(Secure Audience Chamber, Imperial Palace, Ihmana Prime, Ihm Imperium)
“My Empress, we have a new report from our spies in the Terran Empire on the traitors who deserted the Imperium!”
Empress Drez Dhiss Ihm VII’s crest flared at the mention of the former Warleader and her conspirators, who had dared to dispute the findings of the War Council. Worse, she had even publicly called out the War Council, and sent a letter to the press, which had soon been spread far and wide. That insolent Warleader had shamed both the War Council and her own Imperial majesty!
And then the damned Warleader had not even had the decency to be arrested so that she could be publicly shamed and disgraced in a trial where she would have been forced to recant her crimes. She, along with her co-conspirators, had fled the Imperium, leaving the Second Great Armada bereft of over three quarters of its experienced officers and crews. Worse, the entire surviving officer corps and half of the members of the Third Legion had gone with her, betraying their oaths to the Imperium.
When she had discovered the mass desertion, she had, of course, ordered the War Council to assemble the traitors’ families, so that they could determine if they were still loyal to the Imperium. If so, then they could be used to denounce their former clansmen. If not, well, then they would be leverage to force the traitors to return to the fold, one way or another.
Maddeningly enough, the traitors had foreseen this, and somehow managed to spirit away thousands of traitors and their families away from the Imperium. The impact of this mass desertion was being keenly felt, even outside the military. Two large companies had fled with the traitors, and with them the number of passenger transports in the Imperium had fallen by 12%, while a full 30% of the commercial shipping in the core systems had simply vanished overnight.
Those employees of the rogue businesses who remained had been fired, and the holdings of the businesses in question had all been sold before anyone realized what was happening. The ships had managed to get through the Tabet Gateway before anyone realized what had happened, leaving the Imperium entirely. According to the reports, they had all gone to an insignificant backwater Gateway called Star’s Reach.
The Empress took a breath to calm herself. The Knowledge-caste messenger was not the one who deserved her ire, after all. “What of it, then? Have they come crawling back for the mercy of the Imperium after experiencing the disorder of the outside?”
The Runner gulped, but said, “No, my Empress. They have joined the Black Star Company, as part of their Navy and Marines. They were seen in Sol System, when the Black Star Company arrived for ‘exercises’ with the Imperial Navy. Just before the spatial rifts observed in Coldana and Sol opened.”
The Empress hissed. Not only did the traitors desert the Imperium, but they had the temerity to join an uncasted mercenary company, and work with enemies of the Imperium? No, this could not be allowed, not at all. Perhaps something should be done about this Black Star Company, to make an example of them?
She put aside those thoughts, for the moment. There would be time later for ensuring that the Traitors and those who harbored them paid for their insults against the Imperium. The Ihm had been preparing for the next war since she had taken the throne from her weakling mother at the end of the last war.
Hmph. Her mother had chosen peace, instead of claiming the Ihm’s rightful place as rulers of the stars. That was why she had killed her, and taken the throne herself. She would see the glorious destiny of the Ihm come to fruition, and all the other races, especially the arrogant humans, brought under her heel. It was only a matter of time.
“And what of them? There was some small battle wasn’t there? I expect that without the might of the Second Great Armada, the traitors suffered a humiliating defeat?”
“No, my Empress. The Traitors and the Imperials fought an force of unknown creatures that emerged from the rift in a fierce battle. The traitors of the Third Legion invaded the enemy flagship, and captured it, before a psychic wave crashed across the system.”
Damn them! Couldn’t traitors at least die like the rekthas they were? This was intolerable! The Black Stars would most definitely need to be humbled, now.
“And what of this wave?”
“It appears that all life in the system was stunned momentarily because of the wave. Some of the humans and other species collapsed into comas lasting anywhere from hours to days. Those who did either gained psychic abilities if they previously had none, or had their existing abilities dramatically increased. The Terran Empress was apparently in a coma for a week, before she awoke, exhibiting previously unrealized powers on a scale that has not previously been recorded.”
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“And what of the traitors?”
“They appeared unaffected, my Empress. Our people in the Embassy upon the Aurum Throni also weathered the psychic wave with no visible effects. As you know, we Ihm have a low rate of psy users compared to other races. Before, this did not matter, as our warriors and ships can wipe out any powerful individuals through numbers, but the strength of these augmented psy users, especially the Terran Empress, is beyond our reckoning. Fortunately, one of the ambassadors exposed to the wave became a living Negator, his very presence blocking psychic attacks on his person. With testing, he found that, with effort, he could expand this effect to an area around him.”
That was welcome information indeed. The Empress decided that she wouldn’t have the Runner sent to the reclamation pits. Dismissing him with a wave of her hand, she thought aloud, “A counter to this new threat the Empire poses. Excellent.” She turned to look at her Minister of Technology. “How soon until we can replicate this success?”
The Minister bowed his head, and said, “From what we understand, the initial rift was caused by a weakening in the fabric of space-time due to both high levels of Transition Drive use, and the psychic impact of the Harvester’s death in Coldana. While we do not have an incident like a Harvester’s death to use, we do have the Transition Research Project, my Empress.”
“While the designs have not yet been approved for use in the Armadas, a small number of test ships have been outfitted with captured Terran devices, and new models, designed by proper Ihm methods. If we were to overload the test engines, it is possible that we could force a rift to appear, where we wished for it, rather than a random occurrence. That way, we would be able to have the Armada standing by, and they could sweep away any forces inside the rift, before going, and finding a way to use its energies to empower our warriors.”
The Empress focused her gaze upon the Technology Minister. “The inferior creatures’ technology will allow us to open one of these rifts to ‘Chaotic Space’, then?”
The Minister nodded. “In theory, my Empress. Though the devices would likely be rendered into inert scrap due to the intense energies required to force the rift to open. At any rate, we should be able to force the rift open. Once done, that would allow us to try and find a way to force the change in our warriors.”
The Empress considered for a moment. “What would you need to make this experiment?”
The Minister of Technology looked over his notes, to be certain of the numbers. It would not do to be imprecise or inaccurate at this stage. Not when greatness was about to shine upon the Ihm.
“We currently have twelve captured Imperial vessels and sixty test vehicles, ten of each iteration of our improved transition drives. The older models are kept for comparison and control purposes. All the test ships are of the advanced scout type.”
“With your permission, the Technology Ministry proposes to gather all these ships in an empty region of space, where the rift can be formed without danger to Worker or Builder castes.”
“What danger are you speaking of?”
The Intelligence Minister spoke up, “My Empress, the reports we’ve been able to get from agents in the Empire have indicated that there are multiple types of creatures living in the Chaotic Space. All of them appeared instantly hostile to the humans. While our warriors are beyond peer, our Builders and Workers are not trained as the Warrior-caste is. Warriors and ships can be replaced, but if the industry backing the Armada is destroyed, then the Warriors will be thrown into dire straits.”
The Empress nodded. “Very well. Begin the preparations immediately. We shall witness the test Ourself.”
(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)
Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, TheDespoiler, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.
ElfMama: So, anyways, that’s got to be a bigger deal than the silly arena match. We’re talking about—
Lizard: GUYS! SHUT UP WITH WHATEVER YOU’RE RAMBLING ABOUT! WE GOT PROBLEMS! WE ARE ALL FUCKED!
Blaze: Woah, now. Don’t go getting twisted out of shape, Lizard.
MacD: Lizard, you’re off in the Imperium, right? What’s going on over there that has you so freaked?
Knocker: Yeah, man. This is not like you.
Lizard: Right, fine, calm. Whatever. Just idiots going to blow us all up, but fine.
BigGunn: Can’t do anything if you don’t give us the low-down, Lizard.
Lizard: All right, so it has been almost eight months, in game, since the big Rift formed and was shut in Sol and Coldana, right?
ElfMama: Yeah, everyone’s seen the craziness that happened there. What about it?
Lizard: Well, the Ihm Empress is beyond pissed that ‘traitors and those who harbor them’ have gained achievements and honors instead of just dying.
Queen’s_Bitch: Well, every faction has its racial supremacists. Sucks that the Ihm let theirs get control of the government.
AggregatorOfSorrows: ‘Let’ is a rather strong word. The current Empress killed the last one at the end of the last war, because she wasn’t happy with the terms of the peace treaty. Seems she believed that the war should continue until the Empire was destroyed.
GrimDark: The enemies of Mankind shall never prevail. The Empress protects!
M.Mollen: More true than you realize, now, Grim.
Lizard: Forget about the bloody Terran Empress right now! She’s not the problem!
BigGunn: So what is the problem?
Lizard: You know how the big psychic wave gave a lot of people psy powers?
Backlog: Yeah, sure. What of it?
Lizard: Well, I heard from a friend in the Armada that the Embassy staff on the Terran throne-ship suddenly became immune to psychic attacks or something like that.
AggregatorOfSorrows: Immune to psy users? Preposterous.
M.Mollen: No, its true. Only about 2% of Ihm can become psy users of any level. Only about 0.01% of those are combat capable. However, since the psy wave, fully 10% of the Ihm under my command who were in Sol at the time have become Negators. Basically, anti-psy users. They can’t be scanned, shrug off psychic energy blasts, the whole nine yards.
Lizard: Yeah, that’s what I heard. The Empress decided she wants that for her troops, too.
Inquisitor: She intends to open a rift of her own?
BloodForTheBloodGod: Chaos comes, imperial dogs!
M.Mollen: Fuck. How long do we have?
Lizard: According to my information, the test is going down today. Secret location and everything. He only heard about it because the Empress is going to witness it in person.
M.Mollen: Fuck.