Fiction:War of the Ancient Three

"Borealis will forever be a galaxy of warfare and death. It is a fate assigned to it before any of today's races were born. It is fate... and fate cannot be changed. It can only be hastened, so that we may be done with it and make the suffering short."

The War of the Ancient Three, sometimes given the name of Third Borealis Galactic War or Third Great War, was a large-scaled military conflict in the. With ambitions of power and conquest, the rulers of the would manipulate the  into fighting the alien force known as the  in their name, while they sought for sources of great power behind their backs; all while the Rovegar people grew increasingly discontent with their heads of government. At the same time, the demonic would use the opportunity to strike at their enemies and impose their once-lost superiority over them, reigniting a conflict which had once ensued 1,200,000 years in the past.

About
Made for the purpose of tying up loose ends, the War of the Ancient Three is the 'final chapter' of many of the Polar Crystal Alliance's plots, though it isn't the end of Borealis fiction as a whole. Planning of this fiction dates from as long as the faction's introduction to the Fiction Universe (April 2013‎). It serves as the de facto sequel to the story.

Unlike the, the War of the Ancient Three will not be roleplayed, but instead be completely descriptive in the style of the. Unlike that fiction, however, users are allowed to write their own parts to it, provided they are discussed with OluapPlayer.

Participants
Only users associated with Borealis are allowed to participate in this fiction.


 * - coordinator

Betrayal of the Vaedoruk
"The Hollow King comes! The Hollow King comes! The Hollow King comes!"

- Vaedoruk Trooper during the assault of Hyperborea

At 2810, the Penumbran  would be sent to the  homeworld of Samil alongside the  Penumbran  for the purpose of recovering an artifact linked to the long-dead  deep within an underground installation, where mutated scientists and a pirate band led by a  known as the Anarchist would stand in their way. The mission would end in success, however, as the hostiles were cleared from the site and the artifact was recovered by Aentaeus, with Vekaron and his group being sent back to report to the Alliance.

However, complications would arise when Aentaeus never reported back following the incident, and the Regnatus relic never reached the hands of his superiors. The Polar Crystal Alliance, worried over the fate of one of their best soldiers, asked the rest of the Gigaquadrant to keep an eye on him, though years would pass without news. In the meantime, the robotic race known as Lanatharch, loyal to Regnatus' old cause since the continued to skirmish with the Alliance's outer territories, however they would eventually grow bolder in their attempts, their tactics becoming more efficient, as if they had gained much greater knowledge on the works of the Alliance.

At 2821, Aentaeus would re-emerge, claiming to have been until then captured by the Zazane pirates and kept hostage until he managed to escape, much to the delight of the Polar Crystal Council. However, something in him had changed, something which was not clear at first. The Vaedoruk, a mysterious race from the Outer Core, joined the Alliance around the same time as Aentaeus returned, and during this period, politicians and diplomats would find themselves drawn to their creatures by unknown means, coming to agree with their ideologies and have their goals warped to fit their own. Suspicious of foul activity from their part, Councillor - who, thanks to the System, was unaffected by their presence - sent Vekaron and his team to the Vaedoruk homeworld of Vae to investigate the race.

Many of Vekaron's original associates had moved on with their lives, and his crew at this point was composed solely of, , and , though he would find help in the form of , who agreed to help his cause while her mate  prepared the foundation of what they both described as a great vigilante squad aligned to the goals of the Alliance. Upon breaching the defenses of Vae and cutting their path through hostile Vaedoruk, Vekaron and his group would discover a second Regnatus relic, and from the records left behind by scientists, they would uncover its true purpose; such was Regnatus' paranoia that he had created backups of himself, artificial intelligences made to be perfect copies of his psyche who, while incapable of harnessing, were still able to indoctrinate others into servitude. Realizing the entire Vaedoruk race was under the control of Regnatus, Vekaron's squad destroyed the relic and retreated back to, only to find the Vaedoruk population there opening fire upon the populace, while at the Council Tower, Aentaeus had his own gun pointed at the Council.

Before he had the chance to kill them, Aentaeus was forced to flee when Vekaron intervened, leaving the Council alive but badly wounded. The Vaedoruk, beyond saving from Regnatus' corruption, were put down, all while chanting about a being known only as the Hollow King, which Aentaeus appeared to work for. Realizing the Paladian had been corrupted by the relic they had once retrieved together, Vekaron and his group braced themselves to hunt him down and put an end to his schemes.

The Hollow King
"I have seen it, Vekaron. He has shown me the truth! Regnatus is not something you can merely fight - he is a sapient inevitability."

- Aentaeus, the Traitor Penumbran

With the Vaedoruk defeated, Vekaron and his group, among others, would hunt down Aentaeus. Using what information they could gather from the now abandoned world of Vae, the Penumbra Unit would follow the traitor's lead by tracking pockets of Lanatharch activity. Skirmishes between the Alliance and the machines would grow more intense as they made advances into their space, with Grand-Commandant leading a defensive line against an attack launched upon the  Database at the Friura Sector, which was once under Lanatharch control during the Second Great War.

In the meantime, the Anarchist would return from the shadows, employing the mercenary  and his primate military company in an attempt to hunt down Aentaeus himself; he hoped that with the power of the Regnatus relic, he could force the Polar Crystal Council, as well as any who dared oppose him, to submit to his will. As Vekaron and the Anarchist located what they believed was Aentaeus' headquarters, they would encounter one another once again, leading to a gunfight between them and Lanatharch drones. Despite fighting the same enemy, the Anarchist refused to work on the Penumbran's side, turning it into a free-for-all. The battle would take a new turn, however, when Aentaeus' associates attacked the group; the Vaedoruk Vrieth Shvrarkh attacked the Anarchist, while the Trehikh Loneclaw used his psychic powers to invoke burning copies of  and the Dark Grip squad to haunt Vekaron. Taking heavy losses, the Anarchist managed to kill Vrieth Shvrarkh and escape, while Vekaron's group successfully purged the copies of Torrent and his men, causing Trehikh Loneclaw to flee.

The Varkorus child would escape the base in a Lanatharch vessel, which Vekaron and his group would follow into a space station where they fell into a trap; expecting them to give chase, Aentaeus ambushed the group, imprisoning them. At this moment, the Hollow King presented himself before them; standing besides Aentaeus was what appeared to be a massive Kormacvar made entirely out of black metal, which the Paladian would explain was actually a great mass of nanomachines which inhabited the relic he had recovered. Indoctrinated by the Hollow King's influence, Aentaeus became convinced that Regnatus was divine and could not be stopped, merely slowed down, and that their conflict with him would inevitably going to fail eventually. So, in order to end the suffering of Borealis, he would grant the Hollow King the power to destroy the Polar Crystal Alliance and be done with it once and for all.

The Hollow King would reveal to have come to contact with a derelict Ascended-class Dreadnought, which he would use to attack Hyperborea in the near future. Aentaeus' Edulia associate, Autren Moreston, prepared himself to execute Vekaron and his group, though he was interrupted when the space station found itself under attack from Grand-Commandant Asraels and many members of the Penumbra Unit, who successfully tracked down Vekaron before it was too late. Kirlisir would kill Autren Moreston, while Aentaeus and the Hollow King managed to escape, their trail going cold after that. The Alliance forces were optimistic, however, as they now knew their enemies' intention and could prepare ahead of time.

Death to the King
"Neutralize the enemy, by all sacrifices necessary."

- Warmaster Arkarixus, during the battle of Hyperborea

The Polar Crystal Alliance, remembering well of the power of the Ascended-class Dreadnoughts, quickly amassed a blockade around Hyperborea to defend themselves from the Hollow King's onslaught. However, nothing would occur. Days would pass as the Alliance waited, but no attack came. With the Penumbra Unit failing to locate the enemy and no attack happening after a month of waiting, the Polar Crystal Council was convinced that Aentaeus was bluffing on his boasts, and the blockade was slowly dissolved over a period of several days. However, as the last vessels left to return to their original posts, an Ascended-class Dreadnought immediately emerged from hyperspace, followed by a fleet of Lanatharch battleships ready to tear Hyperborea to pieces. They had waited for this very moment. In a panic, the Alliance ordered the fleets to return to the Victory Nebula, which confused and bothered many officers as they had little time to respond. Landing upon Hyperborea's first arm, the Dreadnought begun opening fire, its beams tearing through the cities and piercing through the hull of the space station, killing millions of innocents as it slowly made its way to the Council Tower. Vekaron would arrive to Hyperborea as the battle ensued, planning to take on the Dreadnought as the Aegis Guard combated the Lanatharch.

While his vessel could do little against a ship as mighty as the Dreadnought, Vyatak would suggest the use of anti-matter weaponry fired directly at its weapons, so it would penetrate its hull and bypass any sort of defenses. Arguing it would lead to the destruction of much of the populated arm of Hyperborea in the process, part of Vekaron's crew refused to use this strategy. However, Warmaster would communicate with the Penumbran and give him the order, telling him to destroy the Dreadnought '"by all sacrifices necessary". Reluctantly, Vekaron would oblige and his ship would confront the Dreadnought, firing a volley of anti-matter missiles at its 'eyes' as they opened to blast him with their lasers, leading them to successfully go right through the openings. What ensued was a tremendous explosion as the front half of the Dreadnought was completely annihilated from within, immediately killing the sentient intelligence inside of it, at the cost of a considerable portion of Arm One's populated center being obliterated, killing anyone who had not managed to evacuate in time.

With the destruction of the Dreadnought, what remained of the Lanatharch fleet fled the battle, with Vekaron and the Alliance's own ships giving chase as they demanded retribution. They would chase the machines down to uncharted space at the Eastern Arm, where the Zoles Penumbran's ship would be attacked by Aentaeus' own Penumbran vessel; boarding his ship, the Paladian marksman Avantelus Nataver and the Zoles assassin Trenebon Kinterin sought to silence Vekaron and his team once and for all, but they would both be killed by the superior skill and firepower of the Penumbran's squad, with the systems of Aentaeus' old ship giving them the exact hideout of the Hollow King.

As the Alliance fleet cut through Lanatharch blockades to reach the coordinates, they found an uncharted world where a base of operations was protected by a hyperspatial shield, impenetrable from the outside save for a small opening reserved for ground troops. With an anti-matter bomb at their disposal, Vekaron and his group descended upon the installation, fighting hordes of Lanatharch drones until Trehikh Loneclaw appeared to them once again, using his psychic powers to deflect their gunfire and torment their minds, attempting to warp them into the Hollow King's servitude. Gardin successfully managed to wound Trehikh, however, knocking him down and suppressing his powers with her own, though she was reluctant to finish him off; she believed him to be a mere confused child, much like she was once, and believed he could be saved. However, before she had the chance to, the Varkorus would use what remained of his power to snap his own neck, ending his life.

Going deeper into the installation, Aentaeus would finally appear in person, warped and transformed by the Hollow King into a fearsome cyborg and challenging Vekaron to a final battle to, in his words, "see who is the better Penumbran". Despite his upgrades, however, Vekaron and his group would match him strength and the Zoles would begin attempting to convince him that opposing Regnatus was possible, his words piercing through the Paladian like knives and leaving him confused over his beliefs, though the indoctrination proved itself to be stronger as the Hollow King took over, mind-controlling Aentaeus to fight without question, ending with Vekaron piercing his skull with his energy blade, killing him. Enraged by the death of his minions, the Hollow King would reveal himself; having absorbed countless Lanatharch to increase his body mass, the shapeshifting mass of nanomachines which composed the Hollow King was now colossal, intending to crush and devour Vekaron for his transgressions. Priming the anti-matter bomb and making their way out, Vekaron and his group fled the facility while evading the Hollow King's attempts to destroy them, which ultimately failed; as they escaped, the bomb exploded, its power consuming the facility and annihilating the Hollow King as the explosion was confined inside the shield he had erected to protect it from outside threat.

Vekaron would return to Hyperborea and be hailed as a hero for his deeds, though the Zoles felt no special feeling for his victory. Before his destruction, the Hollow King revealed his nature as a backup of Regnatus; he was merely one of hundreds of thousands of backups, who would inevitably awaken and pick up from where he had failed. They had destroyed Regnatus' body, destroyed his very soul, yet his legacy would haunt Borealis until the end of time itself.

Declaration of War
"The Alliance seeks to purge our galaxy from this evil, and we call for the aid of our extragalactic neighbours in making this a reality. Those who pledge their support in the eradication of the Ganthorea will be helping make Borealis a better place to live, and will show us our trust is well placed."

- Councillor Nayanur, representing the Rovegar Matriarchy

A year following the now-called "Hollow Incident", repair of the structural damage dealt to Hyperborea was still ongoing, though the holes on Arm One's hull had been closed, meaning it was no longer exposed to the vacuum of space. As the threat of the Hollow King was dealt with, Councillor of the  would urge the rest of the Polar Crystal Council to return their focus to the looming threat of the ; a race of mysterious plant aliens, they had menaced the Rovegar for hundreds of thousands of years, she explained. They were completely incapable of diplomacy, and sought nothing but the completely assimilation of every sentient race they encountered. To back up her claims, Penumbran Vekaron had encountered these creatures as well, and he could confirm everything the Rovegar Councillor said.

After analyzing the threat posed by the Ganthorea's existence, the Council agreed actions had to be taken; they would not be reactive this time around, but be proactive and eliminate the enemy before they could deliver the first strike. News would spread that the Polar Crystal Alliance planned a campaign to march into the Karstul Sector and eliminate the Ganthorea before they could threaten the lives of its citizens, calling for the support of its allies in Borealis. Among them, the would be the first to voice themselves, agreeing to send ships and men to support their goal, so that one more danger in their new home could be extinguished. Though embattled in the ongoing against the Empire, President, leader of the remnants of the , pledged to send a fleet of ships under Commodore  to aid their Borealisan allies.

[Missing but confirmed: Draconid Imperium, Divinarium]

Before the actual conflict begun, numerous members of the Penumbra Unit were sent to Ganthorea space in order to scout and give the Alliance an idea of the situation; among them were Vekaron, Ulsahar, Xevern and D'arcy. Before departing, the Zoles Penumbran would meet with Shinha, who he had met as a child during the Second Great War, and have him join his crew in order to combat the enemies of the Alliance - the famed  warrior would quickly get the attention of the Rovegar Gardin, who grew attached to him. As the days passed, the Penumbran scouts broadcast all of their findings to the Council and their extragalactic allies, giving them the first true view of the Ganthorea menace; fleets of bio-ships defending worlds overrun with flora, where hordes upon hordes of sapient plant creatures scurried and grew. Given time, an invasion on Alliance space truly was possible.

March into Karstul
"INTERLOPERS. BE. CONSUMED!"

- Princess-caste Ganthar, to the Alliance fleets

The Ganthorean world of Kalvara-5, scouted by Penumbran D'arcy Harper, would be the first planet hit by the great allied crusade; pouring out of the nearest Cold Relay, the Polar Crystal Alliance and its coalition of allies rained fire upon the Ganthorea colony and easily crushed their orbital defenses, who were completely caught off-guard. The invasion, spearheaded by Warmaster Arkarixus himself, would crush the first responses of the Ganthorea hive-mind, overwhelming their ships with their firepower and taking their derelict remains for study; the Indoctrinate Collective, using modified versions of their famed shipeaters, would create nanomachines which could neutralize Ganthorea spores using samples from their biomass as base.

While the allied fleet tore through the outskirts of the Ganthorea, the Penumbra Unit was tasked to go deeper into the Karstul Sector in order to scout ahead and leave them informed on the hive-mind's movements. Those who had experience fighting the during the Second Great War quickly noticed the Ganthorea used identical tactics to the  of Regnatus, leading to a mix of confidence and uncertainty - they knew what to expect of the Ganthorea, but did that mean they were related to the ancient Alvino? ... Were they under the control of Regnatus as the Lanatharch are? Warmaster Arkarixus would deem the answer irrelevant, claiming the creatures needed to die regardless as he ordered the march into the sector to continue.

The Ganthorea hive-mind would retaliate with great violence, with the bulk of their armada attacking the allied forces head-on as they continued to make their way into the sector. This time, it was the Alliance and their extragalactic supporters who found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Ganthorea, who employed unconventional tactics such as kamikaze dropships to infest the crew with Ganthorean beasts. At this point, a creature known as Princess-caste Ganthar would reveal herself to the allies; claiming to be the ruler of Ganthorea, she demanded the surrender of the Alliance and the delivery of the decapitated head of Matriarch Vileraz IV, threatening to make them all pay if they continued to fight their "absolute eternity". Pushed back, the Alliance and their supporters would be forced into the defensive as they planned how to fight back against the Ganthorea, while Arkarixus ordered the Penumbra Unit to hunt down and assassinate Princess Ganthar.

Lord of the Hive
"ABSOLUTE ETERNITY."

- Brekiel Ganthor, hive lord of the Ganthorea

As time passed, Gardin and Hachiman would grow romantically involved, something Vekaron had no particular issue with. As ordered, the Penumbra Unit scoured the sector, searching for the whereabouts of Princess Ganthar, eventually finding her coordinating the hive-mind from within her mothership, a formidable vessel far larger than any other Ganthorea ship encountered so far. Led by Vekaron, the members of the Unit joined forces and coordinated an attack on the mothership, infiltrating it in order to confront the Princess without giving her a chance to escape. As she was discovered at the command center of the massive vessel, the Rovegar-turned-Ganthorean became enraged and engaged them in combat, her psychic powers being equal match to their firepower though she would eventually fall due to the overwhelming dreamy powers of Hachiman, having her body shredded by the clawed knuckles of Ulsahar and her head sliced out of her shoulders by Kirlisir and Gardin. Using explosives set up by D'arcy and Xevern, the Penumbrans escaped the vessel carrying Ganthar's head as their prize before it detonated, claiming victory to the Alliance.

Despite the death of the Princess, however, the Ganthorea forces appeared completely unfazed. They continued to hammer at the allied fleet as if nothing had happened, confirming speculation that Ganthar was nothing but a symbol of the Ganthorea; the true source of their power remained unknown. The Polar Crystal Council would contact the Rovegar Matriarchy in order to ask for their aid on the matter - after all, they had the most experience with the Ganthorea out of anyone - only to find it impossible to speak to Matriarch Vileraz IV who, despite the current state of the galaxy, was seemingly away from her throne for undisclosed reasons.

The Gene Collectors
"Ti Nol Pal'peda they say, and these jungles are no exception."

- Tynus Elentius, Astral Ranger of the 17th Praetorian Wardens on a Ganthorean world

As the Alliances Penumbran forces made a surgical strike on what they thought was the nexus of the hive mind, and while the ALliance's coalition navy battled with ship and with gun to hold back the tide, the Draconid Imperium - worried the Ganthorean threat might spread out of the contained warzone and potentially into the Imperium, had sent several fleets of the Aetheral Talon Body to bolster the allied forces. But as these ships of the line eployed millions of soldiers to many worlds to secure and to push back, the Imperium had another strategy in mind.

Far behind the battle lines and under the brush of the Ganthorean worlds, the Astran Rangers stalked the brush. Scattered in cells deep behind the frontlines, in hostile territory where the air itself was thick with parasitic spores, these frontiersmen, special forces troopers conditioned with numerous genetic tonics and Morphis infusions to be able to adapt to any environment were the eyes. When word spread that Princess Ganthar's death had done nothing to even slow the hive's advances, the Rangers were given a new task to learn how the hive mind communicated, how it thought and how it commanded the billions of thralls it enslaved with its parasitic spores.

Only the Astral Rangers could survive this deep into the spore-choked biospheres, geared with environment suits that could withstand the barest assault from the stars to biospheres of the most toxic to ordinary life, and energised with tonics that boosted their immune systems, any normal soldier might have been overcome, another thrall for the infestation to exploit and utilise. Spread across the region in cells of three to eight, the rangers worked best alone. When soldiers from the Alliance explored behind and around enemy lines as scouts, they would occasionally come across dead drops that were camoufglaged but discreetly marked with the badge of the rangers. Inside were often observational reports, thrall profiles, regional maps but most prized of all were the Ganthorean biosamples. It was rare to find a dead drop that contained more than a couple of specimen tubes laced with spores, but on rare occasions more substantial biological materials had been collected. These were highly prized but despite contact being difficult, with a number of soldiers opting for communication by way of sharing dead drops, the rangers proved extremely valuable back in the command centres, everything from their observations to the colelcted biosamples slowly and gradually formed a picture of the Ganthorean hive. Princess Ganthar's death did little, but perhaps these rangers could offer a better solution.

Trivia

 * The War of the Ancient Three was originally intended to be roleplayed, but due to the growing unavailability of many users, a descriptive writing style was chosen instead.
 * While the page was originally intended to be named "Third Borealis Galactic War", OluapPlayer believed it would devalue the retcon, which was simultaneously being written at the time of this fiction's creation.
 * The "Hollow Incident" part of this fiction was, at one point, a standalone fiction with its own page. It was deleted for being left incomplete for too long, before being adapted into this new fiction.