With the fires of war and conflict ever burning through the galaxy, neutrality often becomes an incredibly dangerous choice to make... Especially when some of the powers would rather destroy the resources and information they can't secure for themselves. In such cases, those who claim neutrality on the ongoing conflict are often targeted, if they are considered to be too valuable to be lost... or worse, secured by the enemy.
This was the case of a particular research and exploration ship, consisting mostly of voidhangers, tasked by the Black City Conglomerate in exploring the applications of Ether, the Abyssical Plane and the Oneiric Chasm for the usage in wars. After refusing to produce more weapons to be used in the war, it's captain and crew became fugitives, having to flee to the corners of the galaxy to avoid the eyes of the eyes of either one of the sides of the war. Interestingly enough, there aren't many places where an entire ship can hide from the eyes and influence of either one of the three great powers and those running away from them often end up meeting each other. Due to the proximity to places with a high concentration of ether, more and more voidhangers in similar situations ended up together, slowly forming an entire fleet. It was exactly on this fleet Alice was born.
Due to the almost inhospitable place they chose to live, taking advantage of their unique physiology, the conflict and wars were, for a good deal of time, a distant threat for the fleet Alice was raised in. Due to the isolationist politics of their fleet, they subsisted mainly by trading with the few ships they could trust that wandered to the far corners of the galaxy and especially by hunting creatures from the Oneiric Chasm. Having been raised by two other Ethereologists, Alice grew up fascinated by the Ether, the Oneiric Chasm and it's mysteries. Since the first time she asked her father to take her with him to a hunting trip, she began taking every opportunity she could to go to expeditions to the Oneiric Chasm. Going even as far as learning how to shoot with her father and becoming quite the good marksman, securing her a place on the hunting party, only so she could have more chances to go to expeditions to the Oneiric Chasm, only to further satiate her curiosity and research.
Life, albeit simple, was free from the horrors of war... until the location of her fleet was discovered... Leaked by someone to the Black City Conglomerate... Whether they did it for profit, to protect their own lives or maybe on accident, it didn't matter. What did was that after so many years having forgotten about the wars, their fleet was not ready for the arrival of the forces of the Black City Conglomerate. Within a single day, their fleet was completely surrounded by the Black City Conglomerate forces. With nowhere to escape, they were forced to surrender. Immediately upon boarding, the BCC forces went through every single bit of data they had, old ones and even the new researches on the Oneiric Chasm they made on their time of isolation. Unfortunately, having their scarce possessions looked at and whatever interesting data they had stolen wasn't everything the BCC forces wanted. In times of conflict and war, having soldiers and extra hands to work was always necessary... and the BCC saw Voidhangers in particulars as being very useful...
At first, the BCC forces offered them a deal. They would offer them protection from the other powers, funding, resources and everything they currently lacked. In return, they only wanted their help in developing their own research on Ether. Despite the rather aggressive arrival, the BCC forces painted themselves as 'seekers of knowledge', unfortunate and unwilling participants on the current war. The initial offer seemed to be quite decent and so, the fleet decided to accept.
In the beginning, the BCC fulfilled their part of the agreement, but as time passed, the BCC required more and more 'help'. It started with simple research data regarding the Oneiric Chasm and the applications of Ether, but as the voidhangers' trust on the BCC grew, so did their greed and sooner than they had noticed, they were almost fully integrated into the BCC forces. Researchers and ethereologists working on the BCC research and development departments and the ones that were part of the hunters on the old fleet, used as scouts and soldiers in localized conflicts with the other great powers. But as the Black City Conglomerate's greed grew, so did the Voidhangers' dissatisfaction. Pressured to deliver more and more results with ever shorter deadlines, with their hunters being treated more and more like common BCC soldiers, a revolt was something that was bound to happen...
The breaking point was when the BCC, after overworking the voidhanger hunters by sending them to continuous scouting missions, ended up causing one of them to die of qillatu poisoning. Outraged, the voidhangers that were members of the old fleet united, staging a revolt, just like the one they did many years ago in order to break free from the inflience of one of the big powers. This time, it was the BCC.
Unfortunately, the BCC didn't prove to be as hesitant to use violence. The revolt was mercilessly crushed. Most of the voidhangers that picked up on weapons ending up either dead or enslaved, the few who were able to escape, did so by using the old escape pods from the ships in their old fleet after running from the BCC forces when their loss became evident... Even if that meant leaving their allies behind, as Alice's parents did, trying to save at least their child's life. Unfortunately, BCC enforcers were already expecting such outcome and ended up intercepting the group. The last thing Alice saw as she was pushed into the escape pod was her parents being shot by the BCC enforcers, before the escape pod finally closed.
For months, Alice survived drifting through space only by eating the old emergency rations before someone answered the emergency beacon from her escape pod. By a stroke of luck, the ones that rescued her didn't have any connection to the Black City Conglomerate. Instead, they were part of a group called the Intransigence. At first, Alice found it hard to trust them. Not only the isolated fleet she lived in had little idea of the political state of the conflicts from outside, but trusting others had already went terribly bad for them, as it was the case for the BCC. But slowly, she began warming up to the group, in part thanks to the kindness from the people who rescued her. With time, they ended up making an offer to her, motivated by her talents and her motivation to fight against the big powers that tore the galaxy apart with their greed.
Since then, after she received formal training from the Intransigence, Alice participated from a number of skirmishes and battles, both against the BCC and the other powers, hoping to be able to find and rescue members from her old fleet... If they were still alive.
Mas Bagus
LustForDecay
rabidbacon
LiverisGood
Infinite Cosmos
princess
xxjessicaxx
Crowvette
Zygfryt
