Post by jadegreen on Aug 28, 2021 15:12:56 GMT
Kon Galon System
“Prime minister… I thought you supported the war… I can’t be certain that alternating your political viewpoint back and fourth is such a good idea for your public image… during such time… people need a strong leader to look to. One that does not waiver.”
Takamo Nadanhari was a short, bluish gray Katharian and an esteemed member of the high council.
“Indeed it would look like that to the uninitiated. Before… I was trying to avert the conflict before it escalated. When I realized we had no choice but to fight back, I wanted to represent strength… that we would not kneel to another power. But when my best commander… our best technologies and soliders and intel we had gathered since before the war failed to gain us so much as an inch on them. And theres no reason that we can point to for why we failed. This isn’t a war… this is a one sided massacre and we look weak regardless.
At the end of the day, my view is that we must preserve lives, whatever the cost. And from that, I will never waiver. If subjugation means we may continue to survive, then so be it.”
The prime minister stepped onto her podium. The assembly hall was largely empty, though a handful of advisors and aides wore solemn expression at what they were about to do.
“You’re on. Diplomatically immune secure line.” A technician said quietly as a comm line.
The prime minister wetted her lips.
“This is Prime Minister Kroywen Nal Hoytachia, speaking on behalf of the gauss dominion. Given the disastirous outcome of our attempted attack on Pobbma, we have opted to concede to your military superiority. This is a notice of immediate and total sur-“
The line cut out. A moment later the power to the high council chambers cut out. The room was bathed in an ebony darkness for a few moments before dim emergency lighting conduits came to power.
“What- what happened?”
“Someone’s cut the power. We lost the signal…”
Outside, at the Ingenious embassy there was a sprawling power outage across this section of the city. Office workers began to make their way outside. In the confusion, an individual in a black sweatshirt wove his way through the crowd with a large satchel on his back. A Cauldarion security guard noticed, even in the dark that he seemed particularly suspicious. It was specifically the reddish muzzle that came to his attention. And a handful of news camera droids which had managed to somehow… perhaps by design, managed avert the sweeping disruption of power outages and cyberwarfare followed the scene. The Furrelian made a mad sprint and the Cauldarion bolted after him. Demonstrating surprising strength, he hurled his package over the security perimeter, only to be tackled a moment later.
The Cauldarion gripped him, throwing off his hood to reveal the face of Tinel. His eyes wore a glazed, dead expression and a minute scar ran across the back of his neck whereupon his cerebellum had been invaded by the dominion’s own technology. A moment later the satchel detonated at the base of the Ingenious embassy. An immense octagonal pagoda with green tiled rooves and golden dragons wrapping around its columns; the explosion was potent. A backpack nuclear device. In the moments that followed the building swayed from the force of the blast, finding equilibrium; almost looking as though it might remain standing before it gave way. The Cauldarion ran, but both were crushed under the collapsing tower.
Back inside; the prime minister was made vaugely aware of the commotion outside. But amongst the muffled screams and rumbling of secondary explosions she made out a new sound. The familiar cadence of the galactic admiral and the clop of her hard-soled shoes.
“I’m sorry, prime minister. But on my honor, I cannot allow you to surrender this war. Doing so is an affront to the will of Kragleosha. That we are to stand against any enemy, no matter how insidious or how terrifying.”
Kroywen looked taken aback. In part, she understood what was happening. Yet she remained in denial.
“It is a fool’s errand to fight them. You have seen it for yourself.”
“It is not. You claimed yourself ot know politics, to understand motivations and yet you fail to see that which is right in front of you. The sacrifices that I have realized we must make to ensure the continuity of our society.”
“This… this is treason. Don’t do this… and I will allow you to repent.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. You want subjugation. Become complicit. Help me.”
“Not if your methods bring about more senseless death!” She shouted with supernatural volume and tone, stamping her daie on the floor. A shockwave spread throughout the room.
“I am so sorry you feel that way.” The galactic admiral said in a unified chorus. Her multipresent clones began to file into the room, filling out a formation to either side of her. All of them withdrew their quartets of pistols and opened fire, resulting in a malestrom of railgun rounds. She spiraled her staff about; the dodecahedral aspect of matter formed a thin film of liquid into a bubble surrounding her. Upon striking it, the rounds dissolved into dust. When the salvo of fire relented, she hurled the liquid forward. It impacted, spraying white-hot slime over that side of the room. Scattering the Admiral’s clones and killing some of them. Before they could regroup, she summoned her psionic aspect.
A pulse shot through the room, violet lightning crackling between every object. The clones siezed for a moment, their eyes flashed violet as they stumbled and some fell to the floor. Though they rebounded quickly from their momentary confusion. Kroywen took those few breif moments to draw out her space aspect, recognizing two railgun shots had slipped her guard and pierced her torso in non vital areas.
The space aspect flickered and died. She felt it… they were under interdiction. There was no escaping.
During which time, the Admiral had composed herself and approached. The room was silent now. All of the other aides and councilmembers lay dead or dying. Recognizing the dire nature of her situation, she drew out the material and energy aspects once more; hoping to cause an explosion, but the Admiral was quicker. Swiping the staff from her hand and snapping it over her knee. A spark flew out as it snapped. Two of the surviving duplicates; having reloaded their firearms approached. By the time they had finished shooting, the prime minister was little more than a smear of brown fur and blood adorning the council chambers.
Kojunfourge System
The planet of Kojunfourge was a world as large and tumultuious as the Cauldarion people themselves. Thrice the radius of a standard planet with a punishing five and a half gees of gravity. Great fortress-like domes and pyramids erected across its surface; these mighty structures size of mountians and adorned with the various crests of their countless houses. The areas that were not developed were jagged mountain ranges and swamps and jungles of low-rising scarlet foliage. Its moon, the size of a standard planet in its own right and linked to its parent planet by way of a great space elevator. Beyond that a constellation of FEWIS stations patrolled the planet’s high orbit.
Otherwise the system was relatively unremarkable. A gas giant orbited harrowingly close to the parent star; its atmosphere being stripped by the punishing solar wind. A handful of smaller ice giants bearing small and unremarkable moons orbited further out in the system.
The Zeytan station was contacted by their Liason, a Kayron Humandari.
“This is Karyon Humandari. We’ve just recieved word that Kon Galon has been bombed and that there is an ongoing cyberattack on the Gaussian Innernet. We believe this to be of Furrelian origin. Maintain your station, and ensure any messages you recieve are not-“
The communication line cut out.
Then the city lights on the dark side of the planet went dark. Some were restored a few moments later; albeit they seemed dimmer. Emergency backup lighting.
Then the interdiction field projected by the stations dispersed. The stations fell silent of comms chatter and the usual signals which they relayed.
JADE EMBASSY, KON GALON
The Jade Embassy on Kon Galon was large, with the Gauss Dominion being one of their strongest allies in the Ancerious Galaxy. It was a busy, bustling place, with a ground floor open to the public that included some small displays and educational pieces, as well as extensive offices for the creation and renewal of visas, the replacement of identification papers and more. There was always a steady stream of people, whether Gaussians looking to get documentation to travel and work in the Jade Empire or Imperials updating their records.
The upper floors housed a variety of more secure chambers, used for conducting diplomatic meetings, trade negotiations and more, as well as housing the ambassador herself in the penthouse suite. Fukushima Kinu, the Jade Ambassador to the Gauss Dominion, was attempting to relax, knowing that something big was happening with the Gauss-Furrelian War this evening. She did not know the specifics, but she had reason to believe Kroywen was planning to open negotiations with the enemy tonight. Hardly surprising given the disaster at Pobbma, and eminently sensible and sound, but still gut-wrenching.
She was reading a novella, an undemanding teary-eyed tale of a sad courtesan and her secret lover, when the power went out. She could hear mutters of confusion and concern throughout the building, but almost immediately candles, torches and glow-sticks began to light, before the emergency generator kicked in. She pulled out her own glowstick and snapped it, casting a life-preserving blue light around herself, before heading to the balcony. Sure enough, the rest of the neighbourhood was also out.
She never felt or saw the explosion that killed her. The roar of nuclear fire lashed the front of the building, evaporating her in an instant, and she was dead long before the tower collapsed onto the street beyond...
_
JADE EMBASSY, OUTBUILDINGS
Captain Ishido had risen from his bed when the lights went out, and already he could hear his marines chattering as they readied themselves in case this was some kind of attack. He glanced out of the blockhouse window at the towering embassy structure and could see no cause for alarm, but began to dress himself anyway, in the G-BUS Light variant he wore most days for practicality's sake.
He had just finished buckling the light flak plating on his chest when the explosion threw him from his feet. The glass in his window blew out, peppering the wall behind with shards, some of which nicked his left arm. Dumped heavily to the ground, it took him a moment to regain his senses. His ears were ringing, his sense of direction was shot, his body ached and his arm stung, but he staggered upright and downstairs. The front door was open and he could see marines beyond, glowsticks hanging at their belts, but the emergency lighting was not necessary as the ruins of the embassy building burned in the night.
A marine yelled at him. "Sir, radiation!"
"RADIATION PROTOCOL, REPEAT RADIATION PROTOCOL" the captain hollered automatically, sprinting back inside to grab safety gear. The marines wearing G-BUS Heavy remained on-station, covering those who had been exposed. Ishido staggered back upstairs, unsure if the nausea he felt was from blunt force trauma, radiation, or the sheer adrenaline of the situation, or perhaps a mixture of all three. As he struggled with his gear he placed a call to Sanrin.
"I say again, we have been attacked by a nuclear device, multiple KIA multiple WIA, we require immediate reinforcement and medical attention, severe burns and radiation poisoning expected."
By the time he got downstairs again, his marines and the few civilians who lived in the blockhouse were stood on the lawn between it and the embassy. Perhaps 50 marines in total out of the 150 he had on-site, and a dozen civilians.
_
He knew some of his marines would be out and about in the city during their downtime, but there would have been the better part of a hundred soldiers in the embassy itself, along with as many civilian embassy workers, staff and more.
"Sergeant Hodges, take a platoon and cover the street, clear a path for Dominion emergency crews. Lieutenant Yue, get on the horn with local emergency responders. We're gonna have a lot of casualties..."
He paused as one of the medics from 8th platoon bustled over with a binding agent tablet that helped to prevent absorption of radioactive particles, whilst another dragged out one of the hoses used to water the once-lush garden and began hosing soldiers down, at least removing some of the particulate from their suits.
The surviving soldiers moved into the street, away from the ruined compound, and began clearing a perimeter. A squad searched for injured locals hurt when the tower fell into the street, whilst someone launched a recon drone and tried to get close to the ruins themselves, searching for survivors...
Union Embassy Kon Galon:
The blast had been dulled by distance, but it was still enough to shatter the windows of the embassy and knock Ambassador Kaiden from his desk. He felt blood on his neck, and pain, reaching up to find several shards of glass embedded in his back. He knew he hated paperwork and wanted something to distract himself.
But not like this.
Groaning in pain he pulled himself up, his three legs helping to hoist himself back up using the desk as a support. Kaiden pulled pieces of glass from himself, sadly Cylaurian biology tended to be more fragile than other races, and their skin was no exception. He turned to look out the now shattered window to see the roiling cloud now making its way into the sky. Nuclear in origin then, given the momentary heat blast and bring light that proceeded it. By creation, someone had detonated a nuke in the Gaussian capital.
Kaiden knew there was some major news coming about the Furrelian war, he had sympathised with the Dominion of course. The Union of Worlds had been slowly increasing its diplomatic standing, slowly but carefully as the two sides became friends. Alas when the call for aid had come the government had refused military intervention, only humanitarian aid, financial aid and material aid had been given. Eiasten was careful to not intervene in new conflicts, the Unions more isolationist stance coming back to bite them Kaiden thought. His trail of thinking as he picked the glass was halted as several soldiers entered the room.
“Ambassador are you ok!” Two of the Union guards, now dressed in their power armour helped Kaiden to his feet, immediately getting to work with field dressings and injecting medical nanites.
“I am fine, ensure the premises are secure and make sure everyone is accounted for”
“Power is mostly down; we have the back up generator running but comlines to the authorities or anywhere else is all cut. We don’t know what’s going on” Kaiden wiped his whiskers.
“Then get a runner out! Get to the government building and grasp what’s going on, try get word to the Jade too…” He paused “Damn that blast came from their direction, take a team with you instead and do what you can to help them” They all nodded in response.
“Things have really gone to shit”
Sting [-IVE-] — 07/04/2021
The Capitol, Empyria, Empyria System, the Imperial Vires of Empyria
Edwin woke up softly, a small Implant in his temple waking him up softly but fully in a few seconds. Almost everyone had implants which helped them with daily tasks and gave them connection to the internet and almost everything, and while Edwin had a special one, it was no different in many other respects. Stretching, he straightened himself on the bed, looking around the room. The room was spotless, and as he looked around, TV’s and screens turned on, the room filling with soft light. The windows are unshaded as well, letting in the natural light of the sun. Outside was a grand expanse of flowers and roads, the pocket of Military or civilian vehicles running through the roads.
Edwin dressed himself, and as he finished a knock was heard on the door. He already knew who it was of course, but the display next to the door stated it was Flit.He nodded for the door to open, and as it did his assistant entered the room.
“Wake up well sir?” Flit said in a routinely manner, placing a small platter on the table. On it was a hot drink and a breakfast of eggs and waffles. A strange combination to some, but Edwin liked it.
“As always Flit, what are we doing today?” Edwin said, sitting down on his desk and picking apart his eggs, looking at flit, who now swiped up a hologram.
“You have a STRATCOM meeting in 5 sir, EIS is going crazy right now, something is happening to Gauss.”
“What was the battle with them recently, Pob-something?”
“Pobbma sir, which resulted in a Gaussian withdrawal. It seems that the Furrelians are on the offensive now, and it's not looking good. I don't know the specifics, but they will brief you soon.”
Edwin ate his breakfast fast today, and got up a few minutes later, and took a lift to the Bowels of the Capitol Building. Arriving inside, the dozen or so men and women in uniforms got up, saluting, their right arm crossed over their heart.
“At ease gentlemen and women, we normally do this meeting in a few hours, what's the rush?” Edwin said, now sitting down at the head of the table, he crossed his fingers, listening.
A snappy Colonel now swiped his hand, turning on a few holograms, which encompassed the table and the wall on the other end of Edwin. She now spoke,
“Prime Minister, a few hours ago the Gauss Homeworld of Kon Galon suffered a massive Blackout, which is still happening. Empyrian Intelligence Service Operatives who had been watching local news have lost those connections, and other connections to the planet state that something is going on. We are receiving mixed messages, but a Nuclear weapon may have been used on a Embassy, we are not sure who though or why. We expect to find this out in the next few hours.
Carrier Strike Group 22, headed by the ENS Defendia, is currently positioned here, on a straight line course between the Furrelians and Gauss. They have not seen anything yet, which makes us believe either the Furrelians are trying to stay quiet or this attack is internal to the gauss.” The Colonel pointed at a dot on a galactic map. It was in the middle of nowhere in space, but the entire fleet was spread out enough to have a modest view of the direct route.
“The most worrying thing is that EIS reports that even the Gaussian Capitol Building is silent, which may indicate an attack. This may be a false alarm or the Gauss undergoing a lockdown, but the suspicion is there.
Sir, the Gauss Empire is one of our closest Neighbors, and as a Democracy, it is imperative that they stay that way. EIS needs permission to increase our surveillance and the Admirals here also have a few suggestions.”
The Colonel now stood in place, as the room turned back to look at Edwin. An Admiral a few places away from Edwin now spoke up.
“Prime Minister, should the Furrelians Attack and successfully annex the Gauss, this will give them a key staging ground in our part of the Galaxy. We can't have that happen, and propose that a response from Empyria needs to be done. We request permission to Mobilise CSG-11,17, and 4 in Imperia and send them closer to Gauss space. This will give us the opportunity to project power near gauss and therefore the furrelians should they choose to invade. The Furrelians are, though, much stronger than us, and outnumber us with comparable technology, and more trained leaders. We will be able to fight them, but we need allies or after the Gauss, they will come for us.”
Edwin Interjected now, “are you suggesting we join this war and attack the Furrelians?”
The Admiral shook his head, “No sir, we just need permission to bring our ships near Gaussian Space and show that the Furrelians cannot continue to shove around the gauss without getting more states involved. If we can rope in other aligned states, we may even force the furrelians to end the war without us firing a shot.”
Edwin looked around the room, thinking now over his choices. A intervention would not go well in the public light, so much lighter tools must be used for now, or he risks his own skin.
“EIS, you have permission to use light reconnaissance tools. Drones you can send to gauss Space, and continue to monitor the situation as much as you can online. That's it. I want no spies and shit for now, we can't deal with that.”
The Colonel nodded.
“Admiral, Prepare those Carrier groups, but do not leave Empyrian Space yet. I need to know more about what's happening before we show our cards.”
The Admiral nodded.
“Optamus de Empyria.” Edwin said, now standing up
“De Empyria!” the room responds fiercely.
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"You ever been down there since you got here?"
Over the grand, rocky homeworld of the Cauldarions, a Zetyan void station sat silently in orbit, simultaneously one of the new diplomatic leeways for the two nations, a middleman for FTL communications, and an entry point for Clan Kho'thar's economic support. It'd been recently towed in after the public declaration of support from the Clanholds, on recommendation from multiple liasons due to supposed cultural similarities.
Within a command bridge deep within the construct's fathoms, a decently sized team of various personnel sat around, passing the time with small talk while they waited for, well, anything. A mr. T'lajoa Rt'as sat next to a comms operator, staving off his boredom with conversation.
"Nah, why?"
"Shit, you're lucky. Had to go down to the surface once, for introductions and shit. Felt like I was carrying two whole-ass harnesses on my shoulders."
"No shite."
"Yeah! And I was fuckin' wearing one of those pimpy Council harnesses, too!"
"Damn. They warn you 'bout it at all, then?"
"Yeah, a few times."
"Eh, right, better than me former boss. 'eard of a green'orn 'o his who were sent to a minin' facility on Q’toekarii. Di'n't even pass 'im so much as a word a' caution."
"Unlucky bastard. Shit, I might've worked for that guy once or twice, the fuckin' prick. What's his name?"
"The name's-"
Suddenly, a message arrived from planetside. The Cauldarion liason came up on one of the screens, looking rather concerned.
"This is Karyon Humandari. We’ve just recieved word that Kon Galon has been bombed and that there is an ongoing cyberattack on the Gaussian Innernet. We believe this to be of Furrelian origin. Maintain your station, and ensure any messages you recieve are noagrgjn@#$VF@ashjR --kshrrt--“
And then, on visuals, the planet went dark. Automated messages and manual chatter from Dominion FEWIS stations stopped coming in, and the onboard interdiction detection systems, primitive as they were, ceased all readouts. Even a fool could tell what was happening.
A chorus of 'oh shit', 'woah', and other standard shock synonyms followed in it's wake, as some began rushing to reestablish comms with Kojunfourge. For a moment, the diplomat and the operator only watched.
"...fuck."
"Cockfurs aren't even bein' subtle wif' it, are they?"
"Guess not." Raising his internal voice to 'giving orders or some stuff' levels, he got up and addressed the room.
"Right, we're still kicking, let's act like it! You guys, try and get a line to the slabfaces! You guys, send warnings out to neighboring systems, see if they can send backup! Rest of you, buzz our boys at home! Let's go, move, move!"
As they rushed to execute his impromptu, and technically invalid orders(the station overseer was present, and giving him some decent side-eye), T'lajoa patted himself on the back. He'd definitely gotten better at the whole public speaking thing since he got actual diplomatic training, not to mention his boost to street cred. An internal reminder was set to thank P'tala when he next saw her, as alarms rang out stationwide and calls to arms resounded in his earholes.
-------------------------------------------------
In vacuum, the station suddenly awoke with ferverous activity, onboard hangars opening in preparation for a mass unloading of spacecraft and phantom turrets unfolding and extending from various places. Two corvettes also sat in dockyards, silently awaiting their crew.
An FTL signal raced through the stars back to home, and others danced over to nearby systems, carrying a single unified warning.
On Kojunfourge, the source of the previous message would now be receiving a steady stream of radio messages, each trying to verify a re-connection with the Cauldarions.
Ofton (Furrelian Union/FFR) — 07/07/2021
Fureskina, Sallag System, Furrelian Union
It had been an exhausting day. The Diplomatic corps of the Furrelian Union in Ancerious had been preparing more than three dozen messages for other nations, explaining their actions to come. They would’ve been sent after Tarodema returned from his operation. Sidonela Estanio, a high-level diplomat assigned to the Diplomatic service was preparing to close down for the day. The moment she was about to close the secure diplomatic line with the Gauss Dominion, she received the message of surrender. She did not expect it. The city outside, louder than normal as the celebrations of the victory at Pobbma continued, seemingly faded out of her ear, as she began transmitting the message towards multiple other sections for verification before those sections began sending the message to those who required it. However, the end was weird to her. It seemed as if the recording suddenly and abruptly stopped.
“Well, it’s about time to shut down, is it not?” Disunema, another diplomat, said as he entered the room with Estanio.
“I don’t think so yet. The Dominion surrendered, I just received the message. B-”
“Wait, the Gauss Dominion? They’re surrendering already? That’s great news! You should close the line and celebrate!”
“I’m not saying I don’t want to celebrate, but I still have to transmit this info towards five different people and sections. Are there currently any admirals in the field?” She sighed, she was tired and this was not going to work out positively on her sleep schedule. But, duty called.
“Just Tarodema, I think.”
“Fuck, of course, it has to be Tarodema... Help me for a second here!” She quickly got the Furrelian Navy’s command on a direct communications line, and begun transmitting the surrender message before calling them.
“FDS Command? This is Sidonela Estanio of the Furrelian Diplomatic Service. Check my authenticity if you need to, but this has priority. The Gauss Dominion has surrendered, check the message I sent. Whatever you do, try not to attack any more Dominion targets. The war is as good as over, just don’t attack anyone. Please, transmit this data to any admiral currently in the field, we don’t want to risk a diplomatic accident.” She sent to the FDS’ Command centre on Fureskina. She awaited the answer rather impatiently, but after five minutes, a response came.
“This is FDS Command, understood. We will transmit further details to fleet command.”
…
Eatov, Lithorian Collective
The System of Eatov had been leased out to the Furrelians after the meeting in Muspell. Now, it had become time that the Furrelians finally used it. Risodemi Tarodema, Upper-Fleet-Admiral, had arrived at Eatov to end the war, a final blow to the crippling morale of the Dominion, the complete destruction of Kojunfourge. He was planning on using the largest ship in his fleet, the Wrath of Sallag, against the planet of Kojunfourge, to completely destroy the Gaussian will to fight. A fleet of around four hundred ships had assembled in Eatov, with around an additional hundred being relegated to support and maintenance duties, bringing the total amount of Furrelian ships in Eatov at Five-hundred. He was preparing himself for the battle to come. In five minutes, the beginning of Operation Returning Force would begin, a small squadron of Furrelian ships would jump into Kojunfourge, in order to scout out targets for the dozen Faster-Than-Light missiles his fleet had brought with him. The ships would transmit coordinates which the missiles could jump towards, destroying the toughest defences before the main fleet could begin its operation. Tarodema looked out of the visual display of the Wrath of Sallag and observed the fleet he had assembled. It was time to end the war. He noticed how the first five ships engaged their FTL drives and departed Eatov, twenty minutes more until the missiles struck.
“Greyase madoli nari to.” He said. “Greyas be with you.”.
Kojunfourge, Gauss Dominion
The five ships, a destroyer and four corvettes, each had stealth capabilities. The exit vector was above the planet, and the first ship to arrive was the FDS Ozotima, a corvette. Almost instantly after it appeared, the stealth system kicked in, its cloaking device was activated, and it disappeared from both sensors and visual sight. Soon after, the rest of the fleet followed. Three of the other ships successfully engaged their cloaks before moving further towards the planet. The one which did not successfully engage its cloak was the Udire Falcon, another corvette. It stayed uncloaked and in clear visual sight for almost five minutes, before finally activating its cloak. A rather unfortunate time for a mechanical fault to show up, but the crew of the ship ran with it regardless. The five ships each moved their own way, noting notable sections of the defensive grid, before transmitting the coordinates back towards the Furrelian fleet in Eastov itself.
Gauss Dominion — 07/07/2021
Kon Galon System.
Emergency crews began to filter in, assisting ingenious where needed. A group of Cauldarions were helping to pick apart the rubble pile; being able to move the larger pieces of debris. News reports showing the few seconds of footage of the Furrelian perpetrator were already spreading throughout the galaxy with bold and gripping headlines. In the malestrom, a landing site was cleared in the street for a military shuttle to set down.
Garo Tarongori stepped out, glancing around at the chaos. He had a full contingent of vetted knights with him, around twenty in total. Crowds of onlookers and aristocrats were still scattering in panic. The active support members of the orbital ring-city rhythmically cycling on and off synchronizated fashion. With the system perpetually rebooting only to overload and power down again, thus every building transitioned back and fourth between fully lit and whatever emergency lights it had.
“It is an honor, supreme commander!” Mourg, The second-highest-ranking cauldarion in his attache commented.
“I wish it were under better circumstances.” Garo snarled, making his way down the line of embassies and government buildings and into the council chambers. A handful of ESP drones made their way in beforehand as he navigated the halls in an impaitent walk, eventually arriving at the council chambers and was greeted by the grizzly scene. He let out a soft, saddened sigh and began looking around the room. He lifted the head of Mateon voss only to reveal a gaping hole in his chest at an angle.
He glanced back, following the angle seeing around half a dozen of the galactic admiral’s clone bodies laying half-melted in the corner. He made his way over to where Kroywen last stood, picking up the broken halves of her daie staff. A part of him wanted to deny it. Wanted to believe that there was some explanation. But there was no other, no better explanation, and it didn’t take a master investigator to figure out what it was. The galactic admiral had attacked the high council. Then all the warning signs, all the times she seemed to snap. All the vindictive glances and outbursts seemed so much more important.
“It doesn’t take an expert investigator to tell what happened here. We’ve got to get word to high command and the planetary govenors that Luss has killed the prime minister.”
“I don’t get it…” Mourg began. “Why would Luss leave such obvious evidence behind-”
Garo’s eyes went wide with panic, remembering Luss’ typical strategies always involved deception, drawing opponents out of position and using confusion and panic to her advantage. In the few moments he had; his helmet unfurled from his collar.
The High council building resembled a great pyramid constructed of black slate. It was subsequently replaced with a fireball as a second nuclear detonation erupted from somewhere below the council chambers. Garo and the knights were flung upwards as the inside of the building exploded upwards like an erupting volcano. Fragments of synthetic stone and steel hurtling across the government plaza like lava bombs, impacting nearby buildings.
As quickly as the chaos had started, the field of debris fell silent for a few minutes as the crowds recovered. Then a large structural member shifted, and there was the audible whining of servos as the nearly two dozen knights worked to shift the massive member in unison. They looked around at each other. Some were shaken and some had fairly significant damage to their armor or had lost their weapons in the blast, but none were seriously injured. A news camera drone focused in on them as they began to chart a path over the rolling field of debris that was once the capital building. A dominion cruiser began to settle over the capital square as a fresh wave of shuttles and dropships spilled out to restore order and lock down the facility. One dropship stopped, turning sideways, the side doors opening. The galactic admiral stood there, her robes billowing in the turbulent air. Her voice was augmented by the speaker systems aboard the craft.
“Supreme Galactic Commander, you are under arrest for high treason and terrorism against the gaussian council.”
“What?” Garo bellowed back, using his armor’s own speakers to augment his voice. Though his voice needed less augmenting. “You can’t do this! You murdered the prime minister in cold blood. I have witnesses to the evidence!”
War droids and marines began to filter in, taking up positions of cover in the debris. The knights fidgeted, reaching for whatever weapons they hadn’t lost in the explosion. Some drew axes, others drew guns. One picked up a length of steel beam that ended in a slab of concrete resembling a giant hammer.
“This is blasphemy!” Mourg bellowed back. “You’re the traitor to the will of Kragleosha, and we have testimony and video evidence to prove that you were responsible for the death of the prime minister.”
“Testimony…? Video Evidence? I have proof directly from the GDCDC that your clearance was used to initiate the cyberattack against the gaussian innernet. You carried out this attack, you set off a bomb in here as well, why else would you and your cadre inbred brutes show up here in full wargear and somehow… survive the blast. Arrest him now, I’ve heard enough of these traitor’s lies!”
Mourg let out an aggrivated snarl at the insult, but Garo held him back from charging in a blind rage.
The two sides seemingly readied for battle. Though it looked as though the Cauldarions were woefully outnumbered and outgunned, anyone intimately familiar with the Tarongoris would know that it was a more even fight than it looked.
Kojunfourge System.
To the stealth ships the gaussian defenses appeared to be in disarray. The Sensor stations surrounding the planet appeared to be offline and the ships were flashing their point defense nodes. In reality they were still chewing through the aggressive cyberattack and forced to power down most of their advanced computer systems including their radio transmitters. Thus they had resorted to using their point defense beamers as signal lights. With a quick-fingered comms officer at the controls they could pulse out fairly detailed messages in binary, translating into galactic base. Each of the battleships pulsed out a message.
Chief of Cybersecurity says the boot drive updated. Component of virus in there. Restore backup or remove manually.
Another message. This one fired off the bow of the leading zeytan ship.
Karyon Humadari Speaking. Kroywen has formally capitulated the war. Do not engage the Furrelian vessel.
A third message. This one beamed just off to the side of the one vessel that had a failure in its stealth system.
Furrelian Vessel, Stand down and call off your attack. This is a notice of surrender.
Meanwhile, there were a dozen Ecumene ships loitering low over the planet. Hoytachian vessels were ubiqutiously bronze spheres with but a handful of green lights and ports, lacking any visibile thrusters or weapons. They began to hail the Furrelian vessel, and once they managed to handshake with its comms and establish a video feed. An elderly Hoytachian made their way into frame. It took them around thirty seconds to move their body fully into frame, walking with the assistance of an elaborate Daie plastered in buttons and controlling electronics for the ship. Quivering slightly with some alien equivalent to Parkinson’s disease as they moved.
“This is Sage Admiral Orok Oblata the wise of the Third Ascending fleet of the Hoytachian Ecumene. As per the mining claims act of 69AME; Territorial holds on the planet of Kojunfourge and its surrounding moons up to and including the edge of the discernable atmosphere are sovereign territory of the ecumene of syndicated hoytachian states. Therefore it is my duty to inform you that any strikes against these territories that cause any level undue disruption of our mining operations or wanton destruction against my people, automotouns or equipment by a military entity are to be considered an act of war agianst the Ecumene.”
The Sage Admiral transmitted a holographic map of the planet, showing how the planet had been parceled up between an assortment of Cauldarion houses but how snaking gerrymandered claims had been set out by the Ecumene. Mining stations were dotted throughout the planet and her moon.
“It has also come to my attention that Kroywen, progeny of the Hoytachian people attempted to make it known that the state of the Gauss Dominion… and all affiliated territories would be capitulating. Although the transmission was cut off before it could be formalized and complete, it can be interpreted beyond a reasonable doubt that their intentions were to engage in unconditional surrender. If you cause any undue damages to an enemy who has capitulated, it will be my duty as a Sage Admiral to inform the Gauss Dominion and all of her allies of your violation of the rules of war.”
The Beef (Ingen) — 07/07/2021
JADE EMBASSY, KON GALON
The recovery efforts well underway, Captain Ishido watched in quiet despair as corpse after corpse was removed from the rubble. Occasionally someone was found alive, caked in dust and barely awake, and at one point a Frame abruptly erupted from a pile of furniture uncovered by a Cauldarion, her tamale pseudo-skin tattered but her body essentially unharmed, but the vast majority were dead.
Around them, Gaussian EMTs set up a staging area in the street, triaging the worst cases and moving them to a nearby hospital. Thankfully Yokari and Yokeneko physiology was similar enough to human that it was relatively easy to treat them, but the injuries were still severe. A radiation scrubber set up began clearing the nuclear fallout from the briefcase bomb.
He watched as Garo and his knights trooped off towards the Council Hall, where he gathered from radio chatter that something serious was going on, but he had missed the details. Minutes later, however, another explosion shook the ground, eliciting screams and wails from the already-shocked civilians.
A plume of fire and smoke was visible from the Council Hall, and Gaussian flyers were visible converging on the scene.
"What the fuck?" he muttered to himself. He glanced around at the situation and then approached a nearby police officer.
"Hey buddy, I'm going to leave my walking wounded with you, I'm taking my men to the Council Hall to see if your people need assistance." he said in Common, before he and his four dozen marines began double-timing it up the road towards the commotion, leaving perhaps a half-dozen exhausted marines at the wreckage of what had once been the Jade Embassy...
_
SANRIN SYSTEM
"By the Dragon..." murmured Daimyo Toshi as she glanced at the preliminary reports. Fukushima Kinu had been a friend of hers, but just before lunch on Sanrin she had received word that Kinu was dead, along with most of the Jade staff at their Kon Galon embassy in the Gauss Dominion. Some kind of nuclear attack, and not only that but rumour had it there was something going on at the Council Hall too.
Information was changing by the second, but whatever the case she knew that the Jade Empire had to react. She called for Admiral Minowara and found him already awake, trying to raise the 3rd Regiment embassy protection unit on-planet.
"Good morning Daimyo. I cannot raise Captain Ishido or his men - I assume their equipment may have been damaged in the blast. I am reaching out to the Dominion now." he explained matter-of-factly, not glancing up from his console.
"Excellent, Admiral. I expect you will be sending vessels to the system?"
Minowara nodded. "An Ayuki-class carrier with the 789th Regiment, as well as an atakebune and two hayabune as escort. I will also request JIAN agents, although knowing them they are probably already there."
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"There it is! I fuckin' called it!"
The Falcon's error was the Zetyan's vindication.
They'd caught it on visuals and on sensors for a few vital moments, before it seemed to shimmer and slip back into the murky black. The bridge was abuzz with chatter and activity, as the overseer and his cohorts overlooked the scene from heightened platforms. T'lajoa had uttered the exclamation over by the communications and sensors section, having taken on some sort of weird pseudo-backseat driver role that would certainly earn him a 90 decibel telling-off later.
"What's the time for our boys?" he said, as he turned back to the guy he was talking to earlier.
"The lads said 5 minutes!"
"Any word from the neighbors?"
"None!"
"Dammit!" He segued back to the sensors operator he was talking to beforehand, watching his display like a hawk while also practically interrogating him on everything that the station was picking up. No doubt there would be more soon enough.
Though, not everyone shared the sentiment.
The station overseer, H'rla M'nngal, merely watched over the room as it moved and churned like a gelatinous blob. That cocksure diplomat guy, T'ago or whatever, had given him some time to ruminate over the unfolding events, as he checked in with comms operators and shouted random orders over to the other side of the room. And something didn't feel right.
The timing on the cyberattack? The convenient 'error' of the Furrelian ship's stealth systems?
It was too obvious.
He had no basis for his suspicion beyond the sheer obviousness and convenience of the whole situation. Even K'lvan fleets were more subtle than this, and here these furrelians were practically flashing the entire system a 'we're coming here' sign. Granted, they might not have known that the Zetyan station was here, but it still felt so... suspicious.
He continued to muse internally, as his eyes trailed across those stars so few and far between...
...was one of them blinking?
Hang on.
His six eyes all suddenly focused on that one star, a light blue one beating like a pulsar. On, off, on, off, so fast he could swear it might've just been the display framerate screwing with him. His right hand met the shoulder of one of his cohorts twice in one second, and his other reached with a finger towards the cerulean blue.
"Zoom in on that. Real close."
"What, that star? Why?"
"Stars don't blink."
With a press of a button or two, it did. And slowly, the superstructure of a FEWIS station came into view, with a set of tiny PD lasers on it's outer rim blinking on, off, on and off. Binary. They weren't completely out of the fight after all.
The bridge remained silent for what felt like a minute. Then, a voice rang out, then another, and soon the room was again a chorus, though this time one of confusion.
"I thought they were knocked out!"
"Are they shooting at us?!"
"Someone get that translated!"
"Looks like a cheap vibrator."
Through the commotion, the overseer had made his way down to the C&S section, making a beeline to the backseat driver's favorite area. His attention was swiftly acquired via a hard poke to the shoulder, as the translated message was propped up on the main screen by someone who probably had a rather decent work ethic.
...
They were surrendering? At a time like this? Bullshit.
Many gave cries of doubt to the Gaussian plea. H'rla merely focused on the comms section for now.
"Tell them to hold off. Wait for our signal." he ordered, just as T'lajoa returned his attention to the area. His voice rang out like a bell.
"What?! No! You're not postponing this just cause their dildo-station said they were chickening out!"
"It's not because of that, you retard. It's-"
"Then why?!"
"Let me fuckin' speak, holy shit!" He sighed, as a good chunk of the C&S section now watched their argument with rapt attention.
"Something ain't right. The cyberattack, the-that corvette, now that message. Something about this feels like a trick. A distraction or something."
"...what? What'd they gain out of tricking us? That-"
"I don't know. But this feels... too convenient, it's like they wanted us to know they were coming."
"Yeah, well, it's probably an intimidation tactic, or, something. I dunno, but we can't fall for that bullshit, or they'll wipe us out!" His military experience, or lack thereof, showed greatly.
"'Intimidation tactic' my ass. They wouldn't have sent a corvette if they wanted to 'intimidate' us."
"Wha' 'bout the slabface's message? You lads foergettin' somethin'?" the commsman chimed in.
A moment of silence ensued, as both sides now took in the fact everyone was listening in on their argument. H'rla's eyes rescanned the message, verifying it's contents. His opinion now shifted.
"...it's probably legitimate." Confusion and decries of doubt followed, as expected.
"No, it's a diversionary tactic! You yourself said it was suspicious! They probably hacked the stations, they're trying to catch us off guard to make their jobs easier!"
"Reread it. If that message was made by the cockfurs, how'd they get her name?"
"...her name?"
"Karyon Humadari. They shouldn't know she's our liaison this early on. How'd they get her name?"
T'lajoa's silence spoke for him. After a moment of looking for fractures on visuals, H'rla continued.
"How long until they FTL in?"
"Uh... 'boot 2 minnits, I say."
"Buzz them again. You or someone who can. Be ready to move out, but until further notice, they are not to warp in." His head tilted towards T'lajoa, as to solidify his orders. A silent 'you and i are having a word later' was written on his face. He then shifted towards the other sections, raising an orderly pointer finger.
"Rest of you, keep this place alert. Don't have anyone do anything unless I say so, or an entire voidfleet shows up on screen." He began to move back to the upper echelons of the bridge, momentarily stopping to stare at the display. The FEWIS station was still flashing strong.
"And, zoom out the display. I think we all got the message."
He then went back up to the upper echelons, as T'lajoa sulked and the rest of the bridge quietly returned to normal activity levels. Time to play the waiting game.
-------------------------------------------------
In vacuum, a whole lot of nothing seemed to happen. No fighters were launched, no guns or missiles fired, the turrets hardly even moved their barrels from where they last saw the Furrelian corvette. The stationborne corvettes were receiving crew, though any previous plans to launch were put on hold. For now, the station merely waited.
The Capitol, Empyria, Empyria System, the Imperial Vires of Empyria
Edwin combed a hand through his hair as he looked intently at a document, trying to read through some treaty or report or whatever the hell he was reading. He had a speech tomorrow, which he enjoyed much more than this. At this point, any distraction would be warranted to get away from this BS.
The door slid open, and a gasping assistant stumbled in. Outside, a White Beret peered over, a slight look of concern, but it couldn't really be discerned from his stone cold demeanor. The assistant now panted out,
“SIR, THE GAUSSIAN CAPITAL BUILDING JUST GOT NUKED AND THERE'S SOME STANDOFF WITH MECHS AND SHIT- STRATCOM NEEDS YOU IN THE SITUATION ROOM--”
Be careful what you wish for, thought Edwin as he swiped his phone off the glass table and legged it to the elevator.
-------------------------
A hybrid between a Sports car and a sedan slid to a stop next to a 2 story house, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. 5 black clad people hopped out of it, immediately sprinting to the door. Each of them had a specialized exo-suit, each with a variety of matte colored weapons and other fun things on them. Before they could react, a burst of MG erupted from a window through the closed blind, hitting one of them almost 6 times, popping their shield in the first 3 and sending another 3 into their torso. He fell over as another of the breachers brought a E110 up, spraying through the wall with the hypersonic railgun rounds.
“CAREFUL YOU SHIT, THIS IS A HOSTAGE MISSION YOU SHIT!” the leader of the breachers said, as she stacked up on the door, keeping her rifle trained on the door as she stopped from a full sprint next to the wall. The Marksman slid behind her, and the remaining two adjacent to the door. The grenadier opposite of the leader primed a flash, and the leader propped the door open a small bit, as the grenadier threw the flash in. it popped in a pattern, continuing to pop like a flashbang as the leader kicked the door fully open and slid in. meeting another similarly dressed defender right next to her face as she breached, she sidestepped as the defending woman sprayed her rifle straight at the leader. The leader sidestepped and elbowed the defender in the face, being a bit too quick as the defender attempted to lunge backwards. On the off step, the leader upholstered her sidearm in a flash and laid into the defender, whose shield was overwhelmed and taken out.
“What did I fucking say about staying next to the door you fuckwit.” the leader grumbled as she with the rest of the breachers cleared the room. To the left and the right were 2 doors, so the team split into 2’s, the leader being paired with the marksmen. The leader decided this time to slap a charge on the door, and with the other team, simultaneously breached the two rooms. As she slid into the clear room, she could hear gunshots from the adjacent room, and a token in the top right of her HUD go black, the other went from blue to green.
“Scratch 1, 3 to go I think, unless she's still alive up there.”
“Probably is because Tailison here is a bad shot, keep moving by yourself-”
Mid sentence, the next door down the chain opened and a grenade flew out, exploding mid air. Cursing, the leader and marksmen responded by throwing their own frags into the next room. They overhand fastballed the two grenades, throwing them exactly through the now closing door, getting in right before it closed fully.
“SHIT!” was heard as the two exploded mid-air, followed by a clutter as something hit the floor.
“Dumbass.” the leader grumbled as she kicked down the door, checking her shields on the bottom right of her HUD. 58%, she should be fine. They now cleared the room, seeing the dead defender, a bandolier of grenades around his body. One of them flashed red.
“OH SHIT-” the marksmen yelled, bodyslamming the leader as they fell back. The leader fell back into the first room, but the marksman was not so lucky, his bottom torso being engulfed in a energy blast.
“FUCK-” the leader yelled, getting up and going through the now trashed room, and into the next. The next room was a connector, connecting the passage that the other attacker team took from the main room to hers, and between her and the last breacher was a staircase up.
Nodding, the two continue up the stairs. As their heads peak up the top, the man on the leaders left is hosed by a SAW on the other end of a long hallway throughout the second floor. A head on the last door to the left, seeing the two, pokes his head into the door, closing it. The leader, seeing the proned SAW gunner who blasted her friend on the right, laid into the gunner with her rifle. The SAW gunner instinctively evaded the first few rounds, but was hit and ragdolled on the floor.
IT'S OVER WERTIUL, COME HERE YOU COCK-SUCKER!” the leader now yelled, sprinting through the hallway. As she did so, her HUD noticed a small black box on the floor on the right side of the hallway. The leader front-flipped over the trap as it fired a spray of pellets knee high, barely missing the leader. She continued to sprint, now sliding to a stop right before the door.
“WERTIUL, HAND OVER THE HOSTAGE AND NO-ONE ELSE HAS TO GET SHOT!”
“GIVE UP VI, IT'S JUST YOU AND ME, YOU COME IN THAT DOOR AND I SHOOT THE HOSTAGE!”
...
Vi tapped the door open, now aiming at a man in similar attire, aiming a pistol at a bag of chips.
“Lieutenant, you are aware that those are training rounds, right?”
Wertiul, realizing his fatal mistake, dropped the pistol and brought his arm down for his sword, which definitely would destroy the precious hostage, but it was too late. Vi dropped him as she triple tapped his face with her rifle.
As the lights turned off, Captain Vi threw off her helmet, breathing out as she walked over, snatching the bag of chips as Wertiul groaned. While all of this was a simulation, house rules of the Squad was to make it hurt a little after the round, as friendly motivation. She now offered her hand to the lieutenant. He begrudgingly took it, getting up. Below them, shouts of “LETS GO!” and “FUCK YOU SPAWNCAMPER!” were heard.
On Vi’s arm, a small message appeared, requesting her to appear at the bridge. As the Purple Beret Squad left the training floor, Vi dismissed them and headed up to the Bridge of the Corvette.
As Vi entered the bridge, the small 20 or so people on it stood up to attention. Wertiul followed close by her side, as Vi waved for them to sit down. A Blue Beret now walked over to her, the officer nodded.
“Cap, what's up?” Vi said, leaning on a projector table in the middle of the room.
Captain Jillian waved his hand, displaying an order from STRATCOM.
“Looks like we're finally deploying.”
Vi looked over to the document displayed on the projection.
“Huh, that's a strange assignment.”
---------------------
“So we're doing this?” Edwin said to the room posthumously. The room of Generals and Admirals all nodded approval, some uncertain, and some certain. The Marins certainly seemed certain, they would want to be the ones to be shipped out first when this causes a war with whoever.
The Admiral now spoke. “It shouldn't be that bad, we are sending a ship under the guise of an Empyrian News agency to see what's happening closer. They won't shoot it, and I dont think it's even going to be stopped considering the Cyberattack that might have happened.”
“What we don't have plausible deniability for, is deploying a Purple Beret Group to the system.”
“Prime Minister, we are just having on in the general area in case something happens, we aren't going to bring them into Gauss sovereign territory until we know something is going on. Right now, something is happening, I mean look at these two. We need more information to find out whats happening behind the scene. If we end up with a civil war as our neighbors while they are being invaded, this could end badly.”
“I personally can deploy the Purple Berets, got it? Other than that, I want us to stay as silent as we can in finding out the full picture.”
The room nodded in agreement.
“Let's do this then.”
Kojunfourge System, Gauss Dominion
The Udire Falcon stayed silent for a dozen minutes after receiving the message of the FEWIS platform, continuing its original mission and remaining stealthy and ‘unseen’. Onboard the ship, however, it was everything but silent. The bridge of the ship was in a heavy discussion regarding what they had to do. Captain Teserit Fisomena, an older Furrelian whose hair was beginning to grey out, was in a discussion with his few other commanding officers.
“Tarodema ordered us to keep going with the orders regardless of what. It is pro-”
-“Sidema, for fucks sake! Did you even see the translation? They’re surrendering, it makes no sense to continue a war that has ended!” Hesedema, the executive officer, said while in discussion with Sidema, the navigation officer.
“Why would they surrender this early?”
“Because of their total defeat at Pobbma a few days ago? Have you not been following the news?”
“Greyas’ Grace, you two, cut it out!” Residema, the political observer said. He took a breath, before bringing on his point.
“If I were any worse, both of you would’ve been demoted for this. But, Hesedema is right. They’re surrendering, we should honour that. Wait for a minute, and we’ll see if they ‘faked’ it.”
“Then it is settled, we declo-” Fisomena said but was interrupted by a shout from the Communications officer.
“Incoming transmission, the Goats!”
“Accept it, let’s hear what they have to say. Tilsony Midunema, decloak the ship! Haul the rest of the fleet, tell them that the Dominion is surrendering! Alert Tarodema too!”
...
The message was accepted the same moment the ship returned to visual sight.
“This is Captain Teserit Fisomena of the FDS Udire Falcon, assigned to the Fourth fleet under the command of Upper Fleet-Admiral Tarodema. We have not yet received the official message of surrender, but the Union will take your word for it. I am not authorised to conduct diplomatic talks, so I am afraid that you will have to wait for a response from Sallag before we can discuss terms. For now, the Furrelian Union will respect the Holds of the Ecumene in Kojunfourge.”
At the same time, the message to the Hoytachian fleet was being transmitted, one of the corvette’s own Point-Defence guns opened fire, transmitting, through a bit more rusty, a message in binary, though this time in Sylenti, rather than Galactic common.
“Message received, rest of current fleet active in Kojunfourge to decloak as soon as possible, section of Furrelian 4th fleet to arrive soon, do not open fire on them.” That message was received by the other four Furrelian ships, and one by one they decloaked. A message was soon afterwards sent towards the main fleet.
Eatov, Lithorian Collective
Tarodema had retreated to his own seat on the FDS Wrath of Sallag. His attention now lied with the fleet he had sent to Kojunfourge. He was reflecting on his plan but was interrupted by a message he received on his console. FDS command. The message was the notification of the surrender.
“Attention Upper-Fleet Admiral Tarodema. The Gauss Dominion has officially surrendered. Operation Returning Force is not to be continued. Return the majority of your fleet back towards local Furrelian anchorages, and wait for further instructions regarding the surrender of the Gauss Dominion. File attached has the message used by the Dominion to surrender.”
“So. Here their road ends.” He mumbled to himself. Looking around the bridge, he noticed how the rest of the crew, or at least the ones directly next to him, began to celebrate.
“Well then. Order three quarts of the fleet back towards whatever system they belong in, the quart remaining should follow us towards Kojunfourge.”
Gauss Dominion — 07/12/2021
Kon Galon: Capital District
Garo looked around. His panic and confusion wasn’t terribly obvious as his face was masked and he knew it was probably for the best that it stayed masked. He turned to the ingenious marines. Luss frowned, knowing what he would try to do. Several kilometers away a great wall arced onto the horizon. The lip of the Kon galon orbital ring city. Cloaked atop a support conduit a shadow ranger sniper. Loading an anti power armor round rated to pierce cauldarion armor; more akin to a miniature RKKV or a small, narrow ATGM than a bullet. Her scope cycled through magnifications and spectra as she identified a weakpoint in the neck.
“She’s lying. Give me asylum in the Jade Empire. Give me a chance to prove my innocence. I did not give anyone my access.” He affirmed, trying desperately to maintain his calm tone.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s now a known traitor and a liar, harboring him will only give him more time to exact further damage.”
Mourg, being vastly younger and more brash raised his gun at the galactic admiral. “Stop accusing him you dumb bitch!”
The Galactic admiral stumbled, unable to respond to the insult or even hearing it. her conviction waivering as she clutched her head and her ears folded backward in pain. In truth the cyberattack was using the supreme galactic commander’s access. The only lie was that he had willingly given it up. Now her networked mind was being fully integrated with the dominion innernet; allowing her backdoor access and a means to manipulate data typically reserved for the council. She recovered after a moment and the ring’s power grid on Kon Galon rebooted. This time for good. One by one the defenses began to restore, at least around Kon Galon and Assiduous. The outer colony worlds were still tumultuious digital battlegrounds and would take some time to bring back online.
Gaussian Dark Net:
A video message began to play, across some levels of the gaussian deep web. Broadcast out along encrypted data channels it reached out. Only in Assiduous and Kon Galon were the network had mostly been restored, was the message fully blocked.
We are the crimson stars. For a thousand years the dominion has stood as a testament to the inconlence of organic beings. That we can live amongst a society that preaches peace and equality but produces the very antithesis. A nation built on lies… you are but cattle confined to stalls, living out aimless lives in the delusion that you somehow have purpose.
Our day of reckoning is upon us. It is the will of Kragleosha that all sentient beings are left to their devices, to be free. To-
The terrorist’s intimidating message was interrupted as their signal was cut out of the network which they were steadily regaining control of. But it was enough for them to know to begin.
Kojunfourge Surface: House Tanar Restoration Movement cell of Crimson Stars
House Tanar was a house dismantled by the order of the hundred houses. A house built on the worst of crimes, placing deceit before honor. However a small but staunch contingent of Cauldarions, namely criminals and outcasts from other houses had banded together in an effort to find belonging in. Having made their homestead in an abandoned transit complex. The monorail system linked into an abandoned mine that used the system to ship ores to nearby refineries. However as the ores dried up; this part of the network had been left to decay.
That message, however incomplete was the signal for them to initiate the attack. Where the message had been wholly blocked; Assiduous and Kon galon, the message never came and thus the terrorist cells would never know that the circumstances came to pass.
The half dozen agents opened a caseful of syringes. Passing one around to each member they injected themselves; failing to read the fact that for the vaccine to actually work they would need to wait two weeks for their body to build an immunity to the budding disease. Though some of the other cells had taken better care to follow through on the instructions Avalichi had given them.
“Brother Tagnarok. When this day is done, House Tanar will be able to lay claim to all of Kojunfourge. Honor is Weakness. Deceit is Strength.”
“Brother Gakan, what of those bastard red dogs. They may come here and try to lay rule to the planet.”
“Then the red dogs will fall victim to the plauge as well. If they even dare come down in the gravity well to enforce their rule. Would we truly be free under their rule? Avalichi said this world may well fall. When they come to enforce their rule, they too will fall victim to the pestilince. We will only truly be free to restore House Tanar if we kill all those who oppose us.”
The Cauldarions made their way down to the tram station. Each tram was equipped with a two-stage plan. Large chemical drums were packed with a writhing mass of billions of buzz ticks. Tiny blood sucking parasites no bigger than a millimieter native to the swampy lowlands of Kojunfourge. However these individuals had been genetically modified to being vastly hardier than the natives and would no doubt rule the insectoid ecosystem in due time. All of them carried the budding disease. Where the monorails passed near a vent; or emerged from tunnels to traverse the swampland the insects would slowly be released.
The endpoint of each monorail were major medical facilities spread across the northeastern hemisphere of Kojunfourge. Concealed within another chemical drum were megaton-level nuclear devices. These were not part of the script. But they had them, and with the tram system’s AI controlled scanners and security systems still offline they could disribute them into proximity and hamper a response to the virus. This was not part of the plan that Avalichi had given them, instead derived by house Tanar themselves.
One by one the trams were sent out from the station as the members of house Tanar went about arming a final nuke and clearing their hideout.
Kojunfourge, Orbit:
Things were tense and silent. Crews were still working their way through the cyberattack. Then a flash; as a nuclear fireball engulfed the countryside. From orbit it appeared meager, but in reality a multi-megaton nuclear device had just vaporized an abandoned mining compound.
“Shaku!” Karyon cursed. “Bastards aren’t listening. Damn this cyberattack couldn’t be more perfect, its taken out all our scopes and those cloaked bastards are bombing the planet. Give them one more chance and we fight back! Use every laser we have. Get the message out!”
“Dammit! They’re genocidal! They’re going to bomb the whole planet with those stealth vessels!” The weapons officer shouted.
“Stay your posting and follow orders! We honor the Prime Minister’s surrender.”
The Cauldarion weapon’s officer let out a furious and empassioend roar. He recalled the old stories, of how their homeworld had been glassed by the Katharians. He recalled how his few surviving ancestors had surrendered only to have their world glassed down to the bedrock. Rising from his seat in blind mutiny and brandishing a heavy pistol. The kind of gun that could reduce a lesser organic to a splatter and was most certianly lethal even to a hardy Cauldarion. An accelerator round struk her dead center in the head with grizzly results. There was a breif gunfight; with little in the way of cover for either side as similarly empassioned mutineers managed to sieze control of the ship., and in the chaos one of the weapons officers loosed a guided RKKV twoards the exposed furrelian stealth ship. Ludicrous overkill as the missile was traveling at 75% of lightspeed bigger than the ship they intended to destroy
The neighboring ship realized that Karyon’s ship was out of line, frantically fired pulse torpedoes at Karyon’s ship in an effort to disable it. With their computer systems still comprimised the shielding and point defenses put up a lackluster response. Crackling blue sheets of ionized gas lashed across Karoyn’s ship as it lost power.
The Ecumene blocked the Furrelian’s communications, having come to the same incorrect conclusion as the Dominion, and ordered four ships into warp to deliver news of the war crime and the furrelian's potentially genocidal intentions. As communications disruptions seemed overwhelming they would personally deliever the news to the galaxy of what they wrongly believed to be the Furrelian’s intentions of genocide. The remainder would stay and fight if need be.
KON GALON
As the Jade Marines clattered through the wreckage of the ruins they could hear the gunships overhead and were already having to push through growing crowds of civilians.
As they approached, they saw Garo and Luss arguing, Garo perched atop a pile of rubble and Luss above in a flyer.
The Knight turned to them, appealing for help. Captain Ishido froze. It was clear that Luss was in charge, and almost certainly would take control of the Dominion. The gunships were backing her and she spoke with authority. But something didn't seem quite right.
The Three Faces held the answer, as ever. Prevaricate, muddy the waters, avoid revealing intentions.
"Garo, stand down!" he called out, signaling to his troops to switch to LTL. He knew they would understand.
_
"Gun! Gun!" he yelled almost immediately afterwards, as if one of the Knights was going to fire, and hucked a Firefly grenade from his belt. It went off with a colossal burst of smoke, spewing hyperreactive chaff and emitting wild EW impulses that dazzled everything, both biological and artificial.
The Marines opened fire, pouring q-cyl ammunition into the smoke, though firing just high enough to avoid hitting the beleaguered Knights. Through the smoke, a tiny drone hovered in front of Garo. Hooked on it was a fob, whilst the drone displayed a tiny holographic map, leading to the Jade embassy.
It was the key to the ambassador's personal shuttle, now unguarded thanks to the all the chaos. The moment Garo took the proferred key the drone dove to the ground, crumpling its own hull as if smashed by a Cauldarion power weapon.
Myric (Union, Capitol, Eos+) — 07/24/2021
Union Embassy Jon Galon
Everything had gone to hell.
Already many Union civilians who had been in the area had made their way to the embassy and the honour guard posted escort Timefall was sat in orbit ferrying shuttles to the embassy small landing pad, and even using the open garden. Kaiden had directed everyone to leave, given the situation with the surrender, the sudden two nuclear blasts, the government building being destroyed and the circumstances that this was likely already a warzone there was nothing they could do here. Getting through to anyone had been impossible with the landlines down and the cyber attack underway and Kaiden had no way of verifying the situation, who knew when another nuclear strike could occur? They had already targeted the Jade embassy and Kaiden had his men give whatever support they could, but it was a matter of time until their own area was likely struck.
The whining of engines signified the exit of another shuttle as it boosted to orbit. Most of them had managed to withdraw, but Kaiden had insisted on being the last to leave, trickles of civilians were still arriving, but he knew they would have to leave soon. At least in orbit they could in some capacity be safe and try to work out what was happening through numerous channels.
But Kaiden felt like he was abandoning his post, the twinge of regret ever present. They had to put their people first. The Gauss were in a war, they were civilians and government officials, there was nothing they could do at this moment in time.
“Ambassador this is the last batch, the records only account for three more people in the city” Kaiden rubbed a hand over his snout.
“We wait for them, they know where to come!”
Kojunfourge System, Gauss Dominion
The confusion which had arisen in the Dominion’s fleet arose in the Furrelian one as well. The Udire Falcon, the small stealth corvette which had decloaked first, barely even noticed the guided RKKV racing towards it before it hit. The final action it conducted was its automated point-defence system trying to intercept the missile, with no success. The RKKV slammed against the hull of the corvette, instantly erasing both from existence, and leaving no debris at all. The explosion was comparable in scale to the ones on the surface, just limited to space. By now, the three other Furrelian ships, including the destroyer, had decloaked. All of them had received the final message of the former Falcon, and all began to take action on it. Messages of confirmation and requests for the Dominion fleet to lay down arms were transmitted on all frequencies, while the point-defence guns of the fleet drastically tried to make it clear that the Furrelians received the message of surrender in binary. At the same time, a message, once again sent via point-defence gun, was transmitted towards the Zetyan platform. All of the messages were the same.
“ATTENTION. The Furrelian Union has received the Dominion notice of surrender. The detonations on the surface are NOT the doing of the Furrelian fleet in orbit. Lay down your arms at ONCE. Any ship engaging in hostilities with the Furrelian fleet WILL be fired upon.”
In the meantime, it even became obvious that the Ecumene had blocked the Furrelian incoming messages, so they tried a rougher approach. A cyberattack, purely with the purpose of being able to transmit a message, was launched against some of the Ecumene’s ships, together with normal ways of communication. The message was simply a shortened version of the one also transmitted to the Dominion and the Zetyans.
“ATTENTION. The Furrelian Union has received the Dominion notice of surrender. The detonations on the surface are NOT the doing of the Furrelian fleet in orbit. The Hoytachian Ecumene is not a combatant in the war, withdraw at ONCE for your own safety. Terms of surrender will be discussed later.”.
In the meantime, the weapons of the ships were being armed, and defences were prepared for the worst. The plasma syphoning defences were prepared for the possibility of Dominion aggression, and the Point-defence was engaged as well. If the Dominion were to attack, even after multiple attempts at communicating that they had received the Dominion’s surrender, the Furrelians would do it. And then the lead ship noticed it. The sensor officer looked on his screen and noticed the incoming alert, multiple Furrelian Jump-drive signatures, seemingly belonging to two dozen ships. The exit vectors were all around the three remaining ships, forming a spherical outline. The sensor officer shouted to the captain.
“Incoming FTL signatures, the cavalry’s here!”
-”They sure took their time, Greyas’ grace. Make sure command is enlightened with the situation! Transmit a message, now!”
Eatov System, Lithorian Collective
The cavalry which the Furrelian destroyer in Kojunfourge was referring to were the first ships of the fleet of Tarodema. Of the hundred ships being sent to Kojunfourge, the first ones were the light ones. Around two dozen small ships, ranging from corvette to cruiser, were preparing to jump, not in unison, but rather in smaller squadrons jumping at the same time. The charging of the drives had finished for some of the first ships, and as soon as they were fully charged, they jumped towards Kojunfourge, reinforcing the squadron there. Four, eight, ten, the number of ships jumping increased slowly, but steadily. If the situation in Kojunfourge deteriorated, then the rest of the fleet could quickly join in, but Tarodema wasn’t hoping for it. If it was the D’Karian war all over again, then he would treat the Dominion with the same hospitality. Tarodema was looking over the bridge when he noticed the Communications officer receive a message. The disappointed look on the Officer’s face was enough for Tarodema to tell what was going on.
“What is the situation in Kojunfourge?” He asked the officer.
“Sir, with all due respect, I am not sure if you want to know it.”
--KOJUNFOURGE--
First came the nukes.
As the flashes erupted planetside, the bridge exploded in confusion. As some tried to figure out how they were launched, and others merely sat around, many cried to let loose the dogs of war, encouraged by T'lajoa and his way with blowing things even more out of proportion than they already were. H'rla could barely keep things together, though thankfully it would seem those who could actually escalate things weren't quite itching their trigger finger just yet.
And then, for no particular reason at all, the Dominion ships started shooting each other.
Many a 'What?!', 'What the shit??', and other suitable synonyms were sounded en masse, as the Falcon was brutally stripped of it's wings by a blinding streak of white blue light. The diplomat saw fit to try and rile up everyone once again, as the overseer now began to reach a breaking point.
"You see?! Even they know bullshit when they see it! Someone get our guns firing already!!"
"There won't be a SINGLE OUNCE OF LEAD thrown in their general direction, you fucking dick! Not until their little trap is revealed!" came H'rla's response, as he rushed up to the diplomat.
"Oh yeah?! So you wanna just let them walk all over us?!"
"You wanna get us all killed?!"
"Better than just sitting on our asses like a buncha tards! to some of the crew WILL YOU PEOPLE START FIRING ALREADY?!"
"You know what-YOU LISTEN HERE! I'm the commander of this station! You are just a stupid fucking diplomat! I outrank you by a kilometer! I don't care how much the Council pays you to give them dick swirlies, your 'orders' mean JACK FUCKING SHIT around me!"
"Oh yeah? You think you're tough, huh? You and your little 'hunch'? You wanna test that?!" The brandishing of a pistol soon heralded more being drawn in turn, some out of solidarity and others just for an excuse to let off tension.
"Mine's bigger than yours..." H'rla growled, as he flashed his own capper.
Others followed suit in pulling out their guns, and soon the entire room was an unhealthily hypercondensed mexican standoff. It seemed the room would erupt in brass and smoke at any moment.
Then, a voice rang out, breaking some of the tension for a slight moment.
"Hey dipshits! Look at the screen for a moment, will you?!"
It came from the upper section of the bridge, drawing the attention of the room as one of the sub-overseers fiddled with the displays. A zoom in on the furrelian ship betrayed it's point defense doing the same song and dance as the FEWIS station, with some text showing it's translation scrawling overhead.
...the nukes weren't their doing?
"Bullshit!" rang out almost instantly after. "Who else could've launched it?!"
"Did we detect any launches?"
"Why would we detect if they launched it, dipshit?! They can cloak!"
"Ok, how would they cloak their missiles? Huh?!"
"How do you think? Just stick a fuckin' tiny thing on there and it's good! We can do this ourselves! Are you retarded?"
"I'll make you retarded if you don't fucking-!"
Their argument soon drifted off topic like a street racer, devolving into mere ad hominem and insults. Others soon joined in, mostly either out of emotion or just because. Sooner or later, it'd have to escalate...
--SOMEWHERE ELSE--
--[DEPLOY IMMEDIATELY :: HOSTILES DETECTED]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: SURRENDER INITIATED BY DOMINION]--
--[DEPLOY IMMEDIATELY :: HOSTILITIES RESUMED]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: SURRENDER UPHELD]--
--[DEPLOY :: FURRELIANS EXECUTED TRAP PLAN]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: THERE WAS NO TRAP]--
A 50-strong fleet sat in vacuum. It's leading ship, a battleship. It's captain, rather annoyed.
They'd recieved more than 20 messages in the past 10 minutes, each new one contradicted a minute later. It was funny at first, now it was just tiring; he hoped they'd make up their minds soon, since it was almost second lunch and it wasn't wise to command while eating. At a certain point, they'd have to make up their minds. Right?
"Sir! New message!" He perked up.
"What's it say?"
"It's saying we can deplo-wait. New message. It's... saying to stay put. Again."
Sigh. He contemplated how much this would rack up their interstellar comms bills. Then, he decided to make up his own mind.
"You know what, someone send them a message. We're coming on their next 'come help us' order whether they want us to or not, cause this is bullshit."
"Heard. Typing one up now."
And so, an ultimatum rushed out to Kojunfourge-in short, make up your damn minds.
Kojunfourge
Three more flashes erupted from the surface. One had detonated beneath the hospital in the city surrounding House Vondar’s palace. The blast consumed the hospital, the knight’s achademy and the Order of the hundred houses’ lodge. Despite the fact that the nuclear hellfire continued to expand past that point it yielded little further damage; the heavily reinforced dome and zigguraut like buildings wethered the tempest while barely buckling. The second nuclear flash was another hospital the midst of a major residential district intersecting the claims of several houses. The third; A small ecumene colony on the planet which also played host to a sizable medical facility used for genetic augmentation.
“GET THE GODDAMN COMMS BACK UP!” Bokungar Vondar shouted.
“I… I’m sorry commodore…” The Mediocine technician stammered… it’s taking me awhile. “This virus is just like the one that the Furrelians attacked us with before the war… except it wiped out our entire AI network… everything’s gone. We… we tried the backups but its hidiing somewhere in the system code and when we plugged those in… they got wiped too. We… we have multiple boot drives but there’s no point in-“
In that instant, the communications array came back online. Another technician holding a data terminal spliced into some wires running up from the floor gave a thumbs up. He hustled back into his command seat, cranking the broadcast power to maximum and opening up on every channel, just as video feeds came in showing the citadel of his house erupt into a fireball. The mountian-sized structure being forced upwards before collapsing in on itself. He knew their signal encryption wasnt up, so everyone would be hearing him. But he didn’t much care. In that moment he saw a message appear from the Zeytan fleet.
“H’RLA, GET YOUR LIMP COCK OUT OF YOUR ASSHOLE AND GET ON POINT, RETARD! YES! CALL YOUR REINFORCEMENTS THE RED DOGS JUST BOMBED CIVILIAN HOSPITALS!” Bokungar roared over the comms. “WE FOUND FURRELIAN CODE IN THE VIRUS! THIS IS AN ATTACK! AN ATTACK!“
Then the third battleship spliced in. A It was a Katharian woman; tall and lithe. Hers was the ship that had fired the disabling missiles. They seemed to have found the same workaround as they were also plainly blasting out an unencrypted signal.
“H’RLA, DO NOT ENGAGE!” She screeched. “I REPEAT, DO NOT ENGAGE! WE MUST HONOR THE PRIME MINISTER’S SURRENDER! COMMODORE BOKUNGAR IS EMOTIONALLY COMPRI-”
“SHUT THE HELL UP YOU DAMN DIRTY SLICK BITCH! I BET YOU’D LOVE TO SEE OUR HOMEWORLD GET BOMBED DOWN TO THE BEDROCK AGAIN!”
The Katharian swallowed. “Commodore Bokungar, that was not what I meant to imply. But the-”
The two were interrupted by the Sage Admiral screaming over the comms as well. “YOU ABHORRENT, GENOCIDAL SLIME! WE WILL NOT SURRENDER TO YOU! YOU WANT OUR LAND SO BAD!? TAKE IT!” Before melting into the cacophony of shouting.
The Hoytachian ships maneuvered above their territory. Tugging on the terrain with gravity tractors they simply plucked up a great mountian from the surface of the world. It built momentum along a chain of tractoring spheres before being hurled off twoards the furrelian fleet. The force of the final push caused the mountian to fragment into a shower of relativistic rocks. Within the malestrom of insults the Cauldarion managed to bark out orders, which the fleet obliged.
His battleship unleased four more RKKVs from its tubes, and accelerated to full flanking speed; intent on charging headlong the Furrelian’s fleet solo. The Katharian’s ship didn’t have any more pulse missiles; having spent them to disable Karyon’s ship. Instead her ship turned sideways, attempting to ram them off course. With relatively low velocities the impact was not spectacular; with the prow of her ship becoming stuck a few hundred meters in; loged and in the starboard hull of Bokungar’s. The Katharian ordered the firing of the Hardlight beamer, which pierced through the far side of Bokungar’s ship, causing it to lose power and stop thrusting forward; though the ships were still stuck together. Both of them were still on comms lobbing salvos of expliatives at one another.
One of the smaller cruisers, apparently loyal to the Katharian commodore attempted to fire pulse missiles at the Hoytachian ships to disable them. Letting off around a dozen before her ship was caught in a gravity tractor and sent hurtling away from the planet and the rest of the formation at a fraction of lightspeed. The other sensor cruisers broke into low orbits around the planet sweeping low orbit with hardlight beamers and whatever sensors they could get working, ferociously trying to find stealth craft that were not there.
Kon Galon
Upon unleasing the smokescreen the Admiral simply ordered the firing of a missile directly into the center of the Cauldarion formation. This blasted many of them away from the point of impact, killing a few, wounding some and flinging all of them save for Garo clear of the intial engagement zone. Those that were not killed outright broke into a series of melee duels and close range gunfights with the war droids. Their heavy armor was proving too difficult for most of their ground based weapons, thus Luss ordered the gunship to begin focusing them down one at a time with the autocannon. Though she rather quickly realized Garo had slipped away in the confusion, ordering the deployment of ESP drones to search him out.
As Garo ducked behind cover; out of sight of the battle. He turned to Ishido.
“Thank you…” He panted, before freezing up for a second. An old vision replaying with a new tist.
He stood on a street, littered with debris and dying Cauldarions. Many of them faces he recognized. A tall mushroom cloud was rising above him, a withering stalk rising to meet a fading plume.
Without warning he was impaled through the back by a hardlight blade. Cold neon blue piercing his breastbone; the wound spouting molten blood. He turned around to face his killer. The Galactic Admiral stood, a blank look on her face. She repeated the motto of the dominion navy.
“The Universe is cruel and godless. There is no higher purpose than bringing order to chaos. The axiom of our existence is indisputable.”
He felt his soul depart his body and be pulled away into the void. Pulling back to see Kojunfourge pockmarcked with rising nuclear blasts, the souls of countless trillions echoing beside him. They cried out, asking why he did not save them. Pulling out he saw a disarrayed battle of Hoytachian and dominion ships, two battleships fused together. He continued to draw back.
In the stars and galaxies he saw his forefathers, the great warriors of the Tarongori Clan holding their mastercrafted weapons and wearing their finest armors from eras long past. Billions of lightyears tall and impossibly imposing, his ancestors looked down upon him. The love in their eyes, gone. In its place, only shame and regret which reached out from his heart and saturated his being with the same ferocity as the venom had.
“You have failed.”
“You are a disgrace to the Cauldarion people.”
“I am ashamed to count you as my grandson.”
The figures faded, he fell backwards, traversing the event horizon of the cosmos and finding himself floating alongside an orb. He was in a cave somewhere, though he couldn’t discern where. The orb crackled with energy.
“We have all failed.” The orb affirmed. “Surrender yourself or try in vein to avert what has been set in motion, it will make no difference.”
The vision ended. He was back on the Kon galon ring, being urged by Ishido. He swallowed, mustering what little willpower he had left and followed after him.
“We’ve got to hurry. Luss will bring up the interdiction grid and there will be no escaping.” He mumbled. And there was credence to it.
Assiduous System
“Bring the Kon Galon interdiction back up, whatever you have to do… I want you to scan every ship going in and out. Garo is a Traitor… by the looks of what happened, Ingen is helping him escape. They could be sided with the Furrelians. Garo does not leave that system, am I clear?” Luss affirmed to a communications officer in touch with the GDCDC. The officer flinched at the proposal that Ingen would betray them so severely. The Galactic Admiral began pulling on tailor made robes befitting of the Supreme Galactic commander as she strode onto the largely untouched bridge. Now well networked into the dominion’s innernet, with a simple gesture she brought the mighty vessel to life. Officers scrambled into their stations, strapping themselves in.
“Galactic Admi- Supreme Galactic Commander Luss… what are we doing? I thought we were surrendering…?”
“We are. But comms and interdiction are still down. I’m not letting this ship fall into their hands… Begin the deployment sequence, take us into subspace as soon as we’re clear of the dock. We may as well take this opportunity to relocate it somewhere they won’t find it…”
Great doors kilometers wide hoisted open; their exteriors coated in slices of cratered rock to resemble the exterior of an unassuming asteroid orbiting along the innner edge of the the brimstone sphere; revealing the elaborate hollowed out hangar of metal honeycomb and lighting conduits within. The ship was forced forward along a track, slowly rising from its berth into the relentless light of Assiduous for the first time.
“Order all the data logs expunged… provided the cyberattack hasn’t already done that. This ship never existed. Now let’s vanish.”
The immense ship twisted up spacetime into a knot, vanishing with a great flash of photons and neutrinos.
EDGE OF KON GALON
The IJN Ebonheart, a Cornewaille-class atakebune, was first to arrive. The colossal cruiser slid through an emerald Slipgate on a churning wave of pink-purple foam. It was followed in short order by the IJN Bitter Coast, a carrier transporting the 789th Swan Regiment, and a pair of Katsumoto frigates.
"Bloody hell," cursed Captain Drakos, a swarthy man from southern Neusattar, "what have we stumbled upon?"
Ahead of them, the situation was clearly devolving into a maelstrom already, with warning alerts of nuclear detonations on the planet's surface shrilled at the bridge crew.
Over his personal comms came the voice of the force's commander, Commodore Legacy, a Frame of all creatures. Drakos was not sure how he felt about the prevalence of the artificial intelligences, but they were here to stay or so it seemed.
"We continue on-mission. We're here to extract our people, nothing more. Stay frosty, Captain."
On open comms she broadcast that the IJN had arrived with the sole intention of evacuating their citizens from the planet surface, and that they would not fire unless fired upon. The small flotilla stood off from the planet, dispatching a lander escorted by corvettes and fighters towards Kon Galon itself...
-
ON THE GROUND
Ishido staggered as the ground was rocked by more distant explosions, nuclear fire ripping through the city.
"Dragon's teeth...," he cursed, watching the cataclysm from afar as, even at this distance, faint pressure waves rolled over them, creating crazy eddies and crossbreezes that whipped ash and smoke through the evening air. He barked at his marines and they retreated back towards the former embassy, on edge, guns ready, realising that nothing was certain anymore and that anyone could be an enemy. As they neared the ruins, Ishido's Holo pinged.
He spoke into it for a moment, then turned to Garo and his troops.
"Right, listen up! We have evac inbound right now, IJN warships are in-system. They are sending a lander here so secure the area, make a lane, get our injured ready for evac. They've sent a list of Jade citizens on the planet but that's not our concern - they're sending shuttles for any poor sod who can't make it here in time. Lieutenant Yue, take 4th Platoon and screen any new arrivals, make sure they're on the list, confirm their IDs and keep them separate from the locals."
As his soldiers hurried to shoo away all the locals and prepare to be evacuated, he turned to Garo. Taking off his mempo faceplate to reveal a weary face with a trim pencil mustache, he shrugged.
"What a fucking disaster. Mind telling me what's going on, sir?" he asked Garo, pulling a stick of gum from one of his pouches and chewing pensively as he squinted out at the unfolding disaster that was the city...
Garo Reluctantly withdrew his helmet into his collar.
"I don't know... but I know what I saw." He began as he heard the autocannon of the gunship pierce one of his brothers back at the site of the former council chambers. "The... the galactic admiral... she has... these... she has multiple bodies. She looks like a Tesregaten... an organic being..." He paused, realizing how crazy it sounded. "But she's got a whole bunch of them. And they're all linked via a private and highly encrypted network. She never goes anywhere with more than one of them at a time... and a bunch of those bodies were dead... looked like a fight with the high council. I don't know whats going on... but I know that I didn't give the Furrelians backdoor access to our computer systems to allow all this to happen... and I didn't betray the dominion. I... know it sounds crazy but you have to trust me."
The captain listened with well-concealed incredulity. "It's not my place to decide, but I will ensure you get off this planet." he replied, turning to watch as the distant gunship strafed targets he could not see.
"Does anyone have their Kasen?" he called out, and two of his marines waved back. "Good. I hope we don't need those." he muttered, referring to the fire-and-forget loitering missiles that looked just like clothyard arrows, launched from old-school bows without any electronic function.
Kon Galon
Kaiden placed his hand on his head as he watched the clouds raced by. They had waited another 15 minutes for the final civilians but they were now aboard. The clouds in the sky over the city were radioactive remains from the nuclear explosions and so the shuttle had to weave a new path to the Timefall. Still they were away, the Embassy of course had been stripped of everything they could, official documents, computer systems and more had either been taken or destroyed so that the Furrelians could never use and analyse them. Kaiden didn't even know if it was the Furrelians attacking, the escort in orbit had detected no enemy ships but it could be a subversive measure, better to be safe than sorry. They could always come here to rebuild.
As they breached atmopshere and approached the Timefall Kaiden felt himself relax, the familiar blue of the Razor class giving him a measure of security. They watched as Mass Drivers sat open from their containment ready to face whatever threat may become apparant to the ship or assist in defending against a Furrelian attack. As the Sparrow shuttle landed Kaiden saluted to the captain, an old Jorgal by the Name of Zaz.
"Captain it is good to see your face. All are accounted for and aboard"
"Good, I do not have any orders apart from to keep you safe ambassador and to listen to your commands. What we do next is up to you but I dont recommend staying here, strikes on the planetary government may well escalate into attacks on the defence grid before an outright invasion" The huge repitalian made a good point. Kaiden nodded.
"Priority is protecting our people. We should return to Union space as quickly as possible, then perhaps we can return with a much more prepared contingent.
"Understood I will make the preparations"
It did not take long for the Timefall to break orbit, the Union vessel speeding for the edge of the interdiction zone and charging its drives. Shields and weapons were online but predominantly for defence.
Kaiden himself sent a communique to the Dominion net, but whether it got through from the cyberattack he didn't know. It informed them the Union contingent had withdrawn for their own safety and would return with better ability to assist in humanitarian efforts.
Kojunfourge System
By this point, the Furrelians had given up on understanding the situation. All was devolving into hell, and reinforcements from Eatov started to pour in. The first ship to arrive was a destroyer, not equipped with a stealth system. It jumped not too far away from the squadron of original ships sent there, and before long the other jump signatures began to manifest. A second squadron left their FTL jump near the new destroyer, followed by a third one, more prepared for Point-defence duties. The FTL signatures only stopped when a total of 27 ships had made the jump, a cruiser squadron included. As the cherry on the cake, a battleship was the final ship to jump, the ten-kilometre long behemoth outsizing the smaller ships of the Furrelian fleet by kilometres. The FDS Unyielding Soul, the battleship, jumped straight into the middle of the spherical formation. Within seconds, the ship was able to open communications with the original command ship of the Furrelian squadron.
“This is captain Isoluna Tusidero of the FDS Unyielding Soul to the captain of the FDS Elunat. Status report, what the living hell is going on? Why is the Dominion firing on itself? We need info!”
For almost a minute the communication stayed silent, but then the response came.
“Captain Jelidimo of the Elunat here, I have no idea either. The Dominion has gone nuts, potential rouge assets? I’ll have to..-” Captain Jelidimo fell silent, and at that exact moment the alarms on the ship began going off at full power. “Father of all sacred... Greyas’ grace, they’re firing at each other!” The magnificent teal light of the hardlight beamer became visible to the Furrelian fleet, but now action had to be taken. Four RKKVs were incoming to the decloaked ships, but this time they were alerted on time. Countermeasures were released on time, with swarms of Furrelian missiles going to counter the RKKVs in an automated process.
The first RKKV was successfully intercepted, as was the second. In both cases, a modified anti-matter missile had slammed into the tip of the RKKV and had detonated both, a bright white explosion following put to both. The third RKKV slipped through the swarm, only to be intercepted by automated point-defence, and exploding right before a ship, the final RKKV had the same luck, but unlike the third one it actually hit its target, the stealth corvette Ozotima. The Ozotima exploded in a blinding explosion, not too dissimilar from the one which took out the Falcon.
“BRING THE FLEET ON HIGH ALERT, MAKE IT CLEAR THAT ANY FURTHER HOSTILITIES WILL RESULT IN THE ENGAGEMENT OF LETHAL FORCE FROM OUR SIDE! TRANSMIT THAT ON ALL CHANNELS! NOT A SINGLE THREE-EYED FOUR-ARMED ABOMINATION IN THIS DAMNED SYSTEM IS GOING TO LEAVE WITHOUT HEARING IT! GREYAS’ SAKE TRANSMIT THIS TO THE BLOODY GOATS TOO!” Captain Tusidero shouted over the bridge, he had less patience than Jelidimo and as such was going to take less talk from either the dominion or the ecumene. They had surrendered, they were going to honour that. Any continuation would result in death, the end. On all open channels, once again, the Furrelians transmitted their message, this time even less kind. The message was nothing more, though just put ‘kindly’, than the Furrelians shouting at the Dominion to lay down their arms and stop any hostilities. Even after the explosions on the surface, the Furrelians were still trying to convince that they did nothing, which was true. The message was sent on loop for a long while, and in the meantime, the Furrelians started moving into a combat formation. A warning shot was shortly afterwards fired by one of the ships into the abyss, not targetting any Dominion or Ecumene ships. However, it was too late to prevent the incoming swarm of rock originating from the Ecumene’s fleet. A few ships were slightly damaged before the Furrelians took action against the incoming swarm of rocks.
Point defence guns kept the biggest rocks away from the ships, while the plasma syphoning APS cleared the rest of that. The Fleet survived another threat.
“Furrelian Fleet, Unyielding Soul here... Keep those Dominion ships at a distance from us, fire a warning shot if needed. If they fake a surrender, they should know how to face the consequences of it. Regarding the Goats… They’ve shown what they can do, now it’s our turn. FDS Kolsima, FDS Isudin, conduct missile practice in pattern Tesion, target the lead sphere, distance forty-thousand. On my mark...”
While the Furrelian fleet continued to prepare itself, the two ships ordered to conduct a practice fire released a missile each, larger than the normal ones and overcharged. They flew towards the lead Hoytachian ship and detonated a safe distance away from it. The two resulting explosions were gigantic but were mostly a show of power and a warning. “Keep away and mind your own business. Your war is over, you have lost.”
--KOJUNFOURGE--
BANG BANG BANG BRATTATATAT BANG BANG BOOM
The bridge had successfully devolved from an argument to a gunfight, with hardly a fistfight even considered. The Dominion ships would only hear a war seemingly breaking out, with insults and screaming mixed in like a fine spice. It went on for one, two, then three minutes, before finally a silence ensued.
Then, a transmission was sent to the Dominon ships. The overseer and his cohorts had won out, his voice shaky and laden with adrenaline as he took in breaths.
"Had to deal... with a problem. Fleet's coming in... now."
And just on queue, a massive bubble of gravitational anomalies appeared just behind the station, at a hard 6'o'clock...
--SOMEWHERE ELSE--
--[DEPLOY :: HOSTILITIES LIKELY TO COMMENCE :: AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS UPON WARP-IN]--
The message came in after a few minutes, waking the somewhat-young comms operator out of a daydream. As soon as he saw it, after of course rubbing his eyes to make sure they weren't flip-flopping again, he was reporting like a newsman.
"Sir! We're clear to move in! They say wait for orders on arrival!"
"Shit, they took their damn time. Get everyone in gear, have 'em let our frac's loose! Double time!"
Across the fleet, engines riled up with a flash as bright as the sun, as fracture drones rocketed out by the tens from tiny holes in the hulls into designated positions in front of the fleet. Then, with a flash, they detonated, each small rift made combining one-by-one in the instants between instants into a rift wider than the fleet itself and seemingly sucking up the very stars around them into a singularity. The fleet then made it's way off to Kojunfourge, leaving only a massive cloud of exhaust and smoke in it's wake.
--KOJUNFOURGE, AGAIN--
Suddenly, the space behind the station was replaced with a cavernous, belching rift, filled with lights and darks and those little things inbetween. From it's depths roared a 50-strong fleet of Zetyan ships, shrouding the now-closing exit of the rift with their exhaust and veiled in a series of translucent orange particle screens. Chief among them was a 50km battleship, branded the M'tkana, laden with point defense, weaponry of all sorts, and an overbearing sense of the ship designer compensating for something.
No shots were fired, yet-the station made sure of that. But it's mere presence alone would certainly be enough, and as the rift closed with a silent clap that rattled their interiors one could only ponder if this would be the match-strike needed to set the whole thing ablaze...
----
A rat scampered through the corridors of the station. He'd gambled, and lost.
Tl'ajoa held a towel bunch to his abdomen as he rushed down to the medical bay. That overseer dickhead had scored a lucky shot or two, maybe three. He couldn't tell, he was too busy cursing everything around him as the adrenaline began to flow out of his body.
The medbay doors slammed open, as the surprised staff now regarded the zet who looked as if he'd just gotten out of live combat. One came up to him, trying to support him on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?! What the fu-"
"Shut the FUCK up and get the autodoc going."
With a shove, he rushed over to one of the many available autodoc beds, as the others began to calibrate it.
He felt a very familiar shuddering, as the station shook. The fleet was here.
"Fuckin' A, 'course he warps them in when i'm gone, koadamned i'm gonna shoot him in the fuckin' head and piss and shit and cum and whatever on his ugly fuckin' corpse, koa fuckin'..." He continued his mantra of hate as he settled down on the bed, mechanical limbs whirling around him and scanners laying out every part of his body. His armor began to retract, as he finally began feeling the full extent of his pain without any adrenaline to support him. Then, drowsiness, and then black, as the machine injected some weak anesthetic into his neck.
----
"How many dead?"
H'rla surveyed the bridge, as he asked one of his subcommanders taking tally.
"Half. Little above half."
"Any survivors?"
"Aside from T'la, three..." He observed some of the other crew as the lay on the ground in pain. Then, a bang. Two more. "Sorry, zero."
"How many of us can run the bridge?"
"Enough."
"Good. I want some of you to go down to medbay, get anyone you find back up here. Fucker's probably down there, I know I hit him once or twice." He pointed to some of the more heavily armed crewmembers as he talked. "Rest of you, get back to work. Tell the fleet to hold unless fired upon. The dead are considered KIA."
Those remaining went back to managing the bridge, as the improvised killteam set off into the depths of the station.
The overseer, content, returned to the upper section of the bridge, watching the carnage unfold from the relative safety of the bridge viewing screens. He was certainly demanding a raise after today.
The Situation room was dead silent as Edwin fidgeted with a writing utensil in his hand. It would twirl up his fingers and down like clockwork, as he stared at a board.
“Rossana - Queen Rossana - said once that we must not fight for ourselves, but for our brothers and sisters. What she also means by that is not to fight our own battles, but to help fight the battles of our brothers and sisters. The Gauss being such a powerful neighbor nearby, we must sustain our ability for defence and prevent the Gauss's destruction as a catalyst for further violence in our part of the galaxy.
While Gilitim talks up the Union of Worlds to open our door for intervention on the international stage, we need the support of the people. Any more information pertaining to the events in Gauss, we need to show to the public and prove to them that we must intervene to stop a massacre. I want us to keep an eye out for any news broadcasts that break through the blackout, and I want eyes out for any other unusual appearances.”
Finishing his sentence, Edwin slipped the pen into his chest pocket, looking over the room for approval. A very hesitant staff nodded. Many were unsure about the situation. Not wanting to run headlong into the conflict, the empyrians would prepare and wait.
“Now, I'm going to make Erwin actually do something, which is probably more dangerous than this, so good luck.”
Kojunfourge
The miasma of petty slurs and insults pewtered out after the Furrelian’s threat, and a new signal took the comms. It was Tanjuran Tek’tikdera, their head of house. Who had been hasitly chosen to represent them. The Cauldarion wore a cocktail of emotions rather plainly on his face
“I am Tanjuran Tek’tikdera. Acting Planetary Govenor of Kojunfourge. You wish to speak of surrender?” The Cauldarion seethed. “I beg of you, cease your bombardment at once. We are only trying to defend the world which we call home for we have lost it twice before. So withdraw your stealth craft with which you are carrying out the bombardment at once and I will order the fleet to-“
The transmission cut to static. Yet another fireball erupted near the Tek’tikdera palace. The structure itself seemed largely intact despite its proxomity to the blast which had taken out the academy and research facility nearby. But the blast had done enough damage to disalbe their communications.
The even the more moderate Katharian’s attitude now seemed to be shifting. The sensor cruisers converged on the point above the city despearately searching for a stealth craft that was not there. Bokungar recognized he was in no position to fight. Consinged to watch his planet be destroyed in agonizing fashion, city by city and know that he was now helpless to do anything about it. He just sat there. Transmuting his shame and humiliation into unbridled odium as two more explosions went up on the surface.
“My ancestors are looking down on me with pride… Can you say the same?” He seethed. “I hope that the extinction of my people brings you no amount of satisfaction… that our genoicide does not ever fill the hole in your depraived soul… maybe then you will realize how empty… your existence is.”
“This is Commodore Kayani.” The Katharian spoke up, trying to raise the Zeytans. “There are Furrelian stealth ships somewhere in orbit of Kojunfourge. Requesting immediate assistance in locating and destroying them.”
Ecumene fleet didn’t respond, as a subsequent blast had destroyed one of their holdings on the planet. The world shuttered as the spheres hoisted a vast chunk of land from the mountian range. The fragment so vast it had revealed the simmering red and orange mantle below. Yet even their mighty tractors could not throw it at any reasonable speed. Instead, with their tractors they pulverized the rock, grinding it down into fragments at a myriad of sizes, ranging from house-sized boulders to tiny pebbles and began dispersing it into low orbit of the planet.
Kon Galon, Orbit
The Union evacuation was cut off as the Hoytachian battlesphere exited warp directly in front of them. They did not intend to barricade the Union, instead simply the harbingers of more bad news. Relaying a signal from the Sage Admiral, they gave a report of the situation relayed from the system.
“This is Sage Admiral Orok Oblata of the Hoytachian Ecumene Fleet. The Furrelians have invoked Rahbakun… dishonorable war. It has come to light that it is their net code that has been used to invoke the cyberattack… the cyberattack which has crippled the gaussian sensor and interdiction grid. They are refusing surrender and denying that they have involvement in the ongoing bombardment of civilian and diplomatic targets on Kojunfourge, despite having been shown to posess high powered stealth craft. This is an… immediate humanitarian crisis with estimated casualties already in the tens of millions. I come to you pleading for immediate and drastic support, support of both my people, and the Cauldarion people.”
Behind them, the interdiction stations began to re-initiate. What few cyberwarfare AIs had survived the attack were now prioritizing the restoration of their security in the most critcal systems. Interdiction and high powered sensor sweeps began perkolating the area surrounding the system. The Union already sat outside the constellation, cleared to escape whenever they so desired. But without a doubt, Ingen would have a harder time smuggling out Garo.
Kon Galon Orbital Ring; Capital District
There didn’t seem much need for their weapons as there was precious little in the way of forces in their midst. They passed the galactic court, the high advocates shooting concerned looks to the Ingenious escorting the supposed traitor but knowing they were unarmed and couldn’t do anything about it. An ESP drone had sighted the unit moving together however, and the traitorous supreme galactic commander along with them.
“I hope you’ve got one hell of a plan for getting us out of here…” Garo mumbled. “It looks like the interdiction grid is going back up…”
Octoazura, Assiduous System
Another of the Sulumai’s avatars arrived in the situation room. A frantic miasma of high command staff attempting to parse the situation with what little information they had left. The room fell silent as the newly crisened supreme commander entered the room and approached admiral Goden, the new galactic admiral.
“Madame Supreme Commander… the Defiant… you ordered its launch…?”
“I had to.” She returend. “I don’t know who to trust right now…” she paused, swallowing nervously. “And given recent developments, I am very concerned for the continuity of the dominion.” She gestured to the screen, displaying the access logs, at least the ones she had managed to salvage. The Origin of the attack was confirmed to be on Kon Galon, but the precise terminal used to execute it couldn’t be identified, just a region. It quite clearly showed that using Garo’s PID symbiote access code; someone had managed to upload a virus into the core of the network. The virus extremely similar in structure to the one the Furrelians had used against them once before… more or less a carbon copy with a few new modifications. The major difference was this time they had backdoor access to the gaussian innernet. The damage was extensive. A majority of their AI systems and cyberspace inhabitants were now straight up gone. Sacodias, an immense conglomorate AI as well as almost the entirety of their digital finances had been corruped or wiped out.
“Garo Tarongori is a Traitor, and is responsible for treason of the highest order. Not only was he responsible for this, but also the death of prime minister Kroywen and the galactic council… I believe Ingen is coordinating with the Furrelians, as they’re presently helping them to escape.” She said, displaying an image of Garo standing in the rubble of the high council chambers.”
“Garo would never betray the dominion!” Callegio blurted out.
“I thought the same thing…” Luss returned solemnly. “But the writing is on the wall. I know not if they found some opportunity to replace him with a perfect impostor… or warped his mind with dark powers… but he is now, without a doubt, against us.”
Callegio didn’t look satisfied with this answer, scowling. An insult to Garo was an insult to him.
“He and I have fought for this dominion since before you were born, Gougaten. What possible reason would he have to betray us?”
The Galactic Admiral drew a labored breath.
“I suppose you are right. Answer me this, Callegio. If he were innocent, why did he flee with Ingen? Do they not trust us… are they working against us? I was not intending have him and his brothers killed… for a fight to break out. Despite the overwhelming evidence of treason beyond forgiveness I would have had him tried fairly…
But we could entertain discussions about his innocence, or we could take action We have a more immediate threat, I am now your superior, and I have an order for you. I want you to go with Admiral Quoe and the Third Fleet to Kojunfourge and find the source of the Furrelian bombings and evacuate all remaining civilians. Maintain full cybersecurity lockdown… we just purged those ships so a majority of systems should be fully operational, but be vigulant as your cyberwarfare AI have largely been wiped out.”
Callegio realized the urgency in her voice, and the Cauldarion bowed and hustled out of the room. She waited until the Cauldarion was gone ot give her next order.
“Admiral Goden.” She adressed. “ Take the Paragon. Blockade Kon Galon… Garo does not leave that system until he stands trial.”
KON GALON, RING DISTRICT
Passing by the hostile glances of the crowds, Ishido barked at his men to pay them no mind. Hostility from the locals was an accepted risk of diplomatic duty, and unless they actually moved to attack his little troupe there was no real reason to give them a second thought. Levelled vitredur bayonets served as a clear enough message to those few who wandered too close, but all the same he was relieved when a quartet of shuttlecraft, looking for all the world like small river barges with rippling pink-purple foam at their prows, glid through the gloomy night air and came to a halt by the ruins of the embassy. Ramps descended from the rear and crew chiefs began yelling for the Ingenious to board. Garo had to duck a little to pass inside, but he fit across two seats well enough, jury-rigged grav straps extended to cover him.
Ishido was one of the last to board, standing by the ramp as the shuttle lifted off, watching the wreckage of his former post until the raising door cut off his view, then turning to strap himself in. The shuttles climbed into orbit, engines roaring as they shuddered through the atmosphere. From the cockpit, the crackle of short-range comms could be heard as fightercraft settled in either side of the transports, offering them an escort back to the IJN Ebonheart.
A screen above the loading ramp showed external camera feeds. Even at this distance, the smoke and flames from the city were still visible as dots on the surface of the ring...
FURTHER OUT
Commodore Legacy scowled. The Gauss were activating interdiction again, even as an Ecumene fleet arrived and began giving further information as to the situation with the Furrelian invasion.
Legacy shook her head. Things were getting more dire by the minute, but that was for greater minds than hers. Her priority was evac, and she ordered the squadron to full battle readiness as they waited for the transorbital craft to return...
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"How many nukes do they have?"
The overseer couldn't help but mumble to himself as he watched the detonations on the surface, befuddled as to why they still hadn't detected any launches. One of the stealth corvettes clearly fucked up earlier, surely they'd fuck up again?
As he idly viewed the screen, the remaining crew worked to coordinate the Zetyan fleet and the station itself; the two assault corvettes finally unbounded from the station, intermingling with the fleet as the station's weapons tracked the Furrelian ships. From an outside perspective, they were probably failing to live up to their 'aggressive' reputation.
The Dominion transmission being played at max volume violently took him by surprise, the quieter bridge coupled with the standard volume for a full, active bridge making it seem much louder than it was. Nevertheless, it was heard, loud and... loud.
After a moment of recovery, he spoke to the remainder.
"Right. Ping the sup-croo's, have them get a LRSS going. Get everyone else ready to fire. And turn the... the koadamned volume down, holy shit." Some temporary tinnitus told him to take a look at hearing aids later, as he rubbed his left earhole.
In vacuum, every detection method those 4 support cruisers could use went to work, everything from thermals to LIDAR to x-rays and radio sweeping around the vast space in the combat zone, collecting data en masse as the rest of the fleet began to load up all the expensive missiles and ammunition, and 4 orange particle spheres surrounded them entirely...
----
"wₐₖₑ ᵤₚ. wₐₖₑ ᵤₚ, dᵤdₑ, ₕₒₗy koa i just slapped you 5 times wake the fuck up-"
T'lajoa groggily awoke, his abdomen sporting a fresh new set of stitches and the doctors around him looking mighty annoyed.
"...shiitdd whatd'd you guyshs.. putt in there..." His voice, slurred due to anesthetic withdrawal, was not at it's best.
"The usual. You're the one who didn't tell use you were a lightie. Fuckin', lights out for 15 minutes when you would've woken up in 5."
"fffucgk you i was beleedng... out... an' scarnd n shit"
"Yeah, well, you would've lived for a bit without treatment anyways. Could've spared a moment atleast."
"yehh well if, if yu were n a shut ow', and, you were... you were... uh..." He took a moment to hold his head, groaning. "Just, just, show me where you put my fuckging suit 'n shit, get it here..."
"...It's literally next to the docbed, bruh."
"...I... knew that."
Slowly, he moved to get off the bed, preparing to move into his suit as the medics felt their patience wearing a little thin. Once it had finally extended over his body, though, he was quickly ushered out, hardly even given time to get his weapons-much less get his grogginess out of the way.
After a few moments of banter, and a few more dedicated to breathers, he continued onwards, towards a place he knew would give his inevitable pursuers some time to find him in-the megafuser area. Labyrinthine as it was, it was the perfect place to plan his next move.
Not a moment too soon, either; Hr'la's killteam stopped by the sickbay only a few minutes later...
----
"They done yet?"
"Finished a bit ago. Just finished downloading the datamap."
"Put it up on main."
A few moments later, and the bridge screen was filled with what the sensor cruisers had gathered. The little mining operation conducted by those hunchbacks complicated things-unfiltered, the zone was filled to the brim with micrometeors and pseudo-asteroids-but enough was gathered to provide a relatively complete map.
Unfortunately, it just told them what they already knew in the first place.
Disappointed, the overseer spoke again, after reviewing the data a few times over.
"How much interference would you say there is?"
"Ignoring the rocks, not much."
"Radiation mess up anything?"
"No sir. The worst interference is just the exhaust zone around the cockfur ships."
"Shit."
He began to ruminate on what to do. Any stealth ships present were likely beyond their sensors, and nothing seemed different anyways despite the interference. Hell, the engine exhaust did a better job at covering things up than the rocks did...
Exhaust. Wait a minute.
The dim neurons in his brain lit up a wee bit brighter than usual, as he thought of something. Surely, those missiles they were launching had exhaust trails of some form. They'd be able to pinpoint their source by tracking the lines, and then sending the coords to the Dominion ships.
"Have them scan again. Shorter range, higher fidelity. Have them look for exhaust trails." Considering how tense things were, he added an additonal order. "Have them get the viruses ready, too. They'll probably light us up soon."
"Exhaust trails?" One of the remaining sensors operators seemed confused, though the comms team went ahead without complaint.
"What? I know what I said."
"You... do realize how hard that is to track, right?"
"No...?"
"Missiles are small, zet. At distances like this-"
"Those explosions were huge, weren't they?"
"...yes."
"Stands to reason the missiles would be big too."
"Not real-...I dunno."
"Well, we'll find out." With that out of the way, he returned to monitoring the main display, as it switched to the Furrelian ships and the rather impromptu way of fighting the Ecumene ships displayed.
Meanwhile, the support cruisers began to scan again, as they loaded up their viral dummy transmissions, the key flavors of 'CEASE FIRE' and 'WE SURRENDER' mixed with a delightful pinch of 'CAN YOU HEAR US?!'. They just needed the word, and those suckers would be blasting full volume at the Furrelian ships, ready to cause countless strikes worth of havoc^...
^as long as it wasn't stopped by cybersecurity
The Timefall as it accelerated away changed its course rapidly as the Hoytachian battlesphere translated in right in front of them. Alarms blared as the ship registered the sudden FTL at such close range a threat, and it was only the command of the crew that prevented weapon systems from automatically engaging.
Still the small Razor class managed to escape the path of the vessel, the additional bad news it relayed caused Kaiden to sigh. Their nation really was falling apart. The long range communications from the Timefall had reached the Union and Kaiden had already received a reply, the government was willing to help with humanitarian efforts, but would not intervene militarily.
That essentially guaranteed this fall.
Years ago they would have sallied in here to save the Gaussian people, but no more. It made Kaiden distraught to know the cost of their inaction. Still the ambassador could only watch as the Timefall used the Hoytachian vessels arrival to activate its own drives and disappear from the system entirely. They had to save the civilians for now, one escort could hardly make a difference either way.
Kaiden watched the sight of realspace be replaced with the surface layer of Slipspace, its vivid blues reminding him that the Union had abandoned an ally. It was not the first time in recent days, and he doubted it would be the last.
Press Secretary Virria walked into the backstage prep area, obviously with a bit of shell shock. She wasn't expecting THAT.
“When only the Kattisian fucking Post agrees with you Edwin, you know you’ve fucked up dude.” Virria said, combing her long hair back with her hands.
“This was the right choice, we need Transparency.” retorted Edwin, putting his head into his hands, he mumbled some obscenities before getting up.
“Don't get mad at me Edwin, I just read what you wanted me to do and answered a few questions, what more do you want?”
“I want the Empyrian people to realize that we can't stay to ourselves in this Galaxy. More conflicts are brewing up by the day, and it's either we fight now and win later, or fight later and lose, or worse.”
---
This was not good for Edwin. After showing his hand to the public on interests in intervening to help a neighbor, the public backlash was insane, knowing exactly what that meant. For now, the only real conditions that IVE could intervene is if not only cities were nuked, but then they were virus bombed or some other horrible atrocity. Until then, all Edwin could do was hope either a virus bombing or Gaussian unified response was in the near future. Neither from Edwins view looked likely.
For now, the Capitol would weather the storm, hoping that Parliament would take it easy on them, and that no other interested foriegn parties would take note on Edwins maneuvering.
Crimson Stars Hideout; Tausangrool System
Avalichi sat at the console, watching the attack play out. She had done as instructed by the galactic admiral, using the supreme galactic commander’s access and the repurposed Furrelian computer virus and some sympathetic cyberwarfare Cies to work their way into the system. Striking via virtual networks the attacks seemed to lunge out of random points in the network. The system as a whole was vastly too complex for any minute detail to truly matter; it was a matter of measures and countermeasures. Warring automated and intelligent systems attempting a million attacks a second and lucky to succeed at one of them.
But one by one the dominion’s AI were beating back their assault. Purging the permissions afforded by the supreme commander’s access codes. The woman simply sat idly, not administering orders to the cies. Refusing to finish them off. She was never a true follower of the crimson stars had made a pact with the Galctic Admiral. To carry out this attack such that she could achieve her goals in the confusion.
However the other members, who had reserved their suspicions now saw it to be true. She did not want to see about the destruction of the dominion. She wanted to strengthen and harden it. Reinstate her controversial programs of brainwashing and indentured warriors. One of them slipped up behind her. A hardlight shank pierced her neck through the chair as the terrorist forced her limp body out of the seat and took the helm of the virtual battlefield. This opportunity to see about their destruction would not be wasted.
First and foremost came the Galactic Admiral herself. Who had made the fatal mistake of directly integrating her collective conciousness into the galactic net. Inside all of her avatars was a kill switch, designed to kill any organic body should its existence become irrelivant, or it be at risk of falling under capture…
Kojunfourge
The world now lay shrouded in a thick screen of rubble. Stones ranging from pebbles to house-sized boulders zipping around low orbit at speeds encroaching a hundred kilometers a second. The world below in tatters; the atmosphere beginning to suffocate the others, growing smoggy as time passed. The Furrelians had been thus far unresponsive battle had come to an ancilimatic conclusion. Aide ships had dispatched tugs and gunships were using hardlight beamers in an attempt to cut the two ships that were lodged into one another apart. The bombings had stopped but some of the smaller cruisers were still orbiting the system believing that stealth ships had been responsible for the bombings. The Ecumene ships stood guard, also adimant that innocent lives had just been spent.
Kon Galon
As the Ingenious ships fled to the exit vector, the station went offline again as the terrorist cyberattack found a second wind. The crew had orders to engage the ships, simply firing off a salvo of missiles without warning. However when the attack hit the missiles failed to activate and were simply left drifting just outside the station.
Secure Diplomatic Line
The cyberattack had largely left the Ecumene unaffected though a number of crimson stars terrorists had struck their major systems with biological weapons all the same; the effects of which would be made known in the coming weeks. The Furrelians would recieve no less than 3 seperate hails from different points in the labryhthine hoytachian beauracracy, requesting that all of them be patched through to their head of state. One was their high justicar, who maintained a neutral composure informed them that the reason for their contact was a declaration of war and to inform them that in attacking Ecumene claims they had violated 37 rules of hoytachian war, along with an additional 192 war crimes commited against the cauldarion people. The Justicar then produced a yellowed parchment scroll. Script was written on it in some half-forgotten language. The Justicar adjusted their spectacles.
“The code of the Ecumene armed forces and conduct in wartime. Chapter 1. Article 1. Section 1. Subsection 1. Defining the terms used to describe the various terms in this doccument. For the purposes of this doccument, the term “war” will be used to describe an armed conflict…”
The high justicar continued to ramble at an adruiously slow pace, as the Mazabusa carried a large goblet containing rainbow flames. He began to sprinkle Qanis seeds into the fire, then pouring on some liquid and stirring the glass, apparently preforming some religious ritual as monks chanted in the background.
Meanwhile the high moff; the closest thing the Hoytachians had to any sort of head of state who was absolutely fuming at the situation.
“I demand an explanation for this immediately! You have assaulted our claims, bombed civilian hospitals, schools and religious sanctuaries on Kojunfourge. You sick, rutheless courgaten savages! The ecumene has taken no military action against your people, what has motivated these atrocities?”
He let out a frustrated snort as a fourth feed joined in on the secure diplomatic line. Luss was stood apparently on the bridge of a warship; Relegator class. “This is Supreme Galactic Commander Sulumai Lusssss…” Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and blood began to trickle from her nostrils. She crumpled over on the floor and siezured for a moment before expiring. An alarm went off in the background as crew began to scramble from their stations, a medic running over to her.
The secure diplomatic line cut out, replaced by the salvos of cyberwarfare attacks now freely attacking on the diplomatically immune line. They swiftly penetrated the Hoytachian’s archaic computer grid.
GDAN Defiant, Subspace
“That was close…” Luss said with a sigh. She held a tiny device in her hand. A small slot at the nape of her neck, concealed under fur closed. The link to all of her other avatars which now lay dead. She snapped the uplink chip in half, stowing it in her robe.
“Madame galactic admiral… what’s the situation.”
She took pause for a moment.
“Our worst fears have been realized. The courdeel have successfuly infiltrated kragleosha’s dominion. Garo was compromised. Furrelians. Ingen. Courdeel. They’re all our enemies. We have done our due dilligince to warn them of this threat. But we cannot hope to stand against them…” She trailed off, mouthing to herslef. “I don’t think we ever stood the slightest chance…”
KON GALON
The IJN Ebonheart reacted almost immediately to the attempted destruction of the evacuation dropship. From its deep belly, flame and smoke heralded the launch of a half-dozen 45m long Kukulkan Smart Assault Vehicles. These building-sized missiles, armed with their own EW and AWACS systems, chaff and flare launchers and a ring of Gyaku-Ko BDP active defense systems, were designed to kill capital ships and stations.
Angling towards the silent station, the giant missiles accelerated for the kill even as the dropship carrying Ishido, Garo and the surviving Ingenious docked with the Bitter Coast. Accelerating outside of interdiction range, the four ships opened emerald Slipgate windows and slid through them, jumping away from the system...
In the moments that followed the defensless station was torn asunder by the missiles; the ingenious clear to flee.
With the apparent death of the Galactic Admiral, Admiral Goden who had been en route to intercept Garo became the acting head of state. Upon learning that the Ingenous had made off with the tratior and destroyed a station he recognized just how dire the situation was. He opted to initiate the transit of Kon Galon to another new universal plane. Its systems were supposedly secure; but upon initiating the transit they found themselves dropping into the Assiduous blue giant. Under its intense gravitational pull, they had but a few minutes to contemplate their death; though some scattered into shuttles and abandoned the careening planet. The planet colliding with the starlifter in a spectacle of destruction few would bear witness to.
With the main station knocked off its orbit, continent sized chunks of armor plummeted into the star; the vast twisted magnetic fields drawing matter. An immense coronal mass ejection tore through the system, scouring the worlds clean of life.
In the days and weeks that followed information was scarce. Infastructure had been so damaged by the salvos of attacks that nobody had much in the way of reliable communications; leading them to capitulating individually to the Furrelians. But these worlds quickly dissolved into anarchy. Hospitals, starports, industries, and governments were in shambles. Riots over food and medicine grew ever more intense. By the time communications were restored the first words exhcanged were about the sudden outbreak of budding disease. Countless trillions had all been infested with droves of parasitic clones; removing them bound to be a task far too tedious and resource intensive for anyone to carry out.
After three months, the streets were filled with little more than shambling zombies. Grotesque asymettric masses of parasitic clones. Most of them just died early on, but this provided ample food for those who lived to cannibalize upon. Some retained a measure of their intelligence, babbling semi-coherent sentences as they meandered about, while others just screamed in perpetual agony from a hundred mouths. The disease had mutated, and began to affect other lifeforms in the various ecosystems. Strains mutated out to nushus and urngoths. Even plant life began to show signs of developing parasitic clones; wiht seedlings sprouting from the trunks of trees and once straight stalks growing in oddly splayed manners.
“Prime minister… I thought you supported the war… I can’t be certain that alternating your political viewpoint back and fourth is such a good idea for your public image… during such time… people need a strong leader to look to. One that does not waiver.”
Takamo Nadanhari was a short, bluish gray Katharian and an esteemed member of the high council.
“Indeed it would look like that to the uninitiated. Before… I was trying to avert the conflict before it escalated. When I realized we had no choice but to fight back, I wanted to represent strength… that we would not kneel to another power. But when my best commander… our best technologies and soliders and intel we had gathered since before the war failed to gain us so much as an inch on them. And theres no reason that we can point to for why we failed. This isn’t a war… this is a one sided massacre and we look weak regardless.
At the end of the day, my view is that we must preserve lives, whatever the cost. And from that, I will never waiver. If subjugation means we may continue to survive, then so be it.”
The prime minister stepped onto her podium. The assembly hall was largely empty, though a handful of advisors and aides wore solemn expression at what they were about to do.
“You’re on. Diplomatically immune secure line.” A technician said quietly as a comm line.
The prime minister wetted her lips.
“This is Prime Minister Kroywen Nal Hoytachia, speaking on behalf of the gauss dominion. Given the disastirous outcome of our attempted attack on Pobbma, we have opted to concede to your military superiority. This is a notice of immediate and total sur-“
The line cut out. A moment later the power to the high council chambers cut out. The room was bathed in an ebony darkness for a few moments before dim emergency lighting conduits came to power.
“What- what happened?”
“Someone’s cut the power. We lost the signal…”
Outside, at the Ingenious embassy there was a sprawling power outage across this section of the city. Office workers began to make their way outside. In the confusion, an individual in a black sweatshirt wove his way through the crowd with a large satchel on his back. A Cauldarion security guard noticed, even in the dark that he seemed particularly suspicious. It was specifically the reddish muzzle that came to his attention. And a handful of news camera droids which had managed to somehow… perhaps by design, managed avert the sweeping disruption of power outages and cyberwarfare followed the scene. The Furrelian made a mad sprint and the Cauldarion bolted after him. Demonstrating surprising strength, he hurled his package over the security perimeter, only to be tackled a moment later.
The Cauldarion gripped him, throwing off his hood to reveal the face of Tinel. His eyes wore a glazed, dead expression and a minute scar ran across the back of his neck whereupon his cerebellum had been invaded by the dominion’s own technology. A moment later the satchel detonated at the base of the Ingenious embassy. An immense octagonal pagoda with green tiled rooves and golden dragons wrapping around its columns; the explosion was potent. A backpack nuclear device. In the moments that followed the building swayed from the force of the blast, finding equilibrium; almost looking as though it might remain standing before it gave way. The Cauldarion ran, but both were crushed under the collapsing tower.
Back inside; the prime minister was made vaugely aware of the commotion outside. But amongst the muffled screams and rumbling of secondary explosions she made out a new sound. The familiar cadence of the galactic admiral and the clop of her hard-soled shoes.
“I’m sorry, prime minister. But on my honor, I cannot allow you to surrender this war. Doing so is an affront to the will of Kragleosha. That we are to stand against any enemy, no matter how insidious or how terrifying.”
Kroywen looked taken aback. In part, she understood what was happening. Yet she remained in denial.
“It is a fool’s errand to fight them. You have seen it for yourself.”
“It is not. You claimed yourself ot know politics, to understand motivations and yet you fail to see that which is right in front of you. The sacrifices that I have realized we must make to ensure the continuity of our society.”
“This… this is treason. Don’t do this… and I will allow you to repent.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. You want subjugation. Become complicit. Help me.”
“Not if your methods bring about more senseless death!” She shouted with supernatural volume and tone, stamping her daie on the floor. A shockwave spread throughout the room.
“I am so sorry you feel that way.” The galactic admiral said in a unified chorus. Her multipresent clones began to file into the room, filling out a formation to either side of her. All of them withdrew their quartets of pistols and opened fire, resulting in a malestrom of railgun rounds. She spiraled her staff about; the dodecahedral aspect of matter formed a thin film of liquid into a bubble surrounding her. Upon striking it, the rounds dissolved into dust. When the salvo of fire relented, she hurled the liquid forward. It impacted, spraying white-hot slime over that side of the room. Scattering the Admiral’s clones and killing some of them. Before they could regroup, she summoned her psionic aspect.
A pulse shot through the room, violet lightning crackling between every object. The clones siezed for a moment, their eyes flashed violet as they stumbled and some fell to the floor. Though they rebounded quickly from their momentary confusion. Kroywen took those few breif moments to draw out her space aspect, recognizing two railgun shots had slipped her guard and pierced her torso in non vital areas.
The space aspect flickered and died. She felt it… they were under interdiction. There was no escaping.
During which time, the Admiral had composed herself and approached. The room was silent now. All of the other aides and councilmembers lay dead or dying. Recognizing the dire nature of her situation, she drew out the material and energy aspects once more; hoping to cause an explosion, but the Admiral was quicker. Swiping the staff from her hand and snapping it over her knee. A spark flew out as it snapped. Two of the surviving duplicates; having reloaded their firearms approached. By the time they had finished shooting, the prime minister was little more than a smear of brown fur and blood adorning the council chambers.
Kojunfourge System
The planet of Kojunfourge was a world as large and tumultuious as the Cauldarion people themselves. Thrice the radius of a standard planet with a punishing five and a half gees of gravity. Great fortress-like domes and pyramids erected across its surface; these mighty structures size of mountians and adorned with the various crests of their countless houses. The areas that were not developed were jagged mountain ranges and swamps and jungles of low-rising scarlet foliage. Its moon, the size of a standard planet in its own right and linked to its parent planet by way of a great space elevator. Beyond that a constellation of FEWIS stations patrolled the planet’s high orbit.
Otherwise the system was relatively unremarkable. A gas giant orbited harrowingly close to the parent star; its atmosphere being stripped by the punishing solar wind. A handful of smaller ice giants bearing small and unremarkable moons orbited further out in the system.
The Zeytan station was contacted by their Liason, a Kayron Humandari.
“This is Karyon Humandari. We’ve just recieved word that Kon Galon has been bombed and that there is an ongoing cyberattack on the Gaussian Innernet. We believe this to be of Furrelian origin. Maintain your station, and ensure any messages you recieve are not-“
The communication line cut out.
Then the city lights on the dark side of the planet went dark. Some were restored a few moments later; albeit they seemed dimmer. Emergency backup lighting.
Then the interdiction field projected by the stations dispersed. The stations fell silent of comms chatter and the usual signals which they relayed.
JADE EMBASSY, KON GALON
The Jade Embassy on Kon Galon was large, with the Gauss Dominion being one of their strongest allies in the Ancerious Galaxy. It was a busy, bustling place, with a ground floor open to the public that included some small displays and educational pieces, as well as extensive offices for the creation and renewal of visas, the replacement of identification papers and more. There was always a steady stream of people, whether Gaussians looking to get documentation to travel and work in the Jade Empire or Imperials updating their records.
The upper floors housed a variety of more secure chambers, used for conducting diplomatic meetings, trade negotiations and more, as well as housing the ambassador herself in the penthouse suite. Fukushima Kinu, the Jade Ambassador to the Gauss Dominion, was attempting to relax, knowing that something big was happening with the Gauss-Furrelian War this evening. She did not know the specifics, but she had reason to believe Kroywen was planning to open negotiations with the enemy tonight. Hardly surprising given the disaster at Pobbma, and eminently sensible and sound, but still gut-wrenching.
She was reading a novella, an undemanding teary-eyed tale of a sad courtesan and her secret lover, when the power went out. She could hear mutters of confusion and concern throughout the building, but almost immediately candles, torches and glow-sticks began to light, before the emergency generator kicked in. She pulled out her own glowstick and snapped it, casting a life-preserving blue light around herself, before heading to the balcony. Sure enough, the rest of the neighbourhood was also out.
She never felt or saw the explosion that killed her. The roar of nuclear fire lashed the front of the building, evaporating her in an instant, and she was dead long before the tower collapsed onto the street beyond...
_
JADE EMBASSY, OUTBUILDINGS
Captain Ishido had risen from his bed when the lights went out, and already he could hear his marines chattering as they readied themselves in case this was some kind of attack. He glanced out of the blockhouse window at the towering embassy structure and could see no cause for alarm, but began to dress himself anyway, in the G-BUS Light variant he wore most days for practicality's sake.
He had just finished buckling the light flak plating on his chest when the explosion threw him from his feet. The glass in his window blew out, peppering the wall behind with shards, some of which nicked his left arm. Dumped heavily to the ground, it took him a moment to regain his senses. His ears were ringing, his sense of direction was shot, his body ached and his arm stung, but he staggered upright and downstairs. The front door was open and he could see marines beyond, glowsticks hanging at their belts, but the emergency lighting was not necessary as the ruins of the embassy building burned in the night.
A marine yelled at him. "Sir, radiation!"
"RADIATION PROTOCOL, REPEAT RADIATION PROTOCOL" the captain hollered automatically, sprinting back inside to grab safety gear. The marines wearing G-BUS Heavy remained on-station, covering those who had been exposed. Ishido staggered back upstairs, unsure if the nausea he felt was from blunt force trauma, radiation, or the sheer adrenaline of the situation, or perhaps a mixture of all three. As he struggled with his gear he placed a call to Sanrin.
"I say again, we have been attacked by a nuclear device, multiple KIA multiple WIA, we require immediate reinforcement and medical attention, severe burns and radiation poisoning expected."
By the time he got downstairs again, his marines and the few civilians who lived in the blockhouse were stood on the lawn between it and the embassy. Perhaps 50 marines in total out of the 150 he had on-site, and a dozen civilians.
_
He knew some of his marines would be out and about in the city during their downtime, but there would have been the better part of a hundred soldiers in the embassy itself, along with as many civilian embassy workers, staff and more.
"Sergeant Hodges, take a platoon and cover the street, clear a path for Dominion emergency crews. Lieutenant Yue, get on the horn with local emergency responders. We're gonna have a lot of casualties..."
He paused as one of the medics from 8th platoon bustled over with a binding agent tablet that helped to prevent absorption of radioactive particles, whilst another dragged out one of the hoses used to water the once-lush garden and began hosing soldiers down, at least removing some of the particulate from their suits.
The surviving soldiers moved into the street, away from the ruined compound, and began clearing a perimeter. A squad searched for injured locals hurt when the tower fell into the street, whilst someone launched a recon drone and tried to get close to the ruins themselves, searching for survivors...
Union Embassy Kon Galon:
The blast had been dulled by distance, but it was still enough to shatter the windows of the embassy and knock Ambassador Kaiden from his desk. He felt blood on his neck, and pain, reaching up to find several shards of glass embedded in his back. He knew he hated paperwork and wanted something to distract himself.
But not like this.
Groaning in pain he pulled himself up, his three legs helping to hoist himself back up using the desk as a support. Kaiden pulled pieces of glass from himself, sadly Cylaurian biology tended to be more fragile than other races, and their skin was no exception. He turned to look out the now shattered window to see the roiling cloud now making its way into the sky. Nuclear in origin then, given the momentary heat blast and bring light that proceeded it. By creation, someone had detonated a nuke in the Gaussian capital.
Kaiden knew there was some major news coming about the Furrelian war, he had sympathised with the Dominion of course. The Union of Worlds had been slowly increasing its diplomatic standing, slowly but carefully as the two sides became friends. Alas when the call for aid had come the government had refused military intervention, only humanitarian aid, financial aid and material aid had been given. Eiasten was careful to not intervene in new conflicts, the Unions more isolationist stance coming back to bite them Kaiden thought. His trail of thinking as he picked the glass was halted as several soldiers entered the room.
“Ambassador are you ok!” Two of the Union guards, now dressed in their power armour helped Kaiden to his feet, immediately getting to work with field dressings and injecting medical nanites.
“I am fine, ensure the premises are secure and make sure everyone is accounted for”
“Power is mostly down; we have the back up generator running but comlines to the authorities or anywhere else is all cut. We don’t know what’s going on” Kaiden wiped his whiskers.
“Then get a runner out! Get to the government building and grasp what’s going on, try get word to the Jade too…” He paused “Damn that blast came from their direction, take a team with you instead and do what you can to help them” They all nodded in response.
“Things have really gone to shit”
Sting [-IVE-] — 07/04/2021
The Capitol, Empyria, Empyria System, the Imperial Vires of Empyria
Edwin woke up softly, a small Implant in his temple waking him up softly but fully in a few seconds. Almost everyone had implants which helped them with daily tasks and gave them connection to the internet and almost everything, and while Edwin had a special one, it was no different in many other respects. Stretching, he straightened himself on the bed, looking around the room. The room was spotless, and as he looked around, TV’s and screens turned on, the room filling with soft light. The windows are unshaded as well, letting in the natural light of the sun. Outside was a grand expanse of flowers and roads, the pocket of Military or civilian vehicles running through the roads.
Edwin dressed himself, and as he finished a knock was heard on the door. He already knew who it was of course, but the display next to the door stated it was Flit.He nodded for the door to open, and as it did his assistant entered the room.
“Wake up well sir?” Flit said in a routinely manner, placing a small platter on the table. On it was a hot drink and a breakfast of eggs and waffles. A strange combination to some, but Edwin liked it.
“As always Flit, what are we doing today?” Edwin said, sitting down on his desk and picking apart his eggs, looking at flit, who now swiped up a hologram.
“You have a STRATCOM meeting in 5 sir, EIS is going crazy right now, something is happening to Gauss.”
“What was the battle with them recently, Pob-something?”
“Pobbma sir, which resulted in a Gaussian withdrawal. It seems that the Furrelians are on the offensive now, and it's not looking good. I don't know the specifics, but they will brief you soon.”
Edwin ate his breakfast fast today, and got up a few minutes later, and took a lift to the Bowels of the Capitol Building. Arriving inside, the dozen or so men and women in uniforms got up, saluting, their right arm crossed over their heart.
“At ease gentlemen and women, we normally do this meeting in a few hours, what's the rush?” Edwin said, now sitting down at the head of the table, he crossed his fingers, listening.
A snappy Colonel now swiped his hand, turning on a few holograms, which encompassed the table and the wall on the other end of Edwin. She now spoke,
“Prime Minister, a few hours ago the Gauss Homeworld of Kon Galon suffered a massive Blackout, which is still happening. Empyrian Intelligence Service Operatives who had been watching local news have lost those connections, and other connections to the planet state that something is going on. We are receiving mixed messages, but a Nuclear weapon may have been used on a Embassy, we are not sure who though or why. We expect to find this out in the next few hours.
Carrier Strike Group 22, headed by the ENS Defendia, is currently positioned here, on a straight line course between the Furrelians and Gauss. They have not seen anything yet, which makes us believe either the Furrelians are trying to stay quiet or this attack is internal to the gauss.” The Colonel pointed at a dot on a galactic map. It was in the middle of nowhere in space, but the entire fleet was spread out enough to have a modest view of the direct route.
“The most worrying thing is that EIS reports that even the Gaussian Capitol Building is silent, which may indicate an attack. This may be a false alarm or the Gauss undergoing a lockdown, but the suspicion is there.
Sir, the Gauss Empire is one of our closest Neighbors, and as a Democracy, it is imperative that they stay that way. EIS needs permission to increase our surveillance and the Admirals here also have a few suggestions.”
The Colonel now stood in place, as the room turned back to look at Edwin. An Admiral a few places away from Edwin now spoke up.
“Prime Minister, should the Furrelians Attack and successfully annex the Gauss, this will give them a key staging ground in our part of the Galaxy. We can't have that happen, and propose that a response from Empyria needs to be done. We request permission to Mobilise CSG-11,17, and 4 in Imperia and send them closer to Gauss space. This will give us the opportunity to project power near gauss and therefore the furrelians should they choose to invade. The Furrelians are, though, much stronger than us, and outnumber us with comparable technology, and more trained leaders. We will be able to fight them, but we need allies or after the Gauss, they will come for us.”
Edwin Interjected now, “are you suggesting we join this war and attack the Furrelians?”
The Admiral shook his head, “No sir, we just need permission to bring our ships near Gaussian Space and show that the Furrelians cannot continue to shove around the gauss without getting more states involved. If we can rope in other aligned states, we may even force the furrelians to end the war without us firing a shot.”
Edwin looked around the room, thinking now over his choices. A intervention would not go well in the public light, so much lighter tools must be used for now, or he risks his own skin.
“EIS, you have permission to use light reconnaissance tools. Drones you can send to gauss Space, and continue to monitor the situation as much as you can online. That's it. I want no spies and shit for now, we can't deal with that.”
The Colonel nodded.
“Admiral, Prepare those Carrier groups, but do not leave Empyrian Space yet. I need to know more about what's happening before we show our cards.”
The Admiral nodded.
“Optamus de Empyria.” Edwin said, now standing up
“De Empyria!” the room responds fiercely.
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"You ever been down there since you got here?"
Over the grand, rocky homeworld of the Cauldarions, a Zetyan void station sat silently in orbit, simultaneously one of the new diplomatic leeways for the two nations, a middleman for FTL communications, and an entry point for Clan Kho'thar's economic support. It'd been recently towed in after the public declaration of support from the Clanholds, on recommendation from multiple liasons due to supposed cultural similarities.
Within a command bridge deep within the construct's fathoms, a decently sized team of various personnel sat around, passing the time with small talk while they waited for, well, anything. A mr. T'lajoa Rt'as sat next to a comms operator, staving off his boredom with conversation.
"Nah, why?"
"Shit, you're lucky. Had to go down to the surface once, for introductions and shit. Felt like I was carrying two whole-ass harnesses on my shoulders."
"No shite."
"Yeah! And I was fuckin' wearing one of those pimpy Council harnesses, too!"
"Damn. They warn you 'bout it at all, then?"
"Yeah, a few times."
"Eh, right, better than me former boss. 'eard of a green'orn 'o his who were sent to a minin' facility on Q’toekarii. Di'n't even pass 'im so much as a word a' caution."
"Unlucky bastard. Shit, I might've worked for that guy once or twice, the fuckin' prick. What's his name?"
"The name's-"
Suddenly, a message arrived from planetside. The Cauldarion liason came up on one of the screens, looking rather concerned.
"This is Karyon Humandari. We’ve just recieved word that Kon Galon has been bombed and that there is an ongoing cyberattack on the Gaussian Innernet. We believe this to be of Furrelian origin. Maintain your station, and ensure any messages you recieve are noagrgjn@#$VF@ashjR --kshrrt--“
And then, on visuals, the planet went dark. Automated messages and manual chatter from Dominion FEWIS stations stopped coming in, and the onboard interdiction detection systems, primitive as they were, ceased all readouts. Even a fool could tell what was happening.
A chorus of 'oh shit', 'woah', and other standard shock synonyms followed in it's wake, as some began rushing to reestablish comms with Kojunfourge. For a moment, the diplomat and the operator only watched.
"...fuck."
"Cockfurs aren't even bein' subtle wif' it, are they?"
"Guess not." Raising his internal voice to 'giving orders or some stuff' levels, he got up and addressed the room.
"Right, we're still kicking, let's act like it! You guys, try and get a line to the slabfaces! You guys, send warnings out to neighboring systems, see if they can send backup! Rest of you, buzz our boys at home! Let's go, move, move!"
As they rushed to execute his impromptu, and technically invalid orders(the station overseer was present, and giving him some decent side-eye), T'lajoa patted himself on the back. He'd definitely gotten better at the whole public speaking thing since he got actual diplomatic training, not to mention his boost to street cred. An internal reminder was set to thank P'tala when he next saw her, as alarms rang out stationwide and calls to arms resounded in his earholes.
-------------------------------------------------
In vacuum, the station suddenly awoke with ferverous activity, onboard hangars opening in preparation for a mass unloading of spacecraft and phantom turrets unfolding and extending from various places. Two corvettes also sat in dockyards, silently awaiting their crew.
An FTL signal raced through the stars back to home, and others danced over to nearby systems, carrying a single unified warning.
On Kojunfourge, the source of the previous message would now be receiving a steady stream of radio messages, each trying to verify a re-connection with the Cauldarions.
Ofton (Furrelian Union/FFR) — 07/07/2021
Fureskina, Sallag System, Furrelian Union
It had been an exhausting day. The Diplomatic corps of the Furrelian Union in Ancerious had been preparing more than three dozen messages for other nations, explaining their actions to come. They would’ve been sent after Tarodema returned from his operation. Sidonela Estanio, a high-level diplomat assigned to the Diplomatic service was preparing to close down for the day. The moment she was about to close the secure diplomatic line with the Gauss Dominion, she received the message of surrender. She did not expect it. The city outside, louder than normal as the celebrations of the victory at Pobbma continued, seemingly faded out of her ear, as she began transmitting the message towards multiple other sections for verification before those sections began sending the message to those who required it. However, the end was weird to her. It seemed as if the recording suddenly and abruptly stopped.
“Well, it’s about time to shut down, is it not?” Disunema, another diplomat, said as he entered the room with Estanio.
“I don’t think so yet. The Dominion surrendered, I just received the message. B-”
“Wait, the Gauss Dominion? They’re surrendering already? That’s great news! You should close the line and celebrate!”
“I’m not saying I don’t want to celebrate, but I still have to transmit this info towards five different people and sections. Are there currently any admirals in the field?” She sighed, she was tired and this was not going to work out positively on her sleep schedule. But, duty called.
“Just Tarodema, I think.”
“Fuck, of course, it has to be Tarodema... Help me for a second here!” She quickly got the Furrelian Navy’s command on a direct communications line, and begun transmitting the surrender message before calling them.
“FDS Command? This is Sidonela Estanio of the Furrelian Diplomatic Service. Check my authenticity if you need to, but this has priority. The Gauss Dominion has surrendered, check the message I sent. Whatever you do, try not to attack any more Dominion targets. The war is as good as over, just don’t attack anyone. Please, transmit this data to any admiral currently in the field, we don’t want to risk a diplomatic accident.” She sent to the FDS’ Command centre on Fureskina. She awaited the answer rather impatiently, but after five minutes, a response came.
“This is FDS Command, understood. We will transmit further details to fleet command.”
…
Eatov, Lithorian Collective
The System of Eatov had been leased out to the Furrelians after the meeting in Muspell. Now, it had become time that the Furrelians finally used it. Risodemi Tarodema, Upper-Fleet-Admiral, had arrived at Eatov to end the war, a final blow to the crippling morale of the Dominion, the complete destruction of Kojunfourge. He was planning on using the largest ship in his fleet, the Wrath of Sallag, against the planet of Kojunfourge, to completely destroy the Gaussian will to fight. A fleet of around four hundred ships had assembled in Eatov, with around an additional hundred being relegated to support and maintenance duties, bringing the total amount of Furrelian ships in Eatov at Five-hundred. He was preparing himself for the battle to come. In five minutes, the beginning of Operation Returning Force would begin, a small squadron of Furrelian ships would jump into Kojunfourge, in order to scout out targets for the dozen Faster-Than-Light missiles his fleet had brought with him. The ships would transmit coordinates which the missiles could jump towards, destroying the toughest defences before the main fleet could begin its operation. Tarodema looked out of the visual display of the Wrath of Sallag and observed the fleet he had assembled. It was time to end the war. He noticed how the first five ships engaged their FTL drives and departed Eatov, twenty minutes more until the missiles struck.
“Greyase madoli nari to.” He said. “Greyas be with you.”.
Kojunfourge, Gauss Dominion
The five ships, a destroyer and four corvettes, each had stealth capabilities. The exit vector was above the planet, and the first ship to arrive was the FDS Ozotima, a corvette. Almost instantly after it appeared, the stealth system kicked in, its cloaking device was activated, and it disappeared from both sensors and visual sight. Soon after, the rest of the fleet followed. Three of the other ships successfully engaged their cloaks before moving further towards the planet. The one which did not successfully engage its cloak was the Udire Falcon, another corvette. It stayed uncloaked and in clear visual sight for almost five minutes, before finally activating its cloak. A rather unfortunate time for a mechanical fault to show up, but the crew of the ship ran with it regardless. The five ships each moved their own way, noting notable sections of the defensive grid, before transmitting the coordinates back towards the Furrelian fleet in Eastov itself.
Gauss Dominion — 07/07/2021
Kon Galon System.
Emergency crews began to filter in, assisting ingenious where needed. A group of Cauldarions were helping to pick apart the rubble pile; being able to move the larger pieces of debris. News reports showing the few seconds of footage of the Furrelian perpetrator were already spreading throughout the galaxy with bold and gripping headlines. In the malestrom, a landing site was cleared in the street for a military shuttle to set down.
Garo Tarongori stepped out, glancing around at the chaos. He had a full contingent of vetted knights with him, around twenty in total. Crowds of onlookers and aristocrats were still scattering in panic. The active support members of the orbital ring-city rhythmically cycling on and off synchronizated fashion. With the system perpetually rebooting only to overload and power down again, thus every building transitioned back and fourth between fully lit and whatever emergency lights it had.
“It is an honor, supreme commander!” Mourg, The second-highest-ranking cauldarion in his attache commented.
“I wish it were under better circumstances.” Garo snarled, making his way down the line of embassies and government buildings and into the council chambers. A handful of ESP drones made their way in beforehand as he navigated the halls in an impaitent walk, eventually arriving at the council chambers and was greeted by the grizzly scene. He let out a soft, saddened sigh and began looking around the room. He lifted the head of Mateon voss only to reveal a gaping hole in his chest at an angle.
He glanced back, following the angle seeing around half a dozen of the galactic admiral’s clone bodies laying half-melted in the corner. He made his way over to where Kroywen last stood, picking up the broken halves of her daie staff. A part of him wanted to deny it. Wanted to believe that there was some explanation. But there was no other, no better explanation, and it didn’t take a master investigator to figure out what it was. The galactic admiral had attacked the high council. Then all the warning signs, all the times she seemed to snap. All the vindictive glances and outbursts seemed so much more important.
“It doesn’t take an expert investigator to tell what happened here. We’ve got to get word to high command and the planetary govenors that Luss has killed the prime minister.”
“I don’t get it…” Mourg began. “Why would Luss leave such obvious evidence behind-”
Garo’s eyes went wide with panic, remembering Luss’ typical strategies always involved deception, drawing opponents out of position and using confusion and panic to her advantage. In the few moments he had; his helmet unfurled from his collar.
The High council building resembled a great pyramid constructed of black slate. It was subsequently replaced with a fireball as a second nuclear detonation erupted from somewhere below the council chambers. Garo and the knights were flung upwards as the inside of the building exploded upwards like an erupting volcano. Fragments of synthetic stone and steel hurtling across the government plaza like lava bombs, impacting nearby buildings.
As quickly as the chaos had started, the field of debris fell silent for a few minutes as the crowds recovered. Then a large structural member shifted, and there was the audible whining of servos as the nearly two dozen knights worked to shift the massive member in unison. They looked around at each other. Some were shaken and some had fairly significant damage to their armor or had lost their weapons in the blast, but none were seriously injured. A news camera drone focused in on them as they began to chart a path over the rolling field of debris that was once the capital building. A dominion cruiser began to settle over the capital square as a fresh wave of shuttles and dropships spilled out to restore order and lock down the facility. One dropship stopped, turning sideways, the side doors opening. The galactic admiral stood there, her robes billowing in the turbulent air. Her voice was augmented by the speaker systems aboard the craft.
“Supreme Galactic Commander, you are under arrest for high treason and terrorism against the gaussian council.”
“What?” Garo bellowed back, using his armor’s own speakers to augment his voice. Though his voice needed less augmenting. “You can’t do this! You murdered the prime minister in cold blood. I have witnesses to the evidence!”
War droids and marines began to filter in, taking up positions of cover in the debris. The knights fidgeted, reaching for whatever weapons they hadn’t lost in the explosion. Some drew axes, others drew guns. One picked up a length of steel beam that ended in a slab of concrete resembling a giant hammer.
“This is blasphemy!” Mourg bellowed back. “You’re the traitor to the will of Kragleosha, and we have testimony and video evidence to prove that you were responsible for the death of the prime minister.”
“Testimony…? Video Evidence? I have proof directly from the GDCDC that your clearance was used to initiate the cyberattack against the gaussian innernet. You carried out this attack, you set off a bomb in here as well, why else would you and your cadre inbred brutes show up here in full wargear and somehow… survive the blast. Arrest him now, I’ve heard enough of these traitor’s lies!”
Mourg let out an aggrivated snarl at the insult, but Garo held him back from charging in a blind rage.
The two sides seemingly readied for battle. Though it looked as though the Cauldarions were woefully outnumbered and outgunned, anyone intimately familiar with the Tarongoris would know that it was a more even fight than it looked.
Kojunfourge System.
To the stealth ships the gaussian defenses appeared to be in disarray. The Sensor stations surrounding the planet appeared to be offline and the ships were flashing their point defense nodes. In reality they were still chewing through the aggressive cyberattack and forced to power down most of their advanced computer systems including their radio transmitters. Thus they had resorted to using their point defense beamers as signal lights. With a quick-fingered comms officer at the controls they could pulse out fairly detailed messages in binary, translating into galactic base. Each of the battleships pulsed out a message.
Chief of Cybersecurity says the boot drive updated. Component of virus in there. Restore backup or remove manually.
Another message. This one fired off the bow of the leading zeytan ship.
Karyon Humadari Speaking. Kroywen has formally capitulated the war. Do not engage the Furrelian vessel.
A third message. This one beamed just off to the side of the one vessel that had a failure in its stealth system.
Furrelian Vessel, Stand down and call off your attack. This is a notice of surrender.
Meanwhile, there were a dozen Ecumene ships loitering low over the planet. Hoytachian vessels were ubiqutiously bronze spheres with but a handful of green lights and ports, lacking any visibile thrusters or weapons. They began to hail the Furrelian vessel, and once they managed to handshake with its comms and establish a video feed. An elderly Hoytachian made their way into frame. It took them around thirty seconds to move their body fully into frame, walking with the assistance of an elaborate Daie plastered in buttons and controlling electronics for the ship. Quivering slightly with some alien equivalent to Parkinson’s disease as they moved.
“This is Sage Admiral Orok Oblata the wise of the Third Ascending fleet of the Hoytachian Ecumene. As per the mining claims act of 69AME; Territorial holds on the planet of Kojunfourge and its surrounding moons up to and including the edge of the discernable atmosphere are sovereign territory of the ecumene of syndicated hoytachian states. Therefore it is my duty to inform you that any strikes against these territories that cause any level undue disruption of our mining operations or wanton destruction against my people, automotouns or equipment by a military entity are to be considered an act of war agianst the Ecumene.”
The Sage Admiral transmitted a holographic map of the planet, showing how the planet had been parceled up between an assortment of Cauldarion houses but how snaking gerrymandered claims had been set out by the Ecumene. Mining stations were dotted throughout the planet and her moon.
“It has also come to my attention that Kroywen, progeny of the Hoytachian people attempted to make it known that the state of the Gauss Dominion… and all affiliated territories would be capitulating. Although the transmission was cut off before it could be formalized and complete, it can be interpreted beyond a reasonable doubt that their intentions were to engage in unconditional surrender. If you cause any undue damages to an enemy who has capitulated, it will be my duty as a Sage Admiral to inform the Gauss Dominion and all of her allies of your violation of the rules of war.”
The Beef (Ingen) — 07/07/2021
JADE EMBASSY, KON GALON
The recovery efforts well underway, Captain Ishido watched in quiet despair as corpse after corpse was removed from the rubble. Occasionally someone was found alive, caked in dust and barely awake, and at one point a Frame abruptly erupted from a pile of furniture uncovered by a Cauldarion, her tamale pseudo-skin tattered but her body essentially unharmed, but the vast majority were dead.
Around them, Gaussian EMTs set up a staging area in the street, triaging the worst cases and moving them to a nearby hospital. Thankfully Yokari and Yokeneko physiology was similar enough to human that it was relatively easy to treat them, but the injuries were still severe. A radiation scrubber set up began clearing the nuclear fallout from the briefcase bomb.
He watched as Garo and his knights trooped off towards the Council Hall, where he gathered from radio chatter that something serious was going on, but he had missed the details. Minutes later, however, another explosion shook the ground, eliciting screams and wails from the already-shocked civilians.
A plume of fire and smoke was visible from the Council Hall, and Gaussian flyers were visible converging on the scene.
"What the fuck?" he muttered to himself. He glanced around at the situation and then approached a nearby police officer.
"Hey buddy, I'm going to leave my walking wounded with you, I'm taking my men to the Council Hall to see if your people need assistance." he said in Common, before he and his four dozen marines began double-timing it up the road towards the commotion, leaving perhaps a half-dozen exhausted marines at the wreckage of what had once been the Jade Embassy...
_
SANRIN SYSTEM
"By the Dragon..." murmured Daimyo Toshi as she glanced at the preliminary reports. Fukushima Kinu had been a friend of hers, but just before lunch on Sanrin she had received word that Kinu was dead, along with most of the Jade staff at their Kon Galon embassy in the Gauss Dominion. Some kind of nuclear attack, and not only that but rumour had it there was something going on at the Council Hall too.
Information was changing by the second, but whatever the case she knew that the Jade Empire had to react. She called for Admiral Minowara and found him already awake, trying to raise the 3rd Regiment embassy protection unit on-planet.
"Good morning Daimyo. I cannot raise Captain Ishido or his men - I assume their equipment may have been damaged in the blast. I am reaching out to the Dominion now." he explained matter-of-factly, not glancing up from his console.
"Excellent, Admiral. I expect you will be sending vessels to the system?"
Minowara nodded. "An Ayuki-class carrier with the 789th Regiment, as well as an atakebune and two hayabune as escort. I will also request JIAN agents, although knowing them they are probably already there."
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"There it is! I fuckin' called it!"
The Falcon's error was the Zetyan's vindication.
They'd caught it on visuals and on sensors for a few vital moments, before it seemed to shimmer and slip back into the murky black. The bridge was abuzz with chatter and activity, as the overseer and his cohorts overlooked the scene from heightened platforms. T'lajoa had uttered the exclamation over by the communications and sensors section, having taken on some sort of weird pseudo-backseat driver role that would certainly earn him a 90 decibel telling-off later.
"What's the time for our boys?" he said, as he turned back to the guy he was talking to earlier.
"The lads said 5 minutes!"
"Any word from the neighbors?"
"None!"
"Dammit!" He segued back to the sensors operator he was talking to beforehand, watching his display like a hawk while also practically interrogating him on everything that the station was picking up. No doubt there would be more soon enough.
Though, not everyone shared the sentiment.
The station overseer, H'rla M'nngal, merely watched over the room as it moved and churned like a gelatinous blob. That cocksure diplomat guy, T'ago or whatever, had given him some time to ruminate over the unfolding events, as he checked in with comms operators and shouted random orders over to the other side of the room. And something didn't feel right.
The timing on the cyberattack? The convenient 'error' of the Furrelian ship's stealth systems?
It was too obvious.
He had no basis for his suspicion beyond the sheer obviousness and convenience of the whole situation. Even K'lvan fleets were more subtle than this, and here these furrelians were practically flashing the entire system a 'we're coming here' sign. Granted, they might not have known that the Zetyan station was here, but it still felt so... suspicious.
He continued to muse internally, as his eyes trailed across those stars so few and far between...
...was one of them blinking?
Hang on.
His six eyes all suddenly focused on that one star, a light blue one beating like a pulsar. On, off, on, off, so fast he could swear it might've just been the display framerate screwing with him. His right hand met the shoulder of one of his cohorts twice in one second, and his other reached with a finger towards the cerulean blue.
"Zoom in on that. Real close."
"What, that star? Why?"
"Stars don't blink."
With a press of a button or two, it did. And slowly, the superstructure of a FEWIS station came into view, with a set of tiny PD lasers on it's outer rim blinking on, off, on and off. Binary. They weren't completely out of the fight after all.
The bridge remained silent for what felt like a minute. Then, a voice rang out, then another, and soon the room was again a chorus, though this time one of confusion.
"I thought they were knocked out!"
"Are they shooting at us?!"
"Someone get that translated!"
"Looks like a cheap vibrator."
Through the commotion, the overseer had made his way down to the C&S section, making a beeline to the backseat driver's favorite area. His attention was swiftly acquired via a hard poke to the shoulder, as the translated message was propped up on the main screen by someone who probably had a rather decent work ethic.
...
They were surrendering? At a time like this? Bullshit.
Many gave cries of doubt to the Gaussian plea. H'rla merely focused on the comms section for now.
"Tell them to hold off. Wait for our signal." he ordered, just as T'lajoa returned his attention to the area. His voice rang out like a bell.
"What?! No! You're not postponing this just cause their dildo-station said they were chickening out!"
"It's not because of that, you retard. It's-"
"Then why?!"
"Let me fuckin' speak, holy shit!" He sighed, as a good chunk of the C&S section now watched their argument with rapt attention.
"Something ain't right. The cyberattack, the-that corvette, now that message. Something about this feels like a trick. A distraction or something."
"...what? What'd they gain out of tricking us? That-"
"I don't know. But this feels... too convenient, it's like they wanted us to know they were coming."
"Yeah, well, it's probably an intimidation tactic, or, something. I dunno, but we can't fall for that bullshit, or they'll wipe us out!" His military experience, or lack thereof, showed greatly.
"'Intimidation tactic' my ass. They wouldn't have sent a corvette if they wanted to 'intimidate' us."
"Wha' 'bout the slabface's message? You lads foergettin' somethin'?" the commsman chimed in.
A moment of silence ensued, as both sides now took in the fact everyone was listening in on their argument. H'rla's eyes rescanned the message, verifying it's contents. His opinion now shifted.
"...it's probably legitimate." Confusion and decries of doubt followed, as expected.
"No, it's a diversionary tactic! You yourself said it was suspicious! They probably hacked the stations, they're trying to catch us off guard to make their jobs easier!"
"Reread it. If that message was made by the cockfurs, how'd they get her name?"
"...her name?"
"Karyon Humadari. They shouldn't know she's our liaison this early on. How'd they get her name?"
T'lajoa's silence spoke for him. After a moment of looking for fractures on visuals, H'rla continued.
"How long until they FTL in?"
"Uh... 'boot 2 minnits, I say."
"Buzz them again. You or someone who can. Be ready to move out, but until further notice, they are not to warp in." His head tilted towards T'lajoa, as to solidify his orders. A silent 'you and i are having a word later' was written on his face. He then shifted towards the other sections, raising an orderly pointer finger.
"Rest of you, keep this place alert. Don't have anyone do anything unless I say so, or an entire voidfleet shows up on screen." He began to move back to the upper echelons of the bridge, momentarily stopping to stare at the display. The FEWIS station was still flashing strong.
"And, zoom out the display. I think we all got the message."
He then went back up to the upper echelons, as T'lajoa sulked and the rest of the bridge quietly returned to normal activity levels. Time to play the waiting game.
-------------------------------------------------
In vacuum, a whole lot of nothing seemed to happen. No fighters were launched, no guns or missiles fired, the turrets hardly even moved their barrels from where they last saw the Furrelian corvette. The stationborne corvettes were receiving crew, though any previous plans to launch were put on hold. For now, the station merely waited.
The Capitol, Empyria, Empyria System, the Imperial Vires of Empyria
Edwin combed a hand through his hair as he looked intently at a document, trying to read through some treaty or report or whatever the hell he was reading. He had a speech tomorrow, which he enjoyed much more than this. At this point, any distraction would be warranted to get away from this BS.
The door slid open, and a gasping assistant stumbled in. Outside, a White Beret peered over, a slight look of concern, but it couldn't really be discerned from his stone cold demeanor. The assistant now panted out,
“SIR, THE GAUSSIAN CAPITAL BUILDING JUST GOT NUKED AND THERE'S SOME STANDOFF WITH MECHS AND SHIT- STRATCOM NEEDS YOU IN THE SITUATION ROOM--”
Be careful what you wish for, thought Edwin as he swiped his phone off the glass table and legged it to the elevator.
-------------------------
A hybrid between a Sports car and a sedan slid to a stop next to a 2 story house, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. 5 black clad people hopped out of it, immediately sprinting to the door. Each of them had a specialized exo-suit, each with a variety of matte colored weapons and other fun things on them. Before they could react, a burst of MG erupted from a window through the closed blind, hitting one of them almost 6 times, popping their shield in the first 3 and sending another 3 into their torso. He fell over as another of the breachers brought a E110 up, spraying through the wall with the hypersonic railgun rounds.
“CAREFUL YOU SHIT, THIS IS A HOSTAGE MISSION YOU SHIT!” the leader of the breachers said, as she stacked up on the door, keeping her rifle trained on the door as she stopped from a full sprint next to the wall. The Marksman slid behind her, and the remaining two adjacent to the door. The grenadier opposite of the leader primed a flash, and the leader propped the door open a small bit, as the grenadier threw the flash in. it popped in a pattern, continuing to pop like a flashbang as the leader kicked the door fully open and slid in. meeting another similarly dressed defender right next to her face as she breached, she sidestepped as the defending woman sprayed her rifle straight at the leader. The leader sidestepped and elbowed the defender in the face, being a bit too quick as the defender attempted to lunge backwards. On the off step, the leader upholstered her sidearm in a flash and laid into the defender, whose shield was overwhelmed and taken out.
“What did I fucking say about staying next to the door you fuckwit.” the leader grumbled as she with the rest of the breachers cleared the room. To the left and the right were 2 doors, so the team split into 2’s, the leader being paired with the marksmen. The leader decided this time to slap a charge on the door, and with the other team, simultaneously breached the two rooms. As she slid into the clear room, she could hear gunshots from the adjacent room, and a token in the top right of her HUD go black, the other went from blue to green.
“Scratch 1, 3 to go I think, unless she's still alive up there.”
“Probably is because Tailison here is a bad shot, keep moving by yourself-”
Mid sentence, the next door down the chain opened and a grenade flew out, exploding mid air. Cursing, the leader and marksmen responded by throwing their own frags into the next room. They overhand fastballed the two grenades, throwing them exactly through the now closing door, getting in right before it closed fully.
“SHIT!” was heard as the two exploded mid-air, followed by a clutter as something hit the floor.
“Dumbass.” the leader grumbled as she kicked down the door, checking her shields on the bottom right of her HUD. 58%, she should be fine. They now cleared the room, seeing the dead defender, a bandolier of grenades around his body. One of them flashed red.
“OH SHIT-” the marksmen yelled, bodyslamming the leader as they fell back. The leader fell back into the first room, but the marksman was not so lucky, his bottom torso being engulfed in a energy blast.
“FUCK-” the leader yelled, getting up and going through the now trashed room, and into the next. The next room was a connector, connecting the passage that the other attacker team took from the main room to hers, and between her and the last breacher was a staircase up.
Nodding, the two continue up the stairs. As their heads peak up the top, the man on the leaders left is hosed by a SAW on the other end of a long hallway throughout the second floor. A head on the last door to the left, seeing the two, pokes his head into the door, closing it. The leader, seeing the proned SAW gunner who blasted her friend on the right, laid into the gunner with her rifle. The SAW gunner instinctively evaded the first few rounds, but was hit and ragdolled on the floor.
IT'S OVER WERTIUL, COME HERE YOU COCK-SUCKER!” the leader now yelled, sprinting through the hallway. As she did so, her HUD noticed a small black box on the floor on the right side of the hallway. The leader front-flipped over the trap as it fired a spray of pellets knee high, barely missing the leader. She continued to sprint, now sliding to a stop right before the door.
“WERTIUL, HAND OVER THE HOSTAGE AND NO-ONE ELSE HAS TO GET SHOT!”
“GIVE UP VI, IT'S JUST YOU AND ME, YOU COME IN THAT DOOR AND I SHOOT THE HOSTAGE!”
...
Vi tapped the door open, now aiming at a man in similar attire, aiming a pistol at a bag of chips.
“Lieutenant, you are aware that those are training rounds, right?”
Wertiul, realizing his fatal mistake, dropped the pistol and brought his arm down for his sword, which definitely would destroy the precious hostage, but it was too late. Vi dropped him as she triple tapped his face with her rifle.
As the lights turned off, Captain Vi threw off her helmet, breathing out as she walked over, snatching the bag of chips as Wertiul groaned. While all of this was a simulation, house rules of the Squad was to make it hurt a little after the round, as friendly motivation. She now offered her hand to the lieutenant. He begrudgingly took it, getting up. Below them, shouts of “LETS GO!” and “FUCK YOU SPAWNCAMPER!” were heard.
On Vi’s arm, a small message appeared, requesting her to appear at the bridge. As the Purple Beret Squad left the training floor, Vi dismissed them and headed up to the Bridge of the Corvette.
As Vi entered the bridge, the small 20 or so people on it stood up to attention. Wertiul followed close by her side, as Vi waved for them to sit down. A Blue Beret now walked over to her, the officer nodded.
“Cap, what's up?” Vi said, leaning on a projector table in the middle of the room.
Captain Jillian waved his hand, displaying an order from STRATCOM.
“Looks like we're finally deploying.”
Vi looked over to the document displayed on the projection.
“Huh, that's a strange assignment.”
---------------------
“So we're doing this?” Edwin said to the room posthumously. The room of Generals and Admirals all nodded approval, some uncertain, and some certain. The Marins certainly seemed certain, they would want to be the ones to be shipped out first when this causes a war with whoever.
The Admiral now spoke. “It shouldn't be that bad, we are sending a ship under the guise of an Empyrian News agency to see what's happening closer. They won't shoot it, and I dont think it's even going to be stopped considering the Cyberattack that might have happened.”
“What we don't have plausible deniability for, is deploying a Purple Beret Group to the system.”
“Prime Minister, we are just having on in the general area in case something happens, we aren't going to bring them into Gauss sovereign territory until we know something is going on. Right now, something is happening, I mean look at these two. We need more information to find out whats happening behind the scene. If we end up with a civil war as our neighbors while they are being invaded, this could end badly.”
“I personally can deploy the Purple Berets, got it? Other than that, I want us to stay as silent as we can in finding out the full picture.”
The room nodded in agreement.
“Let's do this then.”
Kojunfourge System, Gauss Dominion
The Udire Falcon stayed silent for a dozen minutes after receiving the message of the FEWIS platform, continuing its original mission and remaining stealthy and ‘unseen’. Onboard the ship, however, it was everything but silent. The bridge of the ship was in a heavy discussion regarding what they had to do. Captain Teserit Fisomena, an older Furrelian whose hair was beginning to grey out, was in a discussion with his few other commanding officers.
“Tarodema ordered us to keep going with the orders regardless of what. It is pro-”
-“Sidema, for fucks sake! Did you even see the translation? They’re surrendering, it makes no sense to continue a war that has ended!” Hesedema, the executive officer, said while in discussion with Sidema, the navigation officer.
“Why would they surrender this early?”
“Because of their total defeat at Pobbma a few days ago? Have you not been following the news?”
“Greyas’ Grace, you two, cut it out!” Residema, the political observer said. He took a breath, before bringing on his point.
“If I were any worse, both of you would’ve been demoted for this. But, Hesedema is right. They’re surrendering, we should honour that. Wait for a minute, and we’ll see if they ‘faked’ it.”
“Then it is settled, we declo-” Fisomena said but was interrupted by a shout from the Communications officer.
“Incoming transmission, the Goats!”
“Accept it, let’s hear what they have to say. Tilsony Midunema, decloak the ship! Haul the rest of the fleet, tell them that the Dominion is surrendering! Alert Tarodema too!”
...
The message was accepted the same moment the ship returned to visual sight.
“This is Captain Teserit Fisomena of the FDS Udire Falcon, assigned to the Fourth fleet under the command of Upper Fleet-Admiral Tarodema. We have not yet received the official message of surrender, but the Union will take your word for it. I am not authorised to conduct diplomatic talks, so I am afraid that you will have to wait for a response from Sallag before we can discuss terms. For now, the Furrelian Union will respect the Holds of the Ecumene in Kojunfourge.”
At the same time, the message to the Hoytachian fleet was being transmitted, one of the corvette’s own Point-Defence guns opened fire, transmitting, through a bit more rusty, a message in binary, though this time in Sylenti, rather than Galactic common.
“Message received, rest of current fleet active in Kojunfourge to decloak as soon as possible, section of Furrelian 4th fleet to arrive soon, do not open fire on them.” That message was received by the other four Furrelian ships, and one by one they decloaked. A message was soon afterwards sent towards the main fleet.
Eatov, Lithorian Collective
Tarodema had retreated to his own seat on the FDS Wrath of Sallag. His attention now lied with the fleet he had sent to Kojunfourge. He was reflecting on his plan but was interrupted by a message he received on his console. FDS command. The message was the notification of the surrender.
“Attention Upper-Fleet Admiral Tarodema. The Gauss Dominion has officially surrendered. Operation Returning Force is not to be continued. Return the majority of your fleet back towards local Furrelian anchorages, and wait for further instructions regarding the surrender of the Gauss Dominion. File attached has the message used by the Dominion to surrender.”
“So. Here their road ends.” He mumbled to himself. Looking around the bridge, he noticed how the rest of the crew, or at least the ones directly next to him, began to celebrate.
“Well then. Order three quarts of the fleet back towards whatever system they belong in, the quart remaining should follow us towards Kojunfourge.”
Gauss Dominion — 07/12/2021
Kon Galon: Capital District
Garo looked around. His panic and confusion wasn’t terribly obvious as his face was masked and he knew it was probably for the best that it stayed masked. He turned to the ingenious marines. Luss frowned, knowing what he would try to do. Several kilometers away a great wall arced onto the horizon. The lip of the Kon galon orbital ring city. Cloaked atop a support conduit a shadow ranger sniper. Loading an anti power armor round rated to pierce cauldarion armor; more akin to a miniature RKKV or a small, narrow ATGM than a bullet. Her scope cycled through magnifications and spectra as she identified a weakpoint in the neck.
“She’s lying. Give me asylum in the Jade Empire. Give me a chance to prove my innocence. I did not give anyone my access.” He affirmed, trying desperately to maintain his calm tone.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s now a known traitor and a liar, harboring him will only give him more time to exact further damage.”
Mourg, being vastly younger and more brash raised his gun at the galactic admiral. “Stop accusing him you dumb bitch!”
The Galactic admiral stumbled, unable to respond to the insult or even hearing it. her conviction waivering as she clutched her head and her ears folded backward in pain. In truth the cyberattack was using the supreme galactic commander’s access. The only lie was that he had willingly given it up. Now her networked mind was being fully integrated with the dominion innernet; allowing her backdoor access and a means to manipulate data typically reserved for the council. She recovered after a moment and the ring’s power grid on Kon Galon rebooted. This time for good. One by one the defenses began to restore, at least around Kon Galon and Assiduous. The outer colony worlds were still tumultuious digital battlegrounds and would take some time to bring back online.
Gaussian Dark Net:
A video message began to play, across some levels of the gaussian deep web. Broadcast out along encrypted data channels it reached out. Only in Assiduous and Kon Galon were the network had mostly been restored, was the message fully blocked.
We are the crimson stars. For a thousand years the dominion has stood as a testament to the inconlence of organic beings. That we can live amongst a society that preaches peace and equality but produces the very antithesis. A nation built on lies… you are but cattle confined to stalls, living out aimless lives in the delusion that you somehow have purpose.
Our day of reckoning is upon us. It is the will of Kragleosha that all sentient beings are left to their devices, to be free. To-
The terrorist’s intimidating message was interrupted as their signal was cut out of the network which they were steadily regaining control of. But it was enough for them to know to begin.
Kojunfourge Surface: House Tanar Restoration Movement cell of Crimson Stars
House Tanar was a house dismantled by the order of the hundred houses. A house built on the worst of crimes, placing deceit before honor. However a small but staunch contingent of Cauldarions, namely criminals and outcasts from other houses had banded together in an effort to find belonging in. Having made their homestead in an abandoned transit complex. The monorail system linked into an abandoned mine that used the system to ship ores to nearby refineries. However as the ores dried up; this part of the network had been left to decay.
That message, however incomplete was the signal for them to initiate the attack. Where the message had been wholly blocked; Assiduous and Kon galon, the message never came and thus the terrorist cells would never know that the circumstances came to pass.
The half dozen agents opened a caseful of syringes. Passing one around to each member they injected themselves; failing to read the fact that for the vaccine to actually work they would need to wait two weeks for their body to build an immunity to the budding disease. Though some of the other cells had taken better care to follow through on the instructions Avalichi had given them.
“Brother Tagnarok. When this day is done, House Tanar will be able to lay claim to all of Kojunfourge. Honor is Weakness. Deceit is Strength.”
“Brother Gakan, what of those bastard red dogs. They may come here and try to lay rule to the planet.”
“Then the red dogs will fall victim to the plauge as well. If they even dare come down in the gravity well to enforce their rule. Would we truly be free under their rule? Avalichi said this world may well fall. When they come to enforce their rule, they too will fall victim to the pestilince. We will only truly be free to restore House Tanar if we kill all those who oppose us.”
The Cauldarions made their way down to the tram station. Each tram was equipped with a two-stage plan. Large chemical drums were packed with a writhing mass of billions of buzz ticks. Tiny blood sucking parasites no bigger than a millimieter native to the swampy lowlands of Kojunfourge. However these individuals had been genetically modified to being vastly hardier than the natives and would no doubt rule the insectoid ecosystem in due time. All of them carried the budding disease. Where the monorails passed near a vent; or emerged from tunnels to traverse the swampland the insects would slowly be released.
The endpoint of each monorail were major medical facilities spread across the northeastern hemisphere of Kojunfourge. Concealed within another chemical drum were megaton-level nuclear devices. These were not part of the script. But they had them, and with the tram system’s AI controlled scanners and security systems still offline they could disribute them into proximity and hamper a response to the virus. This was not part of the plan that Avalichi had given them, instead derived by house Tanar themselves.
One by one the trams were sent out from the station as the members of house Tanar went about arming a final nuke and clearing their hideout.
Kojunfourge, Orbit:
Things were tense and silent. Crews were still working their way through the cyberattack. Then a flash; as a nuclear fireball engulfed the countryside. From orbit it appeared meager, but in reality a multi-megaton nuclear device had just vaporized an abandoned mining compound.
“Shaku!” Karyon cursed. “Bastards aren’t listening. Damn this cyberattack couldn’t be more perfect, its taken out all our scopes and those cloaked bastards are bombing the planet. Give them one more chance and we fight back! Use every laser we have. Get the message out!”
“Dammit! They’re genocidal! They’re going to bomb the whole planet with those stealth vessels!” The weapons officer shouted.
“Stay your posting and follow orders! We honor the Prime Minister’s surrender.”
The Cauldarion weapon’s officer let out a furious and empassioend roar. He recalled the old stories, of how their homeworld had been glassed by the Katharians. He recalled how his few surviving ancestors had surrendered only to have their world glassed down to the bedrock. Rising from his seat in blind mutiny and brandishing a heavy pistol. The kind of gun that could reduce a lesser organic to a splatter and was most certianly lethal even to a hardy Cauldarion. An accelerator round struk her dead center in the head with grizzly results. There was a breif gunfight; with little in the way of cover for either side as similarly empassioned mutineers managed to sieze control of the ship., and in the chaos one of the weapons officers loosed a guided RKKV twoards the exposed furrelian stealth ship. Ludicrous overkill as the missile was traveling at 75% of lightspeed bigger than the ship they intended to destroy
The neighboring ship realized that Karyon’s ship was out of line, frantically fired pulse torpedoes at Karyon’s ship in an effort to disable it. With their computer systems still comprimised the shielding and point defenses put up a lackluster response. Crackling blue sheets of ionized gas lashed across Karoyn’s ship as it lost power.
The Ecumene blocked the Furrelian’s communications, having come to the same incorrect conclusion as the Dominion, and ordered four ships into warp to deliver news of the war crime and the furrelian's potentially genocidal intentions. As communications disruptions seemed overwhelming they would personally deliever the news to the galaxy of what they wrongly believed to be the Furrelian’s intentions of genocide. The remainder would stay and fight if need be.
KON GALON
As the Jade Marines clattered through the wreckage of the ruins they could hear the gunships overhead and were already having to push through growing crowds of civilians.
As they approached, they saw Garo and Luss arguing, Garo perched atop a pile of rubble and Luss above in a flyer.
The Knight turned to them, appealing for help. Captain Ishido froze. It was clear that Luss was in charge, and almost certainly would take control of the Dominion. The gunships were backing her and she spoke with authority. But something didn't seem quite right.
The Three Faces held the answer, as ever. Prevaricate, muddy the waters, avoid revealing intentions.
"Garo, stand down!" he called out, signaling to his troops to switch to LTL. He knew they would understand.
_
"Gun! Gun!" he yelled almost immediately afterwards, as if one of the Knights was going to fire, and hucked a Firefly grenade from his belt. It went off with a colossal burst of smoke, spewing hyperreactive chaff and emitting wild EW impulses that dazzled everything, both biological and artificial.
The Marines opened fire, pouring q-cyl ammunition into the smoke, though firing just high enough to avoid hitting the beleaguered Knights. Through the smoke, a tiny drone hovered in front of Garo. Hooked on it was a fob, whilst the drone displayed a tiny holographic map, leading to the Jade embassy.
It was the key to the ambassador's personal shuttle, now unguarded thanks to the all the chaos. The moment Garo took the proferred key the drone dove to the ground, crumpling its own hull as if smashed by a Cauldarion power weapon.
Myric (Union, Capitol, Eos+) — 07/24/2021
Union Embassy Jon Galon
Everything had gone to hell.
Already many Union civilians who had been in the area had made their way to the embassy and the honour guard posted escort Timefall was sat in orbit ferrying shuttles to the embassy small landing pad, and even using the open garden. Kaiden had directed everyone to leave, given the situation with the surrender, the sudden two nuclear blasts, the government building being destroyed and the circumstances that this was likely already a warzone there was nothing they could do here. Getting through to anyone had been impossible with the landlines down and the cyber attack underway and Kaiden had no way of verifying the situation, who knew when another nuclear strike could occur? They had already targeted the Jade embassy and Kaiden had his men give whatever support they could, but it was a matter of time until their own area was likely struck.
The whining of engines signified the exit of another shuttle as it boosted to orbit. Most of them had managed to withdraw, but Kaiden had insisted on being the last to leave, trickles of civilians were still arriving, but he knew they would have to leave soon. At least in orbit they could in some capacity be safe and try to work out what was happening through numerous channels.
But Kaiden felt like he was abandoning his post, the twinge of regret ever present. They had to put their people first. The Gauss were in a war, they were civilians and government officials, there was nothing they could do at this moment in time.
“Ambassador this is the last batch, the records only account for three more people in the city” Kaiden rubbed a hand over his snout.
“We wait for them, they know where to come!”
Kojunfourge System, Gauss Dominion
The confusion which had arisen in the Dominion’s fleet arose in the Furrelian one as well. The Udire Falcon, the small stealth corvette which had decloaked first, barely even noticed the guided RKKV racing towards it before it hit. The final action it conducted was its automated point-defence system trying to intercept the missile, with no success. The RKKV slammed against the hull of the corvette, instantly erasing both from existence, and leaving no debris at all. The explosion was comparable in scale to the ones on the surface, just limited to space. By now, the three other Furrelian ships, including the destroyer, had decloaked. All of them had received the final message of the former Falcon, and all began to take action on it. Messages of confirmation and requests for the Dominion fleet to lay down arms were transmitted on all frequencies, while the point-defence guns of the fleet drastically tried to make it clear that the Furrelians received the message of surrender in binary. At the same time, a message, once again sent via point-defence gun, was transmitted towards the Zetyan platform. All of the messages were the same.
“ATTENTION. The Furrelian Union has received the Dominion notice of surrender. The detonations on the surface are NOT the doing of the Furrelian fleet in orbit. Lay down your arms at ONCE. Any ship engaging in hostilities with the Furrelian fleet WILL be fired upon.”
In the meantime, it even became obvious that the Ecumene had blocked the Furrelian incoming messages, so they tried a rougher approach. A cyberattack, purely with the purpose of being able to transmit a message, was launched against some of the Ecumene’s ships, together with normal ways of communication. The message was simply a shortened version of the one also transmitted to the Dominion and the Zetyans.
“ATTENTION. The Furrelian Union has received the Dominion notice of surrender. The detonations on the surface are NOT the doing of the Furrelian fleet in orbit. The Hoytachian Ecumene is not a combatant in the war, withdraw at ONCE for your own safety. Terms of surrender will be discussed later.”.
In the meantime, the weapons of the ships were being armed, and defences were prepared for the worst. The plasma syphoning defences were prepared for the possibility of Dominion aggression, and the Point-defence was engaged as well. If the Dominion were to attack, even after multiple attempts at communicating that they had received the Dominion’s surrender, the Furrelians would do it. And then the lead ship noticed it. The sensor officer looked on his screen and noticed the incoming alert, multiple Furrelian Jump-drive signatures, seemingly belonging to two dozen ships. The exit vectors were all around the three remaining ships, forming a spherical outline. The sensor officer shouted to the captain.
“Incoming FTL signatures, the cavalry’s here!”
-”They sure took their time, Greyas’ grace. Make sure command is enlightened with the situation! Transmit a message, now!”
Eatov System, Lithorian Collective
The cavalry which the Furrelian destroyer in Kojunfourge was referring to were the first ships of the fleet of Tarodema. Of the hundred ships being sent to Kojunfourge, the first ones were the light ones. Around two dozen small ships, ranging from corvette to cruiser, were preparing to jump, not in unison, but rather in smaller squadrons jumping at the same time. The charging of the drives had finished for some of the first ships, and as soon as they were fully charged, they jumped towards Kojunfourge, reinforcing the squadron there. Four, eight, ten, the number of ships jumping increased slowly, but steadily. If the situation in Kojunfourge deteriorated, then the rest of the fleet could quickly join in, but Tarodema wasn’t hoping for it. If it was the D’Karian war all over again, then he would treat the Dominion with the same hospitality. Tarodema was looking over the bridge when he noticed the Communications officer receive a message. The disappointed look on the Officer’s face was enough for Tarodema to tell what was going on.
“What is the situation in Kojunfourge?” He asked the officer.
“Sir, with all due respect, I am not sure if you want to know it.”
--KOJUNFOURGE--
First came the nukes.
As the flashes erupted planetside, the bridge exploded in confusion. As some tried to figure out how they were launched, and others merely sat around, many cried to let loose the dogs of war, encouraged by T'lajoa and his way with blowing things even more out of proportion than they already were. H'rla could barely keep things together, though thankfully it would seem those who could actually escalate things weren't quite itching their trigger finger just yet.
And then, for no particular reason at all, the Dominion ships started shooting each other.
Many a 'What?!', 'What the shit??', and other suitable synonyms were sounded en masse, as the Falcon was brutally stripped of it's wings by a blinding streak of white blue light. The diplomat saw fit to try and rile up everyone once again, as the overseer now began to reach a breaking point.
"You see?! Even they know bullshit when they see it! Someone get our guns firing already!!"
"There won't be a SINGLE OUNCE OF LEAD thrown in their general direction, you fucking dick! Not until their little trap is revealed!" came H'rla's response, as he rushed up to the diplomat.
"Oh yeah?! So you wanna just let them walk all over us?!"
"You wanna get us all killed?!"
"Better than just sitting on our asses like a buncha tards! to some of the crew WILL YOU PEOPLE START FIRING ALREADY?!"
"You know what-YOU LISTEN HERE! I'm the commander of this station! You are just a stupid fucking diplomat! I outrank you by a kilometer! I don't care how much the Council pays you to give them dick swirlies, your 'orders' mean JACK FUCKING SHIT around me!"
"Oh yeah? You think you're tough, huh? You and your little 'hunch'? You wanna test that?!" The brandishing of a pistol soon heralded more being drawn in turn, some out of solidarity and others just for an excuse to let off tension.
"Mine's bigger than yours..." H'rla growled, as he flashed his own capper.
Others followed suit in pulling out their guns, and soon the entire room was an unhealthily hypercondensed mexican standoff. It seemed the room would erupt in brass and smoke at any moment.
Then, a voice rang out, breaking some of the tension for a slight moment.
"Hey dipshits! Look at the screen for a moment, will you?!"
It came from the upper section of the bridge, drawing the attention of the room as one of the sub-overseers fiddled with the displays. A zoom in on the furrelian ship betrayed it's point defense doing the same song and dance as the FEWIS station, with some text showing it's translation scrawling overhead.
...the nukes weren't their doing?
"Bullshit!" rang out almost instantly after. "Who else could've launched it?!"
"Did we detect any launches?"
"Why would we detect if they launched it, dipshit?! They can cloak!"
"Ok, how would they cloak their missiles? Huh?!"
"How do you think? Just stick a fuckin' tiny thing on there and it's good! We can do this ourselves! Are you retarded?"
"I'll make you retarded if you don't fucking-!"
Their argument soon drifted off topic like a street racer, devolving into mere ad hominem and insults. Others soon joined in, mostly either out of emotion or just because. Sooner or later, it'd have to escalate...
--SOMEWHERE ELSE--
--[DEPLOY IMMEDIATELY :: HOSTILES DETECTED]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: SURRENDER INITIATED BY DOMINION]--
--[DEPLOY IMMEDIATELY :: HOSTILITIES RESUMED]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: SURRENDER UPHELD]--
--[DEPLOY :: FURRELIANS EXECUTED TRAP PLAN]--
--[BELAY PREVIOUS ORDER :: THERE WAS NO TRAP]--
A 50-strong fleet sat in vacuum. It's leading ship, a battleship. It's captain, rather annoyed.
They'd recieved more than 20 messages in the past 10 minutes, each new one contradicted a minute later. It was funny at first, now it was just tiring; he hoped they'd make up their minds soon, since it was almost second lunch and it wasn't wise to command while eating. At a certain point, they'd have to make up their minds. Right?
"Sir! New message!" He perked up.
"What's it say?"
"It's saying we can deplo-wait. New message. It's... saying to stay put. Again."
Sigh. He contemplated how much this would rack up their interstellar comms bills. Then, he decided to make up his own mind.
"You know what, someone send them a message. We're coming on their next 'come help us' order whether they want us to or not, cause this is bullshit."
"Heard. Typing one up now."
And so, an ultimatum rushed out to Kojunfourge-in short, make up your damn minds.
Kojunfourge
Three more flashes erupted from the surface. One had detonated beneath the hospital in the city surrounding House Vondar’s palace. The blast consumed the hospital, the knight’s achademy and the Order of the hundred houses’ lodge. Despite the fact that the nuclear hellfire continued to expand past that point it yielded little further damage; the heavily reinforced dome and zigguraut like buildings wethered the tempest while barely buckling. The second nuclear flash was another hospital the midst of a major residential district intersecting the claims of several houses. The third; A small ecumene colony on the planet which also played host to a sizable medical facility used for genetic augmentation.
“GET THE GODDAMN COMMS BACK UP!” Bokungar Vondar shouted.
“I… I’m sorry commodore…” The Mediocine technician stammered… it’s taking me awhile. “This virus is just like the one that the Furrelians attacked us with before the war… except it wiped out our entire AI network… everything’s gone. We… we tried the backups but its hidiing somewhere in the system code and when we plugged those in… they got wiped too. We… we have multiple boot drives but there’s no point in-“
In that instant, the communications array came back online. Another technician holding a data terminal spliced into some wires running up from the floor gave a thumbs up. He hustled back into his command seat, cranking the broadcast power to maximum and opening up on every channel, just as video feeds came in showing the citadel of his house erupt into a fireball. The mountian-sized structure being forced upwards before collapsing in on itself. He knew their signal encryption wasnt up, so everyone would be hearing him. But he didn’t much care. In that moment he saw a message appear from the Zeytan fleet.
“H’RLA, GET YOUR LIMP COCK OUT OF YOUR ASSHOLE AND GET ON POINT, RETARD! YES! CALL YOUR REINFORCEMENTS THE RED DOGS JUST BOMBED CIVILIAN HOSPITALS!” Bokungar roared over the comms. “WE FOUND FURRELIAN CODE IN THE VIRUS! THIS IS AN ATTACK! AN ATTACK!“
Then the third battleship spliced in. A It was a Katharian woman; tall and lithe. Hers was the ship that had fired the disabling missiles. They seemed to have found the same workaround as they were also plainly blasting out an unencrypted signal.
“H’RLA, DO NOT ENGAGE!” She screeched. “I REPEAT, DO NOT ENGAGE! WE MUST HONOR THE PRIME MINISTER’S SURRENDER! COMMODORE BOKUNGAR IS EMOTIONALLY COMPRI-”
“SHUT THE HELL UP YOU DAMN DIRTY SLICK BITCH! I BET YOU’D LOVE TO SEE OUR HOMEWORLD GET BOMBED DOWN TO THE BEDROCK AGAIN!”
The Katharian swallowed. “Commodore Bokungar, that was not what I meant to imply. But the-”
The two were interrupted by the Sage Admiral screaming over the comms as well. “YOU ABHORRENT, GENOCIDAL SLIME! WE WILL NOT SURRENDER TO YOU! YOU WANT OUR LAND SO BAD!? TAKE IT!” Before melting into the cacophony of shouting.
The Hoytachian ships maneuvered above their territory. Tugging on the terrain with gravity tractors they simply plucked up a great mountian from the surface of the world. It built momentum along a chain of tractoring spheres before being hurled off twoards the furrelian fleet. The force of the final push caused the mountian to fragment into a shower of relativistic rocks. Within the malestrom of insults the Cauldarion managed to bark out orders, which the fleet obliged.
His battleship unleased four more RKKVs from its tubes, and accelerated to full flanking speed; intent on charging headlong the Furrelian’s fleet solo. The Katharian’s ship didn’t have any more pulse missiles; having spent them to disable Karyon’s ship. Instead her ship turned sideways, attempting to ram them off course. With relatively low velocities the impact was not spectacular; with the prow of her ship becoming stuck a few hundred meters in; loged and in the starboard hull of Bokungar’s. The Katharian ordered the firing of the Hardlight beamer, which pierced through the far side of Bokungar’s ship, causing it to lose power and stop thrusting forward; though the ships were still stuck together. Both of them were still on comms lobbing salvos of expliatives at one another.
One of the smaller cruisers, apparently loyal to the Katharian commodore attempted to fire pulse missiles at the Hoytachian ships to disable them. Letting off around a dozen before her ship was caught in a gravity tractor and sent hurtling away from the planet and the rest of the formation at a fraction of lightspeed. The other sensor cruisers broke into low orbits around the planet sweeping low orbit with hardlight beamers and whatever sensors they could get working, ferociously trying to find stealth craft that were not there.
Kon Galon
Upon unleasing the smokescreen the Admiral simply ordered the firing of a missile directly into the center of the Cauldarion formation. This blasted many of them away from the point of impact, killing a few, wounding some and flinging all of them save for Garo clear of the intial engagement zone. Those that were not killed outright broke into a series of melee duels and close range gunfights with the war droids. Their heavy armor was proving too difficult for most of their ground based weapons, thus Luss ordered the gunship to begin focusing them down one at a time with the autocannon. Though she rather quickly realized Garo had slipped away in the confusion, ordering the deployment of ESP drones to search him out.
As Garo ducked behind cover; out of sight of the battle. He turned to Ishido.
“Thank you…” He panted, before freezing up for a second. An old vision replaying with a new tist.
He stood on a street, littered with debris and dying Cauldarions. Many of them faces he recognized. A tall mushroom cloud was rising above him, a withering stalk rising to meet a fading plume.
Without warning he was impaled through the back by a hardlight blade. Cold neon blue piercing his breastbone; the wound spouting molten blood. He turned around to face his killer. The Galactic Admiral stood, a blank look on her face. She repeated the motto of the dominion navy.
“The Universe is cruel and godless. There is no higher purpose than bringing order to chaos. The axiom of our existence is indisputable.”
He felt his soul depart his body and be pulled away into the void. Pulling back to see Kojunfourge pockmarcked with rising nuclear blasts, the souls of countless trillions echoing beside him. They cried out, asking why he did not save them. Pulling out he saw a disarrayed battle of Hoytachian and dominion ships, two battleships fused together. He continued to draw back.
In the stars and galaxies he saw his forefathers, the great warriors of the Tarongori Clan holding their mastercrafted weapons and wearing their finest armors from eras long past. Billions of lightyears tall and impossibly imposing, his ancestors looked down upon him. The love in their eyes, gone. In its place, only shame and regret which reached out from his heart and saturated his being with the same ferocity as the venom had.
“You have failed.”
“You are a disgrace to the Cauldarion people.”
“I am ashamed to count you as my grandson.”
The figures faded, he fell backwards, traversing the event horizon of the cosmos and finding himself floating alongside an orb. He was in a cave somewhere, though he couldn’t discern where. The orb crackled with energy.
“We have all failed.” The orb affirmed. “Surrender yourself or try in vein to avert what has been set in motion, it will make no difference.”
The vision ended. He was back on the Kon galon ring, being urged by Ishido. He swallowed, mustering what little willpower he had left and followed after him.
“We’ve got to hurry. Luss will bring up the interdiction grid and there will be no escaping.” He mumbled. And there was credence to it.
Assiduous System
“Bring the Kon Galon interdiction back up, whatever you have to do… I want you to scan every ship going in and out. Garo is a Traitor… by the looks of what happened, Ingen is helping him escape. They could be sided with the Furrelians. Garo does not leave that system, am I clear?” Luss affirmed to a communications officer in touch with the GDCDC. The officer flinched at the proposal that Ingen would betray them so severely. The Galactic Admiral began pulling on tailor made robes befitting of the Supreme Galactic commander as she strode onto the largely untouched bridge. Now well networked into the dominion’s innernet, with a simple gesture she brought the mighty vessel to life. Officers scrambled into their stations, strapping themselves in.
“Galactic Admi- Supreme Galactic Commander Luss… what are we doing? I thought we were surrendering…?”
“We are. But comms and interdiction are still down. I’m not letting this ship fall into their hands… Begin the deployment sequence, take us into subspace as soon as we’re clear of the dock. We may as well take this opportunity to relocate it somewhere they won’t find it…”
Great doors kilometers wide hoisted open; their exteriors coated in slices of cratered rock to resemble the exterior of an unassuming asteroid orbiting along the innner edge of the the brimstone sphere; revealing the elaborate hollowed out hangar of metal honeycomb and lighting conduits within. The ship was forced forward along a track, slowly rising from its berth into the relentless light of Assiduous for the first time.
“Order all the data logs expunged… provided the cyberattack hasn’t already done that. This ship never existed. Now let’s vanish.”
The immense ship twisted up spacetime into a knot, vanishing with a great flash of photons and neutrinos.
EDGE OF KON GALON
The IJN Ebonheart, a Cornewaille-class atakebune, was first to arrive. The colossal cruiser slid through an emerald Slipgate on a churning wave of pink-purple foam. It was followed in short order by the IJN Bitter Coast, a carrier transporting the 789th Swan Regiment, and a pair of Katsumoto frigates.
"Bloody hell," cursed Captain Drakos, a swarthy man from southern Neusattar, "what have we stumbled upon?"
Ahead of them, the situation was clearly devolving into a maelstrom already, with warning alerts of nuclear detonations on the planet's surface shrilled at the bridge crew.
Over his personal comms came the voice of the force's commander, Commodore Legacy, a Frame of all creatures. Drakos was not sure how he felt about the prevalence of the artificial intelligences, but they were here to stay or so it seemed.
"We continue on-mission. We're here to extract our people, nothing more. Stay frosty, Captain."
On open comms she broadcast that the IJN had arrived with the sole intention of evacuating their citizens from the planet surface, and that they would not fire unless fired upon. The small flotilla stood off from the planet, dispatching a lander escorted by corvettes and fighters towards Kon Galon itself...
-
ON THE GROUND
Ishido staggered as the ground was rocked by more distant explosions, nuclear fire ripping through the city.
"Dragon's teeth...," he cursed, watching the cataclysm from afar as, even at this distance, faint pressure waves rolled over them, creating crazy eddies and crossbreezes that whipped ash and smoke through the evening air. He barked at his marines and they retreated back towards the former embassy, on edge, guns ready, realising that nothing was certain anymore and that anyone could be an enemy. As they neared the ruins, Ishido's Holo pinged.
He spoke into it for a moment, then turned to Garo and his troops.
"Right, listen up! We have evac inbound right now, IJN warships are in-system. They are sending a lander here so secure the area, make a lane, get our injured ready for evac. They've sent a list of Jade citizens on the planet but that's not our concern - they're sending shuttles for any poor sod who can't make it here in time. Lieutenant Yue, take 4th Platoon and screen any new arrivals, make sure they're on the list, confirm their IDs and keep them separate from the locals."
As his soldiers hurried to shoo away all the locals and prepare to be evacuated, he turned to Garo. Taking off his mempo faceplate to reveal a weary face with a trim pencil mustache, he shrugged.
"What a fucking disaster. Mind telling me what's going on, sir?" he asked Garo, pulling a stick of gum from one of his pouches and chewing pensively as he squinted out at the unfolding disaster that was the city...
Garo Reluctantly withdrew his helmet into his collar.
"I don't know... but I know what I saw." He began as he heard the autocannon of the gunship pierce one of his brothers back at the site of the former council chambers. "The... the galactic admiral... she has... these... she has multiple bodies. She looks like a Tesregaten... an organic being..." He paused, realizing how crazy it sounded. "But she's got a whole bunch of them. And they're all linked via a private and highly encrypted network. She never goes anywhere with more than one of them at a time... and a bunch of those bodies were dead... looked like a fight with the high council. I don't know whats going on... but I know that I didn't give the Furrelians backdoor access to our computer systems to allow all this to happen... and I didn't betray the dominion. I... know it sounds crazy but you have to trust me."
The captain listened with well-concealed incredulity. "It's not my place to decide, but I will ensure you get off this planet." he replied, turning to watch as the distant gunship strafed targets he could not see.
"Does anyone have their Kasen?" he called out, and two of his marines waved back. "Good. I hope we don't need those." he muttered, referring to the fire-and-forget loitering missiles that looked just like clothyard arrows, launched from old-school bows without any electronic function.
Kon Galon
Kaiden placed his hand on his head as he watched the clouds raced by. They had waited another 15 minutes for the final civilians but they were now aboard. The clouds in the sky over the city were radioactive remains from the nuclear explosions and so the shuttle had to weave a new path to the Timefall. Still they were away, the Embassy of course had been stripped of everything they could, official documents, computer systems and more had either been taken or destroyed so that the Furrelians could never use and analyse them. Kaiden didn't even know if it was the Furrelians attacking, the escort in orbit had detected no enemy ships but it could be a subversive measure, better to be safe than sorry. They could always come here to rebuild.
As they breached atmopshere and approached the Timefall Kaiden felt himself relax, the familiar blue of the Razor class giving him a measure of security. They watched as Mass Drivers sat open from their containment ready to face whatever threat may become apparant to the ship or assist in defending against a Furrelian attack. As the Sparrow shuttle landed Kaiden saluted to the captain, an old Jorgal by the Name of Zaz.
"Captain it is good to see your face. All are accounted for and aboard"
"Good, I do not have any orders apart from to keep you safe ambassador and to listen to your commands. What we do next is up to you but I dont recommend staying here, strikes on the planetary government may well escalate into attacks on the defence grid before an outright invasion" The huge repitalian made a good point. Kaiden nodded.
"Priority is protecting our people. We should return to Union space as quickly as possible, then perhaps we can return with a much more prepared contingent.
"Understood I will make the preparations"
It did not take long for the Timefall to break orbit, the Union vessel speeding for the edge of the interdiction zone and charging its drives. Shields and weapons were online but predominantly for defence.
Kaiden himself sent a communique to the Dominion net, but whether it got through from the cyberattack he didn't know. It informed them the Union contingent had withdrawn for their own safety and would return with better ability to assist in humanitarian efforts.
Kojunfourge System
By this point, the Furrelians had given up on understanding the situation. All was devolving into hell, and reinforcements from Eatov started to pour in. The first ship to arrive was a destroyer, not equipped with a stealth system. It jumped not too far away from the squadron of original ships sent there, and before long the other jump signatures began to manifest. A second squadron left their FTL jump near the new destroyer, followed by a third one, more prepared for Point-defence duties. The FTL signatures only stopped when a total of 27 ships had made the jump, a cruiser squadron included. As the cherry on the cake, a battleship was the final ship to jump, the ten-kilometre long behemoth outsizing the smaller ships of the Furrelian fleet by kilometres. The FDS Unyielding Soul, the battleship, jumped straight into the middle of the spherical formation. Within seconds, the ship was able to open communications with the original command ship of the Furrelian squadron.
“This is captain Isoluna Tusidero of the FDS Unyielding Soul to the captain of the FDS Elunat. Status report, what the living hell is going on? Why is the Dominion firing on itself? We need info!”
For almost a minute the communication stayed silent, but then the response came.
“Captain Jelidimo of the Elunat here, I have no idea either. The Dominion has gone nuts, potential rouge assets? I’ll have to..-” Captain Jelidimo fell silent, and at that exact moment the alarms on the ship began going off at full power. “Father of all sacred... Greyas’ grace, they’re firing at each other!” The magnificent teal light of the hardlight beamer became visible to the Furrelian fleet, but now action had to be taken. Four RKKVs were incoming to the decloaked ships, but this time they were alerted on time. Countermeasures were released on time, with swarms of Furrelian missiles going to counter the RKKVs in an automated process.
The first RKKV was successfully intercepted, as was the second. In both cases, a modified anti-matter missile had slammed into the tip of the RKKV and had detonated both, a bright white explosion following put to both. The third RKKV slipped through the swarm, only to be intercepted by automated point-defence, and exploding right before a ship, the final RKKV had the same luck, but unlike the third one it actually hit its target, the stealth corvette Ozotima. The Ozotima exploded in a blinding explosion, not too dissimilar from the one which took out the Falcon.
“BRING THE FLEET ON HIGH ALERT, MAKE IT CLEAR THAT ANY FURTHER HOSTILITIES WILL RESULT IN THE ENGAGEMENT OF LETHAL FORCE FROM OUR SIDE! TRANSMIT THAT ON ALL CHANNELS! NOT A SINGLE THREE-EYED FOUR-ARMED ABOMINATION IN THIS DAMNED SYSTEM IS GOING TO LEAVE WITHOUT HEARING IT! GREYAS’ SAKE TRANSMIT THIS TO THE BLOODY GOATS TOO!” Captain Tusidero shouted over the bridge, he had less patience than Jelidimo and as such was going to take less talk from either the dominion or the ecumene. They had surrendered, they were going to honour that. Any continuation would result in death, the end. On all open channels, once again, the Furrelians transmitted their message, this time even less kind. The message was nothing more, though just put ‘kindly’, than the Furrelians shouting at the Dominion to lay down their arms and stop any hostilities. Even after the explosions on the surface, the Furrelians were still trying to convince that they did nothing, which was true. The message was sent on loop for a long while, and in the meantime, the Furrelians started moving into a combat formation. A warning shot was shortly afterwards fired by one of the ships into the abyss, not targetting any Dominion or Ecumene ships. However, it was too late to prevent the incoming swarm of rock originating from the Ecumene’s fleet. A few ships were slightly damaged before the Furrelians took action against the incoming swarm of rocks.
Point defence guns kept the biggest rocks away from the ships, while the plasma syphoning APS cleared the rest of that. The Fleet survived another threat.
“Furrelian Fleet, Unyielding Soul here... Keep those Dominion ships at a distance from us, fire a warning shot if needed. If they fake a surrender, they should know how to face the consequences of it. Regarding the Goats… They’ve shown what they can do, now it’s our turn. FDS Kolsima, FDS Isudin, conduct missile practice in pattern Tesion, target the lead sphere, distance forty-thousand. On my mark...”
While the Furrelian fleet continued to prepare itself, the two ships ordered to conduct a practice fire released a missile each, larger than the normal ones and overcharged. They flew towards the lead Hoytachian ship and detonated a safe distance away from it. The two resulting explosions were gigantic but were mostly a show of power and a warning. “Keep away and mind your own business. Your war is over, you have lost.”
--KOJUNFOURGE--
BANG BANG BANG BRATTATATAT BANG BANG BOOM
The bridge had successfully devolved from an argument to a gunfight, with hardly a fistfight even considered. The Dominion ships would only hear a war seemingly breaking out, with insults and screaming mixed in like a fine spice. It went on for one, two, then three minutes, before finally a silence ensued.
Then, a transmission was sent to the Dominon ships. The overseer and his cohorts had won out, his voice shaky and laden with adrenaline as he took in breaths.
"Had to deal... with a problem. Fleet's coming in... now."
And just on queue, a massive bubble of gravitational anomalies appeared just behind the station, at a hard 6'o'clock...
--SOMEWHERE ELSE--
--[DEPLOY :: HOSTILITIES LIKELY TO COMMENCE :: AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS UPON WARP-IN]--
The message came in after a few minutes, waking the somewhat-young comms operator out of a daydream. As soon as he saw it, after of course rubbing his eyes to make sure they weren't flip-flopping again, he was reporting like a newsman.
"Sir! We're clear to move in! They say wait for orders on arrival!"
"Shit, they took their damn time. Get everyone in gear, have 'em let our frac's loose! Double time!"
Across the fleet, engines riled up with a flash as bright as the sun, as fracture drones rocketed out by the tens from tiny holes in the hulls into designated positions in front of the fleet. Then, with a flash, they detonated, each small rift made combining one-by-one in the instants between instants into a rift wider than the fleet itself and seemingly sucking up the very stars around them into a singularity. The fleet then made it's way off to Kojunfourge, leaving only a massive cloud of exhaust and smoke in it's wake.
--KOJUNFOURGE, AGAIN--
Suddenly, the space behind the station was replaced with a cavernous, belching rift, filled with lights and darks and those little things inbetween. From it's depths roared a 50-strong fleet of Zetyan ships, shrouding the now-closing exit of the rift with their exhaust and veiled in a series of translucent orange particle screens. Chief among them was a 50km battleship, branded the M'tkana, laden with point defense, weaponry of all sorts, and an overbearing sense of the ship designer compensating for something.
No shots were fired, yet-the station made sure of that. But it's mere presence alone would certainly be enough, and as the rift closed with a silent clap that rattled their interiors one could only ponder if this would be the match-strike needed to set the whole thing ablaze...
----
A rat scampered through the corridors of the station. He'd gambled, and lost.
Tl'ajoa held a towel bunch to his abdomen as he rushed down to the medical bay. That overseer dickhead had scored a lucky shot or two, maybe three. He couldn't tell, he was too busy cursing everything around him as the adrenaline began to flow out of his body.
The medbay doors slammed open, as the surprised staff now regarded the zet who looked as if he'd just gotten out of live combat. One came up to him, trying to support him on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?! What the fu-"
"Shut the FUCK up and get the autodoc going."
With a shove, he rushed over to one of the many available autodoc beds, as the others began to calibrate it.
He felt a very familiar shuddering, as the station shook. The fleet was here.
"Fuckin' A, 'course he warps them in when i'm gone, koadamned i'm gonna shoot him in the fuckin' head and piss and shit and cum and whatever on his ugly fuckin' corpse, koa fuckin'..." He continued his mantra of hate as he settled down on the bed, mechanical limbs whirling around him and scanners laying out every part of his body. His armor began to retract, as he finally began feeling the full extent of his pain without any adrenaline to support him. Then, drowsiness, and then black, as the machine injected some weak anesthetic into his neck.
----
"How many dead?"
H'rla surveyed the bridge, as he asked one of his subcommanders taking tally.
"Half. Little above half."
"Any survivors?"
"Aside from T'la, three..." He observed some of the other crew as the lay on the ground in pain. Then, a bang. Two more. "Sorry, zero."
"How many of us can run the bridge?"
"Enough."
"Good. I want some of you to go down to medbay, get anyone you find back up here. Fucker's probably down there, I know I hit him once or twice." He pointed to some of the more heavily armed crewmembers as he talked. "Rest of you, get back to work. Tell the fleet to hold unless fired upon. The dead are considered KIA."
Those remaining went back to managing the bridge, as the improvised killteam set off into the depths of the station.
The overseer, content, returned to the upper section of the bridge, watching the carnage unfold from the relative safety of the bridge viewing screens. He was certainly demanding a raise after today.
The Situation room was dead silent as Edwin fidgeted with a writing utensil in his hand. It would twirl up his fingers and down like clockwork, as he stared at a board.
“Rossana - Queen Rossana - said once that we must not fight for ourselves, but for our brothers and sisters. What she also means by that is not to fight our own battles, but to help fight the battles of our brothers and sisters. The Gauss being such a powerful neighbor nearby, we must sustain our ability for defence and prevent the Gauss's destruction as a catalyst for further violence in our part of the galaxy.
While Gilitim talks up the Union of Worlds to open our door for intervention on the international stage, we need the support of the people. Any more information pertaining to the events in Gauss, we need to show to the public and prove to them that we must intervene to stop a massacre. I want us to keep an eye out for any news broadcasts that break through the blackout, and I want eyes out for any other unusual appearances.”
Finishing his sentence, Edwin slipped the pen into his chest pocket, looking over the room for approval. A very hesitant staff nodded. Many were unsure about the situation. Not wanting to run headlong into the conflict, the empyrians would prepare and wait.
“Now, I'm going to make Erwin actually do something, which is probably more dangerous than this, so good luck.”
Kojunfourge
The miasma of petty slurs and insults pewtered out after the Furrelian’s threat, and a new signal took the comms. It was Tanjuran Tek’tikdera, their head of house. Who had been hasitly chosen to represent them. The Cauldarion wore a cocktail of emotions rather plainly on his face
“I am Tanjuran Tek’tikdera. Acting Planetary Govenor of Kojunfourge. You wish to speak of surrender?” The Cauldarion seethed. “I beg of you, cease your bombardment at once. We are only trying to defend the world which we call home for we have lost it twice before. So withdraw your stealth craft with which you are carrying out the bombardment at once and I will order the fleet to-“
The transmission cut to static. Yet another fireball erupted near the Tek’tikdera palace. The structure itself seemed largely intact despite its proxomity to the blast which had taken out the academy and research facility nearby. But the blast had done enough damage to disalbe their communications.
The even the more moderate Katharian’s attitude now seemed to be shifting. The sensor cruisers converged on the point above the city despearately searching for a stealth craft that was not there. Bokungar recognized he was in no position to fight. Consinged to watch his planet be destroyed in agonizing fashion, city by city and know that he was now helpless to do anything about it. He just sat there. Transmuting his shame and humiliation into unbridled odium as two more explosions went up on the surface.
“My ancestors are looking down on me with pride… Can you say the same?” He seethed. “I hope that the extinction of my people brings you no amount of satisfaction… that our genoicide does not ever fill the hole in your depraived soul… maybe then you will realize how empty… your existence is.”
“This is Commodore Kayani.” The Katharian spoke up, trying to raise the Zeytans. “There are Furrelian stealth ships somewhere in orbit of Kojunfourge. Requesting immediate assistance in locating and destroying them.”
Ecumene fleet didn’t respond, as a subsequent blast had destroyed one of their holdings on the planet. The world shuttered as the spheres hoisted a vast chunk of land from the mountian range. The fragment so vast it had revealed the simmering red and orange mantle below. Yet even their mighty tractors could not throw it at any reasonable speed. Instead, with their tractors they pulverized the rock, grinding it down into fragments at a myriad of sizes, ranging from house-sized boulders to tiny pebbles and began dispersing it into low orbit of the planet.
Kon Galon, Orbit
The Union evacuation was cut off as the Hoytachian battlesphere exited warp directly in front of them. They did not intend to barricade the Union, instead simply the harbingers of more bad news. Relaying a signal from the Sage Admiral, they gave a report of the situation relayed from the system.
“This is Sage Admiral Orok Oblata of the Hoytachian Ecumene Fleet. The Furrelians have invoked Rahbakun… dishonorable war. It has come to light that it is their net code that has been used to invoke the cyberattack… the cyberattack which has crippled the gaussian sensor and interdiction grid. They are refusing surrender and denying that they have involvement in the ongoing bombardment of civilian and diplomatic targets on Kojunfourge, despite having been shown to posess high powered stealth craft. This is an… immediate humanitarian crisis with estimated casualties already in the tens of millions. I come to you pleading for immediate and drastic support, support of both my people, and the Cauldarion people.”
Behind them, the interdiction stations began to re-initiate. What few cyberwarfare AIs had survived the attack were now prioritizing the restoration of their security in the most critcal systems. Interdiction and high powered sensor sweeps began perkolating the area surrounding the system. The Union already sat outside the constellation, cleared to escape whenever they so desired. But without a doubt, Ingen would have a harder time smuggling out Garo.
Kon Galon Orbital Ring; Capital District
There didn’t seem much need for their weapons as there was precious little in the way of forces in their midst. They passed the galactic court, the high advocates shooting concerned looks to the Ingenious escorting the supposed traitor but knowing they were unarmed and couldn’t do anything about it. An ESP drone had sighted the unit moving together however, and the traitorous supreme galactic commander along with them.
“I hope you’ve got one hell of a plan for getting us out of here…” Garo mumbled. “It looks like the interdiction grid is going back up…”
Octoazura, Assiduous System
Another of the Sulumai’s avatars arrived in the situation room. A frantic miasma of high command staff attempting to parse the situation with what little information they had left. The room fell silent as the newly crisened supreme commander entered the room and approached admiral Goden, the new galactic admiral.
“Madame Supreme Commander… the Defiant… you ordered its launch…?”
“I had to.” She returend. “I don’t know who to trust right now…” she paused, swallowing nervously. “And given recent developments, I am very concerned for the continuity of the dominion.” She gestured to the screen, displaying the access logs, at least the ones she had managed to salvage. The Origin of the attack was confirmed to be on Kon Galon, but the precise terminal used to execute it couldn’t be identified, just a region. It quite clearly showed that using Garo’s PID symbiote access code; someone had managed to upload a virus into the core of the network. The virus extremely similar in structure to the one the Furrelians had used against them once before… more or less a carbon copy with a few new modifications. The major difference was this time they had backdoor access to the gaussian innernet. The damage was extensive. A majority of their AI systems and cyberspace inhabitants were now straight up gone. Sacodias, an immense conglomorate AI as well as almost the entirety of their digital finances had been corruped or wiped out.
“Garo Tarongori is a Traitor, and is responsible for treason of the highest order. Not only was he responsible for this, but also the death of prime minister Kroywen and the galactic council… I believe Ingen is coordinating with the Furrelians, as they’re presently helping them to escape.” She said, displaying an image of Garo standing in the rubble of the high council chambers.”
“Garo would never betray the dominion!” Callegio blurted out.
“I thought the same thing…” Luss returned solemnly. “But the writing is on the wall. I know not if they found some opportunity to replace him with a perfect impostor… or warped his mind with dark powers… but he is now, without a doubt, against us.”
Callegio didn’t look satisfied with this answer, scowling. An insult to Garo was an insult to him.
“He and I have fought for this dominion since before you were born, Gougaten. What possible reason would he have to betray us?”
The Galactic Admiral drew a labored breath.
“I suppose you are right. Answer me this, Callegio. If he were innocent, why did he flee with Ingen? Do they not trust us… are they working against us? I was not intending have him and his brothers killed… for a fight to break out. Despite the overwhelming evidence of treason beyond forgiveness I would have had him tried fairly…
But we could entertain discussions about his innocence, or we could take action We have a more immediate threat, I am now your superior, and I have an order for you. I want you to go with Admiral Quoe and the Third Fleet to Kojunfourge and find the source of the Furrelian bombings and evacuate all remaining civilians. Maintain full cybersecurity lockdown… we just purged those ships so a majority of systems should be fully operational, but be vigulant as your cyberwarfare AI have largely been wiped out.”
Callegio realized the urgency in her voice, and the Cauldarion bowed and hustled out of the room. She waited until the Cauldarion was gone ot give her next order.
“Admiral Goden.” She adressed. “ Take the Paragon. Blockade Kon Galon… Garo does not leave that system until he stands trial.”
KON GALON, RING DISTRICT
Passing by the hostile glances of the crowds, Ishido barked at his men to pay them no mind. Hostility from the locals was an accepted risk of diplomatic duty, and unless they actually moved to attack his little troupe there was no real reason to give them a second thought. Levelled vitredur bayonets served as a clear enough message to those few who wandered too close, but all the same he was relieved when a quartet of shuttlecraft, looking for all the world like small river barges with rippling pink-purple foam at their prows, glid through the gloomy night air and came to a halt by the ruins of the embassy. Ramps descended from the rear and crew chiefs began yelling for the Ingenious to board. Garo had to duck a little to pass inside, but he fit across two seats well enough, jury-rigged grav straps extended to cover him.
Ishido was one of the last to board, standing by the ramp as the shuttle lifted off, watching the wreckage of his former post until the raising door cut off his view, then turning to strap himself in. The shuttles climbed into orbit, engines roaring as they shuddered through the atmosphere. From the cockpit, the crackle of short-range comms could be heard as fightercraft settled in either side of the transports, offering them an escort back to the IJN Ebonheart.
A screen above the loading ramp showed external camera feeds. Even at this distance, the smoke and flames from the city were still visible as dots on the surface of the ring...
FURTHER OUT
Commodore Legacy scowled. The Gauss were activating interdiction again, even as an Ecumene fleet arrived and began giving further information as to the situation with the Furrelian invasion.
Legacy shook her head. Things were getting more dire by the minute, but that was for greater minds than hers. Her priority was evac, and she ordered the squadron to full battle readiness as they waited for the transorbital craft to return...
--KOJUNFOURGE--
"How many nukes do they have?"
The overseer couldn't help but mumble to himself as he watched the detonations on the surface, befuddled as to why they still hadn't detected any launches. One of the stealth corvettes clearly fucked up earlier, surely they'd fuck up again?
As he idly viewed the screen, the remaining crew worked to coordinate the Zetyan fleet and the station itself; the two assault corvettes finally unbounded from the station, intermingling with the fleet as the station's weapons tracked the Furrelian ships. From an outside perspective, they were probably failing to live up to their 'aggressive' reputation.
The Dominion transmission being played at max volume violently took him by surprise, the quieter bridge coupled with the standard volume for a full, active bridge making it seem much louder than it was. Nevertheless, it was heard, loud and... loud.
After a moment of recovery, he spoke to the remainder.
"Right. Ping the sup-croo's, have them get a LRSS going. Get everyone else ready to fire. And turn the... the koadamned volume down, holy shit." Some temporary tinnitus told him to take a look at hearing aids later, as he rubbed his left earhole.
In vacuum, every detection method those 4 support cruisers could use went to work, everything from thermals to LIDAR to x-rays and radio sweeping around the vast space in the combat zone, collecting data en masse as the rest of the fleet began to load up all the expensive missiles and ammunition, and 4 orange particle spheres surrounded them entirely...
----
"wₐₖₑ ᵤₚ. wₐₖₑ ᵤₚ, dᵤdₑ, ₕₒₗy koa i just slapped you 5 times wake the fuck up-"
T'lajoa groggily awoke, his abdomen sporting a fresh new set of stitches and the doctors around him looking mighty annoyed.
"...shiitdd whatd'd you guyshs.. putt in there..." His voice, slurred due to anesthetic withdrawal, was not at it's best.
"The usual. You're the one who didn't tell use you were a lightie. Fuckin', lights out for 15 minutes when you would've woken up in 5."
"fffucgk you i was beleedng... out... an' scarnd n shit"
"Yeah, well, you would've lived for a bit without treatment anyways. Could've spared a moment atleast."
"yehh well if, if yu were n a shut ow', and, you were... you were... uh..." He took a moment to hold his head, groaning. "Just, just, show me where you put my fuckging suit 'n shit, get it here..."
"...It's literally next to the docbed, bruh."
"...I... knew that."
Slowly, he moved to get off the bed, preparing to move into his suit as the medics felt their patience wearing a little thin. Once it had finally extended over his body, though, he was quickly ushered out, hardly even given time to get his weapons-much less get his grogginess out of the way.
After a few moments of banter, and a few more dedicated to breathers, he continued onwards, towards a place he knew would give his inevitable pursuers some time to find him in-the megafuser area. Labyrinthine as it was, it was the perfect place to plan his next move.
Not a moment too soon, either; Hr'la's killteam stopped by the sickbay only a few minutes later...
----
"They done yet?"
"Finished a bit ago. Just finished downloading the datamap."
"Put it up on main."
A few moments later, and the bridge screen was filled with what the sensor cruisers had gathered. The little mining operation conducted by those hunchbacks complicated things-unfiltered, the zone was filled to the brim with micrometeors and pseudo-asteroids-but enough was gathered to provide a relatively complete map.
Unfortunately, it just told them what they already knew in the first place.
Disappointed, the overseer spoke again, after reviewing the data a few times over.
"How much interference would you say there is?"
"Ignoring the rocks, not much."
"Radiation mess up anything?"
"No sir. The worst interference is just the exhaust zone around the cockfur ships."
"Shit."
He began to ruminate on what to do. Any stealth ships present were likely beyond their sensors, and nothing seemed different anyways despite the interference. Hell, the engine exhaust did a better job at covering things up than the rocks did...
Exhaust. Wait a minute.
The dim neurons in his brain lit up a wee bit brighter than usual, as he thought of something. Surely, those missiles they were launching had exhaust trails of some form. They'd be able to pinpoint their source by tracking the lines, and then sending the coords to the Dominion ships.
"Have them scan again. Shorter range, higher fidelity. Have them look for exhaust trails." Considering how tense things were, he added an additonal order. "Have them get the viruses ready, too. They'll probably light us up soon."
"Exhaust trails?" One of the remaining sensors operators seemed confused, though the comms team went ahead without complaint.
"What? I know what I said."
"You... do realize how hard that is to track, right?"
"No...?"
"Missiles are small, zet. At distances like this-"
"Those explosions were huge, weren't they?"
"...yes."
"Stands to reason the missiles would be big too."
"Not real-...I dunno."
"Well, we'll find out." With that out of the way, he returned to monitoring the main display, as it switched to the Furrelian ships and the rather impromptu way of fighting the Ecumene ships displayed.
Meanwhile, the support cruisers began to scan again, as they loaded up their viral dummy transmissions, the key flavors of 'CEASE FIRE' and 'WE SURRENDER' mixed with a delightful pinch of 'CAN YOU HEAR US?!'. They just needed the word, and those suckers would be blasting full volume at the Furrelian ships, ready to cause countless strikes worth of havoc^...
^as long as it wasn't stopped by cybersecurity
The Timefall as it accelerated away changed its course rapidly as the Hoytachian battlesphere translated in right in front of them. Alarms blared as the ship registered the sudden FTL at such close range a threat, and it was only the command of the crew that prevented weapon systems from automatically engaging.
Still the small Razor class managed to escape the path of the vessel, the additional bad news it relayed caused Kaiden to sigh. Their nation really was falling apart. The long range communications from the Timefall had reached the Union and Kaiden had already received a reply, the government was willing to help with humanitarian efforts, but would not intervene militarily.
That essentially guaranteed this fall.
Years ago they would have sallied in here to save the Gaussian people, but no more. It made Kaiden distraught to know the cost of their inaction. Still the ambassador could only watch as the Timefall used the Hoytachian vessels arrival to activate its own drives and disappear from the system entirely. They had to save the civilians for now, one escort could hardly make a difference either way.
Kaiden watched the sight of realspace be replaced with the surface layer of Slipspace, its vivid blues reminding him that the Union had abandoned an ally. It was not the first time in recent days, and he doubted it would be the last.
Press Secretary Virria walked into the backstage prep area, obviously with a bit of shell shock. She wasn't expecting THAT.
“When only the Kattisian fucking Post agrees with you Edwin, you know you’ve fucked up dude.” Virria said, combing her long hair back with her hands.
“This was the right choice, we need Transparency.” retorted Edwin, putting his head into his hands, he mumbled some obscenities before getting up.
“Don't get mad at me Edwin, I just read what you wanted me to do and answered a few questions, what more do you want?”
“I want the Empyrian people to realize that we can't stay to ourselves in this Galaxy. More conflicts are brewing up by the day, and it's either we fight now and win later, or fight later and lose, or worse.”
---
This was not good for Edwin. After showing his hand to the public on interests in intervening to help a neighbor, the public backlash was insane, knowing exactly what that meant. For now, the only real conditions that IVE could intervene is if not only cities were nuked, but then they were virus bombed or some other horrible atrocity. Until then, all Edwin could do was hope either a virus bombing or Gaussian unified response was in the near future. Neither from Edwins view looked likely.
For now, the Capitol would weather the storm, hoping that Parliament would take it easy on them, and that no other interested foriegn parties would take note on Edwins maneuvering.
Crimson Stars Hideout; Tausangrool System
Avalichi sat at the console, watching the attack play out. She had done as instructed by the galactic admiral, using the supreme galactic commander’s access and the repurposed Furrelian computer virus and some sympathetic cyberwarfare Cies to work their way into the system. Striking via virtual networks the attacks seemed to lunge out of random points in the network. The system as a whole was vastly too complex for any minute detail to truly matter; it was a matter of measures and countermeasures. Warring automated and intelligent systems attempting a million attacks a second and lucky to succeed at one of them.
But one by one the dominion’s AI were beating back their assault. Purging the permissions afforded by the supreme commander’s access codes. The woman simply sat idly, not administering orders to the cies. Refusing to finish them off. She was never a true follower of the crimson stars had made a pact with the Galctic Admiral. To carry out this attack such that she could achieve her goals in the confusion.
However the other members, who had reserved their suspicions now saw it to be true. She did not want to see about the destruction of the dominion. She wanted to strengthen and harden it. Reinstate her controversial programs of brainwashing and indentured warriors. One of them slipped up behind her. A hardlight shank pierced her neck through the chair as the terrorist forced her limp body out of the seat and took the helm of the virtual battlefield. This opportunity to see about their destruction would not be wasted.
First and foremost came the Galactic Admiral herself. Who had made the fatal mistake of directly integrating her collective conciousness into the galactic net. Inside all of her avatars was a kill switch, designed to kill any organic body should its existence become irrelivant, or it be at risk of falling under capture…
Kojunfourge
The world now lay shrouded in a thick screen of rubble. Stones ranging from pebbles to house-sized boulders zipping around low orbit at speeds encroaching a hundred kilometers a second. The world below in tatters; the atmosphere beginning to suffocate the others, growing smoggy as time passed. The Furrelians had been thus far unresponsive battle had come to an ancilimatic conclusion. Aide ships had dispatched tugs and gunships were using hardlight beamers in an attempt to cut the two ships that were lodged into one another apart. The bombings had stopped but some of the smaller cruisers were still orbiting the system believing that stealth ships had been responsible for the bombings. The Ecumene ships stood guard, also adimant that innocent lives had just been spent.
Kon Galon
As the Ingenious ships fled to the exit vector, the station went offline again as the terrorist cyberattack found a second wind. The crew had orders to engage the ships, simply firing off a salvo of missiles without warning. However when the attack hit the missiles failed to activate and were simply left drifting just outside the station.
Secure Diplomatic Line
The cyberattack had largely left the Ecumene unaffected though a number of crimson stars terrorists had struck their major systems with biological weapons all the same; the effects of which would be made known in the coming weeks. The Furrelians would recieve no less than 3 seperate hails from different points in the labryhthine hoytachian beauracracy, requesting that all of them be patched through to their head of state. One was their high justicar, who maintained a neutral composure informed them that the reason for their contact was a declaration of war and to inform them that in attacking Ecumene claims they had violated 37 rules of hoytachian war, along with an additional 192 war crimes commited against the cauldarion people. The Justicar then produced a yellowed parchment scroll. Script was written on it in some half-forgotten language. The Justicar adjusted their spectacles.
“The code of the Ecumene armed forces and conduct in wartime. Chapter 1. Article 1. Section 1. Subsection 1. Defining the terms used to describe the various terms in this doccument. For the purposes of this doccument, the term “war” will be used to describe an armed conflict…”
The high justicar continued to ramble at an adruiously slow pace, as the Mazabusa carried a large goblet containing rainbow flames. He began to sprinkle Qanis seeds into the fire, then pouring on some liquid and stirring the glass, apparently preforming some religious ritual as monks chanted in the background.
Meanwhile the high moff; the closest thing the Hoytachians had to any sort of head of state who was absolutely fuming at the situation.
“I demand an explanation for this immediately! You have assaulted our claims, bombed civilian hospitals, schools and religious sanctuaries on Kojunfourge. You sick, rutheless courgaten savages! The ecumene has taken no military action against your people, what has motivated these atrocities?”
He let out a frustrated snort as a fourth feed joined in on the secure diplomatic line. Luss was stood apparently on the bridge of a warship; Relegator class. “This is Supreme Galactic Commander Sulumai Lusssss…” Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and blood began to trickle from her nostrils. She crumpled over on the floor and siezured for a moment before expiring. An alarm went off in the background as crew began to scramble from their stations, a medic running over to her.
The secure diplomatic line cut out, replaced by the salvos of cyberwarfare attacks now freely attacking on the diplomatically immune line. They swiftly penetrated the Hoytachian’s archaic computer grid.
GDAN Defiant, Subspace
“That was close…” Luss said with a sigh. She held a tiny device in her hand. A small slot at the nape of her neck, concealed under fur closed. The link to all of her other avatars which now lay dead. She snapped the uplink chip in half, stowing it in her robe.
“Madame galactic admiral… what’s the situation.”
She took pause for a moment.
“Our worst fears have been realized. The courdeel have successfuly infiltrated kragleosha’s dominion. Garo was compromised. Furrelians. Ingen. Courdeel. They’re all our enemies. We have done our due dilligince to warn them of this threat. But we cannot hope to stand against them…” She trailed off, mouthing to herslef. “I don’t think we ever stood the slightest chance…”
KON GALON
The IJN Ebonheart reacted almost immediately to the attempted destruction of the evacuation dropship. From its deep belly, flame and smoke heralded the launch of a half-dozen 45m long Kukulkan Smart Assault Vehicles. These building-sized missiles, armed with their own EW and AWACS systems, chaff and flare launchers and a ring of Gyaku-Ko BDP active defense systems, were designed to kill capital ships and stations.
Angling towards the silent station, the giant missiles accelerated for the kill even as the dropship carrying Ishido, Garo and the surviving Ingenious docked with the Bitter Coast. Accelerating outside of interdiction range, the four ships opened emerald Slipgate windows and slid through them, jumping away from the system...
In the moments that followed the defensless station was torn asunder by the missiles; the ingenious clear to flee.
With the apparent death of the Galactic Admiral, Admiral Goden who had been en route to intercept Garo became the acting head of state. Upon learning that the Ingenous had made off with the tratior and destroyed a station he recognized just how dire the situation was. He opted to initiate the transit of Kon Galon to another new universal plane. Its systems were supposedly secure; but upon initiating the transit they found themselves dropping into the Assiduous blue giant. Under its intense gravitational pull, they had but a few minutes to contemplate their death; though some scattered into shuttles and abandoned the careening planet. The planet colliding with the starlifter in a spectacle of destruction few would bear witness to.
With the main station knocked off its orbit, continent sized chunks of armor plummeted into the star; the vast twisted magnetic fields drawing matter. An immense coronal mass ejection tore through the system, scouring the worlds clean of life.
In the days and weeks that followed information was scarce. Infastructure had been so damaged by the salvos of attacks that nobody had much in the way of reliable communications; leading them to capitulating individually to the Furrelians. But these worlds quickly dissolved into anarchy. Hospitals, starports, industries, and governments were in shambles. Riots over food and medicine grew ever more intense. By the time communications were restored the first words exhcanged were about the sudden outbreak of budding disease. Countless trillions had all been infested with droves of parasitic clones; removing them bound to be a task far too tedious and resource intensive for anyone to carry out.
After three months, the streets were filled with little more than shambling zombies. Grotesque asymettric masses of parasitic clones. Most of them just died early on, but this provided ample food for those who lived to cannibalize upon. Some retained a measure of their intelligence, babbling semi-coherent sentences as they meandered about, while others just screamed in perpetual agony from a hundred mouths. The disease had mutated, and began to affect other lifeforms in the various ecosystems. Strains mutated out to nushus and urngoths. Even plant life began to show signs of developing parasitic clones; wiht seedlings sprouting from the trunks of trees and once straight stalks growing in oddly splayed manners.