193The Protectorate's Citadel
Spear of Adun Above Aiur.
"…This encapsulates the events of the shift so far. This is the end of the public session for the State of the Sector Conference. Private discussion time will now commence."
The presentation concluded, and the lights came back on in the conference hall. "The protectorate's Citadel". The equivalent of the Kopluru Sector's general assembly, a massive, 300-meter wide room aboard the Spear of Adun, the 74-kilometer long Protoss Arkship.
It had already become famous to most Terrans, UNN reporters even being invited aboard prior to the conference for an exclusive first look. It was a symbol of the Unity of the Kopluru Sector.
It was a huge room, all made out of the resplendent golden-blue material, signature protoss architecture. Everything was smooth and rounded, with occasional edges, telling of graceful and intricate construction. Everything was illuminated by subtle lighting that made it seem like the walls themselves glowed.
What was most impressive was the fact that it was built along the Spear of Adun's Spine, it's central axel, so above them, a transparent plasma-shield dome exposed everyone to the sight of the heavens, twinkling with stars, with the Spear of Adun's titanic rotating loops, passing over them at regular intervals, the structures each 20 kilometers long.
In the space above the hall, sat a large chunk of the Golden Armada, The Terran First Fleet, and Zerg Leviathans.
The hall had been temporarily fashioned better accommodate the Terran and Zerg delegates, (IE, actual human-sized seats, and a "platform" that had unnecessarily high security for the Zerg.)
At the front stage, there was a sight once thought utterly impossible. Now, it was almost the norm.
Kerrigan, this infested Terran Woman, a body covered in zerg carapace and a head of dread-lock like tentacles, her bony wings jutting out awkwardly, with veins of purple energy spider-webbing across her body.
Artanis. An 8-foot tall mouthless psionic alien clad in regal golden Armor, his piercing blue eyes invading the minds of everyone he saw.
Then Valerian. A human, rather young, in his early 30's, with a head of blonde hair, clad in noble military attire, wearing an overcoat with a wolf's head broach covering his shoulders.
Three races so utterly different
Three races who had been at each other's throats for years
Three races now staunch allies against a galaxy of horrors.
In the Audience, divided into three separate categories, were respectively, the Terrans, the top military brass, Admiral Horner, the Legendary Commander James Raynor, along with the Dominion's top scientists and a variety of political guests. Along with them were Terran sub-factions, elements of the Umojian ruling council, a protectorate/a nationalized militia of independent colonies with a heavy technology focus.
There were also the business heads of the Kel-Morian combine, a corporatocratic business conglomerate turned local government, the workhorse of the Terran Dominion's material resource needs.
In the Protoss section were the respective leaders of each faction, A Tal'darim Ascendant (Alarak was watching via protoss-skype, and being within a few dozen light-years, vespene-based FTL communications allowed for live coverage), Executor Colarion of the purifiers along with Fenix/Talendar, Vorazun with the Nerazim, and Selendis with the Khalai.
For the Zerg, kept in a suitable bio-containment, there only needed to be one broodmother to ferry the information to all others, so that was Zagara. Abathur was also there, the slug-like evolution master, Stukov, the only mildly human one there, and Dehaka.
XXXXX
Artanis stood up, and began to speak.
"A lot has happened in the past four months, and we have already had introductions during the public period, so let us get to the point.
This conference is intended for the factions to report on their progress in militarization, expansion, reporting on threat profiles for the various forces in this galaxy, and the putting forward of plans for the future. Of course, full reports will be exchanged following this conference, this is an informal presentation, if you will, a diplomatic firing range."
"The Terrans will speak first"
Sighing, Valerian got up, and in the Audience, various scientists, military leaders, and politicians rose to join him on the stage.
The Terrans would start off with their Diplomatic Trump Card.
James Raynor, with good relations with each race.
Raynor stepped forward. Despite being a rather direct and casual man, over the years, he had become quite the orator.
"As covered in my speech during the public session, the views of the Terran Dominion, and all Terrans is clear. We are not ideologically compatible with the Imperium whatsoever. We do not know how, or why that the Human race exists in this universe, the exact same species down to the genetic level, but there is no point in exploring that, and being human offers little kinship.
The two main ideological barriers are the technological issue and the liberty issue. Technology is the most direct one. Even the most authoritarian of Terrans, even ol' Arcturus, or the UED, had one thing in common, constant, and incessant development of new technology and innovation. Playing around with every piece of alien tech they could get their hands on.
This alone puts us at utter odds with the Imperium of Man's practices espoused by their "Adeptus Mechanicus" regarding technology.
This one, while not as absolute as the issue of technology, is that of liberty. As all you Terrans know, our origins, where the UED government shoved Tens of thousands of the most unruly humans into space ships and threw us into the cosmos as part of their eugenics program. We were fighting each other and being rebellious in the cradle. The libertarian manifest destiny spirit is in all Terrans, with so many disparate factions, colonies, and political revolutions. We are absorbed with OUR destiny. Arcturus Mengsk was a tyrant, yet he fought the UED, tyrants of a different flavor, tooth and nail to maintain his version of power, and even then, he was a liberal compared to even moderate Imperial governments. And that is the worst of us.
Our economic system is on the verge of anarcho-capitalism.
the Terrans, if I may pat myself on the back, embody the chaotic nature of humanity in the stars, the best and the worst.
Even the best arguments about the Security the Imperium can provide are easily overturned, as the Imperium is an existential threat to the very concept of being a Terran.
So these two factors combined have seen very few attempts at defection, and any serious attempts were stopped by our Covert Ops group.
As for trade, I admit, there is a lot of trade between Imperial worlds and Terran firms, and the Dominion has not taken any actions to stop this
There was murmuring in the Crowd
"You willingly exchange your technology and resources to the enemy?" A protoss Executor asked
"Secrecy must be maintained." Abathur gurgled.
"Valerian, your turn"
Valerian stepped forward
"I know this sounds risky, but in truth, we allow freedom, along with secret mass-surveillance. Covert Ops watch as much of the trade as possible. We're not going to stop a person selling some gauss rifles for lasguns, in fact, the Dominion government is one of the main buyers of Imperial tech, but any serious violations are very swiftly dealt with.
All major parties have restricted official travel and expansion into Imperial Space.
Besides, there is a large several-light-year gap between us and Imperial space in the form of the Halo Stars. With our FTL, it is easy to traverse, but difficult for Imperial FTL.
All that aside, one thing is clear, I cannot and WILL not regulate Terran trade, I can't clamp down with an iron fist, it will just make it worse. This is Terran behavior, human behavior, prohibition only increases demand.
"Besides, I don't see anything wrong with this compared to you protoss's merry Crusade and the Zergs utterly unprovoked infestation of Moridax Prime."
This brought silence.
"Exactly, we are all doing risky stuff, risks that must be taken for expansion. All we can do is minimize damage, and hopefully, cover each other's backs.
Valerian Finished.
Admiral Horner?
"Thank you Emperor."
"The Dominion fleet has not reported any major Imperial Movements in our sector of space, activity has been limited to catching serious defectors or cleaning up Imperial monitoring stations.
"This is what I guess most of you are most interested in. Terran Military and Technological progress.
Roy Swann, chief engineer, and Commander Laurence, heroes of the Tyrador indent, will be joining me."
First off, fleet power:
For the first time, the Zerg and Protoss were now listening intently.
"The Dominion fleet currently operates 14 battle groups, fleet groups, each of varying sizes. Two fleets are always stationed in the core worlds for home defense, the others are distributed elsewhere.
We in total have around 113 Battlecruisers of Various class in active service, and around 53 mothballed vessels, with almost 16 being built at any given moment. We plan on expanding our production capacity in the coming weeks if the protoss purifier armament deal goes through in the negotiation hall.
"I keep getting reminded that Terrans sure re-build quickly," Kerrigan remarked. Last I heard, the end war had been tough on you.
"We got better" Swann shot back.
"I guess it wasn't really much of an end war then. I hope these imperials can put more of a dent in you than Amon" Kerrigan joked
Anyways, The Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojians operate 15 and 16 battlecruiser respectively.
Independent Terran groups, colonies, and Mercs, operate a combine 14 battlecruisers by our most recent estimates.
"Really? That many?" Vorazun asked. You have a minor fleet's worth of cruisers lying around like lint.
"yep." Horner responded.
Now, for classes:
Currently, it is impossible to fight up-front, so our entire fleet, for now, will be geared to asymmetric warfare, hti and runs, etc.
The Minotaur class, the 900 meter vessel you are all familiar with, while useless in direct combat, serves an invaluable tactical role. It is a good picket ship and is well armed and armored for it's size, good for raids, tactical missions, hit and runs, etc... .It also has very verstaille FTL, capable of tactical jumps and bringing itself into planet-side combat, better than even some protoss ships.
"Well, we have the warp network" Fenix remarked.
"When it's not spewing daemons left and right" Horner shot back.
The Minotaur is a swiss army knife. Fighter screen, raiding ship, use it in ground combat, troop carriers, transport ship, name it and you can do it.
In a pinch, we can use it as suicide bombs with nukes, but I doubt that will work again.
It serves the corvette role in the new dominion structure, and is invaluable, so production will continue with constant upgrades. The Minotaur will always be a small raiding ship, so technology will be focused on better jumps, more powerful weapons, and stealth.
Additionally, due to it's relatively small size, it is very vespene-efficient.
But now, our first completely new design, our stopgap firepower that may actually damage Imperial vessels.
The Artemis-class battlecruiser.
Or Swann likes to call them, flying Yamato Cannons with Engines strapped to them, our current stop-gap firepower option.
The screen behind them showed an image of a skeletal looking battlecruiser, 1.2 kilometers long, but probably with only half the mass of a Minotaur-class. Armor stripped off, main weapons stripped off, it was skin-and-bones.
But one feature was visible, a massive Yamato cannon along its spine, linked to a huge fusion reactor that was oversized even for the larger ship, it's containment area bludging outwards of the cruiser's frame.
Horner continued "It was designed like the Protoss tempest, a complete glass cannon used to pick off ships at very long range. "
It has 3 goals, and has the energy to achieve only those three goals:
1: Jump into combat
2:fire it's Yamato Cannon
3:Jump out
Protection has been complete sacrificed, a SINGLE STARFIGHTER could cripple it, our only goal is to make that Yamato Cannon bigger and more powerful, while still able to do two jumps in quick succession.
Our current most powerful Yamato Cannon is pushing several dozen Megatons of TNT.
Another upside is that it is insanely vespene-element efficient due to it being super weight with only around half the mass of a Minotaur class battlecruiser,
The vespene element used to build the FTL drive of 1 Minotaur class can build 2 Artemis-class vessels.
"wait, how did you Terrans get such good energy capacity. Last I heard making two FTL jumps in quick succession was nearly impossible." Vorazun Asked.
At this Swann Smiled:
"Here's the thing, we've made huge strides in reverse-engineering Imperial Technology. The problem with fusion reactors is that while they generate massive amounts of energy OVER TIME we can only store a finite amount of energy at any given moment. It takes a while to actually accumulate that energy from the fusion reactor. The limiting factor here is the amount of energy we can store at any given point, and previously, we could only store enough for either 1 yamato cannon and a jump, or two jumps or two yamato cannons."
"But Imperial las-weapon tech has greatly aided in the energy storage department, and not just militarily. While we had a field day dissecting the lance-batteries on the Axius, the smallest thing actually made the biggest difference."
Swann pulled something out of the pocket and held it up
"A laspack, the standard ammunition for a lasgun. It's tiny, barely the size of 5-round clip, yet it stores 50-100 shots of las-shots, each able to heat the local area to plasma-temperatures for a minature explosion. While practically it may do the same amount of damage as a good ol' .50cal, the actual amount of energy discharged is more akin to throwing an HE grenade everything you fire this. This energy density is absolutely REVOLUTIONARY.
Not just is military tech, but computation, appliances, larger capacitors for gauss rifle acceleration rails, the lasguns by themselves are excellent weapons, name a Terran technology and las packs improve it.
However, Laspacks are VERY advanced technology, only widespread due to Imperial factories with the exclusive knowledge pumping out trillions of them. The fact that they can be-recharged with ambient heat violates thermodynamics. That is the level of technology we're dealing with here. The technology is insanely advanced, and we are months, even years away from making even knockoff copies of them. The biggest issue is miniaturization.
But it seems these Imperials put advanced tech in the most narrow-minded places possible, like putting graviton tech onto SWORDS for lightsaber wannabes, heh. What I mean is the PRINCIPLES of the laspack energy storage are nothing short of revolutionary.
Information dug up every day is revolutionizing energy storage, appliances, computation, EVERYTHING. Electronics, terraforming tech, sub-light and FTL engines. The gauss rifle can swap out its bulky capacitors for the railgun-acceleration for laspack tech for a tenth of the size and mass. Miniaturization and efficiency.
Ironically, we've had the biggest improvements on the largest scale, due to just, large-scale stuff generally being easier, we've made more progress in increasing battlecruiser energy storage than improving gauss rifle capacitors with las-tech.
Namely, we've nearly quadrupled the energy storage of a Battlecruisers, we've increased the amount of jumps we can do, the power of Yamato cannons, to not only the Artemis class, but the Minotaur class as well.
The point being, yes, the Artemis class, and the minotaur class, can now do two jumps and 1 Yamato cannon firing in quick succession, and the Yamato cannon yield on the Artemis class is currently at 22 Megatons of TNT, nearly triple previously, all thanks to this little thing.
Swann admired the Laspack.
"The lance batteries are simpler than the miniaturized las-pack in some ways, but infinitely more complex in others, and we've getting a lot of information from that too.
"Quite innovative," Karax remarked.
"While we are further ahead in energy storage, especially with our solar reactors (artificial stars), which unfortunately are not very compatible with Terran technology, disallowing our sharing, some principles of Imperial tech may be useful for increasing efficiency."
Swann smiled.
"thanks, err, phase-smith? Anyways, while I have no idea how the hell they do it, we've also sent samples of them to the Zerg, and they've already started to apply the knowledge to biological systems, biological energy storage based on laspacks. Good for you I guess?"
"Gratitude well received. Sarcasm not." Abathur quipped.
"Now, for the big-boy, our dream "ship of the Line," analogous to your Greater Armada initiative."
Swann continued.
We've scrapped production of the Gorgon-class and any other large Battlecruiser class. It's because they were aiming for what we are aiming now, a big, bruiser, ship of the line battlecruiser, but they fell WAY to short. Their simple size discounts them from even upgrading. It's like knowing you're going to be fighting tanks, and bringing a 37mm AT gun when you're going to need 105mm APSFDS.
The Screen lit up with what looked to be an oversized gorgon-class battlecruiser, with some Imperial characteristics. It was 4.5 kilometers long.
"I present the Sovereign-class Battlecruiser,
our eventual goal. Come to think of it, battlecruisers are already kinda like Imperial vessels, a defined front and back connected by a thick mid-section. Currently, our gorgon-class battlecruisers look like small Imperial vessels if you squint. In a way, the final vessel will look like a miniaturized battle-barge.
It's armament will be spine and bow-mounted lance-battery analogs along with mass accelerators, super-rail guns along the lines of the Drakken Pulse orbital defense cannon, but a dozen times more powerful. Our current hope is to have the primary weapon be the bow-mounted super-Yamato cannon, that can fire 500 megtaon shots or higher REPEATEDLY in a short period of time. Not to mention a ton of improved starfighters.
Again, currently, our entire fleet, from the Artemis class and the Minotaur class, is asymmetric warfare, hit and runs. This is the eventual end goal, where we can fight them head on.
." We currently have a prototype on the way, but there are several limitations. Like, WAY too many limitations.
The first issue is that we are currently relying on the fact that we are able to reverse-engineer Imperial building Materials and Void shields.
If we make them out of good old neo steel and energy shields and not adamantium and void shields, the Sovereign class will just be a 4.5-kilometer long sugar wafer. Not to mention the technology needed to make lance batteries and the Super-yamatos, and miniaturize the Rail-gun capacitors.
Secondly, powerplant and energy. It is HUGE ship, so we are relying on Imperial Tech, or having the Protoss give us Solar Reactor tech, which is still currently being negotiated.
Lastly is that it's going to be vespene intensive as hell. Like, vespene needed to make the FTL drives of 10 minotaur-class battlecruisers and 20 Artemis class cruisers would be needed to give it FTL drives.
While we can reverse engineer, this will be the biggest limiting factor
From the vespene standpoint, (NOT materials, we have material resource to burn) the value gained from a Soverign class is NOT worth it, compared to how many artemis class cruisers we can make.
In fact, our current plan is to have the Sovereign-class cruisers be built on defended worlds as FTL-less System monintor ships, a mobile orbital defense station. We're in negotiations with the protoss on whether they could use their mothership's mass recall and the protoss warp network to have the Cruisers go from system to system, but that would take up a lot of protoss resources and would STILL be terribly immobile.
"Anyways, I yield my time to the speaker," Swann replied.
"Thank you." The protoss, will speak next.
Artanis, Rohana, Vorazun, and Colarion took to the Stage.
"As you all may know, the protoss warp network, and the psi-matrix power grid in general did suffer from the warp following the transit, but for the most part (Artanis looked at the ascendant, who was beaming the info to Alarak)
We were mostly successful in managing it."
"However, again, the Psi-matrix is just a portal to the warp where we filter raw warp energy into something usable. We have to drastically reduce the usage of Warp-energy, and switch to non-warp tech."
"remember, the Protoss effectively have a unique form of FTL IN ADDITION to vespene-based FTL, being the psi-matrix warp network, using the streams of purified warp energy to create "paths" in the warp, to beam troops and fleets around very quickly, faster than non-warp vespene based FTL. All you need is a connection to the psi-matrix, a pylon, and you can be warped in/out.
It is limited by the range of the psi-matrix it is based around. A psi-matrix on a mothership can teleport troops from 1 planet to the next in 1 system, while the psi-matrix on Aiur can teleport the entire golden armada across the Kopluru Sector.
"Currently, the Psi-Matrix is ONLY used for FTL travel, maintaining the warp Network as it is the one thing that we cannot replace with other means, due to vespene limitations. It is a completely different form of FTL, essentially, a spontaneously generated tunnel of warp energy which subsequently collapses after usage.
"Everything that doesn't expressly NEED warp energy is being replaced with normal energy, fusion reactors, solar reactors, our purifier weapons, etc.
This is where Executor Colarion, the thousand-year-old Protoss in a robotic body (not Fenix, he's a warrior, not an orator or diplomat) approached.
"I speak for the purifiers, and I know that we have been given a massive purpose in this new universe. We represent the protoss, devoid of any psionic connection, in fully material bodies, an invaluable situation. We were made for war, endless war. Our technology, our fabrication bays, are the most important thing. Within them, we can produce protoss capital ships, technology of any sort that isn't warp-related, in weeks. When we were awakened during the End War, we took the design for the Tempest and began manufacturing them with less than a month of our re-awakening to the point that purifier Made tempests outnumbered normal tempests before we vanquished Amon. All in less than two months.
We are working hard to install non-warp FTL on protoss vessels as a backup, with the warp Network still being the primary form of FTL and distributing solar reactors everywhere.
We are able to mass-produce anything the Daelamm need. We also understand the value of it for the Terrans. We are currently in intense negotiations, and any statement made now will be of little use, there are a lot of questions of sovereignty and tradition to be heeded even in these trying times."
"Selendis, report on the fleet"
"Thank You Hierarch."
"As many of your may be aware, the Protoss have regrettably recognized that the Carrier and Void ray have zero viability in void combat. They are even more obsolete than your Terran minotaur class battlecruisers.
They still do have massive utility for when we bring our capital ships in ground combat, planet-side. However, in that role, the void ray is objectively better, further kicking down the carrier.
The only vessels we have to engage an Imperial strike group in direct combat is the Spear of Adun, and Cybros station, the 60-kilometer wide purifier installation capable of FTL.
Or current void combat fleet consists of two types of vessels, and are used in conjunction to carry out only asymmetrical warfare.
The Tempest and the Mothership. Our current motherships are not able to fight even destroyer-class Imperial vessels head on, but they provide a massive strategic benefit. Each one carries it's own psi-matrix, allowing it to create it's own miniature psi-matrix and warp network, as well as linking it to the overall network on Aiur. It is able to transport fleets instantly on a solar-system level (due to limited range) and provides strategic planet-glassing options, as well as time manipulation, and even causing black holes.
However, these are all strategic assets, with no real direct combat effectiveness.
Motherships are surprisingly light, they are not vespene intensive for what they are worth, so they themselves can have decently powerful non-warp FTL, and not be bound by the Psi-Matrix
The mothership's carries around its OWN psi-matrix. That leads to more issues, as it is powered by100 percent warp energy.
The purifier beam it shoots is warp energy. Its own psi-matrix using warp energy enables FTL travel for ships around it in a miniature warp-network, with only a solar-system range.
Due to psi-matrixes always operating at low power, the mothership has a massive reactor only allowed to produce a small amount of energy, so we've decided to roll back the psi-matrix power as we can't use it anyways.
A major development for that is hybrid motherships, the psi-matrix it carries only being used for local Warp network projection, something that is irreplaceable. Black holes and time warps are also much easier to create with clean warp energy.
All other weapons systems including the purifier weapon are being replaced by solar reactors, anything that doesn't NEED psionic energy is being replaced with material Energy
It has already been expensively rolled out, manufactured, again, by the purifiers. You will see the central Khaydarin crystal as being greatly reduced in size.
Another new technology is the Purifier's "replacement" for the LOCAL Warp network, which is Local instantaneous FTL network. Namely, it's turning troops and structures into beams of particles and light, and shooting them at lightspeed across space. Locally, it is effectively the same as the psionic warp network. However, it is constrained by lightspeed. This for now only works for purifier robotic bodies, however.
We're planning on making weaponized motherships as a stop-gap front line vessel, a 4-kilometer wide mothership with heavy shielding and armor, similar to the Tal'darim, but these will be prototypes at best, as we need every mothership for their strategic support role.
The Tal'darim are…interesting, as due to their "trial by blood and fire" fighting Chaos, their motherships, the 7 of them they have, can use the psi-matrix freely, protected by their "hatred for Chaos" and the warp energy they fire is like anti-matter for Chao's matter. But that is entirely esoteric tech that can't be replicated.
The tempest needs no explanation. They are the perfect vessel for long-distance hit and run tactics. From the start, they didn't use the psi-matrix or use warp energy. We are making them more powerful with exchanged Imperial energy storage tech to make the (superior) solar reactors more efficient. And we are making A LOT of them.
While all protoss vessels have backup vespene FTL drives, tempests aren't mobile, with only a very minor backup non-warp FTL requiring the powering down of the main weapon and an hour preparation for a jump. Only for long-distance travel if separated from the warp network.
(On that note, it is INSANELY vespene efficient, each tempest's backup drive only needing half of an Artemis-class battlecruiser.
and that's what the mothership's psi matrix is for. The motherships local instantenous FTL network. warp battlegroups of tempests around, while they continuously fire, aided by the various abilites motherships can cast. These two ships will work in tandem for ultimate asyemtric warfare.
2 or 3 motherships will surround an Imperial fleet in a wide circle, and Tempests will attack from 1 direction, picking off a ship, before being mass-recalled to one of the motherships, and re-engage from a completely different directions, rinse and repeat.
Our current fleet is the Spear of Adun and Cybros station, along with 21 Motherships, 162 Tempests and the number of Carriers and void rays is irrelevant at this point. Alarak has 7 motherships in his little crusade.
"It seems you're distancing yourself from psionic energy." Kerrigan remarked.
"We have no choice" Artanis shot back.
"But I assure you, the protoss still stand by, and are perfectly able to use our psionic powers for good."
"sure." Kerrigan snarked.
Karax stepped forward:
However, we bring two major points of interest to the table. We protoss have cracked Imperial Void shield technology, and the return of Super-carriers for our Greater Aramada initiative.
"Wait, void shields?" The Terran and Zerg factions both shouted simultaneously.
"Expirementally, but yes. Void shields are superior to traditional plasma and energy shields that we possess. In short, void shields use warp technology to shunt projectiles or energy into the warp, or use warp energy to divert projectiles.
Efficiency wise, due to the very prous nature of the warp, void-shields have very high power capacity, only being limited by the machine's ability to control the warp, and not have it overload and spawn a warp rift.
OF course, void shields can take insane amounts of firepower, given what firepower is exchanged by Imperial Navy vessels constantly.
We protoss, already using warp, tech, and based on the designs of the Axius-cruiser (whose void shield projectors were damaged by the Terran nuking) have already adapted our psi-matrix to make a proto-void shield with promising results, but we will need more Imperial Technology.
"I believe your Stukov can provide that" Karax said, with a hint of disgust in his void
"Do not disrespect MY new flagship." Stukov shot back.
"However, that gives us the limitation that void shields HAVE to rely warp-based technology. This poses some issues for the protosss (risks of overloading psi-matrixes) but are generally low, and massive continental void shields can be powered by planetary psi-matrixes
The Zerg also uses psionic beasts in the form of Leviathans, so they may have a shot at establishing void shields.
That leaves the Terrans at fault. They have no easy access to warp-energy tech, and are still very inexperienced with it, and their tinkering, while well intentioned, could be very dangerous. If they want void shields, they have three options.
They get psi-matrix pylon tech from us,
the Zerg give them the ability to breed massive biological psionic brains,
or they crack Imperial Void-shield generators.
"Well that's not fair at all" Swann muttered
"The galaxy isn't fair, Friend Swann. Karax retorted.
"Hey, what about normal energy shield generators, or all the myriad of different theoretical shield technology?"
"Do not worry. Even in the most optimal scenario, Void shields will be planetary or capital ship scale shields. It is very difficult to miniaturize void shields, if not simply impossible.
On the ground, our troops will still use conventional plasma shields, along with most structures.
Additionally, with the new energy storage technology mentions by the Terrans, we could see plasma shields and energy shields possibly rivaling the defense provided of void shields in the future. A benefit of this is that we would no longer need to rely on the warp, but for now, void shields are the easy way out, and it shouldn't stop conventional shield tech development.
We are actually eager to see the developments of Imperial las-pack technology by you Terrans as it could greatly bolster the plasma shields of our troops.
"One step ahead of you, Hierarch, we've already massively improved our energy shields on an experimental level." Swann shouted.
"I hope to see the results, and we will share our findings with you."
Anyways, the last order of Business is the Supercarrier.
Almost everything said about the Sovereign-class is true for the Supercarrier. It is 4-5 kilometers long, based on the likes of Tassadar's flagship, a rapid-firing purifier laser, and we plan on greatly improving our interceptors, increasing their size and armor and armament to more resemble Scouts in damaging power, with anti-matter bombs.
We will need to improve our materials and fully implement void shields for it to be worth it, as if we made it out of normal protoss materials, it would be a 4-5 kilometer sugar wafer.
There is the limitation of vespene, which is partially mitigated by the warp network, but it is still an issue, as it will definitely need backup FTL.
There is still the opportunity cost of making 20 tempests for each Supercarrier, which is a debate we as protoss will have to have.
That is all.
"Thank you, Karax."
XXXXXXXXX
"Now, (sigh) for the Zerg to speak." Artanis sighed.
"thank you." Kerrigan said, dripping with Sarcasm.
"Well, I know I betrayed all of you 7 years ago in a similar alliance with the UED, but all I can say is that there is a 0.01 percent chance we're going to make it out alive. If I end up betraying you, it will mean that we've achieved the impossible. "
"Anyways, I will get to the point."
FTL is an awkward issue for the Zerg, as we currently have FOUR options.
"Leviathans are psionic creatures, but use the vespene element for non-warp FTL. Their psionic energy is the fusion reactor that ionizes the vespene element in its drive organs. Psionic energy for a material purpose, like turning a turbine to generate electricity with telekinesis.
The Second Is TRUE warp travel. The Overmind opened actual rifts in the warp to transport itself through the tides of the immaterial. This is not something we can do now, as I am not sure if I am strong enough to guide the Swarm through the warp, especially in this tumultuous period of time.
However, it is a very real possibility.
Going into warp science, while the protoss have more psionic power individually, the Zerg's psionic gestalt in the warp, the psionic link that I use to control the Swarm, the Hive mind, is a dozen more times as powerful.
The question is if the hive mind is powerful enough to hold it's own in transporting a fleet of Zerg. As the swarm grows, I grow in strength, so realistically, I could begin experimenting with pure warp travel. The hive mind, the psionic link, serving as our "Gellar field" and guide, as the Zerg hive-mind is a warp entity.
Abathur is also currently designing some overmind-like super-psionic beasts that could potentially intiate warp travel.
The third is infested Imperial Navy vessels. The Zerg will expand and assimilate, and Imperial Navy vessels, starting with Stukov's "Directorate" Grand Cruiser, we will eventually have a sizable fleet of Imperial Navy vessels. They have Gellar fields and warp drives, and their astronomicon will hopefully, be, well, ME.
(Stukov's vessel currently doesn't have warp drives, and we don't know the technology, so we're planning on re-fitting it with vespene-based FTL at the cost of the vespene needed to make 2 leviathans. However, we don't have enough vespene to arm every Imperial Navy vessel with non-FTL drives, so we will eventually have to crack Warp drives.
The fourth, is Tyranid FTL, which is actual bonafide, obeying the laws of physics WORM HOLES. Currently, our FTL relies on vespene, an ultra-advanced plot-device material made by the Xel'naga that is super-easy to use, FTL Served to us on a silver platter, or literally traveling through hell. The Tyranid Narvahal, while we have not enough information, seems to use gravity to creative actual wormholes that make sense with physics. That could be a potential for the Zerg. However, it is VERY inefficient.
Anyways, the Zerg are exploring all 4 and will be delivering you our findings.
Now for Naval power:
Simply put, we are getting rid of Leviathans as they are the most INEFFICIENT and HORRIBLE vessels we have now, 6 kilometers of uselessness. Previously they were unstoppable behemoths that relied on sheer size. Now, a single macrocannon shell can cripple it. Each one uses an insane amount of vespene, and while we zerg have the largest supply of it, using it for leviathans is inefficient.
Besides, I have to admit, capital-class bio-vessels are simply inherently inferior to actual capital ships. Bioweapons are much closer ranged, difficult to deliver etc. Abathur has already concluded that no matter how much we change the leviathan, it will not win against Imperial vessels.
The point is, the Zerg will adapt, adapt to shift Naval power away from Capital ships and more to smaller vessels.
Even as a troop carrier, it is now obsolete, with Infested Imperial Navy vessels. Even if for now we don't use warp travel, the vespene needed to re-fit an infested cruiser class Imperial Navy ship with Non-warp FTL would only be 1 leviathan worth of vespene. And it can serve in front-line combat against Imperial Navy vessels, and serve as a troop transport. An objectively better allocation.
Our actual Naval power comes from the courrptor and scourge and our new carrier vessel. Void-superiority organisms. It's caustic spray, viral parasites were meant to destroy capital ships. It's durable and can whittle down large ships. While they struggle against Imperial AA defenses, we can adapt, and the courrptor shows the most promise.
We are making bulked up courrptors to simply take the AA fire and improve their caustic sprays
We are making boarding torpedo courrptors with caustic-acid drills to perform mass boarding actions, and vastly improving scourge to hit harder.
We are the swarm, and the courrptor is our answer to Imperial Navy vessels, and we hope to gain further improvements with assimilating Tyranid organisms.
The Carrier is the "Hive Carrier" where scourge and courrptors will be based.
It's only 600 meters long, a thin cylinder of flesh covered in holes like a Trypophobic's nightmare. It uses vespene FTL and due to its small size and weight, is extremely efficient, even more so than the TEMPEST, and thus be mass-produced. It will use it's psionic power as a "fusion reactor" to power the non-warp FTL.
Its purpose is to carry 200-300 Courrptors in its interior and serve as their re-supply and re-nourishment, base, as well as spawn new courrptors. Ans scourge.
The FTL is efficient enough for rapid response, but not tactical jumps.
We do not have enough Imperial vessels to recycle Leviathans yet, so they will be supply ships
The Zerg will commit to full-on Hive carrier-based fleets as our main power, supported by Leviathan/Imperial Navy vessels as supply and transport ships, and the Infested Imperial Navy will be our vanguard and frontline.
Our infestation will also wreak havoc with logistics of any faction we face, turning their forces against them.
"Even in this private setting, we will never condone infestation" Valerian and Artanis spoke.
"You don't need to. Do what you always do. Say it's a completely independent action by the Zerg, and I'll give you the tech we agreed on as a result of infestation after the Cameras leave. We'll do your dirty work."
Also, did I forget to mention that there's a Hive-fleet Incoming to the Kopluru Sector? Quite the opportunity for improving the Zerg Swarm.
WAIT WHAT THE FUCK. Everyone else simultaneously shouted.
"Yes. Kerrigan stated." In the infestation of Moridax Prime, we have discovered that a small Tyranid splinter fleet is stalking the Halo Stars. After assimilating the patriarch's DNA, we get occasional psionic "pings" and based on said pings, we can roughly pinpoint the location of the Hive fleet."
"When you say splinter fleet, you mean a fleet of 1000 or more Capital-class vessels, correct?"
"Yes, the fleet currently, in terms of capital vessels, outnumbers the combined Kopluru Forces."
There was silence.
"HOWEVER, Tyranid bioships, in short, are much weaker than your standard Imperial vessel, on par with KOPLURU vessels.
Tyranid vessels have all the flaws of the leviathan. They have poor ranged weaponry, only have mediocre armor that can be destroyed by Kopluru Sector weapons. They rely on sheer size and number their vessels, ships that can literally eat Imperial Navy cruisers. Some vessels reach 10-12 kilometers as the norm, but again, it's 10-20 kilometers of sugar-wafer armor.
Another key weakness is that the Tyranids rely on a very slow and inefficient form of FTL, and they often arrive at the edge of solar systems and take weeks to arrive at the target planet.
We have superior mobility, and our stopgap firepower, your Artemis-class cruisers and Tempests, designed to match long-range Imperial weapons, can chip away at hive fleets with virtual impunity.
Their massive slow movements also make them vulnerable to strategic weapons like Nuclear Mines and various protoss black hole/time warp weapons.
The issue is that while we can kill Tyranid vessels, and in a way that minimizes causalities, the fleet is just too massive, it will take months of assault to cripple the fleet, like having a good diamond-tipped jackhammer, but having to jackhammer down a mountain. By that time, the fleet will have overrun countless worlds.
"We will send you information regarding the Tyranid Hive fleet, and we'll coordinate attacks on the Hive fleet once I get the next few Psionic Pings. Besides, it's a good way to test our stopgap firepower. We could spend days discussing tactics, this is just scratching the surface."
"So, what about you Zerg? While you are a dozen times more adaptable and efficient compared to the Tyranids, the Tyranids are no slouches either, how can we guarantee that the various dangerous features of the Zerg Swarm will not be assimilated in the Tyranid Swarm?"
Artanis Asked
"That's the elephant in the room Kerrigan, how do you plan on fighting the Tyranids?"
Horner followed up.
"…..risk and reward. If it were just this hive fleet in a vacuum, we Zerg would win in terms of sheer adaptability, the biggest risk is that the Hive fleet sends Zerg DNA to other fleets, and that could cause massive shockwaves in the Imperial war against the Tyranids and tip the balances, that could cause catastrophic consequences."
"We also can't conduct traditional infrastructure infestation, because, well, Tyranids."
"But that's where we must work together. In a direct fight, there's too much risk of cross-assimilation. But if you can break off sections of the hive fleet, isolate them, we can easily overwhelm ships with corruptor swarms, with no risk of adaptation being passed to the overall swarm.
Again, we could discuss tactics for hours and hours.
Aside from the Tyranids, the Zerg will continue opportunistic expansion of the Halo Stars, due to the remote nature, this will continue unimpeded. The Swarm is also obviously interested in further infesting Imperial Worlds, but again, we assure you that we will comply with Kopluru Secrecy protocols as much as possible, and work with you two races and hand over we find in "Completely independent and reprehensible actions by the Zerg Swarm"
That is the our current status. While the Zerg doesn't need biomass to make more troops, we can just use raw inorganic materials in the halo stars, but we NEED to infest Imperial worlds and Imperial technology to expand, thus, our expansion has to go into Imperial space.
Also:
Kerrigan leaned towards Valerian
"We will be the largest source of Imperial technology, thanks to our infestation, do not forget that."
After Valerian recoiled, Kerrigan leaned back.
Now, how about you protoss, from what I hear, Alarak is going around with his dick flailing in the wind cosplaying as the Inquisition, burning Chaos-infested planets, and not just in the Kopluru Sector and the Halo stars, but Imperial Space."
Artanis took the stage:
"Yes. Following the chaos invasion of their world, the Tal'darim have elected to go on an anti-chaos crusade. However, unlike what most of you may think of them, they are acting very rationally, and are coordinating well with the rest of the protoss, even offering help in dealing with Chaos-related issues. They follow all the secrecy procedures, and their FTL makes them virtually immune to detection by Imperial forces. As for why they are patrolling Imperial Space, the risk of Chaos is much higher, we can't risk a Chaos incursion popping up right next door, and the simple fact that there are several organizations, protoss, Terran, and Zerg all policing incidents of chaos at home, so in short, the Kopluru Sector is covered."
"Besides, I have had several Terrans and many protoss approach me about using Alarak's crusade as a "outpost, a base, a Terminal in Imperial Space for various reconnaissance, trade, and deep operations. It is a powerful military force aligned with the Kopluru Sector that swears to secrecy, so it has a huge potential to become a terminal of sorts to deeper Imperial Space."
"As for actual protoss expansion, we do not need anything else besides raw materials, so our expansion is primarily into the abandoned Halo Stars. We have numerous covert operations to steal Imperial technology, as well as deals with both the Terran and protoss, but in short, we are not forced to expand into Imperial Space, like the Zerg.
"Done your exposition speech yet?" Kerrigan drawled sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact, yes. That leaves the Terrans on for their strategic report."
Horner got up.
"I will keep this short. The Terrans will continue to expand trade with various Imperial worlds. We only have covert black-market operations now, but in the next weeks, we are planning on establishing trade deals and negotiating with more rebellious and open-minded Imperial governors at the highest level.
However, actually incorporating Imperial world populations to the Kopluru is impossible, and we won't even try. We cannot simply assimilate so many people, in some cases, worlds have the same population as the ENTIRE Terran population , and that can lead to innumerable consequences. The demographic clash, is just too much. The Imperials will never accept the fact that they are allied to the Protoss and monstrous space bugs that turn planets into Zombies, and the majority of Terrans HATE the Imperium.
Our expansion will primarily be economic trade at the highest level, and not actually conquering Imperial worlds, we just aren't ready, and might NEVER be ready.
We will focus on expanding into the Halo Stars, mainly mining operations, and develop "Upwards" instead of "outwards" namely, industrializing and advancing all worlds in the Kopluru Sector, Terran-focused, as opposed to going around and trying to convert Imperial worlds.
We won't even consider incorporating Imperial Worlds unless they have a tiny population, and the population hates the Imperium so much that they would cheer for the damn Zerg in infesting neighboring planets.
As you all know, we have the most viable diplomatic basis, being humans, and our negotiations about technology and whatnot will inevitably have us serve as the mouthpiece of the Kopluru Sector, and rest assured, we will consult all of you before we say anything.
"Our time is coming to an end, here, there is one last order of business."
Artanis shuddered.
"Chaos."
There was silence.
Kerrigan spoke.
"The Zerg are a hive-mind. As long as I am in power, the Zerg at at zero risk of Chaotic infestation, and dealing with Amon, our swarm has experience with fighting the warp."
"The Protoss are individually powerful psionics, and we are trained for centuries to master the art. Only under extreme conditions (IE, Slayn previously being an open warp rift) have we been affected. There is minimal risk."
All eyes turned to the Terrans.
Rohana spoke
"Unfortunately, your primitive race is the greatest liability when it comes to dealing with Chaos. Of course, the protoss are obligated to have Templar monitors stationed in Terran space, especially in your "ghost academies", but it is a very taxing process."
"The Zerg aren't taking any chances either. We have changeling spies in Terran society and any instance of chaos we will immediately report to you, but what are YOU doing to deal with this."
Valerian sighed.
"I believe our specialist can encapsulate the issue better."
All eyes turned to a figure emerging from a back row.
Nova stepped forward into the light. She looked like she had aged around 7 years in the past 4 months. Her skin was discolored from the radiation burns that even nanomachines couldn't bump out. The radiation damage had turned her blonde hair into almost white, a faded yellow, not bothering with dye, but it was still tied back in a ponytail.
She was clad in a typical Terran diplomatic garb, and of course, she had the large metal box, a psionic inhibitor strapped to the back of her neck. The sorry state of the ghost program for you.
However, what was most striking was a pendant around her neck, which looked like an Imperial Aquila.
However, on closer inspection, it wasn't exactly that. It was a "Terran Aquila", Silver in color, not gold.
The overall symbol for the Terrans in the Kopluru Sector was an eagle set inside a triangle, the wings were smaller, only barely exiting the triangle on either side.
What she wore was that, but the wings had been greatly expended outwards to more resemble Imperial Iconography, and on closer inspection, was inscribed with various latin prayers, a mixture of lectico devinatatus and old-earth prayers.
She also had a book at her side, (an actual bona-fide paper BOOK, that was shocking) titled "Lectico devinatatus Terranis"
Approaching the Lectern, she began speaking.
"What is most important to the Terran Character is the freedom and innovation inherent to our society. That is what makes us terrans, and if we were to get rid of it, we would be no different from the Imperium.
I know how dangerous chaos is. It is an infohazard, an memetic hazard, a cognitohazard, metaphysical courrption, staring at a symbol too long will make you tear your guts out and praise the blood god. Reading a line of corrupted scripture will cause your brain to literally explode. I know how dangerous chaos is, and I am by NO MEANS, an optimist who thinks chaos isn't that bad.
I know how dangerous Chaos is. I would agree with the Imperial inquisition 90 percent of the time.
It is also undeniable that we terrans are susceptible to Chaos, and it will be an omnipresent threat.
However, despite all of the dangers of chaos, the Inquisition has one goal.
Deal with chaos without crushing the Terran spirit, crushing freedom. We will NOT instill massive sweeping bans on innovation, install laws or moral codes against certain activities. We will do none of that. We will let Terran society carry on as usual.
We will stop chaos cults, but we will not stifle the freedom that inevitably leads to their formation, as the elimination of that freedom is worse than anything else, as it would kill innovation that drives us forward. We will clean up the messes.
To carry out that, we have a secret mass-surveillance network on almost every human planet that is entirely secret and unknown, as even if it is an illusion, freedom must be maintained. Once we find Chaos, we go in an eliminate it, simple.
Besides, in reality, compared to Imperial worlds, the better standard of living and the fact that humans, for the most part, are decent people, chaos doesn't occur nearly as much as we feared, but in the cases that do occur, we take action swiftly.
Aside from physical mass surveillance, we have a almost 97 percent success rate in locating and finding Chaos cults, mainly thanks to our inquisition coordinates with Protoss and even Zerg psionic monitoring systems, and we even have Dark Templa and High Templar in our ranks.
Nova nodded at Vorazun, allowing her a small smile. They had personally talked about the issue previously.
"However."
Nova reached for the book at her side.
"Nova, that's enough, you're not supposed to-" Valerian shot upwards.
Nova didn't listen.
"The concept of faith is not a bad one. The basic concept of a supreme being, in this case, the Emperor, isn't inherently bad. I'm not going to go on a xenocidal rampage, but a simple fact is that in this universe, DEMONS ARE REAL. GODS ARE REAL.
You protoss can boil down the warp to an exact science. At the most basic level, the warp is a reflection of the beliefs and emotions of sapient life.
The Emperor, whether or not he was a real person, is an actual god because trillions believe in him. I'm surprised you protoss haven't spontaneously generated a "protoss god" at that point.
Artanis froze, looking nervous.
And something else that is undeniable is that faith offers REAL protections against the warp. Holding up an Aquila and praying actually DOES weaken warp entities.
How the Emperor acts depends directly on how we BELIEVE he would act, we mortals are in control of gods as much as they are in control of us.
Besides, the Imperial Cult is extraordinarily diverse. The holy book can vary so much from one sector to the other that if they ever came in contact, they would be at war immediately.
What I am saying is..
Nova Brandished the book.
Faith offers a true deterrent against chaos, we don't need to give into the Imperial cult and become backward xenocidal maniacs. We can interpret the God-emperor however we please, and make a Terran version of the Imperial cult. We share in the power of a entity that simply embodies humanity destiny and glory, something that we Terrans embodies fully, without killing every alien in sight.
All we need is to do is enjoy being alive as humans and not actively worship chaos, and we are giving strength to the Emperor, and he will protect us.
This is still in its very infant stages, but maybe, just maybe, we can instill some kind of religion, a "Terran Imperial Cult". And I have a feeling that this "Emperor" entity would certainly not mind.
In fact, I know he won't mind, because the Emperor SPOKE to m-"
NOVA!
Valerian shouted.
He looked as if he was about to throw her out of the conference, before calming down, he stopped.
"Nova, please. One thing more difficult than tolerating what is essentially you becoming a religious zealot is the fact that what you say is, for the most part, true. The faith option is something all of us, at the highest level have discussed, even independent of your plans. I don't know what happened on Korhal's moon that day to you, but please, even if the Emperor did whisper his sweet words into your ear, please, keep things rational.
"I have to admit, that is how the Warp works, and this Terran's claims do make perfect sense." Artanis commented on.
"The Zerg Hive mind is a warp entity, technically speaking, it's the Zerg god, but we wrest control of it directly."
Kerrigan remarked.
The Terrans in the crowd murmured and whispered. It was one thing to listen to a religious zealot ramble. It was another thing to listen knowing for a FACT that supernatural stuff exists.
"She has a point…."
"She has gone mad"
"How do we know this isn't a Chaos Psy-ops"
"the protoss agree with her"
"She's going to turn us into Imperium 2 electric boogaloo…."
"What do you mean, didn't you listen to the first half of her speech?"
"it's the year 2500, and now we're going BACK to religion?"
"The emperor protects?"
"Say….does that mean ol' Jesus Christ is around in the warp since we believe in him?" A Kel-morian combine official asked, carrying a heavy southern accent.
Nova sighed.
"My apologies, I shouldn't have been that direct, but my point still stands."
"Faith offers protection, and the Emperor is the only semi-benevolent entity which can provide protection of the soul in the damn universe. He is the god of humanity all you need to do it believe in humanity. You don't need to want to exterminate all Xenos, just literally anything aside from worshipping chaos, and just enjoying being alive.
It's not in conflict with the existence of aliens. Heck, you could take the bible and replace every mention of God with Emperor. It's up to you.
Currently, I'm working on the Lectico Devinatutus Terranis, incorporating elements of the Imperial cult, the basic Judeo-Christian ethical system that Terran society operates on, and Terran modernism (IE, don't exterminate the protoss and I want to continue to rapidly advance tech).
I don't want to be a "pope" or religious figure. I think the best way of implementing the faith is for it to grow naturally as a decentralized system, for everyone to worship the Emperor in their own way with thousands of small variations in a decentralized religious system.
All that is needed to worship is to like being human, and not actively worship chaos.
Before she left the stage, she turned around, and simply said:
"The Emperor Protects."
There was a sea of murmuring and whispers following her exit.
A few more exchanges followed, but that concluded the meeting.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Inquisitor Fredrich Sat in his cell. Being a political prisoner, his cell was rather well furnished, but he wore a simple white jumpsuit, disgustingly casual for his tastes. At least these savages allowed him to practice his faith.
But seeing what was on the television almost made him believe that there was no Emperor. The public session (no, he didn't see 90 percent what as described in the chapter)
of the State of the Sector broadcasted to everyone in the Kopluru Sector. While it was nowhere as in depth as the private session, one thing came through: Freidrich saw Humans, bug monsters, and 8-foot tall super-psionic aliens, sitting together in a conference like the damn senatorum Imperialis, NEGOTIATING.
This sector was heresy beyond heresy.
Every word of "cooperation" and "alliance" made his blood boil. These humans were as terrible as the hosts of Chaos.
More so, it was the simple THREAT they posed. He had absorbed information. He had calculated timelines and timescales, the sheer SPEED at which this heresy grew. These Kopluru Sector residents would be a cancer, a cancer that had arrived in the Emperor's galaxy, and their spread would be exponential.
All he could wish for was that Elfriede would receive and act on his message.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Calixis Sector.
Lord Inquisitor Elfriede. Lord Inquisitor. That title was one of the most powerful titles in the Imperium. Space Marine chapters would turn to dust with the flick of her wrist. Imperial Guard forces would divert from front to front at her whim. She could whip up crusades like a storm god of old creating a thunderstorm. Worlds burned at her command.
(AN: she looks like sister Friede from Dark souls 3, okay)
She sat in her chamber, with a hood over her head, plain cloth, she preferred less flashy clothing, similar to a Soroitas Covent outfit. Her Inquisitorial rosette held more power than a fancy outfit could. She was a brown-haired woman, 220 years old, looking in her early 30's due to rejuvenation treatments. Her looks didn't match her power, but that made it all the more emphasized.
Currently, she was writing a death sentence.
A death sentence for a sector.
The "Kopluru Sector"
A framed picture of her husband, Inquisitor Fredrich, sat on her table amidst the incense candles and holy scripture and symbols.
She had received the message. It spoke of a new sector of humans, psionic aliens more powerful than the Eldar, and a race like the Tyranids.
Working together in one alliance.
For the region north of the Eye of Terror, they had to eliminate such a threat.
The north side of the Eye of Terror was actually not as eventful, so there was already a surplus of Imperial forces in the region.
It only took a few words to forge the disparate military forces into a spear that would be driven through the blasphemous heart of a Sector of heretics.
Of course, Imperial logistics being Imperial logistics, it would take time a year or two to have the first waves of the crusade leave prot, and for the first proper military assult to commence. But for Imperial standards, often taking decades to organize things, this was breakneck speeds.
Until then, they would actually need to FIND the sector in the Halo stars, and maybe even launch probing attacks.
She had to wait for forces from space marine chapters to consolidate as well.
In particular, she waited the arrival of some very good friends in between 5-9 months, they would need to clean up their current campaign first, but they were coming, and she knew they would enjoy what they were going to do.
Namely, the Black Templars.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Craft-World Yme Lock, Segmentum Obscurus.
The Farseer screamed. He saw visions of horror in the future of the Eldar and the Kopluru Sector.
Craft World Ulthwé, Segmentum Obscurus
Eldrad Ulthran screamed. He saw visions of horror in the future of the Eldar and the Kopluru Sector.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Carin-class tomb ship: Location: Unknown
Szarekh, the Necron Silent King, was the busy machine. He was fighting a bitter war against the Tyranids following his recent return in the past few hundred years. He had to juggle keeping his identity secret to prevent dynasties who disliked him from targeting him, managing the dynasties that were loyal to him, even now, Necron politics was just as painful as it was 60 million years ago.
Their little conference was amusing, watching the phases these organisms went through.
It was like looking at a recently lit-candle, slowly increasing in glow, and he had a feeling it would soon burst into an inferno.
This "Kopluru Sector" had caught his eye. It had potential, potential to fulfill something that he desired the most.
"Purity of essence."
"Purity of form."
Hmmmm…..
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The conference was almost over. Trazyn The Infinite was almost amused.
"Good show. Good show."
He achieved the video feed into one of Solemnace's massive quantum-computational storage networks, joining yottabytes of recordings of galactic events.
The Necron Overlord had already yoinked a wide variety of artifacts from the sector of his liking.
Solemnace was almost 90 thousand light-years away in the Southern edge of Segmentum Ultima. Almost diagonally opposite across the galax from the Kopluru Sector.
But they were NECRONS, their inertialess drives, Dolmen gates, and the 27 different unique ways of FTL and teleportation made the distance meaningless.
The Kopluru Sector was certainly an interesting, quaint little thing, with small, but such unique races. It was a fluke that even Orikan or the Diviner didn't forsee.
However it happened, and one thing was clear. He was going to witness another major galactic event, and as the eternal archivist, he would record the event with relish.
And he for one KNEW that this sector wasn't going to fizzle out, but actually grow to become a force to be reckoned with, and go out with a spectacular BANG. This sector would have a story and a damn good one.
He knew this because he had an honored guest.
Trazyn reached into a pocket dimension and pulled an ornate crystal bottle of insane precision and elegance. Inside was an almost glowing ruby-red liquid. The label roughly read "finely aged wine, Old Eldar Empire, M22.
Behind him, sat an Eldar, namely, a Harlequin Solitaire, watching the conference's closing ceremonies.
"Would you like a drink?" Trazyn's Mechanical voice was almost comedic given the context.
"gladly, Necrontyr."
As the harlequin savored the overly decadent spirits, he muttered.
"A fitting refreshment for a show of this scale."
"I must say, Liserel, you and the laughing god's plan for the Kopluru Sector, is nothing short of amazing, something rarely seen in these dull millennia.
The Kopluru Sector will be pawns, Along with Eldar leaders, Imperial space marine chapters and inquisitors, even that young lad Eldrad, Necron phareons, even the venerable Silent King all these figures will dance in this play oblivious to the overraching scheme, it puts Tzeentch to shame. They will play their part, without even knowing they are in a play, it is simply delicious. It will be sad to see the Kopluru Sector go, but for it's time here, it will leave a mark on the galaxy.
"And benefit BOTH our races."
Tazyn poured himself a glass, and offered a toast to Liserel, the Eldar Harelquin
While she wore a creepy smiling mask, Trazyn could feel her genuine mirth underneath it.
After a moment, their glasses tinked together.
And they started to watch the show.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(Liserel, anyone get the Xeelee sequence reference?)
Now, for the Main Plot.
It seems that its almost perfectly split between Zerg, Protoss, and Terran arcs. So I'm actually going to do all three, with one as a priority instead of completely focusing on one arc at a time. Tune in next time for when the Terrans realize the Imperium is coming.
Keep putting forward suggestions.
