Update 25
The Galactic Republic has dedicated its efforts to exterminating Ma’Autra. The worlds formerly dominated by the Star-Forest are now firmly in the hands of Republic, with the exception of some particularly troublesome Dendro on Falcate, and the disappearance of a second mining colony on Barat. The rapidly rebounding nation is now more than capable of standing toe to toe with the power in control of the old Lauki core worlds. The Republic’s figurehead, the ancient Turamak program known as ‘One’ pursues the war with a zealous passion, one which has caused many significant figures from within the Republic’s leadership to question the amount of influence she wields.
Regardless of these concerns, a large fighting force has been dispatched corewards to deal with Ma’Autra once and for all. Currently, battle plans are still being drawn up. At the moment, the Republic has only a small scouting fleet in the area, and while it has fared well against Ma’Autra’s forces in the past, it is unlikely that it could hold out against the large fleets that the Eternal Union of the Lauki-Maus is known to possess. In the long term, the Republic possesses a smaller navy, but a much larger industrial capacity than its foe. This fact has caused many to question why exactly they are attacking now, just as an economic boom is anticipated from the incorporation of no less than seven new richly habitable worlds. However, One will not be deterred, and so the fleets pour outwards. One major issue in this campaign will be one of supply- a forward base will be needed for the campaign to be conducted properly, and the only known inhabitable systems in the region are Zzndkn and Zarr- both of which are home to species with which the Lauki have had rather terrifying and unpleasant past encounters.
The Rogue Fleet has passed from Choon Space and into the control region of Ma’Autra, after giving a brief salute to the Collectivity Agent known as the Diplomat, who continues his difficult job of converting the Choon to Sanath’s mindset. While the Lauki components of the fleet are devastated to see their worlds fallen back into the control of their ancient enemies, the rogues have generally avoided the planets, instead exploring and studying the two colossal nebulae that stretch vertically for hundreds of light years above the galactic plane, forming the ‘Gateway’ to Ma’Autra. The Maus have been somewhat skeptical of the Rogues’ intentions, but some well-worded Ullau diplomacy has mollified their hosts, who are willing to tolerate their presence so long as they do nothing to harm the vessels or possessions of the Eternal Union.
The Collectivity of Sanath, enjoying its longest period of peace in recent memory, if not in all of its history, finds itself slipping into difficult financial states. The maintenance of its vast, war-ready fleets has begun to take up a very significant portion of the Collectivity’s resources, thus leaving the rest of its programs relatively impoverished. Seeking to solve both problems with one action, the Collectivity has opted to use its fleet to carry out its mission of universal expansion and unification in the region previously held by the Association of Fplinmy. With the Association’s Yjogl now all hovering above the thoroughly ruined world of Shamai- which itself is being considered for terraforming, renaming and eventual settlement- Collectivity planners are looking to these abandoned worlds with relish.
The main Collectivity Fleet, happy to be tasked with a duty beyond the tedious process of methodically exterminating the Mechaniforms, has moved spinwards along the outer edge of the home arm. A veritable horde of exploratory vessels preceded the main fleet, which has found very little in need of pacification. The local Jubblera, present on the nearest two planets, have observed these comings and goings with great interest. Encounters with Collectivity Explorers have resulted in a scattering of incidents that have ended badly for both groups, usually as a result of overzealous Collectivity security forces or excessively curious Jubblera. Despite this, there has been a large drive amongst Collectivity Scientists to try and understand and properly communicate with these clearly intelligent aliens, to ascertain whether they are suitable candidates for entry into Sanath.
Elsewhere, the burgeoning colony of Dakar has continued to experience a variety of inexplicable deaths, which have sown a great deal of uneasiness into the local population, and triggered several reprisals against the local megafauna.
Finally, explorers continue to chart out the vastness of the Njogr Empire. Njogr fleets have been observed doing battle with each other, triggering a great deal of confusion in Collectivity High Command, who has not heard any news of a Njogr civil war from their contacts in the empire.
Further spinwards along the outermost known arm, the Poy-Op and the Meli-Telanoch Exiles continue friendly interaction. However, most of this is cursory- for the most part the Ksspopok is content to continue its ongoing planetscaping and mining opportunities, while the mournful Samaynoch continue their wandering, seemingly unwilling to adopt a new homeworld, preferring for now to remain drifting amongst the stars. However, the Highclans who maintain control of Asdila present a serious threat- their expansion into space has rapidly caught up with the exiles, and they seem to have fewer qualms with importing themselves into new alien ecosystems.
Nearby, but still unknown to these species, the Fehan have encountered yet another civilization, this one seemingly on the verge of developing spaceflight, possessing a strong grasp of military rocketry. Calling themselves ‘Chorn’, in one of their languages, these aliens seem to be divided up into a diverse array of political organizations, which make use of a startling variety of means of killing each other. The Chorn themselves appear quite hideous to the Fehan, being at once sinewy and chitinous, and possessing just enough symmetry to make their gross asymmetry, quite contrary to what seems to be the biological norm, stand out like a sore thumb. Their body structure is very roughly bipedal, although their legs seem to be twisted ninety degrees to a sideways orientation, and their larger arm seems to be used as a walking limb more often than not. It has been decided by the Fleet that the Chorn are to be left uncontacted and under observation, just like almost every other species encountered by the Fehan.
Thachugi Waglafar Thialexiu Xatchrli continues to modify and experiment upon the population of his rather euphemistically named ‘Galactic Socialist Democratic Union’, stabilizing and developing his new culture. A strange collection of altered Amur, Nurm, and various uplifted creatures have begun to gel into a cohesive whole, although this is easier than it sounds, seeing as thinking is distributed across the entirety of the population, making the entire Union effectively a single superorganism.
Hess’peh maintains its quiet lurking in the void between the galactic arms, its motives as indiscernible as ever.
Destination’s devastation at the hands of the Surikahi invasion continues. The five surviving kuppelborgs, and the various hardy Free Hammes who have managed to survive the ever-intensifying assaults of the alien invaders find themselves forced into accepting a small degree of cooperation in order to avoid total extinction. The Invaders continued to multiply, revealing progressively larger and more powerful battle breeds, each one a nightmarish collage of organic armour, spikes, crushing claws and writhing tentacles. Borg Iruskan itself has proven to be instrumental in the continuing survival- the revelation of a vast army of clones was critical in turning back a major wave of the invaders. While this victory, and several that followed, have won the habitant Ysir critical time, it has simultaneously driven a wedge between the already-fracturing allies. Some Hammes are horribly offended by the use of clones, while others have begun to point fingers, questioning which other factions may be holding onto their reserves, or hiding superweapons until such a time as they may be used to gain an advantage over their erstwhile partners. While the forces on Destination have managed to delay their outright destruction, their fragile cooperation is on the verge of falling apart altogether. With aliens now controlling over nine tenths of the habitable surface, it is imminently clear that a resumption of the endless infighting will be the end of the Ysir on Destination. A resumed meteor storm has brought down vast new hordes of monstrous reinforcements, and Borg Gorak, fifth of the kuppelborgs, has just fallen. With interference blocking out communications with horrifying regularity, and the networks themselves failing in the face of the assault, the time for intrigue is running desperately short- if action is not taken immediately, then all shall have been for naught.
Fehan observers have watched the fighting on Destination with concern. Fleet has requisitioned a large number of vessels to be moved towards Destination. Planetary obliteration techniques, tested against numerous lifeless planetoids and perfected against the Surikahi, are set to be used on the planet should it fall. Across the entirety of Fehan space, Fleet continues to exert its increasingly official authority as the governing body of the Fehan, as well as all of the various Finto, Akari, Sathan, Tunului and Kari who form the constituent species of the whole organization. With this increasing streamlining of power structures has come an amount of activity- Fehan colonization efforts have established settlements on the coreward world of Taithe, founded in memory of Surihihao, and wholehearted terraforming efforts are now being carried out on Sathan and Katifa. Exploratory vessels and probes transmit information from far and wide. Of all of the species native to known space, it is inarguable that the Fehan have the strongest understanding of the reigion’s layout. However, when one explores a large amount, they are always more likely to run into trouble- and this has clearly been the case for two exploratory vessels inbound to the inner core, who transmitted brief messages of a hostile first encounter before disappearing abruptly.
As the Migrant Hammenammir drift out of known space, they exchange a few parting shots with the Shu’Ghoo. A few boarding actions on Hammenammir ships led to several scuttling events and a handful of successfully captured vessels. Interrogations on both ends ultimately bore some fruit, and the end result of the whole affair was a technology exchange, albeit of a significantly more violent variety than is typical. Shu’Ghoo has been set back a few years by being on the receiving end of massive plundering, but they managed to deal a respectable amount of damage to the Hammenammir, who will be somewhat slower to recover due to the chronic shortage of resources faced by a migratory spaceborne species.
The Kadanoff have been thrown into disarray. While denying problems to outside questioners, they have been dealing for several years with an ever-growing insurrection. A conflict is arising between the Kadanoff, and the end-product of their constant genetic manipulations. Originating with a single supremely capable and psionically-gifted specimen escaping from one of the Unity’s major genetics labs, that one individual managed to gain control of several labs of its own and began to create more individuals much like itself. This force managed to grow in strength, through guile and force, until it was ready to bring down the stagnant society that had created it and bring about a glorious new age. Titling itself the Rachem Ascendancy, this faction has taken the rimward reaches of the Unity, and now immediately menaces the core worlds of Sapro and Ka. The remaining systems of the Unity, already destabilized by the long underground war with Rachem, is now in open mobilization, preparing to crush their experiment gone wrong before it does further damage. The Vycan Mejani, who have been courted by both sides, have offered their allegiance to neither side, opting instead to gather arms of their own and watch the events as they unfold. The Fehan, for their part, watch with mild annoyance, as more and more voices from within the Fleet call for a police action to pacify the region.
Kena’s Zan Drones drifted over the surface of Exodus, investigating Kukulza for weaknesses. Unfortunately for them, it seems that the Devourer had acquired a taste for them. Directing its Karak charges to capture the probes, local forces have begun to hunt these probes, bringing them as offerings to the ravenous Kukulza. It has not been an easy hunt, and many have perished hunting these nightmarish machines- ultimately however, it’s simply a classic case of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, and most people would rather risk bloody dismemberment at the hands of a small Zan Warmachine than return emptyhanded to the gaping maw of Kukulza. Kena, for her part, was bemused by this tiny loss. In normal circumstances, she would have annihilated both Kukulza and its pathetic subjects- but for now, far greater concerns occupy the attention of the Executioner of the Zan.
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