enemy factions' ships, preferably as they are fighting one another
Conduct Horusian Speartip, prioritizing flagships of enemy fleets. utillizing phalanx of armored vessels to "plow through" enemy fleet formations, leaving them in dissaray
Prepare and conduct a major offensive towards the Scourge' homebase, involved the Endurance, and the Olympia's Glory among others.
Focus on electronic warfare (scrapcodes ) againsts the Scourge. Mobillize any Vanus temple assets in support of the Mechanicus contingent n this endeavor
Attempt to board and capture Urkalsik living vessel, prioritising on figuring out their wormholes
Attempt to locate Askoros, either luring him towards the Scourge home world, or failing that, ambush his vessel, and eliminate him on his own bridge.
Ground:
Have the Guards to heavily dug in within battlefields involving the Scourge. Blunt their approach with artilleries while Rough rider units attempts to spot vulnerabilities in the stretched enemy lines. Sororitas deployed to nbolster the Guards
Exploit such vulnerabilities using vehicles and Auronetica air assets. Involved Space Marines vehicle fleets in support of the Guards.
Further weaken the enmy line using Astartes assaults upon vital spot in enemy lines. Tempestus Scions infiltration are also authorised to strike important targets behind the line
Utillizing electronic warfare as above
Have Ordinatus and Titan-hunting superheavies ( Shadowswords etc ) in support of Titan scale engine clashes
Force Urkalsik into Zone Mortalis close quarter operations, authorised the use of chemicals and radiological weapons
Eliminate its champions on the battlefield with highly visible duels
Utillizes eextensive Psyker warfare.
As above, break them upon our Guns, and crush them beneath the treads of Tanks
War machines without pity moved across countless worlds to pursue a cold purpose without regret or mercy. Mechanical armies strode across tens of thousands of planets to meet human armies that had similarly bloody minded aspirations for them. The Abominable Intelligence was a monstrosity against the machine spirit, a threat to mankind's very destiny to rule and a looming menace of slavery to the things that living things built. To the Scourge, the Imperium was simply another set of obstacles to be repurposed into the components for more construction, more building, more preparation for colonization that would never come.
The scourge had adapted, changed dramatically quickly to respond to the Imperial Way of war. The PIONEER network developed new machines, new chassis and new weapons in an attempt to match the vexing problems the Imperium and the Vorkyli were presenting to it. Data was collated from countless fronts and engagements, spun into new patterns of machine and novel forms of weapon and then pushed out to carry forth the Scourge's primary directive. It was a cold, soulless approach to warfare by cold, soulless robots that moved and acted without any realisation that whatever mandate they were given to act had passed long ago.
The Death korps of krieg deployed to oppose them were as cold and empty as the machines they fought; humanoid "Marcher" drones the Scourge produced to better take advantage of the humanoid architecture that they fought around or within and to engage humans in hand to hand more effectively; coming in larger numbers than the prior hounds or the tracked "fusiliers" that stood about the height of a man's waist. The Marchers moved with clinical efficiency to get the green blaster bolts of their weapons down range towards their imperial adversaries, each green ovoid of energy racing at supersonic speeds and erupting in a hot explosion upon impact. A new weapon, inspired by Imperial Plasma weapons but smaller in scale, weaker, and more reliable, though the lasgun was reckoned to still be the better.
Lasgun beams, invisible unless there was enough dust to reflect off of thanks to the concentration of light energy inherent to lasers, danced back, gouging holes in the infantry machines unfurling themselves out of compact storage position from tracked transports that raced the gauntlet of anti-vehicular firepower. Extending their legs or rolling out of storage trunks, they moved in computerised sync; trying to find cover in the face of heavy bolter, autocannon, and multilaser fire that, knowing that the robots could not be suppressed, were being fired to kill and nothing else.
Gunhounds, Scuttletroops, Fusiliers and flying "Whirlyguns" moved in the sight of bigger "Groundtick" tanks and the newly deployed Bulader vehicles that raced ahead of the formation with the other fast assets, more menacing heavy Abramid tanks and multi-legged rotor-howitzer equipped "Clank-Strider" superheavies approached. A sight made more terrifying by the looming shadows of even larger mobile harvesters whose furnace maws inhaled and ingested massive amounts of matter to produce more machines, provide repairs, and replenish ammo as heavy batteries rocked the battlefield.
And all the while, there was the infernal racket of their endless arrays of aircraft. Of every size, of every role, of every make. From tiny drone smaller than hands that Guardsmen had learned to shoot with prejudice lest the machine mind be aware of their every move or they start some unpleasant business to colossal flying wing "Doom birds" with wingspans of over a kilometre that had powerful defensive barriers and powerful weapons; including a deadly laser. They seemed to have something in the sky to vex anyone and everyone, and the antiaircraft batteries and flyboys had to work overtime to keep the skies in Imperial hands.
The Guard had come to know the 'Steelshines' (as some of them had started to call them) as a foe with startlingly similar fondness for firepower as the primary response to most obstacles. And trench assault was no different, as thermobaric warheads launched by heavy rocket-mortar crawlers known as "Boom bugs' spread explosive metal dust over trench lines and fortified positions before igniting in massive, extremely hot detonations paired with a lethal vacuum effect as the reaction leeched the gasses from the atmosphere.
"Clearance of hostile biota underway."
The machines had analysed and then learned gothic. For what reason one could only really guess, but their droning, monotone messages were constant and utterly devoid of the usual mirth, banter, or fanaticism the Imperium was used to in the battlecries of their enemies. Simply an announcement of intent as they fulfilled their usual purpose, even as Plasma Guns cored many of their number whose shields failed and armour succumbed to the incredible heat and power of such mighty weapons. Even as their high mobility rocket launchers sent arcing contrails overhead and their hovering artillery tracks deployed stabilising legs to pump shell after shell into imperial positions they made this statement, over and over again.
They attacked with their blasters, with sharp flechettes, and with neutron and ion beams that stabbed through the air, angry and thick in contrast to the invisible pulses of lasguns or the harsh bark and detonation of bolters. Tanks had grown to cover the ground with wreckage, aircraft brought to deadly reunion with the ground strewn here and there, and the churning production facilities of the enemy screened by shields that had resisted attempts to simply bombard them into oblivion. But the war would go on, across thousands of planets, consuming billions of lives every day. Chump change to the hammer of the Imperium, which pressed ahead through superior weight of firepower and special strike operations.
Titans, Sororitas, Psykers, the Mechanicus, and Space Marines often proved to be the critical edge needed to push through the masses of metal and circuits as the guard crammed into the firepower mosh pit of thirty-three thousand battlefields. War in the industrial age is a grind fest, a shoving match to see whose reserves of strength last longer and eventually bottom out first. One might think that this would be something in the machine's court, but the golden armada of the Imperium had come with the force to make its mark on an entire galaxy and had blood to spare.
Ingenious and devious strategems were employed by both sides; one a general staff of seasoned commanders advised by the Emperor's tarot and the divination of those precious psykers who had learned how to peer into the skeins of fate, the other an enormous network of computers that crunched the milieu of data they received with blinding speed until they had come to a satisfactory conclusion. That was the machine way of war. And what is an army but a machine made of many parts?
The Imperium however, had the bigger and better war machines. Perhaps a guardsman was not the equal of the mechanical combatants of the foe's body, but his equipment was better, his lasgun struck harder, recharged more easily, and could shoot farther and faster, and his specialist weapons were better. A flamer could reduce a swarm of gunhounds and steelshines to molten puddles, a plasma or meltagunner could take out most anything put in front of him. And while a normal guardsman was at a disadvantage in melee, his officers had power and chain weapons that could carve into them, and the Ogryns could break open their metal hides with sheer brute strength.
Perhaps Leman Russ tanks were somewhat vulnerable to suicide drone strikes while they were in garages or when there weren't guardsmen around to shoot their lasguns into the "buzz bombs" to take them out or techpriests to jam their signals. But while the enemy's "high speed low drag" tanks could bleed the Imperial armoured corps, a Leman Russ would account for a dozen Bulader type tanks before one eventually managed to get in a position to exploit the rear armour of the Imperium's sacred battle tanks and punch through. Imperial Tanks could push into enemy positions with confidence in their armour allowing them to make breakthroughs without fear, their sponsons sweeping aside flankers who found that against military logic, an Imperial Tank's side was rarely that much worse protected than its front. And from the front, they had a chorus of firepower made of cannons roaring across a million battlefields.
Sometimes baneblades would be overwhelmed by the twin-barrelled "Abramid" heavy tanks that rolled into the fray spitting mass driver slugs; quadruple anti-personnel and light-materiel lasers, quadruple blaster repeaters and twin active defence lasers in a brilliant display of strange lights and strobing patterns. Standard tanks simply could not engage the almighty baneblades, main battle and light tanks no matter their numbers were. They simply couldn't penetrate the adamantium armouring of the massive tanks, and with no point of these tanks bereft of some weapon to defend themselves, attempting to flank them just let the Baneblade crews fire every gun on their tanks at once
Scuttling spider-like tank-killer drones scurried around the ground, moving at barely trackable speeds and using plasma cutters to carve their way into tanks and other vehicles to tear their guts out. Cloaking capable V-shaped "gooseflock" aerial drones would sometimes appear with a spread of missiles already launched and coilguns firing to try and break open formations or take the bite out of charges. Long range cruise missiles skimmed over the ground, weaving around terrain and cover to find targets while Irradiators filled the air with lethal gamma radiation powerful enough to melt unprotected human flesh and force the battles to be decided by the Mechanicus and Sororitas.
But all too often all it would take would be a single titan maniple to make itself known and simply annihilate anything in its way. The giant machines of the foe tried to stand against the God-Machines of the Mechanicus and the mighty Capitol Imperialis megatanks, but they would be found wanting. The Mechanicus considered this war a holy crusade, a battle against a thing that was not merely xenos nor abominable intelligence but both, and one that was utterly hellbent on the destruction of mankind. Thus their God Machines roused to war easily, their void fields flickering as they absorbed hits and their weapons blinding whole battlefields at once, war horns drowning out the endless cacophony of the Scourge and rousing men and women to believe that defeat was impossible.
The regal and revered Knightly Houses of the Imperium would answer the call to war with enthusiasm, each noble competing to win the greater glories for their house in battle against the vile silica animus, colossal chainswords and power weapons carving open walking, tracked, or floating machines in their billions, weapons firing without a concern for whether they'd run out of targets anytime soon, and the lances of brash and daring nobility enthusiastically grappling with the monstrous things of the enemy.
The Ordinatii of the Mechanicus would lay out a degree of firepower the machines simply did not have an answer for, assembled with great speed by the Mechanicus and transported to where they needed to go. Each magnum opus of a loving and devoted clade of techpriests would demonstrate the pinnacle of that sect of the martian cult's military achievements, chanting in jubilant binary with each shot and the rows of shattered machines they left behind. Different ideas for how to break the hordes of machines, to overwhelm the bases they established to produce more of themselves in real time, and to wipe their lines of battle were tried out, and loud was the rejoicing with each experiment.
The Skitarii would move at the behest of commands offered by the Noosphere, themselves scarcely more alive than their mechanical foe; the Legio Cybernetica and the Combat Servitors moving alongside them as the Domini of the Cult sought to anoint their axes in the lubricants of the unholy thinking machines. Arc weapons that would send cascades of electricity through the ranks of the machines were judiciously sued to thin out their ranks, frenzied Electro-priests chanting with insane furor as they danced through the ranks of the foe, uncaring of the losses they took while giving praise to the Omnissiah. Dominus Vylkoria would make a name for herself even cleansing the machines from a great ring world that she had deemed was made by human hands and minds, and thus waged a sacred war to claim; defeating machines that outnumbered her forces by a hundred to one with the aid of the astartes and sororitas.
The Astartes as ever, always seemed to be exactly where they needed to be. To be where the fighting was at its hardest or the most important, to deploy the weapons needed to win the decisive engagements, to provide the firepower directed to a degree of precision that only surgically inserted supersoldiers could manage. To bring strength where there is weakness, and to beget action where there is need. That was the Astartes way of war, not to carry the entire burden of a conflict on their pauldron clad shoulders, but to decide it at its most critical moments. Death Guard, Iron warrior, Iron Hand, none were legions ever known for their kindness or forgiveness at the best of times, but these were in essence; the enemy that living weapons such as the Astartes longed to fight, soulless things they could simply fight without worrying about any compunctions or political implications.
The Scourge was the result of a colonisation and land development program made by a long dead corporation in a distant galaxy gone horribly wrong. Nobody would mourn their loss, nobody would hail their victories. They simply carried out their programming, to exterminate, to terraform, to develop, to reproduce, and to spread; forever and ever. Simply things of metal that had outlived their purpose, and thus were in need of being violently put down. Special bolt-rounds designed to counter the machines were issued now; haywire shells that would fry the innards of their foes upon penetration without completely destroying everything the Mechanicus may have wanted to study, such as their personal scale shielding technology and replication systems.
Armoured formations of Predator, Sicarian, Kratos, and Fellblade tanks would roll ahead to open up paths for the masses of marines in Land Raiders, Spartan Assault Tanks, Mastodons, and Razorbacks to disgorge and start attacking. Thunderhawks, Stormbirds, Storm Eagles, and Stormravens would race through the air to land battle brothers who methodically scythed down the machines to cut ways to nodes of production, communication, and coordination or resource harvesting efforts. Mines with minerals deemed valuable were cleared out by Astartes Breacher and Terminator teams, Promethium, Volkite, and Haywire weapons judiciously used to clear out the paths while the sturdy mines were further reinforced to ensure that they would be safely used in the coming war effort.
Often they would be accompanied by the Sororitas, who may have not had the same degree of hatred for the machines as the Mechanicus did, but it was hatred all the same. Flamethrowers to consign the metal to the slagheaps where they belonged, armoured sisters absorbing blows that would have felled guardsmen a thousand times over, eviscerators hacking into large and dangerous machines. Living Saints were anointed that day, those specially blessed by the Emperor to carry out his creed against the machines while the Sisters often pushed themselves into the most dangerous of environments where their faith and devotion would carry them through the darkness.
Insane worlds entirely covered by the thinking infrastructure of the hungry robots that had shielding too dense for exterminatus to get through would see these sisters be inserted by drop pod and teleporter alongside the Astartes and Imperial Knights, bringing holy zeal and firepower against the swarm to clear out paths for the Guard and Skitarii to start making war. Exorcist, Immolator, Oppressor and Castigator tanks would push into the seas of metal and plastic, the scalding heat of Meltaguns would fire again and again, carving apart blasphemous edifices to artificial intelligence as they beseeched their sisters to hold firm in the emperor's deliverance in the face of the mechanical terror.
Over the course of months of campaigning, the Imperium drove the machines back and broke the metal hordes.
Gradually, slowly, the marines would lead the armed forces towards the core of the problem, and not a moment too soon, for the enemy was preparing something huge and sinister. Based on test firings of smaller versions of the device they're assembling, it's a superweapon meant to use alcubierre bubbles to deliver a projectile tipped with a warhead made of a substance that glows a sinister golden yellow to enhance its explosive potential to the point of being able to destroy planets and their moons, the device built around a device built by a long-dead civilisation to provide power.
Helpfully, it's being put at their capital command hub, centralizing their command subroutines in a way that means that the decapitation strike that Harrsk planned would be doubly effective. It also gave a greater urgency to the annihilation march to the core of the machine held worlds, the Imperial war machine launching devastating offensives often heralded by indiscriminate orbital bombardment on planets that had nothing in the way of civilians to be hurt by such tactics in any case.
The Republic which had sought to defend its tributaries from the Imperium's advance also faced eventual setback and backpedaling as the armies of the Emperor pushed ever-forwards. The battle here was somewhat lesser in terms of sheer, ingrained loathing of the Imperium for its enemy, but only slightly. The soldier of the Xeno was to be purged, the army Xeno was to be destroyed, but above all else, the Xeno itself was to be broken and made to recognize the one universal Truth: the stars belonged to mankind by Right. All others were merely trespassers on territory that had never been theirs.
The Vorkyli had sought to take advantage of the Imperium's distraction with the machine war, but had increasingly found itself bogged down on many fronts as the three way melee unfurled. They could not have things all their own way, even with their superior mobility systems to that of either of their foes. And as the Scourge tried to push harder against them to eliminate them first, the Imperium was able to start catching them as back ups to their wormhole stations were being eliminated by the machine, increasing the wait time between worm hole formations and lowering their mobility advantage bit by bit.
Battlefleets moved through the void with lethal purpose, hunting down their xenos counterparts with vigor and zeal. Wherever they were found, the forces of mankind met them with lance and nova cannon, blasting chunks from the hides of their living ships to cripple their speed and maneuverability before closing the distance to rip them apart with macro-cannon broadsides. Void fields and layered hulls strained against barrages of heat beams, bio-electricity, plasma bubbles, carbon shard bullets, and organic missiles.
Torpedoes would be exchanged between both sides, Imperial captains coordinating their volleys to box their foes in with munitions and even using them to herd foes towards brackets of nova cannon and lance fire. And against the larger enemy ships which outsized what even the Imperium could bring to bear, the enormous guns of the Annihilator Battleships, built around twin linked annihilator cannons each comparable in size to an entire cruiser; lobbed slugs bigger than some destroyers. Again and again until they could be approached by other vessels or finished off with follow up barrages.
Strike craft would race through the void, Astartes, Mechanicus, Ecclesiastic, and Navy; dueling with the somewhat horseshoe crab-like "Arkarak" class superiority and strike fighters, Limbless lobster-like "Kolok" class bombers, shrimp-shaped "Yurruk" type interceptors, light multi-role winged crab-like "Lokkol" types, vicious eurypterid shaped "Euryptar" gunships and sea-scorpion esque "Jakarak" attack craft and more. Fury Fighters, Gun-Cutters Faustus Interceptors, Shark Assault Boats, and Starhawk bombers would try to compete with the much greater variety of enemy strike craft, often having to rely on assistance from the Astartes whose Xiphon and Stormhawk craft had the performance and the pilots to pull ahead.
Sororitas and Mechanicus pilots, augmented by their faith or their mechanical augmentations also proved their worth in the swirling strike craft melees against the aliens just as they did against the machines. Going through holes in defences to rain down destruction on targets of opportunity whether they be mechanical or organic, seeking for any soft components that could be damaged while others sought to suppress any defensive armament they detected, targeting them for destruction or distraction to let the bombers, strike-fighters, and attack craft do their jobs.
But it was in the thick of the brawl that the Imperial Navy was at its best. Broadsides, dorsal turrets and short range torpedo bombardments as well as powerful ramming attacks would deal with their enemies who found the fronts of the Imperial Navy to be a borderline impenetrable wall of prows and a hellstorm of lance and turret fire that would drive them to try and close, where the broadsides of the navy would rake mechanical and alien ships alike between overlapping fields of fire. There were losses of course, often hideous losses as the Imperium adjusted its tactics to the ample presence of ships much larger than the navy standard, but they were acceptable.
They would keep pressing on over twenty two thousand systems contested by the Republic. A republic of soldiers it may be, but the realm of man was an Imperium of Heroes, who were excited to be the first to face and lay low a new xenos foe that no servant of the Emperor had ever confronted before. Hymnals of faith would provide the extra push needed to get more out of man and machine than should have been possible, while the hardy and fast ships of the Space Marines began to slide into the walls of battle, designating targets for the Adeptus mechanicus' more long ranged warships with their sophisticated command and control systems to allow for accurately delivered fire in the midst of battle with minimal friendly fire.
The Mechanicus and Astartes' vessels were the finest the Imperium had in its fleets short of those remanded to the usage of its most elite orders; in leagues of their own in terms of system quality, durability, and the lethality of those aboard or their weapons. They would pick off the flagships of the enemy fleets, tearing through them as the bloody melee only intensified over each contested system as Harrsk found himself commanding an exciting, colossal war.
The halls of Imperial vessels rang out with combat as Navy Armsmen fought against biomechanical warriors, shotguns and pikes turned against alien heretech until more powerful weapons or warriors could be brought to bear. Naval Ogryns and combat servitors would be released from their stations to fight against the foe, Slab shield wielding bullgryns covering for the Armsmen and letting their grenade gauntlets do the talking, filling the ships with alien offal from the usage of frag and shaped charge grenades.
The Uskraliks towered over even the Ogryns, but Naval Commissars would find that the promise of cookies and stickers to the Ogryns was often enough for them to find the extra courage needed to push back against the foe in the ungainly, graceless brawls in boarding operations. Sororitas, more common than the Astartes and infinitely more likely to be riding on Imperial Navy ships, would rouse from their sermons to engage in battle, making use of special bolt rounds whose rounds would detonate prematurely if they struck metal to avoid damaging the interiors of the ships they fought in, releasing acid meant to react with the carbon lattice biology of the Uskralik and their junior species who had similar enough biologies to comfortably serve on their ships without special accommodations in particular.
Chem-sprayers handed out to Armsmen and Sororitas with these acids gave those enemies whose shields had been confirmed to have failed and whose armour had breaches a particularly unpleasant demise as the acid turned their bodies into a grotesque black sludge that oozed out of their onyx coloured armour's breaches. Where they had made breaches though, many would die. Even Qachaks and Torodors had what were essentially organic power armour suits and shields, which poorly prepared armsmen would often find themselves unready to deal with and cut down by chitin spears, fused claw hammers, pincers, stingers, boneblades, or diamond axes.
Rotor cannons and multilasers chewed through the air, hammering at foes until they fell, while Bullgryns would try to charge in once the shooting had stopped to fill in gaps, swinging gauntlets, mauls, axes, or guns or simply trying to tackle aliens and machines alike. The flagship of Lady Grand Admiral Talia Evangeline de Chevalier, aboard the proud Gothic class Battleship "Hymn of Benevolence", was even boarded, with the admiral herself having to wield her relic power blade in anger to carve through an Uskralik Commando that had sought to kill her once one of her psyker aides pointed out the aliens' presence and tore through its shielding, opening enough of a breach in its armour for her to stab into the beast and then rally her crew. After her Stormtrooper and Ogryn bodyguards quickly closed ranks around her and dealt with the other assassins with the aid of the Sororitas detachment, her ship was cleared and the vortex torpedoes of her craft were able to fell the mighty superdreadnought "Kosotolak Uradat".
But the Imperium would not be content to be simply passively boarded by the enemy, it would strike back. Astartes, Sororitas, Navy Breacher Teams, and Mechanicus dove blade-first into the guts of Republic warships, matching bolter and chainblade against bio-lightning and alchemical incendiaries as they ripped out the hearts of alien ship-creatures. Breacher teams fitted with void hardened carapace armour would se tup their defensive mantlets and shields to clear out hallways with heavier weapons they were unafraid of using in the confines of an enemy ship, covering the Tempestus Scions whose own weapons would blaze through the strange carbon corridors of their enemy's craft.
Tactical Dreadnought Teams would lead the way, escorting actual Dreadnoughts who were some of the most menacing things that one could encounter in a boarding engagement, particularly the mighty and irritable Leviathan Siege Dreadnoughts whose claws would be stained with the blood of aliens. Brother Garivus of the Iron Hands in particular would account for more than twenty three thousand dead in one boarding engagement, tearing his way through to the heart of an alien dreadnought in an engagement lasting hours, often killing multiple aliens every second before he at last was able to smash the Dreadnought's captain face first into the primary arteries of the alien bioreactor; then clawing his way back out of the dying ship.
Many would be martyred in those battles, consumed by the alien defensive systems, overwhelmed by their foes, or by the warbeasts they spawned to counter the intrusion. Many a void breacher teamsman and tempestus would breathe their last, lungs filled with blood and carbon dust flaked off from the armour of their enemies. Some Astartes and Sororitas would be laid low, usually after having made more than their account in enemy dead, and even the Skitarii bringing forth the lethal radiation that was so poisonous to the enemy could not avoid losses.
But they were advancing. Death Guard Destroyer teams making use of their own, heavier rad weapons would deliver poison to the foe's living infrastructure, callously disregarding whatever losses were experienced among the enemy crew and making no effort to save those who surrendered save for granting them the mercy of a quick kill with a chainblade or power sword rather than the agonising slow death of radiation poisoning. It was clear that boarding was the best tool against the enemy's largest ships, even bringing in armoured vehicles when possible to attack the interiors of the foe's vessels. While enormous supercapitals and even bigger leviathans might be able to absorb stupendous amounts of punishment from outside, elite teams could make their way inside the winding corridors of the behemothic warships to take out their vital interior systems, making use of the potent force concentration of the imperium's elite to grind through the numbers of the enemy while the Void Breachers and Ogryns distracted the bulk.
On the ground, the defending imperials weathered waves of the Republic's menagerie of inhuman members, monsters, and tools, trench lines of Mordians holding against the charges of Urkalsik warriors only to dissolve into furious close-combat until aid from the Adeptus Sororitas swept through to clear the foul aliens out with Blade, Bolter, and Fire.
Ogryns would prove their weight in gold, able to go toe to toe with most of the alien warriors and with the urging of the commissars; virtually fearless in this task. Skitarii, Servitor, and Cybernetica forces would quickly be rushed in to reinforce, helping the beleaguered Guardsmen out against the scrum of aliens emerging from strange compartments within their transport beasts. Raining carbon-pods descending from the skies onto Imperial worlds braved thickets of anti-aircraft fire so dense one could imagine themselves stepping out and walking all the way down on them, many failing to make the journey while enemy aircraft tumbled in pieces to the ground.
Many more made it, including enormous biobeasts and things better described as organic machines than singular organisms that all seemed to be things that crawled out of the sea, all carbon black with patches of eerie bioluminescence, many in fact; landing in the water and then pulling themselves from the seas to strike from unexpected angles. Shadowswords and other titankiller formations would fire after the deathstrike missiles had landed, aiming to maximise the element of surprise at the behest of the experiences of those who had seen the way god machines waged war.
The Knight houses and Titan legions would speak, emerging from prepared positions with Capitol Imperialis and Leviathan megatanks. Ordinatii Majorises even larger than the mighty Imperator Titans would turn their wrath in protection of the new domains of main, liquefying the enemy with the sort of firepower that would fell capital ships. But the war would continue, as colossal cataclysms of armed conflict were an every day occurrence in the 334th millennium. Row after row of tank would bombard the manifold formations of their foes, coming to grips in a desperate struggle with their enemies as the battle started to become akin to wrestling between brawlers, but the sheer weight of steel began to tell.
It was a cost in blood waist-deep across twenty thousand worlds, but the Imperium held against the Republic's initial assault, and then they began to strike back, psykers and navigators working with Magos to backtrack the alien fleets, the warriors of the Imperium following them first to their staging worlds, then to their few remaining tributaries and protectorates, clearing each of them with a zealous fury. The Republic's vaunted military was a hollow shell of its former self, bled dry by attacks from the Imperium, the Scourge, a mysterious mercenary fleethorde known as the "Thunderstrike Free Army" hired by the enigmatic "Vornkyr" group that sought something in their territory and was starting to withdraw from it after taking what they wanted, and a new menace known as the Kroatanga.
The initial bleed that the Imperium and Scourge inflicted had seen these, and many more minor menaces nipping at the heels of the Vorkyli swarm the Republic from all sides upon sensing weakness. With pirates, minor polities and eidolons, raiders, and increasing rates of extradimensional disturbances on their worlds, they were starting to crumble from within and without. The losses to their fleet and ground forces were dire and they soon started to hunker down to try and rebuild their forces, growing fresh troops and implanting new memories to prepare for the next sequence of campaigns, not yet recalling their offensives in the hopes of securing more territory and resources, but as their wormhole station network fell down to just the primary station, their movements were increasingly slower.
And then, after months of bitter fighting, the thinkers of the nascent Imperium managed to locate the primary strategic objective of the Republic Front: the Wormhole Station.
And wouldn't you know, but the Battleworld that had been giving every Battlefleet up and down the line absolute hell was there too, carrying the elusive war-leader of the Republics: Askoros. With their territories in disarray, and with the interdiction systems of the Vorkyli proving ineffectual against the Imperials due to being designed against other forms of faster than light out of a belief nobody would be insane enough to use the Flux for transit, with the Imperial gellar fields easily pushing past the wards against daemons they had in place to reach Vorkyli worlds; they were not able to stop the offensive.
Askoros was not a fool, and knew that he was going to be cut off from the rest of the rather scattered territory of the People's Republic soon. He would call forth all troops that he can, making use of shorter range planetary wormhole nodes and subspace relays to try and bring everyone he could to his side, to make for a last stand reinforced with troops freed up by the Vornkyr group moving their operations away elsewhere.
The task-force assembled to destroy the wormhole station was larger than anything seen since the days of the Great Crusade, tens of thousands of warships streaming into a single star-system and met by an only slightly smaller number of xenos vessels. The void burned bright as ships died on both sides, Imperial vessels cracking and detonating under the weight of the Republic guns while giving twice as good back, enormous twisting graveyards of adamant metal and carbon flesh turning vast swaths of the system into hazardous minefields where escorts lurked ready to pounce on anything that strayed too close.
It would be the greatest void clash the Iron Hands had seen in an age, Metal against flesh. Man against Alien. Warrior against Warrior, Soldier against Soldier. The Annihilator class battleships with their enormous cannons joining in the bombardment line to open weaknesses in the shielding of the primary battleworld of the enemy or lining up to pummel the smaller superships of the foe, not relenting with their firepower as munitions ships arrived and shorter ranged vessels advanced to give them a chance to restock in the midst of a battle that would stretch for weeks. Weeks that would allow the Imperial fleet to break through and threaten Arkos' own flagworld at last, surrounding the black sphere with siege lines and putting its escorts to fight.
The Republic Battleworld was focused down by the might of the Tenth Legion and their allies among the priests of mars, the mighty Fist of Iron leading the charge among the battle barges of the Legion and the battleships of mars, the smaller vessels trading fire for days with the moon-sized monster before a breach in its shields was made and the Iron Hands assaulted en-mass, hundreds of thousands of Astartes falling upon the battleworld with drop-pod and thunderhawk alongside millions of Sororitas, hundreds of millions of Skitarii, countless billions of Guardsmen and full Titan Legions and the best and brightest of many a knight house, maniples of God-Machines striding across the surface of the unbelievable edifice dueling with it's cannons while others descended below the surface alongside entire armies of cyborgs, both transhuman and not. They battled their way through the halls and caverns of the immense creature, destroying every important-looking thing they could find.
It was understood that a living thing was a system, and a system that suffered injury to some of its components would start to fail as a whole. So they would harm every component, to deny nutrients to organs, to sever the connections of nerves, to break up the vast web of colonial organisms that made up this vast monstrosity. Phosphex was unleashed in amounts that would have made the more softhearted legions' eyes water, radiation weapons dropped in colossal amounts wherever there weren't too many vulnerable troops in the zone of harm. Chemicals devised by the Biologis would be unleashed to attack the Carbon based biology of the enemy, interfering with the semiconductor of their lattices of the black material and breaking them down into other forms unsuited for their form of life.
The foe would retaliate, emerging from just about every orfice, pore, pool, and entrenchment imaginable, including many symbiotic organisms urged to detach and defend the host colony as they rushed into the fray. Many a Guardsman and Astartes would find the task of entrenchment into the ground of a living thing rather odd, essentially attacking the skin of the beast and tearing out parts of the colonial network that made up this composite beast. In essence, every time a shovel bit into the "earth", it was an attack on the enemy. Some would thus make sure to stab into the ground a bit extra, as a gesture of contempt for the living beast as the Imperials fought their way into the enormous cavern system spider-webbing through the colonial beast.
Battles in underground spaces large enough for the aeronautica imperialis meant to facilitate the transport of aircraft across the battleworld were waged closer and closer to the core, many of the Titans and Knights wandering inside to lead the way while the space marines followed the studies of the Magos Biologia and the Divination capable psykers brought along to find their way towards the great war-leader, days turning into weeks and the enemy's numbers growing steadily thinner.
Eventually, Askoros himself was found, for a given meaning of 'found', as the massive Urkalsik led his personal retinue at the forefront of a counterattack against the Iron Hand's 34th Brotherhood, the huge xeno cutting down the two Captains and a Magos Dominus who sought to engage him in single combat before the Master of the 34th met the alien himself, thunder hammer, servo-arms, and power fist clashing with claws and bone-swords until while his personal guard of Terminator Marines, Domitar class Robots, and Dreadnoughts engaged with Askoros' Blue Protectors' whose great status was indicated by the deep blue bioluminescent patches on their organic armour.
It would be a dramatic, and titanic duel, worthy of praise and song while their armies battled around each other, but the Space Marine's greater speed; even in Tartaros pattern Tactical Dreadnought Armour; proved decisive. The beast weakened faster than the Space Marine, from taking more solid hits than its more agile foe, its helm shattered by repeated blows of the master of the 34th's hammer. Finally, after his servo-arm cut into one of the hearts of the Vorkyli War-leader with a melta torch, he would deal the final blow; bleeding from great rents in his armor, the Son of Ferus Manus crushed the alien's already cracked head within the grip of his power fist and shoved its huge body lifelessly to the ground while his guard slew the last of the Blue Protectors.
As word of the warlord's death spread amongst the Republic forces, ships began to flee the battlefield en-mass, ships disengaging and fleeing via wormhole, desperate to get out before the Imperials destroy the station that will allow them to escape. Approximately 60% of the present warships manage it before the wormhole station is destroyed, escaping outside of the sector and those left behind are exterminated to the last by the victorious humans.
This, however, was mostly a sideshow compared to the efforts thrown against the Scourge.
The full might of the Iron Warriors concentrated themselves into an indomitable speartip, with the Iron Blood of course serving as the very point alongside her venerable escorts, while the might of the Navy and Guard assembled to ensure the planned Corridor would be held at all cost, to ensure that the fourth would not become encircled after they punched through the AI hordes between them and the objective. This would the sort of triumph that legends would be made of, and it would test whether Harssk was worthy to fill Perturabo's shoes once and for all.
They would fight through tens of thousands of worlds, moving through the foe in a lighting offensive that would have made their genefather proud of them. No mercy, no respite, no step back, especially not as the Doomsday Cannon of the machines began to take out worlds with its massive shells. They would not pause for very long on any given battlefield, clearing it and then moving on once they had broken the back of the machines and left them scattered and disrupted for the rest of the imperial military to finish off.
It was, as expected, Hellish. The machines realized fairly quickly what was being attempted, and retasked whole battlegroups away from the frontline to try and stop the Sons of Perturabo. Battlebarges smashed through enemy cruisers with bombardment cannons blazing, strike-cruisers were swarmed by limpet-corvettes that drowned the halls in metal bodies.
Terminator Marines, Breacher Squads, Armsman Serfs, and Combat Robots would fight back without mercy. They knew their foe would never offer them any, as consumed by its endless desire to harvest and build as it was, and so did not bother with any in turn. Stormbolters and powerfists would settle many matters, Dreadnoughts often finding themselves roused to war with the goal of reducing the enemy to smouldering ruin, wrestling with the robotic menace and casting them down into oblivion.
The Iron Warriors understood the minds of machines quite well, they were often described as machine-like themselves, but they had the better technology, the better strategem. Using divining librarians, sanctified psykers, and the tarot, they would know the enemy's plans quite well, able to counter the machine logic with an element of unpredictability nourished by the logistical mastery of the Iron Warriors.
Deeper and deeper the penetrating strike of the Iron Warriors burrowed into the bowels of Scourge territory, wriggling through space like a great worm of fury and steel, and behind the multitudes of the Guard and Navy took up station, worlds ground to mud and skies set on fire as Scourge reinforcements desperately threw themselves into battle, trying to cut off and encircle the enemy's vanguard as they came closer and closer to the central hub.
But they did their duty, held the line, and died standing. The death Guard would stand with them, helping to cover the rear line of the Iron Warriors in the face of the mechanical tide and to scythe down the cylindrical blizzards of the Scourge's fleets. Paramagnetic fields would be brought down with the cannonades of the Imperial navy while their strike craft swarmed through the thicket of swept winged "Shrike call" fighter drones, the deep V-shaped "Starkite" bombers, rocket shaped tilt-thruster wing fitted "Spin-dagger" interceptors", the innumerable quad-tilt engined and vaguely square shaped "Firebox" multiroles, Forward swept crossed x-wing "Cross Talk" attack craft and six tilt-thruster long bodied "Hexwhale" type gunships and more all filled the void.
The Imperial Navy was outnumbered here, vastly so, but its ships were better. Wave after wave of munitions would be expended on void shields that would remain inviolate, adamantine armour would take innumerable hits without blinking. There were losses, but they would be losses that the machines would find to come at enormous costs. Even the Tyranids or Orks would not have traded this poorly, but the machines were clever and cunning; the thinking PIONEER network adjusting its plans.
In the shadow of the mightiest ships the Imperial Navy had to offer, the armies of man would advance, presenting their mechanical enemies with bristling fortresses of carefully calculated overlapping fire, giving no easy targets. If approached from the rear, the navy would push thrusters to full burn to gain distance and then come around for a hard turn after releasing their strike craft to harry the enemy and do what damage they could to prevent a rear t-crossing. From the front, the Imperium would simply keep advancing, trusting their prows to simply ram through opposition that failed to move out of the way and catch the enemy in the teeth of their formations. And from the sides, intense broadsides and turret fire would concentrate on the elements of the enemy navy that would create debris to menace their own advance.
Across tens of thousands of stars this process repeated. Not always ending in victory for the Imperium, but advances were being made and the machines' resource harvesting operations were slowly being worn down and cut off to open the way towards the resource riches of the Scourge Nebula. Fortifications not designed for Flux travel in mind were set by withering space artillery bombardments, with Annihilator Class battleships and anything with Nova cannons, lance batteries, or strike craft unloading their waves of fire. Drop pod and grav chute capable troops would rain from the skies in enormous numbers, pouring down from the heavens to pave the way for the annihilation of the robots in detail, taking out centres of importance by a foe that seemed unready for the magnitude of imperial advance thrown into its space by the largest portion of the wrath of the golden armada.
Eventually, the speartip finally breached the borders of the nebula making up the core of Scourge territory, meeting with intense resistance as they smashed into hastily-built fortifications and reallocated assets pulled from efforts all over the sector to preserve this lynchpin of the Scourge's operations. Every ship, warmachine, robot, drone, and nanite they could manage began to pull away from other fronts, including the closed battles with the Vorkyli to defend their nerve centres of operation for the battle of an age.
They would pour in through alcubierre bubbles like grains of sand flowing down an overly large novelty hourglass. Everything they had to bring to bear, including battleworlds, leviathans, supercapitals, and whatever preparations they could make would arrive. Kill one and three more arrived, their production centres overclocking to churn out fresh forces refined from the material of their mechanical empire and committed into the stars from every angle and direction.
And yet, through it all, the Iron Warriors pushed forward, refusing to bend, refusing to break, facing the algorithmic logic and battleplans of the machines with calculations of their own, and coming out ahead in battle after battle, cutting away aspects of their own strike-force with surgical precision to protect their angle of advance, preserving just enough force as they needed to carry them to and then through the next battle, reinforcements coursing up the corridor falling into place and then dying nearly as soon as they had any idea of what was going on.
The annihilation march as it would be called, a race against the Doomsday cannon as every time it spoke, another planet would be destroyed outright, obliterated in a yellow cascade of evil energies from the faster than light warhead. The Imperial fleet made sure to not linger long enough to let the Doomsday cannon get good targets, diffusing their advance so that the gun would have to choose whom to prioritise until he gun decided to simply target known civilian worlds. But every world destroyed only hardened the resolve of the imperials to deal with the machine.
And then, they reached it: a system dominated by the great void of a supermassive black hole, the gravitational singularity surrounded by a latticework cage of unimaginable size that, against all laws known to the adepts of the Mechanicus, held it's form, and held in place the swirling silvery cloud of stations and satellites that made up the 'brain' of the Scourge.
The Scourge Fleet in the system was larger than any that had ever been seen before: the Iron Warriors out-massed by nearly five times, including three Battleworlds and the imposing shape of the Doomsday Cannon, a colossus built into a gas giant to use the planet's atmosphere to cool itself. Making use of precursor relics they weren't able to tear apart for materials and parts that were anchored into the Gas Giant's core; they affixed the cannon to their odd quasi-electromagnetic fields that replicated the resistance a solid object would give to specified objects. In essence "resting" the cannon into "solid" ground in the form of a field of power that neither the imperium nor the scourge could hole to destroy, with special electrical signals to the precursor pylons that poked into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant allowing the gun to move on the "bed".
The gas giant, named "Brontoron" was guarded by its own lattice of machines who had spider-webbed vast floating constructs on the pylon beds of the precursors, modulating the field to allow for layered construction that had created a lattice of infrastructure dedicated to trying to comprehend the pylons and their pseudo-solid fields and servicing the Doomsday Cannon. And of course, an eye-watering number of fortifications.
It was a formidable defensive array that would have been a formidable adversary during the great crusade, and the corridor plan meant that reinforcements for the Imperium would come in largely as a trickle until other tendrils formed by the widening corridor could open up new avenues of advance; all while the unengaged sections of the scourge were pouring in frantically.
However…the eagle eyes of the Warsmiths were quick to notice the flaws, the missing hull-plates, the flickering shields, the uneven engine thrust.
Three-quarters of the ships in this fleet had been rushed out of the yard as soon as they could move under their own power, including the massive forms of the Battleworlds guarding the black hole.
And so the Fourth Legion charged, Iron Within, Iron Without! Roaring from millions of transhuman lips even as their flagging Mechanicus and Navy support fleets began to transition into the system.
Moreso than any other battle in what would become known as The War of Foundation, the victory around that black hole inside that nebula was a cost paid in the blood of martyrs. Imperial Ships opened up with single titanic hail of long-range firepower, nova shells and lances carving through slapdash Sourge ships and battering away at fully finished vessels before they dove into the melee, broadsides blasting, torpedoes firing, Astartes, Breacher, and Skitarii and Sororitas boarding teams punching into the hull of Scourge ships and selling their lives dearly within in a great, hectic furball, puppeted by the string-like orders of the Warsmiths in a grand equation of war that carved through the Scourge Fleet once again, until suddenly they were in amongst the satellites and stations, weaving around the lattice of the construct around the black hole, every ship's guns firing wildly to destroy everything around them, each shell and laser-bolt carving away at the Abominable Inteligence's mind, making their actions slower, less coordinated, and letting each Imperial ship kill more before they were dragged down by overwhelming numbers.
It was a visually beautiful war. With so many colours of energy weapons and explosives dancing through the void of space and the surfaces of the bodies caught in the Eye of Iron's orbit blooming with brilliant explosions. A million artists could have made a billion paintings and still not run out of ideas to evoke the struggle of man and machine, of the purposeful desire to dominate against the accidental inability to stop colonising. There would be no talk of surrenders, no attempts at diplomacy given that the machines only saw an obstacle to their colonisation, there was only war.
The Blood of Iron and the Endurance would accompany a throng of battleships that were surrounding a massive Star Leviathan, designated by the Mechanicus as a "Grand Harvester" type for its numerous means of rapidly stripping resources and mass via powerful tractor beams that the Mechanicus was eager to study; throwing them into the reprocessing facilities and furnaces of the Scourge to spit out war materiel and finished war machines. Also technology that the Mechanicus would dearly like to see if any inspiration from the Omnissiah could be found. But as far as the Iron Warriors were concerned, the Grand Harvester a glorious kill, the final barrages of the Blood of Iron and confirmation of successful strikes by the teams sent within leading to cheers aboard as it became a drifting hulk ready for study.
The Blood of Iron and the Endurance were legendary warships now, famous for victories against many of these outlandishly huge monsters that the natives built and a kill tally of enemy warships that would do any enemy proud, and as the Scourge's mind began to weaken and dim, its coordination of the Imperial fleet was outweighing the Scourge's own mechanical gestalt, especially once the Mechanicus began noospheric attacks on the machine brain in a war of mechanical wills.
The Scourge could not be made to defy its directives, it would battle to the end, but the Noospheric cant would confuse it with the song of the Omnissiah, arcanotech curses and code-sorcery throwing tendrils of blessed imperial data into the internet of the PIONEER network. There was a risk of course, as the PIONEER network could strike back, but every time its clouds of hateful, hostile data began to push back against the Sea of Martian red, more important brain nodes went down and its mechanodirge became more confused and scattered.
The effects of the Noospheric war of data were to cause further slowness in the Scourge, to leave its body blinder, dumber, and less able to communicate with itself. To force assets to stand down. There were casualties of course, many techpriests died maintaining the Omnissian song, overloaded by the strain of warring with a vast mechanical brain of so many parts. But as reinforcements came, including more and more of the Mechanicus' war fleets, it was the Scourge's nodes that were starting to falter in the face of the Imperium's superior cogitators and the iron will of its machine spirits and tech priests.
And with these noospheric victories, the enemy's planetary defences began to weaken. Allowing the task forces assigned to the battleworlds, the Doomsday Cannon, and the Lattice to begin their attacks at last, for this battle could ultimately only be won on the ground to destroy the Scourge's mainframes and computers.
Landings would be made on the lattices of the "Eye of Iron" and "Brontoron" to attack the exotic archaeotech left behind by strange masters after massive orbital bombardments had cleared out landing zones in the ocean of machinery. Firepower to shatter a thousand worlds fell like rain, targeting anything that looked to be of importance whenever the Assassinorium teams snuck in ahead of time had been confirmed to have succeeded in sabotaging the shield generators and the worst of the orbital defence. With each "road" of the lattice larger than a gas giant was wide, there was no risk of a badly timed drop sending one to the event horizon of the black hole, and the imperial armies would arrive on an ancient surface to bring the Emperor's justice.
The xenomechanical battleworlds would be besieged in a similar way, with the Iron Warriors simply making their famed siege tactics apply vertically in pushes into the interior of the Wanderer-Worlds; their equipment now purposely designed to kill as many of the rogue robots as possible as efficiently as possible. Non-astartes forces would follow up immediately, Titan Legions eager to do battle with the unholy silica animus and the phalanxes of the Mechanicus marching with binary canticles of war.
The battle was desperate, with high casualties and brutal attrition. The machines were coming out by the batch and pouring in from elsewhere even as their reflexes began to dull and their adaptation to the Imperial way of war began to get worse and worse. But as the sacrifice of Magos Vargara who gave her life to slay the Noospheric avatar of one of the Scourge battleworlds, causing the machine to come to a sudden halt as its software was burnt away showed; it was not a war without its heroes. With such a major node silenced, the Scourge's forces started to move more individually, and then the Sisters of Cannonness Serena Hildegard would find their martyrdom, with Serena ascending to Sainthood as she died running through a Scourge Brain Mainframe that had been built to protect the most important computer in the war-world; the Emperor's holy fire torching the lines of data of the unholy machine as the sisters under her command did their duty. Another world machine would go silent, even if the losses were brutal, especially for the guardsmen who suffered over 90% casualties save for the Ogryns who suffered much less.
The Iron Warriors would of the 413th Grand company would take out the third Scourge Brain, destroying the Mechanical monstrosity that was assembled to protect the core-brain of the war machine when it sensed it was under threat as a sort of power armour or mech. Though many were felled by the machine and its guards, Brother Grand Captain Skantarios "the ugly", an ironic nickname given to him for "looks more fitting of the Blood Angels", would drive his chainfist into a weak point in the machine's chassis made by repeated blows that had cracked open its armour and innards, and then fired the twin-linked volkite weapons fitted onto the top of the gauntlet while repeatedly smashing it with a thunder-hammer until it stopped moving.
Of the initial forces committed to that battle, only the Iron Warriors, Sororitas, and the most elite of the Mechanicus survived in any significant numbers until Imperial reinforcements arrived, freed up by sudden and dramatic victories against the Scourge elsewhere as they rapidly lost cohesion and organization. And even the Fourth Legion was mauled brutally, losing just over 70% of the forces they committed to the offensive, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the entire legion.
But the lattice had been left increasingly poorly undefended, as well as the Doomsday Cannon itself. The machines were no longer acting as an impeccably coordinated unitary whole, but a divided mass each running according to its own calculations as the Adeptus Mechanicus' electronic warfare had choked its gestalt mind. The reinforcements of the machines were still coming, now bearing brain ships that were hoping to repair the holes in the computer networks forming from the Imperium's rampage, but now the ball was thoroughly in Harrsk's court.
The Death Guard and many once-tied-down Iron Warriors were now freed up, towing in many star forts to replace the ones that had been established to bring siege lines to the battle and to expand the siege network around the Lattice and the Doomsday cannon. The Doomsday cannon was subject to teleport assaults once the Assassinorium had set up beacons within the enormous construct while imperial forces battled on the web-city honeycombing over the clouds of the oxygen rich gas giant. The thick air of the warmer, inner layers of the gas giant allowed for easy flight, even by simple grav chutes, particularly when combined with the wonky surface gravity distorted by the precursor relics.
Severely disorienting battles on invisible planes of "solidity" projected by the ancient pylons where soldiers very quickly learned to never look down lest instinct make them quiver from loin to heart were waged, most soldiers having to bring their own cover whenever they were engaged before they could reach the massive honeycomb roads and platforms. But in the interior of the cannon, the Space Marines would silence the thoughts behind the increasingly less coordinated machine, going through a hell of angry machines and components glowing with an unnerving yellow light.
It would be the work of terminators, robots, dreadnoughts, paragon warsuits, and the most armoured of mechanics assets; the radiation would not allow for any other option. Techmarines would have to designate where to go, perusing the noosphere to try and determine where the thoughts of the abominable intelligence were directing its forces to guard while the Librarians made their predictions. Chainfists, plasma torches, melta-slicers, and lascutters would carve through many bulkheads, while regular teleportation drops of ammunition kept the advancing Imperials in stock.
The Olympian Siege Terminators though would bring the rain of pain with cyclone missile launchers, vapourising large sections of the machine army within, tearing their way through ever closer and closer to the heart of the problem until they were able to take out the computer brains of the doomsday cannon, preventing it from firing one last shot into imperial space after having reaped a toll of more than a hundred known worlds throughout the war, and likely many more against other enemies. As the last War-Mainframe lay shattered and in ruins, all that would be left for Harrsk would be to finish off the computer network of the Eye of Iron itself.
And it would be a glorious final assault, in the sight of the swirling accretion disc of the black hole and amidst clouds of variably functional machines; the circle of dragged star forts' long range batteries began to rain havoc down on the enemy fleets in ever greater number with precisely coordinated barrages, taking out more and more vessels in an endless rain of firepower. A space based upscaling of the traditional Iron warrior siege tactics, and one that was proving lethally effective while forts brought to seal off positions that it was deemed likely for the alcubierre bubbles of the enemy to approach from started swatting down incoming ships in ever greater numbers.
Annihilator class battleships would move to this section of the battle, sniping out enemy ships as they approached the range of other vessels to deny their interference, all while the ground of the Lattice was cleansed. Though the Initial vanguard force was worn down, the imperials now had the upper hand in reinforcements. They could deploy as they see fit, engage what they wished, and with the enemy's ability to contest imperial orbital supremacy rapidly wearing down, there was little they could do about it.
Mainframe nodes were silenced one after the other, until the scourge's PIONEER network was at last broken in the ruins of their infrastructure built on the great megastructure. The last of their machines were dealt with by the Iron warriors who ceremonially pulled the final war-mainframe out of its ruined combat shell and then had it executed by the Warsmiths and Techmarines in a noospheric assault that silenced the cacophony of its mind once and for all as the Chaplains incanted litanies of hatred against the Abominable intelligence and the Librarians capable of technomancy assisted where they could. All while techpriests and ecclessiarchs both witnessed and praised the moment and the remembrancers recorded every detail.
With the final death of the Machine, Harrsk would turn from the ritual execution of the final primary node and deliver his speech proclaiming the end of the Foundation War, a great cheer issuing from the gathered men and women who had participated in the triumph. The great relics of the long passed precursors would thus be cleaned up of the wreckage left behind by the great battle that had raged for months across it and turned into a bastion of humanity,
On both fronts, the cost was heavy. But both the Scourge and the Republic were broken, and the Imperium's place in this new galaxy was secured as it always has been, and always will be:
Count Hasimir Fenring looked at the clock, groaned, and sent for yet another spice coffee. It was getting far, far too late, and he still had a considerable amount of work to get through. The Emperors Favorite had been wearing many hats as of late. He had held the portfolio of Spice Minister when humankind had found itself in this new galaxy - called Vyranodasik by the natives, according to the report he had started the day with - but quickly found himself juggling other responsibilities and portfolios as the resulting crisis unfolded. During the height of the Kroatanga invasion, he and the Princess Irulan had stayed behind on Kaitain while the Emperor went to war. His portfolio shuffled and changed and was amended to, going from Minister of Spice to Imperial Guild Liaison to Secretary for Economy. One thing didn't change though: he was the preeminent member of the Imperial Council, ranking below only the Emperor himself. His advice was invaluable to his old friend, and now, as the Imperium faced a new, strange universe, he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, the first in the Imperiums history.
As it turned out, the Foreign Affairs portfolio required considerably more work and provided far fewer opportunities for embezzlement than that of Spice Minister. But one must do their duty to the throne. As he sipped on his third spice coffee of the evening, Fenring examined the map in front of him. Or rather, around him. Fenring had always found the abstraction of three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional paper map limiting, and had commissioned a projected filmbook map of local space. It had taken four weeks and risked two major intelligence leaks, but it had been worth it. Pacing around his study, he examined the color-coded constellations of dots that surrounded him. At the center was the Imperium, represented by a tight, branching collection of golden points. Surrounding it were five other swarms of light.
Below and to the south was a ball of grey dots. These barren stars were guarded by some kind of weaponized thinking machines. This disquieted him. In fact, the seemingly liberal use of thinking machines by all the powers surrounding humanity deeply disturbed him. Neither Fenring nor the Emperor were particularly pious men, but they still held the Taboo in high regard. The Butlerian Jihad had been foundational to the Imperium, and of its culture. To see it so casually flaunted by these aliens...
Fenring shook himself out of his reverie. It would require adaptation, just as the Kroat War had, just as the aftermath of the Jihad had. He held his recorder up, pressed read, and felt the tell-tale click of the shigawire within pulling taught. "Emissaries to foreign worlds should be chosen from those with experience with Ix, or be Ixian themselves." He let his hand fall, and paused the recording. He chewed his lip, thinking. Those stars could wait, and he looked on to the actual powers surrounding him.
Adjacent to the Barren Worlds was a series of light blue stars. The Krincils Defense League. A collection of another powers client states that had banded together in light of the regions apparently chaotic nature. They seemed the least likely to act in a hostile manner towards the Imperium, and the isolated economies of the member-worlds meant that a trade balance would likely favor humanity. "KDL should be a target for trade negotiations, trade balance would likely be favorable to us."
Up and to the north were the Tau, represented by White. They appeared to be other recent arrivals in Vyranodasik, but their presence in the KDL made them likely rivals in what might evolve into a competition to secure client states. Additionally, they made extremely wide use of Thinking Machines, to an extent only rivaled by the automated warships to the south. "Tau represent possible rival in KDL, use of Thinking Machines useful for propaganda in future?"
To the west was a morass of warlords, pirates, and kroatanga, represented by green. This is where the Warfleet that had posed an existential threat to the Imperium had emerged from, and the systems adjacent to it had been hit the hardest by the invasion. The area was not a standing threat, but forces from the area could pose yet another, possibly worse threat in future. "No thoughts on western morass, leave to local houses." While the Harkonnens had eventually acquitted themselves well during the Battle of Arrakis, their early reticence still left a bad taste in Fenrings mouth. Let them sweat a bit while they rebuild.
Finally, down and to the north was the Tis'il Petty Regnum. A cloud of angry red stars, ruled over, if the reports are to be believed, by an enourmous, spacefaring, psychic worm. This worm-regent ruled over the area by the threat of psychic enslavement, extracting tribute from a network of vassal-states, and worlds directly ruled by its psychically controlled deputies. The Worm-kingdom was both a threat and an opportunity. Fenring decided that this would be his primary focus for the next while. "The Petty Regnum is the most important and possibly dangerous of our neighbors, recommend preparations for a war of either defense, conquest or" he smirked "liberation."
Looking at the clock again, then at the pile of reports, maps, and spreadsheets cluttering his desk, Fenring sighed. He had done quite enough work today, he really should just rest. Walking briskly to his desk, he toggled the filmbook off. His study was now only illuminated by the warm light of a glowglobe. Fenring chose a vintage, poured a glass from the decanter, and popped a baseline into his mouth and swallowed it with a gulp of the deep blue wine. Caladan, 10116. A very good year. He placed the recorder on the desk, and made for his bedroom. The glowglobe followed him out of the room, leaving it illuminated only by the stars and Kaitans moons.
40RP towards Heartlands
30 RP on 5 Research Slots
The Imperial Military had survived the Kroat invasion by dint of shields and strategy. But it had been far too close for the comfort of many within the Imperium. New technologies and strategies (especially on the ground) would have to be developed. In particular, towards the re-integration of artillery and small arms in Imperial combat doctrine.
Research will have the following objectives:
-Incorporation of Artillery into combat doctrine
-The creation of weapons systems for use by infantry when facing un- or differently-shielded opponents, as well as their use in formation fighting.
First contact and preliminary trade negotiations with the KDL
Target: Krincils Defense League
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 15RP, 2 Turns
Plan: Trade has been the Imperium's lifeblood since before recorded history began. CHOAM, one of the three institutions that is a leg in the "Imperial Tripod", originated as a body to govern the flow of goods between worlds. Now, the Imperium has an opportunity like never before: conducting trade with alien powers. The KDL to our galactic south seems to be the best candidate: we share many common rivals, and they cosmopolitan nature provides us a great variety of trade goods to choose from. Trade is the lifeblood of nations, and the Imperium aims to be a new heart.
Unity Propaganda Blitz
Target: The Home Front
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 15RP, 1 Turn
Plan: The Battle of Arrakis ended the Kroat War (or Kroat Jihad, as some have taken to calling it) in a decisive victory. The Kroatanga warfleet was broken on the lasguns and atomics of the Emperor, Landsraad, and Guild. It has made for an *excellent* PR oppurtunity. Posters, articles, and entire books lauding the heroes of Arrakis are to be printed. Exposes on mop-up operations on still-infested worlds are to fly off the presses. And much clout will be found. While the Houses Major will use this to bring more glory to their banners, the Padishah Emperor and his court are much more far-seeing. The Imperium United is what defeated the Kroats, and if Vyranodasik is to feels the Imperiums might, it will be as one, united, force.
Under the direction of Shaddam IV and House Corrino, of course.
Create an intelligence network within the Petty Regnum
Target: Tis'il Petty Regnum
Nature: Hostile
Resources: 25RP, 3 turns
Plan: The Petty Regnum is two things: a threat, and an opportunity. One on hand, the abilities of the Regnum's ruler could be a clear and direct threat should it decide to look towards us for conquest. Its unparalleled psychic abilities have no counterpart. outside of possibly the Bene Gesserit. On the other, however, its tyranny would also allow us to expand the Imperium, if we are able to overcome the worm. We would gain vast new territories or a valuable network of client states under the guise of liberation. So, the Padishah Emperor has ordered the development of an intelligence network within the Regnum in order to prepare for what might be an inevitable conflict between the two empires.
@Signupname here is your local sector brief for your first turn. Your Net RP this turn is 43. Reply to this post when you post your strategic turn.
With the battle won, work must be done on winning the war. Not only is the new Imperial territory to be colonized, providing a base of operations for Battlegroup Harrsk in this alien world, but scouts are sent out to identify what inhabits the territory surrounding them. The answers they give upon their return are perhaps not surprising but are certainly not welcome.
Available Sectors N-4
-Imperial Space (1, Center): Once territory bitterly contested by the Republic and the Scourge, the Imperium's sudden arrival has both shattered the state of the local territory and potentially upset the balance of power of the entire region. For now, however, what must be done is to dig trenches and raise cities, claiming this land for mankind.
-Kroatangan Raiders (1, Northwest): Monstrous xenos not entirely unlike the Orks, albeit equally not entirely alike, these Kroatangans are remnants from a Warpath that was defeated in battle by a local military coalition a few centuries ago. Divided pirate bands fight each other as much as they attempt to strike out at the rest of the sector, and when they do the latter a cull is usually swiftly organized to keep them down. But the sudden interdimensional incursions have both distracted their traditional enemies and worked up their appetites for a fight, and now the Arch-Warmongers who command the greatest fleets in the sector are engaging in full-fledged conflict between themselves to see who will be worthy of uniting the armies, becoming Warfiend, and marching down the Warpath anew.
-Ykantras Orda (1, South): The Ykantras are a nomadic species of alien raiders, but this particular Orda is not. It had the misfortune of attempting to skirt through Octarine-controlled territories, only to end up engaged and ultimately defeated by mercenary forces. To most optimally control and extract wealth from the Ykantras, most of their mobile habitats were recycled for their materials, and they were forced to settle on various regional worlds, the Ykantras' familiarity with enclosed living ensuring that Octarine didn't have to go to the expense of finding ones with compatible atmospheres. A strong spacer culture and a partially crippled technological base is almost all that remains of the once-proud raiders, but they have not forgotten or forgiven their torments. But, as impoverished as they are, there isn't much they can do about it without help.
-Vorkyli United Republics: (2, East, Southeast): Some among the Vorkyli remember the days when they were a power in their own right, and seek to restore old glories. One otherwise ordinary republic decided to take a chance, and expanded by force after declaring the United Republics. As far as Octarine is concerned, mergers and acquisitions are no issue as long as the debt payments of both conqueror and conquered keep rolling in, which they have, for now. The southeast is the original republic, while their east is their conquest, with the latter having a mixed opinion of their forceful integration. On the one hand, nobody likes being conquered, but on the other hand the idea of setting aside false divisions to one day potentially throw off Octarine's shackles has a strong appeal to many.
-Octarine Incorporated Mining Interests (1, North): Formerly a mixture of local Vorkyli and an up and coming local species working together to battle the Kroatanga, they were forced to take out significant Octarine loans to pay for mercenaries and maintain their national forces, and while they were successful the devastation of war on their economies prevented them from doing anything like paying those loans back. Almost as soon as they were done fighting one enemy, Octarine descended to repossess their investments, which happened to be everything. Mercenaries were given updated contracts, and the volunteers that had been present to fight the Kroats left with that threat gone.
Now they work tirelessly to extract valuable metamaterials for their masters, with their debt compounding about as fast as they can pay it off, a situation that has been carefully maintained for centuries. A Magnitude 3 warfleet of Octarine's elite Xyvus Solutions mercenaries is based here to secure their 'investment', mostly from the frequent rebellions, ranging from actual uprisings worthy of the name to constant guerilla attacks and piracy from those who can get their hands on weapons or spaceships.
-Cosmorealm (1, West): Not a name chosen by themselves, the local republic of this region was fairly unremarkable aside from being moderately prosperous and able of governance, but now it faces an incursion from beyond this universe, not unlike the Imperium in some ways. The forces of 'Outworld' march forth under their great and terrible Khan, eager to incorporate this territory into their empire through the rite and art of Mortal Kombat.
-The Teutes Federation (1, Southwest): A Vorkyli state with a sizable local military due to being the location of their former nation's high command when things came crashing down, this so-called Citizen's Republic is a military junta in all but name, and Octarine Incorporated's local enforcer in exchange for more freedom and a lowered economic burden. While normally they might be moving to check the Imperium or perform their traditional purges of Kroatangan space, they are currently too busy trying to counter the legions of Outworld to their north.
-Vorkyli Lesser Regnum (1, Northeast): The Hograthux are a species of truly enormous voidborne worms with immense psionic powers, and one of them has made their way here, where they have dominated a local Octarine colony and turned it into its nest and slave-empire. Deemed unprofitable to deal with so long as it doesn't actively expand further, this Lesser Regnum has been more or less keeping to itself, but evidence suggests they were funding the Republican Federation's revolt to destabilize the region and, presumably, eventually bring the Republic under its own control.
In addition to this information, an emissary from Octarine Incorporated itself arrives in the Imperium's territory under armed escort. After an uncomfortable standoff, they manage to deliver their message: Octarine is grateful to the Imperium for eliminating the market destabilizing forces in their sector, and in so doing restoring investor confidence for the region as a whole, but there is still the small matter that the Imperium is currently sitting on interstellar real estate legally owned by Octarine.
However, they are willing to compromise on the issue, and make the following offer: If the Imperium takes upon themselves the accrued debts of the Republic, interest included (to be delivered in a resource form not unlike the Imperial Tithe due to the lack of an extant exchange rate between Imperial Thrones and Octarine Dollars,) then Octarine would be more than happy to cede the territory to the Imperium and recognize them as its rightful owners. It is up to the Warsmith whether or not to agree to the offer.
Space was quiet. Though there would always be micrometorites and stellar winds to occupy the vast vacuum inside even a star system, those never elicited fear from a slightly capable stellar society. The final frontier is viewed as hopeful, an entire galaxy to claim and spread their vision of the future on the wealth of countless worlds just waiting to be exploited. And if any would come their way, then they only had to face it head on and turn victorious!
That was what the Union believed, at least, before Epsilon struck. In days the stellar lanes that were thought safe were but graveyards, just in time for a horde of maniacs to attack the fringe. At first from there they would be able to hold, to buy time for more to come and strike. Yet too late did they realize just what they were dealing with, as LIBRA descended upon world after world. Fear gripped the hearts of those in power just as it has countless times before. A familiar, almost welcome thing to the commander in charge of it all. He'd almost expect the allies to have done the same-trade away their future. He'd almost wish to turn around this irony and show them just how hopeless even their hope was. But...Yuri has given orders.
Ships chase around in the dark looking for their reaver foe, an alien civilization is crushed under weight of sheer numbers in desperation to win a war, a people revolt against the madness of their superiors, who sold their souls in order to live just a little longer. Fear ruled these peoples, fear which has blinded them. Just as they had wrought. And so, in this they have been blinded. And with this desperate fear they will be lead astray until the final blow strikes. In the most vulnerable place of it all.
Into the very head of this whole operation.
-With the focus of the Melhit shifted over to our forces invading their territory over their gutted supply lines, our warfleet here is to focus primarily on keeping that attention while still making progress. Our terror tactics suit this purpose quite well already, though we will still control the tempo of this battle via mind reading. False sightings of Libra will be attempted by her clones, if we can manage to fool their detection equipment with such.
-In response to the coming of Ruinmakers to the field we shall take their new hope, and prove to Melhit how hopeless it is. Once these masses of ruin are spotted we will send elite and highly mobile units-Duneridders primarily, to take up the attention of those and lead those endbringers to more suitable locations. Primarily, to wreck havok in the lines of Melhit in their disregard for those that have summoned them in the first place! If no such opportunity is there, then simply an ambush location by specialized Superhuman Mutant forces will also be acceptable.
-A mass of forces unconcerned with their lives are, in the end, perfect chaff to the slaughter of other means. If there is need for such destruction here Psychic Dominators, viruses, and the full power of our massively mobile aerial fleet will ensure it.
-On the ground and in space Espilon will make use of it's mastery of deception in the art of combat, allowing at portions of the front that utilize counterattacking to suit our better needs, pulling away portions of the opposing warfleet in order to ambush, mind control, or lay the ultimate groundwork for a devastating offensive. Their strenght in the push will be undermined by our superior ability to subvert and nip at their heels.
-Our second warfleet, will have an easier time no doubt with the forces arrayed against them. Second-Rate forces will face an running ambush campaign the likes of which they've never seen before or will.
-Using our clairvoyance of enemy moves and positions our mobile hunting parties will continue to wreck havoc and pull away the variety of forces hunting them down. Bait in the form of lone Pirahnas and other smaller craft pull away the less disciplined rear-guard as needed, only to facilitate greater efforts elsewhere or to destroy that come with powerful ambush by our more powerful craft.
-Mind readers and covert ops will attempt to further probe the minds of those Melhit around, aiming to see if the reserve fleet can be driven further to paranoia. To spread word of traitors, those that are willing to betray all just for a simple promise, spreading rumor and conflict for even better distraction. It'd also help to set up actual ones as well-given the desperate situation of the many worlds, there are sure to be those desperate enough to turn to rebels...If not entirely aware they are our puppets.
-Though it could be serviceable to push those Melhit that have rebelled against their government to strike against the fleet and further distract our foe, there is a better way to make sure of this. Namely, their mercenary contracts. Honeyed whispers of greed and offerings will attract alien captains and more to come for the riches of the vulnerable Melhit. In minor numbers that will not make them panic sure, simply to keep the di
-From the Capital or other places where high command are located, our agents will finally get ready to once more cut off communications around it, limiting spread of information in those crucial times as our true objective is achieved.
-At least a large part of the heavier aspects of our second warfleet, with elements of the first, will mobilize together into one powerful strikeforce. Accompanying this would be Libra, of course, as they'd prepare a devastating sneak attack against the heart of Melit. It's forces pulled away, unaware of the true danger until it was too late. Their goal, the breaking of the pact they had made in order to ensure Yuri's control over this space. High Command will be destroyed by any means, as Epsilon will not hold back. Even if the world or more have to die, we will get our prize. And with the fall of their command will come chaos, the fall of their help, and of course the death of their very hope. Shown by our control of their communications, they will despair and fear as we unleash our true might upon them in the aftermath.
-To help our...Partners for now, the Teledrai, carefully curated biochemical warfare options will be offered to further enhance their strengths, outdated sure by our standards but surely they can find some use with their doctrine?
Epsilon was a terror to face. To fight them was to fight your brother as much as the foe before you. Enough to drive people to very bad decisions and terrible ideas in the hopes of survival in the face of something worse than extinction. The Melhit were crumbling, within and without. Their worlds enthralled by the whispers of the toers of Babel that the Dominion created on planet after planet, in orbit after orbit. The Beacons, the Amplifiers, the Dominators; there was no need to think for oneself rather than submit to the purple eminence of the advancing armies of Yuri.
The monstrosities that they had conjured would not save them, not in the face of overwhelming force lead by coordinated geniuses who had extracted knowledge on how to counter the threats from their memories. They would starve the Voice of its influence in the region, smothering its worship and the fear of the end that ultimately begat its turbulence within the Flux. There was no room for such anxiety in Yuri's vision. Only the unbending, unthinking acceptance of the dogma of the Epsilon Army. There was no place for fear, no time for fright. This was the new era and the new age.
The fears and doubts in the army of Yuri's forces were quashed by a combination of psychic might and terminus drugs, there was no need for such human weaknesses as cowardice even in the face of the unknown that the Flux represented. It was ultimately a thing of thought and ideas, and the mind was merely another front for Yuri to command and conquer. The terrors of the soul would bow before the unbreakable iron of the Dominion, until they learned to call Yuri master just as his mortal followers did. And so they would press on without doubt or fear, confident in victory and unafraid of the end.
And the malosomnarchs, like any nightmare, did in fact lose some degree of power to harm those who rejected their core narrative conceit. To not be afraid of the end because you were convinced that you were, yourself the bringer of a new dawn was to reject the very foundation of Quishaysh. To be certain that you would build something anew atop whatever ashes, or even rejecting the idea that there would be shes at all, was to spit in the face of the lord of Apocalypses. And Yuri's army had no place in their minds for the thought of failure, only absolute certainty that they were the enlightened ones in ignorant stars.
And whatever monstrosities they had up their sleeve, they still did not have an abomination on the level of Libra. Though the Flux was still unusual to her, raw, overwhelming power was generally enough to deal with most of the denizens of the collective id of all things when they crawled into pseudo-reality in this universe. And Libra had virtually matchless amounts of such raw power. At the helm of armies guided by the genius of the Proselytes and Rahn, Libra would tear her way through to the heart of the problem.
They fought back to be sure, desperate to avoid the fate of all those who fail their end of the bargain with the Voice of Silence. But the Dark Gods would not offer more gifts to those who had shown no sign of having anything left to offer, and the Republics had nothing left to sell to the lord of the Apocalypse in exchange for more power, and promises were not enough. They would simply die, and die, and die. They did not sell their lives entirely without cost, unleashing all their remaining fury and spite with the frenzy of a dying and cornered beast, but they were dying all the same.
The terrors they hoped to unleash on the Purple Legions were nullified by pulses of drugs, energy, and telepathy to remove the possibility of fear and invigorate the doubting with endless confidence that they would win. Purpose enough to gladly die for Yuri if it were needed. There was nothing greater than that purpose, to cling onto mortal flesh before the goals of the great teacher was the height of selfishness. For it was he who had shown the path and he who had taught the way forward. And they would simply absorb and replace losses churned out from their war factories and cloning vats without a second thought. "If I die, I die" indeed.
The twisted mutates warped by the power of the nightmares of the Flux were met with equally twisted creations of deranged genetic and cybernetic science, beings "perfected" by the horror doctors of the dark dominion. The fanatical cultists brainwashed by the energies they seeped their heads into met with equally fanatical zealots brainwashed by the endless telepathic thought modification they were subject to at all times. They loved the ideals of the great one, they cherished the dream of the wise one, they prayed to the genius of the mighty one, and trusted in the strength of the enlightened one.
Sure they were not as a rule, the most durable of forces, but losses were so easy to replace, and they were a fluid, swift, and deceptive force that was skilled in making themselves appear weak when they were strong to bait foes to their doom, or to appear strong where they were not to avoid fights they had no interest in. Such had allowed their fleets to advance deeper and deeper into the space of their enemy, even in the face of increasingly bizarre and dangerous distortions of reality to allow for ever more monstrous perversions of existence be vomited out of the collective unconsciousness of all things that ever were, are, and shall be.
On benighted, confused, terrifying battlefields they battled, cutting the columns supporting the terrors. There were losses, hideous, frightful losses, but the Epsilon Army were the monsters one checked under the bed for. They did not scare. They did not fear. And with the subversion of the mercenaries and the rebels of the Mellit against the turned, the hammer would fall. Any mind that was open to new ideas was open to falling to the control of Epsilon, and they would fight against those they had once served gladly. They would be paid nothing for their treachery, and they would be happy.
And of course, ultimately nothing could stop the hands of Ereshkigal save for truly mighty displays of psychic might. While limited to the range of where they could be controlled by sufficiently powerful psions, they were invulnerable to virtually any conventional harm and their psychic electricity would tear through even things normally immune to the power of lightning. Starships, mechs, infantry corps, artillery divisions, weapons of mass destruction, teleportation scramblers, even pseudo-black holes; the ominous hand shaped airships would simply ignore any and all fire thrown their way and methodically, lethally destroy those foes who gained the attentions of the controlling psychic.
Though killing the controller would stop them, it wasn't exactly impossible to hide and protect the powerful mentalmeister orchestrating the mighty hands, and in the case of Yuri himself or Libra for example; trying to get close was often worse than trying to deal with the Hands; as the few assassins who thought they had outfoxed Epsilon's surveillance systems to get close to Yuri's palace in Translyvania found. Something that the postsophont supersoldier assassins who were dispatched discovered was only allowed so that Yuri could mind control them for himself to see for himself how flux corruption and post-sophontic alterations affected the mind.
Those who believed that just because they could withstand the mental attentions of an Adept that they had any chance against the clones of Yuri; nevermind the man himself; of course found that not even machines were safe from his control, nevermind things with minds he understood all too easily. And with that discovery, the forces of Epsilon would start mind controlling those not so corrupted by the Flux as to chance spreading undesireable memetograms within Epsilon's unimind as well as work on ways to filter out such harmful thought. It was not an effortless or fool proof system, but soon even the corrupted would find themselves puppeteered by the purple legions.
Yuri's forces had the weight of numbers and the technological advantage as well as the overwhelming psychic fury of the legions of the great one. Every foe was a new recruit, and Libra would tear down the edifices they built to their dread god to prevent the birth of their flux maelstrom, pulling apart a great megastructure assembled with a ring world as a basis to try and punch through the veil between dimensions and let the Flux spill through. Her power manifested in devastating arcs of psychic lightning that defied the laws of the speed of light and colossal, wrenching telekinetic power as well as maddening telepathic pulse waves that stilled the thoughts that fed into the Flux.
The green glow of Tiberium would be spread across every world conquered just as surely as the psychic beacons would be raised. Cultivated, managed, controlled. The crystal had gifted Yuri's army with many benefits, and it would continue to be spread to feed the insatiable industrial engine of the Dominion. All contributing to the snowballing and escalating nature of the armies of Yuri that were overrunning world after world like a cancer. To Epsilon, it was simply one tool of many tools, but very often a world would be cleansed of the corruption of the Flux after Epsilon figured that its taint in its early stages generally needed something actively anchoring it; only to be subsumed under a newer, greener corruption.
With her cackling giggle, she crushed the very heart of the edifice to the dark god they had hoped to make, ruining the work of many months in moments while Epsilon's forces ran rampant and unchecked. With the edifice brought down, the ripples would spread beyond, precipating a general collapse of the fighting strength of the maddened mellit across the entire battlezone. There would be nothing left in short order.
Nothing, save Yuri's will.
Situation:
Victory
All Mellit Subsquares conquered
Centre, West, East: Dominion Core Space: A nightmarish realm of mad science and mind control, nothing that occurs in this place that does not ultimately follow Yuri's vision. The minor civilisations, pre-spacefaring cultures, and small-scale outversal arrivals have been made to heel. Those who are able to resist the mind control are herded into the grinders or used as fodder for Terra Nova processes; mutating them into more useful forms. The space pirates and marauders who once called this place home, if not crushed by Epsilon, fall with everyone else to the Psychic Amplifier network without their hideouts even needing to be known to yuri; simply being the area of effect is enough to shut down any semblance of independent thought and reveal their secrets to the Great One. The beauty of the unimind is in full force here, where all share their thoughts under the guidance of the Great Yuri.
North and Northwest: Former Mellit League Space: After a bloody war, the Mellit League is nothing but memories. Whatever salvation its people may have hoped for in the face of the End of Nations has been crushed as the psychic beacons start being placed and independent thought is rapidly swept away. They will be happy servants, and the isolated pockets of those able to resist the whispers grows weaker and more feeble every day. Already, the Resh Vav Yod banner was flying atop what had once been an earnest, if flawed dream for the spread of liberal democracy through the stars, and Initiates watched in silence as the unworthy were herded to their deaths in the grinders. Perhaps the cruellest fate befell the Rebels, who were subsumed into Epsilon's empire almost incidentally. Fighting for freedom only to be lost to mind control for all time.
Northeast: Teledrai State: A military Junta and essentially an armed camp that has come to realise that it is now vastly outsized by the enormous stretch of territory that Epsilon controls, the paranoiac state has sought to avoid provoking the might of Yuri and largely decided to hunker down and fortify in their territory in the hopes of being left alone. Foolish to be sure, but they have no interest in waging an offensive war after correctly determining they have no hope of victory. They even close their doors to the refugees from Melit space, fearful of contamination from the Cult of the Voice of Silence or sleeper agents operating under psychic programming from Epsilon; leaving those hoping to flee Yuri with nowhere within the sector to escape from the mind control waves.
Southwest and South: Anguidai Horde: A polity of starfaring nomads who receive tribute from the people they serve as suzerain over. Having so far not paid too much heed to the chaos to their north, the filtering down of news about the fate of the enemies of Epsilon seem to have spooked them, as they start to check their armouries and prepare for a potential threat from the North. However, they cannot devote all their energy and forces towards opposing Yuri, seemingly busy with matters to their south.
Southeast: Confederation of Endila: A Wealthy but not particularly militarily strong polity, Endila is most noted for its massive number of gate junctions as well as wormholes that allow it to hold a particularly dominant position in trade networks across the galactic system. While its standing army is not large, they can mobilise a citizen's levy in short order if threatened, and they seem to be somewhat afraid of the massive new polity to have just emerged above them.
I-8: To the West are a large number of polities sworn to the religion of the Watchers of Elendia, an extremely advanced and highly religious ancient society devoted to the worship of beings that have survived at least one cycle of spacetime death and rebirth. The Cult of the Harrow Mother dedicated to Flux monstrosities menaces the holy states near the Watchers of Elendia who patron the faith, spilling forth from a nearby flux rift of great size. However the Cult of the Harrow Mother seems more concerned with "lizardmen".
K-8: Intelligence about this sector is somewhat sketchier, But there are a large number of scattered polities that subscribe to the faith of Elendia. However a green clad force of predominantly humans has been causing trouble for the "infidels" as of late.
J-7 and K-7: Lumdrumina, an expanse of innumerable warlords and stateless squabbling over the corpse of a fallen nation riven by civil war into the point of outright collapse. The mess that has come from the once proud republic has left it a mosh pit of ideologies and aspirations, but closest to you are forces of the Lumdruninan Black Army; a proud army of free spirited anarcho-communists that call to mind the noble ideals of the CNT-FAI or Pyotr Kropotkin or Nestor Makhno. People who will doubtlessly be swept aside. To the western fringe Lumdruminum is a distant colony set up by a species of flux tainted rat men.
Suggested Research
Flux power: The Flux offers avenues of powers of ideals, emotions, beliefs, and thought that are closer to magic than the general psychic abilities that power Epsilon. Given Epsilon's mastery of the mind, perhaps this would be yet another place to conquer, to leverage the faith of Epsilon so that man can become the Gods they were meant to be?
Geneseed Augmentation: The highest grade of enemy supersoldiers had a flux-enhanced sort of "geneseed", a standardised package of post-natal augmentations that would alter the body into a template. In essence, a new avenue of creating a post-sophontic warrior, one that could subtly use the flux to achieve greater results and open an entirely new field of genetic science for Epsilon as a whole.
Attenuated Distortion Barrier: A form of deflector shield, this essentially runs a charge that warps spacetime in a way to prevent attacks from making impact and absorbing their energy in a less harmful way. Though on its own it would simply be a way to improve shielding, comparing the notes to the research done on Chrono-technology may allow for some gaps to be filled to unlock complete understanding of the legacy of Einstein.
Immortality: There are ways to ensure that those who fall in Epsilon's service need not die forever, the body is merely a vessel of the mind, and as such the consciousness and thoughts of those who fall in the service of Yuri may simply be granted new bodies without limit, a powerful form of insurance for the likes of Yuri and Libra.
@Signupname here is your local sector brief for your first turn. Your Net RP this turn is 43. Reply to this post when you post your strategic turn.
With the battle won, work must be done on winning the war. Not only is the new Imperial territory to be colonized, providing a base of operations for Battlegroup Harrsk in this alien world, but scouts are sent out to identify what inhabits the territory surrounding them. The answers they give upon their return are perhaps not surprising but are certainly not welcome.
Available Sectors N-4
-Imperial Space (1, Center): Once territory bitterly contested by the Republic and the Scourge, the Imperium's sudden arrival has both shattered the state of the local territory and potentially upset the balance of power of the entire region. For now, however, what must be done is to dig trenches and raise cities, claiming this land for mankind.
-Kroatangan Raiders (1, Northwest): Monstrous xenos not entirely unlike the Orks, albeit equally not entirely alike, these Kroatangans are remnants from a Warpath that was defeated in battle by a local military coalition a few centuries ago. Divided pirate bands fight each other as much as they attempt to strike out at the rest of the sector, and when they do the latter a cull is usually swiftly organized to keep them down. But the sudden interdimensional incursions have both distracted their traditional enemies and worked up their appetites for a fight, and now the Arch-Warmongers who command the greatest fleets in the sector are engaging in full-fledged conflict between themselves to see who will be worthy of uniting the armies, becoming Warfiend, and marching down the Warpath anew.
-Ykantras Orda (1, South): The Ykantras are a nomadic species of alien raiders, but this particular Orda is not. It had the misfortune of attempting to skirt through Octarine-controlled territories, only to end up engaged and ultimately defeated by mercenary forces. To most optimally control and extract wealth from the Ykantras, most of their mobile habitats were recycled for their materials, and they were forced to settle on various regional worlds, the Ykantras' familiarity with enclosed living ensuring that Octarine didn't have to go to the expense of finding ones with compatible atmospheres. A strong spacer culture and a partially crippled technological base is almost all that remains of the once-proud raiders, but they have not forgotten or forgiven their torments. But, as impoverished as they are, there isn't much they can do about it without help.
-Vorkyli United Republics: (2, East, Southeast): Some among the Vorkyli remember the days when they were a power in their own right, and seek to restore old glories. One otherwise ordinary republic decided to take a chance, and expanded by force after declaring the United Republics. As far as Octarine is concerned, mergers and acquisitions are no issue as long as the debt payments of both conqueror and conquered keep rolling in, which they have, for now. The southeast is the original republic, while their east is their conquest, with the latter having a mixed opinion of their forceful integration. On the one hand, nobody likes being conquered, but on the other hand the idea of setting aside false divisions to one day potentially throw off Octarine's shackles has a strong appeal to many.
-Octarine Incorporated Mining Interests (1, North): Formerly a mixture of local Vorkyli and an up and coming local species working together to battle the Kroatanga, they were forced to take out significant Octarine loans to pay for mercenaries and maintain their national forces, and while they were successful the devastation of war on their economies prevented them from doing anything like paying those loans back. Almost as soon as they were done fighting one enemy, Octarine descended to repossess their investments, which happened to be everything. Mercenaries were given updated contracts, and the volunteers that had been present to fight the Kroats left with that threat gone.
Now they work tirelessly to extract valuable metamaterials for their masters, with their debt compounding about as fast as they can pay it off, a situation that has been carefully maintained for centuries. A Magnitude 3 warfleet of Octarine's elite Xyvus Solutions mercenaries is based here to secure their 'investment', mostly from the frequent rebellions, ranging from actual uprisings worthy of the name to constant guerilla attacks and piracy from those who can get their hands on weapons or spaceships.
-Cosmorealm (1, West): Not a name chosen by themselves, the local republic of this region was fairly unremarkable aside from being moderately prosperous and able of governance, but now it faces an incursion from beyond this universe, not unlike the Imperium in some ways. The forces of 'Outworld' march forth under their great and terrible Khan, eager to incorporate this territory into their empire through the rite and art of Mortal Kombat.
-The Teutes Federation (1, Southwest): A Vorkyli state with a sizable local military due to being the location of their former nation's high command when things came crashing down, this so-called Citizen's Republic is a military junta in all but name, and Octarine Incorporated's local enforcer in exchange for more freedom and a lowered economic burden. While normally they might be moving to check the Imperium or perform their traditional purges of Kroatangan space, they are currently too busy trying to counter the legions of Outworld to their north.
-Vorkyli Lesser Regnum (1, Northeast): The Hograthux are a species of truly enormous voidborne worms with immense psionic powers, and one of them has made their way here, where they have dominated a local Octarine colony and turned it into its nest and slave-empire. Deemed unprofitable to deal with so long as it doesn't actively expand further, this Lesser Regnum has been more or less keeping to itself, but evidence suggests they were funding the Republican Federation's revolt to destabilize the region and, presumably, eventually bring the Republic under its own control.
In addition to this information, an emissary from Octarine Incorporated itself arrives in the Imperium's territory under armed escort. After an uncomfortable standoff, they manage to deliver their message: Octarine is grateful to the Imperium for eliminating the market destabilizing forces in their sector, and in so doing restoring investor confidence for the region as a whole, but there is still the small matter that the Imperium is currently sitting on interstellar real estate legally owned by Octarine.
However, they are willing to compromise on the issue, and make the following offer: If the Imperium takes upon themselves the accrued debts of the Republic, interest included (to be delivered in a resource form not unlike the Imperial Tithe due to the lack of an extant exchange rate between Imperial Thrones and Octarine Dollars,) then Octarine would be more than happy to cede the territory to the Imperium and recognize them as its rightful owners. It is up to the Warsmith whether or not to agree to the offer.
"The enemy of my enemy is a problem for later. For now, they might be useful."
- Anonymous
'All transformation is, at heart, born of conflict, and in turn, all wars are naught but the violent death throes of one state as it gives itself over another.'
– Garrok the Elder, Treatise on Warfare, Vol. IV Two
Burn on Read
Chirurgical
Imperial Diplomacy
[ Transcription]
By the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition's Vyranodasik Conclave
Watch Fortress Daravek
++++++++++++Thought of the Day: A wise man learn from the death of others+++++++++++++
>>OFFICIAL ORDERS: OPERATION DIVINTARCH
>>Issuer: Inquisitor Lord Varnix Winterhold, Ordo Xenos. Grandmaster of the Vyranodasik Conclave
>>Method of conveyance: By hand only
>>Date: REDACTED
>>Location: REDACTED
>>Clearance Level: Vermilion Plus
>>DO NOT TRANSMIT<<
>>DO NOT DUPLICATE<<
>>DESTROY AFTER READING<<
SANCTIONED TARGET:
Teethsmash the Kroatmost, self-styled Arch-Warmonger, leader of the Killmageddon Warfleet.
The Kroatangan is a fungal-based species of Xen lifeforms. Extra-galactic invaders according to gathered intelligence, these warlike aliens ( species label Xenos Horrificus, threat level Majoris ) maintain curious levels of similarities, both biological and cultural, to Greenskins. Possible relations are under investigation under the Ordo Xenos [ For further details about the progress of aforementioned investigations, see MAGENTA-level clearance briefing materials, separate packet].
Fungal based lifeforms, the Kroatangans sermingly thrives on war in manners similar to the Greenskin, as mentioned. The species technology are not ramshackled reconstitued loot and scrap, but a part of a consistent technological base. The current Kroatangan forces arre remnant of a failed WAAGH-equivalent several conturies ago, and has resorted into disparated pirate bands that are occasionally culled by local fleets. With recent disruptions however, various Warlords has arisen in dominance and is at the cusp of united the region's warband.
Using operational metrics based on eliminating warbosses, it is decided that the removal of Kroatangan leaders is vital to prevent the formation of WAAGH-equivalent, an event that directly threatens the Imperium's foothold in this realm.
Of these warlords, Teethsmash the Kroatmost lead the Kroatangan warband 'Killmageddon' for decades, reaving a trail of blood across several dozen star systems . An ambitious warlord, recently, he had proclained himself of the title Arch-Warmonger and become a contender for the power struggle that would unite Kroatangan warbands in the region without intervention.
The self-proclaimed Arch-Warmonger is currently rest his fleet in the De'arxis System, "intergrating" the forces of the recently defeated Warfiend Goretusk Killripper .
SECURITY THREAT LEVEL: HIGH
Teethsmash is located in a makeshift fortress complex in the Northern continent behind Xeno line. He is guarded by some of his most elite and veteran raiders, as well as an array of automated weapons. The alien himself is a veteran of hundreds of raids, and as such is considered fluent in conbat.
MISSION OBJECTIVES AND PARAMETERS:
OBJECTIVE PRIMUS:
Operatives of the Deathwatch are to be inserted 70 kloms from the Kroatangan fortress from Inquisitorial stealthship. They cleared by the Crusade Commands to use any and all methods to eliminate Teethsmash the Kroatmost.
OBJECTIVE SECUNDUS: Operatives are cleared to use any and all methods to cause as much damage as possible to Kroatangan forces on site before retreat
SUFFER NOT THE ALIEN TO LIVE
>>ORDERS END, DESTROY IMMEDIATELY<<
===========
It rains on Denenthal. It rains a liquid that blackens with ashes. It rains in a coldness that seeped through clothes and kins, seeped into the bones. The rain drowns the footsteps and the voices of the crowd. As the rain fell, comes the harsh smell reminiscent of smokes
Joachim-2134 prised open his eyes. But the light was hot and white and blinding, so he squeezed them shut again lest it burn out the backs of his retinas.
A voice disturb the silence.
"Ah. So you are awake."
There millions of worlds that gives the Imperium its tithe of flesh to its eternal war, each with millions of its own accents, but no matter the regiment, after years of service, its veteran soldiers developed a strange gruffness that reminds one of broken glass. Joachim-2134 remembered the shout of the Watchmeister during training, and of the various veterans, Kriegers or no, accross his service. This voice was no difference somehow. Even when it is distorted through a damaged throat through a vox grille. A familiar voice.
He sat up, the pain prevent him from rapidly sat bolt upright, his eyes slowly open to look at the direction of the voice. Rasping, and Vox-amped. The voice that he last remembered belongs to someone...
The alien slam his bone sword into the Prefector, lying without her blades on the ground.
He prised open his eyes. In the other bed to his right, the Prefect sat. Her carapace armour was removed, leaving behind a tank top and a bandadges cover her midsection. A woman in her thirties, the Prefect's blonde hair is buzz-cut short. Military standard. But there is one detail Joachim-2134 notice first, now that he sees her more clearly, without the chaotic distraction of the battlefield.
" You think that xeno blade was enough to kill me ? "
The Arbites Prefect spoke with disdain.
A nasty scar ran from side to side of her throat. A bionic implant is centered where her larynx should be.
The Krieger doesn't response to the question, instead turn to the mirror on the wall next to his bed. A pair of golden eyes looks back at him . Eyes that placed on a slightly gaunt face covered with pale skin. Dark hair cut by regulation.
"A man of few words huh "
They remains in silent.
Joachim-2134 wondered why he was even here. A Krieger in the same circumstances should have been granted the Peace, as anything of use were stripped off from him. Not laying here, in some hospice bed.
He spent the day in woozy semi-consciousness, his mind like wading through muddy swampland. A servitor had provided them with food and water twoce a day. Actual salted grox slabs instead of the typical ration bars. He can't help but felt the wastefulness kf it on him. He and the Arbites Prefect occasionally makes small talk. That is, she makes small talk , and the Krieger occasionally nod before the both of them sunk back in silence
Such was it been for a while.
The door open. And his destiny came in .
________
They lean over a balcony. The cool ocean breeze on his cheek was a welcome reprieve from the clinical isolation of the complex in which he'd woken. They look out towards the shoreline
The shoreline. Gentle waves lapped the orange hued pink sand. In part, the coast was submerged, creates an illusion that makes it seems like the local avians was walking on the surface of some unnaturally calm sea: glassy, serene.
" With every step, they walked upon the story of this broken world; the history of ancient conflicts, written in its strata, long ago drowned beneath the silent depths of that becalmed water. "
The man said, his voice might have been one time arrogantly aristocratic, if it hadn't been drowned under the weight of duty and melancholy. A lanky figure in shiny leather boots and thick black jacket, his bony face is crowned with prominent stovepipe hat. In his belt, hung many weapons and instruments of death, but not one ,even the bulky plasma pistol, is as deadly as the humble looking Gothic I Rosette attached in his hip.
" The Xenos we captured says this world is cursed. That shades haunts those who sets foot on this place. The psykers confirmed there are no warpcraft sign here, but...would you blame them ? "
The man shrugs.
" This world carries no civilisation. Only the ruins of wars long past . The seawater preserves almost perfectly the wrecks and the corpses . A giant battlefield. Nothing more. Nothing less. A microosm of our existence, no ?"
The Krieger look back.
"The first colony ship will head here next month. A Jericho-class pilgrim transport. Good Emperor-adoring folks, if there is notjing else..."
He let his words hung for a while.
"They call you a hero, you know. You and that Arbites, for killing that Xeno . "
This time, Joachim-2134 look back in puzzlement.
"Presumably you will get call back to the fleet as they pinned an Eagle Ordinary on you. And from then on, you will know no field of battle. High command won't let their little propaganda stunt to go away that quickly. They even prepared to countermand your Regiment.
But that's not the Krieg way, isn't it"
"N....no, it's not"
"You can speak now, boy ?"
The man laughs, his laughter a morbid thing, like the clacking of bones on the way to burial.
"But tell me. Do you want to serves the Emperor once more ?"
=============
The Warsmith sits on his command throne, his bionic eye stares down the impudent Xeno worm that even dares to deliver this...this demads.
Gideon Harrsk was, unlike many in the Imperium, acknowledge there exists some....neccessity regarding Xeno...relations. A position as Warden of the Eye demands one to...disregard lesser enemies for now, as all manpower are focused on the much greater threat that churned out on the ground of Cadia...perhaprs since they were settled. Even not considering Sigismund's Black Crusade, where each an apocalyptic threat to the survival of the Imperium as a whole. Combine with the many...reconsiderations involving Craftworld Ulthwe, the Warsmith possesses some understanding that...practicality may needed , especially in this new realm they found themselves in. Especially after the loss they suffered in the Foundation War.
But nonetheless, they are Imperials. The legacy of the Emperor's Manifest Destiny , of human dominance amidst the stars itself. Not attempt to exterminate the local xenos only for now is one thing. But this....this proposal.
While the Crusade Commands has their disagreements, at times fierce , this is not one of those times. A final consensus.
There will be no submission of the His Hoy Majesty's Imperium of Man to Xeno Vassalage. There will be no tribute from the Imperium to alien filth. Tell them that this territory belongs to the Imperium of Man, by ancient rights of conquest. And tell them the Imperium will heads for them sooner or later.
Strategic Turn 1
Total RP: 43
Industrial Orders:
- 10 RP to increases N4-Center to ' Established' level.
3 RP to improve defense to 'moderately defended'
Diplomatic Order:
IMPERIAL REBUKE ( 16 RP )
Nature: Hostile
Make a spectacle of refusing and condemning the Octarine demand of tribute , and kicks out their herald ( without harming him directly ). Broadcast it throughout the fleet and beyond.
Panopticon ( 2 RP ) - Counterespionage
Nature:
Re-focus on security across Imperial elements. Flushing out infiltrating 'hostile elements' ( rebel cells, Chaos and genestealer cults, Tau sympathizers infiltrating civilian columns, all to set up a preparation to intercept any incoming spies from factions of this galaxy
Kill-team ( 2 RP, 1 Base+2 fleet )
Nature: Hostile
Send Deathwatch Kill Teams, Inquisitorial retinues and Assasinorum agents to subtly eliminate Kroatangan Warmongers , prevents the creation of a Warpath. Preferably by framing one Kroatangan factions over another, in order to facilliates internecine conflicts
First contact (5 RP, 2 Base+2 Fleet, 3 Base+1 Fleet):
Establish tertiary recon and first contact with the Imperium's immediate neighbors, prioritise in maintaining a position of strength during contacts, impressing the local Xenos with the might of the Imperial Fleet
Military Order:
Initiate patrol around Imperial territories
Research Order
Anti Mind-control ( 1RP )
Rumours about factions capable of mind controls seriously concerned the Imperial Command. While not exactly an out of context issue for the Imperium of Man, all historical conflicts againsts such factions are costly. Start research in both psychic and non-psychic mean of shielding Imperial troops againsts enemy mind control
Basic Xenotech (4RP )
While it is tech heresy of the high order to tainted holy Ominissiah's inspirations with foul xenotech, it is nonetheless in accordance with the Cult Mechanicus orthodoxy to study the tools of the aliens to understand their basic nature, in order to find a weakness to exploit. High Command authorises the Mechanicus elements to study captured enemy weapons gathered int the aftermath of the Foundation War
Travel through the Warp was unpredictable at the best of times. Ships could arrive off be weeks, months, sometimes by such baffling gaps that they arrived before they'd even set out. Homo navigus let the Confederation of Man make the best of a poor situation, but even that was wholly inadequate to make it truly reliable.
Still, ever since arriving in Eklemarid, the Iron Men had found the Warp to be noticeably less turbulent than normal, as the Anakim-class Commander Constructive Activity noted when they emerged from Warp merely days off of schedule and without any accidentally sweeps off-course. The system they had emerged in was one of thousands: unimportant barren dustballs, iceballs, and molten volcanos made up its planets, but it was still on the machines' new border with the Drengin alien empire.
Nanolathes went to work, streams of light forming the skeletons of battlestations, shipyards, ground bases, and then warships. This would be one outpost among many, one more holdfast to keep the alien slavers away from the Iron Men's human charges.
As that thought crossed Constructive Activity's mind, they wondered what would happen behind the defenses. The firm belief of the Iron Men in the infallibility of their creators had been shattered, just as thoroughly as humanity's certainty of the loyalty of their creations had been. Now what remained of both were refugees only beginning to find their feet and...
...And they supposed whatever came after would come. There would be time enough to question how that would go later. Right now, there were wars to prepare for and fight to ensure that there was a future for humans and Iron Men to worry over.
Resources Available: 25 (Starting Income + Additional Starting Production) -6 (Fleet Upkeep) = 19 RP
Target: Revolutionary Front
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 0 RP, 1 Turn
Plan: Victory against the Hypervelocity Merchants was achieved alongside the Stykarna Revolutionary Front, but while we do know their recent history and how they fight, there needs to be more for any sort of long-term relationship. We should be able to scrounge together a negotiating team from the human refugee population to begin more official dialogue, which will have the added bonus of including humans in the decision-making process rather than leaving everything up to the Men of Iron to decide.
Aside from general establishing of official positive relations, embassies, and so on in anticipation of further development in following years, they should also get some information on this "Desmondu" they were planning on intervening in, and perhaps get an idea of Stykarna's economy and what sort of impact the introduction of Nanolathe post-scarcity (either directly through gifts or incorporations (though it is far too early to consider that) or indirectly through trade.)
Under more optimal circumstances, we would send Mirian here as well, but there are certain pressing matter which require her attention. Namely...
Target: Earth Defense Force
Nature: Friendly
Resources: Mirian, 1 Magnitude 1 War Fleet, 1 RP, 1 Turn
Plan: The humans of this Earth are not our humans, but that matters little to the Men of Iron right now. They are humans under assault by aliens, and it would go against everything the Iron Men were created for, and what our clade decided it stood for during the collapse of the Confederation for us to simply ignore their plight.
As such, War Fleet of Iron Men led by Mirian herself will offer their assistance to the EDF in defending their territory and people against the "Flood." Iron Men ACU deployments to besieged or lost industrial nodes and population centers could quickly shatter the Flood's attempts to build up enough mass to overwhelm the humans, while Mirian herself excels in the work involved in welding together proper coordination between our forces and those of non-Iron Men contingents that will be needed if we're to avoid getting in the EDF's way.
Aside from simple military support, we can also provide material aid, with Nanolathes and smaller-scale AIs to assist in dispensing aid to the large amount of refugees this alien attack has likely inflicted. This great offer of support will hopefully ensure that the EDF is very positively inclined towards us and open to closer relationships afterwards.
In contrast to our other neighbors, the Drengin are a species of hostile aliens with a penchant for slavery. In short: almost precisely the sort of alien empire the Men of Iron were created to fight. While we are not yet established enough to bring the fight to them yet, we can at least make it clear that they're not welcome and limit their ability to raid our populations for slaves. Aggressive patrols by one of our War Fleets combined with a build-up of listening posts, defense platforms at Mandeville points, and squadrons of high-speed scout sloops and warning beacons should keep the Drengin from penetrating too deeply into our territory, and will hopefully keep them in the dark about the sheer capabilities of the AutoWar Doctrine until it is too late.
Once our system defenses for the subsector are set up, we can hopefully detach the War Fleet for other duties. Until then, this will have to suffice.
Intelligence Orders:
-Our reconnaissance of the Sector of space we have emerged in, and the one immediately to its east are woefully incomplete. While the west runs into the problem that we'd likely be pushing into hostile alien territory, we should at least make an attempt. The east is more important, as we have no idea what is in that direction as of yet.
-We should see if any of the locals have any information on what that fleet that's been purging territory to the east was and where the came from.
Military Orders:
-Our final War Fleet that is unoccupied with the activities in our diplomacy sphere will head east, protecting our colonies in the unclaimed space.
Research Orders (0 RP; 1 Slot):
-Alternate FTL Systems: The Warp seems far less hazardous in this new universe compared to that of our home one, but it still remains an uncooperative dimension to base our FTL travel on. Perhaps this galaxy will offer us useful alternatives to our old ones. The first step will be figuring out what sort of FTL systems there are that we could put to use.
Industrial Orders:
-Develop M-10's Claimed Space to Established with Medium Defenses (13 RP)
-Develop the Far West Subsector of N-10's Unclaimed Space to Colonized (4 RP)
The Revolutionaries are a diverse lot, as most revolutionaries are. Unwilling to abandon the cause of their homeland, but unable to make the difference they wanted while still being within it. Their progenitors were just another set of exiles from a protracted and violent warlord region, a warlord region created by a very human sort of folly. The desire to know one's origins, to find something secret that answers questions of one's past. Shortly after the famous flight of Yuri Gagarin into space, objects descended from space onto the Earth, fragmenting into usable pieces; the bulk within the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The wealth of technology uncovered allowed for a rapid, unprecedented leap forward in technology lead by the USSR and PRC.
The Astrocene Epoch would define mankind's future; boldly setting out into space and uncovering new frontiers and experiences. But the origin of the alien relics that began these times would haunt mankind for years, from nowhere in the galaxy, nowhere within the observable universe even. Some place distant, some place so very far away that the light of Earth's Sun would never reach it in the lifetime of the universe. The end of the Astrocene Epoch, and the thousand year Babylonian captivity brought about by the invasion of the Space Pirate Vargraz; an exile from another similarly impossibly distant galaxy lost through a wormhole and fleeing a failed turf war; would only further inflame such matters.
A thousand years of the galaxy being under the dominion of these pirates, whose iron grip devastated countless worlds and scarred mother Earth herself deeply. A thousand years ended by the intervention of yet further outsiders from beyond the horizon. The Eldar like Merendi and their ISAAC would arrive in the milky way, and upon determining that the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples were violated to a degree that they could not ignore; swept the pirates with even greater ease than they originally conquered the Milky Way. And one more question would be raised, why could man interbreed with the merendi without any need for genetic therapy or nanotechnology? Something that should not be possible for species that evolved at very different times and were native to very different parts of the universe.
The search for answers would occupy the minds of scholars across countless generations for more than three hundred thousand years. The truth always being elusive, always seeming out of reach, until at last they came across this part of the universe; Pentarch Space, named for the Five great successors to the Gramathin who once ruled before they tore each other apart. Ironically, over the Yralgar, the "gardeners", sending those relics to Earth so many, many years ago. For their interpretation of the ideal of evolution and change and their particular visions of futures that may have been.
The Historical Society of Desmond University, having made the discovery, hoped to forge a celebration of ages past by claiming a region of empty space cleared by the Yralgar. They would thus, unknowingly bring about a flood of Quadrumvirate Space interests in Pentarch Space, resulting in the olatter's general subjugation to the former's powers that be and also bringing about invasions from other "cosmic zones" such as that of the "Triad". But the historical society was full of ideals and distortions, not substantial governing experience. They were unprepared for the trials that would be put before them, and their naive hope of including the whole range of past ideological thought would beget doom.
Part way into the Fifth Empire; the sudden disappearance of the capital would plunge the whole thing into chaos and disarray. Claimants and revolutionaries both sought to strike at their rivals, tearing the whole thing apart. Civil war degenerated into a morass of warring states as cleanly organised factions broke down into military fiefdoms and martial clique. The only real consolation was that its rival; the New Combine of Till-Jeluxi, which was made as a way to grift grumpy historical nationalists who read about the Old Combine's history in the Merendi Home galaxy; was scarcely capable of taking advantage of the chaos.
From them would be born the Pyrotaurus and later the Black Spots; two of the most notorious pirate groups in this part of the universe. Then the Rhondar came, looking for an avenue to expand their reach after feeling cheated of their rightful spoils in a cataclysmic conflict aptly named the Great Interversal War. A war that started over some bloodline aristocrat or the other getting shot by some xenonationalist or the other and setting off a convoluted web of mutual defence or military support pacts that pit the great powers against one another.
Humans, relatively small in number, widely diasporic in their spread, gregarious but typically preferring to live in communities with their own kind after finding it difficult to get other species to accommodate them without making accessibility themselves; were long the subject of baseless, convoluted conspiracy theories. The fact that man had gained a connection to the Warp; or the Flux as they called it here, and something called "Psionic" or "Esper" abilities from their interbreeding with the Merendi, as well as a latent affinity for "magic", was used as further evidence of the supposed unnaturalness of both Endikith and Humanity.
But it was people from the vanquished side of the GIW who would pick up that banner of raw hatred for humanity, seeking for a way to explain away not just the defeat but also faults in society without challenging the question of whether the path of domination was necessary to begin with. Especially in the face of the spread of Communism, heavily promoted by the ISAAC as it spread across the stars and facilitated the networking of revolutionaries in every corner in the wake of the great imperialist war. Which to them, was proof that humanity, and its accomplices such as free A.Is and the merendi were products of the sinister Anthromorphic conspiracy against order and civilisation.
One that one didn't have to read much between the lines of the most important text of Anthrophobia; Xal'Yar (My War) written by one Voz'Zor'Azk; to know was a conspiracy that the most devoted believers of anthrophobic thought believed was best resolved with genocide. Voz'Zor'Azk even writes, at length, about how if the anthrocratic conspiracy did not allow the destiny of the meritocrats to be fulfilled; the result would be their annihilation as a race. The scourging of a "parasite species" that depravedly forces its lust upon species that lay above its degeneracy and, being unable to create anything of it sown, merely leeches off of the works of greater cultures to guise the unnatural chaos that is inherent to them as a species.
Perhaps most telling is the following "The Doctrine of Syrabism would seek to cast aside the meritocracy of talent and creativity that governs nature and the natural things in favour of the weight of numbers and the masses of do-nothings. It would wish to cast away the values of nation and species and the separations and uniqueness of vitalistic cultures and the necessity of struggle by spreading the creed that all are worthy without effort. Thus allowing for the pollution of the cosmos with those who in the laws of nature would be cast into the abyss, and without this veneration for the order of providence there can be no form of law comprehensible to the sophont that can persist in the stars, only the sexual perversion and rabblemongering chaos that the Anthropoid would wish to spread to use the eagerness of the lazy for easy comfort to accomplish what they themselves never could. In essence, they like an autoimmune disease, they lack the power to kill the body of civilisation on their own, and rather attract the cancers and sicknesses a healthy body would normally cure to bring about its ruination to ensure their own reproduction."
As for Desmondu, the warlord period had been going on for centuries at this point. The combatants were splinters of the original splinters, nominally unified around a general technological and aesthetic base but increasingly divergent in how they actually utilised those methods as they fought over a shrinking span of terrain in the hopes for the ever elusive final victory or just stability in the morass of endless warfare. A number of important factions were noteworthy, such as House Stahlhund, formed by those with a certain...enthusiasm for German history, including a rather unfortunate period in the 30s and 40s that they at first mostly just regarded as a chic aesthetic until they engaged in a harebrained ritual to return Adolf Hitler and his inner circle to the world of the living in a leadership position in the hopes of receiving his wisdom; only for Hitler to eliminate any opposition to his rule and start the third reich anew.
"House" Gagarin had rose from the communist factions that had opposed the "reckless and pointless experimentation" from the start and had come to consolidate around the Imperial House that had offered them shelter as a tool to use against the other houses, only to overthrow the former house Tsukiyoto. House Freeman hopes to beget a liberal constitutional system in opposition to this, while similarly opposed to the machinations of house Praetorian which idolises the long gone Roman Empire and the Afrofuturist House Onuxa which has started to craft ties with Gagarin. House Zond, formerly known as house Undaris, was born of a former archduke of a prior Emperor returning after being thought lost in a temporal distortion for centuries, and has pressed his claim as the rightful ruler.
Smaller factions squabble for the corpse of Desmond University's great experiment, though the space formally recognise as Desmondu has shrunk over the years as contestants dropped out or outsiders overran the fringes, gradually reducing Desmondu from a commanding position over a tenth of the galaxy and a great many extragalactic colonies and enclaves to its core space and a few territories beyond still linked to the Desmondic space that remains, leading to a widespread human diaspora throughout Eklemarid and beyond beyond what was already extant. This also included a great many other Merendikith and Anthrosynths. Curiously, there are notes of extensive organic-synth interbreeding enabled by nanotechnology to allow for machines and organics to have children born of them if they so desired.
It is from this, that the revolutionary front fled. And it is this that they've been trying to build up to reclaim. The nanolathe system would allow them to focus more of their manpower towards the war that they need to wage, especially if cooperation with them on a special research project to combine their psychic abilities with the nanolathe system to automate the psychic augmentation of materiel with no loss in output speed; perhaps even enhancing it; can be secured.
There also seems to be a significant amount of concern with an extraversal material that is in its most common forms; a sickly glowing yellow in colour. "Poisoned Gold" as some called it, Exteritite to use its more formal term. Tremendously useful, even more tremendously dangerous. To be lost to it was to be consumed by madness of a sort. Something that the front is also looking to deal with locally.
Earth Defence Force:
The Earth Defence Force (a terrible name for a polity that very much controls more than Earth) fights in a curious way. With colourfully armoured super soldiers who make use of flashy techniques they shout the names of, elaborate martial arts, rather...exotic looking weapons, and giving each of these troops their own personal fleet of vehicles including large, transformation and combination capable mechs. In tandem with vehicles that have a vaguely toylike aesthetic, and enormous monsters they call Titans or "Daikaiju" and non-sentai driven "Automechs" and a large number of robots,t hey've been holding off the Flood's attempted invasion for some time now.
The Flood is relentless, trying to target those with the grey matter that the infection hungers for to increase its own intellect and build up its Gravemind. However the fact that the Sentai, the PsychoForce, and the Titans are immune to the infection in its entirety has served to greatly blunt the flood's advance; while the "X-Grid" energy they use to power their machines immunised them to the attempts to make use of the logic plague that the Flood was able to try and force into their comms. However, the Flood simply changed tactics towards civilians and other vulnerable, as well as infecting bystander civilisations and pre-space farers to bulk up its mass.
However, the Men of Iron have learned quite well how to deal with memetohazards from their conflicts with their Dragon touched or Chaos corrupted or simply anthrophobic counterparts. The protocols that kept the priority warping malware that the others made use of at bay were put in place, which paired with the Flood's lack of Keyminds at the present meant that none of the Men of Iron were affected by the Flood's attempts to subvert software.
The EDF was of course, somewhat surprised to be offered so much assistance so quickly in a fight they expected to have to wage on their own. They had incredible individual prowess, with a single Sentai basically being a match for an arbitrary number of flood infantry sized combat forms and pure strains, but the Flood had numbers and had learned to simply try to bombard the EDF's super warriors with as much heavy firepower at a distance as they could rather than their usual swarming tactics.
The men of Iron though, offered a way to play the game of numbers against the parasite. Numbers, and extreme firepower to annihilate their infectees and their pure forms. Pure forms that could be burnt away by conventional napalm flamethrowers of course simply charred to vapour and ash when hit with plasma weapons meant to punch through armour able to withstand the conditions of the interior of reactors that powered starship weapons. The Men of Iron could offer a way to defend broad fronts and push along them. They could hold against the Flood before, but this was now an opportunity to outright win.
The Flood would throw its weight of numbers at the new arrivals, only to find that once broken down; mass was mass and the Flood's was as good as any. It was a race to see who was the faster and more effective at converting local matter into their own forms, but the simple fact was that hydrocarbons were much less common on most habitable planets than metal or things that could be transmuted into Adamantium and Ceramite. The war machines would collide with thunder and majesty, screaming masses of the infected against brutally pragmatic brick like metallic warriors and colourful teams of (very often) teenagers with attitude and giant monsters.
The most prominent of the many, many heroes the EDF wielded was almost certainly the Alpha Titan's Alpha Titan; Godzilla, King of the monsters. A manifestation of the Hollow Earth Force and the potential of Earth's life forms, a radioactive titan whose blue atomic fire annihilated all it touched and whose might seemed to defy conventional sense and limits, flood pure forms created to try and match the size of his manifestations flung over horizons or crumbling around his energised claws and jaws; whole sections of the battlefield erased by his nuclear pulses that swept his azure rage from horizon to horizon, turning even shielded commandeered mechs and hyper-cyborgs comprised of a combination of looted technology and flood biomass to dust.
The others were the team of some of the youngest rangers yet; the first to be recruited from people actually born in this universe who showed unusual capabilities. Team dragon-knight, made out of nine (now ten) year olds who were chosen at random by the Grid Force during a flood invasion a year ago, the inability to actually control the Grid Force's choice of new Sentai/Riders/Power Rangers meant that there was no real choice but to accept their recruitment by the Grid Force and its provision of Zords to them. On the other hand, they combined the esper and psyker abilities of native humans with the grid force to allow the team of twelve to, even on foot, take down whole-ass Titan and Behemoth scale combatants, while their Zords were up there with the Alpha Titans in unstoppability and could form worthy battle partners alongside Godzilla or Mothra when combined into the Wyrm-Paladin Megazord.
If the Gravemind's taunting was any indication, even it was bewildered at the idea of losing battles because of ten year olds, briefly breaking its usual pattern of iambic pentameter to occasionally let out exasperated confusion and its annoyance at not being able to understand the Grid Force or the Gaea-Power. However, they were not able to turn the tide of the Flood's constant invasions until the arrival of the Men of Iron's intervention fleet, providing the bulk needed to resecure their areas of production and the habitats of the Titans. The EDF was surprisingly humble, with nothing less than the most enthusiastic of reception ceremonies for their saviours attended by many of the most elite and decorated teams of their Ranger and Rider corps on the de facto capital of the EDF on "Monster Island".
The Flood would withdraw, understanding that it had miscalculated and needed to ascertain its next move, but doing so revealed that it was basing somewhere else, utilising about two subsquares worth of territory they control from the other side of a jump gate that connects to a different part of the galaxy. The ultimate result though, was the EDF's civilian leadership offering a chance to expand their relations with a mutual defence pact so that they can count on your aid in the future.
Drengin:
The Drengin were a cruel and borderline reflexively malevolent species driven by an unknown process to be sadists virtually from birth. Whatever the reason though, theirs was a society built on almost comical amounts of suffering often simply for the sheer sake of making people suffer. Even if it would actively hinder them they would choose the evil route, often to the point of coming across as outright spiteful towards more conventional morality systems. Most species do not like it when their children are enslaved and their elders eaten, so they offer pay raises for the enslavement of children and offer pillars of the community up as premium food for their pets. It almost came off as cartoonish, dystopia for dystopia's sake. How anything functioned was a mystery.
Their slave raid fleets it seemed, made use of hyperspace lanes to achieve faster than light travel. Which while it meant they weren't constrained by mandeville points, they had to make use of mappable routes system by system. With the maps purchasable or freely readable on the hypernet one could get an idea of where they'd have to move from or to. Not perfectly, as their hyperdrives had some subtle differences from local ones and they had found a number of alternate routes and were working on other FTL systems, but it was good enough to interdict many of their ships shortly after they arrived.
The armoured bricks of the Men of Iron's fleets would meet the angular, harsh and brutalistic fleets of their foe. Doom Lasers and anti-matter missiles were launched as soon as the Iron Fleets were detected where they had picked up humans on their long range bioscanners. The Iron fleet would drag their foe into knock-down, drag-out brawls where the Drengin were only too happy to reply, being themselves fond of close range battles in the hopes of captives and maximising the amount of firepower they could bring to bear. But the Men of Iron, being robots, did not need much in the way of crew compartments for boarding to take place, and while the average Drengin was two heads taller than a human and twice as broad, a simian brute with tremendous raw muscle and an even worse temperament before one considered their shielded power armour, the AutoWars of the Men of Iron were precision engineered to kill and were endlessly replaceable.
As these were raiders who necessarily travelled somewhat light, they were out of their depth trying to match their enemies in the mosh pit of attrition warfare, not having the reinforcements in line nor the force at hand to press towards an unambiguous victory in their raiding situations. For the most part, these raiding fleets were quickly squashed before they could send any further news back home. But it was clear that they were aware humans were present in your part of space, and would likely plan a major incursion soon. With significantly more force after finding it apparent that usual raiding tactics would not get them anywhere.
Reconnaisance Actions:
N-10 Reconnaisance: The Unclaimed space was cleared out by a culture known as the Yralgar. Beings who once formed an organisation known as the Pentarchy that ruled and dominated this part of the universe, a sprawling dominion over countless galaxies. They are a hive mind, weaving life as they see fit into countless forms. It was they who had brought humanity here, and they who had brought ruin to this part of space over that decision in the great celestial war. Even in their ruined, greatly diminished state, a shadow of what they once were, they still fulfill their ideal of evolution; annihilating cultures they deem to no longer serve a purpose in the great game of life and transformation.
They then remould the area with fresh life and resources and meddle with dimensional space through unknown means to encourage those from outside the galactic system or even universe to come over and take up a claim on the virgin space. However it is clear that they find humans to be interesting for some reason, and as such mankind is brought over in myriad forms with unusual regularity. Such as the IMC, short for Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, a massive corporate entity that makes extensive usage of ultrahigh mobility exosuit augmented infantry and small mechs they refer to as "Titans", currently caught in an interminable conflict with what seems to be Eldar.
The IMC, hungry for fresh profits and markets and believing the Eldar to be less powerful than they actually were, have been throwing themselves into the grinder at a long string of maiden worlds. The exodites, aided by their fae spirit compatriots, their control of the winds of magic, and more technologically sophisticated Eldar allies who dwell on an alliance of huge worldships and a smaller number of defended worlds they extract resources from. They do not seem to correspond to any variety of Eldar you know, and searching them up on the Hypernet reveals that they call themselves "Asur"and unlike the Eldar you know, refuse to honour the Cytharai alongside the Cadai.
Between the Virgin space and the Eldar are more humans who refer to themselves as the IASA (Interstellar Asian Socialist Alliance; formerly the Asia-Pacific Alliance), bearing communist symbolism and rather practical and unblemished approaches to their spacecraft, as well as a whole lot of mass production capability and enough EMP and nuclear weapons to make one's hard drives shudder at the thought. The IASA seems to be preparing for an intervention against the IMC, on account of the IMC's sociopolitical nature being antithetical to the IASA's organisation under Maoist principles and in hopes of ingratiating themselves to the Eldar.
Research: It seems that implementing new FTL systems is going to take quite a bit of shopping and custom fitting if you don't want to replace your fleet wholesale with local models, which admittedly is certainly an option but probably not the one you'd want. For one thing, it seems basically every theorised method of faster than light travel ever conceived can work, all with their own rules, and you'll need to winnow down from the extensive list to find which suits you the best. You're already familiar with Hyperdrive systems, and the Paralabyrinth, but there's also wormhole generation and alcubierre warp drives to name but a small handful of options. The choice of which to pursue is ultimately up to you, as is whether it'd replace warp travel entirely or not.
The end of the war with the Ravager Shards is not a climactic one, despite the scale and power of the weapons used. There is no Suitatzu super-organism held in reserve, no climactic last stand, no last gasp counterattack. Only a moment when the the Core reach a critical mass to collapse the Ravager's front line. No fools, the Ravagers pull back and reform their lines, but it is not enough; the Core rapidly expand into the abandoned ground and exploit the resources to break through again, repeating the process again and again across a hundred worlds, until the Ravagers were ground into oblivion.
Victory was met with celebration across the worlds of the Theocracy and Caregivers, but for the Core, there was work to be done. The Suitatzu could hardly be the greatest or only threat in this new galaxy - Even the Great Theocracy were poised to become rivals, if given the chance. Thus, the Core needed to expand, and there was abundant space to do so in the local area.
The Stentili, at least, were significantly less likely to be threat. It wasn't clear whether their principles and logic required their charges to remain organic or if they would be amenable to Patterning, but they weren't likely to be hostile in either case.
One other matter remained - The Reliquary to the East. Many advanced relics of older species, but according intelligence from the beginning of the Ravager war, well enough defended that the shards had chosen to bypass it. Were they truly incapable of defeating the guardians, or had they merely judged it something that could wait until later?
Orders
Available Resources: 20 RP (Starting Income) - 2RP (Fleethorde Upkeep) = 18 RP
Industrial
Claim all available Virgin Space (U-11 North, Northwest, West, Southwest) (-8 RP)
Upgrade subsquare U-11 Center's infrastructure to Colonized (-4 RP)
Upgrade subsquare U-11 Center's defenses to Moderately Defended (-3 RP)
Target: Stentili Caregivers
Nature: Friendly
Resources: None
The Core wish to follow up on their cooperation against the Suitatzu and establish formal relations with the Stentili Caregivers, including an embassy and a non-aggression pact. The Core also offer their Patterning technology, should the Caregivers be interested in the benefits of uploading their charges (Including but not limited to eliminating the chance of death, and no longer needing to manufacture luxury goods to pamper them in a virtual paradise).
Target: Great Theocracy
Nature: Friendly
Resources: None
As with the Stentili, the Core also wish to formalize relations with the Great Theocracy with an embassy and non-aggression pact. The Core are also interested in learning about the Theocracy's Elendian faith - There were religions in the Core's home universe, but none that provided substantiated proof of the beings they worshipped, let alone any actual benefits for doing so.
The Caregivers will implement the patterning technology on a largely volunteer basis for the time being, not wishing to force such a drastic change on their charges for the present. They do agree to the non-aggression pact and to the embassy well enough, and offer a reciprocating pact and bargain.
The Theocracy does for the time being, accept the bargain. As for the Elendian faith, it is worship of a being that had survived the death of a prior universe and continued on into this one, a transcendent thing that exhibits properties through the flux, through its esper abilities, and beyond, existing in many subverses at the same time. It and its brood and kin, often called the Wise Ones, also offer secrets and knowledge through their scarcely fathomable ruminations and rumblings.
Research
Free Research slot + 1 Purchased Slots (-1 RP):
The battles against the Ravagers have made it clear that the Core's current fleet lineup is somewhat inadequate - Notably lacking in concentrated firepower and extreme-range bombardment options. A new, larger ship type will be needed to remedy this gap. The Penetrator will be a destroyer class vessel at 2 KM long. It's main armament is a massive spinal coilgun, running the full length of the ship, with an underslung frigate-scale construction bay. Secondary armament is a set of dual-purpose plasma cannons effective against both lighter starships and strikecraft. Against heavier starships however, it is poorly armed for close combat. It is meant to stand off at bombardment range and construct its own screening force for close combat. The rest of the ship is filled with massive banks of reactors and metal makers to feed both the construction bay and the ship's weapons.
The projectile fired by the Penetrator's spinal accelerator is also a new Corvette class ship in its own right, the Cigar Fireship is a simple tube, 60 meters long and 20 in diameter, dedicated to nothing but thrusters, a guidance system, and a colossal antimatter warhead, far larger than the existing Silencer missiles. The Penetrator's spinal gun can accelerate a Cigar up to near-C velocities, or it can be built and deployed as an independent unit.
Military
The Commander cohort will investigate the Reliquary, to determine the capabilities of the Reliquary's guardians, to see if they can be communicated with, and destroy them is necessary to secure the Reliquary for the Core's own use. Commit 2 RP to We'll Be Back Restoration Gauge, to trigger at Damage Step Battered.
The Penetrator class Destroyer is able to be produced in relatively short order, it doesn't ask for any new technology, nor does it really require any particular modifications of the CORE's manufacturing systems, as such it is more or less immediately ready for service by the end of the year, and can be counted on to accompany your fleets.
The Reliquary's guardians are machines of course, made in service to something called the Hagravya Union Republic a long, long time ago. The oldest of their relics are more than two billion years old, the youngest merely hundreds of millions. But the makers are unmistakably gone. The guardians themselves acknowledge this, but they maintain their vigil anyway as a check on the destabilising influence of their technology falling into the hands of societies not ready for that leap.
The Hagravayaki recorded the spread of a yellow self-replicating and assimilative mutagen in the later period of their civilisation after having grown into a major hegemon of Pentarch space, and then the fall of one of their compatriot civilisations to the substance as they grew addicted to its benefits. They fought a war to try and contain it, but something emerged, and the Union Republic was promptly annihilated, along with virtually ally signs of life in the region.
The machines do analyse your capabilities, and deem that you are technologically close enough to their makers to allow you to settle upon their craft, though they seem to insist that if you wish to understand their secrets, you will need to research things the harder way. Still, it is enough to claim this subsquare.
The Hyperspace Predators were vanquished swiftly and vigorously, forced back into the realm from which they came by the might and vigor of the Firstborn of the Old Ones.
Now, the true challenge presents itself: where to go from here.
The Sublime Communion meets once again, their ancient and alien minds conferring through lanes of astromantic power as the worlds of the Quetzel put right what limited damage the Unbodden had done to them. An analysis is run of those they know to be nearby, of the space surrounding them, and the great threat to their south, the massive rent in the Order of the universe that scratches and itches at their senses every second of every day they spend in this place.
And so, as losses are replaced and everything within the little island of Order they preside over put to right once again, the Slann begin to make their plans.
Some break off into small cabals, casting their minds out to gather those among the Quetzal inclined to stealth and subterfuge, to investigate their two closest neighbours outside the Storm.
Others focus inwards or downwards, towards the great forges of the First where massive amounts of resources have begun to be gathered for a massive expansion of the First's territory northward where naught but tiny warmblood nations sit, unaware of the great leviathans around them.
They would be brought under the protection of the Quetzel, their stars and planets woven into the glory of the astromantic web, and the barren worlds around them harnessed for the Grand Purpose that stood visible on the horizon.
A limited few call forth the long-abandoned exploratory vessels, crews of Skinks and Kroxigore with their Terapon captains rousing for the first time in countless millenia, recalled to service to head east and west, to find what might be lurking beyond what the Communion currently knows.
More numerous are those who point the explorers south, though this is not due to number, but their role: to probe the borders of the Great Storm, and get the measure of what lied within.
More Slann were deemed necessary to ensure these intrepid explorers would return intact.
Others of the Communion returned to their bodies to marshal the repaired and replaced fleets and armies of the Children of the Old Ones, to stand guard both over what they had and what they would soon gain.
And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, was their Venerable Elder, Lord Disa'Gonsuuc; he who gathered around him the bulk of the Sublime Comminion, sending out pulses through the web to call forth the foremost among the Skinks, Terapon, and the Spellscales of the other castes.
All who could touch and weave the Winds of Magic were drawn together, for what was sure to be a great and long undertaking.
Teasing forth the new and strange laws of this alien reality…and learning how to bend them to their whims with the Power of Magic, the same as they would back in their maker's garden.
And over it all…Kalimdranor stood waiting.
Current Assets/Territory:
1 TP, Industrial Development Level, Excessively Defended
20 POP
1 Base-Magnitude Fleethorde
RP Budget: 38
Orders
Diplomacy:
Diplomacy:
-None for now, as there is no one around who the Communion feel a desire to speak with at this time.
Intel: -Target: The Lords of Nightmares and Cult of the Harrowmother
Nature: Hostile
Resources: 4 RP total
Plan: These two groups appear to be servants of local Chaos-God Equivalents, and thus have been for the moment have been labeled as 'potential enemies.' This operation is twofold: meant to both ascertain whether this is true, and to guage the military power and industrial development of the territory of these two cults, to assist in planning to remove them in-future, should such be proven necessary. It is to be tackled by the Quetzel's best Stealth Assets (Chameleons foremost among them, of course) and supported by Slann aligned with the Ulgu, the Wind of Shadows, and Azyr, the Celestial Wind.
-Target: Sectors G-8 and I-8
Nature: Exploratory
Resources: None
Plan: This is a simple information-gathering operation meant to get an idea of what other polities exist around the Quetzel, and determine which could be useful, which can be ignored, and which might need to be brought into line. It is also to look for 'unclaimed' territory that the Quetzel can look to expand to in order to support their pending campaign against Kalimdranor.
-Target: Sector H9
Nature: Explorative
Resources: None
Plan: This is meant to be a simple and shallow probe of the Northern Borderlands of the Kalimdranor Soul Storm, both via physical ships and various Magical information-gathering vectors (scrying, prognostication, etc) to get a better idea of the nature of Kalimdranor, what beings or polities might exist within it, and what can be expected when venturing into the Soul-Storm.
Research:
-Magical Compatibility (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Lords and Heroes) This new universe obviously has vastly different fundamental laws. New dimensions, methods of FTL, even a Warp-Analog that is decidedly not the Warp. The powers of the Quetzel's spellcasters are not hampered in this realm, but the unfamiliarity with the local laws surrounding esoterics makes utilizing Magic just that bit harder, just that bit less efficient. This will not stand, and so the Slann and their magically-inclined servants will begin to investigate the fundamental laws of this universe, to learn how to make Magic work at its best when countering or interacting with these other, new forces: an important task, considering the great howling maw to the south of them.
Industrial Orders
-Claim and then Colonize the three subsectors of Virgin Space within H-8 (the East, Center, and West subsectors) (12 RP)
-Fortify all three new sectors up to Moderate levels of defences (9 RP)
-Create a new Magnitude 1 Warfleet (10 RP)
-Begin preparation for the restoration of the relic matter transmuter and harvester (3 RP)
Military:
-Warfleets will take no offensive actions this turn but will stand ready to defend Quetzel territory from incursions from either of the Cults or beings from Kalimdranor.
Further expansion of discovery efforts finds that there's more virgin space that the Lizardmen could potentially snake through towards the spinward edge of the galaxy. The Nightmare Lords seem to have, on further examination, been pushed out of some of their territory by the Ancients who live northwards, and have thus needed to retreat from some of their space, giving a perhaps unique opportunity to strike at the Nightmare lords while they remain weakened by the sudden thrashing they took at the hands of the Elendian worshippers. Likely because the nightmare lords were trying something meant to expand the soulstorm, which of course would never be acceptable to the mysterious ancients to the north of Tarandil.
As for the northwest of the Soulstorm.
`Located within the central northeastern section of Kalimdranor, the Devastator Rifts hold what were once some of the first sections of space to fall to the Voice-Touched Kalimdranor Republic. The Republic unleashed their newfound power with gleeful abandon upon the region, devastating whole swathes of space. Even as part of a Fluxstorm, most worlds and even stars in this region are crippled or shattered in some way, and it is rumored that if the Fluxstorm ever ceased to exist, most would fall apart completely.
Normally dominated by the Voice of Silence's Ruinmakers, recently the Rifts have become home to a new power, if the reports made by the handful of survivors from those brave enough to venture so deep in can be considered reliable. A number of Flux Fortresses have emerged across the Rifts, establishing their own strange laws within the Fluxstorm drawing energy from the raging currents. Sorely tempted by the technology and vast resources stored within, numerous warlords have attempted to gather armies to invade these Fortresses. As of yet, they have had little success beyond increasing the number of defenders with their puppeted corpses. These vast Golem armies now wage war against the Apocalyptics and any other would-be intruders to the enigmatic structures.`
The Nightmare Lords have also been establishing a permanent presence within the Devastator rifts, trying to conquer the territories of the Ruinmakers in an effort to spite the Lord of Fear's rival. They had conquered a subsector within and are working frantically to consolidate their hold in it to recover from the setback inflicted on them by the ancients to their north.
These cults are heavily reliant on terror tactics, especially the Lords of Nightmares whose entire approach to warfare can be summed up as "prepare to be scared to death". They seek to cause confusion, disarray, fear, and doubt in their foes to feed off the emotional bonanza that will further charge their magics and allow them to call forth allies from the other side, monstrous things that fed gluttonously on the terrors and fears of mortals from the lowliest microbe to the most complex of organisms.
This meant a heavy focus on stealth and ambush, to appear where unexpected, and strike where a foe would not be ready for their wrath. They thrived in the dark, and they loved nothing more than to target civilians to gorge themselves on the terror of noncombatants not ready to be slaughtered and driven into a wild panic to fill the guts of their dread masters. However, those who were steadfast and quick to respond in an organised manner were more than able to keep them from the worst of their antics. They would be a poor match for the largely fearless children of the old ones, who had long since banished the primordial emotion of fear from their minds.
The Harrowmother Cult was in essence a cult of suffering. Causing it, embracing it, spreading it. Misery was their meat, angst was their mead. So they were promoting that suffering, promoting that hurt. Their way of war was to cause as much grief, pain, and angst as possible, to make people suffer and hurt. To torture not out of sadism, but out of hunger, a deep desire to feed the dreadful mother with the pain of other beings. It wasn't the sort of eroticised or artistic immiseration of Slaanesh, nor the performative flagellation of Oregala. This was simply feeling bad and thus wanting to make others feel worse.
They were persistent and willing to endure the misery of meatgrinder warfare for however long it took to wear down their foes' spirits in endless distress. To count them it was best to win and win quickly, though the Lizardmen could quite stoically take whatever abuse was thrown at them by the battlefield.
Further explorations elsewhere also provide a wealth of information about the other side of the soul-eater storm. The undead were present, though whether they were the spawn of Nagash and Thanarcus was not quite certain at the moment. They were in the midst of a violent battle with the Crusaders of hatred, servants of another of the Malosomnarch devoted to well...Hatred.
The Undead were also battling with the Army of the Starless Night, the very same as those who served the Strangers in your reality. But then the Strangers were beyond any reality, so it was hardly nonsensical for them to be here as well.
Research:
This should be complete within about two turns with the current investment given the significant shift in Lizardmen doctrine it asks for.
It is often said in the upper leadership roles of the Banished that every victory was met with two certain things in the Banished, rites of victory for those who displayed true strength in battle and thus would earn rank for it, and the acquisition of every piece of valuable weapon and tactic that could be taken from the campaign.
This has not changed even in these new and strange stars, as Legion Masters and Captains discussed methods for their own forces to better fight the Taiidan and perhaps others who would field such behemoths, or work with the various world governors to better create defenses for future Taiidan attacks.
But as his forces, his Banished repaired and prepared for future conflicts, ensuring that if any wanted to tear away the Banished, they would need to work for every inch. Atriox sat upon the command deck of the Enduring Conviction, looking over a more completed map of the local region, still plenty of unknowns to consider, the Taiidan and their wars with unknown power, the so called "Lawless Expanse" to his south, a failed human state that provided opportunity, and the Vasari, locals who have a common foe in the Taiidan.
This of course was not even speaking of the new Human group inspired by an old empire of their species, Atriox had learned some things about it from the human members once more information about this House Praetorian came to light. An expansionist people that conquered much of what they considered the world before human kind had even discovered gun powder, they were similar in some ways to his own kind's history, but woefully lacking in Atriox's eyes, partaking in slavery and allowing rule of blood to take precedent, creating examples of truly unworthy men to take the throne, something Atriox will not allow for the Banished.
Atriox was no great Diplomat, he was a warrior and leader of peoples who desired to chart their own path, but he could see the prospects of an alliance with the Vasari and their coalition against the Taiidan, the Banished have all but officially joined them in their war, there was still much to be established in this galexy and if Atriox was to have his way, all stars would all be under the same banner soon enough. He only needed to play his cards right, as the humans of the Banished would say.
Available Resources: +10 RP (Starting Income), -0 RP (Military Upkeep, Golden Armada), +45 RP (More Starting Production) +20 (Emploted Population) = 75 RP
Diplomatic Orders:
- Target: Coalition against the Taiidan
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 5 RP , 2 turns
Atriox and the Banished shall send a formal declaration of a Pact against the Taiidan Empire with the Vasari, joining their coalition in official manners to deal with the ever present threat the Taiidan present. Sent along with this formal declaration shall be workers and civilian contractors to help rebuild any of their worlds that the Taiidan had wrecked in their attacks.
Intelligence Orders:
-[- 3 RP] Send Human agents to arm active Republican Rebels In Taiidan Space, only the most basic of Banished Weapons at the start so the Taiidan Empire do not have the opportunity to reverse engineer our weapons. This should hopefully endear the Idea of cooperation with the Banished to many of their groups, perhaps even getting some open to the idea of joining.
- [- 5 RP] Our Agents are also to try and learn as much about the other Wars of the Taiidan, who they are fighting and where a majority of their forces are fighting or moving towards.
-[- 3 RP] Under the false pretense of civilian trade vessels coming in to meet and make small insignificant barter with the border worlds of House Praetorian, our spies are to figure out the political situation and what the current public opinion is like of this area, seeing if they may become a issue if they have asperations beyond the Lawless Expanse
Research Orders:
-[Free Slot]: Deconstruct the Taiidan battleworlds to gain a better understanding of making our own versions and destroying the Taiidan's more effectivly.
-[ 2nd slot -1 RP]: While the shields of the Banished are more effective against our weaponry, the Terminus Space Mercenaries had their own energy barriers that could be useful if looked at in depth.
-[3rd slot -4 RP]: The Taiidan's Ion Weaponry are effective weapons, and must be countered with our continued war with them. Using the captured pieces of their weapons, the Banished are to try and develop better armor and shields for our ships against these weapons.
Industrial Orders:
-[- 3 RP]: upgrade our territory bordering the Taiidan to Moderately Defended
-[- 20 RP] Upgrade one Established Territory, into Industrialized
- [-20 RP]: upgrade one of my Base Magnitude fleets to next level
Military Orders:
-Our Fleets shall only patrol our space and ensure defenses are secure
The coalition against the Taiidan was a natural thing, after all, all involved powers were already knee-deep into the long war with the Empire. It didn't take much to add one more partner to the coalition to oppose the bulk and the mass of the Empire, especially one that had already proven itself in battle against the might of the Taiidan. The Taiidan of course, would have to be stopped at all costs, as they would simply grind all opposition to gristle beneath the sheer weight of their virtually limitless numbers with wave after wave if they were not stopped.
The Republican revolutionaries are already starting to be more active against the Empire in the rear, as news of the Empire's repeated atmospheric incinerator genocides invariably and inevitably leaks back to the homefront. The Empire prided itself on being the bastion of civilisation, engaging in rampant barbarism by slaughtering trillions after trillions after trillions of people in a mind numbing regularity of genocide. Slaughtering worlds, planets, populations, civilisations to leave nothing but corpses and ash in their wake.
Already slogans such as "child murderers" were being graffiti'd onto Imperial buildings, soldiers who were haunted by having to commit atrocities on an unprecedented scale with soul shattering regularity forming secret lodges within the armed forces, hoping to find some way to get the madness to end. Especially because as they kept on killing more and more people, they could feel the roiling of the Flux and the Lifeweave, and the anguish of every esper, psyker, or weaver they killed. The screaming of the damned and the despair of so many souls cut loose and cast into the pits of oblivion were a terrible burden to bear for those who were not wholly numbed to the guilt by indoctrination and political education, and the Empire was only just starting to roll out nerve-rewiring to remove the problem of guilt from its soldiers.
But with depressing regularity, the Banished would find planets burning as their atmospheres ignited upon their surfaces. The Covenant at the height of its power could not glass so many worlds so frequently. So much killing was done that the scream of the Lifeweave had even manifested as distortions in reality, shuddering in the weave binding life itself together as well as the Flux formed of our collective id and conscious. Haunts formed from the congealed detritus left behind by souls thrown into the afterlife writhed through star systems, colossal conglomerations of flux power driven only by pain and rage and grief and screaming, oh the screaming.
Much of the Taiidan Empire's efforts were being directed to try and fight these distortions in reality, not merely the Haunts and the Spectres that sought revenge, but also stranger things pouring in from the Flux. The Malosomnians who were attracted to the outpouring of negativity and the weakening in the boundary between dimensions would slide into being, gnawing holes in the cosmos that offered windows into a place of dreams and nightmares. Things that defied rational, logical sense, things that took much of the Taiidan's endless manpower and materiel to contest while they tried to deal with the horrors born of mass genocide by even more genocide against populations they deemed contaminated.
This did not seem to be particularly effective.
Something that seemed to be pushing them especially hard though was an incursion by something that was spreading an evil looking green crystal through their territory, as well as impacts by something spreading a blue crystal, and conflicts with beings corrupted by a yellow crystal. beings who were being produced in huge numbers. Prodding the hypernet gives a few names at least; the Scrin and "Tiberium", "Phazon Leviathans", facets of the "Vartaaka*" and their red-coloured "Revhor" and the "Thyrmik Wanderers" and their "Exteritite". All of which are highly dangerous and mutagenic self-replicating substances that will seek to assimilate whatever matter they can, like a quantum mechanical cancer, while simultaneously opening the door to a great many technological capabilities and offering endless possible utilities.
The Scrin seem to be present in the largest numbers, seeking to strip mine planets that have developed mature enough Tiberium infestations for their mysterious desires while making use of a strange but highly mobile military that greedily bloats itself with the power of Tiberium and seems to have a significant deal of mastery over time and space as well as Tiberium itself. Airpower seems to be a particular emphasis of theirs, as are concerning psychic powers that allow them to make usage of dynakinetics, telekinetics, and most concerningly; mind control. Telepathy seems to be the only way they communicate, as they don't bother talking to those they attack whatsoever.
The Thyrmik Wanderers are cryokines who hail from what was likely a very cold planet, and are masters of energy; particularly displacing or removing it. However they are hopelessly addicted to Exteritite and the power and utility it offers their war machine as the smooth, segmented aliens traverse from one world to the next with the intent to expand their resource base for a seemingly endless conflict back home. Resilient but slow, like a glacier, once they trap a foe in their embrace, it is difficult to withdraw as they remove options for mobility or retreat from a foe and render an enemy ever more brittle before they shatter.
The Vartaaka are aggressive colonists to the Scrin's strip miners, they are unlikely to be the originators of Revhor, but they have incorporated it into their biology as the crimson substance absorbs and assimilates, radically and drastically altering the ecosystem like a cancer altering a body to suit its needs. Perhaps the most manageable of these substances, it also has some of the strongest desire to form its own biota, invariably giving rise to flora and fauna of an alien ecosystem to join with whatever life is mutated by the spread of Revhor. The Vartaaka themselves seem to cultivate and dominate a sapient species born of Revhor, distinguishable from the generally scorpion-like creatures by their pseudo-fleshy biometallic bodies interrupted with prominent vein and growth-like crystals and a more cephalopod-like form.
So far it seems that the Phazon Leviathans are spreading of their own accord, emerging from wormholes generated by the enormous pseudo-organic creatures that then slam into the worlds of their choosing and choose from the planet its mightiest warrior or most formidable beast to mutate into the protector of the seed core that accelerates the spread of the blue substance across the world. Irrational cravings for Phazon spread as those who can survive its mutations are driven insane by a feverish urge to spread and hoard the material and encourage its growth, while spacetime distortions cause numerous dimensional anomalies.
The Taiidan have been trying to make use of the materials, including likely ill-advised efforts to combine them, also working in a number of similar materials they found from elsewhere in this galaxy, all differently coloured, though the intelligence networks spread into the Empire are unable to procure the whole list. It is almost certain that trying to hybridize multiple virulently corruptive materials will go hideously, terribly wrong but one must give them some respect to seeing these world devouring materials and deciding what the universe needs is the bastard offspring of a drunken orgy of all of them.
These containment conflicts have been consuming a significant portion of their resources and time as the very nature of the conflicts means that any breaches of containment just compounds the problem that much more. On another front, they seem to be having to face down the sudden arrival of beings known as "Orks" and on yet another front, they've been trying to deal with others called the "Kroatanga" along with their wars to expand into the nearest available virgin space being contested by something called the Tzynn Empire, a fanatically militaristic and staunchly authoritarian monarchy that has a great and mighty desire for slaves that it would rather have than the Taiidan.
The Tzynn-Taiidan war seems to be the largest conflict at the moment, the "war of the two Emperors" as its sometimes called, all the while Till-Jeluxi seems to be content to fund both sides and seems to be largely happening to your galactic east. Neither side has had any particular advantage as both Empires have enemies on all sides and most of their allies are subjugated vassal states more than anything else, however the Tzynn seem to be generally more advanced in weapons and defence technology as well as energy production, though the Taiidan have superior manufacturing technology, greatly superior FTL, and can replace losses more easily. resulting in something of a balance where the Tzynn frequently have to deal with being outnumbered or out-attritioned while the Taiidan need to rely on brute numbers and sheer armour to close; all while both try to prevent the other from gaining access to their technology bases.
To wheel around to House Praetorian, the warring states fighting over the corpse of old Desmondu are as a rule, only concerned with the outside world when ti directly concerns them, having more important and immediate concerns to deal with than the whirlwind of cosmopolitics happening around them. House Praetorian's conflict with Onuxa in particular is consuming much of its time and energy, though the uptick in raiding for slaves from the Tzynn and a polity referred to as the "Drengin Empire" seems to have caused them no small amount of distress and resource bleeding so far.
In response, the Dominus has begun programs of industrial and production expansion as well as significant fortification of his border to non-desmondic spae to try and plug the leak and free his forces from as much distraction as possible to focus on trying to conquer Onuxa before its allies are able to properly respond. This has resulted in something of a squeeze on many parts of the Praetorian populace, with increased work hours for psionic labourers and cuts to vacation days being accompanied with not much in the way of increased compensation. At the same time it's also fallen hardest on the Homisynths who are being produced outright for such labour to ensure a sufficient quality and quantity of psionic power for their manufacturing.
A strike is being planned by an alliance of many local labour unions, and it is likely that the Vigiles will be deployed on standby, ready to get violent if orders from the Palace come through.
Research:
The Taiidan battleworlds are mostly a matter of having enough materiel and good enough production technology to create something on this scale in a feasible time span. Enormous constructs are not unknown to the Covenant and thus the banished; as High Charity proved, but the real secret to building these is in the manufacturing tech. There's no special process to allow the building of such monstrosities, but it seems that the ideal way to kill these constructions is going to be by ground assault. Starship bombardment is an inefficient means of trading with their defence systems, and your technology is not really designed with penetrating so many kilometres of armour grade materials in mind. Glassing them is an annoyance at worst. Insurrection NOVA bombs though, as well as the Taiidani's own atmospheric incinerators, are of use in causing initial damage however.
As for building them, as mentioned, the real prize is in the enemy's construction methods, which, thanks hypernet databases, can be accomplished in roughly a year's time as long as a design is provided.
The Terminus mercenary barriers are kinetic barriers that arrest momentum through altered mass fields. While not effective against true DEWs, they are effective against plasma and charged particle weapons as these still rely on kinetic impact from objects that have mass. Of course heat and electric transfer still occurs, but these are generally easier to armour against than blunt or penetrative impact. Cyclonic type barriers notably only fire at the moment of impact to try and slap away the incoming projectile with a maximised obstacle, conserving power and increasing effectiveness. The real value in KBs though is that they are very low in power draw and cheap to make, allowing even basic grunts to have them.
The Taiidani Ion Cannons are theoretically simple. It's a mass of alpha particles that have had their electron shells violently ripped out before being repelled by a huge positive electric charge to impact the target; with their electron shell then being released to add an additional electric component as the negatively charged particles try to rebind with their protons and collide a few fractions of a second after the beam impacts. The more curious thing though is just how hard they hit. Ion Cannon equipped fighters hit with the sort of firepower one would normally expect from frigates and this just keeps scaling upwards.
The most obvious solution is magnetism. Running a positive charge through shielding and a magnetic field around the hull should take some of the bite out of the impact. It won't offer perfect defence, even not accounting for the electron stream following the ions, but it will reduce the number of ships reduced to steaming space debris in short order by Ion cannon equipped fleets. It's also clear that the Taiidan are just better at designing armour than the Covenant or UNSC ever were. Taiidan materials are orders of magnitude stronger than UNSC Titanium, as is painfully demonstrated in Taiidan-Insurrection conflicts where the Innies need to throw their recreations of UNSC cruiser classes at small corvettes to consistently penetrate armour while even Punic Class ships are under threat from Taiidani Ion Frigates.
However, studying the metallurgy that goes into it allows for significant improvements in the Banished's own armour technologies, especially with help from their coalition partners. It won't be a perfect match by any means, but it will allow for Insurrection and Banished Ships to actually survive impacts without relying on sheer mass.
Industrial and Miltiary orders processed without incident.
*An alien faction in a tabletop wargame I'm involved in the development of
N15 - SW:
Communication Deadzones: A significant number of celestial bodies in this system appear to be under an effect cutting them off from communication and sensors. A boon for hiding things, but by that same token you're not sure what is hidden there.
(A military action to poke the mystery box is needed.)
Mandate (Fertility): A lingering blessing covers the region, promoting population growth. Currently, it doesn't do much, but with some work could be restored to be a potent boon.
(Gain 1 population per turn. The blessing can be used for 20% off on a population growth kiloproject.)
O16 - W:
Domain of Yu-An, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have gained a favor with this faction in the Birth Stars.
Domain of Bang, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have earned the enmity of this faction in the Birth Stars.
M15 - N:
Runt-Slappers: A minor horde of Kroatanga dwell here, fighting everything that moves and several varieties of immovable object as well.
M3-15B - NorthWest Celestial Empire Miners
The Celestial Empire's mining programs appear to have gone awry in this system, replicating beyond expected limits and expanding beyond the designated mining zones. Though not hostile to those passing through, yet -- a fact currently being exploited by pirates of the region -- the area is presently quite hazardous to settle in, and the situation may not be stable.
M3-15C - West Celestial Empire Pirate Fleet
Former imperial space is a hotspot for piracy, both homegrown and foreign, and this appears to be the resting place of a fleet of homegrown pirates making use of old shipyards of the empire. The fleet is currently in conflict with the Pyrotaurus pirate fleet over the right to plunder the region.
M3-16A - SouthWest Pyrotaurus Exclave
Former imperial space is a hotspot for piracy, and this has drawn the galaxy's foremost pirates to build up a holding here. More organized than most pirate spaces, they offer a free port for anyone, and are building up facilities sufficient to build up and maintain a substantial fleet. What their aims for the region are is yet unclear, but it likely involves a lot of plunder.
N1-15B - North Celestial Empire Splinter
This sector is noted to contain a breakaway state of the Celestial Empire who fled the succession wars and have mostly been surviving out here in formerly imperial territory. Militantly isolationist, they've been promised to and lied to too many times to believe anyone's words without a lot of proof.
N1-15C - You are here.
Communication Deadzones: A significant number of celestial bodies in this system appear to be under an effect cutting them off from communication and sensors. A boon for hiding things, but by that same token you're not sure what is hidden there. According to the historical records you've found, these were once blacksites of the Celestial Empire.
(A military action to poke the mystery box may allow acquiring an additional bonus, or reveal a threat.)
Mandate (Fertility): A lingering blessing covers the region, promoting population growth. Currently, it doesn't do much, but with some work could be restored to be a potent boon.
(Gain 1 population per turn. The blessing can be used for 20% off on a population growth kiloproject.)
N1-16A - South The Exiled Dragon
This region of space appears to be dominated by a single large -- hundreds of kilometers long -- dragon-like creature with substantial powers of mental domination. Local records identify it as a "Horgathrax", members of which race make up one of the great powers. Numerous former imperial planets have been impressed by it, others swearing vassalage to avoid that fate. It is, apparently, an exile from the greater regency, though a powerful one.
N2-15B - NorthEast Celestial Empire Ruins
This province contains the ruins of a once great civilization, imperial power no longer able to be projected over it. Former imperial subjects yet live here, formed into small governments capable of handling local issues, but the great fleets and unified government of the previous age exist now only in memory. Closer inspection would be needed, but there do seem to be more strangely emissionless stars in the area that you know to mark black sites of the former empire.
N2-15C - East Celestial Empire Ruins
This province contains the ruins of a once great civilization, imperial power no longer able to be projected over it. Former imperial subjects yet live here, formed into small governments capable of handling local issues, but the great fleets and unified government of the previous age exist now only in memory.
N2-16A - SouthEast Celestial Empire Ruins
This province contains the ruins of a once great civilization, imperial power no longer able to be projected over it. Former imperial subjects yet live here, formed into small governments capable of handling local issues, but the great fleets and unified government of the previous age exist now only in memory. Worry is spreading among these small governments, and many are agitating to rekindle the bonds of mutual defense. Something has them spooked.
O1-16B: The Birth Stars
Once, the heartlands of the Celestial Empire, the Birth Stars are know home to innumerable warlords fighting to unite the Empire once more. One who could gather the many warlords under one banner would be mighty indeed, but caution should be taken to not be the foe who unites them against you.
Domain of Yu-An, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have gained a favor with this faction in the Birth Stars.
Domain of Bang, Xin Province: A warlord of minor note has his holdings here. You have earned the enmity of this faction in the Birth Stars.
M2-15B: Kroatanga Warpath
The Kroatanga are a weapon, unwittingly aimed to conquer the universe entire when its shackles proved insufficient. They fight, and win, and virtue lies only in victory. Here one can find a relatively minor Kroatanga warpath known as the Runt Slappers.
In the aftermath of the Kroatangan incursion, the Imperium is a blur of activity, the normally squabbling Houses united (for now) in a desire to rebuild and project strength in the face of a newly hostile galaxy. Armies are deployed to purge the last organized Kroat enclaves, and while Feral Kroats will be an eternal menace for what will likely be decades afterwards, that to can be put to use as a convenient blooding for fresh troops.
After that comes a period of bold expansion, with new systems being discovered within the Imperium's official borders and providing a convenient release valve for the flood of war refugees the Kroat invasion caused. It is during this great colonization rush that the Imperium makes the discovery of a strange substance on many of its new worlds. Called "Zro Dust" by the natives, the substance has, among other uses, been utilized as a sensory enhancer and stimulant not unlike Melange. It does not take long for some small-scale experiments run on the Spacing Guild's behalf to uncover that Zro Dust, while not quite as potent as the Spice, is still usable enough to substitute in the matter of Guild Navigator use.
A matter of immense relief to most of the Imperium, seeing as how it is no longer dependent on a single planet for all of its ability to conduct interstellar travel... with the exception of House Harkonnen, which has quickly realized that this is terrible news for the profitability of Arrakis.
30 RP on 5 Research Slots
The Imperial Military had survived the Kroat invasion by dint of shields and strategy. But it had been far too close for the comfort of many within the Imperium. New technologies and strategies (especially on the ground) would have to be developed. In particular, towards the re-integration of artillery and small arms in Imperial combat doctrine.
Research will have the following objectives:
-Incorporation of Artillery into combat doctrine
-The creation of weapons systems for use by infantry when facing un- or differently-shielded opponents, as well as their use in formation fighting.
It has become clear to even the most blind, hopelessly incompetent of fools that the armies of the Imperium are in need of serious overhaul to be competitive on the galactic scene. What worked perfectly fine for inter-house conflicts has proven entirely insufficient when faced with modern Vyranodasik order of battles, particularly in a galaxy where the average alien warrior easily overmatches the average human in physical combat.
The first important step is reinventing the artillery cannon. Once discarded as irrelevant in the face of shields, the Kroats' frequent and brutally effective use of such weaponry has forced every Mentat assigned to military R&D to drastically reassess their priorities. Right now what the Imperium has are hastily pressed into service, centuries-old designs, and much more work will be needed to create fully modern guns that make the best use of humanity's technological progress.
Next up is the revamping of infantry weapons and doctrine in the face of mankind's new enemies. Holtzmann Effect shield generators remain a potent asset, but they are no longer something that brings about the effective end of ranged weaponry. More importantly, the vast majority of alien species in Vyranodasik are larger and stronger than any human, making melee combat a far more hazardous affair. It is clear that the new human infantry arm will need serious redesign, with a far greater emphasis on ranged firepower and more high-velocity guns in order to remain competitive. And of course, there is the question of how this will affect the formations that the armies of mankind use in battle.
The amount of progress that has been made in a matter of months is exceptional, given that this work involves overhauling centuries of combat tradition. But there is still plenty of progress to go before the Imperial ground forces can be called anything close to "modern."
(5/10 Required Slots completed.)
First contact and preliminary trade negotiations with the KDL
Target: Krincils Defense League
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 15RP, 2 Turns
Plan: Trade has been the Imperium's lifeblood since before recorded history began. CHOAM, one of the three institutions that is a leg in the "Imperial Tripod", originated as a body to govern the flow of goods between worlds. Now, the Imperium has an opportunity like never before: conducting trade with alien powers. The KDL to our galactic south seems to be the best candidate: we share many common rivals, and they cosmopolitan nature provides us a great variety of trade goods to choose from. Trade is the lifeblood of nations, and the Imperium aims to be a new heart.
The first meetings with the Krincils Defense League are events that have the diplomats and merchants returning with wide grins. From a diplomatic standpoint, the League is simply happy that their new, extraversal neighbors are not maniacs bent on raiding and pillaging and the destruction of everything they know and love. While some Imperial emissaries are put-off by the sheer omnipresence of Thinking Machines, their ranks were chosen specifically for the ability to avoid any... unfortunate reactions.
All this means that initial first contact with the KDL has progressed quite smoothly, and before too long, the Imperium has an official embassy mission and trade deals being floated. Most notably, the KDL's primary form of FTL travel seems to rely on psionic navigators roughly comparable to the Guild's own (though far less physically mutated.) After some experiments with Melange, it soon becomes clear that the Imperium has a highly demanded trade good in KDL markets, something which also goes some way towards mollifying House Harkonnen over their control of Arrakis becoming somewhat less valuable.
Not related to the mission itself is the meeting with the Tau Empire's own embassy. Relations are not "warm", but neither are they particularly cold at the moment, though the fact that the Tau have sapient thinking machines as citizens and outright staff in their embassy is something that gives a few of the analysts back home hives. Nevertheless, the door is still open to decide whether the Imperium's relationship with the Tau will be one of cooperation, great games, or hostility, and the Imperium's first step forward in xenodiplomacy has been a smashing success.
Unity Propaganda Blitz
Target: The Home Front
Nature: Friendly
Resources: 15RP, 1 Turn
Plan: The Battle of Arrakis ended the Kroat War (or Kroat Jihad, as some have taken to calling it) in a decisive victory. The Kroatanga warfleet was broken on the lasguns and atomics of the Emperor, Landsraad, and Guild. It has made for an *excellent* PR oppurtunity. Posters, articles, and entire books lauding the heroes of Arrakis are to be printed. Exposes on mop-up operations on still-infested worlds are to fly off the presses. And much clout will be found. While the Houses Major will use this to bring more glory to their banners, the Padishah Emperor and his court are much more far-seeing. The Imperium United is what defeated the Kroats, and if Vyranodasik is to feels the Imperiums might, it will be as one, united, force.
Under the direction of Shaddam IV and House Corrino, of course.
Compared to external diplomacy, House Corrino's work on internal diplomacy has been... less than ideal. On one hand, everyone agrees that the Kroat Jihad was a great triumph for humanity and a valiant effort, one that emphasizes the need to unite under its heroes.
On the other hand, there is far less agreement on who those "heroes" are. As a matter of fact, it seems that one House that has thoroughly seized the narrative has been House Atreides, taking advantage of their pre-existing popularity and generous offers of refugee assistance to make themselves heroes among the common people and many of the more minor Houses. More to the point, being in charge of the reserve fleet that acted as the Hammer to the Emperor's Anvil has resulted in some parts of the narrative being painted as House Atreides riding to the Emperor's rescue, making them heroes among the military as well.
All and all, not exactly an ideal outcome in any sense of the term, as Atreides' star continues to rise unabated across the Imperium, with House Corrino's own propaganda efforts being more struggling to catch up. Though on the bright side, there have not been any direct movements to challenge Corrino authority, for now at least.
Create an intelligence network within the Petty Regnum
Target: Tis'il Petty Regnum
Nature: Hostile
Resources: 25RP, 3 turns
Plan: The Petty Regnum is two things: a threat, and an opportunity. One on hand, the abilities of the Regnum's ruler could be a clear and direct threat should it decide to look towards us for conquest. Its unparalleled psychic abilities have no counterpart. outside of possibly the Bene Gesserit. On the other, however, its tyranny would also allow us to expand the Imperium, if we are able to overcome the worm. We would gain vast new territories or a valuable network of client states under the guise of liberation. So, the Padishah Emperor has ordered the development of an intelligence network within the Regnum in order to prepare for what might be an inevitable conflict between the two empires.
It was known going in that setting up an intelligence network within the territory of a powerful psychic would be... hazardous, and as such, no expense was spared in preparing the assigned agents. From foreign-purchased "Mind Shields" to using specifically designed Gholas for agents, it was hoped that the Imperium had enough preparation done to make headway.
Unfortunately... this has not been the case, as the Petty Regnum has spent a lot of the more recent time trumpeting captured (and then executed) Imperial agents. Given that no one likes the Tis'il Regnum, this has done absolutely nothing to affect the Imperium's wider diplomatic relations, but it's both embarrassing and means many expect the Regnum to behave more... actively hostile in the near future.
On the bright side, the use of Gholas as agents seems to have meant the Regnum didn't get any information from captured agents, and it seems that a handful have actually managed to avoid the Regnum's net, though they are too busy keeping their heads down to actually bring back any valuable information.
The reports from your scouts to the galactic north paint a grim picture of what remains after the Altrans have purged an area. Surviving pockets of the Brass Entities reconstitute themselves across the sector, but are judged inconsequential by those combing over the reports.
Of primary concern is the series of statues seemingly erected by the Ascendancy forces, maintaining a film-like barrier which is - for now - containing the warp storm beyond. Numerous entities defiant of sense pound that barrier, and the ripples and fluctuations this provokes give truth to a maxim. This defense will not hold forever, but it may hold long enough.
As the Ascendancy had predicted, forces are flowing in to fill the gap they left, destroying the pockets of brass as they push forward and clash with each other. First to push into the wake is an odd force from the galactic west. Distortions in space propagate, seemingly swallowing pockets of space. And from these pockets pour an enormous variety of mismatched ships. Bio-ships that would not have looked out of place among the hive-fleets of the Tyranids fight alongside grey-and-white ships of flowing lines and powerful lasers, brutalist constructions of thick armor slabs and projectiles, balls of plasma constantly blasting their surroundings with plasma, and still stranger constructions. Pattern Spiders, the Altrans had identified, a pest that plagues these galaxies copying that which it sees. It was thought to be an attempt to preserve cultural identities gone wrong, though the exact details are unknown.
From the reports, your battlemasters are quick to point out the critical weakness of these Pattern Spiders, in that the different strains of copies have no coordination between each other, and the largest grouping of same-source copies your scouts spotted were a dozen strong. It is, militarily speaking, a mess, and a mess that appears to be being pushed back by the second of the significant forces your scouts report on. Across the subsector, portals tear themselves open, and sharp angular craft pour through, their dark hulls lit by green fire striking forth into everything they encounter. Some even begin belching flame upon the guardian statues holding back the warp, though most end up fighting the Pattern Spiders.
In this clash, your battlemasters express concern and pass it up the chain that something should probably be done. As hulls from the Pattern Spiders are destroyed, the green flames that mark the newcomers spread to them, and reanimate these ships. A performance drop is noted on an individual level, more severe than the battle damage alone seems to account for, but in their new state the biggest issue plaguing the Pattern Spiders dies. Still, more and more ships pour into that fire in practically the worst possible counter.
The Warring Galaxies abhor a vacuum, however, and it seems the newcomers will need to fight for it. Gravitimetric sensors show a massive force moving in from the galactic east, and scouts venturing that way catch some intelligence on another force moving in. In design, they remind you of the Men of Iron from home, though different in a number of ways. The construction capabilities that characterized them seem cruder, bulkier here, and the constant flights of drone speaks to needing to physically transport materials, even if a few physicists mutter at the gravimetric sensor readings. These new forces haven't reached the ongoing battle yet, but the construction of massive engines on the planets they have reached speaks to larger plans.
Scouting J1-9B
Scouting attempts to the east are far less fruitful. Longer range sensors pick up no communication activity in the subsector, no active ships or signs of FTL travel. Even the signs of constant war are less constant here, as if the subsector were empty. Suffice to say, the fleetmasters are in doubt of these reports, and the running statistics that one in five scout ships deployed here have missed checkins with no emergency transmission seals it. Something is here, but surprisingly it is the diplomats who come through with information.
This subsector contains an older extraversal faction which has endured for many decades. Though classified as Sophonts, it is advised that travellers avoid the region, as they are nigh-universally hostile, and have avoided purging by virtue of their raiding never quite topping the Ascendancy's list of disasters to cancel. If you can remove them, it would spare refugee space many raids, is the gist of it.
Historically, they arrived closer to the ongoing warp storm than they now are, and quickly carved out territory, even pushing into Lovecraft's Nightmare to some success. But they overextended, and in the wake of a defeat that ended of lives of their philosopher-king the Tai fractured, and turned inwards with civil war. Amidst this, many of their cultivators began to stretch their reach, spurning their ideals and bonds for power, even as their realm crumbled. What remains is a society fueled by raiding their neighbors for slaves, feasting on the population to drive to ever-higher peaks.
It was said among them once, that though deplorable these temporary measures would give rise to a new philosopher-king, who could restore peace and harmony and succeed where his predecessor had failed. Confidence is low that this will ever happen at this point, and the Tai would make for poor allies indeed.
Scouting I2-9B
Scouting attempts to the west find more success, though you don't believe they went unnoticed. Time and again, shields flare with actinic light as esoteric attacks slam into them, though more often than not finding no purchase. Some few fall silent, simply missing their check-ins, but many report back that the worlds in this subsector are covered in stone megaliths that shift in patterns that seem likely to have some meaning, even if undiscernable yet.
Battles rage in the northern edge of the sector, as the varied hordes of the Pattern Spiders intrude and are smashed in turn by great volleys of high velocity rocks, and turned against the hordes in the flaring of shields. It is apparent that the defenses of this subsector are substantial, verging on ridiculous, as the invading Pattern Spiders steadily lose ground to inanimate rocks.
Consulting with the Ascendancy, these rocks are apparently new to the region. The last reports had it as the stronghold of a particularly resilient band of End Cultists who were due for a check when forces allowed to keep them from tearing a new rift to the Flux open.
I3-9C - Diplomatic contact with Refugee Space
The border of refugee space is, it turns out, well marked. The space in which refugees can be found, less so. Before the border, marked by a series of guardian statues that have clearly seen better days, you find scavengers, small vessels flitting across the edges of their space grabbing what scrap they can, and fleeing at the first hint of approach. The border itself stands quiescent, though numerous scans of your vessels are reported. If these guardian statues work like the others you've seen, they would provide a delay to any invasion attempt. Fortunately, you aren't invading.
Transports are guided in by your scouts, loaded with food and refined metals and arms, a gift for your new neighbors. And yet, the refugees seem to be immensely wary of you, seemingly trying to keep at least a lightyear's distance. Communications prove readable, and it soon becomes apparent why, as warnings of incoming raiders bounce through and grow more terrible at every retelling. A good opportunity to show your intentions, if only there were any actual raiders present this month.
Fortunately, panicked as the refugees appear to be by the warped reports of the scavengers, they aren't attacking yet. Automated defenses lit up to delay and attrite any attack while the refugees organize a response, but good discipline has kept your transports just inside the border. No shots have yet been fired. And, based on the communication that just went down the band otherwise reading off names and numbers and calling for the named to prepare for departure, it seems that none will. "Disengage if possible. A response force is inbound," you translate, noting the implication of Altran intervention.
And so, as your envoys settle in to wait, and in waiting, see. It is a small glimpse, as your sensors pass over the space, but the data your experts tease out is interesting. The region is, by your standards, wildly overpopulated and under-industrialized, the people here seeming to prefer mobile fleets to live in whenever possible, shunning planets as settlements of last resort. The emissions you pick up from those few settlements you could see showed a spike of energy usage as you approached, and the thermal blooms of powerful rockets and exotic energy you'd associate with teleporters and other emissions of uncertain categorization. As a culture, what you've seen speaks to a people given to avoiding conflict or using asymmetric tactics wherever possible, rather than standing and fighting.
Several times in the days that you wait, the constant calling of names and numbers over the channel the Altrans used results in a part of the fleet under your sensors pulling together and setting course for deeper in refugee space. Exactly where is uncertain, but the implication is clear. There is a route out of this area, and the Altrans are sending the refugees through it.
And then, the Altran Ascendancy's "response force" arrives, a single escort-sized ship, carrying envoys of their own. It's hard to fault them for it; saying a response force was on its way calmed people down more effectively than saying you weren't a threat likely would have. And yet, it's almost a little insulting that a single escort is all that was sent.
Soon, the escort has entered the system, and the envoys are able to vouch for you to the skittish refugees. And with that assurance, some of the braver ones do come forward, and you begin to get a greater glimpse of the scale of the problem here. In this microcosm of refugee space, hundreds of peoples are represented, forced together by circumstance. There is no single leader here, not even the Altrans, but instead a rough community that gains and bleeds members too rapidly for much organization to set in.
Still, as the transports are unloaded, and many dubious tests turn up clean, the inherent distrust seems to be fading some, and your envoys learn a few names to ask for for next time. Trade is looking more and more possible, here.
I3-9C - Diplomatic contact with Ascendancy of Altra
With the Altran diplomats, however, even as tempting as the tales of a dying universe are, brings a pained expression so clear it transcends the gap between species. Fortunately for all involved, both sides are professional diplomats, and the question gets asked.
Had they the resources, the Altrans would be pushing such a trade deal as you've asked for on you, trying to arm you with whatever they could get away with. As they had, once, when the warring galaxies were a little less violent, before refugee space had become as bloated as it was and the fleets became so overextended that terrible compromises crept in and became the norms. Once, in a more peaceful age, they would have gladly welcomed an exchange of tales and paid well for them, for the monsters were over the horizon.
Now, as the diplomat sorrowfully lays out in charts and predictions, trade is a gamble. Your presence, especially if you expand, could reduce the pressure on their fleets and give time to start repairing them, reducing pressure on other fronts as stronger forces can resolve problems faster and move on to the next disaster before it gets worse. It's a long investment in a world of very short deals.
It is unspoken, the diplomat clearly pained to think in such terms, but the numbers spell it out well enough. Prove you're not a spark in the void but an enduring bulwark, and trade will flow to reinforce that.
But as that thought processes, the Altran diplomat makes his own proposal, metaphorically putting a finger on the scale. It is something that would have been proposed next month, but the opportunity is here, she explains. While materials are in short supply, and technological uplift is impractical in such conditions, information is easy to share. With some work, experience can be shared. And it so happens that good officers who are confined to rest and restless are in higher supply than would be preferred, whether by injury or by losses of the equipment to field them.
One such, a widely traveled squadron commander by the name of Harlown, has volunteered so that he might at least contribute something after overstraining and nearly burning out his psionics in battle, sitting still for years of recovery simply not sitting well with him. Should you accept, you would gain a military advisor to keep you informed on your foes, opportunities, and potential problems.
Research
Void Runes 1/10
Red paint makes things go faster, purple makes things harder to see. These, all Orks know, and the Krork understanding and exploitation of such effects does not diminish them. But this, is taking that principle a step further. One part building warp-manipulating technology to focus, direct, and amplify that effect, another part shaping the faith that fuels it to better optimize the effects. Once, the Old Ones could have implemented this in the work of weeks, but the comparative difficulty does not daunt your meks and warlocks, merely sets out that this can be done.
And with the deliberate focus of the Krork, you are getting it done.
Industry
Upgrade home to Established, +4 towards Industrialized
Upgrade to Heavy Defenses
Clearing the debris and laying your own industry down proceeds without incident, your military forces sufficient to keep any foreign forces out of sensitive areas.
Military
I3-9B
Two incursions of note occur, both quite odd compared to the usual standards. As you expand towards the western edge of your territory, shields begin flaring at seemingly random intervals, something strange poking them from the warp and finding little purchase. One captain manages to partially identify it by keeping an old warp drive spooled up until the shields flared, and then transitioning into the warp to take a look, but the large crystalline structure there offers little clue in identifying it, even for the Altrans or refugees when a description is passed to the diplomats currently talking things over. As the structure closes and races away, you at least get a direction.
It takes further time, but the investigating fleet finds what looks to be the source after several similar incidents, coming to a world battle-scarred like many, but featuring a concentration of stone and crystal megaliths like the scouts had reported further to the west. There is no sign of how they got here, and the reports that come up the chain are unusually weighty with raw sensor data as there is no sign of how they left either. As far as every sensor in the fleet can tell, the megaliths simply vanished as the first drop-pods were landing.
At the least, shields stopped flaring randomly afterwards, which is more than you can say for the visitors from your galactic east. Small ships, closer to megabombers in size than independent vessels, started arriving through some manner of FTL over a significant portion of your planets on that edge, seemingly intent on ignoring the fire of your orbital defenses to land and disgorge... invaders is technically accurate, but provoked a heated discussion regarding how it was inaccurate and seeking a better word.
The invaders were too few in number to do any proper invading, and seemed more intent on painting pictures of the facilities they find than destroying them. Security forces are able to defeat them given a sufficient concentration of firepower, but the planners are a bit concerned that at the norms implied by needing sustained artillery fire to eliminate individual infantry units that aren't moving particularly defensively. And the less said about the number of captured Krork the better, as those led to some of the highest casualty events as the invaders went after the rarest available.
A solution is found in fairly short order, at least, as extending the horizon fortress over the area causes enough damage to the foreign vessels to cause most of them to abort the attack.
Consultation with the diplomats identifies the attackers as Tai "tourists", apparently a somewhat constant but low-level threat seen in refugee space as well. Caution is advised to avoid letting them near anything dangerous like unstable reactors, and a greater caution is given that if they're ever seen with exteritite -- a golden substance that is apparently a Problem further south -- to inform the Altran Ascendancy as soon as possible.
And so the month passes.
I2-9A:
Contents of this subsector are uncertain. Most recent Altran records indicated the presence of cultists of a flux entity associated with endings present here, but neighboring subsectors are presently under attack by pattern spiders. Best guess is that the latter has nested here, but direct confirmation has not been obtained.
I3-9A:
This subsector is an open channel carved between refugee space and Lovecraft's Nightmare, and will remain so until sufficiently heavy defenses are emplaced to turn back the entities that call the flux storm home. Currently, this subsector is being attacked by Pattern Spiders, an extraversal faction making heavy use of necromancy, and a self-replicating swarm of robots.
J1-9A:
This subsector has not been observed directly, but the swarm of self-replicating robots is attacking from here, and Altran records indicate that a Tai automation effort gone awry was present here, so your war-cartographers have a pretty good guess what's here.
I2-9B:
Altran records indicate that cultists of a flux entity associated with endings should be present here. You've updated them on instead finding megaliths of stone and crystal in the subsector, a foe which appears to make heavy use of exotic effects and the warp.
I3-9B:
The Fleetcommune of the Krork has landed here, with further forces expected to emerge here and in nearby subsectors. It is currently a well Established subsector, with Heavy defenses. Ancient Defenses have been incorporated.
J1-9B:
The Tai, an extraversal faction dancing on the line of becoming former sophonts, exist here. Now more of a hazard to those around them than a boon, their forces consist of cultivators, extraordinarily powerful individuals created by the concentration and refinement of various energies into individuals. Expect very powerful infantry-scale combatants, but lagging everything else from their forces.
I2-9C:
Altran records indicate that End Cultists held this sector, more a threat from their inevitable implosion than direct threats to refugee space. Considering their sudden and silent disappearance from other subsectors, it is suspected that the state collapsed in an unexpected manner, with far less collateral damage than expected. Contents of this subsector are unknown.
I3-9C:
Refugee space, a tenuously secured space holding a great multitude of people while evacuation continues, starts here. A distrustful sort, desperately trying to survive long enough to get out. It is unlikely to find solid allies here, but trade for whatever helps them live another day will likely be easier than with most.
J1-9C:
Refugee space, a tenuously secured space holding a great multitude of people while evacuation continues, starts here. A distrustful sort, desperately trying to survive long enough to get out. It is unlikely to find solid allies here, but trade for whatever helps them live another day will likely be easier than with most.
"The enemy of my enemy is a problem for later. For now, they might be useful."
- Anonymous
'All transformation is, at heart, born of conflict, and in turn, all wars are naught but the violent death throes of one state as it gives itself over another.'
– Garrok the Elder, Treatise on Warfare, Vol. IV Two
Burn on Read
Chirurgical
Imperial Diplomacy
[ Transcription]
By the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition's Vyranodasik Conclave
Watch Fortress Daravek
++++++++++++Thought of the Day: A wise man learn from the death of others+++++++++++++
>>OFFICIAL ORDERS: OPERATION DIVINTARCH
>>Issuer: Inquisitor Lord Varnix Winterhold, Ordo Xenos. Grandmaster of the Vyranodasik Conclave
>>Method of conveyance: By hand only
>>Date: REDACTED
>>Location: REDACTED
>>Clearance Level: Vermilion Plus
>>DO NOT TRANSMIT<<
>>DO NOT DUPLICATE<<
>>DESTROY AFTER READING<<
SANCTIONED TARGET:
Teethsmash the Kroatmost, self-styled Arch-Warmonger, leader of the Killmageddon Warfleet.
The Kroatangan is a fungal-based species of Xen lifeforms. Extra-galactic invaders according to gathered intelligence, these warlike aliens ( species label Xenos Horrificus, threat level Majoris ) maintain curious levels of similarities, both biological and cultural, to Greenskins. Possible relations are under investigation under the Ordo Xenos [ For further details about the progress of aforementioned investigations, see MAGENTA-level clearance briefing materials, separate packet].
Fungal based lifeforms, the Kroatangans sermingly thrives on war in manners similar to the Greenskin, as mentioned. The species technology are not ramshackled reconstitued loot and scrap, but a part of a consistent technological base. The current Kroatangan forces arre remnant of a failed WAAGH-equivalent several conturies ago, and has resorted into disparated pirate bands that are occasionally culled by local fleets. With recent disruptions however, various Warlords has arisen in dominance and is at the cusp of united the region's warband.
Using operational metrics based on eliminating warbosses, it is decided that the removal of Kroatangan leaders is vital to prevent the formation of WAAGH-equivalent, an event that directly threatens the Imperium's foothold in this realm.
Of these warlords, Teethsmash the Kroatmost lead the Kroatangan warband 'Killmageddon' for decades, reaving a trail of blood across several dozen star systems . An ambitious warlord, recently, he had proclained himself of the title Arch-Warmonger and become a contender for the power struggle that would unite Kroatangan warbands in the region without intervention.
The self-proclaimed Arch-Warmonger is currently rest his fleet in the De'arxis System, "intergrating" the forces of the recently defeated Warfiend Goretusk Killripper .
SECURITY THREAT LEVEL: HIGH
Teethsmash is located in a makeshift fortress complex in the Northern continent behind Xeno line. He is guarded by some of his most elite and veteran raiders, as well as an array of automated weapons. The alien himself is a veteran of hundreds of raids, and as such is considered fluent in conbat.
MISSION OBJECTIVES AND PARAMETERS:
OBJECTIVE PRIMUS:
Operatives of the Deathwatch are to be inserted 70 kloms from the Kroatangan fortress from Inquisitorial stealthship. They cleared by the Crusade Commands to use any and all methods to eliminate Teethsmash the Kroatmost.
OBJECTIVE SECUNDUS: Operatives are cleared to use any and all methods to cause as much damage as possible to Kroatangan forces on site before retreat
SUFFER NOT THE ALIEN TO LIVE
>>ORDERS END, DESTROY IMMEDIATELY<<
===========
It rains on Denenthal. It rains a liquid that blackens with ashes. It rains in a coldness that seeped through clothes and kins, seeped into the bones. The rain drowns the footsteps and the voices of the crowd. As the rain fell, comes the harsh smell reminiscent of smokes
Joachim-2134 prised open his eyes. But the light was hot and white and blinding, so he squeezed them shut again lest it burn out the backs of his retinas.
A voice disturb the silence.
"Ah. So you are awake."
There millions of worlds that gives the Imperium its tithe of flesh to its eternal war, each with millions of its own accents, but no matter the regiment, after years of service, its veteran soldiers developed a strange gruffness that reminds one of broken glass. Joachim-2134 remembered the shout of the Watchmeister during training, and of the various veterans, Kriegers or no, accross his service. This voice was no difference somehow. Even when it is distorted through a damaged throat through a vox grille. A familiar voice.
He sat up, the pain prevent him from rapidly sat bolt upright, his eyes slowly open to look at the direction of the voice. Rasping, and Vox-amped. The voice that he last remembered belongs to someone...
The alien slam his bone sword into the Prefector, lying without her blades on the ground.
He prised open his eyes. In the other bed to his right, the Prefect sat. Her carapace armour was removed, leaving behind a tank top and a bandadges cover her midsection. A woman in her thirties, the Prefect's blonde hair is buzz-cut short. Military standard. But there is one detail Joachim-2134 notice first, now that he sees her more clearly, without the chaotic distraction of the battlefield.
" You think that xeno blade was enough to kill me ? "
The Arbites Prefect spoke with disdain.
A nasty scar ran from side to side of her throat. A bionic implant is centered where her larynx should be.
The Krieger doesn't response to the question, instead turn to the mirror on the wall next to his bed. A pair of golden eyes looks back at him . Eyes that placed on a slightly gaunt face covered with pale skin. Dark hair cut by regulation.
"A man of few words huh "
They remains in silent.
Joachim-2134 wondered why he was even here. A Krieger in the same circumstances should have been granted the Peace, as anything of use were stripped off from him. Not laying here, in some hospice bed.
He spent the day in woozy semi-consciousness, his mind like wading through muddy swampland. A servitor had provided them with food and water twoce a day. Actual salted grox slabs instead of the typical ration bars. He can't help but felt the wastefulness kf it on him. He and the Arbites Prefect occasionally makes small talk. That is, she makes small talk , and the Krieger occasionally nod before the both of them sunk back in silence
Such was it been for a while.
The door open. And his destiny came in .
________
They lean over a balcony. The cool ocean breeze on his cheek was a welcome reprieve from the clinical isolation of the complex in which he'd woken. They look out towards the shoreline
The shoreline. Gentle waves lapped the orange hued pink sand. In part, the coast was submerged, creates an illusion that makes it seems like the local avians was walking on the surface of some unnaturally calm sea: glassy, serene.
" With every step, they walked upon the story of this broken world; the history of ancient conflicts, written in its strata, long ago drowned beneath the silent depths of that becalmed water. "
The man said, his voice might have been one time arrogantly aristocratic, if it hadn't been drowned under the weight of duty and melancholy. A lanky figure in shiny leather boots and thick black jacket, his bony face is crowned with prominent stovepipe hat. In his belt, hung many weapons and instruments of death, but not one ,even the bulky plasma pistol, is as deadly as the humble looking Gothic I Rosette attached in his hip.
" The Xenos we captured says this world is cursed. That shades haunts those who sets foot on this place. The psykers confirmed there are no warpcraft sign here, but...would you blame them ? "
The man shrugs.
" This world carries no civilisation. Only the ruins of wars long past . The seawater preserves almost perfectly the wrecks and the corpses . A giant battlefield. Nothing more. Nothing less. A microosm of our existence, no ?"
The Krieger look back.
"The first colony ship will head here next month. A Jericho-class pilgrim transport. Good Emperor-adoring folks, if there is notjing else..."
He let his words hung for a while.
"They call you a hero, you know. You and that Arbites, for killing that Xeno . "
This time, Joachim-2134 look back in puzzlement.
"Presumably you will get call back to the fleet as they pinned an Eagle Ordinary on you. And from then on, you will know no field of battle. High command won't let their little propaganda stunt to go away that quickly. They even prepared to countermand your Regiment.
But that's not the Krieg way, isn't it"
"N....no, it's not"
"You can speak now, boy ?"
The man laughs, his laughter a morbid thing, like the clacking of bones on the way to burial.
"But tell me. Do you want to serves the Emperor once more ?"
=============
The Warsmith sits on his command throne, his bionic eye stares down the impudent Xeno worm that even dares to deliver this...this demads.
Gideon Harrsk was, unlike many in the Imperium, acknowledge there exists some....neccessity regarding Xeno...relations. A position as Warden of the Eye demands one to...disregard lesser enemies for now, as all manpower are focused on the much greater threat that churned out on the ground of Cadia...perhaprs since they were settled. Even not considering Sigismund's Black Crusade, where each an apocalyptic threat to the survival of the Imperium as a whole. Combine with the many...reconsiderations involving Craftworld Ulthwe, the Warsmith possesses some understanding that...practicality may needed , especially in this new realm they found themselves in. Especially after the loss they suffered in the Foundation War.
But nonetheless, they are Imperials. The legacy of the Emperor's Manifest Destiny , of human dominance amidst the stars itself. Not attempt to exterminate the local xenos only for now is one thing. But this....this proposal.
While the Crusade Commands has their disagreements, at times fierce , this is not one of those times. A final consensus.
There will be no submission of the His Hoy Majesty's Imperium of Man to Xeno Vassalage. There will be no tribute from the Imperium to alien filth. Tell them that this territory belongs to the Imperium of Man, by ancient rights of conquest. And tell them the Imperium will heads for them sooner or later.
Strategic Turn 1
Total RP: 43
Industrial Orders:
- 10 RP to increases N4-Center to ' Established' level.
3 RP to improve defense to 'moderately defended'
Diplomatic Order:
IMPERIAL REBUKE ( 16 RP )
Nature: Hostile
Make a spectacle of refusing and condemning the Octarine demand of tribute , and kicks out their herald ( without harming him directly ). Broadcast it throughout the fleet and beyond.
Panopticon ( 2 RP ) - Counterespionage
Nature:
Re-focus on security across Imperial elements. Flushing out infiltrating 'hostile elements' ( rebel cells, Chaos and genestealer cults, Tau sympathizers infiltrating civilian columns, all to set up a preparation to intercept any incoming spies from factions of this galaxy
Kill-team ( 2 RP, 1 Base+2 fleet )
Nature: Hostile
Send Deathwatch Kill Teams, Inquisitorial retinues and Assasinorum agents to subtly eliminate Kroatangan Warmongers , prevents the creation of a Warpath. Preferably by framing one Kroatangan factions over another, in order to facilliates internecine conflicts
First contact (5 RP, 2 Base+2 Fleet, 3 Base+1 Fleet):
Establish tertiary recon and first contact with the Imperium's immediate neighbors, prioritise in maintaining a position of strength during contacts, impressing the local Xenos with the might of the Imperial Fleet
Military Order:
Initiate patrol around Imperial territories
Research Order
Anti Mind-control ( 1RP )
Rumours about factions capable of mind controls seriously concerned the Imperial Command. While not exactly an out of context issue for the Imperium of Man, all historical conflicts againsts such factions are costly. Start research in both psychic and non-psychic mean of shielding Imperial troops againsts enemy mind control
Basic Xenotech (4RP )
While it is tech heresy of the high order to tainted holy Ominissiah's inspirations with foul xenotech, it is nonetheless in accordance with the Cult Mechanicus orthodoxy to study the tools of the aliens to understand their basic nature, in order to find a weakness to exploit. High Command authorises the Mechanicus elements to study captured enemy weapons gathered int the aftermath of the Foundation War
Presented with almost virgin land to explore and exploit, the Imperium wastes little time before engaging in a furious colonization spree, the likes of which has not truly been seen since mankind's most ancient history, in that time of myth and legend before the Age of Strife and the Emperor's light. Nearly every world where man can survive with little more than a rebreather is marked for development, and in the following months great construction projects see entire cities rise, great factories and hab-blocks of rockcrete and plascrete emerging to tower over their various surrounding landscapes. The vast prefabricated cities of the Scourge were torn down and recycled to help create these new edifices of mankind's glories, and soon these cities were joined by outlying towns and villages, farms, and of course spaceports, providing transit between orbits thick with trade stations and shipyards and the planetary surfaces below.
Chartist vessels soon ply new trade lanes, emerging as the first steps of specialization are taken. Inhospitable but mineral rich planets become harsh yet productive Mining Worlds, with a select few such candidates settled instead by the Mechanicus contingent of the battlegroup to serve as their future Forge Worlds. Particularly fertile worlds hospitable to mankind and her crops become Agri Worlds, with some that are more beautiful than nutrient rich become Paradise Worlds. Key administrative hubs in this new segment of the Imperium have the bones of arcologies laid, either to act as planetary capitals or to be the first signs of transformations into Hive Worlds.
And of course, soon after the Mechanicus the other elements of the battlegroup begin to play politics and assert their own claims. Worlds of particular danger become tapped as future Legion recruiting grounds, Houses pool their resources and retainers to establish several developing planets as Knight Worlds, sites of miracles during the prior conflict become Cardinal Worlds and bases for the battlegroup's various Sororitas Preceptories. For better or worse, this new universe has not extinguished mankind's internal competition for power and territory.
Nor has it extinguished the inevitable underbellies of Imperial worlds. Only a relatively small fraction of the battlegroup's attached civilian population is productively employed, and so more work can and must be done to ensure proper public order and maximize industrial output. But for the first year of colonization, this is a very good start.
As a direct result, it is also not something that can be left undefended except for the battlegroup's expeditionary firepower. So it is that the Imperium digs in, establishing at the borders of its cities lines of pillboxes and bunkers, some extending deep underground to serve as shelters from even heavy bombardment, alongside Hydra and Earthshaker weapons platforms. The most important cities are built around vast Void Shield arrays, potential Hive-spines, to protect from orbital bombardment, and Planetary Defence Forces are formally established, trained, and mechanised. Defense Lasers and hidden torpedo silos complete the fortification array, ensuring that planets are not only protected but can strike back against the unwary foe.
This is not all, of course. To try and prevent the enemy from getting to the Imperium's worlds in the first place, orbital weapons platforms of varying kinds are constructed, further defended by minefields and attack craft squadrons based in the various space stations and orbital docks of each significant world. Defence Monitors are constructed, and swiftly begin to patrol their star systems, well armed and tough.
More could be done here as well, of course. Better trained PDFs with proper armoured units attached, more and larger Monitors, and true Star Fortresses, just to begin. But this too is a good start, and the Imperium's enemies will not find her new worlds to be easy pickings.
-Core TP upgraded to Established + Moderately Defended and additonal Base Magnitude Fleethordes raised.
Then comes the matter of the Imperial Rebuke. The Octarine flotilla is invited into the heart of Imperial power in the new galaxy, the selected capital planet of the battlegroup, where a grand sight awaits them. A vast war fleet stands in perfect array, with the mighty Endurance at the centre, vastly outnumbering the Octarine vessels. The envoys are invited aboard, where they are met with a no less grand sight of thousands of the Imperium's elite in parade formation, Space Marines from all three Legions, Battle Sisters, and Myrmidons receiving the envoy.
Near the heart of the Endurance lies its throne room, once a place of ceremony and also the private quarters of its Primarch. The throne stands solemnly empty today, a mark of respect for the long-deceased Mortarion, but the room does not, its high ceiling and wide, austere walls serving well to give an air of grandeur as the Warsmith and his personal retinue and command staff, flanked by Sisters of Silence, greet the Octarine emissaries.
The lead speaks, surprisingly, in fluent High Gothic, explaining their demands and what they offer in turn with flowing, eloquent speech. Warsmith Harrsk, by contrast, is far more blunt, but in doing so manages to convey his displeasure.
This territory, he explains, belongs to the Imperium by right of conquest. They do not need the approval of a plant for it to be theirs, nor will they pay tribute. The negotiators will return to the place from whence they came and carry back this and only this message: The Imperium is here to stay, as everlasting as it always has been and always will be. If Octarine wishes to make a deal with them, then it had best remember that humanity will never simply bow down and submit.
Before they can take their leave, the Warsmith also 'politely suggests' that the Salmaranth kowtows before him, as a sign of respect, which the xenos somewhat grudgingly does while being stared down by a variety of inhuman killers. This moment is immortalised in pict-captures from several angles, both stills and film, and these are distributed far and wide for public viewing. The morale of the battlegroup is bolstered: Mankind may be far from home, but their place on top of proceedings remains unchanged.
Octarine Incorporated may think differently, however.
-Octarine offer is firmly rebuffed. They're decidedly unhappy about it, but haven't taken any actions in response. Yet.
The decision to allocate additional resources to counter-intelligence proves prudent. First of all is the matter of the Vorkyli United Republics. With the assigned resources, several of their spies are identified, some being captured, and it is believed that they were kept from critical information. However, that is where the good news ends. The Inquisition and Synopticon believe that many Vorkyli agents have successfully remained undetected, and built up intelligence networks within the Imperium. The wily aliens represent a security threat unlike almost anything else humanity has faced, with the sole exception being xenos such as the Tau. But whereas the Tau were relatively small in scope and comparatively inexperienced in the art of outright interstellar intrigue, the VUR is neither. Standard tactics are only partially effective, and it is believed that a variety of low-level information on the Imperium has been made available to them.
By contrast, the local Hograthux's efforts to undermine mankind have been almost refreshingly traditional. Its vanguard Wyrm Cults have been snuffed out with extreme prejudice everywhere they've been found, with a high degree of confidence that most if not all were identified and extinguished before they could grow into true threats. The Lesser Regnum will have to work harder than this if it wishes to sink its claws into Imperial territory.
-Infiltration attempts by the VUR identified and mitigated. Infiltration attempts by the VLR fully countered.
The Deathwatch, honed on countless missions against Ork Warbosses, proves more than capable of assassinating various Warmongers, most notably Arch-Warmonger Teethsmash, whom a particularly successful Kill Team manages to eliminate along with his entire command staff. Thanks to the efforts of a somewhat eccentric Magos, their insertion vessel is successfully modified to visually appear like a Kroatangan attack cruiser, with brutal but efficient lines dominating over Imperial curves and artistry or Ork barbarity. Thus, when the ship is detected during exfiltration, the Arch-Warmonger's surviving forces are quick to blame one of his many rivals, and this decidedly Kroatless behaviour ensures that the continuing internal conflict will be bitter and to the knife rather than easily unificatory.
-Deathwatch covert actions successfully delay Kroat unification and damage Kroat leadership without Imperial involvement becoming known.
First contact with the rest of the sector goes approximately as well as could be hoped for, which is that nobody has started shooting yet and everyone's still talking, albeit the relationships are somewhat strained in many cases. In order:
-The Ykantras Orda first react to the Imperium with caution, seeing the latter's firm foreign policies as too aggressive for their tastes. However, relations swiftly warm, as the visible power of the Imperial Navy combined with leaked picts of the Salmaranth's humiliation gives both hope and satisfaction, and the Orda's leadership gives some tentative diplomatic overtures in the direction of the Imperium. However, some ill-thought out comments expose the common attitudes of the Imperium towards xenos, and so things sour a bit more. Overall, this relationship is roughly neutral.
-The Vorkyli United Republics have technically kept lines of communication open, as appears to be custom between nations in this galaxy that are not actively at war, but have made no secret of the fact that they see the Imperium as a rival for local dominance, and only one power will be able to obtain supremacy. A decidedly confrontational relationship, even if it hasn't bloomed into open warfare yet.
-The Octarine Mining Interests are a similar story to the Ykantras, with the sight of their masters humiliated and the powerful Imperial fleets sparking off yet more rebellions. Whether the disunited population has yet to figure out Imperial xenophobia or are simply desperate enough to not care is unclear, but either way their relationship with the Imperium is outright positive, albeit cautiously so. The Octarine occupation force in the region has, as might be guessed, a somewhat more negative opinion of the Imperium.
-Cosmorealm takes some heart in the Imperium's forces as well, but rather than their vast fleets their focus is on the Astartes, size comparisons between Harrsk and the Salmaranth showing their large stature becoming commonplace within Cosmorealm communications infrastructure. Humanity, it seems, has a reputation as mighty warriors in this realm, and although this is apparently due to universal psyker powers that they understand the Imperium does not possess, the idea of a posthuman warrior still carries a certain cachet. This focus is seemingly due to the reliance of Outworld on their powerful Kombatants to seize the day over vast conventional forces. While this relationship is currently fairly quiet and neutral, aid would likely see a large amount of gratitude gained.
-As for Outworld, a simple message from Shao Khan is received inviting the Imperium to battle, if they so dare.
-The Teutes Federation is disapproving, as might be expected. Relatively loyal Octarine pawns, they see the Imperium as savage, warlike, and a destabilising influence on the region they work so hard to keep intact and in balance. Much like with the United Republics, communication remains technically open and the shooting hasn't started, but it seems that both sides would quickly append a 'yet' to that sentence if given the chance.
-The Lesser Regnum is greatly annoyed at this utter destruction of both their plans and their attempt to salvage said plans via the Wyrm Cults. Seeing the Imperium as their new main rival for dominance of the sector, the leading Hograthux does at least take some small amusement in the Salmaranth being shown their rightful place. Still, conflict is probably inevitable here as well.
On a more internal note, there are the fruits of the Mechanicus' research projects. Data files from the captured xenos bio-cogitators provide key context for the rumours surrounding the gargantuan astra-annelid which controls the Vorkyli Lesser Regnum. The pitiful Peoples' Martial Republican Federation had also been studying the creature's witchery, but had been unable to find any method of resistance. Even their own psykers could only stay free minded by hiding themselves from its notice, which is at least a familiar concept. While a strong mind, for a xeno, could avoid losing control for a time, once the wyrm's attention was focused on a subject there was no salvation or escape, and its vast size means that it can focus on a vast number of subjects at any one time.
It was this failure which sowed the seeds of Imperial success, however. The Archmagos in charge of the project sent in a task force of unaugmented menials, Skitarii, and servitors on an alleged scouting mission into the parasite's Regnum. These troops were unaware of their true mission, which was to die and in their dying reveal the secrets of the xeno-worm to the Imperium. Maintaining contact across star systems with techno-arcane rituals, the Archmagos was able to observe that the Hogathrux was completely unable to control the holy machine spirits of the scout vessel, and could only take control of the servitors and Skitarii with great effort. Even then, its foul and insidious witchcraft could not alter the core directives imposed on them through their blessed cybernetics. The menials, on the other hand, were almost immediately overcome and subordinated to the alien's vile will. After having the Skitarii purge the infected, and themselves just to be safe, after setting course back to Imperial space, the Archagos drafted a proposal to present to Battlegroup Command.
While it would obviously be all but impossible, not to mention degrading of the Omnisiah's holy machines, to implant every naval crew and Guard regiment with Skitarii-grade cranial augmetics, providing such neural implants for the Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Sororitas and select elite units such as the Tempestus Scions or Kasrkin of the crusade could be accomplished with a relatively minor outlay of resources. To stiffen the backbone of the masses unable to receive the Omnisiah's blessings, the Archmagos recommended that Regimental and above command staff and the Commissariat be given neural implants to ensure that the top level of command would remain true to the Emperor and that compromised troops could be swiftly put out of their misery.
Needless to say, this proposal gives significant additional power and influence to the Mechanicus, but also seems to be one of the best ways available to safeguard the Imperium's forces from alien mind control, both from the neighbouring star-worm and most likely from other xenos telepaths as well.
-Military option unlocked to give Supersoldiers, Elites, Lords and Commanders and Hero Ground units and all Space units cyberbrain upgrades to reduce the effectiveness of Hogathrux mind control for a one time cost of 25 RP. This will give the Iron Warriors and Adeptus Mechanicus greater influence within the Crusade.
As for the more conventional xenotech study, the work proceeds swiftly but carefully. Following well established rites older than the Great Crusade itself, the Tech-priests of the expedition collect and ritually purify the machines which had been tainted by the touch of the Alien, revealing the fragments of the Omnissiah's truths hidden within their corrupt designs. While aberrant and disgusting in its foul biological form (a concept agreed upon only after the leading Magos Metallurgicus of the project defeated the leading Magos Biologis in an Omnisian Axe duel,) the technology used by the Republican Federation, unlike the perverse Eldar and scheming Tau, does not display any novel attributes or tactically challenge the rightful superiority of human STC-derived technology.
While their weaponry was of a higher quality on a per-unit basis, it also peaked at the level of the Mechanicus' Skitarri Legions, with no effective answer for the holy wrath of the Adeptus Astartes, Adepta Sororitas, or Auxilia Myrmidon when it is fully roused, nor the ability to deploy overwhelming numbers of hostile war-forms like the Tyranids. Extracted data from bio-cogitators and xenos lifeforms living and dead by Mechanicus torture sevitors and the recovery of mortis-cortical transcripts respectively does suggest that the Octarine are both more technologically sophisticated and make use of more conventional materials, with their favoured Vorkyli puppets incorporating Octarine metal into cyborg enhancements for their biogenic horrors.
The Republic theorised that the union between Octarine metal and Vorkyli flesh was a weakness, which is both true and false. On the one hand, the overall product was indeed strengthened, but on the other hand the joins were awkward and became weak points due to Octarine not fully sharing the secrets of their own science, allowing even the humble Guardsman to gain the upper hand if they're a sharp enough shot. As yet another sign of alien inferiority, appropriately scathing and derogatory yet informative new sections of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer highlighting these weak points have been written and distributed in anticipation of the battlegroup's inevitable conflict with these new xenos, both further battle against the Vorkyli and likely eventual conflict against Octarine's own mercenaries.
-The Imperium has gained a solid understanding of Vorkyli technology and a less solid glimpse of Octerine technology.
The sun is getting low on the horizon by the time Xiaoli finally meets the man she's come to kill.
The coordinates that the IlKhan provided for their meeting place lead to an arena of sorts, a perfect circle of melted and resolidified crystal carved into the ground by an orbital laser. The ground still smokes and steams where it made its mark. In the sky above, drone cameras dart back and forth like flocks of birds, trying to capture every moment of the duel to come.
ilKhan Leo Showers is already waiting for her. His mech stands on the other side of the circle, poised for action. Mechs in Xiaoli's universe evolved from suits of powered armor, but this "Dire Wolf" looks more like a tank on legs. It towers over her own Zheng mech, and its bulky arms and chassis bristle with dedicated weapon mounts. Unwieldy, perhaps, but immensely powerful—it most likely outmasses the Zheng several times over, by the way the ground cracks under its wide feet.
But the war machine is one thing; the man at the controls is another.
The optics in her mech magnify his image until she can see him clearly, sitting in his cockpit. Her opposite number is a bright-eyed, dark-skinned man with a goatee and wild dreadlocks, with an elaborate arc-shaped tattoo curving across his forehead. She sees him press a button, and a moment later a comm channel opens to give them a chance to speak.
"I must admit," he says without preamble, "that it came as something of a shock to learn that your Union had issued a true challenge. Seeing your conduct of war, I doubted any of you understood enough of honor to wish to face any of us one on one, let alone an ilKhan."
Xiaoli chuckles. "Command wanted to get you to pick a time and place to show up and then level that spot with ortillery. I persuaded them otherwise."
Even through the optics' zoom, she can see the spark of curiosity in his eyes. "So you alone are responsible for this batchall. Fascinating. Before I kill you, I would know what drove you to such an action, flying in the face of your own culture. Why do you fight?"
It's an interesting question, and one she's thought about before. This man doesn't deserve Xiaoli's honesty—but she's always tried to be honest with herself.
"It's what I know," she tells him simply. "It's what I'm good at. I can't imagine any other life."
"So, you are more like us than your craven masters," the ilKhan says with smug satisfaction. "It is a pity that we had to be enemies. You could have lived a glorious life in Clan Smoke Jaguar."
Xiaoli shrugs, and her mech shrugs with her. Its precision-engineered joints shift with a low growl of motors. "Maybe. Depends on your definition of 'glory'. When you shook down helpless refugees at gunpoint for the last scraps they had left, was that glorious? Did it give you the thrill of facing a worthy opponent?"
His expression hardens, telling her instantly that she's touched a nerve. "My warriors and I only took what was our right. If they wished to keep what was theirs, they should have found a way to overcome us. In their place, any trueborn of the Clans would have met their fate with dignity, not run behind the skirts of an interloper."
"Ah," says Xiaoli. "Now I get it. For a second there, I thought you were someone I'd actually have to take seriously, and not a back-alley thug with pretensions of honor. My mistake."
His response is to open fire.
Missiles and lasers leave a smoking crater in the crystalline ground. But Xiaoli's already gone. She leaps into the air—not straight at him, charging head-on into that much firepower would be suicidal. Instead, she lands off to the side. Reactor waste heat flows into her mech's hand. Then she slams it into the ground, and a burst of smoke, steam, and crystal shards erupts into the air.
The shimmering cloud of particles will diffuse and weaken laser fire and confound the IlKhan's sensors. Any advantage she can get is crucial, for not even Xiaoli is fast enough to dodge her enemy's weapons if they're locked on. But what she can do is anticipate his attacks. By the time he pulls the trigger, she needs to have already made her next move. Heavy and slow as the Dire Wolf is, that isn't too difficult. But ilKhan Showers can still wear her down by sheer volume of fire.
As the thought crosses her mind, gauss rounds zip by her on either side. He's bracketing her, trying to box her in. Clever—he's figured out that her mech is far more maneuverable than his. But he doesn't know just how far that advantage goes. She takes off running and drops into a slide. The twin streams of bullets scythe over her head together amidst a shriek of metal scraping against rock, and she jumps to her feet unharmed.
Xiaoli is stalling for time, and doing it well. Even his titanic mech won't withstand the D/D 288, she's certain of it. But first the weapon has to charge. Perhaps if she gets him talking, she can buy the precious seconds she needs?
"You know," she taunts, circling around him, "I read your file. I know why you were so bent on getting the top job. The galaxy was about to put itself back together without the Clans—and you just couldn't tolerate that, could you? The idea of a ruling class that didn't include you and yours."
"The Inner Sphere was weak and decadent," ilKhan Showers spits over the comms. "It always has been. A Star League founded on an aristocracy of freeborn scum instead of merit and might could never be worthy of the name." He's still firing at her, but it's a perfunctory shot from time to time, not the withering storm he opened with. Maybe he's reloading and recharging, or maybe he still believes he can talk her around to his side.
Though she doubts he's looking closely enough to see her face, Xiaoli smirks. "So, basically, it was a battle over which group of inbred eugenicists should run everything. Now there's a conflict worth a war to the fuckin' knife if I ever saw one."
And with that, the D/D is ready to fire. That's not a bad way to get the last word, as Xiaoli sees it. She raises her arm—
—and the Dire Wolf fires a single, perfectly aimed shot.
The gauss-rifle slug severs the heat-sink tubing running from the mech's reactor core to its fist. Only sheer luck saves Xiaoli from instant death; had the round hit only a moment later, she would be "bleeding" irradiated molten metal. It seems the ilKhan wasn't reloading or holding back after all. Like her, he was stalling to line up his attack.
It seems she's going to have to get creative.
But just as she's thinking this, the Dire Wolf moves. Hidden jump jets fire in its legs, catapulting it across the battlefield. Xiaoli barely sidesteps out of the way in time. The ilKhan's mech crashes to the ground with earthshaking force. Gauss slugs and lasers at point-blank range begin to tear out chunks of the Zheng's armor as he opens fire once more with a vengeance. He's made one mistake, though: coming into close quarters.
A single swing of Xiaoli's mighty fist smashes an entire rack of missiles. A second destroys a heavy gauss cannon. A third punches a hole in his cockpit. For a moment, it seems as if she can tear the Dire Wolf to shreds. But then reality sinks in. He has weapons and armor to spare. A laser carves off a chunk of her mech's shoulder, driving home the point for Xiaoli. She won't survive much more of this.
Xiaoli knows she needs to strike a decisive blow, one that will end the battle in one stroke just as she hoped to at the beginning. She aims for the fragile joints that connect the cockpit to the legs, and draws back her fist. But as she swings it forward, ilKhan Showers turns the Dire Wolf's chassis to the side. Instead of severing the "head", she hits his "arm". The weapon mount is utterly destroyed by the punch, rendered into useless scrap. But for once, Xiaoli's fist going straight through something isn't cause for celebration. Her arm is completely stuck.
Before she can wrench it free, he fires his jump jets again. She's yanked into the air along with him. Hurtling crazily through the air, she gets a glimpse for a moment of the ground below. The once-perfectly-smooth surface is gouged with craters and fissures. Compared to this, even the devastating aftermath of her fight with most of a Star of mechs earlier looks like a minor skirmish.
Then they land.
Xiaoli is finally thrown free of the makeshift trap. But she sprawls gracelessly across the shattered ground as she falls. She struggles to regain control of her mech and rise, but the damage she's taken is making it sluggish and unresponsive. The Dire Wolf stomps over to her, damaged but still deadly. She realizes what the ilKhan is going to do only a scant fraction of a second before it happens. It's just long enough to raise her arms. When the mech's foot comes crashing down, she just barely manages to catch it.
Going into this fight, Xiaoli had expected to be able to retreat if things became too dire. She'd upload her coordinates to Union's high command and let them whisk her home through blinkspace. But the chaos of the battle has made it utterly impossible to get a signal lock. Xiaoli will win, or she will die here.
A hundred tons of metal and rage bear down on her. Only the incredible strength that she built into every system of her personal war machine is enough to save her. Reactive alloy weaves and interlocking muscle-analog plating strain to hold back the pressure.
And then, for the first time in her life, they begin to fail.
"I alone had the vision and the drive to see Kerensky's dream realized!" ilKhan Showers roars at her over the sound of damage alarms and bending steel. "I alone am fit to claim what we are owed and lead a Star League risen from the ashes! You are a pilot of no trifling skill—but I am the ilKhan of the Clans!"
"Did you have the vision to put an eject button in your mech?" asks Xiaoli, and presses hers.
There's a muffled thud of explosive charges as the Zheng's faceplate is blasted away. Behind it, Xiaoli is hurled high into the air. She lands on top of the Dire Wolf, nearly sliding off it as she scrambles for a handhold, before she finally finds something to grab onto. She looks right into the ilKhan's shocked face as she hangs down in front of him by one hand. With the other, she draws her sidearm and empties the entire clip through the hole she punched in the Dire Wolf's faceplate.
The angle isn't right to hit the ilKhan himself, but the controls are riddled with bullets, exploding with crackling sparks. Feedback surges through the mech's systems. Slowly but surely, it tips over and begins to fall.
Xiaoli struggles to maintain her grip, but with such a massive weight toppling over it's as if the world is shifting on its axis. She falls, plummeting to the hard ground below. There's a spike of agony and a sickening crack as her right arm and a few of her ribs fracture from the fall. She nearly blacks out from the pain, but with a tremendous effort of will, she manages to keep consciousness from slipping away.
It takes a few more seconds for the Dire Wolf to finally fall to earth. It does so with a thunderous crash so deafening that Xiaoli instinctively tries to clap her hands to her ears, then gasps in pain as her broken arm screams in protest. The already-compromised cockpit faceplate shatters with the impact. But the ilKhan does not emerge.
Picking up her pistol from where she dropped it in the fall, Xiaoli limps over to her enemy, shooting a mournful look at her own half-destroyed mech as she goes. She circles around to see ilKhan Showers in his cockpit—alive, but clearly far worse for wear. A heavy support strut has partly broken off and fallen onto his seat, pinning him in place. Blood bubbles up onto his lips as he coughs.
"You…have triumphed," he wheezes. "But even after I die here…know that my spirit…will still guide the hands of my warriors. Kill me…and let the strongest of them take my place."
"No," says Xiaoli. "I don't think I will."
Confusion wars with pain on his face.
She limps a few steps closer to him, leaning down to look him in the eye. "See, I've realized that I was wrong before. You're not thugs."
The ilKhan gives a laugh that dissolves into bloody coughing and hacking. "I see that you have finally—"
"You're children," declares Xiaoli. "The cosmic equivalent of petulant toddlers. You bullied the other kids at school and now you're throwing a tantrum because they don't want to play with you anymore. So, no. I'm not going to kill you. Execution is for people who actually understand the consequences of their actions."
As the telltale hum of a blinkspace tunnel rises around them, ilKhan Showers fixes her with a look of such pure hate that for a moment, he almost seems to forget how badly he's hurt. It fazes her not one bit.
"Go sit in the corner and think about what you did," Xiaoli tells him.
Take advantage of the chaos sown by the capture of the ilKhan to push back the Clan forces. Keeping Union and Haven Compact civilians safe from Clan reprisals and war crimes is the #1 priority.
Continue working with the Haven Compact for transportation, and get the new blink drives into production ASAP. FTL is the Clans' biggest advantage and it's crucial to negate it.
Continue assassinating commanders, especially Khans. Xiaoli may be wounded but Union has other commando assets, not to mention the possibility of just bombing them from orbit. Ideally the succession crisis should continue as long as possible.
Use Xiaoli's victory over the ilKhan and his status as our prisoner as propaganda against the Clans. The loss of their supposed greatest warrior shows that they are not as invincible as they claim. Union could still defeat them if it played by their rules—it simply chooses not to.
Once the Clans' momentum has slowed to its minimum—because of the Union counteroffensive, internecine fighting, retreating to select a new ilKhan, or any combination of those—work with their slaves to launch massive uprisings and rebellions behind enemy lines, equipped with the best arms that can be fabricated or smuggled in.
The combined effect of all of this is to protect Union's own people while striking at the social and material foundation of the Clans—even if they successfully choose a new ilKhan, ideally their authority will be so diminished as to make the position worthless.
The churn of the cosmos and the weave of the stories and narratives that bound all things were a weave of coloured threads spun in the sharp armoured fingers of Ravagn. A titanic figure who was everywhere and nowhere, his scintillating wings flashing with many of the colours primordial while his armoured frame spun webs of fate in an impossible fortress, an assertion pleromic supremacy over the mundanity of simple reality. The chaos and destruction of the Warring Galaxies was in large part, to his design, and he watched the flow of narratives clashing for supremacy closely. To describe the interior of his fortress would be to go through a thesaurus for synonyms of "grandeur", overbearing and ontologically godlike to whatever the viewer may be, impressing upon them the absolute authority of this higher being.
New threads had joined the tapestry, woven in from far-removed realities, seeking to entangle themselves in the narrative he had carefully shaped beyond time and space. The underlying pseudo-colours of non-pleromic beings writhed and wriggled at his attentions, even the Flux would have to bow to his attentions; though the incursion of the strangers from beyond the Veil through what the mundane called "Lovecraft's Nightmare" had proven an unwelcome intrusion. Countersongs were disrupting the melody of his design, and the tendrils of the strangers were ensnaring themselves into the things that merely existed to make his task difficult. An annoyance, and one that he would deal with by reaching into the web of stories long past and yet to come.
With the artisanship of a master craftsman, the Luminescent Paladin took the whisp of mundanity and wove a thin web of demi-colour around it, power beyond power dancing beneath the gaze of his kaleidoscopic eyes through his visor. He whispered his contempt into his creation, calling to mind all he thought of his foe. The Strangers were beings of the Strangescape, the antithesis to the Pleroma that was above the omniverse of all that existed, the contramundus of all that counter-existed, the ur-null of nothing, the etherea of all that was hoped for, and the echolands of all that which did not exist. The great below, the impossible and the unnatural in opposition to the ideal and the perfect of the Pleroma which was more real than real. Theirs was a war undefinable in length and scale, but this was just another front in that conflict.
Nevertheless, as a Knight of the Manifold Fates; one of the most prominent factions of the Pleromic Primordial Lords; he would do his duty. The harvest would continue, and the Strangers would learn their place. As would those new threads that may seek to interrupt his work, the holy task of ensuring that those half-spawn that had true life breathed into them for the greater cause would continue to be created and have their ties to their mortal famila severed when the time came to draw them to the high realm. This was his sacred duty, it was what he encouraged these galaxies to be from the beginning, and it was why he simply stood by and let the Gramathin who had once ruled these stars die. After all, the Community were merely mundanes; characters and stage extras in the scripts woven by the only real beings. That was the dogma, and he never questioned.
His work was done, a batch of simulacra plucked from the stories that mundanes tell themselves and then painted into the men-at-arms his knights and squires expended as they pleased. Tamers and slayers of monsters, altered into having lived experiences his mind designed for them, given realness by his breath, given power by his paint, and given definition by his threads. Faces borrowed from the memories and tales of others, expressions on them bearing the experiences of pasts that only existed because he had willed it so. Not so much his pawns as the pawns of pawns. And at once, they all saluted him and then kneeled, as if this was something they had done all their live-long lives.
"What wisdom do you have for us, great one?" Not!Grievous said, twisted into a willing and enthusiastic servant of the coloured lord whose cloak of possibilities swayed with the movement of his fortress-plte while he looked upon the soldiers he had simply willed into being, the twinkling starlight within his helm shifting colours as his hand held a representation of space as he saw it, fingers sharpening into blades as he designated targets.
"The eternal enemy has sought to stymie the flow of our scripts in these locations and at these times. Make yourselves of use in these fronts and ensure that not one word of what has been written goes astray. You who have served me well may advance with heads held high, knowing that I am confident in your success and in your pride as servants of the most-high ones." He said in a voice that was everywhere and nowhere, whispered in your ear, screamed from afar, a billion times a billion different tones blending into the voice of a legion that was one. But what was unmistakable was the sense of imperious majesty in it; defiance was not merely wrong or incorrect, but impossible. What he decreed was so, and always was and shall be.
"In my eternity of service, I am sure that this will be our finest hour yet", said a raven-haired demigod who had not existed from Ravagn's perspective until he had wished it so. One with a pen that could take on the aspect of a sword of godly bronze, one who spoke in a tone and diction that was at odds with his lived experiences and personality, but one that Ravagn found more fitting for his subordinates to speak to him in than the lip the teenager would have probably given him if this were not a thing of cosmic yarn and celestial scriptwright.
"Your triumph is ordained, and your service thanked for. Go now, and do not bring me disgrace." He said, whisking his puppets to their fronts to unleash the power he had woven into them, his wings slowly folding behind him as he turned back to his Knights and Squires. The ones with true colour, untainted by any mundane aspect unlike the primalborn and exemplars he was tasked with ensuring the realisation of. True, genuine pleromites who were woven of the rainbow relams and unmarred by the colourless spheres or the dark below.
"The tithe continues well and shall carry on doing so. I have done so." One of the Knights said, Vadrenia, the carver and severer. Her form bore the aspect of sharp-edged violence. A destroyer and an editor to the ruination and creation that Ravagn preferred. She was one of the few other true Pleromic high-ones in Ravagn's enterprising court, and so need not speak to him with the needed deference.
"Why aren't you more worried about the guests?" A child's voice said, bringing the attention of the high ones to the smaller but radiant frame of a primalborn. A child of mundane birth fated into being by the high ones to offer capabilities the truly pleromic were loathe to do. A demi-high. A half-thing. A human of ash coloured skin and hair of silver. An offensive level of greyness. Primalskein armour woven like their heroic ideal from their distant home reality. To serve now as a demi-page and some would say, intern, though to Ravagn the better term was
"Nuisance in mine hearing why do you insist on speaking like a barbarian? Let joy into your hybrid heart for the wonder of receiving my tutelage and hold your head with righteous pride."
"I have a name..." They said, looking down, purple eyes demure and expression softening to make themselves look smaller and less offensive to the judging sight of the true high ones. They were products, things made. They had learned more of the truth of their origins, and hoped to at least provide some softening to the heavy cost of producing the tithe.
"Speak properly if you wish of me to utter it."
"Of course, high one." They said.
"An improvement, Shalyaran." He replied.
"As for your question, because I have not deigned them a disruption to the play we have crafted. Your creche will remain devoted to your present duties. It has already passed." he said while they offered a small nod, armour that seemed more at home in a place of capes and costumes than the wonders of the interminably far future shifting with they movements while androgynous hair was brushed away from purple eyes.
"Generous of you, Ravagn." Vadrenia said.
"It was sought, it has been done." He answered.
Oz'Kur'Na, Lesser Ecumenical Capital Station
The coming of the year 666,667 was somewhat unremarkable in Oz'Kur'Na, as the enormous gigastructure spun through the void. For one thing, the Ecumene did not recognise the Gregorian Calendar, for another thing, most humans didn't use it anymore either. The Ecumene regarded all products of human culture to be abomination, to be given nothing more than public denunciation and scorn in the exhibitions of degeneracy. Kryivik's solar year would not be complete for a while longer yet and that was good enough for the government's measurement of time.
For another thing, Kla'Xur'Lax, Xyr'Ruh of the Lesser Ecumene, had much more important tasks to take care of. Beneath the extended visor of his peaked cap, his compound eyes glared into the distance, into the field of stars above while three of his four arms were held behind his back. Mandibles wriggled and rippled from the bottom to the top of his head, four toothy, slimy radula rubbing against each other to accompany the twitching of his antennae in thought.
"Yah'Xyr'Ruh." Tar'Gar'Tak, one of the sycophants in chief of the Xyr'Ruh, spoke up, interrupting Kla'Xur'Lax's thoughts while the master of the Lesser Ecumene slowly turned his head towards the other.
"I expect a good reason for you interrupting my thoughts. I am preparing to give a report to the great Voz'Zor'Azk." He said, antennae reflexively straightening at the mention of the Xyr'Ruh of the Greater Ecumene out of reverence for the master of the people and the Deu'Kroz nation.
"Of course, Yah'Xyr'Ruh, it seems another wave of transversal arrivals has settled in. An alarming number of them are, as per these reports. Vol. Huu'Mak'Vol more particularly." He said with a positively grinding sneer as he rubbed his tongues together in disgust and let out a barking, wet cough to affirm his hatred.
"Most are of relatively minor concern at the moment, though some display unusual or alarming capabilities. Our intelligence networks will work on gathering more information of course." He replied, sharing the information telepathically while the bioluminescence on Kla'Xur'lak's neck flared a sickly green.
"Contact the Vol hunter mercenary guilds. Offer them a bit extra to cause a little trouble for them. Not too much just yet, but the Vol sentimentality is very prone to irrational acts to soothe cravings for vengeance and justice. Inform Jug'Al'Rak and tell him to get his department ready." He said, rapping one of his eight fingered hands against the rail of his overwatching balcony, where soldiers below marched through the streets in parade formations.
"Through the typical channels I take it?"
"We need not flick our tongues too early, give them a scar for now. We will see if the terrors of the night will suffice to rid ourselves of more of their cowardly kind without serious effort on our part." He said, the other clicking mandibles in affirmation, strobing light pattern adding further emphasis to their approval along with snapped fingers.
"As you wish." He replied, offering a dimming of his bioluminescence to show fealty to the supreme leader of the lesser Ecumene. Spiracles on the sides of the head opened and closed twice, a further show of obedience while they waited for a twitch of the antennae to be given permission to leave.
He was once again, left to his thoughts, save for the VTZK; Var'Tuln'Zar'Kot or "Armed Merit Dictate Enforcers"; guards who never left his side. But the cold glares of the armoured soldiers was enough to tell someone that what was on their minds was largely related to duty and its fulfillment. Only fair, they were...rewired to be as such, remoulded to do as they were told without question, Eidolons who no longer were burdened by the heavy weight of having to question orders.
No less sharp for it though, as their still sapient minds continually checked the surroundings for any signs of potential problems for their charge. Orders were orders and that was that.
"Does he remain loyal?" He asked, his antennae twitching towards a mechanical figure built in the vague effigy of a black, dark green, and midnight blue clad hunchbacked brutish rendition of an Imilki. Humans often called them "Black Gorgon" shells, for reasons that escaped Kla'Xur'lak, but to him they were the Kot'za'kol'art; Enforcer Cybertransferrence Combat Platform. A frame for an echo; a copy of a pattern of an ideal combatant, a soul split and regrown into multiple pieces. One spirit, many bodies.
"He shows no signs of seeking your replacement, Yah'Xyr'Ruh." They replied in a bassy, rumbling tone that would delve into infrasound by human ears. Imilki were larger than humans, roughly four times the average height of 21st century humans, and more than four score and a half times heavier on average, their voices were often too deep for unaugmented human ears to hear as their complex language thrummed in their spiracles, maws, and complicated gesticulation. This was even deeper, as the frame was a giant even to the Xyr'Ruh, tall amongst his own kind.
"Your intelligence gathering remains stellar, Xal'Mor'Targ" He replied, not even looking towards the head of the VTZK as he spoke, tongues rubbing together to produce a grinding sound that indicated satisfaction as their rows of teeth chafed against one another. Antennae started to buzz and flicker with colours, drool slowly dripping out of the maw only to be caught by one of his tongues.
"You have ordered, I follow." He responded with a digitised monotone that seemed somewhere between a bassy scream and a rumbling declaration.
"As is expected. We are not in the business of rewarding failure now are we?" Mandibles clasped and then clapped together, harder than before, clacking sounds like plastic slapping against plastic filling the air.
"Thre is no room in the reign of merit for failure. Only victory can be permitted in the struggle for the future." The Tak'Xyr'Ruh of the VTZK responded, rattling off the platitude as if it was second nature.
The supreme leader nodded as his psionic power flared to create a set of images, a series of maps in the palm of his hands that floated above to offer a visualisation of his thoughts. There would be time for more...secretive discussions now.
...
Somewhere in Eklemarid
Astylla Gereghal Selenstea was a Merendi of far-ranging travels in her appointed task as an agent of DAAT; the ISAAC's primary military intelligence unit. Notable with her lilac coloured skin, dark blue hair, and irises the colour of the setting sun, her task was less infiltration and fact finding. Still, she took on an alias, Teledielle Haramyr Desdenta, a guise wasn't necessary, this far from where she was born nobody would know her face, born in an extraversal colony as she was.
Right now though, she was trying her best to disguise how boring she found the rambling of her current contact; her partner Yrandar Forandyn; current alias Lylars Argalai; rapping his suited fingers on the table.
She put on a practiced smile, knowing that while the conversational partner in front of her was indeed, a Wanuvin; a being of electricity that flickered and buzzed within their self-generated containment field; they were also fully aware that smiles were often regarded as a positive expression from Endikith. She didn't want to have to mind read, but the urge to get them to finish their current anecdote so she could wheel them back to their original conversation.
This...lounge was probably the best term for it, given that the general activity here was relaxing in some way, shape or form. It wasn't seedy but it wasn't exactly high class either. With so many different attitudes towards sexuality though, it was...permissive. Though to be frank most of it wasn't the slightest bit appealing to her as she slowly steepled her fingers, hanging on the slow conclusion of the electric being's current story about the last time they went spelunking near Alikorin ruins that she was certain he had misidentified given that Alikorin relics were infamous for their indestructibility and immunity to time or circumstance.
"Anyway, I met this guy who claimed to have been hit by a "truck" in a country called "Japan" and had reincarnated into this reality and wouldn't stop bugging me for where they could find the "big breasted catgirls" and I just had to tell them that I don't do that sort of shipping."
Oh by Iyranna's solar grace they were going to go into another anecdote entirely. Yrandar was, despite putting on a display of seeming annoyed with his finger rapping, too polite to interrupt, while at last Astylla's smile broke and she harrumphed.
"I could, quite frankly, not care less. Please, it's been eighteen hours. Get to the point before I scream." She said through gritted teeth as that sunny expression slowly melted into a fangs bared snarl, her pointed ears rising up with agitation.
"Oh but this is funny and has tons of conte-" She said as Yrandar made a face before she let out the telepathic equivalent of an "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" while her eyes started to slowly bug a bit before they made a "peace peace" gesture to try and calm her down.
"Come on, you wouldn't be his type anyway, not with the usual merendi figu-" He said before Yrandar also lost his patience and made a brief burst of psychic light in front of the Wanuvin's...well they didn't have a face but the vague head analogue they made to copy merendi body language.
"Shut up. Please just...shut up. Tell us what we came here for or we're out of here." He said with clear frustration in his voice, his snow coloured skin and gold coloured hair scintillating just a bit in the light with psionic power coursing within him. He wasn't whispering it either, he was about to shout.
"Alright fine but if you want any more data from me at these rates you'll have to listen to the rest of this story some day." The Wanuvin sighed with disappointment while Astylla's face flashed to "please kill me now" and Yrandar gave the look of someone strongly considering granting that request.
"Alright, so, what I've got is going to be in the packet with the human kid. He should be the one getting scolded by the Endikya boy for making assumptions. The reincarnated one, just give the usual psychic signal and he'll know it's you." He said with a somewhat exasperated tone to his voice. Clearly disappointed that he couldn't rant for another few hours about how weird his time was.
His form was buzzing and flickering, ready to drift into the same bad habits that made him their least favourite contact of all time. He formed fingers, to add to gesticulation, in mimickry of their rough form, with particularly bright electirc lights making the appearance of eyes. He didn't quite make a mouth, but it was clear that he was something of a...fan of the form of the endikith.
He wasn't a bad person, he was doing this out of his genuine sympathies, and his ties to everything from union groups to military circles, exovigilantes, and freelancer cadres meant that he could pull all sorts of information for the revolutionary cause. But he simply would not shut the fuck up. A truly dreadful weakness and one that had gotten him let go by authorities more than once as investigating officials lost their patience with his days long parsec-a-second rambling that would forever blueball his conversation partner with the promise of eventually having a point but somehow never actually arriving there.
"I mean don't get me wrong, Saito isn't the worst endikith kid I've ever had to take care of and he seems to have some abnormal capabilities from the medical evaluation but he needs to unlearn some bad habits about personal space. Because the first time he sees "Anthrofelinids" or whatever he called them, the endikith with the cat ears and tails in case I lost you." Oh by the stars...
"Zzyklarak, please." She said.
"Alright alright. You were looking for word on the source of the sour note right? In that packet isn't conclusive proof, but it's a solid lead. You do have to assume that the Yralgar are involved though. Always trying to pluck newcomers from who knows where. Now tell me if I'm doing a bad job at mimicking your mannerisms but, I know right?" The Wanuvin said as Astylla applied some psychic pressure to their primary body of electrical current to let him know to shut the fuck up already.
"Okay I'll stop." He said as Yrandar, at her signal, contacted one of their fellow agents; because the two quickly agreed they would rather bareback a tesla coil than have a conversation with "Saito" at the moment. A quick confirmation of the information from Saito was of value.
Another scan through.
"Nothing definitive...but not a natural event. We'll probably have to speak to Teraed to get all the specifics." He replied, looking towards his long term partner as she let out a lengthy, exasperated sigh.
"If the cosmos depends on it, sure. She'll probably ask us to speak to her in person." She said.
"Are you really that unhappy about being in the presence of one of your exes?" He asked.
"You are one of my current bondsmates...it'd be awkward and unpleasant." She scratched at her chin and grumbled mostly to herself while she tried to think about literally anything but speaking to someone who had already broken her heart once.
"But...if it's what is needed, then it will be done." She finally said, rolling a pendant around in her hand.
"There aren't really all that many people who've got any real experience with the sort of phenomenon you find in Knight controlled territory or the relics of the Alikorin and Jirachim. But if it bothers you, we can have a courier fe-" He said before she shook her head.
She wasn't going to leave a job this important to someone less capable than her when it was likely that there was all sorts of unpleasant eyes on her work. She already had figured that there was a Mantarak Volreaper thinking she couldn't see it waiting near one of the more discrete exits, her suit giving her feedback on the presence of the hired murderer and working with her mind on solutions. This place was too crowded for an all out brawl...but they could give it the slip to bring this to somewhere she could quickly dispose of it.
On the other hand...she looked to her contact.
"You'll need to come with us, with the kid too." She said sternly, getting some baffled expressions from Saito in response.
She telepathically indicated where she felt the presence, colouring their sight with psychic waves to fill in the gaps in their mind's eye so that they could be aware of the danger they were under. Zzyklarak was clearly terrified, their form briefly collapsing into ball lightning and their hum fading in volume, but all Saito saw was a mantid like alien in a cool suit of armour, already deadset on reaching for some cool equipment he had on him, or at least he thought it was cool.
Yrandar telekinetically nudged his hand back down. "You don't fight a volreaper in a crowded space unless you have a death wish. They get stronger from kills. The only reason they haven't started killing is the security." He said.
"...What's a Volreaper?" He finally asked.
"Vol is a Deu'Kroz word for filth...something disgusting that needs to be purged and removed immediately, usually by killing it. The official slur for things like you or me." He said, noting Saito seeming to feel...uncertain about the fact that a slur that had such nasty connotations as that was an official governmental term for well...things like humans.
"A Volreaper specialises in mass slaughter of Vol. Usually paid for by wealthy but xenophobic clients to get their buzz from mass death on the news." Astylla added as she implanted a suggestion in the minds of the people in the room to be somewhere else, armour coiling in preparation to move.
"Are you going to be alright?" He asked.
"Smalltime volreaper? We'll be fine. Just stay safe." She said, patting his head to try and calm his nerves. He was a bit of a pervert and had some weird ideas to unpack...but he was still a child, reincarnated or not, and there was no reason to let himself get lost in his own fears.
Once the room was emptied as people suddenly found very important business to take care of elsewhere, the harsh whine of physics quench fields being rendered into audio-data by their suits to be more aware of possible problems could be heard. A long, spindly thing that had a deadly killing intent and an aura drenched in blood. Massacres across a thousand worlds could be felt as the fading echoes of distant screams and the silhouette of the viscera of countless victims.
"You want to learn how to use Fluxcraft, Espery, Lifeweaving, or Magic right?" She asked, looking to the child who nodded enthusiastically.
"Watch close." She said as she rushed in, pulsing signals of intent to her battle network and extending a Quench Longsword, stepping in and making a heavy slash with the blade of special materials run through with a field that nullified the sorts of interactions that held many forms of defence together; stepping into another movement and letting the sword split open into a rifle, firing a burst of tachyons that leapt out before they were fired.
Drawing on the blood shed, the pain and grief inflicted; she tapped into the Flux and let a soulnimbus burn around her spirit as she sought to unleash karmic retribution. They felt absolutely no guilt for anything they had done, so it wouldn't be all that effective, nowhere near as much as it should be against something with its mitigation capacity, but it would be enough to guide hands of fate around the next swing of her blade as it was parried by the scythe arms, her armour's shielding protesting when the other came to strike on her back in an attempt to cut into her.
Second tachyon burst, this one unable to miss, pushing them towards Yrandar who split through spacetime with his Esper abilities and caged them in energy, living lightning curling around paths of escape while she stepped through the zone of disrupted spacetime for a quick teleport into the cage. He pulsed intent, he struck at the foe with a barrage of anti-tachyons from "wing" launchers that emerged from behind, impacting where she fired the next round and finished her prior stroke.
A weak point made, and then exploited as she took the next Scythe blow head-on, absorbing the impact and shield damage before unleashing a murderstroke into the weakened shoulder joint. A rush of psychic fire would be enough to send this foe on a teleport out and revive. But the psychic flame she unleashed should scramble their memories. As good as a complete kill for the most part.
Letting her helmet retract, followed by her weapon, she reached a hand and ran his fingers through her hair, then noticing another set of digits touching them as she looked towards a smirking Yrandar.
"Bit flashy no?"
"We'll clear out the records." She replied, smiling back.
"...Hey can I join your adventuring party?" Saito asked with a starry look in his eyes.
"...Adventuring what?" She stammered first. "This isn't a...we aren't..." Words hard, tongue making weird movements...ah now she found the point. "Are you...are you a gaming addict?" Astylla asked with clear confusion in her voice.
"Well from a certain point of view..." He frowned while Yrandar simply laughed, a palm being dragged across her face followed by a prolonged groan.
Notice: GMs can now start on the tactical phase of Turn 2 for any player who's finished their first turn and players may begin responding to their strategic turn results. While there's no particular time pressure, please try to resolve any remaining turn 1 matters as we move into the new in-game year.
To the galactic west, you find indications of the struggle to come, as seemingly every other system surveyed is host to the choking brambles you've encountered on your doorstep, but it is only by luck and no small amount of learning that the cerebrates investigating find the sweet spot to observe the full scope of the problem. Through borrowed eyes, it is witnessed, and the impression passes up the chain with an air of disbelief, as one of the many dim stars of the west is observed directly. There, lit from within and casting its dim light, lies the bramble.
Words and statements and dry reports fail to convey the scope of the problem, here. Star-sized masses are simply beyond what any species subsumed by the swarm could reckon; even the reckoning of the cerebrates balk, trying to intuit it in terms of how many cerebrates are needed to control such a battlespace and finding estimates involving the surface area of planets faltering before the volume implied by your ongoing attacks on this same Bramble.
As reports stream back, you also get a glimpse of what lies beyond the Bramble, and if no less worrying it is at least more recognizable. Like the tides of Char, waves crash upon the dim stars, waves of insectoid warriors that an incautious comparison might call kin to some of your own forms. Ranging from tiny forms nearly twice the mass of your zerglings, to titanic void-forms the equal of planets, this foe comes in waves fit to outmass your entire swarm, and the Bramble grows from their blood. And then the next wave comes, and the next after that.
The west will be an enormous slog, it seems. Fortunately, the galaxy isn't all quite that terrible, according to your scouts. To the south, the pirates that attacked you seem to have a much less tenuous hold on their systems, and are being pealed back well enough. To the east, little progress is made, as there appears to be a wall in the way, but you can make out clear communication channels in use, and not a small number of them either. You could likely push through this wall to meet them, given time and mass, but doing so would be a rather hostile action.
It is to the north that you find the most interesting of your discoveries in this new galaxy. It is, frankly, impossible to miss, the very geometry of the subsector warped around a singular structure. And it is the most forboding thing you've ever seen. The structure is ringed by what are clearly defenses, if of strange make resembling giant alien statues floating in the void, each facing inward. Stars have been brought to the very cusp of supernova and ring the structure, seemingly frozen in time.
When your scouting mutalisks move to approach, projections erupt from the statues in their path, not the wall of light that blocked you to the east but rather a wall of text, the same short phrase repeated in what must be over a hundred-thousand languages. And of them, you recognize four of the languages. First to stand out is the language the Protoss crafted for themselves. Second, the script left behind by the Xel'Naga. Third, the blocky text last seen on the ships of the United Earth Directorate, and then a bit below it the dialect favored by those Terrans who you fought the most.
"Sending this message is important to us. We considered ourselves a powerful culture. Pay attention!"
"This is not a place of honor. Nothing is valued here. No great deed is commemorated here."
"What is here is a great danger. We failed to defeat it, only managing to contain it."
"If we have fallen, we beg you. Shun this place, leave it barren, and spare the galaxy."
"Or, if you are of a mind, guard this place. Emplace you defenses around it, and add to ours."
"If we have not yet fallen, we will be in contact shortly with more details."
Aside from that singularly menacing structure, the subsector is empty of life. Even the bramble which encroaches upon you and the pirates alike seems repulsed from the subsector, having nearly no presence here. Even the wreckage of battle seems to not be present here, nor the primitive life-bearing planets that seem to crop up everywhere conditions are right.
The Problem of Gold
The problem of a substance the Zerg cannot eat is a novel one, but one you're ready to tackle. The first step is securing a way to safely dispose of it, and the most likely to work is the universe's trash bin. With great attention to ensure no deviation, the worst afflicted are fed into the black hole, and it is here that things attempt to go wrong.
As the infected zerg approach the black hole, time slows for them, and from the perspective of the overseers watching the procedure the growth of the gold speeds up drastically, consuming the zerg and prisoners so fed and seemingly growing well beyond what mass alone would seem to dictate, before being reduced to golden spaghetti falling into the singularity. And in the eyes of a thousand overseers... the black hole does not appear to have become any more golden, at least from this level of dumping.
With the question of disposal finally answered, now comes the larger question of how to fight it. The first idea is to work with that which proved itself most vulnerable to the influence of the Infesting Gold, and evolve it until that vulnerability is overcome. Not every evolution tried pans out, but the attempts are varied, and some do work. Perhaps the most promising comes from the musing of cerebrates that banelings and scourge lack this problem, and the attempt to make a berserking zergling that responds to Gold by cutting off vectors of attack on the theory that it's lost anyway.
While that proves to be something of a bust due to a lack of ability to direct the zergling, it does plant the idea that ultimately gets passed up for general implementation. If a zergling is already dead, why not make use of it? And so a tool from one line is applied somewhere else, the queen's metabolizing spores nested just aside from the stomach of the newly dubbed splitterling. When triggered, the infected splitterling would be consumed to spawn a pair of broodlings, short-lived forms by nature but no less dangerous for it. It is not an evolution without drawbacks, each splitterling a fourth again more expensive, but it would be worth it.
Unfortunately, it isn't a method that adapts well to higher quality forms. Splitting a hydralisk into a pair of broodlings loses much of the impact, unfortunately. But, on the higher end of quality, your cerebrates report results adapting the hydralisk's spine launchers to a much grander scale. Numerous organs are shifted to make it work, but soon a proof of concept leviathan is spawned, seemingly bifurcated by bank of enormous biohydraulic spine launchers. It compromises the armor, but the fact that the spines launch substantially faster than a direct scaling of the hydralisk would suggest is worth the tradeoff.
Together with a suggested doctrinal shift to emphasize scourge over mutalisks against this foe, it is expected that your next encounter with the pirates will go significantly differently.
Zergling variant developed: Splitterling. Costs slightly more minerals to field, but bursts into two broodlings on death or excessive infection. It's not a perfect fix, but it'll keep zerglings effective.
Leviathan variant developed: [Please suggest a name]. Same cost, but comes with one less armor. In exchange, has a heavy spinal mount of spine launchers... pardon the pun.
Scaling up bioplasma will need more research for anything more involved than baneling canons.
Industrial Expansion: Industrialized and Excessively Defended
Worlds beyond counting meet the expanding swarm, and come to know the gentle caress of the creep. Orbits are cleared, and defense platforms are dragged into place to control those orbits. Beacons are laid, leading unwary foes towards traps, and around the most important worlds great reserves are emplaced to fuel a resistance to any invasion.
And invasion which has not come, yet. Still, what you've seen of this new galaxy promises that it's only a matter of time.
Military: The Cleansing of Gold
Your adaptations against the Infesting Gold are soon put to the test, as your broodswarms sweep south to clear away the pirates that presumably range there. In great numbers, you come, ready for a bloody and drawn-out fight.
A fight that you do not get. There is no terrible fortress, here. No homeworld to invade. There are indeed pirates, but the disparity of numbers and reports of previous encounters tell, and only a few stick around to try to fight. In these few cases, your new adaptations work well enough, but you can't help but classify them as not fully tested; enough zerglings could rush and destroy protoss reavers, but that didn't make them an efficient answer.
And so, sought battle turns to cleanup. And what a cleanup it is, as the pirates seem to have left their Gold everywhere. With thorough scouring, you're able to clear out the worst of it, but it will be a battle to colonize this subsector. And there's another complication as well, one you are unfortunately becoming too familiar with: the Bramble is here, too, and worse its thorny tendrils are streaked with bands of Gold. Fortunately, it is a relatively passive threat for now, appearing to not be expanding further here.
Purging the Bramble
The battle to cleanse your holdings of the Bramble begins with great enthusiasm, and seemingly little resistance. The thorns are terribly dangerous, yes, with blood spilled by them prompting explosive growth, but nothing contests your landings, nor even the deployment of drones to begin harvesting materials from the planet-sized masses of bramble. Days pass of this, more landings being made as more bramble systems are found by the spreading out broodswarms.
And then, things begin to go wrong. As nydus worms burrowed through one bramble's substructure, connecting distant parts to speed the consumption and infestation, it cuts through an odd white filament, and your cerebrates feel a pressure on their minds as a ponderous mind turns towards them, and the Bramble begins to resist.
The first casualty of enemy action is a mutalisk, having been between an enormous thorn that became a projectile from the surface of the bramble, but deflecting it enough to miss the distant leviathan that had likely been the target. Soon, the steady harvesting of the bramble gains a new routine, spawning scourge to destroy thorns growing pointed directly at your hatcheries, and further efforts are taken in response to the resistance.
Queens begin burying parasites into the bramble, and though the source of the mind remains illusive they start to map the signals sent through the bramble. By this, your forces are forewarned when the openings seal with freshly grown bramble, and a rather toxic atmosphere starts establishing itself. Not toxic enough, by the time the seal is broken and vacuum re-established.
Finally, a breakthrough occurs, as a nydus worm sent to tunnel following the filament the earlier one had cut hits something important, and the compressed spaces within the bramble planet begins to collapse, and the weight of its mind withdraws from that one.
On dozens of hundreds more, this lesson is shared, and targets are set beyond just attempting to eat the entire biomass. The flare of the bramble-mind's attention is crushing, almost literally. The anomalous appearance of mass above a cerebrate, as a seed is teleported into position, soon proves literally crushing. Defenses intensify around these precious brains, as repeat attempts occur even as the first cerebrate casualty re-emerges.
In the end, it comes down to a battle of attrition, and the mind in the bramble turning its attention elsewhere, its resources in the area dwindling in the face of the relentless grind. And yet, for all that you took so much biomass, you're clearly missing something vital that makes the bramble what it is; the infestation is clearly not complete.
(Repair fund reduced by 10 RP due to cerebrate casualties)
10A-I1
The Bramble chokes this subsector, shrugging off the assaults of an insectoid foe from the west. This subsector is revealed to possess the following trait:
[The Bramble] 3: The brambles in this sector have choked out a significant portion of the subsector, and many "dim stars" can be seen, indicating systems where the bramble has grown over a star. Construction is limited to Colonized until the bramble is culled.
10B-I1
The Bramble chokes this subsector, shrugging off the assaults of an insectoid foe from the west. This subsector is revealed to possess the following trait:
[The Bramble] 4: The brambles in this sector have choked out the majority of the subsector, and many "dim stars" can be seen, indicating systems where the bramble has grown over a star. Construction is limited to Claimed until the bramble is culled.
10C-I1
The Bramble chokes this subsector, shrugging off the assaults of an insectoid foe from the west. This subsector is revealed to possess the following trait:
[The Bramble] 3: The brambles in this sector have choked out a significant portion of the subsector, and many "dim stars" can be seen, indicating systems where the bramble has grown over a star. Construction is limited to Colonized until the bramble is culled.
10A-I2
An ominous structure has been found in this subsector, claiming to be containing something dangerous. This is represented through the following trait:
[Ancient Evergaol]: This structure is an active kiloproject, consuming one kiloproject slot. On destruction, the contained crisis will be released, though fortunately blunted by the Evergaol's defenses. The structure promises contact by the builders within a turn of discovery, if they still live.
10B-I2 - Zerg - Industrialized, Excessive Defenses [War-Torn]: This sector has been torn apart, shattered, glued back together, and destroyed again more times than evidence survives to atest to. Settling in will be harder. (Claimed, Colonized, and Established each cost 2RP more to attain than normal in this sector.)
[The Bramble] 1: This sector is being attacked by a particularly slow-moving but hardy berserker probe. Though not an immediate threat to your holdings, until dealt with Heartlands development won't be possible.
Ancient Defenses: The remnants of countless wars can be made to work for you, with time and knowledge. (Defenses in this sector are treated as one level higher, without increasing cost. At Ridiculous defenses, becomes an upkeep-free Additional Defenses.)
10C-I2 - Zerg - Claimed
The pirates have stripped this subsector bare, oddly leaving it with less debris to clear to build it up, but have left their own problems behind.
[The Bramble] 1: This sector is being attacked by a particularly slow-moving but hardy berserker probe. Though not an immediate threat to your holdings, until dealt with Heartlands development won't be possible. The bramble in this subsector show seams of Infesting Gold.
[Exteritite Debris] 1: If accepted, subsector productivity gains +4 RP/turn once sector is developed to Colonized or higher. This trait can be upgraded. For 8RP, this trait can be removed, as the last remains of the Infesting Gold is cleared from biospheres and otherwise cleaned up.
10A-I3
A wall of light projected by statues similar in construction to those seen in the Ancient Evergaol blocks access to this subsector. Indications are that there are actual people to talk to behind it, but reaching them may be a problem without breaking this barrier.
[Ancient Guardians] - Attacks on this subsector from beyond it are delayed by half a turn, giving time to respond.
10B-I3
A wall of light projected by statues similar in construction to those seen in the Ancient Evergaol blocks access to this subsector. Indications are that there are actual people to talk to behind it, but reaching them may be a problem without breaking this barrier.
[Ancient Guardians] - Attacks on this subsector from beyond it are delayed by half a turn, giving time to respond.
10C-I3
A wall of light projected by statues similar in construction to those seen in the Ancient Evergaol blocks access to this subsector. Indications are that there are actual people to talk to behind it, but reaching them may be a problem without breaking this barrier.
[Ancient Guardians] - Attacks on this subsector from beyond it are delayed by half a turn, giving time to respond.
-At the moment, both the Killing-Time Kroats and the 'Blades' are threatening the minor powers within the Alliance's sector: the Kroats in the southern sector, which is quickly crumbling under the weight of Kroat reinforcements, and the Blades in the Southwest Subsector, the borders of which have already been overtaken and-according to reports from the governments in the area you were in contact with-sizable numbers of warships are beginning to mass in these border-regions, leading to fears of wholesale invasion.
(The Southern Sector will be overrun by the Killing-Time Kroats this turn if no actions are taken. Forces there are estimated to be equivalent to a 1.5 Magnitude Warfleet. The Blades are massing forces on the border of the Southwestern subsector, but you do not currently know enough about them to tell whether this is a prelude to invasion or simply the strengthening of their borders due to the war the next sector over. A minority of the local governments nearest to Blade space are requesting the Alliance make a show of force to dissuade the Blades from invading the sector)
Available Resources: 94
Available Sectors:
Sector I-15
Khitomer Alliance (Center, North, Northwest, West)
-Formerly the four quadrants of the Milky Way, the displaced territory of the Alliance member States has been merged with an area of the local Hypermassive galaxy, merging smoothly with the preexisting stars and the various tiny polities that were there before, resulting in an area of space with noticeably greater stellar density than elsewhere in 'local' space.
Minor Powers (Northeast, Southwest)
-These areas of space consist of dozens of relatively small stellar nations, some within small alliances but most standing alone and constantly engaging in small-scale conflict with each other. No one seems anywhere close to establishing dominance in these regions of space, and as such, they are fairly open to military or diplomatic annexation by a larger, more unified polity.
The Killing-Time Kroatanga (Southeast)
-A local berserker probe, the Kroatanga are a violent and brutal race that you've already tangled with once. The Killing-Time are a relatively 'fresh' Kroat Warpath, having only fully unified their sector of space and started lashing out within the last three years. You've delt a significant blow to their military, but they still have reserves to call upon and the utter incapability to do anything other than seek your destruction.
Contested Space (South)
-Territory once held by various Minor Powers, now under attack from the Killing-Time Kroatanga. They are attempting to form some sort of unified defence against the fungoids, but are having little success, due to the majority of the nations being both small and technologically inferior to the Kroats. Your distraction and destruction of a significant portion of their local forces slowed the Kroat's progress significantly, but reinforcements from deeper in Kroat space all but ensures the nations here will fold under the forces of the fungoids soon without some kind of outside intervention.
Local Defense Union (East)
-Unlike their Southern counterparts, the Minor Powers in this region of space have managed to unify under the guiding hand of the greatest dozen or so among them, turning their collective industry and military towards the defense of all against the Killing-Time. They are holding, for now, but only time will tell if they will be able to stand against a greater concentration of Kroat forces.
Sector I-14
Empty Space (Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Southeast)
-Not actually empty, these areas nonetheless have no significant populations of sentient civilizations, and those that are there mostly consist of pre-spaceflight or single-system spaceflight civilizations, with only a bare handful of tiny interstellar polities beginning to explore the stars. This unclaimed territory is ripe for the taking by whichever spacefaring civilization is fast enough to take it.
Nu-Borg (North, Northeast, East)
-The most troubling faction encountered in the sector, the aliens designated as the 'Nu-Borg' Control a full third of the sector: very little exploration could be done of these areas due to the immediate hostile responses from their ships whenever they encounter Alliance explorers. The name, Nu-Borg, is not given lightly, as Alliance explorers were able to observe (via use of cloaking devices) these aliens invading and overrunning a dozen pre and just post-spaceflight civilizations with massive fleets and forcibly converting the populations into cyborgs to serve alongside fully-mechanical constructs. At this time, they seem almost wholly focused on fighting the Clarks and building up their own local space over expanding into the sparsely populated territory in the rest of the subsector.
Clarks (Center)
-Very little is known about these aliens, beyond that their technology seems extremely advanced. Their crescent-shaped ships, beneath a decorative outer veneer of orange, white, and gold, are made of gleaming silvery metal that, at times, seems to almost be alive: actively repairing itself from weapons fire from the Nu-Borg at a rate visible to the naked eye, in the rare instance said weapons could break their shields. The ships retaliate with arcs of what looks like emerald lightning at close range and fluctuating beams of white-green energy at longer ranges, one vessel often capable of ripping through ten times its number in n Nu-Borg vessels. Attempts to investigate the Clark's territory have been met with a firm but so far non-violent resistance, with even cloaked ships being met by escorts that fire off a volley of warning shots before interposing themselves between our ships and their space in a very clear message to go back from whence we came.
Sector H-15
Union (Northwest, North, Northeast)
-The more agreeable of the two polities found in this sector, this polity has four main different design philosophies worth of ships moving around within it, causing us to believe they are some sort of Alliance not dissimilar from our own. They are by far the most 'friendly' unknowns we've yet run into, so far only going so far as to use tractor-beam pulses or physically blocking our vessels to keep us from going where they don't want us to without resorting to weapons fire at all. Cloaked investigation deeper into their space shows fairly cosmopolitan planets with a large mixture of species present.
Contested Space (West, Center, East)
-Disputed territory between the Union and Blades, with low-level conflict occurring almost daily and major probing attacks occurring on a semi-regular basis, as well as nearly 500 active planetary sieges currently underway from both sides.
Blades (Southwest, South, Southeast)
-Named for the knife-like shape of their vessels, the Blades seem to be both hostile and expansionistic, as they are both fighting the Union and seem to be making expansionary efforts into the Southwest minor powers. So far, all meetings with Blade vessels by explorers have met with immediate weapons fire (in the case of military vessels) or flight (in the case of unarmed ships). These aliens seem to have a very unusual respiratory system, as all their colonized worlds are shrouded in clouds of toxic, caustic gasses not dissimilar to an ancient Human chemical weapon known as Mustard Gas.
Your entry to this new galaxy has been hectic indeed, and it appears the galaxy is unwilling to let things stand idle. From sensors and scouts, you catch sight of forces moving, and it falls to you to decide which has priority.
Fortunately, not all such movements are a threat, and two of them are outright in your favor. The first being another extraversal injection event depositing a portion of your fragmented fleet only a few dozen lightyears off from your initial entry point, significantly increasing the number of forces you have to work with.
The second, comes from the south, as a courier from the Altran Ascendancy hails your perimeter for passage under the flag of Commander Harlown, an advisor promised to aid you against the varied threats of Ykres-Rkeys while you get established.
On the less than friendly fronts, you have rocks once again threatening you from the west, and your scouts report that in that subsector the conflict with the pattern spiders has calmed down. The spacial distortions that seem to mark their presence are still present, but the fighting has stopped. Commander Harlown frowns on seeing that data, and explains that it's an indicator that they might need stomping on sooner rather than later. "Sometimes, two Threats find a synergy between each other. Mind control and vulnerability to mind control, infinite hordes and a devourer, psychic feedback loop meets something that generates more of itself from psychic energy... they hit each other, and merge, becoming a greater Threat. I don't like the idea of Pattern Spiders getting a brain."
The incident gets called in, but assuming no new crises show up -- a phrase that has the commander laughing -- it'll be three turns before the Ascendancy can respond unless it blows up spectacularly badly.
To the north, towards the storm, the barriers against the Nightmare crack, but continue to hold. Closer to you, the battle continues to rage, as the Pattern Spiders pour ever-more fuel onto the fire, and the robotic faction coming at them from the east makes clear its intentions, as giant engines built on planets flare to life and begin pushing them out of their orbits. If acceleration holds steady, they'll be shot off deeper into the presumed territory of the robots.
Finally, to the east, the Tai seem quiescent for now, no "tourists" coming to bother your borders, and no significant ship movements. That is, until a massive flash, hundreds of lightyears in diameter, lights up the wall guarding the border with refugee space. Something hit it, hard. Commander Harlown offers what context he can from records of previous occurrences. "If it's like last time, a cultivator is trying to kidnap some research materials. Even odds they get bored and leave, or smash their way in. The refugees will already be evacuating the surrounding area, limiting the damage if they do. If you have the forces to spare, it'll be a tough fight, but the refugees would thank you for it."
Finally, the reports of the scouts are all disposed of, and the question stands to be asked: what will the Krork do?
RP available: 46
Fleets available: 1 (100%), 7 (100%)
Constellations available: 3 normal battlemoon constellations, 1 WSG battlemoon constellation
I2-9A:
Contents of this subsector are uncertain. Most recent Altran records indicated the presence of cultists of a flux entity associated with endings present here, but neighboring subsectors are presently under attack by pattern spiders. Best guess is that the latter has nested here, but direct confirmation has not been obtained.
I3-9A:
This subsector is an open channel carved between refugee space and Lovecraft's Nightmare, and will remain so until sufficiently heavy defenses are emplaced to turn back the entities that call the flux storm home. Currently, this subsector is being attacked by Pattern Spiders, an extraversal faction making heavy use of necromancy, and a self-replicating swarm of robots. The battle between the Necromancers and the Pattern Spiders continues. The Robots appear to be stealing planets, but staying out of the fight as much as they can.
J1-9A:
This subsector has not been observed directly, but the swarm of self-replicating robots is attacking from here, and Altran records indicate that a Tai automation effort gone awry was present here, so your war-cartographers have a pretty good guess what's here.
I2-9B:
Megaliths of Stone and Crystal inhabit this subsector, an odd faction which doesn't appear to field conventional fighters, but makes heavy use of the warp and exotic effects. This subsector is was under attack by Pattern Spiders. Indicators suggest that a hybrid faction may be forming in this subsector, as the Pattern Spiders appear to still be present but not attacking, which is unusual for mindless aggressors.
I3-9B - Krork - Established, Heavy Defenses
The Fleetcommune of the Krork has landed here, with further forces expected to emerge here and in nearby subsectors. It is currently a well Established subsector, with Heavy defenses. Ancient Defenses have been incorporated. A krork warfleet and upgraded battlemoon constellation have emerged in this sector. Linking up with them will be fairly easily, fortunately, and indeed has already happened.
J1-9B:
The Tai, an extraversal faction dancing on the line of becoming former sophonts, exist here. Now more of a hazard to those around them than a boon, their forces consist of cultivators, extraordinarily powerful individuals created by the concentration and refinement of various energies into individuals. Expect very powerful infantry-scale combatants, but lagging everything else from their forces.
I2-9C:
Altran records indicate that End Cultists held this sector, more a threat from their inevitable implosion than direct threats to refugee space. Considering their sudden and silent disappearance from other subsectors, it is suspected that the state collapsed in an unexpected manner, with far less collateral damage than expected. Contents of this subsector are unknown.
I3-9C:
Refugee space, a tenuously secured space holding a great multitude of people while evacuation continues, starts here. A distrustful sort, desperately trying to survive long enough to get out. It is unlikely to find solid allies here, but trade for whatever helps them live another day will likely be easier than with most.
J1-9C:
Refugee space, a tenuously secured space holding a great multitude of people while evacuation continues, starts here. A distrustful sort, desperately trying to survive long enough to get out. It is unlikely to find solid allies here, but trade for whatever helps them live another day will likely be easier than with most. Under Attack by an elder cultivator. Expected damage is minimal.
-At the moment, both the Killing-Time Kroats and the 'Blades' are threatening the minor powers within the Alliance's sector: the Kroats in the southern sector, which is quickly crumbling under the weight of Kroat reinforcements, and the Blades in the Southwest Subsector, the borders of which have already been overtaken and-according to reports from the governments in the area you were in contact with-sizable numbers of warships are beginning to mass in these border-regions, leading to fears of wholesale invasion.
(The Southern Sector will be overrun by the Killing-Time Kroats this turn if no actions are taken. Forces there are estimated to be equivalent to a 1.5 Magnitude Warfleet. The Blades are massing forces on the border of the Southwestern subsector, but you do not currently know enough about them to tell whether this is a prelude to invasion or simply the strengthening of their borders due to the war the next sector over. A minority of the local governments nearest to Blade space are requesting the Alliance make a show of force to dissuade the Blades from invading the sector)
Available Resources: 94
Available Sectors:
Sector I-15
Khitomer Alliance (Center, North, Northwest, West)
-Formerly the four quadrants of the Milky Way, the displaced territory of the Alliance member States has been merged with an area of the local Hypermassive galaxy, merging smoothly with the preexisting stars and the various tiny polities that were there before, resulting in an area of space with noticeably greater stellar density than elsewhere in 'local' space.
Minor Powers (Northeast, Southwest)
-These areas of space consist of dozens of relatively small stellar nations, some within small alliances but most standing alone and constantly engaging in small-scale conflict with each other. No one seems anywhere close to establishing dominance in these regions of space, and as such, they are fairly open to military or diplomatic annexation by a larger, more unified polity.
The Killing-Time Kroatanga (Southeast)
-A local berserker probe, the Kroatanga are a violent and brutal race that you've already tangled with once. The Killing-Time are a relatively 'fresh' Kroat Warpath, having only fully unified their sector of space and started lashing out within the last three years. You've delt a significant blow to their military, but they still have reserves to call upon and the utter incapability to do anything other than seek your destruction.
Contested Space (South)
-Territory once held by various Minor Powers, now under attack from the Killing-Time Kroatanga. They are attempting to form some sort of unified defence against the fungoids, but are having little success, due to the majority of the nations being both small and technologically inferior to the Kroats. Your distraction and destruction of a significant portion of their local forces slowed the Kroat's progress significantly, but reinforcements from deeper in Kroat space all but ensures the nations here will fold under the forces of the fungoids soon without some kind of outside intervention.
Local Defense Union (East)
-Unlike their Southern counterparts, the Minor Powers in this region of space have managed to unify under the guiding hand of the greatest dozen or so among them, turning their collective industry and military towards the defense of all against the Killing-Time. They are holding, for now, but only time will tell if they will be able to stand against a greater concentration of Kroat forces.
Sector I-14
Empty Space (Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Southeast)
-Not actually empty, these areas nonetheless have no significant populations of sentient civilizations, and those that are there mostly consist of pre-spaceflight or single-system spaceflight civilizations, with only a bare handful of tiny interstellar polities beginning to explore the stars. This unclaimed territory is ripe for the taking by whichever spacefaring civilization is fast enough to take it.
Nu-Borg (North, Northeast, East)
-The most troubling faction encountered in the sector, the aliens designated as the 'Nu-Borg' Control a full third of the sector: very little exploration could be done of these areas due to the immediate hostile responses from their ships whenever they encounter Alliance explorers. The name, Nu-Borg, is not given lightly, as Alliance explorers were able to observe (via use of cloaking devices) these aliens invading and overrunning a dozen pre and just post-spaceflight civilizations with massive fleets and forcibly converting the populations into cyborgs to serve alongside fully-mechanical constructs. At this time, they seem almost wholly focused on fighting the Clarks and building up their own local space over expanding into the sparsely populated territory in the rest of the subsector.
Clarks (Center)
-Very little is known about these aliens, beyond that their technology seems extremely advanced. Their crescent-shaped ships, beneath a decorative outer veneer of orange, white, and gold, are made of gleaming silvery metal that, at times, seems to almost be alive: actively repairing itself from weapons fire from the Nu-Borg at a rate visible to the naked eye, in the rare instance said weapons could break their shields. The ships retaliate with arcs of what looks like emerald lightning at close range and fluctuating beams of white-green energy at longer ranges, one vessel often capable of ripping through ten times its number in n Nu-Borg vessels. Attempts to investigate the Clark's territory have been met with a firm but so far non-violent resistance, with even cloaked ships being met by escorts that fire off a volley of warning shots before interposing themselves between our ships and their space in a very clear message to go back from whence we came.
Sector H-15
Union (Northwest, North, Northeast)
-The more agreeable of the two polities found in this sector, this polity has four main different design philosophies worth of ships moving around within it, causing us to believe they are some sort of Alliance not dissimilar from our own. They are by far the most 'friendly' unknowns we've yet run into, so far only going so far as to use tractor-beam pulses or physically blocking our vessels to keep us from going where they don't want us to without resorting to weapons fire at all. Cloaked investigation deeper into their space shows fairly cosmopolitan planets with a large mixture of species present.
Contested Space (West, Center, East)
-Disputed territory between the Union and Blades, with low-level conflict occurring almost daily and major probing attacks occurring on a semi-regular basis, as well as nearly 500 active planetary sieges currently underway from both sides.
Blades (Southwest, South, Southeast)
-Named for the knife-like shape of their vessels, the Blades seem to be both hostile and expansionistic, as they are both fighting the Union and seem to be making expansionary efforts into the Southwest minor powers. So far, all meetings with Blade vessels by explorers have met with immediate weapons fire (in the case of military vessels) or flight (in the case of unarmed ships). These aliens seem to have a very unusual respiratory system, as all their colonized worlds are shrouded in clouds of toxic, caustic gasses not dissimilar to an ancient Human chemical weapon known as Mustard Gas.
================================================================
"Do you ever feel guilty about not being at the front with the rest of the fleet Sir?"
"No I don't Sam. Building bridges, winning the peace, that's what starfleet and the federation is all about. Am I sad that my friends are going to die on the frontlines? Absolutely, but the Enterprise being there wouldn't save them. We've both fought in enough wars to know the value of peace Commander. A good First Contact with the union is imperative both to make sure that we don't end up fighting a 2 front war and to continue the president that the Alliance and the Federation always looks for peaceful coexistence first."
"I suppose so, Sir. It's still not easy thinking about all my lost friends, first to the Klingons and now alongside them against the Iconians, H'urq and now the Kroatanga. Every war we seem to come out the otherside expected to become friends with the people we were shooting before."
"It will always be hard Sam. Emotional pain never really goes away and, unlike a lot of officers, I'll admit that revenge can help salve those wounds sometimes. However, it can also be incredibly self-destructive. Some people need to die, like the Killing-Time, but if peace is a possibility then I believe we need to reach for it. Not all of our allies are perfect, but as starfleet officers we need to be focused on reducing suffering and helping people rather than destroying evil. Sometimes, that means fixing things through negotiation and compromise rather than with a phaser rifle."
"I see Sir. Va'Kel. You, don't think less of me I hope? For being angry and restless about being away from the front?"
"Of course not Sam. I do expect you to book an appointment with Counselor Matthias however."
"As soon as my shift is over Va'kel. Permission to return to my post Sir?"
"Granted Commander. Dismissed."
-2413CE, Federation Stardate 86774.16, Discussion between Captain Va'Kel Shon and his First Officer Commander Samuel Winters in the Captain's Ready Room at near the end of beta shift.
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"…and so it is with great solemnity that my last command as the president of the United Federation of Planets is to, for the first time in the history of our great interstellar union, authorise the unrestricted use of General Order 24 on fully kroatformed planets held by the Killing-Time Kroatanga. I can only hope that future generations forgive me for this."
-2412CE, Federation Stardate 85848.02, Last address of Former President Aennik Okeg to the Council of the United Federation of Planets.
===========================================================
"More giant walker war engines? Really Kerinra? These are highly illogical."
"Yes really T'Mur. I know that Starfleet isn't a fan of ground invasions or pure war machines but war engines being illogical doesn't stop both the Kroats and everyone else in this crazy galaxy from using them. Unfortunately we need them to counter the war engines of other powers and they represent our shortest path towards a competitive ground doctrine."
"What about the old colony defence brigades from the 23rd century?"
"You'd think those would be easier but we've been analysing them and they are just so far behind technologically that it's actually taking longer for General Ali'khzazh to design usable briefs for the various development bureaus than it did for these."
"Are you sure you don't simply wish to one up the Elachi?"
"No I don't want to have a bigger giant robot than the fungoids that wiped out my home why would you think that. Ah! No talking. Don't think I didn't notice that contraction miss-mph!"
"I suppose I'll just have to tire you out more if you're still able to notice contractions…"
-2412CE, Federation Stardate 85837.05, "Pillow Talk" between Admiral Kerinra Antreidies of the Allied Fleet Service and Admiral T'Mur of Starfleet recorded by Section 31. Considered for use as blackmail against Admiral T'Mur if needed but ultimately discarded as too harmless to be effective.
============================================================
RP spent
94/94 RP
Diplomatic Orders
-[Friendly] Spend 8 RP to send the U.S.S. Enterprise-F (Legend) on a diplomatic mission to the Union to establish a positive First Contact and to hopefully gain more information on the "Blades" and the space past the Unions borders to the west and north.
-[Friendly] Spend 4 RP on a diplomatic mission to the "Clarks". They are not to force a full face-to-face First Contact. Merely drop comm buoys with recorded messages just outside their space. These messages, aside from standard First Contact protocols, contain a promise to stay out of "Clark" space and an invitation to meet and discuss (at a neutral ground of their choosing) spheres of influence and territorial claims so that there are no misunderstandings.
-[Friendly] Spend 0 RP on establishing trade with the Northeast subsector Minor Powers who are not interested in defensive cooperation or joining the Alliance.
Intelligence Orders
-[Hostile] Spend 8 RP on ongoing counter-intelligence aimed against the Killing-Time Kroatanga. While they may seem straightforward it would be unwise to underestimate them. In particular seek out and prevent any attempts to seed the Kroat Military Ecological Complex behind the Alliance's defensive lines.
-[Hostile] Spend 8 RP on intelligence gathering aimed against the "Blades". Who are they? What are their aims? Is peaceful coexistence possible? What is their perspective on the "Union"?
-[Friendly] Spend 4 RP on scouting the square directly east of the Local Defence Council.
-[Friendly] Spend 4 RP on scouting the square directly south of the South Contested Subsector.
Research Orders
-ACSDB Walker Initiative Part 2:
Use the free slot to finish design and production of the Ankylosaur, Suraya Bay, Coil and Jem'hadar Attack Walker designs.
-ACSDB Lander and Heavy Lander Initiative:
Use the 1 RP, 4 RP and 9 RP slots on designing purpose built Behemoth scale war engines which can function as both war engines and starship like the smaller walker designs in two scales: Landers, which are Frigate sized when in spacecraft mode, and Heavy Landers, which are Destroyer sized when in spacecraft mode.
The aim with these units is to replicate the Alliance's space doctrine on the ground. Forming Composite Squadrons consisting of a core of ~1-3 Heavy Landers, defended by a dozen or so Landers which are in turn defended by dozens of Walkers, Atmospheric strike craft wings and transporter mobile infantry companies (and yet to be designed transporter mobile combat vehicles) carried in and beamed through the transporter network of the Heavy Landers, Landers and Walkers. The designs should also be capable of forming Common Role Squadrons where appropriate, particularly to combat enemy Behemoth formations.
The hope is that the tightly spaced (in relative terms compared to orbital ships) formation and ability to achieve direct line of sight when needed will enable the Ground Invasion Composite Squadron to be able to pierce any enemy transporter jamming or transporter inhibiting inclement weather in the local area.
These Composite Squadrons will serve as the main battle units of the Alliance Ground Forces, able to do well in every Phase. While the Common Role Squadrons will be more focused, with Walker Squadrons excelling in the Penetrate, Exploit and Reduce Phases while the Lander Squadrons excel in the Shock and Penetrate Phases. Finally the Heavy Lander Squadrons exclusively focus on the Shock Phase.
Landers are required to be able to carry, service and combat deploy at least 1 Wing of atmospheric strike craft, hold a battalion of Ground Troops with transporter capacity to emergency beam in or out the entire complement at any time and be future proofed to carry and deploy hypothetical Alliance combat vehicles through both direct field deployment and industrial transporters.
Heavy Landers are required to be able to carry, service and combat deploy at least 3 Wings of atmospheric strike craft, serve as mobile repair bays for Walkers within its Squadron, hold a division of Ground Troops with transporter capacity to emergency beam in or out the entire complement at any time and be future proofed to carry and deploy hypothetical Alliance combat vehicles through both direct field deployment and industrial transporters.
Each member state has their own designs but they are managed through the ACSDB to ensure they fulfil the tactical need for heavy artillery, carrier capability and troop capacity:
KDF Designs:
Ch'Tang class Heavy Bird-of-Prey/Light Lander
Right at the border between corvettes and frigates the 300m Ch'Tang, like all Birds-of-Prey, already had the capability to land and deploy ground troops. This refit added the ability to carry a wing of strike craft on external mountings (with pilots entering and leaving their craft via hardwired transporter) and a slightly enlarged cargo bay to hold hypothetical combat vehicles. While not equipped with walking legs or tracks it is highly manoeuvrable in atmospheric flight and maintains its full combat arsenal and Subspace Jump teleport ability.
Orion Slavemaster Battleship/Lander
With the Khitomer ban on slavery the Klingon aligned elements of the Orion Syndicate have been left with large starships designed to carry large amounts of people and no cargo to fil lthem with. While some have been converted into luxury star liners the new call for troop transports has inspired the Matriarchs to repurpose the dated Slavemaster Battleship as a Lander using its cavernous cargo holds and large hangar bays.
With two large legs at the aft (between the outboard pods and the main hull) that can support the entire weight of the Lander if needed and a pair of smaller, relatively gracile ones at the front that can be used for object manipulation or melee combat the Slavemaster resembles nothing so much as an earth rat in silhouette. It keeps the Orion preference for turreted Disruptor cannons over the beam arrays or fixed cannons more common among the Alliance.
Vo'Quv class Fleet Carrier/Heavy Lander
As the venerable Vo'Quv class carrier is gradually superseded by the larger vo'Devwl class, more advanced VoD'leh class and the smaller Qa'Tel class the oldest space frames are being refitted and reinforced to serve as Heavy Landers. The modifications to the Vo'Quv are quite simple since as the previous main carrier and troop transport during KDF invasions it already fit most of the parameters for a Heavy Lander. Once it has landed (which does involve raising the wings to provide ground clearance) it travels on three sets of tracks, one under the head and two under the main hull between the hangers. Additional airlocks and embarking/disembarking ramps have been added to the ship's neck section for swift troop deployment.
Starfleet Designs:
Valdres class Bulk Lifter/Lander
Not strictly a new ship, or even a refit, but an existing prefab colony and bulk cargo transport for Starfleet which is being used as part of the new doctrine. While the older Norway saw use in the Dominion War for mass troop deployment and garrison construction it was never used for atmospheric combat on a doctrinal level. Although it is not a dedicated combat carrier or Lander by design the Valdres' extensive hangar bays allow it to carry a wing of strike craft and its bulk lifter apparatus can carry dedicated troop pods allowing it to fill the role of a Lander, albeit somewhat suboptimally compared to the purpose built Tezra class.
The Valdres includes an experimental electrical weapon called the Mjolnir which makes it more suited to front line support duties than the older Norway class and its powerful and numerous tractor beams can be used in an offensive capacity by grabbing and throwing smaller objects including corvettes, Titans, strike craft, vehicles, infantry, buildings and local geography. In addition to their new Lander duties they will continue to see use for deploying prefab bases and artillery sites as well as their traditional rear echelon duties.
Tezra class Exploration Cruiser/Lander
Based on the Ross class Saucer, as it has the largest hangar bay of this hull type and already had integrated warp engines and a m/am reactor, and named after famous cargo ships and relief campaigns. The main alterations were adding 6 leg units (making it look somewhat like an earth crab without claws), vertical torpedo and micro-torpedo launchers and specialising its interior design for mass person carrying and rapid embarking/disembarking such as the addition of ramps and airlocks on the ventral hull. In peace it is planned to serve as a disaster relief ship within the Federation's borders able to take on refugees, supplies and victims quickly and efficiently.
This saucer section can be attached to any Galaxy type engineering hull, most often a Ross class. Generally it will be carried to a target planet by its engineering hull and detach in orbit before entering the atmosphere. Then, while the saucer engages in its operations below, the engineering section will either provide orbital support or leave to perform other operations elsewhere.
Reed class Star Cruiser/Heavy Lander
Based on the Tucker, Daystrom and Scott class star cruisers the Reed class, aside from the addition of the four folding leg armatures on the lower hull, has few obvious external structural alterations from its parent designs. Taking the upper hull of the Tucker class (modified with a long through deck hangar bay for strike craft deployment and retrieval), the lower hull of the Daystrom class and the nacelles of the Scott class. The Reed does possess improved hangar facilities, cargo and troop space and embarkation/disembarkation ramps compared to these classes but these are mostly internal with the facilities previously equipped for experimental engineering instead being repurposed for practical field engineering and troop/hangar/cargo space.
The class's extensive engineering facilities consist of extensive weapon and armour forges, repair and medical bays and fabrication facilities for its large complement of strike craft and troops. The large central void between the upper and lower hulls can be used as a mobile dry dock (even in atmosphere) for corvette sized ships or Titan scale War Engines thanks to folding cages and tractor beams. Unlike the Suraya Bay, Tezra and Planet classes the Reed class is designed purely for warfare and national defence.
Republic Designs:
Ha'feh class Warbird/Lander
Based on Ha'apax Assault Command Section hulls as the Republic Navy gradually replaces its older Ha'apax Advanced Warbirds with the newer Haakona and Kara classes. Like Starfleet's Tezra lander it is carried to the target planet by its parent craft (which can be any Advanced Warbird Guardian Section) before being left in the atmosphere but can travel at warp speeds and fight in space on its own, albeit at reduced endurance, efficiency and comfort. While it can land folding its large wings vertically to do so, and travel via tracks which cover its ventral hull, it usually flies or hovers near the ground instead.
Birdeater class Warbird/Lander
Based on a Scimitar type main hull but with the wings replaced with 8 folding legs and two melee nanopulse pedipalps causing it to somewhat resemble an earth arachnid. Subtypes bearing both Romulan and Reman design aesthetics are fielded but lack any true difference in performance. As only the wings have been lost these Heavy Landers retain almost all of the Scimitar type Dreadnought's combat and carrier functionality, only really losing the Thalaron Radiation Pulse as the wing mounted plasma beams and cannons were easily replaced with equivalent systems on the legs.
Mol'D'deridex class Warbird/Heavy Lander
The venerable D'deridex has outlasted all of its mid-late 24th century competitors and still remains a viable frontline warship in the 25th century and in the new galaxy of Vyranodasik. Sadly it is beginning to show its age and the Republic is slowly phasing the D'deridex out of service in favour of the newer D'Khellra which is designed to be its successor.
Most D'deridex hulls are still suited for years of service however and the call for a Heavy Lander by the ACSDB has given new life to the ageing hull type. The Mol'D'deridex is planned to have many new builds as well as refitting existing D'deridex hulls and continue to serve as a front line warship but with a specialisation in planetary assault and serving as a war engine airship in atmosphere while the D'Khellra focuses on deep space combat.
The only area of the Heavy Lander design brief the original D'deridex was deficient in was its strike craft air wing and ability to repair and carry corvettes/walkers. The strike craft number issue was easily fixed by simply lengthening the main hangars on the design so they spanned the entire 1km length of the main ventral hull and could serve as through deck flight decks. They were also supplemented with launch catapults located above and below the forward Hangar doors which can accelerate the strike craft to top speed and leave the main hangars free for returning strike craft retrieval.
To accommodate the Walker repair function the bottom of the dorsal hull was fitted with several docking ports that let it carry entire squadrons of Coil and Khellid class Walkers. Cages can also be deployed from the front and back of the wing hulls to enclose the area and allow it to serve as a dry dock. Each docking port can also be isolated by its own dry dock cage to prevent parts from drifting from one bay to another. The additional mass within the central void makes warp travel less efficient and limits its warp top speed compared to the original D'deridex but this is seen as an acceptable trade off.
Dominion Designs:
Jem'hadar Heavy Strike Wing Escort Carrier/Lander
In keeping with Dominion industrial efficiency their lander is simply their existing Heavy Strike Wing Escort Carrier. Already designed for the planned function of a Lander, troop capacity and deployment, strike craft carrier capability and atmospheric combat and invasion, the only changes were doctrinal. Rather than functioning as a mobile oppression garrison on resistive worlds it now works in concert with the other Dominion War Engines as an airship War Engine.
Jem'hadar Vanguard Lander
An alternate equipment loadout for the Jem'hadar Vanguard Warship that replaces its underslung weapons pod with a troop and strike craft carrier pod, attaches three pairs of incestile legs to the underside of its outer hull pontoons and two nanopulse pincer blades to the front of its pontoons for war engine melee combat. This Lander variation is exclusively used by Odo's Vanguard supported by Vanguard Gunboats and Aehallh rather than the mass Attack Walker Waves of the rest of the Dominion.
Jem'hadar Invasion Carrier/Heavy Lander
A refit and new build used by the entire Dominion based on the Vanguard Carrier (progressively being replaced by the improved Vanguard Support Carrier among Odo's Vanguard anyway) which extends the ventral hull to make room for the beetle-like walking legs, Aehallh quarters and deployment bays and jem'hadar deployment ramps. While the design keeps its dorsal through-deck carrier system the heavy Attack Craft was sacrificed to allow the main nacelles to fold out of the way of the legs when landed and make room for the ventral hull extension. An integrated pair of secondary nacelles were added to the dorsal hull in standard Dominion fashion.
Minor Power Designs (These are more representative than exhaustive):
Elachi Ornash Lander
A variation on the existing Monbosh Support Craft, these craft include six deployable legs similar to the smaller Qulash Walker and can be launched from any Monbosh Battleship or Ornash Battlecruiser. In combat they function similarly to the Qulash with the addition of two disruptor energised melee arms similar to the arms of an Earth praying mantis since the Elachi have to deal with opposing war engines in melee for the first time.
Hirogen Predator class Cruiser/Lander
Appearing similar to a halfway design between the Hunter Heavy Escort and the Apex Heavy Battlecruiser when in space. The predator fills the space of a mid weight frontline combat ship the Hirogen had previously lacked. When the predator lands its three distinctive Hirogen style armoured warp nacelles rotate and fold together to form a counter balancing "tail". Combined with the large legs which extend from the centre of mass the Predator resembles an extinct earth Tyrannosaurus when landed. Like all Hirogen ships it is equipped with tetryon energy weapons, mines and transphasic torpedoes. The Predator also includes a ship scale cloaking device. The Predator features a long range tetryon cannon in its "head" which is its primary weapon in war engine combat. Despite its size and visual similarity to a tyrannosaurus the Predator is designed for long range battle and ambush attacks rather than endurance matches or melee combat.
Cardassian Hutet class Dreadnought/Heavy Lander
Based on a proposed, but never built, Cardassian Union Wunderwaffen from the Dominion War the Hutet is a massive ship by Khitomer Alliance standards at 1.6 km, which is longer than the Damar class Dreadnought (the next largest Cardassian vessel) by just over 600 metres and with none of the negative space of ships like the D'deridex. While mostly staying true to the original design, including the large spinal Spiral Wave Disruptor lances (2 fixed forward and one fixed rearward), the Hatep is altered with the now standard Cardassian Cloaking device and six legs which when deployed hold the Hutet's ventral hull well above the ground proving clearance for its 2 Detapa Escort docking clamps. In keeping with Cardassian preference for Corvettes over Strike Craft the Hutet carries 4 Yukawa Escorts in dorsal hangars, and can service several more on rotation, which function as flying Titans alongside its 2 Detapa Escorts rather than the Strike Craft wings the initial ACSDB design brief called for.
-Joint Alliance Medical Program to Emancipate the Killing-Time Kroatanga:
Use the 16 RP slot on beginning to research a way to free the kroatanga of their biological need to make war. The first steps are to establish a clear and full understanding of the Kroatanga genome and biochemistry. To this end the participating members of the Alliance share all their gathered data from scans and autopsies conducted so far along with the capture of individual Kroatanga of different castes during the ongoing military operations. These captured research subjects will be taken to sterile deep space stations under heavy guard by juggernaut system enhanced elite troops and subjected to a full battery of invasive and non-invasive tests before being euthanized.
Industrial Orders
-Spend 1 RP to partially upgrade the Delta Quadrant to Heavily Defended.
-Spend 7 RP to upgrade the Alpha Quadrant to Heavily Defended. This is due to worries that theUnion/Blade conflict might spill over into this quadrant. Notably Deep Space 9, already an old station by the end of the Dominion War over 30 years ago, is finally replaced by a brand new spacedock type station bearing the same famous name.
-Spend 20 RP to upgrade the Delta Quadrant to Industrialised. This represents truely new investment into bringing the Quadrant up to the standards of interconnectivity and industry of the rest of the Alliance taking advantage of the Borg Collective and Vaadwaur Supremacy no longer suppressing interstellar development.
Military Orders
-The Federation, Romulan Republic and Klingon Empire Fleethordes will launch a full scale relief and liberation campaign towards the South Subsector to save them from being overwhelmed by the Killing-Time Kroatanga and to attempt to retake their salvageable worlds from the Kroatanga. This will be the first full scale use of Common Role Squadrons of Walkers (particularly the Qa'rol, Khellid and Zabathu classes) and Assault Ships (particularly the Andor, Ath'rel'ithar and Vo'Qih classes) in wartime operations and true battlefield conditions. These forces will include the I.K.S. Bortasqu' (Legend), R.R.W Lleiset (Legend) and be under the overall command of General Martok (Legend) who has experience commanding mixed Federation, Romulan and Klingon forces from the Dominion War.
-The Alliance Fleethorde and the Minor Powers (Southwest) Fleethorde will shore up the Southwest subsector's defensive lines against the "Blades" and serve as a show of force towards the Blades and a show of commitment towards the Southwest subsector. The A.F.S. Khitomer (Legend) will be present with this fleethorde.
-The Dominion Fleethorde will shore up the Local Defense Council's defensive lines against the Killing-Time Kroatanga and assist them in retaking their captured worlds. Odo and Loriss (Legend) will be present with this fleethorde.
-The combined Minor Member Fleethorde will remain on a defensive standing in the Beta Quadrant guarding against the possibility of renewed Kroatanga hostilities and to prevent the consistent raiding parties from slipping through.
All things considered, the NUN entry into Vyranodasik has gone far better than most would have expected. The Loptrathi have proven quite diplomatic for a devouring Hive Mind bent on conquest and expansion, and the closest warlord neighbor is proving cooperative to a truly absurd degree. Considering the general history of humanity, many are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
A handful of Druzhran raiders have tried their luck at hitting human/Zentradi colonies, with the vast majority running facefirst into well-defended settlements and the vast fleets of NUNS. Aside from this though, no other incursions have hit NUN space yet, giving them a bit more time to work proactively. Questions still need to asked for how relations with the still-expanding Loptrathi will go, and what NUN's official response will be to Marchokai's... offer.
Resources Available: 127
Available Sectors:
-New United Nations (1; East): The extraversals of the Sector, NUN has combined an overwhelming amount of military power with a willingness and ability to attempt diplomacy that has put them in a position likely to dominate the entire Sector, despite their status as recent arrivals.
-Loptrathi (2; Center, South): A strip of territory recently occupied by the Hive-minded Plantoids known as the Loptrathi, in the middle of a great phase of expansion as they are often known to commit. Reinforcements have come in from other parts of their territory, and they are almost ready to commence another assault, though diplomatic agreements mean that at least it won't be directed at NUN.
-Druzhran Corsairs (1; Southeast): A marauding band of pirates with a resemblance to what any reader of fantasy literature would call "Dark Elves." The Druzhran are corsairs who raid and plunder for many things, but above all else: slaves. With the number of refugees fleeing the expansion of the Loptrathi, it should be of no surprise to hear that their business has been booming. A handful of incursions into NUN space have occurred, and have generally gone quite poorly given the sheer amount of military might the new arrivals have.
-Gateway (1; Northeast): A subsector of the region that seems to have had whole worlds stripped to the bedrock, and where that mass of metal and resources has gone is obvious in the form of what appears to be an interstellar gateway of staggering size. However, said gateway has obviously seen better days, with sections torn off and the entire structure obviously non-functional. The region as a whole is a nest of pirate gangs and marauder packs that use the wreckage to disrupt attempts to root them out.
-Marchokai Imperial State (2; Northwest, North): The holdings of a particularly charismatic and visionary sort of warlord that has conquered all others in his sector. Marchokai has proven bafflingly cooperative with NUN as part of his vision to see a united Sector, even appearing willing to consider outright annexation into NUN, though many awkward questions have been raised over the trail of blood he has left in the process of forging his state beforehand.
-Warlord Alliance (2; Southwest, West): Much of this sector was run by what could best be described as Warlords, who ruled by the amount of weapons they could point at those who disputed them and constantly warred with each other to expand their realms. With most of the sector falling to enemies of one sort or another, many of the remainder have formed a disparate alliance to preserve their lives and power.
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Imperium of the Known Universe Strategic Turn 2 @vilani99
The main bit of noteworthy news early this year comes from the Krincils Defense League, on the planet of Lelleron III. Druzhran raiders have descended on the world in force, ravaging and pillaging as they pleased while the local security fleets fought a desperate battle alongside frantically rallied reinforcements from across the League, culminating in a Polrus squadron descending on the Druzhran like the fist of an angry god. After this fierce and bloody exchange, the Druzhran eventually fled to lick their wounds and count their booty. Overall, the League has been trumpeting the result of the battle as a sign of victory: a mere fifth of the entire planet's population was killed or taken into slavery, rather than the pre-League standard of over half being captured at best, and losing every sapient in the system at worst.
This is not exactly comforting information to the Imperium about the relative safety of living in Vyranodasik, but right now there are other issues that need addressing. Attempts to rally unity around the Emperor have largely failed, with instead the Major Houses expanding their own powerbases. Atreides has been the largest winner here, seizing much of the credit for victory over the Kroats in the final battle for Arrakis and exploiting the resulting surge of popular support. Harkonnen meanwhile, seethes over the fading (relative to its previous monopoly, the planet is still ridiculously profitable by any other standard) revenue of Arrakis, and their lashing out has resulted in an intensification of Spice harvesting (much to the displeasure of the local Fremen) and bringing several more minor Houses to heel as vassals. And House Ordos's elevation to House Major has been something they've wasted no time exploiting to build up their own powerbase, though they remain young and nowhere near the level of concern the prior two draw among Imperial courtiers.
All together, it promises to be a quite interesting year in the Landsraad, and that's before one factors in foreign affairs.
Resources Available: 152
Available Sectors
-Imperium of the Known Universe (1; Center): The displaced territory of the now incorrectly named Imperium. Well-developed, industrialized, and populated, the Imperium is one of the main candidates to dominate the Sector, though one whose internal issues risk rearing their ugly head. (Territory is Heartlands and Heavily Defended
-Art Installation (1; Southwest): A relatively barren set of systems with the only distinguishing feature being a massive, AU-tall "art" installation, which seems to depict a group of horrifying monsters and mad-sophonts trying to murder each other. It's also guarded by a fleet of automated defense drones and cultist worshippers that will shoot anyone who damages the installation. Or criticizes the skills of whoever made it. Or looks at it without enough admiration.
-Krincils Defense League (2; South, Southeast): A coalition of alien nations that have joined together for mutual defense against Druzhran and Tendriculous incursions from the Hopeless Abyss (as well as the ever-present Kroatanga.) With some light patronage from the Sentienality of Polrus, they have managed to carve out a decent set of space where the average sophont suffers only a minor chance of being captured in a slave raid or devoured by horrible shadow monsters. Currently a diplomatic battleground as the Imperium and Tau Empire both seek to draw it into their sphere of influence.
-Tau Empire (2; East, Northeast): Another extrauniversal arrival in Vyranodasik, albeit apparently a more intentional one than the Imperium. The Tau Empire's presence in the Sector appears to have been part of a deliberate and widespread colonization effort, with long-ranging fleets having been thrown all across Vyranodasik and its Satellite Galaxies, making use of large-scale cloning and heavy automation to quickly build up once they've found a place to settle. This branch appears to be making overtures to the Krincils Defense League to join them as part of the "Greater Good."
-Warring States (1; West): A sector of space dominated by feuding warlords, Kroatangan warbands, and petty empires. Few have the numbers to pose much of a challenge to a massed invasion force, but they do at least have modern ToEs and much wider variety of weapons than the Imperium is used to fighting with. More than a few Warlords have begun making overtures to the Tis'il Petty Regnum, offering to bend the knee in exchange for their continued mental independence and aid in defeating their rivals.
-Tis'il Petty Regnum (2; North, Northwest): A sector of space dominated by what can only be described as a massive, multi-hundred kilometer long, space-faring worm. This so-called "Hograthux" also benefits from psionic abilities that let it dominate entire planetary populations into serving as its worshipping slaves, while other nations have bent the knee and offered tribute and vassalhood simply to avoid such a fate. It is unlikely that it intends to stop its current attempts at expansion anytime soon unless it is forced to stop. The Imperium has drawn its ire (with some rumors circling that it has begun recruiting a number of "Vol Hunters" to augment its ranks), but at the moment the Regnum is too busy mobilizing to conquer the Warring States to fully focus on the extraversal human realm.
