Fiction:The Shattering/To Burn A Thousand Worlds

Long years of preparation and planning come to bear fruit as the Fordan Empire seizes the moment to enact its plans for expansion in the midst of the chaotic Shattering.

The Storm Gathers
In the pinnacle spire of his imposing citadel, the Blademaster of the Fordanta, Hel’Bre’K Ce’So’Va, closed a holo-prism. The long-range communication device, approximately a cubic foot in dimension, had relayed the orders he had long awaited to hear. He had been unleashed on the wildspace of the galaxy, to begin the second phase of the Empire’s ambitious yet secret expansion project. In the years since the Annihilation, Fordan exploration teams had spread wide across the regions of space around the Empire’s new resting place, laying the foundations for the Blademaster’s crusade.

Forward outposts and relays had been established, and initial contact made with hundreds of space powers, great and meek. Each had been thoroughly examined and assessed, some marked for extermination, others offered the terms of the Concordat. These long years of silent toil were soon to be rewarded, as the Blademaster turned to the assembled champions before him. Three battle-kin who had ascended through the ranks of the Fordan Legions battle after battle, proving their worth over a combined service of over three hundred years. Ri’Kar’D, Te’Los and Ki’Res; three fingers gripping the bloody scythe that would sweep away the enemies of the Empire, three warriors of fearsome prowess lethal intelligence that would serve as his Marshals in the coming onslaught. He himself would take the role of Lord Marshal, but there can be no Marshal without Legions to command.

The order rung out in the halls of the Warrior’s Guild across countless Fordan worlds; millions of Fordanta from every militant path were called to war, their hearts beating fast in anticipation. From the lowliest initiate in the first wave to the most grizzled of the Praetoria, the mighty war machine of the Empire pulled itself together, the fire in their hearts burning together in a great conflagration that would set the galaxy ablaze. For the Fordanta, there is no mercy, there is no offer of surrender; there is only extermination.

Warriors clutched their plasma casters tight, cycling through fire systems and drilling unit tactics into their psyche. Testing the edges of their thermal blades and honing their skill and savagery into that peculiar fighting spirit that is so utterly Fordan, they donned their sleek helmets and completed the transition from living thing to faceless avatar of destruction.

Hunters drew up their mighty longrifles, the three metre coilguns capable of projecting inch-thick metal slugs at supersonic velocities. Their rangefinders and extrasensory package opened up the world to them; nothing could hide from their merciless gaze.

Knights swore their oaths and unsheathed their blades, the glowing edges lighting up the dimly lit shrines. Hefting their shields and testing their motivators, they steeled their wills for the arduous journey they faced to the front. When they closed with the enemy, they would leave little more than charred chunks of meat and blood.

Titans secured themselves in their cocoons, their bodies suspended in bubbles of liquid gel. With each movement, a massive mechanical limb responded. The armories of a thousand worlds shook to the tread of great mechanical steps, as the mightiest ground-mounted weapons of the Empire were brought to hand.

Phantoms fired their thrusters, calibrated their group targeting systems, and readied themselves for the hunt. With grim resolve and wings of fire they would find and destroy any target the Marshals marked, swooping down to change the tide of battle.

Each squad boarded their transports, which docked on the Triumphant-class cruisers that would carry them into battle. Space was torn apart by blooming Void translation gates, as the ships launched across the shattered spar of Andromeda, to carry out the Lord Marshal’s will, and with it carry the fire that would burn ten thousand worlds.