Fiction:Vermillion Syndicate

The Vemrillion Syndicate, also known as the New Brotherhood, the Insurgent Alliance, and the Dead Empire, is a large organization of violent races, criminals, gangsters, and psychopaths recruited by, a deadly crime lord and insurrectionist who has for years fought a bloody campaign against the over the title of Ugandalore, which the Vermillion family desperately wants. Unlike other rebel movements, which have used cells and terrorism to achieve their goals, the Vermillion Syndicate prefers a more direct approach; gathering as many soldiers and weapons as possible to strike their foes. This often leads to bloody battles and huge losses on both sides. The organization is believed to be heavily run from Mirus' Eastern Shore, as well as the Red Veil and tribal reservation areas on Ugandalore.

Before the Split
The Syndicate had its first small roots on the planet Vermis, the Mendel-owned world ran by the Clett's distant Lupotragus relatives; the Vermillion clan. Fighting loyally for their masters for two centuries, the Vermillions were in a good position. However, all that would change. Reyner Vermillion, youngest male of the newest generation, harbored a dislike for Barda Clett's rule and the way he did things. But he was too young to command his own troops and there were no rebel organizations he wished to join. This would change when had  and his men betray first the Blood Knights, then their successors the. As the Quista Clan and Iyoka's organization the absorbed what was left of the Blood Knights, Javik's Ugandalorian gang the  promoted an atheist, feudalist and isolationist answer to Ugandalore the Untouchable's rule, Reyner and those few who would follow him joined Vort and his halfway-Groxic clan. Fenric and his troops, including his brothers, were sent to stop him.

But Barda underestimated Fenric's loyalty to family. Having seen both his parents, a brother, and a sister die, Fenric had no intention of killing or excommunicating Reyner. Instead, his armada joined the Suicide Watch. Fenric's men, forever called "the Crusaders" in disdain by loyalist Mendel, conducted a purge in their ranks, executing any they suspected of having loyalty to Barda. They would conduct several operations against the Mendel, but not before Fenric transmitted an apologetic message to Barda officially confirming his betrayal. Fenric could not bear to backstab a friend without at least letting him know first. After that, when the Suicide Watch joined the newly-formed and Darkling-led organization called the, Fenric and his family followed them into service.

The Vermillions and their men fought on several fronts, including the fateful battle on the planet called Weeping Sorrows where the Brotherhood leader, a Darkling called Abaddon, was killed by King Brygon of the Volver Empire. Fenric refused to participate in the new leadership organization, Brotherhood Command. He knew he was no good at politics, and preferred a military role. After that, the reorganized Brotherhood moved into the Red Veil, absorbing and allying with the and the  on the way. In the Red Veil, the Brotherhood sat itself up as the lords of the new lands. They made it their base of operations. Soon after, a war broke out in Cyrannus between many different factions coming from Mirus. The Blood Brothers went as well, mainly to stop Glacier's brother from taking over the region. The Vermillions helped the Brotherhood win many battles, but ultimately retreated with the rest of them during the Battle of Draconis when many of the Brotherhood's ships were shot down.

The Vermillions and their close allies would also fight on behalf of the Brotherhood during the, a massive war between the Blood Brotherhood and allies, the tribals who resented their rule, violent Spodist extremists, and various mercenary and corporate organizations who had stakes in the Red Veil threatened by the incursion of the communistic Brotherhood. The war was won by the Brotherhood, the victory causing the addition of millions of tribal soldiers to its army. As a result of the rebellion, the various regions of the Red Veil were divided by the Brotherhood Command and ruled over by appointed lords to prevent another uprising.

The New Enlightened War
Soon after the, Reyner Vermillion was given control of a region of the Red Veil called Starscape and married Princess Scovia, leader of the. Her brother, Arryg Wainrider, became Fenric's best general and most loyal friend. Because of this, and rewards given to him by Brotherhood Command, Reyner commanded a 25 million strong force of Scythiag soldiers, recruits from Starscape, mainly of the Dingo, Weithgar, and Skinwalker races, and a hired Prizrak force called the Micogenic Brigade. Fenric owned the Darksky region, and commanded two million men, made up of his own Crusaders, his wife Celyre Ferquievy's soldiers, and Trinary, Jammat, Yagdrassil, and Sasanik tribals from Darksky.

However, the stability of the Brotherhood was being threatened. A small force of UAE remnants, the New Enlightened, had trespassed into the Red Veil, settling on the eastern edge of it. This was enough to put the entire Brotherhood on edge. The last straw was when the New Enlightened sent scouts through the Blacksmear, a region of the Red Veil controlled by Fenric's general, a Jammat called the Bonerider. The Bonerider's forces caught the intruders, and the Bonerider himself cut out their eyes and sent their bodies floating back to New Enlightened space. When their ruling council found out, they prepared to go to war with the Brotherhood, falsely believing their army was a loose coalition of tribals and savages. They sent their army in, but were attacked continuously by Arryg Wainrider's vanguard. Finally, during a battle on the snow-covered planet of Wildside, New Enlightened forces ambushed Arryg's vanguard, destroyed it, and killed Wainrider himself.

This split the Brotherhood in two. Many of the original members and their factions, like Glacier, Iyoka Quista, and Javik Vort wanted to wait for an opportune time to strike. The other half, mainly led by the Vermillion clan and Arryg's brother Scovia, demanded the immediate death of those responsible for Wainrider's death. Reyner impulsively moved his forces into the Northern Territory and the Black Channel of the Red Veil in preparation of war. Fenric relucantly had the Bonrider and another of his tribal generals, a Muthanna called Grenka the Flathead gather their forces in the Blacksmear to protect his brother if required. Reyner began raiding the New Enlightened much as Arryg had done, keeping them out of the Veil. This proved to be a huge setback for them, since Reyner's numbers could effectively blockade the region, even if it was against orders. Ironically, this is not what set off the war. The catalyst was provided by a younger, more hate-filled hand.

Pollimer Ghurka was the only surviving member of the royal family of the Carpathian Khanate, an extragalactic empire that invaded Mirus and was defeated by the UAE. Pollimer, still in his teens, tried to rally a remnant force, but it was crushed once again by the UAE before he could do anything. The Brotherhood took him and his surviving men in, and they became a distant yet useful part of the Brotherhood. But Pollimer was very hotheaded. He demanded revenge and refused to wait for it. When he discovered that the New Enlightened had moved Matrukoris into the Red Veil, he knew it was the perfect target to attack. Nothing his advisers told him could cool his head. Finally, he took all his men, as well as as many Brothers looking for vengeance as he could and went after Matrukoris. He punched through Reyner's blockade, who committed all his own forces to the attack when he realized Pollimer was attacking Matrukoris. They were then joined by the Bonerider and Grenka the Flathead's forces upon Fenric's orders, who joined the battle as well.

When this force, about forty million strong, attacked Matrukoris, they overwhelmed its defenses and easily landed on the planet. When they scored this victory, other Brotherhood generals joined the battle. Iyoka committed his Volver Knights and Cthonian forces to the battle. They were joined by Glacier's Aeba Shuka, Viterva Khmara Zealots, and the Suicide Watch. The Darklings were very irked by this display of insubordination. Despite that, the Brotherhood easily overwhelmed the planet's guards, since the majority of the New Enlightened's forces were spread out trying to get around Reyner's blockade. Within a few hours, an army of AWOL soldiers captured the planet their predecessors had spent years trying and failing to take over. Matrukoris was taken deep into the center of the Red Veil, and the New Enlightened was left without a capital. They regrouped on Wildside, where they attempted to create a plan to retake Matrukoris. But it was not to be.

Spurned on by the victory, Fenric's army landed on Wildside intent on crushing the New Enlightened once and for all. The army destroyed all of the New Enlightened's outposts, and captured, killed, or pushed back any of their troops who were outside of the main base. The only casualty of significance was Fenric's cousin by marriage and leader of the Valrakian Feudalry, Hadrian Kardvark. While leading his berserkers across a stone bridge spanning an ice river, Hadrian was decapitated in a swordfight. The victorious Brotherhood army then began the long march towards the main base. However, a huge snowstorm, which was common on the planet and the main reason it was neither colonized nor inhabited by indigenous life. The heavy snows froze most of the army's pack, mount, and food creatures to death and shorted out much of their electronic equipment. It also filled many of the passes with snows and forced Fenric's forces to crawl through meters of snow to reach a place suitable enough to camp at.

But the worst was yet to come. Not wishing to die, all of Fenric's mercenaries and some of the desert or jungle-loving tribals deserted, running for the ships the army had landed in but could not take to the base itself due to an ion cannon. To top it off, New Enlightened members on speederbikes attacked the camp at night, killing the Chieftain of the Variags, called Thagg the Mountainthrower. However, they lost more than they gained, with the Bonerider killing their leader. During the attack, all of the Brotherhood's food, ammo crates, and artillery were destroyed. However, Fenric was determined not to retreat and stain his family name. He ordered the leader of the Kingdom of Hyrax, King Kallinox, to take his men back to the ships and contact Brotherhood Command for more men and resources. The next morning, Fenric found that all of his men but the Ferquievys, Scythiags, and his own Crusaders had fled back to the ships. Apart from them, only the Bonerider and Grenka had remained, with their closest guards. Also remaining were the giants known as the Zek and their loyal and ferocious leader Reg Hurrex. The nearly-extinct race of giants had gone from a few hundred to less than a dozen during the war, and Hurrex was determined to see his race have one last memorable moment. Out of options, Fenric continued to wait for the Hyrax to return with more men. They did not. Realizing the outcome, Fenric ordered his remaining men forward anyway, determined to die a warrior's death rather than freeze to death or be shamed as a rogue. His men loyally followed him.

The New Enlightened soldiers met Fenric in battle just outside the fortress. Using hardlight bows, their archers rained arrows down on the charging Scythiags, whose wooden arrows were relatively ineffective against the New Enlightened's power armor. Fenric himself threw down his gun and used his sword to hack down as many soldiers as he could reach. During the volleys, the last of Fenric's cavalry was wiped out, alongside all the Zek except Reg Hurrex himself, who flattened dozens of New Enlightened soldiers. Finally, they were surrounded by a ring of soldiers wearing extremely heavy-duty power armor and shields. They carried long pikes with toxic and electric blades on them, which they used to pick off dozens more of Fenric's men. Fenric knew they had lost, and prepared to lead his men on one last charge.

But his battle cry was drowned out by warhorns and the howls of charging warriors. Kallinax had returned with his Hyrax soldiers, the deserters he had gathered up, and a fresh Brotherhood force consisting of Viterva Khmara, Cthonians, Volver Knights, and tens of thousands of Marauder tribesmen. The warriors tore the slow New Enlightened pike-drivers apart and laid the path to the base bare. The New Enlightened barricaded the doors, but a mortally wounded Hurrex tore down the gate and allowed the Brotherhood inside, where they turned the salvaged hardlight bows against their former wielders. The fortress was taken in minutes, and the New Enlightened leaders who failed to escape were brutally executed, usually by being devoured. The majority of the New Enlightened's fleet escaped, but it was clear they would not escape the system alive if they did not reclaim Matrukoris and use it to escape.

The New Enlightened fleet flew straight for Matrukoris. With Reyner's blockade scattered due to the battles on Matrukoris and Wildside, they were able to slip onto the station, where they met little resistance but for some stationed guards and marauding plunderers, which they quickly dealt with. But before they could reclaim Matrukoris' command station, the Blood Darlings arrived with a huge army made up mainly of Glacier's men, determined not to lose their prize. Both sides lost many men, including important leaders. Finally, New Enlightened leaders reached the control station and put Matrukoris into slipspace. They then jettisoned parts of the planet while still inside the slipspace tunnel, sending them to parts unknown. The Brotherhood lost almost half its strength with that move, and the New Enlightened made it out of the Red Veil.

The Brotherhood was damaged but not destroyed. Glacier had survived the slipspace event by riding on a piece of Matrukoris. He would land on another planet, but would eventually make it back to the Veil. Darkling Terror and his Convents were not part of the battle. But with half its forces teleported into oblivion, the majority of the Brotherhood was made up of those who would rather follow Fenric than Brotherhood Command. This would be the spark that started the next war, the one that would lead to the creation of the Vermillion Syndicate itself.

At War
''Your demise is certain. The pain you will feel is open to debate.''
 * - Vile undead filth. They must be purged before even the Grox.
 * - They must be destroyed, and we are the only ones who can do that.
 * - Lapdogs of the Cyber Collective. They will perish with their allies.
 * - Some we inherited from our predecessors. The rest must die.
 * - They must be wiped from the galaxy as surely as the Cyber Collective.

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