- Location
- Best England - United Kingdom
Annnnnnd there's my sig thank you
Red Alert: Mental Effect (Red Alert 2: YR and Mass Effect)
- Thread starter Spartakrod
- Start date
Annnnnnd there's my sig thank you
- Location
- Arizona
…since I spend a lot of time on FFnet, i'm not sure how to take that.
Then again, I rarely review unless the author has written a chapter that lights my brain on fire (of all the possible things that could happen), OR if the author isn't terrible but needs some correcting. If I find something bad, I just leave, why should I waste my time with responding to crap/offensive stuff?
That being said, I'm a little concerned who the hell the Author is getting to replace the Blue Suns. Since the Blue Suns were originally a human-centric merc gang, I foresee a hell of a lot of oddball human tech jammed together in odd ways. Well, assuming you could even HAVE any sort of defector from Epsilon…
If they are going to affiliate themselves with some sort of color, it better not have anything to do with Red, Blue, or Purple. Green maybe? or white or black? Black Nova, White Suns, Cthulhu's Vomit?
Then again, I rarely review unless the author has written a chapter that lights my brain on fire (of all the possible things that could happen), OR if the author isn't terrible but needs some correcting. If I find something bad, I just leave, why should I waste my time with responding to crap/offensive stuff?
That being said, I'm a little concerned who the hell the Author is getting to replace the Blue Suns. Since the Blue Suns were originally a human-centric merc gang, I foresee a hell of a lot of oddball human tech jammed together in odd ways. Well, assuming you could even HAVE any sort of defector from Epsilon…
If they are going to affiliate themselves with some sort of color, it better not have anything to do with Red, Blue, or Purple. Green maybe? or white or black? Black Nova, White Suns, Cthulhu's Vomit?
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
They were originally from the Project Phantom mod for Yuri's revenge.
And yes, they're quite the oddball bunch.
The Mediterranean Syndicate from paradox is also likely to make an appearance in a rather altered format.
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- Location
- behind you
*heavy breathing intensifies*
- Pronouns
- She/Her
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
http://phantom.cncguild.net/ Take Phantom, combine with Mediterranean Syndicate, give the role of the blue suns (and thus add Batarians), receive dickbags.I can say just one thing to this news:
Albeit very successful dickbags.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Guys I got constructive criticism on fanfiction.net! Truly I am blessed!
Eeee I feel so special.
Anonymous said:
Eeee I feel so special.
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Wow, a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion! This calls for a celebration!
VODKA FOR EVERYONE! *Insert Angry Mob cheering here*
Chapter 2b
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
AN: This took longer than expected and I'm still not entirely happy with how chapter 2 looks. Expect some revision when I post it to FF.net tonight.
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Minutes later, Cioban household
Catalina was resting peacefully in bed. Dad worked late most of the time, so the seven year old was entirely used to him not being around much. The sound of people talking below soon alerted her to people sharing the house with herself and her mother however, and she quickly puthlled herself out of her bed in response to this reverie. Knowing that her mother was a stickler for making sure that her daughter was always presentable, she took the time to quickly brush her hair and teeth, keeping her silver hair; a product of her parents' choice rather than genes, neat and bundling it in a pony tail. The red eyed girl happily went down the stairs and shushed her pet when the somewhat reptilian creature started to show it's excitement at the arrival of a familiar scent.
Looking into her home's living room, she was met with her mother and her brother sitting together and having a chat while some arbiters helped themselves to the snacks she left for them. Uncle Dimitri was an Arbiter-Proselyte, making sure that everyone was safe and that law-breakers got their due. It seemed like a nice job, but Catalina wanted to be an inquisitor when she grew up, it seemed like a much more fun thing to do than police work!
"How is Anton?" Dimitri asked, the coat hanger physiqued man clasping his hands together and offering Anastasia a pleasant smile.
"Anton is quite busy as of late, Headquarters really wants to see his project's prototype this year so he's been needed to work long hours." She responded, tilting her head ever so slightly to the left and offering him a smile in return, much more muted in comparison to his to be sure, but it made her face light up all the same.
"The bastard needs to relax more often I think! He's going to kill himself with his work someday." Dimitri chuckled as he took a sip from his tea cup, rubbing his chin almost immediately after finishing.
"True enough. I'm hoping he'll take his vacation weeks sooner than later." She sighed, slouching slightly in her chair before she noticed Catalina in the distance, looking through the railings of the stairs.
"Catalina, what are you doing up?" She asked just as Dimitri turned his head around to Catalina and let out a hearty laugh.
"Caty! How are you?" He said, throwing his arms wide as he picked himself out of his chair, giving his niece the biggest smile he could.
"God how you've grown!" He said enthusiastically as Catalina dared to step forward, looking around the room before breaking into a short run into his arms, where she was quickly picked up and spun around by the joyful figure. Laughs were shared and hair was ruffled by knuckles before she was placed back on the ground.
"Where have you been?" Catalina asked, eyes wide and smile bright.
"Ah I've been doing my work, seeing that all the crooks are put where they belong and the people are safe." He said with a grin, placing his hands on his hips and positively beaming, to the chortling of Anastasia and the concerned looks of his operatives.
"Did you catch anyone Uncle?" Catalina said, looked up at him with a gaze filled with wonder, a small smile creeping onto his face.
"Ah yes of course. I recently caught Phantom Syndicate drug dealing operations red handed. The Syndicate is denying all ties of course, but I've managed to put some in prison. I'll let the inquisition take over from there." He said , patting her on the head after he was done speaking.
"Anything else Uncle?" She said before noticing a heavy thump on the ground that briefly made everything in the room jolt.
"What was that?" She asked before freezing just as she heard her pet snarling, yapping and hissing at something she couldn't see.
"Merdag, please be quiet!" Catalina shouted up at the four limbed pet as it continuously made noise at some unseen aggressor.
Then came another "THUMP" followed by low humming sound followed in turn by the whiplash of a shockwave that forcefully shut down all power to that which received it and blew in the windows. Shrieks were heard from Catalina, short sharp screams of fear as glass blew into the room. Brief murmuring went throughout the room as the occupants of the house wildly theorized as to the cause of the sudden loss of power and the sounds.
"Catalina, get Merdag please." Anastasia ordered, and to her tremendous relief; Catalina quickly went up to get the animal. Relief that was vindicated when the silence was cut by a trilling series of clicks and an ululating roar and the sound of many buildings crumbling or burning. Then came the screaming of the neighbours and the roar and flash of rapidly combusting households as something sweeped over the rows of houses, pushing in their prefabricated walls and setting anything that could burn alight with an eerie yellow flame. Then the roof caved in as an impossible sight made itself very apparent.
A click filled roar was heard, a sound intermixed with the howled snarl of her family name as it began tearing open the house, shrugging off the almost immediate pyrokinetic flames that erupted across it's carapace, mandibles on the lower jaw splaying themselves outwards as it focused on one of the arbiters for a brief moment, after which he, as if on cue, imploded with a horrific combination of screaming that was quickly replaced by wet squelching, metal bending and snapping, ceramics shattering, and bones crunching. The other arbiters in the room fell to the same trick soon afterwards, and in an instant Dmitri forced Anastasia down as the monster continued to tear open the house.
"Come out!" It snarled in a voice that no human throat could have uttered, a voice that made the room shake and quiver with it's all too apparent anger and rage. There was the roar of noise as Dmitri forced himself up and telekinetically launched a couch at the creature, pinging against its shielding and drawing forth a hateful snarl from the monstrosity.
Catalina squealed with terror and fright as she tried to hide anywhere she could, anywhere that wouldn't bring her under the blazing red gaze of the behemothic monster that had assailed her household. Noise overwhelmed her, fear sank into her very bones as more of the house started to crumble from the creature's flailings. She dared to take a look, a mistake if she ever made one.
Sweeping up dmitri in its clawed manipulator limbs, it flinched from rail pistol slugs to the head that brought up it's barriers. It flinched yes, but it showed no other signs of pain as it roared back at his final words of defiance. "I die for Yuri!" Dmitri shouted, only to be met with a harshly hissed reply "You die for nothing!" as it's other arm grabbed him at the upper body. A twisting motion was made, the terrible sound of bones cracking and flesh rupturing was heard, then came the pull. A spray of blood and organs that instinctively made her dinner want to escape through her throat decorated the room.
A terrifying roar of victory was made as it finally turned to Anastasia and opened it's mouth. To its shock however, she had stopped whining with fear. She instead, store down the creature in as dignified a posture as she could. Covered in blood, her expression hardened as she spread her arms wide. No matter, a spray of liquid rushed forth, followed by a click in the back of throat that made the spray erupt into a brilliant geyser of flames that reduced her to ash where she had stood.
As flammables combusted and anything that could explode did, it lurched its head up towards the night sky, roaring its triumph to the world. Then it turned towards the last remaining target. It smelled the air, its mind probed for thoughts, and it turned its head right towards the quivering catalina on the upper level of the house. Its mind began to work, but it never got the chance.
Alerted by the sudden power outages, the blazing inferno that was ripping through the area, and the reports of frightened nearby observers from the time the first of the creature's strikes against the friends of the Ciobans as well as the word of traveling Quarian merchants, the Arbiters had brought in the colonial guard, diverting forces meant to deal with the sudden pirate and mercenary raid. Mass driver fire from would be Quarian converts to epsilonism smacked into the things back, eliciting a quick turn and a hateful roar. Arbiter fire soon followed; with pyrokinetic pulses ripping across its body and warming many points of its carapace until the afflicted points started to glow red, then came a full platoon of gatling tanks that made their opinion on the matter very clear. In a panic, it drove it's biotic and psychic power entirely towards it's own defense and quickly released a disabling pulse to buy it enough time to pick itself off the ground and escape.
A horrible wail went through the air as slugs followed it's path, but soon the beast was gone, and Catalina was left alone. Alone, the fear took time to subside as she could feel the warmth of the entire neighborhood burning through the rubble that shielded her, even as the Arbiters filed into the site and telekines quickly shoved rubble away to make the work of the others easier. She felt a quick probe for thoughts from a telepath, then the grip of telekinetics on her body to lift her down to the waiting team of arbiters. She heard "Keelah" and "By Yuri", but she didn't properly register them. She was shut away in her own mental landscape, all but dead to the world that she had just seen come crashing down.
The pet followed, deemed also worth the rescuing as all the barriers needed to seal off the crime scene were placed behind her just as she was brought to an APC for transport back to the precinct. It was then that she realized the magnitude of what had happened, after having stood alone among the dead with the pig stink of burning flesh filling her nostrils and black soot clinging to her body. It was then that she finally started to cry.
**************************************
Research facility
Landing back at the ruined facility, the creature made its report to the waiting mercenaries. "It is done, and I...have made my choice." It hissed as it felt the pain of some grazing injuries suffered from the gatling tanks.
"Hopefully the right one." Virog said, maintaining his feral, toothy grin.
"I choose...both." It responded.
"You will explain this, creature!" The Mutant demanded, anger as well as confusion present in his voice.
"We will form a new organization...a new pact. As one." It hissed as it gazed around, sizing up the figures, and noting that the wraith had disappeared back into the shadows.
"Our bands will be together. From this beginning, Fury and Blood will...be united." It continued as it gazed towards the landing craft that had brought in the attack force.
"We must go now, but...our future will be a...bright one..." It said at last.
********************************************
Citadel, Days later.
Councillor Tevos needed some time to unwind. A visit to a restuarant suited her nicely. No hard partying or drinking at a bar, no, she was much too old for that. Just some light chats, good food, and cool drinks would suit her just fine. A glass of carbonated fruit juice sat next to her, and some fungal steak and vegetables, all freshly cooked, were waiting for her to enjoy.
She was soon surprised by Din Korlack sitting himself right across from her, the Volus councillor hefting himself onto the chair. Many other councillors came and went, but Volus lived for quite a while, and Korlack certainly wasn't looking for reasons to recuse himself from power anytime soon.
"Korlack, what are you doing here?" She asked, trying to mask her surprise that someone who couldn't partake in a Restaurants fare would bring himself here.
"Am I not permitted to see friends Tevos?" The Volus said, inhaling audibly at the end of his sentence, whatever expression he may have had under there being completely unreadable as he tilted his head to the left.
"Fair enough." Tevos said, shrugging as she did so while Korlack got out his pad.
"Have you seen the news recently?" Korlack asked, sucking in another breath. Tevos had to admit that no matter how long she spent with the Volus Councillor the breath thing was never anything less than grating at times.
"The Batarians demanding our backing in space disputes with the Alliance? Otherwise I'm taking a well deserved break until the six of us have to convene again. In the meantime I'm trying to stay away from work matters." She asked before quickly placing some of the vegetables in her mouth and chewing thoroughly.
"Apparently there was a big attack on a remote Dominion world. The Earth-Clanners fear the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Real lives, not clones or genetic constructs." Korlack responded as he looked through the datapad hooked into his suit mounted omnitool.
"Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Mutant terrorists. The mutant-clan paid the other two off with Tiberium. No word on the Phantom Syndicate." He said, bringing up the necessary facts and data needed for Tevos to get a clear grasp of what had happened.
"I'm less worried about the harm done to the Dominion than I am about what they'll do." She said. In truth she had been secretly working to try and dismantle Epsilon for thirty years, finding some way to put cracks in the wall of Yuri's empire. Like with her feelings regarding the Hegemony, she personally dreamed of a future where both governments had collapsed and been replaced with something better. It may take generations, even by Asari standards, but she was convinced that the Dominion had to go.
"Everyone is concerned with what everyone else will do. When I pushed for acquiescing to their demands for element zero technology I did so knowing we traded nothing of real value so that the Midgard-clan next to them would be compelled to give us something of value in return for that very same technology without antagonizing them. I'm sure they'll bribe some pirate gangs to take revenge without causing a storm. They're quiet overall." Korlack said in response.
"I don't think we should have given them anything but sanctions and scorn. After that stunt they pulled with the Krogan I'm not sure if I'd be willing to trust them as far as I can throw them." Tevos said, a frown decorating her face as she took a swig from her glass and more bites from her food.
"Sanctions haven't done much to the Batarians have they? Sure they're poorer for it but they still fund slavers and pirates. To make them change it would be better to make what we object to unprofitable for them. Self-reliant economies don't care if you shut them off. And it's very easy for a multi-planet civilization to be self reliant Tevos. They haven't really dealt with outside trade for centuries, and I don't think cutting them off bothers them much when they'll just look for Terminus dictators to give them what they want. You don't like their social engineering? Fine, find ways to make the risk overcome the value. Preferably without starting a war with the Earth-clan. Maybe we could win the third galactic war, we probably would, but we'd be fighting the fourth galactic war with sticks and stones afterwards." Korlack said, his voice seeming almost haughty in how it carried itself.
"Assassinating Yuri would be a start." She muttered half-way to herself.
"And start a bloody civil war or incite them to seek revenge. Hardly a profitable venture. And even if there wouldn't be any fallout, I could gather a thousand of the best spectres and they would all be dead before laying a finger on Yuri. He's not just well guarded, he's almost godlike in personal power. No, I say keep on with the attempts at brain draining them." Korlack countered, continuing to fiddle with his omnitool as he looked through the news.
"I'm well aware of that. I'm simply just lapsing into what I wish would happen." She sighed as she leaned back into her chair, taking a peak outside to get another look at the wondrous views the Citadel offered.
"If we all could get what we wished for we wouldn't need government would we?" Korlack said with a little laugh.
"So what are we going to do with the Babylon pact?" Tevos asked with a sigh, stretching her back in just the right way to get that delightful popping sensation.
"I'm still up for trying to turn those syndicate companies over to our side. It would put a dampener in their Terminus strategy and help isolate them a bit." Korlack said as he raised a single finger to Tevos when his omnitool beeped, reading through the news with narrowed eyes.
"The Midgard-Clan are reporting a rash of slaver and pirate raids recently." Din Korlack said as he looked through his omnitool, his voice sinking as he thought over the consequences. Nobody liked dealing with the Batarians longer than they had to.
Tevos soon buried her head in her hands. When she asked for her job to be more interesting, by the goddess she didn't mean like this.
Media depicting Epsilon as villains attracts controversy
"Tossima Claciria, a noted Asari technothriller author, created a novel known as "Purple Storm Rising" that many criticize as overly provocative twenty five years ago, when hardly anyone of importance was born since contact began with the Unitary Dominion. But compared to a rather substantial number of more recent media, the depiction of the Dominion in Purple Storm Rising seems positively tame. Novels such as "Voyage of the Old Varren" depict the Dominion as a nation of psychotic murderers and rapists, while others depict them as a state easily prone to ultranationalist coups that launch wars where the villains gleefully cackle over how they will conquer the galaxy, only for their initial victories; if they get any initial victories; to be reversed and the war brought to their homestead and leading in the downfall of Epsilon. Others simply have Yuri decide to enact plans of galactic conquest. The video game series "Call of the Battlefield: Honor Company: Galactic Operations" have shown Epsilon launching invasions that would "require teleporters behind ever bathroom door in C-Space and Alliance territory" as well. Many believe that this is an incredibly unfair depiction of the Dominion, and only serves to further divide them from C-Space."
Another doomsday prophecy bust
"Yet another one of many prophecies claiming that the galaxy as we know it will end has come to nothing as no manner of apocalypse befalls the galaxy in the year 2467. While the chance of conflict between the Alliance and the Hegemony remains high, such a conflict is not expected to match the devastation of the Krogan Rebellions or the Rachni Wars. Indeed it would seem that we are set for another largely quiet year as a general state of peace continues between the great powers of galactic politics. In financial terms, the economies of all major states have continued to remain stable and no great political crises are either in motion or appear to be in the making."
Rachni scare on mining colony
"The mining colony of Yorok G-3X reportedly saw what was believed to be a surviving Rachni ship by the miners, but upon investigation by local authorities; vetted by experts of the Rachni wars, including a Krogan veteran of the conflict; the scare has turned out to simply be a stowaway artificial life form believed to be the product of the Dominion's Headquarters, known for their many strides in genetic research both of the ordinary and the entirely unsavory. The creature was reported to be escaped by Dominion officials, and termination of the aggressive creature was sought."
Attack on Epsilon planet by pirates!
"Planet Dracul, once designated planet K-2L when first discovered by Earth-native astronomers in the year 2003 by their calendar, has recently been subjected to an attack by space pirates who have caused a great deal of damage; including to a research facility, and have destroyed a number of homes in the area. Heads of state, even of general enemies of Epsilon, have offered condolences to the Dominion in an attempt to provide an image of solidarity against the threats of terrorism and piracy the galaxy over. The death toll of this attack has so far been counted as over thirty two thousand."
Yuri chairs new Babylon Pact meeting
"The Babylon Pact, the core of what is often informally called the "Purple Bloc" has announced that Supreme Heirophant Yuri has chaired the newly started summit of the Babylon Pact's member states. Formed by Epsilon within five years of its opening to the wider galaxy following the Dominion securing an Alliance with the Krogan, the Quarians, and a number of other Non-C-Space corporate and state entities in the treaty of Babylon, the Babylon Pact posits itself as an alternative system to the Council's authority. Having secured alliances with the Quarian Migrant Fleet by offering them refits, upgrades, and repairs of their fleet as well as upgrades and a number of suitable worlds charted by the dominions to settle and gene-therapy to cure the Quarians of their weak immune systems, and the Krogan by both curing the Genophage and helping the Krogan to set up a central system of government under the United Clans of the Krogan; the Babylon Pact has been accused as "expanding the Epsilon Dominion by other means" and has pushed the Alliance towards closer relations with the Citadel.
The revelation of the Dominion's genophage cure in particular lead to the Tuchankan crisis, but a number of factors; such as the Forgotten declaring that they would fight alongside Epsilon if the Council "moved to deprive the innocent of their right to raise children and bring new oppressions" in recognition of growing ties of empathy between the mutants and the Krogans; as well as declarations of support by many in the Terminus Systems, uncertainty about Epsilon's capabilities, and the Alliance's reluctance to join a war against Epsilon for the sake of "keeping an underclass neutered", lead to the council backing down. Since then, the Babylon Pact has been thought of as one of C-Space's greatest strategic risks, alongside the largely Batarian Hegemony friendly Terminus Systems. It is expected that this summit of the Babylon Pact will be aimed at working out the place of the pact's newest member, the Serene Mycenex Kingdom within the pact's structures."
Codex Entries:
Phenomenon: Psionics;
Psionics are a key facet of humanity and the Scrin. While Psychics form a minority among the Alliance and Forgotten, Epsilon has engendered a one hundred percent incident of psychic ability among it's human citizen base and it is Epsilon who holds the most advanced Psionics in the known universe, excepting the Scrin, of whom little data is available about. Psionics, or Psychics as some refer to it, are considered distinct from Biotics as they are not generated through manipulations of mass effect fields. Rather, these abilities seem to be generated from the mind itself.
Essentially the imposing the will on reality, psychic powers have a wide variety of effects. For simplicity, they are divided into Telekinesis, Telepathy, Psychoenergetics, and Psychobiologics. Telekinesis is the field most similar to Biotics and involves applying physical force through one's mind, typically in the form of barriers, lifting, pulling, pushing, and crushing actions, hurtling objects, or simply moving objects without actually contacting them. Telepathy is the art of mind to mind action, whose most commonly known applications are mind-reading, mind control, and mental communication, though it is more than possible to utilize telepathy to directly attack the psyche. Psychoenergetics create and direct energy through mental action, something commonly seen in Yuri's initiates; who as part of their military training all learn basic pyrokinetic ability.
Psychobiologics is a substantially rarer field that involve control over biological functions. Due to being much more complicated, it is rarely seen even in Yuri's forces. Psychobiologics typically learn to control their own bodily functions before attempting that of any other, and cross-species psychobiologics requires yet more training and focus. The first sign that such a thing even existed was brought to Yuri's attention by Malver; head of Scorpion Cell, who could manipulate his bodily needs to survive in the desert with far fewer supplies than a non-augmented human normally would.
Psionics are said to be expressable through either genetic conditions or through artificial means. Naturally occuring psionics are difficult to focus and control (though Epsilon seems to have found a way to massively ease the process of using genetic based Psychics) and so far only seem to appear in humans, though it is believed that the Scrin are a wholly innately psychic species, while artificial conditions can be induced in other species through implantation, surgery, and to a small degree; through intense focus or willpower. However, in the last case the effect is so small as to be nearly statistically insignificant in the face of other factors that occur in such situations such as Adrenaline or intense training, and can easily be missed if one is not already specifically looking for it.
The Strength of one's Psychic abilities seem to be determined by a combination of genetics, the quality of one's implants and regulators, the mental ability of the user in question, one's discipline and focus, the training and experience in the "school" that they are using that they've had, and how long they have actively expressed psychic abilities. Epsilon's inner circle is considered to have the most potent psychics, with Yuri of course being the first and foremost among them. Epsilon is believed to have more and more powerful psychics than the rest of the galaxy put together and is recognized as the unquestioned master of psychic research, with the Alliance having the second greatest number of psychics.
Among non-humans, Krogan in search of a route to further power frequently do whatever they need to do in order to receive Psychic surgery, and the number of Psychic Krogan continues to grow, especially as more Krogan flock to Epsilon for it's work on a genophage cure. Turians are considered well suited for Psychic abilities due to their cultural emphasis on discipline and focus, though the Citadel's own Psychic research lags substantially behind the human powers. On the other hand, cabals of Psychic Turians are becoming an increasingly common sight, and Psychic Turian Specters are a powerful force for order. The Salarian Union continues to keep it's psychic research program under wraps, though it is believed that STG teams are their forerunners in this field.
The Asari republic is reluctant to delve deep into the field, but is believed to share research with other citadel members, and there are a handful of Psychic Asari going around. The Hanar and Drell have made some strides into the field, but continue to remain reluctant to advertise any results, something that they share with the Elcor. The Volus pour most of their effort into telepathy for the business advantages it provides, and are second behind the Salarians in terms of Citadel psychic research. The Batarian Hegemony's propaganda feeds boast of unparalleled success in this new burgeoning field of research, but intelligence reports cast considerable doubts on these claims. Quarian psychics are primarily prevalent in those who have converted to Epsilonism.
Treaties: Treaty of Firaxen;
The Treaty of Firaxen was abolished by unanimous vote of the council not long after Human contact, beginning a massive galactic arms race fueled by the proliferation of human manufacturing technology. National navies have increased exponentially in size, especially due to the exponential decrease in the cost of maintaining military units. Due to constant construction; hard numbers on fleet sizes are difficult to ascertain. The Turian Primarch however, boasts that if something like the Rachni wars were to happen again; the galaxy would be militarized enough to crush it flat in an instant.
In the past, the treaty of Firaxen was meant to discourage naval arms build up by placing restrictions on the fleets of member governments of the Citadel due to the tremendous destructive power of a dreadnought. The Turians, being seen as the main peacekeepers, would be allowed to make the most of them, the Volus, Asari, Elcor, Hanar, and Salarians, being council members, would be given permission to make a healthy number of them, while council associate species would be the most heavily limited. The ratio is 5:3:1. For every five dreadnoughts made by the Turians, only three would be made by any other given council member, and only one by any given council associate or Turian client state.
The expansion of the number of potential threats to the Citadel revealed through contact with humanity and the revelation of NEXUS and the Scrin has lead to massive arms build up not only in Citadel Space, but also in the Terminus Systems and other areas. Even the Quarian Migrant fleet has expanded massively as acquiring and building new ships became progressively easier and easier. Many criticize this state of affairs as it would make future wars far more devastating and due to it's costs, but others are highly supportive of the massive influx of defensive efforts, believing that it makes the galaxy safer.
Substances: Tiberium;
Tiberium is a material that while radioactive, curiously lacks any sort of half-life. Best described as a mutative, assimilative living ecosystem unto itself, Tiberium is capable of radically altering it's own properties given time. When first discovered, Tiberium was formed in pods and was classified as a "pseudo-organic" substance due to it's reliance on the usage of mutated trees or other viable subjects as spore producers, whereupon these launched spores would mature into new tiberium pods. Tiberium was first noted for the danger it posed to the Earth's environment, and its usefulness, as it was not only uniquely suited for nanofabrication, but also for energy production; massively outstripping even Nuclear fusion in terms of power generation and being useful in the production of anti-matter and as it leeched useful minerals from deep inside the planet, it made conventional mining unnecessary. In light of the revelation of Tiberium's connection to the Scrin, it has been theorized that Tiberium is as useful as it is as a means of convincing the populations of planets targeted by the Scrin to use it and thus spread it, developing an economic "addiction" to the substance and thus be unable to contain it before it eradicates them.
Presently Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles — a muon or tauon — collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.
While attempts at controlling the spread of Tiberium have been made, due to it's virulent nature and the depth of the reliance on the material that all three major human/cetacean polities possess, it has spread into Citadel Space and the Terminus Systems. While Tiberium is highly valued by all governments, the damage it does to ecosystems has made imports and exports of the material very tightly regulated by the Council for fear of vast ecological damage. Earth, the homeworld of Humanity and Cetaceankind, has completely lost a full 30% of it's land surface to Tiberium, where no carbon based life form can survive without protection. Mars is similarly scarred by Tiberium growth.
Due to it's value, Tiberium has become a common commodity on the black market and is known to be wildly popular as a performance enhancer. Those who survive Tiberium exposure and begin to be mutated by it demonstrate greater size, strength, endurance, intelligence, reflexes, increased lifespan, enhanced regenerative powers, and myriad other benefits, though mental enhancements are generally limited as few are willing to expose brain tissue to a substantial degree to Tiberium. Surviving exposure and gaining beneficial traits without carefully administered infusion treatments is difficult and rare and generally leads to obvious scarring and growths of inert Tiberium crystals on the body. Uncontrolled Tiberium mutation can result in the conversion of the body into cancer-like cellular structures and the devolution of all structure into a horrific visceroid, upon which there is no hope of recovery and the only course of action is to kill the visceroid before it can cause any harm to those around it.
Tiberium is known to come in multiple colours, with Green being the most common, and least valuable. Blue is of greater worth, followed by Purple, Yellow, Orange, and Red. The reason why Tiberium's value does not adhere to the standard scale of colour frequency is currently a matter of much debate among Tiberium researchers. Tiberium research is a burgeoning and highly lucrative field and in Citadel Space, the Volus are making sure to acquire the largest share of the substance, and are among it's most enthusiastic supporters, followed by the Turians who greatly value its military and industrial potential and the Salarians who see "infinite possibilities with its potential to aid scientific research". Others can often be more skeptical given the material's obvious dangers. The Hanar are the most reluctant to delve into Tiberium research, believing the Scrin to be demons whose gifts should be rejected in favor of greater appreciation of the enlightenment given by the Enkindlers.
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Minutes later, Cioban household
Catalina was resting peacefully in bed. Dad worked late most of the time, so the seven year old was entirely used to him not being around much. The sound of people talking below soon alerted her to people sharing the house with herself and her mother however, and she quickly puthlled herself out of her bed in response to this reverie. Knowing that her mother was a stickler for making sure that her daughter was always presentable, she took the time to quickly brush her hair and teeth, keeping her silver hair; a product of her parents' choice rather than genes, neat and bundling it in a pony tail. The red eyed girl happily went down the stairs and shushed her pet when the somewhat reptilian creature started to show it's excitement at the arrival of a familiar scent.
Looking into her home's living room, she was met with her mother and her brother sitting together and having a chat while some arbiters helped themselves to the snacks she left for them. Uncle Dimitri was an Arbiter-Proselyte, making sure that everyone was safe and that law-breakers got their due. It seemed like a nice job, but Catalina wanted to be an inquisitor when she grew up, it seemed like a much more fun thing to do than police work!
"How is Anton?" Dimitri asked, the coat hanger physiqued man clasping his hands together and offering Anastasia a pleasant smile.
"Anton is quite busy as of late, Headquarters really wants to see his project's prototype this year so he's been needed to work long hours." She responded, tilting her head ever so slightly to the left and offering him a smile in return, much more muted in comparison to his to be sure, but it made her face light up all the same.
"The bastard needs to relax more often I think! He's going to kill himself with his work someday." Dimitri chuckled as he took a sip from his tea cup, rubbing his chin almost immediately after finishing.
"True enough. I'm hoping he'll take his vacation weeks sooner than later." She sighed, slouching slightly in her chair before she noticed Catalina in the distance, looking through the railings of the stairs.
"Catalina, what are you doing up?" She asked just as Dimitri turned his head around to Catalina and let out a hearty laugh.
"Caty! How are you?" He said, throwing his arms wide as he picked himself out of his chair, giving his niece the biggest smile he could.
"God how you've grown!" He said enthusiastically as Catalina dared to step forward, looking around the room before breaking into a short run into his arms, where she was quickly picked up and spun around by the joyful figure. Laughs were shared and hair was ruffled by knuckles before she was placed back on the ground.
"Where have you been?" Catalina asked, eyes wide and smile bright.
"Ah I've been doing my work, seeing that all the crooks are put where they belong and the people are safe." He said with a grin, placing his hands on his hips and positively beaming, to the chortling of Anastasia and the concerned looks of his operatives.
"Did you catch anyone Uncle?" Catalina said, looked up at him with a gaze filled with wonder, a small smile creeping onto his face.
"Ah yes of course. I recently caught Phantom Syndicate drug dealing operations red handed. The Syndicate is denying all ties of course, but I've managed to put some in prison. I'll let the inquisition take over from there." He said , patting her on the head after he was done speaking.
"Anything else Uncle?" She said before noticing a heavy thump on the ground that briefly made everything in the room jolt.
"What was that?" She asked before freezing just as she heard her pet snarling, yapping and hissing at something she couldn't see.
"Merdag, please be quiet!" Catalina shouted up at the four limbed pet as it continuously made noise at some unseen aggressor.
Then came another "THUMP" followed by low humming sound followed in turn by the whiplash of a shockwave that forcefully shut down all power to that which received it and blew in the windows. Shrieks were heard from Catalina, short sharp screams of fear as glass blew into the room. Brief murmuring went throughout the room as the occupants of the house wildly theorized as to the cause of the sudden loss of power and the sounds.
"Catalina, get Merdag please." Anastasia ordered, and to her tremendous relief; Catalina quickly went up to get the animal. Relief that was vindicated when the silence was cut by a trilling series of clicks and an ululating roar and the sound of many buildings crumbling or burning. Then came the screaming of the neighbours and the roar and flash of rapidly combusting households as something sweeped over the rows of houses, pushing in their prefabricated walls and setting anything that could burn alight with an eerie yellow flame. Then the roof caved in as an impossible sight made itself very apparent.
A click filled roar was heard, a sound intermixed with the howled snarl of her family name as it began tearing open the house, shrugging off the almost immediate pyrokinetic flames that erupted across it's carapace, mandibles on the lower jaw splaying themselves outwards as it focused on one of the arbiters for a brief moment, after which he, as if on cue, imploded with a horrific combination of screaming that was quickly replaced by wet squelching, metal bending and snapping, ceramics shattering, and bones crunching. The other arbiters in the room fell to the same trick soon afterwards, and in an instant Dmitri forced Anastasia down as the monster continued to tear open the house.
"Come out!" It snarled in a voice that no human throat could have uttered, a voice that made the room shake and quiver with it's all too apparent anger and rage. There was the roar of noise as Dmitri forced himself up and telekinetically launched a couch at the creature, pinging against its shielding and drawing forth a hateful snarl from the monstrosity.
Catalina squealed with terror and fright as she tried to hide anywhere she could, anywhere that wouldn't bring her under the blazing red gaze of the behemothic monster that had assailed her household. Noise overwhelmed her, fear sank into her very bones as more of the house started to crumble from the creature's flailings. She dared to take a look, a mistake if she ever made one.
Sweeping up dmitri in its clawed manipulator limbs, it flinched from rail pistol slugs to the head that brought up it's barriers. It flinched yes, but it showed no other signs of pain as it roared back at his final words of defiance. "I die for Yuri!" Dmitri shouted, only to be met with a harshly hissed reply "You die for nothing!" as it's other arm grabbed him at the upper body. A twisting motion was made, the terrible sound of bones cracking and flesh rupturing was heard, then came the pull. A spray of blood and organs that instinctively made her dinner want to escape through her throat decorated the room.
A terrifying roar of victory was made as it finally turned to Anastasia and opened it's mouth. To its shock however, she had stopped whining with fear. She instead, store down the creature in as dignified a posture as she could. Covered in blood, her expression hardened as she spread her arms wide. No matter, a spray of liquid rushed forth, followed by a click in the back of throat that made the spray erupt into a brilliant geyser of flames that reduced her to ash where she had stood.
As flammables combusted and anything that could explode did, it lurched its head up towards the night sky, roaring its triumph to the world. Then it turned towards the last remaining target. It smelled the air, its mind probed for thoughts, and it turned its head right towards the quivering catalina on the upper level of the house. Its mind began to work, but it never got the chance.
Alerted by the sudden power outages, the blazing inferno that was ripping through the area, and the reports of frightened nearby observers from the time the first of the creature's strikes against the friends of the Ciobans as well as the word of traveling Quarian merchants, the Arbiters had brought in the colonial guard, diverting forces meant to deal with the sudden pirate and mercenary raid. Mass driver fire from would be Quarian converts to epsilonism smacked into the things back, eliciting a quick turn and a hateful roar. Arbiter fire soon followed; with pyrokinetic pulses ripping across its body and warming many points of its carapace until the afflicted points started to glow red, then came a full platoon of gatling tanks that made their opinion on the matter very clear. In a panic, it drove it's biotic and psychic power entirely towards it's own defense and quickly released a disabling pulse to buy it enough time to pick itself off the ground and escape.
A horrible wail went through the air as slugs followed it's path, but soon the beast was gone, and Catalina was left alone. Alone, the fear took time to subside as she could feel the warmth of the entire neighborhood burning through the rubble that shielded her, even as the Arbiters filed into the site and telekines quickly shoved rubble away to make the work of the others easier. She felt a quick probe for thoughts from a telepath, then the grip of telekinetics on her body to lift her down to the waiting team of arbiters. She heard "Keelah" and "By Yuri", but she didn't properly register them. She was shut away in her own mental landscape, all but dead to the world that she had just seen come crashing down.
The pet followed, deemed also worth the rescuing as all the barriers needed to seal off the crime scene were placed behind her just as she was brought to an APC for transport back to the precinct. It was then that she realized the magnitude of what had happened, after having stood alone among the dead with the pig stink of burning flesh filling her nostrils and black soot clinging to her body. It was then that she finally started to cry.
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Research facility
Landing back at the ruined facility, the creature made its report to the waiting mercenaries. "It is done, and I...have made my choice." It hissed as it felt the pain of some grazing injuries suffered from the gatling tanks.
"Hopefully the right one." Virog said, maintaining his feral, toothy grin.
"I choose...both." It responded.
"You will explain this, creature!" The Mutant demanded, anger as well as confusion present in his voice.
"We will form a new organization...a new pact. As one." It hissed as it gazed around, sizing up the figures, and noting that the wraith had disappeared back into the shadows.
"Our bands will be together. From this beginning, Fury and Blood will...be united." It continued as it gazed towards the landing craft that had brought in the attack force.
"We must go now, but...our future will be a...bright one..." It said at last.
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Citadel, Days later.
Councillor Tevos needed some time to unwind. A visit to a restuarant suited her nicely. No hard partying or drinking at a bar, no, she was much too old for that. Just some light chats, good food, and cool drinks would suit her just fine. A glass of carbonated fruit juice sat next to her, and some fungal steak and vegetables, all freshly cooked, were waiting for her to enjoy.
She was soon surprised by Din Korlack sitting himself right across from her, the Volus councillor hefting himself onto the chair. Many other councillors came and went, but Volus lived for quite a while, and Korlack certainly wasn't looking for reasons to recuse himself from power anytime soon.
"Korlack, what are you doing here?" She asked, trying to mask her surprise that someone who couldn't partake in a Restaurants fare would bring himself here.
"Am I not permitted to see friends Tevos?" The Volus said, inhaling audibly at the end of his sentence, whatever expression he may have had under there being completely unreadable as he tilted his head to the left.
"Fair enough." Tevos said, shrugging as she did so while Korlack got out his pad.
"Have you seen the news recently?" Korlack asked, sucking in another breath. Tevos had to admit that no matter how long she spent with the Volus Councillor the breath thing was never anything less than grating at times.
"The Batarians demanding our backing in space disputes with the Alliance? Otherwise I'm taking a well deserved break until the six of us have to convene again. In the meantime I'm trying to stay away from work matters." She asked before quickly placing some of the vegetables in her mouth and chewing thoroughly.
"Apparently there was a big attack on a remote Dominion world. The Earth-Clanners fear the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Real lives, not clones or genetic constructs." Korlack responded as he looked through the datapad hooked into his suit mounted omnitool.
"Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Mutant terrorists. The mutant-clan paid the other two off with Tiberium. No word on the Phantom Syndicate." He said, bringing up the necessary facts and data needed for Tevos to get a clear grasp of what had happened.
"I'm less worried about the harm done to the Dominion than I am about what they'll do." She said. In truth she had been secretly working to try and dismantle Epsilon for thirty years, finding some way to put cracks in the wall of Yuri's empire. Like with her feelings regarding the Hegemony, she personally dreamed of a future where both governments had collapsed and been replaced with something better. It may take generations, even by Asari standards, but she was convinced that the Dominion had to go.
"Everyone is concerned with what everyone else will do. When I pushed for acquiescing to their demands for element zero technology I did so knowing we traded nothing of real value so that the Midgard-clan next to them would be compelled to give us something of value in return for that very same technology without antagonizing them. I'm sure they'll bribe some pirate gangs to take revenge without causing a storm. They're quiet overall." Korlack said in response.
"I don't think we should have given them anything but sanctions and scorn. After that stunt they pulled with the Krogan I'm not sure if I'd be willing to trust them as far as I can throw them." Tevos said, a frown decorating her face as she took a swig from her glass and more bites from her food.
"Sanctions haven't done much to the Batarians have they? Sure they're poorer for it but they still fund slavers and pirates. To make them change it would be better to make what we object to unprofitable for them. Self-reliant economies don't care if you shut them off. And it's very easy for a multi-planet civilization to be self reliant Tevos. They haven't really dealt with outside trade for centuries, and I don't think cutting them off bothers them much when they'll just look for Terminus dictators to give them what they want. You don't like their social engineering? Fine, find ways to make the risk overcome the value. Preferably without starting a war with the Earth-clan. Maybe we could win the third galactic war, we probably would, but we'd be fighting the fourth galactic war with sticks and stones afterwards." Korlack said, his voice seeming almost haughty in how it carried itself.
"Assassinating Yuri would be a start." She muttered half-way to herself.
"And start a bloody civil war or incite them to seek revenge. Hardly a profitable venture. And even if there wouldn't be any fallout, I could gather a thousand of the best spectres and they would all be dead before laying a finger on Yuri. He's not just well guarded, he's almost godlike in personal power. No, I say keep on with the attempts at brain draining them." Korlack countered, continuing to fiddle with his omnitool as he looked through the news.
"I'm well aware of that. I'm simply just lapsing into what I wish would happen." She sighed as she leaned back into her chair, taking a peak outside to get another look at the wondrous views the Citadel offered.
"If we all could get what we wished for we wouldn't need government would we?" Korlack said with a little laugh.
"So what are we going to do with the Babylon pact?" Tevos asked with a sigh, stretching her back in just the right way to get that delightful popping sensation.
"I'm still up for trying to turn those syndicate companies over to our side. It would put a dampener in their Terminus strategy and help isolate them a bit." Korlack said as he raised a single finger to Tevos when his omnitool beeped, reading through the news with narrowed eyes.
"The Midgard-Clan are reporting a rash of slaver and pirate raids recently." Din Korlack said as he looked through his omnitool, his voice sinking as he thought over the consequences. Nobody liked dealing with the Batarians longer than they had to.
Tevos soon buried her head in her hands. When she asked for her job to be more interesting, by the goddess she didn't mean like this.
Media depicting Epsilon as villains attracts controversy
"Tossima Claciria, a noted Asari technothriller author, created a novel known as "Purple Storm Rising" that many criticize as overly provocative twenty five years ago, when hardly anyone of importance was born since contact began with the Unitary Dominion. But compared to a rather substantial number of more recent media, the depiction of the Dominion in Purple Storm Rising seems positively tame. Novels such as "Voyage of the Old Varren" depict the Dominion as a nation of psychotic murderers and rapists, while others depict them as a state easily prone to ultranationalist coups that launch wars where the villains gleefully cackle over how they will conquer the galaxy, only for their initial victories; if they get any initial victories; to be reversed and the war brought to their homestead and leading in the downfall of Epsilon. Others simply have Yuri decide to enact plans of galactic conquest. The video game series "Call of the Battlefield: Honor Company: Galactic Operations" have shown Epsilon launching invasions that would "require teleporters behind ever bathroom door in C-Space and Alliance territory" as well. Many believe that this is an incredibly unfair depiction of the Dominion, and only serves to further divide them from C-Space."
Another doomsday prophecy bust
"Yet another one of many prophecies claiming that the galaxy as we know it will end has come to nothing as no manner of apocalypse befalls the galaxy in the year 2467. While the chance of conflict between the Alliance and the Hegemony remains high, such a conflict is not expected to match the devastation of the Krogan Rebellions or the Rachni Wars. Indeed it would seem that we are set for another largely quiet year as a general state of peace continues between the great powers of galactic politics. In financial terms, the economies of all major states have continued to remain stable and no great political crises are either in motion or appear to be in the making."
Rachni scare on mining colony
"The mining colony of Yorok G-3X reportedly saw what was believed to be a surviving Rachni ship by the miners, but upon investigation by local authorities; vetted by experts of the Rachni wars, including a Krogan veteran of the conflict; the scare has turned out to simply be a stowaway artificial life form believed to be the product of the Dominion's Headquarters, known for their many strides in genetic research both of the ordinary and the entirely unsavory. The creature was reported to be escaped by Dominion officials, and termination of the aggressive creature was sought."
Attack on Epsilon planet by pirates!
"Planet Dracul, once designated planet K-2L when first discovered by Earth-native astronomers in the year 2003 by their calendar, has recently been subjected to an attack by space pirates who have caused a great deal of damage; including to a research facility, and have destroyed a number of homes in the area. Heads of state, even of general enemies of Epsilon, have offered condolences to the Dominion in an attempt to provide an image of solidarity against the threats of terrorism and piracy the galaxy over. The death toll of this attack has so far been counted as over thirty two thousand."
Yuri chairs new Babylon Pact meeting
"The Babylon Pact, the core of what is often informally called the "Purple Bloc" has announced that Supreme Heirophant Yuri has chaired the newly started summit of the Babylon Pact's member states. Formed by Epsilon within five years of its opening to the wider galaxy following the Dominion securing an Alliance with the Krogan, the Quarians, and a number of other Non-C-Space corporate and state entities in the treaty of Babylon, the Babylon Pact posits itself as an alternative system to the Council's authority. Having secured alliances with the Quarian Migrant Fleet by offering them refits, upgrades, and repairs of their fleet as well as upgrades and a number of suitable worlds charted by the dominions to settle and gene-therapy to cure the Quarians of their weak immune systems, and the Krogan by both curing the Genophage and helping the Krogan to set up a central system of government under the United Clans of the Krogan; the Babylon Pact has been accused as "expanding the Epsilon Dominion by other means" and has pushed the Alliance towards closer relations with the Citadel.
The revelation of the Dominion's genophage cure in particular lead to the Tuchankan crisis, but a number of factors; such as the Forgotten declaring that they would fight alongside Epsilon if the Council "moved to deprive the innocent of their right to raise children and bring new oppressions" in recognition of growing ties of empathy between the mutants and the Krogans; as well as declarations of support by many in the Terminus Systems, uncertainty about Epsilon's capabilities, and the Alliance's reluctance to join a war against Epsilon for the sake of "keeping an underclass neutered", lead to the council backing down. Since then, the Babylon Pact has been thought of as one of C-Space's greatest strategic risks, alongside the largely Batarian Hegemony friendly Terminus Systems. It is expected that this summit of the Babylon Pact will be aimed at working out the place of the pact's newest member, the Serene Mycenex Kingdom within the pact's structures."
Codex Entries:
Phenomenon: Psionics;
Psionics are a key facet of humanity and the Scrin. While Psychics form a minority among the Alliance and Forgotten, Epsilon has engendered a one hundred percent incident of psychic ability among it's human citizen base and it is Epsilon who holds the most advanced Psionics in the known universe, excepting the Scrin, of whom little data is available about. Psionics, or Psychics as some refer to it, are considered distinct from Biotics as they are not generated through manipulations of mass effect fields. Rather, these abilities seem to be generated from the mind itself.
Essentially the imposing the will on reality, psychic powers have a wide variety of effects. For simplicity, they are divided into Telekinesis, Telepathy, Psychoenergetics, and Psychobiologics. Telekinesis is the field most similar to Biotics and involves applying physical force through one's mind, typically in the form of barriers, lifting, pulling, pushing, and crushing actions, hurtling objects, or simply moving objects without actually contacting them. Telepathy is the art of mind to mind action, whose most commonly known applications are mind-reading, mind control, and mental communication, though it is more than possible to utilize telepathy to directly attack the psyche. Psychoenergetics create and direct energy through mental action, something commonly seen in Yuri's initiates; who as part of their military training all learn basic pyrokinetic ability.
Psychobiologics is a substantially rarer field that involve control over biological functions. Due to being much more complicated, it is rarely seen even in Yuri's forces. Psychobiologics typically learn to control their own bodily functions before attempting that of any other, and cross-species psychobiologics requires yet more training and focus. The first sign that such a thing even existed was brought to Yuri's attention by Malver; head of Scorpion Cell, who could manipulate his bodily needs to survive in the desert with far fewer supplies than a non-augmented human normally would.
Psionics are said to be expressable through either genetic conditions or through artificial means. Naturally occuring psionics are difficult to focus and control (though Epsilon seems to have found a way to massively ease the process of using genetic based Psychics) and so far only seem to appear in humans, though it is believed that the Scrin are a wholly innately psychic species, while artificial conditions can be induced in other species through implantation, surgery, and to a small degree; through intense focus or willpower. However, in the last case the effect is so small as to be nearly statistically insignificant in the face of other factors that occur in such situations such as Adrenaline or intense training, and can easily be missed if one is not already specifically looking for it.
The Strength of one's Psychic abilities seem to be determined by a combination of genetics, the quality of one's implants and regulators, the mental ability of the user in question, one's discipline and focus, the training and experience in the "school" that they are using that they've had, and how long they have actively expressed psychic abilities. Epsilon's inner circle is considered to have the most potent psychics, with Yuri of course being the first and foremost among them. Epsilon is believed to have more and more powerful psychics than the rest of the galaxy put together and is recognized as the unquestioned master of psychic research, with the Alliance having the second greatest number of psychics.
Among non-humans, Krogan in search of a route to further power frequently do whatever they need to do in order to receive Psychic surgery, and the number of Psychic Krogan continues to grow, especially as more Krogan flock to Epsilon for it's work on a genophage cure. Turians are considered well suited for Psychic abilities due to their cultural emphasis on discipline and focus, though the Citadel's own Psychic research lags substantially behind the human powers. On the other hand, cabals of Psychic Turians are becoming an increasingly common sight, and Psychic Turian Specters are a powerful force for order. The Salarian Union continues to keep it's psychic research program under wraps, though it is believed that STG teams are their forerunners in this field.
The Asari republic is reluctant to delve deep into the field, but is believed to share research with other citadel members, and there are a handful of Psychic Asari going around. The Hanar and Drell have made some strides into the field, but continue to remain reluctant to advertise any results, something that they share with the Elcor. The Volus pour most of their effort into telepathy for the business advantages it provides, and are second behind the Salarians in terms of Citadel psychic research. The Batarian Hegemony's propaganda feeds boast of unparalleled success in this new burgeoning field of research, but intelligence reports cast considerable doubts on these claims. Quarian psychics are primarily prevalent in those who have converted to Epsilonism.
Treaties: Treaty of Firaxen;
The Treaty of Firaxen was abolished by unanimous vote of the council not long after Human contact, beginning a massive galactic arms race fueled by the proliferation of human manufacturing technology. National navies have increased exponentially in size, especially due to the exponential decrease in the cost of maintaining military units. Due to constant construction; hard numbers on fleet sizes are difficult to ascertain. The Turian Primarch however, boasts that if something like the Rachni wars were to happen again; the galaxy would be militarized enough to crush it flat in an instant.
In the past, the treaty of Firaxen was meant to discourage naval arms build up by placing restrictions on the fleets of member governments of the Citadel due to the tremendous destructive power of a dreadnought. The Turians, being seen as the main peacekeepers, would be allowed to make the most of them, the Volus, Asari, Elcor, Hanar, and Salarians, being council members, would be given permission to make a healthy number of them, while council associate species would be the most heavily limited. The ratio is 5:3:1. For every five dreadnoughts made by the Turians, only three would be made by any other given council member, and only one by any given council associate or Turian client state.
The expansion of the number of potential threats to the Citadel revealed through contact with humanity and the revelation of NEXUS and the Scrin has lead to massive arms build up not only in Citadel Space, but also in the Terminus Systems and other areas. Even the Quarian Migrant fleet has expanded massively as acquiring and building new ships became progressively easier and easier. Many criticize this state of affairs as it would make future wars far more devastating and due to it's costs, but others are highly supportive of the massive influx of defensive efforts, believing that it makes the galaxy safer.
Substances: Tiberium;
Tiberium is a material that while radioactive, curiously lacks any sort of half-life. Best described as a mutative, assimilative living ecosystem unto itself, Tiberium is capable of radically altering it's own properties given time. When first discovered, Tiberium was formed in pods and was classified as a "pseudo-organic" substance due to it's reliance on the usage of mutated trees or other viable subjects as spore producers, whereupon these launched spores would mature into new tiberium pods. Tiberium was first noted for the danger it posed to the Earth's environment, and its usefulness, as it was not only uniquely suited for nanofabrication, but also for energy production; massively outstripping even Nuclear fusion in terms of power generation and being useful in the production of anti-matter and as it leeched useful minerals from deep inside the planet, it made conventional mining unnecessary. In light of the revelation of Tiberium's connection to the Scrin, it has been theorized that Tiberium is as useful as it is as a means of convincing the populations of planets targeted by the Scrin to use it and thus spread it, developing an economic "addiction" to the substance and thus be unable to contain it before it eradicates them.
Presently Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles — a muon or tauon — collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.
While attempts at controlling the spread of Tiberium have been made, due to it's virulent nature and the depth of the reliance on the material that all three major human/cetacean polities possess, it has spread into Citadel Space and the Terminus Systems. While Tiberium is highly valued by all governments, the damage it does to ecosystems has made imports and exports of the material very tightly regulated by the Council for fear of vast ecological damage. Earth, the homeworld of Humanity and Cetaceankind, has completely lost a full 30% of it's land surface to Tiberium, where no carbon based life form can survive without protection. Mars is similarly scarred by Tiberium growth.
Due to it's value, Tiberium has become a common commodity on the black market and is known to be wildly popular as a performance enhancer. Those who survive Tiberium exposure and begin to be mutated by it demonstrate greater size, strength, endurance, intelligence, reflexes, increased lifespan, enhanced regenerative powers, and myriad other benefits, though mental enhancements are generally limited as few are willing to expose brain tissue to a substantial degree to Tiberium. Surviving exposure and gaining beneficial traits without carefully administered infusion treatments is difficult and rare and generally leads to obvious scarring and growths of inert Tiberium crystals on the body. Uncontrolled Tiberium mutation can result in the conversion of the body into cancer-like cellular structures and the devolution of all structure into a horrific visceroid, upon which there is no hope of recovery and the only course of action is to kill the visceroid before it can cause any harm to those around it.
Tiberium is known to come in multiple colours, with Green being the most common, and least valuable. Blue is of greater worth, followed by Purple, Yellow, Orange, and Red. The reason why Tiberium's value does not adhere to the standard scale of colour frequency is currently a matter of much debate among Tiberium researchers. Tiberium research is a burgeoning and highly lucrative field and in Citadel Space, the Volus are making sure to acquire the largest share of the substance, and are among it's most enthusiastic supporters, followed by the Turians who greatly value its military and industrial potential and the Salarians who see "infinite possibilities with its potential to aid scientific research". Others can often be more skeptical given the material's obvious dangers. The Hanar are the most reluctant to delve into Tiberium research, believing the Scrin to be demons whose gifts should be rejected in favor of greater appreciation of the enlightenment given by the Enkindlers.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
The new chapter in it's final form is up on Fanfiction.net.
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Chapter 3a
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
A short snippet to begin the new chapter.
"I'm sure you're expecting some super witty quote from me, but honestly all I could think about when we were launching ourcounter-piracy operations was "up yours you four eyed fucks", yeah I'd say I was pretty mad."
- Alliance Pilot Jimmy James Walter
"Conflict is the lifeblood of a nation. Our state and our nation have grown weary and corrupt not because of the sanctions of the two eyes at the Citadel but because we have sat and done so little for so long. A conflict with this Alliance who would dare seek to deny us a Batarian millenium would be a good start."
- Jerkal Hur'uk, Batarian General.
Alliance Space-station; Screaming Eagle, 30th of April, 2468
Wolfgang von Schafhausen wasn't the biggest boy to be sure, he was eight after all. With blond hair and blue eyes any lingering doubt about his heritage not already shattered by his name were dispelled. But he was enthused by everything involving his parents. The call had come for battle, the Union was under attack by one of the largest forces of Pirates, Mercenaries, Slavers, and Terminus Warbands seen in years. In an age before manufacturing became so easy, the Terminus warbands; while certainly powerful and feared, tended to amass only in the dozens. Instead, a lightning offensive of more than one and a half thousand warships of frigate scale and above had taken place, including fifteen dreadnought class vessels and twelve carriers.
He heard something about cloning being used for more soldiers, probably from the bad guys. He just tried to imagine the size of such a force, but scale was something even adults struggled with. However, being the bright boy he was, he made sure to not stay out of the loop entirely, and was glued to any news he could get while he was being taken care of by the robot nannies. His parents may have been in the military, but his family wasn't lacking for resources, he wasn't a "Von" for nothing after all.
He turned on the device and was immediately greeted by the face of a dolphin at one of those news anchor tables, all sorts of infographs buzzing around behind the dolphin as a charming young woman, probably from the pacific front territories given her Asian features, sat directly across from the exo-suit supported cetacean. The symbol of the Alliance, a white eagle imposed over a Red star with a yellow hammer and sickle clutched in it's talons with spotlight like streaks fanning towards it on the blue flag, soon materialized on the screen behind them, followed by the logo of "ASBC War-Room" appearing in flashy typefaces with bullet holes surrounding them.
"Good day viewers and welcome to the war-room, where we give you the straight facts on our nations' ongoing war against piracy and pirates of all stripes. Today, a massive offensive lead by the Batarian Terminus warlord Skunner has launched a heavy attack on our territory, devastating many worlds in the process. General Secretary Ackerman has promised a hard hitting counter-offensive and has warned that those responsible for this horrific tragedy will pay the ultimate price for the loss of so many lives." The Dolphin started, it's clicking and squeaking being almost flawlessly synced over by it's translating software.
"Let's have the word from Ackerman himself, shall we?" The woman asked as the screen transitioned with the help of a distinctly anime esque girl riding a chibified mechanical bear "pulling" the edge of the screen over to the feed of the White Kremlin at Terra Novum. A mix of European Neo-classical architecture and Soviet bloc slavic designs, the White Kremlin was the heart of Union executive power. And there stood their Prime Minister, a hard-line bald man who had long advocated for getting tough with the Epsilon and *especially* the Batarians and the many Terminus warlords.
"My countrymen, today we have been once again, viciously attacked by the heartless warmongerers of the Terminus systems. Warlord Skunner has taken many lives from us, but I say no more. Which is why I am instating the Piracy order. Any pirate or any rogue force aiding a pirate will be immediately put to death upon capture if they refused to surrender. I am also increasing our patrols, doubling our military output, and increasing the guard of our colonies." He said, getting the obvious facts out of the way first, all the political niceties that most politicians would say. But of course, with Ackerman, there was always an ahh...bonus to his speeches and declarations.
"And if the criminals in Kar'shan don't like it they can kiss my ass. We've tolerated your support of pirates for thirty years. If you ask me your government is a scourge on this galaxy that must be destroyed for the sake of your people and every sapient being in the stars. If we see another large scale operation backed by you, the eagle is going to rip off your heads and shit freedom down your necks. We're going to be putting Skunner's head on a pike and there ain't shit you can do about it. Either you disown him as a pirate and he gets incinerated by Prism beam or double tapped in the head by our troops or you protect him and you have an act of war on your grubby little hands. Your choice you four eyed freaks." He said, his voice remaining absolutely serious despite the nature of what he was saying, his intense stare never deviating from the camera, and not so much as one glance at speech papers or teleprompters being made. A round of applause and cheering went across the gathered press as he showed why he was elected with such huge margins.
"Oh and as for Skunner. We're coming for you. There's nowhere you can hide, no rock you can crawl under, no asylum you can seek that is going to protect you from us. We're going to get you. We're going to kill you. You can make bank on it. For what you've done, there is no way in hell you're going to die peacefully in bed. We're going to systematically destroy your life's work and end your reign of terror once and for all. Thank you all for listening. Now, questions?" He said to the gathered press as they all started raising their hands one after the other.
Wolfgang's viewings were however, quickly interrupted by a call. Flipping out his personal digital assistant, he was greeted by the face of his mother on the other end despite their tremendous distance from one another. He managed a smile and a wave to his mother just as she gave him one.
"Hello Wolfgang! How are you?" She asked, her warm face radiant with affection.
"I'm good Mom! I did my homework like you asked! But where are you going?" He asked, laying the PDA on the floor so that he could lie down on the couch.
"I've told you before Wolfgang, deployment orders are to head out. Your father and I are going to help blow up the pirates so that they can't hurt anyone else."
"Will you be back soon?" He asked, tilting his head to the side while his mom dimmed her smile slightly.
"I don't know Wolfgang, we'll see soon. Just make sure to do good in school and keep out of fights with the Imperial girl. I don't want to receive another notice when I get home. Are we clear? Valiant Lilly will be there to watch you." She said, jokingly pointing an accusatory finger at him and chuckling.
"I'll do my best mom." He said, perhaps a bit noncommittally; earning Wolfgang an eyebrow quirk from his mother and a fold of her arms.
"Wolfgang." She said expectantly.
"Alright, I promise!" He said, throwing his hands up in the air while laughs were passed all around.
"Love you mom, say hi to dad for me!" He said with a cheery and impeccable grin on his face as he waved goodbye.
"I'll make sure of it! Good bye." She said as she returned the wave and closed out of the conversation soon afterwards.
"I'm sure you're expecting some super witty quote from me, but honestly all I could think about when we were launching ourcounter-piracy operations was "up yours you four eyed fucks", yeah I'd say I was pretty mad."
- Alliance Pilot Jimmy James Walter
"Conflict is the lifeblood of a nation. Our state and our nation have grown weary and corrupt not because of the sanctions of the two eyes at the Citadel but because we have sat and done so little for so long. A conflict with this Alliance who would dare seek to deny us a Batarian millenium would be a good start."
- Jerkal Hur'uk, Batarian General.
Alliance Space-station; Screaming Eagle, 30th of April, 2468
Wolfgang von Schafhausen wasn't the biggest boy to be sure, he was eight after all. With blond hair and blue eyes any lingering doubt about his heritage not already shattered by his name were dispelled. But he was enthused by everything involving his parents. The call had come for battle, the Union was under attack by one of the largest forces of Pirates, Mercenaries, Slavers, and Terminus Warbands seen in years. In an age before manufacturing became so easy, the Terminus warbands; while certainly powerful and feared, tended to amass only in the dozens. Instead, a lightning offensive of more than one and a half thousand warships of frigate scale and above had taken place, including fifteen dreadnought class vessels and twelve carriers.
He heard something about cloning being used for more soldiers, probably from the bad guys. He just tried to imagine the size of such a force, but scale was something even adults struggled with. However, being the bright boy he was, he made sure to not stay out of the loop entirely, and was glued to any news he could get while he was being taken care of by the robot nannies. His parents may have been in the military, but his family wasn't lacking for resources, he wasn't a "Von" for nothing after all.
He turned on the device and was immediately greeted by the face of a dolphin at one of those news anchor tables, all sorts of infographs buzzing around behind the dolphin as a charming young woman, probably from the pacific front territories given her Asian features, sat directly across from the exo-suit supported cetacean. The symbol of the Alliance, a white eagle imposed over a Red star with a yellow hammer and sickle clutched in it's talons with spotlight like streaks fanning towards it on the blue flag, soon materialized on the screen behind them, followed by the logo of "ASBC War-Room" appearing in flashy typefaces with bullet holes surrounding them.
"Good day viewers and welcome to the war-room, where we give you the straight facts on our nations' ongoing war against piracy and pirates of all stripes. Today, a massive offensive lead by the Batarian Terminus warlord Skunner has launched a heavy attack on our territory, devastating many worlds in the process. General Secretary Ackerman has promised a hard hitting counter-offensive and has warned that those responsible for this horrific tragedy will pay the ultimate price for the loss of so many lives." The Dolphin started, it's clicking and squeaking being almost flawlessly synced over by it's translating software.
"Let's have the word from Ackerman himself, shall we?" The woman asked as the screen transitioned with the help of a distinctly anime esque girl riding a chibified mechanical bear "pulling" the edge of the screen over to the feed of the White Kremlin at Terra Novum. A mix of European Neo-classical architecture and Soviet bloc slavic designs, the White Kremlin was the heart of Union executive power. And there stood their Prime Minister, a hard-line bald man who had long advocated for getting tough with the Epsilon and *especially* the Batarians and the many Terminus warlords.
"My countrymen, today we have been once again, viciously attacked by the heartless warmongerers of the Terminus systems. Warlord Skunner has taken many lives from us, but I say no more. Which is why I am instating the Piracy order. Any pirate or any rogue force aiding a pirate will be immediately put to death upon capture if they refused to surrender. I am also increasing our patrols, doubling our military output, and increasing the guard of our colonies." He said, getting the obvious facts out of the way first, all the political niceties that most politicians would say. But of course, with Ackerman, there was always an ahh...bonus to his speeches and declarations.
"And if the criminals in Kar'shan don't like it they can kiss my ass. We've tolerated your support of pirates for thirty years. If you ask me your government is a scourge on this galaxy that must be destroyed for the sake of your people and every sapient being in the stars. If we see another large scale operation backed by you, the eagle is going to rip off your heads and shit freedom down your necks. We're going to be putting Skunner's head on a pike and there ain't shit you can do about it. Either you disown him as a pirate and he gets incinerated by Prism beam or double tapped in the head by our troops or you protect him and you have an act of war on your grubby little hands. Your choice you four eyed freaks." He said, his voice remaining absolutely serious despite the nature of what he was saying, his intense stare never deviating from the camera, and not so much as one glance at speech papers or teleprompters being made. A round of applause and cheering went across the gathered press as he showed why he was elected with such huge margins.
"Oh and as for Skunner. We're coming for you. There's nowhere you can hide, no rock you can crawl under, no asylum you can seek that is going to protect you from us. We're going to get you. We're going to kill you. You can make bank on it. For what you've done, there is no way in hell you're going to die peacefully in bed. We're going to systematically destroy your life's work and end your reign of terror once and for all. Thank you all for listening. Now, questions?" He said to the gathered press as they all started raising their hands one after the other.
Wolfgang's viewings were however, quickly interrupted by a call. Flipping out his personal digital assistant, he was greeted by the face of his mother on the other end despite their tremendous distance from one another. He managed a smile and a wave to his mother just as she gave him one.
"Hello Wolfgang! How are you?" She asked, her warm face radiant with affection.
"I'm good Mom! I did my homework like you asked! But where are you going?" He asked, laying the PDA on the floor so that he could lie down on the couch.
"I've told you before Wolfgang, deployment orders are to head out. Your father and I are going to help blow up the pirates so that they can't hurt anyone else."
"Will you be back soon?" He asked, tilting his head to the side while his mom dimmed her smile slightly.
"I don't know Wolfgang, we'll see soon. Just make sure to do good in school and keep out of fights with the Imperial girl. I don't want to receive another notice when I get home. Are we clear? Valiant Lilly will be there to watch you." She said, jokingly pointing an accusatory finger at him and chuckling.
"I'll do my best mom." He said, perhaps a bit noncommittally; earning Wolfgang an eyebrow quirk from his mother and a fold of her arms.
"Wolfgang." She said expectantly.
"Alright, I promise!" He said, throwing his hands up in the air while laughs were passed all around.
"Love you mom, say hi to dad for me!" He said with a cheery and impeccable grin on his face as he waved goodbye.
"I'll make sure of it! Good bye." She said as she returned the wave and closed out of the conversation soon afterwards.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hell yes.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Yeah Ackerman's going to be giving a lot of rather off the wall speeches.
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
You'll love his declaration of war speech against the hegemony in the future.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So hyped for that.
Chapter 3b
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
ASNV Glory of the People, Carrier, 1st of may, 2468
Dietrich von Schafhausen sat in the cockpit of his strike craft as the carrier Glory of the People emerged via chrono-rift before the planet of Tyranasia, where Skunner had chosen to make his stand in an all or nothing gambit against Task force Strakh sent out to destroy him. In the past; a battle between thousands of frigate scale and larger vessels such as now would have been unthinkably massive. But this wasn't the past anymore. In the past, an armada wouldn't deploy out of blue-white tears in space time that informed the pirates and slavers that they had an apocalyptic battle on their hands.
"Dietrich reporting ready for launch." He said as he checked his controls, nodding with satisfaction as each and every one of them reported a green light. His Achilles class super-striker was not an ordinary strike craft. For one thing it was much larger than the usual five to twenty meter strike craft. fifty meters long and powered by an anti-matter pulse rocket for maximum maneuverability; and whose reactors powered a devastating array of spectrum beam emitters on it's wings with a central wave-force cannon; along with tesla and anti-matter missiles as just a bit of extra firepower. As extra insurance, two sets of high intensity short ranged lasers on the top and bottom were the last part of the piece; meant to discourage swarm attacks.
The Glory of the People was given what it needed to operate twelve wings of six of these craft; paired with the usual array of other strike craft all meant to ensure that someone somewhere was going to have a bad day. Seventy two Raptor class super strikers was enough to make a real difference, even in a battle like this where the weather forecast was cloudy with a chance of furball. And well, he wasn't going to be flying the only wing of Raptors today.
"How's the wife and kid?" one of his wingmates asked as they were given the leave to take off from the enormous carrier. Dietrich scolded himself mentally; he forgot to send his own message to little Wolfgang after Hannah reminded him. He made a mental note to set up a call with him the instant he was able to.
"They're doing just fine Yuki, haven't had any complaints from the school about Wolfgang since he got in that fight, and Hannah? Hannah's tougher than the tank she drives." He said with a chuckle as his full body armored flight suit glistened somewhat in the light it was reflecting from the panels and screens in his strike craft.
Already the first salvos of fire were traded, already some ships were lost on both sides, and already his scanners had filled with countless new contacts; swarms of strike craft and drones that had been vomited out by the pirate fleet.
The two swarms approached each other, and in the space of a single tense second; the stars became filled with violence.
His own wing powered through the screen of Raider interceptors; spectrum rays flaring to life and spraying hateful multicoloured death wherever they could, each of the emitters swiveling in their mounts on the wing and singling out a target. In such a target rich environment; his craft reaped a rich number of kills that would surely lead to yet more marks under his kill tally.
"Scratch thirty pirate drones and six interceptors." He chuckled as the turret mounted lasers on his craft swatted down some more drones as he made his way to his real target; periodically firing as the ship's A.I plotted solutions while he maneuvered himself and his flightmates into an attack run on one of the pirate cruisers.
"Cruiser is in my sight, give the engines a kick and charge up wave force cannons. Show these fuckers that they've messed with the wrong people." Dietrich said while a chorus of affirmatives came in reply; including the clicking and squeaking of a dolphin and the warbling of a squid.
His Raptor hummed with power as the cruiser's GARDIANs busily tried to ward off a swarm of Space Paladin drones that were making a nuisance of themselves in the ranks of the pirates, with several destroyer class vessels having already found themselves bursting into explosions while the alpha wing lined up for the kill on the heavy cruiser.
Just as it fired off a mass accelerator slug at some distant foe; Wave-Force Tachyonic particles forced to interact with Baryonic matter shot forth from the noses of the sleek Raptor craft like brilliant streaks of white annihilation. The cruiser's kinetic barriers blocked some of the force for the briefest moment then they crumpled, then the armor gave way, then the decks, then the armor on the other side as the cruiser was sheared apart by the fury of Red Flight.
The ship's oxygen supplies provided the fuel for one last explosion while Eezo from the ruptured core bled into the void along with humanoid shapes who had been sucked into the vacuum only to be targeted as debris and zapped with prejudice by the lasers of the Raptor craft, killing them all as the prism rays danced across the surfaces of the cruiser's escorting frigates and destroyers, sending many of them to their dooms in a glorious inferno while Dietrich gunned his craft downwards to get in position to unleash a nuclear missile volley at another distracted capital ship, drones struck by the lasers of the Raptor falling apart while his squadron made their descent.
A number of impacts struck the next target and it too joined it's comrade struck by the wave-force cannons in oblivion, hurried along by a spat of prism rays to ensure that as few of them managed to reach their escape pods as possible.
But even this daring drama above the surface of the world was just part of the story. Deeming the pirates sufficiently distracted; the Fleet Command decided to send in the vanguard via chrono-rift to begin the ground phase while the spacelanes were tied up in a massive furball of a battle.
Dietrich von Schafhausen sat in the cockpit of his strike craft as the carrier Glory of the People emerged via chrono-rift before the planet of Tyranasia, where Skunner had chosen to make his stand in an all or nothing gambit against Task force Strakh sent out to destroy him. In the past; a battle between thousands of frigate scale and larger vessels such as now would have been unthinkably massive. But this wasn't the past anymore. In the past, an armada wouldn't deploy out of blue-white tears in space time that informed the pirates and slavers that they had an apocalyptic battle on their hands.
"Dietrich reporting ready for launch." He said as he checked his controls, nodding with satisfaction as each and every one of them reported a green light. His Achilles class super-striker was not an ordinary strike craft. For one thing it was much larger than the usual five to twenty meter strike craft. fifty meters long and powered by an anti-matter pulse rocket for maximum maneuverability; and whose reactors powered a devastating array of spectrum beam emitters on it's wings with a central wave-force cannon; along with tesla and anti-matter missiles as just a bit of extra firepower. As extra insurance, two sets of high intensity short ranged lasers on the top and bottom were the last part of the piece; meant to discourage swarm attacks.
The Glory of the People was given what it needed to operate twelve wings of six of these craft; paired with the usual array of other strike craft all meant to ensure that someone somewhere was going to have a bad day. Seventy two Raptor class super strikers was enough to make a real difference, even in a battle like this where the weather forecast was cloudy with a chance of furball. And well, he wasn't going to be flying the only wing of Raptors today.
"How's the wife and kid?" one of his wingmates asked as they were given the leave to take off from the enormous carrier. Dietrich scolded himself mentally; he forgot to send his own message to little Wolfgang after Hannah reminded him. He made a mental note to set up a call with him the instant he was able to.
"They're doing just fine Yuki, haven't had any complaints from the school about Wolfgang since he got in that fight, and Hannah? Hannah's tougher than the tank she drives." He said with a chuckle as his full body armored flight suit glistened somewhat in the light it was reflecting from the panels and screens in his strike craft.
Already the first salvos of fire were traded, already some ships were lost on both sides, and already his scanners had filled with countless new contacts; swarms of strike craft and drones that had been vomited out by the pirate fleet.
The two swarms approached each other, and in the space of a single tense second; the stars became filled with violence.
His own wing powered through the screen of Raider interceptors; spectrum rays flaring to life and spraying hateful multicoloured death wherever they could, each of the emitters swiveling in their mounts on the wing and singling out a target. In such a target rich environment; his craft reaped a rich number of kills that would surely lead to yet more marks under his kill tally.
"Scratch thirty pirate drones and six interceptors." He chuckled as the turret mounted lasers on his craft swatted down some more drones as he made his way to his real target; periodically firing as the ship's A.I plotted solutions while he maneuvered himself and his flightmates into an attack run on one of the pirate cruisers.
"Cruiser is in my sight, give the engines a kick and charge up wave force cannons. Show these fuckers that they've messed with the wrong people." Dietrich said while a chorus of affirmatives came in reply; including the clicking and squeaking of a dolphin and the warbling of a squid.
His Raptor hummed with power as the cruiser's GARDIANs busily tried to ward off a swarm of Space Paladin drones that were making a nuisance of themselves in the ranks of the pirates, with several destroyer class vessels having already found themselves bursting into explosions while the alpha wing lined up for the kill on the heavy cruiser.
Just as it fired off a mass accelerator slug at some distant foe; Wave-Force Tachyonic particles forced to interact with Baryonic matter shot forth from the noses of the sleek Raptor craft like brilliant streaks of white annihilation. The cruiser's kinetic barriers blocked some of the force for the briefest moment then they crumpled, then the armor gave way, then the decks, then the armor on the other side as the cruiser was sheared apart by the fury of Red Flight.
The ship's oxygen supplies provided the fuel for one last explosion while Eezo from the ruptured core bled into the void along with humanoid shapes who had been sucked into the vacuum only to be targeted as debris and zapped with prejudice by the lasers of the Raptor craft, killing them all as the prism rays danced across the surfaces of the cruiser's escorting frigates and destroyers, sending many of them to their dooms in a glorious inferno while Dietrich gunned his craft downwards to get in position to unleash a nuclear missile volley at another distracted capital ship, drones struck by the lasers of the Raptor falling apart while his squadron made their descent.
A number of impacts struck the next target and it too joined it's comrade struck by the wave-force cannons in oblivion, hurried along by a spat of prism rays to ensure that as few of them managed to reach their escape pods as possible.
But even this daring drama above the surface of the world was just part of the story. Deeming the pirates sufficiently distracted; the Fleet Command decided to send in the vanguard via chrono-rift to begin the ground phase while the spacelanes were tied up in a massive furball of a battle.
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Chapter 3c
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Planet Tyranasia, Vuldoros Continent, Kleinbak plains
On the plains, a Batarian manned his anti-aircraft missile battery with pride. The targeting VIs were top notch and his job promised to be an easy one. Just let the Alliance come in with their shock and awe tactics and blow them away before they could do anything about it. With the triple A and GARDIAN laser sets supplementing these SAMs, any flier would have to have a death wish to even approach this area.
Anti-ground defenses and regular patrols bolstered the area's defenses. Even orbital drops would run the risk of triggering the planet's defenses long before they ever hit the ground. Yes there was much to be proud of. Strength, competence, and a well thought out plan. Even a chronosphere teleportation drop would probably still bring the attentions of the anti-ground defenses.
But of course, they failed to take into consideration the fact that first; little drones could be chronosphered in to relay data before they were inevitably destroyed; followed by the chrono-shift of a number of large bombs that required the frantic attentions of the combat engineers to defuse. But then all semblance of order fell apart when the Alliance revealed their most audacious plan; chrono-shifting in vehicles directly above the defenses as their positions were marked.
Low lying guns and missile batteries were crushed by heavy metal, plastics, and ceramics smashing into them from the air as the vehicles immediately began firing away. On top of this particular Batarian came not a Kodiak main battle tank or even a Didko heavy tank, and certainly not a Nodachi Light Tank. But the full seven hundred ton mass of a Doomsday superheavy battle tank, a vehicle that showed its clear lineage from the mighty Apocalypse and Mammoth tank of many centuries past, dropped on his head after being teleported fifty feet above him. His death was mercifully swift as sir Isaac Newton made his body his bitch with a satisfying "splat" sound made that made itself known amongst the noise of the tank making its landing after it appeared over his head in a flash of blue and white.
With the painted on symbol of a roaring mechanical bear, the Doomsday Tank "Steel Bear" spoke with it's twin railguns; selecting tesla rounds that exploded among the batarians and sent forth a dazzling array of lightning as Perun's fury incinerated the Batarians where they stood; not caring one iota for their kinetic barriers and melting their gear and drones to slag as the seven hundred ton behemoth rolled forward; striking at a rapidly taking off gunship with tusk missiles that ripped through it's vulnerable turbines; Prism repeaters sputtering forth brightly coloured rays of doom from where one would expect pintle or hull mounted machine guns. Each impact of the anti-personnel energy beams "refracted" into more beams that struck down more targets, the Tank seemingly unstoppable as missiles were struck aside by the top mounted prism beams and incinerated before they could touch the vehicle while other forms of anti-vehicular fire may as well have been throwing pebbles at a rolling boulder for how little the Bear cared for it.
A Batarian Tank tried to roll forward to meet the Steel Bear, but after its shell bounced off to no effect, followed by four more shells as the Steel bear did not deem the "mere" main battle tank to be even worth its guns, the Bear simply kept on rolling forward and flatten the other vehicle beneath its massive weight, rising up as it rolled forward and then pressing down on the Batarian tank with mass effect fields that worked not to lighten the tank, but give it even more weight as it rolled over and crush the sixty ton main battle tank into a flattened ruin with some bits of red paste leaking from the crumpled metal, loading nuclear warheads into it's next round of shells and firing them at a site of bunkers outed by the drones. Two ear splitting cracks were issued by the sound barrier as protest. Two far louder and brighter explosions dominated the horizon as the bunkers were given a double tap of nuclear fire, ensuring that the bunker would not be offering the bear or its comrades any resistance. Finally, with the LZ secured; the commander decided to speak.
"This is Hannah von Schafhausen, Steel Bear reporting in. Is the area secured?" She asked, waiting for a brief moment for a response.
"Yes comrade commander, the immediate area is secure. What are your orders?" Came in another voice of a nearby vehicle, her tank's EVA unit showing her a detailed depiction of not only where her tank was, or where the other tanks of her unit were, but also the movement of the army within the vicinity as Chronospheric insertions occured with greater and greater frequency across the entire grid.
"Move through the fallout zone ASAP to hit their bases and hit them hard! Artillery support will be provided and we have some MCVs on the case. Who dares wins! Ura!" She said, shouting her unit's motto and smiling at the uniformity of the "URA!" shouts as the vehicles began to come together. They needed to keep their force concentrated so that as much force as possible could be brought to bear in as small a space as possible, spreading out would likely mean their slow death.
The armored force thundered forward with deadly intent; sweeping out those pirates and mercenaries who had withstood the nuclear assault with extreme prejudice as they sought to ensure that the MCVs and mobile war factories would be able to do their jobs unmolested. Even with the escort vehicles already dropped in; it was always good to keep the enemy off guard. Perhaps a proper military force would have been able to stop the onrushing juggernaut of steel charging forward, but caught off guard and met with such heavy machinery the mercenaries on the ground faltered and their shots became more panicked as the very primal fear of an onrushing swarm of fast moving and superbly durable armoured fighting vehicles took hold in the animal centers of their brains.
Hannah flipped some switches in her vehicle as the armored force barreled through the immediately radioactive terrain to get at the nearby mercenary base. A number of the Nodachis and Multigunner IFVs that had rushed ahead were struck by Eclipse biotics that worked not to try and show off by crushing them; which would have been a wasteful expenditure of energy, but to hold them in place or bog them down for anti-tank munitions to fire and strike down the light vehicles. With a swear Hannah vowed that those comrades of hers would be avenged as she ordered the transports to come to a halt and let forth the infantry and the machines to help clear out the enemy's specialist infantry as she saw one of the Kodiak tanks be upended by blue mass effect fields she assumed had to come from an Asari commando squad, letting their weapons tear through the more vulnerable bottom of the tank and then throw the vehicle's hull at another Kodiak tank to knock it off course and let fire from mercenary armoured vehicles pincoushin the now exposed Kodiak.
The Tsivil mk 39 and Borillo mk 38 IFVs halted their advance offering supporting fire from their own lighter weapons while expendable drone vehicles such as robot tanks swarmed forward to absorb losses for their comrades and V32 missiles, Katyusha Rockets, and Valkyrie Self Propelled Guns fired from forces comfortably back in the base rained down hell upon the base's positions meant to keep those biotics pinned down long enough for the heavier vehicles to roll forth and add their own voice to the growing drama of battle.
She took a look through one of her tank's cameras and spotted a flash; followed by one of the Kodiak tanks erupting into flame as a mass accelerated round pierced through it's exposed flank, bringing the vehicle to a complete halt while those of the crew who survived quickly filed out into the hellstorm of fire already consuming the area. "Shit" she thought to herself as she realized that there had to be a tank destroyer somewhere in the vicinity to one shot a Kodiak like that.
"Gunner, turn to my mark and load armor piercing rounds, have the missile pods fire frag rounds to flush out his friends too." She ordered as the behemothic doom tank rolled it's turret over to the probable location of the tank destroyer as it claimed another Kodiak tank, aiming for a weak point in the vehicle between the small space where the tank's turret met it's chassis, a shot that would have required an excellent gunner and V.I to make on that moving Kodiak.
But before the Batarian Tank Destroyer could fire again; it's hull was blasted clean through by a double tap; though the first shell was enough to overwhelm it's barriers and armor; the second shell was insurance that it was dead and that none of the crew could survive and post their experience, unless of course; the vehicle was a drone, she thought a V32 missiles crashed all across the area with thunderous force; punctuated by the crash of Katyusha rockets and artillery shells all meant to cause as much damage as possible before abrubtly halting after thirty seconds to let the vehicles roll in.
"Tsivils, Borillos, I want those of you with mancannons to launch first, we'll roll up support as fast as we can." She ordered, beginning a second artillery bombardment; but not with shells or rockets; but with infantry equipped with jump jets and mass effect field manipulators who darkened the sky with their myriad shapes; from heavily armored desolators and Tesla Troopers to elite peacekeepers and Imperial Warriors to armored cybernetically augmented warbears and terror drones. Landing in the rear areas of their foe's encampment, these infantry immediately began to wreak havoc while the armored columns rolled forth to smash the base between the two pincers they had set up.
On the plains, a Batarian manned his anti-aircraft missile battery with pride. The targeting VIs were top notch and his job promised to be an easy one. Just let the Alliance come in with their shock and awe tactics and blow them away before they could do anything about it. With the triple A and GARDIAN laser sets supplementing these SAMs, any flier would have to have a death wish to even approach this area.
Anti-ground defenses and regular patrols bolstered the area's defenses. Even orbital drops would run the risk of triggering the planet's defenses long before they ever hit the ground. Yes there was much to be proud of. Strength, competence, and a well thought out plan. Even a chronosphere teleportation drop would probably still bring the attentions of the anti-ground defenses.
But of course, they failed to take into consideration the fact that first; little drones could be chronosphered in to relay data before they were inevitably destroyed; followed by the chrono-shift of a number of large bombs that required the frantic attentions of the combat engineers to defuse. But then all semblance of order fell apart when the Alliance revealed their most audacious plan; chrono-shifting in vehicles directly above the defenses as their positions were marked.
Low lying guns and missile batteries were crushed by heavy metal, plastics, and ceramics smashing into them from the air as the vehicles immediately began firing away. On top of this particular Batarian came not a Kodiak main battle tank or even a Didko heavy tank, and certainly not a Nodachi Light Tank. But the full seven hundred ton mass of a Doomsday superheavy battle tank, a vehicle that showed its clear lineage from the mighty Apocalypse and Mammoth tank of many centuries past, dropped on his head after being teleported fifty feet above him. His death was mercifully swift as sir Isaac Newton made his body his bitch with a satisfying "splat" sound made that made itself known amongst the noise of the tank making its landing after it appeared over his head in a flash of blue and white.
With the painted on symbol of a roaring mechanical bear, the Doomsday Tank "Steel Bear" spoke with it's twin railguns; selecting tesla rounds that exploded among the batarians and sent forth a dazzling array of lightning as Perun's fury incinerated the Batarians where they stood; not caring one iota for their kinetic barriers and melting their gear and drones to slag as the seven hundred ton behemoth rolled forward; striking at a rapidly taking off gunship with tusk missiles that ripped through it's vulnerable turbines; Prism repeaters sputtering forth brightly coloured rays of doom from where one would expect pintle or hull mounted machine guns. Each impact of the anti-personnel energy beams "refracted" into more beams that struck down more targets, the Tank seemingly unstoppable as missiles were struck aside by the top mounted prism beams and incinerated before they could touch the vehicle while other forms of anti-vehicular fire may as well have been throwing pebbles at a rolling boulder for how little the Bear cared for it.
A Batarian Tank tried to roll forward to meet the Steel Bear, but after its shell bounced off to no effect, followed by four more shells as the Steel bear did not deem the "mere" main battle tank to be even worth its guns, the Bear simply kept on rolling forward and flatten the other vehicle beneath its massive weight, rising up as it rolled forward and then pressing down on the Batarian tank with mass effect fields that worked not to lighten the tank, but give it even more weight as it rolled over and crush the sixty ton main battle tank into a flattened ruin with some bits of red paste leaking from the crumpled metal, loading nuclear warheads into it's next round of shells and firing them at a site of bunkers outed by the drones. Two ear splitting cracks were issued by the sound barrier as protest. Two far louder and brighter explosions dominated the horizon as the bunkers were given a double tap of nuclear fire, ensuring that the bunker would not be offering the bear or its comrades any resistance. Finally, with the LZ secured; the commander decided to speak.
"This is Hannah von Schafhausen, Steel Bear reporting in. Is the area secured?" She asked, waiting for a brief moment for a response.
"Yes comrade commander, the immediate area is secure. What are your orders?" Came in another voice of a nearby vehicle, her tank's EVA unit showing her a detailed depiction of not only where her tank was, or where the other tanks of her unit were, but also the movement of the army within the vicinity as Chronospheric insertions occured with greater and greater frequency across the entire grid.
"Move through the fallout zone ASAP to hit their bases and hit them hard! Artillery support will be provided and we have some MCVs on the case. Who dares wins! Ura!" She said, shouting her unit's motto and smiling at the uniformity of the "URA!" shouts as the vehicles began to come together. They needed to keep their force concentrated so that as much force as possible could be brought to bear in as small a space as possible, spreading out would likely mean their slow death.
The armored force thundered forward with deadly intent; sweeping out those pirates and mercenaries who had withstood the nuclear assault with extreme prejudice as they sought to ensure that the MCVs and mobile war factories would be able to do their jobs unmolested. Even with the escort vehicles already dropped in; it was always good to keep the enemy off guard. Perhaps a proper military force would have been able to stop the onrushing juggernaut of steel charging forward, but caught off guard and met with such heavy machinery the mercenaries on the ground faltered and their shots became more panicked as the very primal fear of an onrushing swarm of fast moving and superbly durable armoured fighting vehicles took hold in the animal centers of their brains.
Hannah flipped some switches in her vehicle as the armored force barreled through the immediately radioactive terrain to get at the nearby mercenary base. A number of the Nodachis and Multigunner IFVs that had rushed ahead were struck by Eclipse biotics that worked not to try and show off by crushing them; which would have been a wasteful expenditure of energy, but to hold them in place or bog them down for anti-tank munitions to fire and strike down the light vehicles. With a swear Hannah vowed that those comrades of hers would be avenged as she ordered the transports to come to a halt and let forth the infantry and the machines to help clear out the enemy's specialist infantry as she saw one of the Kodiak tanks be upended by blue mass effect fields she assumed had to come from an Asari commando squad, letting their weapons tear through the more vulnerable bottom of the tank and then throw the vehicle's hull at another Kodiak tank to knock it off course and let fire from mercenary armoured vehicles pincoushin the now exposed Kodiak.
The Tsivil mk 39 and Borillo mk 38 IFVs halted their advance offering supporting fire from their own lighter weapons while expendable drone vehicles such as robot tanks swarmed forward to absorb losses for their comrades and V32 missiles, Katyusha Rockets, and Valkyrie Self Propelled Guns fired from forces comfortably back in the base rained down hell upon the base's positions meant to keep those biotics pinned down long enough for the heavier vehicles to roll forth and add their own voice to the growing drama of battle.
She took a look through one of her tank's cameras and spotted a flash; followed by one of the Kodiak tanks erupting into flame as a mass accelerated round pierced through it's exposed flank, bringing the vehicle to a complete halt while those of the crew who survived quickly filed out into the hellstorm of fire already consuming the area. "Shit" she thought to herself as she realized that there had to be a tank destroyer somewhere in the vicinity to one shot a Kodiak like that.
"Gunner, turn to my mark and load armor piercing rounds, have the missile pods fire frag rounds to flush out his friends too." She ordered as the behemothic doom tank rolled it's turret over to the probable location of the tank destroyer as it claimed another Kodiak tank, aiming for a weak point in the vehicle between the small space where the tank's turret met it's chassis, a shot that would have required an excellent gunner and V.I to make on that moving Kodiak.
But before the Batarian Tank Destroyer could fire again; it's hull was blasted clean through by a double tap; though the first shell was enough to overwhelm it's barriers and armor; the second shell was insurance that it was dead and that none of the crew could survive and post their experience, unless of course; the vehicle was a drone, she thought a V32 missiles crashed all across the area with thunderous force; punctuated by the crash of Katyusha rockets and artillery shells all meant to cause as much damage as possible before abrubtly halting after thirty seconds to let the vehicles roll in.
"Tsivils, Borillos, I want those of you with mancannons to launch first, we'll roll up support as fast as we can." She ordered, beginning a second artillery bombardment; but not with shells or rockets; but with infantry equipped with jump jets and mass effect field manipulators who darkened the sky with their myriad shapes; from heavily armored desolators and Tesla Troopers to elite peacekeepers and Imperial Warriors to armored cybernetically augmented warbears and terror drones. Landing in the rear areas of their foe's encampment, these infantry immediately began to wreak havoc while the armored columns rolled forth to smash the base between the two pincers they had set up.
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hihi, so the alied soviet now also have Japanese Imperial in their team?
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
The member alliances that make up the Allied-Soviet government are the United States of America (The U.S and Canada by Default), the Euro-Alliance (Europe west of Poland (though Poland got fucked over hard by Germany in Red Alert's WW2 and basically had to give up all the territory Nazi Germany took from it historically) plus greece and turkey), the Empire of the Rising Sun (Korea, Japan, the Philippines [traded to Japan in exchange for becoming part of the Allies], and assorted minor pacific islands) and the Pacific Front (Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, malaysia) for the Allies.
On the Soviet side you have the U.S.S.R (Communist bloc Europe and the USSR along with Afghanistan), the Commune of the Near East/Islamic Socialist Union (I'd need to look up a good name) (the Middle East, North Africa, and Iran), the Latin Confederation (basically the rest of the Americas), and the Pan-Asian Co-operative (China, the Indochinese countries, India, Pakistan, and Burma).
Everyone had their own contributions to the tech used by the Alliance of Soviet Social Democratic Nations, and as it's a Federation each is given a great deal of leeway and independence.
The Empire is the Alliance's leader in psychic research and A.I among other things.
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fixed. I think
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Thanks!
so, will we see red alert 3 imperial Unit?
I'm wondering, are the Fed of red and blue using the allied super weapon (weater control) to help regulate a planet environement?
And lol, here a much oficial sounding name for the Allied Soviet block. - Democratic Society of Republican Empire.
I'm wondering, are the Fed of red and blue using the allied super weapon (weater control) to help regulate a planet environement?
And lol, here a much oficial sounding name for the Allied Soviet block. - Democratic Society of Republican Empire.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Yes, probably in an updated format and depending on whether I think Mecha fit the story.
Yes, it's part of their terraforming method and also is used to regulate the weather to ensure farming goes off without a hitch and that everyone has a productive day. As well as producing snow for the holidays among other things. It's a massively convenient form of tech.
Those two bolded terms contradict.
The official name is the Alliance of Soviet Social Democratic Nations.
Allied-Soviets is the short hand, I would like another, better short hand but no one's presented one.
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Red and Blue. Dude, Red and Blue. Sure it wouldnt be the **official name** but I'm pretty sure everyone call it like that because some fancy internet meme took root.