He goes by Aczyiom most of the time as the grand majority of people aware of him were typically friends (and enemies) on the frontier worlds. Due to how his appearance has changed with time and his desire to keep a low profile after leaving his posting, he avoids using his real name. There will be very few people who know that he is the near heroic special forces soldier.
Appearance
At roughly eight and a half feet with a large carapace-armoured body bristling with various retractable appendages, weapons, and even symbiotes, Varzyrin seems to be somewhere between a devil's coach horse beetle, mantis shrimp, phronima, and a wolf spider. His main body is covered with various segmented plates almost like living isopods and fairly broad with large shoulders connecting powerfully multi-segmented arms ending in six fingered claws capable of splitting into smaller digits. His head has the almost mask-like appearance of a mantis with the longer features of a ground beetle with four dome-like formations hiding his numerous eyes. A ghastly maze of mandibles comprises its lower half, some of which are a bit longer than human fingers and there is a small cluster of eyes where his forehead might be. Antennae and such emerge from the upper half of his head as well as shoulders, capable of retracting at will. His lower body is just as dense as his upper one with a pair of larger primary legs and a bit above them a number of complex smaller limbs with finer grasping and interacting appendages. His midsection also contains a few more arms like smaller versions of his primary ones, bringing him to around 24 limbs in total.
While he seems fully organic, a closer look reveals some of his carapace plating to be partialy metallic with a number of components looking almost bolted or otherwise integrated into his body. It adds a semi-metallic tinge to his forest floor coloured body - a splotchy, motley mixture of blackish dirt, faded leafy brown, a few strips of lighter green, and a sort of sickly faded rust-red. This causes him to look almost as if he is partially decomposed but his colour can be changed with some modifications.
Species
Vrexul
Gender
Male
Age
94
Personality
Stern, distrustful, and stubborn - he can come off as unpleasant but in spite of that, is not really hateful of people as much as he is of organizations, ideals, and movements. He has a sociable and compassionate side that contrasts his bitterness and cynicism towards the GFL. He is generally not the sort to open up about why he is the way he is beyond bringing up the cruelties and conflict inflicted upon him and his people by the GFL. He does however like to tell stories and it is one of the easier ways he has of momentarily reliving himself of his regrets. He prefers to lead when he can, often for combat or exploration scenarios, sometimes to show up others to alleviate his anger or to remind himself that he hasn't lost his edge. He isn't against taking orders and working as a team but a fear of repeating past mistakes can make him very vocal on attempting to influence or lead on decision making.
Reputation
On the frontier worlds, even after he had gone dark and drastically changed his appearance Vazyrin was something of a legend amongst the insurgents his military career began with and initially an unconformed rumours by the colonial alliance. To the GFL, he and his cells were monsters that needed to be slain. His reputation would grow after he was recruited to the military. While he and his unit was rarely in contact with rank and file soldiers, staying mostly concealed for security purposes, the rumours that surrounded him made him a folk hero to his allies and a boogeyman to his foes. A few GFL commanders know who he is but are not exactly sure of his current physical appearance while it is believed some of his colonist commanders have at least a general idea of where he currently is. The tragic end to his military career has not yet become very well known so for now, his reputation remains the same.
As "Acyziom Dvrawsxyir", he is known in some corners as something of a shifty and reclusive fellow though a reliable and overall honourable one. He has taken on jobs to help out various independent colonies, rebel groups, and a few local governments with a variety of problems whether it's getting rid of dangerous animals or battling cruel local rulers. As such, he has a pretty good reputation and is somewhat known in the further ends of the galaxy as a helpful figure in spite of the strange rewards he requests alongside his monetary payments (specific fauna or vegetation, niche animal products, specific metals and so on). He is known to certain bounty hunter guilds as an occasional customer, taking a few specific targets with impressive tenacity and proffessionalism. Rumours surround him concerning his background, mixinng vrexul street rumours with GFL propaganda for an unusual effect but they diminish in more urban worlds the further inwards to major Landrunian territories one goes.
History
Varzyin is a veteran guerilla turned proffessional soldier from vrexul controlled space, having experienced the brutal occupation of a mixed-species commune-colony and its subsequent absorption into a larger industrialized city. He had been a teacher at first, having been trapped on a world where its leaders had been forced to give up territory to the GFL wherein he found his job of educating post-pupal vrexul taken from him and forced to work in costly, dangerous mining and construction positions. As living conditions worsened and disenfranchisement grew among the growing working class, so did brutal repression against an increasingly agitated populace. His primary concern was at first survival until his students, the ones he had watched pupate and mature into adults, were the ones struck by shock-batons and electroshock bullets, many frying to death from the unhinged response of the authorities during a crackdown on a large workers strike.
From this point onwards, he would become a member of a now growing number of community defence groups whose street fights and brawls against corporate-backed crime organizations and hired ex-military security would quickly begin escalating into urban insurgencies that soon spread off into the unconquered and primordial wildernesses of his homeworld. He gained a reputation for adaptiveness and viscerality, appearing on a number of Most Wanted APB's but it became harder to track him the more he modified and augmented his body. It is here that he found his true calling, finding that he transferred the lessons from his own experience to those of new recruits and established soldiers, developing a reputation as a teacher as he was a fighter. The results would speak on the battlefield as the rag-tag cells he operated with struck crippling blows against an increasingly over-stretched GFL whether it was taking advantage of mass riots they'd organized and incited to assassinate key political figures or raiding the headquarters of foreign mercenaries then clearing out their stockpiles.
His successes would catch the attention of the growing armed forces of the growing colonial-vrexul alliance, soon recruiting him amidst a grand GFL push into these independent planets. With experienced soldiers in great need, he would be frequently cycled between the frontline and the rear, finding his guerilla experience and teaching background perfect for forging and leading a new wave of increasingly hardened troops unfazed by a numerically and often technologically superior enemy. It is here his exploits would become well known to both the insurgents he frequently was deployed alongside and the command chain that saw him as an increasingly valuable asset with his high rate of success. He had a trusted team he was developing that were becoming progressively more successful in eliminating high value targets whether personnel, structures, and materiel as well as crippling enemy defences and holding up larger enemy forces with clever and for a while unconventional tactics.
As the relentless advance of the enemy began to hit numerous roadblocks, the great momentum he seemed to have began to stall and he found his deployments growing increasingly difficult. Not just in terms of completing the objectives but the toll was beginning to catch up with him physically and mentally. As the GFL began to tighten its grip on territories it had taken and their civilian populace, he found himself taking riskier actions and on a number of occasions operating with his squad and more hardline mixed guerilla/military forces beyond the parameter set by command. The effects of this are controversial in terms of their effect but they were the cause of a number of short, abrupt, but shockingly violent encounters between both sides. One of these involved his team, a large civilian centre of mixed Landrunians and indepedents and a foreign-installed head of nation-state believed to have been responsible for mass tortures and executions of vrexul and any alien species aligned with them.
Naturally, the commando team took great offence to this and his particularly vicious rule. Yet in their eagerness to eliminate him and his honour guard, they were left blind to certain other factors in the area of operations. They executed a fast lightning raid upon his personal fortified mansion-palace, sowing the violent discord they were known for. Taking a detour through a secret passageway, they would enter an area of the small fortress their stolen blueprints did not indicate, discovering it later to be a training ground for younger cadets and to also hold civilian contractors. Their attempts to sneak past were offset by their hastiness and in the ensuing confusion, terrified trainees and civilians firing their plasma rifles and grenade launchers found their bodies torn apart by experienced gunfire and ripping claws as the commando unit fought to try and preserve a delicate mission quickly going to the wayside. They were only partially successful, sending much of the fortress into a panic as terrified civilians mixed with increasingly angry, agitated elite guards and a bloodbath ensued once they encountered the vrexul and his squad.
The ensuing carnage resulted in numerous casualties with the ordinary citizens mixed among hardened stormtroopers in a controversial incident that both the GFL and the colonial alliance both know little about. That is because much of the squad died, went missing in action, simply refused to give up the information, or it was kept secret. The general they were targeting is believed to have been destroyed in a large explosion from the destruction of his personal transport prior to its attempted launch but it was never found. Varzyrin was among the six of the 12 who made it out, debriefed quickly by his superiors but then vanishing from his unit and the alliance's forces. A few years later the grand counter-offensive would begin but he had long since departed the frontier and as a special forces trooper, still remains unknown to most of the galaxy at large. He has since become an "odd jobs person", taking on a variety of work for a hefty price and keeping low and out of the eye of galactic geopolitics.
Gear
Augmentative Internal Network
His body is drastically different from a normal vrexul's due to the sheer volume of augmentative parasites, cybernetic wiring, and foreign biomass installed into it. What makes it more impressive is that he has modified all of it to work as a unified system to simplify maintenance and allow for further enhancement of his impressive physical capabiltiies. Most of this is hidden from plain sight but within and beneath his armour is a small environment where machines, parasites, and artificial entities are in constant cooperation as a distinct-yet-singular whole. The AIN allows him to very easily adapt and modify new augmentations, implants, integrated weapons and so on as well as allow him control his own with an ease as if he was born with them. It also functions as a sort of computer system, powered by his own body, that allows him to analyse, organize, compile, and otherwise interact with data his senses and those of his parasite-symbiotes gather from the environemnt or their own databases.
Personal Carapace Armour
All vrexul have a tough, flexible outer shell but it is frequently customized for a number of tasks. Varzyrin's is a strange composite of various cutting edge alien alloys, selectively biomodified carapace plating, and complex under-layers of lattice-networked stabilizing sub-architecture and protective semi-living mesh. Capable of resisting the same autocannon rounds, plasma bursts, and high explosives that are used both by and against the vrexul soldiers, it has impressive durability and damage reduction systems whether in terms of energy ablative glands and the capability to lock up to avoid excessive damage when falling to allowing the integration of layered energy-based shielding and absorbing nutrient intake to accelerate repair.
Biomorph Encoder Module Network
A complex series of implanted biological components, updated with a series of genetically modified lab-grown organisms and integrated organ-machines. It allows for him to "encode" a variety of additional weapons, tools, limbs, and even organs and glands among other such things into his own body with the right biocodes. When used, it redirects specially prepared mass linked to itself to take the form he needs it to. It is a complex piece of biotechnology to use and requires usually a good deal of tinkering about with various components and his own internal biology in order to prepare a particular morph. He can usually carry only a limited amount, usually taking options such as an extra energy-based projectile weapon, specialized digging claws, and a biomechanical ECM suite. There are more exotic options available though his BEMN usually has room for a maximum of six.
Sepulchral Eye Synthetic Intelligence Unit
An advanced intelligence created through a mixture of biological and cybernetic means, comprised of a series of self-sustaining augmentative parasite units that network throughout his body. They allow Varzyrin to multitask and better control his various limbs but also any independent drone units linked to his computer systems, even capable of operating for him if he loses consciousness. It is even capable of piloting vehicles and operating them independently from him. They also help with scanning, analysing, archiving, and general utility funcitons.
Void Shrine Internal Etherbiology Colony
The vrexul have studied strange sciences once the domain of the mythic and the occult, drawing power from a shadowy dimension inhabited by monstrous entities and bizarre forces. A series of creatures and void-touched implants within Varzyrin's body generate, store, and purify this energy which typically manifests as dense cloud-like conjurations made of rotting biomatter and what appears to be self-replicating machinery, both of which have a distinctly arthropod appearance. They typically are used to form objects such as barriers and platforms and interacting typically by morphing into floating limb-configurations. Utilizing such power puts a strain on the void shrine and when overloaded, will undergo an automatic shutdown to avoid the supernatural energies breaking the threshold and irradiating him. It has a manual override but this is unsurprisingly very risky to use.
Unrelenting-Type Self-Repair System
This fusion of biology and technology allows for a vrexul to heal their own wounds over time when activated. It is connected to a series of nutrient packs and a series of specialized micro and macro organisms that utilize them to accelerate regeneration of lost biomass, capable of regrowing entire limbs as long as there is enough energy stored within. It can be restocked by simply eating or otherwise acquiring nutrients and can even be augmented with certain high energy injections.
A modification of the service rifle typically used by vrexul infantry. The original weapon, a fairly large and semi-blocky firearm derived from heavy-calibre guns mounted on security automata, has been slimmed down partially and enhanced with a series of biomass implants resembling sloping staphylinid carapace allowing it to be selectively modified through selective mutation on the fly. The wormscourger configuration is considered a carbine but is larger than most human medium to even heavy machine guns, using a bioelectro chemical firing mechanism to launch high calibre to light autocannon type rounds typically with an explosive charge. It has a slower firing rate than most rifles and hefty kickback but is known for its impressive range, armour piercing, and accuracy.
The Wormscourger variant is used by their special forces and is a little smaller with an increased though still not particularly high rate of fire. It features an adaptive feed allowing it to use foreign rounds and an even more advanced morphomutagenic frame that allows the weapon to be reconfigured from a rifle to other forms. They can include a designated marksman rifle, a carbine/PDW, a shotgun, and even a launcher. Varzyrin is also modifying it to fire beams but it is taking a while to complete.
Hellmouth Infantry Plasma Cannon
A high power infantry weapon based on the defensive weapons used by human allies to the vrexul. This weapon has a more curved, cynlindrical shape than most but it carries a number of carapace-like plates and almost rib or insect segment like design elements giving it a distinctly arthropod appearance. It cannot be modified to the same extent as the condemnation but it has a number of built in and additional fire modes. Typically it accelerates and launches large green-white spherical plasma blasts with a slower semi-automatic rate of fire, capable of devouring their way through heavy armour and is intended for short to medium range due to energy being leached by the environment. Said shots can be charged up to the extent they make an explosion on contact and are capable of burning enemies even when passing by. Any firing will cause it to build up heat and once it hits its limit, it will automatically activate its cooling mode and lock itself from firing further until it drops to a safe levle.
It does possess other firing modes however. The most common is a flamethrower-like mode that widens the barrel and belches forth like dragon's breath, limiting its range further in exchange for devastating energy bursts that can incinerate a whole squadron in seconds. A lower-output hyperspray mode is available, utilizing a minigun like collection of barrels to spit out an inaccurate but harrowing degree of rapid moving bolts. For concentrated piercing power, a sustained beam configuraiton is possible wherein the plasma energy is fired as a single column of light. This mode generates the highest heat but at medium to slightly longer ranges can burn right through certain vehicle armour. Varzyrin is attempting to find the parts to modify it to be converted into a particle weapon as well.
Desecrator Fragmentation Cannon
Functionally a shotgun, this weapon's main body is essence a large cylindrical tube placed within a body that looks like a large spinal millipede, connected to two rails partially resembling beetle elytra by a series of interconnecting limbs and a fairly large handle and grip. Also known as a "flak cannon", this fires by detonating spherical explosives within a blast chamber and channeling both the blast and the numerous white-hot fragments outwards. It is useful from short to medium ranges with considerably higher armour piercing than shotguns ytpically get. It can also launch these explosives as well where they function identically to fragmentation grenades. They typically use a specialized normally inert pillbug like organism's egg-clusters as its shells but can fire synthetic rounds as well. It is possible to convert it to a makeshift grenade launcher though it is not as effective as dedicated versions.
Vitriol Integrated Personal Defence Weapons
Bodily mounted weapons integrated into a vrexul's carapace with his on his side. They are scaled down versions of a powerful squad automatic weapon common with vrexul soldiers, between a submachine gun and a carbine in terms of size. He has four of these limb-weapons, resembling somewhere between a centipede and a mantis in shape with notable bendable joints along their body allowing for a variety of firing angles. They use a bioelectric firing method to rapidly launch numerous spines grown in special birthing chambers that at closer ranges can shred through lighter armoured targets and weaken the defences of tougher ones. He has modified his own to be able to electrify the rounds as well as to combine them into larger mini-cannons capable of firing larger spines effective up to short-medium ranges, allowing him to stun his targets and overload automatons and shielding more easily at closer ranges. He has a pair of barrel attachments he can use when he combines them to become a pair of small cannons wherein they are converted to a lighter version of the machine gun they were based on, increasing their range and stopping power. For those purposes he tends to carry the upscaled machine gun spines with him.
Intransigence Integrated Light Launcher Cannons
A duo of small turret-like biomechanical cannons that typically emerge vrom Vazyrin's shoulders, capable of launching explosives long distances with higher accuracy than throwing, modified shotguns, or underslung attachments. Typically they use biological high fragmentation rounds, made in a simliar manner to the vitriol's but with greater blast power to launch a larger amount of fragments outwards. They can easily take in a variety of other explosives such as conventional HE, incendiary, smoke, EMP, and so on. He is currently attmepting to find the components allowing them to launch guided and missile/rocket type munitions.
Terrormaw Sickle-Blades
Large hand-held weapons resembling lengthy insectoid bodies curved almost like the hook of a question mark and ending with semi-biological carapace-blades infused with specialized metallic alloys. He has four of these blades that when combined with his long arms and immense strength, can easily tear through a fully armoured trooper and any of their squadmates. The curving blades can also straighten out or curl further, allowing them to "grip" enemy weapons or turn into straighter swords. They have a void-reactive series of veins running through them that allows them to channel the power from the void shrine to infuse themselves with unearthly, wrathful power that greatly increase their lethality.
Ravener-Class Patrol Craft
A lengthy gunship resembling something like a long black-clad triop with pointed sensor and gun protrusions emerging from what would be an eerily smooth body. This alien vessel has an eerily flexible tail and multiple legs it can use to crawl across the ground as well when not using its anti-gravitational thrusters. It is armed with a series of bio-particle cannons and can create sub-organisms that can be launched as homing missiles. For defence it has the ability to interfere with and conceal itself from scanners as well as specialized bio-electric signal projectors and chaff-launchers, creating electromagnetic disturbances and interfering with targeting or lock on systems. This is Vazyrin's primary way of getting around but it also serves as a mobile base for him, containing ammo-replicators, a medical station, a powerful computer system, a nutrient-paste culturing device, and a number of storage sections.
Usually the gulf that sat between the Foundry and the Imperivm was a quiet place in an intergalactic sense. The loose clusters of worlds belonging to some vague, warring set of worlds could not be counted upon to become much with how long that civil war had been going on. Had it ended in someone’s favour perhaps? Human presence in the form of space stations and starcraft still patrolled its exospace but something had changed. The Ascendancy that had ruled them for long was defined by bright gold, whites, and deep blues but these rigid, boxy craft had gone for something fierier as of late. Striking streaks of red, night black, and even moments of motley green defined them now, greater in number since the war seemed to drone into a footnote of irrelevance on the grand scale – the internal politics of lesser kingdoms, like the ambient buzzing of swarming flies amidst a brutal and uncaring universe. It was something that should be beyond the interests of the Dominion and competing would-be empires making their grand power games – nobodies were a dime a trillion.
Yet even independent vessels passing amongst this grand cluster of worlds noted that perhaps such dismissal was not entirely well founded. The bush fires of flame thinned and retreated to increasingly isolated portions. The strange floating monoliths of flesh, metal, vegetation, and shimmering ethereal matter fired their beams at one another less and less and moreso on those bearing the colours of the old regime. The violence had not vanished but it was diminishing, forced into smaller spaces as the multicoloured vessels of eldritch, alien construction joined with those of humanity’s architectural rigidity. Away from the prying eyes of warlords, tyrants, aristocrats, and alien consciousnesses something stirred amongst once besieged soils. A new unity born from a common heritage of suffering and defiance; hands of chitin, bone, mycelia, and cartilage, all clasped around the same goal and throttling the same throat of a hated, now vanquished enemy. The Ascendancy was no more but the distant echoes of the last hidden holdouts and their misguided remnants battling amongst the civil wars they had engineered up in their cruel wake.
Beyond their boundaries and into the warp gates, the strange ships that seemed as much arthropod or fungoid as they did machine voyaged forth – the largest movement of vessels beyond their boundaries since the days of the now deposed human empire that ruled them. Movement was fast with the wormholes, the fleets of mismatched fleets joined by strange shapes far more than merely bestial – they moved with the fluid, predatory animation of the great star-faring devourers of the myth. These creatures dwarfed many of their smaller ships, some of which even outclassed their capital vessels in size, layered not only in their natural scales, shells, and exoskeletons but bristling weaponry and armour integrated into their bioluminescent forms – spiny, plated, jagged, sweeping hungrily for targets. They moved in formation with the rest of the vessels as a group of coordinated predators in a silent drift.
Some of them would spread outwards towards the three wormhole points between the NIRC and the Imperivm. Their quarry was elusive, rightfully so. The Ascendancy after all, had been removed but not obliterated and ever since their departure from what was now the territory of the Nexus of Integrated Revolutionary Councils, they had sworn a revenge and bristled with an incessant vitriol. It was more than angry sputtering of fallen lords and kings; the still murky boundaries of the Nexus were easy for the old regime’s most fanatic to drift through and within, find those who still praised the gilded hand of iron and the uplifting divinity of their reign. If not that, then joining the civil wars to further the last raging embers of internecine civil war would do. Some of the Nexus’ war-forged legions desired revenge, others simply a ceasing of hostilities, but it was clear that the problem would not solve itself. Power was always waiting to flow from the barrel of a gun – a ship mounted plasma cannon and an electrobiological auto-rifle fulfilled the same function.
Another group, slightly larger in size but not quite a full-on invasion fleet, had neared Karbana Kinis, circling around its northwestern hemisphere as they fanned out over the labyrinthine world. The floating, drifting fragments of mechanized planet looked almost like reeds or stones, hiding whatever secrets it could from the eldritch hungers and curiosities behind the fleet. It would be a mistake to claim they were strangers to this planet. Traces of their own could be found here whether in the distant past or the antediluvian one. Settlers and explorers from times before both the Nexus and the Ascendancy, vanished somewhere into the chasmic depths and the scattered surface plating.
The enormous bioweapons did not appear to have the hesitation of the sapients who commanded them. They slowly drifted in descent as gravity tugged them close enough to be halfway towards the outermost layers of the atmosphere. Shadowy entities of serpentine and decapod shape scoured the realm with skulls tapered and triangular, hyper-evolved senses adapted to stalking through cyberspace and the blackness between the stars augmented by powerful syncretic technologies fusing human, tarrhaidim, gealtirocht, and vrexul and attaching it to the sensory organs of these creatures. Antennae large enough to slice smaller ships in two, energy-reactive glands pulsing with an ominous sickly light, taste-buds wired to olfactory-analytic networks, even additional eyes maintained by nanobot and symbiote colonies, piercing metal with their gaze as information was slowly drip fed back to their handlers. This was an occupied world after all; they did not wish to become the same as the conquerors and tyrants they had overthrown. It would be treated well for its secrets.
Also known as: Jednota Propojených Shromáždění Lidí [ENG: The Unity of the Interconnected People's Assemblies]
Overview:
The NIRC is a loosely connected alliance of multiple sapient species that had formed over the course of multiple revolutionary wars in various outermost worlds, fully manifesting in the waning years of a once powerful human dominated Ascendency that was on its way to becoming a regional power. It has four dominant sapient species - ex-colonial humans, the fungoid tarrhaidim, arthropod vrexul, and anguillid gealtirocht. All four to some extent lived under the tyrannical rule of a human-run empire after having been subjugated in some way by them and allied proxy states. Both exploited the vast natural resources and labour potential of what were once free worlds, quelling multiple revolts and uprisings but not the insurrectionist and anti-hierarchic spirit that spawned them. Many of them would escape to “dead” worlds as well as the depths of Karbana Kinnis and others would continue their anti-imperialist actions in secret on occupied worlds, gradually building an interplanetary movement of increasingly difficult to govern civil disobedience and growing numbers of independent yet unified worlds all opposed to the expanding Imperial power.
The Ascendency did not take this lightly but by the time the first bullets had been fired in open warfare, the nascent NIRC was too powerful for the unwieldy, cumbersome empire to properly combat. The revolutionary force conquered and reclaimed all their frontier worlds, bringing to an end a once invincible regime’s grip on these lush domains. However, the revolutionary war was not without a massive cost, leaving the NIRC to inhabit a shattered series of worlds many of which had been divided through socially engineered colonial rule, rampant built-in corruption, careless environmental degradation, and internecine conflicts of faith, ethnicity, territory and politics. At the same time, it had developed a revolutionary spirit of unity that transcended nearly all boundaries - many of the armies that fought under its name were not necessarily in agreement with one another but the dream of forging a true future spoke louder than differences of doctrine. To add to this, new technologies developed by both exiled leaders and the first few NIRC worlds combined with the infrastructure inherited from the fallen Ascendency have allowed them to repair shattered worlds via terraforming and accelerate the transition process towards the Nexus’ style of governance.
Currently, the NIRC is in a period of immense growth as its plan for full stabilization are now finally underway after a bit over a decade of preparation and pre-action. Massive terraforming operations, the ending of remaining internal conflicts, the elimination or capture of hidden Ascendency loyalists and counter-revolutionary forces, the improvement of standards of living, the nationalization of industries - it is one of the largest and most ambitious attempts at modernization. It is roughly at 58% of its projected completion, slowing down slightly as the Nexus begins programs to extend its soft power beyond its own boundaries and its growing military begins plans to settle into various areas of Karbana Kinnis as part of an pan-planetary attempt to uncover the mysteries of the three major alien races that comprise this increasingly powerful alliance.
Structure:
How the NIRC runs varies wildly to which specific subset of it is at the helm with regards to the worlds under its control. The vrexul, arguably the face of the NIRC, have the most convoluted system. The absolute power sits not with one of their own but a gigantic moon-sized bioconstruct known as the Rozkleřešení (english: Gnosis Eater) made of a mixture of constantly mutating, decomposing, and thus rejuvenating biomatter and complex self-sustaining and replicating cybernetics that serves not only as a giant supercomputer but the highest political authority. Its power is filtered through the advanced AI’s of six enormous bio-habitat ships the vrexul first came to these worlds with years ago, then to a 36 person council made up of six-person mind-linked sub-councils then down through that to the independent-yet-united assemblies of varying shapes and sizes that exist underneath them. This process can also be reversed and frequently focuses on decisions made on the ground up simply given a smaller degree of input from those higher on the command - their power ultimately rests on these assemblies and by themselves, have limited capabilities in terms of practical power compared to those they are governing.
The gealtirocht on the other hand are essentially tribesfolk or clanspeople, following a more anarchic sort of organization that technically does not have a single leader. They do however converge as a whole with the decision-making heads of the larger clans (whose power is only really “allowed” in these moments) bringing decisions towards their subjects when as a whole they decide on actions that will affect the NIRC and other worlds as a whole. This low-tech approach seems to clash with them having the most advanced technology on average but they follow the general idea that states should be kept fairly minimal but the unity of people should speak louder than laws and leaders. It has been updated with a considerably lesser emphasis on lineage and descent, with them moving away from a tighter bloodline focused idea of kin and tribe/clean to one based on action and choice.
For the longest time, the majority of the tarrhaidim lived under a theocracy but while they are not that much less religious than they were previously they did a particularly strange method of decision making. Unlike the other two aliens here, they have kept a supreme leader sitting somewhere between the vice-chairman and a high priest though their religious powers for determining doctrine have been mostly removed at this point. They are beholden not to other political parties but rather interest groups that represent elements of their society such as the military, the workers, the arts, religion, health, and so on - a “one party” state with multiple sub-groups not so much in conflict with one another as much as entirely focused on specific subsets of their society.
Said system followed by the tarrhaidim is similar to that of the humans albeit with religious aspects being absent. It is the closest to traditional democracy but retains the “power from below” system of organization wherein much of the decision making sits in the hands of assemblies made of the proletarian working classes. As humans were the main species of the empire of old, they generally have taken the longest to adapt to the new rule and most of the complete economic and political changes the Nexus is undergoing as a whole are still in the midst of transition states amongst them.
All of these states generally work more akin to a pact, making larger decisions with the combined heads of each one and outlining larger directives to be undertaken as part of their own distinct galactic agendas. Due to them having lost the least in the liberation wars (which is being incredibly relative here), the Vrexul have the most dominant position in the Nexus especially with regards to the military. At the same time, this massive advantage they have has meant that they have had to assist the rest of the powers especially in terms of security and re-creating infrastructure. Their leadership is slowly diminishing their overall presence leaving more room for humanity, the gealtirocht and tarrhaidi to have a larger say along with allowing them to shoulder a larger degree of the responsibilities with regards to the maintenance of the Nexus and its protection.
Beliefs:
As a whole, the Nexus are believers in a populist style of government with power meant to rest amongst the classless masses and any structured institutions used solely for the purpose of maintaining a political ecology of mutual cooperation, aid, and prosperity. Except in certain human and tarrhaidim areas, politicians are not even in paid positions - only the truly dedicated step up to the challenge. Workplaces are no different, either already having or morphing towards collective ownership or strictly regulated by governing bodies, frequently automated with the advent of advanced vrexul bioautomata. Leading from this, they can sometimes be outright anti-work in the sense they do not like the idea of spending your time working for a mere fraction of the profit created for those that will always be more powerful economically and politically than oneself. Others see work as meaningful when divorced from the process of mere material accumulation when governing mechanisms are used to provide for basic needs, allowing work to be transformed into a process of expression subordinate to one’s deepest held aspirations and desires.
Subsequently, every Nexus faction has an enormous arts community ranging across all major mediums. Musical, culinary, martial, visual, and some even in more arcane or eldritch categories of art among others are not only the pride of many of their nations but also something they believe to be an inherent good and subsequently something they export fairly heavily to worlds outside of their control. Some would say this is a form of soft power and they aren’t wrong - one way to influence others is to simply make them enjoy the things that you do after all. Yet a large part of this is simply due to the importance they put on enjoyment and self-realization which exists independent of their geopolitical goals. The vrexul are particularly well known for their music, best described as “ritualistic blackened doomy semi-industrial microtonal-contrapuntal death metal chamber orchestra”. The gealtirocht have a popular sport that is half soccer and half quarter-staff or baton based martial arts but in low to no gravity environments. Tarrhaidim have some surprisingly meaty tasting vegetarian dishes partially made of dirt-like substances and snake-like tendril-plants feeding on large juicy garlic-like mushroom growths they prepare in their own bodies. The humans have created next generation gaming taking place in simulated worlds crafted out of hardened light-like energy. The possibilities grow by the year.
Another core belief is a highly pronounced sense of revolutionary spirit, compassion, and galactic independence. The Nexus were born from tossing off the shackles of empire and subsequently have very little love for anything resembling it or fulfilling the same function. This can sometimes result in skepticism towards the NIRC itself but it extends far beyond that to most forms of corporate or purely growth-centered enterprise, ultra-rigid hierarchy or class division, certain forms of nationalism or constructed popular identity, and so on. As a whole however, it does make them either very difficult to approach or very easy. Some humans and a smaller number of tarrhaidim as less skeptical towards liberal democracy but most nationalistic, totalitarian ones are simply avoided or scorned outright by any of them. On the other end, independent colony worlds and certain smaller interplanetary associations are generally given a wider berth and considerably more respect off of the bat. It isn’t uncommon for them to frequently support revolutionary or popular uprisings in a number of cases - sometimes going forth as to providing volunteers, material support, and heavy doses of radicalization to those involved.
Members of the NIRC generally are known for having a very specific way of looking at things that informs the overwhelming majority of their politics. It is a materialist form of analysis based on viewing history, living conditions, the cultural and ideological zeitgeist, and political system of rule but just as importantly the relations between the classes and the methods by which societies provide for themselves as a single interrelated system of relations. Known as mechanialchemical materialism, it views the interaction of subjects within typically stratified societies as a series of inherent conflicts established for the purposes of control and suppression of power. The term came from occultist groups of all places when applying their understanding of esoteric beliefs unto contemporary political analyses when meeting with hardened veteran insurgents.
A number of religions exist within NIRC space. The gealtirocht have been polytheist pagans from the beginning, worshipping a celestial order of gigantic void-dwelling eel-like organisms they claim are their true predecessors and their “national spirit” being a reflection of their will and nature. This pantheon is known as the Síocornaíocht or in English, “The Coils of Eternity”. The tarrhaidim are “monotheistic” in the sense their belief follows that of a singular entity - an enormous fungal spore-moon nown as Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”. Both species are capable of having visions of their respective super-organism-deitites and there are fields of study that seek to attempt to find them. The tarrhaidim instinctively “know” which direct Almh’albadi is in while the Síocornaíocht appears to inform the gealtirocht capable of some sort of energy manipulation others call magic. It is known that there are bizarre super-organisms where these species can be found which to some explains their beliefs but folk tales, legends from starfaring crews, and strange potentially supernatural phenomenon fuel the curiosity and wonder of others.
By contrast, the vrexul’s own super-organism was one they or rather their predecessors created themselves and is often clearly visible with the right observation equipment. The Rozkleřešení (or Gnosis Eater) isn’t actually worshipped as a divine figure but seen as a sort of representative of larger systems of cause and effect, a living embodiment of knowledge and un-knowledge, being and unbeing, and a gateway to truths of existence beyond what one’s body is capable of comprehending by default. Their “faith” if it can really be called such is not so much based around worship but awareness of the greater underlying currents that warp and change reality with all living things in the corporeal realms as little more than subjects of eldritch forces that manifest for reasons they can never understand the totality of - at least not with minds constrained by their current neurobiology. Some sects of this occultist belief think that the Rozkleřešení is a living gateway that allows one to peer into it and observe something called names such as “The Prisoner of the Void” for those who believe the Rozkleřešení is merely containing it and others the “The Hungering in the Chasm”. What it specifically is isn’t known - it may simply be some kind of psycho-engrammatic signal sent out by the living supercomputer that causes strange hallucinations. Yet there are patterns notable throughout some of said strange psychic sightings - some see countless stars tumbling through a yawning, psychedelic void as they are sliced apart by the infinite jaws and claws of some massive segmented organisms and others a gigantic juggernaut of infinite sickle-ended legs dragging its ripping ends through the countless hungry eyes and tongues of a realm made of slathering, lustful flesh. Nobody is sure if any of this is true but it is known that large starborne arthropod organisms can be seen near the star systems some worlds believed to have belonged to ancient Vrexul.
Technology:
Nexus technology varies notably between its human, vrexul, tarrhaidim, and gealtirocht members but as time passes, they are beginning to all converge on a number of key concepts.
They are best known for their vrexul technology which is heavily associated with biotechnology and augmentative capabilities as well as using both to create bioautomata; machinery comprised of replicated or lab grown biomass though they frequently feature heavy cybernetics. When it’s reasonable to do so, they typically use said bioautomata to free themselves up to do more desired tasks though they do not often replace the military. This results in an increasingly automated workforce but they are typically maintained and watched over by highly trained maintenance teams, some of which include sentient bioautomata themselves. The ability to modify genetics and biology has also allowed them to enhance their bodies to the extent they are often completely different organisms thant they would be naturally. Sets of feelers capable of detecting distant forms of radiation, additional limbs that can morph or split into different tools, parasite organisms that feed on and augment their own bodies simultaneously, even ranged weaponry - the possibilities are endless. They are known to do the same to certain arthropod animals in order for them to fulfill the roles of certain vehicles or bioautomata too. Their most advanced technology is now as “biovolatility”, allowing for the storage of multiple “encoded” body-morphs whether they are new tools, limbs, weapons, organs, and so on and for the most part, is typically relegated to military usage. Research departments are currently finding ways to combine this with ethereal/”magical” capabilities in top secret experiments conducted for the purpose of preparing for current and upcoming conflicts.
The gealtirocht are masters of energy manipulation, anti-gravity, and high tech computers - something which causes much surprise given their tribal lifestyle. Nearly all of their ground vehicles hover rather than roll across the ground, to the extent some are capable of a degree of flight. They have even adapted anti-gravity for personal usage, being popular among hunters who wish to silently stalk their prey in mountainous terrain or even recreational climbers who use it to get to difficult to reach places. Their energy manipulation is best known for their ability to power direct energy “laser” type guns and other such weapons. At the same time, it finds use in communications, construction, mining, surgery, and even agriculture. They can communicate data far more efficiently and with less interruptions, cut through tough rocks without damaging the ores inside or causing stability in mountainsides, weld or cut metal far more efficiently, seamlessly seal and cauterize wounds with marginal pain, and even repair damaged crops or control pest species without too much harm to the environment with specialized tiny “hunter drones”. Their computers on the other hand use a mix of crystalline tech to transfer raw energy and modular morph-capable components allowing them to fulfill a very wide array of tasks as well as being able to be modified quite quickly. Their compact computers often have capabilities normally reserved for far larger, chunkier machines though they can be somewhat difficult to maintain as they begin looking into ways of simplifying their usage. It is believed they have some computers capable of utilizing the ethereal, “magical” currents of their kind but how exactly is up in the air so far.
The tarrhaidim are often seen as primitive but they are no less creative than their alien counterparts. These fungoid organisms are capable of soundlessly communicating through specialized chemical and electrical signals, even networks of nerve-like mycelia sending hidden messages back and forth without the need to be physically connected. This allows them to link multiple persons together in highly receptive communication networks albeit typically within a limited range and they haven’t perfected replicating the system outside of their own kind yet. It does however form the foundation of their own sort of biotech, allowing them to selectively control and manipulate various plant or fungi species that can be modified in ways that mirror how the vrexul do the same for organisms. Many of these organisms can be used to create large structures for a variety of purposes, allowing them to rapidly create ecologically integrated settlements that are essentially mega-colonies of fungi and plant life interacting with one another. Their most arcane technology however is the capability to control multiple bodies by becoming singular gestalt consciousnesses. This also requires the mycelia networks but a far, far more advanced version and specialized training, typically using replica bodies but they can also be used to control certain vehicles, automata, computers, or even other animals or vegetation. The strain can be immense to an untrained consciousness and is considered perhaps the most cutting edge technology within the entire Nexus.
Humanity benefits from much of the same technology as these three, typically using assorted general far future fare as befitting of colonies in this time albeit augmented with upgrades from the prior four even if they are technically the least advanced member of the Nexus. Most humans in the Nexus are from colonial backgrounds and have developed specialized meteorological and agricultural technology that has helped lead to a boon in food production when combined with contributions from the other three. Much of their robotics and FTL tech have also been used as foundations for further progress in these fields while their defensive fleets and space stations have lead to a fairly wide array of system defence, scientific research, and habitable space stations. The modular nature of many of their designs has also been highly influential even for all manner of vehicles, structures, weapons, starships, and military hardware. It is from their designs as well that their hypermagnetic tech was created, leading most famously to railgun tech but also high speed delivery and transport systems that have vastly improved infrastructure in the worlds hit the hardest by the aftermath of the Ascendency.
Military:
General Organization:
The NIRC’s style of governance might be more informal than most but as a military it has generations worth of experience fighting two pronged conflicts as both an insurgent force and a people’s army. As such, its ranks draw from a combination of sources official and unofficial such as professionally trained and supplied planetary armies, reformed space pirates turned non-governmental militant brigades, guerilla groups forged from various Ascendency occupations, and once-deniable shadow battalions often made up of political defectors and hardliners from established nations. During times of larger scale conflict, the command chains of all four of its forces unite and integrate into a specifically configured command structure with its highest command levels assisted through specialized gestalt consciousness technology on a closed psycho-sealed network to ensure information security and rapid, precise planning. As the Nexus is not yet fully united, some of the forces that fight under it are allied with rather than technically a part of its government even if they ultimately share the same beliefs and goals. The fiercely independent nature of some of these armed forces means that they are allowed a wider array of freedom than those under its direct command but may not always receive official support for actions undertaken without prior consultation.
Section 1 - Space Forces:
Its space fleet, while large given that it is comprised of four factions, is in the midst of an enormous change from primarily focused on internal system defence and planet to planet conflict to long distance expeditions and larger scale conflict. As such, it is currently split between older models being retrofitted or otherwise modified for new exospace doctrine and newer models tailor made for their new objectives. Quite a few of their ships are in the midst of construction or testing for a new era of interstellar geopolitics. One should not mistake them for being incapable however as their defensive fleet and numerous defensive platforms make their home worlds quite heavily guarded. Their current expeditionary fleet on the other hand, while not particularly large, has a number of ships with very notable and oftentimes unusual capabilities that make them far more difficult to fight than one would typically assume. A number of unusual vessels can be found in their fleets from gigantic half biological half cybernetic constructs in the shape of enormous primordial insects, small moon-like spore-colonies of innumerable teeming life forms, mythically large eel and mantis shrimp like creatures capable of tunnelling through hyperspace, and swarms of six-winged creatures each the size of school buses that quickly reveal themselves to be deadly unmanned fighters. Their fleets vary wildly from faction to faction.
The vrexul tend to have the largest and most heavily armoured ships, preferring enormous lumbering monstrosities with protruding scything limbs, multiple layers of shifting carapace plating, and smaller bio-construct creatures hidden within their bodies waiting to lunge on any vessel that foolishly nears, their enormous bodies heavily armoured, often protected by select shielding at certain components rather than the whole vessel, and capable of specialized on-board repair by various organisms. They are mostly specialized on high-output energy weaponry and a good deal of specialized semi-biological missiles generally suited for closer ranges due to the respective energy bleed-off and slower projectile travel time. Many of these weapons do not have immense killing power but they have a frightening number of secondary effects - causing power shortages and holes to momentarily appear in enemy shields, dropping clusters of large vehicular-sized organisms onto a ship’s surface where they rip through armour, equipment, and guns, or splitting into smaller cyborg war-head bioforms that tunnel through armour with metal-tinted mandibles to explode at vital components. This is further augmented by their non-ship fleet elements, the most notable of which are living combat intelligences implanted into a insectoid fighter-constructs and whose consciousnesses are “mirrored” into on-ship repositories for further augmentation and preservation. As they feature no real “pilots”, they are capable of absurd and freakishly predatory motions through the air, armed with hundreds of often semi-energy based homing missiles and vicious long range energy bolt repeaters.
By comparison, the enormous void tyrant bioweapons at their disposal can be as large as their capital ships - gigantic creatures from the blackness between the stars bristling with innumerable macro-augmentations and high intensity direct energy cannons and hyper-accelerating bio-mass launchers partially powered by the eldritch energies contained within their bodies. Capable of abruptly shifting motion or moving in rapid bursts, they are not afraid to close in on enemy vessels if the opportunity presents itself as their colossal claws and bladed or crushing limbs are adapted to crushing similarly gigantic prey. They also possess unusual vessels made of what seems to be half-complete ship frames and gigantic chunks of the Rozkleřešení, resulting in vessels shaped as they are like their own but covered in festering, decomposing, constantly frothing semi-biological matter. These grotesque monstrosities however sow confusion and terror in conflicts, generating enormous electrical and energetic interference onto enemies, vomiting swarms of volatile living mines blinking in and out of hyperspace, and sending globules of infesting mass that can eat through and heavily weaken even the most heavy armour.
The fungoid tarrhaidim use a similar amount of biomatter in their ship construction, crafting strange fusions of reinforced fungoid-vegetation and specifically reinforced metals capable of networking with the organic components. They are not quite as durable as their arthropod counterparts but are the second toughest ships on average. More importantly, they are capable of regenerating far faster and more efficiently than the vrexul’s with some of the most advanced life support systems known across the stars, making them very hard to disable. Adding to this are their defensive field emitters, using energized void-hardened seed-like nodes that create bio-energetic fields capable of rapidly leeching energy from projectiles such as beams or plasma globules. They often have bulbous or abstract shapes and while not especially fast, can keep far more momentum and speed when moving in almost any direction. Their weapon output in terms of kinetic force, blast power, or energy is not particularly high on average compared to their allies. Instead they can all put out an impressive volume of fire with particularly advanced counter-projectile intercepting and anti-aircraft capability. Many of their weapons focus on either causing debilitating damage over time with corrosive bio-plasma and raging energy fires but others are known to work by causing a deadly build-up of certain chemo-energetic compounds on or around a target then violently detonating them with certain specialist weapons, allowing them to do either consistent or very spike-heavy damage. They have a fairly solid range too, able to often out-shoot their vrexul counterparts at longer distances, assisted by the ability to control a number of gun-platforms that hover around the ships, capable of amplifying their shields to block a degree of weapons fire while further increasing the absurd volume of fire they can put out.
Tarrhaidim fighters are also rarely manned as much as they are controlled by similar implanted consciousnesses, resembling spike-like seed pods with circular arrays of razor toothed leaf-wings. They too however tend to bristle with higher volumes of fire than their arthropod counterparts and impressive regeneration. Where the carapaced ones may have lightning fast intercepting down to a T, these fungoids have far more advanced bombing craft capable of firing massive swarms of pinpoint cluster and piercing munitions along with cannons capable of scourging open gun positions and bulkheads once in range. They are frequently launched from what appear to be large spherical entities known as Spore Moons. These are often around the size of their ships but “tethered” to them through special psychoneurological-mycelial bonds. In essence floating gun platforms, they can disengage and “slingshot” around the battlefield, sending out waves of large worm-like parasites from their own biomass that hunt down enemy fighter or bombers before latching onto ships and ripping through vital electronics, potentially even boarding and desecrating the insides of the vessel. This is on top of the borderline nonsensical amount of guns they are unsurprisingly carrying, further drowning the enemy in sheer gunfire. The most mystifying of their space forces are the enormous saucer like Grave Crowns, frequently referred to as “motherships”. The largest of their vessels on average, they feature multi-directional weapon placement emphasizing launching swarms of living, predatory projectiles and streams of armour-shattering shells. Their true power is their ability to augment allied ships by networking with their biological and cybernetic components, improving regeneration, shield stability, accuracy, and assisting in coordinating fire. They can also cause spatial disruptions with experimental energy weapons, causing enemy ships to move slower in targeted areas or when fired upon with certain projectiles in energy fields, take additional damage from secondary explosions caused by chain reactions.
Unlike the prior two, the gealtirocht typically use ships fully made of metal. Lengthy, sleek, and usually bereft of jagged edges, these almost serpentine or piscine-designs have a sleek and graceful design that belies their impressive power. These ships are easily the fastest of the NIRC’s fleets, capable of momentarily overcharging their engines to even making short range jumps mid-combat to compensate for their relatively weaker hulls. Further adding to their protection is their specialized shielding, capable of drawing upon large batteries and even amplifying the effects of their weaponry when fired through shielded sections. Some ships are capable of even increasing the effectiveness of their shield by rapidly moving, even capable of using blurred after-imaging and visual disruption to make themselves far harder to target. They focus on a mixture of beam weapons and hyper-accelerated solid rounds, possessing the longest range and highest armour-piercing capability on average of the NIRC fleet, assisted by the most accurate targeting as well. Their weapons may often lack the secondary effects of their gnarlier comrades but they can essentially “snipe” other fleets, using pinpoint weaponry to weaken shielding in specific areas or viciously destroy vulnerable components. They aren’t afraid to get up closer when the time is right, unleashing specialized high output and impact weaponry in vicious, short strafing runs that can leave enemies stunned and crippled, unable to retaliate against the abruptly vanished gealtirocht fleet. They are also fond of two insidious tricks. The first is temporary invisibility often through a combination of fuel obscuration and masking emissions. The second is leaving clusters of specialized mines also capable of obscuring themselves similarly, “skipping” in and out of hyper-space to ambush those who would be foolish enough to chase them or attempt to flank their formations.
Their fighters are unsurprisingly sleek and elegant, almost fang-shaped with their curving blade-wings and predatory, elongated appearances. While they cannot turn *quite* as well as those of the prior two, their top speeds and acceleration are much higher and like their larger ships, pack much longer range weapons. They are arguably harder in some ways to track down and take out due to their jamming capabilities which only amplify as they move faster, making it difficult to spot their unique missiles - accelerating using specialized gas propellants to leave barely a signature before a secondary booster charge sends them rapidly barrelling towards unsuspecting targets like cold steel bolts. Colossal eel-like creatures known as the Serealgatai (“Hungerer of the Stars”) join their fleets as if following the promise of bloodshed, armed with a variety of specialized weapons that like with the vrexul, can feed off of their eldritch energies and augmented by armour plating covering their most vital organs. Similarly sized albeit longer than their arthropod counterparts, these enormous creatures can also momentarily warp in short hyperspace jumps but when they emerge, they can use the amassing energy to boost their own naturally generated abyssic shielding and speed, augment their own integrated weapons, or unleash it in massive bursts of power. They are not as durable as the vrexul void tyrants but they are far more maneuverable, notably faster, and harder to target with longer range weapons. The most mysterious of their space fleet are the Decimation Shrines, enormous vessels made of a mixture of semi-regenerated bones of enormous void-dwelling predators mixed with experimental composite metals capable of causing them to replicate to still-beating nerves and cells the sensation of being a part of a living beast again. These large ships can blur the spaces around themselves with their shielding, slipping in and out of realspace like a stalking predator, and unleash powerful beams of energy capable of goring open capital ships. They are best known for their ability to use their short FTL jumps offensively, creating shockwaves of ravenous power as they exit directed towards threats before blinking away and leaving homing mines in their wake.
While much of humanity’s ship have a background in the designs of the long since defeated Ascendency, they have gone far past their limitations to become an equally important part of the NIRC expospace fleet. Humanity’s ships tend to be somewhat blocky and rigid looking, closer to the great warships of water-borne navies past visually. While they lack the more exotic features of their alien counterparts, the human NIRC fleet packs impressive long range firepower with their love of rail-weapons, missiles, and an incredibly wide range of munition types, capable of modifying their effects on the fly whether it’s plasma wearhead, concentrated armour piercing, electro-magnetic, and even creating a burning area of energy that allows other projectiles to target or lock onto it more easily. They also have powerful plasma cannons, typically used at medium to short ranges, capable of overloading shields and even causing violent chain reactions as they overheat enemy armour. Their ships are fairly sturdy and durable, protected by advanced shields that can momentarily power-up to allow them to tank more damage momentarily and absorb a small portion of it to grant short boosts to their speed and weapon output. Their actual armour also tends to have advanced ablative plating with a higher than normal degree of resistance to energy based weaponry. They tend to also have large amounts of compact combat drones as well, capable of intercepting those of the enemy and adding to the numbers and aggression of their dedicated fighters and bombers.
Human fighters are fairly sleek and traditionally plane-shaped unsurprisingly but pack fairly devastating solid round and highly precise explosive weaponry. They are excellent at besieging enemy vessels, relying on precision targeting and high piercing to destroy vital components when they aren’t scourging enemy aircraft with disciplined aerial manoeuvres. They can even attach drones to parts of their craft, augmenting their capabilities whether in terms of firepower, target tracking, early warning systems and so on. While they are new to the idea of using spaceborne creatures in a military context, they have domesticated lengthy eel-like creatures known as “shovelheads” for their distinct cranial shape, modifying them for military use. Their distinct skulls are part of a specialized detection system throughout their body, capable of sending out waves of subtle, difficult to detect energy allowing them to track prey and avoid predators with impressive accuracy even without augmentation. When armoured up and bristling with weapons partially powered by their bodies, they can put out a wild array of fire and even use specialized pulse-rays from their skull to momentarily disable and stun enemy ships, allowing them to get close and rip into them before planting explosives then kicking off. The biggest guns they can pack are a part of their enormous hellmouth vessels, huge and heavily armoured ships along whose entire length runs a powerful cannon launching either plasma or rail shells. Intended for ranges typically associated with the gealtirocht, these ships are armed with jamming and targeting systems allowing them to confuse and disrupt those attempting to hunt them while impaling their foes with some of the most high impact weaponry in the Nexus. Recent advancements have allowed for specialized “warp” type firing modes, where in a plasma globule or a shell can be modified to “skip” in and out of hyperspace, gathering power as it goes and then violently exploding. This blast can knock enemy ships out of position and also momentarily tear holes in their shields, leaving them vulnerable for a vicious follow-up.
Section 2 - Ground Forces:
The NIRC’s armies, while featuring a number of non-official and official forces, has spent a long time building up a strong cohesion and unity in strategy and tactics to the point that full on single-species manifestations are becoming increasingly rare. In spite of the vast cultural and physical differences between all four species, the unifying political goals and multiple generations spent fighting a common enemy have forged bands with little caring for vastly differing biologies or languages. This is assisted by the fact that there is almost no real class division amongst them with the post-revolutionary political metamorphosis. For some, that is simply a return to traditions that the Ascendency abolished. It is clear that some of them are naturally more gifted than others in some areas. Gealtirocht by default can jump and run much faster than tarrhaidim, tarrhaidim regenerate much faster than gealtirocht, vrexul are physically more powerful than anyone else, and so on. Due to this, it has necessitated specialized roles that are somewhat rigid. New technologies with regards to augmentation and armour however are allowing for a wider range of versatility with it possible for example with certain types of armour and biological/cybernetic enhancements to have humans able to fulfill typically gealtirocht roles.
Subsequently, squads tend to combine these species together for versatility in terms of roles they can undertake. Each species has its own distinct way of fighting but when combined, allows them as a whole to fight the widest range of enemies across a number of differing environments and operational parameters. As a whole, the Nexus typically focuses on squadrons capable of putting out high firepower, independent yet interconnected, fighting alongside specialized non-infantry automata or constructs (robotic, biological, or both) and combat modified organisms providing long range or close in support as well as assisting in covering longer distances or rocky terrain. Vehicles generally play a supporting role, rarely staying too close except with certain armoured fighting platforms, with relatively lesser tanks than most but far more powerful mecha fulfilling the role of frontline combat vehicles. There are two strategies they are typically known for. The first are their combined arms advances utilizing a mixture of shock, awe, and the appearance rather than reality of superior numbers and force. The second is evasive, guerilla tactics focusing more on unit inter-independence, taking actions that support one another without often obviously coordinating in the open and emphasizing concealed movement and vicious, abrupt attacks. They are not afraid to change things up on the fly, advancing deep into enemy territory, feigning a retreat when finding sturdier defences, then baiting the enemy into a vicious game of predator and prey.
Subsection 1 - Infantry:
Vrexul soldiers are large, hulking monstrosities bristling with the widest and often most powerful arrays of weapons, a number of which is encoded into their bodies. While typically handling heavy weapons in a squad set-up and drawing most of the hostile attention, they are also occasionally deployed as gun platforms, capable of withstanding and inflicting tremendous amounts of damage and being fans of weapons with large calibres and high stopping power - their main infantry rifle for example is a modified electrothermal-chemical type compact autocannon derived from those of their security automatons. Adding to their lethality, their bodies usually contain a number of explosive launchers, short range spine-spitters, bio-energy medium range laser emitters and so on “encoded” into their biomass. Further adding to this is their great diversity of munition types, with conventional high explosive armour piercing and incendiary to more exotic variants such as rounds that release swarms of biting and detonating living cluster munitions or bio-electric shells that burrow into then electrocute targets.They are also fairly mobile, capable of digging underneath enemy fortifications, creating networks of tunnels, and like many arthropods surprisingly good at climbing in spite of their hefty size. A few are even capable of limited flight with modified wings and a number usually have smaller organisms living within them, capable of being used as drones or even attack units, saboteurs even with a sort of remote psychoneurological control. They are unsurprisingly horrific in assaults, with their massive size, bestial strength, genetically inherited hunting instincts, and numerous limbs being all the more terrifying when combined with close combat weapons generating fields of disruptive power allowing them to even slice vehicles open or even limbs capable of striking with the force or rifle bullets. Some are even capable of controlling fragments of the Rozkleřešení, using it to swarm and rip away at targets or obscure their own movements, even capable of being hardened and morphed into floating defensive barriers.
The gealtirocht are the second largest on average and with their digitigrade legs, absurdly fast runners and leapers. Their armour is on average the most high tech with state of the art shielding, targeting, and cloaking capabilities. Their great maneuverability is augmented by grav-thrusters allowing them to rapidly dash away sometimes mid leap and even fly for moderate lengths of time. Their weaponry tends to focus on semi-automatic long rifles firing particle beams, solidified energy placed in bullet-frames, or recently rail-rounds, giving them tremendous accuracy when combined with their ability to use their brain-adjacent third eye-organ to assist in acquiring targets visible and obscured. Their energy weapons are usually able to be charged up, generating and using additional heat and energy but with the added bonus of further increased range and power. They are also capable of dual-wielding compact hand-held automatic weapons, sending flurries of energy bolts to overwhelm opponents when assaulting them. This is assisted by their powerful lance weapons, with divisible twin-bladed staves whose cutting edges can be sheathed in energy fields and assisted by centuries worth of martial arts refinement, turning them into a militant whirlwind of violence. They are typically used as scouts and raiders, harassing from maximum distance or falling upon unaware foes. In squadrons, they often fulfill the role of marksmen or point-troopers, usually going on ahead to determine the safest routes of approach and focusing on targeting the furthest, most valuable enemy targets. Their bodies are frequently augmented with metal-laced bones, leg servos, and specialized filtration systems that give them similar sensory and at times even physical capabilities to the fearsome predatory creatures of their homeworld, with some even having long tails that can be modified with combat spines or specialized short range laser-emitters.
As the most numerous and second smallest species within the Nexus, the tarrhaidim unsurprisingly tend to fill out most of the grunt roles. They have had the longest history of warfare, particularly in a guerilla context, and fit themselves well to generalist roles. It is a holdover from when independent militant cells had to often fight alone with limited support and it makes them far more cunning than their reputation as cannon fodder would imply. They are masters of fighting in urban environments, ambushing and kiting around larger armed forces, setting up traps, and utilizing foritications. While their weapons are similar to those of humans, they have larger calibres (ie. what is an MMG to HMG round to us can be an assault rifle round to them) and have a more advanced semi-biological propulsion system that does not require much or sometimes any propellant, allowing for higher rate of fire and magazine size. The trend towards organic components in their weapons also allows themt o link said weapons to their bodies, augmenting their power and allowing them to even generate ammo on the fly. They can even “grow” attachments such as launchers, foregrips, scopes, and so on when linked to their weapons, making them highly adaptable. They are capable of using specialized growths on their bodies in a way similar to the vrexul albeit with less relative firepower. Instead, they focus moreso on disrupting, confusing, and hampering the enemy with fields of noxious electronics-interfering spore-hazes, freezing liquids that can lock up targets momentarily, hyper-metabolic seeds that can cause soil to crumble and weaken as it triggers, and even worm-like creatures they can use as grappling hooks or whips in traversal or combat. They are also known to contain specialized growths that can rapidly germinate and morph into a variety of barriers and small fortifications, allowing them to defend positions that might otherwise be too exposed or otherwise unfavourable. Their own martial arts traditions are potentially as old as the gealtirocht, descended from ancient tribes of mysticist-assassins, and focuses on using specialized bladed whips and vibro-blades capable of slicing through armour and even disrupting enemy shields.
Thanks to augmentative gear and tech, humanity can stand on similar footing as their allies. With a lengthy history of conflict even dating back to Earth, they have one of the most detailed military traditions especially with regards to large scale open conflict and mechanized warfare. Inheriting a number of defectors, sympathizers plus considerable materiel from the Ascendency that when combined with the Nexus’ technologies makes them just as formidable as their alien allies. Their armour is highly modular with a lot of parts that can be mixed and matched easily, allowing for easy repair, and also granting the highest degree of performance augmentation. They utilize a high number of magnetically and electrically accelerated weapons with a lesser degree of conventional propellant ones, also bearing a number of plasma models typically for medium to close range. They tend to have weapons that can “sheath” their rounds via energy-jacketing, allowing for additional effects and lethality.They are just less accurate and armour piercing than the gealtirocht but having more raw destructive power by comparison. They even have lower velocity homing munitions too, linking their weapons to their targeting systems to allow them to accurately target foes from safe distances. Their armour tends to have the capability to project powerful energy frields that can both protect them from incoming fire whether by lessening the energy output or kinetic force or stopping the projectiles, with some capable of even being launched offensively especially after gathering enough energy to be turned into a deadly projectile. Some of these shields can even further augment and “jacket” rounds that pass through them when fired by those behind them, further increasing range and lethality. Their augmentations are more fairly plain compared to their compatriots, typically increasing physical capabilities all around, but cyborg humans have faster reaction times than even some veteran gealtirocht. In close quarters a mixture of electro-shock mauls, force-magnifying knives, and impact gauntlets lets them punch far above their weight.
Subsection 2 - Vehicles:
While their ground forces are primarily focused on infantry, they have an increasingly sizeable vehicular pool that is just as diverse as the soldiers it is typically supporting. For the most part, they put an emphasis on mobility and aggressive firepower with much of their vehicular doctrine focused on supporting infantry without too much of an emphasis on pure brute force tactics. One shouldn’t expect said armoured divisions to be lacking in terms of power as much as having a more measured approach that belies the alien nature of most of their armour. Developments that have accelerated since the end of the revolutionary war have made breakthroughs in finding ways to integrate often vastly differing parts together, hinting at the creation of specialized hybrid vehicles. Until then, they are mostly making due with an impressive array of four different design philosophies.
In spite of their lumbering appearance, the vrexul do not have many tanks. Most of their vehicles are actually troop transports, armored fighting vehicles, and mecha a number of which have both legs and either treads or wheels. They do quite well in rough terrain, some even capable of “climbing” steeper surfaces and others can burrow. These arthropod limbs can also be used against enemies that draw too close, to move objects, or even demolish buildings. Most of their semi-biological armour is armed with high rate of fire spike-launching weaponry and multi-missile launch systems, utilizing heavier duty autocannons and bio-plasma for harder targets. They can carry a good deal of weaponry through encoding it into regenerating biomass, allowing them to sustaining short but vicious bursts of high intensity firepower typically used against medium to light armour. They are assisted by symbiotic organisms that inhabit and help repair their hulls, also capable of being used to attack nearby targets like infantry or to scout on ahead connected via neuro-electric links. Their main duty is to cover for and support troops from afar after the disembark but when they need to hit harder, their mechs come in. Spidery, crablike, staphylinid, stomatopod - these gruesome machines are freakishly mobile and carry long range heavy ordnance and powerful disruptor-field covered limbs that already are more than easily capable of smashing through fortress walls or walkers that find themselves caught off guard by these unexpectedly agile monstrosities. Capable of digging and even leaping short distances, they are masterfully crafted for the purpose of savagery and aggression up close or from afar.
The gealtirocht lack the imposing size of their carapaced comrades but their sleek, sharp, almost blade-like vehicles have a ghostly power of their own as they glide quickly yet near-silently with their anti-gravitational drives. Powerful shields both protect them from weapons fire and blur them to their foes, something that when combined with their ability to project ghostly after-images and holograms leaves foes confused and unaware of the high intensity particle beams and semi-crystalline shells slicing through reinforced armour from lengthy, eel-like cannons. Gealtirocht vehicles rarely get too close to the enemy except to use ultra-high intensity beam weapons in short, vicious forays before often using their flight or jump-jet capabilities to escape before retaliation is possible. Although they do not use mechs, they do have larger terrestrial assault craft descended from a mixture of their aquatic craft and highly shrunken down versions of their mobile bases known as highland tyrants. Capable of being used as command vehicles as well as concentrated long range support weapons, these rapidly moving land warships have powerful enough weapons they can even harass low-orbit spacecraft when they aren’t (literally) lighting up enemy fortifications and armour from afar. A single highland tyrant has the firepower of multiple hovertanks and is also capable of further muffling the sound and signatures of allies within a certain area of effect.
Compared to the respectively grotesque and artisanal elegance of the prior two, the tarrhaidim’s vehicle are simply grotesque. Monstrous combinations of fleshy vegetation-like biomatter and cruel jutting metal, they have an almost ramshackle appearance almost like a parody of their human alliesbut that only hides the impressive power behind them. They also have a mutagenic, morphing capability similar to the vrexul but are capable of generally creating artillery weaponry of varying sizes, whether it’s with their sidewinding electro-thermally propelled pod-rockets or trailed and volatile hyphae-bombs, as well as allowing new weapons to be grown, replaced, or attached far more easily than with purely metallic designs. Because of this they regenerate faster than the vrexul’s and can have the highest volume of fire. Combined with their wide variety of terrifying artillery options from living hyper-reactive rocket launchers to city-block levelling cluster cannon platforms and they are as good at besieging as they are entrenching. They are even capable of deploying rapidly growing foritifying cyer-biological mass and releasing specialized pheromones and spores that increase the regeneration and heighten the reflexes of their allies. It is possible for them to be piloted by worm-like symbiotes as well who can cover for damaged or deceased crew-members. They also possess a number of large, grotesque mecha made of a similar bio-metallic composition typically armed with large calibre solid round bio-electric cannons and heavy duty energy cannons, along with swarming missiles. These machines can visually camouflage themselves as debris or foliage, unleashing storms of firepower quite quickly before vanishing away. Recent variants include powerful semi-robotic shock-claws and hyper-heated blades capable of ripping through armour and structures alike.
Their physiques and senses by default may be the weakest of the Nexus but humanity’s reputation for heavy armour is the most accomplished. The heaviest, toughest armour on average can be found amongst their number. They possess the most established and powerful tanks and mechanized battalions, even some anti-grav skimmers for that matter. Full on frontal onslaughts and ruggedness is where they excel, with autoloading fast firing gauss cannons, zig-zagging missiles that target weak points in armour, and scourging blasts of plasma that can clear out multiple enemy squads in seconds. Their nanobot colonies do not repair as fast as their semi-biological counterparts but cut down on hangar bay repair times immensely while their CIWS, missile intercept defences, and energy ablative plating make them add additional survivability to their hyper-tough alloys. Energizing their munitions prior to firing them through limited batteries allows them to grant secondary effects and additional power to their solid rounds, allowing them to catch enemies off guard with unexpectedly new effects to their fire. They eschew mecha but in their place use super-heavy armoured vehicles, whether assault transports or tanks, that can serve as mobile command bases or frontline bulldozers for besieging whole defensive lines or coordinating massive assaults. With the addition of anti-gravitational hover systems to complement their treads, they are difficult to immobilize when they aren’t already engaging entire squadrons of enemy heavy armour.
Subsection 3 - Constructs and Bioweapons:
A large number of their terrestrial forces fall into neither of the two prior categories. While they also see use in atmospheric and space combat, the grand majority of their automata, whether cybernetic or biological, and life forms modified for combat are found on terra firma. They can play a variety of roles from reconnaissance and maintenance to directly supporting or fighting alongside infantry to fulfilling the same roles as tanks and mecha among others. They typically are integrated into infantry squads where they use specialized or heavier weapons and in other cases, form specialized squadrons of their own for an intermediary role between troops and vehicles. Most of the common ones typically provide fast moving reconnaissance and forward support to armour, moving on ahead to soften up targets, covering flanks, and helping hunt down targets of interest while protecting them from specialized anti-vehicular threats. There are far larger ones that can take the roles of heavy tanks or otherwise even form the spearheads of massive assaults. A number of these run on advanced AI’s but others use cutting mixtures of linked consciousnesses through psychoneuro-mycelial networking allowing them to be controlled remotely or even directly “connected” to the unit. In some instances, vehicles are simply eschewed in exchange for these versatile and unusual weapons. Constructs tend to be a lot easier to modify and can suit a wider range of weapons. Organisms tend to have unique pre-existing natural weaponry that can be modified in a number of unique ways as well as combative instincts that can be further honed with psychotherapeutic bonding and training.
The vrexul are the most well known for these given their propensity for biotech and augmentation. Cyberbiological constructs and bioweapons are used in near equal number with a plethora of options between both for numerous roles. Their smallest are the smaller sometimes squirrel to cat sized creatures that live within the armour of their soldiers, maintaining and repairing them, even helping to run their weapon systems, but they can be remotely controlled and deployed by said soldiers to scout on ahead, sabotage enemy systems, or even to attack threats within their control range. They are known to occasionally be modified to work as living mines and a number are also adapted to vehicular/mecha usage. Sizing up to creatures around 20 or so feet in length, similar to that of various larger mammalian fauna on earth, and grotesque creatures in the appearance of wolf spiders, vampire crabs, centipedes, carabidae, staphylinidae and mole crickets and others become quite common. Larger than infantry but not really light vehicles, these fairly well protected and rapidly moving augmented entities can be armed with moderately heavier ordnance than infantry, even more if they focus on encoding them, and can use a mixture of animalistic instincts and higher intelligences to move as stealthily and swiftly as they would in the wild, capable of burrowing, flight, and climbing, while their natural (or lab-borne) limb-weapons are no less deadly.
Finally, there are the megalith beasts, colossal entities occasionally larger than human assault platforms and bristling with living colonies of weapons, highly dense self-repairing armour, and horrific brute strength that can smash down reinforced bunkers and flip over armoured battalions. These are typically used as the spearhead of a major assault, drawing fire and retaliating in full as they barrel into enemy lines and even burrow underneath them, causing havoc and disarray while the rest of the vrexul assault force capitalizes on the scattered, distracted foes to gain ground.
The gealtirocht actually disliked using constructs initially for a mixture of religious and logistical reasons but as the revolutionary struggle intensified, they began to open up towards the usage of such constructs. Originally adapted from mining drones used in deep space, the gealtirocht’s sleek, pointed combat drones, resemble much smaller versions of their tanks albeit with some of the blade-like winged designs of their fighters. Able to easily keep up with their digitigrade infantry (or even outspeed them), they fire withering storms of hyper-heated particles and experimental missiles that propel themselves partially towards their target with a gas propulsion system then use a secondary magnetic charge to barrel towards them at high speeds, making them difficult to track and devastating on impact. They are also known to have tamed some creatures and with the help of their allies, devised interesting ways to arm them. Typically, they use large creatures somewhere between sea spiders, stingrays, guitar fish, and beluga surgeon that live in the highest mountains and widest plains of their homeworlds known as sciúlístheach (english: scourge-descending) or mountain wraths as both hunting beasts and bioweapons. Augmented with weaponry, armor, and enhancements, these creatures are as obedient as they are vicious, capable of generating powerful electricity and even particle blasts naturally further augmented with channeling modules and with retractable metal sheaths on their claws. Their reinforced heads with manifestable horns can smash and impale infantry while they have been trained to utilize specialized fire-and-forget homing missiles.
Most fearsome and eerie among their constructs are the uasdhlrácthú (tomb upheaval), strange floating constructs made of the de-irradiated bones and replicated tissue of mythic star-predators, augmented with adaptive cybernetics and replica biomass. These half metal half skeletal creatures resemble more shark-like versions of their serealgatai but with elements of the uasdhlrácthú, drifting on legs hanging faintly away from the ground and with which eye-like spots stare through their semi-transparent bodies, sending powerful rays of horrific power scourging forward before launching replicated-bone based zig-zagging, blink-teleporting missiles towards their targets. They can augment the sight of any gealtirocht within a certain radius with the strange rays they emit while they are also capable of reinforcing and rapidly regenerating any shields on friendly units.
While the tarrhaidim are closer to fungi and vegetation, they have found ways to make bioconstructs and combat organisms from non-animal life and its imitations. With specialized training, preparation, and biogenetic editing, they themselves can actually combine and mutate into larger, singular entities whether by generating specific kinds of occasionally semi-cybernetic matter, being integrated into a larger specialized mass, or generating said mass with those with a similar level of compatibility. These combined tarrhaidim tend to resemble smaller mecha, often smaller than those they seem to be imitating, but they are far faster and can be armed with a wider array of weapons and auxiliary equipment, continuing their prioritization of overwhelming firepower. They are also capable of serving as advanced psychomycelial nodes, improving the accuracy and coordination of multiple tarrhaidim and allowing for highly accurate, regimented firing patterns that only grow larger when more gestalt fungal mecha are added. Large mobile semi-fungoid organisms known as ahlamanashaq (dream defilers) that stand on eight or more vine-legs, with more like curving thin horns protruding upwards and smaller ones framing a bulbous, eye-dotted body that generally points upwards. While smaller than many other bioweapons, they are no less valuable. They can generate fog or even alter weather patterns within a small area, hampering visibility and scanning form enemies, and rapidly gestate and “birth” explosive sub-mycelial organisms that rapidly hunt down enemies or lay in wait as mines. They are also capable of having powerful energy-charged mortars installed or grafted onto their bodies, using their eldritch biologies to power compact, deadly lobbed explosives and it is not uncommon for soldiers in the field to outfit them with weapons normally intended for gestalt mecha.
Far more fearsome and disturbing are the Mahrataefan or “The Festivals of Putrefaction”. These are enormous partially rotted, specifically bred stubbier mushroom-trees attached to a living spider-like body that have become infested by powerful normally space-borne worm parasites some claim come from Almh'allbadi itself. Keeping the fungoid tree in a limbo between life and death, they use its now mutagenically volatile body to manifest a wide range of projectiles, launching semi-fertilized eggs laced with chemical explosives and utilizing the rapid energy generated within its partially dying body, guarded by powerful armour laying, to power-up rapid fire chemo-lasers that can scourge heavily armoured infantry to full on light vehicles. Rapidly gestated worms can be launched as living missiles exploding into arrays of embryonic cluster munitions. For heavier armour, they can launch specialized mortar-like seeds that can track targets as they fall for a single focused strike or split into multiple armour-piercing semi-biological sub munitions, both guided by a specifically engineered tracking system installed into the core of the foul warmachine.
Humanity has had a history of robotics dating far before the Ascendency but with the advent of the Nexus it has only been untethered from prior research restrictions and now sees a new golden age. Most commonly, bipedal, quadrupedal, hexapedal, and other combinations of legs are attached to robotic frames used to carry a variety of heavy and specialist weaponry or equipment. These gun platforms are not too large, sometimes even smaller than the vrexul, but they are quite maneuverable and can generate powerful directional shields capable of being fired through from behind and enhancing projectiles as they pass. As they are sized up, they can carry additional and more powerful shielding and weapons, including melee options, and additional electronic warfare options. While they do not use organisms in a combat role, they have figured out how to make creatures from semi-biological lab-made biomatter, arming them with weaponry similar to their vehicles and creating in essence, predatory combat machines. These often digitrade legged, slightly tank or APC like, and often tall and long armed machines are more flexible than normal combat vehicles but can run and leap in a way similar to the gealtirocht (whom they were originally created to fight) albeit not to the same degree. They are capable of wielding a wide array of weaponry with their long, synthetic-muscle arms and experimental AI’s allow them to adapt rapidly to changing conditions. Their biomass also allows for various augmentations for infantry to be inserted into them and while they can easily be armed with a variety of high power long range or melee weapons, using their speed and reactivity to adapt on the fly to the nature of their foes.
They also have access to strong mecha as well, typically larger than their tanks, but unlike the vrexul they tend to play more of a support role. They use their speed and lighter weaponry to engage softer targets as well as to provide missile support from range, snipe hard targets with lighter rail guns, and soften up or flank harder ones with autocannons. With jump jets and specialized shielding, they are good at distracting and absorbing a degree of fire, capable of indirect fire as retaliation and foregoing melee capability except for a few newer models armed with shock mauls and long armadillo-like claws. Some versions forego carrying built in weapons to mount a single large rifle-cannon and a few launchers at best, limiting their roles but gaining extremely deadly weapons capable of matching those of their tanks in some cases.
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Sapient Alien Species of the NIRC
Vrexul
Pronounced “vuh-rex-sull”. Massive and mysterious creatures of a murky, poorly known past and impressive augmentation and biological technology. They resemble enormous arthropods with dense carapaces bristling with cybernetics and integrated external biomass like living biomechanical juggernauts. They can move bipedally or on up to around 30 limbs. On average they are between seven and ten feet tall with a few species being around five foot six and a few rare specimens around 25. They are pioneers and leaders when it comes to augmentation technology to the extent some of them are basically small habitats for performance-enhancing symbiotes and hidden integrated tools. In spite of being reminiscent of arthropods such as ground and rove beetles, decapods, myriapods, huntsman and wolf spiders, earwigs, crickets, and so on, their populations are not particularly large due to a variety of ground-up population controls which are being loosened in recent years. The oldest ones are around 200 years but it is believed some can live to 360. They spend the first seven to ten years of their lives in a nymphal or larval form wherein their consciousnesses are closer to those of animals but slowly grow sapience with age, mostly completing it upon maturity and/or pupation. They are known to genetically inherit survival instincts and even the ability to understand language but still require education as young adults to truly become socially functional.
The vrexul are ancient species that lived in the worlds around Karbana Kinnis with it being known there were colonies there though their exact homeworld is unknown - supposedly lost in some grand war either amongst their own or an unknown enemy. They were the neighbours of the Gealtirocht and the Tarrhaidim but before they could establish proper bonds, the Ascendancy had expanded into their territory, subjugating the arthropods and their then diminutive defensive forces to seize their resource rich lands, viewing them as allies of the rebellious gealtirocht. In the years that followed, they were forced into increasingly small enclaves within the heart of human controlled society and were a slave subclass in all but name. Many of them escaped with allies in the other two races who had been forced apart in violent socially engineered civil wars or open warfare with the human empire. The arthropods joined a revolutionary movement, creating their own new society with their neighbours-turned-comrades, but by themselves would not be able to topple the Ascendency. They managed to find traces on worlds they infiltrated or warred against the Ascendency and its puppets of what appeared to be other vrexul who were there before them. Chief amongst them were archaeotech computers detecting hidden vrexul fleets and habitat-ships that had been lost after some great cataclysm and evidence of some powerful “guardian entity” now known as the Rozkleřešení or Gnosis Eater. Through a risky series of engagements over seemingly low value worlds, they battled against the Ascendency to control these secrets to their past while their more numerous comrades held up the numerically superior enemy. They were able to unlock a colossal hidden fragment of the Gnosis Eater when they were able to finally send out a message to one of the habitat vessels, which arrived and bore a special “key” needed to free it from its prison.
This would mark the beginning of a tuning point within the revolution as the influx of arthropod warriors bringing new weapons, strategy, and tactics combined with the unleashing of an immense, antediluvian entity began to give the the NIRC, which had only just begun formalizing itself, a colossal advantage over the Ascendancy. It would be a mistake to say they were the sole reason the empire collapsed but they did play a huge part in contesting and in some areas destroying purely human control of planets and space. They have since become to many the face of this revolutionary union even if they are willingly ceding more power to their compatriots. In spite of that, they technically are one of the smaller populations and only in recent years has their population grown closer to the gealtirocht in terms of size. They are one of the more common species seen outside of NIRC space, usually with explorer fleets attempting to find worlds where any sign of other vrexul and hints of their past can be found. In spite of this, they are seen as somewhat standoffish and aloof, often avoiding direct contact with even non-hostile species. They are not necessarily averse to trade and diplomacy but are rather selective of who they do it with. They are common amongst independent colonies and worlds where they are known to provide quite a bit in aid, material, and occasionally security even without the promise of them coming into the NIRC’s fold.
The spoken vrexul language is an incredibly difficult one to understand because the sounds are near impossible to replicate for most. They are a series of harshly dry scrapes, booming and bassy growls, clattering or chittering noises (or both), and what sounds like backmasked speech. They have “words” but they are not an entirely verbal languages with multiple layers of sound used to change the implicit meanings and implied emotion behind what is said. Combined with a communicating via mandible positioning, feeler waving, how fully one is facing the other, pheromone emission - it is borderline impossible to translate except by other vrexul due to its absurd complexity, something their complex brains have evolved to understand as easily as say, English. They have a simplified form of it that resembles various Slavic languages (that others are capable of learning without heavy modifications to their mouthparts) that is also their written form though the characters are similar to Chinese in terms of their architectural, multi-sectioned appearance albeit far more pointy and insectoid.
Psychology:
In spite of being a communal species that is known for a general distrust of individualistic philosophies, they can come off as rather cold and distant not only to outsiders but one another. This is explained by the fact that the vrexul do not have a concept of family. They do however appreciate the bonds they form with others of their own accord and have a somewhat nihilistic view of the self as little more than the amalgamated echoes of its predecessors and world around it. This does not mean they are without pride or a sense of value to life; they simply believe in seeing people as contextually existing within and around the sources of said echoes. Seemingly in contrast to this coldness is the fact that they are quite charitable and compassionate as people, rationalizing it as “simply because we wish to be” and that there are reasons of self interest. Mutual aid forms the backbone of even well-off post scarcity areas and it is through this that alliances can be formed and bonds can be forged. What benefits one group of people can often be used to benefit all.
Like with the rest of the Nexus, they are extremely distrustful of corporate power, private enterprise, and monarchial rule by default, having experienced both for generations as badly and if not worse in some cases than the tarrhaidim. They are not necessarily against “strong leaders” but only if there is a strong popular front as well and believe that any kind of political system, democratic, “freedom loving”, or otherwise, that doesn’t take into account or allow direct popular action is not one worth putting too much trust in. As such, they can come off as cynical or even judgemental (if you can make out what they are saying). This can lead to them being very independent, clique-ish, but they will not hesitate to help others in need in most cases even if they do not necessarily *like* them. They do not appear to be too attached to most of their material possessions beyond certain keepsakes and upon befriending them, they are open to treating others as the equivalent of family. While the word “family” did not exist in their vocabulary for a long time, they do value close friendships to the extent of being their version of it - after all, it is the bonds you choose and forge rather than were set up on you with no choice that mean the most.
They are the least prone to violence of all Nexus species, difficult for some to believe but when given the chance, they avoid conflict whether out of a general dislike of violence or not wanting to face the repercussions of using their immense power. Nonetheless they have a strong support for their military and believe that as a people’s army, it carries the will of its constituents as opposed to demagogues, fanatics, and rotting leaders clinging onto increasingly illusory power. While they like the idea of expanding into new worlds, they do not like the idea of colonizing those already settled unless the other inhabitants there explicitly make it clear they do not mind their presence. They generally support national liberation and revolutionary movements and are skeptical of movements that seem to play into the geopolitical goals of opposing political ideologies be they corporate, fundamentalist, or nationalist. They are not very supportive of hunting down the remnants of the Ascendancy, believing that it is better to rebuild than it is to continue fighting. In spite of that, it is common to find those that believe that a few particular war criminals need to be brought to justice. Whether or not this dovetails into greater support for militarized expeditions remains to be seen.
Permissions:
They are semi-common outside of the NIRC but they never travel alone. They will always be in small fleets or traveling with other NIRC races. They do not often stick around for long in one place, taking what they need or resting for a short time before leaving and it is often difficult to discern their true purposes. When they do settle down and become a part of a society other than their own, they usually retain the same revolutionary and rationally-compassionate spirit, either as proud members of the NIRC or skeptical of what it may become.
They are only rarely found as mercenaries or pirates and if so, are not often very talkative or sociable. These ones are likely exiles, deserters, war criminals, or utter nihilists who lost everything in the revolution. In such positions, they are often quite deadly due to a mixture of military experience and absurd firepower, wielding crew-served weapons alone with ease. The remnants of the Ascendancy will also have very, very little of them given how brutally they treated them.
Gealtirocht
Pronounced “gee-ow-tee-rocked” with the "gea" pronounced like in "geese". These tall creatures evolved from some sort of eel like creature, visually somewhere between the Chimera from the Resistance and the Elites from Halo. They are around six and a half to eight feet on average with powerful digitigrade legs, four eyes (two on each side of their bony ridged heads), long multi-jointed six-fingered arms, and slightly elongated heads thicker at the forehead and slimming downwards to powerful fang-filled mouths. Some species even have long eellike tails and others shorter additional arms that have retractable spines. All however have an eye-like organ called the speirfhaire at the front of their brain capable of detecting ethereological presences though the extent to which depends on how well they have honed their skill. All of them are affected by dreams of eel-like creatures in their sleep though some have found ways to remove this aspect from their minds. Coincidentally they are bred in fairly large numbers and begin their lives as amphibious creatures closer to large eels, maturing at about nine to 12 years, capable of living up to around 430 years.
They are believed to be the oldest civilization of the NIRC territories, having been neighbours, allies, and enemies to the tarrhaidim and trading partners to the vrexul even before the Ascendancy came to power. It is believed that they may have interacted with splinter groups of vrexul habitat ships in the distant past though these are as much myth as they are crypto-history. It is also believed that they may have been the reason there are less of the spore-moons the tarrhaidim view with practically divine reverence about, presumably due to a symbiotic relationship with the enormous starfaring eel creatures wherein they made it easier for them to contest territory from said moons. Their civilization for a while was the most advanced in the region, having transition from nomadic tribesfolk to a feudalist and mercantile society but not without great strife and division. Conflict between the newly established kingdoms and the tribes that refused to fall under their newly defined jurisdiction would continue well into the Ascendency’s arise to power and was partially responsible for stopping open diplomatic talks with the vrexul commune-unions. A large part of the Ascendency’s rise to power was actually due to their alliances with the newly formed gealtirocht kingdoms, funding, organizing and supplying their efforts to displace and subjugate those who still dwelled in areas ripe for resource extraction and infrastructure building, beginning a series of resistance and eradication. This conflict continued throughout the Ascendency’s existence, amplifying with the deployment of conscripted tarrhaidim armies and professional imperial soldiers, escalating to orbital bombardments and even cases of genetically engineered but covertly executed viral plagues.
The nomadic groups would begin to unite and split up with a number staying on their worlds where they went into hiding and others escaping beyond the atmosphere. It is here that their first bonds with the vrexul were truly formed albeit with limited tarrhaidims support initially due to tensions that had only worsened under the Ascendency. Already being hunted by their royalist counterparts, the gealtricocht exiles set up various bases with the help of the arthropods on dead worlds said to be haunted by the enormous predatory star-predators of myth, making them more than ideal places to avoid the watchful eye of a far superior foe. While the vrexul began waging shadow wars and guerilla operations, the gealtirocht would be coordinating with insurgencies and sympathetic politicians, turning the enemy’s strategy against them as they whipped up a defiant fervour among territories now controlled by turncoat kingdoms and began a series of lightning raids across Ascendancy space, striking distant outposts and gradually drawing their foes into war of stalking, hiding, and striking from the unknown with the intent of draining morale, loosening control, and forcing the human-lead empire to draw its forces away from the increasingly riotous, violent civil uprisings.
As this was happening, discontent with the Ascendancy’s rule was growing with the tarrhaidim who found themselves increasingly becoming an exploited underclass sent out to die in larger droves on the frontlines than the humans they were told they would become the equals of. The resistance cells, commando divisions, and political activists remaining on the original gealtirocht worlds would exploit this to create a historic gealtirocht-tarrhaidim united front. Mass defections and even full blow mutinies of tarrhaidim forces were joined by rebels and riots en masse, even contributing to a few kingdoms beginning to fold as their garrisons found it increasingly difficult to fight against their own fellow eel-folk. Large scale direct action soon massively swelled the numbers and logistical strength of the gealtirocht resistance, leading them to go from guerillas in the mountains and woods to powerful armies that with an increasingly spread out occupation, were rapidly tipping the scales. Yet this weakening of the hostilities between fungoid and anguilid would open up additional opportunities.
Around this time, archaeotechnicians from the vrexul and scientists defectors from humanity along with a number of tarrhaidimg traitor orbital garrisons would begin sharing classified information with the gealtirocht. Observational media of not only the mysterious spore moons had been discovered but where many of the serealgatai that were once nearly hunted out of their native habitats were hiding. To assist their fairly small fleet, they would begun a covert mission of weaponizing these enormous predators, bringing a then revolutionary new weapon into the fold first inspired by the vrexul’s void tyrants which had been used in a few select deployments to protect vital bases. With these new enormous bioweapons augmenting their fleet, it would not be long before the now enormous revolutionary forces that had recently been formed into the NIRC would begin retaking worlds one by one, four by four, ten by ten. With a newfound control of space and territory, the gealtirocht had set the stage for a full swing route of the enemy occupation and it would not be long before the tattered, disorganized Ascendancy was forced out.
Their language is spoken with a lot of twisty yet sharp, somewhat wet-sounding syllables and vaguely resembles Irish albeit with a gnarlier, hissing tone and a concerning amount of snarls. The actual text features a lot of wavy characters resembling blurred piscine shapes as seen from the water’s surface. They also are able to use a wide variety of non-verbal howls, calls, clicking sounds, and so on, some of which are imitations of creatures that are both predator and prey on their homeworld. These typically are used for long distance communication, tribal activities, drawing out prey, warding off animalistic threats, and so on.
Psychology:
The gealtirocht are firm followers of revolutionary ideologies, typically following paganized variants with a notable tendency towards more anarchic practices. While it is no surprise that the entire Nexus is somewhat more skeptical towards grander organization, these highland dwellers can go even further in some cases given they had to deal with living under *two* different monarchical forces. Having returned to their tribal pasts, they are not as traditional as some would like to think believing in the spontaneity of the spirit and believing that tribe is not based less so on lineage and blood but allegiance and action, having learned first hand that the their fellow sapients were every bit as dedicated to the same revolutionary liberation. Subsequently, they are typically seen as the most outgoing and approachable of the Nexus, known for their charismatic and celebratory spirit and a love of exploration, adventure, and group activities.
They share most of the same similar socioeconomic and political ideals as the vrexul but beyond their sociable nature, are far less coldly reductive in their views. This is notable in that they have an idea of family that they value a fair share, are far more overtly expressive, and can often be fairly generous off of the bat. However, they can also be quite aggressive and quicker to anger. A lot of generational pain resides amongst them from the years spent under the Ascendancy and the idea of hunting down and capturing (or killing) its survivors is not an uncommon idea among some. Others believe that the traitor houses should be tried fairly after capture but the former view is often seen as being more vocal. They are fairly open towards direct action whether on an individual or a macro scale, not quite as focused on careful organization as much as impetus and intensity.
Permissions:
The gealtirocht are one of the more visible members of the NIRC who voyage beyond its boundaries and can be found in a wide variety of locations. Some of them have established small enclaves and colonies on less industrialized planets and they can usually be seen near established independent worlds. Occasionally they can be found doing smuggling jobs, exploring, treasure hunting, and even mercenary work on occasion though they are picky with who they work with.
Quite a few of the traitor houses are still around and as they are anti-revolutionary, they tend to have far fewer qualms about who they work for or with. Most of the mercenaries of their kind will be from said houses and are staunchly loyal to the aristocracy and the Ascendancy. They can often be found in various more totalitarian or militant regimes, exchanging their skills and further developing their combat prowess for a shot at revenge at the “turncoat soil-eaters.”
Tarrhaidim
Pronounced “tar-high-deem”. They are large bipedal organisms resembling rotted eyeless humanoids, covered in hardened fungoid growth, and maws full of jagged pointed formations, noted for appearing to have rotted flesh. They are actually a fungoid like organism, genderless and able to reproduce asexually on occasion or by combining large amounts of reproductive biomatter into communal “spawning globes”. They are capable of heavily modifying and selectively mutating their own biomatter and have an unusual tendency to "bolt" clothing, equipment, gear, and armour into their bodies though this is nowhere near as painful as some would think. They are durable and hardy beings with highly efficient regenerative capabilities and the ability to survive on very little (think dirt, detritus, and sunlight). They are capable of aesexually reproducing to create sub-organisms usually to fulfill menial tasks such as assisting with nutrient gathering or maintaining their homes but while without gender or sex, they need others of their kind to truly reproduce and create full fledged offspring. Their offspring can age to maturity in around five years and like the vrexul can can be made to inherit certain bits of information from their progenitors. Some species can grow fairly large, roughly around 15 foot at the max and others contain huge worms jutting out of their bodies, having essentially become half annelid.
The gealtirocht’s origins are murky but it is believed they were originally fragments of some sort of ancient starfaring gigantic fungi that broke off and evolved into an entire species. While it is likely they predate both the gealtirocht and vrexul, they evolved slower than either and subsequently were slower to become a civilization. Worshippers of the mythic spore-moon Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”, their religiosity was both a source of inspiration, defiance, and unity and in other times a method of enforcing social hierarchy and hegemony. They were known to live with a few scattered colonies of vrexul, treating them as little more than somewhat elusive if useful neighbours lacking much in the way of grander power and initially had a very complicated relationship with the gealtirocht. Sometimes they were partners, other times rivals for territory and resources, and on occasion they had a number of conflicts. As the various tarrhaidim city-states began to converge and combine into larger nations, they were approached by visitors from afar - the Ascendancy, who had also taken an interest in both their changing political landscape and that of the gealtirocht. Appearing first as benefactors, their machinations began to take on an increasingly sinister role as in exchange for certain business deals and technology, they would be allowed to adjust and restructure aspects of their economy and societal organization to better accommodate this new partnership.
In a few years time, traditional structures of familial, societal, and political organization already in the midst of a rocky transition had been thrown into disarray. Established leaders rose left and right as a class of wealthy and politically entrenched fungoids began to emerge as the figureheads and main benefactors of the Ascendancy’s rapid growth and wealth. Rapid human colonization began to consume or take over territories once under their protection as animosities grew between them and the gealtirocht nomad tribes, accused of encroaching more and more on their territories leading to an initially popular conscription for the purposes of territorial defence. At the same time, they were forced to live in cramped spaces with impoverished vrexul they were taught to view as savage, barely tamed animals. The tarrhaidim themselves were treated as little more than sub-human in worth, becoming a massive underclass drafted economically or militarily. With the drastic shifts in power, their populations became divided not just in terms of class but territory, ethnicity, location as they struggled to find some stability in a world that had its rugs pulled out from underneath them. “Self governance” was used in tandem with specially chosen leaders and social engineering to ensure even if they should revolt, much of their anger would be directed at one another across battle lines stretching to before the Ascendancy arrived. However this method of control had its limits.
As much as they tried to control them through subterfuge and division, the anger of the tarrhaidim would always eventually be directed upwards as a series of revolutionary conflicts on the Ascendancy capital, resulting in the deaths of the heads of a planetary head of state and a number of capital administrators sparked off a series of brutal reprisals. In turn, tarrhaidim independent settlements including various hidden ones started turning into havens for a growing revolutionary movement. As the Empire’s own armies were further amassed through conscripting the fungoid youths, the higher standards they enjoyed in the army began to diminish and more and more they found themselves fighting not the gealtirocht and vrexul but their own. At the same time, a mass interplanetary movement was forming of tarrhaidim rebels, a number of which were beginning to join up in secret with the then emergent Nexus headed by the arthropods and anguilids. The ungovernable against the iron hand of divine rule - it was clear that history’s gears of turning but the power difference was not slanted in the rebellion’s flavour even with military support. Ascendancy was too well connected and organized even if it was stretched by the tarrhaidim who had created a solution to their enemy. The first was to push for a mass defection and radicalize the beleaguered militaries sent to backwaters and crowded, chaotic worlds. The second was to use that distraction to distract tarrhaidim covert expeditions to hidden terrestrial bases and orbiting research facilities; the reason was to recover stolen research concerning the mythic spore moons and unlock their deadly powers. With the assistance of their enemies turned allies, a two pronged ware of mutiny and covert operations began as they began to desperately strike out hunting for this cryptic data.
With the cost of many of their finest fighters, they were able to find the hidden locations of the spore moons and alongside preparing them to return to their habitats around the Tarrhaidim worlds, also prepare them for battle. Subtly moving them by hiding them amongst solar anomalies and dead worlds, the secretly modified space fungi were unleashed as part of a combined offensive. Utilizing their immense bio-energetic powers in conjunction with a small but vicious fleet, the tarrhaidim helped to disrupt and outright destroy logistics networks and communications between the Ascendancy worlds. Scattered and cut off from one another, their enormous armies were viciously attacked before they could properly organize as whole cities rose up in revolt and the chaos of mass civil disobedience left the conquerors helpless as well trained invasion forces. More than a few exiles and deserters from the traitor armies were all too enthusiastic to pay back in blood what had been taken from them. The tarrhaidim sacrificed more than any other species to drive out the Ascendancy with their population experiencing a very sharp decline even if it still remains the most numerous in Nexus space.
The language of the tarrhaidim in contrast to their grotesque appearance is surprisingly elegant and almost musical, resembling arabic and featuring few sharp vowels and fare more smooth consonants. When rapidly spoken it almost can sound like smoothed out, ambient birdsong. If slowly and carefully, it has a resonant and almost woodwind like tone to it. They can also gurgle and growl but even such rougher speech has a strangely muffled sound as if they are underwater as they do so. The written language has a lot of curving characters connected by sharp, rigid lines. Like the vrexul they can also communicate through smell via pheromones and chemicals but they are also known to use electrical signals within the range of one another through mycelial growths located through their body. This causes some to believe they are psychic but the electro-signal language is a learned language if one wishes to use it beyond communicating simple directions, emotions, and commands.
Psychology:
The tarrhaidim are as staunch of believers as any other Nexus species but their particular politics can vary quite notably. Generally, they lean towards a parliamentary style of democracy with a wider range of bottom-up political involvement but various sects are anarcho-communal occasionally leading to friction even among those sharing variants of the same revolutionary beliefs. Nonetheless they can be quite intransigent and defensive of themselves due to having been an exploited underclass under their own rulers and their foreign masters. They are however, highly social and are firm advocates for collective action and mutual aid, pushed by a sense of duty that has begun to grow beyond their own kind to all their allies. They are outspoken and fiery people with little tolerance for poor leadership and the raw accumulation of power whether political, economic, and ideological. When they see their own in need, tarrhaidim or not, they will not mind working alongside strangers amongst their own as they mobilize en force to protect their vulnerable and needy.
Their sense of family is looser than the gealtirocht’s, following lineages of descent but caring little for hierarchy or the importance of blood as much as the “network of interrelations” created. They have a concept of family less as a solid unit but a series of stories that can be interconnected or spiralling outwards, typically living in fairly larger combined families that in some cases are essentially small towns in and of themselves. They are less hesitant to go to war than the gealtirocht but more willing than the humans, knowing what it is like to lose countless souls for false glories. Still, they believe that armed force wielded by people will generally be more justified than solely in the hands of high lords. A not insignificant portion are not 100% trusting of the Nexus even if the percentage of the favourable is increasing from year to year, believing that it is best if many of them go their separate ways (resulting in quite a few colonies of them beyond the Nexus’ boundaries). They are mixed on the idea of fighting back against the remnants of the Ascendancy. Some believe that they should be allowed to sputter off and learn their lessons, others believe it is best to leave them alone, while a number of more militant groups believe they need to be stopped to avoid a repeat of past tragedies.
Permissions:
As they are the most common members of the NIRC with humans not too far behind, they can be found in a wider array of settings and occupations. They are commonly associated with colony worlds agricultural regions, jungles/forests/swampy areas, and certain industrial settings where they are hard workers well known for being good with ships and construction. Some of them can be fairly friendly and sociable if difficult to truly become close to and it is not uncommon to find them living at the outskirts of certain societies, preferring to keep some distance. However, it is not uncommon to find they can often become part of the heart of smaller urban or agricultural communities, with their sense of unity extending to those they feel share similar values or helpful personalities.
At the same time, there are a lot of humans and tarrhaidim in the remnants of the Ascendancy who are far more harsh and elitist. These ones frequently travel as mercenaries and epouse a sort of quasi-nietzchean might-equals-right philosophy and disdain what they see as the bleeding, soft-handed weakness of their Nexus counterparts. They frequently travel in warbands, gathering experience wherever they see fit before turning to their hiding Ascendancy bases to teach and share what they have learned. They long to one day retake what is theirs and execute “the breeders of weakness and decadence” for overthrowing those who has “raised them from dirt into godhood.”
It wasn’t long before the six team members were hurried onto the armoured transports as the molten wreck of the gun-platform smouldered and sputtered. The black smoke rose ominously as the heavy, thudding footsteps and crumbling of enormous trees continued. Something massive was nearing – a vague shape throughout the treeline, glanced by the Dolsilvec troopers as their weapons tracked the enormous shadowy outline of its movements and the vegetation that crunched and tumbled in its wake. Lesser infantry would’ve long since opened fire – their missile launchers and high output beam guns would’ve made short work of most but the peace they maintained, perfunctory as it was, still had its value. One of the troopers gestured off to another standing by a series of boxy, bumpy protrusions emerging from a pod-like object out of which a cluster of jagged, pointed antennae. The equipment operator nodded, punching a few buttons.
As one of the troopers reached into their cargo components, passing what looked like a malleable plastic bag of rehydrating fluid-gel, he paused to look through the still open door. The pointed antennae began to shudder like insect legs of some chirping, squeaking species and a piercing, sharp whine began to fill the air. For a second one would think it was drowning out the stomping of the unseen juggernaut but in reality but its steps had slowed, from lurching crunching stomps to a slow scraping, drag against the forest floor. That would be difficult to hear with the sudden static buzz creeping through the Sect-team’s coms and the trooper attempting to help Buerra. He fumbled, nearly dropping the package as he shut off his coms momentarily, mumbling an apology as he passed the refreshing package. It was as if the weather has worsened abruptly or some sort of interference was directly targeting them – the other Dolsilvec troopers had had the fortune to have disabled theirs earlier avoid the annoyance. Only the shrill voice of the jamming device continued before its pointed tips began to slide back into its body and its dense body was picked up and hauled back into one of the APC’s.
“Tempting to hang you outside like cargo but no,” Yrilovan replied to as he stood at the middle, one of his arms grasping handles on the ceiling of the vehicle’s interior. “There isn’t even enough of you to use as reactive armour.”
The rest of the troopers didn’t seem to move but the heads of a few shook and bobbled somewhat – faint laughter audible behind their visors, slightly glowing as the lights flickered and the interior darkened. The doors were quickly closing but before they had done so, the vehicles were already moving, rumbling over the hilled ground and through the streets of Kerovnia.
In the close quarters of the armoured personnel carriers, the team was able to get a closer look at their newfound allies. They were Dolsilvec troopers and beyond Yrilovan, there didn’t seem to be other celaderaka. For eyes adapting to lower light conditions, their visors weren’t completely opaque. Faces could be seen behind the tinted glass, some eyeless and veiny eyeless masses above jagged teeth and others clearly human. They were professional soldiers –selectively kitted firearms, well-kept armour devoid of scratches or cannibalized parts, and a number of bandoliers, pouches, and blade-sheaths across their bodies. For a Regimist troopers at this stage of the conflict, they were considerably more well supplied than most.
The one who had passed Paris the gel-pack sat back and crossed and tapped his foot, giving a quizzical look at the air that blurred through his ventilation.
“Is that Pact equipment? You were clearly in the shitter if you were drafted into their schemes.” He commented almost casually. His voice had been filtered through a masking device – it grated and grinded, the words tinged with metallic edge and tone. “I have served with them before, joint operations before they decided to play kingmaker with different generals here on Chalgheol – hardy people but I wonder how they have survived this long, scraping by with designs as primitive and factory-pumped as their personalities.”
Given the lumbering size of his armour, it was difficult for it not to catch the attention of the squad of comparatively smaller humanoids. Vin’s appearance however, was not lost on them either. His armour hid his voidhanger characteristics but it wasn’t through visual cues that the tarrhaidimg trooper’s featureless head seemed to scan him, tinted a sickly bluish green through its visor.
It raised one of its long, gloved fingers and tapped against its other arm, cranking its back and forth in rigid, robotic motions – its fingers all moving independently, mimicking the jointed limbs of factory-based manufacturing robots as they tapped and scratched against its padding-armoured limb.
The voidhanger would be able to detect the readings of a scan passing over his body – his synthetic arm was being scanned, analysed, and a tinge of ether was detected in the air, emerging from the tarrhaidim. Across from him on the opposite corner of the APC, one of the humans had turned his visor towards him, analysing the complex electronics of his prosthetic limb or at least trying to.
The tarrhaidim sititng directly across from him leaned forward, its crag-mouth full of grotesque teeth somehow not moving as it spoke – a gargled series of wet, frothing gurgles thankfully partially muted through its speakers. Vin’s programs would be able to roughly translate what he was saying.
[Tarrhaidim] “Paid well, yes? Your arm – my friend likes it.” He gestured off with a nod towards the human then looked back to Vin, “Voidhanger, adventurous, maybe too much. I thought prosthetics killed you – your body hates all things not touched by Abzu. Well dressed – not guerilla yes? So many of you, little more than flies following the excrement-reek from the Traitor-Armies, I would think like regressions of humanity rather than evolutions.”
He paused to make a particularly unpleasant slurping sound, slowed down as if being digitally processed. A few more followed him, joined by humans grunting and cursing in agreement.
As the trip dragged on, Yrilovan turned to Linus, his gaze tangible through the steely orange visor. The Laguna operative was the only other celaderaka he noticed sent alongside them.
[Celderakan] “I hope Laguna pays you enough to be their attack dog.” He commented without even looking at Linus, causing a few of his subordinates to abruptly quiet themselves or switch to their private com channels. “I remember you – not that we met, but I saw you on our drone feeds once, aerial reconnaissance over one of the smaller towns. That was you, on that rescue operation, wasn’t it? You fight well, even when near death’s doorsteps. Your clan hierarchs back in the *Bindarang Perhungan would have granted you great gifts for bravery, perhaps breeding stock too for the continuation of bloodline, something the rest of the rebel upstarts have discarded. Certainly more than what another independent militia can scrounge up. Did you even have proper doctors?”
+++
Over in another APC, the other voidhanger was drawing some strange looks. An onlooker wouldn’t be able to tell but peeking in on their com channels or amplifying the sound of whispers between a few of them and it was clear that some of the Dolsilvec troopers had doubts about the second voidhanger being with them – one whose armour was clearly that of an infiltrator.
“Probably some pirate, no, a thief and an infiltrator. There is a market for void-snakes like them.” One of them, a prosthetic-eyed human, murmured quietly over a seemingly-closed coms channel to his compatriot as he glanced at Silver. “I was with exospace marines, half of our job was dealing with these cockroaches. Their fleet elders were always crowding around our space stations stations and begging for work and rent, but it is these marauders they always hide amongst their own that first to slip a knife in your back the second you reached over to hand the contract. That is how we got into hostage scenarios, when t-”
“Oi, you a privateer?” Another human called out, turning off his voice filter to address Silver loud and clear. “Real nice suit ya got my friend, piece it together yourself or snatch it off some convoy huh? Don’t try and get away and say you’re homo-sapien, everyone felt that abzu-tinge once you walked into the vehicle and I know that isn’t just qillatu residual.”
He stopped rather abruptly, one of the tarrhaidim grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. He didn’t need to say why, simply giving the lumbering Zsresrinn and the austere Corsica a quick glance.
“Probably friends – detritus eater and detritus dweller…” The tarrhaidim murmured in English as quietly as possible, his voice abruptly raising as he turned to Corsica, reddish ocular veins visible through its visor at it glared at her. “That Nova-Pura-Shithole lady though? I bet even they don’t like her. Sadistic terrorists, burn a whole hospital down, just to knock off some no-name bio-con…”
They sat down, keeping their hand gripped tight on his rifle. Yet the fungoid wasn’t done yet.
“Answer me, you brain-dead cunt. I know you're listening in, fucking garbage in biped form, how you get treated as a protected religious organization in some systems before going off to lynch some nobodies on some impoverished backwater huh? Go on and explain how killing off photosynthesizer-power plants is supposed to protect us, when you aren’t lynching our sporelings for having 1% too many foreign biomass augs. Maybe you just like the thrill or your high priest unzips first before they let you-“
This time, one of his squadmates audibly smacked him in the gut, drawing a growl as he doubled over before he stopped, but not before looking over to Zsresrinn.
“I know you probably think us Dolsilvecs are a bunh of washed-up has-beens holding onto tatters you crusty lump, but trust me, this pyro-twat will stick that gun barrel to the back of your skull the second those next-gen bioweapons of yours lead to mass produced augs in a few months if you’re stuck with us for that long. Mark my words, the Sect doesn’t mean shit to them.”
+++
As the banter continued, the convoy began to slow. A few of the soldiers involved would begin to draw away from whatever was being conversed as Yrilovan opened the door to the driver’s section, exchanging a few difficult words to make out. It was like this for a few minutes with the gun turrets able to be heard rapidly swiveling as opposed to the slow, pleasantly subtle drone of their movement earlier while the convoy was moving more rapidly. The APC convoy was slowing down Yrilovan stepped back out, looking over at his squad and then Linus, Paris, and Vin.
“We’re getting out. This is the location but the terrain is a bit rough. Once your friends arrive to link up with you, we’re done here as far as I’m concerned.” He stepped forward as the door lowered, a pair of large PDW-sized blaster-cannons in each hand. The rest of the troops filed out rapidly, all the raunchiness and roughness replaced with cold, steel-eyed militancy as they swept around the area.
The other three APC’s fanned out, spreading out as their contents disembarked and began to sweep out to secure the area around a small power-generator of some sort next to a tall column-structure with the segmented build of something almost like a human spine. Vegetation had crept into its crevices and along the flat surfaces of the generator but there were few signs of habitation.
Quickly, the Dolsilvec Regime infantry began to spread out, their weapons hunting for any sign of movement as they surrounded the spinal-structure and the generator, falling into a layered defensive circle around the convoy. The APC’s had moved off near the sides, partially concealed by a few old, collapsed trees and heavy foliage. Only the tips of their barrels graced the edges of the treeline.
A waterfall could be seen a few metres off to the back, its top scoured by one of the vehicle’s turrets before it froze on a certain spot on. A few of the troops abruptly called it out, transmitting to the target location to the east of the waterfall. Just a few feet away, a few figures could be seen moving through a gap in the treeline, framed amongst the dense green in their armour and fatigues. They wore green cloaks, long rifles peeking out from underneath, and their circular goggles gave them the appearance of a semi-insectoid biped, even if they appeared to be human themselves.
They waved to the Dolsilvecs, revealing more of their colours – the lighter Kevlar-esque armour and relatively less outlandish rifles were the calling signs of their military. A few more turrets swivelled and the sound of crunching footsteps and the distant treads of more vehicles followed. The soldiers turned sharp to see another two APC’s enter, flanked by soldiers in bulkier fully form-protecting armour.
Yrilovan motioned to them and walked forwards a few steps, stopping by the generator as he raised his palm. A few of the others had their rifles raised half-cautiously – there was always the chance for defector divisions, especially those that counted themselves amongst not only the Carnazir but the League and the Pact as well.
They weren’t Sect troopers from what anyone could see. That wasn't the armour type.
Yrilovan simply stood there, his hand raised as some sort of digital communication was exchanged. Peeking into his suit systems, they were a series of scans, checking registries, armour insignia, and cross-referencing databases. The gulf between the two groups was large and it was clear that there was a tension between them.
One of the troopers next to Zsresrinn nudged the insect, partially shielding herself with their huge body.
“Are they yours? We were told it would be Sect who would be coordinating.” She asked, looking off to a few others who had been quietly spreading out. A few of the turrets had turned away from those by the waterfall… but they hadn’t exactly stopped facing them either.
One of the troopers, the tarrhaidim who’d been speaking to Silver earlier, tapped the voidhanger on the shoulder. His coms were off and he whispered to the post-human.
“Don’t you think it’s a little odd their scouts simply hailed us like that? No radio signals, nothing? They just popped up out of the woods and rolled in, not even in their APC’s.”
One of the other tarrhaidim, the same one that had been angrily trading at Corsica earlier, could subtly be seen slipping into some of the bushes. He had a launcher, underslung on his rifle, and was busy changing out the munition type. A dull green HE shell was exchanged for another – white tipped and with a warning sign showing a sphere fragmenting into countless smaller ones.
That’s when Yrilovan, still communicating with the approaching Dolsilvecs, abruptly requested a com channel to the Sect squad, buzzing to their coms.
-- My on-board AI is handling it but I need you all to come clean. Just who were you told you were meeting up with? We were under the impression you would be briefed when here but another Dolsilvec team? We weren’t told about that. –
It seemed at least, that some progress was being made. A figure emerged from the back of one of the APC’s as the standoff seemed to end – wearing the same armour type as Yrilovan but a bit smoother and denser – its mouth visible and based on the rough, fleshy gnarliness it was a tarrhaidim. The armoured troops were casually walking forth as Yrilovan waved off at his squad, causing them to loosen up as the groups convened around the area.
-- I don’t have much time – that’s their leader walking out. He’s from a fortress-battalion just a few clicks away from Kerovnia, I’ve served with him before, but I wasn’t told anything about him joining us. Something has changed or someone else knows. --
And it was a rather tall Tarrhaidim too – one with a large sheathed blade against its hip, easily a few inches taller than Linus and grinning from side to side. A jovial grin really, one that seemed rather at ease. The tall fungoid moved toward to shake hands with Yrilovan as the armoured troopers strolled through the settlement, exchanging pleasantries with their comrades.
If they all looked over to near the waterfall, the cloaked scout troopers had begun leaving, beginning to visually melt into the woods as they moved on ahead.
The huge leader of this small platoon however, didn’t spend long with his celaderaka counterpart, moving towards the Sect team.
“I apologize for not getting here earlier – we were bogged down as we got here.” He spoke, taking a short bow and muttering something in tarrhaidim under his breath. What could be made out seemed to be a prayer of some sort – “spore moon” was mentioned. “The Sect contacted us a few hours ago. We were told to secure a rendez-vous point in the woods, just a few clicks away from Kerovnia. Scenic place – enough that we decided we didn’t mind going on foot given the relative closeness. We have trundled along inside those transports for weeks. A hike does a soldier good.”
He paused for a moment, looking over at the mismatched group of soldiers before back at Yrilovan.
“Yrilovan, he hasn’t told you too much hasn’t he? I don’t blame him. Top secret Sect happenings correct? It is not for my non-existent nose to poke into.” He chuckled, looking over towards Paris, pausing for a few moments before looking over at Corsica.
“Interesting party you have. Usually they…” He paused for a few moments, turning his head towards Zsresrinn. “Oh? Just one? You are from… Ugnost, was it? I’ve heard of you – my, marvellous specimen you are. I had heard of a vrexul or two being assigned to look after a few of our remaining assets. Momentous occasion truly, if you were reassigned from that.”
Yrilovan could be speaking with a few of the soldiers and while his body language was calm, something about the troops seemed to be tense. One of them was gesturing at him, fist raised and moving it against his palm and another was pointing out to a few dirt paths through the woods, leading up towards hillier terrain.
The tall celaderaka however, could very faintly be heard. He wasn’t quite shouting but he was talking loudly. His voice was masked by his armour’s speakers, blurring it partially to the extent it couldn’t be made out from the current distance of the Sect squad.
Another group of them were chatting with the troopers near the back of one of the APC’s – one was occupying the driver on the side with chat and cigarettes as another slipped in and out of it quickly, waving at his squad-mate before moving to the generator, poking around the small communication module to its right as he stood on its moss-covered steps.
Yrilovan’s head turned towards the Sect members before he went back seemingly to arguing with the Dolsilvec troopers. One of them had a long white axe in his hands, tapping it against the ground.
“How rude of myself to come in unannounced and unaccounted for on another note,” The tarrhaidim commander continued. “Gourlan Karzai – section commander for the local Sprawls’ mountain base. Not much of it now – this here is a backwater. I’m rather envious of Yrilovan – he was assigned to one of the more exciting theatres, only pulled over here a few weeks back. He never did tell me what he was preparing for during the strategic meetings but the ‘draka knows how to present a surprise no?”
As he spoke, there was a very slight smell to him that wasn’t quite fungoid earthiness. It was an odd mix of something metallic and burnt. It was clear he had seen combat before – old blastmarks on his armour and a few residual burns along his backside but they seemed fairly old. Some of the splotches seemed to fade into his faded if rough, segmented armour.
“You wouldn’t happen to be carrying any additional ammo by the way, would you?” He asked to Paris. “You look like someone who prefers their calibres more substantial. We barely had time when we were called out to properly resupply after our last patrol – chop chop, we were told, and before we knew it, we were proudly now under the command of the Sect.”
He continued to grin, his teeth almost human if not for the almost shark-tooth like appearance and the fact he didn’t seem to have a tongue in there.
Yrilovan was turning away from those he was conversing with, walking quickly to one of the APC’s but he turned around the corner of the generator and back towards a different APC, then towards some foliage. The foliage one the tarrhaidim trooper who’d been changing his grenade launcher had been hiding in – now sitting about, appearing to be simply maintaining his rifle.
He seemed to be trying to hide momentarily – the rest of his squads were conversing with the armoured troopers, who hadn’t seemed to catch sight of him as he walked off.
Yet he wasn’t opening his private channel either.
A few of them could be seen moving to the river, soaking up their canteens with water but if one listened very closely, there was a sizzling sound. Some of them stood guard, partially blocking their sight as the others momentarily dunked their gear into the water, scrubbing them off and washing off anything that might have gotten stuck on them. A bit of steam could be seen rising, almost like smoking barrels as they stepped in.
It appeared to have been a busy day for both groups.
*In English, this translates to the Blood Star Nexus. It is the name for the collection of the worlds the celaderaka originate from.
Also known as: Jednota Propojených Shromáždění Lidí [ENG: The Unity of the Interconnected People's Assemblies]
Overview:
The NIRC is a loosely connected alliance of multiple sapient species that had formed over the course of multiple revolutionary wars in various outermost worlds, fully manifesting in the waning years of a once powerful human dominated Ascendency that was on its way to becoming a regional power. It has four dominant sapient species - ex-colonial humans, the fungoid tarrhaidim, arthropod vrexul, and anguillid gealtirocht. All four to some extent lived under the tyrannical rule of a human-run empire after having been subjugated in some way by them and allied proxy states. Both exploited the vast natural resources and labour potential of what were once free worlds, quelling multiple revolts and uprisings but not the insurrectionist and anti-hierarchic spirit that spawned them. Many of them would escape to “dead” worlds as well as the depths of Karbana Kinnis and others would continue their anti-imperialist actions in secret on occupied worlds, gradually building an interplanetary movement of increasingly difficult to govern civil disobedience and growing numbers of independent yet unified worlds all opposed to the expanding Imperial power.
The Ascendency did not take this lightly but by the time the first bullets had been fired in open warfare, the nascent NIRC was too powerful for the unwieldy, cumbersome empire to properly combat. The revolutionary force conquered and reclaimed all their frontier worlds, bringing to an end a once invincible regime’s grip on these lush domains. However, the revolutionary war was not without a massive cost, leaving the NIRC to inhabit a shattered series of worlds many of which had been divided through socially engineered colonial rule, rampant built-in corruption, careless environmental degradation, and internecine conflicts of faith, ethnicity, territory and politics. At the same time, it had developed a revolutionary spirit of unity that transcended nearly all boundaries - many of the armies that fought under its name were not necessarily in agreement with one another but the dream of forging a true future spoke louder than differences of doctrine. To add to this, new technologies developed by both exiled leaders and the first few NIRC worlds combined with the infrastructure inherited from the fallen Ascendency have allowed them to repair shattered worlds via terraforming and accelerate the transition process towards the Nexus’ style of governance.
Currently, the NIRC is in a period of immense growth as its plan for full stabilization are now finally underway after a bit over a decade of preparation and pre-action. Massive terraforming operations, the ending of remaining internal conflicts, the elimination or capture of hidden Ascendency loyalists and counter-revolutionary forces, the improvement of standards of living, the nationalization of industries - it is one of the largest and most ambitious attempts at modernization. It is roughly at 58% of its projected completion, slowing down slightly as the Nexus begins programs to extend its soft power beyond its own boundaries and its growing military begins plans to settle into various areas of Karbana Kinnis as part of an pan-planetary attempt to uncover the mysteries of the three major alien races that comprise this increasingly powerful alliance.
Structure:
How the NIRC runs varies wildly to which specific subset of it is at the helm with regards to the worlds under its control. The vrexul, arguably the face of the NIRC, have the most convoluted system. The absolute power sits not with one of their own but a gigantic moon-sized bioconstruct known as the Rozkleřešení (english: Gnosis Eater) made of a mixture of constantly mutating, decomposing, and thus rejuvenating biomatter and complex self-sustaining and replicating cybernetics that serves not only as a giant supercomputer but the highest political authority. Its power is filtered through the advanced AI’s of six enormous bio-habitat ships the vrexul first came to these worlds with years ago, then to a 36 person council made up of six-person mind-linked sub-councils then down through that to the independent-yet-united assemblies of varying shapes and sizes that exist underneath them. This process can also be reversed and frequently focuses on decisions made on the ground up simply given a smaller degree of input from those higher on the command - their power ultimately rests on these assemblies and by themselves, have limited capabilities in terms of practical power compared to those they are governing.
The gealtirocht on the other hand are essentially tribesfolk or clanspeople, following a more anarchic sort of organization that technically does not have a single leader. They do however converge as a whole with the decision-making heads of the larger clans (whose power is only really “allowed” in these moments) bringing decisions towards their subjects when as a whole they decide on actions that will affect the NIRC and other worlds as a whole. This low-tech approach seems to clash with them having the most advanced technology on average but they follow the general idea that states should be kept fairly minimal but the unity of people should speak louder than laws and leaders. It has been updated with a considerably lesser emphasis on lineage and descent, with them moving away from a tighter bloodline focused idea of kin and tribe/clean to one based on action and choice.
For the longest time, the majority of the tarrhaidim lived under a theocracy but while they are not that much less religious than they were previously they did a particularly strange method of decision making. Unlike the other two aliens here, they have kept a supreme leader sitting somewhere between the vice-chairman and a high priest though their religious powers for determining doctrine have been mostly removed at this point. They are beholden not to other political parties but rather interest groups that represent elements of their society such as the military, the workers, the arts, religion, health, and so on - a “one party” state with multiple sub-groups not so much in conflict with one another as much as entirely focused on specific subsets of their society.
Said system followed by the tarrhaidim is similar to that of the humans albeit with religious aspects being absent. It is the closest to traditional democracy but retains the “power from below” system of organization wherein much of the decision making sits in the hands of assemblies made of the proletarian working classes. As humans were the main species of the empire of old, they generally have taken the longest to adapt to the new rule and most of the complete economic and political changes the Nexus is undergoing as a whole are still in the midst of transition states amongst them.
All of these states generally work more akin to a pact, making larger decisions with the combined heads of each one and outlining larger directives to be undertaken as part of their own distinct galactic agendas. Due to them having lost the least in the liberation wars (which is being incredibly relative here), the Vrexul have the most dominant position in the Nexus especially with regards to the military. At the same time, this massive advantage they have has meant that they have had to assist the rest of the powers especially in terms of security and re-creating infrastructure. Their leadership is slowly diminishing their overall presence leaving more room for humanity, the gealtirocht and tarrhaidi to have a larger say along with allowing them to shoulder a larger degree of the responsibilities with regards to the maintenance of the Nexus and its protection.
Beliefs:
As a whole, the Nexus are believers in a populist style of government with power meant to rest amongst the classless masses and any structured institutions used solely for the purpose of maintaining a political ecology of mutual cooperation, aid, and prosperity. Except in certain human and tarrhaidim areas, politicians are not even in paid positions - only the truly dedicated step up to the challenge. Workplaces are no different, either already having or morphing towards collective ownership or strictly regulated by governing bodies, frequently automated with the advent of advanced vrexul bioautomata. Leading from this, they can sometimes be outright anti-work in the sense they do not like the idea of spending your time working for a mere fraction of the profit created for those that will always be more powerful economically and politically than oneself. Others see work as meaningful when divorced from the process of mere material accumulation when governing mechanisms are used to provide for basic needs, allowing work to be transformed into a process of expression subordinate to one’s deepest held aspirations and desires.
Subsequently, every Nexus faction has an enormous arts community ranging across all major mediums. Musical, culinary, martial, visual, and some even in more arcane or eldritch categories of art among others are not only the pride of many of their nations but also something they believe to be an inherent good and subsequently something they export fairly heavily to worlds outside of their control. Some would say this is a form of soft power and they aren’t wrong - one way to influence others is to simply make them enjoy the things that you do after all. Yet a large part of this is simply due to the importance they put on enjoyment and self-realization which exists independent of their geopolitical goals. The vrexul are particularly well known for their music, best described as “ritualistic blackened doomy semi-industrial microtonal-contrapuntal death metal chamber orchestra”. The gealtirocht have a popular sport that is half soccer and half quarter-staff or baton based martial arts but in low to no gravity environments. Tarrhaidim have some surprisingly meaty tasting vegetarian dishes partially made of dirt-like substances and snake-like tendril-plants feeding on large juicy garlic-like mushroom growths they prepare in their own bodies. The humans have created next generation gaming taking place in simulated worlds crafted out of hardened light-like energy. The possibilities grow by the year.
Another core belief is a highly pronounced sense of revolutionary spirit, compassion, and galactic independence. The Nexus were born from tossing off the shackles of empire and subsequently have very little love for anything resembling it or fulfilling the same function. This can sometimes result in skepticism towards the NIRC itself but it extends far beyond that to most forms of corporate or purely growth-centered enterprise, ultra-rigid hierarchy or class division, certain forms of nationalism or constructed popular identity, and so on. As a whole however, it does make them either very difficult to approach or very easy. Some humans and a smaller number of tarrhaidim as less skeptical towards liberal democracy but most nationalistic, totalitarian ones are simply avoided or scorned outright by any of them. On the other end, independent colony worlds and certain smaller interplanetary associations are generally given a wider berth and considerably more respect off of the bat. It isn’t uncommon for them to frequently support revolutionary or popular uprisings in a number of cases - sometimes going forth as to providing volunteers, material support, and heavy doses of radicalization to those involved.
Members of the NIRC generally are known for having a very specific way of looking at things that informs the overwhelming majority of their politics. It is a materialist form of analysis based on viewing history, living conditions, the cultural and ideological zeitgeist, and political system of rule but just as importantly the relations between the classes and the methods by which societies provide for themselves as a single interrelated system of relations. Known as mechanialchemical materialism, it views the interaction of subjects within typically stratified societies as a series of inherent conflicts established for the purposes of control and suppression of power. The term came from occultist groups of all places when applying their understanding of esoteric beliefs unto contemporary political analyses when meeting with hardened veteran insurgents.
A number of religions exist within NIRC space. The gealtirocht have been polytheist pagans from the beginning, worshipping a celestial order of gigantic void-dwelling eel-like organisms they claim are their true predecessors and their “national spirit” being a reflection of their will and nature. This pantheon is known as the Síocornaíocht or in English, “The Coils of Eternity”. The tarrhaidim are “monotheistic” in the sense their belief follows that of a singular entity - an enormous fungal spore-moon nown as Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”. Both species are capable of having visions of their respective super-organism-deitites and there are fields of study that seek to attempt to find them. The tarrhaidim instinctively “know” which direct Almh’albadi is in while the Síocornaíocht appears to inform the gealtirocht capable of some sort of energy manipulation others call magic. It is known that there are bizarre super-organisms where these species can be found which to some explains their beliefs but folk tales, legends from starfaring crews, and strange potentially supernatural phenomenon fuel the curiosity and wonder of others.
By contrast, the vrexul’s own super-organism was one they or rather their predecessors created themselves and is often clearly visible with the right observation equipment. The Rozkleřešení (or Gnosis Eater) isn’t actually worshipped as a divine figure but seen as a sort of representative of larger systems of cause and effect, a living embodiment of knowledge and un-knowledge, being and unbeing, and a gateway to truths of existence beyond what one’s body is capable of comprehending by default. Their “faith” if it can really be called such is not so much based around worship but awareness of the greater underlying currents that warp and change reality with all living things in the corporeal realms as little more than subjects of eldritch forces that manifest for reasons they can never understand the totality of - at least not with minds constrained by their current neurobiology. Some sects of this occultist belief think that the Rozkleřešení is a living gateway that allows one to peer into it and observe something called names such as “The Prisoner of the Void” for those who believe the Rozkleřešení is merely containing it and others the “The Hungering in the Chasm”. What it specifically is isn’t known - it may simply be some kind of psycho-engrammatic signal sent out by the living supercomputer that causes strange hallucinations. Yet there are patterns notable throughout some of said strange psychic sightings - some see countless stars tumbling through a yawning, psychedelic void as they are sliced apart by the infinite jaws and claws of some massive segmented organisms and others a gigantic juggernaut of infinite sickle-ended legs dragging its ripping ends through the countless hungry eyes and tongues of a realm made of slathering, lustful flesh. Nobody is sure if any of this is true but it is known that large starborne arthropod organisms can be seen near the star systems some worlds believed to have belonged to ancient Vrexul.
Technology:
Nexus technology varies notably between its human, vrexul, tarrhaidim, and gealtirocht members but as time passes, they are beginning to all converge on a number of key concepts.
They are best known for their vrexul technology which is heavily associated with biotechnology and augmentative capabilities as well as using both to create bioautomata; machinery comprised of replicated or lab grown biomass though they frequently feature heavy cybernetics. When it’s reasonable to do so, they typically use said bioautomata to free themselves up to do more desired tasks though they do not often replace the military. This results in an increasingly automated workforce but they are typically maintained and watched over by highly trained maintenance teams, some of which include sentient bioautomata themselves. The ability to modify genetics and biology has also allowed them to enhance their bodies to the extent they are often completely different organisms thant they would be naturally. Sets of feelers capable of detecting distant forms of radiation, additional limbs that can morph or split into different tools, parasite organisms that feed on and augment their own bodies simultaneously, even ranged weaponry - the possibilities are endless. They are known to do the same to certain arthropod animals in order for them to fulfill the roles of certain vehicles or bioautomata too. Their most advanced technology is now as “biovolatility”, allowing for the storage of multiple “encoded” body-morphs whether they are new tools, limbs, weapons, organs, and so on and for the most part, is typically relegated to military usage. Research departments are currently finding ways to combine this with ethereal/”magical” capabilities in top secret experiments conducted for the purpose of preparing for current and upcoming conflicts.
The gealtirocht are masters of energy manipulation, anti-gravity, and high tech computers - something which causes much surprise given their tribal lifestyle. Nearly all of their ground vehicles hover rather than roll across the ground, to the extent some are capable of a degree of flight. They have even adapted anti-gravity for personal usage, being popular among hunters who wish to silently stalk their prey in mountainous terrain or even recreational climbers who use it to get to difficult to reach places. Their energy manipulation is best known for their ability to power direct energy “laser” type guns and other such weapons. At the same time, it finds use in communications, construction, mining, surgery, and even agriculture. They can communicate data far more efficiently and with less interruptions, cut through tough rocks without damaging the ores inside or causing stability in mountainsides, weld or cut metal far more efficiently, seamlessly seal and cauterize wounds with marginal pain, and even repair damaged crops or control pest species without too much harm to the environment with specialized tiny “hunter drones”. Their computers on the other hand use a mix of crystalline tech to transfer raw energy and modular morph-capable components allowing them to fulfill a very wide array of tasks as well as being able to be modified quite quickly. Their compact computers often have capabilities normally reserved for far larger, chunkier machines though they can be somewhat difficult to maintain as they begin looking into ways of simplifying their usage. It is believed they have some computers capable of utilizing the ethereal, “magical” currents of their kind but how exactly is up in the air so far.
The tarrhaidim are often seen as primitive but they are no less creative than their alien counterparts. These fungoid organisms are capable of soundlessly communicating through specialized chemical and electrical signals, even networks of nerve-like mycelia sending hidden messages back and forth without the need to be physically connected. This allows them to link multiple persons together in highly receptive communication networks albeit typically within a limited range and they haven’t perfected replicating the system outside of their own kind yet. It does however form the foundation of their own sort of biotech, allowing them to selectively control and manipulate various plant or fungi species that can be modified in ways that mirror how the vrexul do the same for organisms. Many of these organisms can be used to create large structures for a variety of purposes, allowing them to rapidly create ecologically integrated settlements that are essentially mega-colonies of fungi and plant life interacting with one another. Their most arcane technology however is the capability to control multiple bodies by becoming singular gestalt consciousnesses. This also requires the mycelia networks but a far, far more advanced version and specialized training, typically using replica bodies but they can also be used to control certain vehicles, automata, computers, or even other animals or vegetation. The strain can be immense to an untrained consciousness and is considered perhaps the most cutting edge technology within the entire Nexus.
Humanity benefits from much of the same technology as these three, typically using assorted general far future fare as befitting of colonies in this time albeit augmented with upgrades from the prior four even if they are technically the least advanced member of the Nexus. Most humans in the Nexus are from colonial backgrounds and have developed specialized meteorological and agricultural technology that has helped lead to a boon in food production when combined with contributions from the other three. Much of their robotics and FTL tech have also been used as foundations for further progress in these fields while their defensive fleets and space stations have lead to a fairly wide array of system defence, scientific research, and habitable space stations. The modular nature of many of their designs has also been highly influential even for all manner of vehicles, structures, weapons, starships, and military hardware. It is from their designs as well that their hypermagnetic tech was created, leading most famously to railgun tech but also high speed delivery and transport systems that have vastly improved infrastructure in the worlds hit the hardest by the aftermath of the Ascendency.
Military:
General Organization:
The NIRC’s style of governance might be more informal than most but as a military it has generations worth of experience fighting two pronged conflicts as both an insurgent force and a people’s army. As such, its ranks draw from a combination of sources official and unofficial such as professionally trained and supplied planetary armies, reformed space pirates turned non-governmental militant brigades, guerilla groups forged from various Ascendency occupations, and once-deniable shadow battalions often made up of political defectors and hardliners from established nations. During times of larger scale conflict, the command chains of all four of its forces unite and integrate into a specifically configured command structure with its highest command levels assisted through specialized gestalt consciousness technology on a closed psycho-sealed network to ensure information security and rapid, precise planning. As the Nexus is not yet fully united, some of the forces that fight under it are allied with rather than technically a part of its government even if they ultimately share the same beliefs and goals. The fiercely independent nature of some of these armed forces means that they are allowed a wider array of freedom than those under its direct command but may not always receive official support for actions undertaken without prior consultation.
Section 1 - Space Forces:
Its space fleet, while large given that it is comprised of four factions, is in the midst of an enormous change from primarily focused on internal system defence and planet to planet conflict to long distance expeditions and larger scale conflict. As such, it is currently split between older models being retrofitted or otherwise modified for new exospace doctrine and newer models tailor made for their new objectives. Quite a few of their ships are in the midst of construction or testing for a new era of interstellar geopolitics. One should not mistake them for being incapable however as their defensive fleet and numerous defensive platforms make their home worlds quite heavily guarded. Their current expeditionary fleet on the other hand, while not particularly large, has a number of ships with very notable and oftentimes unusual capabilities that make them far more difficult to fight than one would typically assume. A number of unusual vessels can be found in their fleets from gigantic half biological half cybernetic constructs in the shape of enormous primordial insects, small moon-like spore-colonies of innumerable teeming life forms, mythically large eel and mantis shrimp like creatures capable of tunnelling through hyperspace, and swarms of six-winged creatures each the size of school buses that quickly reveal themselves to be deadly unmanned fighters. Their fleets vary wildly from faction to faction.
The vrexul tend to have the largest and most heavily armoured ships, preferring enormous lumbering monstrosities with protruding scything limbs, multiple layers of shifting carapace plating, and smaller bio-construct creatures hidden within their bodies waiting to lunge on any vessel that foolishly nears, their enormous bodies heavily armoured, often protected by select shielding at certain components rather than the whole vessel, and capable of specialized on-board repair by various organisms. They are mostly specialized on high-output energy weaponry and a good deal of specialized semi-biological missiles generally suited for closer ranges due to the respective energy bleed-off and slower projectile travel time. Many of these weapons do not have immense killing power but they have a frightening number of secondary effects - causing power shortages and holes to momentarily appear in enemy shields, dropping clusters of large vehicular-sized organisms onto a ship’s surface where they rip through armour, equipment, and guns, or splitting into smaller cyborg war-head bioforms that tunnel through armour with metal-tinted mandibles to explode at vital components. This is further augmented by their non-ship fleet elements, the most notable of which are living combat intelligences implanted into a insectoid fighter-constructs and whose consciousnesses are “mirrored” into on-ship repositories for further augmentation and preservation. As they feature no real “pilots”, they are capable of absurd and freakishly predatory motions through the air, armed with hundreds of often semi-energy based homing missiles and vicious long range energy bolt repeaters.
By comparison, the enormous void tyrant bioweapons at their disposal can be as large as their capital ships - gigantic creatures from the blackness between the stars bristling with innumerable macro-augmentations and high intensity direct energy cannons and hyper-accelerating bio-mass launchers partially powered by the eldritch energies contained within their bodies. Capable of abruptly shifting motion or moving in rapid bursts, they are not afraid to close in on enemy vessels if the opportunity presents itself as their colossal claws and bladed or crushing limbs are adapted to crushing similarly gigantic prey. They also possess unusual vessels made of what seems to be half-complete ship frames and gigantic chunks of the Rozkleřešení, resulting in vessels shaped as they are like their own but covered in festering, decomposing, constantly frothing semi-biological matter. These grotesque monstrosities however sow confusion and terror in conflicts, generating enormous electrical and energetic interference onto enemies, vomiting swarms of volatile living mines blinking in and out of hyperspace, and sending globules of infesting mass that can eat through and heavily weaken even the most heavy armour.
The fungoid tarrhaidim use a similar amount of biomatter in their ship construction, crafting strange fusions of reinforced fungoid-vegetation and specifically reinforced metals capable of networking with the organic components. They are not quite as durable as their arthropod counterparts but are the second toughest ships on average. More importantly, they are capable of regenerating far faster and more efficiently than the vrexul’s with some of the most advanced life support systems known across the stars, making them very hard to disable. Adding to this are their defensive field emitters, using energized void-hardened seed-like nodes that create bio-energetic fields capable of rapidly leeching energy from projectiles such as beams or plasma globules. They often have bulbous or abstract shapes and while not especially fast, can keep far more momentum and speed when moving in almost any direction. Their weapon output in terms of kinetic force, blast power, or energy is not particularly high on average compared to their allies. Instead they can all put out an impressive volume of fire with particularly advanced counter-projectile intercepting and anti-aircraft capability. Many of their weapons focus on either causing debilitating damage over time with corrosive bio-plasma and raging energy fires but others are known to work by causing a deadly build-up of certain chemo-energetic compounds on or around a target then violently detonating them with certain specialist weapons, allowing them to do either consistent or very spike-heavy damage. They have a fairly solid range too, able to often out-shoot their vrexul counterparts at longer distances, assisted by the ability to control a number of gun-platforms that hover around the ships, capable of amplifying their shields to block a degree of weapons fire while further increasing the absurd volume of fire they can put out.
Tarrhaidim fighters are also rarely manned as much as they are controlled by similar implanted consciousnesses, resembling spike-like seed pods with circular arrays of razor toothed leaf-wings. They too however tend to bristle with higher volumes of fire than their arthropod counterparts and impressive regeneration. Where the carapaced ones may have lightning fast intercepting down to a T, these fungoids have far more advanced bombing craft capable of firing massive swarms of pinpoint cluster and piercing munitions along with cannons capable of scourging open gun positions and bulkheads once in range. They are frequently launched from what appear to be large spherical entities known as Spore Moons. These are often around the size of their ships but “tethered” to them through special psychoneurological-mycelial bonds. In essence floating gun platforms, they can disengage and “slingshot” around the battlefield, sending out waves of large worm-like parasites from their own biomass that hunt down enemy fighter or bombers before latching onto ships and ripping through vital electronics, potentially even boarding and desecrating the insides of the vessel. This is on top of the borderline nonsensical amount of guns they are unsurprisingly carrying, further drowning the enemy in sheer gunfire. The most mystifying of their space forces are the enormous saucer like Grave Crowns, frequently referred to as “motherships”. The largest of their vessels on average, they feature multi-directional weapon placement emphasizing launching swarms of living, predatory projectiles and streams of armour-shattering shells. Their true power is their ability to augment allied ships by networking with their biological and cybernetic components, improving regeneration, shield stability, accuracy, and assisting in coordinating fire. They can also cause spatial disruptions with experimental energy weapons, causing enemy ships to move slower in targeted areas or when fired upon with certain projectiles in energy fields, take additional damage from secondary explosions caused by chain reactions.
Unlike the prior two, the gealtirocht typically use ships fully made of metal. Lengthy, sleek, and usually bereft of jagged edges, these almost serpentine or piscine-designs have a sleek and graceful design that belies their impressive power. These ships are easily the fastest of the NIRC’s fleets, capable of momentarily overcharging their engines to even making short range jumps mid-combat to compensate for their relatively weaker hulls. Further adding to their protection is their specialized shielding, capable of drawing upon large batteries and even amplifying the effects of their weaponry when fired through shielded sections. Some ships are capable of even increasing the effectiveness of their shield by rapidly moving, even capable of using blurred after-imaging and visual disruption to make themselves far harder to target. They focus on a mixture of beam weapons and hyper-accelerated solid rounds, possessing the longest range and highest armour-piercing capability on average of the NIRC fleet, assisted by the most accurate targeting as well. Their weapons may often lack the secondary effects of their gnarlier comrades but they can essentially “snipe” other fleets, using pinpoint weaponry to weaken shielding in specific areas or viciously destroy vulnerable components. They aren’t afraid to get up closer when the time is right, unleashing specialized high output and impact weaponry in vicious, short strafing runs that can leave enemies stunned and crippled, unable to retaliate against the abruptly vanished gealtirocht fleet. They are also fond of two insidious tricks. The first is temporary invisibility often through a combination of fuel obscuration and masking emissions. The second is leaving clusters of specialized mines also capable of obscuring themselves similarly, “skipping” in and out of hyper-space to ambush those who would be foolish enough to chase them or attempt to flank their formations.
Their fighters are unsurprisingly sleek and elegant, almost fang-shaped with their curving blade-wings and predatory, elongated appearances. While they cannot turn *quite* as well as those of the prior two, their top speeds and acceleration are much higher and like their larger ships, pack much longer range weapons. They are arguably harder in some ways to track down and take out due to their jamming capabilities which only amplify as they move faster, making it difficult to spot their unique missiles - accelerating using specialized gas propellants to leave barely a signature before a secondary booster charge sends them rapidly barrelling towards unsuspecting targets like cold steel bolts. Colossal eel-like creatures known as the Serealgatai (“Hungerer of the Stars”) join their fleets as if following the promise of bloodshed, armed with a variety of specialized weapons that like with the vrexul, can feed off of their eldritch energies and augmented by armour plating covering their most vital organs. Similarly sized albeit longer than their arthropod counterparts, these enormous creatures can also momentarily warp in short hyperspace jumps but when they emerge, they can use the amassing energy to boost their own naturally generated abyssic shielding and speed, augment their own integrated weapons, or unleash it in massive bursts of power. They are not as durable as the vrexul void tyrants but they are far more maneuverable, notably faster, and harder to target with longer range weapons. The most mysterious of their space fleet are the Decimation Shrines, enormous vessels made of a mixture of semi-regenerated bones of enormous void-dwelling predators mixed with experimental composite metals capable of causing them to replicate to still-beating nerves and cells the sensation of being a part of a living beast again. These large ships can blur the spaces around themselves with their shielding, slipping in and out of realspace like a stalking predator, and unleash powerful beams of energy capable of goring open capital ships. They are best known for their ability to use their short FTL jumps offensively, creating shockwaves of ravenous power as they exit directed towards threats before blinking away and leaving homing mines in their wake.
While much of humanity’s ship have a background in the designs of the long since defeated Ascendency, they have gone far past their limitations to become an equally important part of the NIRC expospace fleet. Humanity’s ships tend to be somewhat blocky and rigid looking, closer to the great warships of water-borne navies past visually. While they lack the more exotic features of their alien counterparts, the human NIRC fleet packs impressive long range firepower with their love of rail-weapons, missiles, and an incredibly wide range of munition types, capable of modifying their effects on the fly whether it’s plasma wearhead, concentrated armour piercing, electro-magnetic, and even creating a burning area of energy that allows other projectiles to target or lock onto it more easily. They also have powerful plasma cannons, typically used at medium to short ranges, capable of overloading shields and even causing violent chain reactions as they overheat enemy armour. Their ships are fairly sturdy and durable, protected by advanced shields that can momentarily power-up to allow them to tank more damage momentarily and absorb a small portion of it to grant short boosts to their speed and weapon output. Their actual armour also tends to have advanced ablative plating with a higher than normal degree of resistance to energy based weaponry. They tend to also have large amounts of compact combat drones as well, capable of intercepting those of the enemy and adding to the numbers and aggression of their dedicated fighters and bombers.
Human fighters are fairly sleek and traditionally plane-shaped unsurprisingly but pack fairly devastating solid round and highly precise explosive weaponry. They are excellent at besieging enemy vessels, relying on precision targeting and high piercing to destroy vital components when they aren’t scourging enemy aircraft with disciplined aerial manoeuvres. They can even attach drones to parts of their craft, augmenting their capabilities whether in terms of firepower, target tracking, early warning systems and so on. While they are new to the idea of using spaceborne creatures in a military context, they have domesticated lengthy eel-like creatures known as “shovelheads” for their distinct cranial shape, modifying them for military use. Their distinct skulls are part of a specialized detection system throughout their body, capable of sending out waves of subtle, difficult to detect energy allowing them to track prey and avoid predators with impressive accuracy even without augmentation. When armoured up and bristling with weapons partially powered by their bodies, they can put out a wild array of fire and even use specialized pulse-rays from their skull to momentarily disable and stun enemy ships, allowing them to get close and rip into them before planting explosives then kicking off. The biggest guns they can pack are a part of their enormous hellmouth vessels, huge and heavily armoured ships along whose entire length runs a powerful cannon launching either plasma or rail shells. Intended for ranges typically associated with the gealtirocht, these ships are armed with jamming and targeting systems allowing them to confuse and disrupt those attempting to hunt them while impaling their foes with some of the most high impact weaponry in the Nexus. Recent advancements have allowed for specialized “warp” type firing modes, where in a plasma globule or a shell can be modified to “skip” in and out of hyperspace, gathering power as it goes and then violently exploding. This blast can knock enemy ships out of position and also momentarily tear holes in their shields, leaving them vulnerable for a vicious follow-up.
Section 2 - Ground Forces:
The NIRC’s armies, while featuring a number of non-official and official forces, has spent a long time building up a strong cohesion and unity in strategy and tactics to the point that full on single-species manifestations are becoming increasingly rare. In spite of the vast cultural and physical differences between all four species, the unifying political goals and multiple generations spent fighting a common enemy have forged bands with little caring for vastly differing biologies or languages. This is assisted by the fact that there is almost no real class division amongst them with the post-revolutionary political metamorphosis. For some, that is simply a return to traditions that the Ascendency abolished. It is clear that some of them are naturally more gifted than others in some areas. Gealtirocht by default can jump and run much faster than tarrhaidim, tarrhaidim regenerate much faster than gealtirocht, vrexul are physically more powerful than anyone else, and so on. Due to this, it has necessitated specialized roles that are somewhat rigid. New technologies with regards to augmentation and armour however are allowing for a wider range of versatility with it possible for example with certain types of armour and biological/cybernetic enhancements to have humans able to fulfill typically gealtirocht roles.
Subsequently, squads tend to combine these species together for versatility in terms of roles they can undertake. Each species has its own distinct way of fighting but when combined, allows them as a whole to fight the widest range of enemies across a number of differing environments and operational parameters. As a whole, the Nexus typically focuses on squadrons capable of putting out high firepower, independent yet interconnected, fighting alongside specialized non-infantry automata or constructs (robotic, biological, or both) and combat modified organisms providing long range or close in support as well as assisting in covering longer distances or rocky terrain. Vehicles generally play a supporting role, rarely staying too close except with certain armoured fighting platforms, with relatively lesser tanks than most but far more powerful mecha fulfilling the role of frontline combat vehicles. There are two strategies they are typically known for. The first are their combined arms advances utilizing a mixture of shock, awe, and the appearance rather than reality of superior numbers and force. The second is evasive, guerilla tactics focusing more on unit inter-independence, taking actions that support one another without often obviously coordinating in the open and emphasizing concealed movement and vicious, abrupt attacks. They are not afraid to change things up on the fly, advancing deep into enemy territory, feigning a retreat when finding sturdier defences, then baiting the enemy into a vicious game of predator and prey.
Subsection 1 - Infantry:
Vrexul soldiers are large, hulking monstrosities bristling with the widest and often most powerful arrays of weapons, a number of which is encoded into their bodies. While typically handling heavy weapons in a squad set-up and drawing most of the hostile attention, they are also occasionally deployed as gun platforms, capable of withstanding and inflicting tremendous amounts of damage and being fans of weapons with large calibres and high stopping power - their main infantry rifle for example is a modified electrothermal-chemical type compact autocannon derived from those of their security automatons. Adding to their lethality, their bodies usually contain a number of explosive launchers, short range spine-spitters, bio-energy medium range laser emitters and so on “encoded” into their biomass. Further adding to this is their great diversity of munition types, with conventional high explosive armour piercing and incendiary to more exotic variants such as rounds that release swarms of biting and detonating living cluster munitions or bio-electric shells that burrow into then electrocute targets.They are also fairly mobile, capable of digging underneath enemy fortifications, creating networks of tunnels, and like many arthropods surprisingly good at climbing in spite of their hefty size. A few are even capable of limited flight with modified wings and a number usually have smaller organisms living within them, capable of being used as drones or even attack units, saboteurs even with a sort of remote psychoneurological control. They are unsurprisingly horrific in assaults, with their massive size, bestial strength, genetically inherited hunting instincts, and numerous limbs being all the more terrifying when combined with close combat weapons generating fields of disruptive power allowing them to even slice vehicles open or even limbs capable of striking with the force or rifle bullets. Some are even capable of controlling fragments of the Rozkleřešení, using it to swarm and rip away at targets or obscure their own movements, even capable of being hardened and morphed into floating defensive barriers.
The gealtirocht are the second largest on average and with their digitigrade legs, absurdly fast runners and leapers. Their armour is on average the most high tech with state of the art shielding, targeting, and cloaking capabilities. Their great maneuverability is augmented by grav-thrusters allowing them to rapidly dash away sometimes mid leap and even fly for moderate lengths of time. Their weaponry tends to focus on semi-automatic long rifles firing particle beams, solidified energy placed in bullet-frames, or recently rail-rounds, giving them tremendous accuracy when combined with their ability to use their brain-adjacent third eye-organ to assist in acquiring targets visible and obscured. Their energy weapons are usually able to be charged up, generating and using additional heat and energy but with the added bonus of further increased range and power. They are also capable of dual-wielding compact hand-held automatic weapons, sending flurries of energy bolts to overwhelm opponents when assaulting them. This is assisted by their powerful lance weapons, with divisible twin-bladed staves whose cutting edges can be sheathed in energy fields and assisted by centuries worth of martial arts refinement, turning them into a militant whirlwind of violence. They are typically used as scouts and raiders, harassing from maximum distance or falling upon unaware foes. In squadrons, they often fulfill the role of marksmen or point-troopers, usually going on ahead to determine the safest routes of approach and focusing on targeting the furthest, most valuable enemy targets. Their bodies are frequently augmented with metal-laced bones, leg servos, and specialized filtration systems that give them similar sensory and at times even physical capabilities to the fearsome predatory creatures of their homeworld, with some even having long tails that can be modified with combat spines or specialized short range laser-emitters.
As the most numerous and second smallest species within the Nexus, the tarrhaidim unsurprisingly tend to fill out most of the grunt roles. They have had the longest history of warfare, particularly in a guerilla context, and fit themselves well to generalist roles. It is a holdover from when independent militant cells had to often fight alone with limited support and it makes them far more cunning than their reputation as cannon fodder would imply. They are masters of fighting in urban environments, ambushing and kiting around larger armed forces, setting up traps, and utilizing foritications. While their weapons are similar to those of humans, they have larger calibres (ie. what is an MMG to HMG round to us can be an assault rifle round to them) and have a more advanced semi-biological propulsion system that does not require much or sometimes any propellant, allowing for higher rate of fire and magazine size. The trend towards organic components in their weapons also allows themt o link said weapons to their bodies, augmenting their power and allowing them to even generate ammo on the fly. They can even “grow” attachments such as launchers, foregrips, scopes, and so on when linked to their weapons, making them highly adaptable. They are capable of using specialized growths on their bodies in a way similar to the vrexul albeit with less relative firepower. Instead, they focus moreso on disrupting, confusing, and hampering the enemy with fields of noxious electronics-interfering spore-hazes, freezing liquids that can lock up targets momentarily, hyper-metabolic seeds that can cause soil to crumble and weaken as it triggers, and even worm-like creatures they can use as grappling hooks or whips in traversal or combat. They are also known to contain specialized growths that can rapidly germinate and morph into a variety of barriers and small fortifications, allowing them to defend positions that might otherwise be too exposed or otherwise unfavourable. Their own martial arts traditions are potentially as old as the gealtirocht, descended from ancient tribes of mysticist-assassins, and focuses on using specialized bladed whips and vibro-blades capable of slicing through armour and even disrupting enemy shields.
Thanks to augmentative gear and tech, humanity can stand on similar footing as their allies. With a lengthy history of conflict even dating back to Earth, they have one of the most detailed military traditions especially with regards to large scale open conflict and mechanized warfare. Inheriting a number of defectors, sympathizers plus considerable materiel from the Ascendency that when combined with the Nexus’ technologies makes them just as formidable as their alien allies. Their armour is highly modular with a lot of parts that can be mixed and matched easily, allowing for easy repair, and also granting the highest degree of performance augmentation. They utilize a high number of magnetically and electrically accelerated weapons with a lesser degree of conventional propellant ones, also bearing a number of plasma models typically for medium to close range. They tend to have weapons that can “sheath” their rounds via energy-jacketing, allowing for additional effects and lethality.They are just less accurate and armour piercing than the gealtirocht but having more raw destructive power by comparison. They even have lower velocity homing munitions too, linking their weapons to their targeting systems to allow them to accurately target foes from safe distances. Their armour tends to have the capability to project powerful energy frields that can both protect them from incoming fire whether by lessening the energy output or kinetic force or stopping the projectiles, with some capable of even being launched offensively especially after gathering enough energy to be turned into a deadly projectile. Some of these shields can even further augment and “jacket” rounds that pass through them when fired by those behind them, further increasing range and lethality. Their augmentations are more fairly plain compared to their compatriots, typically increasing physical capabilities all around, but cyborg humans have faster reaction times than even some veteran gealtirocht. In close quarters a mixture of electro-shock mauls, force-magnifying knives, and impact gauntlets lets them punch far above their weight.
Subsection 2 - Vehicles:
While their ground forces are primarily focused on infantry, they have an increasingly sizeable vehicular pool that is just as diverse as the soldiers it is typically supporting. For the most part, they put an emphasis on mobility and aggressive firepower with much of their vehicular doctrine focused on supporting infantry without too much of an emphasis on pure brute force tactics. One shouldn’t expect said armoured divisions to be lacking in terms of power as much as having a more measured approach that belies the alien nature of most of their armour. Developments that have accelerated since the end of the revolutionary war have made breakthroughs in finding ways to integrate often vastly differing parts together, hinting at the creation of specialized hybrid vehicles. Until then, they are mostly making due with an impressive array of four different design philosophies.
In spite of their lumbering appearance, the vrexul do not have many tanks. Most of their vehicles are actually troop transports, armored fighting vehicles, and mecha a number of which have both legs and either treads or wheels. They do quite well in rough terrain, some even capable of “climbing” steeper surfaces and others can burrow. These arthropod limbs can also be used against enemies that draw too close, to move objects, or even demolish buildings. Most of their semi-biological armour is armed with high rate of fire spike-launching weaponry and multi-missile launch systems, utilizing heavier duty autocannons and bio-plasma for harder targets. They can carry a good deal of weaponry through encoding it into regenerating biomass, allowing them to sustaining short but vicious bursts of high intensity firepower typically used against medium to light armour. They are assisted by symbiotic organisms that inhabit and help repair their hulls, also capable of being used to attack nearby targets like infantry or to scout on ahead connected via neuro-electric links. Their main duty is to cover for and support troops from afar after the disembark but when they need to hit harder, their mechs come in. Spidery, crablike, staphylinid, stomatopod - these gruesome machines are freakishly mobile and carry long range heavy ordnance and powerful disruptor-field covered limbs that already are more than easily capable of smashing through fortress walls or walkers that find themselves caught off guard by these unexpectedly agile monstrosities. Capable of digging and even leaping short distances, they are masterfully crafted for the purpose of savagery and aggression up close or from afar.
The gealtirocht lack the imposing size of their carapaced comrades but their sleek, sharp, almost blade-like vehicles have a ghostly power of their own as they glide quickly yet near-silently with their anti-gravitational drives. Powerful shields both protect them from weapons fire and blur them to their foes, something that when combined with their ability to project ghostly after-images and holograms leaves foes confused and unaware of the high intensity particle beams and semi-crystalline shells slicing through reinforced armour from lengthy, eel-like cannons. Gealtirocht vehicles rarely get too close to the enemy except to use ultra-high intensity beam weapons in short, vicious forays before often using their flight or jump-jet capabilities to escape before retaliation is possible. Although they do not use mechs, they do have larger terrestrial assault craft descended from a mixture of their aquatic craft and highly shrunken down versions of their mobile bases known as highland tyrants. Capable of being used as command vehicles as well as concentrated long range support weapons, these rapidly moving land warships have powerful enough weapons they can even harass low-orbit spacecraft when they aren’t (literally) lighting up enemy fortifications and armour from afar. A single highland tyrant has the firepower of multiple hovertanks and is also capable of further muffling the sound and signatures of allies within a certain area of effect.
Compared to the respectively grotesque and artisanal elegance of the prior two, the tarrhaidim’s vehicle are simply grotesque. Monstrous combinations of fleshy vegetation-like biomatter and cruel jutting metal, they have an almost ramshackle appearance almost like a parody of their human alliesbut that only hides the impressive power behind them. They also have a mutagenic, morphing capability similar to the vrexul but are capable of generally creating artillery weaponry of varying sizes, whether it’s with their sidewinding electro-thermally propelled pod-rockets or trailed and volatile hyphae-bombs, as well as allowing new weapons to be grown, replaced, or attached far more easily than with purely metallic designs. Because of this they regenerate faster than the vrexul’s and can have the highest volume of fire. Combined with their wide variety of terrifying artillery options from living hyper-reactive rocket launchers to city-block levelling cluster cannon platforms and they are as good at besieging as they are entrenching. They are even capable of deploying rapidly growing foritifying cyer-biological mass and releasing specialized pheromones and spores that increase the regeneration and heighten the reflexes of their allies. It is possible for them to be piloted by worm-like symbiotes as well who can cover for damaged or deceased crew-members. They also possess a number of large, grotesque mecha made of a similar bio-metallic composition typically armed with large calibre solid round bio-electric cannons and heavy duty energy cannons, along with swarming missiles. These machines can visually camouflage themselves as debris or foliage, unleashing storms of firepower quite quickly before vanishing away. Recent variants include powerful semi-robotic shock-claws and hyper-heated blades capable of ripping through armour and structures alike.
Their physiques and senses by default may be the weakest of the Nexus but humanity’s reputation for heavy armour is the most accomplished. The heaviest, toughest armour on average can be found amongst their number. They possess the most established and powerful tanks and mechanized battalions, even some anti-grav skimmers for that matter. Full on frontal onslaughts and ruggedness is where they excel, with autoloading fast firing gauss cannons, zig-zagging missiles that target weak points in armour, and scourging blasts of plasma that can clear out multiple enemy squads in seconds. Their nanobot colonies do not repair as fast as their semi-biological counterparts but cut down on hangar bay repair times immensely while their CIWS, missile intercept defences, and energy ablative plating make them add additional survivability to their hyper-tough alloys. Energizing their munitions prior to firing them through limited batteries allows them to grant secondary effects and additional power to their solid rounds, allowing them to catch enemies off guard with unexpectedly new effects to their fire. They eschew mecha but in their place use super-heavy armoured vehicles, whether assault transports or tanks, that can serve as mobile command bases or frontline bulldozers for besieging whole defensive lines or coordinating massive assaults. With the addition of anti-gravitational hover systems to complement their treads, they are difficult to immobilize when they aren’t already engaging entire squadrons of enemy heavy armour.
Subsection 3 - Constructs and Bioweapons:
A large number of their terrestrial forces fall into neither of the two prior categories. While they also see use in atmospheric and space combat, the grand majority of their automata, whether cybernetic or biological, and life forms modified for combat are found on terra firma. They can play a variety of roles from reconnaissance and maintenance to directly supporting or fighting alongside infantry to fulfilling the same roles as tanks and mecha among others. They typically are integrated into infantry squads where they use specialized or heavier weapons and in other cases, form specialized squadrons of their own for an intermediary role between troops and vehicles. Most of the common ones typically provide fast moving reconnaissance and forward support to armour, moving on ahead to soften up targets, covering flanks, and helping hunt down targets of interest while protecting them from specialized anti-vehicular threats. There are far larger ones that can take the roles of heavy tanks or otherwise even form the spearheads of massive assaults. A number of these run on advanced AI’s but others use cutting mixtures of linked consciousnesses through psychoneuro-mycelial networking allowing them to be controlled remotely or even directly “connected” to the unit. In some instances, vehicles are simply eschewed in exchange for these versatile and unusual weapons. Constructs tend to be a lot easier to modify and can suit a wider range of weapons. Organisms tend to have unique pre-existing natural weaponry that can be modified in a number of unique ways as well as combative instincts that can be further honed with psychotherapeutic bonding and training.
The vrexul are the most well known for these given their propensity for biotech and augmentation. Cyberbiological constructs and bioweapons are used in near equal number with a plethora of options between both for numerous roles. Their smallest are the smaller sometimes squirrel to cat sized creatures that live within the armour of their soldiers, maintaining and repairing them, even helping to run their weapon systems, but they can be remotely controlled and deployed by said soldiers to scout on ahead, sabotage enemy systems, or even to attack threats within their control range. They are known to occasionally be modified to work as living mines and a number are also adapted to vehicular/mecha usage. Sizing up to creatures around 20 or so feet in length, similar to that of various larger mammalian fauna on earth, and grotesque creatures in the appearance of wolf spiders, vampire crabs, centipedes, carabidae, staphylinidae and mole crickets and others become quite common. Larger than infantry but not really light vehicles, these fairly well protected and rapidly moving augmented entities can be armed with moderately heavier ordnance than infantry, even more if they focus on encoding them, and can use a mixture of animalistic instincts and higher intelligences to move as stealthily and swiftly as they would in the wild, capable of burrowing, flight, and climbing, while their natural (or lab-borne) limb-weapons are no less deadly.
Finally, there are the megalith beasts, colossal entities occasionally larger than human assault platforms and bristling with living colonies of weapons, highly dense self-repairing armour, and horrific brute strength that can smash down reinforced bunkers and flip over armoured battalions. These are typically used as the spearhead of a major assault, drawing fire and retaliating in full as they barrel into enemy lines and even burrow underneath them, causing havoc and disarray while the rest of the vrexul assault force capitalizes on the scattered, distracted foes to gain ground.
The gealtirocht actually disliked using constructs initially for a mixture of religious and logistical reasons but as the revolutionary struggle intensified, they began to open up towards the usage of such constructs. Originally adapted from mining drones used in deep space, the gealtirocht’s sleek, pointed combat drones, resemble much smaller versions of their tanks albeit with some of the blade-like winged designs of their fighters. Able to easily keep up with their digitigrade infantry (or even outspeed them), they fire withering storms of hyper-heated particles and experimental missiles that propel themselves partially towards their target with a gas propulsion system then use a secondary magnetic charge to barrel towards them at high speeds, making them difficult to track and devastating on impact. They are also known to have tamed some creatures and with the help of their allies, devised interesting ways to arm them. Typically, they use large creatures somewhere between sea spiders, stingrays, guitar fish, and beluga surgeon that live in the highest mountains and widest plains of their homeworlds known as sciúlístheach (english: scourge-descending) or mountain wraths as both hunting beasts and bioweapons. Augmented with weaponry, armor, and enhancements, these creatures are as obedient as they are vicious, capable of generating powerful electricity and even particle blasts naturally further augmented with channeling modules and with retractable metal sheaths on their claws. Their reinforced heads with manifestable horns can smash and impale infantry while they have been trained to utilize specialized fire-and-forget homing missiles.
Most fearsome and eerie among their constructs are the uasdhlrácthú (tomb upheaval), strange floating constructs made of the de-irradiated bones and replicated tissue of mythic star-predators, augmented with adaptive cybernetics and replica biomass. These half metal half skeletal creatures resemble more shark-like versions of their serealgatai but with elements of the uasdhlrácthú, drifting on legs hanging faintly away from the ground and with which eye-like spots stare through their semi-transparent bodies, sending powerful rays of horrific power scourging forward before launching replicated-bone based zig-zagging, blink-teleporting missiles towards their targets. They can augment the sight of any gealtirocht within a certain radius with the strange rays they emit while they are also capable of reinforcing and rapidly regenerating any shields on friendly units.
While the tarrhaidim are closer to fungi and vegetation, they have found ways to make bioconstructs and combat organisms from non-animal life and its imitations. With specialized training, preparation, and biogenetic editing, they themselves can actually combine and mutate into larger, singular entities whether by generating specific kinds of occasionally semi-cybernetic matter, being integrated into a larger specialized mass, or generating said mass with those with a similar level of compatibility. These combined tarrhaidim tend to resemble smaller mecha, often smaller than those they seem to be imitating, but they are far faster and can be armed with a wider array of weapons and auxiliary equipment, continuing their prioritization of overwhelming firepower. They are also capable of serving as advanced psychomycelial nodes, improving the accuracy and coordination of multiple tarrhaidim and allowing for highly accurate, regimented firing patterns that only grow larger when more gestalt fungal mecha are added. Large mobile semi-fungoid organisms known as ahlamanashaq (dream defilers) that stand on eight or more vine-legs, with more like curving thin horns protruding upwards and smaller ones framing a bulbous, eye-dotted body that generally points upwards. While smaller than many other bioweapons, they are no less valuable. They can generate fog or even alter weather patterns within a small area, hampering visibility and scanning form enemies, and rapidly gestate and “birth” explosive sub-mycelial organisms that rapidly hunt down enemies or lay in wait as mines. They are also capable of having powerful energy-charged mortars installed or grafted onto their bodies, using their eldritch biologies to power compact, deadly lobbed explosives and it is not uncommon for soldiers in the field to outfit them with weapons normally intended for gestalt mecha.
Far more fearsome and disturbing are the Mahrataefan or “The Festivals of Putrefaction”. These are enormous partially rotted, specifically bred stubbier mushroom-trees attached to a living spider-like body that have become infested by powerful normally space-borne worm parasites some claim come from Almh'allbadi itself. Keeping the fungoid tree in a limbo between life and death, they use its now mutagenically volatile body to manifest a wide range of projectiles, launching semi-fertilized eggs laced with chemical explosives and utilizing the rapid energy generated within its partially dying body, guarded by powerful armour laying, to power-up rapid fire chemo-lasers that can scourge heavily armoured infantry to full on light vehicles. Rapidly gestated worms can be launched as living missiles exploding into arrays of embryonic cluster munitions. For heavier armour, they can launch specialized mortar-like seeds that can track targets as they fall for a single focused strike or split into multiple armour-piercing semi-biological sub munitions, both guided by a specifically engineered tracking system installed into the core of the foul warmachine.
Humanity has had a history of robotics dating far before the Ascendency but with the advent of the Nexus it has only been untethered from prior research restrictions and now sees a new golden age. Most commonly, bipedal, quadrupedal, hexapedal, and other combinations of legs are attached to robotic frames used to carry a variety of heavy and specialist weaponry or equipment. These gun platforms are not too large, sometimes even smaller than the vrexul, but they are quite maneuverable and can generate powerful directional shields capable of being fired through from behind and enhancing projectiles as they pass. As they are sized up, they can carry additional and more powerful shielding and weapons, including melee options, and additional electronic warfare options. While they do not use organisms in a combat role, they have figured out how to make creatures from semi-biological lab-made biomatter, arming them with weaponry similar to their vehicles and creating in essence, predatory combat machines. These often digitrade legged, slightly tank or APC like, and often tall and long armed machines are more flexible than normal combat vehicles but can run and leap in a way similar to the gealtirocht (whom they were originally created to fight) albeit not to the same degree. They are capable of wielding a wide array of weaponry with their long, synthetic-muscle arms and experimental AI’s allow them to adapt rapidly to changing conditions. Their biomass also allows for various augmentations for infantry to be inserted into them and while they can easily be armed with a variety of high power long range or melee weapons, using their speed and reactivity to adapt on the fly to the nature of their foes.
They also have access to strong mecha as well, typically larger than their tanks, but unlike the vrexul they tend to play more of a support role. They use their speed and lighter weaponry to engage softer targets as well as to provide missile support from range, snipe hard targets with lighter rail guns, and soften up or flank harder ones with autocannons. With jump jets and specialized shielding, they are good at distracting and absorbing a degree of fire, capable of indirect fire as retaliation and foregoing melee capability except for a few newer models armed with shock mauls and long armadillo-like claws. Some versions forego carrying built in weapons to mount a single large rifle-cannon and a few launchers at best, limiting their roles but gaining extremely deadly weapons capable of matching those of their tanks in some cases.
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Sapient Alien Species of the NIRC
Vrexul
Pronounced “vuh-rex-sull”. Massive and mysterious creatures of a murky, poorly known past and impressive augmentation and biological technology. They resemble enormous arthropods with dense carapaces bristling with cybernetics and integrated external biomass like living biomechanical juggernauts. They can move bipedally or on up to around 30 limbs. On average they are between seven and ten feet tall with a few species being around five foot six and a few rare specimens around 25. They are pioneers and leaders when it comes to augmentation technology to the extent some of them are basically small habitats for performance-enhancing symbiotes and hidden integrated tools. In spite of being reminiscent of arthropods such as ground and rove beetles, decapods, myriapods, huntsman and wolf spiders, earwigs, crickets, and so on, their populations are not particularly large due to a variety of ground-up population controls which are being loosened in recent years. The oldest ones are around 200 years but it is believed some can live to 360. They spend the first seven to ten years of their lives in a nymphal or larval form wherein their consciousnesses are closer to those of animals but slowly grow sapience with age, mostly completing it upon maturity and/or pupation. They are known to genetically inherit survival instincts and even the ability to understand language but still require education as young adults to truly become socially functional.
The vrexul are ancient species that lived in the worlds around Karbana Kinnis with it being known there were colonies there though their exact homeworld is unknown - supposedly lost in some grand war either amongst their own or an unknown enemy. They were the neighbours of the Gealtirocht and the Tarrhaidim but before they could establish proper bonds, the Ascendancy had expanded into their territory, subjugating the arthropods and their then diminutive defensive forces to seize their resource rich lands, viewing them as allies of the rebellious gealtirocht. In the years that followed, they were forced into increasingly small enclaves within the heart of human controlled society and were a slave subclass in all but name. Many of them escaped with allies in the other two races who had been forced apart in violent socially engineered civil wars or open warfare with the human empire. The arthropods joined a revolutionary movement, creating their own new society with their neighbours-turned-comrades, but by themselves would not be able to topple the Ascendency. They managed to find traces on worlds they infiltrated or warred against the Ascendency and its puppets of what appeared to be other vrexul who were there before them. Chief amongst them were archaeotech computers detecting hidden vrexul fleets and habitat-ships that had been lost after some great cataclysm and evidence of some powerful “guardian entity” now known as the Rozkleřešení or Gnosis Eater. Through a risky series of engagements over seemingly low value worlds, they battled against the Ascendency to control these secrets to their past while their more numerous comrades held up the numerically superior enemy. They were able to unlock a colossal hidden fragment of the Gnosis Eater when they were able to finally send out a message to one of the habitat vessels, which arrived and bore a special “key” needed to free it from its prison.
This would mark the beginning of a tuning point within the revolution as the influx of arthropod warriors bringing new weapons, strategy, and tactics combined with the unleashing of an immense, antediluvian entity began to give the the NIRC, which had only just begun formalizing itself, a colossal advantage over the Ascendancy. It would be a mistake to say they were the sole reason the empire collapsed but they did play a huge part in contesting and in some areas destroying purely human control of planets and space. They have since become to many the face of this revolutionary union even if they are willingly ceding more power to their compatriots. In spite of that, they technically are one of the smaller populations and only in recent years has their population grown closer to the gealtirocht in terms of size. They are one of the more common species seen outside of NIRC space, usually with explorer fleets attempting to find worlds where any sign of other vrexul and hints of their past can be found. In spite of this, they are seen as somewhat standoffish and aloof, often avoiding direct contact with even non-hostile species. They are not necessarily averse to trade and diplomacy but are rather selective of who they do it with. They are common amongst independent colonies and worlds where they are known to provide quite a bit in aid, material, and occasionally security even without the promise of them coming into the NIRC’s fold.
The spoken vrexul language is an incredibly difficult one to understand because the sounds are near impossible to replicate for most. They are a series of harshly dry scrapes, booming and bassy growls, clattering or chittering noises (or both), and what sounds like backmasked speech. They have “words” but they are not an entirely verbal languages with multiple layers of sound used to change the implicit meanings and implied emotion behind what is said. Combined with a communicating via mandible positioning, feeler waving, how fully one is facing the other, pheromone emission - it is borderline impossible to translate except by other vrexul due to its absurd complexity, something their complex brains have evolved to understand as easily as say, English. They have a simplified form of it that resembles various Slavic languages (that others are capable of learning without heavy modifications to their mouthparts) that is also their written form though the characters are similar to Chinese in terms of their architectural, multi-sectioned appearance albeit far more pointy and insectoid.
Psychology:
In spite of being a communal species that is known for a general distrust of individualistic philosophies, they can come off as rather cold and distant not only to outsiders but one another. This is explained by the fact that the vrexul do not have a concept of family. They do however appreciate the bonds they form with others of their own accord and have a somewhat nihilistic view of the self as little more than the amalgamated echoes of its predecessors and world around it. This does not mean they are without pride or a sense of value to life; they simply believe in seeing people as contextually existing within and around the sources of said echoes. Seemingly in contrast to this coldness is the fact that they are quite charitable and compassionate as people, rationalizing it as “simply because we wish to be” and that there are reasons of self interest. Mutual aid forms the backbone of even well-off post scarcity areas and it is through this that alliances can be formed and bonds can be forged. What benefits one group of people can often be used to benefit all.
Like with the rest of the Nexus, they are extremely distrustful of corporate power, private enterprise, and monarchial rule by default, having experienced both for generations as badly and if not worse in some cases than the tarrhaidim. They are not necessarily against “strong leaders” but only if there is a strong popular front as well and believe that any kind of political system, democratic, “freedom loving”, or otherwise, that doesn’t take into account or allow direct popular action is not one worth putting too much trust in. As such, they can come off as cynical or even judgemental (if you can make out what they are saying). This can lead to them being very independent, clique-ish, but they will not hesitate to help others in need in most cases even if they do not necessarily *like* them. They do not appear to be too attached to most of their material possessions beyond certain keepsakes and upon befriending them, they are open to treating others as the equivalent of family. While the word “family” did not exist in their vocabulary for a long time, they do value close friendships to the extent of being their version of it - after all, it is the bonds you choose and forge rather than were set up on you with no choice that mean the most.
They are the least prone to violence of all Nexus species, difficult for some to believe but when given the chance, they avoid conflict whether out of a general dislike of violence or not wanting to face the repercussions of using their immense power. Nonetheless they have a strong support for their military and believe that as a people’s army, it carries the will of its constituents as opposed to demagogues, fanatics, and rotting leaders clinging onto increasingly illusory power. While they like the idea of expanding into new worlds, they do not like the idea of colonizing those already settled unless the other inhabitants there explicitly make it clear they do not mind their presence. They generally support national liberation and revolutionary movements and are skeptical of movements that seem to play into the geopolitical goals of opposing political ideologies be they corporate, fundamentalist, or nationalist. They are not very supportive of hunting down the remnants of the Ascendancy, believing that it is better to rebuild than it is to continue fighting. In spite of that, it is common to find those that believe that a few particular war criminals need to be brought to justice. Whether or not this dovetails into greater support for militarized expeditions remains to be seen.
Permissions:
They are semi-common outside of the NIRC but they never travel alone. They will always be in small fleets or traveling with other NIRC races. They do not often stick around for long in one place, taking what they need or resting for a short time before leaving and it is often difficult to discern their true purposes. When they do settle down and become a part of a society other than their own, they usually retain the same revolutionary and rationally-compassionate spirit, either as proud members of the NIRC or skeptical of what it may become.
They are only rarely found as mercenaries or pirates and if so, are not often very talkative or sociable. These ones are likely exiles, deserters, war criminals, or utter nihilists who lost everything in the revolution. In such positions, they are often quite deadly due to a mixture of military experience and absurd firepower, wielding crew-served weapons alone with ease. The remnants of the Ascendancy will also have very, very little of them given how brutally they treated them.
Gealtirocht
Pronounced “gee-ow-tee-rocked” with the "gea" pronounced like in "geese". These tall creatures evolved from some sort of eel like creature, visually somewhere between the Chimera from the Resistance and the Elites from Halo. They are around six and a half to eight feet on average with powerful digitigrade legs, four eyes (two on each side of their bony ridged heads), long multi-jointed six-fingered arms, and slightly elongated heads thicker at the forehead and slimming downwards to powerful fang-filled mouths. Some species even have long eellike tails and others shorter additional arms that have retractable spines. All however have an eye-like organ called the speirfhaire at the front of their brain capable of detecting ethereological presences though the extent to which depends on how well they have honed their skill. All of them are affected by dreams of eel-like creatures in their sleep though some have found ways to remove this aspect from their minds. Coincidentally they are bred in fairly large numbers and begin their lives as amphibious creatures closer to large eels, maturing at about nine to 12 years, capable of living up to around 430 years.
They are believed to be the oldest civilization of the NIRC territories, having been neighbours, allies, and enemies to the tarrhaidim and trading partners to the vrexul even before the Ascendancy came to power. It is believed that they may have interacted with splinter groups of vrexul habitat ships in the distant past though these are as much myth as they are crypto-history. It is also believed that they may have been the reason there are less of the spore-moons the tarrhaidim view with practically divine reverence about, presumably due to a symbiotic relationship with the enormous starfaring eel creatures wherein they made it easier for them to contest territory from said moons. Their civilization for a while was the most advanced in the region, having transition from nomadic tribesfolk to a feudalist and mercantile society but not without great strife and division. Conflict between the newly established kingdoms and the tribes that refused to fall under their newly defined jurisdiction would continue well into the Ascendency’s arise to power and was partially responsible for stopping open diplomatic talks with the vrexul commune-unions. A large part of the Ascendency’s rise to power was actually due to their alliances with the newly formed gealtirocht kingdoms, funding, organizing and supplying their efforts to displace and subjugate those who still dwelled in areas ripe for resource extraction and infrastructure building, beginning a series of resistance and eradication. This conflict continued throughout the Ascendency’s existence, amplifying with the deployment of conscripted tarrhaidim armies and professional imperial soldiers, escalating to orbital bombardments and even cases of genetically engineered but covertly executed viral plagues.
The nomadic groups would begin to unite and split up with a number staying on their worlds where they went into hiding and others escaping beyond the atmosphere. It is here that their first bonds with the vrexul were truly formed albeit with limited tarrhaidims support initially due to tensions that had only worsened under the Ascendency. Already being hunted by their royalist counterparts, the gealtricocht exiles set up various bases with the help of the arthropods on dead worlds said to be haunted by the enormous predatory star-predators of myth, making them more than ideal places to avoid the watchful eye of a far superior foe. While the vrexul began waging shadow wars and guerilla operations, the gealtirocht would be coordinating with insurgencies and sympathetic politicians, turning the enemy’s strategy against them as they whipped up a defiant fervour among territories now controlled by turncoat kingdoms and began a series of lightning raids across Ascendancy space, striking distant outposts and gradually drawing their foes into war of stalking, hiding, and striking from the unknown with the intent of draining morale, loosening control, and forcing the human-lead empire to draw its forces away from the increasingly riotous, violent civil uprisings.
As this was happening, discontent with the Ascendancy’s rule was growing with the tarrhaidim who found themselves increasingly becoming an exploited underclass sent out to die in larger droves on the frontlines than the humans they were told they would become the equals of. The resistance cells, commando divisions, and political activists remaining on the original gealtirocht worlds would exploit this to create a historic gealtirocht-tarrhaidim united front. Mass defections and even full blow mutinies of tarrhaidim forces were joined by rebels and riots en masse, even contributing to a few kingdoms beginning to fold as their garrisons found it increasingly difficult to fight against their own fellow eel-folk. Large scale direct action soon massively swelled the numbers and logistical strength of the gealtirocht resistance, leading them to go from guerillas in the mountains and woods to powerful armies that with an increasingly spread out occupation, were rapidly tipping the scales. Yet this weakening of the hostilities between fungoid and anguilid would open up additional opportunities.
Around this time, archaeotechnicians from the vrexul and scientists defectors from humanity along with a number of tarrhaidimg traitor orbital garrisons would begin sharing classified information with the gealtirocht. Observational media of not only the mysterious spore moons had been discovered but where many of the serealgatai that were once nearly hunted out of their native habitats were hiding. To assist their fairly small fleet, they would begun a covert mission of weaponizing these enormous predators, bringing a then revolutionary new weapon into the fold first inspired by the vrexul’s void tyrants which had been used in a few select deployments to protect vital bases. With these new enormous bioweapons augmenting their fleet, it would not be long before the now enormous revolutionary forces that had recently been formed into the NIRC would begin retaking worlds one by one, four by four, ten by ten. With a newfound control of space and territory, the gealtirocht had set the stage for a full swing route of the enemy occupation and it would not be long before the tattered, disorganized Ascendancy was forced out.
Their language is spoken with a lot of twisty yet sharp, somewhat wet-sounding syllables and vaguely resembles Irish albeit with a gnarlier, hissing tone and a concerning amount of snarls. The actual text features a lot of wavy characters resembling blurred piscine shapes as seen from the water’s surface. They also are able to use a wide variety of non-verbal howls, calls, clicking sounds, and so on, some of which are imitations of creatures that are both predator and prey on their homeworld. These typically are used for long distance communication, tribal activities, drawing out prey, warding off animalistic threats, and so on.
Psychology:
The gealtirocht are firm followers of revolutionary ideologies, typically following paganized variants with a notable tendency towards more anarchic practices. While it is no surprise that the entire Nexus is somewhat more skeptical towards grander organization, these highland dwellers can go even further in some cases given they had to deal with living under *two* different monarchical forces. Having returned to their tribal pasts, they are not as traditional as some would like to think believing in the spontaneity of the spirit and believing that tribe is not based less so on lineage and blood but allegiance and action, having learned first hand that the their fellow sapients were every bit as dedicated to the same revolutionary liberation. Subsequently, they are typically seen as the most outgoing and approachable of the Nexus, known for their charismatic and celebratory spirit and a love of exploration, adventure, and group activities.
They share most of the same similar socioeconomic and political ideals as the vrexul but beyond their sociable nature, are far less coldly reductive in their views. This is notable in that they have an idea of family that they value a fair share, are far more overtly expressive, and can often be fairly generous off of the bat. However, they can also be quite aggressive and quicker to anger. A lot of generational pain resides amongst them from the years spent under the Ascendancy and the idea of hunting down and capturing (or killing) its survivors is not an uncommon idea among some. Others believe that the traitor houses should be tried fairly after capture but the former view is often seen as being more vocal. They are fairly open towards direct action whether on an individual or a macro scale, not quite as focused on careful organization as much as impetus and intensity.
Permissions:
The gealtirocht are one of the more visible members of the NIRC who voyage beyond its boundaries and can be found in a wide variety of locations. Some of them have established small enclaves and colonies on less industrialized planets and they can usually be seen near established independent worlds. Occasionally they can be found doing smuggling jobs, exploring, treasure hunting, and even mercenary work on occasion though they are picky with who they work with.
Quite a few of the traitor houses are still around and as they are anti-revolutionary, they tend to have far fewer qualms about who they work for or with. Most of the mercenaries of their kind will be from said houses and are staunchly loyal to the aristocracy and the Ascendancy. They can often be found in various more totalitarian or militant regimes, exchanging their skills and further developing their combat prowess for a shot at revenge at the “turncoat soil-eaters.”
Tarrhaidim
Pronounced “tar-high-deem”. They are large bipedal organisms resembling rotted eyeless humanoids, covered in hardened fungoid growth, and maws full of jagged pointed formations, noted for appearing to have rotted flesh. They are actually a fungoid like organism, genderless and able to reproduce asexually on occasion or by combining large amounts of reproductive biomatter into communal “spawning globes”. They are capable of heavily modifying and selectively mutating their own biomatter and have an unusual tendency to "bolt" clothing, equipment, gear, and armour into their bodies though this is nowhere near as painful as some would think. They are durable and hardy beings with highly efficient regenerative capabilities and the ability to survive on very little (think dirt, detritus, and sunlight). They are capable of aesexually reproducing to create sub-organisms usually to fulfill menial tasks such as assisting with nutrient gathering or maintaining their homes but while without gender or sex, they need others of their kind to truly reproduce and create full fledged offspring. Their offspring can age to maturity in around five years and like the vrexul can can be made to inherit certain bits of information from their progenitors. Some species can grow fairly large, roughly around 15 foot at the max and others contain huge worms jutting out of their bodies, having essentially become half annelid.
The gealtirocht’s origins are murky but it is believed they were originally fragments of some sort of ancient starfaring gigantic fungi that broke off and evolved into an entire species. While it is likely they predate both the gealtirocht and vrexul, they evolved slower than either and subsequently were slower to become a civilization. Worshippers of the mythic spore-moon Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”, their religiosity was both a source of inspiration, defiance, and unity and in other times a method of enforcing social hierarchy and hegemony. They were known to live with a few scattered colonies of vrexul, treating them as little more than somewhat elusive if useful neighbours lacking much in the way of grander power and initially had a very complicated relationship with the gealtirocht. Sometimes they were partners, other times rivals for territory and resources, and on occasion they had a number of conflicts. As the various tarrhaidim city-states began to converge and combine into larger nations, they were approached by visitors from afar - the Ascendancy, who had also taken an interest in both their changing political landscape and that of the gealtirocht. Appearing first as benefactors, their machinations began to take on an increasingly sinister role as in exchange for certain business deals and technology, they would be allowed to adjust and restructure aspects of their economy and societal organization to better accommodate this new partnership.
In a few years time, traditional structures of familial, societal, and political organization already in the midst of a rocky transition had been thrown into disarray. Established leaders rose left and right as a class of wealthy and politically entrenched fungoids began to emerge as the figureheads and main benefactors of the Ascendancy’s rapid growth and wealth. Rapid human colonization began to consume or take over territories once under their protection as animosities grew between them and the gealtirocht nomad tribes, accused of encroaching more and more on their territories leading to an initially popular conscription for the purposes of territorial defence. At the same time, they were forced to live in cramped spaces with impoverished vrexul they were taught to view as savage, barely tamed animals. The tarrhaidim themselves were treated as little more than sub-human in worth, becoming a massive underclass drafted economically or militarily. With the drastic shifts in power, their populations became divided not just in terms of class but territory, ethnicity, location as they struggled to find some stability in a world that had its rugs pulled out from underneath them. “Self governance” was used in tandem with specially chosen leaders and social engineering to ensure even if they should revolt, much of their anger would be directed at one another across battle lines stretching to before the Ascendancy arrived. However this method of control had its limits.
As much as they tried to control them through subterfuge and division, the anger of the tarrhaidim would always eventually be directed upwards as a series of revolutionary conflicts on the Ascendancy capital, resulting in the deaths of the heads of a planetary head of state and a number of capital administrators sparked off a series of brutal reprisals. In turn, tarrhaidim independent settlements including various hidden ones started turning into havens for a growing revolutionary movement. As the Empire’s own armies were further amassed through conscripting the fungoid youths, the higher standards they enjoyed in the army began to diminish and more and more they found themselves fighting not the gealtirocht and vrexul but their own. At the same time, a mass interplanetary movement was forming of tarrhaidim rebels, a number of which were beginning to join up in secret with the then emergent Nexus headed by the arthropods and anguilids. The ungovernable against the iron hand of divine rule - it was clear that history’s gears of turning but the power difference was not slanted in the rebellion’s flavour even with military support. Ascendancy was too well connected and organized even if it was stretched by the tarrhaidim who had created a solution to their enemy. The first was to push for a mass defection and radicalize the beleaguered militaries sent to backwaters and crowded, chaotic worlds. The second was to use that distraction to distract tarrhaidim covert expeditions to hidden terrestrial bases and orbiting research facilities; the reason was to recover stolen research concerning the mythic spore moons and unlock their deadly powers. With the assistance of their enemies turned allies, a two pronged ware of mutiny and covert operations began as they began to desperately strike out hunting for this cryptic data.
With the cost of many of their finest fighters, they were able to find the hidden locations of the spore moons and alongside preparing them to return to their habitats around the Tarrhaidim worlds, also prepare them for battle. Subtly moving them by hiding them amongst solar anomalies and dead worlds, the secretly modified space fungi were unleashed as part of a combined offensive. Utilizing their immense bio-energetic powers in conjunction with a small but vicious fleet, the tarrhaidim helped to disrupt and outright destroy logistics networks and communications between the Ascendancy worlds. Scattered and cut off from one another, their enormous armies were viciously attacked before they could properly organize as whole cities rose up in revolt and the chaos of mass civil disobedience left the conquerors helpless as well trained invasion forces. More than a few exiles and deserters from the traitor armies were all too enthusiastic to pay back in blood what had been taken from them. The tarrhaidim sacrificed more than any other species to drive out the Ascendancy with their population experiencing a very sharp decline even if it still remains the most numerous in Nexus space.
The language of the tarrhaidim in contrast to their grotesque appearance is surprisingly elegant and almost musical, resembling arabic and featuring few sharp vowels and fare more smooth consonants. When rapidly spoken it almost can sound like smoothed out, ambient birdsong. If slowly and carefully, it has a resonant and almost woodwind like tone to it. They can also gurgle and growl but even such rougher speech has a strangely muffled sound as if they are underwater as they do so. The written language has a lot of curving characters connected by sharp, rigid lines. Like the vrexul they can also communicate through smell via pheromones and chemicals but they are also known to use electrical signals within the range of one another through mycelial growths located through their body. This causes some to believe they are psychic but the electro-signal language is a learned language if one wishes to use it beyond communicating simple directions, emotions, and commands.
Psychology:
The tarrhaidim are as staunch of believers as any other Nexus species but their particular politics can vary quite notably. Generally, they lean towards a parliamentary style of democracy with a wider range of bottom-up political involvement but various sects are anarcho-communal occasionally leading to friction even among those sharing variants of the same revolutionary beliefs. Nonetheless they can be quite intransigent and defensive of themselves due to having been an exploited underclass under their own rulers and their foreign masters. They are however, highly social and are firm advocates for collective action and mutual aid, pushed by a sense of duty that has begun to grow beyond their own kind to all their allies. They are outspoken and fiery people with little tolerance for poor leadership and the raw accumulation of power whether political, economic, and ideological. When they see their own in need, tarrhaidim or not, they will not mind working alongside strangers amongst their own as they mobilize en force to protect their vulnerable and needy.
Their sense of family is looser than the gealtirocht’s, following lineages of descent but caring little for hierarchy or the importance of blood as much as the “network of interrelations” created. They have a concept of family less as a solid unit but a series of stories that can be interconnected or spiralling outwards, typically living in fairly larger combined families that in some cases are essentially small towns in and of themselves. They are less hesitant to go to war than the gealtirocht but more willing than the humans, knowing what it is like to lose countless souls for false glories. Still, they believe that armed force wielded by people will generally be more justified than solely in the hands of high lords. A not insignificant portion are not 100% trusting of the Nexus even if the percentage of the favourable is increasing from year to year, believing that it is best if many of them go their separate ways (resulting in quite a few colonies of them beyond the Nexus’ boundaries). They are mixed on the idea of fighting back against the remnants of the Ascendancy. Some believe that they should be allowed to sputter off and learn their lessons, others believe it is best to leave them alone, while a number of more militant groups believe they need to be stopped to avoid a repeat of past tragedies.
Permissions:
As they are the most common members of the NIRC with humans not too far behind, they can be found in a wider array of settings and occupations. They are commonly associated with colony worlds agricultural regions, jungles/forests/swampy areas, and certain industrial settings where they are hard workers well known for being good with ships and construction. Some of them can be fairly friendly and sociable if difficult to truly become close to and it is not uncommon to find them living at the outskirts of certain societies, preferring to keep some distance. However, it is not uncommon to find they can often become part of the heart of smaller urban or agricultural communities, with their sense of unity extending to those they feel share similar values or helpful personalities.
At the same time, there are a lot of humans and tarrhaidim in the remnants of the Ascendancy who are far more harsh and elitist. These ones frequently travel as mercenaries and epouse a sort of quasi-nietzchean might-equals-right philosophy and disdain what they see as the bleeding, soft-handed weakness of their Nexus counterparts. They frequently travel in warbands, gathering experience wherever they see fit before turning to their hiding Ascendancy bases to teach and share what they have learned. They long to one day retake what is theirs and execute “the breeders of weakness and decadence” for overthrowing those who has “raised them from dirt into godhood.”
Driven by pure murderous instinct; a puppet with the rabid intensity of a diseased hound, the gundrone was now a burning waste-pile that glared as it charged. Flames erupted out of the gaping wounds gouged by the Sect troopers, its own machine gun collapsed into the raging inferno slowly warping the weapon from the bottom up and rendering it a useless chunk. Vat-flesh bonded to composite metal was beginning to peel from its dense body across its flap-like arms, down its dense legs, as it began to turn a meaty charred brown, ignoring Vin as its unztadtlige handler shot it forward in a murderous charge.
Even the soldiers in the park could detect the sparking voidhanger as electrical readings combined with residual energy from the plasma burst lit him up but they weren’t paying that much attention to him. The huge hulk of a human in his armoured suit charged with ferocity equal to the bioconstruct, smashing into the construct with bone-shattering force. In its frenzied, dysfunctional state the machine stumbled forward, crashing against the burnt-out husk of a civilian truck and crushing the wrecked vehicle’s cargo component inwards – its own sheer momentum made it stumble faster than its internal balancing calibrators, currently melting, could correct. A gout of flame vomited out of its wound, barely even singing Paris’ armour, as sparks began to crackled inside of it. Pops at first then flashes of light with harsh snapping sounds – its own rounds were starting to detonate as the vicious flames from Corsica’s weapon. The tubular gaze from the flaming tunnel glowered with more anger than its two eye stalks – one really, one of the detonating rounds had sliced another clean open as vaporizing regulative fluid wafted out of the wound and its shuddering flap arms pulled against the vehicle it had been cratered into.
Their stand-off was interrupted by an enormous glob of plasma, slamming into the ground behind where Paris had imagined, momentarily blocking Zsresrinn’s sight with a huge blossom of raging power. The blast of blue and white desecrated tortured metal, sending melting fragmentation spitting outwards before a wave of heat and force. Windows shattered and loose components flew outwards, scattering before the two like leaves in autumnal winds. The force was far more ruthless, shoving against Paris’ shield as if to usher him towards his doom.
The bio-machine’s controller had no such reservations about preserving the weapon. If it could at least take one of them, that was enough. With a tortured creak the nearly destroyed machine pulled its body out of the truck and staggered towards Paris with a drunkard’s urgence and imbalance. More sparking crackles and bolts of white shooting outwards like blips of light from its body – its unspent ammunition set off by the extreme heat. Loud beeping – the machine’s warning signals were going off as it lunged towards Paris, one arm flap simply falling off from the melting heat, its remaining eye peeling off of its limb, and from within its body, Paris could see the boxy magazines of its ammo starting to go white.
Just before it could make it to the halfway point, a scourging beam of light slammed into its body, melting off one of its flap arms and causing the machine to awkwardly stumble and stagger. It writhed and jerked, its electronics and control mechanisms sent into overdrive as the combined heat from the vrexul’s energy weapon rapidly melting its internal body and setting off the volatile munitions within.
In a blast of flame and heat, the machine’s body finally exploded. A storm of white spark-like bullets flew outwards in a deadly shrapnel like spray. It was but a fraction of the speed if they had been launched from its now shattered heavy machine gun but its devastation was clear. Vehicle husks shuddered and shook, car doors fell off, supporting components shattered and a few vehicles not already devastated by the mortar bombardment slumped with heavy thuds to the ground.
The final last-ditch effort of their assailants had been in vain but there was little time to breathe.
The soldiers at the park quickly lowered their guns, gesturing for the whole squad to join them. A few of them paused to watch Zsresrinn closely – one of them held what looked like a missile launcher but he paused when Silver made it in first. A few of them paused, looking almost ready to raise their weapons at Corsica – her heat signatures were off of the charts. It was clear that the bizarre mishmashed squadron was still a sight to many of them. Troopers further back were starting to move back to the APC’s as ominous frothing growls and shrieks, likely celaderaka mixed with tarrhaidim, called out over the sound of melting metal and stomping boots off in the distance. Whomever was hunting them was angry.
One of the soldiers stood a foot taller than the others – their armour made them featureless, beyond the light black overlapping ridges over a mixture of light and dark greys comprising a more flexible under armour. Larger wrist guards that featured fang-like tips sat on their wrists and a cape was visible around their waist, likely some sort of shielding for hidden thrusters of some sort. Their ridged helmet was imposing as they loomed before Silver, still dwarfed by Zsresrinn as he motioned for them to follow him as he walked towards the parked vehicles.
“Yirilovan Selekawael, loyalist to the bone.” The armoured figure called out, motioning to the rest of the Sect team to start boarding. “Captain within the Regime, Fortress Kerovnia just a few hours from here. Your leaders told us nothing about a hot landing when we were recruited for assistance. As far as the tasahnial* are concerned, our truce with them holds – they are not aware we crept in just under their noses. Hence the jammers – as far as they are concerned, this is a dead zone too close to our lines for them to near.”
He turned to look down the road, pausing as whatever scanning systems on his armour analysed the particulars of the situation.
“That group that ambushed you – they’re bottom feeding nobodies. Nobodies under the Carnazir, another misguided group of miscreants absorbed by the traitor-armies. The Kerovnian Separatist Alliance – failures before the war, failures lapping up the offal dropped their way by the benefactors.”
Already the APC’s were moving – turning away from the gate and towards a wall or rather, the crumbled powdery ruins of one. A few troops moved into the hefty troop storage components.
“They are however, failures with a direct line to the enforcers the Carnazir use to ensure party line and loyalty is well practiced here. They have been itching for an excuse to take our territory – and your friends, the hulking human I presume and the last motion signature out on the road, better get here faster unless he wants to shatter even the tattered illusion of peace we have now.” One of the APC’s had moved towards the gate, rumbling down the road as it turned to open its door to them. Its turret swivelled tracking motion through the trees – no visual contact but it was clear they were cutting it close. Distantly, something could be heard stomping about in the woods and in its wake, trees could be heard tumbling to the ground. The troops inside wildly gestured at Paris and Vin – it was clear they were almost on borrowed time now.
“Once they get in, we’re hitting the jammer and blinding them. We’ve done it before; we’re a sneaky bunch when we want to be. With how things have gone south, we’re going to take you the other rendez-vous point. It’s clear by helping you, we might be targeted now as well.” Yrilovan concluded, jogging towards one of the APC’s – one that the Sect squad would notice had a rather unusual electrical signature, as if it was covered in a field of static.
The crunching of trees in the distance continued.
*Derogatory term in central celaderakan translating to “soil shitter”, typically as a slur against lower class people believed to have been tricked into joining guerilla and insurgent groups due to low intelligence.
Less like an advanced combat platform made from a fusion of synthetic biomass and shaped metallic armouring, the stomping gun-drone looked demonic, possessed by some horrific rage beyond what could simply be programmed into a machine. Its entire front had been gouged open by Zsresrinn’s hellhammer, somehow not triggering its protective energy field, and a mixture of intestinal tube-wiring and sparking electronics spat and glared like a bloodied, pouring eye. As the sect team ran it was no less savage, its bullets at first a wild spray of mag-accelerated rounds but as it neared its targets began to grow specific and a high-pitched whine, audible even over the buzz-roar of its heavy machine gun, made it clear it was still targeting the team for its mortar-wielding unztadtlige controller.
Like a hand wracked by traumatic tremors, its large gun jerked and swivelled on it its body as its two eye-stalks, now glowing an angry red, swept around for the retreating team. The gun itself used a separate targeting mechanism as Zsresrin would soon discover, pausing rigid to aim at their estimated centre of mass before letting fly a stream of bright gaseous light and armour shredding projectiles, identifying her by the faint cloud of supernatural particles but unable to get a direct lock on her thanks to the remnants of obfuscating evzredigor matter. It jerked away abruptly towards Linus, the residual energy on their body drawing its ire. It didn’t matter an entire half cracked APC was in the way – the rounds could be heard first clattering through its layers of armour before tearing it open like a pinata, intent on shredding the softer target.
Its weapon swivelled again as it charged, drawn by the sound of clinging metal and the impact of a pair of large-calibre rifle rounds slamming into its hull, Paris now becoming the object of its wrath. It hesitated at first, gravel scraping underneath its dense legs, giving Paris a lead as he charged towards the machine. Immediately, it attempted to move to the side but it was not the only fast-moving heavyweight brute. It managed to avoid a full-on collision but not before Paris shield smashed into its left leg, sending it teetering off to the side. Its now unwieldy body smashed into a crashed hover-car, crumpling its already half melted doors, and nearly slumping to down onto both legs. One of its eyes twitched, stretching on it stalk, glaring with unearthly red at Paris.
That was when the sound of an angry, electrical shriek filled the air. Scanners in the area would detect a powerful discharge of plasma and wary eyes see the huge blue glob soar over the growing flames of the treeline, falling towards Paris as it descended – it wouldn’t be a direct hit but within the 50 metre deadly radius, serious damage could be done – even to the machine itself.
Yet it was only a few seconds before it was up on its feet, charging past Paris before a spray of plasma ripped into its side. Energy shielding flared up – the crackle of electricity around itself intensified into a semi-domal sheen of orange-yellow power, flaring as the plasma rounds slammed into it and caused it to brighten in intensity, weakening its defensive capabilities. The whine rose in intensity as its eye-mounted targeting laser swept over the treeline, wildly around where the residual heat had gathered.
Another mighty roar – another unztadtlige plasma mortar glob soared through the air, aiming to annihilate the still cloaked Vin! Even the machine might be caught in its large radius – as it swivelled outwards towards the road again, it was clearly aiming for more, targeting wildly across destroyed vehicles and the nearing treeline. Another plasma-mortar report followed, this one falling roughly in front of where Linus and Corsica were located!
The machine did not get a chance to keep up its wild sprint. A piercing series of beams, scorching in their intensity, hit it direct on the shields crackling wildly from the strain. Its HMG swivelled, this time locking onto Zsresrinn again, the sheer interference from its rapidly overloading shields causing its weapon to shake and shudder, firing wide from the vrexul and instead gouging open a tree a few metres behind her, sending it crashing forwards just a few metres from the arthropod.
Linus and Corsica responded in kind – energy bolts swollen with unearthly power joined with armour piercing incendiaries, exploding in a radiant show of lights. Energy shielding hit its threshold and violently expelled the excess, sending out a wave of static interference, forcing the machine to stumble backwards… but not before a few of Corsica’s round flew into its open wounds.
Biomatter erupted into flame as soot and vaporizing internal fluids burst out of its body. The very machine gun sitting upon it shuddered before falling not backwards but into its body, crackling and sparking as its biomatter were consumed by the molten intensity boiling within. Its eyestalks rapidly twitched, blinking yellow and orange as they began to target its own crumbling body, answered by another roar of the massively powerful mortar, aiming this time directly on its position!
Before it could fall there, it was up on its feet and moving aggressively towards the reclaimer and the celaderaka, intent on using its raw mass and now burning body as a living battering ram. Its unztadtlige controller was prepared to use it as the target marker itself as the burning, tortured biomachine made one final ditch effort to end at least some of the team members.
“Kirvan’s piss, that bastard’s not giving up, forget it and run!” A familiar voice crackled over the coms. “We can’t hold out for much longer, we’ve been here even before your crash! Any more and that floating coral bastard’s going to catch wind of all of us!”
The soldiers arrayed out in the ruined park were clearly on high alert, scanning over the ruined walls and some had their weapons raised. Whatever they were seeing it was getting them on high alert and the swivelling gun turrets, sweeping the sky and the roofs of the distant ruined buildings, made it clear they wouldn’t be secure out here for long.
The forest was alight with the flash of rifle fire and roaring flames emerging from the shattered carcass of the transport vessel. As the team became aware of the regroup point and the unseen ally calling for their presence, the encroaching enemy threat only furthered in its aggression. Spread out as they were, their advantage in numbers was accompanied with one in terms of pure volume of fire. The heavy-duty rifles filled the air with deadly bolts, pinging off of Paris’ shield like ringing bells but the impact was rattling and vicious. His armour might be tough but these rounds would treat it far more harshly than his shield.
Worse, the unztadtlige was nearing and as it did so, its heavy machine gun fire sharpened. A few trees next to Linus and Corsica exploded, a few of the thinner ones toppling as streams of bright purple bolts ripped right through them with raw kinetic force. Another of its turrets, emerging like some egg-like sac out of which three blocky barrels poked out, fired an angry blast at Paris, uncaring for the durability of his colossal shield. Fuzzy communication signals blared between itself and the soldiers, pushing them to trail the hulking human – with the leg servos of the tarrhaidim, that wouldn’t be a problem.
That was until mid-sprint, a horrific burst of flame and force erupted in the group that had splintered off to give chase. Limbs were torn out of sockets, worm-tendril parasites ripping out of bodies to try and escape the horrific heat, and whole soldiers tossed off of their feet and smashing through foliage, bramble, and their own allies. Paris’ solar tablet sent a whole squad into disarray as burning fungoid biomatter and hungry flames now began to consume the squadron, forcing the unztadtlige back to avoid its own coral-like biomass being touched by the raging inferno.
The bipedal bioconstruct had caught up with frightening speed, its multiple sensor eyes glaring death at Corsica and Linus but they had just managed to avoid its gauss rounds slicing them clean open. A storm of celaderaka shotgun shells repaid it in kind, clashing against a glowing dome-like field around its body. The energy shield brightened with each 12-gauge blast and the machine staggered, digging in its heels and wildly firing at the two. Crackling and sparking, it advanced again swivelling its guns towards the tree it had seen them run towards but missing a pair of grenades landing near its feet.
An explosion erupted and its energy shield shattered, a backwash of static enveloping demon and flame-monger alike, causing the robot to stagger. That was all the window needed for both to escape to the park but not before Corsica took a few choice potshots at its now vulnerable body. The human-sized machine jerked from the impact, barely affected at first. Yet what seemed at first like normal DMR rounds now erupted into flames, hungrily eating away at synesthetic biomatter around its legs and arms, forcing it to begin exuding its bio-regulatory fluids in a desperate attempt to quell the raging flames!
In the carnage, Linus had knocked over one of the larger scattering nearing footsoldiers moving to assist the bioconstruct, barely avoiding the burning bramble as it toppled, giving a momentary lull in the ruthless symphony of their rifle fire. It rolled towards them, crashing over a few smaller trees but caught against a few of its larger, not-yet-felled counterparts. The soldiers used this sudden stop to advance but wouldn’t even notice Corsica planting a particular explosive within the tree’s body, some of them even going so far to vault over it. As if enraged, the bioconstruct bent its legs and with some struggle, leapt onto the tree, crunching bark under its hefty frame as its shaky, partially bobbing guns struggled to track the retreating Sect operatives.
It didn’t get a chance to cut them off or apart this time. Another raging blast tore open the tree and the bipedal machine was caught right at the epicentre. Its legs were torn open, flash seared by the heat, arms ripping off their sockets then half disintegrating as they fell, while its crab-like head crumpled from the force. The machine fell in five different pieces, one of legs smashing into a human trooper and trapping him underneath its burning bulk, causing him to scream as his light armour fed the melting metal flames. Others had been tossed by the blast, their burning carcasses rolling over the ground to try and put out the flames or slain from the visceral blast force, bits of metal shrapnel from the wrecked bioconstruct ripping right through fungal flesh and human skin like knives through meat.
The battle was far from fully decided. A few of these heavier duty rifle rounds and the kinetic energy bolts from the coral warmachine passed mere inches from the still cloaked Silver and Vin’s armoured forms as they headed towards the park. A larger target had drawn the attention of the ambushers’ attention – the hefty vrexul warriors. Zsresrinn wasn’t spared any expense just as Paris wasn’t; a group of the battle riffle armed troops swung their aim towards her, sending a flurry of rounds barely after the eyestalked bioconstruct scored a hit on her side.
The waist machine strafed out to the side, readying its heavy-duty machine gun for another flurry of mag-accelerated death but the arthropod’s weapon was faster. Three cracks of high explosive armour piercing rounds slammed into its body, tearing out chunks of reinforced metal and synth-bone and ripping out its gut region. The unztadtlige managed to fire a burst her way before another trio slammed into its body. Dense and layered as its armour was, at this range the hellhammer had piercing power equivalent to certain light vehicle weaponry. One of the anemone like polyp stumps was ripped open, wiring and veins torn from the piercing force before sensitive bioelectronics were consumed in a blossom of flames. Two of its camera-ports were flattened by a single round rapidly ripping a trench across its upper body before slamming into a trooper using it as cover, splattering his skull into a misty pulp-spraying mess before detonating into the dirt behind him. The third round didn’t dig into anywhere near as vital but the impact and explosive force stunned the gestalt-minded brute – a well needed respite.
In the ephemeral moment between the reloading and firing of deadly weaponry, a strange and foul conjuration of arthropod biomatter and a strange almost glass-like, reflective smoke shimmered around Zsresrinn. Soldiers attempting to fire on her cursed and turned away momentarily, targeting devices momentarily overloaded by the wild, jarring patterns and sending shots wide and far. Before they could properly calibrate their targeting devices, another swarm had taken its place – a thick fog of foul buzzing insectoids, dominated by a singular eye like some parody of a common housefly, filling the air with a living smog of visually impenetrable fog.
Yet not physically. The fog shimmered and scattered at points as the hulking, powerful shape of the bony white gun-platform machine, still standing after three armour piercing rounds, stormed through and chased after the Sect team. Bursts of heavy duty magnetically accelerated rounds flew forth like solid streams of blue and white, going straight through thick trunks like nothing. This time however, it wasn’t targeting a specific member of the team but anyone unfortunate enough to be in front of it. At this point, all the survivors were outside of the interference range from the crash but a crackle was sounding over their com systems – foreign interference of some sort.
Jerry would be able to pick up the particulars of the signal. So would Vin.
MULTIPLE TARGET LOCK ATTEMPTS FROM HOSTILE SOURCE. RANGEFINDING AND TRAVEL PATH PREDICTION DETECTED.
Their onboard electronics weren’t being hacked – the entire squad was now being targeted!
Off in the distance, a pulsing hum that rumbled almost like a massive buzzsaw purring could be heard. If they looked back and through the cloud, they could see a number of ports opening on the back of the unztadtlige as it prepared its powerful artillery weaponry again.
“FASTER! Faster dammit, we need you to get inside jammer's safe range! We’re picking up energy buildup, multiple hidden targeting lasers from the gun-platform’s eyestalks! The unztadtlige is preparing its plasma mortars and trying to target your travel path!” The same voice from earlier screamed over their coms as any HUDs the possessed would light up with a navigational marker – the park, near but not near enough especially with a seemingly vengeful bioconstruct bearing on them, its onboard targeting devices scanning and slowly locking onto the team. They may have fended off the footsoldiers, even destroyed the other bioconstruct, but the unzadtlige could easily match the whole squad in pure destructive power. The hellhammer’s rounds had done horrific damage but with its unusual, partially cybernetic body it did not feel the same pain (if it did at all) that others might. Nor were its most important internal systems damaged. Yet as a sapient life form, it certainly felt a murderous need to end them for good.
Up ahead however were signs of what the unseen voice had mentioned – a few trails that converged upon a road and the burnt-out husks of trucks and other civilian vehicles turned over or crashed against one another. Travelling down the road, they would be able to see trees of a different sort – the treeline itself was purposefully cropped away from the road, leaving a gulf of shrubs between the cement and the forest along with cratered blast marks and a few cadavers scattered across it.
Down the wreck-littered road, past the flattened black iron bars of a once towering gate, and into a park of once rolling now partially blast-gouged hills and withered decorative vegetation, a few vehicles could be seen. Large and blocky armoured personnel carriers of some sort with a few soldiers of some sort positioned alongside the uneven topography.
“We have visual contact. Just get a few more meters in, then we can up the jammer’s interference and blind them… wait, shit, get rid of that bioconstruct! It hasn’t seen us yet, nail it before it alerts them all!”
mickilennial
Kjbivins
vietmyke
wanderingwolf
Damycles
Izurich
Vesuvius00
Noctis
TaintedMushroom
