UGT: 30th Ascent 280 a.G.A. / 8:23 p.m.
Location: sitting in a café adjecent to a spaceport, Au'Shalis Prime, Clinton's Beak system (red dwarf), Republic of Nox, Second Human Federation, Milky Way
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The Auris‘Shalis ringworld. It was originally build somewhere around 2,000 b.G.A. more or less 1,300 years before the collapse of the Aetherian Empire. In other words, still 200 to 400 years more modern than any aetherian technology I currently had access to. And while an ancient nation like the Aetherian Empire advanced its technology seemingly very slowly, such a long timespan was still more than enough for quite a few technological advancements. It was honestly impressive how the current technological level was lower than that of the Aetherian Empire 3,500 years ago.
Anyways, the Au‘Shalis ringworld was one of twelve outposts the Aetherian Empire erected in First Federation space. And while ten of them were simple fortified moons or dwarf planets off limits for everyone, Au‘Shalis was one of the two systems were for unknown reasons erected a ringworld instead. While being the far smaller ringworld of the two, Au‘Shalis still became a hub of flourishing trade, civilisation and culture, rivaling some of the poorer First Federation core systems.
1,300 years before the collapse, the aetherian fleets in the milky way still remained unmobilised. There was no sign of war on the horizon. If the Aetherian Empire was already at war with the Ruidan Empire back than, the war played out far away from home. But more likely, the war only broke out a few centuries later about something else.
The true strength of the ringworld of Au‘Shalis was only revealed decades after its construction was completed. Back than, the galaxy was still much more splintered in different gigantic galactic empires, much like in the modern time. The Aetherian Empire was still more like a silent observer and guardien of the galactic accords than a galactic-wide hegemon, at least in the milkyway.
The Korshrak Empire, ruler of the entire galactic eastside and hegemon over the southeastern grand duchies, had their eyes on the First Human Federation assets in the southeast of the galaxy and their local allies for a long time. And the late emperor Korshrak IX. decided that the right time had come to make a move. In a blatant break of the galactic accords local assets were seized, fleets destroyed, military and civilian infrastructure bombed into dessolation, war declared and everyone held their breath, looking to the Aetherian Empire and waiting for their reaction towards this breach of the rules they once upon a time forced on an entire galaxy.
There was no reaction, no consequences, the aetherians refusing to even acknowledge the situation. Emboldened by said lack of reaction from the Aetherian Empire, other nations decided to end their conflicts decisive and bloody rather than peaceful and through diplomacy. Only for aetherian Rapid Response Fleets appearing and enforcing the accords brutaly across the galaxy, thereby sowing more havoc than the wars themselves ever could have. The aetherian phoenix still soared high and clearly still had his claws. The other starnations were quick to understand that and so, peace came back to the galaxy. Only the war between the Korshrak Empire and the First Human Federation continued unabated.
Many theories formed around the why. Why didn‘t the Aetherian Empire intervene? After all they had clearly proven that they were more than able to. Did they plan to punish the victor? Did they get some kind of amusement from the war? Did they just not care or were otherwise occupied? Did one of the two rivals bribe them to look away? The last seemed the most likely.
The longer the war went on, the more the Federation was pushed back. It seemed like a guaranteed victory for the Korshrak Empire. But appearances can be deceiving. The economy of the Korshrak Empire, heavily hit by the long war, was much more damaged than the economy of the First Federation, meaning could they just hold out long enough, they could most likely win anyway. Therefore Korshrak IX. assembled a massive strike force of over a third of his total amount of warships and escortships. Their mission? To strike at Terra in the Sol System, the homeworld of humanity not standing under siege even once in all of modern history.
But the fleet had a secondary order as well. The objective was to devaste every system along the way, with only charred remains being left behind. The Korshrak Empire planned to cut the First Federation deep. But the path charted by the Korshrak Empire strategists led directly through the Clinton‘s Beak system.
Emboldened by their sucess, the mighty korshrak fleet demanded of the Au‘Shalis ringworld, a de-facto embassy of the of the Aetherian Empire, to hand over local federation personell. The Aetherian Empire refused.
The Korshrak Empire didn‘t take that refusal well and attacked the ringworld. It was the last action their fleet took. Hypershields, so many-folded that the barrage of hundreds of ships didn‘t fase them, green desintegration beams that destroyed energy and normal matter alike, lasers of such powerful proportions that the korshrak shield generators melted down from the strain before the shields even broke. After an hour, nothing but fleeing straggelers remained of the once mighty fleet. For the first time, the Federation truly understood just what type of outpost the Aetherian Empire truly build in their space.
Now that a third of the enemies fleet was destroyed the war went in favor of the Federation, not just economically, but militarely and politicaly as well. The Korshrak Empire was in an uproar, most now firmly of the opinion that they shouldn‘t have ever challanged the galactic accords and the Aetherian Empire. Emperor Korshrak IX. was assassinated soon after, sealing the fate of the nation.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A destroyed fleet, a loosing war, an economy on the verge of collapsing completely, a destroyed galactic image, no central political rule, a very much unsatisfied and very angry population, no allies on the galactic map, massive ressource shortages and no more protection through the galactic accords. The Korshrak Empire left vulnerable and out of alternatives, sued for peace. It never came to a signation of a peace treaty.
The Korshrak Empire erupted into civil war, hundreds of small fringe states, every single one as strong as a modern day galactic superpower if not stronger, fighting each other to the blood with no rules and absolute ruthlessness.
Two years it took for the Aetherian Empire to gather an expeditionary force to pacify the galactic eastside again. Suspiciously fast for them. The aetherian expedition was brutal but efficient, ensuring that truly nothing intact remained, but not a single independent faction either. And like that the Aetherian Empire conquered the completely destroyed and desolated galactic eastside. Even today the galactic eastside was still the least developed part of the galaxy, far behind pretty much everywhere else. And the Galactic War Against Imperialism followed by ruidan occupation and negelect even today, didn‘t help much either.
Anyways, for the Au‘Shalis ringworld everything continued like before. The Federation decided it to be best to just ignore the entire ordeal and to continue like normal. This meant the ringworld continued to be an aetherian embassy and trading hub for centuries. Even as the aetherian fleets in the milky way mobilised and left, there were only some vague assurances that the milky way had nothing to worry about and that was it. Than almost two centuries later every Aetherian in the galaxy packed up and left in a hurry. No one knwos to where, they just disappeared, only leaving their still very dangerous and very hard to get technology behind.
A few hours later, the Ruidan Empire Milkyway Expedition appeared, or at least the first reports of them attacking aetherian space. And just a year later, the Galactic War Against Imperialism broke out, the galaxy forgetting all about the aetherians as there was something much more important to deal with.
The Federation knowing the true strength of the ringworld even without aetherian control decided to build the Clinton‘s Baek system into a supply hub and military base. The hope was that this would be enough to stop the ruidan tide. And it did. The ruidan advance was broken and the armistace signed, but at the cost of the Au‘Shalis ringworld, as it‘s shields were eventually overpowered and the ringworld destroyed, breaking apart into many fragments. Some offensive weaponry survived but there were no defensive shields working anymore.
With the Au‘Shalis ringworld gone and the economy of the First Federation in dire straits, the system was given up completely after the armistace. The ruins of Au'Shalis had no real worth remaining with another war being far from everyones mind. That was until the Second Human Federation some 130 years ago recolonised the system on the search for old aetherian technology. Everytime they tried to even get close to the old aetherian defensive mechanisms, the selfdestruction systems activated, destroying the entire weapon and all clues to aetherian technology the SHF could have maybe gotten. After 43 failed attempts they, gave up, rather leaving the remaining as strong defensive weaponry for local colonies instead of uselessly destroying them.
During the Second War of Independence, the Clinton's Beak system was occupied countless times by different nations, but no one dared to close in on the Au'Shalis ringworld fragments, fearing their offensive firepower. It just wasn't worth it for anyone. Therefore the by now already a long time selfsufficient ringworld fragments remained at peace, even if war raged on around them.
I had to say, the history of this broken ringworld truly made for a captivating tale. But right here right now, only one detail was important for me. "The ringworld fragments don't only have better versions of our own desintegrators and maybe the remnants of better shield generators, but they are controlled by some kind of lesser aetherian AI as well.", I murmured.
[ I agree with your conclusion. The SHF clearly has no control about the situation. Therefore it must be an aetherian AI that bases its decisionmaking on what and when to attack based on old orders implemented by the Aetherian Empire. ]
I would even go a step further. Said AI probably made most basic repairs and patched problems on the aetherian technology. That would require at least basic knowledge about its inner workings, something Fen and I desperately needed.
[ There is no proof of that whatsoever. ]
But you have to agree that it is likely. And I know you agree with me about our need to find this AI.
[ …That I do indeed. ]
Very well, finally there is an actual reachable goal in front of us! In that moment the holopad in front of me changed and one of my eyebrows rose slightly. „Admiral Thorrison requests to talk to me? Is he already done with all of his organisatory tasks?“, I questioned loudly.
[ May it‘s been over two hours. Obviously he should be done by now. ]
Two hours!? Well, that put quite a few things I had only noticed now into perspective. Quickly I motioned Fen to accept Admiral Thorrison‘s request and his voice started coming from my holopad. „Captain Lunaris, I hope you didn‘t bore to much, the list of tasks that required my expertise was far longer than I had expected. But now I‘m entirely available and it is past time for us to finally meet in flesh and blood. Where can I meet you?“, he asked.
“Good evening Admiral. I took the liberty and already send you my current position. This café is indeed quite lovely and it would be wonderful if you could join me in conversation over a cup of terran espresso.“, I responded.
“So a traditional terran café and a traditional terran coffee was your decision. And for you to be that set in the ancient terran customs…“, he mumbled before cutting of abruptly. „Captain Lunaris, are you perhaps of terran or at least solean origin? I already know that you most likely came from one of our core worlds but to be from the homesystem itself…“
“I would prefer to not talk about my origin. It is a thing of the past anyway.“, I responded evenly.
“Very well, I‘ll drop this topic for now. Please wait at the café for me, I will be there as fast as possible.“, he spoke before cutting the connection.
I sighed, closed my eyes and leaned back. I still had to wait. But to be honest, a few minutes truly just resting didn‘t sound to bad.