Earth
As the governor of Earth, Hu'Tae was not having the best of times. It seemed that no matter what victories he seemed to be able to eke out from the disaster he was handed that there was always a larger catastrophe waiting around the corner to wretch it out from his hands and provide an even bigger mess than he had started with. This was exactly the situation Tae found himself in now with Europe in open revolt against Octavia, multiple other revolutions rocking key parts of the Imperium's hold over this planet, and the humiliating campaign in Grozny and the backlash from that, he had much to worry about. Suddenly the doors of the former Buckingham Palace, the place where Hu'Tae had based his administration, flew open revealing a male organic and a short one at that, only about 5'5 compared to Tae's near 7-foot frame. The man was bald with a grim expression on his face wearing the expression of one who could only be experiencing the deepest of fury, this was the leader of the ERG, Raymond Hiddleston and he had just arrived at the face of Tae and began with his tirade, "What the bloody hell is going on with your drones clanker! My boys in Africa keep telling me that your machines keep declaring them as traitors! The fuck's going on down there!" he said spittle landing all over the face plate of Tae.
Tae sat as his face cleaned itself, squirting out water from the ridge of his his head to wash away the spit before a tendril peeked out from his back with some sort of fabric on it which then dried his face, "I don't know what you're talking about Raymond. Have your men been committing treason?"
"I sure as hell hope not but I know the men that
your drones killed were innocent!" Raymond yelled, slamming his fist against the table Tae was sitting at
Tae sighed, "And how can you be sure of this exactly?"
Raymond put on a mock look of thought, placing his hand on his chin and vigorously rubbing it, "Hmm, I don't know, maybe it was that they had literally just been fucking promoted the day before?"
"That seems like enough time for treachery to take place. Maybe you're just emotional about this, maybe you should take a short break from your duties hmm?" Tae said
"Ah yes,
25 officers all decided to commit treachery on the same day! Perfectly normal that, nothing at all out of the ordinary!"
Tae paused for a moment, "Do you mean to tell me that 25 officers were killed on the same day?"
"Damn right I do! And I want to know for what reason! My men are in shambles right now because every one of their commanding officers are being murdered by your bots!" Raymond once again attempted to slam his fist against the table but was stopped by Tae's hand this time. Raymond began yelling again but Tae wasn't listening, the Octavian was too deep in thought to bother giving any processing power to home in on the indignant cries of an organic. Surely there wasn't some kind of purge of the ERG going on behind his back, right? He was important enough to know if it was time to liquidate the collaborators in one way or another. Furthermore, it didn't seem right that it would be drones doing individual assassinations, if these men truly were marked for death by the Imperium, it would usually be the Mechanators doing it, drones would only come in if there was widespread rebellion and Tae would know if such had happened in the ERG.
Going off that Tae could eliminate the chance that the Imperium had actually decided to kill large amounts of the ERG command staff and not tell him but that begged another question. Then who? Who had the know-how and the ability to ape Octavian drones? Well, he knew the Ignisae weren't on the planet and The Mandate should've had no way to smuggle this equipment past the current line of battle. That only left the Reavers. The same Reavers who had already tried to distract the Codex with their trash bundled together with salvaged pieces of drones. It was almost certainly those same Reavers.
"Reavers..." Tae's voice was cold to a point that was unexpected even of a machine.
"What about those rebels has to do with your drones going haywire?" Raymond asked, an eyebrow now raised.
"Those rebels have everything to do with the drones shooting down your men Raymond. They've been making fakes of our equipment and sending them out to try and derail the Imperium. I assure you; I'll have this sorted as soon as the situation in Europe stabilizes and we can nail down their production sites. At that point we'll be able to get back at those degenerates two-fold." Raymond nodded as he heard Tae's words.
"So, the cheeky bastards can make copies of your tech now? Bloody hell...and here I thought that the ever-so-perfect machines would have a mind to keep their bots out of enemy hands."
Tae sighed, "You are dismissed Raymond. Relay this to your men and tell them to be wary around any drones that seem off in any way. Mechanators should be the only one catching traitors, drones have no part in that." Tae gestured for Raymond to leave and with rolled eyes he left out of the palace doors to return to his duties.
"If I had known how annoying this post would get, I wouldn't have accepted it...." thought Tae as he began to look back on every disaster that had befallen his administration from the time he got to Earth,
"Grozny, the invasion, and now this! It's like this planet is cursed! At least I can be sure that there won't be another catastrophe for a bit, these revolutionaries probably subsumed every other mess in the waiting..."It was then he received another message, this time from what remained of Octavian command in Europe, telling of a troubling development within the continent. It was strange that they had much to say considering their current position, but it may be important to know.
To: Governor Hu'Tae
We would like to inform you that various Vampire warlords have announced their loyalties to the Sky Reaver rebels and are aiding in hostile operations against us. We shall continue the fight where we can despite our lessened capabilities. All Hail to the Imperium.
Tae looked at the message for just a moment before swiping it away into his garbage alongside the other files he wished not to be reminded of. The situation somehow continued to degrade, and he knew that at the rate this was going to get him removed from his post (which really didn't seem like the worst outcome now). Despite his personal feelings on the matter, Tae knew that he had to do something drastic if he wanted to keep any grasp on this situation. The vampires defecting was a sign of bad things to come; if not punished then the other collaborationist forces may try and recreate their treachery and the ground forces of the Imperium would not be able to hold if DIO decided to turn traitor as well. It was time to devastate Europe.
Skies of Europe
While the revolutionaries pushed eastward clashing against Mechanators and drones alike their backlines would be met with a sight reminiscent of the day of the invasion. Hundreds of drone fighters, all those able to be siphoned from the orbital battle occurring in the space above them, would come dropping death and destruction upon all that which the rebels had begun to rebuild. Roads, power plants, and water treatment plants would find themselves blasted to pieces by missiles dropped from on high. Recruitment centers and supply depots would be rended apart from particle beams sent down in strafing runs. Any rebuilt factories would be especially targeted by these bombing raids, depriving the revolutionaries of key resources that they'd need to continue the war effort against the Octavians. Those with a keen memory however would remember what came after the last time the Octavians subjected their world to a bombing campaign.
Invasion.
Eastern Europe
Stan Dixon and his revolutionary followers would find harsh resistance from Octavian forces as they pushed their way towards Western Europe. Mechanator, drone, and collaborator alike would offer fierce resistance towards the Reaver advance. It was imperative that the revolutions in Russia and Europe did not meet and the fashion in which the Octavians fought against the rebels indicated as much. The Octavian forces were supported by artillery and aircraft derived from the Octavian stronghold in Kiev and if the Reaver Revolutionaries would want to put an end to the constant barrage they would have to take Kiev from the Imperium.
Housing Camp A-1001
Qozk had seen better days. As a Mechanator he had expected to leave his home planet of Abbada and go forth into a life of adventure and glorious combat but instead found himself at the end of an assembly line scanning weapons for defects. His job was one where he had to have his consciousness present in his body unlike many in the Imperium, a job that was soul-crushingly boring for the young Abbadi. Qozk should've known that the recruitment ads were bogus and yet his stupid sense of ambition made him think that he was destined for greater things than being another shell in the assembly lines. Ironically that was what he had become anyway. He sat on one of the human chairs that he had requisitioned placing all the defective rifles in a pile to his left (closer to the workers) and allowing all the properly made rifles to continue their way down the line.
"Rifle number 2404 defective.... Rifle number 2405 defective...Rifle number 2406 defect-" Qozk took a moment to consider how many of the rifles that he had received had come out defective. The last 32 guns were created wrong in one way or another and it made him wonder if this was on purpose. The organics may have just been unaware as to how to properly construct a laser rifle, but he couldn't be sure as to what exactly was going on. His questions were answered once he found an organic rushing him with what seemed to be half-finished electrosaber sending crackling sparks of electricity bouncing off the blade to which Qozk jumped back allowing his attacker to slice the chair he was sitting on in half. Qozk swung up his arm and released his arm cannon, carving a hole directing through the rebel's chest. Moving his attention Qozk would learn that the man he just slew wasn't the only prisoner here rebelling, everywhere the Abbadi looked there were prisoners trying to best their Mechanator guards. Carnage and combat reigned as the previously calm camp erupted into rebellion. It seemed the battle that Qozk had been looking for had come to him.
Across most housing camps there were similar rebellions, though they would run into trouble when it came to overpowering the few Mechanators that were within the camps. Despite the camps being mostly comprised of collaborators those few assimilated beings that guarded them would prove as tough obstacles to the success of these rebels.
Resource Consolidation Station #5412
Valten twisted her head around 360 degrees to look at Kirin as she made her offer. She wasn't sure if she would be allowed to make such an exception for a cyborg and the organics accompanying her but what Kirin had said made sense. If the Imperium was to receive aid, then it would be best that it came as quickly as possible even if it came from these unverified strangers. Though she wasn't sure of the legality of skipping the diplomatic process Val certainly sure that if these potential allies were to back out of the alliance because of her insistence on procedure then she would face the wrath of her superiors and that wasn't something that she much wanted to risk. So, it was decided, she would allow these Iretons to skip the bureaucracy that such things would usually entail.
"Ah, well of course! The Imperium's future allies deserve only the best! I'll need only a few moments so I can pull a few strings and I'll be able to connect you with someone able to work out the details of our future alliance!" Val's voice was as upbeat as ever as she paused for a few moments, presumably pulling the strings that she had mentioned. It was after these moments that a light began projecting itself from her visual sensors forming itself into a hologram of an Octavian flag which then warped and twisted itself into the form of a humanoid head.
“Hello, you are speaking to East Diplomatic Node #A442. Please present the details of your alliance so that they may be processed and taken into consideration.” A cold, robotic voice spoke this time clearly coming from the diplomatic AI which had manifested itself in front of them. If they wanted to expedite their time on this station, they had certainly done it.
Gonswanza Earth
Nine was watching the events happening on this Earth very closely. It seemed that the tensions which existed on this planet had suddenly and dramatically begun to expand with what seemed to be no end in sight. At the rate things were progressing it was clear that the only way that these mounting tensions would be relieved would be in war which could potentially cause some issues when it came to mineral extraction assuming that somehow Octavian stealth shuttles were revealed. If that nightmare scenario were to take place, then it was highly likely that one of the many enemies the Imperium had accrued would make their way over to this Earth to put a stop to it.
"Should I arrange an end to this? I am already involved in one pointless war, there's no reason why I shouldn't prevent another one." thought Niner while he weighed his options. He could fairly easily put the brakes on all this for the time being, a few well-placed cyberattacks and the whole system the organics here had put in place would be totally immobilized. They'd be in no position to send assassins against each other let alone organize a war and if that wasn't enough, he was sure that the Imperium had enough capability to engineer a crisis large enough to pull away their attention. Perhaps a disease of some sort? Nine decided to shelve that option for the time being as he reviewed the situation as a whole, such a radical option would require more deliberation before being put into action. For the time being he would simply oversee the continuing escalation and see what exactly Octavia may lose if the organics got into a self-desructive war of their own.
As Nine stopped deliberating on the issue of the oncoming tide of war another issue came to his attention with a ping coming from inside his own mind, he had just received a message from the Gonswanzans on the satellite images from Russia that he had asked for not too long ago. The information received was bizarre for a planet such as this, what sort of technology could the Russians possibly have if they could create a burst of energy strong enough to be compared to a particle beam? That was technology far beyond the tech bracket of this planet, let alone the nation of Russia which seemed like a lesser power when it came to technologies such as this. It was something that was most certainly worth investigating and luckily Nine had a contingent of infiltrators tucked away in the Russian Federation...
Siberia
The locals of Muyevka were unsure as to when the new villagers came into town. No one saw the family of 4 arrive to the village and no one knew anyone in the village that were related to them or were even acquainted to one of them before their home propped itself up in the middle of the night a year ago. They were rarely seen outside their little house but when they were it was always the seven of them leaving town-always quietly-and then returning after a few days' time before they once again retired to their home to be seen whenever it was time to leave again. Some said they were members of the SVR RF, spies deployed in their small village to engage in daring espionage against the Chinese, others claimed that they were just a normal if not reclusive family that had moved in and that the rest of the village should stop snooping around in other people's business, and some of the more eccentric villagers claimed that they were alien infiltrators sent to destabilize Mother Russia and bring about their rule from the stars. These people were considered conspiracists by the rest of the village. Something so wild could never be real.
Except for the minor detail that it was.
Infiltrator Team K-"Rus" had settled themselves in this innocuous village not too long after the Imperium had made contact with Gonzwansa, used their nanite pre-fabs to place down a "wooden" house (with a sizable cache of infiltrator equipment located underneath), and waited for any orders to keep the system a steady stream of minerals for Imperium. It was today that they would receive one such order.
The rickety door to the shack was thrown open by a gruff looking man his chin covered in facial hair, his face was utterly devoid of emotion, he no longer had to wear the facade of humanity now that he was returned with his squad, “Hey! Get off your asses lads, Command finally decided to give us shit to do! There's some kind of event going on to the east and Nine wants us to check it out." His cover labelled him as Sergei Malkovich, a Russian intelligence agent sent from Moscow to pursue any Chinese agents rabble-rousing in Siberia.
Another man who was curled up in a ball in a poor imitation of a dog rose to his haunches as if he were a dog sighing, "Dear god, do I really have to start standing again Karnch? I'm still not used to the feeling." His assumed identity was that of Teterev Malkovich, close brother of Sergei and fellow spy. He had messy brown hair that fell down to his shoulders and a scraggly beard that fell to his chest.
Karnch grimaced, “For fucks sake Hur, maybe if you stopped whining about it, you’d get used to the legs faster. I'd love to have my other arms in this meatsuit but you don't see me complaining, do you?” he growled out the sentence as he began tapping in a combination of numbers while pointing it towards the ground prompting multiple racks of clothing to rise from the ground mainly made up of suits and uniforms for various organizations.
Hur sighed as he got to his feet, "Yeah, yeah I get it, I have to get up, but I have to say that being a Seendi and wearing one of these human suits isn't as bad a transition as the Katan experience."
Karnch was about to reply when a small, blond woman stood up and placed a hand between them, "Come on now, we don't have time to argue over which one of your races has the worst time being a human. Let's get dressed and be done with this."
The last member of the group, a tall, bald Russian man was already deep within the hidden closet picking out emblems for the mission, "I agree with Kay'Lara on this, you two bicker too much. We'd probably have already left if you two weren't having your mini race war."
Hur groaned, "Of course the Octavians would understand the troubles of being within a body that doesn't conform with their true one. Humans and Octavians are just
soooo different to each other, I could hardly imagine how you two are able to persevere in those bodies. Maybe I should get a wheelchair for you Sa'Lon? Perhaps some crutches for you Kay'Lara? Anything to help." his words were soaked in sarcasm as Karnch applied his hand to the back of the faux-flesh that made up Hur's head.
"Alright! That's enough dallying! Get on some FSK uniforms on and get in the truck!" yelled Karnch as he began picking out uniforms and hurling them as his subordinates. Not too long after, the town would once again see the mysterious group riding out of town in their truck, riding off to some new place.
Red Square
The Horacellum guards watching over the area in which their airspace had apparated into this reality would find four Russians determinedly marching towards their position. Each one was clad in a black suit with sunglasses which gave them an air of anonymity as they marched on. Each very visably had a pistol holstered somewhere on their person though it wasn't any model that the guards would be able to recognize. It wasn't very long after that they would arrive at where the guards would be at at which point the leader of the group of black suited men would flash a card bearing the symbol of the FSK, the Russian intelligence agency, before coolly stating, "FSK, we have a message to give to your leaders coming from the highest levels of our intelligence. It is of the uptmost importance that your leaders recieve this message so please, allow us through." They would stand in formation waiting for the response of the guards.
Panrox System
It would only take a few moments for the crew of the Monolith to receive any sort of answer from the Octavian fleet, the pros and cons of this arrangement argued in full in the few moments that it took for the answer to be relayed to them, but the answer seemed to be clear enough once the Monolith received a message simply stating
- Code: Select all
Affirmative
and then the fleet warped out of the system, waiting just within the one directly next to it within Octavian territory in case the proposed negotiations were to end poorly.
Atarvas System
Just as the Domain had asked a single shuttle holding a single dignitary would enter the system though the diplomat inside was likely not what the mages would expect from Octavia. The shuttle's interior was mostly black with red lighting illuminating the hazard suit that the diplomat was clad in though it certainly wasn't for its sake. If one were to look inside the suit and past the darkness that consumed the interior, one would see luminescent bulbs hanging down from what looked like stalks dangling from somewhere above the lights. A blue light revealed lime leaves growing out of something distinctly fleshy confirming that this was some sort of plant-based life; another, final look deeper would discover that the flesh that could be seen behind the plant matter was in fact some sort of organic, at this point its species could no longer be determined after extensive use by the parasite that was now in control of the body. The hazard suit was for the receiving dignitaries, not Mechanator Budding.
As the shuttle reached the Domain station, a message would be sent to the station to inform them of the Imperium's arrival.
To: The Dark Domain
As requested, an Imperial emissary has been dispatched alone within an unaccompanied diplomatic shuttle to meet your diplomats. If you would grant the Imperium permission to dock, we would be willing to begin negotiations.
Vonia-III
It had been a long time since Tenrin had enjoyed his work so much. Over the last year he had been working away at perfecting his hybrid creature, tweaking its DNA, carefully monitoring its development, and ever so closely watching the merger of the two Tzyakuza that he had been given. It was a careful process he was overseeing, making sure that not one gene had been spliced incorrectly, that no mutation would throw his masterpiece into ruin, that the mental state of the creature that he had made remained loyal to the Imperial cause, and most importantly, that The Paramount didn't cancel the project outright. Tenrin supposed he could understand his master's worries, the entire empire was based off the premise that flesh was inherently worse than the machine and to employ one to help win the most important war that the Imperium had ever faced? It sounded insane on its face, but Tenrin knew that what he was making had the potential to be the greatest asset the Imperium had to bear against its foes. Of course, it did have the side benefit of being the most engaging project that Tenrin had been assigned in his hundreds of years of working in OPRA but he wouldn't be mentioning that to The Paramount.
It was for work like this that he had been imprisoned all those hundreds of years ago,
"Fools...", he thought. The indignities that the Abbadi Republic had inflicted upon him for improving their race were unforgivable! He was stripped of his honors, his wealth, all of his well-earned prestige for all the advancement he brought about for his people and because they thought live experimentation was a step too far, he was somehow a monster?
"Those morons got exactly what they deserved, I'm sure they would've listened to my suggestions if they had known that a superior people were coming right at them. Ugh, just thinking about the weaklings annoys me, with their babbling about intermixing of the clans being good and what not...Idiots, all of them. I mea-" As he was continuing his mental rant a message about movement inside the hybrid's chambers,
"Ah, I should go check on it."The lizard-machine walked his way over to the bed chambers of the hybrid. It had very recently had some of the last DNA strands implanted into its genetic code and it would be a good idea to see how it was taking to the last few changes to its gene-modding. He approached the door and thought of entering the room to which the door acquiesced and opened allowing Tenrin to enter the room. His first action, upon entering the room, before even announcing his presence was to give the Imperial salute, raising his hand a full 90 degrees and spinning his hand around in a full circle, mostly just to check if the hybrid had picked up on the smaller bits of Imperial procedure. He moved next to the hybrid's bed, a chair appearing behind him as he moved to sit (His mechanical tail retracting itself to allow him to sit down).
Tenrin would chuckle at the hybrid's comment "So I see I've made something of a philosopher. I didn't think that you would be all that introspective, but it doesn't matter much. What does matter is how this existence feels? How are you feeling?" Tenrin asked, his voice tinged with intrigue.
Orion Space
H'Krell had been waiting for this day. From the moment the Imperium had met that the Imperium had met the Ignisae with their empire at the time they knew that at some point in their history that they would come to blows. Two empires of such size and power could not border other without conflict and The Paramount, in his wisdom, directed Krell to send Infiltrators into their border planets to learn of their ways and prepare a path for the Imperial army when the time was right. Now was the time to strike and Krell (through some considerable politicking) had managed to take the position of Grand General of the campaign from Kranz and into his own hands, it was he who deserved to preside over the Imperium's greatest conquest so far. Afterall was not Krell the most loyal of The Paramount's followers? Had he not been The Paramount's right hand since the times of the civil war? It was only right that he got the prestige for this most momentous achievement.
He sat at the helm of the Voidscreamer, extensively renovated since its wrecking by the hands of the Zravvisk; all the architecture and pomp had been stripped away from the craft leaving only the plasteel hull exposed to the cold void of space. This, of course, left significantly more space for weaponry and point defense which was exactly what the space was filled with. Missile pods and point defense lasers, particle beam emplacements and boarding pods, they all filled the space left by the new renditions to the dreadnought. Krell looked at the inside of the craft and noted the similar changes within the interior of the dreadnought, instead of Imperial flags and busts of Imperial figures from over the years there were now laser turrets and screens for memetic attack should the craft be boarded again. The Voidscreamer was now a combat ready craft.
The Voidscreamer was not the only craft in the invasion force that Krell had assembled however, far from it, the Grand Mechanator had gathered a Grand Armada. 20,000 ships, not counting those carrying drones and Mechanators, were sent to invade the Orion Republic, the largest fleet that the Imperium had ever mustered and for good reason. The size of the Orion Republic meant that even this many ships wouldn't be enough to fully occupy the Republic, but Krell knew that ultimately the organics would be unable to stand against the reign of fire the Imperium would bring against them. His contingent of the 10,000 strong force was 7,000 strong, one of the largest of them all which was warranted for the leader of the invasion. Every fleet was en route to one of the border planets that the Imperium had bombed last year, and it seemed that Krell's fork of the armada had approached the planet which he had been sent to seize.
As the aramada appeared into orbit they took only a moment to settle after the jump before sending a message to the forces and fleets defending the world.
To: The Defenders of this World
Behold! The Imperium has sent its fleets to liberate the Ignisae people from the tyrant which is Strein! If you lay down your arms now, then you and those on the surface may be spared from the death and destruction that is war! Your corrupt government lies to you! Claiming that we are responsible for the desolation of these worlds when in fact the Imperial government has done nothing of the sort! If you surrender now, we can present such evidence to you and reveal the truth of your government's lies to you!
Krell was almost certain that these Ignisae would refuse the offer presented. Even if it were true the racism present within their foolish society meant that they would never take the word of one who wasn't one of the races that they arbitrarily decided to be worthy of equal treatment. This worked perfectly to Krell's designs, he wanted to cut down the Ignisae so that they may never pose a threat to the Imperium and if they wanted to send their army to their deaths then they could go right ahead. Their blood would only grease the gears of the Imperium.