Fiction:Delpha Coalition of Planets

"Those who look upon Kilnok’s shield, Nyx, are struck by its portrayal of Delphan victories - to the uninitiated observer, it seems to be a mural of triumph after triumph against their foes - the Wub, the Vartekians, the Congregation, and the Dominatus. Indeed we know not whether it is magic or technology that compelled the perpetually shifting surface to display in the most vivid and aesthetically pleasing style the defeat of the Vermulans, and the overthrow of the Undying Council. But those who know what the DCP truly is know what the former Archon’s Shield means. The Archon said that beyond their technology and industry, that their single defining trait was that “They would eat their own children, burn their own guts, raze their own planets, and eradicate generations of their own in order to hold the line.” They are the line between order and chaos, the titan holding up thin veil of stability in a universe beset everywhere by entropy - whether the maddening wars caused by unbounded mortal ambition, or the callous aftershocks of beings beyond our understanding. They are the wall, each brick laid their scientific, martial and industrial strength, glued together by the adhesive of a soulless indomitability. They reinforce this wall constantly - they sacrifice their children, their freedoms, their character, and their very souls to prevent the conflagration of barely illimitable disruption from consuming us all. To those who question their methods, their brutality, their callousness, their seemingly unquenchable thirst for war and blood. To those who question what seems to be the invidious abomination of a culture predicated on the sacrifice of most species’ most enshrined rights on the altar of war and progress. To those who scream from the stands of supposed Delphan insanity, of their cruelty and willingness to forsake the moderation of sapient beings, they make this sacrifice so you do not have to. Their act of gallantry is their offering, their oblation to the callous laws of a world teetering on the edge of inferno, for the insatiable holocaust that is the Gigaquadrant demands satiation, and it is their offering of their past, their present, and their future, that gives you yours."

- Unknown

 Hail the DCP

The Delpha Coalition of Planets (popularly known as the Delphans) are a hyperpower that is resident to the Plazith Rim, a power which had extended its reach across the Gigaquadrant cluster in the first years of modern intergalactic politics. The DCP were cofounders to the Seven Starr Alliance and several other major organisations. Despite their namesake, the races of the coalition are a united empire, ruled by a council of immortalised leaders who have absolute authority and control over the destinies, hearts and minds of the Delphan populace. The "Undying Council" ensured their rule using methods of surveillance and brutality which has drawn the DCP a bad reputation amongst liberal powers. However, Delphan living standards excel in everything but freedom for law-abiding citizens.

The DCP's mission to the universe is to ensure their concept of Order survives and is the dominant political influence; thus the DCP is no stranger to war, in fact it has been in a near-constant state of war since its inception (although at widely different scales). The DCP put their faith in warmasters and scientists to create fierce strategies and weapons, often to bulldoze their enemies and build on top their ruins using excessive force. And yet despite the paradox of warring for Order, some of the DCP's actions have been as seen as heroic by the standards of many powers. The DCP side with peaceful civilisations more often than not, leading to a perception of the DCP as flawed protectors fighting a universe filled with much more hostile agents. During the Annihilation, the DCP even sacrificed its forces to slow the advance of the scourge approaching Plazith, giving time for evacuation. The DCP's struggles to maintain preeminence in the recent climate have caused many powers (including old allies) to see them as imperialists to be treated with suspicion and exclusion. This has increasingly forced the DCP to reflect on their own nature, as they learn that embracing the wind of change rather than crushing it might be the only way to remain relevant on the Gigaquadrantic stage.

Society
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The Delpha Coalition of Planets is classed as a totalitarian state that takes obsessive measures to survey and control all citizens. Brain-computer interfaces analyse thoughts and regulate the collective unconscious. Measures of control are so extreme that the mere prediction of disorder will require an individual to be questioned and possibly sent to an education facility (although this may be prevented by seeking council with a quarterback), while people who complete tasks are rewarded. With a constant presence of holographic defence systems and police, blue collar crime is extremely rare. When disorder or rebellion has occurred, the perpetrators may be executed then and there, or may be confined to sensory deprivation. All property is catalogued and can be re-purposed at any time, indeed only a small percentage of the population have a permanent residence or career; the working class are continuously given new tasks to optimise the performance of colony operations. Discrimination of a citizen based on biochemistry, class, disability, gender, race, sexual orientation, species or any other attribute is outlawed and punishable by death. This is because the DCP values kinship above difference. Citizens are allowed to pursue their own love interests, and change aspects of their own identity however. They can even change species and operate a maximum of 3 bodies at once. The DCP is not fussy about the architecture family units, as children spend most of their time raised and educated by the state.



Coalition
"Coalitions are only temporary if your goals are impermanent."

- Common Delphan saying.

The Delpha Coalition of Planets has 36 member races who are mostly clustered around the Delpha Sector, and some along the expansion wedge driving to the outer core of Plazith and a few in distant reaches. The most populous races of the Coalition include the Grimbolsaurians and their offshoots; the Kuugavesus, the Chirom, the Oroadian Chorus, Jarzo, Yoburt and Corgel. Once a civilisation has become culturally integrated with Delphan institutions and law (a project which may take up to several generations), the races is given equal standing in Delphan society. Members permitted to join the higher bureaucratic ranks (and a permanent seat in the council), are capable of leading the charge into battle or settlement of a sector.

The DCP faces the same difficult problem of all galactic cultures, namely how to unite alien sentience and culture under the same cause. The DCP could have dismissed incompatible cultures or engineered them. But the DCP do not, because they value the abilities of their members, after all what would be the point of integration? To take on this problem, the DCP analyses the alien sentience to extract any universal values and quale (such as safety and suffering) to direct suitable memetic influence. In the past two centuries, the DCP has even engineered an artificial and addictive quale of their own using networked brain interfaces to make all citizens empathise with the beat of Order, so that they feel a common patriotism and kinship.

The DCP is monocultural in its values and goals, although the different member races are allowed to keep some cultural identity, architecture and customs that are not in conflict with Order and where their national style contributes to the DCP. The Corgel have been allowed to keep a heavily modified interpretation of Spodism that suits the DCP, although most religious leaders are just spiritual advisers than men of faith. Followers of the Spodic faith will inevitably encounter contradiction, thus it is the role of advisers guide the religious to unask any contradiction of their faith the DCP's secularism. The Grimbolsaurians have a warrior caste that aligns perfectly with the DCP's internal police force and militarism. The Yoburt were able to retain their scientific institutions so long as they performed research into new technology. It is the task of quarterbacks to manage any cultural activities and council those who are finding personal contradictions.

Institutions
DCP society is governed by a rigid bureaucracy of control that is mandated by the Coalition Ministry of Intelligence Operations (CMIO), the Coalition Ministry of Military Intervention (CMMI) and the government. The ranks of the government are stratified by the scale of the colonial space. The highest military rank of Warlord is the only military rank almost equal in status with the governing council, allowing for judication over entire galactic zones and extragalactic territory. The judiciary and the government are not independent. The only way to ascend rank in Delphan society is by merit and duty. Some roles are determined by heredity, but the council ensures they are tested.

For seven centuries, the DCP was ruled by the Undying Council and the Emperor (now simply the Delphan council). The Undying Council represented each of the integrated races of the coalition, and along with warlords and knights were granted the gift of immortality. Emperor Wormulus II represented the the Grimbolsaurians but was also the icon for the Delphan people as a whole. The Emperor takes on public and diplomatic roles for the council and is capable of vetoing them. To outsiders, the Undying were known for being the bastions of callousness and cruelty while Wormulus was seen as heroic and fair-minded figure. The Undying Council tolerated Wormulus for so long because he possessed the knowledge of sustaining their lives with essence, for while they used anti-senescence therapy, mistakes were made in the early days of the technology, leading to disease and senility. It is now thought that some of the DCP's paradoxical nature can be explained by the power balance between the Wormulus II and thn paranoid and senile Council members who increasingly acted against him. The Undying Council died during the Great Xonexian Schism (with the exception of Wormulus) and were replaced by the Delphan Council, where leaders can now be elected. The title of Emperor remains in the form of a constitutional monarch, and is currently held by Wormulus' son Lunarai.



"Freedom is the end. But Order is the means."

- Cant, a Delphan philosopher

Of Order,
The DCP's philosophy was born of rage, when the Grimbolsaurians and a few others shrugged off decades of cultural vandalism and looting by the Wub Triumvirate who had ruled the Delpha sector with an iron fist.

Order is the primary philosophy and political dimension of Delphan society. It does not quite take on the same meaning as order; the DCP's Order refers to a belief in a teleological attractor that harmonises all civilised life in the universe towards a common set of universals; giving knowledge and experience meaning, and ultimate freedom from evil. 'Evil' here refers to other attractors that differentiate sentient life or prevent them from harmonising, condemning them to an infinite void meaninglessness. Paranoid of a universe of life that mercilessly sought their own goals, the DCP sought to spread their mission to defeat evil and protect those who are followers (unknowingly or not) of Order.

In the name of Order, the DCP fought many aggressive expansionists who used less ethics to colonise or dominate other sovereign states, including the Grox Meta-Empire, the Cognatus and Drakodominatus Tyranny. The DCP viewed them as corrupters of Order due to their methods of subjugation and division. The DCP put their own existence on the line for others in the War of Ages. In more peaceful approaches, the DCP also supported Station Halcyon and the Milky Way Cooperative in bridging the gaps of communication between alien species and converting the universe to structures of value. The DCP has tolerated and protected democratic states, although they view democracy as easily corruptible and encourage them to change. The DCP will also tolerate the expansion of authoritarian powers over democracies so long as the fight is a fair one.

Of reciprocal action,
The DCP's method of seeking order does belie a contradiction; they are fully aware that in fighting to harmonise the universe, they must in some way enforce their values upon others. This is where the the Delphan's sense of reciprocal ethics come in; a friend or foe's actions are mediated by a balanced response. The DCP believes that Order can only be protected consistently this way. Peaceful civilisations that help the DCP and do not interfere with them are granted alliances and aide. States that wage a civilised war with the DCP are given a fair fight, as seen in the Andromeda Campaign when the DCP refused to use superweapons on the Draconid Imperium. States that fight immorally are given increasingly vengeful responses by the Coalition, and until the end of Great Xonexian Schism, no hands raised against mass destruction, genocide, enslavement and punishment (tactics which are now reserved for truly existential threats).

Living Standards
"If you're going to live in any oppressive autocracy, the DCP is probably the best one to choose."

- Atirieil in her unofficial assessment of major superpowers

Delphan citizens enjoy very good living standards. They are a post-scarcity society which has transcended the limits of light speed, thermodynamics (only in realspace, using hyperspace as a means of travel and refridgeration) and planetary resources. All Delphan colonies are well defended by fleets of battleships, long-range hyperspatial defences, shields and fortifications. Delphan spacehab and megastructures are all equipped with shift drives so that they may evacuate a region.

Medical needs are met instantaneously, because citizens are supplied batches of non-replicating nanotechnology that monitors their health and fixes emerging diseases before they can cause damage. Very serious injuries or cases of disease are treated freely by the health service. Virtually no children are born with development disorders and diseases thanks to gene editing technology inserted in the reproductive biology of citizens. The nanotechnology is capable of animating citizens that die in their occupation to complete job tasks, and in some cases resurrecting them. All citizens are granted life extension, but only via new bodies, a process much less efficient at preserving identity (unlike the Undying Council). In terms of public transport, only high ranking officials may be permitted to use transfer beams (hyperspatial wormholes capable of transporting shielded individuals), because the technology is deemed to be too powerful for public hands (the public may be evacuated via wormhole transit). Instead the public must use traditional methods like shuttles an space elevators to move about. Good citizens are rewarded with entertainment and legal highs, such as alcoholic beverages. However the drugs are not chemical, and are stimulated by brain implants, which shut down once work is resumed. The DCP constructs their own qualia using the implants which can provide entirely new kinds of feelings and shared experiences. There also exist virtual reality games and movies, and there are often patriotic events held in real life that provide sport and music.

Planetary life


There are very few planetary colonies that have not been heavily utilised in the DCP. These worlds are typically 'Oxi-planets' (meaning a world with free oxidants), rich in oxide minerals, sulphides, carbonates, nitrates, water and complex hydrocarbons. Oxi-planets are usually habitable and have their own biospheres. This is no coincidence, often the mineral diversity of Oxi-planets are owed by their biosphere interactions. However, carbon planets are also colonised as their substrata are rich in graphene and diamond.

Planetary colonies are heavily urbanised and climate-controlled. While homeworlds preserve their original architecture, most Delphan cities are modular, composed of thousands of units capable of assembling buildings, vehicles and other infrastructure, and disassembling when no longer required. Therefore cities are forever changing shape to optimise their internal operations and utilisation of resources. Delphan citizens are used to their homes and careers changing by the day.

Space
Most of the populace live in space, where it is possible to design more efficient architecture, such as space cylinders and shell-worlds. It is also easier to the control both the environment and the citizens within megastructures. Most of the industry is space-based; super-heavy elements and antimatter are mined from stars using superconducting scoops and lasers. Over the centuries, the Delpha Coalition of Planets have built an interstellar power grid of wormholes and stars linked together to meet the needs of their energy hungry technologies, powering ships and engineering projects linked to the network.

The Coalition also mines asteroids for metals rare in planetary lithospheres. The DCP is one of the biggest refiners of andasium, which is one of the few products that they will trade with foreign states. Data=

Coalition: most populous members
Other famous members include the Ayug, Brawgle, Chibby, Children of Kerobe, Dubel, Flixxel, Minor, Omnitermine converts, Ottorix, Rammo and Selznik.

Institutions: Territorial tiers
Quotes Delphan society= Add a quote about DCP society

Trivia =

Delpha sector: the bitter era
The recorded history of the Delpha sector dates back nearly 13,000 years when the Yoburt emerged as spacefaring species. The Yoburt set about creating their own short-lived galactic empire that was driven by a thirst for hyperspatial knowledge. They sought the galactic centre as the ultimate powerhouse for particle acceleration, assuming they were alone that side of the galaxy due to a quiet period of history. Instead they met the Grox Meta-Empire and the Yoburt empire was promptly destroyed, isolating a vast diaspora of Yoburt colonists across the galaxy and beyond. In the Delpha Sector, the Yoburt took on a new ideology of quiet contemplation that hijacked their intelligence to strongly resent science, viewing the technological aspirations of the past as a form of desire that had brought only ruin. While they remained spacefaring, they underwent stagnation lasting thousands of years, resigned to observing and meditating rather than actively probing the universe. Though they built little in this period, it was long enough for them to mentally stumble upon mathematical truths that would inform the technologists of the future Delpha Coalition of Planets.

Some 8000 years later, the Church of Spode swept through the Delpha Sector and converted the Corgel to Spode, it is unknown why they would then leave for another four millennia shortly after the DCP emerged.

Around 12,000 years later on Mirenton, the Grimbolsaurian civilisation was teetering on the edge of disaster after a nuclear summer and resultant water crisis. A local warlord by the name of Wormulus I managed to unite the planet's desperate civilians who were fleeing more irradiated and lawless lands, and within a century the Grimbolsaurians were sending out their first fusion-ramjet colony ships. During this time, the Delpha Sector had many interstellar states, notably the Jarzo Grand Republic, Yoburt Confederacy, the Corgel Empire, Dubel Trading Federation and Chibby Communes. However, they were dominated by the Wub Triumvirate, an alliance of Wub, Quinnal and Warzoleski empires that raided and enslaved the Delphan states. The Grimbolsaurians were forced by the Triumvirate to pay tribute for extortionate prices, and were unable to pay due to their world still being in recovery. As a result, Grimbolsaurian colonies were destroyed and Mirenton's skies plagued by pirates.

When word reached Mirenton that the neighbouring Brawgle were suffering genocide, the Grimbolsaurians decided if they would be next, they wouldn't go down passively. Unable to defeat the Wub on conventional terms, they resorted to deliberately colliding a pair of ramjets with a Warzoleski craft, knocking it out of the skies. The on-board warp drive was salvaged, and the Grimbolsaurians got to work on the Star Sailor. A young spacer by the name of Kilnok came forward to pilot the spacecraft, in order to make a desperate plea with the Yoburt, Jarzo, Chibby and Corgel to funnel together an armada. His resolve and good deeds finally convinced them to support his cause. As word of early defensive successes got around, the more Delphan empires joined the armada. The Wub Triumvirate were soon forced to flee as the expanding Delpha Coalition brought vengeance upon their worlds.

Pre-Gigaquadrant era
The DCP had colonised the Home Reach within the first three centuries, comprising of the Delpha, Docron and other sectors. These years saw the Undying Council immortalised for centuries to come, and the cementing of the DCP's values in an age of turbulence. When the DCP would meet their first challenge of power (the Church of Spode), they were shaped to mistrust other cultures, particularly theological ones. This challenge came from the Radeon despot Jaharan ae-Zamarros who's Ecclesial Navy spread religious dissent on the Corgel worlds, almost fracturing the nascent coalition by convincing them to attack the Dubel, another member. In the end Jaharan's forces were disorganised from the onset and spread thin across the galaxy, allowing the DCP to get the upper hand and restore order. The war saw the end of multiculturalism in the Delpha Coalition, with the Corgel given a controlled interpretation of Spodism (to retain their warrior culture). It also saw the first implementations of the Maelstrom (a sector-wide defence system) although it was far less advanced than its future version. Delphan historians and witnesses acknowledge mistakes were made during this turbulent period; shortly after the Ecclesial Navy had been driven out, the Delphans nearly destroyed the Selznik Imperium for merely believing in another galactic religion (The God That Will Come). The Selznik were found to be pacifists, and the notion that the DCP had diminished them shocked public and leaders alike. This set the DCP on a more ordered path, and indeed the real story of early Delphan history was the triumph of unity. The Delphans allowed increasingly more alien members into their ranks, forcing colonies and spacecraft architectures to accommodate the extreme environmental differences. The philosophy of Order took shape as the DCP sought ways to unify a common goal across a multi-species organisation with all the member's psychological and ideological quirks, in order to retain their distinctive traits. This reached all time heights when communication was established the Lagross rift, a nebula of space-borne ecology. However the DCP would also encounter a "living" world called Fahler, inhabited by metal oxide life (later known as Spice) which fought against colonisation or direct communication for centuries.

In the decades leading up to the third century, distance had made absolute control over the Home Reach an increasingly difficult problem. The expansion showed no sign of abating as more states joined or submitted to the Delphans. Living conditions in the outer colonies were poor and fraught with uprising. Worse still some of the newly acquired territories proved more expensive to control than they were worth. The solution would come from two revolutions, one in lifestyle and the other in transport. The first step was the transition to a megastructural lifestyle; it proved to be easier to build multi-species architectures in space. Furthermore, the DCP's industry was moving towards mining and manufacture in space. Smaller populations could prospect for resources with large turnovers and leave behind unsuccessful ventures. Bubbles of statites and magnetic loops were arranged around stars, storing the energy of solar wind to transmit terawatts of microwave energy to the megastructures. It was also possible to siphon antimatter in usable quantities from the stars, allowing nuclear fusion to be replaced on the larger structures. The second step came in the form of invention: the transwarp drive. Having reclaimed their scientific aptitude, the Yoburt used their advanced mathematics to refine the coupling of negative mass with the gravitational fields, allowing for large-scale storage of negative energy using star-powered particle accelerators. Initially the transwarp drive could only be used for short forays into hyperspace, but the system improved reducing the travel times throughout the colonies. This allowed uprisings to be squashed more quickly. Half a century after their invention, a natural wormhole (CLG-16948-j) that lead some 3000 light years core-ward was found, and the transwarp drive could be used to stabilise them. So began a rapid period of colonisation towards the galactic core (the Expansion Wedge), where the DCP would meet their destiny.

The war with the Grox was an era in and of itself, lasting decades. It saw the Delpha Coalition of Planets brought to its knees before a rapid turn-around, thanks in part to both heroism and luck. The Grox ignored the Expansion Wedge for the main prize after tracking the DCP spacecraft to the Delpha sector; they could not tolerate the new contender and wasted no time sending their full might. The DCP fought back gallantly, but did not have the firepower or speed to match the Grox, who's ships were both heavily armoured and agile. Entire worlds were depopulated and 70% of the Home-reach was diminished in a war of extermination, with vast numbers of citizens fleeing in their mobile stations to Delpha. In a last-ditch attempt for survival, the DCP equipped all space-worthy vessels (even civilian) to confront the Grox blockading the wormhole CLG-16948-j. In desperation many commanders ordered their ships to collide head-on with the Grox, the strategy worked and the surviving fleet reunited with the Expansion Wedge.

The Expansion Wedge colonists had discovered the Grox were already engaged with several wars across the core, including the Dracogonarious Empire, who they joined in the fight. In fact the Grox had become severely weakened during the Battle for Planet Kaizox, losing the Marinox and forcing them to abandon the Delpha sector. In a brief period of pause, the DCP allied and shared Grox technology with the Dracognarious anti-Grox alliance, Welky Grand Council, Kuugaveethus and Hogomoth. The new ships were more manoeuvrable, equipped with nano-weapons, holographic defences and subatomic disruptors that could pierce any armour. They were assembled in the Expansion Wedge where the Grox had foolishly overlooked. The Kuugaveethus joined the DCP and lead the charge to take on the core, with the battles of Seron and the Clonast gate being major blows to the Grox's industrial capacity, and serving as heavy losses for the DCP as well. For every Grox world lost, the DCP rapidly terraformed it to punish them. It took only a miraculous decade of Grimbolsaurian diligence and sacrifice to encroach on the Grox's capital systems, forcing them to sign an armistice with the coalition. As a result of the war, the Delphans had dug a path to the galactic core, freeing it up for explorers across the galaxy and symbolising them as heroes for the first time. Meanwhile, the DCP took a prize that the Yoburt had tried to reach 12,000 years earlier - the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. Using stellar engines and lasers to guide nearby stars towards the black hole, the Delphans constructed their own accretion disc, tapping into it like a giant dynamo and using it to transmutate super-heavy elements. The Delpha Coalition of Planets were now indisputably the mightiest industrial superpower in the galaxy, the impact of the core sector produced two thirds of DCP's material wealth. The ingenuity of the DCP's inventions and the turbines of their cosmic factories were paraded for all core visitors to see, as entire systems became occluded by the dust of manufacture. The DCP built vast new fleets and probes to colonise distant corners of the galaxy as new wormholes were uncovered. Most audaciously, construction of a mobile palace the size of a continent began, built from the ashes of the Plazithian-Grox kingdom.

The next centuries were known as the Golden era, for although the DCP would be even more powerful in the future, the time would be seen as one when the DCP had no major competition or existential threat. Truly alien species like the Chirom and Spice-worlds would join the DCP, encouraging them that Order was correct. Smaller wars would be fought, for example the Hogomoth were forced into refuge after it was revealed they had attempted to broker peace with the Grox. Similarly, the Grox's distant cousins the Grob (or Borg, as known to humanity) were problematic. The DCP also encountered various clades of humanity on the other side of the galaxy, including the Yamato, but distance prevented direct competition with humanity's story. However a small number of colonists defected to the Yamato, including a warlord. The Delphans also encountered with Kicath Empire and Oimonsk, and latter of which they co-founded the Seven Starr Alliance with to face the vandal crisis plaguing the galaxy. The DCP continued to advance technologically, eventually developing shift drives, ghost phase defences, black hole manipulation (for holeum-matter and superradiance bombs) and star-killing the weapons (the latter of which were used on the Dromanji). Close to the beginning of the Gigaquadrant era, the DCP were connecting stars and wormholes of their own design to power the Interstellar Grid in the case case they ever lost the core, allowing energies of the scale of a Kardashev II civilisation to be available to any ship, megastructure or planet connected to the Grid. This arguably made the DCP one of the first pioneers of the hyperspatial revolution.

Intergalactic era
The Gigaquadrant era began with a few starting points, most notably the War of Ages - perceived as the most devastating war in recorded history. Extra-galactic presence was already known via contact with the ancient Draconid Imperium and Church of Spode (and knowledge of other precursors), but the intergalactic mode of civilisation had not yet been established. This changed when a single expeditionary ship from the Girdo Empire appeared above Mirenton. Surviving by a stroke of good judgement, the arrival of the Girdo ship in the galaxy caused a tide of romance throughout the Seven Starr Alliance for intergalactic exploration. An expedition was sent forth to the Ardenta galaxy and then onto Tigris using an experimental drive and wormhole threader designed by the DCP and Oimonsk. It wasn't long before the expedition detected signs of the Tigris war upon finding reports of a world-sized vessel laying waste to alien fleets, and subspace signatures of hyperspace-trembling warfare. The SSA was originally assigned to abandon post if a threat was detected, but the DCP acted out of their own interests to investigate. The DCP stumble across the Rambo Nation for the first time during their hour of need. The DCP surprise-attacked the Congregation invaders of Tircos within hours of first contact before giving the Plazithians intelligence on the war. The Congregation soon found the SSA wormhole and streamed through to Plazith, striking the Seven Starr Alliance at its heart and devastating several of its member states; the DCP was also badly hit. But this only mobilised the Delphans for total war once and for all, using their postscarsity economy and authoritarian organisation to prioritise military output. The Maelstrom was completed with hyperdrive-nullifying systems throughout sectors. Hypothetical singularity-slingers and hyperspatial missiles (weapons that could use hyperspace to get inside shields and hulls) were devised to fight the apparently magical technologies of the Congregation. Hasty alliances were forged with the Krassio, Rambo and even the Church of Spode (who had become the Masaari Crusade). As The Congregation finalised their transformation, the allies in Tigris became isolated from the rest of the universe. But despite devastating losses they dug in and hung on, proving their foes were not omnipotent, and in process an honourable kinship was forged as the war pressed on to new galaxies. The old extra-galactic empires took new responsibilities in forging trade and infrastructure for intergalactic commerce and exploration. The DCP's actions in bringing the Tigris War to Plazith are controversial; and yet it was fortunate for the Plazith Rim to have stumbled upon the War of Ages by coincidence rather than The Congregation encroaching on the galaxy unbeknown. In the process, the Delphans discovered great and apparently supernatural forces had been crafting intergalactic history for millennia, possibly filtering out previous Gigaquadrants. It became imperative for the Seven Starr Alliance to make a stand for survival; and so began a great new wave of exploration and colonisation of the Gigaquadrant to mount a defence and study the past. And to bring Order to the universe... After the reunion with survivors of the Tigris galaxy, Delphan leaders remained optimistic about intergalactic expansion. Extensive exploration programmes began in the Black Eye and Ottzello galaxies, as well as the Cyrandia Cluster where the Rambo and Capricorn Sector Alliance hailed from (who had become members of the SSA). Explorers would soon by followed by military and research outposts. The Cyrannus and Quadrant galaxies contained a wealth of riches and squabbling powers much like Plazith, and the DCP soon become embroiled in local conflicts like the Trucinex war and Second Galactic War in aid of their new Cyrandian allies, burgeoning lasting friendships (the Grand Three). It would also bring the DCP into direct competition with another ambitious power, the Vartekian Empire. After hearing rumours about essence-artefacts and a Grimbolsaurian race in the Ottzello galaxy from the Krassio, the Emperor dispatched his son Titanozor to lead an excavation to uncover deep links between the galaxies. The DCP clashed with the barbarous Loron, eradicating many of their worlds in search of Taldar artefacts (including the use of supernovae to kill the masses of Loron underground). Titanozor was able to establish contact with the Vyro'Narza in the process, one of the essentials behind the War of Ages and creators of the Loron. The Vyro'Narza would be a guiding hand in the future of the DCP's involvement with the War of Ages. In the Black Eye galaxy, the DCP would discover the home of the Conqrix and a large base of the Grox Meta-Empire, proving their worst fears of their enemy's extensive range. The DCP conducted a full military campaign to weaken the Grox stronghold, partly aided by the fact that the Grox had also suffered in the early War of Ages. The DCP did not choose to colonise the Andromeda galaxy due to a pact to keep its dangerous secrets hidden. In the Plazith Rim, the DCP saved the Pepis from extinction, adding to the DCP's mixed record. The DCP would face a number of setbacks in what became known as the dark decade; the extragalactic reaches were growing rapidly and Undying Council was faced with the problem of controlling these regions. Their solution would nearly be their undoing, for it was to be the cause of the first civil war since Jaharan Emergency. Emperor Wormulus partitioned control of the extragalactic reaches between his clone-sons Titanozor, Bo Ramik, Mauloron, Eclipsos and Tricarrion as warlords, each was made with exaggerated personality traits for battle rather than politics. Tricarrion would fall to descension while Eclipsos was simply jealous of his father. Mauloron as an underdog joined Eclipsos, and only Titanozor and Bo Ramik remained loyal (the former who bluffed himself as a revolutionary until the end). The rebel Warlords quickly garnered an uprising with fewer commanders to deal with. The Undying Council made several failed attempts to repatriate their colonies; Eclipsos eventually resorted to a daring raid on Mirenton using his knowledge to undermine the Maelstrom and planetary defences, conquering it. When hope for the loyalists was almost lost, Titanozor switched sides and caused chaos in the rebel lines. In his palace ship, Wormulus rode into battle. Mauloron and Eclipsos transported themselves aboard; Mauloron confronted the Emperor in his thrown-room but was swiftly defeated (presumed dead) while Eclipsos attempted to sabotage the reactors. Wormulus confronted him, but maddened by rage and loss Eclipsos almost slayed Wormulus if it had not been for Kilnok's timely intervention, who was severely injured in the fight requiring aggressive cybernetic augmentation (Eclipsos secretly survived by uploading his mind into Kilnok's smart-armour). The "Warlord" as a title survived, but now more bureaucracy would be sent to extragalactic colonies, and Warlords did not require a lineage to Wormulus. The rebels fled to the Large Magellanic Cloud and formed the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets. But even before the civil war, the DCP had accidentally unleashed a greater crisis on the Gigaquadrant in their efforts of rapid colonisation. This was the Nanohorde plague, a devastating industrial accident involving self-replicating nanomachines tasked with strip mining asteroids. Equipped with hyperdrives and hyperspatial cooling, neither heat or distance in a classical sense were limits to their growth. Being extremely hard to contain and destroy, the Nanohorde devastated entire worlds and would not be suppressed for years to come. Once Order in the outer-reaches had been restored, the DCP joined the Onuris Alliance, which had been formed by participants in the early War of Ages in response to reports of Xhodocto activity emerging in the Tuuros galaxy, and random attacks across the universe. The great Onuris empires planned for a preemptive strike to defeat the dark forces once and for all, forming a military force of a quadrillion personnel. The forces would never make it Tuuros, instead they found themselves within the Inferno, a plane of existence ruled by the Xhodocto. Thus began the March of the Apocalypse (still possibly the greatest conflict in terms of combatants), where tremendous numbers were lost to the demons (as could be best described) and alien physics of the realm. Fortunately the Onuris forces and heroes were guided and protected by the Essentials, allowing them to reach the final circle. The DCP played a pivotal role in rescuing Hierach Kroc and retrieving an artefact that banished the physical manifestations of the Xhodocto (for a short time). As the war of gods and mortals raged on, those left behind in Plazith and Cyrandia would face an unexpected crusade from the First Cognatus Empire, who could fight the DCP 1:1 with their metric shields and superlasers. Overstretched by the War of Ages and Plazithian invasions, the DCP was unable to effectively defend the United Republic of Cyrannus, but did repel the Cognatus from their space using the Maelstrom and barrages of hyperspatial missiles. The Salsetthe and Vartekians would also help defend the galaxy. The motives of the Cogantus were initially unclear, who disappeared through an Oikoumene construct at the height of their campaign. The Plazith Rim would fall into chaos once again shortly after the March of the Apocalypse and Cognatus crusade. The Girdo began their own campaign to unify or destroy the various "godspawn" species of the galaxy (species that appeared to have a common ecological ancestry) at the same time the Grox were beginning their "Project Upgrade". The campaigns saw the political map of the galaxy redrawn, some of the changes were considered beneficial to the DCP (like the weakening of the Grob and disappearance of some old enemies), while the Grox rose to become powerful once more. The DCP were overstretched by the War of Ages and Cognatus crusades, and were powerless to prevent the chaos wrought by the Girdo Campaigns. They had even been forced to withdraw from the Ottzello galaxy completely. Despite the grand optimism of the apparent Xhodocto defeat, the dark decade had shown that military strength alone was not enough to protect the Plazith Rim. Worse still, extremist followers of the Xhodocto were calling for a Second Coming, and the DCP believed the the Grox and Vartekians were preparing for the next challenge to the Gigaquadrant. To end the dark decade, the DCP initiated some institution-building of their own (after being advised by the last Milky Way Precursors who left during the Girdo Campaign). Meeting with the new Plazithian states as well as the Seven Starr Alliance, the DCP proposed the creation of the Milky Way Cooperative, a decentralised organisation with the purpose of building common goals and defences between member states, inspired by the philosophy of Order but without an authoritarian hierarchy. The Cooperative quickly set about building their own facilities and megastructures, using the recently ceded territories of the Core Federation as a base. The Cooperative was megastructural like the DCP, making use of AI systems and researching hyperspatial technologies (one invention became the quantum replicator). The Cooperative sought the galaxy for truly alien life forms under direction of the Girdo, in order to learn ways of communication and to protect them. The SSA also constructed Station Halcyon as a symbol of unity. The rise of the Technoospheric Lords took the Plazithians by surprise. Some say the AIs of the expanding Cooperative enticed the Lords to wake up. Some say the emergence of Lords were a product of the Precursors before their exodus. Some point to competition with entities like themselves (1, 2). What is more likely is that the speed of the new high energy galactic civilisations necessitated their wakefulness, for The Lords may have been waiting for the universe to reach an optimal temperature for efficient thinking. The Lords of the Technoosphere were prehistoric megascale intelligences, who made use of quantum-computronium (with degenerate matter switches and wormholes for computing beyond classical limits) and even the stars themselves to power their complex thoughts. Most the lords were self-referential; their knowledge and experiences being inaccessible to observers, and some of these proved to be dangerous. Others chose to interact with the Cooperative, helping to refine the control of hypermatter and explore the galaxy. Life in the Cooperative was starting to look attractive to citizens across the galaxy eager for better, less-harassed life and high adventure. Some of the Technoosphere offered exploration of mind as well as physical space (in order to fulfil their own exotic goals). With its own acquired territories and migration wave, the Cooperative took on a new name: "The Civilisation". The DCP were cautious of the Technoosphere, but ultimately came to trust the beneficial intelligences after they (and the Vyro'Narza) subdued the Nanohorde's last incarnation. The prosperity of the Civilisation and emergence of the Technoosphere was the envy of the Vartekians and a concern for the Grox Meta-Emperor, who was mobilising the Grox Empire. After a skirmish between the Vartekian Chimeraumbra and Delphan Caphoberok Superdreadnoughts (tasked with taking out a Vartekian superweapon threatening the Cooperative), the DCP ended up embroiled in the Vartekian wars, where the Delphans would clash with a version of themselves from a parallel universe, as well as the return of Eclipsos and the Trucinex; all fiendish plots by the Vartekians to undermine Delphan supremacy. They failed, and the DCP signed an armstice with the Magellanic Sovereignty after they swapped sides. The DCP would end up in simultaneous conflicts such as the Great Cyrannus War, Inog sieges and the Second War of Black Fog. The hyperspatial revolution, the squabbling empires, a galaxy full of life, the emergence of the Cooperative. It was as if the Gigaquadrant had forgotten the War of Ages, the nightmare obscured by the illusion of mortals standing up to gods and defeating them - an illusion the DCP believed. They were wrong, this time the Plazith Rim would become a target of the Corruptus legions serving Shu'rimrodir, god of the nightmare energy during the Second War of Black Fog. First came the Dark Five, a group of Corrupted superbeings who attacked major centres of civilisation. The Milky Way was attacked be a vegetated mass called Laidar, but the DCP defeated it by setting a black hole as a trap. The next waves included the Loron'Kikra (corrupted Loron) and Marinoxidiz invasions of the Ottzello and Plazith galaxies, causing the deaths of billions. Together with the Spinker, Kicath, Dracognarious, Draconis and others, the DCP fought a costly war to drive them back, along with other demons. But the Corruptus were growing stronger once Shu'rimrodir was free'd from his prison, forcing the allies to fight the god in his own realm using dream energy weapons they had acquired. During this period, the DCP became extremely paranoid of the Second Coming, taking little excuse to attack worlds or organisations believed to be affiliated with the Corruptus or Dominion of Xhodocto. Controversially this included Delphan participation in the Asgord Genocide (which also saw the DCP massacre the native Kraw and Grox). The Asgord were a strange society that sought to "pet" the Dominion and be friends (not for any nefarious purpose), making them a target of the DCP. But it was too little, too late. Nothing could prepare the Delpha Coalition of Planets for the Annihilation, when the Xhodocto unleashed a scourge of chaotic energies across the universe. The Essentials arrived in great arcs to rescue as much homeworlds, sectors and galaxies as possible, but only just as a wall of chaotic energy slammed through the Gigaquadrant faster than light, closing off most of the universe behind a terrific rift and leaving only three clusters of galaxies. However the scourge continued to press on, as great walls of fire that left worlds stripped of life. As the scourge approached the Plazithian arcs, the Delpha Coalition of Planets committed their entire fleet to a sacrificial charge. Friend and foe alike watched as the DCP's defiant volleys disappeared in the approaching fog, slowing it just enough for the Plazithian arcs to escape into another plane as their home universe died. When the arcs returned to the inhabitants to the universe, the entire DCP had disappeared and would be considered among the countless victims of the annihilation for two more years. No sooner had the expanding fog engulfed the Delphan fleet; the starships, megastructures and even entire planets found themselves scattered in an unfamiliar space. They would soon discover the region was finite and bounded in volume, consisting entirely of dwarf stars arranged into a cluster, lacking planets or any form of native life. The Vyro'Narza had transported the DCP to a basement universe created by the Technoospheric Lord Chirality, where they had become imprisoned. After two years of relative calm, Delphan physicists discovered alarming news that the boundary was shrinking, pressing stars into tighter orbits. Meanwhile in the devastated Gigaquadrant, Chirality's star lifting activities appeared to be increasing, prompting an investigation by the Apalos (the reformed Girdo), eventually discovering it had been housing a section of the old universe within a folded region of hyperspace. The region was becoming interfered with from a mysterious source in hyperspace. One of the leaders of the SSA, Commodore Helo Roslia (of the New Cyrannian Republic) felt a calling to launch an expedition of his own, and found a way to communicate with Chirality. Together they constructed an interface to transport the DCP from the miniature universe, using quantum-wormholes that linked it to the Gigaquadrant. Roslia had inadvertently created an escape hatch, and the DCP flooded out to the great surprise of Roslia and the Gigaquadrant as a whole. The DCP returned to their territory, which had since been settled by the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets. The rebel Delphans had been forced to flee a consortium of vengeful foes, using the Maelstrom to protect themselves while attempting to repair the damage done to the infrastructure of the coalition. In an unprecedented move, the DCP granted a pardon to Eclipsos and the MSP. Some other civilisations like the Wental and Empire of Halloway managed to settle on a few planets. The Empire of Halloway refused to leave and suffered the DCP's wrath. The DCP returned to a universe had been changed forever. Only a handful of galaxies remained, and the rest of the universe was shut off by impenetrable rifts. The universe faced a migrant crisis the likes of which had never been seen, and many worlds and sectors that had not been protected were gone, including the Ottzello galaxy (survivors flocked to Borealis). The Cyrandia cluster had miraculously survived, protected by ancient Oikoumene barriers, and the Great Cyrannus War had concluded with the replacement of the Republic with the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus. The Vartekians had become war weary, and joined the Cyrannian Empire to live in relative isolation. Old alliances like the SSA and Universal Trading Union were gradually waning in power, replaced by new organisations like the Mou'Cyran Accords and GITO. For the DCP, the formation of the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus was a means of progress, and they quickly set about building new ties, but weakening older ties with the Rambo Nation and New Cyrannian Republic. The Milky Way Cooperative and the DCP continued to work together, with the Milky Way engaged with restoration and the DCP preparing defences of the galaxy once more. The Grox Meta-Empire had also survived the Annihilation unscathed, and now presented a challenge to the Milky Way Cooperative and the Andromedan power blocks. This would begin phase two of the New Grox Wars, comprised of a series of struggles across the Gigaquadrant. The first skirmishes occurred between Apalos and the Grox, with the Apalos attempting to assimilate their technology. The Apalos conducted a mission to merge the Grox with their distant cousins the Grob (or Borg as known to humanity) to simplify the work. However, this resulted in strengthening the Meta-Empire and Apalos warned the Milky Way Cooperative of the merger. The Grox gained a more advanced group mind with access to Grob technologies, and the Grob could be renewed from all over the Empire. The Grox quickly sought assimilating new technology for their war, seeking precursor vaults and relics. They also raided worlds from states all over the Plazith Rim, specifically targeting those left poorly defended due to the Annihilation. The Grox even managed to assimilate a pair of Delphan ships on patrol and devised knowledge to navigate the Maelstrom in the Galactic Core-reach. Using drones, the DCP was just able to hold the Grox-Grob armada at bay while nearby colonies were evacuated. The armada had a goal of reaching system "9939", housing experimental technologies including the new Obsidian-class ship. Overwhelming the DCP defences and adapting to the DCP's ghost phase, the last remaining crew managed to board the Obsidian, using its new vorton-cannons to destroy the planet and fleet. The Obsidian sliced straight through the Grob cube, and then diced is to the molecular level using controlled hyperjumps to prevent it from reforming. After the battle of the core, the Grox turned their attention to the Milky Way Cooperative which was racing to collect relics before they could, and the DCP refrained from using their best technologies encase the Grox's assimilation overwhelmed their ingenuity. The Grox and Technoosphere engaged in a titanic Gigaquadrant stand-off using subspace compression waves and some of the Cooperative's dyson swarms were vapourised. Meanwhile in the Andromeda (Ardenta) galaxy, the Andromedan superpowers formed the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth to combat the Grox who had already devastated several powers like the Starmaster Alliance. The Grox had discovered the ancient Mechovirus, a nanoweapon that could assimilate citizens at distance via hyperspace. The DCP re-entered the Andromeda galaxy for the first time in almost half a century and helped the AGC seek an ancient cure for the Mechovirus on Nocturnia, eventually descending on a moon orbiting Cathemera to defeat the Andromedan Grox king. Although the Grox were sent running from Andromeda, the Grox had already turned the mechovirus on the Jovar in the Milky Way, forcing many to flock to the Cooperative for survival. Eventually the Apalos discovered the probably presence of the Grox Meta-Emperor, who turned out to be a black hole-computer being fed entire stars. The Grox were amassing resources for a vast invasion of the whole Gigaquadrant. The Jovar attempted a vengeful assault but were destroyed by neutron star-projectile. The Cooperative turned their attention to the Technoosphere that had been engaging the Meta-Emperor and hatched a plan to subsume it into the AI Netspace. The plan worked by tricking the Emperor to lower its impenetrable defences to a few Salsette and Apalos drones. When this happened, the Salsetthe targeted the Emperor's megastructural defences using weapons derived from ancient relics, causing uncontrolled flows of plasma to disorient the Emperor's thought processes. The DCP and a few other allied states then committed their fleets to assault the Grox stronghold while the Meta-Emperor remained pacified, and it eventually surrendered to the Technoosphere. The Grox Meta-Empire imploded into tribal warfare, splitting between loyalists who would join the Meta-Emperor in the Milky Way Cooperative, and the Grox fascists, who would continue to make failed attempts at re-assimilation. The New Grox Wars represented a new era of attrition warfare. Weapons like the hyperspatial missile and the subspace compression wave had rendered almost all defences useless, and this required the DCP to field superweapons and fleets of greater potency, with expectant casualties of their own mounting even for simple engagements. The best defence had become the best offence. As a result the DCP was hoarding resources and flexing its muscle much more than before, as apparent in the War of Hyperspace, which occurred not long after the New Grox Wars. The hyperspace war was a short campaign lead to disproportionately large deaths. It began with the discovery of stars in hyperspace, that were really stable vortices of hyperfog. The Undying Council dispatched Commander Norrikae to take control of the research, seeing the stars as a potential reserve of hypermatter. The Technoospheric Lord Exodium caught wind of the project and secretly enticed and manipulated Norrikae to consider the the stars as weapon. The detonation of a hypermatter star in realspace could unleash sector-wide subspace compression, and Norrikae was enticed to target a megastructure owned by the Dominion of Xhodocto, obliterating it. Exodium's ultimate goal was to reverse the entropy of the universe, but this first required stopping the universe's expansion, which Exodium planned to do by filling the universe with extra mass (hypermatter). But Exodium could only achieve this by eliminating competition, and sought to tempt a new war with hypermatter stars. Exodium manipulated a few emerging powers that it had predicted would become hyperpowers in the near future, these would be the cold The Junction (survivors of an older universe) and the ambitious Drakodominatus Tyranny who were experiencing meteoric expansion (yet managing to stay beneath the DCP's radar). Exodium had also contacted the Meta-Grox Fascists. Naturally, the competition between these powers rapidly deteriorated. The DCP underestimated the Drakodominatus, who were wise to wage an asymmetrical campaign against the Delphans using their smartest strategists, paying off with the capture of DCP technology. The Delphan tech would be integrated into their newest projects like the TIAMAT, eventually enabling the Tyranny to successfully capture the DCP's hyperspatial installation. The DCP's retaliation was slow, as they had been waging unsuccessful attacks on The Junction, although when the DCP did retaliate, they accidentally destroyed the infrastructure that controlled the Tyranny's slaves (leading to a later revolt with lasting repercussions). Eventually the combatants realised that the war had been a plot designed by Exodium, leading the Tyranny, Junction, DCP and Grox to settle for an uneasy truce. Exodium had planted its mainframe within hyperspace and was preparing to spam the universe with hypermatter, and the foes had to decide what to do. Exodium destroyed the fleet approaching it using a focused beam of hyperstar-light, but the "allies" survived by hiding behind the TIAMAT, and with the help of the AI Netspace managed to distract Exodium with corrupting data, allowing them to destroy the mainframe. Exodium retreated and Technoosphere sealed off access to all known hyperstar clusters. The Undying Council was entering a new level of paranoia due the War of Hyperspace and New Grox Wars, along with the previous threats to Order from technological and essential forces. The DCP was intervening more often in foreign affairs and flaunting its alliance with the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus. Although the DCP had become more obsessive, it was also becoming more blind; the Undying Council could not see that they were alienating the DCP from the new hyperpowers and their ways, even old friends. The Milky Way Cooperative now took responsibility for the civilisation-building and heroism the DCP used to do. And despite the increased vigilance, the DCP had failed to comprehend the danger that the Drakodominatus Tyranny presented...
 * Consolidating power
 * The dark decade
 * Hyperspatial revolution
 * Annihilation

If the Dominatus were the new players on the scene, there was no crowds or commentators watching them. In the four years following the hyperspace war, the Dominatus had: 1) squashed the slave revolt and replaced their workforce with biodrones, 2) crafted legions of supersoldiers using technologies and civilians abducted in secret as templates (the Overseers), 3) struck low-key projects with hyperpowers to advance their clandestine projects, 4) committed false flag operations to steal the AGC's resources in the Andromedan Deep Core using their Overseers, 5) a secret wormhole network-creation kit. The Dominatus were able to do this because they had crafted institutions that praised individual genius and accomplishment; decentralisation permitted smart and ambitious commanders to make fast decisions.  The Dominatus were extremely cunning, hiding their unsavoury tendencies to flatter those that did notice them. The Dominatus were also extremely lucky, as for whatever reasons the Dominatus were ignored by the ULE in their own galaxy (Mirus). The Delpha Coalition of Planets and other hyperpowers had their watchful eyes pointed at the activities of The Junction, Vermulans, Grox Fascists and Dominion of Xhodocto. These qualities as well as a heap of luck would allow the Dominatus in four years to go from becoming a backwater power to endangering the Gigaquadrant's greatest, allowing the Dominatus to go further than other mortal would-be conquerors of the Gigaquadrant had. By the time the Gigaquadrant decided to act, it was past the point for barely anything more than a pyrrhic victory. The Dominatus Wars would prove to be the second most devastating war the Delpha Coalition had faced, surpassed only by the War of Ages, and the third (relatively speaking) to the Grox Resistance centuries earlier. Ii is a fact that since then, no enemy had pressed so far and so bluntly through the Delphan's Home Reach, the Dominatus forcing their way through the Maelstrom unabated in Operation Deathstorm. But before the Deathstorm, the DCP had attempted to evict the Dominatus from Plazith after discovering the Dominatus had categories of ships that could threaten their own superdreadnoughts (Operation Eviction). However, the Dominatus had been preparing a war with the DCP for decades. Strategos Stahl (Supreme Commander of Tyranny Milky Way Forces) had both the single-minded goal of destroying Mirenton and had the means to attack the DCP at their heart, for this would be a matter of proving himself. The Delphan forces under Admiral Vorsite found themselves caught in a death trap, with unexpected Dominatus resistance reaping heavy losses on his ships. The DCP resorted to using superweapons and having some initial success, but the Dominatus were saving their best superweapons for a counter-offensive. Stahl routed Vorsite's fleet in the final month, decimating the invasion force. Operation Deathstorm immediately followed, when the Tyranny invaded one the DCP's most proudly fortified sectors next to Delpha: Horatorio. Stahl's gamble was to annihilate as many DCP forces as he could, establishing a wormhole network that allowed the full force of the Tyranny to attack the sector at its heart, simply using the momentum of the Tyranny's numbers to replace ships lost to spatial anomalies and drones that protected Delphan sectors. Although experiencing savage losses to the DCP's reinforcements, the Tyranny task force under command of Kantas Kessos pushed to the world of Horatorio and completely eliminated the DCP's heavy defences. With the DCP's status as a premier power hanging in the balance, and the Dominatus on course to Mirenton, Emperor Wormulus II mobilised the entire DCP to fight for Delpha, using his personal escort of Gargantuans and Obsidians. Delphan scientists were feverishly on the wormhole buster, a device that could create a matter destroying wall of energy within the invading node. Delayed by safety tests (to ensure it could not affect realspace), the DCP used it "fire in the hole" so to speak. The wormhole buster worked as intended and caused massive casualties to Stahl's invasion force. The DCP then attacked the Tyranny with the full might of their empire. Kessos' and Wormulus' personal forces finally clashed in a titanic space battle, where the DCP was able to grind the Tyranny's invasion to dust, but not without nearly resulting in the destruction of the Delphan palace ship and death of the Emperor. Stahl's remaining forces retreated, many being outpaced by the DCP. The DCP's unbreakable spirit was what saw them through their darkest hour, rallying their strategists, technologists and massive industry. But the Dominatus were not spent yet, for Operation Deathstorm represented one front of many fought across Plazith, Andromeda and Mirus. Together with their allies, the DCP expunged the Tyranny from the Milky Way like a tightening noose. There would soon be news that the Andromedan Commonwealth had destroyed 80% of the Andromedan invasion force and the two galaxies united to form the Anti-Dominatus Coalition (ADC). The DCP and Draconid Imperium lead the invasion of Mirus (the Tyranny's home galaxy), which began as a slow and steady campaign leading up to the First and Second Battles of Manticore, where the Dominatus lost their hypergate. In response, the Dominatus unleashed a cataclysmic counter-attack with three Abaddon-class hyper-dreadnoughts leading the charge to destroy the hypergate and crush the ADC then and there. Losing entire battlegroups to destroy a single Abaddon, the ADC's fate looked hopeless. Fortunately for the ADC, the ULE took their last remaining chance to attack the Dominatus, throwing the Tyranny's counter-attack into disarray. Defeated, the Tyranny returned to their home systems to fortify them from the ADC's wrath. The final battle of the Dominatus War would be the Battle of Demogorgon Prime. The planet had been fortified with an impregnable shield and huge fortresses that now represented the Tyranny's greatest engineering, appearing almost magical to the allied troops. The ADC were forced to land armies on the planet to take the fortress, using specialist strike teams to take out the surface fortifications, and were dealt monstrous casualties. Many heroes were lost in these strikes, and Warlord Kilnok was nearly killed in the act of taking a fortress and fighting a Dominatus 1 on 1. In orbit, the Tyranny unleashed their last hope: the TIAMAT, using an unknown weapon that could make ADC ships vanish one by one. However, the TIAMAT had been a rushed project and the weapon become increasingly dysfunctional, eventually allowing the ADC to defeat it. The shields around the planet dropped and reinforcements shattered the Tyranny's last offensive. As a demonstration of his wrath, Wormulus landed his palace ship on the Tyranny's army, causing mountains to collapse and a significant amount of armour to be crushed. Along with many other allied offensives, new Delphan artillery platforms pounded the Tyranny's last fortresses and monsters. When the allies reached sight of the Dominatus capital, Stahl surrendered to the ADC in a last gamble for survival, and act which forced him to turn on his own armies. The Archon would be forced to face a trial for the Tyranny's crimes. The DCP proposed punishing the Dominatus by removing their ability to control their bodies, for what free will meant for them was to take what they could and inflict as much suffering as they could. But the Gigaquadrant voted on their extinction, for the purposeful suffering they had inflicted caused an unquenchable sea of angry voices (which had been numbed by the war). Out of the Anti-Dominatus Coalition, the DCP had suffered 65% of the casualties, many of which were inflicted in Operation Deathstorm. The Tyranny invasion killed or injured a quadrillion civilians, and 100 trillion were lost fighting the Dominatus. The supposedly impregnable Horatorio had been ruined, the sector reduced to a scar of spatial anomalies and smashed worlds caused by both the DCP's and Tyranny's hyperspatial superweapons (now Sector Ossuarium). Many heroes from soldier to knight, to Warlord had been killed. But the DCP did more than just dig in and hang on, the Dominatus War more than any other unleashed their best and worst: the sacrifice of life for the machine of war, and this not only saved them but their pride.

Pride or not, the DCP that emerged victorious was not the same DCP that had committed to Operation Eviction. Many moderate voices in the Delphan Command had died, and many survivors had been radicalised. The already paranoid Undying Council sought new measures to militarise and step up the DCP's influence. But as the DCP's grip tightened, the DCP would make increasingly brazen and short-sighted moves that put a strain on the DCP's greatest alliances. For the DCP leadership this was not unjustified, for they felt the Gigaquadrant was ungrateful for their sacrifices and even oppositional to Order. The Undying Council would believe the Draconid Imperium was scheming against them...

"So? Should I have joined the Delpha Coalition of Planets? They who would curse a species to eternal slavery for the actions of their ancestors? Every day their empire crumbles further, and every day I am more proud.""
 * The Xonexi Schism

- (The Halcyon Scheme), height of the schism.

The years that followed the Dominatus war would see a rapid deterioration of alliances in a decade known as the Gigaquadrantic Conflicts, a rapid escalation of tensions and mistrust amongst the status quo and the newly emerging superpowers, like the Orion League with France at the helm. The DCP would continue to assert their political dominance in response to the turbulence, believing there to be an invisible actor curating events like the mysterious destruction of Halcyon B. The identity of supposed actor changed swiftly as the Plazith Rim became beset by a number of local wars, including the Neraida Crisis and Vermulan Invasion, which would again see a Delphan sector come under brutal invasion. After those wars had concluded, the DCP turned their attention to their new economic rival: Terran-humanity and their supporting superpowers, the Draconid Imperium and Tybusen Intergalactic Allied Federation, both former allies of the DCP. After a series of flashpoints, they became the first three of the Xonexi Allies. Close to the end of the decade, most of the Gigaquadrant managed to stabilise; with the Cyrandia cluster creating the Mou'Cyran Accords. The intentions of the Accords were misinterpreted by the Xonexi Allies due to their proximity to the DCP's sphere of influence, however Mou-Cyran's stance was to remain neutral, closing any direct support to the DCP. The Galactic Empire of Cyrannus remained silent on the Xonexian turbulence, its leader watching smugly from afar. During this time the Indoctrinate Collective (lead by the Dracogonarious) left the galaxy in Project Exodus with the help of the DCP and other powers. Alienated, the DCP sought puppets of their own, turning to the Milky Way Cooperative they had once cradled; and the various non-Terran human states (Kindred Coalition) who mistrusted the Terran hegemony.

Despite superficially gaining victories during the Gigaquadrant conflicts, the DCP would abuse their power like never before, with their imperial stranglehold for leading to chaotic consequences. The DCP had attempted to control time in the Mass Armageddon, ending in a lost temporal expedition. The DCP-Vermulan war was triggered by the DCP blaming them for the Dromanji apparitions that haunted government officials, leading to a devastating 3 year war that lead to the unleashing of the Mantisorac Swarm and Bloodletters on the galaxy. In the Cyrannus galaxy, the DCP was fighting the Bisistar with the New Cyrannian Republic. It would be a series of flashpoints that put the DCP at odds with the Xonexi Allies, some of the most serious being blatant acts of aggression that violated their sovereignty. The Xonexi Allies opposed the DCP's status quo, and the DCP perceived the Xonexi Allies as revolutionaries who were controlled by the Draconid Imperium, whom the DCP had long-held suspect as secretly in opposition. The most serious of the flashpoints was the French Quadrantia Trade Route Crisis, when the DCP refused to pay a toll along a French colonial hyperlane claiming they had used it for longer, resulting a clash that destroyed 29 French vessels. The Draconid Imperium had discovered a Delphan intelligence programme the Andromeda galaxy, where the DCP used nanotechnology to record the thoughts of their client states. And in the Scramble for Mirus, the DCP rushed to acquire Manticore, Demagorgon Prime and other ex-Dominatus assets to compete with the Xonexi Triad.

Post-Schism era

 * Age of reflection

Quotes
Feel free to add quotes from your fiction.

"While laws and regulations are put in place to maintain order, they always have flaws. When these flaws come from entropy itself, perhaps the only option is to stop any source of chaos. For the Delpha Coalition of planets, entropy stems from the nature of all living things, and the only way to stop entropy is to stop unpredictability and stem all free will. Fearful, powerful, and ruthless, they declare war on all who might cause chaos. All that can be said is that order will one day come, for they are always victorious."

- Unknown (Monet)

"eles são grandes e fortes. infelizmente eles não usam armas que não prejudicam o ecossistema, porem eles vão ser grandes aliados para nós. pelo fato do nosso povo não ser bom em batalha, e ser dependente de aliados para se proteger, eles são uma boa escolha. nós ainda estamos tentando se aliar, e quando serem nossos aliados, vamos recompensar emterraformar todas as colonias deles até T3 de grassa. eu admiro eles, e tenho medo deles ao mesmo tempo... o sábio davind]] e o império mandragora |undefined"

"The all powerful DCP and self proclaimed guardians and watchers over the Universe. They are one of the greatest civilizations I ever met, with such incredible powers and knowledge about the Universe. It is a surprise they didn't wipe out the Imperial Alliance during the Second Galactic War. Even I respect and fear the DCP her wrath!"

- Morgandaûr

"One of our greatest and strongest allies. If it wasn't for them the Rambo would have been wiped out from the Universe during the Tigris War. We are forever in their debt and hope one day to aid them as they did us."

- Empress Ramashe of Rambo Nation

"A truly great civilization, one that has helped shape the current political climate of the First Gigaquadrant. The Universe was much safer with them, then without."

- President Apollo

"I HATE DA DCP DEY IS SO GEEKY AN STOOPID I BET NO ONE RELLY LIKES DEM I SWER I WANNA CRUSH DEM ALL DEYZ PROPA WEEK"

"The Delpha Coalition. Far as mortals go, they are among, if not the, greatest."

"The Delpha Coalition is certainly one of the greatest civilizations in this universe. We respect them greatly, and we have several similarities to them as well. We admire their military and technology, and besides the Loron, our members have all been on good terms with them prior to the current Unified Nation."

- of the

"Perhaps the one civilization my people can always claim to be in awe of. The Delpha Coalition is the closest ally and friend of the Indoctrinate Collective at Plazith Rim, and we trust them to take care of the mother galaxy as they have always done."

"The Milky way shall be under Grox Control again,This is WAR!"

- Grox Followers

"A truly amazing ally of the CIF,one that has a large amount of system,and advanced technology,this is one coalition that will be aided until this coalition initiates betrayal"

- Emperor Donald of the CIF

"You crave order. You crave war. Join us and be satisfied by both."

- Legion of the Deathmarch

"Proves what My Grand father said all-along. Great people do evil things, and get away with it because their great. We will respect them, but I'd keep my gaurd up around them."

- Barda Clett of the Ugandalorian Knights.

"Law. Order. Unity. The cornerstones of both our culture, and theirs."

"Our people have a special relationship with the Delpha Coalition of Planets. I was honoured to serve alongside them and I hope to do so again!"

"Shakespeare always had a particular gift with words. In one of his tragedies, Macbeth looks upon one of his adversaries and thinks to himself, 'That is a step on which I must fall down or else overleap, for in my way it lies.' That is exactly what I think whenever the letters, "D-C-P," cross my desk. They often come in the form of an act of disrespect here, blatant defiance there, and a general atmosphere of snot-nosed superiority: they have no regard for beings they consider lesser than them. But this--this insanity in the Quadrants is the last straw. Give me time, and I will make them regret their hubris."

"Say what you will about the Coalition's history of conquest, as our veterans who fought tooth and nail against the Xhodocto during the War of Ages will tell you, the DCP saved the galaxy. Perhaps even the entire Gigaquadrant. All would be lost if they had selfishly served themselves, rather, they took it upon themselves to protect the galaxy as a collective whole, to make it a better place, and indeed with the invention of the Cooperative they succeeded. They have the friendship, the support and most importantly, the gratitude of the Intergalactic Human Republic."

"Their military prowess and keen stance on order is something to be respected, of course. The Cyrannian Empire aims to pursue the peaceful relations our civilisation has enjoyed with the DCP since the Trucinex War."

"Yes, they govern some of the universe's most primordial forces with their technology. Yes, they have a massive industry that gorges itself on the Milky Way and produces massive armadas. However, they are most notable for the lengths they are willing to go to for victory. They would eat their own children, burn their own guts, raze their own planets, and eradicate generations of their own in order to hold the line. There is no cost that they are not willing to pay save for the cost of failure."

- Archon of the

"Persons reading this report must recall that the KSRO's evaluations are not wholesale examinations and moral evaluations of an empire, but rather, documentation purely of the gravity and severity of their flaws. Regardless of the enormous benefit they have been to the universe, regardless of the fact that there might not even be a universe but for their intervention, we must assign them a 0/5. Their positive qualities are irrelevant in the context of this report, and, indeed, to our organization. No Empire which hunts sapient beings for sport, tortures the descendants of its enemies for their own amusement, which suppresses thought, dissent and freedom on a massive scale, and which dedicates itself to the preservation of its ideology over and above its inhabitants can ever be in the KSRO's good graces."

- KSRO sapient rights and welfare evaluation.

"Delpha Coalition strong, yes? Raiding Delphans is a foolish idea, too strong for Saviki fleets. Too many members to trick; we will keep a respectful distance. For now."

-, Ship Captain, Storm Combine.

"Khavus sur bhainsus ahkva nor, ikhesan bhainsus, - yur Delpha Coalition of Planets yur...herus sharanavae ajinum kharbrur. Yur DCP, qurbrum jalikum rus sistanum, ahinjasum ahkva khavus namaesta oiron. Akhen DCP alurunum gerahnae jalaikae - iskasus uhna norus bahrain elria...usis nar."

- Vhamlas Naralhi, Dynast of the Dynastic Systems of Sal’ir

"I would compare them to our enemies. Cruel, militaristic... But somehow, people like these fiends? Security and order means nothing, if you have no will to enjoy it."