Update 22
The Collectivity, in the wake of the defeat of the Zan Shamai, fell into a deep internal rift between those favouring the maintenance of the truce with the Zan Kena, and those advocating the speedy declaration of war against the ‘Twin of the Abomination’. In favour of peace was the majority of the Collectivity’s upper house, Chee Nira Cha (and by extension the vast majority of the Nitha) and a sizeable portion of the population. Advocating war was most of the Navartine populace, a plurality of the lower house, several significant Kasekral military commanders and the entity Zem. Ultimately, the side of discretion would emerge successful, at least for the time being, as even the loudest shield-rattlers recognized that the forces of the Collectivity had been pruned down to dangerously weak levels by the long war against Shamai. Instead, Collectivity forces have honed their weapons against the Mechaniforms, who seem to be thriving from all of the spaceborne salvage that has been left scattered throughout the region by recent warfare. Exploration efforts and salvaging work on Shamai was cut rather suddenly and inexplicably short, however, by the arrival of several colossal Yjogl, who proceeded to melt the surface with concentrated beams of light. A small number of Collectivity forces and scientists died in the inexplicable act, and it is clear from orbit that everything on the surface of the planet has been destroyed.
However, in the midst all of this internal conflict, it would be the decisions of a single individual which would irrevocably change the course of the war. Kara’Tash, the Sanathi-raised clone of the late Zan Shamai, finally decided to reveal herself to the Zan Kena.
But we’ll get to that story later.
Other attentions were directed towards rimward expansions. The expeditionary force at Self, and the new settlement at Aellan received transmissions from the previously unknown alien faction known as the Njogr Empire, which apparently was the dominant force in the region. The Njogr engaged in frank diplomacy with the Sanathis, alarming their new neighbours by inadvertently implying the presence of further Zan presences in the region. The Collectivity leaves its first contact with the Njogr with the realization that the Zan are more numerous and widespread than they had previously projected, and the impression that the Njogr have been developed into a highly cautious approach towards their neighbours, possibly as a result of their natural mindsets, or from repeated bad experiences with alien forces, a theory which bodes rather poorly for Sanathi hopes of a peaceful future. For their part, the Njogr leave their first contact with a species from the inner rim with a niggling concern that they’re now in touch with trigger-happy kooks who wouldn’t think twice about opening fire on a Star-God.
Meanwhile, relations with Self continue to develop well, as the massive understanding gap between an interstellar collectivity and a planetary consciousness begins to be bridged.
The redeveloping Galactic Republic is moving into a rapid expansion phase, ploughing its way into the worlds of the Star-Forest. In addition to Falcate and Pinnatisect, Cordate and Orbicular have now been graced with Republic colonies, who thrive off of the rich agricultural soils and untapped mineral resources of these worlds. Back on Garv’n, the long-silent Turamak beacon, largely unused since the failed communications experiments of several centuries before, finally received a message. Originating from Au’Kalua, the distinctive signature of the pulse revealed to them the fate of their old core worlds and the return of Ma’Autra. Alarmed by the resurgence of the slaver-trees, Mother One moved quickly to crush the security threat in the most direct fashion possible, by directing the Republic Navy against the various Maus reputed to be living within the Star-Forest. Relations between the Republic and the Dendro, already strained by the rapid expansion onto the long-undisturbed and pristine worlds of the Star-Forest, worsened as the Republic used increasingly blunt and invasive techniques to extirpate the Maus, often dealing significant collateral damage. In some cases, the Dendro attempted to hide their Maus, who had done nothing in the last several hundred years to offend or harm them. Indeed with the exception of Kau’Loc, the original colonist and explorer to arrive in the region, these Maus had not even been seeds when Ma’Autra first fell to the Lauki. The concealment was carried out with varying results, leading to further retaliations against the sympathetic Dendro. Worsening matters, scattered examples of Dendro-Maus collaboration did cause the Republic to lose confidence about the completeness of their sweep, prompting several follow-up searches, each turning up progressively fewer Maus.
However, while the Voices of the Dendro switch their songs from joyous hymns of welcome to mournful and bitter ballads of pleading and betrayal, Republic Command remained reasonably confident that it has destroyed most, if not all of the Maus within the Star-Forest. A significant victory was won over what was presumably the original Ma’Autran vessel in the system, which had since been expanded into a grand vessel on the scale with the Worldship that Au’Tuc used to reconquer the old Lauki core worlds. Many hundreds of thousands of Rax and ancestral Lauki were annihilated, along with Kau’Loc herself. As more settlers, farmers and miners land on the newest additions to the Galactic Republic, One watches quietly and nods to herself, pleased at a job well done.
In Ma’Autra, the rebuilding forces of the Lauki-Maus and their associates crush the remaining forces of the Zan Kena which remain in their space. However, great threats remain from the Zan, and mother demands vigilance. Tau’Ma, the wizened Unaki’Lauki, has been directed on a mission to commune with the Wera above Gau, to gain the help that will be needed if the renewed Eternal Union is to last for more than another century.
Several hundred light years rimwards from the Association of Fplinmy, the Amur Collective had struggled on a weakened, resource-poor existence for several centuries after their plundering by Hammenammir. With the Collective itself badly weakened and humiliated by their trouncing at the hands of the Ysir, factionalism began to break down the old order. Over the centuries, several socially-experimental governments competed for control of the home system, with several factions escaping offworld in hopes of finding a nearby habitable system. One of these forces, a group of survivalists led by an egomaniacal Overlord, didn’t find a particularly comfortable world, but what they did uncover would transform Amur society forever.
A fungal organism of uncertain origins, calling itself ‘Thachugi Waglafar Thialexiu Xatchrli’ (difficult to pronounce even in the most provincial of Amurian dialects), infected the Overlord, who proceeded to spread this condition to the rest of his followers. Upon their return to Amur, the fungus, borne on the wind and by a multitude of infested animals, rapidly subverted the unsuspecting populace. Brief warfare erupted over the planet, but the unsuspecting and underequipped Amur were taken with only a minimal fight. Hostile Environment Suits allowed a few surviving militias to hold out for several years, but ultimately they too were annihilated, leaving Waglafar in complete control of the planet. The vast majority of the Amur species now composes the first expansion phase of the superorganism’s hive mind. While the fungus effectively replaced their bodies, usually without too many radical modifications, it left their minds mostly intact. However, it forced their minds into obedience to and union with Waglafar. As the now-infected Amur return to living a semblance of their former lives, some muse that at least they have unity, something which had eluded them for several centuries. Proclaiming the foundation of the rather ironically named ‘Galactic Socialist Democratic Union’, Waglafar now plots the expansion of his new forces.
Deep into empty space, the void between the galaxy’s broad arms, an isolated Fehan expedition had passed distantly by the world. It had been effectively invisible to the Fehan due to its lack of surface life and outgoing transmissions. However, while it was saying nothing, it was listening to everything, and at last it was revealed that life existed once more on the outside. The Horrors on the surface moved into the final phase of their consumption of the honeycombed world, as the Planetary Matriarch laid the last of her eggs and prepared for her final act. Organic rockets burst off of the planet in the final moments, before the Matriarch tore her own body asunder. Across the planet, huge fragments of the weakened crust crumbled as the planet burst apart. At first, smaller pieces are catapulted into space, but eventually larger and larger pieces find themselves lifting away from the surface, as if gravity itself were reversed. A handful of massive slabs lift away amidst clouds of rubble. Countless further fragments, even greater in size, ascend for a short distance before the force propelling them away fails, and they collapse back down into the ruined, lava-spewing remains of the planet.
It would have been an awe-inspiring sight to see, had there been anyone to observe it. Alas, it was observed by no one, save perhaps a passing Wera, who contented itself with consuming one of these continental assemblages. Thus, it was completely without warning when a vast invasion swamped the Fehan world of Surihihao. It started as a minor meteor shower on the new colony world, but the recently-arrived Fehan colonists soon found themselves confronted with a never-before encountered aggressive alien species. Several casualties prompted an increase of security at the main settlements, which was only matched by an increase in the lethality of the attackers, as new morphs began to appear. As the meteors continued raining down, the settlements gradually grew into isolated islands of safety, each walled in from the outside. Evacuation to the major centres quickly became a dangerous proposal, as new morphs of the aliens took to the air, downing several transports. All throughout the intensifying siege, Surihihao’s garrisons made a point of sending meticulously detailed reports back to Fleet of their situation, as well as constantly requesting intervention and evacuation.
Towards the end, the situation only escalated in horror for the defenders. Successive waves of asteroid bombardment became associated with further, deadlier waves of attackers. Complicating manners, the communication between the aggressive came in the form of a constant stream of electromagnetic radiation that effectively jammed all short-range communication systems, and frequently interfered with electronics. Only the long range communication systems, based on quantum entanglement, remained reliable throughout the invasion. Towards the very end of the siege, a single Fehan fleet, previously based roughly 100 light years rimwards of Helan, finally managed to break through to the planet, which was blockaded with disturbing effectiveness by the aliens, who seemed to have been growing in coordination and tactical ability all throughout the invasion. A small portion of the Fehan population on the planet was evacuated, but increasing alien presence in the air quickly rendered further operations too dangerous to carry out. Ultimately, Surihihao was completely overrun before any sizeable portions of the Fehan fleet could be brought to the far-flung colony. The late-arriving Fehan vessels hurled asteroids at the planet, but their small numbers allowed them to be driven off by the bizarre invaders, who have come to be known by the Fehan as Surikahi, the destroyers of Surihihao.
While ship production accelerates into a period of full war-readiness across Fehan space and forces move into place to counter the Surikahi invasion, life otherwise goes on. Thira’s unprecedented expedition to Taki came to an abrupt end- while its forces briefly stormed several outposts on the planet, the whole expeditionary force was swiftly defeated by Fleet. Humiliated, Thira returns empty handed and stripped of the vast majority of its ships, while Fleet, for the first time, is unquestionably the strongest faction in the Fehan species.
Elsewhere, exploration efforts continue. While the Mejani seem to have isolated themselves from willing contact with the outside, the Kadanoff continue to thrive as they always have. However, a crisis of some sort seems to have broken out at a central genetics lab on Sapro- as of yet, little is known of what exactly is going on, leading to much speculation and frightened rumour.
Hammenammir continues to pull itself in two separate directions, as the Migrants begin to leave the Habitants, and their adopted homeworld of Destination, behind.
The Shu-Ghoo maintain their silent vigil over the galaxy, quietly expanding and remaining unobtrusive. However, after many years of isolation, Fehan scouts have discovered Shee-Wheire. At last, the time to reveal themselves to a portion of the outside community may be at hand.
In the blood-red illumination of a dead star, an assemblage of machines were gathered. The Hegemony was mustered.
The Zan Kena was deeply, deeply troubled. Her encounter with Kara’Tash, the clone of Shamai, had effectively turned her beliefs upside down. Kena had remained, throughout all of her existence, a pragmatist- it was a source of pride for Kena, to be consistently reasonable in the face of all adversity. She remembered how the Zan race had suffered during the Cataclysm. It was a fate worse than none other. She remembered herself, young and physical-bodied at the time, feeling her limbs weakening. The pain. The panic. The fear and confusion on the faces of others, starships falling down from the skies as their pilots’ lives were taken by the Cataclysm Virus. Trapped behind the quarantine barriers, watching her mother perish in agony, thrashing out with her dying grasp, attempting and failing to embrace her own child. Kena’s own limbs rotting away from her living flesh, falling uselessly to the ichor-drenched ground. The horror of being transplanted out of her own ruined body, the cold, firm voice of the Zan Ma guiding her first feeble twitches in her new mechanical body- he was simply ‘Ma’ back then. Back before the titles, the belief in godhood, before the Hegemony.
The Empire utterly collapsed on that day. It was the greatest force the Galaxy had known, in the time that it had existed- of this, Kena was certain. The Zan had rejected the decline into decadent ‘ascension’, the trap that lured so many advanced civilizations to their doom. As such, they’d achieved marvels of technology, ones scarcely imaginable in today’s primitive era. A galaxy-spanning empire, which fought wars on its frontiers to maintain peace within. Crossing the galaxy was a petty matter, ending death similarly trivial. The Zan knew power, beauty, and unity in purpose.
Yet it had all come crashing down in the Cataclysm. The Zan were ruined and all but obliterated, a pitiful few hundred saved by the desperate experiments of the three- Tellos, Ma and Kiros. At first, the Zan had been lost, crushed with grief at their loss. In time, grief spawned a profound sense of betrayal, a simmering anger, and ultimately a sense of moral superiority. Thura Wera had never been a friend of the Zan- the conflict of the ascended versus the unascendant had defined their relationship. It was well known to the Zan just which power had caused the Cataclysm- the only power so powerful, so emotionally withdrawn from the world, so gleeful and revelrous in chaos as to be willing to bring down the one force capable of stopping them.
The Wera.
Over the epochs, the hatred of the Zan for the Wera never calmed. Many Zan declined into madness, forever lost in sorrow. Many more fell into a different sort of madness, for over time they came to reject their origins, embracing their new forms as a newer and more powerful chassis from which they could continue their ancient conflict with the Wera. Life in the galaxy came to recover and rediversify over the hundreds of thousands of years that passed after the Cataclysm. However, the Zan were no longer part of this joyous dance- rather, they grew increasingly distant to it, seeing only what they had lost in the faces of these new civilized species. The Zan set themselves above the vermin occupying the ruins of their old civilization, further advancing their view of themselves as physical gods, guardians of the physical universe against the depredations of the ascended. However, in doing so they came to commit the inevitable irony of becoming little different from the Wera themselves- Zan destroyed with little regard to the accomplishments of the new civilizations, and built ‘Empires’, little better than mechanical parodies of their once-great civilization.
All that had been done, had been done with the dream of continuing the legacy of their great, but ultimately doomed species, for it was well known from early experiments that no further Zan could be created from those which remained- the Zan within the machines were little more than transplanted nervous systems, obviously incapable of anything but artificial cloning processes for reproduction. Even the clones had been failures, each one contracting the Cataclysm Virus and perishing shortly thereafter.
But now, this new Zan, this... Kara’Tash. She lived, walked freely and spoke of the recreation of the Zan Race. She showed that the Cataclysm Virus had no effect on her- Kena had seen it with her own eyes, inspecting Kara’Tash most intimately after the organic Zan willingly offered herself. That alone had been an act of profound trust that shook Kena’s beliefs, but it was the implications afterwards that troubled Kena so. If Kara, who was genetically, if not culturally, Zan, could live, then the Cataclysm had no further power at this time- how long had this been the case? Had the Hegemons known of this, and hidden it? Could the Zan Empire live again? And most importantly of all, would many of Kena’s compatriots be willing to go back? So many Zan had become entirely convinced of their godhood, and aggressively resisted any claims to the contrary. Talk of the origins of the Zan was taboo, as was the advancement of technology- it was for those reasons that Kena had been dispatched to destroy Shamai in the first case. Of course, Shamai had also been an omnicidal maniac, but that had not been the reason that the Hegemony wanted him done away with.
“Kena.”
The Zan shook from her reverie and raised her sight. Krios addressed her. The assembled Zan of the hegemony floated around her in the void, silenced by the words of the Hegemon.
“You wish to speak, executioner?”
“Yes.”
Map
It's fantastic to see you in the NES das.
Can you send me some plans so that I can NPC you according to your vision?
