The New Board of Players (IC, FT)

by **Doppio Giudici** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:21 am

OOC:OOC and Signup, Here. Logs in spoilers are colored, best viewed in lighter formats. Logs outside spoilers are in standard colors, for those who can't see purple.

Warning, this post is also very long and doesn't involve any other factions. This is entirely establishing the faction where it is, and wrapping up previous story-lines, while introducing characters. Fleet movements and interactions with other factions happen in the next post.

IC:

2133
Vitas Lake, "Birthland"
Nidus, Nidus System

"I am"

"I am willing"

"I am"

"I am"

"Willing"

"To die"

"To die for"

"The People"

"My People"

"Any People"

"Sentient Life"

"Mammals"

"Life with Spines"

"Animals"

The voices echoed through, played from the various hidden speakers all around, each of them planted in a grave. The rows of gravestones went on and on as far as the eye could see, with no spacing between them, gravestone to gravestone. The rows were exactly six foot six apart, no more space was given, no less. Above all of this was an arcology, which kept the elements out, but let the sunlight in after it passed some shielding. It was a wide open space, where the sun poured down, but the rain were kept out, and below it a concrete foundation was poured and then ten feet of dirt and compost.

Standing there among the tombs was a large crowd, as many as could fit and still see the graves, and there were many many graves. There were more archologies and more, a semi-sphere bubble over each mass grave, over each painful reminder of who they were. People stood there, lightskinned, darkskinned, random skin depending on the roll of a dice. Men, women, neither, both, one and then the other. Young, old, in between. Rich, middle class, middle class…middle class.
Upon each back of each citizen and soon to be citizen was a rifle, an automatic personal defense weapon, an automatic shotgun. There was little children of barely 12 with small pinkers on them, tied to their backs, safeties' on.
There was crying, lots of crying. The ground began to grow wet here and there with tears. Without warning they did what they always did. They did what they were born to do, what they were programmed to do, what the virus said to do. Hundreds of years passed and nothing changed, a large heap of bodies, and the same tears, the same rhythm.

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp, Stomp, Chest Beat

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp, Stomp, Chest Beat

"Before I was born…. We made a collection of mass graves like this, but we never had time to finish them and most of the bodies were never recovered. Millions of people died, soldiers and civilians, horrible things were done in all."

The synthetic avatar breathed out, mimicking the actions or commands of a man thousands of miles away, being kept alive with tubes. It's face was adorned in scars, it's eyes had pupils that were purple, and it stood there in a copy of a military uniform that left service long ago. It's metal and plastic hands clutching two little rolled up pieces of paper, which were burning, burning with nothing inside but filler. One was between the pointing finger and the thumb, the other roll between the little finger and ring finger.

"And my Godfather stood in a uniform like this, chain-smoking hemp like this, and he stared at all of the graves. He stared at all the graves and he said something about how progress was coming, progress was destined, nothing would ever stop progress from coming to pass."

Thousands of miles away, a crippled and barely held together body opened its eyes, staring off into space for a few seconds. Hearts were replaceable, eyes were replaceable, limbs, veins, spines and all were replaceable. Despite that, his power came from his body, drawing power from his spirit. The spirit that took the will and drive of others, sucked it in, and then dolled it back out at two or tenfold. Half a tear, maybe less ran down one eye, that was all he had to cry out.

"And he pointed at the bodies and then at his watch. He said that it would take millions and millions of bodies more, and decades and decades for the world to ever change. He said that it would be so bloody that every day would be a struggle and there would always be another fight, another problem, and he was right."

The eyes couldn't be open that much more longer, so they closed, already stinking in pain. Drops were dispensed over them and he blinked a few times, trying to wet his eyes again.

"We were so angry, so bitter, so hateful for decades after he gave that speech. Any problem that was to be had was our problem, and so we had one of the highest morality rates by combat of any first world nation. Every day was a revolution, every day was screaming and shaking of the fist, of glaring out as tears ran down our faces. We died and were born again, over and over, just like we always do, just like we always will."

The eyes sprang back open, crying another half tear, while he stared out at the large room full of padding and screens, and wires, and cooling vents, and heating vents. This big, huge complex deep underground just to keep him comfortable enough to do what he did.

"And I am so painfully aware that there has been so many speeches, and we have been doing this for so long, and that I am a very old man. So the only thing I can tell you, and I don't know if I sound like treating you like you are slow, or clueless…. Is that those…..heroes…those martyrs.. were the best equipped they could be, to do what they did. Their souls were forged to be true, their brains modeled to be humble, and their bodies to be strong. Those…Wonderful…Glorious People…Those… Sacred…Beings… They wanted to live and live well so much, but they wanted even more badly to resolve the deep pain in their hearts."

"The pain of having living in plenty, in health, in wealth, with little space, but all the entertainment, and the love. They were accepted for being freaks, and lost souls, and sticks in the mud, and quiet people with nothing exciting to say. They looked at what they had and looked at what others had, and they felt disgusted by that. The generations before were content to eat cooked rat in a bomb shelter deep underground clutching a crying infant, with the little sibling pointing a gun at the door."

His eyes had to be remoistened and he had to blink many times, so he finally closed his eyes, and he looked out at them with the avatar, the extension of his will.

"So they looked in the mirror and said to themselves, why do I deserve to have all of this, what've I done? Do not say these words yourselves children… but I know what they said. They said to me 'What the fuck, have I done to deserve all of this shit?' And when I told them that they were likely going to go off to be mentally scarred and physically wounded, with odds being towards survival, but with tens of millions likely to die… For organisms that were only half flesh and didn't understand emotions for the most part, nor why were so pissed off that a billion of them were genocided away… I was told "Fuck those parasites, I don't give a fuck if they massacured apes, I don't give a fuck if they were one percent apes and 99% metal bobs. I don't give a fuck how self-aware they were, what matters to me, is that they did something unspeakable cruel to something with nerves and now something has to be done.'

Three Months Earlier
Heartship 3, "Greater Good"
"Atrocity" System

"Comrade....Admiral?" His eyes stared out at her, as he uttered the words. "Why have you summoned me?"

Before him was a young child, not even 14. Her eyes were closed and she sat with her legs in a tailor position, crissed and crossed. One of her hands rested on her knee, the other on another knee, but that second hand opened up to gesture him over. Four fingers moved away from her and towards her again, over and over, urging him to come over to her.

"Come here Comrade, come sit with me."

He slowly and carefully sat down, watching her, managing to copy her position. Breathing out slowly and blinking a few times, his eyes remained locked on her eyelids.

"You wanted to tell me something?" His body found itself involuntarily narrowing his brows and tilting his head, it was a habit. His face was tightened up, however, and he found himself looking down closed eyes, trying to relax his breathing. Images flashed in his mind and he opened his eyes to not see them.

"I know you have been having trouble sleeping."

"I have...had trouble closing my eyes...It's very bad... Therapy isn't helping."

"I know. I know." Her eyes opened to look back at him and she gave a faint smile, before offering out her palms. "You and I didn't choose to be born, or choose our people, but it wasn't others who got us to sacrifice. It isn't fair that you and I have suffered, but it's unfair that others who are not prepared to suffer end up suffering if we do nothing. Do you agree with this?"

"I do, the innocent have no right to suffer, and despite how awful...our lives are... At least we choose this... Or.. Pretend to choose it."

"Take my hands, place your palms over my own."

He placed his course and bandaged hands over her own, looking out to her hands, watching her wrap her fingers around his own. Looking up at her, he blinked a few times, his face giving little away. She read him regardless.

"Recently, one of our brothers has been gravely wounded in a very spontaneous and gravely fiendish attack. Till he recovers I've had to look around for people like him, to see if I could perhaps train a few pupils. Are you comfortable learning from someone younger?"

"My faith is absolute, I will follow you to anywhere you lead me." He bit his lip and looked over her face, seeing the glowing veins. "I have lost so much, and I hope that perhaps you might help me heal."

"I know that you have lost a lot of people, that you hold a very passionate hatred in your heart, over the pain and loss you feel. I know you used to feel a very powerful bond and the breaking of that bond radiates a toxic fury into you."

"Yes, I need them back. I need them... We had something... We were Comrades... We were brothers and sisters... They completed me...."

"I can help you find the path to using this pain and loss you have, and turning it into a radiant source of power. I can help you channel that power and together we will do what we can to make our surroundings better for life in general. If... If you agree... ... If... Just sing the national anthem of Vadia."

"Not the Prole Confederation?" His head tilted and he looked out at her, his mouth a little open in surprise.

"The two songs are very much alike, but I personally know that Vadia's will be fitting for the beginning of your covenant."

Closing his eyes and resting his head down, he breathed in, trying to relax himself. His singing voice wasn't much, and it was hard to focus, but he muttered up what he could.

"There's no difference between you and me. We all want to live, but it's freedom we seek. Together we are strong, but apart we are weak. There's no difference between you and me. Darkness comes from, without and within, stand your ground, cit-ti-zens. It's not about you.... being right, it's about.. right being you, stand and fight. There's different between you and me. Rise up brothers and sisters, it's our destiny. Stand humble, but praise any Comrade. When you are hurt, I shall also be sad. There is no difference between you and me. If you are oppressed, I am not truly free. My rifle is loaded, I'll watch, you sleep. Let us live in the same house, and eat the same sheep. There is no difference, we just we. There is no difference, and that is what...I see."

He opened his eyes and they seemed a bit more wet then they normally were, but he shrugged it off. Huffing out to her, he saw that she was smiling softly to him.

"You are ready." She said triumphantly, standing slowly and watching him stand with her, "I am eager to start, so that I may know you well and may learn from my new pupil, just as you will learn from me. Let us go and break bread, and begin the lessons.

by **Doppio Giudici** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:44 pm

Heartship 3, "Greater Good"

"Why did you even pick me? You might have to scrub away so much, just to..... Sometimes I can barely move."

"It hurts me too that so many didn't make it."

He felt a soft hand placed on the back of his scalp, petting him softly. There was nothing to see, very little to feel, nothing to taste, nothing to smell. He wondered if it was a dream, because he could feel himself breathing, but he wasn't sure if he could feel his heart beat.

"I think I died on that planet."

"If you had died, you wouldn't be in so much pain."

"I'm not sure what you could ever get out of me."

"Just let go of it for a little bit. Take a moment....to just rest away from it. We can deal with it when you are ready."

Her hands were warm, as they had come out of the dryer and she sighed out onto his hair, before he felt something like the gentle gaze of the sun back home. It was hard to tell if his eyes were opened or close, but he saw a ray of light coming from behind his head. It was soft, marigold light, which his eyes adjusted to quickly. His eyes flicked down to look at things away from the light, but he couldn't even see as well as he might've on Nidus, when the starts shined. A lot of places were so… Filled with Comrades, you would completely forget what the night sky looked like, it was just a moon and barely a few stars that could be made out.

"At first" He looked ahead and then lowered his eyes almost to the point that he was looking at his lips or nose, as he tried to remember what his name was. "I just wanted release or a distraction. I can't remember my name, I have a handful of guesses, but if I should know… I don't know how old I am."

"I had a feeling that you would be missing information like this."

"I remember the names of several of those…Who are no longer among us…But I do not know the names of my parents." Staring out again, he sighed out, as he knew how terrible it was to forget such basic things. Shivering and shaking, he then screamed out. "Why can't I forget the pain! Why did it have to be my name! My ….. I don't even remember how to swear properly! I don't remember what my favorite food is! I don't remember what my favoriate color is! I don't know if I have a…. Mate…Or….Smaller copies!"

His hands went to his face, as he tried rocking himself, squeezing his skull and cheeks. His body was curling and clenching up, as he began to hyperventilate. He felt his shirt almost grinding up his back, followed by the feeling of spiders along his skin. Hundreds of legs up and down him, leaving him almost convulsing from how terrible it felt. She let out a low sigh and then he felt a deep warmth up against his back, which radiated around along his skin. It was very very hot, like those spots were in a hot sauna or bath, anymore and the skin would burn. Giving out a deep sigh and releasing his body, he heard her breathing in the darkness of his eyelids.

It was such a weird sensation, like when one held a pole and pressed it against a rock, that was the closest thing to what he was sensing. He detected her heart beating in her chest, through her two arms, from her two hands.

"You are just in a state of panic, much of what you know will return." Seer consoled, her voice raising and lowering in pitch, almost like a bird or a melody. Her hands softly rubbed up and down at his back, as she smiled softly at him. "I know that your mind has been very hard to work with and it's been a great burden on you still, but you have made a great sacrifice for us. My Brother, we need you again. We need you to be yourself, to look inside, to heal. Our people, our nation need this."

She moved her lips closer to his ear and lifted his cheek from the ground, before reaching around with her other arm to hold his forehead. He felt her arm against his head, the sensation of energy flowing from her to him, and his thoughts began to soften. Was he falling deeper into the dream or waking up? Was this something more than reality or less?

"Just close your eyes and listen. Listen not for what is close, but what echoes and travels. Do not listen to many voices, listen to the voice that echoes the most."

"Do you hear it?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me what you think you hear?"

"I hear words, I hear anger....... The voice sounds like two, perhaps three voices, but it's one.... It has to be one...."

"Listen to when two separate people talk to each other, but the echoes sound alike. Do you hear it?"

"I hear a.... A young man..... A younger woman..... And his voice...... It's the voice of a killer, the voice of one who thirsts for blood."

"And what do you hear when he talks to her?"

"Fear..... Disgust.... Regret.... Forgiveness.... Acceptance.."

"And why is he scared of her?"

"Because his bodily sovereignty was violated, his entire existence was treated like an object..... I can hear the chains in his voice....."

"And did she make him this object?"

"No.... He's just scared..... Everything is on fire.... But he is scared..... And he feels worthless and dirty....."

"And what does he say when he starts to feel clean?"

"He says he wants to be equals and he wants her to trust in him. Deep down, he is just a man and she is just a woman.... And he wants to he around her... To look at this otherness.... To prove that they don't have to use each other."

"What happens to them?"

"They start speaking at the at the same time......they are soulmates

"I know where the answers are. If you take my small hand and you follow, I will show you. I need your guidance as well.... I have so much power and knowledge, and I can see.... I can hear.... But I don't know what.... I need your experience in breathing... Im a little girl filled up with the juice of our recoverable best.... I am not a killer...... I do not understand romantic love... I do not understand any of this.... You have to show me the way."

He swallowed.

"I do not know the way. Even if I could find it, I don't know if I deserve to find it or could survive finding it."

"You have already martyred yourself, it's time you come back. It's time you come back; because your people need you. Richard is too old to show me, and I am too young to know."

"Is it right for a child to be doing this? Shouldn't there be someone better than me to find the path?"

"We are alone. They do not understand us. This is why we must be many and we must reach out to the outcast. We need to grow, to cover our losses, to meet each new darkness we much confront. The Dark One plays for keeps and we must play for keeps too. In this existence, everyone must fight. No man, woman, both, neither, unsure, or even child can afford to be excluded."

"The passage of time and how frail everything is, how eternal evil is; I could never handle that to begin with."

"If you don't give it your all, I will be without help. Without me and you, things are only going to get worse, they will not get better."

"Promise me that we will be friends forever. That you will never betray me. That you will not leave me behind. Even if we are different. Even if you don't understand me. Even if ultimately this will all be likely for nothing."

She softly kissed the top of his head and looked at him, sighing out softly. Her eyes glowed over him and he felt the warmth, the rays from her eyes, the marigold color of the ancestors and their supreme being.

"You wanted most of your life to just feel like you did enough, to feel like you weren't cheating our people, that there wasn't any more you could do to make our lives better."

He swallowed again.

"I will not say this because I am uncertain, but because you need to hear this."

His eyes opened, and he looked out at the darkness.

"You do not believe something is right because we told you it is. You do not believe something is right because it is you. You believe something is right, because when someone cries, you know that is wrong. You see what is unstable and hurtful and evil. You see that and you recoil away from it in disgust. You look upon the enemy and the innocents, wishing things didn't have to be this way. You understand your enemies on some level, but you don't understand why their existence is so wrapped around themselves."

He turned his head to look at her, feeling arms on his chin and hair, before staring into her eyes. The bright, shining eyes, which didn't blind him, but merely shined a beautiful warm light.

"You have devoted yourself to goodness, pure, unadulterated, uncut, unprocessed, goodness. You strike and you hesitate. You build others up and tear them down. I know you can feel the balance, the awareness, the alertness and memory. I know that together, you and I can give a thousand powerful shows at knowing what is right and wrong, at changing all of this for the better."

"And if we are wrong."

"Then let the universe, let everything swallow us up like the thousands of tyrants that died."

"If we are right, let us win. If we are not, let us lose."

"That is what true goodness is about."

by **Vadia** » Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:20 am

Territory of "The Scourge"

Years had passed and so far almost no one had actually opposed him, two, almost three years of completely unchecked expansion. So many red and orange systems, backwaters that barely existed, a few trade hubs, a few decent rocks, over a dozen gas giants suitable for major fuel skimming. Considering that no one opposed The Great Opšti, he couldn've easily expanded even more then he did. Despite this, it was a bit harder to get people to obey and comply, then it was to conquer them. People had to be placed in the middle of his giant pyramid, various stooges, and puppet rulers. Systems had to have governors, surrounded by an elite of collaborators and experienced mercenaries. Forced labor and automation had resulted in his three fleets having many, many ships, only a few of which pushed past a little over a single kilometer. Many of them were based off designs made by what was "The Trade Republic" and it's "Republican Interstellar Forces". His large forces of "Hegemonic Ground Forces", used armor, weaponry, and uniforms based off the "Republican Ground Forces".

The insurrections he dealt with, and his forces, clung mostly to the same two weapons. The 9mm "Republican Citizen RIfle", with it's 15 rounds of considerable power and effectiveness. The weapons were rugged and reliable, while being very percise. The weapons were bullpup, but had mostly functional and comfortable triggers. Most of the models being produced were loaded with standard caseless ammo, but it was rather hard to root out the polymer, steel, aluminum, and brass cased rounds that kept turning up. The other weapon that kept turning up was more of a hindrance than something he found useful. Being small and not that good, with rather pathetic range and stopping power, it was only a problem due to availability and ease of use. The so called "Freedom Insurence" and "Safety Animal", were slightly different models of the same fu**ing pistol. The second one was straight blowback, making it one of the cheapest firearms to make period, and it was loaded with primitive custom ammo that still killed people just fine. The other one had a tilting barrel, which meant it mostly was leftover from security or milita stocks, and could easily handle hotter caseless rounds.

The two pistols were of limited effectiveness against the armor of his loyal forces, whether conscripts or loyal thugs. The best leftover infantry armor technology from the Trade Republic was an alumium/steel alloy vest, with ceramic innards, and a soft polymer inner-liner. They also left behind many methods of knee and elbow pads, along with a certain kind of military boot. Their civilians had used a helmet of hardened fibers, which was protective but stiff. This didn't matter however, as the various rifles hidden away here and there, blew apart this armor in one to four shots. The pistols were fired at close range, into the exposed and unprotected areas. To deal with rooting out these issues, he made heavy use of loyal thugs, his "Opšti Enforcers". Hardened and brutal men, they enjoyed a slightly better life, and were allowed to generally loot their victims. They would shoot first with their caseless rifles, spraying out 6.8x40mm dupet ammo, fires two bullets per round of ammunition. Their weapons were generally used by security forces before everything fell apart, boasting a magnifier for the back sight and a red dot for the front sight.

What The Great Opšti found most interesting and pleasurable about his current situation, was the very interdependence that the Trade Republic was burdened by due to it's core ethos of trade, allowed him to remain in complete control. Almost everyone could be starved or easily blown up by use of his "Hegemonic Interstellar Forces, while said forces were on ships that could easily be detonated or emptied of breathable air in specific areas.

by **Pikasistan** » Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:00 am

Fire and Flame

It took quite some time to reassemble something out of the chaos. God-Emperor Deathpikachu the 4th did tremendous work to establish the Greater Imperium of Pikasistan, which he wanted to become the successor of the Tsardom. Pikasistania, which was promptly established as the capital of his empire lied on the border separating the former empire and the Trade Federation. This made it easier for the Emperor to rebuild a military, but his task to reclaim the sector would be hard... Pirates, mercenaries, and warlords seized the opportunity to seize equipment from the former military and carved themselves an enclave which lied on the border of the nascent Imperium of Pikasistan.

The Emperor managed to reclaim two nearby systems which he would use to fuel the war economy, yet none of them possessed any planets that were suitable for colonization. Even if Pikasistania could sustain the actual population, manpower would be necessary to reclaim the Sector. Deathpikachu walked in the throne room, a rather sober place compared to those most would think of. His general approached and kneeled, "My glorious overlord, the fleets stand ready, what are your orders?". "Send scouts in the three systems that lies near Pikasistania that still escape our control, I require exact intel, whether it is about space hulks, colonizable worlds, foes or resources", he said while sitting down on his throne, "And prepare the fleets for action, if we have an opportunity to get rid of those foul brigands or to invade worlds from the now-extinct Trade Federation, we will take it".

The general nodded and left the room, carrying with him the holy words of his god.

The 1st Defensive Fleet was escorting the last civilian vessels to the Anchora asteroid mining complex in the Beta Aquilae system, the engineers managed to restore the facility to an operational state, albeit the yield would be less significant than during the Tsardom domination, it would be capable to fuel the economy of the nascent Imperium. As they approached the primary complex on AP-525, a larger asteroid which was transformed into a hub for the miners' teams as well as a loading dock to ship the raw ores to Pikasistania herself, the Dominatus Ira, flagship of the fleet, received a transmission from the Imperial Citadel.

The orders were simple compared to those of the 1st and 2nd Offensive Fleets, which still waited on the intel from the scouts that had been dispatched by Grand Admiral Laprachenko to start the action. The fleet was to stay in a state of high readiness must enemy forces try to attack Imperial space. If there was the need, the fleet would act as reinforcements for the two other fleets...

by **Vadia** » Sat Aug 26, 2017 12:04 am

Werncaya System

Werncaya was a breathable, temperate, of standard gravity, with around eight percent of the surface covered in land. On the surface the level of technology had broken down so much that it might as well be medieval, but the days were still 28 days long and the years 285 days. Still, the world was only at the moment capable of producing raw resources, but it's large supplies of fish allowed a massive population boom. The world had been just a colony, with a simple landing and taking off port. The years of tourism and escape for the rich were lost as the break down of The Tzardom began. Arms crossed, the now aged cousin of the Tzar watched the planet from his capital ship.

"What is it?" He grimaced out.

"One of the other pretenders to the throne appears to be still alive and his territory is expanding."

"So he has the capabilities to produce more ships?"

"Yes, it's believed he has at least two, perhaps three fleets."

"This could easily mean the loss of the system, perhaps the other two as well. I am not liking this...." The Cousin stated, tapping his finger on his desk. "I have two options: either I give in and hope he lets me keep what I have, or I talk to the other pretenders, who likely see him as a threat."

The Cousin blinked and then looked down at ITA-3 Rifle, a specific red model ripped from the hands of an Oprichnik who tried to kill him. The standard service rifle of what had been the Tzardom, it fired a 0.19 caliber (4.826mm) caseless flechette. Loaded with a horozonal magazine on top of the gun, it was known for being fired in short, controlled bursts. It was overall an excellent weapon for it was, but he didn't have more and it wouldn't matter as he wasn't in any position to use such a firearm. Gleaming a shiny black, the weapon was a reminder of all the shadlowy figures that stood between him and where he was now.

by **Olimpiada** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:51 am

Three Leaders, Gaia
Office of President Alexios Cyrenacius

Ordinarily, Alexios had a few days every month that he explicitly told his “secretary” (really just a clever facsimile of intellegence by BlueSky Industries) not to allow calls through from anyone. Unfortunately, here he was, speaking with Odessa Eliopolou, head of the Cobalt Ascendancy, who had apparently taken advantage of a security bug in Isaakios that the CA had known about for years to contact him anyway. He made a note to tell Katherine Iwakura about that the next time that the Archontia came to him for some bullshit contract or another.

The usually cold woman spoke with the animated excitement that all of the scientists in the CA tended to display when they had made a discovery of some sort. Alexios found it tiring, and the need to appear interested preventing him from getting more coffee made it even more so. “-the gravitational perturbations have never been seen before, and the presence of this demands further research into superluminal forms of travel, a potential goldmine of information-” she kept babbling on as if Alexios could understand it. Finally, he interrupted.

“Excuse me, but can you explain it like I went to a university on Emerald rather than Cobalt?” Alexios, being a politician, had majored in political science at a liberal arts college, and was unable to begin to make sense of any of her technobabble. She narrowed her eyes at him ever so slightly. The high resolution camera the call was running through picked it up.

“Our FTL only moves one system at a time on the other end of a wormhole we found.”

“That’s bad.”

“Yeah.”

“Is there stuff on the other side that we can take for our own?”

This sparked Odessa’s interest anew. “There’s a few worlds on the other side from what we’ve surveyed. They have humans on them, like half the galaxy seems to, but the interesting part is their culture.”

“Come again?” It was Alexios’s turn to be interested.

“They’re suicidally altruistic. We’re not sure what causes it, but they’re operating on some extreme communistic system where they behave more like a hive mind than an individual. I’m tempted to classify it as a memetic hazard.”

“Get me some more information and I just might do that.”

“Come again?”

“We can’t have those sorts of ideals permeating our society if we can avoid it.” Alexios spoke calmly, as usual. “Our system in this nation relies on corporatism. It’s why we’ve got the powerhouse economy we do. If any of those elements became popular, we might have a serious problem on our hands. Those sorts of groups don’t tend to reason very well. So, by all means, get me some more info, and we might just be able to construct a reasonable casus belli against them. Off you go.” He hung up, not by using the button on the interface as usual, but by physically disconnecting his computer from the internet. The last thing he wanted was a call back while he was off getting his hard earned coffee.

Following his much needed beverage run, Alexios sat down once more at his desk to file an order with the Federal Navy for a more complete survey of the area on the other side of the portal. Hopefully, combat wasn’t an immediate result of their incursion. That got expensive, and inevitably meant war when the Anthropoi got upset about their sons and daughters getting killed in some far away land. This whole affair was going to be a headache no matter what.

But not an entirely useless one.

by **Vadia** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 2:52 pm

Arstotzka Territory
Malum System

Arstotzka had managed to crush several systems worth of pirates, taking a number of fairly reasonable systems. However, after the chapter of Adonis and it's system Malum, was when the Star Nation's history caught up with it again. Adonis had been a planet of smog, where people spent as little time outside and what time they spent there was with a breathing mask. It held 9 billion people, and was kept down by pirates simply because the closest thing it had working to a space station was a collection of refueling depots. It was stuck using a mixture of deep land pumps and water brought in from the system's two ice planets, to meet its desperate needs for water. The planet and its people mostly survived thanks to a culture that was heavily reliant on water/waste recycling, along with vast vats of yeast and massive production of crickets. The people lived in mystery, which started after The Collapse stated, which destroyed all of their space-stations and their ships.

The pirates had kept the place down simply by demanding ransoms and doing orbital bombardment on anyone who didn't comply. Arstotzka had put down some degree of order, going so far as to bring in more water, and try to make the location a good viceroy's position. There was a problem however, the location was greatly filled with people who were desperte for a better life, and was capable of turning out large amounts of manufactured goods. There was a sea of Falcon brand pistols all over the planet, and this meant that you could certainly keep law down, but it was much easier to be very vicious and use lots of bribery to keep things in check. The local Viceroy, Christopher Quell used a system of tiers, where people who kept their areas clean and well behaved were richly rewarded, and these people kept their own orderly by some kind of means. This quickly turned into a pyramid of bribes, rewards, and loyalties. This was perfectly fine and workable, as a riot could be shelled and areas that turned out more production could be simply rewarded with more water or the most simple rewards of bread or juice.

This was fine for two or three years, till an admiral of one of Arstotzka's three fleets had a meeting with the viceroy. It had appeared that Admiral Malum, who was so ambitious and talented the system was named after him, had noticed several clear issues. The Malum System had a defense matrix, allowing it to build a number of light fleet ships, and serve as a hub between the home planet and the newly conquered systems. One of the systems about a year ago got it's own defense matrix, allowing communication and transportation almost instantly, but it had been disabled without warning. The other problem was that it was reported that the bodyguards of their leader had pulled out their Falcon .45 Extractions, and then used them on each other, before taking out the Dear Leader. This meant that there was no clear leader, someone else wanted to be in power, they had control over two systems now, and one system was now cut off from the others.

Malum and Christopher Quell quickly decided it was best to hold their position and behave as they normally did. The other factions could squable and fight each other, while they prepared themselves to mop up what was leftover when all was said and done.

by **Pikasistan** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:02 pm

His Will be done

The Emperor sat on his throne surrounded by his advisors. The situation had changed drastically over the last days, the Werncaya System was not under the hands of the rebels after all, in fact, it was in the hands of another heir to the Tsardom Throne. The Emperor had formed a doctrine for such events called the Imperial Covenant. If a world belonging to the former entity was still settled by other remnants of the Tsardom, diplomacy was to be favored above any kind of military operations. Intelligence gathered by the scouts hinted that the technological state of the world prevented any kind of long term resistance, but that they had a large population due to the massive ocean that spanned over the world.

"My lord", said Grand Admiral Laprachenko, "Although their capacity to manufacture advanced equipment is null, they still possess a fleet in orbit of Werncaya, we suspect they have other fleets".

"Do you have any suggestions then Admiral?", asked Deathpikachu the Fourth

"I would suggest that we send our two offensive fleets in the system as a demonstration of strength. If they refuse to join us, then we will be able to open fire and swiftly invade the world"

"My Emperor", said the Logisticanae, "I would advise against any kind of planetary bombardments, the scans showed that this planet could be more than useful in our efforts, as it could become a quote-on-quote silo for the Imperium".

"It is what I also thought, but tell me first, what are the reports on the scouts sent to the east?"

"Nothing that could be a threat for the Imperium as of right now your majesty, but there are resources that could be useful in the future and since it lies in the former Trade Federation's territory, perhaps we could get ahold of some of their techs."

"It is good to know, send the 1st and 2nd Offensive Fleets in Werncaya you can all return to your occupations. Logisticanae, switch our production focus for war, we will need specialized material to land on this world".

They all bowed and left the room.

The Logisticanae, the master of the Imperium's industries, entered the tech-vaults which were built near the northern pole of the planet. Many archivists were already set on the task of finding the equipment that would allow landing on an oceanic world such as Werncaya. As Pikasistania was a planet unsuitable for agriculture because of its bleak surface, the Tsardom used it as a manufacturing world, supplying the Tsar's forces in the arms race that opposed him to the Trade Federation, the Imperium had access to much of the military technologies developed before the Collapse. Despite his will to develop new material to assist him in his conquest of the Sector, the God-Emperor knew that, for the moment, he needed to rely on the old technologies to consolidate his nascent Imperium and, because of it, the army was still equipped with the weapons their ancestors used. The only major advancement in the Imperium was the TCMAC cannon, an upgraded version of the MACs used by the fleets. The TCMAC traded some of the range of its predecessor for increased firepower and reloading speed but was outfitted to smaller vessels that weren't meant to be artillery platforms for the Navy.

An archivist approached the Logisticanae and gave him a tablet, on which was displayed the specifications of the OEAC-19, a small vehicle which could be dropped by the drop ships above the oceans to deliver troops on the islands of the planet. He nodded to the archivist in approval, it was indeed the most effective way to land troops on the planet, but they would definitely need air superiority to cover the landing of the invasion forces....

by **Belgiosweden** » Sun Sep 03, 2017 2:38 pm

The ravens gaze
After a long period a watching and gathering intelligence on our southern neighbors, Parliament was called in Pentonberg to discuss what to do with the barbarians.

Supreme Magknight Owen Praktiskbjörn Stands before the king, adjusting himself briefly before speaking.
"Our current findings from the many scouting missions, committed by the Knights order, suggest that these, seemingly human, creatures are significantly less mentally developed than the kind found in our world. This is reflected in their society and technology, which both are slightly more developed than that of the Zerjon prior to their conquest. However, they do still pose a threat to our human and dwarf populations as they appear to carry some serious hereditary mental defects and could cause issues with the lower class if renegades of their population manage to breed with ours. This problem is not likely to effect the björnkin Population"

Corvus Pope Dewen III Suddenly rises and interrupts "They cannot be allowed to persist! They are a threat to our way of life! Imagine the what Ideas like theirs could do to the right of feud!"

The Magknight looked at the old dwarf as the room erupted into a sea of mutters. a sea which quickly settled when Void master Haegore arose to speak on behalf of the mages guild. He took a deap breath and began to divulge "The mages guild has taken great care in our intelligence gathering on these beings, and have come to find that they lack any arcane footprint. We believe that, like the pre-conquered Zerjon, they lack magica. If this is he case it would explain why they have not yet noticed our constant probing for all this time. Their inferior science however is much easier to detect and with what we learned from the Zerjon we may be able to cut them down even quicker"

King Robert then himself began to speak "I have read the report and agree they are a threat to this noble Kingdom and it's peoples. I have contacted other forces about the threat and whence they are ready we may begin the necessary actions to quell this blight on the stars"

The discussions continued into the night as the war plans were proposed and laid out, and not long after the the Supreme Magknight was rallying troops from across the realm to fight in the name of king. Lord after Lord joined the effort and before long the Kingdom was mobilizing on a scale unlike ever before.

His majesty was also preparing himself to fight in the crusade. Prepared to don his red armour once again to defend the world from a blight that threatens to undo everything he had worked so hard to maintain. His very Dynasty was on the line and he was not prepared to let backwards savages take it away. It did not matter how far in the future it may be until the effects could take hold, only that it would and he could not allow that. Soon the Mjolnir would be flying and nobody would be able to stand in his way.

by **Houseidou** » Thu Sep 07, 2017 1:15 am

Approaching Gatama Nexus, Gatama System, Ryuusei Cluster, Delta Quadrant, Milky Way Galaxy

The brilliant sunlight of the twin red giants was polarized by filters as it was displayed on the viewscreen inside of the CIC of the battleship SCNS Michinoku, a Nagato-class dreadnought. There, Vice-Admiral Sora Togame watched from behind the translucent faceplate of his custom-made uniformed environmental suit. The exterior mimicked the standard uniform of the Celestial Navy, silver with gold and red trim, but contained a very non-standard helmet that had a large translucent faceplate and additional wires and tubes connected to a life support pack on his back. Like his sister, he possessed milky-white skin, similarly white hair, and purple eyes, but unlike Erika, who had a body robust enough to withstand the rigors of regular interaction, Sora had lost the genetic lottery, and thus had the unfortunately common affliction among his people of weak organs and an immune system that could barely fight off a cold.

Sora was a Yosomono, the traitorous rebels that destroyed the colony fleet that eventually brought about the Divine Sovereignty of Houseidou when one group of ships wanted to leave the rest of the colonization effort on Irori and start over on a planet with a more normal day-night cycle. Instead, with crippled chimetic drives, they fled into deep space and interbred amongst themselves, resulting in their current lack of genetic diversity. Combined with the conditions of living on ships not meant to be generation ships, and when the survivors of the Fleetfall Mutiny, as the betrayal was called, found the descendants of those infamous traitors, they treated them as outcasts. Sora and Erika were lucky enough to be rescued from one of the many asteroid colonies their people had set up, though not before Sora's "weaknesses" had been sacrificed to the Yosomono-created deity to represent the cruel reality of living in space, the Mad God of the Void.

He flexed his cybernetic hands and shifted on his cybernetic feet in remembrance of what he had lost, but that always kept him going. He fought tooth and servo to make his way into this command slot, and despite the bad blood between his ancestors and the ancestors of those he was sworn to protect, he had shown his loyalty and resourcefulness. Despite his seemingly cold and indifferent attitudes, Sora quickly developed a reputation for being completely immovable, and focused utterly on tactics and strategy, showing off a military genius that got him noticed by the Admiralty. After he proved the effectiveness of countering the Basaka once their "Playbook" was acquired, he was given command of his very own Fleet, Sixth Fleet, and since then, had earned the respect and admiration of his subordinates and crews, who now possessed an almost fanatical loyalty to their Vice-Admiral. This, along with his demeanor, his appearance, and his past, is why he had earned the nickname of "Dark Lord of the Sixth".

And now, he was here, commanding the second wave of forces that were delving into what was called the "Gatama Nexus", a gravitic anomaly at the barycenter of the orbits of the two stars in the Gatama System. The system in question was devoid of any planets or asteroids of note, though it is believed that the pair of red giants had swallowed up any planets orbiting them, and, until the Nexus was discovered, the system had mainly been used as a site for old ships to be decommissioned and stored, hence the name of the system, which translated as "Mothball". A research outpost was established near the Nexus, and after much experimentation and deliberation, the Nexus had been given a special station on top of it, a station that was the destination of VADM Togame. This installation utilized the gravitic technology the Divine Sovereignty of Houseidou to open up wormholes into parallel universes, which immediately became useful when they managed to stabilize and successfully open and close repeatedly. After reconnaissance of the opposite side, a life-bearing planet was discovered, so a joint expedition of both naval and civilian ships was sent through the Nexus to the other side to establish a colony. Now, months later, a report of an attack on one of the survey flotillas by unknown forces has prompted High Command to send reinforcements into the Shokuminchi-tai, the "Colonial Zone".

The Michinoku and her accompanying ships in formation slowed as they reached their destination, making their way between the looming stars to either side. Approaching from directly above or below the plane of the ecliptic allowed for the safest passage to the Nexus, rather than trying to time the flight between the orbits of the stars. There, they finally were able to pick out their destination: a heavily-armored cylindrical structure, superficially resembling the concept of an O'Neill Cylinder, only with a hollow center composed of a series of rings. The anomaly was undetectable by the human eye, but the scanners the Celestial Naval ships used that sensed along the quantum membrane, the fabric of spacetime, could see the hole made in this reality, which would be unlocked by the station's modified gravitic drive. Normally, such a drive, like the ones on the ship, would use the Alcubierre method of faster-than-light travel by creating a pocket of space that greatly increased the speed of light within, letting the ship exceed the normal speed of light. But this station would activate the Nexus in conjunction with that sort of drive to catapult the ship into another universe completely. Since the gravitic drive caused a visible spiraling distortion of the space outside of the ship as it engaged its FTL, it had been called a "drill" in Naval parlance for over a century, and keeping in that tradition, this station had the codename of "The Mine".

"Sir, Vice-Admiral Oikawa is requesting further orders." The calm voice of Captain Michinoku Hoshino, the military AI of his flagship, told him as her avatar materialized. Unlike his helmeted and bodysuited appearance, she took the form of a tall, slender woman with blue eyes and long, dark brown hair, which framed her face with two chest-length bangs and was tied up in the back in a long ponytail which reaches her lower back. She was clad in a long, light purple kimono with white stripes running down the center and sleeves, tied at her waist with a long piece of white fabric. She additionally wore a red and gold pauldron on each shoulder, as well as matching gauntlets and greaves. Completing her ensemble is white and red facepaint and a golden headpiece resembling three sakura petals, making her resemble some sort of feudal Japanese princess ready for battle. "Very well, then." Sora replied, turning his attention to the holotank that had been used to display the combined fleet's current position in space.

Vice-Admiral Mitsuru Oikawa paced nervously on the bridge, despite virtually everyone above her in her ranks over the years telling her to not do that on the bridge, as it projected an image of insecurity and impacted morale, but she couldn't help it as her thick tail swished back and forth. Mitsuru was very much like her fellow Vice-Admiral: a member of a race that was a genetic offshoot of humanity. But while his ancestors were made to adapt in that way, Mitsuru's ancestors chose to become what were now called Mimis, hybrids of animal and human, usually with animalistic ears and other features. In Mitsuru's case, she was a Norwegian Forest Cat Nekomimi, almost 2 meters tall and built like a grav-tank. Her uniform had to be custom-made to fit her, complete with a special sleeve for her massive and thick tail, while an exception was made for her long brown hair, which ranged from a light tan to a dark chocolate in stripes and patches, like a cat's fur. Said hair was known to grow so fast that once, she almost shaved her locks off to the buzzcut length a fresh enlisted recruit would have, and within 12-15 Watches, it would be back to shoulder length. Right now, it was a part of a thick braid that coiled down like a second tail to rest just above her own tail. One might mistake the Vice-Admiral for being pudgy, and some of that were the patches of fur pushing against her uniform, but she was quite muscular, and her metabolism combined with her size made a high caloric intake a necessity. But her size tended to result in her not having any sort of feline grace one might expect from a Nekomimi, and she was rather clumsy. With all of this working against her, one would wonder how someone clearly meant for Mobile Strike managed to make it to get the five bars and three pips of a Vice-Admiral, and to be fair, she only got them half a Branch ago from being a Rear-Admiral in Seventh Fleet. Now she was in charge of Fifteenth Fleet, and she was not the only one getting fast-tracked, as some of her colleagues were also getting promoted.

In the wake of the discovery of the Basaka, there was a massive undertaking in ship construction, arms and materiel buildup, and training and promoting of personnel. With losses were at a historical low since then, all of the new ships, crews, supplies, and munitions needed spots, so the relatively new Eighth through Thirteenth Fleets now had Fourteenth through Seventeenth joining them, with Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth in the planning stages. Formed from a core of experienced officers and enlisted personnel, Fifteenth Fleet was mostly fresh, inexperienced hands, and their ships reflected that, Mitsuru commanding her fleet from the (relatively) ancient SCNS Houshou, lead ship in her class, the first-ever fleet carrier built back during the Reizouko Crisis over a Grand Year ago. While comparatively small by current standards, almost a light carrier at 75% of the size and 80% of the capacity of her "modern", post-Basaka counterparts, she was considered a treasure by the Celestial Navy for her hard work through both the Crisis and the current "Long War", as it was called, and her AI, Commodore Houshou Yushi, an older Yushi-class C&C AI, chose Mitsuru and Fifteenth Fleet. It was an honor to be able to work on such a historical ship, much less take her into battle. Which is why Mitsuru felt so anxious and nervous, having to live up to such a legacy.

"Cheer up, Vice-Admiral!" The avatar of Commodore Yushi exclaimed as Mitsuru waited for the tightbeam "whisker" lasers between Houshou and Michinoku to properly align. Despite her "age", Houshou preferred to present herself as a teenage schoolgirl with red and yellow hair that not only had a prominent central golden bang to resemble a beak, but the hair briefly parted into three section as it descended down Houshou's back, the side sections curving back on each other before swooping up to give the impression of "wings" while the middle fanned out to look like "plumage". "I wish I could, since I'm waiting on an explanation as to what's going on from-" The image of Vice-Admiral Togame, Vice-Admiral Oikawa's senior by a few years, appeared in the holotank. "Vice-Admiral Togame!" Mitsuru greeted with a curt bow. "What a surprise! It's an honor to speak with you again!"

"Vice-Admiral Oikawa, we spoke before departing from Madara for this destination, and you asked me upon arriving here for your next set of orders." VADM Togame answered curtly. "I do not quite see it as a surprise, nor an honor."

"Alright, then..." VADM Oikawa replied, her ears folding back a bit from the snappy attitude. "So, what are we doing at this research station?"

"Firstly, can you take this in your CIC, instead of your bridge? This is a bit of a private matter."

Mitsuru looked confused, as she normally took calls on her bridge, with her people, but she relented with a nod and briefly cut the connection so she could run to the adjoining chamber, usher out the tactical advisors, and close things up before activating the holotank. "Alright. Houshou and I are all alone."

"As of this moment, you are being given Violet level clearance, authorization code Zero-One-Two-One-Nine-Tyrian." Sora intones, before Mitsuru gains a new data packet via the laser transmitters, showing orders and a map. "This isn't going to be war games between my fleet and yours. We have been directed, along with the Third Marine Expeditionary Force, which we are soon to rendezvous with, to head into another universe to assist Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Fleets in securing the space within that universe for our usage."

"WHAT?!?" Mitsuru exclaimed as she studied the unfamiliar star chart in front of her. "Another universe? What are we securing it from? And I thought those fleets went on goodwill missions to help our allies."

"Answering those questions in reverse order, sort of, we do not know, and yes. A few Branches ago, we were contacted through the Nexus by another civilization, and have been in regular communications with them. A Branch ago, they ceased all contact, so we tried to find them, and ended up finding a way into what we think might be their universe. The connection on the other side is passable, but somewhat unstable until we can build a facility on that end to focus the gravitic anomaly. Seven Watches ago, we got a cryptic update from Admiral Souzousuke Kyoukotsu of Eighth Fleet, of which this map is a part of. Repeated attempts to contact him have failed, and lead us to assume the worst. Our two fleets and the Marines are all we can muster on such short notice to back up the forces we have, and this might be a one-way trip to our deaths. If so, I have orders, and you will help me carry them out to ensure the safety of the Sovereignty."

Mitsuru was in awe of the fact that she was going to work alongside THE Admiral Kyoukotsu, the Hero of the disasterous Second Battle of Shikotan, and the CO in charge of the retaliatory force for the Third Battle of Shikotan, where he managed to cripple the Basaka and prove that they could be brought down. "So why the secrecy and urgency?"

"Because of three factors. The first of which is that intelligence suggests that we are not the only one with access to this universe, and that other polities from our universe, or polities from outside of it, such as the recently encountered groups in the Rastho System, might be able to enter and claim it for themselves, or use this portal to invade our home. We cannot give anyone a beachhead a mere 12 parsecs from the Home Stars. Second is that Task Force 10.1 has been attacked by an unknown force in the system called 'Tsuka'. We do not know the size and strength of this foe, nor do we have any idea of the fate of the rest of the Fleets, so we must proceed with speed, and also caution. Second is that a colony fleet was diverted to enter the Nexus and set up a military-backed colony on the opposite side to facilitate both the repair of our ships and the construction of the Mine in that star system. 600,000 civilians are in harm's way, and they are a pressing priority."

Mitsuru was silent for a moment, then asked. "Alright, then. Want me to go first, or you?"

by **Vadia** » Fri Sep 08, 2017 12:14 am

Werncaya System

"Is this message free of scrambling?"

"Yes, it's exactly what they said."

The Cousin sighed out and looked up at his attendant, before leaning back into his throne. He had the luck and the know-how to get control over two orange colony systems AND a yellow-white paradise system of beyond homeworld status. Now he was forced to turn it over to someone who likely wasn't even related to the previous Tzar, just some official or noble of minor or great status, but without the blood. It was reported that two or even three or four orange colony class systems had fallen or were about to fall, close to something that was giving off a lot of energy and projecting it's existence to around half The Sector. The others who he had tried to broker help from, were likely being swallowed up or were seemingly eager to fall before him, to kneel. The Niece, she was proposing an alliance, because it was easier to work with him then deal with something that might not be human poking into their space. Even if it was human, even if "they" were human, it would be people not even Tzardom survivors or desendents.

"Send her an encrypted reply that I am surrendered to some pretender who has a two or three fleets, she has to broker some alliance quickly with him." The Cousin said, sighing out in disbelief, "Send an open message to this.... Mil'ord, telling him that I am standing down and will be passing my tilth over in a few days. Give an account of the systems. Relay that none of my ships have engines able to travel quickly between systems and pass over that my star-ports are in considerable disrepair. I have three jump-gates, one per system, and they all currently work."

Arstotzka Territory
Malum System

It was hard to just peer out and see what the other systems had going on in them. There was a considerable amount of time spent waiting on messengers, scouts, and spies. They were beginning to consider that their servants were unreliable or the other groups were more crafty than expected. For the most part, they were not worried. Malum had the system named after himself for a reason, two reasons actually, but one of them was he was a very effective military tactician. The other groups had at most a fleet or so each, and it was very unlikely they would know how to make the most of their current military might. His fleet could be much more easily projected out as force than the fleet of any of his rivals, and he already had a very effective system to himself. The capitol was just as much a liability as a resource, with it's many hive cities and suffocating bureaucracy. Then again; that is a good description of what the Malum System was, without the suffocating bureaucracy. If there was a way to get past that and the constant backstabbing which waged in the uppercities, perhaps he would be the next Dear Leader yet.

Production remained steady, they would just wait and see if they could get more infomation, then they would make their move.

Territory of "The Scourge"

The territory was for the most part very much useless, but it provided just enough salvage, just enough people, just enough materials. The Great Opšti looked out at these two beeming yellow stars, likely filled with resources, lifegiving worlds, and the means to make or obtain better ships. Jumping one of his fleets into a system he didn't care about enough to name, let allow pacify, he waited patiently. They would get their fuel however they saw fit, but they would carry out the orders he gave them. Many of the officers in that fleet had loved ones back home, loved ones that he could easily snuff out if things were not done exactly as he said. Breathing in, he looked down at his charts, knowing that his three fleets should be in position soon enough. Once he was in position, he could without too much trouble swarm that single red star system. From there, the enemy would be forced to react and that meant attacking him while he was in a solid position he didn't even need to defend. If they caused him any trouble, he could hold the people of that system hostage or just grind a fleet or two send out at him to dust.

This was going to be very interesting, to see if he would be able to martial enough forces together to land on any areas that would take such measures to conquer. If he blew away the fleets and blockaded or bombarded, it wouldn't exactly be enough to get taxes or recruits. The elite Cadre of soldiers in exo-suits and liquid armor would get good results with their 9mm Trade Republic rifles, but they were a small fraction of his land forces. His enforcers were needed to pacify many worlds, so they couldn't be depended on at all for these landings. Perhaps the land fighting would have to happen later, when he had time and room to look out pirates and scum to hire. For now, he was stuck hoping his lowlife dogs would be enough, that they would obey orders and feared execution enough to take urban areas in his name.

by **Blancpayne** » Fri Sep 08, 2017 4:16 am

Ten Systems, United

Capital Palace, Archduchy of Irisville, Irisville System, Grand Kingdom of Blancpayne

Grand Queen Dominique I of Blancpayne summoned all leaders of her vassals for a special, and hopefully once in a lifetime event, the bending of the knee of the warlords of the once powerful Greater Japanese Empire.

All the vassals of the Grand Queen have sent representatives in the event, watching as the three lords, Lord Kenzaki Takeda of the Eastern System, Lord Aoi Shimazu of the Western System, and Lady Kyouko Tokugawa of the Capital System swear their fealty to the Grand Queen.

Beside the Grand Queen is the woman who made this all possible, the Lady Admiral Saika Vastille, Princess Consort of Salade. Her risky attack at the Battle of the Star Killer had successfully destroyed the Star Killer Base, and killed the warlord Oda Ren.

The rise of Blancpayne under the Grand Queen is fast, from three humble systems, it has more than tripled for such a short period of time.

The question is, what is next? Only time will tell.

by **Pikasistan** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 12:55 am

Compliance

A New Ally, Werncaya System

The Pride of Arcenia, capital ship of the God-Emperor arrived in the system about 2 days after the capitulation of Werncaya. The world surrendered to the imperial fleets which were sent by the Emperor soon after they entered the system. The Werncayan fleet was in a state of decay that prevented it to even engage the imperial forces and the recent event that occurred in the Western Fringes convinced The Cousin, one of the last relatives of the Tsar to be alive to comply to the demands of the God-Emperor.

The God-Emperor disembarked from a transport ship on the spaceport followed by is Triarii Guard, a small warrior-caste that were part of the Tsardom Elite Troops before the Collapse. As the planet's spaceport was on the verge of falling apart due to years of neglects, the decision was taken to use shuttles to arrive on the planet. The Cousin, accompanied by his troops was waiting on the landing strip which was previously used by the nobility of the Tzardom when they were visiting the oceanic world. As the God-Emperor approached him, he and his men knelt in front of their new master. He knew a new era that dawned upon his world, and that even if Deathpikachu the 4th wasn't a true heir to the Throne, he was the only one that could restore this world to its former glory.

"Stand up", said the God-Emperor through the vox of his armor, "You did the right choice Gregory, Werncaya will be stronger as a part of the Imperium than alone. The Sector changed and we, children of the Tzardom, need to unite to face the dangers that have emerged".

"It is what I also think my Lord", replied The Cousin, "Let us go inside of my humble residence to discuss about what should be done to assure the prosperity of our people".

The God-Emperor nodded and followed The Cousin to his castle, followed by a detachment of Triarii. As the two men were leaving, the banners of Werncaya fell from the towers, revealing the banner of the Imperium, the fate of the two worlds was now sealed.

World of Decay, Werncaya System

The God-Emperor listened to The Cousin for hours, the situation in which the world was plunged into since the Collapse was worse than what he imagined. The Werncayan fleet was unable to fight nor use its FTL drives due to the lack of qualified personnel and spare parts, according to the Logisticanae, it would take several months to get the fleet back into action. The good news was that the newly annexed system, along with the two others that were in the sphere of influence of The Cousin possessed Warp Gates. Those ancient structures would allow the fleet to be sent back to Pikasistania, where the fleet could be repaired at the Anchora Docks.

As the day went, the God-Emperor brought an important point to the Cousin. As they both knew, Pikasistania was nothing more than a wasteland, littered with factory complexes and laboratories. The population was barely able to sustain itself at the time of The Collapse and even now, it was in a dire situation in regards to food production. As both men didn't know about the state of the other worlds of the Tzardom, especially after what looked like a massive fleet arrival in the Western Fringes, it was imperative that Werncaya became the granary of the Imperium. The Space Elevator was to be repaired, artificial islands would be created and aquaponic farms would be erected across the land to satisfy the needs of the still nascent Imperium. In order to do so, the God-Emperor ordered the Logisticanae to reactivate mining outposts across the Imperium. The mined ores would be used to repair the existing infrastructure of the world, whilst the non-toxic wastes would be used to create the artificial islands upon the Werncaya. Werncayans would be sent in the many mines in order to help in the effort whilst Pikasistanese troops would be sent to the world to instruct the militias of the world to the Imperium's tactics and weaponry.

The First Sphere, Pikasistania

As compliance was achieved on Werncaya, the Imperium was finally able to start its First Sphere of Expansion, the goal was to expand the Imperium's reach around the two inhabited systems, Pikasistania and Werncaya, forming a barrier of a distance of one system on all sides. Those systems would be able to both provide the core with raw materials, but also provide early warning in case of an invasion of the Imperium's space.

Grand Admiral Laprachenko transmitted his orders to the fleets, the First and Second Offensive Fleets were to conquer the systems around Werncaya which didn't belong to the Imperium, whilst the First Defensive Fleet would split to enter the Trade Republic's former territory and seize two systems in the God-Emperor's name. Admiral Flareovich, acting commander of the First Defensive fleet strongly opposed this order, not only saying that splitting the fleet was too risky, but also that it was foolish to leave the capital world undefended. Before the capture of the Werncayan fleet, now renamed Second Defensive Fleet, the Grand Admiral would have agreed to this opposition, but now he could only force his order on the Admiral as even if the Second Defensive Fleet was in an alarming state, it would be able to defend the homeworld with the help of the orbital defences for long enough.

by **Doppio Giudici** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:49 pm

OOC: This post won't effect any other players, and it's very long.

Heartship 2, "The Core"
"Network" System
2133 CE (Common Era), 121 YoS (Year Of Salvation)

She couldn't believe it, they had put down The Network as part of their territory on the star charts and territory maps. It was one thing to have part of The Network put down as being within the systems of the Interstellar Republic of Isaris, since several of their installations were within said territory, but The "Network" System was completely under their control. That star and its planets was not on loan, it was not rented, it was not shared, it was theirs. Adjusting the devices on her wrists, she kept the ultrcomputer tucked under her arm, looking around through her goggles. Following the virtual directions she saw, she finally found the throne room, and stood in front of it.

"Jaz'ah Ka'harabu, Admin of The Network, I was invited to speak."

The two doors slid sideways into the walls, where they were concealed, showing her a well lit room. Staring out ahead of her, she saw a throne which was at the same level as the rest of the floor. It was reclined back so that it looked like he was almost lying down, with his head tilted up to look at her. Most of his body was covered with a dark sheet, she could hear lots of fans running and the sound of pumps. Stepping inside slowly, she looked at the various vials and containers, which she couldn't see the contents of. The doors slowly closed behind her, as she kept moving closer, looking at his face. His head was locked still, propped up on something soft, as two eyes struggled to look at her.

His face was very veiny, covered in scars, with various tubes running into his cheek and neck. A cable or tube ran into the back of his head, his eyes now closed, his mouth completely shut as he breathed partially though his nose. A mask covered his mouth, and it ran into two tubes, which went into two large seperate containers.

"Are you the person I was to meet?" Jaz'ah asked, her eyes taking in his appearance, all of the tubes and signs of age.

"Richard Seth, Emperor of Vadia." A voice somewhere in the room replied, the eyes before her closed and the mouth hidden away.

Lights turned on along the walls and she looked over at each of them, noticing the adjustment of brightness in the room. She saw four seperate banners, two projected on each wall, followed by another one behind the person in front of her.

"This meeting will be sent to each of the heads, one message for each nation in The Prole Confederation." The voice went on, before explaining further, "Left to right, each banner is shown. The Birthland Shared Sacred Ground, The Neo-Terran Republic of Pentaga Giudici, The Nex Empire of Vadia, The Global Sovereign Confederacy Of Aleckandor, and finally, The Democratic People's Republic of Veridi."

"Hello." The Admin swallowed, cleared her voice, and then introduced herself, " Jaz'ah Ka'harabu, Admin of The Network."

"Please state for the audiance, what this meeting is about."

"You told me you would bring your flagship into The Network system, in order to have another technology exchange. You said you wanted to speak to me personally, 'human to human', those were your exact words."

"You will be exchanging your currency, correct? Can you give us an amount in your currency and explain what it would be backed by?"

"If it's as good as our last trade, I can offer you 20 trillion Trade Units of Netcoin, backed entirely by energy."

"That is roughly an addition of 4% of our economy, a big investment from you. For that price we are prepared to offer you access to all of our notes on Weather Control."

She almost dropped her ultracomputer, staring out at him with her mouth open wide. Normally during setups like this, she would haggle with them, try to get a better price. To get a better price, you had to insist your money or goods was precious, that you couldn't offer much more. Most of the time, it was true, she only would ever offer half of the spare currency she had.

"Define 'Weather Control' for me."

"The ability to change how thick the atmosphere is, to repair the ozone layer or create one, and to increase the oxygen content in the air as well as the nitrogen content. It would take a long time to finish, but you would start getting noticeable results in just weeks."

She stared out at him, before setting down her ultracomputer on the floor. Tapping away at her monitor on her wrist, she then looked up at him a few times, trying to figure out if he was serious behind that mostly frozen face of his.

"Just a few years ago, we were selling you technology or loaning you money. What happened, where are you getting this from?"

The two eyes opened, her goggles instantly zoomed in when she squinted at him, showing her that he was looking around for her. His throne began to slowly tilt itself at an angle as something wrapped around his neck to hold his head still, looking down at her, he then blinked and closed his eyes.

"When we met you, you were distrustful of science and were too busy with other matters, you said you were the last Star Nation to come from your home world." She went on, watching his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"The 'Blood Weep' War that we both share, has cost us millions upon millions of our best men and women. In the process and on the side we have liberated around 8.5 billion souls, all of which are hungry for technology and eager to offer their labor. Our enemies, the parasites and cybernetic fungus organisms, have lost a considerable amount of technology when we made our progress into territory they claimed. We have also been focusing heavily on testing and understanding our finds, the profit margin be damned. Our huge investment has reaped a large pool of information and secrets, which are in very high demand, and have considerably increased our production of energy, raw materials and finished foods."

Jaz'ah Ka'harabu stared out at him, blinking and closing her mouth which was open again. She had to ask, she just had to know the answer.

"Why is The Network System put down as yours on the star charts and territory maps?"

"Because everytime we relax our security around your system, your people suffer considerable fatalities. You are completely dependent on our protection, just like the Transhumans and their cybergnetic hivemind."

"What are you... Going to do with twenty trillion Trade Units... If I gave it to you?"

"The energy would be used up instantly to expand all of our operations, to increase production on all levels and expand our ability to wage war."

His answers were almost instantaneous, he had a speech prepared in seconds, there was no sign of stopping to think that she could detect. She needed to think however, looking down at her thing to tap away at it and hide her thoughts, putting together the pieces laid out before her.

"We are in this together, either we live or they live."

She tilted her head up and looked at him, seeing those two irritated and sore eyes looking back at her. Her best poker face was on.

"You need our protection, you want our technology, and your energy is very valuable to us. Why do you haggle with us like the Transhumans? Our agenda should be entirely the same, what is ours and yours should be the same."

"The Network has no masters, it's not a regulated economy like yours. It's an Atheist state"

"Veridi is almost entirely agnostic if not atheist. We are a confederation, you will be free to keep your lack of beliefs and your economic policies. We trade using three currencies, a fourth one won't be much different."

"And if your currencies fail?"

"Then the Xenos or pirates enslave you, which would happen if we are not able to afford this conflict further."

"You want our money."

"We want you. You have fresh blood, fresh genes, fresh ideas, fresh perspective. The Prole Confederation must grow or die, it must diversify or it will be snuffed out. We insist you join us."

The eyes opened again and looked at her, viable pain in his face as his eyes turned red as she watched, before the eyes closed. She was thinking up her own reply when Richard was already adding to what he said before, the man didn't seem to ever stop.

"The xenos outnumber us, they are committed to their ideas of genocide, and their technology is visibly better. For humans to survive, we must pool all of our currency, all of our knowledge, all of our brave souls. Many of the other humans want to work against us and not with us, which is why we must bleed oceans to hold the hungry xenos at bay."

She looked down at her device and tried to think, this was a lot to go over and she as under a lot of pressure. The Admin of the Network hoped that Richard wouldn't just keep talking more and more, making it hard for her to focus.

"How can I trust you?"

"Is our own blood, sweat, and tears not good enough for you? We are dying out there, without the ability to even have our bodies laid in soil back home. Is it cold, it is dark, and we are alone."

"I don't want to be; part of your collective."

"We are we, because others hate us. We are we, because it's not safe. How can we be free if we are not safe? How can we breathe if all around us is darkness and predators, eyeing our freedom. I wake up, I go to sleep, all my life I see only shackles and devastation. I can't handle it… I can't let go… I can't stop…."

Just like that, his head were rolled over to the side and it was like he was dead. She looked around for some sign of what was going on, perhaps some words. Almost jumping away, she then turned and saw the two doors behind her opening. Looking back at him, Jaz'ah Ka'harabu tapped at her goggles to see if he was dead.

"Are you alive?"

All she heard was a beep. A series of LEDs on the ground lit up and showed arrows pointing outside. She slowly got up and grabbed her things, before carefully moving outside, wondering if he was in a coma.

by **Belgiosweden** » Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:15 am

Spying on a sick, blind dog

Confederate Space
With wiring and sputtering arcs of lightning leaping across the arcane shells of scouting vessels as they emerge from whitespace instantaneously. Their Astromancer dropping to the deck from overexertion, due to the sectors distorted whitespace reflection making the small journeys between systems feel magnified to horrific perpetration.

With them was the Supreme High Lord Admiral Niel Nielson of the knights order. This would be his 3rd trip to Confederate space and he looked forward to gawking at the strange antics the inhabitants would be getting into, whilst marveling at how they managed to essentially make flying bombs into a mode of interplanetary transportation.
"So very odd" He muttered to himself whilst he sat in his office trying to depict one of the vessels he saw on a previous mission, before it, and everything else that wasn't nailed down decided to emulate the motions of a panicked frog as the craft shifted out of whitespace.

A hand grappled to the desk as Niel clambered to his feet with a grizzled "Brrrrrr". He was a tall man in his mid 60's. His head remain clean shaven to hide his graying hair, although he keeps his beard, large and braided like all true Norsemen, for it has not yet caught up to his age. Turning to his small wooden carving laying on the floor, he sighed with relief that it was intact. The same, however, could not be said about the chair that had thrown him to floor but moments ago.

Suddenly a large bear in a tunic burst through to door with a fancy hat before standing to attention with his officers "We have arrived in the northernmost system of the confederacy, Supreme High Lord Admiral" He stated without taking a moment to breath "We will resume course to the confederate capital system as soon as our main astromancer has recovered from his exhaustion"

"Thank you captain, you may return to your duties" Niel replied, still recovering from is fall.

The room cleared, with the exception of 1 officer "Sir, if you don't mind me asking..."

"Tell" answered Niel with an intrigued face.

The officer resumed "How is it that the confederates haven't noticed us snooping around in their system for the last couple years?"

"Aha. well..." Niel proceeded to clear his throat "The spell used to make the ship invisible makes it near impossible to detect us by non magical means. Not long ago a trade deal was brokered with another land that gave us what was called a Quantum Membrane Scanner. These devices could see through our cloak without the aid of the arcane and thus were very valuable The mages guild who took these devices and learned their ways. Now the spell we use cannot even be seen through by QMS, and, If i remember correctly, some of the higher ups of the guild have a spell that allows them to see across this membrane themselves. Not only that but confederate long distance communication operates on entirely different principles to our own, so that too is invisible. I'm good friends with the Void Master of the guild so I am rather well informed on the topic"

The officer stood there with a face as though he was not expecting quite as much as he got. "Thank you sir, I will return to my duties now" he replied before doing so.

Niel chuckled to himself as he began to repair his recently flattened chair. He knew that the Mjolnir was on it's way, and the allies of the crown would not be far behind. There were ships monitoring, every major system of confederate space, and if they figured it out and tried to be preemptive, His Majesties Second Fleet was waiting in Zerjonmark to cut them off. Not to mention the defensive installations and planetary converters guarding the Kingdom.

Map Update

by **Olimpiada** » Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:42 pm

Ivos Station, 5810 Aquilae III
Bridge of the FWOS Skytoucher

Captain Synesius Teramoto was entirely confused with his present situation. He was leading an outdated destroyer through a station built around a rift in spacetime. Said station was built more like a fortress than the research station it was reported to be. And for some reason, his destroyer, the Skytoucher, was being chosen to survey the worlds beyond the wormhole, despite being an outdated Aleksandria-class.

Volusian Kurkuas, his XO, floated up next to the viewscreen Synesius was looking out of. The ability to switch from thrust to spin gravity was non-existent on the Aleksandria class, leaving any periods without acceleration lacking in gravity. “You don’t get it either?”

“Not one bit.” Synesius took a bit of comfort in the fact that his mission made little sense. “The Cobalt Ascendancy has dedicated surveying vehicles, why don’t they just do this?”

“Perhaps they’re all tied up elsewhere.”

“What? Like fucking Rastho? Or perhaps Setsko? I doubt it. We’re too busy fighting brushfire conflicts to even bother with exploration most of the time, so why now?”

“Could be they’re coming around here to give it a better name than a string of numbers,” he said with a wry grin.

Volusian’s last statement could not earn a response from Synesius, since the klaxon sounded, alerting them to the imminent return of gravity. Synesius maneuvered himself down near the ground just in time for the fusion torch to catch. Immediately, the sensation of weight returned, though only a mere half of what it was back home on Joki. After all, it was an exploration mission, and the need for haste was far from great.

Volusian wandered off, presumably head back up to the bridge. Synesius took a more direct route, launching himself up the ladder in the low gravity. After a few decks, he stopped, and seated himself in the gel filled command chair, designed to prevent him from being crushed by his own weight during extreme acceleration, much like the ambient nanites coursing through his veins.

The bridge was harshly lit by halogen lamps, drowning out the more traditional flame contained in a globe currently ensconced in a spot on the ceiling. Despite its ineffectiveness in lighting the room, it was treated with far more reverence. As with every Olimpiadan military vessel, the small fire ignited by the First Flame kept burning on Emerald was a symbol of the nation, as proud as the gold leaf religious texts engraved into the outside of the hull, or the individualistic paintings on the exoskeletons of ground troops.

“Mister Botaniate, please steer us into the wormhole.” The command was not entirely necessary, but it aided in keeping the ship’s chain of command clear, so he said it anyway. And so, Proseria Boraniante steered the vessel past Ivos Station into what lay beyond.

Pruchod

The crew was audibly disappointed that the transit lacked fanfare. The shift to the other side of the wormhole was just like any other jump, in that the stars suddenly changed their positions, followed by little else happening. With that out of the way, they returned to their posts.

The first planet they had scheduled for exploration was Pruchod-4a (Synesius really did wish that the names for these places weren’t so boring), one of the two gas giants in the double planet system that had resulted in the wormhole at their barycenter. It took them the better part of a day to arrive, still burning at the same 0.5 gs as usual, but the time was well spent. The small moons from the two worlds shifted between the giants in unusual patterns, tugging on one another by their own gravities as well as those of the giants. It was passing one of these moons that disaster struck.

“Captain, we’ve got three ships that weren’t there before,” said Boraniante, a twinge of concern in her voice. “IFF beacons mark them as Prole Confederation. They’re on an intercept course, weapons range in two minutes.”

“Hail them,” came the simple response from Synesius. He had dealt with combat before, and he knew how to avoid it as a result. A tense moment passed.

“No response, sir.” They tried twice more. No reply. Silence dominated the bridge. And then, it was broken.

“Incoming fliers!” The pent up energy behind the silence exploded into a flurry of action as people raced to handle the sudden and unexpected combat. Sirens sounded to warn the crew of unexpected acceleration to begin, radar screens lit up as streams of point defense rounds flew out into the night at the missiles. Gravity shifted in unexpected ways, pushing Synesius into his chair with every maneuver.

An unexpected jerk as a railgun slug hit home. Another. Another. The last.

Crimson, Atenai
One week earlier

Basina Attaliate was making her final inspections of the retrofits to the Skytoucher. The Cobalt Ascendancy had spent no shortage of time ensuring that the survey equipment on board was fully functional for their various scientific ends. Neither had their covert operations branch. Basina was part of the latter.

The crew had taken their leave on the planet below while the retrofits were made to the old vessel. One hundred and forty-two sailors scattered across the world to spend pocket change on food that wasn’t made of algae, or perhaps to go sightseeing at one of the massive antimatter generators wrapped around the planet’s circumference. Basina was in the area for neither of those reasons.

She was there to fabricate a casus belli.

The code snippets easily fed into the computer from the access panel which she worked from, infecting the system with a series of false attacks to be registered at a given time. Once the Skytoucher was within 5 light seconds of Pruchod-4a, the system was to register a Prole Confederation ship appearing, and promptly opening fire upon the destroyer following an attempt to hail them. Sudden and violent burns were planned to simulate projectile impacts on the vessel, the injected code set to register no fuel as having been spent during said burns. The ship’s computer disagreed.

“Error: Attempted upgrade will damage critical systems. Expunging code.” She sighed wearily. A novice mistake, and one she could have easily avoided.

“Override, confirmation code delta sigma two eight six.” The panel flashed a green light. She readded her code, and then deleted the edit history before disabling the override.

With the code taken care of, she climbed down to engineering. The structure of the orbital ring that the Skytoucher was docked to allowed the ring to have the same gravity as the world below, and said gravity was felt equally on the ship. At the bottom of the skyscraper-like structure was an old fashioned fusion reactor, still used widely on planets, but outdated for spacefaring vessels. The Aleksandria-class’s successor, the Hwach’a-class ran off of a more modern antimatter system, that was slightly less vulnerable to sabotages such as the one she was about to make.

From the large satchel she carried with her, she pulled out a small black orb. Most of the orb was insulation, but inside, there was a tiny containment system, and an even tinier microgram of antimatter, waiting to be released. She placed the orb on the inside of a coolant duct, taking advantage of the reactor’s current deactivated state to leave her trap in a place ordinarily impossible to check during operation. Once the fourth “round” hit, the coolant would shift in temperature, causing the insulation to contract and separate the magnets inside enough to break containment, detonating the reactor and killing the crew inside. Basina had just neatly sentenced over a hundred people to death, plus whatever casualties came during the invasion, and it wasn’t even noon. An early lunch sounded good.

Three Leaders, Gaia
Office of President Alexios Cyrenacius

Alexios had been busy writing a letter to the Kliros on exactly why their involvement in Muranis was inherently a mistake in foreign policy and should be ceased as quickly as possible was cut short by a hurried entry into his office. The heavy mahogany doors swung open as the intern barreled through them, hurriedly trying to adjust his tie and glasses as he did so. The loud footsteps on the marble floor came to a halt as he stopped in front of Alexios’s desk, breathing quickly.

“What is it, Ioannes? This had better be good. You do know we have a messaging system, don’t you? You’ve worked here long enough to.”

“The Skytoucher has just been destroyed.” The words rocked Alexios’s usual ever so slightly smarmy persona, putting an expression of shock on his face, followed by disbelief.

“You mean to say that the vessel we had explicitly IFF tagged as an exploration vessel was just up and shot at?”

“Erm... yes, actually. The sensor data doesn’t lie.” Ioannes paused to tap out a command on his phone. Alexios’s computer received a file and opened it, showing the sensor data transmitted by the Skytoucher’s black box just moments before the reactor breach vaporized the ship’s internals. Alexios wasn’t a military man, but the data largely spoke for itself, showing missiles and slugs being hurled at the refitted warship.

Disbelief shifted to anger. “And who is responsible for this? Who the hell fired on our boats?”

“IFF transponders say it was a power called the ‘Prole Confederation’.”

Once Ioannes had left, Alexios dropped the facade entirely. He had known this was going to happen. He had ordered it to happen. All that changed was that his letter to the Kliros was no longer going to speak out against conflict, but instead, would advise a shifting of resources to a different front.

The disadvantage Alexios possessed that the others did not was the inefficiency he had in governing. Absolute monarchs could order crusades at will. The citizens of republics and democracies expected reasons for their wars, and all too often, those reasons were difficult to obtain.

However, fabrication of a valid casus belli was none too difficult for a nation with an experienced espionage sector, nor was it difficult when said nation was locked in eternal on-and-off conflict with the neighboring xenos. War didn’t break out in Olimpiada. Peace did. And today was not peace’s day.

by **Vadia** » Thu Sep 14, 2017 9:28 pm

OOC: Map

IC:

Werncaya System

The Niece sent a reply to The Cousin, the message was sent over in a small series of ships, each about 300 meters or so in length.

To This Mysterious Power,

As far as I know, only two survivors that were reasonably related to the Tzar survived. There is I, the daughter of his brother, who he executed shortly after my birth, and there is the grandson of his father's brother.

It is entirely likely you could send me a reply as to your connection to the bloodline, but ultimately it doesn't matter anymore.

Someone who isn't Tzarist, possibly isn't even human, has shown up in what is very clearly the dominion of the Tzardom. Despite the arguments as to who exactly should control the Tzardom persist, this is Tzardom territory and it would be unacceptable for another power move in on our territorial lands.

I propose we resolve the issue of who is the Tzar later, after we ensure that there is a Tzardom for at least one of us to rule.

I have at my disposal not the low-quality Imperial Vintovki of the one who just surrendered to you, but Nakoval'nya by the millions and Tverdost’ by the thousands. I have a series of heavily fortified forge and outpost worlds, which means I wouldn't be that easy to conquer, and my hardy infantry means I can crush most planetary defense-forces with ease.

Two systems below me and two systems to the left of what belonged to The Cousin, is a yellow star, which should be on your charts. It's very likely they already took this precious location and is trying to fortify it. We must strike while the iron is hot.

I propose you clear a path with your navy and I unload my infantry force upon them. The nobles and peasants will side with us, as rightful humans and Tzardom descendants, and we will grind the enemy into dust.

Jel'en'ah

New Pikasistan Territory

Three new red stars and a white dwarf were scouted, each of which was mostly if not entirely empty save the usual trade stations with a few hundred to a few thousand people aboard. According to charts and maps they provided, most of the systems in the area weren't very good, which is why they were ignored by the local men vying for the throne. However, they did give infomation on Nakoval'nya and Tverdost’.

Tverdost’, were made up of noblemen who trained their whole lives in the use of Tverdost’ Armor, which they were named after. The "charged armor" was very sturdy and came with a heavy rifle which was capable of firing a wide number of ammounition. The most common type of round used was a round explosive ball, which was designed to explode on impact. The weapon could get around 305 meters with this "Big Bore" ammo, but was capable of firing very hot APHE varients of conventional ammo 610 meters.

Nakoval'nya appeared to be a type of infantry who were covered in head to toe environmental suits, mated with liquid armor and exo-skeletons. These infantry could be deployed with heavy close-quarters weapons with heavy bullets at very hot pistol speed, or light bullets at very hot rifle speed. The use of a backpack with a contained belt to a heavy weapon with a high rate of fire was very common, along with automatic grenade lauchers, automatic 1' gauge shotguns, lock-on rocket lauchers, and even hotshot laz-rifles.

Arstotzka Territory
Malum System

Malum and Christopher Quell combined had a sizable force of Marine Core and Reserve Army, along with mechanized transportation, artillery, tanks, and a sizable amount of powered infantry. The weaponry they used to conquer all of this territory so far involved a lot of "Auto Rifles", .325 caliber caseless weapons that weighed over 12 pounds and had a built in dual piston system, along with a heavy stock. Infantry combat was very important when it came to urban settings, unless one was prepared to kill a lot of civilains. Sure you could threaten and bombard as needed, but someone on the ground had to be deployed to mop up the last bits of resistance. This was what they had in surplus, plenty to spare and enough to counter any other side for the most part. These weapons were used to solve the minor problems of piracy settlements and general urban warfare, they were very multi-use for anything besides interstellar ship combat.

The greatest asset they had was Special Carrier Vessels, which were used to reploy a their most powerful weapon, one which they rarely used. The almighty Mobile Suit could be deployed from many ships, but Mobile Armor could be deployed from a SCV. The Mobile Suits were armored mechs the size of an eight story building, around 80 feet or 24.384 meters, and were very deadly weapons of war. Mobile was a series of large and powerful weapons mounted to a rack system, which meant either an appallingly large tracked, four, or six legged vehicle. These weapons were bounded to be used a lot in the coming civil-war or coup, with the mobile suits jetting around and fighting in space, while the mobile armor was likely to be deployed on the ground.

The Military and Marine Core would be used to grind up the cities and urban areas, after the mobile suits and fleet had taken out their counterparts. With support from Mobile Armor in limited use, a wide number of vehicles and soldiers would deploy. The main goal would be to defeat the fleet, and then force the other side to surrender or be bombarded, with remaining resistance being mopped up as needed. The Reserve Army was already being woken up and readied to help in keeping order and restoring it as needed, with the Hassen Secret Police hunting down their counterparts and rooting out any plotters left. It was believed that enemy Barrels would be in very high number compared to their own supplies and thus disabling them would be rather pressing. The tanks were three stories tall and very large, of a rather conventional design due to all big they were. The other issue was that lots of random people would side with whoever was in position and a lot of nobility would have to be purged or bribed or blackmailed.

by **Pikasistan** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:54 pm

United we stand...

Werncaya System

As the God-Emperor was about to return to the Throne Worldz a series of courier ships started to enter the system. They bore the markings of The Niece, yet another member of the Četyre family that survived the Collapse. Deathpikachu took the message very seriously, he was informed by his advisors of the surge of energy, but he didn't know that it was such a treat that the other living heirs would try to seek an alliance with him. The message was telling a lot about the current situation and the offer of the Niece was an interesting one. If her claims were true, her faction was devoid of military fleets while he had three available and a fourth one coming up as soon as the Wrencayan fleet was repaired. However, she possessed a lot of the elite military units of the Tzardom, which could be either a great asset... or a threat to the Imperium. He convocated the couriers aboard his own ship and dictated them his reply, one that could seal the fate of the Imperium, or make it come back stronger than ever.

To Jel'en'ah Četyre

I, Deathpikachu the Fifth, of the bloodline of the Chaadayev Family his glad to know that you are still alive.

If your claims are true, we both need each other to win the fight against the Invaders. This is why I am inviting you to a more formal meeting.

You are free to choose the system we will meet in, however, I have my own demands concerning my personal security. First and foremost, both of us will come with a retinue of a hundred of our elite soldiers, Triiaris for me and Tverdost' for you. I also demand that my security personnel is allowed to inspect the station/building/ship where we will meet as I do not want to be ambushed. Finally, I demand that the fleets, both from your territory and my Imperium, stay in a neighboring system.
The last request is both a security matter, but it will allow us, as you stated in your message, that we are able to strike whilst the iron is hot, even if we bog down ourselves with some formalities.

I am looking forward to the cooperation of our two armies in this new war against an unknownst threat.

Wrencaya's Surface

The first battalions were entering the transports, preparing to head towards the new systems conquered as part of the First Sphere of Expansion of the Imperium. Along with them, cargos filled with food and other commodities would come, to pacify the reclaimed stations. Even if most the new systems were practically devoid of any resources, with the exception of those claimed at the East of the Throne World, they still held strategic value and the God-Emperor viewed the criminal plagued stations as a component of his greater plan.

Transmition from the Chatto's Grace, flagship of the 1st Taskforce of the 1st Defensive Fleet, to the Invictus Aquilae, flagship of the 1st Taskforce

We managed to clean up the last pirate holdouts in the system, no losses occurred but some ships sustained minor damage.

Send a message to the Logisticanae that mining operations in the system can resume.

Rendez-vous over Pikasistania.

The God-Emperor Will's be Done

by **Blancpayne** » Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:43 am

Dragon Skies

Delphine, Aethel System, Kingdom of Aethel, Grand Kingdom of Blancpayne

Admiral Sir Aethelbert Valerian and his squire, Lady Freya Dragos prepares the Aethelian Fleet (the red-in-white scouting fleet) to full strength. Their mission, explore the western frontier for civilization. Noirerougean traders have told stories of a huge empire on their western borders. But such tales were from before Noirerouge's downfall to the Orcs, and it is unknown whether this civilization have survived, or succumbed to the Orcs.

The journey aside, Sir Aethelbert observes his flagship, HGMS Cu Chulainn, a well-crafted Star Destroyer, the finest of all Blancpayne, while not as big as Moribishi's Super Star Destroyers, the Aethelian Star Destroyer is meticulously designed and crafted to perfection, never sacrificing speed and maneuverability, perfect for explorations like this.

"Of the people of the three core kingdoms, the Aethelians are without a doubt the best shipbuilders, and Valerian Shipyard Guild, is rivalled only by the Dwarves' Clan Onassis and Greater Japan's Moribishi Conglomerate in all of Blancpayne.", The voice behind her said.

Sir Aethelbert turned around, it is no other than the Queen of Aethel herself, Queen Aethelmarie IV.

"Your Majesty.", Sir Aethelbert bowed before her.

"At ease, Sir Aethelbert the Dragon-tamer. You don't need to be formal before me.", The queen commanded.

The Admiral went at ease.

"Make your house proud, Dragon-tamer.", Queen Aethelmarie said.

"Yes, Your Majesty.", The Admiral salutes.

Hours later, the flagship is ready for orbital launch, the rest of the fleet ready, waiting in space.

Sir Aethelbert and Lady Freya buckled down their seatbelts as the countdown begin.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"LIFTOFF!", the flagship launched into the sky.

It didn't take long for the fleet to be in formation.

The Admiral sets his coordinates (Belgiosweden's "I" sector).

Then the fleet flew past the wormhole, not knowing what awaits them.

by **Houseidou** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:27 am

Raiden Nexus, Between Raijin and Fujin, Shinkyou System, The Sector

The brief sensation of discontinuity faded as SCNS Michonoku emerged into the shadow of a gas giant below her and the crescent of another above her, showing off reflected sunlight from its green bands as the brownish-gold giant below emitted flashes of light from its thick clouds: storms larger than habitable worlds. According to Vice-Admiral Togame's intelligence, as he ordered his ship forwards and to rotate to match the plane of the ecliptic, he was on the other side of the anomaly, at the Raiden Nexus, where the Uranus-sized gas giant called Fujin created another gravitic distortion as she orbited her primary, the Jupiter-sized gas giant named Raijin. Due to their titanic pulls on gravitic forces, neither of them possessed satellites, only each other in a deadly dance that amazingly hadn't ended in the demise of one or the other. "No wonder the colonists had named these behemoths after the twin kami of wind and storms." Togame muttered as the Michinoku, careful to maneuver on her gravitic impellers to safely get out of the distortion, as there was no station with its own gravitic generators to mitigate the fluctuations on this side, at least, not yet.

"Sir?" Michinoku inquired, hearing the comment.

"Nothing. Any word from Admiral Kyoukotsu?"

"None yet. Suruga is about to emerge from the Nexus, per your orders."

Togame nodded, and, knowing her commander, Michinoku shifted the CIC display to show their rear view, where a rippling distortion formed in space, followed an expanding, swirling hole, like a whirlpool from the oceans of a terrestrial planet. The spiraling effect expanded until a shadow-cloaked blur emerged, ripples cascading off of it into space as it decelerated back into normal spacetime. Falling into formation behind her "little" sister, the older Ise-class battleship, though by half a Stem, formed the second link of a chain as the next ship made its way into the alignment rings one universe away to engage its drives to activate the effect that catapulted it into this universe. As Michinoku's silver and white armor glistened upon coming out of Raijin's shadow and bathing in Shinkyou's rays, she now led the pack in a stellar train of warships, their destination several hours away. Freed of the immense gravity of her point of origin, Michinoku engaged her shell's full power, and with faint ripples in space caused by her impellers and the flare of her thrusters, she accelerated slowly to 0.5c, Suruga following suit moments later. It would be quite a while for Sixth Fleet to take its turn, followed by Fifteenth Fleet, the supply ships they were bringing for the forces here, and finally the elements of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force that they had waited on.

"Pardon me, Vice-Admiral." Michinoku's voice whispered into Sora's ear, the hypersonic speakers in his state cabin causing her voice to appear from mid-air. "Captain Tonbo wishes to inform you that we are being hailed. The ship's ID is the Kongou, and the request has Admiral Kyoukotsu's authorization codes." Sora stirred and got up from his bed, having settled in for a nap a Bell and a half ago once VADM Oikawa had joined them to manage the transition from the Ryuusei Cluster to this place. As he rubbed his unhelmeted head and made his way to his uniform, he asked. "What does he wish of us?" His AI answers as she fully materializes her avatar in his room. "That you and Vice-Admiral Oikawa meet him at Minatoarashi Counterweight Station. I have already sent an inquiry to the Port Authority AI, which I have gotten a reply to as we were talking. We and the Houshou have clearance to dock, and will be in range for the port to guide us in within the Bell."

Sora stopped putting on his duty suit, and started to undress, heading into the shower. "Thank you, Captain Hoshino. I must make preparations." He answered her in his usual calm demeanor, which she had come to expect in working with the Vice-Admiral. But she had also noticed slight cracks in his otherwise solid persona, and while he dismissed her as a subordinate, he seemed to appreciate the wake-up call and how she already handled the situation without him asking, since she thought much faster than he could. Michinoku recalled her avatar, letting her commander prepare for a reception with the locals, but as he bathed in his special sterilized suite, he mentally recalled the name of the station: Minatoarashi. "Storm Port". Sora was reminded of an old phrase from the long-past age of oceanic naval practices, regarding "any port in a storm", and realized that the coming Stem might show just how much of a port in a storm this world and its inhabitants might be.

Minatoarashi was an asteroid the size of Phobos or Deimos, captured by the same tugs towing Michinoku into its hollowed-out interior, and placed in a stable orbit around the ocean-covered terrestrial world of Suijin. A good portion of Minatoarashi had been mined out, with a bubble of solid nickel-iron meters thick blown via mirror arrays focusing on the asteroid in specific ways. Inside of this bubble, protected by rock, metal, and a nickel-iron door to enclose the inside in an emergency, was the spaceport proper, which the battleship was being maneuvered carefully into for crews to inspect and provide some system updates regarding the slightly different physics of this universe. But the pinnaces launched from the battleship and the other command ships were already down on their pads in the adjoining small craft docking bay, their occupants, the command staff of what was now almost half of the Sovereignty forces in briefings with their colleagues. Such as the fabled "Dark Lord of the Sixth" and his new protege.

Sora Togame sat back in his seat deep within the asteroid, where the man he was to follow was just sitting down. With a lean frame, Admiral Kyoukotsu was about the same size as Sora, but thanks to the medical nanites, more than twice his age. Where Togame shot up through the ranks in war time, Kyoukotsu worked his way up during peace time, until the fateful First Battle of Shikotan destroyed Second Fleet, and then-Commander Kyoukotsu was the de-facto CO of the survivors, all five ships that made it successfully to FTL, all three ships that dropped back out at Madara, and the only ship that limped into spacedock. As such, the mechanical limbs, scars, and eyepatch made him look like he belonged in some sort of pre-spaceflight science fiction television show, but usually, those leaders did not let their hair grow out to non-regulation lengths, nor have a non-reg penchant for flamboyant shirts worn over duty uniforms. Sora noted, based on his superior's profile, that such flowery and vibrant articles of clothing were in a style that used to be called "Hawaiian", after an island back on Earth where the designs were either popular, or made there. Sitting to his right was his junior, Vice-Admiral Oikawa, looking a bit uncomfortable in her seat, while to his left was General Gorou Fujita, a well-toned man taller than Sora and the Admiral, but not as tall as Oikawa, with a toned physique, and slicked-back regulation hair complimenting a lean, fox-like face with gold eyes that made him seem like some sort of wolf or dog.

"Vice-Admirals, thank you for coming all this way, and willing to take part in this grand venture." The Admiral greeted his new subordinates. "The official ceremonies and greetings will happen over the new few Watches, as the colonists certainly love an excuse for a party, but for now, I need to get you both up to speed on recent affairs." He brought up the map that the two fleet commanders had studied, of seven systems, and Tenth and Thirteenth Fleets split into two parts each, with one proceeding "north" while the other went "east". "As you know, last we were able to communicate with you, we sent through this update. But the map has since been updated." A few keystrokes led to a new system near Tsuka to be claimed by Task Group 10.2, labeled as "Shihei", while Task Groups 13.1 and 13.2 swept the outer perimeter of what had been determined as the "Koan Cluster", due to their relative proximity to each other in the sky. But Task Group 10.1 remained stationary at Tsuka. "What is most pressing is the situation at Tsuka, which was due to a misunderstanding, but from what I understand of the situation there, it's tense." The normally cheerful Admiral was totally business at this point.

"Forgive my asking, Admiral, but what happened?" Vice-Admiral Mitsuru Oikawa asked as she finally got out of her stupor from meeting a living legend. "All we heard that our forces were under attack."

"A space station controlled by the locals fired upon one of our ships. It wasn't enough to destroy it, but we have been trying to keep away from their stations."

"Locals? I thought the initial astronomic survey showed that our part of this place was relatively uninhabited. It was only deeper into the core that things got more active." Sora was a bit puzzled, but as he remembered the answer to his question, the Admiral grinned and wagged his finger negatively as the helmeted cyborg.

"I see you forgot your basic celestial mechanics. We are seeing lights from long ago, like looking back in time, and due to how the physics of this universe operates, we won't be getting to that region of space for a while. Our eggheads have crunched the numbers with some AIs and came up with a tidy little variable to plug into our equations: the Kanbei-Urashima Coefficient, as it's called. The K-U.C. explains how screwed up our current situation is, as on one hand, our ships are faster than normal, but on the other hand, the distances between stars is even more astronomical than before. But yes, we have encountered another civilization. Human. And there's one hundred million of them."

Both Vice-Admirals were in awe. Even by making the death rate virtually negligible, their society only had 730 million humans of various races and breeds, though those counted in that figure were those that weren't AIs and other transhumans, as the numbers were more sketchy on entities living in cyberspace. "So...what do we do about them?" Mitsuru finally spoke up.

"That's the problem, as even I and my staffers are stumped. Especially since they mostly live on a world that, frankly, shouldn't have them. Our ancestors had a planet in a similar climatological situation in the Solar System, a planet with a runaway greenhouse effect. The locals, apparently of Slavic origin, call the world Popkyebat', but we have rendered that as 'Popukibate'. However, our forces have assigned a nickname to this world that is sticking more than the translated name."

Task Force Holding Position, Near Popukibate, AKA "Iou", Tsuka System, The Sector

Iou.

Rendered as it was, it was the Japanese word for the element sulfur, but in this context, it had a more sinister and malicious translation.

Brimstone.

Such a fitting name for such a hellhole, that some empire decided to dump almost the entire population of the Sovereignty's most populous world on before their collapse. Vice-Admiral Soujiro Ryuusenka, CO Tenth Fleet as well as CO Celestial Navy Task Group 10.1, once more poured over the sensor data that the stealthed probes had been able to glean from Popukibate's atmosphere and surface, at least, while they had been functioning. The average temperature was enough to melt lead, as if the constant acid rain wasn't enough to dissuade visitors. Yet someone had the brilliant idea to dump a staggering amount of population in this system, and given them orbital infrastructure. At least, they did a long time ago. From what the Marine boarding parties had brought back from scouting out the farthest-out installations, this was a system of refugees, of people that couldn't take care of themselves, but were inexplicably armed to the teeth. One wrong move, and this system would be a new Reizouko, and the Divine Sovereignty had already dealt with a guerilla insurgency on a hellhole back in their universe. At least Reizouko was a frigid ball of ice with an oxy-nitro atmosphere. It was paradise compared to Iou.

The youngish-looking man considered the route he was taking as he poured over the data with icy-blue eyes. Pale, and a bit stunted in size, with navy-blue hair, Soujiro was the product of a high-gravity colony that made its occupants a bit smaller, but rather muscular, so he could move with someone of a more normal height. He flexed a weight one last time before putting it down and heading to the bridge. After pouring over their comm traffic while trying to seem as innocuous as possible after that incident with the task group dropped out of FTL a bit too close to a space station with automated defenses. The locals knew there were many spaceships here, but save for his initial contacts, he had tried to keep a low profile, especially after learning through a crude translation that the planet was much more heavily armed. But now, as he took his place on the bridge, he relayed the command to his underlings, who, in turn, sent out the command via the quantum membrane.

A relatively new technology considered a fancy military toy just before the Reizouko Crisis a few decades prior, the Quantum Membrane technology that was now standard on all Celestial Navy ships served as both a powerful sensor array and a near-instantaneous communications platform. By detecting patterns along the fabric of spacetime, in other words, the quantum membrane, this technology could see through almost any cloak by detecting not emissions, but mass, density, and acceleration via distortions in the change of gravitational forces. Current-generation systems could provide real-time data up to a light-hour out from its source, though any farther resulted in lag from how long it took the detection of those waves to reach the sensors. Similarly, by vibrating in specific patterns along the quantum membrane from one point to another, Sovereignty forces could communicate and coordinate within the vastness of a star system in more or less real time, depending on how far out they were from each other. Tightbeams were still the best way to relay data between ships in quantity, but even AIs couldn't keep them totally accurate at long range. Thusly, ships maneuvered into place across the Tsuka system broadcast using radio waves and other old-fashioned frequencies the message of their CO, translated into their language via the naval AIs that had meticulously constructed a translator packet by analyzing their broadcasts.

"This is Vice-Admiral Soujiro Ryuusenka of the Divine Sovereignty of Houseidou. I am the commander of the Tenth Fleet of the Divine Sovereignty's Celestial Navy. From what I understand, the political entity in charge of this area of space has abandoned you all here. My ships, my people, and I are here to help. We came to this part of space to explore, discover, and found our own colonies, but we found you, to our surprise. We are willing to offer you membership into our nation, starting off as a protectorate, and improving your lives as we integrate you into our society, our culture, and our way of life. I wish to speak with the leaders of this system, so I can understand your problems, and how we can fix them. From what we have gathered from a few scouting missions in the system, you all are hungry. As I speak, my fleet's factory ship is hard at work building infrastructure that will provide you all with food, and the means to deliver it to you. We are not a conquering force here to destroy your lives. We only wish to help you fulfill your full potential. Please, contact us, and we will do whatever we can to bring you all back from the brink."

by **Doppio Giudici** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:55 pm

2129 CE
(Common Era),
117 YoS
(Year Of Salvation)

He stood there with his hands ziptied behind his back, looking around as best as he could. His body turned and angled itself so that his head could look all the way to the right or left. This had to be the strangest looking court he had ever seen, with the people watching with their devices out, the judge higher than the rest, and the jury even higher up.

"Since you yourself have confessed to your crimes publicly, in a series of brags and threats, we have skipped the process of examining evidence." The Judge stated, "The jury has had fourteen days to decide your fate, unless the almost impossible happens, and the jury can't agree to find you guilty."

The Judge turned over to the Jury, a series of 12 people, all but one who were visible and looking the accused right in the eye. All of them were standing up, including the one with a mask on.

"What is the Jury's agreement?"

"The Jury finds the accused guilty of at least enough of the accused crimes, to put them down as a "Class Five Treasonist"."

"And has the Jury agreed upon a punishment?"

"Yes, we have Sir." The woman said, looking at the accused right in the eyes, staring out at him with disgust, "As a Jury made entirely of the traitor's victim's, we have decided to not show him the short mercy of execution by firing squad, but to show him the greatest punishment and act of mercy available to us."

The guards whipped out their collapsible batons and stepped down to his level, while that woman stepped down as well, holding a carrying case delicately in her hands.

"The punishment, is to be 'Woken Up'."

He was forced to his knees and he tried to struggle, but he was just hit with a baton, then another, and another. The three guards, held him down and still, unable to move on his sides. The woman knelt close to him and looked at his bruised, twitching body. Another set of hands held his head down and if any part of him moved, he was hit with a hand or baton. One of his hands was held up and held perfectly still, as she moved the needle close to a vein she could find.

"His arms are compromised, all the veins appear to be used up." She remarked, before looking at his eyes with the same look of disgust.

"Just use the shoulder then."

She moved the needle to his shoulder and he closed his eyes, biting his lips as she slid it in slowly. It ultimately wasn't as painful as he expected and he was just too scared to move. It began to itch and feel sore around the spot, so he opened his eyes to look at her. She was holding up what looked like an IV bag, which she had connected to the injector, it appeared to be full of something clear but…. He swore it looked a bit pink.

Heartship 1, "Little Bunny"
"Scatter" System
2133 CE
(Common Era),
121 YoS
(Year Of Salvation)

"Arthur is knocked out, and as such, you are in charge of this fleet."

Paul could hear Seer, almost as if she was just behind him, whispering into his ear.

"Couldn't find someone as miserable as him to direct it?"

"You have the misery and the charisma, along with what we did to your ambition." Seer replied to him, pausing for a few moments, before stressing the rest of her words. "Use it. This is your opportunity…. It is a time of death and rebirth…. This is the best time to earn your forgiveness….Your freedom… Your honorable death….Go…Earn it…We will speak after."

Several Hours Later

Her voice sounded a bit stressed, perhaps irritated and annoyed, she had indeed said that they would 'speak after'.

"This is important, right?" Seer asked, very irritated.

"It is." Paul assured her, sighing out, before looking to the left and right, twitching some, "Someone is looking over my shoulder."

"Go on?"

"I am alone in a room with no electronics, and someone is looking over shoulder."

"How many eyes."

"I don't know, it feels like a thousand…Could just be a few hundred or hundreds of thousands."

"Are you sure about this?"

"I hopped a system closer to Nidus, and I feel a completely separate hoard of eyes looking over my shoulder."

There was several seconds of silence as he listened to her breathing, along with the sounds of her pacing several system over.

"I could come back to Nidus and look around, I could listen." Seer sighed out, her tone and pitch elevated.

"Are the fungoids contained?"

"The Hulfir are indeed contained, they should be on the road to being put in a very recessive state. I will ask our allies and acquaintances to hold them at bay while I visit our home.

Pruchod

"God Damnit, pull out, pull out!"

"What about the target, this is a great opportunity."

"I gave you an order, and we will jump now. Do you understand me?"

"Affirmative."

The Guardian grabbed the microphone, turned some dials, and breathed in.

"Two, three, four, five, six, pull out towards friendly unnamed." She ordered, "I repeat, all ships hyperspace to friendly unnamed system."

Sighing out, she sat down and belted herself in, as the hyperspace prep alarm went off. A bluish-white light filled the room, as a fairly loud, but quiet enough to speak over sound was heard. Class four and five Treasonists; it was easier to get a cat to take a bath, then it was to get a four or five to regroup or fall back. Her entire life had been like running down and uphill at the same time, you never felt like you had a choice, even after you spent years making up your mind. She had looked at a thousand options and yet, the only one that didn't feel completely wrong was the one. This one time, she had almost done one of the other options, but it just felt...sick... uncomfortable.... stressful... complicated. Four and fives, they made all the wrong choices, and then they woke up one day realizing what they had done. There was a thousand ways to be arrogant, foolish, prideful, sexist, racist, greedy, and lazy. There was a tiny number of paths that weren't filled with problems, with others suffering, with downward spirals. As she the ship speed up to incredible speeds and the ship did it's job of lowering the Gs on their bodies, she sighed out with closed eyes. Her hand landed on the button, which she held down.

"This is your Guardian speaking." She affirmed, "We are going to warn the others of what is happening and help them prepare."

Her lips were held tight and she swallowed, closing her eyes, before opening them again.

"In the event this is hostiles, we will speak to High Command and make ourselves available to martyrdom." The Guardian stated, closing her eyes again, "In the event this not hostiles, I will be putting in my final request and demanding my pension, which I will use to put us on a suicide mission again the Parasites."

"Lib-Rah-Ty?"

She was pinned to her chair and she could barely move her head, but she turned it just a little to look at him. Looking back at her were the most innocent eyes she had ever seen in a long time, a bit of belated breath, of warmth in the face, of tears. The room was very quiet, and her eyes flicked over to another person, same expression. Straining, she slowly and almost painfully turned her head the other way, her eyes sweeping over several other faces or the backs of heads. They were straining to look at her, she could see it. Her eyes stopped on a neck, with a two digit number on it, a number that haunted the dreams of that person.

"I understand." She sighed out, her hand still on the button, tears of her own running down her face, "I; understand. I understand that... It's so hard. We live in splendor, but it's just.... stress....work.... having to do the right thing.... worrying about who lives and who dies....worrying if I did enough....worrying if our ideas will be safe.... worrying if I could ever raise kids....But.... Now I worry about you...I worry about your long hours without rest....Of your night-terrors....Of your regrets... And...You deserve a second chance...and you deserve a break...and I can't send you to that without me....and I can't bear this much longer.... No amount of therapy can fix me.... I am a Red...and I feel guilty... Let us go out there...and show the others.. show The Universe... What a second chance looks like.... Let us cross out the word "rapist" and "murderer" under our names and put "martyr". Is there an afterlife? Who the fuck cares? I am going to be free, you and me are going to be free; we....are are going to be free.....And they....They will see us...and they will remember us....and others will fear us...And those who were like us... They will cower... And they will know that the last thing you want to face...Is a horrible person given a second chance and a glorious method by which to die.... Things are going to explode....Life is going to be snuffed out... And.... We will be blessed....I look forward too it..."

by **Belgiosweden** » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:49 pm

A dog with a keen nose

Confederate space, Nidus system
High Lord Admiral Niel Nielson sat comfortably in his neatly repaired chair, reading a manuscript detailing the intricacies of the newest device to grace the mages guild: "The Assembly Line" it was titled. Soon (as he had come to expect) he was interrupted by a large, well dressed, bear bursting into the room with all the grace of a collapsing roof.

"High Lord Admiral! We have an emergency situation on our hands!" Stated the captain with clear panic in his eyes.

Niel went to stand as his chair collapsed again, though he was too preoccupied to notice. "What is it captain? Don't tell me they're calling off the war!" His eyes sharing the same fear as the captains.

"No my lord. A confederate appears to be aware we are here sir"

"Aware of..." His brow thickened with confusion for a moment before his whole body went white with a visible shudder.

"s-sir?"

Niel looked up at the captain. "Send word to the mages guild, and have every man on every scout vessel keep their mind blocker charms worn at all times! We may have another Red witch in our midsts"

Zerjon Whitespace, G system
The war room of the Mjolnir was cluttered with high ranking knights all standing around a table seemingly constructed from opal, though its constant pulsating and shifting patterns indicated otherwise. at the center of this rabble stood three men. Two of them were the highest ranking members of the knights order, and one of them was the highest ranking man in the kingdom.

Supreme High Lord Admiral Ragnar Hadrada, a man seeimingly in his 20s with hair like flowing gold, and a beard to match, waved his hand over the table to reveal a collection of dots interconnected with lines. "These are the lands of the confederates" he stated as he gestured toward a collection of yellow dots with words beneath them. "

" one of them read.

Supreme Knight Lord Derek von Hapsburg, a man literally fused to his armour, pointed his hand the small yellow dot and spoke. " They call this system Midi Candida, and it where we will be arriving first to begin our invasion. I will lead ground forces in the assaults on colonies whilst Naval forces engage the orbital fleets and fortifications"

Ragnar took over "Thank you Sir Derek. We are lucky in that, though we may be outnumbered, we are technologically superior to our foe. Their ships lack shielding, and their armour is nothing too difficult to tare down. I must stress however, we are not to underestimate them in their capacity to commit to our defeat to a suicidal degree. These men are plagued with an insanity, and we are hear to cleanse that plague for our decedents sake"

The king moved his hand into the center of the table before bulling the dot out, enlarging it into a star system map. He drew path through the system from one end to the other. It looked like an arrow with fletching at one end and a point at the other. "We will enter the system here and move toward across the system, wiping clean the worlds that lay before us" He stated as he gestured toward the inhabited bodies, and stations within the system. "Our craft are faster than theirs, so we should be able to intercept any response forces before they have a chance to reinforce their ground troops. The proles will be far more formidable than the Zerjon were, but we have come far since then. We too are more formidable. Let them try to see us be stopped by some flying bricks, and some men in gelatin armour! we will prevail!" He raised his fist into the air. "Odin vill det! Odin wil het!"

The rest of the room erupted with men chanting along with the king, and soon they would be putting Odin's will into practice. Once they laid siege on the first system, the confederation would be spit in twain, and HMF2 would be able to mop up the abandoned half. Until then, they would continue training against illusions whilst they made their way to the system.

Belgioswedish space, I system
Knight general Hannes Ericsson was stood on the deck of his Balder class tungvikts,The rödhakesångare beroende, looking out into the void through his telescope. He was a Belgian, and was noticeably shorter than the many Swedes, Norwegians and Danes serving under him. His hair was also much darker, a dark brown. His father was swedish, hence his name, and this gave him a good skill for cross communication. Being able to speak both Dutch and Swedish fluently was a sought after skill in the knights order. This may have been partially why he had managed to gain rank so quickly, along with his tactical skills he gained form questing across the German countryside in his youth. Those days were behind him now. These days his first duty was to patrol the systems of the kingdom in case potential pirates or invaders showed up. Today might just be that day.

"The stars look calm tonight" He said to himself before being suddenly interrupted by the appearance of some, near kilometer long, metal pine needles zooming into existence. "Gah!" He cried as the shock of the event hit him with unexpected surprise.

An officer ran over to him. "Sir! Incoming vessels. Nearly the length of a planetomvandlare consistently. What are your orders?" Asked the man.

"Intercept them and turn them around, and if they refuse, we will show them what the planetomvandlare does to boats"

"Understood sir"

The small group of ships formed an orbit formation with the 4 valfisks forming up around the tungvikts and orbiting around it. they then zipped toward the incoming vessels with frightening speed before suddenly stopping just a kilometer away.

A radio device was brought out and Hannes attempted to send a message:

Far out of sight, in the orbit of I3, the planetomvandlare detected the spacial distortions and begun to maneuver toward their location. It would take around an hour to arrive.

by **Blancpayne** » Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:33 am

Far Away, Yet Eerily The Same

Belgioswedish Space, I System

The Aethelian Fleet received the message from the Knight General.

"Milord, we have received message from an unknown fleet, it appears to be multilingual.", Lady Freya reported.

Lady Freya, born from House Dragos, a cadet branch of Salade's House Vastille, and therefore came from the Varangienne space raiders and mercenaries, was taught ancient Varangienne (Old Nordic) as much as Blancpaynean (basically French) languages. While there are a lot of difference, she was surprised at the legibility of the message, so much so that a translator is almost redundant.

"Tell them, we are the Aethelian Fleet from the Grand Kingdom of Blancpayne, and that we come in peace.", Admiral Aethelbert ordered.

"Yes, Milord.", Lady Freya obeyed, relaying the reply in both Varangienne and Blancpaynean.

Good Day, this is Admiral Aethelbert Valerian, Lord
Commander of the Aethelian Exploration Fleet, and representative of Her Grand Majesty, Grand Queen Dominique I of the Grand Kingdom of Blancpayne.
We have come here in peace, and seek no hostility.

The bridge is silent, awaiting for reply from the Knight General.

by **Belgiosweden** » Sun Oct 08, 2017 2:58 am

A dog with a keen nose
[CONTINUATION]

Hannes Ericsson Listened intently to the reply form the foreign vessels. He understood his orders and knew what to do if disaster struck. Although judging by what the mages around him were saying about the craft, disaster would be overstating it. Foreign ships being bigger was a common sight for the Belgioswedes. They were also used to finding foreign ships to be surprisingly underwhelming when analysed. A lack of magica seemed to leave people without the ability to fit as much in so little a space.

The message came through.
"Explorers!?" He exclaimed with disappointment. "Right then. Lets turn them around. Can't have people snooping around our space when the fleets aren't home can we!" He picked up his radio transmitter and spoke into it.

the Knight General closed the transmitter and opened the receiver, listening again.

The crew stood prepared on the deck of the rödhakesångare beroende, looking out at the opposing vessels. Many of them unsure of what they might do. Hannes was uncertain that the cultural similarity was a good sign, the right of feud was very easy to insight after all. The french accent certainly did nothing to help his fear.

by **Vadia** » Sun Oct 08, 2017 10:10 pm

Popukibate, "Iou", Tsuka System
The Sector

There was an entire hour before a reply to their short message was sent, and it was hard to tell what took them so long. They only got one reply, so that was for the most part good news, at least the situation on the ground wasn't completely anarchy.

“The political entries are dead, someone killed them.” The message read, after it was translated. “This is heavily controlled space, you are deep within Tzardom territory. There will be no integration, you can't turn back a thousand years with the eyes of xenos.”

During the translation process, a second message arrived, from roughly the same location, just a mile or two moved.

“We can start by offering you around 9 billion tons of compacted carbonate, in exchange for roughly 9 billion tons of potatoes, vegetables, fruits, and grains. We can also send you the industrial technology process steps, to quickly process compacted carbonate into graphinate. If you provide enough fruit, we can give you an example of this graphinate, around the size of half a billion tons. If you wish to trade, we can offer you many other things, but first we need this first trade. The best location to drop off the supplies is in our largest spaceport, after you give us 15 hours to secure the location.”

Unaligned Post-Tzardom Space

The Tverdost’ had been the ones to use the so called "Big Bore" rounds, but they were never the ones to come up with the name. The reality was that the technology or at least the idea for that type of ammunition came from outside the Tzardom. It was not from the Trade Republic, which was towards the galatic core, nor from the Xenos that were spinward. As far as could be understood, it was not a product of the Transhumans who were scattered along the areas of the Sector that neither the Trade Republic or Tzardom held. One of the possible sources left for it to come from was pirates, independent worlds, or extra-legal corporations. The Adapt rifle which the Tverdost’ fired both the larger and the smaller spherical contact explosive shells. It could fire many types of ammo actually, with a lot less modification than any other known weapon, which is why it cost between 4 and 5 thousand Trade Units. On the Black Market or during trade, it was valued now at 6-10 thousand Trade Units in bulk and collectors paid millions of Trade Units for a single mint condition example.

There was just one issue, while Jel'en'ah Četyre was sitting on the factories to make more of the large "B.B.s" as they are called, it seemed several other non-aligned groups figured out how to make the smaller "B.B.s". Uncontrolled territory was crawling with wannabe nobles, overly ambitious actual nobles, and other vicious traitor-scum, all of who had access to a fair amount of this other version of this special ammo. The number of uses for it were considerable in number, which posed a problem to anyone trying to claim these areas as their own. You had cheap-break action pistols, some of which had the barrel swing sideways so the damn things could be used as attachments to longarms. After that, was the two-shot derringers, which were lacking in range and cost more, but were constantly used to assassinate heavily armored targets. Finally, you had one-shot, long-barrel, rolling-block rifles that fired small B.B.s at long distance and shorter ranged two-shot "shotguns" with the capability to use ordinary shotgun ammo.

This was a bigger problem then any onlooker would assume, as while it was possible and not particulity hard to design some sort of armor that could stop these rounds, the shockwave still had high odds of wounding, delimbing, and killing. The Tzardom drew it's culture from a time long ago, reflecting a time when noblemen wore heavy but comfortable suits of iron or steel. While the same nobility and warrior class existed now, having been revived in a way, so did the usage of heavy shock weapons. A heavy mace or hammer might not puncture a suit of steel armor, but it could still shatter your bones or badly hurt your internal organs or blood vessels.

K

Unlike most of the various systems of The Sector, K was very peaceful and well controlled, despite not having access to much in the way of interstellar technology. K had a single warm, wet planet of solid temperatures and abundant resources. It was also covered in many small communities of reasonable size, which were protected or preyed upon by larger factions. There was the major factions, the city-states, and finally the insurgents; this was the means by which power was carved up on such a planet, one which had thrown off the shackles of large areas being declared "off-limits". The lands that went to men who controlled systems were split among whoever could claim them and thus the many factions watched each other, mostly sharing power in one way or another.

The first major faction of note and likely the most powerful, was what remained of the Imperial Tzardom Forces. Their closet ally, outside of a handful of notable city-states which were heavily invested in, was what remained of the Internal Ministry. These two were notable, not only for their considerable trade networks with each other, their military alliances, their shared allies, their shared enemies, but also both were the only known major factions to even play lip service to "Freedom". Both of them didn't stop with putting the "Okhrana" secret police before the firing squad, but they quickly put the "Enforcers" and "Oprichnina" to death as well. In their territory, not a single political officer, secret police, or imperial pillager left. What was even more surprising, is that they weaved a complex web of aristocracy and citizenship, which reached back to a past and encouraged a strong culture. These two nations were places people wanted to live and places where many people were born in the 35 years or so they were unconnected from the rest of The Sector. Their lands were well managed, mostly devoted to food and mining, with large cities that were well connected by mag-lev.

Unfortunately for those two, despite them both having many tanks, hovercopters, and artillary; they found warfare very hard even after using all their friends to gang up on one city that was posing many problems. Another issue is that while at first most of the land that was given to people who were not here to claim it, was available for the taking, it quickly was found to be full of violent mutants and abomination clones. It was during this fighting and the slightly chaotic years before, that the two in their alliance showed interesting takes on the technology used before. The Internal Ministry showed it's well trained version of Vintovki, who could root out any movements into their territory, while the “Imperial Forces” used a highly professional version Vintovki. It was rather easy to make use of all the abundant resources and rapid population growth, but getting the technology of before back to working conditions was rather hard. The world was in a scramble to get mines back and running, and trade networks setup, so that all of the technology of before was back online.

During this time, the two had pleasant relations with The Cossacks and Survivalists. The Cossacks an ethnic group that was settled around Imperial space, normally living on the frontiers, but a large group of them had been stranded on the planet when The Sector plunged into darkness. The Survivalists had a force of professional Tverdost’, as they were mostly ruled by a series of noble families. These four major groups traded, had open borders, embassies, and were friendly to each other. That was until the day, the day that “Imperial Forces” managed to hear from their informants that the Survivalists were plotting against their Internal Ministry brethren. The other faction was informed and the two groups waited for the right moment to strike their new enemy.

Unexpectedly, the “True Believers”, another major faction, kicked off the fighting first. Having not nearly as much territory that those they decided to fight, they started the conflict by firing rockets at exposed mines on the frontier of “Imperial Force” territory and attacking a IF friendly city-state. Their surprise attacks were quickly wiped out, as a large drafted Vintovki force was mobilized towards the borders via mag-lev. Both sides sat with their Vintovki milita watching each other, neither side able to get their draftees to face the other. A large number of hovercopters and stealth bombers were prepared, to soften up the arrogant zeolots. Naturally, the zeolots felt compelled to shoot down hovercopters and took two nukes dropped from stealth planes, along with a series of carpet bombing campaigns. The other half of their lands faced down Survivalists, who deployed their Tverdost's, Vintovki, stealth bombers, and a lot of artillary.

While the Survivalists were impressed by the IF, the IF didn't trust them and quickly bombed the the irradiated half True Believer lands into submission, before throwing their massive bomber fleets at the other half. It didn't work, as they merely softened up these lands, so that they could fall into the hands of people who increasingly cozied up to them. It wasn't that long, just a few years, before the IF found the Cossacks speaking horrible things to them, as the Survivalists and Internal Ministry grew very close. A second defense pact was struck and the last remaining faction, to be most unlikely to speak of freedom, was found to constantly speak of such things.

Over the remaining decades, the farms, mines, factories, and ruins were put to their highest potential. The IF found that they were able update almost all of their Vintovki not only to the status of Nakoval'nya, but with the usage of hot-shot lazguns, exo-suits, and what was effectively a value version of the Tverdost’ armor, they were able to create units of roughly the same firepower as Tverdost’. When the Survivalists started to speak ill of them out of nowhere, they paniced and decided it was best to take the last oppressor on the world out, which meant a lightning strike on the Cossacks. At first the fighting was slow and not that many people paid that much mind to it, till the IF forces setup large air and land bases on the other landmass. Dipping into their incredible wealth, they deployed what seemed like millions and millions of their crack Nakoval'nya. The enemy had it's militias and crude units shot to pieces, as hoards of zone-bomber drones cleared the fortifications. The enemy was forced into submission, a lapdog position that was forced to sing the praises of freedom.

Years have passed and all sides are scrambling to get stuff in the air again, to restore their eyes to the heavens, while tensions rise as none of them can quite agree who should be in charge, and what should be done with the remaining lands they are in a race to settle. Population growth is explosive, with it now at six billion and projected to grow two percent each year

The New Board of Players (IC, FT)

The New Board of Players (IC, FT)

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