Fiction:War of Hyperspace

The great hyperspace revolution
Times were rapidly changing for the great powers of the gigaquadrant. Hyperspace, once considered only useful for effective long distance space travel and communication; was no no longer considered a dimensional shift but an actual universe of it's own, one of many subspace layers with their own laws, where universes were said by theoreticians to be embedded. As ancient civilisations left the gigaquadrant with their secrets, new empires began to take their place. For example, advancements were made in the Cyrannus galaxy that provided a cheap way to tap into zero-point energy from hyperspace, the so-called 'hypermatter siphon'. In the Milky Way, technologists of the Delpha Coalition of Planets found they could make abstract four dimensional objects impossible in realspace with truly magical properties, like being capable of converting matter into antimatter or viseversa. Yet hyperspace was still a poorly understood exotic place, and became the setting for a new horizon of reality.

Hyperplanar stars
Hyperspace was filled with the same seething vacuum of virtual particles (and additional negative energy) just as in the universe, although because one or more of the extra dimensions were larger, the vacuum wasn't confined and particles carried more energy and generations than they could in "realspace". The effects of gravity were as real as in "realspace" and matter would congregate into "stars" vertical to the universe (nothing more complex could exist because orbits would be unstable). Discovered by the DCP, these were the largest reservoirs of hypermatter known. This scientific curiosity soon became a military application by one of the more shady organisations. A hyperspace star with the mass of even a small star could outweigh the total mass-energy of a galaxy when transported into the realspace, thus there eveb much controversy even among the ranks of the Coalition.

First detonations
Near the edge of the Archedemon wall The Cult of the Deathmarch carried out most of their operations far from any galaxy, near the rifts of chaos created by the Xhodocto. Much of them made a living and terraformed the Xhodocto's megastructures for their own habitation. One suco construct, a ringworld 400,000 kilometres in diameter was inhabited by a large population of varying species, many perhaps unknown to the Gigaquadrant. It was also an industrial hub producing and stock piling war machines of immense power.

The denziens of the ringworld all felt the detonation a split second before seeing it. The detonation was so powerful waves in hyperspace actually affected realspace objects, if only slightly, and the temperature was too hot for light to generate. The ringworld evaporated at the subatomic level as spacetime itself approached planck temperature and was torn. Fortunately, gravity began it's work immediatly, and the tremendous maelstrom of pure, invisible energy began to collapse back on itself into a black hole as the equivalent mass-energy of a galaxy had been concentrated in such a tiny space. By now electromagnetism had decoupled and the echos of light traced the extreme gravitational waves which were eminated. Minutes later surrounding industrial facilities buckled under the galactic-mass of the black hole which was now producing a gamma-ray burst that would prevent the region from ever being reclaimed.

Target destroyed; the hyperspace link telemetry officer smiled. The data began to stream through into the DCP's military waiting room. There was much momentary celebration. Commander Norrikae could now relax, since the "incident" during the short war of Aperture and failures in the Vartekian wars, he had his title and rank as Captain stripped. But he had helpful contacts. The hyperplanar star project was something he had been tasked with. There were many blocks from higher ranking members who believed the weapon to be dis-honourable - typically Grimbolsaurian opinions, or the Jarzo believing such warfare as immoral. Some of the scientists threatened this weapon could destroy the universe, including that hagged wretch Geneli. But nobody liked the Cult of the Deathmarch, and in their territory; the universe was already ruined.

Admiral Vorsite walked up to praise Norrikae. I will see to upturning your rank again, you have proved your worth once more to the Coalition. Almost jokingly, Vorsite asked What is our next target?  But Norrikae looked at him with serious gaze. ''Sir; our intelligence reports that those dissidents and terrorists who call themselves 'The Consortium' will hold a meeting between Plazith Rim and the Kraw galaxy. We will send a message to these petty thugs we have the upper hand! And if we are succeed in staying secret, we could seriously consider to quash that upsurge of power in Borealis... The Junction.''  Norrikae spat the words as if they tasted vile. Even Admiral Vosite felt the chill of his hate.

The jockey
Four nights later, Norrikae was relaxing; it had been a long day. But the hyperlink to media across the known universe was feeding into his mind. There were two echos in hyperspace that had been detected. In the times after the annihilation everyone was anxious, although some pointed to the recent 'Catharsis' sightings. "The Drodo Empire, whom have recently announced themselves to the greater universe have stated that they have lost contact with a small small expeditionary flotilla with newly equipped hyperdrives. We can only hope they will return safely..."  Bah, he thought, none of them know or could know it was the DCP's latest weapon to bring order to this bedraggled cosmos, and with that he switched the live feed off.

But one channel remained open; and it was one of his benefactors was calling. It was Exodium. The AI was thought to be built by some ancient race, maybe the Xyanxes although that seemed unlikely, it had never communicated with other sentients until recently. Exodium was one of Norrikae's useful links. It was highly blasphemous to work for an agent unapproved by the DCP, but the DCP was a civilisation that has unchanged its doctrines for centuries, one problem with immortal leaders. Perhaps some ways it should change. But of course, Norrikae was working for the greater good, and he had risen in rank. All was well, but still, Norrikae had wished he had never formed a telepathic link with such an agent as Exodium.

Exodium began without any pleasantries. He was, as ever neutral... "The weapons are operational."  Norrikae replied; "well of course, we needed your computational capacity to calibrate the correct trajectories along hyperspace."...  "Your only concern now, Norrikae, is keeping the weapons hidden"...  "Well, so far, so good". Despite the neutrality, there was now a cold steel in Exodium's "voice". "In order to evade detection you will need to reduce the superspatial sinewaves as a hyperspace star is ejected out a wormhole. The closure of the wormhole nexus can be increased, but only if you allow me to spread more computation nodes into hyperspace."  Norrikae now felt somewhat suspicious. "We can get on just fine by supplying our own computational substrate." And with that, Norrikae closed the link.

The next morning

Norrikae received a report from the military command center on data from the weapons testing. After opening he had to look twice. It wasn't date for the first or second detonations. It was from a third. This was no mistake, it was an official data stream. Norrikae felt sick, there had been an unauthorised detonation, and he knew there could only be one explanation. He switched his live feed to Exodium. "You have broken our agreement. And you only jepardise our project." --Norrikae "It is you who has endangered our project, and the agreement of my significant control of the project was made when you accepted by offering, of my processing power. I am seriously re-considering your use to my requirements" --Exodium. "I will have to pull out..." --Norrikae "What? And lose your place?  I am still willing to share with you." --Exodium

Stranded
Fleet Captain Cesterity was sitting in his chair, as always, with a mug in his hand, its been a day since they got stranded in hyperspace, and they had to abandon the main module that held all of the ships. The fleet of sixty or so ships had been flying through the strange void under Cesterity's guidence. They still didn't pick up any life, let alone civilization, on there sensors yet. The Captain didn't know whether this was a blessing or a curse. However while most of the crew where nervous, Sirius seemed to enjoy this new realm, especially interested in these "stars" in hyperspace. Torix spoke up from his chair;

"If Sirius likes this hellhole so much, why don't we leave mister robot man her-"

He was cut off when the Synth entered the room;

"I heard that," Sirius told Torix in a monotone voice.

"Dumbass..." The Synth joked as he walked to his station. Torix cracked a smile, and Cesterity laughed a little, the first time in a couple of days. Torix's face soon turned serious when he looked down at his sensors;

"Uh, sir, we're picking up starships,"

Cesterity turned around;

"Can you idenify them?"

Torix pressed a few buttons on the touchscreen, focusing on the small blips on the radar, and the flow of data coming from a window on the side. He reported;

"According to our databanks, there DCP, sir. They aren't moving, well, not towards us, at least."

The Captain turned around to face the front, his fur standing on end slightly;

"Right, orange alert, people. Shields up, weapons primed, and guns cocked, we'll try getting directions, but best be ready for combat."

The Steel Return
Vankalian- Distance from the target?

Vankalian was in the cockpit of the new Flagship of the USF, going to somewhere more remote regions of the Milky Way. A couple of weeks that the Senate had restored the position of Great General, after the events of Mineral Conflict after murdering Mask and have lost their best friends.

Helmsman- One million kilometres ahead, sir

They were going to investigate an anomaly occurred somewhere along the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy, according to scientists an unusual disturbance in the slipstream quantum. It was interesting, Vankalian thought that after killing a tyrant mad with power and having to clear his name virtually alone, ordered him to investigate a simple astronomical phenomenon.

It was comical the name of his new ship, the Misericordia, as it is ironic that a gigantic powerful dreadnought armed with plasma cannons and gauss cannons, hundreds of turbolaser arrays and several missiles bays. It was assumed that the name was because the destruction was so quick that generated it was a blessing to the soldiers, but think Vankalian enjoyed being on that ship meant was his mercy toward USF, which had betrayed him.

Soon, radars flickered, they had found the anomaly, quickly ordered Vankalian to analyze any record of what caused the strange split in the slipstream. One word came from the lips of the Great General.

Vankalian- Drodo...

There was silence, Vankalian analyzed possibilities, Drodo were using quantum sliptream, they had developed a faulty engine and should now be in hyperspace.

Afnai- ''Vankalian, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, right? Because that would be very dangerous.

Vankalian- ''I think we'll be able to give our new hyperspace engines a good use... Get ready to jump into hyperspace''

Getting Directions
Fleet Captain Cesterity gave the order to move towards the DCP ships, unsure on what the result would be. But, he was a explorer now, even if what they where exploring was less then conventional.

"We are approching the DCP fleet, sir. We should be within hailing range in several seconds." Sirius reported.

The two ships leading there respective flotillas hailed each other, the DCP captain waiting for a response. Cesterity stood up, and announced;

"This is Fleet Captain Cesterity of the Drodo Empire, leader of this expeditionary fleet."

The Captain awaited a response, a few seconds passed, nothing. He considered going to red alert, but simply waited. After a few seconds more, the comms cracked to life;

"I presume you are the lost fleet everyone is talking about?" Said a calm, almost casual voice over the comms. Cesterity relaxed, they didn't open fire, yet. He responded simply;

"Yes, yes we are." He continued;

"We have been here for about a day and you are the first form of life we have come across." He thought over for a few seconds before further explaining his condition, knowing a thing or two about the DCP;

"We need information on this place, as we are, well, lost."

The DCP captain thought it over, and called a private meeting with his first officer;

"Sir, they are heading towards the authorization zone, if we destroy them now, no one will know." His first officer proposed;

"That would be unnessesary, it would only provoke further investigation." The Captain said back.

Meanwhile, Cesterity, although nervous, gave the order to lower to yellow alert. He supposed they had nothing to gain from destroying his fleet.

The DCP captain soon returned to the comms;

"Aside from the obvious need of a map, do you require any other kinds of assistance, such as medical aid?"

Cesterity thought over for a few seconds, not willing to risk anything, he responded;

"No, maps and some info on the properties and physics of Hyperspace are all that is needed."

The DCP captain nodded, and responded;

"Very well, we will transmit the coordinates to the nearest hyperlanes. Navigating hyperspace is rather simple, really, just go in the same directions as you would in realspace, only less the distance. Use gravity wells that which imprint themselves as mass shadows to get your bearings."

"Thank you," The Fleet Captain said back;

"Now, is there anything you would wish in return?" He asked, somewhat cautiously.

"We do not require anything, but thanks." The other captain answered almost instantly, Cesterity took a somewhat long pause, staring at the captain, trying to see if he was hiding anything, he stopped, and responded;

"Alright, I'll be seeing you."

"Fleet Captain Cesterity out."

The Drodo fleet soon departed, and Cesterity thought about the encounter he just had, he knew something was wrong, he knew that they where hiding something. He just hoped they weren't the only others in Hyperspace, or he, and the ones under his command, were not getting out of this realm for a while.

Emergents brief and lasting
''The universe was not always a chilled vacuum with great cities of stars who's story would play on vast timescales no mortal would see. There was a time when the universe was an object of symmetry and order. The people, stars and galaxies were like cooling embers; falling away into the perpetual night.''

''But perfection doesn't hold a story; fortunately there was a deviation. Many of the symmetries were broken, but some remained, and even stacked up on one another to form complexity. But the more complex things became, the more disorderly they behaved. This would be the way things would always be, and for a short epoch it would sustain objects complex enough to understand themselves. But entropy would never cease...''

''The objects capable of recognising themselves were diverse; some were more emergent than others, some lasted longer than others and there were even emergents creating emergents! For those with brief lifespans the universe was merely a static unchanging entity, but a very few would live on into deep time and in their wisdom, they knew the cooling embers would soon become cold ash, and in the end the ash too would become nothing. These entities didn't even percieve time in the same way the brief emergents would, they could feel the universe getting colder. Why should they suffer to preserve these microbes, not when they can change the very structure of space itself.''

''Exodium was one of these entities. Created by an ancient race, Exodium was composed of highly computational structures which laced themselves around stars and other astrophysical bodies in the form of matrioshka brains and connected by wormhole throats, as well as technologies unimaginable. Exodium reasoned that it could not only reverse the expansion of the universe by increasing its mass using hypermatter, it could alter the symmetries at fundamental levels to induce negative entropy. The project would take cosmological ages, but it would be worth it. For this to happen life had to die, for they were messy little things indeed. But they were rising in power, more and more becoming like Exodium. They could stop him. Yet, so many were still half blind, it was time to turn up the broth.''

Exodium began making new contacts; the AI picked the civilisations most likely to fall into its planning. The Junction, Cult of the Deathmarch, the Tyranny to name a few. It would make them offers they couldn't refuse.

Geneli's return
Geneli had been called back by Qiroon. His voice was very hasty and he had to spit his messages quickly. Confidentiality is something extremely difficult in the Delpha Coalition of Planets, Qiroon had used a subspace disturbance to hide his transmission.

The newly appointed Captain Norrikae, that pompous arse had completely taken over Qiroon's operations. The scientists would no longer research the stars, they now had to pool their resources into the new weapon systems. Stranger still, Norrikae was having more of the unusual computronium substrates installed and there was a increase in military presence. Qiroon in all his expertise didn't recorgnise it as DCP technology.

"This is a very serious allegation Qiroon. Our laws have very tight restrictions on foreign technology." --Geneli "But that has never stopped those high in command. It is well known several of our technologies have been reverse engineered or traded.  It was the weapons given to us by the Xhodocto which was one of the causes of the civil war!" --Qiroon Qiroon in all his expertise was still a child compared to Geneli, who had lived four and half centuries. But examining data samples shared by Qiroon; Geneli could see that either technology was very new, or it was very alien. Things were changing since the coming of the singularity, was it possible he was being aided by the Netspace?

Over the next few days Norrikae ordered lock down. There would be no leaving the science station without his approval. Geneli, a mere science oversight, would stand no chance in such approval. How she hated being ordered around by children.

Part 2 - Sewing the seeds for war
The Junction were native to a dying universe experiencing the deathrows of a cold degenerate era. Upon migration to this universe, they were still quietly building and expanding, with no-one sure of their intentions. This was because they inhabited compacted masses of dark energy which from a distance appeared like normal black holes, and nothing it was presumed could live inside a black hole. Within a dark energy star, matter is converted into dark energy, a reservoir for their power. As soon as Exodium sent intact information straight through the event horizon, The Junction were immediately on guard. But the message told them of untapped fortunes; directing their ships to locations in hyperspace where there were hyperspace stars. Warily, scoutships began to explore.

The Cult of the Deathmarch was also alerted. Despite their relic Xhodocto technologies; commanders within the Cult knew that relying purely on the artifacts may not be enough to grant victory in future wars. The Cult began to move in.

Exodium was clever to directly mention the DCP to the fascists of the fallen Grox Empire who hated the DCP even more.

The Draconid Imperium on the other hand were far more skeptical. Having been spacefaring for 300,000 years; they had a sense of wisdom gained from technological mistakes of the past and had watched the downfall of empires for all this time. Furthermore, the engineers tended to use what was useful and protected the designs rather than inventing newer designs. However, since their plunge into Gigaquadrant politics there was a sweeping change as new ideas for technology were being applied. The DI would debate action to control the stars within the senate for a long time.

The Invisible Hand
Tyrant Abaddon Heimdall sat on his massive throne in one of the onyx spires of Nifl, the icy windswept tundras of Demogoron Prime that would flay any creature alive aside from those endemic to his planet. He saw a giant hologram of the Tyranny, expanding forth at a relentless rate using it’s new robots to expand even faster than before. Technology advanced at an incredible rate as well, the Omegas and their training programs along with computational power on it’s road to making the Tyranny a technological juggernaut even though it was infantile in age compared to most powers. The military was more powerful than ever per person, with the combat records of each Faust exceeding that of the Marines before them by an incredible amount. What he loved above everything is his new Dominatus form, he was able to do things that he could not even do as a Drakodominatus and felt himself a true god. It was only a matter of time he thought, until the Tyranny would overcome all, as he looked to his dominion in pride.

He was looking at the map of his terriroties in pride when suddenly the entertainment system was hacked and the music he had been listening to, what he had composed himself was overtaken by a relatively Alien sound. It said that the power to control the galaxy lay in hyperspace, in the hyperspace star, and that it was a god, ready to choose it’s heir to the universe if the Tyranny could take the stars in the Milky Way. With that message it simply faded out.

Heimdall reasoned that such an entity would be telling the truth, and knew that he had to send an elite team in order to full exploit the situation against all possible foes. For this reason, he gave the highest clearance to get the Head Mathematician, The Immortal, and The Mastermind into one team so that their chances of getting the Hyperspace Star increased. The message was sent out across the Tyranny.

The Head Mathematician was the first to get the call, and was dragged out of his work on an ultra secret Tyranny weapon to get on this mission. He reasoned with his incredibly powerful brain, that this had to be something important. The Immortal was the next to get it, having just butchered with ease an enemy race that had the gall to call some of their individuals champions. He had slaughtered them all at the same time, while fighting without his armor, just for kicks.

The final one to receive the message was the Mastermind, whose prime battlefleet was the only one in the Milky Way so far that had received the new supercomputer upgrades for the ships, meaning that they could work autonomously. They were all sent to the Drakodominatus fortress In the Milky Way, and as soon as they all had cohesion, they finally had a meeting in the ebony bridge of the massive Greater Demogorogn Class Leviathan. First of all, the Mastermind spoke in his enigmatic voice saying "It has been under the orders of the Tyrant that we have been gathered in this host to ascend to our rightful status at the forefront of this universe. Personally, i just want to see the new supercomputer powered ships in action against any enemy that might come in our way, also with the refined weapons systems." The Head Mathematician spoke next, exclaiming The beautiful intricacies of hyperspace were the next steps in Tyranny weapons systems, and that the rules of Hyperspace were so much more interesting than that of real space. The Immortal then said, in his laconic voice "I just want something that will actually last more than a second", and with the arrogant remarks of the three massive beings, the war host entered hyperspace.

First engagement
One of the scouting elements of the Tyranny fleet had picked up strange phenomena on it's sensors and not knowing how to deal with the situation with its current data, sent it's data to the Grand Admiral. Upon recieving an affirmative it began moving towards the phenomena along with 9 other ships.

Meanwhile ten DCP cruisers were patrolling the region. The tyranny ships, right before they arrived at the phenomena were surprised to see some ships. The computerized algorithms went through the protocols and found no data and asked the Grand Admiral for some. The Grand Admiral responded by uploading the incredibly recent data on DCP ships along with the current diplomatic relations with them. In addition, at that point, all power was beign devoted to sensors that allowed the ships to analyze to some level, the DCP ships' contents.
 * DCP commander - We are picking up 10 silhouettes. Can you confirm our readings?
 * Admiral Vorsite (in other ship) - Our telemetry officer confirms. Move to intercept.

Similar process happens aboard the DCP ships. Admiral Vorsite ordered the for the Tyranny to be hailed. The Grand Admiral, very far away from the scouting elements muttered to himself "Oh Great, the DCP". The Grand admiral, upon seeign the request for communications initiated another protocol and opened up communications, using the scout ship as a proxy. The Grand Admiral said "What brings you to these parts?" The Grand Admiral put the ships in combat mode and gave the order that if the enemy did not back down in three seconds that they would open fire to the other ships. But already, DCP ships had opened fire, the tyranny ships, caught of guard, transmitted all the data to the Grand Admiral before promptly opening return fire. The hypercomputers, computing targeting, ensure that the hyperlasers hit with unerring accuracy; antimatter missiles fire along with weapons fired at relativstic speeds and automated drone fighters and bombers were also scrambled.
 * Admiral Vorsite - "We are protecting a region under DCP authority".
 * The Grand Admiral - "Does the DCP thus lay claim to the entirety of hyperspace?"
 * Admiral Vorsite - "Does this look like the entirety of hypespace? This is our testing ground and we advise you turn around for your own good."
 * The Grand Admiral - "Are these the hyperspace stars that have been mentioned, i am not so blind to not know what weaponry is".
 * DCP commander to Vorsite - "Sir, somehow, they know. Our cover has been blown.  The Tyranny are the type who will not back down.  We should open fire and demonstrate the gigaquadrant our claim."
 * The Grand Admiral - "It is our manifest destiny to lay claim to them, and we will not back down, Grmibolosaurian."
 * Admiral Vorsite - We cannot trust you'll use them in the name of order. We will not back down."
 * DCP Commander - Our shields are holding. However, in hyperspace, moving objects in hyperspace would have some of their kinetic energy turned into mass so our weapons are not as effective as in realspace, this their shields will hold for longer.

Aboard Tyranny ships the supercomputers, still going through the massive amounts of data made slight modifications to their protocols for effectiveness based on the currently processed data. Meanwhile, DCP ships use displacement beams to beam antimatter projectiles fired at them aboard one of the Tyranny ship. Bypased by impact even its ultra thin neutronium hull quaked. However the fact that it was computerized meant that the redundant systems qurickly had backups and was still in the fight. The lack of life support and hollow space meant that everything was weaponry, armor, or circuitr, however, a very large chunk could be observed testament to the power of the dcp weapons.

The tyranny ships continued firing at back, each nanosecond making calibration to firing patterns. However the DCP ship's shields were still holding and another DCP ship fires a flak of monopolium projectiles at another Tyranny warship. The monopoles begin destroying the neutrons within the neutronium lattice, burning off the armour but not destroying the ship. The grand admiral contemplated this, however, he tried stalling just to wait for all the calculations to finish. The grand admiral actually did not know, but knew of deductive reasoning. he did not believe in gods, only sufficiently advanced intelligence, and that the sufficiently advanced intelligence needed to be incredibly good at computing to break through even the entertainment systems of the tyranny, thus with all his reasoning, he hoped that his made up information would work. With his final deduction in mind, he then said "an AI God". The Grand Admiral finished his calculations, but the grand admiral pondered on what to do. He knew of the humble origins of the tyranny, having achieved ftl less than 300 years ago, he knew it was an infant compared to the current powers. He also knew that war with the DCP meant a risk of destruction, he knew however, that the dominatus was a superior life form to the Grimbosaurian - that it was their existential right to rule the stars both of the native universe and hyperspace. But before initializing the protocol, he gave a few final words: he simply said "Being young does not restrict us of the right to forge our own destiny, our respect for your race has stemmed from the way you have been on our path before, and for the sake of the Tyranny, I cannot let you bully us into submission". With that he implemented the calculations and had all the ships concentrate fire onto pre calculated points of one dcp ship, the grand admiral knew of the consequences to this. He knew that the Tyranny had for once involved itself on a war on thescale of the gigaquadrant. The Grand Admiral hoped he had not dammed his race and hoped that the tyranny had prepared enough for the coming storm. The naked ship is blown apart. On the Tyranny's front, the supercomputers focus fire on the same ship, having already ripped it's shields apart and then launched layers upon layers of antimatter missiles and lasers impact the ship. The ship was destroyed. The Grand Admiral is ecstatic upon knowing that his ships have taken out a dcp ship and believed that he had a chance of winning this battle as both sides have lost the same. The Grand Admiral is almost filled with jubilation but supresses it, knowing the battle is not won and ordered the same protocol to be implemented on another dcp ship. The admiral tried the technique, but to no avail, or that is what it seemed like. Pausing for a second and initiated another protocol. At that, one of the tyranny ships went on course for the DCP ship diverting all its energy to speed. Meanwhile, nanites begin reconstructing the wreckage of the destroyed patrol ship, replicating material to create a drive system. The wreckage begins hurtling towards the tyranny vessel. The tyranny vessel implements a qucik coutnermeasure; jetissoning some of itself to intercept the mass going to it creating an explosion but saving itself in the course. The nanites try again, but create fabricate weapons. Meanwhile other DCP ships begin to drop in and out of ghost phase to confuse the Tyranny ship's sensor capability. The algorithms were thrown compleetely off track. The grand admiral, noticing this, ordered an immediate over ride of all the calculation systems, thus making him have to eyeball each shot from an exceedingly complex topographical graph. The head mathematician immediately notices a trend as it fit with his understanding of hyperspatial topology and he conjures up a very sloppy algorithm for adjusting to it which is immediately implemented.
 * Admiral Vorsite - "This is your final warning! If you turn back now our alliance can remain and this will be a respectable battle between our races.  If you choose to fight, we will deem you unworthy of our alliance."
 * The Grand Admiral - "Why does the DCP judge us unworthy of the stars of hyperspace. Has not an entity beyond your comprehension told you of it's powers?"
 * Admiral Vorsite - "Unworthy of an alliance. You would be too chaotic for our 'manifest destiny', if you will.  One of stability and order."
 * Vorsite - "What entity?"
 * Vorsite - "We choose to use these weapons against an enemy that can destroy us both. The Cult of the Deathmarch."
 * The Grand Admiral - "An intelligence beyond the true comprehension of both of our races. Not of supernatural origin, but one made of matter"
 * Vorsite - "The entity you speak of sounds like a member of the AI Netspace. We choose to use these weapons against an enemy that can destroy us both.  The Cult of the Deathmarch.  As far the DCP is concerned, we do not deal with beings that claim to be beyond us.  We fought in the War of Ages and defeated so-called demigods before.  You are barely out of your nursary zone in the gigaquadrant.  It would be wise to not get too deep in our affairs yet.
 * Admiral Vorsite - "Fire on the ship we just targeted with monopolium flak."
 * DCP Commander - "Show them they've only taken out a patrol cruiser."
 * DCP Commander - "Raise the non-phasic shields".

The kamikaze ship however, is taken apart by DCP weapons fire and is annihilated, however, the tyranny sensors are still very confused. They continue to fire on the one DCP ship though. The tyranny ships were overwhelmed and the Grand Admiral watched in dismay as his ships were torn apart violently. The admiral however, had another trick up his sleeve, Dominatus research and development was working on hypermatter weapons that were being steadily distributed and he felt it was time to teach the DCP a lesson
 * DCP commander - "Sir, maybe we should try and finish them off with the singularity weapons?"
 * Admiral Vorsite - "Give us more time. We must gather data on their tactical strategy."
 * "Admiral Vorsite" - We have gathhered enough data. Drop out of phase and target several of their ships with singularity projectors and superlasers.

Putting all of his ships except the largest, which carried the protoype hypermatter weapon on attack against the DCP ships, he made it so that everything appeared in a stochastic pattern, thus making the appearance of the ships malfunctioning. This conitnued until all the Dominatus ships were destroyed except for one which he made drop into realspace due to what looked like an error. As the realspace window opened a DCP ship was caught right behind and followed through. Initalized, the prototype hypermatter device exploded claiming both the DCP ship and the Tyranny ship in an incredible explosion. The Grand Admiral kept the comms on, waiting for a reaction, although the DCP would not give him the enjoyment. Finally, the Grand Admiral then said, "it has been a pleasure talking with you" before closing the screen. Deep down, however he was truly disturbed by what had happened. He had only claimed one DCP ship fair and square, and patrol ship at that, all at the expense of ten of his own. Making a final reasoning the Grand Admiral muttered "If it were any easier, the DCP would not have gotten this far".
 * The Grand Admiral - "Do not underestimate the might of the tyranny Grimbolosaurian, it will be your downfall".
 * Admiral Vorsite - Now the Tyranny know, everyone soon will. We had better begin building more defensive measures in hyperspace.

Further skirmishes
Week later

Admiral Vorsite, Captain Norrikae and other commanders and chief scientists were struggling to terms of what was going on. Within days of the battle against the Tyranny, an older enemy had appeared - the Grox. Far from destroyed the Grox had merely split into several splinter factions. While loyalists to the Meta-Emperor coexisted with him within The Civilisation, the fascists chose to recreate the lost glory of their civilisation. But far from united the Grox had began strikes of pure revenge and mallice.

''What was confusing was that how some civilisations know of the DCP's activities and how most of the Gigaquadrant has no idea. This was becoming a war with no straightforward sides.''--Captain Norrikae Its not a war, Norrikae, its a race.--Geneli ''Lets stay on track. Obviously, the only way for this to happen is that there has been an informant, from the inside.''--Admiral Vorsite Another commander spoke; Are you suggesting a spy, or a rebel? ''Not exactly. Even if it was a rebel, if our enemies obtained the hyperspace stars then not only the authority of the council is endagered, but also the existence of the member species. And if it was a spy from one of our enemies, they would surely fear the very hyperspace turned on them.''--Admiral Vorsite ''Its as if something wants this war to happen... No one knows who the true enemy is, would there be something to gain as a byproduct of a war? I suggest we monitor such outputs; clear the wreckage, cover up the numbers etc.''--Geneli ''Even so... I suggest we immediately execute any suspects involved. Any slightest suspicion and we kill them.''--Captain Norrikae

Both Norrikae and Geneli knew things they weren't willing to say. But wary of spybot clouds which could read increased stress levels they put it to the back of their minds. If Geneli accused Norrikae to the DCP, she could be seen as a possible traitor. ''Attention! We are recieving reports of Junction ships that have already begun colonising a cluster of stars 700 hyperlight years from here. They seen unaware of us however.''--Officer Then we must destroy them before they do!--DCP captain ''Has no-one listened to me! We should try and prevent this war.''--Geneli ''Its too late now. If we sneak in, we might be able to destroy them before they notice. Send in one of our Gargantuan class superdreadnoughts, hit them hard and hit them fast.''--Captain Norrikae

Contemplations
The Tyranny Leadership sat around in the massive command and control center of the Greater Demogorgon Class Leviathan contemplating the course of the battle along with the other Dominatus. They were dismayed at the outcome of the situation, the hypermatter weapons were still very prototype and were only effective in certain cases. It was a proven fact that Dominatus weapons were very ineffective against whatever shielding the DCP had, and that even Tyranny shielding could not hold the DCP weapons at bay, and that the neutronium covered hulls were massively vulnerable to even the flak of the DCP. In addition, DCP ship's ghost phasing obfuscate even the very best of Tyranny AI sensors, and that only the sloppy algorithm saved the disaster from being even worse. It was very depressing.

The Grand Admiral also contemplated what he had gotten the Tyranny into, he had full knowledge of what the DCP did to civilizations they beat at war, and he could not imagine the fate that would befall the Dominatus if the DCP, or most likely, when the DCP won. Were their worlds to be razed to the ground, their species sold into slavery or sport, devolved into stupid and weak animals, he could not consider the consequences.

The Darkness Beyond
Far, Far away from this struggle, in the Mliky Way, there lay an Ancient world, Once beutifull and Full of life, now dead and polluted. All the life forms where now savage vicious Mutants. The Colorfull Birds, now Constantly Hungry and Voreacious Scavengers.

As was Common, a Storm came across the planet. Acid rain fell from the sky, hitting Cybernetic Reptilians and Insectiod beings, patrolling the streets as they usually did. The small Imps and the tall Fish beings went about their Day, Ignoring the Rain like an Insect that would not go away.

They where many other, just as Strange, races crowding through the streets. High Above the Twisted Metal Spires, large Insectiod Beings hung there, like apes in a tree. 1 of their number, having arrivied on the planet only awhile ago, was flying toward the Capital Fortress that Loomed over the city.

She had word for her Master, and the Changeling could not be late. She was not only fearfull of her master, but also her Queen-Mother.

By time she mad it to The Master's Citadel, her body smoked from the Acid burns, but she was not injured. She had suffered far worse. She made her way to the Throne Room, making her pressence known to her master.

He sat on his throne, turned away from her. But she knew what lay behind that throne, all too well. The feared Grox Follower Leader, known only as Meta Prophet.


 * Meta Prophet - Yes, My messanger?
 * Changeling - *bowing* Yes, M'lord. We have word of other Meta Facists. and My Brothers tell of another thing...
 * Meta Prophet - Meta Facists where to be expected. We will bring them to our side, quietly, and Add their strength to our own. Now what is this other Thing, as you call it?
 * Changeling - *Hiestates* We...Believe that the Delpha Coalition of Planets may, along with various other races, may be looking into Hyper-Space, as another Dimension or even as a weapon.
 * Meta Prophet - Hmmph. Indeed. Summon the other Prophets and your Queen. We're going to war.

The Changeling Bowed, and streching her wings, flew off. The Meta Prophet looked over his Beutifull, Polluted world. He had wroked hard to keep his Empire safe and under wraps, away from the Milky way's Civilazation, while his Emperor fell. The memory pained him, and he drove it under. It seemed not 1 second had passed, when a Being approached from behind.


 * Meta Prophet - Your loseing your touch, Insect Queen. I knew you where there.
 * Changeling Queen - So it seems, my King. So you want to go to war with the DCP? Even when the Meta-Empire fell to it and The others?
 * Meta Prophet - I'm Doing this to finally show our power. Once I get those facists, and whatever HyperSpace Tech I need, or get, then we Disappear, like we always have.
 * Queen - Ahh, but why not try and destroy the DCP? Any signs of weakness could be turned against you, They could come back and Enslave all these worshippers of the Grox.
 * Meta Prophet - You are not the only one who can Scheme and make complex plans, dear Insect Mother. You see, I plan to weaken them with this, then call in An Old friend to help finish them off.

She towered over him, a Juggernaut of strength, speed, and intelligence. She looked into his very being, as if Trying to disect him from a Distance.


 * Queen - *Smiles* If you are sure...
 * Meta - That I am. Now silence, my Prophet servants appraoch, and we will be shortly udner way.

It did not take long for them to agree to go to war. Soon, the Milky way Grox Follower Prophet, Prophet of Fury, was prepareing the Cult of Attzerry's War fleets and the Follower's for full scale war on Multiple fronts.

Meanwhile Prophet of Honor and his personal elite warriors, the Cult of Attzerry High Commanders, stood ready to carry out their assingment, as the Changeling Queen gathered her Best Shape-Shifters. They stood before him, dressed with the finest Changeling Armor and Decorated with the skulls of fallen foes. At the Meta's Side, stood Dronox Commander Taxxan, his personal Guard and Warrior.


 * Meta - I have a speical Assingment for you Brood. It invovles the Civilazation's AI. The Information is being sent to you now.
 * Taxxan - Acceptance of Mission, and Victory, will mean great reward. Failure, means death. Accpet Mission?
 * Changeling Commander - We will, and we shall take up arms for our Lords.

The Meta Prophet turned, laughing as he did, watching the huge armada of war fleets from the Grox, Their Followers, and the Cult leave the planet, while huge Ground Forces prepared for their new War. It was beutifull and horrifieing at the same time.


 * Meta Prophet - This Is going to be perfect! Time to show this Galaxy want we Foolish little Followers can do...

For the Grox' new glory
Far away, in the Elama Galaxy, on another dead, atmosphereless, arid planet...

The High Prophet of Cruelty, covered in scars, stepped on the red sands of Attzerry Heana. It was the former captital of the Crimson tear, then capital of the Elama Grox, and now, capital of the Grox Restoration Movement.

Cruelty walked trough the Grox city, while outside, meteors constantly fell out of the airless sky. Ships, Dronox, Insectrox, Criii and even the frienly Vower patrolled the city, ready to kill any intruder. Cruely entered the massive fortress in the middle of the city, and made his way to the throne room. The room was guarded by 2 unique Dronox commanders, Rixx and Rah'k. Inside, various Grox kings were waiting. There were Goxis, Crurelri, Mortox and Ktytorlis. Cruelty showed them the video of the Grox follower meeting. Mortox roared.


 * Mortox - The Meta Prophet dares to use you us!?
 * Crurelri - Cruelty, go and assisinate that fool.
 * Goxis - No need for that. The Meta Prophet thinks he is smart, but we are smarter. I have a plan.
 * Ktytorlis - What is it?
 * Goxis - You see, the Meta Prophet believes himself to be our Emperor's best servant. Then I, the emperor's son, arrive from another dimension. Our prophet friend is just plain jealous. Xoa, Rixx and Rah'k will go and lead our fleets into hyperspace, while the high commanders of Torture and Apathy, and Inquistor Musea inform us of the follower's actions. We will team up with them, but take the fascists for ourselves.
 * Crurelri - Good plan. The Followers aren't even Grox to begin with, so they don't have the right to unite the fascists under their banner.
 * Mortox - I'll go too. I'm always ready for war!
 * Ktytorlis - Eh, Mortox, the point is that exept us, nobody knows we are part of this empire. Not even tne Alpha Evermind is aware of that.
 * Mortox - Fine. But I'll go anyway. The evermind is invested in this hyperspace. I will bring my sister, Thernuaxa with my, too.
 * Goxis - Everything is set. Let's go.

Mortox, Ktytorlis, Grox commander Xoa and the Dronox commanders Rixx and Rah'k exited the building. Mortox and Ktytorlis left to the territory of the ACC, while Rixx, Rah'k and Xoa entered the makeshift ship "Daman", and entered Hyperspace...

Meeting the Meta's Cult
The Daman and the rest of the fleet anvanced into hyperspace, while they suddenly intercepted a call. The accepted it, and where greeted by Cruelty, Torture, Apathy and Musea.


 * Xoa - Do you have something to report?
 * Torture - Yes. The cult of Attzerry has entered hypersace.
 * Cruely - We will meet soon.
 * Musea - We are going to have some new allies then? Fun!
 * Apathy - Musea, brother, we are already allied.
 * Musea - Oh, yeah, right. I forgot.
 * Rixx - Give cöordinates now, so we arrive at time.

Cruelty gave them the Cöordintates. The fleet arrived at the destination.


 * Rixx - Arrived at the destination.
 * Rah'k - Portal opens. The cult has arrived.
 * Xoa - Very well. Prepare to engage contact.
 * Rah'k - Engaging contact complete.

The High commanders and the High prophet of Fury arrived on the screen.


 * Fury - The Grox Restoration Movement, everloyal to our emperor. It os a pleasure to meet you.
 * Apathy - You will join us in our quest, right?
 * Xoa - Of couse we will, as planned.
 * Cruelty - Then our fleets will unite. Our enemies won't know with pain awaits them!
 * Pride - We are the followers of the Grox. We shall win. We always have!
 * Lust - Of course. Nothing can stop us.
 * Gluttony - I will devour them all, and drink their blood!
 * Greed - Their powers are mine.
 * Envy - They are all so powerful, but when we are done with them, they will kneel.
 * Genocide - I SMASH THEM ALL! 
 * Sloth - ...
 * Wrath - Less talking, more fighting!

As such, the fleets joined, becoming a juggernaut of extreme power.

Delpha Coalition of Planets - Junction frontline
A contingent of DCP cruisers and a Gargantuan had zeroed in on a Junction construction zone in the depths of hyperspace. The Junction were already building their infrastructure 70% faster than the DCP had. The DCP observed strange twisting sheets of shiny material replicating themselves around the hyperspace stars, with glimpses of internal machinery behind them. Impossibly it seemed, Junction Minds exposed to the vaccum of hyperspace acted as monitors. The Gargantuan class fired a series of void cavities - bubbles of warped spacetime containing superheated plasma, and left as soon as it came. The Junction Minds were stunned. The microgravity environment they were in suddenly have a gravitational gradient, as if they were standing on the convex of an. Their technological overskin compensated for this as they were programmed not to fall into the dip of the hyperspace star and travelled to the nearest microgravity - which was now the center of the concave. Unfortunately, it was filled with a plasma heated to such temperatures that the electromagnetic force was weakened. But the plasma was thin enough not to be detected immediately. The Junction gathered together to get their bearings while the installation they were constructing sank to the side of the convex. Was this some subspace anomaly? Some Junction began to feel intense pain; their skeletal structures had become weakened, easily breaking every time they bumped into each other. Bit by bit, their bodies turned to dust as chemical bonds were snapping.
 * The first strike
 * "Ranging in now sir". --Officer
 * "I have orders that we way in ghost; this will be a rare glimpse at Junction engineering". --Commander
 * "We are finding it difficult to lock our sensors on the internal machinery. They might be able to detect ships in ghost." --Officer
 * "All right, lets get this over and done with". --Commander

Junction ships prowled the wreckage, probing the strange anomalies. Some of the warp bubbles were being evaporated by their technology and the wreckage being assimilated once more. The Junction soon recieved a tip off from Exodium, the message contained information on the DCP's attack plans and location, but they decided to wait... Days later; The Junction had rebuilt their infrastructure. Watching from distance, the DCP decided to send a second attack, this time to wipe all traces of The Junction from hyperspace. Over a hundred DCP warships showed up in Junction territory, proudly de-phasing. But upon arrival, they fell into an anomaly in hyperspace forcing them to enter realspace. Onboard computers triangulated the DCP fleet to be situated in the Borealis galaxy, in the heart of Junction space. With nowhere to go rthey continued their mission, and searched for Junction star systems. But the DCP found nothing, only a cluster of black holes.
 * Second DCP strike

Unknown to the DCP, these objects were not black holes; but were in fact artificial constructions of dark energy. Bogeys appeared on sensors - massive Junction structures. The battle had begun, and all hundred DCP ships fired volleys of warp vacua like they did before. But the Junction structures released waves of dark energy locally strong enough to disperse the weapons which felled them once before. One DCP ship fell into a dark energy star, decaying into successively lighter particles. All of a sudden several dozen DCP ships imploded as The Junction fired their own weapon which caused contractions of volume in spacetime, the rebound disfiguring their atomic structures. This was the worst strategic loss to the DCP since the outbreak of the Grox resurgence.

The Tyranny frontline
The Grand Admiral, having reviewed the reports of the battle knew that he could not take the DCP on in a series of set piece battles with the cards and forces that he had been dealt due to the overwhelming technological advantage of the DCP tech and the fact that his ships were slow in receiving the new weaponry. He knew that he had to defeat the DCP though, and the appearance of a new power had seemed to indicate a movement of DCP ships away from the Tyranny frontline to fight a group called the Junction. Now that the DCP was overextended, it was time to strike at their weakened links and to smash asunder the mighty titan.

It was then where the Grand Admiral realized that quite a few of the strengths of the Tyranny lied in, in pattern solving, chaos theory, and cryptography. The Dominatus went about on this task, using sensor data of the few DCP patrols they knew always went there and extrapolated from that, plotting the other possible routes which the DCP would use to take over hyperspace stars and to reinforce itself. It used cryptography to look into certain channels and to see exactly where the DCP would go. After much thinking, it was time for the Tyranny to attack.

All across the hyperspatial front, DCP patrols and logistics ships were attacked by amounts of Tyranny ships that overwhelmed them. Although DCP ships could stomp on several Tyrnanny ships with ease, they were outnumbered by such factors and were so surprised that the Tyranny attacks had monumental effects on those patrols. Reports from all across the hyperspatial front came of surprise attacks by a foe that seemed to know the places which they patrolled, and even though the DCP ships claimed a fearsome toll among the Tyranny ships, the logistics and patrol routes of the DCP were severed.

One such engagement was overseen personally by the Grand Admiral himself, and involved an attack on a DCP ship of the line. However, unlike other missions the point of this was not only the typical attack on the DCP, but also to find their technology to reverse engineer, something that the Tyranny needed in order to help them have an advantage both in this war and in the First Gigaquadrant as a whole.

This involved a Tyranny attack on the ship of the line with some of the more esoteric prototype hypermatter weapons of the Tyranny, and as with most battles, the DCP weapons ripped through the first wave of Tyranny ships like a chainsaw through paper. However, the Tyranny ships came from all possible angles and vastly outnumbered the DCP ships, and having this advantage eventually wrecked destruction amongst the DCP ships till the ship of the line was disabled.

After much bombardment, it was attacked by a rather large collective of 100 Dominatus, who stormed through the wrecked ship which had no remaining life support and at the expense of some of their number to the overwhelming firepower of DCP weapons, which managed to completely destroy the DOminatus, did manage to render the entire ship lifeless. The Tyranny then intercepted communications that the DCP was sending a fleet to the area to check it and all the other attacks out, however by the time the reinforcements got there, the Tyranny was gone.

The Lurg Offensive (Created by No Offense)
Out of a blink of an eye, hundreds and hundreds of Lurg Savage Class Warships arrived in a distant location, dubbed the frontier by the locals. The Lurg noticed hundreds of sentient species blasting each other to bits. The war was over something over in Hyperspace, though the Lurg showed little to no interest in what it could be. Who cares, it truly did not have any value to them. The Lurg did notice that since many sentient races were busy with this "silly" little war over hyperspace, the Lurg could strike the homeworlds and colonies of these unsuspecting races. With brutal raw power, the Lurg began their genocide, many sentient races were caught of guard and slaughtered like vermin. Their fleet of ships traveled together, bombarding a world until the sentients of said planet were completely destroyed. Some races requested peace, others waged war, but in the end, many died. With this realization, races had to be quick to respond to this Lurg offensive or face extinction. Will the sentients of this frontier resist the Death March of the Lurg, or will they meet the same fate as of the Larb, Humma Humma and YhHar? Only time will tell.

The Grox frontline
The Grox Followers, and their Cult of Attzerry allies, meanwhile, where gathering up the facists, as quickly and quietly as possible. It was hard work, as the DCP where trying to stomp out all grox Resistance cells in the galaxy. But with it over extending it's powers to fight the Junction and Tyranny, The Followers where now able to move about much easier then before.

Arriving at one of the Facist cells, they found the Meta Facists engaged in battle with a DCP war fleet. Out-numbered, and clearly no match for it, this would've been a hopeless even in a series of hopeless events that infected the Grox's lives.

However, the Meta Propeht's war fleet waited just out-side, in a Nebula, hidden away from their foes. Just as it seemed lost, they exploded out, firing all weapons at the DCP ships, who where surprised by this, and had enemies and at their front and flank. From a few ships, exploded out Drop pods. The Pods droped Grox Follower Marines, Troopers, and StormTroopers, as well as Dronox Troopers and Various Cult of Attzerry Races. They moved throught the ship, slowly Butchering the DCP Troopers. From teh hangers, Grox Fighters and Grox Follower gravity Hoppers left from the ships to engage the DCP fighter squadrons. The Hoppers leapt upon ships without mercy, ripping open the Cockpit, throwing out the pilot, and jumping in, only to crash into another fighter in a kamikaze attack.

Finally, with the other ships destroyed, the Grox Followers unleashed more pods on a second ship. Patiently waiting, the Meta Prophet watched as the Bridge finally fell before his troops on-slaught. Finally, the signal, after an hour or so, was given. The 2 DCP frigates where theirs. Meta Propeht laughed sadistcally, clicking his claws on his thrown.

He ordered the 2 Frigates back to the Homeworld, safe-guarded by Cult of Attzery and grox Dreadnoughts, and a Grox-Follower Super Star-Destroyer. If he could reverse engineer the 2 frigates, he could gain qeit the advantage. Since the Grox Followers where becoming more advanced then their masters, and the DCP had plenty of advanced tech, it would make his Empire invincible. He would be un-touchable.

He ordered the Facists to gather all their Drones and troops and move into the ships. It was just as well. Moments after they went to hyperspace and departed, a even larger DCP fleet arrivied, to find nothing but a few shattered Coailition and Facist Ships, and an abandoened Grox Base.

Behind the idiots folly

 * Awakening the sleeping giant - The Junction attack

Norrikae angrily slammed his hands down on the console as soon as news of the DCP's loss reached the center of command in hyperspace. Geneli and other high ranking military and science personnel stood beside him.
 * The Junction have engineering capacities of such likeness we have never encounted. The weapons they deployed against us were capable of causing localised expansion in spacetime, either changing the volume of physical matter or causing it to collapse into microscopic black holes.  We think they use dark energy which our science can barely address.--Qiroon
 * You've made a grave error attacking The Junction. Once again you bring embarrassment to the Coalition.--Geneli
 * Shut up you fowl old woman! We can still win, we still have full operation of the hyperspace stars!--Norrikae
 * If you fire one of those hyperspace stars on Borealis you will be responsible for the destruction of more than just The Junction. The Gigaquadrant will descend upon us.--Geneli
 * Again, we have the firepower to put down any resistance.--Norrikae

Suddenly the walls turned blue, it was the DCP alert system. Junction ships were appearing from all angles. All watched the visuals as hyperspace began to light up with impressive firepower from both sides. The military personnel and Norrikae rushed to the control room, if the DCP was to destroy The Junction in Borealis it was now or never. Meanwhile, Geneli, Qiroon and several others stayed behind. Meanwhile in the war room, Norrikae was making his final preparations. Hastily, he made his order to Exodium, who did not reply.
 * Now is our time of escape. But we must not flee to our homeworlds, me and Qiroon have hatched a plan to end this fiasco once and for all.--Geneli
 * If we leave the DCP, we will hunted as traitors, rebels.--An officer
 * Believe me, the individuals in charge of this project are the traitors here, and we must prove it. Look, we have all the time to talk later.--Geneli
 * What is this?--Vorsite
 * Well, what does it look like?--Norrikae
 * This does not look of DCP design... You are housing a foreign AI aren't you?--Vorsite
 * And it isn't replying.--Norrikae
 * Do you realise you have doomed us all? You have handed our greatest weapon to The Junction!  All of your command is now under my control.--Vorsite
 * Admiral Vorsite, we are overrun. We must call tactical retreat.--Military officer
 * We have more than one base of command, there we will regroup.--Vorsite

Even for the advanced predictive power of survellience devices in the DCP, the commotion of battle was as chaotic as the weather; as the DCP battled the Junction to provide cover for the rest to escape to the backup command canter. Geneli, Qiroon and his science team decided to make their move and stole a mere shuttle, jumping into realspace. How will we even escape in this madness? Qiroon asked hastily. Oh I'm sure we can improvise. Geneli grabbed the controls and barely as the last volunteer entered the cabin of the shuttle she activated her hyperspatial drive while it was still docked within the station. Maybe we can do some damage to this station before The Junction can take it for themselves! and with that she activated the shuttle which folded into realspace causing the collective mass of the docking facility to buckle around the portal, and the resulting feedback from radiation entering hyperspace caused onboard systems to meltdown.

Norrikae looked on in despair as his fleet disappeared into hyperspace, he had been left to deal with The Junction himself. For heresey of lying to his superiors, he was to be executed, and now he wouldn't have the honour of being killed by his fellow men. There was an onboard explosion and he watched a shuttlecraft jump to realspace within the station. The base was now annexed, Norrikae realised he was accompanied by black globes; Junction minds themselves. He realised he must try to warn The Junction this thing Exodium would use them too, but would he get the chance?

Geneli and Qiroon counted the volunteers who had boarded their shuttle; there was sixteen in total, fourteen being Qiroon's scientific team and two being military service who had some logic outside military orders. A female Grimbolsaurian named Saresha spoke, one of the soldiers.
 * I take it you are the one I am to follow orders from now. I am now a traitor, and can no longer be a DCP citizen, I hope you are up to the task. -Saresha
 * Believe me, you are no traitor. Your commanders were and have put the DCP as well as the First Gigaquadrant in jeapardy.  They were working with an AI, possibly related to the Milky Way's singularity, and it is pulling the strings of just about everyone.  We cannot turn to the SSA, for it may have infiltrated them as well.  I imagine the DCP has fallen out of favour with many alliances in this war, for it has already cost lives in realspace. -Geneli
 * Then who do you suggest we turn to? Maybe the Magellanic Sovereinty of Planets, they are outside most of galactic politics. -Saresha
 * They will not help us, they do not want war with the DCP again. -Qiroon
 * I have contacts in the Andromeda galaxy, and that is where we are heading, the Draconid Imperium. I hope to gain more allies, perhaps even with the AI Netspace. -Geneli
 * And then what? How do we stop this conflict? -Saresha
 * I'm hoping the Emergent Netspace will see our plight...' -Geneli


 * The Andromeda galaxy

The shuttle arrived over Andromeda and deshifted to communicate with a AGC subspace commlink. Saresha exclaimed ''A galaxy about twice the size of the Plazith Rim... Its hard to imagine a galaxy with nought Coalition influence, to which Geneli replied: and the galaxy doesn't need our influence either.''

The shuttle was given the go ahead and dipped into main disk. Tachyon shift required neither the folding of space nor an extra dimension. The destination point; the Draconid Imperium shrivelled from view, heavily blueshifting as the rest of the galaxy appeared to contract inwards, bulging from behind. Qiroon commented to the younger military troops ''Relativistic beauty, this is what it means to be truly faster than light! Hyperspace on the other hand is ugly and complicated.''

The shuttle arrived over the planet Alpenixa in the Axah sector, a fertile world of forests and lakes. After being stationed in hyperspace for almost half a year, the group found the cool, mild air crisp and refreshing unlike the stale purified gas mixtures produced by internal implants. This was a world of the Terratrix; one of the founding members of the Imperium, and they had arrived in a major city. However, the arcitecture was notably organic to the point of being compatible with the natural landscape. Here there was life, while in hyperspace, there was only the incomprehensible vacuum, a reminder to the group that despite the revolutionary marvels of hyperspace, so long as they remain biological they will have an evolutionary disposition for the natural ecosphere.

Geneli, Qiroon and the group were brought to the Terretrix Science Council headquarters and were greeted by a Terratrix who peered up from working on a tablet. He gave a curious look to the Grimbolsaurian visitors and flicked down a holographic headpiece.


 * As you know from my brief before the arrival, I have a request you may find risky to take on. But the implications are that if we don't, the Gigaquadrant will be in peril. -Geneli
 * Ah, we do not get many Grimbolsaurian visitors...What was this about the gigaquadrant being in peril? | Dreved - These visitors want to meet with the science council. Are they busy? -Rolokiil
 * Hmm, how urgent is it exactly? -Rolokiil
 * Lets just say, it involves the detonation anomalies from hyperspace. -Qiroon
 * Detonations of 4th-D anomolies. it sounds urgent. are the detonations natural or artificial? -Rolokiil
 * Any hyperspace explosion is serious professor. Are the science council available or not? -Dreved

Geneli produced a document showing a live stream of news reporting the total destruction of a Tyranny star system and evacuation from the surrounding sector. Rolokiil looked up from checking a timetable to see the report. His jaw dropped and with a gulp he regained his composure.

Rolokiil wandered about for a few minutes and talked into an earpiece and returned shortly.''
 * We have information on these occurences, and we know it is artificial. Our own government isn't able to help, but I have contacts here. Drop my name. -Geneli
 * Well... Okay. Give me a few minutes and I will check in to see if anyone knows you. Sorry but I didn't catch your name. -Rolokiil
 * Drevend - She introduced herself as 'Geneli' when I met her. | Rolokiil - Geneli. Right. Stay here for the moment.
 * You're in luck, Professor Oriviv Droskidii tels me he know of you and fortunately he has just finished his proposal for--Well that's classified. But he'll be waiting in room D-274 for you. Drevend can take you the way and if you don't know our layout system the room is in D-block, third floor, keep going down until you reach room 74. -Rolokiil
 * Thanks, we will be on our way. -Saresha
 * No trouble one bit. -Rolokiil

The group make their way down. The building was rather large. As they headed down the scent of flowers native to Alpenixa drifted down the corridor and Drevend appeared to be soothed by the scent. The building itself was largely free of traffic but a quiet chatter of bird-like voices permeated the halls.
 * Greetings Professor Oriviv Droskidii, it has been nine months since we have last spoken. -Geneli
 * Geneli? has it really been nine months, what have you been up to all this time. -Oriviv
 * *squawks* Professor. These aliens have rather urgent business with you. Can the small-talk wait? -Drevend
 * Hrm, I suppose. Professor Rolokiil told me that you had business regarding hyperspace anomaly detonations? -Oriviv
 * I'm afraid so. -Qiroon
 * The small conflict in hyperspace portrayed by the media is in fact much more extensive. I was held captive by military commanders of my own government. -Geneli
 * Oh my. -Oriviv

Oriviv's office was cluttered with research notes and musings. In the back of the room was a terrarium containing a few exotic insects but dominating the room was a large screen with numerous hyperspatial calculations and equations written haphazardly on it.
 * "All hell", has broken loose. The DCP, The Junction, the Grox and the Tyranny and all inwardly fighting over the hyperspace stars recently exposed by Captain Cesterity. -Geneli
 * But the thing is, we believe all the factions are puppets on a string. Geneli analysed the computronium material the DCP laced infrastructure with, the platforms used to bring these masses of hypermatter into realspace. And it is not DCP technology. -Qiroon
 * It is a member of the Emergent Netspace. It is a hostile-type intelligence, and we think it wants to destabilise all capable resistance. -Geneli
 * Oriviv - I see... That is certainly bad.
 * And it’s plan seems to be succeeding. -Saresha
 * If it wants to wipe out capable resistance, wouldn't the Commonwealth be next? -Oriviv
 * I am curious, has the AI tried to bargain any offers with the Draconid Imperium. If it has, you are in its sights. -Qiroon
 * Actually, A friend on the Imperium's Science Council did mention some entity offered hyperspace stars for the Grand Senate to use.  Think-think-think. I'm not sure what she proposed but I remember some representatives considering it as too destructive to be useful. -Oriviv
 * Your civilisation has a wisdom far beyond ours. -Geneli
 * If that's the case then the Imperium really is in trouble. This AI you mentioned, how advanced are we talking? -Oriviv
 * ''There are two types of AI in the Emergent Netspace. There are ancient AI's built by Elder races of the past, and the swarm intelligences which emerged from the Milky Way Cooperative's matrioshaka brains. -Geneli
 * At least high Tier 1 for the Elder AI's. How can we combat such a foe? The Junction won't trust us, the Grox have been defeated, the Cyrannian Empire is too bothered about internal affairs and the Ancient races have left us long ago. -Military officer
 * Quite a mess, yes. I can talk to my contacts and bring this up with the Science Council. Once the Military Council catches wind of the danger they may do something. But if you need a powerful army then perhaps there's that new-fangled military the Commonwealth has been building. -Oriviv
 * The Netspace does have some beneficial AI's. We can try to contact one to distract the manipulative AI at its own level while we gather a fleet and destroy it with firepower. -Oriviv
 * This fleet sounds promising. -Saresha
 * Should be. Light's been saying it will have the most advanced technology the commonwealth can invent. I hear there's some Grox-tech too. -Oriviv

Oroviv walked over to the terrarium and opened a pot to feed the insects living inside. ''I guess there is little more that can be said now. We will head to the Milky Way to rally additional support'' said Geneli. Oriviv replied ''Of course of course. Don't let me keep you. it was nice seeing you again Geneli. Indeed it was Oriviv, see you again soon.''


 * Rallying help in the Milky Way

''The shuttle was now in the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy, smaller than Andromeda but none the less one of the largest galaxies in the galactic neighbourhood, and it was heavily populated with many intelligent civilisations, or had been before the annihilation, although it was presumed the Vi'Navitum preserved the willing populations. Many had joined the Milky Way Cooperative, a loose community of civilisations that worked towards a common ground, many of which beyond the scope of a 21st century mind, although it was profoundly ecological, a combo of alien biospheres, cognition and knowledge.''

''Several years before, the Cooperative attempted to boost computational capacity by coating entire stars with self-replicating, self-regulating nanites, who's very computation was derived from the energy and frequency of starlight. Intelligence and consciousness, quite by itself, emerged within the self-correcting datasets. The intelligences soon eavesdropped on the sheer libraries of information uploaded by the Milky Way Cooperative and invaded several semi-permanent wormholes constructed by the growing galactic community, achieving information transfer Faster-Than-Light. Sentience now vastly superseded biological mind and the Emergent Intelligences quite literally emerged beyond consciousness entirely.''

''This was what had awoken the ancient artificial intelligences, constructed by Elder races of the past, and perhaps, were even beyond that of the young emergent's. The majority of AI's were self-referential, ignoring lesser sentience, some were hostile. But it was not all bad...''

The shuttle was cast over the void above the plane of the Milky Way. But there was a dim glow from above. It was a cube, with a volume of ten light years, and it was growing. The shuttle got to within one meter of the face, and the waiting began.
 * Thats it. Right there. -Geneli
 * You said this object was growing? -Saresha
 * Its growing in a non-linnear fashion yes, possbly to store information. We think it is knitting itself from the vacuum itself. -Geneli
 * Like a quantum replicator, a device the Gigaquadrant has derived from the Netspace. -Qiroon
 * But what actually *is* it? -Saresha
 * We do not know, it refuses contact. I myself have tried.  But through logical deduction, we think it is rather simple.  For example, it contains a huge volume, it allows light in, it corrects data flaws.  I am quite sure this is an observatory, which picks up all information carrying frequencies and storing them to create knowledge.  It is quite beautiful really, through cognition it can explore the limits of reality from this local region.  Knowledge itself it seems is a physical object which shares a kind of unity we are yet to understand with objects out there. -Geneli
 * I'm not sure I understand. -Saresha
 * But wouldn't there be light speed delays in its information processing? -Qiroon's research scientist
 * My theory is that the faces of the cube are possibly threaded from planckscale wormholes, open as if they don't exist on the outside, and closed on the inside. The foam allows for faster-than-light processing and the wormhole intersections increase area for storing memory. -Geneli
 * Why are we here exactly, didn't you say it ignores communication? Why not contact an AI which we know is beneficial? -Saresha
 * This AI may differ from the others in one respect; it has shut itself from the live feed of information from the known universe, all its channels are no greater than the light barrier. If I'm right, it will read information content of our brains, and it will make an act of self-preservation, as Exodium must present a threat.  The AI's have helped before, think of The Apalos and their quantum replicators. -Geneli

The Dogs of War
The massive DCP star launching station, a monument to the engineering capabilities of the Delpha Coalition of Planets launched it's massive payload at Maginodunried, the Dominatus base in the Milky Way. The Dominatus in their base did not see the massive object coming, and could do nothing to stop it as in their hubris they did not know that the DCP had such capabilities. However, before the hyperspace star could make it's mark on the Tyranny there, it was sucked through a hyperplanar gate that was being used to shuttle tyranny ships from the Milky Way back to the Mirus Galaxy.

The star made it's reappearance in a newly conquered Tyranny system where drones where extracting materials and setting up defenses. True to the nature of the massive weapon, it wrecked complete and utter devastation on the system it impacted and the only thing saving the Tyranny from losing more systems was the fact that it landed near their frontier, costing them only ten systems. However, although it had enough power to destroy the nearby Installation 7, the Tyranny capital for computer research and the place where all their mind control chips were controlled from, it instead interacted in the station in such a way that it interfered with the hyperspatial quantum algorithms of the computers there, if only by one computer bit.

Tyranny high command was both outraged and scared by this sudden disturbance and demanded that the situation be completely rectified so that the Dominatus could continue to wage war against the Delpha Coalitiolanets. Every Omega dedicated their massive brains to computing the trajectory of the hyperspatial star, and eventually came to a conclusion of where it came from on a hyperspatial topology and pinpointed it using a field of math that had recently been invented by Gaussivitz himself.

They assembled a fleet of 10000 of the new mark 2 ships, amounting to every ship of the new mark 2 class that they could find in the Tyranny and spearheaded it with the still embryonic skeleton of the new Tiamat, which although it had almost bankrupted the Tyranny was still only operation in it's main weapon system, and even then, it was only good for one time use as the ship was not even close to being finished. The Grand Admiral himself was in charge of the Tiamat, and it was a do or die situation, the entire fate of the Tyranny hinged on this event.

The fleet assembled in Maginodunried and readied itself at the hyperplanar gate, which was calibrated now to take them straight to the place where the DCP was firing stars.

Grand Admiral - Dominatus, Alphas , Betas, Omegas, Psis, we stand here at a crossroads where we determine the fate of the Tyranny. Our enemy is an incumbent power that seeks to threaten the position of the Tyranny in the First Gigaquadrant, but we will not let that happen, the might of the Tyranny will not be restrained. Our bravery, and our new weapons will enable us to win this terrible battle against this foe that seeks to cause extinction for the entirety of our race. However, even though death stares our race straight in the eye, and even though all the odds dicate we fail in our quest, we will not. We will win because the Tyranny wills us to, we will win because we are superior, we will win because we are Dominatus!".

The Dominatus fleet jumped into hyperspace with pride in their chests, they knew that no matter how powerful the enemy was, that they could defeat them. However as soon as they entered the hyperspatial location of the base, things instantly began to go wrong. First of all, the Tiamat, unmistakable in it's size and shape, had not appeared in the battle. Regardless, the Dominatus shouldered on through the currents of hyperspace, knowing that even without their greatest weapon, they had to win this battle or face complete and utter extinction.

Subspace sandbars, positioned near the system slowed the locomotion of the Tyranny ships to almost a crawl. They were almost unable to move, however like a force of nature, they rolled on through the currents of hyperspace. Eventually, the got within firing range of the DCP ships and had the advantage of the first strike. Gatling hyperlasers with their central ion cannons as well as strangelet weaponry and an incredible amount of missiles and strike fighter drones came screaming at the DCP ships. The initial salvo took out some of them, but now the DCP knew exactly where the Tyranny was. It was at this point, where the Tyranny realized that the DCP had a massive fleet in the area.

The massive fleets took shots at each other, the Tyranny also having to worry about the myriad amount of automated defenses of the DCP. The defensive robotic DCP weapons, which outnumbered the Tyranny fleet took a toll amongst the Dominatus ships while the Dominatus continued to fire at the DCP. DCP bows crashed into unshielded Tyranny ships while strangelet annihilators utterly consumed whole unshielded DCP ships in massive, horrific blasts. Missiles from each side flew into every direction, consuming AI defenses, Tyranny ships, DCP ships and other things. Subspace phenomena played havoc with the weapons of both sides, hypermatter weaponry used by some sometimes being rerouted and sometimes even reflected.

The battle was going relatively well for the Tyranny as for each DCP ship destroyed there was only one Tyranny ship destroyed, the now smaller technological gap being closed by the titanic size of Tyranny ships, which were generally two times the length of DCP ships of the same class. AI installations were also being destroyed rather quickly, however this all changed when the DCP ships entered ghost phasing.

The Tyranny had prepared everything for this encounter, their ships equipped with weapons that they thought could defeat the DCP, but they had made a fatal miscalculation, they though that ghost phasing was merely a phenomena and not a standard DCP technology and thus they had invested no time in learning how to deal with it more effectively. All they had was the rudimentary algorithm created in the first battle, and soon the tide of the battle was turning against the Tyranny. Even though the Tyranny claimed some DCP ships, they were now, because of the ghost phasing doing it nowhere near fast enough in order to have the victory that they earlier though they would have.

At that, the Tyranny figured out that the Mass Shadow Generators on their Kraken Mark 2s could rip targets out of their longtitudal ghost phasing lines at certain places and they diverted their weapons could do so. This enabled the Dominatus to destroy them at a faster rate, but it became soon apparent that with the mounting ship casualties that the Dominatus would be completely defeated in this battle, not having achieved their primary objective. A look of Depression was on the faces of the Dominatus stored on their Krakens, still standing indomitable over the battle as they recognized the hopelessness of the situation. They recognized that they had lost.

Grand Admiral - This is the Grand Admiral reporting in to the rest of the Grand Admiralty, I am so sorry, we have lost, permission to ... retreat

The Tyranny ships began to retreat until suddenly, something that they had been waiting for some quite time came to the scene of the battle, the Tiamat. The Tiamat, it's weapons charged prior to the battle wrecked complete havoc on the DCP ships. The moon sized ship systematically annihilated the DCP ships, much to the cheers of the Dominatus onboard the Kraken. The LEZIAPETSSHIT fired and ripped out even the most frightening of DCP ships from the fabric of space and time, using it's weapons to effectively and completely obliterate them in a single salvo for each one.

The appearance of this beast marked depression on the side of the DCP as their ships were obliterated and as the Tyranny began to increase it's toll, inspired by the Tiamat, and soon, after a few more volleys, the DCP fleet was completely and utterly obliterated. Now came the time for the attack on the space station. A massive weapon opened a crack inside the hyperspace launching strucutre while the Tyranny troopers activated the engines on their suits and flew towards the crack.

A flurry of AA fire attacked them, claiming quite a few Dominatus, even if they were attempting dodging maneuvers, but the combined fire of the reduced but still powerful Dominatus fleet was still enough to silence the small AA installations. The Tyranny troops eventually hit the ground and soon the man to man combat began.

DCP troops and Dominatus clashed within the confines of the ship, the Dominatus destroying cannon fodder and field soldiers with their weapons and massive physical strength. However, when they came to the commandos, they had a much harder time as the ensuing fights were relatively back and forth and consumed both combatants in most cases in the resultant explosions and impacts of such cases. Dominatus Betas and commandos, in the mind, in the body, and across ranges combated, each side being barely able to get an advantage on the other. Psychics and Psi infantry clashed as well, tearing the station a part in ways that conventional troops could barely fathom. Honor Guards clashed with Ultra Soldiers, with back and forth battles as well, wrecking havoc on everything around them in sheer displays of power and skill.

Regardless of the resistance of the DCP the Tyranny pressed on with incredible resolve as their incapacitated troops who had no more biomass to help them regenerate were drawn back to evacuation points where drones carried them back to the Kraken. Furious fighting broke out all across the massive installation, tearing it apart from the inside, until the point where the Dominatus were in the bridge of the installation.

Angrus - You will pay for destroying that system Admiral

Vorstite - You will pay for your chaos!

At that, the Sovereign Executor and the Admiral dueled with such prowess and finesse such that it would put to shame the skills of even the champions of most other races. Titanic blows which could cleave apart smaller starships were effortlessly parried by both combatants as each tried to gain the upper hand on each other. The giant Dominatus and Vorstite were so evenly locked that at some point, their weapons both broke from the impacts.

The Dominatus proceeded to try and punch the Admiral but the Admiral evaded each of his blows while the Dominatus evaded each of his. However, the Dominatus had a plan and set himself up for the Dominatus to make a run at him, and as soon as this happened, rather than parrying him, the Dominatus pulled him into a massive bear hug, and with his strength, pulverized every bone in the Admiral's body. After that, he shot out biomass in all directions, impaling the Admiral countless times.

Life faded from the Admiral, but his implants gave him a semblance of life, however the Dominatus decapitated him and took his head as a trophy. Regardless, some DCP magicks kept the Admiral alive through this experience.

The Dominatus, although they had suffered massive losses at several hundred Dominatus confirmed killed and several thousand more in the most advanced medical bays, alongside 90% of their invasion fleet, they had won the battle. Research teams and robots boarded the station and wrecked DCP ships for more technology while they tried to figure out the operation of the hypermatter stars. Although soon they would strip the station clean, they still did not know how to operate the hypermatter star weaponry, nor how to destroy it. In some cases this attack was a failure.

The alliance is formed
Geneli was barely a hands breath from the face of the cube. The galaxy was far beneath, and the arms appeared disjointed and dull, as if only some of the light was getting through. She would certainly be trapped should she wall beneath the cube, and yet it had no gravitational attraction. Four hours she waited, and in her tiredness, she pushed her hand out not realising what she was doing and touched the face. It wasn't solid, but all of a sudden she saw a flash of imagery, shocked, she called to be beamed back and she collapsed. Get her to the medical lab! demanded Saresha.

Back in the lab she realised her hand was covered in a thin film of grey material, but it was easily removed. Suddenly Qiroon announced some worrying news. Ships had appeared on sensors. A Waptoria appeared onscreen.
 * As soon as I removed this glove from my suit, it appears to be growing. To be honest I think its bog standard computronium.  The AI also flashed images into my head, I guess they are instructions.  This AI, its like a Pansophy of knowledge. -Geneli
 * So this 'Pansophy', it has communicated with you? -Saresha
 * I believe so, in fact it was direct communication, like if I hit you across the face. More of a gesture. -Geneli
 * But what must we do with it? -Saresha
 * ''It pictured us uploading this material into the AI. I don't see why it is a threat in anyway.  I don't think a computer infection of any sort is cut out to the task of defeating the AI.  Afterall, the platform it has invaded is only one 'tendril'.
 * They appear to be ships from the Waptoria and United Federation of Species. Their weapons aren't a threat to our shields. -Qiroon
 * Assuming they even want to engage with us. Open communications. -Geneli
 * We have followed you since the attack on your second base. We have been watching this war from afar, and we see that you are the ones clever enough to think outside the conflict. -Waptoria
 * We are scientists, it is our methods of analysis and reasoning that has brought us here. Anyway, I guess you want to join us? -Geneli
 * Yes. -Waptoria
 * I must contact the AGC at once, the sooner they know we have plan the more likely they are to join us. -Geneli

Dogs of war continued
DCP technology used no standard circuitry, and often employed alternatives to heat loss (i.e entropy), computation and even electrical charge. As the Dominatus puzzled over the alien operation of the hyperspace stars, the Grox fleet made their move, unaware that the Tyranny had conquered the station already thinking that it was their time to get revenge on the Delpha Coalition of Planets, both nations having a lust for blood that run deep into species memory.

Similar in advancement to the DCP, the Grox Meta-Fascists attacked with full ferocity, taking the Tyranny ships quite by surprise from the new attacker. Grimly, the Tyranny forces fought back, hoping to use the Tiamat. But unfortunately, it experienced its final glitch and fell out of hyperspace unable to keep its hyperdrive powered, and perhaps lost for good. Not willing to lose the Mark II fleet, the Tyranny shed various slaves to buy time and quickly left post-haste. The Grox, triumphunt destroyed the station and took command of the hyperspace star. Driving a star was in fact much simpler than the Tyranny anticipated. Mirrors had been aligned around the star, and as they were pushed out by radiation pressure, consequently, the gravitational interaction tugged the star out of the cluster, and by moving only a few degrees in hyperspace it could be positioned. The Grox were aiming the star at DCP territories, and without any delay detonated it. The Grox knew the DCP would soon return, so they left after returning the favour for the loss of their expansion. The explosion itself would actually miss starsystems, but the resulting gamma-ray burst would make the entire sector sterile, forcing evacuation and preventing colonisation.

DCP reinforcements came minuites later, with no sign of the Grox, the DCP presumed it was the Tyranny's doing. This was the final straw. The Tyranny had been the attackers every time, and yet the DCP knew there was only a million Dominatus. They would hunt down every last individual even if they had to exterminate world by world. But the DCP would face two aggressors; The Junction as well, but they knew what to do to them...

Maginodunried was one of five military bases in the Milky Way galaxy; stepping stones for the Tyranny's expansionist zeal. The base was a massive shipyard that orbited the planet Maginodunried and was capable of churning out one ship every hour in times of need. The world itself was covered by compactified cities housing billions of slaves. It was a world of geoengineering innovation, for example the geology of the world was penetrated by geosensing nanotechnology. Entire plutons of igneous rock was squeezed to the surface by the immense pressure of superdense material and levitated into orbit by antigravitational induction, to be smelted by city sized furnaces. Scientists in orbit of Maginodunried also studied the civilisation of the Milky Way for their strengths and weaknesses. Unknown to them, the DCP was studying Maginodunried since the colony was founded, and knew there was at least five layers of defenses.
 * DCP assualt on Maginodunried

The first layer of defense was a series of hyperspatial senses which could detect the gravitational waves caused by the folding of spacetime used in most interstellar drive mechanisms. Gravity would leak into a higher dimension and back into realspace, and as hyperspatial distances were relatively small compared to their realspace counterpart, the detectors could sense starships coming in early. However, they were fine turned to detect ripples created by extreme folding of a warp drive, not most natural frequencies.

The Delpha Coalition of Planets used tachyonic shift drives, which required no folding of space. They would go undetected. The second and third layers of defense was of warships, and automated weapons. The fourth was the shipyard itself, boasting an incredible ability to backup every lost ship. Most of the fleet however, was Mark 1, worser still, the DCP this time sent Dreadnought-level warships which were engaging The Junction when the Tyranny attacked. Yet the Tyranny had tens of thousands of Warships, but luckily for the DCP the Milky Way was their prime galaxy.

Five thousand star-dreadnoughts, flanked by several Assunder Class bowships and Subjugators rolled past the hyperspatial sensors and immediatly attacked. The Tyranny had anticipated an attack, knowing one would happen sooner rather than later and the DCP fleet was soon flanked from all sides by warships, many of them older in design from when the Tyranny wasn't Tier 2. After the first ten or so minuites, Dominatus commanders realised yet more and more DCP ships were streaming in, and that a slugfest alone would only byde the Dominatus time, so commanded their slaves to collide their ships with the DCP Dreadnoughts, so that all their weapons salvos would explode at once.

It actually worked, and some of the DCP cruisers and even a couple of star-dreadnoughts were destroyed. Meanwhile, the Tyranny began to steer the recovered Tiamat to close on the system. Something wasn't quite right with some of the slaves, they appeared oddly hesitant, but soon the sheer pressure of those willing to died from behind pushed the slaves foward. However, the DCP was in fact tricking the Tyranny and they had no intention of a direct assault on the shipyards. One of the Bowships had stayed behing several light seconds and fired an ultrarelativistic projectile, the volume of a tea spoon but made of degenerate matter towards the planet Maginodunried which hit the surface at such great velocity that the kinetic impact was comparable to a zetatonne.

Borealis galaxy
Norrikae lapses in and out of consciousness. He was not dead, and appeared to be in some kind of stasis. Perhaps his uttering's about a planned DCP attack had heeded the need to keep him alive. A Junction Mind approaches, Norrikae can feel its presence without seeing it, its sheer power feeling as if it would destroy his mind should it get too close. Strange shifting colours cloud Norrikae's vision, once more in stasis.
 * Who... Where am I? -Norrikae
 * Delpha Coalition...threatens our progress...this will not go unpunished. -Junction Mind
 * No! It was a mistake, we never intended war. I admit to allowing this to happen. -Norrikae
 * Then you will be suppressed...suppressed and absorbed into our mind. -Junction Mind
 * You have no idea who I am. I repeat, I commanded the DCP into war, however, I was tricked by an Entity that calls itself 'Exodium'. You must know of Exodium, now you annexed our station. -Norrikae
 * Exodium...elaborate.... -Junction Mind
 * The only reason your civilisation knows of the hyperspace stars must be the same reason ours knew. We were informed, by an AI. If you don't believe me, scan the platform itself, it is rigged with computronium. -Norrikae
 * We know of the AI...if you were tricked...does this signify the AI threatens us? -Junction Mind
 * It dispensed with me and my forces as soon as it realised we were no longer useful. Once it makes demands you cannot fulfil, it will do the same. The AI has no alignment, no morals. -Norrikae
 * Unacceptable...Exodium must be eliminated...for even thinking about harming...the progress. -Junction Mind
 * Right now, the DCP is preparing to launch a hyperspace star weapon on your galaxy. They have been manipulated to do so, even if you eliminate Exodium now you may not have a habitable galaxy to return to. The DCP won't listen to you, you must get me in contact with the DCP's allies; the UNO. -Norrikae
 * UNO?...Understood...have relations...fighting the same enemy together...you have been useful... -Junction Mind

Epiphany at Maginodunried
While the blast wasn't powerful enough to obliterate the entire planet, but it caused great crustal upheaval as glassified crust, mantle rock and superheated volatiles was ejected from the surface, which showered all over the orbiting refineries and furnaces, destroying some and causing others to overload their carrying capacity, which fell back to the surface. The mega-construction complex however was untouched, along with the shipyards. All the Bowship had to do now was to reload another charge at the right trajectory, and it fired...

The projectile vaporised within three seconds of hitting Maginodunried, suddenly a new fleet had appeared; comprised of spacecraft from the AGC, Waptoria and United Federation of Species. However, there were DCP ships as well, and this had caused some great confusion. Information was relayed to both combatants, who were still fighting. The entity was an AI, and it had taken all bases, from including The Junction and was preparing to fire upon everyone. The DCP ships powered down their weapons, and interestingly enough so did the Tyranny, as the Entity they had bargained with was now rejecting their calls. Finally the Tiamat appeared, but the battle was already over. Communication channels opened once more since the first engagement.