Universe in Flames IC. Nation RP.

Chairman Leo sat down at his desk and looked over the reports that were placed on the metal desk. He skimmed through the first couple of reports and then separated them into categories, military, food supplies, local news, and news from the borders, and then he began from the top.

News of the latest victory in the the outer borders of the Deutchlieg territory were excellent, and Leo skipped the pages that contained the casualties, environmental damages and began to look at the pictures of the soldiers who stood and saluted at the flag that was being raised, soldiers standing over the corpses of the enemies, and prisoners being led away. Leo took one of the pictures where the flag was included and another with prisoners being taken away, and placed them in a folder. They would be send to the local news paper and the soldiers would be glorified by the papers and the propaganda.

As Leo looked at the reports about the food shortage that the nation was facing he frowned. It was grim truth, the Deutchliegs didn't have many planets to supply them all with food, and it was all due to their beliefs of the Machine Spirit but how would he ever be able to change that? The religion went deeper into the Deutchlieg's culture than it appeared, and Leo knew that too well, he was lucky that the Pope didn't interfere with the politics, which was good for he then had the chance to set up policies that indirectly banned the Tech Priests from becoming members of the government.
Leo sighed. It was hard to be the chairman, but he knew that before he went to election of becoming chairman, and so far he had done quite well, at least he thought so himself. He picked up the phone and dialed the number for the local governor of Planet 7 III to discuss about the harvest.

"Jar?" a voice said, clearly irritated and had a strong local accent, "Thiz iz daz governor of daz Planet 7 III, do you know what daz time iz?"
"Jar, this is the Chairman Leo, I call about the report I have here, it says that your planet's harvest was far from as good as last season, can you give me a more explanation for it only says 'weather hazards' on the report, what does it mean?" Leo asked inquisitive.
"Ark jar mein Chairmein, itz daz weather, itz snowz zo much-a, you zee, daz harvest was uzeless, and thuz I could not send it, daz local Commissarz approve me actionz, zo please, Chairmein Leo, understand that it has been snowz and rain, and other hazardz. Da local Honz work hard right now, dayz and nightz, jar," the local governor answered, changing his tone accordingly.
"Very well, dismissed, you can go back to sleep," Leo said and hung up.

Going back to reading the reports he read over the local news and smiled with joy as he read the report, which was actually just a newspaper:

Deutchlieg News! wrote:Mobster Leader Found!
Just this morning, Commissars finally found the notorious mob leader, Alha McQuire, who has long been accused for local governmental corruption and slowing down the function of the local police forces, and he has been charged with illegal smuggling, arms dealing, and some of his more serious crimes has been behind the assassination of High-Eradicator Commissar Karl von Smouldre.

The Mobster was captured as he tried to catch a spaceship off the planet and head to Planet Kranus, where it is believed that he has contacts. According to High-Commissar Cedric, Alha will be publicly executed after he has been extracted from all information regarding external and internal allies and forces that he is in control of.

And then it went on about past events that the much hated man had been behind, which Leo skipped. Leo wrote an e-mail to Cedric, congratulating him with the capture of the gangster leader Alha, and he also told Cedric to give out medals of bravery to those Commissars that had captured Alha.

Afterward he went on with reading the News from the borders. There had been send a ship out into the unknown space to see if there were other systems that could be conquered or if there were other larger galactic nations which the Deutchlieg could ally itself with.


Captain Jason Kruppert sat on his seat and looked into the void of space. He had been charged with exploring the unknown space that the Republic of Deutchlieg hadn't found yet, and he had been assigned to use an Arm of Deutchlieg, a much larger vessel than what he was used to but it didn't matter, along with that tropps had also been assigned to come along with him, thousands of soldiers, both new and veterans, along with one lieutenant, Dan Coup, a Battle-Commissar Major, Markus van Bilson, and an Eversor whose name he had never been told. The Pope himself had assigned this fanatical man to come along the expedition and see if it would be possible to spread the faith of the Machine Spirit.

Jason was, like any other Deutchlieg, a believer of the Machine Spirit though he wasn't a fanatical like this man who was praising all the machines he passed by, petting them as if they were alive and Jason still remembered that he had to order his crew to drag the man out of the engine room so he didn't do something to cause the entire ship to explode.
Jason had been given limited supplies of food, which the lieutenant had strictly rationed amongst the crew men, soldiers and commanders alike, everyone were given equal amount of food to eat two times a day.
Water, the men had in abundance, as the many seas, lakes and rivers of other planets had been emptied and distributed amongst the worlds, which constantly tried to reuse the water after it was cleaned and kept nuclear waste and water separated.

"Captain, we're picking up life forms from the nearby planet," one of the crew men called and Jason came over and looked at the scanner, it wasn't just the planet that the screen was showing, it was also showing pointing out vessels, spaceships which orbited the planet.
"I'll give the planet a call, and we'll see what will happen. Send out an order and have the Jet Fights ready if we find ourselves in a battle then we will be ready," Jason said and then made a simple message to the planet.

From: Captain Jason Kruppert
To: Governor of the Planet
Greetings, I am Captain Jason Kruppert of the Arm of Deutchlieg vessel, 208-KY. I come in peace to represent my galactic nation, along with leaders of representatives of the other factions within my home nation.
I have a representative of our military, a representative of our religion and a representative of the people. With your permission I would like to have a vessel send down to your planet with these representatives, myself and a small group of six soldiers, for security reasons.

Respectfully from,
~Captain Jason Kruppert.

Jason then ended the message and had it send, hoping that the language he had chosen to use would be... appropriate for the natives. None of the people onboard the Arm of Deutchlieg knew that they had entered the territory of The Reich, and all they could do for now was to wait for a response.

The Reich. Planet, Gudee II. Time 4:11 N.
The Reich Prophet Ship, Virgil, had finally been constructed. For 94 years thousands of workers slaved D. and N. to make the ship and now it was finally complete. The news quickly spread throughout the Reich, "Prophet Virgil is now finally complete.". All who heard were to celebrate the creation of the third Prophet ship. The Grand Council and the Sovereigns were on site, ready to witness Virgil ascend. It was tradition that every Prophet have it's own fleet. While the prophet was in construction the workers in the Citadel System created it's fleet, "Shadow of Malcontent.", was also being made. They were completed before the Prophet and sent to the planet so that they may ascend with the Prophet.

Mura Planet, Gudee II. Time 4:14 N.
The Mura gathered in the worship Tunnel. An altar made out of mud and spit was in the center of this large tunnel. Each Mura walked to it closed their eyes for a moment and went back to wondering the tunnels. Suddenly the Mura were enraged. They sensed something, something not of their Reich masters, making it not a friend. The Mura came out of their underground tunnels, and surrounded the Councilmen. Nudging them with their heads and pointing up with their 2 extra legs placed near the top of their heads, they attempted to warn their Masters of the newcomers.

"ALERT< ALERT! ALL UNITS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS... UNREGISTERED SHIPS DETECTED ABOVE THE PLANET!" Soldiers escorted the Council and any sovereigns to a safe location while the Prophet and it's fleet ascended into the heavens, to meet the unknown. As they rose they received a transmission from the strangers.

"Greetings, I am Captain Jason Kruppert of the Arm of Deutchlieg vessel, 208-KY. I come in peace to represent my galactic nation, along with leaders of representatives of the other factions within my home nation.
I have a representative of our military, a representative of our religion and a representative of the people. With your permission I would like to have a vessel send down to your planet with these representatives, myself and a small group of six soldiers, for security reasons.

Respectfully from,
~Captain Jason Kruppert.

For a moment the Reich Fleet was silent. This message should be answered by the Captain of the ship or the admiral or more appropriately the Sovereign but the Reich did not have a Captain, or an Admiral, and Sovereign Kamarov was on the planet being escorted to a safe location. Still they sent a message back. "This is the Prophet Ship , Virgil. Fleet, Shadow of Malcontent is responding to your transmission and ascending as we speak. DO NOT ATTACK, we will not in return. We shall contact the Sovereign and the Grand Council. We repeat,do not Attack!".

The Prophet Sent a message back to the Council as well as the one they sent to this Jason Kruppert.

The Shadow of Malcontent was made up of, 3 raptures, 4 out of 6 ship burgers, 4 out of 10 Sances, and 500 Fanatics docked in the Prophet. There also some other ships orbiting the planet, mostly civilian craft and Omni- Co orbital Cameras placed to take pictures of the Fleet rising into space.

High Priestess Selena Fairmoon just finished her daily walk in the botanic gardens of the high temple. This was her ritual, every morning she would wake up, eat her breakfast and then take a relaxing walk through the beautiful gardens around the temple. This was the only time of the day, she had a moment for herself.
Also the different smells of the plants and flowers helped her relax and took her back to the time she still was one of the disciples, if she wasn’t busy with her studies, she could be found in one of the gardens here. But that was a at least ninety years ago when she still was a youngling. With a slight smile she thought how fast time could go.
But as always, as she finishes her walks, her disciple Kyra was already waiting for her. Smiling at the young girl, she went over to her.
“Ashu’falah-nah young one.” She greeted Kyra and lay her hand on Kyra’s head, a sign that she gave the girl her blessing.
“Good morning to you too mistress. I bring good news this morning.” The younger girl said as she handed over a few papers.
Selena read the papers as they walked to her office chambers. “Have you verified these numbers?” She asked her disciple as she sat down behind her desk.
Kyra just kept standing up straight before the desk. “Off course mistress. It seems that Vedr smiled down on Agrum. We have 25% more food then we need and can be sold on our own markets. Now is the question what should we do with it?”

Selena stood up and walked over to one of the windows. Looking out it, she could see the entire capital of Vedr. Though she had looked down on it for hundreds of times, the beauty of the capital always seemed to stir her heart.
“Can you go and call for High Warrior Shyrai, I want his opinion on something first before I make an decision about the extra food.” She said without looking around
Kyra bowed “As you wish mistress” And with that Kyra left the room.
Looking at the girl who left the room, Selena smiled. This girl had everything in her to become her successor. Of all the girls that had presented themselves as her disciples, Kyra was the only one who had the talent to become the next High Priestess. Though with her 43 years old, Kyra still was a youngling that had still much to learn.
While she was waiting for Kyra to return with Shyrai, she read some other documents Kyra had left for her. A small town in the North was asking permission to cut down a few more threes a year for firewood, another city in the South was asking if they could expand their border for a few more miles. It were all requests she had to deal with on daily base.
Signing the documents with her approval, she opened the large book, that was laying on a large stone tablet on the balcony. This book was the original book written by Vedr. Though it was thousands of years old, it still looked as if it was written just yesterday.

Picking a few blessings out of the book, she wrote them down below the letters of approval. This was just an habit of hers, but in her mind it let the people know that she was with them and hoped they were happy.
Just as she wrote the last blessing, someone knocked on the door.
“Enter” She called out as she lay down the feather she used for writing. She preferred to write with feathers because it gave her answers something personal and beautiful.
Kyra entered the room first and just behind her came Shyrai. Both bowed before her and gave her the respect she earned as she was the High Priestess.
“I’ve brought you High Warrior Shyrai as you asked of me mistress.” Kyra said with her head still facing the floor.
“And you did well young one, now both of you rise and take seat.” Selena followed protocol and opened her hands and thus pointing towards the chairs that stood before her desk. Kyra however did as was required of her and went to stand right behind her mistress.

“How may I serve you my lady?” Shyrai asked when he sat down in the chair.
Selena handed him the papers she got from Kyra that morning. “As you see, we have way to much food. Now was I thinking about selling it to another nation, maybe the republic of Deutchlieg. What do you think about that?”
Shyrai looked over the papers and then thought about it for a moment. “I think that might be a good idea. They always are on the lookout for food and if we can make an trade agreement with them, they even might consider make an alliance with us do time. And since they are a huge power, it can only benefit us.”
Selena nodded and then turned around and looked at Kyra. “What do you think young one?”
It was clear that Kyra was taken by surprise since normally she wouldn’t be asked to give her opinion on these matters. “Well what the High Warrior said is true but I also think we should use caution. They are group that is known for their many wars. But an trade agreement would help both nations out so I would try and contact them.”
Selena waited for a moment and then nodded. “Sent this message over to Chairman Leo Markius.”

And she took a new piece of paper and started to write:

“To the Chairman Leo Markius.
I, High Priestess Selena Fairmoon of the Federation of Vedr, hereby offer you a special trade agreement between the Federation of Vedr and the Republic of Deutchlieg.
We have to many food supplies at the moment, and would like to sell them to you, as we have heard you always are in need of them.
The quantity and price we can agree on later if you agree to accept our trade agreement.
Sincerely
High Priestess Selena Fairmoon
We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.”

"This is the Prophet Ship , Virgil. Fleet, Shadow of Malcontent is responding to your transmission and ascending as we speak. DO NOT ATTACK, we will not in return. We shall contact the Sovereign and the Grand Council. We repeat,do not Attack!"

Captain Jason understood the message and was surprised that the two spoke closely the same international language, and he replied,

From: Captain Jason Kruppert
To: Leader of nearby Fleet
I Understand your message and I'll stay in my position, however, I must request if it is possible to open a minor trade between my ship and your planet. We are in lack of food supplies, and we can trade it with our currency the Deutch, or with other goods such as mechanical tools, vehicles, non-military vehicles of course, and some fuel and we can even spare a satellite or two, for some reasonable food quantity and quality.

Captain Jason had the message send, and then gave out orders that non-military vehicles were to be prepared to be displayed and sold for food. Few would object against such a thing, every crew man and every soldier knew that the food was limited on the ship and with the ratio, many would probably be glad to increase the ration a bit more and only loose a few non-military vehicles and perhaps some fuel from the tankers could be sacrificed. Space didn't have friction, so they just have to give the spaceship a good push and then it would drift quickly towards the borders of the Deutchlieg again.

The lieutenant looked at the Captain and then asked, "Is it wise to sell these goods to strangers whom we don't know anything about? How do we even know if it is eatable food they will give us?"
"Then we'll make it eatable," Jason replied and then waited for a response from the fleet.

Planet Deutchlieg. 20:45 PM, Local Time

"Chairman, we have just received this message from the borders towards the Vedr system," Leo's secretary said and forwarded the message from the border command, and Leo nodded, he understood the message and knew that the Deutchlieg system wasn't the most well supplied systems when it came to food, in fact, millions of POWs worked every day in the systems that produced the backbone of all the food for the other systems.
If they were going to be given such a quantity of food, Leo had to make sure that the task was given to someone who was both trustworthy and feared well enough to fend off anyone who would think of attacking a fleet containing that much food. There was only a handful of men for such a task, and the one that Leo found most useful for it was feared, scared and well experienced High-General Valdimir.

Valdimir walked down the hallway, "Pope Pius, do you have any idea what you are asking of me? Do you evena know the stories of what happens to those who enters the Vedr system with an army that big? They never return. Now I am the best general, and I have seen hell before. Give me one good reason for why I should do this," Valdimir said and crossed his arms across his chest, waiting for a satisfying answer.
Valdimir was a tall man, broader than most and very muscular. His face was half blown to hell, one eye was a cyborg eye and there were bits of metal here and there on his bald head, deep scars made their way across his face and the sign of bad stitches were clearly visible. He had gone from the lowest soldier all the way up to High-General, using his intelligence, his cunning nature, and his military instints. Every scar was a story, every bit of metal was a heroic deed, and every single medal that hung from his chest, all ten of them, were a legend amongst the common soldiers. He was a living war saint, and he took it to heart but didn't let the fame corrupt his mind nor steel will.
"Ah General Valdimir, in the Vedr system there is a kind of metal, stronger than the one that was used for the Titans or the Navy of Pride, this kind of metal is so legendary and powerful, that it would make us look like fools if we didn't have it, us the believers of the Machine Spirit. The Cultus Mechanicus is a joke without this kind of metal.
Trade, no, it will strip us from all our money we have in our treasury, and we'll go bankrupt before we knew what we had done, and a galactic crisis would happen, and how would the Chairman see that? He would have the Commissars after me, after everyone who bought and used it," the Pope said and placed a mechanic hand on Valdimir's large shoulder, "With this metal we won't have to worry about the thickness of the walls, the bullets will tear through flesh and metal like a Grounder shot from a Basilisk. I'll back up your Crusade for this mythical metal, trust me."

Valdimir frowned. He didn't like it, but he saw the reason behind it, and if the Pope was going to back him, then it meant that The Forgotten Steel Legion would be deployed as well, and with his numerous Death Korps, they might just pull their way out of the war. It would have losses, but they were prices he knew the Deutchliegs were ready to pay. With their blood!

"Very well. I'll get an excuse to declare war, you just make sure that you back me up good, and mention that damned metal and I'll have Cedric come for you. We want no suspicions from the Chairman. Cedric is loyal to him, and him alone, and that means that the Republic Guards, Commissars, and the Shadow Assassins are too, which is more than you and I can handle. As for my loyalty. It lies with the strength of this galactic nation, when it dies, so will I," Valdimir answered.

Valdimir took off in his personal navy, five Arms of Deutchliegs with a total of a few millions soldiers accompanied him, and that included Hons, he knew he would need them in the rain forests of the Vedr system, but for now they would just sit by and wait.

This is the K-04, leaving Deutchlieg territory, entering the Vedr system. Reasons for entering the Vedr system is political and due to trade between the two systems. As the Deutchlieg system has been offered the over production of food from the Vedr leaders, we enter their territory to trade this food for goods and money.

The message was send to those who were guarding the borders and to the Vedr system planets, telling them that the fleet of the fourth army, which belonged to the High-General, had entered and was approaching the planets.

Valdimir send a message to the High Priestess, to tell her his offer for the food. It was in the favor of the Priestess, however the Deutchliegs needed food badly.

This is High-General Valdimir van Smolka.
I have come to make the deal about the over production of food that you have, and I'll bring a small portion of what the Deutchlieg is willing to trade with.
I'll arrive at your capital planet, Vedr, and bring with me five Speeder II, due to security reasons, and expect me to arrive within an hour and a half

Valdimir didn't wait for a response from the Priestess, as Valdimir was, technically, the mouth of the army, and any hostility done against him would be a declaration of war, something that the Pope wanted badly, however, Valdimir had other plans in mind, something much more strategical, and hopefully, it would all go according to plan.
After an hour and a half, Valdimir's fleet arrived within sight of the Planet Vedr, he then checked if the High Priestess had given any response from the high Priestess.


Linda stared out of the window and looked at the people as they walked by, watched as the homeless gathered together over a fire, and as those who had been so lucky to find food in the garbage cans were eating as much as they could for by seven o'clock today, they would all be loaded up on a spaceship and taken over to the new world, which had recently been conquered, where they would be given new homes, new jobs, and if they were lucky, a completely new living style.

Linda was aware that the government was doing what it could to maintain order both from without and from within the Republic, but the truth was, they gave too much attention to the middle and high classes and they made to many laws which benefited the citizens and not the civilians.
It annoyed her to no bounds, knowing she was a civilian, she had less rights, she barely had any freedom of speech and she was restricted from any places in the higher levels of the city while citizens were allowed to go wherever they wished, they had permission to speak up whenever they wanted. It wasn't fair.

Linda sighed again. She did want to leave the planet but starting anew on a new planet would be completely different. People who had experienced it often said it tested one's sanity, for every Deutchlieg was used to the dark pollution clouds that blocked out the sun for them, but on new residential planets, they didn't exists until the o-zone, whatever that was, was destroyed and the pollution clouds took its place. She felt scared, she wasn't ready for such a dramatic change, at least not yet.
She felt somewhat comfortable that there would be soldiers to guard them while they would live and built, it felt good she gave the Machine Spirit the respect it deserved by helping building a new city in its honor, and the guards were probably there to help and protect, right?

She looked at the time. She had four hours to sleep before the Republic Guards would come with their leaders and take them away. The level would be populated soon enough, of that Linda had no doubt, with so many homeless, their little home would soon be taken.
She laid down and closed her eyes, letting sleep slowly take over her, and just as if she had fallen asleep, she heard a voice calling, "EVERYONE OUT!"

It had begun.


"Brothers! Sisters! Hear me out. The Pope has informed us, that we, The Forgotten Steel Legion, has been given the honor of redeeming ourselves from the humiliating loss we felt when we fought the Hons on their home planet.
Our new mission," the general said, looking around at the Captains and Majors that had come to the meeting, "Our mission is to take and hold the planets of the Vedr System. These planets contain raw materials, metals which surpasses anything that has been discovered up to date, it is more resistant than the defenses of the Titans and yet it's as easily changed and formed as aluminum. It is a metal type that must be in the grasp of the Pope."

The men looked at each other, exchanged quick agreements and then returned their looks at the general.
"As we speak, the High-General is looking for an excuse which the Chairman cannot deny, and soon there shall be war on the planets. Whatever resources they have, it shall soon become ours, and the Cultus Mechanicus will become the most advanced faction that this universe has ever seen!"
The Majors and captains nodded and applauded the speech of the general.

Orders were given out and Arms of Deutchlieg were being armed and loaded up with tons upon tons of ammunition to their beloved Basilisks, and their own personal Hell Canon, designed just to blow everything into nothingness, tanks were driven in and stationed and missiles were loaded up in the space vessel. The Steel Legion's ever fear of being attacked from low orbit or from the skies did that they had rows upon rows of Anti-Orbital Tanks.

For the Steel Legion, a war was on ground and not the air, and certainly not in space, it was the ground, and if anyone was going to try to take it to the skies, they could bring it on. Their Anti-Orbital Tanks were also stealth detectors, so nothing would come close to them while they had them.
The Forgotten Steel Legion was going to war. The true meaning of "destruction" would show when they gained a foothold of a planet.

I Understand your message and I'll stay in my position, however, I must request if it is possible to open a minor trade between my ship and your planet. We are in lack of food supplies, and we can trade it with our currency the Deutch, or with other goods such as mechanical tools, vehicles, non-military vehicles of course, and some fuel and we can even spare a satellite or two, for some reasonable food quantity and quality.

The Prophet Virgil and it's fleet kept going upwards, past the clouds and the sight of the people below . Now they could see the strangers' ships, these Deutchlieg who had contacted them. Their ships were odd and yet familar to Virgil's crewmen. They did not seem to have shields like some of the Reich ships but they had turrets and of course other armaments needed for Space Combat. The strange sights caused many questions to arise within the ships but these would have to be asked later when they were certain that these strangers would not attack them.

While the Fleet positioned itself in front of the Deutchlieg, the Fanatics were leaving the Flight deck. They swarmed around Virgil the same way students, eager for knowledge, gather around their teacher. The Rapture ships went to the far front ready to ram into the Deutchlieg if required. Two Sances joined the Fanatics while the other two followed the Ship Burgers, positioned behind the Raptures so they would be taken out if shoots were fired. The Transmissions were sent to the Council who by now were in some underground base filled with Mura and soldiers.

"About that trade. I'm not sure if we can do it. I am not sure how your Deutch is to our Reich Camas...Well I guess we could assume they are equal, As long as zero is zero and 1 is 1 in both our nations. I only ask that the trading be done in our Prophet. I'm certain the Council would be pleased to know that the first trade between our nations was done on Virgil's flight deck...".

The transmission was sent to all the ships and to the planet as well as any nearby civilian craft. The Civilians nearby responded quickly but the Reich crewmen weren't as eager to trade just yet. They must be sure that it was safe.


Back on the Surface


Johann Vonnet, The Hive Mind wearer, was escourted by Reich soldiers as well as his other good Councilmen to a nearby underground base. The Mura also followed still pointing up to the sky and nudging them whenever they could. The Councilmen did not know what they were trying to tell them but Johann, being the wearer of the Hive Mind, could. "Ryush warns us of danger, human lords. Strangers have arrived but what for? Do not trust them Master. Surely this encounter will soon lead to disaster.". Johann tried to block out their chatter from his mind but it was useless.

The huge metal doors of the base but the soldiers guarding them did not let them through. One of them, the self elected leader, approached the Council and informed them of the Transmissions they just received. "Councilmen we have received a message from Virgil. Supposedly the ships that we detected are indeed from some nation and they say they come in peace. They want to send a vessel with their representatives to the surface. The Prophet Virgil has informed them of their ascend and has told them not to fire. Should we permit them to land?".

Johann and the Council listen closely. After he finished speaking they walked away a little and formed a small circle. There they whispered to one another of what each one thought they should do. Johann suggested that they should try to make an alliance with these 'aliens'. "They are mysterious and perhaps much stronger then us. For the sake of the Reich's well being and it's people's well being we should not offend them or be hostile. Who knows what they are capable of!". Few opposed Johann's suggestion but some did oppose him. Reich pride was also within the council but luckily the Council cares more for the Preservation of the Reich people and are wise enough to not be blinded by their pride. "Tell them they can land.". The soldier nodded and went into the base while the Councilmen stayed where they were, awaiting any further information.

Virgil's Bridge

It took a bit but the Prophet received an answer from the Council. The Deutchlieg had permission to land. No time was wasted informing the Captain Kruppert. "We have just received word from the council. You have permission to land your representatives on the Planet.".

Selena read the documents and looked up confused. Things weren’t adding up. The Republic of Deutchlieg had entered their territory with five ships that were clearly made for transport. But what could they transport, since they never agreed on an price or even on the trade agreement in the first place.
And then there was the fact that this so called general just barged into their territory without waiting for any approval and now even wants five of their shuttles to land in the capital. This was something that just wasn’t right.
“Kyra send this message towards the Deutchlieg ships: Since you entered our airspace without permition, even start making your own demands and already have closed on our home planet, everything you have done so far can be seen as an act of hostility and we have the right to shoot you down. So if you want to negotiate about what you’re willing to trade with us, the general may come down in one shuttle and I’ll personally will be waiting for him and assuring his safety. Anymore shuttles will be seen as an act of hostility and will force us to reply with force.”
“As you wish my mistress.” Kyra bowed down and left the room.

Selena then turned towards Shyrai. “Prepare our defenses and prepare to shoot down those five ships. But don’t let them notice us, use V2’s. They can destroy those ships easily before they even got noticed being in place. But don’t open fire unless I or Kyra gives the command. And whatever you do, make sure they don’t send any messages towards their home planet.”
This time Shyrai bows and leaves the room. Just in time when suddenly a vision of Darium Ardor appears on Selena’s desk.
“Anaria Shola, High Priestess.” The old man’s voice sounds just as clear as he would be standing right next to her.
“Good day to you too, High Spiritus Darium. What troubles you these days?” Selena smiles friendly towards the vision.
Darium strokes his long beard. “I just got contacted by one of my Ghosts. It appears that our friends haven’t come in peace. The Republic of Deutchlieg is torn in two factions, one ruled by the Chairman Leo Markus, the other ruled by Cultus Mechanicus Pope Pius. Though in fact the Chairman has the upper hand, Pius wants more power then he has, and it appears he now has targeted our precious Andimantium. There are rumors that he wants to start a war and that he already has sent one of his puppets to our system.”

Selena sat up straight. “How trustworthy is this information you have?”
Darium looks a bit upset. “My Ghosts always give me trustworthy information.”
For a moment Selena wondered about what to do. “Send this information towards Chairman Leo Markus and add that we don’t want to engage in a war with their nation but if their troops enter our territory without our permission, we will defend our system and might even call upon our friends to help us fend them off. But make him remember we want peace and if they want some Andimantium we are willing to trade a little, as we do with other nations.”
Darium nods. “As always you have a clear mind of things High Priestess. I will do as you wished of me. Also I’ll send you some extra Relentless and keep you updated if I get some new information about the Deutchliegs.” And then the vision disappears as fast as it appeared.

When Selena was all alone again, she stood up and went over to the control center, where Shyrai was seated at the moment. As soon as she entered it, everyone stopped what they were doing, and bowed before her.
Selena gave them all her and Vedr’s blessing and then turned to Shyrai. “High Warrior Shyrai, listen to my commands. As soon as the shuttle with that General of Deutchlieg comes down, I want you to block all transmissions those ships make and take out their engines. If you notice any other shuttles or anything else leaving those ships before the shuttle of the General has landed or even left the ships, shoot everything down.
Once the shuttle with the General is landed, sent some guards and place that General under arrest. They probably are here to spy on us and our defenses.”
“Yes mistress, but may I ask this, are we at war.” Shyrai asks Selena. Selena smiles and puts a hand on Shyrai’s shoulder. “I don’t know yet, but if we are, they will learn that they picked the wrong system to challenge.”

They came on arcs of light. Their arrival was one hell of a show.

8 AU from Vedr, space tore itself open. Slip-space's immensely energetic plasma constituents, pushed by the fleet's mass, shot out like a prismatic fist punching through the vacuum.

The fleet proper following behind it. All seven vessels of the Three-Hundred-Eight Exploratory popped into reality in the same way the gaseous column had. They were strange ships, for they were superbly reflective when they emerged, but now their skin was pure black. Lesser civilizations, unaware of the existence of engineered black quartz, would have marveled at this. They were cigar shaped with upper and lower dorsal "hammers" - engine pods. One of the seven ships was larger, with several symmetrically protruding bulges across it body.

That ship's ultra-long-range microwave spectroscopy had found all the hallmarks of civilization here. It had also indicated a civilization sufficiently advanced for contact and trade! Its AI mind marveled at the prospect. It would be the first to discover a new race. It would be know everywhere!

However, it had to make contact first. Thankfully its ship body was well equipped for that. The AI lined up the standard series of messages and let fly.

The power of a military ECW vessel was manifest in this transmission. It covered ever non-optical band know and overpowered local interstellar communications traffic with its power. The transmitted program would unpack and run itself on any computer system that accepted it, which at this level, would hopefully be military and government systems only. Civilian users would find it easy enough to terminate the executable; it was a broadcast in design, not a virus!

COMMENCING BASE UPLOAD...
PRIME NUMBER SEQUENCE...
PICTOGRAPHIC LIBRARY...
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION LIBRARY...
TEXT TRANSMISSION:
WE (I) DO NOT ACT TO HARM YOU (WE.)
ENDING BASE UPLOAD.

Hopefully this civilization possessed the same kind of analytical supercomputers as the TriSphere, or failing that a competent linguistics/cryptology department. Otherwise this would be a long and hard process. One that would be harder for the encountered. Any attempt at retaliation would be met with greater force - already Escort One was drawing a fearsome nickle-iron asteroid into range of electromagnetic clamps with its integrated effector.

"Sir, there has come a message for you," one of the crew men said and Valdimir checked his screen and read the message from the High Priestess, and he chuckled. It seemed like everything was going according to his plan, and now to ease it a bit so they wouldn't have a full scale war breaking out at the very moment.

From: High-General Valdimir van Smolka
To: High Priestess Selena Fairmoon
I understand that you do not see my actions as appropriate, however the Chairman himself deemed my actions necessary. Although you may not be aware of it, millions of Deutchliegs are dying due to starvation, every day, and thus the 240th Chairman deemed it necessary that every action that is has to transport food around in the systems are not to be stopped t any given costs, and deals are to be made hastily and logically.

I'll come in a Speeder II, a transport shuttle, and if it would please you, I'll also order the Arms of Deutchlieg to move out of their explosion range.

Valdimir send the message, expecting that the Priestess knew what he talked about when he said "explosion range", and gave the orders, and then he entered the Speeder II and was off for the planet's capital. On purpose, the pilot set the ship at a degree so they got above the jungle and had to turn to the right to get over to the capital. They flew low, just above he trees, still in sight of the radars but not physical sight.
Valdimir looked at the five Dreken Devils and the ten Hons that were in the ship. He needed intelligence about how the nature was, what they could eat and where they should attack. "Alright men, listen up. You have been chosen to this task because you are the best. You know when to hide and you know when to look, which is good, for that is exactly what you will be doing while you are on his planet. find out as much as you can about the planet, what is eatable, where are there villages, where are the mines? Where can I take a piss without being bitten by a damn snake, and where can I take a dump without being attacked by insects at the size of a house cat. That's what want to know," Valdimir said and then turned to the pilot and nodded.

The pilot pressed and button and smoke began to come out of the engines, and he called over the radio, "Mayday, mayday, mayday, we've got a bird in our engines, I repeat, it's a bird that's in our engines, we need to land," the pilot called over the radio and began to decent into the jungle, and as they came amongst the trees, they saw a quick shadow and the next thing they knew, the shuttle was shaking violently and there came flames out of the engine and they needed to crash for real.

The shuttle crashed into the ground, hitting roots, branches and throwing dirty and planets to all directions. The doors swung open and the Hons and Dreken Devils were gone within seconds, somewhere amongst the forest, becoming invisible.
Valdimir got out and stuck his mechanical hand into the engine and ripped out a bird-looking creature out and looked at it through the eyes of his gas mask and then at the pilot who was dying laughing.
"Now that is damn ironic General. Really, none of us saw this coming," the pilot laughed and then got out of the cockpit and checked the engine.
"Well...I doubt it'll get us much closer to the capital now, so it is from foot from here on," the pilot said and went inside the Speeder II, and got two weapons for them, and then called over the radio that they would have to wait to be picked up by either another shuttle from the Arm of Deutchlieg or som of their men had to come and get them.

While the pilot said the message, loud shots could be heard, and the pilot looked at the general who had just shot down an animal from the trees, "Hurry up please. I don't have infinite ammo," the general called and the pilot looked at the body of the animal. It didn't look friendly.
Looking around the shuttle, the pilot saw multiple of these animals and then added to the stress message, "I think you should hurry, for we're about to join some animals to dinner," the pilot said and hung up, got out and shot warning shots after the animals.


The Arm of Deutchlieg came under sudden attacks, their signals were gone within seconds, and the next thing they knew, their ships were being attacked by unknown attackers.
"Pirate attack! Pirate attack! Pirate attack!" the siren sounded, however the captains and the crew knew that space pirates rarely attacked large conveys of Republic vessels, but what worried them the most was the engines. The engines contained nuclear wastes and fuel, dangerously radioactive, and it also contained Bio-Carmica, the most dangerous chemical that had been discovered thus far in the universe. Highly unstable in the slighest wrong condition, and more radioactive than anything that any living creature would ever dream about.
A small doze of this was more than enough to destroy large areas of organic life and with the quantity of Bio-Carmica that the Arm of Deutchlieg was fueled with, it would be pure genocide if the liquid and gases got into space and drifted off to any planet.

The Republic had seen it three times before, an entire planet devoured by this single chemical, and it was all due to chemical spills and mistakes that had caused billions of Deutchliegs and natives had been lost due to these accidents, and they didn't want to witness a fourth accident.

"The nuclear engines are becoming unstable, release the gases! Hurry, gas masks everyone!" a Tech Priest called out and through the entire ship everyone had to place their gas masks on or risk a slow and agonizing death. The gases were colorless, which was good, it didn't effect the sight of the men and women while they worked to bring order to the engines in control.
"Damn! Hurry, get some people to pray to the Machine Spirit! Praise it or else we'll all perish!" another called and then released a second terminal which caused untold many gases to fly out and quickly fill the lower part of the ship with dangerous gases.

"Get the defenses up and-" he didn't get further till the ship began to shake again, sending the captain down on the ground-"What was that?"
"All the ships has lost their radars and their signals...We're on our own now," one of the Tech-Priests called over the radio, and another attack happened...this time the attack caused a chain reaction of explosions, going from the engines to the middle of the ship, ripping the orbital canons out, and along with them a good thousand men and women who got ripped with the air out into space. The lower terminals were completely shot off and that caused dozens more to get trapped in the lower terminals.

The five ships were now sitting ducks. Their defenses came up too late, and their ships were filled with poisonous gases and though their defenses were up now, they really couldn't do much more than wait. They had no idea where the enemy had come from, but right now they had to bring the engines down to stable level or else the ships would explode and destroy the planet Vedr.


Leo went through reports and ideas of new policies that the republic had come up with. He was scheduled for a web camera conference, as it was hard to gather all the governors and representative at the same place, they did it over the electronics.

Leo was about to close down his mails when he received an urgent e-mail and as he read it he shook his head. It was from the High Priestess Selena, and it was about Valdimir's actions. Why wasn't Leo surprised that the war veteran would do something like this, but he knew Valdimir, he used the policy created by the former chairman, the harsh demand for food was driving the Republic to take more and more direct actions to get the needed resources to its people.

Leo got up a web conference with Cedric and explained the situation with him.
"Sounds like the meat mountain is restless again," Cedric commented with a stoic expression.
"I want to know why he acts like this. He knows that our policies doesn't apply for him outside our boundaries, so I want you and a squad of Commissars that you can spare to go and investigate in this incident, no executions this time, understood?"
"Certainly Chairman. Cedric out." The screen went black and Leo got to work on the message to the High Priestess.

From: Chairman Leo Markus
To: High Priestess Selena
I most sincerely apologize for what has happened, however, High-General Valdimir van Smolka is a dedicated war veteran and he takes all military policies to heart, and we have a policy that states all food is to be protected with powerful convoys, and as I can see, Valdimir brought his own army to protect the food we agreed to trade with.
I have send a squad of trusted Commissars to make sure that Valdimir and his men will behave while they are visiting your system. Please grant them access to your system, and they'll clean up the mess that General Valdimir created.
I understand, and agree, war between our nations isn't something that either of us wishes and I understand, and respect your galactic boundaries. I'll have High-Commissar Cedric to make sure that Valdimir will remember that.

I must warn you, Cedric's methods for bringing discipline may not be what you are used to, so please simply trust him in that he is doing his job.

Leo thought for a moment, and then wrote another e-mail, this one went to Pope Pius.

From: Chairman Markus
To: Pope Pius
The Forgotten Steel Legion will, by the end of this week, have permission to expand its numbers to 50 million members. I foresee a possible war, and I wish to be prepared for when it breaks out.

Leo was irritated that he was in such a situation, but he didn't want to be unprepared if a war broke out, so rather that he made someone who could help him stronger than standing alone and weak against an enemy who was more technological advanced than the Republic of Deutchlieg.

Leo then send a message to the planets near the Vedr system, telling the Republic Guard to move the terror level to level four, making them alert and prepared for a possible invasion and war. If Vedr had any spies there they would notice the tension would had risen within hours and that Republic Guards would be patrolling the streets more often and the Eradicators became more strict on ID.


The Captain had sent twenty Speeder II shuttles to do the trading between the two factions, using the Deutch currency, which they treated as if it was financially close to each other.
The food that the soldiers brought back was both delicious and eatable, the Commissars, however, didn't take any joy in the new food, instead they began to bark commands, distributing the food into ratios for the soldiers.

News then arrived that the Reich would allow the representatives to land on their planet, which was great for Jason, the quicker they started negotiations the better.
A shuttle was prepared for him, the lieutenant, the battle-commissar and the Eversor, and they were then on their way down to the planet to meet the Reich representatives.

As the shuttle landed at the directed location, the men took on their gas masks and exited the space shuttle, and took a look at the city. It wasn't what they were used to. The skies were different, the city was significantly more clean than the planet cities that the Deutchliegs had in their systems, and although the Eversor was rather disappointed in terms of their appreciation of the Machine Spirit he did seem to be amazed by the structure and the organization that the city had...not like the Mechanicus planet where everything was messy and unorganized.

The Battle-Commissar looked like a grim man, in his dark clothes and insignia which was a skull, and his completely black gas mask that took up his entire face gave him a gloomy and dangerous look, yet he still had the appearance that he was in control, something the soldiers wouldn't question.
The Eversor had an almost frightening appearance, his black armor and his white skull helmet gave him an appearance of fanaticism, and with the symbol of the Cultus Mechanicus painted at his chest no one would doubt his religious stand, and his cyborg eyes that stared at the whatever they glared at. Amazingly, the Eversor had agreed not to approach armed to the teeth with swords, guns, poison and other weapons he usually carries with.
the lieutenant looked like a war hero, as always, the golden uniform, the gold painted armor, the small gas mask that just covered his mouth and nose and his red sunglasses made him stand out amongst all the men. He stood like a commander, legs spread and arms folded behind his back, the wind making his red and golden cape sway gently with the air, giving him a heroic appearance.
Captain Jason wore the simple white captain uniform with his cap and an average gas mask, he looked like any other captain, so there wasn't much special about him, compared to the rest of the group who stood and waited.

The men looked around and waited until someone stepped out to either greet the men and take them to the leaders of the planet, so they could start the negotiations.


A Titanicus Metallicus patrolled the borders of the sector, when it picked up a strange message that the Tech Priests came across.

COMMENCING BASE UPLOAD...
PRIME NUMBER SEQUENCE...
PICTOGRAPHIC LIBRARY...
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION LIBRARY...
TEXT TRANSMISSION:
WE (I) DO NOT ACT TO HARM YOU (WE.)
ENDING BASE UPLOAD.

The Titanicus Metallicus responded with the following message.

From: Titanicus Mtallicus HJ-56
To: Unknown Vessel
We have detected your signal and are aware that you are close to the borders of the Republic of Deutchlieg. State your business to us and we'll have it send to the nearest governor. Any actions of hostility will be met with force, thus we suggest that a peaceful approach would be appropiate.

If it is trade that you seek, then the Republic of Deutchlieg is open and would welcome your ambassador or representative enthusiastically.

The battle ship then waited for a response from the unknown space vessel, though they send messages to the nearest planet, Krauw, that an unknown vessel had come close to the borders of the Republic and no knowledge of who or what it was, was available at the moment.

The Empire of Grikus

Grikonia, Grikus Prime, Grikus System
"My liege, exploration and colonization fleets were dispatched a standard week ago. It takes awhile to actually find systems we are capable of colonizing. Many are uninhabitable, as you well know, my liege." Spoke Baron Jion Holis to King-Emperor Theran Hrjik.

The King-Emperor, a very fit Griki for a nobleman, as he tried to keep in shape, snarled at the Minister of Colonization (and his second cousin, once removed). "Overpopulation can quickly lead to uprisings, and, as you well know, Holis many of our systems are becoming critically overpopulated! A system must be found and colonized, even if it is but halfway decent. We. Need. Space!" Theran, young for a King-Emperor, had to fight to control himself.

The Baron stuttered out terrified apologies, but the King-Emperor had hit an idea very rare for a noble-class Griki and wasn't listening. Shut up, Holis," Theran said to the Baron absently, thoughtfully, "Get me Count Kiilanix, Minister of Research and Development. I do believe I have an idea."


New York City, Vutralix ('Earth'), Sol System
The human puppet-ruler cowered before the Griki governor of the system, Archduke Palon Fri'staa, referred to as The Archduke and Governor Palon by the Humans. "B-B-But Ah'm d-doing the bes' I c-c-c-can!" Princeling George W. Bush the Fourth almost wept to the somewhat portly Archduke in his strangle, stupid-sounding drawl.

"That isss no excussse for failure, Human." Fri'staa replied in Griki-accented Engish. "You will quell the active resistancssse on thisss shit-drenched planet or be the exexuted for you failure. Period. There are plenty of rulers that will easily replacssse you, you gutlessss, spinelesss pampered, uneducated vermin. He insulted the human, who was begging for his life, for leniency, with the calm of someone speaking of the weather

"You can't d-d-do that!" The now openly-weeping puppet-ruler shrieked to the Archduke.

The Griki Archduke had by now motioned for his guards to take charge of the broken man, probably no older than his late fifties. "I can, and I will." Fri'Staa said, practically spitting at the human, whom he considered to be no more than a disposable asset. Get me the ruler of the country that they call 'Germany'. They, at least, have a better history of warfare and will have more backbone." He said to the Guard leader, And make sure the death of this . . . this manure has a prolonged and excruciatingly painful death." He finished with a sneer.

The hapless man was dragged off, literally kicking and screaming. Offering everything from bribes to threats in attempts to spare his life. His attempts fell on unlistening ears.

Tannhäuser System; 7th Griki Exploration Fleet
High Admiral Drakon Ragnis stood at the bridge of the Dreadnought Tchanyik (meaning 'Spirit's Fury'), looking down at the planet they were approaching the orbit of. Hail them, send the following message." he said to his Comms Officer.

From: High Admiral Drakon Ragnis, Empire of Grikus
To: Whom it may concern
Salutations, I am High Admiral Drakon Ragnis, representative of the Empire of Grikus and leader of the fleet which has entered your system. We have been dispatched in search of inhabitable planets for our population overflow and mean no harm to you or your people, so long as you remain peaceful. I do have the authority to negotiate alliances and wish to establish one between our peoples.

" Send it I have attached a recording of the message to it, send it with the written message, if you will." the High Admiral said to his Comms Officer.

"Yes, sir. Sending message . . . now. Message sent.

Planet Hlugara, Diadochi System,0500 Local time
"Sir, the vid systems are 100% running, and we await your signal to broadcast, sir!" said a tech officer, in the Blackwyng Palace.
"Excellent, we broadcast now, we need to make this launch happen today" Said the 15th Blackwyng, current ruler of the Conglomerate.
"Greetings Hlugarans of all shapes and sizes, We fought hard, and we fought well for where we are today, for our religion, we fought, and we died, but we achieved. For our credibility, we fought, and we died, but we achieved as well. Now the time comes to put down the sword against ourselves, and turn towards the future. For too long, our Conglomerate has been isolated from the rest of the Galaxy.. For too long, we fight amongst ourselves, without knowing what the Galaxy offers us. That time has come to an end, even now our most capable engineers are loading the cannons with our first ever space borne diplomats, who will find and meet with alien species. These machines will speak on our behalf, and we will become a great universal power. "

After finishing his speech, masses of crowds gathered in the messy streets of every planet affected by the rule of the Conglomerate, gathering to see the launch of the first space borne diplomats, and the first Hlugaran machines outside of their territory.

The Cannons that the Blackwyng spoke of, were indeed, giant howitzer like contraptions on the surface of Hlugara, tech officers toiled over computer monitors, awaiting the signal to fire. The round they fired was a capsule, and inside it was a robotic drone, programmed with the best diplomatic software possible within the Hlugaran's technology.
"We're ready to fire in 3... 2... 1..."

The giant howitzers were orbital defense guns, modified to be able to launch the diplomat pod, with each firing each capsule with great explosive force, firing each round to a hyperspace gate keyed to a random co-ordinate in space.
The guns thundered 30 times, each bringing a cheer from the masses before they went silent.


Grikonia, Grikus Prime, Grikus System
The first of the 30 pods was launched into the Grikus system, with the inertia from the hyperspace and the concussive force finally burning the pod away into fragments of metal. The drone once contained within began it's search of intelligent life, and sure enough detected it.
"Odd, that was rather quick" it noted, using it's zoomed eye lenses to get a better look on the civilization it was observing. The people appeared to resemble lizards of a kind not known to any Hlugaran databases, with what appeared to be sky scrappers occasionally spread throughout their clean worlds.
Flying over to the nearest satellite, the first contact was made.

Greetings, I am 20401 Imperious Tentative. I represent my masters from the Hlugaran Conglomerate. My masters have seen fit to send me to this system in hopes of opening friendly relations between our peoples. If you choose to accept this proposal, allow me to negotiate with your ruler via holographic communications or radio transmissions.

Grikonia, Grikus Prime, Grikus System
Alarms sounded throughout the planet as emanations from a pod-sized ship exiting FTL space was detacted by the HoloNet sensors. A flotilla of frigates, as well as several squadrons of interceptors were scrambled, with orders to engage if threatened.

The pod exited space just in front of the screen and drifted past the ships and orbital defense satellites, releasing a drone which connected with a communications satellite.

That satellite happened to be one of the Imperial ones, so the King-Emperor recieved the message almost instantaneously. Theran, who had been sparring with one of his guards, went opened the beeping communicator and read the message.

"Stand down," Theran snarled to the scrambled ships, "They come in peace . . . for now, at least. I'll communicate with them and see what I can do." With that, he switched back to the waiting drone and punched in a response.

Pleasure to meet you, Imperious Tentative. I am King-Emperor Theran Hrjik of Clan Iolan, of Tribe Ulto Darris. I gladly accept your offer of friendly relations between our peoples. If you will excuse me for but a moment, I can get holographic communications established, and clearance for landing if you are capable.
-Signed,
King-Emperor Theran Hrjik

New Berlin, Alpha Grikia System
A dark gray space station marked in large white letters 'Jilis Enterprises' in the scratch-and-dot wording of the Griki language, with the same written in English and German under it, in smaller lettering. The station was a research station in one of the five existing combined Human-Griki systems, with a combined crew and scientist team. As Hulan Jilis hailed from Tribe Solen Jas, that tribe was th eowner of the station.

Anyway, Professor Jilis was there on an official research trip, sent by the King-Emperor himself to research a new form of habitation, based on one of the ruler's few really good brain surges, thought the Professor with well-concealed disdain.

"Damn the laws of physics," Jilis was grumbling as he and his team tried to come up with the mathematics to make what the concept entailed. But he really meant it, as many of his projects (most of which had never left prototype or early production stage) had truly bent or broken the human laws of physics, which was why Griki soldiers and military vehicles had superstrong but superlight alloys protecting them.

He turned to his team with a smile on his face and said, We will use an improved and, of course, enlarged version of my antigavity flux field to create an atmosphere and gravity sufficient to support life. That will be the core of the habitation. Now we must figure out how to synthesize or make close facsimiles of terrain features, as well as soil." He looked around at the overworked-looking team with his yellow, reptilian eyes, "Any ideas?"

With a small tear in the fabric of reality a lone ship exited the unreality of Hyperspace.

The ship was large by any standards but upon closer inspection the owners of the system the ship reappeared in would notice the ship was unresponsive and appeared damaged. The silent bulk would be playing an emergency broadcast on a loop. The broadcast if listened to was a simple audio only message.

Help. Help.. Help...

Belkan Armaments and Resource Development Administration Syndicate

Tannhäuser System, Akre, Hoffnung, 18:23 hrs BST

The ochre glow from the steel mills poured into the titanic window in front of the man known as Oskar Viechter. Seemingly a quiet man, Oskar, on occasion, traveled around in average garb, posing as a simple technician, observing the habits and tendencies of his subordinates, and to put an ear to the grapevine, or however the phrase goes. Though, right now, he is as only a few see him, ironically, himself entirely. Dressed in the latest fashions, Viechter watched as the smoke from the foundries was silhouetted by the fires in the mills across the massive, industrial megalopolis of Hoffnung, the many "green" members of the Syndicate would call it hell, considering its contributions to the death of the planet. The smog was so thick you couldn't see the light of the sun, only the light from the cities, the industrial havens on a dark, dead world...

Beautiful.

Lighting a cigarette, Oskar swiveled his chair around so that he faced his desk, leaning forward as he did so, reading the most recent holo-reports before him as he imbibed his vice, noting with interest the newest reports from the Quintis system... Very profitable find. Very profitable indee-

"Mr. Viechter?"

Startled slightly, Oskar leaned forward to the digital PA system, and asked, quietly,

"Just why have you disturbed me, Miss Faulber?"

There was a slight hesitation at the other end as Oskar awaited a response, beginning to become slightly irked as the hand which grasped his cigarette twitched ever so lightly...

"A call from Mr... Schmidt. Shall I patch him through to your office, Mr. Viechter?"

Smiling slightly as he slowly leaned back into the large chair, Oskar inhaled the sweet smoke before replying,

"You shall, Miss Faulber."

Waiting as the newly appointed secretary connected the call to his office, Oskar straightened his hair, and looked towards the vidscreen, waiting for the call to go through.

And, before he knew it, he heard Schmidt's rough voice coming through the speakers,

"Mr. Chairman, we have a situation developing."

"Well then, brief me."

Andimantium System, Deep Space

Shooting out of the depths of hyperspace, the small fleet of Syndicate vessels, consisting of three Kanzler class vessels deployed in a triangular formation, escorted by five Schwert class Destroyers, began the gradual sublight approach to the planet Vedr, seeing as how they were apparently worthy of so much attention. Intriguing, really, it must be the precious metal these beings possess, the nation is known for little else other than the personality cult around their deity, Vedr. Legends say that she had united all of their people, a daunting task, no doubt. However, the same legends grant her incredible paranormal abilities...

Regardless. This incredible "miracle metal" may prove quite profitable, should the one controlling it be shrewd enough, and as such, Chief Officer of Foreign Relations Plesch was bound for the distant planet, with the slight chance of an agreement riding along with him aboard the Motte, the lead Kanzler class Cruiser.

Communique to the 7th Griki Exploration Fleet

Above said Communique wrote:From: Chairman Oskar Viechter
To: Whomever it might concern

Greetings High Admiral, I must say, I'm surprised you've come here looking for habitable planets... Most of the Media across known space is screaming about the pollution here. However, I do find this a chance encounter to my benefit, your nation, it seems, is much larger than our own, and I'm sure my Kaiser would be quite eager to meet with you to discuss... relations.

I do await your reply eagerly,
CEO and Chairman of the Syndicate Oskar Viechter.

InterGalactic Commerce Consortium

Ineo , Licentia , Pacis

InterSystems Capitol and Administration, Selkuth System, Gradiola ;14.45 GST, 2:45 Local Time

The cobalt skies of Gradiola were a sight to see. Such a stunningly deep blue, the skies always brought travelers to Gradiola's shores. With the great streaks of cirrus clouds arching across the horizon in a beautiful natural display, no one could argue that it was a pleasure just to sit under the afternoon sun and watch lazily the drifting clouds. Normally this would be the case of most of the tourists to Gradiola, but this coming month that would not be the norm.

The Great Commerce Convention was being held in the system for the next thirty days, and everyone here in the Selkuth system had no time stop and watch the clouds drift by. Everyone was preparing for the influx of beings sure to be at the known galaxy's largest meeting of business and trade. Every business entity was entitled to attend, even if they weren't part of the IGCC. Of course non-businesses would be allowed some representation in the convention, if just to try and entice some Member-States to start ventures in their systems which would lead to large economic growth.

The massive Senatorial Orbital Platform was the focus of it all. The entirety of the convention would begin here as the Commanding Executive Officer began the ceremonies as custom dictated. It was the ultimate meet and greet. With every Senator and House of Consumer's representative there, it was the best time to rub elbows and talk expand one's network.

And all of it was going to being two days from now.

---

The large picture window showed all of the world below. If anyone thought the view of Gradiola's cobalt skies where stunning from the surface, they have never seen it from Senatorial Orbital Platform. Dryson knew this all too well, he had been a planet-stricken man for so long that when he had finally been in this position he never wanted to leave.

Dryson was the ultimate success story, rising from poverty to what some considered the most powerful position in the galaxy powerful in the galaxy.. Dryson had been a poverty-stricken young man whose family had lived almost credit-deposit to credit-deposit, but with a sense of pride and a hard work ethic Dryson pushed him self out of the poverty level and eventualy became the Commanding Executive Officer of the InterGalactic Commerce Consortium.

Standing in front of the window staing down at the planet below Dryson almost didn’t notice his aide walk in. Silently she put a group of hard-copies on his desk to review. Until the end of the Convention, Dryson’s office would be here on the Senatorial Orbital Platform instead of on the surface in the Executive Estate.

Rubbing his hands over his eyes, Dryson tried to force the stress away, but it only helped temporarily. Sitting down to his desk and reading briefly some of the hard-copies, Dryson forced him self to face the worry. He tried to keep an attitude of “it’ll be alright”, but sometimes a man wasn’t immune to worry.

Oh how he wasn’t immune to worry.

Request for a Response from the Bureau of War and Defense; Pertaining to Recent Delienquent Activities and Lost Goods; fancy way to ask for help from the military because of pirate raids.

Proposed Terms Egregious; Change of Terms and Liecense Agreement Status Returned; they don’t like the deal that the IGCC brokered between them and an outside corporation, so they’re sending the contract back for revision.

Your Mother is on line two; Dryson shuddered at this note left by his aide.

It all was a massive wieght and that was just the tip of the iceburg. At the least he didn’t have to deal with every single issue that came the IGCC’s way, that’s what advisors, councilors, and aides where for. Thankfully most of the problems where absorbed by the myriad of Member-States, the various private agencies employed by all the different governments, and the thousand plus members of the Senate Wing of the IGCC.

Leaning back in his large chair with a sigh, Dryson pushed a button in his desk connecting him to his mother. “Hi mom, how are you…”

---

Fringe Space; Deltoth System; Raided Pirate Asteroid Base, 01:32 GST

The atmosphere was tainted with smell of ozone and chard flesh.. The whole place was eerily quite, the only sounds being those of foot steps and breathing apparatuses. Death lingered in the air, the smell of traumatic defecation upon death, and the frozen bodies solidified in their death knells.

“Fuckin’ A, huh, I swear these pussies get easier and easier to finish off every day,” was the sentence that broke the silence between the five man team that had taken out the pirate base.

“Shut your trap Klousky,” came the response, an irritated female by the sound of it.

“Hey, I’m just making conversation,”

The group had regrouped in the main room of the base, a briefing room with a holoprojector in the middle. The armored soldiers standing around a pile of thirteen and a half bodies, one was missing it’s upper torso.

“So many different species, look a Griki, how’d one of those get here,” Klousky remarked as he pointed to a reptilian body that had a gaping hole in it’s chest.

“I don’t know, but the thing was sorry excuse for a soldier if you ask me,” this time it was an gruff old voice that sounded off, the heavy weapons guy Gryll.

“Well, it didn’t help that you broke his neck, then put a gaping hole in it’s chest,” Klousky joked, giving a short laugh.

“Come on, they’re still more rooms to sweep, sensors are picking up ten more stragalers in the secondary station,” the soldier with the highest rank spoke up, the soldiers ceasing their casual back and forths temporarly.

“Yes sir, Sarge, if you don’t mind me asking, but when will we get shore leave, I’ve been itching to get some action, if you know what I mean,” Klouse spoke in a that “you-know-what-I-mean” tone as he elbowed the “Sarge”.

“He’s just a whelp Roland, just ignore him,” Gryll spoke to the Sarge in a more personal tone.

”Ya, I know,” Roland acknowledged, “Klousky, how about you take point.” Klousky gave a sigh and a yes-sir as he took point, leading the group through the connecting tunnel between the main asteroid and the secondary asteroid that the pirates had tethered to the first to expand their bases. A quick all’s clear and the group began the process of cleaning the second asteroid.

"Help. Help.. Help..."

"Captain, we're picking up this strange signal, orders?" a crew man asked and pointed at his scree.
The Captain came over and looked at the screen. Who could it be? Space Pirates? It wouldn't surprise him that those scums would use such a trick, but that close to the Republic?...Pirates were usually hunted down in record time within the Deutchlieg borders, and those close to it, however, straying too far out and it would become virtually impossible for the Deutchlieg to keep strong contact with its space vessels.

"I'll deal with it," the captain said and returned to his seat and wrote the following message:

From: Captain Jakop Matthew
To: Stress Signal (SS)
Your SS has been received by the Titanicus Metalicus, JY-67, of the Republic of Deutchlieg. You are dangerously close to our borders and will be taken into custody. Your vessel will be examined for anything illegal and banned within our country, and your crew will be placed under our category "Guests with Limits". We will approach your vessel, any force made against us will be answered with your destruction, so please do not resist.

The vessel then left its patrol, and while it came close to the end of the borders, it send a quick message to the Industrial World, Xenozy, about possible "Guests with Limits". Thus the Republic Guards were to be prepared along with the different gases that other aliens breathed, so they wouldn't die because of the strong pollution that came from the factories.

The Titanicus Metalicus came withing sight of the vessel. The space vessel that had send the message was large, much larger than the Titanicus Metalicus,however, it also appeared damaged.

From: Captain Jakop Matthew
To: SS Sender Leader
This is the Titanicus Metalicus, JY-67, we see you clearly. We do not have enough space for all possible crew men, and, or, space sailors that you may have on board. We'll call for additional space vessels to pick up everyone else.

As the message was send, the Titanicus Metalicus came closer, connecting a bridge between itself and the much larger vessel. Soldiers and space sailors were deployed and armed, to both get friendly units on board and fend off any hostile activity that would be near the bridge.

---

From: High-Commissar Cedric Kluuker
To: Leader of the System
This is High-Commissar Cedric, I am entering your system with nine other Jet Fighter vessels. We have come to solve this mess. I am approaching your capital planet and I...

the message trailed off as the sight of the Arms of Deutchlieg space vessels. Cedric didn't know a lot about mechanics, but he knew when a space ship looked like it was about to blow up, and these ones looked like they were about to blow up, and that would mean that radiation would be spilled all over the planet Vedr...with a catastrophic result as the previous four planets that had suffered the same fate.

Cedric shivered and then ordered the Commissars to turn around. They couldn't save anything here, nor uphold any morale. These vessels couldn't be saved, nor could the planet if they exploded.

The moment the Commissars came back into their territory, a stress signal was send to Deutchlieg.

From: High-Commissar Cedric Kluuker
To: Chairman Leo Markus
It is worse than we feared, Chairman, they have attacked the Arm of Deutchlieg vessels, and they seem to be about to explode. This is an act of agression against out otherwise peaceful approach to their system.
Actions must be taken, or these aliens will obtain the precious xxx chemical that the Arm of Deutchlieg has, who knows how high these aliens are in their technology, they may be able to turn this chemical against us.

---

Leo's eyes widen when he read the report from Cedric, his most trusted Commissar. It seemed that war was now inevitable, and it had barely been a few days.

Leo sat down and wrote to all the governors near the Vedr system, all industry worlds, and generals that were available.

From: Chairman Leo Markus
It is with a sadden heart that I write these words to you all, but as I am writing these words, our brothers and sisters are dying in the Vedr territory, ambushed by the very same race whom we trusted and traded with. They used the word 'food' as a bait for our finest division, led by High-General Valdimir Smolka himself.
We do not know if he is a POW or KIA, whether he is or not, we will not forget what these hostiles has done to our beloved High-General.

I hereby declare Galactic War on the Vedr System. I also hereby order divisions K-12, K-15, K-18, and K-23 to assemble its armies, and K-25, K-28 and K-30 to standby as reinforcements.
The invasion and rescue missions will start a week from tomorrow, and I also expect that the Hons will be informed by these news.

Leo then wrote to the Pope, telling him that war had broken out and that he was to assemble The Forgotten Steel Legion and send them off for war, and as a reward, he would have a share in what they would conquer.

Within the next 24 hours, the entire nation knew that war was going to break out, and the old war industry wheels began to spend again, and tons upon tons of iron and steel was being forged again. Sinister war machines, weapons of malice and missiles of destruction were brought out from their dirty and dust filled storage rooms.
Propaganda seemed to be one of the main criteria for the Republic Guards. Commissars held speeches on the streets encouraging the people to join the army and become citizens and do their duty while they fought for something good. The ghosts of Vedr would surely know about this, as the Republic didn't try to keep it a secret that they were off to war.

Cedric, on the other hand, knew that there were spies amongst them, and he knew that he couldn't allow any information to go out, thus all communications to the outside worlds were shut off. Tech Priests were assigned to check all those who wanted to contact the outside world, and all communication into the worlds were strictly listened to by the Commissar Organization

The Deutchleig representatives landed on the planet. At first no one greeted but it was better this way. The populace of Gudee III did not hear the Council give them permission to land so if any civilian saw them it end in violence. It took a couple of minutes but finally the Reich Military arrived. A couple of B.S.Cs pulled up near the landing craft. Soldiers darted out the back and took aim at the Representatives. "Councilmen Johann Vonnet will discuss terms. For his safety, we ask you to remove any weapons from your personnel and kick towards us.".

Johann walked out into the open. "There is no need for this. They said they came in peace. Besides it would be foolish to attack, me for the cost of three does not seem like a fair trade.". Then Johann got closer to them, examining them. They stood apart from each other. By the way they looked one could easily tell they were important unlike Reich soldiers who were the same armaments and carried the same weapons. The only reason Johann stood apart from his fellow council was because of the Hive Mind helmet. All councilmen were the same clothing, long dark robes gilded with gold.

"Alright now that your here we may discuss terms. The Reich would like to make an Alliance with your nation and to open up trade between our people. However, if you happen to enter war with another nation at this early stage in our nation's relationship I am afraid we will not aid you unless it benefits us greatly and if my brethren permit it. So far so good?".

____________-

A couple light years away from Dener. Fleet Spirit of Fire, Prophet Ship Emora. 11:00 Dener N.

A couple days back the Council told the Fleet Spirit of Fire and their prophet Emora to venture out and search for a another Vault. According to the galactic map that they received with the Message, there was a nearby planet that housed the Vault. The last vault found gave the Reich the Mura as well as the Tank and Ship Burger so who knew what was locked away in this one.

The Spirit of Fire was told that if they meet any "unregistered" on the way to the planet to avoid fighting if possible. If they did have to fight they were to call for Prophet Eisenhower and the Sons of Solace Fleet and proceed with the mission, destroying anything and anyone in their path.

The ship had the Coron Republic Insignia emblazoned on it's hull along with RSA Higher Ground on its bow. When the Deutchleig sent the messages the ship only replied with the loop of the emergency message. The huge ship's automatic docking procedure activated and latched onto the Deutchleig ship. It would do the same for any other ship that would attempt to dock.

However the ship had no other movement. Its drives were as quiet as its communication systems. Surely if someone was alive they would have said something. Right?

Tannhäuser System; 7th Griki Exploration Fleet
High Admiral Ragnis breathed a silent sigh of relief at the neutral response he'd recieved, happy that he wouldn't be reponsible for the initiation of hostilities, at least for now.

As he read the screens in front of him, showing summaries of what the other stations did, he brought up th eenvironmental readouts and shuddered in surprise and disgust. The planet was, for all intents and purposes, dying. Those poor nature spirits. They must be furious at what was going on, practically begging for help.

He would bring it up with the locals, Ragnis decided. "Send this reply," he ordered his comms officer, transferring his response to the aforementioned officer's station.

To:Chairman Oskar Viechter, CEO of the Syndicate
From:High Admiral Drakon Ragnis
Yes, our environmental sensors show your planet is barely habitable to our people, sacrilegious even. But religion can wait until later. If you will give clearance for my fleet to come into high orbit, I shall land in a shuttle with a token guard force. Is this acceptable?

///Attachment///
[[[Translated to local language-Belkan]]]
Fleet Composition -
Flagship Spirit's Fury, Dranak-class battleship
Battleship Thirnak's Claw
Cruiser Sky-Spirit's Fist, Kradiin-class
Cruiser Crow's Nest
Destroyer Hand of the Gods, Valzin-class
Destroyer Raven's Call
Destroyer Fickle Fate
Destroyer Klanor's Tooth
Frigate Clear Skies, Ondai-class
Frigate Superior
Frigate Solution
Frigate Deep Space
Frigate Hornet's Nest
Frigate Nightshade
Frigate Janar's Bite
Frigate Time's Up
Frigate Clan
Frigate King's Ear
16 Gargan-class assault transports
///Attachment Ends///

New York City, Vutralix(Earth), Sol System
The new Count of Vutralix, (former) German Chancellor Otto Schleritz, stood before an assemblage of counter-partisan troopers, behind an old mahogany podium, and with a sound system that would make sure he was heard through the entire auditorium.

The lights dimmed, suddenly, as spotlights turned to him. He cleared his throat. "Soldiers of Earth." he began with what, he thought, was a cliche, The Archduke has thought it necessary to relieve the former Count, Mister Bush, and replace him with myself. And I would bet one-hundred credits that you are wondering why I have made you all sit in this place. It is not so that I can make that announcement, or ramble on and on about useless things, I assure you."

That triggered a good round of laughter, but it was stopped, very professionally, when the former Chancellor rose his hand for quiet. "What I have called you all here for, is because there is something going on that must be stopped, lest our overlords punish us themselves. Does anyone know what that is?" The question was rhetorical, but he looked around anyway.

"Guerillas!" He snapped, pounding the podium with a fist. The past four Counts have been relieved and executed for failing to crush them, and I do NOT intend to be the fifth. No, not at all. That is where you come in." Here, he pointed to the crowd for emphasis.

"You are the best-of-the-best, all twenty-five hundred of you, and you have all been hand-picked for you ability to combat them, and you are o fmixed race, religion, and nationality for more reason than being fair." Here he smiled a bit, almost sarcastically, "But for the same reason the resistance groups are fighting: For Earth as a whole, regardless of if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim. Regardless of if you are black, white, yellow, red or purple. Regardless of if you are German, American, Russian, or Japanese. You are all of Earth!" He began his speech quietly, but built into a crescendo as he got to that part.

He had no more to say, but the cheering crowd probably wouldn't have let him say anything, anyway.

New Berlin, Alpha Grikia System
The group of scientists waited, tense around the 'Separate Space Containment Field', an invention of Professor Jilis' used to contain dangerous experiments. The gravity setting was zero in the field, with a sphere that was a very close approximation of the planet Grikus Prime, down to the compostion.

The green sphere floated around the space between two large coils, with wierd, almost heat-like distortions around them. Spacial distortions.

"Activate the field." Jilis ordered the engineer controlling the flux generators. The human nodded and complied. The ripples around the coils began moving toward the sphere, making it stop moving almost completely as they ensnared it in their field.

Jilis was smiling now, getting exited as scientists tend to "Now the rotation!" He shouted in his excitement. The human engineer once again complied, and the sphere began spinning at a scale rate of that of Grikus Prime, tilting slightly (exactly 28.76 degrees, in fact).

"It is a success!" Jilis shouted, overjoyed, "Now we must work on true scale." He said with a smile.

SPLENDID! My masters will be most pleased to hear of my progress with your people King Emperor, I await you to transmit the co-ordinates to me, and then we could meet in person!

The quirky little robot squeaked, not concealing his excitement, his First Contact was more then willing to speak with him.

Blackwyng was sure to be elevated to hear of this news.


The other pods rocketed through Hyperspace, traveling farther then the other one.


Vedr System:

Pod after pod tore their way out of reality. Pods broke apart as the occupants drifted into space.

"Oh my, It appears as if a large military mobilization the like of which we havn't seen since the Colonization wars!" The drone to make first visual chimed.


"We must meet with all parties, but meet with the planet's peoples, they appear to be in dire straits with all of these Fleets around!"


Vedrian Satelite, 0880

Greetings, I Am 3045 Glorious Tenatant, I am here on behalf of my masters of the Hlugaran Conglomorate to meet with foreign powers. I see your planet is surrounded by seemingly hostile forces, and our lord would be more then happy to send a military expedition to assist you if needed.

He said into the Satelite, hoping the planet's leaders or someone would hear his message.


Deuthleig system

The last of the 30 finally exited hyperspace on the borders to the hyper paranoid Deuthleig Empire. Disregarding what the locals might react to it's presence, the drone began to fly towards a satellite

Grikonia, Grikus Prime, Grikus System
Theran was waiting patiently for a reply from the drone, and sighed in relief as the reply came in. He stood for a moment thinking of a reply, then began punching more into his wrist communicator.

It would be ideal for us to meet, thank you. I am now transmitting clearance for you to land on one of my personal landing pads. It is on the north-eastern sector of the palace. I'm uploading the coordinates now. Do not be alarmed by the guard force I bring with me, it is merely an honor guard. There will be a dozen of them.

Theran sent the message then looked up. There happened to be a dozen guards already there, so he spoke to them, "You all, come with me to Landing Pad 4B. We're going to have a visitor very soon."

Nature area 36b, New York; Vutralix, Sol System
Colonel Maria Hernandez, leader of the anti-guerilla force, gazed in wonder at the beautiful (former) Lechworth State Park, commonly called the Grand Canyon of the East. The fact that it was Autumn only accentuated the sheer natural beauty.

It was a shame some part of it would be marred by the black scars of war sometime in the near future.

After . . . questioning the locals, and back-checking information, as well as checking recent records of accidents, she and her Intel officer had figured out that the rebels were setting explosives in the path of trains carrying material useful to their cause.

And, after carefully looking at the patterns, it seemed the next one would be in the track going through here. Hernandez intended to stop that, the Blessed Virgin help her if she failed.

"Ma'am! Suspicious activity has been reported by our pickets." A PFC, sent back as a runner (as she had strictly ordered radio silence), to report the sighting. She smiled, as she'd always liked being in the spearhead.

She nodded at the Private, "Lead the way." She said simply. The Private nodded in return, turned, and began running back at a steady pace. She ran after him, catching up quickly. There were to the area in no time, passing through an old, rusted chain-link fence.

Hernandez assessed the situation quickly, spotting her well-camoflaged pickets. One pointed to the front-right, and she followed his point.

((Not complete . . . got interrupted AGAIN!))