Update 19
The Fehan, basking in their victory over the Karronics, have instated a new order throughout their sphere of influence. The Democratic Federation of Akari has been confirmed as an entity subservient to, but independent of the Fehan, and the remaining Karronic world of Dalikah has been placed under Akari protection. Meanwhile, free from warfare for the first time, the Fehan are free to stop the massive expansion of their fleet and resume their temporarily halted exploration into the universe. Exploratory vessels travel hubwards and corewards out of Fehan space, uncovering a new habitable world in the low-density regions at the outer edge of the known galactic arm. Meanwhile, simple colonies have been established at the two ‘corridor worlds’ between Fehan space and the realm of the Mejani and Kadanoff, christening the planets as Taki and Emalan. The incident at Karaith came to a surprising conclusion. Following an unthinking imperative to consume, the Devouring One was lured further and further away from the settled system by its new Wera quarry. After a long pursuit, the starborne monstrosity was lured into a black hole some distance antispinwards from Karaith. With agonizing anticipation, the Wera watched as the mindless creature shambled its way directly towards the singularity, too enamoured with the consumption of the object’s colossal accretion disc to recognize its imminent doom. It came as an anticlimactic conclusion when the Devouring One simply spaghettified, redshifted and sank beyond the event horizon. No sooner had this been done, the Wera sprung into actions which would be very significant in a far distant region of space.
Hammenammir’s expansion resumes, although it now lacks a truly united direction. Rather, Migrant Hammes expand outwards, coming into contact with the quiet Sgligatiki world of Izozathre and, increasingly, the Fehan. Meanwhile, Habitant Hammes continue to expand across the surface of their adopted homeworld, which has come to be known as ‘Destination’- a bit of a jab at their Migrant bretheren, who continue their search through the stars for some different promised land.
Through the use of a well-designed and automated system of colonization, the Kadanoff have undergone a burst of expansion, bringing a full three new systems into the Unity. Independent growth and development beyond the initial automated factories is not expected until the locals have been given a few generations to fine-tune their bodies to the new environments, taking advantage of the full genetic diversity to be harvested on each of these new worlds. It is expected that these new worlds will receive their names once hte Kadanoff have adapted themselves enough to truly call these alien planets ‘home’.
Inspired, perhaps, by the expansions of their Kadanoff neighbours and the encroachment of the Fehan, a consortium of Lyran engineers have created the Mejani Union’s first functional superluminal vessel. This first ship has made diplomatic excursions to Sapro and Emalan- bold first steps of a young civilization getting its first taste of rapid interstellar travel. A second vessel, designed with exploratory purposes, has already been completed in the orbital shipyards of the star Demi.
Across a grand swath of space, stretching from the Galactic Republic’s capital world of Garv’n to the throne world of the Zan Shamai himself, war raged. The Galactic Republic fought a desperate defense against the incessant assault of the Zan Kena, while New Braniga and the Collectivity of Sanath sought to bring an end to Shamai’s menace once and for all. Smaller civilizations such as those of the Shu-Ghoo and Kog’Vlad cowered and laid low, hoping to avoid the attention of these behemoths as they did battle with forces the scale and strength of which have not been seen in this sector since the fall of Turamak Katzil. Even the normally unaligned elder races of the region were beginning to be drawn into the conflict. The Wera involved themselves in the fight against the Zan more so than ever before; Shamai, still hoping to learn the secrets to physical mastery over the universe, has resumed his contact with the enigmatic ‘Ocean Family’ of Nuxue B; and an entirely unexpected new peril arrived from a great distance to feast upon the destruction in the region.
Shamai, beset by a determined alliance of many species, felt himself quite irritated by their involvement. He had more important things to do than deal with their impudent assault- he had projects to complete, universal secrets to unwravel... he had simply too many things on his plate to pay full attention to each. Even for a being with the immense processing and multitasking skills of a Zan, there was not enough. Shamai had a long history of adding computerized mental augmentations to himself, but even this practice was beginning to run into its limits. What Shamai really needed more of hisself.
And so it was that Shamai, always a maverick amongst the Zan, concocted the most vile heresy against Zan Dogma yet, something that would surely earn his near-instantaneous demise at the hands of the Hegemony should it be discovered. He would engage in an activity so deeply taboo that it could barely even be pondered. He would create a clone, taken from the delicate, crippled mass of protoplasm and nerves that were all that remained of his body. Even after some concerned research Shamai decided that the threat of bringing about a return of the Cataclysm which had destroyed the bodies of untold billions of Zan hundreds of thousands of years ago would not be enough to stop him. He would grow it, and many others, so that he could be more than any other Zan. He would replace them, the old fools, trapped in their mindless, pointless empire building- and then he would rule the hegemony! The Galaxy would be his to crush... but what to do after that? Escape the Galaxy, conquer more? Perhaps. Then, he would take the minds of the Ocean Family, pursue the Wera into other dimensions and destroy them there too. All would burn before Shamai, and Shamai would be everything! And everyone! Everywhere, for all of eternity until the crushing, catstrophic death of the cosmos itself!
Little had Shamai suspected that a devious plan was unfolding in the heart of his present enemy, the Collectivity of Sanath. In centuries past, Qii Philosophers had stated that salvation and goodness could be found in all species, and for almost as long the greatest counterexample to this argument had been the existence of the Zan. Numerous proposals had thus been made in recent times to attempt to ‘save’ the Zan. Some fringe astroarchaeological research had suggested that at some point in the past, over half a million years prior to the present, the Zan had existed as a peaceful, organic race, before they fell into the clutches of evil. These findings were heavily disputed, finding particularly strong opposition in those who found the concept of the deeply biophobic Zan could possibly have non-robotic roots. Others made arguments of nature and nurture- but ultimately these arguments came to naught but philosophical debate, with a lack of physical evidence about the Zan. Thus was the zany plot hatched to extract a sample from which the initial form of the Zan could be derived. A foolhardy mission- taking any piece of Shamai at all would be all but impossible. However, when advanced Sanathi scouts discovered unfamiliar biosignatures on the surface of Shamai’s planet, an incredible opportunity was seized.
With Shamai’s attentions diverted by the aforementioned mass of distractions, a tiny squad of stealth-suited Nitha were released from the raiding fleet of Kasekral Commander Dakar Tash’Kral, managing to land on the surface of the planet Shamai. Selecting the most isolated biosignature on the world- a bizarre mechanical laboratory of a planet long-since cleared of life to make way for (or perhaps as a result of) the Zan’s compulsive experimentation- the Nitha made their way to the nearby point. Disabling the defences of the bio lab, the Nitha burst in, seized a small device holding an embryonic lifeform, and fled. Shamai, who had noticed the insertion as nothing but a small micrometerite impact, became aware of the intrusion the instant that his systems in the area were disabled. A huge force of machines were called to action, but a sentimental wish to not harm the tiny kidnapped creature may have denied Shamai the killer edge that would have given him a chance to catch the crafty infiltrators. 7 of the 12 Nitha were killed before reaching their escape craft, and one further succumbed to its wounds shortly after the Collectivity vessel exceeded escape velocity. The four survivors managed to evade a handful of scrambled Zan Interceptors before escaping to the relative safety of the jump. One final Zan attempt to prevent the escape managed to temporarily evict the kidnappers from their jump before they could rendezvous with their carrier fleet, but the Nitha managed to make an emergency escape in a single, extremely cramped escape pod. Recovered by Tash’Kral’s fleet and shipped immediately to Kurilate, the Nitha have received a hero’s welcome, while the apparent Zan Embryo, held in some sort of stasis device, has been shipped to an unknown location for immediate analysis and study.
Infuriated by the perfidy of the Collectivity of Sanath, Shamai- always one of the most emotional and headstrong of the Zan- shifted the destruction of Sanath to the very top of his to-do list. Scrapping his plans to retake Koraft, Shamai redirected a vast force against the Arbitration fleet of Admiral Chee Nira Cha. The venerable Nitha Admiral was quick to realize the sheer force that Shamai was delivering with this blow, and immediately contacted his compatriots in Dakar Tash’Kral’s Absolution Fleet and Warmaster Mirugo’s New Branigan Corps, informing them that Shamai’s other fronts would be vulnerable to a breakthrough. However, even with these expected openings, the going against Shamai was brutally difficult. Distant Kurilate took far too long to reinforce, and in a harsh blow, the Kuraib Nau- Tash’Kral’s longstanding flagship and the centerpiece of the guerrilla campaign against Shamai- was cault by Zan Jump Evictors and destroyed with extreme prejudice. The rising presence of these devices was proving to have serious deleterious effects for the Collectivity’s hopes of sustaining a mobile campaign within Shamai’s territory. At any rate, with the famous Kasekral Admiral dead, no forces remained to delay Shamai’s advance towards the Kurilate garrison. As of now, the very first Zan Warmachines have started to enter the inhabited space of the Collectivity.
On the New Branigan front, the combined forces of Warmaster Mirugo, recent successor of Merneg, were beset by a fearsome wave of Zan Craft. Seemingly adapting to the mobile tactics used to such success by the Sanathis, Shamai revealed several new varieties of weapon. A newly-developed, high-maneuverability fighter craft was brought into the battle, to great effect against the masses of heavy-weapons Frigates used by the Branigans. The Warmaster found himself forced into a terribly difficult position- space the ships too closely, and they become vulnerable to the Dirge of Eternity- spread them too far and they become vulnerable to the masses of fighters. Worse still, the Branigan Inteceptors specialized in dealing with such enemies were effectively neutralized by a nasty new trick of Shamai’s. Likened to razor-wire in space or miniature versions of the original Bane of Reality, the ‘Shredders’ fitted onto many of the Zan’s new vessels tore weblike gaps out of the continuum of space, tearing apart small craft and dealing significant damage to any larger ships in the area. No amount of shielding seemed to have an effect against the Shredder fields, which dissociated only when the ships projecting them were destroyed. Thus, New Braniga’s advance has been halted, and pushed back towards Koraft while Mirugo refits his ships to optimally adapt to the new tactical innovations of his enemy.
The prime blow, as expected, was struck against the central front. Chee Nira Cha knew strategically that the only sound choice would be a controlled retreat, and as much as was possible he attempted to do just that. Grav-mining and generally working to make Shamai’s ideal path as unpleasant as possible, he was nonetheless caught quickly by the vastly faster Zan fleet, who were able to use their Shredders to minesweep much of the territory in front of their advancing ships. As it was, Shamai could afford to take minor losses, and the lumbering city-ships which formed the core of the Collectivity Fleet were generally old vessels. While they had been heavily upgraded over the years, their frames and engines could still not sustain particularly strong acceleration or frequent, long-range jumps. Faced with no other choice, the Nitha admiral prepared to do battle with a foe which he felt, even in his most optimistic moods, was impossible to beat with his present forces.
And so was battle made, in some uninhabitable system on the outer fringes of Sanathi space. Five of the Collectivity’s Grandest City Ships, four of whom had been made on Nept itself during the nascence of the Collectivity, a Contingent of Ullau Heavy Cruisers, Thousands of Lance-Class fighters and a whole horde of irregular vessels were brought to bear against the vast Zan fleet, which was composed off a simple, but staggeringly huge array of Zan vessels- a backbone of the old standard warmachines, supported by a huge fighter fleet, and an entirely unfamiliar vessel. This was the successor to the Bane of Existence, a new weapon rebuilt with the same terrible purpose. This was, as Shamai called it, Erratum Effacer.
With the first shots of the battle, Chee Nira Cha detonated his ‘welcome gift’ of the last few mines he’d left in Shamai’s way. Long-range weapons exchanges blasted between the two forces, as the beams of the Zan melted their way through weaker Collectivity vessels, while a varied mass of lasers, missiles and a few wild mag-cannon shots clipped away at the Zan fleet. Lethality ramped up as the Zan barrelled down on the Collectivity at breakneck speed, more and more ships falling on both sides. At last, the big guns were brought into effect. Erratum Effacer fired, and the City Ship Rou was violently ripped out of existence. The heaviest weapons of the City-Ships were levelled against Shamai’s Superweapon, but they were unable to penetrate the literal cloud of fighters blocking the firing lines between the city ships and the Zan flagship. Brief vulnerabilities opened up only when the clouds dispersed, allowing Shamai to take clean shots at the lynchpins of the Collectivity fleet. City Ship Seraph was the second to perish at the Effacer’s hand, thought not before striking a few blows against its foe. Throughout the whole battle, Shamai and Chee were locked in what has been perhaps one of the most perfect tactical duels in known history- both controlled their fleets like puppetmasters with their elabourate marionettes, each utterly dedicated to the battle. At this point, even as the Capital ships performed their deadly dance, the middle-sized workhorses of each fleet were finally beginning finish their battle, as the outnumbered Ullau Heavy Cruisers were slowly crushed beneath the superior numbers and firepower of the Zan fleet. Shredders ran rampant through the fightercraft of the Collectivity, and bit by bit, the previously indomitable Nitha Admiral was pushed back to his last strongholds, the City Ships Vakash, Doctrine and Transcendent Sphere. Vakash was the third to fall to the Effacer, all but the tiniest tip of its engines forever stolen from its native universe. At this point, Chee Nira Cha, having lost the vast majority of his fleet already against impossible odds, prepared to meet his destiny.
Countless Zan Machines descended upon the Transcendent Sphere, ripping their way into the interior. Many were destroyed by the ship’s defences, but it was ultimately overwhelmed. Chee opened fire upon the ship, in what could only be described as a mercy killing, but as if waiting for this exact moment to taunt his defeated Opponent, Shamai assumed direct control over the captured vessel and jumped it out to parts unknown, leaving his broken enemy with no choice but to retreat with the few tattered ships and surviving crewmen that remained. A small solace for the Collectivity was that the sphere’s self-destruct sequence had not been disabled- Shamai’s prize from the battle would be with him for little more than a few seconds after Chee’s departure in the City Ship Doctrine.
The Galactic Republic, struggling to raise an effective defense against the relentless assault of the Zan Kena, has at last sent out a call for aid. The Choon known as The Dreamer called out across the void in a plea for aid, a plea which could be heard by all those who still held a connection to the ancient communications network of the Turamaks. Amongst the vast numbers of the Choon there was a profound indifference. However, the Wera heard. And, as would not be discovered until some time later, the Wera would act.
Kena’s advance had finally brought the elder Zan to the doorstep of Garv’n, the most populous world in the universe, as far as its inhabitants knew, and the capital world of the ‘Galactic’ Republic, which at this point consisted of little more than the capital itself and the old worlds of La’Matra. After years of preparation for this invasion, the death blow to the Republic was about to be dropped. The arrival of two contingents of the Ullau Rogue fleet managed to delay Kena’s advance briefly, but they were swatted away as if they were no more than insects, later regrouping to aid the Republic in its final defense.
And so came the crowning battle of this particularly chaotic period. With numbers that would have made Shamai hide his face in embarrassment, Kena opened fire on the widely-spaced forces of the Galactic Republic and its allies. The Dirge of Eternity, present in the battle, was not yet fired- Kena wanted this prize of an ecumenopolis to be captured intact. The Republic fought like a cornered animal, pushed beyond its limits by a few moments of inspiration from its varied corps- but the heavy pallor of doom weighed heavily in the minds of all defenders. As their numbers were whittled down, plans were already underway to prepare for a retreat, abandoning the jewel of the Republic to its inevitable fate.
It was at this point that the Dreamer’s plea was answered.
With a brilliant flash, a Wera spiralled out from a pinpoint in the center of the Zan flotilla, bathed in pure white light. In the eyes of the Republic, this was nothing less than the return of a furious guardian angel to its forsaken people. A great portal opened where the Wera had passed, and out of it flowed something...
HUNGRY.
The Devouring One, who had just enjoyed a rather bizarre journey through a black hole, was pleased- the Wera had not misled. There was much to feed upon here. The Devourer’s terrible maw opened, to the horror of all involved, and immediately began to draw in Kena’s grand fleet. Immediately, Kena’s forces redirected their weapons against the Devourer, carving gaping gaps in the thing’s flanks. As this spectacle unfolded, the Wera, who had slipped out of the way after being upstaged by its guest, raced its way towards Garv’n, its mouth gaping wide. Adulation changed to horror in an instant, as the whole Republic fleet and each of the hundreds of billions of lifeforms on Garv’n watched the titanic mouth of the Wera close over them-
-and then open once again. The Zan were gone... as were the familiar stars around the planet. The dumbfounded planet could only stare as the Wera seemed to wink at the planet, before turning tail and swimming off into the distance.
For Kena’s part, the point-blank battle with the Devouring One was quickly evolving into a rout, forcing the Zan to withdraw from combat, or risk losing the Dirge of Eternity to the monstrosity’s insatiable appetite. Ever pragmatic, Kena chose to live to fight another day- if the creature would prove to be vulnerable to the Dirge, then it would be just as good to learn that fact from a safe distance. The Devouring One thus found itself, in remarkably short order, deprived of all of the food that it had arrived her to consume. Well, almost all. With what would have been a sense of resignation had the Devourer possessed the least modicum of sentience, the beast wandered towards Garv’n’s star, and consumed it. With darkness now settling over the region, the Many have been released, to hunt for their One’s next food item.
While the population around Garv’n struggles to triangulate its new location, the remaining worlds of the Republic, all of them Lauki-dominated, believe that the worst has happened- that the Dirge of Eternity was fired upon Garv’n, resulting in its sudden loss of communications. Two scouts in the area seem to have confirmed this view, revealing the complete absence of Garv’n and its sun, and the presence of some sort of biomechanical monstrosity in the general location of the past battlefield. However, attentions for now remain focused on Kena’s new incoming force, whose arrival time to Republic Space is now estimated at fewer than 50 cycles.
Just beyond the Republic’s antispinward edge, the Utarite Civil War continues to rage unabated. Utterly crippling each other with ever-escalating levels of firepower, the Utarites have been left powerless before the migratory Rama. Ra established itself in orbit around the world of Kutar, and blasted its surface from orbit, in preparation for large-scale mineral extraction. Despite the alien destruction going on all around them, the stubborn and aggressive Utarites seem to have attentions for nothing but each other- and if things don’t change, it seems likely that they’ll bring this conflict with them to the grave.
Map