The Face of the Enemy (Narrative)

[Mordante]

Stardate 2409.5 Empires at Rest, �the edge of cataclysm�

The galaxy knows a brief respite; after decades of war and destruction a new order has fallen into place, a broad axis dividing the civilised races of the region, a balance of power, and yes, of terror also, of mutual annihilation, the ending of things.

Shards

Spinward from the core stands the Senate of Shards; a vast republic spanning almost three-hundred fully developed worlds and numbering a dozen sentient species amongst it�s citizenry. The Shards Protectorate stretches out to embrace the holdings of it�s neighbours in trade and enlightened mutual defence; numerous wars and skirmishes have tempered the warriors and ships of this mighty power, and an enlightened policy of invasion over genocide has swelled the civilian population to an unprecedented 90 billion souls. The Senate of Shards values change and mutability, the myriad hues of crystalline refraction, the thoughts of the multitude, the chaotic harmony of the quantum singularity. When need arises adjustments are made; vessels are constructed and changed, strategies evaluated, philosophies tasted, the Senate of Shards is a force of flexibility and revelation.

Early skirmishes with the Playbodiums, the Shadows, and Zargoids were fought with missiles and shard cannons, while a later, more serious engagement with the LGM tyranny was concluded through use of phased polaron beams and cloaking warfare prior to full-scale invasion. In recent years the Senate of Shards has modernised it�s fleet of 150 warships to use null-space weaponry and the highest levels of ancillary technology. With a crystalline production base second to none and the fruits of advanced science ready for use on the frontline, the Senate of Shards is prepared to defend its culture with all the force of arms it can muster.

Shanshu

Rimward from the Shards Protectorate are the many worlds of the Shanshu Imperium, a sprawling region of space rich with planets developed and enhanced by organic technology and genetic manipulation. Allied with the Senate of Shards for mutual protection and trade, the Shanshu Imperium has had a chequered past of war and rebellion, desperate straits and recovered prowess. Fighting for their very existence from the earliest days, the Shanshu people grew to maturity in conflict with a half-dozen deadly enemies, and they triumphed. Organic beams and seeking parasites, regenerating armour and living ships, the halls of the Shanshu are filled with the bones of their past heroes and the preserved husks of their would-be oppressors. The Shanshu now face their most desperate test yet, to measure their mixed fleet of 200 organic-enhanced vessels against the might and war-machine of a dreadful and implacable foe. A power that looks now with jealous yearning at the stars and culture of the Shanshu and Shards alike.

Sarnek

In the centre of the star cluster, are two systems standing lonely and proud, the remnant culture of the Sarnek Pash. Once the mightiest of Empires; the Sarnek Pash were destroyed as a power in the first great galactic war, assaulted on four fronts by an allied force determined to prevent the spread of a tyranny. But that was decades ago, now the Sarnek Pash have chosen friendship and alliance with the Senate of Shards as a means to defend their Last holdings from the ruthless genocide that has stalked their counterspinward territories. With two systems and two dozen planets, the Sarnek Pash today exist on trade and partnership with the Shards Protectorate and the Shanshu Imperium. A core remnant of their once mighty fleet has been saved, and as the galaxy gears up for a final clash of arms, the Sarnek Pash refit their vessels with gift technology and modernised weaponry, eager and committed a second galactic war, this time on the side of justice.

Hive

Rimward and counterspin of the Sarnek Pash the stars grow dim. The nature of time and space has been twisted here, as the incredible energies of stars and quantum physics has been bound and harnessed to the limitless ambition of the darkling Emphyrian Hive. As a political entity the Hive began in relative obscurity; destroying and enslaving lesser races while other cultures spoke of trade and Terreforming cooperation. Their own society is an anachronism; a slavish devotion to the principle of growth and expansion without moral constraint or diplomatic responsibility. Their vessels are ugly and utilitarian, their science uninspired but powered by cynical disregard for the consequences of strange lust and dangerous experimentation. An almost metaphysical drive surrounds each and every product of their dark creation; the warped triple principle of �no maintenance�, �no causality�, �no rest�. Their ships exist forever in a temporal rift of inexplicable circumstance; no food is consumed by their crews, no fuel by their drives, the hulls never fracture or weaken, their future is bound in an unbreakable field of present eternity. An artefact of the Emphyrian Hive exists forever; it will never change or break or fail to dominate the thoughts of those who use or are used by it. And the society mirrors these principles; an extremist tyranny ruled absolutely by those who hoard the fruits of eternal production.

With the fall of the Sarnek Pash the Emphyrian Hive looks beyond its borders and gazes with hungry avarice at the worlds and technology of the Shanshu and Shards Imperium. It is in no hurry to begin the assault, oh no, time is irrelevant to the Hive, production continues as a constant background hum. Strategy is irrelevant; the Hive warfleet is immense, bolstered by hundreds of the largest spacefaring juggernauts imaginable, serviced by the preserved vessels of a half-dozen annihilated species. In the Hive fleet depleted uranium cannons track the same targets as massive null-space mounts, phased-polaron beams rest on pivot racks with ancient missiles and precursor tech, there is little efficiency, but the ghost of overwhelming force walks close to the presence of this awesome locust plague. The Hive way is to break a nut with a fusion cannon; this ugly fleet is the sole tool of state policy. Strange alien minds count the turning of the seasons, the inevitable flow of military advantage through overwhelming numerical force, the day is coming.

Vacuum

Coreward from the Hive stands the Last of the great galactic powers; the Vacuulum Protectorate, a race of void-breathing scavengers who build and produce little, but share something of the principle of �no-maintenance� with their masters in the great halls of the Emphyrian Hive. The Vacuulums have prospered through trade with the Hive; accepting the detritus and cast-off rubbish of their ponderous neighbours and using their cunning gifts of artifice to convert the twisted hulks into warships and vessels of tyranny. To the enduring shame of the Senate of Shards, the Vacuulums share an ancestry and common use of crystalline technology, a military advantage that the Vacuulum ships turned to genocidal effect during the final �cleansing� of the Sarnek Pash hinterlands in the first great galactic war. Today, as the great powers lurch again towards general war, the Vacuulums are more firmly tied to the Emphyrian Hive than ever before; their fleet is vast, almost 250 warships of various types and classes, most utilising cast-off Hive technology, but some designed to project crystalline fields and weaponry devastating results.

The edge of oblivion

In response to Hive aggression towards the rimward marches of the Shanshu Imperium the Senate of Shards sent an interdiction fleet towards Hive space. Tense negotiations followed, the Hive stating it�s intention to expand without limit, the Shards Protectorate preparing to invade Hive space to protect it�s ally. A deal was struck at the 11th hour, with Shards and the Hive agreeing to limited total ship numbers to 150 hulls and orbital production facilities to 200 in the interests of peace. Certain ancillary terms and conditions were consequentially included in a treaty announced to the region at large as �the iron terms of peace�.

A year passed, and an uncertain peace held, the Hive seeking to subvert the treaty by passing its surplus vessels to the Vacuulums Protectorate. Shards responding with military aid to the Shanshu Imperium. All the while the Vacuulum Protectorate was pushing the fallen Sarnek Pash closer and closer to extinction, and both Shards and the Hive utilised extensive stellar manipulation technology to link systems, create worlds, and close strategic gates.

Then the Emphyrian Hive opted to test the peace with a fresh show of force on the Shanshu border, seizing a critical system and closing the connecting warp point to forcibly annex the border territory of Vartoxia. The Shanshu diplomats urged the Senate of Shards to support an immediate invasion of Hive space in retribution, but bound by �the iron terms�, Shards could do little but provide fresh military aid and technological secrets.

Meanwhile the Hive continued to boost the power and fleet numbers of the Vacuulums, who were pursuing their policy of annihilation against the rump Sarnek Pash. Hive tyrants were content to lay the hulls for hundreds of base-ships, secure and free from the restraints of ship maintenance budgets and any ideological opposition to ultimately breaking the �iron terms� for short term military gain.

A breakthrough, the Sarnek Pash chose to depose their leader in exile, the infamous �emperor kyander� and butcher of a dozen world-sackings in his own right, and then approached the Senate of Shards and Shanshu for terms of alliance and peace. Asking only the two central systems of Lapzooli and Ephandra, the Sarnek Pash ambassadors were successful in winning the protection they sought and a pact of partnership and mutual defence was signed on the homeworlds of the three alliance powers.

Howls of rage from the Emphyrian Hive pierced the silence of space; demanding full rights to prosecute genocide in it�s cultural interest, the Hive named the reformed Sarnek Pash government an association of �criminals� to be crushed at leisure. Then further, the Hive reasserted it�s intention to make fresh war against the Shanshu Imperium for past wrongs and naked avarice. Diplomats from the Senate of Shards listened calmly and tried, against reason, to reason with the implacable hatred spewing from the lips of the Hive functionaries; a pact of limited war prohibiting civilian atrocities was proposed;

�we are well past that!� Snarled the Hive ambassador.

A new treaty negotiation to include the three powers beyond the iron terms was mooted;

�we do not recognise their rights to exist let alone speak!�

A pause to consider and negotiate was surely a simply common decency?

�common decency�, the ambassador rasped the words in a tone generally reserved for whispering an accusation of intentional genital malfeasance, �has no place in the Emphyrian Hive�.

Resolution

The battle-lines are drawn; the Senate of Shards and the Shanshu Imperium face off against the Emphyrian Hive and the Vacuulums Protectorate, with the husk of the old Sarnek Pash joining the fight for a final glorious gesture of defiance against the night.
An irresistible force of no-maintenance tyranny moves towards the fragile defences of technological flexibility and cultural zest!

Who will triumph? what ideals will survive the clash of arms? Will anyone survive?

Only time will tell.