Introduction:
With the weakening of the Confederacy in the sector, their hold on their most distant systems has waned. Now the ever present lust for power, as well as many ancient grudges against the Confederacy, have been awakened in the new vacuum.
On the world of Braxis the situation is predictable: a power struggle will soon sweep over the entire planet. For the time being there is no interference from the outside. The new self-proclaimed emperor Mengsk does not have the reach to take Braxis and all other empires that once held sway have dissipated.
The UED fleet, which seemingly came from nowhere, has now left in the same manner, and the fractured reports of an ominous new Zerg incarnation, somewhere amongst the stars has not yet made an appearance.
Braxis has always been in the dominion of foreigners. She is a jewel, with vast natural resources that has never been her own master. And there are many Braxians who dream of a liberated Braxis that may, one day, have dominions of her own.
Already, natives of the ice world have challenged the failing UED administration. Under Ados, Pery and Jonas, a triumvirate of upstart military leaders and former marines, they have taken the city of Elysium in the south and named it the new Capital of the Triad.
Chapter 1
The blizzard swallowed up the staunch metallic spires of Elysium city.
Ados stared out of the small window in the government building until the view before him was completely white.
As always, numbers were running through his head.
The city had over three hundred thousand inhabitants and was the largest in the southern province of Prova. The Triad had been stationed here for the last month and would remain here for another four, until the worst of the winter was over.
War on Braxis had to be planned around the planet's vicious winters: while the blizzards were raging, they were being awarded the opportunity to consolidate their conquest of Elysium and to plan their offensives for the spring.
As was becoming custom, Ados was in command of the planning and strategizing. His talent with figures and his astonishingly accurate instincts had taken the Triad from a small underground force of a few dozen members to the point where they now controlled a city of a third of a million people.
But another quality of Ados, one which was shared by his two colleagues in command was a burning ambition which would not be eased until all of Braxis was theirs. And perhaps not even then.
He had already run dozens of scenarios through his mind of possible conquests of the planet. He privately predicted that the Triad would be on the verge of taking Boralis, the old Confederate capital, within three years.
He had also begun secret preparations for the day when he may have to dispose of Pery and Jonas. To him this was not a form of betrayal but rather an inevitability, repeated time and again throughout history.
He had to improve his chances for when the time came and he suspected that his friends were doing the same.
Outside, the blizzard calmed and the watermark cityscape of Elysium reappeared. Thick strands of dark smoke billowed out from hundreds of towering chimneys, the only signs that alluded to the massive production effort that was taking place in the industrial bowels of the city.
The pressure was on to spend the winter months producing more combat units than the enemy: Vultures, goliaths and siege tanks were being rolled out by the thousands every month. The crews for these machines as well men for the infantry were being recruited from all over the city. People were flocking to them in the way that they had never flocked to the Confederacy – voluntarily and with conviction.
This was one of the things that gave the Triad a distinct advantage, Ados thought with satisfaction. Of course there were those that were unconvinced by the movement. To them it didn't matter who was running the show - theirs own lives would remained unchanged. But skillful propaganda was making sure that those people were kept in the minority. They would be sidelined for their cynicism and lethargy by the more malleable majority.
The whirr of a door opening caused Ados to turn. The six most important people within the Triad walked into the newly-designated War Room.
"You're early", Jonas said, "I think you're taking this war business too seriously old man"
He spoke with a grin as usual and Ados smiled back wisely, as though he were dealing with a juvenile. But Jonas had served with him as a marine for the old Confederacy and was at least as experienced as he was.
They all took their places around the large table.
Ados looked at each face. All the highest ranking members of the Triad were present: the Triumvirate, Xavier and Sandra who were both generals and Tanya, who had become indispensable to them as the leader of their ghost division. She also happened to be of one the planet's most gifted ghosts herself.
Pery began the meeting by droning on about the latest happenings with the inbound logistics. In the middle of winter most of the trade routes were closed and there wasn't much of a materials influx. They had hoarded most of the needed components in the autumn – enough to keep the assembly lines busy until spring.
Some of their more specialized components were still being imported by large cargo ships once a month. These massive ships were the only craft that could navigate in the blizzard. They were an expensive alternative but thankfully there was no shortage of funds, thanks to their many Confederate-hating benefactors and the financial genius of Pery himself.
Throughout his monologue, only Ados listened intently. Jonas and Tanya were both clearly bored and impatient to get into the more direct process of planning the spring offensive.
Once Pery had finished, Ados announced that production was on schedule. Within four months they would land-based army of ten thousand siege tanks, twenty thousand vultures each with spider-mine deployment and fifteen thousand goliaths arranged in divisions of twenty. They would also have 300 centurions of infantry, split into squads of ten men each: It would be the planet's largest army.