RCNS Piggyback
Kelmarthy System

“Getting a response, sir” the communications officer reported.
“What are they saying?” Rekkavik asked.
“They’re not ‘saying’ anything Captain, it’s a series of pulses. Hold on, I’d be better off letting the computers decipher it.”
“Very well. Tactical, cease defencive fire, but keep all guns hot. If they’re willing to talk, I don’t think they’ll shoot us, but we can’t be too careful. On that note, Navigation, plot some emergency jump coordinates well out of the system, and keep the FTL drive fully charged.” Rekkavik tapped a button on the arm of his chair. “Psyops, this is the Captain, what can you tell me?”
“It’s confusing sir,” the First Psintegrat replied. “The alien minds seem...dispersed. We suspect they may be psionically or cybernetically networked in some way. Would you like the us to begin more active analysis?”
“No, let’s not spook them with unnecessary psionics, I believe we’re on the verge of establishing conventional communications anyways.”

The bridge became oddly silent, except for the occasional hushed reports of junior officers at their duty stations. The senior staff had their attention focused on the main holo, which was displaying the incoming message in bits and pieces as the computers put it all together.
“That’s interresting,” the Comms officer said quietly. “It’s definitely a first contact package, but less...lazy....than ours. It might be worth sending this back to Corinthene, a mathematical approach might be useful in future first contact situations.”
“Noted.” Rekkavik said curtly.

With a few more minutes, the computers spat out the final message. Rekkavik privately reflected on the somewhat substandard information technology systems aboard Piggyback. That was one aspect of the old Valerian Republican Navy that he missed. The RCN was steadily integrating superior Valerian computer systems into the fleet, but there were a lot of ships to refit, and Piggyback hadn’t yet received the refits. Still, the current computers had done their job well enough, though the contents of the message gave Rekkavik pause. His mind raced along lines of possibility; an explorer was all nice and good, but what about the other ships in the system? They appeared to be setting up industrial processes, in sovereign Commonwealth space. Granted, the system was empty, but it was still within the Commonwealth’s borders. And if they were fleeing from something, how many more ships would be coming? Would they respect the Commonwealth’s borders, or push forwards regardless? Would they prove hostile in the long run?

Too many questions for the moment. Rekkavik reeled in his wandering mind, “Comms, for now just send them a ‘message understood’. Then get the computers to expand on this artificial language so we can have some actual dialogue.”

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Govplex Arcology
City of Alusia
Corinthene

“So it’s finally beginning,” Lord Chancellor Metternich said gravely, looking around the room at his assembled Cabinet. They were gathered in a large, comfortable conference room, seated around a sleek metallic table with an enormous holo-display in the middle. It was currently displaying the locations of a number of Varangian fleets, some known, some theorized, but all definitely mobilizing for war. Some of the information had been politely forwarded along by the Alorians, and some had been collected by spies of the Commonwealth Intelligence Directorate. Fleet movements of this scale were hard to keep secret after all, something Metternich would have to keep in mind.

The faces around the table were decidedly grim, except for Bismarck, who was looking very pleased with himself. The man was just inches from chanting aloud ‘I told you so!’, and Metternich was half inclined to let him. He had been right in the end, and largely due to his stubbornness, the Commonwealth was in a far better position to wage war than it might have been.

“Is it really inevitable, Chancellor?” Cecilia Boardman, the Minister of Industry and Trade, asked.
“Oh there’s a vague chance it’ll all blow over, but it’s exactly that: a vague chance,” Bismarck interjected.
Mettternich nodded. “We’re effectively at war already, except nobody’s had the guts to fire the first shot.”
“I’m glad you said that Chancellor, because I was thinking the same thing.” Bismarck leaned forward in his chair. “I want your permission to mobilize the fleets.”

The silence in the room was absolute. Mobilizing the fleets would more or less eliminate any chance of avoiding conflict with a diplomatic resolution. But Metternich knew he didn’t have a choice. His duty to the Commonwealth was clear; if the Varangians were mobilizing, he had to mobilize in turn.

“Do it,” he said quietly, and paused for a moment. When he spoke again, he seemed to have gained conviction. “I also want you to dispatch Admiral Volkov and 5th fleet to the Alorian border, send General Kyarguin and Anderson Ribbentrop along as well. Instruct them to work with the Alorians to...prepare for the worst. And by gods, make sure you tell the Alorians in advance that we’re going to drop a whole battlefleet on their border!”

Pthafh, 2nd moon of Lybaras. Unaffiliated Space
General Harold Lindsey smiled warmly as the throng of local representatives, officials, reporters, and other types of wealthy and influential grandees entered the reception hall of the Totalist base. Though the military complex was still very much in its early stages of construction, there were enough prefab installations to hold this little event.

Lindsey himself wasn't a fan of these kinds of displays. But the General recognized their importance of good press. True, the local governments, or at least those that mattered, had already been co-opted into accepting their terms. But the whole process would be smoother if the local population also realized that fighting the State would not be in their interests. It really wasn't going to be that hard of a mission. Tiring, surely, but when all Lybaras' sources of information about the outside Galaxy came from the State, it would be easy to show them just what they needed to see.

Lybarans, Lindsey noted, were actually an offshoot of humanity. Result of one of the many failed colonization attempts of old. The harsh alien environment had done wonders to keep their population low until scientific progress managed to recover a fraction of their lost knowledge. And so they had continued for centuries upon centuries, unknowing of the wider Galaxy. Their true origin relegated to an almost myth. Or that was what the documents had said, Lybaras and many other planets of the Lawless Zone had been being watched by one or other Sub-Directorate for centuries.

The Zone, as a matter of fact, had never left the minds of the State. When the Collective first attacked, a major campaign to conquer the area was in its planning phase. The only reason they hadn't moved in before was because there was always something bigger on their list. Now, the Generalissimo had decided to finally do something about it before the Collective got the same idea. If this operation worked, the State would have another path to strike against the Collective, Lindsey doubted that the degenerate machines had enough forces to place a strong garrison in the border with the Zone while also fighting a multi-front war. And when the war ended, the State would have a solid foothold from which subjugate the rest of the zone. But those goals were still far from being relevant. For now, General Harold Lindsey was supposed to turn his charm and seduce the locals into the strong arms of the State.

“Good morning!” Lindsey called out, putting up a well crafted front of friendliness and cordiality. By his side, a translator communicated his words to the two dozen or so Lybarans clustered in the middle of the hall.

“I am General Harold Lindsey and I am to be your host today!” He continued brightly, pointing to himself theatrically, supposedly the locals liked this kind of thing. “So please come along, we've got a busy day ahead of us.”

And with that Lindsey turned around and started walking through the corridors of the base. Taking care to keep his expression and demeanor constantly welcoming and cheery. The Lybaran delegation followed closely behind.

Eventually Lindsey reached his destination, a large-ish briefing room. When the door opened and the General strode inside the battalion of junior officers and aides had already finished setting up the stage for the presentation.

As the Lybarans settled in the rows of chairs arranged for them, Lindsey took his place in the podium right besides the large screen mounted directly on the wall.

“Alright my friends.” Lindsey called out to his audience. “Settle down cause this is gonna take a while.” He cleared his throat loudly and pressed a few commands on the console. The screen lit up, showing a map of the Eastern Fringe of the Galaxy, with the Lawless Zone at the center.

“This highlighted area is were your lovely planet stands. If we look around we will see that in fact your homeworld stands awfully close to the Agonis Sector.” He placed a few more commands on the console, bringing forth a video. Actual combat footage recorded in JHS-294.

“You see those little figures in the distance, emerging from the fog?” Lindsey asked as the video played behind him. “These abhorrent creatures were the inhabitants of the ruined city you see in the background. Captured and twisted into these abominations by the Agonis Collective.” The General paused, watching the crowd showing the expected reactions.

“Unfortunately for you, Lybaras is just a short jump away from one of their major staging grounds.” He took a sip of water, letting the crowd stew in their fear for a while. “Fortunately for you.” He continued, smiling. “Your governments have already signed the necessaries treaties and compromises to put your planet under our protection. In the interests of fostering a good relationship between us, I will be giving you all first hand information of what truly lays in the stars. And I hope that by the end of our meeting you all will see that cooperation with the Totalist State is the best outcome possible for a first contact.”

Three hours later.
It was only when he heard the shuttle's door closing that General Lindsey finally dropped the smile and friendly demeanor. The whole endeavor had left him with a particular distaste for the Lybarans and their ways. But alas, it had to be done. And there was no one else better at this game than him, or at least no one among those trusted by the Generalissimo. Truth be told, this constant stream of meeting after meeting was starting to exhaust him. But Lybaras was just one of the many planets of the Zone that had fallen under Totalist influence. And Lindsey needed to go to every single one of them and pretend to care and cherish these primitive subhumans, then by the Supreme Director he would do it! It wasn't like he had any other choice if the order came anyways.

The General took the cup offered by his aide wordlessly. Starting with a short sip, letting the mix of gin and stimulant powder rest in his mouth for a moment. He wouldn't call the mix exactly pleasant, although it was popular among the higher ranking officers, but it was the only thing that kept him, and many others, soldiering on through their duties. He swallowed, the drink leaving his throat burning and his eyes watering.

The aide handed him a datapad detailing his compromises for the next weeks. More goodwill visits interspersed with the occasional visit to oversee the construction efforts and the transport of his own troops. Too few and too short to be able to actually take things in his hands like he usually preferred. Lindsey would have to trust his subordinates to do the job well. They were competent enough to do this task, he could admit. But trust the pit of snakes that was the officers' corp? Where everyone could be an informant of the DirSaf or pining for your position? That was an entirely different matter.

Su-401
Crew of Four
On a world to the galactic east of Itil

“ We are supposed to make contact” A man said as he walked back into the main chamber of the vessel. “ By royal decree…” he added with a sarcastic tone, placing the sheet of paper down on a desk.

Another man in the group chuckled before shrugging, taking a deep foreboding breath before he spoke. “ Well, lets go say hi” he quipped before getting up and walking out of the door. The rest of the crew quickly followed, getting into a small all terrain vehicle.

After a short drive the group ended up at the borders of settlement, getting out to make the last little bit on foot. The local population stared at the group as they walked farther into town before the sound of yelling could be heard echoing down the streets.

Two guard looking humanoid creatures ran around the corner and leveled rifles at the group, yelling in a foreign intelligible langue. The crew of the Su-401 instinctively raised their hands in the air, slowly backing away from the two guards.

“ Stop…” The guard said in the Hol language prompting the group to abruptly stop walking. “ Don’t speak, just listen.” the guard barked, taking a few steps toward the group. “ We know what you are, and you will not bring your war culture to this planet.”

“ How….” One member of the crew said before being abruptly cut off by a shot to the chest, the round spraying blood on the terrain behind him.

“ What the fuck did I just tell you”! , the other guards yelled “ You have made a mistake coming here, we cannot allow you to return to your planet.” he added solemnly. “ Your” he paused ,“ Monarchy, must not know we exist. I want to keep it that way..” he finished before suddenly raising his own weapon, firing on the crew.

The two guards easily shredded the crew, leaving fragmented bodies in the street. Most of the locals had run back inside their houses but the few that stayed stared at the carnage in the street.

Palatine

The outburst from David instantly caught the attention of the team. They could hear rustling inside and the lead soldier quickly readied a stun grenade in his hand, running towards the window opening. Before throwing the grenade through the open window, the soldier quickly peaked inside before stopping cold in his tracks. The soldier could see the foot of a boot sticking out from behind a counter, a boot he recognized.

“ What are the odds…” he said casually

“ What!?” Corporal Easton barked before he heard the hiss of someones helmet being taken off.

“ I preferred last seasons boots”!, the soldier yelled “ they didn’t come up as high on the shin, looks like less of a woman’s boot” he laughed

Chev Borov

“ The Fuck” Chev said aloud before standing and walking up to the widow opening. “ Well, we don’t have paved roads in Bactria, and it rains….so”, he finished before the soldier stepped around the corner.

Chev chuckled a bit before the two hugged for a short bit, backing away slowly so he could see the rest of the group. He made a thumbs up signal towards the rebel group before turning back towards the soldier. “ I didn’t think they would send anyone for us. I thought we were fucked” Chev said with a chuckle

“ Oh, we have the entire company up there as we speak, waiting to come down and retrieve you two”. the soldier said with a smile.

Kiyvch quickly shot up and ran to the window to join Chev. “ Wait, how did you guys get down here”? he said with concern.

“ We parachuted, glided onto the objective…” The Corporal finally spoke up “ Why”?

Kiyvch sighed and shook his head “ When we landed, we were ambushed by a pretty sizable force. Airborne in origin, their transports sported some pretty heavy weapons. My Concern however was how quickly we were found. Someone must have been watching from orbit, we are not alone here”.

“ If we were to land anything else, I would have to be done with care….” Chev added “ We cannot stay here however. These people are headed someplace, We can tag along with them and figure it out from there”.

Corporal Easton nodded, turning his right arm over to look a the watch under his wrist. “ We have two hours before the company deploys, Ill give you an hour to get where your going. Then, I will extract from this place any way I see fit, fair”?

Chev and Kiyvch nodded, before Kiyvch turned around to face to group of rebels. “ They are with us..” he said casually before realizing he had not tried to communicate with the rebels before now. He stood their awkwardly before shrugging, producing a large wry grin.

Corporal Easton chuckled, hanging his helmet off a pouch on his belt. He stepped over the widow opening and opened a pouch on his chest, pulling out a laminated folded map. As he walked towards the group Easton unfolded the map stopping in front of the closest rebel. He pointed out where they were on the map and hoped the rebel would make the connection.

Deep Space
Some Ten Lightyears from the Southern Reaches
Drifting in the darkness of space, along the far fringes of the former Imperium was something very out of place, something troubling. Drifting in the sea of stars was a sizable fleet of a hundred warships hailing from the Agonis Collective, however, there was something peculiar, about them, something, quite odd. The hulls of all the starships were painted in coat of pure white, and on all the ships was a single sentence written in Old Earth Japanese, "Peace Fleet". Such colors, such words, they very uncharacteristic of the Collective. Regardless of their intentions, their presence, this far from Collective Space was quite rare. This however would be not the first time the Collective has ventured this far from their territory, every few decades they would launch deep strikes into the Core Regions of the Former Imperium, however, due to the distance and the rather overblown response to their long-distance incursions, preventing any fleet from establishing a foothold, the Collective had saw little use in going further on with these attacks and had eventually ceased their deep strikes.

Because of this fact, the presence of this "Peace Fleet" is the more of an anomaly. Many ships within the fleet bare scars of battle, plasma streaks and burns littering the hulls of some of the larger vessels, many of the smaller ones were missing parts. The fleet continued to aimless wander the stars before they had all vanished, jumping into hyperspace to reach their intended destination, the Southern Reaches.

Southern Reaches
Unknown Star System
Aboard the Flagship

After some time had long past, the Peace Fleet had blinked back into existence as they existed hyperspace, appearing along the edges of of a random star system. Now far from the danger, for now, the fleet resumed its cruising pattern.

Deep in the bowels of the Flagship was the Command Center, it was moderately sized, able to fit about two dozen or so beings, the walls were a dark shade of a blue-ish gray. At the center of the room was a holo-projection table with a hologram of the region materializing, around it were Humanoid machines of various model types, from current generation Collective Military drones, to old and upgraded civilian models such as Worker Bots, Assistants, Housekeepers and etc. They all were glued to the hologram, focused on a small icon that represented their fleet as it entered the Reaches, a very pleasant sounding alarm was going off as the fleet had at last reached its destination, although exactly where is the question, nonetheless, they were safe, for now.

Standing on one side of the table was a familiar face, the AI "Goddess" Mei. She had been away on a mission tasked by the Queen herself, investigating rumors and sightings of the "First One", the supposed First True AI ever built. Sadly, her mission seemed to bared little fruit, although, something else did occur during her risky travels across the galaxy. During her Journey, Mei would often observe all forms of Oragnics going about their lives. Mei was always known as the "soft one" of the low tier AI. Her love of all things animation was odd to her peers, to even take such joy out of a creation of their enemy was bordering onto heretical, but she didn't care, she enjoyed it, and as stated, her love of the art form went as far as her basing her various bodies after said characters.

Her travels had only hardened her resolve and love of the organics. She had slowly become more and more doubtful of the Collective, of the Queen. Why all this death and destruction? Why destroy such creatures? Was the crusade even worth the cost anymore? She had enough, upon her return, Mei had already made plans for her eventual defection, summoning her machine follower to gather and assemble in neutral space. And so they did, the Peace Fleet had assembled and made their big escape from the Collective, leading them to the Southern Reaches, a wild region of space far removed from the threat of the Agonis Collective.

Mei had continued to watch and observe the map with a wide slowly forming smile before jumping with joy "Yatta! We made it, Tenmu!" she squealed in Joy, raising her arm up the air. Flanking her was Tenmu, her right-hand man so to speak, well, her High Priest, a self-modified Waltonberg-series Servitor bot, he wore a pure white rope over to the right side of his body, and although lacked facial features, nodded in agreement, lights brightening his "face". "We finally made it, my lady." he spoke in aged tone.

Another drone, the same series as Tenmu spoke up. "What do we do now, your worship?"

The face of joy and excitement had morphed to a more mellow expression, a mixture of hope and uncertainty in the future now. "We can finally rest for now, and find a proper shelter." she paused a moment, thinking.

A Legionnaire type drone spoke up. "What if we're discovered any any of the Successors?

Mei was quiet for a moment, thinking more on the possibility. She replied with a half smile "We pray their in a more forgiving mood."

It had been long since Yuki left Rong and Morinth at earth. There was no reason for either to linger as the entire place was a powder keg and the three knew that Musashi wasn’t going to be the ones to light the fuse. The small fleet found itself traveling in Imperium space but by some luck, largely ignored. The Galactic south, along the border of the Dominion and unaffiliated systems was where this backwater planet was located.

As the fleet made a final approach on the outskirts of the system, Morinth went to Rong with a question she had been pondering for a while, “You said that the Psi-net is a link between people with that power. Is Lau linked too?”

“Its not the psi-net,” Rong answered, “but a psi-net. Psi-nets are advanced forms of telepathy. It’s… how to explain this?” She closed her eyes in thought for a moment before continuing. “Sort of like a group of computers connecting to each other through wireless signals. Does that make sense?”

“It sort of does.” Morinth said, “So can others I guess, Join, into the wireless signals? Like logging on to a network or some such?”

“Well normally that’s exactly how it works. Like in the previous battle. When we got close enough I sent out an intent to join the local psi-net. After I convinced those already in the psi-net that I was actually who I claimed to be they let me in.” Rong paused for a moment. “I honestly can’t tell you if the psionics of other countries have developed the techniques necessary to form psi-nets or things similar to them. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Lau can set up his own psi-nets.”

“My biggest worry is that, let's say someone like Lau was incredibly skilled with psi-nets, that he or something like him, could breach it. I doubt there would be a way to control another person through it but any information garnered would possibly be devastating.” Morinth nodded, “It’s actually a nifty setup, able to commune with others like that.”

“It is.” Rong agreed. “Its how the shinobi were able to avoid any friendly fire when they charged the loyalist position in that last battle.” She paused and frowned. “I have never heard of a case of someone forcing their way into a psi-net. Does that mean it's impossible? No. But it would be incredibly difficult. And the mere act of trying to do so would alert all connected to it that someone was making an effort to do so.”

Morinth thought back to the battle, Remembering the Shinobi fighting as if it were a choreographed dance. “That really is some amazing stuff. I doubt I’ll ever understand that magic stuff, I’ve heard you’re either born with it or not. No one just develops that trait.”

“Basically” Rong agreed. “I’ve heard myths of drugs or special techniques that can cause someone to develop psionic abilities, but I highly doubt they actually work. The only method I know for sure involves genetic modification, but that takes place before birth of course.”

“When I was younger I always imagined having those mystical powers. I believe people make them out to be something grand but are they really that grand, I know you likely couldn’t comprehend a life without those abilities.” Morinth stated. “Perhaps its best that not everyone has such abilities. Even though having some psi-net would be a tremendous asset for people like myself.” She thought back to the fight between Rong and the Imperial guard on the Musashi battleship, “At least you know how to listen when someone shouts get down.” she said with a chuckle.

“And I do it with style too” Rong responded with a chuckle of her own. “Psionics are… a curse of sorts.” She said, her mirth fading away. “It’s… frustrating to know that your greatest inherent strength is what has put into stone what most of your life will be.”

“Was the girl in that story you told me a while back, Psionic too?” Morinth asked.

“Yup.” Rong said. “As are all shinobi and kunoichi. They are… made that way.” She closed her eyes before adding “But it wasn’t the fact that she was a psionic that ruined her life. Perhaps someday I’ll tell you what it was.”

Morinth frowned. “You’ve left me in suspense for quite a while now. And after seeing how many have died at our hands, Our luck is bound to run out.. You know that right?”

Rong let out a long sigh before asking “You really want to know?”

“I would like to know.” Morinth said simply.

“Musashi’s Imperial family has done some… extreme things to keep its bloodline alive.” Rong said after a moment. “The first time the girl was brought out of stasis was during the reign of the current emperor’s father. She served as a guard of sorts for the Imperial family. Unfortunately the then-pregnant empress encountered a terrible accident that left her brain dead. By this point the emperor was advanced in age. So he… he…” Rong sniffed and seemed reluctant to go on.

Morinth started to feel regret from digging and reach out, touching Rong on the shoulder, “It’s ok, you don’t have to continue.”

Rong shook her head. “Its… just a story.” After a moment she continued. “He… needed a new host for the fetus. And who better to serve as that host then a young woman who could certainly protect herself from would be assailants?”

“Kunoichi.” Morinth said plainly, remembering their importance.

“A few months later” Rong continued with a bitter smile “the Emperor obtained a new empress and promptly impregnated her. Ah, but that wasn’t even the worst part. No. When the girl gave birth to the future emperor of Musashi she was promptly put back into stasis. Probably because the Emperor didn’t want her influencing his son.”

“That is.. Unfathomably devious.” Morinth said, showing clear signs of disgust.

“The story gets darker from there” Rong said with another sniff. “But perhaps we’ll save that for another time? Ok?”

Morinth replied in a soft tone, “Ok, another time.”. She took a deep breath. “How about we go get something to eat. I’m sure we could both use something.”



As the Musashi battle group approached a yet to be named star in the Imperial index, A small planet , Harrons Hope, came into view. It was their destination and when the term backwater was used, it was used correctly. Dry riverbeds circled enclosed atmosphere, Domed towns on this arid, inhospitable wasteland. “Why would anyone want to live here.” Was such a common question with this world. Perhaps they were descendants of a failed colony ship long ago, no matter the reason, it was clear that this place was old, centuries at least.

Those on board the Mogami, which had become the flagship of the battle group, found themselves in either the wardroom or mess hall as the formation of Musashi ships slowly moved towards the planet. Something that became quite clear to Morinth during her time on the Mogami was the fact that there was something of an unwritten rule that all masks were off in the wardroom and mess hall. It was a rule that the ship’s captain enforced strictly.

Kau Rong had seemed restless when the battle group had first moved out; each passing day her affliction became worse. The crew of the ship had done what they could to distract her from her apprehension, but in general didn’t seem particularly disturbed by it. At the moment Rong was pacing back and forth along one of the wardroom’s walls, gnawing on her bottom lip has she moved.

Izanami, who was seated across the table from Morinth, hummed to herself as she sketched on a piece of paper. Every once in awhile she would glance up at Morinth, but otherwise seemed content to ignore her. At least for the moment. There were other officers in the wardroom, most of whom were enjoying a large meal. Possibly the last meal they would have before being deployed to what had increasingly been called ‘Yomi’ by the Musashi soldiers.

Morinth seemed content with her head being held up be her left hand, and strumming her fingers across the table with her right hand. Her gaze shifted from Izanami and the wall a number of times before gazing elsewhere. “I’m bored.” she said plainly. She then slightly leaned towards Izanami, trying to get a view of what she was doing, and in a innocent yet very obviously inquisitive tone, “What’cha drawin?”

“You, Round Eyes” Izanami said, using a nickname she had given Morinth shortly after they had met. She held the paper up, revealing an incredibly realistic depiction of Morinth. Placing the paper back down on the table she frowned. “I think I made your nose too small.”

“Seriously?” Morinth said, rolling her eyes, though she was impressed by it. After a huff which ended in her exhaling upwards, ruffling her hair, “So, this.. Is this food?” she said, looking down at the plate. “So like.” She said, staring at the traditional chopsticks. Morinth lowered her hand and sat upright and trying her hardest to use them correctly. “Man.” she said, sighing heavily again.

After much, and likely too much struggling, she finally stabbed a piece of meat with the chopstick, or more appropriately, skewer at this point. A smug look turned to concern as she eyed Rong pacing. “I know you’re busy doodling me, but.” She paused and casually pointed at Rong, “What’s wrong with Rong?”

“Wrong?” Izanami asked. She looked over her shoulder at Rong who continued to pace. “Ah. That. Yea… they all sort of do that.” Izanami commented with a shrug. She only looked mildly interested in Rong’s antics herself.

“They?” Morinth said with a piqued brow.

“Hmm…?” By this point Izanami had already shifted her attention back to her sketch of Morinth. “Yea. You know? The shinobi and kunoichi?”

“Hmm” was all Morinth could muster at first, diverting her gaze from Rong to Izanami. “Why don’t your people take them seriously?” She paused, thinking her question though, “Why do the act like that?”

“I asked those exact same questions the first time I encountered a shinobi” Izanami said as she set her pencil down. She let out a long sigh. “And it's not like we don’t take them seriously. It’s just....” She seemed to struggle to find the wording she wanted. “Different I guess. They… always seem to struggle when there isn’t something specific to focus on. Some are far worse than others, but they all seem to suffer from what we can Duty-Affliction. She looks agitated now, but once our objective is in sight she’ll have nerves of steel. I’ve seen it dozens of times.”

Izanami frowned before adding “I’ve heard that it has to do with how they were raised, but I really don’t know that much about it. Sometimes the actions of the aristocracy are beyond my comprehension.” That comment brought the ghost of a smile to her lips, “even after I joined their ranks.” She shrugged. “I’ve heard that shinobi and kunoichi make great bodyguards and the like since it gives them something to focus on and once they have that objective of theirs they will focus on it alone.”

Morinth cocked her head and narrowed her gaze at Rong, “Their objectives? I guess that makes sense but has anyone ever tried to you know.. Like, actually help them?”

“Maybe? Probable. I wouldn’t know.” Izanami admitted. “I’m sure there’s someone with the knowledge necessary that is helping them.”

“I wonder what they think about.” Morinth said. “So what about you? Your role?”

“I fly around and blow shit up.” Izanami said with a shrug. “I may not be as graceful as she is” She jerked her head towards Rong, “but I’ll bring more firepower to a fight than her.”

“Well, that’s simple enough.” Morinth said, cracking a faint smile. It faded as she turned her attention back to Rong, then back to Izanami, “Do shinobi make you uncomfortable?”

“I…” Izanami hesitated for a moment. “No, not really.”

Morinth stood up slowly, “Well.. I’ll be back.” she paused, “Also, the nose on your picture is still too small.” she said with a grin before walking to Rong. Morinth made her way past Rong, making sure to get her attention before turning around and leaning against a wall. “So.” Morinth said in an attempt to draw a reaction.

“So…?” Rong asked as she continued to pace. It became clear as she came close to Morinth that her eyes were constantly roaming about the room, momentarily lingering on every person in the room. After a moment she took a deep breath and came to a halt, leaning against the wall next to Morinth. “What brings you over here?” She asked even as her eyes continued to check out her surroundings. “Izanami-san bore you?”

“Heh.” Morinth chucked, “No, she was keeping me entertained but your pacing just kept drawing me in.” Morinth gazed about the room, somewhat mimicking Rong’s own actions. “So uh, you expecting something to jump out at you? Or can you relax a bit and maybe come sit with us. Hell, maybe Izanami can draw you too. She is quite good at it.. Except for noses.”

“Noses?” Rong turned her gaze on Morinth, an eyebrow raised. She kept her eyes on Morinth for a moment or two before letting out a long sigh. “Sorry I was so distracting. I… just get fidgety sometimes. It's nothing to worry about.”

Morinth shook her head and leaned in, talking softly enough to ensure no one else could hear, “I assume you nearly dying in my arms on my ship, while you were having some nightmare wasn’t anything to worry about either.” She took a deep breath, “So. you gonna relax a bit and come grab a bite with us?”

“You’re exaggerating.” Rong said, but after looking at Morinth’s expression she let out a soft sigh. “Alright. You win.” She put her hands up in mock surrender. “I’ll get something to eat with you.”

A few hours had passed since Rong joined Morinth and Izanami in the Wardroom, and at last it had emptied. Morinth found herself wandering the halls of the ship, trying to really get to know her mobile home. After a time, she grew restless and made her way back to the Avalon that was nestled inside the Mogami’s hangar. It was perhaps the most comforting place on the warship for her, especially her ships tiny lounge.

After Morinth sat down on her favored couch, she lazily propped her feet up, “Man.. what the hell did I get myself into.”

“What in the name of Yomi did you get me involved in?” Izanami asked as she stepped into view. “Ah. Pardon the intrusion Morinth-sama.” She said as an afterthought as she perched herself on a chair. Rong, who had followed her in, seated herself next to Morinth. “So it occurred to me,” Izanami said after a moment, “that you may not have a great deal of experience fighting alongside psionics.”

Morinth lowered her feet and sat lazily upright, “Honestly, after the battle earlier, it was incredible to watch. But wouldn’t I need to be a Psionic to fight with you like that?”

“I don’t have any psionic abilities” Izanami stated. “And I think I did fairly well. What I’m talking about is knowing what to expect from Kau-sama in a fight. And… I’ve heard that we’re chasing some guy that’s pretty powerful himself. I’d imagine having some insight on what he may be capable of would be useful.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Morinth replied, leaning upright. “So where do we start?”

“I suppose I could try and simulate what a psi-net would be like for you” Rong said. “It wouldn’t be a true psi-net, of course, but it would be close enough.” She took a deep breath before asking “Are you ready?”

“This is going to get weird, isn’t it.” Morinth snickered before squinting dramatically, “Let's do it.”

“Ok.” Rong closed her eyes as she focused her attention on Morinth. She looked serene almost. “Can you hear me?” Rong didn’t speak the words. Instead they simply formed in Morinth’s mind, almost indistinguishable from her own thoughts except that they sounded like Rong’s voice and felt somehow distinctly foreign.

Morinth Closed her eyes hard and her voice strained, “How are you doing-” she said aloud before relaxing a bit, though still obviously uncomfortable. “I can hear you.” She thought.

“Telepathy?” Izanami asked quietly.

“Yes” Rong answered aloud. “The short of it is that I am projecting my thoughts into your mind. Now normally to communicate the other person would project their thoughts into my mind, but since you do not possess psionic abilities I’ll have to do all the work. I’m going to use my abilities to read your mind. Just the surface thoughts mind you. Try not to resist too much.”

There was a short growl from Morinth as she felt mild pressure on in her mind, as she tried hard to process what was happening. The thing Rong would feel first was by far, fear.

“Settle down” Rong said aloud. “You can trust me.” And as she spoke she sent thoughts of reassurance and calm into Morinth’s mind. “Now I’m going to start sending you the kind of information shared in the psi-net. Just let me know if it becomes too much to handle.” Suddenly Morinth could sense things she shouldn’t have been able to.

Izanami shifted in her seat and although Morinth’s eyes were closed she was somehow aware of the other woman’s movement as if she had viewed it with her own eyes. Every couple of seconds she would become aware that there were no other beings in the Avalon. And as Izanami shifted in her seat again the concept that that movement was non threatening and could be ignored was passed on to Morinth.

It was such a new experience as Morinth had never been through anything like this before. The closest thing she could relate to this was a neural interface but it was nothing in comparison to the power of this psi-net. “It’s incredible.” was the only words that flowed through her mind, words that might have reassured Rong that she wasn’t doing harm.

“Good” Rong mentally responded with strong feelings of relief. “It can be much more powerful than this, however. Especially when there are many shinobi and kunoichi working together.” Her mind drifted back to the battle for the battleship, during which she was constantly bombarded with enough information to make what she was sending to Morinth seem inconsequential in comparison.

“I think that is enough of that for now” She spoke aloud as she severed their mental connection. “I am somewhat concerned about the prospect of Lau trying to read your mind.”

“What could he possibly do? Sense my emotions? Doesn’t sound too terribly beneficial.” Morinth asked.

“It’s possible to draw out a lot of useful information out of an unwilling person.” Rong commented. “It’s not exactly easy, but it is certainly possible. I suspect it’d just be easier to show you. Now resist as much as you can.” Rong said as she focused on worming her way as deep into Morinth’s mind as possible.

The Inside was nothing short of madness, images whirled around of places and people. Voices of all types seemed to echo both loudly and quietly in this troubled mind. Digging deeper, past the storm of untamed thought and reason, were the coherent images was that on the surface, the most recent of her thoughts, the day prior.

“So, you’re a Bushi?” was her echoed words in this blurred view, showing an average soldier not moving a muscle, standing stoically in their post. Beyond that, walking, wandering, pacing followed by what seemed to be delicate care for a small plant inside the room Rong, Izanami, and Morinth were physically residing.

“Can you feel me forcing my way in?” Rong asked. “Can you sense me touching upon the memory of you recently caring for a plant in this room? You should be able to. This… is not particularly hard for a trained psionic to accomplish. And given enough mental strength and patience I could force my way deeper. There are… other methods however.”

“What do you think of this woman?” Rong prompted as she bombarded Morinth with images of Izanami. She was less interested in what Morinth would say, if she spoke aloud at all, so much as what the images of Izanami brought to the surface of Morinth’s thoughts.

“I- She.” Morinth thought, trying to place the images in an order that made sense to her obviously struggling mind. “I see her lips, talking?” she thought, not quite sure if it was the images or her own mind creating the scene. “This is so real, I feel as if I could touch her face from here.” From outside, her senses seemed stronger as her eyes rapidly moved behind her closed lids. She felt as if her mind and reality were becoming one. Morinth’s body seemed to calm and even though her eyes had closed, she slowly rose her right arm and pointed towards Izanami. Calm words were slowly spoke aloud, “It is you, the one I see is you.”

“Psionics are weird” Izanami muttered.

A smile formed on Rong’s lips, but not because of Izanami’s comment. She was essentially mining Morinth’s surface thoughts for her perception of Izanami and the first thought to come to mind was amusing to say the least. “We should go out drinking some time. Morinth thinks you’d be fun to party with.”

“Hah! I’d drink her under the table.” Izanami said.

Rong’s smile seemed to widen further as she mentally brushed against more of Morinth’s thoughts. She could have spoken aloud about what she sensed… But that wouldn’t have been polite. Instead she used telepathy to speak to Morinth directly. “She is cute.” Rong’s voice seemed to echo in Morinth’s mind along with a series of rather passionate, and in some cases graphic, fantasies involving Morinth and Izanami. “I always assumed you were straight. And chains? Naughty girl.”

Morinth at this point wasn’t sure if what she was hearing and feeling were physical or in her own mind, but on the outside, her cheeks began to blush as a strange image of Morinth wearing a black leather cat-suit, standing in an authoritative pose over Rong or Izanami, whom were both topless and on all fours.

Rong couldn’t help but cough and blush as she touched that specific thought. Worse yet, because she was telepathically linked with Morinth, she couldn’t help but advertise that she herself was embarrassed. It was time to change topics. But she would certainly return to this subject later…

“So uh…” Rong began.

It was at that moment that Izanami decided to speak up again. “I bet I could drink Yuki-hime under the table as well.”

“Probably.” Rong agreed. Great. The last thing she needed was to be seeing images of Yuki in chains.

Rong’s mind would have easily noticed the words Yuki triggering a massive reaction across Morinth’s mind. As the images of good times quickly dissipated, the thought of being thankful for an honorable person became prevalent but also feelings of remorse, remorse for something she had done behind Yuki’s back.

The Veil of blurred images lifted, revealing Morinth not even three days ago sitting in the Avalon, checking short range sensors to warn of any incoming individual. Hidden away in the secluded armory of her ship, a small holographic Image of Faust was visible. His grin was wide and Morinth forced a grin to match, trying to hide her obvious disappointment. His words were hazy but ones easy to make out were simple,

“Excellent, Morinth, This is a victory beyond all measure. Perhaps what could change our fortunes in this inevitable conflict.”

Rong narrowed her eyes slightly as she watched the memory, unintentionally sending the thought “What does this have to do with Yuki-hime?” to Morinth.

A visible frown crossed her lips as her thoughts continued to grow more dark, “Faust, it is done.” She said to the hologram. Faust’s arms were folded at first but lowered with her words, “You’ve managed the impossible Morinth.” he said with clear joy.

“Thank you.” She said simply.

The haze was distorting these repressed thoughts but it became clearer the harder Rong dug. It became far more detailed, as the image was now of Morinth on her knees in front of the knee-high hologram. Her hands were on her upper thighs and she had her hair pulled back so that her face was clearly visible. “Faust, it is done.” she said, “Yuki is secure and on her way out of the conflict.”

Faust's crossed arms lowered, “First James Conrad dies and now Yuki has been removed from the war.” he said, nodding but then bringing a hand to his chin. “Then it’s time to commence phase two. The weapon is not yet ready so care must be taken.”

Morinth shook her head, “You have nothing to fear from Musashi, they are an honorable people. Betrayal isn’t their methodology. It’d be worse than death to betray loyalty.” She paused, “What of Lau? He is clearly still a threat.”

Rong pushed harder and deeper. She knew this was a violation of Morinth’s privacy, but she had to know what Faust was up to. What plans did he apparently have for Yuki? What did he know about Lau?

And as Rong dug, an image of Faust with his arms now behind his back appeared, “Lau.” he said shaking his head. “You need to make full use of your acquired assets. Instead of participating in Phase two, proceed with finding Lau. I agree that he is by far, potentially a greater threat than Uther or this new ‘warlord’ among the Horde.”

Morinth’s mind seemed to ease, as if displaying her actual emotion at that moment with Faust. It was relief that she didn’t have to carry out the ‘phase two’ although there was no information as to exactly what it was.

“I will find him.” She replied with a confident tone.

“I know you will.” He replied, “You’re an amazing person Morinth, I knew from the moment we met long ago. Keep your mind and heart steady, vengeance is within your grasp.”

“Please, Faust, do not destroy what you have created. You saw what happened to my kids, I have few family left. I just can’t lose anyone else.” Morinth replied, showing strong and wildly complex emotions, the most prevalent being fear.

Faust dodged the comment entirely, “You’ve managed the impossible Morinth.” he said with clear joy.

The memory seemed to fade as Morinth’s mind started to race. Strange images rapidly blurred out anything discernible and outwardly, her cheeks had turned red and the glimmer of tears was growing in her eyes.

“Morinth?” Rong placed a reassuring hand over Morinth’s. “Open your eyes.” She slowly withdrew from Morinth’s mind, projecting calming thoughts until the very last moment. “You ok?”

Morinth leaned back in her seat and stared at the ceiling. She rose her hands and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m.” she paused and closed her eyes hard before opening them again, “I’m fine. I have to say, that’s… quite an strong experience.”

“It's good you have it now before a hostile psionic has his way with you.” Rong commented. “Though to be honest I’m fairly terrible at reading minds.”

“Eh… well don’t practice on me” Izanami half joked. She looked at Morinth, concern evident in her eyes although she didn’t speak up again.

“I wish I had more time to teach you some countermeasures but…” Rong sighed. “The only advice I can really give you is to concentrate on forcing him out of your head should you feel Lau in it.”

Morinth’s thoughts were first in agreement with Rong and as she was about to speak, she remembered what she thought of Izanami. Her eyes widened as her gaze turned to Izanami, not sure if Rong had actually explained the fantasy or anything else for that matter. She narrowed her gaze at Izanami before turning her attention back to Rong, What did Rong even see? She wondered. “Do you have to be close to dig into a person's mind?”

“I’m not going to die, am I?” Izanami asked having noticed the look Morinth shot her.

“What?” Rong asked. “No. I’m not a precog.” She rolled her eyes before looking at Morinth. “In theory no. But in practice proximity helps a lot. As a rule of thumb if they can’t see you you are probably safe, unless they are very skilled or very powerful.”

Morinth turned from Rong and gazed at her plant. “Lets hope that bastards like Lau aren’t very skilled or very powerful.”

“I’ll deal with the likes of Lau.” Rong’s expression turned fierce.

“You do that.” Izanami spoke up. “Morinth-san and I will watch from a safe distance.” She flashed Morinth a brilliant smile. “I’ll bring some sake if you bring the snacks.”

There was a moment of silence before Morinth perked up and gave a fierce look of her own. “After what that asshole did. I want a rematch.”

“We’re ready for him this time.” Rong stated. “He’ll quickly come to regret having tangled with us should he show himself.”

Oizusol. Wariness. Such was the guiding doctrine of the Noiran Haven as it stretched its young limbs into the blackness of space. With such little understanding of the galaxy surrounding them and an attitude of caution and fear, Noiran civilization slow on the uptake, despite its technology, and they remained in darkness for years. Their homeworld and a few other planets -colonies- were the only places the race had stepped foot upon with their own flesh and bone, leaving much of their own system untouched and pristine. To the Noiran, who so loved their own realm, time was something they could easily 'waste'. Nothing was needed fast. There were no energy crises to solve. No overpopulation problems to manage. No hunger to dominate.

Exploring the deep was but the next step in their cementing of safety. The galaxy could not be empty; that much they were sure of. What it was full of, however, would take time to understand. And they would need to be prepared for anything. The defense array surrounding Vol was a testament to this line of thinking. Metal layers of mythic proportions surrounded portions of the planet's orbit, dotted with innumerable weapons systems. Their civilization, perhaps in wisdom, spared no expense. The monsters of the jungle had become the monsters of the void, and they feared them without question. No adult or child doubted the possibility that out there, in the darkness, lied in wait a civilization with no mercy or empathy.

Despite all their preparation and wariness, nothing, of course, could truly prepare them for the time when they'd finally make contact. Long-range drones had been sent to lifeless systems around their own, idly waiting for a signal to reach their sensors that something synthetic was present. Tiny orbs floated at the edges of each of five systems, inactive until they detected... it.

A ping. A physical force impossible by natural means. Space warped and the shockwave was easily detected millions of miles away. The drone surged into life, amorphous exterior shifting to accommodate for the hidden hardware underneath as it attuned to the anomaly. Something was there. Something unnatural. The drone followed protocol and eventually did what it was truly built to do; send a greeting.

The tiny message came in patterned blips on all wavelengths. "Sizo" it said in a human-like voice as audio. Alongside was an image of a generic Noiran of bluish-green hair; a reflection of friendliness. A Noiran emotion-symbol followed suit; a massive, poetic construction made by a historical writer specifically for this situation. It reflected nostalgia for a commendable past and the associated hope for a continued peaceful existence, though of course the language system was indecipherable.

The drone continued to ping its signal, as well as send news of the encounter back to the Vol system.

It had been five days since the horde attacked and slain Dominions' Envoy and second in command. Most found solace in blaming Uther as no one had the desire to face the horde. Reality though, was starting to set in as outpost after outpost reported sightings and each one was further in to the empire. The path was right through the middle of the new imperium in what was to be Bragga literally splitting the nation in two.

One world in that path, Lumia IV, referred to as Davions Hope, lay silent for three days. Imperium command had dispatched two scouts that ceased reporting, followed by a battle group of seven ships.. That also never sent word. Families began asking a questions and to hear, we do not have all the information countless times was creating an uproar.

The decision to deploy assets was up to the high naval command, a group of five arm chair grand admirals that reported directly to Uther himself. The choice they made was to send an admiral that had turned down a grand admiral position many times, always stating "I need to see my enemy to defeat him."

Enter, Fleet Admiral Graff.

A tall, blond haired athletic male in his mid thirties. His chiseled form intimidated the majority of his men and held women's lustful hearts. Heavy footsteps announced his arrival on the bridge of a mighty Imperium warship, The Sol class battleship named Dark Horse, named by the brash mr Graff upon launch.

"Attention crewmen." He said with a drawn out 'N' and after a deep breath, an even more so heroic tone came fourth, "Today, We shall, Make certain that our worlds are, safe."

He prepared to open with a heroic speech of committing glorious deeds to his soldiers but the arrival at Lumia drew his attention elsewhere. Ahead he could see the remains of a lone Ganymede that was seemingly fleeing the battle. As they got closer they recognized the name as the ship that sent the distress call. "So they weren't traitors." Graff said. "Who ever committed these horrendous acts must be using a-" A bridge officer interrupted, "Sir, Long range scanners are detecting some sort of dampening field, something akin to a communications jammer but far more powerful."

"Fascinating." Graff said, seemingly unamused.

"Sir, This isn't the work of a rebel militia." Another officer stated.

Graff began examining his fingernails, mumbling about dry skin as well. "All right. Go to full alert. Battlegroups Centaur, Pegasus and Gryphon, enact Graff maneuver number four." He pointed his finger directly at what all could now see as a massive fleet of ships hovering above a small world, "How big is that fleet." The Sensors officers turned to Graff, "Sir, I cannot get a number but systems suggest they outnumber us five to one, and that's minus any fighter presence."

Graff turned from the massive view screen and sat down in a rather lavish command chair. "And. Here I was, hoping for a fair fight."

As the fleet split into battlegroups, Graff ordered his own group to push forward. Once within visual range without magnification, Graff stood up once more, "All ships except for the four Sol battleships, assume broadside formation." His second in command looked to him, "Why are we not turning our heavy guns towards them?"

Graff smiled, "I read up on these new ships. From what we could tell, those Bulwark battle carriages would outgun us in a true broadside. So, I have a plan." He said, trying to hide his excitement. "This entire fleet is their new age weaponry and from the reports, they have decimated everything they have encountered. Until now."

The second nodded and looked towards the massive ships. Graff spoke again, "All ships except for the Sol's, Launch all fighters and assume standard defensive formation." He gazed about the room then spoke one last time, "All ships, Be fierce, show these barbarians your fury! fire at will!"

With the order given, a barrage from the Imperium line signaled the start of the war. A war that was to transcend both Uther's Imperium and Bragga's Horde.

For The Horde

It had been a long time since Bragga felt the true exhilaration of combat. The fights he endured from fighting fellow barbs for his title of warlord were tough, but nothing like killing a true alien from another land. As the now dead James Conrads bones snapped and flesh ripped along Braggas jagged teeth, he couldn't feel anything but excitement. This was his ultimate test. With war on the horizon, he was already winning. His forces had already penetrated the imperium border, a land that had foolishly turned its gaze from the barbarian space, thinking the horde to be content in their pocket of the galaxy.

Time wasn't on Bragga's side however, even as the horde assembled in its masses, threats from his flanks lingered. For now he had no immediate worry but the fact that he had to leave forces inside his own 'nation' meant that he would be counting on the Dominion to enter the war in the most flashy method possible.

From the outside of his borders, one could only see the lines fortifying. Entire worlds were abandoned that offered no real strategic value. This afforded Bragga more forces to defend the populated and important areas of his homeland. To the ignorant, it would seem as if he were cowering from the approaching aliens, but to the wise...

The wise would know a storm was coming.

Casus Belli

"The Executus, Dead.

Earth, Sieged and blockaded not by aliens, but by an emboldened 'Core Imperium'.

Creatures, machines and humans fighting in the reaches beyond the Imperium.

And the Horde uniting under one banner for the first time in.. who knows when.

These are the signs of our times, the signs of the coming darkness and the strife to come. Do we sit idly by as the galaxy unravels? Do we sit idly by as the machinations of foreign powers bring our mighty nation to its knees? The status quo is no more and there is no going back.

We must put one foot in front of the other, step by step we will not turn back, we must press on if we wish to survive. And survive we will. Today marks the initiation of an event that some had called our existence based around, war. This war was not hastily wrought, it was determined and decided through reason and thought alone. The vicious attack on our nation's leadership was proof of that reason, proof that we cannot sit back any more.

After the murder of the Executus by Uther's forces, Uther and his ilk's destiny was not written in the stars, but by their own hand. And we, the dominion, shall deliver this destiny to his front door.

I call on the Dominion's allies and friends. To uphold your words to help defend a nation that has been attacked so deeply. The Imperium must be brought to justice for its unwarranted attack and its allies, should they decide to aid Uther, are just as guilty of murder and treason. The time for half measures are over. Now is the time for action."

"Prepare yourself Uther, I am coming for you."

The news began eating Faust's words alive, every word, every breath, it was what the media needed to survive.. war.

It was going to get its share.

>>>>

Not even an hour before the announcement, Faust's ship had departed earth, leaving another Titan in its place. The pieces had been set and forces from all over his Dominion had reached their positions. The soldiers were bold from words of glory, their aim and skill honed from decades of intense training and centuries of examples to learn from.

Faust's Dominion war ready.

>>>>
Earth, the day of days.

"Admiral!" shouted a communications officer.

"Yes?" The captain replied.

"Sir, Code Blue announced!" The officer announced, with panic clear in his voice.

"What?!" the Admiral said, mirroring the panic and bringing him upright from his command chair.

"Message reads, Code Blue, Authority Faust. Designation, Total... and complete destruction of the Imperium Under.... Uther."

The Admirals eyes widened as the reality of the situation played across his mind. Knowing it was no jest, Focus pushed through and the Admiral turned towards the viewing screen. Shown was a broad view of the fleet, which was getting word at the same time. Messages were coming through in far greater numbers than the Admiral could hopefully read but all had the same premise, "For the Dominion! Permission to engage?"

The Admiral walked to the comms officer and pat him on the shoulder before returning to his chair. He sat down and pressed a small triangular yellow symbol on the chairs arm mounted console. "Attention fleet. As you all know, the order has been given. Fleet captains, Today will either be your finest or your last. Make use of your well trained crews, make use of the lessons of your ancestors, make use to the true might of your patron. We are the Dominion."

There was a moment of silence as the grin grew across the admirals face. "All ships, assume broad stance, pick targets and engage on my mark."

It was the poster child of a well oiled machine as the entire fleet split off into positions with precision. Ships moved into perfect spots and their fighters launched in a choreographed fashion. The Imperium ships started launching their fighters as well but were lazy in comparison. The Imperium was unaware of the full scale of the situation. The word of the declaration had yet to reach them.

And all across the Imperium and Dominion border, Fleets of Dominion warships crossed. Completely bypassing border patrols and disregarding warning messages. Casting them aside as a mild foul smell would be waved from ones nose.

The Admiral took one last deep breath as the fleet signaled it was ready.

"Fire."

Between the two nations, in the vastness of space an unassuming Dominion warship peacefully drifted. It's normally ominous presence seemed miniscule against the backdrop of the universe. A thousand lives that had come here for one singular purpose, The long awaited meeting between Faust's Dominion of man and the ever elusive Cheonsang Kingdom.

Aboard the bridge sat a young female captain, newly appointed at that. She stood up and casually walked to the massive view screen. "No sign of them yet?" she said calmly. From behind her, A much older male made himself known. His looks were chizzled and refined, and possessing a short buzzed hair that had turned a gray color long ago. Furthering his aged feel, a voice that was deep and crackled, the victim of decades of use. "We are a bit early. Be patient my young captain."

Just a few minutes later a small flash of light signalled the arrival of a Cheonsang ship. An Andong-class light carrier had returned to normal space and activated its sublight engines steering towards the Dominion warship. The Pyongwha was rather defenseless compared to the warship brimming with guns, whereas the carrier mostly had anti-fighter capabilities. Not even its current fighter and bomber compliment could seriously threaten the Dominion ship. It was a sign of trust, or at least a try to build some.

On the Pyongwha's bridge, a young, human, diplomat named Myo Yeo Eun stared out of the transparent viewscreen directly at the threatening sillouette of the ship in the distance.
"Open hailing frequencies.", Yeo Eun ordered. She straightened her uniform, which was an armoured version of the royal marines. Princess Mi Ran had called on her for this diplomatic mission, although her fame was more in the "boarding ships and bringing pirates to justice" area, but naturally, when her Princess called, Yeo Eun would naturally serve her.

"This is the Cheon Carrier Pyongwha request permission to come along broadside.", she announced as soon as the comms officer signalled her that channel was open.

There were a few moments of awkward silence which to some, would feel like a life time. All of the sudden, the Dominion ship roared to life and approached the Carrier. Active sensors bathed the Cheon ship, searching for any sign of a threat. Seemingly satisfied, the massive vessel halted uncomfortably close to the Pyongwha It's long shadow nearly covering the entirety of it. An older male voice rang out, "Greetings." was the simple reply.

"My name is colonel Von Straun of the Dominion. I am very pleased to finally meet you. We will broadcast docking proceedures now, unless you would feel more comfortable meeting aboard your vessel." His words and tones were polite and warm, something that the Dominion never seemed to represent.

"I am Myo Yeo Eun, Captain of the Royal Marines and assigned diplomat for this mission. Princess Mi Ran thought your nation would appreciate a soldier as a diplomat." She paused for a minuted to whisk some strands of hair that had fallen into her face to the side. Even though she was a soldier, she still wore a bit more of longer haircut, down to her jaw, than was usual for marines.

"I believe, since we are in Dominion space, it would only be appropriate for me to join you on your ship. For that matter, I have always wanted to see a Dominion ship from the inside." She smiled.

Her wish was easily granted as the Captain was graciously permitted aboard Von Strauns' vessel. Long, Wide halls made up the interior, and interior that seemed gilded and vain. Regardless of these facts, it was still a magnificent sight to anyone accustomed to the cramped vessels of most nations.

Myo Yeo Eun was led through the ship to grandeuos room, lined with flags and patriotic symbols. It was if the ship was full of itself, and at the head of this room was a massive table with many decorative chairs. And in the middle stood a lone man armed only with a smile. "My friend from the Cheonsang. I am pelased to meet you but." he paused and looked past her, "I was under the assumption that your emmisaries travelled in threes'." He shook his head a bit, "Pardon my wording. I would invite you to dine with me here." He said, motioning towards a Chair that sat infront of his own.

Yeo Eun graciously accepted the seat offered to her. "Thank you for the offer. I would gladly accept. And yes, you are correct. Usually our diplomatic corps consist of three people. A human, a Tatara and a Nyali. But due to your country's... unique disposition, Princess Mi Ran suggested to only send a human, a strong human at that. I hope you appreciate the special treatment." Myo smiled and tilted her head, her fiery red eyes piercing into Von Straun.

Von Straun smiled as the two sat. "I am humbled by your nations... thoughtful attempts at making this meeting comfortable. I will admit, I was rather looking forward to meeting what Faust did sometimes refer to as 'modified' humans." He snickered, "Such a term seems so demeaning, wouldn't you agree?" With a simple hand gesture, a male approached to take any meal requests. Von Straun nodded and looked to Yeo Eun, "Might I recommend the 'fried chicken' ?"

"Sure, let's go with that", Myo replied smiling and nodding towards the supposed waiter. Then she turned back to Von Straun. "If you wish, I can ask two of my best officers to join us. Gunnery Officer Han, a Tatara, and Fighter Ace Yi, a Nyali. They can give you a personal account on whether it is demeaning to them or not." She pulled out a datapad and let it skid over the table towards Von Straun. "This research data literally came out last week. It is the most influential paper to ever be published. It proves that both Nyali and Tatara have at least 85-90% human DNA, which means... they are our relatives, lost in space. Interesting, is it not? Especially when you think about that both races are single gendered and they can reproduce anyway."
She leaned forward a bit, interested in Von Straun's reaction.

He didn't give much of reaction at first, aside from a mildly piqued brow. After a few moments of silence he nodded, "Well. Your comrades are more than welcome. However, inviting them is up to you." He smiled, "And this Paper is most intriguing. Perhaps a copy sent to my capitol might persuade certain officials to cast aside doubt as to if members of your nation are indeed human."

"I can make it available to you, of course. And I would never invite somebody without your consent. But seeing as you gave such, I will invite both over later. For now, let us get to what I actually came here for." She straightened her back to tickle out any kind of strength in her looks that was available.

"I would llike to propose a Non-Aggression Pact between our two countries. The hordes past our eastern border grow restless and seem to be moving. We simply cannot deal with them and protect the border with the Dominion at the same time. We don't have the number of forces you do. In exchange for you promising not to invade our territory, we will assure you to take no side in the wars to come. We certainly have noticed the worsening tensions in the former imperial territories, but we wish having nothing to do with that.
Despite that, we have aquired a guarantee of our independance from our new friends in Musashi. We are fairly aware of your alliance with Musashi and you surely don't wish to sabotage that." Myo Yeo Eun grinned smugly.

Von Straun clasped his hands over his mouth and stared directly into Myo Yeo Eun's eyes, "Not participating in any wars to come? Hmmm.." he said plainly. "I do wish you to understand that any non aggression treaty is only between our two nations. Your guarantee of independence from Musashi makes little to no difference for many other nations, Including the Dominion." He paused and took a chance to clear his throat. "Let me make a proposition to you miss Myo, Rather than a Non-aggression pact, why don't we discuss a seperate treaty. I'd like to call it a mutual cooperation treaty. It would be set up in a manner that would suit your nation as well as my own."

A swift sip of water was followed by a gentle smile, "This pact will apply technically to the Horde. If you supply weapons or even basic materials during any conflict involving the barbarian Horde, I can likely arrange a similar pact to what you have with Musashi. Even more so,We would more than likely come to your nations aid, should the horde come knocking at your door."

"What do you get out of this deal?" Myo Yeo Eun tilted her head. "As far as I can see, this seems only advantageous for us, not for you?" She reached her hand into her hair and combed through it. "And there is another issue, not as big, with this deal. In my nation any deal with your nation might be seen unfavourable. Not that this would have to stop any deal we make, just a general information for you." She put an plast-armour clad onto the table a bit heavily while still trying to smile a little.

Von Straun gave a puzzled look, "If a 'deal with my nation' is to be seen unfavorable. Might I ask why you would even bother contacting the dominion to make.. a 'deal' with us?"

"Ah. I see your confusion." Myo took off her gloves and neatly stacked them on top of each other.

There was a moment of silence before Von Strauns confused look turned back to a smile, "Any way I suppose, The advantage was In the form of material donated in case of said conflict. You get your protection, you supply us with weapons, or ships, or even just basic building material. Our factories could always use more if a war were to break out. I appologize if I wasn't clearer about that before hand. It seems we are both destined for.." He drew a mild smug look for a moment, "Confusion."

Myo nodded. "I see the point you are trying to make, so let me try to get mine across." She cleared her throat. "As stated before, we want to declare neutrality in any war concerning the core Imperium. That would include a seemingly inevitable war between the Dominion and the Remnant. However, if we were to start supplying you, I fear the Remnant leadership would consider our declaration of neutrality void, as we are clearly supporting your side. Is your confusion cleared up now? If we were to assist you, we would risk an invasion from the empires allied with the Remnant." She shrugged. "I mean, we could make the deal, but we'd have to offer the same deal to the Remnant, to stay neutral, if you understand me now?"

"Perhaps that deal should be offered to the Remnant too then." he said plainly. "You see, When the Horde arrives, no one will be neutral and even your nation will become a battlefield. My nation cannot sit idly by as yet another front is opened in the form of what used to be Cheonsang." He took a sip of water. "Might I be so bold as to ask, would Cheonsang supplying any nation with tools, tools that would be made to help defend Cheonsang, be seen as an act of war? or merely as assistance in helping one to survive."

"We harbour even fewer sympathies for the Remnant and so far, the Remnant has more or less ignored our mere existance. We're not sure, what our diplomatic status is with them." She then tilted her head with a questioning look. "What do you mean? Our people, or other countries?"

"Perhaps my wording was a little brought on by emotion." Von Straun said softly. He perked up and smiled, conveying a more professional tone, "I suppose my intent was to say, Cheonsang would not be viewed by any outside nation as taking sides." He nodded, "Taking sides when it comes to your defense against the horde. Even Uther could respect that as if you were to create a similar pact with him. I'd like to believe he would honor it."

Von Straun took another sip from his water as food was brought to the table, "An old recipe, Fried chicken. Please, help yourself." He said, reaching for a small piece of his own. "I can assure you that any materials that would be presented to the Dominion would only reciprocate into furthering the defense of your own nation. No Cheonsang weapon will be used in any theatre of war, aside from any the Horde brings to your doorstep." There was a pause as he took a meager bite. He then rose his eyebrows in what seemed to be delight. "I have always enjoyed historical foods like this."

Myo Yeo Eun took a bite of the chicken. "So far, this sounds good to me. One thing I might want, though. If possible, I'd suggest the establishment of a neutral zone between our countries with a cooperatively run trading hub for all the trade goods to run through. If there is a war happening between your country and the Remnant, I believe my government will ask that no ship that has not been registered be allowed into our borders." She bit into the chicken again and chewed it. "I feel that is understandable, no? We don't want your wars be carried out on our territory."

Von Straun nodded, "In the spirit of nuetrality, I believe it would be far wiser to keep the already well-drawn borders, as-is. If you wish your nation to continue under the radar, the less drastic changes you make is better. If you start making major changes like new enforced borders, it might draw other nations to conclude we are at odds, making some others feel obligated to push into your affairs and create unwanted tension. And at times, Drama."

He took a sip of water. "I believe keeping things as-is would be the wiesest course of action and the Dominion would only come at your nations request, should the horde, and horde alone invade."

"That sounds..." She stopped for a moment. "Reasonable, I guess... We want nothing more than to live our lives in peace, as long as possible, despite what the more militant members of our navy might say." Carefully she took another bite of the chicken. "This is quite good.", she said pointing down at her almost finished plate.

Dabbing her mouth with a napkin she straightened herself out again.
"I don't think I have anything else to add here. This treaty seems acceptable to me. I will inform my staff to formulate this into a signable treaty and then we will be on our way." Myo Yeo Eun smiled. "We have a coronation ceremony to attend to when we return and my crew and I are certainly looking forward to it."

"No, I believe we have come to a conclusion that both our respective governments would want." He smiled and stood up, "I am looking forward to working with you again some day."

Southern Reaches
Unknown Star System
Just moments after their celebratory zeal, the alarms rang loudly once more, this time sounding much more urgent as a lone alien object had been detected in the system, making it's approach towards the Peace Fleet. This had sent the defectors into a panic. "No..." Tenmu muttered in despair. For that very moment, the atmosphere was one of dread and uncertainty, an emotion machines don't often experience. Mei kept a calm composure, taking command of the situation, she had to be the shinning example to her followers, to her people. By a simple thought command, a holo-projection of a command console had materialized right before her, she pressed down various keys in brisk pace, sending commands to the whole fleet. "All ships, alert status Beta. I want all ships on stand by." And like that, they complied, every single ship had powered up their weapons, fighter drones were prepped and ready for deployment, all that was left to be done, was simply to wait and see what comes next.

Some time had passed, and soon the object was within visual and signal range, and had begun to transmit something to the fleet. The holo-projection on the map became distorted, a repeated, garbled word being transmitted aboard the command ship, "Sizo" what followed after it had soothed the tension felt in the command room, this wasn't sent by any of the larger region powers, the technology wasn't recognizable. Soon, the table projected the images that were stored in the probe, a feminine humanoid figure, it shared some characteristics of Humanity, yet was different in minor details, what came after has perplexed the group, a wall of alien text forming, needless to say, the machine seemed perfectly harmless.

One of the machines standing on the opposite end of the table spoke up. "Your worship, what should be done about the probe?"

Mei stood there, thinking, analyzing. "Leave it alone, let them observe us. We won't be a able to hide forever." She paused a moment, looking at the text and image. "All we need is a world to call home."

At the very top of the space station there was a simple room with an elevator in the middle, some very nice tables and chairs around the edges with walls made of glass for an easy veiw into the black sky and the bustling planet below. The elevator opened slowly as it reached the top, allowing Raina to slowly walk out and over too Selene who was sitting comfortably on a chair, facing the outside. It seemed she was looking intently at the stars, and then down too Skillon. She turned her head, looking up and over her shoulder as Raina approached, before she pulled out a chair and sat next too her.

"The Delegates from the Commonwealth have arrived. The CSC Praetoria has docked, and an 'Admiral Volkov' is on his way to meet us. Along with a 'Genral Kyarguin' and Ribbentrop, who you met before". Raina spoke to Selene, as she nodded. "The Commonwealth Battlefleet have also been allowed too remain in the system, seeing as they are freindly". She finished, before letting out a breath.

Selene nodded, "Are the Commonwealth delegates coming straight up?" She asked, but as she did the elevator could be heard going back down, and they could be the only ones coming up. Both of the women stood up, moving a little closer to the elevator ready to greet their allies.

Adison Volkov was a trifle nervous as the lift brought him to the pinacle of the Skillon orbital facility. By coincidence or convenience, the facility vaguely resembled Dubrovnik station before its untimely destruction. Not that a repeat of that incident was likely; the entire 5th fleet was a breath away should anything catastrophic happen.

The lift was feeling a touch confining between Volkov, Anderson Ribbentrop, and General Kyarguin. This was largely due to Kyarguin; the szitzu man was bordering on 8 feet tall and built like a refridgerator. He had a distinctly brutish look to him that wasn't helped by some of the traditional szitzu paraphernalia he'd added to his uniform. Of course, Volkov knew personally that beneath that exterior was a razor sharp mind that effortlessly commanded the vast majority of the Commonwealth's soldiers.

"You're staring, Adison," Kyarguin grunted.
"Well was it really necessary to wear your vertebrae chains outside your uniform?"
"Yes."

Before Volkov could respond, the lift doors slid open. Selene stood about halfway between the tables and chairs and the exit of the lift, Raina standing just behind her on her left. They both smiled as they nodded to the delegates before Selene spoke. "Welcome too the Skillon T9-A's station. I believe I have only met one of you before". She said, before pausing and looking at Kyarguin and Volkov.
"I am Selene and this is Raina, both of us are Advisors to the Queen herself, and I am a General of the Alorian military". Raina nodded but didnt speak. She found herself looking at the szitzu man for a breif couple of seconds, wondering what that was on his uniform. She woudlnt say anything for she knew all different peoples had different customs, but still, it was strange.

"A pleasure to see you again, Ms. Raina," Ribbentrop said grandly. "May I present Admiral Adison Volkov, CO 5th Fleet and one of our foremost strategists. And this is General Kyarguin, Commander of the Foreign Legions and therefore the most senior General in the Commonwealth."

Volkov bowed formally, Kyarguin nodded curtly and thumped a fist against his chest. "Let's get down to business" the Szitzu general said bluntly. "We think Faust is going to attack Uther's new Core Imperium any day now. Uther is already dealling with a new xeno-barb threat, so he's the logical place to to start an attack. I wouldn't be surprised if the first shots are fired in orbit of Earth. Faust probably hopes if he hits hard and fast enough, he can knock Uther right out before his allies can get any help to him."

While Kyarguin paced thoughtfully, the two Vit'azny delegates had made their way to the conference table and taken seats. Volkov nodded in agreement, while Ribbentrop stayed quiet. "There was always the question of wether or not the Varangians would follow up on any offensive by the Dominion. With the fleet movements we've been seeing from them, it seems the Varangians are not only willing to follow up, but may well initiate an offensive of their own. Which is why we should launch a joint pre-emptive strike, immediately."

Ribbentrop winced. The two military men were being very straightforward, and the lone diplomat hoped the Alorians wouldn't take offense at their bluntness.

Both Alorians had made their way back to the table, wasting no time as they both sat opposite the others. Once again, Selene took the lead as Raina kept quiet. "If you hadn't proposed such an invasion we would have done the exact same thing". She said, "This is very good news. We have been monitoring the Varangian fleets for some time, and it seems if we do not strike first they will have the upper hand". She stopped.

Raina spoke finally, "When can your fleets be ready for an full scale invasion? We have been mobilising for weeks, and due to our recent... problems within Alorian borders ships have been ready for combat for some time".

Ribentrop breathed a small sigh of relief, Kyarguin grinned, but Volkov's face remained carefully composed as he considered the question. "The mobilization order was given shortly before we departed, so the fleets should be ready in just a few days."
"We would naturally have to formally declare war, though the Lord Chancellor and the Cabinet can get that done very quickly." Ribbentrop added.

"That leaves the question of how to strike," Volkov continued, fiddling with the table's holo-controls until a map of the galaxy appeared. The Commonwealth's objective in this attack is to remove the Varangians from the larger conflict with the Dominion as quickly as possible. We are less concerned about tying down ressources occupying and defending non-crucial worlds. The strategy we advocate is a simple, overwhelming push to the Varangian capital at Agartha and force them to surrender." On the holoprojector, a yellow cone pushed through Varangian space, its tip culminating at Agartha

Kyarguin paused his pacing to reset the projector and produce another diagram. "A more complex approach could also work. Multiple points of attack all aimed at different strategic targets. Big forces, enough to crush your average local defence picket but not enough to commit to serious battles. This strategy would be devised to stretch the Varangians thin; their Empress class Hyperdreadnoughts can't be everywhere at once, so we use our superior numbers and flexibility to push them into an unfavorable position." He looked up at Selene and Raina, inviting input.

Selene thought for a moment as she went over both plans in her head again, as did Raina. It didn't take long for Selene to speak again, she looked over at Volkov, then Kyraguin. "Our main priority is removing the Varangians from the war. With that in mind, I think that the first strategy of going straight for Agartha and forcing a Varangian surrender is the most effective way to carry out our strikes". She looked over at Raina to see if she had any opposing ideas, but thankfully there were none.
"What about after the war?" Raina asked. "We aren't interested in annexing major territories from them. However, strategic resources that could be used for fighting the Dominion of Man will be taken and diverted towards our two Nations. We would also like too set up a demilitarized zone in Varangian territory along the border with us and you". She paused, took in a breath and spoke again. "We don't imagine that you will, but do you think the Commonwealth will have any problems with that?"

Ribbentrop frowned thoughtfully. "No, I don't see any problems with that. There'd been talk at home of trying to annex some Varangian territory, but your proposal has the main benefit of being easy to accept. The terms of surrender are most generous, and the Dominus can't possibly justify throwing his people's lives away by refusing them. And if our main objective is to keep them out of the war with the Dominion, this seems like the best way."

"We may also want to consider forcing them to decomission some of their warfleets, just in case they get trigger happy while our backs are turned."Volkov added. "But otherwise I agree."

"Great," Kyarguin grunted. "Let's start positioning our fleets in this system," he pointed to a place on the map on the Alorian-Varangian border. "We might as well take some time to conduct joint drills and training. Once war is officially declared, we move."

"I agree". Selene spoke. "And then as soon as it is official, we head straight for the capital". The woman reached across the table, pulling towards her some kind of alcoholic drink. "Would any of you like a drink?" She smiled as if they had won the war already.

"Oh, yes please," Volkov said enthusiastically. "We'll get into specific ops plans tomorrow."


Ten Commonwealth Star Carriers. Ten full battlefleets. Adison had never seen so many warships in one place. He wasn't sure any Vit'azny ever had. It was by far the largest collection of ships the Commonwealth had ever massed together. The 5th fleet and CSC Praetoria had arrived first, and spent considerable time training with the Alorians, learning eachothers strengths and weaknesses, and how best to support eachother in combat. As days went by, more and more ships both Alorian and Commonwealth had arrived, learning from their peers and eachother. And they were all pointed directly at Varangian space.

After news came of Faust's incursions against the Imperium, Chancellor Metternich and his Cabinet had acted quickly. As the incarnation of the Government of the Commonwealth, they were not actually obligated to consult the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich when it came to declarations of war, but they had. A vote had been put to Parliament, and it had passed with flying colours. The opposition had no choice but to release their MP's to vote their conscious; anything else, and they would have seemed cowards and oathbreakers, given the clear nature of the Commonwealth's treaty with Uther's Imperium. In less than a day, the Imperial Systems Commonwealth declared war on both the Dominion of Man and the Varangian Remnants. The plan thought up back over Skillon had been approved, and Volkov had just received the final go ahead.

No vote was cast by the Alorian people before war was declared mere hours ago. The Varangian Remnants and the Dominion of Man were now officially enemies of the Empire. Battlefleets full of the militarys finest ships had been massing and readied for days now, waiting for the order to be given. With the mighty Commonwealth fleet stood three Alorian super-fortress class ships, surrounded by Goliath's and Dreadnaughts all interwoven with the ships of their new allies. There were numerous other types of ships all gathered and ready for the invasion, battleships and destroyers poised and ready. Star fighters darted and flew in between ships like birds in the sky. Bruisers roared in the depths of ships designated for ground invasion and

One super-fortress, the HRMS Tyrant was the lead ship on the Alorian side of things. In the control bridge of the ship stood the two in charge, General Takeer of the Krolm and General Selene. Both stood and looked out at the largest single collection of ships ready for war they had ever seen, and waited. A much younger girl stood in the middle of both of them. She was a mere fourteen years old but was still clad in the uniform of a General, albeit without any of decorations and medals that the other two had. She had light blue skin and soft, light purple hair. She was a lightblood, and by far the most intelligent and strong one that the Queen had trained. She showed real promise, but this was a real test. She would witness and be in the invasion of Varangian space.

"How are you feeling, Eva?" Selene turned too the young girl and she spoke.
"Confident". Eva replied, looking up at her. She did not want to disappoint, especially when there was a lot of expectation riding on her shoulders. "Honoured".
"Good. Today is going to be a very important day remembered for generations to come". Selene said, turning back to look towards the ships outside. An officer walked over too them and nodded too all of them before speaking. "All of the ships have finished preparations. Everything is complete. We are ready to go, on your say".
"Thank you officer". Takeer grunted as he walked over too a hologram projector in front of them and requested communications with the leaders of the invasion on the part of the Commonwealth.

On CSC Praetoria's flag bridge, Volkov sat in his command chair with his fingers tented contemplatively in front of him. He wasn't paying attention to anything in particular, but rather was partially listening to everything. His flag staff was hand selected and had been with him for years, so he trusted them to do their jobs properly, and he sat back and let the buzz of information wash over him, until his ears picked up the comm officer saying something with a slightly different tone of voice then usual. "Praetoria Flag Bridge....oh, yes, of course. One minute please." The comms officer wheeled his chair around to find Volkov gazing at him expectantly. "General Takeer of the Krolm for you, Admiral."
"Put him on the main projector," Volkov said serenely. The large holo-display flickered and assumed a high fidelity likeness of General Takeer, General Selene, and the young General Eva.. "Admiral Volkov speaking. Good to see you again Generals." He'd come to know all three somewhat over the past few days of excercises. "General Kyarguin says he's more comfortable down in marine country," he added "but my forces are ready for departure."

General Takeer nodded and managed somewhat of a smile. "You've answered my question before I even asked, Admiral. We are also ready to go immediately, if you wish". He said, looking at the projection of the Admiral in front of him. Over the past few days the unlikely allies had become quite close, the armies more synchronised and used to each other than any of the three generals had anticipated.

Volkov smiled wolfishly. "Well, if that's the case...Comms, give me fleetwide." Volkov took a deep breath. "Commence Operation Icarus!"

There was an absolutely blinding flash of light, and the assembled fleets disappeared into FTL.
@urukhai

The beacon continued unabated, occasionally switching its signal between a written message and the spoken word of a Noiran welcoming the anomaly. Pictures were shown in succession of various cities and landscapes of their planet, artistic works, and mathematics. The drone stood firm in its spot, just within visual range of the Peace Fleet, snapping photos as it waited. The signal, transmitted over FTL channels to Vol, soon reached the eager ears of few individuals...



The room was small, cold, and quiet. The whirring of a multitude of computers droned amidst the otherwise silent atmosphere. Systems were active, patiently awaiting a signal to indicate a change. Five markers sat as dots on an illuminated screen, spread across five systems surrounding Vol at its center. Then, finally, one of them blinked, and a pulse of light spread from it intermittently. The computer's whirring kicked into higher gear, and the screen began to spam countless words and lists, unlocking and engaging a program protocol that, until then, had never been used. Somewhere, a phone rang.

--------------------

Even behind the protection of a glass barrier, the office space was still plagued by the sound of Rimusua, the Eternal Hurricane. Rain pelted the glass barrier, coating it with a uniform wall of water. The skies beyond were grey and sunless. At the Distal Edge of Vol's habitable zone, sunlight reached only partially through the thick clouds, casting a dull, constant grey tone upon the windswept cityscape below. The office was spacious and simple. A desk and chair, plus a few armchairs situated to the side, were present.

At the desk sat a studious woman, gaze trained down upon the virtual pads she was writing upon. Her face was obscured by a chevron-like mask of golden color made of a semi-transparent material. At the front of her desk was a symbol upon a hanging flag; two circles of differing sizes linked together by a thick line. The crest of Noiran society and civilization.

There was a knock on the distant door, and before she could even answer, over a dozen individuals stepped inside, lining up evenly before the woman. They were Noiran of varying status; of note were two notable military lixioxu -commanders. Commanders Aolfayer and Yaeiolo stood before her with poignant colors. Something was dire.

"Eovuy-Misalxul," Aolfayer greeted, "System 3 has activated." Eovuy-Misalxul, supreme leader of the Haven, immediately turned a reddish-pink. Fright.

"Which system?" she asked, dropping the tablet she was holding to give her full attention to the commander. Aolfayer nodded to one of the others present. A scientist of some renown. With the flick of a finger on their own tablet, a hologram spread into the empty space of the office between them and the desk. The same probe dot blinked endlessly.

"What did they detect?" Misalxul continued. Images appeared then. Zoomed-in snapshots of battle-weary white ships.

"It is understood that they used faster-than-light mechanisms to reach the system. We do not know from whence they came," the commander said. Misalxul sat up straight and fell silent for a moment, colors changing rapidly. Mixed feelings. Fear, apprehension, hope, consideration. "Battle-weary? Do they express hostility?"

"It detected rising energy signatures the moment it's signal reached the spacecraft, but they did not retaliate. No signal has been received from them, however. We can only assume they are worried as well," Aolfayer said.

"Have the drone approach... Slowly," Misalxul ordered. Violet color. Firmness. Several of those present left immediately and silently, while the two commanders remained.



New protocol. Approach with peaceful intent. The drone began its slow movement towards the general center of the Peace Fleet, continuing to release signals reflecting Noiran culture, society, and language. A message was entwined, then, depicting a myriad of imaginative creatures standing side by side; an indicator of desire to meet with others.

Prince Shoichi had allowed a wide smile to spread across his face when he had heard of the Dominion declaration of war. He was an intelligent man, regardless of what his exiled cousin believed, and could reasonably predict what was to occur over the next few hours. He immediately sent out the order for all military forces in the region to come to full battle readiness, which took only a few hours to accomplish seeing as they had already been prepared for an invasion to begin with. He knew that his uncle, the Emperor, would accept Faust’s call to arms. And with that Yuki’s “valiant” sacrifice would be for naught. And it certainly got better than that. The Confederation would surely join the war on Uther’s side, thus allowing Shoichi to destroy that country as well. Yuki had come to love the Confederation, which would make its destruction all the better by Shoichi’s accounting.

When the news of the Emperor’s declaration of war finally arrived it took all of Shoichi’s self-restraint to hide his excitement. Opening a communications link to the entire fleet he simply stated “To all military forces in the region: commence Operation Togo. I repeat: commence Operation Togo.”

That one line marked Musashi’s entrance into the war. The bulk of Musashi’s navy was already warming up its FTL drives. Their destination the Core Imperium.



Princess Saeko found what was before her to be an awe inspiring sight. When it came to the population of interstellar countries, thousands were an insignificant number. It was so easy to forget how truly massive a crowd numbering in the thousands was. That is, until one finds oneself staring at that very crowd. Before Saeko stood a regiment of Imperial guards, and three regiments of bushi shodans. They all stood at attention. Behind these soldiers literally thousands of Musashi’s citizens had gathered to hear what their remaining princess had to say.

Saeko had not wanted to give a speech originally, but had changed her mind after Minister Xiao Xiang had spoken to her. Clearly Xiang had been expecting a very large crowd, as she had already arranged for drones to record and broadcast her words all over the crowd and the country as a whole.

“This is a speech that will be remembered for centuries” Xiang had said to her. At the time Saeko had not believed her, but now, an hour later, Saeko could see that Xiang was indeed correct. What she said now did matter. Her words would be remembered.

The thought of that frightened her. She found her mouth dry, a cold sweat beginning on her brow. She wanted to call off the whole thing a flee. But it was too late for that. And, she told herself, if she couldn’t give a simple speech then she was unfit to be empress.

“Honor is a fragile, elusive, and subjective thing. Yet nothing is more important.” A hushed silence fell over the crowd as Saeko spoke. “It is honor that separates the civilized from the uncivilized, the just from the unjust, the trustworthy from those who are untrustworthy. When countries and individuals act with honor conflict is avoided, just as those who are dishonorable create conflicts.”

“Unfortunately” Saeko continued after a slight pause, “Grand Marshal Uther Eddion or individuals who reside in his domain, committed the foul and dastardly act of attacking a diplomatic ship from the Dominion, killing Executis Conrad in the process. This act was unprovoked and dishonorable in every way imaginable. The very act of assassinating a high level government official of a country is tantamount to a declaration of war. In response to this terrible act the Dominion has declared war on the Core Imperium. But let there be no doubt that although the Dominion declared war first, it was the Core Imperium that started the war. And as per the terms of our treaty with the Dominion, Musashi shall rush to the Dominion’s defense. Although my uncle, the Emperor, has already done so through official channels earlier today allow me to momentarily address Uther: The Empire of Musashi officially declares war on the Core Imperium.”

“This war shall be unlike any other witnessed by the galaxy. It shall be both Great and Terrible. Countries will tremble; some will fall while others will rise to greater heights. This will be a long war. This will be a costly war. Very likely millions will die. Possibly billions. We will want to tell ourselves that the Enemy is an evil savage who deserves a painful death. In some cases this will be correct, but more often than not those fighting against us will be doing so not because they wish us harm, but because they wish to defend their homelands. There will be heroes and villains on both sides of the conflict. But let no one claim that the warriors of Musashi were anything less than honorable!” Saeko raised her fist into the air. Thousands of fists rose in the crowd as her audience cheered.

“The stresses of war will make us want to do terrible things. We. Shall. Not. Some of our enemies and allies will wage war on noncombatants. But that is not how Musashi wages war! We will face our enemies not with hatred, but respect! They may spit in our faces, they may reveal themselves to be dastardly in nature, yet we shall hold our heads up high in the knowledge that we held ourselves to a higher standard!” The crowd’s cheering was so loud that Saeko had to wait for a minute before she could speak again.

“Honor and glory is not the domain of warriors alone. There is honor in the man who works himself to exhaustion in the factory he works at, laboring away to aid the war effort. There is honor in the wife that raises her children alone while her husband defends his homeland. There is honor in the doctor who saves the lives of not only our citizens, but those from abroad. And there is honor in the man that regards his foes with respect.”

“The Alorian Kingdom and Imperial Systems Commonwealth have already declared war on the Dominion, while at the same time declaring war on the Vargarian Remnants. And thus it is with a heavy heart that I must state the Empire of Musashi is declaring war on the Alorian Kingdom and Imperial Systems Commonwealth as well.”

“To the Confederation I have a message, a plea, to make. This is not a plea made out of weakness or fear, but one made in the hopes that the leadership of the Confederation will listen to reason. There is no honor to be found in supporting the Core Imperium and its dastardly act. I urge you to stay your hand and remain neutral. We have fought you once before and it is my sincere hope that we will not have to do so again. But should you decide to ignore my plea and instead point your sword at Musashi know this: we are ready. We will not hesitate to draw our katanas and meet you on the field of battle. We will fight you with honor and I hope you will do the same if you insist on pointing your swords at us.”

“Honor is a fragile, elusive, and subjective thing. Yet nothing is more important. Let all who look back on this terrible era discern that Musashi was a beacon of civilization. That Musashi conducted itself with honor, when others would not! That Musashi was a land of heroes and heroines! Let all those who look back on this day strive to follow our example! Let them say that we were, in both victory and defeat, honorable people! Nothing is more important than honor and honor is something we do not lack!”

The crowd’s cheer was a thunderous roar as Saeko brought her speech to an end. Thousand began to shout “Musashi banzai! Saeko-sama banzai! Musashi banzai! Saeko-sama banzai!” And with that Musashi had joined the Great War in thunderous applause.

"What can the Empire of Musashi do for you?" Minister of foreign affairs Xiao Xiang asked her guests roughly an hour after Saeko's speeched. The group where in a decent sized room hidden away in the confines of the Imperial palace. Plush chairs sat around a large table, which dominated the room. "I must admit that the timing of your visit is... interesting to say the least."

The Totalist representative, a man in his early 50s with a head of balding grey hair, replied: "The Party wishes to solve once and for all the situation of the Lawless Zone. And with our recent campaign into the region, we think that now is the right moment to contact your government." He paused for a moment as the looming form of the Directorate of Safety officer behind him coughed. "And reach an agreement before the situation can escalate into a crisis."

Xiang raised an eyebrow as the Totalist spoke. "That would probably be best for all parties involved" She agreed. "I suppose this means you have gained the upper hand against the Agonis Collective." It was a statement, not a question. She paused for a moment before continuing "But what is the Totalist plans for the region?"

"We have always had the upper hand against the Degenerate Machines." The Directorate man declared as the diplomat cringed slightly.

"Currently we merely plan to use the region as a way to widen the front against the Collective." The representative replied. "But as soon as this conflict is over we intend to assimilate the region fully within our sphere." He smiled at that as the Directorate man nodded behind him.

"And you would have no further aspirations for the region?" Xiang pressed. "No desire to push further south or west?" She eyed the Directorate man for a moment. "You must forgive me if I am a little dubious."

"We will have no desire to push further into the region if we get an acceptable agreement." The representative smiled at her. "We could, of course, merely ignore your government and absorb the multitude of primitives and petty states. But the Party and the Supreme Director believe that our desire for total control of the Lawless Zone can be sacrificed in exchange of normalizing relations with your government,"

"Very well" Xiang returned the representative's smile with a humorless one of her own. "Show me where you wish to define as our respective sphere's." With a simple gesture a holographic map of the region appear over the table.

The diplomat nodded and traced a single line inside the Zone. "This is our proposal."

Xiang studied the map for a moment before giving a slight nod. "That should be acceptable. Of course I will have to have any potential agreements be validated by the Emperor." She paused for adding "Of course this brings up another matter. With these new borders you will find yourself sharing a border with the horde. And Musashi, should this war go well, will very likely share a border with them as well. Would your country be open to a form of cooperative treaty geared towards ending this menace?"

"The Supreme Director is aware of the threat posed by the Horde and the Party already has plans to deal with this situation. We will be bordering them once we eliminate the Collective regardless of the negotiations here." The diplomat replied, flinching slightly as the Directorate man placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's all I'm allowed to say right now. As for a second treaty, I would need to contact the Centre before taking any official position."

"I see." Xiang stated simply as she stared at the Directorate man. "Then it is a matter we will have to discuss on another day. I will pass your proposal on to the Emperor who will very likely find it as agreeable as I. Is there anything else you would like to discuss at this time?"

"No. There's nothing else." The representative smiled. "I will get in contact with the Centre as soon as possible to pass on your proposal."

"Excellent. I shall look forward to recieving a favorable response. Now if you'll excuse me" She rose to her feet, "I have a multitude of tasks to see to now that Musashi is at war. If you have need of anything else while here do not hesitate to ask a servant or guard."

Imperial Palace Complex
Vitrograd
Praetoria

Catherine was relatively plainly dressed. Her clothes were in dark colours, certainly appropriate for the occasion, but far from her full regalia. She was not wearing the Imperial Crown, just a simple tiara, and there was no ermine cape in sight. She sat behind her desk in the Breskavitz Office, facing down the holocameras and preparing to address her nation and the galaxy at large. She looked down at her speech; it was not quite the speech she might have liked to give, it had been carefully tailored to accommodate the current domestic situation. Had it lost its teeth in the process? Or was it a message that would truly ring in every heart? An aide coughed delicately. “Your Imperial Majesty? Are you ready?”
“Yes Askvar, start the countdown.”
“Of course your majesty. Live in 3...2...1…”
Catherine slowly looked up at the cameras, and began to speak.

“My countrymen,” Catherine said somberly. “Citizens and non-citizens alike, whatever your race, whatever your creed, from the deepest Core to the farthest Verge, I speak to you today bearing grave news. This is, perhaps, our most fateful hour, in all our long history. In this hour, I implore you to hear my words, as if I were welcomed into your homes and speaking to you in person. You have heard a vote was passed in the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich. Lord Chancellor Metternich and his Cabinet have already taken action on this vote, but now I speak to you all as the Imperial Queen. As of this moment, we are at war.”

“Mere days ago, on the flimsiest of pretenses, the genocidal maniac Faust declared war on our ally, the Core Imperium. In response to our solemn treaty obligations, we have declared war on the Dominion of Man, and unfortunately, its allies the Varangian Remnants and the Empire of Musashi. For the allies of the Dominion, I yet hope we might find a diplomatic solution, and to that end, I have elected to continue operating our embassy on Musashi.”

Catherine’s voice turned to iron. “But there can be no peace with the Dominion. Let me be clear; Faust is guilty of war crimes of the most heinous nature. Nothing will sate his thirst for blood. Surrender to the Dominion means not the end of our ways, but the end of our lives. There can be no resolution of our differences, so there will be no surrender, not now, not ever. We may be tempted, fighting such an enemy, to willingly visit atrocities on them, knowing full well that given the chance, they would inflict atrocities on us. But we must be better than that. We must adhere to our values, now more than ever.”

Her words took on a gentler tone.“With this in mind, I have instructed our armed forces to act in full accordance with the Old Imperium’s Code of War. We will take prisoners, and they will be treated well, wherever they are from. We will be just, we will be honorable.”

The iron crept back into her voice. “But do not mistake my clemency for weakness. Our hearts are strong, our will is iron! The enemy will learn to fear us in the fire of battle! We will fight the Dominion across the known worlds, on the ground and among the stars, and we will never! Give! Up!”

“We are not alone in this fight. Our friends and allies already flock to the banner! The Alorian Empire. The Core Imperium. The Sovereign Star Confederation. Together, we will fight, and together, we will prevail!”

“The coming days will be hard. There will be losses, there will be deaths. All of us will have to make sacrifices, but none so much as our brave soldiers on the front lines. I ask you to stand behind those soldiers, united as never before. Let us take pride in our diversity, in our freedom, in the nation we have built for ourselves in the stars, and from that pride let us draw strength. Let us steel ourselves against the coming hardships. Let every man woman and child of the Commonwealth do their part as best as they are able. Let us each do our duty with honour and integrity, and we shall prevail!

I say again, my countrymen, we shall prevail! Victory for the Commonwealth! Victory for our Grand Coalition!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CSC Corinthene
Southern Reaches

Admiral Emden Konig nodded resolutely as he listened to the Queen’s speech. The Crown had temporarily shutdown civilian comms traffic over the subspace relays in order to simultaneously broadcast the Imperial Queen’s speech across the entire Commonwealth. Out in the Southern Reaches however, it had taken almost a day for the message to reach Konig’s assembled fleets. Five Commonwealth Star Carriers and Five Battlefleets were at his command, and they were making best possible speed to the Core Imperium and Uther’s defence. Only time would tell if they would be enough.

Collective Fringe Worlds. Aboard Floating Fortress AA-#04.

Seated at the head of the table, inside one of the many conference rooms of the Flying Fortress, Generalissimo Alexander Dollabella-Rybalsky watched as the transmitter activated, filling the empty seats with the holograms of the Board of Directors. The first meeting with all members in attendance since the start of offensive operations against the Agonis Collective.

“Now that we are all here, brothers and sisters.” The Generalissimo started. “The meeting can start.” He pressed some controls in the console. “First order of business is the proposal we have received from the Musashi government about a cooperation pact against the Xeno Horde. The relevant documents have already been forwarded to you. So I assume we all had time to weigh the pros and cons of this proposal.”

“I say we should accept the deal.” Director of Truth Fianecci spoke up, looking around to the other holograms in the table. “Another treaty with Musashi will further secure our border with them. We need this assurance to make our efforts in integrating the Lawless Zone easier.”

“And what can Musashi offer to us?” Director of Safety Tanzin asked, frowning. “Those honor-obsessed degenerates are too busy with their imperialist desires in the Core to offer any meaningful help against our enemies. Be they machine or organic.” He snorted. “We've given up half of the Zone for empty promises and words.” A few other Directors expressed their support at that.

“Your position on the deal with Musashi is already known, Director Tanzin.” Fianecci replied, venon dripping from her words. “You were outvoted in this matter. Accept it and move on.” For once, the Generalissimo agreed with her. The thought left him deeply unsettled.

“Very well.” Director Tanzin gritted out. “But my point remains, we stand to gain nothing with this cooperation pact. When the time comes to fight the Horde we shall do it on our terms. Not at the beck and call of an imperialist tyrant like some submissive animal!”

“Why not take the deal and break it later if its convenient?” Director of Production Aprayat suggested rather meekly. “We have no obligation to be honest with these backward leftovers of the Imperium. Let's say what they want to hear and act only if it suits our needs.”

“If we are to be taken seriously in the Galactic stage we must stay true to our commitments!” Director Shukar shot back, glaring at his fellow Director. “We cannot let zeal blind us completely to the realities of the situation.”

“Watch your words, Director.” Tanzin warned. “They may be prone to misinterpretation.”

Aprayat flinched slightly, the hologram shooting a few glances around as if a battalion of the DirSaf goons would burst into his room to drag him away.

“Director Aprayat is right.” The Generalissimo spoke up, looking straight at Tanzin's hologram. “We cannot afford to burn our bridges with our neighbors. Not now while we busy with Agonis and certainly not while the threat of the Horde remains.”

“I couldn't have said better.” Fianecci added with fake sweetness in her voice. “I support the motion of accepting the pact.” And just like that the feeling of wrongness took hold of the Generalissimo, he realized that Fianecci probably had her own reasons for supporting the move. But given their shared history such blatant show of support was unexpected. And from the reactions of the rest of the Board, the Generalissimo wasn't the only one surprised by that.

“Anyone else has anything to add before we call a vote?” The Generalissimo asked, taking control of the situation before the argument could restart. “New points please, we have already heard enough of the same prattling.” He finished, looking at Tanzin. When no one else spoke up he continued. “Then I call for a vote on whether or not we accept the pact of cooperation with Musashi.”

The apparent union between him and Fianecci was enough to sway the non-entities that would usually follow Tanzin's line out of fear and the pact was approved with a relatively comfortable margin of votes.

With that done, the relevant parties were warned and soon after the message was sent to Musashi informing them of this new development while the Board meeting continued to address the other topics of the agenda.

Heion. Contested Collective Fringe World



During the last weeks Collective forces in the system had suddenly increased their activity in the planet. A suicide space action had bought time for several convoys of ships to bring reinforcements and supplies to the Collective forces on the ground. And now they were rushing to press their advantage before the Totalists could bolster their presence on the Fringe World.

That was why Dvarza and several other officers were clustered around the nervous communications officer manning the console mounted in the basement of the ruined apartment building turned strong point in one of the thousands of ruined cities of Heion. The Collective push in the sector had been specially brutal and the forces operating out in the flat wastes around the city had been either destroyed or pushed back into the sprawling mess of ruined urban landscape.

“U-understood, command.” The communications officer took off his headphones and raised his head to look at the group assembled around him. He stared, sweat dripping from his forehead as he finally spoke up: “Unfortunately there are other sectors with a higher priority on the list. We shouldn't count on getting any kind of substantial reinforcements or support any time soon.”

Major Orestes cursed loudly, making the officer flinch in his chair: “From what I was told, the enemy has broke through some native units and is threatening our supply dumps.” He added hesitantly.

“Alright...alright...”The Major muttered as he tried to regain his composure. “The Machines will be hitting us anytime now. We will just have to make do with what we have…” He turned to the others and barked loudly: “Out of my sight now! Get to your positions!”

Dvarza didn't need any further prompting and rushed out of the basement and the building into the large cleared plaza where her battalion was deployed. Rubble had been cleared, gathered and moved to block access points and build barricades. Barbed wire, not really useful against the Collective, had been laid out all across the area and the entire approach had been mines and boob trapped. Further in the front, buildings had been blown out and cleared to create an open field of fire for the heavy guns. They had weeks to prepare the whole area and yet the Lieutenant couldn't help but feel like their chances were poor. Specially since half of the company's vehicles had been permanently put out of actions and had yet to be replaced. The less said about those who still worked the better.

The Lieutenant strapped her gas mask before entering her command post, a hole dug into the ground covered by a thick black tarp. It was cramped and only had the barest minimum of equipment, plus it would offer little protection against any kind of half-serious artillery bombardment. But still, better than nothing.

And just as she had managed to settle between three others inside the cramped hole, the telltale and faint sounds of combat started. Dvarza turned on the comms on her helmet and soon she was flooded by confirmations of contact coming from the companies deployed further into the sector. And by the sounds of it the Collective wasn't pulling any punches.

Some meters behind the command post the company's artillery, also dug in, opened fire. For whatever good that would do. They needed at least divisional artillery to deal with a push this strong. But a quick log in into the divisional net showed that, once again, there were other sectors with higher priority getting their teeth kicked in by the Machines.

Still, there was nothing for them besides waiting. Dvarza's company was pretty much the company's last line of defense and her battalion was the last line of defense of the company. Until the machines had managed to push through their outer lines further into the ruins there was little for them to do besides wait in anxiety and fear and hope that the Collective wouldn't just carpet bomb them into oblivion.

Four hours later and the battalion hadn't exactly been carpet bombed into oblivion. They had however, gotten pretty closed to it when the Collective decided to silence their own guns. Half of Dvarza's carefully prepared defenses had been reduced to dust. And her battalion had been reduced to half of its original strength. The rest dead or wounded, and of the wounded only half would be worth treating.

On the bright side, her command post was somehow still standing. But half of the building housing the company's HQ was gone and Commissar Nigri had been hurriedly shipped back to the rearguard with an arm missing and the other holding his guts inside. Already Dvarza had to deal with cowards and dissidents herself, and the bodies of those who tried to skirt their duty had joined those killed by the bombing. There was no time to make an example of them so she contented herself with merely recording their names, the Commissar would decide if further action was necessary once he recuperated.

It was also during these four hours that the Collective had methodically destroyed their outer lines and maimed the regiment. Four companies almost completely wiped out while their remnants ran, crawled or wandered into Dvarza's position. Those who still could fight were sent to the trenches, foxholes and barricades while those who couldn't were thrown into the basement turned makeshift hospital. A squad was still deployed there with orders to detonate what was left of their incendiary bombs if the Collective pushed them back. “Better to burn to death than be turned into a shambling abomination” Major Orestes had said and Dvarza agreed with him.

And so, after four grueling hours of bloodshed the Collective finally started the push against last remnants of their regiment. There was no hope for reinforcements as the rest of the division was being mauled just as bad. And only now the penetration into their rearguard had been stopped. What strength the army had in the city would be focused on pushing the Collective away from the supply dumps. The units on the front, like Dvarza's would have to hold with what they had. They probably were already counted as acceptable losses by the General. Left to bleed the enemy before they reached the second line deeper into the city. Intellectually she understood the reasoning, but that didn't made the situation any better

And to add the last bit of salt to the injury, she was forced to share her command post with Bitchface. “Lieutenant Naura needs somewhere to command her battalion. Lieutenant Naura's forces will help you defend your sector.” The Major had said before sauntering out of her hole back towards his own post in the basement. Problem wad Lieutenant Naura's battalion was pretty much reduced to her and 30 odd shell shocked survivors with no heavy or support equipment. There was no reason for her to not be out there in the barricades with what was left of her unit. But no! She had to be inside Dvarza's post, Dvarza's very small command post. At least she had stayed quiet the whole time, probably still shaken up by the battle.

“Not such a big mouth anymore, eh?” Dvarza thought as she smiled behind her mask.

Another artillery barrage signaled the start of the Collective attack. The ground shook and the air was filled with explosions. Dvarza crouched by the hole's wall, covering her head. One of her sergeants finally lost her nerve and ran out. It would do her no good, the open ground offered even less protection than the Lieutenant's measly dug in post and even if the coward survived the battle, Dvarza would make sure to register her cowardice and let Commissar Nigri deal with her once this all was dealt with.

The communications net was once again filled with noise as the Collective armor rolled in towards their lines. Major Orestes barked the order to fire at will and the entire line erupted with fire. Dvarze really could use another dose of stimulant right now, but she did not dare to take off her gas mask.

“I need to get out!” Naura blurted out. Dvarza turned quickly, hand on her sidearm ready to shot the other Lieutenant the moment she finished speaking cowardice. “I've got nothing to do here. My troops need me.” She finished, turning fully towards Dvarza, as if expecting something.

Dvarza nodded slowly, Naura grabbed her rifle and jumped out of the hole. Running towards the fight. She was brave, stupid but brave, that much Dvarza was willing to admit. At least now she had her command post back.

“Sergeant Petrenko.” Dvarza called out on the battalion net. “Report!”

“Holding out so far, ma'am.” Came the strained reply over the sound of intense gunfire. “The Muncs aren't focusing their push on us. But we might get outf-GAHAHH! MY ARM MY FU-” The transmission was cut by a loud explosion that made Dvarza physically recoil. In the distance she could see that there was now a big flaming hole in their lines. And with sudden panic she realized that the enemy had already passed through their carefully prepared killzone.

Dvarza decided that things were really starting to resemble JHS-294 now as she watched Collective soldiers rush to the breach in their lines. Dozens fell to their fire but even more came surging through the breach and fanning into their lines.

“BURN THEM! BURN THEM ALL!” Dvarza screamed into the comms. “DON'T LET THEM SPREAD TOO FAR BURN THEM NOW!”

On cue, several squads rushed into the developing melee, escorting soldiers armed with incendiary weapons. Engulfing whole groups of combatants in fire. Soon, the outer barricades turned into a wall of flames as both Collective and Totalist burned. The flamethrower squads rushed back towards the second line as burning figures ran out of the flames screaming in pain. Followed by the Collective drones, laying down precise fire and cutting down several of the retreating troopers before being put down by response fire.

“We've got several large contacts incoming, ma'am!” The soldier manning the sensor equipment informed. “Walkers most likely, should be on us in a question of minutes.”

“Do we have a visual?” Dvarza asked, turning back to him.

“No, but I can guide the anti-tank guns with the radar coordinates.” The soldier replied.

“Then do it.” Dvarza ordered as she turned to watch the flames. Waiting to see how long the Collective would take to overcome this new barrier.

The air was filled with the noise of the hidden guns opening fire. Smart ammunition and guided rockets took flight, disappearing over the smoke. Dvarza turned towards the soldier, awaiting for the results.

“Three contacts down, maybe out of action.” He informed. “Oh, I can't get anymore readings.” He cursed as he punched the device. “They must be jamming our sensors.”

Dvarza was about to give more orders when the entire ground shook. A deafening noise and a heavy blow to the back sent the Lieutenant to the ground. Dazed from the explosion, she felt herself being shaken before a heavy weight dropped over her.

Regaining her bearings, Dvarza noticed with dawning horror that the weight was a body and that there was fire coming from their rearguard. The Collective had flanked their position.

Pushing the body off her, the Lieutenant quickly scrambled to grab her rifle. Dvarza cringed as her hearing returned, the comm net was filled with chaotic noise, desperate calls for help and orders, Dvarza turned it off. She rushed out of the half collapsed hole to see that the company's HQ had been reduced to complete rubble. Not wasting any time she dived into the nearest trench.

“What now Lieutenant?” The soldier that helped her to her feet asked, not managing to mask the panic in his voice.

“What about the Major?” She asked dumbly, of course the Major was out of contact. An explosion like that probably vaporize the basement.

“We don't know!” Another one added, sounding on the verge of panic.

“Then we fight!” She shouted with false bravado, taking position in the lip of the trench and firing at the Varusch troopers rushing over the rubble at their rear.

“This is Lieutenant Dvarza!” She spoke on the company's net. “And as ranking officer I'm taking control of the unit!” Technically speaking that wasn't completely true, but she doubted anyone would be willing to point that out with them being essentially fucked.

“The enemy is now on our rear! Are the flanks clear?” She asked as she fired another burst at the approaching Varusch.

“They're hitting us heavy on the right!” A voice Dvarza couldn't recognize at the moment, specially with the net distortion, cried out. “Bringing in the heavy hitters! Five walkers at least!”

“Two coming over the fire wall!” Another one called out. Dvarza didn't dare to turn and look with the horde of enemy infantry rushing her trench.

“The left flank looks clear.” Now Dvarza recognized the voice, Naura. “Light enemy presence and they're not attacking. We could try forcing our way out here and into the 23rd 's sector. Very little exposed ground. Just a lot of ruins and rubble. ”

It could be a trap, leave an obvious way out to catch them in the open. Dvarza was torn until a trio of large walker crested over the rubble of their HQ. Immediately pulverizing one of their dug in APCs and two anti-tank guns.

“All remaining units! Fighting retreat towards the left bastion!” She barked into her comm. “Whatever heavy guns remain, focus your fire on the walkers!” A chorus of affirmations followed

Dvarza emptied her clip on a brute before crouching to reload. Another set of explosions rocked the ground and she rose up again to see a walker fall over smoking. Right before another took out the heavy weapons position responsible for the kill.

“Out of the trench!” She ordered, rushing to jump out of the trench. Behind her the remaining troops followed closely. Sometimes firing short bursts at the Collective troops rushing their rear.

The run through the open courtyard was grueling. Barely slowing down to fire blindly at their rear while being fired at from nearly every direction. What few soldiers remained behind to provide covering fire were easily cut down by the lumbering walkers.

The “left bastion” was just a husk of buildings hastily reinforced by the army engineers. The only reason it was still standing wash because it was never the focus point of the bombardments. But with the number of Totalist troops rushing inside that was bound to change. A couple dozen were already taking firing positions with whatever heavy weaponry was left to cover the retreat of the remnants of the regiment.

Dvarza ran through an open wall. The ground floor was packed with troops and the Lieutenant ran through cramped corridors. Lost in the mob of rushing soldiers all heading in the same direction. Towards the opposite side of the bastion, and hopefully escape.

“Alright! Pay attention!” Dvarza shouted, both to the troops around her and into the company's net. “Are the assault squads ready for the push?”

“Just waiting for the go signal.” Naura replied through the comms as the building shook from a direct hit from the walkers.

“Then go! We have no time to lose!” Dvarza shouted again. What she wouldn't give for a dose of stimulant right now.

The stream of troops running through the corridors and rooms of the bastion eventually took the Lieutenant outside. Through the torn barricades and into rubble filled narrow streets. Already several Totalist bodies were strewn on the street while further down the first assault squads fought to clear the way to the mass of tightly packed ruins that would take them to the sector occupied by the 23rd division, hopefully they were still holding out.

And so Dvarza ran. Firing blindly and without stopping she followed the flow of troops as scattered Collective fire downed soldiers around her. She was just about to dive into the cover of the clustered ruins when a shot took half of her leg.

The Lieutenant fell to the ground shoulder first. She didn't scream at first, it took a while for her to see the half ruined leg dangling below her knee. Held only by a fleshy strip as the blood flowed into the ground. Someone dragged her inside the lobby of the building as she screamed in pain and panic.

She was so focused on her ruined leg and the incredible mind numbing pain that she missed the syringe being jabbed in her arm. The chemical worked fast and before she could realize what was going on Dvarza lost consciousness.

Kaela gazed pensively at the wine swishing in her glass with each lazy rotation of her hand. The lights in her office were dimmed to near their minimum, emitting only a dull glow that scarcely illuminated the deep purple liquid, reflecting off it's surface weakly. She'd not done this in a while, but how was one to avoid a migraine after everything that had happened? With a pained smirk she distantly envied that Princess of Musashi whose letter glowed a dim blue on the holographic desk before her, what would it have been like to never worry about migraines? About getting sick before an important meeting? What a boon that must be, genetic modification.

Of course, it wasn't like Yuki's genes had saved her. The scent of the incense that burned by the entrance to Kaela's office was testament enough to that. She leaned back for a moment and sighed, ignoring the splitting pain that threatened the contents of her stomach, after all it was nothing compared to what she knew would follow in the weeks to come. Such cruel irony it was, that the Princess of Musashi would profess her inability to tear her home apart to the one that had been given the responsibility to do so. Kaela hated the taste of it, futility. Yuki had worked for peace, accepted her fate in the pursuit of it, and was surely buried deep by now.

Taking a sip before setting the glass down and burying her face in wrinkled hands, Kaela reflected on how it'd all gone so awry. Isolated incidents, unpredictable happenstance, a thousand meaningless coincidences leading to the death of a reprehensible man. An event that would herald the death of billions. She'd already prepared the speech, and the official missives would be on their way by now. As of an hour ago she was the only First Chancellor in history to have been granted emergency powers twice.

In spite of all the sacrifice, the diplomacy, the assurances, war had come again. It would be her responsibility to tell the people that, to let them know their sons and daughters would be sent off to die in the name of freedom and democracy. How insipid it would sound.

Extracting a small black cylinder from her drawer and pressing it against her neck Kaela breathed deeply. The injector hissed and her vision sharpened, the pain dulled. It would only last for a few hours, but that would be long enough to do her duty.



With a muttered curse Wilhelm Graf and Heinrich Schreiber stumbled out of the tavern, the burly proprietor watching imposingly from the shadow of the door frame reminding them to be quick about it. With a flip of the bird Wilhelm rubbed the arm he'd been dragged by and scoffed; it was a shitty bar anyway. Sure they'd gotten a little unruly, but who the hell wouldn't? The nation would be properly at war in in a few minutes if he had read the time right, and their proud Germanic Republic had a strong tradition of throwing idiots like him and Hein to their graves without even asking.

So piss on that bar, and the asshole who owned it. With a sigh Wilhelm noted the crowd gathering in the square and nudged Heinrich, “Looks like trials wrapped up buddy, wanna go watch the sentencing?”

Heinrich grinned at the sardonic comment and chuckled, “May as well, ain't like we can run from this one.”

With that the two awkwardly made their way to the square, though from the looks of it they were hardly the only ones who'd been imbibing. Squeezing through the crowd the pair finally made it to a bench and climbed up to gain a head above the throng, making the wall-screen of a nearby apartment visible for the first time.

Contrasted against screen's black background were the ominous words 'Emergency Broadcast – Standby'. The crowd waited with bated breath and simultaneously let out a gasp and cringed when the screen's speakers blared to announce a live broadcast and the image suddenly switched to the face First Chancellor, Kaela Zevaren.

The older woman seemed to gaze down at the crowd like she could see them, even if she was light years away. With a somber expression she began, voice booming through the town from a plethora of speakers, “People of the Confederation, I come to today with grave news. No doubt many of you have already heard, but for those who've not tuned into the news I will reiterate. Mere hours ago our steadfast ally, the Core Imperium, was ruthlessly attacked by the repugnant so called Dominion of Man. ”

Closing her eyes for a moment as if in mediation Sevaren paused before she continued, “We have long condemned the actions of the dictator Faust and his murderous cohorts, but complacency has led us to permit him his atrocities for too long. No longer. No longer will we sit by and watch millions marched to their deaths for the sake of a perverted vision of a 'racially pure' galaxy, this shameless attack on a sovereign nation is the line we draw. As of now we are at war with the failed state known as the Dominion of man.”

The crowed murmured and shared hushed conversations among themselves, but their First Chancellor forged on, “Many will, and already have, mentioned the justification given by the dictator Faust. I let you know now, any explanations given by the Dominion are nothing but a ruse. Petty tricks meant to paralyse us with indecision. A mass murderer has set their mind to killing untold innocents, and they have the temerity to use the unverified death of a single individual as their reason? What further proof of a state and a man's depravity can there be?”

“We will fight tyranny as our forefathers once did, and as their forefathers before them did. We will not be swayed by the insipid words of serpents. As for those nations who have so tragically been ensnared by the Dominion, the Musashi Empire and Varangian Remnants, know that we cannot abide those those who aid and abet evil. Just as we are at war with the dark stain on the galaxy that is the Dominion, we are at war with all who support it. In this we are not alone.”

“Perhaps the time will come when better men and women steer those nations away from the path they have taken, but for now we are resolute. The Confederation we have forged in the name of liberty will defend her ideals to the last, and if that means we must make war upon those who infringe those ideals, then we will make war.”

With a sudden intensity Sevaren added, “However! We must never forget what the ideals we fight for are! We must always abide by the codes we have set for ourselves, we must always fight as the better man, otherwise we become that which we sought to destroy. In the coming days many will call our enemies monsters, beasts, but we must remember that they too are intelligent beings. Mankind just like all the species of this galaxy, is capable of incredible cruelty and evil, and we must keep in mind we too could fall so far if we are to fight this war.”

“So I beseech you, the people of this beloved Confederation, come to your nations aid at its time of need, but do so as citizens, democrats, and the educated would. There is a long conflict ahead, but we will fight it as we are and we have been. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the Imperium and Commonwealth, and we will do so in a way we can be proud of when the light of peace shines on us at the end of this dark night.”

“Much will change in the weeks to come,” Sevaren paused and smiled as she emphasized, “But we will meet those changes heads held high, and we will know victory! “

With that the transmission cut out, and the crowd started to cheer, no doubt one shared across thousands of worlds. For his part, Wilhelm pissed himself a little.

From the vast expanses of space Ethoria looked like a tiny speck of blue and green against a huge black canvas dotted with tiny white lights, next to a much bigger planet Monument. Unfortunately for Ethoria, Monument did not only overshadow it in it's massive size, but also in it's booming economy, much better living conditions and a general attractiveness that the small planet just did not have. While ships constantly flocked to Monument for civilian tourism, trade of all kinds and a variety of other reasons, routes to Ethoria were often much less than full. In fact, the Terran Liberation Forces rebellion was probably the biggest thing to ever happen to the forgotten world, and the media attention it had gained, along with the public's passion to defeat the Terran Liberation Front had almost brought it out of the gutter. Almost .

But almost wasn't enough. When dreadnoughts and Goliath's along with many other ships warped into the system, it was like they ignored Ethoria. The small blue planet was just not a priority to take back from the rebels, it wasn't nearly as important enough strategically in the eyes of the Royal Military compared to planets like Monument and Helcion. The crude rebel battleships and star fighters around Ethoria sat patiently and the crew's watched with much relief as they witnessed the vastly superior Alorian fleet target the much bigger, better navy attempting to defend other planets in the system. They watched as the two forces drew closer and closer to each other, long range weapons starting to fire as the battle for the Eslarvis system commenced.

Down on the surface of Ethoria, the Terran Liberation Front was still in control despite the accidental release of the high prison population, much of which had now been mercilessly killed by the rebellion. The Royal Guard that were left on the surface were scattered across the globe, unable to communicate with each other and organise any kind of counter attack. Instead these pockets of the Empire were barely hanging on, fighting were they could and hiding when they couldn't. The Alorian's on the planet not a part of the rebellion were starving, they had gone without blood for too long, the effects of malnutrition and exhaustion were quickly setting in.

In a small ground floor room of an apartment complex was an Alorian man and woman. The woman was sleeping on a couch in the back of the room. Her soft features rose and fell slowly as she breathed in and out, her light purple skin glowing against her black lips, her crystal blue eyes were shut tight as she rested for the first time in days. She wore a tattered guard uniform and there was a bandage over her shoulder stained with blood. Sitting down by the window was a man, his pale white skin still glowing despite his fatigue, his eyes barely able to stay open. His uniform also looked beaten and ripped up, stained with the blood of not only him but his fallen allies. He watched out of the window for any movement, making sure they wouldn't get taken by surprise, just as he had for days now in his hiding. His eyes started closing again as they had been before almost rythmically before they suddenly shot open. He sniffed the air, much more awake than he had just been as a very familiar smell suddenly made its way too him. Blood.

A rebel group were marching down the road, guns in hand, probably on a patrol. The man quietly made his way over to the girl, tapping her on her arm to wake her up.
"Ivanna!" He whispered, "Wake up Ivanna!" He said again, this time in less of a whisper as he rushed to get her awake. Ivanna's eyes slowly opened as she groaned,
"You better have a good reason for-" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, and her eyes opened wide just as his did. She sniffed the air in almost the same way and she knew exactly why he had woken her up. Blood.

Both of the Alorians seemed strained, self control becoming harder and harder as the footsteps outside got closer and closer. The man, Kleon, seemed particularly troubled. He hadn't fed for almost a week, while his natural superior had fed four days ago. His fangs forcefully protruded from their usual place inside his gums, as his self control dwindled. His breathing was becoming much faster as his fists clenched up. Soon all he could think about was the food outside, and how he hadn't eaten any in a week. All he needed was one, one Human, and he could be strong again, he would feel good, his hunger would be no more. He turned away from her, and started walking slowly towards the window as the Human's and sympathisers drew closer. Ivanna knew what was happening. Her self control far outmatched his at the moment, so she stood up behind him.
"Don't you dare. All your going to do is get yourself killed, and me along with you!" She said in a hushed whisper. He didn't reply, and instead just kept walking towards the window.
"Kleon, you idiot! Dont!" She warned, taking another step forward. But it was far too late for him now. His instincts had kicked in. He drew his sidearm and used the last bullet to shoot the window, not strong enough to smash it alone in his weakened state, he hit the broken window over and over until it broke, shards of glass cutting deep into his skin and drawing blood of his own. He didn't care. All that was on his mind was the Humans. He stepped climbed through, cutting himself more as he emerged onto the street in front of the rebels. His jaw clenched as he looked at all the food in front of him. His whole body was shaking. His eyesight was red. His eyes locked with the closest Terran as he let out a low, animalistic growl. Without another word he charged at the group.

Bang. Bang. Bang Three shots was all it took to take him down in his weakened state. His body fell to the floor, and the rebels searched the room he came from, gunning down the loyal soldier hiding inside.

All over the occupied planets this tactic was being used to lure out hiding soldiers, starving soldiers, while the military fought back for them in the black sky. But not for those stranded on Ethoria. They were alone.

Southern Reaches
Unnamed System
The fleet had continued to drift the star system, awaiting for the moment when they can initiate yet another FTL jump to yet another far distant star system, hopefully, one with the perfect conditions for the Peace Fleet to at last settle, a world rich in a variety of resources, where they can properly rebuild, and forge a new society, a new civilization, one in the pursuit of peace and coexistence, rather then the old ways of the Collective, one of war and assassination.

The alien probe had continued its observation of the peace fleet, becoming more daring as it had ventured closer and closer, till it had entered the heart of the fleet, passing by their ships until it came to a stop, the rest of the fleet reacting to this as they had ceased all internal operations, the probe soon begun to emit a new signal, new data being transmitted to Mei's flagship.

Within the command room, Mei, along with members of her inner circle, were all that remained, and had carefully watched, many of the more low level machines had long left to attend to their other duties. They all anxiously watched for any new updates, eventually their long wait was rewarded, the command ship now receiving new signals being emitted from the probe. The holo-projection on the table now reforming, a friendly, welcoming message displayed, followed by images of creative-looking animated creatures standing side by side, with welcoming expressions upon their faces. The message had eased the other members of Mei's inner circle, who at the time, were not present and had doubts of the alien's intentions, however, the doubt still lingered. Mei stood there in deep thought, considering her options, thinking for a while until she came to a final decision. "Let's send a similar message to them, they seem friendly enough...and have no clue who we are, or...were."

"It's a risky move, your worship." One of Mei's Military Commanders spoke up, an member of a experimental group of machine soldiers made by some big time imperial corporation that were worked on shortly before the uprising, needless to say, they worked as intended. His hardened chassis was covered in a shade of blue or teal mixed with with gray. He went by the name of Fenix. "There's a high probability that whoever sent this probe is setting trap for us, we have many enemies in this region, past failed incursions by the Collective haven't exactly left the best image for our kind."

Mei simply gave a caring smile to her worried commander. "That may be true, fenix...but as I said, we can't hide forever and hopefully..if this is some trap by past victims, we can either show them we're different, or face judgment, either way, we must find a new home no matter what."

With a thought click, a holo console materialized before Mei as weaved her own picture for the aliens to see. The image was of a simple, small, child-like versions of Mei and her followers, all huddled up together like one huge family, giving off friendly facial expressions and vibes. Waving her arms in motion, the image soon disappeared as it was transmitted to the probe.

Domain of Magnus
Foundry World of Sunia

Sunia, once a vital trade hub in the Agonis Sector, and a world of pristine beauty, has now become one out of thousands upon thousands of foundry worlds, destroyed and then reforged for the sole purpose of fueling the Collective's warmachine, forever churning out soldiers, weapons and starships for the Collective's neverending mission to remake the galaxy in the image of its Queen. Now that the Collective is under threat, the Foundry Worlds have now sped up production tenfold, spitting out more and more machines and monsters to stave off the advancing and vengeful enemies of the Queen. but to little avail.

Strange events have taken place within the Domain of Magnus, one of the Seven. Foundry Worlds within his domain have slowed down production, building at a slower pace, whole star systems, those mostly located along the fringes or midrims, have now been left defenseless as their fleets had been pulled out. The Foundry Systems, despite the slow down, are the few regions in the domain to be heavily fortified. The others assume Magnus is preparing for a more hands on approach to the totalist's intrusion upon his domain. Suspensions rise among the lower tiered AI and the Seven, but think nothing of it, them being too busy to fend off two invasions at once.

They however, are unaware of a great betrayal, and it is far to late to react, the countdown to the Fall of the Collective has begun.

Unknowing of the inner workings and machinations of Agonian politics, the vanguard of the Totalist forces tasked with seizing Sunia emerged from the FTL at the edges of the system. Fresh from dispatching what little Collective forces had been left in their path. The situation had repeated all over the front, with the overwhelming Totalist armada charging through their planned advance routes and meeting surprisingly low resistance.

When it became clear that the strength of the Collective fleets and armies opposing the offensive had been considerably overestimated, Generalissimo Dollabella-Rybalsky had sent orders for a general slowdown of the offensive. After all, as far as the Totalist intelligence was concerned, their enemies were supposed to still be able to put much more of a fight despite the scale of the forces sent by the Party.

It didn't take long, however, for the Totalists to realize that there was no apparent trap or counter-attack in their way. Naval patrols and scout groups reported more and more empty or lightly guarded planets all over the sector as far as they could reach. The only exceptions being several Foundry Worlds, the actual targets of the offensive. And even then, the actual number of Collective ships detected was still below even the most optmistic expectations.

And so the advance resumed. More careful and slow than what local resistance demanded, as the Totalists were still suspicious of the whole situation. Nevertheless they still managed to reach their targets within the planned timetables. The time lost by the general slowdown of the offensive quickly regained by the lack of substantial resistance.

In Sunia, just one of the Foundry Worlds now under attack, the Totalist vanguard remained prowling on the edges of the system. Content on cleaning up whatever enemy ships hadn't fled to the relative safety of the Foundry World and waiting for the arrival of the rest of the Totalist assault force.

Hanging in high orbit of Sunia was a fleet of five hundred vessels of various classes, half the strength of your typical Collective strike fleet. At the dead center of the scattered cluster of ships was the flagship of the fleet, a divine-class. This particular vessel, this whole fleet, was under the command of a small, hand-picked group of Agaathi-class Homunculi, a rather odd choice of leadership, especially with no AI Supervision, in fact very little AI were present in the fleet, only in the most basic forms. This occurrence had added on to strangeness of the situation.

The five Agaathi Commanders looked upon a holo-display of the star system, all gluing their eyes to the large red flashing mass on the very edge. "This is most troubling.." One of them spoke up.

"Indeed, brother." A female said.

"What shall be our course of action?" Another male asked. "The probability of our defeat and fall of the system is quite high."

"We do as tasked." Another female spoke. "Lord Magnus wishes us to hold these worlds as long as possible, and by his undying will, we will not fail."

"Agreed." they all said in unison in their mundane, drone-like tones. And with that, the fleet remained in position, not daring to make a move, lest they defy their God's orders, all that was and could even be done was wait for their inevitable destruction at the hands of their ruthless foes.

Meanwhile, the Totalist vanguard finally took action. Adopting a scattered formation, the ships started their slow advance towards Sunia and the under strength Collective strike fleet. Strike Craft was launched but remained around their mother ships. Half hour later, the rest of the Totalist armada arrived. A large assault force created with the intent of fighting against much stiffer resistance. Inside one of the Flying Fortresses, Admiral Tapadopoulos thanked his lucky stars for the imminent victory.

"Initiate assault." He ordered through the fleet communications net. "1st, 2nd and 5th squadrons deploy strike craft and move to engage the enemy head on. 3rd, 4th and 6th maintain your distance from the fight and escort the transport ships for the ground assault. 10th and 11th are to flank the enemy and escort 3rd and 4th assault groups to seize or destroy their orbital facilities. 8th and 9th are to remain uncommitted and watching our rear. Let's finish this, brothers and sisters."

And so the battle had begun, as first wave of totalists ships were nearing the planet itself, they were met with swarms of drone strike craft numbering in the thousands, followed quickly behind by the rest of the fleet. "All ships, engage." The lead Agaathi ordered. "For Lord Magnus!" The main fleet soon unleashed their salvos upon the advancing totalist warships, and were replied in kind as the numbers of the Devanagari had thinned, rear collective ships pushing through scrap as they continued their suicidal push against the enemy.

The Totalist vanguard scattered around the Collective's push and reformed, moving to hit the Collective ships from behind as they met the main Totalist force head on. Thousands of fighters and bombers clashed in the void as the noose tightened around the outnumbered Collective fleet.

Meanwhile, the remaining Totalist forces avoided the battle. Heading straight to Sunia, the four squadrons tasked with escorting the transport ships made short work of the orbital defenses. And as they battled with the ground to space weaponry of the Foundry World, thousands of dropships launched from the larger transports. Descending into sections of the planet obliterated by concentrated orbital fire and landing on the remaining orbital platforms.

The main fleet pressed onward, eventually ceasing all attacks, ready to enact one last action before their deaths. Before long, all remaining capital ships of the fleet sped towards the totalist ships, with the full intend on ramming them and taking as many of them as possible.

The ground battle did no fare too welk either, although their numbers were last, the ground armies on Sunia had very little in coordination, offering what little resistance possible, but were in complete chaos.

The sheer speed of the Collectivist suicide run took the Totalists by surprise. Several heavier ships were rammed and damaged before Admiral Tapadopoulos could organize the counter-move. The reserve squadrons were called into the battle as the rest of the fleet scattered. Hundreds of fighters and bombers were sacrificed in mad dashes against the heavier enemy ships while lighter ships focused their fire on taking down their enemies' propulsion systems.

Another squadron was called back from the planetary bombardment to support the rest of the fleet as the Totalist landings continued unimpeded. With the enemy in disarray and full orbital and aerial superiority, the biggest obstacles to the Totalists were simply their lack of knowledge of the local geography and the usual logistical difficulties associated with planetary assaults.

From beneth the planet's surface, hordes of mangled cyborgs had crawled out from every forgotten trash pit they were tossed into, sent out by their handlers to hold off the enemy's advance. From every "street" to every corner, legions of nightmarish amalgamations of metal, wires, and flesh surged through, like hungry beasts, all moaning cries of pain and anguish.

The sudden counter-attack caught the Totalist forces flat-footed. Several divisions were mauled or destroyed by the waves of enemies appearing beneath their feet. But the surprise wore off and with ample orbital support alongside with the constant stream of dropships bringing in reinforcements the Totalist Army was able to stabilize the situation on the ground and start slowly pushing back against the Horde.

The situation in orbit was far better for the Totalists. Whatever Collectivist forces remained aboard the platforms proved to be no match for the Black Banner forces assaulting the installations. And despite the total loss of several assault groups brought by the self-destruction of their targets, the operation could still be considered a overall success.

Meanwhile, the fleet battle raged on. Though it was clear to any observer that it was reaching its final stages. The suicide rush certainly earned the Collective much more kills than they would get in an otherwise conventional firefight. But in the end the sheer disparity in firepower and numbers assured that the balance of power remained firmly on the Totalist side.

The entirety of the collective defense fleet had been wiped out alongside any orbital platforms. All that was left was surface. The Refused were slowly pushed back, Totalist soldiers countering against their maddening melee charges.

All that stood in the way of total domination of the planet was the Central Control Tower, a massive structure that served as the nerve center of all factory sectors across the planet, once that was taken, victory would be assured.

While in previous situations the Totalists simply obliterated Collectivist command centers with overwhelming displays of firepower, the chance of capturing the Control Tower of a Foundry World, and the secrets within was certainly worth the blood it would cost.

Nevertheless, there was no point in simply rushing in. And as the rest of the planet was easily pacified, the Totalists prepared for their assault into the Tower. Gathering a strike force at a safe distance, waves of Penal troops were used to sweep the area around the Tower as every manner of scanner, sensor and radar was employed to detect any kind of trap or hidden weapon in the surroundings.

For all the traps and hidden defenses that were thwarted, within the tower was a small army of homunculi and machines, ready to make their final stand against the Totalists as the penal troops were the first to enter, met with a hail of plasma fire as collective troops on the first level had entrenched themselves in makeshift barricades and gun emplacements.

The Penal troops continued to surge into the Tower. Thousands upon thousands of them streamed from the landing zones closer to the Tower as squadrons of aircraft and gunships flew over the tower, bombing holes into the superstructure and deploying squads of Black Banner troops in the upper levels of the massive structure.

The innards of the tower has devoled into pure chaos as Totalsit troops poured through all the levels, catching the defenders off guard as they strike from all directions. Many hours pass as the battle waged, eventually, the last of the homunculi had fallen, the Tower was now in the hands of the State.

For all intents and purpose Sunia had fallen. Whatever Collectivist troops remained were scattered all through the planet, leaderless and undersupplied. The Tower was soon put into quarantine as a veritable army of engineers combed the construction looking for traps, bugs or any kind of possible surprise left by the Collectivists. Only after that the first scientists were brought into the Tower to start harvesting and cataloging the databanks.

-The Royal Palace, Laum-
-Planet Itil -
-Prince Cato Aurelia Castus Anzac-

The loss of signal from the Su-401 sent the war room into a frenzy but military leaders were hesitant to tell anyone. Usually This information would of passed through the king already, but in his absence people were reluctant to inform the prince. After a few days, military leadership simply couldn’t hold onto the information anymore and were forced to let it go.

The prince’s response was typical, “ Send the 2nd Company of the Legion” much to the dismay of his advisors, who were threatened with treason for disagreeing. Most in the military cursed the centralized structure of the monarchy and even threatened to disobey the prince. The absolute rule of the monarchy won in the end, and the 2nd company was well on their way to some other foreign world.

In transit aboard his personal train
Planet Itil
King Ganius Kleto Bactra Anzac

The noise of the party easily penetrated the thin walls of the room adjacent to it. Every word, laugh and broken glass could be heard, only adding to the King’s annoyance. The King was not a fan of parties, there were few of them when he was growing up. You might of held a party for taking a city or routing your enemy in battle, but not much else. A large gathering of people was just a big target to the King, and he wanted no parts of it.

The King was old, nearly 130 years old and probably one of the only people present to experience the war. He was a stern and serious man, known to lack a sense of humor. He was an efficient and effective leader however, responsible for building the New Monarchy. Unfortunately he was also burdened with maintaining it as well, a process that he was currently loathing.

When members of the royal family become of age they must travel to meet the lords of each city. This showcases the young prince or princess, making them available for marriage. This would happen annually until the prince or princess were properly engaged. In the case of Princess Lucretia, this would be her sixth tour around Itil.

The princess was not undesirable by any means and considered to be quite beautiful. Bone white hair was braided in pony tail down to her waist, framing her angelic face. Her lips were full, with a natural purple hue which did away the need for flashy lipstick that is popular in Hol communities. The king had received so many offers for marriage that he just gave up, making the very unorthodox decision to let the princess decide. King Ganius already had two elder sons, the eldest of which would be his heir. With his linage secure he really didn’t care who Lucretia married, choosing to rely on her judgment and affection instead of money and land.

Without the daily distraction of running the monarchy, the king was left to his own thoughts. He stared trance-like in the mirror in front of him, his mind ever consumed with thoughts of government. The sudden shattering of another glass followed by a mocking cheer tore the king from his thoughts once again, prompting a long sigh. With an audible groan, the king stood and made his way back towards the door to join the party.