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Chaos Returns
Chenmor watched in fascination as his warband dropped out of the warp. He had spent the last millennium in the warp carefully marshalling his forces and clambering over the bodies of his defeated foes. There was just something satisfying about seeing your enemies break apart into little pieces.
Unlike his compatriots, he styled himself an "artist". The way that an enemy was destroyed mattered as much as destroying them in the first place. So his battles were always chosen with utmost care, making sure that his enemies within *and* without were placed in the most interesting and opportune places. Their destruction painting deliciously beautiful scenes of agony, pain, and violence.
But the home planets were getting boring, and with whispers of a fourth Chaos God brewing, it was his opinion that he needed to strike out into the universe again, find something more interesting that could be used to worship his lord. If it just so happens that it takes him away from all the infighting between the Chaos Gods, well, that was merely bonus. So he called in some favours, and fought his way to the top of a warband, taking it for himself and leaving the core worlds for a more exciting life of piracy, pillaging and ... p... destruction.
It was how he found himself here. Together with some of the boys, he had built up a fleet of two large cruisers and five destroyers. Dropping out of the warp on the edge of the system, he took some time to survey it. His kind had been harassing these Human colonies for millennia, to the point that they have started to develop countermeasures against the raids that his boys liked to do. So, being slightly more measured than some of his brethren, Chenmor decided to take the novel method of actually looking at what he'd attack, before attacking it.
Immediately, it became obvious to his trained eye that this colony was not like any normal Human world. He had heard rumours of the robotics uprising against the Humans, but he was always too busy to truly study up on it. Now though, it made sense why some of the other boys came back with much more spoils of war than before. It seems that the great big bad Human interstellar government could no longer protect their people, how delicious! Now he could finally get revenge for being shot in the gut two millenia ago.
The Solar Research Council on Nova III had been preparing for five centuries. The experience of their journey to Nova ensured that the taint of Chaos would forever weigh on the minds of every single descendent. The subsequent destruction of Nova II and the Chaos tainted death-cults only heightened the wariness of the population, and the collective will for fighting Chaos driving Humanity to absorb all the knowledge that the few remaining Aeldari would give. This aversion and caution was further enhanced by the psykers slowly awakening within the population.
In the beginning psykers were treated with a general reverence, their Aeldari teachers helping to create a safe space for these new members of humanity to learn about their own power, and to practice the discipline necessary to control their own mind. Unfortunately, the peace did not last, as the number of active psykers quickly outgrew the ability for the school to train, and very quickly those remaining within the growing Human population became dangerous as they became prime target for demonic taint and Chaos. With the constant unrest caused by these new humans, psykers quickly became outcasts within society, in turn facilitating their descent into madness and chaotic influence.
The leadership of the SRC, well aware of the problem, could only watch in dismay as the carefully planned, free society was brought to the brink of despair and self destruction. Two hundred and fifty years after the crashlanding on Nova, martial law was re-imposed on Nova III. Because the Council did not need to appeal to the short termism of the democracies, it was able to push through an array of unpopular, but necessary realignments within society.
The most important was Compulsory Education, already mandated until the age of twenty, this was extended to twenty-five, imposed under the threat of imprisonment and forced labour for the entire family. This ensured that the entire population was aware of all the threats that could engulf society, to drive further knowledge building; but importantly, to make sure that new-born psykers were discovered, and carefully guided in service of Humanity as a whole.
Concurrently, was the establishment of the department of Public Communication and Education. The initial remit for the department was to enforce the mandatory education for all humans born in the Nova system, and to ensure that the message of the dangers of Chaos was communicated efficiently. However, the department was quickly forced to incorporate an Internal Security (IS) division which was necessary to root out, and enforce the Council's mandate.
One of the very first actions taken by IS was the necessary breakup of a proto-religious ring within the forests in the southern hemisphere of Nova III. These small towns and hamlets were so far removed from the nascent capital in the northern hemisphere that decades could pass before communication passed into these frontier elements. Frontier towns had been part of Human colonization since the darkest of times, and it was the same on Nova III. The sheer contrast in population density was a constant reminder and encouragment to build *outwards*.
This was initially encouraged by the council, as it acted as a release valve for societal pressure building up in the capital. Settlers, always expanding outwards from the developing metropolis of Nova Central, had pushed far into the surrounding jungles, helping to chart the wilderness and support information collected by the satellites in orbit. Many of the free-wheeling developments were quickly annexed by the Capital, becoming metropolii in their own right and spreading the creep of civilization over the plant Nova III.
However, as the frontier extended, the amount of towns outside of the compulsory education system exploded, putting more and more pressure on the population as divergent thoughts started to dominate. Thus when the Department for Public Communication and Education took stock of the sheer amount of paganism flourishing outside of the metropolii, the focus was self-evident.
Initial suppression was almost brutal, already there were hints of demon worship in the cultural developments of the frontier towns. The settlers seemingly treating psykers and their close forrowers as a supernatural force to be feared and respected. In one town, a local child was hailed as the saviour that would deliver all Humanity on Nova into a new purple nirvana.
So, when IS moved into these frontier towns, all signs of proto-religious movements surrounding the pskers were destroyed, the gifted humans themselves were taken into government custody, to be trained, or held in protective custody. The locals, while not purged, were put under strict monitoring. The simultaneous carrot to these settlers was an offer of relative luxury, with the aggregate school performance of the next generation being the determining factor for entire towns and cities.
Thus, the SRC essentially bribed all frontier towns to abandon their spirituality, instead replacing it with a firm focus on sciences, engineering, and consumerism. Within seventy-five years, ninety-five percent of all frontier towns were peacefully integrated back into the government in Nova Central, and the taint of Chaos itself once again controlled on the planet.
The episode, left its own distinct mark on Humanity, with the average citizen cognizant, and always ready to take up arms against Chaos incursion. In fact, one of the most popular entertainment series of the time delved into an alternative timeline where Chaos became established on Nova III, forcing Humanity into a never-ending defensive conflict, where the average Human could only eek out their own existence in a grimdark future where there was only war.
So it was not surprising for Commodore Perry when his tactical display lit up with a small alien fleet. Even though he did not know who these aliens were, cultural instinct screamed that they were Chaos. So, even as he sent a message back to Nova III, his small patrol fleet, comprising of a single cruiser, three destroyers, and 5 frigates, shifted into a defensive formation, ready to fight.
Built from a new design, the Nova ships were of sleeker make than those produced during golden age of Humanity, those hulking ships were impossible to construct with the limited industrial capacity of a single system. Thus the SRC ships were built with manoeuvre in mind; not being hit meant that hull strength could be kept to a minimum to conserve precious natural resources.
The one bit of technology the SRC had managed to salvage from their STC templates were the mining lasers used by much of Humanity to feed the ravenous construction boom of the Age of Technology. Because of their relatively low industrial requirements, lasers had no need for an ordinance supply chain, they were quickly adapted to the growing SRC fleet split between capital-ship grade, and escort grade.
Initial contact with the aliens revealed them to be hostile, the enemy firing without any attempt at communication. So Perry wasted no time in deploying his big guns. Even as his little fleet spread into evasive manoeuvres, his cruiser opened up with its spinal-mounted capital-ship-level laser, joined in enthusiastically by the smaller escort-variants.
Chenmor grinned viciously as the Human weapons hit his own ships, fools. Sure the lasers managed to burn some potholes into the exterior of his own cruiser, but that would hardly stop him. He watched curiously as the larger of the Human ships managed to singe the corner of one of his destroyers, leaving nothing but a burn-mark, which was quickly lost among the distortions and off-colourings on the ship itself.
His ships had to survive the madness that was the warp, the demons manifesting at will, the brutal internecine warfare built on the back of billions of slaves, a little laser could not dent them. So even as the human weapons rained down on his fleet, he continued to push forward, firing the occasional torpedo to keep his prey honest and focused on him.
Slowly his fleet caught up to the defensive human one. As they entered the range of his big cannons, both cruisers opened with their main batteries, tons of warp-infested ordinance thrown at the prey. To Chenmor's surprise the human ships managed to dodge the vast majority of the barrage, catching only one destroyer in a flank that looked like it was quickly taken care of.
With a nod to helm, he strode to the viewscreens and struck a rather more heroic pose than he probably wanted. "How cute of them to welcome us with a light show. Take the fleet into melee range!"