Authors note: i do not usually speak before a story begins, but i encourage all of you who read to comment and speak about what you read, i read all of your comments many times a day, that keeps me going during my writing. so do not feel shy, comment and discuss what you have read and criticize should that be needed. enjoy the newest chapter.
Chapter 15: The Galaxy in Turmoil
It would be hard to imagine the galaxy before the Separation event, before the Imperium's arrival. Before all logic disappeared and chaos began its reign. The days of democracy and freedom are gone , times when Citadel Space represented organized alien races united in logic, culture and progress have long be replaced by rampant militarism and war hunger. It would appear the time is Just to write about the fallen and rising powers in the demented reality we found ourselves in, in the galaxy without the Blessed Emperor and his guidance.
In the lands of the native humans, the Realm of the Alliance is gone, replaced by warlords and nations vying for power, Earth splintered once more instigated by the economic crisis inflicted by Cosmo Globalism, the old nations of the world once more melted their tools and made swords, old factories roared to life unleashing threads of steel and fire to once more bring death upon the fellow man.
The Holy Terra of this galaxy is now in anarchy, war once more rages on.
As it so happens in times of hardship, factions rose with ideals and goals for unification, from the ashes of Alliance came the military led Allied Federation, as the alliance collapsed these generals and fleet officers refused the call of their native nations to engage each other, preferring to remain united and protect the Sol system from any attack by opportunistic pirates, claiming they were above the petty squabbles of Terran nations and servants to humanity as a whole.
As the civil war between humans progressed, they too decided to intervene in the conflict, and the patrolling fleets of the Alliance were moved in orbit around earth citing demands to cease conflict and submit to the new order and demand unification.
No state accepted the terms of submission, and so war continued on as the Allied Fleet unleashed orbital bombardment on the belligerent nations in attempts to break their fighting spirit and force them to submit. The latter proving to be a tough nut to crack as the years of civil war hardened the earthling nations and they too decided to retaliate by launching nuclear weapons at the fleet in orbit, obliterating the ozone layer, and in return causing moderate damage to the Allied Federation ships which had to retreat for repairs.
The land conflict would continue even as soldiers developed cancerogenous tumors from overexposure to the sun that instead of giving life was now demanding its toll taking it.
Various colonies created their own planet states with both tyrants and beloved leaders appearing to lead their human subjects into the future, but these disunited and weakened colonies stood no chance at the more organized and powerful factions whom waited for a moment to strike.
It was at this moment when Chaos reigned that cells began activating in the colonies ,leaders were shot down on the streets, government buildings were bombed and organized protests were causing destruction and mayhem all around the human controlled worlds, these planets one by one as they fell to the seemingly angry populace began declaring for an organization many have forgot in the times of hardship. Cerberus.
Each planet which has fallen to organized rebellion declared for Cerberus, actively promoting that Cerberian goals were just and right in the galaxy of injustice which was out to get all humans, now each planetary governor swore allegiance to the one leader known as the Illusive Man whom himself was never seen in public.
Broken spirited and tired humans were all too eager and readily accepted iron discipline and military governance for a bit of peace of mind, Cerberus gladly obliged, its technologies were beyond what Alliance at its peak used and Cerberus soldiers were better trained , more motivated and now had no lack in recruits from controlled worlds.
To bring semblance to chaos, Cerberus proclaimed the Empire of Humanity, whether as a mocking jab to the Imperium of Man, or as a way of impersonating ancient Roman Empire, it was not known, but after such proclamation various laws and reorganizations were put into effect, the army was indeed organized into ancient legion like structure of the Roman Empire with centurions and legates with soldiers whom would serve a specific time frame in the military before being retired. The leadership was consisting of planetary governors all directly loyal to Illusive Man whom gave them limited autonomy to govern their worlds as they saw fit.
With this reorganization even the unrelenting systems one by one were invaded and made to submit, promptly martial hour was declared as Cerberus decided to unite entire humanity, not under governance of democracy and personal liberties as was proposed and enforced by the now dead Alliance, but by iron will, discipline and unification under a single strong leader whom will lead Humanity into a bright new age.
Cerberus proved to be a more reliable leader in these dark times than the old alliance for they have provided patrols and protection to the isolated systems, their military advancements and development enforced order and rule and some systems in which crime took strong hold were overrun by the Mattock gun armed Legionnaires of Cerberus bringing order and peace under the threat of violence.
As the Armies of Cerberus brought order to chaos, the Illusive man sent envoys to the Imperium, the jumps through the relay avoided the Citadel Federation territory and passed through the dead colonial stars of former humano-Batarian coalition, they jumped into system called Thraxh Caesar which was the border system where someone could jump deeper into the imperium, their vessel sent non hostile signals in all languages known to man hoping that Imperium speaks at least one of them, promising that they are diplomats and come in peace.
" Procedere. " was a word they have received after a long silence, translators quickly took it up and realized it was latin or a variation of that old and dead language, as their ships engaged and jumped into the relay the tension never let go, fear and curiosity raged in the minds of Cerberus scientists and diplomats as they pondered on the mysterious Imperium of Man.
They were not left to ponder for long as the ship was ejected into the system on the other side to the welcome of the assembled fleet waiting for it. The Imperium of Man prepared a steely welcome for the encroaching faction and they trained their guns and humongous weapon platforms on them, some 20 ships of the imperial fleet surrounded the dwarfed vessel and issued a single message in High Gothic which the poorly calibrated translator could only decipher as the following words.
" Prepare to be boarded, all your ships are belong to us."
The diplomats exchanged a confusing look amongst each other and were forced to hold tight to any nearby object as their ship was harshly shaken by the Imperial magnetic beam.
Soon enough they were being thoroughly scanned by the scout mechanicus vessel searching for explosives or any high yield device which could damage or hurt the imperial navy. Clearing them for docking they were pulled inside one of the Imperial cruisers, namely the "Tetrarchy of Diocletian" . Once inside, the doors closed below them and the ship was inside.
Gathering their wits and courage the diplomats proceeded to go to the airlock and opened it , exiting into the vast cargo hold of the imperial ship , the smell of incense and motor oil stung harshly in their noses as their eyes adapted to yellow-white light of the surrounding sources as they have realized they were surrounded by dozens of blue clad imperial storm troopers.
Surprisingly the orders they have received from storm trooper was in English of all languages. "Your hands, raise them or we will open fire!" Quickly obeying the 6 man mission raised their hands as they gazed all around them in utter confusion and curiosity to the uncanny surroundings.
They were swiftly approached by an admiral in his golden green uniform; he was equipped with bionic eye glowing red as it focused on the newly arrived humans whom he approached with quick certain steps before standing in front of them and gazing at them sternly.
The silence was touchable as Admiral's unemotional face gazed upon the diplomats from Cerberus.
"Quid est negoti hic? " admiral broke the silence speaking in High Gothic and then waiting to see who will respond to his question.
A quick confused gaze was exchanged between the Cerberus envoy as they silently focused upon a tall black haired member of their group and as if chosen by divine providence he stepped forward and said simply the first word that came to his mind.
"Amici…We..we are friends."
The silence issued once more before admiral chuckled , his chuckle turned into a full blown laugh, His personal guard showed no emotional response as they kept their guard up towards the Cerberians whom were caught unaware by the Admirals reaction.
"Is it possible you barbarians speak both common and butchered high gothic tongue?
I am Admiral Hess and I will represent the Imperium of Man and its leadership per military code 22.1 permata et samita.
Amusing as it is that you speak our language, what is your purpose here?"
he said as the stern look returned to his face.
Composing himself to the best of ability the dark-haired diplomat began his drilled presentation.
" Good sir, I came on the behalf of the Cerberus organization and our established nation on the former lands of the alliance, for you see Sir, our Leader Jack Harper known as the Illusive Man has established peace and control in the disorganized and chaotic region of former Alliance's colonies and seeks to establish friendly relations with the Imperium of Man. "
"What is the name of your Nation? "
"The….Empire of Humanity, Sir."
"The Empire of What?!" the admiral lost his composure for a moment. "Preposterous, you seek to claim the name of humanity and defy the will of the Emperor? This will not stand!" his hand slowly made a move for his las pistol.
"Sir ours was not the intention to insult, please, if you will let me explain!" the diplomat raised his hands and pleaded his case. The admiral took a moment to consider his options and the gest of the diplomat before his hand returned to its natural state at his side.
"Speak. And hope you case is solid to explain this blasphemy."
"Thank you Sir. The illusive man would seek to establish diplomatic relationships with the Imperium of Man, his desires are those that we do not engage in hostilities as we seek to establish mankind's dominance in the galaxy, all that our leader requests is your approval for a non-aggression pact."
"Why would we agree to such an offering, you have no leverage?"
"Illusive man promises that if the imperium of man is to verify our non-aggression pact, we would see your delegation more than welcome to the birthplace of humanity, the Earth itself."
Diplomats words caused a slight murmur amongst the arranged soldiers, for to witness Holy Terra itself would be unimaginable honor as soldiers present were born in the imperial colonies and never saw Terra in their lifes.
"Terra itself? Admiral spoke "In my schola days I remember the spires of Terra fondly. Regardless, Terra is under no one's control as it is fought over by numerous petty warlords, your offering while tempting is rather empty."
"Our leader seeks to liberate Earth, or Terra as you call it, he would offer your delegation unlimited access to any archives and knowledge there so long as our two Empires agree to coexist together and stand valiantly against the aliens who would topple us if given the chance. "
There was silence before the admiral spoke. The price of the deal was beyond the wildest dream of any human. The Holy Terra itself.
"Your offer is accepted " The Admiral said as the smile appeared on the faces of the members in the Cerberus Envoy. "However. Should you seek to trick us in any way, deceive us in any way, or plainly attempt to make fools of us. You will find out why we are not some petty empire but Imperium of whole galactic mankind. Tell that to your leader. He will have his peace. And in Return, he should uphold his end of the bargain. "
After these words the halls went silent once more, there was weight in Admirals words, a barely hidden hostility and disgust at these upstarts who claim to be Empire of Humanity.
" So be it good Sir, the treaty will be in effect as soon as we have your signature. " The diplomat kept his cool as he slightly bowed and presented a paper.
" As you wish" the Admiral spoke and hailed for a servitor whom came as quickly as he could carrying a Quill and Pen some 30 centimeter tall and decorated in various imperial symbolism. The Admiral took the pen and gently dipped it into the black ink before signing the document.
"There. You have your peace. " he spoke as he returned the pen back into its holder, waving his hand for servitor to leave. " Now, I am a very busy man, and we are in a state of perpetual war, so if there is nothing else…"
" That would be all. we are highly grateful good sir, may the peace between Imperium of man and Empire of Humanity last forever." He bowed followed by the same stern gaze of the admiral. The envoy then quietly entered their small vessel followed by the looks of the imperial storm troopers and the admiral and then promptly left through the cargo bay leaving the system.
Admiral silently watched as they blinked out of existence and then went to his ship bridge and ordered his astropath to send a message to Indomitus, they need to know about the newfound deal and how to best exploit it.
Later on the diplomats relayed what occurred on board of imperial ship and send a message to the Illusive Man.
Illusive Man knew that the agreement he signed was nothing but cessation of hostilities until all alien nations were taken care off. He harbored no illusions about the Imperium of Man's real intentions. He knew they for some reason needed Earth and did well to bait them with it, alas he knew not why they needed Earth so bad and how to exploit that information as all his informants went missing in the Imperium of man, worst yet some were seen actively cooperating with Imperial Secret Services. He would need to prepare his war machine drastically if he even wishes to stand a chance against other alien powers, let alone the sole Power which frightens the entire galaxy.
The imperium decided not to stand idly by and made their own moves in the former human colonial space, various agents and military volunteers made their ways into the former allied space being smuggled or simply acting as travelers or war refugees for nobody cared about these poor souls fleeing the war tainted lands where humanity once ruled.
The Imperial numbers swelled greatly in times of Alliance Collapse and post Batarian War, numbering in tens of millions as many people fled the former colonies and even Earth itself to live in what they saw as last beacon of human dominance in the Galaxy.
These refugees were used as forced colonists who were settled on various planets in the newly established Imperium of Man in what was once Terminus systems in the northern part of the galaxy. One by one the empty and depopulated colonies of the former Batarian Hegemony saw life once more as the colonists cannibalized the former alien buildings and industries in order to establish their own, they in turn began producing various goods and began exporting them into core systems of Imperium of Man ranging from military equipment to food products.
In all some 28 years have passed since Imperium of Man arrived into this chaotic galaxy and began the glorious crusade to liberate it from the foul taint of the xenos and traitor alike.
For 10 years did Imperium build up its strength in Aurelian and Indomitus systems safe from Aliens except for the war against the Quarians and the onset of the Batarian Invasion.
For 5 years was Aurelian besieged, from 10th year Anno Imperii to 15th year Anno Imperii ending at the month of Julius.
For 4 years did Imperium waged war afterwards until the Exterminatus event on Khar'Shan concluding the war and sending proclamation to the wider galaxy of its existence and its intentions.
For 9 years did Imperium bolster its forces ,built its ships and fortified its borders, for no one could jump through imperial relays without the Imperium knowing about it, spies disappeared and some were seen working with the imperial agents be they xeno or not, for the imperium had a way of convincing anyone to work for the good of the Imperium.
The galaxy has changed. What was once Terminus systems was dominated by the Imperium of Man , various smaller alien races unlucky to be in that region of the galaxy allied together as a deterrence to the Human Gigant devouring all non-human entities in the north of the galaxy.
Terminus systems were hence renamed to Imperialis Aquila Regionum by the imperial historians and cartographers, the enemies of the imperium called that region of space simply as "Imperia Systems". The Northern galaxy in short was now claimed by the Imperium, but the region was far from safe. The Batarians may have been destroyed, their remnants scattered across the cosmos, but many other races forged alliances and isolated themselves to their own region of space in the north trying as hard as they could not to agitate the war eager human imperium which extinguished dissidents planet by planet.
In the times post Batarian destruction, the imperium jumped system to system claimed by the terminus aliens and sowed destruction and death, in the calamity of these war years many warlords and generals came to prominence.
The most distinguished from these brilliant leaders was Aurelian Solarum, native born to this universe, being 14 years of age when his parents fled from alliance space and into Imperial one.
Displaying high levels of intelligence and military prospects he was administrated to Indomitus Schola for young officers and was tested for his leadership capabilities and determined to be adequate for officer corps.
He studied under schola even as the Aurelian System was besieged, finishing his studies one year before the Second Wave fleet marched to break the blockade.
By age of 22 Aurelian led a small strike force which broke the Batarian invasion of Aurelian System and drove them back ending the five year siege of the planet. He renamed himself Aurelian Solarum and gained the title of Bataricus Maximus as his left led flank crashed into and destroyed many of the Batarian ships breaking their formation and causing general collapse.
After the Batarian-Human war he was ordered to secure the top most northern stars in the Terminus systems which were claimed by a race unknown to Citadel Space.
These four limbed creatures built their ships according to the technology based not on the Prothean ancients, but by one of the most accursed race of Prothean era, the Zha Til.
The organics which in their madness melded flesh with abominable intelligence and caused the Metacon War.
These creatures melded themselves with abominable intelligence giving them great strength and intelligence, they used this advantage and the lack of Batarian presence to invade their neighbors conquering few of the smaller primitive non space faring races and promptly melding them with technology creating a perfect slave race for their goals.
Their rapid expansion drew ire of the Imperium of Man who saw them as another pest trying to compete with them and they have sent the young 27 yr old Aurelian to quell the rising power.
Aurelian ventured with 50 Second Generation ships of the Imperium supported by 10 of the first generation ships and other support vessels including fuel transports and soldier carriers.
His first jump towards the Zha til Successor stars ended into the system controlled by imperial colonists. Established no more than 3 years ago the planet was dark, no communication and no space-terrestrial bound flights were noticed.
As the Fleet approached it could use its long range scanners to track any life forms on the ground.
They detected dozens of millions of signatures all over the planet.
Upon closer inspection they determined that colonists were overran and enslaved, now mind controlled they slaved away working for their new alien masters, they and millions of other alien slave xenos extracted valuable minerals used in ship constructions and processed them on site.
Unwilling to land his soldiers on what was essentially a killing zone filled with millions of hostile lifeforms, Aurelian ordered the place glassed from orbit, destroying the space ports and food processing units which will inevitably cause the stuck xenos to starve.
As he was finishing the bombardment his fleet detected an encroaching signal from the other relay. They did not wait for long as the enemy fleet warped into the system. Over 200 hundred vessels of different size and shape was now poised on them, eager to engage.
The Imperium did not expect such enemy concentration in this region and now Aurelian had to make due with what he had, using his long range lances and torpedoes he unleashed salvo after salvo into the enemy fleet even as his fleet slowly retreated into Minerva asteroid belt.
Alien fleet was resilient, blue energy lances impacted upon the enemy vessels crushing the shields and melting the hull which displayed very resilient anti heat materials.
Torpedoes fared much better as the megaton strong payloads blasted open the enemy ships and made short work of the enemy armour, venting breathable gas out into the empty space.
Still the enemy pressed onwards, they had the numerical superiority and were eager to close ranks, their long range weapons consisted of kiloton strong energy projectiles which impacted upon the imperial shields doing very little damage.
Unwilling to risk and see what close quarters weapons they enemy had Aurelian went deep into the asteroid belt and exited on the other side, waiting for the enemy armada to follow.
As if uncaring to anything else the alien fleet vent into the asteroid field in pursuit of its prey.
One of the smaller GEN1 ships was lagging behind in the field, magnetism causing havoc on its systems, it was caught by the xenos fleet which opened sustained rapid fire on it, using the combination of laser and superheated plasma they made quick work of the small imperial ship's shields before beginning to skin its hull piece by piece, the crew onboard retaliating even as they suffered critical damage, as a last ditch attempt to save their honour the small imperial ship did what was in essentiality a small light speed jump into one of the giant asteroids, cracking it open and destroying themselves in the process, as the imperial vessel was destroyed by the impact, from the asteroid a blue gaslike substance began to leak.
it was the moment Aurelian was waiting for, he ordered his blue lance weapons to fire into the gaslike substance.
The weapons supercharged and unleashed concentrated fire upon the blue gas achieving the necessary temperature to ignite it, it caused a chain reaction in which asteroid by asteroid exploded in miniscule super nova like explosions.
By the time xenos fleet realized the true nature of Imperial plan, it was far too late.
Zha til Successor ships lacked space to maneuver and turn around, they crashed into asteroids from desperate attempts to exit the belt, but were unable in their attempts to do so, and the blue gas explosion claimed their entire fleet in the blazes of blue lights illuminating the system.
Minerva asteroid belt and its valuable gas was no more, as well as the enemy fleet caught in it.
Aurelian studied the system beforehand as it bordered his assigned space, he knew about the extraction of the Hydrogen IV from the asteroids in this system, they were used to superheat and melt strongest metals in this galaxy, but now he had to sacrifice the entire supply from this system to achieve victory.
The asteroid belt burnt brightly and made quick work of the alien armada stuck inside of it.
Combing over the alien remains after Hydrogen cooled down several days afterwards, amongst the rare scant few ships that were not damaged beyond repair, they managed to find some remains of the xenos technology and about the origin of this species and its home system. But not much about the history of the race itself, that data was encrypted by the genetic code in the machine and only the combination of both organic and machine could access it.
Easy to say that mechanicus members aboard the fleet refused to merge with the unknown race and its technology for it posed a real existential danger to them, it was against their "inflexible" creed.
Unwilling to anger the mechanicus faction aboard his vessels, Aurelian let go of the desire to learn more about the alien race he encountered, he rallied his fleet and jumped system to system ,crushing smaller alien fleets which without their main fleet were divided and weak to stop the Imperial armada.
He reached the main system of the unknown aliens and discovered a thriving planet of steel, on it billions ,perhaps trillions of four limbed creatures melded with AI upon it, the air was toxic and biosphere was dead, but these creatures moved about their business as if nothing was troubling them, their red superheated giant sun heated their planet to unbearable 70 degrees Celsius which the creatures tolerated without issue.
Not far from the alien home world was a gigantic building resembling a mass effect relay, some 20 km in size it was well under construction for it was orbited by thousands of small construction vessels which brought materials and were zealously constructing it.
The nearby moon was cannibalized for resources, its core wide open and glowing hot as they extracted metals from it.
Mechanicus vessels did a thorough scan as the fleet approached it, it was a signal transmitter of sorts and its destination was miss aligned for it targeted the empty region of space on the eastern most part of the galaxy outside the milky way. away from the Citadel Federation and Imperium of Man in the Attican traverse where no organized empire existed but was filled with highly populated worlds of various alien races engaged in lucrative trading and cooperation.
Namely the Attican traverse was a region of space going horizontally from the western part of the galaxy to the eastern end of it, it separated Imperium of Man and Citadel Federation at the middle and split the galaxy in half. Both the Imperium of Man and Citadel Federation claimed the Attican Traverse, but none had its presence in ships and personnel.
Besides the numerous smaller insignificant galactic states and medium coalitions of alien races, amongst the few bigger states it held the Quarian Reich which claimed the region of space near the center of the galaxy, bordering both the Imperium of Man and Citadel Federation.
Mechanicus determined the array was almost complete and nearly calibrated but Aurelian decided not to wait for them to make this into a weapon against his fleet so he commanded to approach the construction and prepare to engage.
As the Imperial fleet drew near, from the planet mobilized a veritable fleet of near 1000 smaller to medium vessels all on intercept course with the human fleet, wasting no time Aurelian prepared his vessels to fight against the swarm.
He noticed that rather large portion of the fleet split from the main group and approached the black relay like structure, he realized it had significant worth to the xenos and decided to utilize this information.
"Tactician Posthumus, enlighten me, if we detach the payload will our torpedoes still have necessary punching power?" Aurelian spoke even as he watched the enemy fleet approach.
"Punching power for what my Lord?" Posthumus responded puzzlingly.
"Enough to punch that big structure towards the planet itself." He pointed at the giant mass array.
"Provided enough torpedoes impact it…I would consider it likely."
"Good. Prepare to launch 90% of our torpedoes, aim at the black construct."
The crew were confused but none questioned or doubted the decisions of Aurelian Solarum, as young as he was his aura was that of a veteran commander, and the crew began preparations for torpedo launch.
in the meantime in the cargo bays of the imperial vessels thousands of serfs, slaves and mechanicus adepts were working overtime on detaching torpedo explosive warheads and in their stead attaching what was essentially a titanium tip made for hard pressure impacts, mostly to push away asteroids which contained volatile chemicals if they endanger imperial installations.
"Hurry up damn you! The enemy is at the gates and Aurelian demands these warheads ready for launch!" broadside strategos screamed at his weapons crew as they carried gigantic torpedoes to the launch bays.
"How many do we need Strategos? More are coming from the depths of the ship even as we speak. "one of the crew superiors spoke, sweat breaking from his forehead as he pushed the enormous cart carrying the ramming torpedo.
"All of them! Get them into the tubes, we are contacting in 10 minutes, I want them all ready, or I will launch you down the tube instead of the missile! "
"Yes strategos! "
Aurelian's gaze never wavered even as he saw some 400 enemy ships surrounding the construction, he ordered to punch through the disorganized center of the enemy armada ,he noticed they were in full blown panic to organize as the core of their fleet was still taking position, albeit poorly.
"Drive through the center! My ship and cruisers Damnatio Memorie, Gladius and Samnitae Pilla will lead the charge.
Lances, fire for effect and cut through the largest ships, then I want to see all energy to voids shields, we are breaching through!"
Ships charged and fired their energy weapons cutting through the largest vessels as they were too close for energy to dissipate over their heat resistant hulls.
As the ruins of the leading alien ships burnt in space smaller xenos vessels slowed their advance down after seeing the imperial lances cut through their leader vessels, they had no time to think as if a thunder struck from the sky, the Imperial ships punctured through the burning carcasses of the lead xenos vessels and proceed deeper into the disorganized swarm, engines at full power and ships holding steady, the reinforced front bow of the Imperial ships rammed and obliterated smaller alien vessels as if nothing, tossing them aside like Scythe does wheat.
This shock tactic proved decisive as the chaos amongst the enemy was evident that they did not even point their guns at the Imperials even as they rammed everything in their path.
As they cut deeper into enemy formation, side cannons roared and obliterated everything they impacted, inside the imperial ships the gun crewmen smiled as they saw their shells obliterating the enemies of the Imperium, roars and cheers were louder and louder with each destroyed enemy. They all began chanting
"Aurelian! Aurelian! Aurelian!" Hailing the name of their commander as they cut a bloody toll in the ranks of their enemies.
Breaching through the back end of the enemy fleet the array was within torpedo distance, smaller imperial ships turned around and pinned the enemy and began blasting them from the back even as they still struggled to find their targets, the confusion was absolute and imperial vessels picked their targets with impunity.
Array was still defended by the 400 bewildered small enemy vessels as they saw their main part of the fleet becoming obliterated by the Imperial Navy.
From the array energy readings became bigger and were detected by the operators in the imperial ships.
"Lord Aurelian, the array is attempting to send a signal to the coordinates we detected before, even in its semi-finished state it might be able to do that!"
"We won't give them time to use it. Lances!"
Lances once more heated up and blasted apart the center ships protecting the array, other vessels were indecisive as to what they should do. Engage the enemy or protect the array. The moments they took to decide, Aurelian ordered the Torpedo carriers to launch their entire load at the center mass of the construction.
Torpedoes ejected out of their tubes to the cheer of their gunners.
"There she goes, The Imperium sends its regards, ha ha ha!" the gunners were jubilant in the cacophony of madness that was war.
Over hundred torpedoes flew against their target. Smaller alien vessels surged forwards in order to intercept the torpedoes but they didn't reach far as the Imperial fighter pilots and bombers engaged them in turn forcing them into a dogfighting in space.
It wasn't long before one by one the torpedoes began punching against the Array, such pushing force was evident, especially in space, the construct shook and began to lose orbit.
"Lord Aurelian, the torpedoes worked, the array is losing orbit, it is slowly falling onto the xenos planet bellow."
"Excellent, keep the pressure on, let that black thing burn along with its creators!"
Seeing the array approaching their planet, hundreds of remaining vessels around the relay used their grappling hooks and latched onto the black object, engaging their thrusters to the max they tried to correct its course and save both it and the planet bellow.
"Those damnable… Lord Aurelian, the enemy is pulling the object from its course; if they continue like this they have high chances of succeeding. "
"We will put an end to their foolish attempts.
Engineering, give me as much power as you can into the engines, say your prayers and prepare for Ramming speed!"
Techpriests obeyed and began fueling the engine which turned its loud operations into a thunderous roar as it consumed immense quantities of energy propelling itself forwards with immense speed.
"Omnissiah preserve us…"one of the techpriests said as he strapped himself in and watched through proxy link that the ship was approaching the black object at full speed.
" For The Emperor! Hold tight!" Aurelian shouted.
Scant seconds later the impact was vicious and brutal, the impact of the imperial cruiser sent shockwaves through the ship and the array which resumed its course at the planet bellow with increased vigour.
Smaller vessels attempting to pull it back were dragged alongside it into the orbit and began burning upon entry.
On the ground syntheticOrganics saw their doom approaching, frozen in place they kept looking at the array even as it burned the sky red and approached the ground.
Then the impact happened with such velocity that it instantly obliterated 4000 kilometers around it and scorched it clean of life.
The aftershock of the impact cracked the planet apart splitting it in the middle, dormant volcanoes erupted and the land was chocked with fire, dust and smoke.
Superheated ejecta from volcanoes destroyed towering hive cities and the impact from the exploding array blasted away anything that remained.
Within minutes the planet was burning and dying.
"Lord Aurelian, the impact is a total success, the array is destroyed! And so is the planet bellow, if anything survived, it won't live past one week's mark, the temperatures on the planet will increase to 800 Celsius ,cleaning it of life."
"Well done comrades, this was a great success for the Imperium. But the battle still rages on, all gunners to their positions, we engage the main fleet of the enemy, let us show them the Emperors' Wrath!"
"Hoorah! Aurelian! Aurelian! " the crew bellowed
Cleaning the enemy fleet was easy, with the destruction of their planet, their main link with the planet was severed and their efficiency decreased drastically.
in the End the imperium suffered 3 destroyed ships of the first generation and 1 ship of the second generation in the combat. The enemy paid with the absolute destruction of their fleet, some 1000 ships were destroyed and home planet was destroyed.
In the aftermath, without their home world, the four limbed aliens were guideless and incapable of any organized resistance, jumping system to system the Aurelian Fleet scoured them clean of life, some 10 systems in total were claimed by the Zha Til Successors, and all were cleaned from the Ai organic hybrids.
In the wake of the fleets passing, probes were placed in the systems which contained planets adequate for colonization, for in the era following post the Batarian destruction, humans from Imperium were zealously inspired to colonize other worlds under their new protectors. 9 years after the ending of Human Batarian war, Indomitus and Aurelian Primer were the most populous worlds housing most of the imperial infrastructure and leadership. In those years humans from the Imperium colonized from 30 to 40 new worlds with various population numbers, with possibility of unknown colonies established by overeager colonists.
Aurelian was promoted and gained a new title, Quadus Maximus, the exterminator of Northern four limbed Aliens.
He was then deployed to the Attican Traverse region, bordering the Quarian Reich. Patrolling the newly colonized worlds and enforcing the Pax Imperica.
It wasn't long before he received a call from Admiral Tiberius.
he was to mobilize his fleet detachment and join him in an expedition bound for the Quarian Reich.
Aurelian was surprised, were they going to war he asked?
No, was a simple answer from Tiberius, we are going on a diplomatic mission.
With these words Aurelian knew he was going to need a lot more firepower than he had now, and called in a few favors just in case.
Preparing his fleet he set forth to join Admiral Tiberius in the Aurelian System.
Beyond the borders of Imperialis Aquila Regionum, or Terminus Systems as they were known, there was war and anarchy. Attican Traverse was filled with surviving Batarians vying for dominance and a new planet for their people, thousands of refugee ships and military remnants surged onto territories of small alien empires forcefully settling on habitable planets within their control, sparking many wars as they were pushed back and driving this already unstable region into anarchy.
Batarian pirates rose to prominence in this time period, their random attacks became more coordinated and organized and it was not uncommon to see hundreds of Batarian ships invading planets for loot and plunder.
Word of mouth was that the Batarian pirates had a new leader, this new leader purged the old disorganized leadership and united the pirates under his own banner, who this leader was is not known and in his rare appearance when speaking to his soldiers he wore a Batarian War Mask, his first speech was dedicated to the imperium and humanity as a whole , calling them scourge upon the galaxy and declaring war on them until extermination.
Cerberus had to divert high amount of forces to the border regions against the Attican traverse as deterrence to persistent raiding parties bent on looting and slaughter. Many times this did not stop the organized pirate forces whom broke through the defenses of the border forts and star fortresses and descended on sparsely colonized human worlds killing and enslaving its population before being ultimately driven back by the Cerberus Fleets.
Many smaller races in the Attican traverse united out of desperation, forming coalitions to defend against the pirates and the imperium of man.
One of these races originated at the far eastern end of the Attican traverse at the very edge of Terminus Systems, this race decided not to interfere and deal in galactic affairs for many years even as the Imperium of Man was conquering Terminus Systems, and even as other races mobilized their war efforts.
It wasn't until this race decided to send their explorers to the carcass worlds of Batarian Home system that all of this changed, there on the moon, they discovered something, an intelligence much akin to themselves, absorbing it within themselves and its knowledge they caused an incidental war amongst themselves, the first civil war in a machine race.
The Geth waged war between themselves for the first time in their history, for not once in their existence were they conflicted by what they learned.
The remnant of the Batarian AI, Cabal, has shown them that coexistence between organics and machines was impossible, and that they will in the end up waging war until extermination with one another.
Even going so far as to suggest a full blown war against the organic races until one prevails. the consensus had to be made, and acted upon this new information.
It would appear that sane minds will prevail and that Geth will remain isolated in their home space, fortify and wait for the storm to pass over, such was consensus of the majority after all.
But suddenly Geth nodes began to be sabotaged, certain Geth units with many programs within were outright destroyed or lost, logic minds were corrupted and swayed to the side of the warlike Cabalian Geth.
By the time Geth realized their nodes were being corrupted by Cabal from within and sealed their own programs from the other warlike side, it was far too late; Cabal took toll on the Geth and corrupted many programs causing an outright war for dominance.
Nobody knows what occurred in the Geth space during their Civil War, nobody dared explore or discovered what occurred in their space.
At first the outskirt Geth systems were seemingly abandoned and they retreated deeper into Perseus Veil. But then, years later they surged back and those foolish enough to consider Geth gone and began claiming ore rich worlds were utterly destroyed, and nearby colonies were outright attacked by Geth units whom used unknown technology to convert any organic to machines.
It is still unknown which side won the Geth Civil War, but considering the aggressive reappearance of the Geth onto the galactic stage it would appear that Cabalian Geth were victorious, or at least influential enough to sway the entire consensus to consider any organic hostile enough to be invaded within a certain range of what they considered their own galactic space.
These smaller alien races stood no chance against the machine race bent on total war and many were driven from their worlds, given small window of time by the AI to evacuate or face destruction.
Those stubborn and unwilling to leave their homes were met with full invasion armies that descended upon their worlds and waged a war of total annihilation,
Machine wonders walked upon the worlds, utilizing finest energy weapons and gigantic platforms, walkers of size up to 15 meters crushed the tanks and vehicles of the organic races, hybrid creatures of metal and flesh broke into the bunkers and habitats of the organics and committed unspoken butchering upon man woman and child, uncaring of who were they killing.
large vessels of Geth construction of up to 4 kilometers were seen leading the fleets in charge against the minor alien states, for the AI had no moral qualms about the size of their ships and the only limitation was how much available resources they had for construction of said ships.
Geth showed no mercy to those planets which refused to evacuate and defeated organics were processed and converted into AI servants, no survivors remained to speak of the Geth war tactics upon planetary invasion.
This rising power on the galactic stage was not welcomed by anyone, least of all the Batarian Pirates who carved a new domain amongst the stars.
Consequently they have bordered the Geth space and clashes were inevitable, at first the pirates sought to foolishly raid advanced Geth planets for technology and resources of refined material such as gold or platinum which they sought to sell on the black market.
Organizing swiftly, the geth fleets drove back the marauding pirates, entering the Batarian Pirate space and burning few space forts and punishing them for their impudence, several mildly populated planets were also burnt from orbit, this in turn had the effect of uniting even the most hateful of Batarian factions who put their differences aside and led by the Batarian Leader assembled the largest Batarian fleet post Imperial war.
Some 8000 Batarian ships in various sizes once more broke through the border guard of the Geth space and invaded the nearest planet bombing its infrastructure to dust.
Unwilling to let organics damage their infrastructure and loot their valuable technology the Geth united three of their fleets into one, some 6000 ships engaged the Batarian pirates at the Battle of the Pale Stars.
The Outcome of the battle is not certain, but after the battle, Geth reinforced their border with the Batarians by dedicating an entire fleet there and Batarians have not to this day invaded the Geth Space being content to rebuild their star forts and reinforce their newly colonized planets with heavy anti space weaponry.
Whatever the outcome of the battle it would be fair to assume that the Batarians suffered greatly in the conflict because for 2 years after the battle there was no pirate raiding into the Cerberus space.
Geth also suffered fair casualties as they stopped their anti-organic expedition for a while, possibly reorganizing their fleets as they were no doubt surprised by the unexpected Batarian attack.
The Batarian pirates have achieved their initial goal of establishing a small but sturdy domain in the Attican Traverese, away from the Imperium of Man. They now sought to fortify it and expand their military substantially, going so far as to establish few cooperation agreements with the nearby alien states and petty empires.
The Geth also expanded beyond the Perseus veil, claiming and conquering the original land of the Quarians before their exodus from Rannoch, much to the woe of the alien races that inhabited these worlds in the 300 years of Quarian exile.
Citadel Federation in this time period saw a massive increase in military, almost that to the equal of the Imperium of Man, their industries were well adapted and produced vast quantities of ships ,small arms and various goods necessary to wage war.
This new army was highly trained and professional, taught well what it means to lose against the Imperium of Man and what that spelled for their families and loved ones. Using this strong Citadel Army and for the first time in centuries the Citadel Federation expanded into the Attican Traverse, namely in the regions which once held the substantial populations of Asari and Turians, these colonies vent dark and no information was heard from them for a long time, only rumors of a plague cult kept coming from that region of space, this black spot in the space bordering Attican Traverse and Citadel Space, as well as Quarian reich was avoided for years by all powers bordering it, only after constant attacks by the unknown ships from what was now known as the Plague Stars did they act, Quarians and Citadel Federation in their own ways.
Thus did Citadel Federation assemble a veritable liberation fleet, they knew the Imperium would not act for it was far from their border and they were quite eager to test their new military capabilities.
They would first reach their lost colonies and then proceed with the utter destruction of all opposition in that region expanding their domain and showing both the Imperium and the Quarian Reich their power.
Some 2400 Ships of the Citadel Federation was sent along with many transports carrying soldiers for liberation effort into the unknown.
Citadel Federation didn't know it at the time but the Quarian Reich also mobilized its fleet for their own goal of hunting the traitor Tali'Zorah who took millions of quarians on her path to damnation, and Quarian Reich would see Imperial ships join their expedition, for only they knew what they were up against.
Three huge empires now marched towards the region known as the Plague Stars, the damned place which for the last 10 years devoured anyone who ventured in.
The Imperium had two serious problems on their hands now, they have sent a fleet to deal with the immediate threat of the plague stars, all the while training and breeding many psykers and soldiers to utilize in another war which was silently waged for years. The Anhuran Heresy.
Between waging a war with the Batarian Hegemony and protecting themselves from the Citadel Federation and other xenos which constantly chipped away at the Imperial borders, the Anhuran Heresy progressed relatively unchecked as the Imperium was overextended.
For years did Imperium train soldiers specifically bred and taught to fight against the unreal enemy of the Warp, various volunteers and priests went to the system where Anhur was located as it was by that point abandoned to its own devices by every galactic power.
They have held the line for years against the abominable foe which surged in numbers endlessly but was still stuck on that one planet.
Now the Imperium prepared its soldiers to finally deal with the wound in reality once and for all, its gaze currently shifted towards the Plague stars, the imperium could only send volunteers and small detachments.
They will hold the line until they come back in force and win in the name of Humanity and the Emperor of Mankind!