OOC: viewtopic.php?ns=1&f=5&t=463546&p=35631751#p35631751
Cymopolia: a galaxy destroyed by war. In strife, the nuclear weapons had turned a once prosperous galaxy, filled to the brim with countless interesting lifeforms convening with other races for one purpose or another, into an apocalyptic empire where the tremors of a horrific war once fought still rang throughout the cosmos even after what felt like entire decades. Ever since most of Cymopolia died, a single year felt like an entire aeon. However, in the apex of their idyllic golden age, Cymopolia was still divided between two major alliances – the Grand Circle and the Reverent, both of whom ultimately vied for total economic, political, and military control over the entire cosmos. Like every good modern war, the Final Conflict did not simply emerge out of nowhere – it was the result of decades of proxy wars, economic squabbles, territorial disputes, and political duels.
At first, the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, the complete annihilation of both sides, forced both sides to at least consider the consequences of each action. Any action taken could lead to countless consequences and new events emerging from the woodwork, both positive and negative. It was hoped that the continued development of nuclear-level arms would eventually force positive political, military, and financial cohesion between the two alliances. Historically, MAD had, to that point, at least mandated mutual grudging respect of another’s survival. However, when the Final Conflict broke out, their efforts were all for naught as the galaxy many had vowed to protect from obliteration from nuclear weapons had been, ironically, destroyed thanks to the weapons meant to ensure MAD.
Five years on, the vestigial forces of the New Circle and the Reclaimers, the remnants of two grand ancient alliances, have been focusing on recuperating their losses and rebuilding their galaxy in their own way, regardless of how or when that is achieved.
In the outskirts of the Bombed Wastes, a fleet filled with countless star-ships exited FTL travel. For seemingly ages, the Reclaimers were the last remnants of the Reverent – they escaped nuclear annihilation by virtue of travelling in FTL space by the time the Final Conflict broke out. Unlike the New Circle, the mostly-nomadic nature of the Reclaimers meant that it was, at least in theory, far easier for their forces to evade annihilation than the forces of the New Circle, who were stuck on a single planet with a scant million survivors. Some members of the Reclaimers still clung to the fleeting hope that, somewhere in Cymopolia, or even in the cosmos, other Reverent forces have discarded their support for the long-dead Reverent government and managed to survive the Final Conflict. Whether they barely survived by the skin of their teeth, they were slew by some errant mutated creature on a planet in the Bombed Wates, or they even thrived somehow, that remained to be seen.
The capital ship of the Reclaimers was a mammoth of a star-ship – the Levia – a testament to the technological ingenuity of the Reverent and their successors. Before the Final Conflict, it had been constructed by the Reverent to provide a powerful capital ship capable of creating new jobs, acting as a powerful weapon when needed, housing many workers and soldiers and to decrease the morale of the Grand Circle. Of course, the unofficial capital of the Reverent was a planet on the border of now-former Reverent space. Its unassuming location meant that it had fared better than most planets in the war, although nuclear weapons had still struck the planet. As a result, the Reclaimers had somewhere to retreat to in case their fleet had been decimated. At the very least they were not entirely nomadic; they still controlled planets, which were generally considered to be much more difficult to destroy than your average spaceship.
Stak, a very tall, roughly 195cm, yet muscular Istramite man, sat down into his chair. He felt his two antennas, putting his steel helmet back down onto his forehead. He considered the Istramite to be a valiant, proud warrior race; to his luck, quite a good number of his race had survived both the Final Conflict and the successive Reverent Civil War. It was a shame a powerful capital ship had to be destroyed in the process of , but the means justified the ends and he was hoping that he could salvage the rusted wreckage wherever it ended up and rebuild it… if it was out there somewhere and it was not obliterated in the course of the conflict.
Inside the Levia itself, many Reclaimer technicians and engineers scurried around the main bridge of the capital ship. If the Levia fell to what Stak called “technological impurities”, then that would inevitably mean that the esteem and efficacy of the Reclaimers would indubitably be called into question, and the fleet itself would be in danger of succumbing to yet another civil war. That would give the New Circle an advantage, which Stak, High Admiral of the Grand Reclaimer Fleet, didn’t want. As a result, Stak mandated that the survival of the Reclaimers hinged on maintaining a powerful fleet and ensured that the state-of-the-art weaponry and other technology the warship maintained was always kept up to date and refurbished to the absolute best of the crew’s abilities. Stak believed that he had to be ruthless if he wanted to defeat the New Circle and ensure that Cymopolia was fully recolonized.
Soon, he hoped, the fleet would be able to embark on a grand maiden voyage across the cosmos and rebuild Cymopolian civilization. Then, he received a message from an active lieutenant, advising him on their next course of action.
“Send out a message to any nearby extragalactic powers,” Stak ordered. “Cymopolia has an abundance of resources, even after the Final Conflict. It’s not like we’ll be running of them any time soon. That will be a good incentive for most superpowers to come over here.” He waited for a few seconds, pondering his next move. “Know what? I’ll send them a video; it saves more time that way.”
“Yes, sir,” the nearby Reclaimers responded, and they began to work on starting up the recording equipment.
Stak sat down in his rotating chair and looked towards the camera. He breathed for a second and then put on the typical political smile, playing around with his medals to make sure they were in the correct position. Everything was ready to go. “To whoever sees his video, I’d like to welcome you. I am Stak, the High Admiral of the Reclaimers. We are the last known remnants of the Reverent alliance – Cymopolia, our home galaxy, was ravaged by nuclear war some time ago. Since then, countless planets have suffered the consequences from the onslaught. Countless civilians and soldiers died and, as a result, we need your help.”
“We understand that it’s costly to travel to an uncharted galaxy far from home. That’s why we have a once-in-a-lifetime offer for you: Cymopolia’s resources.” Stak pulled out a silver bar meant to deploy holographic projections. He placed it on the table and the camera fixated on the bar itself. Then, a projection emerged, showing countless statistics, data, and figures relating to the resources present in Cymopolia for economists to indulge themselves in. “As you can see here, despite the atomic war we fought, this galaxy nonetheless still possesses an almost unlimited amount of resources. We’ll be ready to acquisition the more… hesitant nations who aren’t so willing to donate if need be – their needs are subordinate to the greater good.”
Veilara III. The capital planet of the New Circle, progenies of the now-defunct Grand Circle, and home to the few Grand Circellian survivors of the Final Conflict. One of the last planets colonized by the Grand Circle before the advent of the Final Conflict, Veilara III fared better than most planets. It was seen by both sides as strategically unnecessary, though when the nuclear bombs struck the earth, Reverent forces nonetheless recognized that there were some military officers there, albeit a small amount of them. Just as well – unbeknownst to the Reverent, the military government of the Grand Circle, officially deemed to have been wiped out by the Reverent forces in the midst of the Final Conflict, managed to elude total annihilation by way of cloak and shadow, and now, they seek to rebuild their expansive alliance under their new nom de guerre: the New Circle.
While their old alliance was dead, the New Circle had rose forth from their ashes.
In the five or so years after the Final Conflict, Krusskena and the rest of the Circellian Senate had conducted a massive initiative to rebuild the planet Veilara III. It had suffered less than the rest of the cosmos, and it was the only planet the New Circle had, in fact, officially taken full control of. The initiative was initially slow, focusing on Veilara III’s largest cities and then expanding outwards. However, five years on, vast swathes of Veilara III had been successfully terraformed so as to eliminate any radiation on the planet and repair the destroyed settlements residing on the relatively desolate planet; barren lands still remained on the planet, and there were concerns that mutated creatures, the barely-sentient forms of surviving casualties forcibly metamorphized either by deranged scientists or by the atomic weaponry deployed onto the planet.
Nonetheless, Veilara III was projected to ideally be completely rebuilt by the end of the year.
Veilara III was no longer the irradiated wasteland it might have been at the end of the Final Conflict, but it was not an idyllic utopia either. Within the walls of Veilara III’s capital city, chief among the last bastions of the Grand Circle, laid the headquarters of their progeny – the New Circle. Under the rule of President Krusskena, the Circellian alliance had taken a more authoritarian and ruthless move with regards to the political and military theatres. Krusskena considered himself to rule an “autocratic democracy” – aspects of autocracies and democracies were both implemented in order to strengthen the powers of the President and the Senate. He, of course, enacted this autocratic democracy, as oxymoronic as it was, because he believed that life in Cymopolia was on the hinges of extinction and that any means were necessary if the New Circle were to successfully resurrect the Grand Circle and bring order to the cosmos.
Now, he had to attend a meeting with Seor, an esteemed Grand General who managed to survive the Final Conflict, regarding the Unclaimed Sectors.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to send an expedition or two into the Unclaimed Sectors,” Seor said, a glint of hope in his eyes. “We’ve not got too many soldiers right now, so maybe constructing robotic lifeforms or clones of our own will suffice. We can spare more men once we have more than a few million New Circellians throughout Cymopolia.”
“Excellent,” Krusskena responded, a bottle of wine in his hand. “If we can find any Grand Circle survivors, that means they can become useful to the survival of the New Circle.”
Just as Krusskena finished, an informat ran into the room, slightly winded from running. “Sir, we’ve intercepted a message from the Reclaimers,” the informant said. “They’ve basically offered the resources of Cymopolia to whoever comes to their aid.”
Krusskena let out a small grumble. “Dammit. We’ll send it out earlier than anticipated, then.” He turned to several of his aides, placing the bottle onto the table in front of him. “Fetch me the good recording equipment and a drink and meet me in the recording room as soon as possible!” He sat back down on his chair, thinking of any other offers to coincide with Cymopolia’s abundant resources. He knew some surviving paramilitary groups and private military companies had retreated into uncharted space since the Final Conflict. Maybe if he could gain their support, he could use them to his advantage and gain some allies.
A few minutes later, the aides signalled Krusskena, rolling boom mics, synthesizers, mixers, monitors, compressors, and anything else they felt was necessary into the recording room. A makeup crew entered seconds later to “beautify”, as they rather flamboyantly called it, Krusskena and make him look presentable. First impressions always mattered, after all. Unlike High Admiral Stak, Krusskena was no longer an active combatant and had eschewed warfare in favour of the political theatre, though even he would admit politics was more entertaining when the races in Cymopolia were not on the verge of total extinction. Several Praetorian Guards were stationed around the recording room. Even after the wars had ended, the fear of assassination, either by Reclaimer double agents or Veilaran rebels, was still prominent enough that the creation of countless contingencies was still warranted.
“Greetings, everyone,” Krusskena began. “I am Krusskena, the President of the New Circle. We are the remnants of the once-prestigious Grand Circle; we survived the Armageddon that plagued our galaxy ages ago. We want to bring Cymopolia back to its golden days, back when we Cymopolians basked in our endless supply of resources and our ever-expanding alliances that brought prosperity to the citizens of Cymopolia. We’re essentially the children of the Grand Circle – the alliance that sought the evolution of Cymopolia by any means necessary. The alliance that actually wanted to preserve the future of Cymopolia instead of basking in barbarism; the alliance, more importantly, that wanted to ensure the betterment of the lives of its citizens instead of fighting endless wars.“
He pulled out a stainless-steel hologram projector and placed it in so that anyone watching the video could clearly see it. He then activated it, showing detailed statistics and data regarding the resources of Cymopolia. “The “Reclaimers” offered you the resources of Cymopolia, didn’t they? Well, not only will I offer that, I will also offer the aid of some private military companies and megacorporations that work quite closely with us. They will help to preserve the peace in your nation as well as aid the economies of your nations, as they do when they work closely with us. With this in mind, we strongly urge you to choose wisely when deciding whether to side with us or the Reclaimers – the wrong choice could be quite catastrophic for everyone involved.” And with that, Krusskena ended the recording and sent it out to any extragalactic powers.
With some luck, they’d respond sooner rather than later…