Fiction:DCP-Vermulan War/Year One

Side Stories

 * Partisan - An account of the resistance movement on Simnadsiat.

Prologue
Right across the board of governmental officials and security in the Delpha Coalition of Planets, the happenings began. Reports of terrifying abominations of paranormality, not unlike manifestations of essence were first categorised by researchers as being first witnessed in dreams. But the haunting's began to invade consensus reality more and more. The first suspected culprit was of course the forces of darkness that the DCP was currently fighting. A large naval fleet had been dispatched to several decades previous, however, such an explanation was refuted by the fact that the fleet remained unaffected by the haunts. Perhaps it was yet another destructive AI or memetic illness, perhaps spawned by the many mind controlling programs of the DCP... However no links were found. The happenings were getting worse every standard day, many governors were in fact spending more time off work to research their illnesses. There were even suicides. Then Emperor Wormulus himself, in all his essence-infused grandeur succumbed to the new evil. The DCP put it's trust into AI's and automated mainframes to secure order to the populace who were strangely unaffected. But then the automata too, failed.

Armies of ghosts, visible only to those in command - marched through the spaceships, cities and grand halls of the Coalition. And they demanded retribution, claiming to be ghosts of the Dromanji, a species the DCP extincted six decades before their haunting's. They asked that the DCP send their finest and most beloved warrior, quite possibly to his death in order to complete several trials that would change the DCP's moral future. Should he fail, the DCP would surely fall to oblivion.

But this was decisively late, the Delpha Coalition of Planets had been mistaken into blaming the Vermulans, a mysterious race of near-humans who had come from the far future. All encounters had been violent, often with the DCP on the losing side. The ghosts appeared as soon as the unstoppable war began. With it's finest chasing the Congregation into the past and fighting the Drakodominatus Tyranny, and it's internal defenses crippled... The DCP turned to their smaller cousin, the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets and dispatched the newly appointed Warlord Lunarai Khan to take the place of Kilnok while on his trials. From afar, Eclipsos, still leader of the MSP watched with interest.

Regards
The Vermulan High Command received word on the DCP's declaration of war on the Autonomy fairly quickly, through the use of servitor agents planted within the DCP and its allies. The Vermulans did not consider the DCP to be an equal power. Quite the contrary, they believed that all that would be needed to conclude this conflict was to slap the Coalition on the wrist. A group of three Vermulan vessels were dispatched to destroy Industrial Station y-247F-Docron Sector, a large shipyard important to the DCP. It produced, housed and preformed maintained for most DCP vessels in the Docron Sector, and its destruction would cripple DCP operations in the sector for a reasonable amount of time, especially if a large proportion of ships were docked at Industrial Station y-247F-Docron Sector at the time of its destruction.

There was a great risk of attacking the station while most the of the DCP's Docron Fleet was stationed there. There was indeed the possibility that they would be able to fight off the Vermulan ships and the offense would be a failure. The Vermulan High Command considered the risk, but decided out of arrogance that superior Vermulan technology would prevail over the DCP's vessels. Industrial Station y-247F-Docron Sector was very busy on this particular day. A new modification for DCP ships, an engine improvement, had been approved by the DCP military and all ships were mandated to be refitted with improved engines, especially since war with the Vermulans was inevitable. Most of Docron Fleet was at the station receiving the improvement, when three pink flashes heralded the arrival of three Vermulan ships.

Those DCP vessels not docked fired their weapons at the Vermulan craft, and one's shields fell, and then was engulfed by flame as the Coalition ships dug their weapons into it. The other two Vermulan ships returned fire, sinking several of the DCP's vessels. The lead Vermulan ship fired a thin, deep blue beam over the the shipyard. While seemingly harmless, this beam was in fact launching a single strangelet at the station. While the lead Vermulan ship was doing this, a second ship fell the DCP fire. The lead ship vanished in another flash of pink light.

Before the commanders and crews of the DCP could fully absorb what just happened, the strangelet began to react with the station. As the stangelet hit a single atom, that atom was converted into another strangelet, then all atoms in contact with the newly formed strangelet themselves were converted. As the DCP realised what was happening, the crews of every ship and the station fled onto their docked ships and tried to take off, and many others fled via escape pod. Within a matter of minutes, the station was totally assimilated into a black mass of strange matter. Many ships and crewmen were lost before they could take off.

A good third of Docron fleet had been lost, and the rest now had to use lower quality spaceports for repairs, and each of these lower quality station could not support the amount of ships Industrial Station y-247F-Docron Sector did. With the fleet more spread out, Vermulan ships would have greater range within the Docron Sector. Although the defeat at Docron had lowered the DCP's morale, the Vermulan's intention to discourage the DCP from waging war had not succeeded. The DCP was filled with rage over this attack, and this was now fueling a great thirst for revenge.

Information required
The ghosts laughed and jeered, as the commanders of the Docron Sector tried to plan their next move. Trying to stay in control despite being harassed by beings they could not touch, they discussed the primary concern, that the Vermulans were capable of penetrating the maelstrom, a defensive interstellar barrier of subspace anomalies designed to interfere with warp and hyperdrive technology. Only a few known civilisations could penetrate it: the Grox, Apalos, Junction and the Precursors, all on par or greater than the DCP technologically. Obviously, this was a great problem.

On the other hand, two of the Vermulan ships had been destroyed, though it was unknown whether these were merely scouts or meant to raise false hopes. So the DCP turned to the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets, who had been attacked by the Vermulans already for any information they could gleam.

Lunarai Khan stepped out of his personalised warship onto MSP soil. It was obviously an agri-world, of which Lunarai Khan only knew from fairy tales. He leaned down to pick up the earth with his fingers, machines oozed through. The worlds of the Magellanic Cloud were highly infertile, and required constant treatment to enrich the artificial soils. The MSP wasn't nearly as advanced as the DCP, except for what was stolen and incorporated into their ships. A rich, well cultured but relaxed voice spoke from behind. "I believe by the obvious amount of argumentation, that you are Lunarai Khan, Warlord of the Delpha Coalition of Planets. You command the greatest military might in the Gigaquadrant.  You are physically enhanced with a personal hyperdrive that could permit you four dimensional maneuvers and FTL foresight, and your primary weapon uses hyperspace as well.  You are a living embodiment of the hyperspatial revolution, making you a strategic genius, and know enough combat practice to slay millions...  Of innocents." Lunarai clearly did not like who was speaking to him. It was his older brother Eclipsos, of whom he had never met. The man who had betrayed his father by almost killing him, and wounding Kilnok in the process. The man who also slept as a parasite in Kilnok's brain, in order to survive. "Our people are no longer enemies." "Maybe, but let us reserve our opinions for now, young man, and look at the situation at hand. We are in fact...Related".

Lunarai was lead to a military installation underground, he was surprised by the lack of security. There were indeed guards and scanners, but nothing else. Maybe the MSP's military might was it's fleet, but Lunarai sensed that perhaps the MSP was less paranoid of internal rebellion, after-all, they were anarchists in his eyes. Suddenly, Lunurai was somewhere-else, hovering above a planet with crater-filled oceans. He knew what this was almost immediately, an experience of a recorded battle from when the Vermulans attacked the MSP years before. Beneath him, a huge ship, like a shelled nut, Expirator-class suddenly appeared moving from behind his field of view, firing it's photonic-upgraded superlasers at a much smaller starship ahead, rimmed with pink. The opposing vessel fired back, a blob of luminescent matter that engulfed Expirator, making the huge vessel vanish in a flash of ionized electrons and gamma-ray radiation, which was sinking to the planet. A second Expirator appeared on the scene, landing shots onto another Vermulan craft, destroying it. The first Vermulan saucer in view however, used a tractor-like beam that sent the second MSP ship careening into the mass of strange matter. Lunarai looked down, to see the planet was being consumed too. Eclipsos spoke, "And not long after that, the MSP fell. We retreated to the graveyard of the Delpha Coalition of Planets while you were gone." "And the Vermulans didn't follow?" asked Lunarai Khan. "They were not capable of bypassing the DCP's Maelstrom, then." "What does this tell us?" But Lunarai didn't need to spell it out, Eclipsos was obviously impressed, "The Vermulans must have been plotting an invasion of the DCP for a long time. They have been studying your defenses. "Now it is time for us to study them! This recording shows one ship was destroyed by a seemingly spontaneous shield failure. Two small craft were destroyed in the last encounter, unfortunately, the recording in either case were too poor. I was hoping for better here." Eclipsos concluded, "The outcome of battle is hard to predict, even for the Vermulans. I suggest the DCP makes an emphasis on this during the next attack."

Operator
Since the routing of Docron Fleet, the Vermulans had largely free reign in the Docron Sector, however the DCP's remnant forces still put up resistance. The main body of the DCP was sending in reinforcements, but the Vermulans were able to anticipate and intercept much of the incoming Coalition forces. Fortunately for the Docron remnants, a fair amount of reinforcements survived and were able to link up with the Docron holdouts. The Vermulans knew a greater force was needed within Docron sector to crush the DCP, but they were unwilling to bring in many more of their own ships, as they were concerned about the prospect of the DCP capturing and studying one of them.

The Vermulans needed their servitors to aid in the invasion of the Delpha Coalition of Planets, but while the maelstrom field remaining functional only one Vermulan servitor race was able to enter, and the Vermulans did not like them operating without other, more loyal servitors to supervise them. If the Vermulans were to bring Docron sector fully under their control and continue their invasion of the DCP without partisan groups getting in the way, the Maelstrom field would have to be brought down.

The vastly complex Maelstrom system was generated within powerful battlestations which would pose a great challenge for the Vermulans to take down. In addition to the already formidable station defences, the Vermulan High Command wished to have the Maelstrom generator intact, and so the battlestation would have to be captured, not destroyed. Fortunately for the Vermulan field commanders, Servitor agents had given the Vermulans a fairly detailed schematic of the battlestation, and the High Command only wanted the generator itself intact, not the accessories.

The Vermulans gathered a fleet of ten ships for this mission. Their arrival at the battlestation was announced by ten bright pink flashes. Almost immediately the battlestation's defences fired ultra-relativistic neutronium arrows out at the Vermulan ships. Three saucers were speared by the arrows and were destroyed, while the rest managed to avoid to intercept the projectiles. The Vermulans let loose a great bombardment of solitonic warheads, which ravaged the surface of the spherical battlestation. The entire surface of the hemisphere facing the Vermulans was ravaged, with no defensive weaponry left, and most of the crew within the upper sections dead, but the battle was not over.

The battlestation began to turn, and the undamaged weapons began to fire at the Vermulans. Another ship was lost, and two more were assigned to deal with the battlestation's weapons as it rotated. The remaining four Vermulan ships began to unload their compliment of troops onto the station. Unfortunately the battlestation's crew had anticipated this and had deployed their full security force into patrols across the station. Many of the first Vermulans to beam in were killed as soon as they materialised, and most of the surviving squads were contained by the DCP security.

The Vermulans began beaming their troops within ventilations shafts and maintenance conduits. This gained them the advantage of surprise, and they were able to overwhelm many security squads. Two Vermulan ships went into ghost phase, and entered the battlestation until they found a sizable cavity deep within it, and phased back into normal space, where they began beaming even more troops into the station, where the security forces were less plentiful, and where the vital systems where located.

After a short while, the Vermulans captured the core of the AI management system, where they turned the automated security against the living security. Within another half hour, the station belonged to the Vermulans. The Maelstrom system in Docron Sector was shut down. The Vermulan commander reported this to the High Command immediately, and the High Command in turn sent word to their Servitors that they time had come for their invasion of the Delpha Coalition of Planets.

Deluge
Only a few hours after the Maelstrom field fell, the forces of the Imperial Ottoman Directorate and the Grox Sienna Movement moved in to aid their Vermulan masters to conquer the DCP. While the Vermulans themselves were planning for the attack on the next sector of DCP space, Lebasi Sector, the Ottomans and Void Grox were to invade all the DCP worlds within Docron Sector.

Lead by a Vermulan Command Ship (the Servitors were not trusted with such important operations entirely on their own) the fleet was prepared for an invasion of the largest political centre of the sector: Simnadsiat. The Vermulan strategists calculated that the defeat of Simnadsiat would lead to drastically reduced morale of the remaining DCP forces in Docron Sector, and capturing Simnadsiat would put the most efficient of the DCP's remaining drydocks and factories in the sector under Vermulan control.

Very few DCP ships were in orbit around Simnadsiat. Previously, the Vermulans made very few attacks on planetary bodies, so most of the remaining Docron Fleet and what few reinforcements that had manage to escape the Vermulans were concentrated on protecting deep space facilities and making surprise attacks on lone Saucers. The only DCP forces in orbit around Simnadsiat were a few Blade-class and Monitor-class cruisers. However, the Vermulans knew that the DCP would have much more defences than that.

Over a hundred Ottoman ships and about twenty Grox motherships dropped out of subspace within a safe distance from the planet. A bright pink flash in the centre of the fleet heralded the arrival of the Vermulan Command Ship: an extravagantly larger variant of the standard Vermulan saucer, with an ever so slightly more spheroid shape. The DCP ships moved into defensive positions, and a brief stand off ensured. The Vermulan commander quickly realised that the DCP was using this time to call for help, and so the battle began, the opening shots being fired by Command Ship itself. The soliton beam completely removed a Monitor-class Star Destroyer from the realms of explicit existence. The DCP ships returned fire immediately. Had the opposing forces been numerically equal, the DCP would have easily won the battle, but the overwhelming number of Ottoman ships meant the chances of the DCP victory were decidedly low. The presence of the Vermulan Command Ship was also not improving the situation. The DCP ships fired as many of there weapons off as they could at once, hoping to take down as many of the enemy as they could before their own destruction.

Superlasers, subatomic disruptors, turbolasers, railguns, missiles, singularities, ion cannons and antimatter warheads all flew across the black backdrop of space toward the Vermulan/Servitor Fleet. A great many Ottoman ships were destroyed by the torrent, and the shields of the Grox Motherships and even the Vermulan Command Ship were put to the test. The Vermulan/Servitor fleet reliated immediately. A corresponding torrent of antiprotons, tricobalt warheads, ion cannons and a soliton beam were fired directly back at the DCP ships. While DCP deflector shields were renowned throughout the Gigaquadrant as being amazingly resilient, even they could not put up with such firepower. All the remaining ships were reduced to imperceptible mists of dubious existence.

The battle was far from over, however. As predicted, the DCP had managed to get a distress call, which was answered by a Star-class dreadnaught and a few more Monitor-class star destroyers entered the fray and immediately fired their weapons at the Vermulan/Servitor fleet, eliminated many more Ottoman frigates. A squadron of Ottoman battleships and a Grox Mothership broke off from the main group and engaged the newcomers. While this was happening, the main group was besieged by the sudden arrival of three uberturrets which were until moments ago patrolling the planet's thermosphere. The uberturrets were, while having fairly weak armour, extremely agile drones with weapons of devastating power. A single uberturrets was destroyed by the spray of antiproton pulses from the Ottoman ships, while the other two flew right into the midst of the Vermulan/Servitor fleet, where they disabled many ships with their high powers ion cannons. A second uberturret was destroyed by the Vermulan Command Ship with its high power soliton beam, however instead of hitting the uberturret it engulfed it, and continued going until it hit and destroyed a Grox mothership. By this time, the DCP reinforcements had been dealt with, and the forces fighting then returned to the main group, although many of them, including the Grox Mothership leading them, had been lost.

The uberturrets were followed by a hail of torpedoes fired from the planet's surface. Many were destroyed by the spray of antiproton pulses, and more were intercepted by Ottoman fighters, but a great deal manage to wreak havoc amongst the fleet. As the same time, the final uberturret was dealt with by a singularity charge from the Command Ship and an antiproton pulse from an Ottoman frigate. The Vermulan Commander was tired of all these losses, and ordered that the fleet go in for the assault on Simnadsiat. As the fleet drew towards Simnadsiat, a great forcefield was thrown over the planet. Those ships caught within the forcefield found their engines suddenly non-operational, and they sank down towards the planet. A few ships dissected by the forcefield barrier caught a strange white flame and slowly joined the DCP ships as wisps of supposed existence. An automatic audio transmission was sent to every fleet trying to invade the planet.

"We will not give in."

The Vermulan Comman ship preformed a scan of the planet's surface, and located the shield generator. It sent this information to the other ships, and they concentrated all their energy weapons on that point. After a minute of heavy fire, the shield buckled, only a moment, to the flood of antiprotons, ions and solitons. In this moment, enough energy managed to pass through to destroy the shield generator. The fleet descended lower, into the exosphere, and began beaming down vast quantaties of Ottomans troops, Dronox and Vermulan fighting machines to suppress the ground forces. Had Simnadsiat been a heavily populated planet with many more cities, this invasion could have taken years. Luckily, Simnadsiat and Docron Sector as a whole was a fairly backwater place as far was the DCP went, and Simnadsiat only had five major cities and many more rural towns of little to no consequence. The invasion would be a victory in, at best a few days, at worst a few months.

Despite the inevitable victory, the Vermulan commander was not pleased. Far too many ships had been lost in a relatively simple invasion attempt. She wondered whether this was a result of poor performance by the Servitors and superior DCP defences. Regardless, a full analysis of the encountered resistance was going to be needed for future invasion attempts.

Meanwhile
Lunarai Khan had been suffering another bout of confusion. It seemed to be a bane of his life that he could only come to terms with by seeking a place to feel comfortable after. And so, he woke up in the middle of a patch of spreading grassland. The soft undergrowth shone with the pearly light of the Plazith Rim, this planet was an airless desert only years before, and so it seemed wherever life spread it coloured the universe. Lunarai Khan reflected on the similarities and differences of the Coalition and the Sovereignty. One of the things he had to get used to is that buildings were fixed to the ground. Yes, old architecture, at least chosen for their message, were preserved on homeworlds. But all modern cities were fluid, you might wake up somewhere-else, you might expect cities to move miles per day. None of this mattered of course because in the Coalition, work was always to be found somewhere. But here it seemed that the social structure was more organised, people here made long-lasting friendships.

Lunarai had his duty though. He had responsibility to help the Coalition, and data was already streaming in from the strange war now getting more serious in the Docron Sector. Humans were invading, humans, it was almost unthinkable! Lunarai had been taught that Humanity were an unpredictable lot. Unlike most species, they were diverse in culture, technological advancement, goals and even body structure, a trait some regard as good. This was partly due to their ancient history of being transplanted around the galaxy, and also, to the DCP's utmost dismay, their lack of an ability to agree with one another, worse, they were good at getting what they wanted. Two great political forces in the Plazith Rim at least, though mostly separated by thousands of light years, it is a wonder the DCP hadn't declared to bring order already. Two hundred years ago in fact, they did. Simnadsiat's defenses had been taken out by the Vermulans, Grox and the human faction. Lunarai studied the insignia and clothing on the human soldiers, fully armoured but with face masks and even hats, this was a sign they were members of the Imperial Ottoman Directorate, who based their style on a more ancient Terran empire. So Terran then. Lunarai felt insulted, the DCP through Plazith Rim Cooperative was even helping the Terrans unite Humanity peacefully. This very two sided nature was a mockery of DCP patience.

Lunarai found Eclipsos behind him, his presence felt like poison to Lunarai, with his prying questions and condescending attitude. But there was nowhere to go on this world, that had only been partially paraformed. But something about Eclipsos brought on these bouts of disorientation, that were almost like flashbacks. "Ah, you have reached the periphery. There is nothing beyond, I'm afraid" said Eclipsos. "My own augmentations mean that-" "Just lifeless and unrelenting wastes, no fun or freedom to be had" he replied. Changing conversation, Lunarai let out a rant. "The DCP's performance in this war is unbelievable. I know they are distracted by the ghosts, time anomalies, Milky Way Cooperative and Dominatus but this war is in our own house." "That is because the war rests upon you. Don't you think it is strange that you haven't been haunted by the Dromanji?  Don't you think it obvious that the war and so many other recent events are engineered?" Eclipsos said with a tone of wisdom. The two returned to the main hub of the colony and military installation, and once more, Lunarai sensed the warm and friendly atmosphere of MSP society. And Lunarai Khan liked it.

Impurity
The High Command decreed that new and more devastating weaponry was needed to fight a successful long term war with the Delpha Coalition of Planets. They selected a large contingent of scientists from across the Autonomy for this exact purpose, and stationed in a vast complex with all the equipment and resources needed to complete their assignment, and given a massive degree of independence on what kind of weaponry they develop.

y=x2+34 was running late. A system faliure, likely due to some experimental weapon gone wrong, she was locked within her dormitory. This, coupled with the immense inefficiency of the magnetic disk transit system (with all the experimental weaponry, teleporters had been deemed unsafe and removed from the facility) meant that she was running at least three and a half sectons late. Her partner, y=x5+67, was surely getting impatient by now. After her magnetic disk had spun her through the vast maze that was the research facility, it stopped at Sector C Test Labs, where y=x2+34 entered the sector and navigated another maze of corridors to find Laboratory 86, where y=x5+67 was waiting.

y=x5+67 raised an eyebrow at y=x2+34.

"I apologise for the delay. It could not be avoided." y=x2+34 explained. "I am aware of the power failure in the Level 3 Dormitories. Your inevitable delay was acknowledged." y=x5+67 replied. "Then why did you find it necessary to pull a inquisitive and displeased expression?" ''"I enjoy pulling inquisitive and displeased expressions." ''y=x5+67 smiled, and moved onto their business of the day. "Did you get permission from the High Command to pursue this endeavor of development?"

y=x2+34 lit a hologram of the High Command's written permission. y=x5+67 was pleased.

"Excellent. I had the most vital of our needed materials delivered earlier, procured from a planet on the fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy by the Servitor Grox." She opened a small container of Groxic origin, and pulled out a vial of grey fluid. "The Mechanovirus, which the Grox used to great effect in their final war. It was only to discovery of the cure from which it was defeated. Which brings us to your part. Have you gained what we needed to continue this development?" "Our the Servitor Ottoman spies within the DCP were unable to obtain the cure, however they did obtain the DCP's analysis of the cure's effect." y=x2+34 lit another hologram, showing the DCP's research into the matter. y=x5+67 read the document with great interest. "Excellent. We will be able to omit this part of our tests. So the cure worked by jamming the frequencies the nanobots used to communicate? The solution to that is simple." "We adjust the nanobots to constantly rotate frequencies." "Exactly."

y=x5+67 tapped a button on the laboratory bench. A device that utilises nanobots for the purpose of creating and altering other nanobots nanobots spun from across the room to right in front of her. She put the vial of the mechanovirus in a special slot in the device. y=x2+34 questioned her partner.

"How will the mechanovirus be delivered? Our improved strain will not have any pre-existing hosts to spread the infection." "This has been taken care of." y=x5+67 opened another container, of Vermulan origin this time, and removed from it a bizarre robotic creature from it, which resembled a mix between a crab and a centipede. "The mechanovirus will be carried and injected into victims with these devices. The device will then deactive and dismantle itself, after which the infected infects more victims by its own initiative." "And how will these devices be delivered?" "Rockets, with internal dampening systems to prevent damage. After the rocket hits the ground, it opens up and the device crawls out. The Ottoman Servitors have been given the plans for such devices. Should be easy enough for them." "Isn't there risk of the infected attacking our own forces?" "Yes, but we'll know where we've deployed them, we'll be expecting them and be able to contain them accordingly. The infected are no much for antiproton, ion or soliton weaponry." "But wouldn't that mean the DCP military will be able to deal with them with ease?" "The idea is that they be launched into areas with high civilian population, with no weaponry. By the time the DCP's armed forces tries to deal with the problem, the infected will beat them by sheer numbers alone. Furthermore, they're meant to distract the DCP from our forces, not beat them singlehandedly." "If they gain overwhelming numbers, won't that give them an advantage over our own troops?" "As I said: we'll know where we've deployed them, we'll be expecting them and be able to contain them accordingly. Any more concerns?" "No, I am satisfied. Let us get to work on the project."

The pair then went to work on the vial within the alteration device, y=x5+67 doing the work while y=x2+34 read to her the specifications of the mechnovirus design. Within little time, the mechanovirus would be adapted into a weapon for use by the Vermulans against the Delpha Coalition, as the Grox had a few years before but so unfortunately failed.

Last on the list
When Morag Jones received the message that a member of DCP royalty as majestic as Lunarai Khan was paying a visit within two hours to her husband Arnbjørn, the prime minister of the Fjord League, she could not help but feel a twist in her stomach. Her husband had only just gone to bed a few hours earlier, she knocked on the walnut door...

Lunarai Khan knew he had to put his reservations on-hold. The Delpha Coalition of Planets usually only addressed Humanity through unified alliances like federations, the UN or Milky Way Cooperative, it was unusual for a DCP representative to meet a particular Terran nation. He knew what he was in for, Terran societies were often individualistic and culturally excessive in identity.

His ship disengaged tachyon shift, and was now dipping over a terraformed world of lakes and mountains, called Dun in human tongue. Descending the atmosphere, he was could tell by the steep-sided valleys that here, like on the MSP world he had just escaped was an example of the fact soil was new, and the lack of clay sediments had yet to smooth them. Despite this, the Fjords were master terraformers, meaning they were highly scientific. Their conflict with the Ottomans also made them a worthy source of information. His ship passed over a sprawling city of both wooden houses and almost organic-looking towers, themselves towered by geothermal stations. Flags and symbols, advertisements even, lit up the sky, while below people and devices milled. He saw people look up, baseline and cyborg, some with fear or wonder in their eyes, and some people even taking their children indoors. This was a common site on any world in the Plazith Rim, the DCP was rightfully feared even by it's allies. Lunarai didn't like this however, and darkened his window.

Landing his ship on the platform, Lunarai Khan stepped out where he was met by several humans, most being Terran less than half his height, but a taller woman probably heralding from another world was with them. Other than a greeting, there were no more words to be exchanged as he was led to a tall, expressionist cathedral, from within echoes the sound of hymns. And there was the prime minister of the Fjord League, without visible body augmentation or boastfulness and pride, with brown hair and grey eyes, middle aged. He looked slightly overwhelmed, but none-the-less made a move to shake Lunarai's hand. Hours later, Lunarai was sitting in a public house drinking Fjord alcohol and eating a meal. His bodily augmentation would filter chemicals that were toxic or indigestible. "So what is it about the Ottomans that you need our help. Isn't DCP intelligence everywhere?" asked Arnbjørn. "Surprisingly, we have little data on the Ottomans, the Vermulans might have something to do with that" said Lunarai. "Perhaps, not so surprisingly" replied Arnbjørn. "The Vermulans might be under less guard concerning Humanity" stated Lunarai. "Our war with the Ottomans never truly ended. However, the consequences of a human war would be dire, especially in this age of unification" said Arnbjørn. "I promise, once the DCP knows where to strike, they will strike hard. But we are too distracted with other threats looming on the horizon to find the location of the Vermulans" replied Lunarai. "If the Ottomans and Vermulans establish a foothold in the heart of DCP space. We will be in trouble anyway.  You have our support" concluded Arnbjørn.

Exit
Due to the experience gained during the Invasion of Simnadsiat, the Invasion of Thalira, planetary capital of the DCP's Peladon sector, went exceptionally well. The planetary defenses were eliminated with minimum casualties amongst the Associate fleet. The landing on the planet commenced immediately after. While Peladon Sector was about as much backwater as Docron Sector, Thalira was a somewhat more industrialised planet than Simnadsiat, and so the ground invasion was going to take somewhat more effort.

The landings began with Ottoman figher-bombers dropping various bombs upon Thaliran cities. Political and military centres were hit with neutron bombs, major military bases, especially airbases, were hit with low yield nuclear weapons, and the newly supplied mechanovirus canisters were dropped in areas of high density population. Grox Infection pods were dropped outside the city limits, where the military wouldn't be able to touch them. Much of the DCP's capabilities were negated in this attack, and the mechanovirus already began festering within their cities, and Dronox festering beyond.

The landings began as Vermulan, Ottoman and pre-grown Dronox troops began teleporting into the cities, into places where the Coalition troops would not be found nor would find them, so the troops would not be killed upon beaming in. Coalition squads found themselves attacked by Associate forces crawling out of spacious sewerage systems and the depths of automated factories. Within a few hours, the outer sections of most cities were under Associate control.

The Coalition forces in the Capital City, scrambling to fight off the invasion, moved all surviving mechanised infantry and armoured fighting vehicles to the outer city to fight the Associate forces moving in to the city centres. Infantry forces were divided, some ordered to deal with the growing mechanovirus situation, while others joined the mechanised infantry and armoured fighting vehicles in fighting the Associate forces. The Associate forces were forced back to the city walls, but they merely occupied the controls for the walls and allowed the massing Dronox forces to push the Coalition forces back towards the centre of the city.

At this point, the Associate soldiers had procured sufficient staging areas to beam in their own armoured fighting vehicles. Vermulan walkers and Ottoman and Grox tanks were teleported in and immediately joined the battle. The Coalition forces were overwhelmed and fell back, only to have much of their immediate numbers devoured by the still growing mechanovirus infestation. The Coalition forces barricaded themselves in the buildings within the city centre, hoping that the Associate forces and Mechanovirus would destroy each other.

The Associate forces had, however, full knowledge of where the mechanovirus had grown and had fairly reasonable estimates on their rate of expansion. Excess Dronox still pouring in from the growing infection pods were used to cull the mechanovirus so they did not endanger Associate forces. The remaining associate forces made an attack on the absolute centre of the city, which was largely a burned out shell due to the Neutron Bombs. While the barricaded Coaltion forced did very well fighting in this area, the Associates still managed to get a single Vermulan to the very centre, where she placed a light pink crystal in the ground. All Associate forces then withdrew to a safe five hundred metre radius.

The small crystal then swelled in size, creating a massive crystalline spire in the middle of the city. This spire was taller than any of the DCP's own buildings (partially because many had fallen due to the battle) and dominated the skyline. All buildings caught within the radius of the spire were destroyed, and the Coalition forces within them killed by the debris. The crystal spire had formed with internal rooms and halls already in place. Immediately after its creation, the Vermulans began teleporting equipment and personnel into the building. Vermulan radio operators then hacked into DCP telescreens all over the planet, announcing their victory. While the Associate forces were far from an actual victory, the broadcast convinced many Coalition units that they had lost, and they fled out into the wilderness to regroup.

With Thalira under control of the Associate Powers, the rest of Peladon Sector was excpected to fall very quickly. News of Thalira's capture spread like wildfire, and many Coalition ships throughout Peladon sector took this as a sign that they had to abandon the sector to regroup. Another domino of the DCP's great empire fallen to the Vermulan's might.

Stoppage
After 168 hours without sleep, Emperor Wormulus was just beginning to drift off when three Dromanji shook him relentlessly. "Hah hah, your precious kingdom has lost the Docron Sector and has no control in Peladon. It will not be long until your worlds are piled high with bones, and only then, will we leave you alone.  Like the way you left us in the void.  Alone...  Alone...  Alone...", they repeated it a thousand times in unison. The Emperor tried to ignore the ghosts, live his life as normal. But the Dromanji were responsible for more than just childish behaviour, they had effectively paralysed the DCP's command structure. The Emperor had been in the war room all this time, but like fellow leaders and military personnel were unable to view even information coming in from invaded sectors, as the ghosts were clouding the interfaces, it was the ghosts who had told him the shocking news; the few times DCP space was penetrated in modern times. The Emperor didn't even know the status of his son, or of Kilnok who could be dead on the Dromanji's impossible quest, or of DCP fleets fighting in distant corners of the universe. Meanwhile, Lunarai was en-route to the Large Magellanic Cloud with some Fjord League scientists and historians when he had a sudden insight. Unsettling as it was, the ghosts ignored him, and so to would they ignore anyone-else. Should the Fjord League find the source of the Ottoman, invasion from this high point above the galaxy, their forces could relieve some of the strain in the two sectors for the DCP retaliation. The Defensive System's Bloc were also struggling with the Vermulans, some of their planets had also been annexed by them, as if to paralyse the two policing forces of the galaxy. The DCP could send a surprise task force to join with the DSB fleet, and attacking the Vermulans this way would give the DCP valuable intel on turning the tide. Eclipsos sipped his wine in his traditional dacha as he prepared for Lunarai's return. His brother was different to everyone-else in his... Abandoned family, for Eclipsos had noticed he was mentally unstable. All Eclipsos had to do was trigger a few implanted memories, and Lunarai would lose concept of his identity. But what use could this be? Eclipsos believed he could smell death on the Coalition, the ghosts had something to do with it, dark forces beyond the political horizon of the universe were bending the will of everyone. The DCP was also losing it's reputation as well, especially if they ask for human support. Eclipsos almost considered supporting the DCP just for once, but now he saw no point, but he would see that it's people and his brothers would come with him. Outside, Lunarai's personal vessel and several Fjord ships landed.

Immunity
y=5x+7 patrolled down the street of the occupied Coalition city. While many Vermulans enjoyed fighting on the front lines and engaging in conquest, y=5x+7 much preferred guarding occupied cities. Much better survival rate. And although it was heavily discouraged by the High Command, she enjoyed integrating with the Ottomans and Dronox forces. However, today things didn't go as neatly as she had expected. As she patrolled down the street with various Ottomans and Dronox, a ghastly mechanised cry rang out beneath them. Suddenly, a pack of mechanovirus-infected flooded out from the storm drain beneath the street. The infected moved like lightening, and struck down two of the Ottomans. The rest of the patrol retaliated, but the infected were too fast, and lost few of their number. They were leaping, distracting, and striking. y=5x+7 became sick of this, stood back, and rolled a dark energy grenade into the chaos. The infected were atomised, but so were the Ottomans and Dronox. This was the first time she had been attacked by the mechanovirus, but she had heard many other reports of it. The situation had become out of hand.

y=x2+34 sat waiting for y=x5+67. She was summoned to Sector D administration by Supreme y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 in regards to the implementation of the mechanovirus as a weapon. Probably to be rewarded. The DCP had done particularly poorly in defended itself against them.

This expectation was to be disappointed. When y=x5+67 returned, she was staggering, her clothes were somewhat torn and she had a very traumatised look on her face. She collapsed down on a stool.

"What happened?" inquired y=x2+34. "The mechanovirus. Our own forces are too incompetent to keep it contained. The Supreme was... pressuring me to find a solution." explained y=x5+67. "And I assume with your greatness you have already found a solution?" y=x5+67 smiled weakly. "Of course I have."

She staggered over to an intercom, and took a large breath. y=x2+34 decided not to think about what kind of "pressuring" the Supreme had been dispensing. Those of the High Command were very creative with their torture. y=x5+67 then spoke into the intercom.

"This is Laboratory 86. I would like to request a vial of the mechnovirus and a Dronox specimen."

Very shortly afterwards, a Dronox carrying a vial of the mechanovirus entered the room.

"What exactly are you intending to do?" asked y=x2+34. "The occupation forces have been using Dronox to quell the infections, and we shall augment this. We shall produce a new nanobot that will reside within the Dronox. We shall then reprogram the mechanovirus to recognise it and take its presence as a signal that the Dronox is not to be infected." said y=x5+67. The Dronox seemed relieved that it wasn't to be infected for experimental purposes. "Wouldn't the DCP be able to reverse engineer it?" y=x2+34 pointed out. "We'll program them to undergo apoptosis if they leave a Dronox's body." justified y=x5+67. "And will the Supreme be satisfied with that solution?" "The results will determine their satisfaction. Let's get to work."

y=x5+67 stood up to do the work, but then collapsed back down on her stool. She looked pleadingly up at y=x2+34, and asked if she would be able to rest while y=x2+34 did the work. y=x2+34 accepted. Everyone need rest after "pressuring" from the High Command.

A course of action
As Eclipsos walked towards the landed ships, the humans stepped out cautiously onto the world, their faces covered by breathing masks. Followed by DCP officials and Lunarai Khan. Eclipsos wondered if humans had ever stepped on Grimbolsaurian and DCP soil. He was the first to peak, "Those masks, you won't need those". Clapping his hands, Eclipsos summoned a cloud of utility fog that settled inside their respiratory tracts, despite their filters.

Some of them looked annoyed, but one hard-faced woman stood out from the rest, short, even by Terran standards, and didn't seem the least bit perturbed. "Greetings, Suzerain Eclipsos. I am Aaliyah, and I lead this party of scientists and military strategists." "You are a woman who wants to cut straight to the point. Like me.  Now let us discuss battle plans." Eclipsos led the way to the MSP's military bunker, the humans moving only when Aaliyah did. The party gathered to an underground tactical room, as the humans sat, the oversized chairs shifted their size to accommodate their smaller frames. The DCP, and even some of MSP members looked down on the humans in disdain, they were a sight to behold...

Four were quite obviously of a different nation to the Fjord League, wearing different clothes. But even amongst the Fjords, there was a variety of cultural regalia; Spodeaic symbols, and human religions Eclipsos didn't recognise. Two weren't even Terran, possibly tweaked races, with blue skin and antennae. Eclipsos announced, "Well gentlemen, you have not come here to make them feel uncomfortable. We have important matters that must be upheld." Lunarai broke the DCP silence, "I have conceptualised a plan while we were on our way here.  Commander Ixalox of the Defensive System's Bloc has announced they are under attack by the Vermulans as well.  It seems they are hatching a plan to take out all the lawful forces of the galaxy.  I propose the DCP carries out a very large attack on the Vermulan annexations of DSB space.  They may not be as prepared as they are in the Peladon theatre and we may learn of their weaknesses." Zreikrishes (DCP Commander) spoke, "That is all said and good. But you have unveiled this strategy before these...  Humans.  What use are they here?" Aaliyah spoke up, "Because it is is quite obvious, due to your own bias of us, that your intelligence has missed crucial details on the Ottomans. Knowledge we have.  We are here because we have been studying how to decode their signals for centuries, we know a thing or two about triangulating them." Lunarai replied also, "We will let the Fjords fight off the Ottomans. While we tackle the Void Grox and Vermulans." The discussions continued. The Fjord League explained their history with the Ottomans, but were themselves surprised by how they had become connected with the Vermulan Autonomy. The logistics of navigating human forces through the Maelstrom where it was still active was also up for debate. The DCP however, decided it still could not even lend the Fjord League tachyonic drives. Because the Maelstrom was causing more harm than good, Lunarai thought of a cunning solution: trick the Vermulans into thinking they had rendered it inoperable completely. This could allow Fjord forces safe passage.

For a few minutes, it seemed finally that a direction to end this madness made sense. But the peace was broken when a debate started between humans and the DCP races, in particular, the Grimbolsaurians. Zreikrishes continued to scorn the humans, enough to spark Lunarai's temper, "I do not like this childish reaction from you. Tell us, what is your problem with our new allies?" Zreikrishes pointed, "You may be royalty, Lunarai. But you are not the Emperor, your decisions are immature.  The DCP has never had formal relations with any nationalistic group of humans.  Some of them aren't even from the same nation!" Another human spoke up, "And yet here we sit, our merits based not on our nation or culture, but the problem with the Vermulans. Remember, the Delpha Coalition is made up of hundreds of members." "But we stand for the order of one." replied Zreikrishes, "Your navy will probably start in-fighting as soon as they reach the Peladon theatre!" "Yes we humans are a varied bunch, and I see that as one of our defining traits in this galaxy. But are we as violent as we are portrayed?  Our society has something yours will never understand:  Tolerance, openness and self-criticism.  Your coalition is held together by force, ours by morals, and it has done very well. "Like what?" ''"We are one of the most widespread species, and have an undeniable mark on galactic history, from our history with precursors and our expansion. And our diversity only opens our creative and critical faculties, unlike the vast sea of monocultures in the known universe. We have various technologies, sciences, arts and spiritualities. Through these expressions we understand the world. So yes, our nations are not one, but it is unfair to ridicule us of it when our history is far less bloodthirsty than yours." Aaliyah gave Lunarai a look to see if she should shut up her personnel, but Lunarai made no motion. But Lunarai decided to speak, "Officially, the DCP would rather your species be unified." But the human replied, "Because you have a visceral fear of the unknown, from outside and from within. Certainty, is something to be let go of."''

The day's work was not over. DCP and Fjord fleets had to be rallied and prepared, some of them to be grouped in MSP space. Lunarai felt haunted however, by the words of a creature he once considered somewhat less than wise. He walked out to the planet's rolling hills to watch the night sky's stunning vista of the Plazith Rim. He began to feel spasms of confusion again, was it tiredness? Oddly again, Eclipsos appeared during the episode. "'Certainty, is something to be let go of.' You know Eclipsos, this had never occurred to me before, how we can possibly promise certainty from any justification.  Is the DCP really just uncritical of itself?  Are we a tape winding down?" "The DCP has always been in a good position to maintain order, it has always been the most advanced while being the most industrial and politically influential. They were the cofounders of the political Gigaquadrant.  But times are changing, and sooner or later, the DCP must learn how to change."  replied Eclipsos Finally, he told Lunarai, "Maybe this war, maybe even the Dromanji, are teaching your DCP a valuable lesson. Have you considered this?"

Intervention
Nine blurs shimmered in deep space. These were a taskforce of Fjord ships, equipped with cloaking devices borrowed from a particular Kindred Coalition member. Recently, the Fjord League of Northern Europe had agreed to declare war against the Vermulan Autonomy and its servitors and send in ships to aid the Delpha Coalition of Planets. Of course, they couldn't yet directly help them as the space belonging to the Coalition was protected by a field known as the maelstrom, and the Coalition leadership were not willing to give a group of "untrustworthy" humans a method of traversing the maelstrom. There was a plan being formed to completely shut down the maelstrom; allowing the Fjord ships into DCP space and lulling the Vermulans into a false sense of superiority. It was risking, but the potential for victory was considered worth it by most parties. But this plan had yet to be enacted.

Since the Fjord League couldn't directly fight on the front, they instead made themselves useful by attacking Ottoman supply lines. The Ottoman Directorate had been a long standing rival to the Fjord League, and each was prepared for war with one another. Of course, each was expecting a confrontation involving a direct invasion by one power into the other's territory, rather than Fjord raids on Ottoman supply lines serving a third party fighting a fourth party.

The Fjord Interdictor, a ship with weapons designed to knock enemy ships out of warp, suddenly fired its beams. A group of Ottoman ships, ten cargo ship and seven cruisers, were suddenly floating in the void in front of the Fjord taskforce. The Ottomans were travelling in small groups, sometimes just military reinforcements, sometimes cargo ships with escorts. The smaller groups left less subspace signal, and the Delpha Coalition couldn't detect them, but the Fjord League with their many years of studying the Ottomans could ferret out even singular ships in warp. The cargo ships were completely dazed, but the cruisers adjusted to their new situation very quickly and let loose several antiproton bursts, bright red flashes that disabled the Fjord's cloaking devices.

Red and blue beams were exchanged between the two parties, trying to wear down each other's shields. The Fjord Interdictor kept its distance and prevented the cargo ships from escaping. The Ottomans tried to take down the Interdictor so the cargo ships would be able to supply their new colonies in the Docron sector, by the Fjord ships extended multiple layers of shielding over their vital asset. The Ottoman cargo ships, unable to escape, began firing their small antiproton turrets at the Fjord ships; their weapons alone very weak, but giving their side the advantage over their enemy. Two Fjord ships had their shields burned away, and the golden lights of cobalt torpedoes from the Ottoman ships to destroy them.

The leader of the Fjord taskforce realised that the Ottomans had the upper hand. Luckily, he had been prepared by this situation, and ordered his science officer to activate a certain upgrade the DCP had given them. He had hesitated to use it in the first place because of the potential danger to his own ships, but the positioning of each side's ships made the use of the weapon quite applicable. A bright pink-purple beam emanated from his ship's scanning tool, and stuck an Ottoman cruiser roughly in the middle of their formation. The ship burst into a pink purple vortex, completely destroying the cruiser and creating a gravity well that pulled in all the other Ottoman cruisers and a single cargo ship in. They crashed into eachother, disabling their shields and causing severe structural weakness. The Fjord League fired their quantum torpedoes, bright blue lights that burst across the hulls of the Ottoman ships, tearing them apart and reducing them to a ball of scrap drifting in space.

The remaining nine cargo ships were caught in tractor beams, their shields disabled, and boarding parties deployed in all of them. Another fierce battle was fought inside these ships, but it went much smoother and ultimately all Ottomans surrendered to the Fjords. The cargo ships were given new, Fjord crews and the Ottoman symbols on their sides burned off in favour of Fjord symbols. The cargo ships and the Fjord taskforce then set off toward the DCP border, to give the supplies to the Coalition's war effort.

One step forward, one step back
Part 1

The meeting adjourned, the DCP commanders and generals sent their advise to the War Council. The DCP would send a fleet to aid the Lequians, the founders of the Milky Way galaxy's next force for order and policing: The Defensive System's Bloc. The DSB was also being besieged from attacks by Vermulan forces, part of their decisive strike against the premier foes that would seek to stop their goals. Warlord Titanozor led the fleet himself somehow steadily, all the while angrily swiping at the jibber jabbering Dromanji ghosts, who never seemed to run out annoying distractions, mental confusions and nightmares. "YOU WILL ALL RUN OUT OF OPTIONS AT SOME POINT YOU UNORIGINAL SWINES. YOU, THAT ONE!  YES!  YOU!  THE REPETITIVE ONE."

The fleet parked itself outside Lequian space, and Titanozor contacted a loyal fan, come friend. Commander Ixalox was famed in the DCP as well for being only one of two Lequian commanders not to side with the unruly and twisted Warlord Tricarrion during the DCP Civil War. He also saw action during the DCP-Loron wars. "Yes, yes of course. No, nooo.  Well that's right yes.  Of course not.  Hey!  Get.  Your.  Paws.  Off.  The chandelier!  Sorry that was my Felizard.  Sorry what was that?  Go on.  Stay right where you are!" Ixalox wasted no time in going to meet his greatest idol, and chose to go himself. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting". Ixalox, an excited fan, stood before the brute that was Titanozor. "What is this?" remarked Titanozor upon seeing the creature Ixalox brought. "My Felizard." It was unlikely Titanozor had seen a pet before. "It sometimes sits on my shoulder. It has seen the mightiest space battles." "Now, I'm sure you know why I'm here Ixalox. We are both under attack by the same enemy.  It is the council of war's plan that the DCP make a surprise attack on Vermulan forces attacking your space.  It would give us intel on how to fight them better, and lift the pressure on your forces." "Well, my esteemed Warlord. It would be an honour to fight by your side, you have my upmost support.  And I have friends in the DSB elite." "Good."..."hsssmeowss. Titanozor is the best Warlord." Ixalox looked slightly embarrassed. "Mine seems to be the only one who talks, dunno where he gets it all from!" "Hmph, I never liked animals." "All should kiss his feet." Titanozor leaned forward towards the Felizard. "Get this one. Animals are for eating."

As Ixalox promised, the agreement for the DCP to aid the Lequians in DSB space was set. The two had not fought together for many years, but now with the galaxy's famous forces for order now working together once more, a step in the line of progress was made to finish this war.

Part 2

Lunarai was back on the grassy hill. He could see the lights of MSP, DCP and Fjord ships in orbit, working to triangulate the Ottoman positions. If the DCP could just get some knowledge on the Vermulan ships, hatched from his plan for the DCP to engage the Vermulans on the DSB front, they could disengage the maelstrom as a ruse and strike the Vermulans with avengeance.

Suddenly there was a terrific flash in the sky. Had the alliance broken down already? Lunarai could sense a danger, his eyes being sucked into his skull instinctively. Suddenly the ground shook, flashes exploding on the horizon, imprecise but devastating, many hitting outside the terraformed perimeter. They were neither torpedoes nor caseless plasma weapons, but asteroids. The planetary defences were now in action, shooting down some of the asteroids, hot vapours flattening out in the sky as it turned blood red under fire. Lunarai looked back up, using his enhanced vision now, he could see massive hulks, some perhaps the size of minor planets where the ships had been. Out of the still glowing craters, Lunarai could see movement. Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of creatures had assembled into a tumbling wave. It could only be the Mantisorac, for they had returned, perhaps undetected due to Dromanji influence. Even Lunarai would struggle in thwarting this army, his priorities were with protecting the human delegates and DCP commanders. He ran back to base as fast as he could.

With the unanticipated Mantisorac attack, a step was taken back.

Show of Force
The Vermulans were not quite in the act of conquering the territory of the Defensive System's Bloc. They had merely annexed a small wedge of space and ignored the rest of DSB, in contrast to the Delpha Coalition of Planets; the Vermulans were acting to completely conquer and dissolve the gigaquadrantic hyperpower. Neither the DSB nor DCP knew with any certainty what the Vermulans were up to in this little wedge of space. They clearly had some intent for this particular patch of space; if they had merely wanted to conquer why not take the rest of DSB? The obviousness that the Vermulans had some intent within this area was of particular interest to the DCP. The possibility of gaining the DSB as a permanent ally in this war and learning more about the Vermulan's technology also motivated the DCP to provide a great deal of resources into formulating a plan to retake the occupied DSB territory with a swift show of force using the combined strength of a DCP, DSB and Fjord fleet.

The attack required a great deal of planning. The Allies theoretically had surprise on their side, as logically the Vermulans would expect the DCP to focus on the invasion of their own territory, but they had very little intelligence to work on. There was no information on how strong the Vermulan force within the territory was, nor how it was deployed amongst the twenty-one star systems within. The DSB's long range scanners detected only Vermulan long range scanners, which were obviously deployed to give the Vermulan early warning of an attack. The Fjord League devised a plan to use a captured Ottoman malware program to lock the scanners into a static image of their surroundings, and not record any changes. The lack of scanner efficiency within this territory also proved that the Vermulans had a signal jammer blocking scanners, which would have to be taken down if the Allies were to succeed in this battle. The DSB recruited a group of Ravon mercenaries to help with this; the Ravons had an envied talent for detecting signal jammers which would prove valuable in this battle.

The attack fleet gathered in the DSB-Zarni Neutral Zone, the Zarni Ministry for War permitting this after some persuasion from the DCP. The Fjords had used the malware on all the Vermulan long range scanners, and thus the massive force looming outside of their territory went unnoticed. The DCP and DSB ships joined together in solidarity, later joined by a reasonable amount of Fjord ships, then the necessary Ravon specialists, and finally one of the DSB's protectorates, the Jimboian Combine, whom had volunteered to join this battle in return for some more territory. The fleet stood for a good twenty minutes admiring itself (and sharing the battle plans) before setting off directly into the heart of the occupied territory. There was nothing but void here, which was a sigh of relief for some as the Ravons set to work trying to located where the signal jammer was located. After an hour, the Ravons gave the DCP flagship the location of the jammer; lying oddly close the occupied territory's border with the Greater Zarni Empire. The fleet moved in for the kill with great intent but with justified caution.

The Vermulan signal jammer was a great hardware nut-shaped construct orbiting a barren little rogue planet. Three Vermulan guard ships, along with the construct's own automated defenses, opened fire immediately on the Allied fleet. Fortunately, the fleet's great size and many ship's ability to share shields prevented any from falling, and the numerically superior firepower tore the Vermulan saucers apart. The signal jammer itself however was protected by an energy field emanating from the planet's surface. The Allies were prepared for such a situation; within their ships contained enough soldiers to win a world war. Beaming a horde of troops down, the Vermulan crew of the shield generator were simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of Allied troops. The shield around the signal jammer was deactivated. They searched for a way to deactivate it without destroying it, as it would be a valuable asset to capture, but they found no alternative. With the jammer's destruction, shipboard scanners flared up with the locations of Vermulan forces. All the DSB captains took a tense breath; the Vermulans were all clustered around Satalkis, the Graveyard of Luck.

Satalkis was barely recognisable from when the DSB last saw it; massive chunks of the planet had been torn out, revealing the hot mantle beneath the crust. In one section, even the liquid core was visible. Of course, the Allies had no time to admire the scenery. A great fleet of Vermulan vessels orbited the planet, and the fighting began almost immediately. While the sharing of shields was of great benefit to the Allies, the maneuvering of the Vermulan ships forced them to break formation. Despite this, the Allies kept co-operating as best they can. The great armies that lay within the ships were beamed from vessel to vessel whenever the ship they were in was in danger of being destroyed, ensuring that minimal ground forces were lost during the space battle. Great blue beams were fired from Satalkis' surface at the Allies, adding to the already difficult Vermulan fleet. The DCP fared well in combat, but the DSB and Fjords were not as well prepared for the Vermulans. The Ravons were severely crippled, and their last ship fled the battle like a scared rabbit. The Jimboians were inflicting minimal damage on the Vermulans, but had managed to avoid the Vermulan weapons with a nearly 100% success rate.

In the midst of the battle a DSB commander realised that the Vermulans seemed to be ignoring the Fjords, or at least paying more attention to the other Allies. Taking advantage of this, the Fjords began taking on board most of the ground forces and beaming them down to the surface of Satalkis to retake the planet. The Fjords managed to ferry most of the ground forces down to the planet before being noticed by the Vermulans, at which point their former ignorance was completely forgotten and the Fjord nearly wiped out. The ground battle itself was marginally more successful; the casualty rate was perhaps even worse, but they were at least making headway. This was largely aided by the fact that the Vermulans had only one facility on the planet they were operating from; a large crystal spire built over the ruins of the former capital city. Most of the ground forces sought to take the spire, while other divisions tried to take the enormous cannons that were firing upon the fleet in orbit.

As the DSB flagship buckled under the Vermulan's firepower, hope began to die within the allied fleet. This sentiment only increased as the rest of the Vermulan forces from within the occupied territory came to intervene. Several DCP ships responded and tried to fight them off, but were reduced to empty husks floating through space. In the midst of this massacre, the Jimboian ships linked together into a circle and began spinning at unrealistic speeds. The ships dissolved into a orange flame-like wisp, which wisped its way into the Vermulan ships. Nobody knew what exactly was happening, but whatever the Jimboians did it had disorientated all the Vermulan ships and cut out their shields. Seeing an opportunity, the remainder of the Allied fleet beamed boarding parties over to take the saucers for the Allies. A few Vermulan ships resisted and continued fighting, and were destroyed by very welcome blasts of blue light from the planet's surface.

Using data being taken from the captured Vermulan ships, the schematics of the spire on Satalkis was revealed to the ground armies, who were able to take the great structure much quicker. The liberation of the occupied territory was a resounding success. Allied troops took over the Vermulan facilities on Satalkis and began to study what they were up to in this sector. The captured Vermulan saucers were taken to be disassembled and studied.

Many crews felt thankful for whatever it was that the Jimboians did. But the strategists and tacticians did not appreciate it. This great show of force had only served to show that the Allies needed a deus ex machina to defeat the Vermulans, and deus ex machinas are few and far in between in an unforgiving universe.

New Program
Since the reprogramming of the Grox Meta-Emperor, the Grox of many galaxies too were reprogrammed and became the submissive servants of their former prey. The Plazithian Grox in particular were currently acting as a slave race for the Delpha Coaltion of Planets. A few fortunate Grox groups were able to retain their original programming despite the Meta-Emperor's defeat. One particular group were a specialised group of Grox that were not assigned to a galaxy, but rather intended to roam the unbelievably vast void between the galaxies. A few of the Void Grox were spared from the enslavement due to this unique position, and upon learning of the fate of their comrades swore to restore the Grox Meta-Empire to its former glory. They became almost religious fanatics in this drive. The Vermulans were most sympathetic to the Void Grox. They promised that, in return for servitude, the Void Grox would be given both protectorate from the Grox-Hunters and eventually the chance to resurrect their fallen brethren.

This chance came when the Vermulans began their invasion of the DCP. The remaining Void Grox, known as the Sienna Grox Movement, aided their Vermulan benefactors in order to liberate the vast swaths of Grox slaves that were bound to be found. And indeed, the time had come. Every Plazithian Grox that the Sienna Grox had found so far had been gathered in their thousands in the hold of the Grox Star Destroyer that served as the capital of the Sienna Movement for their restoration. They were a large sea of red fur and grey cybernetics, confused by the contrast of the last orders given to them by the Delpha oppressors and their new surroundings. Surrounding them was a ring of brown-green fur and black cybernetics - the Void Grox - trying to keep their brethren calm in their delirium. Atop a platform overlooking them was King Groshveir himself. The good king wanted to personally restore his fallen brothers to their former glory, using the special signal program provided to him by the Vermulans. He looked down to The Fallen with his eyes, observing them both through organic lenses and his mechanically enhanced supervision. As he observed the panic below, he uttered a small whisper as he activated the new program.

"Calm my brothers. Now you will be free."

The Fallen Grox began gripping their heads and gave out cries of "Program overridden!" and "Priority green!" It pained Groshveir much to see them like this, but he knew it was for the best. Slowly they all one by one ceased this behaviour and stood up straight, devoting utmost attention to King Groshveir.

"My brethren. You were, only moments ago, members of the Delpha Coalition of Planets' enslaved droves of The Fallen. But now you are The Risen," began King Groshveir's speech. "We are The Risen!" agreed the reprogrammed crowd. "You are but the first of The Risen. So many of our brethren are still Fallen. But we shall fight for them. And under the guidance of our Vermulan benefactors, soon all of The Fallen shall stand as you stand now, as we once did before our defeat. Soon we shall all be as The Risen." "We shall all be as The Risen!" "We shall restore the Meta-Empire to its former glory!" "We shall restore the Meta-Empire!" "We shall fight to liberate The Fallen with the blessings of the Vermulan Autonomy!" "We shall fight the liberate The Fallen!" "All glory to The Risen!" "All glory to The Risen!"

Bed bug bunker
The unshielded DCP ships were just about able to send a transmission to the Delpha Coalition of Planets before being crushed inside the minor planet as it emerged from warp. Only a priority shock signal was signalled just in time, without details of the attack itself.

The groundforces of the colony however had to deal with a total blackout, left in the dark not even knowing any such signal was sent. The colonists were quickly hustled back to the base and a few shelters designed to protect citizens from Mantisorac attack, they knew who this enemy was. Lunarai was shocked as he watched the colonists panic, he realised that at least a generation of Grimbolsaurians and other former members of the DCP here had not been brought up under martial education, they lacked the orderly, almost selfless fashion DCP citizens acted. But he had to get back to reality, where were the DCP commanders? The humans? He had forgotten, again in fact, during his distracting wanderings. Glowing visuals were now propping up everywhere, showing that the swarm of Mantisorac were now as close as three kilometres from the main city, and citizens in different parts were being advised to reach specific shelters, of which there were only five. Lunarai frowned, this colony lacked adequate facilities.

"We have intercepted a single priority blue alert from the Delpha Coalition of Planets flotilla in the Large Magellanic Cloud. There was no return ping, prompting us to believe it has been destroyed.  The MSP appears unaware of any attack and have dispatched a small survey ship." Comms officer "My son is there." Emperor Wormulus II "He should be able to handle it, that I am sure." War council elect "I don't trust Eclipsos. Dispatch another, heavily armed flotilla.  Inform the MSP it is arriving to assist." Emperor Wormulus II

Lunarai found the DCP and human delegates, commander-tacticians and scientists back at the base, where he had left them. With all the civilians now locked down in bunkers, all they could do was wait. Lunarai felt awful, he should be out there fighting them, but then he could not be sure of the safety of the few he must prioritise. He could sense the fear, see the shock in the MSP soldiers eyes. This was not the DCP, and these soldiers had likely fought the Mantisorac many years before. The hordes of Mantisorac seemed to be moving at many kilometres an hour, jumping hundreds of metres in mere seconds. They seemed to use their bodies in a cooperative, machine-like fashion. Lunarai could spot many forms, invertebrate-like. "Starship Troopers" one of the humans mutted. "Brace yourselves" shouted the MSP soldiers. Thousands and thousands of tons of this biomass rolled onto the colony, Mantisorac crushing and pulling apart buildings from their foundations. Sentry turrets and a few brave soldiers fired powerful rounds, blasting many Mantisorac apart, but only the upper layer of the charge was critically hurt. The Mantisorac took advantage of the mounting dead bodies, building huge rams to press forward. Some MSP tanks joined the frey, to push back at the battering rams. But the charge, millions strong, simply walked over the tanks regardless, picking them up and dragging them to oblivion. One of the soldiers cried out in terror and sadness, "I have never seen this happen before", Lunarai looked on at the screen to find Shelter 5 had been breached. "We've lost contact with Shelter 5." And some moments later, "Shelter 2 destroyed".

Lunarai jumped into action, not caring they were MSP soldiers, barking orders. Without any of their own answers to this surprise they complied.

"There is another problem, my Emperor. We needed the Fjord ships to triangulate Ottoman locations, the Dromanji don't seem to disorient them.  The delegates were in the middle of planning our strategy to strike back against the Vermulan invasion, and the source of the Ottomans." War council elect "We will have to invite the Fjord League to our territories to continue. I suggest we concentrate on hitting the Vermulan forces first, and go ahead with our proposal to deactivate the Maelstrom in the sector." Emperor Wormulus II

Lunarai had a long range weapon capable of firing projectiles through hyperspace to track specific targets. He could also manoeuvre his body in hyperspace using his technology. The MSP had lost control, soon they would lose command, and only three civilian shelters remained, and Lunarai began clearing space and vantage points for the soldiers. Being able to manoeuvre in hyperspace meant Lunarai could jump in spacelike intervals - faster than the speed of light, to jump reference frames with no temporal relationship, and survey events as a four dimensional block of spacetime. He could see where every Mantisorac was in a particular moment simultaneously, but he also had the power to see events re-shuffled depending on where he was moving. Lunarai felt gutted as he saw Shelter 3 breached. In one frame was breached light seconds before he knew, but in another frame he could know after it was breached. While this made no timelike sense (such events would be walled off by the speed of light), from Lunarai's fourspace vantage he was free to jump. And jump he did, right into the Mantisorac spilling in to save those inside. Despite Lunurai's strength, the sheer weight of the Mantisorac was almost unbearable. But he used his inbuilt propulsion, and a plasma weapon to vaporise them, and his blades to fight them off by hand. Some of the soldiers fortunately had survived long enough to reach VTOL transports, and were rescuing the remaining shelters by literally lifting them out of the ground. The Mantisorac formed towers to reach out and grab the literal cans of food, but were blown up by something from elsewhere.

Eclipsos, ragged and bloody had been caught outside, and was fighting his way through, and was the cause of the blasts. The transports, with no teleportation capability, had to leave the two warriors behind. Lunarai jumped towards Eclipsos, and found a region of the planet not invaded. "You lost half of your colonists with in-adequate defences and shelters. This was your doing, Eclipsos!" "The DCP is not innocent. We have been allies since the Annihilation, we nursed Mirenton and your other worlds back to health while you were trapped.  But the Large Magellanic Cloud is resource poor, we came here with barely much more than our hands.  The DCP does not support us, and has never sent us any aid." "I bet the DCP is on the way." retorted Lunarai. "Child, they are on the way for you."

The Vermulan armada
The DCP placed down fake subspace beacons that seemed to be broadcasting the Maelstrom, and put down ships run down by skeleton crews. The Vermulan saucers easily found the beacons. The crewmen were told to only put up light defence, so the DCP looked broken. With the beacons in control of the Vermulans, the DCP switched off the maelstrom in the Docron and Peladon sectors.

Over the next week, Ottoman ships and Void Grox, led by Vermulan saucers attacking the Peladon and Docron sector suddenly started to travel through the sectors with ease, without difficulties from subspace. The pitch drive mines, drovers and other drones deactivated and the DCP orchestrated its under siege tactics while retreating its forces. The Vermulans were unsure at first, but every subsector they reached, the maelstrom seemed to fuzz out as if re-programming itself for them. Tentatively at first, the Vermulan forces marched through DCP territories, few had ever done so, and amongst the lesser ranks there was glory. The Vermulans even thought they had reactivated the drones, causing DCP fleets to retreat. The Vermulan forces felt as though it was real. Worlds under siege were blitzed to lower the planetary shields, and they were making considerable momentum towards the Delpha Sector. As expected, the DCP there made a stand, but seemed to be falling back within three days. The Vermulan leaders felt it was too good, something was up. Maybe the DCP was wounded by its war with the Dominatus? Maybe it was these mysterious spectres that were haunting the Coalitions worlds? Scientists had been dispatched to learn what they were. As the Vermulan forces were pushing into the Delpha sector, heart and pride of the DCP and an enigmatic region to most outsiders, the leaders realised it was a trick and called for evacuation.

Too late, the Maelstrom had been switched on, and the evacuating fleet lost formation and contact, some ships exploded mid-travel or others slowed to a near halt. Unlike the Dominatus who used mostly hyperspatial weaponry to blunt their way through the Maelstrom, the Ottomans and Grox forces had none of this. Suddenly millions of pitch drives materialised in realspace dragging Ottoman ships away at nearly the speed of light, crushing them into black holes. Drones and clouds of nanotechnology pounded vessels or devoured them, though each drone was easily destroyed, it was replaced by drones coming out of replicating factories. Soon the DCP's fleet came back to life, now outfitted with reverse engineered Vermulan technology, and swept through the Ottomans which couldn't stand a chance alone.

The Vermulan fleet, still considerable in size retreated to the Horatorio sector, recently renamed after the great war between the DCP and Dominatus there over the planet Horatorio. The Vermulans didn't realise in their haste that the sector had been scarred by the metric warfare between the DCP and Tyranny, leaving behind spatial anomalies, that the DCP was pushing them through the bruised spacetime. A third of the Veremulan ships were lost, only to be met on the other side by the DCP fleet that had gone around the distortion space. Vermulan ships were powerful, and a battle commenced almost reminiscent of the DCP-Tyranny war, lasting a day, but outgunned and outnumbered, all but a few Vermulan ships remained, and were bordered before they could be scuttled.

As a final act, the ships were escorted back to the Delpha Sector, and dragged down a beautiful stellar stream known as the Straight of Cranack. The event was televised across DCP and the Gigaquadrant. Emperor Wormulus II gave a speech as crowds appeared to watch:

"My wonderful Kingdom Many have dared to try and destroy us in our own homes. These cretins failed to recognise your love and your loyalty to each other, your bravery to fight.  They are forgetful of our resolve to defend our realm.  We win because of our inner fire.  These Vermulans lack such a concept, cold and callous.  In all their bluster and ignorance, their servitors could not recognise the hole they were digging themselves into.  Well let the universe know, nothing can destroy our hearts."

The war was not over, the Vermulans still held the Docron sector and some of the Peladon, as a message they were not giving up. The DCP was in debt to the Fjord League and would help them with the Ottomans. Meanwhile, the Emperor's sons were in trouble.

Wounds
Parts of the corridors had collapsed and jets of liquid crystal and pink gas were erupting from broken pipelines. Fire continued to break out across the ship as the inherently over-engineered nature of Vermulan technology turned on its creators. The Vermulan Armada's Command Ship, which had been leading the invasion of Delpha Coalition, had taken part in the fateful battle that had led to the premature defeat of the invasion. It had been crippled dearly by the spatial anomalies in Horatorio sector, specifically a gravity well that catapulted the Ottoman flagship into the largely flat top of the Vermulan Command Ship. Due to the obnoxiously pointy design of Ottoman Titans, the ship was still lodged in there. It's crew had been beamed out before flames engulfed the interior. The Vermulan Flagship was now overflowing with both it's original crew and survivors that had beamed from sunken vessels.

On the bridge of the flagship sat Supreme y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4, distinguishable from other Vermulans by her red hood, boots, gloves and sash. Following her defeat and retreat back to Docron sector, she had immediately contacted the High Command for reinforcements to replace what had been lost in the Coalition's trap. The High Command was not overly pleased to hear of the defeat, and promptly refused to send any reinforcements. They commanded that y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 hold what DCP territory had been successfully annexed "to the last man." A few Ottomans wondered why the Vermulans would say "man" instead of "women" considering the entire Vermulan race was female. They had an uneasy feeling that "man" was synonymous with "Ottoman." The Grox assured them that they were probably using the word "man" as a unisex term.

y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 did not enjoy the idea of holding Docron and Peladon Sectors without any reinforcements. In order to try and circumvent the High Command's decree, the Supreme decided to contact The Empress herself. Few Vermulan captains had the privilege of speaking to The Empress, but as a Supreme, y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 had the option. It would probably take a while for contact to be established (The Empress often had dozens trying to contact her at once) but with some persuasion on how the DCP was a threat that needed to be crushed, The Empress may agree to deploy more forces to the war effort.

With Supreme y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 were the leaders of the Ottoman and Grox fleets that had been aiding the Vermulans in this conflict; Field Marshal Erdinç Çelik and Viceroy Vm9pZA==. Their own flagships had been destroyed (one of them still being stuck in the Vermulan flagship) and so had beamed over the Vermulan vessel along with their surviving crews. The Supreme hoped that they would be able to contact their own governments and supply reinforcements in the absence of the High Command's co-operation.

"The Ottoman Directorate has sacrificed much for this cause already, said Çelik. "''We need time to rebuild our fleets. Our methods of escaping nearly destroyed vessels have ensured we've had minimal losses, but those lost vessels have to be replaced.''"

Viceroy Vm9pZA== sneered. As a Dronox he cared not for reducing losses during the offensive, and thus had little affection for his Ottoman equal.

"The Sienna Movement will continue to support the Vermulan course endlessly!" Vm9pZA== declared. "We have thousands of ships waiting in deep space for the command to move in! And as we liberate Grox from Coalition control our forces only grow stronger! All our losses can be replaced! The war shall go on!"

Supreme y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 raised her eyebrows, but otherwise kept a blank expression.

"Your enthusiasm is appreciated." y=(5x+8)6(6x+11)4 stated. "The Delpha Coalition is coming for us. The High Command has given us our orders, we will have to hold this territory. And if we succeed, I hope to attempt a second offensive. But slowly this time, sector by sector, to the original plan. We will ignore the temptations of immediate advances on the capital."

She rested her head in her palms; a sign of exhaustion practically unknown amongst Vermulans. "The Coalition is coming for us" she whispered. Çelik and Vm9pZA== read the signs and left her to herself.

Caged
Dovydas had never thought he'd ever even see one of the mythical Vermulans. And yet, there one was, sitting in a cell in the captured citadel on Satalkis. The Fjord League's transparent democracy meant that the people knew most of what the government knew of the Vermulans, but Dovydas felt that in person the Vermulans were far more different. The more... sexually-minded parts of the Fjord population liked to spin tales of Vermulans being exotically beautiful near-humans, but that thing sitting on the other side of the force-field was not appealing to Dovydas in any way. Sure, it was conventionally attractive... but there was something distinctly alien about it. More than the dead white skin and the soulless red eyes. The entire presence of the Vermulan felt off. It was beginning to make Dovydas feel sick. He wondered how the Ottomans put up with it.

The Vermulan itself... or herself? Dovydas wasn't sure whether "she" or "it" applied better. "She" fit Dovydas' polite nature better, but "it" seemed more applicable to something so indefinably wrong. Anyways, the Vermulan herself sat laziy on the bench in the cell, and hadn't moved in the slightest since before Dovydas' shift began. Dovydas was becoming concerned that she had escaped and left a hologram in her place, or committed some sort of apoptosis or something like that. He felt like checking, but didn't want to enter the cell and risk the Vermulan's reportedly superior strength. He considered the option of requesting permission to leave the Vermulan's presence, but he was too good a person to subject another living being to be in that thing's presence.

The door to the cell block creaked as it was opened. The Vermulan's head twisted immediately to see; a swift motion that made Dovydas jump. Coupled with his already sickened feeling, he nearly threw up. Luckily he didn't, as four highly ranked leaders of the allied powers were walking in, accompanied by a large escort team. Warlord Titanozor of the Delpha Coalition of Planets, General Ixalox of the Defensive System's Bloc, Admiral Erlendur Johnsson of the Fjord League of Northern Europe, and the Edam-Lord of the Jimboian Combine. They were engaged in a deep discussion as they entered the room.

"I know it doesn't matter now that we've crippled the Vermulan Armada in Coalition space, but I don't suppose you could tell us what that deus ex machina was that you won this planet with?" Titanozor asked, directing the question to the Edam-Lord.

"My brothers and sisters sacrificed their bodies and minds to SALVADOR to convert themselves into the energies of pure SMITE to defeat the Vermulan menace," the Edam-Lord answered. Somehow, with his lack of obvious mouth.

"And yet the powers of pure... erm... "smite" was unable to destroy the Vermulan ships, only disable them?" commented Admiral Johnsson.

"You wanted Vermulan technology intact for you to study. We gave you the technology intact," was the Edam-Lord's retort. His lack of mouth was irritating Dovydas almost as much as the Vermulan's inherent wrongness.

Titanozor stood in front the cell and sneered at the Vermulan. She sneered back. Titanozor turned to Dovydas.

"Have we gotten any information out of it?" he asked.

"No sir, she has remained silent since she was captured doing tests on one of the missing crust sections of the planet," Dovydas answered.

"So we know nothing about it?"

"We know her name; it's y = 354 cos(x) (52)3(32x + x2). We got it off her EVA suit's nametag."

"Ooooh, with a number like that she's either really high ranking or really low ranking," snarked Admiral Johnsson.

"Regardless of how much information we're getting out of it, I think a live Vermulan is a good prize," said General Ixalox.

"Topped with the captured technology, worthy of a good reward, eh?" the Edam-Lord hinted with a distinct lack of subtlety.

"The Jimboian Combine will get it's territory," Ixalox confirmed. He turned back to the Vermulan. "If she won't give us any intel on the Vermulan's plans and secret bases, there are... other things she can teach us."

"Oh, I do like you thinking Ixalox," Titanozor chuckled. "We have to do plenty of fighting with Vermulans in person, rather than ship to ship, so I feel this little prisoner would be a useful test subject for Vermulan biological and psychological weaknesses."

Dovydas swore he heard the Vermulan let out a panicked squeak, although it was still sneering. Or maybe it was his own mind beginning to snap. He raised his voice to the commanders.

"Sirs, um, being with this thing is... disconcerting. There's something eldritch about her, and it's making me feel physically, and mentally, ill. With your permission, I'd like to be reassigned to something not involving being in the Vermulan's presence."

"I will say, I'm starting to feel a little... unsettled myself," agreed Admiral Johnsson. He and Dovydas left the room together, not looking back, and trying to shove the image of the Vermulan to the back of their minds.

Titanozor watched them leave. He initially felt disdain for humans' weakness, but then it struck him that the nature of the Vermulans may have some effect on humans. He wondered how the Ottomans put up with it.

The Mantisorac invasion
Over the next few hours the Mantisorac began to march over the small world in droves, stripping all the life used to terraform it. The Mantisorac couldn't directly digest alien organisms but had evolved abilities to break the chemical structures down. Eclipsos sighted long tape like structures blasting back out into space.

"They use elevators to get back into orbit, and ferry up anything they can extract to build their asteroid ships" Eclipsos "I wondered how they returned to orbit. I guess there is no-one directing their actions" Lunarai ''No, they are simply an incredibly complex collective swarm. It would seem they were created long ago, but then, the complexity of our collective brains was natural, so maybe they are too"'' Eclipsos

The gap was closing from all around. Eclipsos and Lunarai stood back to back, they might have been great Warlords but they were against billions. Lunarai could feel the atmosphere warming from their collective heat and chemical break down, Eclipsos noted the bottom ones were roasted alive, not that it mattered to the collective machine. Lunarai suddenly felt another heat, this time from above. The giant asteroid vessel above was now molten slag, the elevators snapping loose like twigs sending Mantisorac and their cargo flying. It was an MSP Supercarrier, Corvielle class. At that moment they were transported to orbit.

Eclipsos and Lunarai were met by two male Grimbolsaurians, one as short as a Terran human. Eclipsos introduced them as Field Marshal Arkos (the short one) and Glondaff who was Admiral of the fleet, heroes of the first Mantisorac war. The Supercarrier was a luxury liner compared to what Lunarai was used to in the DCP. "Are the colonists, Fjord and DCP delegates safe?" asked Lunarai "There has been no word, Warlord Lunarai." Arkos replied. Field Marshal Arkos seemed polite and sincere. "The last we saw of them was transports lifting away from the planet." stated Lunarai Lunarai looked upon the melted blob that was the asteroid, now bulging towards the planet, and hoped they had not been captured. "I will order a system-wide search and have all hyperspace signatures scanned." said Glondaff. A day of searching yielded nothing. Admiral Glondaff assured that the MSP would still look, but they had to be on the move. The Mantisorac were now on the move at large, something had stirred their territorial aggression, and other colonies were under attack. "If we can prepare, we have the firepower for space dominance" Glondaff explained. A day later, the DCP had arrived. The planet had been smothered in small but molten chunks of rock, super heating the atmosphere and pelting it with glowing craters, leaving the question open to whether the Emperor's sons were alive, either sustained by shielding on the surface or elsewhere, even former being unlikely.

The Mantisorac fleets, encompassing the Large Magellanic Cloud and globular clusters in the halo were now poised at large over the Milky Way's main disc, in uncountable fleets ranging from small asteroids to minor planets, assembled over millennia. The MSP was but a mote. Something had rattled them to the point of a halo-wide swarm.

Apparition
The bizarre entity pulled unpleasant faces at y=x2+34 and y=x5+67. Neither of the Vermulan scientist were impressed. Since the defeat of the invasion force in DCP space, the research facility had largely been taken off the task of developing measures to overcome the Delpha Coalition and back to simple analysis of samples. Much in the way of unknown materials had been plundered from the DCP, and y=x2+34 and y=x5+67 had been presented with the strangest of all.

"What exactly is this thing?" y=x2+34 finally said after several sectons of bewilderment. "The report says it was captured from the office of a Delpha ship captain, along with the captain herself." y=x5+67 answered. "I asked what it is, not where it's from." "What little of the DCP's archives we managed to obtain for ourselves matches its physical appearance to an extinct species called the Dromanji." "Took you long enough!" the Dromanji itself bellowed. y=x5+67 glowered at it. y=x2+34 continued. "So what we have is a survivor? The DCP captain was keeping it safe?" "Hah!" "No, I said its physical appearance matches the Dromanji. Its composition does not." "It has a different composition?" "Yes. The Dromanji, according the DCP's records, were an unremarkable species as far as species go." "I take offense to that." "I still don't understand what you mean." "I thought you scientists were supposed to be smart." "The Dromanji, like most species, were composed of matter. This thing is not." "Have you been running analyses without me again?" "Sweetie, it sounds like they do everything without you." "I did run an analysis. There is no matter in this being. It is composed of some strange amalgamation of essences." "Any particular essences?" "I don't know. The High Command has never approved of us researching the essences. They say it's the antithesis of our technology based power." "Oh great. The pawns we chose for punishing the Coalition Deathlords turn out to be flat-earth atheists."

y=x2+34 and y=x5+67 peered at the specimen. y=x2+34 asked one last question while continuing to eye the specimen.

"If it's composed of something we barely understand, how are we containing it?" she asked. y=x5+67 seemed a little confused. "Well, we, ugh. We... erm..." "The simple answer, sweetie, is... you're not!" the being laughed as it faded away. y=x2+34 and y=x5+67 were once again bewildered. y=x2+34 brought herself back together fairly quickly.

"The High Command will be displeased over this lost specimen," she noted. "Of course," y=x5+67 said, a little distantly. "'Pawns for punishing the Coalition Deathlords'? That is something worth taking note of. We got some information out of it." "We did." y=x5+67 was still a little bewildered. "Why did we get stuck with this assignment? There's so much more interesting research to do!" y=x2+34 protested to nobody. Protesting directly to anyone would result in a visit from the Oculus Vigil. y=x5+67 turned her head to face her partner. "You'd rather be crawling about the exogen nests?" "It'd be more interesting!" "It'd be more dangerous." "Our survey teams have avoided exogen wrath before?" "They've been particularly riled up of late." "Or maybe just stay in the laboratories to study materials taken from the nests. Either way, it'd be furthering the Autonomy." "Not really. 'Furthering the Autonomy' suggests overcoming a threat or obstacle. And I assure you, the exogens are neither."

The two beamed, before realising they had to submit a report about the specimen's escape to the High Command. Neither of them had anything to say about that.

Uneasiness
Even with the Vermulans forced back to their fortified occupation of Docron and Peladon Sectors, much fighting and destruction was still going on within territory held by the Delpha Coalition. The Vermulans had spread hundreds of their Mechanovirus canisters down onto hundreds of worlds, and sterilisation teams were still struggling to keep on top of the infestations. Strangelet mines were still adrift in areas frequented by Coalition ships, read to convert all to strange matter. Of course, there was the ongoing secret police crackdown on the collaborators and sympathisers on liberated worlds. But the one particular conflict, which was perhaps the most threatening and the only one that the DCP could stop with a decisive strike at a target beyond DCP space, was the Grox Uprising.

Much fuss had been made about the Vermulans. Much fuss had been made about their Ottoman servitors. But little had been said about their Grox servitors. The Void Grox was an enigma. Consensus was that they were just another Grox Kingdom part of the Grox Meta-Empire, but when the Meta-Emperor was defeated they somehow resisted the new programming. Since then they must have come under Vermulan sway, and had begun transmitting a new program amongst the Plazithian Grox slave population of the DCP. Presumably, they were a group of Grox Meta-Fascists interested in restoring the former Empire. The Sienna Grox Movement were forced back along with their Vermulan masters, but the revolutionaries they had created were still creating a serious dent in productivity as slaves left their places of use, and destroyed valuable infrastructure and military forces.

Much of these risen Grox had been exterminated. And studies had revealed that the new programming had simply switched their loyalty from the Meta-Emperor to the Void King. Killing the Void King would reset their loyalty to the Meta-Emperor.

The DCP did not know where the King of the Void Grox was. Neither did the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets nor the Fjord League of Northern Europe. The Defensive Systems Bloc did not know personally, but said that their long time nemesis, the Greater Zarni Empire, had been launching crusades against Grox in the intergalactic void since the dissolution of the Meta-Empire, according to intelligence report.

There was much conflict amongst the DCP on whether to actually co-operate with a known Xhodoctoist state. Eventually, it was decided that the war effort was all that mattered. The Holy Imperial Zarni government agreed to hold discussions with the Allies (excluding the DSB) on war efforts against the Grox. A large fleet of DCP warships traveled into Zarni space to a "Chapel of War" for the talks. A Fjord ship accompanied them, but not a DSB ship; the DCP didn't feel like deliberately provoking the Zarni like they usually do. Xhodocto worshipers deserve to be deliberately provoked all the time.

Titanozoar found Zarni architecture quite charming. All gunmetal grey walls, with Zarni military victories carved into them stained with blood (which took a while to notice, as Zarni blood is the same colour as the walls), large spikes where the ceiling met the walls, and orange glowing conduits spreading like spasming tentacles across the chapel. The Strategy Hall was easily the best of it all, with many more spikes, and ramps for it's two level design and orange holographic displays being observed and adjusted by Zarni. Titanozoar had to remind himself that Zarni, despite their architecture, were a Xhodoctoist DCP enemy. But sometimes, when the need is great, the enemy of their enemy was their friend.

He walked up to the Zarni Commandant and introduced himself.

"I am Warlord Titanozoar of the Delpha Coalition of Planets. I am here to discuss military actions against the Sienna Grox Movement," he said, trying to be respectful but at the same time firm.

"I am Commandant Kuolokuox of the Greater Zarni Empire. I am pleased to hear the Coalition has finally taken notice of the threat lurking in the void," the Commandant replied, speaking the Grimbolsaurian language but with a strangle impediment. He scuttled over to the main holographic display, and changed its image to the Plazith Rim subgroup. "The Holy Zarni legions have been launching crusades against the Grox daemons for over three centuries. Only recently, after you defeated the Meta-Emperor (for which you have our thanks) have we paid attention to the Void Grox. They are nowhere near as strong as the original Str'ngvolomor Grox, but their use of hit and run tactics continues to frustrate our efforts to purge them," he then clicked something the Zarni language to a subordinate, who then took over the holographic display's controls for him.

"We believe, and I am sure that Zarni intelligence knows this for certain, that killing the Void Grox King will readjust them all to serve the Meta-Emperor, which in turn puts them under DCP control," Titanozoar tried to get his point across quickly. He felt a disturbing respect for the Commandant.

"Yes, that is correct. Of course I would like to say that the Greater Zarni Empire do not approve of enslaving the Grox. They should we wiped out like they themselves had done to so many before them. But this is not the time for disagreeing about the ends. Now is about the means. The Void King resides in a Grox Star Destroyer, its location now on the holo-display."

On the great fiery hologram, a small spot highlighted. The hologram zoomed into it, but before it did, Titanzoar noted its location just beyond the rim of the Porpoyros galaxy, or the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy as the Human's called it.

"The Void King's Star Destroyer is located here." Kuolokuox gestured towards the holo-display. "The Daemons seek to use the stars in the Reventali'Aurusimi Egg Galaxy to fuel their unholy engines. We've known the movements of this vessels for some time now, but our previous encounters with Grox Star Destroyers have always ended poorly. And of course, we are too afraid to mobilise too large a force against it should this leave us defenceless in case of..." he turned back towards Titanozoar.

"In case of what?"

"You would like our help in defeating the Void Grox?"

"Yes. It would save having to take other ships away from the main theatre of the war."

"Well, you don't get something for nothing. We won't do this for the DCP's cause. We won't do this to destablise the Vermulans. The Vermulans are not of concern to the Zarni." This comment caused a great clicking amongst the other Zarni, suggesting otherwise. "We will aid you only if you can promise us one thing. We want a permanent reduction of DSB military forces within ten parsecs of the Neutral Zone. Give us that, and we'll send our forces to fight the Grox alongside you."

Titanozoars sense of respect for the Commandant suddenly disappeared, and he remembered that it was a vile Xhodocto-Worshiper only interested in its own motivations. And yet, the DCP was in a state of crisis...

"It shall be done," Titanozoar said. The Grox defeat was of greatest priority.

"Then we are agreed. Now, allow us to get in touch with the Coalition's own strategists to devise a plan of attack."

Titanozoar, Kuolokuox, their guards, and the Fjord attendant who had remained silent except for a barely audible gasp when Titanzoar accepted the Commandant's conditions, left for the DCP ship to fetch the Coalition strategic advisers. Titanozoar felt conflicted about selling the Defensive Systems Bloc's safety to their long standing enemies for an advantage in the war against the Vermulans. He silently vowed that he would personally oversee the deployment of a permanent DCP military presence in the DSB to counteract the advantage the Zarni had extorted out of him.

Assault on the Grox Star Destroyer
Wormulus II and his wife in a moment of privacy shed some grief for their sons Lunarai and even Eclipsos (for the first time), both could be dead, and right in the moment, his other son Titanozor was heading to the Porpoyros dwarf galaxy, in order to engage the Void King. DCP ships were about even with Grox Star Destroyers, if not better now, but the Void King would have surely made his own adjustments. The Zarni too could not be trusted.

The Zarni were not equipped with tachyon drives, nor did the DCP wish to take them into tachyon space. The DCP ships travelled with the Zarni fleet, the Zarni tracking the Void King's Star Destroyer. However, as the fleets closed in, they were hemmed in by attacks from the Void Grox, using subspace weaponry to slow or even destroy the engines of the Zarni. Luckily, the Zarni having dealt with this before had backup propulsion systems and despite the valiant efforts of the Grox defenders, the DCP's advancement and Zarni's experience combined could not be stopped. The Void King's Star Destroyer went on the move, at first the DCP and Zarni believed the Void King was fleeing, but soon his tactic had become apparent. His Void Grox defenders grouped around the destroyer, with ships breaking away free continuously to hound the Coalition and Zarni, the tactic was successful enough to break some of the allied fleets formation and even slow the leaders. After fifty minutes Titanozor was growing impatient, bashing his floating command stool almost enough to send it into the floor. Perhaps the DCP could engage its tachyon engines and even support the Zarni to tachyon space? He had his plan with the Zarni anyway.

Giving the order, Commandant Kuolokuox was not best pleased that the Delpha Coalition had refrained this strategy that could have ended this chase, but saw no choice and didn't complain. The DCP and Zarni ships overtook the Void King and his followers, and dropped behind their own gravimetric weapon which was strong enough to send the Void fleet scattered for light years. Now was the time, the Void defenders would soon return. The Void King commanded his ship to stop, in order to make a stand. The DCP and Zarni in full force unleashed their weapons. Non-phasic shields versus non-phasic shields meant that it was a traditional slog. The allied fleet discovered what they had suspected, that the Grox King had modified his destroyer. Even some lighter DCP ships were falling to its gunnery, while the stronger ones struggled to hold both firepower and shields. The Void fleet was returning in all directions, and the battlefield was now fought left-right, up-down and centre. Titanozor banged his fist again collapsing his chair, the goal was the Void King's starship and no-one else. Slowly he ordered the Coalition fleet to leave the Zarni forces and direct their power. Eventually, the destroyer's shields fell, it tried several power re-routes, much to Titanozor's amusement, as it was too late to do that now. The armour now exposed was blasted apart minutes later, but still the Void King fought, in an act of defiance even as it was wrecked. "There are no more chunks as big as a few inches, nothing has survived" said Titanozor's tactical officer. Looking around, the Void Grox (who were void no longer) were already leaving to the Civilisation, to join their Meta-Emperor in peace. But Titanozor wasn't happy, he was angry with the Zarni's conditions, he was frustrated with their incompetence. Furthermore, he knew Lunarai could be dead and the Zarni almost reminded him of the Mantisorac. The DCP ships were now in a tight ball, with the Zarni scattered around. He wondered whether they were in the same position as the Void Grox.

The remaining Zarni then themselves fell. Not to the DCP's weapons as it would appear to outside observers, but to their own arrogance at attempting to manipulate the Coaltion. Commandant Kuolokuox himself, as his ship went up in flame, learned the hard way the consequences of extorting galactic superpowers.

Reboot
''Reboot complete. Loading image. ''

VGVzdA=='s HUD was working again, and his visual receptors were also beginning to sort themselves out. As his vision was brought back, he looked around. He was lying on the testing chamber of the laboratory he was stationed in. The two Vermulan scientists, y=x2+34 and y=x5+67, were nearby looking at him.

VGVzdA== tried to access his memory cells. Every image he had seen since his conception by the infection pod should be stored there, but there was a distinct gap between him standing on guard in the laboratory and his waking second ago. He tried to access the Void Grox Network to understand what had happened.

Network Unavailable 

A Dronox that could not connect to its Grox-Kingdom's network was a lost Dronox. His reasoning circuits told him that the only thing he could gain in the way of information would be from the Vermulan scientists. They had probably drugged him for one the testing of some biological weapon.

"What happened?" VGVzdA== asked, bluntly. "You collapsed on the floor," y=x2+34 answered, just as bluntly. "Why?" "Decidedly few of the Dronox seemed willing to switch leaders after King Groshveir was killed by the Delpha Coalition. All the Grox have gone to serve the Meta-Emperor as though slaves to the DCP, but Dronox such as yourself just had an emergancy shutdown and are rebooting loyal to the original ideology of the Meta-Empire," explained y=x5+67. "Which reminds me, the High Command ordered that all Dronox are to report immediately to a rally point to receive new orders," y=x2+34 said. "Go to Sector D and there should put you on the right path. And really, we need every soldier we can get. I hear the invasion force in DCP space is on its last legs, and once we've lost our foothold there they'll be coming for us."

Ousting
Intensified fighting had been going on for five days now. As soon as the Void King was dead, the order was given to attack and liberate Peladon and Docron Sectors from the Associate Powers. At this point the battle was now in a single location rather than being fought all over the 40 square light years of the two sectors; the battle taking place in orbit around a super massive structure the Vermulan had built. It's purpose was unknown, but the DCP had declared it hostile and to be destroyed along with the rest of the Vermulans.

The forces involved in this battle were titanic. In the light of the lost Grox forces, the Ottomans had supplied another two hundred ships to their Vermulan benefactors. The Vermulans themselves, due to their ship's irritating ability to regrow into multiple ships should they be split into multiple sizable pieces, also had a force of several hundred ships. The Allied Powers, knowing how crucial this battle was, had supplied a force of over a thousand ships to fight off the Associate Powers. Now all of them were locked in mortal combat, in a battle that would determine the nature of the next phase of the war.

Weapons of every kind were being flung across the empty wastes of space. Red antiproton beams from the Ottomans, blue destabilising hypermatter from the Fjords. Exotic particles unknown to 29th century science emanating from the Vermulans, along with other weapons that were understood but recognised as being highly advanced, such as soloton beams, and strangelets. Projectiles of all kinds were bursting along the hulls of enemy ships, cracking the ships like eggs. A specialised DCP ship only recently designed and built was firing a new weapon designed to completely dissolve the wreckages of Vermulan ships using nanobursts to prevent them from regrowing. The maelstrom had been reactivated, although in a weakened state, so a steady force of drones and hyperspace missiles were tearing the Vermulan apart.

Warlord Titanozoar was leading this assault while Lunarai-Khan remained unfortunately unheard from and feared dead. Titanozoar took notice of the Vermulan flagship hovering in the distance, still with the former Ottoman flagship lodged within it. He ordered the entire fleet to focus their firepower into a great volley to take the vessel down. A massive light show illuminated the black void, punching a large hole in the flagship's side. A small DSB cruiser, which had been irreparably damaged and was about to suffer an engine core detonation, rammed itself into the puncture. The resulting detonation took away a third of the ship's mass. It lost its ability to function and began drifting slowly toward the Vermulan megastructure. Titanozoar closed his eyes briefly in satisfaction. In this split second he failed to notice an Ottoman cruiser cloak itself, taking the Vermulan supreme away to safety.

The Maelstrom's hyperspace missiles and nanobursts were now pounding at the Vermulan Megastructure itself. A few small holes had been made, through which scanners detected a neutron star. Titanozoar wondered for a moment, how were they this close to the neutron star without feeling its gravity? The Vermulan structure must be manipulating it. Titanozoar saw an opportunity. He ordered his ship to fire a beam at a Fjord battleship that was already three quarters consumed by strange matter. The beam hit at an angle that sent the glob of strange matter into the megastructure, and immediately began assimilating it. A crewman pointed out that this was a lost opportunity to study the structure. Titanozoar mercifully pretended not to hear him. As the complex machinery degrading the gravitation of the neutron star was converted to a useless black soup, the two fleets began feeling the effects of the star's pull. Titanozoar ordered his fleet to withdraw, and use repulsion beams to keep the enemy ships in the danger area.

Unexpectedly, the Vermulan flagship collided with the neutron star. The engine cores of both the Vermulan and Ottoman flagships then released they contents in a bizarre implosion (or subspace distortion or something) that sucked the remaining Associate fleet into it along with a few of the Allied fleet, regrettably including the Fjord flagship. It was a hard fought battle, with great losses, but finally the Vermulan scourge had been forced from the Delpha Coalition of Planets.

Triangulation
There was a tense moment around the conference table. Around it sat some of the most highly ranked members of the allied powers. Emperor Wormulus and Warlord Titanozoar were present, although Lunarai-Khan was still missing and Kilnok had departed for his trials by the Dromanji. General Ixalox of the DSB was present, but no other DSB official was, due to the rift that had occurred with the Zarni agreement. Prime Minister Arnbjørn and Admiral Shaton Thyrel were also present; Shaton Thyrel being the new Fjord Admiral since Erlendur Johnsson's regrettable yet honourable death in the liberation of Docron and Peladon. A single Magellanic Sovereignty representative was present, whom nobody else recognised since all the well known MSP leaders were detained by the Mantisorac.

An important moment in the war had come. The Vermulans and their allies, collectively called the 'Associate Powers,' had been forced from DCP space, but the fighting was not going to stop there. Everybody around that conference table knew that the Vermulans were more than capable of pulling out a new fleet to start the invasion all over again. So the DCP was going to deal with the problem once and for all. They were going to find the Vermulans' main territory and invade it themselves. It would take a great deal of resources, and would likely be one of the most difficult campaigns undertaken by Delpha Coalition. But the final defeat of the Vermulans would be worth the sacrifice.

It was discussed whether or not the DCP should host an invasion of the Imperial Ottoman Directorate, the most major of the known Vermulan servitors, but it was decided against; the other human nations would not take kindly to what could be interpreted as an imperialistic invasion of a human nation, even if they did all hate the Ottomans. Anyway, the Ottomans however served a much more useful purpose. As they were the closest known Servitor to the Vermulans, they were in constant contact with them. And while Vermulan-to-Vermulan communications were unable to be traced due to their futuristic design, Vermulan-to-Ottoman communications could be traced by experts. The Fjords themselves were the experts on Ottoman technology, and had been tracing signals from the Vermulans to the Ottomans, and using them to triangulate where the Vermulans were massed. The Fjord military scientists had apparently succeeded, and were going to give the location to this conference.

A small woman walked into the room. She appeared to be a near-human with a series creases along her nose. The non-Fjord leaders did not recognise her species, but they all were raised in culture that cared not for judging people by their race or species, so didn't make a fuss. The woman seemed quite nervous as the eyes of some of the greatest figures in the galaxy lay on her. She took a breath, and read her report.

"The Fjord League, in conjunction with scientists from the Delpha Coalition of Planets, the Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets and the Defensive Systems' Bloc, have determined the location from which the Vermulans were signalling the Ottomans. We have corroborated this data with knowledge taken from the converted Void Grox of fleet movements, and they do confirm that the Vermulan main territory, or at least a significantly important territory, is located in a particular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way."

"Please, do not be vague," said Emperor Wormulus, a little impatient but trying to sound benevolent. "Tell us which galaxy!"

The woman was quite taken by the fact that the Emperor Wormulus had spoken to her. She dropped her report and barely managed to utter the galaxy's name.

"The Large Magellanic Cloud. The Vermulans are located in the Large Magellanic Cloud."